Disclaimer: Cows say moo, ducks go quack, and younger siblings screech. Any questions? Oh . . . umm... Standard disclaimers apply . . .
A/N: I know this chapter's written badly, but finals are in two weeks, I'm stressed out, and you're just going to have to live with it. So there. blows raspberry
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Chapter 6
"You what!?"
"Couldn't find her, sir . . ." 01 replied slowly.
"Well, maybe she wasn't there, Commander . . ." a guard suggested.
Commander Hinton took a deep breath. "01," he snarled, "perhaps you weren't looking hard enough."
"The Preventers knew I was there," 01's throat bothered him when he spoke. Dr. Robinson said it partially the medicine they gave him and partially the fact that 01 rarely said anything. "I was under attack, sir."
"All right, all right." Hinton glared at him, his bland brown eyes nearly popping out of his skull. It was more amusing than intimidating. "But you will be punished for this; mistakes are not an option!" He signaled someone with a wave of his arm and stomped out.
01 watched as several nurses scurried in and surrounded him. A doctor examined his arm, which was only scratched, and jabbed him with a needle. The world faded to black, and 01 was dragged roughly back to his room.
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That girl. She was . . . beautiful. Familiar. . . . Sad. 01 jerked awake, his aching head close to exploding. With a groan, 01 stood up. His whole body shook with the effort, and the room spun around him. He had to get out. He was going insane. 01 stumbled to the door, but it was locked. He turned around and looked at the security camera. For some reason, it was already disabled. The red light was out, and the wire in back was smoking. He frowned, turned, and looked curiously at the door. Moments later, he kicked it down. The guard was caught unconcious beneath it. 01 stepped catiously out of his cell, looking around to see which way was safe. Carefully, he hoisted the door back in place, robbed the guard of his weapons and uniform, and walked nonchalantly down the hall.
He wouldn't make it very far, he knew. His head was soaring somewhere above the clouds, his body shook, and he nothing in front of him would hold still. Nonetheless, he had to try. Maybe they'd kill him for it. He'd be lucky then.
When the alarm sounded, he heard the soldiers shouting down the hall behind him and sped up. "Damn it," he muttered, leaning against the wall so he wouldn't be trampled. Puzzled as to why he was standing there, the soldiers looked at him. "Hey - what're you doing? Hear that alarm?"
01 nodded and adopted a rather confused expression. "Yea. I wasn't informed of the circumstances . . ."
"Oh. Well, one of the test subjects - one of the 'human weapons' ones - got loose. Obviously, it's dangerous, and apparently, we have to go catch it. Is that about it?" He turned to the rest of the group, which nodded. Naturally, they were in no hurry to go find the dangerous experiment.
"I see. I guess I'll check down this way . . ." 01 turned down a side hall, which was slightly darker and easier on his eyes. Unfortunately, the alarm still blared, and 01's headache steadily worsened.
"Sure. See you." The small group continued their way, but one of them remained. He stuck his hands in his pockets and followed after 01.
"I know the way out." He said eventually, when he realized that 01 was blatantly ignoring him.
Confused, 01 eyed him. The solider was probably about 6 foot 5, which was a lot taller than 01's five feet, eleven inches. Also, the soldier's hair covered half of his face. The one green eye that could be seen was void of expression. 01 trusted him. For what reason, he didn't know. The soldier jerked his head to the side and indicated 01 follow him. Warily, 01 did so. The soldier led him to the front door. "Once you get out," he whispered, "Run. Wait for me at a gray jeep on the highway." Glancing at 01's skeptical expression, the soldier added, "I'll meet you there."
"Hn." 01 pushed open the door and ran. He ran because he saw the sentinels, who were armed with machine guns, stationed on the walls of the compound. Shooting at them, he skid through the rapidly closing gate at the edge of the compound and kept running until he found the jeep, which was hidden in some brush down the road. Jumping lightly into it, 01 searched himself for bullet wounds and luckily found none. However, everything around him became distorted.
"Unghhh . . ." 01 groaned, clutching his head as new pain seared through his body. He felt like he was on fire. His body lurched, he yelped, and his already distorted surroundings faded into nothingness.
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Trowa dumped his machine gun into the backseat and hopped into the jeep. As he sped away, he looked in the rearview mirror. The rebel base was in flames. He smirked, then looked at the unconscious young man beside him.
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"Heero."
The voice . . . it was calling. But who was it calling? That name sounded familiar. Maybe . . .
With effort, 01 forced his eyes to open. The soldier from earlier was leaning against a wall with a cup of coffee in his hands. A woman bent over him.
"Hey," she said warmly. "Remember me?"
01's eyebrows came together. Should he? He shook his head slowly.
The woman straightened up and placed a hand on her hip indignantly. "Well." she said, obviously joking. "I'm Sally Po. And you . . ." she sighed, "you are in bad shape. What did they do to you?"
He didn't know.
The woman sighed again, heavily this time, and looked at the soldier. "Trowa, you're right . . . he should stay here. You guys stayed here during the war? Or is this just an emergency safe-house?"
"Emergency."
"Okay. Well, he should stay here, and someone should stay with him. I'm going to take a blood sample from you, if you don't mind," she said to 01 kindly. He looked at her curiously. Kindness was new to him. "Do you?"
". . . no . . ." He was used to needles.
"'kay, thanks." Sally Po poked the needle into his arm and drew deep red blood into several viles. "All right . . ." She looked back at Trowa. "Stay here until I inform Lady Une - unless you already have." Trowa shook his head. "OKay, I'll see if she'll send someone else out." Sally left.
"Fine." Trowa nodded. He looked back at 01 with an odd expression.
01's gaze traveled around the small room. He was insanely comfortable - the bed was an actual bed, not a cold slab of metal. The lights weren't blinding and didn't give him a headache. Other than a faint buzzing in his head, there was no other noise. 01 frowned at the soldier. "Why'd you save me?"
Trowa's eyes brightened. Amusing - in all that Heero had been through in the past month or so, he hadn't changed a bit. Trowa shrugged. "I didn't save you; I helped you."
Annoyed, 01 snapped, "Why?"
Again, Trowa was amused. "Because you needed it."
There was no contesting with that.
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Lady Une glanced up as Sally Po walked into her office. "Yes?"
"Lady Une, Relena," Sally glanced at Relena, who was sitting in a chair by the window, "I have good news."
"You found Heero." Relena said.
Grinning, Sally replied, "Yes. Yes, we did. He's alive, he's fine, but they wiped his memory or something. I took a blood sample; it's in the lab right now. We should get the results in an hour or so."
Lady Une breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed in her chair. She looked gratefully up at the ceiling. "There is a God somewhere," she said quietly.
Sally walked over to Relena. "We're not bringing him here just yet," she said. "They'll probably look for him here. If you want, you can come with me when I go back."
Relena nodded, her sad eyes still focused on the street below.
"Okay, good. I'll be back to get you." Sally opened the door again, and Lady Une and Relena could here shouts of joy and various 'whooping' noises coming from down the hall. Duo's voice was distinguishable in the group, but the others were unknown.
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