16: Bend and Break, suffocate
Hilde skid to a halt when she spotted two identical mobile suits that appeared to be Gundams, her hand clamped itself around her mouth when she realized that exactly what the mobile suits were. "Duo told me he and the others destroyed their Gundam's! How is it that there are two of them, that look the same?" She proclaimed in horror. There was a blinding flash of light followed by an explosion that brought Hilde to her knees and her hands onto her ears.
The square arch of the mobile suit hangar was demolished rubble that fell to the ground behind the frightened German girl and was coming down right above her. Hilde looked up to take a glimpse of the chaos around her only to discover that would be crushed underneath the falling debris. Her pupils dilated as her limbs went frozen with fear and she awaited her grim death when someone grabbed her by the waist.
Hilde grabbed the person's waist in fear of her and his life as they sped away from the falling debris, she buried her face in the man's chest to down out her whimpering. The motorcycle came to a halt a good distance away from the battle field, Hilde felt his chest heave from the sigh that escaped his lips. "You okay?" Came a hauntingly familiar voice.
"I'm fine, thank you Duo...." Hilde looked up from his chest and her face turned beet red when she realized who it was. "Heero?!" She cried in embarrassment jumping off of the motorcycle. Heero watched as she fell onto the grassy ground. He waited until she regained her composure and the shards of her pride. Hilde climbed onto her feet groaning at the fact that there several grass stains on her once-white dress shirt and pants. "I'm sorry Heero, I didn't mean to act like that, I thought you were D---,"
"Doesn't matter," Heero replied cutting her off in mid-scentence. "What I'm wondering is, why are you're here." Hilde stared at him for a brief moment wondering how he could so callous toward her after what had happened. She shrugged running her hands through her hair. "I'm not sure, all I know is that Relena and I we're kidnapped by a men dressed up in black suits and they brought us here," Hilde explained briefly. "Do you know who's the mastermind behind all of this is, at least?" Heero asked hopefully. Hilde nodded, "A woman named Phareil Catalonia, Dorothy's sister." She replied. Heero's eyes narrowed as he shifted his line of sight toward the two Gundams across from them.
Starting the motorcycle back up Heero turned it toward the Corsica base control tower which was a good distance from where he was and right past Wing Gundam and Wing Zero. "Stay here Hilde, I'll be right back," Heero replied turning his head toward her. "Until then stay out sight." Hilde nodded reluctantly stepping back into the shrubs. Pressing his foot down on the pedal, Heero took off at top speed ignoring his consciences warnings as he sped across the base.
Jin turned his attention back to Wing Gundam who had not moved since he knocked him down on the ground. Which probably meant, Duo was unconscious or dead. Despite this, he managed to a plausible amount of damage to Wing Zero before he knocked him down. One of his hands were inoperable giving him a serious handicap to deal with. "Shit," Jin muttered scowling at the mobile suit. Wing Zero lifted his leg and brought its foot down onto Wing Gundam's chest and repeated the process with no remorse.
Wing Gundam did not move an inch as Wing Zero continued to stomp down on him when Wing Gundam's arms shot up and grabbed Wing Zero's leg. Jin heart leapt in his chest at the mobile suit's sudden movement. Wing Gundam shoved Zero's away from him sending the mobile suit stumbling across the ground giving him enough to climb off the ground. "You should never play around with someone unless you know they aren't going kill you," Duo said rubbing the back of his neck. He heard Jin scoff which meant he wasn't listening to him at all. "Do you plan to kill me?" Jin asked curiously. "No, I only plan to stop you before you hurt yourself and those around you," Duo replied sternly. "Namely, my friends."
Jin did not retort, instead he dropped the beam cannon and charged wildly at Wing Gundam with its trusters at full power. Wing Gundam activated its' trusters but only got half way off the ground, and that's when Wing Zero grabbed him by the legs bringing him down onto the ground. Both Gundam's crashed to the ground, Wing Zero continued to drag itself and W.Gundam across the ground with no signs of stopping until Wing Gundam fired its Vulcan cannons on it. Zero released it grip on Gundam's legs.
Wing blasted upward into the sky with Zero following close behind it. Duo looked to the side to find Zero beside him. "Why are you running, Duo? Are you, the self-proclaimed Shinigami, scared of death?" Jin taunted. Duo scowled at him just as W.Gundam's alert system activated. The arrow pointed downward, Wing Gundam shifted its head toward the ground and its camera zoomed in on Heero speeding toward the control tower on a motorcycle. "Bad timing Heero," He grumbled.
Wing Zero rammed Wing Gundam in the side damaging the arm it fired on with the beam cannon beyond repair. "Damnit!" Duo cursed. Wing Gundam threw a punch toward Wing Zero's camera but missed by a mile when the mobile suit dodged it. Wing Zero reached out with it's operable hand and grabbed W.Gundam by the neck. Wing Zero yanked Wing Gundam's head in an upward position, sparks emitted from the collar of the mobile suit.
Duo's eyes widened in horror as screen began to malfunction, the picture from the camera fizzing out. I've only got one arm left, I've gotta do something, before he completely destroys my visuals! Gripping the joy stick that controlled his only operable arm, Duo activated the targeting system and searched for a vital part on Wing Zero's body he could hit before he lost visuals completely. He couldn't look down due to the stranglehold Wing Zero had on Wing Gundam's neck, so he had to aim high and actruate.
Its' a long shot but, If I can get his head, then maybe it would give me enough time to move away from him, Duo thought. Bringing the target down on what he could see of his eye, the preventer pulled the trigger and fired on the upper part of Wing Zero's eye. Zero's eye was shattered, not even the mechanical parts of the eye survived. As he hoped the Gundam released its grip on W.Gundam's neck.
Shutting down the boosters, Duo took a dive feet first to the ground and landed with an earth shattering boom. Wing Gundam rose from the ground sluggishly its head hung downward and was unresponsive to all commands of the pilot. "Crap! what good are visuals if the head can't move!" Duo shouted in anger slamming his fists against his lap. The whistling sound of boosters powering down across from him caught his attention, his coalbolt blue eyes fixed themselves on Wing Zero who had a dark aura about it and it frightened Duo. There was nothing he could to stop Jin or Wing Zero from Dorothy or Phareil.
Jin stared at the barely operation Wing Gundam and shook his head in disappointment. He was hoping fighting a Gundam pilot would be more of a challenge than this. Turning to the side Wing Zero bent down and picked the buster rifle from off of the ground. Turning around he faced Wing Gundam with rifle aimed right at him. Jin smirked as the rifle powered up wondering what would be left of Duo and the mobile suit after he fired the rifle on them. After a brief moment of pondering, Jin shrugged and fired at only half of power of the rifle. He watched with amusement as Wing Gundam sluggishly moved out of the way of the blast causing half of its body to be caught in the blast. "That should keep him out of my way," He said to himself before he headed toward the control tower.
Duo was thrown against the back of the pilot's chair throwing his arms up over his face as the heat from the blast ate through the Gundanium alloy, he scooted over to the other side as the controls emitted sparks that began to fly every which way inside the cockpit. Once the beam dissipated and the smoke vanished, there was nothing remaining of W.Gundam's left side except for a badly damaged leg that appeared to be inoperable. Part of its face was no longer there, the antenna was no longer on Wing Gundam's head, the head itself looked as though it were about to fall off and half of the entire wing was missing.
And as though it could not hold itself up, Wing Gundam fell into a crouched position and shut down completely. Duo's arms fell lifelessly to his sides, his head turned to the side. He no strength whatsoever to even muster to move, his blood trickled down the side of his head passing his eye by a mile. Slowly he closed his eyes and slumped in chair. I failed everyone..................again....
Inside the control tower lay several men sprawled all on the ground following up to the stairs, some were in fatal positions, while others held their injuries and groaned in pain inflicted upon them. Heero traveled upward through the winding stairs toward the top where he presumed Jin's target, Phareil would be. He held an automatic machine gun in his left hand and a machine gun hanging on his shoulder. His stomach was still feeling a bit sunken in from the knee he received from Duo and began to think of other ways of knocking Duo out when he wouldn't listen to reason.
He had to think of a technique that Duo could never mimic or counteract. But the thing that he couldn't get over was that Duo had actually knocked him unconscious! Heero was beginning to think that he was losing the perfection he carried with him since he was a child because he was becoming more and more in touch with his emotions and feelings. This had become evident when he barely overheard Duo mutter the words 'anything for the one you love.' He wasn't even sure what he thought of Relena as, certainly not someone he loved like Noin loved Zechs. Of course he wasn't sure of that either. Sighing, Heero shoved all his thoughts aside and climbed the last flight of stairs and stopped on the last stair when he heard talking somewhere down the hall on the right. He stayed low enough to scan the area as the voices got closer.
Did you get anything on the intruders?"
"Nah, there's not a single trace of them inside the base. But we did find the kid."
"Oh yeah?"
"Uh-huh, he was last spotted in the mobile suit hangar. He's injured so he can't have gotten far."
"What about all the commotion outside? I heard mobile suits."
"Ah, they're probably practicing or something. Nothing to worry about."
"If you say so."
"Anyway, we'd better head down, to check out the situation."
"I agree, I wouldn't want to be shot by Phareil, before I could do anything about this chaos."
Heero's eyes widened when he caught sight of them coming toward the stair way he was standing on. Swallowing his panic and fear of being caught, he clipped the automatic onto the strap of the machine gun and reached into his jacket and pulled out his pistol and turned off the safety. "Gotta aim for non-vital areas," He whispered to himself as he peeked over the railing. But he had to make sure they couldn't get back up either. Taking a deep breath of air Heero jumped out of his hiding place and fired on both men in center of their legs.
They fell to the ground before they could draw their guns, Heero rushed up the stairs to check them. Both men were surprisingly out cold, whether caused by the shot in the leg or the drop to the ground he was unsure of. Placing his gun in the back of his pants Heero gripped the door knob and opened the door quickly and aimed right at Phareil. "Heero?" Dorothy blurted in surprise. Phareil turned around in fear realizing it was not Stanley standing across from her, but the seemingly unkillable and legendary Heero Yuy, with a gun aimed at her heart. "What is the meaning of this?!" She bellowed in anger. "And where are my guards?"
Heero smirked in amusement as he kicked the door shut with his foot. "They're all on vacation," He said smugly. Phareil sneered at him as he came up toward her. Franticly, Phareil jumped for the gun on the floor in hopes to stop Heero dead in tracks, but the second her hand brushed against the handle the gun was shot out of her reach and into a corner across from her. Phareil froze in her place in fear of being shot as well. "I wouldn't try anything like that again, if I were you," Heero warned walking past her. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and tossed them to Dorothy, the platinum blonde fumbled with the cuffs but managed to catch them before they fell from out of her hands. "What are these for?" She asked.
Put them on her," Heero replied tapping away at the control pannel's keyboard. Dorothy did as she was told. She kneeled down and brought her sister's hands behind her back then placed the handcuffs on her wrists. Dorothy was pretty sure what her sister was thinking, the confident look on her face was gone, her pride wounded. Her hair covered her face, so she could not see her face, but Dorothy was pretty sure Phareil's expression was one of pure anger and hate.
Bringing herself out of her thoughts and off the floor she looked up at Heero who seemed in engrossed in his work as his fingers tapped against the keyboard. "What are you doing, Heero?" Dorothy asked. "Rerouting all the information on all possible rebel factions that are associated with Phareil," He responded. "I'm sending them to Preventer Headquarters as we speak." Dorothy was left speechless, Heero was quite the genius when it came to computers and hacking. "Keep an eye on Phareil," Heero said sternly Dorothy nodded returning her attention to her sister who had no moved an inch from her place. Narrowing her eyes, she kneeled down to her sister placing her hands on her knees before she spoke. "Where did Stanley take Quatre, Relena, and Hilde, dear sister?" She asked. Phareil shifted in her place but did not answer her. Dorothy sighed knowing it would be a while that would seem like an eternity before Phareil answered any of her questions.
Elsewhere, Quatre, Trowa, Wufei and Relena traveled through the demolished hallways of base thankful that there was no fog-like smoke in sight or in the air. The stench of death filled the air and it bothered Relena to the extent that she kept her hands off of anything. Wufei spent half of the whole time scowling at the simple smell of foulness hanging above the air, it annoyed him that much. "Trowa, do you see an exit?" Wufei asked. Trowa shrugged rounding another corner. He scratching the back of his head he began to wonder where exactly he was leading himself, Wufei and Relena to.
"No, not yet, I'll let you know if I do though," Trowa responded hesitantly. Wufei grunted in annoyance while Relena stayed closed to him despite his bad attitude. Just as Relena decided to bury herself deep within her mind, the sound of static from Wufei's radio stopped her short. Curious, the honey blonde carefully slipped her fingers around the two-way radio and slipped it off of Wufei's belt loop. She then began to fiddle with the antenna and the tuning on the radio until she a faint voice coming up through all the static. ....wa..... can..... me? Tr-woa....W......... fei? Heero........ Relena's heart rate sped up at the chopped up voice and pressed the "talk" button the side of the radio and almost yelled into the receiver unable to contain her excitement. "Heero, it's me Relena!" She proclaimed in joy. Quatre, Wufei and Trowa stopped in their tracks due to the VFM's sudden outburst. Wufei frowned and snatched the radio from her grasp just as Heero repsonded to her. Relena...?
Trowa unhooked his radio from his belt and pressed "talk" button. "Is that you Heero?" He asked almost hopefully. There was a large amount of static and it was hard for the Latin American to make out what the Japanese preventer was saying to him let alone if Heero even heard him all that well. Trowa......... where's Quatre? Came Heero's response. Trowa sighed in relief, he had heard him. Pressing the button again, he spoke. "Quatre's with me Heero," He said bluntly. "Where's Dorothy?" There was a long pause, and Trowa was beginning to wondering if he had lost connection. Dorothy's with me in the control tower, Tro--- There was a shrill scream in the back ground followed by a rumbling that resembled thunder and a dull thump that sounded like Heero had dropped his radio.
"Heero?? Heero are you still there??? Heero??" Trowa's calls went unanswered by loud static. Relena watched Trowa's expression go from slightly to terrified. Trowa clipped his radio back onto his belt and motioned Quatre, and Wufei to follow him. The two preventers chased after him leaving Relena behind to ponder fearfully on what had happened to Heero and Dorothy. Swallowing her fears, Relena dashed off after them hoping that didn't too get far ahead of her. Heero, I'm on my way! She declared rushing through a demolished doorway.
Heero was frozen with fear, his eyes were blank as he stared into battle ravaged face of Wing Zero. An image that haunted his every dream and nightmare. The very thing that made it so hard for him to relax for even a moment. He could feel the sweat rolling down the side of his face as the mechanic eye of Wing Zero zoomed in on his face. "Wing Z-ero?" He muttered. His legs began to feel more like jello the more he stared at the once miraculous machine that was used to belong to him. "That's the first emotion I've ever seen you express on your face, Heero," Jin's voice, was full of sarcasm and spite.
Heero managed to regain his composure, he scowled at the sheer sound of the eleven year old boy's voice and wanted more than anything but to shoot him. "Jin, where's Duo," Heero demanded. He could imagine the little boy shrugging his shoulders giving him an innocent expression. "Last I saw, he was taking long nap," Jin responded with a chuckle. This only made Heero's scowl deepen, the Japanese preventer glanced in Dorothy and Phareil's direction, knowing Jin had come to kill one of them. He averted his line of sight back to Wing Zero's mangled face.
"I know what your here to do, Jin," Heero began. "And killing Dorothy or Phareil for something their father did, is not the way to go about things." He heard what he figured was Jin snorting at his comment. "I suggest you be quiet, Yuy. You have no say in what I do or say. Besides, I'm simply stopping a terrorist in her tracks before she can do any wrong that would damage the earth sphere unified nation," Jin explained dryly. It was Heero's turn to snort at his remark. "Is that so?" The 16-year-old uttered under his breath. Slowly he reached his hand into his jacket and slowly pulled it out. Dorothy watched Heero curiously as she wondered just what he was planning to do against a mobile suit that could domolish the entire base if it wanted to. "I'm sorry to break it to you Jin, but your assassination plans are going to have to be but on hold," Heero said cockily.
Jin grunted in question just as Heero pulled an object that looked like a spray can out from behind his jacket and yanked the pin out place. He tossed the can onto the floor. Next came a blinding flash of light that blinded Dorothy and Phareil for a moment. Heero grabbed both women from off of the ground and raced for the door, they stumbled trying to keep up with his pace. The Japanese teenager kicked the door open and pulled them of the room down the spiral stairs. "Keep running!" Heero ordered. Dorothy kept her hand around her sister's wrist as they trotted down the stairs in an attempt to escape the destructive path of Wing Zero. Heero stayed behind them to make sure they could not escape with him not knowing or seeing it, he looked back from time to time to make sure nothing was following. Dorothy could feel her sister trying to yank her wrist from her grasp as the two of them rushed down the spiral-stairs.
Phareil's struggles were futile as she continued to yank her wrist from her sister's grasp. "Let go of me, Dorothy!" She shouted angrily. Dorothy did her best to ignore her sister's angry demands. As they came toward to another corner, the 18-year-old found herself being thrown down the last flight of stairs, she grunted in pain as her head made contact with ground and her body lay sprawled across the last three stairs. Phareil wasted no time to take a second glance at her older sister, the semi-short blonde rushed through the door before her and into a cloud of smoke vanishing from view. Witnessing the entire thing happen, Heero rushed down the stairs to Dorothy's aid until a loud explosion that sounded like sonic boom shook the entire building stopping Heero in his tracks. He grabbed the railing to keep himself from falling as the rumbling continued. After a few moments, it stopped but no sooner than it did, the entire body of the stairs gave way beneath him and he fell through crashing to the ground before the rubble itself. Heero threw his arms over his face the debris fell on top of him rendering him unconscious.
The preventers rushed down the hall full of smoke, the welfare of their friends and comrades fueling their desire to reach their destination. Trowa led them, Quatre remained behind Relena to make sure she was safe while Wufei stayed in-between them with his gun in hand just in case the unexpected happened along the way. "Trowa, what's going on?! What happened to Heero and Dorothy?" Relena exclaimed, the worry in her voice was evident. Trowa did not answer her, instead he kept his eyes on the darkened hall way in front of him as his lungs were taking the beating of their lives. He pressed forward unsure if this was the true extent to his running speed until he caught sight of a room entrance at the end of hall. "Follow me," He ordered rushing through the doorway. The three followed him into what they thought was room but turned out to be another hallway with stairs to climb. Relena almost fell to her knees but Quatre was there to catch her before she even touched the ground.
She thanked him before she caught sight of several fingers sticking out from the rubble, pushing away from Quatre Relena stepped onto massive pile of rubble and gently wrapped her fingers around the four fingers sticking out from underneath. To her surprise they flexed slightly clamping themselves down around her fingers. "Did you find something, Relena?" Asked Wufei. Relena nodded never taking her eyes off the bruised fingers that had her hand in a faint grip. Slowly removing the person's grip off of her hand she began to move all of the heavy stones from off of whomever it was underneath it. "If so, we did as well," Trowa said. "A Dorothy Catalonia if I'm not mistaken." The second this reached Quatre's ears, the Arab teenager was over where Trowa and Wufei resided and on his knees. He watched his friends remove the remaining rubble (mostly consisting of small bits of concrete and dirt) from off of Dorothy's body, once they were done Quatre maneuvered himself in-between the two preventers and tucked his arms under hers and pulled her upper body onto his lap.
All three teenagers leaned in on Dorothy as she began to stir, Quatre brushed any excess dust off of her face for the sake of her eyes. After a brief moment Dorothy's eyes finally opened eyes, they were full of confusion, hurt and anger. "Quatre?" She rasped in confusion. Quatre smiled pleasantly at her nodding, Dorothy sighed and lied her head against his stomach unable to move a muscle. "Is she alright?" Trowa asked, as he rose from off his knees. Quatre shook his head uncertain of her condition. "I'm not sure, we have to her a hospital right away though," He said. "I think there might be something wrong with her leg." Wufei nodded in agreement scanning her leg over. It was twisted in an awkward way, the skin appeared to be bruised and damaged.
Trowa simply shrugged as he made his way over to Relena who was still digging through the exceptional amount of rubble. "Need some help?" He asked looking down at the filthy honey blonde. Relena blushed bashfully before nodding. Trowa bent down to her level then reached over and the two began to remove the concrete, tossing them to the side. They made short work of the of the pile and when they got to smaller parts which were easier to move the fingers of the hand they were attached to shot up into the air revealing a Preventer uniform jacket. Relena and Trowa jumped back in surprise as they body of the person pulled itself out of the rubble and debris only to fall back down into the Vice foreign minister's arms.
Relena recognized the hair style immediately as Heero's, he looked a mess; his face covered with dirt along with bruises, his hair was full of dust giving it a gray appearance, his entire appeared broke Relena's heart as she tried to balance his weight against her chest while at the same time moving toward Trowa. "Oh, God what happened to him?" She blurted. Trowa shook his head unsure what to make of it, Heero had been known to get caught every once and a while, but whatever had happened to him made an exception. "We need to get the both of them to a hospital," Wufei said sternly. "I'll contact Une at once." Trowa nodded agreeing to his decision. "Good idea," The Latin American piped. Quatre looked up from Dorothy and stared upon the bruised face of Heero Yuy, a frown damped his semi-light hearted mood. Where did this mission go wrong? He wondered mentally.
[You haven't failed, wake up....!]
Duo flinched at the sound of the unfamiliar voice that surrounded him. He didn't want to wake up, all he wanted to do was sleep for a very long time. [Young man, wake up] Duo's head shot up from its bowed position, he opened his eyes expecting to be greeted by the cockpit of the Gundam but instead was greeted by a terra-cotta hair-colored woman with onyx-blue eyes standing in front of him in the middle of a busy space port on a colony. The first thing that he noticed was a small boy with a braid and unruly hair style in the woman's arms lying against her chest with his thumb in his mouth.
His coalbolt eyes widened in surprise when he stared a little more at the little boy in her arms. "Jin?" He whispered in uncertainty. The woman looked down at the boy in her arms then smiled at Duo in a humorous way. "Yes, this is my pride and joy, Jin," She replied smiling down at the chubby boy. "My name's Rei Toshino." Duo's mouth parted in shock and awe, Jin's mother was standing in front of him! Which meant he was dead! His mouth dropped as he looked at his skin complexion, it wasn't pale and he didn't have a halo over his head either. Rei's laughter brought him out of his panic, he looked up at her in confusion. "Don't worry, your not dead Duo," She chuckled. Duo breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"But your lingering between the living and nonliving realm," Rei informed. "And because it is not your time to die yet, you will not be here long. You will return to your living world in a matter of moments. But before this happens, I have something to ask of you." Duo's face turned serious and at the same there was a trace of curiosity in his expression. "What is it?" Duo asked. Rei sighed and walked toward him, closing the space between them, she reached up and touched the side of his face. "For his sake, and his future, please save my son from the path he's chosen. There's so much he has to do in his life. Save him please."
Duo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at what she said to him, but he understood what she wanted him to do. He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Mission accepted," He said.