"Reminiscing"

Chapter 9: Checkmate

Hi everyone, thanks for waiting and to make up for the lost time, I decided to write eight pages. Hopefully you all won't be too disappointed with this chapter...enough rambling from me. Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of it characters.

"Where do you think you're off to now?" Duo looked up from the laptop, while Quatre continued to scroll down, gathering the pertinent information. "I'm going to give this file to Zechs." He took the print out of the space report with him and went over to his small closet space and pulled out a clean shirt. Before long, he was out of their sight.

The two continued to peruse the article, not noticing that a woman with a Preventer uniform was walking down the hallway leading to sector C. She passed through the set of security systems with ease along with a food tray that she was carrying. "For security here, it's sure a piece of cake." She pitched a gel like paper from her hands after going through the fingerprint analysis scanner...earlier that day, she had placed it in her own hand as she shook hands with a Preventer posing as a news reporter. In addition to that, a mini camera was concealed within her eyeglasses and when she pretended to reposition her glasses on the tip of her nose, she took a retinal snapshot of the unsuspecting Preventer. She continued to walk through the corridor until she came upon the retinal scan. She readjusted her glasses and an image of the retina from the same Preventer was transferred over her right eye. "Here goes nothing." A flash of red scanned from the top to bottom of her eye and she saw the light at the entryway turn green.

She continued to walk down the round circular corridor until she found Wufei and Trowa guarding a certain cell.

The two noticed the new Preventer in their sights. "I'm here to give the prisoner his dinner." She lifted the plastic covering to reveal a small portion of meatloaf and a biscuit.

Both of the men noticed that something wasn't adding up. "Where's your i.d., woman?" Wufei looked at her sternly with his black eyes.

She looked displeased at the tone of his last statement, "Right here." She placed the tray on the table and whipped out her badge that verified her as a Preventer. At the same time, she stealthily released a small vile of transparent gas that quickly enveloped the small area.

The air around them started to turn into an opaque color, "GET DOWN!" Trowa demanded, and the two dropped to the ground. The white misty smoke made it unbearable for them to see what was going on.

The renegade spy quickly lifted up the tray to reveal another surprise underneath it... a small slim pistol and information pertaining to Travis's cell lock. She keyed in the codes and quickly went into the cell.

"Mr. Donal, I presume."

"Who are you?"

"It's not important for me to introduce myself to you..."

He stared at her questioningly, "What do you want from me now?"

She removed her handy eyeglasses, "Oh nothing, I just came to finish this little mission." She held out her pistol and aimed it at his chest.

His eyes flashed before him, "You're from that organization."

"Precisely..." she locked him into her sight and was about to pull the metallic trigger, but she felt a pain coming from her lower back. She had enough time to pull the trigger, before falling face down to the ground.

"You okay in here?" Wufei emerged from the door with his gun in his hand.

Travis looked up from the sight before him, "Yeah...that was too close to comfort." He was shaking nervously just like the time when Zechs tried to shoot him in the cell. The bullet had grazed his upper right arm...a slow steady flow of red darkened his clothing.

"They're trying to eliminate you now." Trowa emerged from the doorway after sending out the signal for a breach of security within the headquarters. "The others will be here shortly."

"We need to get better security systems in here. Une won't like the report we're going to send her." Wufei took Travis out of his cell and escorted him back to the main offices, where he saw Quatre and Duo going through some paper work of their own. "Sit down right over here." He pointed to a small corner behind a desk, while he walked to his own and scribbled something on a piece of carbon-copy paper, which he then tossed into a tray on his desk.

Before long, Sally appeared at the desk where Travis sat, quickly bandaging the wound. "He's all yours, Wufei. And don't be rough on him."

He gave her a quick glance and started his final interrogation with Travis. "You better talk now or this so-called group of yours might hire another assassin to finish you."

Travis didn't like the image that flashed in his mind about another possible threat to his life...he quickly made a small gulp..."Alright I'll talk." He began to fidget with his hands, which was something he had always done whenever he was feeling nervous. "I was hired a couple of months back by General Norfolk. My interview was held at some undisclosed location, but I don't remember where it was...it was a long time ago."

"Think harder." Wufei pounded on the desk, hoping to give Travis's mind a jolt of inspiration of some sort, while Quatre reminded him to stay calm. "I'm getting tired of playing these games."

"I know Wufei, but we can't rush into these matters..."

Travis then interjected into their conversation, "Look, driving in the dark at midnight is not the best way for me to remember anything." He clenched his fists and flashes of his first encounter with General Norfolk and his assignment were beginning to surface.

"Is there anything else you would like to add?" The Chinese man regained his composure and continued to look Travis directly in his eyes.

"There's something else...the base was hidden in a dense forest and it was situated by an old turnpike. I remember seeing a fallen sign out there, but the place hasn't been kept up for a while."

"I see." Wufei then went over to a computer and checked the local area of 100 mile radius to see if there were any abandon turnpikes and possible leads. The frustration was getting to him. He furiously scanned the records that came up.

Noticing that Wufei was busying himself, while Duo was finishing his stack of papers, Quatre walked over to the prisoner, who was still handcuff at the empty desk. "You're still hiding something from us. Aren't you?" The blonde man looked at Travis questioningly.

"You're not a mind reader." He turned the other direction, avoiding the Quatre's curious gaze.

"Do you happen to know what this is?" He held out a small black cube that was opaque, but was light in weight. In the middle of it, there was a small projection bulb, less than a centimeter in length. The light blue bulb stood out from its opaque surroundings that showed an array of etched lines.

Travis smirked at the blonde man. "Now where did you find that?"

"At your apartment...buried under a stack of books."

He then snatched the small object out of Quatre's hand. "Hmph...I thought I destroyed this." He played with the object in his hands, just like a Rubik's cube. In a matter of minutes, he unlocked its secret content. "I think this may be of some service to you now." He smiled coolly to the blonde man, as if mocking his intelligence.

A holographic image popped up before the two of them. The image was static, but it was still visible enough to make out the faint lines. Everyone that was within the room, saw the faint apparition. They were amazed that a tiny cube that they had found contained useful information.

Lady Une had just walked out of her office to see what the commotion was about. Minutes ago she had heard of the breach in security within Sector C and was not too thrilled about it. She had enough things on her mind. She turned around the corner and saw her officers standing in awe at the image before them. "I want everyone to get back to work now...we can't waste anymore time." Her voice shot through the crowd and all of a sudden, sounds of footsteps were heard. She continued to walk towards the image that was still being played in a particular corner. "What's the update?"

Quatre looked up from the image, "It seems that our friend here...cracked the cube to give us this map of Norfolk's hideout. The only problem is that it's part of a map and Travis can't recall the exact location of where this base is. The only detail he gave us was that it was located in a dense forest by a turnpike."

"Is anyone doing a GPS scan on this image right now?" She continued to look at the blue transparent image in front of her.

"Wufei is." The blonde man looked over to where he was sitting.

As if he was listening on their conversation, he called out to them, "The report is on my desk, if you were wondering." His black eyes continued to scan through the possible sites for a hidden base that matched Travis's map.

Meanwhile back within Sector C, Trowa remained on alert in the cell area to see if there was anymore suspicious activity going on. "Something still doesn't feel right here." He eyed the feminine spy that was on the ground...she was still breathing. She rolled herself on her left side, moving her short black hair from her face.

"You're damn right." She took a deep breath in, "At this moment, he's on his way. All the pieces to the final match are set. It's just a matter of time." She gave off a mocking laugh before passing out from her blood loss.

It dawned on Trowa that the hospital was the next target. He quickly paged the others of the impending scenario.

Heero raced towards the elevators of the hospital and punched in the all too familiar floor number. In minutes, he emerged from the metal shaft and eyed the person he wanted to see. He found him sitting in the waiting room with circles under his eyes. "Here." He dropped the manila folder onto Milliardo's lap. The contents partially spilled out with the copy of the space report on top of the pile.

The platinum blonde man looked over it and noticed a name stuck out...Norfolk. He then realized that this dream of being in a mobile suit was actually a memory from his past. It was him in the Tallgeese. "It starting to make sense now. But why go after Relena?"

"The answer lies within Norfolk." He suddenly got up...his pager was beeping. He took out the small device and noticed it was from headquarters.

The short message read, "Breach in security...hq ok...he cracked...be alert."

"Looks like you might get your answer after all. Travis cracked." He returned to his seat and eyed his surroundings, while Milliardo went through the file himself.

The clippings from the space report and other informational sheets collected on Norfolk were scattered around him. His memories of being Zechs Marquise were being jarred open again. He began to rethink twice about the position that his own sister nominated him for. He looked over his shoulder to the hallway and noticed that guards were still posted to entrance of Relena's room. A faint sigh escaped from him and he finally made up his mind about his current position. "I hope she doesn't hate me for doing this..." he resumed looking at the file before him.

He closed his eyes for a minute, trying to catch a quick snooze for the hours of sleep he was deprived of. But in minutes, he was in deep sleep and sounds of a woman's shoes were coming towards the room. Noin peered into the quiet room from the glass doors and saw her husband slouched on one of its couches. She quietly tiptoed in and motioned towards Heero that he could leave. With that, she watched him exit the room and headed towards the direction of Relena's room...being alert as ever.

"Hey there...stranger."

"Noin...what are you doing here?" He looked up at her in shock.

"The press is a frenzy out there and headquarters was swamped with them earlier today. I just came to see how she was doing."

"She's still holding on."

"She's strong, Zechs." She picked up one of the papers that was lying next to her. "I see that Heero has done his research..." Her eyes quickly scanned over the article about the space incident and when she came across the distorted picture, the realization dawned on her, "Why would Norfolk come after Relena? This doesn't make sense."

"Nothing makes sense right now...my past has come to haunt me again. I should have just remained as a dead person." He became silent for a brief moment, looking past her and through the glass doors, "Once this incident is over, I'm handing the title back to Relena...she's the right person for this job...I should have never have accepted it in the first place."

"No matter what your decision is...I'm still with you." She placed her right hand on his back, noticing the tension that he was still feeling. "For these couple of months, I think you've helped in more ways that you could possibly think right now...minus the current situation."

Realizing the truth in her words to some degree, "I guess your right...she needed a break." He closed his blue eyes and slowly drifted into a deep sleep, while Noin caressed his forehead.

Outside on the city's streets, a taxicab had pulled along the curbside and a man with a navy blue baseball cap emerged. He paid the cab fare and walked about a block before arriving in front of the hospital's glass revolving doors. He saw various news crews camped out on the front lawn of the hospital and some of them hand their camera crews on call...waiting to pounce at a possible announcement of Relena's condition. He quickly walked passed the group and entered through the revolving doors. Inside the hospital, he saw more reporters trying to gather all the pertinent information on the former queen. With all the chaos, no one really noticed that a man was heading to the basement, where the hospital's main circuit breaker was. He had studied all of the building's blueprints on which floor was what and what it housed. He carefully walked passed security cameras that scanned the hallways from their ceiling positions. Before long, he turned around the corner...bypassing storage rooms, janitorial rooms, and even the hospital's morgue. But then, his eyes caught one room, "Jackpot." He quickly entered the last room to his left and saw the maze of generators lined up in a row. The machines were vibrating silently...if he dropped anything, someone standing in the hallway could hear him. He looked around the lighted room until he found his target. "In less than a minute, all hell breaks loose." He pulled out a small explosive from his pocket and placed it directly onto the circuit breaker. He quickly walked back to the front of the room and pulled out the detonator switch. "Let chaos reign."

BOOM...

Throughout the hospital, the lights flickered about and alarms went off practically in every room. Nurses on every floor went about, checking on patients and calming families down. Within the ICU, the same scene was repeated but with more urgency, the nurses ran frantically about checking on their most critical patients especially the ones on the respirators.

"The backup generator should be kicking in soon, according to one of the maintenance personal," a female voice shouted over the chaos.

The head nurse in charge ran out to the nurses' station, "I need every nurse on hand to start bagging the patients and if visitors are around, have one of the orderlies escort them back to the waiting room."

With the orders given out, each nurse dashed to their respective wings of the ICU unit along with the air bags.

"Excuse me sir, you need to leave now. The hospital has just lost power and you need to go back to the waiting room." A nurse ran over to Relena's side and noted her pulse and oxygen readings.

"I'm not going anywhere." His monotone voice pierced against the alarms resonating from the monitors.

"Well you must, sir." The nurse remained persistent in her orders, "We have everything under control and my orders are to have visitors sent back to the waiting room now."

He pulled out his Preventer ID and showed it to the nurse. "I'm staying here...you do your job and I'll do mine."

He watched the hallway for any sudden movements that were out of the ordinary, but he didn't see anything. Right then, the backup generators kicked into place, but the hallway lights were still out...leaving the dimly lighted emergency lights. The machines in every room switched over to their new electrical power...an eerie feeling swept over him.

The nurse gathered her things, "And by the way, there's a flashlight over by the first aid kit that's by the window." She quickly left the room and resumed her other duties without looking back.

Back in the waiting room, a small crowd gathered about around the glass windows...wondering if their loved ones were in jeopardy, but the head nurse reassured that everyone was safe. Zechs woke from his small slumber and noticed that Noin was standing by the window closet to Relena's room.

"They just had a power failure..." She continued to stand on her guard, looking towards Relena's room." She noticed that Zechs's eyes were searching the crowd in the darken room, "He's still with her."

A small sigh escaped from him. "I don't know how long I can take this madness."

Two hours had passed...the ICU floor started to become quiet, even though the lights were still out, but beams of light were emitted from temporary stationary flashlights. The monotony of the machines was evident, the slow rising of the respirator pumps and electrical bleeps that came from monitors...it could have given anyone the creeps.

Heero looked about his surroundings noted anything out of the ordinary...still nothing. He began to wonder if Duo's message was just a false alarm and was meant to throw him off. For the past day, it was a roller coaster ride for him...trying to find leads and any other critical information. The sounds of the monitors in Relena's room brought him out of his analysis. The more he heard them...the feeling of sleep tried to overcome his body. He tried to fight the feeling, but with his wound still there and the lack of sleep, the feeling finally overcame him.

Right then, a door leading towards the fire escape slowly opened. Eyes were searching about the dimly lighted hall until he found his target. He smirked to himself, "Ah...the pieces are finally into place...you took my queen...and I'll take your [former] queen." He slowly emerged and walked around the bend...preparing himself for his final move.

TBC