"Reminiscing"

Chapter 10: The Fallen

Hi everyone...I know it has been ages since I updated this story. Well, here's chapter 10 and thank you for the reviews from chapter 9. Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

The faint glow from the monitor continued to scan through hundreds of possible locations that Travis's map showed. The GPS images were just blinking away within a second and reappearing with new locations at an alarming rate. "I thought this system was supposed to be quick." Wufei looked at the small clock at his desk...half an hour had passed since his initial run.

"Easy there," chimed in Duo, who was still reading through his stack of papers that seemed to pile up from nowhere. "I don't think you want to pull out your katana right now and slice the computer into little metallic chunks."

"Funny...haha...I forgot to laugh." He continued to stare at the screen. The images that whizzed by were just feeding his anger more. "I feel like I should be at the hospital now...I can't stand sitting in front of this monitor anymore." He began to tap steadily on his wooden desk...hoping to pass the time away. Right then, he heard something else coming from the other side of the room. "Would you stop humming!?! I can hear you from all the way over here, MAXWELL," he gritted his teeth.

"All right, all right...I'll stop....I'm just trying to help pass the time." He looked back towards his pile of files.

"Hello...don't you two forget that I'm still here," Travis tried to wave his arm that wasn't handcuff to the table. "You two seemed to agitate one another really easily."

"How perceptive, Mr. Donal," a hint of sarcasm was in his voice. Wufei continued to look through the GPS images that blipped up on the screen. "You're sure that you can't remember anything else about the location of the base?"

"It was dark that day and they had everything concealed from my view until I walked up to the front entrance of their base. I wish I could help out more, but this is all I have to offer along with that cube." He placed his head in his hands and looked down at the floor, wishing that he hadn't gotten involved in the first place.

Right then, a small electronic alarm emitted from the computer and a message read, "Two matches found."

"It looks like you found the pot of gold," the braided ex-Gundam pilot walked up to where Wufei sat, "but how come there are two of them?" He looked curiously at the images that the computer superimposed over the image provided by Travis.

Wufei honed in on the two images and noticed something strange about one of them. The first image showed a dense forest area, while in the second image, it showed a higher resolution of the area and that some structure was there, but camouflaged. He checked the dates when the images were taken and by what satellite. "It's the same location all right, but the second image was just taken three weeks ago by one of our newer surveillance satellites designated as SLA #2."

"Very interesting...looks like we need to upgrade our computers to rid the old GPS photos."

"Well since you mentioned it, you can write the report to Une, while I'll inform the others right now on the location." He looked towards Duo and noticed that he was slightly displeased of his extra duty, "That's what you get for annoying me for the past thirty minutes."

Three cars filled with Preventers finally arrived to the scene, in which local police and law enforcers met them. Une immediately hopped out of the first car and ordered her Preventers to different locations surrounding the hospital beginning with the exits. "I want the first floor sealed immediately and have civilians leave at an alternate exit, but if you see any suspicious activity or Norfolk himself call for immediate backup. I want no chances to be taken at all." Her cell phone rang off, "What is it?"

"I finally found the site, Duo and I are on our way now. We'll have Travis under protection here."

"Roger that," she closed off the connection and handed out more commands to her officers. "Quatre...I want you to stay on the ground floor and do some crowd control in case anyone becomes unruly during the evacuation. Trowa...go to the ICU and assist Heero." With that, the two men nodded in response and headed off on their separate ways. As for herself, she decided to go into the building and do a floor search with the other officers that were trying to hunt down Norfolk.

Meanwhile within the ICU, small sounds of footsteps were heard throughout the hallway, as the nurses made sure that all of their patients' monitors had switched over to the backup generator by now. So far everything went off without a hitch and all was quiet on the floor for now.

Heero shifted within his seat, but within his mind, he was somewhere else. His surroundings were unfamiliar to him, but in front of him, he saw someone standing by a cherry blossom tree. The soft pink petals were dancing within the wind and encircled around him, as he kept walking towards the shadowed figure. Right then, a familiar voice called out to him, "Heero," a smile graced her face as if it was the first time seeing him again. "I can't believe you're here...it seems like it has been eternity for this to happen." A hint of sadness was in her voice, as a small tear streamed down her cheek. "But...are you really here?"

"What are you talking about?" His monotone voice was beginning to break down, realizing that too much time had passed between the two of them. "I'm right here." He forced her to face him as his Prussian eyes stared directly into hers, and repeated his line again, "I'm right here...and I always will be."

"Promise?" Her crystalline blue eyes searched for an answer from him.

The question was simple, yet it sent an arrow through his heart and soul. He pulled her closer to him and took in her perfume of lilacs. The smell was intoxicating his senses and he kissed her on top of her forehead, brushing away a few strands of her honey blonde hair. He released her from his hold and noticed his hands were covered in her blood.

She mumbled something towards him, "It looks like you finally accomplished your mission in killing me." She took a deep breath in, "I'm tired of waiting for an answer."

He looked down to her and noticed that her eyes had become lifeless in an instant...the familiar blue hue looked more of an icy opaque tint. Right then, everything around him enveloped in a black cloud and he was brought out of his nightmare from a high-pitched alarm that was being emitted from the next room. He looked automatically towards the monitors in the room and noticed that they were normal still...no erratic pulse...she was stable. "It was only a dream."

He got up from his seat and peeked out into the hallway, nothing out of the ordinary was there, but still the sense of uneasiness was settling into his conscience. He pulled out his gun from his back pocket and made sure that it was fully loaded. Before he sat down, something had caught his attention...the emergency exit at the end of the hallway had its door slightly jarred open for a brief second. He whispered to himself, "He's here." He quickly shut off the small flashlight and hid in the shadows of the room.

Trowa emerged onto the fifth floor and analyzed the situation. He didn't see any civilians wandering about and that the nurses were stationed off towards the corner of the floor. He got the attention of one of the nurses and he quickly ran up to her. "I'm going to make a security sweep and I need all of the civilians to leave. I've secured the left exit by the back elevator, another Preventer will be there to guide the group down."

"They're all in the waiting room right now," she looked cautiously about the dark surroundings.

"Get them ready to leave." With that, he began his sweep of each room, bracing himself for any sudden movements.

Heero heard something coming from the hallway, but he didn't dare reveal his hiding position. He drew his gun and had it pointed towards the doorway. His finger was ready to pull the trigger, "Hold it right there!" The darkness in the room didn't do any justice for the situation, as he walked up to the mystery assailant. Right then, his eyes saw a flash of green in the darkness. "Trowa?"

"Heero?"

"Let me guess...Une sent you up here." He withdrew his gun from his friend. "Norfolk is here somewhere on this floor."

"I see. The others are doing their own sweeps on the lower floors along with an evacuation of the first floor. I've also ordered the evacuation of the waiting room for this floor."

"I think Zechs and Noin are still there...they should be here shortly." Within less than two minutes, the couple appeared right at Trowa's side.

"What's going on here?" Zechs was ready to find his foe in the dark hallways.

Trowa filled them in on the situation, "There was an explosion in the basement and it took out one of the main generators. We all figure that Norfolk is here somewhere, since the hit man on Travis leaked out the hint."

"Well, it looks like the final battle is going to take place here...whether we like it or not." Noin scanned the surrounding hallway, but didn't see anything. "We know that he's after Relena to get to you, Zechs."

"He should just come to me directly instead of beating around the bushes...coward." He looked towards his sister, wishing that he hadn't accepted her offer to begin with. "He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to spring his plan into action."

Heero remained quiet throughout their conversation and contemplated on a plan that would snare Norfolk. "We all need to leave this room." All eyes in the room went towards his direction along with the "are you crazy" look. "We need to leave...Norfolk probably knows that someone is just waiting to catch him in the act."

"There's some truth in that," responded Trowa, "we might as well leave now and hide in different locations that are closet to this room." Everyone else averted their gaze towards Zechs to see if he would give the final okay for their plan.

"Are you up to it?" asked Noin.

He didn't like the idea of using Relena as bait for their plan, but it was the only way now. "You better not kill her, Yuy." His blue eyes flashed in his direction, "Let's get this over with...I'll be near the waiting room, just to make him believe that I'm the only one left." They acknowledged his position, and afterwards, they decided to leave as a group, hoping that their plan would fool the general. With that, they headed down a flight of stairs and were met by Une herself.

"What are you doing? You shouldn't leave Relena unattended right now."

Noin jumped into the group's defense, "Zechs with her right now...well he's in the waiting room. We're trying to fool Norfolk into believing that we all left."

"Well the exits to the ICU should still be covered...I want no chances to be taken here."

"They will be," interjected Heero. "We need to disguise ourselves...otherwise Norfolk might do something drastic."

"There's a nurses' station that I just passed. They might have extra smocks along with lab coats. Also, there was a janitor's closet located by the back entrance to this floor"

"That'll do." Before anyone could stop him, he automatically entered through the doors and ran down the hallway to the nurses' station with a strange request that perplexed the nurses for a minute.

"I can't give out the uniforms," the head nurse protested as much as she could.

"There's no time for an explanation...right now the ICU is in danger and lives are at stake." He showed her his ID and with that he was given the clearance. He then signaled the others to come. In minutes, they were dressed in their uniforms along with their fake badges that acknowledged them as hospital employees.

"All right, I want everyone to cover an exit of the ICU pronto." Une drew out the floor plan of the unit and directed each person to their respective locations, "Noin, cover the south exit closet to the waiting room...Trowa, I want you to cover the location that you secured for the waiting room occupants along with the back elevators...and Heero, I assume you have your own position to cover." She looked towards the Perfect Soldier and noticed a nod in response. "I'll cover the west exit."

Before the group disbanded, a quartet of Preventers emerged onto the scene. "What is this...a masquerade party? How come I didn't get any invite?" Duo looked onto the group with a curious look, hoping that he could jump onto the bandwagon.

"It looks like your invite got lost in the mail, Duo," Sally patted the back of his shoulders. She shifted the conversation to a more serious matter, "How can we help?"

Une's eyes lighted up a little, "Well, there are three fire exits that need to be covered." She looked towards Duo, Quatre, and Wufei for that task to be covered. "Well what do you say?" The three of them agreed. "As for you, Sally, I need someone to cover the nurses' station just in case anything goes wrong."

"Fine with me."

"All right, let's head back to the ICU and remember...act casually...so we don't give Norfolk the upper hand here." She placed a surgical mask over her face before entering the door leading to the unit.

Back in the ICU, Norfolk still hid within the back room, hoping that someone of interest could be of use to him. He opened the door slowly and heard the group from Relena's room leave just minutes before. "Well...it looks like a game of cat and mouse now." He looked to see if anyone was closet to his room, so he could divert their attention his way. As if out of the blue, his wish was granted somehow and he decided to drop a small plastic bedpan onto the floor and he hid behind the door. A minute passed and a male orderly appeared to see what the commotion was. Before he knew it, he was knocked unconscious by Norfolk and was gagged in the corner of the room.

Norfolk finished making the final adjustments to the maroon uniform, as he peeked out the window, "So it looks like the cavalry is all here." He noticed that there was a large amount of civilians on the city street and he figured that the Preventers were already onto him. "I better make this quick." He took out a small vial of a clear liquid from his pocket along with a slim black box and placed them within his black waist bag. He exited the room and took one of the wheelchairs from the hallway. Along the way, he reached into his waist bag and activated the black box. A stream of pale gas emitted from the bag, as he placed a clear filter on his nose, protecting him from the gas's effects.

He continued to push the empty wheelchair through the north end of the hallway, where he bumped into a cart of cleaning supplies, "Watch where you're going, mister!" He was curious as to why a janitor would be mopping the floor at a time like this, but he had more other important issues to attend to.

"I'm sorry...I'm just doing my job," he mumbled the barely inaudible sentence. "The floor is slippery." He continued to mop the floor, but a queasy feeling overwhelmed his senses. He tried to focus in front of him, "He's heading your way, Heero. He's wearing a disguise now...a maroon colored uniform."

"Acknowledged, I see him now." He pretended to stack a cabinet full of medical supplies, as Norfolk passed him. He watched him closely and before he knew it, he saw him park the wheelchair two rooms from Relena's. "I'm moving into position." On the other end, he heard a fall, "Trowa?" The connection was silent. Right then, he kicked his senses into high gear and saw a stream of a faint gray gas being released from Norfolk's bag. He immediately held his breath in and walked away from the surrounding area, hoping to evade the sleep- inducing vapor. By then, he already knew that the others wouldn't respond to his back up calls. "Damn him." As a last ditch effort, he emerged from his hiding place and ran to Relena's room, hoping that he wasn't too late.

"Hold it right there!" He pointed his gun towards his target. "Put the syringe down." He took one step forward, but the room around him started to spin.

"It looks like the gas is finally taking its toll on you."

"I wouldn't count on that." He fired a shot towards the window and in seconds, a fresh breeze ran through the room. "You're slowly breaking down Zechs with your games here." He paused slightly and saw Norfolk shift in his stance, "This is to avenge for Alexis's death isn't it?"

"How did you find out?" a shocked look was seen on his face.

"Through reports and just a matter of connecting the dots." By then, he moved even closer to Norfolk, but continued to speak in his monotone voice, "In one of the blurred photos, it showed the Tallgeese. The only person that could have piloted that mobile suit was Zechs Marquise."

With the statement from Heero, Norfolk exploded, "He took her AWAY from me! He had no right to destroy her cargo ship along with Casey." To bring his plan into full circle, he held the syringe right at the base of Relena's IV and was about to press the plunger downward when he felt Heero push him away from his intended target.

"You're not harming her anymore." He tried to subdue Norfolk without using his gun because he was afraid that one of the bullets might hit Relena or other patients in nearby rooms. The two continued to wrestle on the ground and at one point, a tray had fallen and it scattered small surgical knives. He grabbed one of them and stabbed him in the upper right shoulder. The middle-aged man stumbled backward, as Heero got up from the floor and examined Relena's vitals...they were still normal...he had succeeded in protecting her. But at that moment, he felt a prick in his left arm and noticed it was the syringe that Norfolk had in his hands just moments before.

"This is for interfering with my plans." He watched the Preventer fall to the ground and left him there to die. Before he left, he had picked up Heero's gun from the floor. "Fools...you all finally fell into my own trap...with all of your resources focusing on Relena...you all forgot to protect the Vice Foreign Minister himself." An evil laugh escaped from his lips and before long, his footsteps echoed down in the hallway.

Heero felt the elusive toxin coursing through his veins, he quickly ripped part of his uniform and wrapped the fabric tightly around his left arm. He felt his strength slowly draining away from his body and with one last-ditch effort, he pushed himself from the ground and staggered off into the hallway to find his target. In the dimly lighted hallway, he saw a shadow outside the doorway leading inward towards the waiting room, "Norfolk..." He quickened his pace and in seconds, he was there waiting for the right time to strike...sweat drops began to trickle down his brow, as his heartbeat became irregular.

"And now, I can finally avenge for Lexi's death." He pulled out the black metallic object from his pocket and pulled the trigger back.

"Guess again."

"How did you..." before Norfolk could finish his sentence, Heero pulled out his second gun from his back pocket and with no reservations... he fired at his target with his left arm wavering slightly. "That was for Relena." Everything around him began to swirl and he fell to the floor, dropping the gun to his right-hand side.

As for Norfolk, he lay stunned on the ground without any eye movement. He just lay there...staring at the blank ceiling.

TBC