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The Assassins' Lament

Chapter Eleven: Breakout

 What looked the two assassins in the face were 9 pairs of eyes… the eyes of children no older then nine or ten and as young as three. Dorothy looked them over and counted. Four boys and five girls not including the young boy they'd just met.

Trowa narrowed his eyes then put a hand on Dorothy's shoulder, "No time to waste. We have to go now."

Dorothy nodded then turned to the children, "Follow us… We're taking you out of here… far away from this horrid place where you'll be safe."

'Hopefully,' Trowa thought as he stepped out of the doorway to let the children out while the other young assassin walked over to the corpses he'd just recently created and grabbed their guns. The young assassin walked back and passed the guns to some of the older children who nodded and cocked them ready to fire if needed.

One of the younger girls glanced over at 04 worriedly, "Why are we leaving with them, Alex?"

"Don't worry. They're friends," the boy said thought the words, 'I hope,' flashed through his mind.

"So that's your name then?" Dorothy asked looking at the boy who nodded.

Dorothy led the group as Trowa continued to watch their rear listening for any sound of coming footsteps. It seemed odd that they were meeting very little resistance, however, the reason for that was soon apparent as they rounded a corner and came face to face with over twenty Zeon soldiers all pointing weapons in their direction.

Immediately, the children with guns lifted their weapons and prepared to fire though they were clearly waiting for an order from either the two elder assassins or Alex, who was their team leader.

Trowa narrowed his eyes and turned just as a group of another fifteen or so soldiers came down the hallway behind them.

"We're surrounded," Trowa muttered as he pulled out a small round ball from the pouch at his side, "I knew these would come in handy."

Dorothy nodded as Trowa handed her a second round ball from his pouch. They nodded to each other and they pressed the small buttons on the balls and threw them towards the soldiers both in front of them and behind. Smoke began to spread from the balls and the soldiers gagged at the fumes and began to collapse.

"Piece-a-cake," Dorothy smirked, "Lets get out of here."

With that said, the group continued on their way, weary of another attack, but it never came. They soon made it out into the yard and over the fence.

"Is it me or was that way too easy?" Dorothy murmured quietly to Trowa so as to not worry the children.

Trowa nodded then waved them to follow him as they made their way back towards the city. All the while he kept thinking to himself, 'Zeon's up to something and we need to find out what it is. They wanted us to find these kids. They wanted us to rescue them… but why? What do they have planned?'

The group was soon on its way to preventers headquarters in hopes that Hilde had made it and relayed their warning.

"Wait," came a rushed whisper as they neared preventers HQ.

Dorothy glanced over and saw Hilde hiding in a tree, "What's wrong? Did you warn the others?"

Hilde bit her lip and shook her head, "I tried but they know… They know everything. They think we're still working for Zeon… We can't go back. We have to hide… there's no other way."

"There has to be a way to make them understand. We can't just run… Not when so many lives are in danger. Zeon's grown so much stronger then it was when we were a part of it. Who knows what damage it can do…" Trowa said.

"Ya but we don't even know what exactly they're planning… Everything's just too confusing," Dorothy said then glanced at Alex, "What can you tell us about their plans?"

Alex looked to the ground, "Nothing… They just give me names and pictures and tell me to get rid of them."

"Great time for them to wizen up," Dorothy growled.

"Maybe we should hide and come up with a plan. Let things cool off," Alex said.

"But what if Zeon does something in the meantime?" one of the other young assassins piped up.

"We'll just have to take that risk because there is nothing we can do right now if the preventers see us as the enemy," Trowa said, "We'll go to colony L3 for a while. I know it well enough. There's a large forested area there were we can hide."

"They!" came a voice suddenly. Trowa turned to see Wufei who looked rather furious. The black haired gundam pilot quickly pulled out his gun and fired at them, "Filthy traitors!"

"Think he's mad?" Dorothy questioned as she grabbed one of the smaller children and lifted her off the ground and ran with Hilde and the other children in tow.

Trowa pulled out his own gun and fired several shots at Wufei before turning and following behind his teammates.

Wufei chased after them for a while but soon lost them in the darkness of the night.

The group was soon on a shuttle to colony L3, in disguise of course. Trowa had brushed his ridiculously long bangs back and tied his hair in a ponytail at the back and put blue contacts into his eyes. Dorothy had died her hair jet-black and cut it slightly and put in greed contacts. Hilde had bleached her hair blond and wore brown contacts. The kids all wore ordinary clothing that children their ages would wear and didn't have to worry too much seeing as no one other then Zeon had really seen them as of yet.

Trowa sat quietly in his seat looking out the window at the stars and the endless darkness. When had darkness become his escape? He often found himself looking up at the night sky, loosing himself in the black abyss that was space. He closed his eyes for a second then opened them again as if trying to wake from the nightmare that was his life.

He was soon woken from his thoughts as Alex, who was sitting next to him, stood up and whispered, "I'm going to have a look around."

Trowa glanced at him and replied, "Alright, just don't be too long, we should be landing in about an hour."

Alex nodded then headed down the isles of the shuttle towards the front.

(Meanwhile)

In the cockpit of the shuttle the captain was quietly humming to himself when he heard a blip and a face appeared on the shuttles main screen.

"Captain, I am Lady Une of the Preventers. I am sad to inform you of a group of terrorists that may have found their way on one of the shuttles in order to escape our operatives. There are three older teenagers, two females and one male along with 10 children," the face of Lady Une said calmly to the captain, "I'm sending you the pictures of the three teens now."

The captain nodded slightly startled by the news that there could be wanted criminals on his ship.

The pictures came up on the screen and the captain examined them carefully, "They look familiar enough," the captain said as he remembered the passengers faces, "They look a wee bit different but that's them. There here alright."

"Good… just act as if nothing is wrong. We will have operatives waiting to take them when you land," Lady Une said calmly.

(Meanwhile)

Alex's eyes narrowed as he heard this. He'd been standing there the whole time. No one seemed to think it odd that a child would be wandering the shuttle so no one paid him any attention.

The boy quickly turned and headed back to the others, "They know we're here. I just heard the captain talking to some woman about us. They're going to be there when we land."

Hilde groaned slightly then nodded, "What now?"

"We head to the cargo hold… a few at a time… We still have 45 minutes before we land. We can make a run for it when they open the hold," Trowa said.

Dorothy nodded, "I'll take the first group."

She calmly took the lands of two of the children and wandered towards the back of the shuttle.

Ten minutes later Alex and three other children wandered off towards the back pretending to play tag.

After another ten minutes Hilde picked up two of the younger children who were pretending to cry and took them towards the back.

Trowa sighed, 'so far so good. No one seems to notice us leaving… yet.'

Ten minutes after Hilde's 'escape' Trowa took the last two children towards the back, both complaining that they needed to use the bathroom.

Trowa and the two children with him soon entered the cargo hold and met up with the others. Some of the young children seemed frightened and the two girls were trying their best to comfort them while the older ones looked on calmly, not seeming fazed by the unfolding events.

"Be ready," Trowa said as he took out his gun and quickly made sure it was fully loaded. The older children with guns also checked there guns followed by the two girls after they'd calmed the younger ones.

They soon felt the shuttle heading for a landing and prepared themselves for the inevitable fight and flight. Trowa and a few of the older children, including Alex, would be taking up the rear and holding the preventers off while the others escaped.

The shuttle landed and the group tensed, "Get ready," Trowa said calmly.

The second the shuttle door opened the group bolted with Trowa and his group pointing their guns at the workers. Hilde and Dorothy led their group of children out as fast as they could.

"Hey! Stop right there!" came a voice suddenly which indicated that they weren't quite fast enough.

The sounds of gunshots told the girls that Trowa and the others still had their backs and they continued to flee.

Trowa narrowed his eyes as he fired at the preventers, deliberately missing. The preventers took shelter behind the shuttle as they continued to fire.

Trowa and his group continued their barrage, while avoiding the shots from the preventers, and slowly backed up in the direction the girls had run.

When he felt they'd given the others enough time to get away, Trowa shouted to his group to retreat. They nodded and the group ran for it.

The preventers were quickly on their heels, still firing madly at them.

Trowa ushered his group off in the direction of the others then waited till the preventers could see him and bolted the other way. He was quickly rewarded by the sound of the preventers following close behind him.