A week had passed when the pilots returned to J's safe house.
At first only Heero was going to return but the pilots all wanted to see Taryn so they all went back.
They landed on the concrete and walked over to the door. As soon as they pushed it open their ears were assaulted with heavy metal rock coming from the main laboratory.
Duo sang along to it and Heero looked indifferent but Trowa, Quatre and Wufei covered their ears with identical looks of pain crossing their faces. They pushed the door to the main laboratory open and were confronted with the sight of well. Nothing.
A stereo was playing loudly in the corner but that was it. Quatre ran over and turned the stereo off causing an eerie silence to descend on the building broken only by a "HEY" coming from behind and partly underneath one of the many machines littering the lab.
A masked face closely followed this cry. That was until the welding mask was removed and a pair of emerald green eyes appeared shrouded in a short choppy bob of dark hair with the occasional purple stripe framing a pixie like face. A cheeky smile appeared on the said face and a hand streaked with grease was proffered to the pilots.
"Taryn, pleased to meet yas!". The girl said surveying the open mouthed crowd in front of her.
Their minds were racing.. Last time they had seen her she had had long matted hair her eyes had been closed and her clothes were. well. practically non-existent.
Now she stood before them at about 5 ft 5 inches dressed in a short tartan skirt, chunky black boots, more bracelets then they could care to count and what looked like the remains of Duo's Deathscythe T-shirt. Only without sleeves plus a lower neckline and instead of sides it was done up with cord. "Is that my T-shirt?" asked Duo.
"Yup! I liked it so I thought I'd customise it. You have good style" Taryn replied. "Yeah you know what the picture is?" He continued as she shook her head. "It's my gundam Deathscythe."
" Really? I'm so sorry. God I should have asked you first! Ah man I'm really sorry" the look on her face as she said this made Duo want to laugh.
He DID have another one and besides it looked good on her. "Ahh its fine. I have another" he replied. "So where did you get the money for the rest of it?"
"J gave me money. I couldn't wear those white rags anymore it just wasn't becoming" she said gesturing wildly with her hands as she spoke.
"And you chose to buy these because?" asked Duo. As he said this he noticed he was the only one who had spoken to Taryn so far and glanced around.
What he saw cracked him up. All of the other four pilots stood open-mouthed staring at Taryn. As he caught Heero's eye Heero immediately changed back to his blank impassive face and turned his face away from Duo.
Trowa and Wufei just closed their mouths and glared at Duo as if daring him to say something. Quatre just grinned and blushed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She looked just as she had before she has been called into action. She was his best friend but she didn't even know it.
They had spent the first 10 years of their lives like brother and sister, which in fact they near enough were.
They had been inseparable and as soon as one of them was out of training the others teacher was pestered until the other was let out. The two of them shared everything.
Him in his shorts and sleeveless T-shirts with his shock of dark hair and cobalt eyes, her with her shock of dark hair and glittering emerald eyes in her identical clothing. Well it has been identical until they had had a fight one-day and she had ripped the bottom off the shorts and cut up her T- shirt and threaded it together with her bootlaces.
Just as she had now done with Duos Deathscythe T-shirt. Everyone thought she had just made this personality up but in fact she was just dressed near enough as close to how she could last remember to be dressed be it subconscious or otherwise.
Then one day she had just disappeared.
He had woken up and swung himself over the side of the bunk bed hung upside down and pulled the covers away knowing how much it annoyed Taryn. But when he had the bed was empty. He had jumped down and felt the pillow. It was cold.
So she had been gone a while then. He had ran from the room wearing his regulation navy pyjamas and gone from room to room calling her name. It was only half five in the morning and there were a couple of hours before everyone else got up.
Because he and Taryn were forced to behave like adults all of the time whilst under the eye of their trainers and they were not allowed outside of the complex they had put aside a few hours every morning to talk and play and act like the children they were.
His voice had been hoarse from shouting her name and he had covered every inch of the base he and Taryn had access to.
He collapsed on the floor and cried. He cried for his only friend and ally in the world that was forcing him to carry responsibilities he should never have to carry. That was one of the last times he cried.
When he was finally found he struggled, screamed, cried and due to his training he was hard to control so in the end they had tranquillised him with a dart as they couldn't get near enough to use anything else.
3 people had already died trying.(1)
Then they put him solitary confinement until the day his shouting stopped.
Heero shook his head to disperse the memories and regained his usual expression.
(1) He IS the perfect soldier you know!
At first only Heero was going to return but the pilots all wanted to see Taryn so they all went back.
They landed on the concrete and walked over to the door. As soon as they pushed it open their ears were assaulted with heavy metal rock coming from the main laboratory.
Duo sang along to it and Heero looked indifferent but Trowa, Quatre and Wufei covered their ears with identical looks of pain crossing their faces. They pushed the door to the main laboratory open and were confronted with the sight of well. Nothing.
A stereo was playing loudly in the corner but that was it. Quatre ran over and turned the stereo off causing an eerie silence to descend on the building broken only by a "HEY" coming from behind and partly underneath one of the many machines littering the lab.
A masked face closely followed this cry. That was until the welding mask was removed and a pair of emerald green eyes appeared shrouded in a short choppy bob of dark hair with the occasional purple stripe framing a pixie like face. A cheeky smile appeared on the said face and a hand streaked with grease was proffered to the pilots.
"Taryn, pleased to meet yas!". The girl said surveying the open mouthed crowd in front of her.
Their minds were racing.. Last time they had seen her she had had long matted hair her eyes had been closed and her clothes were. well. practically non-existent.
Now she stood before them at about 5 ft 5 inches dressed in a short tartan skirt, chunky black boots, more bracelets then they could care to count and what looked like the remains of Duo's Deathscythe T-shirt. Only without sleeves plus a lower neckline and instead of sides it was done up with cord. "Is that my T-shirt?" asked Duo.
"Yup! I liked it so I thought I'd customise it. You have good style" Taryn replied. "Yeah you know what the picture is?" He continued as she shook her head. "It's my gundam Deathscythe."
" Really? I'm so sorry. God I should have asked you first! Ah man I'm really sorry" the look on her face as she said this made Duo want to laugh.
He DID have another one and besides it looked good on her. "Ahh its fine. I have another" he replied. "So where did you get the money for the rest of it?"
"J gave me money. I couldn't wear those white rags anymore it just wasn't becoming" she said gesturing wildly with her hands as she spoke.
"And you chose to buy these because?" asked Duo. As he said this he noticed he was the only one who had spoken to Taryn so far and glanced around.
What he saw cracked him up. All of the other four pilots stood open-mouthed staring at Taryn. As he caught Heero's eye Heero immediately changed back to his blank impassive face and turned his face away from Duo.
Trowa and Wufei just closed their mouths and glared at Duo as if daring him to say something. Quatre just grinned and blushed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She looked just as she had before she has been called into action. She was his best friend but she didn't even know it.
They had spent the first 10 years of their lives like brother and sister, which in fact they near enough were.
They had been inseparable and as soon as one of them was out of training the others teacher was pestered until the other was let out. The two of them shared everything.
Him in his shorts and sleeveless T-shirts with his shock of dark hair and cobalt eyes, her with her shock of dark hair and glittering emerald eyes in her identical clothing. Well it has been identical until they had had a fight one-day and she had ripped the bottom off the shorts and cut up her T- shirt and threaded it together with her bootlaces.
Just as she had now done with Duos Deathscythe T-shirt. Everyone thought she had just made this personality up but in fact she was just dressed near enough as close to how she could last remember to be dressed be it subconscious or otherwise.
Then one day she had just disappeared.
He had woken up and swung himself over the side of the bunk bed hung upside down and pulled the covers away knowing how much it annoyed Taryn. But when he had the bed was empty. He had jumped down and felt the pillow. It was cold.
So she had been gone a while then. He had ran from the room wearing his regulation navy pyjamas and gone from room to room calling her name. It was only half five in the morning and there were a couple of hours before everyone else got up.
Because he and Taryn were forced to behave like adults all of the time whilst under the eye of their trainers and they were not allowed outside of the complex they had put aside a few hours every morning to talk and play and act like the children they were.
His voice had been hoarse from shouting her name and he had covered every inch of the base he and Taryn had access to.
He collapsed on the floor and cried. He cried for his only friend and ally in the world that was forcing him to carry responsibilities he should never have to carry. That was one of the last times he cried.
When he was finally found he struggled, screamed, cried and due to his training he was hard to control so in the end they had tranquillised him with a dart as they couldn't get near enough to use anything else.
3 people had already died trying.(1)
Then they put him solitary confinement until the day his shouting stopped.
Heero shook his head to disperse the memories and regained his usual expression.
(1) He IS the perfect soldier you know!