X

Chapter 8:

Stolen

An explosion.

"W-what was that!" Lea yelled suddenly, jumping out of her seat. All five gundam pilots also stood. The entire room was shaking. All six people were in the control room, hacking and at the same time teaching Lea how to be useful. A large crack surged through the floor like a bolt of lightning.

"X!" Heero yelled and ran towards the door. It was sealed tight. "Sakio must be here in the hangar!"

Lea stared wide-eyed. The floor was cracked, but not split completely. She looked up for no apparent reason and saw a large crack in the ceiling. And then the whole world slowed down. She could see the ceiling fall, but her legs just wouldn't move. Someone was yelling. She could feel something hitting her from behind, and she toppled forward, hitting the ground hard.

Dust filled the room and everyone began coughing.

"Lea!"

Les opened her eyes.

"Lea!"

It was Duo. Duo was calling her. Lea put her hands down in front of her and tried to get up off the ground, but something was holding her down.

"I'm okay..." she said quietly.

"Lea, is that you?" Came Heero's worried voice. Lea couldn't see a thing through the thick fog. The wind had been knocked out of her, and her arm was burning like it was on fire. Despite it all, though, she tried again to lift herself. Something slipped off her back and hit the ground. The dust began to clear. Lea coughed and then opened her eyes.

"Oh my God..." she breathed. Laying in front of her, completely motionless, was Trowa. "Trowa!" she yelled and shook the body furiously. "Trowa, wake up! Trowa!"

Trowa's eyes fluttered open and he lifted himself off the floor.

"I-I'm alright..." he said breathlessly. Underneath him was a small red pool.

"Trowa... you're hurt..." Lea moved to help Trowa off his feet but he immediately waved her hand away.

"I'm okay, really..." he clutched his side and then pulled his hand away. Blood. Red blood stained Trowa's hand and shirt. Something collapsed in the distance.

"The building's falling apart..." Heero said. Duo quickly threw Trowa's arm around his own shoulder and lifted him to his feet.

"I'm fine..." Trowa muttered angrily. Heero grabbed Lea's arm and lifted her up. A piercing pain shot through her entire body and she cried out.

"My arm..." she said at seeing everyone's surprised looks. Heero immediately examined it.

"Keep your mouth shut, and try not to scream." he said and pulled Lea's arm outwards and up so hard and fast, Lea didn't have time to react. Before she knew it, her arm felt worse then ever, but it was usable. Quatre and Wufei were busy at the controls.

"Escape route 3 is closed off, and so is 4 and 5."

"How safe are 1 and 2?" Heero asked, splitting a piece of wood which was found in the pile of rubble in the middle of the floor and making a splint for Lea's arm.

"There are troops stationed outside of number 1, but number 2 seems clear."

Lea's eyes filled with tears at the pain Heero was putting her through. Suddenly, he picked her up and ran out the door, accompanied by the other four Gundam pilots.

They ran down to a large metal door and from there went directly upstairs, apparently heading towards the roof.

There was the door that Trowa had showed her only a week beforehand. It still looked the same, and Lea smiled slightly at the thought of that beautiful day. Heero let Lea down gently on her feet, and then opened the door.

A man, of about middle-age, smiled back at them.

"Sakio!" Heero yelled and instinctively drew his gun. Sakio didn't stop smiling.

"Well, well, if it isn't my sweet Lea, all grown up I see. And yet, you still make the mistake of choosing to hang around the wrong people." Sakio shook his head. "Tsk, tsk. You should really think about all your options before acting upon one of them, right?"

Lea glared at the man. Heero's finger was on the trigger, and he pulled back just a little bit.

"Now, now, Heero. If you choose to become violent, then I will just have to fight back." Sakio eyed Lea with a new found interest. "But go ahead and shoot, if you dare. Once you pull that trigger, Heero Yuy, Lea's life will end."

Lea's eyes widened. "What?"

Sakio chuckled to himself. "That injection of mine? It's a rare substance which clogs any and all blood vessels it happens to be in. A slow and very painful death. And the way to make the substance active, is for me to push this button."

Sakio fished out of his pocket a small controller with a small yellow button on top. It gleamed menacingly.

"All around the vicinity there are stationed large metal poles. You see, when a certain amount of sound waves hit your body, the substance stops dead, which also makes your blood flow stop. So..."

Sakio put the controller back into his pocket and grabbed Lea's chin. She didn't move.

"If you want to see this girl breathe again, then you will lower that gun."

Heero instead pointed the gun at the man's head. "You're bluffing!"

"Oh? Would you care for a demonstration, then?" And before anyone could even move, Sakio drew out the controller and pressed the button. Lea stopped, and then felt strange. Her body felt warm, and then warmer. She felt sick, and fell to her knees. The warmth got hotter and hotter, until Lea couldn't stand it. She screamed and Sakio pressed the button once more. The pain and sickness subsided slowly, and Duo helped Lea back to her feet.

"Now Lea, if you'll follow me please."

Lea blinked and pushed Duo away. "No."

"Now, now, don't be like that. I don't want to hurt you, I still need you."

"So go ahead! Push the button! If it's not gonna kill me then I can stand it!"

Sakio paused and he frowned. "I can torture you until you feel like ripping your own eyes out, if you wish it to be that way. Or you can save yourself the pain and leave your foolish friends and join me." Again Sakio's grin returned. He fingered his controller as if it were silk. Lea stood rooted to the spot, unable to choose which path she would take. It was a fork in the road, but who was too decide what her fate would be if she stayed behind, or if she went? There was no true deciding factor...

"Oh yes, and did I tell you, Lea?"

Lea looked up, temporarily distracted from her thoughts.

"Unless you choose to come with me, then I will take you by force, and this entire hangar will be destroyed."

Something in Lea's self-conscious snapped in two. Her whole world crashed once again as she was faced with her life, or the lives of others. She took a step forward. Voices behind her sounded like birds, twittering madly, and then something grabbed her arm. She looked backward and saw Trowa hanging onto her, on his face a look of desperation. She pulled away and then slowly walked to Sakio. Now the voices were audible.

"Lea! No!"

"Don't do it!"

"Lea, please don't!"

Sakio reached out his hand and Lea grabbed onto it.

Where is right and wrong now? Where is the thick line between good and evil? It's all blurred, and now...

Sakio smiled warmly for the first time and gathered Lea into his arms as a previously unseen helicopter swooped down from the sky and Sakio climbed inside. And for some strange reason, Lea held onto Sakio for the entire flight, and fell asleep out of exhaustion.

"Lea?"

Lea opened her eyes. The sky above her was dark and thick with black clouds. A familiar voice was in front of her. She was laying on the ground and she immediately sat up straight.

"X?" she said breathlessly. In front of her was sitting a boy, of about 18 years of age, with untidy platinum hair and piercing blue eyes. The eyes that always called out to her. "Where am I?"

X shrugged and looked around. "I know you're in Sakio's compound right now,"

Lea now too looked around. "But this is a dream..."

"Yes but, you're still in the hands of Sakio."

Lea leaned backwards again into the green grass. X didn't move from his spot.

"I had a very strange feeling, when Sakio grabbed me. I... I couldn't let go of him."

X's eyes widened. "What?" He then shook his head. "Lea, you're mistaken. Nothing good can come of Sakio..."

"But you said!" Lea said suddenly springing up from the ground. "You said he was the only person who took care of you!"

X lowered his eyes. "Yes, but that's not the whole story..."

"But nobody is completely evil!"

"But you don't know!" X yelled suddenly. It was the first time Lea saw him angry. "You don't know the horror that it was... How it felt... It wasn't the wires or the strange liquid or the burns that hurt me the most, it was the fact that Sakio, the only one person I had cared most about besides you, had betrayed me."

Lea stared, dumb-founded. But why am I finding it so hard to believe that Sakio is such a bad person? He tried to shoot me, after all...

X face turned from sad to bitterly angry. "That man is an abomination to the human race!" Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, X gasped and covered his mouth, a memory flooding his mind.

That boy is an abomination to the human race!

He screamed. Lea nearly fell over at all the emotion that she felt, and she too felt like screaming, though she held it in. X began to whimper, and then he buried his face in his hands, and all the hatred flooded back to him.

Abomination! Wretched creature! Nasty beast! He's not even human, he's an animal! Why are you always treating him like that, Sakio? As if he even knows what you're saying! Foul! Disgusting! Unfit to live with us!

X dug his hands through his hair, and felt tears falling down his cheeks.

"X..."

X looked up and saw Lea standing next to him, a warm smile on her face. She wrapped her arms around him, and X stopped crying.

"It's alright..." she whispered calmly. X closed his eyes.

"I wish it would all just stop..."

Lea held him more tightly, but said nothing.

"I want it all to stop..." Suddenly X grabbed Lea's hands and drew them away. "I'm alright."

"X..." Lea looked painfully at him. He still hadn't let go of her hands.

"You must get out of the compound. Take the robot with you. Okay?"

X let go of Lea's hands and she fell away into darkness.

Lea sat straight up in bed. She was sitting in a large queen-sized bed, rose-colored satin sheets covered her up, while the dim light of several candles revealed little about the room. Dark hardwood floors, with expensive-looking Asian-styled carpets, a small desk with some writing equipment, a vanity, a chest of drawers, a seating area and a fireplace. Lea gasped at the opulence. The door swung open. Sakio ran his fingers through his hair as he stepped inside.

"Come with me."

Lea started, but instead decided otherwise.

"Hurry up now, or I'll be called away somewhere else. You do want a tour, right?"

Lea swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Where's X?"

"I was going to take you to it. Now if you'll follow me..."

Sakio led Lea out into the hall, which was also extremely opulent. He smiled seeing her surprised face and opened the large oak doors. Lea gasped at how different those two rooms were from the rest of the compound.

"It looks like a military base," she breathed, watching all the men moving about with clipboards, checking things off and yelling instructions to one another. Sakio turned and began walking down one of the steel staircases.

"Where's X?"she said. Sakio didn't stop walking, nor did his smile fade at all.

"Right this way."

Lea followed him down several more hallways, people wearing all black eyed Lea cautiously, as if she were a tiger being led around by an idiot. She eyed their guns in holsters nervously.

"And here it is," Sakio said, opening one large metal door, revealing the giant robot, X.

"X!" Lea yelled and ran up to it. We're getting out of here, X, are you ready?

Not yet. Wait 'till tonight. Sakio's still got that controller.

Lea nodded and stared longingly at the robot.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered.

Sakio shut the door behind him quietly.

What do you mean?

"I'm such an idiot, if only I were stronger I could've maybe stopped Sakio early on..."

Don't think like that. It wasn't you're fault at all.

"You know, you and X are very much alike." Sakio said from across the room. Lea turned and faced him. "You two think the same way, and your hearts are pure, although they have been tainted by misfortune..."

Lea turned again to the robot.

Tonight. Tonight we shall escape.

"What is it... that you want me for?" she said, seemingly talking to the robot. Sakio frowned.

"It would seem like I want to take control of the world, wouldn't it? But that's far from the truth. You see, this robot has the power to bring people back from the dead."

Lea jumped. "But that's impossible!"

Sakio shook his head. "Not with this robot. The plans for it were found, not made. Found in some ruins that were, until recently, underwater, off the coast of Scotland."

"So you want this robot so you can bring someone back from the dead?"

Sakio nodded. "My late wife, Shiori, died in a car accident 20 years ago." Sakio lowered his eyes. "I was hoping, that I could build the fabled monster that could bring people back to life. You see, I was a scientist who originally worked for Romefeller. One day, a general in the base in Scotland asked me to come and look at some old documents that had washed up on shore that some of his soldiers had discovered. I went and saw the documents. Low and behold, there was the plans for the fabled robot which could raise the dead. I was overjoyed, and I immediately quit Romefeller to study the blueprints and build the first model. But the robot required two people, one pilot and one life source."

Lea gasped. "So X is..."

"What's keeping that thing moving. Think of him as a battery, one that doesn't die for a very, very long time."

"That's insane!" Lea yelled. Sakio's eyes flashed.

"X is one of many test-tube 'batteries' that I've created."

"Created?"

"Yes. For two years I built and re-built about 18 models, and created 18 different 'batteries'. Each one identical, except they just kept dying. It was very disheartening. The robots also failed. Of course, one robot was successful. The robot X was built about 18 years ago. So another battery came and we trained him to pilot the robot. We also called him X. All the scientists hated him, simply because they hated what I was doing. But, I had to see her again,"

Sakio looked up at the robot. "So I'm not as malicious as you think."

Lea stared at the ground a moment. "I... I understand how you feel. I would do anything to get my brother back."

Sakio walked up to her and grabbed her chin. "And you can, my dear. With this robot, you can have your brother back."

Lea drew away. "It isn't right. It's not right..."

"That man was not sent by me, Lea. He was sent by Romefeller. But together, we can bring him back. We can bring Damon back. Will you join me?" Sakio held out his hand for her.

Lea stared at him a moment, and tossed the thoughts over and over again in her mind.

I can bring him back, and everything will go back to what it used to be, and I'll be happy. That's all I ever asked for. Happiness.

Lea held out her hand and Sakio took it in his. He smiled.

"Come, I'll show you how to handle the X."

TO BE CONTINUED

AN: OO Uh... what should I write about this chapter? Kinda strange, huh? How Lea betrayed the Gundam pilots and all... clears throat But of course, the fact that Lea would be considered a traitor has a significant meaning for me. But that's too much to explain for now! (Maybe some other time...) All in all, Lea and I are extremely similar, and that's what makes her so easy to portray.