15: This body of mine grows cold
Wing Zero brought itself to a halt at the edge of the cliff that separated it from reaching its desired goal, Jin stared at the large gap with furrowed eyebrows. He had scoured the entire area around the hangar and beyond without being detected, but could find not one shortcut that wasn't blocked by a high-voltage gate meant to keep illegal weapons or rebels from escaping any farther than the mountain region itself.
For the young Korean this posed a problem, a large problem. Without the main thrusters upon Zero's back, the boosters (the gundam's wings) weren't going to get him across this gap unless the impossible happened. Wing Zero walked backward until its back was against a cluster of trees he had come out of, Jin checked the mobility system for a third time making sure nothing would go wrong in this seemingly suicidal idea that popped into his mind.
He gripped the controls tightly his heart pounding loudly in his ears glancing up at the monitor his heart skipped at the image of his mother with a solemn expression on her face her onyx blue eyes boring right into his soul. Shaking his head he looked back up at the screen greeted only by the overall performance of WZ; the flight performance wasn't great it was only at eighty-eight percent; something he expected, everything else was in excellent working order.
This has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever done, Jin's eyes focused solely on the other side of the cliff drowning all other thoughts out of his head until everything around him vanished in darkness. Swallowing the 13-year-old thrust his arms forward activating the thrusters upon the wings of Zero's back while the main thrusters sparked violently the damage they sustained, Jin was thrown against the back the pilots chair at the sheer magnitude of speed the Gundam was moving at.
He pressed down on the pedal the moment Zero reached the edge of the cliff. Its foot pressed against the edge pushing itself farther through the air propelled by the boosters. Jin could see that the gap was large in the air his throat tightened at the thought of falling down into that seemingly never ending pit again as the mobile suit soared through the air. Everything seemed to be moving at such a slow rate through his eyes the closer the edge of the other cliff got, a smile graced the young man's lips.
Wing Zero fell downward the moment he reached his destination; the Gundam grabbed the edge with the only unoccupied hand he had. Jin grunted when he felt himself being thrown forward his forehead smashed against the main monitor, he grunted in pain as he pressed both feet against the pedals below him pressing Zero's feet against the wall of the cliff. With all his strength, Jin managed to get Wing's only arm to pull its upper body over the edge of the cliff, his legs were last. Zero wasted no time standing back on its legs, its jade eyes resided on the damaged wall of the mobile suit hangar.
The young man blinked a few times before the feeling of warm liquid drizzling down his forehead across his eye lid caught his attention. Jin reached up to whipped the blood off his eyelid shifting his glance toward the cracked monitor. "Kissama...," Jin uttered falling against the back of the chair. His arms were sore and his hands ached from the grip they had on the controls. He, however, didn't have a moment to relax his body. The cracked monitor's image of the mobile suit hangar was replaced by the face of Margaret Cypher.
Jin stared at her noting she wasn't too pleased to see him, not that it mattered to him. "Well, well, if it isn't Jin," She uttered spitefully. "Is Mariemaia still alive or did the mobile dolls take care of her?" Jin sent her a death glare unable to retort, he could feel his control slipping away as the ZERO system seeped back into his mind. This only added to the headache he recently developed. ".....You'll pay for killing them...," Jin sneered angrily arming Zero with its Buster Rifle. "If its the last thing I do, I'll kill you."
Margaret laughed at the boy despite the situation, she couldn't help it. The boy was unaware that they were no longer in the hangar but the base a mile from it. She averted her brown eyes toward the two women in front of the control panel below the large screen that showcased a bleeding Jin a frown graced her lips. "Arm the beam cannon, make sure you hit the hangar and him as well," She ordered.
The two women nodded and began to perform the necessary operations to activate the large beam cannon that resided upon the roof of the military base. The image of Jin vanished replaced by a camera that zoomed across the snowy landscape expecting to lock onto Wing Zero's position but to Margaret's dismay the space the Gundam once occupied was empty. Her pupils dilated in bewilderment unable to phantom how the mobile suit had escaped their sights.
It wasn't humanly possible! "Ma'am, we've located a rather large heat signature heading this way, believed to be 01," One of the women stated calmly. Margaret strode over to the woman's side and stared down at the heat-sensor radar, a yellow-red-orange form stood out like a sore thumb amongst the completely blue screen. Margaret didn't need to guess who it was, gritting her teeth she shoved the woman out of her chair and slammed her fist down onto a large red button. Jin's ears perked up at the sound of the alert system coming to life, he blinked as he zoomed Zero's camera in at the faint light.
His eyes remained motionless when he realized it was a beam cannon upon the roof of the base he figured Margaret was situated in. The cannon fired at full power directly in Zero's path, Zero barely dodged the devastating blast when it shifted to the right. It's shoulder was hit along with one of the wings upon its' back, sparks flew around Jin's face inside the concealed cockpit. Jin wished he had his mother's pendant to grab at that moment, removing his arm from the left control he wrapped his fingers around a semi-cylinder shaped object he come to recognize as the self-Denotation device he installed a year ago.
Wasting no time he opened the cockpit and pressed down onto the detonator. The wall of the base came up on him quicker than he expected, Jin barely had time to unbuckle himself, when Zero hit the wall it destroyed the region it crashed into sending the 13-year-old tumbling out of the cockpit and through the hole it made. Zero's figure was then engulfed in a bright light of its exploding body. Jin hit the ground hard, his body was thrown across the floor down a corridor at the sheer force of Wing Zero's explosion and crashed against the wall.
Damn it, that was dumbest thing I've ever done..., Jin opened his eyes slowly as the fogginess cleared from his head. His entire body cried out in pain, he climbed off the ground assisted by the wall. Blood traveled down his dislocated right arm, he gasped gripping it. Making sure no one was around he traveled down the corridor confused and lost, with thoughts of Margaret dying by his hand flooding his mind.
Tallgese made a tough landing in front of the cabin sending two of its passengers inside the crowded cockpit reeling forward toward the back of the pilot's chair, Zechs cringed at the sound of Catherine and Ryuusei's cries of surprise. He was suddenly beginning to have second thoughts about his decision but he would see too it that Catherine and the little girl was taken care of before he returned to his mission.
Turning his head he peered at the two females behind him with an inquiring look, Catherine looked up from underneath Ryuusei's (whom had landed onto of her) stomach with a sheepish, nervous smile. "I'm okay," She announced. Zechs sighed wearily opening the cockpit, unbuckling himself he climbed out of the pilots seat and onto the platform where he proceeded to jump down from. "Oi, Zechs-sama," Ryuusei muttered climbing out of the woman's arms. Catherine watched the little girl scale the back of the chair vanishing from sight before she followed suit.
Ryuusei climbed onto the platform leaning over the edge, she peered down at Zechs who had arms out awaiting her to jump down. Ryuusei went pale in the face. "Nani?! I can't jump down there!" She proclaimed. "Don't worry about falling, I'll catch you," Zechs informed. Ryuusei turned to meet Catherine's slender legs before she shifted her gray eyes upward at the standing nineteen year old. Catherine's worried face melted replaced by a reassuring one. "It's okay, he won't let you fall," Catherine said softly. "See, watch."
Ryuusei shifted to the side slightly letting Catherine pass, in one jump Catherine leapt from the platform and was caught by the strong arms of Zechs. Ryuusei stared over the edge with excited eyes wondering what falling felt like for a moment as she climbed to her feet. Catherine stepped back after Zechs placed her on the ground she looked up at the small Japanese girl wondering if she was going to come down. Swallowing her fear Ryuusei placed one foot in front of the other stepping off the platform, her heart leapt at the seemingly weightless feeling she had before she felt herself brought to a halt.
Ryuusei opened her eyes only to find herself staring at Zechs' feet instead of his handsome face she blinked confusion before trying to turn around to look up at him. A sweatdrop formed on the side of Zechs' head at the little girl's current position; he had caught her by her ankles before she could hit the ground. "You were right Catherine-sama! That's was fun!" He heard her proclaim. Catherine buried her hands in her face in embarrassment as Zechs placed the girl on the ground once he got her in an upright position. Ryuusei smiled up at Zechs before heading over to Catherine's side. Sighing the 22-year-old Zechs followed the two toward the cabin looking very weary due to the little girl's energy.
Heero had been running down the corridor above the floor Margaret was currently on when the explosion shook the entire building sending him tripping down the hall from the shock wave. He was thrown against the edge of the wall that would lead him to his desired destination.
Heero then found himself being showered by the sprinkler system above him at the same time the emergency alarms were activated turning the lighting of the halls a faint red. The Japanese teenager grunted in annoyance unsure what had caused the explosion, at that moment he didn't care he was more worried about getting to Relena before they did something to her or Hilde.
He continued down the hall just as several men came running down the other way, they glanced at him strangely but said nothing when he passed them by disappearing around the corner, Heero was careful not to run to fast knowing he would sent for a ride down the hall on his bottom or worse. He looked up at the signs above him placed above cell doors, he passed the larger numbers in the twenties before his eyes landed a sign that implied cell twenty-one was just around the winding corner he was coming up on.
Heero groaned mentally, if anything the order of the numbers on the cells were mixed up and unreadable to him. He came around the corner spotting a man (different from the one he had walked past when he was with Margaret) leaning up against the wall his eyelids going up and down indicating he was barely awake let alone aware of his surroundings, taking this into account Heero hid up against the snake-ish corner examining the man's body; the guard's gun was hanging limply in his fingers by the loop of gun nearest to the trigger.
A cow prodder rested upon his hip (why they needed a cow prodder was beyond Heero), the man wore a helmet upon his head and heavy black armor overtop his flimsy navy blue uniform, Heero was weary of the man's reflexes fearful he was going to be hit with that cow prodder but if he was right, a silent takedown would put an end to that. Swallowing, the young man removed himself from against the wall and approached the man when he had his head turned.
His feet were soundless against the tile ground below him, sweat trickled down the young man's face the closer he got to the guard. He kept his breathing calm and controlled in order keep his presence unknown to the guard. The moment he was close enough to wrap his arms around the man's neck Heero's foot crushed a broken piece of tile causing the man's head to whip in his direction. Heero stood in an upright position stiff not with fear but with panic, the fumbling guard dropped his gun giving Heero a 30 second window to deal a blow to the man. Wasting no time Heero brought his leg back and kicked the guard in the stomach hard enough to send him into unconsciousness.
The Japanese teenager watched him fall to the ground with relief. "Too close," Heero uttered picking the gun up from the ground. Stepping over the man he entered the cell glancing to his left, he almost groaned in dismay when he spotted Dorothy beside Hilde on the ground unconscious as well. More baggage to carry, was all his mind could think off before a familiar gasp caught his attention. Heero glanced up at weary Relena noticing right away her wrist was injured, he walked briskly over to the honey-blonde girl. "Heero, are you okay?" She asked when he came up to her. Relena was questioning his wet appearance.
Heero nodded unsure why she asked he gripped the chain of the handcuff pulling it forward. Relena grimanced at popping noise the chain made when it snapped under the pressure Heero applied to it, she felt his hand grip the lower part of her arm. Her blue eyes glanced up at his that were looking her wrist over with a sort of worry she hadn't seen in his eyes before, she smiled grateful to have beside her again. Heero looked up at her finally only to ask how she had managed to injure her wrist. Relena explained to him that she had been trying to get the hand cuff off the pip she stood by, Heero glared softly at her before walking away from her to tend to Hilde and Dorothy.
Pulling out his gun he fired on the chain that connected their hand cuffs to the pipe. Their arms hit the floor as though they were dead, Heero kneeled down beside Hilde placing two fingers upon her neck; there was a faint pulse which meant she had either been shot or overdosed on sedatives, it was same with Dorothy when he checked her. Sighing Heero stood up knowing he was going to need help getting the two of them out of the base he could carry them if he was to protect Relena as well.
A pang of guilt washed over him realizing he was going to need the others help with the two of them; they were probably dying from lack of air. Relena watched his body language change from calm to worried, she wondered what was going through his head when he turned to meet her curious eyes. "Relena, I...." He began hesitantly. Relena's eyes widened fearful he was going to leave her, carefully, Relena approached Heero. Their eyes met and for the briefest of moments Relena swore she saw fear in his eyes. The 17-year-old embraced him, Heero was completely caught off guard by her action and almost fell over from the impact of her body hitting him. "...Relena, I need you stay here until I come back. I've got to get to the other's if we're all going to get out of here," Heero's voice was reassuring and convincing.
Relena pulled away nodding, feeling silly for acting the way she did; she should've have known Heero wouldn't leave her unless he knew she'd be safe. Heero strode out of the cell without another word spoken between them, he kneeled down and yanked the cow prodder off the man's belt then he turned and tossed it in Relena's direction. The 17-year-old blonde caught it with ease. "What's this for?" Relena asked. "I'm locking this door, I gave that to you in case there's a chance they come back for you, if they do, you'll know what do with it. To make time for discussion later," Heero stated, beginning to walk away.
Relena extended her arm and cried his name, Heero paused turning his head to meet her gaze. "Heero, there's something you should know," She began. "I... I think Margaret Cypher has Jin someplace in this building." Heero cocked an eyebrow at her before his mind flashed back to when he and Wufei found the cabin in ruins, before realizing Jin nor Mariemaia were not inside. Nodding the Japanese ex-pilot locked the cell door and rushed down the corridor with the gun in hand, heading over to cell fourteen. He hoped the others were still alive.
Duo rammed his shoulder against the door for a hundredth time leaving nothing but a faint imprint of his shoulder in the door. Trowa had long since given up on the un-openable door to what Duo thought was a half an hour ago, but in truth it was only an hour ago. Neither of them could make heads or tails of the room very well anymore, the lack of air caused slight dizziness in Quatre, Duo, and Trowa while Wufei remained still and breathed slowly fighting the call of unconsciousness.
However, the oriental young man wouldn't have mind being unconscious at the time. A majority of the reason was Duo's relentless not to mention meaningless pounding on the cell door, it quickly became more of a nuisance than an actual effort to break out. Opening his eyes he shifted them toward the sound of Duo grunting every time he rammed his shoulder up against the door. Glaring he said, "Your wasting what little air we have, I suggest you stop, Maxwell."
Duo paused in his attempt to break out long enough to message his aching shoulder, groaning he slid down against the door down to the floor. Wufei closed his eyes once more and returned to his thoughts without a single thank you. Duo couldn't care less about receiving thanks from the likes of Wufei at the moment, his mind was more concerned about the whereabouts of Hilde. Duo was quite aware that the young German girl could take care of herself, but the thought of her getting hurt again was more than unsettling for the young American.
Cobalt eyes stared down at the cast that covered his arm in a most thoughtful way; he wondered, would those heavily armored bozos have caught them if he had objected to going to the hospital like Heero had said to do? It was something that nagged him since he had regained consciousness, it was like feeling that wouldn't go away. He glanced over in Trowa's direction his mouth parted but he restrained himself from speaking to the Latin American. He would not speak to him, not after he punched him. Duo inhaled in exasperation only to find himself thrown into another coughing fit, he wished his arm wasn't broken; his limbs itched with the urge to lift both hands up to his mouth to smother his coughing.
Quatre looked in Duo's direction. The young blonde was in no better shape than his comrade; he had never been in such a situation before, Quatre found being unable to breathe freely without being reminded that he had to reserve the air around him because there wasn't anymore coming was downright unbearable. It was torture to his lungs and Wufei and Trowa's calm demeanor wasn't helping his situation any either. "Duo, are you okay?" He asked. Duo continued to cough until he took another intake of air and held his breath.
His lungs heaved feeling another cough coming on but he refused to release his breath until the feeling was gone. Quatre shifted in the uncomfortable silence awaiting his friend's answer. After a moment, Duo's cheeks began to burn with pain as a result holding his breath for too long, he exhaled loudly. "I'm okay, Quatre," Was all he could bring himself to say. "I'm glad," Quatre replied hesitantly before staring down at his lap again. Silence befell the four young men once again. "This vacation sucks, remind me never to accept a trip from Relena....," Duo muttered out of the blue. His only response was a smothered laugh from Trowa.
Noin stared up at her bangs blowing through the wild wind that came through the open door of the helicopter, thankful that she had decided to wear her seatbelt. In the front of the helicopter Une resided her eyes obscured by the helmet she decided to wear. Noin's dark-purpule eyes danced with amusement at the helmet upon the German woman's head her lips parted briefly before pressed against each other to form a smile. Lucreiza was surprised to say the least when Une announced that she received authorization from those higher in the ranks of the Preventers to form a strike team to head up to the mountain region where Relena and the others were.
Above them a mobile suit carrier flew a feet behind them hidden from the human eye in the clouds, two more Helicopters followed behind the one Noin and Une rode in carrying other preventers. Noin sighed leaning back in her seat. Her mind drifted back to Zechs constantly no matter how much she tried to tell herself that he was okay. The fact that Zechs hadn't reported in since the 22nd of December had rattled her nerves more than she cared to admit.
To keep herself entertained, she played with her gun, spinning it around her finger on the loop after making sure the safety was still on. Noin was unsure how she would perform on this mission since they knew very little of the enemy, she wasn't sure what to expect of them. Would they be highly trained beyond her skills or would they a bunch of no-talent rebels with guns in their hands, capable of killing anyone with lack of knowledge of a machine gun? Biting her bottom lip Noin put her gun back into its holster and continued to star outside the helicopter at the gray sky. She hoped they would be able to stop this before Christmas.
The Inside communications room was in a shambles, wires hung from ceiling panels, sparks emitted from the tattered wires and bodies were thrown across the floor either dead or unconscious. Margaret groggily pulled herself up off the ground her hands clutching the sides of the control panel. She gritted her teeth from the pain in her legs blood ran down the side of her face over her right eye and the scar on her abdomen stung something wicked. "Damn that child!" Margaret cursed weakly whipping the blood running down her face away from her eye.
The 44-year-old woman searched the area around her spotting the technicians on the ground, thrown from their chairs from the impact of the explosion. That boy had destroyed the wall of the base with a simple attack from Wing Zero and God knows what else! Margaret tossed her sunglasses to the ground then rubbed her stinging eyes with one hand while the other reached for her desert eagle. While her hand searched her jacket for the gun the sound of rapid footsteps reached her ears, Margaret's head jerked upward toward the door the moment several of her men came into view looking very shaken.
"Ma'am, are you all right?" One of them asked. Margaret whipped her face once more with the back of her hand with a brief nod, she approached slowly fearing she had concussion. "Where's the Yuy boy?" She uttered darkly. They all seemed to take a step back at the tone of her voice but Margaret was too involved in her injuries to notice. "We don't know ma'am, but did find one of the guards unconscious at the cell the Vice minister is in. And the code for the door has been encrypted with high level encoding I've seen before," The eighth one replied. Margaret's jaw shifted at the news.
The Yuy boy was up to no good as she suspected. Spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground the red-haired woman ordered the men scour every level of the base and shoot on sight if it isn't anyone they recognized. With brief salutes the eight men split up into two groups (containing four in both) leaving Margaret alone. Cocking her gun the woman headed down the right corridor with every intention of shooting anyone she saw with a braid.
Jin stumbled through the halls with the assistance of the walls smearing a a thinned trail of blood across the wall while he did so, he shivered involuntarily swallowing roughly thinking he deserved to die for doing such an outrageously stupid stunt like the one he managed to pull off. How was it that Heero survived managing to only walk away with a few bruises...? Jin sighed, maybe he was trying to be a little too much like Heero. "She was right.....," He uttered pausing in his footsteps staring into an unlit part of the hall. Jin shuttered at the bleak darkness that seemed to edge toward him the longer he stared into its void, running a battered hand through his messy bangs he advanced forward moving away from the wall.
He stumbled slightly having gotten used to the balance and support the wall lent to him but if he ever planned on killing Margaret (wherever she was) he would have to do it standing up otherwise he would be shot before he could get his arm from between his body and the wall. He paused for a moment reaching up to his neck to clutch something before remembering he gave to Mariemaia. Jin tried to remind himself that he planned on dying after this, so he didn't need his mother's pendant. The hardest thing for him to do however was smother his bad habit of grabbing the damned object all the time.
Ever since he had taken it from Duo unsure how the braided American had gotten a hold of it, Jin found himself grasping it every hour of the day. He almost choked himself in his sleep unconsciously grasping it because of a nightmare. Mariemaia had questioned the red mark around his neck when he arrived an hour late for class but he said nothing to her and seated himself at his desk. Jin could feel the draft in the air when he entered the dark corridor, his pupils dilated and for a moment Jin thought he was going blind; the area seemed to have gone out of focus.
Shaking his head the young man paused in his footsteps hearing footfalls coming up in front of him. Jin's ears twitched at the familiar running pattern as his head bowed forward his eyelids growing heavy. Jin's legs gave way beneath him, he fell forward. JIn being only half-conscious knew where he was going to land, the ground. he had no qualms about that. Jin awaited for the moment his face would touch the ground but he never did, instead the 13-year-old could feel his arm being handled in a delicate way as if it would break.
Technically it is broken in a 'dislocated' way.... Jin let out a weak scream at the excruciating sensation of his arm being put back into place and his body laid gently to the ground while his head was propped against someone's chest. Whoever it was had to been working out, his chest was pretty buff. "What've you done this time, Jin?" Jin recognized the demeanor of the person's voice immediately a scowl appeared on his face. He made an attempt to push way from the Japanese teenager but Heero wrapped his arms around his aching waist and prevented all such movement, the younger teenager cursed before he noticed one of Heero's arms had removed themselves from his waist and grasped something that sticking out of the far side of his abdomen.
Heero's Prussian blue eyes narrowed at the slender piece of what he believed to belonged to a mobile suit. Without warning Heero began to tug on it getting violent responses from Jin, the 17-year-old dogged Jin's hand that came swinging at him continuing to pull at the piece of mobile suit in Jin's side. Heero grunted in annoyance, the shard would not budge; he then began to pull harder, Jin grabbed his wrist pulled it up to his mouth and clamped his teeth down onto his hand. Heero bit his bottom lip jerking back causing the object to come out Jin's side. "tae-dan-hi kam-sa-ham-ni-da," Jin stammered wearily. "What?" Heero snapped yanking his wrist away from Jin.
"I said thank you very much, don't you know Korean?" He retorted, his voice becoming quieter. "There were no OZ bases stationed in Korea, so I was never taught how to speak it," Heero shook his head before examining the bloody object in his hand. There was a distinct red and blue on the edges of the shard and Heero stuck his hand underneath his jacket and pulled out the necklace Jin gave to him unable to dismiss the resemblance of the two despite their different shapes. Slowly Heero averted his eyes down at Jin who happened to be looking at him, nervousness was apparent on his face.
Heero ignored the fact that Jin's eyes resembled his with a much rounder look to them and spoke. "What's this?" He asked already knowing the answer. Jin's eyes grew heavier as he tried to focus on the necklace he gave to Heero and the bloody shard in his hand. "Oh, that," Jin began casually. "I sort of lied when I said I destroyed Wing Zero..... I-I- hid him somewhere around here..... its been destroyed now. I'm.... sorry.... For--," Jin's head slumped against Heero's chest, his entire body went lip. "Kissama!" Heero dropped the shard of Gundanimun, his hands gripped Jin's shoulders and he shook him violently before noticing his pant leg was soaked with blood.
Confused Heero looked down, he almost choked on his tongue when he realized it had been coming from Jin (obviously). He had been bleeding from the wound the entire time he was talking to him! Rising half way from his sitting on his knees he grasped the higher part of Jin's arms his hands underneath his underarms as he pulled him up from the ground. Once Jin was high enough from the ground Heero wrapped his arms around the boy's upper body and proceeded to throw him over his shoulder when he noticed several people coming around the corner ahead of him. Quickly Heero tossed the young boy over his shoulder then stepped into far enough into the darkest part of the corridor and dashed back down where had come just as one of the soldiers fired a flare in their direction. Heero vanished around the corner just as it went off deciding to take the way he decided not to go hoping there was someplace he could hide just until he got the kid fixed up. He was loosing blood fast.
(TBC)........
Author's note: I hope you liked this chapter, I managed to complete is despite the current onslaught of writers-block. Oh, just to let you know, Margaret doesn't know her boss is a female; Gabrielle Shore, who just happens to know to change her voice pattern like a voice actor . Mama-sama: Thanks for letting me 44 wasn't elderly sweatdrop. Sakura123