17: Zutto Himitsu: 20:01:30
Heero spun around slamming his first down onto the round button that would open the cell doors just as Margaret's gun went off. The bullet ripped through Heero's shoulder and out the other side into the screen above the panel, Heero down onto his lip hard absolutely refusing to give the woman the pleasure of hearing any indication of pain.
He fell to his knees still facing the control panel, he could feel the leather straps off the machine guns sliding down his injured shoulder he let them fall to the ground beside him as his hand holding his gun clutched his shoulder, Heero turned around slowly allowing himself to slump against the structure of the control he faced Margaret his face drenched in his sweat contorted into that of a pained/angry face. Margaret lowered her gun slightly Heero noticed for the first time that she wasn't wearing her sunglasses and could see her brown eyes.
He knew why she wore those black tinted shades; her brown eyes betrayed what she expressed externally. Her voice may sound menacing her expression the coldest thing this side of his impassive one but her eyes told everyone she came in contact otherwise. Heero saw sorrow, regret and an unanswered plead of forgiveness. However, this did not make him pity her at all. Gritting his teeth Heero forced himself onto his feet careful not to move his shoulder. Margaret watched him carefully her finger tugging at the trigger of her pistol.
"Did you really think I wouldn't catch onto your little scheme, Yuy?" Margaret sneered raising her arm once more. Heero fell to the ground onto his stomach when indescribable pain spread through his left leg, Margaret emptied her gun of the magazine smirking. Heero watched her approach him as he struggled to get off his stomach with the use of his arm that hadn't been shot, Margaret slammed her boot into shoulder bringing him down onto the ground.
Heero grunted in pain keeping his tongue out of the path of his clenched teeth. He could tears forming in the sides of his eyes as he looked up at the woman looming over him. Margaret pressed her foot against his gunshot wound smiling at the very fact that he fought against the agony she created, Heero's face scrunched up as he tried to remove Margaret's foot. He dropped his gun in the process of doing so.
Margaret saw the weapon on the ground and kicked to away from his hand and continued to rub her boot on his injury until she felt his hand grip her ankle and pull her leg from underneath her. Margaret cried out in surprise and her back hit the ground hard giving Heero enough time to climb to his feet, he kicked the woman in the chin causing her to scream in pain. Heero climbed onto Margaret pinning her down beneath him despite the rebelling muscles in his bleeding shoulder.
Removing his right hand from her arm he snatched the gun out of her grasp he then, pressed her gun against the side of her head. "Go ahead and kill me," Margaret huffed. "My life is forfeit anyway." Heero arched an eyebrow at her in question. "What do you mean?" He sneered cocking the gun. Margaret's eyes averted toward the gun she swallowed hard before answering his question.
"That boy managed to bring this entire base to its knees because of his dammed persistence to kill me. As flattering as it is, my mission has failed, the contract I sighed as simple: Succeed in kidnapping the Vice foreign minister Darlain and announce her death to the world. You know the rest. My employer doesn't take kindly to failure, so to make sure no could use anything against him I am to blow this base up.
As of now, we don't have that much time before this entire base goes up in flames taking the vice foreign minister with it." Heero's narrowed in dangerously he pressed the gun harder against the side of her head. "Where is she?" He hissed. Margaret grinned devilishly closing her eyes. "Find herself yourself," She snapped. Heero growled at her before he climbed off the woman and limped out of the room as fast as he could shutting and locking the door. Margaret laid on the ground staring up at the ceiling before climbing to her feet. Picking up her gun she rubbed her chin spitting a wade of blood into her unoccupied hand. Margaret glanced down at the hand that cradled her blood and spotted one of her back teeth as well. Balling her hand into a first the woman walked to the door, shot the glass out and stuck her hand through the opening. Her fingers danced across the panel unlocking the door, Margaret kicked the door open before she dashed out of the room after Heero.
Heero paused for a moment leaning up against the wall to give his leg a rest, closing his eyes he slowly began to focus his attention on the only priority that mattered most to him and that was finding Relena and the others so they could get out of this base before it exploded. Soon the pain in his shoulder as well as his leg dissipated into nothing but a dull ache, pushing away from the wall Heero dashed down the hall careful not to apply too much pressure against his leg. He could heard fast approaching footsteps coming his way he assumed they belonged to Margaret. "Shit," He uttered rounding the corner. The sound of a gun going off rang in his ears.
Duo's eyes snapped open at the feeling of air rushing through his lungs once again. It was as if he had been pulled back into his body, he sat up right too quickly dizziness washed over to him like a slap to the face. He fought the wave of nausea in his stomach down as he climbed to his shaky legs he shifted his eyes toward the light shinning in the corner of his eyes. The cell door was open! The weak expression upon his face vanished replaced with a look mixed of joy. Heero hadn't betrayed them after all.
He smiled wearily as he knees gave way beneath him, he readied himself to for the impact he would feel when his body hit the ground but was caught midway by none other than Trowa himself his face the usual deadpan. "You all right there, Duo?" Trowa grunted pulling Duo up straightening his legs out. "Yeah just a bit dizzy," Duo grumbled shaking his head slightly the dizziness to plagued him he was glad to have Trowa around. The two tall young men could hear Wufei and Quatre rising to their feet sounding dazed and confused Trowa turned around with assisted Duo as well to gaze at their two comrades.
"Well, it seems that I owe, Heero an apology," Wufei grumbled staring at the open cell door. "He really didn't betray us after all." Quatre nodded slowly before noticing Trowa was holding Duo up, his widened reflecting his worry, Duo noticed this and sent a careless wave in the blonde's direction. Quatre I'm fine!" Duo announced with a smile.
Quatre blinked for a moment the worry was still evident on his face but the young Arab knew better than to argue with Duo, especially when he said things like that. His growing serious Quatre turned gazing toward the open cell door the uneasy feeling throbbing inside his heart had yet to leave him. "We've got to get out of here, and find the others," The 17-year-old said. Duo grinned amused. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious Quatre," He chuckled before glancing at his pondering friend. "I think I can stand now, Trowa." Trowa snapped himself out of his trance long enough to stare into Duo's cobalt blue eyes. Nodding slowly Trowa removed his grasp from around Duo's wrist letting the American support his own weight.
Duo took a step forward expecting a dizzy-spell to overcome him but nothing came, the braided young man sent a thumbs up to Trowa who nodded crack a faint smile. Turning to Quatre and Wufei the 17-year-old eyes averted to the door. "Shall we escape?" He asked playfully. Wufei smirked having already gotten his wrists free of the rope that held them captive, Quatre nodded his teeth clamped down onto the rope around his wrist. Without another word spoken between them the four of them dashed out of the cell with Quatre in the rear.
(ESUN):
The meeting room was full of the many representatives of ESUN all of them sat a smooth oak table that stretched to the other end of the room. They gazed thoughtfully at table staring at either their reflections or their hands as they patiently awaited the arrival of Gabrielle Shore. The sound of the meeting door swinging open brought their attention toward Gabrielle who strode across the carpeted floor until she reached the empty seat in the front of the table and sat down with folder in her hands.
"Good afternoon gentlemen," She placed it onto the table opening it for all the representatives to see. the man beside her picked the folder up and stared down at the papers inside observing that she looked quite winded and panicked about something. "Miss Shore, what is the meaning of this?" He asked looking up at the woman. Gabrielle bowed her head trying her best to look sullen instead of ecstatic she could feel her moment in the spotlight rising to the top the longer she took to speak. "That gentlemen is file on the preventer 5 otherwise known as the Gundam pilots," Gabrielle replied calmly her eyes closed. "They've been hiding with the help of the Preventers Lady Une." The man stared at the file as it went around the table until it returned to the hands of its owner, the representatives looked confused over the news. "I also just received news that, Vice foreign minister Relena Darlain has been kidnapped and will executed," Gabrielle stated looking down at her painted fingernails the silence from the representatives made the woman smile slightly.
"What! How that be possible, Senator Shore?! We were told that the Vice minister went on winter vacation to the mountains," A man further down the exclaimed. "Where did you get all this information?!" Gabrielle looked up at the man with an emotionless face surprised they had even believed her the first time. "Not long ago, I got a e-mail from a woman, she did not tell me her name, she only told me what've told you. She says that she plans on killing the Vice Minster before midnight. She also told me---."
The raven-haired woman paused halfway in her sentence when the doors of the meeting room burst open and several preventers came storming inside guns grasped tightly in her their hands, Gabrielle stood up immediately while the representatives remained frozen in their chairs. "What is the meaning of this?!" Gabrielle shouted angrily. Eriol Wheeler whipped out a piece of paper smiling beside his wife Jennie held his gun. "Gabrielle Shore, you are under arrest for conspiracy against the Earth sphere unified nation and the kidnapping the Vice foreign minister," Eriol announced looking straight at her his eyes gleaming with a childlike mischief.
Gabrielle's mouth opened but she immediately shut it before smirking. "You have no proof of this, I've done nothing," She said calmly walking away from the table. "Do you even have an arrest warrant. I am a Senator you know." Eriol nodded her question only made him grin even more. Jennie walked over to the raven-haired woman and placed the handcuffs onto her wrist, Gabrielle did not resist her. Eriol watched Jennie escort the woman out of the meeting room before spotting the open folder on the table.
The young man walked briskly over to the end of the table picking the folder up then ran off shouting an apology that sounded like he was saying "Sorry for the intrusion, continue with your meeting!" When he vanished form sight the representatives stared at each other in question before raising from their seats clearly embarrassed. They glanced around at one another once more before one of them spoke. "This is grave news indeed," He uttered. "Shall we tell the media about this?" A man beside him shook his head. "No, we should wait until Une gets this resolved," He said. All of them nodded in agreement.
When Jin opened his eyes he was greeted by darkness; something he was all too familiar with. Jin also discovered he was not standing up on or even in space, instead he found himself crammed inside a box of some sort. Grunting the young Korean rolled toward what he knew was the exit and found himself tumbling out of the cabinet onto the ground on his side, he yelled out in pain when his side pressed against the cold floor. Jin took a sharp intake of breath scanning his surroundings. This certainly wasn't the hallway, he thought. Climbing off the ground he peered down at his side curiously surprised to find it had been stitched up. He didn't remember doing that.
Blinking he walked toward the table spotting a large amount of blood on the ground trailing back to the door of the room, Jin stared at it for a moment then at his waist. "I was bleeding," He grumbled angrily before walking past the tables over to the coat lying on the ground. Kneeling down he recognized the down coat as Heero's, his eyes narrowed in slight rage. Of course, it was becoming clear to him; his sudden relocated arm the stitches on his side. Heero must've found him! Memories of the everything that had happened to him came rushing back to Jin like a raging river.
Yes, he had injured himself when he rammed Wing Zero into the base's wall and destroyed it and Heero helped him. What have you done this time, Jin? Heero's words echoed in his mind like echos in a cave. Rising to his feet Jin headed toward the door he punched in the code remembering the sounds of the keyboard made with certain numbers or letter, the door opened and Jin rushed out of the room and headed down the hall following the blood trail on the ground. Maybe it would lead him to Heero or the others.
The four young men dashed through a more panicked area of the base, the hallways were literally overcrowded with men trying to make their way toward their respective escape routes not paying a single bit of attention to them at all, sure, some of them told they were going the wrong way and needed to go where they were headed but the four boys were careful not to open their mouths and continued down the halls until they reached a literally empty hallway that was littered with dead bodies and injured rebels.
They continued running knowing that an injured rebel wasn't was injured as helpless he appeared to be. Duo cringed at the unsightly appearance of all the bodies then stared down at his arm that was remarkably still in the sling. "What'd we miss?" He grumbled mockingly. Trowa looked about the semi-narrow corridors at the men up against the wall or on stretchers before answering his comrade's question. "Quite a bit, apparently," He mumbled as they rounded the corner. "It just goes to show you, nothing good could ever come out of a war," Wufei said dejectedly glaring at the chaos around them. "Or at least trying to start one," Quatre (who had finally broken free of his bonds) corrected him.
Wufei gave a half-shrug wondering what could've caused such damage to a fairly formable adversary such as Margaret Cypher's would be army? Duo who taken up the semi-front beside Trowa noticed an elevator in front of them, more particularly the lights moving from each square above the elevator. There was a ding, the four of them stopped running trying to bring themselves to a halt however it was a slight effort since they were running so fast.
The doors of the elevator opened revealing two soldiers unharmed, one wheedling a rifle the other a standard pistol. A deafening bang rang through the air, the ex-pilots jumped back in surprise when the rifle's bullet came barreling toward Duo. The American was sent flying into Quatre from the force of the bullet, both of them hit the ground hard. Wufei and Trowa's head snapped toward the two men walking out of the elevator their gun's aimed at them. They made not a move knowing they would have a hole in them the size of somebody's thumb maybe smaller.
They raised their hands up into the air trying their best to ignore the pale expression on Quatre's face. "Where'd you think you were goin'? Prisoners aren't allowed out of their cells without the commanders consent," The rebel with the rifle sneered grinning like an imp. Trowa lowered his head a bit staring at the two men through a narrowed eye. "I think you gentlemen are slightly misinformed; we're not prisoners, we work for Margaret Cypher," He lied unconvincingly. The rebel with the pistol snorted in disgust. "What do you take me for 03, a dummy?" He sneered.
Just then, Duo sat upright his hand up against his chest. "Goddamn it...," His breathing was panicked traces of surprise were etched across his face. The two rebels mouths dropped open in disbelief before spotting the rifle's bullet on the ground beside the American's leg. "You pilots--- y-you really are immortal!" The man muttered fearfully. Taking this window of opportunity Trowa and Wufei charged the two distracted men without a single warning, Quatre watched with blank eyes as the two men dropped to the floor unconscious. Trowa turned his attention toward Duo while Wufei picked up the two fallen weapons. He tossed the pistol to Trowa, he kept the rifle.
His friend's breathing was slow almost hesitant, Duo himself look as though he stood in the middle of Wing Gundam's self-destruction. "A-are you okay, Duo?" Quatre asked helping his friend off the ground. Duo took a sharp intake of breath before sticking his hand inside his sweat shirt revealing the necklace Jin had given him, there was a slight indention of upon it's structure but it hardly noticeable. The next thing they knew Duo was laughing. Trowa looked at his friend with raised eyebrows. Wufie just looked confused.
Once Duo had stopped laughing his other hand went straight to his chest, Quatre kept his grasp on his friend's shoulder just in case someone happened. "Damn, that kid----- I'll have to thank him later," Duo wheezed. "Are you all right Duo?" Trowa asked. The 17-year-old nodded quickly removing his hand from his chest. "Nothing broken," The American declared after poking at his chest. "Okay, let's go, we've got to find Heero. I have a feeling someone isn't right." Trowa said his eyes narrowing. Duo paused for a moment staring at the elevator door letting Quatre and Wufei pass him by, something seemed to pull his gaze toward the elevator; as if someone was telling to him get onto it instead of following the others.
Knowing better than to mistrust his better judgment, Duo rushed to catch up with the others. "Oi, wait!" He shouted catching the attention of his three comrades. Quatre, Wufei and Trowa turned to glance their braided friend question wondering why he asked them to stop. "I'm taking the elevator, you guys go ahead without me," Duo stated firmly. "I a feeling that I should head down the lower level." Wufei's eyebrows raised in bewilderment mixed with annoyance. "No offense Maxwell, but this isn't the time for one of your feelings," He said folding his arms across his chest. Duo would've have mirrored Wufei's stance but he settled for looking indignant instead.
Trowa raised his hand in objection surprising even Duo who hadn't expected them to take what he had said seriously. "I think its better that we split up, Wufei go with Duo, he may need backup. Quatre and I will look for Heero up here," He ordered. Wufei stared at the tall Latin American for a moment before nodding. A smirk graced Duo's features he pressed the down button, Wufei headed over to the braided-American while Quatre and Trowa took off down the corridor. "You had better be right Duo," Wufei grumbled as the two stepped inside the elevator. Duo sent a smirk in Wufei's direction before leaning up against the wall of the elevator as the doors closed. "Just trust me, Wufei," He replied. "My feelings are never wrong." Wufei just grunted.
Noin's Taurus suit landed upon the other side of the cliff astonished by the sheer destruction that laid before her very eyes. There was hardly anything left of what Noin believed to be the remains of a building across the gap that separated the other cliff from the one she stood on, there was large part missing from part of the cliff and below her mobile suit resided a hole in the cliff wall. Noin swallowed roughly checking her map, the image of the map appear the dark haired woman looked up at the screen where the Alliance base location was marked then down at her current point which was also shown on the map. "Well, I'm close to it," Noin uttered tiredly returning the screen back to the outside of her mobile suit. "Now all I have to do is get across this gap. Shouldn't be a problem for the baronet."
Noin laughed mentally at her nickname given to her by admiring OZ soldiers. The Taurus rocketed off the ground transforming into its flight mode once more and soared across the gap between the two cliffs passing right by the destruction caused by the beam cannon upon the alliance base, the mobile suit continued to fly until she spotted the base. "What in the world?" Noin uttered in confusion as her camera zoomed in on the particular part of the base.
The young woman almost released her grasp upon the controls when she spotted a blue, yellow, and white mobile suit half destroyed in a kneeling position in through the wall of the building. It was missing the vital parts of its body; an arm, its head, several parts of its wings. One side of the suit was completely devastated, missing the armor that protected its hard-wired body and function controls although it still retained half of the beam cannon. Noin immediately recognized the mobile suit as Wing Zero--- the Gundam she swore that had been destroyed when the Corsica base was exploded like Heero had told her in the E-mail he sent before he vanished into space.
"Could've he have been lying?" She whispered as she landed the Taurus beside the building hidden by trees. Now to find out where this bomb is, she thought her fingers gliding across the keypad inside her cockpit. Once the cockpit door opened Noin unbuckled herself and climbed out of the mobile suit with the help the safety line. She landed on the snow silently shivering involuntarily at the cold wind that flowed around her, pulling out her gun Noin trotted across the snow toward the emergency exit's door that was conveniently left open.
Carefully the 22-year-old paused in her footsteps spotted a control panel beside the door coupled with its own screen, using this to her advantage Noin punched several random keys upon the latptop-like board. The first time the system rejected the command she entered the second time she tried once more punching in random keys upon the board, only this time she hummed a Christmas jingle (I'll be home for Christmas) while she did so.
The screen lit up showing her an extensive blue print of the entire base, Noin smirked in triumph spotting the level where she so-called bomb Zechs informed her about resided. The woman memorized the route she was use to get the elevator that would take her to the lowest part of the base before shutting the control panel off. Cocking her gun Noin entered the base her senses on high alert when a strangely familiar sound stopped her in her tracks. Noin whipped around aiming her gun toward whomever was behind her. Noin's face faltered when discovered Zechs behind her, his hand grasping his gun. "Zechs!" She blurted covering half-of her face with her hand. The smiling blonde 22-year-old ignored the testy tone of her voice.
"Noin," Zechs nodded walking toward her. Noin lowered her gun slightly when he came up to her. "I see you got my message." Noin nodded turning around to look around her, the hall was almost as dark as her hair if it wasn't was the lights flickering in and out of existence. "I know where the 'bomb' is located. Somebody plans on destroying this base with several missiles we obviously weren't aware of," Noin explained. "They're at the bottom of this base." Zechs nodded walking past his comrade. Back to business I suppose, Noin thought with a shrug following after Zechs having to take small leaps to keep up with his long strides.
Heero dodged yet another brigade of bullets that came whipping by him embedding themselves in the walls he passed by, Margaret being the relentless woman that she was still on Heero trail showing no signs of giving up the pursuit whatsoever. Heero had barely had the time to dodge the first bullet she fired at him after he managed to dull the pain of his injuries. Heero continued to run through the winding corridor only firing his gun when he could sense her closing in on him, he glanced behind him without turning his head. He could hear Margaret's heavy footfalls growing steadily louder behind him.
Heero groaned in frustration unsure how he was going to lose the woman, he hadn't expected her to follow him. Then again he didn't expect her to just let him limp off either. Just as the Japanese teenager came up on a fork-road at the end of the hall he felt himself collide with another body that came running out of the right corridor, the two of them tumbled across the ground but Heero had no intentions of waiting to find out who the person he crashed into was, scrambling to his feet Heero pulled out a flare from underneath his sweater where his holster was hidden and struck it against the wall tossing it down the hall.
He dashed down the remainder of the corridor, Heero turned right after spotting a sign that read: Lower levels/Rooftop. Jin groaned clutching his side as he climbed to his feet, looking behind him he found a burning light and the shadow of someone coming up the hall, standing up the 13-year-old Korean ran down the rest of the hall Heero had gone down as fast as he could. Margaret paused in her footsteps just as Jin's figure vanished around the right corner, her eyes narrowed in a sadistic way as she resumed her pursuit in a walking pace, she knew the base inside and out.
If her hunch was right, Heero was headed for either the lower levels of the base or the rooftop. She stared down at her watch. There was only a few remaining minutes left to get away from the base she couldn't just waste them on chasing a Gundam pilot who was good as dead without any means to get away from the blast. Then again Margaret wasn't about let fate take care of someone many referred to as immortal. Emptying her gun of the magazine, Margaret continued walking down the hall pulling out her special bullets.
Jin rushed down to the end of the hall spotting an emergency exit door beside an elevator door. Looking behind him Jin wondered which one he should take as he brought himself to halt in front of the elevator door. His onyx blue eyes darted from side to side his mind growing more panicked the closer the footsteps got closer to where he was, swallowing Jin jumped for the door that would take him to the rooftop knowing Heero had taken the elevator. Margaret had just come around the corner when he burst through the emergency exit, the woman's brown eyes widened in shock when saw a braid vanish behind the door. "Jin," She sneered spitefully. The 44-year-old bolted for the emergency door. Her trigger finger was beginning to itch.
(TBC......)