"Team one, are you in position?" Heero called through his
headset into Quatre and Trowa's earpiece from his gundam just outside
the OZ base's boundaries.
"03 and 04 here. We're ready," Quatre
replied; he and Trowa had already planted the bombs strategically
around the compound and were waiting for the signal to destroy the base.
Heero nodded to himself and contacted Duo and Christian. "Team two, are you ready?"
"02 and Phoenix reporting. Ready to rock and roll," Duo whispered as he
and Christian sat poised a few doors from the computer mainframe.
"Phoenix?" Heero heard Wufei question over his connection.
"Ask
questions later. Ok, on my signal everyone go." Heero aimed his beam
cannon at the mobile suit warehouse. "GO!" He fired and at the
explosion everyone moved into action.
The guards paroling the halls
ran to the warehouse and Duo and Christian moved into the computer room
and set the disk in, downloading the information they need. They didn't
have very much time before they higher ups shut down the power to the
computer system. Trowa and Quatre were busy trying to rewire the
security cameras to buy the other pilots more time and cover their
escape from the OZ soldiers.
"02! Hurry it up! We can't hold these guys off much longer!" Wufei yelled stabbing his triton into a mobile doll.
"I'm going as fast as I can 05!"
"Well it's not fast enough! Come on!"
"Ok! Ok! I got it! We're leav…" Duo was abruptly cut off for some unknown reason.
"02? 02! Respond!" Heero yelled over the frequency. "Shit! 03, 04, delay! 02 and Phoenix have lost contact.
"Phoenix?" Trowa whispered to Quatre.
Quatre shrugged his shoulders and spoke to Heero. "Understood. We'll give them 5 minutes."
"Put your hands where I can see them!" shouted an OZ officer
holding Christian and Duo at gunpoint. He had happen to be running
passed the computer room stopping when he noticed the door ajar. He
radioed some of his fellow soldiers and charge into the room. "Stand up
and turn around!"
Duo and Christian rose from their crouched positions but didn't turn
around to face the lone soldier. They placed their hands behind their
backs and glanced sideways at each other silently speaking to one
another.
He called for backup. About four of them will be here in a
few minutes.> Christian thought to Duo, hoping his longhaired master
would find a subtle way out of this.
I
know. I have an idea, just follow my lead.> Duo smirked at Christian and
turned to face the officer. He didn't look any older than Duo; this was
probably his first post.
"You really don't want to capture us," Duo
said aloud in a hypnotizing tone. "We're not doing anything wrong, we
were only making sure the computer was working properly."
"Don't play with me! I know you're those damn terrorists!" The young
soldier hands were trembling, but his gaze never wavered from Duo eyes.
They had a comforting factor in them, making the young man want to
trust him.
"No we're not," Duo said smoothly taking a small step toward
the soldier. "We're here to check things out and make sure they work.
Don't you believe me?" Duo stared into his eyes watching them glaze
over as Duo's spell began taking affect.
"I believe you. You're were
just making sure things were working properly," the OZ soldier droned
out under the influence of Duo's spell.
Duo
smiled, satisfied. "Good. Now I want you to give my friend here your
gun and turn around."
The man handed Christian the gun and obediently turned and faced away
from the two longhaired bishounens.
"Good, now I want you to sleep. Go
into a deep sleep and have peaceful dreams," Duo said this, and placed
his hand over the boy's eyes and immediately he feel asleep.
Chuckling,
Christian smirked and quietly applauded. "Creative and effective, way
to use the Force. Bravo, m'lord."
Duo gave a mock bow. "I aim to please but we better hurry before those
backup officers get here."
As if on cue, someone started pounding on the door of the room. "Open
up! There is no other way out but through this door. Give up!"
"That's what they think," Christian smirked and walked toward the wall.
His body was surrounded by a green light and he closed his eyes as he
walked straight through it. He stuck his head back through the wall and
looked at Duo. He raised a brow, "Coming?"
Duo covered his mouth and giggled. "Sure, I'm coming." Duo glowed and
he walked through the wall as well, snickering at the confused sounds
of the soldiers when they burst into the room only to find their
sleeping comrade.
The two friends continued this until they had walked out of the base walls and into the open. Above they could spot Heero and Wufei's gundam battling fiercely. Duo contacted Heero, telling him that he and Christian were out of range and the mission could continue as planned. Heero nodded to himself and called Trowa and Quatre and gave they the word. A few seconds later the base's walls exploded, collapsing in on the unsuspecting soldiers. The six pilots met up at the safe house about an hour later; they had gone their own ways to confused OZ of their escape route.
"What had happened back there?" Heero asked
as soon as everyone had settled in the living room, he himself sitting
at his laptop.
"Someone found us. We took care of him and the
others, no worries," Christian answered lifting his head from the
pillow his was holding to his chest like a child would a stuffed toy.
"Yeah, no worries," Duo yawned from his spot the floor, rolling on to his stomach to look at the other sleepy faces around him.
"I
just remembered to ask you something, Christian," Quatre said snuggling
closer to Trowa, about a minute away from falling asleep in his calming
embrace. "Why'd you call yourself Phoenix?"
Duo sat up and eyed his friend with concern, hoping that the memory
wasn't too painful to recall. He knew the reason and he hoped Christian
would be alright afterwards.
Christian's face and tone became very
serious at the mention of his chosen nickname. Christian sighed and
stared at nothing in particular. "I guess I relate to the phoenix. From the
ashes of life we both rise to start anew. My life was destroyed; my
family, friends, loved ones… all taken from me by flames. Only I rose
from the flames, I have to survive. I had no choice but to survive, to
protect someone very dear to me."
"Was it that little boy?" Quatre asked cautiously, hoping he hadn't
overstepped his bounds.
Duo and Christian stiffened and looked at Quatre, almost forgetting that he had seen that within Christian's mind.
"Yes. He's the only reason I still live."
Duo averted his eyes, mistaking the comment as a complaint, but Christian soothed him with a waves of warm comfort.
"I'm
sorry if it seems like I'm prying, but I talked to the others, except
Duo since he was with you most of the time, about what I saw in your
mind. We only have a few questions."
"I understand. I knew it would only be a matter of time before one of
you got curious enough to ask about that. So who will ask first?"
Christian noticed that he had everyone's attention, even Heero who had
spun his chair around to face the group and listen.
"I'll
go first, since I brought it up. Why were you and that little boy
always surrounded by death? I could feel the pain coming from both of
you and the overwhelming sadness, it seemed so pointless."
"It was pointless," Christian spat, "but it couldn't be stopped." He
regained his composure and continued. "You know how some things happen
to complete a bigger purpose? Well all those people were the result of
such things. No matter how hard we tried, it couldn't be stopped."
"Why couldn't it be stopped? What was it?" Quatre asked again.
Christian
glanced at Duo for less than a second and turned back to Quatre,
shaking his head. "This isn't the time for that, maybe later."
Quatre nodded and looked to Trowa, allowing him to ask the next
question. "Who was the little boy? And where is he now?"
Christian's face softened. "I protected him as I would my son, but we
were as close as brothers. I protected him from everything I humanly
could, in hopes he'd have a better life. As to where he is now, " again
Christian's eyed flicked over to Duo, "I think I know where he's
hiding."
Trowa nodded and glance at Wufei, signaling it was his turn. Wufei
tilted his head to the side, looking like a curious child. "What's your
infatuation with Maxwell? I've caught you looking at him several times
and Quatre said he showed up many times in your thoughts."
"Wufei! I did not!" Quatre protested, blushing. But his blush was
nothing compared to the newly invented shade of red Christian and Duo
was currently turning.
Christian
cleared his throat and fidgeted. "Well, as for that cough you see, he
intrigues me. And he resembles Master Allen a great deal… they could be
twins."
"Is Lord Dumatre your lover?" Wufei prodded, sitting up and leaning
closer to Christian.
"Define lover…" Christian stalled, while he was laughing on the inside.
"You
know what I mean! Now is he or not?"
"If I answer, would you tell me about 'your' love life?"
Wide-eyed and suddenly pale, Wufei sat back away from Christian, trying
not to blush when Trowa whispered to Quatre, "Wufei has a love life?"
Heero took this as a sign for him to ask his question. "Why are you
helping us? I know you said your master sent you, but why did you want
to help?"
A small smile graced the tall blonde's face as his eyes travel to lock
with Heero's. "The reason I help you all help is so you can help me in
the end. For you to return the favor."
Heero snorted.
"Oh don't get me wrong. My heart is into aiding you
young men, but once this is over you may never see me again, but like I
said earlier, this isn't the time to talk about these things, but maybe
later."
Heero nodded and turned his eyes to Duo. Duo was half-asleep; the only
thing keeping him awake was the chance to ask his question. He yawned
and blinked sleepy eyes at Christian. "What do you plan on doing after
everything is said and done?"
Knowing the braided boy didn't just mean his temporary station with
them, but the entire reason he was there. What would he do once Kek was
defeated? Or if Duo lost? Where would he go?
He
shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, it truly depends on the outcome.
If things work out, then I can only hope for a normal live. If not…" He
looked around the room and smiled brightly.
The others had fallen
asleep from exhaustion, showing that they were still children no matter
what life destiny had thrown them in. He pondered how he was going to
get them all up their rooms without disturbing their slumber. He
finally decided the best course of action was to carry them. With
little to no mental strain he lifted them all and placed them on soft
clouds of air. He walked in front of them and up the stairs, the little
clouds, carrying their precious packages, following close behind him.
He walked to the first door in the hall and opened it, letting the
cloud carrying Wufei float by him, moving the covers back before laying
Wufei in his bed. The covers pulled themselves over Wufei body and the
door closed on its own. The next room was Trowa and Quatre's, and he
dropped them off, doing the same with Heero to his own room. When he
came to Duo's room, he lifted the fey boy off the cloud, it
disappearing in a puff of smoke, and placed him on the bed. Duo sighed
and curled in on himself, his hands instinctively clutching his braid.
Christian smiled.
"We will win this one." He walked out then room
and into his own. He stared at the ceiling, images of the past flashing
into his mind, lulling him to sleep.