Hurry Up and Wait

"We're running out of time." Heero muttered darkly beneath his breath.

"Time to do what?" Seiya asked, getting frustrated with the situation.

"Time to save Relena before this colony is destroyed. Some of the technology here is extremely dangerous, and there are sections we haven't fully explored. We don't know what exactly Dekim had here, nor can we be sure how much he left behind. If we fail, someone could get a hold of some of that information, and we could be faced with another war. Another Dekim Barton. I promised to never kill again, and I fought hoping to eradicate the need of anyone else to do the same. If our deaths ensure the peace of this world, I won't hesitate to break the first promise to make that hope a reality. I've rigged a few explosives to take this place out. The robots have been trying to dismantle them, but I made sure they were in locations that would cause structural damage if the bombs were removed. The others don't know, but they would understand. They know me, and they know it's for the best. They've probably figured out what I did." He answered slowly, turning to face his companions. "I'm sorry you and your charge were dragged into this, the casualties were supposed to be more limited. I have the bombs on remote control as well as a timer, but I won't disarm them just yet. I understand if you want to retaliate, but I'm afraid I'll have to beat you. I have to save miss Relena." His deep blue eyes were hard, but there was a sadness to them. A touch of human sorrow in an otherwise almost wild, unnatural expression. Ryo and Seiya both stopped dead in their tracks, wide eyed and open mouthed. What could they say to that?

"We aren't here to fight allies. Okay, so you have them on a timer? All we have to do to make the whole mess a mute point is beat the clock. So, lets go." Sanada spoke up before Pegasus could snarl whatever angry thoughts were making his eyes burn. The Knight took a step back as if the Ronin's words had physically struck him. Wildfire stepped between his two comrades, staring Seiya down. It wasn't a threatening glare, but almost a pleading one. After a moment, Pegasus unclenched his fists and nodded his head curtly as if in defeat, but still met Ryo's gaze. Seiya's eyes were hard, and determined, but also somewhat confused. Heero nodded in return, then turned on his heel and continued more quickly down the hall. What the others missed was the rare, genuine smile that graced his pale lips.

"We understand what it is to make sacrifices for what we believe in. I just think you should have told your friends." Seiya offered after he trusted himself to speak without throwing a temper tantrum. For some reason, though, he felt as if he'd expected as much from the pilot.

"They know me. This is something they had to know I would do. Don't worry. They understand. May any harm that comes from this be on my head." The last words were an almost silent prayer. Ryo felt a strange compassion for the boy before him. A kind of kinship with his companion's solitude and selfish selflessness.

"Of course, this does leave one rather important question. What if we fail, and the bombs don't work either? Who cleans up the mess, then?" Pegasus queried, forcing himself to return to his normal, jovial state. He had felt very uneasy hearing so many private thoughts, so the return to somewhat familiar territory helped him return to himself, as well.

"That's why we're not going to let the bombs be necessary. We're going to win without them." Wildfire replied for Heero. Yuy smirked at how comfortable he was with his companions, and how well they knew him. Ever since Duo had tracked him down after the Mariameia incident, Wing Zero's former pilot had been learning some much needed social skills. At least when around the other pilots. And Relena. As for the rest of the world, he was still the same old Heero. One of the stranger things about these two was how easy it was to be near them. Probably because they were warriors, as well. A different war, but the same story, from what he could tell of the look in their eyes and the way that they moved.

"Mission: Accepted." Yuy muttered to himself, almost jokingly. Seiya couldn't make out the words, at first, but decided not to inquire further. Ryo heard and understood. At first, his face scrunched in sympathy before he realized the jest and began to smile. Heero glanced back, and his twinkling blue eyes caught the attention of the Knight. He then realized what had been said, and found himself laughing softly despite himself, unsure of what was so amusing. Heero finally succumbed deep, honest laugh, the like of which he'd not enjoyed in far too long a time, and the sound was a much needed release from the spell of the place. They continued down the hall, laughing to themselves, and willfully momentarily forgetting how much rested on their young shoulders and how much more they would be expected to accomplish.

"We could have done without having to deal with those." Heero said dryly, pulling out his gun and firing a shot at what appeared to be air. A spider-like robot was made visible when it crumpled to the ground, downed by his bullet.

"At least we know they're easy to get rid of." Seiya shot back, destroying another with his fist while glaring at Heero.

"He hates guns." Ryo explained, shrugging his shoulders sympathetically in answer to the pilot's raised eyebrow. The Ronin also disabled one of the machines, kicking it into, and nearly through, the side wall of the corridor. Yuy shook his head, still slightly confused as to how anyone could hate guns when they were so useful, then continued his own assault against the creatures.

"Great. There's more than one kind." Wing Zero's pilot ground out after a moment of silence. Or, at least relative silence. Screeching metal and gunfire were definitely sounds, but no one had been speaking.

"Not to worry. The tarantulas have the electricity, the crabs have the sharp edges, and the beetles are just annoyingly fast. But none of them are all that hard to deal with, once you know where they are." Ryo summed.

"And how hard is it to know where they are when their just overgrown wind-up toys that make enough noise to wake the dead?" Seiya offered, demolishing the final assailant with a slight look of surprise. "That was too easy, wasn't it?"

"What's the catch?" Sanada added, finishing his friend's thought.

"We still have to get past their boss, and we lost some time. Not to mention, we have no idea what kind of defenses she's been able to put up, especially if she has those powers that have you so worried. Or if she's taken over your goddess." Heero deadpanned, walking straight ahead with his usual, determined slump.

"Oh, is that all?" The Knight quipped, though his face paled at the words and his step quickened. Wildfire shook his head, rolling a sore shoulder surreptitiously before hurrying along after the two.

"Why is it that they can be so loud, and then so quiet during the attacks?" Ryo asked after a moment.

"Hey, you're right!" Seiya gasped in surprise, remembering the many times he'd felt sure he was going to be hit from one side and had to change the direction of his punch or kick mid-swing.

"The noise is something they project to intimidate and disorient their victims. They quiet before attack unless they're throwing the noise in an opposite direction. It's not actually caused by their claws on the metal." Heero explained, not breaking his stride.

"Good idea. Too bad for them it hasn't worked on us yet." Pegasus smiled mischievously.

"It did on your friend." Yuy reminded dully. Both warriors nearly stopped dead in shock. "Ryo Sanada was hit in the shoulder by a scorpion. It was the only one of its kind there, but I think you can both guess what it had as it's defense."

"You're okay, right Ryo?" The Knight asked, concerned and surprised.

"I'm fine, just a scratch." Wildfire nodded, smiling to hide his own doubts.

"No, you're poisoned, actually, from what I could tell." Heero grunted.

"Don't worry about it, I've had worse. No mechanical insect could measure up with the Warlord of Venom." Sanada reassured. "I should probably just tell you about the Ronin Warriors, you'll understand better, then, I think."

"Well, if this is going to be story time, I guess I might as well add what my friends and I have been up to since finishing training. It's quite a tale, too." Seiya offered.

Once both Knight and Ronin had shared their stories with the pilot, they found themselves nearing their destination, and Heero found he had a better understanding of his companions than he had gained through Dais' clipped and one-sided narrative. There had been a long silence, during which Yuy had been digesting what he had heard, trying to analyze it to make it fit with the world he knew.

"It must be strange for you to have to work so closely with such bitter enemies, Ryo Sanada of the Wildfire." Wing Zero's pilot answered when he realized the other two were waiting for him to speak.

"Is it strange for you to work with Zechs Marquis?" Ryo asked before he could stop himself. He wasn't even sure why he knew the name or the connection, but it nearly stopped Seiya dead in his tracks, and the mask of the Perfect Soldier faltered under the unexpected response.

"I suppose not. All that matters is that you know your enemy. Anyone else is either an obstacle or inconsequential." Heero reminded himself, saying the words without even being sure of the meaning. He had repeated them so often, they no longer made sense to him, when once they had shaped his entire world.

"But you don't really believe that, do you?" Pegasus asked incredulously. The Knight had caught up to the others by now, having recovered from his shock, just to be nearly bowled over again.

"I'm not sure what to believe anymore. Peace time is not a place for soldiers, no matter how much they may have wanted peace. We are the misfits, the people not meant to be within the world we created. The price for such a world is that it is lost to us. Duo once said it was like the Bible story of Moses. The guide is not allowed within the Promised Land; he can only see it from afar." Heero spoke softly, almost entirely to himself. He wasn't really opening up. It was more like a confession. He had forgotten the others were present, and was preoccupied with wrestling his own soul. He jumped when Seiya spoke, bringing him out of his reverie.

"I'm new here, and my world works a little differently, not to mention Christianity is Hyoga's department, but it seems to me you're still alive, and if this is the peace you worked for, doesn't that mean this is your promised land?" Pegasus spoke softly, uncertain. He scared himself a little. The words and voice that were coming from his mouth sounded foreign in his ears, but he knew they were his, too. He caught Ryo's smile with the corner of his eye, and saw the Ronin's eyes glint playfully.

"Perhaps you're right. Like I said, I don't know what to think about all of this." Heero ended helplessly, shrugging his hunched shoulders. It was only then that his friends realized his shoulders were always slouched, as if carrying a great weight. His confident stride and hard gaze usually discouraged people from noticing the worn, tired posture. But it was there, the bend in the body that comes when too much has been heaped upon the soul and the mind has come too near to breaking. They recognized it; the look of the old soldier whose hell was on earth. And, if they hadn't known all too well how soon they would be visited with the same, they would have pitied him. As it was, they dared not pity, for fear of being pitied when they were in his place. That would be the cruelest fate by far.

Heero paused in his trudging step. "We're here." He announced in a cool monotone. His voice was so low he didn't need to whisper to keep from being heard.

"Okay, so what now?" Seiya asked nervously, glancing around and wondering why they were stopping.

"We wait for everyone else to get in to position. If we move too soon, we will most likely fail." Yuy answered, pressing his back against a wall and sliding to the floor. His head tipped forward as if he was about to sleep.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate waiting?" Seiya queried, shifting his weight and looking around. Something definitely did not feel right; the others were in trouble and Athena needed him. Standing there doing nothing amid all that was about the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.

"How will you know when. . ." Ryo began to ask, narrowing his eyes to better scrutinize the pilot. At least he didn't have to finish the question.

"We will know. I doubt our communication devices will work here, but I have a strange feeling that we'll just know. I'm starting to sound like Quatre!" Heero's head shot up in slight surprise. He was so out of sorts today, he couldn't imagine what had come over him. But he had decidedly been sounding like the Arabian, he realized. His revelation drew small laughs from the other two, but then the silence returned, and with that death-knell there was no longer any call for mirth.

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Much explaining of details I wasn't even aware of myself, a touch of foreshadowing, and way too much emotional / psychological / philosophical crap. What a way to end an update. So sorry. I can not stress enough how bad an idea it was for me to bring in the Gundam Pilots. Really, truly, I just can't. I hate my mind.