Author: Sparkle Itamashii
Title: Inheritance
Warnings: Respect the rating. Please see my profile.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing After Colony (A/C) and its plot, characters, and settings are NOT MINE.
Chapter Twenty Four
The shuttle was docked by the time Heero shook me gently awake. He was on his feet already with a sleeping Mara cradled in one arm, her head resting on his shoulder. I don't think he'd slept at all. "Come on, sleepy," he'd said, opening the compartment door with the press of a button.
I clambered wearily to my feet. I couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour or two and sleep like that was far from refreshing. I felt more tired than I would have been if I'd just stayed awake the whole flight. "How far is it?" I yawned, scrubbing at my eyes with the palm of my hand.
"Not far," he assured me.
The park was a good twenty minute walk from the docking port and despite what Heero said, it seemed like quite a bit longer. There were a lot of people in the streets and none of them seemed to pay us any mind. It was peaceful in that eerie, slightly-too-normal way, like something was not quite right. The feeling that we were being watched, even though no one was really looking at us, crept over me and turned my stomach. Heero didn't seem to notice and if he did, he didn't care. We moved quickly and precisely, staying mostly to well-populated streets.
I knew his reasoning behind that, behind being around a lot of people, but it didn't seem safe to me. While it was true that most pursuers would not give chase or begin a firefight in the middle of a crowded area this was not always the case. We also had no idea where we stood in relation to the public. If there had been a news broadcast saying we were armed and dangerous and someone spotted us, they might attack and we would not be given warning enough to expect it. We still didn't know if we were the good guys or the bad guys or if no one even knew what was going on past what Heero and I had seen before leaving home. Could we expect help or would everyone be after us?
When we finally made it to the park, my nerves were pretty taut but nothing had happened. Mara had enjoyed the piggy-back ride I'd given her for most of the way after she'd woken. But as soon as we set foot on the grass she wriggled from my grasp and took off running for the nearest play structure. I nearly followed her but just in time I caught sight of Milliardo and Wu Fei, sitting on the structure already, watching us approach. A light touch brushed the edge of my hand and I glanced to Heero, who gave me a reassuring nod.
"They wouldn't be sitting there if they didn't think it was safe," he reminded me in a low, mumbled whisper.
"Heero, I don't know what's safe anymore," I replied, trying not to be too obvious about our conversation as we walked toward them. Wu Fei had risen from his swing seat and moved to the perimeter of the sandy area to keep a lookout. "Two days ago I would have said pretty much everything."
"Glad to see you made it," Milliardo called when we were in range. He didn't move to look at us, instead keeping his brilliantly blue eyes glued on Mara's romping form. She'd gotten herself halfway onto a tire swing and was wheeling herself wildly about in circles with one foot, squealing in delight. "All of you."
"It was close," Heero replied tiredly. I don't think he'd slept on the shuttle. "Where are you taking her?"
"You know I can't tell you that," Milliardo said, his eyes flicking to the ground briefly in guilt. "She'll be safe."
Heero sighed and leaned against one of the play structure's support poles. "I know." He scrubbed at his eye with the palm of his hand. "How do we get back in contact with you when we're done? You did a pretty damn good job disappearing the last time."
"I'm sorry," Milliardo responded. "You know I am."
I stopped listening then and moved away from them to stand with Wu Fei. I trusted that, when they were done talking, Heero would let me know what the new plan was so that we could act accordingly. He hadn't wanted to tell me the whole story but at this point there was no denying that I need to know. When I stepped up next to him on the edge, Wu Fei glanced over and quickly away again. A glimmer of guilt and washed out amusement sparked within me at the motion.
"So you knew all about this, too?" I said casually, not looking at him. I didn't have to see him to know the way he clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes without looking at me. "You never once thought of telling me, either?"
"You never asked and it was never my responsibility to tell you, Maxwell," he shot back, though he kept his volume and tone carefully under control. "When the war ended, we all thought it was done for good."
"Well, you all thought wrong, eh?" I quipped, facing him. "Maybe you'll learn something about trusting people from this experience. Maybe we all will if we live through it."
"Feel free to leave if you just want to stand here and be an ass," he said, that tiny, irritated tone edging into his voice. "If Heero told you, really told you, then it should be obvious the information was not kept from you with malicious intention." I felt a little guilty again as he finally turned to look at me and I saw a mix of emotion in his black eyes. When he spoke his voice was low and soft, as I had only heard it a scant handful of times prior. "You have no idea. If I could trade places with someone to be ignorant of the situation…" He sighed and looked away to Heero and Millardo, that cold, bitter mask he always wore slipping onto his features once more. "But I can't be and now, neither can you so you'll have to deal with it. Don't take it out on the people trying to help."
I swallowed against the way my stomach turned. I'd forgotten how Wu Fei bottled things until they burst; he'd been my favorite person to tease but when he finally did snap it always scared me a little bit. I tossed around for something to say, some way to change the subject but I came up blank for a few long, awkward minutes. Eventually I settled for a weak, "We should go see what they've decided."
Without giving me a second glance he nodded and moved for where Heero and Milliardo were resting. Mara was flopped over the tire swing, making lazy grabby-hands at the little rocks and sticks that had migrated onto the play area. I grabbed her around the middle and hoisted her, squealing, into the air above my head. "Time to go meet someone, sweetie," I told her as I set her on the ground again and took her hand.
When we reached the other two again they were just silently watching us. Milliardo was as tense as I've ever seen him, although he was obviously trying his best to hide it. His shoulders were a little too high, his lips pressed together a little too tightly. If Mara hadn't chosen to distract my attention by hiding behind my legs, I might have told him to relax. As it was I found myself on one knee, bringing Mara around to my front again and assuring her it was all right. She immediately attached herself to Heero's leg and stared up at Milliardo with wide blue eyes.
"That's really her?" Milliardo asked, words a little choked as he motioned to Mara with a flick of his eyes.
"That's her," Heero said solemnly.
"Dear god, she looks like 'Lena…" He moved and knelt in front of Heero and Mara, brushing her dirty blonde bangs from her face. "Hi sweetie. Do you know who I am?"
Mara bit her lip in nervous thought and looked up to me and Heero as though we might give her the answer. When neither of us offered her anything more than a shrug and a smile, she turned back to Milliardo. She shrank into Heero's leg some more and wrapped one hand into the seam of his pant leg. "Unca Miyardo?" she asked, as though afraid to get the answer wrong.
Milliardo blinked, not having expected her to know an answer at all. "Yes, very good!" He gave Heero and me a questioning look.
I smiled and laid a hand on her hair. "Relena made a photo album of everything that Mara should know. As far as we can tell, they read it together every night like a storybook. If she can name everyone in it, she knows a lot more people by name than any other kid her age should."
"That's amazing… although with Relena I suppose I ought to have expected that sort of training." He turned his attention back to Mara. "Would you like to come play with me for a little bit at my house?"
Her grip tightened on Heero's leg and he looked down at her with a smile; the sort I hadn't seen in a while. "It's okay, sweetie. We'll come get you soon. You'll have fun."
Milliardo extended his hand to her and she took it tentatively, stepping away from Heero with obvious reserve. She didn't know this man except for in a picture and what her mother may have told her and at three years old, I was pretty sure she wouldn't remember most of that. He pulled her over to him and kept his grip on her as he stood so that she came with him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and adjusted herself appropriately before turning to look at Heero again.
"Take care of her," Heero said solemnly, staring Milliardo in the eyes as the other straightened with Mara now comfortably in his arms. "I swear to god if I don't get a call in a few days telling me she's perfectly fine-"
"She'll be perfectly fine," Milliardo assured him, interrupting him before he could get too far. "Call the number I gave you when you get back into town and I'll contact you when I get the notification. I've got to run, though; the shuttle leaves in less than an hour."
He didn't look happy about having to leave Mara with Milliardo, but he knew as well as I did that there wasn't a choice anymore. She was a liability. She could get us killed if she didn't get herself killed first. So it was with great resign that he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Be good, kiddo."
Before I could say goodbye as well, Wu Fei nudged my arm. "We've got company," he said under his breath. He'd been keeping watch even while the rest of us were conversing. "Six, maybe seven. All presumably armed. You guys were followed by quite the escort."
I followed where his line of sight had been and caught a flash of black toward the more forested end of the park. Despite the way my skin prickled, I smiled when I noticed Heero discreetly looking as well. "Plans?" I asked sweetly, showing no sign that I'd seen the group.
"Take Milliardo to the spaceport," Heero told me, shifting so that he could switch places with me. "Wu Fei and I will draw them off."
"Like Hell," I responded. "Why don't you and I draw them off?"
He made an irritated noise. "Because if you and I lead them off then they are all chasing you and I and if both of us die everyone is going to be in a shit-ton of trouble. Especially if they manage to kill you."
I didn't have to like it to agree to it, and we didn't have time to change the plan. As soon as Heero finished speaking a bullet glanced off the play structure beside Wu Fei and Mara shrieked. We scattered like mice with Heero and Wu Fei moving the opposite direction as Milliardo and I. They drew attention to themselves with their firearms as we slipped across the edge of the park and back into the city.
The spaceport he was departing from was the same as we'd come in on, so it wasn't far. We spoke very little and stopped even less often as we ran. The streets were really not the safest place to be right then; if they would attack in so public a place as a central park area, there was no telling how desperate they really were. I somehow doubted that they would open fire if they found us within the spaceport, but I had seen and even been a part of crazier things in my short lifetime.
"You know our numbers if anything goes wrong," I told Milliardo seriously as I stopped him at his gate. "Don't let her get hurt. If everything that Heero told me is true, she can cause a lot of trouble if she gets hurt. And… take care of yourself," I said seriously. "It… call us sometime, okay? It was hard thinking you'd died too."
He smiled. "Take care of yourself and I'll see you in a few days."
With that, he disappeared down the terminal toward his shuttle. I managed to relax a little after that. I was still on alert but I didn't feel like the world was going to come down around my ears anymore. The spaceport was a busy place and it wasn't long before I found myself back outside, wandering.
I cursed up and down when I realized that I had no idea what to do then. Heero had done a good job drawing them off, but I had no idea where he was going to lead them or if he would be able to find me again. I didn't dare leave a trail because no matter how discreet or erratic a trail it might be, it would still lead straight to me for anyone looking.
He'd gone in the opposite direction of the laboratory; I knew only because these were my streets. The L2 colonies all had the same basic design inside and this was the colony the survivors of the plague had been carted to, after it had passed. This was where I had stumbled upon a mobile suit lab, where I had stowed away on a transport leaving the lab, where I had met Doctor G and been given my world-saving mission.
Shaking off the memory as quickly as possible, I forced myself to calm down and think. If I were Heero right now, being followed by someone armed, where would I go? It wasn't a hard decision. I'd head for the most lively, crowded place, lose them, and double back the way I'd come. I would meet up with me at an endpoint, which meant either meeting at the lab, which was a dangerous choice at best, or meeting at a docking port, which was chancy at best.
So the lab it was. As I'd taken the direction opposite Heero, I was only a block or two from where I needed to be. If I'd taken the main streets the journey would have been less than fifteen minutes. It took a little over twice that by the back roads but that was a fine trade-off for being safe. I didn't see anyone suspicious, no one that seemed to be doing anything other than their business as usual. It was a bit of a relief but honestly I was just glad to see the flat, blank wall of the lab entrance
I wasn't stupid, of course. I hung around outside for a while, watching all of the directions. G had placed the lab's entrance in a particularly hard to reach place, however, and so there was little chance that anyone would be anything but in plain sight if they were camped out around the entrance. I waited anyway, for nearly an hour before I moved in closer and laid hands against the metal wall.
The lab door looked just like the first one- a blank wall down an alley with one slightly discolored, square foot of sheet metal its side. I made very sure to sit and watch before approaching it but there was no movement at all. Nothing. I could hear the far off sounds of people and heard several cars drive past the other side of the alley, though it curved so that I couldn't actually see them. Just to be sure, I took more than enough time to observe, halfway hoping that Heero might show. He didn't, though, and in the end I moved in by myself.
The keypad was simple. A ridge on the wall allowed me to push one of the square foot blocks down; behind it was the access pad. I pressed one hand to it and felt the instant prick of the DNA check. Behind the wall I heard the locking mechanism whir to life and a section of the wall split and drew inward, revealing a long, downward sloping hallway. Lights on the walls, close to the floors, fanned forward, brightening my way as I stepped inside and the wall-door closed.
It was eerie and silent inside, the tiny clicks of the lights activating the only sound echoing down the hallway. I locked the door behind me and proceeded to walk downwards for several minutes, toward the outside rim of the colony. The labs must have been built into the sublayer of the colonies; that was the only reason I could think of for them not having been discovered until now. The sublayer contained all of the maintenance areas, but there were large, minimally used gaps made for storage and holding resources.
As I neared the end of the tunnel, I heard something up ahead. The whine of machinery mixed with the rustling of papers. My stomach dropped into my feet; were they already here? My hand found its way to my gun and I slipped it from its holster without a sound. God help me, I thought as I edged closer to the exit. If they were here inside then they had surrounded the outside and that meant that I wasn't getting out of this without a fight.
I cocked my gun and the rustling stopped. My grip tightened on my gun when I heard the click of a holster being undone. With frayed nerves, I peeked around the corner and caught sight of someone as they ducked behind a table full of electronic equipment. Confused, I swept a quick glance around the area and then ducked back into cover. There was no one else I could see aside from that one person.
Had Heero somehow made it here before me?
"Heero?" I called gently. It didn't hurt to ask; who-ever it was already knew I was there.
"No?" came the trepid response.
My eyes widened. I knew that voice.
/End Chapter Twenty Four, Inheritance/
