Chapter Five

Heero POV

It took me four weeks to relax completely around the other gundam pilots, even in my current peaceful mode. While I was used to being around a group of people, the group I had gotten used to had been quiet, polite, calm, work-orientated, and usually acted as if I were an important experiment instead of a boy. They were also the same – same personality, same monotonous voice, same everything. These pilots were the exact opposites.

Duo was the loudest. He preferred talking over silence, and played the TV or radio louder than it needed to be. He enjoyed playing jokes on everyone, although his favorite person to prank was Wu Fei, much to the Chinese boy's disgust. I was a close second. He was a carefree individual that people were drawn to, and acted on his emotions when it came to his "family", of which I was now a part of. I just couldn't find it in myself to hate him, although I dreaded the day that he would meet my soldier persona.

Wu Fei was easily the most serious of the group, other than myself. He was calm, collected, and very devoted to his heritage. He was also very proud and a very formidable opponent, as I had figured out when he invited me to spar with him sometime during the third week and continually invited me to play games of chess that more often than not ended on a tie. My soldier persona, I knew, would get along with him perfectly.

Trowa was…Trowa. There are few words to describe him: silent, strong, amazingly just. He was just there, and did his own thing. He didn't get in anybody's way and went out of his own way to help around the house. I believe I got along with him as well as I did with Wu Fei. He was the only other out of the four that I believe my soldier persona would get along with.

I honestly don't know what to think about Quatre. Whereas I was most obviously the leader of this little group, Quatre was the heart. He was kind and gentle and calm, and loathed unnecessary killing. The others strove to make him happy, even Duo. It took me a while to get used to his mothering tendencies and soft spoken words. I knew that the soldier would find him unacceptable until Quatre proved that he could fight and win, but I also knew that this boy's kind actions, words, and the occasional soothing wave he emitted would calm the soldier in any situation. It made me nervous.

Wing showed up near the end of the seventh week and a blip from J triggered me into standby mode. Quatre was the first to notice my change in moods, and was quick to corner me before Duo could get to me. "What's wrong?"

"J triggered me." I said calmly. Quatre's eyes wrinkled as if worried. "It's only standby mode." I explained. "I cannot show as many feeling like this, and I will act differently. It means there is a mission coming."

"I see. Will you be all right around Duo?" He asked. I relaxed a bit, as much as standby mode would allow actually, as he sent out a soothing wave.

"Warn him for me? I'll try not to be…" I struggled for the right words. Another thing about this mode I did not like. It made me speak oddly and rather formally.

"I understand."

"Also warn the others that I might be triggered into my soldier mode at any time. You should know when I am." He nodded. "I'll probably be a little groggy as it happens. It's a kink that J hasn't worked out yet. I might be dangerous until I realize what happened and my soldier mode is firmly in place."

"Okay."

"I'm also going to…apologize….in advance for anything that might happen." I was saved from one of Quatre's 'its okay we know you didn't mean it' lectures when a large black object came hurtling out the door.

"Is that…?"

"Duo." I confirmed, rather annoyed, as a large panther raced towards us. There was what looked to be a sword hilt in his mouth.

"Is that….?"

"Wu Fei's katana." I confirmed as Wu Fei himself burst out of the front door. Trowa followed, his visible eye wide in worry.

"Maxwell! I'm going to kill you if you don't bring that back!" Duo-panther swerved and began to run in circles around us, Wu Fei not far behind. I narrowed my eyes and Quatre giggled at the display.

"Relax Heero, they're just having fun." Quatre found his voice, and must have noticed my agitation. "They do this a lot."

"I know, it's just…"

"You're programming is kicking in. It's okay. Do you think it'll help if I told you there was a reason behind Duo's annoyances?" I turned to him curiously. "Duo hates the war, and the feelings it brings. When we first met he thought we were all too glum and troubled so he took it upon himself to make us laugh. It's how he helps us vent and deal, and it's how he does as well."

"Well that makes sense." I could feel the annoyance ebb away at the revelation. Then I turned back to the running pair to find that Duo had unfurled his wings and was now flapping around Wu Fei's head. Wu Fei was looking angry, but he was chuckling at the same time. Then the sword was dropped on his head and the glare was back.

"Ouch! That hurt Maxwell." The panther melded into the form of Duo, who grinned sheepishly.

"I thought you would catch it. You know, all those enhanced reflexes and all!" My collar, which was visible now most of the time, blipped and J's voice caught my attention.

"Vacation time is over." He rasped. "I have a mission for you." Sound faded into the background, Quatre's startled gasp went unheard by me, I felt the few emotions allowed in standby mode slip away. I focused my entire being on J and his instructions.

Quatre POV

Heero was right. I could sense it the moment he was triggered. The few emotions I had been picking up since his first triggering slipped away, and he blipped off my radar for about two minutes. When he blipped back on, I could barely feel him.

Duo landed beside me, wings still in view. Wu Fei joined him by my side, and Trowa took up position on my other side. They must have noticed Heero's sudden tenseness, and his sudden attention shift to the collar. We watched as he nodded and looked up. The familiar blue eyes that had once held some warmth and humanity, were blank.

"We have orders." He said in a cold tone. He glanced disapprovingly at Duo, who caught the hint and hid his wings, then gave me a thorough once over. "Zero Four and I are to infiltrate the base seventy miles from here. We leave now. The others are to follow about two hours behind with their Gundams. After Zero Four and I collect data, the base is to be destroyed."

"What are we looking for?" I asked, somewhat hesitantly. This new Heero was more than a little intimidating. He must have picked up on my discomfort because he glared at me.

"I will tell you on the way there. Go get into your mission uniform." He turned abruptly and stalked back to the house. I was in the house and changed not five minutes later. The others had gone to the cave where our Gundams were stashed. Heero was in the jeep by the time I was ready, and I hopped in next to him.

I barely had time to buckle my seatbelt before he floored the gas pedal and took off down the dirt path. I held on, wide-eyed and a little bit frightened as he sped down the narrow back roads. "How are we getting in!" I asked over the hum of the engine. He slowed down marginally so we could talk in comfort.

"You just follow my lead." He replied. "We really don't need two going in but J wanted you as backup." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You will be in charge of getting the data out and back to base."

"What are we looking for?"

"Schematics on a new mobile suit they're building there. We're taking their data and destroying any prototypes." I nodded. "We're also killing the designers and engineers."

"Why?" I asked.

"They know enough to retry. They have to be killed." He shot me an icy stare. "Sympathy and kindness has no place on a battlefield." I lowered my gaze and stayed silent until he parked the jeep a few miles from the base. "You are to follow me. Keep your weapon ready and eyes open. If someone sees you, shoot them before they can alert anyone else. And Zero Four, shoot to kill."

"I know." Heero nodded and pulled a gun, seemingly from out of no where. His black spandex shorts showed no hidden pockets and his tank top was revealing enough that I couldn't see any there either. I decided to save my questions for when soldier-Heero was gone.

"Lets go." I followed him as he picked his way through the brush. There was no sound as he moved, and I figured it was partly due to the animal genes. It was probably instinct to him. We made it into the base with no problems, and Heero managed to find the prototypes and I admit, they were pretty intimidating. Heero let out a soft grunt and moved on.

We met no soldiers as we made our way to the labs. It was a Sunday, and staff was normally reduced on Sundays, but I could sense Heero's unease. We reached our destination according to Heero, but instead of busting the doors open he turned to me. "You are an empath, use it to see how many are in there." He ordered. It's a good thing I knew how to detect different auras through emotions, because I don't think Heero took the possibility that I couldn't into account.

"Six." He nodded and without any warning to me, kicked the solid metal doors right in the center. They didn't give way but there was an impressive dent where his foot had connected. He gave a soft grunt and voices inside raised in alarm. It concerned me a little that he was using his recently healed foot to do the kicking, but didn't dare speak up as he raised said foot and kicked again.

"Who's there!" A panicked voice shouted. There was a small gap in the center of the dent, where the two doors met. Another kick and Heero seemed satisfied. There was now a small hole big enough to put both arms in.

"Someone call security!" Another voice shouted. I expected Heero to throw one of his smoke grenades in now, but he surprised me again my grabbing the edges of one door and pulling.

"Take the other side!" He said harshly as the door budged. I nodded and began to pull. The door didn't stand a chance between our combined strength and it was soon opened enough for us to slip in.

PING I ducked behind the doors as whoever inside opened fire. Heero cursed and fired back. There was a cry and a thump, I brought out my own gun.

"Try not to hit a computer." He said over the gunfire. "We need the data." I nodded and swung into the door way to fire off two shots. One caught a man in a white lab coat squarely in the chest and he went down. The other grazed an arm of the guy beside him, but he didn't go down.

I swung back and let Heero take a shot. Two screams and two thumps, he was good. I yelped as a bullet pinged by my ear and whirled around to open fire on the security guards who had just showed up. One went down and the others ducked behind a corner.

"Take care of them, I'll worry about the guys still in here." I nodded. It took several more minutes of gunfire before Heero pulled me into the room and managed to wedge the doors shut. There were only two of five guards left, but we only had moments before they would call backup.

Heero pushed aside bodies and settled himself at a computer. His fingers flew across the keys as he worked, pulling up blueprint designs and notes. They were all copied to a disk, which was handed to me. I put it in a special, hidden pocket in my pants. Heero inserted another disk that made the computer flash multicolored lights. A virus. Then he ejected the disk, shot out of the chair, then shot the computer to bits.

"What was the virus for?"

"If anyone made any copies, the virus'll find them and crash the system and destroy the copies." He then proceeded to shot all of the mechanical equipment in the room until it was barely recognizable. "Let's go." I nodded.

We took the guards, who were waiting for backup to arrive, by surprise. We shot through the doors with our guns firing. The two guards didn't stand a chance. Duo would have loved this. IT just made me sick.

We made our way out of the base and into the safety of the forest just as an armored car with the reinforcements arrived. Heero paused on our way to the jeep and turned back to the base. We could barely see it through the trees but I could see the lumbering forms of Nataku, Deathscythe, and Heavyarms as they crashed into the base and began to open fire.

"Nimnu Kanryou."

TBC