Scene Two: Old Habits Don't Disappear
Aristotle: Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
She sat in the old depot truck, calmly navigating her way through the debris and chaos. Dekim Barton's attempt at gaining control and subsequent kidnapping of Relena Peacecraft had failed. She was heading towards the Presidents Palace to act as a personal liaison for Une, her Commander and head of the Preventers.
She started briefly as her comm-unit went off ringing, barely avoiding a large pothole in the road. She swore softly under her breath before answering the comm-unit, not allowing it to ring a second time at even less opportune moment.
"Po here!" Sally snapped hoping that she was not coming off too angrily to the other person.
"Sally," Commander Une's voice was clear and demanded direct response. "Are you almost on site?"
"Yes ma'am," Sally responded quickly making a sharp turn around a giant chunk of concrete. "My ETA is approximately seven minutes. My task is still the same, correct?"
'Une's worried about something,' Sally told herself, picking up on the slight tense quality in Une's voice. 'I don't have the time to figure her out right now. Whatever it is it'll have to wait until I have more time, hopefully it's not too important.'
"Yes, you're task is unchanged," Une confirmed briskly. "Find the Pilots and confirm their status. Be careful Sally. That zone is still hot."
"I know Lady," Sally said. "I can handle it."
"I know you can," Une commented. "Just don't go getting yourself hurt or killed. This organization needs you."
"I won't," Sally promised her friend. "Po out."
The disconnected the call after a quick goodbye.
Nearly seven minutes later Sally managed to navigate her way close to the heart of the destruction. It had been exactly ten hours since the rebellion had been put down, a fact she meticulously noted to herself. Sally made her way out of the truck, turning it over to a Preventer. She made her way inside the crumbling Presidents Palace.
Her first and foremost concern was not to all the injured who lay scattered throughout the place on makeshift cots, even though she was a doctor. The injured moaned in pain as they waited to get loaded on to a transport vehicle to a hospital, while the critically injured waited to have a doctor or medic come to them. As a doctor those still alive should have been her biggest concern but her task overrode that old instinct. For now her greatest concern was finding the Gundam Pilots for a debriefing, per Une's orders.
As Sally looked around at all the motionless bodies that were beginning to stiffen and the ones that still lived, just barely, she could understand why. It was possible their saviors were lying dead or hurt but she did not think that they were dead. And it was up to her to find them.
'They've all been through so much worse than this,' Sally reminded herself. 'They might be a little worse for the wear for a few months but not dead. Don't even think like that. They have Shinigami's luck!'
Sally's biggest and perhaps most challenging task was to assure the Pilots they had done, yet again, the right thing no matter how many lives it had cost. And to get contact information from every one of them if they were planning on leaving any time soon. The large body count was to have been expected but it would be the five of them who would take it upon their shoulders, no one else would bear that burden.
'It could have been a much larger body count,' Sally grimaced as she walked along. 'Do they even need me to tell them what a wonderful job they did? They've probably already worked that out for themselves and will still be thinking that they could have done better.'
Lady Une had stressed to her that she make sure the Pilots understand their actions were heroic and needed, that they were not obligated to disappear again. Une wanted some sort of contact information from all of them in case they were needed again or at least enough of a heads up to get some Preventers to follow them. Sally doubted that would work since no one was trained well enough to follow a Pilot except for another Pilot or someone like Zechs.
Sally looked around and spotted Dorothy and Relena standing together off in the distance. Dorothy spotted her, giving her a nod of recognition but did nothing more, turning all her attention to the girl by her side. Sally could see two freshly killed men being carried quickly away from the two girls. From the pistol Dorothy held carelessly in her hand Sally surmised that the two dead men had tried to kill Relena. Dorothy would look after Relena, she did not need to worry about that.
She continued going further into the Palace looking for signs of the Pilots. Five difficult minutes of picking her way through debris she halted to look around again. Out of the debris, dust laden air and bits of flame still to be extinguished she spotted them, or what she suspected was them. They had apparently taken refuge in a little out of the way corner where they could observe but not be easily seen or gotten to. A defensive position, a place to easily attack from and fend off attack. No one else appeared to be with them and she soon learned why. There was a nearly in-navigable labyrinth of debris and flame to get through in order to reach them.
"Quatre, Trowa," Duo's voice snapped, tense and harsh. "Someone's lingering on the perimeter. Get them moving again." Only her soldier's ears trained to distinguish all variants of pitch and sound level picked out the rest of his orders to them. "If they won't move you each got one warning shot apiece. After that, kill them."
'Duo,' her mind supplied as she almost negligently tossed one of her honey colored twists over her shoulder. 'But what is he doing giving out orders? There's enough tension coming from that corner I can almost see it.'
"Whoever you are," Quatre's clear voice was like ice as he called out to her, a hard edge present in his words. "It would be safer for you if you continue moving along."
Sally distinctly heard two safeties come off two automatic machine guns, probably with single fire option from what Duo suggested, and she knew they meant business. They were not willing to take any risks.
"Sally Po here," Sally called out identifying herself to them. "Permission to come over to you?"
"Granted," Trowa called back. "Watch your step." He added as an after-thought.
Carefully he began picking her way back to their corner. It took her a full five minutes to reach them, traversing through debris and flame. Instantly she was aware that Duo Maxwell was crouching by the still side of Heero Yuy. At first she thought he might be dead but his chest rose and fell steadily.
"Why Wufei?" Duo said taking Heero's pulse as the Chinese youth checked his pupils with a flashlight. "Why won't he just wake up?"
Sally stood silently watching, feeling like an intruder.
"I don't know Duo," Wufei sighed tiredly. He frowned, thoughtfully stroking his chin in a worried fashion. "How did you get him to wake up the other time he was out cold? You know, the mission the three of us were on when Heero just suddenly collapsed and we had to move fast because OZ was too close?"
"Why wasn't this mentioned to us?" Quatre asked standing right beside Sally with a worried expression on his face. Sally started a second time within one hour upon noticing that Quatre and Trowa stood on either side of her and she had not even heard them come up.
"Heero threatened us with bodily harm," Wufei explained.
"That's never stopped Duo before," Trowa pointed out.
"Heero also made Duo give his word," Wufei looked down on the oblivious Duo with a brief flicker of open admiration. "Try it now Duo," He instructed.
'This should be interesting,' Sally thought waiting with the others in mixed anticipation.
"Oi Heero," Duo said, his cheerful grin in place. "Relena's life is in danger and we need to save her." He sat back on his heels waiting. "Hm, well that one has failed before. I'll try the next one then. Heero," Duo now looked and sounded extremely contrite. "I'm really sorry man, but I tried to give Wing an upgrade, and I know you said never to touch your Gundam but I thought it would be a surprise. I think I screwed up something pretty badly though." The group held their breath, even Sally, but there was no reaction. "Ok then," Duo winked at them. "Time to bring out the big guns. This one always gets a reaction. Hee-chan! We got an important mission from J to take out an OZ mobile suit factory."
The only reaction was a twitch in Heero's left hand, but it was something.
"Duo, has his pulse been steady since you got him here?" Sally asked snapping out of her immobilization and moving closer to Heero's prone body. "And have his eyes been moving restlessly like that behind his lids the entire time he's been unconscious?"
"Yes to both questions," Duo looked up at Sally with wide eyes hoping she might know what was wrong with Heero.
Sally began a primitive field examination on her new patient. She had not had to perform a field examination since the first war but she went through the motions and secretly was impressed that she could still find her rhythm after all this time. Gingerly she poked and prodded making note of Heero's reaction or lack of one. She checked for broken bones, internal bleed and concussion as best she could. She ruled out any major bone breaks although there might be a few possible hairline fractures and some fractured ribs, internal bleeding she also ruled out. While Heero did have a large knot on the back of his head his pupils dilated normally.
'Well this certainly isn't what I expected to find,' Sally shook herself mentally. 'I didn't even think I'd be able to do this again, it's been so long.'
"I think Heero might be in a coma or a catatonic state," Sally spoke aloud. "There's not much I can do for him here, he needs a hospital."
"Do you think he'll wake up soon Sally?" Quatre looked pleadingly at her for an answer. She wished there was a definite one that she could give to him, to them all, but without first assessing his brain wave patterns there was no way of knowing that offhand.
"I don't know Quatre," Sally confessed standing. "His brain wave patterns need to be assessed. I'd feel best if we get Heero to a hospital."
The four Pilots nodded collectively at her words, trusting her and her instincts. Duo quickly devised a way for the five of them to carry Heero out of the corner and through the labyrinth of fire and ruins. Sally backed him on his choice, agreeing it was the safest way to move Heero.
Gingerly Duo lifted Heero until he was almost seated upright and then lowered him onto Quatre and Wufei's arms, they were supporting his back. Sally made sure that Duo was holding Heero's head properly before joining Trowa in taking a leg. As one being they hefted his prone form and began to meticulously navigate their way out of their corner. It was slow going, but the safer the better. Still it took them nearly twenty minutes to make their way out to the mostly cleared pathway.
Sally quickly scanned the area for a free stretcher. There were none. She noticed that one nearby contained a nearly dead soldier from Dekim's side.
'A stretcher's a stretcher,' Sally told herself. 'It's not like he's going to need it now.'
"Try to keep Heero slightly upright," Sally instructed Duo. "Trowa, I'll need your assistance with something else."
Trowa instantly understood her silent message and gently lowered Heero's leg in tandem with Sally. What they were about to do would not bother either of them, because they were both soldiers and practical. After Sally had checked the pulse to be sure that the soldier really was dead, they shoved the dead body off the stretcher. Occasionally the living appeared dead, something Sally had learned as a field doctor and it never hurt to check to be certain. There was no objection or commentary from the other three Pilots and after checking to be certain that the stretcher had no bodily fluids on it, they placed Heero gently onto it.
She stood back as the four Pilots hefted the stretcher, one at each corner, and followed after her as she walked away from the destruction. She found her truck being well guarded and they climbed aboard. The four of them stayed in the back of the truck making sure that the stretcher was held steady and Heero was comfortable. Thirty minutes later they were at the best hospital that Sally knew of in the area. They saw to it that Heero was settled into a private suite, one that Quatre Winner would pay for along with all the other medical charges. Anxiously they awaited the results of the brain wave and head scans.
She looked around the little group of them noting just how rag-like and tired they were. It was a miracle that they were all alert enough to notice every passing nurse, orderly and doctor that came by on their rounds.
'But their training won't leave them easily,' Sally thought to herself as she fiddled with one of her two twists of hair. 'Even though it's been over a year since the last war. They won't forget so easily, they may never forget.'
While waiting for the results, Sally overheard Quatre place a call to WEI, his business empire. He got a hold of the personal real estate agent, Emily Peterson. Two hours later he made an announcement to the group, a smile lighting up his worried expression, only slightly though.
"Miss Peterson, WEI's real estate agent has found and purchased a house for me not far from Heero's hospital," Quatre said glancing over at his three comrades. "You're all welcome to come back with me and stay for as long as you like."
There were various mumbles but Duo gave Quatre a tiny smile that made the blond Arabian relax. They were all tense, who would not have been? But at the same time, even though the main danger had passed they were unable to relax. Even Sally had relaxed somewhat but the Pilots were cautious.
'That's what makes them different,' she realized. 'They are willing to take all of this on their shoulders and keep it on their shoulders. They fight when they don't have to and they are always ready to fight.'
Finally the test results came back. They contained good news and finally Sally was able to persuade Duo to leave with them back to Quatre's newly purchased home. He seemed to need the rest more than any of them. She had been afraid that she would have to drug Duo because he was so restless. He looked as though he had not slept for days, running purely on adrenaline as though he might drop at any moment and yet he was the most alert out of the entire group. The circles under his eyes told her that this sleep deprivation was nothing new.
"Don't worry about him Sally," Trowa said catching her anxious glance in Duo's direction.
"He needs to relax and get some rest Trowa," She protested to the Pilot from L3. "If he doesn't he'll collapse soon. The human body can only take so much strain and Duo's already pushed past his limits."
"Duo isn't exactly normal," Trowa said with a barely contained smile as they watched the rest of the group enter the house.
"I know that," Sally was beginning to become agitated as she watched Duo pacing and prowling about like a caged animal.
"No," Trowa shook his head gently. "I meant that he's different from the rest of us. All of us have seen him go an entire week without sleeping and it in no way hampered in his performance while we were hiding in schools or on missions. It's normal for Duo to go up to two days with no sleep at all. And before this whole battle began he had a brief nap in Dekim Barton's holding cell for about twenty minutes. Duo grew up sleeping when and where he could for only short periods at a time. And his controller trained him to stay awake without any stimulants for more than a week at a time."
'That doesn't make any sense from what I heard from Wufei,' Sally reminded herself.
"But Wufei was always complaining about how lazy Duo was because he slept all the time," She said, countering Trowa's previous statement.
"Duo slept when he had nothing better to do or when he thought that the rest of us needed peace and quiet," Trowa's face had a ghost of a smile pass over it. "He'll be fine." Trowa turned a little towards the pacing Duo who was now in front of the house. "Hey Duo," He called out to his braided partner. "Sally's worried about you and thinks you should get some sleep."
"No offense or anything Sally," Duo flashed a huge grin. "But I'm wound up tighter than the bolts on Wing Zero after Heero's completely turned it up. I couldn't sleep now even if I was in a bed. Trowa, you want to go shoot some hoops with me out back? There's a basketball and everything!"
"Sure Duo," Trowa said loudly. "See?" He said to Sally.
"Go play with him then," Sally shooed him off with her hand as she walked into the house.
'I never knew Duo was so different,' she mused. 'I wonder how he developed such a skill in the first place, and why he hasn't gotten rid of it yet?'
Wearily she lay down on the couch. She fell quickly asleep knowing that she did not have to report in to Une until the next day.