Chapter 4

Quatre took the news about Trowa pretty well, which surprised the hell out of me. I mean, it's not every day that you hear that the love of your life you thought you killed has not only come back from the dead but has amnesia and can't remember you at all. Seriously. If it was me, I probably would have had a heart attack. Or at the very least a breakdown involving lots of alcohol and/or ice-cream.

I hadn't really thought about Heero much since I'd found Trowa, but after seeing Quatre I was reminded that he was on the loose again too. Hurrah. Now I had another reason to step twice as careful around OZ – drawing too much attention to myself could end badly if Heero decided it wasn't worth keeping me around. I wasn't expecting to have to work with him again anytime soon though; as far as I knew he was still trying to assassinate Relena, self-proclaimed Queen of everything. I didn't really know why he hadn't done it yet, God knows he'd had plenty of chances. He'd even lived in her castle for awhile, apparently. Talk about a golden opportunity.

An odd thought occurred to me as I piloted my shuttle through empty space – could Heero maybe, possibly, care about Relena? Could that strong core of cold Gundanium be soft and gooey enough to form an attachment to another human being? The very thought made me wince. God, that was so wrong, in every way possible. Just imagining Heero and Relena together that way made me want to hurl. Or was it more like an attachment between a knight and his lady? The woman that he would never get close to but would idolise forever, even throw his life away for? For some reason that thought made me sad, mostly because I had a feeling it was closer to the right answer. I hated admitting it, even to myself, but I worried about the idiot sometimes. Okay, rarely. And usually only when he was very, VERY far away from me.

When I'd left L3 I'd had a vague idea of trying to find Wufei while I was out here, though I'd changed my mind almost immediately. No, that didn't fit in well with my plan of lying low. Wufei was far too aggressive to hide out and make a plan – he was more a point-and-shoot kind of guy. I'd probably spend most of my time trying to avoid him killing me out of sheer boredom. Besides, even if I could find him, chances were good he'd destroy my shuttle on sight, since I'd taken the liberty of helping myself to an unused OZ shuttle that had been kindly left wide open by a neglectful pilot. It was always so nice when the enemy helped out without knowing it.

I programmed a flight path through to L2, taking care to swing wide of a potentially dangerous asteroid field. I intended on getting close enough that I could ditch the distress beacon into the slowly spinning death trap, but I didn't want to get in over my head – this shuttle didn't have nearly enough manoeuvrability to get out of there unscathed, and blowing a hole in the hull was definitely one of my top ways not to go. Ditching the beacon was a good way to convince the officers who had 'lost' the shuttle that it was destroyed, which meant they wouldn't come looking for it. That suited me just fine, seeing as how I was a wanted terrorist and all. Either way, it was still going to be a dangerous process because I had to ensure that the beacon actually impacted one of the asteroids and didn't just float off into the depths of space.

I left my shuttle on autopilot while I suited up, shaking my head at myself. It was a good plan, but there were way too many things that could go wrong – this sort of stuff was usually only successful when you had a partner to back you up. Then I grinned. I was a Gundam Pilot, I didn't need anybody! I just had to make sure my plan was airtight and actually achievable so I didn't screw up too badly.

I sealed off the cockpit and headed to the airlock, doing a last check of my spacesuit. I attached a tether line from me to a small rung on the inside of the door, then grabbed a couple of jump thrusters. I hooked them into my belt. If I got separated from the ship, I would probably be able to get back inside using those. Not that I wanted to be in that situation but you had to be prepared for anything out here, especially if you didn't have anyone to watch your back.

Finally I thought I might be ready and I hit the button to open the door. The air in the small space gushed around me, making me jerk, and I held onto the side of the door for the instant it took for all the air to go. Then I gently let go and pushed off into oblivion.

My tether pulled tight, making me catch my breath. I inhaled deeply as I realised just how close I was to the asteroids, and what a bad idea this was. All it would take was for one of those rocks to cut my tether and I would be done for. I gritted my teeth and got to work, lobbing the beacon into the field.

The laws of physics forced me back towards the shuttle. Equal and opposite reactions, I thought ruefully as I spun on my now loosened tether. I did note with glee that the beacon appeared to have gotten stuck to one of the bigger asteroids, and decided that my job was complete. I turned back to the shuttle -

- which suddenly exploded. I was forced backwards, towards the asteroid field, as shrapnel whizzed around me and I prayed that none of it would pierce my suit. As I hurtled through space, tumbling about like I was caught in a slipstream, I caught a glimpse here and there of a large metal mass waiting behind the empty husk of my shuttle. I'm ashamed to admit that I screamed, but no-one except me will ever know, I guess.

I finally remembered that I had the jump thrusters and hit them big time, first slowing and then completely stopping my wild ride. I looked around me in dismay, feeling fear sweat trickle down my forehead. This was not good. A quick assessment showed me that although my suit was fine, there were a couple of shards of metal embedded in my boots and a graze across my faceplate. I shivered; that had been a close one. I'd thought for sure I was done for.

Although, now that I thought about it, I wasn't sure I WASN'T done for. I had no shuttle, Deathscythe was stowed nicely away on Howard's ship, and I only had a half tank of oxygen. It was also cold, and while the suit was lined, it wasn't doing a particularly good job of keeping me warm. I could already feel my teeth starting to click together. Shudders ran down my spine as I realised exactly how bad my situation was.

Well, the first thing I had to do was stay calm. I breathed slowly and shallowly to conserve air, and let my body go limp, almost at rest. I hoped that I would use less oxygen that way. My mind whirred as I drifted, considering all kind of scenarios from the fantastical to the plain old depressing. One recurring wish I had to keep putting out of my mind, but it still came back when I was feeling low – I wished that one of the others would come and find me, that someone cared enough about me to search for me in the middle of all this blackness. But that dream kept making my eyes prickle hotly so I tried my best to ignore it and come up with a plan that would actually work.

Sometime during my planning I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember is blinking my eyes open to see a giant metal face about two meters away. I yelped and flailed, trying to run away through nothingness, but managed to do nothing more than wiggle on the spot. A sardonic chuckle came over my speakers – whoever it was had managed to crack my frequency.

"Chill, 02," a familiar voice mocked, and I pushed my panic away long enough to get a better look at the suit. It couldn't be…!

"05?" I asked nervously, the cold making my teeth chatter. Another laugh rolled through my speakers.

"Who did you expect?" Relief washed over me. I could have cried. What were the chances? He spoke again.

"Listen, I'm about the pop the hatch and come get you. Don't freak," he instructed, and I snorted. As if I would. He was as good as his word, and within two minutes I was safely stowed in his cockpit and breathing slightly fresher air than what I had been. It was a huge relief to be able to take my helmet off.

Wufei got settled, removing his helmet and giving me a calculating look. "So, was this a plea for attention or did you actually get stuck out here?" I could tell that no matter how I answered he was going to make fun of me, so I sighed.

"Someone destroyed my shuttle," I admitted. Wufei made a face.

"Good thing you weren't on it then."

"I know, but I didn't even see who it was!" I couldn't stop myself whining, which made Wufei laugh again.

"It's a war, Maxwell," he advised me, before engaging the engines and plotting a new course. I sulked, sinking down behind his chair. Then I had a strange thought.

"Hey, Chang?"

"What?"

"How come you're out here, anyway?" There was silence. I waited. Finally he sighed.

"I was looking for you."

I frowned. "But why?"

"Because Yuy needs your help and he's too stubborn to ask you himself." I forced down my laughter – Wufei, calling someone else stubborn! – and tilted my head back to rest against the seat. Well, so much for not running into Heero any time soon. I hoped things wouldn't go pear-shaped but I knew I couldn't count on it; Heero was notorious for doing things the hard way.

Looked like life was about to get interesting all over again.