It's been entirely too long since I updated this story. I'm so sorry, but here's a fairly long chapter. Enjoy
Syl
Like Melting Ice
Nicolas Dubois swore heavily as a series of shrill beeps woke him from sleep. He moved groggily until he realized the strange, archaic pattern of the sound. Short Short Short. Long Long Long. Short Short Short. It was a distress call, in Morris Code. He snapped to attention. Elliot was long cold in the ground, leaving only his younger sister as the source of the call. He disassembled his phone, removing a small chip almost identical to the SIM card. He slid the chip into the appropriate slot in his laptop and began to decode the message. Nicholas' face fell. Nikita had been kidnapped. Her message gave detailed directions to a safehouse—the whereabouts of Heero Yuy, the man she believed could save her. Nikita had given him this address before, he'd written it on a post-it note and stuck it..somewhere…
He scrambled around his apartment looking for Heero's contact information. Nikita had left it with him a few weeks ago, when she discovered that's where she was going to be working for a while. Then he had remembered. It was hidden, in the back of his freezer. He retrieved the frozen post-it note and proceeded to pack near the speed of light. He took the stairs 3 to 4 at a time before sliding into the driver's seat of his dark, modified sports car. He fed Heero's contact information into the navigation, and took off with nitrous boost.
"Shit, Nikita, shit, shit, SHIT!" He swore loudly, sweating profusely as he swerved around an SUV to run a red light. His navigation system indicated that there were no police cars in the vicinity, and he damn near broke the sound barrier.
The three and a half minutes it took to reach the safe house seemed an eternity. Nicholas threw the car into park, and ran to the door and knocked frantically. He prayed that he could trust these people--that it wasn't some sick, twisted trap. He did not have any other options, he had to try. He promised Elliot that he'd take care of and protect Nikita—only now did it become clear the implications of that promise.
A shirtless man in black sweatpants opened the door. His hair was in a disheveled braid, with bangs that obscured violet eyes darkened with worry and suspicion. Nicholas swallowed, realizing that he could not see either of the man's hands—and had to look up at him. His muscles were sculpted from stone. Perhaps, the stone of gods.
"I'm looking for Heero Yuy," He paused for a moment before adding, "It's about Nikita."
The man's eyes widened and narrowed, and before Nicholas could blink, he'd been dragged into the house and pinned against the wall by the collar. He did not have to look down to see that the cold metal pressing into his throat was a gun. He also didn't have to look down to see that his feet were an inch off of the ground. He struggled to breathe.
"Where is she?" The man demanded gruffly.
"Duo! Drop him!" A familiar voice called. Duo turned let go, allowing Nicholas to stumble gasping to the floor. His glock was still leveled at the man.
"Thank you, Quatre," He managed between gasps. The blonde pilot helped the man to his feet, and Duo lowered his gun—but didn't seem particularly impressed.
"Talk," He ordered.
"Nikita sent me a distress signal. She was captured and taken to outer space not far from the Lunar base. Attached to the message was a Universal Positioning Device, making it possible to triangulate her exact location."
"How accurate is the tracker?" Duo questioned.
"Within days distance from Earth because of atmospheric interference," Nicholas replied, still rubbing his throat.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Duo inquired further, raising his weapon once more. Quatre grimaced, but said nothing.
"You don't. But I don't know if I could trust you, or this Yuy character. I'm taking it on blind faith that the message itself isn't a trap, luring all of us into the jaws of Oz. But I swore to protect her, so if you kill me because you don't trust me—I would at least die an honest man," Nicholas explained exasperatedly.
"Fair enough," Duo said, lowering his gun again, "But if I find out otherwise…"
He left the threat hanging. Nicholas just nodded, "Where can I find Heero?"
Trowa seemed to step out of the woodwork. Nicholas was mildly disconcerted.
"He went to check her apartment hopefully to intercede, but was too late. I imagine he should be returning soon, especially if he learned she's in outer space," He said quietly.
"That's true, the nearest space port is about an hour from here, and that's by mobile suit," Quatre stated. Duo nodded in agreement, "If that's the case, he'll probably take Zero."
As if cued by a conductor, Heero burst into the house. He looked prepared to run straight to the hanger, but noticed the stranger and reached for his gun. Nicholas was looking down the barrel before he could even see where the muscular man had pulled it from. This must be Heero, he thought with a nervous gulp.
"Who the hell are you?" He questioned.
"I'm Nicholas, friend of Nikita—I know where she is, she said that if anyone could get to her—it was you," he replied. Heero narrowed his eyes, lowering his weapon. Nicholas handed him the chip that could triangulate her location. Before he blinked, Nicholas tasted cold metal. Sweat poured down his temples.
"If I discover that you are lying to me in any way…I will fucking kill you. Slowly. Got it?"
The expression on the man's face was cold, sincere, and genuinely terrifying. Heero removed the weapon so the frightened man could respond. Nicholas just nodded with frantic enthusiasm. Heero retrieved his laptop and immediately when to work. He pinpointed her location, and found the schematics of the base. Quatre's blonde brow narrowed as he poured over the blueprints, searching for possible points of entry, while simultaneously calculating the quickest and most efficient strategy of recovery.
"As soon as you're within range, use the new EMP that she equipped Zero with. That should disable their first wave of alarms until the back up generator kicks in, which should be…2 minutes, 45 seconds minimum," The blonde stated. Heero nodded, "That is more than sufficient time to infiltrate the base, kill the guards, and get to her cell. Leaving a large problem—"
"Getting her and yourself out safely," Quatre supplied.
"Exactly," Heero responded.
"Disguising yourself as a soldier, escorting her as a prisoner could buy you some time," Duo suggested.
"I know, but what if she's injured?"
Quatre's eyes softened at the very subtle hint of tenderness in his voice, but said nothing about it. He scratched his chin in thought.
"After the destruction of the technological grid, a few explosions in critical points, here, here and here" Quatre marked the spots with a pencil, "could cause a sufficient diversion for you to carry her out of the danger zone. Once you are out, one of us should be waiting with an MS carrier, space suits, and medical supplies for an efficient get away."
"You're gonna need someone with some serious maneuvering skills to pull that off," Duo noted. Heero nodded, "Yeah, I was counting on that."
Duo flashed a cocky smile, "Don't worry, we'll have her back in your bed, screaming your name by dinnertime."
Heero just glared, and Duo chuckled. Trowa turned to Nicholas, but made no move to pin him against the wall—or shove a gun in his mouth. He was mildly relieved, but there was something off-putting about the tall European. He had this nagging feeling that before he could blink, Nicholas would look down at a bloody wound and have absolutely no idea how it got there. He gulped.
"What do you know of the nature of her capture? What do they want with her?"
"Nik and her brother, if you didn't already know, are beyond genius engineers. She and her brother designed robot that could be controlled similarly to virtual reality. The Sergio Project. It was meant to be solely to perform medical procedures, but Oz had other plans."
"Mobile dolls?" Duo questions. Nicholas nodded, "But worse, they'd take commands direct from the brain of the commander—without damaging his psyche, like the Zero system."
No one spoke, or threatened his life, so he continued, "Well, that and a whole slew of technological advances were on a disk that Tsubarov had Nikki's brother killed for. Elliot gave them a copy the disk to save his sister; they killed him before getting the passcode. Even so, that copy did not contain information regarding the Sergio Project."
"Where is the original?" Heero questioned
"The fewer people that know, the better," Nicholas replied, half expecting Heero to beat the information out of it. The soldier just grunted, acknowledging his statement. Trowa began folding up blueprints, while Quatre placed a comforting hand on Nicholas' shoulder. The wordless gesture almost moved him to tears. He closed his eyes momentarily. Heero and Duo headed towards the hanger before, Nicholas called out. They both turned around.
"Bring her home safe, Heero Yuy," Nicholas stated, daring for the first time to look into the soldier's cobalt eyes. He saw worry in them for a split second, which was erased by a wave of determination. He nodded
"Mission Accepted."