Heero knew that from here on out, they had to stay and act in character or else they would be in trouble.

Somewhere I Belong
Chapter 9
Trapped
By: Miguela

The foreman led them back into the bowels of the colony. Heero consulted the map that he had memorized and they parted ways from the foreman as he went to talk to Lady Une about the non-existent workers who he was supposed to be putting up. Heero led them deeper into the colony, looking for the control room where they were supposed to be going. Heero had a feeling that the operation was somehow awry as the corridors were empty the further they went. He stopped in front of a men's room suddenly and ducked inside.

"Heero, what in the hell are you doing?" Duo demanded as he followed his friend inside the men's room. "How can you think of the bathroom at a time like this?"

"Something doesn't feel right," Heero said quietly as he checked each stall, his gun drawn from his waistband and the safety released. "Don't you think that they were a little too accepting of us? They're aware that we're here and there aren't that many people down in the heart of the colony like there should be."

"Now that you mention it, it does seem odd," Duo conceded as he proceeded to relieve himself. When Heero gave him a queer look, Duo shrugged, "When you gotta go, you gotta go," he said simply as he washed his hands and checked his gun. "So, how should we go from here?"

Heero thought as he checked his watch. "The aspirin should last another hour and a half, so here's what we should do." Heero pulled out the map that he had slipped away from Wufei as he was leaving the shuttle. "We should go to this small substation-" he pointed to a small area not far from where they were currently, "-and see if we can do a remote scan of the main control room. Then we'll make a choice if we want to go in through the door or through the vent or something."

"Or something?" Duo asked sarcastically and Heero shrugged.

"At this point, or something is sounding like a good option," Heero muttered as he shoved the map back in his pocket. "Do you have any more of those flash bombs?"

Duo ran his fingers through his hair and produced a couple of paper packets. "Always come prepared," he said proudly as he set them down on the vanity. "Thinking we'll have to blast our way out?"

"It might come down to it," Heero said as he looked around the men's room. He noticed that his reflection in the mirror was very pale. He sighed inwardly and turned away. Once this mission was over and they figured out where to proceed with the Black Wolves, he would take some time and rest with Relena.

He shook his head violently to clear the thoughts of Relena. Not now, he scolded himself, Mission now, Relena later. I will not blow the mission over her.

Though try as he could, he couldn't pull his thoughts away from her, and how she would scold him once he got back to her for going out when he was injured. He was pretty certain that Trowa would get the same scolding for his arm. He smiled inwardly at the firecracker that was Relena Peacecraft. It was that same zest that had captured his heart and had let him fall in love with her. The same zest had also pushed them apart and made her put her work ahead of his feelings. He shook his head to rattle the thoughts loose. Relena would have to wait until his mission was over.

He and Duo left the men's room and headed down the hallway to the substation. Duo pulled out a hairpin and managed to scrape the tumblers inside the lock until they opened to admit them. A soft whirl of electronic noise greeted them as they hurried inside and closed the door. There were three terminal stations inside the small room, each encrypted by a password. Heero smirked to himself as he inserted his disk and unlocked one station, making Duo whine.

"Hey, that's not fair," Duo said as he peered over Heero's shoulder. "I want to have a look too."

"We're not staying," Heero said to Duo impatiently, "Looks like the control room is deserted."

"Guess we were given the run around," Duo said with a sigh, "Why don't we go and take a look? We got about 10 minutes to seven, so we might as well check it out."

Heero shrugged, "Since it doesn't seem that anyone is in there, we might as well," Heero replied as he tucked his gun back into his waistband but left it accessible.

They took their time striding down to the control room as they had no reason to hurry. This door was locked with a swipe key card and Duo groaned as he saw the console. "I hate these things," he grumbled as he fished out a small pack of tools from pocket. He popped the face plate off the front of the thing and started to fish at the wires inside. There were quite a few sparks flying and Duo leapt aside with a yelp as the light turned green and the door swished open.

"Good work," Heero said to Duo as he sucked on a finger and followed Heero inside. They replaced the panel on the outside with a fake one and locked the door. "You start getting the data as I check the room to make sure that there isn't any one inside." He pulled out his gun and clicked the safety off as Duo grumbled and sat at one of the consoles.

"Heero, I think I'm getting too old for this," Duo grumbled as he sucked on one of the fingers on his left hand and typed with his right.

Heero didn't reply to Duo's self-pity as he held his gun steady in two hands and kicked in the closet door. Almost immediately, smoke started to fill the air around him, causing his head to spin. He heard Duo yell to him somewhere behind him as he staggered sideways into the doorframe. His vision swam in and out of focus as he hit his knees just inside the closet space. His vision was black now, he could no longer focus on sounds around him, and he felt two hands seize the back of his shirt and drag him backwards away from the smoke and throw him face down on the floor, where he sprawled like a limp rag doll. He felt a sharp pain at the base of his skull and then he knew nothing.

Heero groaned as he regained consciousness. His nose was pressed into the floor, making the position very uncomfortable. His body ached, but he couldn't quite remember what he had done to feel this way. He lay still on the floor as he slowly started to regain his senses. He remembered going to Colony six, remembered getting into the colony with Duo… What happened afterwards? Where was Duo?

He heard pacing footsteps not far away as his hearing came back to him and agitated voices shouting at each other.

"This is what you get when getting a rookie to do the job," One man said angrily as feet stomped past Heero's face. "He hasn't moved in over three hours!"

"Maybe the hallucinogen was too strong for him?" One man suggested timidly, "He was instantly affected when he opened the store room door, so maybe that's what's causing this?"

"His neck is still bleeding," Another man spat angrily, "Maybe it's that damn bug of yours, Sanchez, that is causing all of this? You ever think of blaming yourself one of these days?"

Heero heard the feet stop pacing in front of his face. "The bugs are working fine," Sanchez snapped, "The other pilot is under our control with no problems. Watch, I'll show you."

Sanchez walked away from in front of Heero and Heero then decided to try and take a peek at what was happening around him. He stared at the floor and saw a pair of feet over at one of the terminals. "01, stand," Sanchez commanded and to Heero's shocked amazement, his body started to move on its own. It stood and faced Sanchez, who sneered in Heero's face. "Finally awake I see," he said with a smirk, "Good, now you'll be able to return to where you came from and destroy Relena Darlian for us."

Heero's body saluted him and turned on his heel and walked to where Duo was standing. Duo had the same look on his face of absolute shock and Heero was sure that Duo had the same thing happening with his body as Heero was having. Heero felt as though he were a puppet on strings as he walked down the halls of the base with Duo, the two of them unable to talk to the other. Heero had a sinking suspicion that the Black Wolves had gotten exactly what they wanted, a Gundam Pilot or two to sneak in to Relena's room without arising suspicion and kill her.

Another chapter down, sorry it's so short, it just made more sense to end it here. Please R&R!