Bourn on White Wings

Chapter 1

Alas, But to See You Again…

By: Miguela

Mia stared at the strange boy that had entered into the lab where she was being kept. His piercing blue eyes were so familiar to her, the way they held no emotion most of the time, though now they held confusion and indecision, though it flickered briefly before it disappeared completely from her sight. His messy mop of flyaway brown hair was all too familiar, though the name refused to come to her weary mind.

"Yeah?" she asked, straining against her chains as far as they would go. "What do you want?"

Heero tried to focus his mind on the task at hand. Even if she was his childhood friend, she was now working for Oz, and, friend or not, that just wasn't acceptable. He removed his gun from the waistband of his pants, checking mechanically if the chamber was loaded and clicked the safety off. "Oz project," he said in his deep monotone, "say goodbye." He trained his weapon over her heart, and watched her eyes narrow threateningly.

"Who in the Hell do you think you are?" she demanded, feeling alarm rise within her as locked onto his target. "Aren't I even allowed one last thing before I just get blown to into the next life?"

His gun wavered. She was just like he remembered her, outspoken and spirited… "Ive come here to stop Oz's project from progressing," he said simply. "What's your last request—since you're going to die anyways…"

"Could you take these things off?" she asked innocently, shaking the chains. "I promise I won't run away—I've got nowhere to go anyways…" she trailed off sadly and hung her head.

He felt pity well up in him but squished it firmly with a mental stomp. "Fine," he growled, tucking his gun back into his waistband and taking the thin wire in hand again. He picked the locks easily, releasing her wrists, seeing blood trickle down her arms where the flesh had been torn rather severely by the rusted cuffs. It was the same with her ankles, the flesh having been lacerated very badly.

"Thank you," she sighed deeply, leaning back on the wall behind her as she sank down on the floor. "Not many people would've granted me my last wish, but you did." She cocked her head to the side, peering at him curiously. "You seem so very familiar for some reason, but I just can't place you."

He pulled out his gun again, letting the sight rest over her heart.

Then it clicked in her mind. "Heero? Is that you?" she asked tentatively, gazing at him in curiosity and hoping that this youth was indeed her childhood friend that she had been thinking off for the last year or so that she was held in captivity.

Yet again his gun wavered. "You remember?" he asked quietly.

"Of course I remember you," she said softly, her eyes brimming with tears. "How could I forget?"

He sighed, cursing himself silently. "How in the Hell did you end up here?" he demanded quietly.

"I was caught about a year or so ago, when Dekim Barton said that he only needed one weapon," she said bitterly. "I lived on the streets for a while, then an Oz soldier found me trying to sneak food from a supply shipment and the general of this base decided that he could use a street-rat for one of his twisted experiments."

Heero could hear the sound of approaching soldiers' feet, and he raised a hand to silence the girl from her reverie. She did so promptly, straining her own ears to listen, sitting in silence against the wall while her ankles and wrists bleed freely, as she made no attempt to stem the flow.

Heero breathed a sigh of relief as the footsteps passed right by their room and continued on down the hall. "We have to go," he said urgently. "We can continue this later."

She nodded in mute understanding, reaching up behind her to grasp one of the limply hanging chains behind her and pull herself up onto her feet. Her strength had diminished from the time spent in chains, so it took a considerable amount of energy to even pull herself up onto her knees, but that's as far as she got before her strength gave out. Heero recognized instantly that she wouldn't be able to get out of this place without his assistance. Slipping an arm around her waist and slinging an arm over his shoulders, he hoisted her to her feet and helped her regain a sense of balance, though she wobbled quite a bit on her unsteady legs.

The two of them made slow progress to the door, and by the time he had his hand on the doorknob, she was close to tears at the pain from her torn ankles and wrists. Heero felt his heart tighten at seeing her in such agony and, against the soldier part of his being, raised the arm circling her waist to the middle of her back and stooped to slip his other arm behind her knees and carry her bridal-style.

She gave a surprised squeak as he cradled her against his chest. "What are you doing?" she hissed, purely amazed that he would actually do such a thing after so many years.

"Getting you out of here," he replied smoothly. "Have a problem with that?"

She snorted and looked away as he edged the two of them out the door, checking to see if the coast was clear. Deciding that it wasn't going to get any better, he emerged with the girl in his arms. He was rather glad right then that he didn't have allergies to feathers as one of her wings brushed up against his face. He scowled, but continued to trudge along while Duo played stupid with the two guards at the gate.

What idiots, he thought to himself as he doodled on his pad of paper. You guys wouldn't know a Gundam pilot if one of us came over and shouted who we were in your faces. Duo listened somewhat as the fatter of the two went on to explain how he caught the Perfect Soldier and had succeeded in breaking him, revealing all he knew to his superiors, and soon after they caught another pilot, 02. Duo snorted to himself, doodling a small scythe on his pad when a message over his communication with Heero.

"I have the project," the Perfect Soldier grunted over the communication link. "Mission accomplished. Retreat now and prepare for take off in five minutes."

Duo straightened, tucking his pad of paper into his jacket. "Well, I think that I now have enough information." He tipped his cap to the two clueless guards. "Thank you for your time."

He turned to walk away when the fat sergeant called out, "Hey! You didn't take our names!"

He looked out of the corner of his eye. "That's all right; I'll just put that it was anonymous."

They looked ready to kill. "What?"

"Or I could take your names," he said, placing a finger to his lips in thought, "and I'll be sure to get a copy to your boss so that he can punish you guys for making up nasty, untrue stories."

A vein popped in the red-faced sergeant's neck, and then he tried to compose himself, aiming his gun at the young man's heart, nudging his to do the same. "You're under arrest you little punk; put your hands up!"

Duo snorted. "Is this how you caught the Perfect Soldier?" he taunted the two officers. "Telling him to put his hands up when he's on the other side of a chain link fence?"

Duo could hear the grinding of the sergeant's teeth from where he was. "Surrender yourself or we will not hesitate to fire," he growled, loading the chamber of the automatic weapon with a quick jerk of the grip.

Duo sighed, raising his hands slowly over his head, reaching into his hair with two fingers. "Looks like we'll have to play the hard way…" He pulled out a high density explosive, though the little packet of tissue rapped gunpowder looked harmless enough—it looked like Duo had slept on a tissue and it had clung to his infamously long rope of hair. It was a modern mission marvel that he didn't know how he could've survived without.

Tossing the light packet towards the two guards with a flick of his wrist, the youth turned and fled as the two stupid guards watched the white tissue bomb fall to the ground and explode on contact, blowing the two and the front gate to smithereens. He dove to the ground, tearing the knees out of his riding pants and covering his head with his arms as an explosion rang out overhead. Metal debris and rocks rained down around him as the ringing of the explosion faded out into the background. Sitting up to admire his handy work, Duo smirked to himself in satisfaction at the large whole where the front gate once stood. Dusting himself off, he continued to head back to the place where they stashed their Gundams in the deep woods.

Heero ran through the halls, skidding to a halt abruptly as an explosion rocked the foundation of the base and he knew that Duo had gotten his message and had done his job, clearing the front gate for them to pass through without any trouble, though they would have to hurry before a swarm of soldiers blocked their only clear exit.

"You were smart enough to bring backup, weren't you?" she asked quietly from his arms.

"I wouldn't be so stupid as to come here alone," he retorted, darting down a hall that he presumed would lead to the front gate one way or another. He ducked into a doorway as he spotted an oncoming guard, pressing his back into the wall as the frantic guard shot by. The base was now a frenzy of activity and he knew that they had to hurry or their window of opportunity would close.

Slipping out again, Heero and Mia wove through the base until Heero spotted a map outlining the entire base in vivid detail. Taking a right turn, he found the front doors and could see many guards, though not so many that he couldn't get by without some difficulty. Deciding that rushing through blindly was better than staying in here and being caught, Heero snuck towards the unsuspecting guards, who were watching the smoke curl up from the blasted gate in awe. He would wait nearby until Duo's Gundam came into view and distracted them yet again before he headed out into the open.

Duo raced back along the dirt path that they had taken to get to the base in the first place and hastily tore the netting off of his Gundam by snapping the wires before inputting the code he had memorized before leaving, gaining access to the sleek black Gundam.

"Let's go back Heero up buddy," Duo said to his Gundam and flicked on the hyper jammers yet again, stealthily approaching the base from the south, the same area where he had blown up the main gate for Heero to escape.

Mobile suits had long since been deployed to try and fend off an enemy attack when Duo arrived. He made quick work of two unsuspecting Leos before rounding on the main base. Unsure if his friend had escaped yet, Duo refrained from a full-fledged attack just yet, though he did turn the hyper jammers off, destroy a few guard towers in the immediate area and destroyed many Leos until he spotted a figure running at full speed away from the front doors. As Duo watched, soldiers opened fire on the fleeing figure and watched it stumble head-over-heels and crash to the ground. Another figure flew from its arms, and wings were about the only thing that Duo could make out. Zooming in, he saw that it was a young girl with large white wings that was crawling her way back towards a bleeding Heero, who had tumbled to a stop a few paces away from her, clutching his bleeding calf.

Heero swore silently to himself. Just when he could seize the ideal moment to make a break for the woods and the cover of the trees across the expanse of the base front, he was blind in looking for enemies and now he was going to have a very hard time making it back to his Gundam on his own. A bullet from the concealed soldiers—who had been lying in wait for him to run out into the open as he had—had lodged itself in the muscle of his right calf and he knew that it would be a while before he was walking again.

Mia picked herself up off the ground and went over to Heero, who looked positively livid. "Are you all right?" she asked in concern when he didn't get up off the ground when the soldiers began to inch their way over to them.

He shook his head ruefully. "Get the Hell out of here," he hissed. "Duo'll meet you in the woods not far from here."

That statement took her aback, "Aren't you coming?"

"Get out of here while you have to chance," he said and shoved her when she came within arm's length. "I got you out and I'll be damned if I let them take you again."

Her eyes began to tear. "But-"

"No 'buts'," he cut in. "Go now!"

She sniffed, but did as he said, turning away from him and getting to her feet shakily and began to stumble towards the blasted gate as Deathscythe covered the injured Heero.

"Hold it right there Oz," came Duo's cocky voice from within the black Gundam. He lowered his beam scythe towards the stunned soldiers and let their imaginations run rampant as to how he would kill them.

Heero managed to get himself up and began to limp back the way he had come, following in Mia's footsteps as she stumbled ahead of him. She was rather easy to follow, her heavy breathing and the frantic beating of her pearly wings lead him straight to the glade where she had fallen next to his Gundam and was sobbing uncontrollably. He used the outcropping branches to help himself over to her, though he stumbled not far from her and fell down next to her, which caused her to inhale sharply at the sound. Looking up at her, he met watery golden eyes.

"How did you-?" she asked in amazement, hiccupping slightly as she caught her breath and he pulled himself up into a sitting position, though he hissed in pain when the muscles in his calf attempted to move. He just lay panting beside her, trying to focus his blurring vision and calm his racing heart.

"Get in the Zero," he said after a while of panting. "Not much time left now…"

She looked at him in confusion. "You want me to get in that monster?" she demanded. "I think not!"

He sighed. "I don't have time to argue right now; you either get in and we get out of here or I leave you here—your pick."

She bit her bottom lip in indecision. "Fine, just don't pull any foolish stunts," she warned and hoisted herself to her feet. She offered her hand to him, though he declined and pulled himself up painfully.

He climbed up to the cockpit of Zero, grunting quietly to himself every once in a while in pain, and punched in the numbers of the code into the keypad. The hiss of hydraulics sounded and the front of the Gundam's chest cavity opened outward, creating a metal platform. Mia climbed up behind him, and he could see her look of awe out of the corner of his eye as he climbed in and sat in the pilot's seat.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" she asked, crouching on the platform in front of him.

"Beside me on the floor," Heero replied, gripping Zero's controls and starting up the massive suit. Power raced to his control panels, illuminating his face and her strange eyes. He practically threw the thruster bar forward and felt the giant bird-like Gundam race towards the trees not far away. He pulled up sharply and barely managed to miss the treetops as he and his companion raced back towards the base to pick up Shinigami and head back to the boarding school in time for the morning breakfast call.

Once Duo had latched onto the angelic Gundam, the three of them headed back down the coast to the school as a deafening explosion followed at their heels.

I decided to give you people a break and give you two chapters of my new story... Only 6 left now. Looks like because I gave you guys two chapters, I'm owed 2 reviews, right:D