Bourn on White Wings

Chapter 6

To lose you so soon

By: Miguela

The next day at school, Heero and Mia were making their way to Biology when Jack and his entourage intercepted them. Heero had told the other pilots to go on ahead to class since he had forgotten something in his locker, and Mia had volunteered to help him with his books. She looked at Jack calmly, hugging Heero's books close to herself.

"What do you want?" Heero asked, standing as straight as he could with crutches.

"We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot," Jack said calmly, extending his hand to Heero. "My name is Jack."

Heero just stared blankly at the proffered hand. "Sorry, but I don't shake hands," he said. "Not my thing."

Jack scowled but lowered his hand, sticking it in his pocket. "Anyway, I was wondering if you and your friends would like to sit with us at lunch time today," he said. "I think that we would become the best of friends if we just gave each other the chance."

Heero looked at Jack with a blank expression, as did Mia. "Sorry, but we've already got plans, now if you will excuse us." Heero pushed past them and went into the classroom, where homeroom had already started. As he went past them, Heero noticed a rather murderous look on Jack's face, which meant that Heero had just made his way to Jack's shit list.

"What took you?" Duo asked quietly as he spied his friends' expressions.

"Jack and his groupies stopped us in the hall," Mia replied.

Duo nodded as Heero placed his crutches on the heater at the back of the class and sat down next to Mia, who had taken a seat next to Duo. "Those guys are up to something," Heero said quietly to Duo once the teacher had started teaching. "I don't like the way that they were looking at Mia."

"Don't worry, man," Duo replied. "I'll keep an eye out for her."

"Thanks, Duo," Heero said.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. Even in automotives class, Jack didn't come to talk to Mia or any of the Gundam pilots. Heero kept a protectively close watch on Mia at all times; he was making any excuse he could to be near her while they worked on various cars. Mia seemed to be making any excuse she could to move away from Heero, and finally resorted to hiding in the girls' bathroom when his protective nature started to stifle her. They didn't see her again until lunch time. They found her in a corner of the cafeteria, sullenly swirling a glass of juice around.

Heero scowled when they finally found her, but before he could confront her about her actions, Duo threw out an arm, catching his friend in the chest.

"Hold on, Heero," Duo said. "Let me talk to her for a minute."

It took some convincing on Duo's part to get Heero to comply with his request and confronted the golden-eyed girl alone while the others got lunch.

"Mia?" Duo asked her in concern as he sat down in an empty chair opposite her, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Mia muttered, taking a drink of her juice.

Duo frowned, "It doesn't seem like nothing," he said. "You seem really down."

"I said it's nothing," she hissed angrily. "Just leave me alone." She promptly stood up and walked away from Duo, leaving him sitting alone at the table, where he was joined by the rest of the pilots.

"That was odd," Duo muttered. "That doesn't seem like her at all."

"Where's Mia?" Heero demanded as he sat down.

Duo shrugged. "I donno… She snapped at me about leaving her alone and took off."

Heero scowled at his friend, reached across the table and gripped the front of the Deathscythe Hell's pilot's shirt, pulling him closer to himself and confronted him. "How could you let her leave?" Heero growled at his friend. "She could be anywhere!"

Trowa broke the two of them apart, calming the Zero pilot. "Calm down, Heero," the Latino youth said in his quiet voice. "If she was supposed to pilot the Wing Gundam, then I think that she'll be alright on her own."

Heero frowned, but released the front of Duo's shirt. "I just think that someone should be with her," he said gruffly. "She was held captive for a year; I just don't want anything happening to her."

"I realize that, Heero, but you need to trust her," Trowa said. "We'll meet up with her again in 4th period."

However, Mia wasn't seen again for the rest of the day. Heero was starting to really worry although, on the outside, it looked like he was irritated at her disappearance even though all the other pilots knew that it was because he was worried for her safety.

"We need to locate her," Heero said quietly to the others in last class as he set up his laptop.

"How do you plan to do that?" Quatre asked as he watched the Japanese pilot work. "We don't have any tracking devices on her, so she'll be next to impossible to find."

Heero scowled. "There's got to be someway to find her," he said, typing in password after password as he booted up the personal computer.

"Why not look in OZ's records first?" Quatre suggested. "If they found her, they would've mentioned it in their records."

Heero nodded at the Arabian youth's logic. "That makes sense; OZ would be the ones that would want her back so that they can continue their work on their new test subject." He said it with no emotion, but his heart clenched painfully at the thought. He hooked up to the school's network and began looking through OZ's reports, looking for any mention of Mia or the Bourn Project that she had been a part of. The only thing he found was a mention of a failed Bourn Project that had been eliminated. He hoped with all his heart that it hadn't been referring to Mia.

At the end of the day, Jack came up to them, carrying an air of dignity with him as he swaggered up to Heero and the other pilots.

"What do you want now?" Heero snapped as he pulled himself up into the van that the Maguanac Corp had provided for them.

"Don't act so impatient, Gundam Pilot 01," he said smugly. "I have a message for you from OZ." Heero growled in his throat; so this boy was OZ's pawn too. "They said that they have discovered the location of the first test subject in Project Bound, and that will terminate her life if you do not follow our instructions." The other pilots eyed the youth skeptically as he smiled at them knowingly. "OZ has information on all your identities and Gundams," he said. "If you don't want that girl to lose her life, then you'll do as I tell you."

"What do you want?" Heero asked. "You've got us where you want us, so what do you want?"

"Why are you in such a rush?" Jack scoffed. "She's in no danger right now; my soldiers are under orders to detain her and question her. But you could spare her the pain by coming with me right now and telling me everything that I want to know."

The other pilots shifted nervously as they all realized that they were trapped. Jack smiled maliciously, waving his hand as several OZ soldiers stepped out of surrounding vehicles, training their guns over the five pilots.

"You five had best surrender," Jack said smartly. "If you value your lives, that is."

Each of the pilots was placed in a separate vehicle, restrained, and brought to the New Star Base. Heero noted that the gate had been repaired as they went through and into the heart of the base. Each pilot had an escort of at least 5 soldiers. Heero had eight: one restraining him, two helping him walk and five others to make sure that he couldn't escape without being shot first. He limped badly as they had taken his crutches, wincing every once in a while as his leg randomly shot through with pain from the wound in his calf. He didn't give the soldiers any satisfaction in hearing him cry out in pain as they went along and down to the room from which he had rescued Mia. Now, the room was in a frenzy of activity as scientists and soldiers moved about. There were several test subjects chained about the room, and they were all at various stages of the procedure. Some had half-formed wings coming from their shoulders and were withering in pain in the cages where they were confined. Others looked as if they were dead except for the fact that they were breathing; their skin was a pasty blue color. There were three young boys that were standing calmly in the corner, their wings half-folded on their backs, lifeless yellow irises rimmed with red regarding him calmly as they awaited instructions. Someone yelled from the depths of the room, commanded them to restrain him and they did as they were commanded, taking the soldiers' places in restraining Heero. Their strength surprised Heero as they roughly brought him to his knees, causing him to hiss in pain quietly. They weren't sympathetic towards him at all.

"How do you like them?" Dekim Barton's voice rang out and Heero could feel the hair on his neck prickle and stand on end. That voice still haunted many of his nightmares. "They are the perfect weapons; soldiers that follow orders no matter what the consequences of the actions. They would gladly die if I told them to." Dekim beamed at his creations as they pressed down hard on Heero's back, making him wince as this caused him to force more weight onto his poor calf. "To think that you, Heero Yuy, were supposed to be my perfect creation, but I was wrong; you have many flaws that were exposed during this event. You still have that kindness that I thought had been beaten out of you. Looks like I'll have to send you through retraining."

Heero grit his teeth, in anger as well as from pain, as he glared at the detestable man in front of him. "What did you do with Mia?" he demanded and his question was answered with a solid punch dead center in his back. He winced.

"You mean that other flawed project that Doctor J created for me? I have remodeled her to suit my tastes." Dekim gestured with a hand over to the side where several glass cylinders sat on a work table. And behind the table stood Mia, eyes downcast and her hands chained to the table in front of her. She was bruised and cut from a nasty beating that Heero was sure that Dekim himself had given her. Her school uniform had been replaced with a simple spandex suit that allowed for flexible movement and agility, also allowing her the use of her wings, but also covered her skin to keep her warm. "She will work for me from now on," Dekim continued. "She's very skilled, more so than the other puppets I've created. She'll be the leader of my newest force that will conquer the Earth and the Colonies in the name of the Barton Family. Since the Gundams have failed me, I need to resort to a newer plan."

Heero growled deep in his throat, straining against the human puppets that held him. "You won't get away with this plan either, Dekim," he hissed. "We went against you before, we can do it again."

"What can you do?" Dekim scoffed, "You were powerless when you were in training; how is this situation any different?"

Heero glared at the man before him and remembered that time when he had tried to kill Dekim the first time when he was still training with Doctor J.

Heero had just completed his tenth battle simulation that day and he was worn out. Mia had gotten sloppier and sloppier as the simulations went on, and now she was having a hard time raising her simulated beam saber, never mind trying to move the simulated Gundam to defend the colony she was supposed to be protecting. Heero had gone to help her many times throughout the day, before he was separated from her in the simulation so that she could defend the colony on her own. As he watched, she was blown up by a space Leo that was sent out by the Alliance. He sighed as they were both disconnected from the simulation server and were sent to the showers.

"Why weren't you defending that simulated colony?" Heero asked Mia after he had had a shower and they were back in their room. "You'll never be a Gundam pilot if you keep that up."

Mia looked like she had been crying as she pulled her knees to her chest gloomily. "I'm just so worn out from all the simulations," she muttered. "Why do we have to do so many in a row? Can't we take five minute breaks in between, at least?"

"We won't have that chance in really battle," Heero said to her, sitting on her bed next to her. "We may have to fight for hours on end and not get a chance to relax."

"But I just can't do it anymore!" Mia cried. "It's just too hard! I don't want to be a Gundam pilot anymore; it's not any fun anymore."

Heero sighed.

The next day, during the third simulation, the financier of the Gundam project, Heero knew him as Master Barton, visited the facility and watched as he and Mia mock-battled each other. Near the end of the battle, when both simulated Gundams were becoming beat up, their fight was halted and Heero and Mia were taken to see Master Barton.

"So these are the children that you told me about, Doctor J?" Master Barton asked as he looked down his nose at the two youngsters that stood before him.

"Yes, sir, this is Heero and Mia," Doctor J said.

Master Barton nodded. "And how is their training coming?"

"They are both excelling in their fields of expertise," Doctor J said. "Heero is becoming the perfect pilot and Mia is becoming the perfect nurse."

"So, have you implemented the drugs I gave you yet?" Master Barton asked, and Heero's curiosity perked.

"N-Not yet," Doctor J said, fidgeting with his mechanical arm.

"And why not?"

"Is it really necessary to give children so young as them performance enhancing drugs?" Doctor J asked. "They're doing well without them…"

"We want them to become the perfect weapons," Master Barton said, bending down and gripping Mia's jaw to force her to look up at him. She winced, causing Master Barton to smirk evilly. "They can't show any emotion at all, not hate, not love, nothing."

"Isn't there another way to achieve that other than giving them drugs?" Doctor J asked. "They're so young."

"You're the scientist; you tell me." Master Barton eyed Heero cautiously. "Why don't we put the boy to the test?" he suggested. "Order him to kill the girl." He held out a gun to Doctor J. "I only want to support one pilot from you, not two. And this will be a good way to test the boy."

Doctor J frowned, taking the gun and handing it to Heero, who, in turn, looked at it blankly. "Go on, Heero," the doctor said sadly. "Do as Master Barton has asked, and shoot Mia."

"Shoot Mia?" Heero asked incredulously. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I told you to, boy," Master Barton hissed. "Show me that you're a man and kill that pitiful girl to prove that you deserve to be given the privilege of being a Gundam pilot."

"But Mia's my friend," Heero protested.

Master Barton drew out another gun and trained it over Heero's heart. "Either shoot her, or I will shoot you," Master Barton threatened.

Heero clenched his fists tightly at his sides and quickly aimed his gun at the older man, releasing the safety and shooting the financier in the arm. "I refuse," Heero muttered.

Heero came back to the present when he was punched hard across the face, causing him to taste blood, and his ears to ring slightly.

"Take him to the cell with the other pilots," Dekim ordered. "Let's see if we can salvage some of the training that he went through, and if we can't, kill him and the other pilots. They are no longer needed in this war."

Heero was drug back to his feet, wincing as his leg protested to the movement. He fought them with what little strength remained to him. He caught a fleeting look of Mia as he was drug out the door. What he saw there is engraved in his memory for eternity; she had her bangs hanging down in her eyes but there was no mistake in what he saw: blood red eyes peered out at him lifelessly. He was too late to help her, again.

Thank you so much Marina 24 for that encouragement! If I can muster up enough ideas for a sequel, then I most definately will write one.