Bourn on White Wings

Chapter 9

Moving on

By: Miguela

Heero fell unconscious before they reached the safe house where the Maguanacs were waiting. He wasn't aware of when they stopped in front of the old farmhouse and the others climbed out. He wasn't even aware of the cold cloth that Trowa used to try and draw away his fever. What he did notice, however, was when someone was checking his injured leg. He floated back to consciousness, feeling his body burn with fever and feeling the slight comfort that the cold cloth on his forehead was giving him. His right leg ached no matter if he tried to move it or not; looked like he was off his feet for a while. He squinted slightly as he opened his eyes to the dark room. Trowa smiled slightly at him as Heero rubbed his eyes free of sleep.

"Glad to see you're awake," Trowa said quietly, his green orbs shining with relief. "You had us all worried. Even Wufei kept asking how your condition was."

Heero groaned as he pushed himself up on his elbows. "Where are we?" he asked quietly as he held the cold compress to his forehead as he leaned forward.

"The old farmhouse that we're using as a safe house," Trowa said. "We'll be moving to one that's closer to Sally and farther from Deikim very soon."

Heero looked at Trowa in surprise. "How long have I been unconscious?" he asked, but it was mostly directed towards himself than at his companion who sat beside him.

"Not very long," Trowa assured him. "It's been almost a day now."

Heero nodded, pulling his left knee up to his chest under the thin sheets on his bed. He didn't dare to look at his right leg because he had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't be a very pretty sight. He couldn't feel most of it, and the parts that did have feeling were in such agony that he wished that they had just amputated the thing.

"How's Quatre?" Heero asked before he forgot completely about it. "Is he alright?"

"Quatre's fine," Trowa said. "Sally removed the bullet from his shoulder before it got infected. There shouldn't be any problems with that wound later on in his life. He just has to take it easy with that arm for another week or so and he should be fine."

Heero sighed in relief. He felt extremely guilty that Quatre had to take the shot to keep him from getting even more hurt than he already was. If he had been stronger, he could have gotten out of the way or could have taken the bullet for himself. Quatre wouldn't have had to risk his own life to protect him. Heero looked away from Trowa in shame as he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Trowa called to whoever was on the other side.

Sally entered the small, dark room where her patient was, followed by Duo and Quatre, whose right arm was in a sling.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake, Heero," Sally said, setting down her medical bag beside the youth. "I think that Trowa has told you that we'll be leaving soon to move to the new safe house." She pulled the sheets away from his right leg, and even the whisper of the air against his wounds caused him to hiss in pain. She frowned at him, eyes showing concern for his condition. "I think that you and Quatre will be staying out of the way and resting during our move," she said seriously. "You obviously can't walk with your leg wounded like that."

"I'll be fine," Heero said impatiently. "What about our Gundams?"

"They'll be moved to the new safe house once we get settled," Sally said. "The Sandrock Gundam, as well as Heavyarms, are in the care of the Maguanac Corps for now. Wing Zero and Deathscythe Hell are still in the last place where you left them."

"That means that they're still at that school that we were attending," Heero said. "We'll have to take them with us when we move."

Duo nodded in agreement as he leaned in the doorway. "Yeah, we don't need any little brats messing with our Gundams," he said, referring to Jack and his little friends. "I should be able to go and get them," Duo added as Heero was furiously thinking of a way to slip past Sally and the other pilots to retrieve his wayward Gundam. "A little help?" he asked Trowa and he nodded.

"I'll just turn off the ZERO system," he said nonchalantly and the two pilots left the room to retrieve the stashed mobile suits from the forest beside the private school.

Heero distracted himself with thoughts of Mia while Sally slowly peeled the bandages away from his bloody gunshot wounds so that she could clean and redress them. What am I going to do? Heero thought miserably to himself. I can't leave her there all by herself, it's not her fault that she's being controlled and has no free will of her own to exercise. Maybe if I find the implant chip and remove it... His thoughts were interrupted by the pick of a needle in his upper thigh.

"Won't be long now," Sally said to him in reassurance, "Though you really did a number on yourself this time. Stubbornness is going to be the death of you one of these days, Heero Yuy, mark my words." She continued to tut quietly to herself as Quatre chuckled quietly.

"Wufei is out standing guard with the Maguanacs," Quatre said to Heero in reassurance as Heero continued to endure the pain that Sally was causing by simply redressing the wounds. "If OZ follows us here, we've still got the escape tunnels."

"I'm not worried about that," Heero said quietly as he hardened his gaze on the ceiling so that he wouldn't show how worried he actually was about Mia being in way over her head.

"You're worried about Mia, aren't you?" Quatre said to him gently and Heero gazed over at the emphatic youth. "I can tell, Heero. Your heart is telling me that you really care for this girl."

"All done," Sally announced as she replaced the sheets and tenderly tucked them in around Heero's leg. "I don't want you moving around for a while," she added to Heero as she took his temperature. "Trowa is under orders to keep you in bed until your leg heals enough. No missions, is that clear?"

Heero replied with a 'hn' as Quatre assured Sally that he would personally keep Heero in bed until he was well. He then promised to take care of himself as well. Heero spent the rest of the day, until sundown, staring at the ceiling as he concentrated on flexing his toes slowly back and forth on his injured leg. When he wouldn't respond to Quatre, the kind, blond pilot decided to let his friend have some time alone with his thoughts on the condition that Heero promised not to leave his bed.

Trowa and Duo returned after the sun had gone down with the Deathscythe Hell and Wing Zero. The Gundams were stashed underground with the Maguanac Corps' machines to keep them safely out of sight from OZ aircraft. Trowa took over Quatre's empty seat though he didn't press Heero to speak to him; silent company was always the way that Trowa operated and it comforted Heero just to have him close and not have the pressure of having to say anything like he did with Quatre.

At the base, Mia was fighting with herself as she followed Deikim's orders, her hands forcing a crying boy into the steel cage and locking the door behind him. As far as she could tell, she could feel her body's pains and the exhaustion that was starting to set in though the drugs and the implant kept her body upright and moving through the paces with no diminished speed or strength. She was forcing boys and girls into cages so that the serum that had changed her could be injected into them and their genes could be altered just as hers had.

She waited until Deikim had his back turned before she starting testing her will to break the drug-induced hypnosis and fight back against the implant's instructions to her head. It took a tremendous amount of mental effort but she did manage to set one boy free from the chains. She encouraged him to sneak out though he was frozen in his spot, green eyes wide and frightened.

"It'll be okay," she whispered to him quietly, "We'll all get out of here." I just hope that it won't be in a body bag, she thought wistfully to herself.

She could no longer fight the mind control and slammed the door of the cage shut, which caused her to catch the poor boy's fingers in the door. He screamed and started panicking when they wouldn't free but Mia was already on the move to get the next victim. I have to get out of here, she thought frantically as she forced herself to slow down and stand in the hallway. There has to be a way for me to get out of here in tact... Her thoughts drifted back to Heero and was hoping that his leg was being tended to. The bruises on her upper arm and wrist as well as the broken bones in her left hand had already purpled and swollen so that just moving her arm caused excruciating pain though she was unable to pause and take something for the pain, let alone get some ice to bring down the swelling. Stupid Deikim and his stupid commands, she muttered quietly. Heero had followed his training true and had acted on instinct when he had swung at her, though it didn't make the pain any less, or the injuries disappear.

Quatre and Duo were playing chess in the kitchen as the Maguanacs were packing up the farm house to move further away from OZ and closer to Sally.

"Master Quatre," Rashid said quietly as he came over to the pair who was playing chess. "Abdul has informed us that the Gundams are currently being transported underground to the new base. We should all be ready to move in the next hour."

"That's great," Quatre said to Rashid as he stood to shake hands with his old friend. "I really appreciate your help, Rashid. We couldn't have gotten relocated without the help of the Maguanac Corps." He winced when his right shoulder moved slightly.

"Master Quatre, you should be resting," Rashid scolded him lightly as he moved about the kitchen to serve tea to Quatre and his friends. "We will handle the relocation so that you and the other pilots can relax."

"We're relaxing all right," Duo said sourly as he toyed with his king. "While Mia is beaten, ordered around and God knows what else. Sure, we'll just relax." He flicked his king and the piece toppled to the board. "I want to just bust in there and take her back by force."

"You know that's not practical," Quatre said quietly, his eyes showing concern for Mia as he sat back down at the table. "With two of the five of us out of commission and with OZ holding Mia hostage, we can't possibly take the base and free her."

"We can't just sit idly either," Duo said angrily, "She's being forced against her will, Quatre! She lost her identity!" He mashed his teeth together angrily, "It should be Shinigami who goes into that base and kills that moron Deikim Barton himself."

"I don't like it anymore than you do, Duo," Quatre said honestly, "But we don't have enough forces to successfully take the base. We'll all recover, restock our Gundams, and then we'll take the base by force and rescue Mia."

Duo seemed reluctant to accept this plan but didn't argue any further. "I just feel so useless," he muttered quietly, "With you and Heero out of action for a little while, I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Quatre put a reassuring hand on Duo's shoulder. "Just believe in Mia," he said to Duo quietly, "I feel it in my heart that she'll be all right. She's being smart right now and she's not going to be stupid and pull some idiotic risk when she can keep herself under the radar. Just wait and see, Duo. In about a week, we'll attack the New Star base and take Mia back."

"I hope you're right," Duo said quietly. He rose and Quatre removed his hand from his shoulder.

~*~*~*~

Yay! Another chapter for you awesome readers!