Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Battle of the Heart (formerly untitled) ❯ Phantoms of the Forest ( Chapter 10 )

A/N: Sorry for the evil ending last chapter. Here's more. I'm working on about five chapters for five different stories right now, thus the ungodly amount of time I'm taking to update. Also, I have a way of adding Heero and Relena into this story. Should I?

Disclaimer: I do not, have not, cannot, will not, and have no chance of ever owning Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

"Phantoms of the Forest"

Throbbing pain. The white-hot pain was all Sally could think about. She scrunched her eyes shut against the throbbing in her head, but still felt as if a searing pain was consuming her head. She would have whimpered against the onslaught, had her throat and mouth not felt extremely dry and croaky. So she remained silent in her own little torturous hell…but maybe it was for the better. Two voices broke through the pain, but they were vague and distant. Sally concentrated on the sounds, trying to fully regain her consciousness. Soon she heard words forming, rather than garbled sounds.

"We need to find the other two!" one male voice insisted. The other man clearly objected.

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can, Mueller!"

The first man, Mueller, said, "If we take off now, this girl's companions are sure to come for her. We can't afford another fight, especially with your skills at swordsmanship. So we need to find them before they find us." The other man seemed to ignore the barb.

"Our orders were to capture the girl. We got the girl, so we shouldn't waste anymore time!" the second voice insisted, unrelenting in his persistence.

Mueller let out a low growl, becoming angry with the other man. Sally held her breath as she waited for them to continue. Their choice would most likely determine her fate. She silently cursed herself for becoming captured, and letting her guard down. The young woman tried to slit open her eyes without drawing attention to herself. The light was fading, meaning that nighttime was coming all ready. The two men were seated away from her, so they couldn't see her movements. She tried moving her arms, finding they were tied together behind her back. Her ankles were tied, as well.

"The black-haired man's about dead, anyway. The braided man and the woman ran off somewhere," the second voice said, trying to sound convincing. "We won't get any trouble from a woman, and a man that looks like a woman. Let's just get the hell outta here!"

"If they aren't any trouble, then how'd they kill Jonathon and Kenneth?" Mueller questioned dryly. "What's with you, anyway, Alex? Why so anxious to leave?" The other man, Alex, didn't reply for a while, and Sally was ready to think he would just ignore the question when he spoke up.

"It's getting dark," Alex said slowly, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

Mueller snorted. "You afraid of the dark?"

"No!" Alex exclaimed sharply. "But have you heard the stories 'bout this forest? Folks say it's haunted."

"Chicken shit," Mueller muttered disgustedly, turning his head away from his fellow soldier.

"Maybe," the other man countered heatedly. "But we'll see who's 'chicken shit' when you try and fight a ghost with your sword, now won't we?" Mueller appeared unfazed.

"I don't believe in ghosts; you're just being an idiot. Now, let's find those other two, and then we can get out of this haunted forest." He said these last two words with utmost sarcasm and contempt. The other man didn't respond, apparently relenting. Suddenly, shouts of terror echoed throughout the forest, and Sally sat up abruptly, glancing at the two men who were staring at a tree, horror written on their faces. An arrow was protruding from the tree's trunk, quivering slight from its sudden halt.

"I told you!" Alex hissed angrily, his hand gripping his sword hilt tightly, white knuckles shaking.

"Ghosts don't shoot arrows, you ass," Mueller ground out through clenched teeth, recovering from his momentary shock. "I told you those other two were gonna come for us."

"They aren't archers," Sally said, and the two men turned surprised gazes to her at her sudden statement. Her voice was dry and her lips were cracked. She said again, "Those two didn't even have a bow and arrow."

"Shut your mouth!" Alex growled angrily, his composure shaken even further. He raised his hand to hit the rope-bound woman. A slight whoosh sound reverberated through the air, and Alex landed in a crumpled heap in front of Sally, an arrow sticking up sickeningly from his back.

"Phantom archers," Mueller whispered, buying into his dead companion's haunted forest assertion at last, though it was too late to save Alex. He ran towards Sally, gripping her arm and dragging her to her feet. She struggled, but was easily overpowered, the restraints on her arms and legs making her weak. "Hold still!" Unsheathing a dagger, Mueller bent and slashed at the ropes binding her ankles. She stumbled; the ropes had cut off her circulation. He kept his grip on her arm, and tried to drag her after him as he ran through the forest.

"Let go!" the woman demanded furiously, using her newly freed legs to swipe Mueller's feet from beneath him. Unsuspecting, the man went crashing to the ground. He made a grab at Sally's ankles, and she jumped away in the nick of time. He clambered to his feet angrily, his intense glare searing towards the woman. But he had forgotten about the 'phantom archer.' A shadow jumped down from above, landing in front of Sally, and blocking Mueller's path. In the rapidly dimming light, Sally could only make out the new form's silhouette. She trusted in luck that it was an ally.

Mueller turned away from the person, fleeing through the forest noisily, heedless of all rationality. Alex's apprehensive nature about the forest had unintentionally seeped into his companion, and the sudden appearance of this 'ghost' was enough to send the poor man running. The tall shadow sprinted nimbly after the frightened man. Sally took a deep, shuddering breath, and jumped despite herself when another shadow appeared from the trees in front of her, holding up its hands in a pacifying gesture.

"We're here to help," a gentle, male voice told her, stepping into a shock of moonlight and allowing her to discern his face. He had bright blonde hair, and his aquamarine eyes were gazing at her kindly. Sally held still as he bent towards her to cut the rope binding her hands. She didn't believe the crock about ghosts like the other men did, but she also wasn't foolish enough to immediately trust a stranger who seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Do you know where my companions are?" she queried, rubbing her raw and aching wrists.

"Yes. Will you allow me to take you to them?" Sally paused, hesitating in her reliance of this stranger.

"All right." What did she have to lose?

The blonde man led her through the forest, like he had done it millions of times before. Even in the dark of the night, he was able to keep from stumbling over roots and undergrowth. He held onto Sally's hand, weaving her around trees and boulders and vines, all with the expertise of one who could see perfectly well in the blackness…or one who had the place memorized to a 't'.

He stopped when he came to the base of a massive tree. He released Sally's hand, jumping quite high in spite of his height, and grasping onto the lowest branch, hauling himself up…and he did all this while retaining a kind of natural grace. He continued climbing the tree, higher and higher, until he disappeared from Sally's view. The tawny-haired woman stood there awkwardly, gazing up, and yet unable to see the tow-headed man. She started slightly when a rope ladder suddenly appeared in her vision, dangling from the tree.

"Climb on up, Sally!" The woman froze; that was Hilde's voice! Grasping the highest rung she could reach, Sally hauled herself up quickly, ignoring her stiff, aching limbs. Once she was dizzyingly high up in the tree, she came to a wooden platform expertly camouflaged among the foliage. It was quite a large platform, and as she clambered atop it she found Hilde watching her, relief evident on her face. Duo was beside the raven-haired woman, and their fingers were interlocked. He gave Sally a wink.

"I knew it was wrong to doubt Quatre when he promised he'd bring you here," he told her, smiling.

The blonde man was seated across from Sally, Indian-style. "Oh yes, forgive me. My name is Quatre." She nodded in his direction as he pulled up the ladder, folding it up and placing it in one corner of the platform.

"Hey Sal…" Duo said suddenly, looking confused. "Where's 'Fei? I thought he went with you…" Sally's eyes grew wide and fearful, remembering what Alex and Mueller had said. They had left him to die out in the forest…with the sword wound he had acquired.

"He was wounded…" she said after a pause, "and the men who captured me left him in the forest." Hilde gasped, and Duo muttered an incoherent curse under his breath heatedly. After that, a somber silence befell the group. Quatre was the one to break the heavy quiet.

"Trowa's back." At Sally's confused glance, he continued. "He's my companion…the one who chased after the man who fled." The Chinese woman nodded in understanding.

"Ah. The phantom archer."

Quatre smiled. "Yes. I'm afraid my companion and I are the reasons for all the rumors about ghosts and whatnot. We inhabit the forest and chase off unwanted visitors. I must say, the rumors are quite helpful. They weed out suspicious, nosy people." He winked to show he was making light of the situation.

"And you rescue kidnapped ladies," Hilde piped up, attempting to break the solemn atmosphere even further. It didn't help much, as the group feared for their lost companion.

"How bad were his wounds?" Duo asked Sally slowly, as if desperately wanting the answer, and at the same time fearing what it might mean. The woman, in turn, shot him a glance that said more than words ever could. "Goddamnit!" An uncomfortable, pressing silence weighed down on the group. It was broken when Quatre cleared his throat delicately.

"Something's wrong. Trowa can climb this tree faster than I can."

"Throw him the ladder," Hilde said softly, glancing up from where her gaze had previously been resting, the platform floor.

Quatre shook his head, blue eyes troubled. "Neither of us ever uses the ladder."

"Maybe he's injured," Duo offered, biting the last word with a bitter note.

"Perhaps," the blonde man replied, though his face showed his dubious thoughts. At that moment a hand reached out on the side of the platform. "Ah! Trowa's back!"

"Quatre, could you help me with something?" called a voice from underneath the platform. Quatre crawled over to the side, leaning over and talking in a hushed voice with Trowa, who answered back as quietly. Suddenly, Quatre began pulling on something, carrying it onto the platform.

"That's my cloak…" Sally stated quietly, gazing at the long, black cloak that the man was hauling up. The cloak let out a guttural sound, and shifted slightly from where it lay on the ground. Wait a minute-shifted slightly? "Wufei!" Sally rushed over to the crumpled heap, hearing Duo and Hilde follow her. She moved the cloak away, and his shadowed, pained face was brought to view. She heard startled gasps from behind her, but whether they were made by Duo or Hilde was unknown.

A strip of white cloth was drawn tightly over Wufei's sword wound, and it was all ready stained dark with seeping blood.

"He's unconscious," Hilde whispered, her voice adopting a haunting note.

"I found him near one of Treize's men," a calm, quiet voice said coolly. The trio turned around and saw another man, presumably Trowa, sitting on the ground. "There's nothing more you can do to help him." Sally pressed her hand to the raven-haired man's forehead, feeling the skin at a sickly high temperature; his body was convulsing with shivers, though.

Duo and Hilde helped Sally lay the cloak down, resting their friend across the material.

"We need to get his fever to break," Hilde instructed calmly, hovering behind Duo, who was kneeling next to the fallen knight. The braided man shook his head, being the voice of pessimism in the situation.

"He's lost too much blood…"

Sally spoke up suddenly. "No he hasn't! We have to get his fever to break!" Duo and Hilde shared a look, and the group fell into another tense quiet, broken only by Wufei's labored breathing. His sides heaved painfully, as if ever breath cost him a colossal amount of energy. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

"I'll go get some water and a washcloth," Quatre told the group, grabbing a clay bowl from a corner of the platform, where a small pile of supplies was resting. He slipped over the edge of the platform then, his exit being virtually soundless as he adroitly slipped from branch to branch. No one replied to the man's exit, nor did anyone speak for some time after that.

It was like the whole company was holding their breath…like the forest was holding its breath.

TBC….

A/N: I'm sorry I took so long in updating. And no Zechs and Noin this chapter (sorry Callisto). Next chapter I'll add them…and I may also add Heero and Relena. Yea or nay?

Please review!!