Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Promises ❯ Part 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer : I've never claimed to own Gundam Wing, or it's affiliated characters, so you can't sue me for that. I'm mearly borrowing them for my entertainment, and shall return them upon compleation of this fic, . . . perhaps ^_^. I do however stake claim to all original characters I happen to throw in here, and to this particular story.

Eternal Promises

By Eden

Part 9

Duo was restless. He hated sitting still with nothing to do for hors on end. It was something that had followed him from childhood and had been the primary cause of most of the trouble he had been in back then.

He shifted around in his seat and tried to get into a more comfortable position. When he couldn't find one, he gave up and leaned back against his seat with a heavy sigh. Usually in these situations he would go to sleep or find someone to talk to, but since he had slept the whole plane ride he couldn't sleep any more, and anyone who hoped to start a conversation with this crowd would have a better chance hoping for a miracle.

It wasn't like he didn't understand the reason for everyone's somber mood, it was normal to be a little nervous, or quiet before a mission. Of course this wasn't like a normal mission, the peace between Earth and the Colonies could very well stand in the balance between the success or failure of this particular mission.

A smile spread across his face. Oh well, just another day in the life of a former Gundam pilot. It really did seem like the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Of course it wasn't like any of them had lead what would be considered `normal' lives after the war had ended, and after the coup-de-tat when they had destroyed their Gundams. It seemed that trouble followed them wherever they went and no matter what they did.

He looked back on his own life since the war. Duo had started his own space clean-up company, and hired former soldiers who didn't know what to do with their lives. He had trained them how to clear space mines, and got them removing debris from long exploded mobile suits. When the junk was collected it was sold off to other companies to be used for the construction of other machines and shuttles. Even though things had been going well for the business, and they had begun to expand the company to include shuttle repairs, Duo still received requests from certain rebel factions wanting a Gundam pilot on their side.

On some days it was enough to make him go crazy. It was just one more way that he saw the ignorance of the people who hadn't fought in the war three years ago. Even the ones who had fought then didn't understand the reasons why the war had been fought in the first place. It was frustrating to think that they could've been fighting to protect people who didn't even understand what had been happening around them.

He thanked heaven for Hildi, the girl who he had met during the war while she had been involved with OZ as a soldier. He had been living with her since the war had ended and had started up his current company with her help. She was a wiz finding new buyers for the scrap his workers brought in, and he didn't know what he would do without her.

Duo let his mind slip to thoughts of Hildi. That girl he had met years ago had grown into a beautiful young woman and sometimes he didn't know what he had done to deserve such a creature.

Her short dark hair had stayed the same; she told him that she could never let it grow long otherwise who would be able to tell them apart? Her violet eyes still sparkled mischievously every once in a while, whenever she thought of a way to make the tedium of working life less. She had been known to drag him off on spontaneous adventures like too the circus, or an amusement park. Sometimes she got wild, her crazier ideas consisted of crashing a wedding and pretending they were distant cousins of the groom. They still cracked up into uncontrollable giggles whenever thy thought about the confused look he had on his face when they came up and congratulated him.

He had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Looking around the van quickly he saw that everyone was busy with their own thoughts, and hadn't noticed his laughing. Probably for the best anyways, he didn't feel like putting up with reproachful looks for the others.

Duo realized that in order to keep himself with a strait face he needed to think about something other than Hildi and their adventures. He looked strait ahead to where Wufei was driving the wan, and saw the back of Zecks' platinum blond head in the passenger seat.

He wondered what sort of thoughts were going through the older man's head. Not only was his younger sister kidnapped, but also he could have been the cause of the kidnapping. He was probably carrying around a lot of guilt, knowing him to be like Heero in a lot of ways.

With a sigh he turned to look out the window at the rapidly passing scenery. Relena was certainly lucky to have two men who could literally do anything to get her back.

As he thought about Heero, he snuck a look at the unruly haired young man beside him. He was sitting with his head bent down and his eyes closed, the same way he had sat on the plane, unmoving. Duo knew that even when he didn't look it, his friend worried about a lot of things. Mostly though, it was about Relena, no matter how he tried to deny it. Not that Duo could blame him for worrying about the young woman. If anything were to happen to Hildi, he would most likely feel the same way, and go to the same lengths to ensure her safely just like Heero now was.

Since he had spoken with him last night after Relena's broadcast for the kidnappers, he knew that Heero did in fact have real feelings for the politician, not that their had been any doubt. It wasn't about weather or not he cared anymore, it was about how he expressed those feelings to Relena.

He let out a sigh, if this was going to get done right, he knew that Heero was going to need some help. Not that Heero would be inept at sharing his feelings; it was just that he might not know the right approach to take when actually telling her how he felt. So the responsibility of helping him would come to him, not that he expected any different, and not that he minded in the least.

Duo snickered to himself as he suddenly got a mental image of Heero crooning up to a balcony where Relena stood swooning over his sweet words. That, no matter how unlikely, would be a sight worth seeing.

While he had been thinking and laughing to himself, he hadn't been paying very much attention to what was going on behind him until he felt someone taping the back of his head. Dup jerked his head around to see what it was.

Quatre was leaning forward in his seat, looking at him with what looked like mild concern in his eyes. "What on earth are you giggling about Duo? Did you forget what we're about to go and do?"

"Of course I remember. I'm just trying to relax a little bit." Duo grinned at the blond. "You can't go on a mission all stressed out, otherwise you can't perform."

"That's all fine and well, but couldn't you be a little more considerate?" Quatre looked over at Heero who still had his head bent down and his eyes closed.

Duo looked over as well, and waited a moment. He didn't give any indication of having heard anything being said. He shook his head and looked back at Quatre. "I think he's sleeping, he didn't even give me his death glair."

"Even still, you should try and contain yourself. It's not really the right time for jokes."

"Yah, yah, I know." Duo brushed off the comment and turned back around in his seat.

He sat there for a moment, just looking out the window. He did understand what Quatre had been saying, but he hadn't been laughing on purpose. It wasn't his fault that he thought about really strange things when he was board.

Crossing his arms across his chest, he leaned back in his seat. This was defiantly one boring car ride, one of the most boring he'd been on in a while. He turned to look at Heero again, and saw that he still hadn't made any move, and gave no indication he heard anything that had been said.

`Must be nice to b able to shut out the world like that.' Duo thought to himself, now occupying himself by staring out the window. `I wonder what has him so engrossed that he's not even paying attention to anything else.'

Flames surrounded Heero, and he could feel them licking at the exposed skin on his arms and legs. The heat was so suffocating that he found it hard to get enough air in his lungs to yell out in terror. It wasn't as though he expected anyone to hear him, but he couldn't help himself. Once he had gathered his wits about him, he slowly began to move through the flames, bringing his hands up to protect his face. Doing this, he somehow managed to make it out into what seemed like a hallway, and felt like he might actually be able to make it out of the building in one piece.

As he dodged burning pieces of debris on the smoldering carpet, he heard a voice calling out above the roaring flames. Heero felt something grip inside of his chest at the realization that there was someone trapped inside of the building. Without thinking twice he went in search of the voice's origin. It didn't take long to find, they were in one of the rooms just off of the main hallway he had been traveling through. The first thing he noticed when he went into the burning room was that the person who was trapped was a young boy who was no more then ten years old.

"No," Heero felt his mouth go dry.

He saw that a large support beam had fallen down from the ceiling and was blocking the boy's escape to the hallway. The beam was burning, the flames high and hot, but even if that hadn't been the case; it was far too large to move with only one person.

As he watched, the boy, in his desperation had begun to kick at the large beam in an attempt to move it. The only thing that he succeeded in doing was catching his pant legs on fire, and had to resort to using his shirtsleeve to pound out the flames. Seeming disgusted with himself, the boy looked up and across the large beam and spied Heero standing their looking back at him.

As Heero watched, the boy's eyes widened as he saw someone had heard his shouts. Suddenly, without warning, he made a gesture towards him, and shouted, "Get me outta here!"

When Heero didn't make any moves to do anything, the boy got impatient and pointed to an untouched piece of wood standing in the corner, away from the flames. "Use that to move the beam so I can get out!"

Turning slowly, he saw the long piece of wood standing there, and moved forward to grasp it in his hand. It was heavier than it looked, and he struggled to bring it over towards the burning beam. He used another piece of debris to lean his piece of wood on to make a leaver.

After a moment of pushing down with all his might, he realized that he wasn't getting anywhere; the beam was just too heavy.

On the other side of the flaming beam, the boy's blond hair seemed to take on the same color as the flames.

"Go for help!" He shouted at Heero, "You're not going to be able to move it on your own!"

Heero just stood there staring, unable to move, until the boy shouted at him again. "Go and get someone! Hurry!"

Those words made him spring to life. He had just turned around and was heading towards the hallway again, when he heard a loud crack. He whipped his head around just in time to see another beam that had been engulfed by the fire overhead, come away from the ceiling. As it fell, the boy looked up in time to issue a loud before he disappeared underneath of the burning wood.

"No," Heero whispered to himself as he watched the fire continue to consume the large wooden beam that now rested where the boy had once stood. He strained his ears for any sound that would confirm the boy was still alive, but all he could hear was the roaring of the blaze.

"No," His voice rose a little louder as he moved close as he could to the burning beams without getting burned himself. He leaned forwards, straining to catch a glimpse of the boy, but to no avail. He couldn't see any sign of blond hair, clothing or exposed flesh. He was gone.

"NO!" He shouted as loud as he could at the fire, willing it to give up its charge. "NO!"

Again he heard the loud cracking sound, this time from right above him. He looked up in time to see the flaming beam coming strait towards him before everything went black.

Heero's eyes popped open, and he silently gasped for air. He instantly scanned his surroundings, and then sat back against his seat again when he realized where he was.

`It was just a dream.' He tried to reassure himself, as he sat with his eyes open staring blankly out the front window of the van. Of course it was a dream. It was the same dream that he had been having for months now, that had slowly been growing in intensity until just the last few weeks it had begun to force him from sleep entirely. Because of his unwillingness to repeat the disturbing images in his head for a second time on any given night, he had been working extra shifts for the maintenance department, earning more than one strange look from the night supervisor.

He hadn't realized until the day before how the dreams had been affecting him. When Zecks and Noin both expressed concern for his change of mood and attitude, he had brushed it off at first, thinking that they were exaggerating. On the long shuttle flight to Earth he had done a lot of thinking though, and had realized the truth behind their worries.

Reluctantly, he admitted that he had become more melancholy and reclusive then he usually seemed. He hadn't bothered to even keep up appearances by acknowledging Zecks and Noin with his weekly visit.

The worst thing about the entire situation wasn't just that he had been extremely reclusive and even more of a workaholic than normal it was the dream itself. Every time he had it he seemed to wake up remembering something, something he knew was important, and then losing it a moment later before it could register in his brain. It was beginning to be incredibly irritating, especially now when the only thing he could think of that sufficiently took his mind off of Relena was this horrible recurring dream he felt attached to somehow.

Raising a hand to massage his forehead he let his mind slip to Relena for a moment. It was easy to bring up an image of her clear violet eyes and honey hair to his mind. It was so easy and yet so hard.

How was he ever going to be able to face her in person?

Regretfully he turned his mind away from thoughts of her and opened his eyes to look around the van. Everyone seemed to be engrossed with there own thoughts, and didn't notice his wandering eyes.

Heero found himself being curious about what they had all been doing over the last two years. He was positive that they had all accomplished more with their lives then he had so far.

Glancing down at the watch on his wrist, he noticed by the time that they should be nearing the warehouse soon. He felt his heart beat speed up with anticipation. Almost there.

On the floor by his feet was a bulletproof utility vest that had everything he would need once they finally got there. He picked it up and brought it up to his lap to re-inspect the equipment.

His hands went searching through the packets, his mind silent stock of everything he had. One standard issue nine-millimeter handgun with three clips, there were three grenades only to be used as a last resort, and two cans of smoke screen. Lastly, shoved into a Velcro compartment on the chest was a communication radio, and in the pocket below it was a small first aid kit.

Pleased with everything he found he started to pack it back up. As he was doing so, he heard Wufei's voice from the front saying that they were about fifteen minutes away from their destination, and suggesting that they should get ready for when they arrived.

Zecks turned around in his seat and exchanged looks with Heero. This was it, they were going to get Relena back, and there couldn't be any mistakes.

Heero was about to say something aloud when he was interrupted by the sound of his radio crackling to life, and Sally's voice coming through clear and strong. "Team two calling team one, Come it team one."

The crackling of Velcro could be heard throughout the van as Heero pulled out his radio and answered "Team one here."

"Hello Heero, can everyone hear me?"

"They can hear you."

"Good. Everyone remembers the plan, right?"

There was a scattered chorus of yeses from the men who were now going through their equipment like Heero had already done.

"Alright, so I don't need to go over it again, right?"

There was another agreeing chorus.

The sound of her sigh came clearly over the radio. "Well I guess this is it then. I don't think that I need to stress how important this is to any of you, so good luck."

"Over and out."

Without another word, he put the radio back into the Velcro pocket, and slipped the vest on over his black t-shirt and jeans. Around him he could tell that the others were doing the same thing by all of the rustling of material, and zipping of zippers.

Clearing his mind, he looked out of the front widow of the van until he could see the warehouse coming up in the distance. Very slowly and deliberately, he pulled his gun out from its pocket and held it loosely in his hand.

It wasn't much different from his own gun that he had tucked in the back of his pants, except that it probably hadn't taken a life yet. Hopefully today wouldn't be it's christening. He gently ran his fingers over the chrome barrel and sighed inaudibly.

Duo leaned towards him, zipping up the vest. "This is it, are you ready?"

Heero didn't turn to look at the braided ex-pilot beside him, hi didn't need to. He could tell by his tone of voice that for once, he wasn't smiling. The somber mood around the van was plain even to him, and he didn't do anything to change it. This was an important mission that couldn't afford any screw-ups; they had to be prepared for whatever happened.

He felt the van pull into the gravel parking lot outside of the warehouse, and looked up to see the large building looming ahead of them. Reaching into one of the many pockets of his vest he brought out a loaded clip and slid it into the handle of the gun with an audible click.

Wufei had stopped the van and turned around to look at the others in the back. Heero exchanged a look of determination with the Preventers operative as he got up from his seat and opened the van's side door.

"I'm ready."