Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eyes Cold As Stone ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Eyes Cold As Stone

Chapter 9

"Argh!" Duo settled roughly back into his seat. "Fine, you win. I still think you have the better position."

"Duo, that's what you said when you were driving." They had been on the road for six hours-playing Herbie the whole time. Quatre had won five of the eight games they had played.

"Shut up." Duo crossed his arms and pouted. "Alright, I suck." Quatre chuckled.

"You have won a few games yourself. Don't be so down." Duo glanced over at Quatre's profile, darkening in the dying sunlight. He thought of their homecoming-Quatre had Trowa waiting for him, but he had no one. Unless you counted Heero; but after their conversation yesterday, he probably didn't have that. He sighed.

"It's not the game."

"I know." Duo continued to stare at Quatre. He studied Quatre's face-not as a best friend, but as something more. The fine features of Quatre's face were highlighted a cool orange and the dying sun made Quatre's blonde hair glitter gold. With Quatre's pale, flawless skin, and his delicate cheekbones, and his oceanic eyes; Quatre was one damned sexy man. Duo sighed again. Quatre was one of the most beautiful men on Earth-but he wanted Heero.

"It started out fine-you know, the usual banter. But then…I don't know." Duo resisted the urge to hang his head. "He got mad at me. We fought, he yelled, and I stormed off. I don't think he likes me."

"Duo, don't be so quick to assume that its over."

"It never was." Silence filled the truck.

"Don't you still like him?' Duo stared out of the window at the passing landscape.

"Yes."

"Then why are you giving up so easily? What did you fight about anyway?" Duo hadn't told Quatre anything more than the chat had gone bad. He had just shown up for the final mission prep and gotten in the truck with Quatre and left. All afternoon and evening, Duo hadn't said a word about it. And up until now, he didn't want Quatre to know-mainly because he didn't want to yell at Quatre.

"This mission." Quatre glanced at him. "He was mad that I took it."

"We didn't really have a choice."

"That's what I said, but he said I was stupid for taking it anyway." He curled his legs up to his chest and continued to stare out of the window. "He said that I was stupid."

"Doesn't he always call you stupid?"

"No, he's calling me baka. I know it means the same thing, but it's like a pet name, now. Like little one." Quatre smiled sadly.

"I'm not little."

"See? Coming from Trowa, it's a term of endearment. Coming from me it's an insult, eventhough I meant it in the nicest way possible. Baka is different from stupid."

"I wasn't offended, but I do see your meaning. But that's Heero. He doesn't think words through."

"You'd think he would for as little as he uses them." Quatre snorted.

"Mission this, mission that…yeah, I see." Duo smiled. "I mean, though, that he doesn't really understand relationships. He's never had friends before us, and he's certainly never been in a romantic relationship. He doesn't know what to do."

"I suppose you're right, but still…why would he yell at me for doing my duty?"

"Because he doesn't want to lose you." Duo choked. Quatre sounded positive.

"But…" Duo had to say something, and that was the first thing his shocked lips could form.

"I know, Duo. He's just as scared as you are. He doesn't know what to do." Duo blinked stupidly at Quatre, the implications taking forever to sink in.

"But…"

"I didn't tell you anything up `til now because it's not my information to give. I only heard it from Trowa." Quatre looked at him, eyes continually flickering to the road. "I don't know how he feels about you, other than to know that he cares…a lot."

"Trowa didn't tell you everything?"

"No. He didn't want a situation like this to creep up and me tell you everything I know because I can't stand to see you in pain." Duo smiled, Quatre was sure a good friend. "I know a little bit more, but I can't tell you. Its something you have to find out from Heero." Duo nodded his head.

"So you think that Heero yelled at me because he was afraid and didn't know how to handle it?" Quatre nodded. "Then I might still have a chance?" Quatre smiled.

"I know that you have another chance." Duo grinned, feeling much better. He looked at the scenery around him, noticing it for the first time. "Are we almost there?"

"Yeah, just another ten miles to our drop point. We walk from there." Duo nodded and turned around in his seat to rummage through the back. "Are all of our weapons ready?" Duo finished visually checking the assortment of explosives and guns.

"Looks like it. I'm gonna do a quick hand check before we drop."

"Good." Duo crawled into the back seat and picked up a gun.

______________________________

Sally tapped her foot impatiently in the elevator. It wasn't moving fast enough. She had wanted to talk to Wufei yesterday, but had been too busy. Not being able to talk to Wufei yesterday, she had tried to peel herself away from work to catch him today, but had been unable to get away until now. She looked frantically at her watch: 5:20. Most likely he was already gone, but she was sure as hell gonna try anyway. She had to talk to him; after all, she wasn't going to have the courage to ask him out on a date forever. She bit her fingernail and watched the elevator inch its way to the ninth floor-better known as the Gundam pilot floor. Every Gundam pilot, including Zechs Merquise, had their office located on the ninth. Wufei and Zechs had wanted their own office, while the others chose to share-a big hint. However, there was a large kitchen up here-specially ordered for the benefit of Duo Maxwell. There were also a few conference rooms and some lounges. There was no security system, but it was the safest area in the entire city. It had no security equipment; it had no locks on the door, or a security code in the elevator. It was safe because no one except for the friends of the pilots went there-everyone else was too damned scared of the pilots to go near them.

The elevator slowed and stopped at floor nine. She looked down at her feet, ready to fly out of the elevator. The doors opened and she ran straight into Wufei. They both tumbled to the floor. Sally found herself lying on top of the object of her affection. She stopped breathing.

"Woman…what are you doing?" Obviously Wufei wasn't flustered. She heard the elevator doors click shut behind them. She started to get up, but found herself held down.

"I'm sorry." She could feel her face heating up. Damnit, why was she so flustered? She felt like a schoolgirl. She tried to get up again, but failed, this time falling on top of Wufei again.

"I ask again, what are you doing?" Wufei's voice sounded strange. It was softer. She paused.

"I was coming to talk to you." She looked into Wufei's eyes, which were softer than usual. "Then I ran into you, and now I'm laying on top of you."

"Yes, I can see that." Wufei hadn't released his grip on her arm.

"Can I get up, now?" Wufei cocked his head before his eyes widened.

"Oh, yes, sorry, Sally." He let go of her arm and scrambled to his feet, reaching a hand down to help her up.

"Not a prob…Did you just call me Sally?" Sally stood there, her hand still encased in Wufei's. She couldn't believe her ears.

"Yeah." Wufei looked down at his shoes. She realized that they were still holding hands. She smiled; it was if their hands were made to fit in each other's grasp. His palms were rough from sword handling, and she could feel the calluses from Nataku. Like Wufei, she felt as though the spirit of Nataku resided in his Gundams.

"Do you have time?"

`For you, Sally, I have all the time in the world." He turned, and without letting go of her hand, led her into his office. She glanced around the familiar room, seeing the collection of swords and staffs and various weapons of a martial arts master. Her favorite was the plane black and silver fan that adorned the wall in front of his desk. Maybe it was Wufei's favorite considering that he stared at it all day. She turned to him as he started speaking. "I wanted to talk to you, as well. I tried to catch you yesterday, but I was too busy." She smiled at the similar situation. "I wanted to…uh…ask you if…um…" Sally took a chance at his embarrassed blush and stuttering of words. She raised their entwined fingers.

"Would it have anything to do with this?" She watched as his eyes focused on their hands. He turned a brighter shade of crimson and nodded slowly. Sally stepped closer.

"What if I told you that I had been thinking of you." She saw him swallow and felt strangely confident. "What if I told you that I came up here to ask you on a date." Wufei stared at her uncomprehendingly of a moment before drawing in a deep breath.

"I don't want to date you, Sally, I want to love you." She was speechless. "I want you, Sally. I want you as my girlfriend, hopefully my wife one day. But I want you to be mine." She felt weak. Wufei was asking her what she wanted from him. She moved forward until she was touching him. She mustered up all of her courage and closed in the distance between their lips. She had certainly kissed guys before, in fact she had been around quite a few times when she was younger, but she had never liked any of the boys like she liked Wufei. She had wanted to kiss him for the longest time; she had tried to get to know him over the years and had liked what she found. Now, though, after kissing what seemed like hundreds of men, she found herself melting into the kiss. She felt Wufei's strong arms wrap around her. She felt as though she was falling, but felt so safe. She pressed her body into Wufei as he tightened his embrace. His tongue slipped into her mouth and she grasped at his back. He slid a hand down her spine, resting in the small of her back. Everywhere that he touched her felt like fire, the hot blue-white fire of passion. He pulled back slowly to gaze deeply into her eyes.

"I…thank you." Sally blushed and smiled at Wufei's words. "Can I take you out?'

"I'd love it if you would."

"Now?"

"Yes." He turned the light off and escorted her out of the room.

______________________________

They pulled up to the drop point. Duo hopped out of the truck to ready the MS Taurus's while Quatre gathered the weapons and checked the MS remotes. They were still a ways away from the base, but it shouldn't be more than a two-hour walk.

"How's the suits?" Quatre called from inside the cab.

"Lookin' good, though I'd rather have Deathsythe and Sandrock to back us up." Duo's voice drifted from around the cargo hold. Quatre suppressed a chuckle.

"I know, Shinigami."

"Don't mock me."

"Too late." He heard Duo's genuine laughter and smiled. Duo was feeling better. He hoped that either Duo or Heero would get the guts to tell the other how they felt, soon. It was an emotional rift in the group-something that was bringing both Duo and Heero down. The sooner they told each other, the better, eventhough Heero would disagree going into a war, but it was better having someone to go home to. Quatre grabbed the bag full of weapons and scooted out of the truck. "We should probably head out now if we're going to make it to the base by dark."

"I agree."

"Ready? The remotes work fine."

"Alright." They turned toward the base and began the trek.

They paused on the edge of the clearing. They could see the base looming ahead of them. The sun had set an hour ago, and the last mile had been slow going. Now, the last leg of their journey would go quickly. Quatre checked the time-they still had two hours to go before moonrise. That should put them deep into the base. He turned to Duo.

"Weapons ready?"

"Check."

"You ready?"

"Check."

"Let's move quickly, but I want silence. Once inside you know where to go. Meet up at designated site in three hours."

"Check."

"Move out." The two of them moved silently into the field sticking to the shadows. Quatre lost track of Duo halfway to the base. He continued on, finally reaching his entry point. He glanced inside the open window, the smell of onions wafting from the inner depths. He couldn't see anyone, and he didn't hear any movement. Staying still for a few more moments, he finally raised himself onto the ledge and wriggled through the window. He dropped silently into a crouch and listened for any movement. Hearing nothing, he quietly slipped through the kitchen and into the dinning hall. He paused at the door and peering through the darkness. Starlight barely illuminated the room, so the tables and chairs took on an obscure atrocious mysticism. The odd fuzzy and grainy shapes seemed to loom at him in the gloomy cafeteria. He quickly traversed the room and stepped gingerly into the brightly light hall. Breathing a sigh of relief and cursing his imagination, Quatre made his way to his first stop-one of the main computer terminals.

Quatre slipped into the terminal room unnoticed and wondered briefly how Duo was doing. He stepped up to the terminal and began hacking into it. A few minutes later, he was in. He shook his head at the ease, either this was one elaborate trap, or they didn't expect Gundam pilots to come traipsing around their computers. Ah-look at this. A proud emblem gleamed at him. He studied it for a bit, taking in the navy blue background and the eagle with outspread wings. He didn't miss the arrows clutched in the eagle's talons. His brain skimmed through his knowledge of history until it presented him with a clue. This emblem was very similar to the one used by the pre-colony United States of America. He filed away the information to study later. But at least he now knew what the group was calling themselves: Eagle Squadron. He searched his memory for that information, too, as it struck the same chord in him as the emblem did. If he remembered his military history correctly, the United States had named one of their air force squadrons, the Eagle Squadron. Apparently, it was one of the elite squadrons of the US Air Force. He decided to analyze the information later. He began surfing through the Eagle's database.

Node Bases. So Une had used that term as fact. This information must have come from Wufei's mission. Quatre read through some information detailing the purpose of Node Bases, copying the file onto a disc. He read about the new battle system for Zero System Mobile Dolls. ZSMD was based on the original premise of the Zero System. A shudder ran down Quatre's spine. The Zero System was supposed to enhance a pilot's reaction time, if it was human, but in the war, Zechs had applied the system toward Mobile Dolls. As a result, the Zero System now gave human capabilities and reasoning to enhanced computer-run suits. Computer reaction time coupled with human thought had the potential to rival even the Gundam pilots. However, the technology was flawed, as was the delivery. It appeared as if someone refined the Zero System and reduced the number of suits controlled by one person. Now, there were several Node Bases scattered over the Earth and in space. Within these bases, it appears as if there is an entire squadron operating the Mobile Dolls. As a result, the once rogue Dolls now have the formation they achieved with the original onset of the Zero System, only now, they have practically individual control. In other words, ZSMD working together with the Node Bases were going to be a force to be reckoned with. The Dolls were cheap in cost, and more importantly, cheap in human life-they could destroy ten thousand suits, without one loss of human life. However, these suits would fight with computerized reflexes and human reasoning-individually controlled, from a far. Quatre sighed. This wasn't good. He had no doubt that the Gundam pilots could handle themselves, but it would take a long time to fight, and in the mean time, no one in the Earth's Sphere was equipped to fight a fistfight, much less a war.

Quatre finished copying the files onto disc and ejected the disc from the terminal drive. He reached into his small bag-o-fun, as Duo termed it, and pulled out the MS remote. He loaded the disc into the remote and keyed in the information for HQ. Once contact was made, he pressed the send button and replaced the remote in his weapons bag. He pulled out a gun and made sure that his grenades were easily accessible. Quatre surveyed the hall before returning to the terminal and gently placed an explosive under the computer. He slipped into the hall and made his way toward the control center. Curling his fingers around his gun, he spun into a connecting hallway, and immediately scoured for concealment. He waited in the shadows; tense and ready, as three guards ambled by. Releasing a breath he hadn't noticed that he was holding, he slipped from the shadows and continued on his mission. He glanced at his watch; he had an hour left. He moved stealthily into the control room and planted several explosives. He stilled in his work when he heard the door opening. Fortunately, he was behind a bulkhead, and unless anyone walked all of the way across the room and around the bulkhead, he wouldn't be spotted. He stayed crouched down, fingers curling around the gun by his feet. The muscles in his legs wound and ready to spring. He listened intently as two voices spoke quietly to each other.

"General, I am quite aware that you think your security is good-"

"Not good, impenetrable." The first voice, a woman, continued.

"Believe me, it is not up to Gundam pilot standard. Hell, getting onto their floor at Preventer HQ took over seven months." Quatre strained his ears to hear the whispers. Seven months? They only found out about the bugs two weeks ago, and who knows how long the bugs had been there. It was possible that the infiltrator had been in HQ for a year or better.

"They can't get in here." The second voice was rough and masculine.

"Wanna bet?" The woman's tone made Quatre picture and slightly deranged Sally dangerously mocking a too self-confidant Wufei-hand on hip, one eyebrow raised. It wasn't a pretty sight. Evil Sally was never a good thing; she was dangerous enough as a good person. Quatre heard a clicking of buttons and switches. "That's Gundam Pilot 02. Want to tell me how he got in here? And there's another one, he accessed Terminal A3."

"This is a trick."

"Perfectly real." Quatre heard another contact being made.

"Enemy alert. Section B5. All alert. Possible infiltration in Section A." Quatre tensed up even more. Not good. Duo would probably be getting ambushed in a minute, and his own escape routes would most likely be cut off. No matter, he had to get out of there, and fast. He quickly analyzed the situation and decided on confrontation. He reaffirmed his grasp on his gun and quickly stood, aiming in the direction of the two voices. Jumping up shooting, he barely registered the pain-filled surprise of the female as she toppled over, clutching at her stomach. Quatre turned his gun toward the General and fired. The door to the control room burst open, spilling dozens of soldiers into the room. Quatre fired his own weapon into the quickly gathering crowd and pulled out a grenade from his vest.

"General, we have acquired the intruder. Repeat, we have acquired the intruder." A speaker squawked from where the girl and General had been whispering. No…Duo. Quatre bit down on the ring and yanked it from the miniature bomb. He counted to three before tossing the grenade into the phalange of soldiers. He ducked; covering his ears as the deafening explosion rocked the control room. Workstations tore apart and men screamed. Quatre searched for his trigger, setting it from manual to timed. He shot a few warning shots blindly into the clearing smoke, before setting the explosion timer for five minutes. He crushed the trigger keypad with the butt of his gun before crushing his MS remote. He grabbed another grenade and a strip of electrical tape, ignoring the bullets flying above him. He would halt in his work momentarily to shoot a few soldiers; just enough to hold them close to the door. He pulled the pin on the grenade that he had taped to the remains of his MS remote and tossed the concoction to the soldiers. Loading another clip into his emptied gun, he stood up and faced his enemy. Barely flinching when the grenade exploded, he stepped around the bulkhead and fired at anything that moved. Ignoring the flying shrapnel that cut into his skin, he continued to kill as many soldiers as he could, flinging the gun at another enemy as he ran out of bullets. Dodging through the bullet infested air; Quatre fought hand to hand, killing and injuring anyone he could lay his hands on.

He felt detached, almost as if he were playing a video game. He couldn't feel the sweaty skin of frightened soldiers, though he could hear the snapping of vertebrae as he twisted someone's neck.

"This is for Duo." He turned on another soldier, snapping his jaw and breaking his femur.

"That is for Trowa." He turned toward someone else, kicking them in the throat.

"That was for Heero." He didn't realize that he was shouting out loud.

"This is for Wufei." He grabbed a high-ranking official, by the look of his bloodied uniform, by the throat and kicked him in the temple. Letting the limp body slid smoothly to the ground, he picked up the officer's fallen gun.

"For Sally," a shot, "for Noin," another shot, "for Lady Une," shot, "for Zechs," a fourth shot fired, finding its mark. Quatre whirled around at the touch of fingers on his shoulder. Pressing the gun into the stomach of the soldier, he whispered into the dead man's ear.

"And that is for me." The soldier crumpled to the ground as a bullet pried its way into Quatre's arm. He stumbled, reality crashing back around him. He dropped the gun as two large guards slammed into him, knocking his small body to the ground. He fell, crushed under them. All function of breathing left him as he was pinned to the ground and pummeled. He felt a rib crack and a distant female shout before passing into blissful darkness.

Quatre woke to the sensation of flying. He opened his eyes in time to see the ground rushing up at him. He sprawled helplessly across the rough cement and rolled into Duo. He raised his head and blinked hazy eyes. He heard the cell door slam, finally realizing where he was. The cell was bathed in darkness.

"Quat?"

"Yeah?"

"Looks like we stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire."

"Yup."

"You okay?"

"No. You?"

"I'll live, though I'll never live it down. You?"

"I'll live."

"Did you get any explosives placed?"

"Yup."

"They go off yet?"

"Give it about thirty more seconds." They were silent, awaiting the temporary daylight. The ground rumbled uncomfortably beneath them.

"Not bad, Quat. They got me before I could set mine. At least we accomplished a little." Quatre sighed.

"Yup."