Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Reprieve ❯ chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

Title: Reprieve 16/?

Author: Lethanon

Archive: www.geocities.com/lethanon and raygunworks.net

Warnings: AU, Gundams, evil doctors, general weirdness, 5+2, 3+4

Chapter 16

"Miss Relena, our sensors are picking up on a large object in the bay ahead," Dorothy hissed, head focused on the imprints appearing on the sensory feed's computer systems, eyeing the pilot to her left with unease. Had he seen it? Did he even care? He was a Romerfeller tool and Dorothy had to wonder if he was worth anything.

"Don't be absurd, Dorothy. Heero would never allow me to come to any harm!"

"Yes, but it wasn't Heero who gave you access to this ship…" Dorothy mumbled under her breath, wondering exactly what Mr. Yuy had done to so completely convince Relena he was little more than a harmless puppy. From what she had seen of the Gundam pilots they were anything but.

Miss Peacecraft, I think Miss Catalonia may be right. This bay is not empty." The pilot's voice was laced with unease. Dorothy spared him a momentary, calculating look before giving her attention back to Relena. To give her some credit, Relena seemed to be considering something very carefully. Dorothy was just not sure she wanted that to happen.

"Very well. Continue at the highest allowable speed."

"WHAT?" Dorothy was amazed to discover she had spoken in unison with the pilot and that they were wearing rather similar looks of horror. Relena could not be serious, and they both stated so, again in unison.

"I am perfectly serious. If the ship is damaged they have no choice but to repair it for us and the longer that takes the longer we can stay."

That was rather…odd reasoning, in Dorothy's not-so-humble opinion, but it was not her place to interfere, though the temptation was getting rather strong. Still, she shared a nod with the pilot and sped up to what she considered the maximum speed they could crash without blowing them all up.

"Brace for impact, Miss. Relena," Dorothy chortled, unable to keep the sudden excitement from her voice. She had never crashed a space shuttle before. It was so nice of Miss. Relena to give her such opportunities.

*

"Mother fucking chunk of space shit!" Hilde threw a rather large piece of Gundamium out the cockpit door and glared at the console before her. There did not seem a way to adequately install the new system into the Heavyarms. It was designed with twice the amount of missile technology of any of the other Gundam's and simply didn't have the room to accommodate the design they were hoping to install. All in all their impromptu inspection of the systems already in place was not going well. Deathscythe was dead, Wing was a hacked mess, Sandrock's systems were designed in Arabic, Shenlong was an overheated melting pot and Heavyarms was….a fat lady, in Hilde's opinion. The entire system just seemed ten times larger than it needed to be and the only way around the problem, that she could see, would be to re-design the entire mess.

Heero suddenly appeared at her side, the rejected piece of Gundanium in his fist. He put it down with surprising gentleness as his eyes flickered over the Heavyarms console.

"This will not work."

"No shit, try telling me something I don't know."

"I don't like Relena Peacecraft."

Hilde gaped. He had actually taken her seriously…and had said…He wasn't serious? Everyone knew the pilot of Wing Gundam was continuously turning up to save the young politician and it was obvious to every female personage in space that the boy had a crush on her. Or perhaps, Hilde thought as she studied his slight grimace, not as obvious as one would have thought.

"Then why save her all the time?"

"It is necessary to follow orders. Those who give the orders believe her necessary. My orders demand she be protected."

Hilde gaped. Was he that mechanical; that determined to do a he was told? From what she had seen he was uncertain about the validity of his orders, and questioning the right of his leaders to send him into suicidal situations. So why was he suddenly so sure that Relena had to be protected? Was he really that adamant or was he trying to convince himself that it was still true? It was a hard thing to think about so Hilde pushed it aside for another day. Like when the war was over.

Hilde was about to push her way past Heero and out of the Gundam when the floor lurched and the Gundam shifted in its restraints, throwing her into him. Flushing a dark red, she pushed off him only to fall back into him as the shi lurched again. Swearing loudly, she allowed Heero's arm to snake around her waist as they hurried from the cockpit and grabbed hold of the lift rope for a short ride to the floor.

They hit the floor running, Hilde to the communications device on the wall, Heero for the hallway that led to the next bay over. Hilde watched him disappear and decided he knew better than her where they had been hit and followed. There were, after all, com-devices in the other bays.

It did not take Hilde long to realize she recognized where they were headed. She had come through these exact halls when she had first docked her ship, which made her furious. Had someone damaged her ship?

She caught Heero standing outside the bay doors which were crumpled inward and were crawling with Sweepers. They were all swearing loudly, but there were a few Hilde could tell wanted nothing more than to laugh. Even as she thought it raucous laughter exploded behind her and she turned to see the oddest looking collection of people ever. Not that she had truly expected anything less.

There was Howard, grinning from ear to ear, sunglasses glinting dangerously. There was Trowa the Gundam pilot with a small blonde boy who looked a little flushed. There was a Chinese boy cowling darkly at the wreckage and an amused looking woman in a white lab coat. There was a boy with a long chestnut braid curling around his hips, laughing up a storm. Odd.

Hilde stalked up to the laughing boy and stuck her finger into the black clothes on his chest, stabbing her nail in as hard as she could.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. My. SHIP!"

"Nothin!" The boy croaked out between gasps for air. "It was all Quatre's doing!" He pointed at the small blonde, who was flushed an even darker red and Hilde realized he was embarrassed. She also couldn't bring herself to yell at the poor little thing. It obviously wasn't all his fault…was it?

"Relena!"

Hilde spun around at the distinct aura of disbelief in Heero's tone. Sure enough, there in his arms, smiling as if all her dreams had come true, was none other than Relena Peacecraft. Not that Hilde really noticed, all her attention on the tall figure behind the pair. Long blonde hair flared out in a waterfall of golden splendour, pushed away from the face to reveal an aristocratic forehead and cold blue eyes. Hilde knew that face and the family behind it.

Not wasting another moment, Hilde stormed up to Dorothy Catalonia and wiped the smirk off her face with a well placed fist to the cheek. Hilde was not one for slapping.

"You Bitch! You drove your ship right into mine, didn't you! And I'll bet it was all your idea, too, you high-classes uber-skank!"

The entire bay was silent as they turned to stare at Hilde, who was much shorter than Dorothy and looked like a small childe standing there in her grease-smeared overalls and steel-capped boots. Dorothy towered over her in a well-selected military uniform with in insignia; a very intelligent decision.

Dorothy was the first to move. The smirk was replaced with a wicked grin of pearly white, savage appearing teeth, and she bowed low from the waist, blonde hair flowing over her shoulders as she refused to remover her gaze from Hilde.

"Indeed I did," she replied as she straightened, and then she swept past Hilde and went to shake hands with Howard. The boy with the braid, still far too amused, sauntered over to Hilde and placed an arm around her shoulders as if they were the bestest friends. Hilde was surprised to find she didn't really mind.

"So...an uber-skank?" He raised a brow at her and was obviously making quite an effort not to laugh in her face. Hilde was willing to give him that much credit, but not much more.

"Yes, an uber-skank," Hilde scowled as she spied Relena still hanging off Heero. He looked distinctly uncomfortable and completely unsure of himself. Hilde decided to help him out. She poked the braided boy in the side and started walking, slightly surprised when he followed immediately, apparently fully aware of what she intended.

"You ready to get back to work Heero?" Hilde asked innocently, indicating the hall they had entered through with a cocked thumb.

"Yeah, Heero, you've got a bit left to do from what I hear," the braided boy added, wrapping his fist around Hilde's thumb and pulling gently. Hilde gaped at him, slightly mortified, and slightly impressed that he dared be so bold with someone as volatile as Heero.

"Yes, I think there are some systems that still need a bit of…twigging…" Hilde added as straight-faced as she could. Heero was looking between them, a dark frown on his face as he tried to think if they were helping or hindering him.

"Greasing…" the braided boy added with a wink.

"Developing…"

"Maneuvering…"

Hilde laughed at that, sparing an approving glance at the other boy. It was then that it clicked. This boy had obviously grown up among the Sweepers; he knew their signals, had their humour. He was also obviously very close to Howard, which meant he could only be one person. The pilot 02. Pilot of Deathscythe. She noticed the priest's outfit he was wearing and gulped. That meant the Chinese boy was probably a Gundam pilot as well…and the little blonde. She scowled darkly; she should have revved him a good one for damaging her baby.

"Let's go!" She grabbed hold of Heero's sleeve and promptly dragged him from the bay, trusting the sweeper's to take care of her baby. She was, after all, one of there's. Heero was hesitant at first, but as soon as Relena's grip turned from possessive to puzzled her was all for it and they left the madness in their wake, Hilde unable to resist sticking her tongue out at Relena as they disappeared around the corner, 02's laughter ringing in her ears.

*

"That was…odd," Quatre noted as everyone filed out of the damaged bay and returned to their allocated jobs. A few Sweepers remained to take care of the mess but to all intents and purposes they were alone.

"Odd," Trowa agreed, face carefully blank though Quatre knew he was amused. "Do you make a habit of driving one ship into another?"

The question was asked so softly, in such innocence that at first Quatre did not catch the sarcasm, but after a moment he leant forward, throwing himself completely into Trowa's personal space.

"Do you really want to know?"

Trowa actually had the decency to look worried.

*

Duo woke to the soft sound of constant thunder. Opening bleary eyes he looked down at a sight both unfamiliar and familiar; a recent thing he was not sure how to contemplate. Instead, he found himself simply accepting that the body he had draped himself over in the night was now part of the family; part of the sad history that was his life. All he could do was try to protect it; take it for what it was, whatever that might be.

Smiling slightly at the way Wufei had instinctively curled toward his warmth while still trying to keep his injured shoulder away, Duo leant forward and brushed his fingers over the white bandage on Wufei's thigh, knowing too well how much the sensation tickled. Wufei's nose twitched and he shifted a little, but he did not wake.

How long they had slept Duo was not sure, but it was probably not long enough. As soon as they had pried themselves loose of the little queen's grip they had fled to their rooms, leaving her to the care of Howard and the scary blonde lady. As soon as Duo's head hit the pillow he had fallen asleep…and now he was once again awake. He was not sure if that was a good or bad thing. So he just sat, and stared.

A soft lock of satiny black hair had loosened from the tight tail Wufei liked to keep it in, flopping in front of his closed eyes. Duo smiled as he reached out and shifted it away, but as he did so, his fingers brushed over the soft golden skin and he thought it was softer than he remember. Or maybe it was his own skin, now once more undamaged and unblemished, that was making the difference. Whatever it was Duo found himself reaching out once again and running his fingertips down the side of Wufei's face. There were so many things Duo wanted to do with his life, so many dreams he feared would go unanswered, but when with Wufei…they seemed to all fly out the window, useless, noisy little bluebirds bringing the morning too soon. When with Wufei the night was not so frightening…it was even beautiful and Duo wanted nothing more than to be a part of it.

It was an odd moment as he sat there staring, on the brink of something but unable to fall over the edge. The precipice was not painful, merely a confounding cloud of uncertainty frozen by the waters of possibility. Duo leant forward, intent on an action he did not register.

And Wufei opened his eyes.

Duo reeled back, an almost physical force driving him back to his senses as he instinctively recoiled. Wufei, a worried frown on his face sat up, wincing a little as his shoulder was stabbed with pain from the sudden movement.

"Duo?" Hesitant, wary…weary. In pain. Duo could see it, but it was not a pain he recognized. He stared, waiting for more, but there was none. Wufei was also waiting and he could probably wait forever.

"I'm hungry," Duo sighed. Wufei looked at him oddly, but he could not explain. He made no move to get up, instead lying down beside Wufei and staring at the ceiling. He wasn't just hungry; he was starving.

But he didn't want food.

It was several hours before Duo realized Wufei was holding his hand.

*

"No, go left!"

"No."

"Yes, you stubborn mule, or you'll break the calibration between the limbs!" Hilde scowled up at Heero from her perch between the pelvis and leg cavities of Wing. They were not even halfway done with the `renovations' and already she wanted to kill him. Granted, she could understand not wanting others to work on his Gundam, but it was getting ridiculous. Whoever had taught Heero Yuy to build machinery had neglected to mention that the pilot also needed to be able to live.

"Fine."

Hilde glared up at Heero's sudden compliance. He hadn't given in to anything that easily since Miss. Peacecraft arrived. It was also at that point in time when Heero had suddenly decided Hilden was just another woman and would do whatever he said. She had disavowed him of that notion but had been having trouble getting him to even contemplate listening to any of his ideas.

"What's your deal Yuy? You know we could just recalibrate the system and do it from the right like you obviously wanted to, so why give in? Both ideas were doable."

Heero paused, but did not look at her. She thought he would not answer, but then he sighed and put down the wrench he had been bending with his fist.

"Your way is faster. Besides, Duo's awake."

Duo? Her face must have revealed how stumped she was as Heero glanced down and sighed even more heavily.

"Pilot 02. He…whenever we're on ship…sounds from space wake him up. He knows what sounds are from inside and which outside and responds to them. He's out there kicking Deathscythe because something's headed our way."

Hilde blinked. Had he really just taken a moment to explain something to her? Hilde had seen Heero react in many different ways to a lot of things in the short time she'd known him, but she had never seen him stop and explain something it was not essential for another to know.

Then it finally sunk in.

"We're under attack?"

Her reply was the shaking of the Peacemillion as something landed that did not belong.