Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ There Goes the World ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Oh, yeah I own Gundam Wing, just a few more videos and I'll have the whole series.

"It's a miracle any of us make it to the drinking age without having gone insane." --Mark Salzman

There Goes the World

Chapter 6

After night had fallen on L1 Roger left Rouges' Island in the care of the bartender and went through the maze of tunnels that led to the basement of the apartment building Nezumi was hidden in. He climbed the old creaky stairs up to the third floor, and went down the dark hallway until he reached apartment C5.

When he entered the small apartment he saw several rough looking men sitting around the living room playing cards. The men looked up, but returned their attention to their game when they saw that it was a friend at the door.

"How's she doing?"

One of the men shrugged. "She hasn't come out since you left with those Preventers. She hasn't eaten either."

Roger frowned and walked over to the kitchen where a small pot of stew sat on the stove, Nezumi's uneaten dinner. He poured some of the thick stew into a bowl, and took a small bottle of pills out of his pocket. He took two of the little white pills and stirred them into the stew. One of the poker players noticed, and raised his eyebrows with an unspoken question.

"Sleeping pills," Roger said and the man nodded, but did not return his attention to the game so Roger explained. "I have an arrangement with the Preventers. They're going to take care of her for now on. I don't want Nezumi giving them any trouble when they come to get her."

The man nodded again. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"The kid was right when he said that we won't be able to protect her forever. She'll be safer with them." Roger wasn't sure that the other man agreed, but he said nothing more about the subject.

Roger took the drugged dinner and went into Nezumi's bedroom. She was sitting on her bed staring out the window, deep in thought. Her legs were curled up to her chest and her chin rested on her knees. She didn't seem to notice him when he came in, and he stood there for a moment, observing her, after he put the food down on her desk.

He had known Nezumi since she was little girl, and had been close friends with her father until his death. She had always been a quiet girl, always kept to her self, this quality coupled with her size had earned her the name Mouse from her older brother. In that respect she had not changed at all. However, Roger knew she had changed in other ways.

He tired to think of the reason why she had changed so much. He knew it was not her parent's death; she had still been young then. Possibly her time among Dr. J's team of hackers, but that wasn't it ether. That had merely brought out her natural abilities with computers. He narrowed it down to the time she had spent with the Bolsheviks and her foolish brother, who was still among their ranks. It had to be that. She had left as little Mouse, the shy quiet little hacker, and had returned as Nezumi Houkyo, quiet, intelligent, and properly the most opinionated person he had ever meet, including himself. It briefly occurred to him that Nezumi may have simply grown up. Roger shook his head; there was no point in trying to figure out why she had changed. The only thing that mattered was that she had changed.

He pulled up her desk chair next to end of her bed, and when she looked up from her thoughts he handed her the bowl of stew. She accepted the bowl but made no move to eat any of it. She simply looked at it. After a few minutes of silence she looked back up at Roger.

"Is Heero that boy from Dr. J's lab?"

Roger nodded. "You didn't know that?" Nezumi was normally very well informed, and always knew what was going on. She was the one that had told Roger that Preventers were looking for her.

"I wasn't sure," she whispered. The silence returned, and Nezumi still made no move to eat her dinner. Roger frowned slightly. He worried about her. She was so small and thin that he was worried that she didn't eat enough. When she fell into those thoughtful moods of hers it was even worse: she practically stopped eating. It was as if this necessity of life simply slipped her mind because she was so engrossed in her own mind.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

Nezumi shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

"You're gonna wither away into nothing if you don't start eating more."

"I eat enough," she said defensively.

"No you don't," he said with a stern, fatherly look. Nezumi glared back, she'd be damned before she allowed Roger to lecture her on her eating habits again. Unfortunately, her stomach was on Roger's side this time and let out a low growl. Nezumi accepted defeat with a quiet sigh, and started to eat. Roger carefully watched her until she had finished the drugged stew.

"Happy now?"

Roger nodded. "Very. Now get some rest, we'll be moving you again soon." Nezumi glared at him for giving her another order before nodding and resuming her position staring out the window again. Roger watched her for a minute.

Her eyes were already starting to feel heavy and were half lidded with sleepiness. When she gave a little yawn Roger took the bowl to the kitchen sink. He went back into the little bedroom to check on Nezumi. She was curled up into a little ball on her side, fast asleep. He carefully laid a blanket over her small form. He sighed as he looked at her. She looked so peaceful while asleep, as if she was still the little girl he had once known.

"I'm sorry little Mouse," he said, his voice heavy with guilt, "but this is for the best." With that he left her alone to sleep.

*******

Heero and Duo sat in their borrowed Preventers' car in a dark alley behind Rouges' Island. The engine was turned off so as not to attract attention and the cool night air was quickly seeping into the car. Heero calmly glanced at his watch. It was eleven fifty-five, almost time for Roger to hand over Nezumi.

Heero replayed the events of the afternoon and evening in his mind. After another interesting meal with Duo they had gone to the local Preventers office. They were no longer concerned about the Bolsheviks discovering them. The group probably already knew of their presence anyway. While they were at the office Heero had called Lady Une to inform her of the new developments in their mission.

He had been right in his assumption that she would not be happy that the Bolsheviks had hacked into the Preventers' network. When he had informed her of Nezumi's former position she had warned him to be careful with her, and told him that the girl could be a useful ally against the Bolsheviks. Heero had tactfully left out the part of Nezumi's dislike for the Preventers and capitalists; he did not wish to anger Une any more then necessary.

There was quick rasp on the car's rear window and a shadowy figure walked up next to the front door. Heero and Duo got out of the car; the man gestured for them to follow.

"Roger wants to speak to you first." The man led them into the back of Rouges' Island and into Roger's office.

Heero noticed Nezumi was wrapped up in a large sweatshirt jacket and out cold on a small couch. Roger was there pacing in his office, but he stopped when the trio entered. He glanced over at them with a troubled look on his face. "She's all ready to go," he said. "That's all her stuff right there." He gestured to a couple of duffel bags on the floor next to the couch. Heero and Duo silently nodded. Duo walked over and slung both bags over his shoulders. Heero picked up Nezumi, and quickly noted that his cargo was very light

"Is that it?" Roger nodded in response to Heero's question. The man who had led them into the office started to escort them back to their waiting car. Heero was just about to follow him out when he felt a rough hand clasp his shoulder. He turned his head to see Roger sending him a hard glare.

"You better take care of her, kid," he warned. "If anything happens to my little mouse, you'll be sorry that you ever got involved in this mess." Heero stared back and nodded at the older man. Roger searched Heero's blank expression for a moment before he let his shoulder go, and gave him a stiff nod.

Heero left the office and retraced his steps to the car. Duo had already turned it on, and was sitting behind the wheel. The other man opened a car door for Heero. He placed Nezumi in the back seat before climbing in next to Duo in the front. With their new passenger secure Duo took off.

Neither Duo nor Heero spoke as they drove back to their safe house. Heero because it was simply in his nature to be silent, and Duo because he did not wish to wake their passenger. So their ride proceeded in silence for a few minutes until Duo noticed something in the rear view mirror.

"That car has been behind us for a while."

Heero frowned in response. "Turn left up here." Duo complied with the order when he reached the intersection. A few seconds later another car turned left. Heero glared at it in one of the mirrors. "Go right." Duo turned right into a small alleyway. "Right and then left." Duo steered the car through the maze of allies in between the apartment buildings, the other car followed. "Stop the car."

"Why? We need to lose them, not talk to them." Despite his protests Duo did stop the car and put it in park.

Heero got out and watched the other car come to stop not too far behind their own. "I don't plan to talk."

Duo came out in time to see two shadowy figures exit the car. The figures quickly walked towards the pilots.

"Give us the girl, and you won't get hurt." The owner of the voice drew a gun from his coat and pointed it at Heero. The other pointed a gun at Duo.

Heero, true to word, said nothing. He pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the speaker. He aimed it quickly and accurately, and fired. The other man dropped his weapon as Heero's bullet ripped through his hand. He clutched his maimed hand to his chest and glared at the young Preventer before rushing at him. The man pulled his unharmed hand back ready to strike, but Heero had years of training on his side, and easily sidestepped the man's attack. Heero kicked the other man's feet out from under him, and the man crashed headfirst onto the pavement. The force of the fall knocked the man out, and he lay quietly on the concrete.

Meanwhile, the other man had tried to attack Duo. However, the former Gundam pilot was too quick for him. After being thrown back a few feet, compliments of Duo, he got up and rushed at the young man. Duo grabbed his attacker's arm and used the extra momentum to flip the man onto his back. Duo pointed his gun directly at the man's head and glared down at him. At that moment it was obvious, especially to the man on the ground, why Duo had once been known as the god of death.

Heero, having just taken care of his own attacker, approached Duo. He knelt down next to the man, and stared at him. All emotion was absent from Heero's face, and the defeated man found this detached look just as unsettling as the god of death's glare.

"Who do you work for?" he asked using his cold monotone.

The frighten man obediently answered in hopes that they would spare his life. "The Bolsheviks. They're the ones that want her," he stammered.

"What do they want with her?"

"I-I don't know."

"You're lying." The man's eyes widen with fear at the accusation. "Tell us the truth."

"I don't know. There are rumors but that's it. They just told me to bring the Mouse back alive."

"What do the rumors say?"

"There was something about her having a fight with her brother before she left. And a virus, they want her to make a computer virus. But that's all I've heard, I swear." Heero nodded and reached behind the man's head. He pushed a pressure point on his neck and the man's body went limp. He stood up and got back in the car. Duo holstered his gun and started driving once he was back in the car. Heero quickly became lost in thought as Duo wove his way back onto the main streets. His mind drifted to Roger's parting words.

Roger had called Nezumi "little mouse." There was something about that nickname that sounded familiar to him. He knew that it was not because Lady Une had called her Mouse when she gave them the mission. It was something else, something further back in his memory. He thought back, trying to figure out where he had heard it before, while carefully avoiding many painful memories. After several minutes of combing through his mind he still could not place it.

There was something else that caught his attention so he turned his attention to this new topic. The man had said something about Nezumi having a fight with her bother, and he remembered her telling them that her brother had given her name.

He thought this over more; the file on her had said nothing about any family. However, the girl had mostly likely manufactured the file since Nezumi was not even her real name. If Nezumi did have a brother that was still a part of the Bolsheviks it might explain why she had refused to have any thing to do with the Preventers. Even if she had fought with him before leaving it was unlikely that she would want her brother to get in trouble. With this revelation her earlier actions made a bit more sense to Heero.

By the time Duo pulled to a stop in front of their home Heero had returned to contemplating where he had heard the nickname "little mouse" before. He paused his thoughts as Duo got out of the car and carried Nezumi's bags into the house. However, they started to plague him again as he carried the source of his pondering out of the car and into the spare bedroom.

He set her down on the bed to continue her drugged sleep in peace. Duo passed by the room just as Heero was walking for the door. "Ah, come on, Heero, you can't just leave her like that." Heero quickly glanced around the room and saw nothing wrong. "You didn't even cover her with the blanket." He looked over his shoulder at Nezumi's unconscious form. Duo had been right; the only covering she had was the oversized sweatshirt jacket.

He went back to the bed's side and pulled the covers over her body. He looked down at Nezumi; she looked so young and innocent. The scene before him made words from a tongue he had not spoken in years fall from his mouth before he could stop them. Once the words were said he wondered why it felt like he had said them before. They made Duo wonder what the hell his comrade was saying. The strange words were, "Oyasumi nasai, chisai nezumi."

********

"Oyasumi nasai, chisai nezumi" means "Good night, little mouse." in Japanese

AN: And that concludes chapter six. I hoped you enjoyed it. I've already started chapter 7 so it shouldn't be too long before I post that. Many thanks to Jessi-chan, Kiriko, and Black Dragon Eyes for reviewing this fic. I really appreciate your comments. And I do plan to do more into Heero's past, I just wanted to get a few other things done first. Bye for now everyone!