Author: Andrea Weiling
Hilde paced back and forth, then finally hit her fist on the wall in frustration. What is taking Duo so long? He's hurt, he gets the bullet out, he comes back to the base. He's hurt, he gets the bullet out, he comes back to the base. He's hurt, he gets the bullet out -
"Hilde? Are you still in there?", Lady Une knocked softly on the German's door.
The latter ran a frustrated hand through her short hair and answered ,"Yeah, I'm in here. What's the matter, Lady Une? Oh, and please do come in. Don't want to talk to the door, do you?"
Neither laughed at the joke, but the Lady did come in and sit delicately on Hilde's tidily made bed. "I'm afraid there's been a problem, Hilde. We saw a skirmish near the hospital where Duo was supposed to be treated, but the helicopter that was patrolling got heard and was shot down before we could get any more information. I think they're in trouble. And there's more bad news..."Hilde leaned in anxiously. "Yes, what is it?"
"Sally Po is dead, I fear. Pagan sent me a report when he was in the car with the others. Though he didn't say anything about Duo, he did say that the 'female Preventer' was dead. That must've been Sally, since Wufei is far from the category of 'female'."
Hilde half - snickered at this comment, but after a few seconds, shut up and turned serious again.
"So, what do we do? We can't just leave them there, I mean, that would be like killing them. What are we going to do about their dilemma, Lady Une?"
The older lady shook her head, loose brown hair waving back and forth, reminding Hilde vaguely of Duo's swinging braid.
"I don't know, Hilde. I just don't know."
And at that very exact moment, the subject of Hilde and Lady Une's talk was sitting very calmly on top of a sprawled Quatre's arm, while he tried to ignore the growing fester in his back.
Just a little farther 'til the next hospital, c'mon, hang on, Duo, he thought to himself as his vision went black.
Heero was busy examining the glass between the driver seat and the back seats when a filmy gas began to whirl in.
Well, I had a plan, but I guess it's not going to work in these conditions. But if I punch the window...
Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Noin winced at the falling glass that cut everywhere. Not that Duo was awake; he probably was dreaming something.
Then my miserable plan might actually work!, Heero finished his thought and also punched the glass between the driver and the passengers. Hastily he threw open the door and waited until the car had practically stopped before pushed everyone out onto the sidewalk. "Run!", he commanded. "Save yourselves, don't worry about me!"
As Duo passed by, carrying a still - sleeping Wufei between him and Noin, Heero grabbed his arm and reeled him in, whispering (or shouting, the din was so loud) ,"If I die, tell Relena what she already knows."
Duo nodded curtly at the Perfect Soldier and sped on, leaving Heero behind in the light of the flaming car. He glanced back one last time and the Japanese was gone, but shouts and curses could be heard in Shinigami's ears, and he ran even faster, almost leaving Noin behind.
Heero was satisfied as he watched 3 figures disappear into a nearby alley. He knew his time had come, and he felt the same lightheadedness as the time he had pressed the self -detonating switch. He fought as hard as he could, but seeing that they just kept coming, gave up when a blow knocked him into darkness.
Quatre looked around nervously, as Trowa still hauled the still - formed Sally, who was getting stiff.
Out of nowhere, Quatre fired a shot at a nearby lamppost. "Come out, Dorothy! I know you're there!"
He aimed his gun at the imposing figure as she stepped out of the shadows. "Hello, Quatre Raberba Winner. Isn't it a nice evening out? Why don't you just hand me that gun and step aside? I promise I won't hurt you...onegai?"
The blonde pilot's eyes pinched together with ultimate effort to control his face into the tight grimace he held now. With a click, he pulled back the last safety lock.
The fork - eyebrowed girl stepped closer one step. "Won't you listen to me, Quatre?"
Quatre held the gun up even higher, in defiance. "Get out of our way, Dorothy! We've all had our share of your trickery, so I think you should be the one to step aside!"
"But, Quatre", Dorothy waved her hair a little, rippling it in the dim lamplight. "We've just started the fun! Why don't you come and join us, Quatre?"
"Never!"
"Come on, Quatre. You're life's waiting for you to accept the fact that you are one of us -"
And there, Dorothy made the fatal mistake of stepping one step closer to Quatre.
Duo didn't remember much of what happened after they got to the base, or how they got to the base. All he remembered was someone carrying him to his room, after removing a painful bullet, and covering him up in milky white sheets.
So when he woke up, the first thing he heard was his stomach growling in hunger. As if this room had been monitored, the door opened and admitted Quatre. The blonde pilot was going to feed the American when he saw his comrade's indigo eyes were wide open.
"Duo! You're awake!"
"Yeah, I guess I am. How long've I been out of it?"
Quatre tapped his chin for a minute. "Quite a few days, I think, almost a week. Yes, that's about right...a week at the most, Duo."
"Any word from Heero, or anything about him?"
The Arabian shook his head. "Only bad news about him."
Duo tried to sit up quickly, but his back still ached and he fell back helpless on the pillow with a poof sound. "What bad news? Has he been captured? Have the Conquistadors offered a ransom for him? Can we get him back somehow?"
Quatre held his hand against the steady flow of questions. "Yes, Heero has been captured, and yes, the Conquistadors have offered a ransom. No, he isn't dead, but he's here."
Duo was confused. "What do you mean 'here'?"
"The Conquistadors gave him back for some reason. He's probably downstairs drinking a cup of coffee right now, and if he's not, then he's going headlong back into Lady Une's research lab, looking for clues to how he can defeat them."
Duo snorted. "Still working, eh? Why'm I not surprised?"
Quatre answered earnestly. "Maybe because that's practically what he does for a living? Researching different subjects?"
"Yes", said a voice from the door. Both pilots turned and for some reason, none were surprised that it was Heero. The L1 pilot stepped in delicately and stared at them impassively. "Researching this is my life. I plan to join the Preventer agency when this is over. There aren't enough people to register others right now, so I can't join at the moment." He also pulled up a chair and sat down. "How do you feel, Duo? I know I'm not the best surgeon, but everyone else was on duty, so I was the only one who really knew anything about medical issues. I did I messy job of bandaging, I know. Have you changed his bandages yet, Quatre?"
"No, not yet, Heero. I was going to feed him first."
As if Duo's stomach had heard, it gurgled tremendously. Quatre stifled a laugh, Heero smiled a tiny bit, and Duo turned 5 shades of red. "Hey", he murmured ,"it's not my fault it growled so loud." Then he pretended to pout as Quatre handed him a bowl of soup.
"Drink it all up, Duo, even if you don't like the taste."
The injured pilot took one sip and spat it all out on the pristine white blankets. "What is this filth, anyway? Is this an example of Heero's cooking?"
Duo barely ducked the fist that came whistling over his head. "My cooking can't be that bad, you know. I'm sure we've all had training on how to cook, Duo", Heero's cobalt eyes showed the smallest sparkle of mocking, so Duo had to settle for that.
"So what? Just because someone's had training in cooking lessons, it doesn't mean that that person necessarily knows how to cook."
Now Duo had to duck 2 blows. "Hey! I'm injured, you know! I don't really have the time or energy to fight with you guys right now."
Placitively, he began to sip the simmering soup again and commented lightly ,"Yuck. It still tastes horrible."
Heero's smile grew a little wider. "Do you want to know who cooked it?"
Both Quatre and Duo leaned forward. "Who?", they asked together.
Heero grinned maliciously, a rare sight to see. "Wufei. Wufei cooked it."
All 3 burst out laughing. Outside, Lady Une wondered what could be taking Quatre so long to feed Duo a bowl of soup. Nevertheless, she was happy that they were so lighthearted at the moment, not knowing the darkness that was threatening to engulf the peace they had finally achieved from hard work.
The day after, Quatre disappeared.
And after much deliberation and discussion with the Magunac Corps, they concluded that Quatre had indeed been kidnapped by the Conquistadors.
But of course, there was simply no way to determine this, no way to confirm this assumption. And of course, there were many plans for to get back their comrade. Perhaps, too many to count or take into account.
"No!", Abdul shouted. "I think we should go in by force! Take a few of them down before we totally give up on Master Quatre's escape! We can be assured that he will be waiting for us."
"That's not good, though", Osmal yelled back. "We need to think of Master Quatre first, not the enemy! We should go in inconspicuously, so they don't suspect anything. It'll be harder then the other plan, but at least we can get to our destination safer instead of yelling to the world that we're in the Conquistador's fortress."
"I think we should go by Abdul's plan!", one Magunac shouted.
"No, I think we should go by Osmal's plan!", another shouted.
"Abdul's plan!"
"Osmal's plan!"
"Abdul!"
"Osmal!"
"Abdul!"
"Osmal!"
"Everyone, settle down! I will hear no more of this ignorant bickering; this will get us nowhere near Quatre's rescue, so I suggest that this mess hall, *my* mess hall, be as quiet as ever, with minimum talking. Ration on the blabber, please, and stuff your mouths with delicious food rather then useless arguments", Lady Une sat down at the 'commanders' table and started to help herself potatoes and cheese spinach. Beside her, Mariemeiya tugged impatiently at her foster mother's sleeve, to make her see that she couldn't reach the canned meat that had been heated at the middle of the table. The Lady absentmindedly served her daughter and turned her thoughts back to the last few days, and what could've happened to Quatre.
Obviously everyone is afraid for his safety, she thought. He is a very special person, to not just a few people, but many. He is a...a person that can unite people to stand for what they believe in. He gives them confidence in what they do. That's why so many people wish to give him their kindness in return, giving him a spoiled, bratty first impression about him. Of course, I used to be that way, too, so I guess I'm not in the position to say anything. And I definitely know of more than 50 people who are worried about his precarious condition. I wish I could do something. I'm the only one who seems to wield considerable power; all the others are depending on me to do something, something to save him.
But I don't have the ability to do anything. I'm powerless; perhaps even their power and skill surpasses mine. No, that's not right: their power and skill does surpass mine, no matter what. They really don't know what they can depend on me for, do they? I guess they depend on me for moral support...that's all I can spare, all I have for them right now.
Oh, how I wish I could ease their minds of all this frustration and panic. Me, who's gone through most everything, wishes I could do something for another...how ironic, I never thought of anyone when I was Colonel Lady Une, so what has changed...
Mr. Treize was right. The pilots are who we can depend on.
But how can we depend on them if one of them is missing?
I guess we'll just have to do our best with only 4.
"Lady Une? Are you in there? Are you on Mars or are you still on Saturn? Maybe Jupiter or Pluto?", Noin waved a hand cautiously before the Lady's face.
The Lady snapped out of her reverie, and answered ,"I was on Planet Daydream, Noin. I'm sorry, but all 4 of your guesses were wrong", Lady Une smiled and waited until everyone was done laughing, then continued ,"I expect your next guess to be Planet Treize, am I right?"
Noin shook her head. "I didn't know you were on an imaginary planet, Lady Une. I simply gave it a try to guess where your mind was at that moment. It's really not that big of an issue...", Noin glared at Duo, who was laughing his head off. "It's not funny, Duo. Oi, are you listening, you laughing freak?"
"Ha ha ha! Ha ha! No! Of course not!", Duo said between bouts of laughter.
Everyone at the table (with the exception of Duo, who was still laughing his head off) sweatdropped.
Lady Une inwardly clicked a point for herself. She had made everyone laugh; that was an almost impossible feat, considering the table included Trowa and Heero. Her calm smile disappeared from sight when the next thought entered her mind. Who knows when our next laughs will be?
Quatre woke up in complete and utter darkness. He took a few minutes to adjust his eyes to the darkness, and saw his imprisonment was a cell the size of a small cavern. He realized that there was a warmth at his side, and turned.
He would've hit her, but he stopped his hand just an inch away from her blonde head, still intact with a black headband. Her long hair spread over the cold floor, and Quatre arranged her body in a more comfortable position with her back against the wall. His only illumination was the window on his left, which was dark anyway; it was nighttime.
Dorothy stirred. Quatre frowned, but just got as far as the corner she was laying against.
The former enemy didn't open her eyes, but she did feel the cold walls that surrounded her, smelled the musty air of the castle, heard a person's quickening breath in the opposite corner of the cell. The former member of the Libra attack opened her eyes suddenly and found she was still wearing the dress she was supposed to go to the Preventer meeting in. She looked up and saw it was Quatre who sat in the opposite corner, and reached out her hand to him. "Can you help me up? I think my dress is caught on something, and my leg...something's wrong with it."
To her surprise, Quatre did nothing. "Why should anyone help a traitor like you? You, who we thought was on our side, was on the enemy side all along! You've betrayed us, Dorothy!"
Dorothy's eyes widened to their largest she'd ever done. "What? What are you talking about?"
Quatre crossed his arms and stood up. "I mean that you launched an attack on us in our reconnaissance trip to save Sally and Wufei. That was you, no doubt is was. In fact, you even introduced yourself to betray us! You admitted that my words back on Libra had no effect on you, so I will not help you, double - crosser."
Dorothy got up herself and fell back down. Quatre, perhaps, pitying her, helped her up, but in a rough way that he had never dared used before. Once they had hobbled to the window, Dorothy was able to hold herself up and still turn around to talk to Quatre.
"I have no idea on what you're talking about, Quatre Raberba Winner."
"Yes, you do."
"All right. Tell me what happened. I won't interrupt, just keep talking. I want to know the whole story of what happened. Don't stop at all; just keep talking."
Quatre's frown became deeper. He rationed his words to ,"We went out to get back Sally and Wufei. They were kidnapped by a new organization called the Conquistadors. The trip back included a stop to the hospital to get Duo's bullet wound cleaned. We found the hospital was occupied by Conquistador soldiers led by someone who claimed to be Dorothy. Everyone but Heero escaped, but even though he was on occupation for a while, he got out; the Conquistadors released him. I don't know if there are 2 Dorothys, or if you were told to do that."
Dorothy sat down, her arms not able to support the weight of the rest of her body. She rubbed a sore spot on her foot, and said ,"I think there is an impostor at hand."
"How do I know you're not lying?", Quatre did not move from his position in front her. The shadow was cast behind him blended in with the rest of the room (in shadow) as he spoke ,"As far as I know, you are the enemy Dorothy."
"Did you notice anything different about the other Dorothy? Like this, for example?", Dorothy showed her hand to Quatre, and in the starlight, he felt and saw there was a giant burn on her hand. "Where'd you get it?"
Dorothy's blush went unseen in the night ,"I was cooking when I forgot to put on gloves and touched a hot pan...I think you get the picture."
Quatre's frown disappeared. "Then you are indeed the real Dorothy. The other Dorothy didn't have a burn on her left hand. That was a stupid mistake, holding a hot pan without gloves."
Dorothy shook her blonde head. "Don't rub it in, will you?"
The two sat the next few minutes out, then Dorothy heard a wheezing sound. "Quatre?"
"Ack! Help, Dorothy! It's my space heart; it's also known as asthma. I think I'm getting an attack!"
Dorothy skittered over as fast as she could and helped to calm him down, resulting in him falling asleep. As she watched and guarded over an unsuspecting Quatre, the sun rose and found the two prisoners deep in dreamland.
"Sir, what should we do with the 2 prisoners? As you predicted, they are asleep. So what are your further orders?", the soldier asked timidly to the back of the chair.
The chair did not turn, but the man in the chair did speak. "Leave them. We must tempt the tiger in order for it to drown in the pool, but we must not lose the bait rabbit in the pool before it is the correct time."
Lieutenant Hitchcock was confused, but he left it there and after a curt "Sir", he left the room.
The man in the chair smiled.
It was a serpent's smile.
"So, what do we plan to do, anyway?", Duo lounged comfortably between 2 tree roots and munched a giant red apple. Spitting a seed out, he repeated ,"Well? What's out plan to get Quatre out?"
Heero, typing on his laptop as usual, answered, "No plan is the best plan."
Duo, pouting, retorted, "You have a plan. You've used plans too, so it's not my fault that a plans better then nothing, you know."
Trowa looked up at the apple trunk and shook the tree a little so a few apples fell on Duo's head. "Why don't we pay attention to the current problems we've got", he nodded in the direction of the other side of the garden.
All looked as Wufei strolled restlessly under a pear tree and disappeared. Wufei ran his hands on the pear tree's bark and sighed.
Quatre's been gone for 2 days now. He's not the anti - social type like I am, so he's got to be kidnapped, in some way or the other. I wish I could do something to help; I mean, all we're doing here is sitting and twiddling our thumbs while Quatre could be going through the most painful torture and cruelty in his life.
And look at the baka over there! Maxwell! He's just sitting there, innocently eating an apple! What's wrong with him? All the others are trying to think of ways to help Quatre, while he's sitting there eating an apple! Rage filled Wufei at that moment, and he began to walk huffily up the slope to face the insolent Duo.
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Author's note:
D'ya like it so far? I really don't like a fight, but I guess it's almost necessary here. Wufei's really distressed about Sally, and that affects his temper, too. So read on, and see what happens. In this one, Hilde and Duo are together. Yes, I accept your complaints on the fact that Hilde and Duo don't seem to be together, but whatever comes and goes.
Andrea Weiling
All images and content belong to Black Ink on White Scroll
