Part Five
"What’s the plan?" Trowa whispered as they slipped through a window on the first floor.
"Since their so hidden, I guess they figure they don’t need locks..." Duo said to himself, looking around.
"Our first priority is finding Yuy and Winner." Wufei said quietly.
"W-what about the girl?" Duo asked.
"We might not have the time. We just need to make sure we get the others before they do something drastic..."
"Yeah, well...I guess you weren’t ever one to perform random acts of chivalry..." Duo sighed.
"Just whatever you do, stay as unnoticed as possible." Trowa added.
"Yeah, but we still got the whole problem about them blowin' the Sanq Kingdom to smithereens on our hands!" Duo went on.
"Maxwell, shut up and stay on task! We’ll worry about that when we find Heero and Quatre."
Duo blew air threw his lips as he walked over to the door and slowly opened it, peeking his head out and looking up and down the hall. Not a soul was in sight and thankfully, the halls were dark.
"I’m headin' out." Duo whispered over his shoulder, and slipped out of the room, absorbed by the darkness.
He passed over the first four doors he came to. Studying them, he found no reason to go in. There was no light pouring through the separation between door and floor at the bottom, so he simply skipped them. He finally came to one and stopped in front of it, straining his ears to listen. He made out two voices.
"Yeah, but what exactly are we going to do about all this?! And who are those boys that came with her? This is going to set back our plans extremely!"
"Alright, just calm down. I’m sure this is...just a minor setback..."
"I don’t think so, Keltin! There’s something about them that doesn’t set right with me!"
"Ok, we can talk to VanGuard about this later. Right now, we have to do our job. Just focus on where we’re going to launch those missiles from, alright?"
"Yeah, well I got a feelin' VanGaurd ain’t tellin' us all he knows..."
Duo decided not to waste any more time.
"And I still say..."
He was interrupted when the door was thrown open. Both men stood up, stunned and Duo stood there, gun level and ready to shoot.
"One of you even dares to move and I’ll kill you both." he growled, shutting the door with his foot, without even turning around. Both men raised their hands in fear. Obviously hired henchmen. "Very good. Now I need a little information. Two thugs came and took a couple friends of mine, which was quite rude if you ask me. Now where are they?"
"Uh, um...th..." the scrawny man on the left stuttered
"Are you talkin about a g-girl and two guys?" the bigger man said quietly.
"Yes! Especially the guys."
"W-well I don’t know anything about the guys..."
Duo sighed angrily.
"B-but I do know about the girl! She’s on the third floor...we locked her up in a room. But VanGuard hasn’t been in there yet...she was unconscious when they brought her in, and he just never went..."
"Her own dad didn’t even go in to see if she was conscious?!" Duo said.
"Wha...dad? What are you talking about..."
"Never mind." Duo shook his head. "Sorry guys. But I have to keep my entry a secret for as long as possible."
He punched the larger man in the face sending him to the ground. Without even waiting to see what the smaller, whimpier guy’s face was like, he did the same.
"Pathetic." Duo whispered to himself as he slid out of the room once more.
"Hey!" Duo laughed, slipping into a freezing room on third floor. It had a bed against the wall in which a familiar figure was lying, eyes closed.
"Hey...Shora, get up!" Duo hissed, lightly slapping her cheek.
She groaned suddenly and her eyes opened, her hand automatically shooting up to her forehead.
"Oh...bloody hell..." she groaned.
"I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus!"
"Well, not exactly." Duo said, helping her up.
She stood on her own two feet by herself and wavered for a moment. She growled again, looking down and seeing she was only wearing one shoe, causing her shoeless foot to dangle in the air. She sighed and took it off. As soon as she straitened up again, her eyes widened.
"Move!" she growled at Duo, shoving him.
She chucked her shoe forward and Duo recovered just in time to see a man crumple to the ground, shoe having hit him right on target on his head. He chuckled.
"Hey...that was pretty good! You got any of that left?"
"I-I think I can manage..."
She stopped when she was looking down her nose at a gun that Duo was holding in front of her face.
"Take it." he said, putting it in her hand.
"You know how to..."
"Oh, don’t even ask me if I know how to use it! Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m impaired in my knowledge of weapons!"
"Alrighty..." Duo laughed. "Oh, do you have any idea where they took the guys?"
She thought, then said, "Um...well I believe somewhere on this floor. I...faintly remember opening my eyes as we climbed the last flight of stairs and seeing them in front of me. Still unconscious, of course."
"Oh, of course." Duo sighed. "Yeah, well...I gotta go find them, if the others haven’t already. You can stick here, come with, or, what I would recommend, get out of here."
"Are you serious? You think after all I went through to do this, that I’m going to just pick up and leave? Right!"
She rolled her eyes and pushed past him, bare feet making quiet scuffles on the wooden floor.
"Wait up!" Duo whispered, following.
"Why don’t you go down that way, and I’ll go up here." Shora said, walking backwards in her direction.
"Woah, wait, are you sure you..."
"Don’t even ask!" she growled, turning around and quickly continuing.
Duo sighed and shook his head, turning around and going too.
"Excuse me for being a gentleman..." he grumbled.
Trowa slowly opened the door he had come to on third floor, slipping through the opening. Before he knew what hit him, something slammed him against the wall and ripped the gun out of his hand. He studied the person and, holding his hands up said,
"Heero, hold on! It’s me."
He nodded and handed Trowa his gun back. He noticed Heero’s hands were still cuffed.
"Oh, Heero. Are you hurt, or was Quatre?" Trowa asked.
"Neither. Why?"
"We found blood in Shora’s home, and..."
"Oh." Heero laughed. "Don’t worry about that, it’s nothing. Before Quatre blacked out, he elbowed a guy in the face and gave him a nosebleed."
Trowa sighed in relief. "Come on, we still have to find him. I’m not sure if Wufei or Duo has."
Heero nodded and followed Trowa into the dark hall.
Shora had busied herself at a computer she had found in an unoccupied room. She welcomed the advantage and did the best she could to find something, anything that would help. She had been sitting there for quite some minutes now and sighed in aggravation, finding everything that may have been of use locked with passwords. Unlike her pilot friends, she wasn’t much of a hacker. Making a mental note to take some lessons on that subject, she stood up and turned around, freezing at what she saw.
"Shora. You have not been behaving properly. Get back to your room this instant, I will be in you discuss your behavior." VanGuard said, standing right inside the room, blocking the door.
She stood her ground.
"No." she replied firmly.
He glared at her. "Excuse me?"
"I said no."
"I do believe that you are entitled to listen to me! I am your father!"
Shora laughed dryly, not taking her eyes off him.
"Really? Oh stop it. How long did you think it was going to take before I found out?"
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t flinch.
"Huh, father? How long? You think after all this, after all I found out about the gundams and their pilots, and the past war, and the wars before that, that I wouldn’t know?!"
"Shora, lower your voice..."
"Don’t you dare tell me to lower my voice, Mister VanGuard! Every last one of them died, because of insolent fools like yourself!" she screamed, gun that was pointed at him shaking a bit.
"You don’t know what you’re talking about, Shora. Put the gun down."
"Shut up! What was all this supposed to be, huh? Out of all I’ve figured out, I still can not see why you’ve played this game for so long, and why! So what exactly is the big plan? You also may be surprised to know I’ve realized that my situation is similar to Ms. Peacecraft’s in every aspect!"
VanGuard sighed. "Yes. Your situation is the same as Relena Peacecraft’s, or any other child who was in the Sanq Kingdom at the time. Just as hers, your...father, a very well known ambassador, was killed. What very few people knew about him, was that he had a child. And you, are the remains of that family."
"And what of my mother?" she asked, hands shaking in rage now.
"Your mother went as well. You were not in range of the city at the time."
She was silent for a moment, taking deep breaths to try to calm herself.
"Everything that has ever come out of your mouth has been a lie. And I am going to make you pay for what happened to my parents..."
Luckily, Trowa and Heero shortly met up with Wufei and Quatre in the hall. Quatre was free from any major injury, beside a large bump on the back of his head and slight dizzy spells. If it was the same for Heero, he wasn’t showing it. About to go and find Duo, they suddenly heard a gunshot, followed by a loud humming/crackling sound. They didn’t wait to ask questions as they hurried toward the sound. As it got louder, the faint smell of smoke filled their nostrils. Heero was the first in line, so he was the one to crash into a body, who was running toward him. Ready to defend himself, he saw Duo, holding his hands up.
"Hold on Heero!" Duo breathed, gasping for air.
They were all beginning to cough and a thick layer of black smoke was beginning to form above their heads.
"We can’t stay here!" Duo said, motioning for them to follow, away from the smoke that was pouring down the hall like liquid.
"Duo, what’s happening?!" Heero shouted, above the crackling noise that had grown quite loud.
Duo shook his head. "I don’t know! I was trying to find Shora when I heard the gunshot. I found the room it came from, some guy was lying on the floor and there were sparks coming from a fuse box on the wall. I don’t know where Shora is, but we gotta get outta here!" Duo finished his sentence and started coughing, covering his mouth with his shirt.
"Let’s go!" He shouted, mouth still inside his shirt, and started at a run down the hall. Exchanging glances, they all did the same.
The five boys ran away from the building and only turned to look when they were a safe distance away. The third floor was already engulfed in flames and it was quickly spreading to the second.
"Did she do this?" Quatre asked quietly, thankfully taking in the fresh air.
"She had to of..." Trowa answered.
"Well where is she?" Duo asked, looking around. "Did she get out?"
"Well she’s obviously not around here. Why don’t we check her house," Heero said, taking a glance at the building and walking away. The others gave one last look the building, consumed by flames, and followed.
***
They all had returned to Shora’s home to find a piece of paper pinned up on the door. She had somehow gotten there long before them. The note read:
Gundam Pilots,
It really has been a pleasure working with legends such as yourselves. I would really like to explain things more thoroughly in person, but I’m afraid there isn’t time. Yes, it was me who burned the building down, but don’t think of me as a savage for killing my own father. He wasn’t. Well I haven’t the time for long good-byes. All I can say, is perhaps someday we can meet again. Perhaps even work together once more.
-Shora
"I guess people can be more than they seem...you could even say we have living proof among us." Trowa said jokingly, glancing at Heero.
"Yeah...well I have a gut-feeling we’ll be seeing her again..." Heero said, to no one in particular.
Duo shook his head and threw the note into the wind, patting Quatre on the back.
"Well my man, what do you say, we get back to Maine and reschedule that appointment, huh?"
"Why do you say that?" Quatre asked, confused, as they walked over to their rented car.
Duo smiled. "I wanna see if it’s Selda’s shift."
The End
