Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Garou ❯ Rescue ( Chapter 16 )

*Does the Dance of Reviews* I got 121 reviews!! I got 121 reviews!!! WHEEEE!!!!!! ... I wanted to draw the 121th reviewer a piccy (1x2x1 rules!) but they never answered me *sniffles* Laureeeeeel? You there?

Warnings: Not much… Violence. 13+5+13, some 1+2+1 and 4+3 hints ^_^

Beta-ed by: Arabiana, whom I love and adore and without whom this wouldn't even look like English ^^; All hail the mighty beta-reader!

Notes! First: Treize wasn't contaminated in the last part ^^ He's been scratched and hit, not bitten. No saliva, no contamination ;p Being clawed is not enough because it is transmitted by blood or spit or *cough* you see what. Second: As I said at the beginning (but I know many people don't read the warnings... like I do *cough cough*) this will end in 1x2 and 3x4, the other couples haven't been quite decided yet. But I make no promises for what happens in between ^___^ There will be some sex just for sex in there... (but Terra asked about 1x4. Nope. Not a trace. That's one of the only pairings I can't see at all, with 3x5 ^.^; sorry)

Amber... I have no idea if cheetahs are still around in AC 195 but if they are, it's only in zoos and circuses. *sniffles* Trowa just likes cats and took the pain of learning about them ^_^

Rescue

/a hunt in the forest of gray walls, the labyrinth of corridors

but the prey is me

run, fast

I don't want to run away, but no choice

anger

I am not prey!!

explosions

pain/

Wufei woke up with a start, the phantom pain of the /shot/ pulsating in his thigh. He needed a few seconds to get his control on his respiration back. The ceiling was covered in white tiles, striped with long, narrow shadows. He didn't understand for a moment that they were the shadows of bars.

/prisoner I am a prisoner bars on the windows can't get out prisoner can't get out prisoner /

Every muscle tensed, he growled low.

The last thing he remembered was a discussion with Treize and … /meiran/. And he found himself here, in a room with barred windows, and…

…tied down.

He pulled with force on the restrains keeping him tied to the bed, but the leather refused to give even one inch.

He turned toward the door…

… A chestnut-haired man, his short hair messed up, was sleeping at his bedside, his head resting on his crossed arms, his deep blue vest hanging on the chair's back.

'he's watching over me…?'

Wufei repressed the burst of moved surprise rising. It was true that Treize had always treated him well, that he had been nice and easygoing… But he had also put him, or let him be put, in this cage-room. He was…an adversary. He refused to let himself be affected by the man's tired air, or by the fact that he had fallen asleep there, in that uncomfortable chair, rather than leaving Wufei alone. He would not stay at the mercy of anyone, friend or foe.

A silver flash against the chair attracted his eyes and he wondered for a second if he could catch and use the blade of the ceremonial sword to cut his ties…

The blade

/a man clothed in blue, haughty looking

I have to win

I get out the sword of my family, received of the hands of the Head of my Clan,

a pass, two passes, and suddenly surprise and the beginning of fear

he's heavier, stronger, his technique is too different, and …best

a flash of anguish when I understand that I am going to lose

blade under my chin; vanquished

at his mercy, fallen on my knee

humiliation

the cold makes me shiver, and I look up to the adversary

his too blue eyes staring down at me, superior

I'd hate him if I didn't respect him so much, against myself

beaten/

Wufei shook his head to chase away the flashback. It was official now; Treize had been his adversary. Well, that only sorted out the problem.

The emotions he had felt during the memory had been so violent, so alien. For a moment, he refused to believe that they could have been his, refused to think he may have known how to fight and maim and kill. And then he realized that his refusal itself was too violent for the calm and impassive boy he had believed himself to be. And the sword… he closed his fingers, experimentally, imagining with a precision that was all the proof he needed the weight of the weapon and the shape of the handle in his hand.

A deep horror against the idea of being that which he had believed to hate, a warrior, flooded him like a wave…

Then the wave flowed back, just like that, pushed back by pragmatism. If he knew how to fight, he would just use it to escape.

His bruised wrists reminded him of their existence and he gritted his teeth, suddenly furious like he had been in that memory. He did not want to think about abstractions! He needed to free himself, to get out! Preferably two minutes ago.

His nails drove in the leather straps with violence; the pain rose up to his forearms. He didn't care much about that pain; it served his purpose, to make himself more unnerved, thus stronger; too bad if he was ripping off his nails in the process.

His muscles were prominent, like ropes, tensed hard enough to hurt against the straps. He wouldn't stop before something broke, be it his hands or the leather.

The pain went up to his elbows in burning waves, and he wondered if he had succeeded in rupturing a tendon or tearing a muscle.

And then he nearly fell on Treize when the strap around his left hand tore and gave suddenly, making him lose his balance. His hand was shooting sharp shards of suffering and he stared at it for a few seconds. His nails hurt like hell. His wrist was bruised and rubbed nearly raw. And his hand itself looked strange … then the impression of strangeness left, and he forced himself to use the hand to untie the other leather strap, not caring about his fingers' painful swelling and the deep pulsing feeling still beating through him.

He jumped off the hospital bed in silence and searched the room with silent, light steps he wouldn't have believed himself capable of. The door was probably being guarded. The corridors were surely littered with soldiers…

Maybe, maybe he could take Treize hostage…?

No. The man was still deeply sleeping, visibly spent from his watching over him, and his ruffled hair made him nearly vulnerable-looking. Plus he had always been honest with Wufei… even during their fight he had been fair and honorable. He couldn't attack him while the man was asleep.

His hand stopped a few inches shy of Treize's shoulder when he realized that he had been stretching it out to touch him. The man may have stayed at his bedside, but he was still an enemy. Wufei wouldn't attack him if he could do otherwise, but he would certainly not facilitate his own capture.

Leaving the man to his sleep, Wufei examined the window's bars for a few minutes, staring at them from every angle, but he came fast to the conclusion that even if he was stronger than he had believed himself to be, he wasn't yet strong enough to bend steel with his bare hands. He was strong, yes, but certainly not as much as /…wing…/

As who?

/ eyes blue as ice, blue like outer space, deep and cold/

Wufei lifted a hand to his head and had to keep himself from moaning under the piercing headache that had just awakened with this strange piece of memory. He fell on his knees, and closed his eyes.

/fight, fury, explosions of fire

blackmail, injustice

seems so frail, he who was so strong, stronger than me

pushed down by the explosion, tossed down his…

…his … angel ? /

/ and his unexpected return, months later … /

/… immortal … ?/

With an effort, the Chinese boy chased the memory away. He didn't have the time. Not now. As soon as he was out of here, he would try to find the name of this strange boy and the relation he had to him. What was the /thing/ /angel/ of metal he had seen explode into little pieces, fallen, broken. For the moment his escape was more important.

"…Wufei…?" whispered Treize's still ill-woken voice.

He whirled around, a chair in hand; ready to crash it on the man's head.

Treize was staring at him, looking stupefied and incredulous. His eyes were so unguarded, so vulnerable when he was waking up, that the Chinese boy stopped himself short, against his better judgement. He couldn't find the resolve to hurt him.

The general half-got up, but went still the second he saw Wufei tensing, ready to hit. Treize stared for a long time at the black-haired teenager, extremely serious. He seemed to be searching for something on his face, as if he could read Wufei's thoughts, and, feeling menaced, the boy clenched his hands on the chair's back until his joints turned white.

"You remember?" he asked at last in a low voice, when he finally admitted that it really was hostility that he saw on his dragon's face.

Wufei shook his head, chasing his ebony locks from his face.

"Enough to know that I can't stay here," he answered in a voice just as low, but more intense.

Treize sighed and lowered his eyes briefly, then looked up at him again.

"I can't let you run away, Wufei. You know that," he said in a regretful tone. "Not as long as I'm able to stop you."

The Chinese boy was clenching his hands so hard now that you could hear small splinters of paint and wood come off the back of the chair. He didn't realize that the ends of his pointed nails were beginning to pierce through the wood, nor did Treize, too focused on the boy's face.

Straightening up, the man took on a dignified stance, walked closer to the bed, and closed his eyes ostensibly, turning his back to him.

After a few seconds of stupefaction, Wufei approached in a light step. After much thinking, he decided not to use the chair. It would be much too painful.

"Treize…"

Gently, he turned the man back toward him and put both hands on his cheeks. Surprised, Treize tried to open his eyes again, but Wufei prevented it by leaning a hand across his eyes.

Blushing like mad, he raised himself on his tiptoes, slid his hands around the neck of the general he now knew to be his enemy, and pulled him forward, then softly brushed his lips against the man's. Stupefied, Treize half-opened his mouth, and in an audacious moment, the adolescent transformed the simple brush into an exploration.

Totally floored by the surprise of the unexpected gesture from the teenager who troubled him so, and by the slightly inexperienced but delicious kiss he was receiving, the blue-clad man never felt the exact moment when Wufei's thumbs pressed on his carotid, cutting the blood flow to his brain, and when he lost consciousness.

Wufei let the soldier fall back on the bed and tied him down with what was left of the second strap. He hoped that it would prevent him from getting in his way too early on in his evasion tentative. He was slightly ashamed of having used a kiss to render the other man unconscious, but Treize had already given him his tacit permission to do it with a chair, the man wouldn't resent him if he used a less painful way.

/and he'll have a good souvenir when he wakes up/

'Oh, you, enough already' he thought, flushing scarlet.

Did the fact that he didn't remember the previous ones, if there had been any, make this his first kiss? And then he hit himself over the head and berated himself for thinking about such frivolous things. He was behaving like a romantic damsel, it was really ridiculous. A kiss was a kiss; two sets of lips in contact, and this one hadn't had any meaning at all; it had just been a diversion.

/yeah, yeah, we believe you/

Why his subconscious mind chose to express itself with an American accent was beyond him. But damn it, it was even more annoying.

/which is kinda the point, buddy/

'silence, already!'

Ok, now, where to go?

* * * * * *

Heero took a burning shower to get rid of the soil that had been covering him since after his escapade. He felt, for once, relaxed, relieved of the animal force which had been accumulating since the beginning of the month, purged from his need for violence; in peace, nearly.

Quatre being a cheetah hadn't been digested yet… But he had to admit that it probably corresponded more to the Arabian teenager than being a wolf. Cheetahs were, after all, the only felines calm and friendly enough to be somewhat tamed. They usually lived in desert areas, in small, unstructured families. That fit with Quatre's gregarious preferences and his distaste for social ladders.

They would have to find grounds other than a forest for the other Were; it was obvious that it didn't agree with him. His golden coloring made him likely to be spotted miles away on the dark green and brown of the woods; plus he didn't have any endurance. His long, thin paws were adapted to flat ground with little to no obstacles. He was a sprinter, not someone made for long runs, not a stalker like the Wolf.

Heero was a little worried about him. After all, he didn't know felines. Maybe it was too different for him to be able to understand the other Were… Maybe he would not be able to help him at all…

Well! They would just have to see.

He got out of the shower and walked to his room, vigorously rubbing at his hair with a towel.

On his way, he walked past Quatre who was leaving his room just as he approached, and who only gave his still nude and now damp body one glance, before he turned scarlet and disappeared back into his room.

"DAMNIT HEEROOOOOO !!!!! "

Heero authorized a small smirk to come to his lips. Quatre hadn't dared look at him in the face since they had woken up this morning. When falling asleep, they had not had any problems with piling up on the couch, their bodies melting into each other as if they were totally boneless. The predators in them seemed to appreciate contact. But when Quatre had awakened, his arms hugging Heero's waist, his belly pressed tight against the curve of the Japanese boy's back and their thighs entangled… Heero was not bothered in the least by a skin to skin contact, quite the contrary, he found the new sensation nice, the warmth comforting; but apparently, the young Arab had not yet integrated in his human psyche the total lack of body shyness of his animal side. His quick uptake on it was probably due to the lack of modesty Heero had already possessed, opposed to the puritan education Quatre had received.

Well, anyway, from the moment the blond had woken up spooning the Japanese's back (and lower back), and he had left running for his room, he had categorically refused to look at him even once. True, Heero had at least learned of many interesting swear words in Arabic. And to think that Quatre Winner usually looked so nice and polite … Heero chuckled.

The pilot entered his own room, put his towel around his neck, and walked to his closet.

He was already in his shorts and was in the process of reaching for a tanktop when his laptop beeped urgently at him. Frowning, the Japanese pilot opened the screen. If it was a mission proposal from G, he had already decided to refuse it. As long as they weren't whole, the team would not take another mission. That present one had priority.

* * *

Trowa put the mugs and the coffee maker away methodically, before turning around to face Duo, who was still staring at him, half-laying on the table.

"You think Quatre will dare to face us again someday?" asked the American.

"After a situation like this one?"

"Yeah."

"No."

"Poor dear…Traumatized!" Duo cracked up.

To avenge his friend, Trowa sprayed the laughing boy with water drops from the sponge.

"Hey!"

"You brat," said Barton.

"Ahaa, you wanna play that game, huh…" muttered the American, slowly getting up and stretching a hand in the direction of the towel used to dry the dishes.

Trowa stared suspiciously at him and went into a position allowing him to evade the oncoming attack.

But at the precise second Duo had been going to declare war on his comrade, a shout was heard.

"GET YOUR ASSES IN HERE!!!!! "

* * *

"I'll never be able to look him in the eye again…" squeaked Quatre while blushing furiously and remembering the compromising position in which he had been that morning.

His body had been glued to Heero's from shoulders to legs, from Quatre's cheek on the other's shoulder blade, to the knees, his own nested in the hollow behind the Japanese's knees. And everything in between, comprising… the place where the back loses its name… That in passing he had learned was as firm as it looked.

Quatre turned scarlet and moaned in shame, hiding his head under his pillow. It was true, it had been nice, in a purely physical way, but he was NOT interested in Heero that way, but by another person… He had probably not helped his cause with snuggling with another man in the very middle of a room that was opened to anyone. And if the American didn't maim him for having taken advantage of a situation like that, when Duo had many times told him that he would nearly kill to be able to just openly hug him…

"Ooooh, how will I be able to give him my apologies? I'll never be able to look at him again…"

At that moment, Heero's voice, coming from the other side of the corridor, made him jump.

"GET YOUR ASSES IN HERE!!!!"

His shame momentarily put in storage, Quatre erupted into his comrade's room, followed closely by Duo and Trowa. Heero was sitting in front of his computer, hitting the keys like a savage, pounding as fast as he could go. He didn't even look back when they entered the room.

"Well, what? "

"I found Wufei!" he exclaimed, jubilating.

Two seconds and a few exclamations later, the three boys were piled up behind his chair, trying to read the screen that was scrolling down nearly too fast to be understood.

"So?"

"I had programmed the laptop to warn me in case of unusual activity from any base. Listen to that."

Heero unplugged a headphone unit from the base, and the sound suddenly jumped out at them.

<<YELLOW ALERT!! Attention to all military personnel!!! The prisoner has escaped all surveillance!!! He is not to be allowed to leave base perimeter, under any excuse!!! Take your position and report immediately to your commanding officer!! Attention, the fugitive is extremely dangerous and probably armed!! The suspect is a male adolescent, Asian descent, black eyes and straight, shoulder-length black hair!! I repeat, Yellow Alert…>>

Wing's pilot displayed the latest plan of that base he could find, accompanied with the area's map, trying to precisely determine its location.

"I'm sending the info to your Gundams."

"YEEEEHAAA!!!" shouted Duo, throwing himself at the sitting boy's neck. "CONGRATS!!! You're the best ever!!"

Duo froze when he felt the Asian boy's naked and still damp shoulders tense violently under his arms, before slowly unclenching. Damn, he had come close to receiving a violent reaction… He berated himself. Really, he knew better than that by now. He knew that wolves were protective of their neck even more than any other part of their anatomy, and Heero was already jumpy, even before all that…

A random thought hit him suddenly and Trowa and Quatre saw the tip of his ears turn pinkish.

"Damn, I don't dare look down … Heero-buddy, tell me you put something on down there…"

"Hn," the Japanese answered.

"Err… Was that a hn-yes or a hn-no?"

"It was a hn-baka, baka," the Japanese boy answered back with a rare sense of humor. "…I have my shorts on."

"I'm relieved."

At the moment when he was going to remove his arms, that to his great confusion he had left around the Japanese's neck, he felt the boy's cheek rub against his forearm.

"Err, whatcha doin'?" he asked, stunned, slowly disengaging.

"Don't know," answered Heero distractedly.

"He's marking his territory," deadpanned Trowa.

"Ooooh, like when Quatre rubbed his head on your knee?" Duo answered back, trying to divert attention from his own embarrassment.

Quatre ran out of the room, his face a brilliant scarlet.

"I'm so ashamed!!!"

Duo burst out laughing. He felt so incredibly happy. At last, they would find their missing friend!!! And he wasn't the only one touched by the euphoria, if he could believe the little smiles of the two silent teens.

The three boys descended the stairs behind the little blond and dashed off to the hangar where the Gundams were hidden.

Duo was shouting war cries while he ran. He burst out laughing savagely when Heero suddenly began to howl toward the sky, his own war cry. Duo immediately began trying to imitate him.

Trowa just smiled a predatory smile.

* * * * * *

After having verified that the soldiers had proceeded past him, Wufei slid out of the air duct and landed gracefully on the little room's floor. He glanced right and left and pricked his ears up to verify that there was a big enough margin between himself and the closest soldiers, then slipped into the hall behind the group of men who had just passed him. He had to jump back when he realized that they was stationed in front of the entry he had been trying to reach. Swearing under his breath he tried the other side of the small room, the place where the soldiers had come from.

It was even worse. Thrice as many soldiers… He had to dash off to the air duct again and close it behind him when two soldiers separated from the crowd to join the group at the door. He broke out in a cold sweat when they stalked past him, but they were in such a hurry that they didn't even take notice of his fingers sticking out from between the bars to keep the unsealed grill in place.

The air ducts could only lead him so far. He had checked. The only passages he had crossed were much too narrow to let him get through them. Or he could return to the bedroom and try to go to the other side of that corridor… now that they thought that he had left, maybe they wouldn't guard that room anymore…?

No, that was stupid; prisoners were not placed at the edge, but at the center of a base. And he had not made all that effort only to return to the place where he had begun. The whole perimeter was being locked, and as soon as the whole thing was in place, they would begin a systematic search of all the facilities. He needed to find a way to get out of here before all that happened.

/running in the corridors running for my life like a prey I don't like to be a prey/

Ah, shit, enough already with the damn flash-backs!! He had worried his brains out for days trying to remember even the smallest thing, and now that he needed to concentrate on something else, his memory was coming back!

He slid to his knees in the air duct, and leaned against the metal. He had a dreadful headache once again.

<<Red Alert, Red Alert, approaching Mobil Suits in our area!!!! Assumed hostile until further notice!!! All air personnel, to your combat posts!!!>>

The woman's voice sounded panicked, and Wufei lifted his head, listening with interest. Yet, he had thought that Treize's faction held all the cards in their hand, and had no dangerous adversaries for the moment… Then he realized that amongst the military staff, like the announcer had said, there had to be many of the people who kept him trapped inside running to defend their proverbial fort. There were probably holes in their guard now!! He slid out of the air duct silently and went to glance outside. Bingo! Only two men still guarded the place… Without taking the time to panic about what he was doing, nor to ponder too much on it, he knocked them out and began to run outside. But there were so many people running around that he had to continue running off in the direction they left unguarded at the moment if he didn't want to get caught. Finally, when he found himself outside, he was in Treize's inner garden.

A gigantic explosion shook the ground from a place he hadn't had the right to visit, but on the plans he had seen, it was designated as the hangars.

<<Alert, alert!!! Attack on the north-west side of the base!!>>

'no joking', he thought, snorting. He glimpsed a flock of Taurus' fly with a roar above his head, but he couldn't see more, the buildings were too tall around him.

'I'd better find a place where I won't risk being buried under the debris or hit by shrapnel, or I won't get out of here whole'

He rushed to the maze-like bushes of the garden, toward his favorite place. It would hide him from view, and was far enough away that he would be relatively sheltered. He was lucky the gardens were so big…

'nataku-meiran'

He froze for a fraction of a second in front of the flower field, then forced himself to continue and go hide between the bushes. He would think about 'nataku' later.

An immense shadow flew over him and he instinctively tried to make himself smaller … and froze, his wide open eyes staring at the sky.

<<THOSE ARE GUNDAMS!!!!>>

He fell on his knees, clenching his skull between his hands.

* * *

<<THOSE ARE GUNDAMS!!!!>>

'they really need to learn to say something else…' Heero thought sarcastically while landing Wing in the middle of the buildings he had targeted, touching down on a grass patch that would stay burned a long time. He opened the cockpit and jumped down, his weapon in his fist, another revolver in the holster. He hoped that the others would succeed in delaying OZ long enough for him to find Wufei, or at least long enough to offer the boy a sufficient distraction to get out of here by himself.

He landed in a crouch between the gundam's feet and glanced right and left to verify that there were no soldiers close enough to shoot him, before beginning to run.

And then, his overdeveloped sense of smell caught a familiar scent … Wufei had been in those gardens!! Often even… But it was a scent that was already a few days old… He decided to follow it anyway. Perhaps it would cross a newer one after a while.

* * *

The person who had jumped down from that enormous Mobile Suit was, to his great surprise, an adolescent, not older or taller than himself. But apart from that, all that Wufei could see through the bushes' branches and his migraine was that he only wore clingy, black shorts and a holster, had brown hair, and was stalking to the buildings with great determination. He had a weapon, and looked like he could use it.

A weapon meant danger, and without thinking about it, he rolled on the ground with ease to hide behind the bench. Then he thought about what he had seen. That man was not an OZ soldier… his clothes were too strange for that. As if his behavior, and the fact that he had been in one of the Mobile Suits attacking the base hadn't been proof enough. Definitely not a friend of OZ. But did it make him one of Wufei's allies? At least Treize treated him well. Would he fall from bad to worse if he signaled his presence to the terrorist?

To his great confusion, the young man suddenly stopped short as he was nearly to the building, lifted his head as if to look at the sky-he was too far, Wufei couldn't distinctively see what he was doing lifting his nose like that - and turned in his direction to begin to follow the exact same path he had used to come here. He seemed extremely determined and his expression evoked the cool of a man who wouldn't hesitate in front of anything to get to his goal. How Wufei knew that, he didn't really know. Nothing would make him step back. The best was to stay clear of his path, before being moved away by force.

'Shit!' he swore, looking around for a better hiding spot.

But there was nothing, nothing … He walked backward, beginning to lose his cool head, and awkwardly crawled back on his hands and heels into one of the bushes, before turning his back to him and beginning to flee on all fours between the thick and numerous branches. His clothes were torn several times and he felt branches scratch at his skin, but he didn't care much. All that he knew was that the brown-haired teen was dangerous and that he was coming his way. Bits of memories were floating around in his head, but too fast for him to catch and understand them, just enough to totally disorient him. He leaned against a tree trunk and hoped to be far enough into the bush not to be seen.

The boy stopped in the middle of the small place Wufei had occupied a few seconds ago, and his eyes turned immediately to the point where Wufei had entered the bushes, as if he possessed internal radar. He crouched, and the fugitive tensed. Wufei couldn't crawl back any farther.

And then the other teen lifted a branch and looked right at him.

"Wufei?"

They knew each other, wondered the Chinese boy, perturbed.

"What are you doing, you baka? We have to run away, fast! Come on!" ordered the boy with an imperious voice, his face serious and scowling angrily.

"Who are you?" Wufei asked, struggling not to look openly afraid.

The cold stare of the teenager with the gun became, for a few seconds, confused and totally astonished.

"… You don't … remember me…?"

"That's not an answer!!" Wufei protested. "Who are you?! What are you doing here? How do you know me? What am I to you?"

"I… We're comrades in arms; we're on the same side! You, me and three other people are teammates. We came to retrieve you, we've been searching everywhere for you for weeks! One of our missions turned badly and you disappeared… Come quickly, I don't know how much time the others will be able to keep OZ back…"

It reminded him of something… this morning's dream; something in what he said had reminded him of the dream. Four others… four like him… but it was too imprecise a bit of information to take it into account.

Not totally convinced, Wufei glanced at the boy's gun.

"And if I prefer to stay here…?"

"Nani?!"

"If I don't want to follow you, what will you do?" he asked, nervously licking his dry lips.

"The others will have two pilots to rescue instead of one," the teenager answered shortly. "You don't think I came all the way here just to leave without you? I'll stay by you."

Wufei decided to come out of the bushes. He had awaited an answer along the lines of "I'll kill you," or a threat to make him get out, but this kind of answer… the other had to be sincere, he had to be on Wufei's side. His friend maybe?… He wasn't sure. He would prefer to be amongst the boy's friends than amongst his enemies, that was for sure.

Maybe he was lying. Wufei didn't know why, but he believed him. He was a damn good liar if he was one.

He slowly extracted himself from the bushes, still a little untrusting, then straightened out and dusted his clothes, glancing discretely at the other boy. He had had the sun in his face when he was under the bushes, and he had had trouble seeing his face; but from nearer…

He had icy-cold, blue eyes, as cold and deep as outer space.

'how do I know what Outer Space looks like?'

"Wing…" he whispered, without understanding why.

Absorbed with his contemplation of the visible changes in his teammate, amongst which was a scar between his eyes, his hair down, and something strange in his stance. Heero just had the time to catch him when another attack seized him and he collapsed, hands on his temples in a gesture now familiar to him.

"Wufei? Wufei!"

The black-haired teen answered only with a nearly inaudible moan. Worried, the Japanese clenched his teeth and picked him up, before running back to his Gundam.

* * *

They were nearly to Wing when Heero spotted a small group of soldiers closing in on the Gundam. Still running, he sat Wufei on his hip, as if he was a child, and fired on the men. Six bullets in the head, no one had the time to run for cover. Holstering his gun, he gripped the wire with his free hand and hugged Wufei close. The Chinese boy was waking up, and was just conscious enough to tighten the hold he had on Heero's neck and close his legs around his hips so as not to fall.

A seventh soldier was posted on the cockpit door that he had left opened so as not to lose too much time, was glancing inside. Shouldering him out of the way and out of the doorway, Heero let Wufei fall on his ass in the middle of the presently horizontal door to take care of the last intruder. The Chinese boy looked up, still in a daze.

A last soldier was sitting in the pilot's seat, his knees nearly under his chin, the seat having been designed for a small teenager. He was searching for a way to make the mecha work, and was putting his nose in anything he could reach.

'Luckily, you need to have a password to activate most of the special functions…' sighed Heero.

He couldn't stand that intruders would dare to put their noses in his den. His room was already nearly off-limits, even to his friends, but HIS GUNDAM… Grabbing the intruder by one foot, he dragged him outside and threw him on the door, not really bothered by the fact that he was probably half the man's weight. Succeeding in not falling over the edge, the moron made as if he was going to grab Wufei. Baring his canines, extremely annoyed, Yuy slid under his guard and crushed his trachea with a clawed hand before throwing him off the door head first. The moron could have survived if he had only jumped down…

Dragging his comrade inside after him, the werewolf took his place in the pilot's seat and deposited him on his knees.

"Keep your head low and avoid putting your hands and feet everywhere," the pilot advised him while strapping himself into the chair.

There was no way he could strap in Wufei too, therefore, instead of fighting, the boy would find himself playing pinball in the cockpit.

<< 01 here, requesting assistance!!>> He called by the comm.

Deathscythe made its way toward them and began to kick the enemies out of the way.

<<So so so?>>

<<I have him…>> answered Heero while transforming Wing to bird mode. <<But we've got a problem.>>

<<He's hurt?>> worried Quatre, following with Sandrock.

<<I don't think so, or at least he's nearly healed. No, that's not it… He didn't recognize me.>>

<<WHAT?!?>>

<<Is he amnesiac?!>>

<<Oh shiiiiiit… How the fuck will we treat that?>>

Heero smiled at the boy who had just fallen asleep from exhaustion on his knees.

<< He still has some memories. And I think it's coming back on its own … He called me Wing. 01, out.>>

Leaving the care of preventing any chases to his friends, he pushed the boosters to their maximum capabilities, strongly desiring to put all the distance he could between his enemies and his inestimable burden.

Weeeeell... If Treize wasn't contaminated before, he sure is now...

Stay tuned! Next part, Wufei's transformation!... kind of....

*diabolic laughter is heard in the distance*