Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Sandrock was no more ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 10 )

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Chapter nine

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"Maxwell, are you…" Wu Fei's voice drifted off as he and Hiiro froze in disbelief, "It's…It's not possible…"

"AH-GEEZE!" Duo groaned from where he had landed hard, rubbing his sore but, "Watch where you're goin' will ya!"

"I'm sorry!" a familiar voice apologized. Duo blinked at the pale hand that extended to help him up, "Forgive my clumsiness."

Slowly the braided boy lifted to see the face belonging to the hand, "Quatre…?"

The blonde boy opposite of him looked startled and he retracted his hand, taking a step backwards. His aquamarine eyes looked uncertain.

Duo leapt to his feet, "QUATRE! IT IS YOU!" He exclaimed overjoyed.

The blonde took another half step back. Panic radiated from him.

"Uh, Duo…" Hiiro started, his hand reaching to restrain the enthusiastic boy.

"IT'S BEEN FOREVER, Q-MAN! GOD I'VE MISSED YOU!" Duo attacked the blonde with a huge hug, "If you've been alive, why didn't you come home?" He asked, holding the other boy at arms length, "You know what? It doesn't matter! YOU'RE BACK NOW! Oh, man- have you seen Trowa!? He's going to be ecstatic! He's missed you soooo much!" The braided boy wrapped the blonde in another hug, "YOU'RE BACK! YOU'RE REALLY BACK!!!"

"AAHH!" The boy screamed, pushing the overenthusiastic boy away, "LEGGO!"

"Quatre!" Duo exclaimed confused and slightly hurt, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Who are you?" the blonde demanded, "I don't know you!"

"Quatre…" Duo stared, "What do you mean `Who are you'? I'm your best friend!"

The blonde made to flee but the sharp searing agony that ripped threw his chest drove him to his knees.

"QUATRE!" Duo exclaimed, scrambling to the boy's side. "Talk to me Q-man!"

Slowly those aquamarine eyes turned to the braided teenager, "D…D… Duo...? It hurts…Everyone is in so much…"

Duo caught him when he passed out. Utterly confused, Duo's violet eyes stared searchingly at Hiiro and Wu Fei, "What's the matter with him?"

The Japanese boy knelt by his partner and his supposedly dead friend. He ran his hand through the boy's blonde bangs, "My guess is either he was brainwashed or he's suffering from amnesia."

"Remembering and his empathic sense going into overdrive must have been too much for him." Wu Fei thought aloud to himself.

"Trowa was right…" Duo murmured amazed, "He did survive the explosion… He's been alive this entire time…"

Hiiro turned slightly, "Wu Fei, you can go retrieve Trowa yourself?" The Chinese boy nodded and took off down the hall.

"Hiiro…?" Duo whispered not looking up from the small Arabian in his arms.

Hiiro looked at the braided boy, "What is it Duo?"

"He's been alive this entire time… Hiiro…" the braided boy lifted his amethyst eyes, "What have we done?"

"We didn't do anything, Duo." The Japanese boy frowned.

Duo visibly shuddered, "I know! That's what I mean! Hiiro, we didn't look for him, we didn't help him… Hell! We didn't even believe Trowa! How could we?"

"Let's get him out of here." Hiiro said lifting the blonde boy into his arms. Duo remained on the floor. "Duo?"

"I'm supposed to be his best friend, Hiiro… but I…" He drifted off, "God, Hiiro…"

The dark haired boy reached down with one hand pulling on the braided boy's arm, "Come on, Duo. You can have a guilt trip back home, but we need to get out of here."

Numbly the boy nodded and pulled himself to his feet. Silently they waited for the elevator.

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Wu Fei knocked lightly on the hospital door 258. Silently he crept inside, "Barton?" he called softly, "Barton!"

Trowa groaned, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, "Wu Fei?"

The Chinese boy walked over to his friend's bedside, "Damnit, Barton!" He complained taking out his lock picks, "Why did you have to and do a stupid stunt like this?"

But Trowa wasn't listening, "I saw Quatre…I thought I saw Quatre…" He whispered, his face a mask that failed to hide his self loathing and pain, "I… I thought he had come back… come for me… but he left... He left me again…Oh, God! Why can't I just die!?"

"Because then you wouldn't be able to help him." Wu Fei answered, unlocking the handcuffs. Trowa looked at him confused. The Chinese boy grinned, "That's right, Barton, Quatre did come back. You did see him."

The banged boy shook his head slowly as his friend helped him to his feet, "He's gone… he ran away."

"Ran smack into Maxwell." Wu Fei's grin got wider as his friend tried to grip what he was being told.

"Quatre's…" He started slowly, wincing in discomfort as they left his hospital ward and headed down the hall, "Quatre's really back? I didn't imagine it?"

"If you did, then so did the rest of us."

"Quatre…" Trowa murmured, falling into a deep unconscious state, dropping in dead weight.

The dark haired boy scowled, "Damn you." He swore as he tried to heft his friend onto his shoulder for a better balance, "You couldn't wait to pass out till we got to the car?"

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/`Please, believe me, Trowa? Believe that as long as I have breath I'll always return to you?'/

Trowa's eyes flew open, "QUATRE!" he cried, his heart beating hard in his chest. His hand reached into thin air grabbing at nothing but darkness.

Someone over by the window put their finger to their lips, "Ssshhhh." They ordered, "He's sleeping, you don't want to disturb him."

"Sally?" Trowa squinted rubbing his temple.

The woman walked over to him and handed him a pair of white tablets. "Aspirin." She said, offering him a glass of water, "for your headache."

Gratefully the banged boy accepted.

"Wu Fei called me." Sally explained, "He wanted to make sure your injuries weren't too severe, he also wanted me to examine Quatre to make sure that nothing was done to him."

Trowa's emerald eyes flashed, "Done to him!?"

"It appears that he's lost his memory, or rather a large part of it. He knew your name, and he recognized Duo, but he doesn't have a clue as to who he is. Hiiro and Wu Fei wanted to be sure that he wasn't brainwashed, drugged or hypnotized."

He couldn't swallow the lump in his throat, "Wa…was he?"

"No. He wasn't." Trowa sighed with relief and visibly relaxed, "It appears that his amnesia is a result of the explosion." Sally's eyes misted, "I… I still can't believe that he's here… alive…it doesn't seem possible."

"He promised that he'd be back." Trowa whispered, "Quatre has always kept his promises."

"I'm happy for you, Trowa." Sally smiled, "You get a second chance to be with the one you love, don't waste it."

"I don't plan to." Trowa answered in all seriousness, "I lost him once, and I'm not losing him again."

"Get some rest. He'll be asleep till morning." Sally smiled and left the room.

Slowly, Trowa felt himself drifting into a more restful slumber then any since that God awful day. In his mind in stead of horrid nightmares were the most pleasant of dreams.

/`…believe that I'll always return?'/

`I do. I do believe you, Quatre.'

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"Okay, I think I've got a solution." Hiiro said typing into the computer.

"It's about time, Yui." The Chinese boy grumbled from his seat on the floor, "What is it?"

"Lt. Noin kept a Taurus suit in the safe house in Lisbon. That's about three hours from here. We could retrieve the suit and use it to taxi our Gundams out. That way the engines would not have to be activated."

"But how would we get all four of them into the air and keep them there with out destroying the Taurus? It could only move one suit at a time."

"Once in the air, at a high enough altitude, the Taurus would release the Gundam. As it free falls, we can use a remote to detonate the verniay engines and they would explode in mid air." Hiiro explained.

Wu Fei leaned over the Japanese boy's shoulder watching the computer screen. After a moment he looked at the other boy, "Well, it's the first idea to have not blown up in our faces during the simulation. Let's give it a try."

Hiiro gave a curt nod, "Hn."

"I'll go and get that Taurus." Wu Fei said heading out the door towards the jets.

"Hurry back, we don't have a whole lot of time left."

Wu Fei gave a slight wave and was gone. Ten minutes later, Hiiro heard the sound of the engines as they took off, and sped off into the mid afternoon.

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To be continued…