Disclaimers: My name is not rolling in the credits. T-T Don't sue me if
you don't want lint, dirty laundry, and mothballs. Even though GW does not
belong to me
Other than that... enjoy!
~~~~~
Wing's Last Impression
pt. 13
The words tumbled from her mouth, the crowd roaring in anticipation. An
invisible tear made its way down her visage, which everyone readily accepted
as a tear of joy. She silently stood by, watching her own body from the
distance. It was time to move on, without Heero's help. A woman squealed
with pure delight, her mind racing and reeling at the upcoming events. She
had to admit she couldn't have come up with a better timing than this.
"Come on, Odin, let us leave this forsaken place and go back to our
little paradise," she whispered as she drew Heero away from the crowd.
Something snapped inside of Heero's mind, and as he clutched his head and
thrashed about in agony mentally, his past came flashing back to him, little
by little. He saw in his mind, reserved in the far depths of his memory, a
girl wearing a white dress, being led by a puppy.
"Mary, Mary," Heero said silently to himself.
Reiya stared at him in almost horror, but maintained her cool composure.
She led Heero quickly off the platform and into their private shuttle. Reiya
gave out sharp commands to head back to the Lunar cluster as soon as
possible. Heero sat opposite of her, hands in his lap and his eyes, always
boring into hers in the most unfashionable way. Reiya often found herself
staring at Heero, both out of habit and secret admiration. It killed her to
wish to know what the perfect soldier was thinking of at the moment, what his
past life was like before she picked him up. Reiya gave out a little laugh,
happy to at least know that she has taken Heero from Relena.
'There are those memories again… Are they for real, or are they just a
part of Reiya's doing?' Heero thought. He closed his eyes and saw Relena,
for the very first time. He opened his eyes and adjusted them on the seats.
Those seats looked exactly like the ones that were on Relena's shuttle.
Sneaking on the shuttle, Heero hid the little honey terror and made his way
to a spot she knew she would sit. He placed the teddy bear there, with a
note.
He heard light footsteps, and knew it was Relena. He turned his head
down and greeted her. He could feel her eyes bore into his back, as if out
of recognition or other. Continuing on his way, Heero didn't stop until he
was sure he felt her eyes on him again. Turning around, there was Relena,
holding the envelope. She gave him a last smile as she tore it in two.
Amusement crept over his face as he nodded in acknowledgement her silent
message.
Longer memories of his life flashed through his mind, and exhaled sharply
as the final pieces slid into place. Reiya gave him a sharp look, but
dismissed it as the pilot of the shuttle began to prepare them for the
landing. After docking and checking their bags, Reiya and Heero headed
towards her estate, the sole heir of the Barton Foundation.
"It's good to see you once more, Mr. Lowe," the butler said as he opened
the door.
Heero nodded and walked up the spiraling staircases, letting his hand
caress the smooth mahogany banister. He entered a familiar room, lit only by
a flickering candle. Heero blew it out, took out his laptop, and turned it
on. The green light lingered on his face, making his fingers type away
melodically at the keys. He found himself hacking into The Barton
Foundation, moving and reading files from one location to another. He found
himself smirking as he typed in the code he perfected at the age of seven.
'No one will be able to trace it back to me,' he thought as he leaned
back in his chair. He almost expected Duo to creep up on him and try to find
his gun. Heero sat straight up as he read the file's name: Operation Meteor:
Lunar Stardust. Heero scanned the information, his forehead crinkling with a
small flame of worry. Sending mail to Lady Une about this information under
an unknown name, he closed the laptop and sat on the edge of the bed.
He remembered how Reiya Barton had found him. It was only a few days
after Relena's 23rd birthday. Watching, seeing, and tasting her, he observed
from the shadows a new person. His feet led him astray, away from reason.
He argued and ran from whatever haunted him, hoping to leave them behind with
reality.
The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, unable to move and felt a
fierce fire run through his veins. Heero readily gave up to the clutches of
Death. The next day, Heero found himself not staring into the Devil's face,
but into the face of the woman who saved him. Relena's face hovered above
him, giving him a genuine smile. He slipped into unconsciousness as the fire
raged within him. A few more days passed by, and he felt well enough to open
his eyes.
A shadow stirred in the corner, catching his eyes. He turned his head
towards the noise, only a grim line on his face as the woman walked to him.
He has never seen her before in his life. Heero struggled to remember what
had happened last night. The woman said that he'd been out for a few days,
and that he should thank her for saving him. Heero only snarled as he
reached about for… for what? He didn't remember, he didn't know if this was
out of habit or out of instinct. He knew that he was irritated that she
interfered.
The woman laughed, telling him that his gun had been removed before he
was brought into the room. Heero found himself on a cold, metal table, with
many people around him, prodding and poking him. He often heard them say
"perfect specimen" to each other. For the early part of that year, all he
could remember was the bright lights, slipping in and out of reality. Reiya
befriended Heero, telling him that he should do this, do that. After all, he
owed it to her.
Reiya had called him Odin, a strange name that was unfamiliar on his
tongue as he tasted his own name. But Heero had to take her words for
himself; he didn't remember who he was. He didn't know all that he left
behind, all that lied ahead for him. Now he had a new future, going to
salvage yards for scraps of titanium and gundanium, mostly gundanium. Those
days held nothing but searching and training, Reiya claiming that she was
only trying to improve his lifestyle. But the thing that Heero had retained
from his old lifestyle was the depth of his stare and his instincts, which
only sharpened at times like these.
~~~~~
"Almost there, almost there. Just a bit more to go," Sally said to
herself.
Wufei snorted in front of her as he trudged along, voicing out Sally's
rally in his mind. He didn't mind the hike; it was good exercise. But the
heat was the thing that suffocated his lungs. Back on the colony, the
temperature was controlled and suited to the human bodies. No extreme
coldness or hotness; here, Mother Nature ran amuck. Wufei accepted that fact
but only to a certain degree.
Sally squealed when the white shuttle came into view. Pushing past
Wufei, Sally punched in the access code on the door. With a little
knick-knack sound, the shuttle door opened and cool air rushed past the
fatigued couple. Wufei came behind Sally and dropped everything to the
floor, heading towards the cooler. Sally beat him already to the cooler,
drawing out the last two water bottles. Wufei cursed slightly under his
breath, and Sally laughed as she threw a bottle to Wufei. He caught it with
an "oomph" as Sally went to the cockpit.
The vidscreen flickered on and Lady Une's face appeared.
"Sally?"
"Yes, ma'am?!" Sally said, almost falling over at the unexpected call.
"What is the status on your mission so far? Where's Wufei?" Lady Une
asked with anxiousness in her voice. If Wufei were injured, she wouldn't be
able to spare another Preventor for quite some time.
Sally, noticing her tone of voice, slightly parted the curtains. Wufei
was stripped to his waist, pouring half of the bottled water on top of his
head and drinking the other half. Sally gulped and quietly closed the
curtain. She turned around with a slight blush on her face.
"He's, ah, cooling down right now. Rough hike we had before us, you
know," Sally said, sitting in the pilot's chair.
"Right, well, is there anything major you would like to tell me?"
"We found a new MS," Wufei intercepted.
Sally turned around, donning a slight frown that Wufei had put his shirt
back on. Wufei went on to explain the findings of the MS, and Lady's Une
forehead wrinkled with concern.
"Could you two hold on for a moment?" Lady Une asked before she switched
screens.
"Do you think you'd be able to pilot that thing if you were able to?"
Sally asked Wufei.
"Of course, I could, onna. Piloting any mobile suit is my specialty,"
Wufei said haughtily.
Before Sally could give him the proper reply, the screen flickered again,
but this time, the screen was split in two. On the left side was Lady Une,
and on the right side was Howard.
"Howard!" Sally cried out.
"If it isn't the lovely Sally Po herself," Howard said with a little
chuckle.
"What gives?" Sally asked.
"Lady Une informed me of the new MS you guys saw earlier today. Now, if
I can have the details again, please, and I'll run this information through
my computer and try to establish something solid with it," Howard said.
Wufei grew agitated that their time was being cut. In a quick breath,
Wufei condensed the description, and Howard nodded and "mm-hmm" throughout
the whole explanation. After all was told, everyone looked expectantly at
Howard.
"What do you want me to say?" Howard asked wryly after a few seconds.
Everyone by then face faulted.
"Just kidding!" Howard said, giving them a peace sign. "Actually, I
think I'll stop by and see that suit myself!"
"What? Aren't you out in space or somewhere else far away from here?"
"So now what? You don't want this old man to visit you people anymore?"
Howard asked in mocking sadness.
"No, Howard, by all means, do come. But we have some friends waiting for
our return to uh… blow up the mobile suit before it falls into the wrong
hands, see," Sally said.
"No problem! I'll be there in a few, don't blow that suit up, and keep
your shirts on!"
With that, Howard signed off. Sally blushed a bit at the earlier
encounter, and Wufei just scowled in her direction.
"I leave it all to you guys," Lady Une said, "Good luck and good bye."
Sally sat there for a moment, thinking to herself. Wufei turned on his
heels and cleared his throat.
"Let's get all the ammo we can stuff in our packs and get crackin'!"
Sally said, marching past Wufei and into the Gundanium box that held all the
necessary equipment to blow the world up.
Ten minutes passed and Sally and Wufei were fit to fight a squad of
mobile dolls, not that they really wanted to in this weather. Wufei was
about to go ahead but Sally grabbed the end of his shirt. Wufei almost
stumbled back into Sally's arms as his eyes went wide.
"Why did you do that, onna?!" Wufei asked irritably.
"Waiting for Howard, remember?" Sally asked with an innocent smile on her
face.
Wufei growled under his breath and sat in the corner of the shuttle. He
closed his eyes, hoping to calm himself down before venturing out and doing
something stupid. Sally turned her back on him, staring out into the jungle,
humming a childhood lullaby. Sally dialed Bruno's code and his face appeared
on the screen.
"Bruno! How are you guys holding up?" Sally asked.
"We're doing fine, nothing to worry about!" Bruno said with a smile.
"Just wondering though; when are you guys gonna come back?"
"We'll be back in a few minutes, I'm not sure how long though. We're to
wait for an old friend who would help us with the mobile suit's functions.
I'm estimating at least an hour for his arrival. Would you guys be okay
until then?"
"Sure, do whatever you need to do," Bruno said, "I'll see you later.
Gotta check with my other men. Bye, Sally."
"Bye, Bruno," Sally said. "I hope Howard doesn't take his sweet time to
get here. I've got a bad feeling about something."
"Says you and who else?" Wufei said, cracking one eye open.
"Me and my woman's intuition, that's who," Sally retorted. Wufei snorted and continued to meditate. That's how they stayed for the
rest of the day, Wufei meditating and Sally with her eyes searching for the
figure of Howard. Sally began to grow impatient as the time ticked by,
worried by the possibility of an invasion where Bruno was. She was about to
turn around and tell Lady Une that she couldn't wait any longer when the
bushes in the distance began to crackle with noise.
~~~~~
Whelp, that's the end of part 13. I really really _really_ hate to cut in
the middle of a "section" of my story... *pouts*