I do not own Gundam Wing.  This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.  

Chapter 23

            “C-c-colonel, Cromwell base.  Cromwell base is under attack!” The junior officer reported, visibly shaken from the image he had just seen.

            Lady Une narrowed her eyes into an icy glare.  “Keep trying to reach the base, and sound the alarm, I want a meeting of all available hands in the main control room five minutes ago.  Send the order to squadrons three, four, and five to get over to Cromwell airspace and shoot whoever it is down now!”

            “Yes sir,” the officer said and saluted the image on the screen before the connection was terminated.  He then quickly went about his orders.

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            Relena lifted her head up from where she had laid it on her arms resting on the small table in the room.  She could hear the alarms sounding, the voices and hurried footsteps of Preventer agents passing by her door, but couldn’t make out what was going on.  She closed her eyes and said a small prayer, trying to ignore the feeling of nausea that had settled in the pit of her stomach. 

            She didn’t hold out much hope that she would ever see him again.  By forgoing a trial to prove her innocent of the charge of treason, she was basically accepting whatever judgment was truly decided by the ESUN senate.  Only if her lawyers and the Preventers could prove the original vote had somehow been tampered with would she escape the executioner.  She didn’t know if the vote had been fixed, much less how they would know, or be able to prove it was once it was unsealed.  Relena sighed and buried her face in her hands, trying to block out the thoughts of her very bleak future.

            Tears trickled through the fleshy crevices between her fingers and trailed slowly down her arms, some of them landing on the thin pages of the Bible she had been reading.  She looked down at the book, and pushed it towards the center of the table.  She had been seeing a priest and making her peace with God in preparation for what she considered her all but certain death.  Relena didn’t think Heero would understand…

            “Heero,” she said softly.  “Please, Lord, I ask only that you somehow help him to go on after I’m …after I’m gone.  He deserves to be happy, that’s all I have ever wanted for him….” Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound in the hallway just outside her door.  She looked up and listened as it repeated itself.  It sounds like someone is at the keypad, but why would it take them so long to enter? She wondered, her eyes transfixed on the door.   Suddenly it opened, and a very familiar man wearing a Preventer uniform stepped into the room.  Her eyes traveled up immediately to see his face, and she gasped at the sight of wheat colored hair obscuring one of his green eyes.

“Trowa!” She bolted from the chair, knocking it over in her haste.  It hit the ground with a loud clang that echoed eerily throughout the room.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            Wufei arrived in the main control room mere seconds after the alarms started echoing throughout Preventer headquarters.  His eyes narrowed, this was not supposed to happen. Sure, they trained for the possibility of fighting battles - they had to if they were to prevent another war.  He scanned the room and saw a communications officer yelling into his headset.  He quickly made his way over to him, determined to find out just what was going on.

            “I understand you are on maneuvers right now, but the Colonel said…. These are your orders! They do not come from me.  Fine. Out.” The young man terminated the connection with disgust and then the entire room turned around at the sound of Colonel Une entering the command center.

            “Attention.  We have a situation on our hands.  The Cromwell military installation appears to be under attack. Squadrons three, four, and five have been deployed to neutralize the threat, but we cannot contact Cromwell via radio or phone, and so we have no idea how devastating the current situation may be.  All squadrons need to be on alert, as we receive information from the advance teams that are preparing to takeoff.  Private Wes, please apprise us of the particulars.”

            “Colonel, at precisely eight thirty, Greenwhich Mean Time, I saw via the still operational security camera feeds from the Cromwell base an unidentified fighter plane drop what appears to be a Geiger one missile on the main structure.” The communications officer cued up the tape of the bombing and replayed it on the large monitor at the front of the room. All eyes watched as the plane came into view and released the missiles, then saw the building erupt into a raging fire.  “I have relayed your orders to squadrons three, four, and five, but three claims that they are too far away and without enough fuel because of their flight maneuvers this morning.  They have not returned from their exercises yet.  Four and five are reporting in to receive clearance for takeoff.”

            “Do we have any idea who has initiated this attack?”

            “None, colonel.  They are not responding to our attempts to contact them.”

            “What sort of plane is that the pilot flying?  And have we received any notifications from subs or ships in the area?”

            “The plane is an unidentified model, one we have never seen before.  There are no markings identifying the group, and no subs or ships have reported in as of yet.”

            “Do we know if they are still out there?”

            “Most of the security cameras are no longer functioning.  We have no idea what is waiting for us at this point.  They could even be gone.”

            Colonel Une brought her fist down onto the desk with a loud bang.  “Unacceptable.  Grant clearance to four and five for takeoff.  I need Lieutenants Rogers and Taylor to get a copy of that tape and analyze it for any clue of who might be responsible.  If the enemy has left before we can get there, we’re going to track them down.  If they are still there, convey orders to shoot them out of the sky by any means necessary.  They could have eliminated the entire population of our Cromwell installation, there is no need to take them in alive if it jeopardizes any more of our men’s lives.”

            “Understood.”

            No one noticed as Wufei silently exited the room.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                     

“What….” Relena’s voice cracked and appeared to fail her. 

            “There’s no time.  We have to go.”

            “But….” 

            Trowa shook his head.  “We have to go,” he repeated in his quiet but firm voice.  Their eyes met, and he could read all too well what she was feeling.  He had never wanted to see those eyes without hope, never wanted to look in their heartfelt depths and see the torment that now resided there, never wanted to see despair in the place where the world had once seen its future.  He felt his blood turn to ice in his veins with the premonition of failure he saw reflecting in her light blue orbs. 

I will fight for her with my life…

            “Tell me this is a dream, that this isn’t happening, Trowa.” 

            “Relena…” He flicked his wrist to check his watch.  Up until now, he was right on schedule. 

            “I can’t do this, you can’t let him do this.  They’ll never rest; they’ll never stop.  I don’t want to go back to being a fugitive.” Her voice rose with her speech.  He could see the blood rise to her cheeks, changing her countenance to a deep red color, and lighting the depths of her broken blue eyes.  There was still some fight left in her, but hope had vanished.

            “You don’t have a choice.”   He fought to keep his voice steady, to not betray his own emotions.  He agreed with her to an extent, had voiced a similar opinion to Heero, but he knew his friend too well. 

            “Like hell I don’t!  There are a lot of things that I don’t have a choice about, but this isn’t one of them.  Please, Trowa, please go back and get him out of whatever trouble he’s causing himself.  Make him go home.  Make him understand.” Her voice had changed to a pleading tone, and he could see the red around her eyes that indicated she had been crying.  But there were no tears now. 

            “I can’t do that.  You know how he is. Your death….”

She winced at his words, and he paused.  Death was inevitable for them all, but it was never a pleasant assurance.

            Her voice became much softer.  “It’s okay, you can say it.  It’s all but certain now, you know.”

            “He wouldn’t survive, Relena.  And even if he did, what kind of life would he live? What kind of life would we all lead, knowing we let you die for us, when we could have prevented it?  We promised, Relena, all of us did – that we wouldn’t let you go down without a fight.” 

            “This is a fight you cannot win.”  She said, bowing her head and avoiding his eyes.

            “They always are.”

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Cromwell Military Installation Airspace

Western European Region

            Heero looked out the side of his cockpit window as Zechs’ fighter fell into formation with his and Duo’s planes, waiting for the first signs of the Preventer’s response to the perceived threat.  He had seen the transmissions from the specially installed cameras Duo and Trowa had placed about the Hidelburg base, and he had to admit, his former enemy had made the attack look convincing.  There was no doubt in his mind that Colonel Une would be sending fighters after them, the trick would be Cromwell’s response to the Preventer squadron that would no doubt show up on radar…

            In time with his thoughts the control panel started to beep loudly that they had ‘company’.  Heero counted the blips on his screen and determined they had two squadrons coming their direction.  A smirk formed on his lips and his eyes narrowed; they had been expecting more.  “Piece of cake,” he thought as he flipped his visor down and engaged the artillery panel, watching as the controls began to glow a bright green, eerily similar in color to the eyes on Wing Zero. 

Keeping his thoughts focused, he flicked a few switches overhead, increasing the flow of air to his suit temporarily in order to calm the anxiety in the pit of his stomach.  He watched the blips on the navigation screen grow closer and then looked up to where he could see them finally come into range of the naked eye.  “This is it,” he said to himself as he took the flight controls off of autopilot and quickly executed a tilt to the left, narrowly avoiding a missile from the Preventer squadron leader that had launched it as soon as they had come into firing range.  He saw Duo and Zechs break formation and veer in separate directions in order to split the enemy’s numbers into three parts. 

Divide and conquer…

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Trowa’s head peeked out of Relena’s quarters and looked both ways down the corridor before nodding at her to follow him.  “We’re just going to act naturally for right now,” he said quietly to her in the doorway.  “So try to look like my prisoner.”

            She held her hands out and he placed handcuffs loosely on her wrists.  “You should be able to get out of them easily, it’s just for appearances.”  Relena nodded her understanding as they stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind them.  He grabbed her right arm and led her down the corridor passed the elevators to the emergency stairs.  “It will be easier this way,” he said in answer to her silent question.

            Tap tap tap tap the heels of their shoes sounded on the concrete steps as they quickly ascended to the top of the second flight of stairs.  Somewhere above, Trowa heard the sound of a door closing, echoing against the cement walls, and then footsteps descending upon them.  He swiped his security passkey in the keypad located next to the door labeled “Ground Level” and pushed her into the waiting hallway.

            His eyes darted quickly in all directions, taking note of the flurry of activity as agents received orders and hurried to carry them out.  No one even glanced their direction as they made their way down the main corridor.  A smile tugged at his lips in grim amusement.  Everything was proceeding according to plan.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Cromwell Military Installation Airspace

Western European Region

            Duo watched the blips move on the navigation screen, noting he had four fighters following him.  His control panel beeped loudly, and he pulled up on the flight stick to increase altitude rapidly, and watched two missiles fly right underneath him.  He executed a quick turn and rolled to the right as bullets flew by.  A couple of them hit the armor on the right wing, but the internal computer indicated that everything was still functioning normally.  Duo took the opportunity to increase his speed, rocketing across the sky at a much faster rate than the Preventer squad could match and then turned around on a dime to give chase to his former pursuers. 

“Heh, how’d ya like that trick?” He quipped with narrowed eyes and a deadly smirk.  “Nothin’ against you guys, we’re just here to save the Princess.” He continued to talk as he took careful aim and shot out the engine of the number four plane, then quickly gave chase to the next one in his vision.  His control panel beeped again, and he had to push down on the control, and then pull back.  The missile narrowly missed, flying at an angle in front of him and down towards the ground.  He quickly shot it in order to force detonation before it hit land.  The jolt from the blast forced him to the right.  As he completed the turn he fired a missile at the number two plane in his target sights and received fire on his left wing a moment before the aggressor went down in a trail of smoke.  Duo smirked. 

Only two to go.

            Zechs had three trailers right behind him.  His warning system beeped just an instant before he took fire on his tail.  Sparks burst as the lightweight armored plating deflected some of the bullets, but he couldn’t maneuver away from them as he twisted and completed a roll end over end, dodging more machine gun fire and the few missiles his enemy had left.  He still had the fuel to put in a burst of speed, but the two fighters coming head on prevented his escape.  He took more gunfire from the front, a few puncturing tiny holes in his left wing, but causing no severe damage. 

            A glowing red light alerted him to the fact that his gatling gun on the left flank was damaged.  A scowl formed on his face at the thought of the useless weapon.  His warning panel beeped again, and he quickly shoved the flight stick all the way left, tilting the plane up on end, one wing above the other, and maneuvering his fighter in-between the two coming head on.  He could almost see the terrified faces of the pilots in his mind as he didn’t let up on his speed and shot through the narrow opening between their planes and then hit his thruster to give him a burst of speed as he flattened out.  The bullets of the planes chasing him took down the ones he slipped passed and startled the trailers that had just fired on their own comrades.  He quickly spun around and launched three missiles in quick succession, disabling the fighters and forcing them out of the sky.  Long plumes of white smoke followed them down like billowing flags of surrender. 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            Trowa ran his badge through another keypad and quickly pulled Relena inside the open room.  The quick move kept them out of sight of a familiar face.  Trowa didn’t need anyone recognizing him or her.

            “Who else is involved?”

            “We don’t have time to talk.”

            “I see.”

            He ducked his head out of the door again.  The ‘friend’ was gone.  “There are no friends here, only enemies.”  He reminded himself.  He motioned at Relena who obediently followed, her hands still cuffed like she was just being transported by a guard.

            They walked quickly down the hallway, trying not to look suspicious.  The pair just had to make it passed the main control room to the end of the corridor, then turn right to follow the pathway to the launching pads.  Trowa had his fighter on a shuttle that was waiting for them in a cell offline of the main security system.  He had a computer program running that would show it as empty.  And no one would think to question something so minor when they were in the midst of an attack.

            He led her by the arm passed the open door of the control room.  Everything inside him screamed for them to break into a run, but he knew that would be a dead giveaway as to what they were up to.  Instead, he just kept her positioned to his right, doing his best to block the view of her from the door.  He held his breath as they walked by and could feel all the muscles tense in her arm as well.  3-2-1 and they were passed the room; the rest of the way should be a piece of cake - except for the guards in the main hangar.  But he was prepared for them, he had brought along all necessary weaponry for completing the mission.

            He glanced at Relena out of the corner of his eye as they finally reached the end of the corridor and made the right turn towards the main hangar.  A small group of Preventers rushed by in a hurry to get to their fighters.  Colonel Une must have given the orders to send out another squadron, Trowa thought as he looked down at his watch to check the time.  They were a full minute behind. 

            “Hey!” A voice called out and Trowa stiffened, his grasp tightening on Relena’s arm unconsciously.  He didn’t turn around, and the voice called out again, this time the sound of hurried footsteps followed the greeting.  “Hey!”

            He glanced at Relena; she was absolutely white.  He could hear her breath coming in small gasps as he readied himself to turn and shoot.  His left hand sought out the handle of the 9mm pistol he had tucked in the front waistband of his uniform slacks. 

            A hand clapped him on the back, and Trowa turned in a flash.  He released Relena’s arm and in an instant had the Preventer in a chokehold up against the wall.  The young man gasped for air as his face turned red and his arms came up to pry Trowa’s fingers from his neck.  Something fell from his fingers as his eyes darted over to Relena.  She blinked and looked down at the floor, not wanting to witness the scene.  Her eyes caught the object and she bent to pick it up.  It was a security badge, and the picture on it didn’t belong to Trowa, but it most definitely didn’t belong to the man being chortled.

            Without a word, she held it up to Trowa, who released his grip on the Preventer.  “I thought you had dropped your badge,” he said while gasping for air.

            “No.” His tone was curt as he handed the plastic key card back to the young man.

            “Sorry, man, I can see how you’d be uneasy, transporting a prisoner.  I’ll just turn it in.”

            “You do that.”  Trowa grabbed Relena’s arm again and they quickened their pace down the hall.  Within a few minutes they reached the last security checkpoint before entering the hangar.  He pushed the princess into a hallway that branched off leading back to the private quarters of the agents that lived on base.

            “Stay here.  I have to clear the way.”

            “Clear the way?”

            “Guards.”  He pulled a gun from out of his holster and handed it to Relena.  “You know how to use this.”

            “Yes,” she said and tucked it into the waistband of her pants the way she had seen her brother and Noin do before.  She covered up the bulge with her shirt. 

            Trowa watched her put the weapon away.  He still had his 9mm for disposing of the guards.  “I should be back in two minutes,” he said and turned to go back to the checkpoint.  At the mouth of the hallway he paused and took a deep breath. He just had to walk five yards to the checkpoint, swipe his badge, then dispatch three guards.  He would still have time to come back, retrieve Relena, and make it up to the launching pad before the guards were missed.

            His shuttle’s takeoff should not be notable due to the number of planes launching and landing during an airstrike.  Then, he just had to keep the shuttle low and off radar until he made it to the arctic rendezvous point.  As soon as they were in-flight, he was to radio in on Heero’s frequency so they could cease their diversion and make their escape.  He checked his watch again.  Still mostly on schedule, the run-in with the guard had thrown him behind another thirty seconds, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.  They had a five-minute contingency built-in.

            Taking another deep breath, he pulled the gun from his waistband and stepped out into the hall once more.  His eyes darted quickly in the direction he and Relena had arrived from and he felt his internal alarm system go off in his head.  He released the safety mechanism and turned to take a step towards the security checkpoint only to feel the cool metal of the end of a gun barrel come into contact with his temple.        

“Drop your weapon.  You’re under arrest.”

Trowa blinked, hesitated, then finally dropped his gun.  It clattered against the tile floor as he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. 

***********

AN: I know, it’s been far too long since I posted a chapter of this fic.  HOWEVER, in my defense, action is always difficult for me to write.  But it’s also something that I refuse to shy away from in the attempt to try to improve.  I know where this story is going (for the most part); I know where it ends.  Please do not doubt that it will be finished because it will be.   Thank you to everyone still reading, it’s been a long road, and we’re not to the end yet.  I do have a start on chapter 24 of this and a rough draft of chapter 18 of Missing.  In addition, I’m co-writing Across Enemy Lines with Stella and Luvspook, so chapter 4 of that is also being worked on.  I have quite a few projects all competing for my attention, but rest assured that any new fic I choose to post will only be uploaded once I know I can complete it.  Again, my apologies on the delay, and I thank you all for your patience…and for reading.  J  ~the Black Rose

PS: If you haven’t seen Across Enemy Lines, you can check it out on Stella’s profile at http://www.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=story-read&storyid=298456

It’s an HYxRP action/romance set on the Western Front during World War 2.  Check it out.  J