The Last Beat

Capture

***





Nefertari was in the bunker putting the finishing touches on the Pharaoh gundam when Heero approached her.



Heero got right to the point. He was never one to beat around the bush.



"I need you to tell me where the Wolfgang Prophecy is."



Nefertari stood with her back to the former Wing pilot. "What's the matter, Yuy? Getting restless?"



"Yes, as matter of fact, I am."



Nefertari turned to Heero while wiping her gloved hands on a rag. She walked through the shield protecting her gundam.



Heero narrowed his eyes. "Genetic encryption. That's why--"



"--Why you couldn't get in to strip my gundam?" she finished for him.



"Actually, I was going to destroy it," Heero corrected. "In case you were an enemy."



"Well, see now, I just can't let you do that," Nefertari said matter-of-factly, wagging a finger at him. "Smart though."



"Why? Are you an enemy?"



"That remains to be seen."



Nefertari made to walk past him, but Heero grabbed her arm roughly, stopping her.



Quick as lightning, Nefertari had the former Wing pilot in a headlock. "You should know better than to attack a soldier without a full understanding of their capabilities."



"Where is it?" Heero repeated savagely. However, he did so without struggling. He had a feeling that she was going to tell him.



Nefertari released him and stepped back. Heero stared at her and waited.



Finally, she looked up at him. "It's on the Uranium Resource Shipment Satellite, outside L3."



Heero balled his fists in frustration. "We were right there!..."



"Yeah, I know. That's why you guys were attacked so fiercely. That squadron wasn't meant for you, it was meant for me."



Heero looked up at Nefertari's gundam. "Did they know that your suit could destroy that squadron in one blow?"



Nefertari shook her head. "No. They don't even know that Pharaoh exists. Even so, I don't like to use it; you've seen what it does to my gundam."



Heero looked back at Nefertari. "Then why did you do it? You could've snuck right past that squadron. Why did you fail your mission to save us?"



"I don't know, Heero. Don't try to figure me out. I can't even figure me out." Nefertari gave Heero a contemptuous look. "And I didn't fail my mission."



She smiled, "It's just...taking a little longer than expected."



"Is that what you tell your superiors?"



Nefertari's smile turned mysterious and her eyes glittered with everything that she wasn't telling him. "What superiors?"



Nefertari turned to regard the other mobile suits in the bunker. "You should take the Libra that Wufei was piloting. It had sustained the least amount of damage during the battle. I did the best I could with it in my spare time. I didn't bother with the other two."



"Yes, I noticed." Heero head was beginning to spin.



"That Mercreus looks like hell," Nefertari commented. "Whatever possessed you to get in that thing?"



"It was the closest thing they had to a gundam...and I was familiar with it."



"I see your point." She looked over at Heero and started walking out of the bunker.



Heero was really confused now. "Are you staying here? Are you going to just trust me with your mission?" That was ludicrous!



"I'm not going to even justify that with an answer." Nefertari paused at the door and glanced back at Heero. "Lets consider this a game. A race even. First one to get the Wolfgang Prophecy and deliver it safely to Earth wins. I'm giving you a head start."



She turned and walked out the door.



"You had better get going," she called over her shoulder.



Heero shook his head. Wufei was right, he thought as he jumped into the Libra's cockpit. Women are the strangest creatures on the planet.



***





Nefertari walked into the common room where the other former gundam pilots were.



Nefertari's cobalt blue eyes met Wufei's midnight black ones. Wufei dropped his gaze first and said nothing.



Quatre caught this exchange and asked, "Where's Heero?"



"He's going back to L3 to find the Wolfgang Prophecy."



Trowa looked up. "Back to L3?"



"Yes."



"Oh, so it does exist," Duo muttered, clutching his head. "I've gotta killer hangover, man."



Duo looked up at Nefertari and gave her his best smile. "Hey, Nefie. You got any aspirin in this place?"



"Of course, I do." Remembering his rude interruption last night, Nefertari scowled. "But I know of a better remedy."



Duo's eyes lit up hopefully. His hangover really was awful. "Oh, yeah? What's that?"



Nefertari smiled cruelly. "I could break a finger, rip out your vocal chords, or rid you of something else that you don't need. Trust me, your headache will disappear immediately."



Trowa began laughing softly. Quatre punched him in the shoulder to get him to stop, grinning the whole time.



Wufei even smiled at the thought of a vocal chord-less Duo.



Duo's face fell and he regarded her seriously. "You are, by far, the creepiest woman I have ever met."



Duo thought for a moment. "No, wait. That's not true. Une's the creepiest woman I've ever met."



Wufei laughed out right at that. It was true--and he had to work with her everyday.



"Dorothy Catalonia is pretty creepy, too," Quatre pointed out.



"Quatre!" Trowa admonished.



"True..." Duo agreed. "But I've never had a decent conversation with her so I can't really judge..."



"I have," Quatre said, with mock severity. "And it didn't turn out so well." He rubbed his ribcage where the scar from their last encounter still showed on his skin.



"Quatre!!" Trowa scolded. "Stop encouraging him!"



Quatre looked Trowa dead in the face. "Relena can be creepy, too."



Trowa pursed his lips, at first refusing to smile. Then, he just couldn't help it.



"That's right!" Duo exclaimed nearly jumping out of his chair. "She gets this I'm-going-to-go-cross-eyed-if-I-concentrate-any-harder look every time she thinks about Heero! It’s hilarious!"



Duo howled with laughter. "Okay, Nefie. So you’re the fourth creepiest woman I've ever..."



But Nefertari wasn't listening to them anymore. They would go on for hours at a time like that and she was beginning to learn how to tune them out. Nefertari was busying herself with putting essential items for the trip into a duffle bag. Her swords--she brought them with her on every mission--two firearms, a few bottles of water, and face make up to cover her tattoos. They were extremely noticeable and she had made a habit of covering them up when she ventured out of her safe houses.



Nefertari flung the duffle bag over her shoulder and tossed some aspirin to Duo. She paused at the door and looked at Trowa.



"Make sure they don't destroy anything."



"Sure..."



Duo looked up confused. "Hey, where're you going?!"



But Nefertari was gone.



They sat there and stared at each other for a moment. Then Wufei spoke. "She did say she was looking for the Wolfgang Prophecy, too, remember?"



Quatre nodded and exchanged a look with Trowa. Trowa jerked his chin towards Duo. Everyone knew that Duo's simple-minded goofiness was just a facade and that sometimes it slipped. When that happened, you caught a glimpse of a serious young man who looked like he had the world on his shoulders.



Like now.



Duo's face wore a dark expression and he was thinking...hard.



***





At first, Heero was unsure of he was going to get into the Uranium Resource Shipment Satellite unnoticed. If this Colonial Rebellion Association had any brains, they would have labeled the Libra he was piloting as an enemy target. The Preventers had cut off all communication with L3 and had advised the Earth Sphere Unified Nation to have the remaining colonies to do the same, at least until they could get a handle on the aggressive situation the L3 colony was posing.



Luckily, the wreckage from their earlier battle still floated around L3, and Heero was able to hide his Libra among the scrap metal and used the thrusters on his space suit to propel him towards the Satellite.



Once on the Satellite, Heero had to force himself to rest for a moment. The voyage from his Libra to the Satellite had left him winded, due to the considerable lack of oxygen. Then again, Heero was renowned for pushing his body to the limits...and beyond.



Heero used this time to puzzle over his thoughts.



What the hell is the WP doing on a Colonial Rebellion Association base? Commander Han "Wolfgang" Deans was of the Earthatorial Rebellion Association, so why would it be here? Did they steal it? Was Nefertari actually part of the ER organization and was just sent to get it back?



For the life of him, he couldn't figure it out.



Heero had to get that chip.



***





Nefertari sat back in Pharaoh’s cockpit. She had just finished putting the concealer over her tattoos.

Nefertari hated makeup. It always felt so heavy and uncomfortable on her skin. But it was necessary. Nefertari had survived this long because of her undeniable talent for blending in and disguising herself so as to never getting caught or recognized.



With that damn braid, she mused. How was Duo so clever at sneaking up on people? He stood out.



How was he even alive?



Nefertari supposed there was a lot she didn't know about the former pilot of the Deathscythe gundam.



Nefertari unscrewed a bottle of water and took a sip, letting her thoughts stray to the ebony-haired pilot called Wufei.



Something had almost happened last night. Some kind of boundary was almost crossed between them. Nefertari didn't understand it. It was unknown territory and it frightened her.



Nefertari knew it would have been dangerous letting them so close to her, but still, she hadn't expected this. Maybe she should keep her distance from now on...from all of them.



She wasn't exactly renowned for her people skills.



The right side of her gundam beeped and the Resource Satellite showed up on the screen. Nefertari proceeded to jam their radar sensors. They couldn't see her because Pharaoh had a mechanism that rendered itself invisible when necessary. However, and object as big as her gundam would show up on radar, even if they couldn't see her.



Nefertari landed quietly in the Satellites main hanger and powered down.



After snapping her firearms into place and shrugging into her sword packet, she discreetly exited her gundam and ran towards the CR Hard Drive Center.



***







"We just got some mail from our boys," Sally Po remarked casually to Lucrezia Noin, leaning against her desk. "There's another gundam, Maxwell's running around with them, and Heero just went back into space with an unknown party to get some data chip that we have no record of."



Noin looked up slowly and stared at he Second in Command. "What?"



Sally dropped a file onto Noin's desk. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but another gundanium mobile suit out and about isn't necessarily a good thing, yes?"



Noin opened the file and began reading the reports that Quatre had so kindly put together for them. She picked up a photo of the gundam that Quatre and Trowa had taken from the transport shuttle and stared at it hard. "Get Zechs up here," she murmured. "Notify Une."



Sally quirked a brow but said nothing as she moved across the room to her desk and picked up the phone. The receiver made it halfway to Sally's mouth before Noin interrupted her with a sharp inquisition.



"What do mean 'Heero just went *back* into space'?!"



***





Twenty minutes later, Noin, Sally, Lady Une, and Zechs Marquise were in Conference Room 60B poring over photographs and data.



When Zechs had first seen the photographs of the gundam, he had let out a strangled laugh and exchanged a worried look with Lady Une. Now, he was sitting at the table, comparing photos, and putting together a probable blueprint of the gundam; so they would know what, if not exactly then most likely, they dealing with. Every few minutes, Zech would mutter some profane comment under his breath and shake his silvery head. To an outsider, this wouldn't have seemed odd. However, because of Zechs extensive education and time spent in the military and around cultivated, power-hungry politicians, profanity wasn't something that Zechs would normally utter, if he even spoke at all.



Sally, Noin, and Lady Une were situated on the other side of the room, conversing in low tones what information had been sent to them.



"You can't track the shuttle?" Noin asked.



Sally shook her head. "If you ask me, I'd say they don't want us to. Quatre only powered up the shuttle long enough to send us the information. If they wanted us to find them, they would've kept the shuttle's computer active."



"Unless they're being held hostage," Une murmured.



Sally laughed in her face. "I seriously doubt that, Lady. No offense and all, but you do realize what five boys we're talking about, right?"



Lady Une's back grew rigid. "I've captured them before."



"Not all at the same time."



"Heero's in space."



"Which means if there was trouble, he would have written a program safe enough to send us the information."



"I'm sure they would all be touched with amount of concern you have for their welfare, Lady," Noin interjected gently. "However, the major problem we are facing at this moment in time is who the hell is this 'Nefertari Wakara', is that even her real name, and how, for the love of god, does she have her hands on a gundam?!"



"And what in Hell's Fire is this Wolfgang Prophecy?" Sally added cheerfully.



"No shit..." Zechs muttered under his breath.



***





Heero was typing frantically into a computer on the third floor of the Satellite. I'm running out of time, he thought. Where is it!?



"I've got it," a familiar voice said behind him. "Let's go. They're on to us."



Heero whirled around and stood up, reaching for his gun. How does she do that! No one was able to sneak up on him like she was.



"Give it to me," Heero demanded.



"No, not yet," Nefertari replied. "The game's not over, remember?"



"I'm done with games. Give it to me." Heero cocked his gun at her and released the safety mechanism. "I *will* shoot you."



"If you shoot me, you'll never find it." Nefertari smiled.



"After I shoot you, I'll search you." Heero was dead serious.



Nefertari's eyes sparkled. "You'll never find it," she repeated.



Nefertari turned and walked out the door.



"Come on," she called over her shoulder. "I'm your only way out of here. You'll never get back to the Libra with that space suit of yours. It's all out of oxygen--"



Heero followed her but stopped short at what he saw in the hallway.



Nefertari was standing, frozen, in front of two people, a man and a woman, wearing Commander's uniforms.



The woman had bright red hair and light green eyes. Her uniform said Commander Chrissen. She was Commander Fai Chrissen of the Colonial Rebellion Association.



The man had blue-black hair that was graying at the temples and grey eyes the color of white smoke. His uniform labeled him as Commander Deans.



Heero started. Commander Han "Wolfgang" Deans of the Earthatorial Rebellion Association! What the hell was he doing here!



Both Commanders were flanked by thirty or so odd men of their respective units, armed and ready.



Nefertari whirled around.



"Run!"



It was then that he saw the surprise and fear written in her eyes.



Heero turned and ran, with Nefertari close on his heels. A pain ripped through his shoulder. He'd been shot.



They turned a corner, then another.



Then Nefertari grabbed Heero and threw him against the wall. Heero saw that she had been shot, too. Twice.



Breathing heavy Nefertari pulled a small disk from her glove and thrust it into Heero's hand. "Take this--"



"Is it the WP?"



Nefertari met Heero's eyes. "No...but, if you inject this into the computer of a spacecraft--it doesn't matter what kind--it will take you directly to the safe house."



Heero's eyes narrowed. "What about you?"



Nefertari's ears pricked up when she heard the CR and ER soldiers coming closer. "Listen, I can't get us both out of here. You just get yourself back to the others and tell them what happened here!"



"But--"



Nefertari unsheathed her swords and turned back towards the way they came. "You're just going to have to trust me! The hanger's around the corner! Go!"



"Nefertari..."



Nefertari turned back to Heero with a furious expression writ in her gaze. "What the fuck are you waiting for! Go!"



Nefertari charged as the first of the enemy soldiers came into view. She feinted left and cut down a soldier. Spun, and two more went down. And another. And another.



Heero had never seen anyone move that fast.



With one last look, Heero turned and stumbled towards the hanger.



***





"Something's not right." Duo had been pacing to and fro for the better part of an hour.



Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa were watching him silently.



Quatre was concerned.



Trowa wore a bemused expression on his face.



Wufei's face, however, was completely unreadable.



They watched Duo walk out of the room only to return a split second later. He stomped over to the kitchen, opened the fridge, slammed it shut, and walked back out of the room.



Man, Trowa thought. This guy's like clockwork.



He should know. Trowa had been timing him. Duo had been walking to the fridge and back out again for fifty-three minutes and forty-two seconds.



Duo walked back in and then stopped mid-stride to the fridge, whirling on the other men who were staring at him.



"Where the hell are they?!"



Trowa sighed. Round three. "They're on L3, Duo."



"I know that," Duo replied. "But why aren't they back yet?!"



"There's no telling how long it's going to take to get the WP, Duo," Quatre said reasonably.



"I know, but--"



He was cut off by an explosion above them. The whole facility shook under the impact.



Duo looked at them once and then took off toward the main hanger. The other pilots followed.



They ran outside the hanger and had to put up their arms to shield their faces from the heat of the fire and the sand that had been kicked up.



A shuttle had crash landed onto the safe house.



A figure came forth from the flames.



It was Heero.



He had been shot twice more before successfully hijacking a transport shuttle.



Heero stumbled towards the other pilots and stopped directly in front of Duo, who was staring at him with his mouth wide open.



"She...didn't tell me...that the auto-pilot disk...didn't land itself..." Heero ground out by way of explanation, before collapsing against Duo.



Duo caught him, giving the top of his head an uncomprehending look. "I've got you, man. Hold on."



Duo turned to stare at the other pilots.



They were just as confused as he was.



***





"What are we going to do about the girl?"



Commander Dean was staring down at the girl hanging from her chains unconscious from where he stood in the observation booth thirty feet up.



Commander Chrissen, looking for the entire world like springtime after a storm with her red hair and green eyes, uncrossed her long legs and stood up, smoothing her skirt with her fingers. "Torture her for information. Find out who she's working for. Then kill her."



Commander Chrissen turned to leave the room. "Meanwhile, I'm going to move our headquarters to a new base. This location has been compromised. You will not be informed of our new location."



The door whooshed shut behind her.



Commander Deans smirked in the direction that she had just left. "She acts as if it was my fault."



He glanced back down at the prisoner. "I've got all sorts of goodies planned for you."



***





"You really are just wasting your time," Nefertari said while spitting blood at her tormenter. "Though, I'm surprised you wanted to do this yourself."



Deans had been hitting her ruthlessly for hours, asking her question after question.



"It's my specialty," Deans replied, backhanding her.



Nefertari laughed painfully, she had a few broken ribs already. "What's that? Hitting women?"



"No," Deans replied. "Torture."



Nefertari laughed again, wincing at the pain in her chest. "Well, you're doing a piss-poor job of it. You haven't even made me scream."



Deans stood back and smiled cruelly. "All in good time, young lady. All in good time."



He walked over to the table containing the tools he was planning on using on her. He picked up a small blade.



Deans walked back over to Nefertari and regarded his captive. She was hanging from a chain connected to the gundanium bonds that shackled her wrists. Her booted toes barely touched the floor. Deans knew that she was already in a considerable amount of pain. She was bleeding from various parts of her body and he was pretty sure that the men who had captured her had broken a few ribs. It was taking all of his captive's strength to hold herself upright so that she didn't suffocate.



Deans waved the blade in front of her face. "Do you know what this is?"



Nefertari's cobalt blue eyes focused on the blade for a split second before she looked away. She knew what it was.



"It's called a flechette," Deans explained patiently, clearly enjoying himself. "They're dreadfully sharp."



Deans grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.



"Now," Deans said, as if speaking to a small child. "Who are you? Who sent you? And what did you do to the Wolfgang Prophecy?"



Nefertari stared at him but did not answer.



That's when he began to cut her.



Deans began at the corner of her eye and ever-so-slowly traced a line down her face and began to cut whorls and patterns into her cheek.



The pain was acute and sharp. Lights sparked behind Nefertari's eyes but she remained silent and waiting.



Dean traced the blade down her neck, nipping at the vulnerable vein, and continued downward.



The pain was unbearable.



However, just when the flechette began to cut the skin under her shirt through the dark fabric, the dragging pain stopped, and Nefertari heard the blade clatter onto the floor.



"What the hell?" Deans pushed back the hair from his captive's face. The bloody line that had begun at the corner of her eye was beginning to close up and heal right in front of his eyes!



Nefertari looked up and smiled at Deans condescendingly. "I guess your blade was too small."



Deans stared at her incredulously. Then, with a flick of his hand, he gathered himself. "No matter. We have bigger blades."



Deans spoke into the device wrapped around his wrist. "Cronc, get in here."



Cronc, an evil-looking, broad-shouldered, heavyset man, walked in with what suspiciously looked like a cat'o-nine-tails with blades attached to the ends, clutched in his right hand.



Deans pulled up a chair and seated himself squarely in front of his captive. "My dear, I'm afraid playtime's over."



With a flick of his hand, Deans directed Cronc to stand behind the girl.



"Begin."



Cronc lifted his arm and slammed it down, sending molten fire streaking across her back.



Nefertari grunted, but gritted her teeth and made no other sound.



Again, and again, Cronc whipped her until her back was exploding with white hot pain.



Nefertari looked up and Deans swam in her gaze.



"It will end when you talk, my dear."



***





"So...let me get this straight." Duo was standing in the doorway where Heero, bandaged up and healing, and the other pilots were assembled. "You guys get caught, Nefertari sends you back here, she could be dead in a ditch somewhere, and she's the only one who knows where that bloody data chip is!"



Heero nodded solemnly. "Correct."



Heero moved his arm to a more comfortable position. He hated getting shot. He wouldn't recommend it to anyone.



"I've got to get that chip from her," Heero said. "She could be the enemy."



"You do realize that she saved your life, Heero," Quatre said gently. "Regardless of whether or not she is the enemy."



"I didn't ask her to," Heero muttered. "I don't owe her anything."



They were all quiet for a moment.



Quatre stood up. "I'm going to go rescue her. It's the least I can do for the hospitality she's shown me."



Trowa stood and nodded his agreement.



Wufei came to his feet, as well. "It would be the honorable thing to do."



They looked at Heero and Duo expectantly but they said nothing.



"Fine," Quatre said, disappointed. "You two do what you feel is right."



The three of them left the room, heading towards the hanger.



Duo and Heero exchanged a long look.



***





Quatre smiled as he saw Heero and Duo board the transport shuttle from where he was seated in the cockpit. He turned and looked at them when they entered the cockpit, waiting for the explanation of their sudden change of heart.



"I want that data chip," Heero said flatly.



Quatre turned to Duo, the same question burning in his blue-green eyes.



"Hey, don't look at me!" Duo grinned. "I'm just making sure none of you guys gets yourself killed!"



Quatre turned back to the control panel, glancing at Wufei and Trowa as he did so. "Let's go, then."



***





"That's enough."



The girl was hanging limply from her bonds. She had apparently passed out from the pain.

Her blood was everywhere, and Deans had to tip-toe his way around the larger puddles to get close enough to her to check for a pulse.



She hadn't screamed, not once. That, more than anything, irritated Deans. This woman bled like a human but he had never seen any other person endure this kind of torture without screaming his or her head off. Who the hell was she?!



"She's alive," Deans announced to Cronc. "We'll continue in a few hours. I want you to hold her up so she doesn't suffocate. Notify me when she regains consciousness."



"Yes, sir."



She didn't even scream.



***





"We'll be there in a few hours," Quatre said as he sat down with the other pilots.



"So, how're we gonna do this?" Duo asked wearily.



Heero looked at Quatre expectantly.



Quatre blushed. Heero had been the first to recognize his talent for strategy. Heero's respect for Quatre was nearly overwhelming.



"Well..." Quatre thought quickly. "According to Heero's estimate of the odds she was facing, Nefertari was probably captured. If they don't know who she is, she'll most likely be tortured..."



Duo rubbed his neck uncomfortably. He knew very well what it was like to be tortured at enemy hands.



"In that case, she'll probably be held in the observation holding cell here..." Heero pointed at the layout that he had drawn up for them to see.



Quatre ran a hand through his hair. "Then we'll need to split up...Trowa and I will go to the soldiers' sleeping quarters here, and hold off any incoming troops...Wufei and Duo will go to the holding cell and retrieve Nefertari...Heero, you will secure our retreat here...Wufei, Duo, you two must wait for the signal from Heero before releasing Nefertari! Trowa and I will do the same, got it everyone?"



Everyone nodded.



Duo glanced at Wufei, then turned his disdainful expression back on Quatre. "Man, how come I have to be paired up with him?"



Wufei quirked a brow. "Feeling's mutual, pal. Trust me."



Quatre laughed. "Because you two work good together. Remember the battle outside L3?"



"I remember..." Duo muttered.



"What's the signal?" Heero asked.



Quatre sat back for a moment and looked at Trowa, who was being strangely quiet. Well...Trowa was always quiet, but this was strange, even for him.



Trowa's dark green eyes flickered to Quatre's aquamarine ones and then away again. "Beautiful Dancer," Trowa said softly.



Everyone looked inquiringly at Trowa, but he refused to meet any of their gazes.



"'Beautiful Dancer' it is, then," Heero said finally.



Quatre continued to gaze at Trowa as the shuttle hurtled them through space, towards their destination.



***





Deans was smoking a cigarette in the Observation Deck above the holding cell when his wrist beeped.



"I'm awake, now."



"What?!" Deans ran over to the window and looked down.



There was his prisoner, with Cronc's head pinned securely between her thighs and his arm between her face and shoulder. She was speaking into Cronc's wrist.



"Say goodbye to your little whipping boy," she was saying. Then, with a twitch of her thighs, she snapped his neck. His captive glared up at Deans challengingly as she allowed Cronc's lifeless body to pool itself at her feet.



Deans slammed his fist down. "Cronc..."



She'll die for this...



***





"Commander Noin?" A Preventer with curling dark-red in a Petty-Officer uniform saluted and waited for Noin to acknowledge him.



"Yes?" Noin answered without looking up from the papers that she was sorting through on her desk.



"The shuttle that you asked us to monitor is in space."



Noin looked up sharply. "Where in space?"



The Preventer hesitated. "It's headed toward L3, Ma'am."



***





"We're being hailed from the Rennell base," Duo remarked lazily.



Quatre sighed. He knew this was coming and he doubted that the Preventers were going to approve.



"Switch them on," Heero said.



Duo flipped a few switches and Noin image appeared on the screen. "Long time, no see, Noin," Duo said.



"What is your authorization for this?" Noin demanded.



"You gave us permission to gather information on CR and ER, Commander," Wufei murmured. "We are on our way to collect an asset for information."



Noin was quiet for a moment. "Bullshit."



Duo laughed and shrugged. All this politicking was exactly why he didn't bother to get sworn back into the Preventer Unit. Too much damn paperwork and 'may I please's.



Heero leaned forward. "The pilot of the gundam is trapped on that Resource Satellite. She has the Wolfgang Prophecy."



"Can you confirm this, Heero?" Noin demanded.



Heero was quiet for a moment. "I will when we retrieve the WP."



"That's not good enough, Heero."



"Noin--" Quatre started but was cut off by a sharp flick of Noin hand.



"This is not authorized, knowing the five of you, it is probably poorly planned, and, most of all, I do NOT appreciate being left out of the loop. Une is on my ass and I could lose my job if I let you all run around doing whatever you want without informing us first--"



Duo slammed his fist on the dashboard, startling Noin into silence. "If you had done your job in the first place, I'd still have a home, Noin," Duo said quietly. "No wonder your job is on the line. It didn't work out your way, now we're doing it our way. If you don't like it, piss off. We didn't need your authorization when we saved the world the last two times."



Noin was quiet for a moment. "Let's hope doesn't come to that, Duo."



"Somebody obliterated an entire colony, Noin," Trowa murmured.



Surprised that someone was siding with him, Duo sent an appreciative glance Trowa's way.



Silence filled the cabin except for the soft humming of the computer screen.



"Fine," Noin said resignedly. "Just...just keep me informed."



Heero nodded before switching off the comm link. Heero's eyes swiveled over to the hunched form of Duo Maxwell. The braided pilot was glaring out of the window. Heero didn't like it when Duo was like this. The former pilot of the Deathscythe gundam was unpredictable when he was this despairingly angry.



***





Commander Deans resumed his seat in front of his captive and glared at her. "Cronc was a kindhearted man."



"A kindhearted man with a whip," Nefertari mused sarcastically. "Forgive my confusion."

Another soldier with a whip was positioned behind her.



"He was following orders," Deans ground out.



"Yes, he was," Nefertari agreed. "Kept me alive, too. I'll be sure to thank him on the other side."



"Who are you?" Deans demanded, his temper rising.



"Oh, come now, Commander. We've been through this." Nefertari was trying very hard to sound calm.



"I've had enough of your insolence," Deans raked out. "Begin."



"I thought you would have had the guts to do it yourself this time," Nefertari gasped as a fresh wave of pain blossomed across her back.



"And give you that sort of satisfaction," Dean snarled. "Never. I want to see your face as you die."



"Much obliged," Nefertari rasped. She bit her lip as she felt the fresh welts scouring her back reopening the old ones.



***





"Good God, Wufei!" Duo couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Why are they whipping her?!"



"Probably because she's a woman," Wufei was glaring down from the observation deck at the horrid display in the holding cell. He was getting angrier by the second at the scene that was unfolding before his eyes. We have to wait for the signal, he reminded himself fiercely. However, he was sure Quatre never expected this.



"Whipping has been known throughout the ages as an exquisite form of torture," Wufei explained. "They probably thought that because she was a woman, whipping her would be more appropriate than burning her, cutting a limb off, or any other means of torture."



"Exquisite!" Duo exclaimed. He jabbed a finger at the scene below them. "You call that exquisite!?"



Wufei looked down. Nefertari's blood was everywhere. All over the soldier whipping her, all over the cell, it was even on the man that was sitting in front of her with most terrible expression Wufei had ever seen. That man is pure evil, he thought.



Wufei turned to look at Duo. "People are sick, Duo," he said simply.



Duo looked back at Nefertari. This looks familiar... Duo was fighting images of the men who had tortured him on the Oz spacecraft, L2 blowing up, the last look Hilde ever gave him...then one image stuck in his mind. Heero... Heero, broken, bleeding, tied down...Heero! That's who she reminded him of! Everything from the deadly personality and right down to the cobalt blue eyes.



Suddenly, something snapped inside of Duo. "No!"



Wufei looked over at Duo, startled.



Duo was pulling out his gun.



"No, wait. Duo!.."



Duo pointed his gun at the window that separated them from the holding cell. "I can't take any more of this!"



Duo fired three rounds at the window and charged at it. The glass shattered and Duo was flying down into the holding cell.



"Duo! We have to wait for the signal!" Wufei screamed after him.



The comm link he was holding beeped. "Beautiful Dancer. I repeat, Beautiful Dancer."



Wufei growled in frustration, threw down the comm link, and followed Duo out the window.



***





Somewhere in the back of her conscious thought, Nefertari heard glass breaking. The whipping had stopped. She struggled through the haziness that clouded her comprehension. That's when she heard Duo's voice.



"Get away from her."



Duo?



Someone fired a gun and she heard the thump of a body hitting the floor behind her.

She saw the figure of Deans jump to his feet and raise a gun.



"No.." Nefertari whispered and she swung herself to intercept the bullet. It was the new form of pain that shocked her back into reality.



Commander Deans was running. Wufei was there. Duo...Where was Duo?



There...inches away from her face. Duo was shaking her.



"Snap out of it, Nefie!" Duo was looking away now. He was looking at Wufei. "Can you get these things off her, man?"



"Yeah, hold on..."



"Nefie?...You've got to stay with us, Nefie...We've got you...Hold on, Nefie..."



Nefie? When did he start calling me 'Nefie'? She struggled to remember. It was so hard...the darkness was beckoning her. She liked the darkness...it didn't hurt there...



"Deans...Where's Deans?..."



"I let him go...You're our priority right now..." That was Wufei. God, Wufei...You must hate me for my weakness...



"No...matter...I'll kill him...later..." She was mumbling incoherently now.



"Stop talking, Nefertari," Wufei was saying. "You need to concentrate on staying awake."



And that, ironically, was when the darkness claimed her.



***





Nefertari slumped against Duo, unconscious.



"Shit! Nefie!" Duo looked worriedly at Wufei who was trying to pick the lock that cuffed her wrists, which were chafed and bleeding.



Wufei glanced down. "Does she have a pulse?"



Duo checked. "Yeah. It's faint though..."



"Good..." Wufei's hands were still working deftly on the lock. "Almost there..."



"There!" Suddenly, Nefertari arms were free and dangling limply around Duo.



"All right. Come on, let's get her out of here." Wufei started walking toward the door.



Duo put one arm under Nefertari's knees and lifted her up. Her body was slick with blood and the sickly, harsh, coppery scent was invading Duo's nostrils.



Duo glanced down on Nefertari's peaceful face. "Don't die on me, Nefie."



Duo turned and hurried after Wufei.



***





Wufei and Duo found themselves running through an abandoned hallway towards the hanger. Duo glanced over at Wufei, whose eyes were darting back and forth, searching for enemies.



"The others certainly held up their part of the deal," Duo gasped, as they turned another corner.



"Sure did," Wufei agreed. He had managed to grab Nefertari's swords before heading out. Wufei could only imagine how important they were to her.



The other former gundam pilots were already waiting at the shuttle. Quatre looked stricken when he saw the bloody and unconscious Nefertari in Duo's arms.



"What the hell happened?!" Quatre asked.



"I tell you later," Wufei said. "We need to get her out of here...where the hell is all the resistance we were expecting?!"



"The Colonial Rebellion Association has cleaned out," Trowa said. "Apparently, Deans and a few of his men are the only ones here."



Heero was staring at Nefertari with a horrified look on his face. He reached out a hand and took a step towards her.



Suddenly, Nefertari stirred in Duo's arms. Instinctively, Duo's arms tightened against her.



"Put me down, you crazy oaf," Nefertari mumbled.



Duo complied and she stared around the room, trying to figure out what was happening. Nefertari's gaze fixed on Heero.



She took a step toward Heero, swayed on her feet and staggered against him.



Heero put both hands on her shoulders to steady her. "We have to get you out of here...You'll die..."



Nefertari grabbed a fistful of Heero's shirt and pulled him closer. She bored her eyes into his. "You...you have to...get me...to Pharaoh..." she gasped.



Heero nodded. "Where is it, Nefertari?"



Nefertari's eyes wandered blindly around the hanger and focused on a certain area. She pointed. "There."



"What?" Duo cried. "There's nothing there!"



Heero obediently put one of Nefertari's arms around his neck and led her in that general direction until he hit his head on something invisible. Nefertari, however, slid right through. She was right, Heero thought. Her gundam is here.



The pilots heard footsteps in the distance as they watched helplessly as Nefertari struggled to climb her gundam. Deans' men were coming.



"Come on, Heero!" Quatre called. He didn't like leaving Nefertari either, but it couldn't be helped. "We have to get out of here!"



Quickly, they boarded the shuttle, as the Pharaoh gundam powered up behind its invisibility cloak.



"Automatic Pilot engage," Nefertari said as she strapped herself into the cockpit. The darkness was closing in again.



"Understood," the female voice of Pharaoh’s computer answered her. "Destination?"



"Home, Computer," Nefertari murmured as the darkness claimed her yet again. "Take me home."



"Understood."



***





The shuttle was almost knocked off course by the impact that Pharaoh made as it crash-landed into the sand.



That was when the former gundam pilots feared the worst.



Duo thought for sure she'd died in space. He thought it was ludicrous that Heero had let her pilot the Pharaoh back to Earth. Duo drove himself crazy thinking about it. He absolutely refused to speak to Heero the whole way back.



After they landed the shuttle in Nefertari's safe house hanger, they ran back outside. It wasn't difficult to spot the Pharaoh Gundam. The sand that had been kicked up was making the mobile suit plain as day as it swirled around it.



The cockpit opened and Nefertari fell out and landed with a soft thud onto the sand.



Quatre raced to her side and put an ear to her mouth. "She's breathing! Quick, help me get her inside!"



Well, whaddya know? Duo thought. She's even more like Heero than I thought.



***





There is a point where pain becomes bearable.

Where it becomes warm and loving, causing you to lean into it like a lover's caress.

I have only known that once--the day that I was submitted to the whiplash.

Succumbing to the pain was probably the only thing that kept me alive.

That and the darkness.

The darkness was like the embrace of a loving parent.

Gentle and pain free.

Unconditional--if I wished it.

I felt safe there--and I never felt safe anywhere.

But something kept drawing me back.

Back to the pain.

Back to reality.

I never expected to be rescued.

The thought never even crossed my mind.

I never expected the tenderness I received from Duo Maxwell.

Nefie.

That is what he had called me.

Against my will, I grew fond of his little nickname for me.

No, I never expected a rescue.

Never in a million years.

And they had all come for me.

All five of them.

Perhaps I was right.

Perhaps my destiny was tied to theirs.

Tied with silken silver bonds stronger than gundanium.

I learned later that Quatre had been the one to rally them.

Thank you, Quatre.

Thank you, for the dance we shared amongst the sand dunes.

Thank you, for your inexplicable kindness.

I would not have survived if not for your kindness.

Do not forsake your Trowa, oh Arabian Knight.

He, too, was smitten by your kindness.

And once upon a time, he rescued your sanity.

Remember him, Quatre.

Remember your Trowa.

Heero never asked me for the Wolfgang Prophecy again.

I guess he blames himself for what they did to me.

It was my choice, Heero.

My choice.

Why Wufei was there, I'll never know.

I had thought he hated weak women.

And I was at my weakest that day.

My very weakest.

Maybe it was because I had known Meiran.

Nataku...bright, strong, ever-shining Meiran.

Maybe it was because I understood him.

Down to his very core.

Oh, Wufei...

We always did understand one another, didn't we?

There are many different kinds of pain.

There are the pains of the body.

And then there are the pains of the heart.

Especially the pain that one feels every time one thinks of those dear to them.

That was the day I started to feel that pain.

That was the day I began to care.