[Voices call, they call out my name, (my name, my name)
They say I'm different well I'm not the same (the same)
You say you want to be like me (like me, like me)
Well boy let me tell you, you didn't know what I've seen]
--- Lyrics to 'Black' performed by Sevendust
A Silver Lining Part 38
The footsteps were nearing rounding the corner of the stairs as they reached the second floor. Waiting just within the doorway of one of the many bedrooms down the east wing, Anna's narrowed eyes watched the two tall shadows continued to follow the blood trail that she had left on the walls. Holding her breath, she prayed that they would both move in her direction and not down the other wing, where Relena was hidden at the end of that hall.
Within the dark closet that she was hiding in down the far end of the west wing, Relena bit her lip roughly at the sound of wooden boards creaking under heavy feet as they reached her floor. Yuuki whimpered beside her, obviously frightened to death from the gunshot that had exploded downstairs followed by Anna's screamed vow of vengeance.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, the pregnant young woman was thankful for her friend's thoughtfulness to hide the pup as far down the hall as possible for their 'guests' not to hear. Softly, Relena ran her hand over the frightened dog's fur and whispered, "It'll be okay, Yuuki. It'll all be over soon." As the collie lowered her furry head onto a folded leg, the young woman bit her lip and tried to calm her own frenzied nerves.
"I just don't like this," the smaller of the two intruders growled deeply. "They weren't supposed to but up any kind of resistance. Now, we lost one of our best men before we were even in this place for five minutes."
The man in the lead snorted, "You're going to let a couple of girls scare you? Besides that, whichever bitch killed Garret didn't go unscathed. I'm going to have some fun with her before I make her watch me skin her alive."
A dark smirk tugging at her lips at that, Anna forced a small and pained moan. The two dark shapes straightened at the sound at the same time the metallic clicks of their readied guns were aimed down her wing. The other end of the hall forgotten, the two assailants slowly stalked onward, following the remainder blood trail towards the end of the corridor.
With the two men nearing the door that she left cracked open to spy on them, Anna stepped further into the dark room. The footsteps paused just outside of the door that she painted with the last of the blood that she had pooled into her hand before it dried. Through the thin crack, the Preventer watched as the taller of the two men nodded to his accomplice.
The door was kicked in as the first man quickly entered with his own shot gun ready a second too late as his face was blown apart. As the first attacker fell back in a bleeding heap, the second was taken aback by the sudden gunfire and as he spun in the right direction of the assault, his nose was broken when Anna slammed the butt of her riffle into it.
Spinning the shot gun in her hands, the Preventer rammed the barrel into the young man's chest to knock the wind from him. His eyes wide, the man fell onto his back gasping for air. Standing over the stunned man with her legs straddled over his chest, the red-haired pilot glared down heatedly and hissed, "How many of you are there?"
His own eyes narrowed, the injured man quickly sat up with a switch blade that snapped from the dark band on his right forearm that had been hidden under his sleeve.
Caught by surprise at the sudden attack, Anna cried out when the long knife was sliced across her exposed right knee. Growling madly, she fired her gun before any further damage was done, the bullet slamming into the man's chest. The close impact blew the torso open as blood splattered on the Preventer and the walls.
As an eerie stillness fell over the room once more, Anna panted heavily, her eyes narrowed fiercely at the body beneath her. Wincing in pain, she limped away from the corpse, hissing, "Goddamn it." With her teeth and hands, she tore off the right sleeve of her deep green t-shirt and used the fabric to wrap her bleeding knee.
Just as the young pilot finished sealing the wound, the sounds of windows being shattered downstairs and the front door being kicked open filled the air. Her eyes widened, Anna straightened, sweat beading on her forehead as she listened to what sounded like a stampede approaching the stairway.
Quickly unlocking the barrel of the shotgun in her possession to reload, the young pilot locked the barrel again and grabbed the semi-automatic along with a couple grenades from the body of the man who stabbed her. The knife that was used to cut her, still stained with blood, was sheathed in the wide leather belt of her black jean shorts.
Taking up more blood from the pool that was gathering on the floor, the red-haired Preventer sighed deeply, "Three down. And a whole mess still to go." With that, she quickly walked down the hall, minding her injured leg as she continued to paint the walls in her passing.
When she reached the stairs, Anna turned just as the first couple of dark-clad assailants climbed the stairs just below her. Gripping the semi-automatic, she fired on the unsuspecting man and woman, killing them before they knew what hit them. With the angry cries and shouts of the other attackers close behind their fallen accomplices, the Preventer took two stairs at a time upward into the darkness.
In her climb, Anna narrowly avoided a few bullets fired in mere rage from the mercenaries after her. Wincing in pain every time she stepped on her right leg, she found little comfort in the small chiming of her charm bracelet. "Okay, Chris," she whispered in a small moan. "Make sure to give me a kick in the ass before I make a slip up like that again tonight."
Nearly winded when she reached the third floor, the Preventer rounded the corner and leaned her back against the wall for support. "Jesus," she laughed bitterly. "A whole other floor to go before I'm in the attic." She gasped sharply when a bullet whizzed over her head.
Turning on her heels, she gripped the knife in her belt and threw it into the shoulder of the man that managed to sneak up on her. As he fell back, his cry of pain was cut off with the loud crack of his neck snapping when he hit the stairs. With a deep sigh of relief, Anna kissed her penny-sized charm and smirked, "Thanks, man."
At the sounds of the heard charging up close, the red-haired pilot ran to the large window the top of the next flight of stairs. Peering down, she watched as three cars sat along with a handful of dark-clad and armed mercenaries by the entrance of the large estate. Quickly opening the pane, Anna pulled out the pin of one of the grenades before sending it into the air with a loud grunt of effort.
"Up there!" one of the four men standing guard cried, pointing at the high window just as the Preventer threw. The warning came too late as the grenade fell between two of the vehicles and exploded, setting the cars ablaze as they were blown apart. Between the flames and flying shrapnel, three of the men were taken out.
The young man who had spotted Anna, however, dove away far enough. Glaring up at her, the man screamed in rage and fired. Her eyes widening, the Preventer ducked just as the bullets ripped through the wall siding. At the first break in the rounds, she jumped back to her feet and returned fire, cutting her target down before he could take shelter behind the remains of the closest overturned car.
With the charging feet right on her heels, Anna panted heavily as she climbed the last flight before running into the large attic. Closing the door behind her, she shed the semi-automatic and shotgun to frantically go through the metal shelves filled with weapons and ammunition.
Several guns were removed along with their needed projectiles. Piling the shot guns, rifles and semiautomatics into a pile she could get to easily, the agent quickly went through the finishing touches needed to hold her position for as long as she could.
There were four shelves that were known to be empty. The two by the entrance were knocked over to act as a barricade while Anna opened the doors of the remaining two and moved them to the center of the room with her.
Using the doors of the shelves as shields at either side of her to make a thin opening for her to fire from, the redhead faced the door. With the two large windows behind her on either side that looked over the brown-shingled roof, her eyes quickly adjusted with the moonlight pouring in.
Sweat and small trails of blood that had been splattered on her running down her face, Anna licked her lips and calmed her heavy breathing as the loud, stampeding footsteps and screaming voices drew closer. "No turning back now," she muttered to herself. Just then, a force rammed into the wooden door, bowing the top, which was not blocked off inward.
Her deep blue eyes narrowed, the pilot raised a shotgun in her right hand to rest its butt on her shoulder. Knowing better to use the semi-automatics first, she relied on the use of weapons that she would have the time to reload at the start.
The loud crashing against the door continued, the door bending inward more and more with every strike. Finally, the two metal shelves began to shift inch-by-inch from where they were piled atop each other.
Between two large shields of metal at either side, Anna closed her left eye and took aim with the other through the small scope. One more hit and the top of the door fell apart from the impact. Her first glimpse of first assailant was a mere split second, more than enough for what she needed, before firing a single bullet into his head.
As the first man fell back, there was a second right behind him lunging for the opening. Pumping the forearm of the shotgun to lose the used bullet shell, Anna raised the weapon and took aim once more. With a pull of a trigger, the second threat was removed. Unlocking the barrel, the young woman quickly and easily reloaded before readying herself for the next person to attempt to enter the attic.
The cries of the enraged men and women beyond the door became deafening and bullets flew through the opening. Shielded by thick metal at either side of her, Anna continued to return fire without so much as flinching. The attackers were still too far away and frantic to get at her to fire a clean shot into the thin opening that she made for herself.
Several rounds into her holding her position the attic, the Preventer reloaded and frowned deeply when there were no longer any targets in sight. Of her last shots, she was only able to wound one assailant and kill an other to make three dead from her holding the attic.
The intruders were becoming smart, pushing as the base of the door to move the barricade back once the bodies of their fallen were moved aside. With their new tactic, they were shielding themselves by ducking behind the metal shelves that had been used to keep them out.
Growling deeply in frustration, Anna tossed the shotgun aside and turned to one of the semi-automatic weapons as she frowned deeply, "Time to shift gears." With her foot, she drug a pile of ammunition closer to her for easy access when needed.
On the other side of the door, seeing the progress of her team in their pushing the bottom of the door open, dark-haired young woman shouted, "That's it! We're almost in! I want that bitch taken down!"
One of the injured men on the floor, covering his bleeding right shoulder as he lie on the floor, watched in horror as another young man who looked to want to make use of a grenade. His wide, green eyes narrowing, the injured mercenary shouted up at him, "Put that thing away! All eyes turned to him as he yelled, "There is enough oil and ammo in that room to send this whole place up if we're not careful!"
The dark-haired woman growled deeply, "The rest of you can work on taking care of that Preventer. I'm going after Peacecraft." Looking the eight strong that remained of her team, she pointed to a red-haired man and said filmy, "You're with me." Her subordinate gave a firm nod and followed close behind.
Looking over her shoulder, the woman in charge told the injured man leaning against the wall, "Eric, you're in charge of these three." With the arm that was not covering his bullet-wounded shoulder, the brunette saluted. The three men under his command went back to their work of pushing the door open.
When they reached the third floor, the dark-haired woman hissed, "That girl was leading us away from Peacecraft. She's hiding in here somewhere."
Two more men and two women climbed the stairs and approached, panting after their strenuous climb. Nodding to their anxious faces, she ordered, "I want two of you to search this floor's rooms. The moment any of you find the Foreign Minister, I want to be contacted immediately. The other two search the basement and first floor. Samuel and I will search the second floor. How many more are left?"
"We have four in total, Lori. Four others were killed when they were hit with a grenade," the bald young man of the backup team answered. "They're outside and waiting to be called in when more back up is needed."
Quickly doing the math in her head, Lori brushed her long ponytail of dark hair from her shoulder. "Including all of us here and the five upstairs, we have twenty-one strong left of the twenty-five that we came with."
The dark-haired woman smirked, "More than enough to handle two young women. The orders are still the same- no one should be able to identify what we leave of their remains for when the others return." At that, Lori barked, "Get moving, then." Without another word, her assembled group split.
Once they reached the second floor, Samuel waited until he was alone with Lori to ask her, "Why are you so focused on this floor?" His had running over his short, red hair, he scanned the two wings.
Gesturing to the blood on the walls from down the east wing, the young woman smirked, "Looking for a lead. That pilot wanted to lead us from the west wing on this floor." Turning to face the other corridor, its walls clean of any blood, she stated, "She's down here." With her accomplice right behind, Lori headed for the end of the hall.
Yuuki's ears perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. As the steps drew nearer, the pup's instinct to protect the young woman with her outweighed her fear with everything that had been happening. Stalking towards the closet door, she started growling deeply, her teeth showing as her lips snarled.
With a sharp gasp, Relena gripped the shot gun in her hands and whispered, "Yuuki, shh." Having to strain her ears, she was then able to hear the approaching footsteps. Her breath hitching in her throat, sweat began to bead anew on her forehead as she slowly rose to her feet. The rise and fall of the approaching feet continued without pause as they entered the room and stopped before the closet door.
Hunching her back, Yuuki's growl deepened and rumbled louder.
Panting, Relena watched with wide eyes in the dim light that spilled in under the door as the doorknob slowly turned. Focusing herself, her eyes narrowed as she aimed the shotgun at the crack that began to open. All that she saw was a head of short, red hair before she fired on the person opening the door.
His hand still on the doorknob, Samuel's remains, the head all but blown apart fell back to open the door the rest of the way. Yuuki lunged out and bit hard on the leg of the woman behind him that had been, causing her to cry out in shock and pain.
Quickly pumping the forearm of the shotgun to lose the empty shell from her first shot, Relena took advantage of the dark-haired woman's second of hesitation and shot her in the chest. Eyes wide and mouth falling open wide, Lori fell back lifelessly as blood sprayed into the air.
Silence fell heavily onto the room, only disturbed by Relena's heavy breathing. Her eyes wide as she gazed on the bodies, she felt her legs begin to give out. Yuuki walked up to her and licked her leg. Lowering her weapon, the pregnant young woman fell to her knees and scooped the pup into her arms. "Good girl, Yuuki," she breathed with a shaky voice. Squirming in the arms wrapped around her, the collie licked her face.
With the danger ever present, the blonde politician took up the shot gun to reload. As she snapped the barrel back into place, Relena froze with wide eyes at the sound of more cars revving into the scene, screeching to a halt at the front of the estate. "Oh, please, no more," she whimpered, her eyes losing in dread, small tears running down her face.
Just then, from outside, voice of a young man screamed, "Preventers! Lower your weapons or we will fire!" Stiffening at the cry, Relena's eyes snapped open wide just as gunfire broke out.
Footsteps from upstairs and down could be heard running in frantic haste as the shooting outside continued, no one sure what was happening. Still more vehicles could be heard screeching into the scene.
The gunfire ended as quickly as it began and soon, a new heard of feet charged into through the front door just below. The voice of the first agent shouted, "Preventers! Come out with your hands up! We will fire if you retaliate!" Again, there was a brief pause before there was more shooting.
Her hand resting on her swollen stomach, Relena's tears of sheer terror became ones of relief as she whispered brokenly, "Oh, thank God." Lowering the shot gun to carry Yuuki in her arms, she waited for the gunfire to die out and quickly moved to get to where help was waiting, only a floor below her.
Just when she reached the stairs, Relena heard someone running up the stairs. With a wide smile, she stated, "You have no idea how good it is to see-" Her words caught in her throat and her eyes widened when she was face-to-face with an armed, dark-clad young man that had scrambled upstairs before the agents could kill him.
With a dark smirk, the equally surprised young man raised his pistol. Relena heard the deafening shot, but did not feel the pain with it. His black eyes widened, the assailant fell at her feet. Behind him, Lady Une lowered her pistol and ran up to the stunned young woman.
Placing her hands gently on her shoulders, the Commander held the young woman close when she all but collapsed in her embrace. "Relena," she said gently, "Are you all right?"
The pregnant young woman nodded against her shoulder. There was a brief gunfire exchange that made her jump. Keeping her hands on the politician's shoulders, lady Une held her back to look into her eyes and asked urgently, "Where is Anna?"
Instantly snapping from her shock at the mention of the agent's name, Relena answered in a cry, "She's in the attic!"
Nodding firmly, Lady Une turned to the Preventers charging up behind and past her. "Clear every floor and don't bother with warnings, just take them all out!" she ordered as the long stream of agents continued upward. Taking up her radio, she shouted, "Agent Skyline, I need you in the air now!"
The young woman's voice replied over the radio, "Roger that, Commander. I'm on my way now."
As the armed Preventers continued to climb the stairwell, Lady Une wrapped an arm around Relena's shoulder and said quietly, "Let's get you outside."
Shaking her head, Relena insisted, "I want to make sure Anna's okay, first." Yuuki decided to raise her head at that time to lick the side of her face, somehow sensing her distress and wanting to help.
With a deep frown of concern, Lady Une reluctantly nodded, "All right." Raising her finger, she spoke sternly, "But only after the team has secured the remainder of the estate." Satisfied with that, Relena nodded with a grateful smile.
Back up by the attic, Eric knew that time was running out. The sound of heavy footsteps quickly approaching following the gun fights were enough to know that they had unexpected company. With his good, blood-covered hand, he removed his pistol and pushed himself off the wall to rise to his feet.
His eyes narrowed, he shouted to the three men under his command, "We have to move now! Soon as that door opens, we storm in!" With the door cracked widely open, the two largest members of his team violently charged at the bottom of the door. Grunting in their effort, they managed to force the barricade away and the remainder of the door fell open.
With her semi-automatic ready, Anna's narrowed eyes fell on the two men who charged into the room. Before either of them could get a shot off, she cut them down with a hail of bullets. In the continued spray of gunfire, she took out a third man right behind his two accomplices. But the forth, already injured man in the back of the charge was able to get close enough to catch her off guard when he threw a knife that she had to dodge.
Not able to fire and duck from the blade aimed for her head, the redhead found herself being wrapped around the waist by two strong arms as Eric charged on with a cry of rage. Driven on, he ran on, crashing through the right large window. Anna just managed to close her eyes tight in time as the pieces of glass cut their way down her face as she was hurled through the pane.
Landing on her side onto the cold shingled of the roof just below the attic, the Preventer gasped breathlessly after having the wind knocked from her. With long, thin cuts on her face that looked like a wild animal scratched her, she scrambled to grip the point of the roof before falling to the ground far below.
Standing over her just a few feet away, Eric laughed wildly. The strong wind blew Anna's hair up and from her face as she watched with wide blue eyes the assailant raise his pistol, aiming for her forehead. Unable to move much less catch her breath as she held onto the roof with everything she had, she was helpless.
"I may be going out," Eric smirked, his deep chuckle sending a chill up the pilot's spine. "But at least I'm taking you with me."
The wind grew all the more at that moment and suddenly, a spotlight fell on them. Looking up, Eric shielded his eyes and shouted, "What the hell!" His own eyes widening when his covered eyes spotted the turning of helicopter blades in the moonlit sky, he froze.
Quickly covering her head, Anna hugged herself against the side of the roof to flatten herself as much as possible. The side gun of the helicopter fired several rounds, hitting their mark. Knocked back with every hit, Eric's body was sliced down until it fell over the edge of the roof. When the gun was silenced, Anna sat up with wide eyes, watching the man plunge into the darkness.
Collapsing onto the roof, the redhead panted heavily as she managed to regain her breath. Rolling onto her back, she looked up to the helicopter as a voice spoke over the radio, "Glad to see that you're still in one piece, Agent Mist."
With a small, breathy laugh, Anna waved to her friend in the cockpit and gave her a thumb's up for reassurance that everything was fine as well as expressing her gratitude. The helicopter was flown away to find more ideal landing spot.
At the sound of voices within the attic above, Anna looked over to the broken window. At the faces of Lady Une and Relena that appeared in the window frame, the agent continued to lie on her back as she raised her right hand to salute. Her voice gritty and breathy, she grinned, "Beautiful timing, Commander."
* * * * * *
Isis smiled when his face appeared on the screen. "Isis," the gray-haired President of the Earth greeted with a pleasant enough smile. "I certainly hope that your calling me at this late hour is to inform me of good news."
"Oh that it is sir," the orange-haired young woman replied, her own smile turning mischievous. "I just wanted you to know that my accomplice and I have captured Heero Yuy." The old man's eyes widened at the news, his mouth falling open. "So, I hope that you can forgive my disturbing you at this late hour to announce that."
Finally able to find his voice, the President smirked, "Wonderful, my dear. You will be rewarded handsomely for this. For now, I have appointments to cancel so and I will meet with you tomorrow." Raising an eyebrow, he commented, "And I will have to set up the right appointments before my attempted assassination."
Nodding firmly, Isis replied, "Very good, sir. Until tomorrow, then." When the connection was cut and her screen black, the young woman folded her arms behind her head and lean back in her seat with a deep chuckle of content.
TBC...
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