[I don't want to be the one
The battles always choose
'Cause inside I realize
That I'm the one confused]
--- Lyrics to 'breaking the Habit' by Linkin Park
A Silver Lining Part 42
"Angie Grayson."
Adjusting the collar of her grey uniform blouse, the dark-haired agent looked up as her name was announced. As the crowd gathered applauded, she smiled and rose from her seat. A few of her fellow graduates patted her arm as she passed along her way to the front of the auditorium, towards the podium there.
With a wide, proud smile, Lady Une stepped down from the pulpit to hand the young woman her new badge and certificate announcing her completion of training. Taking the new agent's hand with her own free right one, the Commander shook it firmly and grinned, "Congratulations, Agent Sleet."
Carefully accepting her badge and returning the firm handshake, Angie smiled and replied quietly, "Thank you, Lady Une."
There was a loud whistle from the crowd followed by a shouted, "Way to go, Angie!" Looking over, the young woman smiled brightly and waved to her braided trainer. Sitting at either side of Duo with looks of amusement were Heero, Trowa and Wufei along with the other higher-ranked agents.
On her way back to her fellow classmates, Angie appraised the shining badge in her hand. The interrogate detail of the silver oval with the small star engraved in the center with her name and title glistened under the bright lights. Her chest swelling in pride, she silently wished that her parents were still alive to partake in the moment. They had always wanted her to do something worthwhile with her life and now, she was finally accomplishing that.
Nearly a year later, Angie removed her magnifying glasses and sighed deeply in relief as the bomb was finally disarmed, its timer blinking on :57. Calling back to her team, she announced, "All clear!" There was a relieved cheer among the other agents as she climbed out of the air shaft where the nasty little present had been hidden.
Carefully lowering the device after her, the agent held it to show the young woman who called in the bomb threat to her growing insurance agency. "Thank heavens," the orange-haired woman sighed deeply. She turned her green eyes to the remainder of the team and bowed her head with a sincere, "You've all been amazing. Thank you so much for your help."
Once all of the red tape was taken care of an hour later, the agents were finally able to return to Preventer headquarters. The last to pack her gear into her car, Angie looked up as the relieved client approached with a wide smile. "You were quite impressive back there," she complimented the dark-haired agent.
With an embarrassed chuckle, Angie shrugged and closed her car's trunk as she replied, "Just doing my job. I'm glad that everything turned out well, Miss-"
"Isis," the young woman grinned, completing the sentence for the other young woman and extending her hand. "And personally, I think you're far too talented to be wasting your talents for a thankless organization like the Preventers. I certainly could use someone as resourceful as you with my own business. I think that you would find it worth looking into."
Quickly removing a card from her pocket, her green eyes smiled along with her lips as she put it into the Preventer's right hand. "I would love to talk to you in the future about possibly working together. I think that we would make a great team."
Shaking her head as she exchanged a firm handshake, Angie stated, "Well, thank you, Isis. I certainly do appreciate the flattering offer, but I really am quite happy with what I am doing right now."
With a small hum, Isis nodded, "Yes, working alongside the same pilots responsible for your parents' deaths during the war, must be quite the endeavor." When Angie's head quickly rose with wide eyes, she raised her hands and chuckled deeply, "But I certainly am in no position to judge you for your choices."
Unable to breath as her face paled, the Preventer breathed, "H-How did you know..." Shaking her head, her eyes narrowed as she hissed, "Those Gundam pilots did not intend to kill anyone innocent. The fire caused during the attack was an accident that killed a lot of other innocent people as well."
"Ah," Isis grinned, "But had those pilots not been there at all, then all of those innocent souls would still be alive, am I correct?"
Slowly approaching the orange-haired woman, Angie warned, "Look, I don't know how you were able to learn anything about me, or my family, but this conversation is over. You can go to hell with what you think of me and my choices."
Just as the dark-haired agent was about to round her car, Isis grabbed her arm in a surprisingly strong hold. "If that is how you really feel," she spoke lowly into the pilot's ear as she pulled her close, "Then why are you still holding onto my card?"
Angie's brown eyes widened as she looked down to her fisted right hand, the card still there. With a deep growl, she pulled herself free and quickly entered her car, slamming the driver door after her. As she drove off, Isis smiled and waved her off. As she watched the orange-haired woman disappear from her rearview mirror, the young pilot tossed the crumpled business card into the passenger seat.
Months later, the card remained where she had tossed it. For whatever reason, Angie just could not bring herself to throw it away.
* * * * * *
Her brown eyes narrowed on the road as she recalled her first encounter with the one person she thought that she could trust, Angie's hands gripped her steering wheel. The vile woman had managed to stir a buried bitterness over the death of her parents. Little by little, her resolve was beginning to break down and her building rage managed to undo all reasoning. her anger was misdirected and in the end, she worked against the very morals that her parents had worked to instill in her.
Friends quickly became enemies in Angie's mind. Right was wrong and vengeance was the only thing that she craved. Her actions and choices were her own to answer for and she was more than aware of that now.
Now, wishing more than ever that she had just thrown Isis's business card away those years ago, Angie cursed her weak self for believing the false sense of community that Isis convinced her to being a part of White Out. With the organization, she found others who were just as filled with rage and loss as she was over the deaths of loved ones during the wars. They were connected and determined to see that vengeance was finally reached.
When she had searched herself before leaving the colony on Isis's last mission, the dark-haired agent was stunned to find that she had been planted with an explosive. After all of her services and sacrifices to the White out Organization, Angie was still nothing in their eyes. Everything that she had brought herself to believe came crashing down in mere heartbeats.
... More than that, one of the very pilots that she made the focus of her hate had been the one to open her eyes enough to save her. The entire world was going mad and she had been instrumental in that.
Beside her, Heero kept a cautious watch on Angie as she drove through the night, his hands tight on the rifle that she had given him. There was a time when they had been colleagues, comrades in arms. With all that she had done to him and his loved ones, she could not blame him for the smoldering rage in those cobalt eyes that threatened to cut her down.
Taking a deep breath, the fallen agent was finally tired of the uncomfortable silence between them. "For what it's worth," she began quietly with her eyes focused on the dirt road ahead, "I am truly sorry for everything that I've done, Heero."
"Save it," the Japanese Preventer snapped in a deep growl. With a quick glance into his narrowed eyes, Angie decided to wait before speaking up again. Were there any other options present to him for an escape, she was convinced that he never would have gone off with her. She could not begin to blame him for his hostility in the very least. Her actions called for no understanding or forgiveness.
Finally, the dark-haired pilot tired of the unease and frowned deeply, "I just want to make it know that when I joined the Preventers, I signed up with nothing but good intents." At that, Heero snorted in frustration, his hands clicking the safety off from the weapon in his hands.
Glancing out the corner of her eye, Angie stated more than asked, "You still don't trust me. I never would have freely given you a gun if I didn't mean for you to use it in your way out of this place."
His eyes narrowing further, the ex-Wing pilot replied, "So you think that your helping me will get you a lighter sentence when we return to the Earth and you're turned in for treason? You really believe that this one good deed will make up for all of the lives that you've helped destroy over the last two years?"
Swallowing hard, Angie could not answer him. He was right in thinking that she had hoped maybe she could make a plea bargain. Now that her intentions were thrown back at her, she saw just how foolish and selfish she continued to be. Regardless of his contempt for her, she still intended to see that she righted one of her wrongs.
"What was on that chip that had been implanted in me?" Heero suddenly asked.
The dark-haired young woman let out a frustrated sigh as she shook her head and answered honestly, "I don't know. Those of us working under Isis and her associates are given very little to what all of their actions have been building to. All that we knew was that your capture was the utmost concern of theirs. We learned never to ask questions."
As she turned her head to meet the unimpressed gaze watching her, she pleaded, "Please believe me. If I knew more, I would be more than forthcoming with the information." Her brown eyes were turned back to the road as she frowned, "It wasn't supposed to be like this... never like this."
Small tears filled her brown eyes and she quickly reached up with one free hand to wipe them away. At the unexpected sight of Angie's tears, Heero's eyes only lost the slightest bit of their wrath. "Like I said," the dark-haired young woman managed at last, "I never had ill intentions when I joined the Preventers. Whether you believe me or not doesn't matter, since I know the truth of that at least."
Taking a deep, long breath, Heero sighed deeply before asking flatly, "So what was it that made you decide to turn?"
Angie took a hand from the wheel to run it through her long bangs as she answered, "Isis had implanted a small explosive on my back. Had you not made me second-guess her intentions with the mission she had sent me on, I never would have thought to inspect myself to find it." With a small snort, she commented, "All things considered, you're probably disappointed that I did find it. I'm certainly not anyone you would miss."
When Heero made no remark at that, his glare still in her, Angie knew the truth of her accusation. Her freeing him had been a convenience, but one that he would have worked on without any assistance. Thinking of the other pilots and how they would treat her when she was brought in was enough to send a chill down her spine. From this point forward, she no longer had anyone that she could call a friend.
In the distance, the bright lights of the hidden shuttle port were finally in sight, breaking through the darkness of the barren desert. Silently grateful to focus on something other than the young man beside her, Angie reached for the semi-automatic in the back seat while navigating the car as she released a slow breath and muttered, "Here we go." Preparing his own weapon, Heero turned his focus on the approaching lights.
With her own knowledge of the terrain and the assistance of the dim glow from the port lights, the fallen agent turned the headlights of the car off and approached slowly. Once they were close enough to look within the glass-enclosed facility, the ex-Wing pilot announced, "I don't see any signs of the shuttle yet."
Nodding, Angie sighed in relief, "Good, then we beat them here. I was hoping we would have time to snipe a few of them down before we have to deal with the whole of the team that Isis sent along with the light crew that already works there." With a firm nod of his own of acknowledgement, Heero reached to the back seat for the ammo to his own rifle.
Slowly driving onto a tall hill of sand that rose several yards before the shuttle port's main doors, Angie parked the car behind the cover of the rise. As the two pilots climbed to the top and lowered themselves onto their stomachs to watch the large building from their perch, they prepared their sniper weapons.
As they finished their preparations, Heero looked up to the skies just as the beacon of red lights below a landing shuttle descended towards the facility and smirked, "Not a moment too soon."
The top of the shuttle port opened up as the large craft approached. As the front search light of the shuttle scanned just a few feet behind the two agents, it slowly landed within the large building. Once the engines of the shuttle began to die down, the steel panels of the hatch slowly closed once more.
His cobalt eyes narrowed, Heero peered into his sniper scope. Angie followed suit as they watched and waited. Several minutes that felt like an eternity, two crewmen opened the large front doors, pulling them back as a car engine from within roared to life, its deep groan echoing through the desolate stretch of desert.
"I'll take the staff out," Angie suggested quietly. "You take care of the car before it gets away. That'll have the rest of the crew gearing up before." With a small grunt of acknowledgement of the plan, Heero remained still as he trained his focus on the entrance.
There was not a second to breath after that agreement before a deep grey car peeled out of the shuttle port's doors and turned onto the dirt road approaching the pilots at the top of the rise. Jumping onto his feet, the Japanese pilot fired a spray of bullets into the hood of the vehicle, taking out the driver and passenger before the car went up in a deafening explosion just as it was nearing the top of the hill.
With the bright flames that rose just feet before her, Angie quickly rose to take out the two stunned men that were in the midst of closing the glass doors of the facility. Their bloodied bodies did not even fall to the ground before the men within the facility could be heard screaming frantically and others shouting orders.
In the confusion, Heero grabbed the car keys from his accomplice's pocket before she had time to react and aimed his rifle at her. His eyes narrowed fiercely, he gestured to their car and ordered, "Get in. I want to keep my eye on you at all times."
Only able to blink in shock, Angie scrambled into the black vehicle. As he took the drivers' seat, the Japanese Preventer did not bother closing his door as he turned on the engine and slammed his foot into the gas.
Slamming head-on into the burning remains of the gray car to clear the path, he steered for the half-closed glass doors of the shuttle port. Shards of glass flew into the air as they plowed through and the car wheels spun on the metal floor as Heero spun it to face the nose of the shuttle that had been docked.
Bullets flew as the two pilots dove from their car, narrowly escaping just as it burst into flames. Quickly rising to his feet, Heero took aim with his rifle and took out three blue-uniformed men running towards him. His brown eyes narrowing, Angie focused her semi-automatic on two men stationed above the shuttle on a catwalk.
With only a small handful of crew remaining, Heero ran towards the shuttle's side entrance just as its engines were revving up. As he climbed the rolling staircase that had been secured to the closed door, he took out a couple challengers along the way. Quickly opening the hatch, he ran to the front of the craft, kicking in the cockpit door.
The lone, terrified pilot looked up just as he was about to call up the last commands for an emergency take off. The white-haired man raised a shaking arm to aim his pistol. Without blinking in his charge, Heero batted away the gun with his own. As the frantic pilot rose to his feet, the ex-terrorist gripped his head in both hands and twisted his neck.
Just outside of the shuttle, Angie took aim of the last two crewmen that desperately tried to take control of their port again. With a smirk as she took cover behind a metal beam, the dark-haired pilot spotted several tanks of flammable gases below the balcony that they were firing from. Caution to the wind, she stepped out from her hiding place and rained bullets into the tanks, setting off a massive explosion.
With the first combustion starting a chain reaction, the storages of flammables went off one after another, beginning a slow but steady progression around the whole of the facility. Her brown eyes widening, Angie quickly made a run for the controls to the roof. Punching in the 'Open' button, she looked up as the steel panels opened to the star-filled sky. At the sight, even with the building around her being engulfed with flames, she laughed in relief.
The door to the shuttle opened as Heero ran onto the stairwell as he tossed the body of the pilot aside. Finding the dark-haired woman, his cobalt eyes widened as he shouted, "Angie, come on! We have to get out of here!"
At the cry, Angie looked up to the ex-Wing pilot with wide eyes. Her senses regained, she ran up the stairs, only to slow and stop half-way up. Blinking in surprise, Heero yelled over the nearing explosions, "Angie, we're out of time! What are you-"
Shaking her head, the dark-haired young woman looked up and smiled sadly at him, "I'm already dead, Heero. If a member of White Out doesn't come to take me out, I'll face life in prison for treason-if not death. I've done all I could to make up for my mistakes."
Her hand reached to her belt to remove a pistol had been resting there. "A word of advice. Tim knows a great deal more than he and Isis have been letting on. Good luck," she grinned as she raised the barrel to her right temple.
"No, Angie, don't!" Heero screamed, his cobalt eyes widening in shock as he ran towards her. He was too late as she pulled the trigger, her limp and bloody body falling back and down the stairs in a heap.
With the explosions closing in, the Japanese pilot took his wide eyes from Angie's body to the approaching wall of fire. Turning quickly, he ran back into the shuttle and locked the hatch. With the engines already on and ready for lift, he jumped into the pilot seat and punched in the commands for take off.
"Come on," Heero muttered through gritted teeth, sweat rolling down his face. "Come on." As quickly as he was working, it did not seem to be fast enough as the deafening crashes came all the closer, threatening to engulf the craft. Finally, the shuttle responded and he pulled back on the joystick. The whole ship shook between the rough takeoff and the pressure of the explosions rolling around it.
Tightly closing his eyes, the ex-Wing pilot growled deeply as he pulled back with both hands on the stick, using all of his strength to get control of the craft. When the sounds of the blasts around him died down, he panted heavily and opened his eyes. As he peered out the window, he looked down to see that he was miles above the burning shuttle port as it was consumed by balls of light and smoke.
Sagging into his seat, Heero's eyes drifted closed as he continued to catch his breath after his brush with death. "I'm getting too old for this," he sighed deeply as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
As the events of that evening came rushing back, the Preventer took one last look to the burning remains of the shuttle port. With a deep frown, Heero whispered, "Thank you, Angie." Turning his head to gaze up to the starry heavens that awaited him, a small and relieved smile slowly tugged at his lips. With his hand gripped on the joystick, he pointed the nose of the ship upward and aimed it for the Earth spinning in the distance... home.
When he was several miles deep into space, Heero took up the radio. "This is Agent Yuy with the Preventers. I am trying to reach shuttle port number five-seven-three."
There was a brief pause for the call to reach the requested destination when a female voice greeted, "This is shuttle port five-seven-three, Agent Yuy. What is your approximate arrival time for landing?"
"Approximately twenty minutes," he answered. "But I need someone there to deliver an urgent message to Lady Une for me."
* * * * * *
Moments later, Lady Une was quickly walking down the hall of the Preventer headquarters. Massaging her hands anxiously, she searched the break areas. When she spotted the braided pilot she had been looking for curled up and sleeping on one of the sofas, she smiled in relief.
Cautiously approaching the couch as not to startle the ex-Gundam pilot, the Commander whispered, "Duo." His nose wrinkling in his slumber, the young man sighed deeply and wrapped himself tighter around his small form. Her smile growing at the sweet scene, Lady Une gently touched his shoulder and spoke a bit louder, "Duo. Wake up."
With a small moan, Duo's violet eyes blinked open as he looked up and yawned deeply. Stretching, he mumbled sleepily, "Hey, Commander. What's going on?"
As she trained her face to lose any trace of a smile, Lady Une answered, "I need you to come with me for just a moment. We may just have a break in finding Heero." His eyes widening, the American quickly got to his feet and followed after the young woman without another word.
His stomach churning in anticipation to what seemed to have his Commander convinced that there was finally a lead to where his lover was, Duo paced anxiously in the waiting room of the shuttle port. It was all that Lady Une could do to keep from spoiling the surprise early as she watched him from where she sat at one of the white couches.
"Private shuttle landing confirmed," a young woman's voice announced through the speakers overhead.
Unable to help her smile, the brunette young woman rose to her feet and nodded, "That would be them."
Swallowing hard, Duo looked to the double doors that led from the dock to the waiting room. When the doors finally opened, his heart stopped at the sight that walked through. Haggard and stained with blood, Heero slowly walked into the room. His weary cobalt gaze brightened when it fell on his lover. His voice cracking, he breathed, "Duo."
Unable to breathe, the American's mouth opened and closed as he remained stiff. When his best friend's arms opened, tears filled his violet eyes and with a sharp cry he ran to him. Locking each other in a fierce embrace as they nearly fell over, the two lovers clung onto each other as if afraid the other would disappear. Fighting his own tears, Heero rained kisses on his partner's braided head as the smaller pilot sobbed his name into his shoulder.
As she folded her hands together, Lady Une wiped at her own eyes at the endearing picture that they painted. With a wink to the Japanese pilot when he looked up to her, she stepped from the room to allow them some time alone.
When he pulled back, Duo examined his lover, the concern evident in his shimmering eyes at the sight of the blood on him. Gently cupping his face in his hands, Heero smiled reassuringly, "I'm fine. If anything, a little tired, but I'm all right."
Biting his lip, the braided pilot whispered brokenly, "God, Heero I was so scared." Throwing his arms around the Japanese Preventer's neck, he held on tightly as he trembled. Carefully breaking away enough to kiss him, Heero moaned deeply in the feel of the simple exchange as Duo melted against him to meet the chaste press of their lips.
Regretfully ending the kiss, the ex-Wing pilot caressed the side of his love's face and frowned, "I'm sorry, but we have to get back to headquarters. We'll have to catch up better later."
Duo swallowed hard, but nodded in understanding, "You have something to help solve the case?"
"Not really," Heero growled deeply as he looked away with narrowed eyes. "But Tim does."
TBC...
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