Part Six

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Waking up the next morning I realized that night before I had forgotten to turn off my laptop, at least I had the damned thing plugged into the wall and didn't leave it running off battery power. Squinting at the screen I read the little clock in the corner of the screen it was a little after 4:00 AM, pursuing my lips in displeasure I attempted to bury my face into the bed, it was too early for me to get up. Twenty sleepless minutes later I realized that I having one of those occasional bouts of insomnia that tend to really piss people off, I was simply wasting my bed by laying in bed attempting that which was impossible, sleep. With an annoyed growl I rolled off the bed landing rump down on the dirty floor. I really, really wanted some coffee unfortunately all I had in the way of food was apples and beer, I considered that a somewhat healthy diet for the time being. Yawning and scratching my shoulder I forced myself to stand up, it really is a bitch when you're tired but you can't go back to sleep meaning the only that can be done is finding some way to completely wake up, another growl sounded as I headed off towards the tiny bathroom.

Glaring at myself in the mirror I took in the messy bleach blonde and orange hair, which at the moment was defying gravity, the rumpled clothes I had failed to remove the night before, and the somewhat bloodshot blue eyes that would soon be covered with the gray contacts. Having the disposable contacts was somewhat of a pain, I could not go and get permanent ones without going to a legit doctor, I could go to one of the underground doctors but those doctors were underground for damned good reasons, mostly it was because they sucked at being doctors, I would prefer just stocking up on the disposable contacts, I wasn't taking chances with two-bit underground doctors who didn't know what the fuck they were doing.

I stepped into the shower and turned the knob to hot, instantly I was sprayed with ice cold water, "Friggin' piece of shit!"

Looks like the hot water wasn't working this morning, hell ice cold water was definitely guaranteed to wake me up quickly. After five minutes of the freezing water I jumped out and wrapped up in one of the thin towels. With my teeth chattering I finger combed my colorful hair, I cast a glance towards the heater in the corner of the bathroom, well I knew how I was going to wash my clothes today.

Still wrapped in the towel I gave my pants, shirt, socks, and strips of cloth from yesterday's outfit a quick washing then I turned on the tiny heater and draped the wet clothes over it to dry, they'd be dry in a few hours.

Munching an apple I plopped down in front of my laptop and began the tedious task of once again going through the decoded OZ files, while there weren't as many as there had been when I first started there was more than plenty for me to go through. After an hour of reading I still hadn't found the file I need, though I was more than tickled about one document concerning the commercial side of OZ, apparently there had actually been a commercial committee whose duty was to promote OZ by way of commercials and propaganda, they had been formed just before the collapse of OZ and had never been able to carry out their numerous plans. One of which had involved a collection of OZ dolls, which included a Treize doll, an Une doll complete with glasses who could be changed to St. Une and, as well as some Aries and Taurus actions figures. Snickering at the idea of the dolls I continued to read the remaining files.

After three more hours of reading I finally came across a clue of sorts, it was a tiny little document not more than three pages long, it talked of OZ's need to have some sort of invincible soldier who could quietly take out Alliance bases and officials. Apparently this would be done to preserve the lives of soldiers and the number of mobile suits that were often destroyed during fights. With this so-called invisible soldier who take out an entire base on their own, OZ would not have to deal with the causalities of the not as highly trained mobile suits pilots and the suits themselves, Alliance officials could be assassinated with ease as well. OZ's funds had somewhat dwindled and this was what the council had come up with in order to save money as well as preserve the supplies and soldiers that OZ already had in their possession, interesting. Unfortunately the document stopped there but at least it was a start to answering some of the questions I had.

With that I decided that I had read enough for the morning, I converted my laptop back into a TV, and turned it onto a news channel. Not surprising I was still the main story, with a disgusted glare I watched the newsman talk about the evil woman who had tried to murder Relena Dorlan than who had murdered three prison guards while escaping.

"Good morning this is newscaster Phil Smith with the daily news. In our main story the prison escapee Hilde Schbiebker who had been arrested for the attempted murder of Vice Foreign Minister Relena Dorlan is still on the loose. There have been no sightings of this dangerous woman and this station still gives warning to anyone who may spot her, do not attempt any action quickly call your local authorities, take no chances with this dangerous person. Today we actually have the warder of the prison that Hilde escaped from with us today, here is Mr. Kenton Johns. Hello Mr. Johns what do you have to say about this incident?" Smith turned to an aging bald man who had suddenly appeared beside him.

"Well Mr. Smith this woman ruthlessly murdered three of most dedicated guards the night of her escape, this combined with her attempt to murder the Vice Foreign Minister should immediately point out the fact that this woman is most possibly quite psychotic, she needs to be caught and taken down before she can murder more innocent people. The three guards were dedicated and good men, I knew all of them personally and they everything that they did in the prison was done for the better of the colony and the people imprisoned there, everything they did was ordered by me, those were good men and the loss of their lives is being mourned by all."

Narrowing my eyes I glared at the screen.

Dedicated my ass, I don't know if the rape and beating of me something that was done to better the colony.

Some of their behavior started to make sense as I stared at the warden on the screen, there was something about his eyes, and maybe he had indeed ordered all of their actions including their treatment of me, if so then he was seriously screwed.

With a disgusted snort I clicked off the TV command and went to see if my clothes were dry yet, they were still a tad damp. Rummaging out a cigarette I lit it and sat on the floor, today I needed to pick up some leather gloves, a rope, and I needed to construct a listening device. The gloves and rope I could take care of at any local flea market I could also pick some more clothes, and the listening device I could actually make in the hotel room since I had packed my electronic toys with me.

After digging through my duffle I had removed everything I would need to make the device I stuck the cigarette in the corner of my mouth and got to work. Untangling the numerous wires was I pain but I eventually got them sized, organized and cut. Arranging them in color order from black to blue to yellow to red they hooking into the tiny microchip that would make up the bulk of the device, once made I could place this device on one side of a window and listen to the conversation on the other side. I made a mental note to pick up a pair of headphones with the rope and leather gloves too. Soon enough I had constructed a tiny high tech listening device, inside the microchip was a tiny little wire that could send out the sounds from whatever was being monitored to a headphone set with a programmed receptor, this was too damned easy, I was like a kid in shop class.

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As soon as my clothes were dry I dressed myself, putting my hair back into the messy ponytail I stuck the baseball cap onto my head, it was time to head out to the nearest flea market, I'm like most women I love shopping whether it's clothes, electronics, or weapons. Shoving a few hundred dollars into my pocket, the rest of my money was put into the duffle with the cigarettes, my gun, and my laptop. I slung the duffle across my back, stuck in the gray contacts and headed out of the motel room locking the door behind me.

Starting up my motorcycle, damn I loved my this thing, I sped out of the parking lot and to a flea market I used to go to when Duo and I lived together, it should have what I needed.

I had always loved flea markets, they sold so much and for so little money. It would probably be a good idea to pick up some more food while I was here, as good as apples and beer was I wanted a little more variety in my diet. Walking down the numerous aisles I spotted one of the items on my list, rope.

After haggling for about ten minutes I got the price of the rope down 50% and was on my way to pick up my other needs. In an electronics booth I picked up a set of good headphones for cheap and had a friendly conversation with the vender, a lady who had to be in her sixties at least and was pretty wizened to the way things were. Saying goodbye to her I continued my walk.

There were plenty of clothes booths and I went through all of them buying something from each. After going through all of the booths I looked at what I had acquired, two pairs of black cargo pants, some black leather gloves, a variety of cotton tank tops each different in color, one was black, one army green, another dark blue, one white, and one orange (it matched my streaks who could I say no?), two men's button down shirts one black and one a dark gray and a black leather sleeveless vest. One of the booths had an accessory section in which I had also managed to pick up a watertight digital watch.

All I had left to do was pick up some food and maybe even some instant coffee. In the food section I picked up some oranges, crackers, instant coffee, and a bunch of those Cup O' Noodles things.

The entire shopping trip had lasted several hours and I was more than ready to head back to the motel room, maybe I could fit in a nice nap before I headed out tonight back to the hospital to check on Relena again.Once back in the motel room I locked the door, folded all of my new clothes neatly, and pulled out the headphones I had bought. I had some more electronic work to finish up. I opened up a part of the ear pieces on the head phones and inserted the little receptor that would receive the noises picked up the listening device I had assembled earlier this morning, I maneuvered the wires and cut into them slightly so that they would accept and work with the receptor I had inserted. With all this completed I programmed an alarm clock function into the laptop to wake me up at 6:00 PM, stripped and fell asleep in the bed.

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At 6 O'clock sharp my laptop gave out a shrill whining noise that had me jumping off the bed and reaching for gun before I could even fully wake up.

"Damnit should have set the friggin' thing up to emit some kind of music instead." I never had been pleasant when I woke up, early on in the relationship Duo had figured that out and had ended up waking me almost every morning to a session of love making, and considering how great Duo was in bed it had definitely mellowed my early morning grumpiness, unfortunately now I didn't have.

I was feeling love deprived and sex deprived already, what a sad situation it was.

Climbing out of the bed I pulled on a pair of the black cargo pants, the black tank top, the leather vest, and finally my leather gloves and combat boots. I packed my ammunition, my listening device, the headphones, the rope and the laptop into the duffle; my .44 magnum went into the waistline of the cargo pants.

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Working on my laptop I hacked into the hospital computer system, once I had gotten through all the security barriers I downloaded an overall detailed blueprint of the building that specified all the hallways, rooms, closets, and even alcoves. Next I downloaded another blueprint but instead of a structural blueprint I downloaded a security blueprint that showed the exact location of every security camera, and any security systems that were in the building. Both of these blueprints I then downloaded into a small handheld computer that I taken out of the house when I had gotten my laptop. With this task done I had nothing else to do other than wait for a good time to go so I lazed around the motel room a bit For the first time since I escaped from the jail I actually what could have been considered a semi-decent meal with one of those noodle cup things, some crackers, an orange, and a beer. With my stomach feeling pleasantly full I pulled the black baseball cap onto my head and looked out of the window, it had been dark outside for a few hours and it now the perfect time to head out.

Locking the motel door behind me I hopped on the motorcycle and drove off towards the hospital. At the hospital I parked around the corner and parked. Tonight I wasn't going to go to the roof of the building next to the hospital, instead I was going to sneak into the hospital itself. However at the hospital I didn't go in at the ground floor; I climbed the wall and let myself into a darkened room on the third floor, the patient sleeping in the room never awakened while I snuck it. Opening the door a bit I glanced out into the silent hallway, it was late at night and the shift working was a skeleton crew. The only problem I might have was the hospital security cameras and the security that had been added since Relena had been admitted.

Silently I left the room and slipped into the hallway, I needed to get to the hospital roof however I wasn't willing to climb the side of the building a good twenty stories up to get to it. I ghosted down the hall and slid into a supply closet where I know where there would be no cameras. Pulling out my laptop, which I had left on, I booted up the wireless modem and once again hacked into the hospital computer system, in order to get to the stairwell I would have to creep past two cameras and another camera, which was located on the top floor in front of the door to the roof. Glancing down at the handheld I clicked through the security blueprints and noted the numbers of those three security cameras, back on the laptop I went to the system that controlled the cameras and tweaked the three that I would have to pass. Now those three cameras would show regular footage of the area they recorded and my presence would never be recorded or noted, the guards watching the security screens would never know that I had been there.

Activating the programs I closed the laptop, and stuck it and the handheld into the duffle. Walking back into the hall way I moved towards the stairwell, looking up I saw a nurse coming the hall she had yet to notice me so quickly I slipped into another closet and listened waiting for her to pass by my. As soon as she had walked I stuck my head out observed her position, left the closet and ran like a ghost to the stairwell.

In the stairwell I dashed quietly up the stairs on my way up to the top floor in the hospital, I had to slow down at the eighteenth floor, Relena's floor, guards had been posted in the stairwell, lucky for me there were only two of them. I pulled the laptop back out and typed in a few commands, within seconds their walkie-talkies began to make a lot of noise, "Johansen! Roberts! We have a possible break in at the 6th window on the left side, you're the closest units move out!" The two guards ran out of the stairwell towards the mentioned window, of course it was a false alarm, all they would find would be a terrified nurse who apparently had accidentally set off the alarm, I knew from the hospital schedule that she would be at that specific window making her rounds, damn I was good. With that taken care of I ran the rest of the way up to top floor. From there all I had to do was pick a lock and I was on the roof of the hospital.

I ran to the side of the roof that I knew would lead me down to Relena's room on the eighteenth floor. Tightening the gloves, I tied the rope to a generator near the edge of the roof and let it dangle down the side of the building.

I climbed down the rope slowly and eventually stopped right outside Relena's window. I stayed off to the side where the room's occupants were guaranteed to not notice me. With one hand I held onto the rope and braced my feet against the wall, with the other hand I rummaged through my duffle picking out the headphones, which I put on my head, and the listening device was removed next. Stilling holding onto the rope with one hand I leaned slightly towards the window and attached it to the glass in a corner where it wouldn't be noticed, I couldn't help it; I allowed myself a quick peep into the room. Heero and Duo were there and their eyes were fixed on the bed next to them, I looked at Duo sadly for a second before I switched to the bed they were staring at.

What I saw almost caused me to let go of the rope in shock, Relena. Relena's eyes were open wide, she was finally awake from the coma. Swiftly I pulled back out of the window and with fumbling hands switched the headphones on and listened to the conversation in the room.

Heero's voice was the first I heard, "Relena how are you feeling? You've been up for two days but you were heavily sedated so you could properly regain all your senses and any memories from your ordeal."

Two days? Why the hell hadn't I heard anything about it on the news?

"My ordeal? Is that what you're calling it," Relena's voice was weak, "How long have I been out?"

"A little over two weeks, for a while they thought you'd never wake up," Heero's voice was choked with emotion; maybe the perfect soldier really did Lena. I had to see if that developed into something.

"I remember what happened I was visiting Hilde because I was lonely and then," I could hear a quick almost panicked intake of breath from Relena, "Oh my God! Hilde! Where's Hilde? Please Heero please! Tell me Hilde's ok dear god please tell me she survived." Relena sounded as if she would break out in tears at any moment and there was complete silence coming from the two pilots. I breathed in and closed my eyes for a minute as I felt a wetness come forth, she remembered.

Her voice came again causing my eyes to open, "Heero, Duo…where is Hilde? Did she make it ok? How much was she hurt?"

Duo's voice broke the silence, "Relena, Hilde survived but we found her holding the knife that you were stabbed it, her fingerprints were all over you…She was arrested." His voice was quiet and devoid of the normal cheerfulness that it usually held, that scared me.

"What?! What do you mean? Why would you arrest Hilde?" Her mind probably was still a bit foggy and she couldn't comprehend what Duo was trying to tell her.

"Relena, we thought Hilde was the one who attacked you like Duo said she had the knife, her fingerprints were everywhere, and we found of some drug in her system. She was arrested for your attempted murder." Heero's voice was calm yet held trace gentleness as he talked slow enough so as not to strain Relena in her weakened state.

Yeah that's me Hilde the knife murderer, but if you want to make it sound really good go for Hilde the axe murder, has a cooler ring to it.

"Hilde? Hilde attack me? Hilde didn't attack me! Hilde was trying to protect me from that man! He threw some tiny knife at her and that's when she started acting slow and fell, but until then she had been fighting him trying to keep him away from me. How could ever think that Hilde would attack me? She is one of my best friends, she would never hurt me, I know that and so should you!" Relena started sobbing, "Where is Hilde now? He hurt her! Did she at least get help before you threw her in some jail? Why didn't you bother asking her what happened? How could do that to her? Duo?" "Relena we were panicking, we found you almost dead and we found her with the knife, we were completely in a frenzy we just jumped to conclusion we saw and arrested her. I jumped to the conclusion and I arrested her." Duo's voice kept breaking as he talked, and I felt a lump in my throat form at the pain I heard in his voice.

"Well you have to fix it now! You have to get Hilde out of there and let everyone know that she's innocent!" Relena said as she continued to sob.

"We can't Relena."

Relena's voice rose, "What do you mean you can't?! Why can't you? Hilde's innocent I know that! I was attacked by a man I have never seen before not Hilde!"

Heero set out to explaining the situation, "Two days ago Hilde escaped from the prison she was being held in," He audibly drew in his breath, "She killed three guards in the process, no one knows where she is Relena." If I could have I would have tortured those bastard guards too but unfortunately time was a constraining factor.

"Hilde killed three guards? Why would Hilde do that?"

"We're not sure Relena but it all pointed even more to the conclusion that she attacked you and attempted to murder you and then once in prison she murdered the three guards. All of this pointed to her guilt, every authority on the colony is looking for her." Heero explained.

"Yes but we all know Hilde. She's not the murdering type! She wouldn't have done that unless she had a really good reason to! Come on Duo! You know Hilde more than all of us imagine some of the good reasons she could have had to do that to those guards!" Relena continued to defend me, being female I bet she instantly know what one of those good reasons was, hell rape was one of the best reasons in the book.

"I know Relena and there was two reasons why Hilde would have done that, one would have been if they were trying to kill her, the other…" Duo's voice broke and he lapsed into a pained silence, apparently he guessed the rape reason too.

"I don't understand though! Why can't you clear her now?!" Relena demanded to know.

Duo remained silent and once Heero took up the chore of explaining, "If Hilde is innocent then that means whoever did attack you is still out there. As it is no one knows that you're awake, if we broadcast that you aware awake and that Hilde is innocent then whoever attacked you will know and they might come after again and they also might start hunting for Hilde, we can't take that chance."

"So you'll let the entire colony go on believing that she's a heartless murderer? What if someone spots her and decides to take 'justice' into their own hands and kill her?!"

"All of the Preventers that aren't here are out there searching for her, they have explicit orders to not hurt simply apprehend. We will do what we can Relena but no matter what we cannot put your life in danger, Hilde would understand that. Not to mention if Hilde is found and cleared she would be held responsible for the lives of those three guards, she'd be stuck right back in prison and put on trial for murder."

I hated to agree with Heero but he was right, they needed to go on broadcasting me as the guilty party, no one could afford to put Relena's life in danger, even at the cost of my own life, Relena's voice captured my attention again.

"Do you even know if she is alive?"

Duo answered her this time, "No Relena we don't know, and when the guards' bodies were found this was in one of their pockets…" There was silence and the sound of cloth against skin moving.

"Duo? Isn't that the engagement ring you gave her?"

"Yes Relena, it is. We don't know if they took it from her or if she put it there when she left. After we arrested her I thought about it, and I knew what a mistake I had made but we couldn't do anything. Oh god Relena I fucked up, I fucked up bad." Duo's voice was so emotional, he hurting pretty bad from the sound of it all.

"Oh Duo, Hilde loved you so much, could you really blame her if she did? Can you imagine what all these accusations some coming from you must have done to her? She was probably hurt beyond belief that the man she loved thought she was capable of such a thing…" Relena's sobbing grew as she talked.

Silence except for Relena's sobbing dominated the room. I could have jumped through the window and presented myself, but Relena was right I was hurting, hurting bad, even though Duo was obviously upset over everything the fact that he had considered me guilty was eating at me, a feeling of betrayal was still coursing through my veins and it made me bitter. To top it all off I had a desperate need for revenge against whoever had attacked Relena, I wanted to find them and take care of them myself. I would keep an eye on Relena but I needed to find out who had caused all of this, they couldn't be allowed to roam free.

With tears sliding down my face I climbed up the rope back to the roof. I untied the rope and started to walk towards the door to the stairwell. Relena had been right I was hurt beyond belief, could I ever make myself forgive Duo? As important as that was there still was an even more important question, who the hell was this organization that was trying to build up their armies and were they the ones who had tried to kill Relena? It wouldn't surprise me in the least though I was hoping that they weren't connected, this just made a lot more problems for me.

Back at the motel room I tried to surf the net for more information on the rising military group, the tears continued to fall down my face and finally I had to stop. Leaving the laptop I sat on the bed, held the pillow tightly to my face and sobbed over everything that happened to me, especially I sobbed over my separation from Duo, I loved him so much that it felt like I was dying inside.

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After hours of crying I looked up from the bed and stood. I loved Duo and my love wouldn't allow me to hold anything against him. As much I probably should not do it I knew what I had to do.

Walking outside I once again locked the door and got onto the motorcycle. I drove off into the dark night and down the road. I drove on and on and finally pulled to a stop at my final destination, the house I had shared with Duo. Sitting on the cycle I stared at the house, it was dark, and Duo's car was parked outside, he was home. Leaving the motorcycle at the curb I walked to the front door, and let myself as I used to do when I had lived there.

Without making a sound I walked through the dark living room and up the stairs, the door to the bedroom was closed and no light came from underneath it, perhaps he was asleep, with a slight shiver of fear of the unknown, I opened the door and walked into the room softly.

Duo in nothing but his boxers was on the bed on top of the of the covers, his eyes were closed in sleep but his movements and slight sounds proved his sleep was anything but restful. When I had first moved into the house with him he had often had nightmares and while he slept acted much like the way he was tonight. Those nights when he had the nightmares I had always walked into his room and hugged him while he slept, I did this almost every night holding him until he was once again silent and sleeping peacefully until once night he had woken up, that had been the night that we had become lovers.

With a sigh I walked over the bed and smoothed my hand across his sweaty brow, my touch seemed to bring comfort to him and he stilled for a moment before whatever demons were haunting him tonight returned and he began his thrashing again. More tears came to my eyes I looked down upon the man I loved more than anything, I could never stand to see the pain he went through while he had nightmares, I leaned down and kissed his warm brow gently. As I rose a hand gripped my arm and I found myself staring into wide purple eyes.

"Who are you?" His voice was somewhat raw but understandable. I didn't answer his question instead I stared into his deep violet eyes, "Don't try anything."

With one hand still gripping my arm his other reached out and clicked on the bedside lamp. I knew I would be unrecognizable; I hadn't bothered to take out the contacts yet or even change. Duo stared at me with narrowed eyes as he recognized me, "Hell you're that kid I offered a ride to the other day, how the hell did you get here? What the hell are you doing here?" He stood and his grip on my arm tightened as he questioned me.

Still I said nothing and I felt tears running down my face again, he was in pain and I couldn't stand it. He stared at me and his eyes looked confused as he saw my tears, with his free hand he wiped at them, "Kid, what are you doing here?" His questioning became gentler as he saw my obviously upset state. I wanted to tell him who I was but suddenly my common sense broke into my mind and I knew that if I told him he wouldn't let go off and find whom gone after Relena. If I told him my plans would be hampered it would be just like it had been when I had gone on Libra to get information for the pilots he always hated the thought of me being in any type of danger and would always shoot down any type of situation that would put me in danger, he would do everything in his power to stop me from going after the person who attacked Relena. I couldn't take that chance as much as I wanted to, not to mention for all I knew whoever had attacked Relena could be watching the house now and if my identity became known all hell would break loose, I had to keep this façade up.

With pain eating at my heart I put on the same childish voice I had used yesterday when Dup had offered me a ride, "I…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…" I felt my shoulders shake as I began to sob, I had to get out of here the longer I stayed the more chance there was the Duo would become fully awake and recognize me. With a muffled sob I turned and ran out of the room, I heard a surprised exclamation from Duo as he started to come after me.

Shit, I shouldn't have come here.

Doubling my speed I fled down the stairs with Duo on my heels, as I ran out of the front door I slammed the door behind me hoping it wouldn't hurt him too much.

As the door hit Duo he shouted, "Fuck!" Jumping onto the motorcycle I started it up and burned rubber down the road as I heard Duo yelling, "Wait kid stop!" Without looking back I went at least 30 miles over the speed limit all the way back to the motel.

I had to do that, I had to go back and see for myself just how much pain my Duo was in as much at it wounded me I had needed to know. I knew now, Duo was hurting as much I was but we couldn't be together until this mess was over. Back in my motel room I once again fell upon the bed sobbing, I cried myself to sleep eventually.

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