Notes: #...# indicates thoughts/thinking.
Conversations III (Played back for the other pilots at their current safe house)
"Do you know why I called you here my boy?"
"A mission?" came the cautious reply.
"Yes. We want you to get closer to Khushrendra."
"Closer." his confusion was evident, "Closer? He's the enemy!"
"Yes, closer. We managed to have Maxwell in his bed before the idiot got killed. Khushrendra is still a power in OZ and we still want to keep an eye on him. So unfortunately, it means that you are going to have to do some distasteful things, before we can get rid of him."
"Huh?"
"You are not stupid, but do I have to spell I out for you?" sighed an older man.
"Uhh...that would be good."
"Good God you're not still a virgin are you?"
"What!!"
"If that means yes, I'm sorry. But we think that you have the best chance of getting into his bed. After that whore Maxwell, you might be a good choice. Innocence is always appealing"
#Whore? You treated him like one. It doesn't make him one.# floated quickly through his head. " You want me to what! With..."
"Sex. Khushrendra."
"Maxwell...and ...no!"
"Why not? For the right price once upon a time, Maxwell could be had by almost anyone on L2. Such experience shouldn't have been wasted...so when we needed to send someone ‘undercover' he was the natural choice. The little rat never really had a choice. When he balked, we threatened to throw him out on the street again, minus his Gundam. And send one of you in his place. We knew which buttons to push. You never figured out where he was going all that time?" Came a dry chuckle.
"How long?" was the resigned tone. Ignoring the question.
"Just few months. We have something in place so that when we want to get rid of him, it will be a simple injection. No mess no fuss. But get in there fast, Romafeller Foundation has the same idea and might beat us to the punch. And that would be regrettable."
"That was cold." Wufei observed as Quatre shut off the tape. Trowa shrugged and Heero growled.
"I don't know why you all are upset, I'm the one they chose for this." Quatre complained, cuddling closer to Trowa. "And I don't know that they bought the innocent blonde act."
"Why not?" Wufei asked. "I could feel you blushing over the tape." #Besides you are an innocent, even after all the death and pain that you have endured.#
"That was anger. That they threatened Duo to make him follow their orders. And before you protest Heero, this does go beyond the call of duty. Dying for the colonies I can understand, not what they did to him. They left him nothing of his own! Nothing worth fighting for. No wonder he was never around most of the time. He must have been so confused after a while." Quatre snarled. #We all volunteered for this, to fight for what we thought was right. They shouldn't have taken it to this level. Did they get what they wanted out of him? Or was just another punishment that they wanted to inflect on him?#
"Any more?" Wufei asked, not knowing if he should be impressed or disturbed at Quatre's attitude. Qutre was usually so...nice. Snarling was something he would never thought was in the other pilot. He had never seen anyone this angry.
"Yeah, but most of it was advice on how to seduce Khushendra and I don't think they had a clue about that either." Quatre sighed. "And more nastiness about Duo. Dr. G let slip that Duo turned him down and that's why he got it, instead of Wufei. I nearly punched him for that one. And that was the most civil comment that he said about him. And they have been handing him every shameful assignment that they could."
Heero and Wufei exchanged a look and shrugged. It explained a lot about Duo' s lack of cooperation with their questioning of him. That was something that he might not want to let the others know about. Not that any of their pasts were spotless, but... Heero had been ready to kill Trowa when he announced that he had let Duo go. But Wufei and Khushendra? Thinking of them as a couple was a disturbing notion. Wufei's nauseated look mirrored his own reaction.
"And you!" Quatre turned to face his lover. "You could have warned me about this...I would have handled it better."
"Duo asked me not to tell any of you." Trowa smirked slightly, " And confused innocence is always so much better when it's not faked. Plus he wasn't too sure that they would do this again. If they weren't just manipulating him from the beginning."
"And if they had asked someone else?" Heero inquired sarcastically.
Trowa shrugged. "I was betting on Quatre would be their next victim. Dr. J would have sent you in as a last choice. He wouldn't want his favorite weapon actually finding out someone could be nice to him." Trowa's tone was as sarcastic as Heero's. He was willing to bet his next meal that Dr. J had no idea what his little weapon did to keep warm at night. "Wufie might have been chosen if they knew about his dueling with him, but I thought that they didn't. Besides they might have wanted to go back to blonde and stop concentrating on hair length. As for myself, a lot of people don't think that scar tissue is a turn on."
Quatre leaned up to kiss him, before cuddling back into his arms again. "Those bastards!" he grated out. "They have no idea about anything, do they?" #Even with all the scars you're beautiful to me. I just wished that you believed it. #
"Quatre," Trowa scolded, amusement coloring his voice. He really had no idea why Quatre loved him so deeply. "Such language. But you do have to make a visit to the general. Duo mentioned that there might be someone on his staff that was giving information to the scientists. So you do have to show up eventually. And stay a couple of hours. It also would be nice to tell Treize that we haven't killed Duo. And where he is."
"Why," Heero asked flatly, glaring at Trowa.
"Because," Wufei said gently, "No matter how it started or why it started, Treize Kusherendra does love Duo. He does deserve to know that he hasn't been harmed by us. The look in his eyes when we left...he deserves to know that Duo hasn't been hurt by us." #Duo and he were like two broken dolls that night. Treize hid it until he left, but I have never seen such fear in someone's eyes. He was terrified that Duo was never going to come back to him.#
"Wufei...he's the enemy." Heero growled. He did not understand what all the fuss was about. Duo was the enemy until they found out differently. Sleeping with the enemy, even if he was under orders, would confuse his goals. And Duo wasn't too trustworthy to begin with. Not like Trowa or Wufei. Duo was a clown and a fool, while the other two weren't.
"That's the sad part. He's treated Duo better then his allies have. Including us." Wufei retorted. #Heero you'd want to know if it was me, I think. And I know that if it was you I would like to know that you were still alive. Feel for a second, instead of just thinking!#
"But we didn't know!" Quatre wailed, coming to the end of his patience. "He never told us!"
"Quatre, Duo never wanted us hurt. Finding out what he was doing and why, how do you feel now? And as that relationship progressed, I think he got more confused about who the enemy was." Trowa said.
"Dirty, Trowa, I feel really dirty. We should have helped Duo more." Quatre said sadly. #Why didn't I know that this was going on? Why couldn't I have figured it out. I should have known that no one could be that happy all the time, but I didn't want to examine him too closely.#
"Giving him time to think was the best thing that we could do." Trowa said, comforting his lover with a hug. #Poor Quatre, you feel too much, that's why Duo avoided us all. He didn't want any of us hurt. And you would have been because that's the way you are.#
End Part 8
Christine
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