30-Sep-2001
R. AU. OOC. 4x1/2x1.
Duo leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes in exhaustion; trying to block out the agonising pain radiating from his bleeding and blistered hand resting on his lap and trying to think of a way out of this mess. He had a feeling that his left leg was broken from the way it refused to take any weight and guessed that possibly one or more of his ribs had been cracked when Schuldig had slammed him against the wall earlier. He opened his eyes painfully and turned his head towards the slender blond crouching protectively near him.
'I don't suppose I could convince you to run away now while he's not looking at us?' Duo asked softly, his eyes sparking faintly with mischief.
Quatre ignored him and continued watching the redhead balefully as Schuldig gathered Heero into his arms and smoothed the hair away from his forehead. His mouth thinned to a line and Quatre barely managed to stop himself from dashing forward and tearing Heero out of the other man's arms.
'Guess not.' Duo muttered sourly to himself as he noticed the tense quiver in Quatre's shoulders, his hands clenched tightly around the useless gun. 'Looks like I overestimated you, again, I mean, I just thought that maybe you might use some common sense and get out of here, and get help, instead of wasting your time mooning over... ouch.' Duo stopped his monologue and glared nastily at Quatre who had grabbed hold of his injured leg, none too gently.
'Hold still.' Quatre commanded quietly, tearing the trouser fabric from the knee down in a single quick move and then gently ran his hands over the swollen flesh.
Duo paled and gritted his teeth, swallowing his scream as Quatre took hold of his leg and gave it a swift twist. He glared with hate filled eyes at Schuldig, wishing he could blast the architect of his pain out of existence.
'And you thought we had nothing in common.' Schuldig purred at Duo with a poisonous smile, enjoying the exquisite blend of rage and pain tearing through Duo's mind.
He lifted Heero tenderly into his arms and settled against the opposite wall, running his fingers absently through the thick dark brown hair as he leaned his cheek against the cold pale cheek of the unconscious man.
'It's time.' Schuldig announced softly and tightened his hand around Heero's hair, pulling the limp body closer to him.
'Time for what.' Duo snarled back, pushing the undamaged hand against the floor in a futile attempt to move.
'Time... for choice. Time for life. Love. Death. Time for one of you to live. And one of you to die.' Schuldig spoke quietly, his green eyes narrowing coldly as he looked at the battered man sitting against the opposite wall, and then at his friend, who had tensed, his weight poised on his knee and ankle, readying his posture to maximise his ability to move.
'Time for Heero,' Schuldig looked down at Heero's face and smiled, 'to stop running. Isn't that right Heero?'
Choose...
The small boy raised his tear streaked face and looked at his laughing friend, who dropped the lifeless body of the small brown rabbit at his feet, the soft brown fur matted and tangled with the rusty brown red of drying blood, and buried his face against the soft grey fur of the little kitten in his arms.
'See? That wasn't hard. You can't have both of them. It's not fair. And you got to choose the one you wanted to keep.'
The brown haired boy continued to sob into the body of the wriggling kitten, ignoring the impatient tugs on his sleeve by the other boy, who narrowed his large green eyes and pouted sullenly as he realised that his friend wasn't going to pay any attention to him.
The boy reached out and snatched the struggling kitten from the brown haired boy, who flinched away from his touch, large tear drops welling from his big blue eyes as he stared silently at his friend.
'Give it back'.
The other boy flashed a wicked smiled and started to wave the mewing kitten backwards and forwards, trying to tease the brown haired boy who clenched his fists and stared at him coldly.
'Make me.'
The red haired boy laughed and shook the kitten teasingly in the other boy's face, only to yelp out loud when the little kitten twisted in his grip and dug its claws in against the soft exposed skin on his wrist. He threw the little kitten against the floor with all his strength and smiled in satisfaction when he saw the red blood pooling on the floor where the kitten lay.
Heero raised his eyes from the limp grey body, no longer wearing the body of the five year old child and remembered what happened next...
Blue eyes locked into green and then a crackling blue light enveloped the two boys who screamed...
'I don't remember that...'
Heero looked up and saw Schuldig standing next to him, and stiffened as he noticed the two men standing behind him.
'Why are they here?'
'Why do you think?'
'This is between you and me. Let them go.'
Schuldig craned his head to the side, and looked down at the small crushed body of the little grey kitten, then flashed a dazzling smile.
'Make me.'
Heero felt the anger building inside him as he stared into the jade green eyes and thought back to the cruel games his friend liked to play when they were children.
'You better be careful.' Schuldig whispered sweetly, 'if you kill me. You kill them.'
Heero froze as he thought through Schuldig's words and realised that he was telling the truth, Duo and Quatre had been brought into this mind meld through Schuldig, and it was very likely that if he attacked Schuldig, the two men would not survive either.
'Kill him.'
Everyone turned their attention to Duo who stepped forward, his eyes blazing coldly with hatred.
'Kill him. I'll take my chances. If you know how to kill him, you better do it. Because we aren't going to get a better chance to kill him, are we?'
'I definitely don't like him.' Schuldig scowled in mock anger and crossed his arms across his chest. 'Why don't you choose this one Heero?'
Heero slowly moved towards Duo, his hands outstretched and felt the rapid beating of his heart as he saw the American turn towards him and open his arms. He lifted his arms and tightened his hold around Duo's neck and leaned his forehead against his lover's, feeling the gentle caress of Duo's warm breath against his mouth and closed his eyes.
'If I kill him... if I lose you...'
Duo pulled the slim body closer towards him and continued the soft litany when Heero stopped.
'If you lose Quatre...'
Duo felt Heero go still in his arms as he mentioned their friend and sighed heavily.
'This is a mission Heero. Getting rid of Schuldig comes first. You know that. If you can kill him, take him out.'
Heero looked up into Duo's eyes and felt his insides turn to ice. He slowly dropped his arms from Duo's neck and waited silently until his lover released him from his embrace and stepped back.
'Kill Schuldig...'
Heero turned back to the red haired man who regarded him with open amusement. He looked at the tall man and felt his stomach knot as he saw the man replaced by the smiling little boy sitting next to him in the sandpit, and then by the little boy standing laughing, over the body of the crumpled bundle of grey fur... and then as a slim teenager, screaming inside eternal darkness as his lungs filled with a bitter tasting fluid and metal implements invaded his body... and then back to the present.
'I... can't...'
Heero shook his head frantically and raised his hands before his face, trying to block out the continously shifting visions he saw when he looked at Schuldig.
If he dies...
Friend...
Enemy...
Brother...
I'll be all alone...
Forever...
Just like he's been... all this time...
Heero turned his face away from the screaming teenager, feeling sickened by the terror etched on the delicate features, hearing his own voice in the tortured protests...
Duo bit his lower lip then grabbed hold of his shaking lover and forced him to look into his eyes.
'Heero. It's all right. You don't have to do anything. I love you. Do you hear me? I'm here with you. Damn.' Duo turned his attention to the strangely silent redhead. 'Damn you to hell Schuldig. Because if you hurt him. If you hurt Heero. I'll chase you into hell and beyond and make you pay. To the end of time.'
Schuldig remained silent, his green eyes showing no expression as he looked at the couple. He saw the two men meeting for the first time as children, the impish grin lighting up the oval face, the solemn blue eyes sparking with curiosity and later with something more. He saw the growing warmth in their eyes as the soft lines hardened with age, the bodies growing taller, and growing bulkier with muscle and saw the passion igniting between the two, the hesitant fumbling between teenagers changing as they became more confident in their feelings. He blinked as the vision wavered to show the growing tension and mistrust in the later years, and the underlying love and desire that seethed beneath their every conflict. And then to the rewaking of trust... and he turned to the blond man standing in mute witness beside him.
And smiled in smug satisfaction as he saw and recognised the cold fire inside the large green eyes.
Schuldig laughed as he saw the cold white dagger forming in Quatre's hands, fascinated by the purity of this man's emotions, and realising the hidden power of the gentle warmth that had protected Heero, in his first attempt to contact him. He continued to laugh even as Quatre plunged the dagger deep inside his chest and he felt his mind disintegrating from the force of the other man's hatred.
'It was you.'
Schuldig whispered soundlessly, gazing deeply into Quatre's eyes.
'He was going to choose you. He loves him. He needs you. He needs me... to be whole...'
Quatre staggered back, feeling drained, as he saw the slim figure in front of him jerk, and then the bright white light slammed out of the black clothed chest and swallowed bile as he saw the body crack open, as nothing human should, the frame tearing apart as though it had been made of paper.
And then he and Duo screamed in unison as they felt the echo of Schuldig's dying mind and experienced the agony that he felt, as his mind shattered...
'What the hell is that!' Wufei screamed out in shock as he felt the station rocking in the cockpit of the mobile suit. In the next instant, he cried out in pain as blue crackling energy tore through his instrumental panel and he barely managed to jump out just before the cockpit burst into explosion.
Wufei groaned as he slowly got to his feet, wincing painfully as he felt the newly added bumps and bruises on his body, in addition to his still aching head. He swore sulfurously as he stood up and saw the black smoke coming from the cockpit of his mobile suit and with a worried hiss, turned his attention to the one that Trowa was working in, only to narrow his eyes as he saw Trowa lean out and wave nonchalantly from his seemingly undamaged cockpit.
'Some people are just too damned lucky.' Wufei growled under his breath as he then turned to where Amuro had been working on replacing the power cells in his NuGundam and saw the curly headed youth wave cheerfully at him, before disappearing back into the opened chest where he was finishing up his final adjustments.
'Why me?' He muttered sullenly, as he added the bleeding scratches on his arms and legs, the result of his undignified scramble to leave the cockpit, to the list of injuries that he had picked up on this cursed mission. 'Why can't it be Barton for a change? At this rate, by the time I leave Sigma, I'll probably need crutches, or a major surgery.'
'How about leaving Sigma feet first Gundam boy?'
Wufei lunged instinctively and ducked behind the foot of the nearest mobile suit as he felt the searing heat from the blast of an energy rifle tear through the air where he had been standing. He leaned against the metal foot, wishing for a weapon as he saw the three men appear in the smoking doorway of the hanger.
'The arrogant bastards. They aren't even bothering to hide. Who the hell are those guys?' Wufei thought rapidly, as he realised how vulnerable he was, out in the open.
Amuro looked at the three men through his monitor and frowned as he recognised them as the three who had been chasing Heero.
'What the hell are they doing here?' He wondered incredulously as he keyed in the activation command and moved the NuGundam forward, providing cover for Wufei, who immediately took advantage of the moment to scramble into the mobile suit.
'Amuro, get out of here.'
Amuro started as the side holophone activated and a miniature replica of Trowa inside the mobile suit he had been working on appeared on his left.
'Leave these three to us, and get to where Heero and the others are. You are our best hope for rescuing them. Go.'
Amuro hesitated for a second, scowling at the three men who appeared on his tactical display before nodding. He intended to give a hand to Trowa and Wufei though and pulled out his beam saber and cut through the outer hull as he blasted off. He grinned to himself as he thought, 'I'd like to see those three stooges try to deal with vacuum...'
'Wufei, you are to head down to the engineeering sector and resume our mission.'
Wufei powered up his mobile suit and bit back the scathing remark, deciding that given his battered state, Trowa was right to try to keep him out of participating in any armed conflict, and glided out through the opening Amuro had created, deciding that it would probably be faster to approach enginneering from the outside of the station. He did make a promise to himself to have a few words about the command structure of a field mission with Barton when they were all safely back on White Base.
Trowa grinned to himself as he saw Wufei's mobile disappearing after Amuro's NuGundam, he had been pleasantly surprised by Wufei's quick compliance, and turned his attention back to the three men, impressed despite himself by the unusual strength they displayed in being able to hold out against the violent gust of wind caused by the air ripping out of the opened hull.
The heavy emergency doors finally slammed down, closing off the damaged hanger bay and Trowa whispered softly to himself as he armed the missiles and readied them for launch. 'Looks like it's just you and me now guys. Ready or not, here I come.'
Elaine opened her eyes and screamed, the blue energy tearing through her frail body, leaving behind a smell of charred flesh. She raised her arms and the technicians scrambled for cover as the screaming girl floated into the air, her body stiff as a board, and the blue lightning shot out from her hands and eyes as Elaine tried to discharge the blistering energy that invaded her frame.
Doctor Sakurazuka had immediately evacuated himself and his prized laptop out of the energy filled room, barking out a short order to the nearby technician to keep recording the energy output being generated by Elaine's body. He marched quickly to the observation chamber, situated at the other end of the corridor and scanned the images being shown on the multi screens with fascination.
'What happened?'
Sakurazuka shrugged carelessly as Nagisa glared at him, his fingers tapping impatiently on the arm of his chair as he brusquely greeted the entrance of his fellow scientist.
'The only thing I can tell you is what you've already seen on the monitors. The girl finished repairing her vajira armour and returned to her 'normal' state about ten minutes ago. Next thing I know, she's screaming and ejecting large amount of energy, the same energy I think that initially damaged Sigma around two hours ago. Why don't you ask your Gundam pilots what happened? Where are they by the way?'
Nagisa scowled and returned to the monitors which flashed up additional scenes from different sectors of the station, in addition to the multiple images of the screaming girl.
'I don't know. And you know I have no idea where they are. However, their whereabouts is neglible at this point, since they are not capable of generating miniaturised EMP waves.'
'Perhaps not.'
Sakurazuka admited coolly, adding with a polite smile, 'you do have to admit though, that it's one hell of a coincidence that everything fall apart just after they went missing. I told you that we should have killed them the minute they got on this station. They are just too damned dangerous. Look at what happened to Dekim Barton when he made the mistake of discounting them.'
Nagisa drew a sharp breath and narrowed his eyes, then with a small shrug brought up the blueprint of the station, with the blacked out areas highlighted.
'As you can see, last location that we have of the pilots was in white sector, level 1A, in the conference room where we kept the four pilots. And here,' Nagisa spun the model to show the area where the first energy blast had occured, 'is blue sector, level 19F, one of the cargo bays. And as you can see,' Nagisa called up another screen, this time, with a long display of times and locations, 'we lost the monitors in white level approximately 5 minutes after the first explosion. And unless the Gundam pilots had the ability to teleport, there is no way for them to be responsible for the first EMP wave that took out the main computer.'
Sakurazuka leaned forward, his blue eyes glittering behind the glasses as he studied the second monitor carefully.
'It is interesting though, don't you think,' he murmured softly, his lips pulled into a faint smile as he adjusted the monitors to highlight a new set of numbers, 'that the explosion occured shortly after the reporting of the capture of 2 Gundam pilots, and the happened when the two prisoners were here.' Sakurazuka took over the control of the 3D blue print model of the station and drew a map connecting all the blanked out areas, starting from the blue sector and moving its way down to the the rest of the effected areas.
'As you can see, there's actually no reason for white sector to have been effected by that first EMP, since the back up generators came on line within 15 seconds of the loss of our main system and the security monitors are provided with internal batteries to last them for over an hour in a blackout situation. So how do you explain the rather peculiar and specific pattern of these blackout?'
Nagisa leaned back in his chair and took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
'I should have known you'd have noticed that.'
He admitted reluctantly.
Sakurakuza directed the monitor to expand the 3D blue print of the blue sector before turning back to his erstwhile partner.
'What was in the cargo bay Nagisa?' He asked at last, when the grey haired man refused to meet his eyes. 'You know what caused that accident don't you?'
Nagisa hesitated visibly then let out a heavy sigh and reached inside his jacket. He spun his chair around the face the rest of the small room, even as the doors slided firmly together, locking in the small group of scientists and technicians. As they stood gaping at the thin scientist in shock, he stood up, pulled out a gun and fired rapidly.
Sakurazuka stood unblinking as the panicked men and women fell around him, a blond woman falling into a bleeding heap at his feet as she was shot three times in the back, while frantically lurching towards the closed door. He tucked his hands into the white labcoat and stared impassively into the black smoking barrel when at last it turned in his direction.
'The station is finished.'
It was a statement rather than a question, and Nagisa nodded once in confirmation, before putting his gun back inside his jacket.
'The cargo bay held some... genetic material.' Nagisa spoke quietly as he turned back to his station and started to download the copy of the critical data files.
Sakurazuka grunted with mild displeasure as he went to the next station and started to copy all his files on project vajira.
'Don't tell me. One of the Gundam pilots is a Gemini prototype. Probably the one of the two that got captured last. And his arrival awakened his partner. You do know that if any of this gets out, CoFed Sec would turn both of us into mincemeat? Do you know what the penalty is for working with any left over material from the Gemini project?'
Nagisa grimaced and jerked his head at the strewn bodies on the floor of the small room in response.
Sakurazuke sighed and moved to the next station, once again initiating the files copy and dump program.
'Great. I just wish I'd known about this before now.'
Nagisa's brow furrowed in a frown as he pulled out the data disc from his station and started to key in the self destruct program.
'The genetic material was only supposed to be stored at Sigma as a temporary measure until Imonoyama could provide me with a secured complex to continue my research. You didn't know about it, because you didn't need to know about it. Your research into the vajira field is independent to the generation of psychic energy through Gemini. The only reason you are not dead Doctor Sakurazuka is frankly because Imonoyama made it very clear that he wanted to keep both his options open.'
Sakurazuka pulled out his data disks and packed them in his laptop case and stood up.
'Basically I'm indispensable.'
Nagisa held out his own data disk with a charming smile.
'For now. You and Elaine would be rather difficult to replace. Why don't you go and collect her,' he turned back to the monitor where he saw the small girl lying on her bed, the walls cracked and charred, as were the majority of the equipment in the room. 'And join me in the shuttle in twenty minutes?'
Sakurazuka turned his eyes to the monitor showing the girl and tsked under his breath as he saw the struggling technicians help each other out of the rubble, their pristine coats torn and smudged with patches of drying blood.
'Make that twenty five minutes'. He amended smoothly as he mentally counted the number of moving bodies in the room and the nearby corridor.
Nagisa shrugged and made a small adjustment to the green figures glowing on the screen.
'Twenty five it is. I'll see at the shuttle. You and Elaine.' Nagisa added with a meaningful jerk of his head to the monitor which showed a close up of the pale girl, a thin trickle of blood dripping from her forehead.
Inside the NuGundam, Amuro suddenly jerked up his head, feeling a blinding sensation of pure panic. He blinked and swirvelled the head of the NuGundam, trying to figure out the source for his sudden intimation of danger.
He bit his lip in concern as he tried to focus in the familiar mind of Heero, and failed, again. He couldn't understand why he couldn't sense him, usually his problem was in trying to block out the other pilot's presence. He had noticed since they started working together on the White Base that he was unusally sensitive to Heero's feelings and moods. For some reason, Heero stood out, a bright pulsing spot permanently marking its presence in his mind, amidst the chaotic swirl of incomprehension chatter and emotions that coloured Amuro's world.
For the first time since he had met Heero, Amuro couldn't feel his presence. The terrible mind scream that had wrenched through his being when the station shuddered had faded quickly, but had left in its wake a numbing silence in his mind. It had taken a few more moments before he could feel the faint warmth of Trowa and Wufei's minds, burning faintly in the midst of the raging wave of terror that had submerged the remaining occupants of the station. However, even when he finally managed to locate the cold and sharp predatory minds that had intruded into the hanger, noticing the way they circled and continued to worry at the small warmth that was Trowa, he still hadn't been able to locate Heero.
In fact, as he drew closer to the area where he had last seen the three men, Amuro felt the gnawing doubt grow in the pits of his stomach as his searching mind was met with emptying silence. He couldn't even feel the oppressive weight of the menacing mind, a pressing force that had taken every bit of his strength to block from violating his mind, as he knew it was trying to do with Heero, when they had fled from the red haired stranger.
'They can't be dead...'
Amuro whispered hollowly to himself, more to reassure himself, then in true belief.
'Hang on just a minute longer Director Maxwell.' Amuro promised the silent darkness as he directed the NuGundam to cut through the hull on the below level and stepped inside with the massive machine, waiting impatiently untill the emergency doors restored the gravity and air in the damaged section. 'I'm coming. Hang on...'
End Part 13
Katana
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