18-Jul-2000
Title: Shades of Red
Author: Laekin (seregill@aol.com) and bonnejeanne (bonnejeanne@yahoo.com)
Archive: GW Addiction & Darkflame if she wishes
Category: yaoi, angst
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: 1x2, 5x4x3 (or some weird order of the same)
Notes: **Special thanks for all the wonderful feedback on this - Laekin and I
really appreciate it very much!!**
Warnings: Lemon/Limey stuff, later; angst, suspense. Language.
Spoilers: Series, EW but not really
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing characters and universe are the property of the
copyright owners. Our stuff is ours. No money being made here. As with all
our fics so far, while our goal is to stay as in character as possible, any
discrepancies are our mistakes.
Feedback: Any and all comments, feedback, critiques welcome, be they short or long.
Now that they were through the atmosphere the shuttle was a lot like a very large plane. Synclair was counting on Regis to get them down onto the tarmac, after all, that had been the original plan, Regis was to pilot them all back up into space once they got Quint.
Synclair stepped forward behind Quatre's chair and moved very quickly, dropping forward, he wrapped one large arm around Quatre's chest and neck, holding him to the chair while his large hand pinned Quatre's wrist to the arm rest. Surprised, Quatre began to fight the hold as he had always been trained to do, but he was pretty well trapped. Cato walked forward and rolled up the sweater sleeve to above the elbow.
Realizing what was about to happen, Quatre doubled his struggles trying to kick the joystick of the shuttle to knock them all off balance but Regis had transferred control and had hold of the joystick.
Heero shook his head as he watched through the cockpit cameras, muttering softly, "Don't fight it, Quatre. Your heart rate will be too high, it will give the drug a faster entry to your system." His tone was one of bedrock certainty, which spoke of not one but many experiences, enough to compare to minute detail. His tone was flat but Duo was able to read enough to realize that he was not the only one with experiences of being drugged, willing and unwilling, and perhaps Heero's memories contained more than Duo had guessed.
Quatre, however, had no such experiences and he fought the unknown with a certain level of panic. He was not quite as cool and controlled in such situations as Heero, or Trowa or one of the others would be. All he knew was that he needed to remain coherent, he needed to find a way out and he couldn't do that drugged. So he fought the inevitable. Cato quickly massaged a vein to the surface and with surprising skill injected the drug.
Contentment works fast, specially when directly injected into the bloodstream. Quatre felt control over his limbs slip away from him like water through a sieve and then the drug slammed into his mind.
Synclair held the small blonde till he went limp. Leaning back, Synclair looked down at the unconscious boy, reaching out to brush his fingers along the aristocratic bone structure of cheeks, jaw and across his lips. Then he gave himself a shake and looked to Regis.
"All right, land us at Partin."
There was the confirmation.
Wufei's face had gone cold and still during the drugging of Quatre, As the words were uttered, he looked at Heero, then at Noin and simply took off, running for the pad where the two stealth-equipped scouts were sitting.
"Come on," Heero said, grabbing Duo. He looked at Noin. "When Trowa gets here, patch him to me and don't let him see the tape of what just happened. Simply tell him they gave Quatre a sedative. Have another transport ready for him. If anything goes wrong I want him to be able to bring Quint at a moment's notice. And, Noin, keep your people out of there, I don't want them in my way."
Duo was already jogging behind Wufei as Heero gave Noin instructions. Noin nodded, easily yielding control of the situation to Heero now. She turned, issuing orders as the three boys disappeared.
On the shuttle, quiet had fallen except for the quiet whimpers of the children. The shuttle was no longer flying as smooth and gracefully as it once had and they could feel the shift. Regis was not.. incompetent, he began to line up to the landing strip, his sweaty features almost drenched as he focused.
Wufei took off without waiting for the other two. Each scout could hold two people in close quarters, so he left Duo to go with Heero and jetted out, flipping all the stealth gear on full. The trip to the Partin strip was insignificant, and he scanned the sky, finding the impossibly small blip of the incoming shuttle, heading in fast.
Synclair was watching the monitors on the shuttle but the shuttle was a civilian transport, it was not designed to locate other aircraft beyond what was needed to keep collisions from happening. His mind turned inwards, Synclair was already deciding which hostages he would keep and which he would let go. The boy of course he would keep, then one of the business men. Synclair's mind shied away from the children. Though they would make an impact, it would just hurt Quint's cause further.
Regis licked his lips as he began to run the checklist. "Landing gear... down.. flaps up, all right.. here we go, you should sit down, boss."
Synclair nodded and stepped back into the passenger compartment, strapping himself in.
Duo had reached the second ship first and had fired it up, waiting for Heero to climb in behind him before taking off, after Wufei.
Heero was in and thumping the back of Duo's seat impatiently.
Duo waited no longer, the scout ship was launching after its twin and gone into the air.
When he saw what angle of approach the shuttle pilot was using, Wufei turned his little scout to allow him to approach from the rear once the shuttle was dirtside.
The shuttle made a respectable landing though it was a good thing there were no problems such as potholes in the landing strip. As the craft came to a stop, Synclair stood and motioned towards two of his men, who began to open the back door. Synclair motioned with his gun towards the old women, and the mother and her children.
"Get out."
With the stunned slowness of people who can't believe what they just heard, the women began to move. Synclair frowned at their slowness and fired a couple of shots into the roof of the shuttle.
"I SAID GET OUT!"
With panicked cries the released hostages tripped over themselves heading for the opened door.
Wufei had tucked the little scout under the belly of the shuttle in seconds from the time it stilled on the ground. When the rear hatch opened, he ducked, having already been headed for that entrance. He flattened himself beside the opening and beneath it, watching the passengers come tumbling out.
He knew Heero would go for the cockpit. He waited, out of sight of the emerging passengers and out of sight of the people still inside the shuttle, for a chance to slip in.
The last older woman came off the shuttle and ran after her small group. None of them seemed in the least bit interested in looking over their shoulders, as if afraid they'd turn to salt. Duo ghosted in from nowhere it seemed, taking up a position that would allow him to back up Wufei.
In front of the shuttle, Heero somehow managed to climb up the outside of the shuttle's still hot but rapidly cooling surface. He angled around the small escape hatch that was next to the pilot's seat. Placing a small laser torch along the seams of the hatch, he cut through the metal, not severing but seriously weakening it. He heard the sounds of the departing passengers and the shots, which came from the mid to back part of the shuttle, and nodded. While the attention was on the departing passengers, he raised a gloved hand and gripped the hatch, cording muscle, and in a moment it ripped free. He weaseled through the small opening and emerged into the cockpit, partially shielded by the pilot's chair, gun already in his hand as he quickly surveyed the area.
Quatre was still strapped into the pilot's chair, his entire body completely limp. Regis was twisted half out of the co-pilot's chair watching the actions in the compartment in the back with nervously flickering eyes.
All Regis had a chance to see was a dark shape rising in front of him as Heero stood, and struck him, hard on the exposed side of the neck. He didn't care if the blow killed the man, it was just easier to take him out this way when a shot might cause attention to turn to the cockpit too quickly. Heero placed himself between the hatchway back to the rest of the ship and Quatre, reaching behind him without looking, pulling off a glove to feel for Quatre's pulse.
Regis fell quietly like a downed ox. The man never knew what hit him for all his nervous ways he hadn't paid attention in the right corners. Quatre's pulse was rapid and strong. If Heero looked he would have seen a lot of REM movement behind the limp blonde's eyelids.
With Duo next to him, acknowledged with a look, Wufei chose his moment to slide through the still-open rear hatch, coming in sideways to minimize his exposure. He looked quickly for the placement of humans inside.
Synclair was up by the cockpit hatch just to the left of it, which was why he hadn't seen Heero out of the corner of his eye. Two men were in positions just a little in front of Wufei, two where getting the businessmen to their feet and the last two were standing halfway between the front of the shuttle and the rear, guns held ready to move.
Wufei also saw what Synclair had not - the shadow in the cockpit. He glanced silently at Duo, indicating with his eyes that he would take the back two and leave the trickier shots of the middle two to the braided boy.
Duo took a quick peek, taking in positions and distances in the blink of an eye then gave Wufei a nod, counting off 3 on his fingers before starting to move.
It all happened in an instant. As the two men at the rear went down to Wufei's quick blows, and Duo took out the two in the middle with precise shots, and Synclair felt something cold and hard pressed against his neck.
"Call it off," Heero growled, cocking the gun audibly.
Synclair went still as he watched his men fall, two still stood, looking uncertain, their guns trained on the two businessmen.
"Do you believe I care if I die?" Synclair asked in a tone that sounded a lot like Heero's controlled voice.
Heero shot Duo a look over the man's shoulder, indicating the still-standing terrorist to Duo's left. Then Heero snaked his arm around Synclair's neck, locking it and cutting off the man's air, and said, "No I don't believe you do," as he quickly shot the thug on the other side.
It might have sounded as if Synclair chuckled before his wind was cut off. Simultaneously with Heero's gun, the report from Duo's gun could be heard and both remaining thugs dropped before either's kinetic memory could get the command to their fingers to pull the trigger.
That left only Synclair. Heero manhandled the man into a seat, wrenching the gun from his hand and placed his foot on the man's chest. He slapped him hard to counteract the strangling from a moment before and bring him to complete attention. Without taking his cold indigo eyes from the man's face, he said to his partners, "Quatre's in the cockpit. Get him out of here now."
Wufei went for the cockpit like a released arrow.
Duo followed but paused to watch Heero and Synclair for a moment. Synclair's gray eyes flashed a bit at the smack but then settled to a matching coldness as he looked back at Heero. Duo felt a shiver run through his spine. Synclair's expression, the cold intelligence... looked a lot like Heero's.
Heero simply held the man like an insect pinned to a board until Wufei came back through, carrying the little blond in his arms. Wufei's scowl was ferocious and he gave the captured terrorist a look that promised a great deal of pain in the unlikely even that the man survived the next five minutes with Heero. Wufei carried Quatre out quickly.
Duo took his eyes away for a moment to check on Quatre himself as Wufei passed them by, then he turned back to the staring contest going on between Synclair and Heero. The terrorist obviously expected to die and he was facing this with a certain level of calmness that showed that he believed he was dying for a good cause.
At the same time there was a high level of fascination on Synclair's eyes as he looked at the young men.
"I think... that I have heard of you."
Heero's eyes narrowed. "You made a significant mistake," he said. "Never fuck with a Gundam pilot. Even if you succeed in taking him out, you will never benefit from it."
Synclair leaned his head back, laughing softly at himself. "I knew... there was something. I just expected someone more like you. Do I now die for my mistake?"
Heero's mouth curved very slightly. "Eventually," he said. "But first you are going to resist our takeover of this hijacked shuttle. Another mistake. Too bad you are so incredibly stupid." Then Heero's hand shot out and closed around Synclair's upper left arm. His grip tightened... tightened... tightened, and there was a soft crunching noise as the bone gave way under the pressure.
Synclair's mouth tightened and the blood leaked from his face but he didn't scream. His breathing quickened to a soft pant as his nostrils flared and sweat broke out on his face. His whole body went tense as a board, his head snapping back to hit against the headrest of the seat. After a moment he choked out on a pain filled whisper.
"In..incredibly... stupid of me."
Heero simply nodded, releasing the now useless arm. He placed the barrel of the gun against Synclair's temple, then reached down, pushing the man's jaw open and inserted it into his mouth instead. He continued to stare into the man's eyes as he tightened his finger very slowly.
Then he stopped, pulled the gun out of the man's mouth and said, "Oh, I almost forgot. I'm a good guy now. And I don't kill people unless I have to. Lucky you. You get to live."
Duo had been watching Heero's actions. The god of destruction had felt no real urge to stop Heero from killing the man. He found Synclair disturbing on a number of levels and a part of him almost wished Heero had pulled the trigger.
Swallowing, Duo walked towards the back of the shuttle. "I'll go see if Wufei wants me to watch Quatre for a moment."
Synclair watched Heero with gray eyes that were like deadlights. He'd expected to die and at the moment couldn't quite seem to grasp the concept that he was still alive. His expression might have reminded Heero of his own feelings when he woke up in Trowa's camper alive after self-destructing 01.
Heero acknowledged Duo's words, saying, "Good, and contact Noin, her people should have been here by now. Medvac Quatre. I'll catch up with you."
Once Duo left the shuttle, Heero's eyes turned even colder, although that might have seemed impossible.
"You have one opportunity to tell me why you did this, so that your pathetic life will have a moment's worth of meaning. I lied. I'm really not a good person."
Synclair seemed to.. relax.. as if he'd been expecting that answer more then the leniency. Stretching a little, cradling his arm he looked at Heero.
"I believe in what I was doing for my colony. L2 is a hellhole. Quint made a mistake but she was starting to get people to *notice* instead of sweeping us under the carpet like an embarrassment. This.. " His eyes rolled around the shuttle, "was poorly conceived by desperate people. I agreed to do this because I was the only one I trusted not to become desperate enough to kill needlessly."
Heero listened, running the man's words and tone through his own internal voice analyzer to see if he was lying or holding anything back.
There was no hint of a lie or holding anything back. In a lot of ways Synclair was as much a solider as Heero himself. Just one that choose a path lead by desperate people who were destroying their own objectives.
Heero kept the man pinned with his eyes. "I am going to give you one single opportunity to correct your major fuck up. You'll be arrested by the Preventers. Then you will be interviewed by a man named Duo Maxwell, who has a major interest in the well being of L2. You will trust him and you will find some way to get this 'desperate' little group of yours to work through his efforts. All activity involving civilians will cease. Maxwell will negotiate for you with the Earth Sphere. You will be grateful for his efforts. If any of your friends do not agree with this, and any other actions occur that involve innocent people, you will die, and I will personally hunt down every single member of your group and put them to sleep. Then there won't be anyone left to fight for the people of L2. Got it?"
Synclair looked at the young man in front of him for a long long time. His gray eyes weighed Heero's words and Heero's sincerity. Then he nodded his agreement to the plan.
"Very well."
He looks as if he would say something else, but at the last moment decided his words would be pushing the envelope a bit far.
Heero removed his foot from the man's chest and leaned back slightly. "When will you stupid people learn to accept that there are already others who have sacrificed everything for your well-being. Everything that we went through... everything that Quatre went through, casually dishonored by your inability to stop and think, and then ask for help from the right people. It's as if you think we failed you. Just because everything doesn't stay perfect. As if you think we aren't still trying to do everything we can." This last speech came out as flatly as everything before, but there was something in Heero's eyes that transformed the ice into a prison of deep and lasting pain.
Synclair rallied a little, his gray eyes just as tormented as he looked directly into his young captors face. "It's easy to think that way from the outside. But it's hard to sit and be patient when you're hungry or thirsty or worked so hard you can barely move and all you have to show for it is a depressed wage that might by a weeks worth of bread. I'm not saying our actions are justified by your scale, but what seems like 'fast' movement to you is an eternity to those in L2. They are desperate weak people who will cling to any hope held out to them, even if it's a destructive hope... a destructive course of action." Synclair leaned back on the chair, looking out the window, swallowing as if fighting back bile before he looked back to Heero.
Heero simply continued to look at the man. "You haven't seen anything I haven't seen more of," he said simply. "Nothing. But we were asked to give up our lives for the Colonies. We did that. All I know is, you didn't come to me before trying this, before blowing up women and children in a mall. If you had, you might have gotten the help you were looking for. After all we tried to do, you forget us as easily as you forget why our predecessors went to the Colonies in the first place. It wasn't to find an easy life."
Synclair's jaw worked and he just watched Heero with those flat gray eyes. However he was the first to look away, having no answer to the accusations being leveled by the young man. No answer that doesn't sound like pathetic whining and Synclair wouldn't fall further into that trap.
"We're still here," Heero said softly. "And we're still the Colonies' children. When you do this, you take away whatever meaning our lives had - what we gave up everything for. I won't live a meaningless life."
He grabbed Synclair's uninjured wrist and pulled the man to his feet, pushing him down the aisle and towards the rear hatch.
TBC
Let us know what you think!
Laekin and bonnejeanne
Please send comments to: Seregill@aol.com or bonnejeanne@yahoo.com