//....// Flashbacks
All three had done everything they could think of to pass the day. Wash up, restock, cook dinner, eat it, clean up. Whatever. They had run out of things to pour all their energy and concentration into with depressing speed, and had scared most of Quatre's hired help from the sheer intensity they radiated.
Night had fallen again and now they simply sat in a small triangle, facing each other, trying to avoid gazes and the questions that they would surely hold.
No one could think of how to broach the subject of last night. The events were still to fresh in everyone's minds.
"He still out?" Wufei asked, breaking the silence first.
"Like a light. Auda says he hasn't stirred since we brought him in last night." Quatre said, weariness coloring his soft voice.
"Is he restrained?"
"No, I just locked the door."
"That won't hold him." Wufei stated doubtfully.
"And restraints will?" Heero asked, shaking his head and wearing a blank expression. None of the others had seen exactly what had happened on the battlefield, and Heero was not likely to talk about it.
"Auda and Abdul are with him now." Quatre offered quietly.
"Not Rashid?"
"He's watching over Relena right now." Quatre gave a smile that was half resigned and half apologetic. "Une was fast on moving on my offer. Miss Relena was transferred here before we even started our surveillance last night."
Wufei stared at the door leading to Duo's room thoughtfully for a few moments. He sighed, coming to the inevitable, if undesirable conclusion. "That was not simple exhaustion" Wufei said, his dark eyes troubled.
"Aa."
"So then, what was it?"
Silence swept through the room again, broken only by the random squeaking of old chairs and fidgeting men. Quatre mentally turned over his conversation with Trowa just yesterday... what if? It would explain so much... but if he was wrong?
Wufei gave the Arabian a sharp look. "Just spit it out." Quatre looked up, a startled expression flashing across his face. "Whatever it is, just spit it out." Wufei reiterated, losing his patience with this game.
Quatre sighed, frowning to himself. He was planning on having this discussion with Trowa's silent support. On the other hand, he wished this conversation wasn't happening at all. It was too late to turn back now, they knew him too well and expectant looks were quickly becoming impatient.
"What would you say," He spoke slowly, waiting for the outburst. "If I said it might be possible that Duo isn't exactly Duo right now?"
Heero stalked through the slums of the city. His face was impassive but those few brave enough to get close could see the fire in his eyes, barely shaded by his low, drawn brows. The cold glitter of his eyes reflected the flickering neon of quick-sell-no-questions pawnshops and late night strip clubs as he passed, his fists shoved deep into his leather jacket.
It didn't matter where the city was or what its name happened to be, it was always the same here, under the surface of flashy monuments, neat rows of houses and tourist traps. This was the true heart of the city in his estimation, where the aimless and hopeless clumped together. The darkness, the restless focus-less anger that engulfed these places suited him and his mood perfectly.
It was hard for him to believe that somehow a person like Duo came out of this environment.
/Duo./
//"What would you say, if I said it might be possible that Duo isn't exactly Duo right now?"
"Just what are you implying?"
"Look, I know that this is really hard to believe, but, for a second, pretend that science doesn't know everything, and that something really ....odd might be going on with Duo."
"Like what?"
The Arabian has paused, wrestling with something. Finally, with a miserable expression said, "What if there was someone else right now who was .... Was in..." Quatre sighed. "I don't know how to say it without sounding crazy."
"Will you just say it already?" Wufei finally said with clear exasperation.
"Do you believe in possession?"//
Heero snorted to himself. The concept was impossible, scientifically proven over and over to be fraudulent. He had walked out of the room soon after that question.
/Still, when has Quatre ever really been off the mark?/ A little voice in the back of his head asked. /Wufei seemed to be giving it serious consideration too. Maybe he knows something you don't./
"Yeah, a bunch of outdated myths." He mumbled to himself. A bear of a guy gave the Japanese man an odd look and crossed to the other side of the road. Unconsciously, Heero smirked. One mugger had already found out tonight that slight of stature didn't equate easy prey.
Little things, little incongruities kept entering his head, demanding exposure from his collection of a lifetime of memories. Now that the idea was suggested, it wouldn't let him go.
Duo backing off twice from anything sexual was way out there, even if he was sick and Duo was stressed. In fact, Duo had often told him that a good roll in the hay was the best stress reliever there was. He was only mildly put out by Heero's pointing out that there wasn't any hay available, and it would be rather uncomfortable besides.
/"Gah! Hee-chan, we have to talk about this literal-minded thing you've got going. There's this nifty little thing called a metaphor, followed closely by simile, personification...."/
That was another thing, Duo hadn't really done any of the teasing he was so noted for. If he was just being nice to Heero, he could understand it, but even Wufei, Maxwell's beloved victim, had gotten through mostly unscathed as well.
Heero could handle many changes to his life, many alterations to his perspective of reality, but a polite Duo Maxwell didn't fit no matter how hard he pushed.
Other things swam to the surface, little nervous habits that Duo never had before, that odd reaction at dinner at Quatre's place, sleeping on the wrong side of the bed, little things that individually Heero had dismissed.
Heero stopped his determined walk, leaning back against the brick wall of some unmarked business. His eyes followed the movements of the other pedestrians on the street, but none of it really registered in his mind. His thoughts were elsewhere.
Then there was last night. Almost involuntarily, the image of his lover sprang to mind. It wasn't something he was likely to forget for the rest of his life.
//Duo turned away, almost disdainfully as the last of the search party crumpled to the ground. Languidly, he reached up and swiped a finger across his cheek, catching a drop of blood that had made its way there.
"Duo?" Heero had asked warily. He was well and familiar with that look in Duo's eyes; he'd seen it often enough on the video screen of his gundam, but there was something unrestrained and infinitely more dangerous about his braided partner tonight.
Duo's shoulders began to shake, just slightly. Laughing? Why was he laughing?
Duo's gun turned to face Heero, his violet eyes widening with terrible glee.
"OMAE o korosu this time!" Duo crowed, his chest heaving with what could only be considered near sexual delight.
Heero stood his ground, unflinching. If this was the way it was, so be it. The number of people he wouldn't fight back against you could count on the hand of an old shop teacher, Duo was one of those few. Heero didn't ask why, he didn't need a reason.
Cobalt eyes met violet. The finger curled lightly around the trigger, drawing it back, hairbreadth by hairbreadth. He was really going to do it.
He was going to kill me.
Then, inexplicably, he had jerked as if he'd been shot in the back of the head. His eyes rolled up and he'd slumped to the ground gracelessly. It had taken all of Heero's willpower to solidify the muscles in his legs and catch Duo before he cracked his skull on the concrete.//
That was Duo, but then he's never been so incredibly out of control before. And that change didn't match the little ones he'd been observing.
//Visibly shaking with anger, Wufei quickly covered the ground between Shenlong and Deathsycthe as the black gundam touched down.
"Maxwell get out here!" In response, the hatch hissed open and unfolded revealing a wide-eyed Duo. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You could have compromised the entire mission just to take out those last suits? We told you that reinforcements were on the way! What were you thinking?"
Duo sat down on the edge of the little ramp, not bothering to rappel down from his high perch. Even from his distance on Wing he could see the almost comically confused expression on the American's face.
"Sorry Wu-man. I really DON'T know what I was thinking."
"Come again?" The Chinese man's voice cracked with the effort to remain civil.
"Just what I said, I don't remember a damn thing, just engaging the target and that's it." Duo shrugged, sending down an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Sometimes that happens."
With a supreme effort Wufei managed to get a hold of his temper and let it dissolve with a sigh. "You are insane you know that Duo?"
"Heh, you have NO idea."//
Heero rubbed the bridge of his nose. His feelings told him that the old wartime memory worked in somehow, but it made little rational sense.
Okay, he admitted, maybe Duo isn't Duo He ignored the smugness from his own inner voice at the defeat. So who is he then?
The first changes seemed to come while they were visiting Relena in the hospital while she was in a coma. (Heero still refuse to think of the time as himself being sick). Whoever was there now knew them well enough to pull the wool over their collective eyes, and somehow just snapped at the battle last night.
/...visiting Relena... in coma.../
A name suddenly sprang up in his mind and refused to be dismissed. The final answer to the tail chasing thoughts that had been spinning from one end of his brain to the other.
She wouldn't.
No. She would. She would justify it somehow.
The anger that had been building up in his had reaching a boiling peak, Without ever changing his expression, he wound back and slammed his fist to the wall next to him. A chunk of dilapidated brick powered and crumbled instantly under the brutal force.
"SHIT!" Some faceless person cried out, in either fear or disbelief. Heero vaguely heard footsteps receding. He ignored it all as he turned to head determinedly towards the rich part of town again. He had to be sure of it.
Relena woke up slowly, as if the different levels of her mind were powering up one at a time. She blinked blearily a few times at the nondescript ceiling and at the rails of the hospital bed.
/I was sleeping? It was all a nightmare. Just a terrible, horrible nightmare. Thank god, oh god. I though I'd almost killed Heero, and Duo and.../
"Oh! Master Duo! You're awake at last. I will inform Quatre sama," a warm voice said in thickly accented Japanese. Relena barely remembered nodding at two men before they left the room.
Exactly where and who she was began to sink into her sleep muzzled mind.
"Oh, I'm still Duo." Relena blinked at the oddity statement, running it through her head. A smile turned into a laugh, which dissolved into hysterical, hiccups and giggles.
Relena managed to calm herself down, swallowing the giggles with effort. Her mind felt terribly lucid, in fact more crisp and clear than they had ever been.
/Is this what shock is like?/ Another giggle rose up in her throat. She decided it didn't really matter. After all she was no doctor; it simply wasn't something she was required to know.
/So what do you think?/ She asked. Silence was her only answer. No Jester... No Child.
Frowning, but not overly panicked, she searched her mind (It was odd, she thought, she didn't know when she began to think of it as hers and not Duo's anymore.)
If she really concentrated, she could feel them, dimly and unfocused. It was almost like that first day. They were hardly more than a vague feeling of not being completely alone than distinct personalities and a force to be dealt with.
Relena felt an almost peaceful smile cross her face. /Good. I could use some time alone./
The door opened again, admitting the blond Arabian that Dorothy was so fond of going on about, and the Chinese man that she had met at the hospital.
"Duo?" The blue-eyed one asked, his voice soft but firm. "You aren't Duo, are you?"
Relena blinked at the other man, her jaw working incredulously. Yes, Dorothy had mentioned that he was something akin to psychic in passing once.
Maybe he could help.... But how could she even begin to start telling him. "I didn't mean it to get so far. I meant to just tell Heero and find a way to leave, but one thing happened after another and now I'm not sure I can leave at all."
/This was all for Heero, but it's over now isn't it? The fight was enough right? But if it's not I have to stay, still it's good to tell someone. Surely, he will understand./
"Relena?" Quatre guessed. "Duo" nodded, his face a study of misery. He sighed, swallowing his anger at the deception. It was inexcusable but something told him that it wasn't time for lectures, there was something very wrong and tenuous about her scent at the moment. "We'll figure out something."
"You've not going to tell Heero are you?" Relena asked, suddenly nervous.
"How long do you think you can keep this up Relena san? He already has the pieces, it's only a matter of time. The longer you wait, the worse it will be."
"I won't lose him. I'm not giving up." Relena said firmly, a challenge in her voice. Quatre shook his head, reminding himself that now was not the time.
"Abdul? Auda?" he called, the two Maguanacs entered the room side by side.
"Yes, Quatre sama?"
"Can you please watch over her." The two Arabians look at each other as Quatre swept out of the room again. Wufei, having been silent for the entire conversation, slipped out in his wake.
"Her?"
Relena ignored the two men's questioning stares and rolled over, trying to force herself to go back to sleep.
"Do you believe me now?" Quatre asked, as both he and Wufei resumed the spots they had vacated.
Their debate had waged on long after Heero had left the room, his disgust apparent. Wufei was not an easy man to convince, so when the opportunity had arisen to prove it...
"Unless Maxwell has truly gone crazy, I don't see what else it could be. He has been acting kind of odd." The man shook his head. "This is too much."
"I know, but..."
"But?" Wufei asked with irritation. He'd had enough teeth pulling for one day.
"But I've noticed something else. Over the past week, I've felt less of what I had come to know of Duo... but now, I could hardly feel anything of him at all."
Wufei frowned at the implications of that. "I have read in my studies of ghosts that were parasitic, but I had taken them all to be fairy tales and stretches of the imagination."
"It would explain how she's managed to stay I think." Quatre shrugged. "Duo, in that sense, has often been one of the strongest of us."
WHAM! The sound of the front door being slammed against the entryway wall echoed through the large house.
"Heero's home. Should we tell him?"
"By the sound of it, I dare say he knows."
Quatre swiped a small bottle of sake from the living rooms liquor cabinet. He didn't drink it himself but it was advantageous to play the host at times. He filled a glass while, by the sound of it, Heero rummaged through his own room.
He was waiting by the door by the time the Japanese man entered the room. Heero's jeans were a muddy wreck and his hand was clenched around something metallic.
Quatre offered the drink.
Wufei spoke up from his perch at a safe distance. "Heero why don't you calm down a bit before going in there?"
Heero spared the other man a withering glance before downing the contents of his glass in a single, eye watering gulp. An instant later, the glass shattered against the wall.
With hardly a grunt, he shoved Quatre out of the way before heading towards Duo's room with deadly determination.
After a moment, Wufei walked over to the stunned Arabian and helped him up.
Quatre sighed and shook his head. "This is going to be bad isn't it?"
Wufei regarded the set of the Perfect Soldier's stance as he stormed into Duo's room. "Aa."
"Master Heero." Both Maguanacs looked up from their game of cards, the one in the red fez nodded to Heero amiably. "Do be quiet sir, she just got back to sleep."
His eyes narrowed imperceptibly at the "she" in the other man's beseeching. He turned the full force of his glare on the two.
"Out," he growled. The men hastened to comply Surely Master Quatre wouldn't fault them for self-preservation.
Alone now, he took in the sight of his lover's form. Duo was curled up into a compact little ball, his hand clutching the pillow to his cheek Heero's frown deepened. He'd never seen a bed, empty or shared, that the braided baka didn't try to sprawl out across, claiming every inch of mattress and blanket alike.
He reached out and shook the boy's shoulders roughly. "Wake up."
He hesitated once, watching violet eyes blink open, with such a familiar look of sleepiness and confusion. No, he wouldn't be fooled anymore.
Heero moved quickly, snapping the handcuffs to her wrists before she could react.
"What are you doing?"
"Get them off," he commanded in clipped English. His accent was terrible, but he knew Duo would be able to understand him. After all, the American had been teaching him how to speak it.
The confusion he read on Duo's face only hardened his resolve. He repeated the command in Japanese, his tone completely dead.
"What?!"
"If you are Duo, take those cuffs off." Heero stated, his eyes flashing, a storm building behind them in counterpoint to his monotone voice and impassive features.
Relena thought fast, for some reason, unwilling to let go so easily. "Maa, Heero, I kinda like this game the way it is."
"This is no game." Heero crossed his arms, settling into the stance of someone willing to wait.
"He told you didn't he?" Relena asked, turning violet eyes down to stare at the carpet.
"No."
"I did this all for you Heero. I had to be sure that you were safe, even Duo agreed that it was important above all. I knew the Devolutionis..."
"Enough." Heero closed his eyes and willed his fists to unclench from his sides. He forced his hands to be steady as he unlocked the handcuffs and freed Relena. So Quatre was right, and what was worse, it was /her./ Someone who he protected and trusted. "Why are you doing this? Really?"
"Because I love you," she blurted out before she could stop herself. Once it was out, she knew it for the truth. It sounded petty even to her own ears, but there was no way to take it back, nor stop her own feelings.
"I don't love you." Heero replied, harshly.
He flinched as those violet eyes reflected a soul splintering into a thousand fragments. He ignored the fire eating at his stomach, reminding himself over and over, that it wasn't really Duo he just said that to.
Relena felt herself shatter helplessly at those three, cruel words. Everything came plummeting down, so much that had been balanced so precariously toppled as the keystone was removed.
The stress, confusion, frustration and hope of the past week. Pointless. Her entire life to this point, everything she had done, everything she strove to be. Meaningless.
No, she couldn't allow that. It was too much, too harsh. She had to have something. Anything It was her life she had to justify. The answer became crystal clear. She had told Quatre that she wouldn't quit, that she wouldn't loose him. It would be bad manners to break her promise. She smiled at Heero without humor. "I know," she said.
"I know."
"What?"
"I said that I know." Duo's lips curled into an unfamiliar smile, sad and resigned. "I want you to think of me Heero, as much as I think of you."
Relena slipped out of bed and advanced on Heero, forcing him to take a step back in nervous retreat.
"And if I can't have those thoughts because you love me," Relena smiled serenely. "Then I will have them because you hate me."
She reached out and caressed Heero's cheek, in the manner she'd seen Duo do so often in his memories, delighting in his flinch, in the sudden dark fire in his eyes.
"I WILL have this," she whispered.
"Think of me." Relena turned, and walked out of the room, laughing with Duo's deep voice. "Hee-chan."
Heero was left, staring stunned, at the empty doorway she had just exited from.
There were no guns. Well sure there were some of course, but there wasn't the artillery or stockpiles, or even a single mecha in this place. Nothing that would be needed for a military assault like Une had predicted. This though was unsettling Trowa more and more.
The security of the entire base was frustratingly high and there was still one more sector that Trowa couldn't check, even with his anonymity of a mechanic. The highest levels could only be accessed with rank, and Trowa neither had the time to insinuate his way in, nor the ability to simple assume the costume of one.
The Devolutionists maintained a fairly stable hierarchy. Without the turmoil, it would be impossible to impersonate a higher soldier without someone calling his bluff. The initial disguise he had taken was very fortunate.
Still, the sheer security and the talk that he had overhead assured him that they had struck the right place, Duo's information was correct, but the lack of firepower meant either they didn't truly have hostile intentions or they were planning something much bigger.
Neither was sitting well with him. There was no way around it, he'd have to get into that last sector.
"Hey kid?" A wiry, slough eyed man ran up behind Trowa. The tall latino recognized him from the hangar as one of the head mechanics. He nodded politely.
"Trenton Raberba." Trowa reminded him. Even if it was a false one, to someone he'd never see again, he had no desire to be Nanashi anymore.
"Yeah, Trenton." Jason gulped, trying not to meet Trowa's empty eyes. Something about the new kid creeped him out. "The big boys say that there's a glitch in the climate control in sector 21bh I think they're just yapping fer the hell of it, but can you run up and take a look?"
"No problem." Trowa nodded, inwardly smiling. That would give him the privacy he needed.
Une sighed as she read Karla's file again for the hundredth time, trying to get a grip on who exactly they were dealing with.
Leah Li. Now that she had the name, it had been easier to find out information about the scholar. She was almost famous at the time, having published several books on mass psychology, particularly from a historical view.
She disappeared after the war and was presumed dead. Her two children and husband were found dead, apparently victims of a hate crime against old Romefeller sympathizers, but her body never turned up.
Even that was of the utmost of difficulty for the Preventers best computer researchers and hackers to find. Someone didn't want Leah Li to exist at all.
Une sighed.
What she would imagine to be a product of this sort of background was nothing like the Karla Grey she that appeared on television and in conferences. She didn't doubt Sally's sources or instincts, but something wasn't adding up.
A small message box appeared on her computer screen at her desk, blinking red. Urgent.
>>3 not much time.<<
>>11 here. What have you got?<<
>>No major stockpiling of any sort of weaponry. High security. One area left. I might have to break my cover to get in.<<
>>Do as you see fit. I'm trusting you on this one. Don't get killed. No unnecessary risks.<<
>>ryoukai<<
Une closed down the connection and rubbed her temples. She didn't know how, but things were spiraling to fast. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this situation boiling under and relatively peaceful. It would all depend on what Trowa came up with.
"Treize sama. I'm trying."
TBC
Notes: A big ol thanks to Meiran Chang for info on the Maguanacs!
What Relena has, and oddly enough correctly identifies, is post trauma shock. After the battle (which would have had us in a lot worse shape than she was in, particularly because she is a pacifist) we thought it was an appropriate and not entirely far fetched reaction.
Nixers
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