"Master Heero, are you alright?" It was hardly a murmur to him. Garbled nonsense that some small part of his mind understood, digested and memorized. It had no real bearing on him.
"Fine. I'll be just..." Heero heard himself growl distantly. His hands mechanically worked over the gun, preparing it. Each well-rehearsed slam, click and snick calmed him internally, another barrier slipped into place. While he was here... he was safe, while he was here... he didn't think; he reacted. Here he was "...Fine."
/Mission perimeters. Identify source of unproductive internal conflict and terminate it./
Rationality had disappeared in a red haze that colored his line of vision. A cold fire had clicked around his soul, his armor and his mask, his driving focus.
/Mission accepted./
He vaguely heard non-targets, and Duo/not-Duo, complaining. He didn't pay them much mind, his target was ahead, that inner fire told him so.
He distantly heard himself saying something. He felt two more non targets arriving, both unacceptably dangerous to his mission. One more in the room, guarding the target, speed was of the essence.
Another heartbeat thudded in his chest, his only reminder of his own mortality. In front of him lay body almost swallowed by beeping machines and tubes. The target was entangled in that monstrosity. He aimed.
"Master Heero!" A voices like a bulls roar, distracting him for just that split second, the target materialized into a person.
Relena's face, the bruises clearing, so innocent in repose, just a shell, helpless...
/Are you lost?/
/Hai./ He leveled the gun again, he pulled the trigger. /Zutto./
In that single moment, he suddenly felt pulled in all directions. The hand that held the gun was pushed aside just as the recoil told him of the bullets deadly exit. He always felt it more than heard it.
Through the mass of clutching limbs and hands, glittering cobalt eyes narrowed, moving faster than should be possible, watching the course of the bullet as it shattered a machine above the target and slightly to the left.
He felt himself pulled downward, too many hands holding him, pushing him, shoving him. His training boiled to the surface, as he kicked out, trying to connect with solid flesh. He had to correct his error. The target wasn't eliminated. Unacceptable.
This mission was somehow more important to the soldier than the rest, it went beyond conditioning. He couldn't remember why, but he NEEDED to finish. They needed to let him go. He had to finish... he had to...
Rashid jerked the gun out of Heero's hand, half sitting on the Japanese man out of necessity, as the others continued, unsuccessfully, to pull him out of the room. It boggled the giant's mind, even knowing Heero's reputation, that someone so slight could be so incredibly strong.
Heero was still fighting almost tirelessly, still struggling to free himself, he managed to connect with a few swings, there would be some bruises and black eyes from this confrontation.
"Kisama! Calm DOWN Yuy! This is not helping!" Wufei shouted, holding his jaw tenderly as he attempted to pin the offending foot.
Heero snarled at Wufei, cobalt eyes not even registering the presence of his friend, just another obstacle.
A soft but authoritative voice rang out clearly over the ruckus. "Zero One! Stand down! Mission aborted, target has changed." Quatre had stood up and was brushing himself off.
There was a moment of silence while the struggle was obvious on Heero's face, almost a grimace of pain twisted with confusion.
Unwelcome confusion intruded into the soldiers state of mind. His two missions now clashed. The driving, bone deep necessity of one warred with the his conditioning to follow orders. Quatre was their leader, he knew what was right, didn't he?
Quatre repeated himself, eyes hard and his voice authoritative. "Mission aborted. We have other things to concentrate on right now. Une wants us to report. You can't help if you are in jail for murdering Relena."
Those words tipped the balance and conditioning won over. Cool rationality washed over his senses as the blond man's words and demeanor sunk in. He couldn't detect the smell of panic from him that radiated in waves from the others. This one was thinking correctly. This mission could wait in the stead of whatever order he gave.
"What is the new target?" Heero asked/demanded.
Quatre's posture relaxed, imperceptibly. "For now, rest. We meet at 0630 at Director Une's office, she will assign the new target. Likely a rescue mission." Heero didn't so much as blink when Quatre's voice hitched slightly on the last part. "Dismissed."
Reluctantly, the hands holding him down relaxed their grip, allowing the perfect soldier to stand. With one last glare at all of them, he left to the solace of his room, trying to keep the edge of battle rage to keep reality at bay.
Quatre's eyes followed Heero's passage, assuring himself that Heero was indeed going to follow orders before flicking back to where Duo stood, visibly trembling. The violet of his eyes were almost overtaken by the glossy black of his pupils. If there was any doubt before in Quatre's mind, it was erased now.
"Abdul, Auda?" The steel hadn't left his voice and his eyes had a dangerously hard look. Both Maguanacs exchanged glances. They were often out of the chain of information, but it didn't take much to put together Quatre's stress, the mention of a rescue mission and one rather important houseguest being missing.
"Quatre sama?"
"How did she get out here?"
"Erm." Abdul gave a weak smile. "She walked?"
"Nevermind, it's not important. A better question is what happened?"
"We don't know. We noticed she was missing and went looking for her. When we found her, Master Duo was leaving Master Heero's room, and Master Heero was in that state."
Quatre sighed and approached Relena cautiously, like he would a cornered and panicked camel. She seemed not to notice him, merely stared at the destruction created by the single, misfired bullet.
He grabbed her arm firmly by the elbow. "I don't honestly know what happened, but something set him off..." The suspicions he had, he would rather not be confirmed anyway.
In a daze, Relena hardly registered the words, docilely letting herself be tugged along by Quatre. As it was, reality only returned to her as the door to her room shut with a final click of the lock.
Still on a rush of energy born from immediate emergencies, Quatre found Wufei in the kitchen, sitting at the head of the table without the lights on.
"You should get some sleep too." Quatre said, his eyes narrowing slightly. Wufei's scowl increased slightly. It was no good having Heero and Duo crazy at the moment, but Quatre too could spell disaster.
"Hn," was all the answer he gave, watching the smaller boy rustled around in the kitchen without any obvious purpose.
"You know," Wufei started, "This is not your burden to carry. This is circumstance."
"What do you mean." Quatre challenged. He has paused with one hand on the handle of an unopened pantry, looking for all the world like a cornered animal.
Wufei pushed off from his spot against the wall. "I mean that none of this was caused by you, and too little can be fixed by you. It is odd that you of all people are taking Heero's place as the lone wolf of our pack."
Quatre shook his head, his smile ironic. "You are a fine one to talk about that."
"I've learned the value of being a part of something."
Quatre laughed, his eyes loosing their manic edge. "You know, we need to work on your sense of the word subtle, my friend."
Wufei smirked, shrugging. "I don't see why. It hasn't failed me yet."
"That was close today," Quatre said, after a somber pause. He sat down across from Wufei. "And lucky. If we hadn't heard it and if he hadn't hesitated."
"We'd be thick in another problem," Wufei finished. Quatre nodded.
"I'm thinking about taking the guards off of Relena's room after the meeting though."
"Are you crazy?" Wufei asked, disbelieving.
"Aren't we all, a little?" Quatre shook his head. "I just have this feeling that we should. That something needs to be played out and there isn't much time." Quatre folded one hand over the other, considering. Since that first explanation of the extend his uuchi no kokoro, he had found it easier and easier to confide in his friends what he was picking up. /So Trowa was right./
"I don't like it," Wufei stated flatly.
"Neither do I, but... I can hardly feel Duo anymore. There was a stirring of his interest, just a little, just a few minutes earlier. I don't know if that's something to hope over, but we can try."
"At least the house is a little more quiet without the baka," he grumbled.
"You don't mean that."
"No," Wufei responded quietly, standing up. "I suppose I don't."
Karla replayed the worn vid. Her own memory provided the details were time and numerous shuffled from computers and disks had blurred the edges.
She knew it by heart anyway. There, where the taped had fuzzed, would be two small bodies. Delicate in their obvious fragility, and holding none of their zest for the life they lost.
They lay in their own blood, displayed before the ravenous eyes of the media and a callous world. Some faceless reporter listed off everything that had been done to them before death in a pseudo solemn tone. Words laced with ratings instead of sympathy.
Whhirrr. Rewind. Play. "And just in, an hour ago, authorities found the bodies of Tamie and Samantha Li, ages 8 and 11, slain today in their two story residence on L1. Their parent, Leah Li is a noted sociologist and Romefeller sympathizer during the war."
Karla snorted. Sympathizer? Hardly. The Romefeller Foundation merely funded the grants for their research.
"Leah, age 30, disappeared and is assumed to be dead. Further investigation is pending."
It seemed the best thing to do at the time. She had gotten a job at an immigration service under a pseudonym. It was simple to cover up her travel to earth, giving herself a new identity, a new name.
From there, odd jobs, drifting from one country to another. She had finally settled as a secretary for an underpaid biology professor at a Georgia University who had dreams of being a top rate microbiologist. He had no talent beyond research, but it was enough to educate Karla in what she needed. That final piece that would make the Conflict Theory a law, a utopia born of chaos.
"They say the eyes are windows to the soul." Marie's voice, uncharacteristically solemn, broken Karla out of her revere. The woman that the media knew as Karla had entered sometime unnoticed, walking on the catsfeet of a martial artist. "Usually I see intelligence, determination, strength..." she continued.
"And now?" Karla asked with clear disinterest as she shut down the video clip.
"Nothing, me amor, I see nothing. Your eyes tell me that you are already dead."
Karla frowned, snapping shut her laptop. "What did you come here to say?"
Marie smiled. "Ahh that's better. You're more alive when you are angry."
"Marie..." Karla said, a warning thickly coating the name. The Latino woman raised her hands in surrender.
"I have news on the prisoner."
"What prisoner?" Karla frowned again, irritation creasing on her face.
"Eh, You didn't know?" Marie took her turn to frown. "Sean said there was a report made out.."
"I'll talk with him later, he knows better than to put something important on paper." Karla massaged the bridge of her nose. "Care to fill me in instead?"
"We really don't know much about him. Somehow he managed to get into the lab and was in the storage area where the bacteria was stored. Undoubtedly the Preventer spy we warned you about."
"Spare me the I told you so's please. How did he get in so far?"
Marie shook her head. "We're mystified. Not a single person from admirals down to the cleaning staff can remember more about him than he was a new guy named Trent. He's in interrogation now."
"Interrogation?"
"We need to find out what he knows.." Marie trailed off, not liking the sudden fury in her leader's eyes.
"We have a good idea already of what he knows, there's no need for torture." She bit of each word and made each syllable count.
"Then what do we do with him?"
"Have him moved to a remote facility as soon as possible, we can't have him linked to us yet."
"It might not be that simple, we found fragments of a device in the containment room. It was pretty well demolished, but our techies are pretty sure it was a communication device. We don't know if he got a transmission off or not. Sean is in favor of executing him as a security risk. Yasmin, for once, agrees with him."
"They are both too bloodthirsty and reckless because of it. They can do what they want to him AFTER our plans are completed, I wont let the grand structure collapse because of petty pride or some misconceived notion." As an afterthought she added, "Still, order the increase the parameter guards, double them where possible."
"Consider it done."
Karla turned back to her laptop and unfolded it. Marie interpreted it correctly as it mean the conversation was over.
When she was alone again, she sighed. So her little circle was getting impatient. If the boy managed to get a transmission off, the Preventers will tear their place of operations apart from the inside out, whether or not they found their agent or not.
Just two more days. I'm almost ready, she begged higher powers. Please just give me two more days and I will show humans their true potential.
The atmosphere in the Director's office, in those predawn hours was distinctly different from the comfortable energy that had circulated the room the last time all of them had gathered in that small room. Tension fairly cracked between the three former pilots in particular, centering on Quatre, which was understandable to Une, considering the circumstances. The fey boy probably knew long before Une did that something had gone wrong.
And oddly enough, although Heero looked the same, right down to his awful yellow shoes, something undefinable was different about him, perhaps more dangerous.
Une's sharp eyes scanned the room critically, trying to find the source of the tension. Immediately she noticed that the head count was down by two instead of one. "Where's Duo?"
That simple question caused the remaining ex pilots in the room to stiffen up, and the other occupants to stare at them curiously.
"He's sick, I'm afraid." Quatre answered, a little too smoothly.
"REALLY sick," Heero affirmed, his voice barely above a mutter, but held solid conviction.
"The God of Death... is sick? Is this some kind of joke?" she asked with incredulity in her voice.
"Wish it was," Heero replied.
Une frowned, not liking the situation but having no choice. Having their expert in explosives and best entryman could cripple the team.
"I wont mince words. The last I heard from Trowa, he was detained at the Devolutionist facility that you were deployed to."
"You mean captured." Quatre interjected quietly.
"Yes, captured," Une admitted. "We don't know his status as of now. But with no word from the Devolutionists about his capture, we are sure he is alright, for the moment."
"So we are going in for a rescue mission." Quatre's soft voice broke slightly with anxiety.
"I wish it was that simple. From his last transmission, there were complications. It seems the Devolutionists plans are biologicals. Now that we know their goal, we are noticing a trend in some of the small outbreaks of violence in the last few years. Most of the facilities either dealt in or held facilities capable of genetic engineering or pathogen research. We never connected them before as we thought the targets were weapon stores." Une nodded to Sally, feeling the weight of the frowns of everyone in the room.
Sally stood up, her small mouth pursed in a business like manor. All these years had not erased her military efficiency or posture. "Trowa gave us the name of a bacteria named s. meningitidis. To be honest, I've called in favors from every level of epidemiologists and while they know of the meningitidis bacteria but the strain, and what the s. stands for remains a mystery. So we are possibly dealing with something completely unknown."
Sally paused, both to let it sink in and to give time for any questions. All eyes in the room simply watched her. /They are too used to never asking questions./ She thought with a touch of resignation.
"We do know that other strains were directly correlated in bacterial meningitis outbreaks before it's eradication in 3 AC. It was a very efficient and fast moving disease, although its method of transmission hindered its spread. If we assume that is engineered, we can almost be certain that it will be either airborne or will survive in water, and possible resistant to antibiotics."
"So we get Trowa out and incinerate the base." Heero shrugged.
"It's not that easy I'm afraid. If the blast wasn't close enough, or hot enough, we would risk releasing it ourselves. Sterilization of the facility, either temperature or chemical based will require at the very least 6 hours uninterrupted."
Wufei frowned thoughtfully. "You are talking about taking out or arresting everyone on the base."
"There isn't any other option." Une said, standing and nodding, with a grateful smile at Sally. "We have been given full jurisdiction by the government to handle this as we see fit, with a recommendation to use whatever force necessary. I plan to make good on that, however, you all will be deployed separately of course."
Sally sits back down next to Wufei as Une took over. She clenched her husband's shoulder with a "companionable" grip (conveniently on a pressure point, wouldn't you know) and whispered playfully, "I thought I told you to be home last night."
"Onnnaaa," he hissed in barely audible tones.
"Don't you onna me!" she returned. "Or I WILL melt those damned swords."
"Duo was..." he began.
"I know." Sally interrupted with a smile. It didn't put the Chinese martial arts master at ease in the slightest. "That's why we'll talk about this later."
"Quatre you will be on observation with Noin on.."
"Miss Une." Quatre spoke up. "I would rather participate in Trowa's rescue, respectfully."
Une formed a few arguments in her head, but dismissed them. "Alright, Quatre you are on rescue, from Noin's surveillance last time, the only place that would serve as a detention center is subfloor 5. I will assign a group to go with you and get you there."
"Thank you."
"Heero," Une quirked a smile. "You were always good at blowing up yourself, so I assume you could take out immobile objects too." No response. "You'll have to take up Duo's end of the task as well. Your main assignment however is to get to whatever leaders happen to be in charge, and incriminating evidence. I would prefer them alive, but use deadly force if necessary."
"Wufei, Zechs, you two are get to the laboratory and secure it. Can you handle this alone?" Both men nodded without hesitation. "Noin you are on communications. You all have the ground plans from the previous mission. The armory is open fully for your use, although I assume you will want to use your own resources. Strike as soon as you all are ready" Again she was greeted with various motions and noises of assent. "Dismissed then."
Out of long habit, they gathered at Quatre's manor to hammer out the last of the details and the fine points. It was only recently that they had managed to force themselves to stop calling it "the safehouse."
Quatre's own urgency on the matter didn't seem to effect his skill for strategy. As the sun was peeking its fiery halo over the horizon, there was at least two contingencies planned for each phase and team. Planning was a luxury they were denied often during the wars, but now took every advantage of.
Weary postures and eyes glazed from staring at plans under the dim light of the kitchen table prevailed. Quatre finally let his own tension drain away in a visible rush, falling back into his chair.
"I think that's enough. Rest up and we'll go tonight." As a part of him expected, Heero was the first to leave the room, an edge of purpose that had been underlying him since the episode late last night evident in his step.
"Should we stop him?" Quatre asked. He shot a sideways glance at Wufei. The Chinese man shook his head.
"I believe if we want him at maximum efficiency this has to play out. He gave us his word. He will stick to it."
"Why? Is something wrong?" Zechs asked, his long face troubled. Sally and Noin mirrored the expression to a lesser, if more confused degree. Wufei merely shook his head.
"I don't believe it is my place to say." Wufei responded slowly. "But if the situation isn't resolved by tonight somehow, I will give you my best attempt at an explanation."
It is possible, that if Duo had been in control, he could have ducked and rolled away, reacting instinctively with trained speed, before Heero had managed to get a solid grip on his arms.
As it was, Relena was thoroughly pressed to the mattress by the wrists before she could even react to the sound of the door being forced open.
"Changed your mind Hee-chan?" Relena asked, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Her only answer was a deepening scowl before rough hands dragged her out of bed and through the door.
"Where are we going?" No response. "Um Heero, don't forget the mission that Quatre gave you." Not even a sideways glance. "This isn't funny. Answer me!"
"I don't have anything to say to you," he finally said, flatly. Literally dragging the protesting girl down the hall towards the sickroom. He'd been thinking about this all day. If he couldn't complete his first mission, then it was up to his partner to do the rest.
With satisfaction, he noted, as he pulled her into the sickroom holding Relena's still form, he noted that there was hide nor hair of the guards in the room. /Leave it to Quatre to know./
With speed that would have done Duo proud, a set of handcuffs slapped around her wrists, pinning her to the outside rail of Relena's body's bedside.
"Isn't the handcuff thing getting a bit old?" She asked, falling back on her old habit of criticism to cover her panic.
"I don't have time for you," he said with distinct dispassion. "This is just to keep you here."
He grabbed Duo's chin roughly and forced eye contact with the body of his lover. The set of the eyes were different slightly, the violet almost a bit bluer. Somewhere in the back of them, he caught a flicker of... something. Hopeful he composed his thoughts wrestling with the odd grammar and strange vowels of a foreign language.
"We both have battles to fight," he said in thickly accented English, ignoring the look of confusion across the face. He knew that Duo was listening. Relena didn't matter. "Come out of yours, and I'll come out of mine," he promised.
Vaguely he knew that Relena was saying something, loud and indignant, using his lover's voice. Whatever it was, he paid it little mind, in favor of watching the strange spectacle in front of him.
Almost imperceptibly, something behind Duo's eyes had changed, brightened. Their shape was a little different, the blue a little darker. It didn't feel right, something instinctual told him that his mission wasn't complete yet.
He fished around in his memory. Duo used to tell him it all the time, even said once that it was important, but never why. He didn't understand the English, but he knew the meaning without any need for a translation.
"Ai shiteru." That was it. It felt right somehow.
He released his hold on the stunned Relena and walked out, trusting him to come through. He'd given Duo every weapon he could.
TBC
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