01-Dec-2003
Yes, believe it or not, I actually have another part posted. Hah! Take that, rl!!
Part 7 ~ Premeditation (cont'd)
Quatre rose and walked across the room to join Lava, trading places with Wufei. To Duo's eyes, the Arabian looked just the slightest bit unsteady.
Wufei seemed to have picked up on it, too. He gave Quatre a concerned glance as they passed, and as soon as he reached Heero and Trowa, he jerked his head slightly towards Quatre and began whispering urgently.
Despite his friend's obviously incomplete recovery, Duo hovered close by. He was reluctant to cause Quatre any more disorientation or pain, but time was ticking away and he would have to leave soon. He didn't want to miss his chance to pass along his warning.
He saw Quatre's glittering aura sweep out to wash up against Lava, and edged forward to touch the sparkling cloud gently, reminding himself to keep his responses muted. Quatre took a swift breath and nodded slightly - acknowledging the contact, Duo thought.
Lava said silkily, "Agent Sand, you arranged for Shadow to be off-duty this evening. You arranged for the car and driver to pick him up. Since you also seemed to know exactly where and when the crash occurred, I have to wonder if you arranged that as well."
Duo started to swirl with agitation, then realized what he was doing and held himself still. Quatre blinked, but answered the question evenly enough. "No, I didn't."
Lava raised an eyebrow disbelievingly, and waited. Quatre stared back steadily. The silence lengthened.
Duo pulsed with restrained amusement. He knew the technique of encouraging a suspect to talk nervously (and often revealingly) by leaving a long gap between questions, but he was confident that Quatre wouldn't crack. After all, the man lived with Trowa and Heero, two people who might have invented the phrase 'Silence is golden.'
Finally, Quatre smiled very slightly and asked politely, "Was there anything else, Agent?"
Lava's lips twitched, as if he were suppressing a smile of his own, or perhaps a grimace. "Yes, actually. Why did you believe Shadow was in trouble, both this evening and earlier this afternoon?"
Duo's anxiety returned, though he tried to keep calm for Quatre's sake. Lava had unerringly hit upon the weakest spot of any explanation Quatre might offer. Back in Duo's own universe, the existence of newtype abilities was known to few people. If the same held true here, Quatre might be better off leaving his spaceheart out of the explanation, rather than come off sounding like an unreliable flake, or a liar. On the other hand, without any reason for leaving the reception to go looking for one of his teammates, he would likely be implicated in the crash anyway.
The same thoughts must have been running through Quatre's mind - had probably already been weighed and dissected hours before, knowing Quatre - for the blond cocked his head to one side and said without the slightest hesitation, "I can't expect you to promise that you will never reveal to anyone else what I'm about to tell you, but I would appreciate it if you didn't publicize it."
He didn't wait for any sort of affirmation before continuing. "I have a newtype ability - empathy. I can sense the emotions of people around me, although the depth of my knowledge and the limits of my range seem to vary depending on the individual. I have a deep and far-reaching bond with each one of my teammates.
"This afternoon I felt a horrible shock through my link with Shadow - I truly thought he was dying. Cloud failed to get through to Shadow, so he rang Steel at the spaceport instead. As you probably already know, Steel found that Shadow had fallen in the shower and nearly knocked himself out. And this evening..."
Quatre's eyes slid away from Lava's, and Duo saw a barely perceptible shiver run across his shoulders. "This evening, I felt Shadow again. At first, he seemed to be fading in and out, growing gradually more disoriented - I suppose that was the sleeping gas you mentioned working on him, but at the time I thought he might be feeling that aftereffects of his head injury. The confusion was swept away by a stab of... disbelieving panic is the best I can describe it, closely followed by desperate determination. A few minutes later," Quatre swallowed, looking as if he would rather not be remembering this, "there was nothing but pain."
Quatre dragged his gaze back to Lava's. "I was able to use it as a sort of homing beacon. That was how I found him, how I knew he was in trouble."
Duo couldn't help it; he enclosed Quatre in a warm hug of grateful and sympathetic support. Quatre's eyelids slid half-shut, the barest hint of a smile curving his lips.
Lava watched thoughtfully with narrowed eyes, giving away nothing of his reaction to this recitation. "You're an empath."
Duo pulled away, and Quatre opened his eyes. "Yes," he said simply.
"You can feel what everyone around you is feeling."
Quatre frowned thoughtfully. "Some people are very difficult to read; and some emotions are harder to pick up than others. Rage is more obvious than boredom, for example. The stronger the emotion, the easier it is to detect, partly because of the intensity, and partly because people project their feelings when they are emotional."
"You said you have a link with your teammates, so you can sense them consistently."
"Yes, but I don't invade their privacy unless there is a dire need."
"You can read other agents as well - Agent Wind, for example?"
"Wind doesn't project much, but when he's angry, then yes, I can sense him."
"What about others at the palace? Queen Relena? His Excellency Treize?"
"Queen Relena is fairly open, but His Excellency is very controlled and almost impossible to read. The few times I've been in his presence, the most I've been able to sense is vague impressions."
"So you make a habit of searching out the emotions of the people around you." Lava made it sound like a perverted moral failing.
"No, I don't. Normally I'm only aware of the overflow people give off when they're emotional - a state that is usually easily confirmed by their facial expression and body language. I can probe more deeply, but as I said before, I don't invade people's privacy without cause. I can also shield myself completely, but it takes effort and I can't keep it up all the time. It's like your eyelids - when you're awake the natural position is for them to be open; you have to consciously decide to close them."
"Other than sneezing," Lava murmured absently.
Duo wavered in startled amusement, and Quatre smiled, swaying slightly.
Lava cocked his head to one side, a speculative look on his face. "So... If you've been feeling the emotions of the people around you, I imagine that it would come as no surprise to you that Queen Relena deeply desired your lover, Heero Yuy. You must have found it annoying, feeling her longing and lust every time she saw him."
Quatre's smile faded as Lava continued quietly, "Were you afraid of losing him to her? Did you decide to take her out of the equation? Did you rig the car to deliver that dose of sleeping gas so that the next time she went for a drive with her old retainer she would be eliminated? It must have been quite a shock to realize that one of your teammates had been caught in the trap instead."
Quatre had paled, but Duo couldn't tell whether it was due to the direction of the soft-spoken questions, or Duo's rising fury over them. He struggled to bring his feelings back under control.
"No! You..." Quatre took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I was going to say that you can't really believe that, but you do feel that it's at least possible." He shook his head. "No, I didn't rig the car, or the sleeping gas, nor did I have any knowledge of them. Since it would have been nearly impossible for anyone to know ahead of time that Shadow would be in that particular vehicle..."
Duo stiffened, hoping Quatre wouldn't jump to the conclusion Pagan had predicted.
"...Queen Relena was probably the intended target, but-" Duo couldn't contain his agitated surge of negation, and Quatre broke off with a gasp, swaying slightly.
Lava's eyes narrowed again, taking in Quatre's slightly hunched posture and the fist pressed over his heart. "Yes? But what?"
"But I didn't do it," Quatre finished, sounding strained.
"Who do you think did?"
"I..." Quatre licked his lips and straightened up. "I don't know. Perhaps I'll have an idea later." He turned as he was speaking to gaze through the spot where Duo hovered, the slight emphasis he gave to the last word making his meaning plain.
Duo swirled in frustration. He realized that Quatre didn't want to play Twenty Questions with Lava standing there watching his every reaction, but there might not be a 'later!' He would be pulled away soon, and he needed to get his message across *now!*
Quatre caught his breath, pressed his lips together, and shook his head minutely. Duo's sense of urgency rose.
Suddenly Quatre's eyes widened and he glanced down at his watch. Duo nearly danced with relief as he saw the telltale movement - his friend had realized the problem.
Quatre staggered, then sat down abruptly. "My apologies, Agent Lava, but I am feeling unwell," he announced, his voice tight and uneven. "We will have to continue this another time."
As he no doubt intended, his declaration attracted the attention of the other three pilots, who converged silently from the other side of the room.
Lava looked from Quatre, who really did look ill, to the implacable faces of the teammates ranged beside him, and said thoughtfully, "All right then. I will expect you, Cloud, and Frost in my office downtown at 11 a.m. tomorr- ahem, that is, later this morning."
Three nods met this proposal - two curt ones, and a weary one from Quatre. With a final intent look at the closed ranks of the pilots, Lava nodded as well and swept from the room.
End Page 36
(:./wingnut/alter36)
