Title: Alternate Dualities
Author: WingNut
Archive: http://www.fanworkrecs.com
Disclaimers: I don't own the characters from Gundam Wing, I just play with them for non-profit fun until they run screaming back to their creators.
Warnings: AU - AAAAAAAAAAAU. Some yaoi, lemon, violence, language. You should be a legal adult to read this. Open-mindedness helps, too.
Pairings: all over the map; Duo-centric. yaoi and het.
Author's Notes: A huge helping of "suspension of disbelief" would be appropriate before you read this. I'm sure J or G could explain the science behind it, but they're kinda dead right now...
Part 6 ~ Mess (cont'd)
"Was? Wha-what happened?" Duo whispered, his mind racing from one scene of disaster to another.
Wufei leaned over him, gripping his shoulder, black eyes worried. "Don't you remember? Heero's dead, Duo. He didn't make it. I'm... I'm sorry."
He gasped a denial, demanding the truth, but Wufei slowly shook his head. "I would not lie to you about this. He charged a guard hiding behind a blast shield. He was dropped with a single shot to the head. On my honour, Duo, he *is* dead."
He slid down the shower wall, knees gone watery in the aftermath of the intense imagery. A strangled "No!" made it out before his throat clenched tight with overwhelming grief and guilt.
Shinigami's curse had struck again. Everyone that he loved died - he should have remembered that before he burdened Heero with his deadly desire. His hands came up to cover his face, to shut away the awful memory, to hide his shame at having forgotten how his very presence was a threat to anyone he held dear.
For long moments he huddled there, sick with the realization that this must have been why he had tried to suicide, and furious that he had failed. Oh, Heero...
Well, he may have been too cowardly to finish killing himself before, but there was an obvious solution to that problem. 'If at first you don't succeed...', and all that.
A tentative hand on his shoulder roused him slightly from his self-condemnation. Trowa was down on one knee in front of him, blinking in the spray of the shower, looking awkward and extremely uncomfortable.
Duo almost smiled. Poor Trowa - he really did look as if he would rather be anywhere else in the universe. The tall pilot had always preferred it when people didn't show their emotions - this must be one of his worst nightmares.
Come to think of it, it was one of Duo's worst nightmares, too.
"Duo..." Trowa said quietly. "I know what it's like, having lost memories return suddenly. You're upset, and overwhelmed, and... and I'm probably the last person you want to have here with you... but you have to get up now if you're going to get out of here."
"I killed him, Trowa," Duo whispered conversationally. "It's my fault Heero's dead. I almost managed to pay for it," he turned his wrists over, revealing the vivid scars, "but it really doesn't matter to me if Wheat finishes the job. Don't jeopardise your mission trying to stop him."
Duo saw Trowa's face go blank with shock, and then anger swept across it, leaving the high cheekbones flushed. Duo was faintly surprised at the obvious reaction.
The next second he was being hauled upright and shoved none too gently against the shower wall. "Duo, Heero's not dead. Understand? He's not dead."
Duo blinked up at him, not daring to hope. Heero wasn't dead? It wasn't his fault?
Trowa leaned in close. "Heero's not dead, Quatre's not dead, Wufei isn't even dead, but you and I will be if you can't pull yourself together. You may not care if Wheat offs you, but we've been looking for you for two bloody years, and now that we've found you I'm NOT going to let you get away this easily. Do you understand me? I won't let you give up."
Duo finally nodded, taking a few shaky breaths and trying to stop his hands from trembling. Heero wasn't dead. Anything else could surely be dealt with, somehow. "But why aren't Heero and I..."
"Duo, " Trowa interrupted, "Heero is on this mission, too. He may even be on the team watching this building. Go ask him."
Duo swallowed the rest of his questions. "Yeah. You're right."
Trowa shoved him under the spray again, rinsing the lather out of his hair. "Now listen. Wheat has arranged to take a call in about five minutes, so most of the security will be around him. I'm going to leave you with Sticksy while I go ask Wheat what he wants done with you. If we're lucky, I'll have to wait until Wheat's done his call, and you'll have more time to get away. Sticksy keeps a gun in the back of his waistband, but even half-Blissed you should still be faster than he is. Go down to the ground level and get outside. The Preventers have spotting scopes - they'll try to ID you as soon as you walk out the door. When they realize who you are, they'll come for you. Just stay out of sight of Wheat's guards."
"Got it. Any messages you want me to pass?"
Trowa shot him an unreadable look. Then he shook his head, flinging tiny droplets of water off his bang. "It's safer if you don't know what I'm doing here."
If Duo were captured, he meant. Duo snorted. It was true, but hardly comforting.
"Time to go, Maxwell," Trowa said in Twister's bored tone. "You've used up as much water as a family of four uses in three years. If you're lucky, Mr. Wheat will let you work off that debt."
Fifteen minutes later, they were both dry and dressed. Duo was wearing a borrowed shirt and sweatpants, and rubber-soled shoes that were slightly too large. His own clothing had been too stained and torn to bother keeping.
He glanced in the mirror and grimaced. Trowa hadn't bothered with conditioner, and there hadn't been much time to brush out his hair. The resulting rough braid was very messy and still rather wet. Combined with his gaunt look and ill-fitting clothing, he looked sloppy and unkempt - exactly like a down-and-out drug addict, in fact.
"I guess I'll have to get by on my charming personality," he muttered, following Trowa into the hall.
Duo assessed his physical condition as he was hustled down a hallway. The weird visual effects seemed to have passed, but he still felt odd, as if his body weren't quite connected together properly. He had a tendency to put his feet down at the wrong height, making him lurch and stumble over nothing.
Twister towed him down the hall towards an elevator. Just before they reached it, he hauled Duo into a room to one side. There were several couches and chairs, arranged to face a large video screen.
Twister pushed and let go, and Duo sprawled gracelessly onto one of the sofas. He turned to glare at Trowa, but his friend was already talking into a small comlink.
"Sticksy. Come to the video room. I have a babysitting job for you."
Duo waited in silence. There was no point in talking, what with all the rooms being bugged.
Duo considered that in terms of his escape. This room - he took a quick look from under his bangs - had no obvious camera or microphone. But he would bet even money that the video screen was two-way.
Even if there were a bug or camera in every room, it was unlikely that Wheat had the staff to check on every single one. Even if the bugs and cameras were only live when they detected sound or motion, it would still take a large staff to check everything. Maybe they were sampled randomly...
So if he were to escape from Sticksy, he would have to be very quiet, and rely on the chance that no one was watching them at that particular moment. It wasn't a good plan, but it was the best he could do without seeing the security room, or knowing how often the devices were checked, or how many people were assigned to that duty.
A few moments later Sticksy came in, a leering grin crawling onto his face as he saw who his babysitting assignment was. "Well, well, well. Come to papa."
Duo felt a shudder trying to work its way down his spine. He recognized that voice - it was the same guy who had suggested the Bliss party back in the bathroom.
Well, at least it would be relatively easy to get his hands into Sticksy's waistband...
It worked out pretty much like Duo had figured. He had to put up with some sloppy kisses and a grope or three, but he eventually got the gun from Sticksy and laid him out with it.
The only thing he hadn't reckoned on was his own physical weakness. The lack of regular food, sleep and exercise was telling. It took two blows to put Sticksy down, and even then Duo felt he had been lucky.
He left his former guard arranged on one of the sofas as if he were taking a snooze, just in case the cameras hadn't caught the quick struggle. Then he slipped the gun into his own waistband, and Sticksy's comlink into his pocket.
Duo stepped into the hallway as if he had every right to be there. The most noticeable thing for a security force to pick up on was the sight of a furtive figure creeping through the building.
He turned left. The video room was immediately to the left of the elevator, so the stairs were likely to the right of it. He would only take the elevator as a last resort. He didn't want to be trapped in that small space with limited exits and controls that could be overridden externally.
He checked and then nudged open the door on the right - no audible alarm - and headed down the stairs as if he had known they were there all along. Just act naturally...
He was reaching for the knob on the ground level when he heard the doors up and down the stairwell >clunk< in unison. With a sinking heart, he touched the handle and tried to turn it gently. It was locked.
Shit! Someone must have noticed Sticksy... or maybe opening the stairwell door had set off a silent alarm. He pulled out the comlink he had swiped and listened carefully.
"Front doors secured, sir."
"Rigger and I have the basement level."
"Windows are all sealed."
Oh, crap, they were locking down the entire building. Without a map or more advanced tools than the lockpicks and tiny blades in his hair, he wasn't likely to get too much farther.
But that didn't mean he wouldn't try. Heero was just outside waiting for him.
"The elevators are shut down now, sir," a voice on the comlink said respectfully. "You'll have to use your override key." Duo glanced at the comlink. Good thing he hadn't taken the elevator...
He considered the door before him. An automatic lock would generally be electromagnetic, not merely physical. Lockpicks would do him no good. What he really needed was an electronic scrambler...
"Sir, the launch bay reports your ship is prepped and ready for immediate departure."
Sighing slightly, he pulled two tiny blades out of his messy braid. He turned the magnetized one flat and slowly moved it over the wall just to the right of the doorknob, passing it up and down and from side to side. He made a note of each time the blade twitched in his loose grasp, until he had a rough idea where the magnetic lock for the door was embedded in the plaster.
His hands were shaking slightly - not much, but just enough to make him glad he didn't have to manipulate lockpicks. Of course, trying to deactivate a magnetic lock without the proper equipment was a good way to get electrocuted, so he couldn't really say he was looking forward to that, either.
"Hey, Tona, what's up with the alert?" a voice said rather tentatively over the comlink.
Duo froze, listening carefully. After a moment, there was a reply.
"The boss uncovered a traitor. Twister is a bloody Preventer."
End Page 18
(:./wingnut/alter18)
