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)
Duo clutched the vid-player tightly. The shaking in his hands was spreading up his arms, and his legs were starting to tremble, too. He needed to get into the lab before he collapsed completely. If he could slip in without any of Wheat's gang following, he could use G's defence system to protect himself until he had recovered.
He bounced to a halt in the low gravity. Covering the floor ahead of him were six pressure plates, three pairs of two laid end to end.
This was it.
"Hold him." The quiet order came from a fair distance behind him. He turned, seeing Wheat advancing on Trowa and pulling something out of his pocket.
Trowa's eyes widened, and he suddenly jack-knifed his body, using the goon holding him for leverage. He kicked viciously at the second goon's head, connecting with a crack. The man went limp and floated slowly to the floor.
Duo bounded back towards them, not quite sure what he would do when he got there, but willing to take advantage of everyone's distraction to reduce the odds against him.
Trowa was still moving, turning his kick into a flip, attempting to get over and behind the one man still hanging onto him.
That man was having none of it, though. He switched his grip to Trowa's arms, twisting them together and using the acrobat's momentum to force them up behind his own back at an awkward angle.
Trowa yelped as his right shoulder dislocated, but he didn't surrender. He gritted his teeth and smashed one knee down into his captor's nose, knocking the man off balance.
Trowa's captor yelled in pain and shock as his nose was broken, the spray of blood effectively blinding him. He was knocked off balance by the blow, and began to fall backward in low-grav slow motion. Growling with rage, he jerked Trowa down by his still-captive hands, and found his neck by feel. He wrapped one large hand around the Preventer's throat and began to squeeze.
Duo cursed under his breath. He was moving far too slowly, but the low gravity made it impossible to gain any sort of traction or speed.
Trowa's struggles weakened as he slowly strangled, his eyes starting to roll back in his head. Wheat pressed something against the acrobat's leg, holding the limb steady with the other hand. There was a puff of compressed air, and Trowa jerked.
Wheat nodded with satisfaction. The goon reluctantly released his deathgrip, letting Trowa slip limply to the floor.
Duo came down close by as Wheat turned. It did not escape his notice that the implement in Wheat's hands was now trained on him.
He relaxed his stance, absorbing his momentum with trembling knees, as if he had only been returning to help subdue Twister. "Oh, you got him," he said, nodding at the small bleeding wound in the centre of Trowa's right thigh, and then glancing casually at Wheat's hands.
Suddenly he was very glad he hadn't attacked the gang leader. The device Wheat held was a subdermal injector, used to deliver delayed-release drugs. It was designed to implant a med-capsule deep under the skin. After a precise amount of time, the covering of the capsule would dissolve, releasing the medicine.
As a Preventer, Duo had used one once to inject himself with a bio-based tracker - undetectable until it was released and combined with the iron in his blood. This injector was surely loaded with something a great deal more dangerous.
His assumption was confirmed when Wheat nudged a harshly gasping Trowa with one foot and informed him bluntly, "You have a maximum of half an hour. After that, the capsule will dissolve and the concentrated acid inside will eat right through your leg. If you're a good little guinea pig and do exactly what I say, I'll take the capsule out before it bursts, and kill you quickly. If not," he smiled, clearly relishing the thought, "you'll die in screaming agony. It's your choice."
"Understood," Trowa said hoarsely. He began to struggle to his feet.
"Wheat slipped the subdermal injector back into his pocket, and turned to Duo. "Give me your vid-player. You won't need it anymore."
Duo surrendered the little machine, and Wheat switched it over to show the feed from the tiny camera which Spider had snugged tight to Duo's temple. Duo turned his head from side to side, watching the field of view change in the vid-player and noting the limitations.
If he didn't want Wheat to know the last few access codes, he would have to enter them without turning his head toward the keypad, so that the movements of his fingers wouldn't be picked up by the camera. It would be difficult, with his hands shaking like this, but maybe not impossible.
But first things first. Duo went back to the pressure plates, pretending to study the trap ahead of them.
The walls and ceiling of the corridor were sheathed in ceramic tiles which were specially treated to withstand ridiculously high temperatures. Those tiles should have been an obvious signal to the last group of invaders, yet a large scorched area on the right hand side showed where the final unwary member of that team had met her end.
Duo looked away from the charred tiles. He didn't want to think of the unbearable heat of a plasma discharge, the stink of burning flesh, the scream of agony. And he definitely didn't want to picture how Trowa would look after being caught in the blast, but he did anyway. In his mind's eye, his rival and former friend was burned almost beyond recognition, clothing melted onto flesh, skin blackened and split, yet horribly still alive and in dreadful agony.
He shuddered, cursing his vivid imagination. He stole a quick look at Trowa, who was upright, but swaying very slightly. For the always-controlled pilot, that was a clear indication of shock and pain.
"Well now, Twister," Wheat's voice was filled with gloating malice, "it's time to go for a little stroll - straight up the left side of the corridor, and stop at the corner."
Trowa swallowed, his face white with strain, but set and expressionless. His gaze flicked over to Duo, then away.
Duo bit his lip. The others would see only an impassive Preventer, but he had no trouble reading the look in his former colleague's eyes - Trowa was hurting, and afraid. He didn't want to die here. There had been no hope, no pleading, no expectation in that brief glance, just an odd mixture of vulnerability and determination.
But that was how Duo felt, too.
Trowa took a slow step onto the first pressure plate. The tile depressed with a slight click, and the Preventer froze.
When nothing else happened, he let out a slow breath and took another step, reaching the end of the plate.
Duo's eyes clung to Trowa's back, watching the slightly hitched rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed, each movement pulling at his misaligned joint.
They had been friends, once. When Duo had awakened in Wheat's power, he had been so relieved to see a familiar face, to realize that there was someone he could trust, to know that he wasn't alone. And in the shower...
Shame made him admit that Trowa hadn't gloated or tried to make him feel bad. In fact... much as Duo hated to face it, Trowa had done his best to comfort him, to keep him functioning and focussed on escape, even though it might have compromised his own cover.
He had acted exactly as a very good friend would do.
Trowa paused at the end of the tile, steadied himself, and stepped forward. He landed lightly, the second tile depressing as the first had done. There was no sudden arc of plasma, no screaming death reaching out from the walls. Duo could see his hidden relief in the slight easing of tension in that limber back.
That shower... Trowa had supported him, helped him, and had asked for only one thing in return. Duo winced as his own vow came back to haunt him. 'I give you my word, Tro. I won't betray you.' He had said it - meant it - wholeheartedly at the time, but now...
Trowa took a long step to the end of the second plate.
Duo bit his lip. He had the chance to win Heero back... but only if he broke his promise. Only if he lied. Only if he destroyed one of the few parts of his soul that had stayed untainted since his childhood.
But it was for Heero...
Trowa's foot lifted, swung forward...
"Wait." Almost unwillingly, the word escaped as a harsh croak.
It was a mere whisper in the still air, but Trowa heard it. With his arms immobilized, he had to twist his body backwards to halt his momentum and still keep his balance. He came down awkwardly on the same leg he had been pushing off with, landing right at the edge of the plate, his other foot extended over the third tile.
Slowly, not moving anything unnecessarily, Trowa turned his head and looked back over his dislocated shoulder. Wide green eyes met violet, controlled fear meeting shame. Duo flinched, dropping his gaze to the floor, but not before he had seen the sudden flaring of hope in the other's eyes.
Oh, Heero...
But what good would it do to regain his lover if he lost himself in the process?
Duo swallowed until the tight ache in his throat had eased enough to speak clearly. He pointed with a wavering finger at the tile Trowa had been about to step on, justifying his interference with solid reasons that wouldn't reveal his secret knowledge. "That plate - it's not quite as scuffed as the others. And the ones on the other side seem slightly out of alignment, as if they've been used more often. Step sideways, then forward."
Wheat snorted, "Are you sure...?" but Trowa was already moving, following the instructions precisely. He reached the corner safely in three strides. He stood still a moment, and then took an unsteady step to lean against the wall, his breath coming unevenly.
Duo buried his feelings deep down, where they wouldn't interfere with what he had to do next. If he couldn't bear to kill Trowa, then he was damned well going to make sure Wheat didn't either.
"Wait here," he said in the general direction of the gang. Then he started down the corridor without waiting to see if they would obey, taking the safe route on shaky legs.
"What do you see around the corner?" he called to Trowa.
"Another hallway. More pressure plates," Trowa responded after he had turned his head to look.
Duo landed beside the acrobat and immediately began digging around in his gear bag, glad of the excuse to avoid eye contact with his almost-victim.
He had a hard time getting his hands to grip properly - the shaking was getting worse - but eventually he drew out the field scanner. He pointed it around the corner and flipped it on, reading the expected wild fluctuations with obvious resignation.
"There are more jammers on this corridor. And... yeah, they've been sneaky." He kept his eyes on the scanner, trying to make it look as the information he was relaying was coming from the device instead of his own memory. "They've hooked the plates to all the plasma outlets. One wrong step in this hallway, and the traps in both corridors go off."
"What about that corner you're in - can we stand there?" Wheat said impatiently.
Duo swung the scanner around, pointing it in a circle around himself. "It isn't safe here, either. No plates, but the plasma would jet here, too."
Wheat carefully edged back from the tiled area, and Duo had to stop himself from smiling. At least none of the gang would follow them until the second corridor had been cleared.
He tucked the field scanner away, and knelt as if to examine the pressure plates, thinking furiously. So far, so good, but at the end of this corridor lay the main door into the lab. When they reached it safely, Twister's usefulness would be at an end, and his life would be forfeit.
Duo bit his lip. Either he had to convince his boss that Trowa was still needed, or they had to make it into the safety of the lab without Wheat realizing what they were doing through the vidlink.
End Page 23
(:./wingnut/alter23)
