Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cockpit ❯ Cockpit ( Chapter 1 )

Warnings: Duo-torture, major anxt.

Rating: I dunno… it's pretty psychological. R or NC-17. It depends on how easily you empathize with Duo.

Think Se7en…. Think Saw and Saw 2…. There, you've got a vague idea of what this little treasure is like. I think I've scared myself…

 

Pain….

It smelt like death.

Duo shifted slightly, and opened his eyes. He was in… Deathscythe? No. But defiantly a cockpit. The screens were all blank. His harness was pressing on bruises, and his right hand ached. His left leg was numb from the knee down, and he could barely make out the stained bandages wrapping his calf through the rips in his cargo pants. Everything was bathed in soft red light.

Red… Emergency…

There was a radio taped to the joystick. Black tape. And there was something round in his lap. A grenade? He slowly reached to touch it. His wrists were chafed; rope burns and marks from those damn gundanium cuffs Oz were so fond of.

Why was there a grenade in his lap?

The radio crackled into life.

“Pilot 02.”

He didn't recognize the voice… it was scary. Raspy.

“As you may have guessed, you are in a mobile suit. It is made of Gundanium. The door is locked, and trapped.”

“Who the fuck…” Duo rasped. His throat was very dry, and he could taste blood.

“02… I want you to play a little game. Think of it as a training exercise. Or a mission.”

“Who are ya?”

The voice carried blithely on. “If you activate the trap on the door, the bomb in your lap will detonate. If you take more than… say…. Three hours, the bomb will detonate. If I get bored with your progress, the bomb may detonate.”

“What? Why the hell are ya doing this? Answer me, dammit!”

The radio was silent. Duo looked at the black object in his lap and began to shake. A bomb. Oh God. And he couldn't get out…

First things first. He lifted up his hands and began to struggle with the buckles on the harness. His grip felt as weak as water, but finally he managed it. He lifted the bomb - carefully - and set it aside

The door was lit by the red emergency light. Duo shifted his aching body closer to it, and began to examine it. There was a little blood on it. Duo guessed that it was his, but it could have been someone else's. There was not easy way to tell, with blood. It all looked the same.

He put his hand down to steady himself, and placed it on something cold and round. A screwdriver. He checked around it to see if anything would happen if he picked it up, and decided that it was safe. It was a cross-head, just right for unscrewing the panel on the door.

The battered pilot unscrewed it carefully, and levered it off a little at a time. He hoped that the panel wasn't trapped. Under the sheet of metal, was a mess of wires.

“Red or blue?” he asked the light, with a grin that made his split lip hurt. His hair was a mess. It itched. He wanted to wash it, but Heero always yelled when he did, `cause he used up all the hot water.

Heero.

Would he come for him?

But if he did, he wouldn't know… if he knew that he was in here, he would try to open the door, and that would set off the bomb.

Shit.

What about the others? Trowa, Quatre, Wufei. Would they come? Would they figure it out? Was there even anyone else nearby? Where was he?

Duo moved back to the pilot's chair. He was in a mobile suit cockpit; it made sense to think that he was in a mobile suit. Maybe the computer was still working, or maybe he could make it work.

He unscrewed the instrument panel, and couldn't see anything that had obviously been added that might trip the bomb. So he shrugged, screwed it back on, and powered up the `suit's systems. Suddenly, it was a little easier to see.

He needed to think.

The voice had said that the bomb would detonate if it was bored by his progress. So he was being monitored. Maybe… maybe he could destroy the camera?

But… the voice might detonate the bomb because he interrupted the game.

The console beeped softly, and a screen flashed a little brighter. Duo managed a grin, and started trying to find out what he could.

It was obvious that the system was crippled from the start. He couldn't move any `limbs', and there did not appear to be any weapons. No external cameras. He wasn't in space, he discovered. But there was no gravity outside. There was atmosphere. That meant a satellite, or maybe a ship. Possibly a colony. Something told him that he wasn't on Earth.

The radio was busted, but possibly fixable. If he had the time. He didn't.

Duo pulled all the information on the door that the system had to offer, and set about disabling the trap.

 

Half an hour later he was rocking back and forth in the chair, his eyes fixed on the bomb.

“Oh God, I'm gonna die, and I'm not even gonna kill anyone on my way out! 'M sorry, Father, Sister, I won't be joining ya in Heaven like ya wanted, `cause I been bad… broke your laws… killed people. I'm gonna die… and the others prob'ly won't even care… I don't even `member how I got here… I don't even know where it is that I'm dieing… I thought it would be different!”

He sniffed and buried his head in his knees. After shaking for a minute, he looked up with a determined expression, not really seeing the screen in front of him.

“What am I doing? Hee- 01 would be ashamed of me. I'm gonna get out of this. And if I don't… well, I'll die tryin', not cryin'!”

He dragged himself back to the door, and returned to mapping out what everything did in his head, using the screwdriver to move the wires. He was fairly sure that his lock picks were still in his hair - when it came down to it, he could use them as tools.

“Would be nice to have a little light!” he grumbled under his breath.

Two seconds later, the cockpit brightened, making him freeze. He looked around cautiously, noticing more blood stains. There was sharp shrapnel scattered around. The bomb was dark green, not black. There was a pair of wire cutters nestled in a corner. He decided not to throw away a potential gift, scooped them up and turned back to the door. Many of the spaghetti pile of wires were fake ones, just there to make a mess. He began to pull them out, sometimes cutting them to make it easier.

 

The radio crackled, making him jump and nearly cut the wrong wire, which would have been fatal.

“02.”

He turned to look warily at the machine.

“Your time is half gone. Your progress is pleasing. I want you to win this game, you see. Once you have proved yourself competent, the real fun can begin.”

Duo shuddered, unclenched his fingers from around his braid, and turned back to the door. After the initial silence, his captor seemed to delight in contacting him often, always with a reminder of the time and a cryptic comment.

Work on the door was progressing slowly, perhaps too slowly, but his fingers were shaky and he didn't dare go any faster. He refused to give up hope.

“Five minutes,” the voice announced just as Duo managed to bypass the trap. Now he just needed to get the door open. It would be easier if the controls weren't covered in broken glass.

The voice started a countdown. Duo shuddered, closed his eyes, braced himself for the pain and gripped the lever with both hands.

 

Should I leave it there?

If you like that ending. Stop. I'll add a second chapter with a… nicer… ending.