Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cult Characteristic ❯ Chapter 19 ( Chapter 19 )

NINETEEN

Blood. It covered everything, devoured sanity. He watched it move behind his lids and quailed. He was always drowning, never drowned. He wanted it to end, but had long ago learnt that was never to be. The torture was endless, the agony infinite. Only with Heero…

Duo's eyes snapped open in shock, then quickly shut again, momentarily blinded. It was enough his mind kicked in, splitting the memory from the current reality. Duo remembered the pit, but he also remembered leaving it. He remembered Deathscythe, but he also remembered the new suit, and how he had destroyed it…Along with Heero.

Furious with himself and his own weakness, Duo forced his eyes open again, only vaguely aware of a heart monitor nearby going crazy. Had he looked to the side he would have seen it was his own. Instead, he forced his watering eyes to take in the room, and found, much to his relief, Heero on a bed not a meter away. Heedless of himself and the pain throbbing through every scrap of his being, Duo tore the machines free of his skin and threw himself at Heero's bed. He heard the heart monitor flatline at the same time Heero's eyes snapped open. Panicking, Duo fell backwards, beneath the line of Heero's sight, under the bed.

The sound of movement, then legs were over the side, almost in Duo's face. He creied out, startled and the sound shocked Heero so completely he slipped and fell, barely avoiding landing on top of Duo. They stared at one another for a minute in silence, bodies frozen in shock. Duo's face changed first, the smallest hint of a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth. Heero saw it, mimicked it, and then they were laughing as Heero instinctively reached out and pulled the smaller form against his chest.

"No…" Duo protested, hands splaying over white bandages crisp on Heero's torso. Heero shook his head to silently say it didn't matter and held on tighter. Not as tight as he would have been capable of before someone tried to blow him up, Duo thought wryly with not a small amount of guilt, but tight enough.

"I thought…." Duo exclaimed, tears in his eyes…

"I thought…" Heero responded, neither able to continue. How long they sat there, curled together on the cold clinic floor, neither ever knew. But it was too soon when a cough in the doorway had them looking up at an extremely relieved and bemused Quatre Winner.

"I step out for a minute to sign your forms, again, and you wake up without me, again. Habits, boys, habits…" Quatre was shaking his head, looking so morose Duo almost took him seriously. All thoughts of seriousness soon fled, however, when the last person he ha expected to see entered the room on Quatre's heels.

"Dorothy?" Duo gaped in astonishment and his voice drew Heero's attention to the figure in the door. Duo felt his partner's arms tighten about his ribs but did not complain. Heero had earnt the right to do whatever he wanted.

"Mr. Maxwell. I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to come see you. Work, I'm sure you understand."

Duo just gaped. What the hell was Dorothy Catalonia doing on L2 right after he had tried to blow it to hell?

"I was in the neighborhood and thought I would come visit, give you your welcome home gift and all that."

Duo couldn't get his mind back into gear. He could not fathom why she was there!

"Oh, come on!" Dorothy finally lost all patience and waved toward the door. "The car is waiting. I've already contacted Howard; he's getting that machine you tried to blow up functional again. All you have to do is get your lard arse out of this room."

Duo still wasn't sure what to do and was thankful, for the first time ever, to hear Heero's grunt of understanding. Heero's heat left him for a moment before he was being hauled to his feet, Heero pulling him tight against his side, holding him up as much as he was leaning on him for support. Duo didn't mind; he liked Heero right where he was.

"Status?" Heero finally barked at Quatre and the small blonde hid a grin behind his hand a moment after Duo saw it appear. Some things, it was nice to see, never changed.

"Preventers is under siege. Une is a confirmed captive. We suspect Milliardo and Noin have likewise been captured. Wufei and Trowa have Rose Devourjav in custody and are on their way to bargain."

Duo's nose scrunched in thought, thinking of what Quatre hadn't said. They were on their way to bargain, yes, but…it didn't sound as if they expected to succeed. In fact, Duo thought their chances of success on that count unlikely indeed.

"Dot…Where's my present?" Duo looked at the blonde over his shoulder. She had not changed since the last time he had seen her, right after the war. Her eyes were still lit with that mischievous fire that made him think had they met under any other circumstances they might actually have been good friends.

"What, a functioning Gundam and ride to earth aren't enough?"

"Howard's doing that, not you. I want a present from you."

Dorothy laughed, a loud barking sound that was music to his ears. He felt himself grinning, a small slither of Shinigami returning to his battered senses.

"I intend to hide all evidence the Sweepers were involved with your attack on L2, Mr. Maxwell."

Duo fell silent. That was, perhaps, the best present he could have asked for, but he was well aware it did not help him in the slightest. No one could deny what he had done, or what he had attempted to do. He could only hope to do his best for Preventers now, when it mattered most, and hope that Justice was a fairer lady than his own lady death.

*

To say Rose Devourjac was an uncooperative prisoner was an understatement to say the least, but Wufei did not trust himself to think beyond that. Had he bothered, he presumed he might have had to prevail upon himself to kill the woman, which would have negated the reason for having her prisoner to begin with. Instead, Wufei entertained himself with the thought of what he would do to the morons who had decided to make Preventers Headquarters their squatting house. When he ran out of things he himself could do, he imagined the things Une would do. That list, unlike his own, seemed endless.

"Stop daydreaming and help me here," Trowa said softly from the computer system they had set up in the back of the van. In anyone else, that tone of voice might have been a snap. In Trowa it had the same calm countenance he had with everything else. It had always, and no doubt would always, unnerve Wufei, but it serves its purpose. It made him stop considering torturing possibilities and focus on the task at hand.

"Status?" Wufei asked as he secured Rose and leant over Trowa's shoulder to observe the screen. Trowa had hacked into the video system using codes Heero had reserved for their sole use and split the screen to show the different office areas. They all appeared abandoned.

"The vids aren't bringing anything up. I'm switching to thermal sensors…" Wufei watched the slender digits move across the board and suddenly the screens were awash with orange, red, yellow, each smudging into the next as they settled into the thermal pattern. Once again ,the screens went blank; there was no life here.

"Where are they?" Trowa stared at the screens, dumbfounded, fingers still, unsure what else to do. Wufei, however, had a sneaking suspicion he knew.

"The one place there are no cameras…"

"What?" Trowa actually looked slightly stunned. Almost. In a `my green eye is slightly engorged' kind of way. Wufei shook his head and tried to concentrate harder. It was a difficult task.

"Duo requested it, but I refused to agree…" He leant over the keys and typed a new set of codes into the hacked window. The computer took a moment to process the request, then a new image appeared among the others.

"It's…purple…What the hell?"

Wufei quirked a brow at the rare exclamation from Trowa before he turned the view to thermal.

"It's the altar in the Chapel. I installed a camera in the faceing. Duo only agreed to let me because the altar cloth covers it. It's Lent this month, hence, its purple. You can't see through the cloth, but the camera can still pick up heat…"

And it did. As the thermal view came up the computer nearly had a heart attack, or something akin to a heart attack. Thermal signals were everywhere.

"God…" Trowa breathed softly, shifting his hair out of his face to stare at the screen with two eyes. It was not what either had expected.

"Should have known," Wufei agreed. Everything about this case had been skewed. Why not hole all your hostages up in a chapel? It made sense, in a fervent religious cult kind of way. Ironic sense when you considered to all intents and purposes they believed the devil's right hand man was on his way.

"I'm suddenly glad Duo's asleep..." Wufei said softly, fingers already inching toward the katana strapped to his back. Trowa nodded his head in agreement.

"Let's move," Wufei suddenly said, standing straight and heading toward Rose. Trowa did not argue; Wufei was higher ranked than him; he would lead. Besides, Trowa preferred to be given the orders. They actually made a good working pair, each individual enough to handle their part of a mission, each confident enough in one another's abilities they were flawless as a team. But they were all like that…

Rose Devourjac had her hands tied behind her back and a rope tied about her waist bound her to Trowa. They had decided Wufei should not have that dubious duty due to his preferred choice of weapon. The last thing they needed was to have that rope cut and their bargain chip run. Hence, Wufei took point while Trowa took the rear, pushing Rose along in front of him. She went, reluctantly.

They didn't bother going through headquarters, knowing they would find nothing there. They didn't need any more firearms, already having their own weapons. Wufei had his katana and his handgun was in his hand, a bullet proof vest, lined in light-weight gundanium, protected his chest. Trowa was similarly attired, handgun in hand, and god only knew how many knives scattered throughout his clothing. Trowa, in that respect, was just as bad, if not worse, than Duo. That thought actually made Wufei grin as he moved across the back barrack, through the small courtyard garden, and into the north training facility.

If there was one thing Gundam Pilots were good at, it was finding a way in that no one had thought of. While each had had their own method, each was nonetheless good at it. It was a rare time indeed when they just waltzed in the front door. Front door usually meant massacre and no fifteen year old boy had ever really been comfortable with that thought. So it was that when they realized just where the Cult had rounded everyone up, they had opted to move around headquarters, not use the front door, but the windows. After all, there was only one door…

Wufei pressed himself hard up against the abseiling wall, checked the corners and let his eyes rove the roof. It was clear; he had sensed that was the case but wanted to be sure. Satisfied with his deduction, Wufei kicked open a storage closet at the base of the wall and grabbed the gear they would require. Trowa kept a gun trailed on Rose as Wufei slipped into a harness then proceeded to hook Rose into one, then he was holding the gun as Trowa hooked himself up.

It is an easy thing, to push a prisoner ahead of you while holding a gun in their face. It is quite another to climb, and have them climb. Wufei was forced to untie Rose's hands, though he retied the rope around her waist, attaching this end to his own waist so the woman was now slung between the two of them. He didn't bother to show just how quickly either of them could draw a weapon on her, figuring she had seen enough to know. Indeed, he eyes, when they left their faces, moved to the guns holstered now at their hips.

Wufei moved first, grabbing hold of the few climbing holes in the wall years of kicking off it had produced. It was not the safest way to go, but they were not exactly concerned with safety. They were just doing what had to be done and hoping Rose had as keen a survival instinct as their own.

It seemed she had, or that she at least had had some training in climbing, as she scaled the face between them, eyes never straying far from weapons, hands, looking always for a moment when she might. There never was one and Wufei couldn't help the swell of satisfaction that filled him as he watched her face fall into submission. They had not lost any of their skill in their world of peace. If anything, their senses were keener, more open and ready. They were too aware that Preventers was not the same as their past terrorist activities and were focusing double time because of it. They were at their prime and Wufei knew Rose knew it too.

They reached the top and unhooked the gear, refastening Rose's hands and releasing her from Wufei. It was a simple thing to move across the top of the wall to the balcony beyond, then into the training facility, and up…through a maintenance door and onto the roof.

The roof itself was slightly slanted, flowing down one side to yet another, where the two roofs almost met, separated only by a thin slither of garden path. Rainbow light flittered across the path, reflecting off the small brook trickling though and covering them in colored shards. Wufei held his arm out into a pink shadow and smiled.

A click brought him back to reality. He turned to find Rose with her mouth open, ready to yell, Trowa's gun cocked and ready at her temple. No expression was evident on his face, but his body language was obvious. Before sound could press past her lips, Rose Devourjac would be dead. Her mouth clicked shut almost audibly and she frowned at the stained glass window below them, glaring at the robed figure on the other side to look up.

Wufei would have laughed, if he could do so without compromising their position. While they could see down and into the chapel perfectly well, the awnings outside the stained glass window were too wide; those within could not see them where they perched.

Nodding in response to the sign from Trowa, Wufei pulled a small phone from his pocket and made the call. The Cult figure in the window's head snapped up and they could hear \voices, muffled by the glass as those within searched for the phone they could only just hear ringing. Wufei watched in quiet delight as they hurried toward the small quarters off to the left of the altar where the Priest lived. There was a phone in there…

"Hello?" The voice was shaky; frightened. Wufei recognized it.

"Father Riley?"

"Yes?"

"It's agent Chang." A sigh of relief. "Everything's going to be fine. I know what's going on. I want you to tap the back of the phone receiver once with your finger if Milliardo and Noin are captured." One very obvious tap. "Une?" Another tap. Well, damn, not that it wasn't what they had expected.

"That's great Riley. Now, I want you to get the leader. Don't settle on anyone else. Just pass him the phone. Do not tell him who this is."

There was the sound of movement, of the phone being passed from one person to another, then a long pause in which Wufei refused to even breath.

"Who is this?" Wufei knew that voice; had heard it at the Devourjac party. Senator…

"The Negotiator," Wufei replied in a voice he hoped would not be recognized.

"There is nothing to negotiate for. I don't want anything." Wufei could hear the smile in the voice. Smug bastard…

"Not even your daughter?"

Silence descended on the other side of the line. Wufei waited patiently, trying to keep the pure malice and satisfied glee from his voice. It was time to play…

"You're lying…"

Wufei grinned as looked over to an apprehensive looking Rose.

"Mr. Devourjac, meet Justice."

And he held out the phone.