Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cult Characteristic ❯ Chapter 1

ONE.

-Eleven months after Prologue. -

OC, Yaoi, Angst, Continuation, etc.

"Heero, Une wants us. Now."

Wufei waited until Heero nodded in acknowledgment before heading toward Trowa's desk. He knew he wouldn't get anything more from the stoic once was perfect soldier. While Heero had certainly improved in the last two months, he was not even half the person he had been before Duo ran off.

Wufei wasn't sure where Duo had gone, but he had sure as hell done a good job of it. Six months searching with all the Preventers resources had uncovered nothing. For the past eleven months Duo Maxwell had simply not existed and while all the pilots knew Duo certainly had the skills to disappear so completely during the war, Wufei was uneasy about his apparent ability to do so now. It should not have been possible. Wufei had spent the past eleven months trying to convince himself nothing was wrong, but every time he saw Heero his mind failed him. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Wufei? You've been standing there for ten minutes! What's wrong?"

Wufei stared at Quatre, blinked, and realised he was at Trowa's desk. Well, at least he didn't have to go find the blonde.

"Une wants us. Now."

And why us? He couldn't help wondering. Why all four remaining pilots? For a briefing…What has this next mission to do with us? Wufei couldn't shake his feeling of foreboding as he walked to Une's office and took the offered seat. He took time to note all the small things in the office. The overhead projector. The pile of unsuccessful or incomplete cases. The videos. It all pointed to one thing: mission. And a big one at that.

Heero entered, took his seat at Wufei's side and Wufei saw the perfect soldier come to the same conclusion. Whatever Une had up her sleeve, it was huge. Still, they waited. Une seemed to be waiting for more people, if the empty seats were anything to go by, and sure enough Wufei glared at the door as Milliardo and Noin waltzed in, followed quickly by Sally and a small girl who looked like she had just been stepped on by a Gundam.

Wincing, Wufei turned back to Une, who had finally stood and was preparing to begin. Wufei folded his arms over his chest and calmed his mind, freeing his thoughts for what was to come. It was a familiar ritual. He had used it during the war to obtain mission details. As long as he was open to everything, nothing was missed. Missions went perfectly. This would be no different.

"Thank you for coming. We have a new case. This one will involve infiltration to a potentially lethal situation. Anyone who doesn't think they can handle that, leave now."

And that was all they were going to get if they left the room. And that was precisely the reason the Gundam Pilots were in the room. If a case looked `potentially lethal' it was given over to them. Why? Because they simply didn't care what the risks were, as long as they were dealing out justice. At least, that was why Wufei kept taking those cases. He suspected Heero just didn't care anymore, and Quatre and Trowa…well, Wufei suspected they just liked the thrill.

No one left the room. Une breathed a visible sigh of relief. Apparently this case was so huge she needed all of them, Milliardo and Noin included.

"Very well. I would like to introduce you to Fiona." Une motined the little girl forward. She was a cute little thing, with springy blonde curls and a pouty little mouth. She made Wufei smile despite his resolve to remain impartial. He went so far as to wink at her as Une handed out her case file, one to each member of the team. Wufei flicked it open half heartedly, knowing Une would just read the important parts anyway.

"Two months ago Fiona was reported missing by her parents. No ransom was received, no sign of her whereabouts was found. Three days ago she turned up in a hospital on the other side of the city."

Wufei stared at the little girl. She suddenly looked haunted, and the bruises on her skin finally registered. Dark circles under the eyes, dark smudges on her arms, which were held tight against the body. A bruise on the cheek that looked like a boot.

"Fiona. Can you tell these people what you told me?"

Fiona shook her head, suddenly terrified. She was still staring at Wufei. Seeing this, Wufei felt his heart clench and reached a hand out, inviting. Fiona dove for it, throwing herself against his chest. There were no tears. Wufei suspected she had none left.

"I was going to the shop on the corner…"

Wufei was startled by the small voice muffled against his chest. He wrapped his arm around the small waist, urging her to continue, offering her strength.

"There were these people in black….They grabbed me…"

Wufei wanted to leave, but he couldn't. Justice needed to be served. Justice for the small girl in his arms. And there was still the point of all those other case files on Une's desk.

"Fiona was taken to a building we had identified as a club of some sort. Its exact purpose up until now was unknown. Thanks to Fiona we have positively identified it as a cult." Une grabbed another set of folders from her desk. When Wufei flipped open the cover of the file she passed him he came face to face with a dark looking five story building. There were blueprints. There were five basement levels…The word `cult' kept running through Wufei's mind as he took in the details Fiona had managed to give the Preventers on her entrapment. She had done well. Fiona had noticed cameras, people, gotten names, listened to what her captors said…

"This cult worships the devil." Une explained, turning on the projector. The slide on the wall revealed images of similar cult houses from the late 20th century. Wufei had thought all those cults dead, but apparently they were making a comeback. Une went on to detail how the government suspected there were several large cults currently running in the earth sphere.

"Now," Une grabbed the large pile of incomplete cases and started handing them out randomly. As Wufei stared over Fiona's shoulder at the files within he noticed they were all missing persons.

"Fiona has identified more than half the faces in these files, and she says there were many more people in the building she was never allowed to see."

Wufei swallowed dryly, trying to fathom what the small girl in his lap had seen. What she had endured. His arm tightened around her waist.

"They talk about a prize," Fiona piped up, watching Une to make sure she was not out of line. When Une nodded Fiona continued, somehow knowing her information was important. "The prize was their goal. They think that if they have it nothing can stop them. They keep it in the dungeon at the bottom. In the ritual room."

Wufei almost laughed at the way she said ritual. It was obviously a word she had not known before. But Wufei couldn't laugh. What was the prize?

"All our information indicates this `prize' is a weapon," Une explained.

"So we're going in?" Quatre finally spoke up, his eyes still fastened on the schematics of the building.

"Yes," Une replied. "The mission will go ahead in three days. In that time I need reconnaissance on the building. I need someone to go in and get as much information on who's in charge as they can. I also need someone to sit down with Fiona and sort out the names of captives and where they are being held. We need to know everything we can. If they do have a weapon, they could use it as soon as they realize what we're doing."

They were all nodding, agreeing completely, minds working their way around the jobs that had to be done.

"Milliardo will be in charge. I want all the pilots in that building in three days at the head of four separate teams. All our resources are to be focused on this until that cult is destroyed!"

And that, Wufei knew, was as much emotion as they would get from Une. Nodding, they all turned and left the room, following Milliardo to the room he had set up for the mission. The desks were laid out in a tight semi-circle, all the relevant information piled high on each.

Wufei realized Fiona's hand was still tight in his own and he firmed his resolve.

"I will work with Fiona."

Milliardo nodded, accepting his decision, and Wufei left them to their own work, taking Fiona to one of the desks and pulling up a second chair. He noticed Sally nearby and smiled. She grabbed a chair and moved to sit on Fiona's other side.

"You were her doctor?"

"Fiona just walked right up to my station and asked for some water a few nights ago," Sally explained and Wufei vaguely recalled the way Sally had returned to their apartment a few days ago, dazed and rather annoyed. He had known he would find out eventually, but he had not expected it to be anything like this. He now understood her quiet rage.

Wufei grabbed the pictures from all the files and they started putting names on the back, cell numbers, dates...anything Fiona could remember. Sometimes it took her an hour to remember something, but she made sure they had everything she knew. Wufei was amazed. The girl seemed to have an audio-visual memory; sight triggered sound and vice versa. Nothing was forgotten.

They worked until five, when Sally took Fiona to meet her parents in the foyer. Wufei sat staring at the photos before him for an hour after she was gone. Something was not sitting well with him but that was not surprising. It was a horrendous case. There were over a hundred confirmed missing persons in that building if Fiona was right, and Wufei didn't doubt she was. A hundred innocent, tortured souls.

And Fiona was the only one to ever escape. They would pay. Justice would be done.