Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eyes Cold As Death ❯ Fourteen ( Chapter 14 )

Eyes Cold As Death

Chapter fourteen -- Hell on Earth

Quatre shook his head angrily.

"No."

"Why?" Trowa asked, sincerely trying to understand.

"If I go near her, she'll know, and my presence will be known. We can't risk that at this time. We're relying on my part -- the fact that I'm dead." Quatre paused a moment before continuing in a soft voice. "Besides, if I go near her, I'll kill her." Trowa couldn't argue with Quatre's logic.

"Then what should we do?" They had been tossing ideas out for how to keep Jezebel under surveillance for the last two hours. So far, they had come up with nothing. Jezebel knew all of the pilots, and it would be suspicious if they started following her. Even if they traded shifts, she would still know. Using Quatre as the tail had been Trowa's idea, but Quatre had brought up two very fine and valid points. Trowa raked his hand through his hair and sighed with pent up frustration.

"I like it when you do that." Trowa stopped, his hand at the back of his head. He looked curiously at Quatre. "I liked it even when I tried not to trust you. I've always liked it." Trowa didn't understand.

"What?" Quatre stepped closer and brought his hand up to caress Trowa's temple. He closed his eyes at the simple touch.

"When you brush your hair back like that." He blushed at Quatre's words and moved his hand to touch Quatre's cheek. He almost cried when Quatre leaned into the soft touch. He had harbored so much pain for so long that he almost didn't remember what anything else felt like. He certainly couldn't remember what happiness was. There had been too much anguish, and for too long. He could feel the backs of his eyes begin to sting as Quatre nuzzled his hand.

"Quatre. . ." His voice cracked with emotion as he whispered the name. Quatre opened his eyes to look at him. His legs felt spongy and he didn't know how much longer he could stand. He curled his fingers so he could brush Quatre's cheek with the back of his fingers. Quatre's hand rested on his. His heart pounded in his chest as some of the pain began to disintegrate, but as it did, it broke down the barriers that he had been hiding behind. With a choked cry he wrapped his other arm around Quatre and pulled him to his chest. He clutched Quatre to him as though letting go meant the end of the world. He buried his face in Quatre's hair and inhaled Quatre's scent. At first, his sobs were soft and slow, but within moments, he was sobbing heavily in Quatre's hair. He sobbed out all of his anger at the people who had taken Quatre from him in the first place. He cried out his pain at the loss of his lover, his mourning over his soul mate. He cried out his torment at not being able to find Quatre, and his brief betrayal and clear understanding of Quatre's amnesia. He sobbed out his frustration of having Quatre shy away from him and not remembering him. He sobbed out his love and his fear, his anger and his hatred. And through all of this, Quatre clung to him, soothing him with loving words, words that he had desperately needed to hear Quatre say months ago when he had first saw him, bloodied, dirty, and with rage in his eyes, swinging a sword against an army of armed brutes.

"Its okay, Trowa. I love you. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere. Lean on me." Trowa latched on to those softly spoken words. He relied on them to bring him out of his misery. He sniffed, held Quatre closer to him and whispered with his tear-choked voice.

"Promise?" Quatre chuckled, a clear sound in Trowa's pain-fogged mind.

"Of course! I love you, Trowa, and nothing can change that." With those words, his pain vanished, leaving him feeling content. He dropped a kiss to Quatre's hair.

"I love you, Quat. I always will." Quatre turned his face up to Trowa's and smiled. His fingers brushed Trowa's hair out of his face.

"I'm so sorry." Trowa managed a shaky grin.

"There's no need to be. You're in my arms again. That's all I need." And it was true; it was all he needed.

______________________________

Duo's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. He reread the data that he had been pouring through. His confusion deepened. He pushed away from the computer rubbing his hand over his eyes. He yawned, fatigue laced through his muscles. Lowering his hand, he spared a reluctant glance back to the data frozen on-screen. He lifted his fist and slowly raised just his middle finger, smiling gleefully as he flipped the computer off. He stood and went to raid the kitchen. He found Heero passed out on the kitchen table, hunched over pages after pages of hardcopy -- everything that had been copied from Jezebel's office a couple days ago. They executed their research in their own home rather than at HQ considering the delicate nature of the documents and discs. They knew that Jezebel had her own resources littered throughout HQ and were unwilling to take the chance of her discovering that she had been found out.

Duo paused, leaning against the doorframe, content to just watch Heero sleep. His cell phone vibrated against his hip, and he automatically reached down to answer it. He turned out of the kitchen before activating the line.

"Duo here."

"Duo, its Sally."

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Duo looked at the clock as he spoke.

"It's sometime after 2 am, that's all I know." Duo chuckled.

"Well I'll take the liberty of informing you then." He rubbed his eyes and peered at the clock again, its green numbers slowly coming into focus. "Its 4:47 am. The sun isn't even up yet, Sally."

"You answered your phone on the first ring, I don't think that you were asleep."

"So what if I wasn't?"

"I think you might want to hear about this, and I don't really need you yelling at me later for waiting to tell you." Duo sighed and plopped down in front of his abandoned computer.

"Alright, I was just giving you a hard time anyway." He could hear Sally's tired chuckle over the phone. "How long have you been up, Sally?"

"Oh, about ten pots of coffee. I think that last time I slept was…with Wufei."

"Sally, you are about as pathetic as I am."

"Good, then listen up. I've been looking through those papers we copied a couple days ago. I found some very interesting stuff that I want to run past you. Can you meet me somewhere?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"I just want to make sure the wrong people don't hear this." Duo's eyebrows pulled together.

"Wrong people? Sally, are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, just paranoid. I'll explain everything."

"Alright, how about that diner about five blocks away from your house?"

"Derek's?"

"Yeah, that's a quiet place, we should be able to talk there."

"I'll see you there ASAP."

"Let me get my stuff together, I should be there in twenty." He hung up the phone, re-clipping it to his belt. He shut down his laptop and stuffed it into its bag, making sure that he had his extra battery. He returned to the kitchen where Heero was still asleep. He pulled off a page from the shopping list pad that hung on their fridge, and scribbled a quick note to Heero, placing it gently under one of Heero's hands. "Don't drool on it, babe." He glanced at the paperwork strewn on the tabletop, his eyes catching on a certain stack. He picked up the top page.

"NASA, on a Joint Venture with Japanese and Russian Space Agencies are Expanding ISS to become a Habitable Environment for Future Population. Associated Press.

"In the aftermath of the nuclear bombings of America, China, Europe and the Middle East, a small collective of scientists, explorers and engineers have prepared to build an orbiting world. NASA and the Russian Space Administration have been launching building materials and workers into high orbit with an average of twenty launches a month over the last seven months between the two agencies. There is a twenty-five year plan in place to finish the construction of the first space colony and furnish the colony with water, soil, crops and the potential for society.

"NASA first created this plan in order to expand the Earth's agricultural areas. With the world quickly becoming overpopulated, and cities sprawling over into agricultural areas, the solution was to raise crops and animals in space. But now with the half the world in ruins and the solidifying possibility of nuclear winter on the horizon, NASA has altered their plan to provide a place for the Earth's population to live.

"Japanese officials have leaked information regarding the construction of several more colonies, some of which are commencing now, before the first station is built. These world-sized space stations will orbit the sun along the Earth's orbit, freeing up the high orbital positions above Earth for satellites and smaller "way-stations".

"NASA, in its contract with Lockheed Martin, already has the station-to-station vehicles it needs to ensure travels between stations. However, a cost-productive solution to shuttle launches has yet to be found. NASA is working with Lockheed and Boeing to find a reusable shuttle that can break free of Earth's gravity with less drain on money and resources. The Russian and Japanese Space Agencies are collaborating with their own engineering companies. According to an unofficial leak, Mitsubishi already has a working proposal.

"NASA officials refused to comment on the projected date when the colony would be completed for occupancy, but promised that it would be within the next five years. NASA officials also refused to comment on the rumors of alienating themselves from the Earth, a move that many today would understand. NASA also refused to release the information on any future launch dates, saying that they have already had attacks from outlying rebel groups, and since the US Government cut any and all funding to NASA, they cannot afford to lose any future launches."

Duo picked up the next page in the pile and tentatively began to read its headline.

"President Bush to Speak at the UN Today. International Press.

"In light of recent world events, President Bush plans to speak at the United Nations today in Brussels. His agenda mainly is concerned with the terrorist attacks and the beginning of nuclear war. He plans to speak out against the unprecedented attacks from North Korea, China and the Middle East.

"Also attending the UN meeting today will be representatives from North Korea and China. Relations with China have only deteriorated since the beginning of the Terrorist War and the talks with North Korea. It has been known of late that China has been initiating and mediating the talks between the US and North Korea. As relations between the US and North Korea have grown more tense, China has begun to back away from friendly relations with the US, causing more and more strain with Asia.

"According to French and German Ambassadors, the reaction of the US to North Korea's recent attacks will be at the forefront of the discussion at today's meeting. Both the US and North Korea are going to be scrutinized heavily for their actions in the recent war, although, according to an unnamed source, the UN will probably say that the US has suffered enough with the damage to its own soil. But any future aggression between North Korea and the US will result in the sanctioning of UN support from both countries. "We cannot afford to suffer at the hands of nuclear war. A war eighty years ago was looked upon vastly different than a war of today. Today, a war between the US and North Korea could affect even Australia!" Said Pierre Bournesse, French Ambassador to the US."

Duo stopped reading and replaced the pages on the pile. He leaned against the table breathing hard.

"Its starting to make sense now." He whispered to himself before picking up the stack of papers and shoving them into his computer case. He grabbed his car keys and raced out of the apartment to meet Sally. Maybe she had the last piece to the puzzle. Maybe she could connect the information on cryogenics and the two articles he had just read, to Jezebel and her mission in Preventer HQ.

He drove to the diner in silence; his hands gripped the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip. His shoulders were hunched over, and he stared grimly at the road. Somehow, the other countries of China, North Korea and the Middle East had bombed the country that was known as America multiple times. He knew China, that name had made it across the colonization of space. He also knew the word "American", similar to America. Some of the really old people in his colony when he was a child spoke of living up to higher standards. "Be an American! Be all that you can be." He didn't understand them then, he thought they sounded like posters inviting you to do things you would rather not do. Like going to work on such and such asteroid for all of eternity, never to see your family again, but you'd be one hell of a great hero by doing so.

When he finally arrived at Derek's Diner, he could tell that Sally had been there a while. Her coffee cup was half empty and the sickly puce color of too much sugar and cream. Beside the cup in sharply stacked piles of ten were Nice-N-Sweet packages, that pseudo-sugar that you only find in cheap run down diners and coffeehouses. Duo guessed that each pile had been used for one cup of coffee, so that made six cups that Sally had already downed. He slid into the booth setting his computer bag on the seat beside him.

"You look like you are high on coffee, Sally. Are you okay?" Sally clasped her hands together and smiled tiredly.

"At this point I don't know if I'm okay or not. I just need to get this off of my chest so that I can sleep." Duo nodded and ordered a cup of coffee for himself when the waitress appeared.

"No." He pulled Sally's cup away from her and turned to the waitress. "She'll be fine with water." He turned to Sally. "You have had way too much of this stuff. It'll kill you if you drink any more." He drank what was left in her cup, wincing at the Nice-N-Sweet that had congealed at the bottom of the cup. "Sally, this is disgusting." She nodded sympathetically.

"I know, but its all that will keep me going."

"Well, why don't we discuss why we're both here in the middle of the night--"

"Pre-dawn."

"Yes, thank you. Why we're here in the middle of pre-dawn drinking sludge for coffee." He continued without missing a beat through Sally's interruption. "I, for one, would like to attempt some sleep, and you look like you're about to fall over." Sally pulled some papers from her briefcase. She handed them to Duo.

"There have been things that have bothered me about this Eagle Squadron since we first found out about them. Things that have actually led me to this information." The waitress returned with Duo's coffee and Sally's water. Sally gulped half the glass down. "I won't go into all of it now, but I'll give you a brief summary." Duo began flipping through the pages, skimming, as Sally began her summary.

"As you know, I like history, and I know the name Eagle Squadron. It was one of the premier fighter squadrons of the American Air Force back before the Colonies were built."

"Wait," Duo leaned closer to Sally. "Did you say America?"

"Yes."

"I found some stuff dealing with America just before I left for here, but go on, I'll tell you after." He waved, negating his statements, and leaned back in his chair.

"Okay. Between this knowledge and their emblem, which was slightly off from the American emblem, I decided to dig into pre-colony history. What I found was a lot of terrorist activity. Terrorist activity that grew into a war.

"Basically, some Middle Eastern group hijacked some planes and flew them into buildings in one of America's biggest cities. America fought back by searching and destroying any member of this group. But America didn't stop there. They charged the world with an ultimatum: if you harbor any of this terrorist group, if you help them in any way, we will come after you as well, because you are then just as guilty as they are. America honed in on a particular nation, a nation that they had had violent dealings with before, and began what they began calling the War on Terrorism.

"It was during this war that they caught certain leaders of various terrorist groups. One man they caught, a man named Hussein, was the leader of a Middle Eastern country. America didn't catch everyone they needed to, however. Hussein escaped confinement as he was being transferred from America to the Middle East to be tried for crimes against humanity.

"He and his cohorts were able to reach a missile silo complex, which apparently been prepared in advance, for the missiles were launched within fifteen minutes of Hussein arriving. All of the missiles were bound for strategic locations in the US."

"US?"

"The United States of America."

"Oh." Duo began to pull out the articles he had taken from the kitchen table.

"Anyway, Once this first wave of nuclear missiles had launched and impacted, other countries began to launch their missiles as well. What ended up occurring was a miniature world war."

"Everything's starting to really make sense now." Duo handed the articles over to Sally. "I found these right after you called, it's the reason why I was late. The first one is about an organization that I think was instrumental in helping to build the colonies."

"Yes, NASA, I recognize the name." Sally intoned, skimming through the articles.

"The other article is talking about some guy making a speech to some UN thing. It talks about the US and North Korea fighting each other. It also makes references to nuclear war."

"Yes, North Korea was one of the countries to launch missiles at the US. The US retaliated, of course, but some of the missiles went off course and exploded on Chinese soil, which then prompted China to enter the battle." Duo sipped at his rapidly cooling coffee and stared out of the window into the lightening sky.

"How does this Terrorist War and cryogenics and Jezebel all fit together?"

"Cryogenics? Duo, what else did you find?" He sighed, slipping both of his hands into his hair and dropping his head to the table.

"My brain hurts Sally. I'm so tired, but I can't sleep. I can't get my brain to work. The answer is there, but I can't seem to grab it, and I have this feeling that won't go away that time is everything we don't have." He felt Sally's warm hand settle on his head.

"I know how you feel, Duo. I feel that the longer we take to figure this out, the less there will be to save." Duo peered at Sally through his bangs.

"I found some file on cryogenics. All it talked about was the science behind the procedure, and the mechanics that made the device work. The document talked about freezing people, but didn't say anything specific. I know it is a huge piece to this puzzle, but I don't know its shape, much less where it fits." Sally leaned back with a sigh.

"I don't know either."