Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Fighting the Darkness ❯ Chapter 11
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: deathangel125 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Horror / Psychological / Supernatural / Thriller / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 06.30.2012 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 283 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Horror / Psychological / Supernatural / Thriller / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 06.30.2012 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 283 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: The G-boys and Gundam Wing don’t belong to me.
Warnings: Located in the first part. Be sure to look or you might be surprised.
FIGHTING THE DARKNESS – PART 11
Down the street from the salvage yard yet again, Trowa waited for Hilde to make the trip to get lunch. He wasn’t disappointed when she finally came out of the office, more subdued than she had been the day before. He couldn’t help being amused at the way she constantly looked around, likely searching for him.
When he fell into step beside her, he thought she was going to faint. “I told you I would get the names. I did my part. It’s not easy to get Bo to talk openly around me, you know.”
“He hides things and you don’t see that as a warning?” Shaking his head before she could reply, he focused on his original task. “Do you really think he wouldn’t hurt you?”
“I know he won’t. He’s not some monster,” she slanted her eyes, telling her opinion of him.
“I could be a monster, but not like Bo Whitaker.”
At the mouth of the tunnel she stopped with a frown, “I never told you his name. Duo didn’t know it, either.”
“What do you know of his brother, Jason?”
“Bo doesn’t have a brother. Jason White is his best friend,” she corrected with a roll of her eyes, moving forward.
It was obvious he wouldn’t be able to talk sense into the mule-headed woman, but he tried anyway. “Jason Whitaker and Bo Whitaker are brothers with a long history of crime.” Walking with her, he gave her a fast re-cap of the police reports, making sure she knew of the suspected bank robbery and murders. He finally finished with, “Several sector police wanted to bring Bo and Jason in for questioning, but the brothers apparently disappeared about eight months ago.”
“I don’t believe you. Are you really so mad at me you would make this up, hoping I’ll break up with Bo and take Duo back?”
Wordlessly, he pulled the folded papers from his jacket pocket and handed them to her. At first she sneered at him but as she began to read, her disbelief began to fade, “Wh-where did you get these?” she stared at the arrest records for the brothers in her hands, unable to dispute it was a picture of her boyfriend staring back at her.
“L2 branch of the Preventers. It’s where details of all crimes committed on the colony are stored since the population here moves so often from one sector to another. It’s the only way to make sure the information can easily be accessed by another colony if it’s needed.” Unfortunately, there weren’t enough personnel to pursue every criminal that lived on the colonies.
“How did you get access to these files?”
Not mentioning he was well-versed in how to hack government files, he heaved a breath, “I’m a Preventer. I have the authorization to look through any colony records. I printed this straight from the database and brought them to you. I’ve had no time to tamper with them, as you can see from the time stamp,” he indicated the date and time printed at the bottom of each page.
She finally began to believe the things he said. “Why did you tell me about this? Why do you care what happens to me?”
“I don’t. Duo, on the other hand, would want you to be safe.” Narrowing his eyes, he added, “I don’t want you near Duo. To me, on the same colony is too close to you, but it’ll have to do until he’s ready to go home.”
“Home? This is Duo’s home,” she frowned up at him.
“This place has too many bad memories,” he hedged.
Moving out of the tunnel she stared at him, then laughed harshly, “You want him to go home with you. That should be interesting.”
“I want him safe and better, and a million miles away from you,” his voice was calm.
“You realize he’ll never care about you. I don’t think he’s capable of caring for someone that way. How will you react when you figure out you wasted a good part of your life for nothing? You’ll do the same thing I did.”
Threateningly, he stepped toward her, smiling mockingly when she cringed away from him. “If I had been you, I would have been grateful for every day that I had someone willing to waste so much of their time with me,” he hissed, turning before he gave in to the urge to punch her.
Less than ten feet away, he stopped when she placed herself in his path, studying him with wide eyes. “My God, you’re in love with him.”
“We’re friends, that’s all.”
“Tell yourself that all you want to, but I can see it in your eyes.” Looking down, she stared at the crumpled papers in her hand. “What do I do about this?”
“He’s at the salvage yard office?” Trowa asked after getting his mind on the right track. Seeing her small nod, he kept his voice low. “Don’t go back for a while, or find something to do in the yard with the other workers. I’m going to the police to see what I can learn about the attack on Duo. They have evidence that leads to Bo and his brother. I’m going to tell the police where Bo is.”
Wishing he could leave it at that, he almost groaned. Duo would want the foolish, stupid woman protected. “I’ll see if the police will keep an eye on you for a while, in case Jason Whitaker decides to come looking for Bo.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then I’ll set up protection through the Preventers.” Doing so would make Trowa use up a number of favors he had gathered over the years, but Duo’s peace of mind was worth it.
As he began to walk away, Hilde called out a warning, “If I can see it, Duo will too. I don’t know how he’ll react, Trowa.”
Acknowledging this with a nod he continued to walk in the direction the sector police was located in. Safely away from where she would see him, he whispered to himself, “I’ll just have to be grateful for the time I do have.”
“There’s been no progress on the case at all?” Trowa raised an eyebrow at the sergeant that sat across the desk, stunned. “Not even one more piece of evidence that gave you a clue to the identification of the assailants?”
“Mr. Maxwell was in no shape to speak after the attack,” the man that had introduced himself as Sergeant Norton defended. “We have the evidence collected at the hospital, but that’s all.”
“No follow-up interview was conducted?” Trowa flipped through the pages of the report, frowning deeply. “No interview at all?”
Jowls shaking, the sergeant glared at Trowa. “The hospital wouldn’t let us in to see him, stating his wounds were too severe. The men that worked the case waited, but it didn’t seem that important at the time.”
“When did it begin to seem important? When you discovered who Duo Maxwell was?”
“Listen, this kind of thing happens all the time in that sector. Usually it’s some hooker that got more than she bargained for. That type doesn’t like to talk to us.”
Aghast at what he heard, Trowa glared across the desk until the man started to shift nervously, sweat beading on his forehead. “Do you believe they asked for what was done to them?”
“One of the dangers of the trade. They know the risks.”
“What about getting the predators off the street and behind bars where they belong? Isn’t that more effective than letting them hurt innocent people constantly?”
“I don’t know what your problem is. It’s not our fault Maxwell looked like a hooker.”
The man emitted a terrified squeak when Trowa grabbed him by the collar and yanked his considerable bulk from his chair. “Choose your next words carefully, Sergeant. Duo Maxwell is a very good friend of mine,” he stated softly, imagining shoving the man out the dirty glass window behind him.
“I-I-I didn’t…mean that the way it sounded.”
As the other man’s eyes bulged with fear, Trowa released him quickly, sneering as the sergeant fell back into his chair with a huff. “What did you mean to say, then?”
“The men assigned to the case assumed it was a case of mistaken identity. The attackers likely thought Maxwell was…someone else.”
Seething with rage, Trowa pulled himself back with an effort. “You still have the evidence from the hospital?”
Watching him warily, Norton nodded quickly, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth. “Three semen samples, a few strands of hair in different colors, some fibers and blood that didn’t belong to your friend. We have nothing to match them to.”
“Have you located Bo or Jason Whitaker yet?”
The man consulted his computer, then frowned at Trowa. “They are both wanted for unrelated crimes, but neither has been located. You think they did this?”
“Bo gave the order. Jason was one of the men that attacked Duo.”
“From everything I’ve seen, Jason is the leader,” the sergeant argued.
Trowa had his doubts that either brother was the leader of the group. The Whitakers seemed to be more focused on the pain they could cause. “Bo was the one that issued this order, but he was unable to participate because he was with Duo’s former girlfriend. I don’t believe in coincidences, Sergeant.”
The other man nodded grudgingly. “When we have them in custody we can take DNA for comparison in your friend’s case, as well as the other cases still open where they are wanted for questioning. This doesn’t help us find either one of them.”
Grabbing a small notepad sitting beside the phone, Trowa wrote the address of the salvage yard. “Bo Whitaker will be here until the end of the workday. His girlfriend, who owns the salvage yard, knew nothing of this until I told her. I want her protected. This means putting her under surveillance until Jason Whitaker is found. I will not be happy if she is harmed, Sergeant.” Thinking fast, he wrote another address. “This is Hilde’s home address and phone number. There should be a number of calls between the brothers you can trace.”
The sergeant was already dialing the phone before Trowa had risen from his seat. Before opening the door, he turned and got the other man’s attention, “Sergeant, I don’t want what happened to Duo out in the open. You make your arrests and quickly and quietly close the file, do you understand?”
“If Bo Whitaker wasn’t one of the men that attacked your friend, closing the file will leave two more men out there.”
“I’ll take care of them. Close the file. I want you to call me the second you have both of the brothers in custody.”
“I suppose you want to be included in the interrogation?”
Knowing he would kill the men if he saw them, Trowa shook his head. “Just call me.”
Almost silence. Baffled momentarily by the sense of calm, he blinked and then sighed, “Hello, Trowa.”
“It seems quieter now.”
The observation had him smiling. It had taken a long time to figure out why it had gotten noticeably quieter, but he had nothing but time in the void. “Howard’s voice is gone. So are Hilde’s, Heero’s, Quatre’s and Wufei’s.”
“What about mine?”
“You were never one of them. I wondered why at the beginning, but I think I’m starting to understand now.”
“What do you understand?”
His time limited, he opted to wait. “Some of the people from my past are gone, too. I had to accept that what happened to them wasn’t my fault.”
Trowa seemed to hesitate, curious, but was willing to let it go. “I’m glad for you. It won’t be long before you come back.”
Remembering the depression he had been wallowing in, he wasn’t sure he wanted to come back. “What if I do get out of this, Trowa? Do I really want to go back to the life I had before, waiting and waiting for someone to care? Eating and living and sleeping alone? Why can’t I stay here? It’s not so bad with some of the voices gone.”
Warmth instantly surrounded him, so hot it almost burned, yet he welcomed it. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Duo. You don’t have to be alone.”
“Then with who? Hilde wanted more from me than I could give. No one else wants me around.”
“You can stay with me,” Trowa offered, his voice thick. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed with me.”
“For how long?”
“Forever. Until you’re ready to leave.”
Wondering at the first response, he sighed sadly when the warmth abated slightly. “What if I decide I never want to leave?”
“I…get tired of being alone, Duo. You could stay with me as long as you wanted.”
Choosing to think it over later, he changed the topic again, “Hilde’s safe?”
“Yes. I don’t know if you heard, but Bo’s been arrested. His brother was one of the ones that hurt you.” He frowned as a man’s face came to mind. “That’s his brother, Jason,” offered Trowa softly. “They’ve both been arrested.”
There were two more men and he thought of them for only an instant. “Everyone will know what happened, what I let happen,” he mused sadly.
“No one will know. I’ve made sure of it. Your file has been closed, Duo, and sealed under Preventer’s authority. Only I and Une have the access to your file, and she’s erasing it from the database. Only a hard copy will remain in her hands.” Trowa paused for a moment, the warmth coming back to fill him. “You didn’t let that happen, just like what happened in the past wasn’t your fault.”
“I could have stopped them. I could have fought them. Maybe I didn’t because I was so tired of being alone.”
“You had no chance against them, and you know it. They’ve done the same thing before, Duo. They had practice. They knew how to catch you by surprise, and they watched you to see when you would be the most vulnerable. You did fight them.”
“No, I didn’t. I just let it happen.” He frowned, trying to figure out why his shoulder felt wet. “It happened over and over when I was asleep. I never fought then, either.”
“You did fight. When you were taken to the hospital, some of the blood wasn’t yours. You fought.” Hearing the hoarse quality of Trowa’s assurance, he felt somehow comforted, not so bothered by the voices as they returned.
Less like thunder and more like a swarm of angry bees, the mockery circled around and battered at him, pressing in on all sides of him, but unable to get inside his mind. Feeling the warmth fade, he repeated, “I fought.”
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Warnings: Located in the first part. Be sure to look or you might be surprised.
FIGHTING THE DARKNESS – PART 11
Down the street from the salvage yard yet again, Trowa waited for Hilde to make the trip to get lunch. He wasn’t disappointed when she finally came out of the office, more subdued than she had been the day before. He couldn’t help being amused at the way she constantly looked around, likely searching for him.
When he fell into step beside her, he thought she was going to faint. “I told you I would get the names. I did my part. It’s not easy to get Bo to talk openly around me, you know.”
“He hides things and you don’t see that as a warning?” Shaking his head before she could reply, he focused on his original task. “Do you really think he wouldn’t hurt you?”
“I know he won’t. He’s not some monster,” she slanted her eyes, telling her opinion of him.
“I could be a monster, but not like Bo Whitaker.”
At the mouth of the tunnel she stopped with a frown, “I never told you his name. Duo didn’t know it, either.”
“What do you know of his brother, Jason?”
“Bo doesn’t have a brother. Jason White is his best friend,” she corrected with a roll of her eyes, moving forward.
It was obvious he wouldn’t be able to talk sense into the mule-headed woman, but he tried anyway. “Jason Whitaker and Bo Whitaker are brothers with a long history of crime.” Walking with her, he gave her a fast re-cap of the police reports, making sure she knew of the suspected bank robbery and murders. He finally finished with, “Several sector police wanted to bring Bo and Jason in for questioning, but the brothers apparently disappeared about eight months ago.”
“I don’t believe you. Are you really so mad at me you would make this up, hoping I’ll break up with Bo and take Duo back?”
Wordlessly, he pulled the folded papers from his jacket pocket and handed them to her. At first she sneered at him but as she began to read, her disbelief began to fade, “Wh-where did you get these?” she stared at the arrest records for the brothers in her hands, unable to dispute it was a picture of her boyfriend staring back at her.
“L2 branch of the Preventers. It’s where details of all crimes committed on the colony are stored since the population here moves so often from one sector to another. It’s the only way to make sure the information can easily be accessed by another colony if it’s needed.” Unfortunately, there weren’t enough personnel to pursue every criminal that lived on the colonies.
“How did you get access to these files?”
Not mentioning he was well-versed in how to hack government files, he heaved a breath, “I’m a Preventer. I have the authorization to look through any colony records. I printed this straight from the database and brought them to you. I’ve had no time to tamper with them, as you can see from the time stamp,” he indicated the date and time printed at the bottom of each page.
She finally began to believe the things he said. “Why did you tell me about this? Why do you care what happens to me?”
“I don’t. Duo, on the other hand, would want you to be safe.” Narrowing his eyes, he added, “I don’t want you near Duo. To me, on the same colony is too close to you, but it’ll have to do until he’s ready to go home.”
“Home? This is Duo’s home,” she frowned up at him.
“This place has too many bad memories,” he hedged.
Moving out of the tunnel she stared at him, then laughed harshly, “You want him to go home with you. That should be interesting.”
“I want him safe and better, and a million miles away from you,” his voice was calm.
“You realize he’ll never care about you. I don’t think he’s capable of caring for someone that way. How will you react when you figure out you wasted a good part of your life for nothing? You’ll do the same thing I did.”
Threateningly, he stepped toward her, smiling mockingly when she cringed away from him. “If I had been you, I would have been grateful for every day that I had someone willing to waste so much of their time with me,” he hissed, turning before he gave in to the urge to punch her.
Less than ten feet away, he stopped when she placed herself in his path, studying him with wide eyes. “My God, you’re in love with him.”
“We’re friends, that’s all.”
“Tell yourself that all you want to, but I can see it in your eyes.” Looking down, she stared at the crumpled papers in her hand. “What do I do about this?”
“He’s at the salvage yard office?” Trowa asked after getting his mind on the right track. Seeing her small nod, he kept his voice low. “Don’t go back for a while, or find something to do in the yard with the other workers. I’m going to the police to see what I can learn about the attack on Duo. They have evidence that leads to Bo and his brother. I’m going to tell the police where Bo is.”
Wishing he could leave it at that, he almost groaned. Duo would want the foolish, stupid woman protected. “I’ll see if the police will keep an eye on you for a while, in case Jason Whitaker decides to come looking for Bo.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then I’ll set up protection through the Preventers.” Doing so would make Trowa use up a number of favors he had gathered over the years, but Duo’s peace of mind was worth it.
As he began to walk away, Hilde called out a warning, “If I can see it, Duo will too. I don’t know how he’ll react, Trowa.”
Acknowledging this with a nod he continued to walk in the direction the sector police was located in. Safely away from where she would see him, he whispered to himself, “I’ll just have to be grateful for the time I do have.”
“There’s been no progress on the case at all?” Trowa raised an eyebrow at the sergeant that sat across the desk, stunned. “Not even one more piece of evidence that gave you a clue to the identification of the assailants?”
“Mr. Maxwell was in no shape to speak after the attack,” the man that had introduced himself as Sergeant Norton defended. “We have the evidence collected at the hospital, but that’s all.”
“No follow-up interview was conducted?” Trowa flipped through the pages of the report, frowning deeply. “No interview at all?”
Jowls shaking, the sergeant glared at Trowa. “The hospital wouldn’t let us in to see him, stating his wounds were too severe. The men that worked the case waited, but it didn’t seem that important at the time.”
“When did it begin to seem important? When you discovered who Duo Maxwell was?”
“Listen, this kind of thing happens all the time in that sector. Usually it’s some hooker that got more than she bargained for. That type doesn’t like to talk to us.”
Aghast at what he heard, Trowa glared across the desk until the man started to shift nervously, sweat beading on his forehead. “Do you believe they asked for what was done to them?”
“One of the dangers of the trade. They know the risks.”
“What about getting the predators off the street and behind bars where they belong? Isn’t that more effective than letting them hurt innocent people constantly?”
“I don’t know what your problem is. It’s not our fault Maxwell looked like a hooker.”
The man emitted a terrified squeak when Trowa grabbed him by the collar and yanked his considerable bulk from his chair. “Choose your next words carefully, Sergeant. Duo Maxwell is a very good friend of mine,” he stated softly, imagining shoving the man out the dirty glass window behind him.
“I-I-I didn’t…mean that the way it sounded.”
As the other man’s eyes bulged with fear, Trowa released him quickly, sneering as the sergeant fell back into his chair with a huff. “What did you mean to say, then?”
“The men assigned to the case assumed it was a case of mistaken identity. The attackers likely thought Maxwell was…someone else.”
Seething with rage, Trowa pulled himself back with an effort. “You still have the evidence from the hospital?”
Watching him warily, Norton nodded quickly, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth. “Three semen samples, a few strands of hair in different colors, some fibers and blood that didn’t belong to your friend. We have nothing to match them to.”
“Have you located Bo or Jason Whitaker yet?”
The man consulted his computer, then frowned at Trowa. “They are both wanted for unrelated crimes, but neither has been located. You think they did this?”
“Bo gave the order. Jason was one of the men that attacked Duo.”
“From everything I’ve seen, Jason is the leader,” the sergeant argued.
Trowa had his doubts that either brother was the leader of the group. The Whitakers seemed to be more focused on the pain they could cause. “Bo was the one that issued this order, but he was unable to participate because he was with Duo’s former girlfriend. I don’t believe in coincidences, Sergeant.”
The other man nodded grudgingly. “When we have them in custody we can take DNA for comparison in your friend’s case, as well as the other cases still open where they are wanted for questioning. This doesn’t help us find either one of them.”
Grabbing a small notepad sitting beside the phone, Trowa wrote the address of the salvage yard. “Bo Whitaker will be here until the end of the workday. His girlfriend, who owns the salvage yard, knew nothing of this until I told her. I want her protected. This means putting her under surveillance until Jason Whitaker is found. I will not be happy if she is harmed, Sergeant.” Thinking fast, he wrote another address. “This is Hilde’s home address and phone number. There should be a number of calls between the brothers you can trace.”
The sergeant was already dialing the phone before Trowa had risen from his seat. Before opening the door, he turned and got the other man’s attention, “Sergeant, I don’t want what happened to Duo out in the open. You make your arrests and quickly and quietly close the file, do you understand?”
“If Bo Whitaker wasn’t one of the men that attacked your friend, closing the file will leave two more men out there.”
“I’ll take care of them. Close the file. I want you to call me the second you have both of the brothers in custody.”
“I suppose you want to be included in the interrogation?”
Knowing he would kill the men if he saw them, Trowa shook his head. “Just call me.”
Almost silence. Baffled momentarily by the sense of calm, he blinked and then sighed, “Hello, Trowa.”
“It seems quieter now.”
The observation had him smiling. It had taken a long time to figure out why it had gotten noticeably quieter, but he had nothing but time in the void. “Howard’s voice is gone. So are Hilde’s, Heero’s, Quatre’s and Wufei’s.”
“What about mine?”
“You were never one of them. I wondered why at the beginning, but I think I’m starting to understand now.”
“What do you understand?”
His time limited, he opted to wait. “Some of the people from my past are gone, too. I had to accept that what happened to them wasn’t my fault.”
Trowa seemed to hesitate, curious, but was willing to let it go. “I’m glad for you. It won’t be long before you come back.”
Remembering the depression he had been wallowing in, he wasn’t sure he wanted to come back. “What if I do get out of this, Trowa? Do I really want to go back to the life I had before, waiting and waiting for someone to care? Eating and living and sleeping alone? Why can’t I stay here? It’s not so bad with some of the voices gone.”
Warmth instantly surrounded him, so hot it almost burned, yet he welcomed it. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Duo. You don’t have to be alone.”
“Then with who? Hilde wanted more from me than I could give. No one else wants me around.”
“You can stay with me,” Trowa offered, his voice thick. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed with me.”
“For how long?”
“Forever. Until you’re ready to leave.”
Wondering at the first response, he sighed sadly when the warmth abated slightly. “What if I decide I never want to leave?”
“I…get tired of being alone, Duo. You could stay with me as long as you wanted.”
Choosing to think it over later, he changed the topic again, “Hilde’s safe?”
“Yes. I don’t know if you heard, but Bo’s been arrested. His brother was one of the ones that hurt you.” He frowned as a man’s face came to mind. “That’s his brother, Jason,” offered Trowa softly. “They’ve both been arrested.”
There were two more men and he thought of them for only an instant. “Everyone will know what happened, what I let happen,” he mused sadly.
“No one will know. I’ve made sure of it. Your file has been closed, Duo, and sealed under Preventer’s authority. Only I and Une have the access to your file, and she’s erasing it from the database. Only a hard copy will remain in her hands.” Trowa paused for a moment, the warmth coming back to fill him. “You didn’t let that happen, just like what happened in the past wasn’t your fault.”
“I could have stopped them. I could have fought them. Maybe I didn’t because I was so tired of being alone.”
“You had no chance against them, and you know it. They’ve done the same thing before, Duo. They had practice. They knew how to catch you by surprise, and they watched you to see when you would be the most vulnerable. You did fight them.”
“No, I didn’t. I just let it happen.” He frowned, trying to figure out why his shoulder felt wet. “It happened over and over when I was asleep. I never fought then, either.”
“You did fight. When you were taken to the hospital, some of the blood wasn’t yours. You fought.” Hearing the hoarse quality of Trowa’s assurance, he felt somehow comforted, not so bothered by the voices as they returned.
Less like thunder and more like a swarm of angry bees, the mockery circled around and battered at him, pressing in on all sides of him, but unable to get inside his mind. Feeling the warmth fade, he repeated, “I fought.”
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