Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Glass Soldier ❯ Chapter Two. ( Chapter 2 )

Glass Soldier

Chapter 2.

"...hink we've done it. We've finally done it."

Done what? Where was he?

"Don't jump the gun. Just because he's stable now doesn't mean it's going to last--"

Was he injured? The last mission he'd been on...what had happened?

"Yeah but...just look at him." Excitement tinged the voice, "this is incredible."

There were sounds of equipment moving around the room, metal wheels squeaking their protests as trolleys rattled closer to his position. "His temperature has remained consistent for the past two days." A breathless pause before the soft whisper, "I think you're right. We've really done it."

Cold restraints around his wrists and ankles. Others...leather straps...firmly fastened around his waist, chest and upper arms. He had been captured. The room was dimly lit, almost blackout in fact, no windows, he was either underground or in the centre of the base; possibly both. How long?

"Just two more treatments and then we can wake him up."

Wake him up? He was already awake, couldn't they see that? Perhaps not, it was dark after all.

Delighted laughter, "Do you realize what we've done?"

Only two of them, if he could just get his limbs to obey he could be free in a matter of seconds. So tired though...

"Hai, we've accomplished the impossible."

A rumbling noise in the room, oddly familiar. Embarrassed chuckles. "Accomplishing the impossible really gives me an appetite."

Hn. This guy is as bad as Duo.

More laughter, "Come on then, I think I can rustle up some ramen noodles from the supplies. Just got to sort this out first, they warned me about his autonomic functions; he's got incredible control. Better to be safe than sorry."

Kuso. The sharp pain of a needle in his neck and once again that paradoxical cold warmth flooding his veins. There was time for a silent curse before the voices around him began to fade out.

As the two men left the room, cheerfully discussing their next idea for double blind placebo tests, a myriad of monitors beeped out the lulling melody only found in the deeply unconscious.

***

"Any luck yet?"

Duo started at the sound of the voice from behind him. He'd been so engrossed in his task he'd tuned the world out. Tiredly he rubbed the back of his neck and turned to greet Quatre. "Nada. The guy's seriously paranoid, just accessing the desktop required three passwords, one of which turned out to be a cryptic riddle answer translated into Latin would you believe?"

Quatre chuckled, "Where Heero is concerned I'd believe anything. Here you go," he handed Duo a steaming mug, "I thought you might need a little caffeine."

"Thanks Q, you're right, I think I do."

"No problem...Anou Duo...if you want to take a break for a while I'm more than happy to take over."

Duo drained the mug of its coffee and handed it back to the blond pilot, "Thanks but no thanks Q. We all know I'm the second best hacker here after Heero. I'm working as fast as I can but the son of a bitch has more red herrings on this system than...than...shit." he laughed, "that's a first, I'm too tired to come up with an analogy."

"You need to sleep Duo. You'll be no use to us when we find out where Heero is otherwise."

Duo rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand before looking up at Quatre, "How is he Quat? I mean...you'd tell me if...wouldn't you?"

Quatre sighed deeply before sitting down on the edge of Duo's bed, "To be honest Duo I'm not getting much from him at the moment. He's still alive," he hastened to add as Duo's eyes widened slightly, "It's just...empathy doesn't really work like that. I can't actively tune in to his emotions or anything, the only time I feel it strongly is when something intense happens to someone I'm close to. Like the time Heero--"

"Self-destructed." Duo completed the sentence.

"Exactly." Quatre rubbed his hand over his heart unconsciously at the memory, "At the moment though there's nothing. I can feel him...he's still there...but I couldn't hone in on it."

Duo nodded, "have Trowa or WuFei reported back yet?"

"Hai, WuFei signed in ten minutes ago, the area west of the river is clean he says. No sightings of Oz or Wing and the tree canopy is undisturbed so there have been no battles. He's on his way back now for me to take over and Trowa is still following a possible lead up at the far end of the southern perimeter."

"Lead?" Duo stifled a yawn, even as he turned back to the laptop on his desk. "What sort of lead?"

Quatre hesitated, "It's nothing Duo. A bit of gossip really, the closest town has been getting an influx of visitors from out of state in the past couple of days. Most of them are driving through without stopping...the town has the only road for miles...but there are some that call in at the store. They buy supplies, ask directions and then leave. It could be nothing more than holiday makers but..."

"But?" Duo's eyes were gleaming dangerously.

"The local shopkeeper says the people travel in groups no less than four to a car, he hasn't seen any women or children and all the men are in their early twenties to early thirties, fit and with an air of confidence about them...could be military. The area's they're heading for are barren. There's nothing there to appeal to holidaymakers at all, no cabins, no rivers, no cliffs, no lakes. Just forest."

Duo cocked his head to one side thoughtfully, "It might be nothing," he mused, "but then again it might just be what we're looking for."

"That's what Trowa thought." Quatre agreed, "He's checking out the area now."

"What do you think these people are?"

"It's hard to say." Quatre pondered, "they may just be what they seem, holidaymakers, but I doubt it. It's more likely they're Oz."

Duo nodded decisively, "In that case I better carry on with cracking this nut," he indicated the laptop, "If Heero's with Oz then we need to get him back as soon as possible."

Quatre reached out to the Deathscythe pilot's tense back but caught his hand before he could touch him. Something told him Duo would not appreciate the contact right now, "I'm sure he's fine Duo. Something could have gone wrong with the mission and he's holed up, waiting to return."

Duo didn't turn around but the further tensing of his shoulders told Quatre all he needed to know and more, "He better be Quatre. No one goes on a reconnaissance mission that should last no more than five hours and stays out of contact for over a week. Heero knows as well as we do that communication is the key in this war...even if he is an antisocial pain in the ass he wouldn't maintain radio silence for this long unless he had a fantastic reason for it. I'm going to kill him if... when we get him back, arrogant son of a bitch." The slip up was noted but not commented on, Quatre nodded when it became obvious that the conversation was over, and stood up.

"If you need me I'll be in the kitchen. As soon as WuFei returns I'll be joining Trowa. Good luck Duo." He was gone.

Duo didn't even acknowledge the farewell, his attention once again firmly riveted on the glowing screen of his partner's laptop. The key to Heero's location was in there somewhere in the form of his mission outline and damned if he wasn't going to find it.

***

"...id? Can you hear me? ...Kid?"

Awareness came back to him swiftly this time, almost in between the individual ticks of the clock on the wall. There was no feeling of swimming through molasses preceding the wake up and that more than anything else told Heero he wasn't waking naturally. Someone had been administered the antidote to the anaesthesia. His head ached, his eyes felt gritty, and he swallowed convulsively, wincing at the rawness of his throat. The light was too bright and he tried to raise his arm to cover his eyes but it refused to move. That's right, he realized as his memories began to sort themselves into some sort of order, I've been restrained. He tried to screw his eyes up in an effort to reduce the level of light hitting his retinas but it didn't work. Only one thing for it.

"The light." The croakiness of his voice shocked him but it had an almost immediate affect as the voice spoke up once more, this time to someone else in the room.

"For God's sake turn the lights down Cain." The voice sounded panicked, Heero mused idly.

The lights dimmed immediately, obtaining that previous state of almost blackout that they had been in when he had woken previously, and Heero breathed a sigh of relief, turning his head he glanced towards the owner of the voice. "Who are you?" His throat really was dry, he realized.

There was a supporting arm under his head and a cool drink pressed to his lips, the other man fumbling a bit in the dimness of the room. Heero sipped the water gladly, not bothering to taste for narcotics. He was restrained, they had needles, why would they drug his drinks? "There's no time for that now kid. How do you feel?"

How did he feel? Heero turned his thoughts inward, analysing his system. His headache and sore throat were hardly worth worrying about, he'd had worse. However his limbs ached and he got the feeling he wouldn't be able to use them much at the moment. He felt hot...uncomfortably hot, feverish almost and he shivered in the coolness of the room. "Fine." he murmured.

The owner of the voice stepped closer and for the first time Heero managed to focus his weary gaze on one of his captors. The man was middle aged, portly in figure with thinning hair. He didn't exactly scream military. "You're not with Oz are you?"

The man shook his head in answer, "No."

"For God's sake Alan hurry up would you. We're not going to withstand another one."

At the sound of his name the middle aged man glanced up sharply, "I'm going as fast as I can Cain." Heero frowned slightly and turned his head to locate the other person in the room.

A slightly taller, younger man was standing at a desk in the far-left corner of the room, almost obscured by shadows. He was typing furiously...erasing data. He barely paused as he withdrew a cd from the computer and snapped it in half, "Not good enough. Go faster." The cd was snapped again, and again and as the fragments dropped to the floor Heero could see the man's hands were shaking.

"Who are you with?"

Alan's voice was disturbingly calm, a tranquillity in his tone that rang false to the Wing pilot's ears, as he answered, "It doesn't matter kid. Do you think you can walk?"

Could he walk? Heero frowned, "I think so."

"Good," hands were at his restraints, undoing straps and unlocking locks almost frantically. "If you can walk then you can run. We need you to run, can you manage it?" He grasped hold of Heero's arm and pulled the boy to a sitting position roughly. Heero winced as his headache increased suddenly. Forcing down the feeling of nausea that accompanied the abrupt movement he rubbed his wrists slowly, never taking his eyes off the stout man in front of him.

"Hai, I can run. Now are you going to tell me why I need to?"

"Oz has surrounded the complex. We've been betrayed, they're after our research. I'm sorry kid but right now that means you."

The injections...Just a little of your time in the name of science...Perfecting the soldier. Oh Gods. "What have you done to me?" Heero felt a strange clenching inside as the memories of the snatches of conversation he'd overheard earlier...was this fear?

Cain laughed as he removed another cd from the computer and began to snap it, "You'll see. Or perhaps you won't." there was a strange cast to his words, as though he was leaving something unsaid.

Heero opened his mouth to ask more questions when the lights went out, plunging the room into full darkness.

"Shit." Cain cursed at the computer as it shut down. "The battery's down."

"Did you get it all?"

"I didn't have time to wipe the study fully, most of our data is still there but at least the records for the test subjects are fully deleted. Yeah, I think we're safe."

"Good. Now get out of here kid, you hear me. Your Gundam is exactly where you left it. Go!" The voice grew hard and Heero grasped at the table dizzily as he was shoved off. Two cold objects were pushed into his hands...one obviously his gun, the other felt like a disc of some sort. He pocketed it swiftly, there would be time to ponder over the situation later. He stood still for a few seconds in order to gain his sense of equilibrium in the dark, balanced once more he strode to the exit silently.

"You're just going to let me go?" he queried, strangely unsure of himself. "All I have to do is walk out the door?" he shook his head, aware of the futility of such a gesture in the pitch dark. "Nothing is that simple. Why?"

"Jeez." Nervous laughter echoed through the room. Cain's voice was strained, a curious mixture of fear, amusement and anger obvious in his tone, "I'm surprised the colonies have any pilots left if this is how they escape from their enemies."

There was silence in the dark for a while before the telltale creak of hinges announced the opening of the door. When the whisper came it was so quiet that Cain almost missed it. "I don't know who you are but you're not an enemy. I'll leave now but I promise you we will meet again on more level footing and you will answer my questions then."

The door fell back to its former position once more, rocking slightly before coming to a full stop; Heero was gone.

TBC.......

A/N wow I really didn't realize it had been that long since I wrote for this fic. My plan is still there, it's just finding the time to transfer it onto electronic paper lol. It's so much easier just keeping it in your mind rather than getting bogged down in sentences etc. I hope you're enjoying it anywhoo, and I just want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 1 all those years ago lol.

Thank you for your comments and support!!!!!