Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gods of War ❯ Darkest Before Dawn ( Chapter 8 )

Title: Gods of War: Darkest before Dawn (8/9)

Author: Shinigamis_Soul (AKA Starlight Soul, AzureInk_Parchment)

Beta: None…

Disclaimer: I don't own them; I only like to play with them.

Status: WIP

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5xS

Warnings: Torture, Angst, Preventor-ness, betrayal, Yaoi, Lemon

Summary: The war has been over for years. Our pilots have worked hard to keep the peace they fought so hard to help create. Just months from retirement, Heero Yuy goes missing. Who is trying to capture the pilots and what is his connection to them?

 

Gods of War

Darkest before Dawn

 

Heero clung to consciousness with everything he had, letting his training settle into place like a pair of too tight jeans. Hands, large and bruising, lifted him and carelessly tossed him over a shoulder. Their captors took them into the living room and dropped them. The former terrorist recognized it for what it was and let himself hit the ground. His hand landed across fingers. A quick code was tapped against his palm identifying Quatre. Rough hands pulled him into a sitting position.

 

“Give up pretending, Boy, I know you're awake already.”

 

Heero opened his eyes and leveled a glare on the man seated in his chair. Blue eyes widened fractionally at the man before him. Cronus sat with his feet planted firmly on the floor, elbows braced on his knees. His dark hair was lightly peppered with grey and the scars, which had been pink during his arrest, were pale and silvered with age.

 

“How many doubles are there?” questioned Heero.

 

“Six, all blindly loyal to me; they truly believe we are one in the same,” answered Cronus. “I'm very angry with all my little gods.”

 

“We do not belong to you,” replied Heero.

 

Cronus prepared a syringe while one of his accomplices pulled Duo up and woke him. Just as his eyes fluttered open, he injected the violet eyed man. Duo jerked away from him to land in a heap on the floor.

 

“You are mine!” snapped the scared man. “You've betrayed me; you're supposed to love me and only me.”

 

“What have you given him?” asked Quatre, his eyes locked on Duo.

 

Cronus smiled darkly. “I call it liquid pain; it was designed to begin at the last known pain tolerances of pilot 01.” His smile grew as Duo began screaming.

 

* * *

Sally helped Trowa sit up and used a damp cloth to wash blood off his face. He pushed her hands away in frustration and began gathering his weapons. Une and Dorothy entered from the bedroom area, their search finished.

 

“They took Quatre,” he stated checking his gun.

 

“Why not take you too?” asked Dorothy.

 

“Cronus doesn't recognize him,” answered Wufei. “I'm not getting a response from Heero or Duo's cell phones or their house.”

 

“Let's go,” ordered Une, “Zechs and Noin are already on their way.”

 

* * *

Zechs and Noin were just approaching the front door when the screaming began. Guns drawn, they moved to the picture window and peered through the gaps in the curtain. There wasn't much to be seen through the small space but they could see a dark haired man seated on the overstuffed chair. At least one man was standing beside Heero, the tips of his dark hair the only thing visible over the edge of the couch to identify him.

 

“We need to get in there,” hissed Noin as they withdrew to a safer distance.

 

Zechs was already dialing Une, his quick mind working on plans to get inside. “They beat us here,” he said as soon as she answered. Hanging up the phone moments later, he turned to Noin. “They're five minutes out. There are three hostages. Our orders are to monitor unless it becomes necessary take out Cronus and his men.”

 

“I'll move around to see if there's a clearer shot from the kitchen window,” replied Noin. “That screaming can't be a good sign.”

 

* * *

Pain, vast and all encompassing burned through his veins. Screams were torn from his throat before he could even register that he reacted. His vision blurred, his world reduced to madness and fire. He could not think beyond the pain. It ripped its way through his brain, shattering the walls between Duo and Shinigami. The pain was madness greater than anything else.

 

Without conscious effort he survived as he always had. Rather than try to hide the pain, he hid himself. Everything that made Duo Maxwell, that made Shinigami, was shoved into one tiny space in his mind, protected from the pain as best he could. Then all was gone, lost to the silence of his own prison.

 

* * *

“You would risk one of your `little Gods' just to punish me?” asked Heero, his training running circles to get the three of them out of enemy hands.

 

“He is in need of retraining,” answered Cronus. His dark eyes watched Duo wither on the floor in hunger. “He will learn to submit to me or I will force it. He will forget about you in time, just as you will forget him.”

 

Heero ground his teeth painfully, the though of forgetting Duo or being forgotten inciting a rage he was unfamiliar with. “I will not forget him and he will not forget me.”

 

“How do you know his mind can take that kind of pain?” demanded Quatre. Heero glanced at the blonde and was surprised to see the slightest hint of movement in his arms. Not for the first time, he wondered what tricks the Winner heir had learned from their former thief. “Heero's pain tolerance has always been greater than ours. What if his mind can't take it? What will you do then with such a lifeless doll?”

 

Cronus' eyes flicked from Duo's screaming form to Quatre and back. “I can always create another.”

 

Heero fought the urge to scream at Quatre, to tell him that Duo was stronger than that. “No you can't.” His thoughts raced over Sally's concern about the nanites in the children. “You failed with the children. The nanites aren't working properly.”

 

“Shut up!” screamed Cronus suddenly.

 

“That's why you took me the first time, for the nanites,” continued Heero. He saw the blow coming even before Cronus moved. Muscles tensed in preparation and he forced his still healing body to take the blow and leveled a calm glare on the crazy man.

 

“You didn't know how to program the nanites properly. They're killing the children, sapping their fragile bodies of the very nutrients they need to survive in a vain attempt to reproduce,” said Heero.

 

Cronus turned away from Heero and landed a blow to Duo's curled up form. Heero and Quatre watched in horror as Duo's eyes went blank, all personality leaving them. In the sudden silence his vision went red with rage and Heero launched himself at Cronus. He never heard the shots that stopped the bodyguard nor did he hear Quatre launch himself at the second one. By the time Zechs and Quatre were able to pull him off of Cronus, the older man was nearly dead. Bones, versus hands strong enough to bend steel, shatter.

 

Once he was torn off of Cronus, Heero's full attention fell on Duo. Despite the drug in his system, the braided man lay silent. Violet eyes lay half opened and glazed, the vibrant life missing from their jeweled depths. Heero reached out and gently straightened Duo's limbs, tears falling down his cheeks.

 

“You're stronger than this,” he said.

 

“Heero,” started Quatre.

 

“He's stronger than this!” snarled Heero.

 

Quatre nodded, unwilling to argue with his friend.

 

“What happened?” questioned Une walking in the still open door.

 

Zechs glanced up from monitoring Cronus. “Something happened to set Heero on him.”

 

“Cronus injected Duo with drugs to induce pain at Heero's last known tolerance,” answered Quatre unsteadily. “Duo's mind couldn't take it, I think. Heero attacked Cronus blindly.” Quatre glanced towards the shell shocked youth. “I… I can't feel Duo anymore.”

 

Heero turned terrifyingly empty eyes on them. “He's stronger than this. He hides Quatre, he runs and hides; even from himself if necessary.”