Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ It's A Wonderful War ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
Title: It's A Wonderful War 7/?
Author: Sony_Mouse (Sony_Mouse@hotmail.com)
Pairings: 1+2
Warnings: Language, violence, AU (well OUR Universe really), different look on war (I hope).
Disclaimers: GW not mine, knowledge and info used for this fic came from James Clavell's Shogun (READ IT), Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, David Mak's Kabuki, and Anthology of Japanese Literature. And from great people like Misa and Katu, and other's who've e-mailed me. (Whew what a disclaimer).
Archives: If for any reason you wish to read my other fics or the first 4 chaps of this one go to www.gwaddiction.com
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PART 6
Chang took that moment to add his comments on the situation. "Amazing he survived this long with so few injuries, he must have been on his own to heal a bit before the military got their hands on him. His country should be honored."
"We are Chang! The country will be dying to hear this guy's story first chance they get. I'll take him to the infirmary; he seems sick, smells like he just threw up or something, not surprising, that they must have starved him or fed him their so called food, the bastards."
Chang nodded, agreeing with every word the man spoke.
"And Chang, get this scum out of my site. I want him tied and secured at base camp. He's got some explaining to do. Make sure I'm notified when he wakes up. I almost wish he really was dead like the kid believes."
"Yes Sir, I'll get right on it."
The two men took their respective charges with the help of some of the other soldiers littered about, both American and Chinese. Base camp was already buzzing with the news; an American prisoner had been rescued from the evil clutches of the Japanese.
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Quote of the day (I forgot to add one in the last part): One cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. -Albert Einstein
Part 7
Duo slept soundlessly throughout the night and into the next morning. By this time the entire camp knew of his 'rescue' and was eager to find out what would happen once he awoke.
When he got the chance, Captain Smith spent most of the time watching over Duo and looking over papers his superiors sent had him, he was after all, still in a war.
But for some reason he just couldn't get Duo out of his mind. Maybe it was because, like many other soldiers here, he missed a good-looking woman, and the beautiful creature lying down on the cot, reminded him of the women back home.
Naturally, Smith and his men were able to sleep with any women along the way, the Japs were always eager to sell their bodies in this poor time, and price was always right.
But he was sick of sleeping with those slanted-eyed barbarians, and this boy, with his long chestnut hair, and round violet eyes, was a welcome change. The kid almost reminded him of his wife back home, but much prettier, and seductive in his innocent way.
He prayed that the young pilot would thank him for the rescue, as he was the first person that helped the boy.
The camp itself was now at a bit of a standstill. The American and Japanese governments couldn't really strike at each other for the moment, so the troops had some time to catch their breaths, though not much.
Smith was particularly happy to have the Chinese troops with him; they'd been allies since the whole damn war had begun. The China-men were dying to get back at the Japanese for invading their country, and the Americans were still bitter about that whole Pearl Harbor incident. If anything, they would show those Japs that you don't strike the U.S of A and get away with it.
The Japanese soldier they had found was still fairly unresponsive. He'd been slipping in and out of consciousness ever since he'd gotten here. But Wufei had made sure his wounds were partially tended to. He insisted that the soldier needed to survive to be of any use to them, and Smith reluctantly agreed. He did, after all, want to know who this spy was, and what he had done to the poor pilot.
Smith was so lost in his musings that he failed to notice the startled violet eyes starting over at him in confusion. He immediately walked over to the table, ready to answer any questions that they kid may have.
"How are you feeling? You've been asleep since yesterday afternoon. I was starting to think you'd never wake up."
Duo seemed to flinch at the words 'never wake up'. He remembered what had happened with Heero the other day, but honestly didn't want to think or talk about it. That way it just might hurt less.
Getting his bearings he realized he was in some sort of small green army tent that was being used as an infirmary. But that wasn't the only thing that was green, so was the military uniform he had on.
"Where's my Yukata?"
Smith blinked in surprise at the suddenly confident words. "You're what?"
"My Yukata, my Kimono? Where is it?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Where's the damn outfit I had on."
Finally understanding, Smith smiled proudly. "Oh! You mean that monkey outfit! We got rid of it the other day. We knew you'd be happy to be back in you're old greens. Sorry about the lack of rank though, you're dog tags are missing, and you didn't mention it the other day."
Duo's eyes went wide before he exploded in a mass of fury. "You got rid of it? Why the hell did you get rid of it? Hee... Hee... " Duo started to get choked up as he found he couldn't even say the Japanese soldier's name. "'He' gave me that. He traded it for me... with my own uniform..."
"I'm sorry, we didn't know it meant so much to you. Look, I can get it back, I think one of the orderlies is using it to clean something right now, but it can be washed."
Duo slumped back into the bed, determined not to cry; determined to just go home like he'd wanted from the moment he crashed into Japan's soil.
"When... when can I leave here?"
Smith had to scratch his head for a few seconds before answering, he did not exactly want the boy to leave soon. "Well, we found you at a difficult time, it won't be easy to fly you home A.S.A.P. But you hold tight, we'll get you out of this stink hole and back to the good ol' USA. Don't you worry about a thing, I'll be here to make sure everything goes well."
Duo could only smile sadly and whisper his thanks. The funny thing was, for the first time since he'd gotten here, he was truly miserable. He didn't feel safe anymore; he felt guilty, sad, alone and just plain miserable. The officer softly grabbed his shoulder and gave him a reassuring pat on his cheek, which wasn't nearly as reassuring as it was meant to be.
Duo was about to ask the man a few questions, when the Chinese soldier from before, crashed threw the tent doors.
"Sir, the prisoner, he's awake!" Smith's face lit up with pleasant surprise as he thanked the soldier for telling him.
"I'll be right there Chang."
Duo however, was busy shaking his head and making sure he hadn't misheard.
"Excuse me, are you talking about the Japanese soldier I came with?"
"Yeah, that's the one, Chang just knocked him unconscious before." Fury once again settled into Duo's dangerous eyes.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"We all thought you wouldn't want to hear about that since you seemed so relieved when you though he was dead."
"RELEIVED? I passed out!"
But Smith wasn't really listening and stood at the tent door trying to rap up the conversation with Duo. "Listen, we'll have to talk about it later, I'm sure this must be hard for you. But I have to deal with the spy."
"No, no we'll talk about it now. Heero's..."
"Heero? So that's his name, good to know. You stay here, I'll be back later." With that, he slammed the door and ran after the retreating form of the Chinese soldier.
Duo remained behind yelling so hard that tears sprang to his eyes. "No, you don't understand, come back here! He's not the bad guy!"
Attempting to run after the Captain, Duo tried to stand up, but his still broken leg prevented that and caused him to crash to the floor in a big heap.
He now felt even guiltier than when he had thought Heero was dead. Guiltier and very worried.
This was all his fault, Heero had been right, they wouldn't even listen to him.
Not bothering to get up, Duo took one of the nearby trays and slammed it the ground in frustration. He hated this whole situation. And now there was no way he was going to leave here knowing what kind of mess Heero was in. He didn't even want to leave him before.
The loud crashing sound got the attention of the only orderly in the small camp, and within a few seconds, he bustled through the door with concern written all over his face.
"Are you all right? Here I'll help you back into your cot." Duo stared up at the orderly in surprise, he had a green turban that surrounded his head and a British accent that said he was from one of the British colonies. With his turban, he was obviously Arabian. [1]
"Listen, what's your name?"
"Corporal Winner."
"Ok, Corporal Winner, I need you to go over to wherever they are interrogating the Japanese soldier, and tell them to stop."
The young orderly seemed taken aback by the new boys words and glanced around the room rather nervously after he'd helped him back into the cot.
"I'm sorry Sir, but that's not possible. I have no authority to do that, and would only get both of us in trouble."
Duo grabbed the boy's combats and pulled him in close. "You've got to try, a man's life here is at risk, there must be something you can do?"
"I-I'm sorry Sir, there's really nothing I can do. I have absolutely no authority."
Duo pushed the young man away and growled out loud, this whole situation was becoming worse by the second.
The young soldier took pity in the desperate look in Duo's eyes and tried to cheer him up, not really knowing what to say. "Listen Sir, if it makes you feel any better, they're not going to kill him."
This got Duo's attention fast. "How do you know that?"
The young orderly suddenly seemed embarrassed. "I'm kinda a good 'friend' of the reporter they sent here from back America. He was talking with the Captain yesterday, and he said that they think the Japanese soldier is a high ranking man."
"What? That's crazy, he was only a field officer."
"B-but they said he spoke English?"
"He learned it himself, it's not that hard to learn, I started learning it when I was two!"
"Well either way, they won't kill him without getting information and possibly using him for ransom."
Duo leaned back against the side of the tent in amazement. "Why does this all sound familiar. It's like déjà vu."
"Sorry?"
"I got smashed over the head with a rifle, he got smashed over the head with a rifle. I was going to be used for ransom, he's going to be used for ransom."
Getting the idea, Quatre quickly jumped in. "You got tortured and interrogated, he'll be tortured and interrogated."
"What! I was never tortured or interrogated."
"Well the officers seem to think you were."
Duo was too shocked to reply at first. He just curled up into the fetal position; despite the pain this brought to his leg, and refrained from crying once more.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it. This is all my fault. Heero, I'm so sorry..."
Quatre could barely understand the words spoken, because they were said barely above a whisper, but he immediately felt for the boy. If this pilot, who was 'so hurt by the enemy', really worried about him this much, then there must be more to the story.
And if there was anyone who was good at getting the true story, it was his boyfriend, Trowa Barton from the New York Times. [2]
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In a tent that was slightly secluded from the rest of camp, Smith, Chang and a select few other officers where present for the interrogation of the Japanese soldier.
He already been awake for the past half an hour, but as soon as he'd realized where he was, he had become rigid and tried to seem proud. The chances of them even getting a name out of him weren't very big.
All four officers in the room glared at him as if he had started the very war itself, eager to get revenge. The two more muscular men were acting as guards, and the remaining two as interrogators. But it was the officer who had found Duo that did all the talking.
"You may as well not try to pretend that you don't understand us. We know that you speak English."
Heero didn't even twitch a muscle.
Leaning over a bit, Smith made sure he was breathing the words into the prisoner's face. "By the time we get done with you, you'll tell us every military secret you know, everything thing suspicious you've ever done, and what exactly you did to that boy."
Heero tried his hardest not to think about Duo right then, he was only a distraction. Every part of his being wanted to break the silence and ask how Duo was doing. But he knew that the Americans would treat him fine, he was one of their own after all.
The officer was now walking around Heero in circles, trying his best to make the other feel nervous and uncomfortable.
"We going to find out just what you did to make him so deathly afraid of you." This caught Heero's attention and for a spilt second confusion showed in his eyes. It did not go unnoticed by his captor.
"And once we find out every method you used on him, we going to use it on you, but ten times worse. You and your people picked the wrong country to screw around with."
Smith accented the last word with a hard punch to Heero's face, cause him to momentarily fling his head to the right.
"We know all about you already. Your victim's told us everything we need to know."
Heero didn't believe a word of it for a second, but was caught off guard when the Captain continued.
"So HEERO, what did you do to him?" Again another punch, but this time to his stomach, knocking the oxygen out of his lungs, and causing him to gasp for air.
"Did you deny him food, because you're sure as hell not getting much." Again a blow, once again to the head, followed the statement.
Wufei stepped over to the officer and pulled him quietly to the side, whispering into his ear. "Sir, I recommend not hitting him anymore in the head. I smashed him pretty hard yesterday, who knows what more damage could do to him."
Smith nodded slowly, and quietly turned back to the waiting prisoner. This time he eyed Heero's body, remembering the state Duo had been found in.
"What about his leg? Did you break that too?" Without warning Smith grabbed a rifle away from one of his guards and smashed the butt against Heero's leg. The leg didn't stand a chance.
Even Wufei had to flinch as the cracking noise engulfed the small tent.
Heero didn't even scream. He did, however, bug out his eyes and suck in his breath from surprise; it was quite painful after all.
Smith snarled at the Japanese soldier, trying to think of other things he could have done to Duo. "What about the scars on his chest? Was that from his crash, or did YOU inflict them?" Smith rushed over and tore Heero's tunic open in one swift moment, but stopped dead in his track as soon as something flashy caught his eyes.
All he could see was red once he realized what the thing was. It was Duo's missing dog tags. [3]
"You filthy bastard, you disgusting barbarian. You raped him, didn't you? So that's why he fears you so much."
Heero actually found himself shaking his head in denial, unable to even imagine himself doing something like that to Duo. But another quick blow to his left cheek stopped that.
"You dared to touch him with your grimy, monkey like hands!" There was another punch to his gut, and a kick to his newly broken leg. "Fucking Jap! He's American property, you had no right even looking at him."
Smith was about to bring another blow to his head, when he felt strong arms holding him back.
"Sir, his head!"
"So what? He deserves to die."
Seeing that Wufei wasn't going to give in on this, the Captain took a few deep breaths and shrugged the lower ranking man off. He then give Heero and the chair one last kick, which made both soldier and chair hit the ground hard. Smith walked out of the tent without a second glance, he knew that Chang would fix everything up.
He was a good kid, that Chang, one of the few Chinese soldiers who actually spoke English. Came from a rich family. He trusted him more than some of his own men.
Chang aside, Smith was still upset about the Japanese soldier. Just the thought of him brought images of that monkey raping the young pilot who now lay in the infirmary. Chang was right, he couldn't kill him... yet.
But he would make sure he paid, for everything he's done, and his damn country.
TBC...
[1] Okay it took me FOREVER to figure out how Quatre could be in this fic without me shaving his hair off. But then I remembered that the country he was from was colonized by Britain at the time, and they used them as soldiers in both World Wars. So Quatre would just have a Turban on, plus he gets a cool British accent. (I can't BELIEVE I almost forgot about the allies, sheesh).
[2] Trowa was a bit easier to figure out, he'd just be a reporter from the states. They had lots of those on duty all over the place. Trowa would make a good reporter and photographer me thinks.
[3] If you remember, Heero took Duo's dog tags, wayyyyyy back in the first chapter.
Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk so what did you all think? I'm very curious, hope I didn't change the mood too much. I would just like to say that I do NOT think all Americans are like that Captain, he jus somehow developed into the bad guy. He wasn't even supposed to be in the story, only as the guy who picked Duo up from the ground. Oh well, he's horny and hates being away from his wife, hates Japanese by this point and is jealous I guess.
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