Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Justitia ❯ Chapter 9

Justitia 9: Fear; if allowed free rein, would reduce all of us to trembling shadows of men, for whom only death could bring release -John M. Wilson

Wufei glared at the clothes, wondering what he had been thinking. He couldn't fathom exactly how he had got into this predicament but his guts was twisting despite the pure stupidity of it all and some part of him refused to choose. Refused to let go of the control for even such a simple thing; didn't want to have to decide.

So he blinked and in that brief moment of darkness let his hand snake out and grab what it would. It caught in the dark red jumper; the thicker of the two and he sighed inwardly, knowing it was the better choice even if he hadn't knowingly chosen it. Ripping it out of Trowa's grip and pulled it on over his thermals and stomped off to the bathroom, not liking the way Trowa watched him, knowingly.

He spent longer than he needed to in the bathroom, forcing himself to stop shaking and his mind to remain calm. Whatever Trowa was up to his was playing a hard game and Wufei really wasn't sure he would come out the other side in one piece. But he also knew it was too late to stop; too late to go back.

When he emerged it was to find Sally and Marie, dressed to go outside, standing in the doorway, waiting rather impatiently. Trowa tossed him his boots and went out to wait in the hall, leaving Wufei to wonder just what the hell they were doing. He was sure he recalled something about not having to do anything today, having done the hard yards last night.

He pulled on his boots quickly and let Marie wrap her arms through his as they walked to the garage and got in the truck, Marie and Wufei riding in the back, leaving Trowa and Sally up front.

Marie yawned and it seemed contagious because Wufei couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut.

"Trowa talk all night too?"

Wufei laughed at that, recalling Sally's habit of talking all the way through the night. He wondered if Marie regretted swapping rooms yet. Not that he really minded; having Sally hover over him all night would have been plain weird.

"Where are we going?"

"We got a map of Dr. Morrison. There's a whale pod down by the shelf, some seals, penguins…he said they should be there again this morning."

Wufei raised a brow at that and stuck his hand through the small window to the front cabin. It took a moment, but the map was soon in his grip and Sally was mumbling about ungrateful, annoying, aggravating men. Nothing he had not heard before.

Wufei judged it to be an hour's drive at the speed they were going. He was about to pass it back through when something caught his eye and he took a closer look. There was a marking on the map he had not noticed before and the more he looked at it the less he liked it. He stuck his hand through the small window, pointing to the place on the map which was quickly taken from his hands.

"It's called Mid-Point Alpha," Sally said eventually and Wufei wondered why that sounded so odd, going through what he originally read in the mission outline but he couldn't figure out what bothered him about it, so he put it aside.

The whales were there, as were the seals and penguins. Marie dared him to catch a penguin and toss it at a seal, but when he succeeded the seal ate the poor little thing and they decided to have a `no dares' day. Trowa didn't stop the bad penguin jokes all day and Wufei ended up stomping off to play on the ice shelf to cool down his temper. How Trowa managed to get completely under his skin so easily was beyond him.

Marie found him, a baby penguin in her arms as she sat down beside him before letting the little guy scamper away, not that he went far. Wufei watched it trip over his shoe in disdain. They watched whales for a long time, not bothering to say anything, both very much aware the chances of them ever getting to see it again were slim. Wufei had to admit, with the sun out and the temperature a little higher, it wasn't bad. It was beautiful, in a rather frigid way.

But it still whispered in a way he did not like. He was so absorbed in his contemplation he didn't really see what happened. Merely reacted.

The penguin tripped again and slid down the ice bank toward the water where a large shadow was lurking. Marie screamed, leaping after it and Wufei leapt after Marie. Unfortunately, the seal that had been waiting for just such an opportunity chose that moment to leap out of the water and Marie went slamming into its side. It…roared.

Wufei snagged Marie's jacket and rolled her in against his chest, trying to put himself between her and the seal, eyes frantically searching for the penguin. He caught sight of it several paces away, running for its life and screeching rather loudly for such a little thing.

Something smacked hard against his side and Marie screamed at the same time Wufei bit into his tongue, trying to roll away from the seal's tail, but it chased after them, furious and the next blow knocked them down with an audible crack.

It was cold. Too cold and too dark. There was muffled gunfire, the sound of screams, an impact of some kind, like s splash. Wufei didn't know what was happening so he just clung to Marie and hoped something happened; hoped the darkness was ripped away.

Something grabbed the back of his coat and he was being hauled upward, out of the dark, and it was somehow even colder. His muscles clamped so tight about his bones he thought they would snap and his lungs ripped at the air, coughing it out in harsh, hoarse breaths that burnt. He could hear Marie spluttering nearby and rolled over, trying to get to his feet, searching frantically. There was water and ice, and the water was stained red. He panicked for a moment until he saw the bloody shadow of the seal sinking.

Sally had Marie, stripping off her jacket and running for the truck. Wufei tried to follow them but his clothes weighed too much and he realised there were hands trying to guide him and he tried to focus on them, to do what they said.

"Tro?"

"Right here. Just walk."

Wufei couldn't find Trowa's face, which he supposed made sense since he was behind him, pushing him along, but it still seemed odd. Trowa's voice was tight, as if holding himself in check. He decided it would be best just to walk, so he did.

Marie was already stripped down and wrapped in a blanket, sitting next to Sally in the front of the truck, soaking up the warmth from the heater, teeth chattering madly. Wufei clambered in the back at Trowa's urging, fumbling at the fastenings of his coat as he tried to pull them loose. Hands were suddenly there, trying to do it for him.

"Gloves," Trowa said softly and Wufei settled for trying to just get those off as Trowa got him out of the rest. He was shoved onto the seat, wrapped tight in a thermal blanket, the heat from the front roaring over the back as Sally started the engine and headed for the base.

"Is Marie hurt?" Trowa asked through the small window and there was a negative reply of some kind that Wufei didn't quite catch as those hands, too hot, pressed into his skin, seeking, searching, trying to find anything out of order. Wufei tried to push them away, not liking the touch, the heat radiating off them that he thought would burn, but Trowa just slapped his hands away and kept looking.

He hissed when the fingers probed his side and Trowa probed harder making him growl, but the bones did not shift under the fingers, skin merely protested the touch and they both knew it was just bad bruising. Trowa heaved a heavy sigh of relief as he sat back on his heels and stared at Wufei, shaking his head.

"You make the strangest enemies, Chang Wufei."

"Not mine," Wufei protested, teeth clamouring in his mouth. "Marie's."

Trowa laughed at that and there was some kind of garbled response from the front, but Wufei didn't notice because Trowa was peeling off his coat and pulled Wufei against his chest, wrapping another blanket about them both and it was hot…so very, very hot, even while he shivered in the cold.

"Thank you," Trowa whispered in his ear and it took Wufei quite some time to realize he meant for Marie. He couldn't think of anything to say to that so he didn't. It took long to get back to base and once there he couldn't get his limbs. It took there tries just to stand and in the end Trowa had to half drag him back to their room. Trowa made him strip completely then, shoving dry thermals into his hands. It took five tries just to get them on. Trowa then turned and held up two jumpers and Wufei didn't even think as he reached out and grabbed the one he knew was warmer, pulling it on and collapsing on his bed, pulling the blanket around himself and trying to remember something he knew was important without really knowing why, or what it was.

A hand patted him reassuringly on the shoulder but moved away quickly and he heard the familiar patter of typing on the laptop followed by the beep that meant a communication request had been accepted.

"Trowa, we've been trying to reach you all morning!" The way Heero made that sound made it seem like they had tried to end the world, and for all Wufei would recall they might have. He curled tighter under the blankets, trying to block out the all-too familiar voice he was used to only hearing in his nightmares.

"Duo has confirmed the target location empty. The exchange went the other way around. Russia sold to China! The bomb is still in Antarctica somewhere!"

That nagged at Duo as he tried not to listen but couldn't keep the facts from oozing into his head. He forced himself to move as Heero and Trowa talked logistics of the mission out, snaking hand out from under the covers to find the mission file in his bags. He snagged the map from the front pocket and opened it up, trying to make his hands stop shaking long enough to take a good look.

Things started to clear in his brain and Wufei gathered himself, shoving the cold aside, pushing it down in favor of coherent thought, eyes narrowing as the pieces clicked in his head. He sat up in the bed and slammed the laptop shut, disconnecting the call. He knew Trowa was shocked, but he didn't care. He spread the map out over the table and pointed to an empty piece of ice.

"Wufei, there's nothing there!"

"Exactly! This is official map from the UESA and there's nothing there!"

Trowa was looking at him as if he had lost his mind when Sally walked in.

"What's wrong?"

"The bomb is still in Antarctica," Trowa explained quickly and Sally ran to the table to tare at the map Wufei was still gesturing at. "And Wufei has lost his mind."

Wufei snarled at that and stuck his finger at the empty block of ice again, begging Sally to understand. Her eyes went wide as she looked for it but she had seen it, or not seen it…Wufei didn't care which it was. She understood.

"Where is Mid-Point Alpha?"

"There is not Mid-Point Alpha," Wufei ground out in exasperation. "Antarctica only has one re-fuelling station and it's Mid-Point Charlie!"

"But the map the Americans gave us…" Sally shut up, her mouth forming a small `o' and Wufei slumped down in a chair, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders.

"What the hell are the Americans doing helping the Russians?" Sally asked, the shock wearing off, her face somewhere between annoyed an amused. Wufei just shrugged. He hadn't figured that part out yet.

"They're not," Trowa said suddenly, leaning forward in his chair. "It's the Port crew. They cross through that point every time they bring cargo to the bases and they're all Russian. Marie was yapping their ears off on the way here."

Wufei was not surprised. He had to read at least one book a week in Russian just to stay ahead of her. He studied the map carefully, mentally putting in distances, comparing them to the speeds they had been managing under different conditions, trying to form a coherent plan in his mind.

"We have to go in," he said softly, eyes narrowing. "Now."

"No!" Trowa and Sally glared at him as a unit but Wufei shook his head, flicking open one of the laptops and logging into the Base's weather monitor. The storm they had vaguely avoided last night had only gathered on the islands side of the continent and would be swept back over them at full force that night. Both Sally and Trowa slumped back, a little defeated, but nodding their agreement. They couldn't wait until it passed.

"Ideas?" Sally asked quietly and Wufei was not really amused to see her grabbing her field medical kit from her luggage and starting to start through as if she actually expected to have to use it. He figured she was probably right but it made him uneasy. He wished he was doing this part alone again, but he knew Trowa would be coming and didn't even try to talk him out if.

"Search, snatch, grab?" Wufei asked, tracing the lines and wishing they had some clue what was actually there. With the storm coming they didn't even have time for surveillance.

Sally and Trowa just shrugged, their silence agreement and they got down to work, hooking up new transmitters and packing a bag with what they thought they would need. Wufei shuddered as he watched them work, because they were not staying behind. They were coming…on one of his missions. The kind you were not really meant to come back from.

Marie emerged mid-afternoon as they were preparing to leave, took look one look at the room and groaned, knowing full well what was going on. Sally sent her to pack up their things.

"We can't come back here," Sally noted. "Even if the Americans don't know what's going on there are people watching here who will simply take the ingredients back off us." Assuming they found any.

Wufei just nodded and pointed to a point on the other side of the continent.

"Faraday. The UK Base."

Trowa looked it up on the net and sent them an email; a heads up that they should expect company tonight, and that was that. Marie returned with their other belongings and that was that. They dressed for a mission; in clothes they could only hope would camouflage in the world of white and gray, and laden with every weapon Wufei had bought. Wufei took the katana and pistol, Sally had the rifle again and Trowa took the knives. It felt odd to Wufei, not to have the heavy presence at his ankle, but he found himself more than reassured when he saw the way Trowa kept playing with the damn thing.

Wufei strapped Marie into one of the more defensible seats in the back of the truck, wondering how Preventers would reimburse the Americans for the loss of their truck. He did not want to have to come back. Then they were moving and didn't have much time to think about anything, Trowa setting up the spare laptop and explaining the plan to Marie so she could monitor them. At no point was she ever to come in after them.

A hand fell on his shoulder and he looked up to find Trowa standing at his side, green eyes raking over him.

"You're up for this?" It wasn't a questioning of Wufei's abilities, Wufei understood. Merely a questioning of his tiredness, his awareness. Wufei just shook off the hand and nodded that he was fine. Nothing had ever stopped him from his missions before and it was not about to start.

Mid-Point Alpha looked like a re-fuelling station. Looked the perfect copy of the photos they had snatched off the Preventers satellites of Mid-Point Charlie. The only difference was that everything at Mid-Point Alpha everything was fake; it was all for show, as Wufei realized when he slipped in the snow and slid into a petrol hub only to have it fall over, completely empty. A shell; a gimmick. He shook his head as he got up, quickly shaking the ice off his clothes, not wanting the cold to get inside.

Sally found the way in; a small door through the back of the base-tent. Wufei took a deep breath as he went in, casting one final glance at the truck and praying no one came; that Marie would be okay, before descending.

It was dark and they could not afford the torches, each straining with their other senses to feel ahead of them, not speaking, judging distances through one another's shallow breathing. There were stairs; lots of stairs, and they took them one at a time, poking at the in the dark with their numb toes until at last Sally made a surprised grunt and the ground evened out. Wufei took point then, slipping past her as his senses opened to the space entirely and he gave himself over to the cold, the dark, and the madness that allowed him not just to kill, but to slaughter.

There was sound around a corner, so Wufei followed it, found a small light, and cut his way through both light and flesh before he could even appear as a shadow before moving on. He raked his fingers along the wall as he moved, feeling the cold even through his gloved hands, wondering what had possessed anyone to build underground in a land of glaciers that could crack open at any time and land that was as unstable as a volcano with the opposite temperature control.

Trowa suddenly appeared ahead of him, dashing forward, knife swinging out, slashing and there was a familiar sound of impact before a body fell. Wufei wondered how he had missed it, then pushed forward, just grateful Trowa had apparently lost none of his touch.

He mapped the place in his head as he moved, Sally speaking softly to Marie over the small radio they had bought with them, teaching her how to use the navigator and lead them in what they hoped was the right direction, giving them a visual to match the one of their own devising.

There were no laboratories, not warehouses of weapons; nothing but the occasional cold and whiny guard with a lamp and the numb dark. And a black door at the end of a long corridor that was all too familiar to Wufei.

They had to go back and steal a light off one of the guards so they could see the lock and it took the three of them fifteen minutes to crack it open. Marie was starting to panic, the storm outside growing.

De ja vu struck Wufei as he looked up at the weapon, not hesitating to scale its launch gear and tar open the panel that hid its inner components. Trowa appeared and they dismantled it together, slowly and with more finesse than Wufei had done the first, packing each part away in a tight, sealable container while Sally guarded the door. They couldn't blow the place, for fear half the Antarctic shelf would collapse, so they put it all back together when they were done. Wufei wished he could be there to see their faces if they ever tried to launch it only to find the damned thing empty. A dud. He grinned at the very thought. Of course, they might figure it out when they found all the dead bodies…

He jumped off the scaffolding and winced as his ankle twinged, hopping off onto the other foot, the hand instantly under his elbow a little annoying, though he did not argue with Trowa, pulling away only when the pain subsided. There was still that awareness; that he could have done it alone but that he did not have to, and it was a balm, of sorts.

They were about to leave when a thought hit Wufei and he turned toward the other side, biting his lip as he saw the other black door there. Trowa didn't hesitate, following his gaze and heading for the door. It took another fifteen minutes to get it to open, but it was worth it.

Wufei looked at the small office in triumph, heading straight to the computer and grabbing the familiar disk from his pocket, sticking it in the mainframe and uploading the program. It took seconds, max, and then a tiny icon on the edge of the screen indicated the transfer had started.

"How long?" Trowa asked quietly, leaning over to inspect the disk as Wufei ejected it. He seemed more than a little fascinated with it and Wufei decided he would make a copy.

"We can go. It'll be done in an hour and even if someone comes down here, they'll never see it."

Trowa just nodded. Sally was collecting more of the records boxes they had found at Morson, packing them into her backpack which Wufei knew had to weigh more than anyone would want to carry in a storm. Trowa went to her and did a once over, grabbing several files he found. Wufei stayed at the computer, watching the transfer and having a quick look through a few that caught his eye. They had what they were after; the connection to the whole system. He just hoped it was enough for Heero and Une and that they could still catch the ride home from Faraday. He had just bout had enough of Antarctica.

He was about to get up, ready to leave when something cold pressed against the back of his head and an all-too familiar click sounded as a bullet entered a chamber, cocked and ready. Trowa and Sally heard it too, turning and freezing. Wufei wondered what the bastard looked like and what kind of training he had to have snuck up on them.

"Who do you work for?"

Wufei swallowed hard, not really sure what he should do. Technically he was not in charge; Sally was. He could not hope to move fast enough to avoid the bullet and he was not sure if he was allowed to talk his way out of it. He wished he had paid closer attention to the re-write of Preventers policy, but he never had bothered because at the time it had not applied to him.

And that was what did it; the fact that at no point had Une rescinded her edict that he report only to her; that he had free reign. Yes, this was Sally's mission, but he was still his own agent and he was not liable in the same fashion was; not to the same extent.

The guy had made him put his hands up and Wufei tried to picture where the katana was sitting against his back, feeling exactly where it rested through the layers between it and skin, then gauging where the man was standing and where his arm had to be hanging to hold the gun where it was. It took longer than he liked, seconds ticking by with Wufei all too well aware no one was doing anything, but he built the right picture in his mind and then forced calm into every inch of his self.

His hand didn't move, rather it wa simply gone from the place it had been and was somewhere else, namely around the hilt of the katana, slamming the blade out of its sheath, the hilt smacking the guy straight in the nose, his head cracking back under the pressure even as Wufei let his weight fall, through the seat, his whole body slumping, the bullet crashing into the monitor.

He looked up, already pulling the katana the rest of the way out, ready to decapitate the man but a flash of steel caught his eye and the man above him froze, eyes rolling up in the back of his head before he fell to the ground.

Trowa was at his side instantly, hauling him out of the chair and out the door, swearing softly under his breath.

"Don't you ever fucking do that again," he hissed in his ear and Wufei just chuckled, trying to get the look of surprise written on the guy's face out of his head.

They made faster work of their escape, but when Sally opened the door to the surface the door was ripped from her hands. They crawled out, clinging to one another and their cargo, every step almost pushing them backwards as they tried to reach the truck.

Marie had the doors open, grabbing the boxes and packing them away in separate compartments as Sally crawled around and got in the driver's side. Trowa pushed Wufei into a seat and glared pointedly at the seatbelt until Wufei complied.

The truck lurched to life and Sally began the long haul. Wufei knew it would take them most of the night and just hoped they made it. The storm was worse than he had expected, but he knew they could not have waited.

A hand landed on his knee and he looked down to find Trowa kneeling in front of him, hands shifting down the limb to the ankle, massaging gently. Wufei wanted to protest, wanted to tell Trowa to stop it, get in his seat and put on a belt, but the words were jammed in his throat as the pain subsided a little and Trowa gave him that knowing smirk as if he could read his mind.

"I wasn't afraid," Wufei said quietly and Trowa's hands stopped their kneading, coming up to rest on his knees instead, Trowa gently shifting his weight so he was leaning against Wufei. He looked…troubled. Small suddenly, and a little frightened. Momentarily weak, but for some reason that did not bother Wufei.

"Why?"

Wufei ignored the way Marie was grinning at them, pushing her out of his line of vision. Just soaking up the warmth while he could.

"I know you." Knew Trowa would react; would throw the knife, and that knowledge had controlled his fear, had kept it in check, had made his response neat and controlled and calm; effective. And he was very much aware that this was one of those missions he probably would not have come back from, had Trowa Barton not been there.

But he wasn't really sure what to make of that, so he didn't say anything else as the truck continued its slow crawl through the howl to Faraday.