Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Let Slip the Gods of War ❯ Part Three: Dawn ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Warmth, familiar and yet something from a distant dream, surrounded him. He hurt; every bit of his being seemed to be wrapped up in a haze of pain, and yet not. It wasn't the blinding pain that stole his mind and his sense of time, but it was pain nonetheless. He was afraid to open his eyes, afraid of what lurked in the shadows, bringing the pain with them, afraid that maybe his eyes would refuse to see. He tried to move his arms and fight back, but they still felt too heavy to budge.
"Shh. It's okay, Cat, I've got you," murmured a warm, gentle voice near his ear, causing Quatre to nearly jump out of his skin. A heavy weight slid under his left shoulder and he landed in a heap in their lap. One hand weakly clasped another as he forced his turquoise blue eyes open. His vision was badly distorted, so he could just barely make out the familiar head of light brown hair in the seat in front of him.
"Sally? Trowa?" he croaked pleadingly, then closed his eyes again.
"Yeah, it's us. Sorry it took me so long to find you, love," Trowa explained gently. "They always seemed to be one step ahead of us, and they never kept you in one location for very long. I decided to play bait, without Preventer's backing. They tried to nab me and they led me to you. Preventer has a leak."
Quatre trembled as he felt Trowa's hands slowly rub up and down his arms. To his horror, a small whimper escaped his lips, and he tried not to flinch at his partner's gentle touch. There was no pain, but the intensity of the lack of pain was terrifying.
"N… no more... please. Touch... don't rub," he finally managed to say, struggling to make his abused voice work.
"I'm sorry, love," Trowa sighed dejectedly. "Some of the drugs they'd been giving you must still be in your system. I thought it'd be all right to touch you because you weren't screaming."
"Doesn't... hurt, muhib," Quatre's weakened voice answered haltingly, "just… too much... too soon."
"How's your vision, Quatre?" asked Sally from the driver's seat. He trembled more against Trowa and his hand spasmed.
"Cat, please talk to us," Trowa said when he didn't answer.
"Blurry... before. D… don't wanna open them again. 'm afraid… I'll be blind…"
"The drops they were using in them should be starting to wear off by now, so I need to know if your vision's clear yet," said Sally gently. "If it isn't clear yet, it soon will be."
Trowa shifted his lover so he could see his face. "Come on, love, let me see those pretty blue peepers of yours," he coaxed softly.
Quatre struggled, trapped between the terror he still felt and what he knew had to happen, so he cracked his eyes open. They were still bloodshot and felt hot, dry and gritty, but the burning was nearly gone and Trowa's face was a lot clearer.
"Still blurry, but better."
"Gorgeous," Trowa proclaimed with a slight smile, holding up a bottle of water with a straw in it. "Now, let's see if we can get some fluids into you. We would have gone with an IV, but it's not an option till we're holed up somewhere safe. If you can't keep it down, then we'll have to take the risk."
Quatre took a small sip; the cool water was soothing to his raw, pained throat. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he turned his focus back to Trowa. "Iria…?"
"She's safe, and so is Cathy," Trowa replied seriously. "They weren't the targets, Cat; we were."
"They kept asking me where we'd go to hide," Quatre whispered, then took another sip of water as his husband's lips brushed his forehead. "I didn't tell them..."
"I know."
"Okay, guys, make some room," Sally warned the other two. "First rendezvous, 02."
"Ah, shite," Trowa sighed tiredly. "I was hoping either Hiiro or Wu Fei would be first."
"Don't underestimate Duo," Sally replied, pushing the door open. She then shouted to Duo "HEY, 02! GET YOUR SKINNY ASS OVER HERE, ON THE DOUBLE!"
"I'm not underestimating him, Sally, but for crissakes, he packs six bags for a two-day mission, and four of them are usually crammed full of explosives!"
"I heard that!" Duo exclaimed, pushing the aforementioned six bags into the back of the van before hopping in.
"Which part? The blasphemy, or my assessment of your packing skills?" Trowa asked dryly.
"Both," the Deathscythe Beast pilot replied. Duo dropped into the seat behind the pair and ran a tired hand through his chestnut bangs, then took one look at his best friend and gave him a broad, encouraging smile. Quatre blinked a couple of times, and found he was better able to focus on his best friend's face. Duo looked haggard; he had faint gray circles under his eyes, his mid-back length braid was mussed and his clothes were more rumpled than usual.
"Allah, you look like shit, Duo," Quatre croaked, wincing at how rough his voice still sounded. "What's your status?"
Duo's bark of laughter startled the Sandrock Thunder pilot. "You don't look much better yourself, buddy. I'm tired, is all. Just like during the war, only without the restful periods. We're movin' in and outta safe houses faster than ever, but the bastards just keep finding us." Duo turned his gaze to Sally. "Hiiro's call came about two minutes before our perimeter was breached, so I sent Hilde on ahead to HQ. Where's Rashid? I thought he'd be here, too."
"He and the Maguanac Corps took over ESUN's security before I left to retrieve Cat. Une asked me to call them in because we can trust them. Speaking of Anne, how's she handling the leak?" asked Trowa.
"Ya mean other than having a litter of kittens over it?" Duo replied. "She's been calling in everyone she knows she can trust and they're going over all of the personnel files with a fine-toothed comb, starting with the people closest to her and expanding outward from there. In her own words, this whole situation is one gigantic clusterfuck."
Quatre tried to follow the conversation, truly he did, but his attention kept wavering. Waves of exhaustion were pulling him under, and as hard as he tried to fight it, to stay awake, he couldn't any longer. Listening to the familiar, comforting voices of his partner and two of his best friends, he closed his eyes again and let his head droop to Trowa's shoulder. A few moments later, his breathing slowed down and evened out, indicating that he was sleeping.
"Is he finally asleep?" asked Sally, glancing in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah," Trowa answered. "I'm amazed he managed to stay awake this long."
"Tro, what'd those bastards do to him?" Duo asked . "He feels… different."
"He's still trying to purge the rest of the drug cocktail they'd been feeding him from his system. The kidnapper was one of H's people, I'd bet a tenner on it. Duo, they know about our nanites and how to use them against us."
"Damn! We need to find out what Cat knows from his time there," Duo exclaimed, his mind reeling.
"I wish we could ask him," Trowa said as he pulled Quatre closer and tried to force his hands to be still. "He wasn't exactly lucid when I finally found him. They had him locked up like veal in a tiny cell that smelled of piss with recordings of multiple voices and images and flashing lights playing constantly. He can still barely lift his arms, and just barely brushing my fingers on his bare skin made him scream in pain."
"Give him a couple days, Tro, an' he'll be as back to normal, or at least as normal as any of us are," reminded Duo.
"Not bloody likely!" the Chinese American doctor exclaimed. "He's looking at months of recovery time, and then maybe even physical and speech therapy!"
"It took Hiiro three months to completely recover after self-detonating in Wing. Cat's nanites should be fully up and running by now."
"I guess I still don't know enough about them," admitted Sally.
"You should probably check out the files Hiiro and Quatre have. Outside of the Mads, the two of them are the experts," Trowa said, shifting in his seat.
"Geez, I never really thought about warning 'em!" Duo said with wide eyes. "Fei an' Hii-kun probably didn't even realize it! I mean, I told Hilde and she was cool with it, but…!"
"Spit it out, Maxwell," growled Sally. "What did they not realize?"
"That our nanites can be spread to others through bodily fluids," he replied sheepishly, blushing furiously. "Not through blood, sweat, tears or saliva, mind, but through... um... other stuff."
Sally paled. "How long did it take before you noticed the effects, and what are they?"
"It was little stuff for me," answered Duo. "Basically, they reversed all the damages years of malnutrition had done to my body. Height-wise, I gained a good three inches in a matter of weeks; my speed and reflexes were always good, but they got better. I'd never tested myself to see if I ever got as strong as Hiiro is, but they definitely made him stronger."
"With me, it started with the injuries I'd sustained just before I was injected with them healing rapidly. Later, I noticed I'd gotten taller, too, and that my balance and equilibrium had improved to the point that I don't need a pole to walk a tightrope. With Quatre, they corrected a bad case of night blindness and enhanced his strength, stamina and endurance. They also corrected a slight limp he'd had from a broken foot. As for Wu Fei, you've seen him wearing a pair of prescription reading glasses at times, right?"
"Yeah."
"Imagine the lenses being three times thicker than they are now, and him having to wear them almost all the time. He was extremely far-sighted."
Sally did imagine it, and couldn't help the chuckle of mirth at the mental image of her husband talking about honor and integrity as a nerd. He was still cute, though.
"In other words, they correct all your flaws an' enhance your positives," Duo added. "Getting back to your question, it takes about a month for the little suckers to fully integrate with all your body's systems."
"Why so quickly?" she questioned softly.
"They have to multiply quickly in order to prevent any damage to the host's body," replied Duo, pulling one of the bags onto his lap. "I'll pull up G's files on 'em and send 'em to your tablet. I'm a hacker and mechanic, not a doctor, so you'll probably understand 'em a lot better than I do. While I'm at it, I'll e-mail a copy of 'em to Tro's office computer at Preventer, just in case."
"Thanks, Duo. I'm good to drive for a couple more hours, so why don't you guys get some sleep? We'll switch off at the next rendezvous."
That voice... he knew that voice. It was the same oily, venomous sound that tormented him through some of his oldest nightmares. He tried to struggle, to fight back as they stripped him of his clothes and possessions, but his body refused to cooperate. His limbs seemed too heavy, despite his great stamina. The voice laughed at him, amused as he struggled to keep them from tearing his wedding band off his finger.
"Do you remember me, little Shulmanu? You always were my favorite, a true god among mortals. Tell me how to find the others."
Quatre struggled in Trowa's arms, startling his lover awake. The Heavyarms Bombardier pilot grabbed at the flailing arms and tried to hold on to the weaker man without hurting him.
"Quatre, wake up!" he cried. "It's all over! You're safe! Wake up, love!"
With a gasp, Quatre's eyes snapped open and he slumped, trembling and panting, in Trowa's arms. Despite his weakened state, he brought left hand up to his face. Tears threatened to fall as he turned to his husband and whispered "They took it, Trowa... they took my wedding band."
Trowa hugged Quatre as tightly as he dared to, ever aware of his broken ribs, and felt the tow-headed man was close to hyperventilating from sheer terror. Though they were still closed off, the auburn-haired man attempted to project love and reassurance through the empathic and telepathic links they shared.
"It's all right, Cat," he whispered as he pulled the chain from inside his shirt. Trowa unclasped the necklace and slipped it around his husband's neck before gently wiping Quatre's tears away. "I found it at the site of the first raid. I've had it with me ever since."
"I know him, Trowa," Quatre sobbed as Trowa kissed his forehead again. "I think we all know him. Training… I still have nightmares from his training. He… he had a name for us…"
Duo's cobalt blue eyes widened in shock and horror as the color drained from his face. "Gods of War," he whispered.
"No!" Trowa protested, his own face turning ashen. "That's not possible! The Mads had him executed! Even they thought he was fecking crazy!"
"He escaped," Quatre corrected raspily, pushing his horror away. "He had friends on the inside, and H could never find him again."
"Who's driving next?" questioned Sally. "We're almost at the next pickup site."
"I will," Trowa replied. "I got some sleep with Cat."
"Okay," Sally glanced at the tow-headed man in the mirror. "Quatre, now that the drugs are nearly all out of your system, I'm going to check you over again, okay?"
Quatre nodded, not wanting to talk.
Sally frowned. "Does your throat hurt?"
Quatre nodded again and snuggled into Trowa's warmth. Exhaustion was tugging at his consciousness again. Just as he was starting to drift off, Trowa slipped out from behind him while Sally was saying something from the front. To his surprise, the van squealed to a halt and the Heavyarms Bombardier pilot jumped out the side door. The sounds of a fire fight rang out for several moments before Trowa bellowed "ZERO ONE! THIS WAY!".
Moments later, more bags were tossed into the back of the van and Hiiro collapsed into the seat behind him. Sally slid into the seat beside the half Japanese pilot as Trowa took her place behind the wheel.
"Status, 01?" snapped Sally, turning in her seat.
"Dislocated shoulder and a couple bruises," Hiiro answered with a feral grin. "I lit a pack of matches, stuffed them into the spout of a very full bottle of vodka and tossed it into the sewer. Got caught in the shockwave."
Sally moved into the back seat, giving Hiiro an apologetic smile. "This is probably going to hurt."
Hiiro shrugged with his good shoulder. "No more than doing it myself would."
"Yeah, I can verify that," Duo chimed in with a wince. There was no need for the Deathscythe Beast pilot to elaborate further. They all knew the story of how Hiiro had set and splinted his own broken leg after making a leap out of a window on the fiftieth floor of a hospital just to escape the Alliance. Duo just happened to be there when he reset it.
"Hey, Duo," called Trowa from the front seat, "go through yours and Hiiro's bags and make sure the bad guys didn't slip us any presents. Hiiro, no time for modesty; there are bags of clothes behind your seat, so let's ditch the ones you have on. Duo, you probably should change clothes, too, and pray we don't get pulled over by the local LEOs for littering... or worse."
Sally returned to the seat with Quatre and pulled a bag from between the front seats. She brought out a pen light and turned to her tow-headed patient. "How's your vision, sweetie?"
"Clear," Quatre replied, his voice still raspy. "Throat hurts, though, and I'm starting to feel hungry."
"Your eyes look good, but I don't want you talking for a while. All that screaming did a lot of damage to your throat and vocal chords, so unless you absolutely have to, no more talking until they've had a chance to heal properly. How does your chest feel?"
Quatre lifted his eyebrow at her but answered anyways. "Sore."
"That's because you have at least two broken ribs and several bruised ones. You've lost a lot of weight, too, so you're going to feel weak for a while. I can't really give you a good estimate on your recovery until I understand the nanites better. We need to find a way to check them and make sure they weren't damaged or tampered with in any way," Sally explained.
"What about our nanites?" Hiiro questioned defensively, concern etching itself on his handsome face.
Duo jumped in to explain. "The man trying to nab us knows about 'em, and he knows how to use 'em against us. He called us his Gods of War and was particularly good at causing pain."
"He called himself Kronus. I'd had the least exposure to him because I took Trowa Barton's place just before the man left," replied Trowa. "He was a sadistic monster; even the mechanics knew to keep away from him. Until today, I thought the Mads had carried out his execution."
"Yeah, the old farts were about to, but J told me he had friends on the inside who helped him escape," Hiiro sighed. "To answer your question, Sally, we'd know if our nanites had been tampered with. The pain was most likely caused by something interrupting them, like an electromagnetic pulse. I can tell you from experience that it hurts like Hell."
Sally pulled a bottle of strawberry smoothie out of the cooler, opened and stuck a straw in it, then handed it to Quatre. "If you start feeling sick, honey, stop. If your stomach can handle it, we'll try some soup or something more solid later on. Hiiro, let me have everything you've got on the nanites."
"Sure thing."
"Get some rest back there, guys," Trowa chimed in. "We'll meet up with Wu Fei in about three hours, and then it's off to the safe house. We need to contact Lady Une and let her know as much about this guy as we can remember."
"We'll take care of that once we've had the chance to talk to Fei," said Duo. "He might remember more about Kronus, and hopefully he'll remember what that whacko's real name is."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: No A/N for this chapter.
Annotations: No annotations this chapter. Sorry.
Next Chapter: On their journey to meet up with Wu Fei, Trowa and the others desperately try to remember more about Kronus, the madman pursuing them. Quatre reveals some of what he remembers of his captivity, and finds out what weapon was used during his torture.
Next, on Gundam Wing: Let Slip the Gods of War - Day Dreams.