Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Let Slip the Gods of War ❯ Part Seven: Twilight ( Chapter 7 )

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

A half-hour later, Duo and Hilde returned to Lady Une's office, grim and quiet. They placed their tablets with their notes on her desk, along with a vid chip copy of the interrogation, before taking seats to wait for her attention. After a few minutes, she looked up from her task and raised an eyebrow at them.
"Do I need to send the psychologist in now?" questioned Lady Une with a cocked eyebrow.
"Nope," Duo sighed tiredly as he sat down and propped his aching feet on the conference table. "They sang like a flock of canaries."
"I thought some of those guys were gonna pee their pants when they figured out who you are," Hilde quipped with an evil-sounding cackle.
"Do you believe them?" the Chief Preventer asked, then added "Feet off the table, Duo" in an undertone.
"Yeah, I do," Duo replied. "I was almost sure we were gonna need Sweets once the first guy realized who I am, but he seemed to be under the impression that I'm the lesser of two evils. [1] Five of 'em want protection from Kronus; the rest are all blindly loyal to the fucker."
"Did they give us enough information to warrant it?" Sally asked.
"Yes and no," Hilde replied. "It's more complicated than that. Kronus, or Anthony Gaintz, was Alliance; he was researching the effects of torture and brainwashing for them while Doctor J, the other Mads, Berg and Howard were developing the Tallgeese. The men wanting protection say that he's possibly working from a warehouse on the south side of town, though we have three other buildings he's known to work from.
"We're gonna have to tread carefully on this; the five looking for protection are only trying to keep hostages alive. Kronus took their families, most of which are children. I'm guessing he's pretty pissed off that Trowa blew up his lab."
"Bastard's lucky he escaped," Duo added sourly.
"One of the viruses I uploaded into his database set off the fire suppression system to encourage his people to evacuate the building," Trowa said from the doorway. "I found the nanite they altered in Quatre and reprogrammed it, so that little problem's been taken care of. I've also set up a decoy signal so no matter where we go, they're gonna think that Quatre, at least, is still here."
"And while my sexy and adorable husband did that, I pulled up the files we've been looking for, and they confirm what Hilde found," Quatre said as he sat down. "Gaintz was an Alliance researcher, all right; for nearly three years, until they discharged him due to severe mental instability. That was six weeks before Berg's sabotage caused J and the other scientists to flee to the colonies and begin the Gundam project. [2] Kronus disappeared about four months before the launch of Operation Meteor. He had a son named Victor, who was a member of the White Fang but left after Quinze approached Zechs. [3] Even H couldn't dispute the man's madness."
"Victor Gaintz... why does that name sound familiar?" Lady Une asked.
Duo provided the answer. "He was the loon behind that phony group of pacifists called Pax Eterna. You know, the guys who took Cat and blew up a colony trade conference to cover it up, then went looking for what we thought was Tsuberov's only secret mobile suit factory." [4]
"And if it weren't for Tiel, we'd have never known that there were more," Trowa added. [5]
"So, getting back to Kronus, what did he do that finally convinced H that he was dangerous?" Hiiro asked.
Quatre's face darkened and tried force the trembling hands on his lap to still. "H-he tried to break me. He seemed to think that I'd be the weak link among us because of my space heart… that I'd be the easiest one for him to control. He… he was too hung up on my looks for comfort. I-if it hadn't been for H walking in that last day, h-he..."
"I told S exactly what the man is," Trowa chimed in, furious that their enemy had tried to hurt his husband once before. "When you've been the target of a predator, you can recognize the traits in others like them. S should have had the bastard shoved out one of the airlocks while he had a chance."
"Kronus may be crazy, Tro, but he's smart, too," said Duo, deftly turning the conversation back to the topic. "We need to check out all of his buildings and hit 'em all at once. If he catches on to our plans, he'll have time to escape and I'm positive he'll take it."
"Good idea," Lady Une replied grimly. "This has gone far beyond kidnapping and assault, people, and I can't afford to be down any of my best agents. Duo, Hilde, I want you to return to Interrogation and separate the victims from the willing employees. Question the victims and see what else you can find out. Hiiro, Wu Fei and Sally, I want you three to find out everything you can about Anthony Gaintz. Quatre, I want you and Trowa to locate any blue prints you can find for those buildings and lay out the best plan of attack.
"If this guy does have hostages, we'll need to know where they're being held and how to extract them without any losses. Their safety is our top priority, so we can't afford for anyone to go off half-cocked. Zechs, Noin and Nichol, I need you to create five teams out of this mess."
"Oi, Hiiro, could you come in here? We need your opinion on this," Trowa called out as the Wing Seraphim pilot passed.
"What's up?" Hiiro asked, joining them at a table mounted touch screen monitor loaded with blueprints.
"Of the five of us, Kronus knows my Trowa the least," explained Quatre. "We want you to work with us on the plans because he was in charge of most of your training. He knows all of us to some extent, but it seems to me that he's operating on the premise that my Trowa's the original Trowa Barton."
"We're pretty sure he's holding the hostages in this building," Trowa interjected as he expanded a blueprint. "My job's going to be getting them out of there in one piece. I should be able to find them all right, but until we have a good idea of how many and how old the hostages are, I'm worried about where we're going to stash them. If they're mostly kids that aren't too big or too frightened, I think I can hide them up here in the ventilation system."
Hiiro looked at them funny. "You're gonna take them into the ventilation system?"
"This one I would. You see, it's a specialty design, though only the manufacturer and a select few people know it. It's a fiberglass and steel composite, coated in a plastic/rubber hybrid polymer. It can easily hold close to a ton and it's pretty much impervious to an EM pulse."
"You're sure he's holding them in this building?"
"Yeah," Trowa sighed. "They were seen by a couple of the men Duo and Hilde have been interrogating. It sounds like he's not keeping them drugged, but he is using those fucking drops in their eyes."
"Drops?" inquired Hiiro.
"They burn and keep your vision blurry," Quatre elaborated. "If you rub your eyes, they make them burn worse and crust shut. I learned that the hard way."
"I have the solution to that," said Sally with a Cheshire Cat grin as she joined them. "I've just picked these babies up from the hospital and ordered them for all of our first aid kits." She handed them each a tube of clear liquid. "These were designed to neutralize most compounds that can be used to cause temporary blindness and distorted vision. Thanks to the files Trowa, here, found at their one base, I know which chemical mix Kronus likes to use."
"How much of this stuff do we use?" asked Trowa while examining the tube to find where it split in two.
"The tubes are actually two separate pieces. One dose per eye," answered Sally. "These are the latest advance in optical care. They were specifically designed for use by mobile suit pilots."
"In case a hydraulic line breaks?" questioned Quatre, giving the tube an appreciative glance.
"Among other things. This stuff will neutralize an amazing list of compounds."
"We're gonna need at least a couple dozen of these for the hostages," said Trowa, adding them to his list for his pack.
"The hostage list is up to two women and twenty children," said Lady Une, entering the room.
"Is that going to be a problem with your plans?" Hiiro asked, looking at the two maps closely. "Just out of curiosity, how the Hell did you ever learn to navigate this kind of mess?"
Trowa shrugged, his eyes turned to the map of the duct work. "I have an Eidetic memory, but I used to just keep exploring them till I found what I wanted. [3] S though it was some kind of instinct that I'd developed out of need. Most industrial buildings are set up in one of a dozen or so patterns, so it shouldn't be a problem. We'll use these offshoots to hide the kids."
"We should try to get our forces in on a seemingly unrelated cause. They'll probably focus more on that and make it easier for the two of you to slip in," said Hiiro. "Once we get confirmation that you have the hostages into the ventilation shaft, we'll rush all the facilities at once."
"You're taking them into the ventilation?" questioned Lady Une.
"Yeah. It's a fiberglass/steel composite covered in a plastic/rubber polymer. It should support the combined weight just fine. Quatre's coming with me."
"Okay, then I'll trust your judgment, Trowa. Duo and Hilde are going to lead the team taking down that facility. Zechs and Noin are going to lead the second team. Sally, you and Wu Fei will lead team three. Hiiro will lead team four and Nichol and I will lead team five. The two of you are in charge of getting the hostages to safety. We'll have paramedics waiting for you. We're working with the local LEOs to be mobilized in three hours. They've called in their SWAT teams to assist us. They'll be meeting here in two hours to finalize our plans.
"Noin's calling in our chosen teams; they'll be here within the next half hour. Quatre, can you be ready to brief them in about forty-five minutes?" Lady Une asked.
"Sure thing," Quatre answered. "We'll need the plans for all of the buildings in here and I'll need to go over them with each of the team leaders. How are Duo and Hilde doing on the interrogations?"
"They're in with the last guy now," Sally replied. "He's been a little bit tougher than the others; seems he's truly loyal to Kronus. Seems the only ones who are completely loyal are the ones who had the suicide plan."
"Good, let them know I need to be briefed before the meeting," Lady Une declared. "I'll need to know the team leaders' plans as soon as they're ready."
Quatre followed Trowa's lead as they snuck into the warehouse. The sting across the way made the perfect cover for the presence of so many officers. While all eyes in the building were busy watching the happenings across the street, no one was looking as they slipped into the exterior ventilation.
Trowa led the way through the strange duct system with ease. Each time they checked a series of rooms he would mark the cleared vents and tunnels with an iridescent mark. They were nearing mid-building when they found the first hostage. Trowa moved close and whispered against Quatre's cheek.
"I'm going in," he whispered. "Be ready to pull her up."
Trowa faced a room much like the one he'd found Quatre in. Voices played at different volumes, speeds, and in different languages while images and multicolored lights flashed and pulsed in time with the sounds. A little girl of six or seven was huddled in a corner with her knees pulled to her chest and her head on her arms across them. He dropped to the floor and knelt beside her, letting his hand rest on her shoulder to gain her attention.
"It's okay," said Trowa, placing his badge in her hand. "My name's Trowa, and I'm a Preventer. I've come to get you out of here. Did they put drops in your eyes?"
She nodded. "Uh-huh. They burned."
"I know, sweetheart," soothed Trowa, "but I've some stuff here that'll clear them right up. It's going to feel cold. Tip your head way back, open your eyes up wide and keep them open for me, okay?"
The girl nodded, then did as she was told. Trowa quickly split the tubes apart and emptied the contents of them into her eyes, flushing out the drops as best as he could.
"They don't burn any more," she said, awed. She then put her tiny hands to his face and added "You're pretty."
"Thank you. You are, too. I'm going to lift you up to my friend now, and we need you to stay quiet, okay?"
"Okay."
Quatre reached down and met her halfway before pulling her up into the duct. Once she was behind him, he pulled Trowa up and they closed the vent. The tow-headed man marked the vent with a different symbol before they moved on to the next one.
The next vent led to a dark room with the sound of heavy breathing. Trowa opened the vent and peered in through a small eye piece. With just a sign to Quatre, he dropped into the room and moved to the boy's side. He was barely on the floor before the boy started whimpering.
"Please, don't leave me in the dark," he sobbed.
"It's okay. My name's Trowa, and I'm a Preventer. I'm here to take you home," Trowa said softly. "Did the bad guys put any drops in your eyes?"
"Yeah, and they hurt," sniffled the boy as he latched on to Trowa's arm.
"I've got some stuff with me to make them feel better. Tip your head all the way back and open your eyes real wide for me," Trowa said gently. He quickly flushed the boy's eyes before moving him towards the vent. "I'm gonna lift you up to my partner now."
"You won't leave me?"
"Nope. My friend Quatre and a little girl are going to be up there with you, but I need you to be quiet for me, okay?"
"Okay."
They continued through the rest of the rooms, and soon they had rescued four women and twenty-nine children. Five of the kids, who were closer to babies in age, were all unconscious, their screams of agony too much of a risk to the group. The two women took two of them each without a word, while Quatre held the fifth, a little girl who's hair was the same color as his. He and Trowa settled the children in to wait for the team.
"All teams, the hostages are cleared. Repeat, the hostages are cleared. Be advised that we have five more children than expected," Trowa announced before going to radio silence.
"All teams, we are a go," Lady Une ordered over the radio while joining her team. "Kronus' capture is our top priority."
Agents moved in as one at the five buildings, an intricate dance of armed men and women versus their surprised foe. In most buildings, the agents found little to no resistance. Duo and Lady Une's teams found themselves trapped in fire fights within the close halls of the two labs. Trowa and Quatre listened in while each of the teams checked in.
"Team two's secured," Zechs called.
"Team three, secured," Sally added.
"Team four, secured," Hiiro said softly over the radio.
"Team one, reporting. We're under heavy fire," Duo responded, the sound of gunfire chasing his voice before the radio clicked off.
"Team five cleared, but we need a meat wagon here ASAP. We've got a lot of suicides," Lady Une stated. "Has anyone found Kronus yet?"
"IT'S ALL OVER, KRONUS!" Duo shouted over the sporadic gun fire. "ALL OF YOUR FACILITIES HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER AND THE HOSTAGES HAVE BEEN RELEASED. PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER, AND I GUARANTEE THAT YOU WON'T BE HARMED."
"Duo, someone's moving around back there," Hilde whispered. A loud scuffle from the hall where Kronus' men were making their stand signified the end of the fire fight. They came out with hands raised, weapons on the ground.
"We're surrendering. Are our families really safe?"
"Yeah. We'll take you to them shortly," Hilde replied as the men were led off. She could only imagine how they felt; their families were as much hostages as Quatre had been.
"There's someone else back here," Duo hissed before signaling for Hilde to follow him.
The two of them moved silently towards the office where someone was hastily shoving papers into a bag. Once they had a clear view, Duo knew who they had within their grasp and felt a savage grin tug at the corners of his mouth. Kronus was just as Duo remembered him: a tall, thin man with dark hair and eyes. While he may have been handsome at some point, it looked as though someone had recently taken a cheese grater to his face. With a glance at Hilde, he slipped into view with his gun trained on Kronus.
"Freeze, Kronus!" ordered Duo.
Kronus froze, his dark eyes lifting to fall on Duo. "Duo! How nice to see you again!"
"Do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up, asshole," said Duo evenly. "Anthony Gaintz, A.K.A. Kronus, your ugly ass is under arrest for the kidnapping and assault of Quatre Raberba Winner, among other things."
"Did you come alone, little God?" questioned Kronus in a lilting voice that set Duo's hair on end. Duo flinched but realized that Kronus couldn't see Hilde, though she could see into the room.
"Of course not. Ya think I'm that stupid? There's an entire team of Preventer agents in this building."
The slow grin that spread across his mangled features was disturbing, completely mad in its appearance. "I think not."
Where the gun had come from, he didn't know. The force of the first bullet grazing Duo's left arm nearly spun him around. The second one sliced through his vest, leaving a shallow crease across his ribs. His training took over and let the jester's mask that Kronus knew so well to fall away. He knew the effects of the transformation; he was terrifying, and the others had often told him as much.
He turned back to Kronus, shooting the dark haired man through the hand holding the gun. "Bad choice, asshole."
Hilde stepped into the room, her gun trained on Kronus. "Duo, status?"
"Took two hits, left arm and right ribs," Duo answered, wincing. "Nothing to worry about, Hilde; he just grazed me."
Relieved, Hilde grinned at Kronus with her best demented pixie grin. "You might call yourself Kronus, pal, but as I recall, his story didn't end too well."
"I'm the Father of the Gods," mumbled Kronus, "I created the Gods of War. I created them, so they belong to me." He turned madness tinted eyes towards Duo. "So pretty, all my little gods."
Just then, two Preventers moved in to cuff Kronus while Hilde ripped off Duo's sleeve to examine his wound. "The Olympians killed Kronus. Anthony Gaintz, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you…"
"Why didn't the nanites work on the children?" Kronus demanded, looking at Duo's nearly healed arm.
"WHAT?!" Duo bellowed. He could feel his rage building beyond what he felt he could control. "YOU INFECTED THOSE KIDS WITH THEM?! Get... him... out of here. NOW!"
"Yes, sir," a young man named Henson replied with a savage grin.
Duo turned his attention to the rest of his team and asked "Status?"
"The building's secured, sir," came the reply.
"Team one's secured. We've caught Kronus," Duo said wearily over the main channel. "Quatre, Trowa, unless they're in need of more urgent care, you'd better get the hostages to Preventer medical ASAP."
Author's Notes: Well, we've come to the end of another chapter, and I have an announcement to make. Unfortunately, I'll no longer be archiving new stories on Adult Fanfiction dot Net, and will be taking all my old ones down. The reason is twofold; first is they demand that you include full disclaimers on every single chapter, and second is they threatened to take down the first chapter of this one unless I produced written permission from Shinigami's Soul to adopt this, which as I explained in Chapter One's notes, I'd been trying to do for months now. From the look of things, she no longer uses the e-mail address she registered on MediaMiner with, getting that permission is not possible, so I took Chapter One down from AFF.
From now on, my MA rated stories will appear on An Archive of Our Own, and all of them will be on my LiveJournal and Tumblr pages and on the Gundam Wing Fans website (I might set up another WordPress app on the site for posting fanfic). The fanfic blog will be free for anyone to sign up, and you can post your own, too, and any pairing you like is okay with me.
Annotations:
[1] Gratuitous reference to the Fox TV show Bones. Dr. Lance Sweets (played by John Francis Daley) was an FBI psychologist on that show.
[2] Will be covered in an "Episode Zero" chapter of my rewrite of the series.
[3] & [4] Will be covered in New World Order (thinking of changing the title. It's kinda lame.)
[5] Will be covered in my version of Tiel's Impulse. In this, Tiel is 19, and is the pilot of the Gundam Nemesis.
[6] A.K.A., photographic memory. Some people claim it doesn't exist, but I think it does.
Next Chapter: Five children were infected by nanites, but something is wrong with them. Unable to participate in the investigation, Trowa and Quatre head for their home for some rest and reconnecting.
Next, on Gundam Wing: Let Slip the Gods of War - Night Terrors.