Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Our Little Lights ❯ The First Light ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 1: The First Light

A.C. 197
Abandoned Laboratory
Section 47 of Colony L1

Duo typically knew how to handle the moody Japanese pilot. He knew that on a normal mission his inane blabbering was almost a comfort for the other teen, but after receiving the phone call from Une, Duo had no idea how to handle Heero. Almost immediately he noticed Heero’s demeanor become cold and distant, and he refused to give any specific details about the mission. Although from the obvious display of emotion on his partners face, it wasn’t going to be a good mission.

Duo had called Hilde minutes before he and Hero went into hiding, letting her know that he was safe and he would be home after the mission. But, he had yet to get Heero to talk to him. He couldn’t figure out what was going on in the Japanese teens head. There was something about the abandoned laboratory that seemed to upset him.

“So…what did Une want us ta find?” Duo asked for what seemed like the millionth time.

Heero didn’t answer, he continued to load the gun clip with more bullets. He sat stiffly on an old wooden crate, a small container filled with individually packed bullet casings resting next to him. His left leg was propped up on the diagonal piece of wood, while his right hung down in front of him. His shoulders were slouched as he focused on loading the gun.

“Ah, c’mon man!” Duo complained, he all but collapsed on the crate next to Heero, reaching out he covered the half full clip forcing Heero to stop, “What’s with you and this lab?”

Heero sighed, his hand tightening on the metal, “…I was trained here.” His voice was quiet, not as forceful as it had been earlier that day, almost lost in a bad memory. His eyes were blocked by the small cascade of auburn hair that moved in front of his eyes.

“…And what is it we’re trying ta find?” Duo asked again, his voice equally quiet.

“..Whatever J left behind.” The teen was still quiet, his body still tense, “Whatever he left for the rest of the screwed up scientist to finish…”

Duo nodded, giving his leader a small smile, “Well why are we sitting around here for? Let’s get this one done and over with. Okay?”

Moving his hand from under Duo’s, Heero easily finished filling the clip. The two sat in silence while he worked. Duo’s violet eyes were watching his every move, he was amazed as he watched the once Perfect Soldier working in front of him. He was slowly becoming the pilot they had known, his eyes hardening, his muscles tuning to that of perfection, not too tense, but not too relaxed, his own euphoria.

As Heero finished, he quickly loaded the clip into the Beretta .07 mm, cocked the gun, and clicked the safety on. Looking over to Duo, Heero nodded before picking up his Preventer jacket and quickly putting it on.

“Let’s go.”

Duo jumped up from the crate, smiling, the same confident aura that surrounded 01 was back.

“Alright, 01 and Shinigami are back in town!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The two moved further into the base, moving with as much stealth as each could muster. Heero immediately sensed that there was something wrong. There was dust gathering on objects, which all looked as if they hadn’t been used in some time…

The lab was completely abandoned.

There were no scientist walking the halls analyzing data or talking amongst each other. There was just…nothing and it was unnerving. He knew the secrets of the lab, he knew the hiding places better than anyone, and yet, there was still anyone in sight.

“Something’s wrong..” Duo started, he slowly lowered his gun, glancing over his shoulder to look back the way they came, “Heero.”

“Shh.” The 01 Pilot looked to the wall across from them, there had been a hidden door there. But it wasn’t a very big room if he remembered. Reaching out he slowly pushed against the wall, he almost jumped as it gave in. As the door slide open, he took a step forwards into the dark room.

Immediately he noticed that his footsteps were giving off an echo, that small of a room shouldn’t have given off an echo. He could fell his heart beating against his chest. Breathing in he took another step forwards and the lights flickered on, the place was motion censored now.

Blinking rapidly for a few seconds, Heero looked back at Duo, watching the American walk in behind him. Turning back to the room in front of him he froze at the sight before him. He remembered the place being like a storage closet, not an entire warehouse!

“Holy shit..” Duo murmured his gun lowered, “What the hell is this place..”

The room was filled with cylinder like tubes, four rows and seven tubes in each row. Each tube was large enough to hold a full grown man, but the liquid that would have went inside was all drained.
Duo stepped up to the closest tube and looked down to the bottom grate, only to find a deteriorating corpse on a infant. Immediately he jumped back, his violet eyes wide, “What the fuck!”

Heero walked over to the tube and looked in himself, his nose scrunched up a the sight of the black and dark red flesh eating away at it self, exposing color stained bones. Feeling his chest tighten at the sight of the dead baby, Heero looked to the tube next to it, walking over he peered inside and found the same thing.

“Shit..” Duo could only shake his head at the sight of the second body, the skull was against the glass.

“These were a couple weeks old..” Heero said, his voice quiet, but still sharp, slowly circling the tube he gazed at the corpse from all angles. It was difficult to tell what gender the baby was from the curled up fetal position it was in. As his eyes moved over the body he caught sight of something that didn’t fit with the back of the skull. Narrowing his eyes in confusion he knelt down to try and get a closer look, “They we’re branded..”

“Branded?” Duo asked, he looked over at Heero confusion in his violet orbs, “What like cattle branding?”

“No! Like a bar code, like this.” Heero turned his back to Duo and moving the hair at the base of his neck out of the way as much as he could.

“No way..” Duo could faintly make out the markings of a bar code underneath the dark hair on the back of Heero’s neck. It was the same bar code on the babies, but Heero’s was hidden, placed higher up.

Turning back Heero looked at the tube, “They were clones.” Standing he looked to the top of the cylinder and found the same bar code from the babies skull on the top of the cylinder, “They were trying to make another soldier..”

“Weren’t you enough?” Duo exclaimed, his violet eyes wide. Heero had been nothing short of a tyrant on the battle field destroying everything and anything, and completing his missions down to the tiniest detail. He couldn’t comprehend why they would want to create another Heero.

“No…I hold emotions, which is something they didn’t want. They wanted an emotionless soldier-”

“They wanted ta steal your humanity! Christ, these guys were messed up..” Looking around the large warehouse Duo sighed. “J was a piece of work.” Shaking his head he turned to walked towards the hidden door, which was still open. Feeling his gut twist slightly he stopped, it was a natural instinct that he listened to. It was the subconscious part of his mind guiding him, keeping him alive ever since he was a child on L2. But this feeling was guided towards someone…

Resting a hand over his clothed abdomen he looked over to Heero, who looked and felt perfectly fine, a bit upset about the clones, but overall he was fine. Narrowing his eyes, he looked to the ground in front of him, concentrating on his wife, maybe she was in trouble…but the churning in his gut didn’t feel like Hilde, it was someone else…

“What’s wrong?” Heero asked as he passed Duo, “Corpses finally catching up to you?” He had noticed Duo’s face go a bit grey at the sight of the dead infants, and he was holding his stomach in a way that would suggest that he might be sick.

“N-no..” Looking around the room, Duo turned back towards the cylinders, “I just have a weird feeling in my gut is all..” Slowly he walked further into the warehouse.

“What are you doing?”

“Were there anymore hidden rooms in this place?” Holstering his gun, Duo continued to follow his gut, he looked back at Heero trying to get a bit more information about the lab, get a feel for its secrets.

“No, this was suppose to be a small room, not a warehouse.” Heero raised an eyebrow at the American, he couldn’t figure out why Duo was so curious about the room, “Why?”

“I just feel like there’s something we missed…check the tubes. See if there isn’t one alive.” Walking over to the nearest tube he peered in.

“They’re all dead, they’ve been dead for at least 10 months.” Heero opened his jacket and holstered his own gun. He watched as Duo moved from tube to tube examining the dead bodies, deciding Duo was somewhat right, he started with the first row, closest to him.

Duo felt the feeling grow as he moved from one tube to the next, it was getting stronger, he needed to find whatever it was leading him on. As he neared the last row he prayed for there to be signs of life.

Nothing...

Every tube was holding death, there were none alive.

“Damnit!” He cursed. Turning towards the back wall, he caught sight of another door. Running forward he threw his shoulder against the metal door, easily swinging door open.

“Duo! Wait!” Heero ran after the 02 pilot.
What was Duo looking for!

Pushing the door open, Heero froze at what he saw. It was an empty room, except for one thing.. There was a cradle sitting off to the side of the room, plain and white. He watched as Duo moved towards it, he could feel his heart beating wildly against his chest. Was the child inside still alive?

Moving with all the stealth he could muster, Duo walked to the side of the cradle, turning his violet eyes down to the soft baby blue blanket he easily recognized the outline of a baby curled up underneath. The child had to be alive, there was no smell of rotting flesh, or deteriorating fat, holding his breath he reached down for the blanket and gently moved it aside.

“He’s alive!” Smiling Duo reached down and gently picked up the baby boy, “Heero, he’s alive!” Carefully cradling the baby the American watched as the child’s eyes flickered open. “…He’s a spitting image of you…except small.”

Looking back up at the Japanese teen, he watched as relief and uncertainty flickered through Heero’s eyes, the same eyes the baby had. “Holy shit…how could they just abandon him?”

Narrowing his eyes, Heero looked around the room, the placed seemed to be well kept, no dust layers could be visibly seen and the rocking chair, which was blocked by the cradle, had been well used. Whomever was taking care of the child was coming in from a different direction than that of Duo and Heero’s route.

“Take him with us, we’re leaving..” Heero looked back at the baby, unsure of it. He had hardly been around children, but this….he was so tiny…

Duo looked over at Heero and smiled, “Can we keep him?”

~*~*~*~*~*~AN: well there’s chapter 1...1 review is sad, but oh well…maybe you guys will like this chapter better…