Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 21 ( Chapter 21 )

21:

“Fuck this shit!” Tracey fell to her knees and puked. Trowa couldn't blame her; he agreed with the sentiment entirely. That didn't stop him from feeling superior as he carefully stepped around the puke and took a deep breath as he got his bearings. There was nothing but grey and for a minute he thought he was affected worse than he had thought, but then he realised it was a grey wall. A very solid grey wall.

“The lift to Level 6?”

“Yup.”

“You built a Molecularization Pad in a lift?”

“Well, no...I didn't,” Tracey corrected and the tone of voice clearly said she thought that should be obvious. “I'm not that old!” But how old she was seemed a little more a mystery than it had been a day ago, and that was strange, in Trowa's no longer so humble opinion. But stranger things had happened than coming back into being in a lift, so he didn't question why Harrison might have designed it that way. Perhaps he'd had some small inkling of the monster he'd created? Whoever had done it, it was useful so whatever.

Trowa pressed the up button and bit his tongue as it lurched to life, not helping his nausea at all. Still, it was worth it to see the look on Yuy's face when he stepped out to find Heero engrossed with hacking the system.

“Barton...”

“Yuy.” It was so nice to be able to play familiar games again. He wasn't taking to working with Tracey at all! When they got out of this mess, Wufei was coming back to Preventers and Trowa refused to ever change partners again. Ever. For anything. Other people had a terrible sense of humour!

“Who's she?”

“Tracey? She makes good coffee.”

It won a snort from Tracey and Trowa felt his job was done but he made introductions anyway and then hoisted the legs he was carrying up where Heero could get a good look at them.

“She made these.”

“Why?” Even Heero seemed disgusted, and that was pretty hard to do. The guy liked to reset his own bones, after all, and Trowa was pretty sure that one time Duo had dislocated his shoulder mid-mission and Heero'd had to reset it that the guy had enjoyed it. Like it was foreplay or something!

“Because Frank told her to!” He wished Duo was there just because he knew the guy would be humming the twilight zone theme. They'd spent a whole week holed up at Trowa's apartment when Heero's leave fell through, leaving Duo with a week's vacation and no Yuy to play with, watching Twilight zone and various other old school horror shows. Trowa hadn't been able to get Duo to stop leaving creepy humming messages on his phone for months.

“She got plans?” Heero sounded so affronted Trowa wanted to laugh. Yes, the girl got plans to build stuff and they'd just gotten a riddle. A stupid riddle at that, but he supposed Frank had considered it enough instructions for them to get by or something. Maybe he'd thought Tracey needed something more explicit? It was like a compliment when you looked at it that way! Compliments were good!

“Legs, an orb and a disk drive to store!” Yeah, it sounded a lot more interesting than their crazy memo had. Not that Heero seemed to agree; the look on his face clearly said `are you fucking serious' even if the words weren't making it out of his tightly pursed lips.

“Legs,” was what managed to finally escape him.

“Yeah...for Hatty.”

“You mean the thing in the Origen capsule?” Calling her a thing wasn't the nicest thing Heero could have done, but Trowa supposed there were worse things and he'd used a few of them himself at various times. Still, he was offended on her behalf. If Hatty could be called a she...

“Yeah, the thing in the Origen capsule.”

“Weren't you supposed to be getting us help?” And really, Yuy, what were you doing other than playing with computers to debateable success? Because really, they had no way of knowing how much Frank knew about what they were doing. For all they knew, Frank wanted Heero to hack in. But he wasn't supposed to be thinking about that. Right.

“Do I look like I know how to attach cyborg legs to you? That's her job,” he pointed a thumb at Tracey, who just blinked at him and put her hands up, disk drive in one hand and the orb in the other.

“Heeey, I just got given plans, no one said anything about operating!”

“She's not alive,” Trowa pointed out, pushing Tracey in the direction of the capsule. “And like you said...you got plans. I got riddles and bad directions. And robot help. So...fix my robot for me!” Honestly, he wasn't expected to do everything himself. Besides, he was supposed to be getting them personnel. One person added to the team, and he knew of at least one more he could recruit...

“Go get Farrar,” Heero grunted, fingers still poking madly at the keys. Whatever he was doing, Trowa didn't think it was going to plan. At all. Which was all the more reason to get out of there before Heero lost his patience and decided shooting stuff would be faster and more cathartic.

“Yes, Sir,” Trowa mock saluted and headed for the lift before pausing and pointing at the still open door. “Do they know we're here?”

“Not really. I rented the room,” Heero noted. And really, he did what now? And Trowa had just been thinking about getting a new place! But how had Heero managed that?

“With what money?”

“Yours. I hacked your account.” Of course he did! Trowa scowled but it really wasn't worth arguing so he just headed on down, leaving Tracey to have to deal with him and really, maybe Heero would shoot her and teach her not to gob off at Gundam pilots. He angrily checked the codes for the Pad in the lift so he could connect the others to it and then left.

The room was at least ten times the size of his old one and Trowa had to admit he liked it, not that he was thinking of moving in or anything, the idea was to get out of Frank not set up house but still. He could fit a tiger or three...Or maybe a monkey! He'd always wanted to own a monkey. Still no space for an elephant, but maybe one would fit in the gardens where the passionflowers grew...

“I've got to get off this freakin station,” he muttered to himself. He stuck his head out the door but the corridor was empty. Not surprising considering they'd emptied it of a great deal of its population. The wives and children were likely still holed up inside, terrified. Frank was no doubt reassuring them he was doing everything in his power to resolve the situation and to stay inside.

Because sitting on your hands doing nothing always solved everything.

He made his way back to his own shuttle stop slowly, taking back routes he knew wouldn't be under heavy use at that time of day, trying to confuse Frank, if he was even aware of where Trowa was or what he was doing. Trowa hoped he was preoccupied with the military and getting them to Earth.

It still took far longer than he would have liked, but he couldn't bring himself to care when the alternative was using Pads. He wondered what over-exposure to those things did to you, but doubted there was any research to check.

The temple was in transition from day to night, people leaving for dinner and bed, only the stragglers rushing in for last minute prayers. Trowa took his time, going in and taking a seat near the candles and just watching the soft lights flicker, wondering how Wufei was, if he was home yet, if he was feeling better. If they'd found a way to help him.

If he was thinking of him, even half as much as Trowa found his thoughts straying to Wufei.

The chair rocked and a shadow sat at his side. Trowa didn't need to look to know it was Farrar. He didn't bother saying anything either, just continued to stare and took his five minutes...or half hour. It didn't matter how long it was; Wufei deserved more than however long it was. Wufei deserved every thought he had. So he took a moment, to give Wufei what he could, even if Wufei would never know.

“He is not here, then.”

“We got him out,” Trowa confirmed. Unfortunately he hadn't gotten himself out. He could have been home now, buying an elephant.

“You're still here.” Obviously.

“The job's not done.”

“No...it's done. He's not here. But there's a new job, right?”

“Something like that,” Trowa chuckled. Sometimes Farrar was too much the monk or father figure. Trowa didn't need advice, he needed power. Or really, for Frank to come to his senses and realise the world didn't need a mechanical overlord. Either one, really.

“I won't be of much help,” Farrar pointed out and the uncertainty in his voice was actually a relief. Trowa didn't particularly like being sworn at, or having it pointed out that he was missing key information or really just having it implied that he was an idiot. He wasn't, so it should never be implied. He'd gotten used to these things helping Quatre build and maintain his empire, mostly because when Quatre lost his shit, he really lost his shit, but this was different. He felt alone now, more than he had when he first arrived, knowing he'd had Wufei and lost him again even if that wasn't technically what had happened. Still, the loneliness was there, like a fist constantly punching him in the chest and it was nice just to have someone else seem human. Superhumans were cool, in comic books. This was real life.

“You'll help then?”

“You know, I suspect it's part of my job description,” Farrar chuckled but he was nodding. “I will help, in whatever way I can. This mess of yours...it was never Harry's dream.”

A reason wasn't necessary but as reasons went the defence of your dead brothers dream against what it had become and subsequently happened to be his murderer...well, that had to be up there. Trowa just smiled and nodded. He wasn't sure what Farrar Jules knew, or what he was capable of but if his brother had designed Frank he doubted Farrar was a moron.

“You know how to use Molecularizaton Pads?”

That made Farrar raise a brow and then he just laughed, clapping a hand on Trowa' shoulder and standing up to stretch, apparently thinking the mission, whatever it was, wasn't going to be as hard as he had feared.

“Son, I created those Pads.”

Of course. Because nothing said I outdid you than building a giant killing station in retaliation for your brother solving the issue of instantaneous travel. Siblings. Trowa was glad he didn't have any, though really he thought maybe his friends were worse, and he'd happily die for them too.

“Right. Well then, you can go to Tracey' room and reprogram her Pad to connect to our internal system. I can give you a list of the ones we have running. I'll go to My Room and add the new ones there, and then check up on Giles and fix that Pad.” With any luck Nataku would be there and he could pass on the information for her to install in the SiS.

“I can do that. It won't take long, where should I go after that?”

Trowa was busy writing down all the instructions; Tracey's room address, the Lift code, the locations for the other Pads; everything. If Farrar betrayed them it wasn't information Frank didn't likely already know anyway, and it was easier than hoping Farrar remembered. Besides, people could still be tortured and while Trowa had faith in a monk's ability to meditate, he'd never tested how long one could mediate while having their fingernails torn off. So he threw caution to the wind.

“Go to the lift and help Tracey do...whatever she's trying to do.” Attach legs? How long would that take? And then there was the disk drive and the orb, who even knew what those were for! And maybe he could help Heero hack into Frank, or something. He would be more useful there than here, that was all Trowa knew.

“Tracey...the girl who makes coffee?” Seriously? What was with these people and coffee?

“Yes. The girl who makes coffee.”

“Huh...” But Farrar was already taking the information and sedately heading for the shuttle port, smiling to the stragglers as he went, waving as people called out to him. Looking like it was just another day in the temple. It was grating enough that Trowa took several more minutes just to glare at the candles and remind himelf he couldn't wish ill on the man when he was helping them.

He left feeling no better than when he'd come. But he'd never been big on religion, so.

His Room felt strange. Empty. He was used to coming in and finding Heero sprawled out across the floor with his computers, Duo in the kitchenette with something on the stove and the wall Computer's control in his hand, Wufei crashed out on the bed. So little time to grow so accustomed to a life...Trowa realised how badly he wanted it, not that he hadn't known but having a taste made it worse somehow. He staggered to the bed and sat down hard, reaching out for Wufei's pillow and lying down, hugging it hard against himself and breathing deeply.

Disinfectant and shampoo, but that was all he had left of him for the moment. He spent longer than he should have, and dozed off to daydreams of Wufei still there with him. He woke to the message board coming to life, a cursor flashing in the corner, but otherwise no message.

Frowning, Trowa hurriedly checked the time, but it had only been an hour, and then he double checked the screen hadn't scrolled or anything equally as stupid but there really was no message. It had just turned itself on to flash at him. Somehow, he didn't think it was a malfunction. Was he supposed to think it was and put in a maintenance request? Surely Frank didn't think he was that stupid?

While he glared at the screen and tried to figure it out he went about installing the new co-ordinates and codes into the Pad, calibrating it for the new locations and checking that all were receiving data. It didn't take long; he was more than familiar with the technology now and it was something he wasn't all that proud of. He didn't want to be familiar with Frank. He wanted to forget Frank existed at all.

He was no closer to solving the issue of his faulty message board, so he set it back to the default screen and checked he didn't need anything from His Room before heading for Harry's lab.

Giles was sprawled out on the floor, staring at the ceiling. For a moment as his stomach roiled and threatened to empty its non-existent contents, Trowa thought he was dead. Then his head fell sideways and the man stared at him and sighed. So he was breathing at least, but Trowa still found himself searching for an enemy. There wasn't one.

“I'm fine,” Giles reassured him, struggling to sit up and just waving a hand at the laptop. “Just...having no luck at all. Frank's got everything locked under his control so tight I doubt his twin could get in.”

Not that either of them were surprised, but still. It was annoying. It was also nice to have someone be as frustrated as him, and not afraid to show it.

“I've got Tracey and Farrar.”

“Farrar...Harry's brother, Farrar?” Giles seemed genuinely surprised. “I thought he gave up science for the temple after that fiasco helping some crazy ass scientist build a robot?”

That got Trowa's attention and he had to laugh because Farrar had said he recognised him, and he had known he flew a Gundam and well, it wasn't that much of a stretch to imagine the man realising he'd made a terrible mistake, giving up his awful science and fleeing to his brother's space station to live out his days in repentance. It didn't stop him from wondering which Gundam he'd worked on.

“Oh...04,” Giles waved a hand, apparently finding Trowa's next question obvious. “A lot of the people here are from L4. Too much money in one place and no one with money likes being told what to do.”

That, Trowa knew. Quatre definitely did not like being told what to do. Telling other people what to do, well Trowa was sure he got at least a little kick out of that.

“Yes. That Farrar,” was all there really was to say. He wondered who else was hiding out inside Frank, thinking they had sins to atone for that were plain ridiculous, but it was irrelevant. He just had to finish the job, and get home to Wufei.

“Tracey built Hatty some legs.”

“Because she needs those stuck in the Origen capsule.” Giles had that sarcasm thing down pat. So straight faced and everything! Trowa was almost jealous but he just shrugged because he had no idea if they could get Hatty out, but apparently she was going to need legs. Hatty walking wasn't something he really wanted to think about but he was sure it would make her happy.

Hatty. Happy. He really had to remind himself they were machines.

To take his mind off things that didn't matter, he went about inputting the data for the new Pads and getting them linked for easier movement through Frank. It didn't take long, since he'd just done exactly the same thing in His Room, but the monotony of the task helped soothe frayed edges in his mind and he found himself relaxing into the task.

He was almost done when the Pad activated and he rolled sideways before he would be caught in the transfer, scowling at Nataku as she stepped off and looked down at him showing no sign of the effects of the Re-Molecularization and worse, looking like she thought he might be insane for being sprawled out at her feet.

“Are you alright, Triton?”

“Fine,” he glared. “Just peachy.” He got up and brushed off his knees, finishing enabling the new co-ordinates in the Pad and then bowing low to Nataku, feeling incredibly annoyed at the world and well aware he was just pissy because Wufei wasn't around. He was starting to recall going off the rails a little the last time Wufei `disappeared'. He idly wondered how much worse it might have been if he had known exactly where Wufei had gone.

“Frank has disabled many of my access codes,” Nataku noted and she almost sounded pissed off.

“You mean, you're only...human?” Giles laughed at his own joke and even Trowa had to smile because okay, that was funny. But it was an annoyance too. If she couldn't access Level 1 completely, they could gain no control over the military.

“I am not human. I am...”

“Yeah, yeah, we know!” Trowa quieted her with a wave of his hand, trying to think of something to do with the military but for the moment it seemed to be out of their hands. He sat down hard in the chair at the computer and ran a quick scan of the systems Frank was accessing but he was moving so quickly it was hard to notice anything that might have been suspicious and he gave it up pretty quickly.

“There's nothing we can do. Is there?”

Giles was right, there was nothing and Trowa just shook his head.

“We should head to Level 6 to regroup. There's no point sitting here doing nothing waiting for the rendezvous.” Trowa was already moving for the Pad, checking once again that everything was running and the Pads were all connected to the network and communicating as required. The last thing he wanted was one to drop out and disrupt the process, leaving him in nowhere land.

“We need a new plan,” Nataku pointed out stoically and Trowa was grateful Giles was glaring so he didn't have to because hello, that was obvious! He just hoped Heero had some better ideas than the nonsense his own sleep-deprived brain was coming up with. Maybe sleep should be the plan, it had been a while and they were only going to get worse and make more mistakes. He didn't want to be the one to bring it up though. Besides, did robot-girl even need to sleep?

“Okay, let's go,” Giles ushered them all onto the Pad, though he seemed just as dubious as Nataku and Trowa about actually going anywhere, but then it was too late and they were already in the lift, which was remarkably smaller than he recalled with three people bent over in it gagging.

“There has to be an easier way to go about things,” Giles complained. Trowa just grunted in reply and hit the up button on the lift, seeing no point in delaying the second bout of nausea as the lift moved up to the next Level.

The doors opened and Trowa barely got a foot out the door before something flew at his face and he found himself shoved back into the lift. He would have crashed had Giles and Nataku not caught him and kept him up. Trowa grappled with the thing that had collided with his face and shoved it away only to stare in stunned...something. Was this what people meant when they said they were in a stupor? He sure felt stupid. Did that even count?

“Hatty?” Giles reached out and touched her cheek as if she might be an illusion. As if her collision course with Trowa hadn't been proof enough she was a tangible...thing.

“Triton's back, Triton's back, Triton's back!” Was she trying to kiss him? Trowa shoved her backward and watched as she stumbled on legs....legs! Hatty, with legs. They had seemed short and small when he had held them but on her they were in proportion; she was a small thing, almost like a child as she skipped around in a circle to get her balance back and then turned to look at him again.

“Is she...grinning?” Giles stepped behind Trowa as if Hatty might bite them, or rub off, or generally try to interact with him at all.

“Probably,” Trowa muttered, though he had to admit it was hard to tell. He definitely needed to get Tracey to make the robot a skull cap, because at the moment it looked like her skin might slide off and her eye might fall out of her damn head the way she was spinning around in excitement.

“Look, Triton! I got legs! Harrison never had time to make me legs, but Tracey made some for me! Aren't they pretty? Do I look nice with legs?”

“Is she modelling for you?” Giles sounded like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or cry. Trowa understood the feeling. He had thought her gone and had felt guilt over it, yes, but also a sense of relief. He felt strangely responsible for Hatty, almost as though she were a young teenager he had somehow led astray and now needed to do something about. He wished, every now and then, that he had never turned her on, but like most things in Frank she had served a purpose in helping him get Wufei back and that was something he couldn't regret.

“Congratulations, Hatty. You look great.” It was the best he could manage, and if it gave her ideas then maybe they were ideas she was supposed to have. Who was he to dictate what robots should or should not believe they feel?

Apparently very pleased with his response Hatty skipped back to where Tracey was sitting on the edge of the Origen capsule, legs inside the gel, hands working on something inside. Startled by Hatty's flying leap at his face, Trowa hadn't realised what that meant; that no one was in the capsule. He hurried over and peered in, startled to see the orb, lit up and stabbed in a myriad places by the various connections, Tracey carefully connecting her own work tablet as well, observing the orb's actions as it connected to Frank.

“Is it working?”

“It is not a replacement for the Origen,” she warned immediately. “It's just a virus made to simulate the presence of the Origen and slow Frank down. Based on the feedback I'm getting I estimate Frank will be able to override its effects in about a day and a half...two days at most.”

It was still something. Hatty was petting Tracey's head, as if congratulating a dog on a job well done. Giles looked particularly disturbed and moved away to sit near Heero and Trowa had to admit it was a good move. If you were concerned about what the creepy robot girl might do to you, Yuy was your best bet at survival. That went for most scenarios, if he was honest, but when it came to praising the abilities of Heero Yuy, Trowa didn't like being honest often. It might go to the man's head or something.

Hatty came back over to him and wrapped both her cold arms around one of his own, hugging him hard. Trowa just sighed and let her stay there, rolling his eyes at the baseball cap she had on, still backwards, but still covered in drying green gel. It looked hideous, but somehow on her it all worked.

“We've stopped moving,” Heero noted softly.

“We've arrived?”

“We're near Earth,” Heero confirmed. “Far enough away that a battle won't harm it in crossfire, but close enough to be a real threat. Frank's already receiving warnings from Preventers and the UN.” Which would be steadfastly ignored, they were all sure.

“Hatty, do you remember anything that Frank was planning?” Nataku asked, putting out a hand for Hatty to take, only Trowa watched as a long spike slid out of her palm; a data port and he wondered if he was ever going to get used to the weird crap they could do. He hoped not, because that would mean a lot of his time would be spent with them and the less time he spent in Frank the more time, theoretically, he would get with Wufei.

Hatty took Nataku's hand and her eyes closed, a rich green light emanating from under the skin as they communicated or transferred data, or whatever robot girls did when they held hands.

“So, orb and legs...check. What was the disk drive for?”

Tracey looked over at them but just shrugged and pointed to the drive sitting on her bag in the corner, wiggling her gel-caked fingers at them. Trowa went and fetched the drive and handed it to Heero so he could plug it in and see what was on it, but he was distracted by Hatty and Nataku releasing one another and Hatty rushing back to his side, once again attaching herself to his arm. He supposed he could tell her to get off, but the chances of her listening were slim.

“Frank has control of all satellites surrounding Earth,” Nataku said softly. “He's mobilized the military and is preparing to infiltrate the UN.”

“What?” Heero looked stumped and Trowa had to agree that it was a big ask. Just who the hell did he think he was sending to do that? But there had to be people in Frank who'd had power once. People who had wanted peace long before Relena had started sprouting the same sort of nonsense and succeeded. Now there were a lot more people likely to listen to someone from before the war who'd tried to tell them all the same thing. If they'd been right then, maybe they were right now? People were so gullible it almost hurt to watch them.

“The drive seems unprotected,” Heero looked up expectantly. “I can access it, but there might be something I haven't noticed. I could destroy it.”

“Just try it. It's not like we'd be losing anything, if we can't access it anyway.”

Heero seemed to agree because his fingers were moving quickly on the keys and then he was reading and Trowa had to keep himself from stepping up to look over his shoulder so he didn't have to stand there and wait for a report like he worked for Heero.

“It's...bank information. Stocks, bonds, accounts...” He was frowning, not really knowing what it was so Trowa took a look, picking up the laptop and staring at the screen but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to him either. It was Nataku who looked at it with something like understanding.

“Harrison's accounts. He was very adamant that I collect as much of the station's assets under his different company names as possible and keep it separate from the System.”

“Frank's assets?” Giles lunged forward to get a look himself, but there was so much information there that it really would take hours to pull apart, which was time they didn't need to waste while Nataku was right there ready to enlighten them.

“How much of the Station assets is in Harrison's name?”

“Just under sixty five percent,” Nataku sounded certain. Heero was laughing, sitting back on his hands and outright laughing and Trowa had to agree it was pretty funny. Even funnier when Farrar stepped out of the lift to find them all there laughing at him.

“What did I miss?”

“Oh, you just became the richest man in the universe. Don't sweat it.”

“Huh?” Farrar frowned at them all and came forward to see what they were looking at, and then just shrugged.

“I don't see how that helps us.”

“Because if Frank buys Preventers from Winner Corp, and you have the greatest share in Frank, you own Preventers,” Heero pointed out, clearly of the opinion that should be obvious.

“Not if Frank doesn't want to accept that I'm his boss,” Farrar pointed out with just as much attitude. It was rather nice, in Trowa's opinion, to see Heero getting sassed at. Sure, Duo did it occasionally, but Heero seemed to enjoy that so it didn't count at all!

“Can you build a Pad capable of getting us planetside?” Trowa asked suddenly.

“Well...yeah, but...”

“And once on Earth, could you build one to get us back?”

“Maybe, but it's a huge distance! And that could take...”

“How long?”

“I don't know! A day...maybe?” He certainly didn't look certain about it but it was something.

“Do it.”

“But...”

“Now!” Heero and Trowa snapped in unison, then glared at each other before sighing.

“You still think just blowing the crap out of Frank isn't the best course of action?” He might have said yes just because Heero sounded so damn smug.

“We'll see.”