Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 28 ( Chapter 28 )

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

Palace of justice 28

"Where are we going?"
"First? To get you a SiS."
Heero was quiet for a minute, apparently just letting that idea sink in and then he was smirking, nodding in agreement.
"I like that plan." Naturally, because Trowa was quite sure Heero had been jealous of Trowa having a SiS from the moment he got on board Frank and realised Trowa had access to the best new toy. Had their positions been reversed, Trowa would have found an excuse by now to have his own new, shiny toy, but Heero was obedient like that.
They went to Trowa's hanger, and Trowa pretended that Heero was a fellow pilot coming to check on the new kids question while the real mechanics were all busy. He used his simulator to hack into the defence personnel database and duplicated his account, inputting Heero's data and finding a free SiS. There was only one, but that was fine. He would give Giles the honour of being the one who had finally fixed it. It would also give them a better excuse for always being around the damn thing. Trowa suspected it had originally been assigned to Harrison, or that the man had at least broken it on purpose and assigned himself to its repair.
"You know, it's almost like the people here like you," Heero observed and Trowa just glared at him, mostly because it was true. He'd always been good at infiltration but this was different. It felt different. He'd put some part of himself into this that he usually kept separate and while he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, it was still there in the back of his mind that he'd done it. He'd tried to make this home, and in some way it had worked. Maybe it was because Wufei was there, he couldn't really say for sure, but there was more to it than that as well. He liked it here.
He liked Frank, and Nataku even if she had shot him, and while he doubted he would ever admit to it he liked Hatty. Unless she cried while begging him, then he would probably say he did. But pretend he didn't so if Heero or Duo ever heard about it he could claim insanity, or something like it.
"Can't fault their taste," Trowa finally mumbled, because there was no way Heero would have made friends had he been the one Frank invited in.
"No," Heero agreed distractedly and it made Trowa pause though he didn't look up because there s something in the way Heero said it, as if he suspected something. Which was weird, since Trowa wasn't thinking or planning anything all that outside the box. There wasn't anything he was keeping from Heero either, so he wasn't sure what Heero was trying to imply. Or not imply.
"Okay we're good to go. Here's your codes and identification key," he spun the screen to show Heero and watched him quickly memorise the information and then he was off and Trowa left him to it, preparing his own fighter and putting in a request to deploy. For once he wasn't at all surprised when the request was immediately granted. Even if Frank had somehow gotten access to Level 1, Trowa no longer thought he was the threat they had been treating him as. The threat wasn't the machine at all.

Which was what Wufei had been trying to tell him all along, without actually telling him anything. Because Wufei was compromised and could give nothing away. Ironically, it had been Nataku who had revealed what should have been obvious from the start.
Wireless. Of all the stupid things to have ignored. Just because they had removed Wufei from the capsule, didn't mean they had disconnected him. Sure he wasn't functioning at full charge but he was still functioning, just like Nataku and Hatty, his movements being tracked by Frank, and able to be downloaded by anyone with the knowledge to do so.
Wufei had known, and had struggled since waking not to tell them anything, to only write things down if he thought they were important, or to give them clues in riddles, but never actually telling them the game plan.
All this time, Wufei had still been connected to Frank. It hurt, in too many ways to consider. All this time he'd been trying to stop Frank, when he should have been trying to find a way to save Wufei. Because whatever plan he and Frank had devised, Wufei wasn't going to see the end of.
He stared at his reflection in the SiS screens and wondered why none of the anger he felt under his skin was there in his visage. How was the reflection so calm, the features so still, when under the surface a typhoon brewed.
The permission to launch came through and he pulled harder on the controls than he had intended, connecting hurriedly to the systems and letting out his breath before launching.
It didn't help the pain. It tore through his chest and he sucked at the air, trying to force his lungs to move when they wanted to be still. He looked down and was relieved to see no blood, but continued to stare at his chest, head down and body aching. He needed rest, but refused to take it. He could rest when the job was done, plain and simple.
It would take Heero a while to install the spare communications module he'd made back when he first installed it in his own SiS, making a backup in case the original had failed or malfunctioned. So Trowa went for a short joyride, moving quickly between the other deployed SiS and seeing the pattern, approving. Individually they might not have been good soldiers, but their commands were good. Their advance was stable.
Preventers was just as good, but that wasn't surprising when you knew who was leading the flotilla. Noin was likely in there somewhere, following Une's orders and really, who knew what tricks that woman had up her sleeve. Trowa had made it his business to avoid both women as often as possible. He had to see Une when he was called in for work, but Noin  he had no reason to see at all.
"Bloom?"
"Glad you could make it. Sending you through some coordinates now." Trowa sent through coordinates close to his own, making sure they were as specific as he could make them before taking out his tablet and sending through a link to Hatty.
"Triton?"
"Hello Hatty. How is Giles going?" Because while he hadn't been gone long, Giles was a bit of an overachiever, especially when building things was involved. Trowa had a good idea of what the workshop  floor currently looked like, but he didn't think it would hurt to double check.
"He's collecting all these parts and letting me put them together using the instruction manual! It's very fun!" He just bet it was, and it was ironic that Giles seemed to be coming to the same conclusions as Trowa. That they had been ignoring their biggest ally and asset. They'd had Hatty help them build things before, but mainly just holding things in place for them while the welded or soldered. They could have just left her with it overnight and had things ready by morning. So much time wasted, because they hadn't thought about what she was. Or they had, and they'd thought the wrong thing.
"That's great, Hatty. I'm glad you're having fun. Does he know how long it will take him to get all the parts built?" Because if anything was going to screw them over, it was going to be time.
"He says he found some of the parts already assembled on one of the shelves. He needs to check they work, but if they do it should only take a day at most to make the rest, as long as I help. Isn't that great? I can help!"
"Yes Hatty. That's fantastic." Not amazing, because he didn't want her to realise she hadn't been helping before because they had thought her incapable of it. He didn't want to insult her; she deserved better, and now he knew he was going to give it to her.
She started humming, leaving the link active, which made Trowa smile as he listened and waited for Heero's cloaked SiS to arrive. He wasn't at all surprised when it took a little longer than it should have to get there, knowing full well Heero would have taken it for a lap under the guise of inspecting the outer shell of Frank for himself, but really just to see how it flew.
Perfectly. Because like the rest of Frank, the SiS were flawless. If Farrar had destroyed boundaries of technology with his creation of the Pads, Harrison had not been outdone. He'd annihilated the field with the creation of SiS, completely biological integrated mind mapping, in a fighter. The zero system had tried to do the same, but would never achieved this sort of finesse for the everyday pilot. The SiS was a beautiful piece of engineering, and Trowa could feel the pride that had gone into its creation every time he accessed a new system and found it as smooth and easy going as the rest of the components. Harrison had loved this machine, more than he had loved Nataku or Hatty, and that was saying something.
"So?" The question was hilariously clear in Heero's voice, and Trowa deliberately ignored it.
"So." it felt stupidly good to be poking at Heero Yuy again. He just wasn't as fun unconscious in the corner, though Trowa could admit he wished he'd had the chance to out him there. Sometimes Duo got all the fun.
"Barton."
Yes, Heero, that's my name! Trowa just rolled his eyes where no one could see and checked his math one more time to give Heero a few more minutes to sweat before giving in to the demand.
"Farrar is going to move Quatre."
"How do you know that?" he sounded sceptical and it just annoyed Trowa. Was it really that hard to just listen, trust, and do as you were told?
"Because it's what I would do." And of all of them, Trowa was the one who enjoyed pretending to be the bad guy. Who usually became the bad guy to get the job done. So Heero was just going to have to suck it up and believe him.
"Alright." Thank you. "So what are we doing here?"
"I am directly in the line of the Eye's laser. I'm going to get Hatty to make Frank adjust the length of the laser so it stops here."
"So they will remolecularize in your SiS?" He sounded as dubious as Trowa had expected him to.
"Our SiS," Trowa corrected. "I'll have Hatty split the laser beam as well, delivering one packet of information to each SiS." He was almost certain it was possible, though he hadn't actually stopped to ask.
"No offence, Barton, but I don't feel like becoming one with Farrar anytime soon." Not least of all because Duo would be very unlikely to sleep with him afterward.
"That's good. We will be demolecularized at the same time they are sent here."
"Funny how you didn't mention that before." Trowa couldn't blame the man for the hint of queasiness in his voice. The molecularizations inside Frank were bad, but they didn't compare at all to those from the Eye. Trowa suspected it had something to do with the power required to create a link over such huge distances. Earth still looked very small in his rear screens.
"We will molecularize in the Eye room."
"While Farrar escapes in a SiS? Barton, that is not a plan!" He sounded furious and Trowa just sighed, wishing people would let him dramatically divulge his whole plan before leaping to all sorts of conclusions.
"Farrar won't be going. He needs someone he can trust on Frank."
"And you don't think he can trust Nataku? You do remember she shot you?"
"Pretty hard to forget that," Trowa muttered darkly, resisting the urge to rub his chest because it would only make it hurt more. "If he leaves her here he runs the risk of Hatty reaching her."
"Hatty." The pause was significant. "When we are done you are going to have some explaining to do, Barton."
Of that he was very much aware, but for now he just needed everyone to do as they were told. He just hoped Wufei really did know what he was doing, and that he could get it done with Duo.
"So Nataku and Quatre will transfer to the SiS, and we will go to the Eye."
"That's the plan." And he didn't need Heero to tell him to know it was a pretty cool one. Quatre was going to have to learn to hold his own in a SiS pretty quickly, but he had experience with Zero and compared to that the SiS were a dream, so Trowa thought he would do fine. But just in case...
"Lock your SiS controls with the code." They all knew the code, the number they had all agreed to use whenever they were on a mission and needed to lock something. They were the only ones who knew it, and they had never written it down or spoken it aloud after it was agreed on, so it was safe, even from Une.
"Way ahead of you." As if, he hadn't even known what the plan was a minute ago but Trowa didn’t bother arguing, using the time to lock his own system and then focussing on his tablet and the soft humming coming from it.
"Did you hear all that, Hatty?"
"I did. I've already connected to Frank and he's being much nicer to me than he used to be!" Trowa just bet he was, now that they all knew they were on the same side. But also because Hatty could do things now she hadn't been able to before. Everything she did made her that much smarter and soon Frank knew he was going to have a serious problem if he wasn't on her side.
"Can you do what we need?"
"For you I can. It's a very strange system but Frank helped me download the controls and I think I have it all figured out now."
He hoped she did, because the last thing he wanted was to be melded with Nataku. He just knew Wufei would have a problem with that, considering how angry he got at a simple gunshot wound.
"Triton, are you ready?"
That was the only warning he got before the Eye started to open and he braced himself, taking deep, slow breaths because this was going to hurt and that sucked. A lot.
Like a whole hell of a lot. The white light was nice, but as it blinded the burning started, somewhere deep in his chest and he could hear Quatre cursing somewhere nearby but then the light was slipping away and the pain felt like it ate him from the inside out, flaring in all directions until it was all he knew.
Then he threw up, and he thought that might have hurt even more.
"What have you done?"
He looked up, into the barrel of a gun and sighed because Wufei was going to kill him. Farrar looked furious and it occurred to Trowa that Wufei wasn't going to get the chance to be pissed because the ammunition, whatever the hell that glowing blue capsule was, had already slid into the barrel and the safety wasn't on. Farrar's finger was already pulling the trigger, because the question was rhetorical. It didn't matter what Trowa had done, it could be undone if Farrar acted fast enough and apparently he knew it.
Something moved in the shadows around the lantern Farrar had been using in the darkness just as Farrar finished pulling the trigger. The blue liquid exploded against the wall behind Trowa's head and the wall started melting, hissing and sizzling, leaving Trowa feeling queasy and relieved where he struggled to think past the pain in his chest. Something had shoved him out of the way, and it wasn't Heero, because he was still struggling to breathe a few metres away.
Heavy black boots spun to face him and angrily stomped by his head, and then Wufei's furious face was in his even as one of those stomping boots slammed down across Farrar's throat and pinned him there while Farrar struggled.
"Are you insane?" Wufei demanded, and Trowa felt the sting of the man’s palm on his cheek. It just made him grin because Wufei was so pissed. So very, very pissed and afraid and in love with him.
"I hoped you'd be here."
"Hoped? You hoped? You should have been doing a fuckload more than hoping you fucking moron!"
"I'd lecture you, but he's doing such a damn good job of it, it would be rude to interrupt," Duo mused, stepping into view behind Wufei and leaning down to tie Farrar's hands behind his back.
Heero managed to find his feet and helped Duo get Farrar up and against a wall that wasn't melting, but Wufei ignored them both in favour of hauling Trowa into a sitting position and continuing his tirade while Trowa just smirked at him.
"Do not just sit there grinning at me!" Wufei finally raged, reaching out to bury his hands in Trowa's shirt and haul him forward. Gasping in pain, Trowa made to protest but Wufei's mouth closed over his own and any thought of protest flew out of his head.
Warm and somehow spicy. Wufei. Kissing him. Trowa floated in a bubble of his own imagination and the rest of the world disappeared, leaving him whole and free.
But the lips slipped away and the pain slipped back in. Trowa groaned and let Wufei get him back on his feet, leaning gratefully against his shoulder while Wufei's free hand searched for any new injuries. Like the hole in his chest wasn't enough to warrant his complaining.
"I'm fine. Just give me a minute to catch my breath." And he would have happily kissed Wufei again, even if the man hadn't given him his minute.
"What have you done?" Farrar demanded and it just made Trowa sigh because why did they always expect you to explain how screwed they were?
"Oh, sweetness, I'm sorry," Duo pouted a little, but the grin behind it was clear. "We not kiss and tell." Then he leaned closer to Heero and stage whispered. "What have you done?"
Heero seemed relieved to be in a position of power again, even if it was just over his lover and the enemy.
Trowa got his tablet out of his bag and renewed the link to Hatty from his new connection, laughing softly when the ceiling came to life as a giant screen and showed the camera feed from the workshop. The lights had been turned on in the room and Giles had a circle of contraptions around him while he worked on another, Hatty beside him with her own mess in her lap. But she looked up at the camera and waved excitedly, the long cable connecting the compute to the back of her neck jiggling disturbingly.
"Hi Triton! Did I do it right?" She knew she had, but she wanted him to confirm it anyway. Trowa just smiled and nodded, knowing she could see them, even if Giles couldn't. Or maybe shed put it on the main screen for him, because Giles looked up long enough to roll his eyes, though he didn't stop what he was doing, engrossed in the task.
"You did fantastic Hatty. Can you activate the comm link to my SiS and negotiate the deal with Mr Winner for me?"
"Me?" It was clear she didn't like the idea. At all. Trowa still hadn't figured out why she didn't like Quatre, but when it was all over he intended to find out, because that would make a very interesting dinner conversation the next time Quatre came over. He just hoped it didn't interfere with what he needed her to do now.
"You can do it, Hatty."
"I know," she muttered and the 'I just don't want to' was clear in her tone. But the video feed cut off and he knew she was doing it, so he left it at that, using the Tablet to connect to the Eye and programming in his new coordinates.
"What are you doing?" Wufei looked at him curiously and even as he asked it, his expression changed and Trowa knew he knew he couldn't tell him anything. He couldn't risk it being on the network, and someone getting a step ahead of them. Of him.
"What you invited me here to do," Trowa smiled, a rare genuine turn of lips and eyes that left Wufei no doubt about what Trowa knew, or what he wanted.
"Heero?"
"Why me?" Trowa knew he wanted to send Duo, to get him back home and safe again but that wasn't what they needed right then. They had to send someone, and Trowa needed Duo's skill set more than Heero's.
"Because we won't be blowing anything up today."
Duo, at least, laughed. Heero stepped into the inner ring of the room and dragged Farrar in after him and then the light was growing again and Trowa got to see how much nicer it was to just stand there and bask in it without actually being taken apart piece by piece to be put back together at the other end of the rainbow.
When the light faded, Heero and Farrar were gone.
"Trowa?"
Clever Quatre. Trowa accepted the connection and moved closer to Duo and Wufei so they could all talk if they needed to, though it was clear they intended to stand back and wait for him to conduct his business.
"You alright?"
"You know, I don't really fancy being held hostage by robots or colonies. It's not as much fun as I was expecting."
"You don't say! I will try and keep that in mind next time I arrange a vacation for you."
Trowa chuckled softly but looked up at the feed on the ceiling that once again appeared, showing Hatty at the computer, waving her arms around and shaking her head as if she were going mad.
Right. Crazy robot. At least nothing was out of the ordinary.
"There is a flight manual under the seat, you need to get back to my hanger, and from there I'll send someone to get you."
"Okay." Quatre was frowning, Trowa knew it. "Trowa, about Hatty..."
"Just agree to it Quatre. It's a fair price." But Quatre hated to lose and even this would feel like losing to him. Still, it wasn't like he had a choice and this was a much better alternative to some of his options.
"You owe me, Trowa."
Right then Trowa was pretty sure he owed just about everyone he knew something, but he just nodded and severed the connection, handing a second tablet to Wufei. He only hesitated a little before letting Wufei have it completely.
"You'll want to contact Nataku?"
"Yes..." Wufei's voice was so much quieter now that he wasn't yelling at him, watching Trowa cautiously, afraid of what he appeared to know now and what that might mean to Them. Trowa just ignored it for the moment, because to him it was irrelevant and if Wufei wanted to make a deal out of it, he could do so later. When they had time and he had inclination.
"You know, I'm real happy the two of you got to snog and all, but I'm batshit confused as to what the hell is actually going on, so would someone please fill me the hell in?" Duo left Wufei alone where he wandered off to talk to Nataku and Trowa just shrugged because he couldn't afford to say anything.
"That's completely not fair. You can't just not tell me, even Heero knows what's going on!"
"No he doesn't," Trowa corrected. "He just wanted you to think he did."
"Nataku will meet us in the workshop," Wufei muttered and it was obvious they had argued about it. Trowa wondered what that was like, arguing with yourself, but didn't dare to ask. He just nodded and wondered if he should punch her in the face and then ask her a few questions, or just punch her in the face.
"You're not allowed to shoot her," Wufei told him bluntly.
"Thought didn't even cross my mind." Until Wufei put it there and now it seemed like a damn good idea to Trowa. Not that he was going to tell Wufei he wanted to shoot his precious robot girl. Wufei might do something stupid and try to shoot Trowa's robot girl in retaliation and he needed Hatty. So shooting was out, that was fine.
Trowa made a few adjustments to the Eye settings through his tablet and then motioned the others into the inner circle before stepping in himself and sighing.
"What's wrong? Is something not working?" Duo asked worriedly and both Trowa and Wufei just turned to stare at him, because of course nothing was wrong. "Don't look at me like that! I value my balls! I don't want you re-mol-whatevering them into existence on Miranda or some other middle of fucking nowhere moon!"
Trowa would have laughed, if he hadn't had the same fears himself. Duo expressed the sentiment much more eloquently, however.
He stumbled forward and was damn pleased with ingenuity as he stepped left and threw up straight into the toilet. Warm hands stroked down his back and he glared at Wufei because the man seemed strangely fine, as if the process didn't affect him at all. That was horribly unfair, but he supposed there had to be some perks to having those ports all over your damn body. Very sexy body, all in black...He licked his lips and forced himself to concentrate on standing up instead of kneeling and doing what he really wanted.
"Reactivate the Pad," he ordered and Wufei got to work immediately, because Duo was still struggling to stop drooling on the wall, puke around his shoes.
"Seriously. That's so fucked." Trowa had to agree with him.
"I don't even know what I'm throwing up anymore. I haven't eaten anything since the last time."
"Good point," Duo stood slowly, rubbing his temples and taking deep, calming breaths. "Maybe it's some kind of space goo you pick up between one place and another." Because of course Duo would think of inter dimensional space goo as the answer.
"Maxwell, that's the dumbest thing I've heard all week, and I've had Hatty singing to me at night."
Duo and Trowa both stared at him then, because while Trowa had known they were linked, Duo clearly hadn't, and even if he had known Duo would have been just as creeped out by the idea of Hatty singing him to sleep as Trowa was.
"Hatty sings well," he had to admit, because even if it was weird, she actually had a nice voice.
"Yeah. It's fantastic, especially while she's asleep and singing about sleeping with you," Wufei muttered darkly, glaring at Trowa as if he'd put the idea in Hatty's head. What really concerned him wasn't the hint of jealousy in Wufei's voice, because frankly that was just cute. The concern was the spark of interest in Duo's gaze as he realised Hatty wanted to sleep with Trowa. That, Trowa knew he wasn't living down. Ever.
"I don't think sleeping with me is that stupid at all..."
Duo and Wufei stared at him and Trowa just grinned because it was better than crying. His chest hurt and his stomach ached and his head was spinning. He wasn't in good shape at all, and he needed to get back to Level 5 and quickly, but there was still so much to do before then.
"Are we good to go yet?"
"We're active," Wufei confirmed and Trowa just nodded, shoving Duo onto the Pad an sending him through with no warning at all, because it was amusing to think of Duo on the other side puking up some more inter planetary goo.
"That was a bit mean don't you think?" Wufei asked but he helped Trowa sit on the lid ofthe toilet and knelt down in front of him, pulling off his shirt and inspecting the bandage.
"I'm okay."
"You say that when I know you stapled this shut," Wufei grumbled at him and Trowa sighed because he should have known Frank was listening, either at Wufei's command or his own, it didn't matter.
Wufei signed with him and unfolded his feet so he could kneel properly, as if bowing to him only he stayed high, lean arms wrapping around Trowa's waist, head laying down in Trowa's lap. It was unexpected but Trowa didn't hesitate, one hand stet signing on Wufei's back to hold him there in the strange embrace, the other burying itself in Wufei's hair, fingertips memorising the texture.
"I shouldn't have brought you here."
It made Trowa furious but all he did was hold Wufei tighter to him.
"You shouldn't have had to. I should have come, should have looked in every corner of every universe until I found you."
It won a soft, broken laugh from Wufei and Trowa felt wetness on his thigh and didn't say a word, just held on, finally in the place he should have been all along.
"Should have, shouldn't have. It's irrelevant now." But he should have, and it hurt that Wufei still didn't see that. No matter what happened, this was where Trowa wanted to be, and he wanted Wufei to respect that; to understand Trowa needed to be at his side.
After a while, Wufei pulled back and sat staring up at Trowa's face, one hand resting over the bandages across his chest, fingers stroking a little. Soothing. As if no time had passed at all, bridging the years between them and lifting Trowa from his self imposed apathy.
"I love you too."