Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ There Goes the World ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Zowe 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Drama / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2002 | Updated On: 03.10.2002 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 200 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Drama / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2002 | Updated On: 03.10.2002 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 200 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and I'm making nothing by writing this.
AN: Hello again everyone. All right I have no idea what Heero's real name is, so many of his old acquaintances will be calling him 'kid' or 'boy.' I know a lot of people say his name was Odin Lowe Jr. but I think Heero's been through enough, I don't want to torture him any more then necessary. Anyway, I'm done rambling now. I hope you like this chapter and please review.
"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known." --John Stuart Mill
There Goes the World
Chapter 4
As Heero and Duo walked towards Rouges' Island Duo chatted about whatever came to mind. Heero had no idea what the other pilot was saying; he had stopped listening not long after they left Harper's' Ferry. He was busy recalling everything he knew about Rouges' Island.
Rouges' Island was a bar deep within the underground of L1. It was a gathering place for thieves, criminals, and others that were considered socially undesirable. Due to its proximity to Dr. J's old lab it had once been popular with rebels and people working on the Gundam. Heero now added possible hiding place of Nezumi Houkyo to this list of information.
The owner of Rouges' Island was Roger Williams. Heero had dealt with him on more then one occasion before Operation Meteor. Williams was a fiery man and, like many patrons of his bar, was considered a rebel by society. Heero was confident that he would not be in alliance with the Bolsheviks. Williams had long ago rejected religion as another method for society to brainwash and control people. Heero knew that this belief could possibly motivate Williams to hide Nezumi, and convince him to help the Preventers stop the Bolsheviks from carrying out their plans.
Heero paused in his thinking to inspect his surroundings. He noticed a run-down warehouse up the street and his muscles involuntarily tensed and the mixed emotions resurfaced; it was Dr. J's abandoned lab. The outside of the warehouse fit in perfectly with its surroundings: graffiti on its brick walls and wood panels sealed broken windows. Heero knew the inside had once housed one of man's deadliest weapons, the Gundam and it's pilot.
Duo finally noticed that Heero wasn't listening to him. Instead the other pilot was staring at something in the distance. Duo looked in the same direction as Heero, but saw nothing of interest. "Hey, Heero." the taciturn pilot came out of the memory-induced trance and looked at Duo. "What are you looking at?" Heero scowled but didn't answer. "Come on tell me. It must have been something, because you look like you've seen a ghost." Heero still didn't answer.
Duo wasn't all that far from the truth by saying that Heero had seen a ghost. Seeing the outside of Dr. J's lab had forced Heero to remember what had happened inside. How he had been taken in by the scientist and stripped of his childhood, lost emotions that he was still struggling to recover, and molded him into the killing machine that had piloted Wing Gundam and Zero. As they came closer to the empty warehouse, Heero decided that he loathed that building. It was where his misery had started and housed many of the ghosts of his past. The hatred he was feeling seeped into his eyes as he glared at the building.
Duo noticed the intense look of loathing, and whistled to him self, "Forget it, Heero, sorry I asked."
Heero quickened his pace, so that he would pass the building quicker; he still wasn't ready to deal with the events of his past associated with L1, particularly that building. Once again he told himself that it could wait, he had a mission to do first.
Heero slowed down once the warehouse was out of his line of vision. Duo gave his comrade a concerned look, but for once he said nothing. Duo knew Heero wouldn't tell him what was going on, and Duo wasn't all that sure he that wanted to know.
The remainder of their journey to Rouges' Island was carried out in silence, which for Duo felt awkward. He was used to noise and sounds filling his ears, and without it he felt uncomfortable. However, he did not speak and try to fill silence like he usually did. Heero was lost deep inside his own mind, and Duo did not dare disturb him.
Thankfully for Duo, their journey soon ended and they entered another dark and smelly bar, this one known as Rouges' Island. Despite the early hour several people were seated throughout the bar. Duo wondered why so many people would be in a bar at this time of day. He quickly answered his own question when he inspected the patrons more closely. These people were the scum of society, and their sorrows were far too great to wait until evening for alcohol to sooth their troubles away.
A few patrons looked up from the drinks to inspect them, but quickly returned their attention to their beverages when they saw Heero's deadly scowl. The bartender also looked up, but his gaze did not turn away. Instead, his eyes widen with surprise before he spoke to the pilots. "My god, is it really you kid?" Duo simply looked bewildered for a moment before he saw Heero nod at the old man and realized that the bartender was another acquaintance of Heero. "Come on, sit down, I'll get you and your friend a drink, on the house, kid."
Heero shook his head. "I need to talk with Roger."
The bartender nodded. "Yeah, sure, he's in his office. Just follow me." The bartender led them into a small back room, where a large burly man sat frowning at a computer screen. The man looked up at the door when the bartender opened the door. "Roger, you'd never guess who just walked in." Roger obviously did not agree with the bartender's assumption and decided to guess.
"Heero Yuy," He said as the bartender stepped back to reveal the two Preventers standing behind him. "That's the name you're going by these days isn't it, kid?" Heero nodded as he stepped into the office.
The bartender frowned. "How did you guess?"
Roger smiled. "I have sources, now get back to the bar." The bartender obediently returned to the front of the building. Roger turned his attention to Heero. "I heard that the Preventers had sent someone to L1, but I'd never though you'd come back."
Heero's eyes narrowed into slits. "Do you know why we're here?"
Roger nodded and waved at the chairs in front of his desk. Heero and Duo accepted the offered seats. "You're looking for Nezumi."
Heero nodded. "Do you know where she is?"
"I do, but why don't you tell me exactly what the Preventers want with her first."
"We're suppose to keep her away from the Bolsheviks."
Roger raised a spectacle eyebrow, "That's it? You guys aren't going to pump her for information to use against the Bolsheviks?" Heero nodded and Roger frowned "You are either lying or don't know that much about the situation."
Heero shrugged. "Our orders are to protect her from the Bolsheviks." Roger nodded and leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. Silence came over the room as Roger considered what step to take next.
Duo finally broke the silence. "Where is she?" Roger looked up from his thoughts when the young man spoke. "Heero and I are the good guys here, we just want to protect her from the Bolsheviks. So just tell us where she is so that we can do our jobs."
Roger shook his head. "It's not as easy as good guy, bad guy. Nezumi isn't going to like the Preventers protecting her anymore then she would like the Bolsheviks capturing her."
A slightly confused look settled onto Duo's face. "What does she have against the Preventers?"
Roger clicked his tongue while he shook his head. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that the Preventers didn't know with whom they were dealing. "Do you even know why she left the Bolsheviks?"
Duo thought, for a moment, about what he knew of the situation. He had not considered Nezumi's possible motives for leaving the Bolsheviks. To him the Bolsheviks were simply the bad guys, and he had only pondered why anyone would join them in the first place.
Finally, Duo shook his head, and Roger continued. "One of the main reasons she left was because she realized that communism didn't work. She tried really hard to make those little communes use communism, but it just wouldn't work. The people would always get greedy and be jealous of each other. Eventually, she just got fed up and left the whole damn organization. She still doesn't support capitalism, which is why she won't like you Preventers trying to help her."
"What does she have against capitalism? It works."
"I asked her that once. She said that the little guys always gets left out in capitalism, that the government always becomes money hungry and forgets about the poor folk."
Heero, who had been silently listening to the conversion, considered this new information on their target. If what Roger said was true it would prove difficult to convince Nezumi to trust them. After all, a pro-capitalism government controlled by the upper class wrote his and Duo's paychecks. There was one thing that Heero still wanted to know. "What were her other reasons for leaving?"
"She didn't like it when the Bolsheviks started playing around with religion. She told the higher ups that it was a bad idea, and had a nasty fight with some of them about it."
Heero frowned slightly. It appeared as if this girl had known the leaders of the Bolsheviks, and she might have even had had some power within the organization. He definitely needed to know more about this girl. "I want to talk with her," he said suddenly. A slight look of surprise crossed Roger's face. He had been expecting Heero to demand her location, not a chat. Duo simply stared at Heero, baffled at the notion that Heero would actually want to talk with someone.
"What for?"
Heero quickly thought about this, he really wasn't sure why himself. "I just want to meet her. She sounds...interesting."
Roger nodded. "That can be arranged." He turned around to face a vid phone and made a call. The volume on the phone was low, and Roger talked in whispers so that the Gundam pilots couldn't make out what he was saying. The call was short, and when he was done he got up and headed for the office door. "Come on, I'll take you to her."
Heero and Duo followed him out of the office and though a maze of dark hallways. They made so many turns and walked up and down so many stairs that after awhile Duo felt vaguely dizzy.
The twists and turns of the journey didn't bother Heero in the least. He was focused on his meeting with Nezumi. He had assumed that she was just some lost soul who had been sucked into the Bolsheviks' plot for domination. It looked as if that assumption had been very wrong. She might have played an important role among the leaders of the Bolsheviks. This recent discovery made it all the more obvious why the Bolsheviks were so desperate to find her. A former leader on the loose would be very dangerous to the Bolsheviks' plans.
They came to a stop in front of door with the dull brass numbers C5 nailed to the front. Roger turned to face them, and gave Heero a hard searching glare. "Don't shoot her, Heero." He warned the younger man. "If you can convince her that not all capitalist are blood sucking bastards she just might help you Preventers stop whatever the Bolsheviks are planning."
Heero nodded and moved his hand away from his gun to show Roger that he did not intend to kill Nezumi on the spot. Roger noticed the gesture and opened the door.
Behind the door was the living room of a small apartment, and by the far wall, staring out a window, stood a teenage girl. The girl turned to face the newcomers, and greeted them with a look of slight curiosity in her slate blue eyes.
"Heero Yuy and," Roger paused to think of Duo's name, "some other kid, this is Nezumi Houkyo."
Duo became slightly miffed that he had been introduced as 'some other kid.' "I have a name, you know."
Roger shrugged. "Yeah, and I don't know it, kid."
Duo huffed, and walked over to Nezumi to introduce himself properly. He offered his hand to the young girl before him. "The name's Duo Maxwell." Nezumi took his offered hand into her own much smaller one. Duo raised her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and finished his introduction with a cheeky grin. The girl merely raised her eyebrows in amusement. She then turned her attention to the other young man in the room, who still stood with Roger not far from the door.
"I was informed that you wished to speak with me." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
"Yeah," Heero said. "I do."
*******
AN: It's late now right now so I need to stop writing and go to bed. Don't worry you'll find out how Heero's talk with Nezumi goes in the next chapter. Unfortunately, today is the last day of my long weekend, so I'm not going to be able to write the next chapter for a few days. I'm hoping that I'll be able to write it Friday or Saturday and post it on Sunday. Anyway, please go review my fic since you're done reading now. Bye!
AN: Hello again everyone. All right I have no idea what Heero's real name is, so many of his old acquaintances will be calling him 'kid' or 'boy.' I know a lot of people say his name was Odin Lowe Jr. but I think Heero's been through enough, I don't want to torture him any more then necessary. Anyway, I'm done rambling now. I hope you like this chapter and please review.
"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known." --John Stuart Mill
There Goes the World
Chapter 4
As Heero and Duo walked towards Rouges' Island Duo chatted about whatever came to mind. Heero had no idea what the other pilot was saying; he had stopped listening not long after they left Harper's' Ferry. He was busy recalling everything he knew about Rouges' Island.
Rouges' Island was a bar deep within the underground of L1. It was a gathering place for thieves, criminals, and others that were considered socially undesirable. Due to its proximity to Dr. J's old lab it had once been popular with rebels and people working on the Gundam. Heero now added possible hiding place of Nezumi Houkyo to this list of information.
The owner of Rouges' Island was Roger Williams. Heero had dealt with him on more then one occasion before Operation Meteor. Williams was a fiery man and, like many patrons of his bar, was considered a rebel by society. Heero was confident that he would not be in alliance with the Bolsheviks. Williams had long ago rejected religion as another method for society to brainwash and control people. Heero knew that this belief could possibly motivate Williams to hide Nezumi, and convince him to help the Preventers stop the Bolsheviks from carrying out their plans.
Heero paused in his thinking to inspect his surroundings. He noticed a run-down warehouse up the street and his muscles involuntarily tensed and the mixed emotions resurfaced; it was Dr. J's abandoned lab. The outside of the warehouse fit in perfectly with its surroundings: graffiti on its brick walls and wood panels sealed broken windows. Heero knew the inside had once housed one of man's deadliest weapons, the Gundam and it's pilot.
Duo finally noticed that Heero wasn't listening to him. Instead the other pilot was staring at something in the distance. Duo looked in the same direction as Heero, but saw nothing of interest. "Hey, Heero." the taciturn pilot came out of the memory-induced trance and looked at Duo. "What are you looking at?" Heero scowled but didn't answer. "Come on tell me. It must have been something, because you look like you've seen a ghost." Heero still didn't answer.
Duo wasn't all that far from the truth by saying that Heero had seen a ghost. Seeing the outside of Dr. J's lab had forced Heero to remember what had happened inside. How he had been taken in by the scientist and stripped of his childhood, lost emotions that he was still struggling to recover, and molded him into the killing machine that had piloted Wing Gundam and Zero. As they came closer to the empty warehouse, Heero decided that he loathed that building. It was where his misery had started and housed many of the ghosts of his past. The hatred he was feeling seeped into his eyes as he glared at the building.
Duo noticed the intense look of loathing, and whistled to him self, "Forget it, Heero, sorry I asked."
Heero quickened his pace, so that he would pass the building quicker; he still wasn't ready to deal with the events of his past associated with L1, particularly that building. Once again he told himself that it could wait, he had a mission to do first.
Heero slowed down once the warehouse was out of his line of vision. Duo gave his comrade a concerned look, but for once he said nothing. Duo knew Heero wouldn't tell him what was going on, and Duo wasn't all that sure he that wanted to know.
The remainder of their journey to Rouges' Island was carried out in silence, which for Duo felt awkward. He was used to noise and sounds filling his ears, and without it he felt uncomfortable. However, he did not speak and try to fill silence like he usually did. Heero was lost deep inside his own mind, and Duo did not dare disturb him.
Thankfully for Duo, their journey soon ended and they entered another dark and smelly bar, this one known as Rouges' Island. Despite the early hour several people were seated throughout the bar. Duo wondered why so many people would be in a bar at this time of day. He quickly answered his own question when he inspected the patrons more closely. These people were the scum of society, and their sorrows were far too great to wait until evening for alcohol to sooth their troubles away.
A few patrons looked up from the drinks to inspect them, but quickly returned their attention to their beverages when they saw Heero's deadly scowl. The bartender also looked up, but his gaze did not turn away. Instead, his eyes widen with surprise before he spoke to the pilots. "My god, is it really you kid?" Duo simply looked bewildered for a moment before he saw Heero nod at the old man and realized that the bartender was another acquaintance of Heero. "Come on, sit down, I'll get you and your friend a drink, on the house, kid."
Heero shook his head. "I need to talk with Roger."
The bartender nodded. "Yeah, sure, he's in his office. Just follow me." The bartender led them into a small back room, where a large burly man sat frowning at a computer screen. The man looked up at the door when the bartender opened the door. "Roger, you'd never guess who just walked in." Roger obviously did not agree with the bartender's assumption and decided to guess.
"Heero Yuy," He said as the bartender stepped back to reveal the two Preventers standing behind him. "That's the name you're going by these days isn't it, kid?" Heero nodded as he stepped into the office.
The bartender frowned. "How did you guess?"
Roger smiled. "I have sources, now get back to the bar." The bartender obediently returned to the front of the building. Roger turned his attention to Heero. "I heard that the Preventers had sent someone to L1, but I'd never though you'd come back."
Heero's eyes narrowed into slits. "Do you know why we're here?"
Roger nodded and waved at the chairs in front of his desk. Heero and Duo accepted the offered seats. "You're looking for Nezumi."
Heero nodded. "Do you know where she is?"
"I do, but why don't you tell me exactly what the Preventers want with her first."
"We're suppose to keep her away from the Bolsheviks."
Roger raised a spectacle eyebrow, "That's it? You guys aren't going to pump her for information to use against the Bolsheviks?" Heero nodded and Roger frowned "You are either lying or don't know that much about the situation."
Heero shrugged. "Our orders are to protect her from the Bolsheviks." Roger nodded and leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. Silence came over the room as Roger considered what step to take next.
Duo finally broke the silence. "Where is she?" Roger looked up from his thoughts when the young man spoke. "Heero and I are the good guys here, we just want to protect her from the Bolsheviks. So just tell us where she is so that we can do our jobs."
Roger shook his head. "It's not as easy as good guy, bad guy. Nezumi isn't going to like the Preventers protecting her anymore then she would like the Bolsheviks capturing her."
A slightly confused look settled onto Duo's face. "What does she have against the Preventers?"
Roger clicked his tongue while he shook his head. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that the Preventers didn't know with whom they were dealing. "Do you even know why she left the Bolsheviks?"
Duo thought, for a moment, about what he knew of the situation. He had not considered Nezumi's possible motives for leaving the Bolsheviks. To him the Bolsheviks were simply the bad guys, and he had only pondered why anyone would join them in the first place.
Finally, Duo shook his head, and Roger continued. "One of the main reasons she left was because she realized that communism didn't work. She tried really hard to make those little communes use communism, but it just wouldn't work. The people would always get greedy and be jealous of each other. Eventually, she just got fed up and left the whole damn organization. She still doesn't support capitalism, which is why she won't like you Preventers trying to help her."
"What does she have against capitalism? It works."
"I asked her that once. She said that the little guys always gets left out in capitalism, that the government always becomes money hungry and forgets about the poor folk."
Heero, who had been silently listening to the conversion, considered this new information on their target. If what Roger said was true it would prove difficult to convince Nezumi to trust them. After all, a pro-capitalism government controlled by the upper class wrote his and Duo's paychecks. There was one thing that Heero still wanted to know. "What were her other reasons for leaving?"
"She didn't like it when the Bolsheviks started playing around with religion. She told the higher ups that it was a bad idea, and had a nasty fight with some of them about it."
Heero frowned slightly. It appeared as if this girl had known the leaders of the Bolsheviks, and she might have even had had some power within the organization. He definitely needed to know more about this girl. "I want to talk with her," he said suddenly. A slight look of surprise crossed Roger's face. He had been expecting Heero to demand her location, not a chat. Duo simply stared at Heero, baffled at the notion that Heero would actually want to talk with someone.
"What for?"
Heero quickly thought about this, he really wasn't sure why himself. "I just want to meet her. She sounds...interesting."
Roger nodded. "That can be arranged." He turned around to face a vid phone and made a call. The volume on the phone was low, and Roger talked in whispers so that the Gundam pilots couldn't make out what he was saying. The call was short, and when he was done he got up and headed for the office door. "Come on, I'll take you to her."
Heero and Duo followed him out of the office and though a maze of dark hallways. They made so many turns and walked up and down so many stairs that after awhile Duo felt vaguely dizzy.
The twists and turns of the journey didn't bother Heero in the least. He was focused on his meeting with Nezumi. He had assumed that she was just some lost soul who had been sucked into the Bolsheviks' plot for domination. It looked as if that assumption had been very wrong. She might have played an important role among the leaders of the Bolsheviks. This recent discovery made it all the more obvious why the Bolsheviks were so desperate to find her. A former leader on the loose would be very dangerous to the Bolsheviks' plans.
They came to a stop in front of door with the dull brass numbers C5 nailed to the front. Roger turned to face them, and gave Heero a hard searching glare. "Don't shoot her, Heero." He warned the younger man. "If you can convince her that not all capitalist are blood sucking bastards she just might help you Preventers stop whatever the Bolsheviks are planning."
Heero nodded and moved his hand away from his gun to show Roger that he did not intend to kill Nezumi on the spot. Roger noticed the gesture and opened the door.
Behind the door was the living room of a small apartment, and by the far wall, staring out a window, stood a teenage girl. The girl turned to face the newcomers, and greeted them with a look of slight curiosity in her slate blue eyes.
"Heero Yuy and," Roger paused to think of Duo's name, "some other kid, this is Nezumi Houkyo."
Duo became slightly miffed that he had been introduced as 'some other kid.' "I have a name, you know."
Roger shrugged. "Yeah, and I don't know it, kid."
Duo huffed, and walked over to Nezumi to introduce himself properly. He offered his hand to the young girl before him. "The name's Duo Maxwell." Nezumi took his offered hand into her own much smaller one. Duo raised her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and finished his introduction with a cheeky grin. The girl merely raised her eyebrows in amusement. She then turned her attention to the other young man in the room, who still stood with Roger not far from the door.
"I was informed that you wished to speak with me." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
"Yeah," Heero said. "I do."
*******
AN: It's late now right now so I need to stop writing and go to bed. Don't worry you'll find out how Heero's talk with Nezumi goes in the next chapter. Unfortunately, today is the last day of my long weekend, so I'm not going to be able to write the next chapter for a few days. I'm hoping that I'll be able to write it Friday or Saturday and post it on Sunday. Anyway, please go review my fic since you're done reading now. Bye!