Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Whispers in the Dark ❯ Hail Stones Begin to Fall ( Chapter 7 )

~*~AN~*~ Sorry for my long absence ><; It seems that “Down the Rabbit Hole” got away with me. Thank you all for being so patient with me and I'll try to keep my two stories a little more balanced in the posting area from now on.

 

Heero was fuming as they finished their sweep of yet another empty and useless hideout. He kicked at the gravel out side of the warehouse, growling. He knew this was futile, just an attempt to keep them busy, but Une would have none of it and had refused to let other officers take the lead in the search.

 

Wufei seemed to be holding himself together a little better, but on the inside he was just as furious. This was the fifth abandoned hideout they'd been forced to search through, and he was praying that Duo and Sally called with something more to go on soon. They were supposed to be out looking for Muraki, or his body rather, but he couldn't help but think Muraki was related to everything going on. Their lives had gotten incredibly stressful around the time the creepy doctor had shown up to take Sally's place in the Preventer Infirmary.

 

When the Chinese man heard the shrill ring of Heero's cell phone he held his breath. Heero looked up at him sharply and smirked. A smirk on Heero's face was a rare sight to see and was enough to creep out most people, but Wufei had long gotten over the shock of Heero's rare facial expressions. He nodded to Japanese man, but inside he was screaming and jumping in joy. They would finally be able to get on with the real chase. The two agents met each other halfway at the car.

 

“Was that Duo?”

 

“Yeah. He said he picked up a couple of people at one of the places they checked out looking for Muraki. They claim to know him, along with our two houseguests. I told him to cuff them and take them to headquarters.”

 

“They weren't already cuffed?”

 

“He said they were friends of Tsuzuki and Hisoka, but he was going to cuff them when he put them in the car. Just to be sure.”

 

The two left the rest of the wild goose chase to the other agents that had showed up to help search through the larger buildings. With Heero's speed demon driving they were back at headquarters in no time heading up to the floor they usually did their witness questioning at. Duo was standing outside of the glass wall of the room keeping his eye on the two inside, who were alone.

 

“Where's Sally?”

 

“Hey, Wu. Sally went to talk to Une about bringing these two in, make sure their info is correct. Though, something tells me we're going to come up empty.”

 

“You believe them?” Heero asked as Wufei moved down the hall, presumably to meet up with Sally.

 

“The blonde, Watari, spouted off anything he could think of to try and convince me they were friends of Tsuzuki and Hisoka, and that they came from the same place. The other one, Tatsumi, has been keeping quiet.”

 

“Then lets get on with it.”

 

~*~*~

 

Quatre had gotten a few clues from some of his closest associates, but most of the politicians he usually held sway over weren't budging. He knew they were lying to him, but they seemed too afraid of the consequences if they told the truth. The only info they had managed to get was that Muraki had been spotted around the larger government buildings.

 

After the government buildings they went to the local authorities, which was when they caught up with Tsuzuki and Hisoka. The two Shinigami had been scouring the neighborhood to see if any of the citizens had seen anything or to see if they could find any clue of Muraki's whereabouts. They had also turned up with nothing, but the police station wielded better results.

 

“They let private citizens just take home files on missing people like that?” Hisoka was bewildered.

 

“Neither of us are considered private citizens, exactly. I'm head of a prominent business, as well as being a fairly out spoken politician. Trowa, while he may work at the circus part time, also works as a part time Preventer. Not to mention the fact that we're both ex-Gundam pilots.”

 

Heero and Duo had told them a little bit about the war, and about Gundams and all that, so they understood Quatre's last comment, albeit roughly. They went back to the apartment and started going through all the files they could. They had gotten a good bit done, and Quatre and Trowa were surprised to see how efficient the other two were at sorting through information.

 

“Okay, so we're narrowed our list of possible puppets down to this pile. How many files are there?” Quatre asked.

 

“I counted twelve,” Hisoka answered, but Tsuzuki chimed in with another answer.

 

“Fourteen. These two should be moved into this pile.”

 

“You sure? They don't seem like they have any relevance to Muraki.”

 

Hisoka flipped through the files, letting out a sigh before nodding. “Tsuzuki's right. They might not seem like they have a link to Muraki, contact wise, but they definitely fit the profile of a potential puppet.”

 

A ringing phone pulled them all out of their work-trance and all eyes landed on Trowa as he shifted to pull out his phone. The call was short, and Trowa's responses had been clipped, only Quatre knew who was on the other end, but he didn't know why.

 

“That was Duo. They found two people that claim to be friends of yours. Said to bring you guys to headquarters with us.”

 

~*~*~

 

“Look, we've told you everything we could. If we could just see Tsuzuki and Hisoka they could confirm everything we've told you.” Tatsumi was growing annoyed with being held in an interrogation room, still cuffed.

 

“I just called. They should be here soon. I want to know more about this black hole business.”

 

Watari sighed. “I don't know how it works, exactly, only the basic theory. I never got my tinkering to work; in fact I destroyed my lab tinkering with it. All I know is that scientists here worked out a way to harness black hole energy and make it into some kind of transporter. Muraki created one on our end; only it wasn't with actual black hole energy. He used spiritual energy that he drained from people in our time, world, whatever, and made them like puppets.”

 

As Duo sat across the table from the two supposed Shinigami, he sighed. He believed their story, but Heero was glaring from behind him. His lover wanted to make sure these two weren't helping Muraki, being a bit over protective of Duo and the others. Heero stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against as he glanced down the hallway. This directed Duo's attention towards the glass wall and he let out a sigh of relief when he caught sight of the others. Heero opened the door and led them in.

 

“Bon! Tsuzuki! You guys are alright!” Watari had leapt out of his chair, which would have gotten him shot if Quatre had not placed his hand over Heero's, which was tensed over his gun. The energetic blonde tried awkwardly to hug his friends before giving up with a pout. Duo stood to undo the cuffs, moving to do the same for Tatsumi. Tsuzuki made sure to hug both Shinigami, while Hisoka tolerated the hug from Watari and simply bowed to Tatsumi.

 

“So,” Quatre spoke up, “It looks as though it's save to assume the two of you are allies. With that in mind we should start working through this case, together.”

 

Trowa dropped the files on the table. “All recent missing persons who had a strong possibility of being taken by Muraki.”

 

Wufei and Sally had chosen that moment to show up, toting a few files of their own. The interrogation room was looking rather crowded. Wufei pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed, feeling the migraine beginning to form. There were just too many people. He had worked better solo, and then had learned to work well with the other Gundam pilots, and later with Sally as his partner, but their investigation team seemed to be getting larger.

 

“Why don't we move this into one of the conference rooms. At least that way we won't all suffocate each other.” Wufei grumbled out. Quatre nodded his agreement and was left to help usher the Shinigami out the door with Sally and Duo. Heero and Trowa, along with Wufei, and slipped into their more mission focused mindset. Sally led the way, expecting a certain room to be used, as it was their most favored spot for conversing about cases as a group. Hisoka stayed close to Tsuzuki, who was chatting with Duo and Watari. Normally he would have walked ahead, hating to dilly-dally at such an important time, but he felt more comfortable sticking close to not only his partner, but also Duo and Quatre.

 

Tatsumi walked in silence, walking just slightly behind the group, but he was listening intently. It seemed Duo and Quatre were the more social of the group and as he paid specific attention to their personalities he saw a few odd parallels. Duo was definitely most like Tsuzuki, and in more than just looks. Quatre seemed to be just as outgoing as Watari, but had an undercurrent of something much more dangerous; in fact, all of the “Gundam pilots” seemed relatively normal, yet with a foreboding sense of danger.

 

The group was ushered into a good-sized conference room in which Wufei, Heero, and Trowa already occupied. None of them were sitting and it seemed all of them preferred to lean against walls as if they were helping to keep the room standing. It seemed everyone had a preferred spot to be in a situation such as this, and it seemed to work out. Quatre naturally took the head of the table; furthest from the door, Duo sat to Quatre's right with Heero shifting to stand behind him, Tsuzuki and Hisoka sat next to Duo respectively, Tatsumi sat directly across from Quatre with Watari at his right, and Sally sat by Watari, leaving an empty chair on either side of her. Wufei moved to lean by the door and Trowa moved to the far end of the room, leaning against a window and looking out.

 

The files Trowa had earlier where already sitting on the table waiting and this time they were joined by the files Wufei had. Duo sighed and reached into his Preventer's jacket.

 

“Well, while we're collecting files; these were found in the same lab we found Tatsumi and Watari.” He plopped the files down and the bold red lettering alerted everyone that these were confidential files. “I assume Muraki managed to make off with them. They are personnel files on myself, Heero, Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, and Sally.”

 

Sally blinked at the files. First of all, she had no idea when Duo had managed to swipe them from the lab, but she reminded herself that Duo was the very best stealth operative in the Earth Sphere. Second of all, she couldn't figure out why Muraki would want anything to do with her. She figured someone like Lady Une or Zechs would be more valuable to Muraki. Quatre set out to run the meeting, as he was used to doing.

 

“Well, it's clear that Muraki's plans included the Gundam pilots.” Quatre spoke up, but was interrupted by Sally before he could go on.

 

“But why me? I'm not a Gundam pilot, and even though I was a soldier in the war and have medical training, my abilities aren't any where near as impressive as you five.”

 

“I may very well have to do with your medical training, but it can also been seen as a direct link to Wufei. You are married, and even though these files don't mention it, it's quite obvious.” The four Shinigami were surprised to hear Wufei and Sally were married, though Tsuzuki and Hisoka had known they were in a relationship.

 

“No, this doesn't have to deal with all of us,” Duo started, “It has to do with me, and now Tsuzuki and Hisoka. There's no way Muraki doesn't know about your presence now. After hearing about what Muraki's been up to in the past it's clear that I was his most likely target to mess with here.”

 

Heero had shifted forward and placed a hand on his lover's shoulder, offering a bit of comfort. Quatre smiled at the display before turning back to the group, his expression growing serious.

 

“Well, even so, we can't assume everyone else is safe from Muraki's games. Duo, if he's been watching you this whole time he knows how devoted you are to those around you, especially us. He could use anyone of us. We need to stick together in this one and collect as much information as possible.”

 

“With all due respect,” Tatsumi started as he adjusted his glasses, “this isn't a military operation, and Muraki isn't quite an opposing army. You can't expect to handle him like one.”

 

“To the contrary, Tatsumi-san. Every person has a modus operandi, in a war especially, you just have to ascertain whose is driving the army and counter it accordingly. Muraki's MO should be easy to piece together, as the four of you have already dealt with him extensively. We will all exchange what we know of Muraki, the missing persons files, and anything else that may seem relevant.”

 

It was quite obvious that Quatre was the ringleader among the group, and it was no surprise his file was accurate in stating he was a master strategist.

 

Time ticked by as the group of ten shifted through the files. Two of the missing persons files had been linked back to the drug and gun smuggling case that Duo and Heero had originally been assigned to, and five of the missing females were linked to the human trafficking case Wufei and Sally had. One of those females had already been found dead by the Preventers, so they made a note in the file. It was evident Muraki had something to do with these cases, and the Shinigami had an idea as to why.

 

“Muraki never does anything unless it holds a particular gain for himself,” Tatsumi began, “Now, it is easy to see that he has his hands in each of these cases. The human trafficking I can see as his way of using the kidnapped teens for his source of energy, as his dolls. I'm a little less clear on what he would be doing with the other case, though.”

 

“The two cases are linked via a pharmacist named David Johansen. We believe he's involved in using some of the teens, or at least their bodies, as a way to transport the drug being smuggled,” Heero answered.

 

“And the Guns?” Watari asked.

 

“The same people running the drugs are also buying and selling illegal weapons.” Duo stated simply.

 

“I got it!” Watari exclaimed, instantly gaining everyone's attention. At least he had the decency to flush with embarrassment at his sudden outburst before continuing. “The oddities we've been getting with the Hall of Candles! It's the way Muraki is feeding the energy to his mad made black hole! He's sending it through the black hole here, in essence sending small amounts of the person's soul through, so that when hey die, their soul in our world, not here!”

 

The other Shinigami all showed their understanding in their own way, and while the information was intriguing, it wasn't relevant enough for anyone else in the room to bother asking for clarification.

 

~*~*~

 

After they had all pooled their information they decided it would be best to split off and rest before getting back together to formulate a plan. Wufei had the photos of the missing people entered into the Preventer's data base as being relevant to the case, and Heero had gone to put in an order for an updated background check and intelligence on Johansen.

 

After business was settled the group split off for some rest. Tsuzuki and Hisoka went back with Duo and Heero, Tatsumi and Watari went to stay with Wufei and Sally, while Quatre and Trowa put themselves up in a nearby hotel room. While they wanted to stick together, having ten people (most of which reveled in their privacy) in one place was just over kill.

 

Duo was currently indulging in one of his favorite pastimes. He was stargazing. It had grown late by the time their little meeting of the minds had ended and Duo always used the comfort of the stars to think. He had been so used to being constantly surrounded by them while on L2 that they were like his safety blanket. He always had a good view of the moon and stars from the roof of their building, even though the harsh city lights tried to wash them out.

 

Heero never liked Duo's habit, as he preferred to be alone up there, and there really was no security on the roof. He knew, however, that Duo could take care of himself and hated being told otherwise. That didn't keep Heero from worrying, especially now, with Muraki out there. He noticed Tsuzuki's disappearance during his worried pacing and went to the guest room Hisoka had been using.

 

“Is Tsuzuki in his room?” The door to the second guest room was closed and Heero had a strong ethic about other people's privacy, so he didn't think to bother knocking and possibly interrupting the older Shinigami when the younger one was available.

 

“No. He went up onto the roof. He likes high places to think. Don't worry about him, though. He has the Shikigami to protect him.”

 

Heero simply nodded and moved to occupy is own room. He felt a little more at ease knowing the two of them were together. He still opened the bedroom window. They were only two floors down from the roof, so if anything happened he would be able to hear a shout. He settled himself in front of his laptop, working to stay awake. He couldn't sleep fitfully without Duo beside him.

 

~*~*~

 

Tsuzuki walked up behind Duo, sitting down next to him and letting his feet dangle over the edge of the roof. He leaned back, propped up by his hands. Duo was in the exact same position, both of them staring up at the stars. They spoke without looking at one another.

 

“So I see we share similar habits, too. It's odd to see someone like me. And Heero seems so much like my Hisoka, without the empathy, of course.”

 

“Your Hisoka? Funny way of referring to your partner.”

 

“I've always thought of him that way, I guess. I'm his first partner, the first person he opened up to… ever.” Tsuzuki smiled. “I'm his in a way, too.”

 

“Why don't you tell him? How you feel, I mean.”

 

That caused Tsuzuki to turn to Duo, only to find him looking back. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before returning his gaze to the stars.

 

“I don't know. I wasn't sure of what I felt for a while, and when I finally was sure, it wasn't exactly the best time. He's still so confused about his own emotions. I want an honest return of feelings, and right now he probably wouldn't be sure whether they were my feelings or his own.”

 

“When did you know?”

 

Tsuzuki smiled. “I was dying, for good. Ready to give up fighting. He came through the flames for me, to save me. He asked me to live, even if it were only for his sake. What about you? When did you know how you felt about Heero?”

 

It was Duo's turn to smile. “I was attracted since the moment I laid eyes on him, but it wasn't until I broke him out of an Oz medical facility that I knew. He stayed with my team of mechanics and me while we repaired out Gundams. He only stayed one night, refused our help and parts, and ended up stealing parts from me. He took off without a word, but even as I cursed him off, I knew.”

 

“The war must have been hard for you two, trying to have a relationship and all.”

 

Duo chuckled at that. “Oh no. That would have never happened. Heero was much too focused on the war and his purpose to have even dared think about me that way. I was simply an ally to him back then. We didn't get together, intimately, until almost three years ago.”

 

There was a companionable silence that fell over the two of them, as they both got lost in their own thoughts and memories. It was broken only momentarily by Duo's soft voice.

 

“You should tell him. He should know how you feel. Who knows, maybe it will help him make his own decision, one way or another.”

 

Tsuzuki stood, stretching lightly. “Well, it's rather late. I'll sleep on it tonight. You should get some rest too, Duo.”

 

He waved the Shinigami off. “I will, I will. Heero will be up to drag me away soon enough anyway.”

 

The Shinigami smiled and made his way back. He was only halfway across the roof when he felt a familiar presence, hearing a stifled yelp from behind him. He whipped around to see Duo held captive by Muraki. He didn't have a gun on him, and Duo was too close to use a fuda. He snarled.

 

“Let. Him. Go.”

 

Muraki's hand was clasped over Duo's mouth, and even though the braided man struggled fiercely, the doctor had a strong hold on him. He was using Duo as a bit of a shield. He should have gone right away, but he couldn't help torturing Tsuzuki just a bit more.

 

“I can't do that, beloved. For all the talk about sticking together the lot of you did, you sure made it easy for me to get my hands on him.”

 

“Let him go!”

 

“Sorry, but maybe if you had been a good boy and done what I wanted a long time ago I wouldn't have to do this. I think I need a new puppet, an obedient one. What do you think? Should a mark just as I did your Hisoka?”

 

“No!” Tsuzuki moved forward only to watch Muraki drop backwards and onto one of his disgusting creations, taking Duo with him. He fell to his knees just as the door to the roof burst open. Hisoka ran out, stopping to kneel by Tsuzuki's side as Heero bolting past him, stopping just short of the roof's edge.

 

“Damn it! Damn it!” Heero was screaming now, rattling off every curse he could think of in any language he could recall. He fell to his knees and threw his fist into the roof, wincing as the skin across his knuckle broke and the roof cracked.

 

“Omae o kurosu, Muraki… Omae o kurosu.”