The C.O.W. Project
Introduction:
The year is A.C. 216. After the war the boys were praised as hero's for a year and then, as technology got better and new things were possible and new things were happening and were more interesting, the boys were forgotten. In the history books they were portrayed as angels or helpers in a time of need. Some history books even said they died. The world had forgotten the war. The boys were glad and moved on. They used to get together but after a few years they gave it up and their meetings became few and far between. Especially when they all got married and had kids. After 16 years the boys didn't even know where their fellow pilots were. They just lived their lives, never thinking anything would happen in which they would be involved. How wrong they turned out to be…
Heero walked into his small apartment late one night. He set his briefcase down on the floor. He looked in the kitchen for his 16-year-old son. Usually when he came home from work there would be evidence that his son still lived and ate, everything and anything. Either that or his son would still be in the kitchen eating. But today Heero was pleasantly surprised when he came home to find a clean and empty kitchen. Ever since his wife died, or rather, murdered, when his son was 1 year old, Heero still had not gotten used to cleaning up messes. Heero imagined his wife in the kitchen.
"15 years…" He said. "Next week."
Heero had never told his son the truth. He just told his son that his mother had died. His son believed it and never asked questions. Heero made his way to his son's bedroom. The door was closed and no music was blaring out of the room like it usually would be if he were in there. Heero frowned. He knocked on the door. Heero frowned deeply when no one answered. He opened the door slowly and he was greeted with silence. The room was empty. Heero assumed the best and figured that his son might just be over at a friends' house. Heero waited until 11 o' clock. It was 30 minutes past his son's curfew and there was still no sign of him. Heero was getting very worried now, it reminded him of the night he found out his wife had been murdered. It had been too similar to this. He had come home one evening to find the baby crying and his wife nowhere to be found. He called the police and they found her body early the next morning. Heero pushed the memories aside and picked up the phone. He called Aaron's friend.
"Hello, this is Aaron's father, is he over there?…Oh, well do you know where he is?…Okay, have him call me if you see him…Thanks."
Heero hung up and dialed another number only to get the same response. After calling all the people he could think of and not one of them having seen Aaron since school that morning he grabbed his coat and convinced himself that his son must still be alive and that he would find him. He was just about to leave the apartment when the phone rang. Heero dashed to get it. He picked it up.
"Is this Heero Yuy?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"Heero? Man buddy, you sound old! Well I suppose you are 36 like me…" "Who are you?" Heero interrupted. "You mean you don't recognize your old buddy Duo?" "Duo? Duo Maxwell? Gundam pilot Duo Maxwell?" "Now you're catching on!" "Why are you calling me now? I mean, it's been a while, I just didn't expect…" "Well actually I need you to help me with something. You see, my son is missing." Duo's voice lost its cheerful ring. "He's just gone! I called all his friends and they haven't seen him. They say he got into the car with some people after school and I just can't believe that…I mean he's all I left you understand! After Jessi died last year it's been hard but we've been there for each other and I just…I just…""Hold on just a sec. Did you say your son is missing?"
"Yeah, I don't know where he is."
"My son is missing as well, I was just about out go looking for him when you called."
"Your son is missing too?""Yes, that's what I said."
"Oh no…""What? What 'oh no'? I don't want to hear that!"
"No Heero, I think this might be a planed thing."
"Excuse me?"
"Do you remember when the government looked into that C.O.W. Project?"Heero's heart jumped when he heard those words.
"Children Of Warfare…" Heero whispered into the phone.
"They said that it was all a misunderstanding and that the C.O.W. Project isn't real and all that crap, well it is real, I've been there. Anyway, I have some clues that point to them as the people who took my son. What if your son was taken by the same people?"
"Don't say that!" Heero said loudly.
"Why?""I refuse to believe that my son was taken by the same people who took me."
*Flashback*
8-year-old Heero stood in a line with other boys of all ages. He watched as a man walked down the row examining each boy. When the man came to Heero he stopped. Heero remembered everything he was told as stood as quiet and still as he could. This man spent a little longer on Heero than he had with the rest of the boys. After a few minutes the man spoke to the leader of the compound where Heero had been taken when he was little.
" I'll take this one." The man said, pointing to Heero.
Heero felt scared, he knew this day would come, he had been taught that ever since he could remember. He was a Child Of Warfare, that's what he had been told all his life.
"Are you sure you want that one, Odin?" The commander of the C.O.W. Project asked the man standing in front of Heero. "He's kinda scrawny, I figured a few more years and he'd be ready."
"No, he is just what I need, I will finish up his training."
*End Flashback*
And sure enough he had, Heero remembered the days he had spent with Odin well.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Duo asked.
"When I was little, ever since I can remember I was in a compound. There were other children like me; some of them couldn't remember their parents and some of them would cry all night long because they had been taken away from their parents. I was lucky I didn't have any parents to remember."
"So you mean you were there too?""Too?"
"I was there, at the C.O.W. compound. Others there told me that I had been 2 when I had been brought there; I left when I was 6, escaped. I was the only one to escape from the compound."
"Then that means we were there at the same time. I had been there ever since I could remember and I didn't leave until I was 7. I wonder if we knew each other and don't remember. I remember hearing about a boy who had escaped, I promised myself I'd escape one day."
For a moment the two comrades paused.
"We have to get them out." Duo said.
"Where should I meet you?"
"Texas Interstellar Airport."
"I'll be waiting for you when you get there." Heero said.
"But how will you know where I am?""Just leave it to me."
Heero hung up the phone and grabbed some things and headed for the shuttle port. He would get to earth as soon as possible.
Duo walked off the plane and spotted his buddy immediately.
"Well you sure do look different but you're still the same Heero I knew 20 years ago." Duo said as he sized up his old pal.
"Hurry up, I have a car parked outside."
Duo followed Heero through the busy airport to an S.U.V. parked outside.
Heero sped to the freeway that would take him to the C.O.W. building.
After driving for an hour Heero slowed in front of a ranch. The sign read,
Welcome to C.O.W. RanchNO TRESSPASSING
Private Property
Heero turned up the drive and rode slowly to the small ranch house set on the large property. To anyone else it would have looked like a normal ranch that you see scattered all over Texas. Although now Houston had become one of the busiest cities in the world the plains of Texas were still left undeveloped. This was the perfect place to put a compound where children were held against their will and trained to be used as weapons of war. Heero eased to a stop in front of the house. A ranch hand, or what looked like a ranch hand but what, as Heero knew, was really an agent in disguise, came over to Heero's open window.
"Can I help you?" The man asked with a country accent that was most likely fake.
"Well we seem to be lost." Heero said.
Duo had pulled out a map and was bending it and turning it over in his hands. He was doing a good job making it look like he had no idea how to use one.
"Well then you must be way out of your way because there's nothing around here for a while. I suggest that you turn around and head back to where you came and try again."
"Well I'm pretty sure I'm going in the right direction but I think the road I'm looking for is up this way, couldn't you just tell me where it is? That would be such a help." Heero said, resisting the urge to shoot the man right then and there.
"Well this is a drive way to a ranch, not a street and incase you missed the sign at the front, it said no trespassing. This is private property so I'm going to have to ask you to leave. If you don't I'll have to get the authorities involved."
"No, no that's fine, we'll leave," Heero paused as he looked deep into the man's eyes. "As soon as I get my son." Heero said. He then took out a gun and shot the man in the forehead. The man fell to the ground and Heero opened his door and jumped over the man.
"That's for taking my son!" Heero than ran alongside Duo toward the house. The two ran to the side of the house and Duo kicked a small window open that lead to the basement. Duo jumped down and shot the other ranch hand looking agent who was trying to call for help. Heero followed Duo into the basement and kicked the dead body out of the way and started trying to break the code to the hidden door. After a few unsuccessful attempts the number pad started to beep and a hidden door in the floor opened. Heero and Duo hurried down the steps. To their surprise not that many agents were around. They made their way to the barracks where the kids were kept. Once they got there they found that a heavy door had been placed and locked over the entrance to the "keeping room" as it was called.
While Duo looked around for something he could use to break the door down Heero knocked three times on the door. A minute later it opened and a surprised guard was shot in the head. This frightened the children in the room and they all ran to safe places. All except two that is.
"Dad!" Aaron yelled as he fan toward his father. Heero hugged his son as the other boy who did not run away when the shots fired, ran to Duo.
"Shane!" Duo said, as he also hugged his son.
"Come on, we have to leave here, they'll be discovering that someone has broken in at any minute. As Heero, Aaron, Duo, and Shane ran to the exit a girl came out of hiding and ran up to them.
"Please, take me with you! My father will pay whatever you want for my rescue! You can't leave me here, I wasn't meant to be here."
Heero stared into her large hazel eyes. They were filled with tears and longing. Heero couldn't say no, after all she said she had a father. Her father was probably as worried about her as he was about his son. Heero nodded to the girl and the 5 then ran to the S.U.V. Heero and Duo were kept busy shooting at agents as they climbed into the car. Heero pealed out of the dirt driveway as fast as he could without turning the vehicle over. Heero sped away from C.O.W Ranch as fast as he could, he was eager to put those memories behind him once again.
As Heero drove to the airport he kept checking the rear view mirror for two reasons. One to see if he was being followed, and the other was to look at his son as make sure he was still there. Every time he did this is also noticed the girl sitting beside his son. Somewhere along the trip to the airport she had fallen asleep. Heero remembered that he still had no clue who she was.
"Aaron?" Heero asked.
His son turned his bright blue eyes to his father. Aaron looked sleepy as well.
"Do you know this girl?"
Aaron looked over at the girl sitting next to him. "No." He answered. "All I know is that she's 15 and that she hadn't been at that place very long."
Heero nodded as he parked at the airport.
Aaron got out of the car. Duo and his son who had sat in the back followed him. Heero woke up the girl and she yawned and pushed her long, thick, blonde hair out of the way before getting out of the car. As the group of five walked into the airport Heero kept looking over at his side where the girl walked. The layers in her hair complemented her round face and though her eyes were hazel, they were more of a green hazel. She reminded him of someone but he couldn't place whom! Heero walked up to the counter and asked for 5 tickets on the next shuttle to space. He didn't care what area, just as long as he got up there. He was told that one was boarding as they spoke. The group made their way to the shuttle and got their seats just as the captain announced that the ship would be leaving in 5 minutes.
Heero, Aaron, and the girl sat in the three middle seats and Duo and his son had the two seats to the left of him and one aisle up.
"Dad, why did you get tickets in fake names?" Aaron asked.
"Well I wasn't sure if we were being followed or not so I did that just to be safe. I don't want whoever took you the first time to get you again! Speaking of which, how did they get to you?"
"Well I was at school and during 1st period I get called to the principles office because my teacher said that I had a message. So I got the principles office and no one is there. I thought that that was a little weird but I just blew it off and I waited in one of the chairs. Well before I knew what had happened someone puts a rag over my nose and mouth and I'm knocked out. I woke up at that place."
"So you were kidnapped too?" The girl asked.
"Wait, do you mean you were kidnapped too?" Heero asked.
The girl nodded. "I was by myself walking home from school and some guys just rushed me and knocked me out the same way they knocked that guy out." She pointed to Aaron.
"Oh, I'm Aaron." Aaron said, introducing himself to the girl. "I was going to introduce myself in the car but you had fallen asleep."
"Oh, yeah, I was just so happy to be out that I finally realized how tiered I was. Anyway, I'm Ashleigh."
"My name is Heero." Heero said. "I'm Aaron's father."
"Oh yeah, do you have a phone? My father must be worried sick! I should call him."
"Speaking of fathers, who is yours?" Heero asked.
"Oh yeah, sorry about that, I'm Ashleigh Winner, My father is Quatre Raberba Winner."
To Be Continued...
Authors note: so what do you think? Huh? I wanna know! This fic is, um, how would you describe it? Going to be a little different from the others I've written. Not as much humor, but knowing me some will get in. I'm going for the serious, deep plot stuff that I like to read but never write. Since this is my first really serious one that should be pretty long and take a while for me to finish I'll need some help. So if you have any ideas for something interesting that I could throw in I'd really like to hear them. If I use any of the ideas I get I will certainly give you credit. So please review and feel free to email me with your ideas, I don't care how stupid they sound to you, they may be just what I need, or I might be able to use the general idea or whatever, just don't be shy to give me ideas. Hope you liked this first part and that it was enough to keep you interested so that you'll come back to read the next parts.
~Bishonen Chaser~