Characters:
Characters in OZ – Character in GW – Character in Matrix
T.K.\ Khush – Treize
Wing – Heero Yuy - Neo
Wolf – Miri – Trinity
Dragon – Wufei – Morpheus
Queen – Relena – Cypher
Kat – Catherine – Apoc
Shinigami – Duo – Mouse
No End – Noin – Switch
Po – Sally
Mau'dieb – Quatre – Dozer
Nanashi – Trowa – Tank
Agent Une – Une – Agent Smith
Agent Quinze – Quinze – Agent Brown
Agent Dorothy – Dorothy – Agent Jones
Title: OZ
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Wing Characters or the Matrix world, this is just an idea I had and wrote don't sue me as I own nothing worth any value.
Warnings: Adult language and content , Angst, death, Yaoi Implied, Yuri Implied, (Rated R )
Pairings: Implied 13x5 , 6x1, Implied S+9, 3x4;
(I doubt if there is any lemons in this. There might be though in the follow-up and prequel to this though)
Key:
"....." - spoken words
'.....' -thoughts
// ..... // -words spoken by T.K (most likely happens while someone is within OZ)
*....* - Italics
~.....~ or ~*....*~ - typing
[.....] -speaking over a phone
~*Prologue to the Beginning of the End:*~
A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath the derma of black-neon glass. A phone begins to ring. The cursor continues to throb, relentlessly patient, until –
[Hello?] A woman's voice answers.
Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing faster than can be read.
*Call trans opt: received. 2-20-03 13:24:18 REC: Log *
[I'm inside. Anything to report?] A man's voice asks.
The phone conversation flashes up on the screen in a different window. The woman's name is Queen. The man, Wolf.
[Let's see. Target left work at 5:01 PM.] Queen began.
In the first window the words, *Trace program: running.* appear. The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers. Shimmering like green- electric rivets, they rush at a 10-digit phone number in the top corner.
[He caught the northbound Howard line. Got off at Sheridan and went home.] She finished.
The area code is identified. The first three numbers suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns. Soon each digit is matched, one by one, snapping into place like the wheels of a slot machine.
[All right, you're relieved. Use the usual exit.] Wolf said.
[Do you know when we're going to make contact?] Queen asked.
[Soon.] Wolf answered.
Only two thin digits left of the phone number in the window.
[Just between you and me, you don't believe it, do you? You don't believe this guy is the one?] Queen asked her voice carrying a slight trance of uncertainty.
[I think Dragon believes he is.] Wolf answered.
[I know. But what about you?] Queen said, pressing the issue.
[I think Dragon knows things that I don't.] Wolf said firmly.
[Yeah, but if he's wrong.. ] Queen's voice trails off.
The final number pops into place on the screen.
[Did you hear that?] Wolf asked suddenly wary.
[Hear what?] she asked confused.
The window flashed and a new message appeared on the screen. *Trace complete. Call origin: #312-555-0690*
[Are you sure this line is clean?] Wolf asks uneasy, wary.
[Yeah, course I'm sure.] Queen says her tone certain.
[I better go.] Wolf says a slight trace of fear in his voice.
[Yeah. Right. See you on the other side.] Queen answers hanging up.
~*Beginning of the End:*~
The hotel was abandoned after a fire licked its way across the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms and causing soot on the walls and ceiling to leave patterns of permanent shadow. Four armed Police officers using flashlights, crept down the blackened hall and readied themselves on either side of room 303. The biggest of them violently kicked in the door, the other cops pouring in behind him, guns thrust before them. "Police! Freeze!" screamed the one who kicked in the door.
The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-up table and chair with a phone, a modem, and a Notebook computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the computer screen. Sitting there, his hands still on the keyboard, is Wolf; a man in black leather. "Get your hands behind your head!" the cop screamed at him. Wolf rose up out of the chair and turned to face the cop slowly. "Hands behind your head! Now! Do it!" the cop screamed at him again. Wolf slowly placed his hands behind his head, watching the cop.
Outside a black sedan with tinted windows glided in through the police cruisers. Two people climbed out of the car, a man and a woman with her hair up in severe braided buns on either side of her head. Their names are Quinze and Une. They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. They are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones in one ear, its cord coiling back into their shirt collars. Turning to look at the man in charge, Agent Une narrowed her eyes and spoke coldly. "Lieutenant?"
The Lieutenant glanced over at the two Agents and paled slightly. "Oh shit." he hissed softly.
"Lieutenant, you were given specific orders.." Une began coldly.
"I'm just doing my job. You gimme that jurisdiction shit and you can cram it up your ass." He said crossing his arms across his chest.
"The orders were for your protection." Une continues just as coldly.
The Lieutenant laughed and sneered at her. "I think we can handle one man." Agent Une nodded to Agent Quinze and they started toward the hotel. "I sent two units. They're bringing him down now." the lieutenant called after them.
Agent Une looked back at him and shook her head. She then turned and continued walking towards the hotel. "No, Lieutenant, your men are dead." she said as she left him behind.
Back inside the room, the cop flicked out his cuffs, the other cops holding a bead on Wolf. They've done this a hundred times, they know they've got him, until the leader reaches with the cuff to wrap it around Wolf's wrist and Wolf moves. It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly fast. The cop blinks and Wolf's palm snaps up, the cop's nose explodes, blood erupting. The cop is dead before he begins to fall. And Wolf is moving again. Seizing a wrist, misdirecting a gun, as a startled cop fires and a head explodes as it hits one of the other cops. In blind panic, another aims his gun and fires at Wolf.
Wolf twists out of the way, his hair flying out behind him like a cape, the bullet missing as he reverses into a roundhouse kick, knocking the gun away. The cop begins to scream when a jump kick crushes his windpipe, killing the scream as he falls to the ground. Wolf looked down at the four bodies. "Shit."
Agent Quinze enters the hotel, while Agent Une heads for the alley.
Wolf was on the phone, pacing. The other end is answered.
//…Operator.//
[T.K.! The link was traced! I don't know how.]
// I know. Stay calm.//
[Are there any agents?]
// Yes. //
[ Goddamn it!]
// You have to focus. There is a phone. Wells and Laxe. You can make it.//
Wolf took a deep breath, centering himself. [All right.. ]
// Go.//
Wolf dropped the phone, and burst out of the room as Agent Quinze entered the hall, leading another unit of police. Racing to the opposite end, he exited through a broken window onto the fire escape. Glancing down to the alley below to see Agent Une staring at him. The only escape would be to go up. On the roof, Wolf ran as Agent Quinze rose over the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit of the tall blonde. Wolf jumped from the roof he was on to the next, and again to the next not looking back. His movement is clean, gliding in and out of each jump, contrasting to the wild jumps of the cops following him. Agent Quinze, however, has the same unnatural grace as Wolf.
The metal scream of an El-Train was heard and Wolf turned towards it, racing for the back of the building. The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next building is over 40 feet away, Wolf stared at some point beyond the other roof, his face perfectly calm. The cops slowed, seeming to realize they were about to see something ugly as Wolf dove at the edge, launching himself into the air. From above, the ground seemed to flow beneath him as he hung in flight. Then he hit, somersaulted up, continuing to run hard. The cops all stared at the retreating figure. One cop swore as Agent Quinze duplicated the move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder, up onto one knee. "What the hell - that's impossible!"
Just below the building are the rumbling tracks of riveted steel. The train screeches beneath him, a rattling blur of gray metal. Wolf jumped down to it landing easily. He looked back just as Agent Quinze hurls through the air barely reaching the last car. Agent Quinze stood up, yanking out a gun aiming at the tall blonde man.
Wolf turned and began running hard for the front of the train as bullets whistled past his head. Ahead he saw his only chance to get off. 50 feet beyond the point where the train has begun to turn, there is a window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick building. Zeroing in on it, he ran as hard as he could, his hair flying back behind him. The scream of steel rises as he nears the edge where the train rocked into the turn.
Wolf hurtled into the empty night space, his body leveling into a dive. He fell, arms covering his head as the whole world seemed to spin on its axis, and he crashed through the window with an explosion of glass and wood onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down stairs bleeding, broken.
But still alive.
Through the smashed window, he glimpsed Agent Quinze, still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the wind; stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train slides him past the window. Wolf tried to move. Everything hurt. He hissed in pain and closed his eyes for a moment. "Get up, Wolf. You're fine. Get up.. just get up!" he told himself. Standing up, he began to limp down the rest of the stairs.
Walking out of the shadows of the alley he saw it, at the end of the block, in a pool of white street light. The telephone booth. 'Almost finished' he thought as he started towards it, obviously hurt, but focusing in on it completely, his pace quickening as the phone begins to ring. Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly u-turns, its tires screaming as it accelerates. Wolf saw the headlights of the truck highlight the telephone booth as if taking aim. He swore softly and gritting his teeth, ignored the pain, racing the truck to the telephone. Slamming into the booth, the headlights blindingly bright, bore down on the box of Plexiglas just as he answered the phone.
There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking mass of dark metal lurched up onto the sidewalk, barreling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick wall, smashing it to Plexiglas pulp. After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of the garbage truck. Agent Une inspects the wreckage. There is no body. Wolf is gone. Her jaw sets as she grinds her molars in frustration. A woman walks up behind her, another agent. "Did you get anything from the room?" Une asks the new agent.
"Their next target. The name is Wing." Agent Dorothy says looking down at the ruins of the telephone booth. The handset of the pay phone lays on the ground, separated in the crash like a severed limb.
"We'll need a search running." Une says callously glaring at the wreckage.
Dorothy smirked and turned to walk away. "It's already begun."
*
Weed-like cables laid coiled everywhere, duct-taped into thickets that wind up and around the legs of several desks within a certain studio apartment. Tabletops are filled with cannibalized equipment that lay open like an autopsied corpse. In the middle of this nest of technology sat a young man. Heero Yuy or as he was known in the underground, Wing, brought up another window and let his fingers fly over the keys of his laptop computer. The answer was here in these files he had just found. He knew it, he could feel he was getting close to finding out just what Oz was. He entered a code and hit enter, waiting for the screen to change.
It did.
But not the way had expected it too.
The screen went black with one word flashed onto the screen. ~Hiya!~
His fingers flew over the keys as he typed. ~*How did you access this computer?*~
More words appeared under what he just wrote. ~Sheesh! No... how are you?~
~*Who are you?*~ he typed back.
If the words could have a voice he would of sworn they sounded smug as a new sentence appeared.
~You can call me Shinigami, Wing.~
~*How do you know my name?*~ he typed frowning, not liking how this was progressing.
~I know a lot about you.~
He was about to type in his response when he saw a new line blinking at him.
~Knock, Knock Wing.~
He glared at the line and then looked up at the hard knock on his door. Glaring once more at the blinking sentence, he stood up. He walked over to the door unlocking, and opening it slightly to look out into the hallway.
"Hello Wing, got the disc?" He glared at the group of people, Nichol in particular.
"Hn.. yes. Just a minute." He shut the door and walked back over to his desk picking up a small disc. Glancing at the monitor he
noticed the sentence had changed.
~Follow the white wolf.~
He frowned and then walked back to the door opening it again. "Here." He said holding out the disc.
Nichol took the disc and pocketed it. "Thanks Wing, you're a life-saver. Hey...want to come with us? We found this great party." Wing frowned at him and was about to say no when he finally noticed the man Nichol was hanging on. Azure eyes glanced at him, then flicked once at Nichol as if to say 'I know he's an ass, but he has his uses' He looked away from the man's eyes, and as he did noticed the tattoo on the man's shoulder.
'Follow the white wolf,..' he thought as he turned his attention back to Nichol. 'Might as well find out what is going on.. then when I find that 'Shinigami' I can knock his head off his shoulders..' he nodded then at Nichol. "Sure, I'll go." he said turning to walk back into his room and glancing at the screen. The sentences were gone and his various windows showing his work were back up on it. Shutting off the laptop, he grabbed his coat and then walked out locking the door behind him. Nichol flashed him a grin and then turned away from him to lead him to the party still hanging on the tall blonde with the tattoo.
Inside an older Tokyo apartment; a series of halls connects a chain of small high-ceilinged rooms lined with heavy casements. Smoke hangs like a veil, blurring the few lights there are. Dressed predominantly in black, people are everywhere, gathered in cliques around pieces of furniture like jungle cats around a tree. Wing stood against a wall, alone, sipping from a bottle of beer, feeling completely out of place, he was about to leave when he noticed the tall blonde that had been with Nichol staring at him. The blonde is Wolf. He walked straight up to Wing.
"Hello, Wing." Wolf said looking down him.
"How did you know that.." Wing asked looking up at him.
"I know a lot about you. I've been wanting to meet you for some time." The other man replied.
"Who are you?" Wing asked.
"My name is Wolf."
"Wolf? The Wolf? The Wolf that cracked the I.R.S. Kansas City Database?" He asked his eyes widening some as he stared at the blonde.
"That was a long time ago." Wolf answered with a slight smile.
"Do you want to go somewhere and talk?" he asked watching him cautiously
"No. It's safe here and I don't have much time." Wolf said glancing around the room. The music was getting louder forcing them closer, and making it necessary to talk directly into each other's ear.
"I can't explain everything to you. I'm sure that it's all going to seem very strange, but I brought you here to warn you, Wing. You are in a lot of danger." Wolf said his baritone voice was surreptitious sounding as he spoke, his eyes flickering over the room as if watching out for something.
"What? Why?" He asked getting a little fed up with all the games that seemed to be going on around him.
"They're watching you. Something happened and they found out about you. Normally, if our target is exposed we let it go. But this time, we can't do that." Wolf said this and his tone held a hidden trace of fear.
"I don't understand what your.." Wing began, but was cut off by Wolf speaking again.
"You came here because you wanted to know the answer to a certain hacker's question."
"OZ. What is OZ?" he said watching the blonde carefully again.
"Sixteen years ago I met a man, a great man, who said that no one could be told the answer to that question. That they had to see it, to believe it." Wolf's body moved to press against Wing's; his lips resting very close to his ear. "He told me that no one should look for the answer unless they have to because once you see it, everything changes. Your life and the world you live in will never be the same. It's as if you wake up one morning and the sky is falling."
There was a hypnotic quality to his voice and Wing could feel the words like a drug, seeping into him. "The truth is out there, Wing. It's looking for you and it will find you, if you want it to." Wolf looked at him locking azure onto dark blue. "That's all I can tell you right now. Good- bye, Wing. And good luck."
"Wait. Who was it? Who was the man?" he asked wanting to know, but feeling he already did.
Wolf leaned close, his lips almost touching his ear as he whispered. "You know who." The blonde turned then and Wing watched him melt into the shifting wall of bodies and disappear.
*
An alarm clock slowly dragged Wing to consciousness. He strained to read the clock face: *9:15 A.M.* Rolling out of bed cursing, he got dressed and ran out the door to work.
Inside the downtown office of ColonTech. The president of the company, Mr. J lectured Wing without looking at him, typing at his computer continuously. Wing stares at two window cleaners on a scaffolding outside, dragging their rubber squeegees down across the surface of the glass. "You have a problem, Mr. Yuy. You think that you're special. You believe that somehow the rules do not apply to you." J stopped, glancing over his glasses at Wing, who turned his attention back to the older man.
"Obviously, you are mistaken." His long, bony fingers resume clicking the keyboard. "This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are a part of a whole. Thus, if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem." J turned to glance at him again. "The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Yuy. Either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forth, or you choose to find yourself another job. Do I make myself clear?"
Wing watched him emotionlessly and then spoke. "Yes, Mr. J. Perfectly clear."
The entire floor looked like a human honeycomb, with a labyrinth of cubicles structured around a core of elevators. Wing sat down into his chair as Trent stood up in the adjacent cubicle, and leaned over the partition. "What did he say?" the other man asked.
"If I was late again, I'm going to be fired." Wing replied with a slight trace of disgust in his voice.
Trent smirked and shook his head snickering. "Well, it was nice working with you." Wing glared at him, and he sank down further into his chair.
"Heero Yuy?" he turned to find a Federal Express worker in front of his cubicle entrance.
"Yes?" he asked. The man held out an electronic pad and a stylus. Signing the pad, the FedEx worker then handed him
the Softpak he carried.
"Have a nice day." The man said cheerfully and then left.
Wing frowned and opened the bag. Inside was a cellular flip phone, the instant it hit his hand, it began to ring. He flipped it open. [Hello?] he asked quietly.
[Hello, Wing. This is Dragon.] Wing's knees gave out and he fell into his chair. [I had hoped for this conversation to take place under less adverse conditions, but you can never count on hope, can you, Wing?]
[. . . no.] he said sitting up in his chair.
[I've been watching you, Wing, and I want to meet you. I don't know if you're ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, we have run out of time. They're coming for you, Wing. And I'm not sure what they're going to do.]
[Who's coming for me?] he asked getting the same wary feeling he had last night.
[Stand up and see for yourself.] the man on the other end said.
[Right now?] he asked.
[Yes. Now.] Wing started to stand up and he heard the other hiss in warning. [Do it slowly. Slowly. The elevator.] He slowly raised up and looked up over the partition.
At the elevator, he saw Agent Quinze and Agent Dorothy leading a group of cops. A female employee turned and pointed out his cubicle. Wing ducked and cursed. [What the hell do they want with me?!] he hissed into the phone.
[I'm not sure. But, if you don't want to find out, you better get out of there.] The voice was calm and it was slowly getting on his nerves.
[How?!] he hissed.
[I can guide you out, but you have to do exactly what I say.] the man said. Wing listened silently to the agents walking towards his cubicle. [The cubicle across from you is empty.] Dragon said calmly.
[But what if...?] He started to ask him, this sneaking would do him no good if those men saw him while he was trying to get away.
[Go! Now!] the voice on the phone hissed at him. He quickly lunged across the hall, diving into the other cubicle just as the agents turn into his row. Cramming himself into a dark corner, clutching the phone tightly to him, he heard the man speak calmly once more. [Stay here for a moment.]
The agents entered Wing's empty cubicle. Agent Dorothy sent a cop to search the bathroom.
Dragon' voice was a whisper in Wing's ear. [A little longer...]
Quinze spoke with Trent.
[When I tell you, go to the end of the row to the first office on the left, stay as low as you can.] Dragon said quietly. Sweat trickled down Wing's forehead as he waited.
[Now.]
Wing rolled out of the cubicle, his eyes widened slightly as he froze right behind a cop who has just turned around. Staying crouched, he snuck away, down the row, racing across the opening to the first office on the left. The room was empty. [Good. Now there is a window. Open it.]
[How do you know all this?] He asked as he walked over quickly to the window and opened it. Dragon laughed quietly over the phone.
[The answer is coming, Wing. Outside, there's a scaffold. You can use it to get to the roof.]
He leans out of the window and sees the scaffold, also noting that its several offices away from the one he was currently in. He ducked back inside the room and hissed into the phone. [No! It's too far away.]
[There's a small ledge. It's a short climb. You can make it. ] Dragon assured him.
Wing looked down; the building's glass wall turned into a concrete abyss. [No way, no way, this is crazy.]
[Don't be controlled by your fear, Wing. There are only two ways out of this building. One is that scaffold. The other is in their custody. You take a chance either way. I leave it to you.] He listened to the phone as it made a soft click. He looked back at the door, then again at the scaffold.
"This is insane! Why is this happening to me? What did I do? I'm nobody. I didn't do anything. So why the hell are the after me?!" He climbed up onto the window ledge. Hanging onto the frame, he steps onto the small ledge on the outside of the office window. The wind blew hard at him but he kept his grip and slowly inched his way towards the scaffold. He got close enough to the scaffold and then seized a hold of it and climbed onto it. He heard a shout and looked over to see one of the cops leaning out the window he had come though.
Using the controls he made the scaffold rise to the roof and then hurried across it to the ladder on the other side that he spotted. Climbing down it quickly, he dropped down and heard the sound of tires screeching. Spinning around to face the sound, he saw a dark van stop and the side door open. The tall blonde, Wolf, stepped out of it and motioned him over to the van. Running over to him he looked up at the smiling azure. "You here to keep me out of their hands?" He asked Wolf.
Wolf nodded and then jerked his head towards the van. "Get in, we have to get out of here before those Agents get out of the building and find us." Wing nodded and climbed into the van glancing once at the two guys inside it. Wolf climbed in after him and slammed the door shut. "Step on it." He told the large guy sitting behind the wheel. The guy nodded and gunned the engine taking off once more screeching the tires as he sped away. Wolf then glanced at him, smiled and sat down on the floor of the van. "In case your wondering, the guy behind the wheel is Ernie and the other guy is called Gizmo. Gizmo was kind enough to loan us the use of his van so I could pick you up."
The van stopped in a deserted alley behind a hotel. "Thanks for your help, Gizmo." Wolf said as he opened the side door of the van and Wing climbed out.
"I just hope the man knows what he's doing." Gizmo replied seriously. Wolf nodded, then climbed out of the van. Gizmo watching him, whistled at the way the muscles moved under Wolf's tight leather pants. "Goddamn, what I wouldn't give for a copy of that software." he said with a grin.
Wolf turned around, raising an eyebrow he smirked at the man inside the van. "Gizmo, you don't have the hardware to handle this software." Gizmo laughed at the teasing and was still snickering as he told Ernie they could go now. Wolf turned to face Wing. "Let's go. He's waiting." he said seriously and then turned to the hotel.
It was a place of decaying elegance, but as Wolf led Wing up the stairwell, he seemed to pay the surroundings no attention. They left the stairwell and headed down the hall of the thirteenth floor, stopping outside room 1313. "This is it." Wolf said they stopped in front of the door.
Wolf looked down at Wing, the azure eyes serious as he spoke again quietly. "Let me give one piece of advice. Be honest. He knows more than you can possibly imagine." He then opened the door and gestured for Wing to enter.
Walking inside, Wing gave the room a once over and the glanced at the figure standing across the room. The other man stood staring out of a tall window veiled with crumbling lace. The man turned and smiled. "At last." the man said softly, as he looked Wing over. He stood there wearing a long black coat, his eyes hidden behind the circular mirrored glasses he wore. He walked towards Wing and held out his hand. "Welcome, Wing. As you no doubt have guessed, I am Dragon." the man said warmly.
"It's an honor." Wing replied calmly.
Dragon smiled again and then gestured towards the two chairs in front of a fireplace. "Please. Come. Sit." He then glanced at Wolf and nodded silently. "Thank you, Wolf." The tall blonde bowed his head sharply and left the room through a different door, most likely to an adjacent room. Dragon then walked over to the cracked burgundy-leather chairs that he had pointed out earlier and sat across from Wing. "I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?" he said with a trace of amusement.
"You could say that." Wing said as he sat on the edge of his chair watching the young man in front of him.
"I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up." A smile, razor-thin, curled the corner of Dragon's lips. "Ironically, this is not far from the truth. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Can you tell me, Wing, why are you here?"
"You're The Dragon, you're a legend. Most hackers would die to meet you." Wing said honestly.
Dragon nodded his head faintly. "Yes. Thank you. But I think we both know there's more to it than that. Do you believe in fate, Wing?" he asked watching the man sitting across from him.
"No."
"Why not?" Dragon asked folding his hands in his lap leaning back into the seat.
"Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life." Wing answered frowning faintly.
"I know exactly what you mean." the man said. Once again, his smile could've cut glass. "Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you have the gift." he spoke with a firm certain tone.
"What gift?"
"I've watched you, Wing. You do not use a computer like a tool. You use it like it was part of yourself. What you can do inside
a computer is not normal. I know. I've seen it. What you do is magic." The man's voice seemed to have a trace of excitement in it as he spoke.
Wing shrugged and gave him an almost bored look. "It's not magic." he said, his voice lacking any trace of emotion.
"But it is, Wing. It is. How else would you describe what has been happening to you?" Dragon leaned forward as he continued to talk. "We are trained in this world to accept only what is rational and logical. Have you ever wondered why?" Wing shook his head, watching him silently as Dragon continued again. "As children, we do not separate the possible from the impossible which is why the younger a mind is the easier it is to free while a mind like yours can be very difficult."
Wing frowned again and then asked. "Free from what?"
"From OZ."
Wing looked at Dragon's eyes but only saw himself reflected in the glasses.
"Do you want to know what it is, Wing?"
He considered briefly and then nodded.
Dragon tilted his head slightly "It's that feeling you have had all your life. That feeling that something was wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad, driving you to me. But what is it?" The leather creaked as he leaned back once more in the chair. "OZ is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You can see it out your window, or on your television. You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
"What truth?" Wing asked raising an eyebrow slightly.
"That you are a slave, Wing. That you, like everyone else, was born into bondage - kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind." Outside, the wind battered a loose pane of glass. "Unfortunately, no one can be told what OZ is. You have to see it for yourself."
"How?" he asked, his attention caught by the man's speech.
"Hold out your hands." Wing watched him for a moment wary and then did as he asked and held out both hands palm up. In his right hand, Dragon dropped a red pill. "This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back." Dragon said as he dropped a blue pill into his left palm.
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe." Wing glanced up at him, the pills in his open hands were reflected in the glasses the other man wore. He glanced back down at his hands. "You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." Dragon leaned back into the chair waiting. Wing felt the smooth skin of the capsules, and then glanced again at Dragon. "Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more." the young man said, calmly watching him. Wing kept his eyes on the other man as he opened his mouth and swallowed the red pill. The other man's Cheshire smile returned.
Dragon stood up and then turned to walk towards the door Wolf had left through. "Follow me." he said as he opened the door and led Wing into the other room. Which was crammed with high-tech equipment, glowing ash-blue and electric green from the racks of monitors. Wolf, Kat and Queen looked up as they walked in.
"Shit." Queen said from where she was sitting.
Wolf smiled. "I knew he would." he said.
Queen walked up to Dragon, and spoke in a hushed tone away from Wing. "Dragon, I know what you believe but I think this is a mistake. We're rushing him. He's old. I'm afraid he might pop."
Dragon glanced at her in disapproval. "Haven't I always told you, Queen, not to let fear control your life. Kat, are we on-line?" he asked the auburn haired woman sitting at one of the computers.
"Almost." she replied helping Wolf to quickly hardwire a complex system of monitors, modules and drives.
Wing glanced over at the tall auburn haired woman is slight disbelief. "Kat? You wrote the Four Horsemen Virus."
She looked up and smiled at him. "That's right." she said.
Dragon set a slim hand on Wing's shoulder. "Wing, time is always against us. Will you take a seat there?" he asked gesturing to the center of the room, where a chair sat. "I imagine you know something about virtual reality."
Wing sat down, and Wolf began to gently fix white electrode disks to his head, arms, and the back of his neck. He glanced at him and then turned his attention back to Dragon. "A little." he said.
"Tell me about it." Dragon said leaning back against the wall.
"Essentially, it's a hardware system that uses an apparatus; headgear, gloves and whatever to make you feel that you are in a computer program." he explained watching him.
"If the virtual reality apparatus, as you called it, was wired to all of your senses and controlled them completely, would you be able to tell the difference between the virtual world and the real world?" Dragon asked.
"You might not, no." he said, wondering where he was going with this.
"No, you wouldn't." the young man said.
Wing turned his head slightly to glance up at Wolf. "You did all this?" he whispered to him. Wolf nodded, placing a set of headphones over his ears. He noticed they were wired to an old hotel phone.
"The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's going to make things feel a bit strange." Dragon said straightening up and walking away from the wall to an old cracked oval dressing mirror that stood near the chair.
Distantly, through the ear phones, he heard Kat pounding on a keyboard. Sweat beaded on his face. Blinking, his eyes twitched when he noticed the actions happening to the mirror. Wide-eyed he stared as it began to heal itself, a web work of cracks that slowly ran together as though the mirror were becoming liquid. "Shit..." he whispered to himself.
Queen worked with Kat checking reams of phosphorescent data. Wolf monitored Wing's electric vital signs. Wing reached out to touch the mirror and his fingers disappeared beneath the rippling surface. Quickly, he tried to pull his fingers out but the mirror stretched in long rubbery strands like mirrored-taffy stuck to his fingertips. "What is this? Mescaline?" he asked, a trace of fear in his voice.
"Just relax, Wing." he heard Dragon's voice say.
The strands thinned like rubber cement, as he pulled away Thinning until the fragile wisps of thread-like mirror broke. With a tinkling of glass, shimmering snowflakes of electric-blinking mercury fell, hitting the ground, and fading. Wing looked at his hand; his fingers were distended into mirrored icicles, that had begun to melt rapidly, dripping, and running like wax down his fingers, to spread across his palms where he saw his face reflected back at him. He distantly heard Wolf's voice. "It's going into replication."
"Kat?" Dragon asked glancing over at her.
She shook her head frowning. "Still nothing."
Dragon took out a cellular phone and dialed a number. [Nanashi, we're going to need the signal soon.] he said into the phone. Glancing over at Wing, he spoke watching him. " Stay calm, Wing."
The mirror gel seemed to come to life, racing, crawling up his arms like hundreds of insects. "It's cold." Wing said softly watching it. The mirror crept up his neck, and Wing began to panic, tipping his head as if he were sinking into the mirror, trying to keep his mouth up. "It's all over me .." he said, the fear in his voice stronger now. Dragon stood right next to the chair, with the phone.
"I got a fibrillation!" Wolf cried out watching the monitors.
"I knew it, I knew it... " Queen said glancing from the other monitor towards Wing and Dragon.
Dragon frowned and looked up at Kat. "Shit! Kat?" he asked, his tone urgent.
Streams of mercury ran from Wing's nose. "Targeting... almost there." Kat said watching the computer monitors closely.
An alarm, on Wolf's monitor erupted. Wolf screamed at Dragon not taking his eyes off the monitor. "He's going into arrest!"
"He's gonna pop!" Queen screeched from where she sat.
Kat sat on the edge of her chair, her fingers flying over the keyboard. "Lock! I got him!" she cried.
Dragon brought the phone back up screaming into it. [Now, Nanashi now!]
Wing's eyes, covered with mirror, rolled up and closed as a high-pitched electric scream erupted in the headphones; it was a piercing shriek like a computer calling to another computer. Wing's body arched in agony.
*
A man floating in a womb-red gel. His body spasms, fighting against the thick gelatin. Metal tubes, surreal versions of hospital tubes, obscure his face. Other lines like IVs are connected to limbs and cover his genitals. He struggles desperately now. Air bubbles into the gelatin but does not break the surface. Pressing up, the surface distends, stretching like a red rubber cocoon. Unable to breathe, he fights wildly to stand, clawing at the thinning elastic shroud -
Until it ruptures, a hole widening around his mouth as he sucks for air. Tearing himself free, he emerges from the cell. It is Wing. He is bald and naked, his body slick with gelatin. Dizzy, nauseous, he waited for his vision to focus. He is standing in an oval capsule of clear alloy filled with red gelatin, the surface of which has solidified like curdled milk. The IVs in his arms are plugged into outlets that appear to be grafted to his flesh. He felt the weight of another cable and reached to the back of his head where he found an enormous coaxial plugged and locked into the base of his skull. He tried to pull it out but it would be easier to pull off a finger.
To either side he saw other tube-shaped pods filled with red gelatin; beneath the wax-like surface, pale and motionless, he saw other human beings. Stacked row upon row, there are more. All connected to a center core, each capsule like a red, dimly glowing petal, attached to a black metal stem. Above him, level after, level, the stem rises seemingly forever. He moved to the foot of the capsule and looked out. The image presented assaulted his mind. Towers of glowing spiral up to incomprehensible heights, disappearing down into a dim murk like an underwater abyss. His sight is blurred and warped, exaggerating the intensity of the vision. The sound of the plant is like the sound of the ocean heard from inside the belly of Leviathan.
Below Wing, a petal detaches from the stem, bearing away the body of an old man like an automated barge even as a new pod rises up and plugs itself into the empty space. Inside the new capsule, its surface more translucent and pinkish in color, Wing saw a small baby. From above, a machine drops directly in front of Wing. He swallowed his scream as it seemed to stare at him. It is almost insect-like in its design; beautiful housings of alloyed metal covering organic-like systems of hard and soft polymers. A black particle beam washed over Wing, he reacted in pain as the scanner seemed to expose the nervous system wired to the coaxial cable at his cerebral cortex.
At the back of the neck, the cable lock spun and opened, disengaging itself. The cable pulled itself free, a long clear plastic needle and cerebrum-chip slid from the anterior of Wing's skull with an ooze of blood and spinal fluid. The other connective hoses snap free and snake away as the back of the unit opened. A tremendous vacuum, like an airplane door opening, suck the gelatin and then Wing into a black hole. The pipe is a waste disposal system and Wing fell, sliding with the clot of gelatin. Falling down, the pipe spiraled and elbowed through grease traps clogged with clumps of cellulite. Wing had begun to drown when he was suddenly snatched from the flow of waste. The metallic cable lifted, pulling him up into the belly of the machine, hovering inside the sewer's main line.
*
The metal harness opened and dropped the half-conscious Wing onto the floor. Human hands and arms helped him up as he found himself looking straight at Dragon, Wolf and Kat. Dragon smiled. "Welcome to the real world, Wing." he said quietly.
Wing passed out.
Wing's eyes opened slowly. He glanced up to see Wolf's face above him, angelic in the fluorescent glow of a light stick.
"... am I dead?" he asked watching him.
Wolf smiled down at him. "Far from it." he said softly. Wing closed his eyes again and fell back to sleep.
When Wing opened his eyes again, he felt something tingling through him. Focusing, he saw his body pierced with dozens of acupuncture-like needles wired to a strange device. Then he heard voices. He tried to lift his head to see them but was unable to.
"He needs a lot of work." A female voice said quietly.
"I know." said a familiar male voice.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
An old man moved into his view, slowly he recognized him as Dragon. "Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them." he said.
The fluorescent light sticks seemed to burn unnaturally bright, and Wing shut his eyes against the glare. "Why do my eyes hurt?" he asked the older man, opening his eyes again slightly to look at him again.
"You've never used them before." Dragon said calmly taking off his sunglasses and placing them over Wing's eyes. "Rest, Wing. The answers are coming." he assured him.
Characters in OZ – Character in GW – Character in Matrix
T.K.\ Khush – Treize
Wing – Heero Yuy - Neo
Wolf – Miri – Trinity
Dragon – Wufei – Morpheus
Queen – Relena – Cypher
Kat – Catherine – Apoc
Shinigami – Duo – Mouse
No End – Noin – Switch
Po – Sally
Mau'dieb – Quatre – Dozer
Nanashi – Trowa – Tank
Agent Une – Une – Agent Smith
Agent Quinze – Quinze – Agent Brown
Agent Dorothy – Dorothy – Agent Jones
Title: OZ
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Wing Characters or the Matrix world, this is just an idea I had and wrote don't sue me as I own nothing worth any value.
Warnings: Adult language and content , Angst, death, Yaoi Implied, Yuri Implied, (Rated R )
Pairings: Implied 13x5 , 6x1, Implied S+9, 3x4;
(I doubt if there is any lemons in this. There might be though in the follow-up and prequel to this though)
Key:
"....." - spoken words
'.....' -thoughts
// ..... // -words spoken by T.K (most likely happens while someone is within OZ)
*....* - Italics
~.....~ or ~*....*~ - typing
[.....] -speaking over a phone
~*Prologue to the Beginning of the End:*~
A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath the derma of black-neon glass. A phone begins to ring. The cursor continues to throb, relentlessly patient, until –
[Hello?] A woman's voice answers.
Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing faster than can be read.
*Call trans opt: received. 2-20-03 13:24:18 REC: Log *
[I'm inside. Anything to report?] A man's voice asks.
The phone conversation flashes up on the screen in a different window. The woman's name is Queen. The man, Wolf.
[Let's see. Target left work at 5:01 PM.] Queen began.
In the first window the words, *Trace program: running.* appear. The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers. Shimmering like green- electric rivets, they rush at a 10-digit phone number in the top corner.
[He caught the northbound Howard line. Got off at Sheridan and went home.] She finished.
The area code is identified. The first three numbers suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns. Soon each digit is matched, one by one, snapping into place like the wheels of a slot machine.
[All right, you're relieved. Use the usual exit.] Wolf said.
[Do you know when we're going to make contact?] Queen asked.
[Soon.] Wolf answered.
Only two thin digits left of the phone number in the window.
[Just between you and me, you don't believe it, do you? You don't believe this guy is the one?] Queen asked her voice carrying a slight trance of uncertainty.
[I think Dragon believes he is.] Wolf answered.
[I know. But what about you?] Queen said, pressing the issue.
[I think Dragon knows things that I don't.] Wolf said firmly.
[Yeah, but if he's wrong.. ] Queen's voice trails off.
The final number pops into place on the screen.
[Did you hear that?] Wolf asked suddenly wary.
[Hear what?] she asked confused.
The window flashed and a new message appeared on the screen. *Trace complete. Call origin: #312-555-0690*
[Are you sure this line is clean?] Wolf asks uneasy, wary.
[Yeah, course I'm sure.] Queen says her tone certain.
[I better go.] Wolf says a slight trace of fear in his voice.
[Yeah. Right. See you on the other side.] Queen answers hanging up.
~*Beginning of the End:*~
The hotel was abandoned after a fire licked its way across the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms and causing soot on the walls and ceiling to leave patterns of permanent shadow. Four armed Police officers using flashlights, crept down the blackened hall and readied themselves on either side of room 303. The biggest of them violently kicked in the door, the other cops pouring in behind him, guns thrust before them. "Police! Freeze!" screamed the one who kicked in the door.
The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-up table and chair with a phone, a modem, and a Notebook computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the computer screen. Sitting there, his hands still on the keyboard, is Wolf; a man in black leather. "Get your hands behind your head!" the cop screamed at him. Wolf rose up out of the chair and turned to face the cop slowly. "Hands behind your head! Now! Do it!" the cop screamed at him again. Wolf slowly placed his hands behind his head, watching the cop.
Outside a black sedan with tinted windows glided in through the police cruisers. Two people climbed out of the car, a man and a woman with her hair up in severe braided buns on either side of her head. Their names are Quinze and Une. They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. They are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones in one ear, its cord coiling back into their shirt collars. Turning to look at the man in charge, Agent Une narrowed her eyes and spoke coldly. "Lieutenant?"
The Lieutenant glanced over at the two Agents and paled slightly. "Oh shit." he hissed softly.
"Lieutenant, you were given specific orders.." Une began coldly.
"I'm just doing my job. You gimme that jurisdiction shit and you can cram it up your ass." He said crossing his arms across his chest.
"The orders were for your protection." Une continues just as coldly.
The Lieutenant laughed and sneered at her. "I think we can handle one man." Agent Une nodded to Agent Quinze and they started toward the hotel. "I sent two units. They're bringing him down now." the lieutenant called after them.
Agent Une looked back at him and shook her head. She then turned and continued walking towards the hotel. "No, Lieutenant, your men are dead." she said as she left him behind.
Back inside the room, the cop flicked out his cuffs, the other cops holding a bead on Wolf. They've done this a hundred times, they know they've got him, until the leader reaches with the cuff to wrap it around Wolf's wrist and Wolf moves. It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly fast. The cop blinks and Wolf's palm snaps up, the cop's nose explodes, blood erupting. The cop is dead before he begins to fall. And Wolf is moving again. Seizing a wrist, misdirecting a gun, as a startled cop fires and a head explodes as it hits one of the other cops. In blind panic, another aims his gun and fires at Wolf.
Wolf twists out of the way, his hair flying out behind him like a cape, the bullet missing as he reverses into a roundhouse kick, knocking the gun away. The cop begins to scream when a jump kick crushes his windpipe, killing the scream as he falls to the ground. Wolf looked down at the four bodies. "Shit."
Agent Quinze enters the hotel, while Agent Une heads for the alley.
Wolf was on the phone, pacing. The other end is answered.
//…Operator.//
[T.K.! The link was traced! I don't know how.]
// I know. Stay calm.//
[Are there any agents?]
// Yes. //
[ Goddamn it!]
// You have to focus. There is a phone. Wells and Laxe. You can make it.//
Wolf took a deep breath, centering himself. [All right.. ]
// Go.//
Wolf dropped the phone, and burst out of the room as Agent Quinze entered the hall, leading another unit of police. Racing to the opposite end, he exited through a broken window onto the fire escape. Glancing down to the alley below to see Agent Une staring at him. The only escape would be to go up. On the roof, Wolf ran as Agent Quinze rose over the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit of the tall blonde. Wolf jumped from the roof he was on to the next, and again to the next not looking back. His movement is clean, gliding in and out of each jump, contrasting to the wild jumps of the cops following him. Agent Quinze, however, has the same unnatural grace as Wolf.
The metal scream of an El-Train was heard and Wolf turned towards it, racing for the back of the building. The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next building is over 40 feet away, Wolf stared at some point beyond the other roof, his face perfectly calm. The cops slowed, seeming to realize they were about to see something ugly as Wolf dove at the edge, launching himself into the air. From above, the ground seemed to flow beneath him as he hung in flight. Then he hit, somersaulted up, continuing to run hard. The cops all stared at the retreating figure. One cop swore as Agent Quinze duplicated the move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder, up onto one knee. "What the hell - that's impossible!"
Just below the building are the rumbling tracks of riveted steel. The train screeches beneath him, a rattling blur of gray metal. Wolf jumped down to it landing easily. He looked back just as Agent Quinze hurls through the air barely reaching the last car. Agent Quinze stood up, yanking out a gun aiming at the tall blonde man.
Wolf turned and began running hard for the front of the train as bullets whistled past his head. Ahead he saw his only chance to get off. 50 feet beyond the point where the train has begun to turn, there is a window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick building. Zeroing in on it, he ran as hard as he could, his hair flying back behind him. The scream of steel rises as he nears the edge where the train rocked into the turn.
Wolf hurtled into the empty night space, his body leveling into a dive. He fell, arms covering his head as the whole world seemed to spin on its axis, and he crashed through the window with an explosion of glass and wood onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down stairs bleeding, broken.
But still alive.
Through the smashed window, he glimpsed Agent Quinze, still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the wind; stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train slides him past the window. Wolf tried to move. Everything hurt. He hissed in pain and closed his eyes for a moment. "Get up, Wolf. You're fine. Get up.. just get up!" he told himself. Standing up, he began to limp down the rest of the stairs.
Walking out of the shadows of the alley he saw it, at the end of the block, in a pool of white street light. The telephone booth. 'Almost finished' he thought as he started towards it, obviously hurt, but focusing in on it completely, his pace quickening as the phone begins to ring. Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly u-turns, its tires screaming as it accelerates. Wolf saw the headlights of the truck highlight the telephone booth as if taking aim. He swore softly and gritting his teeth, ignored the pain, racing the truck to the telephone. Slamming into the booth, the headlights blindingly bright, bore down on the box of Plexiglas just as he answered the phone.
There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking mass of dark metal lurched up onto the sidewalk, barreling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick wall, smashing it to Plexiglas pulp. After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of the garbage truck. Agent Une inspects the wreckage. There is no body. Wolf is gone. Her jaw sets as she grinds her molars in frustration. A woman walks up behind her, another agent. "Did you get anything from the room?" Une asks the new agent.
"Their next target. The name is Wing." Agent Dorothy says looking down at the ruins of the telephone booth. The handset of the pay phone lays on the ground, separated in the crash like a severed limb.
"We'll need a search running." Une says callously glaring at the wreckage.
Dorothy smirked and turned to walk away. "It's already begun."
*
Weed-like cables laid coiled everywhere, duct-taped into thickets that wind up and around the legs of several desks within a certain studio apartment. Tabletops are filled with cannibalized equipment that lay open like an autopsied corpse. In the middle of this nest of technology sat a young man. Heero Yuy or as he was known in the underground, Wing, brought up another window and let his fingers fly over the keys of his laptop computer. The answer was here in these files he had just found. He knew it, he could feel he was getting close to finding out just what Oz was. He entered a code and hit enter, waiting for the screen to change.
It did.
But not the way had expected it too.
The screen went black with one word flashed onto the screen. ~Hiya!~
His fingers flew over the keys as he typed. ~*How did you access this computer?*~
More words appeared under what he just wrote. ~Sheesh! No... how are you?~
~*Who are you?*~ he typed back.
If the words could have a voice he would of sworn they sounded smug as a new sentence appeared.
~You can call me Shinigami, Wing.~
~*How do you know my name?*~ he typed frowning, not liking how this was progressing.
~I know a lot about you.~
He was about to type in his response when he saw a new line blinking at him.
~Knock, Knock Wing.~
He glared at the line and then looked up at the hard knock on his door. Glaring once more at the blinking sentence, he stood up. He walked over to the door unlocking, and opening it slightly to look out into the hallway.
"Hello Wing, got the disc?" He glared at the group of people, Nichol in particular.
"Hn.. yes. Just a minute." He shut the door and walked back over to his desk picking up a small disc. Glancing at the monitor he
noticed the sentence had changed.
~Follow the white wolf.~
He frowned and then walked back to the door opening it again. "Here." He said holding out the disc.
Nichol took the disc and pocketed it. "Thanks Wing, you're a life-saver. Hey...want to come with us? We found this great party." Wing frowned at him and was about to say no when he finally noticed the man Nichol was hanging on. Azure eyes glanced at him, then flicked once at Nichol as if to say 'I know he's an ass, but he has his uses' He looked away from the man's eyes, and as he did noticed the tattoo on the man's shoulder.
'Follow the white wolf,..' he thought as he turned his attention back to Nichol. 'Might as well find out what is going on.. then when I find that 'Shinigami' I can knock his head off his shoulders..' he nodded then at Nichol. "Sure, I'll go." he said turning to walk back into his room and glancing at the screen. The sentences were gone and his various windows showing his work were back up on it. Shutting off the laptop, he grabbed his coat and then walked out locking the door behind him. Nichol flashed him a grin and then turned away from him to lead him to the party still hanging on the tall blonde with the tattoo.
Inside an older Tokyo apartment; a series of halls connects a chain of small high-ceilinged rooms lined with heavy casements. Smoke hangs like a veil, blurring the few lights there are. Dressed predominantly in black, people are everywhere, gathered in cliques around pieces of furniture like jungle cats around a tree. Wing stood against a wall, alone, sipping from a bottle of beer, feeling completely out of place, he was about to leave when he noticed the tall blonde that had been with Nichol staring at him. The blonde is Wolf. He walked straight up to Wing.
"Hello, Wing." Wolf said looking down him.
"How did you know that.." Wing asked looking up at him.
"I know a lot about you. I've been wanting to meet you for some time." The other man replied.
"Who are you?" Wing asked.
"My name is Wolf."
"Wolf? The Wolf? The Wolf that cracked the I.R.S. Kansas City Database?" He asked his eyes widening some as he stared at the blonde.
"That was a long time ago." Wolf answered with a slight smile.
"Do you want to go somewhere and talk?" he asked watching him cautiously
"No. It's safe here and I don't have much time." Wolf said glancing around the room. The music was getting louder forcing them closer, and making it necessary to talk directly into each other's ear.
"I can't explain everything to you. I'm sure that it's all going to seem very strange, but I brought you here to warn you, Wing. You are in a lot of danger." Wolf said his baritone voice was surreptitious sounding as he spoke, his eyes flickering over the room as if watching out for something.
"What? Why?" He asked getting a little fed up with all the games that seemed to be going on around him.
"They're watching you. Something happened and they found out about you. Normally, if our target is exposed we let it go. But this time, we can't do that." Wolf said this and his tone held a hidden trace of fear.
"I don't understand what your.." Wing began, but was cut off by Wolf speaking again.
"You came here because you wanted to know the answer to a certain hacker's question."
"OZ. What is OZ?" he said watching the blonde carefully again.
"Sixteen years ago I met a man, a great man, who said that no one could be told the answer to that question. That they had to see it, to believe it." Wolf's body moved to press against Wing's; his lips resting very close to his ear. "He told me that no one should look for the answer unless they have to because once you see it, everything changes. Your life and the world you live in will never be the same. It's as if you wake up one morning and the sky is falling."
There was a hypnotic quality to his voice and Wing could feel the words like a drug, seeping into him. "The truth is out there, Wing. It's looking for you and it will find you, if you want it to." Wolf looked at him locking azure onto dark blue. "That's all I can tell you right now. Good- bye, Wing. And good luck."
"Wait. Who was it? Who was the man?" he asked wanting to know, but feeling he already did.
Wolf leaned close, his lips almost touching his ear as he whispered. "You know who." The blonde turned then and Wing watched him melt into the shifting wall of bodies and disappear.
*
An alarm clock slowly dragged Wing to consciousness. He strained to read the clock face: *9:15 A.M.* Rolling out of bed cursing, he got dressed and ran out the door to work.
Inside the downtown office of ColonTech. The president of the company, Mr. J lectured Wing without looking at him, typing at his computer continuously. Wing stares at two window cleaners on a scaffolding outside, dragging their rubber squeegees down across the surface of the glass. "You have a problem, Mr. Yuy. You think that you're special. You believe that somehow the rules do not apply to you." J stopped, glancing over his glasses at Wing, who turned his attention back to the older man.
"Obviously, you are mistaken." His long, bony fingers resume clicking the keyboard. "This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are a part of a whole. Thus, if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem." J turned to glance at him again. "The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Yuy. Either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forth, or you choose to find yourself another job. Do I make myself clear?"
Wing watched him emotionlessly and then spoke. "Yes, Mr. J. Perfectly clear."
The entire floor looked like a human honeycomb, with a labyrinth of cubicles structured around a core of elevators. Wing sat down into his chair as Trent stood up in the adjacent cubicle, and leaned over the partition. "What did he say?" the other man asked.
"If I was late again, I'm going to be fired." Wing replied with a slight trace of disgust in his voice.
Trent smirked and shook his head snickering. "Well, it was nice working with you." Wing glared at him, and he sank down further into his chair.
"Heero Yuy?" he turned to find a Federal Express worker in front of his cubicle entrance.
"Yes?" he asked. The man held out an electronic pad and a stylus. Signing the pad, the FedEx worker then handed him
the Softpak he carried.
"Have a nice day." The man said cheerfully and then left.
Wing frowned and opened the bag. Inside was a cellular flip phone, the instant it hit his hand, it began to ring. He flipped it open. [Hello?] he asked quietly.
[Hello, Wing. This is Dragon.] Wing's knees gave out and he fell into his chair. [I had hoped for this conversation to take place under less adverse conditions, but you can never count on hope, can you, Wing?]
[. . . no.] he said sitting up in his chair.
[I've been watching you, Wing, and I want to meet you. I don't know if you're ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, we have run out of time. They're coming for you, Wing. And I'm not sure what they're going to do.]
[Who's coming for me?] he asked getting the same wary feeling he had last night.
[Stand up and see for yourself.] the man on the other end said.
[Right now?] he asked.
[Yes. Now.] Wing started to stand up and he heard the other hiss in warning. [Do it slowly. Slowly. The elevator.] He slowly raised up and looked up over the partition.
At the elevator, he saw Agent Quinze and Agent Dorothy leading a group of cops. A female employee turned and pointed out his cubicle. Wing ducked and cursed. [What the hell do they want with me?!] he hissed into the phone.
[I'm not sure. But, if you don't want to find out, you better get out of there.] The voice was calm and it was slowly getting on his nerves.
[How?!] he hissed.
[I can guide you out, but you have to do exactly what I say.] the man said. Wing listened silently to the agents walking towards his cubicle. [The cubicle across from you is empty.] Dragon said calmly.
[But what if...?] He started to ask him, this sneaking would do him no good if those men saw him while he was trying to get away.
[Go! Now!] the voice on the phone hissed at him. He quickly lunged across the hall, diving into the other cubicle just as the agents turn into his row. Cramming himself into a dark corner, clutching the phone tightly to him, he heard the man speak calmly once more. [Stay here for a moment.]
The agents entered Wing's empty cubicle. Agent Dorothy sent a cop to search the bathroom.
Dragon' voice was a whisper in Wing's ear. [A little longer...]
Quinze spoke with Trent.
[When I tell you, go to the end of the row to the first office on the left, stay as low as you can.] Dragon said quietly. Sweat trickled down Wing's forehead as he waited.
[Now.]
Wing rolled out of the cubicle, his eyes widened slightly as he froze right behind a cop who has just turned around. Staying crouched, he snuck away, down the row, racing across the opening to the first office on the left. The room was empty. [Good. Now there is a window. Open it.]
[How do you know all this?] He asked as he walked over quickly to the window and opened it. Dragon laughed quietly over the phone.
[The answer is coming, Wing. Outside, there's a scaffold. You can use it to get to the roof.]
He leans out of the window and sees the scaffold, also noting that its several offices away from the one he was currently in. He ducked back inside the room and hissed into the phone. [No! It's too far away.]
[There's a small ledge. It's a short climb. You can make it. ] Dragon assured him.
Wing looked down; the building's glass wall turned into a concrete abyss. [No way, no way, this is crazy.]
[Don't be controlled by your fear, Wing. There are only two ways out of this building. One is that scaffold. The other is in their custody. You take a chance either way. I leave it to you.] He listened to the phone as it made a soft click. He looked back at the door, then again at the scaffold.
"This is insane! Why is this happening to me? What did I do? I'm nobody. I didn't do anything. So why the hell are the after me?!" He climbed up onto the window ledge. Hanging onto the frame, he steps onto the small ledge on the outside of the office window. The wind blew hard at him but he kept his grip and slowly inched his way towards the scaffold. He got close enough to the scaffold and then seized a hold of it and climbed onto it. He heard a shout and looked over to see one of the cops leaning out the window he had come though.
Using the controls he made the scaffold rise to the roof and then hurried across it to the ladder on the other side that he spotted. Climbing down it quickly, he dropped down and heard the sound of tires screeching. Spinning around to face the sound, he saw a dark van stop and the side door open. The tall blonde, Wolf, stepped out of it and motioned him over to the van. Running over to him he looked up at the smiling azure. "You here to keep me out of their hands?" He asked Wolf.
Wolf nodded and then jerked his head towards the van. "Get in, we have to get out of here before those Agents get out of the building and find us." Wing nodded and climbed into the van glancing once at the two guys inside it. Wolf climbed in after him and slammed the door shut. "Step on it." He told the large guy sitting behind the wheel. The guy nodded and gunned the engine taking off once more screeching the tires as he sped away. Wolf then glanced at him, smiled and sat down on the floor of the van. "In case your wondering, the guy behind the wheel is Ernie and the other guy is called Gizmo. Gizmo was kind enough to loan us the use of his van so I could pick you up."
The van stopped in a deserted alley behind a hotel. "Thanks for your help, Gizmo." Wolf said as he opened the side door of the van and Wing climbed out.
"I just hope the man knows what he's doing." Gizmo replied seriously. Wolf nodded, then climbed out of the van. Gizmo watching him, whistled at the way the muscles moved under Wolf's tight leather pants. "Goddamn, what I wouldn't give for a copy of that software." he said with a grin.
Wolf turned around, raising an eyebrow he smirked at the man inside the van. "Gizmo, you don't have the hardware to handle this software." Gizmo laughed at the teasing and was still snickering as he told Ernie they could go now. Wolf turned to face Wing. "Let's go. He's waiting." he said seriously and then turned to the hotel.
It was a place of decaying elegance, but as Wolf led Wing up the stairwell, he seemed to pay the surroundings no attention. They left the stairwell and headed down the hall of the thirteenth floor, stopping outside room 1313. "This is it." Wolf said they stopped in front of the door.
Wolf looked down at Wing, the azure eyes serious as he spoke again quietly. "Let me give one piece of advice. Be honest. He knows more than you can possibly imagine." He then opened the door and gestured for Wing to enter.
Walking inside, Wing gave the room a once over and the glanced at the figure standing across the room. The other man stood staring out of a tall window veiled with crumbling lace. The man turned and smiled. "At last." the man said softly, as he looked Wing over. He stood there wearing a long black coat, his eyes hidden behind the circular mirrored glasses he wore. He walked towards Wing and held out his hand. "Welcome, Wing. As you no doubt have guessed, I am Dragon." the man said warmly.
"It's an honor." Wing replied calmly.
Dragon smiled again and then gestured towards the two chairs in front of a fireplace. "Please. Come. Sit." He then glanced at Wolf and nodded silently. "Thank you, Wolf." The tall blonde bowed his head sharply and left the room through a different door, most likely to an adjacent room. Dragon then walked over to the cracked burgundy-leather chairs that he had pointed out earlier and sat across from Wing. "I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?" he said with a trace of amusement.
"You could say that." Wing said as he sat on the edge of his chair watching the young man in front of him.
"I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up." A smile, razor-thin, curled the corner of Dragon's lips. "Ironically, this is not far from the truth. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Can you tell me, Wing, why are you here?"
"You're The Dragon, you're a legend. Most hackers would die to meet you." Wing said honestly.
Dragon nodded his head faintly. "Yes. Thank you. But I think we both know there's more to it than that. Do you believe in fate, Wing?" he asked watching the man sitting across from him.
"No."
"Why not?" Dragon asked folding his hands in his lap leaning back into the seat.
"Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life." Wing answered frowning faintly.
"I know exactly what you mean." the man said. Once again, his smile could've cut glass. "Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you have the gift." he spoke with a firm certain tone.
"What gift?"
"I've watched you, Wing. You do not use a computer like a tool. You use it like it was part of yourself. What you can do inside
a computer is not normal. I know. I've seen it. What you do is magic." The man's voice seemed to have a trace of excitement in it as he spoke.
Wing shrugged and gave him an almost bored look. "It's not magic." he said, his voice lacking any trace of emotion.
"But it is, Wing. It is. How else would you describe what has been happening to you?" Dragon leaned forward as he continued to talk. "We are trained in this world to accept only what is rational and logical. Have you ever wondered why?" Wing shook his head, watching him silently as Dragon continued again. "As children, we do not separate the possible from the impossible which is why the younger a mind is the easier it is to free while a mind like yours can be very difficult."
Wing frowned again and then asked. "Free from what?"
"From OZ."
Wing looked at Dragon's eyes but only saw himself reflected in the glasses.
"Do you want to know what it is, Wing?"
He considered briefly and then nodded.
Dragon tilted his head slightly "It's that feeling you have had all your life. That feeling that something was wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad, driving you to me. But what is it?" The leather creaked as he leaned back once more in the chair. "OZ is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You can see it out your window, or on your television. You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
"What truth?" Wing asked raising an eyebrow slightly.
"That you are a slave, Wing. That you, like everyone else, was born into bondage - kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind." Outside, the wind battered a loose pane of glass. "Unfortunately, no one can be told what OZ is. You have to see it for yourself."
"How?" he asked, his attention caught by the man's speech.
"Hold out your hands." Wing watched him for a moment wary and then did as he asked and held out both hands palm up. In his right hand, Dragon dropped a red pill. "This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back." Dragon said as he dropped a blue pill into his left palm.
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe." Wing glanced up at him, the pills in his open hands were reflected in the glasses the other man wore. He glanced back down at his hands. "You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." Dragon leaned back into the chair waiting. Wing felt the smooth skin of the capsules, and then glanced again at Dragon. "Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more." the young man said, calmly watching him. Wing kept his eyes on the other man as he opened his mouth and swallowed the red pill. The other man's Cheshire smile returned.
Dragon stood up and then turned to walk towards the door Wolf had left through. "Follow me." he said as he opened the door and led Wing into the other room. Which was crammed with high-tech equipment, glowing ash-blue and electric green from the racks of monitors. Wolf, Kat and Queen looked up as they walked in.
"Shit." Queen said from where she was sitting.
Wolf smiled. "I knew he would." he said.
Queen walked up to Dragon, and spoke in a hushed tone away from Wing. "Dragon, I know what you believe but I think this is a mistake. We're rushing him. He's old. I'm afraid he might pop."
Dragon glanced at her in disapproval. "Haven't I always told you, Queen, not to let fear control your life. Kat, are we on-line?" he asked the auburn haired woman sitting at one of the computers.
"Almost." she replied helping Wolf to quickly hardwire a complex system of monitors, modules and drives.
Wing glanced over at the tall auburn haired woman is slight disbelief. "Kat? You wrote the Four Horsemen Virus."
She looked up and smiled at him. "That's right." she said.
Dragon set a slim hand on Wing's shoulder. "Wing, time is always against us. Will you take a seat there?" he asked gesturing to the center of the room, where a chair sat. "I imagine you know something about virtual reality."
Wing sat down, and Wolf began to gently fix white electrode disks to his head, arms, and the back of his neck. He glanced at him and then turned his attention back to Dragon. "A little." he said.
"Tell me about it." Dragon said leaning back against the wall.
"Essentially, it's a hardware system that uses an apparatus; headgear, gloves and whatever to make you feel that you are in a computer program." he explained watching him.
"If the virtual reality apparatus, as you called it, was wired to all of your senses and controlled them completely, would you be able to tell the difference between the virtual world and the real world?" Dragon asked.
"You might not, no." he said, wondering where he was going with this.
"No, you wouldn't." the young man said.
Wing turned his head slightly to glance up at Wolf. "You did all this?" he whispered to him. Wolf nodded, placing a set of headphones over his ears. He noticed they were wired to an old hotel phone.
"The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's going to make things feel a bit strange." Dragon said straightening up and walking away from the wall to an old cracked oval dressing mirror that stood near the chair.
Distantly, through the ear phones, he heard Kat pounding on a keyboard. Sweat beaded on his face. Blinking, his eyes twitched when he noticed the actions happening to the mirror. Wide-eyed he stared as it began to heal itself, a web work of cracks that slowly ran together as though the mirror were becoming liquid. "Shit..." he whispered to himself.
Queen worked with Kat checking reams of phosphorescent data. Wolf monitored Wing's electric vital signs. Wing reached out to touch the mirror and his fingers disappeared beneath the rippling surface. Quickly, he tried to pull his fingers out but the mirror stretched in long rubbery strands like mirrored-taffy stuck to his fingertips. "What is this? Mescaline?" he asked, a trace of fear in his voice.
"Just relax, Wing." he heard Dragon's voice say.
The strands thinned like rubber cement, as he pulled away Thinning until the fragile wisps of thread-like mirror broke. With a tinkling of glass, shimmering snowflakes of electric-blinking mercury fell, hitting the ground, and fading. Wing looked at his hand; his fingers were distended into mirrored icicles, that had begun to melt rapidly, dripping, and running like wax down his fingers, to spread across his palms where he saw his face reflected back at him. He distantly heard Wolf's voice. "It's going into replication."
"Kat?" Dragon asked glancing over at her.
She shook her head frowning. "Still nothing."
Dragon took out a cellular phone and dialed a number. [Nanashi, we're going to need the signal soon.] he said into the phone. Glancing over at Wing, he spoke watching him. " Stay calm, Wing."
The mirror gel seemed to come to life, racing, crawling up his arms like hundreds of insects. "It's cold." Wing said softly watching it. The mirror crept up his neck, and Wing began to panic, tipping his head as if he were sinking into the mirror, trying to keep his mouth up. "It's all over me .." he said, the fear in his voice stronger now. Dragon stood right next to the chair, with the phone.
"I got a fibrillation!" Wolf cried out watching the monitors.
"I knew it, I knew it... " Queen said glancing from the other monitor towards Wing and Dragon.
Dragon frowned and looked up at Kat. "Shit! Kat?" he asked, his tone urgent.
Streams of mercury ran from Wing's nose. "Targeting... almost there." Kat said watching the computer monitors closely.
An alarm, on Wolf's monitor erupted. Wolf screamed at Dragon not taking his eyes off the monitor. "He's going into arrest!"
"He's gonna pop!" Queen screeched from where she sat.
Kat sat on the edge of her chair, her fingers flying over the keyboard. "Lock! I got him!" she cried.
Dragon brought the phone back up screaming into it. [Now, Nanashi now!]
Wing's eyes, covered with mirror, rolled up and closed as a high-pitched electric scream erupted in the headphones; it was a piercing shriek like a computer calling to another computer. Wing's body arched in agony.
*
A man floating in a womb-red gel. His body spasms, fighting against the thick gelatin. Metal tubes, surreal versions of hospital tubes, obscure his face. Other lines like IVs are connected to limbs and cover his genitals. He struggles desperately now. Air bubbles into the gelatin but does not break the surface. Pressing up, the surface distends, stretching like a red rubber cocoon. Unable to breathe, he fights wildly to stand, clawing at the thinning elastic shroud -
Until it ruptures, a hole widening around his mouth as he sucks for air. Tearing himself free, he emerges from the cell. It is Wing. He is bald and naked, his body slick with gelatin. Dizzy, nauseous, he waited for his vision to focus. He is standing in an oval capsule of clear alloy filled with red gelatin, the surface of which has solidified like curdled milk. The IVs in his arms are plugged into outlets that appear to be grafted to his flesh. He felt the weight of another cable and reached to the back of his head where he found an enormous coaxial plugged and locked into the base of his skull. He tried to pull it out but it would be easier to pull off a finger.
To either side he saw other tube-shaped pods filled with red gelatin; beneath the wax-like surface, pale and motionless, he saw other human beings. Stacked row upon row, there are more. All connected to a center core, each capsule like a red, dimly glowing petal, attached to a black metal stem. Above him, level after, level, the stem rises seemingly forever. He moved to the foot of the capsule and looked out. The image presented assaulted his mind. Towers of glowing spiral up to incomprehensible heights, disappearing down into a dim murk like an underwater abyss. His sight is blurred and warped, exaggerating the intensity of the vision. The sound of the plant is like the sound of the ocean heard from inside the belly of Leviathan.
Below Wing, a petal detaches from the stem, bearing away the body of an old man like an automated barge even as a new pod rises up and plugs itself into the empty space. Inside the new capsule, its surface more translucent and pinkish in color, Wing saw a small baby. From above, a machine drops directly in front of Wing. He swallowed his scream as it seemed to stare at him. It is almost insect-like in its design; beautiful housings of alloyed metal covering organic-like systems of hard and soft polymers. A black particle beam washed over Wing, he reacted in pain as the scanner seemed to expose the nervous system wired to the coaxial cable at his cerebral cortex.
At the back of the neck, the cable lock spun and opened, disengaging itself. The cable pulled itself free, a long clear plastic needle and cerebrum-chip slid from the anterior of Wing's skull with an ooze of blood and spinal fluid. The other connective hoses snap free and snake away as the back of the unit opened. A tremendous vacuum, like an airplane door opening, suck the gelatin and then Wing into a black hole. The pipe is a waste disposal system and Wing fell, sliding with the clot of gelatin. Falling down, the pipe spiraled and elbowed through grease traps clogged with clumps of cellulite. Wing had begun to drown when he was suddenly snatched from the flow of waste. The metallic cable lifted, pulling him up into the belly of the machine, hovering inside the sewer's main line.
*
The metal harness opened and dropped the half-conscious Wing onto the floor. Human hands and arms helped him up as he found himself looking straight at Dragon, Wolf and Kat. Dragon smiled. "Welcome to the real world, Wing." he said quietly.
Wing passed out.
Wing's eyes opened slowly. He glanced up to see Wolf's face above him, angelic in the fluorescent glow of a light stick.
"... am I dead?" he asked watching him.
Wolf smiled down at him. "Far from it." he said softly. Wing closed his eyes again and fell back to sleep.
When Wing opened his eyes again, he felt something tingling through him. Focusing, he saw his body pierced with dozens of acupuncture-like needles wired to a strange device. Then he heard voices. He tried to lift his head to see them but was unable to.
"He needs a lot of work." A female voice said quietly.
"I know." said a familiar male voice.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
An old man moved into his view, slowly he recognized him as Dragon. "Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them." he said.
The fluorescent light sticks seemed to burn unnaturally bright, and Wing shut his eyes against the glare. "Why do my eyes hurt?" he asked the older man, opening his eyes again slightly to look at him again.
"You've never used them before." Dragon said calmly taking off his sunglasses and placing them over Wing's eyes. "Rest, Wing. The answers are coming." he assured him.