Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I do not own ANYTHING. No assets. Just pure, untainted desire.
Author's Note: This chapter was hard to write but fun! I hope it's consistent with the tone of the first. One thing I'd like to add is that this chapter is set during the period of time in the show when no one knew what Zechs' true identity was...that's something the pilots will be discovering at a later point in the story. I'm also considering changing the name of this story...it doesn't really seem to work. Suggestions? Anyway, enjoy, and don't forget to review!
Chapter 2
"Fuck..."
I heard a voice speaking in the darkness of my mind. It took me a few seconds to recognize the voice as my own. Bummer. When I woke up with a curse on my lips, it was a sure sign that the day was going to suck.
I cracked an eye open to see if it was safe to come out and play. In front of me I saw a table...no, more like a cart. It was one of those ones that looked like they were from room service at a fancy hotel. The surface beneath me was soft and comfortable. Like a bed.
I closed my eyes again. I didn't want to get up. I didn't know where I was, but I was warm, safe, and more importantly, not in any immediate danger. So why would I want to get up and give the circumstances a chance to change? Let fate kick me in the balls once again? No, thanks.
I sighed, and came to the realization that I was a gigantic wuss.
I was Gundam pilot, for fuck's sake! I had no reason to be afraid. And I had a war to fight, which meant that I needed to get up sooner or later. My happy little cocoon of a world was about to open up.
My stomach rumbled and I knew that it definitely wouldn't let me go back to sleep.
The decision was made.
I sat up slowly, remembering the sharp pin-prick of the night before, and waited for any after effects of the drug to kick in. My head was clear and my vision was fine. I was balanced. No after effects. Fantastic.
I stood and stretched, feeling the soft carpet scrunch under my feet. The room was actually pretty nice, for being my supposed prison and all. The walls were covered with a soft cream color that really offset the gold weave in the bedspread and the neutral colors in the carpet. I noted that the bed was a four poster bed and nodded, impressed. The wood stain on the bed matched the other wood furniture in the room perfectly. By other wood furniture, I mean one chair and a dresser, which, upon inspection, was totally empty.
Guest room? I thought not.
On the walls were these wrought iron designs that turned out to be light fixtures, and a couple of really nice abstract paintings. At least, they looked nice. I've never been much of an art critic. Abstract was abstract, right? You splatter paint, it looks funny, you sell it...that's it...
Okay, so maybe just a few artists would strongly disagree...
The only thing left for me to examine was the cart sitting beside the bed, the one I'd seen when I'd first opened my eyes. I padded over to it. It was shiny and silver, like an oversize dinner platter.
I reached forward and opened it...
This was the best prison ever!
I stood, my mouth agape at the selection of food inside. Bacon, eggs, ham, steak, fruit, bread...and those were the few things that I actually recognized. The rest was exotic and foreign to me.
I debated for a moment whether or not I wanted to eat the array set out before me.
It could be poisoned. Extremely old-school, but by all means, possible.
But then again, if they'd wanted me dead, they could have just come in and shot me. The only way I could have been more helpless was if I'd had my arms and legs cut off and set in a Jello mold. They'd also gone to some effort to capture me alive. Maybe they were just being hospitable?
Maybe.
But that didn't mean they were nice. If they were really nice, they wouldn't have had to drug me to get me here...
My stomach rumbled and I finally gave in and began stuffing my face.
Sitting on the bed, going through the selection of fruits and meats and cheeses, my mind was a whirlwind. Who the fuck were these people? Why was I here and why was I being treated so nicely?
And where was Heero?
Whoa. Heero. I hadn't even managed to freak out about him yet.
Still, that wasn't about to wreck my feast. I lay back on the bed, banana in hand, and began to imagine a hundred and one impossible scenarios where Heero was being killed, tortured or mentally shattered into a thousand pieces.
And people said I needed a hobby.
I sat for a few minutes, going over the scene from last night in my head. I knew for a fact that they'd gotten me before they'd gotten Heero, whoever they were. I knew, because I remembered Heero's voice in my ear as I'd blacked out.
Why had I wanted to go out that night? I could have just stayed home and bought some liquor for Quatre and me to drink. But no. I had to go out into the big bad world and get my ass hauled into the only jail cell good enough to be featured on Martha Stewart.
A door opening cut my thoughts off and I launched myself to my feet, ready to defend myself, if need be. Or at least attempt to do so.
A tall, graceful woman entered. She was well dressed, in what I would have called a military uniform, only I'd never seen one like this before. She was, to say the least, statuesque. Her hair was a dark red, like an Irish red, that hung over her shoulders in graceful curls, and her eyes were a deep green. She was, to say the least, beautiful.
She was also staring at me and had a gun in her hand.
Oops. Guess that meant I didn't want to fuck around with her.
"Duo Maxwell." She directed her gaze at me, and I suppressed the question of how she'd known my name the moment it sprang to my tongue. No need to sound impressed.
I nodded and grinned. "That's me." She did not return the smile, and her cold eyes pierced mine as she bowed at the waist. She seemed vaguely familiar, but then again, we had a lot of enemies, and she could have been any one of them.
"My name is Helena Windoran. My Lord requests your presence. He says that it is vital that you attend this meeting with him. If you refuse, we shall have to take other..." she paused for effect, I think, "...measures."
I shrugged and my smile widened as I put a wall up behind my eyes. No need to let her know exactly how close I was to pissing my pants. After all, these people had already showed me that they played tough, and I had a feeling that being a snot would not bode well for me.
"Will my partner be attending this meeting?" I asked, assuming that she knew who he was.
She nodded. Of course. "He is waiting for you there. I will show you to the conference room."
I nodded, the smile still plastered on my face, while my heart leaped with joy. He was alive. If anyone could get us out of this, he could. "Let's go, then," I said calmly and she nodded and turned, leading me out into the adjoining hall.
As we stepped out of the room, the door shut as if someone had pushed it closed, and the air temperature dropped about ten degrees. I also noticed that the scenery wasn't as nice as it had been in the room – the walls were made of grey stone, the floor of concrete and the ceilings, which had metal pipes running along the corners, were made of metal sheets. Dim lights illuminated the way every so often as we marched along the corridor.
This was some seriously weird shit.
"You guys decorate all this yourselves?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.
She ignored my question. Shit. No sense of humor, either. I was in deep trouble.
Suddenly, Windoran stopped short in front of what appeared to be large steel double doors. She pushed a button on the wall and the doors slid aside to reveal an elevator. It was carpeted and had wood paneling on the bottom and mirrors on the top. The elevator was slightly warmer than the hallway we were in, and I caught a few notes of what sounded like music. Elevator music. Oh, lord, just shoot me now.
I raised an eyebrow at Windoran, unable to help myself. "Nice," I commented.
She ignored my comment and stared straight back at me. "He is waiting for you upstairs. I can go no further with you." She nudged me into the elevator and pressed on the button on the outside wall once again. She remained silent as the doors closed.
The elevator jerked and started moving upward. I leaned against one of the walls and sighed. I felt like I'd just been screwed over royally, but I had no one to blame yet. I hated having no one to blame. It made me feel downright pissy.
I leaned forward toward one of the mirrors on the sides of the elevator and flashed myself a grin. Spotting a little crumb of whatever-the-hell stuck between my molars, I wedged a fingernail into the crack and tried to dislodge it. After several attempts, I finally succeeded. Alright, go me. I leaned in closer and began to stare at my teeth. I came to the realization that they were pretty damn straight and generally in good condition. I ran my tongue over them and took note of the soft underside of my tongue, then began looking at the top of it and I was just starting to check out my taste buds...boy, I sure had a lot of those...
A sudden ding brought me back to reality and I straightened, licking my lips as if trying to discard some sort of evidence. Right.
I straightened and turned back toward the doors, waiting for them to open. And waiting. And waiting...
"Ahem."
I jumped and spun around. The doors had opened on the other side. Oh.
Trying to soothe my jumpy nerves, I stepped out of the elevator to face a man with short, dark hair and deep blue eyes. He, too, was dressed in the same type of uniform that Windoran had been wearing, but I had a sneaking suspicion that he was a higher rank. His stance was perfect, even elegant. He was, of course, at least a foot and half taller than me, which pissed me off even more, but I held my tongue. He motioned for me to sit at a large wooden table in the middle of the room, with a rust red plush rug lying under it. Glancing down, I saw that the floors, while made of concrete, held a sort of smooth edge that made you want to walk barefoot on them. They just looked that good.
But when I took a look around me, I had to suppress a gasp of surprise. The walls were made of dark tinted glass, and through that glass, I could see the city around and below us...at least a hundred stories below us. It was a breathtaking sight, and I almost didn't notice Heero because of it.
Heero. A weight instantly lifted off my shoulders as I saw him sitting before me in a black leather chair, looking at me stonily as always. The prick.
I redirected my gaze to our host who had not moved one iota and had waited pleasantly for me to get over my initial shock. He bowed to me and spoke. "My name is Anthony D'leur. You have been invited here today to discuss certain issues which I can only hope you will take into strict confidence."
For some reason, I had the feeling that I wanted nothing to do with these issues, but I figured it would be a good idea to humor him and take a seat until I could think of a better plan.
I pulled up a chair next to Heero. He didn't even look at me, and I made no attempt to make eye contact with him.
Anthony pulled up a seat across from us and folded his hands over the glossed surface of the table. I couldn't help but get the feeling that, like Windoran, we'd met before. I didn't have much time to give it thought, though, because he began talking and today of all days, I decided to actually listen. Fancy that.
"I've called you both here today to speak with you about something extremely important to both my organization and yours."
I raised an eyebrow. Somehow, I highly doubted this. I opened a mouth to protest, but Anthony held a hand up and stopped me before I could speak. "I would appreciate if you would let me finish before interjecting with your own thoughts, Mr. Maxwell."
My mouth snapped shut. Mr. Maxwell? The name sounded strange to even my own ears. I'd never been a mister to anybody.
Anthony continued talking. "There is a group in the city that has come to our attention. Now, before you respond by saying that that's our problem," his gaze lingered on me for a moment, "consider that we also have evidence that this group is planning an attack on the entire city – this city, in which you are currently residing. Not helping us would be, needless to say, a very bad move." He sat back and smiled politely as if he'd just beaten me at a game of Bingo.
I blinked and saw Heero open his mouth out of the corner of my eye, but I beat him to it. "Why us?"
Anthony leaned back, eying me carefully. "Because you are a group of soldiers well known to our organization and we believe that you are the best suited for this mission, at least, on such short notice."
I leaned forward and rested my hands on the tabletop, which, oddly enough, felt like it was made of glass. "By 'group of soldiers' you don't mean just Heero and me?" I asked, not liking where this was going at all.
His answer came crisply. "That's correct."
I stared at him for a moment before leaning back in my chair. "And it's just based on our combat skills that you've chosen us?" If this was true, it was seriously bad news for us. No one was even supposed to know who we were yet. Still, this guy, Anthony, looked familiar. Maybe we'd encountered him on the battlefield.
Anthony nodded. "Your fighting skills far surpass those of the average soldier. We believe you to be ideal."
Heero spoke for the first time, forcing me to remind myself that he wasn't just a mannequin. I was still pissed at him though, so I decided not to acknowledge him by making eye contact of any kind until we'd left the building. Assuming we were allowed to leave the building.
"Who are you?"
Oh. I knew I'd forgotten to ask something.
"We are an organization that does not wish to see the destruction of this city come to pass, Mr. Yuy." Anthony smiled charmingly at him; it was a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "We do many things, and are, in a way, involved with OZ. We do not, however, report to them. We merely co-exist with each other. Usually." His expression became suddenly grim. "We believe, however, that this group that is posing such a threat to the city is involved with them, so we have no way of asking for their help this time. We also know of five individuals who are capable of confounding the OZ organization without revealing their identities. These qualities combined make you the five perfect candidates."
I grabbed the conversation back by asking the next question. "Okay, but why should we help you?" I'd really been intending to ask "why the hell" but pissing this guy off did not seem like a good idea until we knew exactly where he stood.
Anthony directed his gaze back toward me. "Because if you don't, your location data and your identities will be revealed to OZ – I do believe that is something that would work very well against you this early in the war."
"Is that a threat?" I demanded, rising out of my seat toward the challenge.
Anthony stayed calm and spoke softly, without making eye contact. "Yes. It is."
Something in his tone left me disconcerted. "Oh," I said, slumping back into the chair. "Just so we're clear."
Heero shot me a look that screamed in disapproval but I refused to return his gaze. I had bigger problems than His-Pissy-Highness right now.
We couldn't let these people expose our identities...any opportunity for future secrecy would be blown if they had our posters planted all over the globe. We didn't know how much they knew about us yet, but they knew our profession, where we were staying and at least two of our names, Chances were, they knew a lot more than we were willing to bet on. It wasn't like OZ would never find out who we were, but we had to at least try and keep our identities a secret for as long as possible. We weren't ready to change tactics yet.
At this point, I knew that Heero and I would have a serious discussion ahead of us, and that there wasn't any way to back out of this that wouldn't screw us over. Luckily, I had a stall tactic ready.
"We need to speak to the other pilots before we can answer you. And we need some more information about this group before we make any decisions. What kind of plan do they have and who are they? And what evidence can you present that will convince us?" I raised both eyebrows at him and waited for his reply.
Anthony stood abruptly and pressed a button on the table in front of him. Huh. Big-shots always got the coolest toys.
"Would you please bring in test subject X-104?" His voice was calm and clear. It was actually rather soothing, if you forgot for a moment that he had just threatened out existence. And if you ignored the fact that he'd just asked for a test subject to be brought into the room.
Suddenly, I was a little jittery.
Anthony moved over toward the double doors and opened them, making way for a large cart to be wheeled in. A sheet was draped over whatever lay on top of the cart, and whatever it was, it sure was people-shaped.
Until now I'd remained seated, but as Anthony gestured to us we both rose and walked slowly over to him and his "test subject".
He peeled the sheet back to reveal the head of what what appeared to be a deceased – my eyes glanced downward, because you can never be sure these days – male.
I shrugged. "Is this your scare tactic?" I asked with a smirk. Heero's shoulder bumped into mine. Coincidence? I think not. I ignored him and set my attention firmly on Anthony.
He raised an eyebrow at me, and effectively ignored my question by pointing to the mouth of the creature and smirking. I heard the snap of latex as he put on gloves, and I almost shuddered as he reached toward the body and pried the lips apart.
It was gross, yeah. I wasn't used to gore at this close range – chopping people up in a mobile suit is considerably different. Then again, just because I wasn't used to it didn't mean I couldn't handle it.
I just didn't want to, that was all.
After I'd gotten over that little mental tantrum, I turned to look at what was so interesting about a dead man's mouth.
At first it just looked like a normal mouth.
Ha. Psyche.
As I looked closer, I saw that the canine teeth were elongated to the point of ridiculousness.
"What the..." I muttered, cutting myself off before my foul mouth could get me into trouble.
Heero responded with his usual, "Hn."
Anthony nodded. "Those teeth were not implanted at any point in time – they grew there naturally."
I shrugged. "Okay, so that's a little creepy. But how many people have strange characteristics these days? There are probably people who have extremely, freakishly long teeth."
Anthony nodded. "That's what I thought." He paused. "Until I reviewed the other hundred and thirty seven bodies that rolled in with the same traits."
I blinked, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice. "Wow."
"Yes." Anthony cleared his throat before continuing. "Oddly enough, the blood content of their body was low to the point of absurdity. The strangest part is that each individual was born over two hundred years ago, which we found out from their dental records...but as you can see from this body, there is no visible decomposition. From this we were able to draw one unmistakable conclusion." He sighed. "This one will wake up soon," he said softly, almost as if to himself. "I need to send him back."
I jerked back involuntarily, speechless for a moment. I wasn't sure I was really grasping what was going on here.
He closed the body's mouth and raised the sheet to cover the head once again. A masked guard came to haul the cart away. Anthony then shut the door and sat back down at the table as if nothing had happened. "These are the people that are trying to destroy mankind, starting with this city. The people we need your help to stop." He stripped off the latex gloves and threw them into what I assumed was a waste basket under the table, out of my sight range.
I, meanwhile, was still standing at the doorway and having a major brain crisis. We'd just been shown a body that definitely was not human and we were expected to save the city from an unknown force that either consisted of or had the help of many un-human things like the one we'd just seen. Oh, and OZ. Couldn't leave them out.
Oh, crap.
All of these pieces were beginning to come together in my head, and I sat down hard when I came back to my seat.
Anthony smiled politely. "Has my proposition become any clearer to you?"
Heero surprised me by speaking up. "Yes. May we take this back to the other pilots for discussion, Mr. D'leur?"
Our host rose from his chair. "Colonel, D'leur," he corrected Heero. "But of course. I will grant you a week to think it over with your comrades. When your time is up, instructions will be sent to you so that we should meet again." He bowed gracefully, and Heero and I, after bowing back – because we're just polite like that, I guess – stood to follow him back to the elevator doors.
I was pissed now, not just at Heero, but at Anthony. He'd brought us in here and used scare tactics to get us exactly where he wanted us. Even so, I wasn't stupid enough to piss off the guy. I know power when I see it, and he seemed to have a considerable amount. I knew I'd have to wait until we got back to the dorms before I was allowed to have my routine hissy-fit.
Ok, so I couldn't wait. Before stepping into the elevator in front of us, I turned back to Anthony. "Thanks for the hospitality," I said neutrally. "But don't expect to bully us into doing this just because you may or may not have valuable information on us." I stepped into the elevator beside Heero and turned back to face Anthony before the elevator doors closed, interested in what his reaction would be.
He nodded and bowed.
"Power is an illusion, Mr. Maxwell, as is luck. One would hope that you are not foolish enough to take either for granted."
The doors closed.
For some reason, Anthony's response had put me off balance, and it made me mad. So mad that I forgot about wanting to kill Heero for the moment.
When the elevator finally stopped, I was a bundle of nerves. I've never liked sharing tight spaces with anyone, especially when I was feeling trigger-happy, and this was no exception. When the elevator doors opened, relief blossomed inside of me. It was strangely light, and I realized that it was the sun shining down on us. The elevator actually came down to the street. As I turned, I watched the doors close and the seam disappear into the wall as if it had never been there in the first place. I should have been totally weirded out, but considering everything else, all I could do was blink stupidly and shrug.
I stretched and blinked until Heero pushed me forward and started walking beside me back toward the school.
I sighed. "Man, what a waste of a Sunday." I was suddenly tired. What I really wanted was a nap. That's right. A nice little twelve hour nap. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but hey, a guy can dream.
In fact, I was suddenly so happy to be out of that death trap that I wasn't even that mad at Heero anymore. Any anger that I still felt for him could be dealt out to him in the form of unusual pranks and practical jokes.
Heero spoke beside me, killing my pitiful little train of thought. "We have a problem."
I snorted. "You mean you were paying attention, too, Captain Obvious?"
He ignored me. "That body," he continued, "it was - "
"I know what it was," I said, cutting him off. I didn't want to say it, but something inside of my head made me.
"It was a vampire."
