White War
San: Choices
Wufei Chang's glower deepened as he read the report that Sally had placed on his desk with careful hands. Another agent had turned up dead, his body washed up on a river bank. All evidence had been wiped clean by days in the swift water, corpse bloated and deformed. His blood tests came back positive for the very substance he had been investigating: White. So much of the drug was in the body, that the coroner found it in every tissue, from skin to hair. The agent had been in the field for months and must have been receiving regular doses for it to have become a part of his very body.
Preventers at the scene were able to determine that he was long dead before he had been dumped in the river. The man had finally died as the small veins in his lungs ruptured, drowning him in his own blood.
By overdosing the agent, whoever was in charge of the operation was sending a message to the Preventers.
The Chinese agent sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was the third death, the third family left without a father in the past month. Top Preventer agents, found out and killed, all while under deep cover. Each one a White junkie, a puppet to be used against Chang and his attempts to cut the substance off at the source.
The agents were only a small part of the death toll. No less than fifteen confirmed deaths from White, all boys no older than he was when he first joined the war. It had taken months to draw all the names together, a long list of unknowns with indeterminate deaths. The first few were from public schools, unrelated incidents that went unnocticed.
Already Wufei had resolved himself. No more agents would die. Lady Une was looking worn from trying to comfort torn families. She would probably kill him if another agent was sent into the field.
There were no more choices left.
He was more skilled than anyone in the entire Preventer force for this kind of work. Deep cover. Search and destroy. What he trained for. He should have done it himself long ago.
Still, it would be good to have backup. And the more heads working on the problem, the better. Even he was willing to recognize the foolishness of trying something like this alone.
Wufei knew there was only one thing left to do. The mission was becoming far too important and dangerous to waste anymore time. As much as he hated it, he knew it was his only option before this White war got out of hand.
He touched his intercom. "Miss Gray, please contact Quatre Winner."
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Earth has no idea how beautiful it is, Duo thought as he stood at the large window, hand touching his reflection in the cool glass. The Koneko was in the middle of the sprawl, with buildings to every side. The ex-pilot was looking down over the street, purposely blurring his eyes so that the lamps began to look like orange jewels in the night. Lamps that burned every night, sentinels to keep the darkness away.
Duo had learned that the places you wanted to avoid were always preceded by broken street lamps. There were things in the darkness that were better left there.
Quatre was sleeping on the bed, drained from his confrontation with Weiß. He had barely removed his shoes before collapsing onto the hard mattress, quickly asleep.
He still carried a terrible guilt, and that feeling had not been assuaged after facing the four assassins.
"They chose to remain as Weiß. They would not...They would not let the burden be mine alone."
He turned at the sound of rustling cloth, Hidaka Ken joining him at the window. The dark haired assassin had taken it upon himself to watch the strange boy who claimed to be Kritiker and his American companion, inviting them to take up temporary residence in his own apartment. Weiß had refused to let them return to their hotel, Omi protesting that it would be rude and Aya wanting to keep them underfoot should they prove to be more than they appeared.
"Nani...what are you looking at?"
The American boy smiled slightly, tracing slow circles with his fingertips. "Tokyo." His hand stilled. "Earth cities are so much more beautiful than the colonies."
Ken sighed, hand coming up to join Duo's. "This city used to be beautiful to me...but so much darkness..."
Duo smiled brightly, meeting the blue grey eyes of Ken's reflection. "The sun always rises, Ken. Even in space."
Somehow, the words felt out of place with what Ken had imagined Duo to be like. A boy thrust into a war not of his making, beaten, betrayed at every turn by the very planet and people he chose to protect. And losing everything in the end to an ideal of peace that they both knew was barely a facade on the real world.
Still, the words were almost peaceful, and offered a hope that Weiß had lost quickly after joining Kritiker.
"Doushite ka?"
Duo recognized the short phrase, recognizing it as one of Heero's favorite curses when glaring at Duo for something not-so-intelligent that had resulted in someone getting hurt, most usually himself. He pondered whether evading understanding would keep him from lying. He also knew that the question referred to his previous occupation as Gundam pilot and not why he accompanied Quatre to the Koneko.
"Why not?" he quipped lightly, shaking away the guilt that always followed closely upon his memories. The destruction of his Gundam still burned brightly, like afterimage in his mind's eye. It was the beginning of the new lie under which he lived his life.
Ken wasn't satisfied with the strange answer. "There are other, less dangerous occupations for a boy your age."
"Like florist by day, assassin by night?"
Duo regretted the pain that flashed in Ken's eyes as soon as the words passed his lips. He was certainly in no position to judge what anyone else did with their lives. "Gomen, Ken. That was thoughtless and cruel."
"True."
The American caught the ghost of a smile on Ken's lips. He's so...lost. And so cute.
Biting his cheek to keep from smiling, Duo studied the assassin's reflection in the glass. Blue grey eyes gazed forlornly over the cityscape, lost beneath a wealth of chocolate brown hair. He was wearing comfortable clothing, old jeans and a tee, but he still managed to exude sexiness...in a hometown, take-home-to-mom kind of way.
If I had a mom, that is. The ex-pilot felt that he had to make up for his callous remark. "I was a street rat. Lowest of the low on L2. Thief extraordinaire. One time resident of Maxwell's Church."
Ken started at the name. "You lived in Maxwell's Church?" He became thoughtful as he tried to drag up memories from his childhood. "I remember that incident. Everyone was thought to be killed."
"They were."
The phrase was so quiet that Ken nearly missed it. Beside him, Duo's eyes were downcast, lost in the sweep of chestnut bangs. "I survived. Just like I survived the plague. Like I survived that fucking war. " Duo hadn't expected Ken to have heard of something that had been passed off as trivial in the eyes of the colony. Too bad, so sad...
Ken felt a wash of sorrow. His own past was tortured enough, with betrayal marring his soul. Sister...Kase... Though it had happened years before, while he was living in a church orphanage himself, he wished that he had been able to do something about the tragedy of L2, a naive child's wish.
His mouth opened to whisper his sympathy when something began playing the Turkish March in the vicinity of Duo's hip. Duo smiled sheepishly at Ken's disbelieving look and drew out Quatre's personal cell.
"Yo, Quatre's in the sack and Duo's busy dazzling assassin's with tales of his sexual prowess, leave a message after the groan." Duo let out a very erotic moan, knowing the person on the other end was slowly becoming livid at his sophomoric humor. God, he loved caller ID.
"You are an ass, Maxwell."
Duo smiled. "Love you too, Wufei. So how's my fave Preventer pee-on doing today?"
Ken watched the entire exchange, smiling at the familiarity with which Duo interacted with the boy on the other end of the line. He recognized the same kind of camaraderie that he shared with his own team; you were friends not because you had a lot in common...you understood their pain better than anything.
Duo's humor evaporated instantly as he listened intently to what the Preventer had to say. His face drew into an angry frown, then the solid mask of a soldier accepting a mission. Ken watched with fascination at the play of emotions on the other boy's face until Duo spared a glance at him. Ken turned quickly, studiously trying to ignore the entire conversation, finding the scenery suddenly more interesting than he had in years.
"You got it, Wu-man. We'll be at Preventer Central in the a.m. Quatre's got a surprise to bring along that I think will help us. Ja." The cellphone closed with a snap and Duo favored Ken with a rakish smile.
"How would you and Weiß like to take a little trip?"
::owari san::