After the Eve Wars..., by Raberba girl
Part 10 - Prisoner Of the Zero Clan
DTO, which now contained REO (Random Evil Organization) and some other bad guys in addition to Dorothy and Treize, was camping out at the Winner mansion, its headquarters. Lady Une was in one of the bedrooms, handcuffed to a bedpost with several soldiers standing guard.
"My fellow DTO members!" Dorothy said, "Our time draws near! The Preventers have lost their power, and the president is able to do nothing! Soon, the Earth WILL BE OURS!"
"YEAH!" the voices of her allies chorused, and Dorothy smiled evilly and sipped her glass of wine while the mansion seemed to explode with cheers and whoops.
In one corner of the room, Treize was playing with some stuffed animals. "'Baby Kitty, it's time for bed now!' 'But I don't want to go to bed, Mommy Kitty!' 'Too bad! It's sleepy time for you!' 'Aw, Ma...'"
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Lady Une glanced behind her. Perfect... The handle on that chest of drawers looked sharp enough. Inconspicuously, she set her wrists against it and started to saw through the ropes.
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In the lair of the Zero Clan, Duo, still hanging tiredly from his chains, watched as Heero's ghost paced around and around the room. "Prince Quatre Raberba Winner" had set up a shrine similar to some of the stuff they'd seen of Wufei's, except this one had pictures and things of Duo instead of Meiran.
"Duo...I promise you, I WILL find a way to bring you back, my dear friend," Quatre whispered. Duo rolled his eyes. He'd given up long ago on trying to convince the nutcase members of this wacko organization that he really WAS Duo, and that he really WAS alive.
Suddenly, Heero stopped, then walked over to stand directly in front of Duo. "Prisoner of the Zero Clan, to whom I once traded my life--"
"Hey...so you DO know I'm Duo!" Duo suddenly realized. "Heero, why aren't you stopping them? Tell Zechs and Quatre and those freaky Gundams to let me go!"
Heero gave him a look as if it were obvious. "I'm INSANE, Duo, haven't you figured that out by now?" He knelt down to undo his shoelace, then straightened up and tied it in a bow around Duo's neck, just because he felt like doing something pointless to proove that he really was insane. "As I was saying, Prisoner of the Zero Clan...I have fulfilled my mission by bringing you back from the dead, and now I grow tired of the world of the living."
"So...you're leaving?"
"Never to be seen again in this form."
"Oh. Well - bye. I guess."
A few minutes later, Quatre turned and looked around the room. "Prisoner of the Zero Clan, where did Brother Yuy go?"
Duo shrugged. "He went back to that cloudy place I was at before."
Quatre nodded. "Ah. Well, I don't really know what to do with you now as a prisoner. Shall I starve you? Taunt you? Torture you?"
"How about D) none of the above?" Duo suggested nervously.
Quatre stepped up so that he was right in the captive's face. "Who are you, slave, to have any say in our decisions regarding your fate? Be silent!" He slapped Duo across the face, which didn't hurt all that much, because Quatre is really just a kind little soul at heart, and can't REALLY hurt anybody, even if he's insane.
Right?
"Now, speak!"
"Uh...woof?"
"GOOD boy! Here's a treat!" Quatre tried to give Duo a piece of cake, but ended up having to feed it to him because he was all chained up.
Mulling over how Quatre was suddenly treating him like a pet dog, Duo got an idea. "Hey, Qua-- uh, Master!"
"What is it, boy?"
"Since I've been really good...d'you think you could take me out for a walk?"
Quatre paused, thinking. "Well...since you HAVE been well-behaved lately...and you look like you could use the exercise...okay!"
Duo couldn't believe his luck.
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Lady Une suppressed a gasp of surprise as she felt the ropes suddenly give with a little jerk, and a slight feeling of giddiness surged up into her head as she realized she was free. Weird how her handcuffs had conveniently changed to rope, but whatever. Now to get rid of the guards.
She bit her lip. There sure were a lot of them, and they were all armed. They had orders to kill her if she tried anything funny, and they all looked mean. With a little sigh, she realized that she needed to use her last resort. Wincing slightly, she inconspicuously reached down to pull a pair of glasses from her pocket...
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Wufei paced around and around the hospital room, cursing. How had he managed to let himself be wounded by such a weak little boy?
Although his own injuries (enough at the time to allow Quatre to escape) were healing quickly, and he could now get around normally again, Trowa was lying deathly still on the hospital bed, breathing shallowly as all the monitors that were hooked up to him hummed and beeped softly.
Catherine sat silently by the bed, holding Trowa's hand. Though she didn't say a word, her indigo eyes were frosted over with hate, and under the whispered prayers for her brother she had only one thought: 'Quatre Raberba Winner - for doing this to my Trowa, I will kill you.'
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"You know, Quatre," Duo mused as he walked along, the rope that was attached to the improvised collar around his neck being held by his companion, "I think a lot of people hate you right now."
Quatre looked surprised. "Really? Why?"
Duo only sighed.
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With eyes that were cold and hard and merciless as steel, Noin flew on in her Taurus, her furious mind mulling over everything bad that had happened to her and the Preventers. It was all Dorothy's fault.
Finally reaching the Winner Mansion, she circled a couple of times around it and then landed on the lawn. "Dorothy!" she screeched through the mobile suit's commlinks, "Get out here and fight me! You've caused us enough trouble; I will destroy you once and for all!"
Something moved on the roof. Noin squinted, and then realized it was Dorothy.
"Lucrezia Noin, is that you?" Dorothy yelled.
"Yeah! Why?"
Dorothy shrugged. "Just wondering. Let me get my mobile suit." She hopped off the roof and headed for the garage.
"Fat chance! If you were not prepared for my arrival, then you are a weak enemy, and I won't mind playing dirty! I'll destroy your base here and now!" She aimed her suit's beam cannon at the mansion and started to power it up.
"Stop right there."
Turning, Noin nearly choked to see herself surrounded by forty familiar-looking mobile suits. "M-Maganacs! You joined DTO?"
"Yes!" Rashid said from inside his suit. "Since we do not know where Quatre-sama is at the moment, we will now dedicate our lives to protecting his beautiful and clever wife, and will be at her side until our deaths or until our Quatre-sama returns!"
There was a wicked laugh from the ground, and Noin looked to see Dorothy standing there.
"You fool! I don't need a mobile suit, I have all the protection I could ask for right here! Surrender, Noin. Your struggle is futile! You are beaten."
Noin gritted her teeth, but had to admit reluctantly that Dorothy was right. Climbing out of the Taurus with her hands in the air, she resigned herself to her fate as the Maganacs took her prisoner.
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Zechs paced agitatedly around the Zero Clan's hidden base. Heero was gone now, and Quatre had taken Duo somewhere. He was all alone again. Just like he had been before all of them had come.
He gave a hysterical little laugh and stopped to pat Epyon awkwardly on the foot. He and Zero and Epyon had been so happy together, just the three of them in their little pointless, evil organization. His eyes glowed as the ZERO system started doing its thing again.
Zechs Merquise was the Chief Slave Of The Zero Clan.
If "Prince" Quatre wanted to take that honor away from him--
--he would die.
Once again, the underground base rang with Zechs' villainous laughter.
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Wufei suddenly grabbed his katana and stalked out of the room. Trowa was safe; no one knew where he was, and Catherine was watching over him. SONC could manage without Brother Altron for a while.
Marching out of the hospital and down the street with smoldering fury in his black eyes, Wufei growled a little and clenched his sword tighter as he envisioned it plunging into the one who had done this to SONC - Quatre Raberba Winner.
to be continued...