Part 24 - If the problem persists, contact the program vendor
~AC 197, March 15th, L4-A001, Winner Mansion, 6:17am~
/such a bad boy, little brother… father would be ashamed/
/you need to be punished, quatre… you need to be shown your place/
/you killed mommy… you did, it's all your fault!/
/you killed mommy!/
/ …killed mommy!/
/killed/
Quatre sat up abruptly in his bed, his body covered in cold sweat. The room was dark, the morning lights still dim and distant. He hugged himself, closing his eyes and trying hard not to shiver. Another nightmare. They were quite common ever since he had come back to his senses. He remembered vaguely having a lot of nightmares at the clinic, but they had been different. They had been the result of his exposure to that faulty Zero System. Quatre smiled a bit ironically as he thought that. Faulty Zero System. The Zero System had never worked properly to begin with, and the doctors themselves had admitted it was warped and unfit to be used by human beings. But after long struggles, Heero had managed to use it. Zechs had used to its maximum capacity. And Quatre had mastered it. What did that make of him exactly?
He shook his head, trying to shake away the strange dread coiling in his stomach. This dream… he knew the taste of it. All week, he had had dreams like that, with little snippets of what had happened slowly coming back to him. He had seen the satellite. The flight simulator. Himself, strapped to the console. But the people who had done that to him had remained vague silhouettes, undistinguished voices. Until now.
'I can't believe it… why would she?'
/you killed mommy!/
'I don't understand what it means. And… why would she say that?'
He could see her now. He could see her face, distorted by a gleeful smile as she secured the helmet on his head. He could see her empty eyes glittering with a mad sparkle. He could hear her voice, sugary sweet and so threatening because it seemed so innocent. He could see himself struggling against her, asking to know why, wanting to understand.
She had laughed. He remembered that now. She had laughed, and kissed his cheek and told him…
'Don't worry, little brother… Once I am done, you will understand… It will show you everything, it will… Such a bad boy, Quatre… You've been bad, and it is my duty, as your elder sister, to punish you for it. That's what they told me.'
Quatre shook his head again, not wanting to believe what his mind was telling him. After all, his mind had been wrong for more than a month before, so maybe it could be just an after effect. But it felt so real. He could still feel the steel of the straps holding him in place, her breath against his cheek. He remembered the way she had brushed his hair away from his face, almost tenderly. How she had said she was doing this for his own good.
Quatre's gaze fell on his right, where Wufei was still sleeping, and a small smile crept on his face. The Chinese had accepted to stay last night because Quatre had insisted. Trowa and Wufei had come back about an hour after Dr. Carter had left. Neither of them had asked questions, and he had been grateful just to have them hold him. Then, Wufei had made a move to leave, but Quatre had asked him to stay here. The bed was big enough for three, and after much blushing and a bit of arguing, Wufei had given in and stayed.
Quatre then looked to his other side, and was only mildly surprised to see green eyes looking at him. Trowa held out his hand and Quatre took it, lying back down next to him.
"Another nightmare?" Trowa whispered so as not to wake up Wufei.
Quatre nodded, suddenly feeling very tired.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Not now," Quatre murmured. "Sorry I woke you up."
Trowa just smiled at him, kissed the hand he was holding and crawled a bit closer. Quatre moved around a bit to make himself comfortable between Trowa and Wufei and tried to go back to sleep. But he remained staring at the ceiling for a long while before he finally drifted into an uneasy slumber.
Breakfast was quiet. Heero and Duo had joined the other three in Quatre's room, but Quatre himself was strangely subdued and the atmosphere was quite heavy. Duo was about to ask what was going on, but Wufei stopped him with a look and shook his head. Unfortunately, Heero had not learnt yet what 'diplomacy' exactly meant. He went to sit on the bed, took Quatre's chin so that he would look at him in the eyes, and asked.
"What is wrong with you?"
Everyone looked at the Japanese with wide eyes, which didn't faze him at all. He just kept staring at Quatre, until the blond young man crumbled and sighed, taking Heero's hand in his.
"I'm sorry, I'm not good company today. I just… I remembered something this morning. Or… I think I remembered something, but… it was… disturbing…"
"You wanna talk about it?" Duo cut in.
"I don't know, Duo. I just… don't know."
"What was it about?" Wufei asked quietly.
Quatre smiled shakily at Wufei, trying to take comfort in Heero's hand in his and the fact that only people he loved were around him.
"I think… I think I know who did that to me… and maybe why. But…"
"I am getting Iria," Trowa just said, getting up and going to the door. "You eat something," he added for Quatre before he went out.
Quatre just nodded before looking at his plate. His stomach churned, and he grimaced.
"You heard the man, Cat," Duo said playfully.
"I know, but…"
"If you don't eat, I'll force-feed you, and I'm sure you don't want me to," Wufei insisted.
"Wufei!"
Wufei just raised an eyebrow, and picked up the toast on Quatre's plate, bringing it to the blond's mouth.
"Come on," he said. "I haven't got all day."
Quatre looked at Wufei incredulously. Wufei just looked back. Quatre turned to look at Duo, who just shrugged and looked away, then at Heero, who was still holding his hand and staring a bit fixedly at him. He tried to say something, but Wufei took advantage of it to put the toast in his mouth, and he found himself unable to talk around his mouthful of buttered bread. He glared at Wufei, but the Chinese had just gone back to his own breakfast. Then he glared at Duo, who was trying very hard not to laugh out loud and failing quite spectacularly.
"God, Cat, you should have seen the look on your face! That was just fucking hilarious!"
"Wait until they're the ones who are ill and I'm taking care of them and we'll see who's gonna laugh," Quatre said after finishing the toast.
This only sent Duo into more fits of hysterical laughter.
"Or maybe I could ask Heero to let me take care of you next time you catch the flu," Quatre added, an evil smile on his lips.
Duo eeped and hid behind Heero.
"Heero! Save me from the Evil Mother Hen from Hell, please!"
"I don't know," Heero deadpanned.
"What!?" Duo exclaimed, indignant.
"You're pretty insufferable when you're sick, Duo," Heero explained, somehow managing to keep his face straight. "And Quatre likes taking care of people, and you two are best friends. You wouldn't get bored."
"I am never bored when I'm with you!"
"That's only because you insist on doing things you shouldn't be doing."
"Come on, I wasn't that sick, and you didn't complain afterwards!"
"No. You did."
"Did not!"
The friendly banter continued, and Quatre couldn't help smiling. His eyes met Wufei's, and for a moment, the Chinese's concern for him broke the barrier Wufei was careful to erect around his feelings so as not to strain Quatre's still wavering shields. Quatre patted the bed at his side, and Wufei put his plate down on the bedside table before coming to join him.
"I'm fine," Quatre said softly.
Wufei looked at him, a long, measuring look.
"No, you're not," he finally said.
"Okay, so I'm not fine, but I will be."
"I certainly hope so."
Both this conversation and Heero and Duo's mock-fight were interrupted when Trowa came back into the room followed by Iria. The older woman smiled at them all, wishing them good morning. Then she turned to Quatre.
"Trowa said you wanted to see me, Quatre. Something about… a memory?"
"Uh, yes," Quatre answered hesitantly. "I mean, I had another nightmare last night, and… I think it was a memory, but I'm not sure."
"From the clinic?" Iria asked, taking a chair.
"No, my memories are pretty much in order as far as this is concerned. Well some areas are still fuzzy, but…"
Quatre sighed deeply and stopped avoiding the subject.
"No, it was from before, on the satellite. When… when this was done to me."
Iria didn't say anything, just waiting for it to come out. Bracing himself and taking comfort in his friends' presence, Quatre began to explain.
"I saw… I saw someone… talking to me. It was… I think it was Neelah. In fact, I remember that I was going to see her, she was the one who invited me. I even remember arriving at her place, then it gets all dark and when I woke up, I was already on the satellite, strapped in the pilot chair in the flight simulator."
Iria smiled too.
"I didn't want to tell you just right now," she said apologetically, "but I have had reasons to believe that Neelah is somehow involved in this. I am afraid that she might be in a lot of danger right now."
Iria rapidly filled Quatre in on what had happened with Neelah, which mostly consisted of her calls to Iria, Hakim, and probably the clinic too. By the time she was finished, Quatre was shaking his head insistently.
"No, you don't understand, Iria. She's not… she wasn't forced to cooperate with them."
"What do you mean?" Iria asked, eyes wide.
"… She helped them, Iria. I think she's the one who drugged me so that they could take me. She was the one who strapped me in the chair. She put the helmet on me. She started the system. And she sounded quite happy to be the one doing it."
"I can't believe she would do that!" Iria protested. "She couldn't have decided to do that on her own. She can barely take care of herself! She couldn't have designed such a plan or enforced it all by herself!"
She sounded very upset, and Quatre put a soothing hand on his sister's shoulder.
"I know that," he said. "I know it, but it doesn't change anything to the fact that she was there, and she pressed the button, Iria! I didn't want to believe it either, but it feels so true! I can't imagine why my mind would deceive me now. Every single time I had a nightmare this week, it turned out to be a buried memory resurfacing. Why would this be any different?"
"I can't believe it!" Iria repeated, distressed. "She was manipulated into doing that to you, that's the only way! There is someone behind her pulling the strings!"
She looked at Wufei in dismay, and he nodded.
"From what you told me of her, it is most probable that someone used your sister to get closer to Quatre. If she is unstable, she would have believed any excuse given to her to act the way they wanted," he said reasonably. "However, there's no doubt now that she's involved."
"What are we going to do?" Iria wondered aloud.
"Heero, do you think you could try to locate her?" Wufei asked the Japanese. "I guess that the Winner database should have enough info for you to get started."
The Japanese nodded. He got up, went to the bed, kissed Quatre's forehead and gave him a small smile, then left the room. Iria smiled gratefully at Wufei, but Quatre tugged at her arm again.
"Iria, I… I remembered other things… Things she said to me. I…"
He gulped a bit, and the look on his face scared Iria.
"She said… she said she was doing this to me because I was a shame to my family…"
"Oh, Quatre! You can't believe that any of us would actually think that!"
"… and she said that I had killed Mother," Quatre finished, his voice breaking on the last words.
He searched for his sister's gaze, looking like a trapped animal.
"Why did she say that, Iria?"
Iria's face paled, but she seemed to gather her courage and come to a fast decision.
"Everyone out," she said quietly.
"What?" Duo said, jumping from his chair.
"Now!" Iria said a bit more forcefully, her voice shaking a bit. "I need to speak to my brother. Alone."
Duo almost protested, but it only took a look at Iria's face for him to understand that she was dead serious. Silently, the three pilots left, letting the door slide shut behind them. Quatre's eyes had not left Iria, and his whole body was tense. The older woman took a deep breath.
"There's something I need to tell you about, Quatre. About your birth. I was waiting for the right moment to do it. I really don't think that now is the right moment, but you deserve to know. I hope you can forgive me for not telling you sooner."
By the time Iria was finished, Quatre was white as a sheet and his hands were trembling, but his eyes were disturbingly dry. He swallowed several times, as if wondering if he could actually get a word out.
"So… she was right…"
"No!" Iria said, horrified. "Never, ever believe that, Quatre! You didn't kill Mother! She knew what was at stake and she chose to have you anyway!"
"But she died because of me!" Quatre yelled.
Iria suddenly took him in her arms, crushing him against her chest in a desperate embrace.
"Don't say that! You were her gift… to Father… to us… We love you, Quatre! Father loved you, and Mother loved you. She smiled as she drew her last breath because she knew you were safe! Don't belittle her sacrifice now, please!"
She was crying now, and at last a tear escaped Quatre too as he returned the hug, holding onto her like she was the last thing that would anchor him in reality.
"I'm so sorry, Iria! So sorry… so sorry…"
Iria rocked him slowly, unable to hold her own sobs back.
"Don't be, sweetheart. Please, don't be sorry," she whispered. "It was not your fault, you know… you didn't ask to come into this world. But you did… and you brought light to our existences, Quatre. You really did. I miss Mother, but she lived her life to the fullest, and she died happy. She gave us you. And I will never thank her enough for it."
By now, Quatre was sobbing too.
"I… I never even told Dad… never told him I loved him… before…"
He stopped talking, too choked by his own tears. Iria caressed his hair slowly, trying to calm him down, but it was difficult for her since she was completely overwhelmed too.
"Shh, it's okay, Quatre… I know… And… I'm sure he knew, too… I know you thought he was angry at you because you left, but… he was very proud of you, you know…"
"Rea-Really?"
"I swear," Iria said with a soft smile. "He told me himself."
She brushed his tears away.
"You look so much like Mother, Quatre, but you are so much like him too. Stubborn, ready to do anything to protect what you believe in… I know that wherever he is now, he is very proud of you. And I am too."
Quatre just hugged her tighter, and she held him, leaving words alone for now. Nothing more needed to be said. The siblings just reveled in feeling each other in their arms, and took comfort in each other's warmth.
Sally was surprised to find all the boys in the office when she came in, followed by Carter and Shannon. Heero was in a corner typing away on his laptop, Duo looking over his shoulder and occasionally muttering something. Wufei was sitting on the floor, eyes closed, and Trowa was once again looking out of the window, his back turned on everyone else in the room.
"What are you guys doing here?" Sally asked cheerfully. "I thought you were having breakfast with Quatre."
"We were," Duo said uneasily. "But…"
"He remembered," Wufei kept on.
"He remembered what?" Sally said, frowning.
"That one of his sisters actively helped his kidnappers and tortured him for pleasure?" Trowa said in an even voice.
"What?!"
"It was Neelah", Wufei added. "She's probably in more danger than even Iria thought."
"Oh God! How is she taking it?"
"We don't know," Duo said tiredly. "She threw us out because she's telling Cat about his mom."
Sally closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"That's just great!" she grumbled. "I hate those situations when you feel totally useless."
"How was Quatre?" Carter asked.
"How do you think?" Duo shot back with a smirk.
"Duo!" Sally chided gently.
No matter how many times Carter had indeed proved that he was here to help them, Duo apparently couldn't let go of his attitude whenever the psychiatrist was around. In normal circumstances, this would have amused Sally to no end. Watching people getting all confused by Duo was one of the best shows ever if you weren't on the wrong end of it. But right now, it was starting to get on her nerves. She knew that Duo felt hurt and powerless, and that it was the cause of his irritation toward Carter, who was an unknown variable as far as Duo was concerned. Well, in fact it was probably the case for all of the other pilots, but the others were carefully not showing it. Duo had no such scruples. He may have accepted Carter as a temporary ally, but he still didn't really trust him, and probably never would.
Of course, the fact that Sally kind of had a crush on Carter was probably playing quite a large role in her own impatience with Duo, but she was trying not to think of it too much.
The potentially explosive situation brutally defused when the phone on Iria's desk ringed. For a few seconds no one moved, and everyone stared at the phone that was so rudely interrupting, then Sally walked to the desk and picked up.
"Yes… Rashid? Wait a minute, I'm switching the speaker on."
She pressed the button.
"Go on."
"We have detected intruders, Major Po."
"What?" Wufei exclaimed, jumping on his feet. "Where?"
"They're outside, near the north wall. They are currently trying to find a way to bypass security and get in. Do you want us to take care of it?"
Duo shot a strange look to Wufei, and the Chinese nodded. Duo's face almost split with the wicked smile that suddenly appeared.
"It's okay, Big Guy, we're handling it. Let them in."
Sally hung up the phone and turned to Carter who was looking shocked beyond belief.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked hotly. "This is dangerous!"
"No," Sally said, pushing both the psychiatrist and the nurse outside. "They are dangerous. And you," she added, turning back to the boys, "if you get as much as a single scratch, there will be hell to pay! I'll be right back!"
"Yes, Ma'am," Duo answered, mock-saluting.
Sally almost dragged Carter and Shannon after her along the corridors.
"Where are we going?" Carter almost yelled.
"I'm sticking you in Quatre's room. Iria's already there so she can stay there too."
"What is going on?" Shannon asked, almost out of breath as she tried to keep up with the ex-Alliance Major.
"The kidnappers probably think that Quatre is too big a risk for them. These are not journalists trying to get a peek if Rashid actually reported in. This is serious. This is an assassination team. They will silence everyone they find on their way. Thank God Iria sent the staff away!"
"But what can those boys do…"
Sally stopped dead and turned around, face grim.
"Those boys are ex-Gundam pilots. And I'm taking you to one because I know that if it comes to that, he can protect you."
Carter gulped and shut his mouth. Shannon had gone pale. Sally shook her head, and urged them forward again.
"Come on! We don't have time for this!"
"Thank you, Rashid," Wufei said in his radio as he switched channels, tuning the device into their own private frequency.
"So how do we play this?" Duo inquired, checking his knives.
"They deployed around the house," Wufei explained. "Seven men. Three teams."
"I'm here!" Sally said as she burst in. "Everyone who's not supposed to fight is tucked in the secure room."
"How's Cat?" Duo asked, worried.
Sally made a face.
"He's not okay at all. They had quite the emotional moment together, and Iria's kind of a wreck too right now. Just give him time to digest the information."
None of the young men knew what to answer to that, and Sally didn't add anything. She just went to one of the weapon racks and took out two guns.
"You're the boss, Wufei," she said as she readied them. "What do we do?"
"Trowa, you check the back of the house. Yuy, you do the front. Maxwell will scour the right wing. I'll do the left. Sally, I need you in the office, to act as a liaison and to keep an eye on the security system."
"I'm on my way," Sally said quietly. "Oh, and… I know those guys shoot to kill…"
"So do we," Duo retorted.
"Yes, but… keep one alive, will you? We need some questions answered."
"We'll just report in as we find them and keep the last one. Does it sound good?" Trowa asked.
Sally blinked.
"You have no idea just how not good this sounds, but… god it's not like they're giving us a choice, is it? When we find whoever is behind this… Who in their right mind would sacrifice so many human lives for money?"
"They're not the first ones to do it," Wufei remarked calmly.
"We're not in war-time anymore!" Sally said, losing her calm.
"Tell that to the guys who declared war on us," Duo said darkly. "But do it soon, 'cause they're going down."
Wufei was silently exploring empty bedrooms and bathrooms in the apparently long-deserted left aisle of the house. After noticing what exactly most of the rooms were, he was beginning to suspect that this had been where Quatre's sisters used to sleep when they were children. Quatre's bedroom had probably always been kept away from this side of the house after his ability was discovered. Trying to shield when you had twenty-nine older sisters and a quite large number of servants had probably been taxing on him as child, and Iria must have made sure that he had quarters in a less frequented part of the house as she had the machinery in his walls installed.
Most of the window-shutters were closed, and if the bedrooms were cleaned and tidied regularly, it was obvious that no one had slept in any of them for a very long time. The way that house was built was strange anyway. The children's bedrooms had all been installed in the same place, probably a consequence of the fact that there were so many. The master bedroom was in the central part of the house on the second floor, its balcony opening on the lush garden that was protected from prying eyes by high walls. Beside it was another bedroom that Quatre had told them used to be his mother's. Quatre's bedroom was on the floor above, along with an impressive number of guest bedrooms, six of which were presently occupied.
Very few lights managed to pierce through the shutters, which created a quite eerie atmosphere. The endless string of bedrooms, each with its color scheme and custom-made furniture, spoke about a side of Quatre Wufei didn't really know.
He had grown up in a house full of children too, because his parents lived with a little crowd of their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and their own parents. But it had probably been very different from what Quatre had known as a child. First, none of these children he lived with were his brothers or sisters, and then, there had always been an intense competition between them. All of them had to be the best to make their parents proud, and the parents themselves encouraged the competition. Wufei may have shared a bed for long years with several cousins, but he couldn't remember ever having a friend among them.
It had gotten worse after he was chosen to marry Meiran, of course. It had been an honor many boys had looked forward to, and Master Long had chosen him in spite of the fact that he had done nothing to deserve that particular honor, and above all in spite of the fact that he didn't want that honor at all. His parents had been proud, but everyone else was disappointed that their own sons hadn't been chosen and thought that Wufei had somehow bribed his way to a place where he didn't want to be. This had changed a bit after the actual marriage, because everyone had at one point or another stepped in on Wufei and Meiran hotly arguing. It was hard not to, after all, when living in such close quarters. Then, she had died and he had become a widower, and by right the only heir of the Clan, and no one had ever talked bad to him again. Wufei had then begun to think that his whole family was composed of hypocrites.
He shook himself out of his thoughts, and sent another 'all clear' signal to Sally, who was busy monitoring the situation. She hadn't seen any of the men on the security cameras, so it meant they were good.
About twenty minutes after he had begun his exploration, Wufei heard two gunshots resounding in the great halls, but the house was so big that sound reverberation made it impossible to know where it had come from. Two seconds later, his radio crackled.
"01 in. Targets eliminated. Two down."
"Copy that, 01," Sally's voice answered. "Make your way back to base."
Wufei heard Heero's soft 'roger', before the Japanese disconnected his radio. You had to trust Heero to be quick and efficient. He started his slow exploration again, but he was getting a feeling that he wouldn't find anyone here. This part of the house had clearly been uninhabited for a very long time, and it was the furthest away from where the assassin team had entered the house. From the way they had managed to avoid detection from the security system, it was obvious that someone had given them intelligence on the house. They probably knew where Quatre's bedroom was, and had made plans to reach it quickly. Yet, it was never wise to let your back unguarded.
"03 in. I'm done. Two down."
Trowa's voice was very calm as he reported in, and Wufei hadn't heard any gunshots. Trowa could most certainly use a firearm better than any of them, he had grown up with them around him after all, but he had a strange distaste for them.
"Copy that, 03," Sally answered. "Make your way back to base. Total count, four down, three to go."
"Roger."
"02, 05, do you copy?"
"Copy," Wufei answered. "I've got no one here, base. Part's all clear. Making way back to base."
It was a waste of time to stay here. Even if he only used a fraction of his power, Wufei could feel that there were no breathing human being in his immediate proximity. If there had been, his qi would have immediately alerted him.
"Roger, 05," Sally said.
"I wouldn't mind a bit of help down here!" Duo's voice suddenly cut in.
"Speak, 02!" Sally urged him.
Wufei listened intently, already going for the quickest way to the right wing.
"Found three of the fuckers. One down, the other two split. One managed to get away, and I'm on the other one… almost literally now!" Duo kind of explained.
"Copy that, 05?"
"Copy, I'm on my way. 01, 03, standby!"
He knew Heero wouldn't like it, but he had to hurry, and he didn't fancy cutting through any of them just because they would come out of a corridor at unawares and surprise him.
"05, interception?" Duo asked.
"Roger. Backup on the way."
"That's sweet music to my ear, 05! Now just… Shit, that bastard's fast! That and he's got lots of ammunition, and I mean lots. Hurry your pretty ass over here!"
"Save your breath for running, 02!" Wufei growled.
"He needs it more than me!" Duo said cheerfully, and Wufei had to admit that he didn't even sound winded.
The Chinese ran faster, boosting his speed a bit but still taking the time to look for the rogue killer. On his way he found a corpse wearing a black stealth suit with a knife embedded in his chest, no doubt Duo's handiwork. Five minutes later, he finally reached the first floor corridor where Duo was straddling a guy lying flat out on his back and pummeling him.
"Maxwell!" he called out.
Duo turned back and smiled at him.
"Hey, Wu! Look what I caught!"
"We're supposed to keep one of them alive," Wufei said, looking at the man Duo was sitting on with contempt.
The man in question shivered and tried to get Duo off him with renewed vigor. All he earned was a well-aimed punch in the side of the head that finally knocked him out.
"I thought we were keeping the guy you caught," Duo said, slowly getting up.
"I didn't catch anyone. He must have taken another way, I didn't detect him anywhere."
Duo frowned.
"Shit!" he swore quietly. "He could be anywhere in the house."
He shot a disgusted look to the man lying on the floor, took out his gun and lodged a bullet in the killer's brain. Wufei barely blinked as the loud bang echoed in the large corridor.
"Let's go back to the office," he simply said. "Now that he is alone, we have better chances of finding him through the security system."
He activated his radio.
"01, come in!"
"01 in," Heero's nasal voice answered.
"Two more down, one got away. Try to find him while we come back."
"Status?"
"We're both fine, Heero," Duo reassured him. "On our way back."
When they finally came back into the office, Heero was furiously typing, the screen of his laptop displaying the various views of the security cameras at an alarming speed. But there was no sign of the last killer.
"How come he doesn't show on anything?" Sally asked irritatingly.
"They have stealth suits," Duo said thoughtfully, "but that's only enough to fool heat and move sensors. He should show on the cameras."
"But he doesn't."
"Where is the only place in the house where there are no cameras?" Wufei cut in suddenly, his voice curiously choked.
Heero frowned and began to think about that, but Trowa had understood, and his face paled.
"The corridor on the third floor… and Cat's bedroom," he said in a blank voice.
There was a moment of absolute silence before the four pilots and Sally seemed to jump into action, leaving the beeping computer behind.
Quatre was hugging his knees, too lost in thoughts to even care about the nervousness of the three adults who were in the room with him. Not that it would have bothered him much anyway, because he had made tremendous progress with shielding. Which is why the sudden alarm took him by surprise.
/danger/
He abruptly sat up straight on the bed. Carter and Shannon jumped in their chairs at the brusque movement, their nerves frayed by the half hour long wait in silence. Iria just frowned and looked at him worriedly.
/threat fear anger/
Quatre hadn't realized that he was keeping his senses on the alert, but he definitely had been, because it was not Zero speaking. Or at least he didn't think it was. It didn't carry the same coldness, the same harshness as the mechanical voice.
He focused on the presence outside of the bedroom. Only one person, and they were rapidly coming closer. It was a menacing presence, but the strongest emotion Quatre could feel coming from it was a fierce anger tainted by a fear just as fierce. He quickly got up from the bed and walked to his desk.
"Quatre? What is going on?" Iria asked, surprised.
"There's someone outside," he answered, opening the top left drawer and pressing the hidden button that opened the fake bottom.
The gun was still there, probably where he had left it before leaving to go visit his sister for the weekend. Seeing it now, he didn't understand why he hadn't taken it with him.
'Because you were visiting your family, idiot,' he silently chided himself. 'What was the use of taking a gun to visit one of my sisters? How could I have known…'
He shook the thoughts away, concentrating on the task ahead. The presence he felt was less than friendly, so it meant it wasn't any of his friends. Which, in turn, meant that at least one of the killers had managed to make his way up there, in spite of the four other pilots getting out to stop them. He squashed the wave of irrational fear that was growing in his mind.
'If anything had happened to any of them, I'd know it. I'd know!'
He rapidly ejected the clip to see how many bullets he had left, then inserted it again, checked the weapon and armed it. Only then did he notice the scared looks he was getting from the three others.
"Quatre," Iria said in a very, very quiet voice, "you had a loaded weapon in your room all this time?"
Quatre just shrugged.
"I always have one in a place where I can reach it easily if need be."
"But… That could have been dangerous! With the state you were in… imagine what would have happened if you had found it!"
Iria looked panicked, and Quatre would have loved to reassure her. But he was tired, he was hungry, he was locked in his room because a team of assassins had been sent after him by the same sister who had kidnapped him and subjected to that abomination, and most of all, he was quite through with being sweet to everyone in spite of all that.
"Trowa knew it was there, Iria", he snapped impatiently. "If he didn't remove it, then he must have had a reason. And in the state I was in, I didn't even remember it was there. Now, quiet!"
"Quatre…"
"Hush! I need to concentrate… and I don't want you to get hurt."
Iria stopped talking, and obeyed when he silently ushered her away from the door to the other side of the bed.
"Sit down on the floor behind the bed and don't move," he told them in a whisper.
They did, and watched him as he slowly inched to the door and took a position just to the left of it, gun pointed to the floor. He didn't want to use it if it wasn't necessary.
The door hissed violently open. Unfortunately for the man coming in, he didn't have time to do much more than take a step forward. Quatre grabbed his arm, using the man's own speed and movement to project him in a circular movement against the nearest wall, while firmly holding onto the limb he had caught. The guy's right shoulder and elbow gave with a sickening crack, and he cried out. Looking over his shoulder, he seemed to suddenly understand who had attacked him because his eyes widened. He tried to take his gun in his left hand, but Quatre was quicker. Picking the weapon up, he threw it to Carter, who had gotten up when he had heard the sound of bones breaking. The psychiatrist, although very pale, caught the gun effortlessly, and held it a bit limply.
Quatre turned back to the man in assassin gear. Disarming him had almost been too easy. He felt disappointed, really, that it hadn't taken him more than a few seconds to put him out of the game. It proved that he was getting back in shape, but it wasn't helping him to let go of his growing frustration with being immobilized in this room, far from it.
"Who hired you?" he asked coldly.
The man just looked at him and didn't speak. Quatre raised his gun, pointing it at the man's head and ignoring the small gasps of fear from Iria and Shannon.
"I am not going to ask twice," he said.
And he fired a shot in the wall just millimeters away from the man's head. The guy jumped, and squeaked as it moved his broken limb. But he didn't answer. Either he had been conditioned not to talk, or he was too scared. Or both. Not that it really mattered, if Quatre thought about it.
"You want to play it that way? Fine!"
And he sat on the bed, gun trained on the man, and patiently waiting for the others to arrive. The three adults just looked at him with wide eyes and didn't move an inch. None of them said a word.
This was how the other pilots found them as they barged into the room barely a minute later. The four pilots and Sally stood petrified for a moment as they saw the scene. Then, Duo raised an eyebrow, scratched his head and laughed a bit nervously.
"Hey, Cat, what happened to asking questions first and shooting later?"
Quatre just shrugged, eyes still fixed on the attacker.
"He didn't want to answer my questions, so I thought I'd use him for target practice, but he's no good for that either. What about the others?"
"Eliminated," Heero said shortly.
"So this is the last one?" Sally asked in an inquisitive voice and looking at the man as if he were some kind of repugnant slug. "And he doesn't want to answer questions? How are we going to do this, then? I don't have pentothal with me and neither do you, Iria, right?"
"It's not something I use every day, no," Iria agreed in a shaky voice.
She was still scared of what her brother had just done. This was a side of him that she had known about, but never actually witnessed. In fact, her brother's involvement in the wars had always been quite abstract to her, she realized suddenly. At that time, she used to say that he was fighting, without knowing what exactly it entailed. And now, she was not really sure she wanted to know, and she felt ashamed of her own cowardice.
'What did I think?' she chastised herself silently. 'That spending two years training to pilot an 8-ton machine and two years using it in actual combat situation would not change him? He was five when I left him, and he was my baby brother… And now, he's not the same person he was. He's a veteran soldier with far too many wounds for someone that young… and I don't know him. I don't know this person he has become. The only thing I saw was the reflection of the little boy I once knew… and I can't keep on like that. God, I hope he can forgive me for not understanding sooner, and that I will get to know him better now. He's a fine young man, and I want… I want to know my brother. I really do.'
Her self-recrimination was interrupted by Duo's voice. He was speaking in a soft voice, eyes cast down.
"We need to make him talk, right? Make him spill and make sure he tells the truth?"
He looked at Quatre, and for the first time the blond young man's eyes left his prisoner's face to concentrate on Duo's. Iria didn't really understand what silently passed between them, but something did, because Quatre's face grew worried and he frowned.
"Are you sure?" he almost whispered, glancing rapidly at all the other persons in the room.
Duo shrugged, apparently careless.
"Do we have a choice?" he asked, and his voice was carrying so much fake cheerfulness that even Iria winced at it.
From where she was, she was the only one to see Heero's hand coming to the small of Duo's back, in protest or in support, she didn't know. She didn't understand what was happening. Why were all the boys looking so grim? Quatre was still looking at his face, and he smiled sadly and nodded.
"Alright, but don't push it too far?"
Duo nodded back and stepped forward, crouching in front of the still sitting killer.
"Look at me."
The man looked away. One moment later, his jaw was in a vice grip, and Duo's face was only centimeters away from his.
"I said, look at me, you bastard!"