Deprogramming
Chapter 24

by Scarlet Eve

-Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for reading so far, and for my reviewers. I don't often ask for reviews, but let's try get this story to 100 reviews! It'd be a milestone for me. :-)

December 27, A.C. 201

12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Relena

When the car arrived back at the Preventer HQ, they were met by Sally, Wufei, Commander Smith, Agent Watts, and several other Preventer agents. After Relena stepped out of the car, followed by Dorothy, the agents approached and yanked Duo from the backseat and clapped a set of handcuffs on his wrists. Trowa followed.

Commander Smith rushed to Relena as she was smoothing out the skirt of her suit. "Miss Darlian, I'm so glad you're alright, and I apologize profusely for what happened," he said. Relena looked up at him.

"I'm fine. It's Duo you'll want to deal with," she replied, and turned to face Duo.

"You found him," Commander Smith said in awe. Relena saw Sally and Wufei staring at Duo, shaking their heads.

"He found us, actually, and just for fun, hijacked our car. But don't worry, Commander. He could have done that no matter what, just because of who he is. The current issue is, though, that he has that chip. It needs to be removed immediately. And I want to be the one to destroy it," Relena said. Commander Smith looked slightly taken aback, but he nodded to Relena.

"Of course, Miss Darlian," he said, then turned to the agents who were holding onto him. "Take him to the medical floor." The agents nodded and hauled Duo away. "Is he working for the rebels?"

"He says he is not," Trowa answered, approaching them. Relena glanced at Trowa, who had remained calm and steadfast during the entire ordeal, though she hardly expected him to act differently. Relena touched his arm gently, then turned away to follow the agents down to the medical facility.

"I'll leave this to you," she said, addressing Trowa, who nodded.

Sally jogged to Relena's side in order to catch the elevator with her. "Are you hurt?" Sally asked after the doors had closed.

"No, I'm fine," Relena answered. Sally raised an eyebrow and caught Relena's wrist. She pressed two fingers to her pulse, causing Relena to scowl.

"Your heart is racing. Do you want a mild sedative?" Sally asked.

"No, no, I'm okay," Relena said.

"You'll let me know if you need anything, right?" Sally asked, and Relena nodded, allowing a smile.

"How is he?"

Sally laughed. "The chip may have made Heero stronger and faster and able to withstand huge amounts of pain and bodily harm, but the Heero underneath all that is still just as stubborn as ever, trying to get out of the hospital bed sooner than he should." The elevator halted and the two women stepped out. Near the elevator, the door to Heero's room was open, and he was leaning against the frame. He wore a pair of loose shorts, the bandages on his torso still wrapped around the stitches. At the edges of the stitches, Relena could see dark purple bruising.

"What are you doing out of bed?" she asked, striding over to his side. His arm was wrapped around his body, the hand pressed lightly to the wound.

"Did they just bring Duo through here?" he asked. Relena stepped up to his side and wrapped an arm around him to help support him. "I heard him yelling profanities."

"Long story," Relena said. "But yes, we found him, and he's going to have the chip removed." Heero shook his head, then lifted his arm and rested it over her shoulders. Sally's phone rang.

"Yes, Commander," she answered after waiting for several moments. She hung up.

"They need me upstairs. I'll be back to check on you two in a little while," Sally said.

"Thank you," Relena replied, and Sally turned to step back into the elevator. Relena helped Heero back into his room.

"What happened?" he asked her after he'd found a semi-comfortable spot leaning against the bed. Relena sighed and wrapped her arms lightly around him, while his hands found the small of her back. While trying to control her emotions, she told him the story of Duo hijacking their car. As she told her story, however, the stress of the day began to overwhelm her, and by the end, there were tears leaking from her eyes.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she finished talking. Heero reached up with both hands and wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.

"Don't be," he said. His hands returned to their place on her back, and he squeezed her a little tighter. "You don't have to be strong in front of me all the time. You know I'll never tell." Through her tears, Relena laughed.

"Thank you, Heero."

Relena looked up at him as he lowered down to capture her lips with his. The pleasure of the kiss collided with the stress and sorrow Relena was feeling, and helped to make her stress disappear just a little, leaving her feeling better than she was before. They pulled away when someone knocked on the door.

The door opened and Agent Watts stepped inside. "Excuse me, Miss Darlian," she said. "The president is on the line and he wishes to speak with you about the Ambassador."

Relena winced slightly. She'd almost forgotten about that in the midst of drama happening around her. "Of course. Just wait outside for a moment," Relena said. Watts nodded and stepped back outside the door, and it shut again. "Don't over exert yourself," Relena said, turning to face Heero once more.

"Same to you," he replied, giving a strand of her hair a gentle tug. Relena pushed herself up on her toes and kissed him once more, a quick peck, then ordered him back to bed. He went mostly willingly, and Relena promised to return when she could.

December 27, A.C. 201

12:45 PM Eastern Standard Time

Duo

The doctors who were manhandling him were trying to sedate him, but the chip wasn't allowing it. As soon as the sedative made contact with his bloodstream, he could feel, sense the chip working, sending his brain into overdrive to combat the effects of the sedative. It was a strange feeling, but it was also beginning to make him feel physically exhausted.

Not to mention, Zero continued to whisper in his ear: Kill them.

Zero had wanted him to kill Heero, Trowa, Wufei… even Relena when he saw her. Duo wondered if Heero had the same whispering - the constant urging to kill everyone around him. Most likely, considering his history. But the alterations in the chip's programming that Duo had discovered prevented the chip from actually forcing people to kill each other. Perhaps the final act of mercy from Dr. J.

But the urge was overwhelmingly strong. Now, as he was held down by four huge orderlies, he was fighting the voice in his head, telling him to kill them all.

"He's still not going down," one of the orderlies said, looking over to the doctor in the white lab coat. The Preventer logo was embroidered on the chest over the pocket. Duo squeezed his eyes closed.

"Yuy pulled it out himself. Just do it!" Duo shouted. He was not all that excited about the prospect of losing the chip's abilities, but it would be better than dealing with the poking of needs and the steel grips of the orderlies. The doctor stared at Duo, but he shrugged his shoulders.

"Flip him over, then," the doctor said. Duo flipped over onto his stomach willingly. "We'll at least try to numb the pain." Duo waited, but nothing like relief came, though he could see the doctor injecting something into the IV. "I'll go over the incisions that were made before."

Duo felt a cool pressure against his neck, but he felt no pain. His skin tugged against whatever tool the doctor was using to slice him open. Sensing danger, the chip reared up the programming, and he almost lost his control.

"Guys!" he shouted, and the grip of the orderlies tightened. He could feel his body straining against them, trying desperately to get away. But Duo fought back as hard as he could, to resist the physical urge to move. He was beginning to see how unpredictable the chip could make a person, forcing them to move without the brain's compliance.

As Duo fought mentally against the chip, and while the doctor carefully cut open his skin to remove the device, memories of Heero began to click into place, ranging from his ability to set bones, to his constantly need for movement, and his reclusive nature. To have so much inner battling going on in his mind must have been a strain.

"Almost…" the doctor said, his voice strained a bit. Duo felt a hard pull, then something gave way.

All at once, pain, emotions, thoughts, and feelings came rushing in from all sides, and he began to lose consciousness, almost like shutting down a computer.

December 27, A.C. 201

2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Heero

Heero was getting antsy. In the past, part of the reason he'd always escaped the hospital rooms was because it was horrible for him to be lying still, doing nothing. He'd fallen asleep after Relena left, but now he was awake and wanting to be moving around, doing something productive.

Sally had brought down Heero's clothes for him, so he eased himself out of bed and dug through the bag. He was already wearing athletic shorts, but he found a black t-shirt and pulled it on over his head, trying to move carefully as to not pull the stitches on his side. He found socks and shoes, and with difficulty, managed to put those on as well. Then he left the room.

As he stepped out, he heard his name. Sally was walking down the hallway, carrying a clipboard.

"Heero, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I can't lay there anymore," he said. Sally gave him a stern look, but she knew him well enough not to press the issue.

"I see. Well, Duo is still knocked out from getting the chip removed. We think the chip fought the effects of the sedative, and without it, he was completely knocked out," Sally said. Heero chuckled. "The chip has been cleaned, and I'm taking it up to Relena right now."

"Why Relena?" Heero asked, concerned. There was no reason why she should need it. Sally smiled.

"Relena wants to destroy it," Sally answered. She held up the clear plastic bag that contained the small, silver chip. "We know that the rebels had gotten their hands on the code, but I hardly think we need to worry much about them recreating it. At least, if they did, it would be more than anyone could handle."

"And it's illegal to mine, transport, and manufacture with gundanium," Heero said. "Not that it will stop anyone, though."

"Most of the people who knew how to deal with it, especially in this small of a form, died in the war," Sally reminded him. Heero shrugged, conceding the point. "Well, come on. You might as well join me upstairs." Sally led the way to the elevator. Heero followed, his hand still pressed on the stitches to try and keep the surrounding skin from pulling. His mind flashed back to the time when he'd set his own broken bone and splinted it with a wrench. He had no memory of the pain involved in that, but he did remember Duo's noises of disgust. Now though, the aches in his body from being shot reminded him with every step that he'd been injured. He knew he was better off without having the Zero system program his brain, but in some case… it was useful.

On the tenth floor, Heero followed Sally into a conference room. Relena was seated at the table, and she'd discarded her suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her blouse. She was furiously typing on a laptop. Commander Smith was across from her, flipping through some documents.

"Relena," Sally said when she entered the room. Relena looked up from her laptop. "Here." Sally held up the bag with the chip. Relena rose and hurried to her side to take the bag.

"Heero, you're out of bed again," Relena said, glancing at him. Heero shrugged and gave her a smile. Relena smiled back and turned away, raising up the plastic bag in front of her face.

"Are you sure we should destroy it?" Commander Smith asked, slowly rising from his chair at the conference table to reach out towards the bag Relena held up. "Maybe we could-" Relena cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"No. Don't even say it. That's what happened the first time, and it's what happened when they kidnapped Duo and put it in him. We're getting rid of it, once and for all," Relena said. Heero couldn't help but find the forcefulness in Relena's voice and demeanor very attractive. It was that part of her personality that originally had showed him that she was more than meets the eye.

Relena tossed down the chip on the table and opened her bag. From it, she withdrew a handful of tools, slim metal things. Heero had no idea where she'd found them, but he watched with interest as she picked one out of the pile and removed the chip from the plastic bag. The room was silent as she interested the tool into the corner of the chip. With some effort, she popped the gundanium casing apart. Heero frowned.

It was that easy?

He stood up from the chair and circled around to stand at Relena's shoulder. With the guts of the chip exposed, Heero could see that there wasn't anything special about it. He watched Relena with wonder as she prodded the innards with her small tool, pulling tiny wires from where they'd been soldered. With the small tool, she pried out the smaller pieces until they came apart in her hand.

"How did you know it would be this easy?" Heero asked her. Relena glanced at him over her shoulder, then shrugged.

"Well I sort of figured if it was the only one made, that it must have been hand made," she said with uncertainty. "I borrowed these from the IT department here," she added, gesturing to the tools. Heero blinked once, then looked around the room at the others. Everyone else had looks of disbelief and confusion, just like Heero. Relena glanced around the room. "What?"

"You are very proficient at that, Miss Darlian," Commander Smith said.

"Well, look who I hang around with!"

The room broke out into laughter, and even Heero had to smile. He watched Relena dump the pieces into the bag, then drop the bag on the floor. With the sole of her shoe, she crunched the fragile computer bits into tiny pieces. Heero touched her on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Relena," he said quietly, keeping his voice below the level of conversation in the room. Relena touched his hand and gave him a smile.

-SE