Sorry accidentally uploaded the wrong chapter, thanks for the heads up KT :)
0-0-0 Section 36 0-0-0
They were driving. The radio was not on. Duo was not humming, nor tapping some random rhythm on the steering wheel, nor singing or talking incessantly. He was not racing down the shady lanes at breakneck speeds or swerving this way and that simply because he owned the road and there was no other vehicle in sight.
Quatre could feel the turmoil in his companions mind and had done his best to respect that. But the silence was quickly growing oppressive.
"Speak!" The blonde said with an exasperated sigh.
"Arf. Arf." Duo half-heartedly deadpanned.
"Seriously Duo, I can feel something is fairly eating you up inside, what is it?"
The braided youth swallowed uncomfortably. "We got Fei back. I thought everything would be all right but we…he…they…" Duo made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.
"Go on." Quatre urged gently.
Duo shook his head sadly, "Fei is frightened. This new body of his has all sorts of unusual cravings and he doesn't know what he can eat and what will make him sick…or high, like Trowa on the cat nip. Fei likes tea, some teas have catnip in them. I should be counting my lucky stars I found a sure fire way to get WuFei's goat, to make a joke at his expense instead…I just feel sad. I know cats shouldn't have onions and dogs shouldn't eat chocolate…but what should we get them…Kibble? How about one of those big rawhide bones? I guess we know why Heero ate so many protein shakes and ration bars during the war. But they shouldn't have to! We got him back! God, Quat, I feel so helpless!"
"I know Duo, I know. But we will figure this out. We know pretty much anything Heero would eat should be all right for the rest. And Heero's diet was probably more restrictive than it needed to be. I mean you did get him to eat smores and he did like it. He just said sweets make him sleepy and he couldn't afford to be tired during the war. And he's had pizza…we can get it without onions just to be safe. We will figure this out, by trial and error if we have to… but we will figure this out. Now, food aside, what else do we need to get?" Quatre asked.
"New pillows and blankets, the shower curtain is pretty badly shredded too," Duo ticked the list off on his fingers, no small task while driving, Of course he was more than up to the task having piloted Deathscythe using only his knees on more than one occasion, "Can opener, Coffee, bug spray, shampoo, soap, towels, Some kind of wing and tail friendly clothing…that is going to be a challenge." Duo smirked suddenly and asked, "Do you think we could get Treizie to wear a halter top?"
0-0-0-0-0
Analise Une had never encountered anything like it, not in her time at Victoria Military Academy, Earth Sphere Alliance, Romefeller, The Order of the Zodiac, or with Preventers. Never had she ever imagined a scenario where her first contact with high priority suspects was to have said suspects practically scrambling over one another in their haste to surrender. The first evacuees to exit the arena were best describes as 'highly emotional.' She had to admit it was down right disconcerting to witness hardened criminals bawling their eyes out, confessing every transgression they had committed down to and including cookie stealing in early childhood. They begged her men to take them into custody because they were wretched creatures who disserved everything they had coming to them. In most cases she very much agreed with them, but their change of heart was unsettling none the less.
The next wave seemed to be in thrall to some form of mass hysteria. Whatever they had seen or experienced had instilled in them deep and abiding fear. Some had the presence of mind to resist arrest but most surrendered gratefully looking to preventers to protect them from whatever it was that terrified them so. Her agents had been completely unsuccessful in their attempts to get any of the suspects to disclose what that 'something' had been that set them jibbering like idiots. Further more, it seemed none of them had a very clear memory of what had gone on during the last forty five minutes that it had taken her men to breach the last level of defenses.
The third segment of prisoners, those who had been closest to the stage were unconscious; collapsed in the isles or slumped over in their seats. It was astonishing to consider just how much manpower it had taken to drag them out of wherever they had fallen and cart them to a secured location where they could receive proper medical care. The brothers Dermal were found among this last group though they were kept in isolation until such time as they could be properly questioned.
Of her agents and the other prisoners of note…there was absolutely no sign. The lady sat in the control van playing and replaying the vid recording of the auction. Each time she clearly heard Quatre shout 'NO!" then the image dissolved into static. She very much wanted to hit something. Her men were doubtless aware of her current state and went out of their way to avoid her. So when her vid-phone beeped she knew it must be something of the utmost importance. Still she growled out, 'What is it!" before her eyes had the time to focus on whomever happened to be on the other end of the line. When they did it was to be greeted with the smiling visage of a certain braided Shinigami.
"IT, is a pronoun, Used in regards to a nonhuman entity; an animate being whose gender is unspecified, unknown, or irrelevant; a group of objects or individuals; an action; or an abstraction. It may be used to refer to a general condition or state of affairs or a crucial situation or culmination, of an event. Informally used to refer to something that is the best, the most desirable, something without equal, unparalleled… this is it." Duo babbled without taking a breath until she summarily cut him off.
"ENOUGH!"
"Right O Une baby."
"Maxwell!"
"Yes Ma'am, Duo S. Maxwell reporting as ordered Ma'am." He managed an almost believable approximation of a military salute even going so far as to snap his heels together."
She fought the urge to snort but not before she had given the imp what he had once described as 'the eye roll of death and dismemberment' and sighed. "Status Maxwell, please.?"
"Mission accomplished." He intoned with a smirk.
"I know that." She growled finally giving up all pretence. "I saw your fight on the vid feed. You have obviously vacated the area we have cordoned off… else I would have rung your scrawny neck by now. Then there would be no need for this conversation. Stop dancing about and tell me how He is!"
Contrary to popular belief Agent Shadow did know when 'enough was enough', and Une had certainly had enough of his antics at the moment. "The Dermail's had some kind of control device on their captives forcing them to attack. Once we neutralized the devices they went back to normal…er…well as normal as winged wonders can be anyway. Their wings don't retract the way Heero's do, but WuFei is as feisty as he always was. Zechsies near to exhausted but unharmed for the most part and 'His Excellency' suffered nothing worse that a nasty bruise that is already fading. I didn't know the general was weak in the knees before now, but they say all is fair in bluffing and brawls. He's forgiven me and says you should too."
"Yeah right." she grumbled a touch of incredulity coloring her voice. "I want to see all of you at headquarters ASAP. I will not be content till Sally has full medical work-ups on my desk."
"Um…yeah, about that—we're not ready to come in just now. It is not that we don't trust you… Past is past and all that, we've put it behind us… mostly. You don't need to worry. The gruesome two-some are safe enough in our custody. We just need to sort out some stuff first."
"Stuff?" Une raised one arched brow incredulously.
"Yes stuff." The voice was Quatre's the blonde injecting himself into the conversation over Duo's shoulder. "I'm quite sorry Lady. I appreciate your concern and I know He does too but at the moment we must take the most prudent course of action. We will make arrangements for Sally to come to us when it is appropriate for her to do so. But for now, we need to keep things under wraps. And now, I'm afraid I need to cut this conversation short. We have things to do and we do not want the others to worry. We will be in touch."
"You'd better. I will not accept excuses." Une growled. Duo stuck his tongue out at her and the connection was severed in a flare of static. She severely wanted to trace the call to get at least a general location for her AWOL agents. Unfortunately she was well aware that none of her other agents were capable of hacking a line the teen terrorists had secured… not that the others didn't try. In fact there was a running bet between them with quite a sizable sum in the pot promised to go the one who succeeded. Zechs had come close to winning the pot before his abduction. Given enough time he just might have succeed but that fact didn't help her at all at the moment. And the others just weren't up to the task.
If the pilots themselves were not willing to tell her, they were not willing to tell her. She had reason to know the usual interrogation techniques were useless when it came to Gundam Pilots…especially if they were not actually on hand to be questioned. Which meant she would have to do something a bit more, underhanded…like… bugging the Maganac's communications.
The Winner heir might be reluctant to let her know their present locale… but she was willing to bet Rashid Kurama and the others of his brotherhood would not be so easily put off; especially in matters pertaining to the comfort and security of their young master and his cohorts. A fact she was not above exploiting. It was only a matter of time before Quatre availed himself of his private army…or, as was more likely, was unwittingly subjected to their well meaning intervention.
She sighed, carefully shifting files into her briefcase shrugging into her jacket. She could monitor the bugs in their system just as easily from her laptop as she could from the office. Besides, she had a little girl at home waiting for her. "What should I tell her about Treize?" Anne bit the corner of her lip it thought. Was it too early even to consider such things? "Nothing is ever simple, it never has been," she mused, "Not for us anyway."