Chapter Four: Prisoner Of War
'Rustle'
Relena looked up as the boy on the bed turned over on his side. When he made no further movement, she sighed and returned to her book.
As the only one in their little 'elite' group without anything to prevent her, Relena had been elected to the post of 'Enemy-Gundam-pilot-watcher'. Hilde, Duo and her brother had duties in the field. Noin had classes to teach. Relena could do all her work in the room and she still had had to fine-tune the security system.
But now, two weeks into the unknown boy's enforced nap, all her work was done, the security system was as good as it was going to get-she'd eat her hat if any of those idiots at Federation Security OR Intelligence even suspected-and there was really nothing else to do.
She really hoped a new assignment would come in soon; she'd even welcome debugging the old security system of some useless noble who'd cajoled a favor out of her superiors, a task she usually detested. This was the third day in a row she'd had nothing to do but come in here and stare at the sleeping boy's face. Not that it wasn't a _nice_ face to stare at...
She sighed again, more at the direction her thoughts were taking then in boredom. She cast her eyes around the room again, just in case she'd missed something the other thousand times she'd done that. Nothing out of the ordinary beckoned.
She fell asleep, but woke up in under half an hour. Hurriedly, she checked on the Gundam pilot's condition. Still the same... he'd shifted into a new position while she was asleep, accidentally kicking his blankets off him. She moved quietly to his bedside and tucked the thin sheets back into place around him.
She stood there a moment, watching him silently. He was dressed in a white tanktop and boxers, standard patient wardrobe for OZ. The bandanna he'd been wearing when he first arrived was on the night table next to him.
Spurred by a sudden idea, Relena picked it up and carefully tied it around his sleeping head. The bandanna made him look less...anonymous, less mechanical, somehow. It also served the added purpose of somewhat hiding the white gauze covering the burns Duo's shoe-bomb had given him.
That done, she returned to her seat. She drummed her fingers on the windowsill. She watched the clock's face. She watched the boy again.
"Oh, to hell with it!" she suddenly exploded. She stalked out of the room. She returned in a few minutes, a sleek gray laptop tucked under her arm. She set it up on the table, and logged onto the Internet...as her hacker alias.
"Time for some fun," she murmured to herself. Too bad if Zechs had strongly suggested she stop her 'games'. She was bored, and she was going to play!
****
Heero was dreaming. In dreams, you can relive things so far away you can't remember them in your conscious life. It's practically like time travel.
****
He was young...very young. His tiny body, barely three years old, was being cradled in his mother's arms. He rested his head, already sporting a messy mop of spikes, on her slender shoulder. She started humming a soft tune, a lullaby that she herself had composed for her little boy, and the crooning melody soothed his eyelids down.
The door to their living quarters opened. The little boy opened his cobalt eyes a crack just in time to see his father, smiling at his wife and son, come inside.
"Hello, Adian," his mother greeted the tall, twenty-five-year-old man. "How was work?"
"Fine, but utterly boring," answered Adian Lowe. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't been given a commander's commission in the Federation Army. Being an officer means you get to do lots of paperwork. God help me if they want to give me a promotion." His eyes came to rest on his sleeping son. "How was AJ?"
"He cried all morning for you. Took me quite a while to get him to calm down. He really misses you, Adian."
Adian sighed. "What can I do? I wish I could spend more time with him...but being a commander, though less dangerous than my other job, sure takes up a lot of time."
"I know it's not your fault, sweetheart. I'm glad you gave up working for the Hierarchy. Just...you needn't prove yourself to them, you know. You are the best officer they have. Why should you be afraid to ask for a little time-off?"
Adian sighed again and ran a hand through his unruly hair, as resistant to combing as his son's was proving to be-a point of considerable exasperation to Kendra. "Maybe you're right, Kendra..." His face brightened. "But...what else did AJ do all day? I know you went to the Centre to do some work..."
"I brought him with me and left him in the day-care center. He played with those kids from OZ...Commander Une brought them over."
"Those orphans? The blond boy, his sister, and those two Church kids?" Adian asked, gray eyes thoughtful. "How did he get along with them?"
"Pretty well. He's a good kid. Although he and that blond boy got into a bit of a tussle over a toy truck..." She gazed fondly at the toddler dozing on her shoulder, then looked at her husband. "I was watching him play, and I saw you in him...he's getting more like you everyday..."
Adian smiled at her and walked closer, enfolding his family in a hug. "Yes, but I know he'll grow up to be better than me..."
"Why?" asked Kendra, snuggling into his embrace.
"Because half of him came from you," Adian whispered.
****
Heero came to slowly. It took a few minutes of blinking to make out more than a vague blur. His limbs felt oddly sluggish and heavy, as if he hadn't used them in ages.
The fact that he was a Federation-OZ, if you had to be specific-prisoner had not escaped his mind, and so he remained completely silent as he acclimated himself to his new surroundings. There was probably someone keeping a watch, but they hadn't sounded an alarm yet. He knew he was in no condition to make a break for it, and didn't try. That would come later.
Heero slowly propped himself up on his elbows, remaining absolutely quiet as he took stock. He was in a well-lit, compact room with white walls, floor and lighting. He rested on a hospital-cot with several large machines beeping or whirring quietly beside him.
And on the sofa on the other side of the room stretched a sandy-blond girl, totally intent on her computer. Heero watched her curiously. She looked like she knew what she was doing. Hey, wasn't she that girl he had tried to use as a hostage...?
Relena grinned as her program managed to further decode a document she'd...er, lifted...off a certain wealthy corporation's mainframe. She saved her work and prepared to log off. Purely by chance, she raised her head at that moment and locked eyes with Heero, propped up on his elbows and certainly awake.
Relena's eyes widened and she yelped in surprise. "Y...you're awake!" she sputtered, pointing at him. She bolted up from the sofa, never taking her eyes off him as she inched toward the intercom.
"Hello? Ahhhh… Zechs, I think that you'd better come down here…"
****
Zechs and Duo were changing from their flight suits-Zechs's blue, Duo's black-into their normal red-and-gold OZ uniforms when the intercom in their bunkroom beeped. Duo picked it up.
"Hello? Ahhhh… Zechs, I think that you'd better come down here…"
"Hey! I'm not Zechs! I'm his superior in intelligence, skill and especially looks, Duo Maxwell!"
"In your dreams, pal." Zechs grabbed the intercom from Duo's reluctant hands. "Hey Relena, what's up?" he asked, casual in tone.
Relena's anxiety showed in her tone. "He… he's awake, Zechs…"
There was no need for her to elaborate. "What? Okay, we're coming down right now. Stay put, okay?"
"Yeah, roger that," she responded, glancing warily in Heero's direction.
****
Heero watched the whole conversation with a curious, slightly smug expression. It just felt so good to have people trembling around you.
But enough about pleasure, what he was concerned about now was getting information. "Where are we?" the young Gundam pilot asked as he stretched his arms slightly, getting rid of the muscle fatigue...and testing the strength of the restraints.
The girl remained silent. 'Damn it, these stupid shackles are strong. It looks like she's not going to volunteer any information…' He looked at the girl again. "Hey, girl. What are these shackles made of?"
"Why should I tell you?" she replied, not taking her eyes off her computer.
"Like it's gonna be of any use to me, girl."
"Then why are you asking?"
"To see why I couldn't break it, girl."
"Because they're titanium alloy. The Jaws of Life themselves couldn't break them. And stop calling me 'girl'!" she said, exasperated.
"Why should I?" He paused, then added, "Girl."
"I have a name, you know. I don't go around calling you 'boy', Heero."
"So what is it?"
"Relena Marquise…oops." She winced.
Heero smiled triumphantly. "Heh. Thanks for introducing yourself, Releee~na," he singsonged mockingly. "Marquise, huh? As in...Zechs Marquise? The Lightning Baron? Sooo…what would that make you? The Rain Baroness?"
"Shut up!" cried Relena. "You're our prisoner, remember? So be quiet or…or…"
Heero smirked. "Well, your voice is louder'n a howling wind. Maybe that should be your name. Nah…Rain fits you, I think. You're such a wet blanket!" he laughed.
"What a riot. I'm sure your rebel friends found you very amusing." Relena's voice was cold and rigid with barely contained fury.
"Hey everyone! It's me, the interrogator!" Duo Maxwell walked in along with Zechs Marquise. "Umm…" Both OZ pilots sweatdropped as they saw Relena glaring furiously at a smirking Heero, who acted as if he were in a teacher-less classroom rather than strapped to a bed in the stronghold of the enemy.
Relena spun around to face her brother and her friend, certain that if she looked at that…that…BOY any longer she would no longer be able to keep from trying to strangle him. "He's all yours, oniisan," she said. "I need to get something to drink."
She walked stiffly out of the room. 'I wish Duo really would use the scalpels on him!' Relena raged to herself.
****
Duo glanced at Heero, "You from the Federation?"
Zechs gritted out, "Duo, we already know the answer, he's from the Rebels. It would be ridiculous if he were from the Federation, next time think carefully before asking a question."
Duo thought for a minute, "Okay, I have it! Who developed your Gundams? Answer right now and you won't have to suffer…"
"Duo, we can just use truth serum, remember?"
"No, you can't," Heero interrupted their argument. Zechs and Duo regarded him half-questioningly. This was the first time they had heard him speak since that fight almost two weeks ago. Heero continued: "I have been trained so that chemical…er, inducers don't work on me."
Zechs beckoned to Duo. The two huddled together, whispering. "I don't think he's bluffing."
Duo protested, "But it's impossible to gain a resistance to ALL the serums!"
"Duo, there are only three out there."
"Still…shouldn't we at least try it out?"
"Oh, all right."
****
The first one they tried out was Edean. This thick, pinkish liquid tasted like strawberry cream. With sugar.
Heero nearly gagged himself insensate when they stuck it in his mouth. And it didn't work either, though Duo was delighted with the whole Heero-choking part.
****
The second was a brew called Celcis. It was introduced, not orally, but through IV's. It was tried two days after they tried Edean. (and after Heero awoke from his sugar-induced catatonia)
Zechs wasn't there, so Duo set it all up by himself…with Relena's help.
Okay, okay, let's give credit where credit is due: if Relena (who, much to her disgust, had again been elected official Heero-watcher) hadn't been there, he wouldn't have had a clue on what to do.
Anyway, to get back to the story (and to stop the Duo-bashing, though that's fun) they hooked it up, Heero watching apprehensively. It took two minutes for it to take effect. The effect being that Heero began laughing and smiling and generally acting like someone very buzzed. He called Duo 'Trowa' and seemed to think the two were best buddies. And he called Relena 'Dorothy' and began teasing her (this was the difference between how he normally talked) _good-naturedly_.
The two who were in there were alarmed and (in Relena's case) more than slightly disconcerted over how the drug affected Heero. Duo, who was no stranger to getting drunk, tried every remedy he knew to get rid of the boy's intoxication, but to no avail.
So it was that when Zechs came in nearly an hour later, he came in to find a wildly grinning Heero and his two junior officers looking sheepishly at him.
Ten minutes after Zechs's lecture/yelling session, Relena and Duo's ears were still ringing.
****
"Oww…" muttered Heero morosely. He would have put his head in his hands but he was bolted to the cot. "Owww…" he said again, this time louder. He looked down at the floor, a portion of his mind not occupied with the pain, agony, misery and suffering that wracked his body marveling at how it spun and dipped…
His head exploded as a massive soundwave ripped through his ears. He barely bit back a cry of pain. Slowly, feeling like he was resisting steel bands someone had placed around his neck, he turned to see who had tried to kill him.
Relena shut the door with a sharp click, balancing a steel tray on one hand. Relieved the tray of food hadn't fallen, she turned to the shackled prisoner.
"What are you glaring at me for?!" she demanded angrily, for, indeed, Heero was turning his very best 'I-will-kill-you' glare upon her. Heero winced at the sound of her voice, and his 'I-will-kill-you' turned to 'I-would-kill-you-but-I'm-in-too-much-agony' His cobalt eyes still looked angry, but now there was an expression of pain in them.
Relena caught the pain in his eyes, and her answering glare softened. It was her fault (Duo's too) that he was so badly hungover. Then she quickly squelched the guilt. 'Why should I feel guilty? He's our PRISONER! A P.O.W!! He should be happy that the worst done to him is making him have a hangover-admittedly, one worse than normal-but…AARGH!'
Heero was confused.
First, he had glared at that Marquise girl because her noisy entrance (actually, pointed out his logical side, her entrance hadn't actually been that noisy, it was just that being hungover honed his already-sharp senses to a painful degree) had increased the number of Aries units breakdancing in his skull. She had glared back, then-this was the confusing part-her expression had softened. Why? He didn't know. Then, just as quickly, her glare had returned. Again, for no reason Heero could readily discern.
'Girls,' Heero sighed to himself. "Could you not walk about so loudly?" he asked. "I have a headache…"
"Well ex-cuuuuuse me, your royal highness! I apologize most abjectly! Would his Lordship desire me to draw the curtains so the sunlight does not hurt his sensitive blue eyes?!" snapped Relena. She slammed down the tray of food, seething as he had the nerve to throw her a wan grin. "This is your lunch. You'll eat it or else!"
"I thought I was a royal highness."
"Shut up!"
*****
Relena was fuming-a state of mind she seemed to spend a great deal of time in, nowadays. "Stupid boy!" she said loudly, and punched her pillow. It made her feel a little better, so she did it again. And again. When little feathers began to float around her, she decided to stop.
She wasn't feeling that much better, so she looked around to see if there was anything else to take her mind off Mr Aggravating. Her gaze fell on her silvery laptop.
*****
Duo was walking through the corridors, happily munching on his Big Gundamac.
"That Wufei is a great cook!" he thought, somewhat smugly remembering how Sally forced Wufei to teach Duo how to cook. "Although he did glare at me the whole time. Oh well." He kept on walking till he saw a familiar figure standing beside the window.
Hilde was gazing out the window. She wasn't looking at anything in particular, except the empty blackness outside their base. She remembered Earth. It was anything but empty.
***** (Flashback)
"C'mon Hilde! Let's go to the construction site! I wanna see if there's really a giant pipe you can slide in there, like Zechs said," a 7-year-old Duo called out to his friend. "But Duo, it's so scary there… it's almost night-time…I don't think our officers will be very pleased…"
"It's okay Hilde! I'll protect you! I promise… Now, let's go!"
Somehow, though he was so reckless, I felt safe whenever I was with him.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!" Hilde screamed as the two Dobermans chased them.
Duo and Hilde ran as fast as they could, but their legs were short and could only take a small distance each step. "Duo, they're catching up!" she cried, frightened tears streaming down her face.
I was so scared, I didn't know what to do…
After all their efforts to escape, all hope was lost when they reached a dead end. "Duo, I don't want to hurt…"
She pleaded to God that they would come out safe and sound, certain that the big, slobbering animals would rip them to shreds.
"Don't worry! They won't hurt you!" Duo shouted, he grabbed a metal bar and held it defensively. His palm was sweaty, so he didn't have a good grip over it. OZ had been training him and Hilde for two years, so he was slightly more capable than an average child.
He swung it at the first dog. It connected with its jaw, but Duo's seven-year-old strength wasn't enough to knock it out. The dogs attacked and attacked, until Duo was covered with bite wounds. When one of the dogs tried to attack Hilde, he would block her and take the bite instead.
He protected me. He kept his promise.
*****(End Flashback)
Duo strolled up to Hilde and delivered a playful blow to the back of her head. Hilde broke off her reminiscing as her head rocked forward. "Hi Hilde!" he greeted her cheerfully, biting off a mouthful of burger.
Hilde seethed. She remembered how, after getting back to the base, the two kids had been scolded for their little adventure, but Duo took all the blame. She remembered how often she'd visited him when he'd been laid up in the infirmary for two weeks following his first MS battle when he was twelve (often bringing/dragging Relena along). She remembered how often he'd come to visit HER after she'd broken her arm after an MS she was piloting overheated and exploded. (because of a faulty coolant line; the technician in charge of that was able to resume duty after getting over two fractured legs and a multitude of bruises)
All these fond memories weren't enough to stop her from yelling, "Duo you moron!"
*****
"And a one, and a two, and a…I'm in!" crowed Relena. Softly, though, since she was again in Heero's hospital room, and had no desire to wake the boy up. He was sleeping off the effects of the Celcis truth serum.
'I just don't feel like dealing with the jerk,' Relena thought, lifting her head from her work in order to look at Heero, asleep in his hospital cot. She returned her gaze to her laptop's screen. She raised her hands, ready to resume typing…
As a child, Heero was subjected, not only to his father's brutal training sessions, but also to scientific 'experiments' a hundred times more brutal. They had, though, given him enhanced senses and strength, so his keen ears were able to pick up a word, loud to his sensitive hearing, though no one else could hear it.
"Duo you moron!"
'Ah, it's that Duo guy again. How could such a sensible girl get mixed up with that, that, idiot.' Heero's respect for Hilde stemmed from the fact that she was in no way as snobby, or as mean, or as loud, or any number of other, less delicate adjectives, as Miss Relena Marquise. Then again, no girl was.
*****
Hilde glared at the idiot in front of her. He was backing away, grinning uncertainly. Another shout echoed from the end of the corridor. Near the gate to the landing field, an angry Wufei Chang shook his fist at Duo. "Stop right there, Maxwell!"
Sally Po reappeared inside the base and yanked on her student's arm. "Wufei, our ship's arriving in two minutes! We have to hurry or we'll miss it!"
"But he stole my Gundamac! I want it back!"
"Stop acting like a baby, besides Duo probably gulped it down already!"
"Alright, woman, but…" he shook a fist at Duo. "We'll be back…"
"Of course we are, the class I'm going to lecture is only an hour long. And our patient hasn't recovered yet." Sally snapped irritatedly, and caught hold of Wufei's shirt sleeve. The two disappeared through the doors, Wufei's cries of "Let go of me, woman!" floating to the two sweatdropping OZ pilots.
Duo wiped his forehead, "Whew…" He turned around only to face Hilde yet again. His face fell again. "Uhhhhh…."
Hilde smacked him on the head. "I can't believe you stole something from the medic's apprentice! You pig!"
Duo protested, "He was teaching me how to cook! I had to try the food he cooked to see if it was worth it!"
Hilde fumed. She couldn't believe this guy, he really needed manners. Duo just stood there, arms folded and refusing eye contact with her. She sighed, "I guess you'll never change…" She turned around and walked away. "Hmph," Duo muttered as he walked the opposite direction
*****
"What are you smiling about, idiot?" Relena demanded, pounding her fist on the table. Heero grinned. "Aren't I allowed to smile? Besides, what's it to you… brat?"
"What did you call me!? What did you call me?!" yelled Relena. "I am not a brat! I can handle myself under any circumstance! Sure, you pilots are all experts of combat and all that stuff, but I am an expert on security and computers, so chew on that, tough guy!"
Heero smirked at her mockingly. "Wow… so when confronted by a gun, you can-what? Type yourself out of it?"
Relena glared at him. "For your information, I'm already a red belt in taekwondo, a blue belt in karate and a brown belt in Aikido! These hands are registered as weapons."
"Well, karate kid, I've mastered all those schools and a lot more," Heero replied smugly. "And, o mistress of hackerdom, I bet my kung-fu could beat yours anytime!" Relena thought he was challenging her to a martial arts match, but then realized he was referring to hacking.
(AN: We aren't hackers ourselves, so any part of this fic concerning hacking will be very uninformed. Sorry for people who crave reality in the fic…most of the hacker knowledge will come from movies. ^^;;)
"What? A braindead flyboy like you who only thinks of things going 'kaboom', food, bright pointy things and on occasion the deeper meaning of spaghetti?"
"You forgot to mention pretty girls," Heero noted. He eyed her up and down, then smirked. "Know any?"
"Shut up! I'd be surprised if you knew how to boot up a PC," Relena said. Stung, Heero raised himself on his elbows (one of the few movements he was still able to do) and glared at the sandy-haired girl calmly typing away on her laptop. "You don't know what you're talking about, little girl."
What Relena's biting rejoinder to this would have been, we'll never know. At that moment, Zechs walked in, to see how far away Heero was from recovery. Heero leaned back into the cot and glared at the cool, poised Colonel.
Zechs looked over the enemy pilot, making Heero feel like a colt under the scrutiny of an interested buyer-a feeling Heero definitely didn't care for. He glared at Zechs, who didn't notice and just nodded in approval of how Heero was healing.
He was about to leave, when he noticed Relena eagerly concentrating on her laptop. Zechs frowned. She only got that gleeful smile on her face when…
He peered over the shoulder apprehensively. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw a jumble of incomprehensible numbers and letters scrolling down the laptop's screen in columns of bright green characters. It was incomprehensible, yes, but after being Relena's brother for sixteen years, Zechs had learned to recognize code when he saw it.
"Relena!" he yelled. Relena shuddered as his voice literally shook the room.
"Whoa… and I thought my superiors were loud," Heero commented, watching the sibling argument with interest. "Must be the family angle. Am I glad I have no problems of that sort…."
"You know that sort of thing is illegal! Worse, you are an officer in the OZ corps! Imagine the scandal…" Zechs lamented, falling into a slightly over-exaggerated pose of sorrow.
Relena scowled and whapped her brother on the head. "Since when did we care what others thought of us? Besides, I won't ever be caught."
"Aaargh! You know what I mean, it's not just civilian opinion, it's morale in the troops, it's the reputation of OZ…"
"The troops wouldn't mind if I were a hacker, some of them ARE hackers!" Relena cried.
"Look, Brann," Zechs said, using his sister's handle half-amusedly, half-angrily, "I…" The tall, blond teenager was interrupted by the sound of someone making a sound of fervent disbelief. Both Marquises turned their eyes to where Heero was staring at them with wide eyes.
"Bra…Bra…Brann?" he cried in shock.
Author's Note: Whoo! It's out, the revised version of chapter four. I'm back from my extended stay in the States-even got to experience Thanksgiving. Well, here you got to see Heero as a kid-and realize that his dad wasn't a competitor for Gendo in Worst-Dad-EVER contest…at least not at first. Ideas for how this story could go extremely appreciated.