Chapter 2 Whispers From The Past
****"I'm b-a-c-k. I still haven't seen Gundam Wing. Just enjoy the plot. If something bothers you way to much, tell me at highpowerhyperlets@yahoo.com. This chapter is kind of leaving you in confusion at first, but relax, I've got a plan!" AWM****
John laid on his back, stretched across the bed, with his head in his wife's lap as he gazed up at her sweet face. "Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky to have you."
Jane smiled at him and ran her fingers his hair tenderly. "I can't think of a better place to be, then with you." She said teasingly.
He caught her wrist, kissing the back of her hand. On her finger glimmered the wedding ring, their only link to their former lives. No other clue was found except the inscription: "If ever a love did my heart touch, you are the one and only. H.Y." It was small script and difficult to read, but they had memorized those words. Neither knew anything more then that about who they really were…not even their names were real. They had been named by their neighbors along with their twin sons who were newborns at the time. That was 15 years ago. They had been a young couple estimated 16 at the time, now most probably in their 30's, they had adjusted to not having lived before the town they now lived in.
"What's on your mind dear?" Jane watched him examine the ring intently. His big blue eyes looked up in surprise.
"Nothing!" He said quickly, but she gave him a look and he sighed. "Do you think there is something wrong with Paulie?"
"Besides everyone calling him Paulie? Well, not really." She wondered what he was getting at.
"I mean Pete asks questions, all kinds of questions, and is into girls, like everyone else's boys at work. Paulie is so...He doesn't." John fumbled for the right way to put things.
"Paul is just not Peter. He is into individuality and he asks me things. Peter doesn't talk to me about anything. I guess it's just personality conflict. You do come off rather gruff and abrupt."
"So you don't think he is...um, well...uh, gay?" He turned pink at the mention of it.
"Who? Peter is, how to put this politely? Exploring his options? Paul isn't even friends with anyone but Tobeya and Retsuko and she isn't interested in him. He doesn't even have anyone he has a slight crush on." She said honestly. "He would tell me if he did."
"Peter?!"
"I've picked it up from a few pieces of conversations the boys have had over breakfast. Only once, I think, and that was months ago." She shrugged. "Pardon me, but I don't want to continue this conversation. You have to work early tomorrow, so we should get to sleep."
"Alright." He got up and started to change as she folded down the bed and took off her cloths. He flopped into bed in a T-shirt and boxers. She put on a slip and sat on the bed. She turned out the light and they were getting comfortable when a scream, several bellowed curse words, and a loud crash shattered the silence. They both groaned and went to find out what was going on.
The twins were having a battle in the hall. All of the pictures had been knocked off the walls and they were wallowing around in glass shards. Paul was straddling Peter and beating the snot out of him. Peter was trying to shield himself.
John pulled Paul off of his brother, noting the absence of most of his hair. He saw it on the floor in a braid along with a pair of scissors. He shoved that son into his room and told him to calm down, then Jane and he took Peter into his room for a talk.
"Talk now." John said in his ultimate father tone.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. He was taking to long in the bathroom messing with his hair, so I fixed it so he won't. It was a bad idea, I didn't think he'd go nuts. I can't believe he is so strong." He rubbed his bruised chest.
"Stay here." Jane told him in the mother voice that he had come to dread and fear. They went into Paul's room and found him sitting in front of his mirror glaring angrily. Jane got a brush and scissors and evened his mid shoulder blade hair off. "There, it looks fine."
"I know, but now we look the same. I don't mind it being cut, I was going to anyway, but I wasn't going to do it like that. He invaded my personal space, I got mad, I'm over it." He shrugged. He put his hair in a ponytail and pulled off his shirt. He had little cuts all over and Jane started going over him for glass. "How about punishment two?"
"Fine with me." She shrugged and John went to deliver sentence.
"Peter, you have all chores for two months." John told him. He looked like he had eaten a bug. "Now, let's get the glass out of you." After a half-hour of cleaning wounds they made it back to bed. John wrapped his arms around his wife and closed his eyes. About a million years later he gave into the urge to wiggle. "I can't sleep."
"What a surprise, it has only been three and a half minutes since we got in bed." Jane chuckled.
"I'm not tired." He declared and kissed her neck.
"And why should I care?" She asked sweetly before rolling over and finding his mouth in the dark.
***
Paul sat at the table doing his homework. He put down his pencil with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his thick brown hair, letting it fall back into his face. "Mom, I can't figure out this one."
Jane smiled at him as she put down the iron and came over to his side. "Alright, remember how we did the last liquid problem? You just replace that number with this one."
"Now, I feel smart." He crossed his very blue eyes and stuck out his tongue. His mother ruffled his hair before she went to the pile of laundry. He finished his work and shoved it in his backpack before he got up and wandered into the kitchen to find a snack. He grabbed three chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk back to the living room. He ate them quietly, then asked suddenly, "Where are Dad and Peter?"
"John is at the mill getting some lumber for the new table and your brother is on a date." She told him, sweeping a lock of hair back into a bun at the base of her neck. He nodded to her and gathered up his cup and went to put it in the sink.
The front door burst open and in came two military uniformed women with guns. The glass broke on the floor as Paul was shoved into the wall. "Don't move." He was told as the cold metal of the gun barrel was shoved into the small of his back. His shirt was ripped open down the back and his skin was searched roughly with one hand. "It isn't him."
"No, he is to young." The other woman replied. Jane was pulled from the ironing table and thrown to the floor. "Where is Hiro Yuy?" She was asked.
"I...I don't know anyone named that." She said softly, fear in her voice.
Her hair was jerked cruelly, "Do not lie to me. Our sources are never wrong. Where is he?"
She whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please, I don't know who you are talking about."
"Tiki leave the boy alone and come do what we came to do. It's her." The gun was withdrawn from Paul's back and she told him to sit on the floor and not to move. Then she walked over to his mother. "Give her the file and inject her." Tiki did as she was told. "Look at the file." The woman in charge ordered Jane.
Jane opened it and looked at the first page for a long time. "That can't be me...It can't." She looked up at her captors. Then she gave a sharp cry and collapsed.
"Mom!" Paul tried to go to her but a gun in his face stopped him. "What do you want?!?"
"Hiro Yuy." The woman said coolly.
"I don't know who you are talking about."
"Give him truth serum and ask him again. Take him into another room." Tiki was ordered.
"Yes sir." She grabbed Paul by the arm and pulled him into the family room, closing the door behind them. She injected him and backed away. After a minute of silence, she asked him, "Where is Hiro Yuy?"
"I don't know him."
She shrugged and leaned against the wall, keeping her weapon leveled at him. "Oh well, I don't care either way." He sat on the floor in front of the couch and stared at her for a long time. She had a pretty face with perfect features. He wondered what it would feel like to kiss her. He had never kissed anyone like that, only family kisses. He let his mind wander into more dangerous territory, but was brought back to disappointing reality when his brother was shoved through the door and almost landed on him.
Peter looked at him, then at Tiki, then burst into tears. "Please don't hurt me!" He scooted backwards until he was behind his brother. He looked like he didn't feel very well.
Tiki looked at them hard for a moment, then she finger printed them both. After looking at their prints and two files she pulled from a duffel bag. Finally she handed them each one of them. "Read these."
Paul opened it up and scanned its continence. It was a birth record of twin boys and their parents. He looked at the picture of the teenaged couple and the two tiny babies. They had blue eyes and brown hair, and he knew with out a doubt that they were his parents the teen boy could have been himself or his brother if their hair was shorter. "I don't understand. How can this be us?"
"They erased your parents memories and put them in a safe place so that when they were needed again. Now they are needed. The wars are great. Try to understand. If you do not, I will kill you." She said evenly. "What are you staring at?"
Paul, still under the influence of the truth drug, answered brashly. "You, you have nice legs. And I was thinking that you probably have nice soft..."
"Shut up!" She walked over and tried to smack him, he dodged it.
"You asked." He shrugged. Then he stood up and walked across the room.
"Are you going to do anything that will threaten me?" She asked.
"Nah." He shook his head.
He wandered over to her and pointed at a word in the file. "How do you say this?"
"Gah-ree-koo, Gariku." She said before she caught herself. "Go sit down."
"No thank you."
"Now!" She shoved his shoulder. He spun around and ended up siting on top of her, gun in hand. He proceeded to tie her up, gag her, and take her helmet and jacket. He pulled them on, thanking God that his tan pants matched hers. He put on her helmet and jacket before he opened the door and shot the woman who stood over his parents. The bullet should have hit her between the eyes, but it never hit her.
She laughed at him. "Oops, that one has blanks in it." Then she shot him in the arm, making him cry out, but he kept hold of the gun. "But this one has real bullets."
"Zola, don't kill him!" His mother begged.
"Don't worry Garrit, I just wanted to prove my point." She smiled at her. "Now sit down boy." To her surprise he ran towards her, catching her in the face with the butt of the gun. He snatched the firearm away and glared at her.
"Paulie, stop this now! We aren't in trouble." His father stood and held his hand out, "Give me the gun."
"I don't trust them, and I am not going to let them turn me into that profile. I'm going to leave. Anyone may join me, but if you try to stop me, I will shoot you. Nothing personal, but you aren't what I want to be." He bolted out the door with his twin. People were after them. He shot two in the legs and sent them into the snow, but there were too many and they took Peter down. He used the bullets to harm people until he was out, then swung the gun until he had half a dozen on the ground. They shot him three times before the fourth was successful and he was too hurt to escape. He was taken into a van with his brother and his parents. His mother looked like she was really screwed up and didn't know if she should cry or scream.
"Talk to me, stay with me." Someone said as they worked him over. They always said that on tv and he wondered if it was true that he would never wake-up if he went to sleep now. He closed his eyes and drifted off, deciding that if he awoke, they were full of bull.
***
Paul opened his eyes and sighed heavily, he had lived, those doctor shows were..."So full of dog mess their eyeballs are brown." Tiki's face appeared in his line of vision, curiosity in her eyes. "Your eyes are brown...Do you lie a lot?"
She put a hand on his forehead, "You've been out for nearly three days. Dr Tou will take a look at you and then the white coats are going to ask you some questions. Just co-operate and it will be over soon." She brushed her white blond hair back behind an ear. "I'll make sure your mother hears that you lived. Be well Yamassee Gariku Yuy." She bowed and left him alone in a small hospital room.
Soon a beautiful woman with short blond hair came in with a cheery smile. "Hi, I'm Dr. Tou. I'm just checking you over to make sure everything is healing up ok. Just relax, ok sweetie?" She babbled away as she set out her interments on a tray attached to the reclining chair to which he was strapped.
"Where is my brother?" He asked as she poked and prodded him.
"I don't have that information. I'm sorry Yamassee." She looked genuinely sorry for not being able to tell him. "I wish I had something to tell you, but I don't know anything about any of your family."
"What does it matter to you anyway?"
"I was friends and worked with your mother for years and I owe her my life. I delivered you and held you in my arms. I care, believe what you will, but I do care." There was a long pause and she picked up a chart and began to write on it. "I thought you all died. When they sent your family to earth...It was reported that the ship blew up. Duo- your father's closest friend- has very messed up and suicidal. I wonder how he's taking the news of Hiro's resurrection. They always said your father was indestructible. And I've seen Mad G walk away from death many times too. I guess they...I'm sorry, I've got a big mouth."
"Who is Mad G?"
"That's what we called your mother. Mad, cause she would do the craziest things like it was normal behavior and G for Garrit which is her first name. All of the members of the woman's team had nicknames. I don't think the guys did."
"What was yours?" He watched her zip through her notes on him.
"Sugar. I was hyper and ate to many sweets. But now I'm all grown up and no one calls me that anymore." She said twirling her pencil like a baton.
"Was? This is mellow?"
"Hahaha. Yes, I'm a lot calmer then I was back then. As for the nickname...It's been reduced to Sugs. Cute hum? Never mind, you're male. Men never understand such things." She teased, then tucked the pencil behind her ear. "You check out, now you have an appointment with the white coats. Then you are going to find out what you will do. BBFN!" She left in a bolt of energy.
"Who needs jolt cola when Sugs is around?" A very tall and skinny red headed man in a white coat entered upon her exit.
Another man, dressed similarly, but with half the height and a bit broader in the shoulders followed him in and secured the door. His hair was gray but he didn't look a day older then twenty-five. He set a suitcase on a table he pulled from the wall. He made Paul's chair sit up strait and hot, bright, and blinding lights were turned on him. A box of needles was opened and laid before him. "How many needles are in the box?" The red head asked.
Paul felt complete dislike and distrust for these men and defiance welled up in him. He could see there was over two dozen, but chose a preposterous number. "One."
They both turned to him and looked very interested. The silver haired man picked up a needle and showed Paul all three gleaming inches of it. Then he jammed it into Paul's pinky finger, starting at the tip up to the first knuckle. "Ok Yamassee, this is how the game goes: You give us a wrong answer and we put this needle in deeper, until all thirty of them are gone or you tell us the truth." The question was repeated and they waited for a response.
"Two?" He took the pain and turned it into his only reality. Pain was real and nothing else could be proven. And so he plaid their game until his hands were numb from the pain and his vision wavered. The last one was completely in his flesh and they asked again. "What needles?" He asked as innocently as he could between his teeth. A shock of pain wove through his body, an electric shock. He threw up bile and told them every atrocity he knew in Japanese. But he didn't tell them the one English word they wanted. They ripped them all free and left him there limp and shuddering in pain.
He must have fallen asleep because he awoke to someone opening the door. Dr. Tou came in with a bright smile, "Hi'ya!" Then she got a look at him and her face clouded over. "My God, what did they do to you baby? Let me get you out of there. I can't believe they did this to you. Just wait till I get my hands on them! I'll...I'll make them beg for mercy!" She unbuckled his wrists and ankles.
"No, then you would be just as bad as them. Leave it alone. I will be alright." He looked at his hands in silence. He wondered if he would ever be able to fully use them again.
"The damage is not permanent, but it will take a week before you will be able to use them at all. How much pain are you in on a scale from one to ten?" She took out a needle and a bottle of liquid.
"Ten would be unconscious, so nine I guess." She filled the syringes and tried to put it in him, but he shied away. "What is that?"
"Morphine. You will like it, trust me."
"I just don't want to become a druggie. You may give it to me." He finally relaxed and allowed her to put it in his arm. Pain was a distant memory in a few moments and he fell asleep.
Sugar retied him to the chair, cleaned his wounds, and left him to rest. Tiki came up to her, looking upset. "Mom and Dad haven't come home. I don't want to be by myself."
"All right sweetie, you can come to my place until they get back to base." She wrapped an arm around her and gave her a hug. She wondered how Trowa and Marala had such a sweet and emotional child. She had wanted to have children, but Quatre couldn't, so she just helped her friends raise their own. Tiki was her favorite.
She left the young man in the chair and she and Tiki went to eat. She brought him back some juice and when he was awake helped him drink it.
"Why are you in this creepy place? It's like a horror movie."
"Believe it or not, it was set up to free people from slavery and eventually we will be, but it takes sacrifices."
"I know you believe you are in the right, but I'm a slave here, I was free back home. I don't want to play this game." He sighed softly.
"I'm sorry. I don't think you can choose to leave. Your parents were the best fighters we had, they bred you to be better then them."
"What do you mean bred me?"
"You were an accident, and since accidents don't happen here, I assume they let you happen as a project."
"I believe you, that is I trust you and your judgement. Better then I trust my parents at least, not that that's saying much." He smiled sadly at her. "Maybe I'm just forming a trust with my captor like in a book I read."
There was a large screen in the wall across the room from him. It blinked into action. "Attention all personnel! The Plaitosa reign of earth was attacked at 0800 this morning. No survivors were found." It went black again and Paulie gave a stifled sob.
"They knew...The bastards knew..." Tears rolled down his face. He curled forward trying to relieve the pain in his chest.
"What are you talking about?" She looked at him in confusion.
"That is where we lived, they came and got us, but left those who weren't valuable to them! You all are God damned puppets! This whole thing is a lie. Has anyone ever even seen these enemy?" His sorrow for his lost friend was replaced with anger. "I refuse to be a guinea pig! I'll never say there are more then three needles in the box, I'll never use that damn name, I'll never accept this is my fate, and I'll never give into them!!!"
Dr. Tou tried to inject him with something to relax him, but he wiggled free of his restraints and bolted across the room. He managed to get the door open and fled the room. He evaded several people, before someone pinned him to the wall. His father looked down at him, face blank of emotion. "Let me go! Please Father, I want to go home!" Dr. Tou appeared with the needle in hand. "Please don't, I just want to go home..."
Hiro was holding the limp body, half in shock. He shoved the boy into another man's arms and stormed off darkly. Sugs drought back in fear as he passed her, his son's blood staining his chest and hands.
***
He awoke to his bladder very full. Tuo sat at a desk working. "I think I screwed up royal, didn't I? Now you won't trust me. Oh well. There is one problem though, I have to go to the bathroom."
She walked over and un-strapped him, and unbuttoned his pants. She pointed to a door hidden from his view when in the chair. He managed to go by himself, and pull back up his boxers, but re-zipping the jeans wasn't happening. He finally gave up and asked her to. She fastened his fly, then sent him back to his chair.
"I don't blame you for trying to escape. I understand that you were upset." She said softly, fastening his wrists.
"Upset? My whole life was just burned, I'm way beyond upset. I know you had nothing to do with it, but I hate this place."
"I got Quatre, that's my husband, to look into it. It wasn't destroyed like you think. The people had been evacuated and only the minimal amount of life was left and most of them were old or military. Your friends are alive. I'm not sure where they are, and it was a big risk finding that much out."
***
"Hiro? What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be in the gym?" Garrit flopped on the bed next to him. When he made no move to respond, she reached out and placed a hand on his back. "You ok?"
"I'm a monster..."
"Hiro, what are you talking about?"
"Remember when Peter was afraid of the dark? He thought monsters would get him." He spoke softly. "I...Said I would always protect them. I lied. I betrayed my own son!"
"No Hiro, you aren't hurting them. They will be fine. We'll have them back soon." She pulled him over onto his back to look into his eyes. Blood covered his shirt, arms, and hands. "Hiro?!"
"It was Paulie...He was running...And I...I..." He took in a ragged breath. Fear gripped Garrit…did he kill him? "I caught him, and even though he begged me I let them take him back. He was hurt badly. I didn't even try to help him. I betrayed him, I became the monster." A single tear worked its way down his face.
"No, you aren't a monster. He loves you, he understands." She kissed his forehead, "Let's get you cleaned up."
***
"Hiro...I can't, you know that." Dr. Tou's voice was upset. It woke Paul. "You could get us both in trouble."
"Look at it this way, I have a gun, you don't. I get my way and you can't be blamed. Now stand aside." Paul recognized his father's voice. He wanted to believe that his father had come to save him, but knew that it wasn't true. Dr Tou came in and sat at her desk. Hiro secured the door and approached Paul. "Leave."
"I'll go into the back room, please knock before you leave." She said politely. Then she left them alone.
"Paul...I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry for what I did. I tried to justify it with rules, but I can't. I betrayed you and I hate myself for it." He fell silent standing next to his son. "I hope that you might forgive me. If you can't I understand."
Paul watched his father struggle, he had never been very emotional. It made him pity the man. He understood why his father hadn't let him go, why he had let them take him. He might have been killed... "I do, I understand and I forgive you."
"Thank you." He brushed Paul's hair out of his face, smiling with parental love.
"Is Mom alright? Do you know anything about Peter?"
"Garrit is better then me. She is worried for you though, I can tell. Peter is coming to live with us in the next few days." Hiro told his son as he looked the boy over. "What have they done to you?"
"Besides five bullet wounds? Three needle test. I passed being the hardest headed boy in this place, be proud. The white coats hate my guts!" Paul smiled like he had won something grand.
Hiro looked at Paul's hands and went wide-eyed. "Thirty needles?! I think your mother isn't that tough." He made a funny chuckle that wasn't real.
"You should go, Dad." Paul looked at the clock on the wall. "I love you. Tell Mom I love her. Tell Peter he is a brat."
"I think I can handle that. I love you too." He gently patted his shoulder, before getting Sugs and leaving. When he was gone, she sat back at her desk.
"I need to go again." He said after a few minutes.
"Hum? Oh, bathroom, duh." She got up.
***
"Hiro, you didn't!"
"Yes, and I feel much better. He said to tell you he loves you." Hiro shrugged. "Why don't you ever say 'you', you always say Hiro? Are you still having problems with calling me by my name?"
"Yes, I called you John for sixteen years, Hiro for less then one. John is programmed in. I look at you and I think John. Sorry." Garrit sighed. "Is he ok?
"Paul...Yamassee...Our first born is alive and cracking jokes. He told me to tell his brother he is a brat, before I left. He is torn up though. Thirty needle wounds and five bullet wounds, but still himself."
"Thirty! All of them? My Lord, he is hard headed."
"I heard one of the white coats got nauseated. I find that terribly satisfying." Hiro smiled smugly. "I need to tell Sugs that. She's his care giver at present."
"I guess we should go to sleep. Seven will come early tomorrow." She yawned. They were already in their night cloths and in bed. She clicked out the light and snuggled next to him. "Good night."
"Night." He kissed her as he had every night that he could recall and went to sleep.
****"I didn't expect this to happen either. Isn't Paulie soo cute? He is my new plot by the way, incase you are just way blind. Let's find out what more I can think up in chapter three!" Azusa Wariko Maxwell****
****"I'm b-a-c-k. I still haven't seen Gundam Wing. Just enjoy the plot. If something bothers you way to much, tell me at highpowerhyperlets@yahoo.com. This chapter is kind of leaving you in confusion at first, but relax, I've got a plan!" AWM****
John laid on his back, stretched across the bed, with his head in his wife's lap as he gazed up at her sweet face. "Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky to have you."
Jane smiled at him and ran her fingers his hair tenderly. "I can't think of a better place to be, then with you." She said teasingly.
He caught her wrist, kissing the back of her hand. On her finger glimmered the wedding ring, their only link to their former lives. No other clue was found except the inscription: "If ever a love did my heart touch, you are the one and only. H.Y." It was small script and difficult to read, but they had memorized those words. Neither knew anything more then that about who they really were…not even their names were real. They had been named by their neighbors along with their twin sons who were newborns at the time. That was 15 years ago. They had been a young couple estimated 16 at the time, now most probably in their 30's, they had adjusted to not having lived before the town they now lived in.
"What's on your mind dear?" Jane watched him examine the ring intently. His big blue eyes looked up in surprise.
"Nothing!" He said quickly, but she gave him a look and he sighed. "Do you think there is something wrong with Paulie?"
"Besides everyone calling him Paulie? Well, not really." She wondered what he was getting at.
"I mean Pete asks questions, all kinds of questions, and is into girls, like everyone else's boys at work. Paulie is so...He doesn't." John fumbled for the right way to put things.
"Paul is just not Peter. He is into individuality and he asks me things. Peter doesn't talk to me about anything. I guess it's just personality conflict. You do come off rather gruff and abrupt."
"So you don't think he is...um, well...uh, gay?" He turned pink at the mention of it.
"Who? Peter is, how to put this politely? Exploring his options? Paul isn't even friends with anyone but Tobeya and Retsuko and she isn't interested in him. He doesn't even have anyone he has a slight crush on." She said honestly. "He would tell me if he did."
"Peter?!"
"I've picked it up from a few pieces of conversations the boys have had over breakfast. Only once, I think, and that was months ago." She shrugged. "Pardon me, but I don't want to continue this conversation. You have to work early tomorrow, so we should get to sleep."
"Alright." He got up and started to change as she folded down the bed and took off her cloths. He flopped into bed in a T-shirt and boxers. She put on a slip and sat on the bed. She turned out the light and they were getting comfortable when a scream, several bellowed curse words, and a loud crash shattered the silence. They both groaned and went to find out what was going on.
The twins were having a battle in the hall. All of the pictures had been knocked off the walls and they were wallowing around in glass shards. Paul was straddling Peter and beating the snot out of him. Peter was trying to shield himself.
John pulled Paul off of his brother, noting the absence of most of his hair. He saw it on the floor in a braid along with a pair of scissors. He shoved that son into his room and told him to calm down, then Jane and he took Peter into his room for a talk.
"Talk now." John said in his ultimate father tone.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. He was taking to long in the bathroom messing with his hair, so I fixed it so he won't. It was a bad idea, I didn't think he'd go nuts. I can't believe he is so strong." He rubbed his bruised chest.
"Stay here." Jane told him in the mother voice that he had come to dread and fear. They went into Paul's room and found him sitting in front of his mirror glaring angrily. Jane got a brush and scissors and evened his mid shoulder blade hair off. "There, it looks fine."
"I know, but now we look the same. I don't mind it being cut, I was going to anyway, but I wasn't going to do it like that. He invaded my personal space, I got mad, I'm over it." He shrugged. He put his hair in a ponytail and pulled off his shirt. He had little cuts all over and Jane started going over him for glass. "How about punishment two?"
"Fine with me." She shrugged and John went to deliver sentence.
"Peter, you have all chores for two months." John told him. He looked like he had eaten a bug. "Now, let's get the glass out of you." After a half-hour of cleaning wounds they made it back to bed. John wrapped his arms around his wife and closed his eyes. About a million years later he gave into the urge to wiggle. "I can't sleep."
"What a surprise, it has only been three and a half minutes since we got in bed." Jane chuckled.
"I'm not tired." He declared and kissed her neck.
"And why should I care?" She asked sweetly before rolling over and finding his mouth in the dark.
***
Paul sat at the table doing his homework. He put down his pencil with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his thick brown hair, letting it fall back into his face. "Mom, I can't figure out this one."
Jane smiled at him as she put down the iron and came over to his side. "Alright, remember how we did the last liquid problem? You just replace that number with this one."
"Now, I feel smart." He crossed his very blue eyes and stuck out his tongue. His mother ruffled his hair before she went to the pile of laundry. He finished his work and shoved it in his backpack before he got up and wandered into the kitchen to find a snack. He grabbed three chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk back to the living room. He ate them quietly, then asked suddenly, "Where are Dad and Peter?"
"John is at the mill getting some lumber for the new table and your brother is on a date." She told him, sweeping a lock of hair back into a bun at the base of her neck. He nodded to her and gathered up his cup and went to put it in the sink.
The front door burst open and in came two military uniformed women with guns. The glass broke on the floor as Paul was shoved into the wall. "Don't move." He was told as the cold metal of the gun barrel was shoved into the small of his back. His shirt was ripped open down the back and his skin was searched roughly with one hand. "It isn't him."
"No, he is to young." The other woman replied. Jane was pulled from the ironing table and thrown to the floor. "Where is Hiro Yuy?" She was asked.
"I...I don't know anyone named that." She said softly, fear in her voice.
Her hair was jerked cruelly, "Do not lie to me. Our sources are never wrong. Where is he?"
She whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please, I don't know who you are talking about."
"Tiki leave the boy alone and come do what we came to do. It's her." The gun was withdrawn from Paul's back and she told him to sit on the floor and not to move. Then she walked over to his mother. "Give her the file and inject her." Tiki did as she was told. "Look at the file." The woman in charge ordered Jane.
Jane opened it and looked at the first page for a long time. "That can't be me...It can't." She looked up at her captors. Then she gave a sharp cry and collapsed.
"Mom!" Paul tried to go to her but a gun in his face stopped him. "What do you want?!?"
"Hiro Yuy." The woman said coolly.
"I don't know who you are talking about."
"Give him truth serum and ask him again. Take him into another room." Tiki was ordered.
"Yes sir." She grabbed Paul by the arm and pulled him into the family room, closing the door behind them. She injected him and backed away. After a minute of silence, she asked him, "Where is Hiro Yuy?"
"I don't know him."
She shrugged and leaned against the wall, keeping her weapon leveled at him. "Oh well, I don't care either way." He sat on the floor in front of the couch and stared at her for a long time. She had a pretty face with perfect features. He wondered what it would feel like to kiss her. He had never kissed anyone like that, only family kisses. He let his mind wander into more dangerous territory, but was brought back to disappointing reality when his brother was shoved through the door and almost landed on him.
Peter looked at him, then at Tiki, then burst into tears. "Please don't hurt me!" He scooted backwards until he was behind his brother. He looked like he didn't feel very well.
Tiki looked at them hard for a moment, then she finger printed them both. After looking at their prints and two files she pulled from a duffel bag. Finally she handed them each one of them. "Read these."
Paul opened it up and scanned its continence. It was a birth record of twin boys and their parents. He looked at the picture of the teenaged couple and the two tiny babies. They had blue eyes and brown hair, and he knew with out a doubt that they were his parents the teen boy could have been himself or his brother if their hair was shorter. "I don't understand. How can this be us?"
"They erased your parents memories and put them in a safe place so that when they were needed again. Now they are needed. The wars are great. Try to understand. If you do not, I will kill you." She said evenly. "What are you staring at?"
Paul, still under the influence of the truth drug, answered brashly. "You, you have nice legs. And I was thinking that you probably have nice soft..."
"Shut up!" She walked over and tried to smack him, he dodged it.
"You asked." He shrugged. Then he stood up and walked across the room.
"Are you going to do anything that will threaten me?" She asked.
"Nah." He shook his head.
He wandered over to her and pointed at a word in the file. "How do you say this?"
"Gah-ree-koo, Gariku." She said before she caught herself. "Go sit down."
"No thank you."
"Now!" She shoved his shoulder. He spun around and ended up siting on top of her, gun in hand. He proceeded to tie her up, gag her, and take her helmet and jacket. He pulled them on, thanking God that his tan pants matched hers. He put on her helmet and jacket before he opened the door and shot the woman who stood over his parents. The bullet should have hit her between the eyes, but it never hit her.
She laughed at him. "Oops, that one has blanks in it." Then she shot him in the arm, making him cry out, but he kept hold of the gun. "But this one has real bullets."
"Zola, don't kill him!" His mother begged.
"Don't worry Garrit, I just wanted to prove my point." She smiled at her. "Now sit down boy." To her surprise he ran towards her, catching her in the face with the butt of the gun. He snatched the firearm away and glared at her.
"Paulie, stop this now! We aren't in trouble." His father stood and held his hand out, "Give me the gun."
"I don't trust them, and I am not going to let them turn me into that profile. I'm going to leave. Anyone may join me, but if you try to stop me, I will shoot you. Nothing personal, but you aren't what I want to be." He bolted out the door with his twin. People were after them. He shot two in the legs and sent them into the snow, but there were too many and they took Peter down. He used the bullets to harm people until he was out, then swung the gun until he had half a dozen on the ground. They shot him three times before the fourth was successful and he was too hurt to escape. He was taken into a van with his brother and his parents. His mother looked like she was really screwed up and didn't know if she should cry or scream.
"Talk to me, stay with me." Someone said as they worked him over. They always said that on tv and he wondered if it was true that he would never wake-up if he went to sleep now. He closed his eyes and drifted off, deciding that if he awoke, they were full of bull.
***
Paul opened his eyes and sighed heavily, he had lived, those doctor shows were..."So full of dog mess their eyeballs are brown." Tiki's face appeared in his line of vision, curiosity in her eyes. "Your eyes are brown...Do you lie a lot?"
She put a hand on his forehead, "You've been out for nearly three days. Dr Tou will take a look at you and then the white coats are going to ask you some questions. Just co-operate and it will be over soon." She brushed her white blond hair back behind an ear. "I'll make sure your mother hears that you lived. Be well Yamassee Gariku Yuy." She bowed and left him alone in a small hospital room.
Soon a beautiful woman with short blond hair came in with a cheery smile. "Hi, I'm Dr. Tou. I'm just checking you over to make sure everything is healing up ok. Just relax, ok sweetie?" She babbled away as she set out her interments on a tray attached to the reclining chair to which he was strapped.
"Where is my brother?" He asked as she poked and prodded him.
"I don't have that information. I'm sorry Yamassee." She looked genuinely sorry for not being able to tell him. "I wish I had something to tell you, but I don't know anything about any of your family."
"What does it matter to you anyway?"
"I was friends and worked with your mother for years and I owe her my life. I delivered you and held you in my arms. I care, believe what you will, but I do care." There was a long pause and she picked up a chart and began to write on it. "I thought you all died. When they sent your family to earth...It was reported that the ship blew up. Duo- your father's closest friend- has very messed up and suicidal. I wonder how he's taking the news of Hiro's resurrection. They always said your father was indestructible. And I've seen Mad G walk away from death many times too. I guess they...I'm sorry, I've got a big mouth."
"Who is Mad G?"
"That's what we called your mother. Mad, cause she would do the craziest things like it was normal behavior and G for Garrit which is her first name. All of the members of the woman's team had nicknames. I don't think the guys did."
"What was yours?" He watched her zip through her notes on him.
"Sugar. I was hyper and ate to many sweets. But now I'm all grown up and no one calls me that anymore." She said twirling her pencil like a baton.
"Was? This is mellow?"
"Hahaha. Yes, I'm a lot calmer then I was back then. As for the nickname...It's been reduced to Sugs. Cute hum? Never mind, you're male. Men never understand such things." She teased, then tucked the pencil behind her ear. "You check out, now you have an appointment with the white coats. Then you are going to find out what you will do. BBFN!" She left in a bolt of energy.
"Who needs jolt cola when Sugs is around?" A very tall and skinny red headed man in a white coat entered upon her exit.
Another man, dressed similarly, but with half the height and a bit broader in the shoulders followed him in and secured the door. His hair was gray but he didn't look a day older then twenty-five. He set a suitcase on a table he pulled from the wall. He made Paul's chair sit up strait and hot, bright, and blinding lights were turned on him. A box of needles was opened and laid before him. "How many needles are in the box?" The red head asked.
Paul felt complete dislike and distrust for these men and defiance welled up in him. He could see there was over two dozen, but chose a preposterous number. "One."
They both turned to him and looked very interested. The silver haired man picked up a needle and showed Paul all three gleaming inches of it. Then he jammed it into Paul's pinky finger, starting at the tip up to the first knuckle. "Ok Yamassee, this is how the game goes: You give us a wrong answer and we put this needle in deeper, until all thirty of them are gone or you tell us the truth." The question was repeated and they waited for a response.
"Two?" He took the pain and turned it into his only reality. Pain was real and nothing else could be proven. And so he plaid their game until his hands were numb from the pain and his vision wavered. The last one was completely in his flesh and they asked again. "What needles?" He asked as innocently as he could between his teeth. A shock of pain wove through his body, an electric shock. He threw up bile and told them every atrocity he knew in Japanese. But he didn't tell them the one English word they wanted. They ripped them all free and left him there limp and shuddering in pain.
He must have fallen asleep because he awoke to someone opening the door. Dr. Tou came in with a bright smile, "Hi'ya!" Then she got a look at him and her face clouded over. "My God, what did they do to you baby? Let me get you out of there. I can't believe they did this to you. Just wait till I get my hands on them! I'll...I'll make them beg for mercy!" She unbuckled his wrists and ankles.
"No, then you would be just as bad as them. Leave it alone. I will be alright." He looked at his hands in silence. He wondered if he would ever be able to fully use them again.
"The damage is not permanent, but it will take a week before you will be able to use them at all. How much pain are you in on a scale from one to ten?" She took out a needle and a bottle of liquid.
"Ten would be unconscious, so nine I guess." She filled the syringes and tried to put it in him, but he shied away. "What is that?"
"Morphine. You will like it, trust me."
"I just don't want to become a druggie. You may give it to me." He finally relaxed and allowed her to put it in his arm. Pain was a distant memory in a few moments and he fell asleep.
Sugar retied him to the chair, cleaned his wounds, and left him to rest. Tiki came up to her, looking upset. "Mom and Dad haven't come home. I don't want to be by myself."
"All right sweetie, you can come to my place until they get back to base." She wrapped an arm around her and gave her a hug. She wondered how Trowa and Marala had such a sweet and emotional child. She had wanted to have children, but Quatre couldn't, so she just helped her friends raise their own. Tiki was her favorite.
She left the young man in the chair and she and Tiki went to eat. She brought him back some juice and when he was awake helped him drink it.
"Why are you in this creepy place? It's like a horror movie."
"Believe it or not, it was set up to free people from slavery and eventually we will be, but it takes sacrifices."
"I know you believe you are in the right, but I'm a slave here, I was free back home. I don't want to play this game." He sighed softly.
"I'm sorry. I don't think you can choose to leave. Your parents were the best fighters we had, they bred you to be better then them."
"What do you mean bred me?"
"You were an accident, and since accidents don't happen here, I assume they let you happen as a project."
"I believe you, that is I trust you and your judgement. Better then I trust my parents at least, not that that's saying much." He smiled sadly at her. "Maybe I'm just forming a trust with my captor like in a book I read."
There was a large screen in the wall across the room from him. It blinked into action. "Attention all personnel! The Plaitosa reign of earth was attacked at 0800 this morning. No survivors were found." It went black again and Paulie gave a stifled sob.
"They knew...The bastards knew..." Tears rolled down his face. He curled forward trying to relieve the pain in his chest.
"What are you talking about?" She looked at him in confusion.
"That is where we lived, they came and got us, but left those who weren't valuable to them! You all are God damned puppets! This whole thing is a lie. Has anyone ever even seen these enemy?" His sorrow for his lost friend was replaced with anger. "I refuse to be a guinea pig! I'll never say there are more then three needles in the box, I'll never use that damn name, I'll never accept this is my fate, and I'll never give into them!!!"
Dr. Tou tried to inject him with something to relax him, but he wiggled free of his restraints and bolted across the room. He managed to get the door open and fled the room. He evaded several people, before someone pinned him to the wall. His father looked down at him, face blank of emotion. "Let me go! Please Father, I want to go home!" Dr. Tou appeared with the needle in hand. "Please don't, I just want to go home..."
Hiro was holding the limp body, half in shock. He shoved the boy into another man's arms and stormed off darkly. Sugs drought back in fear as he passed her, his son's blood staining his chest and hands.
***
He awoke to his bladder very full. Tuo sat at a desk working. "I think I screwed up royal, didn't I? Now you won't trust me. Oh well. There is one problem though, I have to go to the bathroom."
She walked over and un-strapped him, and unbuttoned his pants. She pointed to a door hidden from his view when in the chair. He managed to go by himself, and pull back up his boxers, but re-zipping the jeans wasn't happening. He finally gave up and asked her to. She fastened his fly, then sent him back to his chair.
"I don't blame you for trying to escape. I understand that you were upset." She said softly, fastening his wrists.
"Upset? My whole life was just burned, I'm way beyond upset. I know you had nothing to do with it, but I hate this place."
"I got Quatre, that's my husband, to look into it. It wasn't destroyed like you think. The people had been evacuated and only the minimal amount of life was left and most of them were old or military. Your friends are alive. I'm not sure where they are, and it was a big risk finding that much out."
***
"Hiro? What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be in the gym?" Garrit flopped on the bed next to him. When he made no move to respond, she reached out and placed a hand on his back. "You ok?"
"I'm a monster..."
"Hiro, what are you talking about?"
"Remember when Peter was afraid of the dark? He thought monsters would get him." He spoke softly. "I...Said I would always protect them. I lied. I betrayed my own son!"
"No Hiro, you aren't hurting them. They will be fine. We'll have them back soon." She pulled him over onto his back to look into his eyes. Blood covered his shirt, arms, and hands. "Hiro?!"
"It was Paulie...He was running...And I...I..." He took in a ragged breath. Fear gripped Garrit…did he kill him? "I caught him, and even though he begged me I let them take him back. He was hurt badly. I didn't even try to help him. I betrayed him, I became the monster." A single tear worked its way down his face.
"No, you aren't a monster. He loves you, he understands." She kissed his forehead, "Let's get you cleaned up."
***
"Hiro...I can't, you know that." Dr. Tou's voice was upset. It woke Paul. "You could get us both in trouble."
"Look at it this way, I have a gun, you don't. I get my way and you can't be blamed. Now stand aside." Paul recognized his father's voice. He wanted to believe that his father had come to save him, but knew that it wasn't true. Dr Tou came in and sat at her desk. Hiro secured the door and approached Paul. "Leave."
"I'll go into the back room, please knock before you leave." She said politely. Then she left them alone.
"Paul...I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry for what I did. I tried to justify it with rules, but I can't. I betrayed you and I hate myself for it." He fell silent standing next to his son. "I hope that you might forgive me. If you can't I understand."
Paul watched his father struggle, he had never been very emotional. It made him pity the man. He understood why his father hadn't let him go, why he had let them take him. He might have been killed... "I do, I understand and I forgive you."
"Thank you." He brushed Paul's hair out of his face, smiling with parental love.
"Is Mom alright? Do you know anything about Peter?"
"Garrit is better then me. She is worried for you though, I can tell. Peter is coming to live with us in the next few days." Hiro told his son as he looked the boy over. "What have they done to you?"
"Besides five bullet wounds? Three needle test. I passed being the hardest headed boy in this place, be proud. The white coats hate my guts!" Paul smiled like he had won something grand.
Hiro looked at Paul's hands and went wide-eyed. "Thirty needles?! I think your mother isn't that tough." He made a funny chuckle that wasn't real.
"You should go, Dad." Paul looked at the clock on the wall. "I love you. Tell Mom I love her. Tell Peter he is a brat."
"I think I can handle that. I love you too." He gently patted his shoulder, before getting Sugs and leaving. When he was gone, she sat back at her desk.
"I need to go again." He said after a few minutes.
"Hum? Oh, bathroom, duh." She got up.
***
"Hiro, you didn't!"
"Yes, and I feel much better. He said to tell you he loves you." Hiro shrugged. "Why don't you ever say 'you', you always say Hiro? Are you still having problems with calling me by my name?"
"Yes, I called you John for sixteen years, Hiro for less then one. John is programmed in. I look at you and I think John. Sorry." Garrit sighed. "Is he ok?
"Paul...Yamassee...Our first born is alive and cracking jokes. He told me to tell his brother he is a brat, before I left. He is torn up though. Thirty needle wounds and five bullet wounds, but still himself."
"Thirty! All of them? My Lord, he is hard headed."
"I heard one of the white coats got nauseated. I find that terribly satisfying." Hiro smiled smugly. "I need to tell Sugs that. She's his care giver at present."
"I guess we should go to sleep. Seven will come early tomorrow." She yawned. They were already in their night cloths and in bed. She clicked out the light and snuggled next to him. "Good night."
"Night." He kissed her as he had every night that he could recall and went to sleep.
****"I didn't expect this to happen either. Isn't Paulie soo cute? He is my new plot by the way, incase you are just way blind. Let's find out what more I can think up in chapter three!" Azusa Wariko Maxwell****