Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or any of the characters, machines, etc (sadly). C&C is always nice!
Genesis Gundam
Chapter Three
"Catherine! Trowa!" The siblings turned at the call of the manager. He sprinted over to them, and ran his hands together nervously.
"What's up?" Catherine asked.
"It's about the 8:45 show."
"That's not for another eight hours," Trowa noted.
"I know that! But here's the thing. Annie and Aaron have to leave right after the 6:30."
"The Ace Highs are out? What for?"
"Annie's sister is having a baby. Aaron said he would drive her there, since it will beat taking the bus across the entire colony."
"So we're going to be one act short for the rest of the night?" Trowa asked.
"Maybe not. You two have some experience on the high wire, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Catherine said, suspicious.
"Well, I was thinking-" the manager started
"We are not going to do their act and then ours," Trowa told him.
"Oh, you two have me all wrong! I wasn't suggesting you do that!" They both looked at him, surprised. "I was going to ask if you could do your act on the high wire, and make it last a little longer." Trowa closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Absolutely not," he said, crossing her arms.
"Why not?" the man pleaded.
"It's hard enough on the ground, without having to worry about falling with knives coming after me."
"I'll pay you both double."
"Triple," Catherine corrected.
"What?!" her brother and the manager said in unison. She shrugged.
"Pay us triple," she repeated. "Plus double on the next show, and we'll do it."
"That's robbery!" the manager exclaimed.
"No cash, no act. It's our lives, you know. You don't like it, you go up and try it," Catherine said calmly.
"…Fine! Triple on this show, and double on the next. But your show had better be fan-freaking-tastic, or else!" He shook hands with Catherine then left. Trowa stared at his sister for a few seconds.
"I know what you're thinking," she said. "You think I'm crazy."
"Am I that transparent?" She smiled and poked his forehead.
"Yes, but it's okay. I would think that about me too."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because the money is good, and we can do it."
"Catherine, I don't know about this." She rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Neither do I! Neither will the audience! But that's what makes it fun! It's a circus, bro. Let's live a little!" He relaxed as some of her confidence spilled over into him. He wished they didn't she didn't have the ability to cloud his better judgement; it was going to get them into trouble one of these days.
"…Fine."
"Great! We only have from now until 8:45 tonight. We should start practicing."
"If we want to live, yes." Catherine grinned at him, and Trowa allowed himself a small smile.
***
Duo's fingers flew over the keys on the computer. He'd been working on breaking the code on this one file ever since Heero had stabilized. Relena had been true to her word yesterday; she'd had Heero rushed into the infirmary of the palace. They'd dug the bullet out, filled him up, and sewn him up, all in a matter of hours. The princess had spared no expense on doctors. Still, Duo had taken great pains to avoid her ever since then. He couldn't stand being around her for any reason. It made him physically ill.
He refrained from cursing aloud as yet another attempt failed. It was a standard sixteen-digit code. The problem was that there was no pattern that he could see. The American sighed; he was good with technology, but Heero was better. So he was stuck trying random sequences until one worked.
"At this rate, I'll crack the code by the turn of the century," he muttered unhappily.
"You! There you are!" Duo sighed, and looked over his shoulder to find Relena approaching him. "Where have you been?"
"Here for the better part of a twenty-four hour stretch. Why?"
"Don't you even care that Heero could die?" she hissed.
"He's stable now. I'm sure he'll be fine. I mean, he's been through worse, sister."
"Oh, like the time you shot him twice? It's no small wonder you're not concerned." Duo narrowed his eyes at her.
"If I wasn't concerned, I don't think I would have brought him here." He turned his eyes back to the computer screen. Relena huffed behind him.
"Honestly, Duo. Some things are more important than computer games."
"Wow, I'm impressed you remember my name. And this ain't no computer game, babe."
"Would you stop that?" she demanded.
"Stop what?"
"Calling me belittling nicknames, like sister or babe."
"…I don't mean anything by it." That wasn't entirely true, but he didn't feel like hearing it right now.
"I don't care what you mean by it. Stop it."
"Okay, okay. Gotcha. No more nicknames." He ignored her for a moment, tried another code.
"What exactly are you doing?" she asked at last. Duo grinned.
"Not much, just my usual idiot work," he said. She blinked.
"What?"
"You heard me. Idiot work. That's what you think I am, isn't it?"
"I never said that!"
"You didn't have to. I can tell by the way that you talk to me, the way that you look down your nose at me. Heero's little braided tagalong buddy who brings him in when he loses too much blood, ne? You think I'm a certifiable, Grade-A moron. Don't lie."
"I wasn't lying about anything," Relena argued. He raised an eyebrow at her, absently typing in the next sequence.
"Oh, so you do think that about me! I knew it!" he exclaimed. She growled something unintelligible, then stormed off. As soon as she was out of hearing range, Duo started to laugh. "Pissing her off is so fun and easy they oughta make it illegal!" The screen in front of him went green, and Duo blinked. The last code had worked! "Well, this must be my lucky day!" He started to read the document, eager to know what needed to be kept hidden so well.
***
"Where's Une?" Sally asked. "I thought she was going into town with us."
"She's staying in her hotel room. Something about cramps in her stomach," Noin said, noncommittal.
"That time of the month?" the doctor laughed. Noin smiled.
"Probably. I didn't ask. I don't want to know."
"My, that's so considerate of you."
"Hey, don't get me wrong! Une isn't that bad…from a distance." Sally gave her a look. "It's hard to become close friends with someone that smacked you across your jaw, Sally."
"Une's not that bad."
"I didn't say she was. Look, I don't dislike her. And I understand what she's going through with losing Treize. But there's always going to be some…tension between us."
"Aa. I see what you're saying." They walked out of the hotel, looked left, then right.
"I still don't even know why I'm going out."
"Because you need some fresh air, that's why. Doctor's orders!"
"Oh, sure! Pull rank why don't you."
"I am, and we're going. Let's go left."
"No you don't! With my luck we'll go left and run into Wufei. He's probably still in town, and I don't feel like dealing with him. So we're going right." Sally shrugged, and they started walking.
"…Hey! What makes you think going my way is going to lead us to Wufei?" she asked.
"Dunno. He just seems to show up more when you're around. Well, seeing him again is the last thing on my list. So we'll go my way."
"Aw, come on. Yes, Wufei can be an asshole. But inside," she tapped her chest. "He's a good kid. You two have just had a few bad encounters. Give him a chance. Maybe you'll get to know one another, and then you'll see he's not as bad as he likes to act."
"I don't have the time or the interest to get to know Wufei. You, on the other hand, seem more than interested…"
"Don't start with me. Just because I defended him does not mean anything of that sort."
"Sally, I think you're jumping to conclusions here. I wasn't saying anything like that! I would never!"
"Good."
"Mrs. Chang," Noin coughed. Sally glared at her.
"I should kill you."
"But you won't."
"And what's stopping me?"
"Two things," Noin told her. "One, you're too nice, and it goes against your whole helpful doctor mentality. Two," she smiled. "If I die, you're left alone to deal with Une and her cramps."
"…All right, Noin. You win this round. But as soon as the time is right, you'd better watch your back!"
"Oh, I'll be sure to. Now, where do you want to go first?"
***
"Thanks for covering for us," Annie said as she helped clean up after the spectators from the 6:30 had all left. Catherine waved her off.
"Don't worry about it. You're doing us more of a favor than you realize." Annie raised an eyebrow.
"How much is he paying you? Double?"
"Triple. Plus double on the next show," Catherine said. Annie whistled.
"Hot damn. Maybe we should ask for a raise," Aaron said.
"If you can do the knife throwing act on a high wire, then be my guest. I'm sure the manager would give it to you." The other performers laughed.
"No, we'll leave the knife throwing to you and Trowa!" Aaron told her.
"Suit yourself," Catherine shrugged. "You're missing out on a great deal!"
"Heh, I'm sure." Annie checked her watch. "Whoa, look at the time! We'd better get a move on if we want to be there in time to see the baby."
"Just a sec. Are you two sure you're going to be all right up there? It can get kinda shaky if you don't do it all the time. Plus with the knives…"
"I think we can manage," Trowa said. The other two nodded.
"Right. Good luck you two!" Aaron said as they left.
"And thanks again!" Annie called.
"I still don't believe I let you talk me into this," Trowa sighed once the other two were gone.
"Oh please! Give me a break, bro! We've practiced a million times since this afternoon!"
"We only practiced twenty-five times. And that's because I said ten wasn't enough."
"You worry too much, Trowa. Now help me get everything set up," she said, climbing up the ladder to the high wire. Her brother sighed a second time, then climbed up after her.
***
"Wow, this sure is a lot of data. I hope the computer can translate it all," Duo said as numbers ran across the screen. The file he had was decoding itself now, and it was taking quite a while.
He heard a cough from the doorway, turned to look, and jumped in his chair.
"What the-…what are you doing here?!"
"The infirmary was easy to get out of, if that's what you mean," Heero responded, walking slowly towards his partner. Duo got up and pulled a chair closer for Heero to sit. The Japanese boy did so, gingerly.
"Shouldn't you still be in bed?" Duo asked.
"If I could walk all the way here, I don't need to be in bed. What are you doing?"
"Oh, uh, checking over the files we took from the last base. I could've used your help on this one. Took me forever to crack the code."
"Did you crack it, or use random numbers until you got it by luck?"
"…You take the sense of pride out of everything," Duo mumbled.
"So, what was it?"
"Not sure yet. The file is decoding itself now. But from what I can tell, it looks like a document."
"Hn. This is taking too long." Heero reached over, and pressed a few keys. The decoding speed doubled.
"…You also like to show off."
"Shut up. It's finished now." The screen blinked once, then the document loaded.
"Hmm, the images wouldn't load, huh? I guess we'll have to do without them. At least this thing is divided into sections."
"We'll start with the summary." Heero scrolled to the top of the document, and started reading. "Project #3243752126-9A. Authorization has been given by our backers to carry on with our process. Two of the subjects we used were taken three years before the other eight. So far we have seen no adverse effect due to this. Using numerous methods of gene therapy (see section 6 of this document for specifics) we were able to 'remake' our test subjects as we saw fit. The subjects were paired off accordingly.
"The aim of the project was to create the perfect fighting machine. This was thought to have been accomplished about a year ago, with the creation of the five mobile suits-"
"Hold on!" Duo said. "Do they mean ours?"
"I don't think so. This is an OZ document. So it must mean something else."
"Like what?"
"Let me read, and we'll find out." Duo was quiet once again. "However, the pilot of each mobile suit was slowly driven insane by our program. It was believed at one time that the program inside the mobile suits was too much stress on a human brain. This is not true. What was happening was that over the course of time, the human brain started to, for lack of a better word, meld with the CPU of the mobile suit. Pilots grew into the suits, and vice versa. While the pilots became colder and detached from other people, the computers of the mobile suits grew 'emotions'. Rather than simply calculating tactics for battles, they would come up with ways to keep their pilots safe. This was a failure, and the CPUs had to be replaced. When the pilots were given new suits, they were alone, and unable to reattach. Needless to say, being robbed of the closest thing to them drove many of our pilots insane.
"It was then that we came up with a proposal. If the pilot already had something as close to them as the mobile suits became, then they would not have the ability to attach to the CPU. The problem was, what to attach the pilots to? The answer was another pilot.
"Modifications were made to the mobile suits, allowing them to have two pilots each. This is where our test subjects come in. By reconstructing their DNA, we have made it so that each one is the opposite of their counterpart, or 'Other', as we have deemed them. Thusly, they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Because of this compatibility, there is no need to look for further companionship. So there should be no attachment to the CPU of the mobile suit. This concludes the summary. Please read on for the full extent of the experiment."
"What is this? Some kind of a joke?" Duo asked. "This is ridiculous! And if these people exist, then why didn't we ever seen them in the war?"
"This is only a summary of the aim of the experiment. There's a lot more to it," Heero reminded him. The American snorted.
"Yeah, yeah. And let me guess, the suits all fit together to make one really huge ultra fighting robot with a big sword!"
"…What?"
"Never mind." He rose from his chair and stretched. "I can't believe I spent so much time on this. What a gyp."
"Think about it. If the coding was that heavy on it, there has to be some truth to it."
"Whatever, Heero. Look, you've had some rest. Why don't you read through it. I'm going to get some sleep!" He saluted his partner, then left the room and jogged upstairs.
"Baka," Heero said under his breath, turning his attention back to the document. He opened up to the next section, and started reading.
***
'Is not!' Quatre argued. At least this 'exercise' beat the other one. Dorothy decided that she would never get used to it. Rolling her eyes, she opened the closet door, and was not surprised when he stepped out.
"How did you know?" he asked, disappointed.
"I heard you, even if you weren't speaking. How could I not?"
"Oh right! I forgot about that!"
"Plus, it's not like you can crouch behind anything with that stomach."
"I get it, I get it. Well, it's your turn to-"
"I don't think I'll be hiding anymore." He sighed.
"Okay. I guess we could eat lunch, then."
"I'm not hungry."
"Yes you are. You're almost as hungry as I am." Dorothy frowned at him. He was right, though she couldn't be sure whether or not her hunger was merely a reflection of his own. "See? Come on. It feels weird when you're not around, anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded as they started walking.
"I don't know. But it's true." Again, he was right.
"I'm never going to get out of here," she muttered. As much as she hated it, being around this soft little boy felt good. Or at least right.
"Is it that bad?" he asked. "Being around me, I mean."
"It's not," she admitted. "I'm just trying to make sense of it. I mean, you're basically the anti-me."
"No I'm not." She stared him down. "Yes I am."
"Exactly. So why have I been here for three days now? Why the connection? Why is it that when I do this--" she touched his shoulder "--we get a glow and the connection thing gets stronger?"
"I don't know."
"I wasn't asking you!" Dorothy snapped. He wore a puzzled and hurt look, which made her feel guilty. Guilt!? That never used to be a problem! "Let's just go eat," she sighed. "Maybe I'll feel better after that." He nodded and followed her, uneasy.
***
Trowa stood on his platform, waiting for the ringmaster to announce him. Behind him, Catherine fiddled with her knives.
"One slip up, and this could go right through someone's head."
"If you're trying to reassure me, it's really working," he said.
"Just making sure you stay on your toes, little brother."
"Right, sure." He heard his name, and then the spotlight was on him. Trowa raised both of his arms, and leapt from the platform. He did a front handspring, rounded off, did a back handspring, rounded off again, and ended with his triple axle flip. The boy landed gracefully right in front of the target board that hung above the high wire. The crowd roared.
"Show off," Catherine mouthed. She stepped onto the high wire, and a second spotlight was turned on. Trowa hoisted himself onto the target board, and felt the clamps tighten on him. The action was computerized for this, because there was no one else in the show the manager trusted enough to be up there.
Catherine walked on her hands back and forth for a moment, to the crowd's delight.
'Now who's showing off?' She got back to her feet and struck a dramatic pose, wielding seven knives in each hand.
"And now," the ringmaster said, "Catherine takes aim, preparing to throw knives so sharp that they could split a hair at her own brother!" The typical 'Ooo' and 'Ahh' echoed throughout the circus tent. The first knife flew in Trowa's direction. It hit the board just to the right of his chest. She held two knives this time, and they smacked the board on either side of his head. People clapped and cheered.
'Wonder what they would do if I missed.'
'I really don't want to find out.'
"Do you want more?" the ringmaster demanded. Another deafening scream. Catherine rolled her eyes, and jumped into the air. She landed in a front split, and threw a knife near Trowa's crotch. Whistles, 'Whoa!' and 'That was too close!' from the audience. His sister got back to her feet and tossed a knife to herself carelessly.
"Do you think that would work on my husband?" some woman shouted. Everyone laughed at the joke, even Trowa. This was how he liked the circus. The crowd was participating, the performers were having a great time. When everyone was together under that tent, like a family.
It all happened so fast. Catherine was preparing to throw her next knife. At first he thought he had only imagined the bullets that cut through her. She looked shocked herself. Though she never said a word, he could hear her cry out in his mind as shots continued to riddle her body.
Before he was fully aware of the situation, there was the pain. The searing pain in his stomach, chest, and neck, threatening to make him swell up and explode. The scream of the panicking people, the sound of the animals, frightening as well, everything became secondary to what should have been killing him. But it wasn't.
Trowa shuddered and convulsed violently. Unlike his sister, his lungs were whole, allowing him to scream.
Catherine's body went limp, and she slipped from the high wire, falling and landing gently on the net below. She was still, and from where he was, looked peaceful. The hurt in his body told him otherwise.
The stress was too much; Trowa stopped moving. He wasn't breathing, his heart wasn't beating. His brain went dead.
Just like Catherine.