Disclaimer: Man, shouldn't they be mine yet? Ah well, guess not… Don't own 'em and I bet I never will.
AN: Look! Explanations! Kind of… Okay, and just to let you know… I cheated. I know I cheated. But I'm the author and I can do that, right? And just so you don't get confuzzled here…. the first section is… well, I don't think it's from any one person's point of view, per se. It just… well, it just kind of *is*. But I had to do it that way… really! Anyway, right after this first section it switches back to Alison's POV, as it should be, and I promise I'll leave it like that for the rest of the story. No more cheating. Really!
Walking The Dividing Line
Part 11
She sat cross-legged on the floor, although the room held both a chair and a bed. Her arms were crossed and her eyes glittered angrily as she stared up at the boy who stood before her, his face set and expressionless, blue eyes fixed on her lean form.
She'd been in here a week, was her guess, and this was the first time someone had come in to ask her questions. Food had been shoved in the door every day, but that had been it since she'd gotten here. She wondered what had piqued their interest now.
"What the hell were you doing with him?" The boy's voice was gruff and his demeanor straightforward as she stared up at him, mouth tight, daring him to make her speak.
Heero Yuy. She knew who he was – she knew about all the Gundam pilots and their histories. She'd read all the documentation. She'd even managed to steal one, all for her very own.
Heero glared down at her, his expression unchanged by her refusal to answer. "I will ask you again," he said slowly. "What were you doing with him?"
Giniko sighed. Well, she might as well tell him anyway, she mused. It wasn't like OZ was going to come and take care of this – she was on her own. She had been since she'd taken the Deathscythe, now fit with her own rigged-up version of the machine used to extract the information from Alison's mind before.
No. She'd been on her own long before that.
Besides. She was proud of what she had done. Why *shouldn't* she tell him? What was he going to do? Kill her? It wasn't like she really cared – she knew that her life could be thrown away just as easily as anyone else's. All she cared about was getting her due. And how would that happen if no one knew the depths of her scheme? No, she would tell him just what she had been doing with Duo Maxwell.
"Weeeell," she sighed, "I wanted him. I like him. He's pretty."
Heero looked down at her, his eyes just barely flashing with well-hidden confusion.
"I wanted him," Giniko repeated. "So I took him."
On the inside, Heero was incredulous – what the hell was this girl talking about? He knew she was affiliated with OZ – she was even wearing the uniform of a high-ranking lieutenant. But for her to claim that she had simply taken Duo because… because he was "pretty"…
He had noticed, however, that she didn't seem to be completely mentally stable. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why. He had been the one to apprehend her and bring her back here; she had screamed about Duo and Deathscythe the whole way back. "Her" Duo and "her" Deathscythe.
Well, then, if he wasn't going to get a good reason for Duo's abduction out of her, perhaps he could at least get a clue as to what she'd done to him while he'd been her captive.
*That* was what didn't compute. Heero agreed that something was indeed wrong with Duo – Wufei had had to shoot him in order to bring him back here, and Quatre had agitatedly explained more than once that it was Duo who had been inflicting Alison's wounds.
Heero still didn't know what to think about Alison – other than the fact that he still didn't really trust her – but he knew what Duo thought about her. The loudmouthed baka had made that clear often enough before up and leaving on his own in an obviously failed attempt to rescue her. Heero knew that causing the kind of damage he'd seen on Alison was the last thing the Duo Maxwell he knew would have done.
And there was the hard evidence at hand as well – ever since he'd been brought back, Duo had needed to be tied down and locked in his room. Trowa was keeping guard over him at this very moment. The Duo they'd recovered was sadistic, cold, and believed they were all his enemies. He would wake up screaming for this girl – Giniko – and had threatened Trowa and Wufei to no end during their watches. Sally had examined him and said that it was some type of drug-induced personality change, that the part of his brain that controlled *who* he was had been affected.
She said she believed it was temporary, and hoped that it would wear off given time.
His bouts had, thankfully, been getting shorter and more intermittent, and less violent when they did come. Perhaps that was a good sign.
"Then what did you do to him?" Heero asked bluntly.
Her brown eyes sparkled up at him, and he could see the pride in her face as she opened her mouth to speak.
"What did I do to him? Oh, nothing much, really," she said, her voice low and he could hear the pride in her words as well. "He just wasn't being cooperative. He was too hung up on that pathetic waste of a girl – on his *Alison*." She spat the name out like it was filth on her tongue.
Ah. So this was all connected somehow. And that was obviously a sore spot.
"So I just fixed that, made him more agreeable. I *do* so like him better this way, don't you?" she asked lightly, looking up at Heero.
Heero glared down at her, and wondered again what the hell was wrong with this girl.
There was a knock on the door, interrupting his thoughts and he strode over, opening it a crack as the girl sat on the floor, motionless, and watched him.
It was Wufei; Heero looked at the Chinese pilot through narrowed eyes, wondering what he wanted.
"What is it?"
"I want to speak with her," Wufei said calmly. "I believe we would be more productive if we implemented various methods of interrogation. Besides," the Shenlong pilot smirked just a bit, "it doesn't seem like you were getting all that much out of her."
"Hn," Heero replied, but he had to admit that perhaps Wufei was right. He stepped aside to allow him passage, and then closed the door, leaning on it, arms crossed as he watched Wufei stand before the girl.
"What do you know about the traitor?"
Giniko blinked up at Wufei, and an icy smile spread across her face. "Oh, that's right, she's a traitor to you as well, isn't she?"
"What do you know about her?" Wufei's voice was firm and his tone made it clear that he didn't intend to play around.
"I know a lot about her," Giniko said smugly, her eyes flashing again and her icy smile remaining. "I know more about her than she knew about herself, the poor little thing," she commented, sarcasm dripping from her voice like syrup.
Wufei's eyes narrowed as he stared down at their insolent captive. "*What* do you know?" he repeated. He wanted answers about Alison, and he wanted them now. He wanted to know what the hell was so important about this girl, why OZ had wanted her back. And more than that, why Quatre would *make* him carry her out of there when the only logical thing – the only just thing – to do would have been to let the traitor bleed to death. He didn't understand – he needed this prisoner to tell him why he should have had to swallow his pride and save that damned girl's life.
"Oh, I know that she was confused. I know that she couldn't remember a thing about her loyalties – I know that the only thing she *did* know was that her beloved Duo-chan had betrayed her," Giniko said, that same smug undertone still coloring her words. "I made sure she remembered that."
"So you wiped her memory," Heero observed, pushing away from the door to walk over and stand beside Wufei."
"I was doing her a favor," Giniko spat. "She was so weak – too weak to remember with whom her loyalties laid. She was pathetic and a traitor to OZ and not worth the kindness I showed her by wiping all of that from her worthless little mind. I even tried to give her the easy way out, to leave her in a fantasy world with her Duo, but she wouldn't have it. She had to make it hard on herself. She had to be uncooperative. So I let Duo-chan have his fun with her."
And Giniko smiled up at the two pilots, who stood there taking in what she'd just confessed to.
So Giniko – OZ, essentially – thought Alison was a traitor to them as well, Wufei mused. This just got better and better.
"You keep saying 'she was,'" Heero commented, crossing his arms over his chest once more. "You believe Duo killed her?"
Giniko's face suddenly registered what could almost be called shock. Almost immediately, however, the smug smile fell back into place. "Don't *tell* me you didn't leave her there to die. Getting soft, are we?"
"That's not for you to decide," Wufei spat, and turned to Heero. "I've had enough."
"Hn," Heero agreed, and they turned and strode out the door, slamming it behind them and leaving Giniko to herself once more.
* * *
(Back to Alison's POV – you're safe now!)
"They've agreed to let you stay," Quatre said, taking his familiar seat beside my bed. He sat and looked at me, and I could see the relief in his face. He had been arguing with the other pilots for nearly a day, he'd said, trying to get them to see that I wasn't about to up and leave, wasn't about to pull a gun on all of them or release the base's location to OZ. He'd even said that an OZ lieutenant had come after them not soon after I'd left as well – I could only assume that it was the "Zechs" Giniko had mentioned, and that they had only barely managed to drive him off. That Heero and Wufei had thought that was my doing.
I didn't blame them, I supposed. I could remember taking Quatre down and leaving, and before that I could remember being told at gunpoint by Heero that I'd lost it and tried to – no, actually fought – Wufei. If it were up to me, I mused, I didn't know that I would trust myself either.
But it wasn't up to me; I couldn't remember any allegiance I had possibly ever had to OZ, and with his unending kindness Quatre was quickly winning over my loyalty here and now. I had been left floating in a void of confusion, and Quatre's hand was pulling me out, giving me something to trust even when I couldn't trust myself. Even with whatever it was Giniko had done to me, when she'd emptied my mind and left me there with Duo to die –
I shuddered involuntarily, and Quatre looked at me, concerned. "Alison?"
"It's nothing," I said softy; I was glad my voice was working but it was still soft and it hurt to speak. I was getting used to that, however, seeing as it still hurt to do much of anything. It even hurt to think.
Especially about Duo.
But Duo wasn't here now - Quatre had also said that despite his unwillingness to even acknowledge the pilots as his allies when he'd first been brought back, his mind had been slowly returning to normal. Actually Quatre wouldn't tell me much about Duo at all - I thought he might have been too afraid he'd upset me, and I had to admit that he was probably right - but he had said that Duo was getting better. And that was all I needed to know.
I still wanted to know, however, why Quatre had saved me in the first place.
No - it hadn't been Quatre. It had been Quatre's voice, but it had been Wufei's arms that had carried me out of there. And I had been left so confused...
I couldn't believe that Wufei hadn't killed me even more than I couldn't believe Quatre's willingness to keep me alive. But I was learning not to question it. Quatre wouldn't allow it, as if he were somehow telling me I didn't have to think about it, perhaps because he knew I would drive myself insane like that. And I hadn't even seen Wufei again since he'd brought me soup in place of Quatre that once, and somehow I wasn't sure if I wanted to see him again or not. His presence had somehow reminded me all too much of what I'd been through.
My body also reminded me, every waking moment and sometimes even in my sleep, of the hell I'd been through as well. It had been barely two weeks and my wounds were taking their time healing. All of them.
Despite Quatre's kindness, I still didn't know who to trust. I didn't know why he had been willing to take me in, save his own endless inherent trust, and now I honestly didn't know how he'd gotten the other pilots to agree to let me stay.
Was there something I didn't know?
Despite my usual recent willingness to accept whatever Quatre said at face value, this was something I had to know. It had been spinning in my mind each time I woke up and found that I was still *alive*.
"How... did you convince them?" I asked him slowly, and I saw something flash through his green eyes as he looked at me.
He sighed. "Heero and Wufei spoke with Giniko."
I blinked as I sat there, feeling my stomach drop through the floor. "Giniko?" I whispered, almost afraid that if I spoke her name she would appear, she would take me back *there* and leave me hung on the wall like a prize –
"Alison?" I looked up to see Quatre peering at me, concern once again present in those green eyes - when wasn't it, lately? - and worry coloring his features.
"She's... here?"
He nodded, slowly. "Yes, she is. She's locked up; I don't know what we're going to do with her."
I blinked. Was locking her up really going to keep her away?
"Alison, she... I promise. Nothing will happen to you," Quatre said softly, leaning closer as if to make sure I was all right. I supposed he must have cared, but I couldn't think about that right now. All I could think about was how I did *not* want to go back there, how I did *not* want to see her face or hear her voice ever again.
No. I wasn't going to let her do this to me. I was going to let it go because if I kept looking over my shoulder –
I blinked, and focused on Quatre. "Sorry," I apologized softly.
He shook his head. "Alison, there's nothing to apologize for. I can understand… how much she must upset you."
I nodded slowly, but it was too painful and I stopped.
"Why don't you get some rest?" Quatre suggested, as if that would take my mind off the whole matter.
"I guess…. I am tired…" I murmured, slowly lowering myself onto the pillow, my stomach still churning with a mixture of hatred and fear.
I *wasn't* going to let her get to me.
Or him. He couldn't get me here either. With Quatre sitting here, I would be safe.
Safe…
