Chapter 2: Killer Ambitions
"Tatsu? What's wrong?" Trowa asked, stepping towards the shocked girl. She nearly flew backwards from his touch, hiding in the shadows.
"Tatsu, what is it? What happened?" he asked, continuing to approach her. She held out her hands as if to stop him with some invisible force. But then she dropped to the floor, clutching her head in her hands.
"I'm a fool.... I should've killed him... how could I???" she cried. Trowa rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. This time she did not resist his touch.
"What happened Tatsu?" he questioned. She continued to mutter to herself when suddenly she looked up shocked. As if she had just realized something. She sprung to her feet.
"We must get back to your camp Trowa. Now!" she ordered, running out of the warehouse. He had no choice but to follow her. They ran all the way back to the camp. The ringmaster was devastated.
"Trowa! Catherine's been kidnapped!" he reported. They both stopped in their tracks. Trowa spun on Tatsu.
"Tatsu! What happened!?" he demanded.
~*~
I stared into Trowa's now insane eyes. He was desperate. But so was I.
"They've kidnapped our loved ones...." I whispered in realization.
"What? Who did they take from you?" he inquired. I felt like screaming my head off, but I contained my composure and put on a cool face.
"They took your sister...." I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"Who? Who did they take from you Tatsu?" he asked again, grabbing me by the shoulders, looking into my eyes. I looked at him, and realized he was just as desperate as me to get Cathy back as much as I wanted to get Alec back...
"They took my son Trowa." I explained. He dropped his hands from my shoulder and looked at me in shock. I nearly laughed.
"No, not my real son. I found him two years ago after his parents were murdered and he was left to die. He was only four.... His name is Alec. They've taken him and will probably kill him for not killing you." I whispered, remembering his chubby cheeks, sparkling hazel eyes set into his innocent face. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. If they touched him in any way.....
"Tatsu. We'll find them." Trowa said, interrupting my threatening thoughts. I shrugged his hand off of my shoulder and stood. Ashamed that I had expressed so much emotion. Especially to him...
"You fought for Cathy, you live for. I do the same for Alec. He's my life... if he dies, I die."
"He won't. I promise." Trowa swore. I looked at him. I could tell he was trying to put on his stone mask once again, to mask his emotions. But for once, I didn't want him to. I reached out and touched his face. He looked at me in shock that I had touched him without physically hurting him. I quickly withdrew my hand, embarrassed at myself. What the hell was wrong with me!? But he grabbed my hand and smiled. I hadn't seen him smile for..... uh, ever. Yet I understood... we were having a conversation without words. I withdrew my hand from his grasp and let a smile slip. It was times like this that wiped away my regrets of not killing him for the money.
"Trowa! You must see this! Hurry!" the ringmaster cried from a trailer. Trowa and I ran to the trailer and saw everybody gathered around a small computer where there was an image of a masked man talking.
"These two have killed hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent lives! Now, we, the Otterran Clan are avenging those innocent victims. We have their loved ones, it is their turn to taste the death and hatred of their acts." he said. Then the screen changed and was filled with the image of Alec, blindfolded and shackled to a wall, beside him was Catherine.
"Alec!" I screamed, reaching out for the screen. Trowa held me back as the camera panned their faces. Bruises were on their faces, tears stained Alec's once rosy cheeks.
"Fuck." I swore, holding back my tears. How could they hurt him so? Trowa's grip on me tightened as they showed Catherine being harassed by other masked men.
"Cowards....." he whispered.
"Do not think of us as bloodthirsty killers, for those are the ones we are trying to punish. They can be freed though, for a price. I think they know what it is..." the voice continued. Dried blood stained Alec's shirt and I could take it no more. I jerked out of Trowa's grasp and stormed out of the trailer.
"Tatsu! Where do you think you're going!?" he called. I ignored him and continued on. Too bad Trowa had destroyed his Gundam. It would have been a fine weapon to have now. I ran to an abandoned car that had the keys in the ignition. I jumped inside and revved up the engine.
"Tatsu! Wait!" Trowa cried. I sighed and waited. He ran around the other side and hopped in.
"I'm coming too." he said determinedly. I said nothing and drove on. I drove to lake and stopped. Hopping out of the car I ran to a hidden shack and opened it. Inside were all of my weapons. I began pulling guns off the racks and loading them. Trowa appeared in the doorway.
"Holy shit. This could supply an army." he muttered, stepping in and looking around at the vast array of weaponry. I continued to ignore him and primed the guns. Suddenly Trowa bent down to where I was sitting and grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him irritated, about to snap at him, but he stared at me with determined, kind eyes.
"Don't ignore me Tatsu. I know it's not your nature to work with anybody else; but I love you. And I need you to help save Catherine, and you need me to save Alec. We need to work together whether you want to or not." he said, his face inches from mine. I stared at him for a moment.
"I know." I said standing up and continuing to grab guns off the shelves. He sat for a moment. He said nothing and began to grab guns like a robot. I grabbed a vest off of the wall and inserted pistols, extra magazines and grenades into the slots provided. Finally I lifted up some floorboards and took out a case. I opened the case and brought out my best sniper rifle. I quickly assembled it like I had all my life and loaded it. Finally we were ready.
"They said we had to pay a price for them. But we don't even know it." he said, as we got into the car.
"I do." I stated, beginning to drive down the street.
"What? Can we afford it?" he asked. I gave him a no ways glance. "How much is it?" he continued to question.
"9,999,999,999 dollars." I reported. He nearly choked.
"What!? How do you know this!?" he exclaimed. I turned for a moment and faced his gaze dead on.
"Because that's how much they offered for your head." I explained, then turned back to the road. Trowa sat in shocked silence for a while. Then he suddenly leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
"Thank you. For not killing me. Even for nearly ten billion dollars." he said. I gripped the wheel, completely taken aback that he had kissed me. We said nothing more for the rest of the trip. Finally I pulled up at the outskirts of a factory building.
"They're here." I said, getting out of the car.
"Let's go." Trowa ordered. We set out on a suicide mission to save the only people we fought and lived for.
~*~
Alec shivered in the cold, dank area. The cloth of the blindfold bit into the sides of his face, causing his head to pulse. He was scared. Scared to death. The only thing he wanted was to be able to see her again. His guardian angel, which he called mom. She had rescued him when he was alone, she had always been there. So where was she now?
"It's going to be okay." the feminine voice of the other captor, Catherine whispered assuredly to him. But he could hear the fear in her voice. The emotion he had conquered whenever he was with his angel. She had protected him from all the evils of the Earth, but now she wasn't here, and the emotion became a reality once again.
"I'm scared..." he whispered into the dark, his voice echoing.
"Don't be. They'll be here." she whispered. But somehow, he knew it'd be too late.
"They're here!" a muffled voice called from behind the metal walls of their prison. Alec heard Catherine breathe a sigh of relief, but he knew it wasn't good. The sound of the door opening echoed throughout the room, and Alec could sense light coming in. He cringed at the sound of heavy footsteps coming his way. He expected the blows to come any minute like they always had. But instead, he felt somebody working at his shackles.
"Mommy?" he whispered hopefully.
"Shut up you stupid brat!" a gruff voice snapped, punching him across the face. Alec's head snapped around and blood flew from his mouth. He felt like crying, but tried to be strong like her.... but couldn't. The tears just came and wouldn't stop. The chains suddenly fell from his ankles and wrists, but strong hands grasped him and yanked him roughly. He heard Catherine not far behind.
"What are you going to do to us?" she asked fearfully.
"What else?" a sneering voice asked coldly. There was a sound of a gun being cocked.
"Oh God, oh please! No!" Catherine cried. "Not to the boy!" she shouted. But they shut her up with a quick kick. Alec burst into more tears and began to sob, going limp.
"You little punk! Stand up straight!" his captor shouted, jerking him off his feet by his ankles, but Alec had lost all hope.
"No! No!" Catherine screamed as gunshots could be heard. They were dragged down a hallway and the out into the cold.
"Get down!" the man commanded, shoving Alec and Catherine into the snow. Catherine groped around and found Alec. She grasped him and pulled him close to her, shielding him with her body, continuing to sob with him.
"Cowards..." he heard one of them say. The sound of the other gun being cocked was heard and Alec lay in Catherine's grip, awaiting the final shot. But he was violently yanked from her hold and dragged farther away.
"No! Don't take him!" she shouted. Their blindfolds were removed and the seemingly blinding light attacked his eyes and made him wince. He saw he was in an open courtyard, filled with scrap metal and snow. A fence outlining it with a single large, bare tree standing in a corner.
The cold attacked Alec's tear stained face with force and the snow continued to fall. He looked and saw Catherine on the floor, sobbing and clutching her side where she had been kicked. Her captor got a grip of her flaming hair and heaved her to her knees with a jerk. A hand grabbed Alec by the back of his shirt and he choked as he was yanked up and set on his feet as well in execution style. He felt the cold of the metal gun touching the nape of his neck, tingling his hair and sending goose bumps down his back. He shivered and closed his eyes, sobbing. He didn't want to die. Not like this, not now.
Both he and Catherine knelt, sobbing in the snow. Then a gunshot rang throughout the courtyard making Alec jump, thinking he was dead. But he opened his eyes and heard shouts from behind him. He saw Catherine's attacker lying in the snow, a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
"Shit!" his captor swore and pulled the trigger. Two shots were fire at once, both found their marks. Alec's captor fell to the ground lifeless, but a smashing blow pounded into Alec from behind. He fell forward into the snow. A scream let out. He felt himself be rolled over onto his back. He found it difficult to move, difficult to breathe. He reached for his chest where he felt cold. He was met with the warm feeling of liquid. He closed his eyes, letting tears drip from them. He had been shot. Right in his chest, close too his heart. Daring to, he slipped his fingers into the hole, feeling the warmth of the fresh blood soak into his fingers. He tried to breathe, but his breaths came up short. Catherine stood over him, crying and looking at him hopelessly. Suddenly another figure approached him.
"Mommy?" Alec managed to whisper, registering the face of his beloved angel, before all became night.
~*~
"ALEC!" I screamed, as my son's eyes clouded over, and he no longer breathed. I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn't believe he was dead. It was impossible. I felt like grabbing and shaking him, to bring him back.
"You were all he ever talked about." a voice said next to me. I looked and saw Catherine's tear stained face looking at me with watery eyes. I wanted to cry, but couldn't. But then a red little dot appeared on Catherine's forehead.
"Look out!" I shouted, leaning forward and pushing her out of the way as the shot from the sniper's rifle was fired. A pain ripped through my chest, I could feel bone shatter as the bullet lodged itself into my chest just below my collarbone. I fell to the snow, resting my head on it's cold surface. But I didn't panic. It was a peaceful pain. My breaths were ragged, but I just wanted it to end here... A shout sounded and an explosion occurred. Then Trowa's face appeared above me.
"Tatsu!" he cried, lifting me into his arms. Pain pierced through my body at the movement, but it pained me more to see his hurt face.
"I.... I want to die Trowa. They killed him.... I have nothing to live for anymore." I whispered painfully.
"No. You see, you can't." he said quietly, close to tears. I had never seen him like this. "You can't die Tatsu.... because you're the reason I live. If you die, I'll die." For the first time in my life tears sprung to my eyes as I was overcome with emotions for this man.
"Trowa.... I love you." I cried, fixing my eyes on him so that he'd be the last thing I ever saw. I just had to let him know how much he meant to me before I died.
"I love you, I'm so sorry.... I love you, I love you, I love you.." I cried. Tears appeared in his eyes as well as he held me close.
"I know Tatsu.... I know." he whispered, his tears spilling onto me. "So live..."
~*~
"Tatsu? What's wrong?" Trowa asked, stepping towards the shocked girl. She nearly flew backwards from his touch, hiding in the shadows.
"Tatsu, what is it? What happened?" he asked, continuing to approach her. She held out her hands as if to stop him with some invisible force. But then she dropped to the floor, clutching her head in her hands.
"I'm a fool.... I should've killed him... how could I???" she cried. Trowa rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. This time she did not resist his touch.
"What happened Tatsu?" he questioned. She continued to mutter to herself when suddenly she looked up shocked. As if she had just realized something. She sprung to her feet.
"We must get back to your camp Trowa. Now!" she ordered, running out of the warehouse. He had no choice but to follow her. They ran all the way back to the camp. The ringmaster was devastated.
"Trowa! Catherine's been kidnapped!" he reported. They both stopped in their tracks. Trowa spun on Tatsu.
"Tatsu! What happened!?" he demanded.
~*~
I stared into Trowa's now insane eyes. He was desperate. But so was I.
"They've kidnapped our loved ones...." I whispered in realization.
"What? Who did they take from you?" he inquired. I felt like screaming my head off, but I contained my composure and put on a cool face.
"They took your sister...." I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"Who? Who did they take from you Tatsu?" he asked again, grabbing me by the shoulders, looking into my eyes. I looked at him, and realized he was just as desperate as me to get Cathy back as much as I wanted to get Alec back...
"They took my son Trowa." I explained. He dropped his hands from my shoulder and looked at me in shock. I nearly laughed.
"No, not my real son. I found him two years ago after his parents were murdered and he was left to die. He was only four.... His name is Alec. They've taken him and will probably kill him for not killing you." I whispered, remembering his chubby cheeks, sparkling hazel eyes set into his innocent face. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. If they touched him in any way.....
"Tatsu. We'll find them." Trowa said, interrupting my threatening thoughts. I shrugged his hand off of my shoulder and stood. Ashamed that I had expressed so much emotion. Especially to him...
"You fought for Cathy, you live for. I do the same for Alec. He's my life... if he dies, I die."
"He won't. I promise." Trowa swore. I looked at him. I could tell he was trying to put on his stone mask once again, to mask his emotions. But for once, I didn't want him to. I reached out and touched his face. He looked at me in shock that I had touched him without physically hurting him. I quickly withdrew my hand, embarrassed at myself. What the hell was wrong with me!? But he grabbed my hand and smiled. I hadn't seen him smile for..... uh, ever. Yet I understood... we were having a conversation without words. I withdrew my hand from his grasp and let a smile slip. It was times like this that wiped away my regrets of not killing him for the money.
"Trowa! You must see this! Hurry!" the ringmaster cried from a trailer. Trowa and I ran to the trailer and saw everybody gathered around a small computer where there was an image of a masked man talking.
"These two have killed hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent lives! Now, we, the Otterran Clan are avenging those innocent victims. We have their loved ones, it is their turn to taste the death and hatred of their acts." he said. Then the screen changed and was filled with the image of Alec, blindfolded and shackled to a wall, beside him was Catherine.
"Alec!" I screamed, reaching out for the screen. Trowa held me back as the camera panned their faces. Bruises were on their faces, tears stained Alec's once rosy cheeks.
"Fuck." I swore, holding back my tears. How could they hurt him so? Trowa's grip on me tightened as they showed Catherine being harassed by other masked men.
"Cowards....." he whispered.
"Do not think of us as bloodthirsty killers, for those are the ones we are trying to punish. They can be freed though, for a price. I think they know what it is..." the voice continued. Dried blood stained Alec's shirt and I could take it no more. I jerked out of Trowa's grasp and stormed out of the trailer.
"Tatsu! Where do you think you're going!?" he called. I ignored him and continued on. Too bad Trowa had destroyed his Gundam. It would have been a fine weapon to have now. I ran to an abandoned car that had the keys in the ignition. I jumped inside and revved up the engine.
"Tatsu! Wait!" Trowa cried. I sighed and waited. He ran around the other side and hopped in.
"I'm coming too." he said determinedly. I said nothing and drove on. I drove to lake and stopped. Hopping out of the car I ran to a hidden shack and opened it. Inside were all of my weapons. I began pulling guns off the racks and loading them. Trowa appeared in the doorway.
"Holy shit. This could supply an army." he muttered, stepping in and looking around at the vast array of weaponry. I continued to ignore him and primed the guns. Suddenly Trowa bent down to where I was sitting and grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him irritated, about to snap at him, but he stared at me with determined, kind eyes.
"Don't ignore me Tatsu. I know it's not your nature to work with anybody else; but I love you. And I need you to help save Catherine, and you need me to save Alec. We need to work together whether you want to or not." he said, his face inches from mine. I stared at him for a moment.
"I know." I said standing up and continuing to grab guns off the shelves. He sat for a moment. He said nothing and began to grab guns like a robot. I grabbed a vest off of the wall and inserted pistols, extra magazines and grenades into the slots provided. Finally I lifted up some floorboards and took out a case. I opened the case and brought out my best sniper rifle. I quickly assembled it like I had all my life and loaded it. Finally we were ready.
"They said we had to pay a price for them. But we don't even know it." he said, as we got into the car.
"I do." I stated, beginning to drive down the street.
"What? Can we afford it?" he asked. I gave him a no ways glance. "How much is it?" he continued to question.
"9,999,999,999 dollars." I reported. He nearly choked.
"What!? How do you know this!?" he exclaimed. I turned for a moment and faced his gaze dead on.
"Because that's how much they offered for your head." I explained, then turned back to the road. Trowa sat in shocked silence for a while. Then he suddenly leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
"Thank you. For not killing me. Even for nearly ten billion dollars." he said. I gripped the wheel, completely taken aback that he had kissed me. We said nothing more for the rest of the trip. Finally I pulled up at the outskirts of a factory building.
"They're here." I said, getting out of the car.
"Let's go." Trowa ordered. We set out on a suicide mission to save the only people we fought and lived for.
~*~
Alec shivered in the cold, dank area. The cloth of the blindfold bit into the sides of his face, causing his head to pulse. He was scared. Scared to death. The only thing he wanted was to be able to see her again. His guardian angel, which he called mom. She had rescued him when he was alone, she had always been there. So where was she now?
"It's going to be okay." the feminine voice of the other captor, Catherine whispered assuredly to him. But he could hear the fear in her voice. The emotion he had conquered whenever he was with his angel. She had protected him from all the evils of the Earth, but now she wasn't here, and the emotion became a reality once again.
"I'm scared..." he whispered into the dark, his voice echoing.
"Don't be. They'll be here." she whispered. But somehow, he knew it'd be too late.
"They're here!" a muffled voice called from behind the metal walls of their prison. Alec heard Catherine breathe a sigh of relief, but he knew it wasn't good. The sound of the door opening echoed throughout the room, and Alec could sense light coming in. He cringed at the sound of heavy footsteps coming his way. He expected the blows to come any minute like they always had. But instead, he felt somebody working at his shackles.
"Mommy?" he whispered hopefully.
"Shut up you stupid brat!" a gruff voice snapped, punching him across the face. Alec's head snapped around and blood flew from his mouth. He felt like crying, but tried to be strong like her.... but couldn't. The tears just came and wouldn't stop. The chains suddenly fell from his ankles and wrists, but strong hands grasped him and yanked him roughly. He heard Catherine not far behind.
"What are you going to do to us?" she asked fearfully.
"What else?" a sneering voice asked coldly. There was a sound of a gun being cocked.
"Oh God, oh please! No!" Catherine cried. "Not to the boy!" she shouted. But they shut her up with a quick kick. Alec burst into more tears and began to sob, going limp.
"You little punk! Stand up straight!" his captor shouted, jerking him off his feet by his ankles, but Alec had lost all hope.
"No! No!" Catherine screamed as gunshots could be heard. They were dragged down a hallway and the out into the cold.
"Get down!" the man commanded, shoving Alec and Catherine into the snow. Catherine groped around and found Alec. She grasped him and pulled him close to her, shielding him with her body, continuing to sob with him.
"Cowards..." he heard one of them say. The sound of the other gun being cocked was heard and Alec lay in Catherine's grip, awaiting the final shot. But he was violently yanked from her hold and dragged farther away.
"No! Don't take him!" she shouted. Their blindfolds were removed and the seemingly blinding light attacked his eyes and made him wince. He saw he was in an open courtyard, filled with scrap metal and snow. A fence outlining it with a single large, bare tree standing in a corner.
The cold attacked Alec's tear stained face with force and the snow continued to fall. He looked and saw Catherine on the floor, sobbing and clutching her side where she had been kicked. Her captor got a grip of her flaming hair and heaved her to her knees with a jerk. A hand grabbed Alec by the back of his shirt and he choked as he was yanked up and set on his feet as well in execution style. He felt the cold of the metal gun touching the nape of his neck, tingling his hair and sending goose bumps down his back. He shivered and closed his eyes, sobbing. He didn't want to die. Not like this, not now.
Both he and Catherine knelt, sobbing in the snow. Then a gunshot rang throughout the courtyard making Alec jump, thinking he was dead. But he opened his eyes and heard shouts from behind him. He saw Catherine's attacker lying in the snow, a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
"Shit!" his captor swore and pulled the trigger. Two shots were fire at once, both found their marks. Alec's captor fell to the ground lifeless, but a smashing blow pounded into Alec from behind. He fell forward into the snow. A scream let out. He felt himself be rolled over onto his back. He found it difficult to move, difficult to breathe. He reached for his chest where he felt cold. He was met with the warm feeling of liquid. He closed his eyes, letting tears drip from them. He had been shot. Right in his chest, close too his heart. Daring to, he slipped his fingers into the hole, feeling the warmth of the fresh blood soak into his fingers. He tried to breathe, but his breaths came up short. Catherine stood over him, crying and looking at him hopelessly. Suddenly another figure approached him.
"Mommy?" Alec managed to whisper, registering the face of his beloved angel, before all became night.
~*~
"ALEC!" I screamed, as my son's eyes clouded over, and he no longer breathed. I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn't believe he was dead. It was impossible. I felt like grabbing and shaking him, to bring him back.
"You were all he ever talked about." a voice said next to me. I looked and saw Catherine's tear stained face looking at me with watery eyes. I wanted to cry, but couldn't. But then a red little dot appeared on Catherine's forehead.
"Look out!" I shouted, leaning forward and pushing her out of the way as the shot from the sniper's rifle was fired. A pain ripped through my chest, I could feel bone shatter as the bullet lodged itself into my chest just below my collarbone. I fell to the snow, resting my head on it's cold surface. But I didn't panic. It was a peaceful pain. My breaths were ragged, but I just wanted it to end here... A shout sounded and an explosion occurred. Then Trowa's face appeared above me.
"Tatsu!" he cried, lifting me into his arms. Pain pierced through my body at the movement, but it pained me more to see his hurt face.
"I.... I want to die Trowa. They killed him.... I have nothing to live for anymore." I whispered painfully.
"No. You see, you can't." he said quietly, close to tears. I had never seen him like this. "You can't die Tatsu.... because you're the reason I live. If you die, I'll die." For the first time in my life tears sprung to my eyes as I was overcome with emotions for this man.
"Trowa.... I love you." I cried, fixing my eyes on him so that he'd be the last thing I ever saw. I just had to let him know how much he meant to me before I died.
"I love you, I'm so sorry.... I love you, I love you, I love you.." I cried. Tears appeared in his eyes as well as he held me close.
"I know Tatsu.... I know." he whispered, his tears spilling onto me. "So live..."
~*~
