Part 9: Quintets and Capture
"Link." His name spread its way across my lips. I didn't know him at all, but still I felt regret about his death. Any death was to be full of regret. I destroyed my remaining target and then moved over to Links. I shot them down without a second thought; it was mostly reaction and not thought.
Another transmission entered. It was Relena. "Heero, I have been hit, fly over and open your hatch I'm going to jump out! I don't have a parachute, so I really hope you're fast!"
Shit, where was she? I looked around to see her above, her mobile suite pullet to the ground. There she was, dropping almost as fast as the suite. Thank god that I was fast, for her sake. I maneuvered the suite so she would fall into the cockpit hatch. It wasn't easy to suspend a mobile suite vertically in the air.
She continued to fall, but on her way was caught by the mobile suite positioned to catch her. On the way down she bumped her head, and her left leg on the frame of the cockpit. She kept falling and came on me, knocking the wind out of me from the built-up inertia.
"Thank you!" She said and gripped her leg. I had already seen the blood on her head; I just hoped that it wasn't as bag as it looked.
I shut the hatch as soon as I could and then poised it back up right. It looked like Relena had left me as gift as well. Again, I shot down the remainder and held onto my spot for a moment, looking at Relena. "Are you okay?" I asked her as she sat on the floor. I was thankful for the size of the cockpit; otherwise this would have been awkward.
"I-I think so, oh god! How is Duo?!" She said as soon as she could have.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Turn this around, we have to see!" I followed her command and looked to the other battle unfolding behind us. As I turned I realized that Duo must have been out of bullets because it had turned into a hand-to-hand combat with the mobile suites. Treize clearly had the advantage and I looked to Relena.
"I know he said not to help him, but I have to."
Relena had heard me and put a hand to my knee; the closest thing to her. "No. This is strictly his battle. You want to watch those ricocheting bullets."
Maybe that threat only went for Link because of past actions. I hadn't the faintest idea, but I just watched. There was a sudden impact against the 13. It knocked me backwards, and slammed my head against the board in back. More blood was left to fall freely over my face. I looked to Relena to see what happened to her. She wasn't in much better shape then I.
"That was from Treize." Relena said simply. "He doesn't want us to stay here and do anything. He either wants a fight or us to die."
Another transmission window opened with the general's face plastered to the opening scene. "Heero? So the rumors are true. Welcome back to the living, my friend. Princess Relena, beaten at the floor of a cockpit doesn't suite some one like you. Why didn't you take your brothers invitation?"
Invitation? From Zechs? "I never wanted to be part of a society that looks that lowly upon their own people!"
He chuckled. "Well at least you have abandoned that pacifist garbage. I can see that you clearly want to fight."
Relena glared and rose to the screen even closer. "I still believe that a perfect society would be one without weapons."
"But alas, Utopia will never be. You are invited to watch as I take Duo's life away in front of you. But Princess, we have different plans for you. Zechs wants to see his little sister. You'll be coming with us."
"You are not going to kill Duo!"
Again, the amber haired general smirked. "Your right, our plans were never to kill someone with that much influence and power. We first need to find out the little military secrets that he ran off it so many years ago. I have a feeling that Heero is going to come as well, he knows some things that I would like to know as well."
"You are never going to get them, kisama!" Relena shouted. "Are you planning on keeping them from me? For now, I'm just going to wear Duo out, nothing more. We'll have a nice, long visit in the future, Princess." Treize ended the connection and Relena looked to me and dove for a button that I knew all too well. The self-destruct button. I grabbed her hand, half-way to it.
"You know what they are going to do with us if we are captured! How can you keep from doing this?!"
"Because if we're dead we won't have any chance of making a difference in the future. That way is a coward's way out. I know that you're stronger then that, Relena. For now, all we can do it read on into this book."
"Book? You have been talking to Duo too long." She laughed. It was a forced, nervous laugh, but she was trying to lighten the situation.
"Where are they going to take us?" I asked as I saw Duo's mobile suite drop; Treize, as planned, caught it and attached it to his. He turned to us and with another blast, shot off both the arms of the Taurus and it knocked us out in the process.
Dark, dank cells.
I hated them, which was why I hated being captured. The floors were hard; the feeling: dirty. You felt like a criminal, whether you were or not. I looked around, sitting up with my hands both bound by thick metals. I raised my hands to brush the hair out of my eyes and on the way, my fingertips trailed across a patch of dried blood. I followed the trail to a spot on my forehead that had been gnashed open from the impact.
To my side, on the other end of the bars was Relena. No Duo. I felt terrible. Physically I was hurt, torn. But inside I felt broken. In both the literal sense and the metaphorical sense. Relena was leaning against a wall awake. She was also staring at me.
"I don't know weather to call you brave or a complete moron."
"Either would be fine. I feel like both." I called back over to her, inching my way across the floor.
"Well fine, you're a brave moron."
"Where did they take Duo?"
"Interrogation. I'm here for a visit, you're here for something unknown to me, but Duo has been their number one problem for a long, long time. I don't like to say this, but I am scared to death right now." She voice was shaky and it made me feel even more nervous.
"He'll live. We'll see him soon. They ask the same question time after time until you tell. Duo won't crack that easy, but they are going to keep him alive until he does."
"I don't like you using that word, 'crack.' It sounds like Duo is a glass doll that would shatter at any moment. But he isn't, you don't know him like I know him. He's been put through more then anyone that I know. And still, he's a wonderful person. That's why I know I love him."
I was silent for a moment. "Same here."
She drew in a breath shakily. "I envy you, Heero. No matter what you do to him he still loves you. I have been fighting that for the longest time, but I know it's true. Just how he acts around you, you know he's in love. Heero, I don't know what it is. My god, you even raped him! I don't get how he can still feel that strongly about you."
Those words hurt. Jokes were funny because they're true, this hurt because it was true as well. I still didn't understand why he would push me away they same moment we drew closer. But Relena was right, she had been with him a lot longer then I have. But still, I didn't think that he could love me as much as Relena was spouting out. But why would she tell me this if it wasn't true?
There was a pounding on the doors in the dark room. The only light was the broken wall's streaming crack. "You better be ready to tell us next time, or else we won't be so nice!" I heard the voices and then a body drop to the cement floor followed by a crack. I couldn't tell if they body had dropped in Relena or my cell, but it was one or the other. I knew that it was Duo, I could sense his presents and his scent was lingering in the area where the body had dropped.
"Ch, they could learn to be more careful with their informants!" The husky voice was close, but not as close as I would have hoped. I crawled over to the voice that had to be Duo. Then I bumped something. Not the warm body, but cold, hard bars. He was in Relena's cell.
My head dropped a little and I laid down on the cement again, hoping it wouldn't take that long to warm my area. It was at that moment that I began to laugh. I laughed and laughed. I could sense the confusion in the room.
"Heero, you're alive? Oh god, what did they do to you?"
Relena was equally confused. "Heero, were you given anything when we went in?"
"You know when there are these really tense situations and you smallest things make you laugh really, really hard?" I saw Relena nod, she was in the only light and I heard Duo agree. "Well you see, I just realized that I'm still wearing the baby-blue pom-pom slippers Relena gave me." I continued to laugh and a chorus of voices laughing as well joined me. As the laughter subsided I asked a question. "Duo, are you okay?"
"Nope." He answered simply.
"I know that was the real answer, what did they do?"
"Interrogate." Another simple answer.
Another guard entered the room. "Princess, your presents is requested." As sarcastic voice called and entered the cell next to me. I heard Duo draw in a sharp breath, as the guard didn't even bother to step over him. Relena was struggling and pulled out of her place in the light. "Let go of me!"
"I was told you escort you, milady." The voice laughed again. I heard a kick connect with the guards' stomach. "D-damn you!" The guard kicked Duo just as the kick had first come. I blinked; Duo had kicked the guard instead of Relena? Duo swore again as he continued to be beaten on. Then, with a laugh, the guard left with Relena. I moved to where I could see Duo, it was blurry because of the darkness, but I managed to spot him.
Laying face down, I could see the blood that surrounded his body. "I never g-got along well with authoritative figures." He breathed outward.
"Duo, can you get up?" He moved, I had my body pressed up against the bars, looking over to him. Crawling over to me slowly, he winced. I didn't even want to make as guess as to how many bones where broken in his body.
"Heero, how are you doing?"
"Not nearly as bad as you."
"Heero, seriously."
"I think my wrist is broken, a fracture on my hip, and then a lot of bleeding and bruises." He sat up and looked at me. The only thing that was separating us was the bars. I could feel his hot breath spread across my face and I had to stop myself from where my mind was going. That was the last thing that I needed right then. He took his breaths in slowly and deeply, I knew that he was in a lot of pain that moment.
I reached my hand out stroking his cheek, my hands were still bound and I heard the metal of my wrists cling to the metal of the bars. Still, my hands could reach his face. The heat his face was giving out surprised me, he was running a high fever and there was nothing I could do.
"Hey, we're alive. It's that enough?"
He shook his head. "No, this is my chapter to go and I know it. I can't give them the information they want, next time they'll get it out of me. That's why you are going to do me a favor." I froze, he didn't mean...?
"You have to kill me here and now. I'm not going to make it out of this cell; I will physically, but I'm not supposed to in my mind. This is where I am supposed to die, and you're supposed to do it."
I shook my head. "No, you're going to live for a long time to come, you are not going to die here! Not like this!"
He shook his head. "No, Heero you typically are right, but not about this."
"Duo, I promise that I'm going to get us out."
"Heh, if you can promise me that and keep that promise then I will swear you anything." Was it that far-fetched of a claim?
"Would that be a promise?" I asked him, the left him looking at me sideways.
"You can't think that you're actually going to get out of here. There is no way!"
"I'll find one, then you get to promise me anything."
"Heero Yuy, I think you hit your head a bit too hard." I shook my head and smiled to him, hoping that I was giving him some optimism.
"I didn't, I'm going to promise you that we will get out and you will live." He leaned over and pressed his head against the bars, I couldn't stand how much hurt was in those eyes. "Heero, the Quintet is working on the answers here. They are the interrogators, and I'm not going to be able to hold out against them much longer."
"The Quintet?" I inquired puzzled. "Yeah, you haven't heard of them?" I shook my head and he looked onto me defeated. "You're kidding me? Wait, I guess you wouldn't have. The war in your reality ended in AC 198, right?"
"196," I corrected. He nodded, "Same difference. But anyway, what I was getting at was this group of four became incredibly well known at torture techniques and questioning routines, I can't last against them. They appeared in AC 199. Arid is the oldest; he runs the questioning and development. Sizz is the master seductress. Key plans and does a breakdown of the person in question; she has the same job as Arid. Kill-time is the main guy, torturer that teams up with Sizz half the time. Altogether they are the Quintet."
That marred the situation even more. Now Duo was going to have to deal with them? I had to get us out of here soon, very soon. I pressed my face up to the bars as well, kissing Duo's brow. "D-don't be so worried about me, Heero. You know that they're planning something for you too. Be careful."
"I'll be fine, I eradicated all the suites you told me to. And then some. I saved Relena as well." I could see the next question he was going to ask.
"What happened to Link?" The statement on my face retorted the answer to him flawlessly.
"When did it happen?"
"Not to far into the battle. He did a excellent job starting out, but I think one hit him from behind." Duo's face spoke of a wounded history, too many dire recollections. Memories were in the making now and none of them were worth remembering. I wished those bars weren't there, and then I would have been able to reassure him. All I could do now was watch the pain and offer spoken ease.
I kissed his forehead again but this time he moved his lips up to meet mine. "Damn, no Relena but this time there is another boundary!" At least in a situation like this he could still joke. It was just like Relena had said. He was put through so much, but still comes out unblemished.
Not only in the mental sense, but substantially as well. He was beautiful, and the scars that lie on his body presented a vigorous, strong aspect to his personality and appeal. He was nothing less then strong and vigorous, but at the same time fragile and sensitive. That was the part of him that numerous people never got to perceive.
His lips webbed into mine but as timing would have it, there was another opening door. As soon as he heard that noise he threw himself away from the bars and laid down, like a broken down mannequin. I knew why he did that to boot. They could use me against him, another way to make him talk. The guard opened my cell and pulled me to my feet.
"We forgot, the Princess needs an escort." The man said to me and I took one last look at Duo before I was shoved out the door.
End of part nine
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