Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.
Warning: Torture
Mindless Babble:
Time Line: about a month after "Endless Waltz". The G-boys all became Preventers and live at the Winner Mansion.
It was supposed to be a mission like any other. The plan was simple enough; Quatre and Wufei would infiltrate the underground base that was rumored to be building Mobile Suits. If the rumor turned out to be true, they would call the others for back up.
They were an hour over due. Hence the reason Heero, Trowa and Duo were shooting their way into the base. They had gotten into the elevator and were riding down with a guest. Along the way, Duo had captured one of the guards.
"Where are they?" he yelled at the guard, violet eyes flashing angrily. The gun in his hand never wavered.
"Last d... door on the r... right," stammered the frightened guard.
"Thanks." With that, Duo slammed his pistol against the guy's head, knocking him into unconsciousness.
Hero nodded. "I got point, you two flank me. Dou: right, Trowa: left."
The boy with the three-foot long braid snapped a quick salute, while the one with the bangs merely nodded. The elevator stopped and the three moved out as one. They were met with very little resistance, which set off all sorts of alarms in the three warriors heads. Beyond the few guards they encountered when the doors slid open, there was no resistance.
"Maybe there just aren't enough guards to go around," suggested Duo, hopefully.
That didn't sit well with Heero. Trowa agreed.
"I believe we are being led into a trap."
Unfortunately, they didn't really have a choice in the matter. Two of their friends were being held by a group of people who seemed opposed to peace. It was either get them out or die trying.
The short hall dead-ended with doors on both sides. Heero signaled to his comrades. Duo put his back to the wall next to the steel door, while Trowa went to work on the electronic lock. After a few seconds, he nodded to Heero, who braced himself. The door slid open with a soft hiss.
The lights were on inside the small room. Only two people occupied the space: Wufei and Quatre. They were bound and gagged and looked as if they had been beaten severely. Trowa went in first, followed by Heero.
Duo had stayed at the door as a look out. He glanced at Heero in time to see a red dot appear on his friends back.
"Heero! Look out!" With out thinking, Duo threw himself between the laser scope and his best friend. His reward was a bullet shattering his right shoulder blade. He fell forward into Heero's arms. By that time, Trowa had shot and killed the sniper in the room across the hall.
It was all for nothing as more guards, heavily armed and armored, rushed in. The trap had worked.
Duo awoke face down on a cot. When he tried to move, the entire right side of his back flared with pain. A yelp of pain escaped his lips. He felt a presence near by and opened his eyes. Purple eyes met anxious blue ones. Well at least one blue eye. Quatre's' other eye was swollen shut with a big bruise covering most of the left side of his face.
"How do you feel, Duo?" The reply was a moan of pain.
"Don't try to move yet. The bullet is still lodged in your trapezium."
Blank stare.
"Your shoulder muscle," sighed Quatre. "I'm afraid I haven't been stop the bleeding."
"That's okay, Cat. Thanks for trying." Duo looked at Heero, who was sitting on the cot on the other wall. "You okay, Heero?"
The boy in question nodded. "Thanks."
Duo tried to shrug, momentarily forgetting his injuries. The end result was a muffled yelp of pain as he buried his head in the pillow. Quatre patted him on the head.
Trowa broke the silence that followed with a question. "What do they want to know?"
Wufei answered from on top of the bunk bed that Trowa had been sitting on, "I have no idea. They just kept asking 'Where are the copies?'"
"Copies? Of what?" asked Heero. "Some sort of plans?"
Quatre shrugged, still sitting on the floor, trying to comfort Duo. "They seem to think that we know something and are hiding it."
At that moment, the door to the small room that they had been move to after they were captured, opened. A heavyset man with small eyes and greased back hair walked in. Even though he wore civilian clothes, his manner screamed 'ex-military'. Behind him were two big guards with bigger guns.
The man looked around and then pointed to Duo. "Take him. He will be the easiest for me to break."
The others tried to protest to no avail. The guards roughly pick up the hapless boy, ignoring his cries of pain. They hauled him out of the room, taking care to hit his injured shoulder many times.
"When we're done with him, we will come back for one of you." The man smirked, "I'll even let you decide who's next."
He turned and walked out, the door sliding closed behind him. Regrettably the locked door did nothing to shut out the sounds of Dou's screams of agony that started only minutes after he was gone.
The other pilots tried to block out the sounds. Quatre was failing miserably, holding his hands over his ears and trembling in empathy. Finally, Trowa took pity on the Arabian. He stood and walked over to Quatre, knelt and wrapped his arms around the shaken warrior. Wufei tried to meditate, but even that was difficult. Heero formed an escape plan.
After five long hours, the screams stopped. The pilots braced themselves both for battle and for the news that Shini-Gami was dead.
When the door slid open again the ex-Gundum pilots were ready. They had taken the sheets off four of the six bunk beds, rolled them up, and stuck them under the blankets of the other two. Heero then crouched down in the corner to the right of the door, Wufei to the left. The young Chinese martial artist was tired and hurt, but also angry, which probably made him the most formidable opponent after Heero. Trowa stayed with Quatre on the floor, in front of the entrance.
The heavyset man arrogantly strode into the small cell, barely glancing at the two "occupied" beds. Only one guard accompanied him. He opened his mouth to say something, but never got the chance to do so.
Heero pounced on the fat man, knocking them both away from the door. The guard that rushed in to help, got Wufei instead. So, while Heero beat the sadistic interrogator into a bloody pulp, Wufei turned the guard into a human pretzel.
Outside their cell, Heero instructed the others to finish the job of destroying the MS factory. He directed them, from memory, where the main production facility was. He hoped that they would be able to find the gear Quatre and Wufei had brought with them. It would make things go faster.
"Where are you going?" asked the blond Arab, looking at Heero.
"I'm going to find Duo," replied the brown haired soldier. "One way or another, I'm getting him out."
Quatre tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he realized what Heero meant. If he couldn't get their friend out, he would kill Duo. Simple. Efficient. Logical. Quatre hated the fact that Heero was right. He turned and followed the other two through the door that would take them to the main office and then to the factory.
Heero turned in the other direction. He paused in front of the closed door to the room that was next to the cell he had just broken out of. The small sign over the entrance read, 'Kitchen'. Heero took a deep breath before he opened the door.
The Perfect Soldier gagged as the door hissed opened. The smell of burnt flesh was almost overwhelming. Out of the corner of his eye, Heero saw the lone guard go for his gun. Heero beat him to the draw. The guard was dead before he could draw his weapon all the way.
When he finally got to look around, Heero found two more guards unconscious in a corner. Both had taken blows to the head. At their feet was a drain coated in blood and it wasn't the guards. Heero forced himself to look up.
Duo hung on a meat hook by the handcuffs on his wrist. He had been completely stripped of his clothes making every wound on his body clearly visible. There were many. He had been burned on the face and upper torso. Jagged knife cuts made a spider web pattern on his abdomen. Bruises around his throat told of being choked to the edge of losing consciousness, then being released. Both of his legs had been broken, one being a compound fracture, the bone tearing through the skin. The worst wound was on his left arm. Part of the skin had been peeled nearly off, strips of it just hanging, dripping blood.
Heero jumped when Duo moved his head to look at his friend. "Kill me."
The words came out as a plea leaving the Perfect Soldier shocked to the point that he could do nothing. The not so distant explosions and gunfire finally knocked him out of his stupor. He took the coat of one of the downed guards and laid it on the floor. Then, as gently as he could, removed Duo from the hook and wrapped him in the coat. That was when Heero noticed the whip marks across the pale skin of Duo's back. His friend whimpered at the touch.
"I'm sorry, Duo. Please hold on a bit longer."
He wasn't sure if it was just the motion of moving the wounded pilot or something else, but Heero could have sworn that Duo nodded.
Heero met up with the others just as they were getting on the elevator, moments before the explosives went off. The ride to the hospital was done in almost complete silence. Trowa drove with Wufei and Quatre in the front with him. Heero sat in the backseat of the jeep with Duo cradled in his arms. Not a word had been spoken after Heero called ahead regarding Duo's injuries. The guard had been a big man and his coat covered nearly all of Duo's wounds. Still, the pilots wondered if their comrade would make it.
Dr. Sally Po met the five young men at the door of the hospital that she was working at. She had assembled a team of doctors that were specialist in the fields that would be needed to save the young pilots life. As soon as the jeep stopped, Sally rushed to help Heero get Duo onto the waiting gurney. Immediately, the team of doctor started to analyze what had to be done. Only Sally noticed that Heero didn't let go of his friends' hand until they reached the OR. Then he reluctantly let the hand slip from his grasp.
Heero walked back to the waiting room where the rest of the pilots had settled in. Quatre stood and walked over to his friend. He held an ice pack on the swollen eye.
"What's wrong, Heero? And don't just brush me off," Quatre smiled a bit. "I know you to well too well. Something is bothering you."
Heero looked into the one bright blue eye of the Arabian prince and found himself speaking. "Duo saved my life. And now, I can't do a damn thing to save his!"
"Heero, you've already done a lot to save him," Quatre protested. "You helped Duo just by getting him out of there. Plus, by calling Sally and giving her advance notice of what to expect, he may just make it out ok."
Quatre reached out with his free hand and gently squeezed Heero's shoulder. "He'll be alright. Gundam pilots are hard to kill."
Heero smiled. Maybe Quatre was right. They would just have to wait and see.
The four pilots lost track of time between dozing off and jumping every time a doctor came out of the operating room. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sally walked into the waiting room. The four pilots were on their feet in an instant.
Sally shook her head sadly, a tear sliding down her pale cheek. "I oh! I...I promised myself I wouldn't cry!"
Surprisingly, it was Wufei that stepped forward to wrap her into a comforting hug. The doctor held on for a few moments, and then broke their embrace. She looked at the four young men standing before her, their eyes full of anxiety and grief.
"Duo is in an ICU. His chances are slim that he will even make it. If he does, and I'm not saying that he will " Sally could see the hope springing into four sets of eyes and nearly lost her resolve again. "If he does, we don't know if he'll be able to use his left arm again much less walk with all that nerve damage. And we have no idea if there's any brain damage from the strangulation."
The hope had not left their eyes.
"Can we see him?" asked Quatre.
Sally sighed. "I can let one of you see him and only for a few minutes."
"Then Heero should be the one," said Quatre. Wufei and Trowa nodded in agreement.
Heero nodded his thanks to them and followed Dr. Po down a hall. She stopped in front of a closed door and turned to face the pilot.
"I just want to warn you. The other doctors and I did every thing we could. Dr. Stingray spent several hours reattaching nerves and Dr. Yamazaki set all the broken and shattered bones and administered a bone mender to speed up the healing time on them. Dr. Romanova was able to clean up the burns on his face enough that there will be little or no scaring on his face and neck. I did the stitching for the cuts on his abdomen. But I don't know if it was enough.
"Right now, machines are keeping him alive," the doctor continued. "What's on the other side of this door is pretty horrific."
"I understand."
Sally nodded and opened the door. "I'll come back in about five minutes. That all I can give you."
Heero took a deep breath and walked into the small room. A small gasp escaped from him. Duo looked like a small child among all the tube and wires that ran from various monitors and other machines and disappeared under the blankets that covered the small frame. IVs were feeding into both arms draining bags of medicine and blood. The heart monitor set a constant beep that coincided with the machine that was keeping that heart pumping. A tube down Duo's throat entered his lungs, keeping them supplied with the much-needed oxygen.
Duo's body looked almost like a mummy. The blankets had been folded down to expose the bandaged chest and stomach. Duo's face had been loosely wrapped in gauze, covering the burns. His left arm from shoulder to elbow was firmly wrapped in the same white bandages as his face. The Americans' hair had come loose from the constant braid and fell over the pillow like a chestnut wave.
Heero walked toward the bed slowly trying to comprehend the scene before him. He stood next to his friend and slid his hand under Duo's hand being careful not to disturb any of the monitors nor the injured arm. He was surprised to find it so cold.
"Did I do the right thing, Duo?" Heero whispered. "Would it have been better to make sure you never suffered?"
It was a few minutes before the young solder spoke again. "Was I being selfish in saving you when you asked me to kill you?"
The tears that he had been holding back finally broke through and the Perfect Solder wept.
