At the loud and insistent beeping sound, Trowa mumbled at him. "Turn off."
Like a dutiful lover, and the one closest to the alarm clock, he shifted
away from Trowa's chest and rolled onto his back only to slam his fist into
the clock. The beeping didn't stop. Trowa tried again. "Turn it off,
please," he moaned rolling over. Quatre tried again in his sleep addled
brain, something kept beeping.
Finally, Quatre sat straight up and looked around the dark room. He glanced at the lit clock display, eleven thirty. Listening intently, he quickly realized the beeping was coming from the communications relay set up for emergencies. Shaking his partner he tried to rouse Trowa.
"Trowa, it's the alarm."
Trowa mumbled. "Too early, turn it off."
Quatre would have chuckled at the cuteness of Trowa when woken up, except this was serious. "Trowa, it's the base alarm."
Instantly, Trowa was awake and sitting up, listening with Quatre for the message.
"01, 02, 03, 04, report to the ready room immediately! Repeat, 01, 02, 03, 04, report to the ready room immediately!" Then there was more beeping and finally, silence. By the silence he and Trowa were already out of bed and searching the closet for something to wear to a Christmas Eve emergency.
* * *
"This had better be good, Lady. You interrupted some serious moaning, and it was my turn to be on top!"
Quatre smirked as Duo promptly situated himself onto Heero's lap, effectively remaining on top. He glanced back at Trowa and together they walked through the door to take their seats. They were the last to arrive, both of them hating the idea of leaving the children alone, but neither one wanting to wake them. It was a parent's worst fear, not to be there when their children needed them. They'd decided to take the risk and hope the children would sleep for as long as the debriefing took.
Sally and Wufei sat at their customary seats. The room was designed like a circle, all around the round room were monitors. In the center was a desk that directed all the monitors including a holographic unit that projected to hover above the desk. Facing the desk that Lady Une sat at the head of, were Quatre and Trowa to the right, and three chairs from Quatre's left sat Heero and Duo; Sally and Wufei were an empty chair and to the left of Duo, while the newly aquatinted Corinne sat three chairs over from Trowa's right.
The chairs would have been comfortable, but as Quatre sat he felt the tension emanating from Lady, Sally, Wufei and Corinne. Some unacknowledged part of his mind had him reaching out and holding onto Trowa's hand. He ignored Trowa's questioning expression; something drastic was about to happen.
Duo must have sensed it as well. "Hey, this isn't going to ruin Christmas is it, 'cause Heero and I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and I know we're not the only one's." He smiled to an unresponsive Wufei and Sally.
In a strange way, Lady Une stared at the chairs between the two sets of lovers. She seemed to take a deep breath, and squared her shoulders, before letting it out in a calming breath. She had Quatre on edge immediately.
He glanced at Corinne and saw a frown marring her delicate features. Sally looked tense and stressed, and Wufei looked depressed and withdrawn. The two newly awaiting parents seemed connected only by the hands they held, instead of the spirit from early that night. Quatre squeezed Trowa's hand before pulling it to his side of the armrest, idly running his thumb over the back of it.
Lady's voice was quite but authoritative, broaching no room for deviation.
"This will be perhaps, the hardest meeting I've ever had to conduct; and perhaps the hardest information I've ever had to give to people I care about." She paused, making eye contact with first Heero and Duo, and then himself and Trowa. "Because of the nature of this information, I ask that you be patient while I explain what I know. Furthermore, I'd appreciate as few interruptions as possible, though I know you'll have questions that demand answers. I'll try to give the information so that it makes as much sense as possible. Hopefully in a half an hour you'll know as much as we do.
"I will be giving the majority of the report, but will ask for Sally's expertise when necessary. Is that understood?" Like dumb men they all nodded weakly. "Good. Let's begin." It was as if she was trying to prepare herself, cueing herself to go to the next step in a painful speech she wished she didn't have to deliver. Quatre felt immediately sorry for her, and immediately afraid.
Again her voice was calm, and though she looked at them as she spoke, she spent most of her time staring at the three empty chairs between them.
"As you all know, copies of the Tragona Faction's files were left on Peacemillion2 when you left seventeen days ago. Because of the staff on the Peacemillion2, they were able to decipher information our tech.s' were cracking faster than we could. As of ten o'clock last night, they had deciphered ninety percent of the information. That is what this meeting is about, Shinigami and Killashandra."
There was silence in the room for a moment, and instinctively he felt Trowa lean in towards his body, and Quatre did as well, shifting in his seat until he could feel Trowa's body heat. He shared a concerned glance with Trowa over Lady's use of Shingam's full name before he turned back to Lady Une, ready for the information she was about to give them on their children. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trowa nod for Lady to continue.
Another troubled breath and she did. Punching in a few buttons on the console, she brought up a holographic display of the human DNA structure. A color coded double helix turned on an invisible axes as it reached from the top of the table, three feet into the air above it. A few more buttons and another stood beside it, the design the same, the color sequence and consequently the genetic information, different.
She pointed to the first DNA strand, the one closest to Heero and Duo.
"This is Shinigami's DNA composite. The other is Killashandra's. Note that on the surface they look different but entirely human. Technically, to be human the DNA strand must be within five percent likeness to the Homosapiens species. As Newtypes, the five Gundam pilots just barely clock in at four point six, eight percent. Shinigami's DNA clocks in at eighty- five percent, fifteen percent deviation from human genetic information. Technically, Shinigami is not human."
There were murmurs as the four of them exchanged exclamations and Quatre tried to shake his head in denial.
Lady Une cleared her voice to gain their attention before continuing.
"As amazing as that sounds what is more amazing is Killashandra. She harbors only sixty five percent human DNA structuring. This means thirty- five percent of her genome is unknown to humans, and like Shinigami, any other species known to man."
"So what, you're trying to tell us is they're the children of aliens?" Duo tried to joke, it didn't work.
Lady Une shook her head. "The children are in fact not unlike yourselves. Quatre, as an empath, you're DNA exhibits a change of almost the full five percent, nearly four tenths more than Heero, even though we know he was engineered." Quatre nodded absently as he saw Duo shift in Heero's lap to wrap his arms about his lover's neck, offering comfort for the reminder. "Your genetic mutations were unplanned and simply a process of evolution. The changes in the children's systems are overall minute, but the sequence changes in their DNA are amazing. It's as if evolution took a ten thousand year jump with each of them."
He didn't realize he was doing it, didn't know he was shaking until Trowa swung his chair towards him and placed a warm hand on his knee. He offered a weak smile in thanks and then looked to Lady Une to continue.
"The title these children were given, the title of the project they were created under, was well labeled. "NEO" is an acronym and also a word meaning 'new.' The acronym stands for "Newtype Excellence Organism." Meaning, a step above the five of you, a step above the most advanced humans in the universe.
"I'll explain how that is so, and also what the genetic differences are in each child. We'll start with Shinigami." Pressing a few buttons on the console, Shingam's DNA was enlarged, and the strand sifted downwards, a swirl of color as the program sought out the genetic sequence Une was looking for. When it finally stopped and highlighted a sequence of code, it looked no different than any of the others. They looked pointedly at Lady to continue.
"Highlighted is the main difference in Shinigami's DNA, this accounts for nearly ten percent of the divergence from generally acceptable human DNA sequencing.
"What you are all looking at is the part of the sequence that controls metabolism and cell repair. You're not genetic biologists, and neither am I, so I'll let Sally explain." Gesturing to the tired blond woman, she took a seat next to Corinne and began conferring quietly with her as Sally stood and took her place.
She was so clinical in her delivery; none of the previous excitement lingered in her voice and that had even Duo paying strict attention.
"Highlighted for you is Shingam's metabolic sequencing. What you can't see is that his sequencing has been genetically altered. It would be impossible to consider that ten thousand years worth of evolution could happen in one child to this extent and then happen to Killashandra as well. Shingam's basic restructuring isn't unlike that of Heero's. As you know, Heero has an increased metabolic rate that allows his body to heal faster and more efficiently than most humans. For Heero, a broken bone takes weeks, not months to heal; for Shingam, it takes days."
There was silence in the room, and he felt his heart pause in absolute surprise and awe. Days instead of months? Shingam could break a bone in his leg and be walking perfectly on it in only a matter of days, it was incredible.
Sally continued. "There's more. Shingam's body has an extremely complex regeneration system. Every cell of the body, save nerve and brain cells have the ability to regenerate, to a certain extent. However, Shingam's body is amazingly unaffected by normal human constraints. For example, there is on record, a case where the scientist cut off Shingam's left hand- "
"WHAT!?" Standing, Quatre was held in check only by Trowa's fast reflexes and strong grip about his shoulders as he too stood in outrage. But in the most infuriating way, Sally seemed unaffected by Quatre's outburst and continued talking after a moment.
"In two weeks, the hand had completely grown back." She paused so they could grasp the enormity of what they'd just been told. "Certain animals have the ability to regenerate lost limbs, not humans, however, Shingam can. In only a week he had the basic hand form regenerated, and the fingers and mobility returned by the end of week two. This regeneration is faster than any complex animal known to man."
Heero's voice was awed as he spoke. "How is that possible?"
Sally shrugged her shoulders. "It's complicated, but it's all there in his genetic code. The scientists also left a detailed log of the children's genetic alterations. With the information provided, we could do it again, redesign humans to regenerate severed limbs in days. It's the next step in human evolution." Her voice drew quiet then, as if she was mentally cringing even as she was excited.
"That-that's incredible." Trowa's tone spoke in simple terms, the awe of the entire room.
Again Sally nodded, but a frown now marred her face. "Yes, but it didn't come without a price."
"What do you mean?" He knew his voice sounded frightened, he was. These weren't just nameless children they were talking about; these were the children he and Trowa were going to raise as their own.
"While regenerating, Shingam needs to consume mass quantities of food to fuel the regeneration. It's estimated that on average he consumed less than half a pound of food a day, while regenerating, he needed to consume at least ten. The cost is explained in the notes the scientists left. They gave Shingam and Killashandra ten pounds of food a day when they did the hand experiment. Shingam was forced to consume all the food, to regenerate and take care of Killashandra. For a little over two weeks, Killashandra starved so Shingam could eat."
He wanted to cry, to scream in frustration and kill the bastards that had hurt his children. He'd make them pay, they'd suffer more than The Great One would ever forgive him for.
"Shingam's metabolism affords him something that has never been seen before in any species known to man. It's the stuff of scientific horror stories. When Shingam's body is damaged, the repair his cells do to the damaged area increased that areas strength and overall performance by half a percent. What that means is if he were hit in the same muscle two hundred times, the muscle would be one hundred percent stronger than it had been before. The scientists knew this, which is why they beat Shingam so often; because if they did, he got physically stronger. Their research showed there were unknown limits on Shingam's strength. He could potentially grow strong enough to lift a bus. As it is, his strength is listed as being able to lift one hundred pounds-with one hand."
There weren't words to express his feelings. Those men created this little boy knowing that they were going to beat him everyday so he would one day be strong enough to flatten Gundanium with his fingers. This wasn't possible, this type of thing didn't really happen. But it had, it had happened to a little boy that Quatre found himself loving as his own. They would all pay for what they'd done to his son.
Trowa tried to comfort him, and he gripped Trowa's hand tightly, trying to ground himself enough to hear the rest, there was still more, five more percent to discuss, and then Killa.
Sally depressed yet more buttons on the console and the double helix of Shingam's DNA shifted, spiraling down before finally stopping at another indiscernible collections of acids.
"This is Shingam's mental center, specifically the part of the brain that is currently unknown. We just figured out what it does. Telepathy. We know Shingam and Killashandra use it, and here's the proof. His mind is set up so that he can receive telepathic signals, but only ones that are originated by Killashandra. They're linked, on a genetic level. You already knew that, but what you don't know is this." Again the image shifted. "This represents the area of the brain that feels pain. Pain receptors run all through the human body, and Shingam's is no exception. But there's a difference. Where most people's pain receptors lead into a centralized pain center that cause people to drop something that's hot, or run if they're scared, Shingam has no central processor, instead it's imbedded in his link to Killashandra. In simple terms, Shingam doesn't feel his own pain, Killashandra does. Every hit, every blow, she feels it like it were her own."
He heard, "Oh my God," from Duo. Again he was too stunned to comment. All the beatings, all the pain Shingam's small body had been through, Killa was the one to feel it, all of it. It explained things, why Shingam was able to fight even when the pain would have caused a normal person to pass out; Killa was receiving the pain instead, filtered from Shingam to herself. But why?
"Why?" He heard himself say it out loud.
Sally nodded and then shifted from Shingam's DNA strand to Killashandra's.
"The highlighted area is what amasses thirty percent of Killashandra's genetic alterations. Her telepathic center is over a hundred times larger than Shingam's, and we believe that is how she managed to communicate with you, Quatre, through hundreds of thousands of miles of space. Her range is uncharted. Also her empathic centers are nearly seventy-five percent larger than yours are as well. She feels and senses emotions that humans probably don't even know exist. The scientific logs have an account where Shingam told Dorothy that Killa could 'hear Mars laughing,' the conclusion was drawn that the planet was reacting to the teraforming happening on the surface. Do you understand the ramifications of this? Killashandra has expressed through Shingam a knowledge of inanimate objects exhibiting emotional states. This single fact threatens to undo the way we see the world. She could prove that everything we thought was true about life is actually entirely false. But there's still more.
"Along with her empathy, she also exhibits telepathy with animals as well as humans. Experiments were done where a well trained dog was issued mental commands by Killashandra, and it did the tricks it was supposed to, along with some it didn't know, supposedly one's Killashandra had taught it for her own amusement."
"Star." Trowa's voice was barley above a whisper, his pain running deep. Their little kitten had taken so well to Killa from the very beginning. More than once Quatre had wondered at the easy attachment the two had formed. Now, it seemed he knew.
He tucked an errant strand of Trowa's auburn hair behind his ear, startling Trowa before his partner met his eyes. There was so much pain in his eyes, so much agony and yet amazement. Shingam and Killashandra had braved so much, been through so much, survived so much, it was like a physical pain to know all they'd been through at such a young age. Quatre felt as if he'd suffered the beatings with Shingam, and experienced the pain with Killashandra. And the joy Killa had felt by playing with that silly old mirror. Could she sense past emotions from it? Could she sense the joy he himself had had while playing with it nearly twenty years ago? And he knew he and Trowa both could understand Shingam's relief, final blissful relief at never going hungry again. They'd been through so much, he and Trowa would make sure they never suffered again.
But Sally was sitting down, and once again Lady Une took her place at the front of the table. Again she brought up the hologram of both Shingam and Killashandra's DNA, so that they slowly twisted, side by side.
"There are a few more things you need to know about Killashandra and Shinigami's physicality. The now highlighted sections on both of their strands indicate their reproduction centers. As you know, pheromones are what animals use to attract a mate, chemicals released by the body to express sexual peak. Individual species, including humans, have very specialized pheromones and receptors, indigenous to that species. This is why bees aren't sexually attracted to flies, and why birds are not to humans.
"Shinigami and Killashandra, likewise have very specialized pheromones and receptors. They are only sexually attracted to each other." She paused at the gasps they gave. "Further examination of the scientific notes indicate they were created that way.
"Shinigami's sperm cells require a certain chemical before they can fertilize an egg; as does Killashandra's eggs. They release that chemical for each other. To put it bluntly, Shinigami can only reproduce with Killashandra, and Killashandra can only reproduce with Shinigami. There is a zero possibility for them to reproduce with other partners. However, this doesn't seem to be a problem-"
"What the hell do you mean, 'not a problem'? Those fucking scientists messed up their entire lives! How can you say that!?" Duo was livid, he struggled in Heero's grasp, and Quatre could see the tears threatening at the corners of his eyes.
But Lady Une was shaking her head. "You don't understand. Shinigami and Killashandra have been genetically programmed to mate together. Through their construction, a child born from Shinigami and Killashandra will be less than fifty percent human, and possess the genetic alterations of both parents. Their child will have Shinigami's strength and Killashandra's telepathic and empathic abilities, as well as new ones that we can't even begin to guess at. That is the purpose of their mating. To ensure that they don't seek partners elsewhere, both of them have been programmed to desire the other. In other words, Killashandra will eventually grow to be Shinigami's dream girl, while Shinigami will be Killashandra's dream boy. They will never know any other way, they have literally been made for each other."
"What?! You think that makes it right? That everything's better now? Fuck that!"
"No Duo, I don't think it's right. But I thank God the children will never know any other way. Already they exhibit signs of a mated pair. Animals that mate, that bond for life, protect their mates no matter what, which is exactly what Shinigami is doing with Killashandra, and exactly what Killashandra seems to be doing with Shinigami. They'll grow up knowing they're going to be together, for them, there has to be at least some comfort in that."
And Quatre had to agree. The children would never wonder who to date, never fear rejection. They'd slip past all the horrors of being a teenager, simply knowing when the time is right to start a family of their own. A.family.of their.own.
His voice was quiet when he asked. "What's their function? Why did the scientists spend so much time and resources on them? And who did this?" His tone was like steel at the last question.
But Lady only nodded and answered his questions. "Their function was to work as assassins. There are logs of Killashandra being connected to the Zero-"
"To the Zero?" His voice shook with the rest of him as he asked, Trowa's hand squeezing his own.
"I'm sorry to say yes. There are records of Killashandra being connected to the Zero System for days."
"Oh God."
"It seems as if her function was to act as a relay to Shinigami. With his advanced metabolic rate, he made the perfect assassin, not unlike Heero." She paused, a sad expression on her face as she looked at the once assassin now simply man. "Shinigami was created to perform his namesake, to be the God of Death, and kill those Killashandra and the Tragona Faction told him too."
"They'll die slowly for this." Heero's voice was calm, collected, and completely serious. As an assassin, he'd been taught to kill quickly and ask no questions. But over the years he'd sworn off killing and taken on emotions instead. However in that one sentence, it was as if all the years since the war had disappeared, and the Perfect Soldier was once again among them. Duo wrapped his arms about Heero's neck and took a deep breath, holding it, trying not to cry in agony for the children.
Lady Une looked stricken and at her wits end, she looked from one set of couples to the other and then noticeably had to wipe her eyes before continuing.
"With Killashandra's ability to telepathically link with Shinigami over any distance, they could keep her at their base as a hostage for Shinigami to do what he was told. Connecting her to the Zero System allowed Killashandra to see the many different possibilities Shinigami needed to see, without incapacitating him to the point where he couldn't function. Killashandra acted as a buffer and Shinigami was to be the unstoppable assassin.
"This however does not mean that Killashandra was not without her.tactical uses to the faction. There is video footage of Killashandra being alone with a scientist in a room with her. The man was explaining, systematically, how he planned to beat Shinigami.and rape him." She paused as the room cringed in horror and terror. "There is no evidence that either one of the children were sexually abused, and I think it's safe to say that that was one atrocity not inflicted upon them." At their silent thanks to their gods, she continued. "As the man was becoming more and more graphic the vid show's him beginning to sway and clutching his head in pain. There is about two more minutes of footage before the man screams and falls to the floor with a seizure. The scientists concluded that Killashandra had literally killed him with her mind. I have to remind you all of her namesake, 'Killer of the mind.'
"As for Shinigami, there is also footage of him killing, more than once, usually in defense. There are at least five disks of Shinigami killing one of the men beating him, or threatening Killashandra. And while there's no footage, there is a documented case of a mission the faction sent him on where Killashandra directed him, and he killed an unknown target.
"We've ascertained that the children were to bring about a new life, a new world. Recall that their tub dates are close to the end of the war, and in Killashandra's case, after. We don't know who is running the faction now, but we know who was." She paused to take a breath, and Quatre could feel her pain at revealing this detail. "Dekem Barton. He started the Tragona Faction as a way to back Marieminna's army to take over the world. The children were designed to be her ultimate assassins." There was such pain in her voice, such agony in her admission. Quatre knew what he had to say.
"This has nothing to do with Marieminna." Lady Une looked startled for a moment, and he realized quickly that she'd believed they'd blame the little red haired girl. "None of the things that happened to her are her fault, anymore than they are Shingam's and Killashandra's. He did this to them, destroyed one childhood after another for his own gains; they were nothing but pawns. May he rot in Hell for eternity."
"I know he is, Quatre. I know he his."
Heero's voice was still cold when he spoke. "So the children were designed to assassinate anyone that Dekem and his successor in the faction saw as a threat. I assume they were made to watch the Zero files to learn our combat skills so they could kill us as well." Lady Une only nodded. "Then the children are not safe until we discover who Barton's successor is and kill him." No emotion, only cold death, determination to end life and not give a damn about it.
Duo spoke calmly to his lover. "But Heero, if the kids are with Trowa and Quatre, then they're pretty safe. At least this bastard can't get to them here."
"But for how long?" This was Trowa, and it didn't take any of Quatre's empathic abilities to know how frightened he was that something would happen to their children.
"We can't think like that, Beloved. Shingam and Killashandra are our children now, and we have to protect them at all costs! He'll never get to them, never touch them again! He'll never hurt our children again, Trowa. I swear it!" His face and mind were so determined he didn't catch the sickening look on all the faces in the room save his, Trowa's, Heero's and Duo's.
"Quatre." He turned to regard Corinne. She'd been silent the entire night, and he nodded in her direction, fearful but curious as to what her role in this was to be. "All of you." She looked pointedly at all of them for a moment before taking a deep breath. "There is one more thing that I asked Lady Une not to mention until after she'd told you the rest. I want you all to understand that this information will be hard for you to believe, and very hard for you to adjust too. Sally has run three separate tests and confirmed with one hundred percent accuracy the information the faction stated and I'm about to tell you. Please understand that I'm here for you all to talk too, as well as other-"
"Get to the point." This from Heero.
She swallowed, and Quatre felt his stomach knot. "The crew of the Peacemillion2 thought it would be a wonderful gift, to find the parents of both Shinigami and Killashandra by the holiday. To that end they tackled that problem first. The information they discovered was so unthinkable and impossible to current medical capabilities that they scrapped their findings as errors. Nearly the very last decoded piece of information proved their insane theories correct."
Moving to take Lady Une's place, Corinne pushed a few buttons and displayed four more sets of DNA, these floated above Shingam's and Killashandra's; two strands per child. Quatre felt his heart clench, the children had parents, he was going to have to give them up. He squeezed Trowa's hand at the realization, and felt Trowa's return squeeze as he too figured out what Corinne was getting at.
She turned to look sadly at Duo and Heero. "Based on decoded information and tube data, along with five separate and independent paternity tests, it has been proven that Shinigami is in fact Heero's son." She didn't mean to pause, that was evident, but as they watched, the color drained out of Heero's face completely and he visibly began to shake. There was no need to question, they all knew the accuracy of modern paternity tests. Heero was Shingam's father.
Stunned himself, Duo said the first thing that came to his mind. "I knew it."
Heero managed to look at him, a sick expression on his face. "What do you mean, you knew it?" There was desperation to understand in Heero's voice and Duo had no choice but to comply.
"He has your look, I noticed it that very first day." At Heero's confused expression, Duo chuckled in the absence of mirth. "You know, that look you have that reads, 'I'm going to kill you.' When I was talking to Shingam that very first day, he gave me that look. I was so stunned, I thought it must have been my imagination. But he's done it since then, and I just assumed he'd picked it up from you somewhere. I mean he's always looking up to you, always looking for your approval." His sentence died away as Heero buried his face in Duo's chest. "Heero?"
There were tears in his voice when he spoke, and though Quatre felt immense pain at losing Shingam to Heero, he couldn't help but feel Heero's pain as well.
"I missed it, Duo. I missed his entire life. I missed everything." He paused as Duo began to stroke his hair, as the braided man looked to the ceiling for answers and to push back his own tears. When Heero began again, they all felt his raw hatred. "They hurt him. They hurt my son. I'll kill them. I'll kill them all."
Duo stroked the unruly mass of dark brown hair. "Yes Heero. We'll make them pay. I swear it. We'll make them pay for hurting our son."
And then it was like all the pieces falling into place. Shingam's stony eyes, his calm almost emotionless demeanor, his dark brown hair that never seemed to do what it was supposed to do. He was small, tiny really, but no less imposing than the man who was his father. And Quatre could see it now, could see Heero inside Shingam. And some part of him guessed that Shingam knew exactly who his father was as well.
He spoke without thinking. "He knows. Shingam knows Heero is his father."
Suddenly, Heero sat up, staring directly at Quatre, his eyes red rimmed from repressed tears. "What do you mean? How do you know? If so why didn't he tell me?"
"He was acting strangely tonight. After Duo got upset, he asked me if you and Duo were going to adopt a child, and I told him that's what you wanted to do, to raise a child as your own. He seemed so sad, as if he'd just lost something. He knows, Heero. I don't know why he didn't tell us, but he knows, and he was sad at the thought that you were going to replace him."
"I would never replace him!" Heero growled, Duo's position on his lap the only thing keeping him from jumping out of the chair and coming after Quatre in that moment.
Trowa intervened. "Quatre knows that Heero, but Shingam doesn't." Quatre could sense the pain in Trowa now, so very much like his own. Trowa was hurting; they'd been ready to raise Shingam as their own.
Quatre watched the fight drain from Heero as he slumped back into his seat. "I'm sorry, Quatre."
He nodded. "Don't be. I understand."
"This is crazy! How's it possible? Unless I'm seriously mistaken I doubt Heero went to the Tragona Faction's secret base in 195 and took his plastic cup and porn magazine into the little white room." Duo continued to run his fingers through Heero's hair, offering comfort to his partner as he tried to figure out with his still rational mind what was going on.
But Corinne was shaking her head, and Quatre suddenly remembered she hadn't been finished when Heero had interrupted her.
"There's more information you need to know."
Trying to make light of the situation, Duo joked. "Oh Lord in Heaven, please tell me Relena isn't Shingam's mother. I don't think I could take that."
Corinne's expression remained serious. "She isn't."
"Thank God!"
"But you are his other father."
Other father.
There was complete silence in the room for about five seconds, then all hell broke lose.
"What are you talking about?" Duo whispered.
"That's impossible!" Quatre felt the panic rise in his voice, he knew there was no way that could be possible.
"There must be some kind of mistake." There was force in Trowa's tone, as if he couldn't believe it, wouldn't allow himself to take it in.
"There is no way for Duo and I to have produced a son together." Still shaken by his earlier revelation, Heero was almost whimpering.
"Please, all of you, calm down, I'll try my best to explain-"
Now Duo was angry. "You'll do more than your best! You call us in here and drop a bomb like this at eleven thirty at night! I don't know what the hell's wrong with you, but at least give us a story that makes sense! Now there is no possible way Shingam could be my son and Heero's at the same time! Life doesn't work that way! God may be merciful, but he didn't sanction couples like Heero and I, there's no fucking way!" Pulling him tightly against his chest, Heero did all that he could to calm Duo down.
"I know this is very hard for you to accept, even believe, but I swear to you that it's true."
Quatre cut her off. "There's no way it could be true. I'd know! I spent billions on research to find a way, employed the top genetic engineers. It's impossible to breed between sexes in a species."
But Corinne only sadly shook her head. "They found a way, Quatre. Genetic manipulation and crossbreeding, and they found a way."
"How?! You tell me that, Corinne! How in the universe did they do it?!"
But in only one word, one name, Trowa's frightened voice changed his life forever.
"Killashandra."
Again, Corinne's sad eyes were turned in his and Trowa's direction. "She's yours Trowa, yours and Quatre's. In spirit as much as body, she is your daughter."
So few words, such small words that amounted to so much. Quatre felt his body tense at her words, before he slumped into his chair, his eyes staring off into space as he considered them. It wasn't possible.
He heard Trowa whimper beside him, and immediately he sprang into action. Rising quickly he pulled Trowa out of his chair only to return to his own seat, pulling Trowa to sit squarely on his lap. They were going to get through this together, they had to.
"It isn't possible." He heard his own voice, small and scared as he rubbed large circles into Trowa's back.
"Quatre," he lifted his head to make eye contact with Trowa, there he saw tears, tears of painful acceptance. "She looks just like you."
He felt pressure on the link from Trowa's side, and immediately dropped all shields. Their agony melted into each other, pressing upon the other, while questions were asked and answered through their shared knowledge.
He sensed Trowa's remembered awe at the sight of the small girl being clutched in his arms as he descended from the elevator shaft in the Tragona Faction's headquarters; she with delicate and familiar features. Quatre felt his own recognition of her clear crystal green eyes and remembered how familiar they were, how much like Trowa's her eyes had been. Her silent way, so much like Trowa's, but her empathic abilities staggeringly like his own. The way she'd clung to him, cried out across space for him, the easy attachment she'd formed with Trowa almost from the first day, the crazy and immediate way they'd been willing to open up their lives to her and Shingam. It hit him with the force of a train; Killashandra was their daughter.
The tears fell from his eyes unnoticed as he turned to Corinne, tucking Trowa's head into the crook of his neck. His voice was thick with pain and amazement, "H-how?"
Corinne tried to speak but was interrupted.
"I'd know. I'd know if I had a son. I'd know." Duo shook slightly in Heero's arms, his words irrational, but no less meaningful. Every person wanted to believe that if a part of them existed, they'd know about it. Heero absently stroked his hair, looking but not seeing, towards Corinne, listening.
"The only requirement for genetic engineering is a blood sample. Towards the beginning of the war, when Sally still worked for OZ, Heero was captured and tested on. During his capture, it was determined he was a Gundam pilot; samples of his blood was drawn for then unknown purposes." Heero's face looked completely stricken.
"Towards the middle of the war, around July, two more pilots were captured, Duo and Wufei. During their processing, blood was drawn for future DNA matching." Duo seemed to collapse into himself, clinging desperately to Heero, his breathing hard and unstable. Close to him, Sally clutched at Wufei's hand as the proud man seemed to buckle into himself.
"Trowa's blood samples were taken when he enrolled as an OZ officer to work undercover. It was standard procedure." In his arms, Trowa shook madly, and Quatre reached out with mental touches to ease his lover's suffering.
He looked at Corinne. "But don't you see, this can't be possible. My identity as a pilot was never discovered, not until the end of the war. Even then, OZ never obtain a blood sample from me. When Heero and I were captured, we were taken to a barely functioning camp, there wasn't even a medical tent, let alone a physician." He was desperate, though he believed that Killashandra might be his, there was still a rational part of his mind that refused to accept the impossible.
With more sadness then she'd previously shown, Corinne shook her head. "It's on file, Quatre, that the reason Dorothy was recruited by the Tragona Faction was because she possessed two things they required. One was the only copy of the Zero System, the other was because she possessed the foil used to run the last remaining pilot through with."
In dawning realization, his hand moved involuntarily to cover the scar on his abdomen. The foil she'd stabbed him with, his blood on the foil.
"By the way, how is that old wound?"
Dorothy had done this; she'd traded in his secrets, handed over his essence.
"By Allah." He clutched Trowa more tightly to him and felt his partner shift to stroke his hair, comforting him.
"This is all fucking nuts! Why? Why go through so much trouble?! Even if it were possible, it doesn't make any sense!" Duo was struggling to stand, and only Heero's sure grip kept the outraged youth in his seat. "There has to be a mistake! I'd know if I had a son, I'd know it!"
Corinne's voice was soft as she spoke. "The five of you are all Newtypes. Only Newtypes have the ability to pilot machines like the Gundams. Instead of wasting valuable time searching for other unknown Newtypes, the faction decided to simply take what was known. Heero's already possessed healing abilities made him an excellent candidate, and gave the scientists a base to work with when constructing Shingam."
Heero's deadly voice cut her off. "Don't you dare talk about him like he's a thing. He's my son." Possessiveness and pain radiated off of him, and Duo turned to soothe him and kiss his temple.
"I'm sorry, Heero. I didn't mean it that way." She paused before continuing. "When Duo and Wufei were captured they had the next set of DNA that they needed and immediately set about meshing Duo's DNA with the gaps left from Heero's."
Duo cut her off. "But that makes no sense? Why not Wufei? Why me? And as long as they were being picky, why not Trowa's? He was already in their data banks before I was captured."
"It was discovered that Trowa wasn't considered a pilot until after his supposed death at the hands of Wing Zero." Quatre shivered and Trowa nuzzled him softly. "They didn't know at the time he was a Newtype, let alone a pilot, they only looked into after Nekol started talking about him, after his supposed death."
"Fine, that explains, Trowa, but what about Wufei? Why did they need the fifth pilot? Why wait to get Quatre's DNA? They had four sets, that was plenty. They had to have waited nearly three months between discovering Trowa's identity and getting Quatre's DNA? Why not create a child from Wufei and Trowa?"
It was Wufei that answered, not Corinne. His posture was that of a defeated man, and Quatre felt tears slip from his eyes as he watched Wufei struggle with his own.
"Low on time, the scientists decided to stick with the DNA samples of myself, you and Heero. They designed Shinigami using yours and Heero's, and then attempted a child.using yours and mine, resigned to knowing they'd have to facilitate a conception due to the shared DNA. That child was conceived only hours after Shinigami. Her tube date was one day after Shinigami's. Her genetics were considered unstable.she died five minutes out of the tube." Tears fell from Wufei's eyes as he continued. "She was given no name. In her honor I have named her, Nataku." Sally stood then, wrapping Wufei tightly in her arms and holding him for dear life. The unshakable Wufei sobbed quietly for his lost daughter.
".no." There wasn't a word to describe Duo's pain. Large tears fell from unblinking eyes as he stared into space. ".it can't be.I'd know.I'd know."
Heero tucked Duo's head into his shoulder and began to rock him softly back and forth; soft murmurs of comfort falling like a prayer for the dead from his lips.
Pained, but knowing she had to, Corinne continued. "It was decided that Wufei was an unacceptable donor for the experiment. They decided to wait for the other two pilots, or at least one more.
"When Quatre's Gundam self-destructed on Earth, they believed their chances of obtaining all five sets of DNA were gone, thinking 04 dead. However, with the appearance of Wing Zero they realized that 04 was indeed alive, and more than that, capable of controlling a machine more sophisticated than any they'd ever seen before. Efforts to find the DNA of 04 increased.
"When Trowa was discovered to be a Gundam pilot, the scientists decided to hold out for 04, believing that 04's increased abilities would be an asset to the child they hoped to also train to use the Zero System. Furthermore, they'd decided facilitating a birth between Shinigami and the new child would be counterproductive, they were going to wait for four separate strands of DNA.
"They learned about Dorothy's Zero System battle with the then infamous 04, and resolved themselves to wait for his genetic information. Quatre's control over the Zero System was exactly what they were looking for.
"After the final battle, Dorothy was picked up by Dekem Barton. It was his hope that she knew who the final pilot was. When he found her, records show she still had the bloodied foil clutched in her hand. Then they'd had all they needed to know." Corinne stopped, sitting in an abandoned chair.
Heero spoke softly. "Is there more?"
Lady Une answered.
"Not at this time."
Heero nodded, but Quatre didn't see it.
"What now?" His voice shook as he asked.
Duo interrupted her answer. "Heero?" It was such a small sound, so lost and frightened. "They hurt him, Heero. They hurt him all the time. They took his tiny body and hurt him. Why didn't I know, Heero? Why couldn't I feel it? He's my son! He's my son! WHY?! WHY DID I FEEL IT AND SAVE HIM? WHY?!" Hysterical, Duo struggled in Heero's arms, desperately trying to break free. "And my daughter! How could I not have known?! How could I not have know!? Heero!"
Fiercely protective arms tugged Duo forward, and he went, pinned to Heero's chest as his partner tried with all that he was to soothe him.
"We didn't know. None of us knew. We just didn't know, Koi. We just didn't know."
He felt a sob escape Trowa. "They killed her, Quatre. You said they did. They killed her. And the pain, all Shingam's pain.oh God."
He held Trowa close, held him as close as humanly possible as he shook and stared into nothing. Killashandra was his daughter. He knew of the tortures she'd been through. Shingam's pain, starvation, verbal abuse, and death, a cold and terrifying death only to be revived to have it happen all over again. They'd hurt his child, his daughter, his baby. They'd hurt his baby girl. He'd kill them a-"
Suddenly they all sat up at attention. Trowa stiffened in his arms, as he too sat straight up in his chair. Next to him, Duo's tears stopped dead, and he and Heero looked to the heavens with the rest of them.
In the distance the church bells tolled the midnight hour.
Bmmm, one.
Bmmm, two.
Bmmm, three.
Bmmm, four.
Bmmm, five.
Bmmm, six.
Bmmm, seven.
Bmmm, eight.
Bmmm, nine.
Bmmm, ten.
Bmmm, eleven.
Bmmm, twelve.
Lady's voice was quiet and reserved, pained and sorrowful, but with an underlying cord of hope and closure. It was done.
"Merry Christmas, my pilots."
Finally, Quatre sat straight up and looked around the dark room. He glanced at the lit clock display, eleven thirty. Listening intently, he quickly realized the beeping was coming from the communications relay set up for emergencies. Shaking his partner he tried to rouse Trowa.
"Trowa, it's the alarm."
Trowa mumbled. "Too early, turn it off."
Quatre would have chuckled at the cuteness of Trowa when woken up, except this was serious. "Trowa, it's the base alarm."
Instantly, Trowa was awake and sitting up, listening with Quatre for the message.
"01, 02, 03, 04, report to the ready room immediately! Repeat, 01, 02, 03, 04, report to the ready room immediately!" Then there was more beeping and finally, silence. By the silence he and Trowa were already out of bed and searching the closet for something to wear to a Christmas Eve emergency.
* * *
"This had better be good, Lady. You interrupted some serious moaning, and it was my turn to be on top!"
Quatre smirked as Duo promptly situated himself onto Heero's lap, effectively remaining on top. He glanced back at Trowa and together they walked through the door to take their seats. They were the last to arrive, both of them hating the idea of leaving the children alone, but neither one wanting to wake them. It was a parent's worst fear, not to be there when their children needed them. They'd decided to take the risk and hope the children would sleep for as long as the debriefing took.
Sally and Wufei sat at their customary seats. The room was designed like a circle, all around the round room were monitors. In the center was a desk that directed all the monitors including a holographic unit that projected to hover above the desk. Facing the desk that Lady Une sat at the head of, were Quatre and Trowa to the right, and three chairs from Quatre's left sat Heero and Duo; Sally and Wufei were an empty chair and to the left of Duo, while the newly aquatinted Corinne sat three chairs over from Trowa's right.
The chairs would have been comfortable, but as Quatre sat he felt the tension emanating from Lady, Sally, Wufei and Corinne. Some unacknowledged part of his mind had him reaching out and holding onto Trowa's hand. He ignored Trowa's questioning expression; something drastic was about to happen.
Duo must have sensed it as well. "Hey, this isn't going to ruin Christmas is it, 'cause Heero and I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and I know we're not the only one's." He smiled to an unresponsive Wufei and Sally.
In a strange way, Lady Une stared at the chairs between the two sets of lovers. She seemed to take a deep breath, and squared her shoulders, before letting it out in a calming breath. She had Quatre on edge immediately.
He glanced at Corinne and saw a frown marring her delicate features. Sally looked tense and stressed, and Wufei looked depressed and withdrawn. The two newly awaiting parents seemed connected only by the hands they held, instead of the spirit from early that night. Quatre squeezed Trowa's hand before pulling it to his side of the armrest, idly running his thumb over the back of it.
Lady's voice was quite but authoritative, broaching no room for deviation.
"This will be perhaps, the hardest meeting I've ever had to conduct; and perhaps the hardest information I've ever had to give to people I care about." She paused, making eye contact with first Heero and Duo, and then himself and Trowa. "Because of the nature of this information, I ask that you be patient while I explain what I know. Furthermore, I'd appreciate as few interruptions as possible, though I know you'll have questions that demand answers. I'll try to give the information so that it makes as much sense as possible. Hopefully in a half an hour you'll know as much as we do.
"I will be giving the majority of the report, but will ask for Sally's expertise when necessary. Is that understood?" Like dumb men they all nodded weakly. "Good. Let's begin." It was as if she was trying to prepare herself, cueing herself to go to the next step in a painful speech she wished she didn't have to deliver. Quatre felt immediately sorry for her, and immediately afraid.
Again her voice was calm, and though she looked at them as she spoke, she spent most of her time staring at the three empty chairs between them.
"As you all know, copies of the Tragona Faction's files were left on Peacemillion2 when you left seventeen days ago. Because of the staff on the Peacemillion2, they were able to decipher information our tech.s' were cracking faster than we could. As of ten o'clock last night, they had deciphered ninety percent of the information. That is what this meeting is about, Shinigami and Killashandra."
There was silence in the room for a moment, and instinctively he felt Trowa lean in towards his body, and Quatre did as well, shifting in his seat until he could feel Trowa's body heat. He shared a concerned glance with Trowa over Lady's use of Shingam's full name before he turned back to Lady Une, ready for the information she was about to give them on their children. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trowa nod for Lady to continue.
Another troubled breath and she did. Punching in a few buttons on the console, she brought up a holographic display of the human DNA structure. A color coded double helix turned on an invisible axes as it reached from the top of the table, three feet into the air above it. A few more buttons and another stood beside it, the design the same, the color sequence and consequently the genetic information, different.
She pointed to the first DNA strand, the one closest to Heero and Duo.
"This is Shinigami's DNA composite. The other is Killashandra's. Note that on the surface they look different but entirely human. Technically, to be human the DNA strand must be within five percent likeness to the Homosapiens species. As Newtypes, the five Gundam pilots just barely clock in at four point six, eight percent. Shinigami's DNA clocks in at eighty- five percent, fifteen percent deviation from human genetic information. Technically, Shinigami is not human."
There were murmurs as the four of them exchanged exclamations and Quatre tried to shake his head in denial.
Lady Une cleared her voice to gain their attention before continuing.
"As amazing as that sounds what is more amazing is Killashandra. She harbors only sixty five percent human DNA structuring. This means thirty- five percent of her genome is unknown to humans, and like Shinigami, any other species known to man."
"So what, you're trying to tell us is they're the children of aliens?" Duo tried to joke, it didn't work.
Lady Une shook her head. "The children are in fact not unlike yourselves. Quatre, as an empath, you're DNA exhibits a change of almost the full five percent, nearly four tenths more than Heero, even though we know he was engineered." Quatre nodded absently as he saw Duo shift in Heero's lap to wrap his arms about his lover's neck, offering comfort for the reminder. "Your genetic mutations were unplanned and simply a process of evolution. The changes in the children's systems are overall minute, but the sequence changes in their DNA are amazing. It's as if evolution took a ten thousand year jump with each of them."
He didn't realize he was doing it, didn't know he was shaking until Trowa swung his chair towards him and placed a warm hand on his knee. He offered a weak smile in thanks and then looked to Lady Une to continue.
"The title these children were given, the title of the project they were created under, was well labeled. "NEO" is an acronym and also a word meaning 'new.' The acronym stands for "Newtype Excellence Organism." Meaning, a step above the five of you, a step above the most advanced humans in the universe.
"I'll explain how that is so, and also what the genetic differences are in each child. We'll start with Shinigami." Pressing a few buttons on the console, Shingam's DNA was enlarged, and the strand sifted downwards, a swirl of color as the program sought out the genetic sequence Une was looking for. When it finally stopped and highlighted a sequence of code, it looked no different than any of the others. They looked pointedly at Lady to continue.
"Highlighted is the main difference in Shinigami's DNA, this accounts for nearly ten percent of the divergence from generally acceptable human DNA sequencing.
"What you are all looking at is the part of the sequence that controls metabolism and cell repair. You're not genetic biologists, and neither am I, so I'll let Sally explain." Gesturing to the tired blond woman, she took a seat next to Corinne and began conferring quietly with her as Sally stood and took her place.
She was so clinical in her delivery; none of the previous excitement lingered in her voice and that had even Duo paying strict attention.
"Highlighted for you is Shingam's metabolic sequencing. What you can't see is that his sequencing has been genetically altered. It would be impossible to consider that ten thousand years worth of evolution could happen in one child to this extent and then happen to Killashandra as well. Shingam's basic restructuring isn't unlike that of Heero's. As you know, Heero has an increased metabolic rate that allows his body to heal faster and more efficiently than most humans. For Heero, a broken bone takes weeks, not months to heal; for Shingam, it takes days."
There was silence in the room, and he felt his heart pause in absolute surprise and awe. Days instead of months? Shingam could break a bone in his leg and be walking perfectly on it in only a matter of days, it was incredible.
Sally continued. "There's more. Shingam's body has an extremely complex regeneration system. Every cell of the body, save nerve and brain cells have the ability to regenerate, to a certain extent. However, Shingam's body is amazingly unaffected by normal human constraints. For example, there is on record, a case where the scientist cut off Shingam's left hand- "
"WHAT!?" Standing, Quatre was held in check only by Trowa's fast reflexes and strong grip about his shoulders as he too stood in outrage. But in the most infuriating way, Sally seemed unaffected by Quatre's outburst and continued talking after a moment.
"In two weeks, the hand had completely grown back." She paused so they could grasp the enormity of what they'd just been told. "Certain animals have the ability to regenerate lost limbs, not humans, however, Shingam can. In only a week he had the basic hand form regenerated, and the fingers and mobility returned by the end of week two. This regeneration is faster than any complex animal known to man."
Heero's voice was awed as he spoke. "How is that possible?"
Sally shrugged her shoulders. "It's complicated, but it's all there in his genetic code. The scientists also left a detailed log of the children's genetic alterations. With the information provided, we could do it again, redesign humans to regenerate severed limbs in days. It's the next step in human evolution." Her voice drew quiet then, as if she was mentally cringing even as she was excited.
"That-that's incredible." Trowa's tone spoke in simple terms, the awe of the entire room.
Again Sally nodded, but a frown now marred her face. "Yes, but it didn't come without a price."
"What do you mean?" He knew his voice sounded frightened, he was. These weren't just nameless children they were talking about; these were the children he and Trowa were going to raise as their own.
"While regenerating, Shingam needs to consume mass quantities of food to fuel the regeneration. It's estimated that on average he consumed less than half a pound of food a day, while regenerating, he needed to consume at least ten. The cost is explained in the notes the scientists left. They gave Shingam and Killashandra ten pounds of food a day when they did the hand experiment. Shingam was forced to consume all the food, to regenerate and take care of Killashandra. For a little over two weeks, Killashandra starved so Shingam could eat."
He wanted to cry, to scream in frustration and kill the bastards that had hurt his children. He'd make them pay, they'd suffer more than The Great One would ever forgive him for.
"Shingam's metabolism affords him something that has never been seen before in any species known to man. It's the stuff of scientific horror stories. When Shingam's body is damaged, the repair his cells do to the damaged area increased that areas strength and overall performance by half a percent. What that means is if he were hit in the same muscle two hundred times, the muscle would be one hundred percent stronger than it had been before. The scientists knew this, which is why they beat Shingam so often; because if they did, he got physically stronger. Their research showed there were unknown limits on Shingam's strength. He could potentially grow strong enough to lift a bus. As it is, his strength is listed as being able to lift one hundred pounds-with one hand."
There weren't words to express his feelings. Those men created this little boy knowing that they were going to beat him everyday so he would one day be strong enough to flatten Gundanium with his fingers. This wasn't possible, this type of thing didn't really happen. But it had, it had happened to a little boy that Quatre found himself loving as his own. They would all pay for what they'd done to his son.
Trowa tried to comfort him, and he gripped Trowa's hand tightly, trying to ground himself enough to hear the rest, there was still more, five more percent to discuss, and then Killa.
Sally depressed yet more buttons on the console and the double helix of Shingam's DNA shifted, spiraling down before finally stopping at another indiscernible collections of acids.
"This is Shingam's mental center, specifically the part of the brain that is currently unknown. We just figured out what it does. Telepathy. We know Shingam and Killashandra use it, and here's the proof. His mind is set up so that he can receive telepathic signals, but only ones that are originated by Killashandra. They're linked, on a genetic level. You already knew that, but what you don't know is this." Again the image shifted. "This represents the area of the brain that feels pain. Pain receptors run all through the human body, and Shingam's is no exception. But there's a difference. Where most people's pain receptors lead into a centralized pain center that cause people to drop something that's hot, or run if they're scared, Shingam has no central processor, instead it's imbedded in his link to Killashandra. In simple terms, Shingam doesn't feel his own pain, Killashandra does. Every hit, every blow, she feels it like it were her own."
He heard, "Oh my God," from Duo. Again he was too stunned to comment. All the beatings, all the pain Shingam's small body had been through, Killa was the one to feel it, all of it. It explained things, why Shingam was able to fight even when the pain would have caused a normal person to pass out; Killa was receiving the pain instead, filtered from Shingam to herself. But why?
"Why?" He heard himself say it out loud.
Sally nodded and then shifted from Shingam's DNA strand to Killashandra's.
"The highlighted area is what amasses thirty percent of Killashandra's genetic alterations. Her telepathic center is over a hundred times larger than Shingam's, and we believe that is how she managed to communicate with you, Quatre, through hundreds of thousands of miles of space. Her range is uncharted. Also her empathic centers are nearly seventy-five percent larger than yours are as well. She feels and senses emotions that humans probably don't even know exist. The scientific logs have an account where Shingam told Dorothy that Killa could 'hear Mars laughing,' the conclusion was drawn that the planet was reacting to the teraforming happening on the surface. Do you understand the ramifications of this? Killashandra has expressed through Shingam a knowledge of inanimate objects exhibiting emotional states. This single fact threatens to undo the way we see the world. She could prove that everything we thought was true about life is actually entirely false. But there's still more.
"Along with her empathy, she also exhibits telepathy with animals as well as humans. Experiments were done where a well trained dog was issued mental commands by Killashandra, and it did the tricks it was supposed to, along with some it didn't know, supposedly one's Killashandra had taught it for her own amusement."
"Star." Trowa's voice was barley above a whisper, his pain running deep. Their little kitten had taken so well to Killa from the very beginning. More than once Quatre had wondered at the easy attachment the two had formed. Now, it seemed he knew.
He tucked an errant strand of Trowa's auburn hair behind his ear, startling Trowa before his partner met his eyes. There was so much pain in his eyes, so much agony and yet amazement. Shingam and Killashandra had braved so much, been through so much, survived so much, it was like a physical pain to know all they'd been through at such a young age. Quatre felt as if he'd suffered the beatings with Shingam, and experienced the pain with Killashandra. And the joy Killa had felt by playing with that silly old mirror. Could she sense past emotions from it? Could she sense the joy he himself had had while playing with it nearly twenty years ago? And he knew he and Trowa both could understand Shingam's relief, final blissful relief at never going hungry again. They'd been through so much, he and Trowa would make sure they never suffered again.
But Sally was sitting down, and once again Lady Une took her place at the front of the table. Again she brought up the hologram of both Shingam and Killashandra's DNA, so that they slowly twisted, side by side.
"There are a few more things you need to know about Killashandra and Shinigami's physicality. The now highlighted sections on both of their strands indicate their reproduction centers. As you know, pheromones are what animals use to attract a mate, chemicals released by the body to express sexual peak. Individual species, including humans, have very specialized pheromones and receptors, indigenous to that species. This is why bees aren't sexually attracted to flies, and why birds are not to humans.
"Shinigami and Killashandra, likewise have very specialized pheromones and receptors. They are only sexually attracted to each other." She paused at the gasps they gave. "Further examination of the scientific notes indicate they were created that way.
"Shinigami's sperm cells require a certain chemical before they can fertilize an egg; as does Killashandra's eggs. They release that chemical for each other. To put it bluntly, Shinigami can only reproduce with Killashandra, and Killashandra can only reproduce with Shinigami. There is a zero possibility for them to reproduce with other partners. However, this doesn't seem to be a problem-"
"What the hell do you mean, 'not a problem'? Those fucking scientists messed up their entire lives! How can you say that!?" Duo was livid, he struggled in Heero's grasp, and Quatre could see the tears threatening at the corners of his eyes.
But Lady Une was shaking her head. "You don't understand. Shinigami and Killashandra have been genetically programmed to mate together. Through their construction, a child born from Shinigami and Killashandra will be less than fifty percent human, and possess the genetic alterations of both parents. Their child will have Shinigami's strength and Killashandra's telepathic and empathic abilities, as well as new ones that we can't even begin to guess at. That is the purpose of their mating. To ensure that they don't seek partners elsewhere, both of them have been programmed to desire the other. In other words, Killashandra will eventually grow to be Shinigami's dream girl, while Shinigami will be Killashandra's dream boy. They will never know any other way, they have literally been made for each other."
"What?! You think that makes it right? That everything's better now? Fuck that!"
"No Duo, I don't think it's right. But I thank God the children will never know any other way. Already they exhibit signs of a mated pair. Animals that mate, that bond for life, protect their mates no matter what, which is exactly what Shinigami is doing with Killashandra, and exactly what Killashandra seems to be doing with Shinigami. They'll grow up knowing they're going to be together, for them, there has to be at least some comfort in that."
And Quatre had to agree. The children would never wonder who to date, never fear rejection. They'd slip past all the horrors of being a teenager, simply knowing when the time is right to start a family of their own. A.family.of their.own.
His voice was quiet when he asked. "What's their function? Why did the scientists spend so much time and resources on them? And who did this?" His tone was like steel at the last question.
But Lady only nodded and answered his questions. "Their function was to work as assassins. There are logs of Killashandra being connected to the Zero-"
"To the Zero?" His voice shook with the rest of him as he asked, Trowa's hand squeezing his own.
"I'm sorry to say yes. There are records of Killashandra being connected to the Zero System for days."
"Oh God."
"It seems as if her function was to act as a relay to Shinigami. With his advanced metabolic rate, he made the perfect assassin, not unlike Heero." She paused, a sad expression on her face as she looked at the once assassin now simply man. "Shinigami was created to perform his namesake, to be the God of Death, and kill those Killashandra and the Tragona Faction told him too."
"They'll die slowly for this." Heero's voice was calm, collected, and completely serious. As an assassin, he'd been taught to kill quickly and ask no questions. But over the years he'd sworn off killing and taken on emotions instead. However in that one sentence, it was as if all the years since the war had disappeared, and the Perfect Soldier was once again among them. Duo wrapped his arms about Heero's neck and took a deep breath, holding it, trying not to cry in agony for the children.
Lady Une looked stricken and at her wits end, she looked from one set of couples to the other and then noticeably had to wipe her eyes before continuing.
"With Killashandra's ability to telepathically link with Shinigami over any distance, they could keep her at their base as a hostage for Shinigami to do what he was told. Connecting her to the Zero System allowed Killashandra to see the many different possibilities Shinigami needed to see, without incapacitating him to the point where he couldn't function. Killashandra acted as a buffer and Shinigami was to be the unstoppable assassin.
"This however does not mean that Killashandra was not without her.tactical uses to the faction. There is video footage of Killashandra being alone with a scientist in a room with her. The man was explaining, systematically, how he planned to beat Shinigami.and rape him." She paused as the room cringed in horror and terror. "There is no evidence that either one of the children were sexually abused, and I think it's safe to say that that was one atrocity not inflicted upon them." At their silent thanks to their gods, she continued. "As the man was becoming more and more graphic the vid show's him beginning to sway and clutching his head in pain. There is about two more minutes of footage before the man screams and falls to the floor with a seizure. The scientists concluded that Killashandra had literally killed him with her mind. I have to remind you all of her namesake, 'Killer of the mind.'
"As for Shinigami, there is also footage of him killing, more than once, usually in defense. There are at least five disks of Shinigami killing one of the men beating him, or threatening Killashandra. And while there's no footage, there is a documented case of a mission the faction sent him on where Killashandra directed him, and he killed an unknown target.
"We've ascertained that the children were to bring about a new life, a new world. Recall that their tub dates are close to the end of the war, and in Killashandra's case, after. We don't know who is running the faction now, but we know who was." She paused to take a breath, and Quatre could feel her pain at revealing this detail. "Dekem Barton. He started the Tragona Faction as a way to back Marieminna's army to take over the world. The children were designed to be her ultimate assassins." There was such pain in her voice, such agony in her admission. Quatre knew what he had to say.
"This has nothing to do with Marieminna." Lady Une looked startled for a moment, and he realized quickly that she'd believed they'd blame the little red haired girl. "None of the things that happened to her are her fault, anymore than they are Shingam's and Killashandra's. He did this to them, destroyed one childhood after another for his own gains; they were nothing but pawns. May he rot in Hell for eternity."
"I know he is, Quatre. I know he his."
Heero's voice was still cold when he spoke. "So the children were designed to assassinate anyone that Dekem and his successor in the faction saw as a threat. I assume they were made to watch the Zero files to learn our combat skills so they could kill us as well." Lady Une only nodded. "Then the children are not safe until we discover who Barton's successor is and kill him." No emotion, only cold death, determination to end life and not give a damn about it.
Duo spoke calmly to his lover. "But Heero, if the kids are with Trowa and Quatre, then they're pretty safe. At least this bastard can't get to them here."
"But for how long?" This was Trowa, and it didn't take any of Quatre's empathic abilities to know how frightened he was that something would happen to their children.
"We can't think like that, Beloved. Shingam and Killashandra are our children now, and we have to protect them at all costs! He'll never get to them, never touch them again! He'll never hurt our children again, Trowa. I swear it!" His face and mind were so determined he didn't catch the sickening look on all the faces in the room save his, Trowa's, Heero's and Duo's.
"Quatre." He turned to regard Corinne. She'd been silent the entire night, and he nodded in her direction, fearful but curious as to what her role in this was to be. "All of you." She looked pointedly at all of them for a moment before taking a deep breath. "There is one more thing that I asked Lady Une not to mention until after she'd told you the rest. I want you all to understand that this information will be hard for you to believe, and very hard for you to adjust too. Sally has run three separate tests and confirmed with one hundred percent accuracy the information the faction stated and I'm about to tell you. Please understand that I'm here for you all to talk too, as well as other-"
"Get to the point." This from Heero.
She swallowed, and Quatre felt his stomach knot. "The crew of the Peacemillion2 thought it would be a wonderful gift, to find the parents of both Shinigami and Killashandra by the holiday. To that end they tackled that problem first. The information they discovered was so unthinkable and impossible to current medical capabilities that they scrapped their findings as errors. Nearly the very last decoded piece of information proved their insane theories correct."
Moving to take Lady Une's place, Corinne pushed a few buttons and displayed four more sets of DNA, these floated above Shingam's and Killashandra's; two strands per child. Quatre felt his heart clench, the children had parents, he was going to have to give them up. He squeezed Trowa's hand at the realization, and felt Trowa's return squeeze as he too figured out what Corinne was getting at.
She turned to look sadly at Duo and Heero. "Based on decoded information and tube data, along with five separate and independent paternity tests, it has been proven that Shinigami is in fact Heero's son." She didn't mean to pause, that was evident, but as they watched, the color drained out of Heero's face completely and he visibly began to shake. There was no need to question, they all knew the accuracy of modern paternity tests. Heero was Shingam's father.
Stunned himself, Duo said the first thing that came to his mind. "I knew it."
Heero managed to look at him, a sick expression on his face. "What do you mean, you knew it?" There was desperation to understand in Heero's voice and Duo had no choice but to comply.
"He has your look, I noticed it that very first day." At Heero's confused expression, Duo chuckled in the absence of mirth. "You know, that look you have that reads, 'I'm going to kill you.' When I was talking to Shingam that very first day, he gave me that look. I was so stunned, I thought it must have been my imagination. But he's done it since then, and I just assumed he'd picked it up from you somewhere. I mean he's always looking up to you, always looking for your approval." His sentence died away as Heero buried his face in Duo's chest. "Heero?"
There were tears in his voice when he spoke, and though Quatre felt immense pain at losing Shingam to Heero, he couldn't help but feel Heero's pain as well.
"I missed it, Duo. I missed his entire life. I missed everything." He paused as Duo began to stroke his hair, as the braided man looked to the ceiling for answers and to push back his own tears. When Heero began again, they all felt his raw hatred. "They hurt him. They hurt my son. I'll kill them. I'll kill them all."
Duo stroked the unruly mass of dark brown hair. "Yes Heero. We'll make them pay. I swear it. We'll make them pay for hurting our son."
And then it was like all the pieces falling into place. Shingam's stony eyes, his calm almost emotionless demeanor, his dark brown hair that never seemed to do what it was supposed to do. He was small, tiny really, but no less imposing than the man who was his father. And Quatre could see it now, could see Heero inside Shingam. And some part of him guessed that Shingam knew exactly who his father was as well.
He spoke without thinking. "He knows. Shingam knows Heero is his father."
Suddenly, Heero sat up, staring directly at Quatre, his eyes red rimmed from repressed tears. "What do you mean? How do you know? If so why didn't he tell me?"
"He was acting strangely tonight. After Duo got upset, he asked me if you and Duo were going to adopt a child, and I told him that's what you wanted to do, to raise a child as your own. He seemed so sad, as if he'd just lost something. He knows, Heero. I don't know why he didn't tell us, but he knows, and he was sad at the thought that you were going to replace him."
"I would never replace him!" Heero growled, Duo's position on his lap the only thing keeping him from jumping out of the chair and coming after Quatre in that moment.
Trowa intervened. "Quatre knows that Heero, but Shingam doesn't." Quatre could sense the pain in Trowa now, so very much like his own. Trowa was hurting; they'd been ready to raise Shingam as their own.
Quatre watched the fight drain from Heero as he slumped back into his seat. "I'm sorry, Quatre."
He nodded. "Don't be. I understand."
"This is crazy! How's it possible? Unless I'm seriously mistaken I doubt Heero went to the Tragona Faction's secret base in 195 and took his plastic cup and porn magazine into the little white room." Duo continued to run his fingers through Heero's hair, offering comfort to his partner as he tried to figure out with his still rational mind what was going on.
But Corinne was shaking her head, and Quatre suddenly remembered she hadn't been finished when Heero had interrupted her.
"There's more information you need to know."
Trying to make light of the situation, Duo joked. "Oh Lord in Heaven, please tell me Relena isn't Shingam's mother. I don't think I could take that."
Corinne's expression remained serious. "She isn't."
"Thank God!"
"But you are his other father."
Other father.
There was complete silence in the room for about five seconds, then all hell broke lose.
"What are you talking about?" Duo whispered.
"That's impossible!" Quatre felt the panic rise in his voice, he knew there was no way that could be possible.
"There must be some kind of mistake." There was force in Trowa's tone, as if he couldn't believe it, wouldn't allow himself to take it in.
"There is no way for Duo and I to have produced a son together." Still shaken by his earlier revelation, Heero was almost whimpering.
"Please, all of you, calm down, I'll try my best to explain-"
Now Duo was angry. "You'll do more than your best! You call us in here and drop a bomb like this at eleven thirty at night! I don't know what the hell's wrong with you, but at least give us a story that makes sense! Now there is no possible way Shingam could be my son and Heero's at the same time! Life doesn't work that way! God may be merciful, but he didn't sanction couples like Heero and I, there's no fucking way!" Pulling him tightly against his chest, Heero did all that he could to calm Duo down.
"I know this is very hard for you to accept, even believe, but I swear to you that it's true."
Quatre cut her off. "There's no way it could be true. I'd know! I spent billions on research to find a way, employed the top genetic engineers. It's impossible to breed between sexes in a species."
But Corinne only sadly shook her head. "They found a way, Quatre. Genetic manipulation and crossbreeding, and they found a way."
"How?! You tell me that, Corinne! How in the universe did they do it?!"
But in only one word, one name, Trowa's frightened voice changed his life forever.
"Killashandra."
Again, Corinne's sad eyes were turned in his and Trowa's direction. "She's yours Trowa, yours and Quatre's. In spirit as much as body, she is your daughter."
So few words, such small words that amounted to so much. Quatre felt his body tense at her words, before he slumped into his chair, his eyes staring off into space as he considered them. It wasn't possible.
He heard Trowa whimper beside him, and immediately he sprang into action. Rising quickly he pulled Trowa out of his chair only to return to his own seat, pulling Trowa to sit squarely on his lap. They were going to get through this together, they had to.
"It isn't possible." He heard his own voice, small and scared as he rubbed large circles into Trowa's back.
"Quatre," he lifted his head to make eye contact with Trowa, there he saw tears, tears of painful acceptance. "She looks just like you."
He felt pressure on the link from Trowa's side, and immediately dropped all shields. Their agony melted into each other, pressing upon the other, while questions were asked and answered through their shared knowledge.
He sensed Trowa's remembered awe at the sight of the small girl being clutched in his arms as he descended from the elevator shaft in the Tragona Faction's headquarters; she with delicate and familiar features. Quatre felt his own recognition of her clear crystal green eyes and remembered how familiar they were, how much like Trowa's her eyes had been. Her silent way, so much like Trowa's, but her empathic abilities staggeringly like his own. The way she'd clung to him, cried out across space for him, the easy attachment she'd formed with Trowa almost from the first day, the crazy and immediate way they'd been willing to open up their lives to her and Shingam. It hit him with the force of a train; Killashandra was their daughter.
The tears fell from his eyes unnoticed as he turned to Corinne, tucking Trowa's head into the crook of his neck. His voice was thick with pain and amazement, "H-how?"
Corinne tried to speak but was interrupted.
"I'd know. I'd know if I had a son. I'd know." Duo shook slightly in Heero's arms, his words irrational, but no less meaningful. Every person wanted to believe that if a part of them existed, they'd know about it. Heero absently stroked his hair, looking but not seeing, towards Corinne, listening.
"The only requirement for genetic engineering is a blood sample. Towards the beginning of the war, when Sally still worked for OZ, Heero was captured and tested on. During his capture, it was determined he was a Gundam pilot; samples of his blood was drawn for then unknown purposes." Heero's face looked completely stricken.
"Towards the middle of the war, around July, two more pilots were captured, Duo and Wufei. During their processing, blood was drawn for future DNA matching." Duo seemed to collapse into himself, clinging desperately to Heero, his breathing hard and unstable. Close to him, Sally clutched at Wufei's hand as the proud man seemed to buckle into himself.
"Trowa's blood samples were taken when he enrolled as an OZ officer to work undercover. It was standard procedure." In his arms, Trowa shook madly, and Quatre reached out with mental touches to ease his lover's suffering.
He looked at Corinne. "But don't you see, this can't be possible. My identity as a pilot was never discovered, not until the end of the war. Even then, OZ never obtain a blood sample from me. When Heero and I were captured, we were taken to a barely functioning camp, there wasn't even a medical tent, let alone a physician." He was desperate, though he believed that Killashandra might be his, there was still a rational part of his mind that refused to accept the impossible.
With more sadness then she'd previously shown, Corinne shook her head. "It's on file, Quatre, that the reason Dorothy was recruited by the Tragona Faction was because she possessed two things they required. One was the only copy of the Zero System, the other was because she possessed the foil used to run the last remaining pilot through with."
In dawning realization, his hand moved involuntarily to cover the scar on his abdomen. The foil she'd stabbed him with, his blood on the foil.
"By the way, how is that old wound?"
Dorothy had done this; she'd traded in his secrets, handed over his essence.
"By Allah." He clutched Trowa more tightly to him and felt his partner shift to stroke his hair, comforting him.
"This is all fucking nuts! Why? Why go through so much trouble?! Even if it were possible, it doesn't make any sense!" Duo was struggling to stand, and only Heero's sure grip kept the outraged youth in his seat. "There has to be a mistake! I'd know if I had a son, I'd know it!"
Corinne's voice was soft as she spoke. "The five of you are all Newtypes. Only Newtypes have the ability to pilot machines like the Gundams. Instead of wasting valuable time searching for other unknown Newtypes, the faction decided to simply take what was known. Heero's already possessed healing abilities made him an excellent candidate, and gave the scientists a base to work with when constructing Shingam."
Heero's deadly voice cut her off. "Don't you dare talk about him like he's a thing. He's my son." Possessiveness and pain radiated off of him, and Duo turned to soothe him and kiss his temple.
"I'm sorry, Heero. I didn't mean it that way." She paused before continuing. "When Duo and Wufei were captured they had the next set of DNA that they needed and immediately set about meshing Duo's DNA with the gaps left from Heero's."
Duo cut her off. "But that makes no sense? Why not Wufei? Why me? And as long as they were being picky, why not Trowa's? He was already in their data banks before I was captured."
"It was discovered that Trowa wasn't considered a pilot until after his supposed death at the hands of Wing Zero." Quatre shivered and Trowa nuzzled him softly. "They didn't know at the time he was a Newtype, let alone a pilot, they only looked into after Nekol started talking about him, after his supposed death."
"Fine, that explains, Trowa, but what about Wufei? Why did they need the fifth pilot? Why wait to get Quatre's DNA? They had four sets, that was plenty. They had to have waited nearly three months between discovering Trowa's identity and getting Quatre's DNA? Why not create a child from Wufei and Trowa?"
It was Wufei that answered, not Corinne. His posture was that of a defeated man, and Quatre felt tears slip from his eyes as he watched Wufei struggle with his own.
"Low on time, the scientists decided to stick with the DNA samples of myself, you and Heero. They designed Shinigami using yours and Heero's, and then attempted a child.using yours and mine, resigned to knowing they'd have to facilitate a conception due to the shared DNA. That child was conceived only hours after Shinigami. Her tube date was one day after Shinigami's. Her genetics were considered unstable.she died five minutes out of the tube." Tears fell from Wufei's eyes as he continued. "She was given no name. In her honor I have named her, Nataku." Sally stood then, wrapping Wufei tightly in her arms and holding him for dear life. The unshakable Wufei sobbed quietly for his lost daughter.
".no." There wasn't a word to describe Duo's pain. Large tears fell from unblinking eyes as he stared into space. ".it can't be.I'd know.I'd know."
Heero tucked Duo's head into his shoulder and began to rock him softly back and forth; soft murmurs of comfort falling like a prayer for the dead from his lips.
Pained, but knowing she had to, Corinne continued. "It was decided that Wufei was an unacceptable donor for the experiment. They decided to wait for the other two pilots, or at least one more.
"When Quatre's Gundam self-destructed on Earth, they believed their chances of obtaining all five sets of DNA were gone, thinking 04 dead. However, with the appearance of Wing Zero they realized that 04 was indeed alive, and more than that, capable of controlling a machine more sophisticated than any they'd ever seen before. Efforts to find the DNA of 04 increased.
"When Trowa was discovered to be a Gundam pilot, the scientists decided to hold out for 04, believing that 04's increased abilities would be an asset to the child they hoped to also train to use the Zero System. Furthermore, they'd decided facilitating a birth between Shinigami and the new child would be counterproductive, they were going to wait for four separate strands of DNA.
"They learned about Dorothy's Zero System battle with the then infamous 04, and resolved themselves to wait for his genetic information. Quatre's control over the Zero System was exactly what they were looking for.
"After the final battle, Dorothy was picked up by Dekem Barton. It was his hope that she knew who the final pilot was. When he found her, records show she still had the bloodied foil clutched in her hand. Then they'd had all they needed to know." Corinne stopped, sitting in an abandoned chair.
Heero spoke softly. "Is there more?"
Lady Une answered.
"Not at this time."
Heero nodded, but Quatre didn't see it.
"What now?" His voice shook as he asked.
Duo interrupted her answer. "Heero?" It was such a small sound, so lost and frightened. "They hurt him, Heero. They hurt him all the time. They took his tiny body and hurt him. Why didn't I know, Heero? Why couldn't I feel it? He's my son! He's my son! WHY?! WHY DID I FEEL IT AND SAVE HIM? WHY?!" Hysterical, Duo struggled in Heero's arms, desperately trying to break free. "And my daughter! How could I not have known?! How could I not have know!? Heero!"
Fiercely protective arms tugged Duo forward, and he went, pinned to Heero's chest as his partner tried with all that he was to soothe him.
"We didn't know. None of us knew. We just didn't know, Koi. We just didn't know."
He felt a sob escape Trowa. "They killed her, Quatre. You said they did. They killed her. And the pain, all Shingam's pain.oh God."
He held Trowa close, held him as close as humanly possible as he shook and stared into nothing. Killashandra was his daughter. He knew of the tortures she'd been through. Shingam's pain, starvation, verbal abuse, and death, a cold and terrifying death only to be revived to have it happen all over again. They'd hurt his child, his daughter, his baby. They'd hurt his baby girl. He'd kill them a-"
Suddenly they all sat up at attention. Trowa stiffened in his arms, as he too sat straight up in his chair. Next to him, Duo's tears stopped dead, and he and Heero looked to the heavens with the rest of them.
In the distance the church bells tolled the midnight hour.
Bmmm, one.
Bmmm, two.
Bmmm, three.
Bmmm, four.
Bmmm, five.
Bmmm, six.
Bmmm, seven.
Bmmm, eight.
Bmmm, nine.
Bmmm, ten.
Bmmm, eleven.
Bmmm, twelve.
Lady's voice was quiet and reserved, pained and sorrowful, but with an underlying cord of hope and closure. It was done.
"Merry Christmas, my pilots."