Chapter 3 - Have
18th of June, ac197. Police HQ, Forensics Department, L1. 11:57pm L1 Time.
There were four of them lying in wait for Devil. Well, not lying, exactly, but….
Duo was pacing, restlessly, and, under threat-of-death, silent. Heero was standing next to a wall, seemingly unconcerned, and Julia was almost-but-not-quite pacing, trying to figure out why the security cameras weren't working. Little did she know that Heero was an electronics whiz, and had fixed them. Out of the four of them, Wufei was the only one who looked relaxed. He was sitting in a corner, reading a book. No-one but him knew what it was, though - it was in Chinese. So really, the only thing that was actually lying was Carl Jackson, who was dead, and didn't count. At exactly 12:00am, the window slid silently open. And because of it's absence of sound, no-one noticed. Except, of course, for Heero, who was trained to notice that kind of thing.
They did, however, notice when a pair of legs swung in, followed by a torso, head and arms, and, somehow or other, wings. This was Devil. Angel followed in a similar fashion. Julia stared. Duo stopped pacing and smiled. Heero nodded. Wufei, who hadn't even looked up, kept on reading. The twins looked the same as when they had last seen them, except they were visibly armed to the teeth and Angel had braided his hair and put it under a hat.
"You got the money?" Devil asked Heero. He motioned to Julia.
"She has."
"Show me." He demanded of her. She showed him.
"Good." Angel seemed to loose interest, and wandered over to where Wufei was sitting.
"Take one more step, Maxwell, and I'll break your arm."
"Hey!" Shouted Duo, who was on the other side of the room. "What did I do?"
"Huh?" Wufei finally looked up. "Oh. Good evening, Angel." Everyone blinked.
"Good evening. You're reading." He said, almost accusingly.
"Yes."
"How?"
"In the usual way, one would assume."
"Which is?"
"Can't you read?"
"No." Wufei was shocked. He had thought everyone could read. The other four proceeded to get down to business.
"Why not?"
Heero drew back the cover on the body,
"I was never taught."
And showed Devil the mark, who frowned.
"Why? That is unjust! Everyone has a right to a good education."
Devil flexed his hands, and three small claws came out of the middle knuckle-joints.
"Not in the Breaks they don't."
He put his claws against the marks on the body,
"I would teach you now, if you were willing, but-"
Showing the claws were slightly too small to have ever made the mark.
"My book is in Chinese, which I doubt you speak."
"Close, but no cigar."
"No, I don't."
"I really hate it when people try to set me up."
"What do you speak?"
"Satisfied?" Heero asked Julia.
"Japanese and English, of course," Angel named the two main L1 languages.
"I suppose. Can I take a picture for evidence?"
"Assassin's sign, a smattering of Scat, just the usual for a born Breaks resident."
"Do it, and I'll kill you."
"Of course."
"So, what does it mean?" Inquired Duo.
"How about you?"
"Devil didn't kill him."
"The same, but Scat fluently, and Chinese."
"Yeah, I know, but then who else could it be?"
"Really? I find Scat difficult."
"Viper." Answered Devil and Heero, in singe.
"It's not that hard, if you know English. In my opinion."
"Who's that?"
"I wish I could read…."
"Another assassin, with a grudge against my brother and I. Particularly me, of course."
"If you ever make it to Earth, I'll teach you."
"Why you?"
"Really? But the people out of the Breaks think we're freaks."
"I saved his ass once."
"So? If they're stupid, what can you do about it?"
"Wouldn't he be gr-" He glanced at Heero. "Oh. Never mind."
"You don't think I'm a freak?"
Devil smirks. "You got it. We assassins hate to be rescued."
"I think whoever changed you is the freak. But if you live a just, honorable life, no-one can criticize you."
"I don't think I'll ever understand you assassins."
"You think so?"
"Probably not."
"I said so, did I not?"
"Any-way, how are we able to prove or not prove it?"
"You have a rare mind, kid."
"Do you know when he was killed?"
"My name is Chang Wufei. Use it."
"Yesterday about…."
"Pleased to meet you, Wufei."
"6:47am." Butted in Julia.
"Pleased to meet you, Angel."
"Where?"
The two were becoming fast friends, which was very surprising. Neither of them were social beings.
"His office."
"Wufei…. that's a Chinese name."
"What was he doing there?"
"Yes."
"He was picking up some stuff for his trip to Earth."
"You were born on the Earth?"
"So it wasn't typical behavior?"
"No, L5."
"No, quite unusual, in fact. He was usually very organized."
"I thought everyone on L5 died in the explosion."
"Was the media aware of this?"
"Not quite." He said, very sadly.
"No."
"I think I understand."
"Were they aware he was going to Earth?"
"Do you? I don't think you can."
"It was a scheduled visit, yes."
"No, probably not."
"Hmmm…. did anyone in the office know he was going to be there?"
Angel smiled sadly.
"No, he just realized he had forgotten something on his way to the spaceport, apparently."
"So, what do you do?"
"Oh. So it was either opportunistic, coincidental or very well planned."
"Preventer." Angel looked surprised.
"I'm not sure I follow you."
"I thought all the Preventers were ex-soldiers."
"Of course not."
"They are."
"So what's your conclusion?"
"I wouldn't have picked you."
"We need to find Viper."
"That's why I get to do this sort of stuff instead of the more public things. "
"Ah."
"Ah."
"Angel?"
"Yes Devil?"
"We need to find Viper."
"I know. I was listening."
"How do you do that?"
"It's easy."
"For you, maybe, but for the rest of us-"
"It's easy." Said Duo. Devil turned around, surprised.
"What?"
"You have two ears, don't cha? One conversation per ear. Three's a bit difficult, but two's a piece of cake!" Devil blinked.
"What are you, some kind of soldier?"
"Yep." Devil frowned.
"That reminds me, shouldn't those Preventers be here?"
"They are." His eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
"Well, one of them's right in front of you,"
"You!?!"
"and the other's over there, chatting to your brother."
"What! Wait a sec…. aren't Preventers all ex-soldiers?"
"You got it!"
"So, did you see the two Gundams fighting?"
"Which two?"
"The red one and the one that turns into a bird."
"Oh, yeah, a bit."
"Did ya' see how the bird-one blew up the piece of the Libra? Fucking amazing." Duo shrugged.
"'Spose." Devil shook his head
"It'd probably be different for you soldiers, but for us, it was great."
"Can we get on with it?" Asked Julia. Angel sighed.
"I don't think you understand, miss. We are getting on with it."
"By talking about totally unrelated events?"
"Are they truly unrelated? Is anything truly unrelated? The war effected everyone. And so, are we all not connected in some way? Who can be sure?"
"Philosophy? From an assassin?" Julia looked incredulous.
"Assassin by need, not by nature."
"You still kill people."
"So? Soldiers kill people, but you don't hate them. It's just a job, for the both of us."
"It's different."
"Is it?" The two faced off, Angel with the look of someone who knows what they're saying is a Truth, and Julia with the look of someone who's unquestioned lessons are being attacked.
"Break it up, break it up! Interfered Duo. "C'mon, we got a job to do, and the quicker we do it, the quicker we can get home. Devil, your money's over there, um…."
"You're going to need our help." Commented Angel
"We will?" Said Duo, surprised. "Will we?" He asked Heero.
"Probably."
"Oh." He turned to Devil and Angel. "Will you help us?"
"What's in it for us?" inquired Devil. Duo sighed.
"What do you want?" The two brothers looked at each other. Angel's gaze, pleading, looked down on his brother, who slowly nodded.
"Fine." He sighed. Angel smiled happily.
"We would like to get out of the Breaks." Duo blinked, surprised.
"And go where, exactly?"
"Anywhere, just get away from here, this hell." Duo grinned, a fiendish plan forming in his mind.
"Well…. we could get you to Earth really easily but!" He grinned wider. "I've got a better idea. WouldyoupleasepleasepleasetimesamillioncomeandjoinPreventers?Imeanit'snotasifweactulyhaveanyonewithanywhereknowlageanythinglikeyoutwohaveandsinceHeero'snevereverEVERgoingtoCONSIDERjoiningwereallyreallyreallyneedsomeonewho'sfammilarwiththeBreaksandIthinkyou'dfitallthecriteria(exceptforthepartaboutreading)butWufeicouldteachyouthatandwereallyneedyourhelpsowouldyoupleaseconsiderit?" All this was delivered in one breath. The brothers blinked. They hadn't known it was possible to speak that fast.
"Think about it." Grinned Duo. They blinked again. He grinned even wider, and bowed extravagantly.
"Duo Maxwell at your service, I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie!" They blinked a third time. This is the point when normal people would start to back away slowly, making no sudden movements. They weren't normal people. Just very surprised Master Assassins. Under normal circumstances, it is really not a good idea to surprise assassins of any sort, but…. Duo had had Heero to practice on, and basically knew the limits. He was unnervingly good at it. Angel, after taking it all in, smiled.
"Pleased to meet you, Duo." Devil scowled, and glared at him. Duo just laughed.
"So how're we going 't catch this Viper guy, anyway?"
"Scan the bullet-hole, first thing tomorrow, see whether was an old viper laser-gun, and what exact frequency it was on." Said Heero
"And if it is?"
"We'll go and grab Viper, grab his gun and see what it says."
"If not?"
"I doubt whoever it is would be so clumsy."
"But if they were?"
"We'll see." Heero quickly made the assassin's sign for untrustworthy, directed at Julia. She didn't see.
"Oh. Ok!" Duo grinned. Wufei looked back up from his book.
"Does this mean we can go now?" Everyone blinked.
"I suppose…." Said Angel.
"Good. I suppose I'll see you tomorrow, then." And, still reading, he walked out, stopping only to grab a dagger thrown at his ear by the hilt. "Thanks, Devil. I'll be keeping this." And he left, still reading. Everyone blinked again.
"He's good." Commented Devil.
"Very good." Said Angel. Julia gaped, Heero was stoic, and Duo, naturally grinned.
'where?' Signed Heero
'usual.' Replied Devil in like.
'when?'
'7night.'
'bringthetwo?'
'if[sign for two, meaning Duo]isasgoodyes.'
'bethere.'
'good' And the brothers exited out the window. Julia blinked.
"I thought they were going to help you."
"They will," Said Duo, "but it's bedtime. See you in the morning, 'ey Julia?"
"Yeah. Yeah, you will." And the three of them left the building. Three hours later, the security cameras mysteriously sprang back to life.
19th of June, ac197. The Breaks, L1. 7:00pm L1 Time.
Heero, Duo and Wufei walked up to an old, abandoned office block. Before they had arrived, Heero had warned them 'No sudden movements. They'll shoot you dead. They can see you if you're in a kilometre radius of the building. Don't attack anything, even if provoked, unless you're being attacked, and try to keep your damn mouth shut, for once in your life!' The last part was directed at Duo.
So, taking his advice, they entered the building. Heero led them through a maze of corridors that looked exactly alike. Finally, they came to some stairs going down. At the bottom, there was a huge scientific lab, silver and white almost as far as the eye could see. On two benches in the middle of the room sat Devil and Angel. Both looked extremely sad, and lost.
"He's not here, Dart."
"He's gone." For some reason, they were acting like little kids.
"We can't find him."
"Where is he?"
"He should be here!"
"His big heap of metal is gone too."
"Disappeared."
"Gone."
"Do you know where he is, Dart?"
"We don't."
"I know where he was." Said Heero.
"Where?" They looked at him, hopeful.
"The Libra."
"But - the Libra is gone!"
"Exploded."
"Yes."
"He's dead!?!" They exclaimed.
"Yes."
"But-"
"But-" They sighed.
"What about the heap of metal?"
"You mean Wing? Gone. It was defeated at the Luxembourg base."
"You mean…."
"It was a Gundam!?"
"Yes."
"Who piloted it?"
"I did."
"You!"
"Wow!"
"Unfair!!!" They wailed.
"Did you meet the other pilots?"
"Yes."
"Wow!"
"You're lucky!"
"But-"
"We have to find Viper." And they were back to normal.
"He should be here soon." Said Devil.
"I thought he didn't like you." Said Duo
"He doesn't. He doesn't know it's us."
"How?"
"We…. asked him to come here…. For a job. A bit like you asked Devil. We mentioned Dart. He has a good reputation. I hope you don't mind, Dart." Said Angel, clearly a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing.
"No problem." They waited for about 20 minutes, silently. Even Duo knew that speaking would be stupid. Then, a man arrived. He looked Japanese, with wary brown eyes. He wore assassin's clothes, dark. Only his hair wasn't dark. It was short, spiky and exactly the same red as a laser, blatantly dyed. He carried a gun, which all five present identified as an old viper laser-gun, deluxe, rechargeable, sniper-version. And, as Heero had found early that morning, exactly the same model that had killed Carl Jackson.
"Viper." Acknowledged Heero.
"Dart." Said Viper. "Devil. Angel."
"Viper." Replied the brothers in unison.
"Who?" Viper asked Heero.
"…."
"Who? Awww, C'mon Dart -" Then realization began to dawn on his face. "You don't want me to kill someone, do you?"
"No."
"Oh. What do you want, then?"
"To borrow your gun."
"What! No way!"
"Hand it over, 20 thou. Don't, well, let me just tell you something."
"What?"
"There are three fully-trained master assassins in here, three fully-trained soldiers, a master swordsman, a thief, and" He said, smirking. "Three Gundam Pilots." Devil and Angel managed to keep their shock internal. Viper couldn't. His eyes went wide. He looked around wildly. He began to shake. He looked as if he was about to faint.
"Th….Th….Three G….Gundam Pilots?"
"Yes."
"I think I'll take the money."
"Good choice." He handed over his gun, and threw it to Duo.
"Fire it."
"Where?"
"The target." There was a small target, about a hundred meters away.
"Ummmm…." Wufei snatched it off Duo, and fired a shot, straight into the middle of the target. Heero had a small device that monitored the shot. He frowned.
"Give it back, and give him his money." They did so, and Viper left - hurriedly.
"You shouldn't lie, Dart." Rebuked Angel, softly.
"I wasn't lying." Angel frowned
"He wasn't, and I can prove it!" Said Duo."
"Alright." Said Angel.
"Well, you three are the assassins, right?"
"Right."
"And me, Heero and Wufei are soldiers, yeah?"
"Right."
"And Wufei's the Swordsman."
"Yeah."
"I'm the thief."
"You?"
"Yeah, me."
"Surprising." Duo shrugs.
"Everyone likes to eat occasionally."
"Ah. One of those. But where are the Gundam Pilots?"
"There's only the five of us here." Both Devil and Angel looked like they were going to faint from shock.
"But… You've only been…."
"The same age as He-…. Dart."
"Yes, but this is the Breaks. There are no children."
"Yeah, well, I grew up in L2's slums, orphaned, stealing to eat. I don't call that a childhood."
"It's different."
"Yeah, I didn't get taught. I had to figure it out for myself."
"When's the first time you deliberately killed someone?" Duo was taken aback.
"When I was about 10, maybe 11."
"I first deliberately killed someone when I was about 5." Duo blinked, then smiled, which seemed to surprise Angel.
"You were an assassin, I was a thief. Let's just say we were different, and leave it at that. I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, Maxwell." remarked Wufei.
"Yeah, but now I'm hungrier than usual."
"Let's go eat then." said Heero, surprising them all. "And since I've got L1's treasury at my disposal, I'll pay."
"Wohoo! Free food!" Maxwell began to bounce higher than usual, and he couldn't keep the grin off his face.