"""I remember being hailed by Quatre at Christmas that year. He looked so radiating as he spoke of his plan on the vid screen, excited that we finally would be able to bury our past and walk on into our new lives. It was so very easy to get caught up in his optimism, especially when he told me that Heero and Trowa had already agreed and sent their gundams. I can't blame him for the mistake we did though; after living and working with him daily for the better parts of two years, I knew how to argue with him and how to win an argument. If I had seen anything wrong in his proposal, I would have told him and made him see it. Obviously I didn't.
It was only natural for it to be Quatre and me to prepare the gundams for what we believed to be their last voyage. We planned the flight together, finding the most conspicuous way for the disposal block to travel on the way to the sun and bring the gundams onboard. By habit we created a way to cut off the gundams if needed before they were lost forever. Now afterwards, I'm glad for that backdoor. The Earth would have never survived the Mariemeia Incident.
After this little history, I went to spend some time with Heero, who was nearby after bringing his gundam. We had a pleasant time celebrating Christmas, until Heero learned that little miss workaholic had gotten herself kidnapped. Then, our Christmas was destroyed. Then, I realized that the world needed the gundams and their pilots again. Then, I realized that war would never end."""
January 11, AC 197 -- 04.00am
Caramel carefully slipped into the abandoned warehouse, keeping to the shadows and never relaxing a second. Living over half her life on the streets had taught her that shadows could move and get their own life if you didn't watch them. You didn't survive on the streets without a bad case of paranoia, that was the simple truth. Even if your gang leader's name was Shinigami and was smarter than anyone of his age, streetrat or not, should be. She had learned, and she still lived by that particular rule.
"Password?" The hoarse voice came from above her. Caramel berated herself for forgetting to watch the beams. That kind of mistake would have killed her if this had been 'enemy' territory. She was getting sloppy, having spent too much time off the streets. Maybe she should take some time off when all of this was over to visit Hollow and the others.
"Shinigami welcomes Caramel to his lair," she quietly called back. "Have Crawler and Jumper returned yet?"
A red-haired boy dropped to the floor in front of her, grinning deviously.
"Nah," he said, playing limberly with a butterfly. "Not since Shinigami dropped by to inform us of the attacks. They said they would be gone all night anyway. Dawn isn't here yet."
Caramel nodded and looked past him at the box-covered entrance to the lair. Turning back to the boy, she gave him a questioning look.
"How long will you be on watch?" she asked, looking carefully at him. He seemed rather awake for it to be so early.
The boy shrugged.
"For another four hours," he answered. "I just replaced Stripy."
She nodded and turned to walk to the stairs, leaving the boy to return to his watch. When she reached the boxes covering the entrance, he was already invisible.
When she entered the main room of the lair, she was immediately greeted by the lanky gang leader in Brussels, Sorrow, who raised a teasing eyebrow at her choice of clothes before pecking her on the cheek.
"Welcome back," he simply said, casually dropping down on a worn couch that had seen its better days about a decade ago, before the fire that had coloured it black. "Have any news? I have some for you."
Caramel frowned at the concealed sarcasm and fury behind his words. What was wrong?
"Yes," she carefully said, remaining standing as Sorrow hadn't bidden her to sit. As he was above her in the hierarchy she was bond by honour to obey him, and for now he had bidden her without words to remain standing. It was something that confirmed her feeling that something was wrong. Sorrow wasn't a person who got off on showing off his power. Duo would never appoint a leader who felt that way. "I retrieved the folder from Duo and turned it over to the pilots. The mission was successful."
Sorrow flew to his feet, the anger now visible on his face. Caramel stepped back, suddenly fearing the enraged person before her.
"The mission was a failure," he icily said, his hands clenching and his body rigid. "You were followed by Hel Inc. spies. Duo and Relena were compromised and taken in. You now what will happen. You know what the consequences can be."
Caramel paled, immediately realizing the graveness of the situation. Sinking to her knees before him, she bowed her head.
"What will you have me do?"
She didn't move as he crouched down before her, did not resist as he tipped her chin up, looking into her eyes.
"You will go to the pilots and alert them," he silently said, his amber eyes showing his deep disappointment and fear for their friend, mentor and leader. "I will prepare our team. You do realize that you will be marked for this?"
Caramel nodded. She didn't resist when he brought the henna.
04.30am
I immediately wake up the moment the shadow comes close to our bedroom door. Reaching for the stealth knife under my pillow, I soundlessly slide out of the bed, following Trowa who is already moving towards the door, his favourite, ugly throwing knife in his hand. Knowing that he knows I'm here, I slide into position by the door while he soundlessly launches up into a handstand on the slightly open door.
As someone begins to slide through the crack, I move, kicking the door open while grabbing the shadow and shoving it further into the room. Trowa has already launched into the air and knocks the figure to the floor, landing securely in a crouch between the window and the shadow. It is trapped between us now, and there are few – if any – people who can outmatch two gundam pilots.
Groaning, the figure rises on its elbows, allowing the light from the moon to shine on her face. It's Caramel.
"Duo," she moans as she struggles to her knees. I think we were a little too rough with her. "They were compromised."
I stare at her for a second before sharing a quick look with Trowa.
"I'll get Heero."
04.35am
My eyes don't stray from the slight and weary figure of the woman known as Caramel as she relays everything she knows of Duo's capture. She seems truthful enough, but I know she is hiding something. While she most probably would fool even the OZ interrogators, she isn't lying convincingly enough to fool gundam pilots.
"That's all I know," she finishes her tale, looking pleadingly at us. "Please, you have to move now! Don't you understand what they will do to him?"
I glare at her, stalking towards her. Having no displaced qualms about hurting women, I grab her roughly by her hair and stare icily into her eyes.
"I would advice you to tell us what you're withholding," I emotionlessly say, tightening my hold on her hair. It would have been her throat if she had not been one of Duo's agents.
She stares frightfully at me, quivering as I reach up to take a rough hold of her face, probably bruising her heavily.
"I-I c-can't!" Caramel stammers, almost crying. "Duo ordered us to withhold it! I can't betray him! Please, you're wasting time! Duo could be tortured in this very moment! Why aren't you going after him?"
I release her with a mix of disgust and respect. Disgust because she cracked so easily. Respect because she follows Duo's instructions even under the threat of physical harm. Most civilian rattlers would have betrayed their leaders by now. Walking away, I leave it to Wufei to deal with the woman. If Duo is taken – and I do believe she spoke the truth about that – we need to prepare.
"We are soldiers, woman," Wufei coldly says as he steps forwards, taking his cue. Trowa walks over to me, leaving Quatre and Wufei to work the woman. "So is Duo. These are the things he is trained for. We will not risk everything for a single soldier, even if he is our friend. The mission has to come first. Duo understands that, even expects it."
"What we will not hesitate to do though," Quatre unemotionally picks up the thread, "is to kill you if you double cross us or Duo. You will…"
I shut out the conversation going on at the other side of the room and look stonily at Trowa.
"What equipment do we have?" I ask, mentally making a list of the gear I keep stashed in my duffel. "I have limited amounts explosives and basic gear stashed in my room. Do you have any short range weapons?"
Trowa nods and gestures towards Wufei.
"Yes," he silently says, "and Wufei has even more. Quatre, I believe, is equipped with hand grenades as well as the basics. What we do lack though is communication gear."
I nod, glancing over at the interrogation. They seem to have reached an agreement.
"We should be able to get that from Rashid," I say. "Take Wufei and fetch everything. I'll look over the prints with Quatre; we need to move out within an hour. We'll meet here in twenty minutes."
05.46am
Waiting patiently for Heero to confirm his position, I crouch by the desk with Quatre, keeping a steady eye on the office door. We have broken into the building next to Hel Inc. and are currently hiding in an empty office on the seventh floor with a complete visual of the opposite building. Quatre is scanning the offices with custom made binoculars, while I am hacking into their surveillance cameras and keeping contact with Trowa and Heero while they infiltrate respective scales the Hel Inc building.
"We're in position." Heero's voice sounds slightly breathless. Not even he can scale a building without catching a breath afterwards. "The explosives are successfully planted. What's your status?"
"No visual," I answer after a quick look at Quatre. "Floor zero to six checked. Estimated time to finish: 5 minutes."
"Confirmed."
Letting my fingers fly over the keyboard, I bring up the cameras of the seventh floor to the screen. No visual. A tap on the arm tells me that Quatre has gained a visual.
"Eighth floor," he silently says. "Office F812."
I nod and rapidly tap into the cameras in question. Smiling with malicious satisfaction, I contact Heero.
"We have a visual. Office F812. Subjects both in the room together with the target and two guards within room."
"Understood. Clear!"
Quatre and I dive onto the floor, five seconds before the soft sound of Plexiglas being pierced and two thuds alerting us to the arrival of two black wires attached to two crossbow arrows. Immediately getting to our feet, we split up, each securing an arrow to the pillars by the windows.
"Clear," I report, putting the laptop back into the black backpack I'm wearing.
"Coming down."
A slight whir is heard and about twenty seconds later, Heero hits the window with a thump, kicking in the loose glass rectangle Quatre cut loose when I booted the laptop earlier. The glass doesn't shatter as it lands on the floor, but do crack as Heero lands heavily on it, unclipping from the wire.
"Report!" he orders even as Quatre signals Trowa in the other building with a penlight.
"The subjects are unharmed though restrained," I tell him while cutting the wire. "The guards are carrying standard guns as well as batons. No other weapons visible."
"Hn."
Quatre waves us over and hands me a harness even as Heero clips onto the wire and disappears into the darkness of predawn, quickly followed by Quatre and the bag with the weapons Heero and Trowa had to leave behind as they carried out their parts of the mission. Before following them, I check for any incriminating evidence in the office we've occupied. Then, I hook myself up and disappear as well.
06.06am
Walking up behind the guard, I swiftly grab him and cut his throat before he has a chance to shout. Dragging him into a nearby utility closet, I scan for any onlookers. Not finding any, I wave for Wufei and Quatre to continue down the corridor. I close the door behind me and walk over to the grating covering the entrance of the ventilation ducts. As if by magic, it falls away, revealing Heero's face.
Catching the grating I replace it after Heero has extracted himself.
"Well?" I say, looking at him while holding out his gun.
"They're interrogating them," he shortly says, frowning as he grabs it. "It seems like the target has changed his objective to include the deaths of all of us. Where is 04 and 05?"
"They're taking care of the two next guards," I reply and start walking. "We're taking the left corridor."
06.19am
The COM link crackles slightly as I wait for Wufei to answer the query I made. Trowa and I have taken up posture by the main door leading into the room while Quatre and Wufei are taking the second door that connects the office to the one next to it. We will go in as soon as they're in position.
"We're there," Wufei reports. "Countdown."
I smile grimly. If everything goes as it should, this will be over soon.
"On three," I neutrally say. "One, two, THREE."
Trowa kicks the door open and I move in, gun in hand and in complete mission mode. Hearing Wufei and Quatre enter in the same manner, I quickly pinpoint the locations of the subjects as well as the guards. Quickly taking down guard number one, I slide between the windows and the target. Two seconds later, the room is still once again with Quatre, Wufei, Trowa and me trapping Relena, Duo and Thor Arvidsen between us, guns pointed at Arvidsen.
Absently noticing that Relena doesn't seem to take being tied up and gagged very well, I frown at Arvidsen's cool stature.
"Put down any weapon you may carry," I order, never letting myself relax the slightest. Nor do I let myself see if Duo truly is all right. I am the Perfect Soldier. In this moment I need to be him. "Slowly."
Arvidsen simply smiles and nonchalantly shrugs.
"I see no reason for such a thing," he coldly says, actually seeming relaxed. Something is wrong.
"03," I sharply say.
Trowa nods, understanding my command, and starts to walk towards Arvidsen, gun still point black at the man. Putting away his gun, he reaches out to search the man. A sharp crack is heard and Trowa cries out, grabbing his arm. It's broken to the point that the bone is sticking out from the skin. Following up the blow that broke the arm is a quick leg, which fells him to the ground. Over him stands a blank faced Duo with Trowa's blood staining his slender hands.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot let you do that," he detachedly says. I start to move in, half by habit, half by worry for Duo. What's going on?
At the moment I start to move though, Duo's face turns towards me. It's then I realize it. This isn't Duo, this is Shinigami Final v.6.2.2. A mad laughter turns my body in that direction on autopilot, my mind too numb to do anything but react.
"I'm sorry, did I forget to introduce you?" Arvidsen evilly says, resting an affectionate hand on Duo's shoulder. "This is Daemon. My pet warrior and most fierce protector…"
TBC
