Even the Strong Must Cry
Disclaimer: I don't own gundam wing. Although, I wish I owned Heero…or Wufei…ahh, bishies.
AN: Hello again! Not sick of me yet? Well I'm glad to see that some people still read this fic! This fic is beginning to wind down. Many plot twists and discoveries are revealed in this chapter, and the climax is almost upon us! I just hope that you all can hang with me through the rest of this rocky road! I promise the end will be worth it! Thanks!
Questions/Answers/Comments:
Sailor Angel: Um, sorry but no, it's not Mitsu. LOL, I think I'll make sure to have a cliff-hanger for every chapter just cause you don't like 'em! ^_^
Cloud: Ummm…please don't hurt yourself Cloud dear. You can stop banging your head, the next chapter is here. ::hands Cloud a cool drink:: Ummmm hopefully you are feeling a bit better now?
Last Time:
Kaiya was feeling a bit better after talking to Sarah.
"I guess the old adage about you don't know how good you have it till you see someone else is true." She whispered aloud as she made her way up the stairs. She was so preoccupied in her thoughts that she didn't notice the hand snake out and grab her by her upper arm. "What the fu…" she started but a hand stopped her from continuing any further.
Her eyes wide with fright, she tried to turn her head to see who her attacker was, but it was to no avail. Whoever held her, held her steadfast and she was not moving anytime soon. Before she could even blink she was turned around and her attackers lips descended on her own with an almost brutal force. The last thing she remembered before everything went black were a pair of deep blue eyes staring back into her own.
~*~*~*~*~
Chapter Ten: Nothing Is As It Seems
Kaiya awoke with what had to be the worst headache in the history of bad headaches.
"She's awake." A voice said from somewhere around her. However, it all came out slurred and fuzzy. She tried opening her eyes but immediately had to shut them against the bright fluorescent lighting. "Are you okay?" the same voice asked her. At least she thought it was the same voice. She couldn't tell.
"Ugh, did someone get the number of that mecha?" she groaned, raising her hands to her forehead and massaging her sore temples. A few chuckles answered her.
"Good to see that her humor didn't get knocked out as well." A different voice said softly.
"Where am I?" Kaiya whispered, still holding her head, as if she could keep the pain from entering her already pounding skull.
"Welcome to cell block 5847 of the Tokinami hidden base number 4." A voice said dryly.
"Sarah?" Kaiya asked quietly, not sure of anything anymore. "But how did we get here…and who is we exactly?" Kaiya said sitting up once the world had stopped spinning.
"Hello, Kaiya. Long time no see huh?" a very familiar voice asked. Kaiya's eyes snapped fully open at the voice, and she looked around her, at her current cell-mates.
"Sarah! Joanna! Mitsu! What the hell is going on?" Kaiya asked her eyes still wide.
~*~*~*~*~
"Where in the hell could they have gone?" A very upset Angela raged at the five young men around her. "What in the hell kind of sad ass security have you dumb shits got running around here?" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Letting her frustration at her friend's disappearance out on the five boys standing around her bed, Angela was reduced to a heaving mess.
"Onna, shut the hell up before you injure yourself further." Wufei grumbled rubbing his ringing ears.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Angela shouted, but before she could continue, her body was racked with several dry heave like coughs. "Ugh…" she said falling back into her bed. Her body was still weak from their training earlier, and the simulations effects were still wreaking havoc on her.
"Could Sarah have taken her? Perhaps tricked her into releasing her?" Quatre speculated. Duo shook his head,
"I doubt it, I doubt that right now she could get anyone to trust her." He growled.
"Duo, this isn't helping the situation any." Quatre said with a sigh.
"Oh and your theories are?" he spat back. Before Quatre could reply, Trowa spoke up,
"Stop it, the both of you. We need to figure out where Kaiya and Sarah either went or were taken. I suggest that we head back to the cellar and see if we can find anything that may indicate where they went."
"We already did that." Duo said rolling his eyes.
"We're doing it again." Heero said with a firm sense of finality, his glare daring anyone to challenge his words.
"Well, get going already. The sooner that you jerks find a clue the sooner I get to see my friend again." Angela said laying her head back and closing her eyes.
~*~*~*~*~
Kaiya blinked. Twice. "So let me get this straight. You," she said pointing to Sarah, "Only work for the Tokinami because they kidnapped your mother and brother, and threatened to kill them if you didn't spy on us." Sarah nodded slightly and looked down to hide the tears she feared would leak from her eyes. "And you two," Kaiya said indicating the two girls that had been missing for quite awhile, "You two really did suspect something and were talking at a café when you were nabbed and forced to write those letters? And you've been locked up here the whole time? Did I get that right?" Kaiya asked eyebrows still raised.
"Yes, that is correct." Mitsu said folding her hands neatly into her lap.
"Uh huh…well, in that case, I think it's time that we busted out of this joint." Kaiya said, bobbing her head to the 'uh huh'.
"Do you really think that we can do that?" Joanna asked quietly, almost in a whisper.
"Of course, why not? We have a gundam pilot, a Tokinami soldier who's on our side and two intelligent ladies who've been here long enough to know the routine. I think the odds are actually in our favor." Kaiya said cracking a smile, the kind of smile that always means trouble.
"And how do you propose that we 'bust out of this joint'?" Sarah asked raising her eyebrow at the look on Kaiya's face. Her smile only widened.
"I don't think I want to know…" Mitsu said shaking her head.
"Why, hello ladies. How is hostage life treating you?" a voice said from outside the cell. All the girls whipped around to see the identity of the intruder. All except Kaiya, she stayed where she was, facing away from the door. The only way one could tell, that she even heard the voice was that her entire body had gone rigid and a stone like mask was now slid over her once happy face.
"You bastard!" Sarah shouted racing over to the bars of the cell and gripping them so hard that her hands were sheet white. Captain Toshi shook his head and chuckled.
"Now, Sarah dear, you know very well that you won't be leaving anytime soon, not as long as we have your family. And if any of these other ladies do escape, I will count it the same as you escaping and well you know what will happen then Sarah." Captain Toshi said snickering. Sarah's eyes grew wide and she brought her hand up to cover her gaping mouth.
"No…you wouldn't" she whispered through her hand, backing up to lean against the wall. Captain Toshi smirked evilly.
"You know that I would. Just try me." Sarah sank down to the floor, tears falling from her eyes and soaking her cheeks. "And you, young lady." Captain Toshi said indicating Kaiya, who still had her back to him. "I would like to see you in the principals office immediately." He said chuckling again. Kaiya closed her eyes and nodded to the girls assuring them that she would be fine, before she turned around to face the man who had ruined countless lives.
Captain Toshi had the cell door opened and motioned for Kaiya to step out. She did, very quickly. Practically flying through the air, Kaiya was about to strike him down when she suddenly fell to her knees gasping for air. Captain Toshi smirked at her, his right thumb depressing a red button on a tiny remote control that he held.
"Now, now, that wasn't very nice." He said shaking his head at the girl moaning in pain on the floor. Her hands were around her throat, almost as if she were trying to remove a pair of invisible hands that were strangling her. "Now that you see what I am capable of, I suggest that you do not attempt that again. Because even if you can deal with the pain and still attack me, I do not think that your friends have that same ability."
Kaiya raised her eyes glaring at the man in front of her with all of the hatred and pain that she possessed. And after her short time on earth and the recent Heero situation, it was a lot. Captain Toshi laughed and let go of the button that was causing the girl so much pain. It seemed that she had failed to notice the metal collar around her neck. It was so light weight that the fact that it was there was hardly conspicuous.
"You sick son of a bitch!" Joanna screamed from her position in the cell. Sarah was still sitting on the floor shaking her head in disbelief and horror at the images her mind conjured up. Mitsu was staring at her feet, not sure what to think of the entire situation even after having weeks to ponder it. And Kaiya, Kaiya was still on the ground, her breathing had reduced to a somewhat normal rate but her eyes were wide with shock. Her hands were still clutched around her throat, only now they had moved to the collar.
"Why, thank you. That means so much to me." Toshi said with an evil laugh. Gripping Kaiya by her hair, he drug her up from the floor and continued holding her hair in his vice like grip, pulling her out of the room and down the hall.
"Sweet Jesus, I hope that she'll be okay." Joanna said slinking down to the floor, resting her head on her knees.
"There is no need to swear." Mitsu said quietly, trying to keep herself together. It seemed as if their spirit, the soul of their group was the one dragged out of the room; rather than a girl that they met only a short time ago.
~*~*~*~*~
The group slowly made their way down the stairs and into the room, that just a few hours ago held two of their most cherished friends. Even if one was causing the braided pilot more pain then he would ever admit.
"This is a waste of our time!" Duo shouted, stomping down the stairs and into the dark room. Quatre shook his head and the boy and once again began to examine the cell door. There was no sign of forced entry.
"Wait…" Quatre said, once examining the lock closer. "Kaiya didn't have a key to this door. Whoever took them, did." The rest of the boys all moved over to the cell so that they could have a closer look.
"Are you sure that she didn't have the keys?" Trowa asked. Quatre nodded.
"Yes! There is only one set of keys to the cell. When I was on my way back to the dorms, after…the uh argument, Howard stopped me. He had to run out and get some new engines or something, I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, he handed me the keys and said to hang onto them in case we need to get into the cells while he was gone." Quatre explained.
"Hey…what's this?" Duo asked from inside the cell. He had moved in to look for clues during Quatre's little speech. The others walked over to him. He was holding what appeared to be a small picture in his hand. The picture featured three smiling people huddling close in front of a frozen lake. They appeared to be mother, son and daughter. They were all wearing winter clothes; and looked as if they had spent the whole day romping in the snow. Their checks were all rosy red, and their breath could be seen even in the picture.
"Who's in it?" Quatre asked taking the picture from Duo's hand. Duo shrugged.
"I have no idea, I've never seen any of them before in my life. Although that red haired girl looks familiar."
"Now that you mention it…she looks very familiar." Quatre said passing the picture to Trowa who was standing next to him. He examined it for a moment before handing it to Wufei who finally handed it to Heero. Heero studied the picture, his eyes almost begging for anything to give him a clue of the girls' location.
"Wait…let me see that again." Duo said. Heero handed the picture back to the braided boy. Duo's eyes scrutinized the picture before he shouted, "Ah hah! That's who she is."
"Who who is?" Quatre asked.
"That red headed girl! I knew that she looked familiar. Add six years to her, shorten the hair…change the color to a light brown…who do we have?"
Wufei who took the picture next gasped. "Sarah…" Duo nodded.
"Exactly, it makes sense since it was in her cell. She probably had it on her and dropped it after she was taken." He surmised. This renewed their search, feeling that they were finally getting somewhere, however after another twenty minutes of fruitless searching, they drudged back upstairs and into the dorm room.
Angela was sitting on her bed, in a deep mediation. Without even opening her eyes she spoke,
"Find anything?"
"Only this." Heero said holding the picture out to her.
"It's a picture of Sarah as a young girl…that's about all we could get from it." Quatre supplied her. She opened her eyes and moved over to Heero. Taking the picture from his hand, she sat back on the bed after receiving an angry glare from Wufei, and began to study it. After a few minutes she squinted her eyes, and then shot them open again.
"No way…" she whispered pressing the photo close to her face.
"No way what?" Wufei growled his patients had long since left him. Angela ignored him and the blank stares she received from the other pilots. She reached under her bed and pulled out her laptop. Scanning the picture into the computer, she began to furiously type away.
"What are you doing?" Duo asked.
"I saw something in the reflection." She answered.
"Reflection? What are you talking about?" Wufei questioned her, moving his hands to compare the temperature of her forehead to his. Angela swatted his hand away.
"I don't have a fever! Listen, you know that I work for Chinese Interpol and that I've been on this Tokinami case for some time right? What you don't know is that this is part of the case. These were some of the first victims of the Tokinami. Half of the Tokinami's soldier's aren't even willing participants. Entire families were captured and the strongest of them were forced to become pilots or whatnot depending on what area their strength was in. If my guess is right, then the person who took this picture is none other than Shino Morvot, my first decapitated human body." Angela said with a shiver.
"Anyway, his family was never found, and this was were his body was found. At this very lake, on this very day!" Angela said pointing out the date at the corner of the photograph. Quatre looked at the date then at her with wide eyes.
"But you were only eleven at the time!" He said incredously. Angela nodded.
"So? You trained to be pilots at a younger age. I wasn't supposed to see the body. I was in my grandfather's car when he was called to the suspicious death. I got out of the car and went over to see what was going on. So don't look at me like that, I wasn't working cases since I was eleven." Angela said rolling her eyes.
"So that means that Sarah's real last name is Morvot?" Duo asked. Angela shrugged.
"I guess so, she could have changed it so she couldn't be connected with her father. The Tokinami probably changed it, the more that I think about."
"Wait a minute…" Trowa said his eyes lighting up like a child on Christmas. "How do you spell that?"
"Spell what?" Angela asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Shino Morvot." He said. Angela blinked twice before answering.
"S-h-i-n-o, M-o-r-v-o-t…why?" Trowa's eyes were moving a mile a minute in his head before they widened again. He grabbed her laptop.
"Watch." He said typing the name onto the word pad. "Then see what happens if I change a few letters around…" he typed right under Shino Morvot, the name 'Toshi Normov.'
"Holy hell!" Duo said backing up from the computer as if it were diseased. The other pilots' eyes were wide and most of their faces had taken an ashen hue.
"Our enemy…is Sarah's father…" Heero whispered, even he was shocked down to his bones.
~*~*~*~*~
"Now my dear…this is really simple. You just tell me what I want to know, and no one gets hurt." Toshi said with smirk covering his relatively young face. Kaiya didn't move from the chair that she had been not so nicely shoved in. The only movement she made was blinking and breathing, and even then, she only did that a few times every minute.
"What I want is really simple." He continued although she was ignoring him. "I want the blue prints to the GPTM, the 6.1 version." Kaiya's eyes went wide.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed. Toshi began to laugh.
"It's about time that I got a rise out of you." He said chuckling. "Yes, dear. I want the GPTM otherwise known as the Gundam Pilot Training Module, the version that you so sneakily installed into your comrade's training program." Kaiya was still in shock.
"Why in the hell would you want that thing?" She asked although she knew perfectly well the answer. With the GPTM technology, Toshi could train countless numbers of gundam pilots and soldiers and unleash them into the world. What Kaiya didn't tell her friends that when she lowered the impact of the simulation, she also removed the zero system aspect. Toshi could create an army of mindless soldiers that were bent to his will. Toshi tittered like the mad man that he was.
"That's funny my dear. You know very well why I want it, and what I can do with it. In fact, your entire design team knew what it was capable of and I hear tell that there is a 'secret password' to get it to work. Is that correct?" Kaiya didn't answer him.
Toshi snarled and pressed a button on the walkie-talkie at his side.
"Yes sir?" a crackled voice called from the other side.
"Come here and take her back to her cell…I have a way to make her talk." He said sinisterly. Kaiya raised her eyebrow, as if she hadn't heard that in the old movies all the time.
"Let me guess…first your going to break my spirit by sending me back to my friends with me thinking I have no hope for escape and worrying over what this 'punishment' will be. Then your going to come the next day, take one of my friends hold some sort of weapon to them, in which case I either talk or they die. Then, I tell you so that you save her life. But…you kill her anyway to break my spirit some more. However, this only serves to anger me and send me into a flying rage, which in turn kills you. Then this place begins to crumble because let's face it, without you; it wouldn't be a strong fortress. Does that about cover it?"
Toshi's face turned a bright shade of red…and it wasn't from embarrassment either. Kaiya smirked.
"Sir…do you still want me to bring her back to her cell?" The soldier's voice asked. Toshi sighed.
"Yes, take her."
~*~*~*~*~
"So, where do we start?" Angela asked, the first to get over the initial shock.
"I say let's go to this lake, there's no better place to start than the beginning, and according to you, this was the start of the man named Toshi." Quatre said staring off into space, still not all together from the deplorable discovery. Angela nodded.
"It sounds like a plan to me. I'll contact grandfather and let him know of our current situation, I'll have him contact Kaiya's grandfather as well."
"Where exactly is this lake located at?" Heero asked.
"It's actually part of Lake Eerie up by Canada, over on the North American continent." She said, while logging onto her e-mail account and typing the duel messages for the two scientists. No more than ten minutes later, they had a vid-call from one Dr. J. "Hello Dr. J." Angela said after pressing the open link. Dr. J looked pissed. Heero had never seen him angry, ever.
"What the hell is going on?"
"I take it that you got my message." Angela said shrinking back a bit. Dr. J. glared.
"You're damn right I got it, and I demand an explanation at once!"
"I think you owe us an explanation Dr." Heero said lowering his eyes into a glare. "Whoever did this had a key to the cell, when there is only one. They could have taken Sarah out at anytime if that was their goal. However they waited until Kaiya was there also, and I think that you know why." Dr. J sighed.
"That girl always did take her missions very seriously." He said more to himself.
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked furrowing his eyebrows.
"You know that simulation that you experienced earlier?" He asked.
"How did you know?" Duo said confused as all get out.
"We installed a sort of tracking devise so that we know when and where it's being used. It also allows us to monitor the situation and effects of the simulation from where we are. You know, after going over the results, I realized something." He said almost as an afterthought.
"What?" Angela asked.
"She cared for all of you more than you'll ever know." He answered.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked a perplexed Wufei. Dr. J sighed again.
"The simulation was downplayed…" Before he could finish, Heero cut him off.
"Yes, we heard this story already." Dr. J sat up in his seat that he had previously been leaning back against and directed his glare at his young protégé.
"But you didn't hear all of it. In the reduction of the effects she also eliminated the Zero system from simulation."
"The what?" Quatre nearly shouted. Dr. J smiled.
"That's right, the Zero system. Kaiya's been training on it since she first started. I know that you, Heero have mastered it, and Quatre can if he must. The other scientists and I got together and were trying to design a new training system, when Kaiya mentioned using the Zero system, only improve upon it. She was the only one who could design the new training system beside myself, and the only one who could test it. None of us know the effects it had on her, but they were quite drastic. After she spent a week straight in there…" he paused to compose himself. "She was never quite the same again. She became ten times more dedicated to missions, regardless of if her life was in danger or not. She only spent time with her tiger, Lily, and she shut off all human contact. Except for myself and her former uncle who was just killed a week before she came to earth."
"Then why did you leave it in?" Heero said with a glare.
"Because it worked. Despite of the effects prolonged exposure had, short term exposure worked. She became a better soldier. I had thought of telling her to hold off on testing it, but she had already changed the program, so I needn't worry."
"And this is why the Tokinami want her?" Trowa asked. Dr. J nodded.
"Yes, she is the only one with the code. You see, we realized the dangers of this system if anyone ever got their hands on it, so there is a code that must be entered before using. Only Kaiya and I know this code. And we are also the only ones who know the override code if someone does figure out the start code."
"Why didn't you tell us? We would have protected her better?" Quatre asked. Dr. J chuckled.
"She's a gundam pilot. As all of you are. Would you want to be protected, when it is your job to do the protecting?"
"I guess not, point taken." Quatre said, bowing his head.
"Well then, we have no choice. We must bring her back, alive." Heero said cocking his gun that he had taken out from where ever he keeps it.
TBC!
FYI: The reflection thing that Angela was talking about, it's real. Well the concept. When a photograph or movie is taken/filmed, and there is a reflexive surface in the area that is being filmed, the film picks up what's in the reflection. Of course this depends a lot on lighting as well. Here's an example, have any of you ever tried to take a picture of some fish at an aquarium? It doesn't work so well does it? When the pictures are developed you see more of you taking the picture than whats in the tank. In order to get a half way decent picture, you must cover the flash, and even then, sometimes it doesn't work. So a lake would work as a sort of mirror to what is happening behind the picture, again depending on lighting and in this case angles of that lighting. Well, that's my scientific two cents for the day!
So? What did you think? I bet none of you saw any of that stuff coming! I love to twist your minds so! It wasn't too much of a cliffie this time…for you Angel…so you don't hurt me! Although…I'm sure you're going to hurt me anyway aren't you? Please read and review!!! I need more reviews!!! Okay okay…so I lied, I want more reviews…but it's the same thing right? ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own gundam wing. Although, I wish I owned Heero…or Wufei…ahh, bishies.
AN: Hello again! Not sick of me yet? Well I'm glad to see that some people still read this fic! This fic is beginning to wind down. Many plot twists and discoveries are revealed in this chapter, and the climax is almost upon us! I just hope that you all can hang with me through the rest of this rocky road! I promise the end will be worth it! Thanks!
Questions/Answers/Comments:
Sailor Angel: Um, sorry but no, it's not Mitsu. LOL, I think I'll make sure to have a cliff-hanger for every chapter just cause you don't like 'em! ^_^
Cloud: Ummm…please don't hurt yourself Cloud dear. You can stop banging your head, the next chapter is here. ::hands Cloud a cool drink:: Ummmm hopefully you are feeling a bit better now?
Last Time:
Kaiya was feeling a bit better after talking to Sarah.
"I guess the old adage about you don't know how good you have it till you see someone else is true." She whispered aloud as she made her way up the stairs. She was so preoccupied in her thoughts that she didn't notice the hand snake out and grab her by her upper arm. "What the fu…" she started but a hand stopped her from continuing any further.
Her eyes wide with fright, she tried to turn her head to see who her attacker was, but it was to no avail. Whoever held her, held her steadfast and she was not moving anytime soon. Before she could even blink she was turned around and her attackers lips descended on her own with an almost brutal force. The last thing she remembered before everything went black were a pair of deep blue eyes staring back into her own.
Chapter Ten: Nothing Is As It Seems
Kaiya awoke with what had to be the worst headache in the history of bad headaches.
"She's awake." A voice said from somewhere around her. However, it all came out slurred and fuzzy. She tried opening her eyes but immediately had to shut them against the bright fluorescent lighting. "Are you okay?" the same voice asked her. At least she thought it was the same voice. She couldn't tell.
"Ugh, did someone get the number of that mecha?" she groaned, raising her hands to her forehead and massaging her sore temples. A few chuckles answered her.
"Good to see that her humor didn't get knocked out as well." A different voice said softly.
"Where am I?" Kaiya whispered, still holding her head, as if she could keep the pain from entering her already pounding skull.
"Welcome to cell block 5847 of the Tokinami hidden base number 4." A voice said dryly.
"Sarah?" Kaiya asked quietly, not sure of anything anymore. "But how did we get here…and who is we exactly?" Kaiya said sitting up once the world had stopped spinning.
"Hello, Kaiya. Long time no see huh?" a very familiar voice asked. Kaiya's eyes snapped fully open at the voice, and she looked around her, at her current cell-mates.
"Sarah! Joanna! Mitsu! What the hell is going on?" Kaiya asked her eyes still wide.
"Where in the hell could they have gone?" A very upset Angela raged at the five young men around her. "What in the hell kind of sad ass security have you dumb shits got running around here?" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Letting her frustration at her friend's disappearance out on the five boys standing around her bed, Angela was reduced to a heaving mess.
"Onna, shut the hell up before you injure yourself further." Wufei grumbled rubbing his ringing ears.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Angela shouted, but before she could continue, her body was racked with several dry heave like coughs. "Ugh…" she said falling back into her bed. Her body was still weak from their training earlier, and the simulations effects were still wreaking havoc on her.
"Could Sarah have taken her? Perhaps tricked her into releasing her?" Quatre speculated. Duo shook his head,
"I doubt it, I doubt that right now she could get anyone to trust her." He growled.
"Duo, this isn't helping the situation any." Quatre said with a sigh.
"Oh and your theories are?" he spat back. Before Quatre could reply, Trowa spoke up,
"Stop it, the both of you. We need to figure out where Kaiya and Sarah either went or were taken. I suggest that we head back to the cellar and see if we can find anything that may indicate where they went."
"We already did that." Duo said rolling his eyes.
"We're doing it again." Heero said with a firm sense of finality, his glare daring anyone to challenge his words.
"Well, get going already. The sooner that you jerks find a clue the sooner I get to see my friend again." Angela said laying her head back and closing her eyes.
Kaiya blinked. Twice. "So let me get this straight. You," she said pointing to Sarah, "Only work for the Tokinami because they kidnapped your mother and brother, and threatened to kill them if you didn't spy on us." Sarah nodded slightly and looked down to hide the tears she feared would leak from her eyes. "And you two," Kaiya said indicating the two girls that had been missing for quite awhile, "You two really did suspect something and were talking at a café when you were nabbed and forced to write those letters? And you've been locked up here the whole time? Did I get that right?" Kaiya asked eyebrows still raised.
"Yes, that is correct." Mitsu said folding her hands neatly into her lap.
"Uh huh…well, in that case, I think it's time that we busted out of this joint." Kaiya said, bobbing her head to the 'uh huh'.
"Do you really think that we can do that?" Joanna asked quietly, almost in a whisper.
"Of course, why not? We have a gundam pilot, a Tokinami soldier who's on our side and two intelligent ladies who've been here long enough to know the routine. I think the odds are actually in our favor." Kaiya said cracking a smile, the kind of smile that always means trouble.
"And how do you propose that we 'bust out of this joint'?" Sarah asked raising her eyebrow at the look on Kaiya's face. Her smile only widened.
"I don't think I want to know…" Mitsu said shaking her head.
"Why, hello ladies. How is hostage life treating you?" a voice said from outside the cell. All the girls whipped around to see the identity of the intruder. All except Kaiya, she stayed where she was, facing away from the door. The only way one could tell, that she even heard the voice was that her entire body had gone rigid and a stone like mask was now slid over her once happy face.
"You bastard!" Sarah shouted racing over to the bars of the cell and gripping them so hard that her hands were sheet white. Captain Toshi shook his head and chuckled.
"Now, Sarah dear, you know very well that you won't be leaving anytime soon, not as long as we have your family. And if any of these other ladies do escape, I will count it the same as you escaping and well you know what will happen then Sarah." Captain Toshi said snickering. Sarah's eyes grew wide and she brought her hand up to cover her gaping mouth.
"No…you wouldn't" she whispered through her hand, backing up to lean against the wall. Captain Toshi smirked evilly.
"You know that I would. Just try me." Sarah sank down to the floor, tears falling from her eyes and soaking her cheeks. "And you, young lady." Captain Toshi said indicating Kaiya, who still had her back to him. "I would like to see you in the principals office immediately." He said chuckling again. Kaiya closed her eyes and nodded to the girls assuring them that she would be fine, before she turned around to face the man who had ruined countless lives.
Captain Toshi had the cell door opened and motioned for Kaiya to step out. She did, very quickly. Practically flying through the air, Kaiya was about to strike him down when she suddenly fell to her knees gasping for air. Captain Toshi smirked at her, his right thumb depressing a red button on a tiny remote control that he held.
"Now, now, that wasn't very nice." He said shaking his head at the girl moaning in pain on the floor. Her hands were around her throat, almost as if she were trying to remove a pair of invisible hands that were strangling her. "Now that you see what I am capable of, I suggest that you do not attempt that again. Because even if you can deal with the pain and still attack me, I do not think that your friends have that same ability."
Kaiya raised her eyes glaring at the man in front of her with all of the hatred and pain that she possessed. And after her short time on earth and the recent Heero situation, it was a lot. Captain Toshi laughed and let go of the button that was causing the girl so much pain. It seemed that she had failed to notice the metal collar around her neck. It was so light weight that the fact that it was there was hardly conspicuous.
"You sick son of a bitch!" Joanna screamed from her position in the cell. Sarah was still sitting on the floor shaking her head in disbelief and horror at the images her mind conjured up. Mitsu was staring at her feet, not sure what to think of the entire situation even after having weeks to ponder it. And Kaiya, Kaiya was still on the ground, her breathing had reduced to a somewhat normal rate but her eyes were wide with shock. Her hands were still clutched around her throat, only now they had moved to the collar.
"Why, thank you. That means so much to me." Toshi said with an evil laugh. Gripping Kaiya by her hair, he drug her up from the floor and continued holding her hair in his vice like grip, pulling her out of the room and down the hall.
"Sweet Jesus, I hope that she'll be okay." Joanna said slinking down to the floor, resting her head on her knees.
"There is no need to swear." Mitsu said quietly, trying to keep herself together. It seemed as if their spirit, the soul of their group was the one dragged out of the room; rather than a girl that they met only a short time ago.
The group slowly made their way down the stairs and into the room, that just a few hours ago held two of their most cherished friends. Even if one was causing the braided pilot more pain then he would ever admit.
"This is a waste of our time!" Duo shouted, stomping down the stairs and into the dark room. Quatre shook his head and the boy and once again began to examine the cell door. There was no sign of forced entry.
"Wait…" Quatre said, once examining the lock closer. "Kaiya didn't have a key to this door. Whoever took them, did." The rest of the boys all moved over to the cell so that they could have a closer look.
"Are you sure that she didn't have the keys?" Trowa asked. Quatre nodded.
"Yes! There is only one set of keys to the cell. When I was on my way back to the dorms, after…the uh argument, Howard stopped me. He had to run out and get some new engines or something, I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, he handed me the keys and said to hang onto them in case we need to get into the cells while he was gone." Quatre explained.
"Hey…what's this?" Duo asked from inside the cell. He had moved in to look for clues during Quatre's little speech. The others walked over to him. He was holding what appeared to be a small picture in his hand. The picture featured three smiling people huddling close in front of a frozen lake. They appeared to be mother, son and daughter. They were all wearing winter clothes; and looked as if they had spent the whole day romping in the snow. Their checks were all rosy red, and their breath could be seen even in the picture.
"Who's in it?" Quatre asked taking the picture from Duo's hand. Duo shrugged.
"I have no idea, I've never seen any of them before in my life. Although that red haired girl looks familiar."
"Now that you mention it…she looks very familiar." Quatre said passing the picture to Trowa who was standing next to him. He examined it for a moment before handing it to Wufei who finally handed it to Heero. Heero studied the picture, his eyes almost begging for anything to give him a clue of the girls' location.
"Wait…let me see that again." Duo said. Heero handed the picture back to the braided boy. Duo's eyes scrutinized the picture before he shouted, "Ah hah! That's who she is."
"Who who is?" Quatre asked.
"That red headed girl! I knew that she looked familiar. Add six years to her, shorten the hair…change the color to a light brown…who do we have?"
Wufei who took the picture next gasped. "Sarah…" Duo nodded.
"Exactly, it makes sense since it was in her cell. She probably had it on her and dropped it after she was taken." He surmised. This renewed their search, feeling that they were finally getting somewhere, however after another twenty minutes of fruitless searching, they drudged back upstairs and into the dorm room.
Angela was sitting on her bed, in a deep mediation. Without even opening her eyes she spoke,
"Find anything?"
"Only this." Heero said holding the picture out to her.
"It's a picture of Sarah as a young girl…that's about all we could get from it." Quatre supplied her. She opened her eyes and moved over to Heero. Taking the picture from his hand, she sat back on the bed after receiving an angry glare from Wufei, and began to study it. After a few minutes she squinted her eyes, and then shot them open again.
"No way…" she whispered pressing the photo close to her face.
"No way what?" Wufei growled his patients had long since left him. Angela ignored him and the blank stares she received from the other pilots. She reached under her bed and pulled out her laptop. Scanning the picture into the computer, she began to furiously type away.
"What are you doing?" Duo asked.
"I saw something in the reflection." She answered.
"Reflection? What are you talking about?" Wufei questioned her, moving his hands to compare the temperature of her forehead to his. Angela swatted his hand away.
"I don't have a fever! Listen, you know that I work for Chinese Interpol and that I've been on this Tokinami case for some time right? What you don't know is that this is part of the case. These were some of the first victims of the Tokinami. Half of the Tokinami's soldier's aren't even willing participants. Entire families were captured and the strongest of them were forced to become pilots or whatnot depending on what area their strength was in. If my guess is right, then the person who took this picture is none other than Shino Morvot, my first decapitated human body." Angela said with a shiver.
"Anyway, his family was never found, and this was were his body was found. At this very lake, on this very day!" Angela said pointing out the date at the corner of the photograph. Quatre looked at the date then at her with wide eyes.
"But you were only eleven at the time!" He said incredously. Angela nodded.
"So? You trained to be pilots at a younger age. I wasn't supposed to see the body. I was in my grandfather's car when he was called to the suspicious death. I got out of the car and went over to see what was going on. So don't look at me like that, I wasn't working cases since I was eleven." Angela said rolling her eyes.
"So that means that Sarah's real last name is Morvot?" Duo asked. Angela shrugged.
"I guess so, she could have changed it so she couldn't be connected with her father. The Tokinami probably changed it, the more that I think about."
"Wait a minute…" Trowa said his eyes lighting up like a child on Christmas. "How do you spell that?"
"Spell what?" Angela asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Shino Morvot." He said. Angela blinked twice before answering.
"S-h-i-n-o, M-o-r-v-o-t…why?" Trowa's eyes were moving a mile a minute in his head before they widened again. He grabbed her laptop.
"Watch." He said typing the name onto the word pad. "Then see what happens if I change a few letters around…" he typed right under Shino Morvot, the name 'Toshi Normov.'
"Holy hell!" Duo said backing up from the computer as if it were diseased. The other pilots' eyes were wide and most of their faces had taken an ashen hue.
"Our enemy…is Sarah's father…" Heero whispered, even he was shocked down to his bones.
"Now my dear…this is really simple. You just tell me what I want to know, and no one gets hurt." Toshi said with smirk covering his relatively young face. Kaiya didn't move from the chair that she had been not so nicely shoved in. The only movement she made was blinking and breathing, and even then, she only did that a few times every minute.
"What I want is really simple." He continued although she was ignoring him. "I want the blue prints to the GPTM, the 6.1 version." Kaiya's eyes went wide.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed. Toshi began to laugh.
"It's about time that I got a rise out of you." He said chuckling. "Yes, dear. I want the GPTM otherwise known as the Gundam Pilot Training Module, the version that you so sneakily installed into your comrade's training program." Kaiya was still in shock.
"Why in the hell would you want that thing?" She asked although she knew perfectly well the answer. With the GPTM technology, Toshi could train countless numbers of gundam pilots and soldiers and unleash them into the world. What Kaiya didn't tell her friends that when she lowered the impact of the simulation, she also removed the zero system aspect. Toshi could create an army of mindless soldiers that were bent to his will. Toshi tittered like the mad man that he was.
"That's funny my dear. You know very well why I want it, and what I can do with it. In fact, your entire design team knew what it was capable of and I hear tell that there is a 'secret password' to get it to work. Is that correct?" Kaiya didn't answer him.
Toshi snarled and pressed a button on the walkie-talkie at his side.
"Yes sir?" a crackled voice called from the other side.
"Come here and take her back to her cell…I have a way to make her talk." He said sinisterly. Kaiya raised her eyebrow, as if she hadn't heard that in the old movies all the time.
"Let me guess…first your going to break my spirit by sending me back to my friends with me thinking I have no hope for escape and worrying over what this 'punishment' will be. Then your going to come the next day, take one of my friends hold some sort of weapon to them, in which case I either talk or they die. Then, I tell you so that you save her life. But…you kill her anyway to break my spirit some more. However, this only serves to anger me and send me into a flying rage, which in turn kills you. Then this place begins to crumble because let's face it, without you; it wouldn't be a strong fortress. Does that about cover it?"
Toshi's face turned a bright shade of red…and it wasn't from embarrassment either. Kaiya smirked.
"Sir…do you still want me to bring her back to her cell?" The soldier's voice asked. Toshi sighed.
"Yes, take her."
"So, where do we start?" Angela asked, the first to get over the initial shock.
"I say let's go to this lake, there's no better place to start than the beginning, and according to you, this was the start of the man named Toshi." Quatre said staring off into space, still not all together from the deplorable discovery. Angela nodded.
"It sounds like a plan to me. I'll contact grandfather and let him know of our current situation, I'll have him contact Kaiya's grandfather as well."
"Where exactly is this lake located at?" Heero asked.
"It's actually part of Lake Eerie up by Canada, over on the North American continent." She said, while logging onto her e-mail account and typing the duel messages for the two scientists. No more than ten minutes later, they had a vid-call from one Dr. J. "Hello Dr. J." Angela said after pressing the open link. Dr. J looked pissed. Heero had never seen him angry, ever.
"What the hell is going on?"
"I take it that you got my message." Angela said shrinking back a bit. Dr. J. glared.
"You're damn right I got it, and I demand an explanation at once!"
"I think you owe us an explanation Dr." Heero said lowering his eyes into a glare. "Whoever did this had a key to the cell, when there is only one. They could have taken Sarah out at anytime if that was their goal. However they waited until Kaiya was there also, and I think that you know why." Dr. J sighed.
"That girl always did take her missions very seriously." He said more to himself.
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked furrowing his eyebrows.
"You know that simulation that you experienced earlier?" He asked.
"How did you know?" Duo said confused as all get out.
"We installed a sort of tracking devise so that we know when and where it's being used. It also allows us to monitor the situation and effects of the simulation from where we are. You know, after going over the results, I realized something." He said almost as an afterthought.
"What?" Angela asked.
"She cared for all of you more than you'll ever know." He answered.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked a perplexed Wufei. Dr. J sighed again.
"The simulation was downplayed…" Before he could finish, Heero cut him off.
"Yes, we heard this story already." Dr. J sat up in his seat that he had previously been leaning back against and directed his glare at his young protégé.
"But you didn't hear all of it. In the reduction of the effects she also eliminated the Zero system from simulation."
"The what?" Quatre nearly shouted. Dr. J smiled.
"That's right, the Zero system. Kaiya's been training on it since she first started. I know that you, Heero have mastered it, and Quatre can if he must. The other scientists and I got together and were trying to design a new training system, when Kaiya mentioned using the Zero system, only improve upon it. She was the only one who could design the new training system beside myself, and the only one who could test it. None of us know the effects it had on her, but they were quite drastic. After she spent a week straight in there…" he paused to compose himself. "She was never quite the same again. She became ten times more dedicated to missions, regardless of if her life was in danger or not. She only spent time with her tiger, Lily, and she shut off all human contact. Except for myself and her former uncle who was just killed a week before she came to earth."
"Then why did you leave it in?" Heero said with a glare.
"Because it worked. Despite of the effects prolonged exposure had, short term exposure worked. She became a better soldier. I had thought of telling her to hold off on testing it, but she had already changed the program, so I needn't worry."
"And this is why the Tokinami want her?" Trowa asked. Dr. J nodded.
"Yes, she is the only one with the code. You see, we realized the dangers of this system if anyone ever got their hands on it, so there is a code that must be entered before using. Only Kaiya and I know this code. And we are also the only ones who know the override code if someone does figure out the start code."
"Why didn't you tell us? We would have protected her better?" Quatre asked. Dr. J chuckled.
"She's a gundam pilot. As all of you are. Would you want to be protected, when it is your job to do the protecting?"
"I guess not, point taken." Quatre said, bowing his head.
"Well then, we have no choice. We must bring her back, alive." Heero said cocking his gun that he had taken out from where ever he keeps it.
TBC!
FYI: The reflection thing that Angela was talking about, it's real. Well the concept. When a photograph or movie is taken/filmed, and there is a reflexive surface in the area that is being filmed, the film picks up what's in the reflection. Of course this depends a lot on lighting as well. Here's an example, have any of you ever tried to take a picture of some fish at an aquarium? It doesn't work so well does it? When the pictures are developed you see more of you taking the picture than whats in the tank. In order to get a half way decent picture, you must cover the flash, and even then, sometimes it doesn't work. So a lake would work as a sort of mirror to what is happening behind the picture, again depending on lighting and in this case angles of that lighting. Well, that's my scientific two cents for the day!
So? What did you think? I bet none of you saw any of that stuff coming! I love to twist your minds so! It wasn't too much of a cliffie this time…for you Angel…so you don't hurt me! Although…I'm sure you're going to hurt me anyway aren't you? Please read and review!!! I need more reviews!!! Okay okay…so I lied, I want more reviews…but it's the same thing right? ^_^
