**Author's Note: Wow, I have never gotten so many reviews in such a short time for one story lol. I'm glad you guys are liking this story, and thank you for reviewing me. Ok, this next chapter is in the future and is Gundam Wing centered with a touch of Ronin. Warnings: Yaoi, Gundam Wing pairings 1x2/2x1, 3x4/4x3, and 5x2. (Hope I did that right...). Please review :) and let me know if you still like it, or if you hate it.**
Disclaimer: I wish I came up with Gundams and Ronin. I'd be rich as Croesus!
Chapter 1
February 197 AC
"This is boring, it's dismal, it's... it's bullshit!" Duo Maxwell was complaining loudly gazing at his rocky surroundings in distaste while running a digital scanner up and down the perimeter.
"Duo..." Heero Yuy's tone was low with warning.
"Don't tell me you don't think this is bull, Heero! I'm not getting any readings, and neither is Trowa. Une sent us down here to..to...give me something do other than bother her, and she didn't trust me enough to let me come alone."
"That could be possible," Wufei Chang muttered in agreement. "Nothing's worse than having you bouncing around for long periods of time complaining of boredom." The Chinese teen's words were sharp but his dark eyes were gentle, betraying that he wouldn't mind having Duo bouncing around him at all.
Duo whirled around his braid smacking him in the mouth, he sputtered humorously before shining his floodlight right at Wufei temporarily blinding the teen, "Nothing's worse? You sure?"
"Stop it Maxwell," Wufei snapped, hiding an amused smile.
"Duo!" Heero roared, "Would you like to wait in the jeep?"
"You wouldn't let me bring my CD's," Duo shook his head dimming and lowering his light. He sighed deeply, "This is a bullshit mission."
"Bullshit or no, we still have an obligation to complete it," Trowa Barton said from ahead, his tall form barely visible.
Duo frowned, "I should get to scout in front."
"No," Heero said flatly. He had made it perfectly clear from that start that Duo would keep near him, so he could keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't over do anything.
Duo grumbled unintelligibly under his breath.
Wufei sighed moving forward with his large flashlight, it was a bullshit mission. Une had sent them out to investigate an energy disturbance reported from the
Toyama base. Wufei doubted Une had lied about the disturbance, but sensed it was of little importance, and didn't need to be investigated. She just needed some
simple busy work for Duo Maxwell to do, to get him out of her hair...but knowing his friends wouldn't allow him to go anywhere alone in his condition, she had
assigned them all the mission.
Months prior to their great collapsed tunnel adventure, Duo and Wufei had been sent on an infiltration mission for the Preventer Agency they worked for. A company in Neo-Turkey was supposedly building weapons for biological warfare, and if that were true the operations would have to be ceased. Duo and Wufei were simply to get as much information as they could from the super computer in the Turkish base to see if what they were hearing was actually true. No need to start an international scuffle because of a rumor. Well... the mission didn't go as planned, turned out the Turks were cultivating samples for weapons, and Duo and Wufei, totally unprepared for a large offensive attack were caught up in a deadly crossfire.
Duo took two bullets for Wufei, one in the back...nearly damaging his spinal cord, and one in the shoulder. He collapsed begging Wufei to leave him behind and escape, he would hold them off. He clutched his revolver to his chest ready to fire, and told Wufei he also had a few explosives. He could cover all of Wufei's tracks if he hurried. Wufei of course, didn't leave. He lifted Duo gently trying to avoid shifting him around and causing more damage, looking for a place to hide. He'd found a small two stall lavatory and tied up the scientist inside after rendering him unconscious. He laid Duo down on the cold floor and began to try to stop the bleeding, ensuring the braided teen that he would be alright. Then he called for help. He turned off the lights to the bathroom, pulling himself and Duo into a stall, and there they waited listening to the infuriated voices of soldiers shouting at one another for losing their quarry.
Reinforcements arrived within the hour shutting down the small base, and to Wufei's surprise the person who burst into the bathroom for them...was none other than Heero Yuy. He called for them both, turning on the lights, and froze at the sight of Duo. He was barely alive, having lost consciousness minutes earlier when he'd heard that help had arrived. Wufei really felt Duo had stayed awake so long just give Wufei company. Medical personnel had flowed in at Heero's orders, his voice was oddly strained. He'd knelt down and smoothed Duo's wispy bangs from his damp face, "Where was he hit?"
"Back and shoulder...the bullet didn't do any spinal damage, he still has full motor control."
Heero nodded then stood back pulling Wufei with him to let the medical team attempt to stabilize Duo. They'd almost lost him twice on the way to the nearest hospital, there hadn't been time to take him to a base, he needed surgery, and he needed blood. Every time Duo's vitals would fail, Heero who made sure he sat nearest to Duo's stretcher, would call him back, 'Please Duo, come back to me... you can't leave me yet.'
What was that tone Wufei had heard in Heero's voice, which was uncharacteristically soft and gentle as if he were speaking to a loved one? Each time Heero would ask Duo back, he'd come. Wufei wondered if Duo would have come back for him.
The hospital was a nightmare, they weren't equipt to deal with someone as needy as Duo. The Preventers' doctors took the place of the hospital staff, washing up and donning scrubs. They had stopped the bleeding on the carrier, but they hadn't wanted to perform surgery there. Duo was too sensitive to anesthetic, and they needed more equipment than they had to deal with some of the reactions he could have had.
Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton arrived hours after Duo had been taken into surgery. It was taking too long, there were too many complications, but somehow...somehow Duo Maxwell lived, and would recover at miraculous speed.
Sitting in his hospital room waiting for him to wake up, Heero cleared his throat and gazed at everyone in the room. He sat in the chair beside Duo's bed running his fingers through Duo's loose hair. A questionable position and action for the cold teen, 'I....When Duo wakes up, would it be alright if we could be alone for a few minutes. I..I have something I need to tell him.'
Quatre gave a knowing smirk, and gazed at Trowa who had raised an eyebrow, his face unreadable. Only Wufei seemed to be clueless, what was going on that no one had told him about?
Wufei was soon to find out after Duo had woken up and he and Heero were alone, that Heero was in love with Duo. Quatre and Trowa couldn't believe Wufei hadn't noticed. They re-entered the room to see Heero holding Duo's hand that was free of an IV, and smiling. The smile was blinding, and was so rarely seen on Heero's face it was also shocking. Quatre actually clapped his hands, 'I told you so, Duo. You didn't believe me.'
Duo's weary violet eyes trained on Quatre, 'Ah shut up Quat...' he rasped. Then he inquired Wufei of his condition, but Wufei had left the room. He couldn't take
it... no, no, it was all wrong. He'd waited too long, and it was too late. Much too late, because who could ever compete with Heero Yuy, and win?
It had taken months for Duo to recover and be able to walk and run and lift weights. He was still dizzy at times, often tired, weak, and subject to back pain. This
made Une wary to give him any cases or missions that involved field work, and Duo was growing very...restless. So there they were in the underground caves.
"Oooh, I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. I'm going to Louisiana, my true love I will see. Oh Susannah, oh don't you cry for me, I come from Alaba..."
"Duo," Heero clapped a hand over Duo's mouth, "10 more minutes ok? Then I promise we will leave and report to Une that we found nothing of importance."
Duo nodded his odd colored eyes lighting up at finally getting his way, "Can we get ice cream on the way back? Something to make me feel accomplished after this."
"If it will quiet your mouth, you can eat all the ice cream you can stomach."
"I love it when you talk dirty to me, Heero," Duo teased, tossing head back with a mirthful laugh at Heero's horrified expression. "Lighten up, soldier!" he clapped Heero on the back then jogged passed both Heero and Wufei to join Quatre and tell him of their new ice cream plans.
"Duo slow down!" Heero snapped vainly. He sighed and glanced at Wufei, "I don't like ice cream."
Wufei blinked, was Heero making small talk? "I don't either. I'm lactose intolerant."
"It's called sherbert people! Wonderful, a dead end....guess we can get that ice cream faster than we thought," Duo's loud voice called back to them.
"The cave amplifies the sounds of our voices," Heero said flatly, not surprised as Wufei was that Duo had heard their statements.
"That and I know you two sticks in the mud like the back of my..Holy bejeezus! Thing's going wild! Trowa, are you getting the same readings?"
Heero and Wufei jogged to join the rest of their team further into the cave. Duo and Trowa stood comparing readings on their scanners. It was rather comical to look at the two standing next to each other with their heads together. Trowa was nearly a head taller than Duo, and he had to stoop down to see Duo's readings. "There's something back there."
"I'll do a reading to figure out the rock density of this wall..." Quatre said, he pulled a device similar to the ones Duo and Trowa held and ran it over the wall. The device thrummed and sang, while Duo and Trowa's watched the needles on their scanners dance. Heero approached Duo to take a look at the gadget, "It's not radiation."
"Nope...more like very, very big batteries," Duo said simply, "What say you Trowa?"
"A simple electricity generator," Trowa nodded.
"Mega-battery.... The Alpha and Omega of 20th century double A batteries," Duo chuckled.
"Hmm," all heads turned toward Quatre who looked slightly amused. "Seems this little dead end is only a few meters thick...and there's steel behind it."
"Steel?"
"Yes...lots of steel."
"Steel, underground, in a cave?" Duo questioned, hmm this mission is turning out to be not so bad after all.
"I don't think this is a cave Duo," Quatre shook his head. "There used to be a house above this place a century ago, you know, and there was never any mention of any caves in this area."
"Mysterious..." Duo said eerily, then grinned manically, "So... what say you group? I vote we let Duo set some explosives, and we see what's behind this bad boy."
Heero frowned, but Trowa nodded, "I think a low caliber explosive would be best. We didn't bring any cutting tools that would prove to be effective in this environment."
Quatre also agreed, "But only low caliber Duo, we don't want to bring the ceiling of this place crashing down on our heads."
Duo's grin dimmed, "Oh give me more credit than that Quat!"
Quatre gave Duo's braid a playful tug, and Duo pulled his knapsack from his back to unpack his set of explosives. "Do you bring those everywhere you go?" Wufei asked amazed at the sophistication of the explosives and care of which Duo had packed his bag. Duo always took such good care of his tools, which usually surprised people who didn't know Duo very well. Duo was not always the clown he pretended to be, for some reason Duo thought maybe if he could project an outward appearance of happiness, maybe some of it would permeate to the inside. Not that Duo was very unhappy, but he had a lot of scar tissue to deal with on the inside ranging from early childhood to the wars.
"Yeah, never know when you're gonna need a good grenade. History test, Mr. Mungello? Me and Sue here, gesture to grenade, don't think so..unless you wanna give us both A's," Duo giggled at his own joke and he laid out the charges he wanted to use.
"You take explosives to school?" Heero asked looking shocked.
"Sure..doesn't everybody?" Duo shrugged, then winked at Wufei who was standing next to Heero looking absolutely disgusted with the way Heero took things so literally. He caught Duo's wink, and sent a small smile. Heero and Duo couldn't last forever...
"Duo..."
"No Heero, I don't take explosives to school," Duo's voice was muffled as he pulled the wrapping off of a new part with his teeth. Quatre chuckled, then sobered when Heero glared at him.
Duo worked diligently for 10 minutes setting and charging the small explosives just right, then aligning them along the wall. "Ok...we got 5 minutes before they blow, let's get out of here."
They jogged the distance to the outside and stood just before the cave entrance. Duo was looking at his watch ticking off seconds, "I think I gave us too much time."
"Eh, you had to allot for safety," Quatre shrugged.
They heard the soft boom of a dozen little bombs going off. "Alright, let's go see the damage!" They ran back in, Duo in the lead, until Heero caught hold of his braid and made him slow down. Duo scowled at Heero, snatching his hair back, and walking closer to Quatre and Trowa. Wufei grinned inside, no Duo and Heero could not last forever.
The floor of the cave was littered with small debris, and they had to watch their steps carefully. Duo and Trowa kept their flood lights aimed at the floor to illuminate the treacherous rocky path they had to follow. They stopped short as they approached their destination. Why it wasn't a wall of steel at all...it was a door, a steel door. There was a panel on the side of it that Duo went to at once, and began to interface with it. "Hey, it doesn't work. No power."
"Could we give it a charge?" Quatre asked.
"If there's no power to the panel, there's probably no power to the door either, we'll have to open her manually. A little napalm will do the trick." Once again he reached into his pack.
"It's a wonder he hasn't blown himself into the next millennium by now," Trowa whispered to Quatre who chuckled.
"I got skills Tro, don't hate, appreciate all that is Duo," Duo mumbled handling the napalm carefully. He smoothed it within the grooves of the door neatly and pulled a lighter from his pants, "Stand back, and take cover."
He lit the napalm before Heero could object and insist he be the one to do it, and dove for cover beside Wufei. Wufei couldn't help but put his arms around the smaller boy and pull him in close. He could pretend he was doing it to protect the boy. Duo would believe him... as he pulled Duo's head against his chest and tucked his hands over it, he caught scent of the wonderful flavor of Duo's thick mahogany mane. By Nataku, he wished he could hold him like that for much longer than the few seconds it took for the dust to settle again. He released Duo who stood brushing himself off, he offered a hand down to Wufei, "If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you were hugging me, Wu-man." Dark amethyst eyes glinted with mischief, "You better be nice to me from now on, or I'm gonna tell Heero you were groping me."
Wufei rolled his eyes with a snort, while he panicked on the inside. Did Duo know? Duo had a funny way of letting people know he wasn't stupid, and most of his jokes and teases usually had more than one meaning. Whether the person got it or not, Duo wouldn't explain a thing.
"Allah...look at this..." Quatre was murmuring holding Trowa's arm. They were peering into the heart of a laboratory.
"Oh yeah!" Duo cheered. "Finally something cool!" He sprinted towards the entrance only to be snagged by Heero again around the waist. "Duo... you will let me go in first."
Duo rolled his eyes, "Heero, I'm not a baby. I'm not glass. I'm plastic, and I have a return policy stamped on my ass. I'm fine doing things by myself!"
"Duo, it could be dangerous. Who knows..."
"I laugh in the face of danger...." Duo mocked, then gave a wicked laugh, his thin frame evaded Heero's strong grasp, and he ran towards the lab.
Heero growled in frustration and ran after him, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei following. "For some reason, I don't think we're going to get out of this without them
fighting," Trowa observed. Quatre nodded, "Looks like Duo will be in our room again tonight."
Wufei frowned, Duo never came to his room after one of he and Heero's infamous arguments that left them fuming at one another for days at a time. Perhaps he would invite him to stay that night, he couldn't feel all that comfortable burdening Quatre and Trowa who had just recently moved from the stages of courtship to lovers.
They entered the lab all together gazing around in wonder. Covered in layers of dust was a perfectly in tact laboratory. Computers, biology equipment, and other scientific tools littered the tables. There were scrubs and gloves, goggles, and plastic hair caps. "A secret laboratory. Quatre, did anything you read say anything about the owner of the house that was once here being a scientist?"
Quatre frowned, "Her name was Dr. Koji, I believe...perhaps she was. Wonder what she was doing down here. A lot of reports said she had gone a little peculiar as she grew older, until one day she was never seen again."
"Ooh creepy," Duo said in a theatrical voice. "Wonder if she disappeared down here. Maybe she was the one that blew this place shut, and sealed herself in. Maybe she was doing experiments on herself to make herself into a super human immortal being. Eeps! What if she's still here!"
"Stop it baka," Heero rolled his eyes, as Quatre giggled, and Wufei suppressed a laugh but didn't hide his smile of merriment.
"Seriously Heero, what if she was the energy reading we got...cause I sure as hell don't see anything working in here." He ran his hands over the dusty top of a computer, and sat down in the chair before it. He cracked his knuckles and put his trusty backpack down in front of him again.
"What are you doing?" Wufei asked coming to stand over him. Duo was bent over his pack, his braid falling to one side of his neck revealing the creamy skin and graceful slope of his neck.
Stop it, stop it Chang!
"I'm going to power this baby up, see what's on it, if anything."
"You've got something in your magic bag that starts computers Maxwell?"
"Well...not exactly starts them, but I bet with the right configuration and a little Duo-ingenuity I could make something that does."
"Or something that explodes," Wufei said with an evil chuckle, and Duo sat up straight his violet eyes flashing brilliantly, "You wanna make a wager Fei?"
"Hmm.." Did he ever. I win, I get you. He shook that thought from his head, "Sure Maxwell, you blow yourself up, I get your silence for a week. You make the computer work.... name your price."
"You take your hair out of that ponytail for a week," Duo smirked, and Wufei barely hid a blush.
"Is that all you want?"
"Yeah, I've never seen you with your hair down Wu."
"I've only seen yours down once." In the hospital, on the horrible day when I found out you were taken.
"Hmm... well how about you win, I let my hair down for a week?"
"Deal," Wufei shook hands with the braided demon. He prayed to Nataku that he lost, he didn't know how he would be able to handle himself if Duo started prancing around with his locks untamed. He was beautiful enough...and belonged to Heero. At that moment Wufei was positive he hated Heero.
"I'm getting an energy reading from these cubicles," Trowa's smooth voice said.
"What do you think they are?" Quatre asked.
"I don't know, but they seem to be the only things in this place that are operating. It looks like all of the energy from the generators are going to them."
Wufei turned to see the two lovers in conversation standing beside five long cubicles. Heero approached him, "I've found the woman."
"Dr. Koji?" Quatre perked, turning away from Trowa.
"Aa," Heero nodded he held out his hands revealing a small book, a journal. "This was hers."
"Is it still legible? It's very old," Quatre question reaching to take the book from Heero, who handed it to him gingerly. "It is very well preserved. Dr. Koji apparently knew what she was doing."
"Maybe this will tell us just what she was doing down here," Quatre breathed, "Does anyone mind if I sit down and read this?"
"Go ahead," Trowa said, "Until someone figures out just what these things are, it wouldn't be safe for us to try to open them anyway."
"Should we call head quarters and tell them we've found something."
"I think we should wait until we know just what this something is, first. Une can be very snippy when you're not precise."
There was a slight spark and a small yelp from behind them, "Yow....I'm ok, the computer's ok..." came Duo's voice, he sounded preoccupied. Heero frowned, "Duo, maybe you should.."
"Heero, leave me the hell alone," Duo snapped, his tone anything but playful. Uh oh, fight.
"At least let me help you. I may be able to..." he froze at the hard glare Duo threw at him, and was silent as Duo went back to work.
"Leave him alone Heero. This is his first time out on the field in a while, and he wants to feel useful," Quatre said softly touching Heero's arm. "Trust him to know what he's doing."
Heero scowled and gave a indignant grunt, "Go read that journal, I'll see if I can find anything else in Dr. Koji's room." He stalked off without another word.
"I could almost swear some of the energy readings I'm getting from these containers are biorhythms," Trowa said suddenly, Wufei left Duo's vicinity and went to join his tall friend. "You see that, Wufei? It's like a EKG reading."
"Yes..." Wufei watched the small spikes of energy swirling inside the larger loops, "It seems the containers are providing an electrical field...but there is something inside of them that they are protecting, perhaps."
"Quatre...does Dr. Koji say anything about something special to her, that may be alive that she'd want to maintain? Animals, insects..."
Quatre was absorbed in his readings and barely looked up at the mention of his name, "What? Oh...uh... No, no guys. Not yet."
"What's so interesting over there?" Trowa inquired looking over at Quatre who was sitting in a chair in front of a dusty computer screen thoroughly engrossed in the journal he read, turning the pages ever-so-carefully. "Oh...it's her diary. She was an extraordinary writer. It seems like a story book really. She's telling of her early life...and how her grand father studied legends and lore and a University, and he often told her great stories and brought her wonderful artifacts to keep as her own. There are pictures. She was a cute little girl."
Trowa rolled his eyes, in more affection than annoyance. There was another spark from behind them and the sound of a computer...booting up, "Oh-ho-yeah! What did I say..I am the man! Wu-wu's gotta wear his hair down for a week!"
Wufei blushed as Trowa glanced over at him in amusement, "Bet?"
"I bet he'd blow himself up before getting the computer to work."
"Ah."
Duo chuckled behind them and they could hear his fingers flying over the keyboard, "Oh yuck....dust bunnies..."
"There are computers at the base of each one of these... do you want to see if they are functioning, or can be made to function since there is power here?"
Trowa nodded, "It couldn't hurt anything." Wufei and Trowa knelt at the base of one of the containers where a small panel sat staring blankly at them. Wufei tried a button and found it to be unresponsive. "I'll see if I can plug my comm into it," Trowa said handing Wufei his scanner device, and unloading his tiny personal laptop from a the small knapsack he had on his back.
"Yada, yada, yada, Project Ronin.... yada yada, Ronin, Ronin.... Ok, so what the hell is Project Ronin? If I didn't know better I'd swear she wiped this computer clean....oh...she did. So you wanna play dirty huh? Alright, the gloves are coming off. Project Ronin you are mine!"
Trowa rolled his eyes at Duo's one-sided conversation, and plugged his computer into the panel.
"Encrypted? Oh-ho... so you think you're smart, do ya? Well, I'm smarter. Just so happens, I know how to do this... Ouch! Dammit! Ok, through playing Mr. Nice Guy, either you work with me or I'm tearing apart your CPU."
"He's going to hurt himself. Maybe Heero isn't so far off in trying to pack him in bubble wrap, he seems intent on electrocuting himself to death."
Wufei chuckled at Trowa's joke, "Any response?"
"No...not at all..." Trowa frowned, "It seems Dr. Koji cut off all computer feeds. The cubicles themselves are the only things working."
"Perhaps we should get Maxwell over here to try one of his insane procedures to get this thing to work."
Trowa grinned, "Perhaps, but we wouldn't want to risk setting our precious mysteries on fire, now would we? What say we join Quatre and get him to tell us about Dr. Koji's journal while we wait for our braided computer genius to figure out just what these things are for us."
Wufei nodded, meeting Trowa's jewel green eyes that lit up when he spoke of joining Quatre. Wufei felt a pang of envy, it seemed everyone had someone, but him. He always felt so left out in his small circle of friends. He stood and followed the taller boy to where the blond Arabian sat still thoroughly engrossed in his literature. "Quatre?"
"Shh..." Quatre shushed them, "I'm trying to absorb this..."
Trowa sat beside Quatre very quietly gazing lovingly at his blond angel. Wufei tried to read over Quatre's shoulder to see what was intriguing the blond so, but at another outburst form Duo, he decided to go join the object of his affection.
"Ha, ha, ha! Password protected huh?... well....we'll see...about...that. Hah! Project Ronin.... huh? What the... you sorry bitch, I can't believe... Oh... I see."
"Maxwell, what are you ranting about?" Wufei came to join the American ex-pilot as he pushed himself away from the desk, "Who? Me? Was I talking out loud?"
"Yes," Wufei and Trowa said in unison, Quatre was still lost in the world of Dr. Koji. "Oh sorry. You guys should have told me to shut up."
"Would you have?"
"Nah, but at least I would have known I wasn't thinking to myself," Duo shrugged sliding out of the chair and onto his hands and knees. He crawled under the desk, "Pass me your flashlight, Wu."
"Huh? Maxwell what are you doing?"
"Figuring out what Project Ronin is.."
"Did you say Ronin?" Quatre perked up.
Duo almost hit his head on the desk at Quatre's voice, "Yes I did."
"Ronin Warriors?"
"Don't know..." Duo muttered, "Flashlight Wu!"
Wufei obeyed handing Maxwell his flashlight and trying to turn his eyes away from his friend's posterior. Duo was very slim, and was probably shortest of all of the ex-pilots, but his body shape still had a very pleasing appeal for the eyes to behold. Duo began to hum to himself, deep in concentration.. He'd found something, "What do have down there Maxwell?"
"A secret compartment," Duo mumbled, "open my pack, and get my little black tool kit out, would you? Then slide it under here."
Wufei of course complied, locating the tools with ease, and sliding them to Duo who stretched out a small hand for them. "Thanks."
Wufei stood quietly waiting for Duo to say something, or reappear.
"What a story..." Quatre was murmuring to Trowa, "You have to read this..."
Wufei sighed, he seemed to be the only one with nothing to do. There was a rumbling noise from under the desk, and sneezing. "Oh shit..." Duo slid from under the desk holding a small locked box. "Dust bunny central. Don't go under there, they'll eat you alive." He shook his head, a snow fall of dust littered his lap, and he sneezed again. He brushed his bangs off his forehead with one hand and used the other to set the box on the desk. He leaned back down to retrieve his little tool kit. He had the black box open in seconds. Wufei was curious to see what it held..perhaps jewelry or money... but he was surprised to see that it contained computer disks, dozens of tiny little disk all arranged according to date and file type. There were white disks, red disks, green disks, orange disks, dark blue, and light blue disks, and they were grouped according to color. "What is this Duo?" Wufei asked gazing at his grit coated friend, "Project Ronin," Duo said. He extracted disk one from the white group, reading the label with a nod, "Project Ronin." Then he looked at the first disk from the red group, "Wildfire...." Green group, "Halo." Orange group, "Hardrock." Light blue, "Torrent." Dark blue, "Strata."
"We'll start with the white ones..." Duo sat back at the computer screen plugging in the first white disk. The screen was filled with information discussing scientific theories, DNA, and RNA... Wufei's eyes crossed looking at all of the genetic compound formulas, and models of DNA. He instead chose to look at Duo who was absorbing the scientific data like a sponge, undoubtably understanding every word. Wufei had learned not to be shocked at Duo's intellect. He had grown up in an environment where one had to be smart and catch on to things quickly or perish. That usually only applied to common sense, but in Duo's case it applied to book sense as well. He'd said before, that once he'd learned to read he read everything he could get his hands on to better himself. He read phone books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, anything, and had amazing recall abilities. His genius never reflected in his school work, the boy was so beyond what was being taught in class he sometimes just didn't bother to show up. That enraged Commander Une to no end, she could not have Preventers that were high school flunkees. Wufei always wondered why Une insisted they go to school. They were all 16 going on 17, and school was the logical place for them to be, but all of them were at a college level of learning. They could easily test out of grade school without even studying. He supposed it had to do with image...no one had ever asked why.
The white disk was ejected, and in went disk two. Then three, four, five, six....and so on, Wufei lost count. "What is it about Duo? What is this project of Dr. Koji's?"
Duo's violet eyes trained up to meet Wufei's, their expression bedazzled, "It's a cloning project Wufei...those containers...they are capsules. There are...people in there, alive judging from your readings."
"For over a century, still alive?"
Duo nodded, "I'm guessing she used cryogenics." He went back to the computer screen. "I'm guessing those other disks are the files on the people in each capsule."
Wufei blinked, People...there were people in there.... "Trowa?"
Both Trowa and Quatre looked up from the journal. It was cute when they responded to things as a unit, "Duo says those things over there are capsules, with people inside."
Trowa blinked, "So I was getting biorhythms..."
"And you say it's called the Project Ronin?" Quatre asked, standing with a groan from sitting too long and not stretching. He walked to Duo's side to peer at the computer screen, "Oh my....too many numbers and small letters, and is that German?"
"Yeah...and it's old German too, the traditional stuff. I only get every other word. I'm gonna have to brush up on my German..." Duo muttered. He glanced over at Quatre, "The journal have anything to say about any of this?"
"There's this legend of the Ronnin Warriors in here, a full and complete account, very beautiful story. Dr. Koji...well she claims that they appeared in her lifetime to defend the world from evil, and she knew them."
"Classic crack pot?" Duo raised an eyebrow.
"I would think so...but she writes so beautifully, so eloquently... and is very intelligent. Everything in here is so detailed... The Warriors were 14 when she first encountered them, their names were Ryo, Sage, Rowen, Cye, and Kento. Although they are better known in the story of the Ronin Warriors as Wildfire, Halo, Strata, Torrent, and...um.."
"Hardrock?" Duo supplied.
"Yes, how did you..."
"Project Ronnin...each group of disks has a name, the red disks are Wildfire, the green are Halo...and so on."
"Oh my...the pictures... She's drawn sketches of the armors, and the colors.. Wildfire is red I believe. And..." Quatre reopened the diary he hadn't finished reading an thumbed all the way to the back, "She has photographs...I think these are them, and look at what they are wearing. Looks like some sort of samurai armor," Quatre passed the diary around so Duo and Wufei could look at the pictures. They were labeled. Ryo Sanada of Wildfire was lean with a wild tangle of black hair and warm blue eyes decked in red Samurai battle armor, he brandished two swords that he held limply at his sides as he rolled his eyes at the person taking the picture. Rowen Hashiba of Strata was a striking youth with blue hair, one unruly lock falling across his forehead into his eyes. He stood in a teasing stance in his dark blue battle armor. He held a tall golden bow in one hand and twirled a golden arrow in another. He smirked at the camera his dark blue eyes reflecting his sarcastic wit. Cye Mouri of Torrent was a slight boy with a rather timid look about him. His soft looking auburn hair caught the breeze as he stood smiling sweetly for the camera in his light blue armor holding a metal trident that was taller than he was. "Oooh...shit, look at Sage Date of Halo! If you thought the others were cute..." Duo breathed passing the picture to Wufei. Sage Date of Halo was a willowy blond with intense grey eyes and a shiny head of blond tresses that obscured one eye from view. He stood in a fighting stance holding his long sword ready for attack his green armor catching the sun's rays and casting an odd ethereal light over the boy's body. His skin seemed to glow with an other worldly serenity and benevolence. Wufei held his breath for a bit at the sight, he glanced back at the capsules. Could one of them contain this beauty? He'd almost been able to take his mind off of Duo.
"And here's Kento...a jolly looking fellow, isn't he?" Quatre handed Duo and Wufei the final picture. Kento Rei Fuan of Hardrock was much broader than his companions, and stood proud and playful in his picture leaning on his large iron staff in his orange armor. His ash colored hair blew around his wide friendly face as he gave a large cheesy grin to the camera squeezing his eyes shut. "Oh here's a picture of Dr. Koji with them... and look at that tiger! Isn't he huge? I believe he was a pet."
They gazed at the photo of the young woman with long brown hair and blue eyes standing beside Ryo and Cye with her hand on the head of a large Siberian white tiger. "Who's the kid?"
There was a small boy in the picture. Quatre flipped it over, "Yulie...oh and the tiger is White Blaze."
"Interesting..." Duo frowned and spun around in his chair to look at the capsules. "Think we should open those things? I really wanna see what's in there now. Trowa said whatever's inside is alive...but I haven't read far enough along to know if the project was successful. But then if she froze them cryogenically I would assume it worked right. Why freeze a mistake...unless she wanted someone else to take her work and try again."
Quatre chuckled at Duo and ruffled some dust from his hair, "You think too much sometimes Duo, and you need a bath. What have you been doing?"
"Digging up old bones, you missed it. So...wanna look inside?"
"Why don't you glance at the last disk in each file of the Ronins...see if it tells you if the project was concluded."
Duo nodded at Quatre's orders. Wufei smirked at how easy if was to take orders from the blond. Though he had the look of a timid kitten, he was a superior leader that had guided them well during the last battles of the first war.
Trowa was back at the capsules re-scanning them, "There are living beings in here...their heart beats are slow, brain waves match those of a person at rest."
"What's going on?" Heero entered the room once again holding a photo album, and a 20th century lab top computer. "Dr. Koji has extensive files of the occult on this computer, and many books on sorcery, ancient languages, and folklore. There are also some weapons, and boys clothing that I don't quite think a woman of her size would have worn."
"Heero you went snooping through her drawers?" Duo teased his tone still a little bitter toward Heero as his eyes rapidly read over the end disks to each Warrior's files.
Heero frowned looking a trifle confused at Duo's statement, "I had to be thorough."
"You find her lingerie, the good doctor have any sexy panties? She was quite the looker in her day."
Heero's eyes widened a bit, "How would you know?"
"You didn't look through that photo album did you? Quat showed us some pictures from that diary you found."
"How far did you get in your reading, any explanations?" Heero turned to Quatre.
"Just a really good story, that I'm not sure if we should fully believe. It sounds like mumbo jumbo...but the descriptions and the pictures tell us otherwise."
"The containers?"
"Capsules," Duo corrected.
"With living bodies inside," Trowa said from his position at the fourth capsule.
"Quatre," Duo said, "all projects were completely successful, the last disks mark the final years of their development in which she was going to have them released. They should be 16 years old inside, and I believe she froze them cryogenically, but that is not documented here. It may, however, be documented near the end of that journal."
Quatre flipped to the ending paragraphs, eyes scanning for the tell tale words that would let them know of the use of cryogenics. Heero sat uninformed and irritable. He shouldn't have left the room for so long, or should have sent someone else...Wufei perhaps in his place. He had wanted to give Duo room to cool off, but hadn't wanted to miss out on any vital information. He tried reading over Duo's shoulders, moving Wufei aside to see the computer screen. "I want to read every one of these disks in depth," Duo said. "It's all so interesting."
"Is this French.... and German, together?" Heero's brows drew together and he glanced down at Duo. "Yeah, see Mia...the good doctor, was a smart girl. She made copies of all of her files but she made sure your average jerk off couldn't read them. Not that they would understand much even if it was in English." Duo stood up abruptly pushing Heero back with his chair, "There, knock yourself out Heero, I wanna open those capsules."
Heero blinked, "You want to what?"
"We have to see," Duo shrugged, and looked to Quatre for agreement. The blond nodded, "Yes, Heero, we have to see. Wufei, would you like to join us?"
Wufei fell in step beside Quatre and Duo grinning that the two smallest of the group seemed to be the two the most in control at that time. Heero shook his head and followed, feeling that the move to open the capsules was foolish, and he didn't want his team anywhere near anything dangerous, especially not his braided baka, "Has anyone called headquarters?"
"Not yet, we've been too...captivated," Quatre said.
"I think someone should...Duo, why don't you..."
"If you're so worried about Une, why don't you call her? She doesn't like me anyway," Duo snapped smartly, and set his hand on a capsule. "There's a control panel at the end of each one," Trowa informed him.
"Mmhmm," Duo nodded.
"You saw a schematic," Trowa stated staring at Duo who nodded again. "Well the panels are dead, do you think you can open these things without using the computer?"
"The panels aren't dead if the capsules are still operative. Miss Mia simply has them coded to only turn on if..." He walked to the head of the capsule and ran his palm along the base, "Ah hah...if you know where this guy is." A small compartment popped open revealing a keypad of buttons that gleamed with power. Duo typed in a few access codes and suddenly the panels at the in hummed with life.
"Allah! These are bio-statistics... heart rate, temperature, body mass, brain waves...look. They're all in perfect health, and they're sleeping."
"Now to open these bad boys up, and see the beauties that live inside."
Trowa was already at the panel at the end of the first one reading the information and typing in commands. The process of opening the capsule was fairly simple and any idiot could do it. The process of getting it activated had been hard enough Trowa guessed. "Who's in capsule one?"
"Ryo Sanada," Quatre supplied, "I'm assuming it's him because of the color. At the bases of each capsule is a band of color."
"Ok, stand back everyone, I'm opening the capsule."
There was a soft hiss, and a gentle humming as the lid from capsule one slowly rolled back. After the top had cleared, all 5 agents crept forward to peer inside, Heero moving closer to Duo ready to throw him behind him if anything popped out at them.
"It's him," Quatre breathed peering down through the frosted glass of the capsule, in the abnormal blue light he could make out the face of Ryo Sanada in a deep coma-like sleep. "She did it, she really did it."
"Will they have their old memories, or are they new people that she'd want us to call by these names?" he looked to Duo.
"According to every source of info Miss Mia worked with, their memories should be firmly intact. It was why she was so insistent on their bodies maturing to the age of their...deaths."
"They died all together?" Wufei asked.
"In battle," Quatre nodded, "according to her, a battle that wasn't supposed to have happened."
"Next capsule.." they moved on.
Each boy they found was healthy and intact as they slept oblivious to what was going on around them and how long they had been asleep.
"Did anyone call headquarters?" Trowa asked suddenly.
"I thought Heero was going to," Duo said a little crisply, "Have you?"
"I'll do it now," Heero's voice was cool.
"How exactly do we explain that we found a bunch of frozen 20th century teenagers who according to the dead Dr. Koji, should have magic powers?" Duo wondered aloud, and Quatre snickered, "Perhaps you should be the one to explain it to Une. You are the one known for his way with words."
"She'd shoot me through the phone."
"She only did that sort of thing when she wore those glasses."
"I think she got some more. Tore her last contact lens I heard, and corrective laser surgery wasn't an option."
"Oh, poor you," Quatre teased, and Duo snorted, "Yeah...poor little old me." He gazed at Heero as he said it, his eyes unreadable.
**A/N: I've got another chapter already written. If you liked this one let me know, and I'll post it ASAP. Thanks!**