Chapter four: When the music stops
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
***********
"There's someone standing there. I think it's a man."
"Have you got your gun?" the boy didn't even bother to whisper. He wouldn't mind fighting whatever was out there, so why bother to hush his voice?
"Of course I have my gun. You know I have my gun." Annoyed, the other snapped back and looked again at the figure standing by the wall. It was briefly lit by a lighter. The small circle of light showed a face shrouded by a cap and a figure dressed in black.
A small noise came from behind them, and the boy watching the figure snapped around, surprised. Even if he didn't want to admit it.
A small laugh came from his partner.
"Relax. It's Quatre and Wufei. I've been watching them sneak up on us for some time."
"Oh." Trowa turned around and watched as the two pilots came towards them. Both were dressed in black, Quatre wearing a black hooded top as well, to cover his light hair. Wufei held his own head high and jumped calmly from log to log, as though carefree. His blonde partner was slightly more nervous. Quatre wanted to be able to persuade Heero to leave Relena alone, but at the same time acknowledged that this was impossible.
Trowa looked back at the figure that had been standing by the wall, but it was gone. He looked around, his face a mask of non-feeling. The wind moved through the tree above him, and he turned to the other pilots.
"Our man is gone. I didn't see what way he moved off in. He could be anywhere."
"Well done Barton. This is what we get for making a clown head of security." Wufei snapped impatiently.
"Listen justice-boy. Maybe if your hadn't decided to crash through the bushes on your way over, he wouldn't have got away.
"Listen guys. Can't we just forget this? I mean, whats to gain by killing Relena? Only more bloodshed. Why do we need to do this?"
"The people need real hopes, not false ones. Human beings need to fight to feel alive. We are animals. Total pacifism will never be realised, more lives are only lost in the process of trying to find it."
"Total pacifism is Relena's unicorn." Came a voice from the branches. All four boys on the ground turned towards it quickly, Trowa Heero and Wufei whipping out guns and pointing them at the branches. "So what've we got here? A little reunion? Aw, how come I didn't get an invite?"
"Come out, however you are!" Trowa barked at the tree. He could vaguely see a black clad figure sitting on some of the higher branches, but it kept moving around. It wasn't a good enough target for him to risk taking a shot at it. He was too close to the house. People would hear it and come out.
And that would be bad.
"Well, well, well. You weren't really watching me too closely, now were you? If you'd been paying attention you'd've seen me creep over here and climb this here tree. But ya didn't. That's one point to me, zero to you." The figure jumped out of the branches and landed lithely on his hands and feet before straightening up.
"Duo!" Quatre exclaimed, surprised and glad to see his friend again.
"Hey guys, put the guns down, I'm here on friendly terms!"
"Maxwell! What the hell do you think you're doing? This is a serious mission!" Wufei barked, putting his gun back in its place.
"Aw Wuffers, you know you missed me!" Duo teased.
"Weakling! How dare you call me that! My name is Wufei! Chang Wufei! Not Wuffers! Not Wu-wu!"
"Wu-wu. hmm, that's a new one. Never thought of that before."
"Shut up Duo. Come on the rest of you," Trowa began moving away from the house, towards the van parked a mile or two away. "This has been enough surveillance for tonight. We'll come back tomorrow."
**********
When they were all seated in the van, Heero polishing his gun, Quatre looking out the window, Trowa and Wufei comparing the knives and equipment they had brought, and Duo apparently dozing in the corner, there was silence. No one had anything in particular to say and no one really wanted to say anything. Also, when Duo's mouth was shut, there was generally a lot less noise.
"When are we going back?" Duo tipped his cap up a fraction, revealing a glint of his eyes.
"Tomorrow. We might not hit tomorrow, but we go back and scope it out again at least." Came Heero's reply.
"Man, do you have any idea what you're doin'? Or how?"
Heero didn't reply, he just gave Duo a cold look and carried on polishing his guns.
"Maxwell, try not to get us killing each other before tomorrow. Do that for us, ne?"
"Come on 'Fei, you know this is a goose chase."
"The only goose I see, weakling, is you."
" Ooh, that was so mature. Tell us 'Fei, when do you plan to graduate kindergarten?"
"Just shut up both of you." Cut in Quatre. "This situation is bad enough as it is without all of you trying to tear each other to pieces.
"Trowa's the only one so far that hasn't done anything to offend anyone. And I of course." Heero's words, spoken quietly from the corner, caused an outburst from Duo, of course.
"Oh man! You gotta be kidding me! You're the one who dragged us all down here on a chase after some stupid girl! This is not even worth my time, I can't believe I'm even here, the god of death-"
"Duo, you talk too much." They were almost the first things that Trowa had said since getting into the van, and usually not enough to spark off a fight, but everybody was looking for a fight.
"Yeah? And you talk too little! Maybe if you just opened your mouth once in a while to stop him "he gestured wildly at Heero, by now he had put his guns down and had his back to the others, gazing out the window and trying to formulate a plan "from doin something stupid, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Duo, no one dragged you down here! We are here for each other, and we should be. We are the pilots. We survived the war, and now we have to help each other!" but in the ensuing scuffle between Wufei and Duo, Quatre's words were lost. But Heero and Trowa stepped in, Heero holding Wufei back and Trowa holding the Deathscythe pilot.
"Just both of you calm down!" shouted Trowa. "I think we all need to just calm down. Heero, you have some explaining to do."
"About what? What could I possibly need to explain?"
"Well first of all, why are you so intent on killing Relena? What is it about this girl, this one specific member of the human species that has got you so desperately intent on a massacre?" Heero said nothing, he just dropped Wufei and opened the door in the van that led to the front cab. He was silent as he climbed through, sat in the driver's seat and slammed the door.
"Lunatic."
"DUO! As if things aren't bad enough around here! Why do you feel the need to make stupid remarks?!" such an outburst from the ever quiet Quatre shocked even the talkative Deathscythe pilot into silence. "Now I'm going through there to talk to my friend. I hope that by the time I get back the rest of you have grown up enough that you're able to talk amongst yourselves without causing a damn war! I would have thought you guys, of all people would be able to understand a delicate situation when you saw one." Quatre climbed past Trowa and grabbed the handle of the cab door. "Work yourselves out, 'Kay?" with these lasts words he opened the hatch, climbed through and shut the door considerably less violently than Heero had.
"Did he say.. Damn?"
**********
"Come on Heero. You're a smart guy, but even smart guys make stupid choices. Tell me what this is all about."
"Quatre, you think you're pretty clever, don't you? You think you're the sensitive one of the group, the one that people like to talk to. Because you're sociable." Heero adjusted a dial on the dashboard and hot air blasted into the feet cavities. "Your cheap façade only serves to show how much of a bad person you are inside. To tell you the truth I would rather talk to Zechs and his many personalities about my life than you."
"Last I heard big brother weren't overly keen to talk to the boys who deflowered their sisters. As a big brother myself, I happen to know that most prefer to pummel them into the ground."
Taken aback, Heero squinted at Quatre in the dim light cast by the cloudy sky. "What the hell are you-"
"Don't play innocent with me dipshit." This was a new Quatre, a Quatre that Heero had never seen before. His eyes shone with quiet malice and his forehead crowded forth in a violent sneer. "Have you ever heard of 'Yusaki syndrome'*? The syndrome whereby victims of violent or prolonged attacks, kidnap, rape, siege, robbery's etc, begin to identify and sympathise with their captors and victimisers? Renamed after Mariena Yusaki, the victim of a nine week siege by Japamerican terrorists, who, when finally released, refused to hear a bad word against her kidnappers. She wouldn't hold charges and even joined their organisation. All through consequent trials, she stuck up for them, refusing to say what they had done to her and refusing to admit that she had been kept there against her will. She eventually took a bullet for them. The American government attempt to assassinate their leader and she got in the way."
"Nice, Winner. But what the hell does this have to do with me?"
"Well Yuy, I think that our little Miss Peacecraft is suffering from a touch of Yusaki syndrome." Quatre settled back against the door on his side before continuing. "I have had quite a few chances to talk informally with Relena since the end of the war. It's been three years since operation meteor after all. And on almost all of the occasions that I have talked to her I have noticed a marked change in her behaviour when you are mentioned. She becomes introverted, drawing into herself and hugging herself, refusing to look into my eyes. But at the same time she refuses to say what is wrong, denying it has anything to do with you while simultaneously attempting to steer the conversation away from the topic. On one occasion I stepped outside to talk with a colleague and upon my return she was crying."
"So?" Heero was adamantly obstinate, refusing to look at Quatre and refusing to allow himself to think of his friend's words.
"So? SO? When the music stops Heero, stop dancing. I know what you did to her. I never ever thought that a guy like you would do something that hideous. I'm so incredibly disgusted and disappointed."
"What the hell are you talking about? She just hates me because I refused to play her little game. I refused to pretend that the world was all sunshine and light. I never raped her."
"Give it up Heero. I got really really worried about her, and I already had some suspicions what had happened, so I went to a few clinics, saying I was the brother of a girl called Relena and I was worried about her and had she been there? I struck out the first few times but hit gold with one about an hour away from where she lives. They just said she'd been in there some months ago and a few times after that. I went to see her and told her what I'd found out and she broke down and told me what happened."
"Oh yeah? And what did she say?"
"She said that about six months ago she had met up again with you. She had been talking to you again, trying to get you to "see the light and give up the violence". Afterwards you went for a walk together and when it was darker and no one was around you dragged her into some bushes."
"You've got no proof."
"No, I haven't, but I can get proof. The coffee shop you were in had CCTV. The park has CCTV at the gates. We can get footage of you two entering together."
"But there's no proof I raped her. Not even that I touched her. So what if I attacked the little whore? She had it coming. She was begging for it, flirting with me and putting on her stupid false charms. I knew that if I gave her what she deserved she would shut up... and look, she did." Heero's voice had turned sneeringly smug cold. The only thing now was to find a way out of this mess.
"Actually, there is proof. There's the skin that the clinic found under her fingernails," Quatre had been rapping a slow tattoo into the partition between the cab and the back and now he stopped so he could put his hands together in his lap, twiddling his thumb.
"That doesn't prove anything. She scratched me."
"The skin alone proves nothing," continued Quatre, even as the door behind Heero was pulled roughly open. As two armed security guards pulled Heero out by the arms, Quatre continued and pulled a small silver box from behind the sun visor "the skin alone proves nothing, but your confession proves everything. And, oh, would ya look at that? I got it all on tape."
******
*This is actually called "Stockholm syndrome". It really does exist, and I wanted to put it in there to 'explain' some of Relena's more. erhm. wacky behaviour. I recommend you look it up, it's interesting to read about.
A/N: aaaah!!! Weak weak crappy ending. I'm sorry, this stupid fic was just being annoying and I wanted to get it out of the way. sorry!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
***********
"There's someone standing there. I think it's a man."
"Have you got your gun?" the boy didn't even bother to whisper. He wouldn't mind fighting whatever was out there, so why bother to hush his voice?
"Of course I have my gun. You know I have my gun." Annoyed, the other snapped back and looked again at the figure standing by the wall. It was briefly lit by a lighter. The small circle of light showed a face shrouded by a cap and a figure dressed in black.
A small noise came from behind them, and the boy watching the figure snapped around, surprised. Even if he didn't want to admit it.
A small laugh came from his partner.
"Relax. It's Quatre and Wufei. I've been watching them sneak up on us for some time."
"Oh." Trowa turned around and watched as the two pilots came towards them. Both were dressed in black, Quatre wearing a black hooded top as well, to cover his light hair. Wufei held his own head high and jumped calmly from log to log, as though carefree. His blonde partner was slightly more nervous. Quatre wanted to be able to persuade Heero to leave Relena alone, but at the same time acknowledged that this was impossible.
Trowa looked back at the figure that had been standing by the wall, but it was gone. He looked around, his face a mask of non-feeling. The wind moved through the tree above him, and he turned to the other pilots.
"Our man is gone. I didn't see what way he moved off in. He could be anywhere."
"Well done Barton. This is what we get for making a clown head of security." Wufei snapped impatiently.
"Listen justice-boy. Maybe if your hadn't decided to crash through the bushes on your way over, he wouldn't have got away.
"Listen guys. Can't we just forget this? I mean, whats to gain by killing Relena? Only more bloodshed. Why do we need to do this?"
"The people need real hopes, not false ones. Human beings need to fight to feel alive. We are animals. Total pacifism will never be realised, more lives are only lost in the process of trying to find it."
"Total pacifism is Relena's unicorn." Came a voice from the branches. All four boys on the ground turned towards it quickly, Trowa Heero and Wufei whipping out guns and pointing them at the branches. "So what've we got here? A little reunion? Aw, how come I didn't get an invite?"
"Come out, however you are!" Trowa barked at the tree. He could vaguely see a black clad figure sitting on some of the higher branches, but it kept moving around. It wasn't a good enough target for him to risk taking a shot at it. He was too close to the house. People would hear it and come out.
And that would be bad.
"Well, well, well. You weren't really watching me too closely, now were you? If you'd been paying attention you'd've seen me creep over here and climb this here tree. But ya didn't. That's one point to me, zero to you." The figure jumped out of the branches and landed lithely on his hands and feet before straightening up.
"Duo!" Quatre exclaimed, surprised and glad to see his friend again.
"Hey guys, put the guns down, I'm here on friendly terms!"
"Maxwell! What the hell do you think you're doing? This is a serious mission!" Wufei barked, putting his gun back in its place.
"Aw Wuffers, you know you missed me!" Duo teased.
"Weakling! How dare you call me that! My name is Wufei! Chang Wufei! Not Wuffers! Not Wu-wu!"
"Wu-wu. hmm, that's a new one. Never thought of that before."
"Shut up Duo. Come on the rest of you," Trowa began moving away from the house, towards the van parked a mile or two away. "This has been enough surveillance for tonight. We'll come back tomorrow."
**********
When they were all seated in the van, Heero polishing his gun, Quatre looking out the window, Trowa and Wufei comparing the knives and equipment they had brought, and Duo apparently dozing in the corner, there was silence. No one had anything in particular to say and no one really wanted to say anything. Also, when Duo's mouth was shut, there was generally a lot less noise.
"When are we going back?" Duo tipped his cap up a fraction, revealing a glint of his eyes.
"Tomorrow. We might not hit tomorrow, but we go back and scope it out again at least." Came Heero's reply.
"Man, do you have any idea what you're doin'? Or how?"
Heero didn't reply, he just gave Duo a cold look and carried on polishing his guns.
"Maxwell, try not to get us killing each other before tomorrow. Do that for us, ne?"
"Come on 'Fei, you know this is a goose chase."
"The only goose I see, weakling, is you."
" Ooh, that was so mature. Tell us 'Fei, when do you plan to graduate kindergarten?"
"Just shut up both of you." Cut in Quatre. "This situation is bad enough as it is without all of you trying to tear each other to pieces.
"Trowa's the only one so far that hasn't done anything to offend anyone. And I of course." Heero's words, spoken quietly from the corner, caused an outburst from Duo, of course.
"Oh man! You gotta be kidding me! You're the one who dragged us all down here on a chase after some stupid girl! This is not even worth my time, I can't believe I'm even here, the god of death-"
"Duo, you talk too much." They were almost the first things that Trowa had said since getting into the van, and usually not enough to spark off a fight, but everybody was looking for a fight.
"Yeah? And you talk too little! Maybe if you just opened your mouth once in a while to stop him "he gestured wildly at Heero, by now he had put his guns down and had his back to the others, gazing out the window and trying to formulate a plan "from doin something stupid, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Duo, no one dragged you down here! We are here for each other, and we should be. We are the pilots. We survived the war, and now we have to help each other!" but in the ensuing scuffle between Wufei and Duo, Quatre's words were lost. But Heero and Trowa stepped in, Heero holding Wufei back and Trowa holding the Deathscythe pilot.
"Just both of you calm down!" shouted Trowa. "I think we all need to just calm down. Heero, you have some explaining to do."
"About what? What could I possibly need to explain?"
"Well first of all, why are you so intent on killing Relena? What is it about this girl, this one specific member of the human species that has got you so desperately intent on a massacre?" Heero said nothing, he just dropped Wufei and opened the door in the van that led to the front cab. He was silent as he climbed through, sat in the driver's seat and slammed the door.
"Lunatic."
"DUO! As if things aren't bad enough around here! Why do you feel the need to make stupid remarks?!" such an outburst from the ever quiet Quatre shocked even the talkative Deathscythe pilot into silence. "Now I'm going through there to talk to my friend. I hope that by the time I get back the rest of you have grown up enough that you're able to talk amongst yourselves without causing a damn war! I would have thought you guys, of all people would be able to understand a delicate situation when you saw one." Quatre climbed past Trowa and grabbed the handle of the cab door. "Work yourselves out, 'Kay?" with these lasts words he opened the hatch, climbed through and shut the door considerably less violently than Heero had.
"Did he say.. Damn?"
**********
"Come on Heero. You're a smart guy, but even smart guys make stupid choices. Tell me what this is all about."
"Quatre, you think you're pretty clever, don't you? You think you're the sensitive one of the group, the one that people like to talk to. Because you're sociable." Heero adjusted a dial on the dashboard and hot air blasted into the feet cavities. "Your cheap façade only serves to show how much of a bad person you are inside. To tell you the truth I would rather talk to Zechs and his many personalities about my life than you."
"Last I heard big brother weren't overly keen to talk to the boys who deflowered their sisters. As a big brother myself, I happen to know that most prefer to pummel them into the ground."
Taken aback, Heero squinted at Quatre in the dim light cast by the cloudy sky. "What the hell are you-"
"Don't play innocent with me dipshit." This was a new Quatre, a Quatre that Heero had never seen before. His eyes shone with quiet malice and his forehead crowded forth in a violent sneer. "Have you ever heard of 'Yusaki syndrome'*? The syndrome whereby victims of violent or prolonged attacks, kidnap, rape, siege, robbery's etc, begin to identify and sympathise with their captors and victimisers? Renamed after Mariena Yusaki, the victim of a nine week siege by Japamerican terrorists, who, when finally released, refused to hear a bad word against her kidnappers. She wouldn't hold charges and even joined their organisation. All through consequent trials, she stuck up for them, refusing to say what they had done to her and refusing to admit that she had been kept there against her will. She eventually took a bullet for them. The American government attempt to assassinate their leader and she got in the way."
"Nice, Winner. But what the hell does this have to do with me?"
"Well Yuy, I think that our little Miss Peacecraft is suffering from a touch of Yusaki syndrome." Quatre settled back against the door on his side before continuing. "I have had quite a few chances to talk informally with Relena since the end of the war. It's been three years since operation meteor after all. And on almost all of the occasions that I have talked to her I have noticed a marked change in her behaviour when you are mentioned. She becomes introverted, drawing into herself and hugging herself, refusing to look into my eyes. But at the same time she refuses to say what is wrong, denying it has anything to do with you while simultaneously attempting to steer the conversation away from the topic. On one occasion I stepped outside to talk with a colleague and upon my return she was crying."
"So?" Heero was adamantly obstinate, refusing to look at Quatre and refusing to allow himself to think of his friend's words.
"So? SO? When the music stops Heero, stop dancing. I know what you did to her. I never ever thought that a guy like you would do something that hideous. I'm so incredibly disgusted and disappointed."
"What the hell are you talking about? She just hates me because I refused to play her little game. I refused to pretend that the world was all sunshine and light. I never raped her."
"Give it up Heero. I got really really worried about her, and I already had some suspicions what had happened, so I went to a few clinics, saying I was the brother of a girl called Relena and I was worried about her and had she been there? I struck out the first few times but hit gold with one about an hour away from where she lives. They just said she'd been in there some months ago and a few times after that. I went to see her and told her what I'd found out and she broke down and told me what happened."
"Oh yeah? And what did she say?"
"She said that about six months ago she had met up again with you. She had been talking to you again, trying to get you to "see the light and give up the violence". Afterwards you went for a walk together and when it was darker and no one was around you dragged her into some bushes."
"You've got no proof."
"No, I haven't, but I can get proof. The coffee shop you were in had CCTV. The park has CCTV at the gates. We can get footage of you two entering together."
"But there's no proof I raped her. Not even that I touched her. So what if I attacked the little whore? She had it coming. She was begging for it, flirting with me and putting on her stupid false charms. I knew that if I gave her what she deserved she would shut up... and look, she did." Heero's voice had turned sneeringly smug cold. The only thing now was to find a way out of this mess.
"Actually, there is proof. There's the skin that the clinic found under her fingernails," Quatre had been rapping a slow tattoo into the partition between the cab and the back and now he stopped so he could put his hands together in his lap, twiddling his thumb.
"That doesn't prove anything. She scratched me."
"The skin alone proves nothing," continued Quatre, even as the door behind Heero was pulled roughly open. As two armed security guards pulled Heero out by the arms, Quatre continued and pulled a small silver box from behind the sun visor "the skin alone proves nothing, but your confession proves everything. And, oh, would ya look at that? I got it all on tape."
******
*This is actually called "Stockholm syndrome". It really does exist, and I wanted to put it in there to 'explain' some of Relena's more. erhm. wacky behaviour. I recommend you look it up, it's interesting to read about.
A/N: aaaah!!! Weak weak crappy ending. I'm sorry, this stupid fic was just being annoying and I wanted to get it out of the way. sorry!