Chapter 6

"Duo."

"I know." Duo replied and Trowa nodded at the boy next to him. They were all shackled by the wrists and ankles to the walls of a large cell. Up until now, the last in the line, Heero, had been limp, his head flopping down onto his chest. But now he was stirring, moaning a little, his head coming up. Duo watched as his brain registered what had happened and he tensed. He found himself wishing with all his heart he could stop Heero's eyes from opening, take him away, but he couldn't. The blue eyes opened and widened, the fear plainly in them. He started shaking his head jerkily.

"No…" he murmured, "No…no." he started thrashing, his breath coming out in small shrieks of effort.

"Heero!" Duo cried. He was thrashing around so hard he was going to hurt himself. "Heero, stop, you're gonna hurt yourself, please!"

"No…I can't…" Heero moaned and Duo thought his heart would break.

"Heero, please. Stretch over to me, I can reach you." Duo pleaded his voice desperate. Heero, breathing hard, calmed a little and stretched out with his right hand. Duo stretched out with his left and the top halves of their fingers touched. Duo gripped as much as he could onto the hand that was shaking uncontrollably. Heero's eyes had closed and his head was back on his chest, but his too-fast breathing gave away that he was awake. Duo wanted to die. Here was Heero, dealing with waking up into his nightmare. He didn't even want to think about how it must be to not be able to wake up from the nightmares that haunted you every night.

"Duo…what are we doing here?" Heero managed to ask, his voice so strained it was almost cracked.

"I don't know yet, they said someone will be coming to tell us."

"And here they come." Wufei said, who was at the end of the row. Duo looked towards the open door, and saw Heero do the same out of the corner of his eye.

There were a number of reactions when the man came through the door and into view. Trowa and Wufei were still and silent, Heero's eyes widened even more before he stamped on the perfect soldier face and looked firmly down at the ground, his grip tightening on Duo's hand unintentionally as he tried to stop himself shaking. Duo, first seeing the man then Heero's reaction, started yelling.

"You fucking bastard!" he shouted, "How the hell can you do this?! You pervert, you sick, evil-minded fucking pervert who the hell do you think you are…!!"

"Please, please." The man said. "That is not the kind of introduction I was expecting."

"Duo, who is this guy?" Wufei asked. Duo felt like his stomach had become a lead weight and his eyes burned as he glared at the man grinning smugly at him.

"My name is Doctor J." he said, calmly to Trowa and Wufei. "I wonder. I take it you were the one who copied our files off the central computer."

Duo simply glared.

"You sick…unimaginable…barbaric…"

"Please, let us not get carried away." J said, interrupting Duo's hissed insults. "I would quite like to know what made you think this way. What did you find on this computer? Which subject did you see? What were you trying to find?"

At this last question, Duo looked up, frowning and met the doctor's shaded eyes, which held him all the same. How could he know? "Well," the doctor said as Duo won the staring competition, "I suppose it is quite obvious. You could only know the password to one of them, couldn't you? Tell, me, does the number 043 sound familiar to you."

The casual tone of voice that the doctor used fired Duo up so much he thought he would burn and he strained so far out of his bonds that they dug into his wrists.

"You self-satisfied…cruel…evil…bastard!" he yelled, and then looked over at Heero and nearly cried out when Heero's head suddenly switched from looking at him to looking away. Duo's flame sparked back up again as he heard the doctor laugh.

"I take it that was the right one." He chuckled. Suddenly, his face went serious, and he strode over to Heero. Making Duo stiffen, he raised Heero's head with his finger, and Heero stared, dead-eyed into the doctor's shades. Duo could have died of pride. "Welcome home, 043." He muttered, "It is good to have you back. Boys!" he yelled, and the men from before came in. "Take him to a cell."

"Heero!" Duo yelled as they came to take him away. Heero glanced at him, the pain in his eyes almost too much for the Deathscythe pilot. "Heero!" he cried again, fighting the lump in his throat. He saw Heero shake his head as he was led away and then turned his now burning gaze back to the doctor.

"You…"

"Shut up." The doctor said. It was unexpected that Duo was startled for a minute. "He will not be harmed…yet anyway."

"What did you do in the first place?" Trowa asked, the suspicion heavy in his voice. The doctor simply smiled.

"Why are we worried about him, I am not concerned with him at this precise moment. Now, I hear that all of are Gundam pilots."

"Ya what?" Duo asked. The doctor smiled no laughter in his face.

"Do not lie to me I have this information personally and very securely known. You are pilots 2 to 5, or should be. I take it 01 is 043, but what about…"

"Don't" Duo yelled suddenly. The doctor looked at him. "Don't mention him." Duo said, the pain suddenly appearing in his voice. The doctor looked confused.

"What are you saying?" he asked.

"We haven't got another pilot yet." Trowa said, his voice a breathless whisper, and Duo would have smiled in joy at teamwork if he weren't so worried about Heero. He hated being separate from him; it made him feel insecure.

"Ah, I see." The doctor said, "I am sorry for your loss."

"Yeah right!" Duo cried, sarcastically.

"Do not play with me boy you have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Oh I could say so many things right now."

"Well refrain from doing so. Now, what I want to do is work out what makes you three boys so special. I know what makes 043…"

"His name is Heero." Duo hissed through gritted teeth, the doctor ignored him.

"…We know what makes 043 so special because we put it there…"

"You would have done jack if it wasn't for him."

"So what we want to know now is what natural talent is needed to be a pilot of those frightful machines."

"They're not frightful."

"Stop interrupting me!" the doctor cried and dealt Duo a wicked punch in the stomach, making Wufei and Trowa cry out in rage.

"Leave it!" Duo yelled, his stomach feeling totally blown out into space. "I'm alright." He didn't feel it, he felt like his breath had all gone, but his anger kept his head high.

"You will be tested for a number of different things." The doctor said, calmer. "You have no choice in this. Men! I want them all in cells. Give 043 and the braided one a cell, and then another for the other two."

The men came back in again and Duo suddenly felt a touch on his hand as he glared at them. He turned to Trowa.

"Don't." he breathed, "It won't do you or Heero any good."

Duo reluctantly agreed and relaxed his muscles. Two men came to his and unshackled him, taking him roughly by the arms and flinging him out. He nearly fell to the ground as his stomach complained, but got back up again, walking a little in front of them and very aware of the barrels pointing at his head.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

They had walked for about five minutes when they reached the cells. It was a white corridor with cells on each side. The were alternate, as in, the right hand went cell, cell sized space, cell etc while the left hand wall wen cell sized space, cell, cell sized space etc. They were taken all the way to the end, which was a red door. Trowa and Wufei were thrown in the right hand cell and Duo was taken into the cell nearest the door. It was middle sized and white, white everything. It had three solid walls and then the wall into the corridor was made up by thick metal bars, about three and a half inches apart. The barred door was flung open and Duo found himself thrown in. He took one glance around the room and felt his stomach disappear, thankfully.

Heero was sat in a corner, his legs hugged tightly to him by his arms, his head resting on hi s knees. His eyes were obviously trying so hard to be dead he now looked like he was trying to burn away the metal bars and Duo could see his body totally tensed to stop shaking. Some of his tank top had come out of his shorts and trailed on the floor behind him. Duo, sitting sideways on the ground, bit his lip.

"Heero?" he asked, quietly, the silence almost killing him. Heero shuddered at his voice. Heero?"

There was no movement from him. Duo, nerves attacking him from every corner now, slowly went up on to hands and knees and started crawling up to him. He reached his side and sat sideways, his back almost touching the back wall. "Heero?" again no response. Timidly, Duo raised a hand and put it on Heero's knees. Heero jerked violently, making Duo jump almost out of his skin and then tried to back against the side wall.

"Get away from me!" he breathed, now still.

"Why?" Duo asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"You don't want to be near me."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"You saw…you saw everything?"

"Yes, I did…"

"Then you don't want to be near me."

"Why not?"

There was no answer; Heero was just staring at the floor. Duo went to touch him again, not caring about the response now just as long as there was one, but Heero jerked his head to stare defiantly into Duo's eyes. He failed and looked down. "Heero, why?" Duo asked, realising his voice sounded more desperate than he wanted it to.

"I…I'm nothing." Heero breathed, and Duo prayed he hadn't just heard his voice crack. Heero's whole being was strained. "I'm not real, I'm a fake, a fraud. I'm…I'm a monster."

Duo froze. He was shaken. Here was Heero, Heero no less, and he was…

"Heero, no." was all Duo could manage. Heero seemed so lost, so totally lost that it was hard to believe that he was now the stable one.

"I am. I was bred and was a freak by the time I could breathe." Heero said, and his eyes hid the dejection and desperation that was clear in his voice.

"Heero, no." Duo repeated, more firmly, and put out his hand.

"Don't touch me." Heero snapped, but Duo put his hand on the boy's shoulder. Heero stared at the hand and then at Duo.

"I don't feel anything different." Duo said, calmly and Heero's eyes turned wide and questioning. "They may have done things to your body that I can't even begin to imagine, Heero, but they didn't, couldn't do anything to you. There are other things to you than your body. You mind your soul…your heart. Compared to these things, your body is irrelevant. And it's those parts that I've grown to know and love Heero. Putting your body aside, those parts of you will never change. Remember when I was trapped in Deathscythe? You deliberately went against orders to save my life, knowing that it was probability that you would die when you returned. Do you think that was what the doctors wanted? They wanted a perfect soldier, one that would obey every order. You didn't, Heero, you went against them to save me. No monster is capable of doing that."

There was a deathly silence. "And you can't hide from me, Heero." Duo went on, looking into his eyes. "I know you're scared, I can see it, but I can also see how you try to hide it. Who are you hiding it from? Them? Me? If it's me, then I already think you're incredible by just staying sane in this place."

There was another silence and this time Duo didn't break it. He could see the wheels spinning in Heero's brain, the deep blue eyes now closed.

After what felt like forever, he lifted his head and opened his eyes. Duo tried not to flinch. The pain, the overwhelming fear in those eyes was almost too much to bear.

"You…can have…no idea what it was like to wake up in this place again, Duo." Heero breathed, and this time the crack was obvious. "I…I…Duo!" the last word was a plea, a cry for help, and Duo acted on it. He pulled Heero firmly but gently into him and the boy, now shaking uncontrollably and breathing shakily and fast, collapsed into his chest. Leaning against the wall, Duo clutched at him, Heero's arms clenched into his own body. He felt the cracks of silent sobs shake the Wing pilot's body, and held on even tighter, leaning his head on the dark brown shock of hair. He felt like his heart was going to be pulled out of his chest. Heero had done it.

"Sshh, Heero. I'm here, it's going to be ok…"

"No…" Heero said in a sob, "No... It's not. They're going to hurt me, Duo…I don't want them to…don't let them, Duo, please!"

"Oh God, Heero." Duo cracked, the lump rising in his throat to affect his voice. He clutched the boy even tighter. "I…" he had no words and simply held the terrified boy closer to him as he shook terribly. His violet eyes clenched shut, he breathed in the scent of Heero's hair and suddenly wanted to swap, anything to stop them hurting him.

"Don't let go, Duo." Heero whispered.

"Never…ever." Duo replied, simply and felt Heero tighten his grip on his black top. "I'm not going anywhere. Just, try to get some sleep."

"No…" Heero said immediately, his face coming up to face Duo's. It was tear stained and white with fear. "I can't…I'll dream…I…"

"You can't dream bad things, Heero. I'm here, I won't let you. If you do, I'll wake you and you'll see me. It'll be fine. I'll be here." Duo soothed as Heero sank down so that his head was in Duo's lap. Duo put a hand on Heero's clenched fists that were on his chest, and his other hand stroked the boy's head. Heero gave Duo one gratifying look that Duo would have died to see, and then his eyes shut. His ragged breathing settled a little and the shaking died down.

"Duo?" he asked, after a while.

"Yeah?" Duo answered, still stroking his hair.

"Was that crying?"

Duo had to swallow hard before he answered.

"Yeah," he replied, hoping he sounded stronger than he felt. "You never done it before?"

"Never needed to." Heero's voice was barely a croak. "And I was taught it was weak."

"Bullshit." Duo replied, gently, "I wouldn't be able to cope without crying every now and again."

"And you never say anything?" Heero asked and his eyes opened. Duo smiled, shrugging.

"Did you ever come to me?" he asked, and Heero's eyes seemed to understand before they closed again. Soon, he had drifted off into an uneasy sleep and Duo rested his head back against the wall. He was in control now, he was the one Heero needed, and that made him feel so warm and tingly that he wanted to burst. But he wished he didn't need to. He hated seeing Heero like this. At least he was talking to him again, though. Even if it was to cry for the first time…

Very soon, Duo had also fallen into an uncomfortable sleep. Heero didn't wake once, didn't need to, Duo's touch frightening all nightmare's away before they could rear their ugly heads. Both slept dreamlessly, their minds at a relative peace with each other even more so than they had ever been before.