By: Shadow Chaser
Author's Notes:
Gundam Wing and all associated characters do not belong to me; they belong to VizComics, Bandai, Hajime Yatate, and anyone else I forgot to mention. Many thanks to the reviewers and my beta, Algae. ^_^ Okay, after this, back to writing in "Retaliation." ^_^ This little idea popped up all on its own and demanded that I write it into a story format. Yeah, I might also do something about the Black Wing Incident. Dunno though…
Story:
Part 2
Started: 12/31/03. Completed: 1/2/03.
"Today, July 16, was a terrible day for the citizens of the L4 Colony Cluster. An act of terrorism claimed the lives of many and there are those who are still missing. Among them is Mars Terraforming Project representative Olesia Terrence and L4's own leader Quatre Raberba Winner."
He remembered the intensity of the flames, threatening to overwhelm him with their heat, threatening to send him to the black oblivion, but he fought it off. Right now he was leaning against the cool cement wall in garage or basement he didn't really know, but at least the cool and dampness of the place he was in was refreshing and it made breathing a lot easier.
"Rescue crews are still digging as we speak and hope to find survivors in this gruesome act of terrorism. The Senate has convened in Geneva to discuss the current situation and both the Mars Colony and Winner Corporation refuse to comment."
"Ya know…you're getting pretty good at playing a dead man. That's the…third time now?" a voice asked from the entrance to the room he was in and he looked up at the silhouette and smiled faintly.
"Fourth time…Hi Duo," Quatre said in a quiet voice before trying to get up to greet his friend but Duo swiftly crossed the distance between the two of them and stopped his progress.
"Don't, Quatre, you're already injured enough as it is. Don't move too much," Duo set down whatever he had been carrying in his arms and forced him to sit back down, to which Quatre was grateful. He reached out and turned down the volume on the portable vid-screen Duo had acquired – news wasn't interesting to him anymore…
"Let me check your injuries," Duo said and Quatre nodded without protest. He knew that he had sustained at least three fractured ribs and numerous cuts and scrapes. He also had a concussion that he received when a slab of wall crashed down on top of him in the stairwell he had been in during the explosion. But otherwise, he was fine…considering the fact that the people around him weren't so fortunate.
As Duo poked and prodded him Quatre let his mind drift off to what had happened…
The explosion occurred just a few floors down from where he was in the stairwell along with a couple of others, all of them deciding that the elevators were taking too long to take them to the ground floor. His bodyguards had flanked him both front and back.
He had been thrown against the wall and braced himself there as the whole stairwell shook and creaked. A few people screamed then came a loud groan of metal breaking…
The stairwell crumpled beneath their feet and Quatre fell along with the others. He landed in a heap of rubble before he was pushed away so violently that he slammed hard against the wall, making his eyes see stars briefly.
He looked towards the spot where he had landed and saw metal and concrete hit the place where he was before…and where one of his bodyguards now stood. The man only stared at him for a brief second to confirm he was alive before he himself was buried by the falling ton of debris.
Quatre could only stare in shock before another rumble shook the ground beneath him and the last thing he saw was a swinging water pipe coming towards his head – then all was black.
***
"Quatre! Quatre!"
That fuzzy voice…where did it come from? Quatre tried to open his eyes, but all he saw was blurry shapes and a blurry face…
"Quatre, come on buddy…wake up!" the voice was insistent and a part of him told him that he knew whom the voice belonged to…
"Come on, don't do this to me!"
"Duo…?" Quatre finally got his eyes working and he saw Duo's concerned face above his. It was also then that pain flared all over his body and he winced against the waves that threatened to send him back to oblivion. No, he had to stay awake…a part of him knew that if he passed out now, then it would be fatal to him.
"Hey buddy," Duo greeted, a grim smile on his face, "don't move, I'm gonna get you out of here…"
***
"Quatre?" Duo's voice jerked him out of his thoughts and he realized that his friend had finished putting a new dressing on his ribs and was calling to him.
"Sorry," he apologized, as he proceeded to button back up his shirt, or what was left of it, the sleeves mostly in rags.
"Nah, it's okay man," Duo said, sitting back and packing away the rest of the bandages and medical supplies into a small kit he had brought with him, "I was just wondering why you don't want anyone to know you're here and why won't you get professional treatment?"
Quatre finished buttoning his shirt and bowed his head, letting a sad smile flit across his face before he answered. "Duo…when I received the message from Trowa yesterday I knew something like this was going to happen. If I tell people that I am still alive, Preventers won't be able to flush those who were responsible out into the open. If I go to a hospital now, word will get out to those who did this that I am well alive and there will be further attacks."
"But we'll post a heavy guard on you-"
"No," Quatre replied, "you don't understand. Making it so that I'm still dead will ferret those who did this out into the open. Preventers will be able to see more clearly who is responsible because those who planned this attack won't really care for what happens to them now. They accomplished their goals and they won't give a damn about anything else. If not, then Preventers will be able to at least see who pulled the strings for some organization to plan this attack and will be able to follow the lead to arrest the ones who actually planted and blew the bomb."
"Hmmm," Duo sat back and Quatre looked at him, "I wouldn't have thought it like that…remind me never to get on your bad side… You know, I still forget you're the master tactician of us all…"
Quatre smile sadly at Duo's statement. How very wrong his friend was…he didn't want anything to do with tactics or warfare…but even so…the soldier side of him still resisted and sometimes won out.
"But can I at least get a coded message to Heero and the others? I mean they're probably sick with worry about you. Can I at least tell your wife that you're alive?" Duo continued and Quatre shook his head.
"No…Ione mustn't know-"
"That's cruelty to your wife."
"She's Maganac, Duo. She'll understand."
"I still think that's cruelty. But can I at least contact Heero?"
Quatre thought it over…it would aide Heero and the others in their attempt to find out who was behind this…but… "It would have to be a very cryptic message that is between us Gundam pilots. And only to Heero, Trowa, or Wufei – no one else."
"Finally…thank you!" Duo gushed before he grabbed a backpack he had and rummaged through it. He produced a datapad and began to type crazily on it. Quatre had to laugh lightly at his friend's antics and even so, he winced at the pain that it caused him. He was very lucky to survive the blast…and if Duo hadn't found him, he probably would have been dead, he reflected.
Duo had first wanted to take him to a hospital, but Quatre told him to take him here instead – a small out of the way storehouse underneath one of the abandoned complexes near the blast zone. Quatre knew that no one came here and it would be a safe house for him now until Preventers could clear this up. He knew that he would have to make his appearance before his company could be brought into the folds of the Committee that Senator Hallsfield headed, but there was time right now for him to recover and figure out what was going on.
"Done," Duo said after a few minutes of typing and handed over the datapad to Quatre who glanced at the message that he had typed out. He let a smile crawl up his face at Duo's use of words…
"I forgot that you know a lot about code words. I always thought Trowa was the master of them," he said handing back the datapad.
"Why I am offended," Duo grinned at him, "I'm better than Trowa!"
Quatre laughed but then gasped as pain lanced through him. He clutched his ribs as the pain passed.
"Quatre?"
"I'm…fine…" he managed to get out before he looked up and saw apology written on his friend's face. "Don't worry. It's good to laugh, but not when you have fractured ribs."
"Yeah…" Duo said in a quiet voice, "sorry about that man…"
"I told you, don't worry about it. Just go get the message to the others," Quatre waved his concerns away and watched as Duo nodded and got up, placing the datapad in the trenchcoat he had acquired from somewhere after they had gotten to the safe house.
"Quatre," Duo suddenly said and he looked up to see his friend staring down at him with concern, "just remember…we're not that young anymore."
"Yeah…" Quatre sighed and nodded. He knew that by all rights he shouldn't even have survived the explosion, but only a part of him, still the Gundam pilot, was able to get him out of this one. He wondered how long would his fast reflexes, honed in by the wars when he had been so young, would be able to support his now aging body. Granted, they were all roughly the same age, in their late thirties, but still…how much more abuse could their bodies take before it quit on them?
"I'll be back in a few," Duo tipped his hat and left, leaving Quatre alone once more in the safe house.
* * *
Duo glanced to his left and right, his eyes, ears, and all of his senses alert to anyone following him. The soldier inside of him was still active all these years, except he had only taken a few aspects of his training from the childhood streets of the colonies and what the good Doctor taught him and applied it to running Sweepers.
Now, however, he had to use those skills once more to deliver a message to Heero and the others without being seen by anyone. He once had the luxury of being able to walk unnoticed in a colony, and still did to a certain extent, but now many knew of his face and name – though he wasn't as popular as say Heero or Quatre, the two being the most prominent in their fields of work.
Duo wrapped the black trench coat he had 'borrowed' from a park bench when a person who was too absorbed in his laptop was working at and now he wore it to hide his identity. He still had the black cap over his face and was glad at times that the brim was wide and long enough to shade his eyes from others.
To them, he probably looked like a semi-shady character or either that someone who didn't want to be bothered. Either way, it made people ignore him and whatever he was planning to do. After all, the rest of the crowds were still focused on the terrorist attack on the building in the middle of the downtown area.
Though he didn't know his way around the main colony of the L4 cluster he had a knack for getting to the places he wanted to get to and right now he was trying to find a communication terminal. He threaded his way through the alleyways and back streets near the building where Quatre had ordered him to take him to. If it were up to him he would just contact Ione Winner and tell her that her husband was all right, but it wasn't up to him and he always respected Quatre's wishes – even if some of them did not make sense. After all, Quatre was the tactician and was always one step ahead of everything – at least that's what he hoped.
Suddenly Duo stopped as he found a terminal that looked to be in use, but probably only for those who had enough money and were lost in this area. It was decrepit, rundown and dank, but Duo headed over to the terminal and punched a few buttons.
The terminal stayed silent.
Narrowing his eyes, Duo looked around for a quick second before he took out a pocketknife and forced it into a panel next to the terminal. He wedged the panel open and pulled out a few wires, making a few sparks jump here and there. Deftly stringing some of the pulled wires together the terminal suddenly jumped to life and he grinned.
He began to tap into the system, digging underneath all the codes the terminal was supposed to mark for messages and whatnot and briefly wondered if he should send the message to all three other pilots or just to one of them…
"No…sending them to Heero, Trowa or Wufei would attract suspicion if someone is able to hack into their systems…" he muttered mostly to himself as he racked his brain to whom else…
The name came naturally to Duo and he gave a lopsided smile as he typed an address to the sender, one address that was rarely used but he knew the person checked most of the time. It was old, but it was also a good source of information for the person on the receiving end.
As he typed out his message, Duo made sure that he was aware of everything around him. He knew how important it was to keep Quatre's status a secret…anyone could have been the one to blow the bomb…
"Finished," he whispered as he hit the send button. He then took the wiring that he had jury-rigged and completely ripped it out of the panel, shutting both the terminal down and making it inaccessible to anyone else. Stuffing some of the wiring in a pocket of his trench coat he glanced around and saw nothing out of the ordinary before he walked off. "All right…let's get some food and stuff…"
As Duo Maxwell walked away, a figure stepped out from the shadows and watched the former Deathscythe pilot with narrowed eyes. "We have confirmation…shall I proceed?" the figure whispered into an earpiece.
"No…follow him. I want to know where Winner is hiding then report back," another voice in the earpiece replied.
"Roger," the figure whispered before stepping back into the shadows.
* * *
Sally blinked her eyes open as an insistent beep came from the console she was working at. She was surprised that she had fallen asleep at her console and when she lifted her head and shoulders up, she glanced over her shoulder and saw that someone had placed a blanket over her to keep her warm. Touching the blanket briefly, Sally's eyes softened at the thought of whoever did such a nice thing…before the incessant beeping regained her attention.
"All right, all right…" she grumbled as she tapped a few buttons and then blinked in surprise. There was a new message from her very, very old account… Quickly tapping a few buttons she accessed her old account, still surprised that someone actually knew this address. She hadn't used it since a very young Mariemaia tried to conquer Earth with the Barton Foundation troops.
As she clicked on the mail she expected a video image, but all there was, was a text message…
Forgotten flowers bloom in the landsOnce left alone, now no more.
The single flower from a little girl
Given to those who still have hope.
A tear not shed for those
Who hide behind masks of the disguised.
Swiftly do the courts proceed
To give punishment and free the free.
Long has one who has to hide
But ne'er tell lies.
Finds the truth to the one
In seclusion they wait.
To combat and discover
Why must the eternal question be so?
Who?
Sally wrinkled her brow and read over the poem once more before checking the sender, but found that it was from an unknown source and wasn't listed. She wondered briefly if it was some kind of joke…and if this poem was in coded words, she didn't understand what the hell it was telling her.
She was about to delete it when footsteps behind her made her turn around and she saw Wufei walking towards her, holding what looked to be two mugs of hot coffee.
"Ah, you're awake," Wufei stated without malice as Sally was once used to hearing from him. He had changed a lot…she reflected as she nodded then took the hot mug of coffee from him and sipped a bit, letting the rush of caffeine wake her up further.
"Yeah. It's been, what, 18 hours since and I get this weird mail from out of the blue. There's not even a sender address," she gestured with a free hand to the message displayed on her screen.
"Hmm…" Wufei leaned a bit closer to look at the message.
"I read it twice and I still-"
"Print a copy out right now and then purge it from your files and back-up files," Wufei interrupted her suddenly in a hard voice and she blinked at him, surprised at his abrasive tone.
"What?"
"Do it now," he said and Sally blinked a few more times before complying. She watched as Wufei grabbed the printed copy and then looked at her with an expression that said, 'well what are you waiting for? Let's go.' She turned back to her console and pressed a few buttons, deleting the message and purging her whole system of anything. After shutting down her station she got up and followed Wufei to the mini-situation room they had been occupying for the last two days.
As she and Wufei entered, both Heero and Trowa looked up from whatever they were working on, well Heero was working on something, Trowa was just watching the news for any updates on the situation. What had Wufei saw in the message that was all just a garble of nonsense to her?
"Wufei?" Heero asked, coming over to the center where the flat-screen map was still activated.
"Sally, do you still have the small jammer on you?" Wufei didn't answer Heero's question and she nodded.
She always carried her mini-jammer, a thing she had acquired long ago when she had deserted Romefeller and OZ and joined up with various rebel forces. Her jammer was invaluable as it blocked most communication systems and cameras, including those on the Space Force's station. She brought it out of her uniform's pocket – as she always carried it with her, you never knew when an important conversation was going to come up – as now.
Setting it down in the middle of the flat-screen she activated it and then glanced at Wufei who stared down at the little machine before giving each of them a passing glance. He held up the paper with the weird poem—
"Quatre's alive."
Sally felt her jaw drop in utter and complete surprise.
* * *
"Quatre's alive."
The words Trowa wanted to hear now spoken – after 18 hours of nothing from Duo and now Wufei held a piece of paper that probably said Quatre was alive…a feeling of utter relief filled him and he nodded a bit numbly. Wufei handed him the paper and Trowa read over the contents – letting a ghost of a smile form on his face at Duo's choice of words.
It had to have come from Duo…only the former Deathscythe Hell pilot would have come up with his trademark phrase inside of this message.
Forgotten flowers bloom in the lands once left alone, now no more, it meant that L4 was the target and that Duo was trying to get their attention. The single flower from a little girl given to those who still have hope, was to Heero and the one after that was to him then Wufei.
Then came a part of Duo's trademark that he runs and hides but never lies – how typical, a part of his mind told him, but Trowa shushed it up and continued reading. Finds the truth to the one, in seclusion they wait, meant that Duo had found Quatre, but they were in hiding. The next line was what disturbed him the most. To combat and discover why must the eternal question be so? Who?
Combat…Trowa looked up and stared at the others in the room. "Duo and Quatre are in hiding, but Quatre's injured, and the ones who blew the building are professionals at what they do, which meant they had military training or at least know guerilla tactics."
"All right then," Heero suddenly spoke up and Trowa looked at him for a brief second before handing him to note to which he scanned quickly before lighting it up with a lighter. "We should split up and figure out what's happening. Wufei, you and Sally liaison with the L4 investigators and find everything you can. Trowa, go to L4 and find Quatre and Duo."
"Wait! Heero, what are you going to do?" Sally asked.
"Stall Hallsfield from taking over Winner Corporation," Heero said, "we have at most, a week before Relena's influence will dwindle as Hallsfield does control the Committee."
"Roger," Trowa said and his agreement was echoed by both Wufei and Sally.
They had one week to find whoever did this to Quatre before all hell broke loose.
* * *
End of Part 2. Part 3 coming soon!