standard disclaimers apply

Part Three

What Wufei ended up doing was going back to the hotel and taking a nap. It never failed - the time difference between the L-2 colonies and the Preventer headquarters in Strasbourg always managed to dash Wufei's internal clock to pieces. Several hours later, as the colony lights were beginning to dim and Wufei woke up, he considered giving Sally a call. He would have liked to talk to her, even if only for a few minutes, but in the end he decided against it. The conversation would inevitably turn to areas he wanted to steer clear of, and he couldn't face it.

He ordered a meal from room service instead, and flipped through the channels on the television while he ate, catching bits and pieces of newsreels. The stir that the story about Duo had caused among Wufei and his colleagues didn't seem to have caught on with anyone else, for he didn't spot any follow-ups to it, despite what that nurse at the clinic had indicated to him about journalists poking around. That was really just as well, he decided firmly. Publicity was the last thing any one of them needed, as Heero was proof enough, having secluded himself from everyone in that hovel he called a home.

Wufei shook his head - thinking about the other former pilot only served to darken his mood still further. He had been on the colony for almost twelve hours, spoken to both Duo and Hilde, and had still found no solutions. The fact was, he had no idea what to do.

The next day, in a startling burst of clarity, Wufei finally found his way.

He returned St John's in the morning, and found Duo in the same position he had been in during Wufei's previous visit, kneeling beside the foot of the bed. It suddenly came to Wufei that the pose looked rather similar to those taken by subjects of ancient religious paintings in Christian iconography. It looked as though Duo was praying.

Wufei paused a moment to reflect on that, taking in his friend's stance more thoughtfully before setting the idea aside and going to sit down. He took Duo's shoulder and shook the young man awake, releasing him only when the other began to grumble, and blinked up at him groggily.

"Good morning," Wufei greeted him, cracking a half smile Duo's scowl.

"Back so soon?" he sneered.

The smile dropped away from Wufei's face, and he bent over to stare at the backs of his hands, which were now clasped tightly around his knees. All seriousness now, he said, "Duo, I apologize for the way I acted yesterday. It was cruel of me to walk away from you like that."

Duo softened at the apology, and visibly cheered. The hand he stuck under Wufei's face came as a slight surprise, but Wufei took it anyway, and they gingerly shook. "Don't worry about it. I was acting pretty bratty myself come to think of it," Duo chortled as he eased himself up onto the bed beside Wufei. "So what brings you around here today?"

"I'm still having trouble understanding all this," Wufei admitted. "After I left here yesterday I went and spoke to Hilde about why you were in here, and finally managed to get a straight answer out of somebody." He shifted a little to see Duo's face better, and looked him up and down. The mention of Hilde's name had brought a cloudiness into Duo's eyes, which Wufei regretted causing, but other than that he could see nothing that would indicate anything out of the ordinary. He shook his head, sighing. "Heero told me I would only need speak to you to see why you had to be in here, but I have spoken to you quite a bit now, and I have yet to see what everyone else seems to be seeing."

It was Duo's turn, then, to look Wufei over. When he'd finished, he looked bleak, miserable, and when he spoke the words were barely louder than a whisper. "That's because I haven't told you yet."

"Told me what?" Wufei prompted when the silence had gotten to be too much for him.

"Someone's been talking to me, Wufei, someone no one else hears. Everyone out there, they think it's schizophrenia, whatever, that I'm crazy. Me, I think it's God."

If his conversation with Hilde yesterday hadn't prepared him for this his mouth might have dropped open at the revelation. Even as it was, hearing it firsthand, it was difficult to wrap his mind around, or to know how to respond. "I, ah…" He stopped, cleared his throat, began again. "I thought you didn't believe in God," he said. It was an objection he had not felt able to raise to Hilde, but it had niggled at him all the time she had been speaking.

"What's there to believe in on a colony?" Duo retorted. "No, I didn't believe in God, not until I went to Earth. It got pretty hard not to then, especially after the war was over. It makes no sense for Death to be in charge of all that life, and there's so much more that's alive in the world than there is that's not. It's just us humans that end up warping all that. We're a pretty pathetic race, Wufei, but there's a lot more out there than just us - on the Earth you can see that, and I began to."

Wufei frowned, accepting this, and went back to studying his hands. "Why does…ah…God speak to you?" he wondered, and Duo shrugged in reply, as he got up and began pacing again.

"I don't know. Maybe because I'm actually willing to listen."

Wufei's throat had gone dry, so he swallowed to relubricate his vocal cords. Everything was spinning, so Wufei tilted his head backwards toward the ceiling and shut his eyes. "And what does -" he? she? it? "- God…" He cleared his throat again. "…say?"

He could hear Duo's boots clunking against the floor as he answered. "Everything that I should have already known." There was a pause in Duo's speech, and his footsteps stopped too. Wufei felt the warm, dry pressure of Duo's hands pressing against his. He opened his eyes, and tilted his head back down so that he could look into his friend's face, a little surprised by the closeness between them. "You don't believe me, do you?" Duo asked, but the intonation wasn't so much that of a question as a statement.

And was that disappointment there? Hidden in the knowing tone?

Mirroring their conversation yesterday, Wufei snapped irritably, "Did I say that?"

Surely he didn't though. This was what Heero had been telling him about, and from Hilde's words Wufei could guess what exactly Duo had been…told. 'It sounded like he wanted to start another war…' No wonder they had wanted him shut up in here. No wonder they had thought Duo had gone nuts.

"You didn't say it, but you look it," Duo answered him.

"I don't want to believe you," Wufei confessed. "It would be…convenient, to be able to dismiss everything you say, and put it all down to some…delusion. It would be convenient, to believe that you deserve to be in here. It would mean that everything else in the world was right. It'd mean that the war accomplished what we hoped it would. But, I think, if I believed that, I'd only be deluding myself. So, I guess… I believe you. I believe you, Duo."

To Wufei's surprise, Duo began laughing again, very quietly. It was only for a few seconds. When he saw Wufei's confused expression he stopped to explain. "You know," he said, "of all of us, you're the last person I would've expected to hear that from." He began snickering to himself again, and that time Wufei joined him.

Then it hit him.

Now that he had admitted to the both of them where his loyalties lay, Wufei could not just leave his friend to rot here, for that was almost certainly what would happen. The doctors would observe and they would wrongly diagnose and commit, more permanently and under closer observation than Duo's present situation. And Wufei could think of no way that he could legally stop them either…

"Duo," he whispered, "we're going to have to leave quick."

Sudden understanding was born in Duo's eyes, and the hollowness that had been clouding his voice since Wufei had first spoken to him left in that same moment. "You sure you mean that?" Duo asked, raising an eyebrow slightly, betraying his lingering skepticism.

Wufei had already moved on, however, and was peering into the corners of the room for the cameras he knew would be there, recording his visit. Disabling them was probably useless though, and might only serve to alert the hospital of their intentions sooner than need be. The window, while close to the ground, was not going to allow any passage outside, Wufei not having come prepared with anything strong or heavy enough to break through both the reinforced glass and the chicken-wire embedded inside it.

Perhaps they could just walk out - Nurse What's-Her-Name had said nothing about not going to other sections of the institution, or Duo not being allowed outside his room. At any rate, while foolhardy, it was their best bet. Wufei strode over to the door.

"Hey Wufei, you didn't answer me," Duo interrupted. "I asked if you were sure about this. Helping an insane guy bust out of his cell's probably pretty damn illegal, you know. After we get outside this door, we can't exactly come back in again later saying, 'Hey, sorry, made a mistake, we're staying after all.'"

I'll probably lose my job for this, Wufei realized, and even more importantly than that, he could lose Sally. Was this really worth that?

"Just come on," he said gruffly, and walked out.

There was that nurse's station at the end of the hall. How was Wufei supposed to get past that?

"Are you even allowed out of your room?" Wufei demanded in a whisper, still hovering in the doorway.

Duo merely shrugged, muttering, "I never really bothered to find out."

"Fuck," Wufei hissed, "I hate doing this without a plan."

"Yeah, well I hate to break it to you, pal, but it's a little late to be thinking of one now."

"Okay. Okay, fine. You're right. There's no way we're going to do this without being noticed, let's just go," Wufei sneered, rolling his eyes - until Duo shoved past him and out the door, that is.

"My kind of thinking," he snickered, before taking off at a run down the hall. Without time for surprise or hesitation, Wufei sprinted after him, taking due note of the rising cry at the nurse's station and dismissing it.

The shrilling in the air was certainly an alarm filtering over the loudspeakers, alerting the hospital to their - or was it merely Duo's? - escape. Rising above it was the calm male voice, informing whatever the institution had in the way of security to their location.

Wufei was therefore half expecting it when he and Duo encountered a burly man stepping towards them, an insidious smile on his face. Duo slowed; there was no room to dodge around him.

"Hey now," the man said soothingly, "where are you two kids heading, huh?" Wufei didn't wait long enough to allow him to get to the part where he tried to convince them to turn around and behave; he shoved his way past and threw a punch, feeling a faint satisfaction at the rough connection with the sagging flesh of the man's cheek.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" he snapped at Duo, who quickly darted past and away from them. He would have followed but for the hammy fist which suddenly clamped heavily down on his shoulder. There was just enough time before Wufei was spun forcefully around for him to see Duo disappear around a corner. Then he was face-to-face again with the heavyset man, whose face was already pinkish and a bit puffy looking.

"Now come on, kid," he muttered, and this time there was annoyance tingeing his voice alongside the ingratiating tone Wufei supposed was meant to trick him into backing down peacefully.

And that certainly wasn't happening.

There was a crunch of bone this time as Wufei's well-aimed fist went into the attendant's nose. He staggered backwards, groaning and reaching up a hand to clutch his face. Wufei started back down the corridor, then thought better of it; he doubled back and snatched the badge off of the man's scrubs before going on his way.

He went in the direction he'd last seen Duo, rounding the same corner, and running as quickly as he could on the waxed tiles. There was no sign of his friend, so Wufei continued forward, ducking out of sight whenever an orderly came near. Fortunately, his instincts were still well-honed, and his work with the Preventers had kept him in good shape. The people and security here were mediocre at best - disorganized, and certainly no match for him. He hoped the same was proving true for Duo.

There shouldn't have been time to stop and look for him, but by the same token, helping Duo had become the main purpose for Wufei's being there and he couldn't just give up on him.

There was going to be hell to pay for this…

Eventually, Wufei succeeded in picking his way through through the maze of hallways back to the lobby. It was swarming with people, and the two sets of double doors had apparently been blocked off. Escape through that venue was unlikely, Wufei could see at once, but he didn't know of any other exits in the building. Hell, he didn't know anything at all about the building - it was pure chance that had brought him back here after the rush and adrenaline that had come after Duo fled. He'd be a fool to turn back now.

Perhaps…

There was way too much commotion going on in there. Attention was focused on a corner of the lobby he couldn't see without exiting the ward. He swiped his stolen badge and eased through the doors and into the throng. "What is going on?" he demanded of a middle-aged man beside him, who was dressed in the distinctive white smock that identified him as one of the doctors of the institution.

He lifted a hand to rub the back of his balding head a minute before answering, frowning at Wufei severely in the quick glance he spared him. "Nothing to fret about. We'll have it all under control shortly. Cummings is working on it." Wufei followed his gaze, noting the thin brown line of Duo's braid swinging. To himself, the doctor beside him continued, "We'll have to move that young man to a more secure room…"

…And that would not do at all.

Two more orderlies were approaching Duo from either side.

Wufei began shoving his way forward, fumbling in his pocket for his wallet. "Prevention Organization!" he yelled suddenly, "Everybody freeze!" They all did, too, spinning to face him with odd looks on their faces. Wufei's Preventer ID was in his wallet alongside his credit cards, and he pulled it out. For a moment everyone was silent, and then a youngish woman, perhaps in her mid-thirties, started forward, tight-lipped with outrage.

"What - what is the meaning of this?" she sputtered angrily. "If I may ask, that is! We are trying to suppress a patient here! What exactly do you think you're doing?!"

What was he doing? Wufei had no idea any longer. "Unlock the doors," he ordered.

"I beg your pardon?" the doctor - Wufei assumed she must be Cummings - huffed. "I most certainly will not! Not until this patient is safely back where he belongs!" She turned to the two orderlies and they began easing towards Duo again. Wufei suddenly noticed that one of them was carrying a tranquilizer gun. He'd thought those had gone out the window years ago.

"Damn it," he hissed, when Duo suddenly sprang forward and grabbed the doctor around the neck. Cummings' eyes were practically bugging out of her head. There was nothing to do now, but - "Open the doors!" he roared again, his voice echoing in the spacious, silent room, and this time someone scurried to do his bidding, some poor frightened looking girl.

A quiet sob escaped her throat, which she quickly muffled with the back of her hand. No one made a single move to either help or hinder her, but Cummings made a sort of strangled gurgle from Duo's grasp, now behind Wufei as they made their way to the doors.

They were at the doors.

They were just outside the doors.

Something sharp suddenly embedded itself in Wufei's thigh, and he quickly yanked out the tiny needle, almost stumbling as the narcotic effects of the sedative kicked in. There was the high-pitched whine of sirens in the distance. "We've got to run," Wufei mumbled, trying to dismiss the wooziness in his stomach.

There was dull, sickening crack, and Cummings' body dropped to the ground, her head facing at a hideous angle, her eyes glazing over and staring out into nothingness.

And Wufei and Duo ran, and ran, and ran.

A/N (2016): So when I was revising part 2, I kind of randomly decided to change Dr Cummings from a man to a woman, forgetting how this 3rd chapter ended. I have to say, it feels a lot ickier now! I was a little bit shocked at myself, aged 15 and aged 30... o.o