Notes and Disclaimers: I don't own GW, but I own the Saisos.
Chapter 6"Halt or they all die." Rose looked around and found the four young men and her brother had guns to their heads.
Rose remained where she stood but said, "You said that if I captured the Gundam Pilots you would set my family free. Now keep your word and let me have my brother and take me to my parents!" she demanded.
This was when one of her captives chose to speak up and it was Duo who did, "Oz never keeps their word. Now that they have the majority of us. They'll do anything to get a hold of Heero. But they will also keep you and your family hostage or kill you. You know too much." He said flatly, his voice emotionless.
Rose looked over at him, her face falling. She knew he spoke the truth; she still trusted him with all her heart. She turned her head back to her brother, tears silently began running down her face. Then she sank down onto the floor and barely paid attention to the soldiers of Oz as they untied the Gundam Pilots but then retied them to escort them out of the building.
They took Wufei out last and when he was gone, two soldiers came up to her.
"You are to come with us. Boss said you had to." One soldier said.
Rose stood and silently followed them outside to a covered army truck where she climbed up inside. She was almost glad that she was not forced to sit next to the friends she had betrayed, but dismayed when she was not anywhere near her brother.
They drove in silence for about thirty minutes and then come to a stop. Rose gets out and is followed by all the soldiers and the betrayed ones. Her brother was taken separately from the group and Rose never saw him after that. They were led into a room that had one wall that was entirely made of glass. Rose glanced through it and realized it looked down into a torture chamber, dungeon type room. Just as she realized what it was, the soldiers were taking the Gundam Pilots down the stairs to it. When they were secured, the soldiers returned upstairs and then left through another door on the far right.
Rose found a chair and sank down onto it, trying not to cry again. But she looked up when a lone soldier walked through the far door the others had left through. This soldier was obviously the boss; his clothing was more elaborate in a few medals and it was freshly pressed.
"Suzumi Saiso I presume." He said in an amused sort of voice.
"Yes sir." She said meekly, though with all the crying she had been doing, she wouldn't raise her voice any higher than they could hear her with what she was using now.
"Why did you fail to bring us the most important Gundam Pilot? Pilot 01, Heero Yui?" the boss asked his voice sounded like steel now.
"I…I did not know he was that important, sir. And before I could get him, he was away on another mission. I did not know this until after I already had three of them." She replied. "Now that you have them you must give me your word that you will not kill or torture them!" she said, her voice firm and serious yet she was still speaking in her soft tone.
"Done. But aren't you wondering about your parents? You have not seen them these past few weeks." The man said with cruel intent.
Her head shot up as she looked into his eyes. "What do you mean by that? What have you done to my parents!" she demanded. Dread along with a great rush of anger ran through her but she locked it down before someone was killed because of it.
"I have done nothing without them provoking me." He replied.
"What did you do to my parents!" Rose demanded, slowly spitting her words out for her anger was beginning to get the best of her.
"Come with me." He turned and walked to the door not seeing if the girl followed him.
Rose followed but only because she dreaded something awful had happened to her beloved family.
They walked by at least three doors in a long corridor before the boss soldier stopped. He opened the door to his left and bid her to go in.
"Here is your answer." He said.
Rose looked at him with anger on her face but she tentatively walked into the darkened room. She found a light switch and gasped when she found two sheet-covered bodies lying on tables in the room. She instantly started sobbing as she walked to the tables and lifted a corner of each sheet. She put them down as quickly as she had lifted them.
They were her parents. And they were dead.
Rose stalked out of the room and pounded the Oz soldier on the chest, yelling, "How could you? Why did you kill them? You said they would only die if I had not completed what you set for me to do! How could you kill them?"
The man grabbed her hands in a hard grip that hurt her just from the sheer strength of it. "Your parents provoked me and in my anger I had them killed. And if you provoke me I will kill your brother. He is just two doors down." He said in a steel hard voice tinged with anger.
That statement shook Rose out of most of her anger and she took her hands from his grip, which had loosened so she could and lowered them to her sides.
"Now if you would follow me please." He said, leading her back to the room they had previously been in.
The chair Rose had been sitting in was drawn up close to the window and the soldier boss all but forced her into the chair. Rose sat silently and stared into the torture chamber. She gasped quietly as she saw Trowa, his shirt gone and his wrists tied with ropes hanging from the ceiling. His arms were up above his head and could not move them without dislocating a shoulder or breaking something. His legs were also tied to the ground by another set of ropes.
"What are you doing to him!" Rose said, her voice sounding a little higher than usual.
The man said calmly, "They will not tell us what we want to know willingly, so we are forced to try other methods."
Rose sharply turned her head and said angrily, "You gave your word that you would not torture or kill them! This is going back on your word!"
The man signaled and two soldiers came up on either side of Rose and clamped hands down on her shoulders. Rose gave a little yelp and once again stared out into the chamber below.
As she watched an enemy took a long strap of leather to Trowa's back. It wasn't until Trowa's back was a bloody mess that Rose saw he had fallen unconscious.
"STOP!" she yelled. "Can't you see he's not even conscious?"
Pausing from the outburst he heard up the stairs, the soldier with the strap looked up at the window. The other pilots looked as well.
Rose now wrenched herself from under the hands of the other soldiers and stood to face their boss.
"He can't tell you anything if he's unconscious!" Rose continued yelling, "STOP this madness. You gave me your word that you wouldn't torture them!"
"Like the dark one down there said when we brought you in, Oz never keeps their word." The man said in a calm, even voice. Then he turned and walked out of the room, all of his soldiers following him. Even the one who had tortured Trowa.
That left Rose all alone in the room with a wall-sized window that looked down into a torture chamber. She made up her mind and decided that she would forfeit her life in order to save theirs, down in the chamber. She ran outside and found a bus to take her to the warehouse. She got into her car and drove back to where her people were being held. Gathering the weapons and a first aid kit she had stashed from her trunk she walked cautiously into the building. There were no soldiers anywhere. She walked cautiously down into the chamber and gingerly stepped into sight, next to Trowa hanging unconsciously.
Duo, Wufei and Quatre were on upright slabs of metal with their wrists and ankles held away from their bodies, metal bands locking them against the slab. They couldn't move their limbs and if they struggled something was sure to get broken.
"What? Come to finish the job with our own weapons?" Duo asked cruelly.
Rose bit back a sob as she firmly replied, "No. I've come to set you free."
Duo looked almost somewhat surprised but hid it and said nothing else. They all watched as Rose set the weapons down all except for one of the daggers, on the floor. She stepped right up to Trowa, standing in front of him and bent to cut the ropes at his feet and then straightened up to slowly cut him down. As one rope fell, Trowa fell against the girl, but she braced herself as she cut the other. She dropped the dagger as Trowa fell heavily against her. She caught him and gently and carefully lowered him and herself to the floor where she could lie him face down on her legs so she could bandage him up.
While she tended to their fallen friend Rose started talking, "Do you want to know how long I've had to capture you?" she didn't wait for a reply, "Ever since that night I got home from a date with Duo weeks ago. I walked in my apartment and found my parents tied and unconscious, my brother tied to a chair a gun to his head and soldiers all around them and me. They told me that I had to capture the Gundam Pilots in order to set my parents free. Or they would kill them if I refused. I couldn't refuse."
She slowly wrapped the bandage around Trowa as gently as she could and when she finished she felt Trowa stirring. She let him wake before moving and continuing with her story.
"I'm so sorry." She whispered to him as he tried to rise. "Just stay here. I'll get the others out and they'll help you up."
He stilled at her words and then reluctantly stayed put, though it was the pain that kept him from really moving. Rose slowly stood and then found the keys to the metal slabs hanging on the wall near the door. She retrieved them and stood near Duo.
"The day after I was told to meet them in the warehouse that I took y'all to. That was where they made me put this collar on," She said, fingering the metal circle around her throat with her free hand. "It's an electricity collar and it has gone off at least once a day since I've had it." Quatre gave an involuntary gasp of dismay, "My brother has one too, but whatever he receives I receive double." She moved to the closest lock and inserted the key.
"Since then my brother and parents have been held captives. All this time I've known what to do but I didn't want to do it. But I wanted to save my family. I love them dearly. But I couldn't bear it if I had to betray you. But they were getting angry and the threats came in greater numbers." She said as she turned the key. The lock popped open and Duo moved his ankle from its holding place. "Right before I had to watch Trowa get hurt I was told, actually I was shown, to my parents. They are dead." She said flatly. There were a few tears escaping from her eyes, but they went unnoticed. She moved onto the other lock and inserted the key, but didn't turn it.
"I know you hate me, and that my life is forfeit now that I am freeing you, but I must ask a favor." She continued.
"What is it?" Quatre asked in a small voice.
"Rescue my brother." She replied simply.
"Impossible." Wufei said flatly.
"Then you want me to lock you back up and leave you for Oz? Or kill you myself? Take your pick: live and rescue my brother or die either by my hand or OZ. And I'm sure you'd rather die by MY hand than theirs." She said firmly. "I may not know how to shoot a gun, but I have a choice of weapons." She swept a hand over the hardware that she had taken from them.
"We'll get your brother." Quatre said quietly. The others looked at him and the blond gave a small nod to the girl.
TBC