C 201 Heero and Wufei are preventors called in for an accident on a sweeper ship captained by Duo.  However it was no accident there's a killer on board and it isn't human.  If you like suspense and gore you'll like this horror story.  (At least I'm hoping to create suspense I believed I managed it.)

Disclaimer:  I don't own these characters, I only get my jollies off on torturing them and my readers with horrible gory stories like the one below.  Bandia and a bunch of other rich and talented folk own these characters.  Please don't' sue me.

Warnings: Rated R just to be on the safe side.  Contains yaoi, gore and minor amounts of smut.

Secondary warning: Personally, I don't think that my stories are scary.  However, I have received feedback from a small amount of reviewers claiming that they were.  "Don't change your style of writing, it's yours.  There are people out there who will appreciate it." I thank that person.  I decided to take their words to heart and I have not toned down or changed how I write.  However, I am giving fair warning.

**Sorry for the long wait.  I have a beta and I want to thank Shinko for all the work.  This is my first time incorporating my writing with another person's and any inaccuracies are probably an oversight on my part.  I do hope it makes reading Jaaku na more pleasant.

 

 

 

Jaaku na Gundam

(English Translation: the Evil Gundam)

Chapter 27

Especially You

Duo led him to a tight spiral staircase.  He released Heero's hand and mounted the steps using both handrails so that he could hop easily on one leg.

Heero regretted the lost of contact immediately.  When Duo had been holding his hand, he was sure that there was something between them, something that was more than friendship.  Now, suddenly, he had doubts.  Heero knew that he sometimes had a hard time reading Duo and that he shouldn't jump to conclusions.  He breathed in deeply trying to reign his passions.  If Duo were to touch him again, Heero knew that he would be lost in his want.  But, Duo continued to climb and he wondered if he had imagined that feeling of something more.

Duo was moving at a pretty good pace.  He said that his ankle was only sprained, not broken.  He had also said that his ribs were bit bruised.  Other than that, Duo seemed to be fine, which seemed strange to Heero because he, himself, was becoming winded and found himself stumbling on unseen stairs.  He couldn't figure out how Duo was moving so well without lights.  He couldn't figure out Duo.  It was as if he knew the place.  It was beginning to become unnerving.

"Duo, can you see?"

Duo snorted at that.  "Heero, its pitch black.  Can you?"

"I wouldn't have asked you if I could," he snapped.

Heero regretted asking the question.  He had only succeeded in annoying the both of them.  He sensed the motion of air long before they reached the roof.  The stars and small moons surrounding Mars gave just enough faint illumination from him to make out Duo's face.

Duo didn't look at him.  He looked around the tower that they had climbed onto.  It was one of the spheres that Heero had seen on top of the peaks.  The top of the tower was domed and the sides were slightly rounded.  The sphere-shaped top that they had entered was the middle one and Heero saw a small bell hanging from the ceiling.  The bell explained why this tower was slightly larger than the two next to it.

Duo didn't go out onto the edge this time.  Instead, he looked to the other spheres.  Heero noticed that the points rising from dome tops looked like little hats.  Duo's face was thoughtful and it appeared that his annoyance had passed.  Seeing as he had already killed their congenital mood on the stairs and had squashed the amorous mood before that, he was reluctant to speak.

They stood in silence for a long while before Duo spoke.  At first, Heero missed what he had said because he had been caught off-guard.  He was still pondering what had transpired below.  Heero's pent-up passions and frustrations were wreaking havoc on his thought process.  Do you want me, Duo? He questioned himself.

"It wanted you."

Heero was taken aback at his words.  Had Duo just read his mind?  No, he had not spoken aloud.

"What?" He asked softly, suddenly feeling afraid to hear his answer.

"It wanted you," Duo repeated with a sigh.  "It threw the others away like trash, but that hatch closed because it was you in there."

Heero didn't want to think about that horrible incident where the hatch had closed.  He didn't want to remember the way those wires had seemed to move on their own.  He didn't want to remember being trapped and he most certainly did not want to talk about Jaaku na.  Heero hoped that the suit had burned up in the atmosphere.  He shivered.

"It's out there."

"Duo?"

"It wants us, but you…Heero it wants you especially."

Heero shook his head trying to dispel such notions.  "Jaaku na was bent on getting you in the bay.  You were trapped in the car."

Now that he said it he realized how much that had been troubling him.  The suit could have continued after Trowa or even Ace but the thing ignored them.  Elimination of the gunners would have been more effective for Jaaku na, but it had gone for Duo.  The Zero system would have never made such a poor decision.

"It only came after me because I threatened it." Duo said, his eyes still staring beyond the dome into the Martian terrain.  "It didn't want Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, or me.  We're all Gundam pilots and if there is anyone in the universe who could know about the Gundams weaknesses, it's us.  Jaaku na knows that.  But, the only thing Jaaku na was focusing on in the bay was you.  At first I thought that it was because Wufei was a better gunner than Ace, but, now…it's clear to me that that wasn't it."

"Well, it's gone.  Even Wing barely survived falling through the atmosphere," Heero said, trying to put an end to the conversation.  "Jaaku na was damaged, Wing wasn't.  It didn't have a chance."

Heero knew that there was a slim possibility that Jaaku na could survive, but he hoped the atmosphere had inflicted enough damage that it couldn't do much harm.

Duo continued to speak as if he hadn't heard him.  Maybe he didn't, his thoughts were so far away like he was seeing things no one else could.  It frightened Heero seeing him like that.

"You all want to believe that it's a program—a unique and advanced AI," Duo whispered softly.  "I don't believe that.  I believe it's alive."

Heero thought about what he had seen.  He wasn't stupid.  There had to be a logical reason for its existence, it's decisions.

"It's alive and it's evil."

"We can prepare.  If it comes we can be ready," Heero told him after a moment.  "As you said, we know its weaknesses."

"You believe me?"

"Duo, even if that suit doesn't come here, I will make sure that Jaaku na is completely destroyed; be it AI, new life form, or evil incarnate.

"I bet you could!  I bet you could do anything you put your mind to."

Heero felt him withdrawing as his smile disappeared and a look of nervous concern replaced it.  It was a subtle look and slight stiffening in his body that reminded Heero that trust was something quickly lost and slowly gained.  It wasn't going to be easy getting Duo to trust him like he had before.

Duo turned to look once again beyond the dome.  He didn't see the look desire and frustration flash across Heero's face.  He was too lost in his thoughts.

"Let's go," he said after a moment.  He got up walking past Heero to the trap door set in the floor of the tower.

"Where?"

"I don't know about you, but if I have to kill evil incarnate, I'll need a good night's sleep first."

TBC