Savior
Chapter Seven - The Gates of Hell
xxxxxx
The door swung open. Quatre felt his jaw drop as the former pilot of Deathscythe walked in solemnly and stood in the far corner. Duo straightened his shoulders.
"Wh-What? Duo how did you get here?" Hilde whispers, her knees shaking slightly as she attempts to reach her friend. "Is anyone else coming?"
Duo remained silent. Quatre frowned.
"You weren't such a fool that you would come here all by yourself and bring no one? You did tell someone didn't you? Duo! You idiot." She was on her knees now, her breath coming out in shaky gasps. Her face was etched with anger as she faced Duo off.
"Wait," Duo murmured, "Wait for what I have to tell you. You'll never believe how I got in!" Duo laughed, and even through it set him on edge, the familiar sound also reassured Quatre.
Licking her lips, shook her head. "How? What madness brought you here, alone!"
A small smile resting on his lips, Duo's eyes drifted upwards. "God... he brings us all here, Hilde," Duo brought his gaze on Quatre, "And Quatre."
"Uh... This doesn't sound like you Duo." Hilde sounded confused. "You're not drunk or something, are you?"
There was a longer pause, before Duo began to speak again. "No, not that, Hilde."
Her eyes narrowing, Hilde tilted her head in befuddlement. "What the hell! You're speaking in riddles, when you are speaking. What's wrong?"
"This is all wrong. You shouldn't be here."
"Obviously!" Hilde snorts, "I would prefer that I would be relaxing in a bubble bath, at home, but instead I've been drugged and chucked in a smelly hole. That's what's wrong!"
"Does your death disturb you?" Duo asks softly, hands beginning to twitch.
Hilde's whole face twists with changing emotions as she stares at Duo with a wary expression, her face twisted in puzzlement. "My death? I don't intend to die." Her voice is steely however.
"Choice isn't what defines death. Unless you intend suicide?" He laughs, "But that is a sin. Death should not be sinful."
"No, maybe not. That doesn't determine that it will however." Quatre murmurs. His head is starting to clear, and his legs are felling much stronger. The feeling of unease does not leave him. This isn't Duo Maxwell. Duo would have arrived, maybe by himself, but he would have left... Duo would run.
xxxxxx
Heero's eyes snapped over to Wufei. "Where is Duo?" He demanded.
Looking away, Wufei shrugged. "I'm not sure. The meeting will start soon. We had better go, Heero."
Not moving, Heero glares. "You know something, Wufei. Something small, maybe, but something nonetheless. Duo - and Quatre and Hilde. Do their lives depend on this?" Someone is twisted up in this. Heero knows that, remembering the footage from before. The shock, he felt and the sheer disbelief.
"We have to go Heero. There is nothing more I can say." Wufei says, fingers thrumming gently against his own arm. Heero's eyes, in a flicker, take the nervous gesture and file it away for future use.
Narrowing his eyes, Heero nods, shortly and sharply. He is still frowning, thoughts flashing through his mind. "there' nothing more you can do, then?" He says, just testing.
Wufei's lips purse, and his pace becomes rigid. "No."
xxxxxx
Lady Une doesn't look up as one of her assistants enters the room and hands her a file. It is labelled in red, the highest security warning. It's a World Sphere offense to have one of these files without permission. She glances at it, her eyes hardening, but her expression remaining clear.
"Is that it then?" She asks. The assistant nods, solemn. "Prepare the HQ, it cannot be like before. Dismissed." The assistant salutes, and leaves quickly.
Left alone with the file, reading through it rapidly, a new plan formulates in Lady Une's mind. This time, Lady Une is not going to be beaten.
xxxxxx
A cell phone rings. Duo doesn't answer it for a while, but when he does, his tone is sober and weary. Quatre's eyes follow Duo warily, as he turns his back on Quatre and Hilde.
"Yes?" Duo nods and then stills.
Seeing Duo suddenly start and whirl around surprises Quatre. Duo's face is now pale, drained of all blood. He takes a heaving breath and opens his mouth -
"What - I don't - You lied, I did not. How long? Tell me!" He barks savagely into the device, braid swinging as his head nervously turns from side to side.
It's clear that whoever Duo was talking to has hung up. Duo carefully, stiffly, repockets the phone.
As if a button was pressed, Duo's all demeanor changes. "Quatre - Hilde, sorry about this, but we have to leave quick. No more blatherings and recovery time. If we don't all leave now, we'll die."
"Wh-what! Duo, why do you keep on changing? From this weirdo maniac, to normal - if that's what I can call you. What! What's happening, Duo?" Hilde shouted, shakily coming to her feet.
"There's no time to explain. Hilde, I wish I could. But I've just been informed that this building is going to blow up very soon. I don't trust those people, but they could be telling the truth." Duo said quickly.
"I see," Quatre murmured, also standing, his heavier frame adjusting quicker compared to Hilde's. "The drugs are wearing off then? Let's go, it's best to get out of here, quick."
"Duo, I've always trusted, since the War. When we have the time - tell me everything. I don't want to be left out again." Hilde says softly. Then, a determined expression hardens her features and she steps forward. "Let's go, come on you two. Don't want to be left behind, do you?"
xxxxxx
The building is still quite new, Quatre notices as he stumbles through the hallways, still recovering from the potent drug. It had just been left to the forces of nature, and had been allowed to crumble and be unrepaired.
Everything seems somewhat familiar, but Quatre can't quite reckon what does. The walls, the floors, all feel like he has been here before. Or, some place very much like this.
His legs are stiff, but Quatre moves on.
It's as Quatre passes an open door, that he finally recognises the layout. Quatre closes his eyes momentarily in frustration, at the clouding affects the drugs have on him,
Duo is leading them out. Quatre's eyes don't leave Duo's back, questions ready to spill out at any moment. He wasn't sure how Duo knew a way out of here, but he was certainly going to ask.
Quatre follows Duo to the left, down a different hallway, willing to wait. Their lives could still be at risk.
xxxxxx
They are late to the meeting. Wufei and Heero take their seats quickly and quietly, not daring the wrath of Lady Une. She doesn't spare them a glance, but both know, that later, there would be reprimands.
It's clear, from the nervous rustlings of paper and the shifting of the chairs, that something important has been said. Harried Preventer agents eye each other cautiously, and Heero remains impervious, though he is tempted to glare at them. Wufei does glare at them.
The agents are unsteady, as Lady Une calls order. In the corner of his eyes, where his vision starts to fade, Heero sees someone's pink lips smile.
"For the benefit of Agent Chang, and Agent Yuy, I will repeat my statement." Lay Une says, her tone deadly. "I received a Red Missive File, detailing the plans of the Soldiers of God."
Silence falls, as the meeting room turns it's full attention to Lady Une.
"Also, there is one among you, the top agents, who is a spy." She says it in an almost casual manner, but her eyes are scanning the room in a dogged determination. Une is on the hunt.
Heero realises why the other agents were so uncertain and shifty. One of them, one of them was guilty.
xxxxxx
"Oh, I was such a fool," a sigh is let out, quickly followed by the click and cocking of a gun. "I knew I could never trust you. I shouldn't have... no."
"I didn't want to kill you, Duo... no. But you didn't tell me who you really were. Naughty Gundam Pilot."
Duo grimaces at he recalls his previous conversation on the cell phone.
"I could have killed you with this gun. I've been practicing. Very hard, but... no. You're still much better than me. You're a killer, Duo Maxwell, and that's what you'll always be."
"You tried to fool me - "
He tries to make excuses, but she continues to talk. He can imagine her licking her pink lips, always coating them with noxious layers of pink lipstick.
"All of you. You're going to die in there now. Together. I know that you care for both of them, Duo. You're going to die with your friend's blood on your hands."
"I'm going to blow up this entire building." There's a tinkling laugh.
Duo has to get them out of here. He had been trying to stall, back there in that make shift cell. Duo had known that he was being bugged, or that the room was. The Soldiers of God were too paranoid not to.
He hadn't expected the bomb, and was now cursing his stupidity. How long had known? Long enough to plan and organise the kidnapping of Quatre and Hilde, and to set up the rigging for the bomb.
Gritting his teeth, Duo knows that time is running out. A quick glance behind him makes him realise that both Hilde and Quatre are still under the drug's sway, however hard they labour.
Time is running out.
xxxxxx
AN: For some reason, the line break is working for me. Strange. So instead, I used 'xxxxxx', which I hope wasn't too annoying.
Thank you for the reviews, they are appreciated.