Warnings: More angst… I'm good at angst.
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Chapter 6:
"Please, gentlemen, join me for dinner," Collins interrupted, giving a hidden look to the Owned who pointedly ignored it. Zechs nodded. "If you don't mind my asking, how did the two of you meet, originally, I mean."
The blond Preventer gave the First a questioning look. "It's up to you, Zechs. I think it'd be fun if he knew, but I don't really care either way," Duo replied.
"We knew each other by reputation during the war… after, we became friends when we both joined Preventers," the blue-eyed man finally explained.
Collins stopped. "During the war? Surely… Duo wasn't with OZ."
The violet-eyed man smirked. "Hardly. Stomping Ozzies was a favorite pastime of mine."
"He was a gundam pilot… one with a penchant for practical jokes and excessive destruction," he gave a mock glare at the chestnut haired Owned, almost forgetting what he had become for a moment as Duo tucked his hands behind his head and gave him a patently innocent look. Sadness reflected in Zechs' eyes as he took in the free flowing mane, fanged grin and black wings. The weight of the cross resting on his chest felt heavy suddenly. The Owned's grin faded instantly as he sensed his Master's discomfort.
Knowing that nothing but time would soothe the involuntary Master, he decided to redirect the conversation back at Collins, resting the tops of his wings on his shoulders to make them less obvious and wrapping his tail around his leg to make it less obtrusive. He also noted the somewhat stunned look on Collins' face with a bit of pride curling within.
"Duo," Zechs said suddenly. The Owned cocked an eyebrow. "If you remembered Heero, why didn't you just send for him?"
Duo's shoulders rose and fell with a silent sigh. "I remembered feelings, Zechs, not facts. I couldn't remember what he looked like or what his name was. I'm not positive I could've told you he was a gundam pilot much less where to find him—"
"But you could've gotten word to Relena—"
"I didn't even remember Lena, Zechs, I'm certain of that. After all the hell I went through cause of her obsession with Heero, I didn't want to remember her, I think," he explained. He looked like he was going to go on for a moment then thought better of it. "Why don't we just get something to eat?"
~~~~~
Dinner wasn't anything fancy, but it was good and covered all the food groups. It went smoothly until Zechs excused himself to report in to Une, insisting that he be alone and Duo stay with Collins once the scientist had given him directions to a vidphone. Violet eyes had pleaded to go with but had been turned down. His tail was swinging from side to side sharply, releasing some miniscule amount of tension as he awaited his Master's return. Once alone, Collins gave the Owned a pointed look.
"What?" Duo asked, trying for innocence but ended up sounding rather sharp.
"I've always known that you're unbearably smart, but what you did to Merquis was very cruel."
"What do you mean?"
"You used your memories of him to manipulate him like a puppet on strings. You know exactly what to do to get the reactions you want out of him. That was a very cruel thing to do to someone you were obviously close to," Collins stated point blank.
The Owned dropped pretenses, almost as if playing verbal games with Collins would take more control than he had. "All right, so it wasn't nice, but I think you're going a little far with 'cruel.' Besides, it's not like anything I said to him was a lie. Just the opposite. It was all painfully true. I'm Owned, Collins, not stupid. I had to make him accept me somehow or we're both going to be miserable. I'd cut my hair if I thought it would make him happy, you know that," he idly pushed around the leftover beans on his plate.
"He has no clue what you did." It was almost accusing.
He was rewarded with a short-tempered sideways glance. "Of course not. He's still kind of thinking that somehow, intellectually, I'm less than I was. He'll get over it, but he's not in any condition to even think of me being manipulative at the moment. It's going to take him a while to get used to the idea that aside from the physical changes the only thing that's really changed is my feelings towards particular people, him and Heero specifically." He tapped his fork thoughtfully. "You know, it's not unusual for Masters to think of us as being somewhat inferior. You've mentioned that to me countless times. But our fail-safe just wouldn't work if we were blindly faithful. A love of requirement doesn't make it any less real. You know that we really do love our Masters," he pointed out.
The scientist was unimpressed. "True as that may be, it was no reason for you to pull that stunt."
The Owned supressed a growl. "Complain all you like, Collins. So it was a little unorthodox. This whole thing is rather unorthodox. I know that Zechs doesn't want to be my Master, but as long as he accepts his role, I'll be fine. I'll work on the details later. Right now him accepting the fact that I really am his right now is tantamount," he admitted. "Once he truly accepts that, and stops trying to change it, things'll get easier… oh hell," he grumbled, setting his fork down and running fingers through his hair.
"What?"
"Noin, his wife-to-be. That's going to cause some sparks…" he rubbed his temples.
"The Owned have belonged to married men and women," Collins pointed out, finishing up his beans, though he didn't offer to finish Duo's.
"Yeah, but Noin is… special," he trailed, looking slightly pained. "Let's just leave it at that."
"Well, it looks like your memories have filled in just fine." Duo ignored the dry tone.
"Thank Shinigami for that. It's nice to have all the pieces back where they belong, at least for the most part," he leaned back in his chair, idly playing the ends of his hair thoughtfully. "I really hope Noin'll be able to handle this…" he sighed wistfully, but without much hope.
"If she's as 'special' as you say, it could be very problematic," it was an concession. "And if it comes down to choosing between the two of you?" Collins had to ask, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands.
Duo shuddered. "I don't want to think about it. Because if he chooses me, Noin will survive it… if he chooses Noin… I don't think I will," he took a deep, weary breath and curled in on himself, both wings and tail enfolding their owner as if to be a barrier to the world. "Collins, I think you and Kelvare overlooked a potential disaster when you set up the Owned… because if our Masters don't want us… we can't do anything but waste away."
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Zechs wearily sat in the chair in front of the vidphone that Collins had told him about a few rooms down; far enough to be private, but still close enough that Duo wouldn't be over-agitated. Mentally, he was still reeling from everything that had been thrown at him that day. Steeling himself, he put the call straight through to Une, not in the mood to deal with a secretary, even one as nice and helpful a Charity tended to be.
It only took a moment for the Preventer Chief to pick up. "Colonel Lady Une—Zechs?" she raised her eyebrows in surprise at his somewhat strained appearance. "Is something wrong? I didn't expect anything from you so soon," she admitted, regaining her composure.
"We have a problem, Lady, a very real problem," he stated point blank.
"That bad?" the Lady felt her heart sink.
"Actually, as far as I can tell, everything here it totally legal. Collins is very careful about how he runs his company. Kelvare, however, was not so," fists clenched and an ugly expression found its way onto his face at the mere thought of the man (and he used that term loosely). "That bastard was taking people off the streets of L2! Random people! People he knew wouldn't be missed! He was doing this up until a year ago, when one of his own experiments turned on him!" he exclaimed, the pain, confusion and frustration of the day finally asserting itself at its first available target.
"I'd always been a bit curious about his sudden demise," Une replied dryly. "But that's not all, is it," it wasn't a question. "Zechs, since when do you where a cross?" she narrowed her eyes.
"That's the absolute culmination of what this problem comes down to!" he was nearly yelling now. "The last person that Kelvare stole off the streets of L2 was one Agent Duo Maxwell!" he blurted. Une went sheet white in an instant.
There was silence between the two for a moment while the head of Preventer recovered her mental balance. "Are you telling me that Maxwell is now one of the Desolo?" her voice was tight with restrained emotion.
"I am."
"And is that his cross?"
"It is."
"May I ask why then you are wearing it and not him?" she queried, hands idly playing with a pen, though she was in no way paying attention to it.
"Because he gave it to me."
"And why would he do that?" Her tone was almost conversational.
"Because he's Imprinted on me…" all of the earlier anger had drained out of the blond Preventer, leaving him slumped in his chair and very defeated.
There was a small cracking sound as Une went very still for a moment. "What?"
"Duo has Imprinted on me," he repeated slowly, as if for his own benefit.
"I see… and what are you going to tell Yuy?" The Lady's tone was not as tight had been only moments ago and she took the instant to discard the broken pen.
Zechs blanched, though only someone well acquainted with him would've been able to tell. "I hadn't thought about it," he admitted, voice only slightly strained. "He Imprinted on me from my picture in the newspaper, Une. That you sent me here is just coincidence," his blue eyes reflected his distress. "Heero's going to kill me… I never asked for this… Duo was my best friend, and now I'm… I'm the center of his damned universe! Scratch that, I am his universe! I never wanted this! I wanted to find my friend, not own him!" He ran a hand through his hair, the only outward sign of his conflicting emotions.
"So how is he acting towards you?"
"Same as always for the most part. His memories seem complete, but both he and Collins tell me that they had pretty much faded completely shortly before he Imprinted on me. I'm under the impression that Duo panicked and Imprinted on the first thing he saw, which was my picture," he explained, resisting the urge to start rubbing his temples.
"I see…" the Lady repeated. "And how do you think Noin is going to take the news?"
Blue eyes blinked in surprise. "I'm sure she'll understand," he stated after a moment.
Une paused before she responded. "I hope you're right. Anyway, I would rather like to have a talk with this Collins. Do you think you could get him for me?" there was a dark glint in her eyes that reminded Zechs very much of Treize's right hand woman right then, bringing old memories to the front of his mind.
"Just a moment," and he left to get Collins, almost eager to introduce the scientist to Treize's Lady.
~~~
Note about Duo as the First: Okay, I had a good friend of mine read this and not only was she extremely impressed w/ me (she usually my worst critic, which is good for me, if frustrating) she only had one question about consistency. "How can Duo be the First? And what makes him perfect if he still has his memories and won't Imprint?"
He's the first SUCCESSFUL Owned, physically. He wasn't the first to be experimented on, he was basically, for all intents and purposes the first to survive the procedure. For those who went before him, you really don't want to think about all that could've gone wrong with them. He's the First because physically, everything worked. He uses his wings and tail as if he'd been born with them, the same with his talons and enhanced senses.
As for him having his memories, it was never the goal of either Kelvare or Collins to make the Owned forget their pasts, it just happens to be a side effect of the process that makes Imprinting possible. If Duo can Imprint off a picture of someone then doesn't mean that he could Imprint on a face of someone he remembers? And he does have memory loss, he can't remember names or faces, but he has feeling to associate with memories and memories of people. Think of the dreams you have where you can't see people's faces, it's the same thing. He knows he knows them and they're important to him, he could probably have even told you that Memory # whatever had blond hair, a gentle heart, a large family, and seemed to be some sort of empath as well as being an awesome strategist. Of course it's Quatre, but he can't remember the name or face.
The thing about not Imprinting appears to be a fluke that occurred with Duo and only with Duo. Just because he won't doesn't mean the process didn't work, as was obvious with his memories. Now whether his memories would've returned if he had Imprinted on a total stranger, probably not. It would've been too inappropriate for him to have that past that doesn't impact on his new Master. Basically, as he told Zechs, his past is inconsequential when compared with the wants and needs of his Master. A total stranger wouldn't have needed to know anything about Duo's past, so he'd probably have forgotten it completely. But it is Duo so it's hard to say.
Yikes, long note. Hope that explains any questions or inconsistencies.
