Chapter 19:
There was silence for several moments as each of the three pilots made their tea to suit their own taste before speaking. From an outsider's view, the scene would have been a rather grim one. All three men looked tired, careworn, and there was the vaguest feeling of despair in the air.
Quatre broke the silence first. "I know I was the one who was so certain there was no way to change this… no way to return Duo to what he was—who he was, but…" he rubbed at his eyes tiredly.
"I take that as a 'no progress' then?" Wufei replied softly, an oddly accepting tone in his voice.
"The more my people look through the information Dr. Collins turned over, the more astounded they are," the blond man sighed. "The work on the Impression process… it's sheer genius."
Wufei's dark eyes narrowed, but Trowa interrupted before his friend could get angry. "He's right, Wufei. They're all right. It is genius. This, Dr. Kelvare may have been out of his mind, but he was definitely brilliant."
Wufei sniffed disparagingly. "And look where that genius has gotten us." He tapped his leg a little impatiently before continuing. "I still wonder if Collins actually turned everything over."
Quatre shook his head. "I'd like to think he didn't. But I've spoken at length with Dr. Collins. He was unusually fond of Duo, I think, and would gladly change him back if he could. The unfortunate truth of the matter is the process was designed to be irreversible."
"Sally mentioned to me that Maxwell's Impression process was slightly different than all the other Desolo?" Wufei prodded. "Maybe there is a way to relay the Impression process and let him Imprint on Yuy?"
Quatre took a sip of his tea and nodded. "It was. Duo was the First and as well can be expected with the first success of an endeavor of this sort, he is a little quirky. We had hoped that there was some quirk that would allow the process to be… nullified, if not truly reversed. No such luck. As for re-Impression… It might drastically change his personality. We have no idea what it could do to him. This process was not meant to be repeated on a single individual. For all we know, it could take, it could just fail completely, it could take but not erase Zechs' Impression, meaning he'd probably kill himself trying to choose between them."
"Barton, you've been looking at the process, the chemical aspect of it…" before he could continue, Trowa shook his head.
"I tried to find something in it, somewhere that the chemical aspects of the Impression could be broken apart, but… it's too complicated for me. It's really ironic. If any of us should be trying to break down that mess, it should be Duo. I'm not the chemist he is."
"And I loathe to think of what Duo's reaction would be if we asked him to help find a way to break down his Impression," Quatre added.
"But we're running out of options… Sally brought home another thick file last night. Said she wanted to look at it with fresh eyes… but she hasn't touched it," Wufei's brow was knit in concern.
"I know we've only been at this for three months, but we're just running into so many dead ends," the frustration in the blonde's voice bordered on anger. "Most of what has been found that may break down the process also has a very high chance of killing him!"
Wufei started, while Trowa just ran a hand down his face. "Sally hadn't told me that!"
"She wouldn't have bothered. We weren't sure we were going to tell Zechs," Trowa sighed. "When we say 'very high chance' we mean ninety-eight percent and up chance of killing him. And we have no idea what other side affects those possible breaks is, even if he did survive, though on of them is definitely total amnesia, which is worse than what we have now. Some part of me says that this is Duo, who's knack for surviving almost makes me want to try it… but if it falls through… It's not worth the risk. If he was really miserable, maybe… if he was fighting as hard for a solution as we are…"
"Unfortunately, it took Kelvare years to make the Impression process what he wanted it to be. It took Dr. Collins time even after that to refine it, not much, but it definitely took some. We could be at this for years…" Quatre slumped forward slightly. "Even if we managed to break or nullify the Impression, we still have to deal with the physical aspects of being a Desolo. His DNA has been spliced with at least two different kinds of big cat and a bat. And we don't have years. I'm not sure we even have weeks."
This got both Trowa and Wufei's attention. "What've you been feeling?" Trowa asked as his lover rubbed at his chest.
"Nothing concrete, that's why I haven't mentioned it. But something… something is changing. In Duo, in Heero, in Zechs, I don't know," he shook his head. "I'm just not sure. But something's changing. Something is…moving? I'm not sure that's the right word…" he sat back. "I know Trowa and I haven't, but have you seen much of Duo lately, Wufei?"
"Mostly in passing," he admitted, a little abashed. "Une keeps both him and Merquise rather busy, but he's generally seemed happy enough. He's always cheerful, happy to see me, but a little distant?" he paused. "That's not quite the right word, but…" he trailed.
"I know what you're trying to say," Trowa sighed. "And it actually makes a lot of sense, if you'd seen Collins' notes. The Desolo were designed to be dependant only on their masters. They don't need anyone else, and they really won't seek outside company."
"I talked to Dorothy, too," Quatre added, gaining a look from Wufei. "She said that in the beginning, Cain clung to her, focused everything around her. She was about ready to go crazy from always having him at her shoulder and always wanting to be by her side, but when she started to fall in love with him, it changed. He didn't cling to her as much, and actually started to pay more attention to the people around him. Especially lately he's been making friends. Given a choice, he still generally prefers to spend time with Dorothy, but it's as if the more secure in their relationship he is, the more he acts like a normal person, for lack of a better word."
"I may not have talked much to Maxwell or Catalonia, but I have talked to Sally who does talk to Noin," Wufei added, gaining his friends' attention. "According to Sally, Noin is still very unhappy with the current arrangement. Sally thinks she is very threatened by Maxwell's presence," he paused thinking. "As a matter of fact, I seem to remember Sally mentioning that Noin had something of a breakdown in the office the other day. Merquise took her to lunch in tears," he huffed, showing what he thought of that, and it earned him an amused look between his friends before Quatre seemed to latch onto the information.
"Did Sally say why Noin was crying? Did she know what caused it?"
Wufei shook his head. "Not precisely. She talked to Merquise's secretary who said everything seemed fine when she left, though she remembered seeing Maxwell leaving the office before Noin could get in," he shrugged. "Though I'm not sure what Maxwell could've said to her."
Trowa and Quatre traded a look as they often did, but Quatre was the one who spoke. "Duo may be keeping a tight leash on his tongue when it comes to Zechs, but I doubt that courtesy is extending to Noin. I can think of any number of things he may have said to her…" he trailed and Trowa picked up the line of thought.
"Any number of things that would've made her angry, certainly… but cry?" he looked thoughtful, resting his chin on his fist. "I admit, I'm at something of a loss here."
"I guess it's safe to say that they're still trying to figure out things on that end," the blue-eyed man sighed, finally temporarily defeated on the subject. "Aside from that, has anyone been speaking to Heero much? I know Trowa and I have been trying but…"
Wufei shook his head. "Yuy has become very distant. Sally mentioned he'd been spending a fair amount of time with the Darlian woman, but in the last few weeks that has changed as well."
"He's definitely been withdrawing," Quatre sighed, then let out a soft sound, part sniff, part laugh, part despair. "Why is it whenever I think we've reached our 'fucked-up' limit, one of us finds the need to exceed it?"
No one had an answer.
IIIIIII
A shadow moved through the currently closed Winner laboratory. The heads of the team had finally called it a night a few hours back, though it had taken some longer to leave than others. Here was where all the information was about the Impression process. Here was all the ways they'd found to counteract it. The shadow took every bit of information it could get its hands on, hacking the system with the ease of long practice, making copies of everything it could find. Then it took as much of the hard copies of the information it could find. It was out in a few hours, leaving no trace of its presence aside from the missing files.
TBC…
IIII
My apologies. Spring break and I was disgustingly lazy. Really… Most of the next chapter is actually already handwritten, so it shouldn't be too long. Please be patient with me. Reviews always encouraged, not demanded.
