Author's note: My deepest apologies for those of you who have waited sooooo looooong for me to get this out. A good portion of the credit goes to Infedelz who is trying to help get me get me off my but to finish this story through both motivation and co-writing. I'm also going to try making the chapters shorter with the hopes of getting them out faster.
Psionic (R)evolution – Chapter 15
There are some activities that a person can be away from for a long time and pick it up almost from where they left off. Things like swimming or riding a bike (hence the saying) but stealth and infiltration was definitely not in that category. Trowa's muscles were beginning to cramp up from tension and the way he was gasping for air, he was going to use up his suit's air supply before he got to his destination.
Annoyingly, Caruthers had at some point decided to adopt the same idea as they had and made his base of operations mobile. Only in his case he used a space barge. This meant he would probably be alert for an attack similar to the one he'd launched on their resource satellite. Any brain augments he had, would probably be watching for an attack. Undoubtedly, he'd probably have key systems like the ventilation put under heavy security to avoid being gassed like the pilots were. So far they'd encountered twice the normal amount of proximity sensors than normal.
Yes, he's probably taken extra care to make sure no one comes anywhere near him without his knowing. Trowa thought idly to himself.
But he probably wasn't expecting to take on a bunch of lunatic Gundam pilots. Soren interjected the irritated thought. The former Heavyarms pilot suppressed a twitch of irritation. He was still getting used to having every thought he had opened for others to hear. He was a big enough person to admit that he was a private person perhaps even to the point of being an isolationist, so being so exposed and staying that way all the time was just creepy.
From her tone, Trowa could tell she wasn't the least bit happy about their plan and she was more than a little terrified. Truth be told, he was more afraid for her too. If he took the time to think about how frightened he was for her right now he wouldn't be able to think much less move.
Their plan was a fairly simple one, but extremely reckless. They didn't have access to Anna's psychic ability so they had to piece together a plan using their own experiences. In the end, the only one they could agree on was the one that put them the most at risk. The No-one-would-be-crazy–enough-to-do-that approach.
Using his electrokinesis and his memory of the Deathscythe systems, Duo was able to slap together an almost decent cloaking device. It didn't cover a very large area, so they had to cram everyone into the smallest shuttle they could find. Then they had a preventer shuttle fly close enough to the barge's proximity alarms from the other side in hopes of drawing their attention. For obvious reasons they couldn't dock to the barge. That would have alerted everyone to their presence for sure. Hence, they had to make the rest of the trip EVA.
Trowa was a little nervous about his reflexes when he went across, but that was nothing compared to when Soren came over. His heart was almost bursting from his chest it was beating so intensely. He spent the whole time asking himself how he'd let the others talk him in to letting her come, but they'd out-voted him saying her medical expertise might be needed and he had to submit.
But never, never again was he going to allow her to do something like this again.
Trust me lover, I have no intention of making this a habit. She sent to him. Even her mental voice quavered with terror. He felt a surge of pride in how brave she was being despite her almost crippling fear.
Heero looked around to make sure everyone was securely attached to the barge. Alright Duo. He thought simply. Trowa found it amusing that even in his mind Heero was still a man of few words. Wufei, despite his tendency to limit his conversations was incredibly noisy in his head. The man never stopped thinking. He even had full blown arguments with himself.
Trowa watched Duo bypass the security on the airlock with practiced ease. Apparently he kept some of his skills intact. Once the airlock was open, the five pilots plus Soren and Cole piled into it as quickly as they could.
Quatre? Heero asked
The blond man had kept his mind open and alert for anyone who might have detected their presence. No one has noticed us yet but there are two people coming up this way. Everyone was suddenly alert and they all waited until to two minds left the corridor before exiting the airlock. Even though the skill was new to him and he wasn't sure if he liked having it, it was hard to resist the temptation not to "look" into the minds on the other side of the door to gain an extra advantage but Anna's warnings about probing into a person's mind being more dangerous to the psionic than the person kept the desire in check.
Heero, Wufei and Cole split away from them and went the other way down the corridor. Their job was to hack into the barge's systems and find out if there were any other test subjects on board that needed to be rescued. Trowa, Quatre, Duo and Soren went in search of Anna and Shelby.
The closer they got to where the women were being held to stronger the excitement he felt from his two friends. At one point he had to caution them to calm down or they would surely alert any augments on board.
They reached Shelby's cell first. Soren stayed with Duo while the man worked on the lock. Trowa was forced to hurry after Quatre who'd started to rush ahead of him anxious to get to Anna's cell. His friend tried to patiently bypass the lock, but his hands were none to steady. He moved in to take over for the other man when they both felt a blast of murderous anger burst out of Duo followed by a pang of disgust from Soren.
While Trowa's attention was diverted, Quatre let his temper and worry slip enough that he punched the wall next to the lock. Trowa turned his head just in time to watch the metal on the wall bend and ripple like water from where he hit the wall.
What the hell? Trowa asked mostly to himself but Quatre answered.
I guess I found my secondary ability. Whatever it was that the Sandrock pilot had done ended up shorting the lock and the door opened to a very dark cell.
Their noses were assaulted with the stench of urine, feces and vomit. Trowa felt his eyes water and needed a moment to fight down the nausea that the overwhelming smell made. No wonder Duo was pissed. By the smell he guessed that the women had been kept in these lightless rooms since they were captured. Drugged and probably unable to move they were left lying in their own filth. He felt his friend beside him vibrating with rage. It was a wonder his ears didn't bleed being so close to such intense emotion. The other man's emotions blurred him to the fact that Anna was not alone in the room. It wasn't until Quatre screamed "Get away from her!" that Trowa was aware there was someone there.
Trowa had his stun weapon up and ready before his eyes even cleared of the tears blurring them. He was surprised to at what he saw when he was able to focus.
Anna had been moved away from the worst of the mess in the room. She was lying on the floor out cold from whatever they had given her. Next to her was a man making a pitiful attempt to wash her face with a small cloth. He looked up at the two men and just waited. Trowa didn't need his new talents to tell neither they nor Anna was in any danger from him.
Long greasy brown hair hung limply and did nothing to hide that he was going bald. In prime conditions he might have been a big man, but his skin looked too small for his frame. Overall he reminded Trowa of a pathetic scarecrow.
There was a dead look in the man's eyes that he recognized. He'd seen it many times in the war and before. It was the look of someone broken beyond repair. The look that said the mind and the spirit had long since died the body just hadn't caught up yet.
Something niggled at the back of his mind about the man, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"I knew you'd come." He croaked as if he was unused to talking. He continued to wait. For what, Trowa had no idea until he felt Quatre's rage drop off into puzzlement, then surprise.
"Tav?" he asked.
Tav? At first, Trowa had no idea what his friend was talking about but with their new ability to communicate he felt a memory of a memory trigger in his head. It was the memory of when Anna and Shelby first escaped the lab. Initially there had also been two boys with them. Cyber, who died from the implants that were given to him and Tav who supposedly committed suicide. He faked his death? Trowa thought to himself.
Suddenly the loose ends all slid into place. The reason why Caruthers always knew Shelby and Anna were alive much less how he kept finding them was kneeling right in front of him. Any anger or contempt he would normally feel at such betrayal was squashed by pity and disgust. Apparently Quatre was willing to feel enough anger, contempt and disgust for the both of them as he grabbed Anna away from him as if the man were filthier than she was.
Now that he knew who he was looking at, Trowa remembered that Tav was a Metazone addict.
"Let me guess, Caruthers somehow found you after you'd escaped. He agreed to keep you supplied with M-zone in return for your cooperation." He asked while kneeling next to Quatre and unpacking the small medical kit they had prepared for this reason.
Tav snorted bitterly. "He had me long before that. How do you think he pays for all of this? He's been dealing M-zone since the beginning. He owned me even at the complex. When we escaped, I tried to quit –I really did- but…" he trailed of.
"But you knew he was waiting for you with a nice free hit of M-zone." Quatre finished acidly. He made no attempt to disguise his contempt and Trowa saw the man flinch out of the corner of his eye.
"So why did you fake your death?"
"I tried to find some way to get rid of them before he found them. But he always finds ways of making me find them." He replied miserably.
There were more questions he wanted to ask, but they were a little pressed for time. Looking down at the smears on Anna's face he caught the token effort that Tav had made to clean her up. In her current state, Trowa didn't think anything short being immersed in bleach was ever going to get her fully clean.
"Tav, how many brain augments does Caruthers have here?"
"Only two. It took him a long time to rebuild after we destroyed his last complex. And then there were the failures. So many failures…" Tav trailed off miserably.
Only two. Figuring he would be safe, he sent a tightly controlled thought to his love. Soren love, what have you found?
She's been given heavy doses of metazone over the past few days. He's forced them to become addicts. The healer in her was incensed even her mind was growling with disapproval.
While he was talking to her he was taking a quick blood sample from Anna and was amazed at the amount of M-zone in her system. He was surprised she didn't go into heart failure.
As quick as he could, he prepared a hypo-spray to counteract the drug and hopefully get her conscious enough to get her out. After that he left Quatre to try and clean her up as much as possible while trying to revive her. He turned to Tav.
"You've got to hurry up. They'll find out you're here soon." Tav warned.
The young veterinarian remembered that the man had psychic visions that had originally pushed him to M-zone. "You helped us get in?" he asked rhetorically. The man had already said he'd known they were coming.
Tav nodded. "I agreed to help watch with my mind for a rescue attempt. I knew you would be here today. But he doesn't trust anyone. He'll be checking up soon so you must get them out of here fast." He said making rushing movements with his hands. Even his mind was clamoring with urgency to move now.
Looking around the dark smelly cell he was in total agreement to leave and tried to help Quatre revive Anna. He relayed the urgency to Soren who was listening to Duo make some very creative death threats to the people on board while Shelby was trying stop her eyes from rolling back into her head.
Luckily for them, Anna came to in a couple of seconds. It seemed that injection Trowa had given her was working, much to the relief of the blond man.
"Anna, sweetheart, can you hear me?" Quatre asked gently as he cupped his fiancée's face in his hands. "Katr….?" came the soft reply, followed by a long moan. "Ngh… m' head. Wh'd… szvooo.t… me?" She slurred not yet able to work her mouth enough to speak properly.
"Its ok darling, I'm here now. We're going home, ok?"
Trowa could feel the waves of worry and anguish coming from his friend at seeing the love of his life in such a pathetic condition. Between the two of them, they managed to get Anna into a standing position but her legs refused to support her so they ended up half-carrying half dragging her out of the cell and into the corridor to meet a very, VERY pissed Duo and an equally drugged out Shelby.
"Someone's gonna die today." Duo muttered through clenched teeth as they made their way back to where they had entered.
