Title: Learn from the past and live for the future
Pairings: 1×2
Chapter 13 - A
Duo Maxwell looked down at Relena's crumpled body without remorse, "stupid woman" the only thing playing over and over in his mind.
While watching her he wondered what Heero would say if he saw her like that.
"He would probably kick my ass and move her into a more comfortable position," said Duo absently while still looking down at her, "or maybe not."
At one point she mattered to all of them, if not for the status she possessed, then for Heero and his belief of what she would be to the world. Now, she was unworthy in Duo's eyes. She betrayed Heero and with that, she betrayed all of them. And all because of her selfishness and stupidity.
But as a saying goes, "Those who do wrong to others find their karma," so she would get what she deserved, and when he was done with her she would wish he had killed her. Of course, he had no idea or plan of what to do to achieve that. But what he did learn from all those years was that when the time was right, he would know exactly what to do with her. For now, he would just take her with him.
After making sure she would not wake up to make trouble for him, he moved to his next stage- getting Relena out of the hotel and into his car. For that, he was using a simple disguise as a maid. Those who cleaned the rooms and moved around the corridors were invisible to all the hotel guests. In everyone else's eyes, the maids were unimportant, nobodies. All he had to do was follow the plan he set for himself.
And what a simple plan it was.
To make sure all would go as planned he had come to Relena's hotel the previous day. At that time, he studied the hotel from top to bottom. When he was 100 percent sure he knew every layout, every corridor, and each camera, he chose the way he would move Relena out of it. He also walked that way and afterward hacked the security to watch the cameras to see if any of them detected him.
From his backpack, he pulled out a maid uniform, changed into it, and disguised his appearance to look like a woman. At a time like this, he was happy none of his fellow pilots were here to see him as he was now. He would never hear the end of it. When he was satisfied with what he saw in the bathroom mirror, he moved Relena and all his stuff into the laundry hamper.
Afterward, he cleaned the room from top to bottom. Once he was satisfied nobody would find anything, he moved out of the room, into the corridor and toward the chosen exit. To his relief and satisfaction, he did not meet any hotel personnel.
When all went as planned and Relena's body was thrown into the backseat of the car, he drove out of the hotel parking space and toward Relena's family home.
As the task was achieved, his priority changed to the next bigger and important issue, to the task to find any information on Heero's whereabouts.
As he knew how Relena could be paranoid, he suspected he would find more information in her own home office or bedroom rather than her workplace. So he would start there. But if for any reason he was wrong and nothing was found at her home, then he would move to her workplace. There had to be something, somewhere that could help him get to Heero.
As soon as Duo got to the next destination, he locked an unconsciousness Relena inside the trunk. To be a hundred percent sure she would not wake up, he made her inhale a small amount of sleeping gas. That way he was able to give all his priority to the next stage of his mission.
The layout of the house was already known to Duo. He visited Heero a few times before deciding to travel around the world. The knowledge now helped him move faster through the house directly to Relena's home office. The way Relena worked was to be informed about everything, and if that was to follow Heero around the world in a time of war, so be it. Because of that, Duo couldn't believe the possibility of not finding something that could lead to where Heero was.
But before he started to search around, he looked more closely at all the possible hiding places someone could put unwanted surprises for those who intentionally broke in like he was doing right now. Especially if safely measures stayed activated even after Heero went away. So first Duo had to find all the triggers and disable them.
It took him almost an hour to find all the bugs and hidden cameras. After disabling them, he gave all his attention to finding all hiding places.
"Now let's see what dirt Relena is hiding."
After a while, he found three such hidden places, one for jewels, one for private belongings and the most important one for documents. But to his disappointment, he only found the names and bio files of two doctors she had contact with.
"Don't be too negative," Duo told himself, "It's better to find something, even if you just get some unknown names."
While he did not know if the other documents were of any importance, he knew enough to not leave them behind. So he took all the papers he found and put the jewels and other private belongings back where he found them.
After making sure he did not leave any evidence of himself behind Duo left.
When he was safely away and did not feel it'd be a danger to stop, he did just that. The parking lot he stopped at was deserted. Not bothering to check on Relena, he took out his cell phone and dialed.
While looking out toward the sky counting the stars he could see, he waited for a response. To his relief, it did not take long.
"Maxwell, when I get my hands on you I will strangle you," the voice on the other side was not Quatre as he expected, but the angry dragon, the bane of his existence.
"Oh, hey Wu." Duo responded tiredly, "Did I accidentally call you or are you Q's secretary now? If so, I think you should be more polite to those who are calling."
"Oh shut it, I am responding because Quatre waited and waited for your call but was too tired to stay awake for much longer, so I sent him to bed." The explanation was reasonable and Duo felt the need to say sorry for it, but at the last minute decided not to. He just stayed quiet and waited.
"Did you find anything useful for us to look into?" Wufei asked, bringing Duo out of his head.
"I did, she had a bunch of papers, which I am too lazy to deal with, so I will let Quatre sort them out."
"I am still not hearing what the useful information for us is," responded Wufei absently.
Duo could just picture him behind Heero's desk, typing away on the computer and waiting impatiently for Duo to call.
"Are you, in my and Heero's office by any chance?"
The question took Wufei by surprise, but his response did not waver, "Duo…"
"I am just picturing you in our room, at Heero's desk typing frustratedly away and waiting for me to call," Wufei's response made Duo smile.
"Duo," came another angry accusation, "be serious please."
"Yes, yes."
"So?" asked Wufei again.
"I just have names and surnames of two doctors Relena checked out. I don't know if it's relevant to Heero in any way, but that is all I found."
"Relena took the diary of Doctor J out of the Preventers' vault," his response was more thoughtful than annoying, "it's all on the cameras, and we have her signature. She had to take it out for some reason and why not to give them to some unknown doctors."
"Wu, you are a genius. So all we need now is to search the names of those doctors and locations they work at. Maybe even how they are connected with Relena. Maybe she is sponsoring them, then there has to be some paper lead."
"Duo, stop it. You are getting too excited. Please send me all that you found and give me their names." came the impatient response.
"Sorry. Their names are Frank Slick and Mark Lovell. I also scanned the papers and I'll send them as an attachment." A few minutes went by before Duo responded, "Okay, it's done. Check if you got them."
"Let me check." Responded Wufei, and the line went quiet. For a while, only the sound of a keyboard could be heard.
"Okay I got them. Now find some motel and get some sleep while I take a deep look into these doctors' lives and jobs. I can hear your exhaustion over the phone. When you wake up I will have more for you and you can move forward."
"I don't know if I will be able to sleep," said Duo absently.
"I know," responded Wufei, "but you have to try, if not for you then for us. You are no good to Heero if you are not 100 percent."
"I hate her so much, Wu." Duo's voice was menacing and hard, "She had everything, but she wanted more. She couldn't be even satisfied with what he gave her. What does that make her?"
"Selfish, that is the only word I can give you. Where is she by the way? Is she still in one piece?"
Duo did not respond right away, but looked behind at the sleeping woman. "Backseat, drugged up and sleeping. It would be so easy just to throw her down some bridge and let her drown. Or drug her up so much that her body couldn't take it."
"Would it help you? Would you feel any better?" asked Wufei.
"For a few minutes it sure would, but a small boy asked me not to hurt her too much. Even if I did not agree with him, I will have to have a very good reason to overlook that request." The replay was more to himself than to Wufei and both knew it.
For a few minutes the line was dead again, and Duo hoped Wufei would close his side of the line. At the same time knowing Wufei never would do that to him or any other pilot, he continued, "Okay you stubborn dragon, I will find some hole to go under. I will talk to you later."
"Fine, then I will go and be useful too. When we talk next you will get the information you need. We will talk later, bye"
With that Duo was left once again with his thoughts and a deep desire to find Heero as fast as possible. His eyes traveled to the sky where they stayed.
"Whereever you are buddy, I will find you."
Heero's body lay in a large room. It was on a table, and two monitors next to him were writing down all the measures they could get. One monitor was showing and recording brain activity, the other body activities. He was all but naked on the table with only a cloth around his private parts. A few doctors rotated to check on him, to make sure nothing changed or to make new preparations for brain shock therapy.
"When are we going to proceed with other experiments?" a voice inside a small room could be heard.
"It's not time yet. We have to make sure we have his brain activities written down 100 percent so when we start to make readjustments there won't be any questions of if and how."
"Okay I agree with you, but can we do something differently from the previous days for the time being? Please?"
"Fine, go check on him, and I'll think about it. If you find something useful, come back. Now go."
"Thank you Sir."
A young man came out of the office, almost dancing to the sleeping body. When he reached Heero, he started checking the recordings, and when he was done with that, he directed his attention to the body itself. He measured, probed and wrote while standing right at Heero's left side. His thoughts were moving between facts and ideas of interesting things they could do to Heero's body. The man on the bed was nobody to him, and as such he did not care about what became of him. His only thoughts were on the book they received, the book that had so many good ideas of how to experiment with human brains and bodies. With reassured thoughts of safety, he was not prepared for an attack to come from the body itself, which would cost him his life.
Afterward, the whole room got quiet and only the sound of computers could be heard. The young doctor's dead body lay on the ground beside the still sleeping Heero.
"Sir, Sir, please you have to come out! Something terrible happened to Eddy!"
"What is it Manny? Can't you see I am working on the reports?"
"Sorry to disturb you Sir, but Eddy, he is dead!"
Out of the office came an older man with a white coat and bushy hair. "Manny, did you drink while doing your work?"
"What? No, Sir. It's Eddy. I am not sure how it could have happened, but the unconscious man killed Eddy."
"Where is Eddy anyway?" While asking the question the older man looked all around the room, expecting to see Eddy in once piece at some table working on his theories and expectations.
"There, Sir." His pointing finger moved toward the sprawled out body beneath Heero's bed.
When the older man saw the body he looked at it for a few minutes. It was totally unfounded.
"What the Fuck?! What happened? Did he electroshock the body and accidentally kill himself?"
"No, Sir. If my eyes did not deceive me, then the body moved on its own." Manny was all but speechless while explaining, "One minute Eddy was at his left side and the next the unconscious man grasped Eddie's head and just turned it. And poof, there was no more Eddy. His body is still down on the floor where it fell." While saying that he once again pointed toward Eddy.
"But the subject is still drugged up and in a coma. How could he move?"
"I don't know Sir, but it did happen." Manny said, then continued, "And I can prove it."
"And how do you want to do that?"
"If I am not wrong the whole room is under video surveillance. So all we need to do is go to the security room and see the recording. Then you will see what I am talking about."
"That is phenomenal Manny, why haven't you said that before?" While saying that he abruptly turned to do just that, but before he vanished he once again turned to Manny, "Oh and Manny, move Eddy's body away from the subject."
"Excuse me, Sir?!"
"Was I unclear? Go and move Eddy's body away."
"I am sorry, but I cannot do that, Sir. I am not getting near that guy. Whoever gets near him is in danger of being killed."
For a few minutes the old man looked angry, and it looked like Manny would hear more about it, but then the man pulled a phone out of his pocket and called someone.
"I need two guys to get a body out of a laboratory," He listened to someone for a few minutes then continued, "No, it doesn't concern you why we have a dead body in here, you just need to send two guys to pick it up and get rid of it." Again there was silence, "Yes, now." When he hung up, he once again looked toward Manny, "Wait here for those men and keep your mouth shut about what happened here. I will go get the security tape."
"Yes Sir."
A few hours later the old doctor still couldn't believe what he saw numerous times on the tape. Even though the tape confirmed what his young colleague had told him, and he saw it with his own eyes, he still couldn't believe or even explain it.
"How could a man kill another without being conscious?"
Was that somehow related to the diary Miss Relena had given them? In it, an unknown doctor who called himself Doctor J explained in detail what he was doing to a small boy he called Subject 01. His main goal was to create a super soldier. The soldier would be invincible. And if that Subject 01 existed and those experiments did work, why was not that diary in the hands of some military force?
The more he thought about it and the possibilities behind it, the more tired he became. His head felt heavy, and he had an urge to just take a minute to shut his eyes. When the urge to sleep became harder to control he stood up and moved to the small bed he had been using for a few days now.
"Maybe when I wake up I will have some better explanation about how that could happen and who to call to share that diary with. That diary could bring us a large sum of money if it was promoted correctly."
Unknown to him the wish to sleep was not as natural as it seemed to be. In the whole building, in each room, corridor and staircase, the air started to feel heavier and all the workers just crashed where they stood. In less than ten minutes the whole building was quiet as a tomb.
Duo had been standing in front of the building they had found as one of the possible locations Heero could be for a while now.
Thanks to the blueprint of the building they had managed to get by hacking, they knew exactly how many rooms and corridors it had. Getting their eyes and ears inside was one achievement they didn't have time for, so the plan was to wait for the daily workers to get home and the night shift employees to arrive before Duo would go inside and give them the sleeping gas. The step that followed was one Duo did not like at all, to do nothing productive, just wait and wait and fucking wait some more.
"Come on, come on, go to sleep, fools." Right now Duo was on the rooftop of the building looking down at the night shift workers, watching theirs turns, their rhythm of movements and their habits while waiting for the sleeping gas to start working on the inside employees who stayed behind to do whatever they did at night. While waiting, he had one eye on his wristwatch, counting the minutes before he would storm inside.
"Don't be too impatient." Quatre's voice rang out inside his earphone, "Trowa is on his way. You don't know what is waiting for you inside, wouldn't it be wiser to just wait for him?" Quatre had insisted for Duo to be in contact with him all the time, so he could be his voice of reason.
"There is no point in waiting. We don't know what condition we will find Heero in or what security they are using. The sooner I get inside, the sooner the picture will get clear. If nothing else, while waiting I can go find the security room. That way you can have eyes inside."
Duo's day started very early. After locating a rundown hotel and taking a room he went to sleep right away. His sleeping brain went to an alert state as soon as Wufei called him and told him what useful information he found and where they could start to look for Heero. As soon as he was told where to look, he was out of the hotel room and in the car driving like crazy to the destination. And as soon as he reached it, he wanted to storm inside with force and see if Heero was indeed in there. But Quatre's reasonable voice gave him the calm he needed.
Now his only positive thoughts were the fact that they found the possible place where Heero could be held. But wishing for it to be the right place and seeing it were two different possibilities. For now, he was waiting and waiting and cursing.
"Okay, you have a valid point, I agree with you. But don't forget to be cautious."
"Yes mother," Duo responded quietly, without actually talking to Quatre, "Enough time has passed for them to all be asleep. So I am going into the building. When Trowa gets here, he should take care of all the employees."
"Okay, but don't forget to turn the normal air circulation back on."
"Of course, I will do that once I am in the security room." Responded Duo.
"Wait," added Quatre, "if we somehow lose the connections, how will Trowa found you?"
For a few minutes, all was quiet and Quatre almost believed Duo had disconnected the line, but thankfully he could hear the breathing from the other end of the line. All he could do was wait for Duo to respond.
"Don't worry about that. He will found me one way or another," responded Duo.
"What do you mean by that?" Quatre asked.
Not wanting to get in a long discussion with Quatre over his intention he just added, "If all goes to plan all the people will be sleeping and I will move through the building without a problem. Once I get into the security room I will connect you with the cameras. That way you will know exactly where I will be and what I will be doing. "
"Okay, I will let him know. In the meantime, I will go over the documents you send me from Relena's place. Maybe we can incriminate her with something else too, not just with what happened with Heero. I will also check on the progress of Relena's downfall. If I find something we can use on her public image I will send it to my team. They will know how to use it to damage her reputation."
"If we achieve that, it will hurt her more than the family she has lost. The reputation and the image she built over the years is everything to her. If we take that from her we will punish her more than dealing physical damage to her." Added Duo quietly.
"So she won't be harmed?" continued Quatre.
"You know even Solo asked that." The light conversational voice he had seconds ago was gone and only a cold one remained, "She will suffer."
"So the right question is, how much physical harm will she go through until you are satisfied?"
"Yes," came the cold response, and Quatre could feel Duo getting colder and colder on the other side.
"And the answer is as much as her body can take until she breaks inside. But I just have to find the right way to break her, her spirit, her personality. When I am done with her, she will be sorry she was alive."
The cold response that came through the line was one Quatre was more than used to by now, so he just shrugged it off and left Duo to do what he intended. As Duo had his matters to deal with, Quatre went to do what he told Duo he would do.
In the end they all had one goal, and that was to find Heero and bring him home. Afterward, Duo would deal with punishing all who had any hand in it. Wufei and Quatre would work on cleaning the database of the Preventers and anyone else they could find on the internet. What happened to Heero was something that could happen to any of them. So they had to find and delete all the information on them anyone had.
The time for sharing and being polite was over. They had already learned that even organizations like the Preventers could not guarantee their safety.
Moving through the corridors, Duo bypassed sleeping people on the floors, checking each room, each closet and each bathroom for those who did not sleep too soundly and helped them to do so properly. It wouldn't be of any good to him if some idiot got away before he could see if Heero was somewhere in here. To his delight, the sleeping gas worked more than perfectly, so getting to the security room wasn't as hard as he thought it would be.
As he stepped inside the room, he found the security guard sleeping on the seat by a desk which held a dozen screens. Duo moved the man away from the desk toward the wall where he wouldn't bother anyone, binding his hands to his backside for security measures.
When he was sure the man could not escape, he once again moved to the desk with the many screens to look at them. First he checked which rooms the cameras were in and what they were showing. As he was doing that he also noticed that a few cameras, while being active did not show the image of some rooms. Those cameras had a safeguard on them, if you wanted to look at what they were showing you needed a password. So Duo couldn't see what was actually happening inside.
The fact that those safety measures were on told Duo that someone wanted to prevent the security or anyone else from watching what was going on in those rooms.
"Interesting."
Following those thoughts and facts, it was very easy to decide where Duo would go next.
After getting what he wanted, he started typing the codes which would open the computers to Quatre. When he was sure the back door was open he told Quatre just that, "Okay, you can tell Wufei to get inside. My door is wide open."
"Okay give us a minute," responded Quatre.
After a minute was over and the computer was still not connected with the other side Duo pointed it out, "I thought you guys needed a minute, are you both getting rusty in your old age? It looks like Heero will have to have learning time with both of you."
"Oh shut it." Responded Wufei instead of Quatre.
In exactly three minutes the computers had been taken over and Duo had done all that he intended, "Okay, I see you are in. When you start searching and looking through the cameras, you will see a few cameras active but protected with a password. So we will have to crack them to see what is happening inside. Those rooms, by the way, are my next stop."
"Agreed, when I crack them I will let you know. You, on the other hand, be careful and don't do anything that I wouldn't do. Oh, and let me know if something happens or when Trowa gets here." Added Quatre.
"That goes without saying," responded Duo, "Oh and by the way, did we get anything out of Relena's paper?" asked Duo while walking toward the intended corridor, making sure he wouldn't step on anyone who was lying on the floor in deep sleep.
"Be patient Maxwell, you know reading documents can't go fast. So not yet, but Quatre has a feeling he will, and we both know..." Wufei did not need to end the sentence because Duo did that for him, "If Quatre has his feelings it will usually be as he thought it would be." Continued Duo.
"Exactly." Responded Wufei. "What your next move?"
"There has to be a reason the cameras are shut down. So I have to find the reason. Maybe, just maybe, we won't need to search the other buildings."
"Hope so, if not for us then for Solo."
"How is he doing?" Asked Duo as he came into the corridor where the cameras were shut down.
"He is in the stable with Shiny, Bubbles, Tom, and Joe. They are taking care of the animals while Tom's sister is making a late dinner."
"What do you think of Ann?" Asked Duo.
"She doesn't sound bad as a person, and she is Tom's sister. Let's wait and see how she will take to living here, then we will judge her." Wufei's response did not surprise Duo at all, it was an all too typical response for their dragon.
"Did your man sleep in your bed last night?" Asked Duo teasingly
"And what if he did, Duo?" The question was serious and to Duo sounded like Wufei was a little offended.
"Then I would tell you congratulations. It's about time." Continued Duo.
"It's not as easy as it is in your head. My clan had some harsh and rooted guidances, so moving away from them is hard for me, and I cannot rush into anything that could be wrong. I even told Evan it could take some time. Now shut it and do your work."
"I am happy for you, you know that right?" Added Duo then waited for Wufei to reply, which he did not, so Duo continued on his own, "Okay, I got the message. I will go do some work. I will tell you if I find anything useful. For now, over and out!"
"Over and out." Came Wufei's reply.
And so Duo was once again alone is those damn corridors, moving through fallen workers. The corridor with the cameras turned off was, as expected, more secure than any room before. When he reached the end of the corridor, he came to a sturdy and strongly locked door. It did not have any way to look through it, all it had was a security screen where you had to type a code and use a handprint to get inside.
"Bastards. If they think they can keep me out then they've never met a Gundam pilot." With that Duo once again turned around and start searching the fallen employees. "These idiots are not in this corridor because they happened to turn the wrong corner. Some of them have to have the authorization to go inside."
Once Duo found a person who had a card with a code on it he moved them to the security panel, entered the code and lifted the person just long enough that he could use his hand. When he received the green light from the security panel and the door opened Duo once again drop the sleeping man to the floor, not once checking if the man was okay.
"There we go. I still got it, go me." Murmured Duo to himself while moving inside.
When entering the new corridor, Duo automatically noticed the difference between previous corridors and the new ones. If nothing else, the walls were decorated.
While standing at the entrance, he did not see anyone on the ground, nor in nearby rooms. It was like nobody was working inside. A few rooms he looked inside were empty without any furniture. So whoever was working here was hiding something, and each step and each room only confirmed his suspicions.
"He has to be here, he has to be here, he just has to be here." Was the mantra playing in Duo's head as he moved from room to room.
After entering so many empty rooms it was almost comical when he saw an older man in a white coat, soundly sleeping in his makeshift bed while his computer stood, still open. "It seems he was working on something before sleep overtook him."
Intrigued by the computer Duo moved to the desk to look more closely at what the sleeping doctor was working on. To his relief, the doctor did not use anything that could prevent him from searching through the computer's data. By looking through the names of the folders, Duo could see that the doctor used the labels Test Person 1, Test Person 2 and so on. From that, he could read what kind of experiment was being made on the subject, but who they were was a question Duo couldn't answer. Not now, but later when Heero was safely at home, he would look for more clues. For now, Duo only looked toward the dates and any word inside the documents that could tell him if he was reading about Heero.
Looking closely at the dates the folders were created, he chose a one-day old folder that had a video file attached to it. Not expecting to watch a video about Heero, he just froze when he watched Heero's body moving on its own as if on autopilot and killing some idiot who was standing by his side.
"Wufei, Quatre… I have something!" Responded Duo excitedly.
"What have you found?" Came a reply, and from the voice Duo knew right away that Wufei was still on the other side of the line.
"I found Heero. Okay not specifically Heero, but I got something useful."
"Be more specific please." Responded Wufei patiently.
"I have a computer here. It's from some doctor who is sleeping right now. His computer is open and doesn't have any safeguards on it. I need you to get inside and get all the data from it. Afterward, we need to clean, wipe it and delete it. Do you have time for it?"
"Don't be absurd. Just open the back door for me so I can take over the computer."
"Yes, sir. Right away sir." With just a few clicks, Duo did just that. After a few minutes, Wufei took over the computer and moved through the data files that Duo previously looked at.
"Okay, what am I looking at?" Asked Wufei.
"From what I could tell, there are dozens of folders named only with the date and subject, person 1 or 2 or 3 as you can see. That tells us that whoever those doctors are or which company they belong to, they are doing experiments on human beings. From the date, I can't tell if those are legal or illegal. Somehow, we will need to bring the Preventers into it. But that is not why I called you. Open the last file and look at the video file."
It didn't take long for Duo to get the same reaction toward the video as he'd had. He could hear Wufei calling for Quatre in the background, and them looking at the video file once again. When the video once again ended, the phone moved from one person to another Quatre spoke.
"Those fuckers, did you see?" It was almost comical to hear the angry voice of Quatre.
"What? That those fuckers have Heero locked to a bed, probably heavily sedated so they can do different kinds of experiments without having problems with him? I did. Thanks, Quatre for pointing that out."
Ignoring Duo's comment Quatre continued without reacting to his provocation, "Don't be too hysterical Duo. Focus on what you can see from the file. Does the room seem familiar to you? Can you tell if those walls could be in the same building as you are right now?"
For a while all both Wufei and Quatre could hear was deep breathing from Duo. When he was more collected he answered honestly, "I don't know. I wasn't looking at the background."
"I understand, but please do that. It would be best to find him as soon as possible. We don't know what kind of experiments they are doing on him."
"Will do." Came the short reply.
"In the meanwhile Wufei and I will see what we can do with the data."
"Okay, don't forget to inform me when Trowa gets here."
"Good that you remembered. Trowa will be with you in around five to ten minutes." Added Quatre.
"Before he gets inside, let him know that I have Relena in the car. Please tell him to bring her inside."
"Are Baba and Buch with her?"
"Of course, they are on watch duty."
"Okay."
Again, Duo was left alone. After checking that the connection was safe and that the doctor was still sleeping, Duo stood up to proceed with the search. But before he could step toward the door, his foot pushed something under the desk. Intrigued on what it was Duo pushed the seat away and looked under the desk. From what he could see, it was some kind of book. What kind it was he couldn't tell, but of course he reached for it and when he had it in his hands he once again stopped. In his hand, he held a familiar old leather book.
"That bitch, those fuckers, I will kill them all." While putting the book safely inside his coat, Duo moved absently toward the door that was linked to the same room but wasn't the same one he came into. When he opened it, he came into the same room he saw in the video.
"Damn it, damn it to hell what an idiot I am." The realization that Heero was behind the wall all this time left Duo dumbstruck. Without checking how many doctors were on the floor, Duo moved toward the bed Heero was lying on, "He was right in the next room, and I did not know because I was too stupid to look." Too emotional to think, Duo moved toward the sleeping Heero and hugged him tightly. His hands circled Heero's head and Duo just breath in Heero's familiar scent. Absently his hand went into his hair, slowly caressing it. "You are okay, you are okay, you have to be okay. OMG, I found you, I found you, I found you. Thanks to the Lord I found you."
"Maxwell, if you don't stop molesting me, and start unchaining me I will kill you the moment I am free." The sound that came from Heero was cold and deadly. There was no trace of humanity.
While Duo was ecstatic to hear Heero's voice he wasn't stupid, and did not hesitate to remove himself from him, "Oh hey Heero, how do you feel? Is anything hurting?"
"I told you many times before, being in the same team and being Gundam pilots doesn't allow you to use my name. In the war we only use codes. Why is it so hard to understand that?"
Oh for Christ's sake, Perfect Solder was out. Damn how he did not miss him, "Got it, 01. But what is your last memory before now?"
Heero just lay still for a moment without saying a thing, and Duo just waited for any reply to come, "The war was over and my orders were to get back to J. Then there was a party and you," when he pronounced "you" Duo knew Heero meant him as an annoyance and nothing else, "wanted for all of us to drink together, to be together if nothing else for the party. Afterward, we went our separate ways. And now I am here." After the explanation Heero looked at Duo, "So why exactly am I in this position? And why do you look older than I remember?"
"It's almost nine years after the wars. You married Relena,"
"Don't make me laugh, my head is hurting and I don't feel good."
"I am not lying to you. You two were married for more than five years."
"That doesn't explain why I am on this table, chained and drugged up."
"It's Relena, she sold you out to some unknown doctors."
"Relena Peacecraft, who is against all violence sold me out to some doctors? Is that what you are telling me?"
"Exactly that. And we so love Relena Peacecraft, she is the best of the best is she not?"
"Maxwell, I am warning you, don't make fool out of me." While talking Heero tried to break the wrist holders, but they did not budge, "Do I need to break both my hands to get released from this bed?"
Once again Duo, without fearing Heero would do something to him, moved to him and started to release the wrist and foot holders. When Heero was free, he automatically tried to stand up but failed, so Duo once again helped him get to a sitting position. When he was sure Heero wouldn't fall, he once again started to explain further, "Okay, do you remember your marriage to Relena?"
"No, I don't," Replied Heero.
"Okay, I won't cry if you don't. But do you remember your son?" Asked Duo.
"My son? I have a son? Yes, I do. What is his name?" The more he talked to himself the more he started to shake his head in the hope something would help him to remember. When the answer did not come, he looked at Duo for help.
"You have a son, he is five years old and goes by the name of Solo." Explained Duo further.
"Solo." When he said the name aloud he froze, and to Duo it looked like he started to remember something, "Do you remember?"
While Duo waited for Heero to reply to his question, Heero went deep into his memories, where clips of a small baby moved through his mind. The first memory was of a small baby crying his heart out. The second was of a small baby gripping his pointed finger. Next, he was kneeling by a two-year old boy, playing with him. The memories flowed through Heero with phenomenal speed, so it did not surprise Duo when Heero abruptly stood up, or tried to, but almost fell down on his face, "Hey, watch it, buddy." Duo held onto Heero for a while before he moved him back toward the table he was previously lying on.
"Duo, my baby, my boy, where is Solo? Did they get him? Is he safe? What happened after they took me?" The voice wasn't cold anymore. It was the voice of a father, scared for his son.
Duo did not know how much Heero remembered, but it was good to see some glimpse of the old Heero, "Solo is safe and sound at home, missing you like crazy, scared he won't see his father again. So let's get you out of here and get you home."
"Do you have any information on these people? Whoever they are, they need to be permanently gone. Do you understand me?"
The questions were asked too rapidly for Duo to reply to them one by one, so he did the only logical thing. He pulled out the diary and showed it to Heero, "That is what I found in there." He pointed toward the door he came into, "An older doctor is sleeping inside. He had Doctor J's diary."
As soon as Heero saw the diary he took it from Duo's hands and held it with an iron grip, "Damn those Preventers, how could they give someone my fucking diary?"
"The solo blain can't be thrown to the Preventers."
"Explain it to me. What happened? If they did not do that, how could they lose it? Their security should be unbreakable."
"Heero, they did not lose it. They just trusted the wrong person with it."
"Then who? Who took the diary?"
"I will give you three clues. It's a she, she is famous, and she has ambitions. Ring any bells?"
"I don't believe it, she would never fall so low."
Duo could see the doubt in Heero's eyes, so he stayed quiet and let him rant on.
"If nothing else, she would never do that because if that diary falls into the wrong hands the results would be catastrophic."
"I am sorry Heero, but we have her on tape. She went to Preventers headquarters, said something believable so that they let her see the diary, and they trusted her with it. Their mistake was respecting her too much to not check on her after she left them. Of course, she was also stupid to leave her signature."
The shock Duo read on Heero's face was real. Heero did not expect for Relena to go so far.
"What could she achieve with that move?" Now Heero was talking to himself, "They wanted Solo, that is for sure. So why would she give them J's diary? All they could read about was what J had done to me while I was being trained. Nothing makes sense anymore."
"You told me," commented Duo, "that Solo can read anyone's emotions. Through the feelings, he can tell if you are lying, truthful, scared, angry and many more. We don't even know how deep his abilities go. Maybe soon he will be able to read minds or something else."
"And?"
"Maybe she wanted to prevent that from happening. Maybe she talked with some of those doctors about her son being strange. Maybe she asked them to check him out and see if they could do something." While talking Duo shrugged his shoulders several times, "They probably saw the money they could squeeze out of her, so they promised her the moon and the stars, and she was too stupid or too naive to see the reality."
For Heero, only the main fact came through, "How could they change him?" The more he thought about it the more Duo could see the changes in his face, "With electroshocks through the brain like I was getting? Or using some drugs on him? Or maybe both at the same time?" In the end, only anger and coldness remained, "She should have known he couldn't be changed. How stupid can she be to not see the truth?"
"I won't talk about Relena's intelligence because in my mind she doesn't have any. But I can tell you those doctors did not care about you, nor Solo. They only saw both of you as test subjects and nothing more." Before continuing, Duo waited for Heero to look him in the eyes. When he got what he wanted he continued, "They wanted money, maybe some political favors from Relena. So they agreed to do a small favor for her, and in return she would give them what they needed."
"How could they know about Doctor J's book?" Asked Heero coldly.
"They couldn't know about it. If I were to guess, she wanted to help them, so she gave them the diary to show them her willingness to help out. As stupid as she is, she might have thought they could create a pill or elixir for Solo."
"Nothing can change Solo, only death," Heero replied sadly. "I, am tired Duo, I am so tired of all this bullshit."
"Not just you, we both are."
When they went quiet, both heard footsteps moving toward them, "Maxwell, did you not secure the perimeters of the building?" And once again the Perfect soldier came out.
"I did, thank you very much. It's probably 03, you don't need to worry."
"Probably doesn't say certainly does it?"
"Oh, I almost forgot."
"What now?"
"When I was looking for you, I also abducted Relena. She's been with me the whole time. So get ready to see her, she feels a bit under the weather."
"I don't care anymore. She can go rot in hell."
As soon as he said that the door opened and Trowa came inside carrying Relena like a sack of potatoes with two dogs walking after him, looking at Relena like she was their next meal. As soon as he saw Duo he shook Relena to make a point, "Where should I put her?"
"Wherever, for now, I don't care."
Trowa nodded and dropped her where he stood. Afterward, he stepped over her fallen body and moved closer to Duo, "When I got here I found her crawling away from your car."
"Oops," responded Duo.
"You should have bound her more tightly when you exited the car." Continued Trowa not bothered by mumbles coming out of Relena.
"Baba and Buch wouldn't have let her escape. They were on watch duty."
"Not really. When I got to them they were on playing duty." Scolded Trowa, "Anyway, did you find Heero?"
For the first time, Duo gave Trowa a big warm smile, "Sure did." While answering, he pointed to the spot Heero was sitting.
"Thanks to God." continued Trowa, moving without asking toward Heero and automatically helping him up, "How are you feeling?" he asked Heero.
"My head and body hurt," answered Heero. "Also, I want nothing more than to lie down and sleep."
"I can help you with the first request. The second one can be arranged." Continued Trowa. As soon as Trowa had Heero secured in his arms he looked toward Duo, "I will drive Heero home. Do you need any help with the clean up? I can come back."
Before replying, Duo looked at Heero, whose eyes were closed. He could see how exhausted Heero was by his expression. "No, not really. What I have in mind is something I can do on my own. You will help me more if you help Quatre and Wufei."
"Help with what?" asked Heero tiredly.
Responding with "just getting information," was out of the question, so Duo explained, "You know Solo is not safe as long as the company those doctors belong to exist. Those doctors are out there. We need to know more about their organization, their work, how many illegal experiments they are doing and so on." After getting a nod form Heero, he continued, "Inside of that room is a sleeping doctor who had his laptop open and unprotected. So, we will use his computer as a starting point and move toward the main organization. They need to be eliminated one way or another."
"You gave them access to it?" Prompted Heero.
"Yup, I did, so Wufei and Quatre will be happy to get any help with that." Added Duo once more.
"Understood." nodded Heero. "We will see you at home, don't take too long."
"I won't." said Duo.
With that, the conversation ended. While Trowa and Heero moved toward the exit Duo watched Heero, how he would react to Relena lying on the floor with her mouth taped and her hands behind her back. To his surprise and delight, Heero didn't even react toward her, nor did he attempt to give any signal that he was seeing her.
At the door, Trowa stopped and looked at both the dogs who were sitting next to Relena. "You want me to take them home?"
"Yes, please. Shiny is probably going crazy without me and now even the dogs are gone. He is probably thinking Armageddon is coming."
"Maxwell, you are talking about a horse," Heero added his view to the conversation.
"I know my horse." responded Duo.
"Baba, Buch, come." Came the command from Trowa. At hearing the command both dogs stood up but did not move from their spot, instead looking toward Duo.
"They don't listen to you Trowa." said Heero.
"They never do with Duo around." Confirmed Trowa, not bothered about the fact.
"And that is how it should be. You two should listen to me as well, I always know what I am doing. I am always right and I should be more respected."
"Maxwell," and "Duo," came from both of Heero and Trowa's lips at the same time.
"Jeez, I am only joking. Let me tell you once more, joking." Added Duo then he looked at both dogs, "Heero," as he said his name he looked at Heero then back to the dogs, "Guard him." After Duo said guard and Heero, both dogs moved their gaze to Heero. To Duo's eyes it was almost comical to watch how both dogs looked at Relena once more then moved toward Heero, who they had to guard. Not even a minute later both dogs stood flanking Heero on both sides, guarding him as they should.
"Is that necessary?" asked Heero aloud.
"Of course, you are wounded and helpless, so they will guard you with their lives now." Duo shouted back.
The only response from Heero was a raised hand with middle finger stretched out to say, "Fuck you."
"You are no fun." added Duo aloud.
Whatever Heero replied was lost to Duo. Now at peace, knowing Heero was safe and would get home as such, Duo turned back to the task he had chosen. His main purpose was to create a chain reaction, or in simple words, he would play a domino effect.
For it, he would need to be creative.
"And that is my specialty."
But the first thing was to get all the sleeping doctors, nurses or whoever was in that corridor inside the room. Because in his eyes, they were all guilty in the same way no matter the station they were presenting and working on. None of them did anything to help Heero, or that could bring outsiders into the building to save him. So they would all have the same fate.
Next, he went to get enough beds for everyone. To get enough beds was tricky, he had to look through many other corridors and their rooms. Then he had to move them to the right location. When he was done, he got all those people, and of course Relena too, into the beds. To his enjoyment, all of them, not counting Relena, slept the whole time they were being moved. When he was done, he had only one more task to do before he would wake them all up and play his game. For it, he would need to analyze Heero's experiment results and lower those numbers to the level of a normal human being.
When the numbers looked okay in his mind he sent them to Quatre via phone message and asked if he agreed with those numbers. While he waited to get the okay he busied himself with fastening all to the beds, attaching them with the right equipment and then moving their hands just the right way to make them fall through time. How long it would take for the chain reaction to follow depended on each person alone. Of course, all would end with Relena. She would have the privilege to feel it last.
When his phone rang he was not surprised.
"What?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am more than sure."
The silence that followed made Duo give pause, "Why are you hesitating? They are all guilty. Also, I was very generous with lowering the stats already."
"What about Solo?"
"I don't care. I told him so. So all I can do for him is to not let her die. And that," the voice that followed was dark and cold, "will be my pleasure. Death is something she is not worthy of."
"Okay, okay. If you are sure then I won't bother you with it. The numbers look good."
"That is all I needed. Over and out."
When it was all set and done, Duo didn't want to start without those people being awake. So he moved to each person and made them inhale fresh oxygen. Now the only thing for him to do was wait.
TBC
I want to say "I am sorry," for taking so long to write a new chapter. For now, you guys will have to be satisfied with that chapter. But, don't worry, the next chapter is also written and is in editing.
Beta Reader: Thank you, "snellybutter" you done marvelous work!