Disclaimer: Don't worry about me making money off this, I don't own Gundam Wing and I'm still starving.

Ok, so I reread the last chapter and decided that I really need to let you all know what happens next. I was preoccupied for a while with Lost and Silent Night, but now I'm back! All hail my Muse! No seriously, my Muse reads the comments you leave, the other day I was told to forget everything else and get back to work. You guys got me in trouble! LOL!

Sorry it took so long! I'll try and be quicker with my updates!

Scars

Chapter 18: Manipulation

Duo screamed till he was out of breath and then pitched his head forward and stared and the wet cement in front of him. Everything was pitching forward; it felt like there was no ground beneath him, like he was falling up, headed for space, that endless fall that was neither up nor down but everywhere all at once. He remembered free fall all too well, and this, this wrenching inside of him was all too familiar.

Duo knew someone would follow him, would make sure he was all right, but it wouldn't be Heero. Duo felt ashamed for wanting Heero's arms around him so much right then, it was all his fault. He'd dropped the cup and the bag with the Fast Fix logo on it, he'd lead Martin to Ember, Rivee had probably been there, talking with his wife…with Ember. Duo could practically see Martin aiming his gun at Rivee, demanding to know if he knew Maxwell, demanding to be told where Maxwell was hiding.

Rivee was Heero's friend, he wouldn't have said, probably hadn't known Martin had been carrying a gun. Had Ember been fast enough with her shot gun, was Martin back at the Fast Fix, dead on the floor, waiting to be found?

Duo shivered, he couldn't be that lucky! Then he cursed himself, he'd just let Heero's friend, Ember's husband, a good mechanic get shot three times. He'd good as killed Rivee himself.

What about Ember…was she…she was going to…Duo cringed, fear flooding through him. She had to know, Martin would have had a lose tongue, knowing he wasn't going to let either of them live he would have shot off his mouth.

Well, if she wanted revenge, he'd gladly give it to her, he'd let this happen, this was his responsibility he'd…

Tires screeched and brought Duo's eyes up from the cement. Melinda's black convertible pulled up onto the sidewalk and Martin reached over the door and grabbed Duo's shoulders and hauled him into the car, throwing him into the back seat and aiming a gun at his head. Duo froze, felt the car pull off the curb and the tires squealed as the driver floored the gas pedal.

"Hello Maxwell." Martin smiled down at him, all teeth and eyes blood read around the irises. He looked crazed, sleep deprived and mad as hell. Duo kept his mouth shut, if Carigan wanted him dead, he'd be dead already. He'd left himself open, kneeling on the ground like that in front of the hospital; Martin could have easily picked him off, even in his current state. But he'd been dragged into a car and they were now headed somewhere really fast, that could only mean that Carigan wanted him alive…or he wanted to watch Duo die.

The thought made Duo woozy; he stared up past the gun at Martin, trying to gauge what it would be. But Martin just looked like he wanted to boil Duo and enjoy the screams. Duo wondered if anyone had seen the snatch…hadn't someone followed him outside?

"They got him!" Wu Fei yelled as he collided with the door frame. Both Heero and Ember looked up, both faces tear stained, confused and tinged with slight anger.

"What?" Heero demanded. Wu Fei wanted to look away, he'd let Duo be taken, stood there, had decided to give Duo room to grieve. The black convertible had come out of nowhere!

"That man, Martin, Duo was outside…the car pulled up and they just pulled him in and drove away." Wu Fei explained.

"WHAT!?" Heero was suddenly standing in front of him and yelling. "You were right there! Why didn't you stop them!?" His stomach was rolling, sending him careening into darkness, everything was falling apart, everything he'd built for himself in his new life was suddenly being systematically destroyed, he'd be damned if they were going to take Duo away from him again!

"Duo was upset, I was giving him room…" Wu Fei started to explain.

"You have a gun!" Heero yelled back, rage making him look even more haggard than before. If looks could kill…hell, Wu Fei was surprised he was still standing.

"What the Fuck is going on!?" Ember suddenly demanded, forcing herself between Heero and Wu Fei and yelling up into Heero's face, forcing him to back up or kiss her.

Heero stepped back and pain flew across his face. "Who was that man?" Ember demanded, her mind starting to make connection. "He was asking about Duo, where you guys were, why did he want to know? Why did he have a gun?"

Heero looked down and started explaining.

Duo was loaded onto a private plane at gun point. The driver, a tall man with a long brown ponytail who smiled at Duo, got on with them. He walked into the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's seat while pulling on the headset.

"Over there." Martin motioned with his gun and Duo took the seat while Martin pulled out a pair of zip cuffs. Duo had seconds to put on the seat belt before Martin pinned his wrists to the arm rests and locked them there with the plastic binding. He sinched them tight so that they bit into Duo's wrists and Duo hid the grimace that wanted to come out.

Martin took the seat across the isle, eyeing Duo and then yelled to his partner in crime. "Hurry up Wyn!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going as fast as I can." The driver, Wyn, turned and winked at Duo and then started up the engines on the plane and started talking to the airways tower.

Duo felt sick as he heard Wyn get clearance for take off, just where were they taking him!? And that they needed a plane to get there made it all the worse.

"You should be worried." Martin growled at him, his eyes going small and mean, Duo had no illusions that Martin had been given permission to rough him up if he fought and that he was going to take advantage of that before Duo saw ground again.

Duo began to systematically shut off alarms in his brain that were screaming at him to do something. One by one he locked away bits and pieces of himself into a dark box in the back of his mind. He knew when Martin's fish came down over his face again that he wouldn't really feel it, that he'd be somewhere else when the blood burst beneath his skin and the pain really started.

Heero burst through the doors of Quatre's estate and climbed the stairs two at a time. Quatre and Trowa were just coming down the stairs, both stopped and watched as Wu Fei's voice proceeded him in after Heero.

"Don't be foolish Yuy!" Wu Fei was yelling, "If you would simply wait for reinforcements…"

Heero cut him off and turned on the stairs to stare down at him. "Shut Up Chang, I know what I'm doing! I am not going to let Duo stay with that mad man one more minute than he has too! Not if I can save him!"

Ember trailed in after Wu Fei, dazed looking and drifting after the two men. She looked calm and quiet, started up the stairs after Heero and nodded to Quatre and Trowa on the way.

"Heero! Listen to reason, there is no way that you would be able to help him alone like this!" Wu Fei tried, hoping his friend would see to reason before two rescues were needed.

"He's not going in alone." Ember's voice was sharp and Wu Fei had to keep from flinching. "I want mine." Ember locked eyes with Heero. Heero did flinch, his emotions leaking out of his eyes in pain, but he pushed it aside and started up the stairs again with Ember on his heels.

"This is madness!" Wu Fei started up after them, "You can not drag…"

"I am not being dragged!" Ember shot back, not bothering to look at him over her shoulder. "He killed my husband, the fucking love of my life! Now he's out to get Heero's, and I'm not going to let that happen, so either start picking up weapons or get on the phone!"

Wu Fei looked to Quatre, his eyes asking for help while showing his inner struggle with his temper.

"Don't look at me; I'm getting on the phone." Quatre shook his head and decided to leave the crossfire and Trowa followed him to the downstairs office.

Wu Fei stood, alone on the stairs, he could still see Maxwell…Duo…bent in pain, screaming, his only outlet for the sorrow. He's stood there, giving him room to grieve. Distancing himself from so much emotion, and that car…that corvette. He'd glimpsed the man Heero called mad, seen pure rage in his eyes, watched as Duo was picked up right off the ground…

Wu Fei started up the stairs and quickly began pulling out everything he'd brought with him. His store of weapons during traveling was small, but he did have ammo and explosives.

Duo had always had a mental image of Carigan, an old graying man who ran his business much like the mob did. A tall man who wore business suits and smoked cigars. A man who knew nothing of computers and so had to get monkeys like him for the job. Someone who had no idea the power in what he was buying, who squandered everything he had and put it to no real use.

Coming face to face with the real thing was damn near shocking. Carigan was in fact, not old, not computer illiterate and not wearing a suit! He looked to be in his early thirties with shaggy black hair and bright grey eyes, he was lounging in front of a desk, his chair titled back and his feet up on the edge of the desk with the key board in his lap. He had on washed jeans, a tight black shirt and a silver watch.

He gave Duo a knowing smile and put the key board back on his desk as he sat up. "Duo, so good to see you, did you have a good trip?"

Duo licked his bottom lip where it had split when his face had connected with pavement when he'd been pushed down the stairs out of the plane. Martin had virtually ignored him on the plane, eating a sandwich and reading a magazine, but as soon as they had landed it had started. First, his trip down the stairs, then, his head had connected painfully with the top of a limo as he'd been shoved in. Duo could already feel a good sized lump forming on his forehead as he stood there. He'd fallen on the stairs leading up to Carigan's mansion several times and been steered into every table between the front doors and this office.

"Flight was fine." Duo slurred around his swollen lip even as he rubbed at his wrists which still itched and ached from the zip ties.

"Good, good." Carigan smiled at Martin who turned and headed for the door, the pilot/driver/creep hadn't made it in the front doors, but left them there and headed off towards an embarrassingly large garage. Duo remembered wondering if Carigan really needed more cars than Quatre did. "You look a little worse for ware, life treating you all right?"

"Peachy." Duo watched Martin leave, he knew this was a bad sign, Martin was muscle, but he was low muscle, and the guy who was now coming in to take over looked like high end muscle, which meant that Duo had just gone from little fish to big catch. "Martin leaving then?"

"Oh yeah, thought I'd give him a break, he's been working so hard! We were all so worried about you when you went and disappeared, but Martin most of all. But, now that you're safe, we can all relax." Carigan turned to get into a low drawer and dug around while Duo looked over this new muscle.

He was tall and his hair was somewhere between ash blonde and red which was an odd mixture that swooped away from his face and hung down the back of his neck. He had beetle black eyes and thin lips. He wore black drawstring pants and a white tank top, his feet were covered in fitting slippers rather than shoes. He was smaller than Martin, but his whole presence screamed killer and made little chills dance down Duo's spine. If he was about to be punished for running he'd rather Martin came back.

And he was sure of the punishment, Carigan had said it all, Martin had gotten into big trouble for letting Duo get away, there was no way he was going to escape any imminent punishment.

Carigan reappeared with a folder and a small stack of disks. Duo recognized the disks as his, sent off in envelops, bags and even clothing to Carigan one way or another. Duo eyed the folder but had a pretty good idea of what was in it.

"Now Duo, we've had a good business deal going for a while." Carigan smiled, and Duo was beginning to recognize the signs of something forced rather than genuine, the smile never reached his grey eyes. "You've supplied us with some very useful programs for a while now. All for a price of course, but I've always held up my end of the deal, and you always held up yours…until now that is. I was just wondering why. Especially when I already paid you for a program I have yet to see. Especially when I have a lot of other deals waiting to go though on your promise that I would have my program nearly a year ago!" Carigan's voice was growing and the muscled was standing awfully close to Duo now, he saw what was coming and could only roll with it as the muscle grabbed him by the back of his neck and forced his face down fast and hard into Carigan's desk and then let him fall to his knees, clutching his right cheek bone in pain.

"Please, do explain why you so felt compelled to betray me Duo." Carigan finally said in a calm and quiet voice and the room fell silent as he waited for Duo's answer.

Duo used the desk to get back on his feet, he wasn't so sure his cheek bone hadn't just been broken, but he let his hand drop and focused on talking. It was taking a lot more concentration than usual, in fact, Duo usually didn't have to think at all to talk; it just spilled out of his mouth. But just then, he was having trouble finding his words.

"The thing is, I wasn't going to! I even almost had it done, but something came up and I…" Duo started, but Carigan stopped him.

"Duo, you always know that you can call me and tell me if there's a problem, I am a very understanding man!" Carigan smiled at him, holding out his hands as if offering up his own great understanding with the ways of the world, "But if you don't tell me what's going on, I can't help you, now can I? And if you remember, Duo, you were already late. Seems to me that if one were to look at all of this from a unbiased point of view, it simply looks as if you ran away because you were late and had no intention of finishing my program, even got your old friend to come and help you out." Carigan's eye twitched as his voice went from soft and dangerous to loud and dangerous, "Poor Duo Maxwell, scared and alone in his dark, barren apartment, fell in with the wrong sort of people didn't you? And now you can't keep up things on your end, so best to get out while you still can…only it's too late Duo."

Duo was having trouble keeping up, things were all wobbly and fuzzy, he felt as if he were about to pitch forward any moment now, face first into the dark green carpet. But the "it's too late" caught him, made his eyes focus on Carigan again.

"I want my program Duo." Carigan's grin did look real this time, crazed. Duo was taken hold of again and had a second to brace himself before he took a hit to the chest and went flying backwards. His lungs exploded in pain and his breathing became ragged. He felt hands like iron take a hold of his right leg and then his vision exploded as Carigan said, "Break it, Roan."

Duo bit back a yell and tasted blood as his teeth broke the skin on his bottom lip. He felt the break, low on his shin, blood rushing down his leg as the pain began to throb in time to his heart beat. He lay on the ground, his face screwed up in pain and pressed down into the carpet, his hands bunched into fists and he tried to curl in on himself as "Roan" stood over him, watching him as Carigan stood up behind his desk.

Duo opened one eye and tracked Carigan's leisurely walk around his desk and over to Duo where he squatted down and began to talk again, in a hushed tone that implied secrecy and kindness but held neither.

"Duo, it's not so late that you can't redeem yourself. Now that you've been sufficiently punished, I think we both know you're not going to pull another stunt like that, right?" Duo could only nod into the carpet, ignoring the burn as it irritated his fresh cuts there. "Good, now we can get along to business. Roan."

Duo flinched at the name, but Roan just pushed out a chair from against the wall and picked up Duo and put him in it. Duo rocked and Roan's hand reached out and rested on his shoulder, holding him up.

"Now Duo, I've already paid you for a program I want, and I would like to have it now." Carigan was sitting on his desk in front of Duo and at these words he held out his palm, waiting while Duo stared at it.

"Don't have it with me." Duo's words came out muffled and slurred but Carigan understood him and his eyebrows shot together in what looked like disappointment, but Duo knew that Carigan had to have known that already. Martin picked him up at the hospital for crying out loud! How was he supposed to have the disk with him!?

"Oh, that's a shame Duo, shall we send someone back to get it?" Duo felt his stomach curl up and drop out of his body.

"No!" Duo shouted before thinking and instantly regretted his words as a slow smile crept over Carigan's face. "I mean, no, it's not there, it got smashed when you sent Martin the first time." Duo lashed about his memory, trying to remember what he had done with Carigan's half way completed program.

"Oh, that's too bad." Carigan shook his head in mock disappointment and reached behind him and picked up a phone. "Jess, have an office and a room prepared for Mr. Maxwell, and inform the doctor that we have a patient for him."

Duo swayed to the side, but Roan's big hand kept him in his chair as Carigan's attention came back to him. "Duo, you have once chance to fix all this, Roan is going to help you out." In other words, keep an eye on him and make sure he was doing what he was supposed to, "You can use one of the offices here and finish my program." Carigan smiled as if even he were impressed by the generosity he was showing.

"Now run along, we'll have the doctor fix your leg and you can get right to work." Duo wondered for a minute how he was supposed to 'run along' when Roan grabbed his upper arm and simply lifted him out of his chair and began dragging him out the door. "Have fun." Carigan's voice called after him and Duo felt sick again.

On the way to the doctor he thought things through, the program he was supposed to be designing for Carigan had three parts. A virus, a decoder and an overwrite. When used properly, someone sent it into a system where it ate away at any and all security, hacked into the system and downloaded all the data there and then provided access to rewrite anything there at the users' discretion.

Duo had gotten through the decoder and had almost started working on the overwrite when Heero's question had popped up on his screen. From there Duo couldn't remember what he'd done with the program. It had been on a disk, but had that been brought with him or left in that little apartment, was it laying around on the beach somewhere, half finished or was it actually smashed in the alley like he had told Carigan? Duo had tried to forget about it and had succeeded for a while, Heero taking up his whole world again, but now it was taunting him from his past, bringing everything in the present down in a spectacular mess.

But even half finished the program was dangerous. Duo had always tried to ignore his pangs of conscience as he handed his programs over to Carigan or others in the same business, but now it was too big to ignore. Even while he'd been writing this one he'd been wondering exactly what Carigan had planned for it. Now that question was screaming in his mind and he found that he suddenly didn't want Carigan to have it.

Duo left his thoughts behind as he was pulled into a stark white room and came face to face with a very tall woman. She had a sever bun of dark brown hair and surveyed him with dark eyes that didn't speak of a wonderful bedside manner.

Duo was put down on an examining table and could only watch as the doctor went about silently gathering supplies for what looked like a splint rather than a cast. His pain was rolling through him, ebbing slightly and then coming back again as he lay there. He wanted nothing more than to be back at Quatre's up in his room, in his own bed…in Heero's arms. He blacked out when she got Roan to help her reset his bone.

Duo woke in a small room, cold and alone, covered only with a scratchy blanket that didn't really do anything for the chilly air. The room was white and dark green and barren of all but a barred window and a bed. It was a single, rather similar to bunks used in the military. Duo was lying on his back, staring up at the dark ceiling. It was light out, but Duo couldn't tell if it was still the same day or the next or even two days later. It certainly didn't feel as if he'd had two day's rest but he couldn't be sure with everything still fuzzy and throbbing.

Duo tried to move and found his leg immobile. He levered himself up with great difficulty and looked down to find his leg in a long splint laced with metal rods and velcroed into place. It had a hole for his knee and vents on the side to expose his leg to the air but was basically covering him from ankle to thigh. Duo found his pants one leg short as the fabric frayed where it had been cut high enough for the fabric of his pocket to be poking out a little. Most of his cuts were bandaged too, there was even a wrapping of gauze around his head over the bad cut he'd gotten from the car and Carigan's desk and he tasted cotton which implied they had given him some sort of painkiller. Worry sprung in his chest at that, he hated pain killers, they always played with his mind and made him groggy. He wondered what they could have given him, for all he knew, he'd been out for far longer than two days, though that was hard to believe, but he didn't feel like he usually did when he came off of pain killers. He was more awake and alert than he should have been for something that had dulled the pain in his leg to the point where he barely felt it at all.

Duo turned to the door when it opened a moment later and Roan came in. They had to be watching him, Duo spotted the camera over Roan's shoulder as he walked towards the bed. He towered over Duo's bed and stared down at him. Duo tried to give him a smiled, it came out weak and he flinched when Roan reached down and grabbed his arm again. He began to pull Duo off the bed and Duo saw himself going down face first as his leg was left behind.

"Ah! WAIT!" Duo panicked and reached out to grab at Roan. He caught himself as Roan suddenly stopped and used what he knew would be only seconds to get his leg off the bed and get his good one under him. His heart hammered against his chest, here was someone else who had little concern over his well being, let alone his life.

Roan grunted when Duo was standing and started walking again, Duo's arm still firmly in his grip as he headed for the door. Duo found he could actually put weight on his leg as he tried to hobble along with Roan without pain, but that only worried him more. His mind darted back to the pain killers and his thoughts unwillingly settled on Melinda, collapsed at Martin's feet strung out and betting for more. He vividly saw the tracks up her arms and the thoughts made him sick. There were many drugs that could take away his pain and make him feel fine in only a few hours, they were also very addictive and dangerous. Duo carefully glanced down at his arms without appearing too, searching the inside of his elbows for the telltale marks of long needles but found his arms bare. It only eased his mind a little.

Duo was dragged out into a green hallway, dragged down it for five feet and then shoved into an open door into an office that had to be on just the other side of wall the bed Duo had just been in was pressed against. Duo was seated in a high back chair on wheels and his leg was put roughly on an ottoman that was fitted under a desk. There was a keyboard pull out that came all the way out to sit comfortably in front of Duo's navel and there was a Styrofoam cup of coffee sitting on the desk right next to the computer with the modem sitting next to it, all within easy reach. Little speakers took up the rest of the room on the desk and an open drawer held blank disks with a sharpie laying there, ready for use.

Duo sat, stunned, as Roan retreated back to a corner of the office behind Duo and sat down on his own chair. He just sat there, no book, no music, nothing to distract him from Duo. His eyes bore into Duo, he didn't look bored, or angry, or interested, he didn't look much of anything at all! Duo wasn't sure if Roan or Carigan disturbed him more, cold, quiet madness or smiling madness that ordered around the cold, quiet madness. Duo looked around to the door they had come through and found it shut with a small camera up near the top of the frame, its little red light showing it was on and watching him. Duo wondered who was on the other side of that camera, was it Carigan himself or more lackeys. He didn't even know how big the building he was in right now. He knew Carigan was a big fish, but just how big he was, Duo had never bothered to find out completely.

Duo sighed, picked up the coffee and took a sip. It was sweet, tasting of Carmel and whipped cream, Duo enjoyed it, knowing that it was probably going to be one of the last things he did. As he booted up the computer and turned on the small speakers he thought. Heero and the others were probably looking for him, but from what he could tell, he was far from the small city Quatre called home, possibly in another country. There was no way they were finding him anytime soon. Carigan wanted his program as soon as possible and was willing to exercise any torture shot of death on Duo's body to get it. Duo had spotted the knives and other small pain givers on Roan as he'd been dragged, he didn't much like the prospect of the promise held there but knew he was up to dealing with whatever Roan could dish out if he needed to.

Duo put in a blank disk, found some music already in the media player and started to work on something that would appear to be what Carigan Wanted, but wouldn't actually work. His main objective had just changed from getting back to Heero to making sure Carigan didn't get what he wanted. He knew Heero would understand, as much as he had dabbled on the wrong side of law in his five years away, he knew this was where it stopped. Even all that time ago he had known, the program he had started was not going to fall into Carigan's greedy hands. It was too powerful and Duo could make a few guesses as to how it would be put to use in the mad mans hands.

He sent out a silent apology to Heero, but something old and buried kicked in as he started typing, something he hadn't seen in a long time. He was already making plans; a broken leg would slow him down, but not by much. It flipped Carigan off and knew that at the end of all of this Carigan would be dead and only rubble would stand where Duo now sat. It also told him that all things standing, his chances of making it back to Heero had just dropped considerably.