Three hundred ninety-seven, Domo thought as Tatsu exercised. The teenager had been doing sit-ups since Domo had arrived, expression frozen in concentration. Hana knelt by his feet to help anchor him. She seemed to be as focused as he was. Three hundred ninety-eight. He wondered how long Tatsu had been at this. Probably an insane amount of time considering the boy never did anything in moderation. That was one thing he'd always admired about Tatsu, however grudgingly. Three ninety-nine. His endurance. Tatsu was so much stronger then Domo could even hope to be. Domo snorted. It was no wonder that Tatsu was Mitsuyo's prize while Domo was stuck with the needles.

"You lost count, didn't you?" Tatsu said. Domo blinked in surprise, then realized Tatsu wasn't talking to him. Hana smiled.

"I did not. It was five hundred and twenty. A new record!"

"Ah, it was nothing." Tatsu said, sweeping his bangs from his face. Hana giggled and Domo rolled his eyes.

"Spare me," he muttered. Tatsu glared at him.

"Don't, Domo-sempai," Hana chided softly, handing Tatsu a towel that had been slung over the back of a chair. "You shouldn't be jealous of Tatsu-kun's strength. You have many talents of your own."

"Oh yeah? Where?" Tatsu said with a snicker, wiping the towel against the back of his neck. Domo leaned back in the wheelchair, smirking.
"I could think circles around you, little boy." He shrugged lightly. "Of course, so can preschoolers, so that's not really saying much."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Tatsu snapped.

"Oh, brilliant deduction," Domo said, clapping his hands. "Really. You amaze me."
"Shut up!" Tatsu said, lurching to his feet and spinning to face him fully. "I may not be as smart as you are, but at least I'm not an experiment!"
"At least I'm not a puppet," Domo fairly growled. "You actually think getting the Gundam will benefit you? Oh, that's rich."

"Stop it, both of you!" Hana said, stepping between them. "We're a family. Families shouldn't argue like this!" Domo rolled his eyes at that, but said nothing. Tatsu took on the expression of a whipped dog.

"Sorry, Hana-chan," he murmured. Smiling, Hana turned to face the teenager, putting both hands on his shoulders.

"Does it really matter why you get the Gundam?" she asked in a soothing voice. Tatsu took her hands in his own. A fervent expression came over the young man's face. Domo inwardly groaned, preparing himself for an onslaught of stupidity.

"Of course it matters!" He said softy. "Picture it, Hana-chan. With the Gundam we can go anywhere we want to go. Do anything we want to do."

Please. Domo rested his elbow on the arm of his wheelchair and leaned his chin on his fist.

"Right, because no one is going to notice a thirty foot mobile suit armed to the teeth with high powered weapons."

"Well then we'll sell it!" Tatsu snapped, shooting a glare at him from over Hana's shoulder. His expression softened as he looked back at her. "And we can buy a mansion—no—a castle. A castle by the sea.With forty rooms and hundreds of servants-"

"And do you plan to sell it whole or piece by piece?" Domo cut in. Hana turned, giving him an exasperated look while Tatsu glowered.

"Piece by piece," the young man snarled. Domo smirked at him

"Oh, I can see it now," said Domo, spreading his hands wide. "Hello, Sir. May I interest you in this ten ton arm made of Gundainium Alloy?"

"Don't you ever shut up!"

"Now why-" Domo started. But Hana cut in quickly, turning back to Tatsu and putting her hands on his shoulders.

"Ignore him, Tatsu-kun," she said gently. "He's just jealous."

Domo rolled his eyes. Right. Jealous of that moron. Tatsu, for his part, hadn't seemed to have heard her. Instead they seemed to have frozen and he was staring at her.

"Hana-chan…" Tatsu murmured, reaching up to touch her cheek. Domo's gut clenched.

"Tatsu-kun…" she said in the same tone, leaning into the touch.

"Would you two like a room?" Domo said dryly. Neither of them seemed to have heard him. Instead, Tatsu cupped the other side of Hana's face and began leaning closer. Scowling, Domo unlocked his wheelchair, pivoted and pushed himself out of the room. Teenage hormones. Ugh. They didn't know more of love then the fact that she was a girl and he was a boy. Even if they had been in love, he would have hated it. Love was a silly, useless emotion. It made people do stupid things—say stupid things. It made missing the other almost unbearable. It made illusions of gentle fingers over skin and whispering laughs in the darkness.

Domo forcefully shook his head of those thoughts and continued to push himself down the hall. He couldn't think that way. It wouldn't do anyone any good. He'd almost reached the lift when his arm cramp, sending tight liquid pain up into his shoulder. Hissing in pain, he grabbed his arm and tried to massage the knot out. Suddenly, Hana was there, pushing his clumsy hand away. Her strong sure fingers worked the tension out and soon it was gone.

"Better?" she said, smiling up at him. He grunting in acknowledgement, flexing his hand as if to test, even though he knew she'd done a good job.

"So what are you and Tatsu going to name the babies?" he asked, giving her a dry look. Hana giggled and gently shoved his arm.

"Oh, you. It was just a kiss!"

"Yeah, so shut up." It was Tatsu who had said that and he turned to see the young man with a blush as red as a warning light. Domo grinned and was about to say something to make the blush spread, but Hana made a small, irritated noise in the back of her throat and moved around behind him, pushing him towards the lift. Domo chuckled and waved the insult away. Hana had had enough for now. Besides, snubbing Tatsu was about as fun as teasing him.

"So, where are we going?" Domo asked as they gathered in the lift and Tatsu flicked a button.

"Today is the brat's last day to guess the code," said Tatsu, leaning back against the metal wall and kicking it with the sole of his shoe. He seemed irritated as he said it, but on that note, Domo couldn't blame him.

"Oh, be nice, Tatsu-kun," Hana said chidingly. "He has a name, I'm sure." That was true. But what kind of a name was… was… Domo squinted slightly, trying to remember. Just what was his name, anyway? He'd never heard it mentioned. Neither by Mitsuyo…or even Alec for that matter. He made a mental note to ask the scientist about it later.

"I don't think he has a name," Tatsu grumbled.

"Then we'll give him one," Hana said. "He's going to be part of our family and he'll need a proper name." Somehow Domo doubted that the boy was going to accept any name Hana tacked on to him.

"How about pain in the ass?" said Tatsu. Domo snorted a laugh. Even idiots had their shining moments.

"Tatsu!" Hana said.

"Well he is," the teenager insisted. "He's always hanging around. Everywhere I go he's there, staring at me with those beady little eyes."
"I'm sure he's just curious."

"And I'm sure he's just creepy," Tatsu muttered. The lift had stopped, as did the conversation as the doors opened and a gaggle of scientists came in. One of them had a mustard stain smeared along the pocket and Domo smiled slightly. A memory rose in his mind, leaving a sweet taste in his mouth and a bitter one in his mind. He pushed it away- trying to forget he'd had it, but the sweet taste lingered.

Once again they were out in the corridors. For a while, the only sound was the tires of the wheelchair humming softly against the floor. Tatsu stopped for a moment to talk to a neophysicist about some sort of poker game they were setting up. Hana waited for him patiently, and since she was gripping Domo's chair, so did he.

"Do you think he'll be able to crack the code?" Tatsu asked casually, once they had started off. Domo snorted. Not unless the kid was a mind reader or got extremely lucky. Both possibilities were more then a little frightening.

"He won't," Hana said. "I reset the code every day. It's completely random."

"Hana thinks for some bizarre reason that it will make the kid trust her," Domo said, rolling his eyes.

"No," said Hana, sounding annoyed. "I wanted to show him that he can't do everything. To humble him. He needs to lose some of his self-confidence."

So he'll be trampled like the rest of us, Domo thought. He didn't know the boy well enough to tell if a locked door would impact his self esteem at all. But something would… And then this place would take the will power from the child.

The boy wasn't outside when they came to the door. Domo reached in his pocket for the code the computer had given him earlier this morning and passed it up to Hana. Then he settled back and stared at the cold metal door. It was inevitable. No matter what Alec said. This place would wear down at the boy. Chipping away his security piece by piece until-

Domo's thought froze in place as he suddenly saw the boy staring at him—from inside the room. How—in—the—hell. There was no way he could have—He couldn't have been that lucky? Could he? No. No that was impossible. Wasn't it?

"How the hell did you get in?" Tatsu said, echoing Domo's sentiments exactly. The boy raised an eyebrow at him.

"I went through the door," he said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Don't give me that," Tatsu growled. "That's impossible. Hana-chan changes the code manually every day."
"Tatsu!" Hana snapped. Domo rolled his eyes. Tatsu was such a dumbass.

"You people keep playing games," said the boy, eyes narrowed into cold slits. "It's so stupid. You're just wasting your time and everybody else's."

"Ooh, don't look at it that way," Hana said, coming closer to the boy and reaching out to touch him. He backed away and glared up at her. She frowned slightly, dropping both hands to her sides. Tatsu made an irritated noise in the back of his throat and Domo shook his head. God help the person who didn't want to be touched by Hana.

"I was just trying to help you," she continued.

"By making sure I couldn't get in?" the boy countered.

"To teach you to be resourceful," Hana said, with hardly a beat. Domo's respect for the girl went up a few notches. She was good. She was very good. With that one sentence, the boy's anger faded. Instead, that stolid acceptance returned with a brief nod.

"How did you get in, anyway?" Domo asked. The boy smirked at him, then without another word, turned and went further into the room. Domo narrowed his eyes. That little bastard. Who the hell did he think he was? He gripped the wheels of his chair. He'd get the information out one way or the other.

"Tatsu-kun," Hana said, quickly. "Take Domo-sempai to his room. He looks tired." Domo glared at her, even as he felt Tatsu grip the handles of the wheelchair. Damnit.

"I'm not tired," he fairly spat. She smiled at him gently.
"Good night, Domo-sempai."

Then Tatsu tugged him away so the rubber of the wheels burned his palms. Domo glowered. He wasn't a child, damnit. Tatsu clicked his tongue.

"Does wittle Domo-chan need a nap?" the teenager said in a high pitched voice.

"Shut the hell up," Domo snapped.

"How are you going to make me?"

"I'll sneak into your room one night and inject you full of so many chemicals you won't be able to breathe," Domo said softly.

"You…you wouldn't," Tatsu said, a slight tremor in his voice. Domo smirked.

"Why not? It might be fun."

Not that he would. Not that he ever would subject someone else to what he went through every day. Well—other then Mitsuyo. But it least it shut Tatsu up for a while. Domo sighed. Stupid kid. He'd believe anything, really.

"Don't worry, Domo-sempai," Tatsu said, softly. "Everything will be okay once I get the Gundam. I'll take care of Hana-chan and you. We won't have to worry any more." Domo laughed, more annoyed then touched.

"Oh, wonderful sentiment, Tatsu. But what makes you think that Mitsuyo will let you."

"We won't have to worry about Mitsuyo," Tatsu said, the edge back in his voice.

"Right. I forgot. He's just going to let us go, isn't he?"

There was a sharp jerk as Tatsu swerved the chair around. Suddenly the teenagers livid face was two inches from his own, hands gripping the arm rests of the wheelchair until the knuckles showed white. Domo's glared back, even as his fingers twitched nervously in his lap. Damnit, he didn't even have a hypodermic on him to threaten the boy with.

"I'm sick of you," Tatsu snapped. "All you do is criticizing everything. I'm doing this for you too, you know! Can't you at least be supportive?"

"You want me to lie to you?" Domo snapped back. "Mitsuyo will never let you go. He'll never let any of us go. We both know that. Why are you so persistently stupid?"

"Mitsuyo is going to die," Tatsu hissed in a whisper. "He wanted me to pilot the Gundam, so he's going to be the first to taste what it can do. You have no idea how powerful that machine is." The teenager's mouth twisted into a smile, his eyes fixed on some distant point. "Just imagine, Domo-sempai. Once I have the Gundam, everyone will pay for what they've done to us."

"Everyone?" Domo echoed. Tatsu stood back, finally, the smirk growing.

"Everyone," he repeated. "Everyone who's ever hurt us. Ever rejected us. I'll kill them all. Mitsuyo, all the bastards on this satellite." He laughed. "Even the colonies."

Domo, who had slumped a bit during the familiar diatribe, sat up as he heard the last word.
"The colonies?" He shook his head. "Don't be a fool, Tatsu. Even with a Gundam, you can't destroy them all. Why would you want to anyway?"

"Because they turned their backs on us!" Tatsu was back to shouting again. "They let us be taken! They didn't care."

"We were being invaded, Tatsu," Domo said, rolling his eyes. "You're not the only one who suffered."

Growling, Tatsu shoved at the wheelchair, slamming it back into the wall. Domo winced as the impact jarred him. Damnit.

"You're either with me or against me, Domo-sempai," Tatsu said in a colder voice then he'd ever heard from him. "And you'd better not be against me."

Turning on his heel, Tatsu walked away, footfalls ringing in the air. Domo watched him go, then raised a hand to massage his aching head. Tatsu meant what he said. That was the problem with the boy, actually. He always meant what he said. Wore his heart on his sleeve for everyone in the universe to see.

With a heavy sigh, Domo pushed the wheelchair from the wall and continued back to his room. If Tatsu really did get the Gundam, all hell would break loose. It was exactly what J-sensei was so afraid of. Arriving at the door of his room, Domo stood to enter the code, then wheeled over to the computer terminal. He stared at the video feed for a moment as it flicked over random halls and laboratories.

Suddenly he got an idea. Leaning forward, his fingers flew over the keyboard, going back through the surveillance records until he found the instance he was looking for. The entrance to Hana's room—two hours ago to be on the safe side. Nothing. He sped it up a bit, watching the screens carefully, fingers twitching over the pause button as soon as someone passed by. Finally, two hours and thirty minutes into the records, the boy came by. Domo watched with widening eyes as he took something out of his shirt, popped a panel out of the wall right under the electronic lock, and laid on his back, scooting in the small hole. Not a beat later, the door to Hana's room slid open. The boy pulled himself out, rolled to his feet, popped the panel back on and went into the room. Then again, in just a blink of an eye, the door closed again. Domo stared. A few buttons replayed the sequence. Then again. The kid had broken into the room. Domo's gaze flicked to the time stamp. Broken into Hana's room in under a minute. The laugh caught Domo by surprise, bubbling out of his throat before he even knew it was there. That little bastard! That smart clever little bastard.

A few more keys and he gazing inside Hana's room in the present. The boy was already lunging, swinging the foil in practiced movements. His eyes were straight ahead, concentration lining every feature. Domo zoomed in to the boy's face and nearly jumped out of his chair when the boy's eyes seemed to briefly meet his. Good god. This brat was something else. Domo grinned and steepled his fingers watching the boy and feeling better then he had in a long time. The feeling wasn't going to last long. Sometime along the way, the boy would prove that he didn't have what it took after all. But right here, right now, Domo believed in him with all he had. He couldn't think not to.

---

As it happened, though, the boy didn't let him down. Domo made it a habit to keep an eye on him. Each day he would watch the kid work on his little mobile suit, doing god only what with it. Domo finally began to understand why J-sensei had chosen him. Why Alec spoke of the kid with so much passion.

The audio feeds began to become more frequent as well. Almost every other day Domo was sent a new one to patch to the boy and Domo was beginning to understand that as well. With each new broadcast, the atrocities of the Alliance seemed to grow worse and worse. People dying, lives being destroyed. Domo found himself being angered as he listened. Only the barest twitch of emotion ever showed on the boy's face when Domo watched him listen. But soon he began to look closer and see the tightening of the mouth, the slight narrowing of the eyes. J-sensei was shaping him. Grooming him to become the tool that the scientist needed him to be. That they all needed him to be.

---

Three months to date, another week, another fencing lesson. Domo watched from his room, can of beer in one hand and a bowl of popcorn sitting on the computer desk. He shouldn't drink beer. It tended to give him horrible cramps all night and he usually ended up vomiting blood tinged mucus in the morning, but it wasn't as if he had much longer to live. At least he hoped not.

The boy had long since moved to sparring with Hana. He was shorter then her, but still his wiry body moved into each thrust, taking a hit here and delivering a killing thrust there. He lacked Hana's finesse in the sport, but the power behind it was remarkable. Of course, what about this kid wasn't?

"So this is what you've been doing," said an oily voice behind him. Domo jumped, having been so engrossed he hadn't even heard the door open. Twisting in his chair, he looked back and saw Mitsuyo. The thin scientist was leaning in the doorway, spindly arms folded and staring at the screen. Domo scowled, fingers twitching around the beer can. Shit. Somehow the man had gotten past his security lock. The scientist's watery gaze flicked to him and a thin smile twisted his mouth.

"Tatsu will be disappointed to see who you're really rooting for."

"I'm just watching," Domo said, nervousness tightening his chest. Mitsuyo's eyes narrowed.

"And just how stupid do you think I am?" he asked, pushing away and coming closer. Domo instinctively shrank away from him. "All these files from J. I still see them, even if I don't know what they are. You've been J's little stooge ever since Howell left." Mitsuyo grabbed one of the screens, staring closer as if he couldn't see it clearly. Then with a sharp jerk threw it out on the floor. It smashed against the hard metal. Mitsuyo turned back to him again, and suddenly his hand was wrapped around Domo's wrist in a crushing grip, twisting it roughly so his inner arm was exposed. Domo yelped and tried to pull away but Mitsyo's grip was too strong. The scientist smiled and pressed a thumb against the swollen needle marks in the joint of Domo's elbow.

"This isn't healing," Mitsuyo said in a distant sort of way. "How very curious. I'm afraid it means were going to have to do more tests."
"It doesn't matter what you do to me," Domo said, more bravado in his words then what he actually felt. It did matter, though. A lot. His throat was dry from fear at the thought.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to interfere. Continue to send your silly little reports to J. Observe the boy. Monitor the boy. Let Howell use you for his little tool."

Domo winced again, another kind of pain entirely washing through him. Mitsuyo seemed to notice that his words had impact and his smile widened.

"Because I want them all to see what I'm going to do to the little brat," said Mitsuyo softly. "I want to watch their little hero crumble before their eyes."

----

W00t! Update! I know it's been a month but I participated in National Novel Writing Month

AND WON! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! –happy dances-

-coughs-

Anywho, enjoy! Hee-chan in the next chapter! And we might actually GET somewhere this time.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing, I own not. Though much greatness in it I sense. Wish to own it, I do.

Night Mare