Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not belonging to me, now or ever, and it makes me sad and makes this a fanfiction
Ok, got a request for more of this fic, so here it is! Enjoy.
10-56A
Chapter 5: What's Your Name?
Duo was feeling the pills wear off, it was a sort of downward spiral that dropped his stomach out of his body and made his skin itch. He was already off of work and standing in the canned food isle of the supermarket down the street from the apartment he shared with Kitty.
He had to choose and get home. Kitty would be up by now, probably getting ready to hit the streets and sell. He had to get home and feed her before then otherwise she wouldn't eat. And with all she did for him, the least he could do was make sure she remembered to eat.
He picked out some ravioli and corn and hurried to the front of the store. His left leg starting to twitch and the inside of his arm felt as if bugs were crawling around under his skin. He paid and grabbed the plastic bag and jogged back to the apartment. He was sweating by the time he got there and had to walk up the stairs while catching his breath.
He could feel the craving like a stranger inside his skin, like someone else was moving his limbs and he was just attached. It was like the body wasn't really his, but felt like it should be. It felt like he only remembered how to move and there was a delay in wanting to do something and actually doing it.
Duo finally reached the apartment, a third flood walk up, and pulled out his keys. He had keys that went here, keys for past apartments, keys for a safe house, keys for the shelter and keys that went to somewhere, if only he could remember.
Duo shook as he opened the door, but it gave way eventually and he stepped into darkness. The only light came in through the far porch doors, orange from the street light. Duo started towards the kitchen, he'd get Kitty to eat, he'd get his night dose and he'd-
"What's your name?" A voice asked him from the vicinity of the front door. Had they just been behind the door? How had he not known that?
"Who are you?" Duo demanded.
"You Duo Paden?" The man demanded, walking towards him. He dwarfed Duo by at least a foot.
"How did you get in?" Duo asked, thought it was pretty obvious. He started backing towards the porch sliding door. If he could get there he had an escape route, he'd find Kitty and-
"I'll take that as a "yes", you're coming with us." The man reached out with a ham sized hand for Duo and he simply reacted, dropping down and kicking out with his right leg.
It connected with the mans ear perfectly and he howled out as u rolled over backwards and started to stand and make his way for his escape.
He was stopped by Kitty's scream of pain. He whipped around, frozen in place to the ugly carpet, arms out, ready to ward off blows.
Kitty was in the doorframe of her room, but she wasn't standing. She wasn't on the floor either, she was somehow suspended in between the two. That shouldn't have been possible.
She moved forward, her feet dragging oddly on the ground, she was trying to support her own weight, but something was keeping her from doing so. Then Duo saw the other man, the one holding her up, by her broken arm. No way was her arm twisting like that and not broken.
Duo felt his throat go dry, he was starving for a hit and this was happening now. His head was buzzing and he couldn't think of what to do.
"Just come with us, it's not really on you. It's her we want. But the boss said to grab anyone who was with her." The man who had originally tried to grab him suddenly slapped his meaty hand down on Duo's shoulder, causing Duo to tilt to one side almost losing his balance.
"And if I don't want to?" Duo asked, scenarios already playing out in his head, he could manage this.
Kitty screamed again and the muscles between Duo's shoulders bunched up like liquid metal had been poured on them.
"We've got permission to get you there one was or another. And my friend there could do a lot of damage before you ever get a chance to reach her." The man warned Duo.
"Please Duo, let's just see what Kael wants." Kitty pleaded.
She knew what this was about. Duo could see it on her, hear it in her voice. She was in trouble, and anything that happened to her spilled over to him. He couldn't walk away now. Even if he was sure they weren't going to hurt her, that she could handle this. Not after what she'd done for him.
"Ok" He agreed, telling Kitty with his eyes that he knew. She nodded once, disguising it as letting her head fall to her chest.
"Move it." The man steered Duo towards the door and he let them. He'd figure this out.
OOO
"I can figure this out." Heero told the empty room. Trowa had left a little while ago, probably tired of being yelled at. But Heero's frustration was reaching boiling point. "What is your name?" He demanded of the computer screen.
The police report on Kitty Phillips was fake. It had a parking ticket and petty theft listed. No way was a woman like that getting away with drug dealing in this city. So her name couldn't be Kitty Phillips, he wouldn't find her that way.
The police report had lead him to suburbia. Duo and Kitty were not going to be at the listed address. And everything else was bull shit as well. Everything Duo had written down. The only things he had left were a description of a woman who was obviously strung out and the post its Duo had left him.
Which meant that now Heero was pouring through files on drug busts, reading every single description and trying to find one that matched Kitty Phillips. He was also coming up with nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Every "blonde" that caught his eye was linked with "male" and every "female dealer" was "red headed" or "brunette". It was like someone was working against him personally. Like someone had gone back and taken all the files that...
What if someone had taken the files? As much as he hated to admit it, internal affairs was not uncommon. It could be someone working Preventors, personally protecting Kitty Phillips, and possibly others.
Heero got on the phone quick.
"Wu Fei?" Heero barked as the man answered the phone, "I need to talk to you."
"Very well Yuy, what is it?" Wu Fei asked, his voice was just a little bumpy, he was walking.
"It had to be in person." Heero told him.
"That is fine, I was jsut walking to your office. I have finished talking to Agent Easton." Wu Fei hung up.
Heero waited impatiently to talk to Wu Fei. If he was right, they needed to move fast. Anyone who was powerful enough to do this, to have a Preventors agent in their pocket, was very, very dangerous. And Duo was caught up in the middle. There was no telling what kind of trouble Kitty Phillips could get them both into.
OOO
The room they brought him and Kitty to was barren, concrete floor, some living room furniture, a TV and some men sitting around a card table. Very mafia, but too much like a movie. Someone was watching the TV in a plush chair that swiveled. The chair turned as the men dragged Kitty forward and pushed Duo till he walked the speed they wanted.
Kael was a tall man, stretched out in a chair, with long legs like a spider, bent up and folded over one another. He had long, shaggy brown hair that danced across his shoulders and dark eyes that watched everyone. Duo had heard about him from Kitty, her supplier. But this was the first time he'd ever seen him, and he already knew he really, really didn't like the man.
"Hi Kael, real nice of you to send someone to pick me up." Kitty tried to smile up at the man. Duo stayed quiet, this really wasn't something he should stick his nose in. Even if those Bastards had broken her arm, this was her business. He'd just watch.
"Kitty you owe me." Kael tsked her. He'd just watch, no matter how much he disliked that mans voice, no matter how he spoke to Kitty, he'd just watch.
"I know, and I'll pay it back, I just need more time." Kitty pleaded. Watching, that's all Duo was doing, watching.
"Your time ran out last month Kitty." Kael shook his head as if he were really saddened. "It's not like it was back before the war, I can't just let you tack it on to next months payment." Duo ground his teeth, he could see where this was going.
"Why not? I was always good for it" Kitty protested, tears streaming down her face. Her eyes looks so bugged, darkened with circles and need.
"You're not who you were, Kitty. You never used before, just sold." Kael snapped. "My sources say you're not good for it anymore."
"I'll get it. Give me a couple of hours. If you'd just said something, I could have..." Kitty stared desperately at Kael, but with each word she seemed less and less confidant. Duo felt a twitch in his leg start to move. He needed a knife and he needed it soon.
"No Kitty. You're paying now." Kael nodded to one of his men and they started to grab Kitty, and none too gently lead her away.
"No" Duo yelled at them.
"Show him the door." Kael spat. He leaned back in his chair and rolled his shoulders as if relaxing after a long day at work.
"You're not going to hurt her." Duo told them calmly, and then he was moving. The first man went down easily, just a punch to the neck and he was gone. Duo kept moving, using his momentum to take him to meet the next man before he could get fully turned to face Duo. This man had a knife.
"Stop him. And get her out of here." Kael's voice ordered from somewhere to his left. Duo spun around, taking the knife and tripping up the man at the same time, one fluid motion. He felt light and powerful, it had been so very long since he'd done anything like this. But his body remembered. Duo let old instinct guide him.
But suddenly his body trembled and collapsed. Duo yelped out, flabbergasted as to why his body was suddenly throwing a mutiny. And then a body was pinning him and forcing all the air out of his lungs. Duo felt dizzy and spots were winking in his vision.
He could see Kitty, she was yelling, but her voice wasn't reaching him. He tried to pull his arm up, but he couldn't find it. Where had his arms gone?
"Put him in the coffin." Someone said and Duo knew that was one place he did not want to go. Even if it was named something else, the way the person said it...
Duo screamed and pushed and found his arms and his braid and then someone punched him in the kidneys. Duo got up close and personal with concrete, his face hurt, he tasted blood.
And he was about to lose-