Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters – am just borrowing to torment for my amusement

Warnings: Swearing, yaoi, violence, general angst, possible OOCness (ages since I've written fanfiction so may be a little bit rusty) m/m sexual relations

Pairings: 1x2 , 3x4, 5+2

A/N: Song is Virus by Sonic Boom Six which is one of the original few songs that inspired the whole plot so check it out. I am going to update Domino on Friday's from now on (mostly as it's my day off and it allows me time to check, revise and mess around with chapters in the week).

Chapter 11

Like a Virus

The Jeep was old and had been reconstructed a load of times. A lot of the cars that you saw around in the District were reconstructed heaps of junk – old and then tinkered with by skilled mechanics whether amateur or not. I'd always kinda liked old cars, old machines, must be why I liked being a Sweeper and spending time on various rust buckets that Howard classed as working machines. The Sweepers was a world of old junk, old ships, old shuttles, pieces of antiques that constantly needed fixing and patching up. Howard himself was kinda like that – an antique of another time. At least his dress sense was.

Dallas didn't drive. Eyebrow twin did. Dallas sat in the front seat, his legs up on the dash in a position that looked particularly uncomfortable. He looked back at me lazily a few times as he held a Beretta on his lap and then stared outta the window for most of the journey. Twin two was sat beside me. He looked at me as though I might bite. Kinda thought about provoking him but then decided against it. While it would make the rest of this journey amusing for me, I was trying not to be, well, me, I suppose. Trying to be restrained, trying not to be so reckless and intentionally get my ass kicked. See, Heero? I can be a good boy. It's just a rare occurrence.

"So where's this road trip goin'? Not that I don't appreciate it and all being that you kept me locked in the hospital for two days…"

"Wait and see, Dom. Didn't any one ever tell ya about being patient?"

"Yeah I've heard it's a virtue or somethin'."

Dallas laughed darkly. "Somethin' like that."

I looked out of the window. My first two days in the hospital had been useful but totally boring. I'd quickly learnt the rhythms of the place and knew the routines. Days were spent with most of the gang sleeping after the previous night's activities. The skeleton crew of guards sat outside, the younger ones given the opportunity to do some of the guard duties to let the older ones who might actually be able to use weapons the night shifts. Once the day cycle began to change to night, the hospital came to life as the crew ate together, some kids went out to the District to do whatever the hell they did and the younger kids sat around, drinking, playing cards and did a few of the milder recreational drugs. So far, so tame.

The whole place unsettled me more than any other place I'd ever stayed on an undercover operation. I thought of the sex traffic ring. The warehouse had been real grim – sleeping bags on dirty floors, kids locked in tiny rooms, a smell of shit and sweat and blood all around. The sorta guys who'd worked the sex traffic ring had been all cold hearted assholes, all older and all hardened criminals. Most of the gang were kids. Yeah, Dallas had the twins and I'd seen a few dudes who I'd say had a bit of a hard ass attitude but most of the gang seemed so young, so inexperience, just so… childish, you know. These were just a bunch of kids playing with guns and that, my friends, made it all feel like the operation had fallen into the grey area. I don't like grey – it's like blacks ill kid brother. The kids weren't enemies to me, they were all skittish, which in itself is bad. Give a kid a gun and no training and it's a fucking nightmare. I was more worried about being accidentally shot round the hospital than ending up with a bullet in my head. I'd shown one kid how to put the safety on who was carrying a piece in his front pocket. Somewhere as a guy you really don't want to put a cocked weapon is in the front pocket of your jeans, know what I'm saying?

Dallas had kept me on lockdown. I wasn't confined to a room but I wasn't allowed free movement around the hospital. A dude called Lance had guarded me, taken me to piss and eat and become a cute little shadow for me. I kinda thought Lance was the worse guard ever from Dallas' perspective. He was a talker which was awesome for me. He didn't know much, there were very few of the gang that were allowed in Dallas' inner sanctum and a lotta the kids seemed to resent the twins and Zee who were. It didn't take long to discover that most of the kids didn't know shit, they didn't have some vendetta against Winner Corp, hell, some hadn't even heard of Quatre Raberba Winner when I prodded a few of them. They didn't even know what the L2 Project was. I suppose Dallas was keeping the cards close to his chest because of someone like me. I was the Preventer asshole in this situation.

The kids may not know about Winner Corp or anything but they knew about Dallas. He provided them with food, cash for drinks and drugs, and a roof over their heads. For that, they all loved him and were willing to do anything for him. I got that loyalty. I'd been willing to do anything for Solo as it stopped me ending up cold, alone and hungry. Dallas was also kinda charismatic and a cool guy, people would do a lot for that kinda person. I glanced over at the front seat, at the casual and lazy position his body was in and thought, hell yeah, I could see the attraction of following someone like that. When I was a kid with nothing and was given the opportunity to do something, I'd taken it, got my ass off this shitty colony and attempted to make something more outta my life. Just didn't expect to make it through two wars in one piece and be back on said shitty colony.

The Jeep began to slow down as we reached the newer and well maintained buildings of L2. It seemed as we pulled up on a fancy street that the light was better in this area. I kinda wondered if maybe the government decided not to light the District properly and the poor areas and decided to give full power to where people didn't live on drugs, booze and crime. It would make sense, I guess. The people that actually contributed towards the colony could get sunlight, the rest of you can live in darkness and squalor. I could imagine it of money saving bureaucrats.

Dallas nodded towards twin two as we pulled up and then trained his dark eyes on me.

"We're getting out."

"Whatever you say, D."

I got out and I noticed that twin two was obviously assigned to guard my ass and stop me from running away. Maybe they thought their insurance with having a hit out on Heero wasn't enough to stop that. Whatever, they seemed cautious of me which was either a good or a bad thing. Sometimes it was better to be underestimated but Dallas was too cautious – wondered if he'd be mad if he found out I was still carrying my flick knife because I wasn't searched by Zee and her friends. Hell, maybe as she was his honey she'd be free from punishment. Gangs were harsh. Justice was done on their own terms. I looked towards Dallas. I wondered what his terms were.

Dallas got out and I noticed his gun either wasn't with him or he'd hidden it well. Suppose he couldn't walk around armed in this place. As I glanced around, we were in what was kinda the business heart of the colony. Large buildings loomed above us and I looked up at them. It didn't seem like the same colony. How could you have a place that was a testament to the world of capitalism and money making only a short distance from a world of crime and depravity? You've got the District where people do whatever to get highs and live in shitty apartments and abandoned hospitals and then you've got sleek offices, government buildings, huge chain hotels and a park. I'd been to so many cities like this in the past. Everywhere had this – the mix of rich and poor, the mask of civility over the top of the world of darkness.

"We're goin' for a lil walk," Dallas said.

"Lead the way, man."

I walked alongside him towards the park. The area all seemed pretty new – I didn't really remember places like this from when I was kid being that I had no reason to come to a government building or an office building. I didn't know if this area had always been like this or things had been done after the war to improve the colony. The only thing I thought was that it might have been a good place to come steal. Rich people always made the easiest marks – phones, jewellery, cash, bags, it was always easy but then you had to venture out of the poor areas and then with ill-fitting clothes and dirty faces, street kids were easy to spot and get caught. It had always been the fear that we'd get caught and end up in the juvenile detention centres or a really bad orphanage. I'd been lucky, I guess.

I sighed and shoved my hands into my jean pockets as I walked beside him. The park was nothing like the one in the District near the abandoned hospital. The grass was such a bright green that I wanted to bend down and touch to find out whether it was artificial. I guessed it was. The trees that dotted the path that cut through the green looked real enough. I kinda wanted to know what we were doing here. Dallas walked beside me, twin two seemed to be trailing us but keeping a close eye on me. We must've looked outta place. It was probably lunch break time in the office buildings as we passed by men and women in suits and smart dresses eating on benches. Here was Dallas, bandana, leather jacket, studded belt and me, black jeans that had holes in at the knee, a faded grey t shirt and a sleeve full of tattoos.

It seemed we got to Dallas' point as we stopped in front of a large piece of stone. He leaned against the edge of it, his arms folded and his eyes glanced towards a couple of suits not far from us. I looked to the words engraved on the stone and was kinda surprised.

~ To the nameless and silent victims. L2 Virus AC 187 ~

The stone had black shining letters making it appear like a gravestone. It was large, uncompromising and contained only those words. It made me scratch the back of my head. This was a beautiful but very artificial park in the middle of a load of office buildings. Why the hell was there a memorial to plague victims? Hell, the only people who died of the virus were the poor. Anyone in this part of L2 would survive – they coulda afforded the vaccine, coulda stopped their own children from dying as the street kids choked on their own blood. Dallas obviously had a point in bringing me here. Maybe some kinda proof that I was a street kid from L2. Something like that.

"You lose someone, blue eyes?"

I tried to be casual but the whole thing had blindsided me. I sure as hell hadn't thought about Solo for years up until the point I'd got back to L2. I remembered what it was like to have my hands covered in his blood, those last few days as he vomited his insides out in coughing fits, as his clothes became stained, as I goddamn tried to steal the vaccination in time, and then the final few breaths in my arms. That death rattle was the most harrowing sound I'd ever heard. Not being able to breathe through tattered lungs, my hands covered in bright red blood and then that final moment. He was in no condition to talk then. He'd long since ripped his throat to shreds so it was silent, just the slow dropping away and then dying. I'd seen some of the other kids go. We'd leave them behind knowing that for the good of the rest of the gang, they had to die but I stayed for him. As I held the vaccination in my hand, it was the start of my life of losing people. Something I seemed to be particularly good at. I knew why I'd pushed Heero away – I was so used to losing people that I didn't want to let someone in again. I didn't want to hurt like that again.

I looked back at Dallas and tried to give him a trademark smirk. I thought about suggesting a trip to the former site of the Maxwell Church. Might as well complete the Duo Maxwell L2 tour of pain. But you know, being that I was Domino that point was kinda moot.

"Yeah, I lost someone. Didn't everybody?"

"Sure did."

I looked around the park, seeing even an artificial pond with one of those dinky little bridges over it, koi fish bobbing at the surface as people in suits looked at them. The air, oddly stale in a colony, seemed to blow stronger here than in the stifling closeness of the District and I felt the bangs ruffle around my face, obscuring my vision. I touched the stone in front of me, feeling the thick granite against my fingers, it felt cold to the touch and solid. A monument to the dead. It made me miss the cross that I used to wear around my neck – the priest collar that had been both penance and a choke hold, I knew my fingers would grab towards the Celtic cross on my arm, my monument to the dead, inked onto already scarred skin. Dallas' eyes were on me.

"This was the first part of the L2 Project before it became the L2 Project," Dallas explained. "Monument Park."

I wondered whether this park was the first time they'd tried to reach out to me. I'd told Quatre the story of my first name, shit, years ago when we were with the Maganacs after Heero's amazing blowing the shit outta himself stunt. I suppose I was a little vulnerable at the time and spilled my guts out – I also bluntly told him that I'd been fucking pilot 01 so, you know, he had a lot of my crazy shit to digest. I didn't tell him about the church, think it might have broken his little space heart to hear the whole sorry tale. I wanted to shake my head and laugh but I couldn't in front of Dallas. I just wish Quatre had left me alone – just come to the conclusion that I was the loser ex-Gundam pilot that might've ended up in a ditch somewhere. Shit, Quat, you should've just left me. I'm so not worth any of this. Heero's words stuck in my head – "the whole goddamn L2 Project is for you" as I looked at the stone. My eyes returned back to Dallas' mocking face. He knew I was thinking about something from my past and he was enjoying the look on my face. I kinda hoped that my usual mask was intact and my emotions didn't show across my face. I was awesome at the mask, I'd been using it for so goddamn long but somehow I was beginning to feel it slip. My smile was becoming too false. My smirk too bitter. I was starting to lose my façade and fuck, it was not the time to show any weakness when Quatre's life was at stake.

"Why we here?" I asked, my voice, impressively casual.

"In two days' there's gonna be a press conference here."

I blinked. Here? Fucking here? It was a beautiful location, a nice pretty park with big expensive newly built buildings around it but it was possibly the worse location security wise that I'd ever seen. Way to go, Quat. Might as well just put a fucking red dot on your forehead and let the snipers shoot. The buildings had multiple windows and you only needed to be a half decent shot to be able to get someone from this location. From a quick scan of the area, I could pinpoint where I would put snipers to kill someone at this spot. Maybe it was the whole defiance thing, maybe the Preventers were saying they had the whole thing covered but the idea of a press conference in a location that was not easily defensible was suicide to me.

"In front of this?"

"Yeah, something about acknowledging the shitty past of the colony before working together to build a bright future bullshit…"

"Huh," I said, articulately. "Why the explosives, D? You just need a few snipers."

He smirked in my direction and came real close to me, his face was right in my face, close enough to feel his breath of my cheek. I stood my ground and didn't flinch. His lips were at my ear.

"Distraction. Everyone loves fireworks," he whispered before returning to his position leaning against the monument.

It made sense, I guess. Set off some explosions nearby and watch the Preventers scramble to deal with it while snipers or even just guns on the ground could fire at will. I'm sure when the explosions went off, security would reign down on Quatre and pull him down but not before some of Dallas' crew got chance to fire a few rounds off. It was a nice plan. And yeah, I sure as hell liked explosions and people would just watch things go kaboom while Dallas' crew started shooting. It would be chaos. Shame Dallas was never gonna get to see it happen as this would end before he got chance to pull this stunt. Or so I hoped. The one thing about being undercover was I had no idea when the Preventers were going to come down on the operation and start the arresting people. I was in the dark. Hopefully we were stood in the park talking about a scenario that would never happen. Heero would be listening in at Wired and patching this through to 'Fei and the Preventers would be all over this shit – a quick strike, cutting the head off the gang threat and I'd be sat in a debrief handing in my resignation. A part of me thought that this was nice and easy but the law of this kinda work said this was far too easy. Dallas sure as hell didn't trust me and he was sharing just a little bit too much.

"The explosives are gonna go there," he said.

Dallas' eyes gestured towards one of the buildings – the large conference centre that seemed to have been built recently. It was a building made of steel and glass. A good choice to put explosives as the amount of glass could create a lotta damage. The plan seemed all really considered. Yeah, the kids seemed like amateurs but Dallas was a smart guy with a tactical brain who was planning to use the loyalty of those kids to commit an act of terrorism and attempt a good old fashioned assassination. I felt like I had a weird admiration and hatred for the guy in front of me. But what would I have become if I'd stayed here? Probably dead, I guess.

I shrugged. "How we gonna get 'em in there? They must've got security up to their asses in a building like that."

"That's not shit for you to worry about, Dom, you just gotta work out how to make it blow up, if that ain't a problem for ya."

"No problem, Dallas, none at all."

I realised Dallas' eyes were looking behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to see only those indistinguishable people wearing suits.

"You're gonna go back to the hospital and work on shit."

"And you?"

"I got important business to attend to, blue eyes."

"What kinda business?"

He gave me a smirk that matched my own and pushed himself off the monument he'd been leaning against, he put his hand on my shoulder and I jolted from the contact.

"The sort ya don't need to know about."

Dallas gestured towards my friendly twin two and then walked away, I kinda wondered if twin two would man handle me but being that we were in a nice place, he made a move for my arm and I brushed it off.

"Fine, man, I'll follow you."

As I walked back to the Jeep, I had the urge to talk into my wrist like a crazy person and tell Heero that I didn't think this was as simple as Dallas said. I saw him cross the park, walking through the grass towards a group of smoking businessmen and I thought maybe it was like the sex traffic ring. That some important people were involved in this shit but then I saw a guy. He was trying that goddamn inconspicuous thing I'd seen Trowa do – standing against a wall, arms folded across his chest and a foot flat on the wall, slouching against the outside of an office building. He wore a suit, a long trench coat in black and that was who Dallas was meeting.

A guy. I had no name and no knowledge of who the hell he was but he looked up at me with an expression on his face that said he knew who I was. I wasn't certain, I didn't know, but something in my gut just said that whoever he was, he was a threat and there was more about this little plan than met the eye.

Damn it, I hate being undercover.