Bourn on White Wings
Chapter 7
Back at the Lab
By: Miguela
Heero was tossed into the earthen cell roughly, hitting into the low metal bed as he couldn't stop himself, what with his hands bound behind his back, and lay still on the floor. The human puppets didn't say anything as they did their work, and they locked the door securely behind them to ensure that they wouldn't escape.
"Hey, Heero," Duo greeted him with a false cheeriness, "nice of you to join us."
"Hn," was Heero's only reply as he rolled onto his side, trying to clear his blurry vision. The other four pilots were sitting in various spots around the room, hands cuffed together in front of them.
"Did you see Mia, Heero?" Quatre asked as he knelt down next to Heero.
"Yeah," Heero muttered, shuddering involuntarily, remembering how lifeless she looked as opposed to that morning. "She's no longer our ally."
"What the heck are you talkin' about?" Duo asked impatiently. "There's no way that she would willingly join OZ." Heero found it ironic that Duo now defended her since they had become to know each other. Duo had thought that she was a hooker when they first met, and then an OZ soldier.
"It wasn't her decision," Heero said. "OZ is controlling her."
Duo scratched his head, not comprehending. "Wha… How is that possible?"
"Drugs," Heero said, "And chemicals that influence a person's free will. She's under their control now; there's not one trace of the old Mia left in her."
Quatre sighed and Duo shook his head. "Will you be able to handle it, Yuy?" Wufei asked from his corner of the room. "Will you be able to kill that girl without any second thoughts?"
Heero didn't reply to Wufei's question, sliding his hands down his back and moving his feet so that they went through the hole in his arms and bringing his hands back in front of him. He sat up slowly, injured leg stretched out in front of him, and noticed that his jeans were now stained a deep crimson colour around his bullet wound.
"I asked you a question, Yuy," Wufei said, louder this time as if Heero hadn't heard him the first time. "Will you be able to carry out your mission and kill that girl?"
"Order him to kill the girl." Heero cringed; Wufei sounded so much like Dekim when he said that that it made his blood chill. "That's none of your business, Chang," he hissed in reply. "My mission doesn't concern you."
"If your mission involves all of us, then I think that it does concern me," Wufei retorted. "If you can't kill that girl because you have some useless feelings for her, I'll do it."
Heero's eyes narrowed as he glared at Wufei, "She's not your concern, Wufei," he snapped. "Whether she lives or dies, it will be my decision."
Wufei shrugged, "Alright, I'll respect your will to deal with her, but if she threatens my mission or my life, I will kill her without a second thought and not you or anyone else will stop me."
Heero didn't reply to Wufei's statement and just sat quietly on the floor with one leg stretched out in front of him, an elbow resting on his other knee with his hands cuffed in front of him. He had to deal with her if it came down to it; she meant so much to him. If he let Wufei kill her and he never told her how he felt, he would be forever tormented by her haunted look. But he had a sinking suspicion that OZ and Dekim Barton wouldn't let them get away without putting up a resistance. He also knew that the five of them wouldn't be able to get out without having to work together.
The five pilots waited in near darkness, listening to soldiers hurry by their holding cell, but they were unable to pick up any information from them that would be useful in assessing the situation.
"Well, isn't this dull," Duo muttered.
"We just need to be patient, Duo," Quatre said quietly. "We need to find out what they want with us."
"It's obvious what they want," Heero muttered darkly, "they want to me make mindless puppets out of us like they did to Mia." He sat with his knee drawn up to his chest, resting his chin on his kneecap. "We're a threat to them if we have minds of our own, so once they take that away, we'll be under their control."
Quatre sighed as he sat down next to the dejected Wing Zero pilot, who was trying to pick the locks on his own handcuffs. "Come on, Heero, they don't really want us so that they can brain wash us," he said, trying to be a voice of optimism in the dismal little group.
Heero snorted as he managed to free one of them, the other cuff dangling from his wrist. "You're right, Quatre," Heero said, and Quatre sighed in relief as he thought that he was starting to get the stubborn pilot to see that his thoughts couldn't be possible, "they don't want to brainwash us. Brainwashing can only last for so long, but if you take the pilot over completely and think for him, then he can't betray the boss, even if they wanted too."
"What in the Hell are you talking about, Yuy?" Wufei asked, leering at Heero from the corner of the room.
Heero eyed Wufei, showing slight irritation with his peer. "Wufei, have you ever heard of a drug called Hypnosysis?"
Wufei shrugged, "Everyone has heard of that," he said. "That's the miracle drug that a two-bit scientist discovered by accident that's said to put its users into a trance-like state of mind. What of it?"
"Well, they combined that with Scopolamine to make a mind-control drug," Heero said. "I don't know all the specifics on it; it was still in the developmental stages when I was in training 5 years ago, but apparently Dekim has been able to refine and perfect that chemical so that it would be able to control a person's thoughts completely. With a steady injection of the drug and a nano chip, instructions can be implanted directly into the person's brain, no matter where they are."
The other four pilots were silent after this startling revelation, each sitting silently in the dark cell. It was several hours before anyone came to get them. Duo and Heero were taken first, in accordance with their numbers. Heero quickly attached the handcuff to his wrist as their door was unlocked and opened, but he didn't snap it so that it locked. He would need his hands in the near future and didn't want to have to fight with the annoying cuffs again. They were tugged along, Heero being drug more often than not because of his leg not being able to support him anymore.
He and Duo were taken to a room labelled 'Lab A' and were locked in separate cages, or that's what Heero thought of them as the small cells were no more than 7 feet in width, height and length. The walls were nothing more than bars on three sides, Duo's cage sharing a common side with his and a brick wall. There was a small pallet made up on the floor with straw and threadbare blankets for their comfort as well as a small bucket of water in the corner that looked to Heero as if someone had urinated in it. He sighed at his predicament, as he limped around his small cage, inspecting the mould in the corners as well as each of the individual bars, looking for a weakness in them that would allow him to escape. He found two that were extremely rickety and weak, and he smiled inwardly; he would pry those two bars lose so that he could escape his confinement and search for Mia, and when he found her, he would either kill her or capture her.
The door to the room suddenly swung open, crashing into Duo's cage with a resounding bang. Duo jumped at the unexpected noise, Heero saw the Deathscythe Hell pilot turn so fast that his braid hit against the metal bars.
"Ah, welcome 01 and 02," Dekim said smoothly, striding into the room, accompanied by two of his soulless creations and tugging on the chains that were attached to Mia's handcuffs. There was blood dripping from the lacerations that the handcuffs were causing as Dekim jerked the chains suddenly, causing her to stumble slightly, and spread her wings slightly to keep from falling. Heero saw also that the two soulless bodyguards had wicked-looking spears in hand that promised pain. He made a mental note to avoid them at all costs.
Dekim locked Mia's chains to a worktable and strode over to the two pilots, peering at them with beady eyes. "We have lots of work to do on the both of you," he said. "Those scientists I hired didn't do the job the way that I would've liked, so you all will have to be retrained and brought to heel."
Duo snorted, "As if you could ever control us," he taunted. "We're too strong-willed to be controlled by the likes of you."
Dekim swung his cold gaze to the self-proclaimed Shinigami. "Since you have your doubts, 02, I will break you first," he said coolly. "But first, I must complete my current project so that she can take command of my weapons and lead them to victory in the name of the Barton Foundation." He turned on his heel and strode over to Mia, gripping her chin and forcing her to look at him. Heero growled in his throat as his treatment of her reminded him of when he was still training with Doctor J.
"Get your hands off of her," Heero growled menacingly.
Dekim released his grip on Mia, and turned to look at Heero. "What's the matter, 01?" he asked innocently. "Are you upset that you couldn't help her, just like the last time? Don't worry, you'll become like her soon enough." Dekim picked up a syringe off the worktable and inserted the needle tip into a bottle of liquid drugs. "She's just like a doll, you see," Dekim explained, slowly drifting closer to Mia. "She will be even more powerful than OZ's mobile dolls, though. She is of flesh and blood, and that will make her a valuable addition to my guard. She still has some of her thoughts in tact, so she can make decisions in battle, but her highest priority is following orders." He stuck the needle tip into Mia's arm, and Heero's heart sank when she didn't even flinch; Heero knew that Mia didn't like needles in the least from their stay together during training. She didn't mind giving Heero a needle but didn't like getting them herself. "I shall show you what she can do, 01, and then you will understand why fighting me is useless." Dekim emptied the contents of the needle into her system and withdrew the syringe.
Heero gripped the bars, angry beyond belief at Dekim for hurting Mia again and at himself for letting Mia be hurt. He couldn't have done anything to help, he tried to reason with himself that he couldn't possibly have done anything for Mia in this situation, but it didn't help him any. He suddenly exerted all his strength on the two weak bars that he gripped, locking his right knee so that it wouldn't give out on him, disregarding the pain that was spreading through his thigh, and managed to bend them and pulled them clear out of the notches that held them securely in place. Griping the freed bars, he lunged at Dekim Barton, intent on killing right then and there, but found his way blocked by Mia, who was still looking at the floor with downcast eyes. Her face was in shadows with her bangs hiding her features from view, but she stood resolutely in front of Dekim, shielding him from Heero's assault. She strained against her restrains, the metal cutting deeper and deeper into her wrists.
"Move, Mia," he growled. "I'm going to kill him."
She stood still, bare feet planted firmly. "No," she said quietly.
"Move!" he said angrily, and swung the bar, hoping to connect with her ribs and knock her out of the way, but she blocked the strike with her arms, not caring that a large bruise was starting to form on her forearm.
"No," she said again.
Gritting his teeth, Heero swung at her again, hoping to knock her unconscious with the strike to her head, but she blocked it with the back of her right hand. Heero felt the bones in her hand crack under the pressure of the strike. She didn't flinch or even give her injuries a second thought as she gripped the opposite end of the bar and pulled it from his grasp, and used it against him, hitting him hard in the temple, the rough edge of the bar tearing open the skin and causing the blood to drip down his face. Heero saw her lifeless red eyes gaze at him from under her bangs, making Heero shiver involuntarily. That was all she could do though, as she dropped the bar to clatter to the floor and dropped to her knees.
"Do you see now, 01?" Dekim asked as he came back into Heero's view, the barrel of a handgun pointed at Heero's head. "06 is much stronger than you gave her credit for. She'll take over being the leader of your little group of Gundam Pilots after you are retrained and brought under control."
Heero felt dizzy as his head pounded and blood continued to soak the side of his face. Dekim was right, unfortunately. He had somehow ordered her to attack him until he bled, and then she stopped, bowing respectfully to her master. He knew that he had to get the others out of here and away from Dekim; including the youngsters that Dekim had control over. Everyone and that included his companions.
"Will you willingly bow to me again, 01?" Dekim scoffed. "Or will I use you as an example and strike fear into those other pilots by shooting you right here and now?"
"I wont give into you again," Heero growled. He felt his right leg buckle under him as Dekim released the safety on his pistol.
"You will be an example to the other pilots," Dekim assured. "You're far too confident and strong-headed for your own good."
Heero felt a searing pain shoot through his thigh, just above the kneecap, in his right leg as it gave out and he collapsed, Dekim smirking at the fallen Gundam pilot. "You really are helpless," Dekim scoffed. "Put him back in his cell, 06," he ordered her, "next to 02. Then bring the rest of the pilots in here and put them in the other cells to be with their friends.
"Yes," she said quietly, rising to her feet as Dekim released the chains on her wrists. Heero watched her, gripping his leg, as Mia gripped his arms and pulled him to his feet. Mia was a good head smaller than Heero, but she still managed to move him with apparent ease. They must've given her performance drugs, Heero thought, just like they gave me when I was younger.
He was tossed back into the cage next to Duo, who watched silently, mouth slightly agape, as Heero landed roughly on the floor of the cage, crying out at the sudden jolt jarred his wounded leg.
Dekim smirked in satisfaction at seeing his creation in pain and left, followed by Mia, and the two other soulless puppets.
"Man, Heero, you need to stop getting shot up like this," Duo said teasingly, but his eyes showed concern for his friend.
"Hn," Heero replied to Duo's concern as he tore a strip off the bottom of his shirt and tied it around the new wound in his leg. The bullet still in the injury would have to wait until they escaped.
Duo frowned at his friend. "Heero, you can't just cover it up without seeing to see if the bullet is still in there," he protested.
"The bullet is still in the wound," Heero said, "but it will have to wait until we can get out of here. For now, I'll just have to deal with it."
Duo shook his head. "Take the damn thing out before you get lead poisoning," Duo ordered as he took a lock-pick from his hair and started to pick the lock. "I'll get us out of here; you concentrate on getting that wound straightened out."
Heero sighed and untied the strip of green material from his wound, poking at the bleeding wound to determine how severe it was. He had to steel his nerves as his fingers explored the inside of the bullet wound, finding that the bullet had lodged itself between the muscles of his thigh and the bones of his knee. He would need to get someone to retrieve the bullet when they had escaped from Dekim and were hiding in a safe house somewhere. He looked up at Duo as he heard the click of a lock as the braided pilot opened his door, admitting the youth.
"How are you makin' out?" Duo asked as he knelt down next to Heero. He inspected Heero's leg, and hissed. "Gees man!" he exclaimed, seeing how serious the wound was. "We need to get you to a hospital!"
"We need to get everyone out of here first," Heero said, wiping his forehead on the back of his arm, feeling sweat, grime and blood smear a streak on his skin. "We need to get Mia and the others out of here too."
Duo pulled Heero's arm around his shoulders, grunting slightly under Heero's dead weight. "You could help me out, you know," Duo said sarcastically, but the fact that Heero hadn't protested to Duo's help and shoved him off yet had the braided pilot worried. Blood was oozing thickly out of Heero's wounds, and Duo felt him sway even as he acted as his friend's support. "We'll worry about getting you out of here first," he said quietly. "We need to get you to a hospital."
Heero didn't reply to his companion's comments as he tried to clear his vision and find his balance. The two pilots slowly made their way down the hallways, hoping that they weren't caught.
A big thank you to all of you that reviewed! Keep on reading, it's just going to get better.