The normal format isn't working for the title, so bear with me... :)
Chapter Three: We are widening the corridors
"I don't remember my parents. I think they're dead now, or at least my mom. Being female on L2 usually means you were a prostitute or someone's personal whore. The same thing really, except if you're lucky when you belong to someone you only have to put up with their demented ways and not complete strangers, if you don't count their friends anyways. Women die quickly as a result. The L2 colony is an unforgivable place to live no matter how you look at it. Some of the prettier boys suffered the same fate. Sex is never about just sex there. It's always about power.
"Solo and the gang found me abandoned on the streets. I couldn't have been more than a newborn. One of the guys said it was Solo's bleeding heart that made them take me in. I'm grateful they did. They were my first family. They named me twice, you know. First, I was just Girl but after I proved my worth, after I proved I could steal like the best of them, Solo noticed me. He was like my big brother. He taught me all sorts of things. Like how to move without making a sound and how to break into a house without leaving prints. He taught me how to fight too, said a girl like me needed to know how to defend herself. I'm lucky they picked me up instead of leaving me to die on the streets like a hundred before me.
"I named myself Duo to honor him after he…after he died. I never wanted to forget him and the kindness he and the gang showed me.
"Sister Helen found me next. I was sick, but she still brought me to the orphanage. I will never forget her for it. She should have left me on the streets. I could've made the other sick. She should have left me to die like the others. But she didn't.
"I was too sick to tell her my name, so she called me My Angel until I got better. After I got better, I met Father Maxwell and I learned how to read and write. I learned my mathematics. I flourished under them. They became my parents, better than the ones that abandoned me. I loved them. They were going to adopt me, you know. Father Maxwell, he gave me his gold cross. Said I was God's gift with my ability to smile despite my life's trials. That I was a blessing to their lives.
"I miss them."
And so passed Duo's vigil.
She spoke of her life. The things she saw and did. It didn't matter that Heero only heard some of it. Being able to fill the silence calmed her erratically beating heart and she liked to believe her voice kept Heero asleep. She only wanted her partner better, for the world's sake and a nudging voice mentioned it was also for Duo's sake. How many more people could she stand to lose before she went insane? Duo didn't want to find out anytime soon...But Saturday.
Saturday night, Duo hadn't left the room in two days.
Saturday night, Heero began to shiver uncontrollably.
Saturday night, Duo crawled into Heero's bed in shorts and a tank top to keep her warm.
The past two days, Heero rarely opened her eyes. It was a feat to get food down the girl's throat when her eyes did flutter open. She took a turn for the worse - a fever consuming the girl. Duo ignored the constant beeping of Heero's laptop, ignored the entire outside world. She was completely devoted to coaxing Heero back to health. She couldn't lose another.
Solo...
Internally, rationally, Duo knew she should have been checking the laptop for messages from Quatre and completing the homework assignments Selena had dropped by Friday afternoon. Quatre might have a break through to announce, or she could tell Duo how to treat the disease more effectively. The Winner heir, however, could also deal a death blow and tell Duo Heero only had days left – that all of Duo's efforts were wasted. Information she should know but was too weak to handle.
That was her answer to everything.
She was too weak to leave Heero's side for longer than ten minutes. It terrified her to think that Heero would need her while she wasn't there, or die alone in the one moment Duo was gone. She was too weak to complete the homework assignments, instead preferring to curl in the chair with a blanket draped over her shoulders next to Heero's bed while she listened to the other girl's breathing. She was too weak to fight the disease taking a hold of her body.
Friday, when she had been changing, she found a bullet graze on her shoulder. Duo could only assume the wound occurred when she had been leaving the base. It was the only conclusion she could come to, staring at her reflection in the mirror. If it had been bullets that had flown in the light of the explosion and debris, a little pain never would have blipped on her radar. She would have ignored it in light of the events.
It was something to be concerned with later – to ignore until later.
Trowa inclined her head in greeting, the flip of brown hair falling over her eye.
Quatre was envious of Trowa's looks for a few reasons. One, the girl was so tall! Some of the other girls her age that Quatre's father had hoped she would cultivate friendships with - due to their wealthy fathers - used to always complain that tall girls were lucky, because they had the height to qualify to be models. At the time, Quatre hadn't known what the hell they were talking about, but after seeing Trowa for the first time, she had known.
Trowa's height made the girl stand straight, confidence oozing off her almost as strongly as the aura of grace that vibrated off her. The next reason would Trowa's thick brown hair. Trowa may not keep it as long as Duo kept hers, but it did reach her shoulders and Trowa rarely pulled the hair back unless it was in a loose ponytail or required for the mission. Lastly, the other girl never needed to tan. Trowa had darker skin than Quatre simply because she was of Latina descent. How was that fair in any world?
"I was just reviewing the virus Duo sent me." Quatre explained at the sight of Trowa's inquisitive green eyes. "I already dispatched the virus to the scientists and the rebel groups have been put on the alert."
"Yes, I've heard." Trowa said.
Quatre beamed at the other girl even as her mind tried to figure out what Trowa had already heard. Had she heard that Duo had obtained the virus? That the scientists were working on a vaccine like she was? Or that the rebels had attacked the space docks and ports to keep the infected off the colonies? Or maybe that Heero had been infected herself? But, Quatre loved the challenge of figuring Trowa out.
"Would you like company while you work?" Trowa said as she moved closer to Quatre.
Visibly startling, Quatre tried to keep the shock off her face. Never before had Trowa offered to keep Quatre company. More often than not, it was Quatre who had to initiate everything in their budding relationship.
"Sure," Quatre beamed.
The house, as aforementioned, was filled with steel furniture that would be cleaned everyday with bleach. The kitchen in which Quatre set up her lab was no different. Everything was steel, including the chairs.
Trowa took a sit in front of the blonde girl and her green eyes gleamed in a way that reminded Quatre of a content cat.
"Have you been able to analyze the virus yet?" Trowa asked.
"No," Quatre shook her head. "And worse, I can't get a hold of Duo. I think she's ignoring me, or – or worse."
"You think Duo has died?" Trowa's green eye flickered without Quatre's notice.
Quatre grew silent for a moment, staring at the steel counters. "I've looked at the notes Duo and Heero sent. The virus is bad, almost as a bad as the sponsor that supported it. It wasn't even done before they started injecting people with it." Quatre looked sorrowful at Trowa. "The disease always ended in death in the trials. Sometimes, there would be 'mutations.'"
Trowa's gaze rested entirely on Quatre and the blonde girl wondered if she could tell Trowa the horribleness of the situation objectively. "Tell me the symptoms."
"A fever starts," Quatre started slowly. "Until it begins to fry parts of the brain and internal organs. The lucky test subjects died at this stage. The unlucky ones began to develop purple sores, their skin was dissolving – eating itself. Due to the fever eating the brain – most predominantly the section that controls thought, inhibitions and self-control – the test subjects would become more instinctually prone. Crime rates went up 20 percent in that one city alone. Rape and murder being the largest crimes committed. I've looked into the official police reports. It happened so fast they didn't know how to react. The crimes are a result of the brain's inability to control emotions and the actions spurred by those actions."
"And Heero is infected," Trowa closed her eyes in sadness.
"Yes," Quatre confirmed. "Duo would never know of the change until the moment Heero is trying to kill her."
"How...unfortunate."
"Worse yet, the body reanimates the body." Quatre whispered sadly.
"Duo would be forced to kill Heero twice." Trowa nodded in understanding.
Before Wufei could join her two comrades at the safe house, she clicked on her mission folder.
She glanced around her surroundings suspiciously before returning her eyes to the mission outlined on the screen. Wufei didn't feel particularly strong about her comrades. To her, they were a means to an end. She had to avenge her colony, her family and mostly importantly, her husband.
They were nice enough she supposed, but in her – their – world nice couldn't always cut it. Quatre had such a weak heart with her empathic abilities that Wufei couldn't help but second guess the scientists for believing Quatre was acceptable as a Gundam pilot. The blonde was weak. Practically a bleeding heart. The only one possibly worse than the blonde was Duo Maxwell.
Wufei sneered at her memory of the playful pilot. The girl was stupid and didn't know how to take things seriously. It enraged her to know that Maxwell was considered a pilot when she deserved it the least. She didn't listen to anyone. She had no respect! The girl made her blood boil, a secret Wufei was well aware the brunette knew if the smirks she sent meant anything.
The other two pilots, Wufei didn't have a real problem with except that they were so indecent. She understood that to Heero, completing a mission was her number one goal. But it was still so wrong for the Japanese girl to willingly take men to her bed to complete her missions. The same went for Trowa! She respect that the two females wanted to accomplish their goals so badly that they were willing to lower and debase themselves, but she couldn't condone it. It was disgusting. Sex was only meant for their husbands, if at all.
Even in light of her detachment with the other pilots, the mission outlined to her by the scientists disturbed her.
They wanted to turn her into a rat.
Whatever Duo had been doing, it seemed to be working. Heero was improving. It was enough to make the proclaimed God of Death to weep.
"You aren't allowed to die," Duo continued to talk. She had been talking for hours – to keep herself awake, to keep Heero company. "My best friend Solo died because he got sick. You aren't allowed. Dr. G thinks that the plague did something screwy to my genetics, did I ever tell you that? Yeah, he thinks that's why I lived.
"I heard your genetics are kinda screwy too. All advanced or some shit." As her words flowed, Duo checked the unconscious girl. She wiped the sweat off of Heero's face and neck. As an afterthought, Duo counted the girl's pulse. It was going much slower than it used to be. She could almost believe the girl's core temperature was lowering back to normal degrees. "You caught me," she chuckled. She undressed quickly and dressed into new clothes to crawl back in bed with Heero to keep her fevered body warmer than the blankets could, and if the move kept her own feverish skin warm, who was going to complain? "I didn't hear about so much as I hacked your computer files. It took me days to figure out."
"Good," came a weak response. "I personally encrypted those files."
"Heero!"
Duo quickly scrambled to sit up in the bed and snatch the pills and water on the dresser between the two twin beds. Before Heero could become accustomed to her surroundings, Duo had already shoved the pills in her mouth and urged her to swallow. Coughing at the manhandling, Heero glared weakly at Duo.
"How long have I been out?" Heero asked and her voice was raspy and thick with disuse.
"Long enough to need a shower," Duo teased. "You should go take one while you're awake. Do you think you'll need my help?"
Duo watched Heero narrow her blue eyes in thought and with a jolt of pleasure Duo watched the girl nod in affirmative. With a (now) hidden pleasure, Duo helped the girl get out of bed. They had to fight with sheets and covers, Duo making a note to herself to change the bedding, before they would release Heero.
Heero was stronger than Duo expected, especially for someone who had spent more than a week in bed sweating their life out and frying their brain cells. She leaned slightly on Duo, her legs slightly shaky, but otherwise, the girl mainly supported herself.
"Can you handle the shower by yourself?" Duo asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes," Heero nodded.
"Great," Duo smiled. "I'll get you a fresh set of clothes while you shower."
Getting the sick girl more clothes wasn't the only thing Duo did. She cleaned up the room, gathering trash to throw away and stripping the bed of sweat stained sheets. She didn't want to leave the little room she had cooped herself up in for the past few days, but Duo knew it was necessary if only to obtain clean sheets.
"I'll be right back Heero, okay?" Duo called through the bathroom door. She heard a grunt and with that, Duo left.
She wondered with dazed amusement, how long Heero would let her continue to stifle her. She was already being more patient that Duo had believed she would have been. Almost understanding of Duo's hovering.
Twisting the key in the lock, Duo turned her attention back to the dorm hallway. It was strangely deserted. The lights were flickering overhead, like they had been left on too long. Duo ignored the need to investigate the situation further. Heero still needed her and she needed to get rid of the sheets and trash. She took care of that first and then she moved on to finding clean sheets for the bed. It wasn't terribly difficult. She remembered the first day she had arrived at the school and a prissy blonde showed her around.
Strangely, no one was there, so she helped herself.
The unease was building in her gut and Duo knew something was undeniably wrong. She hurried back to the dorm room.
Her feeing of impending doom seemed to have been off.
Heero was sitting in the chair next to her bed, wearing more layers of clothing than Duo had left on the toilet in the bathroom. The pale and sweaty face Heero had been wearing was replaced by a pale and healthier looking skin; although, healthier didn't really mean anything in this situation expect that Heero didn't look ready to keel over. It was such a great relief to see Heero better. Duo flopped on the chair next to the other pilot, slowly allowing her body to relax.
"I've checked my laptop for messages." Heero said. Duo glanced over at Heero, her relief turning into disinterest. "Quatre was worried, for the both of us." Duo ignored the silent implications of that statement. Heero wouldn't voice her displeasure because Duo technically didn't do anything wrong. Whatever questions the Japanese girl had for Duo would never be voiced. It was just how Wing's pilot operated. "Trowa and Quatre believe they may have found a cure, although they are still unsure. It needs to be tested."
"That's good," Duo shrugged. She felt oddly boneless. And hot.
Heero sighed and let the subject drop. If Duo didn't want to answer, she wouldn't. They both knew it.
"Quatre believes that when Dr. J enhanced my genetics, he also enhanced my immune system to the point it was able to fight off the virus like the common cold." Heero offered as an explanation and peace offering.
"Nifty," Duo grinned. "Wish I had one of those."
The dread in her stomach uncoiled, spreading into the rest of her body. Duo resisted frowning but only barely.
"We should leave tomorrow; we've wasted enough time here as it is." Heero continued like Duo never spoke which was of the norm for the two.
"Whatever you want, I've been waiting for your butt to get better." Heero's face twisted briefly in anger at the reminder of her body's weakness. Duo smirked in return.
They passed the day packing their meager possessions and disinfecting the room and bathroom. They stayed silent for the most part. Heero was still feeling weak from her illness and not having the energy to argue with Duo. Why Duo stayed silent, only she knew. But the few times she did speak, Heero was curious note the raspy sound to it – like she had spent days talking. As much as Heero wanted to interrogate the girl, she didn't.
Feeling her abdominals squeeze together so hard that they ached, Duo gagged. Her hand trembled as she attempted to push her bangs off her sweaty forehead. The other hand held her body above the toilet. When she had pushed her bangs off her face to her satisfaction, the girl flushed the toilet and watched the mess go down.
She gagged again and her muscles squeezed tightly. Bad mistake watching the swirly motion of the water…
Nothing more was coming out and still her body insisted on forcing everything in her stomach out, including stomach acid that made her throat burn.
The bathroom door open and the light from the bathroom spilled out into the dorm room. Duo glanced up and stared miserably at Heero. "You've been infected."
Heero didn't even get the chance to take a step into the bathroom before Duo's stomach decided to try and expel her guts. Duo let out a miserable moan.
Fucking hell.
At least the dread from before had an explanation. She hadn't lost her touch at all. What a relief.
Kinda, rushed and forced feeling, but that's because it kinda is. No matter what I tried this chapter wouldn't move. Hopefully everyone has more insight into the characters and next chapter will be from Heero's POV. Thank you for the alerts and reviews! XD And I got one of those horrid job things so updates may be slow.
