So, I just have to gloat a little. Yesterday I wrote something like 10,000 words, seriously. And I'm closing in on the end of my massive Gundam Wing crossover project. I think I'll have it done by the end of December, so when this one finishes up, I'll be ready with a whole new story! I'm really excited. I've been fighting this monster for a long while, it seems, though it's only been about a year. It's good to see it coming together.
I think I'm going to try another set of twisted fairy tales, though, because this was such fun to write. I'll make a collection of it – The Gundam Princess Bride, The XYZ and the Beast, and CinderABC. To be announced when they're ready, of course.
Anyway, onto the trials and tribulations of our heroes.
Enjoy!
Duo met Heero in his room, emerging out of the shadows of the folds in the window hangings.
"He was murdered."
Heero froze for a moment before nodding slowly, stowing the sword he still carried next to the fireplace. "I feared that would be the case. Was it Zechs?"
"More likely that count guy, but I wasn't watching them tonight so I can't say for sure. The priest is already saying his heart gave out, but poison's possible. Either that or an attack by empathy. It's not like we can really tell the difference," Duo flopped onto a chair, but there was nothing relaxed about his expression. "What happens now?"
"I am sworn to protect the Royal Family, which, if Zechs is in any way behind this, no longer includes him. I will continue to do my duty for Princess Relena, especially now that I have failed the king," Heero frowned darkly. "And I will continue to play this game, though I would rather just challenge Zechs and have it out."
"Can you do that?"
"No. Only Relena can do that. I could fight as her champion, but she'd have to give the order first."
"Isn't that how you got in this mess in the first place?" Duo managed a small smile.
"Yes. But this time I wouldn't let him win." Heero looked at the coals in the fireplace, thinking. "Though it's too bad. He is a worthy opponent. Almost exactly like me."
"Except crazy. Don't forget that part," Duo replied. Heero acknowledged that fact with a smile.
"Anyway, what about you? Have you found Quatre yet?"
"No," Duo shook his head. "Treize didn't leave the castle at all today. I'm going to have to find Cat by following him when he goes to gloat or do whatever he's going to do, unless you've got any better ideas. If I had Cat's abilities I could just, you know, feel him out, but I can't."
"And if I had Quatre's abilities, I wouldn't need to hide from Treize," he let out a long breath. Then, frowning, "Won't the count sense your presence?"
"Not me," the pirate managed a small smile. "What I taught you to deal with him is the easy baby stuff. I've had years with Cat to teach me. I could be standing behind Count Khushy and feeling exactly like I want to kill him – which I do – and he'd never know it. I'm the best sneak there ever was, even for somebody like him. If you and me are right next to each other, I'm so good he won't feel you, either."
"But I am not with you all the time. I'm liable to make a mistake, and without Quatre here to distract him, Treize will feel it at once if I do." Heero's hands curled into fists. "We need him, Duo. I need him, and not just because of my feelings for him. I need him to help me protect Relena and Sanc."
"Yeah, but there's nothing we can do about it now."
"I should just kill Treize," Heero looked up. "For as long as there is breath is his body, Quatre is in danger. My true love could die at any time and I do nothing." His voice dropped, low and cold. "There will be great suffering for them all if he dies."
"We'll find him, or I'll be right there with you causing the suffering," Duo rose, and the look on his face was one Heero imagined served him very well as Shinigami. "I've got one other lead. Those guys who were hired to kidnap you worked for the prince. They might know something."
"Find them," Heero said sharply. "With the king dead, Zechs will have to have a consort before he can be crowned due to an old law, and he isn't going to want to wait. If I end up married to that…" he grit his teeth, "let's just say it's not going to be good for anybody's health."
"Don't worry, Hee-chan," Duo squeezed his shoulder as he moved to the door, "if it comes to that, I'll put you out again before the deed is done. Can't even imagine what Cat would do to me if I let you get married when I was supposed to be protecting you!"
Duo left the room and moved quickly down the halls he had learned by heart. He'd developed a route that carried him through the most lax guard postings, to where he had easy access to the outside. He would much rather have stayed to keep an eye on Treize, because his hunch was that at some point the empath would make his way to wherever Quatre was being held, but Heero was right. If those guys who had abducted Heero knew anything about Treize's habits, finding them might be faster than waiting around on that smug count to set foot outside the palace.
It was after dawn before he found someone who recognized his descriptions of either the swordsman or the acrobat, and the resulting rumors and suggestions and witnesses led him far afield, so he had no way of knowing that Treize left the palace that very morning, walking out into the woods alone with Zechs.
"He really is quite a dedicated creature," Treize said conversationally. "A trifle overzealous in my opinion, but his appeal is undeniable."
"Oh, I know. The people are quite taken with him, to say nothing of my sister. It's odd, but when I hired G to have him murdered after announcing our betrothal, I thought that was clever. But it's so much more advantageous to have him at my side to openly testify to the evils of our enemies. Once Oz is unveiled by him as being behind my father's death, the nation will be truly outraged. They'll demand we go to war."
"Indeed. And you gain rather a good warrior at your back as well," Treize nodded. Then he turned to the grove of strange, gangly trees they had reached. "Now, where is that secret knot? It's impossible to find."
He moved to a specific tree and his seeking fingers found a portion of the wood that served as a catch, revealing a doorway hidden in the very trunk of the tree.
"Are you coming down into the pit? The pirate has his empathic strength back, so I am starting him on the machine at once."
"Treize," Zechs said with regret, "you know how much I love watching you work, and your findings may well make the difference in our efforts. But I've got a coronation to plan, a wedding to arrange, my husband to enrage the populace, and Oz to conquer. I'm swamped."
"Get some rest," Treize smiled a little. "If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."
And he turned to the stairway that led him into the dark.
"Good morning, Count Khushrenada!" Dorothy sang out from where she was mixing another batch of potions.
"Good morning, Dorothy," he greeted her politely. He had good reason to be polite today – her last concoction had been rather instrumental in last night's affairs with the king. "Bring him out."
Dorothy sprang to pull the table, arranged on wheels, into the larger part of the cavern, her eyes roving approvingly over the pale form still bound, but his wounds were distinctly healing. His blue-green eyes flashed and Dorothy could feel his empathy reaching for her. But then the same dark power that was her constant companion rose up to cradle her and she simply giggled at him.
"None of that, now!"
"I'm pleased to see how quickly you recovered from our duel," Treize said, moving to stand beside the table. "Not many would be capable of so much so soon."
"I've always been a quick healer," Quatre replied. The table shifted and he was suddenly clearly able to see an enormous contraption taking up most of the space. It had wooden and metal supports, wheels and bellows and metallic-looking pins that were arranged in strange patterns.
"Beautiful, isn't it? Took me half a lifetime to invent it. I'm sure you are aware of my deep and abiding interest in our shared gift, but more importantly, in its ability to manipulate and permanently impact the mind. At present, I'm writing the definitive work on the subject. You will be a critical study, so I want you to be totally honest with me on how the machine interacts with your empathy."
He and Dorothy maneuvered the table so that Quatre was most of the way under the machine, and Dorothy quickly affixed a number of bands and what felt like bits of glass or rubber to various places on his head and chest. Cold dread settled itself in Quatre's stomach, and he closed his eyes.
"What I am cannot be broken by any mind," he told himself silently, "no matter how strong."
"This being our first try, I'll use the lowest setting," Treize commented. Then he pulled a lever and Quatre heard the machine above him begin to click and whir.
Pain. Pain pain pain pain.
Then…
Coldness, absolute oblivion.
Then…
Hate.
"As you know," Treize spoke as he watched the pale form writhe and felt with satisfaction the changes being wrought in the heart open to his examination, "the concept of the suction pump is centuries old. Really that's all this is, except that instead of sucking water, I'm sucking emotions and memories."
He released the lever and moved to his desk. He could hear and feel his captive reacting still, but he felt the need to continue to explain, so he held up a glass jar filled with stones.
"Imagine that your heart and all that makes you who you are is this jar, and the stones are your feelings, your memories, your charming personality. As the stones are removed, the jar becomes emptier until it is entirely devoid of all that it was before. Right now it is a jar of stones. But when the jar is emptied, it becomes a jar of whatever I wish to put in it. I need only remove them. I've just sucked some of your emotions and memories away. I think you can now imagine why I call the machine Zero."
Dorothy wheeled the table out from under the machine, and Treize noted in the parchment records he had begun that there were new, deep bruises everywhere the machine had been affixed to the pirate's body, and that the normally-pale skin was as white as newly-fallen snow.
"We'll do a little bit at a time, of course, to empty you completely. If I were to put the machine to its highest setting, I don't really know what that would do to you. Now, you must tell me what you feel. And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest." He opened his senses wide and waited.
It started as merely a tremor. But slowly it grew from a twitch to a muffled vocalization to a wild, uncontrolled, insane laughter. Dorothy clapped her hands and started to laugh as well. Treize felt madness brush the edge of his empathy and he smiled broadly.
"Interesting."
-==OOO==-
"...I've just sucked some of your emotions and memories away. I think you can now imagine why I call the machine Zero..."
"...nghf..."
"Are you all right?"
"...yes..."
"Be strong. It must get worse if it is to get better."
"Worse?!"