After Colony: Revelation
Part II: Verse VIII
000
It was in the early hours of the morning when the message came across to Trowa. He had been sitting up, reviewing the data on the now comatose CSO sleeper soldiers littering the globe. The last thing he had expected was to hear an alert come through from the account that typically only received messages from Quatre.
A Gift for Edan.
The sender field was useless since it read "no reply," but a quick virus scan showed that the message was not dangerous. Trowa glanced over his shoulder and quickly contemplated retrieving the woman. However, he let the thought pass. She had been on edge, and even had a few outbursts since Wufei's disappearance. Until he knew what the message contained, Trowa did not want to risk another fit.
Trowa opened the message and immediately noticed that there was a video attachment. While he scanned the attachment, he read over the text included.
He will remain alive for the next twenty four hours. If you would like more than just his corpse in a body bag, send Edan alone.
Enjoy the show.
Trowa turned down the volume before clicking play. He didn't know exactly what was on the video, but he didn't want to draw attention to any passersby, just in case.
It was no interrogation, of that, he was sure. Trowa watched as Vince DeBordaris repeatedly kicked and punched a bound Wufei into the ground. Of course, Wufei was too stubborn to simply stay down so he was slammed into the metal ground again and again. When DeBordaris seemed to get bored, he left the sight of the security camera and returned with a syringe.
Though Wufei struggled to avoid the injection, his captor still pierced him.
DeBordaris waited for a few moments, Trowa assumed he waited for the injection to take effect, and then released Wufei from the chains. When his shackles fell, Wufei quickly tried to stand. Whether it was due to his injuries or the injection, he stumbled and collapsed again.
It took a moment for Trowa to lip-read DeBordaris' words from the camera angle, but he figured he said something along the lines of "you'll wish you just drowned that night."
Very rarely had the pilots been physically assaulted when they were held prisoners. It had happened before, of course, when enemy soldiers turned off the cameras and felt like showing off to their friends. Lady Une was the only one twisted enough to permit such interrogation tactics in her Colonel days.
Trowa watched passively as Wufei managed to catch DeBordaris' arm. He was thrown back with ease, however, and DeBordaris pinned him to the ground, throwing punch after punch.
It wasn't long before pools of dark blood started to smear on the floor. Wufei continued to try to fight back as much as his body would allow, but he couldn't do much. Trowa figured he must have been given a strong sedative—one that likely would have knocked a normal person out in just a few minutes. He hoped that whatever it was numbed his fellow gundam pilot to the pain inflicted upon him, at the very least.
The video cut out briefly but resumed. The time-stamp on the footage showed that it was a few hours after the initial assault. DeBordaris re-entered the room and grinned, asking Wufei how he was feeling. Wufei did not respond. He lay motionless, unbound, on the ground. The quality of the footage was too poor for Trowa to determine if he was still breathing.
DeBordaris picked up where he left off. If it wasn't for the occasional twitch, Trowa would have said that Wufei was already dead. While the beating was brutal, it seemed that DeBordaris held back just enough to keep his prisoner teetering on the edge of life and death.
As the video neared its end, Trowa heard a 'thud´ come from the entrance of his tent. He snapped around, but didn't see anyone. The canvas flap was waving, and there was a pile of folders scattered on the ground.
He didn't bother stopping the video before he rushed out, looking for whoever had been spying. When Trowa exited into the darkness, he saw that there were a few soldiers walking about the small camp, but no one who looked like they had come from his tent.
Somewhere from behind him, Trowa heard Duo's voice shouting.
"Jesus Christ, what is your problem?"
Trowa followed the sound of the aggravated pilot until he saw Duo and two other soldier's struggling to keep Edan in one place. Her arm was up in mid swing, but Duo had caught it was trying to keep her from following through.
"Edan," Trowa said evenly, "stop. I know you saw—I know you're upset. Don't do something rash. We need a plan."
He put a hand on her left shoulder (her right shoulder was currently blocked by Duo's arm) and squeezed. Edan tensed but then relaxed to the point where she was almost limp. The two rebel soldiers were the first to let go and back away from her, letting her left arm drop to her side. Duo was a bit more reluctant, but with Trowa's reassurance, he released the woman.
"She just lost it when I tried to stop her. Heero asked me to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't flip out on one of the soldiers again. I thought sending her on a simple errand to drop of folders would be harmless," Duo said through gritted teeth. He shook his head in irritation and glanced over at Edan, who stared at the ground.
Trowa did not release Edan's shoulder. "We've received… a message… from Moira. We need to wake the others. Even Quatre, he needs to see this. Come on, Edan, come wait with me." He turned the woman around and guided her back to his tent, just to make sure she didn't try to run.
He sat Edan down in his chair after he moved it away from the computer screen. She sat down with no resistance and locked her eyes on the screen.
"I don't want to restrain you," Trowa said and knelt down in front of the woman. "I don't want you to try to do anything without us, okay? If you go alone, they will have you, and then no one is safe. Wufei would never risk the lives of others for himself—you know that. He would be furious if you gave them exactly what they want. Understand?"
Edan gave no sign of registering Trowa's words. He took her chin his hand and turned her head to look at him. They stared at each other for a few moments, but she ultimately nodded.
"Good. We have twenty four hours. I'm guessing you know exactly where they are, don't you?"
It took just a few minutes for Duo to get Heero and rouse Quatre from his reluctant sleep. They gathered in the communication tent where Trowa had set out another chair for his injured, fellow pilot.
Trowa let the others read the message before he played the video. The group quietly watched the entire way through, and only Quatre was visibly upset.
"We should have known they had him when we couldn't reach him," he said and shook his head, "we should have known. Is there any way to track the video? How do we know where to find him?"
Before Trowa could respond, Heero spoke up. "What was that last frame? The text appears to be a link."
Indeed there was a link embedded in the video. Trowa had not seen it the first time since he had left the tent after Edan, but he clicked on it regardless. It pulled up a video feed—if the time stamp was to be believed, it was a real time stream, likely to prove that Wufei was still alive.
"We can try to trace it and find out it's origin," Quatre said quickly, but Trowa shook his head.
"We don't need to. Edan recognizes the room. It's the basement of the Adelphie manor in Italy. If we go by air, we can be there in a few hours." Trowa reached over to the mouse, but the woman stopped his hand.
Edan stood and highlighted part of the web address that linked them to the security feed. She looked to Trowa and waited for him to nod before she took the wireless keyboard and returned to her seat. The pilots watched as she tabbed around to open a blank document to communicate. She started by pasting the highlighted URL.
PRTC8804.
This is a code. This is meant for me. Protocol 8804- "Breaking the Seals." In the event of CSO's downfall, soldiers are to manually set their mobile suits and any mobile dolls to self destruct. The goal is to place them in the areas that will do the most damage to take out as much of the opposition as possible, civilian or otherwise.
"We've shut down CSO's movement through so how—"
Duo realized the implications even as he spoke. The majority of mobile suits were still around the CSO medical clinics. While the clinics and the suits had been abandoned, they were in cities and towns all over the world.
It is surely meant to distract you while I return to the manor.
"You aren't going to the manor, it's too risky. I will go rescue Wufei," Heero stated. He and Edan stared at one another for a few moments before she continued typing without breaking eye contact.
You will need to decommission me to keep me from going.
"Heero," Quatre replied cautiously, "if she doesn't go, they will kill him on sight. She has to go."
I know the importance of keeping me from Moira. Once Wufei is rescue, I will take the necessary measures.
The two 'perfect soldiers' continued to silently stare at one another. While Quatre tried to list off reasons why Edan should be included in the rescue, Trowa observed the pair. He was sure that the two were having their own conversation, one that they had no intention of ever sharing.
"Fine," Heero finally said, cutting Quatre off, "we have an agreement."
Trowa stood from his spot leaning against the computer desk. "Here's what I think—Red Horse can hold two extra people in the cockpit. If we send Edan, two more of us should go with her. It will appear that she is alone, so we at least have a shot at making it into the manor. If we can do that, we grab Wufei, take out DeBordaris, and maybe try to capture Moira. The public has turned against CSO. She can be justly punished for her crimes. If we can't capture her… Well, we have to end this within the next twenty four hours, one way, or another."
"Heero and me," Duo said immediately, "it has to be us two."
Quatre furrowed his brows in confusion. "What? Why you two? I'm not saying I should go, but what makes you say that?"
"Because if it comes down to it, I have the best chance of handling DeBordaris one on one, and Duo has a personal vendetta against CSO since they tried to turn him into a project," Heero explained. "Am I right?"
Duo nodded, "exactly. You two can direct the rebel forces and get as many of the CSO suits and dolls disconnected from their self destruct."
There was a heavy pause in the room before Quatre stood. "Alright, I think that's for the best. You three make your plans to take off, we will meet with Carlino and figure out how to break up the rebels and the Maganac. I will send some off to Italy as well to get closer to the Adelphie Manor after you are in."
"Let's get in touch with Noin and Une. Zechs is up and moving, but it wouldn't be wise for him to be in a suit right now, since his injuries are still healing. However, they can still lead the rebels in the north."
000
Red Horse touched down on the pristine, manicured lawn of the Adelphie manor. There were no soldiers in sight, and only the mobile dolls that had been stationed there before the mass CSO shut down remained—completely lifeless.
"So let's just go over this one more time," Duo said slowly, before Edan could open the cockpit. "You know where all of the visible cameras are. Get out first, shoot the cameras, and then we will follow. Once you're in, we will stay just far enough back for you to take care of the security, but we will provide back up if they try to jump you."
The woman nodded and opened the door before disconnecting from the Red Horse system. True to the plan, she did not try to lock them in as she rode the lift cable down. The pilots watched from within as she cautiously crossed the grass, weapon drawn. One by one, she shot out the cameras, most of which wouldn't have been visible to someone who didn't already know where they were. When she fit the front door, Edan found that it was already unlocked. They saw her open it and let off two more shots before taking her time to reload and casually signaling for them to exit the gundam.
The interior of the manor was just as the pilots remembered, though it certainly looked less grand in the dark. There was barely enough light for them to see, let alone keep up with Edan, who knew the layout like the back of her hand. Duo and Heero had become separated from her rather quickly, but were able to follow her trail based upon the sound of gun shots.
"Wait," Heero said, holding up his hand to keep Duo from continuing ahead of him, "I hear something."
Knowing better than to question 'the perfect soldier,' Duo froze in place and also listened. There was a creek of the floor boards, and then something—someone—leaped from the shadows. Duo twisted his body to dodge, but Heero turned to face the attacker head on.
Vince DeBordaris grabbed hold of the gundam pilot and the two wrestled with one another, trying to pin their opponent to the ground or the wall.
"Edan," Heero grunted, jerking his arm from DeBordaris's grasp.
"Right," Duo nodded and ran down the hallway, disregarding the cameras. Moira obviously already knew that they were there. He couldn't worry about being stealthy.
000
"I was starting to think you wouldn't show," Moira purred with a grin, watching Edan through the security monitors. She was rather amused as she saw the younger woman look at each camera with a glare before shooting it. "Let the fun begin."
She slid back from her work station and moved to the reclined, cushioned chair. There was a sort of head piece sitting on a small side table next it, with a series of cords hooked up to it. Moira kicked off her shoes and hopped into the chair sighing as she made herself comfortable. Once she felt she was ready, she placed the piece on her head, letting it cover her eyes and ears. It took a moment to position it correctly, but once she did, she was able to line up a particularly sharp point and push it into her skull—into the neurochip she had implanted some years earlier.
As soon as she was hooked up to the system, which now modified with the Zero system, there was a shaking and the few people in the house could feel as it started to sink below ground into protection mode.
Duo had lost Edan. He felt like he was running in circles. She had said that Wufei was being held in the basement somewhere, but he had no idea where to find the entrance. "Damn it!" He shouted, grabbing one of the decorative wooden tables lining the wall and throwing it. The ceramic vase that had been sitting on it hit the floor and shattered.
At the same moment, there was a rumbling and jolt, and suddenly he was moving. Well the house was moving. When they received schematics from Isabella all of those months earlier, he remembered seeing that it was equipped to go below the surface of the earth at least a few stories to protect it from a mobile suit attack or a biological warfare agent.
Maybe Moira was dropping the house to keep them from escaping. Maybe she thought she was going to be able to set off the CSO devices.
Duo turned around just in time to catch a brief flash of white. With a growl, he took off running, sprinting around the corner and diving into the spy. In a moment, he had Isabella pinned against the wall his gun against her head.
"Wait, wait, wait," she breathed, putting her hands up in surrender and swallowing hard.
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't shoot you right now," Duo growled, pressing the cold tip of his gun harder into her skin.
"You need me, I'm the only one who can reverse the CSO procedure. If you kill me, there will be no one to help those people if something goes wrong." Isabella looked completely serious, at least in Duo's opinion, but she had looked serious for the months she was with him—them, with them. Her words hardly convinced him, even if they were the same as Trowa's.
"Give me a good reason I shouldn't shoot you in your knee caps to keep you in one place while we go stop your mentally disturbed sister," he said and quickly pointed his weapon at her leg, applying more pressure to her collarbone with his arm to keep her in place.
"Because!" She was shrieking, her voice edging on hysterical. Good, he thought, she knew he was seriously considering doing it. "I can—I can take you to her. I will show you where Moira is. Her workshop is hidden. Even Edan won't be able to find it. I can raise the manor again from there—right now, she has total control of this place."
"Yeah? Why would you choose to help now, when you've done nothing but screw us over?" The house was still moving. They wouldn't be able to escape if they didn't get the house raised back to the main level.
The woman shrugged, but then froze again when he roughly pushed her against the wall again. "She was stupid to have taken Wufei. I tried to tell her that you all wouldn't just let Edan come here alone. She's too confident—she thinks she's already won. But if you're here, and if you'll let me help, then she's already lost. You can end it all now."
Duo clenched his jaw and looked down the hallway. No sign of Heero or Edan. "You're not real good about picking a side and staying on it, are you?"
"I just want to live through all of this. Lock me up when it's all done, I don't care. I just want to live."
He stared at her for a few moments and then quickly stepped back. He actually felt that those were the most honest words he had heard from her. "If you betray me, betray any of us, I swear I will not hesitate to put a bullet through you—it might be your head, it might be another part of your body. But I swear to all things unholy, I will make it hurt."
Isabella swallowed again and quickly nodded, lowering her hands to her side and doing a quick spin to show him that she was unarmed. "I fully believe you. Follow me. Edan's probably already found Wufei, which means we don't have much time to stop Moira."
000
Edan ran down the stairs to the basement, taking the steps two at a time. The lights were on in the stairwell, compared to the rest of the house, which was mostly dark. Even if she wanted to spare a moment to think about the oddity, she was too focused to stop.
Once she reached the door, she adjusted her grip on her gun and crept forward. She had not seen DeBordaris yet, and she thought he would surely be waiting for her on the other side of the door. She placed her hand on the metal handle and pushed it down, throwing the door open. For a moment, she thought that perhaps she had been wrong, and that Wufei was not being held in the basement.
When she stopped inside, kicking the motion activated light on, she saw his bloodied form lying in the center of the room, still bound to the floor. She haphazardly shoved her gun into her belt and ran forward.
He was stirring by the time she reached him, opening just barely, as if the little light in the room hurt them. She helped him sit up and looked at the shackles, trying to see if she could get them off.
"Foolish woman," he muttered, though it barely came out as more than a whisper since he hadn't had water for hours. "It's a trap."
Edan shrugged and waved him off. Of course it was a trap.
Wufei tried to escape her hands and sit on his own, but wouldn't let him. She used her sleeves to wipe off the blood and sweat that covered his face and neck. "She's up there watching. She said she wanted you here alone." He nodded upwards and she followed his gaze.
The ceiling of the room was a large mirror. It helped the lighting in the room for when the engineers were working—usually on parts Adelphie wanted kept out of the main workshops for one reason or another. Edan had never thought to question the ceiling choice beyond that.
She stood up and motioned for him to cover his face while she withdrew her gun again. He looked at her in confusion, after all, he was still drugged, dehydrated, and exhausted. She motioned at him again and pointed to the point where his shackles were connected.
"Are you crazy?" His voice would have had more force behind it, if it didn't sound like he was going to cough up his lungs. She shrugged and stepped back, keeping it pointed. He quickly raised his arms as high as they could to cover his face.
However, she never fired. When he braved a peek at her, he saw that her eyes were squeezed shut, and her head was tilted. After another moment of nothing happening, he lowered his arms and watched as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Then her hands were at either side of her head, squeezing.
Though he couldn't hear it, Edan heard a debilitating ringing noise in her ears—but not just her ears, it vibrated throughout her head and her entire body. When she tried to open her eyes, she couldn't focus. One moment, the room was the mostly dark basement, the next, it was a slightly red tinted gazebo.
000
"This wouldn't have happened if you had been the good little soldier you were supposed to be," Moira appeared behind Edan in the red world, stepping into the gazebo and running her hand along the carved banister. "You should've been smart enough to let the fool die. I suppose it works out for me, though."
Edan whipped around, trying her hardest to return to Wufei's side. Though she may have been physically next to him, she couldn't see him. She couldn't see anything but the red world.
"The Zero System is a wonderful thing. I can pick apart your brain now, just because you're within my range. With a little bit more time, I doubt anyone would be able to evade me. No… I will wipe out all of the unworthy souls, and leave just the ones I want. I will know everything they know, I will see everything they see. I will truly be omnipotent."
Moira disregarded Edan herself and placed her palms on one of the pillars of the gazebo.
"All you have to do is give me the code, Edan. If you give it to me, you can free your gundam pilot and walk out of here. You'll live just long enough to say your goodbyes before you both get a dose of our gas. Or, I will extract it from you, piece by piece, and you'll probably die in the process."
000
Isabella stopped when they reached a particularly long wall. She slid a picture, one of an angel raining fire down upon the earth, off to the side to reveal a keypad.
"You know, Duo, I really did enjoy the time I had with all of you. I wish things hadn't turned out the way they did," she sighed and started to press a few of the buttons.
"You mean you wish you were winning," Duo laughed dryly. She shrugged and shook her head.
"I've never had friends. Only people who wanted to use me. I have always been afraid of what would happen if I wasn't useful anymore. I did what I thought I had to do to make sure I lived. I was wrong—but I didn't know I had a choice until it was too late." The wood panel moved forward slightly and then slide to the left, revealing the opening to another room.
Duo did not feel she deserved an answer—she did not deserve any sort of reassurance or forgiveness.
"There she is," Isabella sighed and stepped to the side, letting Duo look into the room. Just as she said, the door was hidden, and he wouldn't have likely found it on his own. The room was a large workshop, filled with monitors feeding to the security cameras—most of which were nothing more than static—and grounded workstations.
What Duo found most interesting was the fact that a section of the room was nothing more than glass. He could stand and look down at a mostly dark room, and he was sure he saw both Edan and Wufei below. Moira was in one corner, reclined and relaxing as if she were receiving a spa treatment. "What the hell is this?"
"One way mirror. She could watch Wufei while he was captive, but he couldn't see her.
"That's sick…" Duo muttered and shook his head. He was about to turn to Moira when he saw Edan awkwardly swaying about. "What the hell is she doing?"
Isabella slowly walked over to Duo, keeping her hands in front of her and visible. "Oh, hm," she said thoughtfully, "it looks like she's already tapped into Edan. Well, you'll want to work fast. If you don't, Moira will probably come for you next, once she's got what she wanted from Edan."
Duo looked at her sharply. "Yeah? I'm the one with the gun, and she apparently hasn't even noticed we're here."
"She has complete control over the Zero system. She doesn't need her body to get to you now. While I did legitimately shut down CSO access to your neurochips, she can completely bypass all of my work. And, since your procedures weren't complete, you'll probably go insane within minutes. So, like I said, work fast," Isabella said smiled. Duo fought the urge to smack the slightly malicious look off her face.
"I don't understand—what could she possibly get out of all of this?" Duo glanced between Isabella and the unmoving Moira, then focused on the intricate computer system that covered the wall to his left.
"All she needs is the encoding Edan corrupted. Once she has access to it again, she can clean it up almost instantly, and detonate all of the CSO devices—including all of the ones in the dolls. By now, she has them planted in enough areas that she could quarter the earth population in minutes. That's not even taking into consideration the colonies she could drop." The woman spoke matter of fact, as if the sheer number of lives lost did not affect her.
Of course the thought of the gases being unleashed onto the Earth was appalling but… "Drop the colonies? Seriously? Why is that every terrorist's plan!?"
"Maybe because humans were never supposed to live in space," Isabella said with a shrug, "but it was a contingency plan. She's had to move to plan B, with all of the hold ups. Oh, it looks like she may have almost got what she needed. What are you going to do, Duo?"
Duo, the self proclaimed God of Death, decided that he would once again live up to that mantle. He stalked across the room to the immobile body of Moira and raised his gun. Two shots through the heart should do it—he knew that Quatre and Une wanted the Adelphie woman alive, but with so many lives at risk, he couldn't chance it.
He shot off two rounds.
And then there was pain—pain he hadn't thought possible, originating from somewhere at the base of his skull.
000
"Damn it," Moira hissed from her spot in the red gazebo, "I was so close! I cannot believe that forsaken sister of mine would lead one of them straight for me! We are not finished—I am coming back for you!"
With that, Moira's image vanished from Edan's created world.
Her aim had been to try to return to her body, but she was not quick enough. The warmth and life she had felt beforehand disappeared, leaving her cold and in the dark. A moment of panic set in: was she dead? She had contemplated the results of death while connected into Hades-Zero system, but she had not thought she would find out so quickly.
She dove into the next closest connection, and found, to her pleasure, that it was the mind of Duo Maxwell.
"Do you really think you can get rid of me that easily?!" Her voice was a screech, and while it sounded like her, the reverberations that echoed through the newly forming virtual world did not. They sounded robotic.
This world had a slightly violet hue to it, making it appear as forever night—though it probably was night time, if it was a memory from Duo. Moira found herself standing on top of a pile of rubble, with a broken church spire in front of her.
"This can't be real," the braided man muttered once, twice, and then a third time. His eyes were wide as if he weren't focusing on anything in particular, but also everything all at once.
Unlike the red world Edan had created, this world was vivid. With each passing second, more detail sprung into being. Bodies appeared and their faces sharpened into exact features, well, for those who still had faces.
"You killed me, didn't you, Duo Maxwell," Moira stated loudly, drawing his attention to her, he looked as though he was looking at a ghost. "How fitting that you should end up here."
"This is Hell," he said quietly, "I'm in Hell. I don't remember what happened, but I must be dead. This is too real."
Moira's smile widened to the point where it was unnaturally large. A person shouldn't have been able to grin so identically to a Cheshire Cat. And then she laughed, her laugh filled the world and engulfed Duo, causing him to reflexively cover his ears. Soon, the corpses around him were laughing as well.
Yes, this would be his Hell. If she were to be doomed to never enter the living world again, then she would surely make sure he suffered for her own enjoyment.
"I think we'll have plenty of time to play together, Duo Maxwell. For now, I think I will let you enjoy the world you've created for yourself." She stepped backwards, and soon, she disappeared from the violet world as well.
Her absence did not make the world any better. Duo was left standing, staring, and screaming as he was taunted by the faces and voices from his past.
000
Author's Notes: Poor Duo. But, I mean, he's had the neurochips since chapter one so... you know... it of course has to come back to bite him! I'm sorry if switching between the 'worlds' doesn't seem to make sense. For those of you who have seen Sherlock and know of his 'mind palace,' think of it sort of like that... except very real for those who have had alterations to their brain processes.
Well... the next chapter is the last one. It's been a long time coming, and it was surprisingly hard for me to write, even with years of prep. I have a separate chapter written as sort of a... follow up... but I haven't decided whether or not I will post it.
To my favorite reviewer Pat: poor Wufei indeed! I hope it is clear enough that the reason he could not escape on his own (though it had only been a few days since he had been captured) was because he was primarily kept sedated. Moira isn't dumb. She isn't going to underestimate a capture Gundam pilot! Thanks as always, Pat!
As we're wrapping up here, I would super love any feedback!
Ever Your Servant,
A.F