airings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Much action in this one.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 10

Time: 09:30 hours

The room they'd found themselves in was well…it sucked. It looked like crap, it smelled like crap, and honestly Duo didn't want to think about the brown stains on the floors and walls that could have been from crap. They were in a shady part of a small town on L2, not really a red district but close enough.

The motel owner was some grimy looking man in his middle ages. He didn't look too clean, didn't smell it either, not from the looks of those stains on his shirt like he was some kind of grease monkey. But he asked no questions and gave no information unless you had the money for it. Considering how much money Heero and Trowa dished out to him to keep him silent about their whereabouts, he figured they wouldn't have a problem of discovery here.

The three boys hadn't said anything to each other, mostly just taking care of things like checking the building inside and out for escape routes and vulnerabilities in security. Though they seemed to act normal, the tension was in the air still. Duo felt it so strong he could have lit it on fire. All of that tension was because of him. He could swear Trowa wanted to kill him now and wasn't going to only because his leader didn't tell him too. A lot of good that would have done him anyway.

So by the time everyone was done with their checks, it'd been an hour later. He hated to admit it but during that hour he'd spent the time thinking about 01. He couldn't figure out how the man was alive, but it bothered him to see him. If 01 were anything like him, he knew the building falling on him back at the airbase wouldn't have killed him…knock him out maybe, but not kill. But it would at least give them the needed time to escape.

Right now, Duo was laying on one of the worn down beds, hoping against all odds that these sheets were clean. From the looks of the stains he'd seen on them, he really, seriously doubted it. A shower could probably help. He really didn't feel clean at all, not with the getting stomped in the chest and getting shot at and sweating and stuff. He just felt really icky.

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Heero sat down on the bed opposite of Duo. He noticed that Duo pretended not to notice them, literally rolling over so he was facing away from them and pretending to sleep. He'd been like this the whole time since they'd gotten here, just lying around and being completely useless.

His shoulder ached a little from the scrape of the bullet whizzing by back at the control tower, but other than that he hardly noticed it. He'd already taken care of it, bandaging it up, something 02 seemed to watch with intensity, at least until he took notice of Heero watching him anyway. Interesting…was 02 actually worried about him? Or was he just fascinated with seeing a wound being cleaned and bandaged?

Trowa had gone out a few moments ago to get them some food. To Heero, it was probably for the best. Trowa hadn't been comfortable being around 02 since the whole, walking around like nothing happened after being shot then kicked. So he'd seemed pretty thankful for the errand.

The motel room wasn't big, naturally, having two beds, an old fashion TV, a table, and the one bathroom, all of which they were going to have to find some way to share. But since at least one of them, mainly Heero and Trowa, needed to stay awake for watch duty, there wouldn't be much problem with sharing a bed.

Heero continued to stare at Duo's back, his eyes following the trail of the braid leading down to nestle just underneath Duo's butt. He wondered why the other didn't just cut it off. He stood out too much with the long thing and really wouldn't have to worry about hiding so much if he'd just chop it short. His eyes didn't help much either. Why wasn't he using contact lenses or something?

Duo seemed to get tired of being stared at, which was Heero's intentions, and sighed as he turned over grumpily, propping his head on his hand as he looked at Heero looking a little frustrated. "Ok ok, what do you want?" he asked.

"…Explain how you're still alive?" Heero asked him. He watched the face that, as usual, gave nothing away of his real thoughts. Instead Duo just looked up at him, staring at him until he frowned and looked away. 02 had to have known the effects his eyes had on people. They weren't normal…very unnatural…and about as bad as having a cat staring at you.

Only after Heero had looked away did Duo speak. And when he did, Heero looked at him again to see that his eyes were closed now. "You know that OZ has been experimenting on humans, right? Heh, otherwise you wouldn't have known about me." Duo rolled over onto his back, opening his eyes again as he stared up at the ceiling. "OZ has this little thing called Fly Z. It's a little drug some scientist made a long time ago. He apparently went missing some years before I escaped."

"And what is Fly Z?"

"Fly Z is…well…a drug enhancer. Overtime it changes the overlay of your body. Basically it makes your skin tougher, your muscles stronger, and does weird things with your psyche too." Duo sat up a bit and pointed towards the TV. "For instance," and even though he lowered his hand just staring at the television, the TV popped on. Heero frowned and glanced over seeing the remote on the nightstand between them. It hadn't been touched. "I can control electronics with my thoughts. I can see the feeds on my laptop without looking at them…at least until someone breaks them anyways." A single thought later and the TV was cut off again. "I can faintly read what you're thinking."

Heero looked over at him finding the violet eyes staring at him. He felt his cheeks redden at the smile aimed at him and lowered his eyes looking at everything but the boy in front of him. Well that was uncomfortable.

"But like I said, it's faint….maybe a couple of words at most." At the look Heero gave him, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Just think of me as being some type of superhuman. I'm stronger, faster, and general just better than you. That's why I said I don't really need your help. No offense."

"None taken," Heero said though he was frowning still. True, this person in front of him was all those things plus more…but…something was still wrong. "If you're as strong as you say you are, why haven't you taken out OZ?"

"I've tried," Duo said and he frowned when he said the words. His eyes seemed to get distant as he talked, though Heero started to wonder if that was just his imagination. "Once. It ended in failure." He let it die off there. Heero wanted to ask him more about it. He could tell Duo was keeping something hidden about the incident; something about the way his eyes darkened let him know.

But Heero had more things he needed to know. "Who is 01?" Heero asked. The door opened to the room and he looked up seeing Trowa carrying some bags inside. He only gave a brief nod before he returned his attention to Duo waiting on the other's answer. "Well?"

"01 is…." Duo frowned again staring at the blank TV screen. "He was with me at OZ. The both of us were homeless little brats who worked together to get food and stuff for the others in our gang. He was the leader and everyone looked up to." He laid back again staring up at the ceiling making himself comfortable. Trowa brought Heero a plate of fried chicken and French fries and, though he wasn't big on eating this greasy stuff, he ate it to get at least some nutriment in his body. In a place like this, beggars couldn't be picky…or whatever the saying was.

"The both of us were captured by OZ during a food run and brought to the laboratory. You probably wouldn't believe it but the two of us were the first two subjects in their experiments. A couple of homeless kids without a family? Heh, who would think to look for us?" He rolled over staring at Heero just as the other was about to take a bite out of the chicken leg and grinned though he kept going with his story.

"Anyway, I'm making this too long. Long story short, they injected us, spent like five years or something there. By then we were old enough and smart enough to know that we needed to get out of that place. With all those enhancing drugs and all the stuff we could do, we took the chance." He got up walking over to the food on the table by the window and grabbed himself a plate putting his meal together.

"We slipped past cameras and scientist, and took out soldiers like it was nothing. It wasn't until we were halfway to the exit that they finally put a stop to us. But while I managed to escape, 01 didn't. He got shot, beaten, and had his arms and legs broken unnaturally by some weird mechanical robots that I was sure he'd died. Those robots are made out of some pretty strong metal, stronger than what we were used to at the time. We're superhuman but we're not completely invincible. Sure, we can handle some explosives, having buildings fall on us, guns…but those things…."

He shuddered at the thought of them and it literally made Heero want to know what exactly those robots were made out of to cause that kind of reaction. Dare he say it? He was curious and wanted to see for himself these robots of OZ.

"They play a sound, something regular people can't hear but we can hear. It makes it feel like your brain is being ripped from your head and messes with your senses. It apparently effects the not being hurt part of things…like it cancels out the effects of the drugs."

Duo ate a French fry before he continued talking. "So of course I thought he was dead…I had to keep moving to get away."

"But he's alive…"

"Yeah…" Duo moved again sitting in front of the other two on the bed. "He's alive somehow…and he's working for OZ."

"Brainwashing?"

"It's possible." Duo shrugged taking a bite of his chicken. "Whey mere wrhing mer woo wat."

"…Quit chewing with your mouth full," Heero said glaring. Well that wasn't attractive at all.

"Wowwy," Duo said and swallowed before he continued speaking. "I said they were trying to do that. Guess it may have worked out for them."

He didn't say anything else until his food was finished. It was surprising how quickly the boy ate off the rest of the plate as if he hadn't had a bite to eat all his life. Well maybe it had to do with being shot to death without dying. Sitting his plate to the side, Duo stood up stretching and forcing Heero to look away from the rising shirt. "Geez, I feel like someone just threw mud all over me. Hope you guys don't mind but I'm taking me a bath. Not that it'd make a different in this smelly place but I can just pretend anyway."

"Wait…"

"Why?" Duo looked down at Heero and it looked like his eyes were sparkling at that moment as he smirked falling into his mischievous state. "Gonna join me?"

"…I might."

"Heh, just like I thought. Well I'm gonna go and…wait, w-what?"

"I said I might," Heero repeated in perfect seriousness. Duo was flabbergasted, his mouth wide open and his cheeks red as he stared at him like he was a madman. Heero hadn't expected the reaction, but he found it amusing. Here 02 was acting like the big tough guy but a couple of words from Heero made him blush like a teenager…which he was technically. "There's a window in there," Heero said looking up at him. "Your protection is still priority. It'd be more efficient if I were to-"

"Argh! Really! I'm only playing around! Stop taking things so seriously! I-I can handle myself!" He sounded frustrated and the red in his cheeks showed he was still feeling pretty embarrassed. It was a cute aspect of his that Heero had started taking notice of. Duo may act like a pervert, but in reality he was like an innocent wallflower.

Heero was willing to bet he was probably still a virgin. Every time Heero would go to undress to bathe or even just to change, the other was quick to find a way to leave. It was a good way of keeping the braided one out of his hair but it also served to mess up that little cocky act of his. He was learning some things about OZ's little test subject.

"I'm going to go take my bath!" Duo yelled out standing by the bathroom door and looking back at the both of them. "And don't even THINK about coming in here!"

"…He's acting like a girl," Trowa said standing and looking over at Heero, amusement in his eye. It was good to see that the other had relaxed after hearing the story. Despite how Duo acted, he was too pure. Though he did keep a lot of secrets from them, he didn't lie about them. He more like left them out of the story on purpose. But so far that Heero had noticed, the male didn't lie. It must have had something to do with his past, or maybe with being with Maxwell Church for so long. He'd told Heero that guns didn't hurt him and he meant it. If Heero didn't believe him then that was his own fault.

Heero sniffed in response and turned pulling his laptop from its bag. "That's because he is a girl." He was referring back to Duo's little stunt earlier at the safe house, the whole cross-dressing and trying to trick the others. The braided one picked up on the little joke because he blew out an exasperated breath before going into the bathroom and slamming the door shut, only taking a moment before Heero heard the distinct click of the door's lock.

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Time: 11:30 hours

Dear Diary,

Heero sucks. It's official. As for the rest of my day, it's been pretty annoying too. The others found out about my uh…condition. And 01's still alive which would be a good thing if he wasn't trying to kill me. I don't know exactly what's going on or why 01…no…why Solo's even alive but I do know I'm going to do everything in my power to find out. I just wanted to type something in here cause I don't know how long we'll be travelling or when my next chance will be.

Also, Trowa sucks too. It's official. He's as bad as Heero though he's sneakier in the way he does it. Heero's just flat out blunt. I've also noticed that lately I can't read any of Heero's thoughts. He must either really not be thinking about anything, or he's learned how to keep me from reading his thoughts. Anyway, I need to get to bed. I think we're getting up pretty damn early in the morning to continue our "adventure." Maybe we'll find a +1 sword on the way to our destination or something. That'd be awesome, actually. See ya!

Duo Maxwell.

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TBC…

Because I so adore this story. Chapter 11's already done I just gotta get around to the whole proofreading part of it.