Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa
Warnings: violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams, implied sex, men in drag, etc...
Author's comment: Been a little while but here's the next chapter.
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Operation Blank Conspiracy 49
"Hey Duo!" Duo looked up from the pile of junk in front of him wiping the back of his gloved hand over his forehead. He was covered head to toe in black smudges and soot. He was thankful to be covered up by the dark blue coveralls that seemed to protect his clothes from all the grease and oil stains, his black cap shadowing over his eyes helping to cover up the unique indigo color. He wore shades as well wishing he had those unique contacts that really seemed to hide the unnatural hue. Standing, he headed over to the old man calling out to him. Howard grinned down at him dressed like he was some really cheesy tourist with that ugly Hawaiian shirt on. No one would ever imagine that the old man was the real owner of the junkyard.
"Someone just put in an order to have us pick up some old junk. Think you could handle it for me?"
"You're talking to the great Duo Maxwell," Duo said grinning at him. "Of course I could handle that!" Howard laughed in response reaching out and pushing down on the top of Duo's head. "Damn it, you're treating me like I'm still a kid." Even though he pushed the hand away he couldn't help the smile on his face.
"That's because you are a kid," Howard said before he laughed heading back into the office, Duo following behind him. "I looked into that stuff you wanted me to research for you." Howard walked over to his desk as Duo closed the door behind him.
He took a file from out of his cabinet before he dropped the folder on the desk looking up at Duo. "Dug up what I could on White Fang. There's not much info about them but they are a fairly new group. And one not to be taken likely either." He looked at Duo over his own dark shades, eyes given hint to the intelligence this man really contained. He might look like a giant goofball at a glance, but what he hid in his head could rival even the greatest geniuses of the past. "So you need to be careful when dealing with them." He flopped down in the chair as Duo picked up the folder starting to flip through the contents.
"There's a guy there named Quinze," Howard said gesturing to the folder watching as Duo slid it open and start flipping through it. "He's not exactly your combative type but he is a pretty smart guy." Howard shrugged his shoulders. "Rude, obnoxious, and really annoying but very bright."
Duo frowned stopping at the picture of Quinze. "I know this guy." Duo looked up at Howard, the glow of his indigo eyes shining brightly seeming to gleam through his shades unnaturally. He definitely knew this guy. He's seen him come in a few times during the experiments to check on how his little test subject was going. It was not a face he was fond of seeing. Especially since he remembered the face from long ago when he'd first been taken to OZ. "He was there experimenting on us back at OZ and again at White Fang itself when they kidnapped me."
"It seems like he actually stole a lot of information from OZ concerning the Fly-Z. He must have stolen it before he was dismissed from the former research facility."
Howard stood up walking over to the coffee maker as he grabbed his empty mug to fill it. "Did you know that Treize was the one that closed down the Fly-Z research facilities?" he asked pouring coffee into the cup.
Duo's eyes widened in surprise. "Seriously?" He shook his head quickly. "No way. I don't believe it."
"It took a little while but it happened a few months after he became OZ's leader and the representative of Romefeller. All of the research facilities were shut down and the project was supposed to have been ceased and destroyed." Howard leaned back in the chair. "It just means Quinze found a way to restart the madness again but to fund such a program he'd need a whole hell of a lot of money.…"
Duo frowned remembering something Heero and the others talked about on the shuttle. Granted at the time he was still going through reliving the torture he'd had to live through again. He clenched his jaw shaking his head quickly. No, he didn't need to think about that right now…or ever. "The man who is the leader of White Fang is named Zechs Marquis. But from what Heero and the others said, his real name is Milliardo Peacecraft, brother to Queen Relena of the Sanc Kingdom.'
"Milliardo Peacecraft?" Howard asked, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise. "The same one that was supposed to have died during combat? If we're talking Sanc Kingdom then that's more than enough money to fund this little project of theirs." Howard reached up rubbing at his chin in thought. "Dead man walking, huh? He'd never able to excess the money himself without blowing his secret. He'd need to find someone he trusted to not tell his secrets, someone that would have access to the family's account."
"Someone either close to the family or a family member themselves…" Duo frowned at the words automatically thinking of Relena. He didn't want to think that the queen would resort to such measures to include having him kidnapped and tortured. After all, what would she gain from doing something like that when she was trying to promote peace to the world? Still…Milliardo was still her brother. It would all really depend on how close the two of them had been. An outsider like him wouldn't know the answer to that. Besides, like Howard said, it could have easily been a friend. The easiest way would be to find out directly from Heero and the others who'd been in close contact with the Peacecraft family more than he had.
But right now they were the very last people he wanted to be around. It had nothing to do with his feelings towards them. Hell, honestly he loved them to death. But right now with him lapsing in and out of consciousness randomly, he didn't want to put them into any danger.
He knew something wasn't right. He knew because he could vaguely feel that other presence inside him. He'd felt it before back when he'd destroyed that colony. Dangerous. Right now he was dangerous. And the only person that could probably stop him was Howard. There was a demon inside, a monster that was trying to escape. He didn't know how long he had before it escaped. But the last thing he wanted was to hurt the people closest to him.
"So what are you planning to do with that giant hunk of metal?" Duo gazed over at him trying to ignore the look of caution on Howard's face. He must have blacked out again. Damn, was this annoying.
"Giant hunk of metal?" Oh, he meant the gundam. Duo tilted his head thoughtfully as he stared at him. "Not sure yet. Until I have a use for it, probably keep it hidden here I guess."
"I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to keep calling it the new face of Howard's Junkyard much longer." Duo looked out the window at the giant hunk of metal staring back at him covered in chunks of scrap metal. He literally looked like he had a giant trashy, metal blanket over him.
"I don't know…he doesn't seem to have a problem with it." He smiled fondly at the gundam swearing that a green eye flashed at him before he realized it was just the sun gleaming off it. Ever since that first day he sat in the seat he'd become attached to the dark, sleek metal. It was almost like it'd been made for him.
"Hey Howard!" The voice came from outside, the two of them looking at each other before Howard got up from the chair walking towards the door.
"Yeah, what's up?" Howard yelled back standing at the open door.
"Someone's here saying he wants to talk to you." The man held up a thumb gesturing to the man behind him as Duo tucked his hat down to hide his eyes moving behind Howard to peer at the guest. His fingers went slack and he almost dropped the files in his hand as he stared at the visitor.
"H…Heero?" Heero looked just as shocked before the expression quickly faded away as Heero pushed past the man walking towards them. Duo tensed up stuck between running away and accepting the much welcomed reunion. Because as much as he loved Heero, it'd be better if he wasn't involved with the man. Not in his current state. As Heero got closer, Duo took a step back before he turned around choosing to retreat instead.
"Duo!" The bellow of his name being yelled out froze him in place as he clenched his hands into tight fists. He couldn't move. Even as Heero shoved his way past a flabbergasted Howard and grabbed Duo hugging him tight from behind, he couldn't move. The only thing he could do was close his eyes and savor being in the arms he'd missed so much.
"Heero…"
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"Heero…"
The soft, barely audible call of his name only served to make Heero pull the other closer to him. He could feel the lithe body trembling under his touch and couldn't tell if it was from excitement or fear. One thing he was glad of was that the more he held Duo, the calmer the other's body became. If anything, it actually felt like Duo was leaning back into him more. Good.
"Well then. You must be Heero?" Heero tensed up looking over his shoulder at Howard frowning and tugging Duo to him tighter.
"Howard…."
"That'd be my name, yes." Howard said staring back at him through his dark shades. He wasn't exactly expecting an old man when he thought of Howard. Though then again, he should have known better if both old man Dr. J and Father Maxwell knew him. He couldn't imagine the old man in the Hawaiian shirt to be the creator of the drug Fly-Z. He looked more like an old cheesy tourist wearing that ugly Hawaiian shirt of his.
"Maybe we should take this inside so we're not drawing a bunch of attention," Howard said smirking and lifting a brow eyeing how the two of them were still literally glued together as he slid past Heero and Duo heading inside. Though reluctant, he let Duo slip free from his arms watching him head inside wordlessly before Heero glanced back at the guy still standing where Heero left him staring in confusion at him before Heero followed the others inside closing the door behind him.
The other two were already sitting at the desk with Howard sitting in the large chair behind it. Heero walked over sitting in the chair beside Duo glancing over at the male that made it a point not to look at him.
"I'm sure you've figured out by the fact that you're here now, that I'm the one that made the Fly-Z. And more than likely, you're probably wondering why I made such a dangerous drug." Heero frowned staring across at him as he nodded his head. Howard leaned back in the chair as he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "To be honest, it was never meant to be used as it is now. It was originally made as a drug to cure sickness."
"To cure sickness?" Heero asked staring at him in bewilderment. To think that the dangerous drug Fly-Z was originally made with good intentions? It seemed unthinkable. But then…seeing the effects it had on humans, it didn't seem unlikely. The drug itself wasn't bad…but the actions people took to test it out were inhumane.
"Cancer, Aids, deformities, amputees, heart disease, broken bones, the paralyzed. Basically anything that was a physical medical condition to a person was curable. At least that was the intention anyway. Oz helped to fund the program and things were well on their way.
"Then maybe some guys in Romefeller had a screw loose and thought about using it as an enhancement drug for soldiers. Hell, a drug that could cure almost anything could definitely be used to make an army of super soldiers. I was used to make it faster, stronger. Here I was naïve and thinking it would be used for good without knowing that it would be used for evil intentions.
"No, I didn't pick up on the change until they started ushering in humans like they'd just come off the cattle cart. That's when I happened to see Duo here along with his friend Solo. The two were just children, maybe five or six years old at the time. I knew right then that I couldn't stay there. I quit, told them I'd have no part of it. But they had already planned it out. Quinze was the one to take over the assignment while I was tossed out like garbage. So imagine my surprise a few years later when I saw Duo out on the streets homeless hiding like a stray alley cat."
"Yeah, he found me," Duo said a fond smile sliding to his face. Somewhere during the middle of the story, he'd slid his shades off, the indigo coloring as exotic and captivating as before. He remembered a time where staring into those eyes used to freak him out. Now it was like staring into the most beautiful orbs in the world. "It wasn't necessarily a first friendly encounter either."
"No, Duo lashed out at me the first few times," Howard said before he chuckled glancing at Duo. "It took a little over a week to earn his trust. Had to bribe him with words and food to get him to come out of that alley even though he didn't need food to survive by then."
Howard frowned, his old eyes looking over the rim of his shades down at the table somberly. "Can't blame him for having trust issues after all the things that happened to him. Hell, at the time just the mentioning of Solo's name brought this look of fear over him. Either way, he stayed with me for a few weeks until I was able to get in touch with Father Maxwell." Howard grinned at the mention of the old priest. "Of course I found out the old bastard was a former classmate of mine."
"Getting to the point," Duo cut in ignoring the sour scowl Howard sent his way at the ruined flashback. "Howard left me there at the orphanage and that's how we ended up where we are today."
"You just ruined a perfectly good story!"
"I can't help it that you're longwinded, grandpa."
"Grandpa!" The little bickering put a smile on Heero's face. He was relieved to see that Duo could still smile and act like his usual self. Maybe things would work out ok after all.
"Hey, Heero." Heero blinked focusing on the frown on Duo's face before he looked up at the indigo eyes he'd missed so much.
"Hm?"
"You said that Zechs guy is really the supposed to be deceased older brother to Relena right? Milliardo Peacecraft?" Heero nodded slowly wondering what he was trying to get at. "Howard and I were discussing it earlier." Duo leaned back in the chair folding his arms as he stared down at the desk. "In order for White Fang to continue to run, or really to run at all, they'd need funds." Duo's eyes looked over at him. "Considering that Zechs is part of the Peacecraft family, he'd have more than enough money to get White Fang up and running. But considering that he's supposed to be dead, wouldn't he have to have someone close to him with access to his funds?"
"Someone close…" Heero frowned thinking about it. "Aside from Noin, the only other people he trusted were Relena and…" His eyes grew wide with revelation. "Alfred?"
Duo's eyes grew just as wide. "The butler?" Why did he make it sound like they were playing some kind of mystery murder game?
It made sense. Alfred was their most trusted butler and had been part of the family for years. In part, he'd probably been around since the two of them were babies. Zechs would trust him like he would an uncle, maybe even like a father. Especially since he'd more or less raised them after their parents' deaths long ago.
"He's been around since forever," Heero frowned pulling his phone free. "I'll call Wufei. He might be able to ask Relena if she's seen anything suspicious."
"Before you do that," Duo cut in, eyes darkening seriously as he reached over stopping Heero just by touching his hand. "We should wait until we investigate things on our own." He looked over at Heero. "We should go down to Sanc Kingdom. I can tap into the camera feeds and see if there's anything suspicious on them."
Heero was already shaking his head before Duo even finished. The last thing Heero wanted to do was take Duo back to the place he'd been kidnapped from. Duo wasn't budging though as he kept staring Heero down.
"We don't know for sure who it is that's really helping Zechs," Duo said pushing to his feet. "Right now even Relena, his own sister, could be working in cahoots with him." Heero opened his mouth to speak but Duo cut him off quickly. "Right now, I don't know her enough to fully trust her. If she's really innocent then this would be the easiest way to prove it."
Heero stared up at the intimidating glare before finally relenting. "Fine," he said blowing out of his mouth as he looked away effectively losing the battle. "But I'm escorting you every step of the way." He folded his arms glaring up at Duo in return. "And we're contacting the others as soon as we get answers."
Duo beamed with delight as he nodded finally showing Heero a true smile before it became devious. "Let's go find our traitor then."
TBC….