Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 25: The Father that Isn't, Wasn't, and Wouldn't
Zechs Merquise (born as Milliardo Peacecraft) had been a man long driven by his need to avenge the murder of his parents and the sacking of the Sanc Kingdom. He'd donned his mask to hide both his true identity and his emotions as he turned his back on his family's belief in total pacifism in order to obtain his revenge. By the time the five Gundams had been sent to Earth in order to fight against OZ and the Alliance, Zechs believed that there was no room for warmth or compassion in his war-hardened heart.
His first encounter with the Gundam Wing over the Pacific Ocean started out as just another assignment right up until the sunken Gundam and his modified Leo vanished without a trace. He was curious as to how the pilot had both managed to survive and recover the two suits in less than twenty-four hours when he knew they had been damaged during the short battle and undoubtedly further damaged upon impact with the ocean. The man had seen pictures of the various bases around the world that had been attacked by the elusive Gundams but wouldn't see the destructive power of a Gundam first hand until a different suit attacked the Lake Victoria Base in Africa and destroyed the prototype Taurus suits roughly forty-eight hours after his first encounter.
When a second Gundam suit vanished in the same general location as the first one just two days later it signaled the start of a growing obsession as Zechs first began actively hunting for any sign of the two missing Gundams and then began hunting for a mobile suit that could fight with the Gundams on an even footing. Just over a week later, the last three Gundams had turned up in the location where the first two had disappeared and proceeded to systematically destroy the troops they had patrolling the area. When Zechs had shown up twenty-five minutes later with reinforcements, it was to find that the two missing Gundams had apparently been hiding in the area and he hoped to get his hands on the suits and their pilots only for all five Gundams to make a clean escape with the help of a small rebel faction.
Thinking that there might be a hidden base in the area and that they might yet again return to claim anything left behind, Zechs continued to patrol the area for the next week before he was ordered to carry out a handful of other missions. Ten days after leaving the area, he received the news that two of the Gundams had returned to that same stretch of beach. Once again, by the time he arrived with reinforcements the battle was pretty much over and the Gundams were retreating.
Only this time they'd encountered someone who had a weapon that could destroy a mobile suit with a single shot (an unidentified weapon that wasn't linked to one of the Gundam suits). The few videos and photos that were taken during the short battle were both vague and blurry but in one Zechs could make out what looked like a young child standing on the back of some kind of personal craft. That same night Relena Darlian was supposedly killed by terrorists and a second picture of what almost looked like the same child appeared; though Zechs would not see that photo until long after he'd met the child in question.
Zechs actually put the child (and his unacknowledged grief over the death of his sister) from his mind as he worked to repair the Tallgeese suit he'd retrieved from out of the ruins of the Corsica Base.
The failed assassination of the Alliance officials at New Edwards Base followed by the less than successful take over of the Alliance bases around the world (including a failed attempt to liberate the Sanc Kingdom) occupied Zechs' mind right up until Lady Une set up a trap in order to capture or destroy the Gundams. Zechs actually looked forward to testing the Tallgeese against the pilot of the Gundam that he'd battled but for a brief moment the day the Gundams fell from the sky. When confirmation came that the suit he'd faced in battle previously had appeared over the air route of the false transport, Zechs had headed towards what he thought would be a defining moment in his life.
And in a way it was; though it in no way ended the way he thought and at one point hoped it would.
The battle between the Tallgeese and the Gundam Wing went as expected, though Zechs had been more than a little surprised and confused to find that it was far harder to inflict damage on the other suit than it had been the first time he encountered the Gundam. It was after Lady Une interrupted the battle to deliver her threat that Zechs received a jolt of shock and things became even more confusing for the not quite twenty year old. The moment he saw that child step out of the cockpit of the Gundam he'd been fighting Zechs had been pole-axed by sheer disbelief.
When said child then went on to activate the self-destruct sequence in response to Une's threat, Zechs' heart screeched to a halt even as the explosion that followed shook the ground and showered his suit with debris. That the child's body had survived the explosion in one piece had been a surprise and Zechs had exited his suit (after discovering that the suit's systems had been completely fried) and approached the child's body with the vague idea that he needed to give the child a proper burial.
As he stared down at the broken body, the only question running through Zechs' mind had been; why? Why would a child be piloting a suit, why would a child feel the need to fight, and why (oh why) would a child throw away his life in such a terrible way. He must have spoken out loud at some point because to his shock the child had opened pain-filled emerald eyes that burned with a mixture of fear, hate, and anger and glared up at Zechs as he rasped out a broken response that would haunt Zechs for a long time.
Someone like you couldn't possibly understand.
Another Gundam had lifted the broken child from the ground shortly after that (nearly stomping on him in the process) and Zechs could only stare after the retreating suit in utter disbelief as he tried to understand exactly what had just happened. Zechs had changed that day; something inside of him had been shaken loose by the child pilot and he floundered under the feeling of guilt that ate at him over the knowledge that if the kid had not self-destructed and if Une had not interfered he would have tried his damnedest to kill the child first.
It was not a pleasant realization and Zechs found himself praying for the first time in years. Praying that the child had survived, praying that he could find the child once more, and praying that he could one day understand that which the child had claimed he never would. He hunted for any trace of the child for close to five weeks before he finally allowed Treize to order him back to Luxembourg though it was with an empty and paradoxically heavy heart that he complied.
Imagine his surprise when he came face to face with the face that haunted his memory and his dreams shortly after landing at the Luxembourg airport on a circus flyer. The child's hair had been bleached and styled differently and he was obviously wearing a colored contact but there was no mistaking that jagged scar upon his brow. It hadn't taken much to get a disgruntled circus worker to provide photographs of the youngest Sibling of the Knife and any doubts Zechs might have had about the kid being the one he was looking for disappeared in an instant when he saw the picture of the kid without the changes to his appearance wearing two casts while boldly standing inside of a snake cage with a huge python.
Zechs attended four different shows in order to watch the boy perform over the course of the next several days. The first time he'd seen the kid perform he'd been shocked, stunned, and terrified in turns as he watched the boy play with the knives while hundreds of deadly and dangerous snakes literally swarmed all over him. He'd grown angry that the two older teens allowed such a young boy to take part in such a dangerous act let alone allowed him to pilot a suit and in that instant Zechs decided that the boy needed a proper roll model because he obviously didn't have any regard for his own life. Treize had gladly helped him to bribe the ringmaster of the circus to arrange for a private performance and make plans to take the child into custody.
Never did any of them expect the kid to be happy to be taken from his supposed family but neither did they expect the kid to retaliate with the level of sheer violence that he had. It was like the child had multiple personalities; the awed and excited tourist, the dedicated and talented actor, an over-exhausted child, the calm and composed high-class dinner guest, the shy child afraid of being scolded, the belligerent, foul mouthed brat, and then the wild animal seeking escape. The next day had revealed even more sides to the troublesome child-pilot; the clever vandal, the calculating soldier, the cold hearted murderer, the distraught little brother, the mistrusting and paranoid captive, and finally the empty robotic shell.
Zechs had barely kept up with the kid's many mood swings and keeping up with him physically hadn't exactly been a walk in the park either. He had been the only one not caught off guard by the boy choosing to stay in the dungeons as opposed to being treated like a guest. What he hadn't expected was for the kid to completely flip out after Treize announced that it would be Zechs taking charge of the kid. Nor had he expected him to go into shock once he'd been caught and strip searched for any more weapons.
He had actually expected the child to cuss and curse up a storm and fight them every step of the way and when he didn't behave as expected, it made Zechs wonder what the child had experienced in his short life. It wouldn't be until after he spent about a week analyzing the video footage of the scene in Treize's office and later during the boy's second escape attempt, that Zechs attributed the child's shock to the death of what must have been his treasured pets in combination with the mild concussion he'd received when Une had tossed him into the window.
Two days; that was how long it had taken for the child to return to reality. Once he did, the kid began playing mind games with the guards and confusing the hell out of those watching the security cameras as he pulled clothes, food, a deck of cards, and other various items out of seemingly thin air. Zechs himself had been disturbed more than once by the kid's reactions to his attempts to convince the child to cooperate with Treize; the memory of his insane laughter that first visit still haunted Zechs' dreams. Zechs also couldn't help but be impressed at the kid's ability to cope with the solitary confinement when Zechs had known grown men to crack after the first week of solitude.
He suspected that the kid probably could have lasted for several more months if not for the inference of Une. Zechs had never much cared for Une or her ruthlessness and he'd nearly shot the woman himself after he learned that she'd fully intended to have a trio of the guards rape the kid in order to break him. He too had noted the kid's aversion to physical contact after watching him for two months, it was fairly obvious to see that someone had abused or misused the boy at some point.
It easily explained the kid's many personalities too; since the kid would have needed some way to deal with whatever had happened to him. That Une had attempted to use that same knowledge against the kid had been unacceptable to Zechs and he'd gotten into a yelling match with Treize over her actions that night; something that had never happened before. He didn't quite quit OZ at that point but Zechs did storm out of the damaged castle as he once again began hunting for the child that stirred his heart.
Lucrezia Noin, devoted as she was to Zechs, had followed him as he desperately hunted through orphanages, circuses, and known criminal haunts throughout Europe and Asia in an effort to find the child. He suspected the other four Gundam pilots had helped the boy escape but because the castle's security had been knocked off-line they had no proof since there had been no eye witnesses left alive that had seen the boy escape. Lucrezia tried to talk him into giving up his obsession but he'd ended up sending her up to the colonies in order to track down and protect his younger sister after learning that Une was taking political refugees into custody after Treize had sent the woman into space following the aftermath of the destruction of the Luxembourg Castle (his guilt over not protecting her earlier prompting him to rectify the matter).
Zechs, in the mean time, continued his efforts to hunt down his missing ward. When he learned of the strange and untraceable thefts that were occurring at OZ bases around the world; he soon came to the conclusion that the Gundams were planning to return to space. Knowing that, Zechs thought it would be a simple matter to confront them the moment they left Earth's atmosphere and bring the child back into his care. He'd made plans and headed out into space as soon as he could and waited for an unauthorized shuttle to exit the atmosphere.
He pounced on the shuttle just minutes after it broke free of the Earth's atmosphere, only to see said shuttle vanish right before his eyes within minutes of hailing the pilot of the craft with instructions to dock the shuttle at a nearby space station (so that he could search the ship for the kid and potentially take the other pilots into custody). Frustrated, Zechs settled himself into place as the commanding officer of the Lunar Base so he would not have to deal with Lady Une on a regular basis and so he could oversee the construction of the new Gundams that Une had bullied the Gundam scientists into creating to counter the Gundam suits on earth.
Two weeks after taking command of the Lunar Base, Zechs finally had his first clue as to where the pilots might have vanished to only for them to seemingly be killed when a stolen manufacturing satellite had been destroyed by the colony from which it had been stolen. Zechs had long since stopped believing that the Gundam pilots could be so easily killed though and merely waited for their next move. He was rewarded for his patience when various political prisoners began disappearing from their cells without a trace and without any obvious rescue teams breaking into the facilities. Then more equipment began to go missing.
Eventually, the Star Suits began making appearances; suits that were just as hard to damage as the Gundams had been during the ambush that Une had executed. Suits that were piloted by individuals that pulled off unbelievable stunts that would have killed any other pilot in any other suit. One pilot stood out above the other five though; that of the suit designated as Dogstar. Video footage of the pilot pulling death defying stunts at the drop of a hat or engaging in battles where the odds were stacked against him reminded Zechs of the kid juggling a dozen or more knives while allowing hundreds of deadly snakes to crawl all over him; the pilot even had customized knives that his suit could throw.
Zechs just knew that the pilot of the Dogstar was the kid that had awoken his parental instinct to nurture and protect; feelings that Zechs had been feeling ever since he'd stood over the broken child after the self-destruction of the Gundam Wing (though he hadn't recognized them for what they were until after he'd first seen the child perform). Zechs spent the next month and a half creating the perfect trap in which to capture the kid he believed needed his guidance and all he needed was the right bait. To his shock said bait fell into his lap when Lady Une unexpectedly captured two of the Star Pilots and their suits when they tried to steal OZ's new battleship.
He'd then fought for sixteen hours to get at least one of the suits and both pilots turned over to him. He was doubly glad he'd insisted on taking charge of the two men when he recognized the green eyed pilot as the kid's supposed older brother; especially after he'd noted that Une had allowed her soldiers to rough the two teens up a bit. Dealing with the suit Une grudgingly let him take proved to be a bigger headache than he wanted but he needed to have it broken down so he could find its weaknesses only to find that no one could touch it without getting electrocuted, bar the two pilots.
Once he had both pilots and the suit safely on base (something that had taken more than a little ingenuity), Zechs leaked the news of their capture in order to lure his intended prey into trying to free them. Eighteen hours after the information was leaked, his trap was sprung by another of the Star Pilots but not the one he really wanted to catch and so he reset the trap in the hopes that the next one to turn up would be Dogstar's pilot. He'd begun to think the kid wasn't going to show until the news that the kid had just helped destroy one of the larger holding stations for the mobile dolls being shipped to space from Earth reached him.
He figured it was only a matter of time before the kid learned of the captures as he'd obviously not been keeping track of the news while executing his mission. The seeming malfunction of one of the silo doors barely a day after the destruction of that station let Zechs know his trap had drawn another target. He hadn't been certain he'd drawn the right target at first and even began doubting that the malfunction had indeed been someone infiltrating the base until the reports of impossible pranks going off all over the base and of soldiers falling inexplicably ill after eating in the cafeteria over the roughly eighteen hours after the malfunction. Further confirmation came when the two Star Suits had vanished right in front of his eyes almost twenty-four hours after the malfunction.
He knew then that the kid was on the base and looking for his brother and the other two pilots because he'd never met another that could manipulate objects quite like the kid could. He began doubting his conviction when he'd learned that the third suit, the one he'd left with Une to keep her off his back about taking charge of all three pilots, vanished nearly at the same time as the two that disappeared from his lab. He'd gone down to check on the imprisoned pilots and after the shock of finding them still in their cell (he'd expected the child to have gone after them first, after all) he'd spent several minutes interrogating the teens before returning to his office.
Not more than ten minutes after leaving the third level, the base's alarms were triggered as one of the guards discovered that the three pilots had vanished from their cells in the blink of an eye. The kid had taken the bait and now Zechs found himself scrambling to spring the trap before the kid could pull his disappearing act. He'd watched the unfolding battle with unwavering fascination and a growing since of dread when he realized that the kid was fighting alone; the other three pilots had vanished completely. Zechs had immediately reissued his order to take the kid alive; not wanting the child to be killed when he was so close to being taken into custody once more.
He'd then began making his way down to the lowest level when it became clear that the kid would soon be trapped so he could be on hand the moment he was captured. A large part of him disliked the fact that he'd needed to employ the use of excessive force in order to prevent the kid from fighting his way free or vanishing like the three pilots had (he really needed to know how they did that) but he wasn't about to allow the kid to escape yet again.
When he arrived in the corridor where the boy had been cornered, he'd been blindsided with a jolt of guilt the moment he saw how badly the kid had been wounded. He brushed the feeling away though as he recalled just how many wounded, dying, and dead soldiers the boy had left in his wake during the twenty minute chase. At least he'd made certain that those taking part in the trap knew not to fire any lethal shots because he'd have been more than a little upset if one of them had killed the child. Stepping up to the wounded and paint covered kid; Zechs removed the kid's helmet and was met by an almost familiar face and pain-filled mismatched eyes.
"You are one difficult child to track down, son," Zechs declared almost fondly as he reached out and wiped away the blood trickling down the boy's chin from his mouth.
"Fuck you," was the kid's response before he attempted to spit in Zechs' face; the older man simply shifting out of the way to avoid being hit.
"Still as foul mouthed as ever I see," Zechs mused as he reached up further to brush the hair away from the kid's sweaty brow; absently noting the dark smudges beneath the kid's eyes that hinted at the kid having pushed himself to exhaustion in his efforts to rescue the other pilots. "And still the same ragged scar adorning your brow." Zechs then stepped back as he signaled to the two soldiers holding the kid. "Get him up to the infirmary and get him striped out of that space suit so his injuries can be treated. Make certain you search him for any knives or guns and that you watch out for venomous snakes; though I doubt any snake would have lasted very long out here in space."
"Keep your filthy hands to yourself you disgusting maggot infested toads."
Zechs watched as the kid was dragged towards the lift; the kid fighting the soldiers despite the fact that he had to be in a considerable amount of pain from his multiple gunshot wounds on top of the exhaustion. Zechs sighed and stepped forward to knock the kid on the back of the head in order to knock him out so that he didn't cause any further damage to himself. He left the rest of the soldiers to collect the dead and wounded soldiers spread throughout the entire lower level as he followed along behind the two carrying the kid to the infirmary in order to be on hand should the kid wake up before they could treat his injuries and try to make a break for it. The sound of voices coming from the helmet in his hand drew Zechs' attention for a moment as he listened to their frantic calls before answering back.
"Taliesin? Taliesin, what is happening? Taliesin!"
"Taliesin, this is Heero, you need to get the hell out of there now! Do you hear me, Taliesin? Taliesin, answer me damn it! Taliesin…? Harry…? Damn it, Harry, say something!"
"This is Zechs Merquise; you have exactly twenty-four hours in which to give yourselves up if you wish for the child to remain unharmed," Zechs stated as he activated the radio in the helmet. "If, at the end of twenty-four hours all five of the remaining Star Pilots have not surrendered, we will publicly execute the one you call Taliesin Bard as an example to the Resistance."
A chorus of curses and insults rose from the radio connection but Zechs didn't bother to listen, simply shutting off the radio off before he tucked the helmet beneath his arm; he could get rid of it and the ruined spacesuit the child was wearing later. The one named Heero had just offered up another confirmation that Zechs had caught the correct kid as he recalled the boy going by the name Harry when he'd been with the circus. He wondered which of the three names he'd used at some point was the kids real name though; Harry Barton, James Black (a name he'd learned through Lucrezia Noin after he'd sent her to protect his little sister), or Taliesin Bard.
They reached the infirmary at that point and after depositing the kid on a bed the two soldiers proceeded to strip the spacesuit from the boy; which needed to cut free from the kid because of his injuries. Zechs winced when he noted the extent of the damage done from both the bullets and the energy blasts. And the amount of blood the kid had lost couldn't be good; both the spacesuit and the kid's clothes were utterly soaked. Zechs soon forgot about the kid's injuries though when he noticed the changes the kid had gone through in the five or so months since he'd last seen him.
First, the kid was several inches taller, had lost a considerable amount of weight (to the point where he looked fairly gaunt), and his black hair had red highlights that he imagined would bring out the blues and greens of his eyes. The first word that sprang to mind when looking at the boy was delicate and the second one was tragic when one took in the blood soaking through his clothes and pooling on the bed beneath him. Of course, his new look or quite possibly his old look might have been an illusion (not counting the very real injuries). He definitely didn't look quite so young and helpless now and that bothered Zechs more than he cared to admit.
"Get him out of those clothes and one of you track down one of the doctors; he needs to be stitched up before he bleeds to death."
Zechs had barely finished issuing the order when one of the doctors had turned up to find out what the commotion was. That was about the same time they'd just finished cutting the two shirts from the kid's back, only for the biggest shock of all to reveal itself.
Wings? Where the hell did those come from? And how the hell has he been hiding them? Zechs wondered to himself as he stared at the metallic looking black and green, feathery scaled wings as the doctor set about treating the boy's many injuries.
He thought maybe it was more genetic engineering but he knew of no way that wings could be grafted onto someone's back without there being scars or how they could give the wings body heat and a blood supply. In the end, it was just yet another thing he needed to ask the child.
Harry groaned as he finally felt reality pull him back out of his mindscape and felt the pain of his injuries slam into him with a vengeance. Worse yet, he could feel something binding his wings tightly on top of his own slight weight bearing down on them and the physical pain of restriction coupled with the intangible pain that restriction inflicted upon his core and his soul burned. He struggled to reach back in order to free his wings to ease the pain only to find that he'd been strapped down to the bed he was lying in. Opening his eyes, Harry found himself in a sterile room with walls of cold metal and cursed as he pulled his eyes from the shiny walls in order to glance down at his body.
His legs had been strapped down with three wide straps that were drawn tight on top of a blanket over his ankles, just below his knees, and in the middle of his thighs. The blanket had then been turned down and an additional two straps were secured across his abdomen and across his chest. His arms were over top of those straps with his left arm secured to the rail of the bed with a pair of thick handcuffs and his upper right arm wrapped tightly in bandages and strapped lightly across his stomach. A glance over his shoulder (which was difficult due to the way he was laying) revealed that there were additional straps wrapped around his wings; holding them tightly folded.
From what he could tell the only stitch of clothing he was wearing, aside from the blanket covering his waist and legs, was the elbow length glove he'd secured onto his right arm with a specialized sticking spell to prevent it from being removed and the pair of silver handcuffs that Harry still wore around his left wrist (Harry having refused to allow anyone to take them off as they were supposed to be his reminder not to act without planning and he'd magically fixed them so that no one else could remove them from his person). Not that that reminder had done him any good, seeing as how he'd allowed himself to get caught once again; though to be fair, he'd been rather exhausted at the time and then he'd not had even a second's time to actually think as he'd been chased through the base by an endless number of soldiers.
Desperate to free his wings and cut the amount of pain he was feeling in half, Harry bent his right wrist and slipped his ring and middle finger into the opening in the palm of his glove (which had been cut to allow for skin to wand contact when casting) and dug out the combination lock pick and file he kept tucked beneath the glove between the hidden pocket that he'd made to hold his lock picks. He thought the edge of the file would be sharp enough to allow him to cut through the straps holding him in place if given enough time. He wished he'd thought to keep one of his throwing knives in his glove since using one of them would be far easier and far quicker.
He'd barely managed to pull the small tool free from his glove and adjust the grip on the tool in his hand so he could start working on the straps holding his right arm in place when a hand wrapped around his wrist. Gritting his teeth and silently cursing himself for not realizing he hadn't been alone, Harry looked up from where he'd been watching what he was doing to find Zechs standing over him as the masked man pulled the combo file and pick from his fingers. Harry glared at the man and desperately wished he'd thought to dispose of the man when he'd had the chance earlier in the elevator.
"I must say you are far more resourceful than I originally thought you might be," Zechs declared as he sat down on the edge of the bed after pocketing the lock pick. "You've managed to make quite a mess in the short time you were running free through the base and it will take my men months to clean everything up. I am curious as to how you managed to pull off half of the tricks you did considering you had nothing but the clothes you were wearing when we found you. There will be plenty of time for that later though. First, there are several more important questions I'll need you to answer."
Harry snorted and sneered at the man as he growled out, "What makes you think I'll cooperate any more now than I did the last time you had me imprisoned?"
"The three young pilots you attempted to free in addition to the two that had been helping you attempt to free them are currently in Lady Une's custody and I am the only one standing between them and Lady Une's wrath. So long as you cooperate; I will insure that they are unharmed. And before you think to deliver a similar threat to the one you used to turn the tables on Treize; you should know that I am the only one who currently has access to you and this room and should you harm me there will be no one to prevent Une from doing as she wishes in regards to the rest of the Star Pilots. Should you attempt to further damage or destroy this base it will only allow Une to use you as an excuse to harm them."
"I don't believe you."
In response, Zechs pulled seven photos from within his uniform jacket and held them up one at a time so that Harry could see them. The first one showed Rockstar, Northstar, and Dragonstar sitting in the research lab from which Harry had earlier retrieved Deathstar and Superstar. The second showed all five of Harry's brothers sitting side by side with their hands cuffed behind their back with both Zechs and Lady Une standing just behind them. And the last five pictures each showed one of his brothers being held in a separate cell with Lady Une standing just outside of the bars.
Harry couldn't refute the authenticity of the first two photos because he could clearly see the subtle differences in the suits that made them easy to tell apart and until now no one had linked Quatre or Wufei to the Star Pilots. Harry closed his eyes against the pain rising in his heart, instinctively knowing that it was his fault that they'd all been captured. He desperately wished he could lash out at the man beside him with his magic but the very real threat hanging over his brothers' heads prevented him from giving into the rage coursing through him (that and he knew just how risky it was to lose control of his magic out here in space).
"Let's start with a really simple question; which one of the three names you have used is your real name?"
"None of them; I never knew my name," Harry replied sullenly in a fit of passive defiance as he opened his eyes to glare up at the man; a large part of him refusing to let the masked man know his birth name. And technically, he hadn't lied to the man; none of the names he'd used publicly were his real name (at least not fully) and he really hadn't known what his name was until the Dursleys had been forced to tell him the day they enrolled him in public school.
"I find that hard to believe."
"Doesn't really matter what you believe," Harry countered flippantly. "Whether or not you believe me won't change the fact that I was telling you the truth." Just not the whole truth, Harry silently added as he continued to glare at the man.
"Which name have you used the longest?"
"Taliesin Bard."
"When and where were you born?"
"I wasn't."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said I wasn't born."
"You are starting to try my patience and if you continue, your fellow pilots will be the one to suffer the consequences. You need to answer the question."
I did; not my fault you didn't like my answer. I wasn't born. I was dumped on the porch of a family that didn't want me and they cast me out to sea in the hopes that I'd drown; only I got washed up on the beach instead."
"When and in what country?" Zechs demanded with an irritated scowl.
"Don't know, don't care."
"How old are you?"
"Old enough to know that I'm not supposed to talk to strangers that have an unhealthy interest in little boys and insist on asking me personal questions."
"You need to start cooperating before I run out of patience," Zechs practically growled.
Harry didn't respond to the verbal warning, his focus being drawn back to the pain he was feeling as his wings tried to shift in response to his growing irritation over the minor interrogation. He tried shifting in his restraints in order to relieve the pressure on his wings but that only made his injuries flare up. His frustration only increased with the increase in pain and after another minute of struggling; his wings caught fire and in turn caught the mattress and sheets on fire. Zechs jumped back with a startled cry and Harry gave a hoarse cry of triumph when the bindings on his wings and the restraints on his torso snapped.
He'd just pulled himself up into a sitting position to stretch his wings out to either side when Zechs put both him and the bed out with a fire extinguisher. The cold foam clung to Harry and his wings, the foam itself irritating and chilling his wings as the flames were instantly doused. Harry shook his wings to clean them off but the stuff clung to the scales and seeped in between them where it caused further irritation. The foam that landed on Harry's gloved right hand created further problems as it managed to creep beneath the glove at the edges to aggravate his damaged nerves. After several minutes spent trying to clean his wings off, Harry sat panting and shivering as the pain and sudden chill sapped what little strength he'd had.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Zechs demanded irately as he dropped the extinguisher.
"Go piss up a rope without a raincoat you… you… maggot infested mound of manticore shite," Harry snapped back weakly.
"Your current attitude leaves much to be desired."
"Who the hell cares? I didn't ask for you to stalk me, shoot me, or hold me prisoner."
"I was not stalking you; I simply wished to see to it that you were taken care of and provided with a proper role model. You need a guardian to look out for your best interests and teach you how to integrate yourself into society."
"Oh sweet Circe above preserve me from this madman!" Harry gasped as he stared at Zechs in a mixture of shock and horror. The idea that the masked man was trying to set himself up as a father figure for Harry far worse than his darkest nightmares stemming from his old life and at the same time completely surreal. "What god did I piss off to deserve this?"
"One day you will thank me."
"You are completely and utterly delusional," Harry replied slowly as he leaned further away from the man; unable to go far due to the straps still binding his legs.
To Harry's shock, the man reached up and slowly removed the mask that covered his head and face, revealing a rather handsome man with pale blue eyes that held far more kindness than Harry would have thought possible given his past experiences with the man. Like the first time Harry had seen Quatre, Zechs' true face reminded Harry sharply of a Malfoy though in this case the long hair and aristocratic aloofness brought to mind Lucius Malfoy rather than Draco. He also didn't appear to be any where near as old as Harry had imagined he would, looking to be somewhere in his early twenties.
"We have much we can learn from each other, I think," Zechs declared as he set about unlocking the cuff holding Harry's left arm in place before cuffing his hands together in front of him. He then began removing the rest of the restraints holding Harry in place before binding his ankles together with a second pair of cuffs. "I understand it will take time until you learn to trust me but I am willing to wait."
"Why? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"Because I wish to understand what it is that you think I could never understand."
Harry was too confused by that statement to struggle when Zechs lifted him out of the bed and carried him to what he'd originally thought was a blank stretch of wall. As they got within a foot of the wall a hidden door slid open to reveal a rather sparse bathroom with nothing but a sink, a toilet, and a shower with a built in seat (obviously designed with hospital patients in mind). Zechs set him down on the lid of the toilet and turned on the water in the shower in order to allow it to warm up. Harry was then transferred into the shower and set on the seat so that the water cascaded down over him and his wings; the warm water rinsing away the foam from the fire extinguisher.
"I will be back shortly; I have to replace your bed," Zechs announced once he'd made certain Harry wasn't going to tumble off the seat. "Once I leave this room, the door can only be opened from the outside and even then I am the only one who can open it. There is no other way in or out of this bathroom. So, before you get any clever ideas into your head to cause trouble; remember that I am the only person you will be seeing for the foreseeable future and the only one who can protect your fellow pilots."
With that parting reminder, Zechs removed the handcuffs from Harry hands and feet and shut the shower door with a soft click; leaving Harry free to clean himself. Still reeling from the strange turn of events, Harry just sat beneath the water reveling in the warmth and the slowly fading irritation caused by the foam clinging to his scales for a brief moment. After hearing the hidden door open and close again, Harry shook his head and pushed away all thoughts of Zechs (least he drive himself mad trying to understand the deranged man) as he turned his attention to assessing his injuries.
It didn't take him long to remove the various bandages from his body. He tossed the bloody fabric to the floor as he counted no less than seven bullet wounds (one on his right knee, one on his right thigh, one on his left ankle, two on his left hip, one on the left side of his abdomen just below his ribs, and one to his upper right arm) and three blast wounds (two to his right shoulder and one in his right calf). He was actually surprised at how few wounds he'd picked up when he recalled just how many soldiers had been shooting at him during the short fight; the wards on his spacesuit having protected him from the majority of the beam blasts and gunfire before they'd failed.
All of the wounds had been cleaned and stitched shut; indicating that he'd been tended by a doctor while he'd been unconscious (something that bothered Harry immensely). Harry near whined when he got his first good look at his right shoulder; it was a complete mess and he knew it was going to forever cause him problems if he didn't regrow the damaged bones fairly quickly (before his body and his magic recognized the damaged bone as part of his body) and the skin that had been damaged by the two blasts. And those weren't the only bones he believed he'd need to replace based upon the location of the rest of his wounds.
Turning up the hot water a bit to increase the steam, Harry slipped his wand free of his glove and used the few diagnostic spells he'd learned after he started training with the pilots to determine the internal level of damage that had been done by the bullets. Much as he'd suspected, the bones in his shoulder would need to be regrown as well as those in his left ankle and right knee if he hoped to be up and moving about any time soon. The bullet he'd taken in the abdomen had missed his ribs completely and his left hip wasn't that bad but knowing he couldn't mix taking the Skele-Gro and the Bone-Knit at the same time, he'd need to vanish the bones in his hip anyway in order to take care of everything at once.
Casting several localized numbing charms to ease his pain; Harry resized his supply trunk and carefully floated down inside using his wings so he could gather the potions he would need as well as a change of clothes so he could protect his wings from being bound again. He then returned to the bathroom and replaced the leather cord holding his trunks back to his neck before he set about vanishing the damaged bones of both legs. He also vanished the many stitches, cleaned each wound with the disinfectant he brought up, applied a generous daub of healing cream, and rebandaged them with his wand. Next, he used his wings to hover up off the floor just long enough to pull on the clean underwear and pants he grabbed before tucking himself into the corner so he could disinfect, treat, and bandage the wound near his stomach before he took care of his shoulder and arm.
His shoulder was the most difficult injury to deal with because he had to use his left hand to vanish the bones, disinfect the wounds on both sides of the shoulder, smear it with healing cream, and bandage the entire thing when he was done. Getting into his shirts was a bit of a chore as well since he couldn't use his right arm to help at all. Once he was dressed, he felt much better and quickly turned off the water before using a drying spell to dry himself and his clothes. Next he quickly drank down the double dose of Skele-Gro (because he was regrowing so many bones) and then tucked the two bottles back into the hidden pockets within his undershirt with the rest of the potions he'd gathered so they wouldn't be found. He'd just finished doing that when he heard the door open and he quickly shoved his wand back into its hidden holster within his glove so that Zechs wouldn't see it.
"Good, you are finished. I brought a couple of towels so I could help dry… you…" Zechs started to say only to trail off when he took in the sight of Harry seated in the corner of the seat fully dressed and completely dry. "So it really wasn't one of the soldiers disrupting the cameras within the base while another smuggled you food and clothes. I never would have believed it if I didn't know for a fact that no one else could have gotten in here to give you clothes or help you dress."
"My godfather made certain I knew how to be resourceful," Harry tightly replied in a strained voice as he felt the first splinters of bone reforming and silently growled, Ye gods but I hate regrowing bones.
"You are in pain."
"You had me shot."
Harry was more than a little shocked to see honest regret flitter across the man's face for an instant before it was gone again. Zechs then stepped forward and picked Harry up only to nearly drop him on the ground when the man unexpectedly encountered the missing bones in Harry's legs.
"What the hell did you do?" Zechs demanded harshly as he stared at Harry's limp legs in shock and disgust.
"Whatever chemical based drugs you used to try to heal the damage you caused have been eating away at my bones; and because you doused my flames when I attempted to heal myself, you sped up the process," Harry lied with a straight face and was rewarded with the look on Zechs' face turning to horror.
After a few minutes, Zechs frowned and narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Much like you are allergic to chocolate?"
"Well no… I lied that night… I'm actually allergic to tyrannical imbeciles and their delusional sycophants but it would have been rude to state the truth and it is bad form to insult your host while you are eating his food; even when he had the bad grace to demand your attendance without sending a formal invitation at least two weeks in advance."
Unexpectedly, Zechs started laughing as he carried Harry back out into the sterile hospital room and Harry hunched his shoulders (well one shoulder since his right shoulder was currently boneless) as that was not the reaction he'd been hoping to solicit from the man. By the time Harry was tucked into a new bed with clean sheets, he was sweating heavily and panting against the spikes of pain digging through his legs and shoulder as his bones continued to form in splintered sections.
What was worse was that he couldn't even escape into his mindscape to escape the pain because he didn't trust Zechs enough to leave his helpless body to the man's mercy. That Zechs never once left his side during the process didn't help and Harry was so weak with pain that he didn't even have the strength to curse the man for attempting to comfort him.
It wasn't until the process was finally over as Harry was sitting halfway been consciousness and unconsciousness as the pain slowly faded away that he finally sensed Zechs leaving his side. He breathed a weary sigh of relief as he heard a door open and close and he took the chance provided to fish out the pain relieving and general healing potions he'd hidden in one of the compressed pockets within his undershirt and quickly drank them before returning the empty bottles to the hidden pocket. Sighing softly, Harry finally allowed himself to slip off to sleep so that his magic and the two potions could finish healing his injuries.
The next time he woke it was to find himself once more securely strapped into his bed and the bed being raised so that he was sitting up. Groggily, Harry turned his head to the side and found Zechs locking the bed into place; the man once again wearing his mask. He frowned at the man for a moment before spending a few minutes testing the restraints only to find them snug, secure, and now made from what he suspected was a non-flammable material due to their color and texture. He was at least thankful that his outer shirt hadn't been pulled off again and that his wings were tucked away safe and sound; he didn't think he could have tolerated the non-physical pain in addition to the physical pain of having his wings bound so soon after regrowing so many bones and the lingering pain from his half healed wounds.
"I have made arrangements for you to speak with one of the other pilots once every waking cycle providing you curb your vitriol and you start providing a measure of cooperation. In other words; you will be rewarded for good behavior and punished for any trouble you start. Is that understood?"
Harry glared at the masked man as he weighed his options; continue his minor rebellion against the man's demands or swallow his pride in order to make certain his brothers remained unharmed. If they'd still been on Earth, Harry wouldn't have had any problems razing the entire base with his magic to save his brothers but in space such an action was pure folly; since anyone and everyone inside of the base would die and that could well include his brothers if Zechs had been lying to him about where they were being kept. Dropping his chin down to his chest, Harry silently cursed himself for ten kinds of fools.
"Am I to take your silence as a refusal to cooperate?"
"No," Harry replied tightly even as he felt shame course through him. "I understood exactly what you meant."
"Perfect," Zechs stated as he moved to the wall directly across from Harry's bed and opened up a hidden panel. A few seconds later, another hidden panel on the ceiling opened up and a large screen slid into view. Zechs turned the screen on and an image appeared on the screen but Harry couldn't tell who it was he was seeing because the screen was too far away and he didn't have his glasses. "You will have five minutes."
"I need my glasses. I can't even tell if that is one of my brothers or not."
Zechs pulled Harry's glasses from his pocket and slipped them onto Harry's face before declaring, "Four minutes and forty-six seconds."
Harry glared at the man as he left the room before he glanced back to the screen to see Heero watching him in concern. Swallowing thickly, Harry whispered, "Heero."
"Hey, kid, are you alright?"
"They shot me, Heero; how the hell do you think I am?" Harry snapped back before taking a deep breath and calming himself down. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you; it's my own stupid fault. It doesn't hurt quite as bad now that I fixed the worst of the damage but they'd done far more damage than you did when I first met you. Are you guys alright? What happened? How did they catch all of you?"
"We're as fine as we can be given the circumstances and we've just been worried about you; it's been eight full cycles since you tried to rescue us and we knew you were hurting."
"I was unconscious most of that time, I think. Why didn't you answer my other questions?"
"The circumstances that found us in custody of OZ aren't important. I'm just sorry we got you into this mess, Taliesin."
"What do you mean it's not important? Of course, it's important! The five of you were supposed to get away. And it wasn't your guys' fault that I was caught; I half panicked when the alarms went off and didn't even think to slip out the same way I sent the three of you out," Harry countered softly before he paused a moment and bit his lip.
He then tried to lean forward but found his movement restricted by the bindings securing him to the bed. Growling under his breath, Harry sagged back against the bed before adding, "Heero… what do I do? My creepy stalker has made it his life's mission to torment me with his non-existent parental instincts. He's trying to blackmail me into doing what he says by threatening you five; he claims he's the only one stopping Une from torturing you guys."
"Taliesin, Harry; I want you to listen to me," Heero ordered as he leaned forward and fixed Harry with intense blue eyes filled with determination and concern. "You need to…"
"Don't you dare use my oath, Heero."
"Shut up and listen, Harry," Heero barked, making Harry flinch back in shock over the anger and desperation he could hear in Heero's voice (the latter something he really couldn't recall ever hearing from the teen before). "I know it's the last thing you want to do and that you may well hate me for this but I am ordering you to not fight Zechs and at least comply with any reasonable order he gives. You don't have to tell him anything you don't want to or allow him to force you to do anything inappropriate nor do you have to do anything that will hurt you but don't take any needless risks. Keep your head down and keep yourself safe. There will come a day when all of this is over and we'll find a way out of this mess but until that time I need for you to be strong and survive. Do you understand?"
"Why? Why would you…?"
"Because, it would kill me if anything was to happen to you and right now Zechs is the only one in a position to protect you from the rest of OZ. Promise me…" Heero stated before the screen suddenly went black.
"HEERO!"
"Your five minutes are up," Zechs stated as he reentered the room.
Frustration, anger, and grief welled up inside of Harry, choking him beneath the onslaught and he tipped his head back and took a deep breath before he opened his mouth and screamed. It was a scream fueled by all of the negative emotions he could no longer hold back and his magic sustained the sound of his emotional agony far beyond what a normal human could release. The only reason his magic hadn't lashed out at everything and everyone within reach at the same time was because of Heero's carefully worded order; his magic recognizing the danger such an action would have placed him in because Harry knew what risks were involved in unleashing uncontrolled magic in a space station. When his voice finally fell silent, Harry stared up at the ceiling without actually seeing it as numbness settled over him.
"Are you quite finished now?" Zechs asked as he approached the bed and removed his masked helmet once more.
"Let's get one thing straight," Harry rasped out as he closed his eyes. "I may be stuck here and I may be forced to follow your rules for the time being but you are not my father; I do not see you as my father, I will never want to see you as my father, and you could never be my father. My compliance with your demands has nothing to do with what you wish from me and will only last so long as I am bound by my oath. So do us both a favor and stuff your pathetically patronizing attempts at parenting into the nearest incinerator or I will make you choke on them the first chance I get."
AN: Whistles innocently as she edges closer to the emergency exit. Now, before you all decide to skin me alive for having Heero give Harry the orders he did… there is a reason why he did. It's a really good reason too. But um… you won't find out exactly what it is for another chapter or two but I did give you a couple of hints here in this chapter. And I did give you the promised insight into Zechs' psyche, that counts for something, right? And… and there was defiant, snarky, and sarcastic Harry.
Anyway… I really have to run… I only prepped this chapter because I needed the distraction to deal with the stress over the expected unpleasantness today. I'd hoped to have it up yesterday but I spent the entire day editing The Wishing Door because I needed to refresh my memory on the plot to smooth out a few rough spots in WWYR2. Oh, and I reposted chapter 24 because I fixed a small little plot hole that Mist Shadow reminded me about. You don't have to go back and re-read the entire chapter, all I did was make note of what happened to the shed scales from Harry's wings at the very end of the chapter.
Next chapter will be up sometime later this week, hopefully. If not, you can expect posting to resume no later than New Years but I hope it won't come to that. Wishing Door reposts will take place about that time as well as reposts for Chaos by Request and the first chapter of Discovering the Heart. Haunted hit a snag as I'm trying to fix something I didn't like in the next chapter but haven't been able to concentrate on it so that will be up no later than New Years as well.
Okay, see every soon I hope… and a big thank you to everyone who wished me luck for today as well as to everyone who left a review for me as they helped cheer me up a lot! ~ Jenn