Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warnin:Male/male sex, eventually, graphic, language, violence, mental instability
Further warnings that are spoilers for the story as well at: http://kracken.bonpublishing.com/fiction/gw/Break%20Point/break%20point%20warning.shtml
Break Point
Chapter One: Discoveries
"He's gone?" Heero looked at the vid screen then, at the very serious
face of Hilde. She looked older. There were lines around her eyes from sun,
hard work, and now, worry. Heero closed the lid of his laptop and shoved it
aside, frowning and giving the woman all of his attention. "Have you called
the police?"
Hilde replied scathingly, "To find a man like Duo?"
Heero's pen tapped a rhythmic beat on his desk top as he considered many possibilities. Finally, he asked, point blank, "Were you having relationship problems?"
Hilde crossed arms tightly over her small chest and scowled as she snarled
back, as if Heero had hit a very sensitive nerve, "There would have to
be a relationship before we could have trouble with one, Mr. Yuy! As for our
friendship, Duo didn't say that there was anything wrong about that, or about
the business, his job, school... not even about his puppy. He... just... disappeared."
She measured out each word in the last sentence. "I wouldn't dare call
you without a good reason," she told him. "Duo isn't the kind of guy
who bottles things up. If he has problems, he tells everyone, including the
girl at the grocery counter, about it and he's NEVER run away from things, Mr.
Yuy. Never. If he's missing, then something has definitely happened to him."
Heero looked at his stacks of work orders. They were all supposed to be completed
that day. Part of his mind was angry that Hilde was keeping him from doing them,
while the other part of his mind was already trying to puzzle out where his
one time war comrade might have gone. That was part of his training. When given
a mission... he shook his head and locked down on that. It wasn't a mission.
He wasn't a soldier any longer nor an agent.
After a failed attempt at returning to school, Heero had tried to work with the Preventers. There had been many difficulties associated with that decision, foremost being the fact that it was unwise to take a trained killer and try to make him a peace keeper, especially when the first rule of the organization was to avoid killing at all costs. His time with the Preventers had been very short.
Duo had been the exception to the rule, Heero recalled. Duo had been able to forget his training and he had enjoyed some success in moving up through the ranks of the Preventers. Despite those successes, Heero had been told by Wu Fei that Duo had decided to go back to school, a decision that the scholarly, ex pilot of Shenlong, had approved of. Supporting Duo's endeavors, had been the junk business that he had been running with Hilde on the side. When Heero had been informed of that, he had naturally concluded that Duo and Hilde were more than just friends and he had shut all thoughts of the man from his mind.
"Did he have any girlfriends that he might have gone to? A wife? A lover? A friend?" Heero asked, believing that the outgoing Duo must have someone close to him.
Hilde shrugged in frustration. "If you knew Duo, you'd know he keeps his life damned full. He didn't have time for his puppy, let alone a lover or a friend. I've never seen anyone work so hard to reach a goal. I don't think he slept more than a few hours a night. He kept talking about having a nice home in a nice neighborhood and being someone regular people didn't look down on. He wanted to be a professional and be respected, not for killing people wholesale in a war, but for being an asset to a community. I think he wanted a family too... but... " She shrugged as if that bothered her. "He wanted 'normal' Agent Yuy, but he wanted it on some high class terms."
"A Preventer salary is meager," Heero said sourly, remembering his own dissatisfaction. He had been used to acquiring any piece of equipment he desired during the war, and having a Gundam, an ultimate fighting machine, had spoiled him for anything on a smaller scale. Like Duo, he had worked hard to get what he wanted in a large way. He now had a consulting firm that dealt with systems for the government. His bank account was tidy and he never had to think twice about cost when starting any pet project. His fighting days were over and he didn't long for them. When he had told Relena Peacecraft that he never wanted to kill again, he had meant it. Working for the Preventer's had seriously endangered that promise. After he had resigned, he had made another promise to himself that all his battles, from then on, would be fought in the business world; cold and calculating, but physically bloodless.
"I don't work for the Preventer's any longer," Heero told her. "You know that. I'm not sure why you called me about Duo's disappearance."
Hilde looked angry then and retorted, "He talked so much about you... I thought you were friends!"
Heero grunted. "He did try to befriend me during the war, but we've hardly spoken a dozen times since then. We moved in different circles."
"And you don't care about him, even a little?" Hilde looked more than disappointed, she looked as if she had lost her last hope.
Heero glared. "Accusing me of not caring about people, and their welfare, won't change the fact that I no longer have a badge, or any authorization, to do anything about finding Duo."
"But you're just like him!" Hilde exclaimed in desperation. "You must have some idea what he might do or where he might go. Maybe," Hilde stammered, grasping at straws, "Maybe he's told you something... something that might give me a clue-"
"I didn't listen to him very much," Heero growled. "He was an unprofessional idiot. He endangered my cover more times than I care to count. He was invaluable to the war effort, and considered, like the rest of us, to be a hero. I'm certain there were many articles and reports made about his life. Perhaps if you started there..."
"Yeah, well, fuck you! " Hilde cut over that, dark eyes snapping fire. "You and that Wu Fei are just the same; bastards, both of you! I don't know why Duo thought you were different, why he thought that you two were his friends, but I see now that he was dead wrong!"
The vidscreen went dark. Heero tossed his pen away from him in annoyance and leaned back in his chair. He supposed that, up until then, he had worked with blinders on, accomplishing his goals, trying to make something out of a life he had never imagined that he was going to be allowed to live. Hilde's call had been like peeling off the scab on an unhealed wound. He had flashes of old memories; fighting in his Gundam, missions infiltrating bases, gun fire, wounds, severe training... and a purple eyed young man who had appeared out of nowhere one night. A young man who had shot him to save the life of a girl he should have eliminated on sight. Heero had been attempting that very thing to protect the secrecy of his mission. That Duo Maxwell had then let Relena Peacecraft get away, had not allowed Heero, for a long time after that, to see Duo as anything other than a potential enemy.
That had changed when Heero had found him in an OZ holding cell, severely wounded, and ready to give up his life, knowing that he had to be silenced and willing to make that sacrifice for the cause. That had turned Heero's image of him on its head. He had accepted Duo as a fellow soldier after that, but, still... Heero recalled so many moments of embarrassment, anger, and irritation at the hands of that man. He had never really trusted him.
Missing. There were so many potential explanations for that disappearance. The Gundam pilots had been declared war heroes, but there were many people who thought of them as murderers, instead, people who might be capable of exacting revenge or their own kind of justice. Duo could have had an accident, perhaps ended up in a hospital without being Id'd, or worse, been incapacitated or died where he would never be found. There was also the simplest explanation, that Duo Maxwell had simply grown tired of his hectic life and had walked away from it. It was a thought that Heero, himself, had entertained a few times. He could understand it.
Heero checked the clock, fished for his thrown pen until he found it, and then pulled his work towards him again. He wasn't a Preventer agent. He wasn't the police. Duo Maxwell wasn't a friend. The last time that Heero had seen the man had been on the anniversary of the end of the war at Relena Peacecraft's party. Heero had nodded greeting and Duo had smiled and said nothing. Considering the crowd and the non stop activities that they had been expected to participate in, there hadn't been any chance to do more than that.
"I don't even know enough about him to begin a search," Heero muttered
to himself and then scowled. He didn't have the resources and he wasn't about
to hack into any systems and jeopardize his new life by breaking the law. Hilde
would have to find help somewhere else, he decided.
_________________________
Heero ended the day in frustration, his work half done, and his mind unable to concentrate. As much as he tried not to, his mind kept dredging up the small things that he knew about Duo. His training, and an inner curiosity, continued to work on the problem of Duo's disappearance despite every effort he made to convince himself that it wasn't his problem to solve. During his lunch break, he had even gone so far as to check the guest lists of a few inexpensive hotels before he clamped down on that and turned off his computer. He never regained enough concentration to finish his work, though, and, at the end of the day, he didn't have any choice but to stuff that work into a briefcase, intending to finish it at home.
As Heero left his office and walked towards his high rise apartment building, he decided to take a detour and pick up dinner from a restaurant a few blocks East. It was dark and alleyways held potential trouble for any normal person. Heero was far from normal, though, and he leaned into an alley next to the restaurant to escape a chill wind and to light up his cigarette. Taking a long drag, he paused to savor it.
There was a scuffling noise. Heero was instantly alert, eyes scanning the alley. In the glow of a dim light at the back door of the restaurant, Heero spotted a skinny vagrant climbing into the restaurant dumpster. It stank of rotting food. Heero almost turned away in disgust, but froze when he caught sight of a very long braid swinging behind the back of the vagrant.
Heero had trouble believing his eyes. Mind churning in shock, he was still able to calculate the odds of being there, at the right place, and at the right time, to see a one time war comrade hunting for his dinner in a back alley dumpster. The odds were slim to none. That caused his mind to present Heero with two theories; either it was pure chance or Duo had come to the area where Heero lived and worked for some purpose.
A man came out of the back door of the restaurant. He held a Styrofoam container in one hand and a cup in the other. As he placed them on the pavement, he called out, "Hey, kid?! I told you before that you didn't have to do that! Here's some hot food for you. Any time you want, I'll call services and have them come get you."
The man waited for a response and didn't seem surprised when he received silence instead. The man sighed and retreated back into the restaurant. Like a nervous rat, Duo peeked out over the rim of the dumpster, wide eyed and nostrils flaring as if he were trying to catch the scent of the hot food over the smell of rot. Cautiously, he crept out of hiding and slunk, almost on hands and knees, to the food. He looked into the container. His expression didn't look disappointed or pleased. It kept that frightened, cautious, look as he crouched and began eating hurriedly. He shoveled the food into his mouth, hardly taking the time to chew.
"Duo?" Heero called at last, uncertain about what to do.
As quick as a flash, Duo was gone. Heero heard something skitter far down the alley.
Heero let his cigarette fall to the pavement, forgotten, as his mind worked through several scenarios that could explain why a one time successful, motivated, young man would end up digging through a dumpster for garbage. Heero finally settled on one. Duo, he concluded, had quite possibly suffered some sort of mental break, probably due to stress, or even post war syndrome.
Heero strode away from the alley and headed back for his apartment, canceling his plans for dinner. As he walked, he lit another cigarette and took out his cell phone. He tried to decide who to call. If Duo had become unstable mentally, then he was dangerous and someone needed to take him into custody. Sally Po? She was head of the Preventers. She would know how to handle someone with Duo's dangerous skills. Would she respond, though, and, if she did, what form would that response take? Heero imagined Preventer agents storming back alleys with weapons drawn. That frightened look on Duo's face came back to Heero's mind sharply. Duo didn't need to be attacked, Heero thought, he needed help. Call Services, then? They handled all social cases. They knew how to handle soldiers who couldn't cope after the war. They might be able to handle even someone like Duo. Heero tried to imagine Duo being approached by kindly Services personnel and submitting to their care, but all he could see, instead, was Duo panicking and killing them.
Heero stopped walking. Standing in front of the doors to his apartment building, his mind came to a conclusion that he didn't like. Duo shouldn't be harmed, Heero thought, and Duo shouldn't be allowed to harm anyone else. There were only a few people skilled enough to carry out those two objectives. Heero knew that he was one of them.
Heero pocketed his cell phone and finished his cigarette. He ground it out under his heel and felt as if he were at a crossroads. He could call the police and let them take care of Duo, washing his hands of the whole affair, or he could go after the man and take him to where he could get help. Either decision seemed to weigh heavy with consequences, consequences that might prove irrevocable.
Heero took two steps toward the doors to his apartment building. A chill traveled up his spine and he stopped. It almost felt as if a hand had taken hold of his shoulder. The sense that he was making the wrong decision was as powerful as if someone had said the words in his ear.
Heero turned, frowned, and then gave in to the pull that seemed to be drawing him back to the streets. He began walking and set the soldier inside of him free.
Read more of Kracken's fiction and fanfiction at http://kracken.bonpublishing.com
Join Kracken's update ML at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/krackenficsml
Kracken has a yaoi book, The Angel Within, at amazon.com. and a publishing website
at http://www.bonpublishing.com