Kracken
Disclaimer: I don't own this and don't make any money off of it.
Warning: Male/male sex, graphic, language, attempted NCS, violence, abuse, torture
scenes.
Burning Candles
Cluster Bombs
"Good. Adequate," Revenant said with fierce pleasure as he walked around the moving machine. He stopped and looked at Duo, who was slumped on the controls. "You will now teach my men to do this. You have one week."
Duo shivered in his coat and hunched in on himself. "I want a shower first, a hot one, and I don't want the freaks you call guards to-"
Revenant strode to the console and looked down at him. He said icily, "I am well aware of EVERYTHING that happens in this complex, Agent Maxwell. I chose to let my men have their revenge. Sometimes, order is maintained by allowing certain privileges. You caused the injury and death of too many men. The resentment has grown too high. I can't be seen favoring you at this time. Once you have trained my men, and we have won decisively, I will be able to relax security and afford you comforts."
If a grave was comfort, Duo thought, knowing what was going to happen when his usefulness was done. That didn't matter, though. He was more concerned with surviving long enough to accomplish his goals.
"I can't concentrate with my foot aching and my body freezing and stinking like a sewer," Duo grumbled.
Revenant narrowed eyes at him. "What are you made of, Maxwell?"
"Snails and puppy dog tails," Duo quipped and leaned forward to rest his forehead on his arms.
"You know that only pain will result from your continued baiting, but you do it anyhow." Revenant wrinkled his nose and moved away. "Perhaps it is the only way that you can feel that you are fighting back? In control?"
Duo didn't raise his head. "Yeah, whatever..."
Revenant glared. "People who fight back, generally think there is hope of winning."
Duo didn't stay still, that would have given him away. He rolled his head instead and peered at his tormentor with a bloodshot eye. "I have a friend who once told me, that if his lions ever tried to eat him, he'd make himself taste as bad as possible. That's kind of how I feel too."
"The lion still gets his meal, no matter how bad it tastes," Revenant scoffed.
"So, you're gonna eat me?" Duo snickered.
Revenant's hands turned into fists and then he relaxed them. "I think you do need a bath, Maxwell, so that my men can get close enough to learn from you. "
Revenant stalked away and talked to one of his men. The man laughed and Duo didn't think that could be good for him. When four men came towards him, and took hold of his trailing leg chains, Duo was ready to roll with the fall as they dragged him out of his chair and towards an open bay door.
For the first time, Duo was able to see where he was; a platform out in the middle of a raging sea. The chill took his breath away as a stiff wind slapped into him. The men held him tightly, but Duo knew fighting wasn't possible. He reminded himself that Revenant needed him alive, as his laughing guards climbed down to a lower level, their booted feet clanging on the metal steps. It wasn't hard to guess what was about to happen.
They hung Duo by his leg chains and lowered him over a rail. The waves rolled over him, freezing salt water that almost made his heart stop. In between waves, he gasped for breath and swung dangerously close to one of the huge metal platform supports. A network of iron bars supported work stations were researchers could lower equipment, make repairs, or stage dives. After the third wave, Duo became aware that someone was standing on one of them.
Duo twisted, wanting his enemy in sight, but it was almost impossible to focus with his eyes stinging with salt and his body going into shock from the cold water. Another wave hit and he almost gave up, but his chains were tightened suddenly and he felt himself being pulled back up. It steadied him long enough to see the figure clearly. It was Heero, braced against a strut, wide eyed, mouth open slightly. He was wearing a wetsuit and micro tanks. Painting the target, Duo thought, or placing listening devices in the lower communications array.
Duo felt a shock that was greater than the water. Heero, here? He couldn't get his head around it, and then an all encompassing realization shook him to the core. Revenant would be watching the show. Revenant would see him. Duo couldn't even warn Heero. If he shouted, he would definitely give him away. He could only shake his head desperately at Heero before he was clear of the rail and being hauled back up to the hanger.
Soaking wet, Duo was shivering violently and stumbling. They shoved him back and forth between them, yanking off his clothes and drying him off with towels. His braid was a dragging, sodden, rope and his still healing foot was on fire. When he was finally allowed to stand still, he fell to his knees. Revenant bent and looked in his shivering face.
"As I said, Agent Maxwell, you may make yourself taste bad, but the lion will still feast."
They didn't bother dressing him and walked him back to his cell naked. They
chained him to the wall, but loosely enough so that he could huddle on his thin
mattress, shivering still. They didn't trust him with blankets When they left
him alone, Duo's only option was to pull the mattress over himself and shiver
underneath it.
After a half hour, when Duo was finally losing the chill, the door opened again
and someone else was brought in. They had him chained with his hands behind
his back and a neck collar attached to that. Leg irons made him shuffle. Shoving
him down, the guards chained him to the wall and made sure that he had only
enough slack to sit.
Heero Yuy glared at the men. They had stripped him, searched him presumably, and put him in a gray jumpsuit. Abrasions and bruises littered what skin was visible and a slowly spreading red spot from his shoulder to his elbow announced the presence of some wound there. His hair was wet and in his face.
"Duo," Heero said tensely after the guards had gone.
"Heero," Duo returned sourly, throttling his real emotional surge of relief and joy to see his partner again with the reality of what it entailed for them both. He decided on smart assed angry "So... nice to see you and all, but what kind of lame rescue was this?"
"It wasn't," Heero growled back. "I was setting monitoring devices."
"Oh." Duo stared and then asked. "Hurt?"
Heero's face tightened.
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Duo said, hoping that Heero would understand, from his obvious question, that he needed him to talk. "I can see you are. Did Mr. Sadistic at least tape you up?"
Heero nodded. He studied Duo. "Status?"
"The usual from getting the shit beat out of me," Duo returned. "I've got a foot injury, too, and some shock burns. These manacles and chains have been messing with my skin and joints; rub wounds and stressed muscles." As he talked, his concentration was elsewhere. His hands under the mattress pulled out the tool he had managed to palm while they had been busy dragging him through the work area. It had a very sharp edge. The trick was to stay completely impassive while he did minor surgery. Heero's presence, and the fact that his captors expected him to try to warm up, had given him the perfect opportunity, the perfect distraction.
Duo felt with his fingers, found the still stitched wound, and then opened it up. He shuddered violently. Hopefully, they would think he was still affected by the cold.
"Monitored?" Heero asked.
Duo focused on him. It was very hard. There were tears in his eyes. His partner, the man he had spent a year with, the man who he thought would have gone on without missing him, was sitting near him and sharing his ordeal. Asking how that had happened was a burning desire for Duo, but, he couldn't, not with Revenant listening.
"Yes," Duo replied."That's why they saw you. They have everything hooked up to scanners."
Duo squeezed the salt water out of his braid into the wound. He shuddered again and bit down viciously on his lip. Heero noticed it. Heero, wisely, said nothing. Duo curled tightly, trying to control every fiber of his being as he continued to squeeze salt water. When the device shorted, he convulsed into a fetal position, his teeth going deep into flesh and drawing blood.
Heero said, "I followed your trail and deduced, through emails from someone called Madagar, that you were at this location. I attempted to monitor, with the purpose of extracting you once I deemed it possible. I'm working solo. Une wouldn't authorize the operation." He tested his chains and they rattled. He strained muscles, making a show of it. "Une has signed your death certificate. She refused to allow me to investigate your disappearance or your murder."
Say something, Duo thought to himself harshly. Take your teeth out of your bleeding lip, ignore the muscle spasms, ignore the searing pain between your legs, and ignore the desire to pass out and escape it. Say... something.... "I'm not dead."
That had been a choked whisper. He checked his wound and felt the violent sting of cauterized flesh..Once again, he viciously clamped down on nausea and the need to pass out. It felt good to lie down, though, and he didn't think that would be suspicious.
"I... I never thought that you were," Heero admitted and Duo squinted at him, trying to focus. He gritted a smile.
"Heero," Duo managed. "I want to catch up and all that, but... Big Daddy is listening and watching and he can go fuck himself. Guess we're going to be roomies. I don't think you're going to like the landlord, though."
"I think you're almost in shock," Heero replied and it was giving Duo an excuse he desperately needed. "Try to sleep. We can talk later."
"Good idea." Duo tucked the bloody tool into his braid and then
pushed the mattress down to wipe up any blood that had pooled. If he kept it
flat, there was a good chance no one would see the stains. He already had a
story ready if they did. He kept from grinning to himself in triumph as he finally
allowed himself to pass out.
________________________________________________
Heero timed the pulse beat that he could see in Duo's neck. Ragged, he decided, but not life threatening. He kept his face impassive, as flat as the surface of a frozen lake, as he tried to understand what was going on.
Pictures were stuck to the walls. Pictures of Duo's troubled children. The bulls eye's on some of them made it clear what the threat was, how they had tried to control Duo. From the look of Duo's condition, though, it was equally obvious that the threat hadn't been very successful. The cot was surrounded by smears and dried pools of blood. Heero could see at least one source of that blood, Duo's foot. Something inside of Heero clenched hard in pain. Microsurgery was a marvel, but it couldn't stop the hideous bruising and pooling of blood under the skin, showing that the trauma had occurred, nor was it perfect when a less than competent doctor used it to re-attach body parts.
Something had happened during his arrival in that cell. Duo had wanted him to talk, to keep attention away from what he was doing under that cot. Whatever he had been doing, Heero had seen signs of how much pain it had caused him. Duo wasn't going to be mobile, at least not enough for an escape attempt, Heero decided. His job now, was to wait for rescue, to trust in Trowa to finish what he had started, and to protect Duo from discovery.
Heero bowed his head, straining against the chains and manacles. It was a clever arrangement. If he pulled enough to free himself, he would snap his own neck. Someone was well aware of his strength. When the time came, escape wouldn't be easy.
Duo made a small whimpering sound. It cut at Heero so sharply that it stunned him. His head came up and he slipped out of 'mission mode' with an overwhelming desire to reach Duo, to find out exactly what was wrong with him. The pale face, the bruised eyes, and the sodden braid trailing the metal floor, made him look vulnerable. It reminded Heero of the war, when he had helped Duo escape an Oz prison. Duo had been unconscious towards the end and he had looked just like that. Back then, Heero had pretended not to care, but he had taken Duo to a rebel hospital and had stayed with him until he had recovered. It was having the same effect now, stirring emotions that Heero had not understood then, but understood much better now as a grown man.
Keep it in the box, Heero told himself. If their enemy knew that.... He had to be honest now. He couldn't ignore this sudden realization, the feelings that could so easily be used against both him and Duo. He had not come all that way, to a platform in the middle of a raging sea, to rescue a partner. Had Trowa realized that? Quatre? Is this why Une had not allowed him to participate in Duo's search and rescue?
Duo shivered and gasped. His hands clenched in the mattress. "Heero," he whispered and Heero was certain he was still unconscious. The tone of choked anguish was clear. It made Heero think of every moment that they had spent together, trying to capture some hint that Duo...
Heero jerked at a chain with a clatter and clink until the manacle dug into his skin. Stop thinking about that, he told himself. It was useless and it was a danger. He had stepped into a situation that he didn't understand. He had planned on monitoring the platform, infiltrating the ship nearby, and tapping into communications. He had planned not to interrupt if a mission was ongoing. Now that he had been thrown headfirst into the situation, it was possible that he had completely compromised Duo, that he had done the exact thing that Une might have been afraid of.
They gave him time to let his position sink in, to see the mess they had made of Duo, and to contemplate the same fate happening to himself. A few hours. Enough time for Duo to wake up again.
"Better," Duo said simply as he levered himself up into a sitting position. He blinked as if he hadn't slept at all and he looked tense and in pain. "Damn headache again. Almost wished they had sawed off my head instead of my toes."
It was hard for Heero to keep the flinch off his face, to not let the nausea in his stomach change his expression. Duo peered at him and Heero saw a dozen things that he tried to convey with just a tightness of mouth and a glint in his eyes. It was a warning, Heero was certain, and the small hand sign as Duo lifted it to rake his tangled bangs out of his eyes, said simply, 'point'. Meaning Duo would call the shots. It was then that Heero saw the gash under Duo's wrist manacle and the dark blood running on his arm. Duo saw it at the same time and swore.
"Must have happened when they dragged me," Duo snarled. "Fucking gorillas! Freakin blood's everywhere!"
The door opened before Heero could respond and Revenant and his men entered. He motioned three men to approach Duo and they tossed the mattress off of him. Duo huddled, arms and legs drawn inward, red with blood below the waist. They ignored that and pinned down his good foot.
"Shit No!" Duo exclaimed with wide eyes.
"I'm afraid so," Revenant replied cooly. "I don't need any more disruptions. You will begin training my men, but first I wish to make certain that Heero Yuy realizes the consequences if he should try to be a disruption."
"He doesn't care!" Duo protested. "He's a cold blooded, emotionless, machine! I don't think he said 'Hi.' to me for the entire year we were partners. Fuck! Don't do this! He'll let you cut me into pieces!"
Revenant met Heero's eyes, measured the man behind those flat , blue, irises, and said, "I suppose we will see, won't we agent Maxwell, whether a man who comes to rescue his partner, solo, harbors any feelings for him?"
"You goddam son of a bitch!!" Duo screamed and surged against his manacles. The wound he had made in his wrist opened up and his violent motions covered his captors in blood.
One of the men tested the weight of his clever. Duo tried desperately to free his foot, his breathing harsh, ragged, and punctuated by a hoarse sound of distress. Heero tried to find the detachment, the solid core of ice that had been trained into him; the comforting mantra 'that it was all for peace' that had carried him through a war. When one of the guards drew an imaginary line with his finger across the first joints of Duo's toes and Duo let out a panicked moan that seemed dragged out of him despite his every effort, Heero found himself surging against his chains.
Heero felt blind, even though he could see. He felt deaf, even though he could hear shouts of warning. He felt uplifted, riding on a tide of adrenalin and panic that had one focus, one goal; save Duo. It wasn't conscious. It wasn't logical. It went against everything he had ever been taught. Even Duo was screaming for him to stop.
The chains dragged at his neck. Heero twisted, tangled his chains together, and pulled them all at once. The strength that had been given to him by a mad scientist, that was more than human, snapped the chain links. The broken lengths of chain snapped back on the recoil and took off flesh, but he was numb to it as he rolled, trusting that Revenant wanted him alive, that his guards would hesitate to shoot to kill.
The men holding Duo tripped over themselves as they struggled to get clear enough to pull weapons. Duo grabbed at them, kicked out, and used his chains as a weapon. He took out one man and Heero took out the others with deadly efficiency. Duo froze when a glock pressed against his forehead.
"Yuy, one move and I will splatter Maxwell's brains across the photos of his lovely street children," Revenant warned.
"Bullshit! You need me!" Duo snarled as he ducked, rolled in a lightning move, and kicked upward into Revenant's gun hand. The gun unloaded into the floor a bare inch from his shoulder and the bullets ricocheted. Duo tucked in, hands over his head, to avoid them.A bullet sliced across Heero's cheek and passed just under his ear. He flinched and ducked as well. When he straightened again, Revenant was gone and a siren was just beginning to sound.
"You are a first rate, fuck up, Yuy!" Duo snarled as he uncurled."Just what the hell are you doing? What's your plan? He's going to have this place mobilized in under a second."
Heero flushed as he took weapons from the dead guards. He handed one to Duo before he found the keys to their manacles and unlocked them.
"Nothing to say, as usual," Duo seethed, but his hand was reaching out to check Heero's face wound. Heero grabbed it and pushed it away, noticing how much it was shaking.
"You have point," Heero conceded.
"Gee, thanks!" Duo sneered. "So it's all up to me?" When Heero nodded, Duo swore and pointed to the downed guards. "We need to get into their clothes, now, and get the hell out of here."
"Separate?" Heero deduced.
"Yeah. We'll meet down at the support struts, take a swim, and hope Trowa is monitoring," Duo told him.
They changed hurriedly, still pulling on the guard's uniforms as they moved cautiously down a corridor. When they reached an intersection, Duo snapped, "Get moving, Yuy. I'll chew you up and spit you out later." When Heero began to go, Duo grabbed a handful of his shirt and said, "Thanks Heero... for coming to get me."
Heero raised a hand and covered Duo's for the space of a second, ignoring Duo's wide eyed surprise, and then he was turning away and running down a corridor, forced to trust that Duo was well enough to make his own escape.
Duo stared after Heero, fisted the hand he had touched, and then let out a long breath. "I don't know what that was, Heero. I sure as hell would like to find out, but I have a job to do. Sorry, buddy."
Duo slowly leaned against a wall and lowered himself to the floor. When Revenant and his men came running up to him, he grinned and waved. "Guess I was too much of a liability."
Revenant flipped open his com unit. "Where's Yuy?"
"He just dived from the platform when my men tried to capture him," an awed voice replied.
Revenant scowled. "Then he's dead. No one could survive that."
A man came through the guards. He was tall and had a thick mustache. The pillbox hat that he was wearing had one plume and a number of war badges, and his uniform was gray and black and pressed in crisp lines. Duo recognized him and started.
"Senator Haspburg," Duo said,"Relena's right hand man."
The man nodded in acknowledgment as he turned to Revenant and said, "Yuy's not dead. You continue to underestimate these two. Send out sweeper ships." He shot narrowed eyes at Duo. "The time for cloak and dagger is over, Duo Maxwell. It is time for the wolves to take power and time to put the lambs back to pasture."
"Are we talking about farming?" Duo quipped with a sickly grin. "Seems to me that the wolves are always afraid of the sheep dogs."
"Agent Maxwell," Haspburg warned, "You will train my men, now. Any tricks, any hesitation, and I will see how very little of you is needed to accomplish that task. My physician will stand at your elbow with a saw and a micro laser and he will be waiting for my orders. Is that clear?"
He didn't expect an answer. He turned and started shouting more orders for Heero's capture.
"Even a Gundam Pilot can't survive long in these seas," Revenant sneered under his breath. "Look all you wish."
TBC
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