Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence.
Tiger Lilies
Peeling Onions
Duo was there when Heero woke up, but he was soon going back to his ship when Heero turned to do the dishes and call for supplies. Heero felt worried, but he was riding high on a wave of joy, remembering the sleepy purple eyes that had opened that 'morning' and the lips that had smiled at him, telling him that Duo wasn't regretting ending up in bed with him.
They had been shy, quiet, ready to explore this new part of their lives, but uncertain, inexperienced, and not used to seeing each other in a romantic light. Heero smirked, realizing that they had jumped from friend, to lover, to wanting a relationship in record time, but he didn't think that was a bad thing. They had spent far too long being alone. If something was wrong with Duo, then he needed Heero, needed the comfort and help that Heero was sure that he could give him. United at last, they would beat whatever this problem was.
After Heero finished ordering supplies, he went into the computer room and brought up the Tiger Lily program. He studied the code, the flashes, and the word. Why Tiger Lily? Did it mean something to Duo, or to Dr. G? Did the code to neutralize the compulsion lie in the choosing of that name? Heero had confidence in Quatre's ability to find everything possible in Dr. G's research, but, in the end, the old saying, 'dead men tell no tales.', might be a painful truth if that research didn't give them their answers.
Dr. G had not been a stupid man, but he had been as cold blooded as the rest of the doctors when it had come to using them for their purposes. The greater number deserved the sacrifice of the few. All of the Gundam pilots had paid a great deal to carry out that philosophy. If Dr. G had been afraid of Duo using his training against peace and against the law, if he had decided to trap Duo in the compulsion to 'manage' him, then he might not have programmed a way out of that compulsion. Rehabilitation of Shinigami might not have seemed a possibility.
The vid phone rang. Heero answered it, feeling a little self conscious answering Duo's phone, until he saw that the number was secure and belonged to Quatre. "Find something?" Heero wondered, not even giving the man a chance to say hello.
Quatre grimaced, but was understanding as he replied, "Dr. G liked to record everything in his lab. We indexed everything that was tagged with Duo's name." Quatre frowned. "That man... I'm not sure that Dr. G was completely sane. He often used untested enhancements on Duo during his training, some of them with questionable results. It's all in the vid tapes I'm downloading to you. Pay particular attention to he file, 01- Tiger. That's the one that I think shows Duo being given his mental compulsion."
"You think?" Heero echoed with a frown.
Quatre began to reply and then said cautiously, "You will be able to see for yourself. The man did seem to genuinely care for Duo, but..." He stopped, licked nervous lips, and then decided against finishing that thought. "Contact me with a progress report as soon as possible," he said instead. "I'll continue to search through the files in the mean time."
"Thank you," Heero told him and was surprised at the feeling in his voice.
"You're both my friends," Quatre told him warmly. "I know that we drifted apart, but I've never stopped feeling that way."
Heero put a hand on the screen and splayed his fingers there. "I felt the same way, I just..."He ducked his head, "I didn't think that any of could possibly want to be around me. I was so focused during the war, so... full of myself."
"We all were," Quatre replied. "We understand, Heero. We're all finding our places in this world right now, but we mustn't forget how important we were, and still are, to each other. Duo needs us. I know I'm not the only one ready to help the both of you."
"Thank you," Heero repeated, all that he could find to say, but it was enough. Those two words carried a great deal more meaning and Quatre understood that. His smile grew even warmer and then he was gone and Hero was left with several dozen files waiting to upload to his computer.
Quatre was right. After watching several, Heero had to conclude that Dr. G had not been operating logically at the best of times.
"Hey!" What was that for?" a smaller, much younger, Duo danced away from the Dr. rubbing his arm. The doctor glared as he lowered a hypodermic needle.
"C-4616," Dr. G replied.
"What's it do?" Duo demanded.
Dr. G shrugged. "It has an Oz coded label and it says muscle enhancer. My sweepers picked it off of a damaged research ship."
"What?" Duo was outraged. "What if it kills me?"
Dr, G sighed. "Then I'll have to go to a great deal of trouble to find your replacement. I'd feel bad about that so... don't die, all right, boy?"
Duo scowled. "Yeah, sure, just for you, old man," he retorted sarcastically.
Dr. G positioned the camera lens better and then motioned Duo to a padded chair. "Have a seat. It should take effect in twenty minutes."
The rest of the vid reel was Duo sitting, looking pale and anxious, while a clock ticked off the minutes. When nothing happened, he stood up, gave G the finger, and stomped out of view.
G glared after him, snorted, and then tossed the hypodermic into a fresh box of them.
The vid ended. Heero took a deep breath, remembering the cold, calculating Dr. J and his own training. He doubted that Dr. J had been very sane either, but the man had been a genius and very strict about procedure.
The rest of the vids were in the same vein. A few were of Duo coming into the lab during a recording and making a nuisance of himself until he was ordered to leave. In those few clips, Heero could see a loneliness and impatience in Duo that had mirrored his own feelings back then.
Heero saved the tiger vid for last since it's date was last in the sequence. When it played, he was left feeling disappointed and confused.
"What's that thing?" Duo leaned over a plant with several odd looking flowers.
"Tiger Lily," Dr. G grunted as he worked on something.
"Weird," Duo said and gave a flower a poke with one finger. "Doesn't look real. Is it expensive?"
"Why?" Dr. G wondered sourly.
"Looks expensive," Duo replied.
"Guess it would to an orphan of L2," Dr. G commented.
Duo scowled. "Yeah, guess everything does to someone like me.
"Duo?" Dr. G turned to him, took the flower, and put it into Duo's hand. Duo took it, puzzled. "You had a hard life and L2 was full of crime. You could so easily go back to it. That's dangerous as well trained as you are. I want to promise you that you'll never do that, you'll never go back to stealing and running with gangs."
Duo looked as if he were being handed a fairy tale story. He grinned and replied sarcastically, "Sure, old man, whatever you say."
"Yes," Dr. G said as he picked up a light from his table and turned it on. "Whatever I say." He reached for the camera and turned it off.
Heero stared at the blank screen as the vid stopped playing. He played it again. And yet again. Why would G turn off the video if he didn't have any qualms about recording other things? Had it been a conscious effort on his part not to record his methods?
Why? There were too many whys, Heero realized and he ached for Duo. He needed to watch the vids again. There had to be some clue that he was missing, some slip, some connection between something he was seeing and the vid of Duo being given his mental compulsion. He couldn't believe that Dr. G would launch into something that important without preparation... or without recording it. Heero began playing the vids one more time, frame by frame.
The sound of rain made Heero start, but he didn't stop his intense study of the vids. After the fourth hour, he sat back, rubbed his eyes, and sighed in exhaustion. There was only one pattern that he could discern. Every time that G injected Duo with one of his experimental drugs, he made Duo sit quietly until their effects became known. The only surprise there was that none of them seemed to have any effect on Duo whatsoever, except to increase either his irritation with the old scientist or his boredom. Each time, G didn't make any comment about this. He simply told Duo to go.
It hit Heero very suddenly. Dr. G was a mad scientist, but he was a scientist. The other vids showed him following a very tried and true process of experimentation and the meticulous recording of the results. It didn't make sense that he would stop that behavior each time that he was experimenting with Duo as his test subject. That being true, Heero could only conclude that G wasn't experimenting at all. He was recording, instead, a process.
Heero watched the vids again and turned off the sound. He watched G and Duo move, watched Duo sit down, watch Duo sigh and fidget, and saw... Duo stop fidgeting, stop moving, stop complaining for exactly one minute. Duo stared at G steadily, the man standing outside of the vid's frame.
It was something. Heero just wasn't certain what that 'something' was. He enhanced the picture, enlarged Duo's face, and began to run the vid again A crack of thunder interrupted him. He jumped out of his chair, hand reaching for a gun he didn't have. His heart was racing as he tried to understand why there was thunder in a space station. Dangerous was a word that hardly covered the catastrophic damage such an occurrence could create.
"Duo?!" Heero ran for the back door and Guilt twisted his gut. How long had he listened to the rain, not realizing that Duo might be out in it?
Lightning flashes filled the 'sky' of the station. Something was out of balance, some finely tuned weather machine not doing it's job. He could see ships arrowing for the weather arrays, racing to shut the processors down manually. Charged and overloaded circuits shot sparks like fireworks and Heero could see some fire plumes towards the city that attested to some direct lightning hits.
Duo was crouched in the light rain, hands buried in a casing, hair plastered to his forehead and braid lying in water in a bedraggled rope beside him. His eyes were intense and his jaw was set hard.
"Duo!" Heero shouted as he threw himself up the metal scaffolding to reach Duo's side. Duo didn't look at him. The compulsion was stronger this time, combining with his natural stubbornness to finish a job.
Heero clutched at Duo's wet sleeve and shook at him roughly. Lightning struck a low building in the distance. The loud crack of thunder, and Heero's grip, made Duo start. He turned from his work at last and stared at Heero in a daze.
"Heero?" Duo looked up at the violent sky and then he was scrambling up and dragging Heero down the scaffolding and into the building as he shouted, "What the fuck were you doing out in something like that?!" He threw a lever on one wall and air seals thudded into place around every window and door. Emergency air began pumping. Duo checked a gage to make sure the rate and mix were correct and then raked his wet bangs out of his eyes. "Heero?" he demanded again, furious. "You scared the shit out of me!"
Heero was panting from reaction, his shirt still twisted in one of Duo's fists. "Duo," he managed, trying to stay calm. "You were the one who was out there."
Duo released him and turned to check the satellite reports. Several very long moments passed and then Duo was sighing in relief. "They have it locked down and under control. The storm should end shortly."
Duo turned back to Heero, frowning, picking up the conversation where they'd left off. "I was out there?" he questioned incredulously.
Heero nodded and then lowered himself into a chair. He shivered at the chill of the pumped air on his wet skin. "Duo, we need to talk. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure, but... Do you recall the experiments that Dr. G performed on you during your training?"
Duo was looking confused, almost as if he were questioning Heero's sanity. He moved to a closet, yanked out several towels, and tossed one to Heero, who scrubbed at his face thankfully. "He told me they would make me a better pilot," Duo replied at last. "It was stupid. They never did anything. Crazy old man couldn't stop trying though."
Heero watched Duo dry off as he tried to explain, "Quatre and I-"
"Quatre?" Duo started. "What's Quatre..."
Heero held up a hand. "I'll explain." Duo sat down near Heero and Heero leaned forward, trying to gauge Duo's reaction as he continued, "When we met, you were in the hospital for neglecting yourself. After observing you... it seemed to me that you weren't acting in a rational manner." Duo scowled and looked ready to get angry about that, but Heero didn't give him the chance. "You are obsessed by Tiger Lily. Every time that you have nothing to do, you begin to design and build the ship. You appear to be in a trance state, as if you can't help yourself. The first day that I came here, I discovered that you had logged on to a corporate web site belonging to Quatre Winner. A program was deployed while you were hacking into financial files. I believe that this program was designed by Dr. G to stop you from using your training to commit crimes and that it was triggered by your ether signature. Quatre and I have looked at vid files made by Dr. G. We're trying to discover how he implemented the compulsion and what the keywords are to deactivate it."
Duo stared at him. He blinked very slowly. "I don't get something," Duo asked. "What were you doing out in that kind of danger, out in a charge storm on the metal decking of Tiger Lily? That's not the Heero Yuy I know. He has more sense."
Heero's mind shifted gears laboriously while he realized that Duo hadn't heard anything that he had said, or, he had heard, Heero decided, but the compulsion was keeping him from registering it. It obviously had a means of protecting itself, of keeping Duo from realizing that he was under mental suggestion.
Duo stood and moved to stand over him. His purple eyes gleamed as he shook his head. "Heero... if you want to help me with Tiger Lily that badly, then work with me so we can make sure we both don't over do it, okay?"
Heero found himself saying, "All right, Duo."
Duo smiled then and reached out to touch his wet hair. He took hold of a strand and gave it a small tug. "Come on, lets get changed and have some coffee."
Duo moved to get a dry shirt as he pulled off his wet one. Heero swallowed at the display of Duo's slim waist and strong shoulders. He almost followed Duo, almost decided to take their love making a step further, but... instead, he let Duo go, let him make coffee, and tried to decide what to do next.
Lightning flashes came through the thick, protective glass of a window close by. Heero stared at them, thinking about what could have happened, remembering holed space stations and failed air supplies during the war. He almost turned away, almost drowned in the memories of floating corpses, but then the flicker of lights triggered another type of memory all together; Dr. J lecturing him on psychological conditioning and forms of torture, preparing his ultimate soldier for every eventuality.
"I'll be just a moment, Duo," Heero called as he raced for his computer, sat down, and began playing the vids again. Once again in the vids, Duo sat down, irritated and complaining, while Dr. G stayed out of camera shot. Duo froze, staring.
"There!" Heero touched the screen with one finger and enlarged Duo's face. Very imperceptibly, the irises of Duo's eyes picked up tiny flashes of light. These were not vids of experiments on Duo Maxwell, Heero concluded excitedly . These were vids of Dr. G preparing Duo's mind to receive his mental compulsion.
TBC
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