Disclaimer: They're mine! All mine! (Just kidding). I don't own them or make any money off of them.
Warning: I am feeling much better now so watch out! :) Violence. Language. Guys alluding to sex with guys. Graphic, as usual. Not for the timid. Enough said? Let's go!
"Get up."
The cold barrel of a gun pressed against Heero's forehead. Heero looked sideways with a strange deja vu sensation in the pit of his stomach. Trowa was glaring, nostrils flaring and eyes violent pools of green under his long bang, as he leaned into the shower and turned off the water.
"I heard you," Trowa continued. "My room is on the other side of that wall. I heard Duo tell you 'no'. I heard him cry for you to stop. Bastard! You raped him!"
"Your response time was unacceptable if you were attempting to save Duo from me," Heero replied calm and steady, as if he weren't kneeling on wet, cold tiles, naked, with an equally naked Duo in his arms.
Trowa's face twitched and his green eyes glittered. He didn't reply to that, but Heero was an excellent judge of men. He could see that Trowa was afraid as well as murderously angry. It was easy to see that fear had kept Trowa from announcing his presence until he had been armed and sure that Heero was incapacitated.
"He told you no!" Trowa repeated, demanding an explanation, but already determined not to accept it no matter what it was.
"He gave himself to me, Trowa Barton," Heero replied quietly and firmly. "He didn't fight me. He told me it was all right."
"Before or after he passed out?" Trowa hissed.
Heero looked down. His grip tightened in sudden concern. Duo was unconscious. Heero was on his feet in an instant with Duo in his arms. Ignoring Trowa's gun, he ordered, "Blankets and towels!" as he carried Duo out of the bathroom and put him on the bed. When he straightened to see if Trowa was carrying out his orders, he found himself facing the gun barrel once again.
"I've been tranquilizing him to the teeth," Trowa explained icily. "He's still recovering from his wounds as well, but you didn't bother asking about that, did you? You just pulled him into the shower and raped him!"
"I did not rape him!" Heero replied, measuring out each word. "Ask him yourself when he is conscious again!"
"I don't have to ask him," Trowa snapped back and then nodded towards the door. "Send Quatre in to help me. I will care for Duo. I want you to stay out of this room. If you try to enter it again, I will shoot you Heero Yuy."
Heero studied Trowa with the cold efficiency of a soldier. He determined that Trowa was certain to take care of Duo and that Trowa was the most qualified to care for him. Once Duo awoke, then the situation could be terminated by Duo's reassurance that he had not been raped. Logical. Correct. Heero shut off the emotions that wanted him to overpower Trowa to reach Duo's side. If things didn't go as he envisioned, then there would be time for that action later.
"Hn," Heero grunted, turned on his heel, and went to find Quatre.
In the room he shared with Trowa, Quatre was under the blankets of their bed, pale and barely awake, looking like a bruised, golden angel against the white pillows.
"Wh-What's going on?" Quatre whispered hoarsely. "I heard shouting. T-Trowa left..."
Heero stepped close to the bed, checking Quatre's eyes to make sure they were alert. "There was a misunderstanding," he explained. "Trowa interpreted information incorrectly."
Quatre blinked. "Meaning?"
Heero frowned darkly. "He accused me of raping Duo."
Quatre stared and then he said. "No, you didn't. I would be sensing it now if you had. Trowa... " Quatre sighed. "He would get emotional about something like that. What did he hear that made him think that you were harming Duo?"
Heero's jaw bunched. He didn't like revealing his personal life to anyone. He couldn't stifle that soldier part of him that considered it a weakness an enemy could exploit. Yet, Quatre was the only one who had a chance of calming Trowa down, Heero realized, the pilot of Sand Rock needed to have detailed information about the situation.
"Duo and I had sex," Heero stated. "Duo was willing, but he was nervous and reluctant at several points. After analyzing the situation thoroughly, I concluded that he WAS willing and that his protests were reflexes."
Quatre carefully asked. "Why did you conclude that?"
"He is a trained Gundam pilot," Heero replied, "and volatile when he becomes startled or afraid. He didn't make any attempt to harm me. He voiced consent at the start and at the end of the act." Heero paused, bringing under a control the burning anger he felt. "Trowa will not allow me to come near Duo until Duo confirms that to his satisfaction."
Quatre sat up, rubbing at the bruises on his neck.
"You are able to function?" Heero wondered. "The situation can't be resolved until Duo regains consciousness. Rest might be advisable for you at this time. I'll give Wu Fei the task of helping Trowa."
Quatre shook his head as he gingerly stood up. "I'm all right. I tried to tell Trowa that Duo wasn't really harming me, but Duo squeezed me so tightly, I couldn't speak. There isn't any permanent damage."
"Knowing about your relationship with Trowa," Heero said, puzzled, "the fact that he left you alone in your condition doesn't conform to expectations."
Quatre nodded. "I suppose it doesn't, but Trowa must have realized when he brought me in here that Duo hadn't really hurt me. Even if he had, Trowa wouldn't have let his personal feelings cause him to stand by while someone was supposedly raped. He has had too much experience with that himself. It horrifies him." Quatre paused on the way to the door and looked back at Heero. "I can feel that Trowa is very upset. How would you rate his mental state, Heero?"
"He is displaying signs of instability," Heero replied. "but I believe that he hasn't yet reached the level where he cannot be reasoned with."
"I feel that too," Quatre agreed.
"I will kill him if he refuses to give Duo up to me," Heero warned suddenly, wanting Quatre to be fully aware of the situation.
Quatre was startled, but then he replied chillingly. "You had best make the next bullet for me then. I won't stand by and let that happen."
"Understood," Heero responded, just as cold, but Quatre felt the pent up emotions, the passion, behind Heero's words and it spoiled the mask of the perfect soldier that Heero was trying to keep up.
"You won't have to," Quatre assured him, but Heero only glared back. "Trust me. I can reach Trowa."
There was a gunshot and the sound of plaster splattering.
Heero and Quatre sprinted into the hallway and met up with Wu Fei as they all burst into the next bedroom with their own weapons drawn.
"By Nataku!" Wu Fei exclaimed. "What's going on here, Trowa?"
Trowa was standing silently by a wall riddled by a large bullet hole next to his head. The pilot of Heavyarms blinked, as if in a daze, and then he said simply, "He's gone."
Heero looked towards the bed and saw that it was empty. His eyes swiveled to take in the room swiftly . The window was open. They were on the second floor of the safe house, but he knew Duo wouldn't have hesitated to use it in a panic. After looking out and down, to reassure himself that Duo hadn't fallen to his death, Heero turned on Trowa.
"Explain! Now!" Heero demanded.
"Duo regained consciousness," Trowa replied. "He didn't remember what had happened to him. He wanted you. I told him-"
Heero grabbed Trowa by the front of his turtleneck sweater and pulled him close, asking low and vicious as Quatre tried to come between them, "Did you tell Duo that I had raped him?"
"Yes, of course. It's the truth!" Trowa spat back, coming out of his daze and trying to get away from Heero ineffectually.
Wu Fei was shocked. "Rape? What's he talking about Yuy?"
"Duo is terrified," Quatre said suddenly, looking up at Heero. "You need to go to him."
"No!" Trowa shouted and struggled again against Heero's great strength. "He's the last person that should go!"
Wu Fei looked at the struggling knot of young men. Heero had gone to such pains to be gentle to Duo. Wu Fei couldn't believe that he would change that behavior and rape Duo. It didn't make sense. Heero was hard and cold, but he was not a stranger to honor and loyalty. Trowa on the other hand was always quiet and collected. Wu Fei couldn't imagine the pilot of Heavyarms making baseless charges.
"Quatre," Wu Fei said at last. "Tell me what to do."
"Heero did not rape Duo," Quatre replied without hesitation. "Trowa is wrong."
"I heard him, Quatre!" Trowa exclaimed, sounding on the verge of tears. "He was begging! He sounded just like- just like... this bastard didn't listen and did it to him anyway!"
"Trowa," Quatre said gently, trying one more time to get through. He touched a hand to his chest. "I know."
Trowa stared at him, not wanting to believe, so sure of what he thought he knew. Heero took advantage of that moment of distraction. His fist lashed out and caught Trowa square on the chin.
Before Trowa even hit the floor, before Quatre could voice a cry of shock, and before Wu Fei could move to stop him, Heero sprinted for the window. Grabbing the sill, he threw himself out of it and half scrambled, half fell down the vine covered walls of the dilapidated safe house.
Heero heard shouting from above as he landed onto the ground and began to run. An ankle throbbed. He had landed badly. Shutting the pain off expertly, he headed as fast as he could for the one place Duo would surely go, the hiding place of their Gundams.
Once there, Heero cursed, and then switched directions and sprinted for the utility vehicle. The hanger was empty of Deathscythe and one of the transport trailers. Even in the midst of his frustration and concern for Duo, Heero couldn't help admiring the young man. In full panic, he was still executing an escape flawlessly. It wasn't clear to Heero how flawlessly until he tried to start the utility vehicle and discovered that the wiring had been ripped out.
"Kuso!"
Running back to the makeshift hanger, Heero clambered up Wing. Inside of the Gundam, he grabbed up a bag filled with emergency gear that he always kept there and an extra laptop in a case. Slinging both onto his shoulder by their carrying straps, he descended again.
If Duo had run off on his own, without Deathscythe, Heero might not have followed. Alone, the young man would have calmed down, remembered the truth of what had happened between Heero and himself, and returned to the safe house. With Deathscythe in tow, things were drastically different. A frightened, unbalanced, Duo with a Gundam as a weapon, couldn't be tolerated. Innocent lives could be lost or Oz could capture Duo and his Gundam. Heero couldn't take the chance of either scenario happening.
As Heero took to the highway and began a mile eating lope, following the direction of the wheel marks the transport vehicle had made in soft gravel before climbing onto black top, it began to rain.
Duo curled up under the blanket of the seedy hotel room and tried very hard not to think. He had all of his clothes on, his knife under his pillow, and the gun he had taken from Trowa in one hand, cold and comforting.
Using Heero's laptop, that he had snatched before leaving, it had been easy to hack a month's rent into the hotel computer and to set up a false bank account under an assumed name in a bank nearby. Both would be discovered in an audit of funds, but Duo didn't intend to be around when that happened.
The choice of hotel had been for a purpose. Cheaper hotels had laxer employees and his theft of a room, and occasional room service, was going to take longer for them to notice. They tended to have stranger clients as well, and they were less likely to turn up an eyebrow at a young man, with a very long braid, who dressed all in black and kept very strange hours.
Still, the room made Duo uncomfortable. He didn't want anything reminding him of his past, but the room was full of triggers; the peeling wallpaper, the smell of mildew and, more faintly, urine, and the lumpy mattress and it's thin scratchy blankets. Even the neighbors added a chilling dimension. They were men, deep voiced, arguing drunkenly about something Duo couldn't make out. On L2, that argument had usually been about his price.
The laptop beeped. Duo was up, shaking from head to toe and aiming his pistol at it. He almost squeezed the trigger at the green, glowing screen before he stopped himself. He had been waiting for a call.
Duo slid out of the bed and padded over to the laptop. It was resting on a small table. He sat down gingerly in the one chair and punched an acceptance code. At once, words began scrolling and attachments opened up. Duo found himself staring at the face of an evil man.
"Mission accepted," Duo whispered and punched in his code again.
Terminating the connection, Duo sat with the gun in his lap and read about his victim. Oz general. Overseer of Mobile Doll production. Murderer of innocent civilians for practice runs. On Earth for conference. Assassination window, thirty six hours. Duo pointed the barrel of his gun at the man's picture and pretended to squeeze the trigger with dead, violet eyes.
"Bang!"
It was easier than Heero had thought to find a trail, but he was still finding it hard to believe that the trail led to Duo. Three men had been recently murdered within a twenty mile radius of each other. All had been Oz personnel. The descriptions of the murders were all identical, shot to the head execution style. Looking at their obits, Heero wouldn't have felt sorry for them even if he had been capable of it. All of them had been guilty of crimes against the citizenry. Those crimes, while not condoned by Oz, had gone tellingly unpunished.
It wasn't like Duo to take on missions like those. The pilot of Deathscythe preferred fighting in his Gundam or using the explosives he so dearly loved to create. Hunting down and killing men, one at a time, was sniper work, more suited to Heero's talents. It didn't make any sense.
Dr. G wasn't talking to Heero either. He terminated each connection that Heero attempted, unwilling to trust the secrets of his protege to another, unknown, Gundam pilot. The missions Heero had worked along side of Duo, successfully, didn't seem to carry much weight with the Dr.
Heero was left to employ his hacking skills then, and those skills were considerable. He ran every hotel registry in the area where Oz's men had died, hoping, in his dubious mental state, that Duo would give himself away.
After long hours, Heero found what he was looking for. Laptop perched on a phone booth with an internet connection, Heero pointed to the one name that had caught his attention out of the hundreds of others. David Maxell. A slim lead, but Heero had been trained to understand how the human mind worked. It always stayed with the familiar. Duo Maxwell. David Maxell. Heero didn't have any doubt that it was Duo.
Heero ran scenarios in his mind as he walked to the run down, four story hotel. It was situated in the worse part of town. Heero's glare, and his intense posture, kept him safe, and few people were willing to make remarks even from a safe distance. Heero looked like a young man on a mission and he looked too dangerous to thwart.
It was easy to wait until the bored hotel clerk was distracted to find the room number. It wasn't a secure building, despite the neighborhood, and Heero found it ridiculously easy to get to Duo's room. Standing to one side of the door, and mindful of how good a shot Duo was with his gun, Heero picked the lock and slowly opened the door.
The room was dark, but for the green glow of the laptop on the cheap table. That glow bathed Duo's face where he lay curled up asleep in bed. Heero felt a swift joy that he quickly throttled. The mission wasn't completed yet. Heero still had to bring the boy back to the safe house without getting either of them killed.
Softly lowering his own laptop and his bag to the floor, Heero cautiously approached the bed. Loud shouts, men's voices, angry and deep, erupted from the next room. Miraculously, Duo didn't wake, instead he cringed and whimpered in his sleep.
Heero tried to gauge Duo's mental state. He looked about him at the room. It was hardly lived in. Duo was still wearing the clothes he had put on when he had run away. They didn't smell clean. From his hallow cheeked appearance, Heero could tell that Duo hadn't been eating much. His hair was a long, unkept, tangle snaking over the rumpled blanket. Knowing how well he cared for it, and how much he loved that length of hair, Heero concluded that Duo wasn't functioning properly.
Weapons. Heero knew there would be a knife under the pillow. Gun... Duo had it clutched in both hands, ready to use it. The shouting next door was making his fingers tense on the cold steel. With every muscle trembling and taut, Duo was a deadly spring waiting for the trigger.
The voices rose. Heero felt confusion. Was Duo so used to hearing them that they didn't register as a threat any longer? It didn't seem possible, yet Duo slept on, oblivious, caught in some unpleasant dream. He trembled and whimpered again. His lips moved. Heero used his skill to lip read him, wanting every clue, every bit of information that would help him win back his lover.
'Don't hurt me.' Duo was repeating it over and over again.
Heero began to speak, cautious, ready to duck or swerve in case Duo tried to use that gun, but, before he could utter a word, the laptop on the table and his own beeped at the same time.
Duo sprang up from the bed, staggering with weariness and blinking as if he were nearly blind as he made his way to the one chair and heavily sat down. Oblivious to Heero's presence, Duo typed in his code. Immediately a mission brief began downloading to his computer. Duo watched the words with a fervent intensity.
"Mission accepted," Duo whispered hoarsely and typed in the acceptance code. Then, he just sat and stared at the words on the screen.
Heero's computer beeped again, demanding his attention. The sound puzzled Duo. It took him a long moment to realize that it wasn't coming from his own laptop. Slowly, he swiveled in his chair, gun coming up, but his entire attitude saying clearer than words that, if there was someone in the room with him, they had already had ample time to kill him or capture him. Since neither had happened...
"Heero," Duo whispered as he saw the pilot of Wing.
"Duo," Heero replied simply, standing perfectly still, hands lax and unthreatening.
The shouting next door intensified. Duo's jaw clenched. His gun came up and aimed for Heero. Heero dropped and two shots hit the wall behind him. He stayed down, noticing that the shouting had abruptly stopped. The two men were probably on the floor too, wondering what was going to happen next and afraid for their lives.
"I have a mission," Duo ground out. He closed his laptop and headed for the door.
"I do too," Heero replied, but Duo didn't stop. "It's probably the same one. Dr. J will expect us to coordinate for the success of the operation."
Duo did stop then and half turn, hand tensing on the gun. His dead, violet eyes considered. Was this what he himself looked like, Heero wondered. The stiff, unsmiling expression, the dead eyes, the aura of total commitment to a mission?
"Unacceptable. I don't need support," Duo finally replied and his gun aimed for Heero again.
The bullet tore up the floor next to Heero's face. Flecks of carpet flew up and chips of the concrete floor spattered Heero's skin, cutting it as the bullet ricocheted and hit the roof. Dust floated down and Duo walked out of the room as if he were moving through a white fog, surreal and deadly, uncaring whether he had hit his mark or not. His entire being was centered on his mission.
Heero slowly sat up and opened his laptop. After punching in his code, the same mission as Duo's scrolled onto his screen. He had been right. Dr. J did want them to work together. The mission was an assassination, but it was a dangerous one. One man couldn't accomplish it alone. Heero accepted the mission, closed his laptop, and hurried after Duo with a plan already formulating in his mind.
Duo was a shadow, slipping in and out of the smallest hiding places as he made his way through the mansion. Guards were posted everywhere and they were on alert. They knew that the Oz operative they guarded was a man the colonists wanted dead. The man had personally given the order for the destruction of a station filled with helpless civilians who's only crime had been to protest against their Oz overlords.
Heero ran perimeter for Duo, quietly taking out man after man to make a safe escape route. Duo was unaware of his efforts. The young man didn't seem to care about escape. He walked purposefully, eyes like amethyst steel, as he made his way straight for his goal.
Heero watched, curious as to how Duo would gain entrance to the man's quarters. Knowing Duo's madness, Heero wasn't prepared for the easy going smile Duo suddenly plastered on and the suggestive swing to his hips he adopted as he walked up to the guards boldly.
The guards, all four wearing Oz uniforms and all taller and broader than the slim pilot, looked down at him with a scowl and fingered their weapons.
"How did you get here?" One demanded.
Duo looked coy, twirling the end of his braid around one finger. "They let me in," he replied softly, not revealing who 'they' were. "I'm expected," he added.
The man who had spoken pulled a face. "Here we are, trying to keep his skin safe, and he orders up a whore again. That man has a death wish. Everyone will know that he's in residence now."
One of the men looked Duo up and down. "Look at that hair! He's the prettiest one I've seen yet. You must have cost a lot of credits. You're too good for that slobbering, fat, bastard in there."
"Why thanks," Duo replied, batting his eyes and pursing his lips as if he were going to kiss. "Unfortunately, slobbering, fat, bastard is my customer, so, unless you want him to have you executed..."
The first man shook his head. "I'm not letting just any whore waltz into his room. You'll have to be searched."
The second man licked his lips. "Let me."
"Pervert!" a third man grumbled, but the fourth suddenly looked eager.
The second man noticed. "Want to help, Kiton?"
"Yeah!" The fourth man replied and hitched at his pants.
Duo went very pale and his expression hardened. "I'll tell him you spoiled the merchandise. He doesn't like seconds, he certainly won't settle for thirds."
"Wrong!" The second man chuckled. "He's drunk, little bit! He won't notice at all!"
The fourth man laughed too as they each took hold of one of Duo's arms and dragged him around the corner of the hall for some privacy.
"Perverts!" the third man grumbled again and then didn't say anything more. The first man started as a deadened pop sounded and the fourth man suddenly developed a hole between his eyes. As the body fell, and before the first man could react, a bullet from Heero's silencer dropped him with a shot to the heart.
Heero turned quickly for the door and then stopped. He glanced down the hall. The mission. Duo. His mind locked on the question for no more than a second and then he was opening the door and sprinting inside. He knew where his duty was and he knew that Duo would have agreed.
There was a drunken, fat man sprawled in a chair with a bottle of liquor in one hand. He looked blearily up at death, confused, and then death claimed him as a bullet ripped into his brain. Without pausing, Heero reloaded and sprinted back for the door.
Rounding the corner of the hall, Heero found Duo standing among corpses and panting hard. Both of their guns came up at the same time. They stared at one another. Duo's face was drawn and he was shaking, but his clothes were still on. He must have waited only long enough to round the corner before killing the men. Heero noted that he hadn't used his gun. He had used his deadly body and broken their necks.
"They weren't very good soldiers," Heero noted in disgust and then said very firmly. "Mission completed Duo. The operative is dead."
It took a moment to sink in and then Duo looked angry. "My mission!"
"Our mission," Heero replied. "It took both of us to finish it. You wouldn't have made it alone."
Duo struggled through that and then he began to turn away and leave.
"Duo, Little Baka," Heero called after him. When Duo stopped, but didn't turn, Heero said. "You won't make it out alive without me. I made an escape route."
"Why should I want to live?" Duo demanded hoarsely. He groaned and his free hand gripped at his forehead. "I don't want to think! I need another mission!"
Heero understood then, the tight time table of missions, the haggard weariness that had let Duo sleep even through the arguments of loud neighbors and an intrusion into his room. Duo was trying not to remember, not to think and consider what Heero may or may not have done to him. He was on the edge of breaking and it was clear he didn't trust himself to be able to weather the emotional trauma.
"Come with me," Heero asked. "If you die, who will protect the colonies from men like the dead one back there? Survive this so that you can go on another mission. Come back to the safe house and we'll work together to get through this. Duo, you know I didn't hurt you. What Trowa told you wasn't true."
"I don't know! I don't want to know! I don't want to think!" Duo whirled and began firing at Heero, his face a rictus of grief and instability, targeting the main cause of his internal agony and doubt.
Heero felt a bullet hit home in his arm before he was able to dodge backwards behind the protective turn of the hall. He had his gun held ready, but he knew he wouldn't use it. Duo was life to him. Rather than kill him, Heero was ready to accept death.
There was silence on the other side of the wall. Heero waited, knowing it was a tried and true trick to make an enemy show himself, yet something told him that Duo had gone. He confirmed it at last by cautiously peering around the corridor. It was empty except for the dead men.
An alarm sounded. Someone had probably found one of the guards Heero had incapacitated. Now the hunt was up. It wouldn't be long before they found the dead operative as well. Duo was in grave danger. Heero hurried after him, knowing he had possibly taken on a suicide mission now. Heero didn't care. For Duo, he was willing and ready.
Mission Accepted.
TBC
Duo: Why you...! How could you! Me and Heero were all lemony and lovey dovey and now I'm crazy again and running to my death! Arggg!
Kracken: Sorry, but that's the way the story goes.
Duo: (spluttering indignantly) but you're writing the story, you-you...!
Kracken: Oh, yeah! I am aren't I? What a meanie I am! (Evil Grin).
Sorry for the cliffhanger but Kracken spent a day at the doctor and then there's the holiday... Oh, stop crying! It has a happy ending, honest! :)