|
"Pax Ultima"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Angst, violence, language, sex Pairings: If you need to know, please email me
and I will be happy to tell you. Summary:They fought for peace, but peace took away what they loved the most. A very grim tale of suspense and betrayal, set post-canon and featuring character death. A/N: I think it's time to start pointing out
that I am borrowing the idea of Pax Ultima from Serenity and their
Pax drug. Didn't want to give that away before now. But… now
that we are here, I want to acknowledge the awesome source material
I'm stealing from. "Pax Ultima " Chapter Twelve "Pax Ultima." Wufei nodded. "Are you familiar with Futurum?" Trowa frowned. The name tugged at him - he had seen
it somewhere before… on billboards and digital adverts? "The pharmaceutical company?" Wufei nodded again. "Yes. They've been around for nearly fifty years.
They developed the plague vaccine about twenty years ago, and they've
had their hand in most of the vaccines and disease treatments affecting
the colonies. This," Wufei gestured to the black screen, "is
their latest effort." "But what is it?" Trowa had to ask
again. His brain felt sluggish, as if there were twenty points right
in front of him that all connected to answer everything, but he couldn't
get the image of Heero's lifeless eyes out of his mind. "The Ultimate Peace. The Final Peace. It's a drug
therapy they've been working on. Essentially, the therapy floods your
brain with serotonin and changes the way your amygdalae respond to
stress and emotions. As you saw, it removes all desire for aggression,
anger, pain or fear." "But why?" Wufei sighed and reached past Trowa to click open another
file. "You can read here - their mission statement of
the drug, their philosophy - it's all garbage. The goal is to prevent
all future wars and aggression by turning humanity into sheep, mindless,
weak sheep that are simply herded from one place to another." Trowa leaned forward and forced himself to concentrate,
forced himself to try to make sense of this. "No," he argued. "Not all humanity -
just the colonists." He tapped the screen. "Look at that
time stamp. This mission statement was released thirty years ago." Wufei arched an eyebrow, and Trowa was reminded that
they had had very different upbringings. "Twenty-five years ago was the height of the plague
outbreak on the colonies - in the L2 and L3 sectors." "I know that. What does that have to do with -" "Look at these transmission notes," Trowa
tapped the screen. "Environmental control systems - air and waterborne
drugs." Wufei frowned. "The plague came in two forms - airborne and waterborne." "That still doesn't -" "Serotonin." Trowa interrupted him and he
had a fleeting thought I wouldn't have to explain this to Duo.
He quickly and angrily shoved that away, but it teased at him. Duo
- "What about the serotonin?" Wufei asked, his
teeth gritted, angry with Trowa and himself for not understanding,
for needing the explanation. Trowa clicked through the file until he found the document
he knew would explain the connection. "Look at the chemical makeup of this therapy. You
said yourself the goal was to flood the brain with serotonin, to remove
the desire for aggression." "Yes…" "What did all plague victims have in common?" Wufei scowled and Trowa realized the Chinese man had
likely gone down an economic-socio-political path in his brain. "What one thing did all of their bodies have in
common when they were examined?" Trowa clarified. "I'm assuming raised serotonin levels." Trowa nodded. "Yes." He held up his fingers to tick off
points. "Thirty years ago they release this mission statement.
Twenty five years ago the plague begins to devastate L2 and L3. Twenty
years ago they release their miracle vaccine." "And two years ago they tried again on L3458. That
doesn't explain the eighteen years in between when nothing happened.
Those were some of the worst times - OZ, the Alliance, the wars." Trowa nodded in agreement. It didn't make sense to him
either, but as he looked over the project notes he didn't recognize
any of the names associated with it. "We need to see financial records for Futurum,"
he decided. Wufei put his hand over Trowa's on the mousepad. "You need to watch two other vids first." ~ * ~ |
