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"Heero Yuy, L6, and the Second Suit Wars "Part 1Written By: ELLE Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Gundam
Wing (unfortunately) and they were used without permission, but all
the words are my own. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: occurs post-EW, language, angst, sex,
hopefully acceptable OOC, 1st person POV (*shudder* sorry, no way
around it!), plus a ton of minor and a few major OCs (since it's 1st
person, you get to avoid dealing with them too much.) Pairings: 1x2x1 plus others TBD Summary: Jack Kaufmann has no recollection of the braided man who claims they were once more than friends, but his quest to recover his memories leads him to discover a plot much larger than himself that is a threat to the peace he'd once fought to protect... Author's Notes: This is gonna be a doozy of a fic, guys. I'm thinking 100k+. I'll likely update Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then take a brief hiatus between sections of the trilogy just to get all my G-boys in a row, so to speak. ;-P This fic starts off a little slow, in my typical psychological style, but will pick up into an action fic by the end so stick with it, please! =) The lovely Miss-Murdered beta'd this for me and frankly this story wouldn't exist without her encouragement. Oh and some of the topics I'm discussing here are waaaay out of my league so go easy on me, okay? My husband is a computer programmer and I've taken a few classes but my knowledge ends there. I hopefully know enough that I didn't make any glaring errors but no promises.
"Memoirs of a Former Life" 1.12 The Decision I appeared to act as normal as possible Monday morning, despite my desire to tear apart every file in Nexxus' database looking for more clues as to what the ZERO system was and how I was involved. Unfortunately, every good intention I had of searching for additional information was completely sidetracked by an email I received from Duo. Once I managed to get it open - I'm embarrassed to admit how much it terrified me - I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. It wasn't a grandiose apology, but I guess after over a week I wasn't really expecting one. It simply stated that he just signed a contract with Nexxus for shipping runs to L6 and that they'd be setting him up in a swanky hotel in downtown Geneva for the next few months. He emphasized that the only reason he was telling me this was so that I wouldn't try to visit him because he didn't want to see me. He was merely concerned I would find out some other way and show up unannounced and humiliate the both of us. So then I had to spend an hour or two deciding what I was going to do with that information. I quickly sought out the L6 delivery schedules and found where Duo's run would be added. It was an aggressive schedule he was likely very well compensated for. I could also draw the assumption that he would be getting into town Saturday as his first run was scheduled to leave Sunday morning. But then, as all of his travel arrangements would be made by HR and be therefore beyond my ability to snoop into, I realized I was going to have to do a bit of face to face recon. At this point, I'm sure that anyone would question my sanity. Why did it matter where he was going to be staying? He didn't want to have anything to do with me, right? That is what his email said. Wouldn't it add insult to injury to show up now? Well, as ridiculous as this may sound, he did email me. Despite what he said in that email, I chose to believe that the fact that he wrote was proof enough that I was on his mind and that he wouldn't turn me away if I showed up. Probably not the wisest or most logical thought I'd ever come up with, but infatuation and desperation and a heavy weekend of drinking will obscure even the most calculating of minds. So I went in search of people on the tech wing who I'd known made the short trip to L6 to approve whatever systems needed attention at that moment - life support, weather systems, gravity simulation, and so on. Obviously there were tech teams stationed on L6, but often my coworkers tried to make me jealous with the information that they were getting a sneak peak for their consultation skills. I had no interest in another colony so their attempts had always failed. But now I needed them to tell me where the teams from L6 stayed when they came to Earth. I went out in search of Yun, knowing he had gone to L6 more than once and was rather close to the security team out there. I eventually found him in the break room, stuffing a box of left over Chinese into his face as quickly as possible. "In a hurry?" I asked as I started to prepare myself some tea as a cover. "Ah, yeah," Yun explained around a mouthful of noodles. "All them L6ers are out ta lunch and I've gotta set up their conference room and give a damned presentation when they get back and God only knows when that'll be. Damned work lunches, so unpredictable..." he finished with a mutter. "There's a team from L6 here right now?" I asked, surprised, not remembering any email about it, though I suppose their visit wasn't related to me or the AI team in any way. "Yeah, yeah, their all stoked to be back on Earth, ya know? They probably won't even listen to a damn word I say, too busy staring at the trees and the roads and you know, the everything they don't got up there." I forced myself to chuckle. "Yeah, I'm sure NIG puts them up real nice too, huh?" He smiled conspiratorially at me, pausing his chopsticks. "I knew ya had a little jealousy in there somewhere, man. That LY hotel surely is the shit. Shocked they can even drag themselves outta them big comfy beds, am I right?" I nodded, a real smile spreading across my face. Too easy. It was lucky they were ramping up construction and teams were frequenting between Earth and the colony so often now. "Maybe one day you'll getta go," he offered with a shrug, turning his attention back to his box. "But if I have to be honest, I think they got the better end of the stick gettin' ta come back here." I threw away my tea bag and agreed with him, wishing him luck with the presentation before making my exit. One more thing accomplished. I was starting to feel pretty damn impressed with myself so far. Maybe I wasn't Heero Yuy, but Jack Kaufmann wasn't so bad at this intelligence gathering stuff either. Unfortunately, that was where my luck ran out. Nexxus International Group was the type of company that had its hooks in everything. Their bread and butter was computerized electronics - everything from refrigerators to car parts. Then they had specialized robotic products for their more advanced client's requirements. And those clients ranged from electronics resellers to governments. The R&D department, of which my AI department was merely a minute part, made up a relatively large part of the company, although clearly it had nothing on sales. So trying to ascertain where I might find any additional information related to Heero, Winner, or the ZERO system was next to impossible. You might want to believe that I was recruited into the AI department and since they needed me in regards to the ZERO system then any other mention of it should be within my own department's file system. But you would be wrong. I had never come across any mention of anything even remotely related to the ZERO system in any of the R&D databases. And since I didn't actually know what the ZERO system was, other than something involving mobile suits, which there again I only knew about in a very theoretical way, stumbling upon it short of going through every one of the billions of files in the whole network would be pure happenstance. I did go through the flight data from the war we worked with to develop our AI interfacing theory out of desperation. I did note something that seemed peculiar now though at the time I reviewed this data over two years ago I hadn't considered the fact that actual people were piloting these suits. However, now that I knew that I had and that I was actively recruited to Nexxus for that fact, the data seemed different to me, more personal, more unique. There were two subjects who, while their data was always significantly better than average, suddenly had their accuracy increase exponentially. I couldn't fathom what that meant exactly. I had to wonder if this ZERO system had something to do with it but having no information other than a set of data points, I was forced to dismiss that as paranoia. By the end of the week I was tired of the search. I had formulated another plan, a plan that would finally let me escape this weary, unsuccessful existence - if I was lucky. And it really did feel like my whole existence was unsuccessful now that Duo had completely rejected me. I didn't see any way I could get him back at this point, which meant my whole purpose for being was void. I had failed in my only mission. Granted, I hadn't been set up to succeed. In fact, I began to feel like I was sabotaged. Heero could've given me a clue from the beginning, he could've left something in my memory to that made me to seek out Duo, he could've forced himself to butt out and left me to make Duo mine in peace. But he couldn't. He was too damn selfish. And so, I failed. I tried to convince myself that it was his fault, but it didn't make me feel any better. I wished it had. I wished I could just turn off all of this. I wished I had never set eyes on him. I wished I'd never touched him. I wished... Except it didn't matter what I wished. The fact was we found each other and I did love him and there was damn well nothing I could do about any of that now. I never could. I was forced into this fate, like a reluctant Achilles, a man with a hidden weakness so great it would prove to destroy me. So it was I found myself Friday night compiling all the data I had. The note from Heero, the pilot profiles I'd found, the key to the lock box as well as the location of the bank. And then I started to write a lengthy catalog of everything that happened to me from the moment I met Duo. Everything I'd discovered, Mister Winner's threats, all my thoughts on Heero's motives, anything I thought could possibly be useful while leaving out all the things I wanted to remember. Our first date, the way it felt to hold his hand, the way the sky looked as I kissed him so gently in the middle of the square, tasting of ice cream, his hips pressing against mine, his lips trembling against mine... Riding behind him on his motorcycle, my nose buried against his neck, breathing in his scent, feeling his warmth against the cool wind whipping past us, feeling his taut muscles with my fingers, just below his thin shirt... Meeting the children who meant so much to him, so wrapped up in his pride and affection, his eyes beaming at me every time I turned to meet them, basking in his full attention, thinking I had finally proven myself to him... And of course, the tender, systematic way he made love to me, the way his fingers made my muscles shiver, the way his kisses made my stomach twist, the way he felt inside of me... Duo would have to remember those things for both of us.
~ * ~ tbc... |
