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"Heero Yuy, L6, and the Second Suit Wars "Part 2Written 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... The lovely Miss-Murdered beta'd this for me and frankly this story wouldn't exist without her encouragement.
"A Former Life Reprised" 2.12 The New System "You know what's going on down there." It was an accusation the likes of which I hadn't levied against a so-called friend in years. I heard the sharp intake of Duo's breath. I heard him step forward to come between us, to say some stupid thing to diffuse the tension, draw attention away from the issue. I blocked his pathway with my arm. "I do," Quatre admitted easily. "But my employees do not. Come - sit down and rest and eat. You look terrible." I bit my tongue despite my inclination not to and fell into the seat across from him. Duo took a tentative seat beside me and Quatre directed the shuttle employees to bring us some drinks and cheese and whatever else he had available on his private shuttle. "We'll be arriving on L4 main in about an hour," he announced, looking over both of us more carefully. "I hope you both will consider staying with me at my home...?" Duo turned to me for some sort of guidance but I just stared back at Quatre with the clear implication that I would do no such thing until I knew more about what the fuck was going on here. He changed topics. "I suppose you're going by Heero now, no longer Jack, then?" "Yes," I replied simply, holding back the further allegations I wanted to make in favor of propriety. "You'll have to tell me what that was all about later. Duo was fairly frantic when you disappeared. We all were." Quatre's smooth, nonchalant voice was starting to grate on my nerves and Duo was starting to look 'fairly frantic' right about then as the tension built between us. I felt like this was not the man I knew. Not the man who counseled me with patient kindness so many times during the war. Not the man at the beach house who lost all motor function when he was tipsy and fell backwards into the hot tub, laughed, and just stayed their - in all his clothes - while Duo brought him another drink. Not the man who reluctantly took over his father's company after the war, afraid of destroying the final vestiges of his father. Not the man who apologized while buying us superfluous Christmas presents out of misguided affection. Not the man who called me nearly every day for months, poured over data with me, worked tirelessly by my side to undo the affect ZERO had on my brain. No, I didn't know this man - this was not Quatre Raberba Winner. This was some perverse copy, some strange thing molded from years of diplomatic snobbery. And I didn't know what to say. The shuttle employee came back with a ridiculously varied spread considering we were on a small inter-colony shuttle and Duo heartily dug in to avoid having to deal with the mounting hostility between his ex-lover and his best friend. "What kind of cheese is this, Quat?" he asked as he shoved a piece desperately in his mouth, trying to gain some kind of foothold in the situation, drag it back to some kind of normality. "Abondance, I believe." He picked up a piece of his own to taste and confirmed with a slight nod of his head. I found this unreasonably infuriating. I tried to rein in my anger as this sort of meaningless conversation continued for the rest of the two-hour flight. Part of me wished I'd just stayed in that damned closet a little bit longer because any moment in there was better than a moment out here. But finally we were docking and Duo's mouth seemed to be shut for a while and I was glaring at Quatre with a level of intensity I hadn't used since fuck knows when. I was just about to speak when Quatre held up a hand to interrupt me. "I have something important to show you that will hopefully change how you feel about this." He seemed weary then and I was angry at the pang of sympathy I felt for him. Despite my overwhelming frustration, he was still a close friend, someone I had come to depend on nearly as much as I depended on Duo. I couldn't find any pleasure in his suffering. "Okay," I agreed and Quatre seem to visibly ease, a moment of his old self shining through as he gave a tiny smile to my acceptance. "Thank you." I could tell he was sincere. "We will have to take my car back to my estate, though." I shrugged with indifference. There was clearly no way out of it and going there didn't require me to spend the night there. We were quiet as we were lead through the docking bay disembarkation procedures of L4 and chauffeured to a private parking deck where a driver was waiting with a small, six-seat limousine for Quatre's transport. The door was opened and we slipped in, Duo sitting next to me, Quatre across, similar to how we sat in the plane. Once the driver was assured Quatre didn't need anything in particular, Quatre put up a sound proof barrier between the driver and us and settled in for the ride to his estate. "So, Heero," Quatre opened diplomatically, "what brought you to L6?" I paused to gather my thoughts when Duo spoke unexpectedly. "We'll show you ours only if you show us yours first." I was surprised by his abrupt defense but I didn't show it. He had been so quick to support me today I found myself appreciating him more than I had anticipated I would when I invited him on this venture. Even if his presence made it difficult for me on L6 in some ways, his skill as my partner couldn't be questioned. Poor Duo, I thought as Quatre sighed and realized he wasn't getting out of talking first. Duo held no cards but he acted like he had a royal flush. "The L6 project is more than a new colony installation in space," he started tersely, obviously uncomfortable, choosing carefully exactly what he was going to reveal and how. "It truly is, in the mind of Sergio, a new future for humanity. The best minds in the entire Earth Sphere have been recruited to work on it. You must know, we all were." I nodded but Duo scoffed. "Sure, they wanted 'Ro but they didn't really want me. Probably not Trowa or Wufei, either." Smooth, Duo, I thought as he clearly tried to create distance between the fact that Trowa actually was on L6 right now and had been for years. "That's neither here nor there," Quatre dismissed him with a flourish. "What matters is that all that intelligence is working towards a goal they don't even realize - the forced evolution of human consciousness." "ZERO," I breathed and Quatre nodded his head while Duo whipped his head from Quatre to me and back, his bristling hostility palpable. "No wonder they didn't fucking want me," he muttered under his breath but I ignored him in favor of staring down Quatre. "Have they succeeded?" I asked. God only knew what information Jack had subconsciously provided them with during his time there. "With my help," Quatre confessed bluntly and Duo veritably exploded. "They've got a thousand fucking mobile suits down there with ZERO on them?" Quatre winced at his angry shout and I was shocked he was able to restrain himself enough to remain seated. I expected something more from Duo when Quatre interjected, looking pained. "They have a thousand mobile suits on L6?" "You don't know?" I asked, legitimately surprised, and he shook his head. "We can only verify about a hundred and fifty." If he didn't know about that... Then he really didn't know about the brain reconstructions? How could they hide all that from him? "I expected it," he admitted, "but not this soon." "But who the fuck is gonna pilot them?" Duo snapped and I turned to look at him then for the first time since we sat down in the limo. He was physically trembling in anger and I knew him well enough to know that what he really needed right then was a punching bag or a few miles worth of track. And we were stuck in a limo. "You and Zechs and 'Ro are the only ones who ever mastered it. Maybe that Catalonia chick. Maybe 'Fei could, maybe 'Tro. Maybe me, but I won't fuckin' do it. Where are they going to find a hundred and fifty soldiers?" He avoided the accusation he really wanted to make and I think Quatre knew it, too. "It's not ZERO they'd be piloting," Quatre started and I turned back with a certain level of confusion. "They'd be piloting HERA, a new system I developed with help from the Nexxus R&D team. An evolution of the ZERO system." "HERA?" I inquired and Quatre nodded. "Human Emotional Range Actuator. Instead of removing the human element and making purely tactical decisions based on all available factors the way ZERO did, HERA is an AI which uses the pilot's emotions to offer the best possible outcome. HERA is also unique in that it can interface with other HERA AIs currently active and communicate with each other, forming the best fit solution for all pilots. It can even share the emotional state of pilots with each other. It is primarily a peaceful system." Quatre didn't look even remotely apologetic. "When we understand our enemies, we don't need to fight." Duo snorted skeptically as I took in exactly what it was Quatre was saying. But Duo apparently didn't need to think about it very long. "If this is such a 'peaceful' system," sarcasm laced his caustic words, "why have they developed mobile suits, huh?" Quatre looked a bit uncomfortable. "I'm not positive as Sergio hasn't confided this stage of the plan to me. But I assume, if we have a collective hive mind, what use is the human body? We can have any body we want." "Yeah, some of us can have the power to destroy others. Real great. Real fucking great." Duo threw himself back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest haughtily, staring out the window at the scenery passing by. I fought the urge to touch him, comfort him, and instead stared at Quatre, trying to take in everything he'd just told us, figure out our next step. "I'm guessing there's more," I said after a few minutes of tense silence. "Or else we wouldn't need to go to your estate." Quatre nodded. "Yes. Sergio may keep secrets from me, but I keep secrets from him, too." I accepted that and Quatre apparently had nothing further to say so I started thinking back on everything that happened since I awoke in the hospital. Quatre's recruitment by Nexxus finally made sense. But one thing stood out to me as I considered the note Jack left me... "You knew Nexxus was going to hurt Duo." Duo's head snapped around at my statement and Quatre smoothed his pants absently. "I didn't know, but I suspected. I knew what their psyche profile said about Duo. I was concerned that if he got close to you again, and they found out, they would eliminate him rather than risk losing you." "Wait - what psyche profile? What did it say?" Duo inquired quickly as soon as Quatre finished. "It suggested that your death would be the easiest way to recruit me," I explained apathetically and Duo's eyes narrowed. "Fuckers," he muttered, his scowl deepening. "Knew I should've found that guy and decked him while I had the chance..." "I did what I could to protect both of you," Quatre offered, a hint of frustration in his voice. "They approached me first and I had to deal with the ramifications of that initial conversation ever since." Thankfully Duo let it go and returned to staring out the window. Quatre looked curiously back and forth at us a few times while Duo wasn't watching and I knew what he wanted to ask. I just glared at him. Our relationship was really none of his business and beyond that, I wouldn't know what to tell him anyway. It was only about fifteen more minutes before we were pulling up to the sprawling Winner estate. Duo glowered at it like it had personally offended him and I was surprised at his continued negativity. Quatre led us through the halls and I noted the furtive, shocked stares of his house staff at our strange, stained attire. I looked down at myself and realized the brown jumpsuit was slowly bleaching from the chemical cleaner. I'm sure we weren't the typical guests the billionaire business mogul escorted through his palatial home. Eventually we were led to an elevator and Quatre flipped down an access panel and entered in a pass code. We headed downward for much longer than I anticipated based on my understanding of the layout of the estate. When the doors opened we were clearly in some kind of underground bunker. We were lead down a small corridor into a huge room that had the dimensions of a hangar. Lights flipped on automatically one after another as we walked further into the room. I could feel Duo's tension crackling off him like electricity. And then Quatre stopped as the last few lights turned on and we were face to face with three Gundams. Duo gasped and grabbed Quatre's arm, turning him to meet his face. "What the fuck is this, man? You - you drafted the legislation which outlawed mobile suit construction!" Quatre looked a bit contrite at Duo's clearly pained and begging eyes but he just shirked off Duo's arm and turned back to the Gundams, staring at them with reverence. "Apollo. Ares. Zeus." Quatre announced, a hand outstretched to present them and I gazed up at the cold, gleaming metal, a difficult piece of my past rising up to meet me. I had never considered that I might have to pilot a Gundam again and yet, here I was, faced with that very real, very distinct possibility. As glad as I was to see the weapon I had been trained to kill in - the destructive force with which I had taken so many lives - destroyed after the Mariemaia incident, I don't think it would've been possible for me not to be thrilled at the idea of piloting again. My fingers itched to climb into the cockpit of one of those machines, feel the g's, the power, the exhilaration of flight again. A part of me understood that even if this wasn't necessary, Quatre might have built these anyway. He had to feel it. Duo had to feel it, too, but I knew him. He wouldn't embrace it. He would try to hide from it, horrified by his own desire. "These could decimate the suits we saw." It was an educated guess. Unless there was an alloy stronger than Gundanium that I was unaware of. But I suppose the information Trowa gave us should clarify a few things. "Uh-uh. No way. Ain't gonna happen." Duo began, shaking his head and taking a few steps backward. "This is getting too big. We aren't doing this. We're bringing in someone else. Preventer, someone, no. No." "Duo," Quatre said, exasperation evident in his tone, but Duo held up a hand to cut him off. "What the fuck system is in there anyway? HERA?" He turned his livid eyes to me then. "ZERO's sister system? You really want to do that again? You really want to fucking do that to us again?" I opened my mouth to speak but Quatre interrupted me. He must've sensed that absolutely nothing said to Duo at that moment was going to be even remotely productive. "Look, we can talk about this later. You both must be exhausted. I can have rooms prepared, dinner sent up. You can rest and we can reprise this discussion in the morning." I nodded and Duo bristled, walking quickly back the way we came. Quatre and I followed after and we rode the elevator up to the main level in hostile silence.
~ * ~ tbc... |
