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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" 2.6 The Infiltration
Contrary to popular belief, I am capable of making mistakes. Not only am I capable of making them, I am more than capable of feeling the effects of those mistakes acutely. And as we sat on that shuttle headed to L6, I was positive I was making a serious mistake. Of course, you wouldn't be able to tell. Hell, even Duo, the person who knew me better than any other person on the planet, wouldn't have been able to tell. I am able to wall myself in enough indifferent over-confidence that I was sure he was ignorant to how nervous I was as he chatted with the guy sitting next to him. I really wanted him off this damned shuttle. I wondered why I invited him in the first place. Oh yeah, I remembered. Love. The same damned love that endangered him in the first place and put us in this stupid position. Doctor J was right. Love is an absolutely dangerous emotion, not to be engaged in recklessly. This was surely a suicide mission. What made me think we would be able to get off the damned colony if we even got in? Nexxus had profiles of us in their databases - pictures of him and I, descriptions of our personalities - they kept track of us. Even though we changed our names and various other details, what really made me think we'd be able to walk right in there without sending up a single red flag? I worked for these guys less than three months ago for Christ's sake and I was sitting on a shuttle full of Nexxus employees! I was endangering Duo. All because I loved him and wanted him with me, the way things used to be. I was endangering him and I couldn't even warn him. We had to be ready for shit to hit the fan as soon as we walked in there. I was left to sit in my own thoughts for at least another half hour before he finally wore the other man out with his rambling opinions on various battery powered car engines and fell silent. I knocked my foot into his. He looked up at me, those hard blue eyes curious at the strange move on my part. "Do you remember Zurich?" I asked softly. Zurich. Code for 'epic fail' between us. The only mission we blew absolutely, completely missing the target, losing a busload of children held hostage, and Duo was laid up with an infected, punctured lung for almost three months. I was put on probation and forced to go around as a bodyguard for different political functions as well as required to go to over six months of therapy. It was something we'd rarely discussed after the fact - mostly just when we had to get through the nightmares - but I knew he'd know what I meant when I brought it up. A weird expression floated across his face - almost a smile, which I couldn't figure considering I knew he took the loss of thirty-eight children between ages five and ten on his watch pretty damn hard. He'd required twelve months of therapy. "Yeah," he replied, at last, with a huge sigh. "Shoulda asked before I got on this shuttle, man, or I wouldn't be here right now." My confidence. I knew he was irritated by my misleading confidence. I was used to that frustration. I wasn't used to his reluctance to take a dangerous mission. "You guys friends?" the man sitting across from us - Lennon? - asked. I would let Duo handle this, and he knew it. "Yeah, old war buddies, ya know?" "Ha! Do I ever!" Lennon offered Duo a fist and they bumped their hands together in some weird display of masculine camaraderie I was ignorant of. Neither Trowa nor Wufei would ever bump my fist. That's why I let Duo handle these things. "Ralph and Miguel there -" he thumbed over at the guy sitting next to him and the one sitting next to Duo who'd he'd been in conversation with earlier "- we were with OZ from the very beginning but bailed to join White Fang at the end. Can't even believe it's been almost ten years." We all nodded at the somber words. Ten years. What did we have to show for it? I sure as hell didn't have the only thing I wanted. "Nice to get a clean slate." Ralph broke the awkward silence. "Yeah, been real hard to find work when your only skills are piloting," Lennon agreed easily. "Only so many pilots needed on colony runs and inter-earth routes." "And you can't exactly put White Fang on a resume," Miguel grumbled dejected. We all nodded sympathetically and there was a long pause before Duo started talking again. "You guys all pilots then?" The three nodded and Duo grinned. "Yeah, Ron and I too." He jerked a thumb to indicate me. Ron. What a horrible alias. Duo picked it out, cackling about how he'd still be able to call me 'Ro. "Not as illustrious as piloting for White Fang. We were just ground troops for OZ. Things got real iffy there at the end, ya know? Not even sure who we were workin' for." Duo and Lennon shared a chuckle as Ralph and Miguel smiled on. I remained completely indifferent, taking in the back-story Duo was creating for us. "Didn't catch your name," Lennon asked of Duo. Duo made an apologetic face and held out a hand, which Lennon accepted with a shake. "Drake. Drake Johnson." They talked amongst themselves for the rest of the voyage. Sometimes I got a questioning glance but none of them asked the reason for my silence. Probably thought I was some PTSD case and that my past was worse than theirs so they should just mind their own business. Miguel wasn't exactly the most talkative guy either. Maybe they understood. After Duo, and with his help, I began to form an understanding of the way people saw me. Not that I cared to any degree, but it did make the unfortunate reality of social interaction easier. I was okay with them ignoring me. I was okay being a PTSD poster child in their eyes. Duo was always better at social engineering and interpersonal recon anyway. Duo was always better than me at a lot of things. Eventually we were docking into what appeared to be the only completed docking bay of the only piece of what would soon become the L6 colony cluster. Duo had whistled at it when he got a glimpse out the window. It was a pretty impressive hunk of metal. A big round ball floating out there in space, spinning slowly to maintain artificial gravity. I was more impressed by the clean up after the never discussed L5 self-destruction which was quickly and publically swept under the rug - another reminder of a cruel war that no one seemed keen to memorialize. Instead, the entire sector was renamed L6 and I was sure when Nexxus started their planning every politician from Earth to L3 jumped on the opportunity to erase the tragedy even further from the public's memory. Not that Wufei would ever forget. Quickly, we were heading out in single file, those of us who were bound for construction work grabbing oversized duffels with meager possessions enclosed. Those in suits and business casual grabbed their small travel suitcases and eyed us warily. The docking bay was nicely constructed. We wandered down the cool corridor, advertising various slogans on colorful banners with the WEI or Nexxus logo imprinted across them. "A New Colony for a Better Tomorrow." I frowned at an oversized framed poster of Quatre in a smart suit shaking hands with Sergio Caldas - President and CEO of Nexxus International Group. "A Partnership for the Future." What kind of bullshit marketing lingo was that? What did that even mean? Eventually, we were forced into a paper check and we shuffled to pull out our hiring papers. Those who were already employees lined up to the left to present badges while us ten new hires were forced to the right. Duo was right behind me, joking inappropriately with Lennon about concentration camps. He already found a friend. I fought down a little jealousy that I wouldn't normally have felt if things had been better between us. There were only three people before me and I was presenting my documentation to the man behind the desk. I stared at him, a cold creeping feeling of recognition seeping through me as I did. I stiffened imperceptibly, ready to be stopped, apprehended, detained. Ready to fight. This had to be someone Jack knew, right? He was tall, engrossed in his work, a thick rusty beard covered his face and his hair was cropped short. His nose looked as though it had been broken before and didn't quite heal right but otherwise his face was almost delicate. I sure as hell didn't recognize him. But then he was handing back my paperwork and a temporary badge with the dedicated boredom of any assembly line worker. I didn't think twice, I just accepted the documents and moved forward to where the other new hires were waiting with an escort. I had that stupid rushed feeling of a narrow miss and glanced back at Duo who was happily chatting away with the stoic man, getting no reply. This was the part of missions with Duo that I hated. Wasn't like he didn't stand out enough with the braid and all, had to go trying to make nice with everyone. "Jealous?" Miguel asked and I turned my eyes slowly towards him so that I didn't betray my surprise at how close he was to the truth. "What?" I bit off as if I hadn't heard him. He just shrugged and turned his eyes back to Duo, who was approaching with a big grin. "We got barracks assignments!" he teased and pulled out one of his papers, crisp from having just been printed. "C-4," he announced with a whoop. "Whatta wonderful number." Miguel and I began reviewing our documents to see our assignments and we all appeared to be in the same housing unit. Lennon was too, we learned as he approached after Duo, and so was Ralph. Once everyone was through security we followed the escort through a cursory tour of our area of L6 and a bit of a more detailed explanation of our particular worksite, titled Delta 2. Then we were lead to 'the barracks' as Duo had affectionately named them and were instructed to meet in the cafeteria for dinner in an hour after which an orientation was to take place with some other men who had arrived earlier that day. I wondered how many men. I wondered if they had arrived earlier to be brainwashed. It appeared that four out of our team of ten were assigned to fill C-3 and one of the others, who introduced himself as Blair, was to be with us. The room was relatively small, very similar to a barrack in all actuality, six beds, six chests, three on either side of the room, and two toilets, two showers attached at the back. All cool metal, just like the rest of the colony. The structure appeared temporary, though, as if they'd just tear all this down and put houses over it, or skyscrapers, or whatever they'd intended to build, and erase all memory of those who'd constructed the place. An eerie comparison considering the way they intended to erase the memories of those who'd constructed it as well. Duo served his function as we all put away our things and checked out the space by introducing us all to Blair and chatting him up about how he ended up here as well, although no matter what Blair said, Duo and I knew it was through Edward. I took a bed closest to the door and Duo took the one next to mine, in between Blair and I. Lennon harassed Duo about not clogging the showers with his hair. Duo harassed Lennon about not cracking the mirror with his ugly face. This lead to any number of good-natured insults about Duo's required preening and teasing retorts from Duo on Lennon's lack of luck with the ladies. I'm sure I stood out with my absolutely absent commentary - even Miguel joined in at times - but no one pointed it out and I suffered through social hour until an announcement came over the PA system that dinner would be served in five minutes. We all wandered down to the cafeteria stationed just beyond the housing area and I noted that there appeared to be four sections of 12 barracks in our area, though I suspected that this was only one of many construction housings complexes on L6. I would have to make finding blue prints a priority. The cafeteria had a wide range of food that actually appeared edible. Not that I really cared, though civilian life had made me a bit more picky than I was during the war, but even Duo whistled appreciatively at the selection. I was somewhat surprised by the assortment simply because this was a colony, after all, and everything had to be imported. I suspected this was a way of keeping employee satisfaction high. I was impressed with the banter Duo managed to maintain through dinner. Although I was sure no one else was able to tell, I knew by the way his smile didn't quite reach his eyes that he was tired, worried, nervous. Probably my warning about Zurich keeping him on edge. I was being hyper-vigilant but we already passed my biggest concern. As long as we continued to pass employee inspections I didn't anticipate that this would blow up in my face. Eventually we headed out to the orientation and Blair sidled up next to Duo. "You know that guy, right?" I heard him ask Duo quietly - likely not expecting that I could hear him - and noted Duo's eyes thrown over his shoulder to give me a quick glance. Probably trying to warn me I wasn't being friendly enough. Typical. "What's his deal?" "Aw, 'Ro's a good guy," Duo apologized for me, meeting Blair's quiet tone, "but the war was real hard on him. Never completely rehabilitated, ya know? He won't bother ya. Unless you call him 'Ro. Only I'm allowed to call him that." Duo's voice had a hint of self-satisfaction in it. Blair seemed to ease up though and we found seats in a semi-circle of about two hundred and fifty folding chairs that looked like they were sitting in that area on a permanent basis. In front of us was a short podium with a mic set up and a woman in a smart suit took the so-called stage. Duo leaned back and threw his arms over the back of the seats so that one was resting behind Blair and one behind me. I didn't look at him but I felt his fingers brush my shoulder quickly. 'Everything's okay,' he said. I knew from years of working with him what that touch meant. 'We're doing good. This is going well.' I took a moment to note that there were about fifty of us new hires as she introduced herself and carried on a little spiel about the mission of L6 and the future of humanity. It seemed a little lofty and over the top to me, but then what did I care about any of that? She went on to describe our schedule, making clear to me just how much like indentured servants we were. Well, we got paid. But otherwise we were to be up and at breakfast by seven. After breakfast we would work until lunch when we would get a two-hour break to eat and rest and then return to work until dinner. After dinner we were free - to do what on a construction site I'm unsure - but then by ten we were expected to be back in our rooms. Sundays were an off day to do laundry and contact our family and friends or socialize amongst ourselves. She explained that there was no night cycle on the colony right now which I knew had to be about as big a disappointment for Duo as it was for me. No covert ops. She also explained that those of us with the correct backgrounds and experience might get to do some work in space on the hull of the colony, a prospect I might've cared about if I were here honestly and not undercover. She also explained that there was a commissary that carried things like cigarette cartridges, candy, and various forms of entertainment, but no alcohol. For that I was somewhat relieved. I noted that there were only three women amongst us and I considered that would probably lead to many a hormonal pissing match amongst this many men. The last thing the situation needed was chemically impaired judgment. After about an hour of presentation, we were lined up to receive work clothes and watches to keep track of the time considering there was no night and day. I was thankful for the windowless rooms when we eventually returned to housing complex C-4. The artificial colony light I had once been so accustomed too seemed overbearing with nothing to dampen it. I took a shower to avoid further socialization and when I got out no one but Miguel was left. He was reading on a tablet and didn't spare a glance for me as I made my way across the room. At first I was thankful for his silence but my curiosity over Duo's location eventually forced me to speak. "Where did they go?" I asked, staring at him from my bed across the room. "You mean, where'd Drake go?" he probed and my scowl deepened. When it became obvious I wouldn't grace that with a response, he continued. "They went to look around. I guess to find the commissary. Said they'd be back by ten." Ah, Duo. Always thinking. He would have a visual map of our whole area by the time he got back tonight. It was times like this I appreciated him as an invaluable partner. I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until Duo was back - I was still somewhat suspicious of how easily we got through the checkpoint - so I grabbed my own tablet and downloaded the material available to us over the freely accessible intranet on the L6 project, committing it to memory. There were even relatively detailed blue prints of the colony available - but then when you intend to fuck with the head of everyone who's seen them, I suppose it didn't matter if you handed them out or not. The whole colony appeared to be made up of six concentric rings. The top three outer rings had plans drawn in for residential, commercial, and industrial areas but the middle three were suspiciously blank. I knew logically the very center had to house controls for the colony's functions including the gravity matrix and that not much of anything would be there based on the way artificial gravity was distributed across a sphere. But I had a feeling whatever they were hiding was somewhere in those lower two layers. The weaker gravity would make construction of anything heavy and large easier and it didn't appear that that those layers would be easy to get at either. It was almost ten when boisterous laughter filled the room. I think Miguel fell asleep while I was meditating on ways to get into the lower levels of L6. I reached over to hit the light over Duo's bed so that they wouldn't be coming in blind and our eyes met for a moment. Duo winked at me, announced he was going to take a shower, gathered some things and was off. And, finally, I was able to fall asleep.
~ * ~ tbc... |
