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"The Road to Hell is Paved With Second Chances "Written By: Jewel of Hell Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' but these words Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Yaoi, lemon, angst (sort of), abuse, torture, memory loss, mental instability, character death, violence, dark Pairings: 1x2 Summary: The war ended, and Duo disappeared. Heero
never stopped searching. When he found his love, locked in a research
facility with devestated memories, he swore he would destroy the one
responsible. "The Road to Hell is Paved With Second Chances "
Chapter One "If you want to find Maxwell, you've got to keep a cool head," Wufei had said. More than once. Heero knew it was true. Unfortunately, logic barely reached the rational part of his mind right now. It had been over a week now. A fucking week with no clue as to Duo's disappearance. He felt like he was going mad. In fact, the only reason he hadn't was because he continued to search for him. He threw himself into working for Relena because she had resources he could utilize. Though so far everything wound up being a dead-end. His cell-phone rang. "Hai," he said shortly. "Heero, we need you to come right away!" a familiar voice barked. One of Relena's aides or something. "Someone broke into the Princess's office!" Near-desperate to keep himself from destroying everything in sight, Heero welcomed the distraction and raced to her building. It was huge, lavish, and ostentatious. Tasteful, of course, but Heero didn't like it. He decided when he and Duo settled down together, it would be a small home. Something cozy. Blinking fiercely to clear the unwanted (all-too-wanted) images, he sprinted to her office. Relena practically tackled him when he appeared, quivering and sobbing. "Oh, Heero! Who would do such a thing!" As gently as he could, Heero disentangled her and handed her off to someone else. "I'll find out," he said shortly. In moments the office was cleared of everyone but him. Looking around at the mess, he frowned. Was this the mess of someone looking for something? Possibly, but probably not. Things were not merely overturned. They were thrown about to cause as much damage as possible. In fact, nothing in the office was intact. Everything was broken, shredded, or destroyed. Whoever had done this wanted to send a message. Nothing more. And how had they gotten past security? Heero made a mental note to add his personal touches, something he'd been meaning to do but had yet to get around to. Not since Duo disappeared. Shaking his head, he slowly walked around the rubble. Careful not to disturb anything. Looking for anything left over. Any piece of cloth, any lock of hair, a dirty shoeprint, anything. There was nothing. Not even a clue as to how the perpetrator had entered. After about an hour of merely committing the sight itself to memory, he left her office. She was waiting outside, and once more she flung herself into his arms. "Do you think it's someone who wants to kill me?" she asked, sniffling. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Yet. Why don't you have someone take you home while I investigate?" "I'd feel safer with you," she hedged. Restraining himself from physically pushing her out the door, he shook his head. "You'll be in my way." "Oh," she mumbled. "Okay." Giving her a nudge, he watched her leave with a few people. Personal aides or guards or whatever. Turning, he made his way to the security booth. From here cameras monitored the entire building, best place for identifying criminals. Chasing away the single guard, he dropped somewhat listlessly into the seat and pulled up the footage of last night in Relena's office. An individual, dressed from head to foot in black, walked through the door. That made Heero sit up a little straighter-that meant he had entered from somewhere else. The options were many-this building had at least fifty huge windows. He watched the individual (male by lack of curves) completely trash Relena's office. The actions were not one of a thief looking for something. Heero didn't see the man once stop to look at the things he was destroying. He just methodically made his way through her things, breaking all her personal affects, going through drawers and shredding all the documents, breaking the emptied drawers. Shredding furniture with a huge, wicked hunting knife. Then, once all this was accomplished, he sheathed his knife and walked calmly out of her office again. Somewhat bemused, Heero pulled up footage from the halls outside the office. He followed the man's progress down to the front doors. There he stripped off the mask he wore (facing away from the cameras), walked out, greeted the doorman, and left. That easy. Heero blinked. What the hell? Two hours later, little more was resolved. The doorman remembered letting in a gentleman. He'd had a parcel for Miss Relena. One the girl was expecting, too. The doorman, an elderly man, smiled and let the man in with no fuss. He described the man as looking "sophisticated," a suave sort with a kind smile. Dark hair with a single gray streak at the left temple. No lines on his face, a moderately pale complexion, and standing about six feet tall. A parcel, eh? The doorman told Heero it was in a plain manila envelope with a white label. Nothing was written on the label. So Heero returned to the trashed office scene. No, the man wasn't holding a parcel, but when Heero replayed all the video footage tracking the man's progress toward Relena's office, he went into one of the mansion's restrooms with it and left without it. Heero immediately headed for the restroom. Nothing in the mansion had been touched since the crime, so the trash wasn't taken out yet. Which was where he found the envelope. He picked it up and opened it with tissue even though he knew there would be no fingerprints. The man wore gloves. Inside was a single sheet of paper. Addressed to no one in particular, it was a long string of numbers. Heero frowned. They were all ones or zeroes, a binary code that any modestly talented computer hack could break. Heero wasn't modestly talented. He sincerely doubted anyone was better at it than himself. Someone like Relena would look at it and cry. She wouldn't have a clue. So this wasn't meant for her. Who, then? Curiosity got the better of him. Bringing the envelope with him, he returned to the security booth and set out to break the code. It took about twenty minutes. He blinked in surprise. It was an address and several sets of times, as well as one name. Brighton-Glewhyn Research Facility 8:43, 11:06, 14:32, and 19:28. Heero gazed at it for awhile. A facility? He'd never heard of it. What was this? Some attempt to draw the attention away from the perpetrator? For a moment Heero deliberated. Eventually he decided to take the bait. He went to his laptop. Brighton-Glewyn Research Facility, also called BG Research, was a small-but-renowned facility several hundred miles from this location. A handful of years ago they had made ground-breaking discoveries concerning memory loss. Now their techniques were cutting edge treatment for victims of amnesia. It operated solely on donations and support from private parties. One such party was Relena Peacecraft. She hadn't been a supporter for long. In fact, she had made her first contribution about two months ago, and it was a big one. Her second one came about two weeks ago. Two days before Duo's disappearance, actually. The date brought a wave of agony. Thinking about his love physically hurt. Where are you? Shit, what am I wasting time with this, for? Anyone could do this investigation. Quatre had counseled patience. He was using the considerable Winner name and influence to look into Duo's disappearance, but so far had found little. Raking fingers through his perpetually disheveled hair, Heero looked at the numbers. Those were all times. For what? He ran through the facts. Perhaps the doorman had let the gentleman in because he recognized him. Had he been here before? It was a start. Heero began going through video footage backward from last night. After perhaps a few hours, ready to fall asleep from sheer boredom, an evening in Relena's office caught his attention. She was sitting at her desk when her laptop signaled an incoming communication. She opened a conversation window, and a man appeared. The camera's quality was good, but distance made the details a little hard to make out. It wasn't quite interesting, until Relena spoke. "Doctor," she said in a slightly cool tone. "You shouldn't be calling me here." "Forgive me, Miss Peacecraft," came a smooth, cultured voice. "Subject 02 was brought here early last night, as requested. Now that he has arrived, how would you like me to proceed? My methods have been criticized for being . . . unethical." Even distance captured that cruel smirk. Far from being a simpleton, Heero's heart turned to ice in his chest. Subject 02? "I couldn't care less," Relena said in a gratingly prissy and dismissive tone. "He's been in my way for far too long. I don't care what you do to him, as long as I never see him again. In fact," she gave a slow, vicious smile, "the more he suffers, the better." "Please, Miss Peacecraft," the man said. "You make it sound like I torture my subjects. It is all for science." "Of course, Doctor. Have a good day, and thank you again for getting rid of that thorn in my side." "Ah, thank you for your generous support of my research," the man said. And then the communication was over. Heero's eyes were drawn to the time the camera had captured it. 19:28:38. As the last time on the list. Were there other conversations like this at those other times? Was this a strange coincedence? He didn't care. His vision was tinting red. Anger alone didn't do it justice. He wanted to rip Relena's throat out with his teeth. He realized his grip was mangling the keyboard and forced his fingers to release it. For several long moments he couldn't move, his raw fury paralyzing his whole body. A peculiar heat wrapped around his brain. There was only one way to quiet this demon. Kill her. But as important as that was, there was one thing even more so. Duo. He had to find Duo. He looked at the paper sitting beside him. Brighton-Glewhyn Research Facility. Perhaps that bastard talking to Relena was Kraben Isenger? You're dead, too. Crumpling the paper, he stuffed it in his pocket. On the way out of the mansion, he stopped by the doorman. "Tell Relena I've gone after the perpetrator," he said flatly, and stalked away without another word. If he had to tell Relena himself, he would kill her. He needed time to plan her demise, and right now that was a luxury he could not afford. Not until Duo was safe in his arms once more. Then nothing would save Relena. He woke up one day and had no idea who he was. Even less of where he was. Eventually he learned it was a research facility. And apparently he was the lab rat. They never told him his name, if they even knew. They called him subject 02. The clinical designation made him feel like an object rather than a human being. Perhaps that was their intent? There were quite a few doctors. There was only one in charge. He hated and feared the man equally, though fear was slowly winning out. From the beginning, his life was a waking nightmare. They did unspeakable things to him, all while recording his reactions. Researching the effects of stimulus versus memory loss, the doctor said. The man with black hair and gray streaks at the temples. The doctor regarded him like a lion might regard a plump gazelle. He didn't know how long he'd been here. Sometimes he woke and could not remember what had happened the day before. It made marking the passage of time impossible. He was relatively certain he'd been here his whole life. How else had he developed a fear of everything? The sound of footsteps toward his door. The door opening. Voices. Light. Enclosed space. Cold. Water. Even the food they fed him was a thing to be feared, because often it made him violently sick or burned his tongue so badly it felt afire. He hated pain. Pain stimulus seemed to be the doctor's favorite. He was afraid to scream because that brought more pain, but holding back cost a great deal of effort. Once they locked him in a tiny, cramped box with a mask strapped over his face so he could barely breathe. There was barely an inch of space between his nose and the lid, and he couldn't move his arms or legs. The claustophobia sent him into a full-blown panic attack. Curled up on the concrete floor of his tiny cell, he tried in vain to hold in any body heat. He was pitifully thin, had he been this way when he arrived? Footsteps. In an instant his body went taut, on high alert, waiting. He pressed himself into the corner, making himself as small as possible. When the door opened, a new face appeared around it. The man-boy, really-stepped inside and closed the door. His eyes were incredibly blue, a shade he didn't recall seeing before. He pressed back even further; something about that body whispered of understated power. And yet . . . the blue-eyed boy looked at him in such a way as no one had ever looked at him. Strange. Quiet. Gentle? Sad? "It's true?" the boy murmured. "You really have no memories?" He blinked. Not what he'd been expecting. Hard to stop trembling. The boy took a few steps forward, causing him to jerk back in alarm. His head cracked against the concrete so hard he practically saw stars, but he kept the boy in his line of sight. Even though there was hardly any point. He couldn't exactly escape. The boy stopped and knelt. Making himself smaller. Less alarming. "I won't hurt you," he said. "I'm . . . new. My name's Heero." Blink. Another first. None of them had ever told him their names. He waited, hardly breathing. They didn't usually take this kind of time with him, either. They just grabbed him and forced him to submit to torment. "Do you know your name?" He froze. His own name? Did he actually have one? Eyes locked with blue, he slowly shook his head. A hand reached out. His heart tried to pound out of his chest as he waited for pain. It didn't come. The touch was light and soft, soothing as a golden hand cupped his cheek and gently stroked. "Duo," he whispered. "That's your name. Do you remember it?" Duo? Did he remember? No, it wasn't even vaguely familiar. But it was his? The first thing that was his? It seemed like a strange name, but it was his. Would he even remember it in the morning? He wanted to tell Heero to stop touching him, because it was terrifying. But he was too afraid to speak. Maybe the other boy saw it, because his hand abruptly withdrew. "I was brought here to monitor your physical health," he said, still in that soft tone. "I think this place should be shut down and all the scientists arrested. I will see to that end." Blink. What an odd thing to say. What would happen to me then? "Don't worry, Duo," the boy-Heero-said with a faint smile. A sad one. "I will look after you from now on." His heart didn't stop pounding until Heero was gone. Only then did the fear subside into something less like panic and more like nervousness. Because truthfully, he never really stopped being afraid.
tbc Chapter 2 |
