Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own this and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning: Male/male sex, graphic, language, dark angst, torture, abuse, Attempted
NCS
Burning Candles
Dragons
Duo was allowed a shower in a communal shower room and a gray jumpsuit to wear afterward. He was still kept barefoot, though, and they pushed and shoved him when he tried to braid his wet hair. It was a relief to be free of vomit, sweat, and urine, and the hot water helped relax his stressed muscles and nerves, but they didn't give him long to enjoy it. They shackled him again and he was marched, shuffling and stumbling, back to the hanger with his wet hair weighing him down like a wet blanket and his bare feet freezing on the cold floor.
Revenant was there, dressed in black clothing, black jack boots, and black leather gloves. It gave him a sinister appearance as he frowned at Duo and approached him. He snapped his fingers and motioned to a chair behind a console and Duo's guards responded by grabbing Duo and thrusting him into it hard. Duo didn't fight them. He hunched over, his hands fisted in his lap, and remembered another, similar experience during the war.
"Get him a coat and towels for his hair," Revenant growled when he saw Duo shaking. "He can't pilot if he becomes ill!"
Duo continued to sit, unresponsive, when they returned with the items. One man forced a coat on him with brisk motions while another man dried his hair with the towels, purposefully jerking and pulling. When they were done, Duo crossed his arms over his chest and looked at nothing very hard.
Revenant raised a control in one hand and made as if to push a button. Duo flinched and choked on an exclamation, curling inward abruptly, hands going between his legs in a useless move to protect himself. Revenant smiled and said, "Can't help yourself, can you Agent Maxwell? I think we have finally found your pain threshold." He motioned at Duo with the control and Duo flinched again. "Put that headset on."
Duo reached for it with trembling hands, not recognizing the band and the needles connected to it, but seeing that things were about to get painful again. He paused, tried to stop himself from obeying, and began to shake in trepidation so hard it rattled his teeth. Fuck you, he silently told his nerves, fuck you fuck you fuck you!!! He drew in a long breath through gritted teeth and he slowly turned to glare at Revenant.
Revenant tried to interpret that look and then said, "I think it is time for me to explain your new duties." When Duo managed a nod in agreement, he continued, "We have a new weapons system that operates by brain impulses. It takes fine control and a high level of mental ability to make the system work. None of my candidates have managed it as yet." When Duo looked afraid, he hastily added, "It isn't the zero system, if that's your fear. This system doesn't interpret or modify brain impulses. It simply reads them and reacts."
Revenant motioned to a worker and that man operated a control panel. Suddenly, what had seemed a jumble of struts and wires, made a whooshing sound and rose from the ground. It hovered, swiveling optics at a rapid pace at its top and bottom. It looked delicate, like a long legged spider, but Duo recognized the gleam of gundanium and the configuration for lasers at the end of each 'leg'.
"It's harmless, attached to a harness to give it power," Revenant explained. "It will remain there while you train to operate it and then train others to do the same. You will, of course, not be allowed to operate a free motion model at any time."
Revenant toyed with the remote again and Duo dropped the headset and put his hands between his legs, hunching over into a ball and dragging his shackled legs up into the chair. He huddled there. "My medic will install the device," Revenant warned. "If you don't wish another shock, or worse, the death of one of your children, you will hold perfectly still."
An older man in a white jumpsuit came forward with a kit. He spread it out in front of Duo, poured alcohol onto a swab, and began dabbing at places on Duo's head. "I'm going to install several permanent sockets for the needles," he explained, "Their tips are filled with anesthesia. There shouldn't be any pain beyond insertion."
Duo's chains clinked loudly together as he gripped his knees and waited. The medic inserted the sockets at four points on Duo's forehead and then screwed in the needles from the headset. It was painless, but that didn't calm any of Duo's fears about what those needles might do to him. He didn't expect Revenant to come out and admit it if they were dangerous.
"Finished, sir," the medic announced at last, took up his kit, and backed away.
Revenant spent a full minute simply staring at Duo. He smiled then, as if savoring a momentous moment."Proceed, Agent Maxwell. Notice the meter in front of you on the console. There is a green section, a yellow, and a red. You must focus your concentration on the machine so that the needle is in the red. None of my men have been able to pass yellow."
Concentrate, Duo told himself, but all he could think of was the humiliation
and pain he had been put through, the agonizing pain of his headache, his constant
hunger and thirst, and his failing ability to get his body to overcome it's
instinctive need to avoid horrendous pain. Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou! Duo silently
shouted again at his traitor body. He stared at the machine. His Gundam training
tried to engage, faltered, and then firmly took the mental driver's seat. He
had been taught, no matter what the cost or circumstances, to pilot. He had
been tested, again and again, under severe conditions and he had learned not
to fail. He didn't fail now.
Through trial and error, Duo tried to focus his mind enough to make the meter
turn over to red. When it finally did, he turned his eyes to the machine and
thought, very hard, basic commands. The machine's legs rose, moved, and extended
their lasers. It was only a moment before the meter fell back to yellow, but
it was proof enough of Duo's potential. Revenant grinned, a glow in his eyes
that was almost demonic. "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "You may
stop now."
Duo slumped forward, his cheek coming to rest on the cool console. His senses swam and the world went away for a short time. When he came back to himself, prying his eyes open again, he found Revenant almost in his face. He recoiled and Revenant laughed.
"Well done, Maxwell," Revenant told him and Duo puzzled at the angle he was seeing him at until he realized that he was on his back now and in his cell once more. There was a difference, though. The photos were still there, but a soft mattress was underneath him and the smell of hot food, close at hand, reached Duo's nose.
Duo blinked at Revenant, tried to say something, and then winced when he remembered his tongue.
"Just as I promised," Revenant told him. "Cooperate and you receive rewards. Continue to cooperate, and I will treat you as well as I treat my top officers." He grew very serious then and warned, "If you fail to show marked success, I will punish that as well." He pointed the control at Duo and laughed when Duo made a choked, anguished sound, flinched, and curled up with his hands between his legs. "You can trust that I will not use this unless it is necessary. I would hate for your heart to fail from the shock. However, you've already experienced some of the alternative punishments. They can be much more severe, I assure you."
Revenant straightened and pocketed the control. Joining his guards, he told Duo magnanimously, "You may rest for the remainder of the day. I will send my medic in to treat you and to ease your pain."
He left then, but, before the door closed behind him, Duo saw someone standing in the corridor beyond, waiting for him. Duo rolled to press his ear against the metal floor. The man, as he had hoped, had stopped just outside to speak to that someone. The sound traveled through the metal to his ear, and he heard Revenant's faint voice say, "He's a whipped dog, now. He'll jump when I whistle." Duo's face burned.
The stranger said, "That man took charges beyond what any recorded subject would allow themselves to endure. Keep that in mind and don't underestimate him. He may not want to chance getting his balls shocked, but the reputation of these Gundam pilots tells me he is far from defeated."
"Yes, sir," Revenant replied. "He will stay well guarded at all times."
Duo scowled. He rolled back onto the mattress, but stayed on his side as he began to eat from the tray of food and drink on the floor near at hand. It wasn't necessary for them to believe he was beaten, but it would have made things easier.
______________________________
"Talk or I'll blow your fucking head off!"
Heero cautiously approached with his hand on his gun. He had been spotted as soon as he had left his car behind on a street corner and three street children, between the ages of ten and thirteen, had ushered him into a back alley. There he saw Jake holding a gun at a kneeling man's head, his expression grim and as cold as any soldier's that Heero had seen on a battlefield. Jake wore a bandana to keep his long hair out of his eyes and, despite the cold, he was wearing only a white tank top, a pair of ragged, low slung cargo pants, and military boots a few sizes too big. The man he was threatening, in dark pants and a dark windbreaker, was middle aged, sported a crewcut, and had a scar across his face. His expression was contemptuous.
"What are you going to do, little street trash?" the man sneered. "Bite my knees? You don't have the guts to pull a trigger."
Jake grunted. "You're right, I don't have the guts," he admitted and the man smirked, "Not where the cops can hear the shot," Jake added and the man glared, suddenly nervous. "I know some underpasses that are just out of the way and noisy enough to cover that up, though." He touched the cold barrel of the gun to the man's ear. "I wonder how many parts of you I need to blow off before you start bawling like a baby? I wonder how many it'll take to kill you?"
His gang laughed. Heero looked around him warily at the motley street kids ranged around their leader like a pack of wolves. Dressed in over sized clothes, gang colors, and sporting piercing, tattoos, and scars, they all had a steel edge to their eyes no matter what their age. It was the same look that Heero had seen in Duo's eyes; the look of children that had seen and experienced too much violence in their short lives. It was obvious the man was completely unaware of his real danger. He was treating them as something they had probably never been; children.
"Jake?" Heero called.
Jake twitched and Heero recognized someone in the 'zone', a soldier focused on a target and on an adrenalin high. ""Bout time you got here," Jake grated. He flipped photos at Heero and they scattered on the ground. He didn't bend to pick them up. He could see what they were. "He came into my territory lookin' to take some of us out. Those are Mr. M's pics. This piece of crap knows where he is."
"Jake," Heero repeated, stronger this time. "Let's talk."
Jake did look at him this time, burning with anger. "That's why you're here, man!" He nodded to an eight year old. "Watch him, Curt." The kid, a small blonde, pulled out a glock from his waistband and held it on the man with a pleased grin. Heero wanted to shudder. Peace hadn't reached these streets, not in the slightest.
Jake strode over to Heero and together they moved to the end of the alley.
"Let him go," Heero told him and Jake's gun, still in his hand rose slightly as he glared at Heero.
"'Splain why that makes any freakin' sense?" Jake demanded.
"He'll go back where he came from and I will have men follow him," Heero told him. "We will find out who he works for and if they have Agent Maxwell."
"That's crap!" Jake swore. "While you're making calls and trying to convince the cops to tail asshole back there, he's going to powder. Besides, he blew his job. His boss'll wanna take him out. Who'd want a shit who gets fucked over by kids? He knows that. He won't go back. He'll go underground." He hefted his gun and glared at Heero. "I'll get out of him where Mr. M is and you go get him... you... he talked about you all the time. He told me you were the best. You're his skin. Don't give me shit that you won't go get him if you know where he's at."
Heero replied, "Why don't you go and get Agent Maxwell, if he means so much to you?"Trying for understanding.
Jake looked pained. "Mr. M.... he's cool. He's one of us. He made things better. I"ve got the gang, though. I have to keep it here for them. I leave and the hawks are gonna come down on 'em."
Heero shivered and his jaw clenched. He replied, "I have a problem like yours. I'm expected-"
Jake snorted. "Like mine? Man, you stupid or somethin'? There's only me, nobody else. You, you got a whole police force backing you up. You tellin' me nobody else can do your job?"
Heero replied quietly,"Not this one."
"Fucking liar!" Jake snarled.
Heero frowned and didn't respond to that. Instead of arguing further, he said, "I can't allow you to hurt that man."
Jake made a strange gesture, a flick of a thumb under his chin, and then he was turning away and Heero was being confronted by armed members of his gang.
"Jake cut you," A dark skinned boy snarled. "Get outta here."
"Not without that man over there," Heero insisted.
"He's outta here too!" Jake snarled back and cut the man lose. "We don't press charges, you can't do 'nothing!"
Heero knew the play and he wasn't going to allow it. "You're not going to force me to track him."
"You know he won't spill a thing," Jake replied. "And now you tipped him off about following him. You must not give a shit about Mr. M."
"I do care!" Heero shouted back and shocked himself, for a moment not understanding that he had said it.
Jake turned, arms out wide, and expression disgusted, "Fuck You! Get outta my neighborhood!" The man started to stand, but Jake pressed his gun to his ear. "Not you, not now. You gotta pay."
The man licked nervous lips, finally understanding his danger.
Heero drew his own gun, ignoring the children around him who did the same. He pointed it at Jake and Jake pointed his gun at Heero. The man was standing between them. He tried to duck out of the way but Jake warned, "Don't fucking move!"
Tension ran between Jake and Heero. They stared at each other, guns unwavering.
"You're gonna die, cop," Jake snarled.
"So are you," Heero snapped back "My job is to keep the peace and follow the law. That man is a suspect. I have to take him in."
"He has to pay for trying to off us," Jake replied harshly.
"Let him go," Heero insisted.
"No," Jake replied.
The man looked from Jake to Heero and saw trigger fingers beginning to squeeze. He suddenly shouted, waving his hands, "Hey... hey! I can... I'll tell you where they have him... just... let me the hell out of here!"
Jake looked down at the man, his eyes wild and dangerous. "Don't lie, you fuck."
The man shrugged. "What's it to me? I can't go back there. They'll kill me. Revenant doesn't like failure."
"Revenant?" Heero grasped at the name.
"He's holed up Fernandino, at an old desert airbase," the man told him. "He makes it look like old prop planes are stored there, but he has a hell of a lot more."
"Drugs? Gun running?" Jake guessed.
The man smirked. "You have no imagination, boy. " He nodded at Heero. "Get me out of here alive and I'll even point it out on a map."
Heero's mind shifted gears. Shifted priorities."Define, "a hell of a lot more'," he demanded.
The man's eyes glinted. "Something to start a nice rebellion, that's what."
Heero was suspicious. "Why turn traitor?"
"Maybe because my own skin is more important," the man replied, "or maybe because I know you can't beat him."
Heero ignored the last and asked pointedly, "What does Commander Une have to do with this?"
The man shrugged. "Revenant needed her pet Gundam pilots. She wouldn't share and she's been trying to take Revenant out ever since she trashed the deal. Her numbers coming up soon, I can tell you that. He won't let her get in his way."
"Why did you send messages to me and not Une if she was your target?" Heero wondered..
"Revenant wanted you in particular," the man sneered. "But he told us to get what we could so we kidnaped that long haired freak, Maxwell, instead. They sent me out to take pics and scope out the kids to threaten him with. They need him to run their systems... well, if he can."
Heero's jaw clenched. He could sense a lie somewhere. He didn't trust the man, didn't trust that he was willing to be that helpful.
The man suddenly whipped out a hidden knife as he began to run, doubting Heero's ability to get him out of there alive. Jake flinched and whirled to shoot, but he was too slow. The man's knife drove right for his eight year old guard standing in his way. The double crack of Heero's gun was loud. The back of the man's head splattered with blood and he fell at the young boy's feet. Heero stood, gun poised, like an executioner.
The young boy spat on the dead man's body and grinned at Heero, un-phased by the violence. "You're a fucking good shot, man!" he exclaimed, "I felt that bullet take off some of my hair!"
Jake frowned and it was clear that he was feeling guilty for not having protected the boy himself. "Dump him," he told his gang, and motioned with his gun at the dumpster nearby. "Then powder. Stay sharp. There's probably more of that shit around here."
His gang went into motion. Jake glared at Heero. "You're going to let Mr. M get bagged too? You going to turn your back and just act like he ain't no kind of shit to worry about?"
"No," Heero replied as he holstered his gun. "I'm going after him."
Jake was confused. "What the fuck? Why now?"
Heero nodded to where his gang was shoving the body into the dumpster. "He gave me the reason to go."
"All that weapons shit he was talking about?" Jake snarled. "Not Mr. M? Right?"
Heero nodded.
"You're a cold fuck, you know that?" Jake said through gritted teeth.
"I've been told that before," Heero replied and walked away, not needing to hear anymore.
He called Quatre on the drive back to his apartment on a secure line. He trusted his old war comrade more than he trusted Preventer agents and Une at that moment. He didn't want the man, Revenant, to know that his project had been compromised. Heero planned to infiltrate the target himself. Apprizing Quatre of that fact, assured that his discovery wouldn't be lost along with him if he were captured or killed.
Heero pulled into his apartment car park and it was, strangely, Jake and his gang that was on his mind rather than mission preparations. He hadn't managed to explain to the hotheaded gang leader about priorities, about duty, or what Duo would have thought if Heero had ignored everything and tried to rescue him. One man, one excellent partner, wasn't worth risking the peace for, wasn't worth ignoring the threat in the Preventers own ranks, or the chance that many people might die in the course of his saving only one man. Duo wouldn't have wanted that. He knew what he had signed up for when he had joined Preventers.
As Heero rode the elevator up to his apartment, his thoughts drifted over the year that he had spent working with Duo. Calm, steady, dependable... those had been Duo's qualities, something he had never expected from the wild Shinigami from the war. They had both grown older, though, changed, mellowed, found their place... only Duo had found more than Preventers, more than the routine. It had seemed like they had worked apart, coming together only to exchange information, when, in fact, over the last days, Heero had come to realize just how integral to Heero's work, and life, Duo had been. When things hadn't been completed, cases stagnated, and contacts dried up, Heero had floundered, trying to reinvent a workday that he had thought that he had been in full control over. There was no one to call now, no one to bring him tea, no one to offer a steady companionship and insights, no one to sit over lunch with, and no one to... Heero stopped there and took a deep breath. How had Duo managed to so thoroughly become a part of his life?
Heero exited the elevator, admitting to himself just how relieved he was to have the excuse, at last, to rescue Duo. It was then that he saw the small package tucked just under his doorway. Heero froze, scanned the hallway, and then approached cautiously, his hand on his gun.
The package was addressed to Commander Une at Preventer Headquarters, Heero saw as he looked down at it. It had been opened and taped shut again. There was a chance that it was a trick, that is was a bomb, ready to go off as soon as he opened the door or picked the package up. That didn't add up though. Everything led Heero to believe that they wanted him alive.
Heero bent, gritted his teeth, and pried the package out from beneath the door. When a blast didn't happen, he let out a breath and then straightened to go into his apartment. Locking the door behind him immediately, he tossed his coat aside, and stood, fingering the package for clues to its origin. The postmark was from New Mexico. The writing was precise and blocky. The package material ordinary. Heero cautiously opened it and pulled out a sheaf of photos and a letter.
Heero found a chair and sat down heavily, heart racing. The pictures of Duo, hanging upside down in a hanger, unconscious and bloody, trembled in his hands. Duo was ringed by men in overalls with their faces covered. They were putting their hands on Duo and one... Heero turned the photos over and put them down in his lap. He closed his eyes for a moment and just tried to breathe. Heero opened his eyes again after long moments of trying to steady himself and unfolded the letter. It was also addressed to Commander Une.
Commander Une,
Witness the result of your poor decisions. Agent Maxwell is to be commended
for his loyalty and his strength of character, but, even strong men fail eventually.
He will soon be piloting my latest creations and you will not have any defense
against them. I suggest that you inform the government of their impending dissolution
instead of continuing to cover up this matter. You will not find my installation
in time, nor do you have the weapons capability to defeat me. We could have
worked well together. I would have given you a high position in my new government.
It isn't too late for a change of heart.
Revenant Madegar
There was an email address. Heero tossed the photos aside onto a desk and rushed to boot up his laptop.
___________________________________________________________________________
"More sugar, please," Duo grunted as he tapped his tea cup.
The guard glared, shifted his rifle, and ignored him.
Hooked up to the device in the hanger and hunched over the console, Duo allowed himself to look as sick as he felt. "It's the only thing keeping me going man, so save yourself some legwork and get me a bunch of packets this time."
The guard gritted his teeth.
"Get the man his sugar, Harris," Revenant said smoothly as he approached.
The guard came to attention and went to obey.
"Thanks," Duo said absently as he turned his attention back to the machine.
"You're making progress," Revenant noted as Duo moved the arms and armed the lasers.
"Not easy with this piece of junk," Duo grated.
"Junk?" Revenant raised an eyebrow.
"The design sucks and the gyros keep seizing up," Duo replied.
"It is the prototype," Revenant assured him and motioned out onto the floor of the hanger. "My army of improved models is already assembled and awaiting orders."
"Lot of good that'll do you," Duo sneered.
Revenant frowned. "Still rebellious, Maxwell? Go on... tell me no, tell me you won't work on my project any longer... in fact... I order you to walk over there and sit down on the floor." He motioned to a point a few feet away. "Care to refuse, Agent Maxwell?"
Revenant pulled out the remote. Duo flinched and found himself removing the headset and walking to the spot, shuffling and chains clinking, before he realized it. He stopped himself, tensed with fists clenched, and then sat down on the floor, hating himself.
"Very good," Revenant chuckled. "I was simply making certain of you. Time is critical. I need to know that you are working diligently towards my goal. You may return to your seat."
Duo stood up again, head bowed, and he took his seat once more. Revenant studied him, nodded, and walked away. The guard returned with a container of sugar packets. Duo recovered and grinned.
"Thanks, man."