Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own this and I don't make any money off of it.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, torture, attempted NCS
Burning Candles
Wings
"Get them launched! Now! Now!" a voice was shouting as Heero plastered himself against a wall and felt a wave of heat wash over him. The hanger was a disaster zone and Heero scrambled mentally to make sense out of it. A machine was in flames and sagged in it's supports. Burning shrapnel lay everywhere and several men were down. A fire had started on the roof, flames catching on sprayed oil and fuel and whatever bits of wood it could find. As he watched, another machine exploded. Heero ducked down and metal clanged and clattered all around him.
"Kill him!" That same voice was screaming. "Maxwell is doing this! Launch the machines! He will die and we will regain control!"
Men were running everywhere, some grabbing firefighting equipment and others simply fleeing. Heero ticked them off as unimportant as he uncoiled from his defensive crouch, and then saw his target, a man running for a console with fearful eyes. Heero aimed his rifle and took the man out.
"Intruder!" the call came from several points in the hanger.
Heero spotted Revenant pointing at him with a hand gun. The man was a crack shot. Heero dove side ways and bullets hit the wall where he'd been standing. Revenant's men joined their leader and began to shoot as well, keeping Heero pinned down as Revenant strode for the console himself.
Revenant's action's had something to do with Duo, Heero was certain, something that would kill his partner. Heero's eyes raked the hanger, searching frantically. He spotted Duo and Jake crouched near the machines and his heart clenched sickeningly as a third machine exploded and large chunks of metal landed all around them.
Go to Duo or stop Revenant? Heero made his choice in a split second and sprinted for the console, bullets zinging all around him as he took aim at Revenant. Revenant was fearless in his determination, though, and he ignored his danger, even when he took a bullet in his side from Heero's rifle as he hit buttons on the console.
There was a loud clang and a whirl of a motor. Heero suddenly understood what Revenant was attempting to do. He fired one more bullet and saw Revenant fall as he turned and ran for Duo. He knew it was too late. He knew that he had made a fatal mistake. It was a shock to find Duo and Jake still alive, sprawled on the cold floor. Duo saw Heero and weakly held up a small tool with a wan grin.
"I can still pick a lock in record time," Duo chuckled and then coughed as he curled up around some pain.
Jake was feebly trying to sit up and get out from Duo's protective cover. He was cursing. "Stupid shit! I can take care of myself! Why didn't you fucking say you could pick the lock?"
Duo sobered and his expression went dark as Heero cautiously crouched beside him. "Before I heard the confirmation code, we weren't going to escape, that's why."
Jake was dumbfounded and then furious. He began to shout, but Heero cut him off as he tossed a gun to Jake. "I know you can handle one, so cover us."
Jake gripped the gun expertly, nodded once, and then sat up to look for targets. "Look at 'em run. Chicken shits."
"They know they've lost." Duo told him, "But don't underestimate cornered rats. They bite."
"Mobile?" Heero asked anxiously.
"No, neither of us," Duo replied. "Backup?"
"None," Heero admitted.
Duo looked astonished. "Heero? What the hell have you been drinking lately? Stupid juice?"
"I wasn't given permission for this extraction," Heero admitted as he tested the chains.
"I didn't think they'd give you permission to mess up my operation," Duo snapped back angrily.
"I didn't-" Heero began to protest, but he had been going to. He didn't finish the sentence. The truth was evident. He broke the links in the chain with a great flex of muscles and then ran the links through Duo and Jake's manacles.
"Bug out of here, Jake," Duo ordered as Heero helped him to his feet. "Don't wait for us. Save your skin."
Jake sneered. "I came here for payback. I'm getting it. Running's for whooses."
"I need to blow these machines," Duo snarled. "I can only do it one at a time. Heero's going to cover my back. Both of us are probably going to die. You feel like dying too?"
Jake stared at him. "Is this one of those things... where you give everything you got, no guarantees?"
"Yeah," Duo admitted. "It is."
"Your both gonna die... for people you don't know?" Jake persisted.
"Yes," Heero replied steadily as he took out a knife and another gun from his pack and held them out to Duo.
"Yes, for lots of people we don't know." Duo said as he took them.
"Why?!" Jake demanded in furious anguish and then, as if he couldn't hold it in, he demanded, "How you gonna take care of me if you get splattered here?"
Duo looked pained as he checked the clip in his gun. "You count, more than anything, Jake, but I have to do this. Thanks for coming after me. That means a lot to me. I..." He choked and then went on, forcing himself to steadiness, "I wish we could have had time to really do the father and son thing."
"Father?" Jake snorted, but he seemed almost in tears now. "You ain't that much older than me, Mr. M. More like shitty older brother.... and if you think I'm gonna leave even a shitty older brother to get wasted, then I'll kick your ass."
Duo blinked and then tried to sound forceful. "Go! Now! I mean it!"
"Fuck you!" Jake snarled and turned his back to look for targets.
Duo exchanged looks with Heero and Heero could only shrug. They didn't have time to force Jake to leave. Duo nodded in resignation and then turned his thoughts to the machines.
"Stop!" Revenant shouted from across the hanger. He was standing with blood running from a head wound and the gunshot hole in his side. He had six men with him and they were all training automatic rifles at them. "Stop or die!"
"I guess we die then!" Jake shouted back and began firing. Heero joined him and Revenant's men ducked behind equipment boxes. Revenant kept standing, though, and he raised a remote with a grim smile on his face .
"Duo! What is that?" Heero demanded.
Duo was startled out of his concentration. He looked just as Revenant pushed a button on the remote. Duo's entire body convulsed. There wasn't any pain. The controller didn't work, but Duo's body was still trying to react in sheer anticipation.
"Duo!" Heero called to him fearfully. "What's wrong?".
Duo bit his own tongue, wrestling with his shuddering body and his twitching nerves. He had a job to do. He couldn't fail. He couldn't... Heero's gun fired and a bullet took Revenant between the eyes in a shower of blood, flesh, and bone.
"Die, fucker, die!" Jake was shouting hoarsely in glee.
Bullets splattered all around them. Revenant's men had their orders from someone higher than him and they weren't willing to give up just yet.
Duo's mind detached itself from his body. He touched the inner controls of the machines one by one as quickly as he could, ignoring the chatter of the communications array that he had mentally hacked into. Reinforcements were coming, he knew, but he doubted they would be in time. He had to do this himself. He had to destroy everyone of the machines rather than take the chance that the enemy would be able to override and activate their mission programming.
Machines began exploding. Pieces of metal began showering them. The heat and flames grew. Fuel and oil sprayed everywhere and caught fire.
"I don't wanna burn!" Jake almost whimpered, but he didn't stop firing his gun. "Clip!" he shouted and Heero tossed him one across Duo's body. He caught it deftly and reloaded as he cried, "We gotta get out of here! Mr. M, hurry!"
Duo expected Jake to bolt. Maybe he understood a little of why Duo was willing to give his life, but Duo thought that the boy was too young to want pay that kind of price himself. Heero would guard him, Duo knew. Heero would give his life, because it was only a matter of time before Revenant's men risked getting a clear shot through flames and falling machine pieces.
Another machine exploded. Every machine had inner, self diagnostic nano bots. Duo had found it ridiculously easy to use the controlling device to control them as well. By pouring sugar into the fuel, he had guaranteed that the casings would be opened to check for damage, That had allowed Duo to send the nano bots outside of the machines and into their communication arrays. By telling the bots that there was an error, he had been able to fool them into uploading and downloading files from the platform's core to correct it. Sending those files to Une, and tapping into outside communications, had been harder. He had searched for and found a small protocol that allowed for remote communications relay and reprogramming in the field. Protected nine ways to Sunday, most of Duo's time had been spent hacking into it and convincing the machines that they were in crises and needed to employ it. That's where Revenant's men had come into play. Duo had allowed their fumbling attempts to control the weapons. The machines had responded as if to an enemy threat. Asking for and receiving new orders had been their response. Now Duo was making use of his last modification, live wires in the fuel tanks. He simply had to concentrate long enough to order the bots to shoot current through those lines. As exhausted and filled with pain as he was, that was extremely difficult.
Heero grabbed a slab of metal that had fallen near them and used it as a makeshift shield. It was hot, an insulated edge on fire.
Duo finally gained control of his body as it finally stopped trying to go into convulsions. His concentration sharpened. Two more machines exploded. Men shouted. Part of the hanger peeled back with the force and the cold salt wind blasted into the hanger.
Duo felt his connection to the machine's control systems suddenly cease. Duo started and blinked stupidly. "I'm out!" Duo shouted in warning. "Someone must have taken their head out of their ass and turned off manual controls."
"Get out of here, Jake!" Heero shouted at the boy. He lifted an explosive from his pack, it's trigger covered. He flipped that cover off with a thumb. He could see men regrouping, looking desperate.
"Oh, you brought toys!' Duo exclaimed with a grin as he took the explosive from Heero. "You take Jake. I'm down and out. I'll cover you."
"No," Heero told him. "You're my partner. I'm staying."
Duo shouted back angrily, "Jake's a civilian! He needs extraction, Yuy."
Heero shook his head stubbornly. "He can save himself. My place is with you... always has been."
Duo was shocked, hearing deeper meaning to that simple statement. "Heero...."
"I'm staying," Heero insisted. "The things that you told me on my cell phone. I... I feel the same way. I didn't know that... not until you were gone."
"Oh." Duo looked as if he had been handed heaven, but then he shook himself. "Well, it's nice that one crazy Shinigami and a completely repressed super soldier can find each other... right before they die.'
"And you even managed to have a son," Jake snarled, "Now shut the fuck up and do something!"
Heero and Duo both looked at Jake. A bullet whizzed past his blonde bangs, ruffling them.
"Gotta watch your asses," Jake growled. "Can't do that runnin' away!" and he held out his hand for another clip.
Heero tossed it to him. Jake reloaded and said through gritted teeth, "Guess it's time to give everything, huh?"
"Yeah," Duo replied and throttled emotions as he told Jake, "I'm going to toss this into the machines. It will, hopefully, take them out... It will probably take us out with them. Scorched earth."
Jake was white, his eyes wide. He didn't look at them as he asked shakily, "We're saving lots and lots of people, right? Including my kids?"
"Yeah," Duo replied. "Including them."
Jake wiped sweat and salt from his brow and snapped harshly, "Then get
it done, Mr. M."
Duo's thumb slid over to the detonation button. His thumb began putting pressure
on it.
The hanger doors suddenly opened rapidly on their railings with loud noises and men poured in, Preventer agents with guns firing. Duo's thumb froze. He swallowed hard and sat down heavily. Very carefully, he flicked the cover back over the detonation button.
Heero sat down beside him, gun still held poised, bleeding from flesh wounds.
"What the fuck now?!" Jake shouted in consternation.
"The calvary," Duo breathed and felt himself shaking with relief. He leaned against Heero and Heero slowly and uncertainly slid an arm around him to support him. Even with their feelings for each other revealed, it was going to be a process to open up and explore those feelings. They had spent a war, and a year as partners, ignoring them and pretending that they weren't there.
"Hey!" Jake shouted at the agents as he struggled to his feet and stumbled after them, his broken arm tucked close to his body and his gun nosing for targets, "Make sure you leave some of those fuckers for me!"
"He's going to make a good agent," Heero said, staring after him.
"Yeah, makes me proud," Duo replied. He gripped Heero's hand as his body finally reached the end of its strength. He said to Heero fiercely, as unconsciousness began to claim him. "Go make sure he lives to be one." He didn't let go of Heero right away, though. As his eyes lost focus, he warned, "I'm not forgetting what you said, either. When we're back home, we're going to talk, right?"
Heero gripped his hand. "Yes, we'll talk, Duo. I promise."
Duo smiled and let the world slide away, confident that Heero was there to take care of Jake, the mission, and himself.
TBC