Descent of an Angel

Many days and nights followed that long talk Trowa had with Duo. The four took turns talking to Duo, doing things with him or for him while he was sedately awake. It was difficult for them to get any progress with him at all, since he would just stare blankly at them for most of, if not the whole time they worked with him. It was like he couldn’t see them, or he just didn’t recognize any of them.

After two weeks of strong medication, Sally decided to try and see if she could get Duo breathing on his own. She set out simple instructions for the small male to follow. He didn’t seem to understand why she was telling him to do these things but he followed them as she told them to him.

“Okay, Duo. I’m going to pull out the tube. Before I do, I need you to take a deep breath, and then exhale as I pull out.”

Duo nodded slowly, taking in a deep breath before he felt the first tug of her pulling out the tube. He pushed the air out of his lungs, he felt himself gag, his stomach threatening to heave, but it had nothing to heave. He coughed a few times, wincing at how wet and ugly it sounded, like he had a cold. He felt something cold and solid be pressed into his hands as he looked down to see the plastic cup of water.

The others frowned as Duo seemed momentarily confused as to what to do with the water before he slowly started to drink it, taking the smallest sips of water any of the four had ever seen him take while drinking anything. He looked to be savoring it, his eyes closed, not swallowing the liquid right away, letting it rest on his tongue and in his mouth before he would let it trickle down his throat.

“Duo, I need you to test out speaking for me. Try to say something.” Sally prompted, only to receive a curious and rather lost look from Duo, “Can you say ‘hi’?”

“… H-hi…” Duo rasped out, coughing a few times and taking another tiny sip of the precious liquid.

“Do you know your name?” Sally asked.

“Responds ta it, din’ I?” Duo asked, his voice still crackling but his accent was deep into the broken speech known as L2 slang.

“Do you remember what happened?” Sally asked.

“Naw… Bu’ whens I fin’s da young’in’ dat tooks meh h’re, I’s gon’a throt’ ‘im. Ya cans bets on dat.”

“Why are you talking like that?” Wufei asked, sounding slightly disgusted by Duo’s broken slurred speech.

“Who’s ya?” Duo asked, frowning deeply at him, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at his Preventer’s uniform.

Four pairs of eyes glanced at each other, a bit skeptical on how to go on.

“You… don’t remember me?” Wufei asked.

“Naw. I’s ‘member a pig likes ya.” Duo said.

“Pig?!” Wufei snarled, starting to stand in his chair but a quick glare from Sally, a shove back into his seat by Heero and a warning snarl from Duo forced him back into his seat.

“It’s slang for ‘cop’, Chang. Keep your temper.” Sally growled at him.

The Chinese Preventer let out a grumble before turning his head away from Duo, showing that he wasn’t going to do anything to him, but Duo kept a skeptical eye on him from now on.

“Do you remember me, Duo?” Quatra asked, sounding slightly hopeful.

Duo stared at him for a few minutes, as if searching his memories before he shook his head, “Naw, man. Ya looks likes Solo a bits, but ya be a bi’ too shor’.”

there was silence in the room for a while, as if all of them were mourning the fact the other couldn’t remember him before Sally picked up her head.

“Duo… what year is it?” she asked softly.

“Er… 186?” he asked tentatively, not noticing the other pilots blanching and looking at him like he was insane.

186 would mean that he still thought the war was going on, that the Alliance was winning, and that he was a random, semi nameless orphan on the streets of L2.

“Amnesia?” Quatra asked softly, “You said that the swelling might have caused brain damage…”

“It might be. Duo, tell me what happened at the Maxwell church.” Sally prompted, sitting down, as if expecting a story.

“Maxwell Church? Wuzzat?” Duo asked, frowning deeply at her.

“You don’t remember at all? G, Howard, Deathscythe, the others, the war, nothing?” Heero asked, his voice almost hitching.

“Wha’?”

“I need to talk to you guys. Out.” Sally shooed them out of the door, being rewarded with the boys shuffling out of their chairs and into the hallway before she turned back to Duo, “Drink your water, and don’t try to get out of bed.”

“Wh’?” Duo asked, eyes narrowing challengingly.

“Because if you do, your heart will stop. We have a pacemaker, and automated heart valve attached to you to pump your blood, if you move, you’ll knock the valve out and bleed to death from the inside.” She said before she left the room, the door clicking silently after her.

Duo paled a little at her words before he looked down at his chest were little wires were harmlessly laying across his shoulder and chest, he reached up with his free hand and pulled the front of his shirt out and looked inside. Wires and suction cups were attached to his chest, seeming to do nothing, save for one bandage that was wrapped around a wire that pointed straight down his chest right over his left breast. He pulled his arm in his sleeve a little, ignoring the pull of the IV lines and felt where it disappeared to.

His fingers followed it down and squeezed to feel the wire’s path in the bandage until it ended right at his chest. Frowning, Duo started to peel back some of the bandage, looking under the wrapping to see that the wire went straight into his chest through a tiny cut made there. The surrounding area was yellow and smelled like the alcohol that he’d tasted once out of a dumpster, thinking that it had caught water. Pushing the bandage back into place and pulling his arm through the sleeve, he leaned back in the bed and let his violet eye wander, not even noticing the bandage around his right eye before he tried to mess with how he saw the placement of a line on the ceiling. He closed his right eye under the bandage, frowning a bit when the line didn’t move to his left like it was suppose to, so he opened his right eye and closed his left…

Outside the door way, Sally was leaning against the door, listening closely to what could be going on inside the room.

“What are we going to do?” Quatra asked, “This could be permanent, couldn’t it?”

“It could be, it could not be. Sometimes the mind will forget things that have happened to it because it’s too much for it to handle, so it just deletes them.”

“But why so far back?” Wufei asked softly, using the back of his hand to scratch an itch over his mouth, something that happened when he was starting to get worked up now, his mouth would develop an itching twitch, making him fidget like Duo used to while waiting for one of the others to return from a mission.

“I don’t know… I only hope that he either remembers up to past the end of the first war, or remembers only a little of his experience in that room. Those would be the best scenarios for us to be able to help him.”

“And the worse?” Trowa asked softly, looking her straight in the eye.

“He will either stay like he is forever, be the l2-slang talking child in a man’s body that we see now, or he’ll snap out of it, remember everything and possibly go insane…” she said softly, “The only reason that him regressing this far back is a bad thing, is because he wont remember the basics that he was taught while with G. Kids from L2 normally have problems learning, speaking, and are sometimes violent in nature because it’s how they have to be to survive on the streets.”

“We can handle all of that.” Trowa told her, his frown deepening and his eyes narrowing, “Unless that’s not all.”

“They’re also known to either become suicidal when removed from L2, or become addicted to some form of illegal substance. How G kept him from doing both of those when he took him in is beyond me, and he’s too far gone to be asking any quest-“

“AHHH!”

All five of them jumped at the scream before they poured into the room. The signals blaring from the heart monitor, the mechanical heart valve working triple the speed it was pumping before. Duo was gripping his right eye, pulling the bandages off without either taking the time to be sure he wasn’t hurting himself, or using the anti-adhesive to remove it.

“Duo!” Sally gasped, rushing over and forcing him down into the bed, forcing his hands from his face, Trowa moving over and taking up on arm to let her have one hand while Heero took up the other arm so she was completely freed.

“I’s blin’s now?! No! I can’s be blin’s! Cans hard’y kee’ sav’ ash its is!” he yelled, struggling before he looked at Sally, panting hard, his face paling, sweat breaking out all over his body, and the out rim of his lips starting to turn blue, “Naw…”

“Duo, calm down. You have to breath slower, get your heart rate down, you’re overloading the machine. It can’t get enough oxygen to your sped up system, you have to calm down.” Sally said, fishing for the sedatives.

“Is can’s.” Duo gasped before he suddenly felt his body going lax against Heero and Trowa, he took a deep calming, shuddering breath despite his want to keep panting. He could feel his heart slowly slowing down back to its normal untraceable thudding and… he was calm again.

“Za hell?” Duo asked, frowning.

“Stay relaxed.” Sally ordered as she filled the syringe.

“Ho’s Is do’n dat?!” he demanded, jerking when Sally pulled his shirt up until she could get to the arm under the slight bandaging that was wrapped around his arm and forced the needle.

“Ow! Wha’ da hell?!”

Sally ignored him, still working silently until she pulled out the needle, forced the shirt down then moved to throw out the syringe. Before she was even done, Duo was staring at the ceiling, looking dazed.

“Oh… shit…” he groaned softly, paling a little before he closed his eyes, shaking a bit.

“What was that?” Heero asked softly, frowning at Duo’s reaction.

“A small, rather primitive sedative. It appears that it makes him hallucinate.” She said softly, smirking as Duo slowly fell asleep in the bed, “it’s the strongest sedative we have without giving him an almost lethal dose of the usual stuff.”

“I know this question is getting old, I don’t even like saying it anymore, but what can we do for him?” Quatra asked, sitting on the edge of Duo’s bed.

“And I’m going to give you the same answer that I always do. Unless we know if this is caused by brain damage or by retreating into himself for safety, there isn’t anything you all an do besides what you are doing right now.”

“How long is he going to be out?” Heero asked, looking down at Duo, frowning at how lax he was.

“Seven, maybe eight hours.”

“Good. We need to go. Call us if he wakes up.” Heero said, leaving the room with the other ex-pilots following behind him.

Sally frowned after them, slightly wondering what was going on before she had no choice but to dimiss it and returned to adding a more aggressive IV drip to Duo’s line.

“Heero?” Quatra asked as soon as they stepped foot out of the hospital. The first time in days, really. All of them felt exhausted, dirty, and more than a little tired. They’d been in the same clothes for five days now, waiting for the chance to see Duo.

“Since we can’t get what happened from Duo, we’re going to get it from the man who’s done this to him.” Heero said, leading them to where he slightly remembered the car being when Trowa drove them all to the hospital.

“We’re going to question the man in the suit?” Trowa asked, arms folded over his chest as he was more than willing to let the Japanese male take over the whole thing.

“He’s going to be the only one who will hold the information that we’re going to need to help Maxwell.” Wufei said, looking thoughtful as he followed in the rear.

“Right, and since he’s the only one left, he’s been asking for me, I’m going to talk to him.”

“Not alone you aren’t, Yuy. Preventers wont allow it. You either have me, Barton, Winner or Une with you while interrogating someone, or you aren’t going to see him.”

“I’ll do what ever is necessary.”

The four climbed into the car, the ride horribly silent until they reached the Preventer’s building. The four of them spent the better part of the next hour and a half showering, cleaning off and getting rid of the gunk and crud that they felt like had been collecting on their bodies since all of this started months ago.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Forget it!”

All four pairs of eyes refused to look away. The normal fear and slightly nervousness that had once clouded them while in this woman’s presence no longer existed, all that was left was pure determination to get their ways.

“Lady Une, one way or another, whether it’s by hacking our way in, or stealing inside, we’re going to ask him questions, and see what he knows. You told us yourself that he refuses to talk to anyone, and only wants to see Heero, this way we get what we want, no rules are broken, and he gets to talk to Heero.” Quatra explained softly, watching the woman’s reaction carefully.

“And the answer is still no. We can’t risk this man slipping through our fingers, he’s the only connection between the rebels and us.”

“He’s also the only thing we have to help Duo with, and Duo might be able to give us more information than anyone could ever. Duo’s always been excellent in mouthing off and getting people to talk to him, and he’s good at piecing facts and lies together to come up with what ever is needed to get his mission done. If Duo remains as he is, even if it’s only for the next year to year and a half, we’ll loose any chance in getting the people who are doing this.” Heero muttered softly, his eyes narrowed at Une.

“And what if you push him into committing the same suicidal tactics as the other prisoners?”

“If he was going to commit suicide, he would’ve done so already. That man in there was meant to survive all of this and go about collecting us together like this. What his intentions were with Duo are unclear to us, and we need to know what he wanted and what he was actually able to get from Duo, if anything. Duo has knowledge of things about all of us, including the original schematics of your Gundams.” Trowa rattled off from where he was leaning against the wall of the office.

“He… memorized them?” Une asked.

“All of them. Mostly so he would be able to take us out if we betrayed him. A noble idea, but no one was able to get a hold of the blueprints to Deathscythe no matter how hard they tried, I know that I’ve tried hard to get a hold of them, just to see what his had that I didn’t have, but no one was able to get them, as far as I know. Only Maxwell, those five scientists that trained us, and Howard know how to build Deathscythe.” Wufei explained.

“The fact that they took Duo instead of, say me, shows that they knew Duo had information that no one else did. They would know that he’d memorized all the blueprints to more than one Gundam, where as most of us four, if not all of us, only memorized the schematics of our own Gundams. I know that I don’t know the inner workings of Heavyarms, Wing Zero or Shenlong, but I know everything about Sandrock, but I saw Duo once repairing Sandrock after I was injured after a mission. It was a small patch job, but it was for a major part of the system for my Sandrock. He not only knew what the problem was, but he was able to hack into Sandrock, upgrade the security for me, repair the damage and take care of me.”

“Duo was valuable in that sense, but he had other things that he knew of besides the Gundams. He knew how to build Leos, Tauruses, and Mobile Dolls. Duo’s not someone that we just let go to waste around here, and you know that.” Heero grunted.

“But you did just let go to waste when you thought he disappeared.”

Heero growled, as did Wufei but Quatra placed a hand up to stop them, “That’s not fair, Une. You thought he’d gone to do as he wanted as well. You can’t force that onto us.”

“No, I can’t, but what I can do is have an agent in the room with the four of you.”

“Why?” Trowa grunted, frowning deeply.

“to make sure that you don’t do or say something stupid to him.” She growled back, not liking how any of them were acting toward her.

She was more used to the way they’d become. More a little scared about what she could force them into than what stood before her. Quatra stood where he was, the silent, calm, kind one. His movements and words held kindness but his eyes held an intensity that begged for someone to toy with him, a product of him being effected by the Zero system for a long period of time. Wufei’s gaze was intense, waiting patiently for someone to make a move to where he could strike them down. Heero was diffidently reverted back to his old way, his eyes emotionless, his voice more of a monotone than it normally is these days. He even adorned the green tank top and black shorts that hugged his lower half a bit too well, and Trowa was silent, talking only when he needed to and not any time sooner.

“We’re going in.” Heero grunted to her, voice conveying nothing as he turned and exited the room, the others following after him, Quatra being the only one to give her any acknowledgment after that clipped response by smiling kindly at her then following after them.

Une staid in her chair, unmoving, waiting. The door opened and closed silently, if she wasn’t facing it, she wouldn’t have noticed.

“They’re reverting back to their soldier ways. Duo’s become the most important mission that they could ever have right now. I’m more worried about Heero than any of them. He’s prone to using excessive force during the old wars, and Quatra has that Zero-self that we have to keep an eye on. Wufei wont do anything if it means that there’s an innocent involved that could be effected, and to him, Duo’s that innocent. Trowa’s the glue right now. He’s the only one keeping them from either lashing out or killing someone. From how I saw Quatra back at the hospital, he’s spent this past week keeping the others sane.”

“He’s taking up Duo’s old job.” Came the short reply.

“Correct. It’s opposing roles now. How bad was Duo?”

“We’ve been able to pin point a bit of the damage from Sally. He’s got extensive brain damage that’s made him think that he’s an eight year old boy once again, probably captured during a heist from his history. He was picked up and escaped several times as a child, only picture ID was ever able to be attained for records, but they weren’t ever investigated.”

“Anything else?”

“Sally’s working mostly on his body right now. His mind has taken a sidelined position, his body weight, and the internal damage to his organs are her major concern and that’s what she’s focusing on.”

“Help her out any way that you can to get him healthier faster. I need him to remember what all happened in that room.”

“And if it’s self induced?”

“I trust that you can find something to snap him out of it, or at least push the other pilots in a direction that would make it to where they will be able to do so for themselves. It’s a real shame. Duo and Heero were the only pilots I was truly gunning for actual missions.”

“Why?”

“Because, unlike the other soldiers of this unit, they work better together than anyone else. I saw them tag teaming in battle once. Duo’s defensive, predatory style enhances Heero’s kill-first-ask-questions-later style, and the fact that they trust each other better than the other pilots, even if it’s unconsciously, shows that they would be better as team mates, no matter the circumstances.”

“And the others?”

“Added bonuses… Yes, it’s probably wrong to go after certain pilots and not all of them, but Heero’s the best at what he does, and with his unstable personality, especially around people he doesn’t know, I needed someone he could trust, and Duo was the only person who stood out at the time.”

“And now he’s injured, incapacitated and unable to help a soul, much less his own.”

“Which is where you come in. I know it’s not your style, and all, but I feel that there’s something coming that you would have an absolute fondness for, and if I want to be sure that we all end the same way that we began while all this is going on, we’re going to need all five of the Gundam pilots able to do more than talk.”

A short chuckle was her reply at first, “I understand. Of course it’s not what I would normally do, but neither is murder, which, I expect, is the reason you’re asking me and not say… Zechs Marquise.”

“I know Zechs would never murder someone of importance to the Preventers, or anyone for that matter now that the war is over, at least not intentionally, but he’s too close to Noin, Sally, and Relena, who I don’t want even knowing that we’ve found Duo.”

“You expect Miss Relena to be behind a piece of this?”

“Not at all, but I just want to be sure that nothing happens to interfere with Heero, and if she sees how Heero is reverting, she’s going to try to do something, and I can’t allow her to do that. I don’t need Heero Yuy, I need the Perfect Soldier. I don’t kneed Trowa Barton, I need Nanashi. I don’t need Wufei Chang, but the pilot of Nataku, nor Quatra Winner, but the pilot of Sandrock.”

“And you need the power of a God on your side.”

“Exactly. So, you see, Dorothy, I need this done quickly, quietly, and without hesitation.”

The long haired blond chuckled, her right arm folded over her chest, holding her elbow up with her balled fist, letting the fingers of her left hand toy with her forked eyebrows, “I see. I will do what I can with as much as I can, but what’s in it for me, really?”

“The chance to see battle again. I fear that another war is upon us, and this time, it’s not going to be smoothed over with just plain Pacifism talks. The Preventers were created to prevent the peace in the world from going away, and now something is going to be threatening this peace that we’ve strive to create. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“I see… is that the reason for the large shipment of Gundanium that seems to have appeared out of nowhere.”

“You don’t know about that, and it will keep between you, me, and that doorknob.”

Dorothy smiled before she nodded, “I understand. I’ll get started.” She turned and left the office, leave Une still in the same position that she had been in when Dorothy first walked into the room.

“If I’m correct, we’re going to need everything that I’ve been doing this whole time. I only hope that those pilots aren’t too rusty to where this will all blow up in my face. I don’t know where you went, Duo, or why you decided to retreat like you have, but we’re going to need you. You might not like it, but I’m going to need you to defend the colonies once more with the others. Get well…” she said to no one in the room before she pressed the buzzer on her desk.

“Ma’am?” her receptionist answered, a mousy little girl that was fresh out of school.

“Send me Agent Wind, Zechs Merquise. Tell him that it’s urgent.” Une said before there was confirmation on the other line.

"You called for me, Commander Une?" came the Count's smooth voice as he entered, the door not even making a single noise to indicate it was opening and closing.

"The pilots are going in to talk to the prisoner that we captured in the house that 02 was found in. I need you to be there, in the room, with them while they talk to him. The four should balance each other out, but I don't want Heero doing something stupid and causing us the only lead that we have."

"Understood." Zechs grunted softly.

"Use any and all force necessary to keep that prisoner alive. I don't care if you have to throw Heero through the two-way mirror to keep him from doing something he's not suppose to. Keep... him... alive..."

"Roger." Zechs grunted softly before he turned and left, the door finally making a clicking noise behind him, leaving Une to lace her fingers together, elbows on the smooth, waxed wood top of her desk, watching him leave with a flick of his long, blond hair.

‘Let this be the right thing…’