Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 3 Ties That Bind ❯ Twenty-Four ( Chapter 24 )

This had to be a nightmare.

“I have to…to…” Tad was trying to get up, to sit up… “I have to…”

“You’re going to die if you don’t sit still,” Trowa snapped.

“Tie him down,” I ordered coldly. “Make sure he lives.”

“Majesty…” Tad started, his eyes on mine.

“You swore yourself to the girls,” I snapped back. “You die and you’ll fail them. Are you failing them now?”

The man’s eyes filled with tears.

“My nieces will be upset if you die on them,” I added harshly at the man. “We’ll bring them to see you.”

He stopped struggling, thinking about that.

“You better fucking live,” I insisted as…the doors closed and the ambulance took off.

“He has some tact,” I muttered, watching as Duo flinched again. “They didn’t kill anyone.”

“It’s a bunch of high schoolers,” Wufei replied.

“What do we do?” I asked, since my mind had blanked about as soon as I realized that the girls’ bodyguard was laying in a pool of his own blood.

They had my nieces.

Jun had my nieces.

Thank god the women weren’t pregnant anymore…

“I can’t stop it,” Duo snarled at us, leaning against the side of the car as he flinched again.

I moved to him, offering the tranq package.

He twitched harder, moving away from me slightly. “I’m not…”

“I can’t think,” Quatre was breathing. “I can’t…I can’t think…”

“He has my daughter…what are we doing?” Trowa agreed, moving forward. “We have to attack, we have to…”

Duo’s phone started ringing.

“Maxwell,” Duo muttered.

“Hello, kitty-cat,” we heard a male voice purr. “Did you miss me?”

“Jun?” Duo demanded sharply.

“Why yes, Mr. Tailor, this is Mr. Martin…I was most distressed to hear that you’d had to scramble your forces.”

“Funny, that,” Duo returned—he was standing perfectly still. “No one but us know.”

“Oh, shit,” Jun considered it. “So you know I have those two teens?”

“And how,” Duo agreed darkly.

“Damn, that ruins my dramatic,” Jun sighed. “I hope you understand, the boy was supposed to have killed you already.”

“I hope you understand that a willing night with me means you’re mine.”

I choked on that one.

“What?” Jun demanded.

“Oh, you didn’t know? I’ve had Som,” Duo laughed coldly. “I think he died and was reborn again.”

That was just…beyond…messed…up…

“He didn’t press charges?”

“Yeah,” Duo agreed, “I was startled myself, but then again…”

“Stop it,” I snapped at him.

He met my eyes, then took a long slow breath. “What are we doing? Why do you have the girls?”

“To ensure your good behavior,” he explained happily.

“If you want me, I’ll come,” Duo informed him.

…my heart sank.

“I’m more inclined to have the money you and the king stole from me,” Jun noted. “And then we can discuss the small matter of getting them back to you from my chosen residence. I am, of course, off probation.”

“Of course,” Duo agreed darkly.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

“I’m glad we understand each other,” Jun noted. “You’re being so helpful I’m willing to keep the girls in Sanq tonight, huh?”

“Yeah,” Duo agreed coldly.

Wufei came back up to us and sank into a squatting position beside Duo’s legs, leaning against him.

“Maybe Chang,” Jun mused.

Was he watching us, or was he thought processing?

“No, not Chang,” Duo snapped back. “You can have me, or you can have your damn money.”

“Ooh, ultimatums, Mr. Maxwell?” he asked sweetly…and hung up.

I could tell it was only the fact that Wufei was at his fee that he didn’t start to attack the car.

“He wants me? I’ll go,” Wufei muttered, rising up to stare into Duo’s eyes. “For the girls…”

Duo shoved him off and turned, slamming his fist against a car window…my…car window.

It shattered.

“Damn it,” I snapped, moving forward instantly to grab his arm.

“Oh, great time to worry about…” Duo started snarling at me, then trailed off as he noticed I was picking the small bits of glass from his palm.

“Don’t do that shit right now,” I snapped up at him. “You can destroy property after we have the girls…”

“He’s got my daughter,” Trowa hissed, half collapsing to sit beside Wufei’s feet.

I looked back at Quatre, who was leaning against Duo’s car.

We’d saved the world once…and we were all standing here bargaining with a syndicate leader?

This was fucked up.- -

“Good afternoon, ladies,” Jun muttered as Alex and I moved into a semi-nice room of a semi-nice house…with a lot of guys and weapons.

“Oh, this won’t due at all,” he added grumpily, looking both our legs over. “I plan no harm for the innocent.” He ran a hand across Alex’s face almost affectionately, then turned to look over the men in the room.

“You,” he snapped at one of them. “Give those pants to the blond.”

The man blinked at him, then stripped out of his pants, looking between us before moving forward and offering the jeans to me.

“You’re very attractive young ladies, and I won’t have my men losing their heads because they see flesh,” Jun informed me pointedly. “Put the pants on.”

Well…that was somewhat promising, wasn’t it?

I took the pants and carefully started to slide them on as the man looked very pointedly around us to the other men.

It kinda disturbed me how close a fit the pants were.

“You,” Jun added, then pointed at Alex.

I swallowed as I pulled the skirt off, holding it uncertainly as I noticed the men around us looking away from Alex changing, then looked back to Jun Martin.

The man grinned a bit impudently at me as he grabbed my skirt…and offered it to the soldier who’d given me his pants.

The man snorted and took the thing, walking off…and disappearing.

The pockets were heavy.

I swallowed as I looked back to Jun.

“Now, come along,” Jun muttered, indicating that we should both head toward a room to one side. “Unfortunately, your uncle isn’t being as entirely cooperative as I’d imagined he would be,” Jun explained to us as he shut the door behind us.

We both frowned at him.

“This will be unpleasant,” Jun explained, indicating we should sit on the bed as he started to pace in front of us. “I’m a better man than the cat,” he added. “I won’t resort to rape…but I will have to make you cry.”

He was looking at me.

“What?” Alex demanded.

“I’m sorry, but I have to let them know I’m serious.”

“You expect us to cooperate with you?” I spat at him.

“Now you sound like Chang,” he chided, waving a finger in my face…and slapping me.

…my father had slapped me once…ever.

I stared at Alex as a deep fear started in my heart.

“Hold your tongue, girl,” he muttered pointedly. “Stay here and sit pretty while I go take care of a few things.”

…and he walked out.

I swallowed hard, looking to Alex.

“Do we run?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t think we should yet,” I muttered, touching my cheek where it stung. “We need to see what kind of set up is here…I don’t know where we really are.”

“Me neither,” Alex agreed. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I muttered, swallowing again. “Come on, let’s look out the windows…once we get the lay of the land we can figure out how to get out.”- -

Marlea was crying…with a gag in her mouth.

I lunged for the vid as anger washed through my system.

“Your girls are very well behaved,” Jun noted from where he was holding her hair…her beautiful golden hair…

Duo was standing firmly in front of the vid, studying Marlea’s streaming eyes.

“I even got them pants,” he noted…yanking her to stand…which made her squeak…but she did rise.

The pants were somewhat standard military issue cargo.

“I have no intentions to harm them any further, Mr. Maxwell,” Jun noted, setting Lea down in front of the vid. “Unfortunately, I do have to prove to you that they are in danger.”

Marlea focused on a knife raised up for the camera to catch, and her eyes went wide.

“No!” Duo snapped, moving forward. “No!”

My daughter cried out as the blade moved down her forearm, and the gag stifled the sound.

“Jun!” I shouted, darting forward…but what good did it do?

My people had lost him…we’d watched him for months and he was just gone…

Marlea was half crying as he pulled the implement away, then looked to us.

‘We’re coming,’ I mouthed at her.

She blinked in response, though she didn’t overly focus on me.

Had she seen?

“I’m sorry, baby,” Duo was muttering, staring into her face. “I’m so sorry…”

“Yes, it is your fault, isn’t it, Mr. Maxwell?”

“What do you want?” Heero choked.

“I’ve already said, Mr. Vanderin,” Jun noted. “I won't be so callous as to collect the interest…just what I had before.”

“How much was it, Jun?” Heero demanded hoarsely.

“That should be in your records, little king. I’ll have my people draw up a good round number and we’ll get that to you as soon as we can…aw, the little angel is bleeding,” he added, showing us Marela’s arm more. “I need to see to the wound, of course, so I’ll have to let you go.”

“Marlea!” I shouted.

“Daddy…” she responded through the gag…and the vid cut.

“If she can talk through it,” Duo muttered, sinking down onto his knees.

“I don’t think he’s had it on her too long,” Trowa replied, though he was shaking hard.

“So, Quatre,” Heero muttered, “where are your men and what can they tell us?”

I closed my eyes, passing him my phone.

I’d never once thought I’d lose my daughter. I’d never once considered that she could actually be ransomed…if I hadn’t fought tooth and nail against Duo, they’d have had a few more men to protect them. If I hadn’t fought Duo tooth and nail, they could have had a bullet proof vehicle in the parking lot for their driver to use for them. They hadn’t wanted to stand out so hard against the other students, and I’d never once imagined my daughter could ever be a target.

I’d trusted Duo’s judgment once…and it made me sick to think that if I’d have just told my child to give Duo his way…

“Hey,” Heero as saying happily into my phone. “Do what you do, and get done what Winner gets down…now.”- -

I threw myself into Duo’s arms as we all stood outside of Trowa’s apartment. Trowa was talking to the little ones.

“Oh, Selena…” he whispered.

This wasn’t really happening…this couldn’t really be happening.

“Where’s Alex,” Dustin was protesting.

I heard Trowa’s muttering voice, then turned to look around the hall at Quatre, who was sitting across the door from Trowa’s apartment and staring at nothing.

“I don’t know how he could tell,” Duo whispered, hugging me tightly. “He ordered Som to do it…and Som came in…he actually shot…”

I met his eyes, feeling very tired.

“We only just called the girls for the lock down,” he muttered quietly as Dustin half-whimpered. “We heard them get there…”

“It’ll be all right,” I reassured him, hugging him tightly. “You said he wasn’t mistreating the girls, right?”

“That’s beside the point,” he muttered, pressing his face into my shoulder. “If I’d just made them take the bigger guard…”

“We couldn’t have foreseen this,” I reminded him.

“Jun wants me dead,” he hissed, squeezing me. “Why did he take the girls?”

I squeezed him back, not sure what to say to that.

Ash moved from Trowa’s apartment with a very confused expression on her face. Duo instantly picked her up, and I tilted my head as I heard Dean start to fuss.

We all stopped, though, when we heard a sob, and I turned to look at Quatre, who had his face buried in his legs.

Hilde met my eyes with Dean in her arms from the doorway, gesturing at him to me before disappearing with the baby.

I moved to Quatre.- -

“If anything happens to my nieces, so help you…” I hissed, holding Som by the hair at the nape of his neck.

Tears spilled down his cheeks, but he didn’t even try to resist me.

I threw him at the wall and stormed toward my bedroom.

“We got him,” the vid popped on. “Where are you?”

“In here,” I called loudly. “I’m in my room.”

“He’s staying at the western border,” Quatre said loudly. “The house is about ten minutes away from an international airport. Why didn’t he scramble his line?”

“He may not have the resources yet,” Som muttered tiredly from the floor. “My payment came from an account over in Sweden. He was telling me that he had a handful of guys from Swathe in town.”

“Why did he tell you that?” Quatre snapped.

“Pillow talk covers all sorts of topics,” Som snapped.

That made us both pause.

“What the hell?” Quatre snapped.

“Funny thing, he was all annoyed the next morning, telling me to keep my damn mouth shut.”

I picked up my knives and dropped them into a pocket, then grabbed my clip.

“His total force in Sanq is about thirty,” Som added quietly.

“Actually, it’s more like fifty,” Quatre noted, “would have been more but he killed some of them off.”

“His apartment was completely devoid of anything resembling technology,” Som added. “He even had a basic vid. I don’t know how much stuff they’d have gotten across the border for him, and he was scared that you’d find any money he ordered moved.”

I moved back into the living room, snapping the clip into my weapon and aiming out the window with it to make sure the sights were how I remembered them.

“What are you doing?” the teen muttered, sitting up. He hadn’t moved that far from the spot against the wall I’d left him after I’d realized he was a hired assassin out for my blood. The only shift of movement he’d made had been that he’d laid down…and then I’d grabbed him, but other than that he hadn’t moved from the spot.

He hadn’t killed me, though. He’d had a clean shot, and hadn’t taken it.

“I’m going to kill Jun,” I explained. “He wasn’t to return to wonderland, there wasn’t enough room at the table.”

“Just one?” Quatre asked darkly.

“I’m assuming you have more,” I returned, looking back to the screen. “I also might note that I have my knives.”

“I didn’t think we were planning to get close enough for close range,” he noted.

“I’m gonna get all up in Jun’s business,” I retorted. “I’m gonna crawl in his bed-sheets and remind him why he was scared of me to begin with. Come on, kid,” I added to Som. “If you stay here, you’re gone.”

“No faith in me?” Som asked tiredly, rising to follow me. “I thought I’d never disappointed you yet.”

“I lost my faith the day an assassin laid my fiancé low in my own living room,” I noted pointedly. “I lost my faith the day my own ring was thrown back in my face…” I stopped, turning on him. “I lost my faith the day my lover pulled his gun on me.”

He looked away.

I sniggered. “I suppose I can’t really call you a lover, but you get my point.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, let’s see how many times you can say it without it changing anything,” I made my voice sound happy. “That’ll be nice for a change. I got tired of sounding like a broken record.”

“I told you a long time ago what was happening.”

“It doesn’t count if I don’t understand,” I retorted.

“I’m sorry,” he protested again, following after me. “I don’t understand why he took your nieces…he’d only said my sister and my mom.”

“What part of Trowa and Quatre both telling you that you could go to them for help did you miss?” I hissed in his face. “What part of you sitting with my family for supper at night made you think we wouldn’t do everything in our power to protect your family?”

He looked down, his eyes pained.

“No faith, huh?” I demanded, stopping to look him in the eyes. “I could have lost everything, but I still kept you here. I could have lost my wife and my children, but I didn’t chase you away. My friends could have bawled me out for not sending you off, but they took you into their families…and you couldn’t warn me that you’d been hired to kill me and weren’t going to do it?”

“I can’t change the past,” he noted, raising his eyes to mine. “I can’t help what I did or didn’t do…but I am here now and I’m not fighting you. Don’t I get some credit?”

“The only crime you’re guilty of is being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I spat back.

“What he means to say is that he’s terrified, he’s pissed, but he looked down the barrel of your gun and you’re not dead yet.”

We turned to look at Jacob.

“What he means to tell you is that you fired a shot and he still protected you from Heero’s fire. How much credit do you need?”

Som stared at him.

I shook my head in the way Heero’d called a tic…and stopped, closing my eyes.

This wasn’t going to get any easier.- -

“Here, kid,” Trowa muttered, tossing a pistol to Som. “That’s mine and I want it back.”

Som held the firearm with a frown a moment, then looked up to Trowa. “It’s mine.”

“The moment that round went off in Duo’s apartment, it became my property,” Trowa returned pointedly. “Get in.”

He glanced back at me, then climbed into the transport shuttle.

“So will you answer me now?” Quatre asked tiredly, from where he was sitting already on the bench. “Why were you trained?”

“Just an assassin,” Som admitted quietly, looking to the floor.

“Shit,” Quatre muttered, looking away. “Too many damn assassins.”

“What?” Som asked.

“There are three in this vehicle.”

That made the kid blink. “Three?”

“Yep,” Heero muttered. “That was our former life, though.”

“You?” Som didn’t seem to connect things too horribly fast.

“I’m the other one,” Duo noted.

“We’re ready, sir,” all our walkies flared briefly to life.

“Move out,” Duo returned.

The transport started moving.

“If I’d have told you,” Som muttered, looking down at his weapon, “would it have changed anything?”

“Yes,” I returned.

He looked away a long moment, then half glanced back to us. “How do we do this? If Jun knows we’re coming, won’t he hurt them?”

“He knew we were coming the instant he called me,” Duo returned tiredly. “He took Wufei once and we destroyed him. He took my girls now, and he signed his own death certificate.”

“I didn’t think he’d…”

“You were too upset when he ordered you to do it,” I cut him off.

“What?” he asked blankly.

“The vid room is recorded,” Quatre noted. “You knew that. I got a copy and we all watched you freak out before turning to go to Duo.”

“What happened?” Heero muttered. “I came in and you were flying to the floor.”

“He couldn’t kill me,” Duo said in a cold voice.

“Duo,” I muttered with a sigh.

“What, Wufei?” he demanded.

“If he wants me, I’ll go,” I retorted. “You can’t say this shit isn’t because of me.”

“It started because he wanted to fuck you,” Heero noted, “but it’s only this far because we perpetually bring him up short. You’re not even an object to him anymore, Wufei. He only wants you because he knows it’ll kill Duo slowly.”

“Kill, Duo, slowly?” Duo repeated the final words with a different intonation. “As your Majesty wishes, my Sovereign.”

“My Majesty wishes you to not start that again,” Heero retorted.

“Yes, Majesty,” Duo flashed Heero a grin, fiddling with the bandage from breaking the car window. It circled the lower part of his hand, his wrist, and part of his forearm. The force he'd used had been tremendous, and the shatter-proof glass had left a serious mark on him.

Heero snorted.

…but that said to me that Duo was rooted down again. He could make even the worst of our situations dealable by being as absolutely obnoxious as he could manage…and he was damn good at it.

“So how about I go fish out some Aries and modify the belly enough that it moves like Deathscythe?” he mused aloud. “We could get some damn good parts from the junkyards and trim the outer joints enough to lighten it and help it move.”

I laughed at that idea. “We need to get some dolls and infect’em with Zero,” I returned. “Have ten dolls each, huh? Get some fuckin’ thermals and see if we could compress down the shit enough so we’d fit in the damn things again.”

“I always run out of bullets,” Trowa mused. “I think I’d go more for lasers.”

“I kinda liked Sandrock’s general set up,” Quatre agreed, “but if I could just…”

“We aren’t creating mobile suits,” Heero half snarled at us.

We all fell silent, looking away.

Som was staring at us.

“My army has its purpose,” Heero informed the boy, “and it’s not world conquest.”

“We wouldn’t use them for conquest,” Duo retorted.

“But we’d have them, and we’d train others to use them,” Heero snapped back. “We aren’t immortal, Duo. We aren’t gods. We’re men, we’re tired men who’ve seen too much and done too little.”

“No,” I argued, leaning forward. “We’ve seen too little and done too much.”