Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Covetousness ❯ Chapter Two: Decisions ( Chapter 2 )

Progress: 2 of a proposed two figure sum
General Notes: (For summary, genre, disclaimer etc, please refer to chapter one.)
Thank you for those who reviewed. I'm glad you guys enjoyed that first chapter! Any how, here's chapter two, and we meet Duo...
Music: Confessions - Usher; Look What You've Done - Jet; Numb - Linkin Park; Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven; One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII OST; Melodies of Life - Final Fantasy IX OST; Loneliness - Naruto OST; The Battle - Gladiator OST

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Covetousness

 

Chapter Two: Decisions

 

The alarm rang insistently, a horrible, high-pitched tone which jolted Duo out of the misty haze of his dream. He growled irritably, one arm shooting out from under the covers to slam at the bedside table where the alarm was supposed to be. Unfortunately, all his hand met was the surface of the novel he had been reading last night. Still unfocused, he sat up slowly to scout the room and discovered his alarm sitting on the surface of his desk, next to his computer. Without thinking, he grabbed the novel and threw it towards the alarm, managing to knock the thing into silence when it slipped and fell of the desk, but ramming into his keyboard and taking it down with it. Duo blinked sleepily for a moment before slipping back under the covers, desperate to fall asleep once again.

Just as he was about to drift off again, a second alarm rang somewhere under his bed. Duo grabbed his pillow and threw it over his head, blocking out his ears. The shrill alarm screamed loudly, only to be followed moments later by a third radio alarm. By that point, Duo decided that he was not going to get any more sleep this morning. There was just something about hearing Brittney Spears sing Oops, I did it again at seven A.M. in the morning which kept people from wanting to fall back to sleep.

Still feeling groggy, Duo pulled himself out of bed, slipped over some dirty laundry and found himself lying on the floor with the alarm clock under his bed within reach. With a yawn, he grabbed the alarm clock out and silenced it before slipping it onto his bedside table, while his other hand massaged the back of his head desperately. It was still way too early to be getting headaches.

Duo proceeded to the bathroom, stripping as he went, adding his pajamas to the increasing mass of clothing on the floor. He turned on the shower and spent a good ten minutes simply standing under the spray, while his mind and body grew steadily more awake. The music on the radio had changed to American Idiot, and Duo soon found his feet tapping to the beat of the music while he washed his hair. The phone rang from the lounge, alerting Duo that he was taking too long to finish his shower. He rinsed his hair quickly and jumped out, wrapping a towel around his middle as he dashed to pick up the phone.

`Duo speaking.' He announced, fiddling with the monitor to switch on the screen. A blond soon appeared, his green-blue eyes sparkling.

`Hey Duo.' Quatre greeted with a smile.

`You better have a good reason to call when I'm having a shower.' Duo growled, indicating at his dripping hair. Quatre gave him a look that said clearly “it's not my fault you don't wake up when you're supposed to on a work day.”

`It's my sister's birthday today.' Quatre announced.

`Which one?' Duo asked, putting the phone on speaker and walking away. He could hear Quatre huffing, obviously irritated that Duo was walking away. `Don't fret Q-ball, I just need to brush my teeth and dry off my hair.'

`It's Iria's birthday.' Quatre announced, obviously attempting to project his voice so that Duo could hear. `She's inviting every person imaginable, so I thought I might as well grab you too.'

`None doing Quatre!' Duo yelled back through a mouthful of toothpaste. He spat out the froth before speaking again. `Your family parties are scary! I was nearly mobbed by a group of ten year olds last time.'

`Oh Duo!' Duo was suddenly glad he was not standing in front of the monitor. Quatre and those eyes of his made it impossible to say no. `You love parties.'

`Not one of your family parties.' Duo grumbled while blow-drying his hair. `Besides, I have work today.'

`After work.'

`Busy.'

`Duo…'

`Tell you what Quatre.' Duo announced while dragging a comb through his hair and brushing it straight. `I'll come if I get off work early. But you know my boss, he's a total slave-driver.'

`I guess I'll just have to make do with that.' Quatre's sigh was audible even from the bathroom. `Well, have a good morning Duo and do try to come.'

`Will do.' There was a click, and he heard the phone announce in a computerized voice: “signal lost”, before switching off. Duo sighed and platted his hair, hoping for once that his boss would keep him at work for longer than usual. It was definitely not a nice thing to wish for, but he really did not feel like going to a party, especially not one of the Winner Family Parties. They were always guaranteed to be scary.

Quatre and Duo had been friends since high school, which was remarkably not so long ago. Quatre Winner was the heir of a powerful Arabian family, and Duo had been let into the prestigious private school under a full scholarship. The student body was infatuated with Quatre, and treated Duo like a nobody, so obviously, the two had to become friends. Duo was surprised to find that Quatre was a very normal person, albeit his family was rich enough to own the school and every other school in the country.

Duo stared at himself in the mirror when he was done, making sure that his braid was not off center. He did not need to, considering the fact that he had been wearing the braid since he was eight, but he did so anyway out of habit. A man in his mid-twenties stared back at him, violet eyes sparkling. Duo sighed, pushed a stray lock of hair away, and proceeded into the kitchen. He had barely taken out his cereal box when he heard a fourth alarm go off, one which meant he should be leaving if he did not wish to be late. Duo sighed and replaced the cereal box. He marched back into his room and changed into a black suit (office dress-code had never ceased to bother him), grabbed his briefcase and keys, and exited the apartment.

It was amazing how the entire city was awake at quarter-past-seven in the morning. The entire underground parking lot was empty, save for three cars excluding his own. He yawned as he approached his own car, pressing a remote attached to his keys and unlocking all the doors. It was a black Jaguar, a present from his dear uncle Howard before he moved off to live in Hawaii. Personally, Duo could not see what there was to do in Hawaii apart from surf and sunbathe, and Howard was already way too old to be doing either, but he was not complaining. If it made the old man happy to spend his days staring at blue sea and blue skies and girls in skimpy bikinis, then who was he to speak otherwise.

Morning traffic was horrible. Duo had managed to finish a bacon and egg McMuffin, two cups of coffee (courtesy of the local Starbucks) and a slice of chocolate cake while waiting for the traffic to move. He had been sitting in the exact same spot for the last twenty minutes, and it was definitely not an exaggeration to say that even the tectonic plate beneath him was moving at a faster rate. A glance out the window showed him a business woman applying her makeup while waiting, and the other side revealed a Asian yuppie who was speaking much faster than should be humanly possible into a headset while trying to light a cigarette. Duo sighed, feeling about as bored as if he had been forced to sit in Central Park and watch the grass grow. Silently, he wondered why he had only purchased such a small breakfast.

Come eight-thirty and Duo was finally at work. He marched towards his desk as if he was walking to his execution, with shoulders hunched and feet dragging. A couple of his fellow workers laughed, and his friend Hilde shook her head while indicating at an extra cup of coffee sitting on her desk. Duo sat down tiredly before turning to Hilde, who happened to share the desk right next to his own. She handed him the cup, and he offered her an exaggerated bow of thanks.

`I take it that traffic was hell.' She smirked. Duo nodded frantically.

`You have no idea.' He muttered, sighing as he downed half the cup in one go.

`This is why I walk to work, Duo.' She replied briskly, turning back to her desk to rummage within her draws. `Here's some documentation for you to check.'

`I live too damn far away to walk.' Duo growled back in exasperation, throwing his hands into the air while he did it. `Oh why must God be so cruel to us humans and force us to sit in traffic for an hour every weekday morning?'

`Oh get over it Maxwell.' Hilde laughed, hitting him over the head with the pile of papers before dumping them on his desk. `Read, check and publish.'

`Such manual labor.' Duo sighed, shaking his head as he flipped through the mass of papers on his desk. He hated his current job with a passion, but it was definitely a good change from his old job. That was a life Duo wanted to leave as far behind as possible. It did not matter whether the government was supposed to be working in the favor of the citizens, but Duo had to draw a line when it came to the life of a little boy. Simply for being born who he was, born into such a family, he was to be eliminated. Duo could still see the look in that boy's eyes every time he closed his eyes, bright blue eyes, so full of fear. A four year old boy, erased because of his heritage.

`Duo!' Duo blinked, surprised that he had allowed himself to drift off. Hilde was standing nearby, a look of worry on her face. `You okay?'

`Yea.' Duo smiled. `Just a little tired.'

 

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`What exactly do you mean when you say “escaped”?'

Trieze Khushrenada was definitely not happy. He had only been just informed the previous night that their most prized and secret experiment had finally come back to life. Albeit he had no memories of his previous life, Trieze believed that it would only be a matter of time before he remembered everything. However, he had barely hung up the phone to one Dr. Thomas J. Watson before a second call arrived, informing him of the escape of the experiment subject. Now he sat in his office, with his chief of security standing before him, looking positively nervous.

`He hacked into the keypads.' The security officer explained, his voice calm but barely concealing the underlying fear. `I don't understand how, since the keypads are protected by a very complex encryption key. But he managed sir, and he also scrambled them. We have our security technicians at work now sir, descrambling the code.'

`Let me get this straight.' Trieze's voice was acid. `A man who cannot even remember his own name manages to hack into security and find the code to open the doors, and then manages to scramble the encryption key so that now we need a team of technicians to fix it?'

`Yes sir.'

`Where are your brains, man?' Trieze yelled, standing up from his seat. The security officer visibly flinched. `We had seven security cameras in that room, how come nobody rushed over when they saw him move from bed?'

`The man in charge of the cameras thought he was merely stretching his legs, sir.' The officer explained earnestly `There was a problem with two of the cameras in room 45-B, and he had his full attention on that, sir. When he looked back, the subject was out of the room and in the corridor. He informed security patrol immediately.'

`And they let him escape.' Trieze sighed, sitting back in his chair. `I want you to find him, and I want you to bring him back, dead or alive. And I want you to be discrete about it. The public must not know.'

`Yes sir.'

`You have a week.' Trieze continued, sharp eyes fixed sternly on the officer. `Get your best men onto it, but make sure the information is not spread to widely. Best men, but also very trustworthy men. It would be a major catastrophe if the public knew.'

`Yes sir.'

`Dismissed.'

The Chief of Security marched out with his back straight and a look of obvious relief on his face. The door shut softly behind him, and Trieze leant back in his chair, fingers at his temples.

He had a terrible feeling that this mistake would end with a bang.

 

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Heero limped slowly down a street, now clad in the pair of jeans and black shirt he had stolen from a passing man earlier. It was an immoral thing to do, assaulting a random stranger and stealing their clothes, but Heero had to look as inconspicuous as possible, lest he find himself being thrown back into that white room. He had abandoned the car miles ago in a small alleyway, and taken a train soon after. Now he was walking on the streets of the city center, tired and hungry from a night was fleeing. He had taken the fifty dollars the man had in his wallet earlier, so now needed to find somewhere to eat. It was not a difficult thing to do, but Heero wanted to purchase only from a highly crowded restaurant. He finally settled on a nearby McDonalds, and spent five dollars on a coffee and two potato cakes. The food tasted strange, but somewhat familiar. Heero could not remember the last time he set foot in a McDonalds, but he had definitely been in one before.

He took a seat on a bench in Central Park, finishing off his meal while taking in the large lake before him. There was a mass of ducks sitting around the place, quacking to one another contentedly. A few people passed him by as they hurried off to work or finished off their morning jog. Heero sighed as he drained his coffee. There was no denying that he felt lost. He needed to discover who he was, and who the people after him were. He had one lead though: General Khushrenada. The last name sounded exotic enough to convince Heero that there should be no more than a few in the country, and if he really was in the military, then there would only be one there. But if the Khushrenada whom the three scientists were reporting to really was in the military, then it was going to give Heero more than a few problems. Hiding from the government was not an easy thing to do, especially when one had no clue where or who to go to. Either way, it would definitely be better if Heero made very little impressions anywhere.

Finishing off his potato cake, Heero rose from his seat, a determined look on his face. There was something strange about this whole situation, and was definitely going to find out what.

 

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Endnotes:

Another chapter finished, yay! And the wheels are turning…yes…(attempts to look philosophical). Not much to say really. Duo is a moping desk clerk, Trieze is an angry general attempting to protect some dark secret (but we all know what it is), and Heero is sexy hunk of man meat walking around trying to be inconspicuous. Heh, at least rabid fangirls don't exist in the world he's in (sighs). Hopefully this story has got your collective attentions and have you guys waiting avidly for the next chapter, but until then, review my readers and enforce Assassin's self esteem (although that could be a bad thing…)