Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Defenders Once More ❯ Painful Pasts ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 12

Outside, Ben tensed and held his .38 caliber revolver close to him as a S.W.A.T. went and knocked on the door of the address. Members of the team had surrounded the house and made ready to storm in if Rhodes tried to escape.
"This is the police! Open the door at once!" The member said.
They were answered by a 12 gauge blasting it's way through the front window, shattering it to pieces.
"That's it! Move in! Move in!" Ben gave the signal and the raid began.
He ran in behind the front officer and held out his weapon at the first sight of trouble. Timothy Rhodes stood with the 12 gauge in his hand, glaring at the incoming officers. His, what you might call friends, were staring blankly at the situation. The table in front of them was covered in a white powdery substance, which could only be crack. The boys were obviously under its influence and it took them a while before the dilemma had registered with their brains.
One boy immediately jumped up and dropped the roach he had been smoking, and made a dash for the back door. In nothing but socks and very tight briefs, the boy stood in front of the door right when S.W.A.T. busted the door inwards. The door fell forward with immense force, coming clear off its hinges and slamming into the boy. Two S.W.A.T. members came in from either side of the door, weapons held at the ready, only to find two twitching legs, sticking out from under the fallen door.
The S.W.A.T. member, upon seeing the sight, lowered his weapon, and sweat dropped. Back up police members came in and promptly arrested the boy. The police arrested the rest of the boys as well, all except Timothy.
"Get back!" He warned, holding one of his friend's girlfriends as a hostage. Timothy shot another warning shot into the air and made another large hole in the ceiling.
Ben raised his gun at Timothy and tried to talk down the drugged crazed teenager. "Now Timothy, I'm sure you don't want to hurt anybody. Just let her go and give up. You can't get out of this. We got the place surrounded!"
The words didn't seem to register with him though. "You guys ain't taking me in! I ain't goin' back to the slammer!" He waved his weapon frantically, making some officers duck for cover.
That was the last straw. Ben saw his chance and took a shot. Timothy's grip around the woman slackened and he fell back, blood seeping out of the head wound, right between his eyes.
Ben stood still for a moment, composing himself in the actuality of what he had just done. He felt half sorry for the action, but knew that in order to save some lives others had to be sacrificed.

*End Flashback*

Ben sighed. "I didn't want to kill him. Really, but I had to, to save the girl and make sure Timothy Rhodes was caught."
Alexia nodded. "Understandable."
"Yeah well, it didn't suit well with his brother…"

*Start Flashback*

A few months later, Ben had been receiving death threats from an unknown source, telling him to be careful because the day of reckoning would come for his decision to kill Timothy Rhodes. All evidence pointed towards Timothy's only living relative: Joshua Rhodes, Timothy's twin brother. The two had been known to rob banks together and would probably sacrifice their lives for the other. So it was no surprise to Ben that Joshua would feel animosity towards Ben for killing his brother.
The one thing Ben was afraid for was his family. He presently had a mother and three younger siblings, Anna, Lori, and Jacob, to look after. His father wasn't really in the picture anymore, but the family Ben had left meant the world to him.
While Ben once again sat at his desk looking over his next case, the phone rang.
"Major Salazar speaking."
"Well, hello major, I got a little game for you. Care to play?" The voice said.
Ben narrowed his eyes. "Who is this?"
"Let me ask you a question. How does it feel to have half of your life destroyed?"
Ben was silent.
"Can't answer? Well, you'll soon know what it feels like! Just like I've been living these past few horrible months without my brother!"
Ben stood up abruptly. "Joshua Rhodes!"
"Nice deduction, pig! I smell bacon! I smell pork! Run little piggy, cause I'm getting my fork!" Joshua chanted, tauntingly.
Ben was growing impatient. "What is it you want, Rhodes?"
"I'll let someone else answer that one for me."
There was a shuffling of material, and then someone new came on the line. "Brother!"
Ben's blood ran cold. He knew that voice. "Anna!"
He heard her scream, and then Joshua got back on the phone. "That's right! I got your whole family, held here at gunpoint, just waiting for your arrival. Come alone to the old newspaper warehouse, and we'll…talk. Come alone, or they all get a bullet in the head."
The line went dead, and Ben hung up the phone with a shaky hand. He had them. He had them all. And it was Ben's fault. From the very beginning, Ben should have put his family under a Witness Protection program. At least then they'd be safe while Ben chased after this guy. Now, they were all in danger.
Ben got up and walked to a cabinet, where he loaded up his belt with two extra rounds of bullets. Cocking his gun, he walked out of his office, and made ready for the stand off of his life.

Ben entered the abandoned warehouse and held his gun at the ready. Where are you, Rhodes?
"Brother!"
Ben looked up to the second floor and saw his little sisters Lori and Anna, his little brother Jacob, and his mother, tied up to chairs, side by side, with Joshua Rhodes just off to the side, a gun pointed at them all.
"Nice of you to join us, Major. Like my accommodations?"
"I'd hate to see who your decorator was." Ben muttered.
"How do you like to see your family all tied up real nice and pretty for you, huh? I was just contemplating how I should kill them. Throwing them over this ledge here would be good…" He paused. "But then you'd try and save them, wouldn't ya?"
Ben narrowed his eyes. "What do you want, Rhodes? If you want your brother back, I can't do that."
"See, ain't that the irony of the situation. He shouldn't have been killed in the first place! But you blew his head open with your little weapon! Now I'll do the same, but a 12 gauge is a lot more effective when blowing out people's brains!"
Ben tightened his hold on the caliber. "Let my family go. They have nothing to do with this. This is between you and me."
"Oh, I think not. See, when you killed my brother, you brought family into this." Joshua brought the barrel of the shotgun to rest right under Ben's mother's chin. "Just how many of your family members can I kill before you shot me, huh? One? Two? How about just the kids? Leave dear old mother to mourn and live a lonely life without her precious murdering son!"
Ben saw Joshua was breaking down and slowly raised his weapon to aim on the twin. He saw his chance and took the shot…
…Only to miss by a couple centimeters.
The blast whizzed by Joshua's ear, giving him ample warning to dive out of the way and take cover. "That wasn't very smart Major! Say goodbye!!"
Ben let out a heart-felt outcry, which was silenced out by five loud shotgun discharges. Ben looked up and saw the four members of his family now headless and slumped in their chairs.

*End Flashback*

Alexia gasped and looked up to see Ben's eyes tear.
"I saw my whole family die." He whispered. "And I couldn't even save them."
Alexia slowly wrapped her arms around him and brought him closer, sending him comforting thoughts mentally. She didn't say anything. She couldn't. She had just learned about her own mother's death, and wouldn't lie: she wanted her father to die for it. He deserved that and so much more. But, Ben had just done that. He killed the man responsible.
Ben clenched his teeth. "That man…no, not even a man, that murderer! He had this coming for a long time. He didn't deserve to live, and I'm glad he's dead."
Alexia still stayed silent.
Ben stood up. "Was I wrong? One life for the five that were taken away from me?"
Alexia paused a moment before answering. "It's true those who do the crime will be punished for it, so yes, I believe you were right to do what you did. But, you need to ask yourself, would your family be happy right now? What would make them happy?"
Ben paused and thought back to his family. His little brothers and sisters all pulling on his arms when they would play wrestle. His mother scolding him for encouraging such hyper behavior, because when he was gone, it was up to her to calm them down again.
Ben smiled in thought. "They'd be happy, knowing I was happy."
"And are you?"
Ben looked up, and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fighting for the right of people in both the colonies and on Earth to live in peace. My life seems more…meaningful now."
Alexia smiled back. "Then all is right and there's nothing to worry about."
Ben pulled back his arm and wrapped it around Alexia's shoulders. "Nope, nothing at all."
Then the two sat there, staring up at the stars, seeing the past, present and future, all align and knew for the time being, they were safe and happy.

Kitsune tinkered with another of her gadgets, that of course being a trigger that she herself had created. It was set with three buttons. Each one was connected to one of three wires, red, green, and blue, which would trigger a small explosive Kitsune had placed under her bed. She connected the wires, eyes closed, not knowing which button would set off the bomb and which ones wouldn't. It was like the bomb mistress' version of Russian roulette.
Of course, the underside of her bed had blast proof armor, so Kitsune wouldn't actually get hurt only surprised. If it was the last button she hit, the surprise would be gone, but at least it was somewhat fun.
Kitsune held the trigger in her hand, which looked more like a screwdriver than anything harmful. Kitsune smiled and placed her hand around the handle, slowly bringing down her thumb on the first button, the blue one.
It went down with a click…and all stayed quite.
Sigh. That was fine, still two left to go.
She grinned and ran her thumb back and forth between the last two buttons. "Ichi, ni, san, yon, (One, two, three, four) Explode the C-4 I am on. Red or green it's hard to choose, I'll pick red, I've got blood to lose." She chanted.
She hit the button and the deafening sounds erupted from under her bed, sending Kitsune up five or so feet into the air as her bed bolted up from the blast of the explosion. She giggled with delight.
"Explosive can be so much fun!" Then her mind thought back to Terrik. "That guy seemed to know a lot about gundams and exploding buildings. I've got to admit, that Starblade is a good piece of work, not as good as Hellbringer, but no one's perfect. I wonder how he's doing." She got up and threw down the trigger.
It fell to the ground and a second explosion erupted from her room. Kitsune was tossed off her bed and landed with a hard SMACK!
She grimaced and slowly stood back up again. "Oh yeah. I had two sets of explosives this time." She smiled mischievously. "Oops."
She left her quarters smoking and saturated with the smell of burning carpet. She did have the bottom of the bed protected; she never said anything about the floor being protected.

Kitsune came to Terrik's room and hesitated before knocking. What if he didn't want to be disturbed? She could totally understand if he wanted to be alone. But, he was one of the team now, and so he'd have to get used to Kitsune's bugging.
She knocked and waited for an answer.
"Who is it?" Came a low, muffled voice.
"Kitsune. Can I come in?"
There was a slight paused. "Sure, whatever."
Kitsune slowly opened the door, only to be greeted by a flying dagger, landing an inch from her head. Her black eyes widened and she turned to see the dagger embedded solidly into the wall, bisecting a small housefly.
She swallowed hard. "Did I come at a bad time?"
Terrik shrugged and laid back down on his bare cot. "Just killing time myself."
Kitsune slowly entered the room and closed the door behind her. She didn't sit down…cause there wasn't really anywhere to sit down. The room was pretty bare. "You know, you can always request some furniture to be put in…"
"I don't need anything." He cut her off. "What I have is fine." He took a split second to glance up and caught Kitsune's saddened black gaze, so he added. "Thanks anyway."
Kitsune nodded and stuck her hands in her pockets. Why did she decide to come here again? Oh yeah, to prove he was one of them now. You're doing a pretty bad job of that, Kitsune.
Terrik went back to staring at the ceiling. "Working with WFO…" He started, "I was always being told what to do and what my duty was. But here…you guys left me alone. Didn't bother to make sure I did anything or didn't do anything against the rules. When I left…you four came after me…why?"
Kitsune smirked. Such ignorance from someone who knows more about fighting than he should at his age. "You're one of us now. Shoot, you even got your own gundam. You fight WFO with a vengeance. We're on the same side. May as well work together." Kitsune explained. "Besides, when one of the team goes AWOL, we all go with him." She half smiled.
Terrik raised an eyebrow, but didn't smile, not even a little bit. "Guess I really messed things up, huh?"
Kitsune scoffed. "Not in the slightest. You guys caused some major damage to WFO. You're knowledge of their bases will be a lot of help. That is if you're willing to share it."
Terrik nodded. "Gladly. I'm going to make them pay for what they did to me." He said quietly. Suddenly, Terrik frowned. "Where is that other guy, anyway? Dan Crimson?"
Kitsune shrugged. "God knows where. Probably causing trouble…again!"

Little did she know Crimson didn't feel like causing trouble for anyone at the moment. He sat in his gundam, Lonestar, and sat back, hands on the levers, going back over all the killing he had done. It was exhilarating. He felt like he found a missing part of him. To hone his muscles once more, in a different way, to defend or attack. He remembered his heart beating fast, looking this way and that, looking for another enemy or target.
He didn't remember what his kill rate was, but it was pretty high. A warrior sent to punish. Although, he had been there to 'back up' the trigger-happy ex-WFO agent, Terrik Avalon, he had had more fun blowing things up for himself than defending the squirt. Not that Terrik needed much defending.
Dan sighed. Some day, it was going to be him going AWOL. Would the others come to help him the way they had Terrik? He didn't know, but it didn't matter. Everyone dies at some point. Dan Crimson will just have to make sure he leaves his mark before he goes. To be remembered for something.
Speaking about remembering something, Dan looked down and saw Nikki Rune, bent over her modified Leo's foot. True, it had returned to the hanger, as Terrik had programmed it to, but not in all that good of shape. Nikki uncharacteristically cursed as she removed one of the panels from the footing. It had carbon scoring all over it, almost completely melted off from Terrik's rampage, as the mission had been deemed.
Dan smirked and opened the cockpit of Lonestar, jumping down with ease, and slowly walking over behind Nikki. She had her head inside the open foot of the Leo and was inspecting it from the inside out. Dan leaned over, without a sound, and then shouted. "What are you doing in there!?"
Nikki jumped up from the noise and smacked her head on the top of the opening. "Dammit Crimson, what the hell do you want!?"
Dan held his hands up. "Did I come at a bad time?"
Nikki fumed. "As always. Terrik totally trashed my gundam!"
"Mobile suit." Dan muttered.
"It would have been a gundam once I was done with the retrofitting and remodeling. Now thanks to him, I have to go back and replace all the broken or burnt panels, and rewire all the circuitry that was fried!"
Dan leaned in. "Want some help?"
Nikki was about to retort, then stopped short. "That's not a bad idea!"
Dan blinked back his surprise. "It isn't?"
Without another word, Nikki ran from the hanger, and down the corridor.
Dan frowned and ran after her.
Nikki came to Terrik's room and without permission, threw open the door.
"-keep one eye open and-" Terrik explained, and then released his knife, flying right past Nikki.
Dan let out a yelp as he appeared behind Nikki and acted on pure instinct, catching the knife between two hands, barely avoiding injury.
"Nice catch, Crimson." Kitsune said with a smirk, from her spot besides Terrik on his bed.
Dan blinked, then let out a sigh of relief.
Terrik also blinked in puzzlement as he watched Nikki's face grow red with anger, to the point to where it almost matched her hair! "C-can I help you?" He asked, cautiously.
"Yes you can, Avalon!" She stormed into his room, grabbed Terrik around the wrist and practically dragged him out of the room towards the hanger. "You damaged it and you're going to help me fix it!"
Dan finally caught on. "But I was the one who mentioned that! Don't I get to help?"
Nikki replied, still dragging Terrik, but did not look back. "NO!"
Dan pouted and Kitsune growled. "You ruined it! I was just getting to know him and you ruined it!"
"What? What does everyone blame me? What did I do now?"
"You ruin my time with Terrik! I'll get you back for this, Crimson!" Kitsune was mad she had been interrupted, and in her fury, she reached down, picking up all the throwing knives Terrik left behind and began aiming at Dan.
Dan let out a yelp and ran down the halls, avoiding very sharp knives that landed centimeters from his head. "Stop trying to impale me!!!" He shouted as Kitsune chased him down the hallways, her hands still full of projectiles.
"You will die at the hands of the Shinigami!" She growled, throwing another knife, and taking off a piece of Dan's hair.
"I don't wanna die at the hands of the Shish kabob!!"
That stopped Kitsune right in her tracks. He did NOT just mispronounce… Oh he's going down! Kitsune pulled out a grenade and tossed it into the air. Dan squealed like a girl and ran down a different hallway, like a cow behind herded.
Just then, Ben and Alexia came from another hallway, just in time to see Dan ran past them, and Kitsune chase after him. "Get back here Crimson!"
Ben sweat dropped. "You think those two have a thing going?"
Alexia giggled. "Not on your life."