Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ In the City at Night ❯ Alternate Reality ( Chapter 35 )

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

Alternate Reality

"He decided to shake it a little bit," Trowa explained to Doug, making a violent looking gesture in front of his chest, "See what fell out of the cracks."

"That sounds...violent," Doug noted, studying his leader's hands. He met Tro's eyes again. "You sure this is a good idea?"

"I honestly don't give a shit," Trowa noted, shrugging. "I don't want them to get away, I mean, but I'd be just as content to figure out the likely buildings they're in and camp out for a day or two so we get enough men down here...then take the buildings."

"Laying siege, seriously?" Doug demanded, focusing on his leader in disbelief.

"Why not? It worked when dirt was young."

"Or when man was young," Doug retorted. "Warfare isn't that..."

"It's war, Doug," Trowa cut him off. "It's not some romantic poem, not some epic novel...it's a fight between two men and those who choose to follow them. This particular war is Matthew Corringer and Heero Yuy. Which is the lesser evil?"

"Obviously, Yuy," Doug suggested a bit tentatively. He knew it was a question with no right answer.

"Mat's means were fairly straight-forward," Trowa protested. "See, shoot, kill...rinse, repeat if necessary. Clean, efficient, cheap."

"And that's why we're crawling like rats through the back alleys of hell, hoping Satan doesn't look our way," Doug noted sarcastically, looking the depressed buildings over.

"We have the devil's playmate on our side," Trowa grinned. "And we're crawling like rats because Yuy's the lesser evil."

Doug snickered, focusing on his friend a moment.

Shots rang out in the distance and dogs started barking. The two soldiers met eyes a moment, then darted up the road. They spilled into a scene of randomness that neither could comprehend as a man looked at them and disappeared into the night. Another man was sitting on the sidewalk, cursing like a sailor with one hand at his leg.

"This is not what I was expecting," Doug noted, blinking down at the man.

"We're in Angels," Trowa noted, pulling out his phone and holding down the two. "Can't expect much."

"Just take my money and get the fuck away," the man on the ground ordered them, starting to drag himself to his feet.

"Hey, just rest," Doug protested instantly, moving to settle him back down. "We don't need your money."

The words made the man freeze completely...his eyes were huge. He broke away from Doug and stumbled back a few steps as he stared at them, then turned and absolutely ran in the opposite direction.

Doug stared after him in amazement.

"Talk to me," Jordan muttered through the phone.

"Well...I sorta don't need to now," Trowa replied, also blinking after the man. "Doug, what just happened?"

"What? What's going on?" Jordan sounded mildly interested.

"We heard shots and went to investigate," Trowa explained. "One man ran off...the other'd been shot in the leg."

"So bring him in," Jordan noted.

"Well...that's kinda where not needing to talk to you comes in," Trowa explained, studying his second. "The guy told us to take his money...then freaked out and ran off."

"What did you say?"

"I was waiting for you to answer," Trowa noted.

"Okay, what did Doug say," Jordan's tone was mildly sarcastic.

"He didn't need the guy's money...told him to rest..."

Jordan started laughing.

"Why would that..."

"He's gone, isn't he?" Jordan asked, still laughing. "Ran like a rabbit, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Tro returned, not appreciating the laughter.

"You dumb-asses," Jordan laughed even more, then repeated the story to Chai. Her laughter joined his. "Jesus, that's stupid shit, Trowa...very stupid shit...maybe you didn't catch it, but slavery isn't gone."

"What?" Trowa demanded as Doug's expression clouded.

"You heard me," Jordan returned, still amused. "I could have sold Heero to Jon for a good mil or two when you guys first showed up and we'd never see him again...well, okay, bad example," he corrected that one. "You get my point, though, huh?"

"He thought we were...slavers?" Trowa demanded slowly.

Jordan laughed again, "Next time you come across a man shot in lower Angels...don't tell them you don't need their money. Everyone needs everyone's money."

"That's fucked up," Doug muttered.

"I'm gonna go," Jordan added, amusement still heavy in his tone. "Yuy just got back."

"All right," Trowa muttered, closing his phone and looking around somewhat abashedly.

"Slavers..." Doug muttered, staring off down the street. "Slavers..."

"Oppressed peasantry," Trowa noted, "Laying siege...where the hell are the catapults?"

"I don't think we want to know," Doug retorted. "Shit...I just wanted to help."

"We can do real help in a day or two when they get Hell's Rest in order."

"Whosa-wha?" Doug asked him blankly.

"Hell's Rests?" Trowa repeated, grinning a bit. "Heero's got a satellite image of that building Jor bought on his phone. We're in hell, and that's hell's rest."

"Shouldn't it be like...Satan's Rest or something?"

Tro shrugged as they started for their original destination again. It was a hole-in-the-wall bar Jordan'd sent Raul, Judas, Danielle, Noin, and Riley into...that and a few more men Noin had picked of her own accord. These men, naturally, included Trowa, Doug, and a few guys off of Heero's team. Jor's team had moved in first, and the rest were supposed to snag the guys that bolted.

"Maybe Hades' Hallow," Trowa mused.

"Reaper's Haven?" Doug offered.

"Odin's Hall?"

Doug's face curled into an evil looking smirk as he turned to meet his friend's eyes. "Angel's Sanctuary."

"Oh ow," Trowa cringed at the suggestion. "Just...ow..."

"Come on!" Doug protested. "We're in Angels and it's supposed to be a help center!"

Trowa had started laughing, shaking his head a bit, "Just...ow."

X x X x X

Wufei studied the line of people that stretched down the street a few blocks before wrapping around a corner, thanking whatever gods were available that they had plenty of supplies.

Having their mission as a front and a reality was an interesting mix. Heero's entire team, Wufei's entire team, and Trowa's entire team, were assigned to the place...the rest of the men were volunteers who just wanted to help. Having a huge power like Lucratzia Noin didn't hurt anything either. That was just from the soldier side of things. The people had been won over by Relena and the occasional clip of Chai.

In all, the entire thing had been set up in about three weeks. A building was bought, cleaned up and altered, then crammed to the brim with stuff from people...in three weeks time.

Wufei had always thought that kind of thing would take months, but then again, there were people like Relena and Jordan organizing it. Relena could get anything done, and Jordan...well, he was Jordan. Give him a mission and he'd have it ready in the shortest amount of time he could manage. The building, which they were all calling Hell's Rest anymore, had been an abandoned one of a sort. The owner hadn't been able to afford keeping it up, so he'd kicked everyone out and closed it down. The few homeless people who'd been in the building had initially freaked out about having to leave until Jordan told them they could get rooms if they'd fuckin' help. His actual phrasing had made Wufei cringe and Relena go a bit white in the face, but Chai hadn't even turned a hair.

The little comparisons of life...it was sad.

Icy cold sprinkles of water started spitting from the grey clouds overhead and Wufei heard a vast sort of groan travel down the line. He nearly turned to order his men to erect canopies for the soldiers, then realized that might start a riot. Movement caught his attention, and he turned to look at the front of the building as a soldier appeared in the door, shouting orders around. In moments, the men were scurrying to erect the canopies...over the line.

It was a little thing, but those canopies were meant for the soldiers to remain dry in their full uniforms, and the people in the line hesitantly started to try and help...and Wufei had never been more proud in his life. It was just...a little thing...but sometimes it's the little things that count, right?

"Chang?"

Wufei turned to the soldier who'd approached him, wondering if he looked intimidating or something. He was also in full uniform, after all. "Yes?"

"Where do you want your cover set up?" the man asked, indicating the pavilion sitting not far away.

"Over the line," Wufei returned with a grin. "I've been wet before, I won't melt."

"Sir," the man saluted and he and some of his friends grabbed the thing, moving to the line as a few cheers started.

Wufei raised his phone to his ear, having already hit the two.

"Talk to me," Jordan muttered somewhat tiredly.

"I love you my darling," Wufei returned in a bad fake accent...of no particular origin.

Jordan muttered something at him in Russian...

"Okay, don't do that," Wufei snapped at him. "I know Heero understands about as many languages as you do, but I've got about four."

Jordan laughed, "Chinese, French, English, and...?"

"Japanese."

Jordan laughed more, "What's up, loverboy?"

"It's getting a bit wet out here."

"Aren't the men setting up the pavilions?" Jordan appeared in the door to the place with a confused expression before looking across the thirty-some-odd feet that separated them in confusion.

"Well, wet leads to cold, right?" Jordan nodded. "So...couldn't we get some sort of heater thing for under the pavilions? How long is it taking in there to get things sorted out?"

"We're getting the intricacies worked out," Jordan explained. "After another half hour or so we should have it figured."

A cheer started from somewhere around the corner and they both looked that way in confusion.

A flatbed truck appeared around the corner with Zechs standing in a cleared area like some sort of prince...wait, he was a prince, wasn't he?

"He's pretty," Jordan noted, starting to laugh. "Send him around back, will ya? We've got men out there unloading trucks."

Wufei hung up and nodded as Jor disappeared back inside the building, and waved to the driver. Zechs was still carrying his cane, and was waving to the little kids that were bouncing up and down near their mothers in the line. The cheer spread even more as the truck Zechs was in stopped next to Wufei and another truck appeared at the corner with men running to pass out steaming cups...coffee and hot chocolate, Wufei imagined.

"A bit wet out here, isn't it?" Zechs asked the Chinese man happily. "You're gonna weigh about a hundred pounds more if you get soaked."

"I've been wet before," Wufei noted. "There's an unloading zone around back. We've got men working on getting all of Relena's stuff inside."

"How's the asshole?"

"Which asshole is that?" Wufei returned as a few people in the line snickered.

"I just figured you'd pick one and tell me," Zechs grinned. "Get yourself some coffee."

As if it were a cue, a man came running up to Wufei with red-cheeks and the sort of smile that someone has when they know they're doing a good deed.

"Thanks," Wufei muttered, taking the cup. "Take a moment to rest."

"There are still people out there who don't have any," the guy protested instantly.

"You won't do anyone any good if you collapse," Zechs noted. "Maybe just take it a little slower?"

The man laughed a bit, but did turn to walk back toward the second truck.

"I'll get more pavilions set up here in a few minutes," Zechs noted. "Me, you, and a few of the others should get out there and get our hands dirty."

"You gonna freak on Jor again?"

"The man's name is Duo," Zechs retorted.

"No, it's not," Wufei smirked at the blond a moment. "I'll start laying out more pavilions."

"Dump your gear," Zechs suggested, tilting his head. "This isn't entirely a military operation. You don't need it all."

"I'm not the only one fully decked-out, Marquise. Don't worry about it."

"Suit yourself, you're gonna be hatin' life here in ten minutes." And with that, Zechs pounded on the roof of the truck with his stick...and the car moved off down the road.

Wufei grinned, sipping from his cup...he liked his coffee with milk and sugar, but he wasn't going to make waves over something that was really just meant to help.

X x X x X

The line didn't seem to end.

Heero was tired as he walked along the lines of pavilions and the rain soaked even further. One of the more industrious teams had gone out and bought a huge amount of blue tarps, and those were strung up between each pavilion, hanging down on the windward side. Propane heaters were fairly cheap and ran for long amounts of time. These were set up at intervals along the corridor...chairs had shown up, too.

How many people lived in Angels? How many people couldn't meet their own basic needs?

It was depressing to see the line that didn't end, and he was no longer sure they had enough to help the people...

His phone started to vibrate, and he noted Jordan's number as he opened it, "Hello?"

"We've got a woman here with three kids. Can you get a couple guys together and go put some plastic on her windows?"

"Sure," Heero returned tiredly.

"You okay?"

"Have you seen this line?" Heero returned, moving away from hearing range. "Just realizing how bad it is down here..."

"You know, it's the little things," Jordan reminded him in a quiet voice. "Making winters less cold...providing food stuffs...warm blankets...we're helping."

"For now," Heero agreed. "But what about...what about spring? Summer? Next fall?"

"We can keep Hell's Rest as a help center," Jordan noted.

"And you'll fund it?" Heero retorted, pacing around a building and rubbing at his eyes. "You'll just keep feeding these people? What happens if your money runs out?"

"We use your money," Jordan noted in amusement.

"Duo, I'm serious," Heero snapped. "We can do this forever...we won't always have people willing to volunteer down here."

"So then we need to make it better," Jordan retorted. "We need to fix it. Call your officer's club and try to get something going...and don't call me Duo."

Heero ignored the latter addition. "It's your club, too."

"No, not really," Jordan returned, smiling slightly at the woman who was standing near him in confusion. "You getting people? I was kinda hoping we could get the teams set up."

"Oh...yeah," Heero rubbed at his eyes again. "We did so much...and what has it done? We stopped Romefeller's oppression...we stopped...the shit with the colonies...but here on the planet? It's all well and good to joke about this as hell, but...how many other hells are there?"

"I've always heard 'nine' hells," Jor noted, still sounding amused.

"Why...how can you laugh at this?" Heero demanded, making a gesture to call in three men. It didn't matter to him who went with him...

"Because there's no use crying over spilled milk," Jordan retorted. "I'm gonna fuckin' make Q give you some of his Prozac."

"You're not funny."

"Q thinks I am."

Somehow, Heero wasn't surprised that the blond was attached to Jordan. With the three men who'd joined him giving him curious look, Heero turned and started back up the endless lines of people with hope in their eyes.

"Don't doubt what we did," Jordan added. "The wars were their own kind of hell, but we succeeded in making the world a better place...we're here because we make the world better."

"How many places are like this?" Heero whispered, smiling at a little girl who came to tag along with him and the other men.

"I don't know, Chance," Jordan muttered. "I don't know, and I honestly don't want to know."

They were quiet a moment longer, then Jordan hung up.

"I've seen you on TV," the little girl noted to Heero, still curious.

"Have you really?" Heero asked, pretending to be amazed. "Are you sure it was me?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I don't know why, though. The TV was muted."

Heero smiled at her again.

"You walk fast," she noted, having to mostly run to keep up with them.

"I have to go do something," Heero explained. "You should probably get back to your mom."

She stopped, thinking about that. "Okay," she decided, then turned and darted back into the line.

"What are we doing, Sir?" one of the men asked uncertainly.

"We're gonna go put plastic up on windows," Heero returned with a grin. "I know it's exciting, but hey, someone's gotta do it."

"Ooh," the guy looked pleased as he looked to the others. "I was hoping I'd get to do that."

"If that's sarcasm, I agree," Heero noted, grinning more.

"Hey, come on...you have any idea how fucking cold it gets down her? Oops," he covered his mouth briefly. "Sorry."

Heero grinned at that, pulling the door to the building open.

There wasn't really too much to say about that.

X x X x X

The emotional swelter was...distracting. Unlike at their pep-rally for Beedus, though, Quatre wasn't having to battle off all of it himself. He kept to Chai or Jordan, and wished Paris' abilities didn't make it so impossible for him to join in. Watching the people move through the building from registering them at the front to wishing them well at the back was sort of...unnerving. It was like a great big machine. In one end, along the conveyer belt, out the other...

"I think I want to go away," Quatre muttered to Jordan, looking around. They were sitting in an area that provided other sorts of help. Specifically, looking for any other poor empath who could use some times with quietings.

There weren't that many, actually.

"Back to the apartment?" Jordan asked curiously, looking back to him. "Why don't you take Xane?"

"Okay...you are going to attack me if I make him frown, are you?"

Jordan laughed and gave him a dirty look. "I'm not that bad."

"Yes you are, you're worse. If you were fucking him, I'd understand it...you aren't, are you?" Quatre grinned very slightly.

The question got a very level look in response.

Quatre laughed again, looking around. The green-eyed boy was never far from one of the pilots, for all that the mass of people would make it very hard to nab him.

"You know as well as I do that my attacking Heero only had some to do with Xane," Jordan added. "You know Heero and I go head to head all the time...and what you didn't know was that Heero suggested I beat Xane so he'd be able to handle it if he were grabbed."

"You know how bad they fucked him up," Quatre retorted, blinking at his friend. "They didn't treat him like a human. It changed him."

"If I started hitting Xane around, it'd give him bad issues," Jordan retorted. "You see how he is with touch."

"You don't have to prove yourself to me," Quatre reassured his friend with another grin. "I'm just messing with you."

"Why are you so happy, anyway? I thought this many people'd fuck with you."

"That would be why I'm leaving," he grabbed his coat. "Keep in mind I've had this my whole life."

"Okay...I'll see you later."

"All right," Quatre muttered, focusing on the tired looking guy as he moved back into the room. "Come on, Mouthy."

"Huh?" Xane asked in confusion. There was a definite sag to his shoulders.

"I'm going back to the apartment and want you to come with me."

"Why, sir..." Xane made a gesture like loosening a tie, then stopped and looked to Jordan.

"It was my idea...go get some rest," Jordan reassured him.

"Later," Xane muttered, turning to gather up his jacket. "It's really dark outside," he added to the blond as they started down the hallway past smiling people. "Walking home will suck."

"But we won't be alone," Quatre noted, rubbing at one eye. "Man, I'm tired."

"You okay?" Xane pressed. "Is there something I can do?"

"I'm fine...just...there are a lot of people in here."

"And you couldn't very well stay on the base," Xane nodded, tucking his hands into his pockets. "I need to get laid."

"I needed to hear that," Quatre noted. "How out of nowhere...and you better not even think..."

Xane laughed, looking at him. "I was actually thinking of James. If I could take off for a night I would, but everyone'd go all psycho on me...and if you repeat the word atrocity to me, I'm going to get testy."

Quatre laughed ducking into the room Trowa was manning and indicating he was leaving. The guy waved at him and he moved further down the hallway, checking in with everyone.

"You guy are really close," Xane noted when they'd finally made it to the front doors.

"We...well, we all started out alone, but as time went on we had to rely on each other more and more. We were only kids, you know? We just sorta...went with it."

"But I saw you guys around the base before and you hardly even looked at each other, let alone make sure everyone knows you were leaving."

"We had issues...I mean, first and foremost, when Jordan ran it was because Une wanted to run him through psycho evaluations. He didn't want to, so he talked us all into breaking with him...we all assumed he'd reappear with us, but he was just gone. None of us wanted to admit we'd been fucked over by someone we loved, so we just...didn't talk about it. Then we didn't talk about much...and then we stopped talking to each other altogether. I'm sure you noted our friends. Used to be that me and Heero couldn't stand Morgan...I don't really mind him anymore. He's something of an acquired taste...but I was off with Paris all the time. Heero...he kept looking for Jor after we'd all given up on him, and that furthered the breech. Turns out he got himself sucked into some odd group of friends. That's why he's an orgy boy. All we knew is that he'd disappear of Friday nights and reappear on Sunday nights. I get odd readings off him sometimes...but that has to do with his thought processing more than anything. Tro's got all those friends in Doug's apartment building, and well...you know? When Marquise was shot, it brought us crashing back together because he was all of our friend. We went down to Angels...ended up in Jordan's bar...and the rest is history."

"All of it was history," Xane noted.

Quatre snickered and elbowed him, then focused on him with huge eyes, "Don't tell Jordan!"

Xane snorted, shaking his head as he touched the cut. "He fuckin' backhanded me...knocked me on my ass."

"Yeah...he's strong like that."

Xane snickered, "It was hot."

"Yeah, you need to go take a cold shower when we get in."

Xane laughed again. "Freaked me out initially, but with how absolutely casual he was about it...you guys are all fucked up."

Quatre gave him a look.

"Then we get into the building and Jordan absolutely attacked Heero...it was just insane."

"Annoying, you mean," Quatre corrected him. "The two of them annoy the piss out of me."

"He did it for me, come on," Xane muttered in amusement.

"Not entirely."

"No, but mostly."

Quatre gave him a look, then focused on walking.

There was no point in arguing.