Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ In the City at Night ❯ After Dark ( Chapter 37 )

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

After Dark

Jordan stepped onto the stairs to the third level and looked up as someone moved out of the door ahead of him. He and Judas stared at each other a moment before Judas turned to lead him up the way.

"Dude, what are you doing?" someone shouted behind them. These people had moved past Jordan without really seeing him.

The laugh from Judas' mouth was cold as he flipped the man off and darted through the door.

"He'll...be back," one of the other men noted, not even noticing that Judas was leading Jordan and turning slowly with a confused look to his comrades.

Jordan moved through the door, noting that someone suddenly dropping what he was supposed to be doing should have caused some kind of alarm. It shut behind them with a thud, and Jordan looked around to take stock of the new situation.

"Corringer's beating the shit out of him," Judas noted with an obviously angry expression, heading toward another door up the hall. "I don't think he's done anything permanent yet, but they chased us all out."

"They?" Jordan demanded, grabbing his man's arm. "I can't just break in there, you realize that? Until one of us can get to Xane..."

"It's Corringer and another man," Judas explained, pulling cuffs off his belt and offering them up. "Front or back?"

"Back," Jordan agreed, crossing his wrists behind him and listening intently to the movements. "Yuy and them should just about be set up outside."

"Did we really have that many men down here?"

"Yes," Jordan agreed in amusement. "Mostly. You know they'll have backups."

"Yeah," Judas composed himself, looking around.

"If you're gonna double cross me right now," Jordan informed him, "You will be dead."

Judas tsked at him, meeting his eyes. "How could you think that?"

"I don't think you'd do it," Jor reassured him, "that's why I said if. The only thing keeping me from killing everyone here is the fact that most of them are just stupid."

That got him a grin and a swallow. "You ready? I'm gonna do the panicked thing."

Jordan stretched his neck very slightly, then nodded. He organized his expression into one of irritation as Judas started shoving him roughly forward to the door at the end of the hall. He slammed into the door and grunted before Judas shoved the thing opened. He stumbled slightly, then looked up...and froze.

Xane was sitting in a chair with his hands bound behind his back. One of his eyes was swollen almost shut and there was blood trailing down his face in general. The slump to his shoulders suggested that he'd given up at some point, and he barely lifted his head at the intrusion, then sat up as he realized exactly what was going on.

Distant sounding shot started outside the building...

"What the hell..." Corringer started, turning toward them...and Jordan saw blood on his shirt...and blood on his knuckles...

"Son of a bitch!" the other man...Allen, shouted, pushing away from the counter he'd been leaning against. "Don't bring him in here!"

"Jordan!" Xane muttered, shifting forward where he sat.

Judas unhooked his cuffs. "I saw him on base before! He was just walking up the halls like nothing!"

"You idiot!" Allen shouted, pulling his gun...but Jordan was free. Allen froze completely as Jordan's weapon raised and he turned to look at Corringer.

Corringer was staring at him in disbelief, obviously not comprehending what had happened.

"Judas-baby, get Mouthy for me, will you?" Jordan purred at his man.

"As my god wishes," Judas muttered with a mildly amused smirk, darting forward and stopping when Corringer didn't move. He raised his pistol and set it against Corringer's head as the pair stared at each other. "If a tree falls in the woods," Judas asked him, "And there's nobody around to hear it...does it make a noise?"

Corringer's hands moved up slowly as he understood the meaning behind the words. He stepped back, looking almost fearfully toward Jordan.

"You know," Allen noted, "this really isn't worth it."

"Excuse me?" Jordan demanded, focusing on him.

The man raised his phone to his mouth and hit a button on it, "We're running like pussies, leave the wanna-be revolutionists to their fate."

Jordan smirked at him, "We have the building surrounded...did you not notice that?"

"We only need one exit," Allen noted, looking between them...and suddenly he had a gun pointing at Judas' head.

Judas stopped, though he had Xane untied and the man was wiping at his face.

"You can look me in the eyes and even pretend I won't kill you?" Jordan asked him curiously. "You can stand in front of me as a needless thing, and think that I won't just blow you away?"

"Legality never has been your fine point...though I'm very curious to know just what you were doing with Breer the last few years."

"I was surviving, actually," Jordan noted, thinking a moment as he focused back on Corringer.

"Do you need him?" Allen asked curiously. "I wouldn't mind seeing him dead."

"Not particularly," Jordan muttered. "The only reason anyone is left alive in this building right now is because Yuy pointed out to me that it's not all of their fault."

"Um...I'm going to kill your man," Allen noted, moving his gun in a way that suggested he'd meant Judas, not Corringer.

"No you're not," Jordan noted, not even looking away from Corringer...as he dropped the rifle, pulled one of his many pistols, and shot the man in the leg...then the arm. He watched the reflection in the window, which he'd used for his aim, as the man's weapon fell and he cried out.

Judas turned and slammed his fist into Allen's face, then laughed a bit, looking around to Xane. "I've wanted to do that for a long time now."

"Cocky bastard?" Xane asked curiously, then turned to look up at Corringer. The man was frozen where he stood. "Shouldn't you be begging or something?" Xane hissed, rising to his feet. "Spilling some deep dark secret?"

Before Jordan could move or react, Xane had punched Corringer in the face. The blow successfully knocked the man on his ass against the wall. The green-eyed man followed this up with a kick to the man's side, and Corringer shouted hoarsely as he tried to scurry away from the attack.

Xane looked anything but happy as he turned to focus on Jordan, studying him as the fighting continued outside.

Jordan studied his friend's face a long moment, then looked slowly toward the windows. "Doesn't it figure that I didn't bring a walkie?"

Judas rolled Allen onto his face, having cuffed him, and shook his head in pretend disgust, "Some god you are."

"You have your phone?" Xane asked, moving slowly and shakily back toward Jordan.

"And yours, actually," Jordan muttered, pulling out his cuffs and tossing them to Judas so the man could lock up Corringer. He grinned slightly as he shifted the rifle to hang on his back, digging out his phone as Xane moved in closer to him, then leaned against him. The green-eyed man pressed the offered phone away, pressing his face into Jordan's shirt. Jordan smiled slightly, ruffling his hair as his eyes fell on Corringer again.

The man was staring at him. He made the gesture more affectionate as he stared back at the idiot, then hit the four on his phone. He'd almost called Heero, but seeing as he had that phone in his pocket, it would have done no good.

"Hey, Q, guess what?" Jordan muttered when Quatre'd answered his phone.

"You're alive, that's a good start," the blond noted, then started protesting something.

"How many did you kill?" Heero demanded, having successfully pulled the phone from the blond. Yet another instance where he wanted his own...

"That's not fair," Jordan retorted. "You're not fair to me."

"I need a number, Jordan," Heero snapped. "If you went of the rocker again we have to be ready to account for the shit."

Jordan closed his eyes, pulling Xane closer to him before swallowing slightly. 'The shit,' as his friend had put it, was taking part of the credit so it wasn't only Jordan who got the blame. He appreciated the sentiment, but it left something to be desired.

"None."

"What?" Heero demanded.

"I didn't kill anyone," Jordan snapped. "I didn't have to."

Heero fell quiet a long moment.

"Allen told his men to run," Jordan added. "He said the to leave the soldiers to their fate."

"Is there no loyalty amongst thieves?" Heero returned, sounding vaguely amused. "That'd explain the push on Tro's side...what say you?"

"You mean to let them through or not?" Jordan considered it. "They don't want to face the wrath of the government, so they'll make a severe push. I'd rather cut the casualties when I have what I came for."

Xane grabbed a handful of Jordan's shirt as some of the bruises decided to be remembered, gritting his teeth.

"Jude, you got a med kit?" Jordan muttered as Heero started giving other orders.

"Uh...no," Judas frowned, looking toward his friend, then grinned. "Look at it this way, Mouthy, you'll get to try Remalene."

"Fuck you," Xane decided easily, trying to relax.

"You comin' out, or should we come in?" Heero muttered curiously.

"I'm in the middle of the swarm with their leaders," Jordan noted. "I'd certainly hope you'd come to me."

"I was just asking," Heero noted, still sounding amused. "Here's blondie."

"Hey!"

Epilogue:

The thing about the entire situation, Trowa conceded, was that it was a good hundred-plus fully trained, well disciplined soldiers...and three specials forces...four, actually. Granted, Jor's team was split up enough to almost be termed out of action. At any rate, it'd been three Special Forces teams with their leaders against...maybe eighty deserters.

In the end, after the mafia crew had broken through...been allowed to, rather, the soldiers themselves had pretty much forfeited. They had, after all, been well trained...and their leader wasn't saying anything.

There had to be a base of stupidity in the lot of them, really. The force to cause a real revolution had to be at least a single percentage of the opposing force. Numbers by the handfuls did little good.

Not that they hadn't caused a revolution in other ways. The revolt, as it were, had finally made some of the money-pigs realize things weren't quite fair, and while his own salary had been cut somewhat, it wasn't enough to cut him. On top of that, Hell's Rest would probably operate as a valid soldier-run facility for a few more years.

The most annoying part had been losing Allen. It wasn't like he was anyone they'd had in their sights, but he'd been an accomplice. On the bright side of the matter, even with the heavy push at the end of the fight, no one had died. All holy-hell would have broken lose if someone had died...as far as most people knew, it was just a charity organization.

Trowa didn't bother following the media.

"So, you know," Jordan muttered as he walked across his living room, thinking. "Me'n Judas come out, I've got Xane clinging to my shirt on one side and I'm shoving Corringer ahead of me with my hands...Jude has Allen..."

"Dude, don't call me that," Judas muttered. "I'm not a chick."

"There are guys named Jude," Jordan focused on him with a frown.

For all that Raul had been the next guy in line after Mouthy, Judas had now fully taken over that position. Actually, Judas was sorta becoming the second, at least until Mouthy could prove himself.

That was fucked up, really, because Mouthy was very obviously the favorite of the five of them. That was why he'd been singled out and subsequently protected...sheltered.

"Besides," Jordan muttered, thinking, "If I say Jude-baby you don't turn a hair."

Judas was about to protest that, then thought about it. He grinned at his leader and flipped him off.

Chai focused curiously on Mouthy. "You have no issues with him saying you were clinging?"

"Well...I was," Mouthy tilted his head at her with a smirk.

Chai winked at him.

"So...we're standing there at the door as the men with big-guns sized up who we were and what we were doing...I mean, I'd chased the last of the soldiers out before me. So..."

Trowa really wanted to tell the man to get to the point, but if he interrupted, it'd be another distraction...an argument, actually.

"...we're standing there, and out from behind me come three men?" he directed the question to his second.

Xane nodded, and Jordan looked back to the people he was talking to...it was Wayne, Logan, Zechs, Relena, Hilde...well, everyone, really. Danielle was sitting with Wufei on a chair and the rest were kinda spread out across the room sitting or standing.

"They shove Xane against me, and I swear they hit him upside the head again," he ignored the scattered snickers...which were mostly from the guy's team...though James, who'd been brought in after lots of bitching from the green-eyed male, smirked at his boyfriend. "I had to catch him," Jor added, touching Xane's head in passing.

They'd all freaked out when Xane had passed out, because in that same moment, Judas had been knocked aside and the guys had grabbed Allen. After the shots had died down there'd been an unholy outcry to demand what was wrong with Mouthy.

James glared at the man touching his boyfriend, but looked away before it could be noticed.

Jordan had to be doing it on purpose. Trowa smirked, covering it with one hand.

"So I'm all freaking out, trying to make sure he's not dead," Jordan continued, looking remarkably vulnerable for a moment. "I have no idea why he's out cold as shots are being fired to my left...the only reason I didn't kill the guy I shot was because someone else had shot a hair faster and changed his position..."

Quatre looked to Paris wordlessly. He wasn't ever going to mention that he'd been that former shot because the guy would have been killed. Jordan had wanted him dead.

"...they get beyond my site and disappear into the fucking night...and then people are converging on us. Corringer was given the proper arrest for all that he fell on his face, and the building is swept over..."

"I don't understand," Hilde muttered. Her face had been stressed since finding out that no one had died. There'd been plenty of wounded, but no one had died. "You were covered in blood when...when..."

Jordan focused on her with his look of hate, or whatever it was...disdain, maybe, then looked away. Trowa figured he was about to move on when he looked back to her and shook his head. "You refused to ever understand."

"Understand that you massacred twenty-seven men?" she snapped. "On your own? I was there, you recall. The other pilots hadn't come in yet..."

"And this is why we never talked about it," Jordan snarled, losing anything resembling patience with her as he stalked forward. He yanked her off the couch, which had several people starting to rise, and shoved her against the entertainment center. "I never meant to kill anyone that day."

She blinked, not expecting that as her tears spilled again.

"I never wanted to kill those twenty-seven fucking men. They spotted me. I was sneaking up through the back-halls and happened to close by a main hall. I told you that much before, huh?"

She looked away.

"One of the fuckers shoved me into the main area where they were moving around...they were all armed. It was me or them...us or them."

She closed her eyes.

"So yeah," he added, stepping back. "Yeah, I massacred twenty-seven men. Yeah, it took me about ten minutes to kill twenty-seven men..."

That fact made Trowa's blood run cold.

"But they kept coming, and I wasn't going to die for them...not when you were in danger."

Hilde started sobbing silently as Relena darted in to pull her into a hug, giving Jordan a look.

Jordan shook his head, turning to look at the room again. "So I'm sure you can understand what I felt when you asked me how many I killed," he added to Heero, who had stood and was just staring at him. "I'm sure you're kicking yourself for assuming I'd just...kill them all."

Heero looked away.

The silence lasted...maybe a minute, but that minute was an eternity. Jordan was looking away over everyone's head.

Trowa looked to Quatre, but Quatre had his face covered with his hands and Paris was looking away entirely. He changed his focus to Wufei, who studied him in return.

"And that's what happened," Jordan noted quietly, looking back to everyone again. "...that's...everything."

"So you're not as insane as we thought," Trowa noted, grinning slightly.

Jordan straightened at the affront, opening his mouth to reply...and started to laugh.

X x X x X

"So what do you do now?" Heero muttered to Jordan as they walked along the sidewalk of the area Jor lived in. The sun had set long before, and it was dark. "You go away again? You stay with us? I mean...as long as you leave your address you can go anywhere. You just have to show up for the trial."

"I don't know yet," Jordan admitted, shoving his hands in his pocket. "I haven't talked to Chai about it yet."

"This really was all her fault," Heero noted, grinning briefly at the guy.

Jordan almost stopped, meeting his eyes, then frowned as he started to move at the normal pace again. "Let's see if I can get this straight," he muttered. "Xane getting kidnapped is Chai's fault...that's what you're saying, right?"

Heero grinned, "Yep."

"So...backing that one up through as much logic as I can feasibly apply here..." he thought again, then looked back to his friend. "Yeah...that one's not flying."

Heero sniggered and shrugged. "You ran off five years ago, met up with some little girl, and kept off of radar, correct?"

"Okay, I'm with you so far."

"So...we find you in some slum bar...and dig you out and get you back onto base. You're suddenly put in a position of power and given people under you...right?"

"I'm not connecting how it's Chai's fault, though..."

"The timing," Heero explained grinning more. "If you'd been here that five years, you'd have gotten the initial over-affection toward Mouthy out of your system. He would have been a target, but not so obvious a target."

"Hm..."

"So when this...revolution, or whatever you want to call it came up, you'd have been here from the get-go."

"Not...quite...working," Jor informed him slowly.

Heero laughed, shrugging. "It's Chai's fault."

"Because god forbid it be mine."

"Oh, gracious no," Heero agreed, smirking as he looked sidelong to his friend. "The gods are above reproach."

End

X x X x X

E/N: So, I took it for a spin around the block, and couldn't let it go. I hope y'all enjoyed my story. Thanks for the reviews and forgive me my errors. I may...write a sequel...eventually. I can't leave them lie, they're too much fun...heh, I took'em for a spin and couldn't let'em go...and that's all she wrote.