Tainted Souls Chapter 2 (PG-13)

[FatGlamour]

Author's Note: Do not own.

*****

Tainted Souls

Part I
Backstabber

Chapter II
Secrets, Lies, and Alibis

Maybe I?m a loser
Caught up in this game
Maybe I?m a freak
Yet I just stay the same
Maybe I need just to know the truth
Forget this conspiracy, just let me have you

Two weeks later
?I must admit I was hoping for all of you to come.?

?Too dangerous.?

She sighed. ?I understand.?

The Underground was just that. It was the one of the few rebel bases left that had escaped the New World Order?s blood hunts. Run by ex-Preventers that had not turned tail, it was efficient as a refugee camp as well. The small group could hear children playing with a busted ball, running barefoot in ratty clothing. They were laughing.

At least they felt joy. Duo sighed. If only his son could have such weak joy, but happiness was happiness. It was something that they saw too little of. Thus is the life of a fugitive he supposed.

He looked at Lady Une taking in her ravaged appearance. Her hair now was streaked with grey more from stress than from age. Her once prim, proper attire was now replaced with a stained t-shirt and faded, frayed jeans. Mariemaia was being pushed by her. The young teen looking ahead of her, not speaking and her eyes never strayed to the Gundam pilots by her mother?s side.

?So why are we here??

It was Duo?s turn to sigh. Wufei would never change. Always to the point, no time for chitchat.

?We confined a capsule from an enemy vessel.?

There was something in her voice that caused the hairs on the back of Duo?s neck to rise. Wufei caught it as well as the two pilots shared a glance. Lady Une?s shoulders were stiff and as he passed a glance over Mariemaia he saw her lips thin and her eyes narrow slightly.

?I have a feeling that it?s not popcorn and an in-flight movie.?

Lady Une, despite her stress and sorrow, smiled a bit at Duo?s quip, stopping as they reached a heavy door. Typing in a password, the door slid open with a hiss and foreboding seemed to hit both Duo and his partner. He felt his scalp tingle underneath his cropped chestnut hair. Looking at Wufei, Duo gripped his gun habitually and walked in.

The room was pitch-black except for a quiet whirring. Heart beating fast, Duo took a step into the dark room, feeling comforted by Wufei?s answering footfalls. Then suddenly, the lights rose, so bright that they blinded him for a moment.

As soon as his eyes focused, Duo felt his breath be taken away. Sitting on a console a few feet away sat a small capsule. It seemed like a very large glass test tube but not for the floating being inside the light green liquid. It bobbed sickly up and down as the slight vibrations off their walking was affecting it. As he got closer and got a closer look at it, he felt his blood drain from his face and cursed shakily.

?It?s a child,? muttered Wufei, coming up beside his partner. ?What is this??

?It is what it looks like, Chang,? said Une coming up behind them. ?But it?s also more than what it looks like.?

With a quick hand, she flipped a switch on the outside of the capsule and plugged in short red wire attached to a monitor. With a jolt the baby twitched and Duo could see the nude child?s eyes moving quickly behind its closed lids. Swallowing the bile that rose in his throat, but Wufei?s small gasp caused him to look up ? and see a blueprint of Deathscythe Hell.

?Holy?!?

?What is this?!? Wufei demanded of Une who stood by with a grim look on her face.

?We were hoping that you could tell us,? she said calmly. ?Take him out of here, nonetheless. This level of information is much too dangerous to stay here and besides, he belongs with you.?

When both pilots looked at her in confusion, she continued unable to look them in the eyes. ?Our doctors found traces of brain activity that has only been seen with the zero system. And something we have found gives us even more to think that he belongs with you.?

She walked forward and pressed a button to drain the liquid from the tube. The child lay almost lifeless in the glass as Lady Une opened it up and firmly but gently lifted the little boy out. She cradled him gently and Duo watched as one little fist gripped at her shirt weakly.

The two watched as she lifted him up once more and showed them the child?s bare back. A single word had been knifed into the child?s pale skin, glaring at them, red and infected.

The word was ?Die?.

?This message is meant for the Gundam pilots.?

***

Hilde sighed as she walked up the stairs, carrying a dinner tray. Her son followed close by her heels, a small loaf of bread in his tiny, clean yet ink marked hands. She smiled down at him, always so helpful, always so gentle.

Always so quiet.

She felt tears prick her eyes but kept them at bay. It seemed so utterly strange that her son, that Duo Maxwell?s child wouldn?t speak. But she felt her heart glow as he looked up at her and smiled gently. Her child hardly had any reason to smile in the world.

?Solo, Uncle Quatre may be sleeping so let?s be as quiet as possible, okay??

Her baby nodded. Like he could be anything but quiet, she thought sadly.

She leaned on the door and it opened silently. There was no doorknob to turn, there never had been since that one day.

It was only their third day of running ? and it was this day that the nightmare began to become reality. No more surreal, only cold, hard, disgusting truth.

There had been so much blood, the sheets, the carpet, and even the walls were covered with it. It had been her son who had found him. When Solo had cried for her ? the last time her baby had talked at all ? Trowa had been in the room across the hall. Hilde had hardly heard the man speak and she had never heard him raise his voice as all.

Trowa?s scream still haunted her dreams.

As did Quatre?s unconscious, bloody body.

Not knowing what Quatre had gone through under the ?care? of the New World Order, Hilde found she could not help the man at all. It broke her heart as all of the pilots had become her family, even the arrogant Wufei and stoic Heero. She could not take not knowing anything but had finally come to peace with the fact that Quatre would tell her if he wanted, when he was ready.

She heard the soft breathing of Quatre?s sleeping form as she opened up the door. There was a bloody bandage on his head, but his face seemed free of pain. Trowa, who sat by his bed, reading in the only comfortable chair in the house, gave her a nod.

?Hungry?? Hilde asked him, smiling at him gently. Trowa nodded again and he took the tray containing two bowls, placing one on the bedside table for Quatre.

Solo placed the small plate of bread on the windowsill and crawled into Trowa?s lap. The man allowed himself a small smile ? if it could be called that, but it was progress from his blank state most of the time. Trowa took a small sip of his soup and then fed a spoonful to Solo who sipped it eagerly, slurping a bit.

?Trowa, he?s already had enough already. That soup is for you?

?I don?t mind,? he whispered, but took a bite nonetheless.

Hilde smiled and shook her head fondly. Then she sighed as she eyed Quatre?s bandage and she lifted his head gently off the stained pillow. Her deft fingers began to gently unroll the bandage. He stirred awake.

?Is? is Heero? home??? His voice was breathless, weak and rough. His skin was too pale, his cheeks sunken but his eyes seemed to sparkle if just the tiniest bit.

?Yes, he is?? She replied, gently cleaning the small but deep holes in a perfect circle around his head. Fighting down the anger and disgust at this, she smiled down at Quatre, letting him know silently that everything is fine. His eyes seemed to acknowledge her message and he leaned his head up with a wince to give her better access to the wounds in the back of his head.

Finished, she wrapped a clean cloth around his head again and whispered, ?Do you think? that? everything will be alright? one day, Quatre??

?I see happiness,? he mumbled and with that his head became limp under her hands as he drifted back into his dreams.

Setting his sleeping head on the pillow softly, she felt full of warring feelings, battling emotions. She never really understood Quatre?s cryptic statements. She never understood why they gave her such hope. All she knew was that she couldn?t live without them.

She sat on the edge of Quatre?s bed, starring at Quatre but seeing nothing. Feeling a small touch on her hand she looked up into Trowa?s eyes staring back at her. He nodded reassuringly as his hand squeezed her thin, cold one comfortingly.

At least I gained a family in this, once an orphan? now with a husband, a son, and brothers abundant. I know that the world is wrong. I know that Relena Peacecraft is wrong. These men are not hard to love at all.

I wonder what it was that made her change her mind.

***

Tears coursed down her face, her veil swaying in the biting wind. She was on earth, staring at the last of her family ? gone forever. She was alone in a cemetery, looking down at two large headstones.

Millardo Peacecraft
Solder ? Brother ? Friend

Lucrezia Noin Peacecraft
Solder ? Friend ? Loving Mother

Mother?

Then her eyes would stray to the small pile of upturned dirt, frosted with snow. No headstone. No marker. Nothing to remember the child who had lived a short time, who had been the world to his mother.

Mother?

With a choked sob, she woke up, that small pile dancing behind her eyes. She sat straight up in bed, not bothering to fight with the tears that coursed down her flushed cheeks. Her heart seemed to not only pound in her chest but her head as well. She felt nauseous, sick and filled with self-hate.

Surely, there could have been another way. Maybe then, no one would?ve have died.

Died.

Dead.

Oh, God? She felt bile rise in her throat and fought against it, knowing that her shaky legs wouldn?t carry her to the bathroom. She really did not want to wake up the maids at nearly four in the morning to clean her sheets. She?d rather suffer in silence than suffer their pitying stares.

Feeling the nausea begin to fade and her heartbeat slow to a semi-normal rhythm, she slowly lay back on the bed. Staring at the canopy of her four-poster bed, the gossamer splashed with moonlight and sparkling like it was studded with tiny diamonds, she tried to remember. Any memory she had she tried to bring forward.

If only as not to forget the few she had.

I have nothing now?

I should die. I deserve to die.

A new determination swept through her body and finally feeling more alive than she had felt in over a year, she quietly opened her small bedside drawer. It was filled to the brim with small notes and letters. Throwing these on the ground, she pawed through the bottom. Something velvet touched the tips of her fingers. Pulling out a small box, another tear fell unwillingly from her eye.

Opening it up, she stared at the small ring, a simple gold band, with a piece of shiny blue metal encased into it. A piece of their past. A piece of his Gundam.

With anger at herself or others, she pulled the large diamond engagement ring off her finger and slid on the small one.

It felt right.

She found that she couldn?t be surprised anymore.

Remember. Before you lose your resolve, Relena?

Reaching over she found the only thing he had left behind other than the ring. A large elaborately handled switchblade. Pressing the button, the sharp silver blade came out quickly startling her and feeling her with power, happiness but also a small amount of fear.

After all, who would not be afraid of dying ? especially those with sins as great as hers?

Raising the blade as far outside of her body as she could, aiming the tip parallel to her heart. Drawing in a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

?Goodbye, Heero??

Quickly she moved her arms inward.

And just as quickly, a strong bruising grip caught her wrists.

With a shocked gasp, she looked up into beautiful blue eyes. The ones that haunted her both awake and conscious. The eyes of the man she loved. The eyes of the man she had tried so hard to forget.

?What the hell are you doing??