The Beehive: Ch9 (Decisions)
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2003 7:58 am
AN: Finally, another chapter is up. I really don’t have much to report here except that I hope that I hope I can get the next up before school starts up again (I’ve been planning it out since late May). I hope I didn't screw anything up too bad, I was rather tired when I wrote the majority of it. Enjoy and please read and review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters or aspects of the story related to it. I am not making any money off of this fanfiction I’m just writing it for fun. However, if you are content a sue me, I must warn you that you’d probably spend more on the lawyer then you’d get from me.
The Beehive
Chapter 9: Decisions
DATE: February 19, 203 AC
LOCATION: Preventer’s Base Camp Hospital, Quarantine
~*~*~ TIME: 6:00 PM ~*~*~
“So, He’s all right?” Quatre’s face brightened as he as he heard the doctor’s report. It had been the first time the man had smiled in any way since the attack party had returned in retreat.
“Yes, he should be fine”, the doctor replied, while his eyes continued rolling over the document on his clipboard. “He got pretty cut up by shrapnel and he has a few small burns but overall he’s pretty lucky.”
The green-eyed man, with the impressively molded hair, in the corner, tilted his head up and glared at the doctor, searching for any sign of uneasiness, “Then, why wasn’t anyone allowed to see him before?”
The Doctor lifted his square head up and adjusted his glasses, “First, because we hadn’t scanned him for foreign bodies yet. Second, he started getting jumpy and erratic so we had to sedate him; he seems to have calmed down though.”
“Oh”, the circle of the blond Arab’s mouth lazily hung for a few moments as he processed, “But he’s all right now though, right?”
The medical doctor’s face remained unchanged but a hint of cheer could be detected in his voice “Yes, Mr. Winner” With that, he placed his clipboard under his arm and began to walking to another section of the large medical tent. He was stopped, however, when WuFei stomped out from behind some curtains on a warpath, wearing a light blue hospital gown.
“Where are my cloths?” He demanded, anger and impatience tainted his voice but he was trying to control it.
The doctor’s gaze met WuFei’s glaring Chinese eyes. “They’re still in decon”, he answered, “We have to make absolute sure that you pilots aren’t carrying any nano-bots. Now, have you been completely examined?”
“Yes”, WuFei weakly, resentfully, lamented.
The feminine snicker of Sally rang through the tent, “Don’t give the poor guy trouble WuFei, it’s a tough job.”
WuFei’s attention was turned to his superior as he was reminded of that morning’s battle. He had to control himself though, he was talking to a ranking officer, “Why did you give the order to retreat? I could have defeated them”
Sally’s expression turned both serious and aggravated, she was in lecture mode, “That’s the problem right there, you always think you can handle everything yourself. You need to learn when to retreat WuFei; we would have been annihilated if we stayed in that crossfire and we’re lucky enough as it is; not a single pilot was killed.”
“Sally made the correct choice for everyone, WuFei”, Quatre cut in, “Now calm down”
WuFei growled a bit while clenching his fists, “I don’t like running away”, he grumbled.
“Think of it as regrouping”, suggested Sally. “Now listen, Duo is ready to see visitors so why don’t we see him? We’re lucky he isn’t dead, so look on the bright side.”
A nearby, white curtain partially slid open and a bandaged up Duo Maxwell stumbled out from behind it, sporting the same light blue hospital gown as WuFei. “Somebody call?” he asked, sounding as jolly as someone could in his condition. His body was covered with minor scratches; there was a visible bump on the left of his forehead and some stitches were on his right cheek and his right arm was completely wrapped in a large bandage from his elbow to his wrist.
“Duo”, Quatre greeted as he hurried over to try and help his friend.
Sally’s eyes widened slightly in concern “You shouldn’t be walking right now”, she stated.
Duo backed away from Quatre slightly in an effort to prove he could stand on his own, “I’m fine, I’m fine”, he muttered. He looked at WuFei and upon noticing his stern expression smirked, “See you’re enjoying the fashion here as much as I am”
“Quiet Maxwell”, the Chinese preventer growled under his breath.
“Nice to know you’re still in a good mood, man.” Duo’s smirk grew wider upon noticing something else, “Nice ass by the way.” He winked just to add to the effect.
WuFei, turned to face Duo with narrowed, questioning eyes but then noticed the same thing; the knot in the back of his hospital gown had somehow come undone, in effect, leaving a small gap between the fabrics. His face turned an indescribable shade of red. With the reflexes of a prowling tiger and to the applause of his comrade’s chuckles WuFei’s hands darted to close the opening.
“So”, snarled a very, very aggravated and embarrassed WuFei, “how long were you going to just let me make a fool of myself?”
“It must have just happened”, Sally said defensively, “I didn’t notice it before”
The embarrassed Asian growled a bit more as he found himself to a chair and sat down, deciding that to be the best way to cover his flank.
After a few moments of chatter and pleasantries he had finally calmed down enough to think rationally. “So, what’s our next move?” he dryly asked to no particular person. “The enemy has already threatened to attack a city if we don’t hand over the prisoners.”
He knew what he was about to say would be argued with but Trowa had to say it, “Well then maybe we should just give him some of the people on the list.”
“Trowa”, protested Quatre, “we can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Trowa replied, “At this rate we can’t possibly hope to defeat the terrorists in a frontal assault, at least this way we’ll buy some time.”
“No”, Sally shook her head, “We don’t know what they plan to do with them.”
“Actually”, WuFei somberly joined in, “I know it’s against protocol but I’m not seeing any other options. We can’t risk an attack on a city.”
So far, the group was evenly divided but there was one person left who hadn’t given any input. All heads turned to Duo, whom soon after shrunk back and decided to take a seat himself. “Actually guys”, he hesitantly began, all the pep had been raped from his voice, “I want out.”
Surprise, struck all there faces, none of them expected to hear that.
“But, Duo..?”, Quatre trailed off.
“I’m sorry guys”, the ‘God of Death’ continued, “I just, I just can’t go getting myself killed like I used to in the old days. It just wouldn’t be fair to Hilde; I was lucky enough today.” Duo sighed, then held up his thumb and index finger– only a fraction of an inch separated from one another. “This close”, he started again, “I came this close to death. That thing came crashing through my monitor and stopped, this close to my head before turning up and trashing the vitals on my Leo.” Duo let his arm drop and stayed silent for a moment. “I mean, talk about luck, it was a miracle, I mean………” The others began to notice that Duo’s arms were beginning to shake, “I mean God or someone up there must like me or something cause………”
Quatre sighed and walked over to his brown haired chum, placing his hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. “We understand, Duo.”
“Anyway”, Duo had gathered himself again, “since I’m not going to be fighting I don’t think I should have a vote.”
Quatre began to open his mouth to say something but Sally cut him off, “It’s Lady Une’s decision anyway, but I’m sure she’d want to hear your input if you have something to say”
“I’m sorry man”, Duo replied, “I can’t really figure any of this out myself”
Location: The Beehive Facility
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~
“How many times do I have to apologize for that?” Relena cried.
“How many times do I have to explain this to you before you get it into your thick scull that this isn’t about conquest?”, sneered her cybernetic captor.
“What else could you call this?”, she yelled back at him. “You’re brandishing huge military power, you practically have the entire Earth as a hostage and you even went as far as to turn yourself into a weapon. And why? So you can turn everyone into hideous cyborgs, like you.”
Tyler glared into the president’s narrowed, angry, cerulean blue eyes, “You think I want to look like this?”
“I can’t think of any other reason why you would”, she argued.
Tyler’s glare intensified. “The original test subject that was meant to receive these implants looked a lot like me, I chose him on purpose; the Eve of the surgery I replaced the mind control function with a device which allowed me to take control of the Beehive and the security system; the next morning I rendered the guy unconscious with medication and switched places with him. It was the only way I could stop them.”
“Bullshit”, Heero cut in, “You could have just alerted the authorities.”
“Yes”, answered Tyler, “But think, that would only have solved one of the problems, put out one of the fires. Now however”, he grinned, “I should be able to solve all the world’s problems. By creating a collective consciousness for all of humanity to share this kind of thing could never happen again.”
“Would you please just listen to yourself?” snapped Relena. “What happened to you? You sound like……… you sound like………”
“………like a fucking lunatic”, Heero dryly suggested. “And what the hell is with the rat?” Heero motioned his hand to the large rodent Tyler was holding.
It was a somewhat chubby animal, it’s smooth glossy fur was mostly white except for a large brown spot around its right eye and a few more on other parts of its body. It had no tale to speak of, it had a flat nose, which it scrunched occasionally, and it was intently nibbling at a carrot, which Tyler was holding up to its mouth. “It’s not a rat”, Tyler corrected, “It’s a guinea pig; I rescued it from the genetics lab a few years back and its name is Zippo 2.”
“You sound close”, Heero commented.
The cyborg’s eyes narrowed while the implants within his irises seemed to rotate. “Oh, you’ll pay for that”, he replied. “Anyway, you people seemed lonely so I brought my friend Zippo 2 hear to keep you company.”
Relena gawked for a moment in disbelief, “You kidnap us, isolate us from society, invade the privacy of our own minds, rob us of our dignity and you think a rodent is going to make it all better.”
“No”, Tyler immediately and matter of factly admitted as some mechanical hands placed a large aquarium with a wood chip bottom on the catwalk, “but I think I’ve made you suffer enough. Talking to Zippo always calmed me down when I needed amusement.” The mecanical arms holding him brought him over to the aquarium where he gently dropped the docile creature in. For a moment, his metallic brown eyes fixed on her aqua blue glare; though it seemed as though he was looking past them, at something else. The moment was short lived, however and his eyes broke contact. “Besides, I don’t think these arrangements are that bad. I practically let you go wherever you want, you have proper restroom facilities, you get three square meals a day – good meals mind you – I provide you with blankets and pillows and I even let your bodyguard live even though he’s been plotting ways to kill me since you arrived. Even you, little miss ‘princess’, have to admit that as far as kidnappings go this is the good life; I’m practically treating you like a guest rather then my hostage.”
The two of them just continued their glare at the collection of metal and flesh that spoke.
“Now, you see, if I were a bad guy I would have killed your boy toy in a particularly gruesome manner upon arrival, right in front of you, no less; tied you to a chair at gun point; barely feed you; physically torture you and use your body for my own sexual gratification.”
She clenched her teeth and took a step back in disgust with that last remark.
“Oh come now”, Tyler shrugged nonchalantly, “as much as I resent what you did to me and as much as I doubt whether you’re cut out for your particularly nasty line of work, no one can deny that you certainly are a beautiful flower, my dear.” He noticed that his words really weren’t alleviating the situation and decided to continue with his speech, “But you see, I didn’t do that.”
“Do you want a thank you note or something?” Heero grunted
“No”, Tyler responded, “but you could at least try to realize that things could be a lot worse then they are. And it’s all right if you don’t understand now, I guess. But rest assured that in all due time you will; you’ll all understand my ideals and me. You’ll all see that I was right all along”, he added more quietly and rather spitefully. “With The Beehive, I will create a new world; a world built on unity, cooperation and logic. The very thing that all the great leaders have strived to attain for all of history is finally within our grasp; but only if one has the courage to grasp it, and do with it what must be done.”
“Destroy it?” Heero smoothly suggested.
“Of course not”, the ranting scientist snapped, “bring about the next stage in human evolution, of course. The betterment of mankind is the responsibility of all who wield such power.”
“I find that interesting”, commented a more firm and composed Relena. She brushed a wild lock of blond hair out of her eye and continued, “You said unity, cooperation and logic?”
Tyler turned, his eyes, though not wide shown with surprise to the fact that he didn’t know she was about to say something before. He realized that he had been too busy talking to monitor her thoughts closely enough and after a brief moment of self-chastising, rescanned her mind.
Relena’s words, however, came before her thoughts could be processed, “what happened to love?”
“Humph”, Tyler grunted, his eyes narrowed again; quickly trailing back to Heero for a moment before resting themselves back on the white clad girl before him. “I see you still believe in fairy tales. Love is a primitive emotion, used by nature as a way to ensure the preservation of the species; a new, more evolved humanity has no need for such impure and unpredictable attachments. Like the cells of a body multiply to preserve the whole, so to shall the members of the collective procreate in a fashion that better serves the whole.”
The female president’s shoulders rose and fell as she took a deep breath and released. “How could you possibly make a utopia if you don’t even believe in love?”
“Because love is just a bunch of organic chemicals and hormones”, Tyler argued; his eyes were no longer as narrow, but shone with a blankness, as if he didn’t even think about it. “There is nothing sacred about it”
Relena balled her hand into a fist but maintained a straight face, “It must be nice to see people like that. People are just soulless animals to you, aren’t they?”
His response was cool and calculated, “Composed of multiple cells – lacking cell walls and photosynthetic organelles – all of which specialized at different tasks, obtains energy by consuming other living organisms, reproduces sexually; yes, I’d classify humans under Kingdom Animalia. Whether or not humans have souls or not is irrelevant. Either way, true peace cannot come to pass as long as each individual person is able to act on his or her own accord. Peace and freedom share an inverse relationship and individuality is the very root of conflict; different individuals have different agendas, which conflict with one another. These conflicts soon escalate to arguments, then to fights and then to war. The answer is obvious, in order to achieve true peace we must all become one, just like you said.”
Relena batted a stray lock of golden hair out of her eyes and ran her fingers through the rest of her unmanaged tresses in frustration. “When I made that speech I was talking about uniting nations; that’s nothing at all like what you’re proposing.”
“But still applicable”, Tyler shot back; his face glowed with a half smile. “What is a nation anyway? A collection of people; people make up a nation, unite to nations, unite two peoples. I’m simply taking it to the next level.”
“What’s the point?” a blue flame seemed to burn in the blond woman’s eyes.
Tyler cocked his hairless eyebrow, his mouth formed, an unusual twisted shape.
“What’s the point of having peace”, continued Relena, “if you can’t even enjoy it?”
“Indeed”, Tyler’s voice darkened as the word slipped out of his pasty mouth. It was short lived however and he immediately straitened up again, “but I fail to see how a collective mind could possibly hinder one’s ability to enjoy peace. If anything, it should enhance it. There are still world’s to explore, comets to study, and bacteria to observer. Think of how much humanity could accomplish if we didn’t have to waste so much effort on just policing itself.”
Relena closed her eyes to think and shook her head a bit, “But what’s the point of all that? What’s the point of scientific research if…”, she trailed off as she tried to think of the right words to express her thoughts.
She didn’t need to translate her thoughts though; Tyler could read them directly and it caused an old bubble of discontent to swell within him until it finally burst, unleashing a array of napalm laced memories. “This again!?”. He let himself drop onto the platform, rocking it slightly. His tentacle weapons and mechanical hands all stretched out as if he were about the strike. He stomped over to Relena, stopping within merely a few inches of her.
She froze, unsure of what to expect. Heero tried to get between them but was held back by hard metal hands and tentacles wrapped around his limbs.
“You’re certainly an expert when it comes to that”, Tyler hissed. It took it a moment but his face finally eased a bit and he hoisted himself back in the air “No need to worry though, if that’s your only reserve. The ‘love’ of all the world will be yours, if such a thing exists. I’ll make you a deal though; if, by chance my experiments fail you’re free to go.”
The claws and hands constraining Heero released him from their grip. He thought to kick one but decided against it.
“No”, Relena stated, her face was firm and unyielding, “I won’t accept anything less then you abandoning this madness”
His eyes stayed narrow, the implants rotating again, as he looked into her cerulean stare, “That’s my final offer; I’ll take that as a yes. When the specimens arrive I’ll begin the experiments.”
“What do you plan on doing with them?” Relena demanded.
Tyler smirked, “I plan to see if the untameable are tameable.”
“Why don’t you see it?”, she responded, “Just because they’re felons doesn’t make them any less human.”
“You’re right”, he replied, “and as humans they’ll have the opportunity to earn redemption by helping to usher in a new era.”
“This is inhumane”, she insisted.
“Heh”, a deviant smile stretched across Tyler’s pale face, “The current society locked these people within concrete walls, sentenced to hardly ever see the light of day for the rest of their lives; how humane is that? But, if you feel so strongly about their humanity I could always arrange for you to spend a night in a room with one of them. I think one of the violent serial rapists would do nicely, don’t you think?”
Relena couldn’t help but be taken back by the image of being pinned down by a dirty old man with a ragged gray beard and yellow teeth as he aggressively ripped off her clothing articles flashing through her mind.
Tyler’s self-satisfied smirk continued, “I think you see my point. You’d be content enough to keep these people locked away from society under any normal circumstance. I’m just trying to help them, and all of a sudden, I’m being inhumane.”
“No”, Relena snapped, “You don’t want to help them, you want to use them as human guinea pigs to prove some radical theory of yours.”
“Maybe”, admitted the steadfast cyborg, “But at least this way they can give something back. By being my guinea pigs they’re laying the ground works for what will inevitably be true peace. Even if it is a ‘radical theory’ it’s not like the maximum-security prisons I recruited them from will miss them. Only a few years ago most of these people would be on death row, lots of people still think they should be. Face it, I couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to experiment on.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that they’re human beings”, affirmed Relena.
Tyler couldn’t help but chuckle at the president’s naivety, “Oh really now? Do you honestly think that one of these people were going to somehow change their ways?”
Relena took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second or so; after a moments thought she opened her mouth to answer. “I have to believe that there’s some good in them.”
“Indeed there is”, conceded Tyler, “but even if they were to miraculously change their ways, it’s not like they could help anyone. With their life sentences they’re nothing more then a burden to tax payers. But, of course, we’re getting substantially ahead of ourselves here; the chances of one of them turning around is moot, to say the least. However, if you really want to prove me wrong, there might be a way.”
Relena’s head perked up upon hearing that, she shook her head slightly to get a stray strand of hair out of her face and fixed her gaze on Tyler. “What?” she asked.
“I’ll lock you in a cell with one of them”; he answered with a sneer. “If you’re all right twenty-four hours later, I’ll seriously reconsider my course of action. How about it?”
A long silence followed as Relena weighed the consequences of either possible decision, silence that was only broken be the occasional sound of mechanical movement.
“Think carefully”, advised the patiently waiting cyborg, “forget neither what’s on the line, nor your odds.”
The blond woman looked at Heero’s concerned face, his mouth was partially open, his beautiful blue eyes were wide with worry and still said nothing. She then looked up at Tyler who hung above her on metal arms and tentacles, staring down at her with, what appeared to be great interests. It was hard to tell though, since his face had been near mutilated by the implants in his head; he looked fierce no matter what expression he seemed to try to convey. She then stared into the black void of vines and machinery, which surrounded the gray padded platform and catwalk which made up the majority of their ‘confinement’. Then she noticed the large aquarium full of wood shavings, and the guinea pig – Zippo 2 – within it; whom she had almost completely forgotten about. She then looked back up at Tyler and swallowed before finally choking the words out of her mouth. “I’ll do it”
Tyler’s mechanical eyes grew wider. He seemed almost confused.
“No don’t”, pleaded her loyal bodyguard as he took hold of her hand.
She shook her head in response. “No Heero, I have to”, the caramel blond politician explained, “If there’s even a chance I have to take it.”
“Relena, you can’t………”, Heero trailed off, unable to think of a way to end his thought he just repeated himself, “you can’t………”
A small cackle interrupted the two, “My, I really underestimated you Miss Darlian. You have a lot more guts then I gave you credit for.” He actually almost sounded legitimately awestruck, but he maintained a level of sarcasm about him, which made it difficult to tell. “If that’s you’re final decision, then I’ll make it so. For now though, I must be leaving you.” With that, Tyler, tossed Relena the carrot Zippo had been nibbling one earlier and his network of mechanical fines and arms carried him off into the darkness, beyond where the two caged love birds could see.
Relena walked over to the six-inch rodent and cradled it in her arms. She then seated herself on the padding of their platforms and held the carrot up to the docile creature’s mouth, coaxing it to extend its head out and resume its frantic nibbling.
Heero just watched this, still dumbfounded, but mostly sick with worry. “Relena, as your bodyguard I can’t let you do this. It’s my responsibility to………”
“That’s alright Heero, I understand”, she looked back up to meat his navy blue eyes with her cerulean, “but I’ve already made my decision. I’m well aware of the risks.” The small brown and white animal in her arm, purred in contentment while is rapidly chewed a bite of carrot with its small pink mouth. Relena turned her head down to look at it little creature and Zippo met her gaze with his glossy black eyes, squinting its nose a few times before greedily resuming its attack on the carrot. “Tyler was right about one thing though”, Relena commented.
Heero cocked his eyebrow, “Hm?”
“Feeding this little guy is kind of relaxing”
Heero let out a short gasp in frustration, “just be sure to wash your hands after playing with that filthy thing.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
His feet made a loud thump with every step as he walked down the dark hallways. Of course, due to the ocular implants in his formerly half blind eyes, he could see perfectly fine, and on multiple levels of the electro magnetic spectrum. He finally came to the room and the door slid open, behind it, a group of energy ports. Only one of them was active, but it was all he needed. He hadn’t recharged the battery packs implanted throughout his body for quite some time and the extra energy demanded by the more complicated control systems which had been later added on to the initial implants had been straining them far too much. A jolt of intense pain surged through his body for a moment but was soon suppressed by the ISS subroutines, yet another symptom of overexerting the systems integrated with his body. The original cyborg model (intended to be used as mindless shock troops) was designed to last for two decades, though in his current state, Tyler couldn’t see himself lasting for more then another nine months. It was all right though, it would take less time then that to establish the collective, and then, even if his body were lost, his mind, everything that was him, would be saved within the collective memory forever. Besides, he could always remove many of the particularly strenuous additions afterwards.
The pod he meant to climb into opened up, inviting him in.
He was vexed; he was vexed about being vexed. Why should it matter what the ‘Princess of Peace’ thinks about his plan? It shouldn’t, this would all lead to peace in the end so he’s completely justified in his actions. Just because she couldn’t see it now didn’t mean anything, she’d see the light eventually. She was always behind him, if she didn’t quit she’d probably just end up coming to the same conclusion as himself later in life anyway; there was just no way around it. In order to achieve true peace, humanity’s will has to be completely consolidated, which would never happen on its own for any length of time; it’s simple logic. It’s the foolish, naturalist beliefs of the old world which were keeping people from daring to come to this realization and keeping humanity divided as it is.
He was locked into the pod and could feel the energy transmission spokes lock into the receiver ports on his back while the capsule tilted backwards like a bed. As his mechanical components recharged, so to would his original biological body.
‘I hope I don’t dream again’, he thought as he could feel consciousness begin to slip away from him. Last time he did this he dreamed, which was unusual for him. It was more of a memory then a dream actually; it was of back when he used to tutor a young, self-indulgent Relena Darlian, back before that bitch of a president confirmed to him, time and time again, that hard work and being a nice guy wouldn’t get you more then a pat on the back and a pink slip when you were of no more use. Those spoiled rich kids, born near the top, would always take precedence; ability had nothing to do with it. But he would fix it all; he would fix all the injustice in the world, all the problems, all the pain and he would do it all by himself.
With those final thoughts, Dr. Tyler Marcus fell into an unconscious state.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters or aspects of the story related to it. I am not making any money off of this fanfiction I’m just writing it for fun. However, if you are content a sue me, I must warn you that you’d probably spend more on the lawyer then you’d get from me.
The Beehive
Chapter 9: Decisions
DATE: February 19, 203 AC
LOCATION: Preventer’s Base Camp Hospital, Quarantine
~*~*~ TIME: 6:00 PM ~*~*~
“So, He’s all right?” Quatre’s face brightened as he as he heard the doctor’s report. It had been the first time the man had smiled in any way since the attack party had returned in retreat.
“Yes, he should be fine”, the doctor replied, while his eyes continued rolling over the document on his clipboard. “He got pretty cut up by shrapnel and he has a few small burns but overall he’s pretty lucky.”
The green-eyed man, with the impressively molded hair, in the corner, tilted his head up and glared at the doctor, searching for any sign of uneasiness, “Then, why wasn’t anyone allowed to see him before?”
The Doctor lifted his square head up and adjusted his glasses, “First, because we hadn’t scanned him for foreign bodies yet. Second, he started getting jumpy and erratic so we had to sedate him; he seems to have calmed down though.”
“Oh”, the circle of the blond Arab’s mouth lazily hung for a few moments as he processed, “But he’s all right now though, right?”
The medical doctor’s face remained unchanged but a hint of cheer could be detected in his voice “Yes, Mr. Winner” With that, he placed his clipboard under his arm and began to walking to another section of the large medical tent. He was stopped, however, when WuFei stomped out from behind some curtains on a warpath, wearing a light blue hospital gown.
“Where are my cloths?” He demanded, anger and impatience tainted his voice but he was trying to control it.
The doctor’s gaze met WuFei’s glaring Chinese eyes. “They’re still in decon”, he answered, “We have to make absolute sure that you pilots aren’t carrying any nano-bots. Now, have you been completely examined?”
“Yes”, WuFei weakly, resentfully, lamented.
The feminine snicker of Sally rang through the tent, “Don’t give the poor guy trouble WuFei, it’s a tough job.”
WuFei’s attention was turned to his superior as he was reminded of that morning’s battle. He had to control himself though, he was talking to a ranking officer, “Why did you give the order to retreat? I could have defeated them”
Sally’s expression turned both serious and aggravated, she was in lecture mode, “That’s the problem right there, you always think you can handle everything yourself. You need to learn when to retreat WuFei; we would have been annihilated if we stayed in that crossfire and we’re lucky enough as it is; not a single pilot was killed.”
“Sally made the correct choice for everyone, WuFei”, Quatre cut in, “Now calm down”
WuFei growled a bit while clenching his fists, “I don’t like running away”, he grumbled.
“Think of it as regrouping”, suggested Sally. “Now listen, Duo is ready to see visitors so why don’t we see him? We’re lucky he isn’t dead, so look on the bright side.”
A nearby, white curtain partially slid open and a bandaged up Duo Maxwell stumbled out from behind it, sporting the same light blue hospital gown as WuFei. “Somebody call?” he asked, sounding as jolly as someone could in his condition. His body was covered with minor scratches; there was a visible bump on the left of his forehead and some stitches were on his right cheek and his right arm was completely wrapped in a large bandage from his elbow to his wrist.
“Duo”, Quatre greeted as he hurried over to try and help his friend.
Sally’s eyes widened slightly in concern “You shouldn’t be walking right now”, she stated.
Duo backed away from Quatre slightly in an effort to prove he could stand on his own, “I’m fine, I’m fine”, he muttered. He looked at WuFei and upon noticing his stern expression smirked, “See you’re enjoying the fashion here as much as I am”
“Quiet Maxwell”, the Chinese preventer growled under his breath.
“Nice to know you’re still in a good mood, man.” Duo’s smirk grew wider upon noticing something else, “Nice ass by the way.” He winked just to add to the effect.
WuFei, turned to face Duo with narrowed, questioning eyes but then noticed the same thing; the knot in the back of his hospital gown had somehow come undone, in effect, leaving a small gap between the fabrics. His face turned an indescribable shade of red. With the reflexes of a prowling tiger and to the applause of his comrade’s chuckles WuFei’s hands darted to close the opening.
“So”, snarled a very, very aggravated and embarrassed WuFei, “how long were you going to just let me make a fool of myself?”
“It must have just happened”, Sally said defensively, “I didn’t notice it before”
The embarrassed Asian growled a bit more as he found himself to a chair and sat down, deciding that to be the best way to cover his flank.
After a few moments of chatter and pleasantries he had finally calmed down enough to think rationally. “So, what’s our next move?” he dryly asked to no particular person. “The enemy has already threatened to attack a city if we don’t hand over the prisoners.”
He knew what he was about to say would be argued with but Trowa had to say it, “Well then maybe we should just give him some of the people on the list.”
“Trowa”, protested Quatre, “we can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Trowa replied, “At this rate we can’t possibly hope to defeat the terrorists in a frontal assault, at least this way we’ll buy some time.”
“No”, Sally shook her head, “We don’t know what they plan to do with them.”
“Actually”, WuFei somberly joined in, “I know it’s against protocol but I’m not seeing any other options. We can’t risk an attack on a city.”
So far, the group was evenly divided but there was one person left who hadn’t given any input. All heads turned to Duo, whom soon after shrunk back and decided to take a seat himself. “Actually guys”, he hesitantly began, all the pep had been raped from his voice, “I want out.”
Surprise, struck all there faces, none of them expected to hear that.
“But, Duo..?”, Quatre trailed off.
“I’m sorry guys”, the ‘God of Death’ continued, “I just, I just can’t go getting myself killed like I used to in the old days. It just wouldn’t be fair to Hilde; I was lucky enough today.” Duo sighed, then held up his thumb and index finger– only a fraction of an inch separated from one another. “This close”, he started again, “I came this close to death. That thing came crashing through my monitor and stopped, this close to my head before turning up and trashing the vitals on my Leo.” Duo let his arm drop and stayed silent for a moment. “I mean, talk about luck, it was a miracle, I mean………” The others began to notice that Duo’s arms were beginning to shake, “I mean God or someone up there must like me or something cause………”
Quatre sighed and walked over to his brown haired chum, placing his hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. “We understand, Duo.”
“Anyway”, Duo had gathered himself again, “since I’m not going to be fighting I don’t think I should have a vote.”
Quatre began to open his mouth to say something but Sally cut him off, “It’s Lady Une’s decision anyway, but I’m sure she’d want to hear your input if you have something to say”
“I’m sorry man”, Duo replied, “I can’t really figure any of this out myself”
Location: The Beehive Facility
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~
“How many times do I have to apologize for that?” Relena cried.
“How many times do I have to explain this to you before you get it into your thick scull that this isn’t about conquest?”, sneered her cybernetic captor.
“What else could you call this?”, she yelled back at him. “You’re brandishing huge military power, you practically have the entire Earth as a hostage and you even went as far as to turn yourself into a weapon. And why? So you can turn everyone into hideous cyborgs, like you.”
Tyler glared into the president’s narrowed, angry, cerulean blue eyes, “You think I want to look like this?”
“I can’t think of any other reason why you would”, she argued.
Tyler’s glare intensified. “The original test subject that was meant to receive these implants looked a lot like me, I chose him on purpose; the Eve of the surgery I replaced the mind control function with a device which allowed me to take control of the Beehive and the security system; the next morning I rendered the guy unconscious with medication and switched places with him. It was the only way I could stop them.”
“Bullshit”, Heero cut in, “You could have just alerted the authorities.”
“Yes”, answered Tyler, “But think, that would only have solved one of the problems, put out one of the fires. Now however”, he grinned, “I should be able to solve all the world’s problems. By creating a collective consciousness for all of humanity to share this kind of thing could never happen again.”
“Would you please just listen to yourself?” snapped Relena. “What happened to you? You sound like……… you sound like………”
“………like a fucking lunatic”, Heero dryly suggested. “And what the hell is with the rat?” Heero motioned his hand to the large rodent Tyler was holding.
It was a somewhat chubby animal, it’s smooth glossy fur was mostly white except for a large brown spot around its right eye and a few more on other parts of its body. It had no tale to speak of, it had a flat nose, which it scrunched occasionally, and it was intently nibbling at a carrot, which Tyler was holding up to its mouth. “It’s not a rat”, Tyler corrected, “It’s a guinea pig; I rescued it from the genetics lab a few years back and its name is Zippo 2.”
“You sound close”, Heero commented.
The cyborg’s eyes narrowed while the implants within his irises seemed to rotate. “Oh, you’ll pay for that”, he replied. “Anyway, you people seemed lonely so I brought my friend Zippo 2 hear to keep you company.”
Relena gawked for a moment in disbelief, “You kidnap us, isolate us from society, invade the privacy of our own minds, rob us of our dignity and you think a rodent is going to make it all better.”
“No”, Tyler immediately and matter of factly admitted as some mechanical hands placed a large aquarium with a wood chip bottom on the catwalk, “but I think I’ve made you suffer enough. Talking to Zippo always calmed me down when I needed amusement.” The mecanical arms holding him brought him over to the aquarium where he gently dropped the docile creature in. For a moment, his metallic brown eyes fixed on her aqua blue glare; though it seemed as though he was looking past them, at something else. The moment was short lived, however and his eyes broke contact. “Besides, I don’t think these arrangements are that bad. I practically let you go wherever you want, you have proper restroom facilities, you get three square meals a day – good meals mind you – I provide you with blankets and pillows and I even let your bodyguard live even though he’s been plotting ways to kill me since you arrived. Even you, little miss ‘princess’, have to admit that as far as kidnappings go this is the good life; I’m practically treating you like a guest rather then my hostage.”
The two of them just continued their glare at the collection of metal and flesh that spoke.
“Now, you see, if I were a bad guy I would have killed your boy toy in a particularly gruesome manner upon arrival, right in front of you, no less; tied you to a chair at gun point; barely feed you; physically torture you and use your body for my own sexual gratification.”
She clenched her teeth and took a step back in disgust with that last remark.
“Oh come now”, Tyler shrugged nonchalantly, “as much as I resent what you did to me and as much as I doubt whether you’re cut out for your particularly nasty line of work, no one can deny that you certainly are a beautiful flower, my dear.” He noticed that his words really weren’t alleviating the situation and decided to continue with his speech, “But you see, I didn’t do that.”
“Do you want a thank you note or something?” Heero grunted
“No”, Tyler responded, “but you could at least try to realize that things could be a lot worse then they are. And it’s all right if you don’t understand now, I guess. But rest assured that in all due time you will; you’ll all understand my ideals and me. You’ll all see that I was right all along”, he added more quietly and rather spitefully. “With The Beehive, I will create a new world; a world built on unity, cooperation and logic. The very thing that all the great leaders have strived to attain for all of history is finally within our grasp; but only if one has the courage to grasp it, and do with it what must be done.”
“Destroy it?” Heero smoothly suggested.
“Of course not”, the ranting scientist snapped, “bring about the next stage in human evolution, of course. The betterment of mankind is the responsibility of all who wield such power.”
“I find that interesting”, commented a more firm and composed Relena. She brushed a wild lock of blond hair out of her eye and continued, “You said unity, cooperation and logic?”
Tyler turned, his eyes, though not wide shown with surprise to the fact that he didn’t know she was about to say something before. He realized that he had been too busy talking to monitor her thoughts closely enough and after a brief moment of self-chastising, rescanned her mind.
Relena’s words, however, came before her thoughts could be processed, “what happened to love?”
“Humph”, Tyler grunted, his eyes narrowed again; quickly trailing back to Heero for a moment before resting themselves back on the white clad girl before him. “I see you still believe in fairy tales. Love is a primitive emotion, used by nature as a way to ensure the preservation of the species; a new, more evolved humanity has no need for such impure and unpredictable attachments. Like the cells of a body multiply to preserve the whole, so to shall the members of the collective procreate in a fashion that better serves the whole.”
The female president’s shoulders rose and fell as she took a deep breath and released. “How could you possibly make a utopia if you don’t even believe in love?”
“Because love is just a bunch of organic chemicals and hormones”, Tyler argued; his eyes were no longer as narrow, but shone with a blankness, as if he didn’t even think about it. “There is nothing sacred about it”
Relena balled her hand into a fist but maintained a straight face, “It must be nice to see people like that. People are just soulless animals to you, aren’t they?”
His response was cool and calculated, “Composed of multiple cells – lacking cell walls and photosynthetic organelles – all of which specialized at different tasks, obtains energy by consuming other living organisms, reproduces sexually; yes, I’d classify humans under Kingdom Animalia. Whether or not humans have souls or not is irrelevant. Either way, true peace cannot come to pass as long as each individual person is able to act on his or her own accord. Peace and freedom share an inverse relationship and individuality is the very root of conflict; different individuals have different agendas, which conflict with one another. These conflicts soon escalate to arguments, then to fights and then to war. The answer is obvious, in order to achieve true peace we must all become one, just like you said.”
Relena batted a stray lock of golden hair out of her eyes and ran her fingers through the rest of her unmanaged tresses in frustration. “When I made that speech I was talking about uniting nations; that’s nothing at all like what you’re proposing.”
“But still applicable”, Tyler shot back; his face glowed with a half smile. “What is a nation anyway? A collection of people; people make up a nation, unite to nations, unite two peoples. I’m simply taking it to the next level.”
“What’s the point?” a blue flame seemed to burn in the blond woman’s eyes.
Tyler cocked his hairless eyebrow, his mouth formed, an unusual twisted shape.
“What’s the point of having peace”, continued Relena, “if you can’t even enjoy it?”
“Indeed”, Tyler’s voice darkened as the word slipped out of his pasty mouth. It was short lived however and he immediately straitened up again, “but I fail to see how a collective mind could possibly hinder one’s ability to enjoy peace. If anything, it should enhance it. There are still world’s to explore, comets to study, and bacteria to observer. Think of how much humanity could accomplish if we didn’t have to waste so much effort on just policing itself.”
Relena closed her eyes to think and shook her head a bit, “But what’s the point of all that? What’s the point of scientific research if…”, she trailed off as she tried to think of the right words to express her thoughts.
She didn’t need to translate her thoughts though; Tyler could read them directly and it caused an old bubble of discontent to swell within him until it finally burst, unleashing a array of napalm laced memories. “This again!?”. He let himself drop onto the platform, rocking it slightly. His tentacle weapons and mechanical hands all stretched out as if he were about the strike. He stomped over to Relena, stopping within merely a few inches of her.
She froze, unsure of what to expect. Heero tried to get between them but was held back by hard metal hands and tentacles wrapped around his limbs.
“You’re certainly an expert when it comes to that”, Tyler hissed. It took it a moment but his face finally eased a bit and he hoisted himself back in the air “No need to worry though, if that’s your only reserve. The ‘love’ of all the world will be yours, if such a thing exists. I’ll make you a deal though; if, by chance my experiments fail you’re free to go.”
The claws and hands constraining Heero released him from their grip. He thought to kick one but decided against it.
“No”, Relena stated, her face was firm and unyielding, “I won’t accept anything less then you abandoning this madness”
His eyes stayed narrow, the implants rotating again, as he looked into her cerulean stare, “That’s my final offer; I’ll take that as a yes. When the specimens arrive I’ll begin the experiments.”
“What do you plan on doing with them?” Relena demanded.
Tyler smirked, “I plan to see if the untameable are tameable.”
“Why don’t you see it?”, she responded, “Just because they’re felons doesn’t make them any less human.”
“You’re right”, he replied, “and as humans they’ll have the opportunity to earn redemption by helping to usher in a new era.”
“This is inhumane”, she insisted.
“Heh”, a deviant smile stretched across Tyler’s pale face, “The current society locked these people within concrete walls, sentenced to hardly ever see the light of day for the rest of their lives; how humane is that? But, if you feel so strongly about their humanity I could always arrange for you to spend a night in a room with one of them. I think one of the violent serial rapists would do nicely, don’t you think?”
Relena couldn’t help but be taken back by the image of being pinned down by a dirty old man with a ragged gray beard and yellow teeth as he aggressively ripped off her clothing articles flashing through her mind.
Tyler’s self-satisfied smirk continued, “I think you see my point. You’d be content enough to keep these people locked away from society under any normal circumstance. I’m just trying to help them, and all of a sudden, I’m being inhumane.”
“No”, Relena snapped, “You don’t want to help them, you want to use them as human guinea pigs to prove some radical theory of yours.”
“Maybe”, admitted the steadfast cyborg, “But at least this way they can give something back. By being my guinea pigs they’re laying the ground works for what will inevitably be true peace. Even if it is a ‘radical theory’ it’s not like the maximum-security prisons I recruited them from will miss them. Only a few years ago most of these people would be on death row, lots of people still think they should be. Face it, I couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to experiment on.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that they’re human beings”, affirmed Relena.
Tyler couldn’t help but chuckle at the president’s naivety, “Oh really now? Do you honestly think that one of these people were going to somehow change their ways?”
Relena took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second or so; after a moments thought she opened her mouth to answer. “I have to believe that there’s some good in them.”
“Indeed there is”, conceded Tyler, “but even if they were to miraculously change their ways, it’s not like they could help anyone. With their life sentences they’re nothing more then a burden to tax payers. But, of course, we’re getting substantially ahead of ourselves here; the chances of one of them turning around is moot, to say the least. However, if you really want to prove me wrong, there might be a way.”
Relena’s head perked up upon hearing that, she shook her head slightly to get a stray strand of hair out of her face and fixed her gaze on Tyler. “What?” she asked.
“I’ll lock you in a cell with one of them”; he answered with a sneer. “If you’re all right twenty-four hours later, I’ll seriously reconsider my course of action. How about it?”
A long silence followed as Relena weighed the consequences of either possible decision, silence that was only broken be the occasional sound of mechanical movement.
“Think carefully”, advised the patiently waiting cyborg, “forget neither what’s on the line, nor your odds.”
The blond woman looked at Heero’s concerned face, his mouth was partially open, his beautiful blue eyes were wide with worry and still said nothing. She then looked up at Tyler who hung above her on metal arms and tentacles, staring down at her with, what appeared to be great interests. It was hard to tell though, since his face had been near mutilated by the implants in his head; he looked fierce no matter what expression he seemed to try to convey. She then stared into the black void of vines and machinery, which surrounded the gray padded platform and catwalk which made up the majority of their ‘confinement’. Then she noticed the large aquarium full of wood shavings, and the guinea pig – Zippo 2 – within it; whom she had almost completely forgotten about. She then looked back up at Tyler and swallowed before finally choking the words out of her mouth. “I’ll do it”
Tyler’s mechanical eyes grew wider. He seemed almost confused.
“No don’t”, pleaded her loyal bodyguard as he took hold of her hand.
She shook her head in response. “No Heero, I have to”, the caramel blond politician explained, “If there’s even a chance I have to take it.”
“Relena, you can’t………”, Heero trailed off, unable to think of a way to end his thought he just repeated himself, “you can’t………”
A small cackle interrupted the two, “My, I really underestimated you Miss Darlian. You have a lot more guts then I gave you credit for.” He actually almost sounded legitimately awestruck, but he maintained a level of sarcasm about him, which made it difficult to tell. “If that’s you’re final decision, then I’ll make it so. For now though, I must be leaving you.” With that, Tyler, tossed Relena the carrot Zippo had been nibbling one earlier and his network of mechanical fines and arms carried him off into the darkness, beyond where the two caged love birds could see.
Relena walked over to the six-inch rodent and cradled it in her arms. She then seated herself on the padding of their platforms and held the carrot up to the docile creature’s mouth, coaxing it to extend its head out and resume its frantic nibbling.
Heero just watched this, still dumbfounded, but mostly sick with worry. “Relena, as your bodyguard I can’t let you do this. It’s my responsibility to………”
“That’s alright Heero, I understand”, she looked back up to meat his navy blue eyes with her cerulean, “but I’ve already made my decision. I’m well aware of the risks.” The small brown and white animal in her arm, purred in contentment while is rapidly chewed a bite of carrot with its small pink mouth. Relena turned her head down to look at it little creature and Zippo met her gaze with his glossy black eyes, squinting its nose a few times before greedily resuming its attack on the carrot. “Tyler was right about one thing though”, Relena commented.
Heero cocked his eyebrow, “Hm?”
“Feeding this little guy is kind of relaxing”
Heero let out a short gasp in frustration, “just be sure to wash your hands after playing with that filthy thing.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
His feet made a loud thump with every step as he walked down the dark hallways. Of course, due to the ocular implants in his formerly half blind eyes, he could see perfectly fine, and on multiple levels of the electro magnetic spectrum. He finally came to the room and the door slid open, behind it, a group of energy ports. Only one of them was active, but it was all he needed. He hadn’t recharged the battery packs implanted throughout his body for quite some time and the extra energy demanded by the more complicated control systems which had been later added on to the initial implants had been straining them far too much. A jolt of intense pain surged through his body for a moment but was soon suppressed by the ISS subroutines, yet another symptom of overexerting the systems integrated with his body. The original cyborg model (intended to be used as mindless shock troops) was designed to last for two decades, though in his current state, Tyler couldn’t see himself lasting for more then another nine months. It was all right though, it would take less time then that to establish the collective, and then, even if his body were lost, his mind, everything that was him, would be saved within the collective memory forever. Besides, he could always remove many of the particularly strenuous additions afterwards.
The pod he meant to climb into opened up, inviting him in.
He was vexed; he was vexed about being vexed. Why should it matter what the ‘Princess of Peace’ thinks about his plan? It shouldn’t, this would all lead to peace in the end so he’s completely justified in his actions. Just because she couldn’t see it now didn’t mean anything, she’d see the light eventually. She was always behind him, if she didn’t quit she’d probably just end up coming to the same conclusion as himself later in life anyway; there was just no way around it. In order to achieve true peace, humanity’s will has to be completely consolidated, which would never happen on its own for any length of time; it’s simple logic. It’s the foolish, naturalist beliefs of the old world which were keeping people from daring to come to this realization and keeping humanity divided as it is.
He was locked into the pod and could feel the energy transmission spokes lock into the receiver ports on his back while the capsule tilted backwards like a bed. As his mechanical components recharged, so to would his original biological body.
‘I hope I don’t dream again’, he thought as he could feel consciousness begin to slip away from him. Last time he did this he dreamed, which was unusual for him. It was more of a memory then a dream actually; it was of back when he used to tutor a young, self-indulgent Relena Darlian, back before that bitch of a president confirmed to him, time and time again, that hard work and being a nice guy wouldn’t get you more then a pat on the back and a pink slip when you were of no more use. Those spoiled rich kids, born near the top, would always take precedence; ability had nothing to do with it. But he would fix it all; he would fix all the injustice in the world, all the problems, all the pain and he would do it all by himself.
With those final thoughts, Dr. Tyler Marcus fell into an unconscious state.
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