Last revised: 06/27/00 ******* WARNING ******* *** ALTERNATE REALITY, semi-darkfic *** YAOI, NC-17, obscene language, mature content *** LEMON *** LIME *** LEMON *** LIME *** LEMON *** LIME *** LEMON *** This is a third snippet/teaser for "Wicked Game". With all the distractions/thefts in my life recently, I haven't been able to sit down and get much coherent writing done, but here's a little tidbit for you guys. It takes place after Treize's interrogation (by Duo) and after Heero snaps out of his 'Perfect Soldier' mode. Heero's upset with himself, to say the least, when he realizes what he's done. ^_^ The rest of "Mechanics of Control" and Kitsune's picture of "Stealth Duo" can be found on my website: http://www.geocities.com/madamhydra/GW-DARK.html ====================================================================== MECHANICS OF CONTROL: WICKED GAME & DRAGON'S FIRE A Gundam Wing ALTERNATE-REALITY fic by Madamhydra ====================================================================== Snippet/Teaser 3 for Parts 7-8 ====================================================================== Short Disclaimer: (Full Disclaimers at the end) Gundam Wing copyrighted by their respective creators and all distributors of their work. Used without permission. /.../ represents mental and/or subconscious dialogue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What a wicked game to play To make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do To let me dream of you -- "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------- [ a safehouse, location unknown ] Wufei roared up the gravel driveway and brought the car to a screeching halt outside the safehouse. As the dust settled, he sagged forward to lean his forehead against the steering wheel clutched in his white-knuckled hands. He stayed in that position for several moments, chest heaving and barely aware of the soft pings and creaks of cooling metal of the stolen car. The nearly overpowering knot of rage, hatred, and loathing -- all directed to Treize Khushrenada -- prowled and slithered around the edges of his consciousness like a hungry dragon, ready to sink its fangs into him at the slightest sign of weakness. (Control. I must stay in control. I will NOT be ruled by this... this *madness* inside me....) He felt his cheeks flush in shame as he recalled his strangely sympathetic, and yet very disturbing, conversation with Duo.... ------------------------------------------------- He paced furiously in a small clearing in the woods, his clothes singed and reeking of smoke. But even as his body moved, his mind remained in a state of near total paralysis from the conflicting desires raging in his skull. Bloodlust warred with honor, hatred wrestled with love.... Then his phone rang. And rang. And rang. Finally, he dragged himself out of his trancelike state to answer. "Took your sweet time, Wufei." The familiar nonchalance of Duo's voice sent a jolt of predatory excitement up his spine. Before he could stop himself, he snarled into the phone, "WHERE IS HE, DUO!?" Duo made no attempt to act innocent about which 'he' the Chinese pilot was talking about. "I'm not going to answer that. All you need to know is that he's alive and safe." "Damn it! Tell me where the HELL he is!" Behind him, a fallen branch started to smoulder. "No." The answer was perfectly calm and perfectly adamant. "Duo...!" he growled ominously. The Deathscythe pilot coolly responded, "Wufei, you've got to get a grip on yourself." He came dangerously close to crushing the phone with his bare hands as he took several long gasping breaths. "I... I... can't...." "Yes, you can. I know you can. You did it once before. You can do it again." Wufei whispered hoarsely, "I care about him. No, I love him. I love and respect one of our most dangerous enemies, Duo." He paused, panting heavily. "And I absolutely LOATHE him. I want to kill him. I want him to die slowly, in the most painful ways imaginable. I want that SO bad. The sound of his screams would be music in my ears." Wufei sagged against a nearby tree trunk and slowly banged the back of his head against the hard wood. "I must be insane. How else I explain the way I feel? The last thing I want to do is hurt him... and yet I do." Over the phone, Duo's voice softened. "Listen to me, Wufei. You can barely think straight because your feelings are jerking you in too many different directions at once. But if you don't know where Treize is, you can't hurt him. And short of a direct order from Heero, I'm *not* going to tell you where I've hidden him. Got it? So shove all those ugly feelings in your head into the background and ignore them as best you can. You don't have a choice. There's nothing that you can do to Treize at the moment. Deal with it." The Deathscythe pilot waited patiently as Wufei struggled to calm his racing thoughts. Finally, the Chinese pilot heaved a great sigh and said, "Thank you, Duo." There was a low chuckle over the phone. "Hey, no problem. Believe me when I tell you that I quite understand how it feels to be gripped by an irresistable compulsion," Duo drawled. That comment made Wufei recall Duo's own emotional dilemma. And since it was much easier to deal with someone else's problems than his own, he inquired, "Uh... how are YOU doing? Are you all right?" He could just picture the Deathscythe pilot casually shrugging as he answered. "I'm fine," Duo said in an unnervingly serene voice. "You're... fine," Wufei shot back in decidedly skeptical tones. "Yes, I'm feeling perfectly fine. Why do you ask?" He gritted his teeth and bit out, "I'm asking because Heero, for some unfathomable reason, decided to abduct you...." "He didn't abduct me. I wanted to go with him." Ignoring Duo's protest, Wufei continued furiously, "Then why the hell did he knock Sally Po unconscious to do it?" "Oh... that." "Yes, THAT!" Wufei shouted into the phone. Duo sighed, "You know how focused Heero can get about missions. He really needed my help and he was afraid that Sally wouldn't agree...." "Damn it! Considering everything you had just been through AND your questionable state of mind, there was no possible way you could be considered fit for carrying out a grocery trip, much less a supposedly vital and urgent mission!" The Deathscythe pilot said in rather miffed tones, "I was doing fine until YOU showed up and decided to toast everything." "Don't remind me...," Wufei growled. "Whoops. Sorry about that. But you don't need to worry about me. Honestly. Heero and I had a nice long talk about our relationship...." "A nice long talk. And that solved everything?" Wufei said, doubt dripping from every syllable. "Basically, yes. We cleared up once and for all any uncertainty about our respective positions in that relationship. And once that happened, everything else fell into place. Now I know exactly where I stand and where Heero stands." Wufei scowled. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes what the Deathscythe pilot had suffered, Duo's story would have seemed quite plausible. But given what he knew, something else had to be going on -- something much deeper and complicated than a simple heart-to-heart talk. Obviously Duo wasn't going to tell him the truth, so there was only one other person who knew exactly what was going on with the long-haired pilot. "I need to talk to Heero. In person." "C'mon man. You don't need to bug him about this. You know how uptight he gets about personal stuff, Wufei. I've already told you everything...." "I'm not saying that you're lying to me, but I want to hear Heero's side of things." When Duo hesitated, Wufei sighed and added, "Duo, please.... And besides, we have to discuss the ramifications of MY particular problem. And even if you're... cured... I want a few more details on exactly what's going on!" "I know. I know. God, what a fucking mess." "Where's Quatre and Trowa, anyway?" "Quatre's at his sister's wedding, remember? And Trowa's off on some mission of his own." After rattling off the safehouse address, Duo paused a moment, then said gently, "Do you have a message for Treize?" For an instant, the unreasoning rage and hatred tore through his mind. Wufei found his lips curling into a snarl before he managed to regain some semblance of self-control. "Tell him... tell him that I'm... sorry... for abusing his trust. Sorry for hurting him." He hesitated a long moment, then whispered over the phone, "And tell him that I... care about him." "You got it." "Thank you, Duo. For everything." ------------------------------------------------- Wufei shook off the memories. Yes, he owed Duo a great debt and honor demanded that he do his best to repay it. One way to do that was to look out for Duo's interests. Besides, concentrating on Duo's situation kept him from thinking obsessively about his own problems. During the drive to the safehouse, Wufei had become steadily more convinced that Duo was not truly capable of acting in his own best interests... especially in regard to Heero. More disturbing was his growing belief that Heero had 'done' something to Duo. He had no idea what it could be, but the memories of Heero's unwillingness to answer questions about his treatment of Duo back at the clinic several days ago did nothing to reassure the Chinese pilot. (He acted... guilty and ashamed. As if he knew he had done something wrong... but what? Damn it, I don't understand! I could swear that Heero loves Duo, but then why won't he explain what he did to Duo? And why on earth did he risk sending Duo, who was obviously both mentally and emotionally shaky, out on a dangerous mission to abduct Treize from the middle of an OZ military base?) Wufei inhaled sharply, then stalked into the safehouse. ------------------------------------------------- He found Heero sitting on the living room sofa. The Wing pilot did not react to the Shenlong pilot's entrance. Instead, Heero remained eerily still, staring at nothing in particular, with his hands resting slack and empty on his knees. "Heero," Wufei demanded sharply, but got no response. The barely controlled knot of hatred and frustration in his head made a notoriously short temper even shorter. He stalked over to the Wing pilot. Hovering over him, Wufei snapped, "Damn it, Heero! I want some answers! Why did you drag Duo off on a mission, given his condition? And what the HELL did you do to him while the two of you were alone!?" Heero's shoulders slowly began to shake, then Wufei heard the Wing pilot start laughing. It was a dark, ugly laugh. Distracted by the chaotic emotions threatening to run rampant in his own head, Wufei unfortunately missed the undertones of disgust and self-loathing in Heero's low chuckles. "Do to him? You should be asking what *didn't* I do to him." "How DARE you treat this as a joke!" Heero's head slowly swiveled in Wufei's direction. Still chuckling, he said, "Oh, it's no joke. Definitely not a joke." "I want to know exactly what you did to Duo and I want to know NOW!" Heero rose to his feet with an uncanny slow grace. He stalked forward until his face was only inches from Wufei's. "What did I do to Duo? I exploited his sexual and emotional need for me in order to control him, then I used pleasure to break him. I twisted him. I tore his mind, heart, and soul apart. And once that was done, I put the pieces back together and reprogrammed him to obey me. Just like hacking into a enemy computer." The Wing pilot's voice started to rise in volume from his initial conversational tone until he was shouting. "In short, I created a fucking perfect slave for myself! A perfectly devoted, perfectly happy, perfectly obedient SLAVE whose only purpose in life is to serve and please ME! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO KNOW!?!?" Heero uttered those last words in an near scream, his fists clenched so tightly at his sides that blood began to ooze between his fingers. A thick silence filled the room, broken only by heavy breathing and the plop of Heero's blood hitting the hardwood floor. Finally, Wufei breathed, "Why?" Blue eyes glittering, both from inwardly directed rage and gathering tears of anguish, Heero replied just as softly, "Because a perfect soldier needs a perfect weapon to use. I am the soldier and Duo is the weapon. And now he's MINE, to use or abuse as I see fit." The Shenlong pilot stared almost blindly into Heero's eyes, both teenagers apparently oblivious to the single tear that slowly began to trickle down the Wing pilot's cheek... then Wufei calmly reached up, wrapped both hands around Heero's throat, and began to throttle him. Heero made no effort to resist. "You BASTARD. You fucking, heartless bastard," Wufei said with deadly calm as he continued to do his best to choke Heero. ------------------------------------------------- The first hint came when Wufei felt the mouth of a cold gun barrel pressing against his right temple. The Chinese pilot abruptly froze. His dark eyes glanced sideways to see who was holding the other end of the gun. "Let him go," Duo said with a casual smile, the pistol rock steady. "You'd do it, wouldn't you?" the Chinese pilot said with admirable calm. He didn't attempt to dodge, but he didn't release his grip on Heero's throat, either. Still dressed in his sleeveless black turtleneck, Duo shrugged his bare shoulders and said, "I'd really hate to blow your brains out, Wufei." "But your personal feelings won't stop you from doing it to protect Heero." "Afraid so." The long strands of Duo's hair twitched back and forth for a few seconds, as if sniffing the air, before gathering into a loosely twisted ponytail down his back. Moving deliberately, Wufei opened his hands, then slowly straightened up as Duo's gun continued to rest lightly against his head. As for Heero, he sat down abruptly on the bloodstained floor, not from a lack of oxygen, but rather from sheer shock. All he could do was stare mutely at Duo, who gave the Wing pilot a decidedly worried look before turning back to Wufei. "Are you going to behave yourself now, Wufei?" The Chinese pilot gave Heero a brief, inscrutable stare, then said, "I won't do anything reckless." The Wing pilot finally managed to choke out, "How... how much did you hear, Duo?" The long-haired teenager blithely replied, "Oh, pretty much everything." The easy nonchalance of Duo's words managed to wreck Wufei's fragile calm. His eyes first widened in disbelief, then ignoring the gun pointed at his skull, he exploded, "Heero admits that he deliberately and coldbloodedly tortured you, then brainwashed you into becoming his SLAVE and that's ALL you've got to say!?" Duo pondered the question thoughtfully for a few seconds, then said with a shrug, "I guess so. What do you expect me to say?" Wufei could only gape in horror at the Deathscythe pilot, before turning to Heero and sputtering incoherently in outrage. "You... he... how... why....?" Apparently deciding that Wufei was no longer an immediate threat, Duo slid his gun back into its shoulder holster, then disappeared into the kitchen. He quickly returned with a few hand towels and crouched down beside the Wing pilot. As Duo started to wipe the blood off his hands, Heero looked up at Wufei and said dully, "That's part of his programming. You've just told Duo what I did to him. *I* just told him what I did. It doesn't make a damn bit of difference to him. He doesn't CARE." Duo gently stretched out the Wing pilot's hands to get a better look at the cuts left by his fingernails, then leaned back and gave Heero a rather annoyed look. "You bloody idiot. May I remind you that you need your hands to pilot Wing?" (end teaser) ------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== Author's Notes: ------------------------ "Mechanics of Control" is the title for the overall alternative-reality storyline, with sub-stories for each pilot. ^_^ The sub-stories are titled as follows: "Wicked Game" - Heero and Duo "Brilliant Disguise" - Trowa and Quatre "Dragon's Fire" - Wufei ------------------------------------------------- Keeper of Duo's Dark Side ~~~ Duo no Seishi Co-Keeper of Duo's Scythe & Bat Wings Co-Keeper of Little Grim Reaper Duo Keeper of Saitoh's Sex Life ~~~ Saitoh no Koibito ------------------------------------------------- madamhydra@aol.com /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/:E http://www.geocities.com/madamhydra/ ------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== The Full Disclaimer All rights and privileges to Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing are trademarks and property of Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. The characters of these works are used WITHOUT permission for the purpose of entertainment only. This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit. Original portion of the fiction included here is considered to be the sole property and copyrighted to the author. =====================================================================