Notes: Poor Wufei....oh yeah, and Arith is evil incarnate. *smirk*
"Here we go, here we go,
Bullets all the way,
Now it seems that we have lost
Our high morality."
--- Death Squad Heaven
"The limitations of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it."
--- Martin Luther King
Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war, you obtain a master.
--- Demosthenes
Requiem for the Sinners Part 9
Rise All To Mass, War Be With You
"Heero."
Wufei watched as the wounded imperial guard stirred when he heard his name spoken. He turned towards the bars of his cell blearily, his eyes finally focusing.
"Wufeh..."
"It's me," he said softly, hands around the bars. Heero rolled off the bunk and stepped forward towards the light, bringing his face into sharp relief. His eye was blackened, and his nose was badly swollen.
"How are you?" Wufei asked, only afterwards realizing what a stupid question it was.
The former Wing pilot spoke strangely, as if his nose was stopped up. But those dark blue eyes glittered fiercely in his face even through the bruises and dried blood, and Wufei was glad to see that particular fire hadn't been smoldered yet. "How duh you fuckun hink I am, Wufeh? Oventa...'e broke my uckin' nose..." Heero smiled, his voice tinged with irony. "In uh 'ospital."
"I heard, Yuy. I went to speak with Quatre and Trowa."
"'Ou hink I did it, 'oo?" Heero smiled still, but his voice was bitter.
Wufei shook his head. "I don't think you did it at all, Heero."
Heero inhaled sharply to clear his nose, grimacing in extreme pain from the gesture, and spat a mess of phlegm and blood on the cement. Wufei grimaced, but didn't comment.
"Great..." Heero replied, his voice slightly clearer, all the more harsh for the sarcasm and gall in it. "You can be one of three people."
Wufei smiled a little. "The Heero I know wouldn't pity himself."
"The Heero you know wouldn't be jailed by his own men."
Heero sighed wearily, leaning his forehead against the bars. Wufei could see even in the relative dimness of the cell where Heero's bandages had soaked through. The dented medallion glinted at his bare neck.
The TV that the guards had been watching before Wufei shooed them off was turned to the news, and a breaking news sigil flashed across the screen. The camera panned across a massive sea of people. Some were carrying signs. Others were chanting and driving their fists into the air. Heavy, hard rock music was playing somewhere.
"-We bring you now to L1-3824's main Plaza, where thousands have gathered in vigil and protest over the imprisonment of Heero Yuy, war hero of L1 and the soldier who singlehandedly brought an end to the Endless Waltz...-"
"Turn it up, Wufei..."
Wufei looked back up at Heero's eyes. The ex-pilot was still and thoughtful. Wufei walked over to the TV and spun the volume.
"Free Yuy! Free Yuy! Free Heero Yuy!! Yuy The Liberator!!"
The camera swept to focus on a dais that was set up at the front of the plaza. A short, young, dark-haired woman climbed the stairs to the top of it carefully, her resolute gaze sweeping the crowd. Both of them recognized her.
It was Amara Yamagata, the vice-councillor of L1. She was the one that had pinned Heero's war medals on his chest, after the Waltz. He had kneeled at her feet like a knight, and she had kissed him on the forehead in front of thousands of people.
She was the one who had named him Liberator.
The crowd, which was close to riot, quieted when Yamagata took the dais, stepping onto a block in order to be able to reach the microphone. She was small, but the power of her presence swept through the crowds, and they turned to the sound of her voice.
"Good citizens of L1, I have an announcement to make. Your leadership has taken a vote. If our liberator, the soldier Heero Yuy, is not released by the Cinq Kingdom of the World Sphere into the hands of L1 judicial powers for a fair investigation and trial, then we too will secede from the World Nation."
A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd, a sound that was full of rage and triumph. The young vice-councillor continued, undaunted.
"The force of L2's revolution will be like that of the raging winds and driving rain. It will only increase in violence. No force, not even the World Nation, can stand in its way. The soldiers of L2 will tear apart all nets that bind them and hasten us along the road to liberation."
"Heero..." Wufei said, softly. His expression was dazed.
"Quiet, Wufei."
"We think of the peace that has disappeared, and we are almost destroyed by what has been destroyed; we do not know what will be born of these revolts, and we dread the future. Doubt and chaos are in us and with us, the colonial races, in this day and age. The candles of pacifism are going out all throughout the colonies today even as I speak, good citizens of L1, and they will not be lit again for a long time. But L1 will weather the struggle as we have braved it in the past, we will rise up and prosper."
The crowd cheered again, the sound echoing through the colony. Preventers stepped nervously forward on all sides, hoping to contain the mob. But L1 would not be contained.
"We pacifists are sorrowed by a disaster of the first magnitude... we have sustained our defeat without battle by failing to prevent the battle in the first place. But do not suppose this is the end of us. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup of oppression which will be offered to us year by year unless we will arise again and take a stand for our people and our freedom."
The two former Gundam pilots watched on as the square erupted into violence. Someone threw an empty glass bottle at the Preventers, and blood flew into the Christmas snow as it connected with someone's skull and shattered. The Preventers moved forward with their riot shields and attack dogs. Assault broke out between Preventers and civilians. Tear gas was sprayed. Fistfights exploded in the crowd. But all throughout the riot, the protest chants continued. The hard rock music was a discordant backdrop for it all.
"The occupation is a shame, no more killing in our name!"
"What do we want?!"
"YUY!"
"When do we want him!?"
"NOW!!"
Wufei turned back to Heero. The former Wing pilot looked back at him, eyes dark and shadowed in his pale, beaten face.
"Wufei, this is completely-
~*~
-fucked up beyond recognition."
"Sir?"
I cannot believe this...
"Commander?"
Who are we supposed to trust? Who are we supposed to fight for?
"Commander!"
Wufei lifted his head where he had his face buried behind his hand. "What?!" he snapped harshly. The young female private in front of him paled, hands trembling a little at her sides, but she stood her ground. He was absently impressed.
"Sir, we've lost radio contact with the Valkyrie."
Wufei was suddenly thrumming, his heard pounding in his chest. A chill ran down his spine. They were so close to L2...
He stood up. "Where is Orion?"
The girl-who he knew as Private Chandler, once he got a good look at her face-swallowed. An Earthling, and on her first trip into space, Wufei was almost sure of it. He could tell by her pale complexion, with a light sheen of sweat across her cheeks and forehead. Her eyes looked wide and dark in her face. She was spacesick, but was hiding it fairly well. He felt a swell of pride.
"He's checking the radars, sir. We can see where the Valkyrie has stopped, but we can't get in contact with the crew to ask them why."
"Fine." Wufei stood, wanting to stretch his back where he had been sitting by the kleersteel windows of the shuttle for so long, but not having the time. He felt a wave of apprehension pass over him, like freezing water.
He headed up to the bridge, where one of his other privates, Orion, stood at the helm, looking down into the globe of the radar. The young man was scowling seriously, but Wufei could read the look of panic in his eyes.
"Calm down, soldier," Wufei said briskly, and the young man looked up at him, visibly relieved at his presence.
"Sir... it looked for a minute as if there was another ship nearby, but now it's gone again. It was an unidentified ship and then it just... disappeared. I don't know what happened...maybe the radar's busted? But Valkyrie won't respond."
Wufei leaned over, inspecting the radar skeptically, then pressed the relay button.
"Valkyrie, this is the Perfidy, do you read? Valkyrie, this is Commander Chang of the Perfidy, do you read?"
There was nothing coming across the radio by flat, unforgiving static. The radio-screen was a flurry of buzzing snow.
The crew of the Perfidy stood nervously, watching him.
Wufei took a deep breath and tried again. Space had never looked or sounded so vast to him... so lifeless.
He tried again.
"Valkyrie, this is Perfidy-"
A low, laughing voice came over the comlink, although the screen remained in static. The sound made Wufei's skin crawl.
"Heeeya, Perfidy. Havin' a good trip?"
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ship. Wufei grabbed hold of the console to steady himself. The female private stumbled and fell hard, crying out as she landed wrong on her ankle, throwing her hands out to break her fall. One of the helmsmen was thrown into the wall and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Even over the rumbling aftershocks of the explosion, Wufei could hear one of the girl's wrists crack, and the private's face drained of color even further. She slumped to the hard tile floor, moaning, arm cradled to her chest like a bird's broken wing.
What in the hell!?
"Oh, sorry 'bout that, Commander... Ching, was it? Just wanted to give ya a little warning. Oh yeah... and your bird is dead in the water now. We've temporarily disabled your engines. So don't try anything stupid."
The Preventer crew of the Perfidy looked at each other silently, eyes wide and frightened. None of them had been on the force for more than six months. All of them were rookies. None of them were armed with anything more than a low-force stunner. They were out-manned and out-gunned.
And they knew it.
"Our crew is coming aboard. They're fully armed, our guns...well, your guns, I guess...are on the Perfidy. That first nip was just a warnin'. Any kind of funny business and we'll blow you out of the sky. No joke. So it's your call, Commander. You gonna cooperate, or are we gonna have to shoot you all and take what we need? Don't be stupid. You're a brave guy, but this time you're outmatched. So give up."
Wufei looked around at his recruits. All eyes were on him. The only sound in the room was the soft moaning of the private near his feet. He glance down at her. She was curled up into a ball on her side, eyes closed tightly, mouth twisted into a grimace of pain as she tried to withstand the urge to cry out.
He turned back to the comlink, his expression grim, eyes blazing furiously. But when he spoke, his voice was steady. His tone was soft, but the contempt in it was searing. "And what if we choose not to give up, you traitorous scum? What if I simply put a bullet through the dishonorable skull of the first vagabond murderer who comes through that dock?"
"Then whoever it is'll get to hell just a second before you, pally. Because we'll blow you and your crew away. It's all the same to me, one way or the other."
Wufei didn't have a hard time believing that. After seeing what had once been one of his best friends cold-bloodedly plan the murder of almost forty people, including women and children, he didn't have a hard time believing that at all.
Wufei took one last look at his wounded crew before speaking back into the comlink. His voice was cold and expressionless.
"Fine, you cowardly sack of excrement. We surrender."
"I knew you were a smart boy, Commander! I could tell just by listenin' to ya. Good choice. You just saved lives."
Wufei didn't dignify the rebel with an answer. He kneeled beside the girl who was lying at his feet, his gaze gentle. "Are you all right, Chandler?" His voice was brisk, but soft.
Her blue eyes gazed up at him, welling with tears of pain and fear. "They're going to kill us all, aren't they, Commander? Just like they did all the councillors..."
"Shh... let me help you up." He reached down and grabbed her around the good arm, lifting her to her feet. She gritted her teeth as the movement jarred her fractured wrist, blinking rapidly, sending the tears that had been standing in her eyes streaking down her cheeks. Once she was almost steady on her feet, she wiped at them gingerly with her good hand. Wufei forgave it, pretending he didn't see.
Wufei moved over to the helmsman tech that had been knocked unconscious in the attack, blood trickling from his temple. The young recruit had passed out from the blow, but his breathing was steady, and his heartbeat was strong. He laid the boy down carefully on the floor, tilting the head back so he would have an open airway.
"Be brave, men," Wufei said firmly, looking around at them. He felt the Valkyrie shudder as the enemy ship docked with them.
The portal door to the bridge raised open. "Hands over your heads, Preventers! Hold them high where I can see 'em, or to hell you go!"
The conscious crew raised their hands willingly, although Wufei could feel a terrible, pulsing rage and resentment beneath their surface, like a river storming beneath ice. He raised his own hands, acknowledging his weakness and hating it.
Wufei closed his eyes, swallowing hard as he thought of another pair of eyes. A pair that were as blue as a cloudless autumn sky.
This was cowardice. He thought he had known what true cowardice was. But he had been taught differently. Each time he had gone to the general of OZ, he had been taught, over and over again. At first, he had resented those humiliating lessons, even loathed them. Then he had become accustomed to them.
At the end, he would have died for them.
::Kill me.::
::That was a good match.::
::Unless you kill me right now, I'll come back again and again, until I kill you!::
::I look forward to that. I'll see you again, then.::
Wufei opened his eyes, blazing onyx. Bastards...
A group of men clad in black and silver uniforms stormed onto the bridge. All of them were carrying automatic weapons. Their faces were covered with ski masks.
One of the ones towards the back of the squadron laughed roughly. "Heyo, motherfuckers! Throw your weapons to the center... slowly now, kiddies, these are hair-triggers... that's good... now get those hands up!" The Preventers threw their stunners to the ground, kicking them away with their hands raised in the air.
The one in the lead caught Wufei's gaze and strode towards him purposefully, eyes as cold and gray as a dark winter night sparkling behind the heavy ski mask.
"You must be the commander, Commander." There was a derisive snort from behind the mask. "You're shorter than I thought."
Wufei bristled. But that voice, those eyes... they were familiar. His black eyes flared in recognition. "I know you..."
The man shoved him against the console, the muzzle of the rifle beneath his chin. "You don't fuckin' know me, Ching! So shut up! We were ordered not to kill you, but keep it up, Jackie Chan, and I'll make you wish I could. And reconsider my orders, as it were."
Wufei glared back at him coldly, pressing deliberately against the gun. "My name is Commander Wufei Chang. This is the crew of the Perfidy. They are respectable, decent soldiers. You will honor them as such."
The man behind the mask laughed softly.
"You got a lot of guts, Commander. Care to see them splattered across your fancy equipment here? Keep it up."
He pulled back from Wufei.
One of the other black-clad soldiers collected the stunners from the floor, putting them in a bag. The man in charge pulled his mask off, tossing it to the floor. A mop of razored white-blond hair fell in a mane that framed his scarred, angular face.
He looked at Wufei, a smirk turning his lips like a snarl. "Have a seat, general. Get comfortable. We've got a bit of a trip."
Wufei glowered back at him obstinately. "I'd rather stand."
"Suit your fuckin' self then. Sheesh."
Harper grinned at the captured Preventer commander and his crew.
"Sit tight, kiddies. We're taking a pit stop in Hell."
TBC...
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