Metamorphosis Part 4
"Here's another one." the guard announced shoving Heero inside the dimly lit holding cell.
The Captain stood up pushing the pistol into his belt. With a curt snort he put everyone on notice he was clearly annoyed at having his "courting" interrupted.
"I'm giving you fair warning." the guard stated as he removed Heero's shackles. "You keep your hands to yourself with this one, he's reserved for the Commander's personal use."
*Is everyone in this fucking hellhole horny?* Zechs wondered upon hearing the guard's stern warning.
The determined soldier was not about to let the addition of another warm body interfere with his passionate plans. "No problem." he shrugged, "Besides this sweet young thing is not my type." he declared nodding his head at Heero before redirected his sight to stare lewdly at Zechs "I like mine bigger."
The second sentry blocking the opened door glanced at Zechs then at Heero appearing bored with the Senior Officer's egotistical display of his questionable alpha-male dominance.
Shouldering his rife he strongly suggested, "Maybe you should leave with us. If the Commander thinks for one minute you might mess with his property he'll have you shot on the spot."
The Captain let his hungry sight rest on his soon to be paramour's tight pants that were bulging in all the right places. "All right but just until you take the boy back to Rico" he proclaimed, lustfully ogling Zechs' crotch. "I'll see you later, lover." he promised winking at the well-endowed prisoner.
*********
As the cell door slammed shut with a hallow clang Heero eased down favoring his right side which had received the brunt of the damage during his failed escape attempt.
A totally bewildered Zechs shook his head, "What in the hell are you doing here?" Heero Yuy was the last person he had expected to see.
Heero shifted to find a comfortable position on the stone floor. A subtle smirk flickered across his lips, "Someone had to get you out and now that you mention it, you look like hell." he observed.
"Hell sure is a popular subject around here." Zechs stated remembering his earlier conversation with the excessively aroused Captain. Then he displayed a smirk of his own as he recalled his "suggestion" that the anxious Officer immediately take up residence in the Nether World's lowest regions.
Zechs forced a thin smile, "You don't look much better." He commented noticing the discomfort etched on Heero's face, "Well, maybe not as bad. What happened here?" he wondered.
Lifting Heero's hands for a closer inspection, Zechs studied their black-blue bruised knuckles. Zechs frowned as he imagined what degree of force it must have taken to cause such injuries.
Heero absentmindedly glance at his hands. With every other part of his body hurting, his swollen joint's soreness had become so intermingled with the pain that it had been forgotten.
"This." he replied with an uncharacteristic self-conscious grin, "I lost a battle with a wall." But added no further details concerning his lost temper and his subsequent swing at Trowa.
Clumsily Heero tugged on Zechs shoulder helping him to sit against the wall. The former OZ Ace winced and let out an involuntary low moan as too long stationary muscles and tendons protested the position change.
Zechs rubbed his throbbing forehead. "So you came alone to get me. You can't even take care of yourself." he muttered.
"No, Wufei, Quatre and a handful of Maganacs are here sneaking around somewhere and Trowa brought Heavyarms to liven up the party."
Hoping that a posture rearrangement would help alleviate his dull headache Zechs bowed his head and let an exhausted sigh flow over his lips. Stingy hair fell like a silver curtain around his face screening a renewed bout of sweating. Then his shoulders shook as the vision of Duo's unresponsiveness on the day of the exchange replayed for the thousandth time in his mind. "How is Duo?" he asked even though he dreaded to hear the answer.
Heero flinched as painful pangs, trigged by the unexpected question, stabbed thought his heart. "He's not well at all," he half-whispered, "and he is getting worse by the hour."
With his hope fading Heero grasped at the last straw he had to save Duo. "Trowa believes with your knowledge of OZ's brainwashing that you can help bring Duo back. I believe you are our only hope." he declared locking his worried sight on the only person who might be able to pull Duo back from his hellish void.
Suddenly Zechs shuddered as a lancing chill grabbed hold clawing through his rapidly fading endurance. Heero leaned nearer pushing aside the damp veil of hair. He didn't at all like the profuse sweating that washed Zechs' face in clammy moisture or his skin's chalky cast or the weakness in his eyes.
"Zechs." Heero called not bothering to hide his concern.
"I'm...all...right." But Zechs' shivering body and stammering speech betrayed the lie.
Heero grabbed onto Zechs' arm to help keep him upright. "Hold on the Wufei and the others will be here soon."
Epyon's master tiled his head, blinking uncooperative eyes to chase away Heero's wavy image. "How will they find us?" he wondered resting his heavy head on the wall.
"I have my Tracker Band."
Only silence. "Zechs?" Heero couldn't tell whether his fellow rebel's perception had slipped beyond understanding or if he had fallen asleep or passed out.
"Zechs!" Heero loudly repeated shaking his arm.
"I hear you. You don't have to shout."
Wing's Captain settled beside his friend catching a glimpse of his disoriented stare. Another quiver, stronger than the first, ripple down Zechs' slumping shoulders. He eyes closed again as he braced against the convulsive attack.
*OZ really screwed him good.* Heero mumbled under his breath. "Come on Wufei where in the hell are you?"
As Zechs was quickly becoming as addled as Duo, Heero's agonizing worry over his partner was reinforced with a foreboding darkness in his soul. Silently he pleaded with the fates that ruled man's destiny that he would be allowed to return with the man who was Duo's last hope.
But Zechs' waning stamina told Heero that the road home to Duo would be long and difficult. OZ's former Ace had been trained, conditioned, to withstand the rigors of operating a Gundam in combat and Heero didn't want to think of what the Manipulators had done to ruin such steadfast strength of mind and body.
Time passed slowly. Fragments of moments into moments. The passively dormant Epyon pilot didn't moved except when quivers jerked his arms and legs. More and more Zechs' actions were beginning to mimic Duo's agitated movements, his awareness copying a similar pattern of deterioration.
"Wufei where are you?" Heero repeated as stress worked overtime to deplete his own reserves.
*********
Heero wasn't certain but he must have drifted off carried into a drowsy, inanimate state by an acute dose of battle fatigue. A snap, as the cell's door-latch came undone, jolted him out of his half-sleep with a startled jump.
An older man sporting a Lieutenant's insignia on his uniform jacket stopped midway from the captive pair. Following on his heels, a young Junior Grade Ensign, probably still in training, flanked his Senior Officer.
The obviously "green" trainee couldn't have been any older than Heero. He moved with a haughty swagger befitting what he thought was his importance as a soldier in OZ's service.
"That's the one Captain Rogers wants." the J.G. stated pointing at Zechs.
Evidently the enamored Captain had decided a change in environment, no doubt, another holding cell might make Zechs more agreeable to the Officer's copulatory overtures. The privacy would also insure that the Captain could use any means necessary to force Zechs' consent. Yes, Rogers had decided that whatever it took his alluring prisoner would not spurn him again.
If Zechs had been well he would have feigned gracious acceptance of the Captain's kind invitation. Then, when they were alone, he would have promptly altered the functional performance of the reproductive organ responsible for the Officer's overactive sex drive.
But Zechs could barely sit up without a wave of vertigo bathing him in a cold sweat and the lecherous Captain knew that Zechs' frailty would make it easy to "have his way".
"Get up Rebel!" the Lieutenant order grabbing a fistful of platinum hair.
Heero pushed up from the floor then experienced his own bout of lightheadedness. "Stop! Can't you see he's hurt?" he yelled ignoring his own shaky equilibrium.
The Ensign flipped his rifle aiming the butt at the base of Zechs' skull. "No prisoner will disobey a direct order." he announced hoping his impending actions to readjust the insolent bastard's disobedient attitude would prove his commitment to duty.
"I'll show him hurt!" the Ensign hissed drawing back to deliver the incompliant Rebel's punishment.
"NO!" Heero screamed jumping between his comrade and the dropping weapon.
The enraged Ensign pivoted about smashing the rifle sharply aside Heero's jaw. The stunned prisoner didn't feel himself going down until his hands and knees hit the floor. Black dots danced over his vision. The rapidly swimming spots merged into a swirling gray mass shrouding Heero's last sight of Zechs and he barely heard Zechs calling his name before he blacked out.
"Shit! You've done it this time!" the Lieutenant exclaimed.
"Done what?"
"Knocked out the Commander's whore!"
The wide-eyed Senior Officer stare down at the semi-unconscious man's crumpled form then he became more upset when he saw blood dripping from a cut on Heero's cheek.
"You damn idiot!" he shouted whirling around to face the incompetent underling, "What are we going to do now?" he growled.
The Junior Ensign's face went pale as he, too, noticed the oozing crimson line etched on Heero's cheek. "Well...Sir...I..."he stammered wishing he was anywhere but where he was. "I know." he paused trying to pull some workable idea from the sucking whirlpool that used to be his brain.
The panic-stricken lad swallowed hard to wash down the dry lump clogging his throat. "We'll tell the Commander...ah...tell...him...that Captain Rogers did it." he reasoned staring down at the limp body lying at his feet. "Everyone knows that Rogers has a bad temper. We'll say that the prisoner refused his advances and that the Captain hit him to make him cooperate."
Eyebrows pulled together in a studying scowl, the Senior Man considered the lie wondering if his Commanding Officer would believe the explanation. If their betrayal worked, if Rico came back on Captain Rogers, well, that would be the Captain's problem. This was one time that the Lieutenant was glad he was on the lower rung of the pecking order.
Heero moved and groaned then went silent again.
"All right, that's the way we'll tell it." the Lieutenant declared, "We'll swear the boy was already in this condition when we arrived. Then we will "suggest" the Rogers probably lost his temper and beat the shit out of him."
"Yeah, that sounds logical to me." the still nervous J.G. agreed, "The guards beat prisoners all the time. If we stick together, present a united front, there won't be any trouble."
"The only thing saving your sorry ass," the livid Lieutenant announced as he stepped out into the corridor, "is that we are stuck in this together. You stupid son of a bit..." The rest of the stern swearing was cut off by the closing cell door.
*********
Gradually realizing that Heero was laying by his outstretched legs, Zechs' clouded thinking struggled to make sense of his comrade's curious location. But when he saw blood the red flow caused something in Zechs' muddled mind to snap into place.
Calling on his disciplined willpower Zechs pulled in his legs and knelt by Heero's lax form. "Heero." he called leaning down to push tousled bangs aside.
A slight twitch answered the gentle touch. Heero's eyelids fluttered, fighting to stay open. A groan rose from his throat. "What...happened?" he wondered huskily finally seeing Zechs' face hovering above him.
Zechs slid his arm under his rescuer propping up Heero's battered body against his chest. "Stay still now." he ordered softly.
Heero's hands covered his pounding head as nauseous waves crashed inside and now he was sweating as badly as Zechs. "You know we make a good team." he stated peering up through his wet bangs, "Right now neither of us is worth a damn."
Zechs forced a thin smile knowing that, unfortunately, Heero was absolutely correct.
"All right!" Zechs hissed through clenched teeth. "We've wasted enough time. Trowa, Quatre and Wufei are coming; we just have to hold on until they get here." he declared, "For Duo's sake we have to hold on." he sighed binding up his supporting embrace.
TBC...
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