Note: Trowa's POV
Erasure Part 3
I watched the road over Duo's shoulder as Quatre kept an eye on the map. I could see the tenseness in the set of his shoulders; see it in the way his hands clenched at the steering wheel. We were nearly halfway through the list Wufei had provided and had found nothing more than dead ends.
Duo was already a raw bundle of nerves, how much more of this could he take? We couldn't make it through the list before dark, would he let us rest?
Of course he would, I chided myself, but he wouldn't. He'd keep looking without us, and I for one didn't want him to search alone. I had a bad feeling about what we might find if we did happen upon Heero.
I glanced at Quatre, who was frowning at the map. He looked up and met my gaze. I lifted an eyebrow in a silent question and he shook his head. He didn't want to tell Duo about last night. I wasn't sure I wanted to either, but I didn't want to have him walk blindly into something.
Quatre had felt Heero self-destruct during the war. Two nights ago, around the time Heero would've gotten to L1, if Wufei's information was correct, Quatre had woken up screaming Heero's name.
All he could tell me though was that something bad had happened to Heero. What he couldn't be sure. We had known about Heero's flight, known that there had been some misunderstanding...
I wasn't happy about that either. I knew, better than anyone maybe, how Wufei felt about Duo. I wondered what Heero had really seen that day... wondered too if he had overheard that conversation between Wufei and I all those weeks ago... he had walked into the room right after... but he hadn't said anything....
"We're here." Duo stopped the car by a tall chain link fence.
"An abandoned scrap yard?" Quatre looked at the address and then at the fence. "Figures."
We piled out of the car. The gates were padlocked shut, but we wouldn't let a thing like that stop us. We scaled the fence and then followed the coordinates to the middle of the yard.
"Got to hand it to the doc," Duo said as we wended our way through the piles of metal. "This would be a good place to get spare parts."
"True," Quatre agreed. "We should be almost there. Do you two see anything?"
We all scanned the piles of metal. The sun was setting and it was getting difficult to see. We'd need flashlights soon. I didn't see anything that looked like a structure, but there was a weird glint of light down to the left. I went to go look.
The glint of light turned out to be a metal doorway- the light was reflecting down a long hallway behind it. I studied the door itself. It looked like someone had pried it open recently...
Should I go look first?
But it was too late. Quatre was already beside me, Duo on his heels. "Looks like you found it... and someone's been here recently."
Before I could stop him, Duo slipped past us and headed down the hallway. Quatre and I followed, and a sick feeling started up in my stomach. There was a smell in the air... a smell of oil and burned metal... and the coppery scent of blood underneath those...
The hallway opened up into a room full of sheet-draped machinery. The smell was stronger here.
We moved deeper into the room, our eyes scanning our surroundings. We didn't speak. I think we all knew Heero had been here. The question was- where was he now?
Duo saw it first. At the very end of the room, there was a machine with no sheet over the top. The source of the smell, it was humming quietly.
Duo ran for it. He had seen what I had missed- the capsule in the top of the machine- long enough to hold a body. It was a streaky red-brown color- somewhat obscuring the view of the contents. I only saw a bit of dark hair before I realized that the streaky red brown color was blood...
Oh no... we were too late...
Duo started pounding on the capsule with his fists. Quatre ran to his side, pulling him back.
"We can't get into it like that." He said as Duo struggled in his grip. "Trowa!" He snapped at me. "Get the damn thing open."
I shook myself into motion and moved to the control panels. The smell of smoke was thicker here. I tried to call up the displays, but the machine wasn't responding.
"It's fried," I told Quatre. "I don't think we can get it open this way." Duo wrenched himself free.
"Then we pry the damn thing open!" He snapped and grabbed the edge with his fingers.
"Duo, we can't do it with our bare hands!"
"Watch me!" While he and Quatre argued, I pulled the panels off the machine, looking to see if there was a way to repair the circuits. The inside was a melted mess; smoking and hot- a miracle that the whole machine hadn't just gone up in flames. I despaired of getting the capsule open this way, but then something caught my eye.
I pulled my shirt off over my head and wrapped it around my hand. I reached past the melted circuitry to a small lever. I yanked it downwards and the door to the capsule sprung open.
Duo choked back a cry and Quatre cursed. I closed my eyes for a moment, swallowing hard.
Heero lay on the once-white interior, unmoving and silent... and covered with blood.
It took me a moment to look past the fact that this was one of my friends, and to start to analyze the situation with a medic's eye. To start to assess his status...
It looked like Heero had tried to claw his way out of the machine. His hands and arms were a bloody mess... and when that hadn't worked- he'd gone for his face...
Quatre already had his phone out, calling the local Preventers for medical help, I guessed. Duo was trying to pull Heero out of the machine. I went to help him.
Without speaking, we pulled off the sensors first. I put a hand on Heero's wrist, felt the ragged pulse underneath my fingertips and felt a rush of relief.
Duo was the one who removed the headset and goggles... at least Heero hadn't managed to dislodge them... though it looked like he had tried.
He had been so still under our hands that I had thought he was unconscious- at best.
I was wrong.
The moment Duo pulled the goggles free- Heero's eyes snapped open. He looked at me, his eyes wide, the pupils so dilated I wondered if he could see us at all. His gaze moved to Duo... and he screamed.
It was a scream of sheer terror.
Both Duo and I flinched backwards at the sound. Heero began scrabbling, kicking with his feet, moving backwards, nearly falling off of the machine-- trying to get away, I realized, even as Duo reached out a hand to him, trying to soothe.
"Heero! It's me! It's Duo..."
It didn't work. Heero's scream rose another notch.
Quatre suddenly appeared next to us, his hand moving in a fast blur towards Heero's neck.
Heero's screaming stopped. His eyes closed and his body went limp. I took a deep breath, cursing myself that I hadn't done it first... but the look in his eyes... that scream...
Duo leaned over him, shaking. "It looked like he was scared of... of me..." Duo said in a small voice. "He... couldn't be... Heero couldn't be..."
Quatre put a gentle hand on Duo's head, but didn't speak. He met my eyes and nodded once.
This was very bad.
TBC...
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