Life Goes On Part 23

Leaning in so that his face nose almost touched his captive's, Doctor J smirked darkly, "I've waited a long time to repay you back for your insolence that cost me, and many of my friends, a great deal when you escaped from Dekim's lab. Do you realize the years of sacrifice that we put in to create you? And you repay us by leaving and actually believing that you have the same rights as us?"

Duo swallowed hard as he shivered almost violently. His arms wrapped around his drenched body, his teeth chattered as he whimpered, "B-but I d-do have the same r-rights. The Supreme J-Justices decided it."

Quickly pulling back, the old man growled deeply and shouted, "Had you not escaped, that would not have been an issue! You were the one that made that decision! You are the one to blame!" Doctor J paused and forced a deep breath to calm himself, Once he regained composure, he smiled in a way that bore no warmth, "And now, I get to thank you for all of the trouble that you caused. You've been brought here to die."

With a sharp gasp, Duo's violet eyes widened. "Oh, I know that you're already well on your way to Death's door," the scientist chuckled deeply. He leaned close once more and gripped the stricken neko's neck with his robotic arm as he hissed, "But I am going to make the pain that you've already endured so much worse. I'm going to prolong it for as long as I can before I finally decide it's time to cut the cord."

"You said that you were going to try and help him!" a voice cried from behind the old scientist. As J stepped back, Duo finally got a good look at the room and was surprised to find that he was actually in a finely decorated office. Sitting at the dark wooden desk sat the frightened young man that had spoken up.

Snickering, the white-haired man raised his robotic arm to the one sitting at the chair and grinned to the braided neko, "I believe that you have already had the pleasure of meeting Solo." Duo frowned deeply while he continued to shake on the floor.

Instead of the anger and disgust that Solo had expected to find in those violet eyes, he found only deep hurt and confusion over his actions... and his heart broke at the sight. The blonde young man's brown, fear-stricken eyes saddened as he lowered his capped head. "Well, my boy," Doctor J prodded while poking a metal finger against his arm. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself properly?"

With a rough swallow, Solo slowly reached up for his red cap and removed it. When his white cat ears stretched to their full height, Duo froze. Even his trembling halted as his violet eyes widened like saucers. Slowly, the other neko lifted his deep green sweater for his long tail to curl out from its confinement.

"H-how?" Duo managed weakly, amazed that he was able to manage the single word when he couldn't even think to breathe at that moment.

A loud, boisterous laugh exploded from Doctor J and he slapped the blonde neko on the shoulder roughly with his metal arm. Solo winced and lowered his head once more as his captor explained, "Oh, I've been quite busy getting back to my work for nearly two years now. Solo, here, is just one of the handful of neko's I've managed to create on my own."

It was all too much for Duo to fathom as his mind raced. Seeing his prisoner's state of shock, the old man gave a cocky, lopsided grin. "Betrayed by one of your own," he shook his head in amusement.

Solo forgot himself, and his place, for a moment and glared at the scientist heatedly, "You promised me that you would try and help him to save all of us." Before he could blink, he was knocked from his seat with a swift and violent slap to the face with the robotic hand. Reeling on the floor for a moment, the young man reached for his already swelling right cheek as he shook his head to stay conscious.

Doctor J rose over his prone accomplice with a fierce glare of his own and growled deeply, "Don't you ever speak up to me like that again. Of course I fed you that lie. How else would I have managed to get you to go along with bringing him to me after you were beginning to show signs that you were backing out of my wishes?"

There was a long pause before the old man straightened and tilted his head. "And now, to thank you for all that you've done," he began in all too cheerful of a voice, "I'll have him stay in your cell. That way, when he come back from one of his painful testing and experiments, you can hear his screams and see his torment as he begs for me to kill him."

His brown eyes widening in terror, Solo's mouth opened to shout and cry out in protest. Before he could get a word in, Doctor J turned and patched into the control panel at his desk to open the door to the four guards that had been waiting. "Get them out of here," he ordered. "I'll have things ready for the braided one in about an hour."

Unwilling to fight, Duo allowed himself to be hauled under either arm and hung limply between the two strong men carrying him. Solo moved on his own accord with his watches walking close behind, the right side of his face reddening from the blow that he received. He moved numbly as his mind reeled by the turn of events that he was responsible for.

The trip down the elevator to the dimly lit lower level to the large black cell was made in grim silence. Absently wiping at the tears that were filling his eyes, Solo bit his lip and stumbled forward as he was roughly shoved first into the prison. The two carrying Duo threw him in none too kindly and slapped the metal door closed with a deafening bang.

Falling to his knees before the wet and trembling form that remained of his friend, Solo whimpered, "Duo? I-I'm so sorry. I thought... I was afraid that..."

"No more, Solo," a faint voice, nearly unrecognizable with the pain and loss that dripped from it, muttered. Gasping softly, the white-furred neko blinked in surprise. Slowly pushing himself onto his side hug his legs to his chest, Duo raised his tear-filled eyes and whispered brokenly, "I forgive you... but please no more. Not now. I'm so tired."

The entire world had gone mad.

Everything that Duo thought that he had known was turned upside down and shattered. Emotionally drained and physically devastated by the changes happening in him, his violet eyes drifted closed as he fell into a deep but unsettling sleep laced with nightmares of what was to become of him.

*   *   *   *   *   *

"Hey, you've reached Duo. I'm sorry that I missed your call, but if you just leave me your name, number and a brief message, I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Heero frowned deeply as he closed the flip of his cell phone. His call went right to voicemail which was odd, to say the least. Especially considering the fact that there was no answer when he had called the apartment just before trying Duo's cell.

After taking his most difficult final, Heero was anxious to tell his lover how well his last exam went during his drive back home. It had taken longer than expected to finish, but he was more than pleased in knowing that he aced the test and was looking forward to celebrating a successful finish to both of their semesters.

Now, an unsettling feeling began to settle in Heero's stomach in not being able to reach Duo at either contact line. It just wasn't like him to not be difficult to get a hold of without his giving an idea to his whereabouts.

Something about the whole thing was... off.

After turning his car around the last corner before reaching the apartment a short while later, that unsettling feeling only worsened when Heero spotting the flashing lights of two squad cars beside the complex. As soon as he found an open parking spot on the side of the rode, he quickly glided in and turned off the engine.

Running up to the crowd of people that were gathered behind the yellow tape that blocked off the building's back parking lot, Heero quickly recognized some of his neighbors that were huddled together. Jill, one of his said neighbors that was closest to the tapped off lot, picked him out of the mass gathered as he neared. With a sigh of relief, she stood on her toes and waved excitedly, "Heero! There you are!"

With a little effort in making his way through the crowd, the Japanese teenager finally reached the brunette's side. Panting lightly, he gestured to the officers that were taking pictures of some deep tread marks left in the fresh snow by a vehicle that obviously pulled out in a haste and asked, "What's going on?"

"No idea," Jill frowned. "About an hour ago, a few of us heard what sounded like someone shouting back here. At first, we thought that we imagined it but then we heard an engine revving tires squealing right after that. The driver almost took out a few people on the sidewalk as he sped away. Unfortunately, no one was able to get a good enough look at the license plate."

Already scanning the people gathered around, Heero searched out for his lover when Jill shuddered, "I overheard one of the officers saying that they had found blood in the snow not far from the tracks."

His head snapping to face her with wide eyes, the Japanese teenager repeated, "Blood?"

Nodding, the young woman relied, "Not a lot, from what I heard, but enough for them to be concern enough to be investigating what happened." Jill's brown eyes widened in sudden realization that her neighbor was alone as she quickly inquired, "Isn't Duo with you? I knocked on your door just before the cops pulled up to see if the two of you were all right but there wasn't an answer."

Heero was turning on his heels just as she finished her last train of thought. "I've been looking for him," he called back while pushing his way back out of the throng of people. "Let me know if you hear anything new."

"O-okay!" Jill yelled after him with a firm nod. Biting her lip, she turned back and watched the officers examining the parking lot.

In minutes, Heero reached the apartment that he and Duo shared. As he opened the door, the motion sensor lights chimed on and followed him in his search of every room in hopes that the braided neko was merely sleeping.

Finding the rooms empty, he stepped into the kitchen and froze before the message board on the refrigerator. Relief instantly washed over Heero as he read aloud the note written in erasable marker, "Hi, love. I'm out at the Halo Café with Solo. Needed to get some air. Sorry I didn't mention it before you left. Didn't want to worry you. We'll be waiting to meet with you there. Love, Duo."

The fact that his partner had gone out in public in his condition didn't even bother Heero. All that he wanted to know was that Duo was safe. He could deal with anything as long as Duo was all right.

Snatching up his cell phone, Heero took up the phone book and looked for the café's number in the phone book with his free hand. Not wanting to take any chances in assuming that all was well, Heero dialed and waited a couple rings. Finally, a friendly voice greeted, "Halo Café. This is Adam. How can I help you?"

Nearly out of breath from his frantic search, the art student greeted, "Adam. It's Heero Yuy. I just found a note saying that Duo was going to be stopping over there for a while. Do you know if he's still there?"

He could hear the deep frown in his classmate's voice as he answered, "I'm sorry, man, but I've been here since five o'clock. Duo hasn't been in here all night. I doubt that he would be showing up now since he would know we close in ten minutes."

In hearing that, Heero felt his knees going out and slumped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. "H-he never showed?" was all that he could manage.

There was the distinct of a rough swallow on the other line before Adam responded, "No. I've been working the front counter all night. I would have noticed if he came in." Obviously sensing the tension from his friend's end and asked, "Is everything okay, man?"

Running a trembling hand through his long bangs, Heero sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "No." It took every effort of his strength and fading self control for force a smile in effort to not get word spreading too quickly of what he knew. "Everything's fine. I'm sure that he and our friend that he went out with just decided to do something else," he reassured. "But, if you do run into him, tell him to give me a call."

"Will do, pal," Adam's voice grinned. "Have a good night." With an automatic farewell of his own, Heero closed his cell phone and rose on unsteady legs.

Slowly walking back to the message board, the unruly-haired teenager reread the message that Duo had left for him. His cobalt eyes narrowing heatedly, Heero hissed, "Solo."

He knew that there was no point in following up with anyone at Wayne if they had seen the frat boy recently. And there was no time to lose in finding the answers that he already knew. Whatever had happened in the parking lot involved Duo with Solo organizing it. Why else would he have waited to lure his lover into the idea of an outing when they were separated?

Fighting to keep himself from going completely out of his mind, Heero opened his cell once more and hit one of the speed dials. "Heero?" his mother's voice greeted after a couple rings. "It's getting pretty late. Is something wrong?"

"It's Duo, Mom," Heero whimpered. "Someone has him."

*   *   *   *   *   *

Liz was not one to give up on a task easily. The assignment that Howard had given her the day before was no different. She was bound and determined to come up with the solution to his puzzle. Even if it meant working through the night to be able to present the answer to him in the morning.

The working after hours never did bother her. An empty lab always did make it easier to focus.

After hours of working to find the key, Liz's green eyes widened when she finished writing out her handwritten equation. Quickly going through the figures and factors that she had come up with, she gasped, "That's it."

With another thorough look through her work, she jumped from her stool and shouted, "That's it! I figured it out!" Spinning on her heels, she rubbed her hands together and eyes the wall of hundreds of canisters, each filled with a chemical.

Humming to herself, Liz smirked, "Now, for some extra credit and actually making the serum." She laughed, "Howard's going to be so surprised!"

TBC...

 

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