Disclosure: I don’t own Gundam Wing or any of it’s characters.
Warnings: NC-17, 3x4, 1+2 (implied), 5+S (Implied), AU, Angst, Lime, Sap, Violence.
(‘*’ Denotes conversation through a telepathic link)
A/N: Thanks as always to Anne for beta reading this for me!
YGGDRASIL - PART TWO
Trowa stood behind Sally, his attention fixed steadily on the screen in front of him as they waited for the results of the DNA sample they had taken from the blond pilot. The computer hummed quietly as it shifted through the Preventers' extensive database. The screen went black for a moment, and then blinked to life, as ‘Match Found’ flashed across it. Sally leant forward and tapped on a few keys, a picture that vaguely resembled the other boy filled the left hand side of the screen and Trowa moved slightly closer for a better look.
The blond child in the picture looked much younger than the young man who lay sleeping in the next room, but there was no mistaking that it was the same person. The boy in front of the camera was smiling, his hand resting on the shoulder of a young woman who sat in front of him. He was very young, no older then seven or eight Trowa supposed, and yet his eyes looked aged beyond his years.
As Trowa gazed into the blond’s blue-green eyes, the feeling of familiarity stirred again, only this time it was much stronger. There was something… he could almost remember it, but it lay irritatingly just beyond his grasp. He knew that he knew the boy in the photo…but from where?
Trowa sighed in frustration; there was very little chance of him actually being able to remember. He could remember so little of his childhood, from before he had met Catherine.
The circus girl had found him, abandoned and alone, just outside a town the troupe had been performing in. Trowa couldn’t remember where he had been, or how he had got there. In fact, the only thing the boy had been able to recall was that his name was Trowa, and that he was nine years old.
Catherine had taken the boy in, and contacted the authorities to see if anyone had reported him missing. However, as in so many other cases during times of conflict, no one had reported a lost child fitting Trowa’s description. Therefore, assuming that his parents were probably dead, Catherine had adopted Trowa, and they had become a family.
Sometimes though, when he was on the verge of sleep, Trowa could remember flashes of the past. Images of strange men, or cold grey walls, but they were never very clear, and always left him feeling cold and afraid. Catherine thought that Trowa must have experienced something very traumatic in the past. She was convinced that he had seen his parents' death, and that, devastated by their loss, he had subconsciously blocked those memories out, and everything before them.
However Trowa wasn’t convinced. The flashbacks he did have just didn’t seem to fit with Catherine‘s theory. He had once visited a hypnotist while the troupe toured Earth, and woken sharply from his induced sleep to find the hypnotist pale and shaking. Apparently when she had guided him back beyond when Catherine had found him he had begun screaming with pain. She thought that there was some kind of barrier in place, something that prevented Trowa from finding his memories, and that the barrier was neither natural, nor of Trowa’s own creation.
After leaving the woman, Trowa was more confused than ever. Who could have done this to him, and why? Not wanting to cause her any more grief, he hadn’t told Catherine what he had found out. However he had become obsessed, determined to find out what had been done to him. Without any memories to go on Trowa had begun to research how it would be possible to forcefully block someone’s memories, but his searching had come to nothing. Faced with the facts that he was probably never going to find out, the brunet had put it behind him. The need for closure was still there though, persistent and unforgiving.
"It can’t be him!" Sally’s voice pulled Trowa from his reverie.
"It can’t be who?" he replied.
Sally said nothing, her expression one of confusion and concern, and she pointed to the written information that had appeared next to the blond’s photograph.
"Quatre Raberba Winner," Trowa read out.
Quatre. That name… Again Trowa had the feeling that he should remember it. Frustrated, he pushed the feelings away and tried to focus on the situation on hand. "Why can’t it be him?" Trowa asked the doctor.
"It can’t be him, because Quatre Winner is dead," Sally said softly as she continued to scan the information in front of her. "He was killed about nine years ago, in a shuttle accident along with three of his sisters. I don’t suppose you’d remember, you would have been too young."
Seeing the pained look that flashed across the brunet’s face, she hissed and placed a hand on his forearm. "I’m sorry, Trowa, I didn’t think. Of course you don’t remember, please forgive me."
"It’s fine," Trowa replied indifferently. "So who is he?" he asked, indicating the blond’s picture.
"Quatre Winner was the heir to the Winner Corporation. I don’t understand how he can still be alive. And yet, if he is…it would certainly explain a few things," Sally said.
Trowa frowned at her. "Explain what?"
"That strange energy he uses, it would make a little more sense," she replied.
"The Winner family tried to keep it very quiet, but it was well known within scientific circles that Quatre was an empath. On top of that he was also able to manipulate telekinetic energy to a degree never seen before. Are you familiar with the Yggdrasil project?" Sally continued.
Trowa stiffened at the name. Yggdrasil. Yet again he felt as if the name should mean something to him. But just as quickly as the feeling surfaced, it was gone. "No, I haven’t heard of it. What is it?" he asked.
If Sally had noticed his reaction to the name, she didn‘t say anything. "That doesn’t surprise me," she said. "The government kept it very quiet as to what the Yggdrasil project was about. It posed an enormous security threat to the Earth Sphere, so when it was shut down, all of the scientists working on the project were detained in top security military prisons."
"The Human Rights Commission shut Yggdrasil down when it was revealed that the project was conducting experiments on humans. Later though, further investigation showed that the project was specifically interested in empaths, rather than just any human test subjects."
"They had discovered a way to enhance a person’s empathic powers, or more specifically the dormant telekinetic powers all empaths possess. Using physical conduits, they were trying to create living, breathing weapons, they codenamed PROPHETS."
"If the project had been a success, the Earth Sphere would have inevitably fallen. There would have been no way of knowing these PROPHETS from any other human being. They could have infiltrated the very heart of the sphere government and destroyed it from within."
"Unfortunately for those funding the project, not to mention the test subjects, the cybernetic implants needed to channel the energy had devastating side effects. The pressure on the brain was too great, driving the subject insane, and eventually killing them," Sally said.
The brunet’s eyes narrowed as he assimilated the information. Mind Control. Trowa’s heart leaped as the realisation of what Sally was telling him, sunk in.
"Quatre though, well… He was altogether different." Sally continued, dragging Trowa back to the present.
"What do you mean?" the brunet asked.
"Quatre had the ability to channel this energy without the implants. No one has ever been able to explain why. It was first publicly discovered when his father was attacked at a colony summit. A terrorist tried to shoot him as he stepped from a car. Quatre threw up a protection barrier, much like the one he used on me earlier. It deflected the bullet and saved his father’s life."
"The Winner’s spokesman later tried to dismiss it as a new kind of technology, but needless to say Quatre had caught the eye of the researchers on the Yggdrasil project. The scientists hassled the family continually to allow Quatre to be tested, but obviously they refused to hand him over."
She paused and her expression took on an air of intense disapproval as she continued. "However, you can’t help getting the feeling that Quatre’s father acted more out of fear of public opinion, than from any real love for his son. The head of the Winner family is an ambitious and merciless man. He and his son disagreed about many things, despite Quatre’s young age, and their relationship was strained at best, particularly during the last few months leading up to Quatre’s apparent death.’
"About a year after the project was shut down, Quatre’s shuttle exploded during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. It was publicised that he and three of his sisters were killed in the accident. Their bodies were never recovered."
"So the project was completely shut down?" Trowa asked.
Sally shrugged. "Well… It was rumoured that one of the scientists working on the Yggdrasil project escaped capture. It’s thought that he might joined the White Fang so that he could continue his research. Although, as far as I’m aware, we haven’t actually been able to confirm anything. I don’t, in reality, know much about the case though. Noin and Une aren’t very forthcoming with information."
"Maybe you should go and tell them about this," Trowa said. "If this really is Quatre Winner, they should probably know about it."
Sally nodded in agreement. "Yes, you’re right. Will you be okay here?" she asked.
"Yes, I’ll be fine." Trowa replied.
One Sally had left, Trowa moved back into the room where the blond slept and walked quietly to sit on the chair beside the bed. Gently stroking a stray hair from the boy’s face he sighed. "Quatre…" he breathed quietly to himself. Laying his head back against the wall, Trowa let his mind wander as he processed the information he had just learnt. Was the boy lying on the bed next to him really the dead heir to the Winner Corporation? And more importantly, why did he seem so familiar…
TBC…
