Warnings for this chapter: Violence, blood, massacre (to change the way things have been going in this story ^__^;;; ), description really eww of the transformation, some 2+1, kinda, not quite hints for 3+4 except if you take some remarks from Quatre as their first lover's quarrel, it's cute ^____^ (no they're not lovers yet, but we can dream 9__9), evil scientists…(apart from G but who could depict as cruel a man with a mushroom-like head?)
Random comments: someone asked me about the pairings in Garou… It WILL end into a 1x2x1 and 3x4x3. I don't promise anything as for what happens in between ^_^

Examination

They hid the Gundams in a big, deep cave in a mountain nearby. Duo was the first on the ground. Grabbing Heero's backpack from his things, he ran to Wing. He had hesitated about making the boy ask for the backpack out loud, but even there, there was a possibility that Heero would refuse to do so and just strut around naked in the hideout. Which wasn't an option, because… well, because Duo didn't want him humiliated and mocked, even gently.

…Ok, that wasn't the true, real reason. The fact was… He liked Heero as a friend, he wanted to stay Heero's friend. He didn't want anything else. But the boy already made him drool enough about his ass when he wore spandex, Duo didn't want to know what he looked like going about his business entirely bare. Their talk in the bathroom had made him see that there wasn't any point in thinking about a change in the kind of relationship they already had; it was simply impossible. And if there wasn't any future in getting attached to Heero like that, he had better not even begin to, because he knew that if he let himself, he could get a crush on him rather easily. Which meant no thinking up nefarious schemes to get to ogle his perfect bod in compromising situations.

…Drooling about his perfect bod sometimes, when he was being unknowingly sexy, was perfectly ok, though. After all, Duo drooled on Wufei and Trowa from time to time too, when they presented an attractive picture. He was a healthy teenager, and they all WERE fairly attractive… No way he was going to drool on Quatre, though. Blonds were so not his type, especially ones who made him feel like a child molester. Not that Quatre was childlike in any way, really… He was just too cute and too damn innocent of the ways of life of the poor sometimes.

The door to Wing opened as he came nearer, but the lights were off and Heero didn't seem to be coming out anytime soon. Duo climbed on the mecha and, patting himself on the back for not trying to look into the cockpit, he left the backpack on the threshold before climbing down.

The others were politely walking out of the cave to give Heero his privacy. The braided boy ran after them, laughing just because.

They were in the living room, sitting together at the table, when Heero finally rejoined them. He was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a white tanktop instead of his customary green-top-and-spandex. Duo fleetingly regretted not having stayed in the area to catch a glimpse of him changing.

As soon as he was in front of them, the mortified young man tried to make his lips mutter something that sounded surprisingly like an apology. He was so ill at ease and so obviously didn't know what to do that Quatre stopped him with a kind smile.

"Heero… It was not your fault."

"I should have expected it…" the Japanese teen protested.

"You don't know your wolf side well enough yet to understand the reactions he can have, and…"

"You're forgiving him easily," intervened Trowa in a carefully neutral tone.

"I didn't hear you propose another hideout," Quatre shot back, frowning. "It wasn't the best as far as safehouses go, I agree, but it was the only one that was available at the time. We didn't have a choice. And nothing that serious really happened there anyway. No one amongst us was bitten or even scratched that I know about?"

Trowa frowned faintly. Being abducted by beings out of horror flicks didn't seem like ‘nothing serious’ to him.

"You were kidnapped, who knows what could have happened to you?"

"But Heero came to save me! As for the trauma I could have received, I was SLEEPING, Trowa. I nearly wasn't conscious of what was happening around me. So, no, there isn't any result I could reproach Heero for."

"I don't think they wanted to hurt him anyway," intervened Yuy in a low voice. "I mean, if they had wanted to kill him, they'd have torn his throat out on the spot. I think… I think they just wanted to increase the size of their pack."

"Why didn't they try to take you then?" asked Wufei.

The Were smirked slightly.

"I am an alpha, that's why. And one per pack is more than enough."

"An alpha?"

"A dominant male."

"Does it mean you see us as your pack then?" asked Duo, sounding hesitant.

There were so many insinuations in this question, so many possible significances… Heero hesitated before soberly nodding.

"Oh," smiled the American. "Does it mean you expect us to obey you then?" he added, grimacing. "I mean, since you consider yourself to be the alpha male and you probably could break us in two with one hand and stuff? Because I gotta warn you, I like you, man, but there's no way…"

Heero put his hand across the boy's mouth in a well-practiced move.

"No, I am not asking you to obey me. It's… an instinct, Duo. The dominated ones have the instinct of putting their fate in the hands of their chief, to just follow his orders. In return, the dominant has the instinct of protecting them and making sure they're all right, whatever be the cost. I… From now on, you will probably find me a little too…"

"Mother hen?" joked the braided boy. It was hilarious. Yuy as a mother hen. A wolf clucking, fluttering short wings around. The mental picture made him burst out laughing.

Heero pulled his braid. Vigorously.

"Hey!!" protested the pilot, wrenching his abused hair out of Heero's hand.

"It's slightly unjust as far as systems go, isn't it?" wondered Quatre. "I mean, you're feeling obligated to protect us, and us, we don't feel at all obligated to obey you…"

The brown-haired Were shrugged and looked down.

"It doesn't have anything to do with justice. It's instinct. It comes from the guts, not from the brain. And I'll have to learn to dominate this instinct anyway… with our jobs there is no way I can realistically protect you all the time… Plus you'd probably … kick my ass if I tried," he added with a timid smile.

"You're very right about that, Yuy" answered Wufei, smirking.

Heero glared. He had been joking when he had said that they would kick his ass, but Wufei and his smirk told him that it wasn't figuratively for him. He was so annoying.

"Well, so, don't hesitate to tell me if I'm too overbearing, ok?"

"No problems, buddy…" Duo said. He realized that the other boy was still standing and kicked a chair away from the table for him, and the other teen sat down gingerly. They all eyed each other, not quite knowing what to talk about.

"Hey, now that I think of it, how do you say a wolf in Jap?" asked the American totally randomly.

"… Ookami, why?" answered the boy, blinking.

"Heerookami, sounds funny," Duo grinned back. "I like."

Heero groaned and berated himself for his stupidity. He had just won another nickname to add to the list… Well, Maxwell had gifted him with worse ones. In comparison, this one was nearly acceptable.

"Ok, while we are all here, anyone have something to say? Relevant to our jobs, Duo," added the Arab, winking at the braided boy who had begun to open his mouth.

"Even you’re picking on me. Gawd. And for once I was gonna say something in relation to that…"

"Really? Something serious from you?"

"…Never said it was something serious."

Ignoring their friendly banter, Wufei tapped on the table, getting everyone's attention.

"I have a problem."

"Yes?"

"Heero, have you talked about your problem with Doctor J yet?"

Heero paled, eyes opening wide.

"I'll take that as a no…" murmured the Chinese boy.

"I forgot… I can't believe it, I forgot…" moaned the dark-haired boy, letting his head fall on his crossed arms, on the table.

"Whoops," added Duo in a subdued voice.

"Well, it's a problem that requires direct communication, and you couldn't realistically go and see him about it before, right? We didn't have the time. But after we finish the mission we’re staying in the area for, we're free to go see them. I hear they're on Earth for the moment, at one of the Resistance bases or something. It's not that far, we just have to go and see them. Right?"

Yuy looked up, surprised.

"… I still forgot…"

"You couldn't have done anything about it anyway, so don't get all self-recriminating about it. Now you can do it… there is no point in telling him that you just forgot. After all, even if you hadn't you couldn't have done things differently. So…"

"I thought that you were against lying?" asked Wufei, one eyebrow up in that distinguished way of his.

"First of all, I am not against lying when it suits a worthy purpose, I just can't do it myself and am reduced to artfully dodging the whole truth. Second, it's not a flat-out lie, it's an omission. If he doesn't ask, well… Third, J is a bastard and I'm not giving him any excuses to put Heero through retraining. "

Heero shuddered, and glanced at the boy. He had never talked about his training to any one of them, but Duo had seemed to know anyway, maybe because they had been together for so long before meeting the others. And he WAS observant, when he wanted to be, and little by little the other boys had caught the idea too. Heero's training had been… harsh.

"…point," he muttered. "But he does need to know. I cannot be at my top performances when my parameters of functioning have changed."

"Stop talking like that, Yuy, you're not your Gundam!" snorted Wufei.

Heero glared.

"HE talks about me like that. I prefer to put myself in this frame of mind when I think about what I am going to say to him."

"Point," considered diplomatically Quatre.

Suddenly, without any warning, Duo burst out laughing. They didn't even glance his way, used to his internal monologue producing such a reaction.

"Oh gods. I wanna see G's face when we tell them that Heero will be unavailable and in a mighty bad mood three days per month."

Quatre innocently asked why, before understanding. "Oh!"

"Please, please, guys, can't we make them believe Heero fell in the Drowned Girl spring?"

"What?!!"

They all knew everything there was to know about that spring, since one of Duo's favorite mangas was Ranma ½, the famous boy changing into a girl because of said spring, and he hadn't spared them from talking about it to death. He even had gotten Quatre interested, but that was another story.

Heero got up, slowly, menacing.

"You want to make him believe I am changing into a girl when coming into contact with cold water?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

Duo knew him, though, and cautiously began his retreat, still snorting and giggling while he imagined Heero as a girl. He didn't go far before the Japanese boy began to beat him on the head with a pillow he had grabbed in passing.

"We can make him believe you're blocked into girl form if you prefer!!" giggled Duo, evading another attempt and kicking Quatre's chair in the process.

Annoyed by Duo's behavior all day and the lewd comments he had made during the flight there, Wufei didn't last long before joining in the pillows war. Seconds later, they were all chasing each other around, trying to whack each other with the things. Actually Trowa hadn't wanted to join in, but Wufei accidentally touched him when Duo hid behind the green-eyed boy, and the ex-mercenary took his side in the conflict without remorse after that incident.

It took ten minutes for them to calm down. They sat back at the table, disheveled but definitely calmer and much less tense.

"Let's talk about something else, now that the scientist problem is ok."

"The other thing that needs talking about is still Heero's problem… We ran into weres once, it can happen again after all…"

The Japanese boy sighed.

The four pilots began to ask him as many questions as they could think about, especially about his instincts. Heero, feeling that he had to answer them, complied easily. They talked and talked until late in the night, sharing thoughts and ideas on a level the professors had not believed quite possible when they had ordered them to collaborate.

* * * * * * * * *

The mission they had been staying in the area for went without a hitch, thanks in a way to their improved communication. It hadn't been that hard with the five of them on it, anyway.

The scientists had for once succeeded in meeting in a laboratory of theirs on Earth. They had wondered, and asked when they didn't see any information offered, why the pilots had asked to meet them face to face, why they wouldn't settle whatever problem they had through their usual ways of communication. And they were all overly curious of knowing why Heero, usually so obedient, refused to accept a new mission without having talked to J first, and refused, even more shockingly, to tell J about it by email like he had always done.

The five Gundam pilots lined up nearly unconsciously in front of the Mad Five, as Duo called them, and exchanged uncomfortable glances under the fire of their intense stares.

"You had something to tell us…?" asked J.

Heero took a deep breath and stepped closer to the scientists.

"I have a problem."

He nervously swallowed and had to keep himself from lifting a hand to his neck. He felt oppressed, in this little laboratory enclosed in thick walls, and the only window being small and hidden by a heavy curtain.

"Report," commanded a frowning J.

Automatically, he let himself fall back into the Soldier's mode of thinking, and began to give his report, using curt and to the point sentences. He explained concisely all that had happened since that precise night, more than a month ago now, and all the little details of the extensive effects it had on him.

* * *

"A … Werewolf…?"

O shook his head with the highest incredulity. G stared, eyes wide open under his strange hair. The other was turning his moustache between his fingers in an effort to stay cool. Heero sighed imperceptibly and raised a hand in front of his face.

"Wha…?"

Thick, brown hairs were beginning to pierce his slowly darkening skin. Slowly, then faster, until it looked like those films that showed in acceleration, the growing of plants. A few seconds after the beginning of the hairs growth, the pilot's hand seemed to contract. They needed a few seconds and a few recognizable cracks to understand that the palm closing on itself wasn't a voluntary act. It was just the finger bones shortening. A creaking of tendons rolling on cartilage and bones signaled the modification of the hand's back, while the flesh seemed to become harder and thicker, the skin nearly tanned, and in the place of the internal flesh on the fingers, dark pads covered in hard skin were progressively forming. Then at last, black claws spouted out of the short fingers of the paw now ending the pilot's arm… an arm on which the fur was gaining ground.

His elbow began to crack too and Heero clenched his teeth, biting his lips. There was sweat on his upper lip when he finally succeeded in reversing the transformation and preventing it from spreading to the rest of his body.

"Lord almighty," he heard one of the scientists mutter over the too loud beating of his heart. "It isn't possible…"

"I'd like it to be," Heero lashed out before having the time to think better of it.

"Yeah," added Duo to support him and help his little rebellion to go unnoticed. "Come and run in front of him on a full moon night and you'll see to which point it's impossible. The soldiers of the last base the both of us went to kinda appreciated the surprise, methinks. He killed perhaps fifteen of them just with his damn teeth…"

"They were armed?" asked professor G, still blinking like an owl.

"Of course they were!" scoffed Duo nearly insolent. "A whole gang to jump him… didn't last long, poor idiots. Eww. The least I can say is that he's messy when he eats," he added jokingly.

"Duo, damnit…"

The exceeded hiss from his Japanese comrade made him smirk with amusement.

But as fast as Heero had turned around, seeming ready to hit the American for having suggested that he had cannibal habits, he ignored him to turn to the door of the room, the one opening on the corridor. His eyes narrowed and he imperceptibly bent forward, ready to spring. Unconsciously, the boy bared his teeth in a malevolent expression.

"Heer…"

The Japanese pilot put a hand on his comrade's mouth without even looking at him, shutting up anyone who could have wanted to question him. He began to walk to the door with light, silent steps. Put one hand on the door's handle, softly, carefully…

And swiftly pulling it open before grabbing the man who was trying to keep the balance he had lost when the door opened, to throw him on the little room's floor.

The man clothed like a technician swore and tried to get back on his feet, but the Were had caught his elbow and pressed viciously on the point that paralyzed his arm up to his shoulder blade.

"Well, well…" smirked Master O. "Listening at closed doors?"

"I was only leaning on it to redo my shoelace, is it forbidden?" exclaimed the man, offended.

Heero snarled, and before anyone could move, he had dragged the man up by his collar and had thrown him against the wall. He kicked the door closed and said in a nearly monotone voice:

"He is lying, he's been behind the door for at least ten minutes."

"I had trouble with my shoelaces, so what?" the man shouted in an insolent tone, trying to push Heero back using his superior weight and height.

"He's a spy," asserted the Japanese boy without seeming to care about the thrashing of the man he was immobilizing with one arm.

"What makes you say that Heero? That tech has been strongly recommended by trustworthy people, and…"

"I strongly recommend that you check those trustworthy people. Unless he can give a valid reason why he smells like he’s soaked in the same kind of motor oil OZ uses for its Aries mobile suits."

"But… no, I…" exclaimed the man, suddenly terrified. "You're bullshitting them, how could you smell that on me, and furthermore recognize it? They all smell alike!"

"And it's a deep smell, meaning that he has had contacts with it for a long time," added the young man without listening to him.

Suddenly, the captive elbowed Heero's face as violently as he was able to, putting all his weight on it to make the boy let him go. Heero just let his head follow the momentum to deaden the impact, then turned to face him again, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"Doctor? Can I?" asked the boy in a tone that was apparently inexpressive… but in which you could hear, when you knew him, anticipation and intense annoyance mixed in equal parts.

"You can," answered J without seeming to interest himself in what was happening. "We will have to find another tech help," he muttered distractedly in the general direction of G, who was shaking his head.

"You… Let me go you little bastard!!"

The spy tried to hit Heero again, but this time his hand didn't go far. He hadn't finished his move that his fist was caught, and squeezed, slowly, until he could feel and hear the bones break one after the other. And the boy's too blue eyes were still boring in his.

He screamed, tried to hit him again. Heero overpowered him without any problem.

Then the Wolf stopped looking and wrestled for control.

The Soldier side tried to get back on top, but Heero had to fight hard to remember J's teachings.

"I suggest you do not try to lie to me or to resist," advised the pilot in a low, purring voice. "I am not feeling patient today."

"Little asshole!!!"

Heero smirked, and his fist crashed on the man's cheek, fracturing his cheekbone. He slid his hand on the injured place, let his lengthening nails rake on the bruised skin.

"We are going to play a game, you and me… Are you listening?"

His smirk widened, his fangs began more prominent. He felt something sting on his nape, where hard hairs were beginning to come through, but he didn't give a damn. The frightened scent coming from the man was so dizzying he wanted to laugh, and never stop. Far away, he vaguely wondered if he wasn't losing control, but after some thought, he decided he could have the necessary information much faster if he let the Wolf go… and it would help him to calm down a little. Yes. He needed to calm down. He was too unnerved. It was better that he let the control go for a little while, in a place and a moment he had decided, than to see it escape him totally when it would really be annoying.

Yes. Letting the Wolf play was good.

The ease with which he justified his behavior didn't annoy him for long either.

"Are you listening?" he asked in a voice that was deep and nearly purring with pleasure, slapping the man nearly gently.

"You… what kind of freak are you? Don't kill me…" prayed the man.

"Oh, you're going to die anyway, but I can make it so it will be with or without suffering… Your choice."

The man was shaking. The boy he had taken for a simple apprentice before he showed him his mistake was talking in a tone which was becoming fuller and fuller of barely restrained violence, and of amusement… Disturbing. The guy was a total psycho!!! He turned toward the scientists who were looking from afar, toward the other, silent boys, but no one gave any sign that they were intending to do anything.

Heero didn't appreciate his victim refusing to look at him and with a throaty growl, he slapped him on the other cheek. Blood flowed from three parallel cuts.

The scientists ogled incredulously the thick, black claws now taking place of the pilot's nails.

"The game is very easy… You run, I run after you. You let yourself be caught, I kill you. Easy, isn't it?"

The man still refused to meet his eyes. Heero hit the wall just against his head, leaving a fist imprint on the concrete.

"Look at me!! "

A pitiful whine escaped from the spy's throat.

* * *

The scientists couldn't help but feel stupefied and a little frightened, and had to fight hard not to look more than slightly impressed. The intensity and brutality heard in the voice and acts of the first pilot were truly… terrifying.

They observed without talking the whole time Heero questioned the man, taking notes on everything the spy admitted to having learned, on his contacts, on the other spies who tried to or had succeeded in infiltrating.

They observed without talking when the man, injured and terrified, slid to the floor in a pool of his own urine.

They observed without talking when Heero turned away with a disgusted snarl, repulsed by his cowardice.

They observed without talking when the man lifted a hand bearing a knife to the pilot's back. More by surprise in front of the way Yuy's eyes shone, irises too big, whites nearly disappearing, and totally conscious of the movement behind him, than by a conscious refusal to warn him.

They stayed silent still when, in one disdainful move, Heero turned on the man, falling gracefully on his heels before making a turning move upward, a clawed hand slashing, opening his belly, rupturing the abdominal tissues.

When his guts spilled on the floor, his neck had already been broken by the violence with which 01 had jumped for his throat.

The pilot fell back on the floor, dragging the body with him, snarling with rage, his teeth closed tight on the man's throat, his claws plowing the corpse by reflex. A line of dark hairs was already growing larger on Heero's back, widening, covering his shoulder blades, and his bones cracked in the silence of the room. The seam at the back of his shorts was slowly giving under the push of the caudal vertebrae, and his claws grated on the tiling, digging their mark, a mark slowly filling with the man's blood.

"That's enough, Heero, he is quite dead," J finally said, breaking the deathly silence.

The Were's only answer was a low, menacing growl.

[Kidnapping] [Secession]