Howard arranged for the pods with the Gundams to be launched simultaneously. Due to the nature of the Sweepers' work, the group disposed over quite the hardware and equipment, including everything necessary for a launch into space. Heero was impressed; Howard really was a most valuable contact. As the Sweepers' ship was in international waters, Howard didn't seem to be disturbed that anyone or any faction with a radar system could pick up on the pods' launch. "Before they realize what's going on, it's already too late to get into pursuit," the elder man said. "I'll deal with anything on Earth, don't worry about it. You just deal with what's up there in space."
He was talking about Barge. Heero had studied the layout of the fortress extensively, in the little time he had. His intelligence and quick thinking made it easy for him to memorize complicated floor plans, and he had drawn his own conclusions. He hadn't been the most successful secret service agent for nothing. That thought alone made him feel as if someone punched him in the stomach. And in a way, he had been punched, albeit not literally, by Zechs Merquise. 006. The man had locked him out of HQ by taking away any means of communication, and he had taken the first opportunity to declare him, Heero, dead. What had happened to Lady Une was unknown, she was presumably dead - if Zechs had taken over the entire secret service like this, Heero wouldn't judge him above murder. Sitting in the pod with little room to move and too much silence to shut out his own thoughts, he waited for the launch, mentally preparing himself for the travel through space. What had Zechs done to Une? The woman had single-handedly built the secret service, how could Zechs have disposed of her? And then... there was the issue of Relena. Why would she be at Libra? Why would she be at the Libra at all? Was she connected to Zechs, but how?
The pod started to shake violently, engines firing up. He checked his buckles for the last time, but he was secured so tightly that not even a fly could inch itself between the straps. Heero focused on a spot on the ceiling of the pod and allowed the entire launch procedure and sequence to come over him. His stomach took a few tumbles when his pod came loose from the launch platform. Closing his eyes, he tried to shut out the heavy trembling and excessive noise as the thrusters roared. It was different from a commercial space flight, but the principles were the same; Heero tried to make himself as comfortable as possible. The engines fired up once more to place the pod in a low orbit, and the communication panel flashed.
Heero pressed the button to engage the communication link. "Yes?"
"It's Howard," the elder man's voice crackled to life, "how are you? Thirty minutes until you're in orbit, son. You're perfectly on course."
"I'm fine. Any news from 02?" Heero chuckled. He had been the one to suggest the use of codenames. He simply had taken his own 001 number, without the extra 0, and dubbed Duo 02. Maybe 01 was too obvious, but only a handful of people knew where it stood for... and perhaps Zechs was the only one left to know.
"02 is fine," the answer came. "No problem there. In the hours it'll take you to reach Barge, why don't you get some rest?"
"Is that all?"
"We found an interesting present," Howard said, "Quite a hidden treasure. We're about to unwrap it."
Heero perked up immediately. The Sweepers had managed to find commander Sadaul, alive and well! The 'unwrapping' certainly meant that they had found the Gundams too - and knowing Howard and his men, they would start on finishing the mobile suits immediately.
"Excellent news. I can't wait to see it!"
"Me neither," Howard said and signed off. Relieved, Heero decided to take up Howard's suggestion and closed his eyes again. No word about the pilots though - Barton, Winner or Chang - but securing the suits had always been the first priority. He woke up from a dreamless sleep when the communication link flashed and beeped.
"02?"
"Right here, 01. How are you?"
"I'm fine," Heero said, refraining from mentioning anything personal. The possibility of someone surfing the frequencies was more than feasible, and every piece of information could be used against them. And now that they were personally involved, Heero was sure that if people knew he and Duo were more than just partners, it would be used against him. It was his ultimate fear. He had rebuked relationships because of this: he never wanted to be forced to make a decision between his lover and the fate of the world in a dangerous situation. Beinig alone had saved any enemy the trouble of trying to blackmailing him, or using his loved one against him. Why, why had Duo asked him to sacrifice his life without a second thought? Did he understand Heero's fear of his lover being a liability more than he had intentionally thought? God, Duo. Don't take him away from me now I've found him. I'll come back for you no matter what, Duo. I promised.
"You're so quiet," Duo's voice was calm and curious.
"Just...reminiscing," he answered and looked outside. Duo's pod was too far away to notice, but he convinced himself he could see him, just a tiny blip away.
"Space is like a blanket," Duo said. "I always think it's cold and warm at the same time. It's distant, yet so close. You can't wrap yourself in it, but you can still revel in it."
"It's still pretty," Heero said, for lack of better words. "It's beautiful, no matter how many times I see it. The vastness, the infinity... it makes you feel small."
"Don't tell me you feel small," Duo snorted.
"It's intimidating, that much is true," Heero admitted. "But space is also there to be conquered."
"For mankind and beyond," Duo muttered and the communication line went dead. Heero jerked in his seat, thinking something had happened, but judging from the lights, Duo simply had signed off. The control panel indicated that the pod had entered higher orbit and as a habit, Heero checked his watch. He decided to use the remaining time to rest some more - who knew when the next opportunity to rest came. The temperature in the pod was extremely low and he reached for his duffle bag to retrieve a thin blanket. He wished Duo was with him and fell into a restless sleep, only to be awoken by the proximity system, beeping in a shrill tone. He had reached Barge.
What once was the pride of the most powerful military force at the time, OZ, the Organization of the Zodiac, floated around in the vastness of space. It was dark and eerily impressive; the open mouth of the immensely large cannon reminded Heero of an abyss. He knew exactly what kind of destruction the weapon was capable of, and he realized how Howard had been right, trying to keep this fortress and its devastating firepower from falling into the wrong hands.
"02? I'm going to board the vessel." Heero opened the communication link as he freed himself from the restraints.
"All right, 01. Be careful. You know what to do."
"Yeah, something that should've been done a long time ago," Heero growled and grabbed his space helmet. He turned around to feed the control panel the necessary commands to have Wing unlocked and ready. "Instead of monitoring it, they should've salvaged this thing and disabled the main weapon."
"It doesn't matter," Duo said. "We're here now."
"I'm ready. You'll stay here and take care of things, okay?"
"Yes, sir," Duo answered and the link went dead again. Heero clamped his helmet shut and made his way over to his Gundam in zero-G. His Gundam. It filled him with great pride somehow, calling this suit his own. The chest hatch was open and he entered the cockpit, engaging the control panels as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Concentrated, he watched as the air lock opened, anxiously awaiting the moment he could get the Gundam upright. It had been sitting in a kneeled position all along and Wing made a less than elegant tumble when it finally got out of the cramped pod.
The distance between the pod and Libra was quickly closed. Wing Gundam was fast and agile, and Heero had no trouble locating the cargo bay hatch. With the fortress powered down, Heero had to run a bypass to open the hatch. It was quite a challenge to make Wing's hands operate the fine electronics, but Heero succeeded and the hatch slid open. Blasting his way in wasn't an option; it would damage Barge needlessly and more than probably, set off a chain of reactions. In the worst case scenario, the fortress would plummet towards Earth, on a collision course that would prove to be disastrous.
With the hatch open, Heero entered Barge. It felt like entering a graveyard. No electricity, no life, no movement. Shivers ran down his spine. How many people had lived here, worked here, breathed here? Had it been only death and destruction? The tall Gundam walked forward into the airlock, and the hatch closed on Heero's command. He secured and stored Wing in upright position before abandoning the cockpit. As soon as he was finished powering down the Gundam, he took out a small package with his tools and a larger, plastic box. He wanted to contact Duo, waiting patiently in his pod, but they had agreed earlier to keep communication to a minimum, and to only call each other in case of real danger.
The control room was easy to locate, thanks to Hilde's stolen layouts of the fortress. Heero turned on the lights on the shoulder pads of his suit; it was the only illumination available. Everything was dark, lifeless, eerie. Barge might be a graveyard, but it was a waiting graveyard. It was anticipating the next warmongering, blood-thirsty and crazy tyrant to bring it back to life and fire up that gigantic, world-destroying cannon. Grimacing, Heero went to the cannon guidance equipment, determined to make sure no one would use Barge ever again.
He took out his electric screw driver and opened the control panels. Swiftly, he removed the electronics that was necessary to operate the cannon. Dismantling the operating system was the only thing he could do right now; the salvaging was going to be Howard's work. Without these electronics, no one would be able to operate Barge and its cannon. Heero put the chips, memory cards and everything else in the plastic box he'd brought, securing the materials for later study. A bright light suddenly spilled over the panels, startling him. This light wasn't coming from his suit! Quickly, he went to a large window pane and gasped at what he saw.
Deathscythe Hell was engaged in a two-to-one fight, a blue and a red mobile suit circling around the Gundam, the light coming from the twin-blade scythe it wielded. Mercurius and Vayeate, the mobile dolls Howard had talked about. Heero's heart pounded against his rib cage. Despite his lack of training, the semi-God of Death handled the fight very well. The twin-blade scythe swung around and sliced through the blue suit, cutting it in half. A string of weird looking, disc-shaped objects surrounded the red suit, generating some kind of protective energy shield. Heero cursed mentally. No data was available on those suits, and he hated being left in the dark. Now he had to make a difficult decision, and his quick mind worked on his options. Disabling Libra was priority, yet he didn't know if Duo could handle the red suit and its energy shield. He couldn't leave right now, not without his mission fully accomplished. He had to trust Duo to take care of himself; just to make sure, Heero opened the communication link, but only static greeted him. All of the sudden, the decision was made for him. The red suit exploded, its beam rifle useless and sliced in half, the disc-shaped objects fizzling out. He couldn't help it; Heero grinned. Of course Duo could take care of himself. He shouldn't have doubted him for a moment! He cast another look at the Gundam. Deathscythe Hell, with cloak unfolded, waited like the Grim Reaper in front of Libra; scythe glowing menacingly.
Relieved, Heero continued his work, disabling all the control panels. He closed the plastic box and straightened himself, just as green light flooded the room. Alarmed, Heero hurried to the large window pane. More mobile suits, or was this just Deathscythe Hell's twin-blade scythe? He looked out the window. A crimson-red mobile suit was dueling with Deathscythe Hell, and this time, the God of Death wasn't on the winning hand. The pilot of the unknown suit was far more experienced, wielding a whip-like chain that was attached somehow to its shield. It entangled Deathscythe Hell's scythe, and Heero could see how the super-heated chain burned through the weapon, destroying it. Heero screamed. Immediately, he turned around and hurried to the airlock. Wing had a buster rifle, powerful enough to cut through that goddamn suit! His mind was racing. Where was that goddamn airlock? He reached Wing, cursing at himself for having closed the chest hatch earlier - even though that was standard procedure -, and cursing even more at the precious seconds it took to open the cockpit.
Duo. Duo. Hang on, Duo. Heero strapped himself in while giving multiple commands, his hands flying over the panels. Libra's cargo bay hatch was slowly opening and Heero was in such a hurry that he broke the security locks on Wing's feet, forgetting to release the locks before giving the commando to walk. He didn't care. He made the Gundam all but shove the hatch open, disregarding the damage. Wing re-entered space and Heero armed himself with the buster rifle, fully prepared to engage in battle. But when he had come around Libra, there was no sight of Deathscythe Hell or the unknown mobile suit.
Blankly, Heero stared at the feed from the external cameras. Nothing. His hand slightly trembled as he activated the communication link. Deathscythe Hell had the unique ability to remain undetected when cloaked. Duo had been forced into defense mode after he'd lost his scythe, he had to be hiding somewhere.
"Tell me you've run and hide, 02, come on," Heero said loudly, while flipping through the frequencies. "Tell me you've run and hide!"
Wing's motion detectors picked up the debris from the Vayaete and Mercurius suits. A radar sweep confirmed the two inactive suits, but nothing resembling the Deathscythe Hell. The onboard computer analyzed every piece of debris, while the radar scanned for the other Gundam's presence. Heero kept flipping through the frequencies.
"You've run and hide and now you're too afraid to answer me," Heero comforted himself when a third run of communication frequencies proved to be futile. "That's okay. I promised I'll come back to you, remember? No matter what. You've ran from me before, and I came back to you. It's okay, Duo, it's okay. You can uncloak now and answer me. Answer me, Duo."
He didn't realize he was using Duo's name until his throat was hoarse from repeating it so often. And when it finally dawned him that no answer would come and Duo was gone, he threw his head back and let out an inhuman wail, piercing through space, and echoing so loudly in his head that it drowned out the sound of his continuous screaming.
"01. Come in, 01. 01, do you copy?"
Heero cracked his eyes open. "Copy," he mumbled, but he didn't move. How long had he been here, in his Gundam, static, unresponsive? The communication link… someone was calling his name. It wasn't Duo.
"Howard?"
"01, thank God! Why does it take you so long to respond? Everything all right?"
"02…" Heero said, defeated. "02…isn't here.."
"What do you mean, 02 isn't here? Something wrong with the Gundam? Snap out of it, 01!"
Heero forced himself to speak with a firm voice. He was a professional. "02 is gone. There's no sign of him. Mission accomplished."
"What about 02; where did he go to?"
"I don't know! He's gone!" His voice cracked. So much for being a professional.
"01, stay calm. What happened?"
Detached, Heero described briefly what had happened, stressing the fact that there was no debris of the other Gundam to be found.
"Damn! They're ahead of us," Howard muttered. "Both the Vayeate and the Mercurius completed, and from your description, another Gundam as well."
"I'm not sure if it was a Gundam, but its speed and its weapon were uncanny."
Howard sounded downtrodden. "All right 01, sending you coordinates. Meet me there as soon as possible."
Heero stared at the scrambled coordinates while Wing's board computer worked on the decoding. As soon as the coordinates were fed into the computer, he arched an eyebrow.
"That's not far away from here," he said out loud, confused. Howard was able to meet him in outer space? He was supposed to stay on Earth! Heero engaged the Gundam's engines and flew towards the meeting point.
The huge, triangular white ship that showed up on both his radar and the camera feed had him even more puzzled. This was where Howard wanted to meet him?
"01 requesting permission..."
"Granted, 01. Welcome aboard the Peacemillion!"
Heero went through the boarding procedures and secured Wing firmly in position, before opening the chest hatch and lowering himself down with the cable wench. Some of the Sweepers surrounded him, wanting to know how it felt like to pilot a Gundam. Heero wasn't up for answering questions and he searched out Howard on the main deck. Apparently this was a day full of surprises, bad ones and good ones. He recognized the people flocked around Howard, and the man put up his hand, all but waving at him.
"Barton, Chang, Po... Lucrezia?" Heero was shocked to see the secretary of Lady Une, and she returned the emotion; her eyes wide and face pale as if she saw a ghost. She tried to smile, but failed horribly.
"Heero! I knew it! I knew you weren't dead!"
"Lucrezia," he repeated her name, not knowing what to say. She was the last person he had ever expected to see, let alone on board of a space ship with Howard and his men. Overwhelmed, he focused on Chang Wufei, stoic and calm as ever.
"Chang, what happened? How did you get here? How did you all get here?"
"It was a nightmare." Wufei crossed his arms in front of his chest, his posture terse. "As soon as I heard of Winner's arrest, all hell broke loose. I have to thank Sally for helping me out; without her, I couldn't have made my way out of that precarious situation."
Heero could hear the gnawing undertone of anger, not aimed at Sally, but at Wufei's own wounded pride. It was hard to admit that he had needed outside help, especially when other people could hear it. However, Sally wasn't the person to rub more salt into the wound; she simply nodded.
"It's good to see you, our faithful merchant," she smiled at Heero. "You probably never thought that conductors would get you into piloting a Gundam?"
"I never thought that, indeed," Heero admitted. "I have underestimated you... estimated you all wrong."
Trowa looked like he was bored, but he was just as tense as Wufei. "The other Gundams are on board the Peacemillion, and they're worked on 24/7. The sooner they're finished, the sooner we can help out."
"Winner?" Heero asked and noticed the sullen, grieved expression on Trowa's face. It was no secret Trowa and Quatre were close friends, perhaps more than friends, and Heero certainly could understand Trowa's position. Quatre was gone, Duo was gone. But the difference was, Quatre's location was known, and he had his lawyers to defend himself. Duo... Duo was somewhere, out there, and Heero didn't know what other weapons he had brought. He refused to think of Duo being helpless and defenseless.
"Quatre's been captured by the bureaucracy," Trowa said, interrupting Heero's train of thoughts. "They hold him on ridiculous grounds, but every request, every appeal of his lawyers is being processed as slowly as possible. Everybody knows they can't touch Quatre, but they sure as hell can, and will, slow down every procedure known in the book."
"I doubt they will ever find out all his connections to us," Wufei said. "Winner is far too smart to not hide his every movement. They cannot even prove a Gundam was at his factory, let alone he is trying to start up a war."
"Still, the accusation stands." Sally shook her head. "We all know how people will react to that. It's very unfortunate, but Quatre's in the midst of a storm now, and we have to trust him and his people to get out of it unscathed."
"Yes, but how did that storm happen?" Trowa tilted his head a little, towards Heero. "The factory was a very strict, off-limits place, and not many knew its location."
"If you want to suggest that I had something to do with it…"
"You're an agent of the secret service," Trowa's voice dipped lower, "and we don't know where your allegiance lies."
"Trowa," Sally cut him off, "he just single-handedly disabled Libra, for crying out loud! I know you're upset about Quatre, but don't take it out on him!"
"Maxwell vouched for him," Wufei said, "and he has never lied to us."
"I don't care. Duo isn't here, and..."
"He's alive," Howard spoke up. "The lack of debris suggests that he didn't self-detonate. Besides, the self-detonation device in Deathscythe is faulty."
He met everybody's eyes head-on. "What? Do you think I'd let him go so easily? Not to mention that the Gundam is a work of art. So is yours, Heero -" he quickly added, "but the God of Death has a far higher purpose than to be a mere tool of self-detonation. I think that the unidentified mobile suit has taken Deathscythe -and Duo- with him."
"To where? Can we track them down?"
"All Gundams have a tracking device," Howard said, but hesitantly admitted: "If Deathscythe's hyper jammers are fully engaged, then no one can find him."
Silence fell. Howard cleared his throat. "At least the threat of Barge is out of the way. I'll... I'll have to check on some things."
"I'll help you," Sally offered and walked alongside Howard away from the large control panels. The other two Gundam pilots-to-be, Wufei and Trowa, dawdled for a moment, obviously wanting to talk to Heero, but he dismissed them.
"I want to talk to Lucrezia first," he said. "She owes me answers."
"Fine," Trowa said harshly. "Show us where your priorities lie."
"With Duo," Heero immediately shot back. "As far as I'm concerned, you come last, Barton."
Wufei put his hand on Trowa's shoulder, his fingers tightening. "Calm down, the both of you. Leave Yuy with the woman. We have to catch up on our training."
As soon as they were out of earshot, Heero turned towards Lucrezia. He had always known her as a strong, dedicated woman, but now it looked like she had shrunk and wanted to be anywhere but here, aboard the Peacemillion.
"It won't come as a surprise to you that Zechs is behind all this?"
"I figured that out myself."
"I thought so." Despite the graveness of the situation, Lucrezia smiled, albeit watery. "You're not 001 for nothing."
"01," Heero corrected her. She didn't argue the slight change of his code number.
"We were made to believe that you died during that botched transaction. No one at HQ believed it at first, because such a transaction was a walk in the park for you. But then... we saw the body. Une demanded blood and DNA tests, and they all came back positive... for your profile. We didn't hear from you, not through official or unofficial channels..."
"So you published an obituary," Heero said, bitterly.
"What else were we supposed to do?" Lucrezia answered, with the same bitterness. "The second you were gone, Zechs changed. He confined Une to her office, and nothing went by without his word or consent. He had maneuvered all his men into key positions, and he changed everything - communications, codes, computers..! And that's when…" She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, "…that's when I realized he wasn't the man I fell in love with."
That was news to Heero, but on the other hand, almost every woman at HQ had crushed on Zechs Merquise. Lucrezia wasn't an exception, but when he looked at her, it dawned to him that it hadn't been just a crush.
"He loved me too. Something has changed him, I just know it, Heero. You might not think so, but he's a man of honor. I don't know who or what has changed him, but he's no longer the Zechs like I used to know. I love him, Heero."
"What do you want me to do, Lucrezia?" He asked, almost exhausted.
"I want you to bring him back." There was no room for self-pity in her voice. "And if you don't, I'm going after him myself. You are... were his colleague, you know how the mind of a secret service agent works. You know how to find him, you know how to talk to him."
He scowled at her. Zech Merquise was the last person on Earth, or in space or the colonies, who he wanted to track down and talk to.
"It's that Duo person, isn't it?" A soft touch to her voice, opposite of the passionate, fierce tone she used earlier. "I heard a lot about him when I came on board the Peacemillion. Everyone seems to be either fond of him or hold him in high regards... and I know he means much to you, Heero." She didn't waver. "So you know how it feels, especially now, to lose the one you love most."
"Shut the fuck up!" he barked at her, not caring for the shocked look on her face as he yelled, and he immediately stormed past her, enraged. How dare she! How dare she compare her feelings for that traitor to his feelings for Duo! Zechs was all but creating another war, and now she was playing on his sentiments, on his love for Duo, to get back the love of her life? The nerve of that woman!
"Where's Howard!" he brusquely demanded from a member of the Sweepers' team, but the man didn't know. Heero left him in the hallway, picking out another Sweepers' member and asking him the same thing. Apparently nobody knew where Howard was, enraging Heero even further, and he was about to go berserk when he ran into Sally Po.
"Howard! Where is he?" he growled at her.
"In his quarters," she answered him, in her unique low voice. "Heero, get yourself together. I don't know what set you off, but you have to get yourself together. It's only to get worse."
"How more worse can it get?" He snapped, and he balled his hands into fists, desperately looking for a release. He didn't want to deck Sally. "It's my own fault. I should've cut it off the first time we kissed. Now he's only a liability."
"You don't mean that." Sally put her hands on his shoulders, firmly, and Heero didn't shake her off. "He obviously means very much to you. How could he ever be a liability? You love him. It's a beautiful thing."
"No, it's not," Heero said ruefully. "Look at what happened!"
"Who do you think you are? A robot?" She snorted, without any vehemence. "You're human, Heero, a very human human. You can't deny feelings or emotions, and why should you?"
"Because what I feared has come true! Tell me what's the beauty in all of this, Sally Po. The man I loved is gone! He might be captured by Zechs, or White Fang, or whatever- he can be used against me, used against his own will, and I can't think straight because I'm worried sick about him!"
"Do you really think this is all about you?" Sally intensified the grip of her hands on his shoulders, all but shaking him. "You're not the only one who has lost or who is afraid to lose, Heero! Wufei lost his wife in the first war. I've seen people I loved, getting killed by mobile suits. Duo lost everything he had on his colony. Quatre lost his father, Trowa his sister. You're not the only one, Heero, you jerk! For such a genius of a secret agent, you certainly can whine a lot! You're not alive, Heero Yuy, you're not alive at all! I don't even know why Duo likes you- you're dead compared to him!"
She let go of him, for a moment amazed and baffled at her own outburst. Aghast, Sally walked away from him, and he didn't have the energy to call her back. Drained, his wall crumbled around him; his steel conviction that a relationship was a liability, the fear that it would be used against him, collapsed now that he understood his fear: he'd been afraid of how it would made him alive, that it would made him feel again, and Duo had made him feel more than alive.
"Heero."
Howard still wore sunglasses, even at the Peacemillion, as he emerged from the hallway, looking somber. Ashamed, Heero had to admit that he hadn't even thought how Howard was feeling under Duo's disappearance.
"Howard, I..."
"Come to the news room, Heero, please." The man looked so gloomy that Heero's heart skipped a beat, but not in anticipation. He's going to announce that Duo has been found and that he's dead. His steps heavy and dragging, Heero followed him to the news room, a large room with big screens, displaying the image of Zechs Marquise, sound muted.
"He has just declared war on Earth," Howard said. Everyone else present, including Sally (who refused to look at Heero), Lucrezia Noin, Wufei, Trowa and a bunch of Sweepers, looked devastated.
"He can't be serious! What's he thinking?"
"He wants to eradicate Earth as hotbed of all the wars and disputes on the colonies," Howard elaborated. Zechs' declaration of war was repeated over and over again, with frantic news reporters from every nation on Earth also repeating the message.
"He's insane," Heero said out loud, ignoring the pained look on Noin's face. "What are his demands?"
"That's the 'fun' part," Howard said sarcastically. "He doesn't demand anything. No ransom, no exchange of prisoners or whatever, not even the ESUN stepping down."
Heero noticed that everyone was staring at him.
"You know the man best," Trowa said, calmer than before. "What does he really want?"
"I don't know him well enough to determine his definitive goals," Heero said. "He was my colleague and a good agent, so I'm just as surprised as you that he's allowing it to come to a full fledged war."
"He must be stopped," Noin spoke up. "No matter how much I... no matter what. He must be stopped."
Heero wanted to say something to comfort her, but words escaped him. What could he say? Could there be any words in existence that would comfort someone in a situation like this? It was bad enough that Duo had disappeared, but what if he was turning against him? Heero couldn't imagine what was going through Noin right now: betrayal, despair, doubt and distress as the one you loved went against everything he ever stood for.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Sorry for what, Heero?" Howard asked.
"Sorry I can't be of more help," he answered. "Like I said, I don't know him well enough to explain his actions. He was eager to show off, and perhaps he was jealous of my success at the secret service, but I like to think he was above petty emotions like that."
"There's so much more to him," Noin added. "He might've been envious, but he never allowed that to overtake him. This isn't about who the better agent is, or who finished more missions. This goes much deeper. He has a violent past, from what I gathered… he didn't like to talk about his younger years much. His father was killed and he lost his sister at a very young age. I know he still feels guilty about that, in the spare moments he shared some of his past... but I have no idea how that relates to his... current actions."
"Noin, do you know why Relena was at the Libra? She must've met him."
"It was a last ditch effort, a desperate action to have her talk some sense into him. She's the Queen of the World, we figured he would listen to her. But after you were supposedly dead, he changed so quickly, Heero- as if he'd been holding back and all he needed was to get you out of the way."
"I see." Heero hadn't been lying; he had always looked down on Zechs, thinking the man was skirting the edges and taking credit where it wasn't due. He regretted not getting to know his former colleague better; apparently, Zechs had secretly worked on his plans for years, and all he needed to do, was to wait for the perfect moment to get him, Heero, out of the way, to strike. "Where is he now?"
"MO-II." Howard pointed out on a holographic star map. "It's a former resource satellite and officially, ESUN property. He's got quite the guts to make it his base of attack - and a very crucial one indeed. He's gathering mobile suits to build up his army - a mobile doll army."
"Load up Wing with every bit of firepower you have. I'm going to MO-II. Did you dispatch a search party for Duo?"
"To search where, Heero?" Howard said, his voice cracking. It was so hard for the man, but Heero waltzed straight over him. There will be a time for apologies later.
"What do you mean, to search where? You helped designing and building the Gundams, and from what I gather, you had a great deal in developing the stealth techniques on Deathscythe Hell. If you know that Gundam so well, you can build something that can track it down. There must be a way we can find him!"
"Heero..." the elder man gulped.
"Find. Him." Heero turned around and stalked out of the room.
Chapter 11 | Chapter 13