Heero watches me while I dress myself. I don’t mind being watched- it’s like his presence is comforting, somehow reassuring. My leg hurts when I put on the tight black jeans. I’m still going, despite Sally’s objections. This is my mission. I don’t know if I’ll ever be as strong in this leg as before; I could run like hell and even faster. Sally says I’m very lucky to stand at all. She still wonders that I didn’t break my hip and leg in a bazillion pieces.
“This is going to be dangerous,” he says, snapping me out of my reverie.
“You’re accustomed to dangerous situations. You’re a bodyguard.”
“Was,” he corrects me, slightly amused. “And don’t you think being a bodyguard for Relena Darlian was a dangerous situation?”
“Well, maybe carrying her handbag was dangerous,” I quip and he laughs. It’s a short but genuine laugh, and I like it. He stops abruptly and an awkward silence falls. I strap a pair of perfectly balanced hunting knives on my body. Those things almost cost me my body and my soul, but in the end it was all worth it. I feel safe with the razor sharp weapons, a reassuring weight on my arms.
“Don’t you have a gun?”
I look up from my work- hiding more knives on my body.
“What?”
“Don’t you have a gun,” he repeats, eyeing me oddly.
“Too much noise, too much weight, unreliable and unstable,” I give him my standard answer. I have never worked very well with guns. The ammunition is often expensive and hard to get, even on the black market. You can’t re-use the bullets or the shells; at least you can throw a knife again after retrieval. Its major advantage to me is that knives hardly make a sound.
“J trained me with guns,” he says, his voice a strangely mixture of amazement and contemplation. “I wondered for so long why he would teach me those strange things. But he had that Gundam pilot thing in his mind all along.”
“Planning ahead,” I mumble I close the buckles on my boots.
“Did you know which one he would have built for you?” I ask him.
“Huh?”
“Did J ever tell you which one he was building for you?”
If things were different I would have built the Deathscythe for you, Duo of Maxwell Church.
“He did not talk much about it but he referred sometimes to it as the Wing Gundam. I checked the designs you retrieved; it’s the one with the buster rifle.”
“It would’ve suited you.” As Death would have suited me.
“How do you mean?” He sits on the bed, eyes focused on me, and I can hear the genuine interest in his voice. A partner. The one who listens to me and watches my back. I grin.
He awaits my answer. “How do you mean?”
“I don’t know, really,” I put on my jacket and zip it up. “It radiates strength. Perseverance. Power.”
He dresses himself in dark green and brown clothing, and accepts two knives from me. We finish dressing in complete silence. I help him to hide the knives on his body, and he adjusts the white collar of my shirt under my black sweater. It’s before ten o’clock, and the electricity hasn’t been cut yet. The harsh light that shines into the room doesn’t make it any cozier.
He picks up the bag with his laptop in it, courtesy of Wufei. They had both bowed to each other expressing thanks, and accepting thanks. Heero still has to prove himself in Wufei’s eyes, but I know they won’t kill each other, judging from the mutual appraising looks in their eyes.
“We have to go.”
He stands in the middle of the room.
“Is it always going like this?”
I am baffled by his words, and I stop in my tracks. “Huh?”
He reaches out with his hand and I take it. He pulls me close.
“I am here too, you know.”
He kisses me on my brow. He really cares about me. It’s like his love is growing for me by the minute, while I... while I stomp around, trampling my emotions to fight my one-sided war. There are so much more sides to this war, there are so much more sides to my emotions than I ever could think of. This is what I am afraid of. I won’t be leaving Heero behind, because he is coming with me- but if he dies... then I am left behind. I don’t want this. I don’t want Shinigami to take him away from me. I don’t want me to take him away from me.
“I am afraid too,” he whispers in my ear.
“Yeah.” I cannot get more words out of my mouth.
“We will get there,” he says and I know he is not referring to the location of the Tallgeese.
“Think of me, Duo. We fight together.”
“I know.”
A minute of silence. I feel his hand under my chin and he tilts my head.
“A kiss before our return.”
“A kiss before our return.”
We kiss. We touch. I cannot help wondering about why this feels so natural, so safe. We part.
“Time to go.”
Upon arriving at the large hallway of the university, I sport the look on my face that tells everybody not to piss me off; I don’t need Heero glaring while standing next to me- we both are dead serious, as are Wufei and Trowa.
I’m completely dressed in black, Heero in the dark green and brown colors he seems to have adopted, despite his former love of the color blue. Wufei has left his traditional white gown at home and is, like me, clad in black from head to toe. His katana is sheathed in a black holster, following the moves of its master. Trowa’s also ready, wearing the same dark green colors as Heero. He carries the bag with explosives.
“Good luck, men,” Quatre says reverently. Chang Meiran clings to her husband until the last second- the soft look in his eyes disappears immediately when he leaves the building, completely focused on the mission at hand. I don’t miss the look in Catherine’s eyes when she waves at Trowa. To make matters worse, she has her newborn baby in her arms. I tear my eyes away from them and lead out, out into the darkness.
“Let’s go!”
Hilde has done a good job by contacting the same driver. He’s waiting for us a mile from the Underground, and we jog the distance. The man knows not to ask any questions- he gets paid with whatever Trowa has put in the little velvet pouch. From the sound if it, jewels are changing hands. Explosions don’t come cheap. Nor transport.
We arrive at an abandoned mobile suit factory. It was built by the first colonial constructors for future production of Leos. Needless to say, after the first uprisings of this colony, it became the primary target of the rebels; of rebel groups more violent than ours. It’s been re-opened a few times to boost the economy, but it never worked out, and finally, it was shut down. Nowadays, garbage is collected here for further treatment and sorting.
“A fitting stinking place for a stinking suit,” Wufei sneers when we climb out of the truck. The driver takes off, and leaves us in the pitch dark on a complex full of barracks and shacks. Heero glares at Wufei, but before he can say something I open my mouth.
“We have a job to do.” My standard translation for: ‘Everybody shut the fuck up and concentrate’.
Trowa carries the copy of the layout and structure of the buildings and the terrain. We memorized it in one hour; it’s a pretty simple complex. We sneak across the terrain using the buildings as cover. I hear Heero cursing.
“What is it?” I don’t want any noise during a mission.
“You’re too fast. I can’t catch up with you.”
I just start to think it was a bad idea bringing Heero along, when Wufei admits: “Weaving in and out of shadows is not a gift everybody possesses, Maxwell. You’re not alone on this mission, remember.”
I refrain from an answer and make the “Let’s go!” sign. We proceed to the – stereotypical - last barrack on the terrain. Gotta love the predictable, bureaucratic Alliance guys. Before entering, we set up some of the explosions first. We work in utter silence, using the construction lights of the building. We need to hurry, it’s almost ten o’ clock. We set up a ‘ring of fire’, as I’ve come to call it. The charge is high enough to blow up the barrack, but not the suit inside. It also serves as a back-up plan- if the unexpected happens, and the Alliance shows up for some reason. They all know it- the suit goes down, and us with it if necessary. We return to the door the same moment the electricity is cut.
I pick the lock. It’s old and rusted, and is hardly challenging. When it comes apart, I catch it quickly and pocket the remains. Even though rusted, metal is metal and it might come handy one day. Living on the streets teaches you a lot of things; using the most unthinkable things is one of them. The door opens. I hear the slow unsheathing of Wufei’s katana. The blade catches a glimpse of the moon and reflects a weak ray of light in the dark gap. Two red lights flicker on and off.
“Fuck!” My words.
“An electronic lock.” Heero’s matter-of-fact conclusion. He reaches backward to unzip the bag of his laptop.
“Hey, I can do that,” I whisper, feeling the need to defend my skills to him. Heero looks at me with a smirk on his face, and continues to unpack his laptop.
“You cannot open it with that,” he points at my lock pick. I fumble in my jacket and hand him the card.
“Inside friends?”
“Howard,” I confirm. I jack the card through the slot. I am rewarded with a loud “beep!” and the flashing of one of the red lights.
“Fuck!”
His smirk doesn’t escape my notice.
“Sonnuvabi..”
“Ssh,” he motions me to be quiet. “I know these locks. If you slide your card three times through the slot, and it’s wrong three times, the computer automatically alerts the mainframe. It’s a silent alarm.”
“The mainframe alerts the authorities and they’re bound to respond quickly to a possible breach of security in the old mobile suit factory.” Trowa is quick to conclude.
“Why doesn’t it work?” Wufei wants to know.
“The locks are changed, or this card is outdated. The codes could also have been changed in between time- after all, this card was thirteen years old?”
Wufei nods. “Howard had it with him all that time.”
“Figures.”
I grumble, and watch Heero hook up his laptop at the electronic panel of the door. I help him straighten the cable. After he’s plugged in, he starts clicking the laptop keys with a speed that amazes me.
“What are you doing,” I whisper, “working with your laptop like that... is that hacking?”
“I am trying to bypass the code by looking in the mainframe for an authorized code. J trained me in this and it was the only thing I really liked. I have many talents,” he looks up, his eyes full of mirth. He is amusing himself. Not a second later he murmurs something like: “Just like you” but it could have been “Not like you” or whatever. A ‘bzzzt’- sound opens the door. Great, we’re buzzed in.
He extracts the cable, unhooks the laptop, and stuffs it in its protective bag in seconds. I know I’ll have a long talk with Heero about this kind of training someday.
The barrack is pitch dark. We simultaneously unwrap our lights; a battery charged lighting rod, smaller and lighter than a flashlight. The light is surprisingly strong for such a small thing - an invention of professor G. I heave a sigh.
We’ve had an extensive briefing, and we know what to do. Our microphone and transmission sets have been double-checked; we’re all connected to each other. Without a sound, we part. Wufei and Trowa go to the left, Heero and me to the right. It looks to me like a storage barrack. Crates are stacked meters high, and boxes are scattered all over the floor. I have to remember this place; maybe there’s good stuff here. I can always return later. Crates, barrels and boxes are strewn everywhere. Heero kneels near a crate and taps on it lightly.
“I think it’s hollow.”
“Nothin’ in it?”
He shakes his head and tries other crates. The barrels open easily; they’re filled with shredded paper. Others contain stacks of magazines, and I find a box full of old military shirts. Definitely worth another visit, we can use the clothing anytime. We follow the outlines of the barrack and come up empty. It’s full of boxes, barrels, and crates filled with shredded paper.
“Where is the mobile suit?” I ask, irritated. “It’s not a thing you put in your back-pack.”
We shine our lights, meticulously searching the environment. There is nothing to see here except for all the boxes.
“Do you think they moved it? It’s not here anymore?”
“Trowa, did you find something?” I tap on my mouthpiece.
“Negative. A whole bunch of crap.”
“Looks like the city’s archives or something,” I hear Wufei mutter. “Here lies a whole forest worth of shredded paper.”
“It’s not here. The suit must have been transported to another location.”
“Negative. Something is not right.” The crackling of the transmission set alters Trowa’s voice. “From the outside, the barrack looks at least a hundred meters long. This is not even fifty meters.”
“False,” Heero interrupts.
“What?”
“False. Fake walls. The suit must be hidden behind a fake wall. Tap on it. There must be a door somewhere.”
We start working on both sides, checking the wall and tapping on it. It definitely doesn’t sound like a wall should sound; we’re on the right track.
“I found it!” Wufei reports. We hastily cross the distance to join him. Sweat trickles off my brow; my leg hurts more than I expected. Not now.
Trowa points with his light on a keyhole, hidden without much effort, behind two crates. There is an ‘emergency exit’ sign taped on it, accompanied by a poorly drawn skull and crossed bones. We snort simultaneously.
“The only barrack not covered in garbage and they think it’s not obvious... not at all.”
Heero snickers, and takes over my light to shine at me when I bend to work. I pick the lock within seconds, and push the door aside. It slides into its rail without a sound.
“Oiled,” Trowa suggests. “The paint also looks new.”
“Get on with it, people,” I cannot keep my voice from snarling. There is no time to evaluate; we have a mission to do.
A metal grate stairs leads us down, down into the bowels of the barrack. I really hate metal stairs. Fortunately, everybody wears shoes with soft soles; we hardly make a noise. There is no end to the stairs, and just as I want to say something about it, my foot hits solid ground. I stumble and I would’ve fallen if it weren’t for Heero. I would have smacked my face right on the concrete floor.
“Amateur,” Wufei snorts when he passes me. Heero pulls me to my feet.
“Are you all right?”
“Just dandy,” I answer. I ignore my leg. My braid clings, disgustingly sticky against my back. We check our transmission equipment, and Trowa, together with Wufei, goes ahead of us, trailing along the wall.
“We must be under ground,” Trowa ventures. “I’ll try the light.”
He flips a switch and one after another lights are flickering on, blinking as if they’re awakening from a long sleep. It takes us some time to get used to the rapidly increasing light, and we check for windows. The barrack is sealed off of any natural light. All shadows and darkness are cast away; bright light takes its place, and reveals to us what has been stored here for more than thirteen years.
“God almighty,” is the only thing I think of blurting out. The Tallgeese is towering above us; even in a kneeling position the suit reaches the ceiling of this room. Despite years of sole confinement in this place it shines and sparkles, the white color is almost blinding me. The size of the weapon it’s holding in its right hand is enough to make me shiver. Heero stands next to me. Even he’s short of breath.
“How is it possible that men can come up with... this?”
“Destroy it,” I hiss. “It has to be destroyed!”
“Someone is taking good care of it.” Trowa calmly walks to a row of lined-up desks, buried under computer panels and equipment. He rummages through the stack of paper on the first desk.
“It looks like it’s been recently polished and waxed.” Wufei stands close to one of its feet; completely dwarfed. He touches it, hesitantly. “As if it could rise and walk out of here any minute.”
“Here are some of the lay-outs.” Trowa’s voice sounds far, far away.
“It’s just like Professor G said,” I quietly whisper, uncaring if someone hears it or not.
Heero boots up a computer and starts checking the software on it.
“Let’s see if I can download some of this. This is data on a second prototype...”
“Trowa, the bag.”
He turns to me and covers the distance with a few steps. He hands me the bag of explosives. I haven’t asked him yet what he paid for them. I don’t care. Even if he had to sell his soul or mine, this... this monstrosity has to go.
“It has been repaired,” Wufei says. I look at him, surprised. My thoughts have narrowed to the suit, and the suit only.
“What?”
“It has been repaired,” he repeats. “The suit crash landed, right? According to Howard, the alloy had started to melt. Look here-“ he points at the surface of the feet, but I don’t move a muscle. “Nothing is damaged. It has been carefully repaired. Like I said, just like it could rise and walk out of here any minute.”
I unzip the bag and start distributing. The charges are familiar; they’re the same bombs I used on the first mission of Gundam data retrieval. It’s an infrared control panel; after we have placed the explosions, I only have to key in the trigger, and it goes off like a domino effect.
“We’re lucky this one is not from Gundanium... yet,” Wufei sounds disturbed.
“Let’s make haste.”
Trowa joins us in placing the explosives after he has packed another bag with as much data and paper files he could find. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has packed another laptop too. Heero is on the computer, apparently he’s forgotten about us. He’s downloading every single bit of information on the Tallgeese and placing a virus in return. No one will ever lay his hands on Gundam designs or plans again.
Trowa balances on the head of the Tallgeese, setting charge after charge of explosives as if he’s baking pastries. Well, he is very agile after all. His sister taught him from her own experiences with the circus. Wufei’s busy planting the charges on the feet, while I work on the body. I set the explosives; my fingers seem to work on their own. We have enough explosions to blast a breach in the colony hull if we want to. It must be enough to blow this thing to smithereens.
“Fuck!”
My earpiece explodes.
“What the hell? Heero!”
“Get away from there! I tripped a silent alarm! Hurry, get out, get out!”
He really sounds panicked. Trowa and Wufei utter both a colorful string of curses.
“How long?”
“The signal goes in multiple directions,” I hear his ragged breath and some clicking of keys in the background. “I can’t trace it this fast. I... I think it’s going to the nearest Alliance detachment!”
“Stay calm!” Wufei barks in the microphone.
“I’m coming down.” Trowa sounds like he’s amusing himself, but I hear the strain in his voice.
“Be careful.” I look at the control panel in my hand. It’s literally the key to the explosions; without the command they won’t go off. I clench it so tight I hear the case crack.
“Kill the lights!”
Wufei sprints to the switches.
“Trowa, are you down?”
“Kill the lights!” He repeats my command. He must be close to the ground.
“Ready?” Wufei hollers. He reaches forward to flip the switch. The door on top of the metal staircase opens, and Alliance soldiers pour in at the same moment, firing straight away. Wufei falls on the floor, grabbing his upper arm.
“Wufei!”
“Stay where you are, Duo!” Trowa reaches Heero and yanks him at the shoulder, away from the suit. The first soldier to approach Wufei is dead before he knows it. A knife protrudes from his throat and he falls, losing his weapon on the stairs. The second soldier also receives a knife- Trowa’s handiwork. I stand next to the mobile suit with the control panel in my numb fingers. If I set off the fire ring, all exits will be blocked. We won’t be getting out of here alive. I hear Wufei groaning in pain through the microphone. I hear the soldiers coming to a halt on the stairs, lining themselves up. They shoulder their guns. They’re a goddamn execution squad.
“Duo! Get away from there!”
They all know. They all know the risks. I’m so sorry, Catherine. Your brother won’t be coming back. I’m so sorry, Quatre. Your best friend won’t be coming back. I’m so sorry, Chang Meiran. Your proud husband won’t be coming back. I’m so sorry, Relena. Your Heero won’t be coming back. I’m so sorry, Heero. You thought you found freedom and I killed you. I kill everybody who is close.
My fingers press the button.
The explosions rock the building. Distraction has always been a forte of our rebel group; we excel in diversions and distractions. The blast rips away the upper barrack as if it was shredded paper, taking a part of the ceiling of the mobile suit room with it. The staircase creaks and groans, but survives. The Alliance soldiers tumble down; guns clatter on the concrete floor.
Wufei grabs one, forces himself to stand up, and starts firing. They die with gurgling sounds and in pain, victims of the war, victims of their war.
“Duo! Get away!”
Trowa pulls at Heero, bag secured in his arms and plaster and debris all over him. I carry the control panel for the bombs. I take a step back.
“Go! Go!”
“What the fuck! Duo!!”
Trowa pulls harder. The Alliance soldiers are dead, and through the wailing sounds of alarms I can hear more coming. They have a chance of escaping in the mess if they go now. Heero looks behind.
“Duo! Get out of here!”
His voice screeches. My earpiece whistles from the sound. I can hear him without the microphone on. Wufei has advanced to the stairs; he’s left the gun on the floor. His katana is unsheathed; that’s his way of fighting. Neither he nor Trowa asks questions, or doubts my actions. I take a deep breath.
They’re on the stairs. Out of reach. Heero turns around.
“What are you still doing there? Duo!”
It’s an infrared control. I don’t need to be this close. But I have to stay close. Halfway the stairs. More sirens.
“It got to be destroyed!” I yell. “This thing can’t survive!”
“It’s not worth it!” He screams. “No Gundam is worth losing you!”
“Death will always win!” My clenched fist hit another button. Now you burn, bitch! Burn like the church!
In the last second I see Trowa hurling Heero towards the door. They’ve made it up the stairs. The backlash of the explosion sends me crashing into the paper-thin wall and I break through it, landing in some kind of office. The scorch of the fire washes over my back and it hurts like hell. I’m screaming. I’ll burn to death too. Death will always win! I... I promised Heero!
“God, no!” I howl as shards of the Gundam pierce through the walls, and the explosion with its fire and debris rips away my clothing, my flesh, my blood, my everything, even my soul is shred to pieces in this pandemonium of sheer violence. Blood for blood. Burn... as it burned before. The blackness is there all too soon.
“Duo?”
Far away. Sounds.. of.. people? Voices... where?
“Dear God, please let him be all right...”
“Please Allah...”
“Duo... can you hear me, Duo? You’re here... you’re safe... you’re with us, Duo of Maxwell Church. My Shinigami. Come back to me, Duo. You’re with us. You’re with me.”
“Careful, Heero.”
“Wha...” My voice croaks. This is worse than when I fell after G’s suicide. Even worse than after the raid, with the slab of concrete on my hip. Voices... they become clearer.
Someone squeezes my fingers.
“Careful, careful...”
“I know, Sally. Duo, please say something? Can you talk to me?”
“Duwa...” I can’t speak. I want to open my eyes, move my fingers, speak, but everything seems heavy and clogged with lead. All my limbs are a dead weight.
“Let him rest, Heero. He’s shown signs of consciousness... it’s going to be all right.”
I try to remember. Heero is with me. I want some sleep. My head is killing me.
When I wake up again, it’s because someone is holding a cup of water to my lips. Fresh water. I forget my carefulness and try to haul it all in.
“Slowly. Yes, that’s good.”
The liquid burns in my throat and I immediately start to cough and heave. I spit out the precious liquid and feel it dripping over my chin. God, I must look like a loon.
A piece of cloth dabs the spatters away.
“Easy, easy.”
“I...” My first coherent word is lost in a howling wail. The pain! My back, my arms, my legs...!
“Careful.” It’s Sally, but I hardly recognize her. If I had a gun, I would have killed myself.
“Don’t panic, Duo. You’re with us. You’re with us.”
I’m tucked into bed. I want to sleep. I want to die. Heero’s voice sounds like he has a mouthful of potatoes, drifting away from me.
“This is worse than we thought...”
Was it Heero cleaning up my chin? Holding the cup of water? And where is Shinigami? Isn’t he supposed to... have taken him away from me?
I wave in and out of consciousness. I’ve lost all sense of time. I open my eyes to see a gray ceiling. I open my ears to hear hushed and concerned voices, some I recognize and some I don’t. I open my fingers to clench them again. I open my heart but nobody’s in there.
“Duo?”
“Hm?”
“Duo, open your eyes. It’s me, Sally. Open your eyes, please?”
I open them. They don’t weigh as much as before. She smiles at me.
“Good. How do you feel?”
“Crap.” My voice croaks. I try to move my fingers, my hands, and my legs.
“Easy, Duo, don’t overexert yourself. You’re facing a long road to recovery.” Sally says. I moan.
“What happened?”
“You tell me.” She sounds sad. “I cannot think of a reason why you should still be alive, even though it was a narrow escape.” Her blond braids slip from her shoulders and dangle in front of me.
“Don’t you do that ever again. Trowa told me you were standing way too close to the suit. You are so damn lucky, Duo. I am getting tired of saying that you’ve got the Maxwell’s Demon luck again. You should have been killed.”
“The explosion went mainly through the roof.” It’s Heero. “The suit keeled sideways, otherwise you would have been crushed by it.”
“Tell me, Heero,” I say. I want to stretch out my hand; I want him to touch me. He stands besides my bed like a statue, his face expressionless, just like when he was a prisoner.
“Those Alliance soldiers were from a special squad that was holding target practice nearby. When the silent alarm went off, they were the first to be warned. I grossly underestimated the security system. I thought I had it disabled with the first electronic lock, but there was another trap built in the computer mainframe. When I started the download of the data on the Tallgeese, I tripped the alarm.”
“We didn’t know.”
“What?”
“We didn’t know. About the squad.”
“We should have monitored the building. We would have noticed if...”
“I rushed. I wanted it destroyed. It’s my fault.” I cough. He doesn’t even support me. It irritates me, and only after my obvious movements he helps me sit up and puts some pillows behind my back.
“Wufei?” I ask.
“Took a full hit in his upper arm. It penetrated the bone. It was painful surgery, but Sally succeeded in removing the bullet.”
I want to thank her, but to my dismay she has left the room. Heero still stands close to me, but there is a distance the size of a colony between us.
“And me?” I hardly dare to ask.
“I could kill you,” he answers sadly, “if you hadn’t already done it to yourself. Duo, why...?”
“I... I couldn’t let this suit... live. I couldn’t let it exist and serve as a blueprint for those Gundams. They have no right to exist, no right to terrify us... no right to become the next move in the war. Catherine’s kid... our next generation has to be born in freedom.”
“And everybody will remember Duo Maxwell,” he says with the same sad voice, “as the great leader of the Maxwell’s Demon gang, a freedom fighter and a great friend. He will be loved and remembered by all, but he would leave me behind.”
He turns around and leaves the room. I have enough time on my hands to mull over his words.
He doesn’t visit me for days to come. I meet him for the first time since our first mission together in the conference room. Sally pronounces me strong enough to walk around... that is, sitting in a makeshift wheelchair. She wheels me herself to the room and upon entering, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei cheer and approach me. I look at Wufei’s arm in a cast and he assures me he’ll be all right. Quatre hugs me, without saying a word, and he hugs me so hard I think my back’s going to break. Trowa simply kneels besides me to face me and I whisper to him: “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He pats my hand and rises.
“You’re just in time for an update on the news, Duo,” Quatre says and points to the erratic screen. I steal a glance from Heero. He looks pale and withdrawn. Next to him sits Relena, dressed in simple gray, her wheat blond hair pulled back in a single ponytail.
“The assault on the former mobile suit factory is the most recent attack from the rebel groups currently terrorizing L2” The reporter looks accordingly disdainful. “The government is considering counter-measures to these so-called gangs who don’t seem to realize they are only destabilizing our society. Tensions are high after the death of Vice Foreign Minister Darlian and this new outbreak of violence against the government is considered...”
I motion Trowa to cut the connection. He eyes me oddly, but stands up, reaches for the cable and unplugs it. Quatre looks up; he was intensely studying the news. Wufei slides off the table, white cast painfully visible against his blue and red embroidered shirt.
“Looks like we’re back where we started.”
“It may look like it, but we are not.” Heero rises. Relena follows his movement- the girlish adoration gone from her eyes, replaced by pride and confidence.
“We have accomplished a great deal by destroying the Tallgeese and its designs, even though the price was almost... too high. It will take the Alliance years and years to start all over again and to get their research back to the same level they were on. We managed to set them back for maybe a decade.”
“They still portray us as the bad guys.” Wufei taps on his cast. “The Alliance turns every action against us. We are never going to make it if we don’t do something about it. We have already been blamed for Darlian’s death.”
“It will take time for people to figure that out.” Relena also rises from her chair. “I speak from experience, first-hand experience. The main problem lies in the fact that people are not confronted with these situations personally. I would not, and did not believe the lies of the Alliance myself, until I was the witness of a terrible raid. And if I can believe it,” she addresses us, voice calm and steady, “then everyone can believe it.”
“We still have a lot to do.” Quatre speaks up. “We need to establish communication between the colonies. We need to set up a coalition between the colonies.”
“Establish fair trade and traffic,” Heero continues. “Stabilization of climate control.”
“Finding a way to broadcast our own news,” Trowa adds.
“Raising sympathy. Establishing a solid contact between Earth and the colonies, without lies and fear.” Relena eyes me, an expectant look on her face. “When I return to Earth, I will take the data on the Tallgeese with me to show it to the right people on Earth, and inform them of the plans of the Alliance.”
Heero nods. I observe the girl. She doesn’t cringe for a second.
“That is a lot of work,” I say and feel stupid. Quatre stands in front of me.
“And you are not going to do it yourself,” he says warningly. I shake my head. I know that the destruction of the Tallgeese did not end the war, and we would live all happily ever after, like Heero said.
Relena touches my shoulder.
“You have surpassed the strength of every human being present here,” she says. “We have learned from you to reach for the same strength to keep on going. I am still mourning the death of my father, but, like you, I have to move on, to live on. I’ll bring this news to Earth. I hope I can help you with it.”
“Thank you,” I mutter and feel very flustered. My eyes prickle. I want to hear Heero, I want to hear his voice.
“We are not weaklings. We still stand tall, and we will watch the Alliance crumble and die.” Wufei’s words reflect his conviction. Trowa crosses his arms before his chest.
“Whatever the Alliance will come up with, we’ll think of a way to stop it.”
Quatre looks at me, hand placed on his chest, that empathic spot he told me about.
“Duo, you’d better get some rest, you look awfully tired. Heero?”
“I’ll take him,” he answers monotonously. He pushes my wheelchair out of the room and through the long hallway. The big cracks in the plasterwork and a few chunks of concrete on the floor remind me of the raid. My lonely, beautiful, and scarred university. He brings me to the nursery, and before I can protest, lifts me out of the wheelchair, and puts me on the bed.
“You’re so quiet.”
“Have you thought about what I have said?”
I am tired, but I want to finish this conversation with him.
“I won’t leave you. Not now, not ever.”
“I cannot trust you, Duo. You... you kept standing so close to the suit, no matter how much I screamed. You wouldn’t move.”
“I... maybe I overreacted,” I whisper softly. “Heero, I didn’t want that suit out in the open... then others could see it and maybe think of finishing it, and bring death and destruction...”
“I know. It wasn’t... Duo, this is what I meant by fighting your war one-sided. You didn’t think about me. You didn’t include me. You didn’t listen to me.”
“I’m sorry.” I feel the sting of tears. I don’t want to cry in front of him. I don’t want to be so vulnerable in front of him. I don’t...
“You told me once about your perfect place, your wonderland, as you called it. Even though the odds are against us, and we don’t know how long this war is going to take... I want to help you reach that wonderland of yours, Duo. Please don’t leave me out.” He leans forward. He is so close he can kiss me. I feel his warm hand stroking mine. He cups my face with his hands.
“Where-ever you are, there will be my wonderland,” I say.
“No matter how long the road... we will reach our wonderland.” The smile I receive is beautiful- filled with hope, and confidence. He tilts my chin to kiss me on the lips.
“And even if it is a rocky trail from here, we will take it together, ups and downs.”
“Together,” I repeat. He climbs next to me in the bed. I ignore my pain to have him spooned him behind me. He nuzzles my neck, and his breath tickles my ear. He doesn’t need any more words to tell me to go to sleep. We lay there, in the sick bay, me in bandages and casts, him with his arms around me. A very comfortable position. A position I am already used to. From the first night we were together.
Sleep claims me.
Tomorrow will be another step on our trail to wonderland.
~End~
Chapter 9 |