January 10, 2001
Sequel to 'Have You Ever...'
Standard Warnings and Disclaimers apply.
They were uncomfortable--but you couldn't tell it from looking at them. In fact, they looked quite cozy hanging out in the lounge, sipping drinks, a chessboard stretched between Trowa and Duo.
"Howard said the engine repairs are almost complete," Quatre told them, hoping to get someone to talk--even Duo was unnaturally quiet since the shuttle carrying the five Behr sisters had left.
"I see." The blond looked at the Japanese boy, but Heero said no more, continuing to stare at his drink.
"I must say, Howard does a real good job," Duo spoke up, not looking away from the board. "I'd better decide my next move, too..." he murmured.
"I hope this will let us catch up," Trowa said, reaching across the board to make his move.
"And this strategy would be...?" Duo shot a glance towards his opponent, almost smirking with delight. He was about to make his move when Wufei stepped in and made it for him.
"It's a good move," Wufei said, leaning back against the wall again. "Offense is the greatest defense."
Their eyes meet and held--and then broke away.
"If you think only of protecting, you'll get tied down," Wufei continued, ignoring the lace of pain being so close to the boy created in him. A weakness, surely, but one he didn't want to go away.
"Thanks for your great advice," Duo murmured, and then looked over his shoulder. "Heero? How 'bout you?" he asked, trying to draw the other into a conversation as well. It had been too long--over two weeks. And he missed even the annoying little 'hns' the Japanese boy would voice.
But Heero was silent, lost in his own musings. Something wasn't right about that Scorpio plant... there was something he was missing...
"What's wrong Heero?" Quatre asked, frowning. "Is something bothering you?"
The vicinity alarms prevented the pilot from answering.
"Damn, we're out-maneuvered again!" Duo cursed.
"Let's go," Quatre shouted, and like a gunshot, they were off, each to their own gundam.
It was the voice. He knew that voice...
<<... Peacemillion... Please... answer me! Duo!>>
"Hilde!" he called, as if his voice could help the screaming girl.
"Duo, go!" Quatre called over the com unit.
"But--"
"Hurry!" the blond yelled. "We'll take care of the rest," he reassured the braided boy.
"Sorry," Duo murmured, already turning DeathScythe towards the coordinates scrolling across his screen. "And thanks..."
He thought he was going to be too late--another loved one, taken away from him--and a surge of anger fed up through his entire being, pushing DeathScythe on farther, faster until the huge dark mecha slipped between the battered Taurus suit and the killing laser fire that would have signed its death.
"Hilde? You alive?" he called. He couldn't hide the relief her voice drifting through his speaker seconds later bathed him in--and then, it was time to fight. It was a surprise that any mobile doll could be so good--even if it *was* programmed with data from a gundam pilot.
"You'd better take *my* data if you're gonna make them next time," he whispered to the corpsed Mercurius and Vayeate, and then his attention was brought back to the paralyzed and free-drifting Taurus suit. "Hilde! Hey, Hilde! Answer me, damn you! Hilde!"
~~Everyone who loves me, dies... don't curse yourself like that~~
"Duo," a weak but distinct voice finally answered him. "Oh, good... you're safe..."
"And you're in such a state," he whispered back, his fingers lifting to the vid screen that flickered to life with her banged and battered image. Nothing like the girl he'd left on L2 just a few days ago... "What the hell did you come here for?" he growled, trying to hide the tears in his voice.
"I... I brought Libra's data," she answered, wincing as she held up the tiny disk that had almost cost her her life.
Duo could have hit her if she was right there in front of him. "W-Why'd you do such a thing...!"
She sent him a smile, weak, but definite smile. "Well," she whispered hoarsely. "I... wanted to..." She dragged in a deep breath, forcing her lungs to take in the life-giving oxygen.
"You... you damn idiot," he growled... furious at her for risking her life like that... and proud as hell to know her.
"I thought you'd... say that... " she breathed before falling unconscious.
Duo was at her side when the medic team came to take her away. He was there for her to wake up and squeeze her hand; there to hear her whisper 'don't worry' and 'Relena... Peacecraft... is on ... Libra.'
That last definitely caught his attention. "I saw her," Hilde sighed. "Talked with her." Her eyed drifted shut again. "She seemed... nice... nothing like I thought... she'd be..."
And then she was whisked away from him, and he couldn't help but worry. 'Please, Hilde,' he prayed. 'Make it through this one. I couldn't forgive myself if you didn't...'
"We won't waste the data that she brought for us," Quatre tried to reassure him. But it was a weak condolence if the girl died, he knew.
"Yeah," Duo murmured, not looking away from the stretcher until it wheeled into the lift.
"Heero?" he called, looking over his shoulder. "Relena Peacecraft is on Libra."
He didn't know why he did it. Why he felt the need to tell the other boy that, especially knowing what he knew about the girl and him. Maybe he really was a masochist at heart--'cause the look on the other boy's face when he told him, fed directly into his chest and tried to carve his heart in halves.
End of Part 22: Premonitions of the Decisive Battle
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com