16-Mar-2004
Title: Red Moon Rising 10/?
Author: Ebonydove
Archive: aenai.steelsong.com
Warnings: angst, sap, language, sci-fi
Pairings: 1+2/2+1
Spoilers: limited references to the series. Taken out of time line and terribly warped the story.
Author's Notes: sequel to the Death and the Phoenix story. Side fic is Northstar.
Summary: Duo has lost all memory of his time with Heero and the others after a mysterious illness took him out of commission. In this story Duo returns to take back his life and continue the fight against Oz.
Disclaimers: I may toy with them, but I still don't own them.
Moving with focused determination and no little amount of caution, Heero stalked to the end of the corridor and paused. It had been far too easy to get into the resource satellite's main storage facility even though it had supposedly been long abandoned. At least that was according to Duo's Intel, which he was beginning to question despite how it made his stomach churn at the thought. Howard had given Duo the information, who had in turn included him in the haphazard diversion and claimed it was ‘all good'. But despite the information coming from a trusted source, he couldn't ignore the risks. Plus there was a tension in the air he just couldn't place and an itch that was nagging at him from the moment he had set foot on the surface of the odd shaped rock. Something wasn't right. He could feel it almost like it was some palatable thing that was about to reach out and grab him.
He should have been able to detect the telltale signs of how long the place had been deserted by the amount of dust and grit on the floors but as he ran a finger across the smooth plane of the nearest wall all he came away with was a thin coat of powdery red film instead of the signs of desertion he had been expecting. The idea that there were absolutely no cobwebs or dust bunnies in a storage facility of that size was too hard to ignore. The facility was just too damned clean, concluding that the place was in use or had been recently, he prepared the first detonator and quickly moved on. Waiting for Duo to show was no longer on option.
As he slid around the corner and took a few slow steps out into the bay, his thoughts kept returning to how he had managed to find himself there. Duo had diverted him from his original mission of simply blowing the place to pieces, and convinced him (albeit quite easily) to come with him on the fools' errand, but hadn't yet arrived. And one thing that would never change about Duo Maxwell, memory lost or not, was that he was never late. The whole thing reeked of a trap, but the only one who knew he was coming was Duo and he just couldn't bear to think that he would do something so base as to hand him over to Oz. A lot had changed between the two of them since Duo's return, but a betrayal of that magnitude was unfathomable. He slipped his hand into his left breast pocket and felt the cool metal of the compass Duo had returned to him and with a deep breath let the dark thoughts of betrayal fade into the background. He had a mission to complete regardless if Duo showed up or not.
Annoyed by his own uneasiness, he made his way through the first bay to the door at the far side of the large space, setting more charges as he went. He quickly assessed the remains of what looked to be a large drilling operation with scraps of machinery and boxes of tools scattered about. Mining gundamium had long been outlawed but that wouldn't stop Oz from drilling for it anyway. It also might explain how Howard's Intel mislead Duo to believe that there were weapons or mecha parts being stashed on the satellite instead of the illegal operation Oz was sure to be involved in. He let out an aggravated huff and flashed the light around the rest of the room. There wasn't anything here to help their cause. It would be a wasted trip for Duo and without him to confirm that it was just bad information, he planned to proceed under the assumption that his mission parameters remained unchanged.
With all his charges set, he quickly made his way back the way he had come intent on getting back to Wing as quickly as possible. The itch he had been feeling was steadily growing, making him want to run from the dark, empty rooms and get back out to the stars. He had just begun to lightly jog the last section of the corridor, his flashlight flickering and casting odd shaped shadows along the walls, when he heard a very crisp clicking sound behind him. He froze. Turning the flashlight off, he flattened himself against the wall in the pitch black and strained to hear the sound again.
He seemed like forever before his heart rate came back down and he was able to make out the sides of the walls in the dark and hone in on the closest point the noise could have come from. He stared at that space for a long time before finally easing his way away from the wall and creeping back towards the door he had just come through. He turned the flashlight back on and while his eyes adjusted to the brightness from it he ran his fingers over the edge of the door. He wanted to kick himself when he found the trigger. When he had come back through that doorway he had set it off. So now it was just a race to get out before whatever trap he had sprung, caught him in its blast. As he took off running down the dark corridor he made a silent wish that Duo actually would be late for once.
End Part 10
(:./ebony/red10)
