12-Apr-2004
Title: Tetractys
Author: Sol, but archived as Zefyr on FF & MM
Chapter 13 "Netzach, I" --- ONGOING
Genre: Semi-AU, AU-in-AU, Drama, Sci Fi
Pairings: Wait and see.
Rated: R for the time being
Archived: fanfiction.net and gwaddiction.com
Warnings: Violence, language, adult situations, butchered scientific theory
Archiving: Ask permission for each story separately, please.
Critiques: Always welcome, especially constructive.
The readings from the system were elevated, but nothing beyond what she'd expected based on the test run. Quatre's heart rate was still climbing, though, as were his brain wave patterns. The problem was that she didn't have a baseline, outside the system, to determine whether this was normal, or elevated. Quatre had never run the simulation program before they'd left the South American base. But something had Wufei bothered, and he was shaking his head and muttering under his breath. When he jumped to his feet, Meiran looked up, startled.
"Barton, Yuy," Wufei barked. "Hold off, I'm going out. Barton, replace me in command."
"Chang!" Meiran gave him an annoyed look. "What are you doing? We're in the middle of the test!"
Wufei shook his head, untangling himself from the headset. He turned for the door but a split-second later the command center's door was thrown open. Wufei was at the door already, and slammed into Duo. The longhaired man was holding onto the doorframe and blocking the way. Meiran yanked off her headset and came to her feet, stunned.
"Chang!" Duo shouted, his face white as a sheet and his eyes nearly glowing from panic. "Stay here, don't go, don't---"
"Out of my way, damn it," Wufei snarled, shoving at Duo's chest. "If you're seeing something, I've got to---"
"*Don't*," Duo pleaded. "If you go, you'll die, too many will die---"
"How can you see that?" Doro was behind Duo, her face creased in bewilderment. "I thought your team mates were blank---"
"I can see you!" Duo turned his head, but didn't let go of the doorframe, blocking Wufei. "I can see you counting the tally on the bodies! Three-hundred and forty-seven casualties. Men, women and *children*! And I can see her!" Duo turned to Meiran, his eyes glazed and desperate. "Weeping over the burnt remains of Shenlong!"
Wufei stumbled backwards, his face blank from shock. "Maxwell... "
"Barton, Yuy," Duo yelled. "Get out there, stop him, *now*... "
Meiran had to lean against the console to stay up, watching Wufei's tormented face as he shook his head.
"No," he growled. "Quatre's my partner. I can stop him---"
"You'll stop him and it'll kill both of you and too many others," Duo protested. "Please, don't... *please*, I can't lose both of you."
"Maxwell." Wufei stepped forwards, his jaw set.
"Chang!" Meiran lunged, grabbing Wufei around the chest, trying to pull him backwards. "Don't go, please, Chang. He can't stand to lose you... but I can't stand to lose you *again*." She felt like an idiot, knowing she was on the verge of tears, and nothing like the warrior she'd always tried to be, but there was nothing else she could think to say. Wufei was frozen in her arms, but he seemed to be listening. "Not again," she murmured, clinging tightly. "I can't... not *again*."
Wufei lowered his chin. His shoulders slumped in defeat, and he nodded to Maxwell. "Fine," he said, sighing. "Send Barton and Yuy. Winner's rates are elevated eighty-percent beyond normal, and still climbing. Reaction time is unbelievable, but there's no indication that there's any---"
"Chang! Long!" A tinny voice could be heard from the headset.
Meiran squeezed Wufei, a quick gesture of encouragement and relief, and dashed to the console. Duo was still at the door, with Doro hovering behind him. Wufei hadn't moved. Meiran put the headset to her ear.
"Long here, identify and report," she ordered.
"Makura, ma'am," the voice said. Meiran hit the switch to broadcast the 'com lines into the room, and dropped the headset. The man sounded frightened. "Our sweeps monitors picked up a squadron of Yang. Sixteen, heading across the channel. Sandstone's altered its flight path, for direct collision with the squadron."
"That idiot!" Doro ducked under Duo's arm, heading for the other console seat. Dropping into it, she flicked a few switches, practically yelling at the 'com system. "Winner, report! What the fuck are you doing? It's a test run, not a chance to have a fist fight!"
"Better test than shooting buoys," Quatre's voice came back, but it sounded as though he were speaking through gritted teeth. "We have to start somewhere---"
"This is not the place to start, damn it!" Doro slammed her fist down on the console, glaring at the speaker. "It's an untested system! Get the hell out of there before they---"
"---Squadron's flight pattern has shifted," Makura reported. "Altered heading to north-north-east---"
"---Winner!" Doro's shout went up. "Get out of there!"
"---You're not my boss," Quatre replied coolly. "You've been fighting for ten years with no resolution and little show for your efforts. I sincerely doubt you're truly qualified to tell me what will or will not work."
Doro opened her mouth, but no words came out. Meiran stood slowly, watching the other woman deflate as she stared at the computer screens printing Quatre's statistics. Doro's hands were clenched tight on the edge of the console, but her eyes were shuttered and dull, as though she'd been hit.
"Catalonia," Meiran whispered, but Doro shook her head, just the barest of movement.
"Maybe he's right," Doro replied, very quietly. "Maybe picking and choosing our battles so care---"
"Barton here," Trowa's voice broke in. "Visual confirmation of Sandstone---"
"Stay out of this," Quatre retorted, and there was a crackle as the line went dead.
"What the hell?" Doro came awake at that, seeing the scrolling information coming to a complete halt. She hit a few buttons, but nothing changed, and she glanced over her shoulder at Duo and Wufei. "He's disconnected himself from the recording and tracking systems... we can't even get a read on his location. He's out of radar range. Makura, switch to the Sanq relay stations! What the hell is he doing?"
Duo muttered something, and Meiran remembered what Quatre had said to her daughter, before they'd gone after Doro. She hit several switches on the console, changing the frequency. "Now monitoring oh-nine-seven-point-oh-three," Meiran announced. She glanced over her shoulder to see Duo giving her a surprised look.
"How'd---"
"Winner gave Zhiyi the frequency," Wufei explained curtly.
"Shh," Doro ordered, holding up a hand. The line was silent, but then Heero's voice came over the 'com.
"I see 'em now. Sixteen Yang in attack formation---"
"---twelve, now," Trowa corrected. "Winner, pull back."
"I'm not wasting any more time with this crap," Quatre reported. His voice was tight, and harsh. "If there's ever going to be an end, we've got to see straight through to---"
"What the *fuck*," Heero breathed.
"We're blind," Duo's voice interrupted. It echoed strangely, a split-second delayed from the actual shout, coming back over the 'com. "Report! What's going on?"
"All sixteen Yang, down over the channel," Heero replied. "Sandstone predicted the Yangs' attack maneuvers---"
"Sandstone diverting to south-east-east," Trowa reported. "Taking wing position."
"Barton, get away from me!" Quatre's voice was annoyed. "You can't help!"
"I'm escorting you back to base," Trowa replied, impassive. "Change course to fifty-fifty-nine-three-ten. Winner, change course---"
"What's going on?" Lena came through the door, accompanied by Zhiyi, who started to head for Meiran.
"Zhiyi!" Meiran pointed at the door. "Get her out of here. NOW!"
Lena didn't argue. She snagged Zhiyi by the back of her shirt, yanking the girl around and shoving her from the door. Meiran could hear Zhiyi's complaining cries down the hallway as she was dragged off, but had no time to care. The voices over the 'com were her only priority.
"Shove it, Barton." Quatre chuckled harshly. "I'm not heading to the same base as you."
"Give me a list of all possible military installations on the north-western short of Sanq," Doro said to Meiran in an undertone. "I'm checking for maritime, but confirm any inland---"
"---On it," Meiran said, getting what Doro was thinking. She twisted, typing several commands rapidly into the main console for their tactical systems. The map appeared, with all installations within a hundred-click radius of the shoreline. "Six," Meiran replied. "Three within fifty-click radius, and at estimated bearing, will intercept at nine minutes---"
"Bearing," Wufei snapped. "Location and bearing!"
"Ten clicks from shore," Trowa replied. "Winner, damn---"
"Winner's fired on Barton," Heero reported. "Accelerating, and connecting sys---"
"No!" Duo's shout was overwhelming. "Yuy, cancel that. Do NOT connect, I repeat, do NOT connect---"
"No alternative," Yuy replied, strangely calm. "Even with two of us, we can't keep up with Sandstone, the reaction time---"
"Then shoot him down!" Duo bellowed, his eyes wild. "But do NOT connect---"
Yuy growled momentarily, then stopped. "Will hold off as long as possible, then. Dropping to three hundred feet, and accelerating---"
"Yuy!" Trowa's shout was furious. "What the hell are you---"
"Get out of my way," Yuy replied. "I'm taking Quatre down."
"No!"
Trowa grunted, and Meiran recognized the exertion of kicking the foot thrusters into high gear. Several seconds of silence followed, broken by an explosion. It echoed in the small command chamber. Wufei sagged, stumbling backwards until Duo caught him.
"Yuy, back off, Winner, turn around, now, please. You don't want to do this---"
"Sure I do, Barton," Quatre snapped. "Would you rather the war continue for another decade? *I* can see where we need to go. Picking and choosing, hitting and running, hasn't achieved *shit* for ten long bloody years!"
"But this is suicide---"
"Barton, shut up. Get out of the way." Yuy's voice was chilly.
"No, Yuy, I'm not going to let you shoot him down. Winner, listen to---"
Another explosion filled the intercom, and Meiran realized she'd been holding her breath. Slowly she sank back down into the seat, staring blindly at the console screen. Beside her, Doro shifted.
"They're heading for the Northern Sanq maritime installation," Doro whispered. She was staring at the map, tracing the three Gundam's likely progress with her finger. "It's the closest... it's a medical base. It outfits the Foundation's navy hospital ships."
"Not an ammunitions dump?" Wufei stepped closer, noting the information. His head came up, and he shouted over the 'com. "Winner, back down! You're heading straight for a base that's not even military in nature! It's a medical post!"
"Have to start somewhere," Quatre retorted.
"Start with this," Yuy replied. Another explosion filled the 'com, and Meiran couldn't help but put her hands to her ears. Yuy's voice was cold with satisfaction. "Hit to the upper left arm, damage to heat shotels. Estimated thirty-percent drop in power."
"Damn it," Barton cried. "Winner, listen, this is unplanned, with no backup, and there's no strategic value in---"
"There's always strategic value," Quatre replied coolly. "You're hardly one to tell me of that. Start here, and work inland. I'm heading for Bremen, and between here and there, I will *pound them into dust*."
"My god," Duo moaned. "They'll be over land soon---"
"We are," Trowa answered. "Just reached shoreline, Sandstone bearing altered to south-south---" He was cut off by an explosion, and all four listening could hear him shout something wordless.
Duo's knees went out, and Wufei barely caught him in time.
"Winner," Wufei shouted. "You can't fight this all by yourself! Come back, so we can---"
"Chang, you were always too weak to be willing to pay the full price," Quatre replied. "Target is within sights---"
"Winner, *stop*," Trowa tried again.
There was a distant explosion, and Doro gasped. "Makura, report, what's on sensors?"
"Foundation lines just lit up like a Eve tree," he replied. "The Deauville Base just lost its left hospital wing... " He paused, sounding stricken. "The children's wing."
Duo sobbed something incomprehensible, and shoved away from Wufei. "Who hit, who hit," he asked.
"Winner," Barton replied, shocked.
Meiran felt like she'd just been punched, and she spun in place to look at Wufei and Duo. Duo's hands were over his eyes, and he was rocking back and forth; Wufei was staring at the 'com speakers, his jaw slack.
"Maneuvering to---"
"---Don't!" Duo shouted. "Get out of the way, damn it, get out of there---"
"---intercept next missile---"
"---Barton!" Duo's scream was full-throat. "No!"
Another explosion.
"This is not you, Quatre, please." Trowa's voice was quiet, choking. "Quatre, you're my friend and were my---"
"---Barton, if you don't get out of the way, this next shot will kill you," Quatre warned. "You only get one warning."
"Barton, move!" Yuy's shout was desperate. "Get out of the damn way!"
"There are innocent people down there," Trowa pleaded. "They have nothing to do with this---"
"We are at WAR," Quatre roared. "There are NO innocents!"
Another explosion, followed by two more. Static crackled on the line. Quatre could be heard sobbing something, Meiran realized, but wasn't sure; perhaps it was also Duo, on the floor in Wufei's arms. There was a long silence, then Heero's voice came over the 'com, sounding broken and angry.
"Barton crashed north-east of military installation, time twenty-two hundred hours. Low chance of survival." Yuy's voice smoothed out, and Meiran shuddered at the complete lack of emotion. "Winner, you just killed someone I love."
Quatre screamed at the same instant an explosion ripped through the speakers. A second explosion followed, and then two more. Quatre was crying something, his voice pitched higher and desperate. Meiran couldn't understand over the sounds of metal ripping apart, and the high keen of a beam saber slicing gundamian.
"Yuy, Yuy, no," Quatre begged, and another burst was loud enough to make Meiran push away from the speakers, her hands still over her ears. She felt helpless, trapped, unable to do anything, say anything, or even think. There was no answer from Yuy, only the implacable sound of beam sabers smashing into each other. "Heero, Trowa's got to be alive, you know he is, he's tougher---"
"Really not caring anymore," Heero snapped. "I told Maxwell I'd take you down---"
Meiran blinked, something in her awareness triggered by Heero's words. The fight continued to rage, and she raised her head, dropping her hands as she looked around. Wufei was standing behind Doro's chair, his eyes on the speaker. Tears were pouring down his cheeks.
"Duo," Meiran whispered. "Where's Duo?"
Doro looked over, slowly, as though responding from a distance, and swung her chair to look at the command room's floor, then its door. "I thought he was---"
"The bay doors have been hacked," Makura interrupted. "Unscheduled departure... of a *Gundam*? 04, what's going *on*?"
"Do not follow," Doro answered automatically, her fingers on the 'com switch without even having to look. Her voice was flat. "Do not follow. Stay out of their way. Are you clear?"
"Uh... yes, ma'am." Makura sounded dubious. "It's Deathscythe Hell. Do you want us to track him?"
"If you can---"
"Oh... " Makura mumbled something under his breath. "Well, never mind, ma'am. I mean, he just disappeared---"
"*What*?" Meiran gave the speaker a baffled look.
"I don't know. One second he was on radar, the next second... there's nothing there. Either he just crashed into the North Sea, or he's... " Makura sounded like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry. " ...Or he's figured out how to be invisible."
"The ECM system," Doro whispered.
"Pardon, ma'am?"
"Never mind. Just keep an eye on the---"
"YUY!" Quatre's scream cut through the most recent round of explosions. "Go after him! He's your PARTNER!"
"Fine time to think of that now," Heero retorted. "Your rule: we don't go after a man down. He's down. You're next."
Another explosion rocked Meiran's senses, and she crumpled, unable to believe what she was hearing. It wasn't right, she thought, it wasn't what was supposed to happen. There was no meaning or reason or comprehension. Doro was staring at the console, her eyes fixed on the flight pattern that led over the Naval base and inland, on a direct course for Bremen. Meiran raised her hands to her face, pressing her fingertips against her eyes, and struggled to keep from crying. A heartbeat later there were arms around her, clasping her tightly from behind, and Wufei's face was buried in the crook of her neck.
She could feel the damp of his tears against her skin.
Lena waited as the two women hopped over the edge of the pontoon and waded into the cave's depths. The splashing was drowned out as the pontoon pulled away, the man waving as he backed the boat out of the cave. Lena sighed, and her arms clasped around herself as the two women came closer.
"Lena," Noin said, dropping her bag and opening her arms. Lena threw herself at Noin, hugging the woman tightly, and Noin blinked, startled. "Hey, hey, girl, what's going on?"
"You made good time," Lena replied, her voice muffled against Noin's neck. "We didn't expect you until tomorrow afternoon."
"We met up in Sanq, instead," Une told her. She pulled off her glasses, rubbing them distractedly before replacing them, and pushing them up with a forefinger. "Where is everyone?"
"In shock," Lena said, pulling away from Noin with a bitter laugh. "That... that system. Quatre installed it. Tested it... " She sighed. "It blew up in his face."
"As in, literally?" Noin looked stunned.
"Might as well," Lena said. She picked up Noin's bag, and led the way into the underground base, keeping her voice low as they took the walkway above the hangar. Several technicians were standing around by Talon, on the hangar's ground floor, their arms listlessly at their side, their voices hushed. Une gave the technicians a surprised glance, and frowned at Lena, who shook her head. "I don't really know," Lena explained. "I was busy keeping Zhiyi locked in her room so she couldn't go running to Meiran. But... apparently the system, well, it's not real clear. Doro's not said word one to anybody. She just sits and stares, in the command center. Meiran's been crying, and so has Wufei."
"You sure it's really Wufei?" Une frowned, skeptical. "Meiran never said he was the kind---"
"---I don't *know*," Lena snapped, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. Yes, it's him. But... Quatre took off in the middle of the test flight. Attacked and cleared sixteen Yang in two minutes. Headed for Sanq, where he struck a hospital---"
"---A hospital," Noin echoed. She stopped, and shook her head. "No, now I'm doubting you brought the right Quatre over. The one I knew would never---"
"---Same thing I would've said, an hour ago," Lena retorted. "But now... I don't know." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, determined to stay strong. "Meiran said it was like he just... went really cold. His arguments were sound, but there was no planning, she said... he was willing and ready to go it alone---"
"ZERO," Une murmured. "Are you telling me they installed the doctors' system?"
"Yeah." Lena sighed and pushed the door open to the hallway leading towards the quarters. "ZERO. That's what Quatre called it." She noticed Une giving Noin a pointed look, and turned, her hands on her hips. "What? What was that look for?"
"Our world's Duo Maxwell died from that system," Une murmured, softly. "He died making sure we would never use that system again."
"It's not the same system," Lena insisted. "The doctors were adjusting it for years, to use its capabilities without the risks."
"Do you even realize what those risks were?" Une's voice was cold. "Do you *realize* how the system works?"
"It's a feedback loop that processes the options," Lena said, a bit resentful at suddenly feeling fifteen again, and pinned under Une's disapproving stare. She crossed her arms, uncomfortable. "The original system overloaded the pilot with stimuli, and the eventual result was that the pilot couldn't disseminate the option but was forced to accept the---"
"And you think that risk is going to go away because of someone tweaking with it?" A muscle flickered in Une's jaw. Lena glanced at Noin, but the dark-haired woman was silent, her eyes fixed on her partner. Une snorted. "The backbone of the system is its ability to process and evaluate at a higher speed than a human. There is no way to create safeties, without compromising the integrity of the system in the first place."
"Or without reducing the value of the system to the point that the pilot might as well disregard it completely," Noin added.
"Especially when you consider Winner removed many of the doctor's changes," a voice said from behind them. Lena turned to see Doro leaning against the wall. Her gray eyes were unfocused and dilated. Her hair was draped across her chest, caught in a low ponytail, and the lackluster strands slithered as she pushed away from the wall. "I thought he was improving it." She sighed, and dropped her gaze. "I was wrong. He took it back to the original."
"What was the damage?" Her tone was crisp.
"A hundred seventeen staff and patients dead," Doro replied, her voice dull. "They had no warning. He reduced the hospital wing to nothing but rocks and bones in two seconds."
"Holy fuck," Noin murmured. "That all? He wouldn't have stopped there - a system like that, it'd take an act of God---"
"No, just an act of Barton," Doro said. Lena turned, shocked, and Doro nodded. "Barton got in the way on purpose, and Winner shot him down. We... we lost contact. According to Yuy, Barton is presumed dead."
Lena swayed, vaguely aware Noin had caught her and was holding her upright. "He promised," she whispered, feeling the room spin. "He promised me... "
" ...Took Winner down... "
The voices around Lena were fading in and out. She swallowed hard, trying to pull up her soldier-self, force herself back into the fighting shell she'd worn for so long.
" ...on Yuy's grappling... "
Three months ago, when Hilde had been captured, Lena remembered being angry, and ready to strike back. When Cat went down trying to rescue Hilde, Lena recalled her oath to get them both out. But now... it was too much.
" ...in Deathscythe Hell... "
One more thing, her mind whispered. Just one more casualty in a list... one after the other, after the other, and no end---
"Lena Darlian! Focus!" Noin snapped the command.
"Heero," Lena murmured.
"He's alive," Doro replied, and shook her head. "E.T.A. of return is twenty minutes. He's going to be useless, with one of his teammates dead and the other missing, though. And every plan we had is now shot to shit."
Miles of water stretched out under the shadow of his passing, endless and unrelenting in the late summer sun. It took Duo several seconds to remember that the longitude meant the sun wouldn't go down for several more hours, and he swore, kicking with his feet to accelerate Deathscythe Hell's jets into a screaming fury. His vision was blank, no images playing across his sight. He wasn't sure if that was because something had shut it down. Perhaps it meant only that there were now too many possibilities, and the rapid overlay had simply drained life and color until his only sight was of the dark, gray sea beneath his wings.
ECM operating properly, he thought, only vaguely satisfied that his modifications had worked. Another untested system, he told himself, and couldn't help but smirk. *My* untested system works, he thought, skimming at five hundred feet across the shadowy waves. He angled to reach landfall forty clicks north of the first impact zone, but he could see the billowing black smoke on the distant horizon.
How many deaths, he wondered, and twisted the throttle, pouring more power into the jets. The Gundam was operating at ninety-five percent capacity, and he cursed being too lazy that afternoon to bother boosting it more. He should've been working on it, rather than hiding away from the threads in his room...
A thin, fine waft of smoke appeared on his visual screens, north-east of his position. He punched up the magnification, zooming in on the crash site. Just past a thin stand of trees, in a patch of sandy ground, lay a Gundam. Smoke poured from one of its shoulder joints.
Broadarms, a voice murmured in his head, and he didn't recognize it as his own.
His chest hurt.
Duo angled the Gundam around, hitting the commands to shift in mid-fall from bird-mode. He landed only twenty feet from the crushed and battered Broadarms, and hit the commands to run a scan on the Gundam. The readout indicated warmer areas in the chest, shoulder, and legs, indicating direct hits. The metal would be hot to the touch. Broadarms' Gatling gun was powered, but not discharged. Duo slammed his fist down on the unlock mechanism and was out of the cockpit before the screens had retracted fully. Ignoring the winch, he jumped the twenty feet, falling into a roll and coming to his feet. Barely he noted he'd just sprained his ankle, but he pushed the thought away, scrambling up on Broadarm's chest.
Unlock, unlock, *unlock*, Duo chanted silently. Unlock, damn it! He punched the control panel one last time, his body sagging as the cockpit latch clicked audibly under his hands. When it didn't move more than two inches, he dug his fingers under it and began tugging. His ankle complained when he braced himself, but he grunted, pulling harder. The cockpit door slid open a few feet. It was enough to wriggle the upper part of his body into Broadarms.
"Trowa," Duo whispered. "Trowa... " He had to feel his way, his body blocking out what little light could come through the small opening he'd managed. The first thing his fingers touched was something soft and bloody. Duo recoiled instinctively before getting himself under control. "Trowa," he called again, feeling panic build, until a quiet moan answered him.
"Duo, Heero... " Trowa groaned, and was silent.
"Trowa, come on, man, you're the toughest of us all," Duo coaxed. He felt across Broadarm's control panel, looking for the emergence release. He had to stretch down past Trowa's legs, reaching for the lever. Yanking hard on it, metal creaked over his hips as the cockpit door slid fully open. Trowa's face was bloody, his head lolling to one side. He'd probably smashed his head against the forward view-screen in the fall, Duo reasoned, as his fingers flew across Trowa's body, checking for injuries.
Cracked rib or two, possibly, he thought. Significant bruising from the harness, and severe concussion, Duo listed mentally, but nothing apparently broken. He sighed, and undid the harness.
"Got to get you out of here," he muttered. "Come on, help me, Trowa... "
"Duo," Trowa muttered. "Got to get Quatre... "
"Yuy's dealing with him," Duo answered, and hoped that was the truth.
"Can't hear them... "
"They're out of range, and we don't have an amplifier," Duo told him. "We've got to get you out of here. We're too close to that military base, and someone's got to have been tracking. It's only a matter of time before... " He paused, hearing the sound of a car engine pulling up. "Fuck, the welcome committee's here already."
"Duo, go without me," Trowa mumbled. He was struggling to get out of the seat, but the Gundam was on its back. Even with Duo's help, it was difficult to pull himself upright to the cockpit door over his head. "Shoot me, and go on," Trowa repeated.
"I'm not leaving you," Duo hissed. "And I'm sure as hell not shooting you. I've had enough of shit like that for one day." He pulled himself out of the cockpit, reaching for the gun at the base of his spine. Racking the magazine, he flipped the safety off and crawled quietly to the edge of Broadarms' chest. He could see the nose of a Jeep, parked just past Deathscythe Hell.
"Holy fuck, Dominick," a man's voice was saying. "They're Gundams. Must've been shot down... " A man stepped around Deathscythe, and Duo could see the man couldn't be much older than himself. The man's hair was short, a sandy brown, tousled by wind and chapped red by the sun. "I was hoping it was just a regular plane. Morbid, hunh."
"Fuck, we'll probably end up being arrested for looking at specialized military stuff," Dominick answered, coming up behind the man. He was shorter, and a little wider. He was grinning as he stared up at Deathscythe Hell. "Say, Michael, isn't this the one that was captured? Think they got out, and that's what the big firestorm was about?"
"Well, where's the Foundation, then?"
Duo held his breath, and took aim on the first man.
"Maybe they killed those bastards," Michael answered, turning his back on Duo, completely unaware of the gun trained on his chest. "Shit, this sucks. There's no way we'll have enough time to hide it. And the base is too close to send a message to the Fates---"
The Fates, Duo repeated silently, remembering something Quatre had said that morning. The Fates run the resistance. He lowered the gun, startled, but unwilling to kill the men if there was another way around it.
"Hey," Duo called, softly. "Hey... "
The two men on the ground both yelped and spun, staring up at Duo. They paled, seeing the gun in Duo's hands, and both raised their arms, hands over their heads.
"Don't shoot us," Dominick said, worried. "We're the good guys."
"How do I know that?" Duo sighed, seeing the two men's reaction, and watched the threads playing around them. So maybe my blindness was only momentary, he thought, following the men's futures into the next hour. Nodding to himself, he put the gun away, ignoring the men's stunned glances to each other. Duo beckoned them closer, his mind running through several possibilities before he started grinning widely.
"I need to get my friend out of here," he said. "And when the Foundation shows up, I'll need your help."
"Us?" Michael swallowed nervously and pointed to himself. "We're just lookouts, man, we've never done much more than report---"
"Not asking you to do more," Duo said, cutting the man off. "Just help my friend out of here, and leave the talking to me." And let's hope this works, he told himself.
Ten minutes later, Trowa was resting on the ground, his back against Deathscythe Hell's foot. Michael had some water in the Jeep, and had used it to clean the cut on Trowa's forehead. Trowa hadn't spoken, but his pupils had responded to light. Duo had to hope Trowa would recover within a few hours, maybe more. He crouched down next to Trowa, brushing the sand off his jeans as he waited with Dominick and Michael.
A mobile suit flew overhead, then three more. One landed not far away, and Duo recognized it as a Yang. A Long angled around and returned, transforming out of dragon-shape as it landed by the Yang. Then the screaming jets of two Ma, and the Ma landed on the other side. Slowly the Long's cockpit opened, revealing a soldier with his gun trained on the four men by Deathscythe Hell. To Michael and Dominick's complete shock, Duo stood up and waved enthusiastically.
"Hey! It's about time you got here!"
"Please lay down on---" The soldier halted, giving Duo a bewildered look. "What?"
"Was starting to think we'd need to send you an invitation to get you to show up." Duo smirked up at the soldier. "Come on down, and see what we've got."
End Part 13
I don't own Gundam Wing, in case this wasn't obvious. No malicious infringement intended. Many thanks to everyone reading! Your comments and encouragement and nail biting are all greatly appreciated. EVIL, remember? ;D
(And be happy I didn't make you wait a whole chapter to find out if I really had killed Trowa. Heh, Zania, you can calm down now.)
(:./sol/tetra13)
