01-Jun-2000
Title: 20 Years After 8/?
Author: TB
Archive: yes to GW addiction
Catagory: yaoi, AU
Pairing: 13x4, 2xMariemaia
Rating: R
Warnings: language
Spoilers: likely
Feedback: please, appreciated per usual!
Disclaimers: I don't own nor do I profit by use of the
GW universe.
"Alliance?" Duo was startled into a laugh. "You must be kidding me!"
"I assure you," Zechs retorted flatly, "I never joke."
"That comes as a surprise," Mariemaia interjected drily. She caught Duo's arm as he paced the only path he was sure was free of stumbling blocks, so agitated he was not even making use of his cane for safety; she pulled him to a stop. He batted at her hands, irate, then sighed.
"I think you're crazy, Zechs Merquise!" he said.
"From all talk, I've found the perfect partner, then."
"Mad, maybe I am," Duo bit out. "Suicidal, I'm not! Maybe you've been fighting too long, Count, but let me offer you an objective viewpoint. You propose an *alliance* with the very people responsible for your current condition!"
"I don't propose," the other man replied cooly. "I tell you what has passed in your... absence. We *are* allies. The question is, will you join us?"
Mariemaia stalled Duo's response. "Hold on," she said. Her voice was calming, but there was something, Duo could guess, in her expression that prevented further interruption from the leader of White Fang. "Explain again," she requested. "In more detail. Remember where I've been all my life. Don't assume I know anything."
Duo dropped onto a crate and put his head in his hands. "Insanity," he growled. Marie laid a hand on his bowed head, but her tense trembling of that hand indicated to him that if he kept on like this, she wouldn't put up with it so kindly.
Zechs' voice, scratchy from the excessive talking already taken place, tiredly resumed the tale. "There is a faction among the existing government which sentimentalises what they call the 'Old OZ.' We of White Fang have slowly built connections with these firebrand upstarts. They'll disrupt Romafeller, and we'll take advantage of the fighting to make our gambit."
"What was so special about OZ?" the girl demanded. "A bunch of bullies and murderers!"
"The influence of Relena Peacecraft softened a lot of hearts," Zechs told her. "The Queen has been the guiding force of pacifism. Unfortunately, the old warrior stock isn't content with endless peace. They want battle."
"Treize," Duo said.
"That old man?" There was bitter hatred and contempt in the man's voice now. "He's a sheep, just like the rest of them. He let himself be deluded by dreams of power, and now he can't even wake up to reality. He still babbles at Romafeller Conventions about the nobility of the Human Struggle, but the words have lost what meaning they had. He'll follow the tide--whichever way it flows."
Mariemaia was quiet for a moment. "You think he'll fold under the first attack? He used to be the finest leader in history."
"Not you too," Duo objected violently.
Zechs ignored him. "He'll have his men shooting at the Pacifists in the halls. Let the OZies massacre each other. We'll have all the time we could possibly need to take over."
Mariemaia slowly sat on the floor beside Duo. She said to him, "You would have jumped at the chance to do this, once. What's holding you back now?"
Duo shook his head. The darkness inside, the leftovers of his Rudee imprisonment, was losing to the fire of remembered victories--a Gundam's victories. But the blaze was just enough to warm, not enough to scorch away his beaten-in caution; and he was older now, inside and out, no matter how fresh the memories were, and he *would not* rush into anything.
Zechs's voice came nearer; then Duo felt a hand on his shoulder. "I know what your problem is," the man said. "You Gundam pilots were all the same. Honourable fools, to the last, despite a certain ruthlessness... This smacks of treachery and deceit to you. You despise us as grubbing opportunists--and on the surface, you're right. But look deeper, 02. You may have been an honourable fool, but you were a Gundam pilot first, and you understood the fighting. You felt it, the way none of us did in those early days. OZ is old. It's done with. With you or without you, we'll take over, and yes, we'll establish a new regime--a better one, a free one, ultimately a peaceful one. But before that--we'll do away with the rotten leftovers of what came before us. That's the nature of war. The Earth and Space are one body; OZ is like a poisoned limb... and we will amputate it to save the whole."
"You were an honourable fool once, too, Merquise."
"Once, 02. Once."
Marie, taught with tension, sat stiffly against Duo's legs. "You'll kill us if we turn down your--request, won't you."
*Oh God,* Duo thought. *I didn't even consider... I *am* a fool. I should have left her behind.*
"Yes," Zechs shrugged. "You would be much too great a risk to us. You shelter with Quatre Winner, a long-time collaborator, and General Treize has taken an interest in you, though for all the spying we've done we still don't know why. So yes, if you refuse to join us, I won't have any choice but to kill you--and there are gunmen waiting behind the walls to do just that the moment I give the signal. But will I have to? I don't think so. Aside from the value of your life, I think you see the worth of my intentions." Then he suddenly moved with energy across the room, and Duo heard him rummaging in a drawer. He returned, and put his hand on Duo's shoulder again, prompting him to lift his head. "But I have a gift, to reassure you of my good intentions toward you... 02, a little incentive?"
"What is it?" Duo took the cool, slender metal band that was placed in his hands, trying not to fumble it as the urgent swirl of self-accusations shuddered through his mind. "I don't want any gift from you, Zechs."
"Try it out before you turn it down." Zechs was--smug? "You'll enjoy this, I think. You possessed better-than-average sight as a pilot, I presume? Unfortunately this device isn't quite to that standard, but given our resources it's an amazing bit of technology nonetheless. You don't want to rush into anything... blind, I'm sure."
Mariemaia gripped Duo's hand. "What is that thing? What are you saying to him?"
Zechs shushed her with a sharp gesture. "Put it on, 02. It won't harm you, I give my oath on that."
"The oath of a traitor," Duo mused--but he obeyed. The metal band slipped over his face the same way glasses would have, tucking behind his ears. Only a slight whir of laser technology warned him before heat pressed against his eyes, and the room--lit up.
For a moment, his heart actually stopped. He could see.
"You and I both know you can't have your old life back," Zechs said into the silence, and Duo looked up at him, tearing orbs slowly digesting the thousands, millions, of optical assaults that the device flung into his unprepared brain. A tiny smile--the first smile Duo had seen in twenty years--crossed a weary face that was still handsome. "But you can damn well get the perks."
"It's still experimental technology," Zechs said. Duo was listening with only half an ear--he sat holding Mariemaia's hands, staring at her, drinking in her face, her body, her eyes that even in the fuzzy quality of heat-sensory visual seemed depthless, ageless, timeless. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
A detail finally whizzed home in his overwrought brain and prompted an immediate question. "What was that?" Duo asked, not looking away from his '39.
"I said, OZ has been regulating the release of new technology into Space even more rigidly that on Earth. Any new invention or upgrade must make it through a committee--and then the committee's decision has to survive a review; lastly, the Queen--meaning, her Romafeller advisors--give the final word. As you can guess, not much makes it through the process. It's a hellish way to live, at least for those of us in Space." Zechs shook his head; Duo caught it out of the corner of his eye, couldn't help a little flinch when the fluttering on the edge of his--say it--his *vision* startled him. Mariemaia, her face shining with tears, gripped his hands even more tightly.
Zechs continued. He was bitter, there was no question of that. "Almost no scientific advancement in two decades. Do you understand the ramifications here? 02, Space depends on technology--not just as a resource, but as an economic necessity. And OZ has halted the market! No advance, no profit--we're stuck in the worst depression ever to hit the colonies since their financial independence back in AC 27. More than a century and a half! We're dying in Space, person by person, with every laid-off homeless Joe living on the dole. Dole! Can you believe that? Romafeller is even using our recession to their advantage. Government, World Nation aid to anyone willing to sell out--and there are a lot of colonists who are selling out, 02. Wouldn't you? What else can they do, after all? Nothing, that's what." Angrily, Zechs snapped off a frustrated gesture. "It's hell," he added resentfully. Oh, this man had changed. They all had.
Duo was paying more attention now. Being poor was something he understood. He'd never owned anything but the hair on his head in his entire life... and there had been a lot of times when he would have taken a dole, if Satan himself had stepped up and offered it. "Interesting," he muttered.
"Interesting? Try humiliating."
"I didn't mean anything by it."
With an effort, the Lightning Count controlled his temper, and crouched beside the two ex-prisoners. "Tell me now. You're with us?"
Mariemaia glanced at him. "We don't have any choice, do we?"
"There's always a choice."
"We didn't survive all those years in prison just to be shot in a basement," Duo retorted. "We're with you. At least, for now. But you'd better have a damn concrete plan."
"We do," Zechs said, relaxing. "And we'll be happy to explain it to you, now. How long can you be away before you're missed?"
Reluctantly Mariemaia said, "Probably not too much longer."
"Then another time. We have a little time. Not too much. But there's time. Now listen to me. Come back as soon as you can. They'll know you now, and you'll be admitted whenever you come. If I'm not here, the quad leader will speak to you. Her name is Catalonia. She's been here for years, keeping an eye on Winner and Khushrenada, when he visits."
Duo stood, and wrapped an arm tightly around Mariemaia's waist. He reached up with the other hand and reluctantly removed the amazing device which had restored his eyes. The instant darkness seemed... crushing. Despair lowered his head.
But only for a moment. He had good reason to be strong, now. Duo Maxwell, ex-pilot, ex-patriot, ex-freedom fighter and about to be all those things again, raised his chin. "Take it back," he said. "It's a nice toy. Might come in handy sometime--but not this early in the game."
Zechs took it slowly, gloved fingers brushing against Duo's. "Game?" was to soft, chill response. "It's not a game, 02. We're in far too deep to play around."
"Game," Duo repeated. "You're not in nearly as deep as you think you are. This is supposition. Supposition, whining, and arrogance. When you're in deep, you'll know--because you'll be scared, Merquise. Scared as hell and desperate. That's when the *real* battle starts. Desperate men have nothing to lose, and the most to fight for. You're still clinging to your illusions, no matter how broad your vision's grown."
Zechs was frozen with fury. It radiated from him--but he said nothing. After a long moment, he bit out a fairly polite farewell, and stalked out of the room.
Mariemaia let out a shaky breath. "Why did you do that?" she demanded, rounding on him. "Duo, he could have--have--I don't know, but it would have been bad!"
Duo felt a certain weak-kneed relief, too, but had no intention of showing it. "Just letting him know where we stand."
Slowly she took his hand. "Well, next time, just warn me. My nerves aren't up to this!"
He suddenly laughed. He pulled her close, and kissed her, holding her face between his hands and nuzzling her parted lips with his, touching her as he had never, ever dared to do in Rudee, feeling her trembling fingers lace through his hair.
Then he held her close to his chest, and felt her heated cheek press into the crook of his neck. "Marie. Marie, we're in too deep."
She swallowed hard. "I know, Duo." Her arms moved around him, her grip just a little too tight. "What--what do we do?"
He shook his head. "We fight. What else is there? And we win. We have to."
End Part 8
(:./erin/20years8)
