Standard disclaimers apply, i.e., these characters are not mine; they belong to their owners thus it's no use suing me. I have no money!

Author's note: "Nanashi" means "no-name."

If You Love Me by Talya Firedancer

Chapter Six

The room was partly-darkened and in the pale fingers of light that seeped through gently-wafting curtains two figures could barely be made out, on the couch. The two young men were sprawled together in Quatre's study, with the slighter, blond boy seated in the cradle of Trowa's arms and legs. Their low, serious tones resonated through the echoing, high-ceilinged room. They sat together thus more out of habit than anything else, as Trowa's presence had been prompted by something more serious than simply visiting Quatre.

"It's not going to be easy to get in there," Quatre warned him. "They sealed off most incoming traffic to L3-X18999 after Relena Peacecraft's convoy arrived." The blond boy's lips quirked. "They gave out the perfectly reasonable excuse that it was for Relena-san's safety, but the Preventers should have suspected."

"That's why I need your help," Trowa put forth, green eyes steady. "I'm sure your holdings have some traffic with the colony. However obscure."

Pale, fine brows quirked, distressed. "*You're* going there? Trowa, it's too dangerous!" Quatre twisted in the circle of his arm, bracing against the denim-covered thigh to peer, sincere, into darkened overswept eyes. "We shouldn't have to risk... "

"I *have* to do this," Trowa interrupted him. He paused, his first instinct to draw away from Quatre's concern, to end the argument by shutting him out. But by the simple virtue of taking him for love and lover, his choices weren't entirely his own anymore. And he couldn't bear to hurt his blue-eyed incubus who'd seduced him back to life. "Quatre, you know I have to do this."

Quatre's mouth set in a mutinous line. "I don't know," he returned stubbornly.

Trowa bent and pressed his lips to that grim, fixed line. Over the past year it had grown easier to give, and to receive, spontaneous displays of affection. Time spent with Quatre was changing him in minute but emphatic ways. But what he had discovered -- the recent activities of the Barton group, and worse, Dekim Barton's undoubtable involvement -- drew him back to a time before he'd had a name. If he didn't act now, the too-fragile peace and his future with Quatre could be shattered by the weight of the plans that hadn't been carried out before. The plans of the Barton group.

Quatre was holding himself stiffly, the sweet mouth still taut and closed. Trowa sighed, trying to capture the blond boy's gaze but he kept his eyes averted. Trowa changed his tactics.

Nipping Quatre on the neck, the boy jerked in surprise and he slid his hands into the half-unbuttoned white shirt, long slender fingers kneading warm ridges of muscle inside. He could give him an ultimatum, that he would get to L3-X18999 with or without Quatre's help, and the Arabian would help him albeit unwillingly, to provide the less dangerous course. But

Quatre might resent him for forcing the issue and would fret himself sick for his safety. Thus Quatre had to be convinced.

"You're not going to seduce me into helping you," Quatre murmured against his neck, although his body softened.

"I didn't think I could," Trowa replied. "And I'm not trying. I just want to relax you." He cupped a hardening nipple against his palm and switched the other hand to his back, rubbing at the tensed muscles.

"So that I can't stay mad enough to argue?" Quatre challenged. He braced himself against Trowa's chest, exhaling into the hollow of his throat.

"You know me better than that."

Quatre huffed. "Gomen ne. I do know you better," he replied, soft and contrite. "I know I've got no right to worry... "

"Iya," Trowa contradicted. "That's not it, Quatre." He coaxed the warm supple body to relax, tilted the chin up and admired the pure blue of his eyes.

"All right then, no *cause* to worry," Quatre demurred. "I guess my only excuse is I love you." His smile proclaimed that the matter was simplicity itself, in his heart.

Trowa's breath skipped. However many times the blond said it, each repitition was new and startling. Something molten infusing his veins. Maybe it was the way love should be. All he knew was now that Quatre was his, he couldn't let go.

The blond Arabian pressed his lips to the triangle of skin at the neck of his shirt, then began to kiss him.

Trowa closed his eyes.

"You know I was... Nanashi." He hugged Quatre closer, trying to dispel the tangle of pain and emptiness that tagged the old title.

Quatre halted his kisses. He could sense the boy peering up at him as arms tightened around his waist. "Aa."

He opened his eyes and met the silent pool of encouragement, and compassion. It had taken a long while to distinguish that latter emotion from the pity he hated. Pity, scorn, rejection... those he understood. Softer emotions had eluded his comprehension.

"If I don't stop Dekim Barton -- if I let the Barton group win -- I am Nanashi again."

"No," Quatre protested, taking one of his hands and threading their fingers.

"That's why I have to go," Trowa continued, keeping his eyes transfixed. He paused. Was that not enough? "They intend to launch Operation Meteor. The real one."

Quatre gasped. "They can't--"

Trowa met his eyes. He felt familiar cold creeping into his guts. "They can. They will. I -- we -- stopped them before. This time... "

"Enough."

Trowa fell silent. Quatre's voice was dull. His eyes, his face, were weary. Defeated.

"You're right," Quatre murmured, leaning his forehead against Trowa's shoulder. "You're right. It was selfish of me to want to keep you here, koibito. I just... I wished, I suppose, that we could stay out of it this time. That we wouldn't have to put our lives up for grabs again. Gomen.

I was being selfish."

"Not selfish," Trowa replied in astonishment, running a light touch down along the tensed line of spine. "Just human." He kissed his ear.

Quatre pulled away and stood. His eyes were clear and resolute. "We don't have any time. I'll have to arrange for you to get out on the next possible transport."

Trowa unfurled his long limbs and stood behind him. "Arigato."

The sudden smile was bright and sunny. This was what it was worth. "Just come back to me, Trowa. Please. That's all I want."

For the moment he subsisted on the dream.

It was a lovely dream, with Duo's face and long wavy chestnut hair draped over both their bodies and a warm, pliant length of boy nestled snug against him. No, more of a man now -- a little taller, a bit thinner. A beatific smile played over the sensuous lips. It couldn't be real. The lips parted. Heero watched, mesmerized, wanting to stroke back the tangles of hair from the heart-shaped face but not wanting to disturb the dream.

Then Duo began to snore, and the bubble burst.

It wasn't a fantasy. It wasn't a cruel trick of memory dug up to taunt him.

His dreams didn't snore like splitting timber.

He was here, in Duo's bed, pressed against the warm muscled torso, a possessive sprawled arm and leg flung over him. He had no doubts that if he twitched a muscle Duo's eyes would probably snap open.

"Koibito... " His tentative whisper was eclipsed by Duo's snore. How long had they been asleep? He glanced at the clock. Not long. Only an hour. They'd thoroughly exhaused each other before collapsing, so that was somewhat of a surprise. Heero smirked.

Duo began to snort and shift, something he did a lot when he slept lightly. He twitched his nose, snorted again, and bumped into Heero. The arm tightened around him. The American froze. One violet eye cracked open.

"Yume da." Both eyes opened and Duo peered at him, a quizzical wary expression taking place of sleepy peacefulness. It made Heero ache in a queer space beneath his breastbone. "Pinch me."

Heero did him one better. He leaned forward, took Duo's lip between his teeth, and nibbled. One hand pressed against a soft pink nub of his chest. The mouth was softening against him when he twisted the nipple sharply beneath his fingers. Duo jerked.

"Ouch! Mmph--" He pulled his mouth away, eyes wide. "Yume ja nai yo. Only the real Heero would really pinch me." But his eyes were sparkling.

"We fell asleep," Heero observed, lying very still beneath the outflung arm and leg. "Imagine that."

"You're here... " Duo marveled, taking a fold of skin between his fingers and pinching him. He made a face. "Damn, man, you're skinny. We're gonna have to fatten you up."

Heero essayed a sneer but lacked the will to back it up. "You're the one who thought he was dreaming. Why are you pinching *me*?" But he *had* thought it was a dream. And it was worse to realize that although true, this wouldn't last. They didn't have much time.

Duo pressed against him inquisitively. "Wasn't sure *you* were real." His hand wandered over Heero's waist and down. A suggestive grin crossed his face. "But *this* certainly is real."

Heero swatted at the wandering hand, half-hearted. Waking hormones had kicked in again.

Duo's grin increased a notch.

"Stop it," he grabbed his wrist as Duo began to explore. "We don't have time for that."

Duo sighed and leaned against him, kissing the soft skin at the juncture of his collarbones. "I figured. I guess I knew when you found me that it wasn't all just for me." He nuzzled at his throat again then transferred his attention to Heero's mouth, rubbing his lips against Heero's slightly-parted ones.

Parting his lips wider, he took Duo into his mouth. A warm tongue invaded him at once, teasing at the roof of his mouth, and he returned the favor, licking at the slick line of Duo's lip. It stoked a heat inside him, Duo kissing him thoroughly, something more banked and smoldering than the desperate, rough kisses and caresses of earlier. He suckled Duo's tongue and the braided boy began to moan against his mouth, a sweet thrumming connection.

Finally he pulled away as Duo's hands started to roam again – and he wanted to do the same, but there was somewhere else they had to be. Purple-indigo eyes hazed over with lust slitted open to transfix him. Duo's lips were parted and swollen. He started to lean into him again.

"Duo... " He sucked in a breath, wanting nothing more than a little time, just a little more, to pull Duo close. There was no time. "I came for you. I need you. There's something going on -- something big -- and I need your help. Because part of the reason I came is because of Relena."

"Sou ka." His husky voice was eerily calm. "Well, if that's all, I'll be getting on with my shower, now." Duo clambered over him and went straight for his clothes.

Heero sat up and scrubbed a hand over his face. K'so. This was going to be harder than he'd thought.

Relena paced the confines of the airy, well-appointed prison they had placed he rin. Her white heels were wearing a groove in the plush carpet, and a brace of circular, useless thoughts were pounding through her brain. After working so hard, and sacrificing so much to end the war and bring peace, it was all to be taken away in one stroke by a sweetly-smiling child with disturbing, unchildlike eyes.

Iie!

Shaking her head vehemently, the blonde young woman combed her steady fingers through long silky hair. It wasn't possible. How could Treize have a daughter? Gene test or no, the likelihood of that was simply unbelievable. Even yet, how could that scion have supporters? ...a viable power base? Obviously L3-X18999 was more desperate than she'd thought, to throw their lot behind a little girl...

She sighed and came to a stop, pinching the bridge of her nose. This was someone's power play, but who? Someone must have discovered the girl, someone had to have set her up at this foundering colony. And there were any number of powerful or formerly powerful men who would follow Treize's footsteps.

With her heels sinking into the carpet, she resumed her pacing. To be awoken in this wide, high bedroom and discover that she was the prisoner of a child, that she had been captured at the behest of a girl half her age had been a bit humiliating. She didn't know yet what Marimeia wanted her for, even. Perhaps nothing more grand or diabolical than a hostage -- but Relena was resolved to sacrifice her own life in a moment if it were her peace at stake. Perhaps, even, it was nothing more than a child's curiosity.

That smooth angel's face had been composed, the eyes taking her measure. It was discomfiting to come under the scrutiny of a child. But that *child* had every intention of carrying out a full-scale war... a Khushrenada, indeed.

Completing another circuit of the room, she sank into the chair that Marimeia had been seated in, to confront her upon awakening. She was a prisoner, but a well-kept one.

The other thought trapped fluttering in her brain was of Heero. He was never very far from her thoughts, actually. It was a wistful hope that he would come for her, a muted backdrop against the political considerations cluttering her forefront of consciousness. She knew he probably wouldn't come. She knew she didn't deserve it. The last time she had seen him, she'd schemed to split him up with Duo. And it *wasn't* the right way to go about things, with Heero -- but the straightforward approach hadn't worked, and the only avenues left were the more devious ones. She was skilled at manipulation and it was almost impossible *not* to, especially when the opportunity presented itself.

Like Duo's marriage ring.

Pah! Marriage!

Her eyes flashed. It wasn't one that would be recognized legally in any courts.

Biting off an impatient exclamation, she pushed herself to her feet. That was even more useless to think of. Heero wouldn't come. Perhaps whatever had been in that letter would have given her an indication why.

Relena's mouth firmed.

That was why she'd torn it up. There would be no goodbyes. It wasn't finished between them, not by halves.

He would come. He had to come.

She drifted over to the table where the little girl with her father's eyes, calm and calculating, had greeted her. Her slender fingers plucked a flower from the vase. It wasn't fresh but it was a daisy, with long discrete petals.

"If he comes... " She lifted the flower and rubbed its velvet smooth petals across her cheek. Her fingers trailed up the green stem, the stubby leaves, then one by one she plucked its petals.

He loves me... he loves me not...

The room was quiet and dark, but for the incessant clicking of keys and the bluish, cold glow cast over his face by the monitor. Somewhere along the line he'd sold his laptop to finance the search for Duo. Without a war to bypass scruples, he refused to stoop to petty thievery.

Duo hadn't wanted to share the shower with him. Actually he hadn't been given the option; the door had shut in his face.

It was his own fault, for mentioning the girl's name barely a moment after kissing him. Telling him that he needed him.

It was too late to undo, though, and it might already be too late for what he'd really come for. And with what he'd just uncovered...

"Marimeia Barton, born A.C. 189. Mother, Rhea Barton. Father, unknown." He stared hard at the unyielding white lines of data as if he could change them by the force of his glare.

The door slid open behind him. "You're working even on Christmas? Oi, Trowa's gotten to you." Duo's voice was cheerful as he strode into the room.

Heero frowned. Christmas... ? He'd forgotten. Was it that time again, so soon? Perhaps that was another reason Duo was mad at him. But Duo didn't sound angry or upset anymore. Well. Maybe he was being reasonable for once.

"It's the records," he returned. Finally he'd turned up who was behind the takeover of L3-X18999, the person with power and resources to set up Marimeia as a figurehead. To set the real Operation Meteor into motion. "The Trowa we know isn't Trowa Barton." That much he'd uncovered in his investigations of the Barton group.

"Is that so?" Duo returned, his voice casual as he approached.

Heero pushed up out of the chair, eyes flicking briefly over his partner. Duo looked good, in black leather and a zip-up red turtleneck. His expression was nonchalant, easy. He wondered what Duo was thinking. He wondered if Duo would understand. He had to rescue Relena, because he owed her. Because she was Foreign Minister, and had the will and strength to keep this peace together. And even because she deserved to find someone who wasn't him, and could be what she needed.

God knew *he* couldn't ever be.

"You're going?" Duo queried as he snagged his jacket off the chair's back and palmed open the door.

"Aa." He paused. "Relena's been captured." He disappeared out the door.

Duo stopped stock-still for a moment, paralyzed by the audacity. It was only when he remembered the rich satisfaction in Relena's pale blue eyes, her "he owes me" that Duo could allow his fractured breathing to ease. He scratched his head. "Hey, hey. He's obsessed." He forced his tone to be jovial, light, before he sighed and hurried after him. He had to take it like a joke, or he'd take it to heart.

Heero was incapable of walking away from an obligation. And well, he wouldn't complain... not just yet... but he'd damn well be vocal later. If he *did* really intend to be with him, he had a damn funny way of showing it.

"Oi. What's this all about?" He caught up with Heero in the hallway on the way to the shuttle and socked him in the arm casually. "Hunh?"

"We need to go to L3-X18999 and stop the Barton group's plans before they launch Operation M," Heero replied. "I thought I'd been clear on that."

Duo scowled at him. "That's not what I'm talking about and you know it."

Heero remained silent.

It was starting to irritate him. "How can you be so cold, man?" That had cut him to the quick, the hard expression on Heero's face moments after they had finished such a seemingly passionate kiss, the matter-of-fact tone when he'd said he had come to find him because of Relena.

Like he was some sort of side benefit, some kind of extra bonus to his real objective.

Heero didn't pause in his stride but his eyes met his briefly. "We're on a mission, Duo. And we've got no time." His face was set and expressionless. The same look that always closed him out.

"Ah." He laced his fingers behind his head, keeping eyes straight forward. He wanted to know what was still between Heero and Relena, to cause him to hurry off to her side and drag *him* along for the ride. There had to be something. If there wasn't, Duo wasn't sure he could take this. He tucked his mouth down and let Heero enter the shuttle first.

Duo stuck his tongue out at the unyielding stiff back of Wing's pilot. It was a childish gesture but it made him feel better. "Bbeeeda. You're *cut off.*"

Heero pretended not to hear him. At least, he hoped that was what the lack of response meant. Because in Duo's world, that was the most godawful threat he could make.

On a second analysis, perhaps it hadn't been the most brilliant of ideas to infiltrate Marimeia's army.

Then again, considering that second analysis took place at the wrong end of Chang Wufei's gleaming sword, it made him prone to question pros and cons in minute detail.

Trowa looked up into Wufei's opaque, glittering black eyes and dropped the gun. Behind him Dekim Barton wiped at his forehead, glaring nastily at the boy who would have killed him, and he would have killed in return had he gotten the chance. If Wufei hadn't stepped in to intervene.

He had infiltrated the enemy before and worn the uniform of OZ. So it was on his record and this wasn't precisely the smartest thing to do. It was only natural that they question his loyalty, as Dekim had called him up at gunpoint.

"Come with us," Barton commanded curtly, gesturing to Wufei to enforce the order.

Wufei prodded his Adam's apple with the pricking tip of his sword, and Trowa got slowly to his feet after he'd placed his gun on the floor. Arms held up in an unthreatening stance, he followed the man off the dais with Wufei's vigilance at his back.

It was reasonable to assume that Wufei was here for the same reason as he; that he had infiltrated the army and posed now as a puppet of Marimeia to prevent the ruin of everything they'd suffered for. But something in Wufei's eyes glinted the resolution that he wouldn't spare a single thought over running him through.

He followed Dekim into a small conference room across the main audience hall they had been in. Wufei shut the door behind them, sword still at the ready for any hint of aggression.

The man turned and faced him, the weight of his gaze clapping onto Trowa.

He lifted a brow. "Trowa Barton, eh?" The man looked as if he'd like to raise one hand and slap him.

Trowa met his gaze squarely. "It beats Nanashi."

Dekim released a short bark of laughter but his face contained no amusement. "What did you do with him? The real Trowa?"

"Spaced," he replied laconically, neglecting to mention that it hadn't been *he* who had killed him, but the good doctor.

A spasm of rage crossed his face. "Why?"

"I was encouraged to take his place," Trowa replied quietly.

"Sou ka." Dekim was breathing heavily. He sneered. "I knew that scientist wasn't to be trusted. It was *he* who stopped Operation M, I suppose, by replacing Trowa with *you.* But why are you here now?"

"To finish things," Trowa said. He kept his face cool and emotionless.

Dekim was silent for awhile, studying his face. "You really are just a tool, aren't you?" His chuckle was mirthless. He jerked a broad thumb at Wufei. "Can you follow orders as well as he?"

"An order is an order," Trowa returned, indifferent.

He could feel the weight of the man's gaze boring into him. Judging him. Weighing the risks. "We have some new Mobile Suits," he said at last.

"That's what I'm here for, sir."

It was mildly surprising, how quickly the old mask slipped back into place.

"Heero... "

The voice intruded, familiar but horribly out of context, into the wash of his nightmare. His greatest personal failure, his own mistake in rigging explosive, his destruction of an innocent. Of innocents. The voice was tugging him out of the bad dream that he'd been having intermittently ever since that night.

Her light, sweet, high voice. *You are, aren't you?* It was like Relena's voice.

"Oi, Heero, wake up!"

Duo sounded vaguely irritated. Probably still pissed that he'd fallen asleep not long after setting the shuttle's course, but he hadn't gotten more than that hour of sleep with Duo, earlier, in over forty-eight hours. And with what they were facing he'd need whatever rest he could get.

"Nanda?"

"This girl's going to make a public announcement." Duo quirked an eyebrow at him.

Duo was definitely annoyed with him, but they didn't have time for that now.

Marimeia's voice crackled on the line, then the transmission steadied. A placid, very calm face stared out at them. "We of the L3-X18999 colony hereby declare our independence from the Earth Federation. I am the leader of the new government. My name is Marimeia Khushrenada. I'm Treize Khushrenada's daughter. I am carrying on what my father started. Humanity has had enough of pointless fighting."

They were quiet for a bit after the announcement that had no doubt made a wracking reverberation on Earth, and amongst the other colonies.

"We're entering L3's airspace," Duo finally said, turning his attention back to the shuttle controls. "No turning back now."

The madman actually sounded cheerful about it.

"Stealing the Mobile Suits is okay, but we could be detected," Heero observed. For a fleeting instant he regretted dragging Duo into it. But Duo was the only one he trusted with something this big.

"You think it's a bad idea?"

"There's no other way."

"All right, then! Use your head," Duo grinned over at him. He could hear the smirk in that voice. His battle hyperactivity was starting to charge the air.

"You, too," he replied, a flat warning. After a year of being a mechanic, Duo's skills probably weren't at peak performance... but then, neither were his.

"Nani!?" Duo bristled.

"I'm glad you came," Sally told her.

Noin threw her a brief glance and a smile. "It didn't seem right, you alone out here on Christmas. Besides, I had to. This is too important to tackle alone."

Sally turned slightly in her seat and Noin felt eyes on her, studying her. She was about to ask what when Sally turned back to her console.

"I'm picking up a shuttle ahead of us," Sally noted with a puzzled frown. The note of anxiety increased. "They're heading right for the mobile suits."

"Shuttle, change your course!" Noin operated the intercom instantly. "This is a dangerous sector. Do you read!?"

A face blinked onto the viewscreen, a young, strong oval of high cheekbones and a slightly snubbed nose, an almost pretty face fringed with chestnut bangs. Duo Maxwell flashed her his cocky grin. "Yo! Long time no see!"

Noin stared at him, surprised. Yet feeling somehow that she shouldn't be. "Duo!" And where the American was, his Japanese lover was sure to be, too. " ...and Heero?"

"They seem to be having quite a Christmas party, so we're bringing presents," Duo grinned at her.

"It's too dangerous!" Sally rapped out at once, horrified. "You don't have your Gundams. You can't challenge them!"

"We'll think of something," Duo assured her. "We just need to get to the colony."

"Duo, Heero, we're already too late," Noin told him, straining forward. There was no point in risking their lives when L3 had already declared its independence. The kind of guerilla tactics that were the only thing Duo and Heero knew... how could they make a difference at this point? At any rate, they as Preventers couldn't do anything directly. Not without consulting Une.

"We'll see about that," Duo contradicted. "Ja ne! We're late for the Christmas party, and I want some Christmas dinner!" He flashed her his grin again and the connection fuzzed out.

"Yare, yare, ne?" Sally sighed.

Noin's mind was racing furiously. If Duo and Heero would risk their lives for this, how could they do any less? At the very least, they were empowered to... "Sally, let's run interference. If we distract the enemy, they'll be able to get to the hatch."

"Ryoukai! All we can do is run backup," Sally replied, understanding their situation as much as she. They exchanged a wry, slightly bitter smile. Those boys could take a flying leap past the bureaucratic necessities they were entangled in.

"We have to rely on them, now."

"Eh," Sally agreed with a resolute nod. "I hope they're up to it.

Noin pushed the throttle forward. They had to be. As it had been before, those Gundam pilots were their only hope, now.

Laser fire danced all around them, heavy streaks of artillery blitzed past the shuttle and Duo fired the retros again and again, laughing maniacally. He knew without looking that Heero's expression was set and long-suffering as they rammed their shuttle down the throat of the oncoming mobile suits.

He twisted the throttle and narrowly avoided another volley of firepower.

"Yeah! I'm pretty good, too!" he cheered himself on. Hell, if he didn't do it no one else would, that was for sure.

"Aa," Heero replied unexpectedly, surprising him. "I always hoped you'd turn out good."

He smiled lopsidedly at the backhanded compliment. Heero could be so cute sometimes. Hell. Maybe dying wouldn't be so bad as long as it was with him. But dying was furthest from his mind as he increased speed to the thrusters, as a whiplash of covering fire and intercepts from God knew where -- probably Noin and Sally -- began to draw off some of the heavier brunt of attacks.

His heart leapt into his throat. This was what it was to be alive. "That's what I wanted to hear!"

If You Love Me by Talya Firedancer

Chapter Seven

Stars jangled against the backdrop of deep space, each tiny pinprick seeming to glitter and, setting his hand against the thick pressure glass, Quatre could almost believe it was their brilliant tremors causing the minute vibration of the pane. It was the thrusters, though, driving the ship on its desperate shortcut to the waste satellite on a collision course with the sun.

"If only I had spoken out against that plan," Quatre sighed to himself, worrying at his bottom lip in an uncharacteristic nervous habit as he stared with troubled eyes into the lightless stretches beyond the thick glass.

Their ship was moving fast, and with the course he'd plotted they should make it in time but still he fretted. He couldn't help it. It was within his nature to worry on behalf of the others, for his friends – if he didn't do his part, if he couldn't reach their Gundams in time, his friends would be seriously handicapped. They had to win this fight.

He shook his head. Why did it always come down to fighting? Why did men forever seek out more violence, and more deaths, in pursuit of something so intangible as power?

Quatre was also worried for Relena-sama. Against the unanimous advisement of her staff, she had gone to the colony largely unassisted and unguarded, except for a secretary. He wondered if she was frightened. He wondered, thinking back on the calm certainty of her placid, even features if she still believed steadfastly in Heero with the same innocent faith she had displayed when she had taken he and Heero under protection in the Sank kingdom.

"Relena-sama is strong," he murmured to himself. "Surely, her belief will keep her safe." Yet he was still worried.

"Quatre-sama?" Rasid approached with soft tread. "You're not still worrying, are you? Surely Trowa-kun and the others will be all right until we retrieve the Gundams."

Quatre turned from the window and gave him a bright tremulous smile. "I'm not worried for my friends, Rasid. They're strong and they've grown up fighting. I'm worried for Relena-sama, who's in the heart of this battle right now. I hope she'll be okay."

"Heero will rescue her, won't he?"

Quatre's smile faltered. He turned back to the window. "I don't know, Rasid," he replied, fixing his eyes on the brilliant sparkle that sped fast, but not quickly enough. Relena had discovered the true nature of Heero and Duo's relationship, and her reaction had been... unexpected, to say the least. Anger and pain could drive a person wild sometimes; he knew that better than anyone. In the wake of his father's death he'd been lost.

Relena-sama had continued without even acknowledging the loss. Almost, sometimes, as if things between herself and Heero were no different than before. In a way, they hadn't changed at all -- she still loved him. Or thought she did, Quatre amended. That she was infatuated was indisputable. And Heero still ignored her attentions, with one crucial difference.

He became rigid when she got anywhere near Duo.

That had been before. After talking to Duo so recently, he wasn't certain where things stood. Relena had been going about her duties for the past year, very much in the public eye. There had never been any news of a Gundam pilot anywhere near the Sank kingdom. Duo had been among the colonies. Absently Quatre wondered where Heero had been, and if it mattered. He had sent Wing Zero, so he was still alive...

With the current crisis, it was certain that not only was Heero alive, but he would be fighting. Quatre knew from before that he could not do anything *but* fight, when the situation called for it. He was an unstoppable force unleashed upon his presumed enemies, and a large part of the reason the Gundam pilots were so feared. He'd been blown up, shot, gashed open, fallen from thirty-story buildings, been beaten and tortured, and still he fought.

Maybe this interruption of the peace came as relief for him, Quatre thought sadly. He wasn't sure Heero knew *how* to do anything but fight.

"Relena-sama is important for our peace," he replied, voice low. He turned from the window and faced Rasid with bright but serious eyes. "I'm sure that Heero knows that. And I'm sure that Heero is fighting. So surely, he will fight for her, too."

Rasid gave him a short nod. "Now, Quatre-sama," he continued, "I want to talk about this idea of yours to launch *yourself* at the satellite and recover the Gundams without our help... "

"But Rasid!" Quatre gave him his best wide-eyed innocent look. "You must see that by doing it myself, I won't be putting any of you in danger... "

Rasid folded his formidable arms, not fooled. "It's *our* job to make sure you don't put *yourself* in danger, Quatre-sama. And I'm sure Trowa-sama wouldn't appreciate us letting you do so."

Quatre flushed. "That wasn't fair, Rasid," he objected. "Besides, this is something I have to do."

"For the colonies?" Rasid raised an eyebrow, familiar with the argument.

"No," Quatre returned, his answer quietly undercutting Rasid's intensity. "For my friends."

"Waha! Easy as picking the locks on a pair o'handcuffs," Duo gloated, sliding behind the controls of the Leo.

"Don't be stupid," Heero's expressionless face gave him that parting shot as the other Leo powered up and marched out of the hangar.

Duo facevaulted at him. "Maaan! You take all the fun out of my life!" He thumbed his nose at the mini-stoic Heero and flipped off the viewscreen. The American pilot cracked his knuckles and clumped out of the hangar, angling directly for the colony's interior. "This's gonna be easier than penetrating a well-lubed... "

Heero's face flicked back onto his viewscreen. "Don't be vulgar, Duo," he said tonelessly, then flicked off again.

Duo's mouth twitched. He restrained the childish urge to flip off the vanished little image of Heero. "A well-lubed engine," he concluded with relish. "So there. Bbeeeda!"

His smile fell away moments after leaving the hangar, with the continued radio silence. That time in his quarters earlier had been so short, so unreal, it was easy to believe it'd never happened. It was easy to believe the only reason Heero had sought him out was to fight the good fight. And he wondered.

He spotted a mobile suit crossing junctions and hurled himself into the fray. "Shinei!!^[1] Wahahaha!" Duo laughed maniacally, shaking free the suit's beam sabre and slicing the suit in half. The two pieces fell to the deck, shorting out. "Can't have you spotting me and sounding the alarm... "

Well, fighting the good fight wasn't exactly something he was well-equipped to resist.

Duo grinned tightly, the controls playing easily under his grip. It had been a year but he fell fast into old patterns, it seemed.

Happiness eluded them, and fighting was the only thing they could understand.

Dekim Barton thumbed the intercom, a shark's crafty expression sliding over his features, masked as quickly. "I understand. Thank you for notifying me so quickly."

So, two of the kamikaze Gundam pilots had thrown their lives at L7-X18999, had they? They would soon learn that they were far outmatched in old Leos when pitted against the more recent technologies of their own Gundam, and the state-of-the-art mobile suit the Trowa imposter had been given. It was time for those two to prove their loyalties and the price was dear indeed.

Dekim pressed another button. "Have Chang Wufei and Trowa Barton suited up for combat immediately."

That smile flitted over his mouth again. The introduction of the Gundam pilots into the equation was only a minor imbalance to his plans and he was coping. By playing the one set against the other, he could clear the way to begin the *true* Operation Meteor, dropping the colony onto Earth if they continued to resist Marimeia's ultimatum, and then in the mass panic and confusion that resulted, seizing the opportunity to take control by force.

The Gundam pilots did *so* like to fight, and they did it so well... even against each other.

Turning back to his desk, Dekim picked up the personal line. "Have Marimeia and her... guest... escorted to the helicopter. We will be leaving the colony shortly."

"Hai, Dekim-sama," the soldier responded at once.

Whether the Gundam pilots blew each other up, or blew up parts of the colony, it didn't matter. Enough would still remain to come spinning down onto Earth, once it was triggered.

"Good thing these are the only Mobile Suits left," Duo's voice crackled over the open line between them. He knew as well as Heero himself did that they were running out of time. "You're just as tough as ever!" A touch of admiration rang through his cocky tone.

"Save it for later," Heero returned shortly. "We have to keep going now."

"Ryoukai!" Duo returned, his tone unmistakably pumped with his battle vigor.

Heero pivoted to face his opponent, barely aware now of the controls as he focused completely on the fight and the thrum of blood that rushed in his ears, spread across his tongue, making him alive again. The firefight was starting to heat up and he'd taken out two mobile suits already, and turned to face the third...

"A new Mobile Suit... ?" Duo's voice was getting fainter over the open line. "SHIT!"

Heero didn't have time for whatever strong resistance Duo had encountered, as his Leo was slammed against the wall by the uncoiling furl of the powerful Dragon fist. Shenlong.

Shenlong!

Heero's brow contracted. "Wufei." His Leo was pinned but the Dragon Fist withdrew, and Wufei's Gundam stepped forward.

"I was hoping to fight you," Wufei's voice rang through the cockpit, grim.

Shenlong lunged into action almost faster than thought, spinning the tremendous beam staff in a swift overcut. Heero parried with the Leo's beam sabre, gritting his teeth. Wufei wanted a fight? In this battered old Leo it wasn't much of a just fight.

"What do you want, Wufei?" he demanded through clenched teeth. The gears in the suit were squealing as he strove to meet Shenlong's strength.

"Are you serious?" Wufei demanded, with overtones of justice ringing in his tone. He sprang back, the tremendous Gundam still powerful and fast. He was outmatched.

Was he serious? Meaning... was he committed to this fight?

"I said, are you serious, you bastard!?" Wufei shouted at him.

"Wufei, hit the self destruct," Heero ordered him. His suit should have been destroyed along with theirs.

Shenlong lunged again. This time the attack sliced off his suit's left arm and it spun away, useless. Fortunately Heero had the beam sabre in the right fist but he fired the suit thrusters to compensate for the heavy-handed attack, darting back out of range as Wufei pressed his advantage, slashing the beam staff across his suit.

Heero evaded the attack in the badly-damaged Leo then set it down, popping the hatch. He hopped out of the cockpit. "I'm telling you again, Wufei. Hit the self destruct."

"Hn," Wufei's snort of disdain echoed over the intercom.

Duo finished off his opponents and darted into the next junction. So close. He was almost there. Then gunnery fire lanced across his viewscreen. "A new Mobile Suit... ?" He fired the thrusters and scuttled around the corner. "SHIT!" He was pinned down by gunfire.

He peered around the corner and nearly got the suit's head blown off. "This guy's good," he sighed, dismayed. His eyes narrowed. "This guy... his fighting style... "

Duo's head snapped up and he tried to pivot around the corner again, almost getting himself killed. An image of the new suit's double-tiered guns overlapped with a memory of Gundam Heavyarms spraying its double-tiers everywhere, destroying all targets. "It's you! Bastard! TROWA!" Duo yelled, launching himself back around the corner and throwing all the firepower the old Leo had.

"You must have mistaken me; I'm not Trowa," the merciless tenor informed him over the radio line.

Duo nearly swore again. It *was* Trowa; the voice only confirmed it.

A red light began to flash in his cockpit. He'd been sighted on.

Duo jerked as the shoulder missiles blasted off, heading straight for him.

"This must be it... "

A glancing second was all he had. Eyes wide open, he looked straight into the face of what was coming for him. ~There is a moment... a moment in time... ~

~Heero, there's a moment where it was forever.~

"I'm not Trowa. I'm the nameless soldier who has been on the battlefield since I was born."

The boy who called himself Trowa Barton watched with calm, expressionless eyes as two of the missiles impacted behind Duo's Leo, tearing holes in the deck plating, and the other two sped down the gleaming metal corridor.

Silently he withdrew from the battle.

Wufei regarded his opponent. How foolish. He'd stepped from his mobile suit and now he tossed out orders as if he expected them to be followed. He, Wufei, would show Yuy the true meaning of a fight and how deadly serious he was.

Shenlong started forward smoothly. A sensor alarm started to flash.

"Eh?" His head jerked around, and in a white scream two missiles flashed out of nowhere. They plowed into Heero's Leo and exploded.

He jerked on the controls and moved Shenlong back from the blast. When the smoke cleared, Yuy was gone.

Wufei's mouth tightened.

"We *will* finish our fight," he swore. Then he turned his attention to his direct line. It was time to leave this colony; Dekim's main force was on the move.

Slender vanes of steel spun in the air, revolving at hummingbird speed and twice that, then the chopper lifted. Relena remained composed in her seat, hands folded, watching the little girl watch her with disturbing, unchildlike eyes. At this point she was resigned to her hostage status, still unsure what they had kidnapped her for; maybe for nothing more than a symbol.

She glanced out the window, and her world wrenched and spun.

That lean, well-muscled body; the jeans that clung to the long legs, the contoured muscles of his upper torso barely concealed by his omnipresent green tank...

~Heero! He's come for me! He came to save me... !~ her thoughts leapt and fluttered like startled birds, and her eyes continued to track until they saw... ~He came to save me with *him.*~

Their faces were lifted up to the chopper.

Barely, eyes straining, Relena could make out the shape of his mouth. ~We're too late.~

She wanted to leap up, to wring her hands and tear at her long hair and pound on the window. It wasn't too late; it was never too late! He had come for her and that was something; whether he believed in her or the mission or saving the Earth he had come and for whatever reason his actions were right. A part of himself was saved for her, only her – she was the only one who knew Heero this way. She knew that he didn't really want to fight. He wanted to end it, as she did. He had come to risk his life and the moment stopped around her.

Pieces of a letter blew somewhere faintly in the back of her mind and Relena ignored it. They were growing smaller in the distance. There had to be a reason.

~Heero,~ her mind traced over his shape, the chiseled features and fierce eyes she knew so well.

There was nothing she could do to stop the relentless advance of the helicopter. But sudden faith was a taste in her mouth, looking at him.

Heero would come.

He had always returned to her before, like a homing pigeon on the ragged edges of fate, given to her care. He could come, even if he didn't want to, even despite the slender black-clad Duo beside him. He had to.

Neither of them had latitude for choice, anymore.

"Daijoubu desu ka?" Marimeia's thin childish voice interrupted her frozen moment.

Relena's eyes tore away from the window, returning with hesitation to the uncanny composed child with her slight, cunning smile.

"Yes. I'm fine," Relena returned, fighting to regain her own smooth diplomat's facade. Seeing Heero again, in such circumstances after so long, had shaken her. "Why do you ask?"

Marimeia gave her a long, measuring glance, another frighteningly unchildlike habit of hers. "You looked like you had a great weight upon your shoulder,^[2]" she replied at length with a glinting impish smile. "You look like you saw a ghost!"

"Ahh~h, no one can follow them at that speed!" Duo lowered the binoculars he'd used to track Marimeia and Relena's helicopter. His tone wasn't particularly disappointed, and he tossed a smirk of a grin at Heero. "They must be going to the spaceport. They seem to be in a hurry for just going back to Earth."

"They're probably escaping," Heero returned, his tone curt and quiet.

"Escaping?" Duo glanced over at him in astonishment. "Then why did they gain control here?"

Silence.

Duo started to glare at him. He was tired of being ignored, more than thoroughly sick of it. "Oi, oi! She *is* Treize's daughter, isn't she?"

"I'm more interested in the man named Dekim Barton," Heero returned, his voice still low. "Dekim Barton is the man who I remember."

"Is he serious?" Duo felt a sudden tight feeling in his stomach. "Is he really going to do Operation Meteor?"

"Aa. But I won't let him. Never."

Duo nodded slowly. They both knew without speaking the words that their lives were forfeit to this, if it became necessary.

"Since we're too late to stop them from taking Relena, we've got to stop them from taking the colony," Heero shot at him, beginning to race up the hall, his acquired submachine gun tucked securely in his arms.

Duo followed swiftly, a tight pained ache assaulting his breastbone. Unfair. This was unfair. He was so adamant, his cobalt eyes so relentlessly focused on Relena and his mission there was no room for him and he was forced to confront the stark realism that there might *not* be room, anymore. After a year of broken dreams and the bitter parting and dealing with blood-drenched hands on his own, there was too much suspicion between them. Heero needed him now because penetrating L3 was a two-man job.

He certainly didn't need him for his stunning conversational skills, or a love for the feel of his body.

Duo scowled at the taut back as they moved up the corridor. To hell with the woman scorned; he was a lovesick teenage boy scorned, and *he* had a submachine gun.

Heero tossed an explosive ahead of them, around the corner, and they flattened themselves against the wall. Cries of pain and shock rang out in tune with the earsplitting burst and their eyes clicked, as they both moved in unison. Feet moving steadily, they covered each other with controlled bursts of gunfire, lacing a path through the off-balanced soldiers. Duo yanked the pin out of another explosive and tossed it ahead of them as they hesitated a beat, synchronous with each other, then raced ahead again.

They hit the doors to the control room, Heero fumbling for the release button, and the doors snapped aside.

Both of them froze in shock. The room was strewn with the red- clad bodies of Marimeia's soldiers.

"You're late," Trowa informed them calmly from the central control chair.

"Yare, yare," Duo sighed. "I guess you have the same purpose." He grinned a tight grin. After Trowa's missiles had conveniently scored behind his Leo, his doubts had been purged.

"Help me out," Trowa tossed out. "The system is locked heavily and it takes time to get back the colony's balance control."

Heero slid into a seat, his fingers moving instantly over the keyboard.

"Hey, hey," Duo sighed, dropping into the third chair.

"We'd better hurry," Heero noted, voice cold and precise as ever. "It seems that Dekim's main force has already started the operation."

"The last lock can't be canceled," Duo put forth. "The circuit has to be lined directly."

"I have an important friend on this colony," Trowa told them. "When I noticed that Dekim's purpose is the real Operation Meteor I only thought this way. But it took so much time to get this much."

The true operation meteor could only work if the colony's speed was increased, and its internal controls were reset to destabilize the Lagrange point, sending the colony crashing down into the atmosphere, and subsequently Earth. Duo's fingers flicked over the keyboard. He was a mechanic more than a hacker like Heero, but even he could tell that they were going to succeed in ruining the attempts to destabilize the colony.

"How 'bout Wufei?" Duo added, caught by a stray thought. "Did he also become a soldier of Marimeia to stop this?"

"He doesn't do it in such a roundabout way," Heero replied, teeth clenched.

"Yosh'. That's it," Trowa said, and his fingers ceased clacking over the keyboard.

Duo activated his headset to contact Sally and Noin. They had succeeded in preventing a whole lot of flaming wreckage from falling to Earth... but what about Dekim's main forces?

Once again, Relena Peacecraft was on a shuttle descending to Earth. This time, however, her visit would not be marked with a falling star. The only thing descending this night would be the tears of Earth's citizens, as everything collapsed to pieces around her.

"Drop the colony onto Earth!?" Relena exclaimed, leaning forward in her chair. She seized Marimeia's shoulders. "Stop this right now! You shouldn't do this!" She shook the girl, distraught.

"Relena, please calm down," the girl returned, her face eerily composed. The simple rationale of her next sentence struck genuine terror into Relena's heart. "I don't need to do this if all humans kneel down in front of me."

Relena slowly released the girl's shoulders. She was insane.

"Do you really think you can make them?" Her own tone was composed, too. With an effort she forced her mask back into place. Getting emotional wouldn't help, with this grown-up child.

"It's possible if you, as Queen Relena, the world nation president, give me the highest position," Marimeia pointed out, her blue eyes placid.

"What for... "

"You are trusted as Minister of Foreign Affairs by the other colonies. Your authority has much more powerful influence than you think."

Relena felt numb. "*That's* why you... " She subsided back into her chair. She wasn't a living symbol to them. Her capture wasn't the result of a child's curiosity. It had been carefully orchestrated.

Duo turned back to Trowa and Heero, gritting his teeth. According to Noin and Sally, Dekim's main forces were approaching Earth, and nothing could stop them now. Nothing in Earth's pitiful defense complement. Peace had softened everyone.

"We didn't make it." Heero's flat declaration had overtones of ritual suicide. Duo winced.

"Don't mind it. It's enough to save the colony," Trowa returned.

But not Earth...

"You're completely surrounded!" the muffled crisp voice penetrated the cell. "Come out!"

"This is it," Heero uttered, his eyes burning.

He felt panic for an instant, before his headset beeped. Mail. "No, not so fast!" he lifted a hand, relieved. "I got mail from Quatre."

He flicked on the viewscreen and hid a smile as Trowa's eyes softened.

The golden-haired boy looked back resolutely. "This is Quatre. Now the waste matter satellite is heading to Earth. It will be in orbit within twenty-four hours."

~Yatta!~ He wanted to cheer. Whoop it up. Shinigami, old partner... here we come.

"Send a mail to Quatre," Heero told him. "Tell him to shoot Wing Zero into a parallel approach course with Earth."

"Nani!?" Duo yelped.

"I'll receive Wing Zero in space. It's faster and I will go there and get it," Heero said very calmly, as if he weren't discussing a suicidal rendezvous. There were so many things that could go wrong with that kind of touch-and-go meeting. Like ships passing in the night, but space was an awfully big sea to get lost in.

Duo met his eyes, silently pleading. Heero returned the gaze without even seeming to really look at him. That was it. It was a momentary flare, but enough to realize that his feelings didn't matter. Not worth a damn.

He turned away and composed the message.

"Open it here. OPEN UP!"

"There is a shuttle," Trowa told Heero swiftly. "You can find it in the number four hangar."

"Duo, I have another thing to ask you."

Duo closed his eyes as he pushed himself up out of the chair. He didn't want to hear it. Heero had already asked too much of him. "As usual," he sighed, forcing cheer. "You ask me for so many things."

"Hit me."

"NANI!?" Duo couldn't believe he was hearing correctly. No... no, he definitely couldn't have heard him right.

"Open up, NOW!"

"Now, Duo!"

Duo gathered himself. This was the perfect opportunity to vent a little frustration, and here was the pretty face that caused it all. "All right. You have to be ready for it... Iku ze!" He swung his arm in a wide half-arc, putting his entire weight into it, and his knuckles crashed into Heero's cheekbone. The blow was satisfyingly solid.

Heero was nearly knocked off his feet but the next thing he saw was burning cobalt eyes before he doubled over, hung on Heero's hard fist buried in his gut. Sparks flared in his eyesight.

Duo crumpled slowly, his face registering only utter shock, complete betrayal.

"N-nani o... " he gasped.

~Heero. You bastard.~

An eye for an eye. A blow for a blow. Gawaine had gotten his blow in and now the Green Knight had felled him, and was going to run off and save the Princess, win the keys to the kingdom, get married and have four brats with Heero's sullen eyes and Relena's gold hair. Shit.

"Don't feel bad. Once is once," Heero whispered in his ear, then draped him into Trowa's waiting arms.

"Take care of him," Heero said to Trowa so quietly he wasn't sure if he heard him correctly. Then, louder, "I'm counting on you to take care of the rest."

"Aa," Trowa returned as Heero lay down on the cold metal floor and feigned unconsciousness.

~Nani?~ Duo wanted to twitch. He lay limp over Trowa's arm, unable to resist, wanting only for the black-edged sparks to swallow up more than his vision.

~Heero. What a helluva way to say goodbye.~

He felt sick to his stomach from more than the punch.

Trowa let the guards open the door. "Don't worry. I did it. They stopped the plan, though... " he dissembled quickly.

Heero scrambled up from the floor and took off, pursued by demons.

"Matte!" Soldiers ran after him. "Matte-o!"

Duo slumped and closed his eyes. He knew he would never see him again.

If You Love Me by Talya Firedancer

Chapter Eight

Shining silver wings stroked their brilliance against the dark. They beat a path through his brain, clamped as he was in the cramping interior of a shuttle failing on life support. The life support hadn't been the best to start with and Heero had suited up, partly in his preparation for the jump from shuttle to Wing Zero's pod, mostly to divert all the frayed power of the shuttle's systems to its thrusters.

Wide, pleading indigo eyes fluttered on the outermost edge of his perception as his fingers moved surely over the controls.

His vision sought to gray out and Heero forced a pause, taking slow, regular breaths. But the oxygen supply wasn't at fault. That shocked expression, grating disbelief of a whisper forced out over the fist in his gut played ragged on the refrain for his own personal collection of self-hate. Duo might never forgive him for this. Not even if...

Knowing that time spilled through their hands, with direct news that Dekim's main forces approached Earth, there was only one thing to do. He could put himself in their path but only by getting there as fast as possible. Intercepting Wing mid-flight, in a parallel course to Earth. And then, he could buy the time with his own life for the other pilots to arrive on the scene and finish it.

Maybe Duo had known the sacrifice he truly intended, or maybe he had only recognized the dangers inherent in the suicidal leap from shuttle to pod. Whichever it was, Duo had begged him with his eyes not to do it and that tore at his soul more than anything, knowing that this only way would hurt the young man he loved more than his life. And Duo would have tried to stop him, or join him on a certain path to death and above all he couldn't allow that.

So he'd punched him.

Starshine glitter glazed over the seemingly composed face as Heero's mouth tightened. He didn't need to close his eyes for instant replay to offer that moment to scrutiny. He deserved Duo's hate but maybe, if he was lucky... maybe Duo would understand once he died.

He hadn't intended for things to happen this way. Dekim had been a cunning bastard and moved his forces twenty-four hours sooner than his earliest estimate, dictating Heero's own movements in response. The original plan had been to stop Dekim cold at L3, or take off for Earth with Duo if Quatre managed to retrieve their Gundams.

Now he would die placing himself against the descending ships, and never know if Duo could forgive him or would live thinking he'd been betrayed.

A flicker's gleam of sun-limned metal cut through space and across his sensors. He was so close to Earth now, almost falling into its shadow. His fist slammed down on the controls and shunted all shuttle functions and remaining power to its thrusters.

"Finally."

Quiet and curt, he lifted his face to the sun-molten window as the little craft leapt forward. There were other words he would have preferred to utter, to a heartbreakingly beautiful boy with a naughty quirked grin and ready affection, but there had been no time. Maybe he'd already taken the best fate had offered them, and scorned the better happiness by not grasping it quickly enough a year ago.

The only thing he knew, eyes fixed resolutely on the long pod that cut a sparkling trail through space, was that as he made his last stand the best memories, the only ones with any hope or tenderness in his life, would be of Duo.

He bowed his head for an instant, teeth clenched, body strung tightly with readiness. A languid face swam before his eyes for an instant, familiar teasing smile crossing those lips. Gathering the long brown fall of hair into both hands, then sweeping the brush across it. Waking up to a wriggling warm bundle of sleep-mussed but still-smiling Duo.

*Forever together.*

His lips compressed tightly. *Duo... I never meant to break the one promise I made you.*

Fingers splayed over the control panel as he adjusted the shuttle's course to come as close as possible to Wing's pod without metal kissing metal. The crux of this shuttle-to-pod leap was exactly that -- it was a leap and if he didn't catch a handhold, he would spin into the deep black, unrecovered. That more than anything else, no doubt, had evoked Duo's protest. Duo hadn't known he intended to die, anyhow.

And he didn't know that Heero struck to prevent him from following his path. He only knew the agony driving into his solar plexus.

With light fingers he gingerly touched the mark Duo had left on *his* skin. Duo certainly hadn't pulled his punch. God only knew he hadn't deserved it, anyhow.

His mouth drew into a bitter-thin line. If he kept thinking on it, if he kept reliving that moment he would die sooner than he intended, making a mistake during the jump. Right now he had to be focused. Here and now, he lived to fight.

His fingers danced over the controls once more, coaxing the worn shuttle into a last burst of speed. This was it. This was his one chance. He made one last aleration to the shuttle, fixing its course, then turned to the hatch.

As it blew open all the minimal air gushed out of the shuttle in one blast and Heero used its force to fling himself across the gap, a dizzying moment of vertigo striking him head-on. He hit the pod and bounced a foot, his hands searching furiously for a handhold, meeting only smooth purchase.

Hopeless thought welled thick as he slid down the smooth gleaming metal, twisted in weightless space and saw the pod's surface roaring past him. He'd hurt Duo for nothing; he was going to die for something completely useless and now he'd managed to fail an entire Earth.

It was Duo's husky tremulous voice resonating at his ear and Heero's eyes snapped wide open. He *would not* fail.

Not this time.

He reached for the pod jetting beneath his space-suited body and his fingertips caught hold at last. A shaky breath of relief welled in his throat but he kept it back, clinging with all the strength of his body, muscles screaming as he worked open the hatch.

Heero spilled into the dark overheated space of the pod, relief clogging his pores. Alive. Duo's voice had brought him back, even at the instant he resigned himself to failing his jump and drifting to slow death.

Swiftly Heero climbed into the cockpit of his Gundam, shedding the constriction of the space-suit and breathing deep of the stale air. He shut off the pod's thrusters and powered Wing up, bringing the sleeping giant into readiness.

Shining silver wings cleaved the darkness, splitting deep space into pieces with their shards of white reflection. Wing Zero burst free of its constraints and the glittering metal feathers beat soundlessly, treading vacuum. With a fierce soundless cry Heero sped his partner into action, once more into the fight, with only one fixed intention.

In Death's eyes, redemption.

He lay on his side quietly where they had dumped him roughly, moments before. His stomach still felt sore and he tried to remember the last time he'd eaten, failed, and could only think that it had been sometime before the last time Heero had made love to him.

The last time.

"I think Quatre should be here any moment now... " he mused, turning his mind back to the problem at hand.

Duo's manacled hands lifted and he plucked free a few small metal strips from his hair, just behind the ear. The soldiers who had dumped him in here had searched him but not too thoroughly. The metal shackles dropped to the floor and he shoved them away with a foot, making a face in distaste.

He sat up and took a moment to re-orient himself. He and Trowa were still

here on L3, and by now Heero was gone. Heero... Almost involuntarily Duo's hands lifted to the neck of his red shirt and he pulled a thin body-warmed chain from beneath the fabric.

Duo huffed slow steady breath in and out, pursuing the progress of the pale glitter swinging from his fingers, catching the meager light that seeped through the crack under the door. After regaining breath with only a dull seeping ache of his gut memorizing the imprint of Heero's fist, he'd roused himself enough to realize Trowa wasn't going to conveniently let him out, so he had to do it himself. The dimensions of the cell they'd locked him in were small, and dark.

Not unlike the one Heero had rescued him from, when he'd managed to get himself captured a year and a half ago.

A hint of a smile uptilted his mouth as his eyes tracked the pendulum motions of the chain threaded through his fingers. At the base of each circuit the heavy weight of a golden ring concentrated the motion. Heero had saved his life at that time. He had to wonder, as purposeful as his partner's actions were, if this wasn't another kind of saving. Because damn if he wouldn't have followed him, if nothing else had stopped him first.

At least he'd been fair.

A chuckle dropped into the silence of the cell, shattering it. He fisted the gleam of chain and ring and rose to his feet in one lithe movement. More than fair -- Heero's high cheekbone would be decorated by now with a decent re-creation of his knuckles.

"Iku ze!" he declared, clutching the lifeline of his ring. Heero hadn't asked about it, before. Probably because he didn't want to renew promises before this was over, promises he might not be able to...

Duo's eyes dilated wider in darkness. "Kuso," he breathed, hands starting to shake. To occupy them he took hold of the chain again and slipped it around his neck. 'Forever together.' Maybe he hadn't renewed that promise, not because he didn't want to but because he thought he wouldn't be able.

Heero intended to die.

The realization made him snap back to attention, made the battle- fires burn more fiercely. No wonder Heero had k.o.'d him, because he *would* have followed. If only to prevent Heero from doing something so fatalistic. Only he hadn't counted on Duo's determination.

"Heero no baka," he muttered, tucking his ring back into the neck of his shirt. Moving to the door he slipped his lockpicks into his hands. He was mildly annoyed that Trowa hadn't seen fit to stop by and liberate him, but Trowa had always done things his own way. There was a prick of irritation, though, knowing that if it had been Quatre locked in a lightless cramped cell he would've been out of here in a jiffy.

He paused with the door wedged half-open by his foot and groped for the hidden ring, abruptly superstitious. "Saa... Ganbatte... Heero, ganbatte yo!" he spoke the words, voice growing thick and nearly stopping altogether. "Come back to me, willya?"

If anything, he reasoned as he darted up the corridor, making as a slim shadow to the shuttle bay, so that he could hurl curses at Heero like a shrieking fishwife for such a dirty trick.

Someone spotted him and sounded the alarm and Duo ran like hell, dodging gunfire as he barrelled into the shuttle bay, leaping in near zero-gee into the open door of the shuttle that was powering up. Time to make his escape.

"Yo!" Duo hailed the silent figure in the pilot's chair. Trowa had ditched the uniform of Marimeia and his arms folded as he waited patiently. "That was very kind of you. You could've at least helped me," Duo said cheerfully, letting only a little of his irritation color his voice.

"I wasn't waiting for you," Trowa returned.

"Oh?" Duo widened his eyes. Well, who else... ?

"Okay, guys, I rescued all the colony hostages!" a feminine voice filled the shuttle. Duo blinked furiously as Sally Po approached the cockpit.

"Good, let's get going," Trowa said calmly, and began to coax the throttle forward.

"Hai, hai... " Duo sighed. "I see everything now." He put a hand to his head, expression growing abashed.

"Arigato, Duo," Sally turned her warm, almost amused smile on him. "For saving some leftovers."

"You better not mean that sarcastically!" Duo lifted his chin, tossing the braid around. He gave her a grin.

And now, truly, the only thing left was to fight the good fight.

Relena moved forward with hands clasped, head bowed. Earth was going to surrender, and there was no one left to fight. Heero... where was Heero? Had he written her off as a lost cause? He owed her his life and with it he'd never stopped fighting, so where was he now?

Marimeia's reign of terror would begin now, so barely after Christmas. The blonde girl pressed her face against her hands.

It was a delicately-wrought irony that this old-eyed child, Treize's daughter, sought to carry forward his obsolete power- grasping plans not only after Absolute Pacifism had become a widely- embraced ideal but after Treize himself had given up his intentions. Marimeia sought to uphold a truly finished ideal of domination.

Her back was still straight as she moved forward into the room, a new prison, ushered by soldiers. It made her want to laugh -- she was a *pacifist,* God knew... what could she do to resist them? It was times like this, though, that called her simon-pure ideals into question. By giving in, by not fighting, they subjected Earth to a reign of terror, of Dekim's puppet dictatorship. Yet the only way for peace to be preserved was by Heero's fighting spirit, by him and the others when she had urged him time and again not to fight. Yet what was the worth of a peace bought not by people and their true desires, but the strength of a sword or mobile suit?

If they didn't fight, Earth would fall.

If they fought, there was war. More death and suffering.

She had fought someone, before. A bitter metallic tang welled up at the back of her throat. She was still sickened by her own actions towards Duo Maxwell, more than a year ago. It only convinced her more firmly than ever that fighting was not the answer; could never be a solution and only bred more hatred and conflict. Heer had given her that stern lesson in the return blow that had splintered her vision into fiery shards of pain.

She continued to stare out the window at the stars. Really it was the only thing she could do.

"Heero," she uttered, quiet, against the silent frosted stretches of window that revealed an equally reticent stretch of sky. "Oh!!"

Relena lurched forward and braced herself against the sill as the entire mansion trembled and shook, rocking in its moorings like a ripping faultline had seized control. With wide incredulous eyes she watched the window swallowed up by turf, then earth, and then steel girters and plate rose flush against the glass as the building continued to sink.

When descent finally grated to a halt, they had passed through six gates into a steel bunker deep underground.

Relena regarded the dark opaqueness of the glass, so recently clear and showing starshine, with amazement.

Now, she wouldn't be able to see Heero's approach.

"Now my castle has attained perfection."

The thin childish treble pierced the air and Relena turned from the now-useless window to confront Marimeia's satisfied complacent eyes.

"Do you find it strange? That a shelter like this is necessary in a peaceful world, without arms?" Her tinkling laughter cut cruelly over the ears. "History can be compared to an Endless Waltz. War, peace, and revolution repeats itself like the triple time in a waltz... But history will change with my succession. I will rule over the Earth Alliance with the passing of the year A.C. 196. It will be the coming of a new era."

So reasoned. So logical. Relena regarded this little girl with the same astonishment of a clear pane turned dark.

The great gleaming bulk of Tallgeese had settled to Earth, buster guns temporarily exhausted. He had pitted himself, a lone fighter, against the advancing fleet but the threat of dropping the colony on Earth had been enough to force a retreat, eventually, despite his attempt to fight. Zechs Marquise stood on the open hatch of the cockpit, regarding the slender dark figure with astonishment. He had tried to stop Dekim's descending forces while still in space, and failed. Now the brunt of breaching the defense lines on Earth fell to him -- one of the few fighters left -- before it was indeed too late.

*Zechs Marquise! You're still alive... *

*No, I'm dead. But I sleep uneasily in the coffin so long as the ghost of Treize is still around.*

He shook his head sharply to dispel the strange fanciful sensation of that lingering spirit. It wasn't malicious. More... it was regretful. Treize would not have wanted *this.*

"Noin. I didn't ask you to join me, nor do I expect you to do so now," Zechs put forth, dropping down from the hatch to the ground. The words were curt and he regretted them the instant they left his lips.

Noin's face clenched like a fist. "I know that, Zechs-sama," she replied steadily. "I also know that despite even *your* reaction time, you can't expect to assault the defense lines of Dekim's forces alone and survive to reach Marimeia's stronghold."

"Noin, you've only got an old Taurus--" he began his protest, and was cut off.

"Zechs-sama!" she said sharply. "You are willing to lay down your life for Earth's freedom, for the peace your sister dedicated herself to build. Are you denying me the same strength of conviction?"

Her slender body vibrated like a taut bowstring, and her hands were fisted at her sides. He had the irrational conviction as she spat the words at him so fiercely that she would've shaken a fist in his face if she hadn't held him in such high respect. He stared at her, and saw the figures of men, her own students, who had fallen in battle. He saw the pieces of a life she had devoted to first his own, and then his sister's ideals.

"Noin... " he breathed, troubled. He'd underestimated her strength, again.

The young lieutenant continued aggressively, mistaking his emotion for doubt. "I have fought as a warrior as much as you. I have the same right to commit myself to the battlefield even when I can already judge its outcome. But Relena-sama -- iie, her peace -- deserves our true willingness to preserve it with our lives."

Zechs took the step that separated them and grasped her shoulders. "Enough." Noin angled her head and her eyes continued to glare at him, dark angry sparks.

"Zechs-sama... " she protested.

"Enough, Noin. Mou ie. You're right, and I have never doubted your commitment," Zechs interrupted her. "I didn't hink I possessed the right to ask you to throw your life away, nor do I think you should. But should you choose to follow me... " He gave her a searching once-over.

Noin gave him a quick nod, long dark bangs sweeping over her cheek like immense lashes. The angry flare of her eyes had softened to that worshipful shine he detested.

He wasn't worthy of her devotion.

"Should you choose to follow me, Noin, I can only urge you to do your best."

Noin's back went ramrod-straight and he could almost feel the military *click* of her heels. "Hai! Zechs-sama!"

*Have you come to watch the end of the world?* Sloe-dark eyes confronted him with passionate fury from a slim bronze face. *Have you come to fight ~against~ all you had fought for?*

The face lengthened, shifted, became an older, world-weary aquiline profile. *Would you destroy all we died for, young dragon?*

The drama had been playing against the insides of his eyelids for more than ten minutes, maybe more than twenty -- an immeasurable length of time, but Wufei was nevertheless alert. He drifted, Nataku a spot of light wheeling a dance at the Earth's edge thousands of miles above the ponderous ballet of the mobile suits seizing control on the ground below. Dekim hadn't ordered him to take watch here. He had taken it upon himself.

Heero would be coming.

His intermittent harsh breath was the only thing that interrupted the stuffy air. He wondered as he dozed, half a meditation, half a reliving of the moment when his colony had exploded, if Nataku would approve of the course he had undertaken now. These events, this dance had begun as a fight for justice, a continuation of Nataku's will, a woman fierce and unclaimed by evil. Now he had joined Marimeia's endless waltz of destruction because fighting was the only way he knew.

There was no home to go back to. No triumphal procession or honors to be bestowed. No Meiran to admit that he had measured up to he--to Nataku's standards.

No Treize, to admit defeat.

Without all this, there was no rest, as there was no rest for the wicked and so he continued to fight.

The cockpit lurched with light from the sensors. Someone approached Earth rapidly.

Yuy. Kisama...

"There you are," Wufei muttered, teeth clenched, gleaming dark eyes flickering to fix on the approaching pinpoint of light. He flexed for a moment, muscles flowing into a state of battle readiness. Then he operated the inter-cockpit communications band.

"I can't allow you to go to Earth!" he hurled the words at Yuy as he fired up Shenlong's thrusters into an intercepting course, Yuy's Wing Zero rocketing straight for him and he simultaneously unfurled the Dragon Fist in a vicious strike.

Heero evaded the lash by mere meters, the tremendous glittering wings beating vacuum.

"Is this what you call justice?" Yuy flung back, the controlled edge of his anger burning over the open line.

That thorn had already been pricking his side and now it dug deeper. Wufei shoved those considerations aside. He was already locked into this fight. "There are always some victims when trying to achieve peace," he returned with cold precision, shaking loose his thermal staff. Green fire sputtered against cold space.

In response the beam saber snapped into Wing Zero's fist and it flared to life. Heero would fight him. Heero was committed, as he was, to this battle.

"Evil is the only option left to me," Wufei snapped, but it wasn't truly Yuy he was talking to and he knew it. It was a justification for Nataku's sake, of the actions that shamed him. "The world hasn't changed no matter what humanity tries to do!"

There would be other Marimeias, he reasoned. There would be more people rearing for war, thirsty for power, hungry to fight.

Wufei spurred Shenlong into action and struck overhanded; Yuy parried and they were locked for an instant before they spun away.

"The more you fight, the more victims for peace will die," Wing's pilot told him, voice rigid.

He *had* to fight. Wufei's brow furrowed. Yuy more than anyone should understand that. Fighting was all they two had left. In a way they, two fighters, had been heading for this fight all the time and the difference separating them was that Yuy thought he was fighting for peace.

He, Wufei, could admit that the only thing he fought for anymore *was* the fight.

And *that* was why he questioned if Yuy was serious. Seriously deluded.

"We have no reason to fight anymore."

Yuy's words rang hollow in his ear as he sprang, beam saber poised, to slash down and Wufei jerked the controls back, spinning the thermal staff. He struck again and was blocked. Again they wrenched away and put space between them.

"So you're saying we have no need for fighters anymore?" Wufei shouted. He would force Yuy to look into the teeth of their dilemma. "What will happen to all the fighters who know nothing but war!?"

"Soldiers have been fighting for peace," Yuy shot back. "Put some trust in the world that lies here now!"

"I'm fighting for all the soldiers, including you and me!" Wufei snarled, twisting the throttle and sending Shenlong forward to strike. Wing Zero dodged and he pressed his attack, slamming the thermal staff against the unyielding bulk of Gundam, slashing upwards. "We're both the same! Aren't we at our prime when in battle?"

Only silence answered him as Yuy responded defensively, the beam saber grating up against the long gundanium pole of the green- sparking staff. They plummeted into the atmosphere as he pressed his advantage. Wufei clenched his teeth and struck again.

Wing Zero wrenched away and they spun down further towards Earth.

"Wufei."

The voice was quiet, an electronic pair of syllables reaching his ears.

"The battlefield is the only place where we can realize our existence!" Wufei raged at him, wanting Heero to admit it, wanting him to agree that he was right and fight *back* at him instead of just responding defensively. Because if Wufei admitted that *he* was in the wrong, then he was fighting, and people were dying below, for nothing.

"Wufei. Treize is DEAD. He defeated you!"

Wufei reeled behind the controls and Shenlong lurched forward in a clumsy attack. "Chigau! I'm still at war with him!"

Heero parried his clumsy attack and spun away again.

"Relena Peacecraft is wrong," Wufei tried to force his voice to sound reasonable. "Peace can't be gained by doing away with arms and soldiers."

"Is that why you support Marimeia's dictatorship?"

She fought. There would always be fighting, and Wufei could no longer live with anything less. "That's where all the fighters' souls rest!"

"Marimeia will do nothing but repeat this miserable history!" Heero shouted at him. "If we don't stop the flow now, it'll be necessary for more fighters like ourselves! The tragedy will repeat itself forever. Tell me, Wufei... how many times must we kill!?"

Heero closed his eyes. He could tell that Wufei was no longer listening to him; hadn't listened to him from the moment he had opened his mouth. Wufei was firmly locked into his own private battle and only he could extricate himself from it. *How many more times must I kill that little girl and her dog?* He wanted to turn his face away from fighting. He wanted it to end. *How many more times must I be torn from the one I love?*

It had been in Duo's eyes. The sum of his plea had been issued from those expressive violet eyes, although he hadn't said a word.

*Heero... If you love me, you wouldn't leave like this. You wouldn't throw yourself into space.*

Heero cut power to the thrusters.

Wing screamed a path through the air as it plummeted, gleaming silver wings wrapping around the sheen of a blocky metal body. He knew Wufei was watching with astonishment and no small disdain. "Zero will not say anything to me. So tell me! Wufei!"

Once more the ocean reached up to enclose his failure.

Dimly, over the intercom, he heard the answer.

"The tragedy will repeat itself forever... "

Duo frayed the end of his braid nervously between his teeth as Quatre did the final check. They had gotten here so quickly but he had to wonder if they had gotten here in time. His eyes flickered of their own volition to the empty cradle that had housed Wing Zero. The other thing he had been doing, silently, fervently, since leaving L3 had been offering up a prayer for Heero's safety. It was the only thing he could wish for until they entered the battle themselves.

"Is everyone ready?" Quatre's determined voice filtered through all three cockpits.

More than ready.

"Aa! Any time!" Duo responded at once. He was itching to enter the battle. He was nearly trembling with readiness to fight... And, of course, to see if Heero lived or had died.

"So, Operation Meteor was unavoidable... " Trowa murmured, his tone fatalistic.

Duo made a face at old Gloom-and-Doom. That was what they were here for, to lay down their lives in return for everybody's safety. They were here to *stop* Operation M.

It was almost laughable, really. He grinned tightly to himself. From the very start that had been their only purpose, Operation Meteor's execution. It had been the only reason he and Heero had met. And now here they were, fighting against it and the Barton group.

"Iki masu!" Quatre declared, hitting the shuttle bay door release. "Here we go!"

They spilled out into freefall, three bright spots of light plummeting to Earth like tailless comets.

In the strategy room of the mansion buried far below ground under steel girters and gates, an officer leapt up from his post, surprise scrawled across his features.

"Tallgeese and a Taurus broke through the third line of defense at point D!" he called out, shocked. They had expected no resistance.

"What can only two units do?" Dekim responded with contempt. "Move the attack force to point D!"

"Ryoukai!" the officer saluted crisply and signaled the communications officer.

"What a pointless battle," Marimeia smirked.

Relena eyed the little girl. There wasn't the slightest thought of defeat in her mind. But she knew it. She knew. Heero would come.

Tallgeese sped overhead and cut thrusters, dropping to the ground and slicing two mobile suits in half. Faster than thought Zechs pivoted, jetting forward once again, blasting away from the two remaining surprised opponents, who aimed their heavy beam guns at him and blasted away.

They were losing ground.

"This will never end," he noted, resignation filling his voice.

"It's not time to say goodbye just yet, Zechs," Noin's fierce voice reminded him, sounding wry. Her own Taurus still blasted steadily away at the defensive lines, as staunch as the woman who piloted it.

"Of course not!" he returned, his own fire returning to his voice. He sped forward again to slash and retreat, and out of the corner of his eye saw Noin lurch under a heavy barrage. He turned to go to her aid.

A descending mobile suit sparked, then an explosion burst from its torso. Noin and Zechs stared in surprise as it rained in fiery pieces to the ground.

"What just happened!?"

Her surprise and disbelief strained their open line.

Gundam Sandrock emerged from the smoke of debris and the rain of gunfire, its twin gleaming thermal crescents brandished and smoking hot.

"Quatre!" Noin exclaimed joyfully.

"You two have already taken out most of them," Quatre opened communications, his young tenor firm and determined. "You fought all this time and managed not to kill any of the soldiers. We appreciate that. This is only the beginning."

*A new beginning, to this fight,* Zechs thought, not without some gratitude.

Gundam Deathscythe soared overhead, a dark inky shadow that thundered to the ground. With a broad sweep of the blazing thermal scythe, he harvested the heads of four mobile suits. Spraying electric discharge, they fell useless to the turf. "I'll take you all down to Hell!" Duo shouted gleefully.

"Two hundred fifty left," Trowa observed, the twin sets of double- tiered guns spraying machine gun fire across the battlefield. Gundam Heavyarms vaulted into the air every bit as gracefully as the lean young pilot, then plummeted down behind a very surprised batch of soldiers. "That's fifty for each of us. We should at least get rid of all the mobile suits." He blasted the suits to pieces with the double-armed cannons.

Despite the bravado of the three young Gundam pilots, they were outnumbered and soon to be overwhelmed. Dekim's forces were not bad fighters and soon they were battered down by the superior numbers. After a half an hour of close fighting, the addition of the Gundam pilots began to lose its edge as more of Dekim's soldiers poured in to fill the gap of the already-fallen soldiers. Dekim feared the Gundam pilots. Looking around the field of so much scrap metal, wryly Zechs knew why. He had always known the boys were strong, perhaps stronger than himself. But they were starting to take a beating. The only option for him, though, was to continue to fight.

But these boys were too young to die.

"You Gundam pilots -- leave us two here and retreat!" Zechs shouted at them.

"R-retreat?" Quatre's boyish voice faltered over the line. "What's the point of us being here, then? I came here knowing the danger of this."

Zechs scowled.

"Anyhow, there are still too many." Quatre's voice was cheerful again as he swiveled to slice a semi-circle of mobile suits closing on him. They crumpled, suits showering sparks.

"I would've retreated in the first place if we couldn't win!" Duo added cheerfully. "Though I've gotta admit this is one tough battle!" He chuckled, a sound that brimmed with dark humor. Deathscythe-Hell burst into the air then cut thrusters, plowing into two more suits as Duo used the butt of the scythe to take out one suit, then smashed the glowing green arc of the thermal blade into the other.

Gundam Heavyarms' cannons played over the field again and sputtered up empty. "The enemy is just like what we once were. They're manipulated under Dekim's orders."

"But--" Quatre protested.

"Maa, don't worry about it," Duo's voice was strangely gentle. "I'm not good at fighting losing battles anyway."

"Let's get this over with," Quatre's voice returned, firm.

Zechs listened to the boys in astonishment, and felt... humble. These boys, these seemingly fragile former pawns of the war, had turned up again stronger than ever. The ideals he fought for seemed engraved into their souls.

"Oi, Zechs!" Duo's cheerful voice snagged his attention as he crushed three more suits in swift succession, plying the whirling scythe.

"Aa?" he replied, distracted and firing the buster gun down a corridor crammed with the suits.

"Ne... Did you see Wing Zero on the battlefield? Has he entered the fight?"

Zechs frowned and turned to aid Noin, sweeping a mobile suit off her back with the muzzle of the long gun. " ...No, Duo. Heero hasn't been fighting."

The reply was so soft it was swallowed by gunfire.

" ...thanks... "

"Those brats!" Dekim fumed. "They refuse to stop, don't they?"

"Even if they destroy all our mobile suits, they'll never make it in here," Marimeia returned complacently.

The officer leapt up from his post again. "Sir! The Gundams have ceased their fire!"

Marimeia beamed up at Relena. "See?"

Gundam Heavyarms' cannons had been clacking empty for fifteen minutes. Duo swiveled and sliced through another suit, watching in dismay as Quatre's Sandrock nearly went to his knees under a heavy barrage. They were so close -- they had managed to punch through the line and reach the area where Marimeia's sheltered mansion was. But their suits were being slowly pounded to pieces.

"I'm out of ammo," Duo called back. He'd been out for even longer, but only now were they taking a true beating. "I can clear the remaining half with my self-destruction device."

Heero hadn't been here. Heero, who had come to fight. By now... if he wasn't here... Duo bit his lip and swung the scythe, screaming rage as he crushed through another wave of oncoming suits.

"We three are enough to die," Trowa warned. "Don't get anyone else in the blast."

"Ri--right." Duo's mouth firmed. He was ready. A grin curled his lips. *Heero. I guess I'll see you in Hell, after all.*

Sensors lit up, redlining all over his control panel. The alert shrilled a warning in his ear and Duo cursed, blasting back from his opponents to give him space to breathe. What the hell--!?

He heard Quatre and Trowa exclaim in surprise.

Duo scowled at the sensors. "Overhead!" His voice clogged in his throat as he lifted his face to the sky.

"Wing Zero!?" Zechs breathed the surprised cry in his stead.

Heero stared grimly down the long barrel of the buster gun. "Target... locked on."

As he opened a channel to the sheltered mansion below, he could hear pandemonium reigning in the control room. "Another Gundam detected!" someone cried.

Heero barely smiled, the taut expression flitting over his mouth then gone. He sent the request for connection.

"Dekim-sama... we received a message from the Gundam's pilot."

"Heero!"

Relena's voice cried out in the background, as he received the visual input from the control room several hundred feet below. Dekim's upright figure was in the foreground, staring at him with hard eyes. Behind him, the diminutive girl, Marimeia, regarded him with a curious, strangely adult expression, completely composed. The blonde Peacecraft stood beside her, still in dress uniform.

"Let me verify," Heero gazed at them all with impassionate eyes. "The shelter shield is up?" He kept his thumb hovering over the trigger. The target was still within his sights.

"What are you thinking of?" Dekim demanded, suspicious.

"The shelter is complete, is it not?"

"Of course!" Dekim blustered.

"Show how powerless you are," Marimeia added.

"Ryoukai."

He pulled the trigger.

Wing Zero jerked midair as the tremendous power of the buster gun exploded, a column of white-hot energy searing down to earth. It hit the steel target below and he had the moment's satisfaction of seeing uncertainty flit across Dekim Barton's features.

"Bring the serpent force here... !" Dekim ordered as Heero cut his visuals and the control room vanished from his screen. "Take down Wing Zero!"

Heero's hands flicked over the controls. On the battlefield below, he could see the tiny figures of the three Gundams, with Tallgeese, fighting the forces that were still left. An arrow of suits broke off combat and spun into the air. They were heading for him.

His eyes sought out the barely-visible shadow of Deathscythe-Hell before he wrenched his attention back to the controls. He increased the buster gun's tolerances swiftly, ignoring the alarms that rang through the cockpit, and fired again.

The buster gun exploded once more, its increased power burning a track to the shelter. He listened to the alarmed cries from the control room again, satisfied with the exchange as the force of the explosion blew off Wing's left arm. That still left him with the right arm to grip the gun with.

"Impossible!" he heard Dekim's vague cry as his sensors told him the shelter could only withstand one more hit. It would require diverting all of Wing Zero's remaining power to the buster gun, leaving not even enough of the mobile suit to land it.

A fair price to pay.

"Shield strength down to one-half!" the officer in the control room confirmed his own readings, probably unaware that there was still an open audio line between them. "... The shelter will collapse with one more hit!"

So would his Wing, but it didn't matter.

"Stop it! Relena Peacecraft is here, you idiot!" Dekim railed at him.

He sighted again.

"Heero... "

His head jerked to the side, where a husky voice had startled him out of all context. Wide violet eyes stared back at him, then the heart-shaped face broke into a rueful smile. "Heero, if you love me... "

Shit. Duo must have been monitering. And his own Deathscythe's sensors would tell him that not only could the shelter not withstand another hit, but Wing would be blown to pieces, too. "What, Duo?" His voice cracked. His finger was on the trigger. " ...Duo. Tell me. And this time I'll do it, I swear to you." Even if he lost this fight.

Duo scraped jagged bangs out of his eyes, and his face was resolute. "If you love me, you'll do your best. We can't turn away from this fight."

The sidescreen flickered and went blank, and with it Heero's breath left in a rush.

His eyes turned flat and grim. "Yosh'." His finger tightened.

Relena regarded the viewscreen where Heero's face had so recently played, her hands clasped, her face composed.

"Stop it! Relena Peacecraft is here, you idiot!" Dekim was shouting at the grayed-out screen.

Relena bowed her head, a small smile touching her lips. "Heero."

Beside her, Marimeia gasped.

There was a moment of eerie silence. And then, that faultline seized control again, as the room burst to pieces around them and the ceiling fell in. Fires broke out all through the control room as the building continued to shake. The shelter was collapsing.

Relena looked up in terror as a piece of smoking, charred debris began to fall, and then she was a body in motion, tumbling across the floor, the heavier weight of someone else pinning her down.

"Are you all right?"

She blinked in astonishment at Une. Lady Une -- one of the Preventors! But how... Relena coughed furiously as the smoke continued to drift.

"Who are you?" Marimeia demanded.

Relena choked, but with laughter this time.

Saved. Heero had saved her.

"There goes another self-destruct system to waste... " Trowa sighed.

Duo flicked his eyes sidewise at Trowa's Gundam, unsure how to take that. Then Quatre started to laugh and with relief, he joined in. His stomach was sinking.

Wing Zero had fallen in pieces from the sky.

"It's over!" Quatre cried out, sounding flushed and excited. "It's over, Heero did it and we've won!"

"Hai," a harsh voice returned, and a sensor warning beeped on Duo's control panel. He slapped it; Wufei's Gundam Shenlong was approaching. "Heero did it, and now there is no more need to fight." He sounded regretful, in a way, overlaid with a trace of cynicism but the bronze face that flicked onto all their viewscreens was resolute.

"Heero did it!" Quatre cried again, an excited smile taking over his face.

Duo dredged up a weary-scarred smile and gave him a thumb's up. His attention was still fixed on the smoldering wreckage of twisted silver wings and titanic body parts that had rained down onto the periphery of the shelter.

*Heero.* From a distance, only using augmented sensors could he spot the lean tousled body emerging from the cockpit, tumbling to the ground and then hitching his way to the inward-bent, still white-hot edges of the hole he had punched through the shelter's defenses.

*What the hell are you doing?*

Une's face was composed as she stood behind them. The communications section was still working, and cries of people from all around the world rang through the room. Cheers and support for the Gundam pilots who had saved them.

Gundam Shenlong had showed up at the head of a crowd of people who asserted their rights for peace.

"Thus Gundam is accepted among the people," Une murmured. "It is not the winner who moves peoples' hearts."

Relena smiled at the astonished, wondering look on Marimeia's upturned face.

"Silence!" Dekim thundered. "There is no defeat for us! The Barton family is the true ruler of the Earth Alliance!" He struggled upright, waving a gun around the char-filled air. "Marimeia-sama! You must ascend the throne immediately!"

"I... I am the winner... " The girl returned, her eyes dazed, as she began to move forward. "I must succeed my father's wishes... "

Une darted around her, swift, her face stormy. "Please forgive me!" she exclaimed, raising her hand.

Mouth drawn in a flat line, Relena beat her to the chase and smacked the little girl sharply across the face. This hysteria had to be stopped.

"Open your eyes to the world, Marimeia!" she ordered, her voice taut.

"R-relena... " Marimeia reeled, blinking her wide pale blue eyes.

"You have already learned to fear," Relena continued. "I'm sure you are able to realize your own wrongdoing as well."

The over-loud *click* of a gun being cocked startled her, and she swiveled to face Dekim's gun, aimed squarely for her heart. "Stop right there, Relena Peacecraft. Don't tell my Marimeia such foolish things."

"If you must, please shoot me," Relena returned, thinking with anguish only of Heero. She had made her mistakes. She, too, could admit where she had gone so badly wrong. "I'm ready."

Dekim fired and Relena lurched to the side, startled, as she was shoved violently by the slight body beside her. Marimeia fell in ghostly-slow triple slow motion, her tiny child's frame tumbling to the ground. Blood fanned beneath her body against the floor.

"Another Marimeia can always be created," Dekim said coldly as she stared in shock. "I'll kill this girl as well." His eyes speared her through with a glance as she lifted her head to scream at him.

"Dekim!" Une shouted.

The deafening report of gunfire shattered the room once more. Blood spattered through the air.

And Dekim fell.

The communications officer limped from the shadowed wreck of his post, reholstering his gun and saluting. "I apologize... for my betrayal to Madam Treize." He was looking at the fallen little Marimeia as he finished the crisp salute.

Relena fell to her knees beside the girl. She had been brilliant, the smartest little girl she had ever seen, but so dreadfully, dreadfully wrong. "Marimeia, hang on." The girl deserved a chance to be right.

Didn't they all?

The weak, small red head lifted. Blue eyes cracked open and peered at her. "I was wrong. Gomen ne."

Relena stared down at her, distressed. After going this far, if this child could admit her own mistakes, could she herself do no less?

"Marimeia... " she uttered, troubled.

"I'll put you at ease," a new voice rasped, filled with the promise of violence and gunmetal.

Relena jumped, startled. "Heero!"

Marimeia's eyes were fixed on the grim young man who had emerged from the shadows, bleeding but alive, his own gun trained on her head. "Arigato... " she whispered, looking mesmerized. Her eyes fell closed again.

Heero's face was drained of emotion, drained of sight and meaning and sanity. It frightened her more than any expression she had seen on his beautiful features before. It transformed him into a specter of death and pain she had never known.

She had never known him.

Heero pulled the trigger.

The gun clicked empty and she exhaled, realizing only then how tense every muscle in her body was. In her arms, Marimeia's head lolled as if hearing that tiny sound and believing its promise of death. But her breath still passed from her lips, shaky and fitful.

"I killed Marimeia," Heero grated. He looked at the gun in his hand with astonishment, as if it were the first of its like he had ever seen. "I... I don't have to kill any more." The weapon tumbled from his fingers, and with its release Heero crumpled like a string- cut puppet.

"Heero!"

She darted up from the floor and swiftly interposed herself between Heero's falling body and the debris-littered floor. With both arms she caught him, and held him tightly as they sank to the ground. "Heero... " She stroked his hair. She had always wanted to touch it, to touch him. It was soft and silky and she wanted to bury her hands in it, smooth the tousled strands. But it was not her *right.* "It's all over now. Finally." She whispered the words like an incantation.

"Quick, to the medical room!" Une was shouting urgently, directing soldiers. "There's still hope!" A beautiful word. Relena held Heero against her and believed.

*It's all over now, Otousama. I can let you go.*

*Heero... I can let ~you~ go.*

If You Love Me by Talya Firedancer

Epilog One

The golden spill of sunshine could hardly contain the hopes of the sky, let alone the wills of the three boys who poured all their fighting spirits into peace's contradiction. Yet it was over; once more the fires of war had been doused and there was no need for Gundam. Duo knew his eyes were a little too bright with unshed moisture as his thumb hit the button and -- for once -- Shinigami lit up before him with a keening, final death knell of high-pitched explosives. He wondered if Heero had done the same, alone on a wide plain somewhere, putting Wing Zero and his own attending demons to rest.

He scrubbed at the back of his cheek with one hand, turning his eyes away from the bright-lined mobile suit. "This time it's really the end, partner," he bantered in a tone of affection. No long trek to the sun this time.

"Now, I'm nameless again."

Trowa's quiet, inflectionless tone intruded on his thoughts. Duo regarded him in vague astonishment. Oh, yeah... Heero had said something about the Trowa they knew not being the real Trowa Barton. So that meant this one, their Gundam pilot comrade, had probably taken the real Trowa's place. With the Gundams destroyed, his purpose was fulfilled...

"Nah, you're still Trowa," Quatre denied, tossing him a sweet smile.

It was the kind that warmed you clear through, that could bring a sense of almost unwilling elation from head to toe. Damn, he missed Heero.

"Names are decided by others, so stop meddlin'!" proclaimed Duo. He himself was self-named, and couldn't see what all the fuss was. It was just a name. It didn't determine who you were. The people around you did. Friends, and family... "Besides, we have a home to return to. Don't we?"

"Aa. You're right," Trowa turned from watching the Gundams burn, his eyes containing vague surprise.

"What about Heero?" Quatre put forth after a moment's silence.

Damn it. He *knew* that question was directed at him. Hells, who else would it be for?

He tipped his head, expression becoming guarded. "I... I don't know."

"Didn't you visit him at the hospital?" Quatre wrenched his eyes from the crumbling, glowing-hot hulk of Sandrock to regard the American with concern.

Duo gripped his braid in white-knuckled fingers, his own gaze fixed on Deathscythe as it melted to pieces. "Yep. He wasn't there. He had been checked out by Relena-ojousama. Hospital personnel saw him leaving with her."

" ...oh... " Quatre said in a very small voice. "But, Duo, surely you don't think... "

"I don't know what to think," Duo returned, finally meeting his eyes. "I know how she feels about him, and I know that *I* love him. That's all." He put a note of finality to it, discouraging further discussion. ~I also know she thinks he owes her something. Whatever that may be.~

"Let's go," Trowa turned his back to the three burning Titans. "There's nothing left here for us."

A wry grin seized at his lips. Perhaps there *was* nothing left for him on Earth. And maybe, just maybe, he was standing in the way of Heero's chance for a normal life.

Quatre favored his lover with a brilliant smile and Duo turned away, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. He was a little jealous of them. They were together, after all. And it was a beautiful afternoon, golden threads of sunshine falling everywhere and he just knew that Quatre would suggest something for the three of them to do, a partial celebration with the Gundam's pilots only partly assembled but he wasn't in a third-wheel frame of mind.

"What should we do now?" Quatre put forth as he turned to go, too.

"Well... I figure I'll be heading back for the colonies," Duo replied, scratching behind one ear and giving him a good-natured grin.

"So soon?" Quatre turned, an anxious expression flitting between his brows.

"Hai-hai," Duo returned, stretching both arms wide then dropping onto his heels. "There's not much here for me, eh?"

Quatre shifted uncomfortably, his look speaking unhappiness louder than words. "Demo, Duo -- " he protested.

"I need to return to someplace that feels like home, Quatre," Duo interrupted him, quickening his pace to counter the slowness that had overtaken their steps. "Y'know? And Earth is nice, it really is... but it's not where I wanna be right now. I'm a colony brat."

"Oh-kay... " Quatre exhaled, still troubled.

He kept a smile on his face as they returned to the jeep the Maganacs had driven out for them to come back in. Quatre was the one who kept up the steady flow of polite conversation, his face growing animated as he discussed plans for the upcoming year, plans that could only flourish further in peace.

There were things *he* wanted, there were plans that had matured and sprung up in his heart over the past week with Heero's return that he was unsure, now, if they would ever achieve completion. He had gone to Heero, but it was Heero who had gone.

The question now, provoking a wry-wrought smile, was where on Earth *was* Heero?

Was he looking for him? Or securely by Relena's side, claimed by obligations Duo couldn't understand, and wasn't sure he wanted to?

He didn't know where to wait; he wasn't sure if Heero would come or if he would even know Duo was waiting. So instead he would take refuge in action. The war was over, and this time it was real. Heero had said he was sorry, that he loved him -- he, Duo, had forgiven him -- but now somehow they were lost again.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, wheeling with a grin alight to cast a glance over the scattered parts of the destructed Gundams.

~You'll find me again. And I'll be waiting.~

With cool dark eyes trained on the gleaming bulk of the Gundam, Wufei thumbed the switch.

A smile flickered before his eyes and was gone as the keen rose up and he was forced to look away, forced to blink as the high-grade explosives did their work. The giant battered frame of Shenlong blazed up, was haloed by the streamers of light that rose up to eclipse it. The flare of light wiped away everything else, burned tracks against his eyelids, transformed the molten body of a mechanized fighter into his warrior of light, his Nataku. Pried free of the namesake, the gundanium bulk that housed her, she moved to take her place in immortality.

Death transcends.

"Nataku, rest in peace," he murmured, withdrawing his upraised hand and the destruct switch nestled in his fist.

He was saying goodbye.

"Wufei... " Sally's calm sweet voice intruded on the close storm of his introspection and he half-turned. He was grateful for the relief, the interruption that aborted partly-formed tears at the corners of his eyes. Fighting was all he had known, but in the end he believed more than anything that Meiran, too, would have approved of his choice.

There would be no more fighting.

"Noin and Zechs are nowhere to be found," she continued, approaching with a slight smile on her face. "What do you say? Want to work together?"

A half-smile curved his lips, fitting easily. "Extinguishing the last few flames as a Preventor?" he returned. That fit, too, even more comfortable than the smile. It was a means of safeguarding the peace that they had all paid so dearly for. "Sure."

Well, perhaps there was some fight left in him, yet.

Relena fixed her eyes on his face, the sight she had wanted to see for so long and now he stood before her. Heero's expression was vaguely abstract, his eyes not quite meeting hers, as if he were someplace else. Listening to someone else's voice. Her smile turned a trifle strained.

In a way, she knew now, he'd always *been* with someone else.

Ever since she had checked him out of the hospital, he'd been acting this way. The doctors had assured her that none of his injuries had been serious, and Heero had never once complained of pain. He never would.

Yet his eyes looked only past her, and she knew why, and it hurt.

"Stay until after my speech, kudasai," Relena requested, her voice quiet, her eyes unwavering. His cobalt eyes leapt up to meet hers, finally, and he looked startled as if caught out of context. "It's the last I'll ever ask of you."

"I've discharged my debt to you," Heero returned, his own gem- bright eyes fierce. "You saved me in space, before we returned to Earth, and you told no one. I was indebted to you for my life. Now, no longer."

"I know that," Relena bowed her head, a small smile playing across her lips. "But please. If you will."

His lips tightened and he bobbed his head, once. "Right here?" he gestured to the Peacecraft box of the large auditorium, a place the Romefellers had used, and in centuries before had been used as an opera house.

Relena inclined her head. "Here is fine." She hesitated, then reached out one gloved hand.

For a moment Heero looked as if he would refuse to take it, then he stretched out his own hand and clasped hers with a firm grip.

"Thank you for saving me again."

"I didn't do it for you," he retorted, and her smile wilted around the edges before she renewed it with vigor.

"I know that," Relena said, serene. "But along with my life, you saved that of millions. And that's what I'm truly grateful for."

As she left the box, back straight, chin high, her hands were trembling a little. She had asked him to stay, but that had never precluded his leaving before. Relena acknowledged to herself with a rueful little smile that he would probably leave before the first few sentences were out of her mouth. And tonight would probably be the last time that she saw him.

"Peace has been returned to us," she began, her voice gaining strength as she looked out over the crowd, gripping the edge of the podium in both hands, "thanks to the tireless efforts of the Gundam pilots, and the Preventors. Marimeia's ascension would have meant terror, but even as she was losing, she was able to admit she was wrong."

Relena lifted her head high. In the corner of the Peacecraft box, she thought she caught a flicker of a tousled dark head. She would have to speak quickly, before she lost his interest.

"Yet even we can be wrong, for expecting our peace to be bought with other people's pain." She fixed her eyes on the edge of the red curtain. "*I* have been wrong. I have caused pain. But no more would I wish to continue to make my old mistakes. Otousama once said, 'if you love someone, you must let them go.'"

*Heero. It's not you I let go – it's what I wished you to be, for me.*

The curtain fluttered, turning against her eyes, and with a bittersweet smile Relena fixed her attention back onto the waiting, listening crowd. "I have loved our people very much. I love our Earth, but only *you* can make your decisions for peace. Marimeia sought control, but *I* seek to let you go, and choose your own path to end the fighting."

He was gone. She wasn't sure how, but she knew.

"If you truly wish for peace," she continued with her speech, "I am willing to help you, all of you, to seek it."

The roaring thunder of the applause eclipsed the own sudden flood of blood through the bones of her ears. She nearly sank to her knees but made it to the edge of the stage, where Pargan supported her to a chair. "There, Relena-sama," he murmured comfortingly. "It's all over."

She smiled though her eyes were too bright. "Hai, Pargan. It's all over... "

Heero stood with the spaceport roster in his hands and scowled. He was stupid to have stayed for as long as he had, with Relena. Now Duo was gone, and it might take another whole year to find him.

"Duo no baka," he muttered, staring at the list of names on the shuttle that had so recently departed. One 'Maxwell, Solo,' was among them and the dodge didn't fool him in the slightest -- he knew Duo too well for that.

At least he knew where Duo was going.

And, miracle above all, Relena had released him from any and all obligations, real or imagined. A small smile flitted over the edges of his mouth. She had grown up in the past year, as they had.

Heero turned back to the helpful young woman behind the counter, who took back the roster with a professional smile.

"One ticket to L2, please," he told her quietly.

"Will that be round trip?"

"Iya," he denied. "There's only one place I need to go."

If You Love Me by Talya Firedancer

Epilog Two

He paused a moment on the catwalk that stretched wide over the strip of street, homes and neatly-trimmed lawns and kids laughing and tumbling along the sidewalks, and smiled to himself. He was home again amongst the colonies, finally returned to one place that had always *felt* like home, and therefore worth fighting for. Above his head, the thick pressure glass that kept them safe from cold vacuum glittered a reflection of the people and buildings below, with a faint hint of starshine gleaming through.

Above that, the stars.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants and hurried off the catwalk back into the junkyard. Salvaging parts wasn't his idea of much fun, but at this colony it paid to know a hundred and one uses for dead mobile suits.

Duo started to grin again. It wasn't such a bad life when you knew how to take the remnants of the war and forge it into something new, something that could help other people. He came to a halt beside the latest pile of scrapped Leos and Tauruses after punching in his timecard, and sighed.

"Yosh'... " Today's job was salvaging engine parts, for a new kind of car.

"Duuuu~ooo! Deeeeeew-oou!" a female voice split the air.

Duo turned, eyebrows raised inquisitively.

Hilde Schbeiker ran up, waving a thin electronic pad in her hands. "Duo! I've been looking for you everywhere!" she panted, skidding to a halt near him.

"I was on break," he returned, with an injured expression. "Perfectly legit, eh, Hilde?"

Hilde favored him with a wry twist of her lips and presented the pad. "Well, today maybe. But not all the time."

"I am shocked and amazed that you would accuse me so!" Duo reeled, clutching at his heart.

She laughed at him. "Baka. I found the information you were looking for."

"Oh?"

Hilde waved the pad in front of his nose. "About Heero, silly. You were saying you wondered where he was... oh, I know you weren't *asking* but I went ahead and looked it up anyway."

Duo blinked at her in astonishment. "H-honto... ?"

"Take it, before I whack you over the head with it," Hilde grinned impishly. "Is that what it takes, all the time?"

Duo stuck his tongue out. "Beeeda. Well, sometimes." He took the pad, his fingers shaking a little. He *hadn't* asked. He thought it might be better not to know.

"According to this, he left Earth not long after you did," Hilde went on, as if he couldn't read the information for himself. "He was seen briefly at Relena's address to the people, and then he vanished."

"Thank you," Duo returned, feeling somewhat numb as his eyes confirmed what Hilde was saying. He shoved the pad back at her, and she looked at him in surprise before she took it.

"Duo, don't you want to know... "

"...where he went?" Duo finished, with a wolfish grin. "Well... Let's say I'm hoping I'll find out."

Hilde sighed as he began to move off among the scattered piles of junk, rolling up his sleeves and rubbing his hands together briskly. "Ano baka," she said affectionately, and her eyes were bright and clear.

Duo walked through the door, humming to himself, leather jacket slung over his shoulder. "Aaa~ah, what a long day... I think I hate that job... time to move on." He smiled to himself. He said that every day, but he didn't mind the job.

It was more like he was getting a little edgy, being in one place for so long after a life of moving around to keep from getting killed. But it was nice to set out some tentative roots.

He froze halfway through the kitchen, expression poleaxed.

On his kitchen table, which had been bare this morning but for a bowl of cereal he'd bolted and then hurried out the door, were a few items, laid out quite innocuously. Keepsakes. *Their* keepsakes. A battered, worse-for-the wear snapshot, the "lucky yen" piece he had loaned Heero, a tarnished brush that was missing more than a few bristles, and last of all a small oval-shaped black case.

The last time he had seen them had been their hotel room, that awful night Heero had -- *iya,* HE had challenged their love.

He closed his eyes briefly, that old hurt welling up in an instant. He had left their keepsakes strewn all over the bed, and when he had returned they'd been gone.

Duo picked up the oval-shaped case he had left on Wing Zero's hatch, a final goodbye, and held it up with a smirk. "This is... "

Their Christmas present. Jesus, from such a long time ago.

"So... you kept these, did you? I can't believe it."

His eyes were a little sad and wondering. "Heero... " All this time, Heero had kept them. He had never thought a romantic nerve remained in his lover's body, and now this.

Opening the case, Duo lifted out a pair of gleaming silver handcuffs. He grinned again, self-satisfied, remembering an afternoon of trust and a little laughter and their happiness together. Then a hand reached past his shoulder, swifter and there before he noticed it then gone, snatching the cuffs out of his hand and he whirled, even more surprised than before.

"Heero!" Duo exclaimed in shock, confronted now by more than just keepsakes. It was the face for a mournful few weeks he thought he'd never see again.

Heero cocked his head slightly, expressionless. "You were thinking Santa Claus left you these presents?"

Duo blinked furiously. "Heero... oi... what are you doing here... I mean, I thought... "

Heero gave him a very tiny smile. It was a wicked expression. "Merry Christmas, Duo."

Duo's expression turned wary.

CLICK!!

Duo's head was thrown back, eyes squeezed shut tightly. Small noises emerged from his clamped-shut lips, little erotic hitching sounds. Heero had cuffed his hands above his head, linking them to the headboard.

Heero paused to observe the effect he produced in the beautiful young boy, so finally and satisfyingly locked into one place, then bent his mouth back to Duo's bared chest. He licked and teased at him, and with a free hand one finger traced the other nipple.

His hand moved up, brushing over Duo's lips, and Duo opened his mouth to suck on the fingers furiously, eyes still closed.

Heero was lying on top of Duo on the bed, still mostly clothed – still frustratingly wearing his jeans although shoes had been kicked off long ago. His dark head bent to Duo's chest -- which he had stripped before cuffing Duo to the headboard, although the American was still wearing his pants, too.

Not for long.

He rocked between Duo's legs, sucking harder now on the other nipple, and Duo groaned, still sucking on his fingers.

Heero pulled his fingers away abruptly and moved back.

His eyes were heavy-lidded and full of anticipation. Finally, after enduring frustration and almost a near miss again, almost another year of pain and recrimination and self-doubt, he had Duo's undivided attention. He looked Duo over again, thoroughly. The chain jingled a little with the tremor of Duo's arms.

Heero removed the rest of Duo's clothing and carefully contained a smile as Duo made impatient noises, then he skinned off his own top. With a lazy smile, he settled between Duo's legs again, bare velvet skin so much more satisfying, and kissed his stomach.

Duo arched up as Heero licked at his bellybutton, teasing him.

Then Heero grabbed his bottom, roughly, pulling him close. It was time to make his point. Duo groaned and lifted his hips, trying to gain a little friction. Uselessly; Heero held him just at the right angle so that he couldn't reach anything satisfying. He wanted very much for Duo to pay attention to his next words.

"You thought I would leave you again." Heero's eyes were accusing.

Duo's eyes popped open wide, and he had to hide a smile again. Duo had thought he wouldn't notice, perhaps?

"Even after everything that happened, you thought Relena's claim on me *meant* something."

Duo bit his lip, body stilled. He said nothing.

Still holding his buttocks in both hands, Heero shifted down until he was just barely breathing over the tip of Duo's arousal. "You think *we* mean nothing? To me?"

"He-heero... " Duo's face was pained from more than just the physical satisfaction Heero witheld.

He eyed him sternly, judging the progress of his words. Duo wasn't precisely thinking in crystal-clear terms right now, but he knew at least *some* of it had to be seeping through. Heero licked him and Duo gasped, his hips lifting automatically.

"I... will... never... leave... you... " Heero punctuated each word with a squeeze and a nibble at the tip of his erection.

Oh, he *definitely* had Duo's full attention, now.

Duo's face was crimson and his eyes squeezed shut again. "Heero, please... "

Heero finally smiled again, a wolfish grin, and took Duo's entire length into his mouth, wrapping his arms around the lean hips, driving him deep into his throat.

The chain rattled furiously against the headboard as Duo's body arched up ecstatically. That noise was intermingled with Duo's soft needy gasps, and the soft sucking noises. Heero's head moved back and forth and his eyes fell shut, too.

Then he pulled away, wiping at his lips, cobalt eyes slitted and gleaming.

"Heero!" Duo cried in frustration, legs bent at the knee and splayed open, hips lifting up again.

Heero just fixed him with a considering glance and removed the jeans hastily. Duo would get it soon enough. He tossed them onto the heap of clothes at the foot of the bed.

He rummaged around the nightstand. "Where is it, Duo?" He tossed his lover a teasing, almost soft glance. "I don't see any toolboxes... "

Duo was blushing. "Uh... "

"I know you still have it, Duo." He gave the American an amused, almost affectionate glance. "Even based on the *hope* that I would come back."

Duo growled at him. "It's in the medicine cabinet."

Heero smirked at him knowingly.

From the bathroom Heero retrieved a medium-sized tube, partly rolled-up from the bottom. His expression changed. Only last week – iya... almost three weeks ago they'd used this. And things could have gone so terribly wrong. Maybe Duo was right to – no! Those were the useless, circular thoughts that had nearly lost him Duo in the first place. He rejoined Duo on the bed and squeezed some of the contents onto his hand, then reached between Duo's parted legs.

"Ahh!" Duo's eyes shut tightly again, a mingled expression of surprised pleasure and small discomfort, his head thrown back. "K'so!"

Heero grabbed the outside of one leg, grasping the knee gently, his face focused on Duo as his other hand worked down there to push inside of him. A second finger joined the first.

Duo bit his lip, nearly drawing blood. Heero pushed a third finger inside of him.

His face relaxed as Heero bent down, taking him into his mouth again. Almost delicately he nibbled at the head, looking up the length of him, gorgeous naked expanse of flesh, face flushed and lips trembling, arms stretched tight above his head and pinioned.

"Ahh... " His face was much less drawn.

Heero kissed the tip of his erection, then pulled his fingers out. He quickly spread a little more lubricant on himself, then settled himself securely between Duo's legs.

Duo lifted his legs and wrapped them around Heero's waist, his face utterly trusting. It was a pang that rifled through his chest, pushed into him by that simple giving look.

"!!" They both threw their heads back as Heero entered him, and the chain of the cuffs jangled furiously with the tense bow of Duo's arms.

Heero moved on top of him, eyes closed, mouth drawn in a fine line. So perfect... so tight, a warmth all-enclosing, like coming home. And this, beautiful Duo beneath him, was all he had ever needed to feel like home.

Duo slowly opened his eyes to watch Heero's face during the thrusts. His mouth reached up, wanting to kiss him, but unable to pull his face closer. Everything he'd wanted was his, the worst of fears groundless, everything finished now with only happiness left to seize.

Heero stared at him again through slitted eyes, panting, still moving and he bent down to kiss him again.

"Heero... " escaped Duo's lips as Heero thrust harder, his bottom moving steadily back and forth. He groaned.

"I told you... " Heero gritted out, braced above Duo, moving rhythmically, and he kissed him again. Duo's expression was a little confused, then he closed his eyes and thrust back, enraptured.

*Mine. Always mine, forever.*

Heero moved faster, frantic, and Duo's legs drew him closer, urging him on. "You first," Heero panted, hands braced and gripping Duo's slim shoulders.

Duo cried out first, eyes shut tight, arching up, in the throes of it.

Heero bit his lip and shuddered.

"I love you... " hung in the air.

Duo's breath streamed hard, trembling with the aftershocks, as Heero shouted out, still moving fast, then slowed down abruptly. He collapsed onto Duo, pushing deep inside of him as he did so, and Duo's face jolted a little with the feeling. The final climax rolled through him, pushing at every inch of skin, and he kissed Duo again and again, lips working slowly. Tasting him. The cuffs rattled as he tried to bring his arms down to encircle Heero.

Heero kissed the hollow of his throat, then pulled out.

His face was expressionless again as he lay beside Duo, draping one arm over the flat belly, studying him minutely. "Well?"

Duo sweatdropped. "Heero, I hope you have the key."

Heero glared at him. Was that *all!?*

"Ehehehehehe... " a few more sweatdrops joined the first one. "Eh, I meant, Heero... " His face turned adorably serious. He was breathtaking. "Heero, that was... ." Words failed him. Duo, at a loss for words?

Duo grinned bravely, not quite the familiar self-assured one but something willing to believe. "It was wonderful, Heero!" He tried to move closer, to snuggle, the handcuffs clinked again, and Duo made a face upwards at them. "If you're trying to tell me you're not going anywhere this time, I think you cuffed the wrong person... "

Heero growled at him, and Duo mock-blanched.

Heero pondered him for a moment, then he reached for the key. "Duo... I... "

He uncuffed him, and Duo curled up in his arms at once. "I know, Heero."

They settled onto the bed together, Heero stroking his hair. "Later I'll brush it for you. After the shower," he promised.

"Not with *that* old brush!" Duo made an appalled face.

Heero shrugged, eyes half-lidded. "I only brought it to make a point."

"I'm surprised you kept it... "

"Like you kept our ring... ?" With one finger Heero traced the gleaming gold line of the long chain that was plastered to Duo's sweaty chest. "It's a reminder of what's really important. Isn't it?"

Duo buried his face against Heero's damp hair. "Hai-hai," he replied, voice muffled but cheerful.

Heero unfastened the chain with slow careful fingers, tugging the ring off. "Will you wear it again?"

Duo regarded him with an impish expression. "Ask me properly," he chided.

Heero scowled. Duo waited with expectant eyes. "... Duo. Will you be mine, for the rest of our lives?"

Duo scrunched up his face and considered it. "Well... You're bad-tempered. You have trouble displaying emotion. You have *awful* communication problems, and you're a literal-minded bastard sometimes... You take things to extremes, and you have a really short fuse... "

Heero blinked.

" ...sometimes you get this paranoia complex, ya know, where you figure anyone who's not with you is out to get you, and therefore must be killed... You have kinda sort of a suicidal streak. Sometimes, when we're sleeping, you hold me so tightly you cut off my oxygen supply and maybe it's accidental but it's a little uncomfortable... "

Heero sat up, a sour expression working its way over his face.

" ...and the Queen of the World has been following you around like a tracking hound," Duo continued, oblivious. Then he beamed mischievously over at him. "But you have your good points, too, and more of 'em, so I'll keep you."

"Thank you," Heero tried not to be *too* dry.

"Welcome!" Duo spilled over the sheets into his lap. He laid the gold ring in Heero's palm. "Will you put it on me?"

"Aa." Gently Heero picked the ring up and slid it over Duo's left-hand ring finger. When the American looked up, small dots of moisture glistened in the corner of his eyes.

"I missed you, too," Duo whispered. "And, Heero, if you love me...?"

Heero tensed. "Yes?" he replied warily.

"You'll never let me walk out like that again."

-Owari-

Notes:
[1] -- "Die" in Japanese, and I know I spelled the romanji wrong but I don't have character inserts on this word processor. ^_^;;; Nitpickers, forgive!

[2] -- In the Japanese culture, they believe when you're haunted by a ghost it sits on your shoulder, and makes it hurt.

(:./talya/love2)