3 Jan 2006
Sorry for the length of time its taken me to update - and I haven't had time to browse or respond to anyone who was kind enough to leave messages or send emails after the last post *hangs head in shame*
Title: Alternate Dualities
Author: WingNut (wingnut629@yahoo.ca)
Archive: http://www.fanworkrecs.com, GWA, anywhere else, please ask
Category: adventure, angst, romance, lemon
Rating: NC-17 overall
Warnings: AU - AAAAAAAAAAAU. Some yaoi, het, lemon, violence, language, OOC and/or death, depending on the universe. You should be a legal adult to read this. Open-mindedness helps, too.
Spoilers: maybe, depending on the universe.
Disclaimers: I don't own the characters from Gundam Wing; Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu do. I just play with them for non-profit fun until they run screaming back to their creators.
Pairings: all over the map; Duo-centric.
Blurb: Set in AC201, Duo is slipping from one alternate universe to another, trying to get back home.
Notes: started June 2001.
Author's Note: Trowa is singing the Numa Numa song. Why? 'Numa' means 'lion' in Urdu, so even though the song is in Romanian, when I hear it I think 'lion lion', so of course it naturally became Trowa's theme song!
Part 8b ~ Project
"Not bad?!" Zechs' unmistakable voice preceded him into the simulator. "If he were in the Project, that score would put him in the same range as Lowe and Winner, and on his first try, too. I'd say that's quite a bit better than 'not bad.'
"Yes, but he's not in th-" Noin broke off, her mouth slowly opening in dawning comprehension and shock. Zechs smiled hopefully at her.
Noin snapped her mouth shut, and directed a clenched-teeth smile at Duo. "Would you excuse us for a moment?"
"No problem," Duo said as he unbuckled and floated free of his seat. He stretched down automatically to touch the magnetized soles of his boots to the metal deck, straightening as they made contact. He was a little taken aback to realize that he had to look up to see Noin's face. He was short - really short. He must be in the past again, but how old was he? He was too big to be a child - a teenager, it looked like, and around the same size as when he'd first met Noin - about 15, then?
"I'll just hang out over here," he continued, walking sticky-footed back to the doorway. He was glad to be given a few minutes to orient himself to the changed situation. This 'Project' obviously had something to do with Mars, but what? And if he wasn't a part of it yet, did he want to be? Damnit, why did he always have to deal with momentous life events for his counterparts?
Noin nodded and grabbed Zechs' arm none too gently, all but dragging him over to the big display screen, where she began whispering to him urgently. She was facing away from Duo's position - trying to be polite, Duo assumed.
He eased a little farther to his right so that he could read her lips in the reflection off the now-blank display screen. Zechs was facing him, so that was no problem. Duo watched avidly, hoping to find out what situation he was in this time.
"No," Noin said firmly. "No, no, no, no, no. You are not going to dump another rescue case on me and hope that the team will be able to absorb him."
"He's an excellent pilot," Zechs said. Duo had expected him to look arrogant or demanding, but instead his expression was almost pleading.
"That's what you said about Winner, and look how well he turned out," Noin said through gritted teeth.
"I will admit Winner has certain... personality issues," Zechs said, "but he is consistently second or third on the pilots' list."
"And he's a right royal pain in the ass outside the cockpit," Noin snapped back, "especially when he 'forgets' his meds!"
Duo kept his jaw from dropping with a massive effort. Winner - *Quatre?* - was a pain in the ass? Whoa, wait minute, Quatre, medicine - did this have anything to do with Zero Syndrome?
"I simply can't afford a repeat of that sort of thing," Noin continued. "For God's sake, Mil, the final team will be chosen in less than a month's time - even given how good a pilot this Duo is, he probably hasn't got the background to fit in with the rest of the Project. It would be a waste of time and resources to train him."
OK, so Zechs = Mil, and Noin = snob, Duo thought.
"Yes, Noin, the final team will be chosen in a month's time," Mil said heatedly, "and if I don't make the cut, then I want to be able to show that I have the judgement and ability to switch over to the administrative side of the Project. I can't - " he broke off and looked away for a moment, his jaw tightening. "I can't just leave and go do what my father deems to be 'proper' work without at least an attempt at doing what I want to do. And I can do good, useful work here, Noin, even if I don't make the flight crew."
"I know you can," Noin agreed. "But you've been top of the pilots' list since you first came onboard the Project. They would be mad not to choose you, and you know that."
"Unless His Majesty my father pulls some strings and persuades Admin to leave me behind. You know he could do that."
Noin bit her lip and did not answer.
OK, Duo thought, so King Timonious is still alive, and powerful enough to affect things on this Project. Maybe Sanq never fell in this universe - that would match up with Milliardo never changing his name.
"Duo is friendly and outgoing," Mil continued, "and I really don't think he'll have any trouble fitting in without upsetting everyone else. He's smart, too - his guardian showed me his grades from school, and they're top notch. He may surprise you with the amount he can learn in one month's time. Just give him a chance." He put a hand on her arm. "Give me a chance, Noin."
Noin's shoulders slumped. "I hate it when you pull that crap on me, Mil - mostly because it works." She sighed and rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache. "All right, lay it on me. What's the reason he never tried out for the Project before - and why does he need your sponsorship to get in?"
"The reason he never tried out before is because he's been living at the orphanage that raised him, contributing most of his odd-jobs income and spare time to maintaining the building and helping with the other children. Father Maxwell, who runs the orphanage -"
Father Maxwell was alive? Duo swayed, his knees going weak - if he were in gravity he would have sat down abruptly. Father Maxwell, Sister Helen, all those kids - they hadn't been killed?
"- has told Duo many times that he should start training so he can make something of himself, but the boy just smiles and keeps on. The good Father is getting on in years, and apparently Duo's efforts make the difference between keeping the place up and letting it slide into squalor."
Duo frowned slightly. Why would his counterpart leave if Father needed him? Maybe he should go back to L2...
"Uh-huh," Noin said, crossing her arms over her chest. "So why did this paragon of virtue decide to leave not only the orphanage, but the whole colony as well?"
"Well, you know I took Tallgeese out for a test-flight, to check its space-readiness. I ended up at L2, tweaking a few things in a hangar late in the night-shift."
"Tweaking a few things?!?" Noin snorted. "You should have left that half-finished pile of junk in the museum where you found it. Whoever labelled it a 'mobile' suit obviously never realized the sheer amount of maintenance it would take to keep it moving."
Noin waved a hand as Mil opened his mouth indignantly. "Never mind - so there you were, late at night in the maintenance bay, and what? Duo waltzed into the hangar, said he'd realized he wanted to get a life, and how about taking him into the Project?"
Mil grinned at her. "No, he waltzed into the hangar, realized he wanted Tallgeese, and went for a joyride in it."
Noin narrowed her eyes. "And you let him? No, you wouldn't have, not after Otto... Wait a second - you didn't know he was doing it, did you?"
Duo felt smug. Even in this universe, no one saw him coming until it was too late.
Mil shook his head. "I was calibrating the left leg - I'd crawled up inside the upper half, so Duo didn't see me, either. Tallgeese was already powered up, so all he had to do was slip into the cockpit and take off. I hung on for dear life when I felt it start to move. Let me tell you, that suit seems to move a lot faster when you're *outside* the cockpit."
Aw, man!! Duo wished he could remember what a joyride in Tallgeese felt like. Nothing could match his 'Scythe, of course, but Tallgeese was definitely the fastest of all the mobile suits. It would have been fun to go screaming around in it, just once...
Noin was staring at Mil, outraged. "You want me to take on a *criminal!?* Someone who endangered your life for a stupid joyride?"
"It was his first offence, Noin, and he didn't harm anything. He stayed away from traffic lanes, he didn't crash, and he took Tallgeese back to the hangar when he was done. I was fine, I was able to apprehend him without incident as soon as the hatch opened. I was also able to talk to the police and a judge on L2, and we all agreed that it would be a waste of a life to start him on the road to jail. The police charged him with a misdemeanour and the judge handed down a suspended sentence for as long as Duo is enrolled in the Project. Father Maxwell came on board as well, extracting a promise from Duo to do his best while he's here. If he washes out, it won't be for lack of trying."
Duo swallowed, but the lump in his throat didn't budge. His counterpart had promised Father Maxwell to do his best? Then he would do his best for his counterpart. He would not screw this up.
Noin glared at the tall blond. "So if I don't agree, then not only am I disappointing you and blighting your chances if your father gets you pulled from the flight crew, I'm also going to be responsible for turning a civic-minded but high-spirited young man into a criminal."
Mil smirked. "I knew you'd see it my way. But you wouldn't be worried if you had seen his test flight! He really put that machine through its paces, all at or near top speed, and with only the barest previous experience. He's just a natural in the cockpit. Honestly, Noin, he'll be a real asset to the Project."
Noin snorted softly. "Sure, Mil."
She glanced over her shoulder at Duo, who straightened himself up and gave her his best ingratiating big-eyed puppy look. He wasn't as good at it as Quatre - well, no one in the sphere was, really - but it was enough to lessen the tension lines around her mouth as she turned back to Mil.
"All right," she sighed. "I'll report his simulation score to the Commander and grant him provisional acceptance, subject to a psych evaluation, but that's as far as I'm willing to go."
"Thank you, Noin!" Zechs beamed at her, and transferred his broad smile to Duo intact.
Duo grinned back, relieved. He didn't know what he would have done if he'd messed up his counterpart's chances.
Noin even managed a smile, but then her gaze slid over Duo's shoulder and her eyes widened a bit.
"Milliardo." The masculine voice coming from the doorway at his shoulder was flat, unaccented, and instantly recognizable - Heero.
For an instant Duo was caught between emotions - surprise, pleasure, and amusement (didn't he used to say Relena's name exactly the same way?) - before he recovered himself and turned a welcoming smile towards his friend.
Heero wasn't even looking at him. He was gazing at Mil, but his expression of obvious (or obvious to Duo, anyway) affection clouded over quickly as he caught the pleased and proud look Mil was directing at Duo.
Heero took two steps into the simulator and turned, putting himself between Duo and Mil and meeting Duo's faltering smile with a narrow-eyed frown. "Who the hell are you?"
Duo stretched his mouth into a semblance of a grin. "Duo Maxwell. Who the hell are you?" he said as cheerfully as he could manage.
"This is Odin Lowe," Mil said, moving forward and placing his hands on Heero's shoulders, "one of the Project's top pilots."
Odin's scowl melted into a smirk, and he leaned back slightly into Mil's chest.
Duo almost rolled his eyes - yeah, ok, I get the message, Mil likes you better than me, nyah, nyah, nyah. Geez, when had Heero ever been that shallow?
He thought about that after the four of them left the simulator, snagging Duo´s scuffed-up duffel from a rack as they went. Noin and Zechs walked in front, discussing an upcoming visit from the Project's executive board, while he and Odin trailed along behind.
The Heero he had first met back in his own universe had been forged by necessity and desperate old men into a battle-scarred killer by the time he was 15 - a focussed human weapon who ignored laws, social conventions and survival instinct in order to achieve his goals. If that had been Heero back in the simulator, he would have said something direct, like, "Mil is mine. Make a move on him and I'll kill you."
Well, actually, Heero probably wouldn't have allowed himself to be distracted by something as inconsequential as an attraction to another person in the first place. And if he had been, he wouldn't have been so insecure as to feel the need to assert his claim - self-assurance was a bedrock characteristic of Heero's personality.
Of course, there were some pretty strong indications that the Alliance oppression that had helped shape Heero's character had not taken place in this universe.. The Sanq monarchy was still going strong, so the Alliance attack on Sanq had either failed or had never happened. Father Maxwell was still alive, so the upheaval on L2 leading to the Maxwell Church massacre had been at least blunted, if not headed off entirely. Most importantly, the resources of the Earth Sphere seemed to be geared towards this Mars Project, instead of towards building armies and war machines to support the suppression of the colonies.
While he could be grateful on a sphere-wide level that it looked like years of bloodshed and oppression had not happened, on a personal level... Duo snuck a look at Odin, who was ogling Mil's backside with a self-satisfied air.
He sighed, ignoring the condescending smirk Odin directed at him.
It was pretty clear that Odin had never been exposed to the kind of intensive training Heero had endured. He must have at least some of Heero's qualities in order to be so near the top of the pilots' list, but still...
He was just so... immature.
Odin was a huge disappointment, and it didn't sound like Quatre would be much better, given what he had heard so far. That was two of his friends that had been affected negatively, despite the more positive Earth-sphere conditions. It was frightening to think that his friends were only the exceptional people they were because of the horrific things they had endured, that the best in them had been brought out only by the worst of events.
Mil seemed all right, though, and Noin was actually improved, since she wasn´t pining over Zechs-the-Tragic-Fugitive.
He wondered how his own counterpart would have stacked up.
Duo pinned up his braid on the top of his head and clipped his towel to the wall. Noin had directed him towards the shower room to freshen up after his trial, giving him instructions on how to reach his new dormitory afterwards.
The shower room was built to mimic the facilities on a passenger spaceship, with minimal privacy in minimal space. It was basically a tiled room with four shower heads on the walls and drain in the centre of the floor, with a vaccuum pump for use in zero-G.
He sauntered to the farthest shower head and flipped it on, leaning under the spray of hot water gratefully. He soooo needed this, after the tension of that simulation.
He was almost done when he heard someone else come into the room, singing softly to himself in a pleasant tenor voice.
'...un... hiaduc...'
Years of living in danger had Duo automatically glancing over his shoulder to see who was standing behind him, to assess the threat and - wait a second...
'...si te rog...'
He knew that graceful, long-legged form, but the demeanor, the longish hair, and the unselfconscious singing were all wrong...
'...iubirea mea...'
The familiar stranger leaned under the spray for a moment, his shoulder-length hair clinging to his nape as it was wetted and exposing the shape of his head, and...
'...primeste...'
oh... dear... Shinigami...
'...fericirea...'
This was the second time he´d seen Trowa showering - all naked and wet - and he was no more prepared for it this time than when he´d been drugged half out of his mind.
End Page Forty
(:./wingnut/alter40)
