Life Goes On by Lady Aria

Gundam Wing fanfiction. My standard disclaimers apply.

Life Goes On

by Lady Aria (bukiminatenshi@mailcity.com)

Duo slammed his palm down on one of Deathscythe’s control panels. He had done a thorough systems check before leaving the hangar and, for some bizarre reason, the monitors had conked out. He tried pressing a few buttons here and there hoping that rerouting some of the power supply would cure his present dilemma.

he thought grimly as he frantically tapped out a series of commands.

One last tap on a panel activated the monitors and Duo breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes grew wide as he saw the image on his screen.

Deathscythe had been moving around in a field of daisies.

He trained the Gundam to view its surroundings and saw nothing but fields and mountains all around. The auditory sensors picked up some sounds coming from the foot of the machine and Duo moved the visual sensors down.

Several children had gathered at the Gundam’s feet and were staring wide-eyed at it. Two young boys were smiling and laughing as they waved their hands at Duo while a few girls laid hand-picked bouquets at its feet. Duo couldn’t help but smile at what he saw. These children showed no fear despite the fact that the machine they were playing under had rightfully earned the name Death -- its thermal scythe harvesting the lives of men, women and children, both guilty and innocent, bathing countless fields with blood.

He saw the children’s head turn and he followed their collective gazes to an approaching woman -- probably the children’s mother, but most likely their guardian. Like the children, she showed no fear as she approached the machine. It was as though seeing a huge Gundam in the middle of a field of flowers was an everyday sight. He saw her ruffle the hair of the feisty brunette boy and was dazzled by the smile he saw as she looked up at the Gundam -- apparently aware that he was watching her.

Duo tapped the sequence of keys that opened the cockpit and stepped outside. He let his eyes adjust to the early morning sunshine and was surprised to be greeted by the cacophony of laughing, giggling and excited voices of the children below. He lowered himself to the ground as the woman approached.

"Hello and good morning to you, sir," she said with a smile. "What brings you out here on this glorious day?"

"I was just...." Duo didn’t get to finish his sentence as the brunette boy grabbed his arm, demanding his attention.

"Are you the pilot of that... thing?" he asked him wide-eyed.

"I am," he said, crouching to be able to look the boy in the eye. The boy’s eyes were bright. These were eyes that have been spared of the war. Spared of the pain of losing a loved one, spared of the pain of losing a place that he has come to call home. Duo looked into the eyes of the other children. Their eyes were the same. There was no pain in those eyes and he could tell that they were marveling at the Gundam that now stood majestically behind him. All they saw was an intricate play of technology and science, put together by scientists and engineers out of curiosity and boredom and not for the destructive purpose that had really surrounded its birth.

"Glen," the woman said, "it’s not polite to ask questions when you haven’t even introduced yourself."

"Sorry, Miss Ryan," the boy said, coloring a little. He turned back to Duo and extended his hand. "Hi! I’m Glen! What’s your name?"

"I’m Duo," he said, taking the boy’s hand. Almost immediately, the rest of the children converged upon Duo each hollering their names and trying to catch the young pilot’s attention.

Miss Ryan laughed softly. "It appears as though the children have taken a liking to you."

Duo smiled at her as he plopped down on the grass and several children scrambled onto his lap while the others contented themselves with sitting around him. This time, he could completely forget who he was. He could forget about piloting Deathscythe, forget the smell of blood, the killing...

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

WHAP!

Two more blows landed on him before he could get his arms up to shield himself. His eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the room he was in and his mind registered the white objects that were being used to pummel him. There was more than one person doing this and it took several more minutes before his assailants tired themselves out.

Standing around the bed (for he had indeed been sleeping) were the frowning and pajamaed forms of Heero, Trowa and Wufei each clutching a pillow which they had used to awaken Duo from his peaceful sleep. At the corner of the room, he saw the form of the last member of the Gundam pilots, Quatre, who had wrapped his pillow around his head in an effort to drown out the sound of Duo’s snoring.

"Do you mind, Duo?" Heero said, irritated, as he plopped back down on the bed beside the former’s, "just because the war is over doesn’t mean that you could become the new reason why we should be deprived of our sleep."

Duo could almost feel Wufei rolling his eyes and gave him a dark look. A wise man once said that it would be a lot safer to tease a drunk man than someone who had just woken up. By the light coming from the window, Duo saw Trowa and Wufei go back to their respective beds and pulled the covers over their heads.

"You could have at least woken me up a bit more gently," Duo whined, as he sat up on the bed. He had, after all, been having such a great dream....

A muffled ‘we tried’ came from all four beds. Apparently, Quatre hadn’t been spared by the noise. The others anticipated Duo’s coming retort which would only lengthen the discussion and they shouted, "GO TO SLEEP!!!!" Thus, signaling the end of the exchange.

Duo tried to frown as he once again lay on the bed but smiled instead. He really couldn’t blame the others. Each of them had sacrificed a lot to win the war and the fall of the OZ forces signaled the end of their arduous journey. Right now, they were in a base built by the Gundam engineers catching some much-needed sleep. Their Gundams now rested quietly in their respective hangars and would remain there until they were once again needed.

Duo hoped with all his heart that that day would never come. Although he loved being the pilot of Deathscythe and treated the Gundam like a good friend, he will never admit to loving all the killing he had been forced to do. It was the war that took away his family. It was the war that made him an orphan. Becoming the pilot for Deathscythe was just his way of evenning the odds a bit to his favor. Knowing that he could make a difference, knowing that he could right an injustice done was what pushed him to do what he had done. Unlike Heero, Duo had always been haunted by the deaths. They plagued his dreams -- twisting and turning them into nightmares. He had once called himself Death and more than once scared the living daylights out of the other pilots by acting like a maniac.

The night sounds came to the room as the others drifted to sleep -- the chirping of the crickets, the hoot of the occasional owl, the whooshing of the wind. Duo fluffed his pillow a bit and laid back down. He needed his sleep. Tomorrow, he and the others would have to report to the main military office to see what they would be doing now that the war is over. The commanders are reluctant to let them go back to being regular civilians and they would most likely be cooped up doing office work, such was implied by Sally, who, after the war, became one of the higher ranking officers of the new order.

he admonished himself as he yawned.

With that happy thought, Duo once again drifted off to sleep.

---------------- THE END ------------------