Gundam Wing fanfiction. My standard disclaimers apply.
For What You Believe In
by Lady Aria (bukiminatenshi@mailcity.com)
He watched as the family walked out of the house and into the waiting van that would take them to the spaceport. From what he’d overheard, the family was going to go to Earth. He didn’t care why, he just wanted to make sure that the house would be empty and then, he would make his move. The father, wearing a Federation uniform, flicked the last of the lights off and locked the door behind him. He then gave his wife a kiss and they drove off. Perfect. He would have the entire house to himself.
He stepped out of the hedge he had been hiding in and proceeded to make his way to the backdoor of the house. The residents of this neighborhood were predominantly Federation soldiers and officials. He knew that they habitually got very cocky, thinking that just because they belonged to the military, they were immune to the effects of all the poverty around them. Well, he was going to make them think twice.
He checked the backdoor for alarms and traps but found none. Yes, they were being too confident. There was only a simple door lock and a barrel bolt, both of which could be easily opened by a lock pick and an appropriately twisted wire. In an instant, he was in.
The inside of the house was as opulent as the outside with a stylish kitchen and a well-stocked pantry. Ignoring the rumbling in his stomach, he decided to check out the rest of the house first just to make sure that he was indeed alone and in no danger of being found out. The place turned out to be deceivingly small from the outside. There were about five bedrooms and baths inside the house, a den, a library, a rec room, several storage closets, and even an attic.
Seeing that the place held no immediate threats, he decided to return to the master bedroom and do something that he had been dying to do -- take a bath. Not wanting to risk being seen, he decided not to turn on any of the lights and did everything by the stars out in the artificial sky. It was good that the colonies were able to simulate life on Earth so well that they even provided the artificial night with the illumination that guided his actions now.
Filling the tub with warm water, he soaked himself and enjoyed the rare pleasure of bathing without needing to ration water. He had been relaxing for a good fifteen minutes when he heard the front door slam shut and saw the lights on the ground floor come to life from the bathroom door. Damn. Hopping out of the water, he toweled himself off as fast as he could and dressed. He had to find a way to get out of there -- fast. He pulled out his gun and waited. Surprise came to him when he heard the tapping of only one set of feet, and a very light pair too.
Molding himself into the darkness, he waited as he heard footsteps climbing up to the second floor. He would just scare the living daylights out of the person and run. Hopefully, whoever it was would be too shocked to register his face and he would make it out of this mess unscathed. The sounds were getting closer. He braced himself and waited until they passed the doorway in which he was hiding. He leapt out and grabbed the person by the shoulder immediately pointing the gun at the temple. The figure dropped the bag she was carrying.
"What do you want?" she whispered, her voice soft and even.
"Just passing through," he whispered into her ear as he continued to press the gun to her temple. "If you do anything suspicious, I swear, I’ll blow your brains out."
He had expected the girl to start crying or even pleading, but he never expected her next move. In one swift motion, she jammed her elbow into his gut and threw him so that the next thing he knew, he was lying on his back with his gun a good ten paces away. The surprise in his eyes mirrored her own as he stared at what looked very much like his own face looking back at him.
The girl blinked several times, turned and grabbed the gun off the floor. She made her way back and he fully expected her to kill him. He locked eyes with her and they just stared at each other, both not really sure what to do. He didn’t want to risk attacking her though, he might just meet his end a lot sooner than he would want to. She pointed the gun in his direction and he braced himself for what was to come. Only she did the unexpected.
She knelt down and gave him the gun handle first.
He felt his heart stop at the gesture. Was this girl crazy? He reached out tentatively and, when she didn’t withdraw her hand, grabbed the gun. She puzzled him and he wondered what sort of weird ploy she might be playing with him. She stood up and offered him her hand. He took it and she helped him to his feet. The girl flicked on the light switch and they got a good view of each other for the first time.
She must have been around eight, much like him, and she wore the Federation school uniform. Her long chestnut brown hair hung in waves down to her waist and a heart-shaped face bore a small nose, full lips and large, expressive brown eyes. Right then, she looked at him with a sunny smile on her face. He stared sheepishly at her and was surprised to hear her laugh. It was a good laugh, slightly tinkling, and clear. She held out her hand and introduced herself.
"Hi, I’m Terri Lynch."
He looked at the offered hand and met it with his own. "I’m Duo Maxwell."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Terri didn’t report Duo to the authorities. As luck would have it, her father was a brigadier general in the Federation army and they had left for Earth for a month-long meeting, leaving Terri behind because she still had classes.
Duo was surprised at the openness that the girl was showing because he never would have thought that a daughter of a Federation official could be so... friendly. The reason why she had laughed earlier was that Duo pretty much looked like a drowned rat with his hair still dripping wet and his clothes weren’t very much help either. She led him towards the attic and dug out a box that had been placed there recently and handed him a clean set of clothes to change into after he finished with his bath. She had then taken his old clothes and threw them in the washing machine in the garage.
By the time Duo had come out of the bath, she had prepared dinner and they ate quietly, each unwilling to break the silent truce that had made its way between them. He had a towel draped over his shoulders so that his hair wouldn’t get his shirt soaked and she had changed into a green shirt and blue shorts. He knew that he must have been staring because he was surprised when she snapped her fingers in front of him.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Duo colored slightly and looked down. He was surprised to feel her hand on his own and looked up to meet her gaze. It was weird. He felt like he could look at those eyes forever and still not understand the person they belonged to. In a way, she scared him a lot more than ten soldiers running after him in the streets.
"I... I have to go," he stammered and he got up to leave. "Thank you for everything and I didn’t mean to scare you like... you know."
"Why do you have to leave?"
That question was asked with so much naïveté that he must have goggled at her. Why did he have to leave? "Because... because I’m an intruder here. I don’t belong here."
"You can stay here and keep me company," she said with pleading eyes. "My family’s going to be away for a month and I’ll be all alone. You know how easily you got in, and there’s no telling what else could happen if you leave me here all by myself."
"I-I," Duo started to say. She had a point. Although she was far from defenseless, bigger, more aggressive burglars could easily pick out the house and enter it. If he left her alone, she would be a sitting duck. "Oh, alright, I’ll stay."
"Great! I didn’t really think you had a place to go back to after that in... Oooppss!"
She covered her mouth and he looked at her with narrowed eyes. She had said those words in a statement and Duo was starting to wonder as to how much she really knew about him. She looked at the floor guiltily and he made his way to the chair next to hers.
"What exactly do you know about me?"
His voice had taken on a dangerous tone and it scared her.
"I-I knew who you were even before you introduced yourself," she whispered, still unwilling to look him in the eye. "I knew about the Maxwell church incident and I was pretty much surprised when you jumped out of my parents’ bedroom. I thought you had died in the church along with Father Maxwell and Sister Helen...."
"I’m leaving."
"NO! Please," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "I didn’t mean to keep it from you, honest! It’s just that my parents always leave me here alone and I really wanted to have someone with me." Although her bangs obscured her face, he could see tears falling as she hung her head. "You don’t know how lonely I feel when they leave."
Duo looked at her as she stood up and wiped her eyes. She picked up the plates and headed back towards the kitchen to wash them as he continued to watch. Although common sense told him to just get up and leave, he couldn’t really decide what to make of this girl. She was sorry, of that he was certain, but who knew what she could still be hiding.
After a while, he followed her into the kitchen and he saw her loading the last of the dishes into the washer. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were still a little puffy and red. She sat at the kitchen counter and looked at him, her face expressionless.
"You can leave if you want to. Your clothes should already be dry now and you can take them with you. Don’t worry about needing to return those you’re already wearing, nobody’ll miss them anyway." She sounded like she was about to break down again at any moment.
"I’m staying," he whispered as he took her hand. "I shouldn’t have gotten angry. You had no part in anything that happened. I guess I just haven’t learned to deal with it very well."
She nodded and they both got up to go to bed. She had asked Duo if he wanted to have a room of his own, but he declined saying that too many lights on when the neighbors knew that was the only one person in the house would raise too many questions. Instead, they decided to stay together in Terri’s room since she had a trundle bed beneath her own. Duo’s hair had become reasonably dry already and Terri had been more than happy to brush and plait it. He couldn’t remember the last time his hair had been this clean. After she finished with his hair, he had offered to do the same with hers. They both looked at the mirror afterwards and laughed. They looked like twins and the only difference was their eye color. It was like they were having an extended sleep-over.
As luck would have it, Duo and Terri had four classes together at the Federation school. The reason why they hadn’t really noticed each other then was because Duo spent most of his time getting into trouble while Terri spent hers keeping out of it. Before they had gone to school, she had pleaded with Duo to keep his mischievousness in check because she couldn’t run the risk of anyone finding out their secret. Terri didn’t realize the torment that Duo and the other non-Federation kids had to suffer from her classmates until one day, she decided to come to a school picnic wearing exactly what Duo was wearing. Duo, of course, had gone on ahead and was hanging around with the other children. Terri hadn’t shown up until about an hour after he did and had wandered off in search of her own buddies. That was when the trouble started.
"Hey, girlie-boy! You’re on our turf!"
"Yeah! Get your butt out of here before we do it for you!"
Terri had been oblivious of what was happening until she felt a hand yank her by the collar and a fist make contact with her gut. The black cap she had been wearing obscured her face as she knelt on the grass clutching her stomach. She was about to try to get up when a foot slammed on her side. By this time, a crowd had gathered around the two boys who were busy beating her up. A teacher watched impassively, thinking that it was just another orphan.
The first boy was about to bring his foot down on Terri’s back when a fist connected with his jaw and sent him flying. The other boy looked up in time to get a punch on the nose. Confused expressions crossed the faces of the people gathered around as the boy who came to the rescue knelt beside the other ‘boy’ and asked ‘him’ if he was okay. They saw the kid lying on the grass nod as the other one helped ‘him’ up and ‘his’ cap fell off.
The first boy forgot about his sore jaw as his eyes widened in fear when he saw the brown eyes wincing in pain and the violet ones that looked at him with murder clearly written on them. The two boys tried to run when the school’s principal grabbed them by the ruff and dragged them towards Terri who was currently being supported by a very angry Duo.
"Ms. Lynch," the principal said crisply, "could you tell us what happened?"
Terri winced as she shifted her weight, leaning on Duo. "I don’t really know.... I was just... walking when these two jumped me and started beating me up."
"Terri, we’re really sorry! We didn’t know it was you! We thought you were him!" The glass-jawed boy said, pointing at Duo.
"Terri, you’re a sport, right?" The other one whined, "you-you won’t tell on us will you?"
"Why did you want to beat him up anyway? Is it just because he’s not one of us?" Her voice came out in gasps as pain wracked through her. "What had he ever done to you?"
"What do you care anyway?" The first one said angrily. "He’s just another orphan living off the Federation’s good graces."
"I didn’t see anyone of ‘us’ coming to my rescue when you guys started beating me up." Terri said accusingly at the people gathered around her. All of them were looking guiltily at their shoes. "Is that it? Are the orphans who come to our school lower just because they are who they are? The one you idiots singled out for a beating was the only one willing to help me when I needed it. You know what? I think that they are a lot better than us. It makes me sick knowing that I am really one of you."
Terri looked like she was about to say more when Duo squeezed her shoulder and helped her hobble out of the crowd. He watched as some paramedics arrived to assess her wounds and patch her up. They decided to take her to the hospital but she wouldn’t leave unless Duo came with her. On the way over, he looked at the girl who could easily be his twin lying on the stretcher. In a way, he finally understood what had been bothering him the first time he had met her. She was strong and she didn’t live seeing the world in the way the other Federation children saw it. On the outside, she was one of the Federation kids, belonging to their cliques and their world, but inside, she was just like him -- a bit overly optimistic for her own good, but ready to stand up and take the blows for what she thought was right.
Throughout the rest of the month, Terri had stopped wearing her school uniform and started wearing regular street clothes and instead of having her hair pinned to the sides with barrettes, she now wore her hair in a braid. It was now very easy to mistake her for Duo and she wanted to keep it that way.
Duo found it very amusing when the Federation boys kept their distance from him, not willing to risk making the same mistake they did at the picnic. The principal had sent word to Terri’s father as to what had happened and the boys’ parents had been severely reprimanded. It didn’t really pay to beat up the daughter of the highest ranking official on the colony. Those kids who could tell which long-haired kid was Duo gave him dark looks which promised more than just a gang thrashing -- they were out for blood.
Duo looked into the room that he and Terri had been sharing and sighed. She was sitting at the dresser carefully combing out her long brown locks and humming to herself. The cuts and bruises that she had received during the mistaken identity incident had all healed and none of them had left any scars. That was good. Duo pulled up a chair next to her as she finished braiding her hair. She looked at him with a smile but they changed into worry after she saw the expression on Duo’s face.
"What’s wrong?"
"Terri, I have to leave," he said quietly.
Terri put down the brush and just stared at him. "Duo...why?!" The news made her very sad, like she was about to lose a best friend.
"Terri, I’ve managed to live here for a month without anybody noticing," Duo began as he held her face between his hands. "Your parents would be here any day now and I really don’t want to be a bother."
Terri shook her head, unwilling to hear his words. "You could stay here with us! We could adopt you! I just know that everyone will love you when they gets to meet you, Duo... just please don’t go!" Terri wrapped her arms around Duo’s neck and let silent tears flow down from her eyes. She could feel him patting her back, trying to soothe her.
"Terri," he said, as soon as she regained her composure, "do you think that the other boys would think differently of me even if your family decides to adopt me?" He didn’t expect an answer from her -- both of them knew that the other boys would pounce as soon as they had the chance.
"Where will you go? What will you do?" she said, just looking at him.
"I’ll definitely have to leave the school. It’s no longer going to be safe for me to stay there and besides," he smiled, chucking her chin, "I wouldn’t want you getting beat up again in case they mistake you for me."
Terri smiled, stood up and left the room. Duo was about to follow her out when she came back in holding something behind her back. He tried to see what it was, but that mischievous glint had once again come to her eyes. She surprised him when she whipped out a kodachi, dropping the sheath behind her in one fluid motion. The sharp tip of the blade was a mere six inches away from his face that he nearly fell off his seat. "Then, I’ll just have to make sure that they don’t make that same mistake again."
She said it so grimly and held the blade with obviously practiced ease that Duo didn’t know what to think. Her next move shocked him when she whipped the kodachi behind her and sliced off her braid. He was still gaping as she shook out her now shoulder-length hair. He looked at the length of braid that now lay on the floor -- the one that she had meticulously cared for during the past month and had obviously been proud of.
"T-Terri," he stuttered, "why... your hair...."
Terri laughed at his expression as she picked up the braid off the floor and dropped it on her dresser. She knew that he’d never expect her to do what she just did and she was right. She picked up her discarded brush and combed out her hair.
Duo was still gaping at her as she brushed out her hair like nothing happened. He flipped out his palms in a gesture of why as she turned to look back at him.
"Duo, it’s just hair. It’ll grow back," she said.
"Do you honestly think that just because you loped you hair off, you’ll get me to stay?" He said, finally regaining his wits.
"No," she said as she took a seat beside him. "I know that I won’t be able to stop you once your mind is made up. I learned that much. I guess this is just my way of accepting the fact that you’re leaving." She looked down as she clutched his hand in hers. "So what will you do?"
"I’ll find a way to make a difference in this war," he said grimly.
"And I just might do the same."
Duo looked deep into her eyes and was touched to hear the sincerity in her voice. He didn’t doubt that she would find a way to make her mark in this war and he just hoped that all this would end soon so that all the killing and the bloodshed would stop and the children could be given the chance to live their lives to the fullest.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
The four boys in the living room heard the door open and close with a bang. Since only one of them was missing, they knew who the newcomer was and it was confirmed when a bag flew through the air to land beside the couch with a thud.
"I’M HOME!!!!!!"
Wufei snorted his disdain while Quatre looked to the ceiling. Trowa moved from his place at the couch and sat in an easy chair so that he could read his book in peace. Heero, meanwhile, continued tapping on his laptop, doing his best to ignore the boy who just came in.
"Some welcoming committee," Duo grumbled as he plopped down on the spot Trowa had vacated and watched the tube with Quatre. He had just come back from a mission and was dead tired. He hoped that Professor G would hold the next mission until he could recover. Although the training they had all been subjected to before becoming Gundam pilots had managed to enhance their physical stamina and mental performance, there was only so much punishment their body could take. As it was, he had been to five consecutive missions and if he didn’t get any real rest soon, Operation Meteor would be short one Shinigami.
He looked around at his fellow pilots and, with the exception of Heero, saw that they also looked exhausted. Quatre was already starting to drift off beside him and Trowa plopped the book he’d been reading to guide the small blonde to their room and into bed. The safe house they were currently in had three bedrooms which meant that two of the rooms would have two occupants while the other would have only one. Quatre and Trowa had paired off immediately and Duo had picked the lesser of two evils and decided to share a room with Heero, not that any of them wanted to share a room with Wufei. He was just a mite too prudish.
Duo decided to go to bed himself after a few minutes -- things were just too quiet with only Heero and Wufei for company. He picked up his bag and trudged up the stairs to the bedrooms. Quatre and Trowa’s door was ajar and he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek. What he saw touched him.
Trowa was carrying an obviously sleeping Quatre to one of the beds and tucked him in. He saw Trowa ruffle his charge’s hair and smile before turning to go back out. Duo cleared the last four paces to his own room before Trowa managed to reach the door. He watched the tall pilot’s receding form from the doorway and smiled himself. Trowa had always been an enigma to him and he had just seen a part of him that he never thought even existed.
They’d been to this safe house before and he and Heero had pretty much decided which bed belonged to who. His was the one nearest to the window. Heero didn’t want that one since someone might be able to see what he was typing into his laptop -- if they bothered peeking in. Duo just thought that he’s being paranoid.
He took out a T-shirt and a pair of boxers from his pile of clothes and stuffed the rest inside the closet and bureau. The smell of sweat, smoke, and gunpowder still clung to him and he decided to take a bath before going to bed. As he took off his shirt, he heard the tinkling of the necklace that he always wore. He looked at the small mirror in the bathroom as he held up the two items that hung from the fine gold chain. The first was a crucifix that Sister Helen had given him when Maxwell Church had taken him in and the other was a platinum ring that Terri had given him before he left. He had to smile when he saw that band. It had been her grandmother’s and she had been given the ring just before General Lynch’s family moved to L2. He’s never known Terri to be seen without the ring and she too wore it on a chain around her neck since it was still too large for her at that time. The fact that she gave it to him had been a surprise. She never gave him a reason why and he’d never bothered asking. That had been seven years ago -- a four years before he joined the Sweepers.
After taking a shower, he was combing his hair when he spied a small white paper peeking out of his notebook. He pulled it out and saw that it was the picture he’d been looking for all week. It was one of him and Terri during one of the times that they’d managed to get together without the other kids knowing. She was leaning on him from behind with her arms wrapped around his neck and they were both laughing. They had been wearing the same clothes that day and decided to have a picture taken. A person would think that he was seeing two Duos unless they looked at their eyes. He slid the picture into his wallet and proceeded to braid his hair. Terri was another one of the myriad reasons he had for wanting this war to end -- another face in the sea of faces that he had seen through the years, but one that he had a solid connection to. Even now, her face was starting to blend in with the others and he wondered how long it would be before that sea would envelop her completely.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Duo regarded the empty screen in front of him before closing the laptop. He’d had a week’s worth of rest after his last mission and was just starting to get bored when Professor G contacted them. Quatre and Trowa had left first thing that morning after Professor H gave them their mission. He had emphasized the need for Trowa to accompany Quatre in their mission and Duo thought that just about everybody was becoming a mite bit protective of the blonde.
He gathered his laptop and proceeded to pack some stuff he’d be using for the mission. He had been assigned to assassinate a key figure in the OZ army. What struck him as odd is that he’d been given the mission in the first place. Assassinations were more Heero’s specialty while he was good at infiltration and explosives. He’d asked Professor G about this and the scarred scientist just shrugged his shoulders saying that Dr. J probably had some other mission for Heero.
Professor G had told him that his target would be giving a speech at the OZ base in Berlin. It would be an open speech so he would be able to expect a large crowd to attend. All he had to do was kill the man and get out of there. Simple enough. Duo picked up his gun from the dresser drawer and made sure that it was fully loaded. All the while, Heero had been sitting on his own bed looking at Duo as he walked back and forth in the room.
"Solo mission?" Heero asked Duo as he zipped his duffel bag shut.
"Yeah, although I was surprised you didn’t get this one."
"Naze?"
"Because it’s your field," Duo replied simply as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "Well, I gotta go. Don’t blow up the safe house while I’m gone!"
Heero narrowed his eyes as Duo left the room. Sometimes he just didn’t know what to make of that one.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
The boy leaned into the curtains that draped the second floor balcony of the main auditorium. His target was conducting his speech at the front of the hall and Duo was biding his time. Getting into the base had been easy enough, posing as one of the members of an embassy’s entourage. He had slipped out of the group and after overpowering a soldier, tied and stripped him. He had been able to move freely throughout the base and he had made sure that his braid was effectively hidden by his jacket.
He listened to the speech and wanted to retch at the words. He had heard those lies before. The same ones that the OZ had fed everyone -- the war was being waged to attain peace -- when, in truth, THEY were the real enemy. No tears will be shed when this bastard dies. He was waiting for the end of the speech. The applause would effectively hide the silent zip of the bullet that would kill him.
Duo lifted the sniper rifle and steadied his hands as he aligned the cross-hairs with his target’s head.
The speech ended and the people got to their feet for a standing ovation.
His target waved to the crowd.
Duo pulled the trigger.
Screams rose as the baron collapsed on the podium.
Ninmu kanryou.
Time to go home.
The last thing Duo felt was electricity coursing through him as his body fell to the balcony floor still twitching. His trained body registered that he’d been zapped by a tazer. A voice floated into his fading consciousness as his body started its temporary shut down from the effect of the electrical jolt.
"Damn rebels have the worst timing...."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Harsh white light greeted him when he opened his eyes. He was strapped to a seat, his arms and legs bound. The light source was directly above him and all he could see were the silhouettes of the other people in the room. He heard them whispering but he couldn’t make out the words -- his ears still buzzed from the effect of the jolt.
A man came up to him and jerked his head up by yanking on his braid. Duo winced from the force and squinted his eyes to look at the man. He couldn’t make out the features. The light was still too strong. The man let go of his braid and made his way back to the rest of the group. Duo tried his best to hear the conversation.
"... Kill him now..."
"... Might know something..."
The second voice belonged to the one who had zapped him. He remembered enough to recognize the voice.
"... Inform Colonel Treize...?"
"... Done.... Should respond soon."
All of a sudden, the all the lights in the room flared into life. Duo shut his eyes and shook his head. The sudden brightness was starting to give him an even bigger headache. As his eyes adjusted, he was able to see that five soldiers were gathered in the room. He identified the shortest of the four as the one who had caught him. He was surprised to see the four taller soldiers salute to the short one and leave the room single file.
Now it was just the two of them.
Duo had wanted to try getting out of the cuffs but realized that they had been threaded through the back of the seat. He cursed under his breath. Someone had made doubly sure that he wouldn’t be able to get away. He heard the footsteps approaching him and lifted his gaze. There was no way that he’d let this creep see him cower. He was surprised to see that the shortest of the soldiers was a girl. She lifted his chin with one gloved hand and he found himself staring into the coldest brown eyes he’s ever seen.
"It’s been a long time..., Duo Maxwell."
That was it. Duo felt his heart constrict as he looked at his captor. The stance, the brown eyes, the long chestnut brown hair, the heart shaped face -- he then realized that this was exactly what he would have looked like if he had been female. Denial screamed inside his head, his consciousness desperately trying to hold on to the image of the girl he’d known as a child. Reality was dealing him a blow that he just didn’t want to accept.
"Terri...."
It was all he could say as his voice was stolen by the anguish and pain he felt inside.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Captain Terri Lynch stood in attention before Colonel Treize Khushrenada. She had given him a full report on what had happened inside the base’s auditorium as well as the identity of the assassin. They were in the quarters he had been given when he’d arrived at the base. He had come as soon as he’d heard of the near-perfect assassination. Security had been beefed up and soldiers were posted in nearly every corridor.
Treize nodded after Terri completed her report. He looked her over and smiled. She’d been full of surprises as far as he could tell. Entered the military academy at ten, rose through the ranks in leaps and bounds and now she was a captain. Two more promotions and they would share the same rank, and she was only fifteen. She was truly a perfect soldier, in Treize’s own opinion. Trained in military tactics and strategy by her father before his untimely death two years before, Terri was a master strategist and a perfect killing machine. He remembered when she shot a man point blank. She didn’t even flinch as she was bathed in his blood, both figuratively and literally. In a way she scared him too. There was no telling what would have happened if she had sided with the rebels and the Gundams.
He looked at the girl standing before him and gestured for her to take a seat. He saw a flicker of interest come to her eyes, but it was gone as suddenly as it appeared. Trying to read her while she was still mission oriented was a waste of time, as he’d learned that the first time he’d met her.
"What do you suggest we do with the prisoner?" Terri asked her commanding officer coolly despite the inappropriateness of their current surroundings.
"Do what you want with him, Captain Lynch," Treize said as he got up and started towards her. "As far as I’m concerned, our intruder did us all a favor." He smiled when he saw her puzzled expression. "You see, we’ve been planning to rid ourselves of Baron Tchaikov. When the boy assassinated him, he saved us the trouble of looking for a way to make him disappear without anyone becoming too curious."
Terri nodded in understanding as Treize placed both hands on her shoulders. she thought, irritated,
"I missed you," Trieze murmured into her ear as he unclasped her hair and carried her over to the bed. "Tchaikov’s murder was well timed since it brought me exactly where I wanted to be."
"But for how long are we going to keep this up, Treize? Sooner or later someone is bound to find out about us," Terri whispered as he began to kiss her neck. "There’ll be hell to pay when that happens."
"I won’t tell if you won’t," he replied teasingly and smiled. "When all of this is through, you and I can vanish from the world if you want. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
He hushed all further comments from her with a kiss and he flicked the lamps shut from a panel beside the bed. She was his perfect soldier, one who was willing to live and die for whatever mission was set before her. He hadn’t realized how attracted he’d been to her until the time they’d been planning a massive attack strategy. He had been standing too close to her but didn’t notice until they happened to turn around at the same time and suddenly found themselves sharing a kiss. Neither thought that that single incident would ever lead to this.
How deliciously ironic it was that his perfect soldier also became his lover.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Duo laid himself down on the cot in a corner of his cell. His captors were staring to get reasonably paranoid and had placed him in a cell with no windows. His hands were shackled in thick cuffs that reached from his wrist to halfway up his arms. He’d tried picking them open, but decided that it would be futile since he wouldn’t be able to get out of the cell even if he was able to get the cuffs off.
It had been at least a week since he’d left the safe house and he knew that he should’ve been back by now. Heero and Wufei have probably already been sent on different missions and who knows when Quatre and Trowa’ll be back.
He’d already been locked up in the cell for about two days when the door finally opened and a guard came in motioning for him to get up. Duo wanted to try and make a break for it, but to his dismay, three more guards were waiting outside to escort him to whatever place he was to be led.
They led him through a series of corridors, doors, and turns. Duo carefully memorized the path and the codes that the soldiers used -- he would need them in case he does manage to escape.
They finally came to a room lit by a solitary lamp at the center, much like the room he’d woken up in, only this time, there was a table at the center. It wasn’t big, about four by three feet, and it had two seats opposite each other. He was shoved down on one of them and two guards stood behind him while the other two stood behind the other seat. He was starting to wonder who they were waiting for when Terri stepped out of the shadows.
Duo glared at the young officer as she sat across from him. She looked too much like a hungry spider at the center of her web. He then noticed that her hair wasn’t done in the ponytail that she had worn two days ago. Instead, it was braided with the tip touching her slim waist. He knew that she had done so on purpose, wanting to keep him off balance and trying to mock him by using the simple gesture of endearment that they had shared as children.
"You did a good job, Duo," she began, leaning on the table. "It was a perfect assassination. Rumor has it that Tchaikov was dead even before he hit the ground. You should be proud of your abilities especially since you managed to get that far without alerting us. Too bad you’re not going to have a chance to complete any more missions."
Terri smiled as Duo lunged towards her while one of her soldiers grabbed him and shoved him back down. He tried to squirm out of the soldier’s grasp until the other guard gave him a punch in the gut, immediately eliminating all thoughts of struggling. Duo doubled over, trying to get air into his system. All four guards that brought him in were easily over two hundred pounds each and over six feet tall. Terri looked like a tiny doll beside them and yet she was so calm.
"Colonel Khushrenada sends his regards," she continued as she stood up and walked towards him. "Fact is, he said that I can do whatever I want with you."
Duo instinctively flinched as she ran her index finger down the side of his face and along his jaw. The touch was surprisingly gentle, but there was nothing gentle in her voice nor in her eyes. In truth, there WAS nothing in her voice nor in her eyes. They were dead. It was like the Terri that he had known had died and was replaced by this... thing. To Duo, she was little more than a living corpse.
"You’re not going to get anything from me, bitch," Duo said, matching her gaze with one of his own. "There is no way in hell that I’ll tell you anything I know."
"We’ll see."
Duo involuntarily shuddered at the certainty in her words. He saw her pace before the table once before retreating to one of the dim corners of the room and leaning on the wall. He looked at one of the soldiers opposite him who also happened to be looking at her. There was no mistaking the expression on the soldier’s face. He was swallowing her up, but then, Duo couldn’t blame him. She looked like she’d been poured into her uniform and they could see each lithe movement she made from the way the fabric hugged every curve of her body.
She eyed the soldier with a glare promising unimaginable pain and he looked away, focusing instead on Duo. A warning bell went off in his head. The soldier was eyeing him with more than just passing interest. He’d seen that look before he’d joined the Sweepers and it wasn’t something he missed. Back in L2, he’d often been mistaken for a girl by the many ruffians and pimps that roamed the streets. He’d had to fight off a lot of them when they tried to take advantage of him even after they realized that he wasn’t a girl. He shook his head in denial. There was no way that this was going to happen to him, not now, not ever.
"Sergeant Nicholas," Terri said and the one that she’d stared down looked at her again. "You decide the best method to extract information from this one."
The huge brunette looked at his commanding officer in surprise and asked, "any particular information, Captain?"
A cruel smile broke over Terri’s face and Duo saw more than one soldier shudder. "I don’t really care. Ask him about the assassination. Ask him about the rebels’ other plans. Ask him why he joined them in the first place. Ask him how he likes his clothes ironed. I don’t give a damn." The smile on her face widened as she eyed the soldier. "The point of this exercise is to see how you four are in terms of interrogation. I am giving you the freedom to employ any means possible to extract information from him and be aware that this is a test of your ability to work as a group."
"Any means possible, captain?" The soldier that punched him asked, rubbing his fists in anticipation.
"Yes, Rushtomir," she said snaring Duo’s eyes with her own. "Any form of physical torture or psychological tactic that you want to employ short of killing him." She broke her gaze and swept her subordinates with their cold fire. "Mark my words, I meant it when I said that I want him kept alive. To be sure that you all do a thorough job, I’ll just stand here and assess your performance. Oh, and please, do try to be creative."
Panic began to rise in Duo as saw her once again lean back on the wall. He vaguely heard the four soldiers as they started questioning him. At that moment, they didn’t register in his head -- all he could hear were Terri’s words. Exercise. Information. Torture. Keep him alive. I don’t care. Duo was brought back to reality when the first blow connected. Rushtomir and his buddy started hitting him in the gut, on the face. Duo was sure that a bruise was forming on his cheek when he heard Nicholas speak.
"Tell us what you know," he growled.
"I know that you’re one hell of an ugly son of a bitch."
Nicholas punched him hard in the gut and Duo doubled over in pain on his seat.
They’d already been at it for a good half hour and Duo felt like he was about to pass out. Rushtomir was swearing while his buddy was trying to calm him down. Duo’s blurring vision caught sight of Terri still leaning on the wall. Her expressionless face betrayed none of her thoughts regarding the present events. One might even say that her mind was starting to wander.
"I know I should calm down, Jeffries," Rushtomir said, frustration written all over his face. "This kid’s proving to be a lot harder to break than I thought."
"I know, but just listen to my idea for once," Jeffries replied, "she said that we could use any form, right? So who says that we couldn’t have fun while we get the information we need."
"You lost me there, Jeffries, exactly what are you talking about?"
"What does the kid look like?"
Rushtomir eyed Duo and a smile of wicked realization appeared across his face. He motioned for the other two to come closer and started whispering to them. Duo had a sinking feeling as to what his next ordeal will be when the four men looked at him with the same hungry gleam in their eyes. He saw Rushtomir look at his commanding officer.
"Captain...," he began.
"That’s hardly creative," she snorted. "But then again, you four haven’t had any leave during the past few months." She saw the hesitant expressions on her troop’s faces and just had to laugh. "I can’t believe that you are turning prudish on me. Just because I’m only a little over half your ages doesn’t mean that I have no knowledge about the birds and the bees."
Duo’s vanishing consciousness came back in a rush when he felt the cuffs behind him being undone. He tried to get out of their grasps, but it was impossible with two of the soldiers holding onto his arms. His violet eyes shone with the gleam of a desperate animal’s as he felt them remove his clothes.
Naked, they put his hands behind his back, cuffed him, and laid him on the table. His mind screamed as he felt their hands moving, caressing his flesh. They had undone his hair and one of them had his hand wrapped in it and Duo winced at the sharp pain that it elicited. He felt hot lips press onto his and he bit his assailant’s tongue when it sought entry into his mouth.
"Bastard," Rushtomir said.
Duo gave him a manic smile. He’d bitten hard enough to draw blood. He was trying to think of a wisecrack to go with the injury when a fist made contact with his already battered torso. Duo felt several ribs crack at the impact. Duo barely had a chance to catch his breath when he gasped. His rear felt like it was on fire. He looked forward and realized what had happened.
Nicholas had entered him.
Duo wanted to scream in agony. It was like he was being turned inside out. Instead, he bit down on his lip, drawing blood, as Nicholas rocked into him with swift hard thrusts.
"Talk, kid," Nicholas, breathed into his ear. "I promise that all of this will stop if you do... or maybe we could make it more enjoyable if that’s what you’d like...."
"Go to hell," Duo said, and spat on his face.
Face livid with rage, Nicholas picked up the boy and threw him face-down back onto the table. In a way, Duo was glad that he did. At least they wouldn’t see the tears that had come to his eyes. His body was now starting to register the men’s actions and was reacting accordingly.
Terri looked like a marble statue in the darkness. Her skin, where it was exposed, was practically luminous in the darkness. Their eyes met, his pleading, hers triumphant.
Duo closed his eyes. His body felt numb from all the pain he’s had to endure. Her image was the last thing he saw as he was enveloped in the welcome arms of unconsciousness.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Terri walked silently in the dark corridors of Berlin base and stopped at a door. It was already about midnight and there was almost no one in the immediate vicinity. She shifted the box she was carrying and looked at the door to Duo’s cell. If she could have her way, she would get out of there as fast as she could but she knew that, for the first time in her life as the perfect soldier, she was doing something for herself. Taking a deep breath, she punched in her access code and the door slid silently into the wall.
Inside, a long-haired figure lay on the cot in a fetal position.
She’d stopped Nicholas and the others when she noticed that Duo had fainted. The men had thrown him back into his cell without even having the decency to dress him. As much as she wanted to reprimand her subordinates, she knew that she’d be the one out of line. This was war and as soldiers, they did whatever they could to make sure that they won. No matter how dirty their means were. She sat down on the cold floor in front of Duo.
Even from the dim lighting of the room, she could see that his body was covered with numerous cuts and bruises. In his sleep, his face was contorted in pain and from the way his eyes moved under his lids, she knew that he must be dreaming... or in the throes of a nightmare.
She swallowed the lump that had begun to form in her throat and dug out a metal basin from the box and filled it from the faucet in the corner. The water was cold, perfect for what she had in mind. She dipped a washcloth in the water and started cleaning his wounds. She could feel Duo’s body sigh as the cold cloth came in contact with the feverish skin and she felt his body relax as she proceeded with her task. As the white wash cloth began to turn pink, she wanted to put her hands to her face and cry.
She was rinsing the cloth in the basin when a hand suddenly grasped her arm and pulled her towards the cot. She turned and looked straight into Duo’s eyes and, instead of sparkling with wry humor, they now blazed with hatred. She matched his gaze with a mockingly cold one of her own -- one that she had perfected with years of training.
Duo desperately wanted to hit her, to repay her for what had been done to him in kind, to kill her even, but he was still too weak and the cuffs that held his hands together were to heavy for him to do just that. Still, it struck him as strange that Terri hadn’t moved an inch to get out of his grip. It was then that he saw the washcloth in her hands and felt the coolness from the water that had remained on his skin that he realized what she was doing in his cell. He blushed a deep red when he realized that he was still naked and let her go. As he laid himself back, he was surprised to feel the cuffs on his hands fall away.
"Terri...," Duo began to say, but his mind was in a jumble. She’d made it clear to him that they were enemies, but her actions now confused him even more. He tried to sit, but fell back again on the bed. His rear still hurt like hell.
"I guess it’s too late to tell you not to sit up," he heard her say, "not after four men took advantage of you."
"What do you care anyway?" Duo asked her sarcastically. "I was just a practice dummy for those guys, like you said. Why do you give a damn whether I live or die?"
She didn’t answer him but went on cleaning various small wounds with water and antiseptic and proceeded to bandage the ones that were deep. Duo was still blushing profusely. There was not an inch of his body that hadn’t been touched by that washcloth.
After she finished treating him, she pulled out his clothes from the box and helped him dress. Duo leaned heavily on her shoulder and noticed that she was avoiding his gaze. She laid him back down on the cot and fished out a container. It was soup and Duo only then noticed that he hadn’t eaten anything that day.
He watched her as he ate. She was still sitting on the floor with her elbows propped up on his cot and her face in her hands. She wasn’t even wearing her uniform, instead, she wore a loose black sweater and black jeans. Exhaustion was evident from the way she held herself.
Duo put down the empty container and forced himself into a sitting position, doing his best to ignore the pain. He gently shook her shoulder and was surprised to see the haunted look in her eyes. He was about to say something when she shook herself loose from his grasp and stood up looking coldly at him. Now he was more confused than ever.
"Isn’t it funny, the way fate twists our lives?" Terri began as she paced before him. "When you said that you were going to do something about the war, I thought you’d joined the army... or something similar. How ironic. I joined the ranks soon after, hoping that I’ll get to see you again -- that we’ll get to fight together as a team. By the time I found out that there was no Duo Maxwell in the army, it was already too late for me to turn back, not after my first kill."
Duo shuddered at the revelation. He couldn’t believe that Terri joined OZ thinking that he was there.
"I did what I was told," she said in her monotone. "I killed when I was ordered to. And you know what? I’m good at what I do. In fact, I was often called perfect. I am the best soldier the OZ military academy has ever produced. I got promoted because I deserved it... because I was fighting for peace!"
"But that’s exactly what I’M doing!" Duo shouted at her. "Have you seen what OZ has done to the people it rules over? Have you seen the suffering in the streets? Terri, OZ is a military organization," he said desperately, "it’s not interested in peace, it only exists to create war."
"Liar," she said and hit him across the face. "Things have never been like that."
Duo winced from the blow. "Try looking and see for yourself, captain," he said, practically spitting on the title, "or do you only see what Treize Khushrenada wants you to see?"
He knew he must have struck something because she whipped out her gun and aimed it at him.
"You don’t say those things about my commanding officer," she whispered with barely suppressed anger.
Duo knew that he’d never get another chance like this and lunged. He tackled Terri and the gun flew out of her hand. In a flash, Duo was up and before Terri knew what was happening, Duo had backed her up against a wall with the gun pointed at her head.
Terri nearly laughed at the situation. This was the same thing that had happened when they first met, with Duo holding a gun at her head. She gave him a half-smile and shook her head. "If you’re planning on killing me, you might as well do so now. I escaped that before, but now I’d think that you know better than to let me go."
Duo took another step closer and Terri locked gazes with him. Although she’d never admit it to anybody, she was tired of all the fighting. She heard the clunk the gun made as it hit the floor and her eyes went wide as a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her. Duo held her so close that she could feel his heart beating in his chest and she didn’t doubt that he also heard hers. She heard him crooning into her ear and she hesitantly wrapped her arms around him. It felt good. It felt safe. It was something that she hadn’t felt since her father died. Then she did something that she hadn’t done in years.
She cried.
He felt her arms tighten around him as she sobbed into his shoulder and her legs gave way beneath her. He patted her back gently as she let it all out. He knew deep inside he must have touched the part of her that had been his friend. She was no more a soldier that he was. Inside, she was still a fifteen year old kid, just like him and the other Gundam pilots. He’d seen Quatre crying before while Trowa offered him comforting words. He’d always made himself scarce when he came across them that way. It had been too personal a moment to be observing.
They sat down on the cot and she lay her head on his shoulder. She looked so tired and Duo was racking his brain for something to talk to her about. He came up with an idea, although it wasn’t one of his best.
"I’m surprised that your soldiers never tried to take advantage of you," he said into her hair. "The way Nicholas was looking at you, I’d swear that he would’ve jumped you the second your back was turned."
"He would’ve been dead even before he could touch me," she whispered quietly. "Every soldier knew that, after finding the bodies of those who’d been foolish enough to try." Terri snuggled more into Duo’s arms until they eventually fell back onto the cot. she thought as she lay her head on his chest,
Duo ran the back of his hand against her cheek and kissed her hair. When she looked up, he kissed her lips and held her tighter, as if by doing so, he could undo all the years that had made their paths meet in such dire circumstances. All at once, Duo felt Terri stiffen and she pushed him away, rolling off the cot in the same motion.
"Don’t," she whispered as she got up and brushed herself off. "Another reason why I refused to be touched is because I already have a lover."
The boy clutched his arms as he rose to a sitting position. His entire body screamed in agony at the movement but he ignored it. "Who is he? Maybe fate would be so kind that I wouldn’t know him."
A single tear rolled down Terri’s cheek as she knelt before him, a parishioner at confession. "You know him well enough. His name is Treize Khushrenada."
Duo nearly tipped over at that revelation. He wanted to get away from her, but he saw the serious expression on her face. "Why?" he asked, hurt written all over his face.
"Maybe it’s because I am in love with him," Terri whispered and her tone became suddenly cold. "Or maybe it’s just because I am a soldier and ambitious. The end is always justified by the means and no price is too high to pay for success." She regained her composure and stood up to leave pausing only to pick up the gun and the box with its remaining contents. "You should do well to remember that what happened between us should be left in the past. I belong to OZ now... to Treize Khushrenada, and if I am ordered to kill you, I can’t say that I won’t do so."
Duo watched her cuff his wrists again before she turned and left. There was now no doubt that what they had shared will remain in the past.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Heero stood at one of the loading bays in Berlin base and relayed his position to Quatre and Trowa who were waiting in the outskirts of the base in their Gundams. Wufei had gone on ahead and into the base while Heero set up the explosives that would cover their escape. The other four had gotten back to the safe house and found it empty. It had been almost two weeks since Duo had left and he should have been back already. They were shocked to receive a communiqué from Professor G saying that the OZ had captured Duo after completing his mission and was being held at Berlin base. They couldn’t risk losing Duo now that a full scale war was about to occur.
Wufei signaled to Heero from a corridor and they both made their way through the maze of doors and hallways. Heero had tapped into the OZ computers and managed to get the necessary plans for the base as well as the codes that would open the locks. They knew that Duo was being kept at the heart of the base and that it wouldn’t be easy getting him out. Thankfully, there were few guards around and they managed to get to Duo’s cell without being seen.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Duo blinked when he saw the door open. He hadn’t seen Terri since she came to bandage his wounds and he was hoping that she’d come back to talk some more. His heart practically jumped to his throat when he saw Heero and Wufei at the doorway. Although he still hurt some from the beating, he felt more than able to make a break out of his prison.
No sooner than that, they encountered their first guard. Heero managed to kill him but not before he tapped the alarm on the wall panel.
Wufei cursed as they rushed through the corridors. They heard muffled explosions as Heero set off the explosives he’d planted. They turned a corridor and was met by four guards bearing semi-automatic rifles. Duo’s eyes blazed as he recognized the four who had ‘interrogated’ him.
"Ya ain’t getting away that easily, boy," Jeffries called. "It looks like you brought two more of your pals for us to play with."
Heero tried to make a move but was met by Rushtomir’s rifle fire. Heero glowered at the man before him as he clutched his bleeding arm. They knew that they were caught.
Suddenly, the fourth member of their group lurched forward and toppled over, dead. Jeffries and Rushtomir turned to face their new attacker and they fell backwards each with a clean hole at the center of their forehead. Nicholas cursed and was about to open fire on the boys when he heard an unmistakable voice telling him to stand down. He whirled to face the voice and got a bullet lodged into his skull.
Duo shook his head in disbelief as Terri stepped out of the shadows, her silencered pistol still smoking. Heero lifted his gun to her head and Duo pushed it away. She walked up to Heero and helped Wufei drag him into an empty room. There, she took out some bandages from a small pack slung over her shoulder and a small dissecting kit. Duo watched in amazement as she extracted the bullet and bandaged the wound in under three minutes.
"You should have been a medic," he commented as she finished bandaging Heero’s wound.
"I was too good a soldier to be kept in an infirmary," she replied tartly.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked her as they ran through the corridors, Terri leading.
"I did what you told me to do," she replied, blending herself to the shadows in the hall. "I went out and saw the situation for myself. You were right. I was fighting for the wrong people. My father would be turning in his grave if he knew the truth of what we fought for."
Duo nodded as they entered a doorway and emerged in one of the base’s hangars. Terri shoved the pistol she was carrying into her holster and took the cable that would lift her into one of the new mobile suits that OZ had just finished developing. She had been the one chosen to test the prototypes and she knew how to use them better than anyone else in the base.
She signaled the three boys to get out of there as fast as they could and started firing into the assembly line as soon as they were clear. She moved the MS out of the hangar and was surprised to see two Gundams already in the fray and three more join in.
"Terri, hang in there!"
"Duo!" she shouted incredulously and she saw in her monitor a black Gundam bearing a thermal scythe slicing its way towards her.
The battle raged on, but the odds weren’t good. Berlin base housed one of the largest contingents of OZ mobile suits on Earth and there was no way that five Gundams and a prototype would be able to destroy them all.
"Trowa’s almost out of ammunition!" Quatre screamed over the comm link. "We’d better get out of here fast or we’ll all be captured!"
Terri could see in her mind what would happen if they were captured. She would be court-martialed and executed for her betrayal. In her opinion, it would be a lighter sentence compared to what the boys would suffer. She steeled herself and opened a link to all five pilots.
"Get out of here, all of you," she said, her voice taking on the cool tones of the perfect soldier. "I’ll cover your escape, just get out of here."
The Deathscythe Gundam moved towards her while the other four prepared to moved out of the base.
"Terri, have you gone nuts?!" Duo called over the link. "There’s no way that you’ll get out of here alive!"
"I’m counting on that," she said as she hit the raised button on the left hand panel. She saw the shocked expression on Duo’s face as the red warning light flashed in her cockpit.
"Why?!" He screamed at her.
"This is the only way I could make up for all that I’ve done," she whispered as she rained death at the oncoming mobile suits. "At least I was able to finally fight by your side."
"Terri...."
"Duo, get out of here, that’s an order!" She said crisply.
Terri looked back at the Gundam as it flew away from her and she continued her assault. Duo’s face was still on the monitor. His eyes took on a hurt look as a trickle of blood ran down from her hairline onto her face.
"Are you okay?"
Terri smiled wistfully. "I never had a chance to tell you, but I...."
"NOOOO!" Duo screamed as the face in the monitor disappeared into static. From his field monitor, he could see a huge explosion coming from the direction of the base. He realized what had happened and wiped the tears that came to his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Duo! Duo, are you okay?"
His eyes were slightly reddish as he looked at a worried Quatre on the monitor. "Yeah, I’m fine," he choked out. "Let’s go home."
Quatre acknowledged his reply and all five Gundams flew as fast as they could back towards the safe house.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Colonel Treize, that is the situation."
Treize nodded as he viewed the remnants of the Berlin base. It was hard to believe that this had been one of the OZ’s primary bases just a few hours ago. It appeared that sometime during the night, a few rebels had gotten in and broke out Tchaikov’s assassin. To make matters worse, the intruders were supported by Gundams. Although the Gundams escaped, one of their allies, piloting an OZ MS prototype, had been left behind and sacrificed himself to save the others.
He watched as the soldiers cleared out the debris from the explosion. They came to the runaway MS and managed to extract a mangled body from the wreckage. Although there was no possible way that the pilot could be alive, the face suffered little damage and was still recognizable.
Captain Terri Lynch.
Treize felt his chest constrict in anger and he crushed the white rose that he’d been playing with in his hand. He nodded his head silently as a soldier notified him on the latest developments on the situation in Berlin, but he never heard his words.
He took another rose and threw it into the air. He managed to skewer it right at the center, wishing it had been Terri’s heart instead.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Duo..."
Duo looked up from his seat under the huge oak tree that grew outside the safe house. Quatre was still worrying about him even though they’ve already been back for three days. The blond boy sat beside him and looked at the horizon. It was early autumn and the leaves of the trees have just started to turn into yellows and reds. He loved autumn and savored the few times that he was allowed to experience it as he could. He looked at what looked like a photograph in Duo’s hand.
"I... I haven’t seen that picture before," he said, unwilling to draw Duo out in case it was too personal a matter.
"Here," Duo said, handing him the picture.
Quatre took the picture and stared at it. It showed two young Duos laughing.
"Duo, who is she?" Quatre asked him handing him back the photograph.
"Her name was Terri," Duo said leaning back on the tree. "She was one of the few true friends I had back in L2."
"She’s very pretty," the blonde Arabian said appreciatively.
"She was also the pilot of the MS that covered our escape," Duo whispered.
Quatre looked in stunned silence at his friend and he knew that he shouldn’t have asked him about the girl. He wanted to kick himself as he saw tears start to form in the corner of Duo’s eyes.
"Gomen, Duo, I didn’t know...," Quatre began and Duo waved his words off.
"It’s okay, Quatre," Duo said as he wiped away at the tears. "It’s what she wanted, anyway. She said that it was her way of paying her dues."
Quatre nodded and looked down. He noticed that Duo had a ring on the middle finger of his left hand. He was just about to ask him about it when Duo spoke.
"She was trying to tell me something before the suit self-destructed," he said as he looked at the setting sun. "I just wish that I had heard it before she died."
"Duo," Quatre whispered, "I don’t mean to change the subject, but where did you get that?"
Duo held up his left hand and stared at the ring. He had taken it off his necklace and put it on the day that they’d gotten back. It was all he had left of the girl that gave up her life so that they could live.
"Terri gave it to me when we were still on L2," he explained as he took it off to show Quatre. "She said that her grandmother gave it to her when she was younger. I have no idea why she would give me something that obviously had so much sentimental value."
Quatre turned the ring over in his hands, carefully studying its make like an expert jeweler. He knew of these types of rings. They were the old fashioned wedding rings that were used by couples to signify their love. Although there were the newer types that had exquisite stones on them, the intricate bands that were lovingly passed on from generation to generation were considered prized heirlooms. To have been given one for seemingly no reason at all was truly something unusual.
Duo was regarding Quatre’s expression carefully. He raised an eyebrow in surprise as the Arabian nodded in understanding and smiled wistfully as he handed the ring back to Duo. He lay down on the grass as Duo looked at the ring in his hand.
"Quatre, what in the world could you be smiling for?" Duo said, turning the ring in his fingers. He watched as Quatre turned to look at him, his blue-green eyes sparkling with sadness.
"I know what she wanted to tell you, Duo," Quatre said simply. "You held it in your hands for so long and you never figured it out."
"What the heck are you talking about?" he said incredulously.
"Look at the inside of the ring," Quatre instructed. "I must admit, I didn’t notice it at first, which means that the ring must be pretty old, but I believe that you’ll see what I mean."
Duo did as he was instructed and looked. His eyes widened and he closed the ring in his fist. He leaned his head on the tree trunk and let the tears come.
The wind rustled through the leaves and carried stray droplets of his tears in its wake. In his mind, he heard the final words that she wanted to say -- the same words that were on the ring that she had given him all those years ago.
I love you. Forever.
-----------------------The End ------------------------
original © April 1999 by Lady Aria
revised © May 2000 by Lady Aria