Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of this.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS
Soldier Boys
Sequel to:Bombs Away
The Dragon Returns
"This was MY plan, Heero," Duo whispered harshly in complaint as they slipped in and out of the shadows surrounding the base. "You don't have to keep going over it with me. You do your part and I'll do-"
"Mind if I join in the argument?" A soldier asked as he stepped out of the darkness, rifle raised and aimed at them. He grunted as he shown a flashlight over their faces. "Damned kids!" he swore. "Don't you have any sense? What was it? A dare? Or were you trying to steal scrap to sell?"
Duo clamped a hard hand on Heero's elbow, feeling the young man tense for a spring at the guard, a move that would most likely get him killed. Duo used his best, scared, little boy routine and poured it on thick. "Don't shoot, mister! It w-w-was a dare. Benny and Len told us we didn't have the guts to sneak on base and touch one of the carriers. We're sorry! J-Just let us go and we promise never to come back here again!"
The guard sighed. "Give me your ID cards. I'm writing down your numbers. If I see you on base again, I'm turning you over. I don't think I have to tell you what it's like in an internment camp, do I?"
"N-N-No, sir!" Duo stammered, eyes wide and terrified. He dug into his pocket and then held out his hand to the guard. When the guard stepped forward, lowering his gun into the crook of his arm to have his hands free to take what ever Duo had, Heero sprang forward like a released spring. His one hand grabbed the rifle and his other chopped upwards across the guard's throat. As the guard snapped forward, clutching at his injury, Heero brought the butt of the gun around and slammed it down onto the back of the man's head. The guard crumpled into a limp heap on the ground, unconscious or dead, it was hard to tell.
Duo opened his hand. It was empty. "They fall for that every single time," he chuckled as he took up the fallen flashlight and rummaged through the man's clothes. Pulling out a wallet, he quickly flipped through it, shining the light of the flashlight onto it. "Thomas Macavee," he said to Heero. "Private, second class." He pulled out several receipts. "Likes Mexican food and...," Duo's eyebrow quirked, "off base peep shows." He shuddered and let the receipts drop. Looking further, he snagged several debit cards with tidy sums, gun, car, and shuttle permits, and... Duo paused at the picture of a baby girl dressed for a christening. In the yellow light of the flashlight, she look angelic in starched white lace and a headband with white flowers. Duo looked from the picture to the man. Putting the wallet aside, he reached out and felt for a pulse. There wasn't one.
"Shit," Duo whispered, a single profanity that encompassed many things. He put the picture of the baby girl onto the man's breast and put one of his hands over it. "Sorry." Duo murmured and then again, "Shit. " He stood up and pocketed the other items. Heero was looking at him. Duo scowled. "What are you looking at?" Duo demanded, his voice rough. "Let's get the hell out of here before any of his friends come looking for him."
As Heero turned without comment, and they began flitting through the shadows towards their target, Duo felt his stomach tightening on sickness. He hated knowing anything about his victims. When he killed, he gave them the faces of the people who had slaughtered innocents, the ones he wanted to enact the cruelest revenge on. He couldn't afford to feel sorry for them, to acknowledge that they were all separate people with their own separate lives, people who had little girls to go home to and little secrets that they didn't want anyone knowing about. Giving them lives, giving them humanity, would shake his resolve to do what had to be done to win the war, he knew. He couldn't get soft and forget that his goal was to take out of power the ones who had ordered the deaths of the people that had been his family.
Heero was looking at him again, Duo saw, and he scowled back. Heero had seen his moment of weakness and Duo sensed that Heero was unsure of him now. With a knapsack full of bombs, and a base crawling with the enemy, Duo didn't blame him. Duo let Shinigami take over the forefront of his psyche and he was the one who grinned evilly at Heero. "Let's blow 'em sky high, partner." He thought that Heero would be reassured by that, but Heero frowned even more and seemed... disturbed. He nodded, though, and they slipped into the corridors leading to the barracks.
The plan was to plant bombs in key places that would do structural damage. That damage would force the soldiers out and away from the hangers that Heero and Duo intended to take out with their Gundams. On the one hand it saved lives. On the other, it reduced opposition. Cut off from the hangers, those soldiers couldn't get to their suits or equipment to retaliate. So, Quatre and Trowa had what they wanted and Duo and Heero were satisfied as well. The mission was going to be completed and it's effectiveness hadn't been watered down.
When Duo had trained under Dr. G, he had been pitted against a few hand picked men, but had still been very much a lone operative. He hadn't liked that. He had worked with his street gang as a team. It's what he knew best. Hands signs and distinct nods had been as much a part of their language as their street slang as they had worked together to steal food and to simply survive. Working now with Heero, Duo was suddenly at a loss. Talking was out of the question and Duo was now realizing that Heero didn't know the simplest of his signals.
"Shit," Duo swore, a mere breath when he saw that, besides a lack of communication, it was becoming apparent that their map wasn't very accurate at all. When the corridor branched unexpectedly, Duo shoved the useless map into his pocket and looked at Heero, wide eyed.
Heero studied the problem for only a moment, then leaned very close to Duo and whispered in his ear, "Right. Meet hanger 3."
Duo felt his adrenalin start to pump through his veins. Heero was suggesting that they separate and plant bombs on the fly. That was chancy. If they set them off too near equipment that turned out to be volatile, then more people would die. There was also the chance that one of them would get lost and not make it back before the detonators went off. Duo leaned close and made a distinct hand signal and said, "Right." and then another, pointing at Heero, "Left." and yet a third, "Okay." Heero watched his hand signals and then nodded. Duo was certain that he had committed them to memory.
"Here goes," Duo muttered to himself as he hefted his pack of bombs more comfortably on his shoulder and slipped down the right hand corridor.
Sometimes, hiding was just a matter of staying in plain sight. Duo walked nonchalantly down the corridors as if he had a perfect right to be there. He had tucked his braid away down the back of his priest jacket. He knew he still looked odd, a young novice with a pack walking the corridors of an Oz installation. The few people who passed him raised curious eyebrows, but all of them couldn't imagine him being where he was without someone's authorization, especially considering the levels of security on the perimeter of the place.
Duo smiled and nodded at them, while his insides were shivering ice and his hands kept twitching, wanting to pull his weapons. He wasn't having any trouble now seeing the faces of the soldiers that he hated, the ones who had killed innocents. The people who passed him were only uniformed killers to him, devoid of the personality of the dead man lying hidden out in the darkness. These were the men and the women who stepped into machines and operated weaponry, believing themselves superior and therefore entitled to lead, by any means necessary , a reluctant civilian population. These were the men and women who had turned their backs on street children, allowing them to die from a plague and considering it a good way to get rid of vermin. These were the people who had decided that destroying an entire church full of priests, nuns, and children was acceptable as long as they were able to destroy a nest of rebels in the process.
There were other atrocities, the list was long in Duo's memory. Quatre may have felt compassion for these people, but Duo was finding it hard to remember the young man's reasoning, finding it even harder to muster the humanity necessary to plant his bombs in non lethal areas at risk of his life and his mission. In the end, it was the picture of that baby girl that kept his resolve from failing all together. It was that picture that reminded him that he wasn't the monster here, wasn't the murderer, and that, maybe, some of these people weren't either and deserved to live.
Duo accomplished his task and headed for the hanger, or at least where he thought the hanger might be. Having discarded the map, he now had to rely on his unerring sense of direction. It didn't fail him and he was soon slipping past guards at the hanger doors. Crouching behind crates of equipment and fuel just inside, he peered cautiously about for Heero and allowed himself a moment to rest.
Duo checked his watch. Rest time over and still no sign of Heero. He searched for the young man, deciding that Heero would likely be where they had decided he would plant his bombs. When Duo stumbled over the body of a technician, stuffed behind some equipment, he saw that the man's lab coat was missing. Duo scanned the hanger floor and saw many people with similar coats moving about regular workers. He didn't see one shorter than the rest, or one with messy chocolate hair.
"Shit, Heero, where the hell are you?" Duo wondered. The thought of planting his bombs and then setting off the timer, without knowing where his partner was, didn't appeal to him at all, but, as the time ticked by without any sight of the pilot of Wing, Duo decided that he didn't have any choice. He couldn't take the chance that Heero was already planting his bombs, that the young man would set their timers without regard for Duo. As for leaving with the possibility of the job being only half done, Duo couldn't see Heero taking the chance. He had a feeling that Heero would be the kind of person to check.
Duo slipped in and out of mobile suits, donning a lab coat of his own, stolen from a technician that he had incapacitated. Now, just an anonymous tech among many, he planted the palm sized bombs into instrument panels, in between gyros and gears, and under explosive materials. Setting the timers made him twitch, but they had decided that they couldn't trust a remote in an area full of communications and mechanical interference. Duo was committed now and, he felt with a sick feeling in his stomach, so was Heero. If the man didn't have his part of the plan done...
"What are you doing?" a man demanded. "You aren't on my team."
Duo turned with a faked, puzzled smile and saw the tall technician who had come up behind him. They stood at the bottom of a scaffolding encasing a suit under construction. Duo held out his hand. "Thomas Macavee," he said pleasantly. "Private, second class, just transferred to tech. I was doing guard detail until I passed my training, so I'm not surprised that you don't recognize me."
"Guard detail?" the man frowned and then blinked as he looked Duo up and down. "You look very young to have graduated any kind of course."
"Well, I'm a child genius, actually," Duo replied good naturedly, "So I finished all of my courses very early. I specialize in mobile suit thermal couplers and C-3 gyro systems. Once they saw how I handled a level one system failure in the A-863-I and stabilized a Y-beta- 9476, they plucked me out of basic training and put me in with the big boys."
The man looked impressed, but still suspicious. "How did you... Level one system failures in A-863-I's are impossible to override and repair. Complete replacement is recommended."
Duo blushed and looked modest. "Well, I had help, but I figured out that rewiring to the mother board of the K-623-B and running a patch to the A-863-I would allow it to reconfigure enough to stop an overload and a gyro failure."
The man thought that over and then looked suddenly very respectful. "That is genius! I would never have thought to do something that seemingly incompatible, but, now that you've outlined it, I can see how that would work." He relaxed. "Sorry, for being on the defensive Thomas, but security has been very tight since that rash of rebel activity in the area."
"I understand completely!" Duo beamed. He checked his watch. "Damn! I'm late for a meeting with my trainer. I still have to brush up on some thermal dynamic interactions."
The man grunted sympathetically. "Are you training with Franks?"
"Yeah," Duo replied with a long suffering sigh. "So you know I'd better hurry."
"He is a harsh taskmaster," the man replied with a grimace. "You go ahead. We'll talk later, Thomas." He smiled, "If you have any new ideas, especially about the operation of these temperamental suits, then I want to know about them."
"Sure thing!" Duo grinned and made a small salute as he hurried on his way.
As soon as Duo was out of sight, he looked at his watch and began to hurry as he broke out in a cold sweat. That had taken TOO long! When an iron hard hand gripped him by the collar and jerked him behind a crate, he pulled his gun. He found himself face to face with Heero. Heero's gun was out as well.
Duo glared at Heero as he put away his gun again. He nodded viciously at Heero's and Heero reluctantly did the same. Duo's cold sweat increased, especially when he realized that the crate had been in line with him and the tech. Heero had been leveling his gun at them both. Why, Duo was finding it hard to understand. If Heero had fired, then the noise would have given them all away.
Duo jerked his chin towards an exit. Heero shook his head and jerked his chin towards some hanger doors. They frowned at each other, precious seconds ticking by. Duo raised eyebrows in question. Heero made a motion as if he were reading a map. Duo scowled and shook his head, pointing tot he exit with an emphatic motion. Heero scowled as well, unconvinced of Duo's choice. Duo pointed to his own head with a stiff finger and at his exit again, trying to tell Heero that he had a perfect sense of direction. Heero didn't understand. He pointed to his watch. They didn't have any time to argue.
Duo couldn't bring himself to let Heero go his own way and he his. The thought of Heero getting trapped by either the explosions or the fleeing soldiers filled Duo with a strong emotion that he was unfamiliar with. He was used to feeling protective of his friends, of his foster family in the church, and his street gang when he had been homeless. This was different though and he couldn't stop a wave of fear, close to panic, that was threatening to overwhelm him at the thought of something happening to Heero. It confused him. He had spent very little time with the young man, didn't really know anything about him, yet, here he was, close to doing something drastic, pull his gun on Heero, knock him unconscious and drag him away, or any number of things, to keep Heero from making, what Duo considered, a fatal mistake.
Duo leaned close, amethyst eyes as intense and certain as he could make them and whispered, barely a breath, "Trust me. Come with me."
Heero returned his stare and then, looking as if he were going against every bit of his training, he nodded, once.
Duo felt almost weak with relief. He reached out, squeezed Heero's shoulder with a grin, and then hot footed it to the exit with Heero close on his heels. He was right, Duo saw at once. The map had been wrong, maybe even put into the database on purpose to mislead potential hackers. When they came out in a direct line towards the nearby forest and their waiting Gundams, Duo heard an appreciative grunt from Heero. It was like music to Duo's ears and his grin widened even more as he ran on a surge of adrenalin.
They easily avoided any detection. Climbing into the cockpit of Deathscythe, Duo powered up systems, loving the sound of his beloved machine as he checked for any red lights on the panels in front of him and on either side. He brought up visuals and threw up proximity detectors, not good in the close forest, but invaluable once they breached the fence and moved onto the base.
"Ready?" Duo asked on his tight beam com unit.
"Roger that," Heero replied.
Duo looked at his watch, counted down the seconds, and then felt his Deathscythe shift on its gyros automatically to compensate as the ground bucked under the onslaught of explosions. "Better be scattering guys and gals!" Duo shouted, "The god of death is coming for ya!"
Duo swung his scythe and it took out the perimeter fence as he strode his machine forward. Nothing stopped a machine made out of Gundanium, not trees, not fences, not buildings, and certainly not inconsequential humans deploying with beam rifles. Duo strode over them without blinking, his mind on his part of the plan.
"Heads up!" Heero warned in extreme irritation, just as Duo's proximity alarms sounded and a screen showed him a readout of a moving object. "It's the Nataku!"
"He's attacking our target?!" Duo yelled in outrage. He slapped open his com unit and shouted into it. "Back down, man! This is our fight!"
"You are weaklings to let them escape justice," Wu Fei shouted back over the link. "You don't deserve to fight. Stand back and I will show you how a true warrior wins a battle!"
"What the...?" Duo strode Deathscythe towards Wu Fei's Gundam and intercepted it as it made for the barracks and the people fleeing the bomb blasts. It was clear that Wu Fei was going to kill them. "You are screwing with our plan! Back off! If you wanna fight, help us take out the mobile suits in the hangers!"
"The technicians and pilots are as much targets as the suits themselves," Wu Fei argue with a voice dripping contempt.
"I have my orders and you are not messing them up!" Duo argued as he swung his scythe and intercepted Wu Fei's attempt to move past him. "Fight with us or I'll make you a target too. Back me up here, Heero! "
Wing was suddenly on Nataku's other side. Heero's voice said over the link, "We have planned a coordinated attack with specific parameters. If you interfere, then our mission may be compromised. You will stand aside or I will destroy you." Heero swung his beam cannon into position, aimed at Nataku. There wasn't any defense against the power of that weapon. Wu Fei knew that. He cursed in Chinese.
"Heero's beam cannon and my scythe can take you apart without any trouble," Duo threatened. "Come on, man! We should be working together! Fighting like this is just going to get us all killed. While you're chasing techs and pilots, they're calling for reinforcement and climbing into their suits. Your strategy sucks. Ours doesn't. Admit it and join forces."
Wu Fei didn't agree, yet he didn't disagree either. Nataku seemed to shrug, if it was possible for A Gundam to shrug, out of their hold and he then turned and walked towards the barracks.
"Whoa, whoa!" Duo shouted, even though he was grinning with glee. "Glad to have you aboard man, but you have to join the dance too. Heero takes out the two hangers on the left, since he's got the power, and you take the one on the right. I'll take out the one directly ahead and we'll make this base one dimensional together, k?"
"Acknowledged," came Wu Fei's tight voice, still full of arrogant rebellion.
Duo put his com link on tight beam again and called Heero, saying, "Don't trust him, Heero-buddy. He's mad."
Heero's voice replied simply. "I trust only myself."
Duo frowned and felt something in his gut clench. Heero didn't trust him? Then why had he followed his direction? Duo had thought that they had forged a friendship of sorts. Now he was confused. "Okay, Heero," he replied, "But I trust you with my life, so don't let me down, all right?"
As Duo began slashing into his hanger, opening it up as if it were a child's toy, he waited for Heero to reply. When he didn't, Duo closed off that part of him that was disappointed, that had begun to believe in that friendship with Heero and had wanted it very badly. He concentrated on dealing death and destruction instead. There would be time for figuring Heero out later, if they survived.