Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, attempted NCS, violence
Soldier Boys
Sequel to Compromises
Broken Wing
Duo found a rag and tied it like a bandana to keep the sweat out of his eyes. He was frying and the hatch still wasn't opening. Giving up at last, he turned away from it and dug out his torch. Choosing a vulnerable section behind some wiring, where he knew an outside access panel lay, he attempted to cut through.
Deathscythe shuddered. Duo froze. He turned off the torch and went to his com unit. Turning it on, he tentatively called, "Guys? That you?"
Deathscythe shuddered again. Duo climbed into his command chair and strapped himself down. He was just in time. Heero's voice said over the com link, "Stay clear of the door," and then metal started giving way.
Duo threw his arms over his head and tried his best to become a compact ball in his chair as he shouted. "Son of a bitch, Heero! Take Deathscythe out of here, now! Don't you freakin' try and save me. There isn't time!"
"Heero!" Quatre's voice shouted over the com, "Stand back! Oz is closing on our position! Duo is right, there isn't time.
"Stand back!" Trowa joined in, voice sounding dangerous, "or I will shoot you, Yuy!"
""You'll kill Duo!" Heero shouted angrily.
A system blew and showered sparks all over Duo. He huddled tighter as he shouted, "A pilot's no good without a Gundam, Heero! Get the hell out of here! Let them take Deathscythe!"
The only thing as strong as Gundanium was more Gundanium. The hatch exploded inward as Wing's fingers shoved through it. Duo felt something solid hit the back of the chair, flip over the top, and come crashing down on him. He shoved it off and felt metal cutting deep into his skin and scraping parts of him raw. He let out a howl of pain, even as he was unfolding and throwing off his straps.
As Wing's fingers began to withdraw, Duo was already there and throwing himself out of the destroyed hatch. He caught the line lift with both hands and hit the control with his foot as he swung out and down the length of Deathscythe at full speed. When he hit the ground, he rolled, and adrenaline alone brought him back to his feet.
Duo was surrounded by Gundams. He chose, not Heero's, but Quatre's as a blast from an Oz cannon took out two trees near him and slammed into Deathscythe's head. The suit jumped and landed back down, hard enough to make the ground buck. Duo staggered, clawed at Sandrock, and scrambled upward even as Quatre's Gundam began striding toward Deathscythe.
Duo almost lost his grip several times. His head was pounding with pain and his eyesight was swimming, but sheer determination made him grit his teeth and ignore everything but reaching the hatch that was opening above him. He made it, just, as Sandrock bent and began dragging Deathscythe up. Wu Fei and Trowa joined him in his effort.
Quatre didn't spare Duo a glance as Duo made it into the cockpit. Duo could feel recrimination and anger from the pilot. He huddled just behind the command chair and tried to wedge himself in equipment. He could smell a slight spicy scent from Quatre mixed with sweat and Gundam grease.
"Damn Heero anyway!" Quatre cursed and Duo winced. "Wing!" He shouted into the com link. "Duo is secure. You will cover our retreat."
"Roger that!" Came Heero's relieved voice and then the inside of Quatre's Gundam began shuddering with the nearby force of a beam cannon at close range. On Quatre's monitors, Duo could see his Deathscythe being manhandled up and between the Gundams. The force of that lifting, and the violent angles his Gundam was subjected to, made Duo swallow. He could imagine systems blowing and pieces of machinery flying inside the cockpit. He doubted that he would have survived the heat or the rescue of his suit.
"Status?" Quatre barked and it was a long moment before Duo realized that Quatre was talking to him.
"Operational, " Duo replied, " but then fiercely, "This won't happen again!"
"It can't," Quatre agreed and there was a hint of sadness mixed with his anger.
It was all Duo could do to stay in place, then, and avoid further damage as
they were hit by enemy fire and Sandrock had to violently maneuver with its
burden. His thoughts were on the battle, but a small part of his mind was dealing
with his future as well.
____________________________________
As soon as Duo disembarked from Sandrock at the safe house hanger, he left Quatre to power down, ignoring his comrades calls to wait. He knew he didn't have much time before Heero returned.
Wu Fei was striding towards him, the heat and exhaust from venting engines on Shenlong whipping his black hair and white clothes about his body. His dark eyes were intense. Duo tried to avoid him, but he was at the hanger door with surprising speed. He put out an arm to block the door.
"That should not have happened back there," Wu Fei said sternly.
Duo seethed even as his heart shredded. "You think you have to tell me?" He shoved Wu Fei's arm aside. "And you don't have to tell me what comes next."
Wu Fei's eyes were like dark pools as he said, "What should I tell him? If he will come after you and ignore everything to save you, then why wouldn't he follow you now?"
Duo's jaw clenched and his teeth ground together as he forced out, his head ducking down and his amethyst eyes hiding behind his bangs, "Tell him, if I see him before the war is over, and it's not during a mission, I'll kill him."
"You're strong, "Wu Fei with respect, though he sounded almost sad at the same time.
"No!" Duo shot back with a hard shake of his head that caused his braid to snap the air like a whip. "I'm weak. I'm very, very weak, and that's why I have to go now."
Wu Fei looked confused and then he nodded. "You can't stop him," he guessed.
"I can't stop myself," Duo ground out and walked away.
Duo went to their shared room. He dressed in his black and white priest outfit and tossed his borrowed clothes onto Heero's bed. There wasn't anything else he needed, he decided. Traveling light was best. He turned to leave, but then saw one of Heero's green tank tops laying over the back of a chair. He took hold of it involuntarily and gripped it tight.
"Sorry, Heero," Duo whispered, as if the shirt could send his words straight to Heero. "To be a Gundam pilot, I have to be willing to die... you have to be willing to die. You... you make me want to live... you force me to live. The colonies can't afford to lose either of us, but they can't afford to have us not do what's necessary either. Bye... I hope I see you again on the other side."
Duo almost took the tank top, fisted his hand in it to do just that, but then
he forced his fingers to open and his feet to take him out of that room without
it. Take nothing with you, he told himself, Shinigami was on borrowed time.
He couldn't afford ties, remembrances, or reasons to live other than to win
a war.
_________________________
Heero returned, almost burning himself on the hot metal of his Gundam as he landed roughly at the hanger and swung down it's great height to the ground. He raced towards the safe house, sensing trouble, knowing that he had broken a promise; broken a trust. He had saved Duo and compromised a mission. He had done everything that he had insisted that he wouldn't. Training had failed. His determination and dedication had failed. His love for Duo had surmounted it all.
He found Quatre and Wu Fei standing in the living room of the safe house. Their eyes told him. Trowa, walking down from upstairs with his hands in his pockets, told him the rest.
"The bike?" Heero demanded in a voice so full of anguish he hardly recognized it as his own. "Did he take it?"
"Don't follow him," Wu Fei told him. "You know it was the right thing to do." He shrugged. "We were never meant to work together anyway. It was a foolish ideal. We were -"
Quatre shook his head. "We were supposed to do covert operations and carry out hit and run attacks, but we've gone beyond our first mission. We weren't supposed to survive this long. Now that Oz knows we exist, now that they have some idea of who we are, combining our forces against them is the only sound tactic."
"We should stay together," Trowa agreed. "Our remaining personalities won't become as involved."
Heero was almost shaking, his hands opening and closing. He began to turn, to leave and search for Duo, when Wu Fei's words stopped him short, "I remind you of your duty and your honor, Heero. Duo also asked me to tell you that, if you decided to chase after him, he will kill you." Wu Fei's dark eyes were intense. "He was not lying, Heero. I believe that he will do it for the good of the cause. It seems that he doesn't share your emotional failings."
Heero visibly flinched and went pale. "He said..."
"Yes, he did," Wu Fei affirmed. "You know that he is right. You know that what you have between you doesn't have any place here, not now, not with so much at stake."
Heero made an inarticulate sound, like an animal with his foot caught in a trap. He dug his hands into his messy hair, his fingers claws of anguish, and then he threw himself towards the stairs and ran up them. They all heard the door to his room slam and then they looked at each other.
Quatre took a deep shuddering breath and one of his hands rubbed at his chest. "I thought... I thought they could do this. I never imagined that Heero would be the one who couldn't maintain discipline, who couldn't separate his feelings for Duo and his duty towards the war."
Wu Fei snorted. "Heero fights for peace, an ideal. Duo fights for revenge. Hate can be very strong, stronger than an ideal, especially when the person fighting for that ideal, does so only because he was ordered to." He looked at them, the way Trowa unconsciously stood at Quatre's elbow. "You," he said to Quatre, "are dedicated to peace. You are willing to sacrifice all for the people, even Trowa, because you are able to see out of yourself to what our future can be." He turned to Trowa, "You have always fought and you have seen many people die. To you it is part of your 'business' as a mercenary."
"I'm not so cold," Trowa replied tightly, "but yes, I know what it takes to win battles and what happens when a man thinks of himself and his loved ones before his duty to his group. I would never do that."
Trowa and Quatre looked at each other and then Quatre reached out and took Trowa's hand, not caring that Wu Fei was watching. He said, "Duo and Heero have always fought alone during this war. They've never had to make decisions for the greater good."
"Not when it comes to sacrificing your own," Trowa agreed.
Quatre looked up the stairs, frowning as if he were trying to see through the
walls. "I think Heero will calm down. I think he will continue to fight
with us. We will still stay a team. " He sighed. "I will miss Duo,
though, and I will miss the person that Heero was becoming because of him. I
don't think we will see that person again, at least, not until this war is over."
_________________________
three years later....
__________________________
Heero stood at the center of a studio apartment and glared at the four, white walls. The tan carpet was functional and bland, the apartment had a white countertop and minimal kitchen appliances. The bathroom was very small. Heero dropped his small duffel bag and strode to the one window. It was narrow and looked out at a bleak, depressed neighborhood from a second floor. It couldn't even claim age or dignity that comes from older buildings. It was a neighborhood of government housing units as alike as gray blocks stacked on top of each other. The streets between them were cracked and lined by sidewalks littered with trash. A lone strip of asphalt had basketball hoops without nets. No one was walking around or playing. A lone leafless tree, and Heero, were the only witnesses to sun rising in a milky, gray, winter sky.
He finally left the window, snagged up his duffel bag, and went to sit at the lone barstool by the countertop. It was a plain metal one and looked scuffed and used as if someone had left it behind as worthless, exactly the way Heero was feeling just then.
Heero dumped the contents of his duffel bag onto the counter. The items skittered and slid on the slick surface. Tossing the empty duffel aside, he picked through a birth certificate, social security card, a file with a lengthy history report, a sheaf of photos showing him at varying ages with a happy family, school records, a bank book with a seven digit balance, a gun permit, a rental agreement, and a portfolio of job references.
Heero wasn't surprised by the knock on the door. He rose from his chair as if gravity had increased, his body leaden and slow as he made his way to the front door. He used the spy hole and saw the person that he was expecting. Opening the door he let in a woman in a business suit who was carrying an armload of groceries.
"Everything okay, David?" she asked loudly. "I'm just dropping these off on my way to work as a housewarming gift. Wouldn't want my son to starve. Think you can manage to put them away?"
"Yes, ma'am," Heero replied dutifully, and he ignored the woman's frown at his monotone voice.
"See you later, then. I don't want to be late for work," The woman said with false cheerfulness and then she turned on her heel and was gone, duty done.
Heero glared as he shut the door and went to sit on his stool again, the bags of groceries sliding onto the counter with the rest of his belongings.
Fake name, fake papers, fake photos, fake family, fake life. Heero had entered the relocation system at Quatre's insistence. Even after a few years had passed after the war, feelings were still strong, pro and con against the Gundam pilots. Quatre had his position in the new government to protect him, but the rest of the Gundam pilots were not so lucky. Heero had gone through the motions, not really caring. Now he was David Kendall and his 'mother' was a prop, a paid agent who would check up on him periodically as part of the program to make sure that he was keeping a low profile and to assist him in living independently. Heero had been self sufficient most of his life, though not in any normal kind of home setting. He knew that he didn't need her help, but he had gone through the motions of living since the end of the war and he still didn't care enough to change that behavior now. Let them hide him, he thought, let them change his name, it wouldn't change anything about what was inside of him. Inside, he was dead, had been dead, since the day his lover had left him to win a war. Sometimes, he almost wished that some malcontent would try to eliminate the world of at least one Gundam pilot, himself.
Heero glared at the bare apartment. Soon, a moving van would arrive and fill it with things that weren't his, things that were supposed to make his new life complete. Heero rose, locked the door, took the one phone off the hook, and then went to lean against the frame of the cold window. Let it stay bare, he thought, as bare as his heart.
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everyone who already bought the book. *hugs*
on to Chapter 29