Duo's Pain
Chapter 1
"Just go away!" Heero shouted.
Duo just stared at him for a moment before stuttering, "Wh.. what?"
"You heard me. I am tired of you and your games and jokes. I wish you would just leave me alone. You're even worse than Relena." Heero said coldly.
Duo hadn't heard him talk to him like this they had become lovers. "Do you agree with him?" he asked the other pilots.
"Yes. You never shut up and leave us alone. It's an injustice that you stay here with us any longer." Wufie snapped with a sharp nod.
Trowa simply nodded his head and Quatre tried to explain. "It's just that we can never concentrate on anything that..."
"Fine. If that's the way you want it." Duo interrupted then turned and raced up the stairs to his room, but not before the others saw both the tears and the anger on his face, a face that they had never seen these emotions on before.
As they heard the sound of his door being slammed, Quatre turned to the others. "I've never seen him like this before. He's never cried or gotten angry at us before."
"I know but he can't be allowed to disrupt our lives like that." Trowa said as he pulled his lover down on the couch with him.
"I know but isn't this a little drastic?" Quatre asked.
"NO." Heero and Wufie snapped.
Upstairs, Duo had heard everything the others had said. He has sneaked back to the top of the stairs, just to make sure that that they were joking, and instead heard his lover and his best friends say that he had seemed to ruin their lives.
He quietly went back into his room and shut the door silently. Sitting down on his bed, he looked around. His room was just like he liked it. Black painted walls, black draped windows, black bedspreads, even the dressers and desks were black. Everything was either black or partially black, his own little haven for the God of Death. No one, not even Heero ever came into his room. Duo usually ended up in Heero's room. Everyone knew that this was his place to go to work things out or just to be alone for awhile.
Wiping the tears away, he stood up and started to look for his suitcases in his closet. What he found first though was one of his picture albums. He never had any pictures growing up until he went to stay at the orphanage that Father Maxwell ran. Since then, he took as many pictures as he could.
Sitting on the bed, he started to look through it. Smiling slightly he looked at the pictures he had taken just after the Gundam War, as it was being called now. Heero was holding Trowa's birthday cake as Wufie was trying to keep away from Quatre who was holding a party hat out to him like he was trying to put it on his friends head. And the picture of Trowa and Quatre asleep on the couch cuddled together in front of a fire.
Here, Wufie was doing a kata with Heero, and then came the picture of Heero and Duo himself. This one was of him standing with his arms crossed and Heero had his arms wrapped possessively around him, and another with it switched where he had his arm around a glowering Heero's shoulders. Another one, both of them hugging, Heero wearing a white long sleeve coat with black cuffs and him wearing the same but with the colors switched.
Then there was the picture of them asleep on the back seat of a car, leaning against each other. And then, Duo's favorite picture. Heero was smiling, not his cynical smile but one of pure happiness. He was holding a sleeping Duo on his lap. Quatre had snapped it before Heero had know what was going on.
While remembering all these happy times, he almost missed the faint sound of someone coming up the stairs. He paused for a second, listening, and the person stopped right in front of the door. After a minute, the person moved on and Duo put the picture album aside, still open to the last page he had been looking at.
Going to the dresser, he opened the first drawer and pulled out his gun. He had stopped carrying it after the Marimaia incident, and now at eighteen rarely ever brought it out except to clean it. 'You know, without these guys, I don't have anything. I gave Hilde and the salvage business up a year and a half ago. Last time I saw her, she said that if she ever saw me again, I would wish that I had died during the war.' Duo thought as he sat back down on the bed. He looked at the picture of the smiling Heero then shuddered as he remembered the look on the same face downstairs.
'You know, I wonder if he ever really loved me. With out them I might was well be dead.' With this last thought he raised the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.
Down stairs, Trowa, Wufie, and Heero's heads all jerked up at the sound of the gunshot. Quatre had gone up earlier to lay down until Duo left but they knew that the shot hadn't come from him. As one they raced up the stairs and met Quatre as they all converged on Duo's bedroom door.
"He wouldn't have done anything stupid, would he?" Quatre asked as they all stopped. In answer, Heero grabbed the door handle threw the door wide. As none of them had ever been in his room, everyone was shocked as they looked around. Everything was black, but it seemed that it was perfect for the ex-Deathscyth pilot.
They all spotted the figure that was twitching on the floor at the same time and rushed towards it. They found Duo laying on the carpet, twitching like he was having a bad dream but they knew it was nothing like that. Duo was still clutching the gun in his hand and there was a spreading pool of blood coming from his head.
Quatre dropped to his knees next to him and felt for a pulse. "His pulse is weak but it is still there." he gasped and Trowa rushed to the phone on the bedside table and dialed 911.
"Yes, we need some help. Our friend just shot himself in the head but he is still alive." he quickly rattled off the address and hung up. Within a few minutes, they could all hear the wail of the ambulance sirens approaching the house. Wufie went down to direct them to the room, and within a few minutes, Duo had been strapped to a gurney and wheeled away. Quatre went with the medics and the other guys were going to follow in a car.
"I can't believe he did this." Heero whispered as he sat down on the bed. Looking to the side, he saw the picture book still laying open. Picking it up, his eyes were drawn to the big picture of him smiling down at a sleeping Duo. Around the picture were others of the two of them, and Heero got a sinking feeling in his heart that he was the reason that Duo had tried to kill himself. Oh sure, the rejection from the others had been hard enough, but Heero had also abandon him, told him to go away.
"This isn't like the Duo we know." Trowa agreed as he stood over him.
Wufie just snorted. "He was weak."
Heero was across the room, pinning Wufie to the wall by his throat, before either Trowa or Wufie realized what was going on. "He is not weak." he growled then released Wufie and stalked out the door.
Trowa silently helped Wufie up, and then they both followed Heero to the garage.
At the hospital, they found Quatre in the waiting room and hurried over to him. "How is he?" Heero demanded as soon as they got close enough.
"The doctors said that it was a miracle that he survived. The bullet was putting a lot of pressure on his brain, but because of the way it went in, his skull stopped it mostly. They're removing the bullet now and then they said we could go see him." Quatre said and the others sighed in relief. They sat down to wait for the doctor to come back and he returned a few minutes later.
"Mr. Maxwell is doing fine and is recovery. You can go see him in about ten minutes when we move him into a regular room." The doctor said with a smile, then frowned as he asked, "Would any of you happen to know why he would try to kill himself?"
"We told him he had to leave." Quatre said, guilt apparent in his face and voice.
"Well that's a shame. I've meet him a few time before and he was always a sweet, kind, and gentle young man. Why would you want him to leave?" the doctor asked.
"We could never get anything done so we all decided that it would be better for him to leave." Trowa said quietly.
The doctor didn't say anything for a moment, and then he sighed, turned around and walked away.
They were silent, each thinking about what they had did and why until a nurse came up to they and led them to Duo's room. Duo was laying on the bed with bandages wrapped around his head, totally still. If it wasn't for the heart and brain monitors that were quietly beeping, they would have thought that he was dead.
Heero sat down in the chair next to the bed and gently took the limp hand in his own. "I am so sorry Duo." he said quietly and the others just nodded quietly to themselves.
"We all are." Quatre said softly.
They were finally forced to go home when the doctors came in to try to check on their patient and they couldn't get to him because of the four boys who were underfoot. But they came back the next day and they visited everyday for two months while Duo was in his coma. Then one day they missed coming and that was the day Duo woke up.
Duo opened his eyes to see a white ceiling. "Where am I?" he said, or tried to say, but all that came out was a croak.
"Oh, I see that you're awake. I'll go get the doctor." a nurse that had been tidying the room a little said as she walked out the door.
'What? What doctor? Why would I be in a hospital?' he wondered as he turned his head towards the door. Suddenly, the memories of what had happened came rushing back to him and he closed his eyes in anguish.
'They told me to leave. I'm nothing without them. Maybe this is for the best. Duo Maxwell will become a new man, without the others.' he thought with growing determination. Just then the doctor and the nurse came in.
"Mr. Maxwell, I'm glad to see that you've finally woke up. Let's take a look at you to be sure that you are alright." the doctor said as he unwrapped the bandage from around his head.
"When can I get out of here?" Duo croaked and the doctor gave him a long look.
"When ever you want though I think that maybe you should stay here for awhile, to build up your strength."
"That's ok. I think I want to get out of here as soon as possible." Duo said and sat up. He had always been a fast healer so he wasn't even dizzy from being flat on his back for two months.
Within the hour, Duo was dressed, his bill paid from his savings account, and was checked out. Now he was on his way back to the house that he shared with the other ex-Gundam pilots. "This will be the last time I come here as someone who lives here." he said to himself as the taxi stopped in front of the house.
Telling the driver to wait for a couple minutes, he hurried inside and upstairs to his room. The door was open and it was obvious that someone came in there often, considering there was no dust anywhere and the bed looked as though someone had been sleeping in it.
"I guess that it's a good thing I'm moving out since this is no longer just my room." he said to himself as he grabbed a pair of suitcases out of the closet and threw all his clothes in them. Then taking a backpack, he put his picture books and a couple of other things in it and left as quickly as he came.
Heero sighed as he sat at the bar and ordered another beer. 'I wish he would just wake up.' he thought as he downed his beer. Paying the bar tender, he left and headed back to house. Quatre was at a meeting for one of his many companies, Trowa had to perform at a special opening with the circus, and Wufie had a special class to teach at the dojo that he ran. Heero hadn't wanted to visit Duo alone because the silence from the Deathscyth pilot tore at his heart.
Ever since the day that Duo had tried to kill himself, Heero had blamed himself and that was not something that he was used to or liked. So he had emersed himself in his Preventers work but today was his day off. Ever since the other three pilots had quit the Perventers a month ago, he had been a lone. Duo had always stayed with him no matter where they had to go for a mission of when the others left for their own missions. But Duo was in a coma and Heero had driven him to it.
Entering the house he headed up to Duo's room like it was his own. He had been spending some time in there when no one else was around, looking through the many picture books that he had found on the top shelf of the closet. He had changed a lot since Duo went in to the hospital.
Opening the door to Duo's room, he noticed that the dresser drawers were open and empty and the closet door ajar. Rushing to the closet, he flung open the door, only to find that everything was gone.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"Hi Heero. Did you go to the hospital today?" Quatre asked as he passed the door to the living room. Heero was sitting on the couch, but he got up when Quatre went past.
"Quatre, did you get rid of Duo's things?" he demanded.
"No. They should still be in his room. Why do you ask?"
"Everything is gone."
"What! That can't be!" Quatre exclaimed and rushed up the stairs to Duo's room. Sure enough, just like Heero had said, everything was gone.
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I."
Wufie and Trowa had no idea about what had happened either when they got home a few minutes later and none of them knew that the one responsible for it was on a shuttle to the colonies at that very moment.
"I'm sorry, but Duo Maxwell checked himself out yesterday." the resptionist said as she consulted some papers.
"But, he was in a coma for the past two months! How could he just wake up and check himself out?" Heero demanded.
Duo's doctor spoke up from behind the quartet. He had been passing by when he had heard what was going on. "Dou woke up, and was perfectly fine. As he was a legal adult and of sane mind, we couldn't hold him."
"But..." Quatre started but was interrupted by the doctor.
"You four weren't here yesterday when he woke up. Maybe if you had been, then you could have convinced him to stay where I could not."
With that, the doctor turned around and left them alone.
One year later
"Excuse me, but I'm looking for the owner of this salvage yard. Would you know where I could find him?" A beautiful woman asked Duo as he worked on his motorcycle.
"I'm Duo. What can I do for you?" Duo said as he stood up and wiped the grease from his hands and onto a rag.
"My name is Sakura Tenda. I was sent by Lady Une, leader of the Preventers to find you." she said as she brushed some purple hair behind her ear.
"Just how did she find me?"
"A man with hair down to his knees tend to stand out in people's minds. Besides, there is only one Duo Maxwell on record on any of the colonies." Sakura said with a smirk.
Seeing the smirk on her face, Duo was immediately suspicious of whom she said she was and why she was here but he decided to play along for know. During the past year since he had taken his things from Quatre's house, he had made quite a name for himself in the salvage business. He was the person to go to if you needed any parts, or anything.
He had yet to get over what his friends had done to him however, so he kept tabs on all four of them so that if they came looking for him, he could leave before they found him. He had moved a number of times all ready to stay away from them but it was getting harder to pack up and move now that he had a number of salvage business under a number of different names. Whenever they got close, he 'sold' his business to a new name and moved on. He now had ten different salvage business under various names, but he didn't think that he could make another one any time soon.
"What does she want?" he asked warily.
"For you to become a preventer again."
"I don't think so." he said and turned away. A moment later, he felt some thing hard crash into the back of his head. He turned just enough to see her putting down a piece of pipe before he passed out.
Sakura sighed as she watched him pass out. She had approached him a number of times in different disguises over the course of the past year. She was employed by the New Oz to gather all of the Gundam pilots and she had decided to find the missing one first as the others would be much easier to find and secure.
Pulling out a cell phone, she quickly dialed a number. When it was picked up, she said crisply, "Duo Maxwell is in my custody and will so be sent to the Moon base."
"That is good. See to it that the others soon join him."
"Yes sir." with that she hung up and signaled to a pair of huge men that were standing near the front door of the main office.
As they picked him up, Duo's eyes suddenly shot open. "Who dare's to touch the God of Death?" he asked in an eerie sounding voice.
"Duo, you are coming with us to the Moon base." Sakura said as she backed away a little and pulled out a gun. She was stunned to hear Duo chuckling evilly.
After a moment he spoke again. "Duo Maxwell can't hear you any more. You released me when you knocked him out.
"What? But..." Sakura started to say but was interrupted by the braided teenager.
"You don't really understand what is happening do you?" Suddenly Duo jerked himself away from the two men. "Like he has been telling everyone for a long time now, he is the God of Death, and he and I are one. Just call me Shinigami." he said with a cruel smile.
Chapter 1
"Just go away!" Heero shouted.
Duo just stared at him for a moment before stuttering, "Wh.. what?"
"You heard me. I am tired of you and your games and jokes. I wish you would just leave me alone. You're even worse than Relena." Heero said coldly.
Duo hadn't heard him talk to him like this they had become lovers. "Do you agree with him?" he asked the other pilots.
"Yes. You never shut up and leave us alone. It's an injustice that you stay here with us any longer." Wufie snapped with a sharp nod.
Trowa simply nodded his head and Quatre tried to explain. "It's just that we can never concentrate on anything that..."
"Fine. If that's the way you want it." Duo interrupted then turned and raced up the stairs to his room, but not before the others saw both the tears and the anger on his face, a face that they had never seen these emotions on before.
As they heard the sound of his door being slammed, Quatre turned to the others. "I've never seen him like this before. He's never cried or gotten angry at us before."
"I know but he can't be allowed to disrupt our lives like that." Trowa said as he pulled his lover down on the couch with him.
"I know but isn't this a little drastic?" Quatre asked.
"NO." Heero and Wufie snapped.
Upstairs, Duo had heard everything the others had said. He has sneaked back to the top of the stairs, just to make sure that that they were joking, and instead heard his lover and his best friends say that he had seemed to ruin their lives.
He quietly went back into his room and shut the door silently. Sitting down on his bed, he looked around. His room was just like he liked it. Black painted walls, black draped windows, black bedspreads, even the dressers and desks were black. Everything was either black or partially black, his own little haven for the God of Death. No one, not even Heero ever came into his room. Duo usually ended up in Heero's room. Everyone knew that this was his place to go to work things out or just to be alone for awhile.
Wiping the tears away, he stood up and started to look for his suitcases in his closet. What he found first though was one of his picture albums. He never had any pictures growing up until he went to stay at the orphanage that Father Maxwell ran. Since then, he took as many pictures as he could.
Sitting on the bed, he started to look through it. Smiling slightly he looked at the pictures he had taken just after the Gundam War, as it was being called now. Heero was holding Trowa's birthday cake as Wufie was trying to keep away from Quatre who was holding a party hat out to him like he was trying to put it on his friends head. And the picture of Trowa and Quatre asleep on the couch cuddled together in front of a fire.
Here, Wufie was doing a kata with Heero, and then came the picture of Heero and Duo himself. This one was of him standing with his arms crossed and Heero had his arms wrapped possessively around him, and another with it switched where he had his arm around a glowering Heero's shoulders. Another one, both of them hugging, Heero wearing a white long sleeve coat with black cuffs and him wearing the same but with the colors switched.
Then there was the picture of them asleep on the back seat of a car, leaning against each other. And then, Duo's favorite picture. Heero was smiling, not his cynical smile but one of pure happiness. He was holding a sleeping Duo on his lap. Quatre had snapped it before Heero had know what was going on.
While remembering all these happy times, he almost missed the faint sound of someone coming up the stairs. He paused for a second, listening, and the person stopped right in front of the door. After a minute, the person moved on and Duo put the picture album aside, still open to the last page he had been looking at.
Going to the dresser, he opened the first drawer and pulled out his gun. He had stopped carrying it after the Marimaia incident, and now at eighteen rarely ever brought it out except to clean it. 'You know, without these guys, I don't have anything. I gave Hilde and the salvage business up a year and a half ago. Last time I saw her, she said that if she ever saw me again, I would wish that I had died during the war.' Duo thought as he sat back down on the bed. He looked at the picture of the smiling Heero then shuddered as he remembered the look on the same face downstairs.
'You know, I wonder if he ever really loved me. With out them I might was well be dead.' With this last thought he raised the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.
Down stairs, Trowa, Wufie, and Heero's heads all jerked up at the sound of the gunshot. Quatre had gone up earlier to lay down until Duo left but they knew that the shot hadn't come from him. As one they raced up the stairs and met Quatre as they all converged on Duo's bedroom door.
"He wouldn't have done anything stupid, would he?" Quatre asked as they all stopped. In answer, Heero grabbed the door handle threw the door wide. As none of them had ever been in his room, everyone was shocked as they looked around. Everything was black, but it seemed that it was perfect for the ex-Deathscyth pilot.
They all spotted the figure that was twitching on the floor at the same time and rushed towards it. They found Duo laying on the carpet, twitching like he was having a bad dream but they knew it was nothing like that. Duo was still clutching the gun in his hand and there was a spreading pool of blood coming from his head.
Quatre dropped to his knees next to him and felt for a pulse. "His pulse is weak but it is still there." he gasped and Trowa rushed to the phone on the bedside table and dialed 911.
"Yes, we need some help. Our friend just shot himself in the head but he is still alive." he quickly rattled off the address and hung up. Within a few minutes, they could all hear the wail of the ambulance sirens approaching the house. Wufie went down to direct them to the room, and within a few minutes, Duo had been strapped to a gurney and wheeled away. Quatre went with the medics and the other guys were going to follow in a car.
"I can't believe he did this." Heero whispered as he sat down on the bed. Looking to the side, he saw the picture book still laying open. Picking it up, his eyes were drawn to the big picture of him smiling down at a sleeping Duo. Around the picture were others of the two of them, and Heero got a sinking feeling in his heart that he was the reason that Duo had tried to kill himself. Oh sure, the rejection from the others had been hard enough, but Heero had also abandon him, told him to go away.
"This isn't like the Duo we know." Trowa agreed as he stood over him.
Wufie just snorted. "He was weak."
Heero was across the room, pinning Wufie to the wall by his throat, before either Trowa or Wufie realized what was going on. "He is not weak." he growled then released Wufie and stalked out the door.
Trowa silently helped Wufie up, and then they both followed Heero to the garage.
At the hospital, they found Quatre in the waiting room and hurried over to him. "How is he?" Heero demanded as soon as they got close enough.
"The doctors said that it was a miracle that he survived. The bullet was putting a lot of pressure on his brain, but because of the way it went in, his skull stopped it mostly. They're removing the bullet now and then they said we could go see him." Quatre said and the others sighed in relief. They sat down to wait for the doctor to come back and he returned a few minutes later.
"Mr. Maxwell is doing fine and is recovery. You can go see him in about ten minutes when we move him into a regular room." The doctor said with a smile, then frowned as he asked, "Would any of you happen to know why he would try to kill himself?"
"We told him he had to leave." Quatre said, guilt apparent in his face and voice.
"Well that's a shame. I've meet him a few time before and he was always a sweet, kind, and gentle young man. Why would you want him to leave?" the doctor asked.
"We could never get anything done so we all decided that it would be better for him to leave." Trowa said quietly.
The doctor didn't say anything for a moment, and then he sighed, turned around and walked away.
They were silent, each thinking about what they had did and why until a nurse came up to they and led them to Duo's room. Duo was laying on the bed with bandages wrapped around his head, totally still. If it wasn't for the heart and brain monitors that were quietly beeping, they would have thought that he was dead.
Heero sat down in the chair next to the bed and gently took the limp hand in his own. "I am so sorry Duo." he said quietly and the others just nodded quietly to themselves.
"We all are." Quatre said softly.
They were finally forced to go home when the doctors came in to try to check on their patient and they couldn't get to him because of the four boys who were underfoot. But they came back the next day and they visited everyday for two months while Duo was in his coma. Then one day they missed coming and that was the day Duo woke up.
Duo opened his eyes to see a white ceiling. "Where am I?" he said, or tried to say, but all that came out was a croak.
"Oh, I see that you're awake. I'll go get the doctor." a nurse that had been tidying the room a little said as she walked out the door.
'What? What doctor? Why would I be in a hospital?' he wondered as he turned his head towards the door. Suddenly, the memories of what had happened came rushing back to him and he closed his eyes in anguish.
'They told me to leave. I'm nothing without them. Maybe this is for the best. Duo Maxwell will become a new man, without the others.' he thought with growing determination. Just then the doctor and the nurse came in.
"Mr. Maxwell, I'm glad to see that you've finally woke up. Let's take a look at you to be sure that you are alright." the doctor said as he unwrapped the bandage from around his head.
"When can I get out of here?" Duo croaked and the doctor gave him a long look.
"When ever you want though I think that maybe you should stay here for awhile, to build up your strength."
"That's ok. I think I want to get out of here as soon as possible." Duo said and sat up. He had always been a fast healer so he wasn't even dizzy from being flat on his back for two months.
Within the hour, Duo was dressed, his bill paid from his savings account, and was checked out. Now he was on his way back to the house that he shared with the other ex-Gundam pilots. "This will be the last time I come here as someone who lives here." he said to himself as the taxi stopped in front of the house.
Telling the driver to wait for a couple minutes, he hurried inside and upstairs to his room. The door was open and it was obvious that someone came in there often, considering there was no dust anywhere and the bed looked as though someone had been sleeping in it.
"I guess that it's a good thing I'm moving out since this is no longer just my room." he said to himself as he grabbed a pair of suitcases out of the closet and threw all his clothes in them. Then taking a backpack, he put his picture books and a couple of other things in it and left as quickly as he came.
Heero sighed as he sat at the bar and ordered another beer. 'I wish he would just wake up.' he thought as he downed his beer. Paying the bar tender, he left and headed back to house. Quatre was at a meeting for one of his many companies, Trowa had to perform at a special opening with the circus, and Wufie had a special class to teach at the dojo that he ran. Heero hadn't wanted to visit Duo alone because the silence from the Deathscyth pilot tore at his heart.
Ever since the day that Duo had tried to kill himself, Heero had blamed himself and that was not something that he was used to or liked. So he had emersed himself in his Preventers work but today was his day off. Ever since the other three pilots had quit the Perventers a month ago, he had been a lone. Duo had always stayed with him no matter where they had to go for a mission of when the others left for their own missions. But Duo was in a coma and Heero had driven him to it.
Entering the house he headed up to Duo's room like it was his own. He had been spending some time in there when no one else was around, looking through the many picture books that he had found on the top shelf of the closet. He had changed a lot since Duo went in to the hospital.
Opening the door to Duo's room, he noticed that the dresser drawers were open and empty and the closet door ajar. Rushing to the closet, he flung open the door, only to find that everything was gone.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"Hi Heero. Did you go to the hospital today?" Quatre asked as he passed the door to the living room. Heero was sitting on the couch, but he got up when Quatre went past.
"Quatre, did you get rid of Duo's things?" he demanded.
"No. They should still be in his room. Why do you ask?"
"Everything is gone."
"What! That can't be!" Quatre exclaimed and rushed up the stairs to Duo's room. Sure enough, just like Heero had said, everything was gone.
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I."
Wufie and Trowa had no idea about what had happened either when they got home a few minutes later and none of them knew that the one responsible for it was on a shuttle to the colonies at that very moment.
"I'm sorry, but Duo Maxwell checked himself out yesterday." the resptionist said as she consulted some papers.
"But, he was in a coma for the past two months! How could he just wake up and check himself out?" Heero demanded.
Duo's doctor spoke up from behind the quartet. He had been passing by when he had heard what was going on. "Dou woke up, and was perfectly fine. As he was a legal adult and of sane mind, we couldn't hold him."
"But..." Quatre started but was interrupted by the doctor.
"You four weren't here yesterday when he woke up. Maybe if you had been, then you could have convinced him to stay where I could not."
With that, the doctor turned around and left them alone.
One year later
"Excuse me, but I'm looking for the owner of this salvage yard. Would you know where I could find him?" A beautiful woman asked Duo as he worked on his motorcycle.
"I'm Duo. What can I do for you?" Duo said as he stood up and wiped the grease from his hands and onto a rag.
"My name is Sakura Tenda. I was sent by Lady Une, leader of the Preventers to find you." she said as she brushed some purple hair behind her ear.
"Just how did she find me?"
"A man with hair down to his knees tend to stand out in people's minds. Besides, there is only one Duo Maxwell on record on any of the colonies." Sakura said with a smirk.
Seeing the smirk on her face, Duo was immediately suspicious of whom she said she was and why she was here but he decided to play along for know. During the past year since he had taken his things from Quatre's house, he had made quite a name for himself in the salvage business. He was the person to go to if you needed any parts, or anything.
He had yet to get over what his friends had done to him however, so he kept tabs on all four of them so that if they came looking for him, he could leave before they found him. He had moved a number of times all ready to stay away from them but it was getting harder to pack up and move now that he had a number of salvage business under a number of different names. Whenever they got close, he 'sold' his business to a new name and moved on. He now had ten different salvage business under various names, but he didn't think that he could make another one any time soon.
"What does she want?" he asked warily.
"For you to become a preventer again."
"I don't think so." he said and turned away. A moment later, he felt some thing hard crash into the back of his head. He turned just enough to see her putting down a piece of pipe before he passed out.
Sakura sighed as she watched him pass out. She had approached him a number of times in different disguises over the course of the past year. She was employed by the New Oz to gather all of the Gundam pilots and she had decided to find the missing one first as the others would be much easier to find and secure.
Pulling out a cell phone, she quickly dialed a number. When it was picked up, she said crisply, "Duo Maxwell is in my custody and will so be sent to the Moon base."
"That is good. See to it that the others soon join him."
"Yes sir." with that she hung up and signaled to a pair of huge men that were standing near the front door of the main office.
As they picked him up, Duo's eyes suddenly shot open. "Who dare's to touch the God of Death?" he asked in an eerie sounding voice.
"Duo, you are coming with us to the Moon base." Sakura said as she backed away a little and pulled out a gun. She was stunned to hear Duo chuckling evilly.
After a moment he spoke again. "Duo Maxwell can't hear you any more. You released me when you knocked him out.
"What? But..." Sakura started to say but was interrupted by the braided teenager.
"You don't really understand what is happening do you?" Suddenly Duo jerked himself away from the two men. "Like he has been telling everyone for a long time now, he is the God of Death, and he and I are one. Just call me Shinigami." he said with a cruel smile.