Standard disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine. I am a poor, unemployed college student. Please do not sue. However, Kage, Professor Merrick, and Amy Merrick are my creations, along with anyone new who happens to show up later in this story. Please ask my permission before you use them.
Notes: This fic is rated PG-13 for mild violence (it'll be in here somewhere, I'm sure) mild language, and the possibility of implied yaoi (boy x boy) relationships. See glossary below. Also, this fic is obviously Alternate Universe. Past scenes/ thoughts will be in italics.
Glossary: Some words used are Japanese. In case you don't know them, here they are.
Kage - Shadow
Ne - All right, Isn't it, Hey, depending on context.
Imouto - Younger sister
Iie - No
Arigato - Thank you
Baka - Idiot, stupid
Gundam 06 (working title) by Manic Grasshopper 10/3/01
Chapter One: Operation Meteor
The girl bent over her toolbox, searching for a wrench. At this point in the repairs, both she and her coverall were smeared with grease.
"Where in the hell is it?"
"Lookin' for this?"
The girl looked down to see Duo Maxwell below the catwalk, grinning and holding a wrench.
"Aw, Duo! How long have you been there with that?"
"Only a minute or two. Didn't ya hear it fall?"
"Iie. Can you bring it up? I need to tighten this shoulder joint on Kage."
Duo began to head up the stairs. "You sure are in a hurry to get on with Operation Meteor, aren't ya?"
Amy Merrick shook her head, brown hair flying. "I'm in a hurry to get to Earth. What do you think it's like, Duo?"
The braided boy shrugged. "I dunno. Real weather?"
Amy sighed, exasperated. "Besides that?"
Again, Duo shrugged. He reached the catwalk, headed over, and handed her the wrench.
"Arigato."
"You're welcome." Duo plopped down on the cold metal and watched Amy tighten the joint, her back to him.
"Ya know, I tried to destroy Deathscythe last night."
Amy grinned in spite of herself. "I know. My mother told me."
Duo rolled his eyes. "I suppose she heard it from Professor G?"
"Uh-huh. You should be more careful setting charges, Duo."
The pilot of 02 grimaced. "I was! Ole' long nose stole 'em!"
Amy giggled. "You blame everything on 'Ole' long nose.' "
Duo waved his arms around in exasperation. "Most of it's his fault!"
Done with the joint, Amy turned to face him. "Are you still going? To Earth, I mean."
Duo grinned. "Hell yeah. I got different orders, but I'm still going."
Amy lowered her voice. "Destroy OZ, right?"
Duo almost fell off the catwalk. "Shit! How'd ya know?"
"My mother changed my orders this morning. 'Don't worry about the colonies. Destroy them first. That's your responsibility.' Sound about right?"
Duo nodded. Amy sighed as she looked up at Kage. "Guess we're about ready, ne, guys?"
Duo grinned wickedly. "Me and Deathscythe are. I dunno about that hunk of gundanium. Don't you need to tweak the AI before you leave?"
The brown haired girl shook her head. "Did it this morning at 0200 hours. Took me 'til 0400. My mother did a hell of a job. D'ya know the thing was set to pull me out if more than five explosions occurred during a battle? How'm I supposed to destroy OZ if my gundam freaks and takes me home?"
Duo chuckled. "It's why Deathscythe doesn't have AI. Too much of a pain in the ass."
Amy reached over and smacked him in the arm. "You're a pain in the ass, ya know that Maxwell?"
Duo tried to bow sitting down, and failed miserably. "At your service, my lady."
Amy laughed. Duo suddenly looked serious, and she frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Don't get killed, huh? You're the only family I've got."
Amy smiled and touched his arm.
"Promise."
********************************************************************
Amy Merrick vividly remembered the day she'd been told she had a half-brother. It was July 16th, AC 194. Professor G had been running Duo through battle simulations most of the day. Professor Kara Merrick, Amy's mother, had made a comment about Duo's father. Amy had asked how she could know such a thing considering that Duo was an orphan, and said he didn't even remember his parents. Then came the biggest shock of her young life.
"Amy..." Kara Merrick looked decidedly uncomfortable. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you..."
"What?" She took a sip of soda and waited for her mother's startling revelation. Amy had heard a few over the years, and she was never very impressed by them.
"Duo's father...is your father too."
"What?" The soda she'd been drinking slipped from her hand. The can clattered on the floor, spilling the remaining cola everywhere.
Kara turned away from her daughter. "He was married to a woman named Sonja. They were both mechanics working on the prototype of Deathscythe. He and I..."
She didn't need to finish. Amy knew. It wasn't hard to guess.
"He cheated on his wife."
"Yes."
"But Duo and I are only weeks apart."
"Yes. He didn't know Sonja was pregnant."
Amy found herself looking at the spilled cola. "Has anyone told Duo?"
"Professor G was planning to after Operation Meteor was over."
Amy looked up and shook her head vehemently. "No. Tell him now."
Kara looked distressed. "It could distract him from the mission..."
"You told me. Aren't you afraid I'll be distracted from the mission?"
Kara didn't answer.
Amy paled slightly. "You aren't going to send me, are you? After all that work on Kage..."
Her mother whirled around. "We've found a very dedicated pilot for Kage. Operation Meteor won't fail."
Amy was incensed. "Are you saying I'm not dedicated? And Kage is my gundam!"
Kara reached out for her daughter. "Amy, please, try and understand..."
"No!" Amy pulled out of her mother's reach. "I'm going to Earth, in Kage, to carry out Operation Meteor. And if you don't tell Duo the truth now, I will."
Kara told Duo less than ten minutes later, in her office. Amy sat on a stool in an empty lab and watched through the soundproof glass separating the two.
Although she couldn't hear anything, the way Duo angrily waved his arms about and pointed accusingly at her mother was enough. After about fifteen minutes he stormed out of the room and disappeared.
Amy went searching and found him in his bedroom. He looked like he'd been crying.
"Duo?"
"Yeah?" He sat up on his bed and just looked at her. She found herself looking at the floor.
"I'm really sorry...I didn't know myself 'til today..."
Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around her, and she realized she was being hugged. She hadn't even heard him get off the bed.
"Don't be sorry. This isn't your fault. They lied to us. We're in this together, right?"
Amy hugged him back. "All the way, Duo. All the way."
Duo pulled back a little and grinned happily. "Ya know, it's kinda cool having a sister."
Amy couldn't help but to smile back. "Yeah. It's great having a brother."
She hugged him again, as hard as she could.
************************************************************************
April 7, AC 195 12:25 am
Duo pushed the keypad next to Amy's room. The doors slid open, revealing absolute blackness until his eyes adjusted. Then he could make out a prone lump on the bed.
"Oi! Amy-chan!"
The lump groaned and rolled over. "G'way."
"It's time."
A sigh from the bed indicated that the lump was about to go back to sleep. Duo smirked.
What he was about to say was bound to get a reaction.
"Operation Meteor."
Amy sat up, tangled herself in the blankets trying to get out of bed, and fell off.
"Ow!"
Duo chuckled as he stepped inside, then slapped the wallplate on the left hand wall. Light flooded the room and Amy blinked.
"Now?"
"Uh-huh."
"It's 12:25 in the morning! I only went to sleep three hours ago!"
"Ya shoulda gone to bed earlier. 'Sides, I'm only following orders. To be specific, 'Go wake up your sister.' "
"You certainly did that." Amy was still trying to extricate herself from the blankets. Duo continued to smirk.
"Need some help with that?"
Amy glared at him. "No. Get out. I need to get dressed, baka."
Duo nodded. "All right. See ya in a few."
He stepped out and hit the keypad again. The doors slid closed behind him. He stuck around in the hall while she changed, and was amused by the amount of swearing he heard as drawers were opened, then shut. A noise like she'd fallen into something made him wince. "You okay in there?"
The only reply was a curse that made his eyebrows rise. My, my, such language. Where ever did she pick that up? He supposed Kara was right to a certain extent about him being a bad influence on her little baby.
Amy emerged only five minutes later, dressed and annoyed. "12:25 in the morning? They couldn't have picked a better time?" Duo shrugged as they began the short walk towards B-1, the hangar where Kage was stored.
"Hey. We're leaving at different times. I wanted to say goodbye right before we climbed in our gundams."
Duo smiled at her. "It's okay. We'll say goodbye when I drop you off, and we can talk a little once you've launched."
Amy glanced at him suspiciously. "How? They won't let you near a com line."
Duo smirked evilly. "I stole a hand-held com link outta your mother's office. She won't miss it. Okay?"
Amy considered, bit her lip. "Okay. But you'd better answer."
They were standing outside the doors to B-1 now. Duo hugged her tight. "Remember your promise."
Amy nodded. "I will. You too, ne?"
Duo's grin was as mischievous as she'd ever seen it. "Shinigami doesn't die."
The pilot of Kage shook her head. "Make sure he doesn't."
The doors began to open as Duo released her. He gave her a gentle shove towards them and the chaos inside. "Goodbye and good luck."
Amy took a few steps inside the bustling hangar and turned to look at him. "You too."
The doors closed, and Amy felt like she'd just been sealed in her tomb.
*************************************************************************
She was still staring straight ahead when her attention was diverted by her mother, who came rushing up. "Are you awake? Good. You'll be launching in 10."
Amy groaned. "I think this is too early. How about 5:30 instead?"
Professor Merrick shook her head. "We've talked about this. The Gundams have to pass for meteorites. 5:30 is much too late for where you're going."
Amy opened her mouth to argue further, but what came out was, "What is he doing in Kage's cockpit?" She had just noticed the mechanic half in and half out of her gundam.
"Hey! Get the hell outta my gundam!"
The mechanic pulled out, saw her, and began to lower himself by the cable.
"What was he doing in there?" She demanded of her mother.
"Just making a few small adjustments, on my orders." Kara was smiling slightly.
"Like hell!"
Amy stalked over to Kage and let the cable pull her up to the cockpit. She clambered inside, seated herself as the cockpit door shut, and began a diagnostic systems check.
"Amy, we don't have time for that now," her mother warned over the com line. Amy sighed. Her mother was right. Well, whatever she'd done, Amy would just have to fix it later, on Earth. Cripes. She buckled her harness.
"We added a switch to Kage," her mother said. "You'll find it next to the com link."
Amy was curious. "Yeah? What's it do?"
"It allows you to turn Kage's AI on and off. I recommend you leave it on. It's important that-"
Amy sighed and flipped the com link off. Her next act was to pull a disk out of her jacket and insert it into the slot just beneath the console. She hoped no one had disabled it. A message flashed across the screen.
Enable internal speakers? Y / N
She typed yes, then received another message.
Enable external speakers? Y / N
She grinned wickedly and typed yes.
Enable voice recognition? Y / N
"Yes."
'Voice recognition enabled' flashed across the screen. Amy smirked.
Play disk? Y / N
"Yes," she whispered, still smirking. 'Time runs wild' began to blast from the external speakers. It was a very old Earth song that Duo had procured for her a few months ago.
It was blasting from the internals as well, and Amy grimaced until she adjusted those to a comfortable level.
"Enable view screens."
The picture was hilarious. Everyone in the hangar was covering their ears, and her mother looked furious. Even without the com line open, Amy could still read her mother's lips as she yelled at her.
"Amy Liana Merrick, turn that off! You're launching in less than a minute! This is no time to fool around!"
She made a face but turned off the disk. "I never get to have any fun around here," she muttered. Duo would've loved that. She opened the com line.
A technician's voice crackled over the line. "All systems are green. Ten seconds until launch."
Amy blinked. Ten seconds? Holy shit. This was really happening. Until this point, it had felt more like a dream.
"Ten - Nine - Eight -"
Amy double checked her harness.
"Seven - Six - Five -"
Oh God I'm scared.
The hangar doors began to open."Four - Three - Two -"
Amy made sure the AI was turned on and took a deep breath, then let it out.
Please don't let me die. I want to see Earth.
"One - Zero - Launch!"
Amy pushed forward on the throttle and the thrusters ignited. Kage shot up out of the hangar like a bat out of hell (Duo's favorite saying) and into the vastness of space.