For What You Believe In
by Jade Sakura
Disclaimer: Not mine 'cept for charries that I made up. Please don't sue me for the only things of value I have are my textbooks

Part 1
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 will 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 braid 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.
"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 dagger, dropping the sheath behind her in one fluid motion. The sharp tip of the
blade was a mere six inches away from his face and 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 dagger 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. she thought,
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 lopped 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.