Prologue

The vid screen flashed and flickered to life as Doctor J's face slowly came to focus, but the heavy noise in the background didn't lessen. His mechanical hand came on screen and it clicked open and shut menacingly with a life of its own. "Sheri..." His voice cracked over small speakers.

Sherice frowned at the voice. Straightening stiffly from her cluttered workbench, she strode over to the comm panel and punched the channel open viciously. "What do you want, old man?"

"Testy today, aren't we?" He sounded amused.

Pushing her tousled bangs aside irritably, she muttered, "Every time you show up, nothing good ever happens. Ever." A faint smile broke finally broke through.

"Fair enough," the old man indulged her. "Progress?"

"The bastards moved up the deadline another week," she hissed, her expression darkening. "Everyone's scrambling, but there are still so many variables unaccounted for. I don't know what they're thinking but they must be really getting desperate."

"Do you think it'd be ready then?"

"More or less. It will have terrible precision, but we should be able to get the brainwave locking system to work properly," she answered. Pulling off her glasses, her pale blue eyes shone fiercely in the dimmed room, her expression intense. "My question is, will he be ready? You know I can't hold them off forever. Sooner or later, they're going to get suspicious. They may be dull, but they're not stupid."

J nodded in agreement as a thoughtful look flitted across his lined face. He seemed almost human in that instant. "I have every faith in those boys." There was a pause. "Have you delivered the necessary mission parameters?"

She replied with a tight affirmative nod. "You know, I could just…" Sherice started but J waved his mechanical hand dismissively.

"They need to be given the choice to decide for themselves. They should know better than anyone, even us, what needs to be done. Our job is to ensure that they're given that choice." J's face tensed and his eyes flickered to something off the screen and nodded an affirmative. "Remember that," he added firmly before the image feed curled up and faded to nothing but static.

Closing the channel, Sherice leaned back against the panel and held her forehead in her hand for a moment. "Heero Yuy is going to save the world, huh, old man? I wish I could tell you how blind your faith is sometimes. But the truth is, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe in them too."

Chapter 01: Wind-up (Part 1)

Duo clutched at his bandaged ribcage and gritted through the pain as he forced himself into a sitting position. Wrinkling his nose to alleviate the itch that was starting to form under strip of bandage covering the bridge of his nose, he stole a glance at Heero from under his long lashes.

"What are you looking at?"

Duo blinked, wiping the surprised look from his face. "I could ask you the same thing. You wouldn't have caught me looking at you if you weren't looking at me to begin with." He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took a moment to steady himself.

"You moved."

Shaking his head slightly, Duo refrained from comment. "You have your mission face on. What's going on? When do we need to go?"

"We are not going anywhere," Heero frowned darkly, "You're staying here."

"What do you mean?" The long braid swung angrily as the owner turned glare at his companion, stabbing an accusing finger in his direction. "Just because I got a little roughed up doesn't mean I'm totally out of commission. I can pull my share!"

"You're injured," Heero answered matter-of-factly. "In your current state, you'll only be a liability."

Duo made the move to stand but was brought up short as a jolt of pain from his ribs promptly reminded him of his predicament. He sobered. "When?"

Heero's lips pressed into a thin line and he hesitated a moment before answering. "Unknown."

"Where?"

"The moon base."

"For what?"

"There's been reports of new mobile suits being produced there and also classified R&D of photon technology that is based there. My mission is to gather intelligence and to destroy the facilities if appropriate." Heero's expression remained impassive as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the edge of the metal table.

Eyebrows quirked up. "Classified photon technology? What are they trying to make? Bigger beam cannons that'll blow up half the solar system?"

"Unverified."

Duo frowned as he tried to put the pieces together. "Who assigned this mission? It's like a wild goose chase."

"I don't know," Heero answered quietly, and turned away to stare down the cabinets along the wall.

"What?" Duo was started, eyes narrowing. "You can't be serious. Is it even a reliable source?"

"It was an anonymous message. I couldn't trace it," Heero admitted.

Duo's frown deepened. "And you're going to go because someone somewhere sent you a suspicious message about top secret weapons be developed on a highly guarded Oz base?" Duo massaged the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "You're an idiot and a lunatic."

Heero shot him an irritated look but said nothing in retaliation. "I have my reasons to believe that this is worthy of investigation. Besides insisting that this is a matter of utmost importance, the sender also gave me a very detailed, and apparently up-to-date blueprint of the moon base layout. I don't think an ordinary person would have been able to access information like that. Also, this individual must also be in J's confidence because the message was sent using his encryption key directly to my terminal."

Duo slid off the table and got to his feet, swaying just a little as his head pounded in protest. Angrily, he stabbed a finger in Heero's direction. "Yuy, you have absolutely no common sense or any sense of self preservation. The creep tells you to blow yourself up and you follow his orders like a well-trained hound. If he tells you to go jump off a skyscraper without a parachute, you'll probably do it—heck, you don't even need to be told to pull a stunt like that."

"Duo…" There was a hint of a threat in Heero's voice as he shot the other boy a menacing glare.

Duo waved a hand dismissively, completely unfazed by his threat. "This smells like a trap. Even if it isn't, you're still out manned and outgunned once you set foot onto the moon base. You need extensive recon and you need backup. Even with all that preparation, it's still very much a suicide mission."

"I am well aware of that," Heero ground out. "I am not a fool."

Duo's expression softened and he slumped against the table, suddenly feeling very fatigued. "Let me come with you. That's all I ask. You said you didn't have a specific date set for the mission, right?" Duo looked as if he was about to say something else when a wave of nausea hit him. He grimaced.

"Duo," Heero said quietly, suddenly looking indecisive. "You need to lay down and rest."

"Damn it," Duo cursed under his breath, as he struggled to pull his own composure together. "I'm fine. I'll be fine a few days."

Heero sighed and crossed his arms, "Broken ribs will take more than a few days to heal."

"A few broken ribs are easier to deal with than a dead Heero Yuy," Duo retorted with a lopsided grin on his face.

Heero shook his head, "And you called me an idiot. I think you're the one without a sense of self preservation."

"At least I have my priorities straight." Duo pulled himself back onto the bed and sighed. "Just give me a few days, Yuy. Then we'll go in and do some recon and attempt to gather some information. We're not getting trigger happy until we know exactly what we're dealing with."

Heero quirked an eyebrow. "And if I say no?"

"Then I'll show you just who you're messing with," Duo smirked.

"In that state? I don't think so."

Duo grinned, "Maybe not in a fair fight, but whoever said I had to fight fair?"

"Are you going to resort to hair pulling and name calling?" asked Heero flatly.

Another smirk. "If that's what it takes, yes."

"Fine," Heero conceded at last. "One week. If I don't think you're ready then, you're staying here."

"Idiot," Duo grumbled, even as he dipped his head in agreement, "you make it sound like you're doing me a favor instead of the other way around."

Heero ignored him. "Get some rest or I really will have to leave you here. I do have a student ID with your name on it. You can go to school in my place and stay out of trouble."

"You are not leaving me behind, Yuy." Duo gave him a mocking glare, even as he settled back down on the bed, his injuries all sighing with relief.

"Then don't make me do it," Heero said quietly before leaving the room and shutting the door quietly behind him.

Duo stared at the ceiling for the longest time, his mind turning over what Heero had just told him. "He made himself a student ID with my name on it," whispered Duo quietly to himself. "What an idiot. We don't even look anything alike." A playful smirk teased the corner of his lips as he closed his eyes and relinquished himself to a dreamless sleep.