AN: This is my first fanfiction that I've written for well.. anything. So please bear with me as I work out the kinks and such. Eventually there will be pairings, but I'm still trying to flesh out the story in my head as I go, so I'm not gonna put any in. Uhhh.. Yea.. so I guess here it goes. I'd love to see some comments and suggestions to better my writing, but I can live without as well :)
Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own or in any way, shape or form claim the characters of Gundam Wing. They belong to their rightful owners and creators.
P.O.V: Duo Maxwell
Have you ever done something that you knew right away was a bad idea, but continued to do it anyway? Yea. Me to. Maybe that's why somewhere in the back of my head, I knew that I wasn't going to go home. Maybe that's why I fought so hard; not to go home, but to take as many of them down with me as I could. Originally, the mission was about as easy as I would have expected. Reconnaissance of a supply depot, destruction of a fore mentioned supply depot, and home in time for dinner. Literally a case of "I came, I saw, I conquered, I went home.". Except.. It wasn't.
By the time that I got to my target, i knew right away something was wrong with the information that I'd been given. The Supply depot was a supply depot like a turtle was a dragon. I should have turned around, or waited for one of the other pilots to come help take them out.. but I was dumb, and thought that I could get in and out without too much trouble. Sneak in with my cloak on, take out the central command tower, leave a few explosives.. and get out of dodge. Right. And Pigs could fly. Which brings me to my current situation.
I snarled an inhuman sound as I jerked the controls and pivoted Deathscythe around to the left, bringing my thermal weapon to bear as I did so. The Leo that had grabbed my Gundam's left arm was now just a smoking ruin, and the resulting explosion took out the doll next to it. I rotated the left arm and frowned, hearing the gyros overhead grinding a little with the stress. The readout on my H.U.D Showed that the power to that arm was down fifteen percent. It wasn't a lot, not really.. but in this kind of match it meant more than I wanted to admit. My reaction times on the left were slower now by about two seconds, and I had to mentally compensate for that.
I could see the cluster of Leos and Taurus surrounding me on my screens and smiled. I'm kind of glad the others couldn't see me, the manic grin I'm sure was on my face might just have scared them. The sensors screamed in my ears and I spun my suit around again, changing my scythe to a spear and sending the neon green thermal energy through the center of the Taurus that had leveled the cannon in my direction. Boosters fired and I shot upwards, as if there was an upwards in space, and turned to avoid another attack by a Leo. Fine.. Ya'll want to play? Let's play. I reached out and keyed in my music, allowing the fast paced tempo of the rock to vibrate into my bones.
So sue me, I liked the older rock music of the millennium. Some of it was bad, but a lot of it was pretty good. I kept music saved on Deathscythes files, mostly for those long distance travel times, but occasionally for situations like this. An explosion rocked me in my harness and I grunted, turning again and rocketing towards the offending suit who'd blasted me. I guess he didn't like getting a thermal blade to the chest either. Mores the pity I suppose. As the tempo of the music increased, the sounds of Disturbed surrounding me, I screamed out my own battle cry and forged into the plethora of Oz soldiers that were trying to do the exact same thing I was: kill or be killed.
The fight went on for over an hour.. but hey, I managed to win. Sort of. The supply depot wasn't destroyed, but it was a sitting duck until they got reinforcements. I groaned, forcing my eyes to open and look at the faint readouts on my screen. "Well, this is it, buddy.. We had a good run." I knew I was bruised all over from the harness.. and one of the shoulder straps had come loose in the fighting. Part of the control panel had jumped up and bit me on the face during a particularly nasty attack. I could feel the blood across my nose and cheek had slowed down. That was good at least.
The power readings were steadily failing, and I sighed, knowing there was no way in hell I was going to even move from the spot I sat...er...floated. With a frown, I noticed that the air was getting a little stuffy - told me that my ventilation systems had failed. That...was not exactly the way I wanted to go. Death by asphyxiation. With what remained of Deathscythes power, I reached forward and tapped a few keys, sending my coordinates to the others.. along with a single word ::INCOMPLETE::. That way, they'd know they would have to come finish the job for me. I would have tried.. but I was running out of time.
As soon as I sent the message off, my screen fritzed and then went black. I could almost feel it as a heavy sigh from my Gundam. Reaching out in the sudden darkness I found myself thrown into, I rested my hand on the cool metal of the cockpit. "You did good, buddy... You did good." There was still some power in the suit, I could feel faint vibrations through my seat.. But I knew it was only a matter of time. Though, I'll be damned if I died staring at nothing. Reaching out, I opened the view so I could see the stars outside.. And the floating debris of the Leos and Taurus's that I'd destroyed. As I leaned back in the chair, letting the beauty of space sink in, I could feel the shuddering of my Gundam as the last of the power reserves gave out.
In the last vibrating shake, I closed my eyes, sighing right along with my friend. The words of Father Maxwell came back to me then, and I could hear them intoning over my head as if he was standing right next to me. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil." It made me chuckle and reach up to slide my fingertips over the golden cross around my neck. I wasn't particularly religious, but it seemed...fitting in a way that I'd imagine that in my last few minutes. The sun peeked out from around Earth and I couldn't help but smile, stuck watching it and unable to look away. It was beautiful. Out here, looking on the giant blue marble that was earth, I could almost let myself believe in the thought of peace.. I could almost imagine that there weren't battles going on right now across space and the earth sphere. Yea... Peaceful.
I closed my eyes with a tired frown, resting my head back against the chair. I could get used to this - this.. floating quietly thing. It reminded me of all the times I simply stayed cloaked and let the enemy carry on with their usual business.. Before I came out of nowhere and showed them what real fear was. My last thoughts as I drifted off to sleep were of a voice long-dead. Solo's yelling at me. "Rat-boy! Why did'ncha leave yerself at LEAST three ways out! Moron!"