Honesty
Disclaimer: I don't own the G-Wing Characters so please don't sue me for borrowing them . . .
Preventers HQ
His head rang painfully as he stared up at the ceiling waiting for his lungs to start up again after being thrown to the mat. Heero rubbed at the back of his head as he finally sat up, his breath coming out in ragged gasps. Sitting beside him, his breath also coming out in gasps was Wufei. The Chinese man watched Heero from the corner of his eye keeping a weary watch on the Japanese man sitting beside him. The two had been sparing for the better part of an hour and a half, neither loosing ground to the other. To be honest, Wufei was the only Preventer willing to spar with Heero at this point. In fact he was the only one that Heero hadn't sent to the EM ward.
"You wanna quit now?" Wufei asked even though he knew the answer to his question. The rogue pilot turned Preventer, would keep sparing until he passed out or was too tired to move. In answer Heero got to his feet and assumed his fighting position once more. Three years of this, Wufei wasn't sure if he could handle another year of sparing with Heero. The short reprieve was over and nothing short of one of them passing out would stop it.
Wufei didn't know what drove Heero to this point no one knew what drove Heero anymore, the man had simply closed himself off from everyone else. The only time Wufei saw him, other then missions, was when Heero wanted to spar, which was becoming a habit of late. Wufei rolled away from a kick that would have landed on his unprotected side if he hadn't seen it coming. Heero's only warning that Wufei better get up and fight or go to the ER on a stretcher if that. He rolled onto his feet and launched himself backwards just as Heero's fist came close to knocking his teeth out.
Wufei regained his composure as Heero settled back into his fighting stance, watching Wufei carefully waiting to see what the other would do. Wufei shrugged away the idea of simply surrendering to the other man. Lately Heero seemed to take that as an invitation to beat the living crap out of the person. He doubted that Sally would appreciate having Wufei carted into the ER at a time like this. The only way to stop the sparring match was to tire Heero out, a task that was fast becoming more and more difficult as time passed.
Heero moved foreword so fast that Wufei barely had time to dodge the fist aimed for his gut. Heero compensated for the missed punch by dropping low, spinning his leg so that Wufei found the ground rushing up to meet him. Only reflexes saved him from eating the ground as well as the heel aimed for his head, as Wufei spun and rolled to get further away from Heero's attacks. He sighed knowing that at least they were coming to the final part of the sparring match since he discovered that Heero usually went all out during the last few minutes or so of the fight. Wufei rolled back again to regain his footing as Heero stepped back from his attack, the pattern of attack and retreat playing over and over again.
He winced as pain shot up and down his tired body, he couldn't keep this up for long and he could tell that Heero knew that. Three years of this. Wufei shrugged away the pain and resumed his fighting stance waiting for Heero's next attack.
The door to the sparring room swung open just as Heero launched his last attack, moving with a speed that came from years of practice. Wufei didn't even see Heero moved it seemed as if he just appeared before him those cold blue eyes staring back at him. With his fist already planted in Wufei's gut stealing the breath from his lungs.
"Wufei!" Sally's voice echoed in his head as if from a great distance as he stared up into her pale blue eyes. His chest was on fire as he slowly pushed himself upright, looking across the mat to where Heero lay, his eyes closed curled up asleep at last.
"Damn that took longer then I thought it would." Wufei coughed pulling some much-needed air into his lungs. Sally stared at him incredulously, turning her head to regard the now sleeping Heero.
"I don't know why you put up with him. He's dangerous, and what's worse he's unpredictable!" Sally sighed shaking her head as she looked back at Wufei.
"Because . . . he needs this, I don't know why and I'm not about to ask him why, but I know that he needs this." Wufei replied after a moment. It was the only answer he had, the only thing he could tell her that would make her stop asking for answers. He wanted answers just as badly as she did, but Heero wasn't the kind of person to just hand out answers to anyone who asked. At least . . . he wasn't anymore. What happened to you three years ago?
The sound of the AC compressor turning on woke him from the dark realm of sleep that had claimed him the night before. His body ached from head to toe, but he pushed aside the pain, staring up at the plain white ceiling. He was back in his room, Wufei must have carried him here after he had passed out. The last thing he remembered was the ground rushing up to meet him and the blissful darkness covering him in a blanket of unconsciousness. He stared down at his body, deciding that it would still carry him as far as the bathroom he threw off the sheets and sat up.
Heero paused as he stared down at the bruises both fresh and old covering a vast majority of his pale white legs. A bag of water rested beside his ankle where a particularly nasty black-purple bruise was forming over the swollen area. He must have broken it when he passed out the night before, but it wasn't like he would let such a small thing stop him from . . . .
The door to his room swung open and he turned to see who walked in, his heart leaping into his throat at the shocking realization that he wasn't in his room he was in Wufei's. The Chinese man stared back at him with an impassive look on his face he was naked from the waist up. A large portion of his chest was wrapped in bandages. Heero twisted so that he could put his feet to the floor, wincing at the pain shooting up his battered legs. This he ignored as he tried to get to his feet, putting weight on the injury.
"I'd rest that if I were you. Sally will kill us both if she has to redo all the work she spent on us last night." Wufei replied calmly as Heero settled back onto the bed. Heero stared back at him from beneath shaded eyes as if to say he wasn't about to get up and walk away with his ankle the way it was. "Just thought I'd mention it, incase you've lost all reason after the fight last night."
Heero shrugged away the deeper meaning to Wufei's words, turning to stare around at the room he found himself in. Plain white walls, with a jade green dragon bordering around it, dark red curtains hung over a large glass sliding window that probably led out to a Chinese style garden. He recognized the room to be Wufei's, since the Chinese man's clan symbol pretty much dominated the entirety of the room. The only thing out of place was a single photo hanging on the wall in front of him it was obscenely decorated in a vine-designed frame that completely threw off the décor of the rest of the room. Heero had one just like it hanging in his apartment it was the first and last picture the Gundam Pilots had ever taken together.
"I can't bring myself to get rid of the thing." Wufei replied seeing where Heero's gaze had landed.
"He was an idiot." Heero replied sourly turning away from the picture.
"He seemed to have something else on his mind that night. He didn't once come over to bother me about Sally or my choice of career." Wufei looked at Heero and shrugged at the look he saw in the other man's eyes, "I've had five years to think about it, and a whole lot of time in between missions to decide one thing. Duo was lying."
"He never lies." Heero answered coldly.
"Not intentionally, no. I don't suppose Duo would ever intentionally lie to any of us, unless he thought he was doing us a favor." Wufei continued folding his arms across his chest. "Like I said Heero, I've had five years to think about what Duo said." Wufei's eyes narrowed slightly as he stared down at Heero, "And five years to come to the conclusion that you're hiding something from all of us. Something that involves Duo." Heero flinched, the first outward sign that he was indeed hiding something from everyone, but Wufei didn't press the issue. He would let Heero come to his own decisions about whatever it was he and Duo were hiding.
Inside his mind Heero was wondering what he should do, if Wufei had figured out this much in only five years, what had the others come to think about Duo's words? You left them alone for too long you moron, five years without a word from you and what do you expect?
Five years Ago
The noise of the crowd pressed in around him as he stood off to the side watching the smiling faces, gauging every person who looked his way. He knew his face looked anything but inviting, none of the other pilots had come near him so far. Persian blue eyes locked onto the one pair of eyes he was waiting to see, cobalt blue almost purplish colored eyes stared back at him from behind a false smile. Heero sighed, as he looked elsewhere not wanting to meet those eyes any longer. He was definitely not enjoying himself and neither, it seemed was Duo.
The party continued smoothly enough, most of the guests had left by the time it was ten so the only ones left were the five pilots, and the five girls crazy enough to hang around them. Duo and Hilde stood in a corner arguing silently about something, Hilde looked close to tears when Duo walked away. Wufei stood beside Sally with a bored look on his face as if he would rather be somewhere else. While Trowa, Catherine, Quatre, Relena, and Dorothy watched the spectacle of Duo –vs- Hilde. Heero sighed as he moved towards the arguing couple, with every intention of breaking up the argument.
"Why don't you just leave me the fuck alone?!" Duo's voice echoed across the room as he stormed away from Hilde, brushing past Heero without saying a word. On reflex, Heero reached out and grabbed hold of the other boy's wrist stopping him in his tracks.
Whack! Duo's open palm slammed hard against Heero's face sending a shock through the Japanese boy's body as he rocked backwards from the force. Duo's eyes rimmed with red, his teeth clinched tightly together as he stared – no, he was glaring at him! – right in the eye.
"Duo!" Quatre's voice sounded far away as Heero and Duo glared at each other.
"I'm sick of this! I'm sick of all of you! I wish I'd never met you! You pragmatic assholes!" Duo shouted at all of them, not just Heero. The braided boy looked each of them in the eyes as he prattled off words intent on hurting every single person in the room. His cobalt blue eyes flashed in a way that none of them had ever seen before, none of them would ever have expected something like this. Duo jerked his hand out of Heero's grasp, a sick smile spreading across his face as he finished speaking.
"You'd all be better off if you'd died in that war." Duo finished as he walked away.
"You're imagining things Wufei, Duo's never told a lie in al l the time we've known him." Heero sighed running his fingers through his hair.
"He broke up with Hilde, storms off after a very convincing speech, then disappears for five years. The last time Hilde even heard from him was three years ago." Wufei replied calmly as he turned to face Heero. "You're hiding something Yuy." Heero met Wufei's gaze without blinking. His expression emotionless to the core if he did know something he wasn't about to tell anyone. Whatever secret he kept would stay that, a secret.
"Looks like our newest mission concerns Miss Relena." Sally's voice intruded on his thoughts as he watched the limping form of Heero making his slow way towards them. "Lady Une wants us to take him with us."
"He won't like that." Wufei replied turning to meet her gaze. Sally sighed shrugging her shoulders in a helpless manner. They both knew where this was going to end up. Sure Heero would do the mission, but he'd be nearly intolerable throughout the entirety of it all.
"Is something wrong?" Heero asked as he came closer. His blue eyes darkened as he stared from Sally back to Wufei listening to their explanations of their newest mission. Normally, Preventers worked in groups of two at the most but since no one in the force was crazy or willing to partner with Heero, Lady Une had given the errant boy to them. "When do we leave, and how long?" The question was not what they had expected, but then Heero was no longer the person they thought him to be.
"Today, three weeks at least. Relena's touring a particularly troubled part of the Colonies and she needs escorts to assure that nothing happens." Sally answered calmly. Heero nodded as he turned and made his way back the way he'd come, probably going to get everything ready.
One Week Later
"Why am I here again?" Heero's voice came through the COM link in an 'I'm bored' kind of way. Wufei sighed as he touched the link about to reply to the obvious question. "Never mind, I don't want to remember."
Wufei sighed again, looking out across the crowd to see Sally shaking her head in a tired manner. It had only been one week and already Heero was bored, but they couldn't let him go back to HQ at least not alone. Wufei looked around until he spotted the dark haired man moving towards the outskirts of the crowd. What were they going to do with him? The man was a loner by nature none of the other pilots had ever been close to the oft-reclusive boy. Only Duo had ever managed to break through that wall of ice.
"I'm going to check around the outside." Heero replied calmly.
"Don't stray too far, we should be out of here in another hour or so." Sally answered. Wufei saw Heero wave her off as he continued along his path without looking back.
"This is so pointless . . . why'd I ever come here?" Heero sighed to himself as he reached the outskirts of the crowd and started his scan of the area.
Tall trees and even taller buildings surrounded the small park area where the conference was being held many of the colonies civilians had arrived to watch the procedures. A few children ran around the outer areas of the park, Heero could hear their laughter from where he stood. Even with this many people, there weren't many guards watching the area, and only three Preventers had showed up as a personally request of Miss Relena the Colony Representative. Heero's eyes spied a familiar couple standing not too close but not too far from the stage, Noin and Zechs were still shadowing Relena it seemed. Something bumped against his leg and he spun around on impulse expecting an attack.
A pair of deep green eyes stared up at him, light brown hair tied back in a braid that hung just over the little girls' shoulder. Heero blinked when he realized there were tears in those eyes, to such a small child he must look incredibly frightening. Relaxing his muscles, Heero bent down to look the child in the eyes. This must have been a wrong move, because the girl instantly started to cry her shrill screams enough to knock Heero backwards. What was he supposed to do? Heero had never handled a child before . . . well, ever actually.
"Ami-chan . . . ."
A soft voice whispered above him as a pair of slender arms wrapped around the tiny trembling child, lifting it into the air. Heero followed those arms all the way up to a pair of cobalt blue eyes, a smile spread across that oh-so-familiar face. He watched, mesmerized as the stranger held the child close whispering words of comfort into its' ears that soothed away the tears. Finally those eyes met his and he felt his heart skip a beat as he got to his feet.
"Thank you, Ami-chan likes to run around so much I often loose sight of her. See Ami? He's not such a scary man, and look! He's wearing the same uniform as daddy does!" That familiar voice washed over him like a song as he stared.
"Duo . . . ?" His voice shook as he spoke the name, one hand reaching out to touch the soft pale skin.
"MOMMY!" The high-pitched cry of the little girl snapped him out of his daze.
Heero blinked as the world came into focus around him, the child trembling in the woman's arms, the look in her eyes as she stared back at him. It's not Duo. Heero's eyes drifted up over the dark blue jeans and the white t-shirt clinging to her slightly small breasts. The only thing that confused Duo with this woman was the color of her eyes and the long brown tresses that framed her body.
"I'm sorry . . . I had you confused with someone I once knew." Heero sighed rubbing his face as he turned and started to walk away.
"Heero . . . ." The softly spoken word shook him to his core as he spun back around, but the woman and the child had just . . . disappeared.
"Duo . . . that was Duo . . . ." Heero's heart beat frantically in his chest as he searched the area, looking for even a sign of the long brown tresses.
"Heero where are you?!" The angry sound of Wufei's voice drew him back from his search as he turned back towards the crowd to see the chaos that had erupted out of nowhere. The crowd scattered as gunshots were fired, Heero saw Wufei and Sally running towards the pavilion and after a moment's hesitation, rushed to join them. In the back of his mind he remembered what Duo had said . . . 'He's wearing the same uniform that daddy does!'
The room was dark, with only enough lighting provided to see that there were five people in the room sitting around a small table. Their voices were hushed and their words were few, they had failed and their target was still very much alive.
"I was so close, damn it all the bastard got lucky!" A deep gruff voice grumbled in the dimly lit room as the man settled into a comfortable position in his chair.
"No, you're just a bad aim. We shoulda sent in Sara, she coulda hit the target no problem." Another one complained rubbing his forehead tiredly.
"She ain't about ta leave that little girl o' hers, 'sides, we can't keep relyin' on the girl. She's wild and unpredictable, has been for three years. Disappears at inopportune times, doesn't show up for weeks then walks in without a word to where she's been." Another argued.
"What are you her father? She coulda at least hit the target, unlike Dark over there." A third man replied.
"Shut up! There was a lotta people there, I didn' wanna hit no one." The gruff voice protested.
"And that's your problem . . . isn't it, Dark? You just don't have the balls to do what has to be done do you?" A singsong voice spoke from the back of the room drawing the men's attention. A light flickered on and the five men flinched at the sudden brightness of it all. A soft chuckle echoed around the room as their eyes adjusted. Standing framed in light was the last member of their little group of renegades Sara Maxwell, at twenty years she was the youngest member to ever join. A slow smile spread across her face as she regarded all of them, standing at her side was her little girl. The child watched all of them with such piercing green eyes, one hand holding tightly to her mother.
"What's with all the secrecy?" She asked settling into her chair, the tiny child sitting in her lap.
"Where the hell have you been? We started this meeting a half-hour ago." The last member, the only one who hadn't spoken at all during the past half-hour, finally spoke. His voice was like ice, his dark black eyes like a pair of dark obsidian stones. When he spoke the others flinched, except for Sara. He was the leader of this rag-tag bunch of rebels, or as close to one as they could ever get. His short-cropped hair matched the color of his eyes, a thin scar ran down the side of his face making it look like he was always smiling. His real name was George, but only Sara knew that, to everyone else in the room he was Leader. Of the five men, he was the smartest, he planned all the missions and supplied all the gear.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch, I took Ami-chan to the park to have some fun." She shrugged patting the child on the head affectionately. "I saw Dark's little . . . mishap." She looked over at the brown haired man sitting across from her and smiled. "Ami-chan could have made that hit."
"Shut up you damned slut!" Dark exploded getting to his feet.
"Sit your ass down Dark, now is not the time to get defensive." Leader replied coldly. "We need to plan carefully now we can't afford another mishap like today." Dark swallowed hard as he slowly sat back down, sweat dripped down his face at the look in Leader's eyes. "Chaos, you got all the information we need?"
All attention went towards the blond haired man sitting to the left of her, Chaos by name in this room, his real name was Kaito and he actually worked in a law firm. He was a computer hacker and worked as the informant of the group, finding information before anyone else.
"We'll need to be really careful, thanks to Dark's little mess up they've tightened security and brought in seven more Preventers." Chaos replied leaning foreword to glare at Dark. Of the five men, Chaos and Dark got along the least, it had come to blows a couple of times but nothing serious. The two glared at each other for a moment longer before Chaos resumed his report.
"This is no good . . . ." Leader replied shaking his head.
"Send me back in, I promise I'll hit the target this time!" Dark argued getting to his feet once more his eyes blazing with determination.
"If you couldn't hit it the first time, what makes this time so different?" Sara asked tilting her head to the side. Dark glared at her but the smile on her face remained, an eerie reminder of just who the man was dealing with.
"I'm not going to tell you again Dark, Sit-the fuck-down." Leader replied through clinched teeth. His eyes landed on Sara as soon as Dark resumed his seat. "Sara, this is your target now. Hit it and get the fuck outta there, I don't want my best gunner getting caught."
"Heh . . . mission . . . accepted, now if you'll excuse me . . . it's Ami-chan's nap-time." She smiled as she got to her feet cradling the tiny child in her arms as she left the room. She paused at the door and looked back over her shoulder a cold smile on her face as she looked at Dark. "Maybe one of these days, you'll give me the mission to get rid of the flack."
Dark's face turned bright red as he got to his feet, his gun appearing in his hand. The sound of a gunshot echoed in the room as the four men ducked reflexively, the gun in Dark's hand was gone and his wrist was bleeding. Eight pairs of eyes drifted towards Sara, three wide-eyed, one just annoyed at it all. A pair of green eyes peeked over Sara's shoulders, a small pistol held in tiny delicate fingers. The smile on Sara's face took on a whole knew meaning.
"Like I said, Ami-chan could have hit that target."
They watched her leave before looking at each other. Sara Maxwell, the youngest person to have ever joined their organization, their best gunner . . . a mystery in the guise of a woman.
