After the Eve Wars..., by Raberba girl

Part 2 - Rise of Power

Wufei, quite horrified, was staring at his captor, who was dancing around the room and singing to a pair of earphones. Just then the doorbell to Trowa's secret base, which was in actuality Wufei's house, rang.

"I'LL GET IT!" Trowa yelled while running to answer the door, his earphones still on. Wufei wriggled around a bit, trying to get free, but to no avail.

At the door, Trowa was greeted by a mob of smiling Preventers bearing a harassed-looking, tied-up blonde.

"Hi! I'm Meiran, Wufei's wife!"

"Hello, Meiran," Sally greeted. "To halt your plot to take over the world, we surrender and give you this prisoner as a peace offering."

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" everyone yelled, dumping Quatre on the ground and then heading back to the base, forgetting that they had come to rescue Wufei.

Trowa laughed villainously, then picked up Quatre, slung him over his shoulder, and carried him to the room where Wufei was being held. Which happened to be the kitchen.

"Tea?"

"Yes. Thank you," Quatre replied. Trowa prepared some tea, still humming as he waited, then politely served his second prisoner a cup of the steaming liquid. Quatre, unable to accept it, just looked at him.

Pretending not to notice, Trowa began, "My dear Quatre. Do you happen to remember a time, oh, let's say a few months ago, when the two of us, which is to say you and I, were stationed on a large space battleship called - Libra?"

Quatre winced. "Um...yeah?" he replied in a small voice.

Trowa suddenly whirled and threw the knife, which imbedded itself in the floor a mere two millimeters away from Quatre's head. The unfortunate youth made a small squeaking noise and tried to keep one terrified eye on the drawer of knives, one on the katana leaning in a corner, and one fixed on Trowa. He ended up cross-eyed.

By the time he'd gotten his vision straightened out, he became aware of Trowa kneeling next to him, pressing another knife against his throat. Nervous about getting blood on his new kitchen floor, Wufei made some sounds of displeasure, but was silenced when Trowa shot him a threatening glare.

"Now then. I have decided to give you two options. Either you can accept your punishment for what you did to me on Libra and let me kill you, or you can apologize and join me. What do you say?"

Quatre said frantically, "I'm sorry! I'll join you, I'll join you!"

Trowa gave a twisted smile. "Excellent. BWAHAHAHA!"

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"Attention! I am Lord Tres, and I have taken over this Preventer base! Everyone shall now do what I say!"

A bunch of Preventers ran into the office where Treize was broadcasting his message and shot at him. Treize dove behind the desk, shooting back; the firing continued back and forth, until Treize suddenly caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and got an idea.

For a moment, the Preventers halted their fire in surprise as their enemy suddenly stood up from behind the desk. That moment was all Treize needed. He pointed the object that he had found at the men and pressed a button, then burst into laughter when everything suddenly froze.

"HA HA HA! Never underestimate the power of the VCR remote control's pause button!" So saying, he tossed aside the remote and skipped out, mockingly flicking out of his way a bullet which hung suspended in midair.

Running down hallways, his mind raced as he tried to think of a more suitable base, but the Preventer building was the only choice he had right now. Then he suddenly smacked into something, fell down, and started to cry over a scraped knee. When several shadows fell over him, however, he stopped crying and looked up, into the faces of the group of Preventers who were returning from Wufei's house.

He gulped, until Duo yelled, "Hi, Treizey! Man, we ain't seen you in a while! Yo, how're you doin'?" Treize managed a weak smile as Agent 02 helped him to his feet, while everyone else stared at him in confusion.

"I told you he was at our meeting," Heero muttered.

"But I thought he was dead!" Lady Une cried.

Treize sweatdropped as everyone stared at him, expecting an explanation. "Well...heheh, um, see, well...uh...I only pretended I was killed, but I really wasn't, and, well, you know how us bad guys are--"

"How do you PRETEND to be blown up?" Lady Une yelled.

Treize panicked; he whipped out his gun and fired at a random person, then ran off as everyone but Heero either gasped, or screamed and ran to Duo. Heero went in search of Treize.

"He's been shot!"

"He's losing blood, fast!"

"We've gotta get him to a hospital!"

"He's gonna die!"

"I want his big-screen TV!"

"I want his braid!"

"I get his braid! I'm his friend/girlfriend/fiancee/wife!"

"You idiots; shut up and start trying to get him help!"

Grumbling, "Okay, okay..."

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"There's no way out, Treize!" Heero yelled, pointing his gun at the man standing at the edge of the roof.

"Who says?" Treize stalled, giving the ground far below a nervous glance. Heero fought the urge to sweatdrop. That was a Duo thing; Heero Yuy did NOT sweatdrop.

"You're standing on the edge of a building, without a parachute, and with a loaded gun pointed at you by a merciless killing machine. I dunno, can you see any ways out of this mess, Treize?"

Treize hesitated. "Well...no. But fear not! I have returned from the dead once, watch me do it again!"

Heero rolled his eyes. "I'd rather not, thanks..." He was too late, though. Treize had already jumped off the roof and was now plummeting down to what was, presumably, his death.

Heero stared for a minute, then cursed. After kicking at the ground, or rather, the ceiling, he went back to see if Duo was dead or alive, preferably the former.

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Duo lay in the crisp, sterile whiteness of the hospital bed, his breathing shallow, his eyes closed, and the hand that Hilde held was limp.

She sat alone in the room with him, her face streaked with tears. "Oh Duo," she whispered, "please, don't leave me...I-I've been wanting to tell you this for so long...and now that - it's too late, I finally get up the guts to actually say it." She choked back a sob, and Duo struggled to open his eyes.

"Hilde..."

"Sssh," she soothed, "don't try to talk if it hurts too much. But Duo...I-I love you."

He tried to smile, but it took too much energy. "I love you too...Hil...de..."

Hilde couldn't keep the sobs back anymore. She threw her arms around Duo's neck and hugged him tightly, forgetting to worry about if it would hurt him or not. "Oh Duo...all this time we had together...I should have told you sooner. I've known I loved you for so long, but I was afraid that you didn't feel the same way...oh Duo, don't leave me!"

"Hey," he said weakly, hugging her as best he could, "don't cry...it'll be fine... Just to know that - you love me is precious...enough..." He struggled to draw in his next breath, unable to continue.

"Oh Duo..."

"Hilde..."

"Duo..."

"Hilde..."

"My love..."

"My dearest..."

"My precious one..."

"My angel..."

"My imp..."

"My sweet one..."

"My darling..."

"My dove..."

"My delight..."

"My blue-haired pixie..."

"My violet-eyed scamp..."

"My petite fairy..."

"My braided baka..."

"My spunky, bright-eyed doll..."

"My beloved Shinigami..."

"My lady of death..."

"My lord of death..."

"My naïve little Ozzie..."

"My cute little G-boy..."

"My adorable girl with the same dub voice as Noin..."

"My cute bishounen with the same dub voice as Rattrap..."

"I love you..."

"I love you too..."

"I love you more..."

"I love you better..."

"No, I love you better..."

"Bet you don't..."

"Bet I do..."

"Nuh-uh..."

"Uh-huh..."

"Nuh-uh..."

"Uh-huh..."

"Your mom."

"Your mom."

"Yours."

"I don't have a mom."

"Shut up."

A few minutes later she felt him relax, his skin growing cold. She jerked her head up and then burst into tears when she saw his closed eyes and a slight smile, the last smile, on a face that would never smile at her again.

"DUO!"

to be continued...

A/N: Now come on, I'm not going to really kill off my favorite character in chapter 2 of 20. Bear with me, people.