Disclaimer: We do not own Gundam Wing or Escaflowne. So, don't sue us because we are both broke and have no money. Just homicidal tendencies. :l

Author's Notes: To my coauthor, Lee, as well as Bessana and Marce. Vielen Dank! See Lee, I do know a smidgen of German!



EscaGundam: The Glowing Orb

By: Elf

Duo Maxwell stood on top of the huge pile of scrap just delivered to his yard. His yard. He owned it, not stole it, it was his, stock, lock, and junk. He had a natural talent to salvaging things and it was fun. A nice change from being the God of Death.

He wouldn't admit it to Hilde, and he had trouble admitting it to himself, but he missed being a Gundam pilot. Missed the thrill, the challenge, and the power. He didn't miss the endless death though.

For a very long time, he had thought that Death, with a capital D, was attracted to him. Everything had died around him from Solo to Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. Then an old man with a huge nose and a funky hair cut had found him. Professor G.

The good Professor had seen something in the young waif with the long braid. He had seen a good pilot and someone with a natural talent for stealth. Duo knew that he was good at being unnoticed when he wanted to, but that was why he went so out of the way to be noticed. He wanted to be seen, wanted to be heard, wanted to be counted.

Shaking his hair out of his eyes, he peered down at the pile of scrap beneath him. He asked himself, "So, what do we got here?" He noticed something red and glowing within the darkened neo-titanium.

"The hell?" he asked as he dug into the sharp metal. He grunted as shards of the metal cut his hand. He wasn't Heero who could go in and out of battle with more than two hundred broken bones and fix his own broken leg.

Duo was still having nightmares from that one.

His fingers wrapped around a warm object. Closing his eyes, grunting, and feeling his way through it, he pulled out the thing. Opening his eyes, he studied it. It was about the size of his fist, glowing a bright red, like a gem of some sort, but with some energy in it. He sat thoughtfully on the junk pile, studying it.

"Hey Duo!" a cheerful, female voice called out as he looked up. A tiny, pixie-like girl with short, cropped, jet black hair and brilliant blue eyes ran toward him. He smiled at her and showed her the object.

He leaned back on one hand and said, "Hey Hilde, whata think about this?"



Hilde bent down, her blue eyes narrowing as she studied it. She answered, "I don't know, Duo."

He tossed the object from one hand to another with his casual grace. He said, "Well, I don't either. So, maybe I'll let the scanner give this sucker a rundown and see what the hell it is."

She watched him as he tossed it. She said, "It's beautiful, though." He looked at her, studied her gamine features and thought, So are you. He didn't say it though. He really didn't know where he stood with Hilde.

Sure, they were business partners, and she had risked her life to give them information on Libra, but he didn't know how she felt about him. It was obvious that Relena loved Heero, and he loved her right back, just Mr. Perfect Solder wouldn't admit it. Duo loved Hilde, he knew that for a fact, but . . .

"You okay, Duo?" Hilde asked him, reaching out and touching his shoulder.

Duo blinked strands of his chestnut hair out of his eyes as he looked at her. She smiled slightly, revealing one dimple in her left cheek. The thing really started to glow. He blinked as he looked down at it. He stopped tossing it and simply held it as it glowed a bright pink.

He nodded and answered, "Yeah, baby, I'm good." With that, he stood up and began to climb down the junk pile. He looked up to see her nimbly following him on his way down.

He was going to have this sucker scanned, ASAP.

******

Nursing a heavily sweetened cup of coffee, Duo walked back into the records' room. The computer was still scanning the red object that was glowing faintly. He yawned and stretched as he walked over to the computer console.

He sat down and popped up the readings on the object. He took a drink of his coffee as he read what it had scanned. He read out loud, "Organic in nature. Made up heavily of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen with trace elements of iron, calcium, and magnesium." He glared at the screen and snapped, "That tells me shit. Why the hell is it glowing?"

The computer was silent, casting a blue glow on his face. Duo groaned and said, "Okay, you suck. I think I might have to visit an old friend." The Deathscythe pilot stood up with a grin as he shut the computer off. He took the gem-like object in his hands and began to toss it around gracefully.

He walked silently to the hanger. He grinned as he saw Deathscythe HELL's dormant form looming in the back ground. He leaned against the door as he shut it, still managing to toss the object back and forth in his hands. He said, "Hello old buddy. I've got a favor to ask you."

He walked on the catwalk, humming slightly as he did. He opened up the cockpit and sat down in HELL's familar controls. He sighed and he felt like a part of him was saying, You're home, Duo. Welcome back, ole buddy. He gazed around at the various levers and control pannels with an almost manic gleam in his eyes.

He smiled as he began to turn on Deathscythe HELL's systems. He chuckled as the eyes glowed a bright green in the mobile suit's face. He had the urge to say, "The God of Death is back from Hell." But The God of Death wasn't needed now after Relena Peacecraft's total pacifsim ruling. Duo felt sorta absoulete at that.

He said, "Well old buddy, I didn't forget you, and I know this is way below your power, but could ya tell me what the hell is this and why the hell is it glowing." He placed the glowing object in the sensor.

It started to glow a brighter red as the green lazer grid wrapped around the object. He told it, "You're gonna reveal all your secrets to me, baby."

He read the results. "What the fuck?" he cursed in frustration. He crossed his arms and glared at the sensor. He snapped, "The same damn thing. Why the hell is it glowing?" He grunted as he began to shut Deathscythe HELL down.

He picked up the glowing red gem and looked at the Gundam. He said, "Well, see ya later." He looked down at the object and cursed, "You're damn annoying, and you know how bad that is when I'm saying that?" It started to dim. Duo snorted at it and snapped, "Whatever." He closed up the Gundam and exited the hanger.

He walked back into the record's room. He placed the offending object on the table. He said, "I'll look at ya tommorow. And you better tell me why the hell you are glowing." With that, he retreated to bed.

******

Duo woke up the next morning. He wasn't a morning person by any streach of the word. He liked night much better, so in the morning, before he got any caffinee in his system, he wasn't a pleasant person to be around.

Hilde, knew of this, and was already prepaired with fresh coffee and breakfast. He stumbled to the chair at the kitchen table and looked up at her. She shook her head as she placed a plate of toast and eggs infront of him as well as a cup of black coffee.

The first cup of coffee in the morning was always black to get him from his zombie-like stage. He drank it down, whinching at the bitter taste. Hilde sat down beside him, her drink of choice was juice. How could anyone survive without caffinee was beyond Duo as he began to eat.

She asked, "Did you find out what that thing was?"

"No," he grumbled in a frustrated tone between bites of eggs and toast. He said, "The damn thing is reading as organic. Why? I don't have a damn clue, but it is. Why is it glowing? Not another damn clue. How did it get here? Another damn clue I don't have. It's more puzzling than Heero." He pushed some eggs around his plate with his fork.

Hilde reached up and touched his shoulder. She said, "Duo, if anyone can find out what this thing is . . ."

"Heero!" Duo realized with sudden clarity, standing up. If anyone could find out what the glowing thing was it was the Perfect Soldier, Heero Yuy. He grinned at Hilde and said, "Yeah, I'll just get Heero to find out what the hell this thing is."

Hilde smiled and replied, "I was thinking that it would be you, Duo Maxwell. Besides, how would you find Heero?"

Duo looked at her. Damn, the block to all of my carefully laid plans. Thank you very much, Hilde, he thought as he looked at her pixie face. She rested her chin on her palm as she smiled at him. He blinked and answered, "Well, I could ask the other Gundam pilots and Relena!" He smiled. His plan starting to form again. He went on, "And I could signal his Gundam through mine, if I need it to! Yeah! I'm pretty damn good."

He rushed out of the kitchen only to hear Hilde's laugh echoing after him.

******

Duo cracked his knuckles before he sat down at his console. He turned on his computer and said to himself, "Okay, other than me, who would Heero contact?" He snapped his fingers as the realization dawned on him, "Trowa."

Heero and Trowa fought together in those two suits that the scientists had made for OZ to delay their and the pilots' deaths and to make cover as they rebuilt Gundams Deathscythe and Shenlong. And Trowa was the one who helped Heero recover after he self-detinated. So, the first person he was going to call was Trowa.

He didn't know Trowa's e-mail address, but he did know how to contact the circus that Trowa worked at. He waited for a moment before the face of a pretty girl with curly auburn hair and pale purple eyes came on the screen. She said, "Hi, my name's Catharine, how can I help you?"

Duo answered, "Sure can, I'd like to talk to Trowa Barton. If you would be so kind, pretty lady." Hey, just because he was in love with Hilde didn't mean that he couldn't flirt.

She studied him for a moment and asked, "Duo Maxwell?"

"The one and only," Duo answered as he kicked his heels up on the table. He leaned back on his chair as he looked at Catharine. Then a sudden realization came to him that she may be thinking that Trowa was going to be called into battle.



Duo shook his head and said, "Hey, Catharine, Trowa's not gonna go on a mission or anything, I just need to ask him a question."

She sighed, her relief visible. She smiled kindly and said, "Well, I'll go get Trowa then. Hang on."

"Sure will," he replied, grabbing the desk and holding onto it, making her chuckle. As she walked away, giving Duo a view of a busy circus, he let go of the desk and leaned back in the chair again. He watched a person exercising an elephant as he waited for the Heavyarms pilot.

Trowa walked up to the screen, a shock of his golden brown hair still covering one side of his face. The eye that was visible was an intense, dark green as he looked Duo over. His quiet voice asked, "What do you need Duo?"

Just like Heero, getting down to business, Duo thought as he looked at the slender pilot. He answered, "Okay, have you seen Heero?"

"Not recently," Trowa said, crossing his arms as he watched Duo. Duo shifted under the scrutiny. All the pilots except him had some sort of sophisticated training other than the training that they each had as a pilot. Duo was just a piece of street trash calling himself the God of Death and was unpredictable as hell.

A strategist such as Trowa would seriously disapprove of Duo's random methods of attack. He snuck in and caused as much chaous as he could before he escaped. It was as simple as that while Trowa had everything planned out in his head before hand.

There was also the fact that Trowa publicly destroied Deathscythe. That would seriously dampen a person's oppinon of someone, Duo thought as he watched Trowa. The graceful pilot tilted his head so, for a brief moment, both dark green eyes were visable.

Trowa asked, "Why are you asking?"

Duo reached over and picked up the glowing orb. He tossed it back and forth in his hands as he answered, "This. It's organic, but why the hell is it glowing?"

"You ran diagnostics on it?" Trowa asked him.

Duo glared for a moment before huffing, "Yeah, what kind of idiot do you take me for?" Trowa smirked. Duo glared back and added, "And don't even answer that, Trowa. Yeah, I even scanned this thing in HELL."

Trowa shrugged and replied, "Then you have a better idea than I do. Try Relena."

Duo nodded and said, "Yeah, if anyone's seen Heero, then its gotta be Relena. Thanks man, I'll let you go now."

Trowa nodded as the communication signed off. Duo grumbled, "Left without even saying good bye. So, I guess I'll try Relena next."

Getting hold of Vice Minister Darlain was much harder than getting hold of Trowa. First, he had contacted a secretary, then he had contacted some old dude that looked vaguely familiar from when Relena trailed after Heero, then Noin, which he wasn't complaining because Noin registered on the hot category, and, finally, hold. So, he was watching some footage of an orchestra performance on the screen while he was on hold. Some classic music, sounded like Mozart or something like that.

Classical music wasn't Duo's thing. Well, unless it consisted of the heavy metal bands of the 21st century. He had drove Father Maxwell up the wall one time while listening to Metalica. Of course, the Blue Oyster Cult had a soft spot in his heart as well for one particular song that was pretty damn obvious.

Still, he was stuck, listening to something that Quatre had played before, board out of his mind. So, he picked up the object and started tossing it again. He had noticed that he liked doing that. The red glow moved as he tossed it from one hand to another.

Pretty soon, Relena's lovely face came on screen. Duo could see why Heero was in love with her. After all, she was beautiful with long, dark blond hair and cornflower blue eyes and she had this inner strength to her that came out during political events. Just the semi-stalking thing was creepy and her total pacifism annoyed him.

Live on the streets long enough and you'd find out that there is no such thing as total peace.

Relena smiled brightly and said, "Hello, Duo. It's good to see you. How's Hilde?"

Duo grinned and answered, "She's fine, pretty lady. She recovered from Libra just nicely. She's doing great. So, how are you?"

She laughed and answered, "Busy Duo, very busy. So, how are you?"

"I'm great," Duo said, tossing the orb around.

Relena studied the crimson, glowing orb. She said, "That's beautiful, what is it?"

Duo smirked and answered, "I'm not sure. That's why I called."

"Well, I've never seen anything like it before," Relena stated, studying the object.

Duo chuckled as he replied, "Nope, I was just asking if you've seen Heero."

She shook her head, the cheer in her expression dimming. She answered, "No, not since he gave me the teddy bear."

"Aww, that's so sweet," Duo teased.

She glared at him and said, "You're incorrigible, Duo Maxwell."

"Among other things," Duo smirked, leaning back in his chair, tossing his braid off his shoulder.

She sighed and said, "Well, it was nice talking to you again, Duo. I have to go."

"Ah, the pressures of politics," Duo smirked as he waved at her, "Bye, Relena."

"Good bye, Duo," she told him with a smile as the line shut off.

Duo sighed and said, "Okay, Relena, Trowa, no shows. Where the hell could he be? Heero Yuy, you're damn hard to find."

"That's sort of the whole point, isn't it?" a familiar voice asked him.

Duo spun around and shouted, "Shit!" Heero Yuy stood at the door way. Heero stood with the contained leathalness of some sort of jungle cat. He wore his ususal dark-green tank top, but had ditched the spandex shorts for jeans. His unruly, dark brown hair still hung in his intense, dark blue eyes. His face was an emotionless mask as he studied the glowing orb in Duo's hands.

Duo sprang up out of his chair and ran to his friend. He said, "Damn it, Heero, how the hell did you get here? And did you know that I was looking for you?"

Heero answered, "I'm checking on the pilots right now, seeing if they have found anything suspicious, and, no."

Duo held up the orb and asked, "Do you have any idea what this is?"

"No," was Heero's reply. Duo had almost forgot that Heero got all of his information out in the barest minimal words that he could. Heero took the orb and studied it. He said, "Looks like a fuel cell almost."

"Its organic," Duo told him as Heero studied the orb. It cast a pink glow on the pilot's face as he looked at it.

Heero shrugged and handed it back to him. He said, "It could be some sort of weapon."

Duo shook his head and replied, "I don't think so. I ran it in Deathscythe HELL's scanners and all it picked up was that this thing is made up of mainly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, with trace calcium, magniusm, and iron."



"Organic," Heero said looking at it. He said, "I wanna take a look at this thing in HELL's scanners too. Maybe you missed something."

"Ouch," Duo said as he and Heero walked out to the hanger.

Within moments, both pilots were situated so they could both look at Deathscythe HELL's scanners. Duo looked down at it as he began to run the diagnostics on it. Heero watched with his usual cold intensity as the scanners started to trace the orb.

Suddenly, the orb started to glow a bright pink. It flared up, engulfing Deathscythe HELL in a brilliant pink glow. It was warm and tingling, and Duo didn't have a hell's chance to know what was going on.

Heero asked, "What the hell's happening?" Duo wasn't the only pilot who cursed out of the group, thank goodness. He looked around to see all of Deathscythe's systems spark to life, including the weapons' systems. The buster shield and the double-bladed scythe sprang to life in a bright, hot rush of energy.

Suddenly, Duo was pushed into the seat, at the consoles as the harness buckled at its own accord. Duo shouted, "What the hell?"

Heero started to pull on the harness, asking, "What the hell did you do, Duo?"

"Nothing, it's that thing," Duo shouted as he pointed at the orb.

******

Heero watched as complete chaos insured. Duo shouted, "Take that damn thing out!" Heero grabbed the glowing pink orb and held it in his hand. The thing felt like a fever, hot to the touch, but not burning so. He felt the energy pulsing in it.

He reached over and grabbed the harness, ready to rip it off with is superhuman strength. Duo looked at him with narrowed violet eyes. He smirked and said, "Not today, buddy." Then, Duo kicked him.

Normally, even though Duo was strong for an average teenager, the blow would have mildly affected Heero. Today though, Heero was in an awkward position holding the orb and trying to pull Duo out of the harness. He tumbled out of Deathscythe HELL as the door to the cockpit started to close.

Heero reached out and grabbed the catwalk as Deathscythe HELL began to glow a dark crimson. In a flash of dark red light, it was gone. The orb in his hands cooled off and dimmed. Heero looked down at it as he jumped gracefully off the catwalk.

With a grunt, he ran back into the office, right to Hilde. The young woman asked, fear evident in her huge eyes, "What happened to Duo?"

"I don't know," Heero answered as he raced to the records room to find Duo's computer.

******

Deathscythe HELL stopped glowing. Duo awakened, not even realizing that he had passed out. His graceful fingers raced over the consoles to give him a visual. He looked around. He definitely wasn't in the hanger any more. "Okay, I'm definitely not in the hanger," Duo grumbled.

Actually, he was in the middle of a seriously out numbered battle with mobile suits that he had never seen before.

He looked around to see hundreds of floating suits coming at the other group which reminded Duo of Samurai Warriors. One beige suit stood out from the rest, a red cape resting on its shoulders as it sliced into the other suits with a huge broad sword looking thingie. Rain poured on the battle field, soaking it.

He had one question, only one question. He asked, "What the hell is going on?"