No Sound In Space
Chapter 2

Duo

Sitting in the hospital wing, I still couldn't believe someone had actually shot at Zechs. I mean, sure, he was a dangerous man and possibly the most dangerous man of all of us at one time; but now…Now he was just Zechs. Not Milliardo, trying to destroy Earth, or the 'Lightening Count'. He was just a normal guy…with a strange devotion to Treize and a seriously nice ass. Hey, you know I'm right about his ass. Trowa's wandering hands do not lie. But even so, I couldn't think of why anyone would start something then. Peace had reigned supreme over time and the world seemed to forgive the misconduct of both Zechs and Treize. I guess it was true that no matter the situation…there would always be a crazy person out there, trying to ruin what had become good.

This was a point in time where we weren't expecting it. And it would only get worse.

"How does that feel?" The tender voice of Noin asked the blonde.

"Like hell." He replied, wincing at the pressure applied by his would-have-been girlfriend.

Zechs was no longer in a stupefied state and could speak coherently, much to the appreciation of the rest of us. Treize hadn't stopped fawning over him, until Zechs had practically begged him to go retrieve coffee or something. Heero had gone to speak with Lady Une while Noin and Sally made sure our longhaired blonde hadn't been seriously injured.

"You're lucky Zechs." Noin smiled, looping the needle for another stitch. I was sitting next to Zechs, holding the hand that kept twitching with its natural desire to attack anything that came too close to his personal space. Zechs was a mess. "If your head had been turned in even the slightest bit further to the left, you'd be dead."

"Death doesn't like me, or so it seems."

"Maybe god doesn't want to deal with you yet."

"God is an asshole. Scratch that, god doesn't exist." He snorted sardonically.

"I knew you were a faithless blasphemer." Heero added in his own witty bit, returning with something in hand. "I pulled this from the car. I assume it's yours. You must have been thrown forward pretty quick, because it looks like it broke off your neck." Heero handed the object to Zechs, who took it into his possession with care.

I leaned forward, very curious now. I'd never noticed him wearing a necklace. "Oooh, what's that?"

Blondie didn't look at me, because of Noin's work; but he held the object in his free hand out so I could see it clearer. It was a gold chain and it was looped about a ring. Not like the ring he actually wore, but a different ring. It was more decorated, rich in design and I could make out very fancy feather looking patterns on it. "Wow…who the hell gave you such a gorgeous thing?"

"Treize." He replied simply. I looked up. I was actually alarmed by that. I never would have thought of either being sentimental about something like that, but it seemed there were things we still didn't know about the crazy pair. "He gave it to me just before I turned seventeen. He said that I was majestic, like an angel. I told him he was full of shit. I was very brash back then. Not really respecting him like I should have. And so he gave me this to remind me that I have angel wings too. He was very crazy about metaphors."

"And I still am, chéri. I feel pleased that you've actually kept it." The rich baritone of Treize voice brought attention to him. He set down the cup brought for Zechs and casually took the piece of jewelry from his lover to inspect it. "My, I'll have to get this fixed. To think you didn't melt this thing down into buttons or something crazy, when you were so irritable with me."

"You were dead…and I was mourning. I was only pissed at your rude disloyalty to me. But that's so far in the past I don't care. You've almost made it up to me."

"Almost?" A ginger eyebrow lifted.

"Yes. I said I wouldn't make it easy. Of course that doesn't mean I'm smitten any less." The blonde winced at Noin. Having her poking more holes in his head must have been unpleasant, but it would have been worse if she hadn't known about his extensive relationship with Treize. It was difficult watching him tell her. I can only imagine what it would have been like in his shoes. She didn't seem to be bothered by the idea anymore, though and I'm sure Zechs was grateful.

"Looks like a promise ring." Wufei noted, peering over Treize's arm. "You're all sorts of classy aren't you, Kushrenada?"

"I try to be."

"Is that what it is, Treize?" Zechs asked. I'm sure if he weren't having his head poked at, he would have looked at the amber haired man. "A promise ring?"

"I had assumed you knew that." Treize laughed heartily.

There was a surprised little gasp from Zechs. It was really cute actually. I guess even someone like him can gave his moments of innocent shock. "You're…serious?"

"I don't have jewelry custom made for just anyone, chéri."

"There." Noin smiled before there could be any reply. She sat back and placed the items on the tray next to Zechs. He was sitting on the table for lack of a better place or rather he was being a stubborn ass and wanted to sit on the table. "All I have to do it bandage it, and you're good to go." She added. "I'll be right back, don't mess with it, understand?"

"Yes mother." Zechs rolled his eyes after she ruffled his hair up a bit. She left the room and Treize walked over to him idly.

"My, it looks like you've quite a wound there, love." He smiled softly gently touching Zechs's forehead with his thumb.

"God doesn't love me, Treize."

"Sure I do." The ex. General replied almost instantly and I snickered. That was pretty freaking clever.

"Cocky bastard." Zechs shook his head, but slowly.

"Someone has to be overbearingly conceited, love. Since you don't like to, I have to make up for your half."

"That's like the fourth time you've called me 'love'."

"Would you rather I call you other things? I don't think 'bitch' would sound as sweet. "

"You're only allowed to call me that when you talk dirty to me."

I blushed at that thought. Treize talking dirty to Zechs. That even sounded off the wall. Classy Treize calling Zechs a bitch. Then again, it was rather clear that Zechs was the bitch. Against Treize, I can't imagine anyone would dominate. Not to mention Zechs looked so adorable when Treize bestowed so much affection and attention on him. It brought the ex. Epyon pilot back from the dead I think. I remembered what he was like even months after Treize's supposed death. At the time I hadn't realized why he was acting like life didn't matter to him and getting shit faced drunk every night seemed like a second hobby to the man. But now that I realized it…it made me smiled looking at the two. It reminded me of Heero and I. Two very troubled people changed by a little piece of solace in each other.

I leaned closer to Heero. He had been standing next to me. I looped my arm around his waist and rested my head against his chest. "Hee-chan, you never give me pet names." I whined, but heartlessly. The fact that he let me so close made me happy.

"I call you baka."

"That's not a pet name!" I huffed, but stopped shortly, "But…I'll take it." He smiled down on me and put his hand on my head affectionately. He still wasn't' the most open person in the universe, but he was getting better. He ran his fingers through my hair. I liked it when he did that. My hair had been cut, significantly, but yet, some how it really wasn't much shorter than when I first met Heero. He had said he liked my hair down. So I simply braided it less. Not that I ever stopped braiding it completely. I just started to like it being worn loose a lot more. People often asked if Zechs and I were related because of the similar hairstyle and the way we spoke to each other. He didn't have the heart to tell people the brown stained blonde hair he donned wasn't his most natural color. We were still trying to get he little bit of brown tint out of his hair.

I smiled softly as Zechs was all but purring at Treize.

The atmosphere of the room was killed when through the door came Lady Une. She was irritable to see Treize fawning Zechs. She always would be. She cares so greatly for Treize, that I'm sure she thought the Blonde ex. Pilot was her arch nemesis. Even though she already lost that battle a long time ago. She had that professional, 'some serious shit is going on,' look. She had a file in her hands and Sally coming in at her side. Noin was just coming through the door with supplies when she stopped to listen in on what the Lady was going to say.

"Listen up, guys. We've got word from our reliable sources that you guys have been being tailed for quite some time. I don't know what the offenders are trying to do, but I'm to assume they were trying to make it look like a car accident. Fortunately for us, they're not a smart bunch, or they really underestimated the windshield of a group of ex. Gundam pilots. Regardless, Zechs, you are in serious danger. Some of our other Preventers located the car. It blew up before we could get in it. The only thing we managed to get out of the car was this." She opened the folder and collected the small pile of something into her hand to hand to the blonde man.

He took them and I didn't hesitate to linger over his shoulder to look myself. They were photos. A handful of them too. Zechs shifted through them and I grew both concerned and fearful at the same time. Photo after photo, and they were all pictures of him! With us, with Treize, or by himself. He was in them all. And most of them were in our house!

"Holy shit…" He finally said, looking at a picture of he and Treize making a disaster out of the kitchen trying to make cookies. I remembered that. Those cookies looked terrible, but they were so good… "These people are full blown stalking me." He looked up. "Why? I haven't done anything in the last five years, so why now?"

"Maybe they assume you're not as sharp as before. Or maybe they want to easily remove you from the scene without getting attention on themselves…But they mistook your peaceful life. If you were really helpless you wouldn't have turned your head the way you did when you saw the gun go off."

Treize turned to look at Zechs, "You saw the gun go off?" He looked confused. Even he hadn't seen it and he was driving. None of us had seen the actual firing of the gun. Trowa and Treize saw the car, but the rest of us didn't even see that!

"Yes…but it was last minute…I didn't even get a chance to say anything. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't been staring off to the side. Not paying attention actually saved my life for a change."

"I wish that worked with me," I snorted.

Zechs continued to sift through more pictures and Lady Une kept talking, "Since you're all Preventers, I think he's safe in your protection. He couldn't have a better group of bodyguards, but you need to move to a different location. We're sending coded messages to try and arrange a place on colony L5 for you. Of all places L5 is the least likely to be the first place they'd look for you."

"I can help you ensure we get arrangements there. I'm from L5." Wufei offered. I knew it would be hard for him to go back, but at that point I think he was more genuinely concerned for Zechs.

"We'll do that then. I have a laptop I can let you use in here to make it quicker." She said, going to the bag that she had apparently left at the door.

"This isn't me." Zechs said flatly. At that point everyone stopped. The tone of his voice was strange and it was attention drawing. I glanced over what he was talking about. It was a photo, like the rest. But the background was unfamiliar. It was from the chest up and the expression on the face was one of malice I'd never seen on Zechs. Even in his war days when we fought against him.

"Are you sure?" Heero asked, but I knew he knew it wasn't Zechs.

"No…this…this is not me. For one, I don't have my ears pierced, for two, I can't think of a time in my entire life where I've ever worn an outfit like that…and this man is younger than I am…"

Treize leaned over to look at the picture himself. If anyone would be able to confirm for Zechs's life it would probably be Treize. "…He's right. That is absolutely not him."

Lady Une stepped forward and took the picture from Zechs, who had held it out to her. "Then who is this? I mean; he looks exactly like you, down to the eye color and crazy hair around your face."

"That is a good damn question…"

"I'm going to take this to see if it's been doctored. Until then, the seven of you need to be very careful. I don't know why you're being targeted, or what for, but we'll look into it as deeply as we can. Until then, we'll get you all settled into the few apartments we have empty upstairs. Tomorrow we'll transport you to a safer place."

"Sounds like a plan." Heero nodded.

"But before that." Noin cut in. "I'm not finished with that hard head of yours Merquise." She smiled at him as if she took pride in making him uncomfortable as hell.

"Goody."

"Come with me Wufei and we'll set up a secure network so you can get in touch with whomever you need to." Lady Une said and the Chinese man nodded, following her out of the room.

"Gotta say again, Zechs, you're lucky."

"Lucky is not the word I would attach to me." The blonde replied to the shorthaired woman with a wince. She was using medical tape to make sure the bandage stuck, but gentleness didn't seem to be her strong point.

"I don't know, chéri." Treize said, hopping up on the table next to Zechs. "You've got me."

"If you weren't so damn loveable your arrogance would be aggravating."

Noin stepped back with a grin, "All done!" She tucked the remaining items into the bag they came from. "You know, I just can't imagine why someone would want to shoot you. With a face like that, I don't think I could do it." She winked and I joined her in giggling over the change in color of his face. "Now Treize on the other hand." She looked at him.

"Your words… they wound me, good lady." Treize looked at her with a sly but almost pouting expression.

"Just call it payback," She chuckled, patting him on the shoulder as she walked passed him, "For stealing my boyfriend."

"You don't seem to be having too much trouble accepting that Noin." Heero said. I was a little surprised, but over the years Heero had gotten better about actually speaking to people. I saw him glance at Noin then over to Sally and it clicked. I smiled.

"Perceptive as always, Heero." She said. "We'll prepare your rooms for the night." She left the room with Sally.

"I saw that one coming." I whistled.

"Who didn't?"

"Hey guys," Quatre spoke, gaining full attention. "I got a call from Rashid while you guys were talking." So that was why he had been so quiet. "And he said that someone had tried to hijack the Gundam carriers."

"No shitting?" I said with shock. We had decided to keep the Gundams with the Maganac corp. for safety reason, but for someone to actually attempt to steal the suits from them was practically suicide!

"Luckily they only made off with one of the decoys. But still, that means the Gundams are being sought after again."

"And it's suspicious," Trowa added, "since Zechs just got shot at."

"Do you think we're being circled here? I mean, what if we're being distracted from something?" I asked. Many more questions arose, but there was no answer that could be offered.

"It's hard to say Duo," The shorthaired blonde shook his head.

The door creaked as it opened again, "Well whatever's going on it had something to do with this man." Lady Une spoke in that eminent voice of hers. She held up the picture from before. The one that looked like Zechs. "It's not fake. This photo is real, I can tell you why, because they found more photos while breaking down the remains of the car. And there's something you should see." She held out another one and we all stopped breathing right then and there.

It was a photo of the last Christmas gathering. You could see half of Quatre in one corner. Heero and I were behind the railing and Zechs, Treize and Wufei were all talking about something beside the fireplace. But that wasn't the unusual part. The unusual part was the form none of us had seen. In the far background, not even ten feet from Noin in the photo was another figure hidden by the shadows of the balcony. He was looking directly at the camera and pointing toward Zechs. The creepy thing was it was the guy from the picture. The Zechs body double.

"This is starting to freak me out a little bit…" Zechs finally admitted. "He's throwing a direct challenge at me. He's making it obvious. And this…this means there is someone with the potential to either be me or replace me."

"Or maybe it's not you he's trying to replace…chéri." Treize added and I had to contemplate the possible meaning. "Maybe…he's trying to be Milliardo."

"…But…why?"

Good question.

To be Continued…

Leo: I've had this story planned in my head for quite some time before the other one finished. Unlike the last one, the plot will develop early and dwindle before closing up with a bang. I plan to use every instance in my favor. So this time you get humor, flirty sexy boys, and a real developed plotline. Plus two new points of view. This story is likely to be longer than the other and all chapters will be at the very least 3000 words or 8 pages. Unlike the last story that started with a 4 page chapter. All questions will eventually be answered. Lets just say Zechs is in for a hard road ahead. If you've noticed I'm belting out chapters very quickly. I have managed this because of you guys! Your enthusiasm for my stories makes me want to write! The response on this one already is astounding and promise not to disappoint! Thank you all so very much! And I hope you enjoyed the second chapter!