Disclaimer: This story is rated M for violence, blood, language, etc. We do not own Gundam Wing or profit from it. Trust me, we are far too violent and evil to make something like Gundam Wing.

Notes: This story is collabed entirely with Cltcmistress, who can be found on here as well. She writes every other paragraph, so credit is due to her as well! And please review, feedback is encouraging, but it also helps us write better.

Trowa makes Quatre cry in this chapter. Because Duo can't be the only one that suffers, sharing is caring, as Zero would say!


A pristine, white glove reached to ring the doorbell. Stepping back, the man with the package used the glass of the door window to make certain all was in order and his uniform was up to par. Of course this was not his normal uniform. He would much prefer his black and white to this garish blue and grey preferred by the mail carriers. But this was is assignment. And we would exude the image of perfection. As trained. The man waited another polite moment before giving the bell one more ring. When the door opened and a blonde haired boy stood before him, he pulled the clipboard from between his arm and the package. "I have a package for Mr. Winner."

"I'm Mr. Winner." He took the clipboard carefully from the mailman, pausing briefly to examine the white glove, but didn't think much about it. "I wasn't expecting anything in the mail, who is it from?" He had learned in the past that surprise packages weren't always as they appeared, and he liked to stay on guard.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you Mr. Winner. I'm only the messenger. They don't trust us with more than just getting the package to the right place. I appologize for the inconvenience." He took the clipboard back and held the package out to the blonde. "Though I do believe the name Maxwell is what was given at the office."


*beep beep - beep beep* Zero silenced her watch and picked up the cricket bat leaning against the wall beside her. "Four AM. Showtime." She set her face to her customary cold mask before opening the door, allowing it to slam agains the wall as she entered the room. "Wakey, wakey. Eggs and baky!" Grabbing the pilot by his collar she tossed him from the bed and onto the floor on the opposite side of the room. Her smile broadened as his head made a lovely thunk against the wall. "Today's lesson. Manners in the prescence of a lady." With the last word she gave him a firm kick, sending him rolling into the hallway.

"I think a morning like this calls for a bit of music. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Maxwell?" She gave him another kick to the gut, directing him farther down the hallway and began whistling a jaunty tune. Much like the one her master had been whistling himself the day before. Only this one was happier. Something she had picked up from a cartoon she'd seen years ago.


"Maxwell?" Quatre took the package from the mailman, feeling a cold chill running through his spine as he touched the package. Something was wrong. He could sense something off about the mailman or the package, he wasn't sure. "T-Thank you." He nodded before pulling the package into the hall and closing the door.

As the door closed the man turned and walked back to this truck. Picking up the radio as he drove he smiled. "Package delivered."

"Heero!" He knew the japanese pilot would need to see the box, it could give them the whereabouts of the missing Duo. But he couldn't wait, he reach behind him and pulled out a small knife and carefully cut the tape.

Heero heard the bell, but ignored it. Someone else would get it. He continued his work on the computer until he heard Quatre's shaky voice. Out of his chair in an instant he went to the door to see the blonde holding a package wrapped in plain brown paper. "Hn. What is it?"

"This..." His fingers touched the lid lightly, that jolting feeling shooting through him again. "It came from Duo." He pried open the lid and his eyes widen in shock. "Heero! Look." He pulled out a bloody preventers shirt, and held it out to Heero to examine.

"Hm." Heero took the shirt and looked it over. It was pretty beat up. And it didn't looked to be a staged one. He took the edge of the sleeve and put it to his tongue. Tasted salty. And metallic. "It's real." He held it up and turned to face Trowa and Wufei as they entered the room. "Quatre has something. This came in the mail." He passed the shirt to the other pilots then turned back to the blonde. "What else is in there?"


Duo had been expecting her, but it didn't prepare him for the psychotic-ness that was being displayed before him. He struggled to his feet, his brain telling him to get up, to run. He was in no shape to fight her and he had already caught site of the cricket bat she was swinging in time to the tune she hummed. It sounded like something from a cartoon, yet twisted. He took a few steps forward before collapsing to his knees.

Zero couldn't help but chuckle as the pilot tried to pull himself to his feet. Such a pathetic attempt though. What was disappointing, however, was that he didn't seem too shocked to see her. Shame. She'd been hoping for a bit more fun. "Lesson number one for the day. Always stand when a lady is in the room." Another kick to the gut. "So tell me, Mr. Maxwell, do you think so little of me that you refuse to stand in my prescence? I might take offense to your attitude if you don't give me some sort of reason for your ill manners." Without waiting for a response she rolled him farther down the hall, enough to give him a moment to react.

He coughed, not surprised when he felt a metallic taste in his mouth and wiped the back of a hand across his lips. He pushed himself up, seeing as this was another game to her, one he was determined to win. If she wanted manners and a gentlemen, he would play along, he had no desire to see how crazy this woman in front of him could be. "Ill manners?" He coughed again, wiping more blood from his mouth. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"What is there to not understand? You seem to have taken my meaning rather well. Look at how quickly you were able to rise to your feet. I'm impressed. Perhaps you do have some respect for members of the opposite gender afterall." She paused in her stroll and rested the bat against her shoulder. "Now, I think it's time to take this conversation to another room. The hallway simply isn't the place to discuss business of any type. And you look like your legs could go out from under you," the bat dropped from her shoulder as she brought her other hand up to the grip, "at any," and she swung, "moment." A chuckled escaped her lips as the bat connected to his legs and sent him crashing back to the floor as she resumed whistling her tune.

He winced as he hit the ground, hard, his leg throbbing, pain shooting up through him, but Duo struggled to his feet again, falling against the wall, shocked when a small whimper escaped his lips. His leg felt broken and badly. He wanted to scream at her, tell her she was a psycho-whore, to kill her, but he knew if he said anything it would be that much worse. He needed to stay alive, to get out. He pushed him self backwards down the hall, trying to get distance between them. He needed to find a weapon, and he needed it now.


"Ughh!" Quatre pulled his hand back in horror, this had to be a joke, it had to be. "H-hair!" He held up a long brown clump of hair, trying to shake it off his hand. "Allah! There are teeth!" He pushed a hand to his chest, shuddering as some strange feeling shot through him, stronger this time.

"What?" Wufei stepped around his comrades and looked in the box for himself. Lifting small case in which the two teeth rested, his scowl deepened and his body shook. "What is this? Who sent this?"

Heero reached into the box this time and removed a video tape. "This will likely have something to do with it." He went to the next room to put the tape in the VCR and pushed play.

Quatre stood, before following Trowa and Wufei into the room where Heero was working the tape, the feeling still running through his body, and stared down at his hand. The fingertips were tingling where the hair had been.


This was just too much fun. More than she expected it to be. She had originally been hoping to catch him still groggy from sleep and the morphine. But this was SO much more entertaining. "Mr. Maxwell, did you lose something? You seem to be intent on crawling on the floor like you've dropped something. Perhaps I can help you find it." Stepping in time to her whistling she strolled over to where he struggled to scoot himself down the hall. "You'll never find it if you're on your back." Using the bat she flipped him over and place one foot firmly in the small of his back, pinning his arms still cuffed beneath the weight of his body. "It's always easier to find something if your eyes are pointed in the direction you think you lost it." This time she placed the end of the bat at the base of his skull and leaned over his head, placing her weight heavily on the foot planted in his back. "Does this help?"

With his face pushed to the ground and the foot pushing into his tender ribs Duo felt like he'd break, he'd never been this helpless before and the more he struggled the worse he got. But he couldn't, the others were out there, they needed him to survive, so he bared the weight, teeth gritting together. If he couldn't get out on his own, they would be there. They had never left him behind before, they wouldn't now, he was sure of it. He just had to hold off until he could take her down.

She stopped whistling and stood up. "Oh, I appologize. Was I hurting you? I didn't realize until you whimpered. You should say something next time. It's rude to make a lady guess at the message you wish to convey. You should always make your thoughts and wishes clear." Resuming her tune once again she alternately used her bat and foot to send him down various halls until they arrived at the interrogation room. The camera was already rolling. Shoving the door open, she gave the pilot a particularly rough swing of the bat to send him into the room. "Now, shall we continue with today's lesson?"


The screen flickered for a moment before a pale face with even paler hair and eyes filled the screen. The girl wore a crisp uniform and stood with her hands folded behind her back. "Hello Mr. Winner, Mr. Yuy, Mr. Chang, and Mr. Barton. By now you've reached the bottom of the package sent to you. I'm certain you've become aware of the absence of your friend Mr. Maxwell. I do appologize for detaining him. But he simply could not refuse my offer for him to stay for a bit. However, I do feel like I should leave you with some peace of mind, knowing what has become of your friend. This tape serves as notification. Enjoy." She smiled as the scene flickered and changed. The room was the same, but this time empty. The door opened and a body rolled in, cuffed and looking rather beat.

Quatre watched in horror as a wounded Duo was rolled in the room, wincing as a sharp pain tore through him, through his ribs and shoulder and he gasped, wincing on that side, eyes never leaving the screen. He watched Duo lunge towards Zero, felt the emotions from the braided pilot, before he heard the sickening crack of Duo's skull.

As Duo dropped to his knees on the video, Quatre also fell to his own knees, hands out stretched towards the screen. Lifeless violet eyes stared at him from the screen and Quatre let out a strangled gasp before clutching his head.


He pushed himself up to his feet, bent over, favoring his bruised ribs, and looked at her from under long brown bangs. He couldn't help but to give her a glare. "There are some things the 'lady' could learn herself."

"You say that as though you question my instructional methods. Is that so Mr. Maxwell? Do you have questions for me? Ones that you are dying to know the answers to?" She gave him her most wicked grin as she closed the door gently behind.

He caught the play on words and smiled darkly. "No, 'lady', merely curiousity." It was barely above a whisper, but he was not in the condition to be hostile with her.

She chuckled softly. He caught on to her game quickly. This one was much brighter than most people gave him credit for. That would become an excellent addition to the organization. She would more than please her master with this offering. Perhaps even exceed his expectations. Best not to wish too high though. "So you believe there are certain things I could learn? Is that so?" Swinging the bat beside her she stepped forward and placed her right foot on his left shin. "What sorts of things do you think this lady could stand to learn? Because it seems to me you haven't been paying attention to your lessons about making your every thought clear." This time she leaned hard on his shin until she hurt a crack. Not enough to break it, but certain enough to cause pain. And reach the microphone on the camera, of course. "What is it you would like to teach me, Mr. Maxwell.?"


Wufei continued to glower at the screen long after it changed over to static as Trowa helped Quatre over to a chair. Heero took the tape out and left, mumbling something about looking for clues.

Quatre held his face in his hands, before grabbing Trowa's wrists, looking him in the eye, despite the pain running through him. "I can't feel him any more, he's..." His voice was a slight whisper, trailing off at the end.

Trowa stood still in front of his friend and let him cling to whatever sense of stability he needed. "What do you mean you can't feel him?" Never in all the time he'd know this blonde had there ever been a moment that he couldn't 'feel' the prescence of the others. That's what caused him to stand perfectly still in that moment. "Are you sure?"

"I... I'm not sure, but he's gone, just faded out, I haven't felt him for a while, but the video, I could feel everything, Trowa... now it's empty. There is just... darkness where he was." Quatre's eyes were far away, unfocused as he searched through his head to find Duo's presence, but he only shook his head again.


He'd been pushed to his limit and decided the beating couldn't get any worse than it was going to, so he pushed his leg up against her, pushing her backwards and got up on his feet. If she was going to do this, he was going to fight her. "I think you could learn a few manners yourself. I don't see how beating your guests is very lady like." He rushed her then, swinging his cuffed fists as a weapon.

Aah! Here's that fight I wanted. Wonderful! She had anticipated his pathetic attempt to fight back. She's been hoping for it, actually. "I'm always a lady." As he rushed her, she took a small step to the side and lifted the cricket bat and waited for the right moment. For the exact second that would make the most perfect shot on the cameras. Let the other really believe this charade, and make her plan complete. "And don't you forget it." As the pilot stumbled past her, she swung. The bat met his skull with a lovely cracking noise. She checked the swing enough to ensure she didn't kill him outright, but all the cameras would see was his limp body crumpling to the floor. "Ever."

Duo's eyes widened as the bat collided with his skull, and he halted, swaying momentarily as if to some strange tune in his own head, while blood poured down his face and neck. He slowly sank to his knees, arms dropping in front of him, eyes still wide and blank, before collasping to the floor, shuddering violently then stilling in an awkward position.


It had to be accepted. Quatre had never been wrong about something he was so sure of before. "This was a risk Duo understood when he took his mission. A risk we all understood." He had to pause to digest that thought himself. "Heero is looking over the tape for any clues. And we'll inspect the rest of the contents of that box. If there's any chance of this being a trick, we'll find it." Even doubting his own words, he had to say them. For his friend's benefit as much as his own.

Quatre's eyes focused and he stared up at Trowa, eyes wide. "NO. No." He shoved the other's arms away from him. "Duo is not dead. I can't accept that. I just can't." He stood, glaring up at Trowa, daring him to say something else.

Trowa let him stand. "Quatre, you said it yourself. You can't find him." He knew he should listen to the blonde. Could the friend who always referred to himself as the God of Death actually have to face his own end at the hands of a new, unkown enemy? But there was only one answer. One all four of them had seen with their eyes and held in their hands. One none of them could doubt.

He glared up at the taller pilot, trying his hardest to be angry. "Are you so willing to let him go, Trowa?"

"Willing? No. But what else are we to think, Quatre?" Now he was getting upset. Why couldn't he just accept it? "It happens. What else are we to think when we receive a box with is bloodied shirt? His teeth? His hair? The one thing he treasured was cut and sent to us in a box with a tape." His fists clenched as he leaned over his friend. He couldn't help his voice rising to a more urgent tone. This talk was bringing out those emotions he tried to keep burried. "A tape that showed his broken and bloody body -- wearing that exact shirt -- being kicked into a room where he was beaten with a cricket bat! You said yourself that you couldn't feel him. You saw his eyes. What else are we supposed to think Quatre? What?"

The blonde flinched slightly at Trowa's words, but held his ground. "It wasn't all of his hair Trowa! Where's the body? You were quick to pick Heero's broken body off the ground, but quicker to push D into the corner!" He spat out, tightening his hands into fists. "It wouldn't be the first time either! Would it?"

"Heero's body was there! Duo's isn't! If it was then you know I would do what it took to help him. But Duo's body isn't here!" He tried to control it, but this was going to far. He had to accept the truth. "It doesn't have to be all his hair. Duo wouldn't let so much as a pair of safety scissors near his hair! Do you think he'd take it sitting down if someone went at him with a pair or real shears? And the blood on the shirt was real, Quatre. That was Duo's blood. The shirt was soaked in it. And you saw the tape. You saw were most of that blood came from. And you HEARD his skull CRACK when she hit him. Now tell me. What else should I think?" He leaned over the blonde, fairly shaking with all the emotions pouring through him.

Quatre bit his lip, processing Trowa's words carefully, before he narrowed his eyes. "If he was dead, they could've taken all the shears they wanted to his head! If it had been any of us you wouldn't give up! You wouldn't! We can't just sit here, twiddling our thumbs, just because of some stupid video! Heero lived after self detonating, you... I never gave up on you after.. after Wing Zero..." His voice dropped, but the anger was still in the words, in his eyes. "Yet, you give up. Just like that." Quatre's voice faltered as he thought back to those violet lifeless eyes on the screen. He had felt them then, he knew inside they were there, but not Duo. But he couldn't give up on his friend, he just couldn't.

"I'm not giving up. I'm accepting something that is out of my control. Understand me?" Trowa gripped the blonde's shoulders and shook. "Duo is dead. You said yourself that you couldn't feel him anymore." He paused, closing his eyes a moment before he continued. "Heero is watching the tape again for some sort of clue as to who this new enemy is. And maybe he can figure out where the package came from so we can retrieve the body. Then we have to focus on this new threat."

The blonde placed his arms on Trowa's in a defensive manner. "DUO." Quatre glared at him. "Not body. Duo."

"Try again. Do you feel him? Is Duo still there?" He gripped tighter and looked hard into Quatre's eyes. "Is Duo still there, or are you just trying to convince yourself of what you want to hear?"

Quatre turned his head to the side, feeling the tears blurring his vision. He already knew the answer, knew Trowa was right, but he couldn't accept it. He didn't want to accept it. He pushed back on Trowa's grip, trying in vain to shove the other pilot backwards "Shut up."

Trowa stood his ground. "You know the answer yourself. You don't have to say it out loud." He released the pilot's shoulders and folded his arms across his chest. "What concerns me more than Duo is that his gundam is now in someone else's hands."

Quatre's mouth dropped open in shock before he narrowed his eyes dangerously at Trowa. Before he even knew what he was doing, he hauled back a fist and punched the taller pilot, before he stood panting, shock registering on his face. It dawned on him what he had done as he backed up a step, voice shakey and low. "T-Trowa?"

Trowa staggered back, surprised at the force of he blow. "Hard to accept the truth, isn't it?" He rubbed his jaw and watched Quatre carefully.

The blonde flinched at his words and bowed his head, reaching a hand out towards him. "Trowa, I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Trowa walked past the hand and went to look for Heero. Maybe he could use another set of eyes on the tape.

Quatre pulled his hand back to him in shock as Trowa walked past him, not even glancing at him. He looked up into the face of Wufei who shook his head. "We need your assistance. Pull yourself together, Winner." With that he followed after the taller pilot, leaving Quatre alone, staring at his hand.


nalamacleod: Zero is pretty twisted, that's for sure! Her background will be reveal the further through the chapter we get as she starts to open up to Duo. I think you'll be a shocked as he is, but her training was similar. Thank you for your review! We got it and and celebrated it togther. :D I hope you enjoyed ch. 3 as much as we did writing it.