Disarmament

comet01

A special thanks to Miroku for making me take another look at this story! It is certainly worth continuing, although my writing has gotten worse over the past year (since I haven't been doing it). I'm sure the people that followed this story have long forgotten it, but this is just a short chapter to see if I'll be able to realistically continue (and finish) this story.

Chapter 4: Reunion of Enemies and Allies

Duo stood in disbelief, jaw dropped. Quietly, he sat down next to Heero and put his feet up. He closed his eyes.

Heero winced. "You're not curious anymore? That's not like you. I thought you would put up more of a fight than that."

"Nope, I've learned that, sometimes, giving up is the better route when I'm dealing with you. Nighty-night Heero, I'm gonna try and get some sleep before this big mystery mission I have."

Content to have Duo silent for the duration of the flight, Heero let him sleep. Heero himself would carefully monitor the entire trip, but that would not stop him from turning his thoughts to the loss of Hilde. 'I can't have you being dead weight. We're just going to have to find her. Her wishes make no difference to me.'

'I hope you all understand how vital your roles are in this mission. If we don't succeed in eliminating this threat, we cannot predict the consequences.'

'Understood, Lady Une. I've already done some preliminary scouting. Now we have to find Duo and inform him of the situation.'

'Very good. I'll be expecting you to complete this before things get out of hand there. I don't need you getting noticed.'

'Right. And if we don't find him?'

'Proceed as planned. You'll just be on your own then, Heero.'

'Very well.' This ended communication with Lady Une.

'Everyone got that?'

'Yes, but I think we should come up with a plan before we leave. Since you still have Zero, why not ask it what our best course of action is?'

'Agreed. Quatre, you take Trowa and WuFei. Go find Duo. I'm going to stay up here until I hear from you. Then I'll come and intercept Duo. Then the mission will commence.'

Heero turned his attention again to Duo, still motionless and sound asleep. 'When I asked Zero what it would take to survive this mission, it didn't show an image of you, Duo. And it didn't show me a mobile suit, either. It showed me Hilde. That's why we have to find her. Because until we do, I won't know what our real handicaps are. Without that, we're not going to make it.' Heero's fleeting thoughts suddenly came to a stop. He blankly stared into the cosmos for a split second, emptying his mind of the war, the bloodshed he had caused, and the continuous risks he had taken in his life. He packed a gun into his pocket, focused on the ship's course and the upcoming danger, and paid no attention to Duo's

unrest:

'Heero, you did it! It's all over now. And now that we destroyed the Gundams, we won't be targets anymore!'

'That's unlikely. We'll remain to be targets as long as people have arms. But we'll be able to protect ourselves, that should be good enough. I doubt we'll be fighting much more, at any rate.'

'Yeah, I suppose you're right. But at least it's safe for us to be around the people we care about, right?'

'If you're talking about Hilde, I'm sure that you'll be able to live with her without putting her in too much danger. I would still be careful if I were you, though; I, for one, know that I'm still a danger. I'll stay away from anyone I want to keep alive. Even if we're not soldiers anymore, and even if we're ready to live as civilians, it's up to the world to accept us again. That's the risk we've taken in remaining inconspicuous, even if it was necessary for our survival.'

Duo reached out to him, but his hand went right through. 'What the hell? Heero, where are you?'

'I won't risk it.'

Suddenly, Duo was no longer walking on the ground, clouds lay below him. 'Risk what? You're obviously not talking about me, I can put up a fight!'

'I know. That's why I need to do this. So you won't hurt her.'

'What? Where are you?' Free falling brought no fear, only confusion. Any attempt to track Heero's voice was in vain, until he discovered another form.

'I've left the conscious world, Duo. If you want her safe, you'd better come too.'

'What? No!'

'Very well.'

The ground became visible at a distance, and he was still falling. Duo closed his eyes calmly, understanding Heero's message, and did not interfere.

Duo woke up in a start after the dream finished, but chose to keep his eyes closed. He was sure that Heero would notice that he woke, but hoped that Heero would see this act for what it was, a desire not to talk. Heero would do just that, until he prepared the ship for landing. "Duo, we've arrived. Wake up."

Following Heero's aching lead, Duo slowly got up, stretched out, and put one foot forward. When taking his first step on Mars, he immediately noticed the reduced gravity. 'Wow, I can't believe how light I feel here. After all of that time spent in a mobile suit, this is kind of nice.'

The scenery was captivating, with all of the natural beauty of the earth, without any of the roads, buildings or traffic noise. Plant and animal life were already adapting to life, as he tracked a pair of rabbits crawling into a hole under a tree. The nature had a cleansing effect on his soul, similar to the stars on Heero. He knelt over to examine a bed of tiger lilies when Heero joined him.

"I was impressed when I first came, too. They've made a lot of progress in six years. They've already finished construction in some areas."

"So you've already been here?"

"When I received the briefing for the mission, that's the only time. This park is particularly close to where our contact point is, so it might give you a distorted view of the entire project."

"Our contact point?" Duo sighed. "Right, we have a secret mission, almost forgot. By the way, when were you going to tell me about that?"

Heero was absentmindedly feeling through a patch of grass. "There'd be no point in telling you now."

"Why not?"

"Because we're already here." A door opened in the field, leading to an underground room. "You first."

Duo jumped in, and Heero quickly followed. They were quickly greeted in the dark room by a strong presence.

"Heero, how very nice to see you. I see you brought a friend, too."

Heero calmly stepped forward, gaze narrowing. He deftly pulled the gun out of his pocket, let go, and watched it crashed to the floor. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't kill you, Zechs."

Duo stared in disbelief. "We're working for him? You're kidding, right? I mean, this guy..."

"Tried to kill us all, got that." The statement wasn't particularly sympathetic, but was rather made out of annoyance. "I'm not even going to lie to you and say that he's not a threat anymore. What I will say is that we need him and he needs us. So don't do anything funny."

Duo was desperate to protest, but fell silent. "Duo, I realize that you have your reasons to be suspicious of this mission. To be clear, we are not allies. Rather, we are working toward a common goal. I hope this does not make you uncomfortable." Zechs stood from his makeshift throne and held out his hand.

"Oh no, I'm not shaking anyone's hand until I know what's going on here. I may have come for free, but I only work for a price."

Zechs remianed calm and retracted his offer. "Very well, I wasn't aware that you weren't informed. Duo, Noin and I have been running the terraformation here over the last six years. We've progressed quite a bit, as you can see. However, we've had some recent problems that we are unable to deal with on our own. Over the last several weeks, workers have been disappearing. In all, over 500 people are currently missing. If that isn't enough, none of their bodies have been found, and the only private plane entering or leaving over this time period has been your own ship. We need assistance to find the cause of this, but we also realize that, if this became public, that we would not receive any more funding. You Gundam pilots are inconspicuous and thorough, so it only seemed natural to come to you first."

Duo slowly took it all in. Eyes widened, heart racing, he trembled uncontrollably. His vision began to swirl rapidly, the world becoming a place of undefined blotted colors. As he attempted to take a step back, he felt gravity pulling him down with an unfounded strength. His body was falling, with nowhere to land. 'What's wrong with me? Why is this happening?' In desperation, he reached out with his arm, and felt something. He gripped it tightly, as if life itself was slipping away.

"Duo, Duo...pull it together." The voice came from Heero, pulling Duo up by his outstretched arm. Zechs calmly took a step back and decided to leave the two to themselves. Although Duo still felt nauseous, there was finally definition in the environment. "You didn't want to have to do anything like this again. I was the same. You're not falling and my voice still has a body."

Duo slowly let go of Heero's arm and remained standing. "That happened to you too?"

"Yeah." Heero took a minute to evaluate his companion. "You're ready to go. Come on, we're going to see Noin. We'll come up with a plan, and hopefully we'll be out of here. Got that?"

"Alright, I'm following you, Heero."