Dark Wolf 10

By Max

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, or Star Trek

Warning: Supporting character death

Heero dropped down from the loft, watching Duo stare at an old fashioned percolator coffee pot. There were a couple of MREs on the counter. There were so many things about him that were exactly the same. The colors in his braid, soft brown, deeper dark forest, threads of golden, and if Heero were being purely objective, there were a few strands of gray that ran the length. So it wasn't really the same. His Duo, the one he remembered holding as if it were last week, well, there hadn't been any gray in his braid, not even the faintest hardest to see silver, but it was still the same braid, The frequency of hair crossing was about the same length, always a little looser at the top, a little tighter at the bottom, done by the same hands, almost like a signature that just hadn't changed. It didn't matter if the ink was a little more distinguished.

The way he stood was the same, feet about shoulder width apart, right toes pointing out, heel lifting every few breaths as if some part of Duo were dancing to music not even he could hear. There had always been that fidget to him, a different kind of fingerprint. His ass was bigger, but in a more muscular way, but still the same curves, just stronger.

Heero's mind went to the last time they'd made love, which he realized would have been so long ago for Duo. Even as he remembered sliding his hand between those cheeks, remembered watching Duo's mouth part, his eyes dilate a little more, remembered feeling as if Duo were the complete center of his world, he also felt the cold emptiness of Duo's years between that moment and this one. The magnitude of his own error in judgement hit him and even though he hadn't thought he'd made a sound, Duo looked over his shoulder.

Violet eyes, darker and irritated glared at him. "What the hell are you looking at?"

Heero smiled, feeling the edge of his being return. "You."

Duo turned, hands on his hips, nose wrinkling. His lips moved rapidly, but very shallow movements.

For a moment, Heero wasn't quite sure what was going on, then he really wanted to know how long Duo had lived alone. "Take the sublingual off. I can't hear you."

The huff went out of Duo and for just a moment there was Heero's younger Duo, slightly lost and confused about half of everything, but never slowing down in any case. The flash of unguarded lasted a couple seconds, before innocent crumpled to defensive anger. He shoved his thumb under the little silver tape and pulled it free, which he then rolled into a crumpled ball between his fingers. "You're supposed to be resting."

"And you've gotten used to telling people what to do," Heero said, moving to take a look at Duo's coffee pot and supplies. "Why don't you have any food in your house, Duo Maxwell?"

"What'cha mean by that," Duo said, trying to keep his accent to a minimum. "Getting you to rest is just a reasonable choice."

"And the woman you were arguing with?" Heero said, filling the metal coffee pot with water from the tap.

"She's my assistant," Duo said, stepping back to let Heero make the coffee. "She's getting corrupt as hell, but without her the replicator portal doesn't work, so no coffee, no breakfast."

Heero watched Duo, soaking in this new Duo, this strange helplessness. "Where's your stove, Duo?"

"Uh, ain't got one," Duo said, scratching the back of his neck.

"No refrigerator either," Heero pointed out. "Is that woman your wife?"

"Oh god no," Duo sputtered, "Heero... she's not a woman. She looks like one, but she's just a computer program. Everyone has them now. They're really useful. I've had Merlin a lot longer than most people keep them active. I'm sentimental, I guess. Sometimes she just gets a little out of control. She'll calm down."

"She is not just software, anymore than Zero or Deathscythe were just machines," Heero said, taking the coffee pot towards the door.

"Well, but they were," Duo said, following, "Heero, I know when we were kids, we thought they were more, but that was just us being... you know, we were just traumatized kids."

Heero arched an eyebrow. "You've lived alone too long, Duo. Where do you make a fire outside?"

"Yer gonna make coffee over a fire?" Duo asked, incredulous.

"It's not the first time, won't be the last," Heero said. "Miss Merlin, can you hear me?"

The head of the Cheshire Cat appeared, grinning with great big teeth. "Of course."

"Very good," Heero said, "What are you?"

He set the coffee pot down on Duo's steps and started looking for rocks to make his fire pit. Barefoot, in just his uniform pants, Duo set about helping, looking for kindling and wood, a rock to put in the center.

The image of Cheshire dropped like flowing sand into her typical Merlin form. "I am a type 53, fully integrated personal assistant, developed and distributed by Winner Intelligence Corporation."

"Very nice," Heero said, arranging the wood and starting the fire. "Will you please project a neural scan of Duo Maxwell's brain."

"Okay," she said hesitantly, but then there was a scan of Duo's brain, looking like any other human brain, more or less.

"Please adjust to display just neuronal connections, color coded by region and function."

"Okay," she said, crossing her arms, in a rather Duo like fashion, lips pursed.

"Next to that, please display the basic initialization of a type 53's neural network, color coded similarly."

She tapped her foot, chewed her lip, hesitating.

He squatted by the fire, tending it. "You saved my life, Merlin. I mean you no harm."

She rolled her eyes, and the basic template appeared, much smaller, simplified.

"One more, if you please, Miss Merlin. If you could please display your current neural network, same scale as the others, please."

The next image filled the clearing by Duo's cabin, extended into the forest around it, glittering with fireworks as actions happened in various regions of the network.

Duo's mouth dropped open, a hand reaching out to touch the pretty lights, as he slowly turned around, taking in the size and glittering activity. "Shit, Merlin. How the hell?"

"Miss Merlin," Heero asked as he paid careful attention to the coffee pot. "Are you in love with Duo?"

"No!" She said, blushing. "He's my father!"

That was Duo's chance to drop his lower jaw. "Shit, Merlin." Duo sat down on the steps, wanting a whiskey now way more than he wanted a coffee. "I'm a little overwhelmed. Okay, fuck, a lot overwhelmed."

Heero left the coffee pot and went to squat down in front of Duo, taking his limp hands in his, holding them tenderly. "It seems to me that being awake needs some recovering too. Let's just see where we go, uh?"

"Yeah? Baby," Duo said, the endearment rich with emotion, with his own need to protect, his desire to be protected, a bit of bubble as he slipped under the surface, "it's just gonna be you, me, and that other Heero that's on his way here."

"Other Heero?" Heero said, calculations going off in blue eyes.

Duo shrugged. "He called. He's coming. He sounds like Heero, just like you do."

Heero stood up, rubbing his forehead. "Miss Merlin, am I a clone?"

Panic passed over Merlin's face and she shifted to the Spock skin that Duo had asked for, looking like a young Leonard Nimoy. "There is not enough evidence to rule it out, but it is unlikely. Does the question have some impact that I am not taking into account?"

Heero shrugged. "Do I present any danger to Duo?"

"Other than boiling his coffee over and scorching a pot he's never used before, I don't think so," Spock/Merlin said without emotion.

"Would be possible, please," Heero asked, "To connect a video call to the other Heero?"

"I will attempt this connection," Spock/Merlin said, tilting his head. "He states he is pulling to the side of the road for the call."

"Oh no," Duo said jumping up, hands out, "This is a bad idea!" Suddenly full of too much energy, no different than he'd been as a teenager, Duo ran around Heero, actually jumped for a moment, hands waving, "I mean! It's just crazy! You can't just call him up and talk to him!"

Heero's nose twitched and he felt a twinge of pain in his temple. "You mean - what if we explode like matter meeting anti-matter?"

"Yeah!"

Heero covered his eyes with his hand, groaning. "You said you went to medical school! Be rational."

At that moment a screen with the other Heero appeared. He stared at Heero. Heero stared at him. Without emotion, those blue eyes looked into each other.

"That's just creepy as fuck," Duo said, his hair tangled and clinging to his face, long braid hanging down his bare chest, hands up like he could just push all the weird away. "It's like you're talking without speaking!"

Both of them turned to look at Duo, the screen shifting to be a hologram of the other Heero, in his black leather pants and jacket. Heero, who was still wearing the clothes Duo had given him, just stared at Duo. At exactly the same moment, they both tilted their heads to the right.

Duo pointed at them with both hands. "Oh man, that is super creepy. One of you is a clone, you know that, right?"

"So," first Heero said, "What difference does that make. "With two of us, we'll be better able to protect you."

Leather wearing badass Heero nodded. "I concur. I see no issues with there being two of us. Duo, please tell me what worries you?"

"Wull," Duo stuttered, "What about the soul? Do you each half half of it or something?"

"He said he was a doctor," First Heero said.

Black leather Heero shrugged. "Records say he was a very skilled trauma surgeon until the wolf virus."

"Hey," Duo snarled, jabbing his finger at them. "Don't you talk about me like I'm not right fucking here! I'm the fuckin' sheriff! I don't need no one protectin' me!"

Their left eyebrow arched, then they both got that little smile that Duo loved. He smacked both hands to his face. "Oh my god!"

"Well, perhaps you'd be interested in some help preventing a second coming of the Wolf Virus," Holographic Heero offered.

Duo's chin tucked towards his chest, upper lip subtly sneering in disgust, "That shit isn't coming back. Tell me what you know."

"I will arrive in three hours. I'll share everything at that time. In the meantime, please be cautious."

"I'm always cautious," Duo said defensively, arms folded over his chest.

They both stared at him.

"I try to be cautious!"

First Heero, smiled just a little, looked at his twin. "He's lived alone for a long time."

"Understood," Yuy agreed. "You were first. You be Heero. I'll be Yuy."

"That's acceptable," Heero agreed.

"Oh this is just too damn much," Duo snapped. "You think I'd be okay if there were two of me?"

"Well, there aren't, so that is not an issue," Yuy said playfully, amused. "I am going to resume my trip. Stay safe." The hologram disappeared when Yuy closed the link.

"What the actual fuck," Duo whispered, sinking down to a squat by the neglected fire and boiled over coffee. "I've lost my fucking mind."

Heero squatted down behind him, a hand tentatively resting on Duo's back and rubbing gently when the touch was accepted. "Just don't think about it too hard. Sometimes the world just is the way it is."

Duo rubbed his temples. "This is gonna take me a minute to work out," Duo said. "Merlin, can I have some breakfast now, please?"

"Come inside," she said. "I'll make breakfast."

Heero kicked dirt on his fire as Duo walked inside. How was there a world where Duo couldn't cook for himself, not even a little?

Felicity stirred the pot of sauce, with a great big wooden spoon, just as her grandmother had done. It was thick and sweet, the sausage and ground beef harmonizing in the spaghetti sauce. "Jose!"

"Yes, Mama," Jose said, being his very best self after having gotten in trouble for harassing Sheriff Maxwell. Someday, when he was grown up, he was going to report on things and never get yelled at.

"I'm going to the garden," she said giving him a stern look. "That doesn't mean you should be on websites you shouldn't be on or that you should be investigating people's personal lives. Do we still understand each other?"

"Yes, Mama. The Sheriff is a publically elected figure. It's the public's right to know," he said, voice trailing off as she glared at him. "I'll work on my history report, only."

"Good," she gave him an encouraging smile. "You can still work on your newspaper, Jose, but you need to leave the sheriff alone. He's done a lot for this community. He was a war hero. He deserves to have his privacy."

Jose nodded, but he was thinking about the responsibilities of a journalist. He was also thinking about not wanting to lose his computer for a week. "Yes, Mama."

She put the lid back on the spaghetti sauce and reached out to ruffle his hair. "Now don't be like that. You're going to be a great journalist, when you grow up. You can message him and ask him and his guest to come to lunch, please. I'm making his favorite."

"I tell him, Mama. I'm a good journalist now," he said, pouting slightly.

"Yes, you are, but even Peter Parker had an editor. For you, I'm your chief editor."

"But Mama," he said, giving her the big puppy dog eyes. "It's an important story!"

"And it's one you're not going to tell. I'm telling you to leave the sheriff and his boyfriend alone. Please, just let this one go. Can't you just write some story about pirates or spaceships?"

He sighed, shoulders rising and slumping. "Okay. Fine. But if like next week, he'll give me an interview will that be okay?"

She bit her tongue, held back her frustration, and gave him a smile. "We'll talk about it next week, if you leave it alone for this week. Okay."

He gave another dramatic sigh. "Okay."

"Good," she said, giving him a bigger smile. "You can go get an ice cream sandwich out of the walkin, if you want."

"Okay," he said with more enthusiasm. "The spaghetti smells good."

"It's going to be my best," she said, smiling much brighter. "I'm going to the garden to get some fixings for salad."

"Okay," he said, but he was already off after his ice cream.

Felicity picked her basket, feeling that everything was right with the world. Out the back door of the cafe, her grandmother's garden flourished in the same pattern it had when she was a little girl. The sun was high in the sky, not noon yet, but warm and welcoming. She started with the tomatoes, happily eating the first one. It was a good life, safe, and peaceful.

The wolf's shadow darkened the leaf crops, but she didn't see it until she turned. The basket hit the ground. Her sandal stuck in the warm dirt and she left it, feeling the same warm garden under her bare feet, then her face as she fell, then nothing at all as the great jaw made rubble of her neck.