Bishi Pile Challenge: Challenge response to Shadow and Anger Minor to Word count: 1,517

Series: Friends 21/??

Author: Karina

Pairings: Zechs

Ratings: M 15[In Australia Rated in the event of bad language and violence.

Archive: Under the name kt at Gundam Wing Universe at Wing Diaries http://www.gundam-wing-diaries. I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters. That's the way it is.

Warnings: Not a death fic despite how it starts.

Chapter 21

"What you said yesterday. About Epyon."

Blue eyes lifted from the fire, centreing on him with the arch of an eyebrow. The mind behind those eyes had been a long way away from the cabin in the mountains, and it seemed to take a moment before Marquise recognized his surroundings.

"Epyon? What did I say?"

Duo rubbed his hands together, presenting them to the fire to bathe in the warmth. He was not cold; it was a gesture that offered comfort to the growing unease.

"It was while I was waiting for you to regain consciousness. I was rambling on and I thought you were out of it at the time. I don't always do well in silences, especially if I am not comfortable with my surroundings, and I definitely do not like blizzards. I was talking to hear a friendly voice, I guess, and I was saying about how Zero lied, and Epyon lied too. Next thing I knew you were saying no, Epyon didn't lie. It told the truth."

"Ah." The breath of a whisper and blue eyes shuttered. "Yes. Epyon."

Uncertain if the man was merely deep in thought or suffering some effect of his injuries, Duo had hoped by making the observation he might initiate conversation. For the last hour or so, since Marquise had woken and his physical needs attended to, the blonde had descended into a worrying period of what Duo fervently hoped was nothing more than silent brooding. His efforts at conversation had earned a grunt or two, and he was sure the man had not heard a word he said.

Something deeply buried within Dup stirred, wary and alert. It was an old reaction, an instinctive response triggered by the proximity to trouble. It was different to his awareness which had initiated his presence here, despite all sensible argument to the contrary. He had come to rescue a man who might not have needed rescuing, on the strength of something intangible, something he had felt before and had proven to be a viable concern.

That familiar itch, the driving need was not this unease now stirring. What he sensed now he knew on an instinctive level was danger from a source close at hand. The more he watched the blonde the more certain he was the man was becoming dangerous. Anger. There was growing anger in the big blonde and despite his physical condition it would be a mistake to discount his competence.

It felt disturbingly like his worst brooding moments, when his darkest thoughts surfaced to torment him, and he must explode into violence to release some of the pressure. There was anger, a deep building rage that would fester and brew until it must burst. Duo knew this danger, and it was not he who was the source of the impending violence.

L2 survival instinct.

Marquise out weighed him and was stronger, though given their situation he would hardly be at full strength. He would be honest in his assessment and give the man the same respect he would give to one of his fellow Gundam Pilots. When they were wounded and seemingly without hope, they were at their most dangerous.

If Marquise snapped it would not be pretty.

But the man had been mannerly, very approachable, a good conversationalist and outright friendly until this last hour. Duo had his dark moments and he could understand the self torture to be found within them. He was not exactly afraid of Marquise, but he was afraid of the need to act physically against a man who already was injured. He had come to rescue him, not fight him to a standstill until the anger dispersed and sanity returned.

"Yeah, well?" He could not afford to let the silence lengthen; he needed to get the man talking.

Given where Marquise had walked he could imagine the horrors he was capable of perpetrating. His hands had been steeped in blood for years, and when he thought dark thoughts they would be dark indeed. Duo was certain he needed to work on lightening the atmosphere, on distracting him with a common interest. He was not certain about the memory of that moment as Marquise had rejoined the land of the living, but it offered at least the chance to talk.

One thing they had in common was mobile suits.

Given the man he had glimpsed before this moment, it was tragic that circumstance had shaped the colder, darker persona, warping the gentler, intelligent man he had witnessed. Marquise was intelligent, possessed courage and bravery, and a will to improve the lives of those around him, no matter the cost to himself. There was only so much one could give in this fashion, before the darkness covered one in shadows and anger. Marquise would have been a very different man had tragedy not visited his childhood, casting him onto the road he now walked.

The blonde head tilted to one side and Marquise seemed to shudder. A delicate trembling, shuddering through his entire body, and it had nothing to do with the cold. There and gone in the blink of an eye, but Duo saw and recognized it. His timing had been impeccable and he had intervened before Marquise could submerge himself in the dark.

There were more nightmares than those you dreamed.

"I generally make it a rule not to discuss Epyon."

The husky voice was low, neutral, giving him the opportunity to chance the subject. Duo knew the blonde would welcome a change of subject; mobile suits were a part of the darkness, and Epyon could probably be considered the darkest moment of all.

"I like talking about Scythe. I miss him." The admission came easily to Duo. "He never seemed to be just a Mobile Suit, you know? He was more a friend."

He would not specifically mention Epyon, unless Marquise gave him an opening. They could talk mobile suits, or just about Deathscythe, so long as the silence was filled and Marquise was distracted.

"You were fortunate to find the bond with the AI unit."

THE bond, Duo noted, not A bond. Nor was Marquise humouring him before telling him he let his imagination run rampant. Marquise had experienced it then. The question was, Duo knew, with which suit?

"Yeah. Guess I was, but I wasn't the only one amongst the pilots to form a bond with an AI. We all were aware of the personality in the suits."

Pale lashes lowered, a flimsy shield against the eyes watching and seeing more than he was comfortable with. "I always found it amusing the designers disclaimed the existence of a personality in the AI system of the advanced Mobile Suits."

Duo snorted, not yet beginning to relax, but aware the tension in Marquise was easing.

"Yeah. G kept telling me to grow up and stop imagining things. It was a computer program, a bunch of circuits on a board and a heap of wires and metal." He interlocked his fingers and found himself smiling into the church steeple he had fashioned. "Here is the church, open the doors, and here are all the people." He sighed, his fingers wiggling in the air. "Damn, it's been a long time since I thought of that. Sister Helen taught me. Silly thing."

"It is the often silly things that hold the dearest memories." The deep voice was quiet and Duo sensed something shift.

Glancing up he shrugged. One minute he was talking to Zechs Marquise and the next he would find himself looking at Milliardo Peacecraft. Which of the two was the more dangerous he did not know, but this man before him now was not filled with the rage of minutes ago. There appeared to be two distinct personalities, though at this moment he suspected there was a third persona, one who was an amalgamation of the two.

This was the man who had told him about the nightmares and how to face them; perhaps how to beat them. He did not know this man's name, but he liked this one better than the other two.

"Shadow games." Duo murmured, looking back at his fingers. "We are avoiding things, dancing around all the time."

"Of course. It is the human condition to avoid the inevitable, for as long as humanly possible."

And while he could avoid the topic of Epyon, Milliardo Peacedcraft and Zechs Marquise, he would. The less he spoke of the Mobile Suit and its unique operating system the better, though he could hardly explain that to the braided young man across from him.

Disturbingly he was aware if anyone would understand it would be a Gundam Pilot. Certainly he suspected Duo would understand his viewpoint, but it was safest not to raise old ghosts.

Shadow days. Living nightmares. Haunting by a machine intelligence not supposed to be able to think beyond mathematical equations.

They had gone through hell and for what?

Given his current occupation he had to ask if humans were so dense they could not learn any lesson and remember it beyond a year or two.

End

Karina Robertson 2007