For The Grace of Knights and Angels
By Doctor Megalomania
Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Fine Balance
"Once… some idiot fired a single shot… and change the course of history"
Heero's sword clashed against Solo's, bright sparks flying away from both in a massive arch. The two fighters span away from each other, twisted and returned to strike at the other in the time it took to draw a breath. Heero's cool mind compared fighting Solo to fighting Zechs, in the Eypon. There were emotions flying between them that went deeper than just the Earth. It went deeper than Honour, or Love. It was deeper than Hatred, or Immortality.
This was about obsession.
"You can't have him!" Solo snarled at Heero, "Damn, you he's mine! He's always been mine!"
"You were a part of his life." Heero replied, biting back his own fury, "Now he has moved on! So should you!"
"Fuck you!" Solo swore, "You were never there! You never found him! I was there for him, through everything!"
"I was there with him when Gundam—"
"Fuck your Gundam!" Solo spat furiously, "You think some fat machine makes you more important than me! I'm his, he's mine… you don't fit anywhere into this pattern!"
"Duo has moved on!" Heero roared, striking out, "YOU WERE DEAD!"
"And now I'm back!" Solo span to dogde his attack, "And very soon… you'll be dead and forgotten!"
This was about winning the most important person in both their lives.
Heero span away from Solo and dropped like a stone, flying toward the sand in a deadly fall. He spread his wings at the last moment, and sliced over the sand, flying away from Solo. He knew that the other was following him, and – despite having no formal raining as a pilot – was able to pull of the maneouver just as effectively. There was something about Solo that made Heero wonder. Something about his eyes that drew his attention. Solo's was a burning cold blue, just as Heero's was. They were sharp, and it seemed that Solo knew Heero's moves.
Almost as if he were using the Zero system.
"Come back here, coward! You can't run from an L2 street rat!" Solo jeered after him, "We're the fastest damn things alive!"
Heero frowned as he pulled up short, and twisted to the right. He came around in a wide arch, and shot up into the air so he could dive bomb at Solo. The other wasn't quite ready for him, and Heero scored a slice to Solo's arm. The other didn't cry out though, merely he narrowed his arms and seconds later, managed to score a similar cut to Heero.
"You think you can defeat me?" Solo taunted, "I'm older, faster, and I will win him back."
Heero narrowed his eyes, choosing to remain silent. He wouldn't waste his breath taunting an enemy, he would rather spend his time concentrating on winning this battle. It was more than just a phsycial battle; the wrong move could lead to his defeat. Heero had to concentrate.
The two were evenly matched, both as good as the other, both as determined. They stared at each other as they fought, barely displaying an expression. It was as if, they were fighting their mirrored image. Solo's hair may have been a touch longer, and Heero was perhaps a little younger. However, there was no denying their similarities…
It was all in their eyes.
Doctor J stared out of the window, watching the battle.
He ignored everything that was happening behind him. He was too lost in his memories, too lost in his worry for Heero. Despite all he had done to the boy in the past, there was still some love deep in his heart for the child that had replaced his own grandchildren. The Alliance had not been happy when Jōdan and the rest of his team had fled. When the five Gundam scientists had heard that Heero Yuy, the pacifist had been killed and the Allience wanted to use their TallGeese for a weapon of mass distruction, the scientists had come to the terrible realisation that they were going to be held responsibly for the destruction of the colonies.
Jōdan didn't want that. None of them did.
So, they had fled. They'd taken their families and run away. Jōdan had taken his daughter, and her husband, Touya Liu, to L1. Their small family was far too much at risk. Young Heero with his messy brown hair, and little Yukito, were far too small to understand what was going on. Why they couldn't stay on the Earth. Why they had to leave everything, even Heero's favourite blanket, even Yukito's teddy bear, in the middle of the night and had to race away. Yukito was barely old enough to travel, but thankfully, Howard had swallowed his anger against Jōdan long enough to help them out and smuggle them onto separate shuttles.
His grandchildren.
Doctor J swallowed, his old mechanical joints and robotic arm clacked. He'd paid dearly for refusing to build Gundam for the Allience and for Romafeller. The massive armies had been furious when all six of their leading scientists had disappeared without a trace. The order had been issued to track them down and their families and have them slaughtered. Jōdan had never found out who'd given the order, who signed the death warrant for his daughter, her husband or for his small, beautiful grandsons.
The fury that had been born of the dark days, where each of them had slipped from his grasp, had carried him well for these years.
The boy now known as Heero had not been named for the pacifist.
He had been named for the young grandson, the one barely old enough to count to ten.
Little Heero Liu.
The little boy had been named for the great colony leader by his inspired mother.
It had always been because of his eyes.
"You have good eyes…"
Odin Lowe could still remember the moment, burnt so brightly in his mind.
The sight of Heero Yuy's bright blue eyes widening as the bullet entered his head. Odin's memory had erased the crosshairs from the image, and had just left it as plainly as if Odin had stood before Heero Yuy himself and shot with a handgun into the man's head. He could never forgive himself, for the moment. The moment where he - a mere OZ solider, acting on the orders of some faceless Romafeller leader – destroyed all hope for the colonies of peace with Earth.
Odin had quit OZ after that mission.
He could never forgive himself as he ran, from colony to colony, unable to ever return to the Earth.
So it was that he found himself on a shuttle to L2 from L1. It was going to be a fateful trip, and one he thought he entirely deserved. At first he thought the masked OZ solider was here for him.
He was amazed when the solider didn't even blink, and aimed straight at the sleeping woman beside him. Her baby was still wrapped up in her arms. She looked exhausted and immediately, Odin knew he wasn't the only one running away from Romafeller on this trip. It took a split second for him to decide, but Odin went for the emotion that said "SAVE HER!"
He couldn't save her.
He moved too late to take down the OZ assassin, but he gave her baby a second chance. As he struggled with the assassin, the gun went off three more times. It killed the hostess, the only other passenger on the flight and blew out one of the windows. When Odin had finally snapped the assassin's neck, he moved the body toward the cracking window and grabbed the baby.
Odin didn't look back, didn't check the woman. He knew she was dead. He barrelled down to the escape pod, and escaped just in time. The shuttle had exploded just moments later, taking all hands down. Odin remembered vividly the moment when the baby had opened his eyes. A bright electric blue, just like Heero Yuy's in the moment when Odin had pulled the trigger.
The baby was oddly quiet, as if it didn't realise that his little life had taken a dramatic turn. As if he didn't realise that his mother was dead, and that the ex-OZ solider that was holding him had no bloody clue how to raise a boy, let alone find his family. Odin gave some thought to dumping the child back on L2, maybe in that old church that had taken him in during his drifting.
But it was the baby's bright blue eyes that had changed his mind.
"Live by your emotions."
Solo could still remember his father.
A little bit.
There was another man, an older man. Solo had always thought that this was his grandfather. But mostly, Solo remembered his father. His father had been blonde, with really bright blue eyes. Solo struggled to remember his mother, only that she had taken a different shuttle to them. She had taken his baby brother too. He remembered the little baby, because Solo had been told to protect him.
He remembered the day when his father had forgotten to come home, and when the soldiers had come to his house. They had broken in the windows and they had torn out all the drawers. Solo had run away from the house on that day. It wasn't really their home; it was just a place that their grandfather had been using to hide them in. Solo had gotten lost, and very soon forgot all about returning back to the house.
Solo even forgot his real name.
However, as he fought against the Gundam knight, Solo wondered why this boy was so… like him. His blue eyes were so determined; they reminded him of the Kid's. Those bright purple eyes that had so much going on behind them. Solo gritted his teeth as the knight pulled off another move. He couldn't let himself be distracted, Duo's life hung in the balance. Duo had to keep living, and if he went with this other boy, Duo would die.
Duo belonged to Solo, and when their battle was over, they would rule the Earth together, just like they had ruled the streets of L2. Solo had been the one to bring him up, to protect him just like he should have been able to protect his little brother. They had grown up together, learning life on the streets, learning the real value of a good fight, the ability to run was more precious sometimes than water. When Solo had been dying, he felt like such a failure. He couldn't bear to let it happen again, he was fighting because he needed to protect Duo.
The darkness had offered him the chance to do that.
And if it cost the Earth, then so what? What had the Earth ever done for Solo? What had anyone but Duo done for him? Duo and Solo belonged together and the darkness had promised him the chance to bring that about again. All that stood in his way were four very misguided knights, and Duo… Duo who had been seduced by the wretched Knight of Mercy. Solo couldn't tell if it was their similarities that burnt him more, the fact that Duo had picked someone who looked so much like him, or the fact that this idiot Knight thought he honestly had a chance to defeat Solo at his own game. Life and death was Solo's thing. He'd been caught out once, and only once by Death. Solo was determined never to let that happen again.
Heero would fall by his sword, and Duo would finally be his once again.
Solo fought harder than he'd ever fought in all of his life, and he knew the boy before him was fighting just as hard.
He knew this because it was in the other boy's burning blue eyes.
"Hey, are you lost? Well, are you?"
Touya's bright blue eyes burnt as he weaved their car through the traffic at breakneck speeds.
"Touya! Slow down!" Jōdan grabbed the dash board, "God sake's man; do you want to get yourself killed?!"
Beside him, the blonde man who'd married his daughter shook his head, "God damn it, Jōdan, they killed her! They must know where we're living! They must know that Heero's at home!"
"Yes!" Jōdan snapped back at him, "but getting yourself killed as well if going to do Heero fuck all! Isn't it?!"
They had just found out that Yuki, and the little baby, Yukito had been killed on the shuttle. Now, they were racing back to their house in the hopes that Heero would be safe. They never arrived…
"You're wrong… I'll make him the best pilot we ever had."
The bright light woke him, confusing him as he tried to move. His eyesight was compromised, blurry. He struggled to focus, and he really only knew what he was looking at by staring for a very long time. He couldn't move his arms, and couldn't feel his legs. Jōdan woke up in a hospital bed, with Gerald staring grimly at him. Professor G shook his head, "Oh, Jōdan, I'm so sorry..."
Gerald went onto explain. The car had been slammed into by a black transit van, the driver of which had driven off without checking to see what had happened to the poor men trapped in the mangled car.
Touya's death didn't really surprise him. The speed that they had been travelling at had been so great, that Doctor J was surprised that he had survived. Touya Liu had been a brilliant mobile suit pilot, and certainly Jōdan always hoped that some of that skill had been placed into his son's along with their mother's intellect. Jōdan knew it was cold hearted of him to pressure his daughter into marrying the man, but Touya had turned out to be a very loving and caring husband to his beautiful and intelligent daughter. Howard had been furious, his love for Yuki had been great, but he was a scientist, not a brilliant pilot.
Howard had always disagreed with Jōdan's methods.
Even though Touya's piloting skills had been brilliant, nothing could had stopped them from crashing.
However, it was Heero's disappearance and the news that the Allience had ransacked his home that broke his heart. Heero had been such a bright boy, such a beautiful grandson. Yukito was going to be just like his older brother, Jōdan had been so sure.
And now they were both gone!
Jōdan remembered the fury that boiled up in him; Gerald had nodded as he swore on his daughter's honour, on her husband's, and his blessed grandsons, that he would get revenge for them. Gerald had understood it all, and when Jōdan had finished raging, Gerald introduced Jōdan to a representative of the Barton Foundation. The Barton Foundation had a plan, something they called Operation Meteor.
With his grandsons' beautiful blue eyes burning in his memory, Doctor J signed onto the plan and agreed to build Gundam for the Barton Foundation.
"Gundam is a symbol of peace! Not a bringer of death!"
Heero and Solo broke away from their encounter and landed on the sand.
They stared at each other, the mirror image of the other.
There was so much more here than just their fight to the death, and yet, all they could think of was their love for Duo. Heero threw away his shield, just as Solo did. They knew that this fight would not be settled like this. They were far too evenly matched, too focused on the battle. There was a flash above them, and the pair looked up.
Across the sand, Heero heard Solo curse.
Above them, the Sessou cannon had been fired and only Quatre stood between them and obliteration. The Knight of Time had frozen time to stop the cannon's impact. It was a shock to realise that only they were currently out of the frozen time. Heero looked around; beside him his shield was frozen in the air. Beyond it, Wufei was on his knees and his hands were folded behind his head.
Solo looked over to Trowa Barton and the Knight of Beasts. Both men stood opposite each other, frozen sand flying up around them. A pair of arrows, dark and light, flew toward the other. In this frozen moment, Solo could already see who would win.
Together, they looked to Duo and found that their hearts stuttered.
Duo lay upon the ground, clutching at Father Maxwell. The priest stood over him, the broken blade of his scythe clutched in one hand. Duo's silver scythe was stuck in the ground, out of the Knight of Death's reach. Duo was in serious trouble. Heero and Solo looked to each other. A moment.
They could see it in each other's eyes.
Duo was going to die if they did not break off their fight.
The Earth would be destroyed if they did not break off their fight.
It was not a battle, they realised, between each other.
It was a choice.
This had always been a choice.
"Heero? Oh, you're asleep… You act like a machine when you're awake, but when you're sleeping you look almost… Human."
Doctor J had been walking the streets of a colony at L1. There'd been some talk of a boy who could fire a gun.
The solider that had led the assault on the Alliance facility and almost killed General Septum, had been killed in the battle, but the boy who'd been seen with him had disappeared. J was looking for the boy; he had a feeling that he could be trained to pilot the awesome machine that was called Gundam. When he did finally find the child, he was startled by the incredible similarity the boy had to Heero, his grandson. It had been the boy's eyes that sealed it for J. The bright burning blue that speared straight the soul. J couldn't leave him. He couldn't leave the child to keep walking the streets, could leave him. Couldn't leave this child that looked so much like his young grandchild.
The boy's fate was sealed.
"You've got a good set of eyes."
J took the boy aside, and spoke to him about missions, guns and peace. The boy was trained; the boy was made into a brilliant weapon and a perfect solider. He was the colonies' revenge. They asked J to codename the boy something that would mean a lot to everyone. However, the old scientist who was known only as Doctor J to the boy, remembered his daughter, she had loved Heero Yuy.
His ideas of peace meant so much to her.
Doctor J named the boy after the pacifist for the colonies.
But in his heart, he named the boy after his daughter's first son.
Heero.
It had been the boys' eyes that always meant so much, and this young weapon, this perfect solider had the same coloured eyes, the same intensity, the same incredible dedication that Touya had always had when he piloted his suits, the same incredible intelligence as his daughter, Yuki. In the end, it was the eyes that turned J's heart against Operation Meteor. When he saw the boy standing there with a gun against his head, prepared to die for his mistake, J had realised that he was about to let his grandsons down again.
This boy was their living incarnation in his heart; he couldn't let the boy go to his death.
As he looked at the boy, he realised that he was betraying his daughter's love of peace as well. So, he changed the boy's mission. He'd made a choice, to turn his back on his fury and his past… and to embrace the future.
"But is wiping out humans on the Earth what Heero Yuy would have wanted?"
The boy codenamed Heero Yuy stood, torn between his love and the planet. His life or his mission. He turned to Duo, and threw his sword away. He knew what to do. Beside him, Solo made his decision and kicked away from the sand. Like a shadow, the dark knight of cruelty made his own choice. Heero grit his teeth, and prayed that Solo would be in time. "Aishiteru." Heero whispered, as he too turned and kicked away from the sand.
Heero spread his pure white wings and flew towards Quatre, as the knight of Time shifted his concentration and time on the Earth resumed.
He closed his eyes and prayed that Solo would reach Duo in time.
"Aishiteru, Duo."
"I killed her. That little girl. I didn't mean to… I'll never kill again."
DrM: Crikey, I was almost too late with this one. Sorry for the hold up, but Heero was being really unco-operative. I'm hoping this chapter makes as much sense as I think it does. You see, I've been dropping hints all along - very small ones - regarding Heero and Solo's relationship. I wonder if anyone saw it coming after all...? Please review and let me know what you think?