Duo slept for a good part of the day. Having arrived on a morning shuttle, the sun was still rather bright when the phone rang, causing the sleeping assassin to stir to consciousness. His arm didn't hurt anymore but the disdainfully sharp wrong feeling he had settled in its place. He picked the phone from the bedside table and placed the receiver to his head, half of which was still embedded in the pillow.

"Speak."

"Duo?"

Relena.... Duo sat up immediately though groggily as well. He wiped his sweaty brow with the palm of his hand, "Present, ojou-san."

"Duo, you were supposed to contact me upon arrival. I've been worried that perhaps they'd gotten you too."

"Worried about me?" Duo snickered, "Considering I'm gonna kill you, that doesn't make for a very intelligent concern."

"Considering you may be the only one who can find Heero, I find your safety to be the utmost of importance, next to you actually completing this mission."

Duo took pause, "There's always another assassin out there who can do the job."

"But I don't trust them. I know you and Heero are.. or at least you were, good friends. You wouldn't do anything to jeopardize his safety. There is more hope in me knowing a friend of his is looking for him. More hope he'll come back to me alive."

"Baka," Duo snorted, "Look, I've more pressing maters to attend to. Unless you've got something more to say, I think it's time to say sayonara."

Relena clicked her tongue, "Actually, there was something. I remember who sent Heero the disk."

Hope, strong and sure, rose within Duo's being, "The black disk? Who? Are you sure you remember correctly?"

"Yes. I heard the name on the news this evening. I didn't realize he'd been corresponding with someone of such importance on the Earth."

"Who?"

"Lady Kyldre."

"What?" Duo yawned despite the seriousness the conversation had taken, "What would Miss Anti-evolution want with the guy who mastered the Zero System?

"I don't know." Relena admitted, "I thought perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was a Gundam pilot. The Gundams are the greatest technological advancement in resent history and are developmental war machines, both of which the WBA oppose. Since Lady Kyldre is the leader of WBA.. I thought maybe-"

"You thought nothing." Duo intervened, "Had you been thinking you would have realized that none of the other EX-Gundam pilots have been kidnapped or vanished or whatever. If this were an attack against us pilots then it would have been focused on Quatre. He was our leader during the last battle when we worked together as a team.[1] He also mastered Zero System. To go against Heero and Heero only would be purposeless if the true objective were to dispose of the five of us."

Relena nodded audibly, "I suppose you're right. So why Heero then?"

"Perhaps it's not an attack on him. It could be against you given your distinct possessiveness of him."

"Possessivene-!"

"You know what they say," he implied, interrupting her yet again, "To win the cat you must tag the mouse."

Relena was fuming. He could tell so by the noising breathing and tapping sound of nails on a surface, "Is that your only theory as of yet?"

Duo stood up, stretching out his knotted muscles, "So far. One thing still bothers me though. Is Lady Kyldre is so against technology, why send Heero a diskette? Kind of hypocritical to preach against one thing and go use it when the publics eye is turned," he walked to the fridge and found a basket of fresh-looking fruits left by the previous guest. He took out an orange and began peeling off the skin, "Another thing is, why would she send Heero anything at all? As far as I know, they weren't friends. Not during the war. Have you heard anything about her before this in the past three years?"

"No.. well.. there were the letters."

"The one the disk came with?"

"No. There were seven."

Duo stopped in mid peal, juice trickling down his fingers.

"Seven letters. He.. he started getting them two months ago. It became a weekly thing and a few days after the seventh letter, the disk arrived by special post."

Duo made haste of the remaining bits of peeling, "You sorry bitch..."

"What?!"

"Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?" he asked, trying to keep his temper in check. He didn't need to blow up. She might hang up and of all things that was the least desired of now.

"I didn't think it was that important. Besides, I only just remembered the girls name. Even that information hadn't seemed too important or you wouldn't have left so suddenly." She spat. Apparently, calling someone a bitch was none better than a full out temper tantrum.

"Not important? All right them. Allow me to show you just how unimportant that is." He took his time to suck the flavor out of a segment of orange, letting Relena wait for his explanation. When at last he was satisfied he threw away the remaining slice and began his speech, "Seven letters in the course of a few months. Correct?"

"Yes."

"So in essence, he expected the replies."

"I suppose s-"

"So Heero knew when a letter was coming, expected it and probably expected the disk too. The disk, being our only lead, came on friendly terms. If that's true then Lady Kyldre has nothing to do with his disappearance. It is more advantageous for us to look to her enemies as suspects." He picked up another slice and did to it the same as he had the first, "Now, in all honesty, I want you to tell me that none of that information is of any importance to my mission."

"I..." Relena began to stutter, 'I'm sorry. I hadn't thought-"

"Nope. You sure didn't." he licked his lips and tossed the uneaten but thoroughly drained slice into the trash, "Not a total loss though. I'd still need to come to Manifest eventually."

"You still think Heero's disk is the same one that mutilated your arm?" Relena asked, happy for a subject change.

Mutilated? And the self-esteem meter goes down... "There's more to it than that but yes. Plus, Lady Kyldre can list off her enemies and I'll have a better idea who exactly I'm looking to target."

"So I guess this is it then. The search is really on."

"You sound displeased." Duo noted with some unintended sarcasm.
"It's not that I'm not happy. I want Heero back and I'm not afraid to die. I'm just afraid of absolution. What if Heero's dead? I'd rather hope he's alive then know for sure that he's lying lifeless somewhere where no one even cares he's dead."

"Ojou-san," Duo's voice took on a dark and demanding tone, "If you want me to come back and get my fifteen thousands worth, I will. I'm not about to believe he's dead but if you want to go to hell and look for him there for me, I'd be appreciative for the help."

"No.. Duo. Find him. Please."

"No worries, Ojou-san." Duo hung up the phone without a reply.

He waited till nightfall, some ungodly hour when all the working people set down in their beds and were fast asleep and unknowing of what lurked in the shadows. Dressed to kill, quite literally in both senses of the word, Duo exited the hotel and walked stealthily through the alleyways. Perhaps this mission wasn't as stressing or serious as the ones to come but it was required. If he was going to see Lady Kyldre, her convention would be the appropriate place. And if he was going to go to a convention, he needed something a little dressier than leather. The mall and other stores were too well guarded and though no major sweat for the self-proclaimed Shinigami, the dry-cleaners was much easier to break into and offered just as much of a selection on a good night. Considering the anticipation in the crowds during the daylight hours, everyone was intending to attend. A considerable amount of fine tuxedos or evening slacks would be stocked high upon the racks. Easy pickings.

Duo retreated to the shadows with every sound or movement that was not his own. Noisy teens in a high-speed car cursed by with the radio blasting and exhilarating shouts entrapping the night hours. Duo envied them, their carefree life. Most of those kids couldn't have been much younger than himself. Seventeen, perhaps only sixteen years old. At nineteen, Duo should have been enjoying freedom and peace like them. Duo shook his head and clutched the end of his braid. Some things just didn't turn out the way one would hope it would. And all things had a reason, right? Duo nodded, trying to assure himself before he slipped into self-concern and lost focus on the task at hand. Must steal some wealthy bastards suit for tomorrow nights convention, Duo though repeatedly. It worked sometimes.

Just as his senses returned to the present, a frightening realization hit him.

He was no longer alone in the alley.

"Well... what have we got here?"

Duo turned around, eyeing a tall, brutish looking blonde with calico eyes.

"Looks like a little girl." Another boy remarked, this one smaller in stature but much larger round than the other. As Duo watched, four other men materialized out of night cloak. Their eyes were dangerous.

"Some girl. What are ya sweetie? A 1/4 A cup?" the first man snickered.

"Fuck off."

A new comer arched an eyebrow, "That's no chick, that's a guy!" he stated with amusement, "Look at that braid! What kind of fag are you?"

Duo rolled his eyes, "That's original. Know how many times that one come up in a conversation with bastards like you?" he asked cynically.

"Nope. He defiantly is no chick," a man dressed in black and blood red walked forward, circling Duo though the braided teen kept his eyes on his at all times, "So tell me, Braid Boy, got any cash on you?"

Deciding to take the group on with humor rather than bitch till they either got tired or pounded his face in, Duo smiled, "Money? Have you looked at these pants? There's no room for a wallet in these things."

"Is there room enough for me?" a voice from the back asked. The whole group sank into laughter, the danger in their eyes transforming into hunger.

It doesn't take a soldiers training to know when a situations turns from bad to worse. Duo mumbled select curses from every language he could call to mind and began to step backwards.

"Where ya goin', cutie. We just wanna play with ya for a while."

"I know exactly what you want and like hell you're gonna' get it!" Duo shouted. He took out his gun and showed the boys he meant business. Thank Heero for the tips on how to pull weaponry seemingly from nowhere. The men in the alley shrank back, whispered shouts that sounded like 'he's got a gun' echoing from one mouth to another's ear.

"Put that down, sugar. You're outnumbers and..." the snapping of pistol clips and released safety-locks filled the echoing silence. "I'm sorry to say, out gunned."

Violet eyes searched fleetingly for any sign of pedestrian or open window in the buildings beside for a ray of hope. He'd live two years and gone to die in a gutter never resorting to selling himself and like hell he'd let someone take him when everything was finally going in a semi-normal direction.

That was when the first scream of pain shattered the night. One of the men before him fell to his knees, clutching his head and screaming for mercy. The others turned, looking for the new adversary. With a snap, a neck was broken, with a single shot, a burring hole was left in a man's scalp, with a short gasp, a mans throat was crushed. And Duo stood there, armed, and doing nothing to prevent or aid.

One by one the punks fell down dead, their eyes no longer hungry. Instead they held within them the ache of lifelessness.

Duo snapped out of it, suddenly becoming aware that he may be the next to fall to the mysterious savior. He raised his gun but a quaking beneath the skin of his left arm left the rest of his body paralyzed. His index finger could not more on the trigger. His arm was hurting again. Of all times to ache it chose now. Duo fell to his knees, one eye clamped shut while the other desperately searched out the stranger who now sauntered over the befallen punks on the asphalt.

And Heero Yuy became visible. Dressed in customary green tank top and black spandex shorts, he looked no different then he had in the days of way. His tone was stronger if such could be accomplished, and he had grown considerably. But it was still the boy he had known. But similarities ended there. Duo gasped, not only in pain but in horrifying realization. Metal rings around Heero's ankles, caves and wrists emitted strange blue designs over his skin. The more he looked at the blue marking, the more familiar they looked. Over his eyes he wore a blue tinted visor to which a microphone was connected and linked to his ear. Tussled moss green hair adorned the distinctively Japanese face and eyes that looked older than their years. Cobalt pools looked without recognition at Duo, eyeing him as a hunter eyes a beat in the wild.

"Heero?" Duo asked though it was perfectly clear who he was looking at.

Heero spoke not a word to him, preferring to stair as he dipped down to make sure all his victims were in fact dead.

"Heero.. where the hell have you been? What's on your arms and legs?"

Heero turned and walked away.

"Wait, Heero!" Duo scrabbled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his arm, and chased after his slowly retreating friend. "Heero, do you remember me?"

The Japanese teen stopped, looked him over, then continued walking. No answer of confirmation or denial.

"Heero?!" Duo wanted to shake him, slap him, bring him out of whatever trance he was subject to. Something held him back even as he slowly fallowed his friend.

Finally, Heero stopped. He turned around again, this time, with a sad sort of sorrow clearly shown upon his usually solemn face, "Duo...."

Alarms. Sirens. Churning red and blue lights of the authorities. Duo turned his head to look. Yup. They were heading in his direction. Someone must have heard what had happened. Duo didn't know weather to be relieved or angered. Either way, he had to get the hell out of there before they found him and began questioning him.

He turned back to Heero only to realize he'd disappeared again. The cops were growing closer. There was no time to pursue him. Duo cursed again and ran off towards the drycleaners. He had to get that suit still. There was the conference to go to and answers to ascertain.

Either way, the most important information was already his.

Heero Yuy was alive.