Duo Hensoo Shite
(Conclusion)
-------------------------
Sally watched the boys through the small window in the door. Every now and again, she'd see one of them come up and peer in at her and the figure which lay in the bed on the far side of the room. Her gaze turned back to that one then, and she walked over to check on her patient. God, there was no telling what was going through the minds of the others. They obviously hadn't known... otherwise Trowa wouldn't have gone through such pains to keep them back during that critical time. The Deathscythe pilot was stable at last, but it had been touch and go until just a few hours ago. No visitors were being allowed just yet, not until Duo regained consciousness. Once that happened, then they would see about visitors.
Outside in the waiting room, Quatre paced back and forth, pausing at the door every third or fourth pass. He couldn't sit still, not now. Not while a friend was in danger. This wasn't like the normal danger though... they couldn't just sweep in and come to the rescue... not against injury like this. If it were any other enemy, it would have been annihilated, but how could you fight something like this?
"Quatre, if you don't sit down, I'm going to tie you to the chair." Heero glanced up at him, the cobalt eyes shining from beneath the ridge of dark bangs. The Wing pilot didn't seem to care about the look of shock on the blonde's face... nor did he care about the narrow gaze from Trowa. "Pacing isn't going to help him. It's only going to get you worked up and it's going to make the rest of us want to strangle you." He forced back a faint smirk as the Arab pilot finally found a seat, and he went back to his own musings. At least out here, he was in control. What was going to happen later, though? Nothing had ever caught him offguard the way Trowa's little 'talk' had earlier.
Trowa had been as pale as a ghost, but that was the only outward sign that there was something wrong. As he spoke, Heero had felt every part of him grow cold. How could they have been so deceived? Quatre was speechless, and Wufei was obviously going over everything in his mind to the point of repetition. But none of them had expected Trowa's words.
"She's going to be fine."
Duo had lied to them this entire time. No, Heero thought with a faint smile. Duo did many things, but lying wasn't one of them. He was pretty certain that if any of them had ever gotten the wild idea to just up and ask if he was a girl, the answer would have been 'yes'. The only problem with that logic was that one had to wonder exactly how drunk one of them would have had to have been to even THINK about asking that question. However, even though they'd been told about Duo's little 'secret', Heero couldn't bring himself to call the Deathscythe pilot anything except 'him'. Likely, it would just take time to get used to. But then again... if Duo had gone through all of this until now, letting everyone believe he was male... why would he even want anything to change at all?
"Duo's awake... and asking for you all."
Heero's thoughts were interrupted by Sally's voice, and he was on his feet before he even realized it. Quatre and Trowa were the first ones into the room, followed closely by Wufei. Heero stopped next to Sally, letting the door slip closed before turning to her. "Is he..."
Sally just smiled, nodding her head softly. "Duo knows that the cat's out of the bag. I think that's why all of you were asked to go in."
* * *
"Ne, Quatre! Next time you decide to go off solo, tell the doctors to send backup in advance." Duo grinned from the bed, looking a bit paler than any of them would have liked. The worst part was that it made the bruises that littered the pilot's body all the more visible.
Quatre just smiled, moving over and hugging Duo gently. "Thank you... I didn't get a chance to tell you that out there."
"Don't worry about it, that's what we're here for, right?" Duo stiffened faintly, not quite comfortable with the contact, even though it was pretty obvious from the looks the other pilots were giving that Sally was right. They knew.
Wufei was the first to speak up after that, and his blunt question seemed to break a lot of the tension in the room. "So just how long were you planning to keep this a secret, Duo?" Once the words were spoken, it was like the room took on a different feel to it completely. Quatre perched on the side of the bed, looking to Duo with concern while Trowa stepped a bit closer. Wufei was on the other side of the bed... but Duo tensed for a moment as realization hit. Heero wasn't here...
"Where's..."
"I'm right here, baka." Cobalt eyes met widened violet as the door closed behind the Wing pilot. "Now... I think you were about to answer Wufei, ne?"
Duo smiled faintly, nodding. This would be much easier with all of them here. This way things wouldn't have to be repeated later. "Well... to be honest, I wasn't planning on saying anything at all. After the war's over, we're likely going to go our seperate ways, after all. Quatre's got his family, Wufei's got his colony. The chances of us sticking together are slim to none." Duo looked up with a smile then, catching all four gazes one after another. "If any of you had found out I was a girl, what would you have done on our missions? Would you have let me fight or would you have tried to protect me?"
The silence was the only answer she needed. Slender hands gripped the edge of the bedsheet as Duo dropped her gaze. "Exactly. I'm still the same person I've always been, nothing has changed except your perceptions of me."
None of them had an answer for that. Quatre looked away, his fingers toying with the edge of his shirt. Trowa kept his gaze passively neutral, but he was thinking heavily, that much was obvious. Wufei's eyes had dropped until he was staring at the floor near the bed... only Heero remained locked on the figure in the bed. "So now what will you do?"
Duo looked up with a faint smile, a hint of the former wildcard of the Gundam pilots. "Same thing I've always done. We fight so others don't have to."
Heero simply nodded, then turned and walked out the door. No anger was evident in his motions, and Duo wondered if maybe the Wing pilot had taken this bombshell a lot better than any of the others had.
* * *
Duo moved through the safehouse with a bit of spring in her step. It had been a very long while since she'd felt THIS at ease. Now that the other pilots knew, there wasn't really much point to keeping things hidden, and she'd actually taken to dressing more like a girl. Dresses and skirts were out of the question... no matter HOW things may have changed, she'd never been one for going quite that far. However... the tight denim shorts she wore and the green tanktop she'd rifled out of Heero's drawer had been more than enough to give Wufei a nosebleed the moment she'd walked out. This was proving to be fun!
"Morning, Duo!" Quatre waved to her from the kitchen and she grinned, turning to head his direction. "How are you doing today?"
"Alright, I suppose. Seen Wufei?" The combination of that particular question and the look of innocence that she was trying to put up alerted Quatre immediately to the fact that something was going on here...
"Um... no. Don't tell me. You're the one behind the rash of nosebleeds he's had over the past couple days."
One hand was brought to her chest in a display of mock indignation and Duo's violet eyes widened perceptibly. "Me? Oh Quatre, how could you think I'd do something like that?"
The Arab just laughed, shaking his head faintly. "That's what I thought. Anyway, I don't know where he is. Might want to check near the Gundams, I know that's where Heero and Trowa are."
"Great, thanks!" Duo reached around him then, grabbing an apple from the table and waving as she bounded out the door, the familiar long braid disappearing around the corner a few seconds later. Quatre just shook his head and went back to making lunch for the group of them. It had been three weeks since Duo was released from the hospital, and she seemed to have recovered nicely in that time. No missions had come in, and all of them were getting antsy, wondering when the next would come. Surely the doctors would have heard about the events of the last mission... wouldn't they?
* * *
"HEE~RO!"
The Japanese pilot winced inwardly, his eyes narrowing as that familiar toned call came echoing across the clearing. They'd put the Gundams under the cover of trees, but the area around it was clear enough that they could get out in a hurry. He turned, half expecting to see long blonde hair flowing behind the running figure. His hand tightened around the wrench he held as it was revealed to be a long chestnut braid instead. "Duo... k'so."
Duo just grinned, skidding to a stop next to him and offering one of the apples she'd filched. "Snack? Where's Wufei?" Her smile was infectious, and Heero had to stop himself from responding. It was then that he realized exactly what the other pilot was wearing, and he sighed faintly.
"Why were you into my clothes again?" No wonder Wufei'd been hiding out in Nataku. This kept up and most of the blood in his body would have escaped through his nostrils by dusk.
She just blinked innocently, bringing her arms out to her sides and twisting faintly so that she seemed to look over her own shoulder, inspecting herself. The tanktop had been tied just above her navel, and Heero couldn't quite help it as his eyes followed the curves of her body. No wonder she'd always kept covered up. Shaking himself out of THOSE thoughts, he barely caught the tail end of Duo's sentence. "...thought it would look nice. And besides, it's summertime and my clothes are black. It's hotter than hell in long sleeves and pants this time of year, you know."
"You're going to ruin the shirt."
Duo rolled her eyes, biting into one of the apples and tossing the other to him. She wasn't disappointed when he caught it neatly in one hand, his eyes still locked to hers. "Oh please. You wash it, it'll be good as new." She stopped then, bringing up one hand and picking at the collar of the shirt, lifting it to her nose. "You DO wash these things, right? You don't just buy them in bulk and throw them away when they're ready to walk to the washer on their own?"
"Hn."
She grinned as he turned and stalked back to the Gundams. Tag. Score: Duo 1, Heero 0. Her cheerful expression faded, however, when she saw his destination. It wasn't to his own Gundam that he was going, it was to hers! She saw Trowa's head peer out from the hatch and knew they were talking, but was too far away to hear. Didn't matter... she was too furious to think straight as she moved towards them. "And just WHAT the hell do you two think you're doing to Deathscythe?"
Trowa glanced down, nodding to Duo. "The ECM system was damaged from the fight with the dolls, and there was some structural integrity questions raised because of the way the hatch was pried open. We're just running some diagnostics and structure scans."
She fought to bite her tounge, instead crossing her arms and looking up at the unibanged one. "I ran the integrity tests yesterday. There's minor warping of the hatchway around the left side, it's going to need to be replaced fully to make it airtight again. The ECM system is fully functional, I put the finishing touches on it this morning before anyone was up, and the rest of the systems are up and running fine."
He just nodded, glancing to Heero for a moment as if for back up. Heero just turned to Duo, his eyes impassive as always. "We were just making sure..."
"Making sure of WHAT?" Duo was furious now, the violet eyes glinting dangerously in the sunlight. "You two have NEVER second guessed my repairs before, why would you start now?"
"But--"
"But, nothing."She slid her glare to the hatch, her voice dropping to a near growl. "Trowa, you have ten seconds to get your feet on the ground and out of my Gundam. As for you, Mr. Perfect Soldier... so help me if I find out this has ANYTHING to do with the fact that I'm not the 'flyboy' you thought I was, I'm going to strangle you with your own spandex while you sleep!" With that, she began climbing up to the hatch, passing Trowa as he was heading down. Duo didn't even spare him a glance, not wanting to make an already bad situation even worse.
As Trowa moved to stand next to Heero, they both watched the Deathscythe take off, neither even bothering to sheild their eyes from the wind it kicked up. "Heero, I think she's pissed."
"She can be pissed all she wants to be. Not my fault that the others never caught us doublechecking the Gundams til now." He bit into the apple he'd been given, then turned towards the Sandrock, grabbing the toolkit on the way.
"Should we have told her? I mean, it's not like we singled her out... we just happened to be working on hers at the time."
"Do you really think it would have made any difference?"
* * *
Duo just went... she didn't know where exactly it was that she was going, but it had to be better than down there. Anger still drove her, and her knuckles were white where they gripped the controls of Deathscythe. Who in the hell did they think they were? It was bad enough that Quatre treated her like some kind of china doll every time she set foot around him, but at least the others didn't seem to be acting too differently towards her. Now to find out that Heero and Trowa didn't even trust her judgement when it came to her own damned Gundam...
A faint snarl formed on her lips as she brought up the scythe, letting it rip through nothing but air. This was frustrating, to the point of making her want to tear something apart... and she didn't even have a battle to concentrate on. It was hard to believe that of all the pilots, WUFEI was the only one who's opinion hadn't changed of her. Unless you took into account the fact that she now annoyed him even more. She couldn't help but smirk at that... just when Wu had thought things couldn't get any worse, his main antagonist turned out to be an onna.
Duo was jarred from her reverie by a sharp beeping coming from the console in front of her. Blinking, she looked down, moving her fingers over the buttons to allow the message to come through. A mission? It had been a while, that was for certain. When she saw the instructions, and the destination, she sucked in a breath, her face going pale.
* * *
Heero stretched languidly, half closing his eyes as he walked back to the safehouse. He was starting to get a bit edgey, Duo hadn't been back yet and no word was received. It had been hours, and the sun had set long ago. It wasn't like the Deathscythe pilot to be gone this long when nothing was happening.
"Heero!" Then again... maybe something had happened. He looked up to see Quatre bolting across the lawn, his face filled with concern. "Heero, something strange is happening with Duo."
"What do you mean?" His brow furrowed faintly as he came to a stop, letting Quatre come to him.
"There was noise coming from her room and I went in to check. It was her laptop, and the message was right there..."
He couldn't stop himself. He reached forward, grabbing Quatre's shoulders and nearly shaking him. His voice was almost a growl as he fixed the blonde with a frigid cobalt stare. "What... message?"
Quatre's eyes went wide and he caught himself stamering at first in an attempt to regain his wits. "It was from Doctor G. It wasn't a mission, it was an order. To return to L2 with Deathscythe immediately."
If there was anything more to the message, Heero never heard it. Something told him that this was just not right... that he had to get there before Duo did. How long ago did Duo get the orders? Was she already halfway there? There was no telling... assignments didn't have timestamps on them and Duo had been out most of the day. K'so...
Wing Gundam took off, leaving a cloud of dust and three anxious pilots in its wake. All Heero could do was pray that he could get to L2 faster than the shuttle Duo would have had to take.
* * *
Duo walked through the corridor, her heels clicking with a hollow sound against the metal. It had been a while since she'd been back here, and now it seemed that this was the one place she'd least like to be. The shuttle trip hadn't been very long, L2 wasn't that far from the side of earth that the safehouse had been on. Still, it was a heinous trip, having to be constantly on guard for OZ's troops. They'd just love to get their hands on a Gundam... and its pilot.
As she stepped into the expanse of the bay where Deathscythe had been built, Duo found herself narrowing her eyes faintly to adjust. The light in here was dimmer than the hall had been... unusual, to say the least. A sudden shifting of air, the noise made by another person in motion made her spin around, looking vainly into the shadows. When the voice came, she couldn't even judge its direction.
"From your attire, I can gather that my information was correct."
Doctor G. Duo narrowed her eyes, one hand reaching towards the small of her back.
"Don't even bother. Remove it and put it on the ground."
Damn. Not having much of a choice, she pulled the pistol out from the waist of her shorts, holding it with two fingers by the barrel and letting it drop to the ground with a clatter. "I take it that this isn't the normal mission, is it?" Stall... think of something... anything.
"You should know better than that." Footsteps approaching, but from where? She moved to turn but was stopped cold by his voice. "Don't move. Don't even turn around."
"What kind of game is this, Doc?" She kept her arms out to her sides, the rogueish smile coming to her lips easily, even though her heart was hammering in her chest. "If this is about the damage to the Deathscythe on the last mission, I can expl--"
"This isn't about the Deathscythe, this is about you. You knew the rules when you first started your training, did you not?" The footsteps had stopped, and Duo let her head bow forward faintly as a soft sigh escaped her lips. So this was what it all came down to. "I had made myself very clear before you ever left for earth. Are you going to forget those orders now, for the simple sake of convenience?"
"No." The one rule that had been laid down at the beginning. Never show weakness in any form. A female in battle would be viewed as a target... a weak link in an otherwise stable chain. That was what she'd had drilled into her head from the moment she'd first laid eyes on the Gundam Deathscythe. All she could do was close her eyes as she heard the sharp click of a pistol being readied behind her and felt the cold barrel against the nape of her neck.
"Mission... failed."
(Conclusion)
-------------------------
Sally watched the boys through the small window in the door. Every now and again, she'd see one of them come up and peer in at her and the figure which lay in the bed on the far side of the room. Her gaze turned back to that one then, and she walked over to check on her patient. God, there was no telling what was going through the minds of the others. They obviously hadn't known... otherwise Trowa wouldn't have gone through such pains to keep them back during that critical time. The Deathscythe pilot was stable at last, but it had been touch and go until just a few hours ago. No visitors were being allowed just yet, not until Duo regained consciousness. Once that happened, then they would see about visitors.
Outside in the waiting room, Quatre paced back and forth, pausing at the door every third or fourth pass. He couldn't sit still, not now. Not while a friend was in danger. This wasn't like the normal danger though... they couldn't just sweep in and come to the rescue... not against injury like this. If it were any other enemy, it would have been annihilated, but how could you fight something like this?
"Quatre, if you don't sit down, I'm going to tie you to the chair." Heero glanced up at him, the cobalt eyes shining from beneath the ridge of dark bangs. The Wing pilot didn't seem to care about the look of shock on the blonde's face... nor did he care about the narrow gaze from Trowa. "Pacing isn't going to help him. It's only going to get you worked up and it's going to make the rest of us want to strangle you." He forced back a faint smirk as the Arab pilot finally found a seat, and he went back to his own musings. At least out here, he was in control. What was going to happen later, though? Nothing had ever caught him offguard the way Trowa's little 'talk' had earlier.
Trowa had been as pale as a ghost, but that was the only outward sign that there was something wrong. As he spoke, Heero had felt every part of him grow cold. How could they have been so deceived? Quatre was speechless, and Wufei was obviously going over everything in his mind to the point of repetition. But none of them had expected Trowa's words.
"She's going to be fine."
Duo had lied to them this entire time. No, Heero thought with a faint smile. Duo did many things, but lying wasn't one of them. He was pretty certain that if any of them had ever gotten the wild idea to just up and ask if he was a girl, the answer would have been 'yes'. The only problem with that logic was that one had to wonder exactly how drunk one of them would have had to have been to even THINK about asking that question. However, even though they'd been told about Duo's little 'secret', Heero couldn't bring himself to call the Deathscythe pilot anything except 'him'. Likely, it would just take time to get used to. But then again... if Duo had gone through all of this until now, letting everyone believe he was male... why would he even want anything to change at all?
"Duo's awake... and asking for you all."
Heero's thoughts were interrupted by Sally's voice, and he was on his feet before he even realized it. Quatre and Trowa were the first ones into the room, followed closely by Wufei. Heero stopped next to Sally, letting the door slip closed before turning to her. "Is he..."
Sally just smiled, nodding her head softly. "Duo knows that the cat's out of the bag. I think that's why all of you were asked to go in."
* * *
"Ne, Quatre! Next time you decide to go off solo, tell the doctors to send backup in advance." Duo grinned from the bed, looking a bit paler than any of them would have liked. The worst part was that it made the bruises that littered the pilot's body all the more visible.
Quatre just smiled, moving over and hugging Duo gently. "Thank you... I didn't get a chance to tell you that out there."
"Don't worry about it, that's what we're here for, right?" Duo stiffened faintly, not quite comfortable with the contact, even though it was pretty obvious from the looks the other pilots were giving that Sally was right. They knew.
Wufei was the first to speak up after that, and his blunt question seemed to break a lot of the tension in the room. "So just how long were you planning to keep this a secret, Duo?" Once the words were spoken, it was like the room took on a different feel to it completely. Quatre perched on the side of the bed, looking to Duo with concern while Trowa stepped a bit closer. Wufei was on the other side of the bed... but Duo tensed for a moment as realization hit. Heero wasn't here...
"Where's..."
"I'm right here, baka." Cobalt eyes met widened violet as the door closed behind the Wing pilot. "Now... I think you were about to answer Wufei, ne?"
Duo smiled faintly, nodding. This would be much easier with all of them here. This way things wouldn't have to be repeated later. "Well... to be honest, I wasn't planning on saying anything at all. After the war's over, we're likely going to go our seperate ways, after all. Quatre's got his family, Wufei's got his colony. The chances of us sticking together are slim to none." Duo looked up with a smile then, catching all four gazes one after another. "If any of you had found out I was a girl, what would you have done on our missions? Would you have let me fight or would you have tried to protect me?"
The silence was the only answer she needed. Slender hands gripped the edge of the bedsheet as Duo dropped her gaze. "Exactly. I'm still the same person I've always been, nothing has changed except your perceptions of me."
None of them had an answer for that. Quatre looked away, his fingers toying with the edge of his shirt. Trowa kept his gaze passively neutral, but he was thinking heavily, that much was obvious. Wufei's eyes had dropped until he was staring at the floor near the bed... only Heero remained locked on the figure in the bed. "So now what will you do?"
Duo looked up with a faint smile, a hint of the former wildcard of the Gundam pilots. "Same thing I've always done. We fight so others don't have to."
Heero simply nodded, then turned and walked out the door. No anger was evident in his motions, and Duo wondered if maybe the Wing pilot had taken this bombshell a lot better than any of the others had.
* * *
Duo moved through the safehouse with a bit of spring in her step. It had been a very long while since she'd felt THIS at ease. Now that the other pilots knew, there wasn't really much point to keeping things hidden, and she'd actually taken to dressing more like a girl. Dresses and skirts were out of the question... no matter HOW things may have changed, she'd never been one for going quite that far. However... the tight denim shorts she wore and the green tanktop she'd rifled out of Heero's drawer had been more than enough to give Wufei a nosebleed the moment she'd walked out. This was proving to be fun!
"Morning, Duo!" Quatre waved to her from the kitchen and she grinned, turning to head his direction. "How are you doing today?"
"Alright, I suppose. Seen Wufei?" The combination of that particular question and the look of innocence that she was trying to put up alerted Quatre immediately to the fact that something was going on here...
"Um... no. Don't tell me. You're the one behind the rash of nosebleeds he's had over the past couple days."
One hand was brought to her chest in a display of mock indignation and Duo's violet eyes widened perceptibly. "Me? Oh Quatre, how could you think I'd do something like that?"
The Arab just laughed, shaking his head faintly. "That's what I thought. Anyway, I don't know where he is. Might want to check near the Gundams, I know that's where Heero and Trowa are."
"Great, thanks!" Duo reached around him then, grabbing an apple from the table and waving as she bounded out the door, the familiar long braid disappearing around the corner a few seconds later. Quatre just shook his head and went back to making lunch for the group of them. It had been three weeks since Duo was released from the hospital, and she seemed to have recovered nicely in that time. No missions had come in, and all of them were getting antsy, wondering when the next would come. Surely the doctors would have heard about the events of the last mission... wouldn't they?
* * *
"HEE~RO!"
The Japanese pilot winced inwardly, his eyes narrowing as that familiar toned call came echoing across the clearing. They'd put the Gundams under the cover of trees, but the area around it was clear enough that they could get out in a hurry. He turned, half expecting to see long blonde hair flowing behind the running figure. His hand tightened around the wrench he held as it was revealed to be a long chestnut braid instead. "Duo... k'so."
Duo just grinned, skidding to a stop next to him and offering one of the apples she'd filched. "Snack? Where's Wufei?" Her smile was infectious, and Heero had to stop himself from responding. It was then that he realized exactly what the other pilot was wearing, and he sighed faintly.
"Why were you into my clothes again?" No wonder Wufei'd been hiding out in Nataku. This kept up and most of the blood in his body would have escaped through his nostrils by dusk.
She just blinked innocently, bringing her arms out to her sides and twisting faintly so that she seemed to look over her own shoulder, inspecting herself. The tanktop had been tied just above her navel, and Heero couldn't quite help it as his eyes followed the curves of her body. No wonder she'd always kept covered up. Shaking himself out of THOSE thoughts, he barely caught the tail end of Duo's sentence. "...thought it would look nice. And besides, it's summertime and my clothes are black. It's hotter than hell in long sleeves and pants this time of year, you know."
"You're going to ruin the shirt."
Duo rolled her eyes, biting into one of the apples and tossing the other to him. She wasn't disappointed when he caught it neatly in one hand, his eyes still locked to hers. "Oh please. You wash it, it'll be good as new." She stopped then, bringing up one hand and picking at the collar of the shirt, lifting it to her nose. "You DO wash these things, right? You don't just buy them in bulk and throw them away when they're ready to walk to the washer on their own?"
"Hn."
She grinned as he turned and stalked back to the Gundams. Tag. Score: Duo 1, Heero 0. Her cheerful expression faded, however, when she saw his destination. It wasn't to his own Gundam that he was going, it was to hers! She saw Trowa's head peer out from the hatch and knew they were talking, but was too far away to hear. Didn't matter... she was too furious to think straight as she moved towards them. "And just WHAT the hell do you two think you're doing to Deathscythe?"
Trowa glanced down, nodding to Duo. "The ECM system was damaged from the fight with the dolls, and there was some structural integrity questions raised because of the way the hatch was pried open. We're just running some diagnostics and structure scans."
She fought to bite her tounge, instead crossing her arms and looking up at the unibanged one. "I ran the integrity tests yesterday. There's minor warping of the hatchway around the left side, it's going to need to be replaced fully to make it airtight again. The ECM system is fully functional, I put the finishing touches on it this morning before anyone was up, and the rest of the systems are up and running fine."
He just nodded, glancing to Heero for a moment as if for back up. Heero just turned to Duo, his eyes impassive as always. "We were just making sure..."
"Making sure of WHAT?" Duo was furious now, the violet eyes glinting dangerously in the sunlight. "You two have NEVER second guessed my repairs before, why would you start now?"
"But--"
"But, nothing."She slid her glare to the hatch, her voice dropping to a near growl. "Trowa, you have ten seconds to get your feet on the ground and out of my Gundam. As for you, Mr. Perfect Soldier... so help me if I find out this has ANYTHING to do with the fact that I'm not the 'flyboy' you thought I was, I'm going to strangle you with your own spandex while you sleep!" With that, she began climbing up to the hatch, passing Trowa as he was heading down. Duo didn't even spare him a glance, not wanting to make an already bad situation even worse.
As Trowa moved to stand next to Heero, they both watched the Deathscythe take off, neither even bothering to sheild their eyes from the wind it kicked up. "Heero, I think she's pissed."
"She can be pissed all she wants to be. Not my fault that the others never caught us doublechecking the Gundams til now." He bit into the apple he'd been given, then turned towards the Sandrock, grabbing the toolkit on the way.
"Should we have told her? I mean, it's not like we singled her out... we just happened to be working on hers at the time."
"Do you really think it would have made any difference?"
* * *
Duo just went... she didn't know where exactly it was that she was going, but it had to be better than down there. Anger still drove her, and her knuckles were white where they gripped the controls of Deathscythe. Who in the hell did they think they were? It was bad enough that Quatre treated her like some kind of china doll every time she set foot around him, but at least the others didn't seem to be acting too differently towards her. Now to find out that Heero and Trowa didn't even trust her judgement when it came to her own damned Gundam...
A faint snarl formed on her lips as she brought up the scythe, letting it rip through nothing but air. This was frustrating, to the point of making her want to tear something apart... and she didn't even have a battle to concentrate on. It was hard to believe that of all the pilots, WUFEI was the only one who's opinion hadn't changed of her. Unless you took into account the fact that she now annoyed him even more. She couldn't help but smirk at that... just when Wu had thought things couldn't get any worse, his main antagonist turned out to be an onna.
Duo was jarred from her reverie by a sharp beeping coming from the console in front of her. Blinking, she looked down, moving her fingers over the buttons to allow the message to come through. A mission? It had been a while, that was for certain. When she saw the instructions, and the destination, she sucked in a breath, her face going pale.
* * *
Heero stretched languidly, half closing his eyes as he walked back to the safehouse. He was starting to get a bit edgey, Duo hadn't been back yet and no word was received. It had been hours, and the sun had set long ago. It wasn't like the Deathscythe pilot to be gone this long when nothing was happening.
"Heero!" Then again... maybe something had happened. He looked up to see Quatre bolting across the lawn, his face filled with concern. "Heero, something strange is happening with Duo."
"What do you mean?" His brow furrowed faintly as he came to a stop, letting Quatre come to him.
"There was noise coming from her room and I went in to check. It was her laptop, and the message was right there..."
He couldn't stop himself. He reached forward, grabbing Quatre's shoulders and nearly shaking him. His voice was almost a growl as he fixed the blonde with a frigid cobalt stare. "What... message?"
Quatre's eyes went wide and he caught himself stamering at first in an attempt to regain his wits. "It was from Doctor G. It wasn't a mission, it was an order. To return to L2 with Deathscythe immediately."
If there was anything more to the message, Heero never heard it. Something told him that this was just not right... that he had to get there before Duo did. How long ago did Duo get the orders? Was she already halfway there? There was no telling... assignments didn't have timestamps on them and Duo had been out most of the day. K'so...
Wing Gundam took off, leaving a cloud of dust and three anxious pilots in its wake. All Heero could do was pray that he could get to L2 faster than the shuttle Duo would have had to take.
* * *
Duo walked through the corridor, her heels clicking with a hollow sound against the metal. It had been a while since she'd been back here, and now it seemed that this was the one place she'd least like to be. The shuttle trip hadn't been very long, L2 wasn't that far from the side of earth that the safehouse had been on. Still, it was a heinous trip, having to be constantly on guard for OZ's troops. They'd just love to get their hands on a Gundam... and its pilot.
As she stepped into the expanse of the bay where Deathscythe had been built, Duo found herself narrowing her eyes faintly to adjust. The light in here was dimmer than the hall had been... unusual, to say the least. A sudden shifting of air, the noise made by another person in motion made her spin around, looking vainly into the shadows. When the voice came, she couldn't even judge its direction.
"From your attire, I can gather that my information was correct."
Doctor G. Duo narrowed her eyes, one hand reaching towards the small of her back.
"Don't even bother. Remove it and put it on the ground."
Damn. Not having much of a choice, she pulled the pistol out from the waist of her shorts, holding it with two fingers by the barrel and letting it drop to the ground with a clatter. "I take it that this isn't the normal mission, is it?" Stall... think of something... anything.
"You should know better than that." Footsteps approaching, but from where? She moved to turn but was stopped cold by his voice. "Don't move. Don't even turn around."
"What kind of game is this, Doc?" She kept her arms out to her sides, the rogueish smile coming to her lips easily, even though her heart was hammering in her chest. "If this is about the damage to the Deathscythe on the last mission, I can expl--"
"This isn't about the Deathscythe, this is about you. You knew the rules when you first started your training, did you not?" The footsteps had stopped, and Duo let her head bow forward faintly as a soft sigh escaped her lips. So this was what it all came down to. "I had made myself very clear before you ever left for earth. Are you going to forget those orders now, for the simple sake of convenience?"
"No." The one rule that had been laid down at the beginning. Never show weakness in any form. A female in battle would be viewed as a target... a weak link in an otherwise stable chain. That was what she'd had drilled into her head from the moment she'd first laid eyes on the Gundam Deathscythe. All she could do was close her eyes as she heard the sharp click of a pistol being readied behind her and felt the cold barrel against the nape of her neck.
"Mission... failed."