Chapter Five: Regrets
"Where's Trowa?" Quatre's voice was bleak and his face looked pale and gaunt. Meike jerked her head up as the Arabian teenager's face filled her viewing screen.
"Oh, God, Quatre," she said softly. "I'm sorry I'm in here, it's just-"
"Where's Trowa?" Quatre asked louder, his voice taking on a note of panic. "Where is he? Why are you in Heavyarms?"
Meike looked wide-eyed at him for a moment, unsure of what to say. A brief period of silence passed between them, and Quatre turned white.
"I am no longer the Gundam Heavyarms. My new name is Heavymetal Butterfly." The synthetic Gundam's voice spilled out of the speakers after the standard time delay and Quatre nearly choked.
"What have you done?" he asked, huge aquamarine eyes brimming with tears. With startling abruptness, his face disappeared as he cut the connection.
"Oh, dear God." Meike murmured, and rested her head on the control panel of the Gundam.
"What's wrong?" Duo's concerned voice filled her ears and she looked up with sorrow on her face.
"Quatre just asked me where Trowa was," she told him, and Duo's face contorted in pain.
"I'm sorry," he told her, and left her alone in her newly acquired Gundam.
~*~
"Dammit, dammit, dammit to hell." Duo swore venomously as Meike's face left his screen. "Heero, how are we going to deal with Quatre?" Duo asked as he slammed his hand down on the communications for Wing Zero.
"What do you mean?" Heero asked, looking away from his Gundam updates and meeting Duo's panicked purple eyes.
"Quatre just gave Meike a call, expecting Trowa." Duo sighed, rubbing his forehead. "He's probably broken down in Sandrock. He has no idea…"
"I'll tell him." Heero's voice was level as ever, but behind the cobalt eyes was pain for his friend. "Keep an eye out." Heero's face disappeared, and Duo sighed.
In his heart, Quatre's pain hurt him almost as badly, but he found himself distracted by a pair of luminous gray eyes.
"Dammit, Duo, this is not the time to go chasing after girls…" he groaned out loud to himself. A roar suddenly filled the cockpit and he leapt forward and switched on the outer visuals. Quatre's Gundam was arching up into the air, heading directly for the colony spaceport.
"What the hell?" he yelled, switching on communications for all the Gundams. "What's that fool doing?"
"He's going back to Earth. He's going to need time." Heero said blandly. Duo sank back in his chair.
"Another pilot down." The American muttered. "Ye Gods, this is bad."
"How bad?" Meike questioned.
"There are only five known Gundams," Duo explained. "We've just lost two."
"You just gained one, too!" she flared, and shot a warning look at Wufei, who was preparing to yell.
"You need training." Heero said flatly. "You can't deny that." Meike looked furious.
"Leave me alone with this Gundam for one hour and I can do nearly anything you can." She said hotly, and Duo snorted.
"Doubtful!" he said. "You'd need at least a month to get it up in the air!"
"I thought you'd think that," Heero said. "So you will help her learn."
"WHAT?!" Meike and Duo cried in unison.
"After he just insulted me?" Meike asked.
"Are you trying to get me killed?" Duo yelled.
"That's an order, Maxwell." Heero said. "There will be no discussion." His face blinked off of the screen, and Duo groaned.
~
"This here activates the Gundams primary batteries," Duo explained to Meike, pointing to large red button. "After that's been activated, you move to control, checking each system," he indicated a row of green lights above Meike's head. "When those are all green, you shove this handle forward, and the Gundam gets acceleration. To steer, you use these handles on the armrests."
"Got it." Meike began going through the sequence Duo has just explained and listened as the Gundam shook and roared to life. With a sharp push she shoved the controls to maximum and the Gundam fairly leapt into the air.
"Aaaaa!" Duo shrieked as he was thrown to the back of the Gundam. Meike whooped in delight. "You're going to kill me!" the American teenager struggled to pull himself up.
"Let's go, Heavymetal!" Meike cried delightedly. Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "What, you scared?"
Duo's violet eyes hardened. "Of course not," he snapped. "I can handle anything you throw at me."
"That sounded like a challenge," Meike noted mischievously. "I think I'll take you up on that." Behind her, Duo's face turned a shade of white.
Meike cry of joy nearly matched the whine of the engines as she let the safety go and switched the machine to turbo. She chased the horizon and left Heero and Wufei gaping far behind, racing for the pure and unadulterated delight that coursed through her veins. Within minutes she could glimpse the line of shadow moving far ahead across the colony – nighttime.
"I can catch it," she said, eyes narrowed, and somehow managed to coax more speed out of the Gundam than any of the Doctors would have ever thought possible. The dark line ahead of her crept ever so slowly backwards.
"I am soooooo good!" Meike roared in delight as she caught up to the line of darkness and flirted back and forth on the edge. Abruptly she shot the Gundam into the air and rolled it a couple times. Then she let out a startled "Eep!" as Duo landed on the control panel above her head as she hung upside down in the air.
"I happen to be in here still." He told her dryly, and she stuck her tongue out.
"I hadn't noticed." An expert flip of her wrist sent the Gundam skidding backwards, still upside down. Duo was starting to look a bit green around the gills.
"Put it down," he yelled. "Put it down!"
"Sheesh, you big baby." Meike muttered.
"Turn it right-side up!" Duo shrieked, his voice filled with frenzied panic. Meike rolled her eyes and flipped the Gundam back over, the huge vehicle coasting across the colony landscape towards Wufei and Heero. Duo thumped onto the control panel in front of her and she gave him an irritated scowl.
"Get off! I have to fly this thing!" She yelled, and forcibly hauled him off the instrumentation. He hit the ground will a dull noise and a soft groan, and Meike looked at him apologetically.
"Sorry, babe." She said. "Gotta fly." Duo closed his eyes.
A few moments later the high-pitched whine of the engines shifted from a turbine howl to a low roar as Meike slowed the Gundam. It settled down to the ground with all the precision of a bird, and Meike felt a hot rush of pride as she saw Wufei and Heero's astonished looks.
"I don't feel so good," Duo moaned as Meike unstrapped herself from the pilot's chair, and she bent over him in concern.
"Let's get you outside." She said decidedly, wrapping her arms around Duo's chest and pulling him to his feet. Leaning heavily on her shoulder, he staggered to the hatch and sank down as cool, fresh air kissed his face.
"What's wrong?" Wufei yelled as he saw Meike stand up and peer over the edge of the hatch. "Where's Duo?"
"He couldn't take it!" she cried jovially, and the looked more seriously back the American teenager. "Seriously, Duo, I thought you could…" Duo pushed himself up and waved aside her hands as she tried to help him stand.
"Don't worry about it," he said gruffly. "I'm fine."
"Duo…" she said, biting her lip as he crossed the hatch and began to lower himself to the ground. Once he reached solid dirt, he crossed to his own Gundam and boarded without a look back. Standing up, she whirled around and disappeared inside the hatch of her own Gundam.
"We leave for New Berlin in five minutes," Heero told her tersely as she settled herself into her seat, his face silent and immobile as always over the Gundam's communications.
"Okay." She said softly, and cut the communications. Then her head dipped and she banged her forehead against the instrument panel before her. Stupid, she thought scathingly. I'm sure Duo will fall head over heels for you now that you've made him violently sick and practically beat the crap out of him, as well. Her vision blurred as she realized she was crying. "Weakling," she said out loud, scrubbing her eyes with her fists furiously. "Get a move on."
It was in a dark silence that she brought the Gundam fully online once more and followed Duo, Heero, and Wufei towards her hometown.