Disclaimer: Nope, Gundam's not mine

Disclaimer: Nope, Gundam's not mine!

AN: Lookie! I'm on a roll! More!

Walking the Dividing Line

Part 6

I blinked, not believing what I was seeing.

"Duo –"

"Ah, there you are," he murmured approvingly. He stood, turning to look over his shoulder, and I saw movement –

Giniko.

The hate swelled up again, and had she been close enough I would have spit in her face. I tried to get up, but I was bound into –

Into the cockpit of Deathscythe? I looked around, confused. Yes, I was tied to the pilot's seat, only it was more cramped in here than usual – a mass of multicolored wires ran all through the cockpit, some disappearing behind the seat and some running out the hatch and onto the scaffolding on which Duo and Giniko stood.

And some were running –

Some were running behind my head. There was a dull aching at the base of my head, where my neck met my scalp, and I couldn't lean my head all the way back. I glanced down and saw that there were two IV lines hooked up, one into each wrist, and one higher up my forearm that dripped a yellowish liquid into my veins. I didn't think it was saline.

I looked back up at the two figures on the scaffolding, beyond the hatch. Duo was leaning against the open hatchway, one shoulder resting on the cold black metal and arms crossed against his chest, hair falling nearly to his knees and he was looking at Giniko.

Giniko had just sat down on the makeshift walkway, a laptop propped open before and spilling greenish light onto her face, reflecting off her glasses and slick brown hair. She was typing rapidly on the keyboard, intently focused on whatever it was she was doing.

I didn't know what to think – I didn't know what had just happened, if I had been dreaming or hallucinating… or something else entirely. It hadn't *seemed* like a dream – the colors and sounds had been too vivid, the feelings too clear.

Then again, was anything clear in my head anymore?

I looked up at Duo, still leaning on the hatch and eyes focused on Giniko, and somehow got the feeling that he was more my enemy now than he ever had been before.

But it didn't make sense. They themselves were enemies. And while both of them were my enemies, they –

What was he doing here? Or was I hallucinating again?

The typing stopped and Giniko stood, walking slowly over to the open hatch, brown eyes glittering with malice as she came closer and looked me in the face. As she stopped, Duo stepped out behind her, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on her waist. He leaned forward, his face beside hers, and grinned at me – not a wide, goofy grin, but a smaller, more reserved and calculating grin.

What the *hell* was going on?! What was he doing – regardless of anything, Duo was OZ's enemy and why was he standing there leaning on her like…. like a *slut*?!

It didn't matter what he was – he was a Gundam pilot and that was all I needed to know –

"Well well, you've performed quite admirably," Giniko said, leaning forward even further. "You gave up your information quite easily while you were asleep, such a good little guinea pig."

I blinked at her. "What the *hell* are you talking about?" I growled, voice low and I didn't care *who* was my enemy but I wanted to kill her right then and there with my bare hands.

She smiled. "Oh, you've done so much for me, I can't even begin to think of how to thank you properly."

I didn't want her to "thank" me. I wanted her to untie me so I could kill her.

"Oh, I know," Duo said from beside her, turning his head so his mouth was near her ear. His voice was low and I'd never heard him speak like that before. Something in the pit of my stomach didn't like it.

"Hmm," Giniko mused, turning her head –

And she kissed him.

*What* the *hell*?! What the hell what the hell what the *hell* -

"Yes," Giniko purred, turning away and looking back at me, "show her what she's missing."
"What are you doing? What did you do to him?!" I cried, unwilling to believe what my own eyes had just shown me.

"Oh, how sweet" Giniko murmured, voice sugary and sickening, "I think she still cares about you, Duo," she said, addressing Duo; he let go of her and shrugged, stepping back to cross his arms over his chest once more and study me intently with those blue eyes that I realized now had somehow lost something.

Somehow, that *wasn't* Duo.

"We'll have to keep that in mind," she mused; Duo nodded from behind her.

"Yes."

"Listen – you are going to *tell* me what you've done to him. What you did with Duo, because that's not him."

He blinked innocently at me before turning to her. "Gini-chan?" he asked, sounding almost like a small child; I couldn't tell if he was mocking me or not. "What does she mean? Of course I'm me."

He turned back to me, that smirk plastered back on his face, and I knew he was mocking me and I knew something was so wrong –

"I have no clue what she's talking about," Giniko's voice flowed from behind him, the absolute sound of innocence and I wanted to strangle her.

"No," I repeated forcefully, so forcefully that Giniko looked up at me. "No, that's not Duo and you listen to me – you are going to tell me what is going on and then you are going to *untie* me and let me out of this Goddamned cockpit and I'll *think* about not killing you," I growled, fists balled up and I didn't know what was going on, either inside my head or before my eyes, but all I knew was that I wanted nothing more than to kill her and…

And kill him, because that wasn't Duo, and maybe I would have wanted to kill him even if it was because –

Because the pilots were my enemies –

But Giniko was obviously my enemy –

I had nothing but enemies, nothing to lose anymore because I had no friends and no allies and no reason to live save paying Giniko back for whatever the hell it was she was doing to me because that was all I could feel at the moment – a hatred so intense that I felt it alone might be enough to snap my bonds.

Unfortunately, I remained tied to the seat and Giniko merely laughed and went over to the laptop, casting another glance my way.

"We'll see how you feel about all this nonsense in a moment, shall we?" she asked, bending down to type in a command.

And my world went white-hot and it felt like she was burning my thoughts themselves – streams of consciousness catching on fire and blazing out of existence until all there was left was ashes and the afterimage of white-hot lightning in my head –

I gasped, blinking away the spots that had suddenly appeared before my eyes. It felt like the world was cold and empty around me for a moment, before I realized that it wasn't the world but *me* that was cold and empty.

Worse than before –

Worse because –

Duo. I looked up at Duo, and something twisted in my stomach and –

I missed Duo.

"There," she said, coming back over and nodding to Duo, who leaned into the cockpit and flipped open the cuffs, one hand on each wrist and before I could even try to move he yanked me out of the chair –

Something ripped out of the back of my neck and then there was something wet back there and ohmiGod it hurt –

The IVs ripped out of my arms, skin stinging but it was nothing like the feeling in the back of my neck – not to mention the empty coldness like ice inside my head; Duo took advantage of my shock to flip me around and his arms held me fast – I couldn't squirm free. He yanked me to his chest so that I could feel his warm skin through his shirt, feel his chin pressing against the top of my head.

"Let me *go*!" I concentrated on the problem at hand, ignoring his skin against mine, ignoring the feelings that were somehow resurfacing with that contact that I couldn't even comprehend because he was my enemy and he wouldn't be doing this to me if he –

If he cared. Because I cared.

I struggled in his arms, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach that was only intensified by the feeling that my entire world had just dropped away, despite the fact that I couldn't figure out *how*.

"Ahhh, I'm so sorry but I just can't do that," Giniko said. "Just be glad I clean up after my messes. And yours. I'm sure you've noticed."

Clean… up? What was I supposed to notice – that I felt empty and dizzy and I didn't know why but I wanted to *kill* her?

She must have seen the confused look on my face, because she laughed again and went over to the wall, hitting a panel and suddenly the scaffolding began to slide down towards the floor. Duo still held me tightly and I couldn't move, let alone really think because my mind was somehow still on fire, ice-cold but white-hot –

"Hurt much?" she asked sweetly as the platform reached the ground and stopped moving; she walked off followed by Duo, dragging me along as he went, my feet barely even touching the ground.

"What did you do?!" I demanded as she turned a corner and started down a metal hallway.

She chuckled and kept walking. "Well, you know, there was an awful lot of nonsense floating around in that little head of yours. I don't know how it all fit, to be perfectly honest."

She stopped at a door on the left and pulled out a keycard, sliding it through the lock and typing on the keypad. "All those emotions, those thoughts, half-processed memories, not to mention your assigned mission observations and information," she continued as she typed.

"So I just cleaned up for you," she finished smugly, and the door slid open.

My stomach dropped. Somehow I really didn't have a good feeling about this…

She nodded her head towards a wall in the dark room before stopping to flip on a light as Duo half-dragged, half-carried me over in the direction she'd indicated.

The lights blinked on and I saw that we were in an empty metal room with bare walls. As Duo dragged me closer, however, I realized that the wall wasn't so bare – it had been fitted with what looked like electronic locks –

Duo stopped and flipped me around; the room spun before my eyes and I was almost dizzy until my back slammed into the wall, sharp pain from the impact reverberating throughout my body. I blinked at him; I noticed a streak of blood marring his white t-shirt where my head had been held against him. I shook my head slightly – painfully – trying to get my bearings but he reached out with one hand and hit a keypad –

And I was bound to the wall. What *was* this place? I had been shackled by my wrists and ankles, stuck in a standing position, arms and legs spread and I saw behind Duo that Giniko was pulling a rolling table out of the shadows in the other corner.

A hint of silver glinted in the lights as she wheeled the table out and stopped, coming over to wrap her arms around Duo's waist. I saw that the tabletop was littered with an assortment of weapons – no, really just knives, of all shapes and sizes, and I didn't have a good feeling about this. In fact, all I could feel was an intense, fervent hatred that made me want to retch, seeing him there, entwined in her arms and the picture of –

Of what I couldn't have.

I stared at her, wondering what the hell was going on and what she had done to me and how I was going to get out of this so I could fling her blood all over these shiny metal walls because this room was so bare and empty somehow like my mind –

"Oh, don't look at me like that," she pouted, resting a cheek on Duo's shoulder as he smirked in my direction, blue irises catching the reflections off the walls and glinting like ice. "Especially not after all the trouble I went through, getting all that top secret information out of your head and then cleaning it out for you. Just think," she said, pulling away from Duo and taking a step back, looking me up and down, "Just think about how nice it will be to die with everything in order. No confusion, no ties or attachments. No messy loyalties to this side or that, only your love and the knowledge that he will be the last thing you will ever see."
She paused.

"Hm. How perfectly and stupidly romantic," she laughed. "So," she said, turning and walking towards the door, "now that I've had my fun, I leave you in your precious Duo-chan's hands."