Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them. Although the imaginary ones living in my room…. Well, minor detail. ;)

Walking The Dividing Line

Part 18

"All right, it looks like that's all I can do for you then," Sally said, peeling off the last of the bandages from my arms and closing her med kit. "Now make *sure* you check those bandages every two days," she said, indicating the crisp white bandages that still lined my middle, holding my healing ribs in place. "And not too much physical exertion, if you can manage that." She gave me a small smile.

"Thanks," I said, sliding off the bed, looking up at her. "You've done a lot for me, I know. I really can't thank you enough –"

She shook her head slightly, silencing me. "It's what I do," she said softly. "I try to help these boys out whenever I can – I think they're very important, and I know you think that too."

I nodded. I did. And I wanted to be a part of that – anything I could do to stop OZ from treating people the way they did…

"Take care of yourself," she said, and then turned and left. I watched her go, and I watched Quatre enter as she left, looking at me with those big green eyes.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

I nodded and grabbed the backpack with the tech manuals. I didn't have anything else. "Yeah."
I followed him out into the hall and down barely-familiar hallways until we reached the hangar. Instead of suits lining the walls, as they had before, there was only a massive mobile suit carrier. I knew that it housed Sandrock, Heavyarms, and Shenlong; Heero had taken a separate carrier and left a few hours ago, carrying not only himself and Wing, but Duo and what was left of Deathscythe.

I followed Quatre down the metal ladder off the walkway, descending into the hangar itself. I realized that the hangar was actually quite crowded – there were multiple suits housed beneath the walkway, and there were men rushing all over the place, packing up supplies and weapons. It looked like they were moving out too.

"Everyone's got to leave now that OZ definitely knows this location," Quatre explained, leading me over to the mobile suit carrier. We climbed up into the cockpit; I looked up to see that Wufei and Trowa were already sitting there. Trowa was in the pilot's seat, running what looked like some last-minute checks. Wufei was seated off to the side, looking bored. He eyed me warily as I followed Quatre in, but said nothing and turned away after only a few seconds. Quatre sat beside Trowa and I took a seat nearer the back of the cockpit, out of the way.

Trowa looked up at Quatre. "Ready?"
The blonde nodded and Trowa began initiating the launch procedures, shutting the outside door and maneuvering the huge carrier out of the hangar and into the wildly whipping desert sands, his hands dancing deftly across the panels before him. The sand was actually whipping up quite a storm outside; I watched it swirl and snap about as we took off, the tan earth falling farther and farther below us. The sun was actually just coming up over the horizon – it was barely five in the morning. The pilots had all agreed that leaving, and leaving *now*, was the best course of action.

My mind wandered back over the events of the past few hours. Quatre had brought me back to my room; he'd sat there with me for I didn't even know how long, until Heero had come and said that we were leaving, and that I was coming with. I could still see his face, see his blue eyes, and the ice that still coated them…

But the ice hadn't been as thick, and the anger had left his face, and those words of his, when he'd said, "And she's coming with," still rung in my ears, somehow warm and welcome.

And then Sally had come in, to do what she could before she left; I glanced down at my arms, where all the bandages had been removed. The pale skin there was still criss-crossed with white scars, a reminder of that nightmare which was still not quite over.

Giniko might be dead, but Duo…

Well, like everyone kept telling me, he *wasn't* dead. At least not physically. But I didn't know if the Duo I had known had come back. I didn't know that I wanted to find out.

I continued staring out the window, watching the patches of tan earth turn brown, and then green. I didn't even know where we were headed. It didn't matter, somehow, as long as I was with the pilots. As divided as they had been, and as testy as they had been with me, I still felt somehow safe with them.

I was beginning to get drowsy; my head began nodding, hitting the glass window beside me periodically until I gave in and just rested my forehead on the cool surface, holding my backpack in my lap and lazily watching the ground rush by below us. Quatre and Trowa were talking, their words a jumbled buzz in the background. Slowly the noise began to drift away, fading into silence and sleep…

* * *

"Aly?"

"Hm." Someone was trying to drag me up out of the warm darkness, and I didn't want to leave. I felt warm hands, familiar, on my shoulders.

"Aly, come on, it's time to wake up."

Wait. I knew that voice.

My eyes flew open to stare into two large blue ones, long chestnut bangs falling into his face –

I wrenched myself out of his grasp, curling up tighter on the seat; the backpack fell off my lap and thudded onto the deckplates.

"Don't touch me."

He blinked, staring first at his hands and then back up at me. There was immense pain mirrored in that face, but all I could think about was how good he was at faking it. My heart was pounding again, my mind screaming, my hands gripping the seat of my chair until I thought they might dig into the metal itself.

I stared at him with wide eyes, wishing that he would just go away and leave me alone. He'd done enough already, I wasn't ready to deal with this yet –

"Aly, come on," he said, backing away and standing up, pacing in front of me with one slender hand buried in his bangs; his braid whipped about his knees as he walked. "You gotta stop this, you know it's silly. I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, stopping and looking down at me, his hand falling to his side as his eyes bore into mine, desperately seeking… something.

I stared up at him, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind. A hundred of them involved escape plans; another hundred involved death while a third hundred involved screaming.

A few of them involved standing up and beating the bastard senseless for what he'd done.

No. I had to get control of this. I wrenched the sudden, unmitigated surge of terror down, locking it firmly beneath the next most accessible emotion: anger.

That cold, empty anger that I couldn't get rid of.

"Get away from me," I said slowly, trying for all I was worth to sound more angry than afraid.

He blinked. "*Why*?" he implored, his voice as desperate as his eyes, but he couldn't fool me. "You said that before – *why* don't you want me near you?"

"You know why," I spat at him, "You know very well why I don't want you near me."

"No, Aly, I don't," he said, impatience rising in his voice now, causing the fear to rise in my stomach but I shoved it down and hid it beneath the ice-cold anger that was easier to feel.

"I *don't* know," he repeated, palms open at his side as he went on. "The only thing I *do* know is that they won't let me see you, and I don't know why. I don't know why they won't let me help you, when you've been…"

"I don't need any more of your 'help'," I said lowly; I didn't know what he was getting at but I didn't like it one bit. Playing innocent was not going to work on me.

He flinched. "*Aly*. Please –"

"Go away," I told him again, and my eyes were stinging with hot tears that I could hear in my voice as well – why didn't he understand that all I wanted him to do now was just go away and leave me alone because I couldn't *do* this anymore -?

"What did I do?" he asked softly, blue eyes boring into mine. "Please, just tell me that."

"She killed you," I said softly, suddenly unable to look him in the face anymore, instead choosing to stare at the floor. "She killed you and then you tried to kill me." I looked up at him, stared him straight in the face. "Don't you remember, *Duo-chan*?" I stood, the anger rising within me as I did so, and held out my arms, spread my palms and tilted my face so that he could see more clearly the criss-crossed scars he'd painted on my cheek. "*You* did this to me," I said, looking at him.

His eyes went wide and his mouth tightened. He stood there like a statue, just staring at me, for once at a loss for words.

"I… Oh God… I…" His hands covered his face as he backed away from me, murmuring to himself. I dropped my own arms, just watching him, something else beginning to writhe in the pit of my stomach, a bleak, uneasy and terrible feeling.

How could he not remember…

*I* remembered. And I remembered that night, I remembered his touch when he'd placed his palm against my swollen cheek. A perfect fit.

How could he not remember *this*?

He looked up at me. "Aly… I had no idea…" The pain in his face was beyond imagining, as he stood there and looked at me with those liquid blue eyes. The cold anger was beginning to seep out of me, the rage losing a bit of its edge. I shuddered.

"I couldn't remember what she did to me," he said softly, slowly, still watching me from across the cockpit. "The others wouldn't tell me – they wouldn't tell me why I couldn't see you. It's because…"

"I didn't want to see you."

"But – but I can't even *remember* it! It's not like I would willingly do that to you!" There was anger edging his voice, egging the fear in me on.

"Yes, it is," I said softly, as he watched me, eyes still wide and residual anger coloring his features. "You did this willingly enough, Duo."

"I… I…"

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling the saltwater suddenly spilling down my face, stinging the cuts that Giniko herself had made not that long ago. "I can't, Duo. I can't –"

"It's not my fault!" he exclaimed, suddenly looking desperate again, taking a few steps toward me. "You've got to believe me, Aly, I would *never* -"

"Stop it!" I cried, the fear suddenly lashing out again as I realized that he'd backed me against the wall in his desperation, and I didn't want him any closer. I could feel my body wanting to cringe away at his proximity already –

He started, looked at me again. "Aly, please. Can't we just –"

"No!" I told him. "No, Duo, it's over! I can't – just please, stop it!" The saline was falling faster now, and he was still coming closer.

"Aly –"
"No –!"

*Whap!*

I realized that I'd just… I'd just punched him. He stood there, wide-eyed, staring at me though the silence that had descended, although I was still aware of my own ragged breathing and racing heartbeat.

He looked at my hand, then grabbed it is his own, long fingers enclosing mine -

I didn't want him *touching* me –

"Let go of me!"

*Whap!*

I'd punched his arm, causing him to release my hand in shock.

"Leave me alone," I pleaded. "It's not going to work anymore."

Duo just stared at me, refusing to move.

"*Maxwell!* That's enough!"

He jumped and swung his head around to see Wufei standing in the doorway, dark eyes unreadable from here.

My stomach dropped, but I couldn't think anymore as I collapsed onto the floor, watching my tears drip onto the deck.

"She doesn't want to see you, baka," Wufei said smoothly, climbing up through the door and striding over to us.

Duo just looked at Wufei, his face equally blank and unreadable, but somehow his features were more empty than Wufei's.

Somehow I was more afraid of him that I was of Wufei. And somehow all I could feel was relief and detachment as I watched Duo's feet turn and disappear from sight, his footsteps echoing throughout the cockpit.

"Get up, onna," Wufei commanded; his voice wasn't harsh and biting, though, not the heavy, sharp blade that I had been expecting.

I stood and looked at him.

"Stop crying."
I ran the back of my hand over my face, wiping away the saline. Something about him always made me so ashamed that I had cried. His eyes were dark but not sharp, the same as his voice and I didn't know *what* he was thinking.

"I'm sorry," I said, and began walking towards the door.

"Don't apologize, either," was the last thing I heard as I climbed out of the cockpit and into the hangar. "I've told you that before."