*Ya'll know the drill, so read on and have fun! ^_^V

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-Duo Maxwell

4:10 AM: One hour and twenty-two minutes after 02 and 04 depart from L3

Space, near L2 Colony-

"Arg. What's wrong with me? Why can't I just tell Wufei? He's the one to turn to for learning about yourself and how to deal with it." I muttered somberly in Shinigami. Why CAN'T I trust Wufei? He's a good friend, when he isn't ranting about women and justice. I sighed and watched the colony surroundings disappear as I left it behind. Soon, I could see the stars twinkle brightly. Each one looked like it was shining with hope. Maybe a hope for peace. Peace. That's what I'm fighting for. But is it a lost cause? Sometimes, I question the orders by Dr. J and the rest. Maybe there truly isn't a thing like true peace. Maybe.

I shook my head. Hey, why should I be talking like this? I'm Duo Maxwell, the cheery one of our renegade group. I ain't supposed to be sad. But, I should get some sleep. I haven't been able to for about two weeks. Maybe 27 hours total for the week. How can I, with all of the nightmares and-

Without warning, a beep sounded from my counsel and a picture appeared. Doom settled upon me as I recognized the gundam on my screen. It was the gundam Sandrock. Quatre's worried face appeared next to Sandrock.

"Duo, are you alright?" He asked me in his innocent voice.

'Why the heck is this kid a soldier anyway?' I thought as I looked at his childish features. He would be more fit to run the Winner family empire than to be out in battle, fighting for his life and for the colonies. I really don't get this kid sometimes. Oh well, better see why he came out here in the first place.

"Whatcha doin' here kiddo?" I asked him, keeping my voice as carefree as possible. I felt relieved as I saw some of the worry on Quatre's face disappear.

"I have a mission here. Destroying some new mobile suits. What about you?" He asked. Hmm, that sure did sound familiar.

"I'm here for the same reason. Destroying some new mobile suits. If you ask me, that sounds suspicious." I told him. Quatre nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes, I really don't trust the scientists. Do you?" Quatre asked me. I smiled.

"I trust them about as much as I trust Relena Peacecraft. Or should I say Witchcraft." Quatre smiled and laughed. I like making that kid laugh. His face gets younger when he laughs and you can't see the damage that the war is doing to him. Us two remained silent for a minute.

"Duo, I want to know what has been bothering you for these past few weeks." Quatre interrupted the silence. Aw man. Quatre wants to know. I quickly looked down at my feet, avoiding contact with Quatre's eyes. I know that kid is going to use his "Puppy Dog Eyes" routine. I've fallen for that ONE too many times. So, I'm not going to fall for the puppy dog thing. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

"I don't think that I want to talk about that." I said, trying to sound nonchalant. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

"Duo, the only way to get rid of the pain is to let someone know about it. Duo, I want to know. I want to help you." Quatre said, seeing the pain in my eyes somehow. I sighed and looked out of my right viewing screen. Maybe I should tell him. I mean, he's a pretty nice guy and helpful to get yourself out of problems. I saw a colony, shining with the rest of the stars. Quatre looked also. I will. I'll tell him.

'At least I didn't fall for the puppy dog look.' I thought, just as a beep came from both of our screens. I quickly looked at the screen, expecting OZ. Yep, looks like I was right. Seven large mobile doll carriers came to replace the image of Sandrock. Half of me was glad at that point, glad not to tell Quatre anything. But half of me wasn't. I guess that my body wants me to tell someone. But, it can't be now. Now is OZ kicking time. I'll tell him afterwards.

"Looks like OZ spotted us." I stated the obvious. But, Quatre didn't mind. I knew that gears were turning in that little blonde head of his, trying to figure out weaknesses and battle strategies.

"Yes. And it looks as if they have ten mobile dolls in each carrier." Quatre noted. I quickly did the simple math in my head: 10 mobile dolls x 7 doll carriers = 70 mobile dolls divided by 2 = 35 dolls for each gundam. Easy.

"So, what do we do?" I asked, just for the pure fun of it. Quatre studied the screen for a few seconds, thoughtful.

"We call for back up and attack back to back. Then they can't get us separated." He said. I snorted.

"Sorry man, but Shinigami is meant for close up battles. But, I'll try to keep you as close as possible. Besides, it's only 35 each."

"Okay Duo. Here they come!" Quatre brought out his two blades and swiped two dolls that passed him. Quatre vanished from my screen as the battle began.

"Hiyaaaaa!" I screamed, slicing Shinigami's scythe through three dolls. Another doll came up and hit me five times repeatedly with its gun. I growled and shoved the end of the scythe through the doll. It exploded, showering pieces everywhere. A smile crept up on my face as the intensity of the battle filled the atmosphere of the small cockpit. All I could see was mobile suits blowing up and burnt wreckage everywhere.

"Hahaha! Now this is fun! Shinigami, let's do this!" I shouted happily, forgetting about where I was and what I was thinking about. Everything that had happened in the past week suddenly disappeared as I blew up more suits.

"Is that the best that you can do gundam?" A voice taunted me. The controller of the dolls! If we kill him, then the dolls will be even easier to destroy! Because, not saying that I was weak or anything, the battle was starting to wear me out big time.

"Quatre, I don't think that all of these dolls are dolls. We'll have to kill the main guy."

"Yea, I know. But, ahh! Watch out! Two ne-!" The transmission was abruptly cut off. Static could only be heard.

"Quatre? Quatre!" I yelled, hoping to reach him. But, no use. Wait a minute, where did all of the mobile dolls go? I noticed a battle a few hundred meters away. I began to fire up the engines, planning on helping Quatre.

'How did they get us separated so far apart?' A corner of my mind wondered.

"So sorry, but your friend is a little busy right now." Came a different voice. I turned my attention back to the two voices. Both of them were male. Out of no where, a mobile suit came crashing down on me. My chest banged roughly against the harness. Thank God that it didn't break or my head would have been sushi. Suddenly, a tan head of a mobile suit came to view. I growled. This was a time for retreat. My fuel was half gone, the joints were getting kinky, and my bullets were out. So I pushed the button to activate the hyper jammers. The screen flashed red, indicating that they were damaged, including with about 20% of the gundam.

"Damn." I muttered. I tried out my buster shield at the tan mobile suit, but it caught it and flung it away. What?! I couldn't believe it! It deflected my attack as if it was nothing! Man, this was going to hurt. I was too weak to battle two new fresh suits. I looked at the tan mobile suit, trying to identify its model. It was a new type of mobile suit. It was tan, with a claw as a right hand. Something that looked like Epyon's whip was on its left hand. A large point jutted from the mobile suit's head. Nothing more special than that. But still, it looked pretty dangerous. Its screen glowed red, then green, before it went to violet. Well, that sure was weird.

"What the-" But before I could get out another word, another mobile suit came up to me. It was blue, with a bow type thing in its hands. Its head looked like a biker's helmet of some sort. So these are the new mobile suits. Suddenly, the blue suit sent out an arrow at me. I quickly dodged it, but the tan suit grabbed Shinigami's arms and pinned them to the body. I snarled. I couldn't move. The tan suit destroyed my engines as it held me, making the entire gundam to shake violently. I went for a not so fun ride, thrashing about. My arm hit the metal and I felt a small cut open as sparks showered over me. Now this was getting out of hand. Those sparks burned!

"Hey! Haven't you ever heard that it's against the rules to double-team!?" I screamed at them. Two snickering voices came over the COM Link. I growled. I don't like being laughed at.

"Sorry, but your pitifulness is hysterical." The first voice told me. Pitifulness?! That sucker's going to pay. But I didn't say anything out loud. I didn't want them to know that they got to me.

The second voice spoke up, "I guess that we'll have to teach this pathetic loser how REAL men fight." I bristled as I heard these words. That little bitch is going to pay! No one insults me and gets away with it. I strained harder as I tried to break the grasp that the tan suit held me in. Grr! It STILL wasn't moving. I looked up just in time to see the blue suit flying toward me. I widened my eyes. This was going to hurt. I tried to get out of the tan suit's grasp again, but it was useless. I braced myself for the impact. As the blue suit slammed into me, he put all of the weight to the torso area, where I was sitting. Suddenly, the front viewing screen cracked and caved in, pinning my legs. I so much wanted to scream as I felt searing pain racing through my legs. But I didn't want the two losers to hear me. I bit my tongue hard as I reached down to feel my legs. I felt torn muscles and skin. Nothing broken. Well, at least there was a little bit of good news. When I brought up my hand, it was drenched in thick, red blood. I felt like throwing up in pain and disgust. A hissing sound suddenly came to my ears. Oh shit. The oxygen was leaking out of the gundam. And I didn't bring a space suit.

'Well, it can't get any worse than this.' I thought. The blue suit came over again and slammed into the same area. The metal was driven further into my numb legs. My mouth opened to a scream but before I knew it, I was struck from behind and I felt the harness straps snap. My head came crashing down onto the broken glass. Now I did yell in pain as flashes of white raced across my vision. Everything was blurred and my hearing was dulled a bit. I felt another hard hit from the blue suit. I was too groggy from the hits from before to do anything. My body hit the broken glass again, glass driving itself into my body painfully. I cried out in pain weakly. Arg. This was a position that I DEFINTELLY didn't like at all. I was helpless and weakening with blood and oxygen loss. I blinked, seeing red through my right eye. The pain in my legs was replaced with the pain ringing through my head. I could feel the blood running down my face from a big slash over my forehead.

'Okay. I'll admit it, I'm a jinx.' I thought as the gundam was struck again. I could feel it getting lighter. Great, they're probably destroying my beautiful gundam. I winced in pain as my right viewing screen broke open, sending glass and gundanium alloy everywhere. I could feel intense heat on my back. Ow. This felt like VERY bad sunburn. The heat left and cold air replaced the hot fumes. A giant gaping hole was left as a viewing screen. Suddenly, I couldn't get any air. There was no oxygen! I remember reading somewhere that the human body can't survive without oxygen for three minutes. In three minutes, I was going to die. My lungs burned for the needed oxygen. A space suit came up and placed something over my mouth. I sucked in the oxygen that was given. But, something wasn't right. I felt weaker, drained, drowsy. Great, I was being drugged. I closed my eyes and went to sleep, my red forehead against the broken glass.

-Sandrock

4:58 AM: 3 minutes after the battle near L2

Space, near L2 Colony-

I shook my giant gundanium head sadly. Quatre was so exhausted that the poor kid went directly to sleep, only trusting me to keep him safe. And I would make sure of that. If I had a mouth, I would have sighed as I waited for the others to arrive from Quatre's message. To waste some time, I went over the battle in my head. The mobile dolls were easy to handle. But those two new suits attacked before Quatre knew what had hit him. Hmm, they were strong. I wish I knew why they left so abruptly. But Quatre couldn't advance. The mobile dolls closed in on him. Wait a minute... If the two suits went away, and the mobile dolls attacked us to keep us at bay, and Duo isn't beeping in, then that means... That means that OZ has Shinigami and Duo! NO! Stupid me. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why didn't I think of that earlier? How blind am I?! Uh oh. Another disturbing thought crossed my mind. Wing. Eep. He was going to KILL me! What can I do? Panic possessed me as I frantically searched through all of the torn wreckage of our battle. Oh no. I'm SO dead.

Suddenly, my screen beeped. To the right of me, three mobile suits were coming to us. I used the controls and brought the images closer. Now this was sweet! It was my friends. Shenlong, Heavyarms, and Wing. Wait, Wing doesn't have those big of wings. NO! Darn. Heero took Zero. Humph. Zero is WAY too annoying for me to handle. Yuck. How can Shinigami withstand his idiocy? Ooh. I shouldn't be thinking about Shinigami. That brings in the thoughts of Wing tearing me apart.

I checked up on Quatre, who was still asleep. I tried to wake up the boy by beeping really loudly. It didn't work. I tried again, but still nothing. Man, he's knocked out. Well, I guess that I would have no choice but to reveal myself to the pilots. This WAS extreme after all. They came up to me and Heero's face appeared on the screen.

"Quatre? Wake up." He said. I raised my arm to say hi. Heero's eyebrows went up. He could see Quatre and he saw me raise my metal hand without him ordering me to. Well, time to chat.

Hello, Heero Yuy. I typed to him. I saw his eyes quickly reading the message.

"Who is this and what have you done to Quatre?" He asked me sharply. I wish I could have smiled.

It's me, Sandrock. Quatre's gundam. Heero blinked at the message. I tried again.

Yes, I can move in the gundanium alloy. But, the others can't. Heero blinked again.

"Others?" He asked, looking bewildered. I wanted so much to smirk. He looked so CUTE when he was confused.

Yes. It's about time that we should tell you that your gundams have spirits. I'm the spirit of Sandrock. Shenlong is the spirit of Altron. Heavyarms is a spirit and same with Wing and Zero. Shinigami is spirit to Deathscythe Hell. I wrote to him. I wonder what kind of wheels were turning in his head now: Was this a trap? Is it real? Should I trust this? Those were probably what I would be thinking. I decided that I should get down to the basics.

Heero, we need to find Shinigami and Duo. Two new suits attacked us. Tell the others about me. Heero blinked again, still looking like a cute and lost little boy

"How do I know that you're not an OZ official moving the gundam?" He asked testily. Well, at least he's trying to believe me as I shook my head.

Use your scanners. See any radio waves around here ordering me around? I wrote. I watched as his cute little face twisted in confusion, finding no waves controlling me.

You look so cute like that. Heero's features quickly turned to mid-evil. Oops, did I write that?

"Trowa, Wufei. There's something that you should see." Well, looks like that comment made him believe. Yes! Soon, I could see the other two gundam pilots on my screen. I wrote them a short hello. Wufei's face was pale while Trowa was expressionless. Surprise, surprise... Hmm, why does that comment seem familiar? Oh well... Something on TV I guess.

Wufei spoke first, breaking the silence, "So Nataku is truly with me." He noted. I shook my head. He looked at my gundanium armor confusingly.

Her name is Shenlong. You all will meet the spirits when we land. But, we have to find Duo and Shinigami. I wrote sternly. The others nodded.

"What did the two new suits look like?" Heero asked me. I quickly went through my memory disk and found the pictures. I sent them to the pilots and explained.

They're very strong. There were two males piloting them. They didn't sound familiar, but I went through the OZ database and found matches. They belong to Lieutenants Alex and Muller. I wrote. Heero frowned.

"I remember those names. Zechs said that he killed two OZ soldiers that were carrying out executions. They can't be the same." He murmured. I shrugged.

Don't blame me. I just went through the files. Heero nodded and turned to the other pilots.

"What should we do?" Wufei asked. Trowa looked over at his screen.

"Maybe they took him to L2. The colony is just right over there and I don't see Deathscythe Hell around." He said. Just then, a broken and cracked piece of black metal came floating over to us. I picked it up and saw that it belonged to the gundam. It was the buster shield. Ooh, Shinigami must be in PAIN if the gundam is torn. You see, we are linked to the gundams. If something happens to us, it hurts the gundam's reaction time or the joints. If something happens to them, then we feel the pain.

I looked at the gundam pilots, Do you think so? I mean, those two suits had STRENGTH. They could have just as easily killed him and destroyed Shinigami. I wrote. Everyone's faces weren't too happy. I hate being the bearer of bad news. Heero shook his head.

"No. It can't be a coincidence. Our orders were to go to L2 and destroy the OZ troops, as with their leader there. Duo and Quatre were attacked here. This can't be a coincidence." He murmured. I shrugged again as Trowa spoke up.

"How about we go to L2 and carry out our orders. Maybe we'll find Duo there." He said in his blank voice. Heero and Wufei quickly agreed. I did too and soon, we were on our way to L2. Hang in there Shinigami, we're coming.

-Narrator

5:14 AM: 24 minutes after the capture of Gundam 02

L2 Colony, Noplin Penn District-

Alex brushed back his blonde hair and sneered up at the damaged Deathscythe Hell with his cold blue eyes.

'Not so tough now, are we Mr. Scythe Man?' He thought. His partner, Muller, came up beside him and grinned. His brown hair was wet from his shower and his blue eyes glistened evilly as he saw the unconscious pilot, Duo Maxwell, being pulled roughly out of Deathscythe Hells' cockpit. His hands were chained behind his back as he was dragged away. The back of his black tank top was gone, showing the burns that Alex had caused with his beam saber. Muller laughed cruelly.

"Trieze was right. The suits ARE stronger than the gundams." He said, "We showed Duo Maxwell how strong they were. Imagine what they'll do to those two new renegade gundams that keep attacking here."

Alex nodded, "Yes. Deathscythe Hell is one of the strongest. They did well." He turned to the tan and blue suits, "We have to call them something because of their excellent performance. What do you think Muller?"

"I have an idea." An ancient voice spoke up. Alex and Muller turned to the voice and smiled.

"Ah, master. It is good to see you." Alex said. Muller rolled his eyes.

'Can we say "Kiss ass"?' He thought. The old man smiled at the two.

"And how are my two favorite clones doing? Do you like Sagittarius and Scorpio?" He asked. Muller raised an eyebrow.

"Which is which?" He asked. The old man pointed to the tan suit.

"Scorpio. He has several beam weapons, including that beam saber that can slice Epyon's in half. He also has poison from a thousand or so scorpions on the tip of his fingers. Use it wisely. It can bring great pain to a human." He said, taking his hand to the other suit, "Sagittarius. He's the archer with incredible accuracy. His arrows can paralyze an enemy mobile suit. His agility is impressive and unbeatable." The two soldiers smiled. They had the perfect machines, "We'll be doing some more testing after General Hettler and Trieze see the prisoner. And after we repair Deathscythe Hell... Again. How does that sound?" The two clones nodded.

"Excellent, Dr. J."

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pollycat5@hotmail.com

*Betcha didn't expect that.

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Sayonara!

~Polly~