Chapter 2 - Disaster

Warnings: More graphic. We're travelling towards PG-13 in terms of bloody. Oh, and bad
language.

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There was no reply except static as the place where an image of Heero should've been, snowy
spots reigned.

"Heero? HEERO!" Duo shouted into the comm. No response. "Oh shit," muttered the pilot as the
fun of the mission drained out of him. A thousand possible causes raced through Duo's mind, and
he began to cut a path through the Mobile Suits furiously. "Shit shit shit shit shit . . ."

Another rather large cluster of Leos blocked his way, and the God of Death cleared them out with
a single blow - revealing the Wing Zero. Duo felt his chest tighten. It was badly damaged - the
motions were jerky, the beam sword flickering in and out of existance. With agonizing slowness,
the huge head turned towards Duo's Deathscythe. Duo smiled slightly. Of course Heero was still
fighting. Of course. Nothing stopped him.

Gripping the controls a little tighter, Duo thrusted towards the Wing Zero, cutting down Leos
along the way. "I'm comin', I'm comin'," he muttered as he approached. "Just hang on a little
longer - "

It was in vain. His quick arrival made little difference as a Leo performed a kamikaze on Heero.
With the slow responses of his Gundam, Heero didn't get the beam sword around fast enough,
and the Leo crashed into the chest of the much larger Wing, exploding on impact. The Wing was
flung backwards - and did nothing.

Duo screamed "NOOOOOOO!" when the Wing Zero remained motionless, and spun to meet
their attackers, slicing them to shreds. "You won't touch him," he snarled. If he could destroy this
lot, then he could pick up Heero and get them both out of this quickly developing mess. If he had

enough fuel. If Duo didn't get himself killed, too. If, always if.

Something got through the Deathscythe Hell's defenses, and Duo was flung forward against the
restraints as a blast of energy struck the back of his Gundam. Stunned, he struggled not to black
out. A dozen warning lights flashed on the numerous panels of the cockpit. "Dammit," Duo
strangled out, punching the Gundam assesment button. A full-body image of his Deathscythe
from the front and side, insides and Gundanium armor, appeared in the lower left corner.
Numerous arrows with blinking warnings popped up. "Dammit," Duo muttered again. A thousand
small calculations ran through his mind as he rerouted circuts and switched power sources to
improve voltage and accomodate movement.

The controls were decidedly slower, Duo realized almost immediately as he swung the scythe
towards the remaining Mobile Suits, which luckily were few. Just wonderful - two damaged
Gundams and one pilot either dead or knocked unconcious. Things just didn't get much worse
than this. At least they had comepleted the original mission.

The Leo squad reduced even more, even with the Deathscythe's reluctant, slow responses, though
many more hits got in, flinging Duo about the small cockpit. However, with the Yukusho base in
ruins there simply weren't any more recruits to call in. Two more swings, and they were gone.

The silence after battle was deafening. Duo sat breathing heavily in his cockpit, warning lights
blinking furiously at him, but he took no notice as he gathered his wits once more. It always
sucked when a battle went bad. His head was killing him for some reason. Duo chose to ignore it
in favor of searching out Heero.

Using the mini-thrusters was practically impossible now, and for the first time Duo realized that
one of the many warnings indicated a fuel leak. "Landing's gonna be a whopper," he couldn't help
noting with a smirk.

Abruptly the image of the Wing Zero appeared in Duo's front veiwing screen. "Yes!" Duo
whispered ecstatically. The huge Gundam was still motionless, but the thought of just deserting
Heero out here just didn't stand to reason - first of all, Duo considered the tough boy to be his
friend, and secondly, if he was captured, who *knew* what would happen. Using as little fuel as
he could, Duo thrust toward the Wing gently until they were nearly touching - in fact, their
cockpit doors were now adjacent to each other.

Surprisingly, all Gundams had been designed to enable docking from one to another. Using what
he knew about the system - it was rarely used - Duo docked on the Wing.

With a hiss, his cockpit door swung open, and Duo entered the memorized key code to open the
Wing Zero's cockpit into the key pad. Instantly the door opened.

Duo stared for a moment, then felt a shudder shake him, starting with his boots up to the crown
of his head. A feeling of sickness like when he had watched Heero set his own broken bone struck
him.

Heero was actually bleeding, and bleeding a lot. His right arm hung at a crazy angle, the whiteness
of bone sticking out, and his legs were both bent impossibly. Blood trickled over his eyes from his
forehead and down his hand from his broken arm. One hand was still wrapped in the controls for
the left hand, which carried the beam cannon, but the grip was loose. At least his chest was still
rising and falling in labored breathing.

"Damn you, Heero," Duo muttered. "Damn you - " He dropped to his knees, hugging his stomach
and struggling not to retch. Now was not the time to panic! Heero was still alive; he had to do
something to make sure he stayed that way. But his mind refused to function, and all he could see
was that image of Heero's broken body in the cockpit chair, next to one of Sister Helen dying in
Duo's eight-year-old lap . . .

A First Aid Kit. He needed a First Aid Kit. It was the first rational thought, and Duo clung to it as
he heaved to his feet and fled to his Gundam, tearing the white box with a red cross on it out from
under the viewscreen. Moments later he was next to Heero, grimacing at the broken bones. "Man,
I thought watching *you* set a bone was bad," the God of Death muttered, then gently placed his
fingers against the white edge sticking out of the skin and on the underside of the arm. "On the
count of three," he told the unconcious boy. "One. . . two. . . Three!" Pressing on the pieces
simultaniously, Duo snapped the bones together again, then shuddered and jerked his fingers
away. "Ugh," he grumbled. Using a spare antenna, he formed a makeshift splint for the arm, then
wrapped it carefully in gauze. He then repeated the procedure for both of Heero's legs, then
cleaned his other wounds before binding them up, too.

A keening sound suddenly sprang from the Deathscythe Hell's cockpit. Duo jumped up and
hurried back, scanning the controls for threats. Bingo. A keep (30 Leos) was headed in the
direction of the united Gundams. "Oh damn," growled the pilot. No time to rescue both Heero
and the Wing Zero; all that he could do was pull the comatose pilot into Deathscythe.

Leaving the Wing without destroying it was certainly not an option, and Duo searched the
Gundam for anything useful before separating from it. He came up with the self-detonator, a
'survival kit' including food sufficient for 3 days and a blanket, and a gun. Of course there was a
gun. Duh. Shoving them all into the little remaining free space, Duo closed his cockpit door and
gently laid Heero in his Gundam's seat, buckling him in. "Prepare for turbulence," Duo grinned,
leaning over the controls.

In a minute they were undocked and sailing away from the damaged Wing. With a sad sigh, Duo
lifted the detonation device and flicked off the safety. "Forgive me for this, Heero," he whispered,
then pressed the small red button.

The places where the plates of Gundanium armor met lit up as the energy of the self-destruct
device blossomed yellow, then it seemed that the Wing was disentigrating in a fireball of energy.
The air compressed, throwing the Deathscythe forward, towards Earth. Duo watched in his
viewscreens as the machine was utterly destroyed. "So long, Wing Zero."

Deathscythe Hell was falling rapidly towards Earth now; Duo decided it was for the better, seeing
as that was where he had planned to land, anyway. Heavy rumbling, the sort that made Duo's
heart seem to hum in sympathy as if to a bass note in a heavy metal song, shook the Gundam. It
could have been hours, but it was more likely minutes, until the huge black Gundam's viewscreens
functioned again, revealing clear skies and nothing but desert and more desert.

Duo stared for a moment, then smirked. "Better than ocean as far as the eye can see," he
remarked off-handedly. But now the thing to do was land the damned thing.

Autopilot was failing miserably; it rarely worked well on landing under the best of conditions.
Duo flicked open the manual joystick operator and gripped it tightly, licking his lips. "Com'n, pal,
com'n," he muttered loosely to the Gundam as he gently moved the control back and forth to
stabilize the Deathscythe. Unfortuanately, neither the gentle manual control or the muttered
encouragements sped up the slowing response system. The Deathscythe Hell was dying.

Suddenly a red light flashed amoung the warnings that were still flickering. Duo spared it a
glance; OUT OF FUEL. "Shit," he growled. That translated, basically, to two more minutes of
control while the system burned what remained in the piping; after that, the Gundam would go
into free-fall. Duo forced back panic and decided he would make the most of those two minutes
as he brought his comrade-in-arms down faster than protocol called for. Despite his best efforts,
though, they were still fifty feet in the air when the Gundam was drained. For a moment it seemed
they hung in the air; then they plunged rapidly as the Deathscythe began to tip forward to land on
its face. Duo grimaced. This was gonna really, really hurt. . .

The feet of Deathscythe touched the ground first, then the rest of the Gundam struck the
unforgiving sands heavily. Burning off the remaining momentum, the Gundam slid across the
desert, gradually turning on its side, until it came to rest against a particularly large dune. The
dust settled.

Silence.

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This is getting better and better! (fic writer celebrates happily) Aren't I good at leaving cliff
hangers though? Aren't I? Admittedly, my action writing hasn't improved at all, but I hope to
change that. I also hope you like it so far!

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