The Perfect Soldier

Chapter 3: Cover Blown

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            Duo stared at his friend for a long moment as silence fell like a wet blanket on the entire room. "Is this a payback for the stuffed animal crack?" he choked out.

            Wufei scowled. "Don't play with us, Yuy."

            Beside Heero, Taki leaned over and examined the front of the envelope. Wait a minute... I know this hand writing.

            A brief flash of a memory crossed her mind.

            "You sure don't write like The Perfect Soldier. Just look at this chicken scratch."

            "... I guess that part of the training didn't stick..."

            Taki gulped and looked at the person she'd thought was her friend. Cobalt eyes shifted and glared back.

            Oh shit...

            Heero lifted the envelope to her face. "Do you recognize this handwriting?"

            I just blew her cover so wide open a mobile suit mud-wrestling match could happen in the void.

            "Uh..."

            "Heero?" Duo asked, looking up from the frayed remains of gift wrapping. "What's going on?"

            "I got off of the shuttle this morning and was on my way here when Taki mistook me for someone else. Someone who looks like me and calls himself Heero Yuy."

            Taki gulped. "Uh..."

            Wufei stood up immediately and headed for the door.

            Quatre and Trowa followed suit. Duo struggled to rise above the sea of tangled wrapping paper. "Shit! It's last February all over again." He sprinted out of the room.

            Taki sighed as she looked at the envelope. Why am I worrying? As Heero stood up to follow, she stopped him.

            "You won't find her. She put this under the tree and then she left. She wouldn't have put this where it could be found before she'd made her getaway."

            Heero's eyes narrowed.

            "Heero?" It was Relena. "What's going on here?"

            "That's a good question." He stared at Taki.

            Well, since the damage has been done, there's no harm in saving my butt by spilling it, I guess. She said, "I guess I don't know who you are. The Heero Yuy I know looks just like you, she even sounds like you, acts like you, and dresses like you. Sorry for the mistake."

            Relena's eyes went wide. "There's another Heero Yuy?" She couldn't believe it.

            The silence was so absolute that the sound of the grandfather clock slammed through the room like gunshots. For what seemed like hours but couldn't have been more than twenty minutes, no one spoke.

            Duo stormed back into the room, out of breath. The others were close behind him. "Couldn't... find a trace... anywhere." With obvious reluctance, he entered the room and plopped into a chair.

            Taki rolled her eyes. "Gee, that's no surprise."

            "What do you mean?" the boy-Heero said.

            "Heero has spent the last four and a half years breaking into just about every kind of building, residence, museum, you name it. She's a pro at this. She's not about to let you catch her unless she wants you to."

            Duo said, "She?"

            Quatre gulped and exchanged expressions with Trowa and Duo. Instantly, they recalled the sauna earlier that morning.

            "She?" Duo squeaked out again in disbelief.

            Taki gave them an odd look. "Ye...ah..." What's wrong with them?

            Quatre's face began turning a dark shade of red.

            Even Trowa blinked a couple of times before he regained his composure and crossed the room to take the unread note from Heero's hands.

            "What is it?" Heero asked as the implications of this changed every face in the room.

            "We, uh, we had a bath with you this morning, Heero," Duo managed to force out.

            Cobalt eyes went wide.

            Taki threw back her head and laughed. "Oh my god! I never would have guessed that she'd have the guts to—to—  Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!"

            Relena cleared her throat. "I... I had a talk with you yesterday evening."

            Heero couldn't hide the mounting rage in his eyes. In February, I'd thought that they were all playing a joke on me. They told me there was someone out there who knew I'd been captured and had come to break me out, but they'd said he looked just like me, acted like me, dressed like me, spoke like me, was me. I knew it couldn't be true. So I'd assumed it was one of Maxwell's pranks.

            ...

            Shit.

            Heero lifted his gaze to where Trowa was slowly re-reading the note. "What's it say?" he demanded. His look-a-like had come and gone, on a mission most likely. This was the only evidence that remained of that mission.

            Trowa lifted his usually bleak gaze and a flash of something—fascination, curiosity—crossed his face. He recited the memorized phrase, "Omae o korosu."

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~End of Chapter 3~