DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter TwoDuo was thoroughly confused. He had a twin? What the hell was going on?
Heero glared at Noin. "So that is why you were so insistent in wanting to know what Duo was wearing," he accused.
Noin closed her eyes. "Yes," she spoke softly. "It was the only defense we had."
The silence that followed irritated Duo. He looked at Sally. Her head was in her hands as she mourned the upcoming death of her fellow Preventor. He looked at Heero. His arms were crossed on his chest, and he was still glaring unrelentingly at Noin. He looked down at Relena. She wasn't moving anytime soon. He finally looked at Noin. Her head was bowed in shame. She had been the one to send this poor guy off to die in Duo's place. She had developed the mission in the last minute to save him. Save Duo by killing off someone else. It rubbed Duo the wrong way.
He couldn't contain himself any longer. "Spill it," he ordered.
Noin looked up at him, her eyes pleading for forgiveness. "Mimic has been an agent with us for three years, since the OZ overthrow and development of the Preventors. She's incredible in her mimicry of attitudes, walks, and the general conduct of anyone she sees…"
"She?" Heero spoke up.
"Yes, she's a girl," Noin admitted. "In the short amount of time we had, it was the only choice to make sure Duo got out alive. The original plan was for her to just replace Duo in the cell, but then we got the idea to have her run in a direction opposite of the route Sally and Duo would be taking. That would increase the chances of you two getting away. "
"So that's what I heard," Duo spoke his thoughts out loud. "I heard the soldiers say they had caught someone as we were leaving. I didn't know it was her."
"You weren't supposed to know. No one was supposed to know. We knew that if you or Heero were aware of someone taking your place in the prison…"
"You knew that we wouldn't agree to it," Heero interrupted.
"Exactly."
Heero and Duo were silent for a moment. Mimic's face was still staring out at them from the screen. Relena had settled down now that she knew that her friend was out of danger, but she didn't agree with what Noin had done. She left Duo's arms and stalked closer to Noin.
"How can you place values on human life?" Relena asked. "Who made you the judge of whether or not to send someone to their grave, Noin? Why do you decide that this girl is less important than Duo? Such things are out of your hands."
"I know," Noin replied meekly.
"Do not blame Noin for this," Sally spoke up. "Jinx came up with this plan herself. Noin only agreed to it."
"Jinx?" Duo repeated.
"Yes, that's her name. That's what she's been called since she was working with OZ. And she completely volunteered to die for you, Duo," Sally explained. "She is happy to die for a Gundam pilot."
Heero looked over to Noin. "She was your only defense? You did a pretty poor job of it. What will you do if they find out she's not Duo? They'll kill her for sure then."
Noin just stood there, silent in her guilt.
Heero continued, "Her hair is the wrong shade of brown, and its too long. And her eyes are violet, not blue. You're lucky they don't pay much attention to detail."
Duo looked back at the screen, where Jinx's face looked defiantly at the camera. Hmm, he didn't pay too much attention to detail either. Now that the really looked at her, her face looked nothing like his. But Heero was right. Her hair was too dark and longer than his. And her eyes were definitely the wrong color. Thank goodness for the long braid; that's all people really noticed about him.
"We tried," Noin explained. "It was hard enough finding clothes. We tried to lighten her hair, but that's as good as we could get it. And we tried to change her eye color, but her eyes just wouldn't turn blue. We cut her hair, but I guess we didn't cut it enough."
Heero shook his head. "It doesn't matter anyway. No matter how much you altered her."
"What do you mean?" Sally asked.
Duo stepped forward, standing next to his friend. "He means, we're going to get her back."
* * * * * * * *
"Be careful," Relena's voice sounded small over the communicator.
"We will," Duo assured her, as he cut off transmission and focused on flying the shuttle as they neared the OZ base. He glanced at Heero, who was checking the status of his semi-automatic. Then Heero reached into the front pocket of his space suit, counting the light artillery grenades that Sally had given them.
Duo hesitated before he spoke to his comrade. "You aren't saying much."
"Do I ever?"
"Nope," Duo answered matter-of-factly. "But I thought you might have something to say."
Heero continued with his weapons check. "Concentrating on the mission."
"To get your mind off of Relena?"
Duo regretted bringing it up after Heero responded by glaring at him, the deep hurt showing in his eyes.
"Sorry, man. I shouldn't have said that."
Heero blinked and stared straight ahead, watching the OZ base grow bigger in the monitors. "It's alright. I deserve a dose of reality every now and then."
Duo smiled to himself. Heero sure had changed over these last few years. Though some other people may think he's the same ol' Zero Personality that he always had been, Duo knew better. And the other pilots did too. Heero was slowly regaining the humanity that OZ scientists had driven out of him.
"They're on to us," Heero said, calling Duo's attention to the mobile suits headed in their direction. Mobile suits?! Those were supposed to be destroyed by now. The Gundams were destroyed, so why do these bastards get to have mobile suits if he and Heero couldn't have any?
Duo shook it off his mind and concentrated on flying through the firing of the suits. Didn't this seem familiar? Heero was getting out of his seat, securing his helmet.
"What're you doing?" Duo asked.
"Getting ready to abandon ship. We aren't going to last much longer if we try to land inside," he explained as he found Duo's helmet. He put the helmet over Duo's head, mindful of the braid, and secured it since Duo's hands were busy piloting the shuttle.
"They were ready for us," Duo said to him. "This time they were prepared because they thought we'd try another rescue attempt." He flew the shuttle at the base, full speed. "They just didn't know that the first attempt was successful," he added with a smile in Heero's direction.
Heero had his hand on Duo's shoulder, and smiled back. His grip tightened as they neared the base. He was ready to pull Duo out of that chair and shove him in the direction of the hatch as soon as they crashed into the base, head on. It was their best chance.
OZ sure wasn't expecting such seemingly suicidal behavior. The mobile suit pilots stood in awe as the formerly stolen shuttle from their own hangar crashed into their base.
Heero and Duo made it out of the shuttle, moments after impact and moments before the whole thing erupted in flames. They clamored away from the exploding wreckage and through a hallway before the main explosion. If they had been more exposed during that, they probably wouldn't have survived. Heero cleared his mind of that thought. He had a mission to accomplish. And a girl to save. OZ probably thought they were dead, which would make the mission a whole lot easier.
Heero unstrapped the gun from his suit and brought it to bear on a few unlucky soldiers. Duo had a pistol in his hand, the one Sally had given to him, and he backed up Heero during his little rampage through the hallways. They found the cellblock easily, and because of their death-defying 'blow up the shuttle' stunt, there were no guards to be seen.
"Go," Heero yelled to Duo over the noise. Screaming sirens were warning the base inhabitants to cease all operations, a fire has been reported in the area, and instructing them to proceed in a calm and orderly manner to the nearest emergency evacuation area.
Duo nodded and ran down the hallway to his old cell, third on the left. He thanked himself for noting that as Sally dragged him away an hour ago. It seemed like a dumb idea at the time, but now he was glad for his observation.
He frowned. The cells were locked down completely due to the evacuation. No one could get in. He only hoped that she was far away from the door as he placed a grenade in the door handle and performed a running dive down the hall.
The explosion was loud, and he was sure it'd attract some attention. Duo shook himself off and swore. His arm was bleeding. Shrapnel sucks. Running back to the door, he found that he had blown it completely off its hinges. Great, she was dead for sure now.
Duo heaved the door aside, hoping for the best. Jinx was there, far away from the door. But she was on the floor, curled up into a ball. Duo ran to her side.
"Hey," he called to her. "Hey, Jinx. Come on, chick, you've got to wake up! We've got to get out of here!" At least she was breathing.
She moaned and moved just a little. Damn, he thought, noticing the shard of metal embedded in her thigh. That was his fault.
"Come on," he said, reaching out to shake her. Pain seared through his left arm. He wouldn't be able to move that arm much. Damn again.
"Here," Heero said, moving around to the other side of her. Duo hadn't even noticed Heero come in, but he didn't dwell on it now. He picked up Heero's semi-automatic and took a few grenades from Heero's chest pocket. Heero bent over to pick the girl up.
With Duo leading, they made their way toward the hangar. Duo was following the exact route that he and Sally had used, because he knew no other way to leave an OZ base. Heero followed his friend, cradling the mimic in his arms as they ran down the hallways.
Finding a shuttle was easy. Every idiot on the base was going to the emergency pods, not the shuttles. That left the hangar empty and easy to steal from. Crashing their shuttle into the base ended up being a great idea. Nothing like chaos to cover your back, Duo thought.
He flew expertly away from the base, heading directly toward Noin's vessel. Heero never let the girl leave his arms. And she never regained consciousness.
* * * * * * * *
Jinx came to consciousness without opening her eyes. Afraid of where she might be, she used her other senses to observe what was going on. Her heart monitor was beeping steadily, and she kept herself from letting her heart rate get too high in order to mask her waking up. She was in a soft bed, with warm blankets drawn up to her chin. Huh? OZ didn't give prisoners beds and blankets, or heart monitors for that matter. Maybe she wasn't with OZ anymore. She tried to think back to what happened.
She remembered those bastards trying to electrocute her. She remembered them getting mad at her for not dying, and then they beat her. That resulted in a broken right arm and two broken ribs, after they had hit her with a steel rod. She remembered fighting to keep consciousness during and after the torture. But after the beating and she was thrown against the back wall of her cell, she decided to stop fighting that. And then she wakes up here.
Nope, she decided. Can't figure out where I am.
But there was a heart monitor going. The incessant beeping reminded her of that. And she felt tightness around her arm, leg and torso. That meant someone had bandaged her up, and the tightness she felt was due to the gauze wrapped around her. The faint smell of ointment permeated the room. Someone was obviously trying to help her heal.
"You don't have to pretend anymore," a deep voice called to her. "I know you're awake."
The rate of the heart monitor's beeping increased. Reluctantly Jinx opened her eyes. She shouldn't be afraid. These people were trying to help her. She saw a large light above her on the ceiling, but it was turned off. It was nighttime and that made the room dark. She turned her head to one side, in the direction of the voice.
The man was sitting in a chair, in front of a large window. The slight light from outside was sufficient to completely silhouette him, making his identity impossible to determine. She couldn't think straight anyway, she cursed. The electricity seems to have scrambled her concentration, too.
The man stood next to her bed, looking down at her. "You shouldn't have done that," he scolded. "You shouldn't have tried to replace Duo with yourself."
How informally this man referred to Pilot Duo Maxwell, she thought.
"You're wondering where you are?" he guessed, correctly. "You're in the Winner Estate, in the L4 colony cluster. We brought you here after retrieving you from the OZ prison. Duo would be here in person, but he has his own wounds to heal right now. The bump on his head still gives him a headache, and shrapnel from your cell door that we blew up embedded in his left arm. That's where the wound on your leg came from." He paused a minute, noting the slight look of confusion that crossed her face. "I'm sure you were wondering," he explained.
She stayed silent, her throat hurt and she was afraid to speak. No one used electric shock for torture. It damaged the body too much. And Jinx was getting to experience that horror first-hand. She looked up at the man with the kind eyes standing over her.
"I'm Heero," he again answered all of her unasked questions. "If you need anything, just say my name. I'll be here to assist you." Having established that, he walked away from her and back to the chair in the corner by the window.
She watched him sit down, and succumbed again to the bliss of unconsciousness.
* * * * * * * *
Jinx moaned a little as she roused herself from sleep. The bright red shining through her eyelids told her that this time, she was waking up during the day.
"Hey," a cheery voice called out to her. She heard the owner of the voice get up and walk to her bedside before she had a chance to open her eyes. Jinx was looking up at Duo Maxwell. "How are you doing? Feeling any better today?"
Jinx tried to move, but winced as she felt pain in a hundred different places.
"Hey, now," Duo said, putting a hand on hers. "Don't try to move too much. You'll hurt yourself even more." He smiled good-naturedly at her. "You're amazing. The only person I know that could take this much pain," he said, "is Heero." His grin widened.
Jinx felt embarrassed. She hadn't completed her mission. She had meant to die out there, but here he was, Duo Maxwell, smiling down at her like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't failed. The man she was supposed to save ended up saving her. How pathetic. She closed her eyes.
Don't be so hard on yourself, Duo thought.
"Why not?" her voice rasped as she answered him.
"Huh?" Duo asked, surprised.
"Why shouldn't I be hard on myself?" she explained.
"You heard that?"
"Of course I did," she said, annoyed. "You said it out loud."
Duo just stared down at her in total confusion. She had heard his thoughts. What was going on? He tried to sensor what he was thinking, hoping she couldn't hear him anymore.
Jinx's eyes widened as she looked at Duo. She had heard that, too. She felt his confusion, and she heard his own voice inside her head as he thought. "What's going on?" she asked back.
"I don't know," Duo answered. "Have you always been able to do this?"
Jinx thought for a while. Not since she'd left OZ did she do this kind of stuff. And it was because of OZ that…
A blond-haired man walked into the room, smiling at the both of them.
"Quatre!" Duo said when he saw him. Duo hugged his friend, careful with his left arm.
"I heard that you and Heero were here," Quatre said, his voice soft and nurturing. "Sorry I wasn't around to help you guys fight. Having labor difficulties on one of the satellites."
Jinx's eyes widened again as they spoke. Realization hit her square in the face. These are the Gundam pilots. The guy in her room last night was Heero Yuy. This guy was Quatre Raberba Winner. Why hadn't she recognized Heero's name last night?
"Hey, no problem, buddy," Duo said, leading Quatre to the bed. "This is Jinx. She's my mimic," he said with a broad smile and a look of pride, like having a mimic was a good thing.
"Nice to meet you," Quatre said, shaking her left hand since her right arm was injured. "I am Quatre Raberba Winner, but you can just call me Quatre."
"Thank you," she replied with a bow of her head. "And thank you for your help. I haven't had a chance to thank Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Yuy yet."
"Hey, babe," Duo interrupted. "There's no reason to thank us…Its our job."
"But…" Jinx began.
"No buts." Duo put a finger on her lips to shush her. "But now that Quatre's here, we need to get together with Noin and have a little discussion. I'll be back later to check up on you, okay?" And keep this mind-reading stuff just between us for the time being, he added.
"Alright," she said in answer to both his questions.