Little late with this chapter. Of no faultof my own! I couldn't get on at the time I usually upload. Well, here is the next chapter, even if it is a little lat.

We're back to serious :o) (giggles and hugs her PS2) Oh Right! uh...do to a few gifts...I'm a little late getting the next chapter out. (cough).....

Well! Hapily I've planed for this and therefore am chapters ahead! so you're likely not to notice it ;o)


GW: Sure. I don't own them. Help keep the lawyors off my back.

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It was near midnight when the two boys came upon the cemetary. Both caried shovels, both carried guns, although why two young men would sneak into a cemetary during the witching hour armed was beyond anyone other then the two. Heero raised his shovel and brought the sharp end down on the gate, breaking the lock and forcing the doors open. Wufei had to admit the other boy didn't stand for obsticles, he would have climbed over himself. Once inside the two proceeded forward, where Heero finally turned on the flashlight to search the grave markers. Heero kneeled down and read one headstone. "We should split up. If you find it turn off your light."

Wufei nodded and walked off in another direction, turning on his flashlight. Under any other circumstances Wufei would have thought breaking into a graveyard was a foolish effort. But even he had to agree that the circumstances of Duo's death was far to perfect and held far too many questions. His flashlight shined on a gravestone. Angela Burne Died AC 195, 6 years old. Wufei wondered briefly if it was the gundams or OZ that had killed the girl, or perhaps a childhood malady. Diseases did still happen during wartime. He shook it off and moved onto another marker. Carmen Sanchez, beloved father and brave soldier, Dead AC 195. Wufei blocked that out of his mind too, hoping the next marker held something other then a wartime demise. Duo Maxwell, dead AC 198. This was it, he turned off his light.

Heero was up next to Wufei a moment later examining the grave. The grass had already started to grow and it looked just like the other less recent graves except that the grass was fresh. He turned off his light and grabbed his shovel, planting it into the ground and starting to dig out chunks of earth. Wufei followed Heero's lead and dug at the opposite end, neither said a word to eachother. It was hours later when Heero's shovel struck the casket. It was all black, the metel constructed from the scraps of Deathscythe Hell, it was thought that the deceased pilot would sleep easier knowing that part of his gundam was making the journey with him. Thoughts on Duo's murder did not linger in their minds as they dug around the casket, finally creating enough room to open the lid. Heero jumped down into the hole while Wufei waited. The Wing pilot opened the casket without so much as flinching. Stronger stomachs would have faltered at the image as Heero shined his flashlight into Duo's supposed resting place. There was a reason it had been closed casket. It was nothing more then a skeleton, a badly burned skeleton. Where a little flesh still hung from the bones worms were now feasting. The skull was blown apart, they had never found the entire part of the jaw or the other half of the skull for that matter. It looked like the bomb had gone off next to his head, one more thing that didn't fit in the puzzle. Heero didn't waste any time, he went directly for a hand where flesh still remained and snapped it off, shaking away the worms and closing the casket again.

Heero held up the hand and Wufei took it, placing it in a plastic bag before asisting Heero back onto the surface. They didn't need to conferm anything between eachother as they picked up their shovels again and began filling the hole back in together.



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Duo sighed as he leaned against the wall on his bed, grabbed another handful of the slop they had the nerve to call food and flung it against the bars of his cell. He wasn't hungry, the night's match had seen to that. Instead he figured on making a creative use of his so-called meal by leaving a surprise for anyone who happened to grace the aisle with their unwelcome presence. He hoped it stuck to their shoes.

David was asleep, it was better this way. What choice was there but to fight to save one life. Kill more then he saves? It didn't make any sense, it was selfish. But selfish or naieve or whatever Duo was, he had to keep David alive. It was stupid, it was selfish and it was futile, but he still had to try. He didn't seem to care when the door opened. Whoever had come down to visit these living quarters always had a reason. Either they wanted something, were there to gloat or maybe wanted to buy off one of the fighters for their own expensive little private combat arena. It had happened once since Duo had arrived and he didn't know if the guy was lucky or just doomed. Either way the idea of anyone being bought and sold like animals, expecially for someone's sick amusement disgusted Duo. So this was what the new age of peace had brought? Underground gladiator games? This was not the ideal he remembered fighting for. He continued chucking the slop into the aisle, aiming now for the Hawaian woman who now approached his cell. Damn he hated that woman. Duo chucked another handful at her eye.

Kalua wiped the goop off her face with a hankerchief. "Finished?"

Duo tossed the bowl aside. "Well I'm out of that slop you expect me to eat if that's what you're askin." He stood up, walking to stand face to face with the woman. "So what does one say to his kidnapper?"

"Name, rank and serial number. But in your case I would assume nothing."

Duo studdied Kalua, his eyes widening in recognition. "I knew you looked familiar. The assistent."

Kalua smiled. "Your memory is still good."

"As is your talent for betrayal. No wonder you knew so much about me."

Kalua frowned. "I never betrayed you Duo. The entire time I worked under Professor G, all that training. I never once uttered a single word."

"Still you have no objections to capturing me and imprissoning me like this."

"You are a weapon Duo. You were all weapons. Weapons are not meant to go to the children when the war is over. They are either destroyed or made use of someplace else. I am fulfilling that need."

"And I bet you even believe that. You knew exactly how to get to me. Amazing how we betray our ideals so quickly. The gundams were built for peace."

Kalua narrowed her eyes. "The gundams were built for war. All weapons are meant for war. Professor G was brilliant, I was so eager to be his protege. Then peace came and he had no more need for his inventions, none of them did. I was dismissed."

"So you decided to make a quick buck."

"I decided to become rich."

"For a former scientist you sure do share a lot."

"I only confess to a dead man."

Duo smiled. "Somewhere there's a part of me that pities you. It's always sad when someone can't accept a life of peace."

Kalua pulled out an electronic pad. On the screen was an image, which she promptly showed to Duo. Trowa, Quatre, Heero, Wufei, Hilde, Relena, Catherine, Sally, Une. They were all gathered around a grave with a black casket, listening to a catholic priest. "Take a good look Duo and say goodbye to what little hope you have left of rescue. They've given up and moved on."

With that she dropped the pad and crushed it beneath her heel, making sure the piece was unsalvagable before she turned and left the room.


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If Wufei had a key, hacking open the locks in the preventer lab would not have been necessary. Despite this Heero didn't seem to mind. In fact, Wufei could swear the other pilot enjoyed breaking an entering. Once the doors were open Heero closed his laptop and stepped through the doors which he had opened by crossing a few wires. Wufei followed behind with the sample and the doors closed behind them without a trace that anyone had been there.

Wufei looked at all the equiptment in the lab, all of which he could not recognize if someone had pointed them out and said their names one by one. He was not a scientist, he was a scholar, he was a warrior. Wufei even doubted Heero even knew what most of the equiptment was, although it didn't seem to stop him from finding the one machine they had came for, a simple machine containing test tubes that was connected to it's own individual computer. Apparently Heero didn't see the computer as good enough because he instantly unhooked the piece and connected his own laptop. When Wufei thought the other boy would never speak, he explained his action.

"We can't risk having the tests recorded."

Heero then proceeded to take three of the test tubes and set them aside. Wufei handed Heero the skeletal and flesh remains of the hand where the Wing pilot peeled off a piece of flesh with tweezers and dropped it into the tube containing some sort of clear liquid. He then held out his hand.

"Your Katana."

Wufei thought Heero was joking for a moment, which on consideration was even less likely. "What?"

"Give me your Katana."

Wufei scowled, complying with the request. Heero immediatly took the blade and slid it across his hand, drawing blood. He then squeezed a few drops into the second test tube. After he had finished he cleaned the blade and gave it back to Wufei, who followed his lead now in full understanding of what needed to be done. He too squeezed a few drops into the third test tube. When all three samples had been collected Heero placed the three tubes into their disignated locations where he began to immediatly hack away onto his laptop, the samples running through a DNA scan.

Wufei was once again lost and frusterated that he was stillbeing kept in the dark. "What are you doing?"

The three DNA profiles jumped onto the screen and Heero continued working. "None of our DNA records are on file."

Wufei spat. "Of course not. that's the entire problem."

Heero was unphased. "Not in public file."

Wufei looked closer at the screen. He couldn't believe it, the other boy had actually done it, managed to hack into their records. Wufei's profile was the first to show up, matching perfectly by the data that had been so long kept secret. Heero's was next. Finally Duo's DNA sample popped up, the two samples paired together. "Incorrect."

Wufei stared at the screen. "The DNA doesn't match."

Heero nodded, saving the file to a disk on his laptop. "Call the others."