AC 200

"Are we ready?" Duo said into the headset he was wearing. After a moment of static, another voice spoke in the earpiece of the headset.

"Yep, they're almost on their way."

"Good job Jason. You're in position, right?"

"Roger. I'm shutting down my headset now, if you need to reach me, send Matt."

"Good luck Jason." Duo heard the static clear as the other headset was turned off. Matt tugged on his arm and Duo bent down to see what was bothering the five year old. The young boy pointed out over the edge of the roof. Duo stood up and saw it coming down the road that led to the campus. A black limousine. 'Thank the Lord. I guess someone finally made her get rid of the pepto-bismobile.'

"Haha. Thanks Matt. Now," Duo leaned down and tied the black tie around Matt's neck. The boy wore a pair of black slacks and a white button up shirt. "If we need you to carry a message or give a signal, we'll call you on this headset, okay?" Duo handed the headset to the boy and he took it before giving a salute and smile to his teacher. The brunette took off, heading for the stairs that led down from the roof.

"Frequency 10 Matt! Don't forget!" The boy waved his hand but didn't bother to turn around as he ran down the steps leading into the halls and halls of classrooms. Duo went back to his perch as lookout for the mission and took in the campus. As private schools went, this one was easily in the top ten between the ones on Earth and in the colonies. Passing by, it looked like a college campus, with the exception that all the children running around were in high school or lower.

Huge brick buildings were spread around the campus, some dorm rooms to house the boys and girls, and some full of classrooms. Duo had chosen the tallest, giving him the best vantage point of this mission. This school was also on a brilliant schedule, three months straight at the school, the one month of vacation. This repeated every year, the break being around Christmas, Easter, and late summer. The schedule was perfect for Duo's purpose, he would have Alae in his custody for the majority of the year to train and during the three months of his absence, Matt and himself could pick up the slack. 'And the other pilot. I still have to choose another kid to train. Ah well, now's not the time to think about that.'

Duo picked up his binoculars and saw that the limo had stopped at the front gate. The passenger door opened up quickly and a woman stepped out. She wore a long denim skirt and a pink long sleeved turtleneck. She turned in circles, admiring the view of the impressive school. 'Relena.' Duo smirked at the girl who he had often risked his neck and the necks of others to save. But it had been worth it. She truly had brought total pacifism to the world, with a little help from the Preventers and a few underground groups. 'Like us of course.' Finally the woman's eyes focused across the car at her husband who had just stepped out.

"Heero.." Duo barely noticed that he had whispered the name out loud as a tall, strong looking man rose from the front of the car. His brown hair stuck out in every direction, but was still the dark chocolate color that Duo had gotten used to seeing every day. Heero stood in one place, but his dark eyes swept over the area, checking for dangers no doubt. 'Same old Heero.' Duo could still remember their wedding, and all the difficulties that went with it. Everyone had been against the two marrying at such a ridiculously young age, but Relena and Heero did it anyway. Relena had been the one really pushing for it. 'I always thought it was because she thought Heero would leave her eventually and so she married him to keep him around. Guess I was wrong.'

The back seat door opened and something jumped out, landing hard on the pavement. Duo could barely see a spike of dark blonde hair over the top of the limo from where he stood. The boy went running up to his mother and hugged her around her knees, giggling and looking around excitedly. 'He definitely got that hair from Heero. But the color is more like Relena. I wonder...' Duo focused in his binoculars as much as he could and aimed at the boys eyes. They were mostly a dark cobalt color, with the exception of an inner ring of light blue.

A man walked up to the front of the car, dressed in a brown business suit. Duo had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing at Jason, the grease monkey, dressed up in a suit that looked like it hadn't been worn in a decade. He shook Heero and Relena's hands, and bent down to give Alae a high five. When he stood up again, Jason motioned to the three of them to follow him and began to lead them through the campus, pointing out things of interest.

"Phase 1 complete. Jason's on his way to you guys. Go ahead with Phase 2."

"Roger." Two female voices answered over the headset and Duo watched intently as one of the harder parts of the plan unfolded. After he was sure that he was out of view, Duo leapt from the roof into a nearby tree and eventually to the ground. Staying in the shadows, he ran around the back of a nearby building and darted inside the back door, which had been conveniently propped open for him.

Once inside, Duo found the classroom that their plan was revolving around. Room 504. Across from this classroom was a well placed stairwell, with a window in the door. Risky as it may have been, Duo went into the stair well and took up a place against a wall, keeping his watch through the window. Two girls, one with short blond hair and one with short black hair walked by the window. 'Caitlyn and Nicole. Good, they're on schedule.'

Caitlyn walked up and knocked politely on the door. An old woman with gray hair and glasses opened up the heavy wooden door and asked why the younger girls were here.

"Ma'am, is your car a red Buick skylark parked in the west parking lot?" The blond girl asked.

"Why yes it is, why?" Now the old woman's suspicious nature was replaced by concern for her car.

"It appears that someone has broken into it." The old woman gasped.

"I'm a substitute here," The raven girl piped up and stepped forward. "I'll keep an eye on your class if you'd like to go see what's wrong."

"Thank you." The old woman hurried forward and the blond girl Caitlyn followed closely behind, explaining about the condition of the car.

'Phew. That went about as well as can be expected.' Duo waited patiently as Nicole entered the room and began talking and teaching the children. 'Good thing Howard has such competent granddaughters.'

Heavy footsteps out in the hall caused Duo to slink down in his seat on the stairs, but leaving his eyes on the window to the hall. Jason walked by, still talking and motioning to numerous things. Then he pointed to Room 504 and took a step forward, turning the knob and opening the door. Relena walked by, holding Alae's hand and Heero followed a step behind. 'He's got that same expression. Mr. Perfect soldier still even after these five years of peace. I never would have thought you'd let such a mistake happen Heero.'

Duo and the other pilots had been some of the few to know the real reason behind Heero and Relena's quick marriage. Relena was pregnant. Duo often wondered what would have happened if Heero wasn't tied to Relena through their child.

The four left the classroom, apparently satisfied by the way it looked. When he was sure that they had left the building, Duo ran out of the building and stood in a grove of trees, trying to stay hidden as he changed the frequency on the headset.

"Caitlyn?" Duo whispered as quietly as he could, in case Caitlyn was still with the elderly teacher.

"I'm here Duo."

"Good girl. Everything is going fine, they finished touring the classroom and Nicole and is going to take care of the class until their real teacher returns. Do you know your next part of this mission?"

"Yep. I'm already positioned outside the office. Mrs. Lita will be going on her lunch break in exactly three minutes."

"Alright, Jason won't be bringing them around to fill out those forms for at least ten minutes, is that enough time to get in and get everything in order?"

"Yeah, that's plenty of time. But Duo, what if Mrs. Lita tries to get back to her office early and we aren't done yet?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back on the roof and watching her. If she tries to get back and you aren't finished yet I'll stall her."

"Okay Duo. Over and out." Caitlyn's headset clicked softly off and Duo was once again hurrying up the fire escape alongside the building. 'All this work...that squirt better be worth it.'

Duo flung himself over the top railing and ran across the roof. He kneeled down and took out his binoculars again, quickly finding the three who were walking down the main sidewalk that wound it's way through the campus. Alae was walking stealthily ahead, chasing a squirrel that didn't even notice he was there. Relena was chatting happily to Jason and Duo was relieved that at least one of Alae's parents looked relaxed and pleased with the school. Heero on the other hand. 'Geez, you'd think not being a soldier would have done something, anything. But no, still hard icy glare, same stoic walk.' Duo's eyes wandered over his ex-partner and he couldn't help but sigh. 'And looks like I haven't changed much either, I still can't control myself when I see him.'

A large wooden door opened as Jason led the group into the building, right on schedule. 'Well, looks like now we just have to wait for them to sign up all the paperwork, and Alae can begin training in less than a week.' A woman's voice cut through the wind in the trees and Duo turned curiously towards it. 'I can't watch them inside that building anyway, might as well see what's up.'

As he casually strolled to the other side of the rooftop, Duo caught site of someone running by down below him. The boy's brown hair was being tossed around as an older man in a vest chased after him. 'Of all the freakin idiotic...'

Duo took a step back before flinging himself off the roof. His hand barely caught on the tree branch and from there he fell to a branch that was closer to the ground. With one final leap Duo ended up about twenty feet from where the boy was tearing along. He whistled to get the kids attention and then walked very calmly across the sidewalk to the alley between buildings.

Matt turned as quickly as he could and saw Duo waiting next to one of the fire escapes with his hands cupped together and bent down. Matt jumped up and placed one foot in Duo's hands.

"And up ya go!" Duo threw the boy up and his small hands grabbed onto the metal bars of the fire escape and took off as fast he could up the stairs. Duo lounged against a wall, trying to look as relaxed as he could.

"WHERE DID HE GO?!?!" The old man turned into the alleyway and stopped in front of Duo, huffing and panting.

"Little kid, brown hair, bout his high?" Duo motioned to about Matt's height.

"Yeah, did you see where the little bastard went?"

"Right through that door." Duo pointed to the door which was still propped open from before.

"Thanks." And then the man was gone.

"Another mission complete. Now to go murder Matt." Duo could barely hear a small frightened sound from above as Matt looked down, his eyes round and huge.

"Eh don't worry kid, I'm not really gonna kill you." Matt remained still for a few minutes before carefully climbing down the fire escape.

Duo ruffled his brown hair in a show of affection and motioned for him to follow. Matt nodded and began to walk quietly after his mentor. The two went around the building, alternating between being stealthy and trying to look normal. When the approached the door, Duo was planning on going in and hiding in a room near to where Heero and Relena were filling out papers.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

"It's so wonderful that you've decided to let your son join us here at our school..." Duo didn't hear the rest of what Jason said to the Yuys as he grabbed Matt and threw himself in a nearby bush.

Duo put his hand to Matt's mouth then remembered that the boy didn't speak. He held his breath and sat as still as he could inside the bush which was scratchy and dark. Matt squirmed in his hand and Duo stopped holding him as hard. Matt smiled up and sat down on Duo's lap, peering out of the bush at his father and the family walking by. Duo tried to not make a single noise as the shoes of Heero and Relena passed by. The last in the group was Alae, and as he walked by, he stopped.

'Oh shit.'

Alae's dark piercing blue eyes met up with the brown ones that were staring at him from the bush. Matt put his finger to his lips and Duo prayed that Alae would keep quiet, otherwise, the whole mission was a failure.

Alae opened his mouth to say something when a squeaking noise was heard by all three. A squirrel was playfully jumping along the walkway and Alae followed it, his attention having shifted from bush people to small creatures.

"God bless squirrels." Matt just laughed at Duo's silliness and the two climbed from their hiding place.

"Mission complete."

"AHHH!" Duo jumped a few feet in the air before whirling around.

Jason just grinned at him and flashed a v-sign at his son.

"Don't DO that man, you nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry." Jason smiled and picked Matt up, placing him up on his shoulders.

"So did they sign?"

"Of course they did. Did you ever doubt me?"

Duo just patted his friend on the back as they walked to the van where the rest of the group were waiting.

"So you got yourself a second pilot."

"And nearly lost this one." Duo jerked his thumb at Matt who shrunk away from him.

"What?"

"I found this little guy getting chased by some old guy who seemed really pissed at him."

Jason stopped walking and lifted his head back to look into his son's eyes.

"Matt...what did you do?"

Matt stuck his hand in his pocket and searched around for a few minutes. Finally he pulled his hand out in a fist and smiled down at the two adults. Putting out his fist, Matt opened it to reveal a small piece of metal and wires.

"What is that...." Duo sounded physically ill as he looked at the stolen bit of circuitry. Jason took it out of Matt's hand and examined it closely.

"This looks like an alarm of some sort. Matt," Jason's voice took on an eerie calm that any fathers could. "Where did you get this from?" Matt pointed a finger at one of the dorm buildings. Jason and Duo followed his finger and saw that the old man was pulling at one of the doors. Next to it was an intercom box that had been broken into.

"You little thief." Duo grinned at Matt, feeling somewhat guilty, as if his bad habits had rubbed off on the kid.

"If we weren't in danger of being arrested if we go back there, I'd make you apologize to that guy and hook the lock back up." Matt looked sorry and laid his head on his fathers.

"Awww..." Jason took a swing at Duo for that, and the three finally reached the car that would take them back to the base, where Matt would soon have a partner in crime.