The Question of Honor
AC 197. Duo and Wufei are on an undercover Preventer's mission when they get caught and locked up. Heero shows up from who knows where to rescue them, but his erratic behavior and eventual disappearance worry his friends, especially Wufei, who's working through a few issues of his own. Heero also manages to complicate things quite nicely by unintentionally involving a civilian in his rescue of 02 and 05, and not just any civilian, but one whose family has ties to the suspects Duo and Wufei were investigating!
Chapter 1 – Male Bonding
A cargo air lock on L3
The air was growing thin. In another couple of hours there wouldn't be any left, and as for the two boys…
"What a pathetic way to die!!! I feel like such a dork!" The Braided One smacked his forehead.
"That's the thirtieth time you've said that. I wish you'd stop," an unusually solemn seventeen year-old replied. The Braided One continued to rant.
"This is stupid!!! Aargh!!!!"
"Thirty-one."
"I hate this!!!!"
"Thirty-two."
"Y'know, Wufei, I'm really glad that you're amusing yourself, but in case you haven't noticed, we're about to die here, and in a very embarrassing way!" His pony-tailed companion didn't comment. The Braided One's expression turned to one of confusion that indicated remembrances of vague memories.
"Funny. I feel like this has happened to me before…"
Is he being serious? Wufei wondered. Probably just trying to get a laugh before he goes. Too bad it won't happen. His companion just shook his head looking puzzled.
***
This is it, I guess, Duo thought. Well, I might as well try to have a little fun. Hm… He stifled a snicker as an idea popped up. Stepping out of Wufei's line of sight, he pulled off the black elastic that held his braid and turned his head upside down in a manner resembling that of an 80's rock star. He then fluffed his bangs, strutted onto his imaginary stage and bowed graciously to his audience.
"I'd like to perform one of my favorite numbers," he began, pulling out his gun and using it as a faux-microphone, "one which you may know. This one's dedicated to my buddy Wufei. Feel free to sing along." He paused, checked that the safety was on, and flashing a suave smile to his only semi-interested viewer, began to sing.
"Hey, I think we're alone now… there doesn't seem to be anyone arouuund…" He monitored Wufei from the corner of his eyes. His cellmate seemed to be staring at something that wasn't there.
"Just stop it," Wufei said quietly. His lack of enthusiasm in insulting Duo's performance was more effective that his usual yelling and witty insults. However, Duo was not about to give up just yet.
"Okay… how about this one? I'm having daydreams about night things, in the middle of the afternoon… No huh? I sing fifteen other country favorites!"
"Duo?" Duo plopped down in front of Wufei.
"What?"
"Why are you wasting your last moments doing such trivial and meaningless things when you ought to be preparing yourself for what's to come?"
"That's what you're doing?"
"Yes."
"Well, you mind telling me how I'm supposed to concentrate on that? I've never had so much time to think about it. Every other time I almost died there wasn't time to contemplate it or reflect on my life," he blurted out.
"Maybe you never tried."
"Maybe I never tried," he said with a hint of sarcasm. Of course Duo had contemplated death, and its seeming inability to catch up with him. Some of the most important people in his life had passed away, and he couldn't help but wonder, if perhaps selfishly, who would think fondly of him when he was gone. Consequently, Duo was slightly annoyed by Wufei's little comment.
"You gotta admit, I'm deeper than I seem."
Wufei rolled his eyes.
"What a time for you to develop a sense of humor! Why don't you just stop talking?" Duo placed his elbows on his knees and used his folded arms as a chin rest.
"Hey," he continued, "shouldn't you be going into suspended animation or something?"
Wufei sighed.
"What's the point? Everyone has to die sometime. And I don't want to be discovered years later lying next to the remains of the friend I couldn't save." Duo blinked, even though no tears had begun to flow.
"Wuh, Wufie!" He sniffed noisily. "You have no idea how much that means to me!" He threw his arms around the Chinese warrior.
"Yeah, I like you, too," he admitted, but brusquely added, "Stop acting gay."
Whether Duo decided to ignore that remark, or whether he didn't hear it, Wufei did not know. And in a way, he was glad at that moment they were about to die. If anyone ever heard about this, if Sally ever heard about this… Well, it didn't matter. In an hour, they'd be dead. That was that.
He noticed Duo's head lying heavily on his shoulder. Had he passed out?
-Cough cough-
No not yet, but almost. He'd just let him fall away peacefully.
"Well, Maxwell," he said softly, "I suppose this is it." It was quiet for about two minutes.
-Clang-
What was that…?
-Clang clang shift clang-
The door was opening.
Oh no.
With one final screeching squeal, the door succeeded in opening, revealing a face Wufei hadn't seen in almost a month. Heero Yuy stood in the doorway looking almost relieved. Wufei rose swiftly and Duo fell to the floor with a soft thud. He coughed and wheezed for half a minute before he felt himself being lifted up by both arms, blinking as he remembered where he was.
"Sorry I took so long," a familiar voice said.
"He- H-Heero?" a disoriented Duo asked.
"Try to walk."
"Heero, my man! It is so good to see you!!"
"I don't think anyone's here, but we should hurry anyway." With Heero's help on his left, and Wufei's on his right, Duo jogged up the stairs from the cargo area in the wall of the colony to the warehouse above.
One hand held his gun and the other supported Duo, so Heero kicked the side door of the run down building open and half-dragged Duo into the dark of night towards a shiny red Mustang.
"Get in back," he ordered the other two boys as he let go and ran to the passenger side. As soon as he heard the click of doors unlocking, Wufei threw Duo in and slammed the door as the car screamed out of the parking lot and into the street. Duo finally captured a modest amount of the oxygen that had been deftly evading him for the past few minutes and settled comfortably into the cloth seat.
They heard shots from behind.
"Hm," Heero said.
"Well, apparently, there were other people in there," an unfamiliar female voice said. Wufei almost gasped.
"A woman," he growled. A woman was helping him escape. And not only was she female, she appeared to be… a civilian!
"Hey thanks," she said. "After being treated like a kid most of the time, it's nice to be called a woman." Was she kidding? Wufei did not like the tone of voice of this untrained schoolgirl. Hey, she was mocking him! How dare she?
Ah, a girl, Duo thought as he sat up. He leaned towards the middle seat to get a look at her. Her light brown, wavy hair fell almost to her waist and her child-sized hands gripped the wheel tightly.
Nice hair, cute sweater, and… he cautiously peered into the rear-view mirror. Big, brown eyes. This day just keeps getting better and better!
Wufei, on the other hand, was having a horrible time. After preparing to die -being positive he was about to die- and completely embarrassing himself, he was being saved by a teenaged woman. This is a very bad day, he thought.
Machine gun fire rang out from an old Buick behind them. The girl shrieked as it hit the back window. Instinctively Duo and Wufei ducked. Duo opened one eye. Nothing had happened.
"Bullet-proof glass! Way to go, Uncle Joe," the girl said with an uneasy laugh as she cautiously wove in between cars. The traffic was too heavy on this street to go very fast.
"So, uh, what's your name?" Duo asked casually.
"Honor."
Wufei growled. Duo laughed hysterically.
"Oh! That's great! That's hilarious!!!"
"I never thought my name was that funny." Honor turned to Heero. "What's with him?" Heero shrugged.
"I don't know. Turn here." Honor turned sharply right onto a side street lined with shops and cafés. Duo hit the side window and Wufei fell on top of him, much to his dismay.
"Get away from me!" Wufei said.
"Hey, you're the one who's getting in my space!"
"Shut up, stupid!"
"Stupid?" Duo was incredulous. "I thought you-" He was quickly silenced by a threatening fist. "Okay, okay. You don't have to spell it out. Sheesh."
"Never will get used to this left side of the street business," Honor muttered to herself. "The one colony where drive on the wrong side of the road…"
"Maybe it'd be simpler if you got a car made on this colony," Heero said authoritatively.
"No, that's the weird thing – half the cars in this colony are North American!" She swerved to avoid hitting a mother and her child.
"Gosh darn pedestrians!" she sputtered. The car behind them swerved, almost running into a parked Mercedes.
"One question- why is she driving?" Wufei asked rather rudely.
"Because I stole her car," Heero said as if it were an obvious answer.
"With me in it." She giggled.
"A hot car and matching chick? How'd you manage to pull that off, Heero?" asked Duo. Heero did not reply.
Hot? Honor let that spin around in her mind for a second before deciding the guy in the backseat was just pointlessly being a flirt.
"I was in the backseat looking for my car's manual. He didn't see me," she offered.
"What was it doing back here? Shouldn't you keep it in the glove compartment?" Duo asked.
"Yeah, I usually do, but I threw it back there after the last time I used it. By the way, it's still back there, so try not to step on it or anything."
"If you know how to drive, why do you need the manual?" Wufei asked, again, rather rudely. Honor blew the horn at the nearby cars and hoped none of their cursing drivers had gotten a very good look at her.
"I just got this car recently. My uncle's rich. He, uh, bought for me," she said, as though embarrassed. "And besides, I'm supposed to get more radio frequencies than I do now, and I was trying to figure out how to change the settings."
More shots were fired. Wufei sat stiffly with his arms crossed and pouted. Honor reminded herself that the bullets could not reach her and sang, "la la la," to herself out of habit as she made another right. She glanced over at Heero to see if he approved in her choice of direction. He didn't seem upset; he just sat there stiffly with his arms crossed thinking hard about something. She wondered if she would sound incredibly stupid if she asked how they were going to get rid of the automatic weapon wielding Brady Bunch that was still hot on their tail. Did Heero expect her to know? Just then, Duo piped up.
"You seem very relaxed." Honor didn't answer. Oh! He was talking to her. Right.
"Uh, oh, um, yeah. I do this all the time. Damn!," she growled as she blew the horn at two unsuspecting shoppers in high-heels who ran out of the way just in time. Her knuckles turned white as her hands fused with the steering wheel. I'd bet this isn't exactly blood-pressure friendly, she thought.
"So, uh, you got a plan?" She asked no one in particular while her breathing became louder and more forced.
"Turn here," Heero answered, pointing left with his thumb. Good thing I asked. Were you planning on telling me about that? she thought. After a few blocks, she understood his plan. The police station was on the left, but The Buick Bunch fired once more. I had no idea gangsters were so shameless! Tsk tsk.
"Heero, what are you doing?" Wufei asked.
"Turning in the enemy."
"To the police?"
"Who else?" Honor asked.
"This is very insulting," Wufei muttered. Preventers and police officers sometimes clashed, and Wufei was of the opinion that there should be no ordinary police because Preventers were far better trained and equipped to protect the citizenry. However, it was the president's crazy idea that they were supposed to work together and share information, an idea that Wufei found highly impractical.
Honor felt something on her arm and jumped in her seat. Duo pulled his hand back.
"Woah there, kiddo," he said.
"Honey, don't do that while I'm driving, 'kay?"
"Sorry, babe," he said as he leaned back and rested his head on his palms. She sighed; she'd have to give him a lesson on proper terms of endearment later.
"Good move, Maxwell. Way to get us dead," the still PO'd Preventer who shared the backseat with him said irritatingly.
"Shut up, Wu! I've had about enough of this crap!" Wufei ignored the implied warning.
"Another smooth move like that and she'll send us flying into a window display." Wufei allowed himself a smile that infuriated Duo even more as he unconsciously mimicked Duo's former laid-back position. Honor gritted her teeth.
"You act like I can't handle this!" she said angrily, her voice squeaking.
"Both of you be quiet," Heero ordered the boys. Then to her, "Calm down. If you don't, you might crash into something."
Honor wasn't sure what to make of this boy with the commanding monotone, but decided to take his advice.
However, doing so wasn't easy. She almost sideswiped another car and heart kept pounding faster and faster.
"He had a good question," she said to Heero in reference to Wufei's question. "Why aren't you driving?"
"If it were convenient to switch places with you, I would," he said.
Meanwhile, Duo seethed. The anger and embarrassment he felt was more than he wanted to deal with right then. He had only wanted to comfort the girl, and surely she would get no such kindness from the Grouch and the Grinch. He discarded the last of his pride and strained to see in the rearview mirror. There was no way she was old enough to drive; she looked about fifteen, two years too young. Or maybe she just didn't look her age. Duo reminded himself that there were a few young adults around whose circumstances hadn't been dictated by war and poverty. She must have been one of them, for the wide brown eyes that scanned the road showed no emotional scars. Glancing at his own reflection, he wondered how many of his others saw. Masks leave openings for the eyes…
Heero gave another Honor another directional command that she nervously obeyed. Poor kid, Duo thought. Why'd Heero have to drag her into this? I guess no one can stay unaffected forever. Then he mentally smacked himself and put an end to that train of thought. Duo Maxwell was not about to turn into some pathetic defeatist! His brow furrowed and his jaw locked. I'll make sure she gets out of this. I'm not going to let another innocent life be ruined by our mistakes. Having decided that, the hero leaned back down into his seat and sat without fidgeting, his arms folded over his stomach while he thought very unkind thoughts about Heero and Wufei.