He had no recollection of how he returned to Relena's estate. He only realized where he was when he found himself staring blankly at a room full of his friends with his clothes soaked to the skin.
"Duo? Hello Duo?" Duo forced his mind to pay attention to what Heero was saying. "I asked if you were okay. I take it things didn't go well."
"No. Things went great." he replied sarcastically. Duo moved to the liquor cabinet and grabbed the first bottle that his hand touched. Not caring what it was he began to drink liberally from it. He couldn't stomach the sympathetic looks from his friends. Especially Heero and Wufei. They were warriors at heart, they fought together. Seeing them pity him made him want to smash something.
"Yeah. Things went really great. We had dinner, confessed our feelings for each other, and screwed each other's brains out. Well not in that order, but you get the idea. No it was after that everything went totally to shit."
No one knew what to say to him. To many of them he'd always been a tad emotionally flamboyant. Now he was actually vibrating from the intense emotions storming inside him.
Duo made to leave before anyone decided to say something they stupidly thought was helpful. He stopped when his mind caught on something. "Relena," he whipped around to look at her "when you were with Romefeller, did you ever meet a man named Tolin Caruthers?"
It was Une who answered. "Tolin Caruthers? He was a rival of Mr. Treze."
"Is he still alive?" Duo's tone suggested he would fix that problem if he was.
"I really don't know. The last I heard of him was about a year before you came to earth." The intense glare from Duo and the curious looks from the others encouraged her to continue. "News reached his Excellency that Caruthers was building his own arsenal. Treze allowed the location of the complex Caruthers was using to fall into the hands of rebel factions in the area. The complex was completely destroyed. Caruthers just seemed to fade out of notice after that."
"So the worm crawled back under his rock did he?" Duo couldn't take anymore. His soul felt like it'd been through a meat grinder. He wanted to go to his room and drink 'til he passed out. Hopefully forget this day ever happened.
Trowa stopped him "Is that what happened to her? She was a part of Caruthers' arsenal?"
"The question is," added Heero "what they did to her that would get you so spooked?"
Duo didn't realize his blunder until it was too late. His friends were a lot of things, but dumb wasn't one of them. "Stay out of it! Leave her alone she's been hurt enough." He left the room before he could do any more damage.
********
Trowa waited until he was sure Duo was in his room before he voiced his thoughts.
"I think they physically enhanced her. It's the only way she could have made that jump."
That stopped everyone in the room. They were all trying to start up a conversation that didn't involve the scene that just took place.
"Duo asked us to stay out of it." said Quatre and Relena together.
"What you mean like genetic mutation, or a cybernetic body?" interjected Wufei. "I think you've been reading too many comics."
"No it's possible." Said Heero quietly. "It was something Dr J was thinking of trying on me. Time and the uncertainty of survival stopped him."
"Do you think she could be dangerous?" Asked Une. As much as she liked Duo, she was also the director of the preventers and it was in that role she spoke now.
Heero shifted into preventer mode. "Duo's spooked. Really spooked. He wouldn't react this way if she'd simply been trained for combat."
Wufei the preventer added "He's allowing his emotions to cloud his judgment. Relena, how long have you known her under her current identity?"
