Amethyst Wing

By: Hseru

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gundam, or any of its chars, much to their relief ^_-

Warnings: Mild citrus warning, more towards the fluff end, nothing serious. Shounen ai, angst, blood, violence, mild language, and probably some OOC-ness (Though I'll try and keep to the original char personality)

Rated: PG13

Chapter 4

Over the next two days, nothing more was heard about the mysterious attacks. Duo and Wufei were sent on an easy mission that finally got the stir crazy pilot out of the safe house, and back in his gundam, and Trowa was sent on a lone infiltration mission at a base located near where the OZ forces were gathering.

The braided pilot had said nothing of what had happened between himself and Heero, and seemed as bright and cheery as someone in his situation could possibly be to the untrained eye. To the other pilots, however, he looked strained. His eyes seemed to be permanently bloodshot, and there was a tangible tension in the air when he was around any one of them. Quatre was the only one who seemed able to approach the surly Deathscythe pilot, and he did so to try and find out what was wrong.

He got nothing but vague, off handed answers that weren't answers at all, but rather like Duo was dodging around the subject. It wasn't healthy. There was a possibility that it could affect his piloting skills as well in the near future, and he said as much. The little blond had promptly been rebuked for suggesting such a thing, and was forced to back off for fear of having his head bitten off.

They were somewhat glad when he was sent on mission, though felt an immense pity for Wufei. Or perhaps that pity was for Duo, when he finally got on the Chinese pilot's last nerve.

They returned, mission complete, two days later, still with no news about the unknown fighter. All of the reports gathered gave the same results. Nothing.

Even Heero's vast search had given him zilch to go on. There were no new prototype suits that OZ was playing around with, as far as he could tell, and the underground word was that the suit was a special space type made by a completely new contender in the race for power. That it was space compatible was all but obvious, considering how well it moved in zero gravity, but that its origin was from another growing power was something they didn't even want to contemplate.

The night Wufei and Duo returned, having demolished their objective, a cargo plane carrying heavy weaponry and lightly defended, both of them took a spare few minutes simply to bathe, then practically fall into bed, asleep before their heads hit the pillow.

That was the night the rogue MS decided to attack again.

And this time, they grew certain that OZ was not behind it.

The prey for the night was a UESA mine on the F34 asteroid. The entire mine on that chunk of rock was destroyed, again with no survivors. It had been an important source of iron ore for their background operations, and to simply give them a plausible story, it was too big of a loss.

It seemed that the rogue MS was not biased for or against one side or the other. Still, if this went on much longer, OZ might disable its current plan of attack, and move its operations elsewhere. That was dangerous, and exactly what Heero and the others did not want to happen. They'd have to do something about this, and quick.

With Trowa still out on reconnaissance, Heero and Quatre let Wufei and Duo sleep for the moment when they heard the news on the television. That little box had managed to give them more information than any of their searches, so since the attacks had started, they'd kept a close watch on the local broadcasts.

It flashed on the screen, the demolished mine, and various closer pictures unlike what they'd seen before. Because there was still the asteroid, the angle of attack could be seen. Various slashes embedded deep within the rock around the wreckage gave the impression that the MS used either a long range laser, or a beam saber of some kind.

Both Heero and Quatre studied the pictures for a long time, deducting all they could from the poor shots.

The Arabian pilot glanced over at the stoic Japanese boy.

"We have to go up there." He said quietly. "….We know this isn't OZ, and if these attacks continue, they could be scared away from their mobilization preparations." Heero nodded slightly without looking at him.

"…..tomorrow, 16:00 hours." He said after a moment. Quatre nodded, and went to inform the others.

…

Quatre didn't know how Duo would react to the sudden change of plans, and he dodged into Wufei's room to wake the Chinese pilot first. After he'd gotten up, a grim determination filled Wufei's eyes as the blond explained everything in detail.

"Good…." He said, moving about the room to get prepared, even though they had several hours before they moved out. It was just enough time for Trowa to return from his mission.

Quatre worried a bit that the Heavyarms pilot might be overly tired, but it couldn't be helped, and he mulled over a few things as he walked down the hall to Duo's room.

Opening the door, he slipped inside. A quick glance around revealed that the room was empty. The bed covers were tousled, looking half slept in, which was the case.

Quickly going back outside, and down the hall, he once again peeked into Wufei's room.

"Did you see where Duo went?" He asked.

Wufei paused in strapping his leg holster on, surprise in his eyes.

"I thought he was still sleeping." He replied, finishing the move, and walking to the door. Anxious at what he hoped had not happened, Quatre walked at a barely controlled pace back to the room he'd left Heero in, who was back at his lap top, typing up the specifics for their self appointed mission.

At the harried look of the Sandrock pilot, he knew something was wrong.

"What?" He asked simply. Quatre took a deep breath.

"Duo's missing"

A quick sprint to the hangar confirmed their worst fears. Deathscythe was gone, its launch pad cool to the touch, meaning he'd left long ago.

Cursing the fact that he'd heard nothing, Heero ran to Wing, hopping into the cockpit. Closing the hatch, and bringing up the radar screen, Heero wasn't surprised to see nothing of him still within a two hundred mile radius of the compound.

"K'so…." He muttered, popping the hatch with a faint hiss of hydraulics. Both Quatre and Wufei had followed him, the little blond wide eyed, the dark haired pilot dour.

"He's not here." Heero needlessly confirmed as he slipped from the gundam to the ground.

"He's gone to space…"

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Ehehehe…so I've been away for a while. *bows* Gomen nasai!!

I want to keep this story going, and because I've had a sudden burst of inspiration when it comes to writing, I'm using it for as long as it lasts. Because of this burst, I'm working on over three stories at once, so if I could borrow some patience from someone else, I would appreciate it.