Chapter 1

It had been two months since the fateful day when Deathscythe had been stranded underwater. He and Duo were, of course, back in action as soon as possible and the five Gundams now had an even more formidable reputation than they did before. Thanks to Wing and Heero all battles proved to be successful. It was still amazing to watch the two, the others all too aware of why they had been chosen for each other and why Heero was described as the perfect soldier. No more rules had been broken, there had been no more deaths or near deaths or even apparent deaths apart from the usual heat of battle stuff.

They didn't talk about that time that much, and when they did were only light-hearted about it, because it had been an awful day for them all, especially for two. Heero and Duo from that day on were best mates, closer than every before. Both were quite surprised, Duo had never had someone get to him this way, even though he had had best mates before. For Heero, it was totally new; he had no idea what he was doing and was still wary, but was worried about how much he had come to depend on the boy, even though he knew there was nothing he could do about it. The five pilots all got on really well and the others had been delighted to see Heero lightening up a little bit and maybe even taking a small amount of pleasure in what he did from time to time. They all knew that they would never get as close as Duo, but part of them didn't care as all of them slowly trained themselves to notice the teeny tiny shows of emotion that showed the scientist's failure.

Talking of that, Heero learned very soon that pasts were not things to be mentioned. Quatre, the one pilot in the group who had not had a bad past, had pointed this out to him. The other four all had, some worse than others and Heero was no exception. He never said anything about it, only went silent when anything came slightly close. Apart from the argument between him and Duo, Heero had never heard, never asked for or even wanted anything more to do with Duo's past if he didn't want it, so almost forgot it, though was still careful about what he said about orders.

He had basically attempted to memory blank that day in the case of orders. He knew that he had broken the most fundamental rule he had been taught all hid life, but then the side of him that Duo had woken told him that it was ok every now and again, when you know that the order is wrong and people will die who don't have to. Even so, he still wasn't sure where the line was drawn, and he put it down to his instincts. Those, too, nobody mentioned. Nobody mentioned the fact that he was too perfect, too strong, agile, quick, in-tune with seemingly everything. All except Duo, of course, who still called him Superman every now and again.

He was still on the very wrong side of Treize, and probably always would be. He didn't care. As long as Treize kept his personal feelings to himself and didn't let them get in the way of a mission, Heero was all right. He was painfully aware of Wufei's situation. After he learned of what Treize had done to Heero, he had redoubled his efforts to get better at the sword. Heero was worried that he would challenge Treize sometimes soon, and prayed that Wufei was as good as he really looked. He didn't want the permanent blood of a colleague on his hands. That was another thing that changed. Duo had been right, he had begun to care. He began to look out for the other four as well as himself and the objective in the Gundam battles. Another thing to thank Duo for.

They had gone to school, the same school the girls went to. Heero found the girls extremely annoying. Especially Relena, who had developed a "crush" on him, according to Duo, who found it all highly amusing. She would be following him around the whole time, making dumb comments and giggling incessantly. Apart from her, school was ok. The five pilots tended to keep to themselves, and they were under strict undercover conditions. There were to be no talking about the Gundams anywhere on school property. Heero actually had to stuff Duo's braid in his mouth to stop him sometimes, either that or hit him.

They were, at the moment, all at the beach. Well, running towards it. The five of them carried their jackets over their shoulders; their training uniform on. This mainly consisted of combats, black, and a vest that was white. They reached the shingle beach and chucked their stuff on the floor. Duo pulled his vest over his head, looking over at the rest. Trowa had stripped to a pair of boxer trunks that he was wearing, Quatre in Speedo's. Wufei entered in his trousers due to "religious reasons", and Heero. Duo smiled as he remembered when he had first come across the black Spandex cycling shorts that he wore when training. He had to go out of the room for a minute. They weren't exactly baggy, let's leave the explanation to that. Heero was now in them, and as he turned around, Duo noticed, not for the first time, the small tattoo in the middle of the small of his back. It looked like a serial number, and the number was 043.

He pushed it to the back of his mind as first Quatre, and then Trowa gasped as they entered the cold water. Wufei took a flying leap with a cry, and Heero dived in gracefully. Duo took a running jump, yelling with anticipation of the cold as he bombed in.

His head flew up out of the water. Gasping.

"It's freezing in here!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the valley.

"Baka! You landed on me!" Heero said, beside him, shaking the water out of his hair. Duo felt the tingle and quickly looked away to stop him embarrassing himself. His trunks, boxers, now billowed around him in the water. He swam with strong strokes until he couldn't reach the bottom.

"Heero?" he asked, his voice loud. Heero grunted, and Duo, used to it, took it as a confirmation of his existence. "What does baka mean?" There was short silence.

"Rough translation is…idiot." Heero finished, but Duo caught the glimpse of an evil look in his eyes before he turned away. Duo rolled his own eyes, maybe he didn't want to know what it meant, but Heero called him one an awful lot, probably because Duo was now at grade A at the Annoying Heero Awards.

He swam strongly back to where the others were. Trowa and Wufei were fighting gently. Well, maybe not that gently, but it was play. Duo crept up almost silently behind Heero, who was talking, wait, listening to Quatre. With an evil grin on his face, Duo suddenly leapt out of the water, landing with a cry on Heero's back. Heero yelled and the fell into the waist deep water. They shot back up again as Heero stood, Duo still clinging to his back, laughing. The laugh turned to a yelp as Heero twisted and, somehow, he wasn't quite sure how, but he found himself underwater and held there by a hand that seemed rock solid.

He struggled, but it was no use, and he started to run out of air. He tried even harder, but it only succeeded in making him want air more. The familiar panicking rose in his stomach, but just as he thought he was going to pass out, Heero lifted him up, his hands under his arms, so that Duo's face was next to his, his limp body off the ground.

"Do not, ever, do that again, baka." He said, sternly, the evil glare on his face. Duo simply stared at him.

"You…nearly killed me!" Duo spluttered.

"I would not have done. I know exactly when to take you back up again."

"I'm not gonna ask where you got that knowledge from." Duo said, "Now let me go." He added, squirming, though knowing he wasn't going to get out.

"Put him down, Yuy. Even though I'm sure we would all want him dead at times this is not one of them."

It could only be Zechs, and, as Heero set him back down in the floor of the lake, Duo looked over and saw that he was right. The blonde haired masked man was standing by the lake. "Briefing room in five." He said, before stooping and grabbing their clothes before heading back.

"Hey!" Duo yelled, trying to get to him, but he had already gone, his silvery laugh echoing through the valley. "I can't believe he just stole our clothes!" Duo said, staring dumbly after him.

"I'm not complaining." Trowa said, and, sure enough, he was grinning at Quatre, who was blushing when Duo turned around. He looked at Heero and rolled his eyes.

"Lovers." he said, shaking his head, and then they walked out. Heero looked over at Duo. The water trickled down in drips down his chest and his hair was now a dark brown and in a thick, messy plait. He sighed; it would take Duo some time to redo it. He had watched while he had done it before, not that he minded. He loved Duo's hair, and it always made him shudder when it brushed past him. He shook his head in fierce denial, he didn't think like that, because he hated where he thought it would lead to. They squelched through the corridor and were told to go up the back stair by the cleaner. They trudged up and went to dry off and change.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Finally." Treize said simply. The boys were ten minutes late. "I don't want to know." He added as Duo opened his mouth to object. The five pilots now stood in a row in the casual clothes that they wore most of the time before him, Zechs, Noin and Lady Une. Heero was in his now trademark green tank tops which he had the confidence and body to tuck into the Spandex shorts. Under that he wore plain white trainers and trainer socks, his muscular calves shown off to the world. Duo was in his very noticeable outfit. Black. All of it. Black heavy trousers that fell heavily on his black, heavy shoes. His top was a thick, heavy T-shirt tucked into those trousers which were done up by a belt. There were thick white bands on the edge of the sleeves. The collar was the most noticeable part of it. It had a dog collar, like a priest. He pretty much always wore it. Nobody had asked, but when he caught people looking, he simply told them it was a "rebellion against God". Trowa wore light blue jeans tucked into black, elegant boots. Over that he wore a deep navy blue polo neck top, tucked in. Wufei was in large, Chinese style white trousers tucked into the flat, black Chinese shoes he always wore. The trouser came up to his rib cage, a blue belt fastening it up. Under that, on his top was a tight blue tank top, tighter than Heero's and ending higher up his chest. Finally, Quatre wore light brown smart trousers with dark brown shoes. Over this was a pale pink shirt tucked in with a deep blue waistcoat over it. He always looked out of place with the others, but, then again, they weren't what anybody would really consider as "normal".

They now were all looking expectantly at Treize. He took a breath, and then started.

"Right, I am sending you on your first mission with all five of you. We have been noticing a heightened, very large amount of communication between the science guild of L1 and the Alliance HQ. We have suspicions that they are helping making the motion dolls, or even creating an army. You have all heard the rumours. Well, we have reason to believe that this is the HQ of the whole things, and the others were just branches. What we want you lot to do is to get in there, get to know the place. Find information on it, labs if you can, use the computer system, anything you want, just find out if there is anything going on between the two. If there is, show us and we will personally make it our job to destroy it. This is a strict re-con mission and you will only be returning in an emergency or if you have got the data needed. There is to be no shooting, no deaths. First priority is your identities, as usual. If you must take a life, keep it quiet and discreet. Ask Duo or Trowa for tips. Do NOT take Heero's example."

There were a few chuckles and Heero stayed blank. He was now known for his tendency and skill of running in there and blowing the place sky high. Duo had made up a motto: "explode-into-tiny-pieces-that-float-into-space…then ask the questions." "Any queries?" Treize asked.

"When are we going?" Duo asked.

"Tomorrow morning. We are leaving for the spaceport at five in the morning. Be outside the front at four fifty. Do not be late. Any more?"

"Will we be receiving equipment?" Trowa asked.

"Yes but bring your own if you have preferences." Treize answered him. "Any more?"

There was silence. "Good, now get back to your flats and go to bed. Zechs, Noin, make sure they are all in separate rooms."

"We get to go to bed early? Cool." Duo cried as they went up the stairs. His two main hobbies were sleeping and eating. They went up the corridor and said bye to Wufei, Trowa and Quatre before Duo stopped outside his door. He turned to Heero, a frown on his face. "Are you ok, man?" he asked. "You've been quiet…I mean, quieter than usual? Everything ok?"

He got a blank look and then Heero walked off to his own flat. Duo frowned even more. Heero definitely had been quieter than usual, was certainly not telling him something. There was definitely something wrong, but Duo couldn't tell what it was or how he knew, what was different. Something just was. He went in, got into his sweatpants and crawled into bed, his amazing ability to go to sleep in seconds helping him. He was snoring in minutes, dead to the world. Or almost.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

He woke and it was still dark. He groaned, wondering why he had woken. As he heard what had, he realised that he should have known. A yell, a moan, a plead, all coming from Heero's room. Duo now knew better than to go and disturb him, but he had to fight it all the same. Heero sounded like he really was having a hard time, it was louder and more real than it had been the first few times. He really wanted to go and wake him, but he feared for his own life if he did. He jumped and shuddered as there was a final, raw shriek, and then it stopped. Either Heero had woken, or fallen in a better dream in his sleep.

With another moan, Duo realised that he was now fully awake, and it was three in the morning. He sighed, might as well get up and get ready. He wasn't going to sleep again and didn't really want to as Heero's pleads and last shriek were still playing up in his mind. He surprised himself by getting out of bed and turning every single light on in the entire flat. After frowning, he decided that he was actually scared of Heero knowing Duo had heard him. Smiling a little and shaking his head, he went to pack.

He put on his "choirboy" suit as they called it, and then the light gold chain with the large, elegant gold cross on the end hung over it. Then, he packed a few changes of clothes into a small bag along with his toothbrush and stuff like that. Finally, he brushed out his wonderful hair, and plaited it back up into his trademark braid. By the time he had done all of this, it was about four, and he slumped onto the sofa, switching the TV on. There were a few random programmes and some cartoons and he laughed like a kid for a wile before there was a knock on the door.

As usual with this particular visitor it was opened before Duo could say anything. Heero closed it behind him and walked over to sofa as Duo turned to cartoons off quickly.

"Ahem, just, keeping up on the times." He said, grinning a little. Heero was silent. He was in his usual spandex and green tank top, but there was something different. He was even more subdued than he should be. The eyes that had gradually been turning softer were now suddenly cold, and Duo realised how much he had changed while he had been here. This was the old Heero, the one he had saved from the minions all that time before. His blue eyes were dead, nothing in them; they could have belonged to a corpse. "Heero, man. What is up?" Duo asked, trying again. Heero was silent, no grunt not even a shrug telling Duo he was even alive. "Ok, man, you're freakin me. At least show me you're not a comatose."

Heero looked up at him and Duo had to look away. It really was like trying to have a staring contest with a dead body. There was a slightly uncomfortable silence, or was it? Duo looked back over at him for a while, and found Heero just staring at him. Not at his eyes, just him, he was just looking at him and Duo got the impression that talking was not required or wanted right now.

"We have to go." Heero said, suddenly, his voice croakier than it should be, Duo didn't blame it. He got up and went to the door. "Thank you." He muttered, and disappeared. Duo frowned and wondered what the hell had just happened. Working out quite soon that he wasn't going to find out by just thinking about it, he sighed, shrugged and went to collect his things.

He went out of the door and met Heero, who looked away and didn't say anything. They met the other pilots on the way, all looking very sleepy and tired and there wasn't any talking on the way down, not even from Duo. They went to the outside and met Zechs there.

"Right, get in. The car will take you to the spaceport. Good luck, don't get caught and no blowing up of the place." He said, looking at Heero, who answered by looking like none of the world actually existed at all. After he had gone in, Zechs caught Duo by the shoulder and took him away from the car.

"What are you doing?" Duo asked, confused. Zechs turned to him, his ice blue eyes serious and firm.

"Look after him Duo." He said, simply.

"Look after who?"

"Who do you think? We were expecting this kind of reaction from him because we think he has a past from this place. Treize thinks he can handle it but I want you to be there for him, ok? Even if he denies that he needs you, be persistent."

"And if he threatens me with physical harm?"

"You've survived it before. We do not want him going crazy. Do you understand? Duo?"

"Yeah, alright. What do you think is wrong?"

"We don't know, you probably know more than the rest of us."

"I know jack!"

"Exactly. Now go. Good luck. With both assignments."

"I'm gonna need it." Duo muttered, grimacing before he went to the car. He climbed in and shook his head at the questioning glances from all the others apart from Heero. "Let's go." He said to the driver, and he drove the five pilots off into the night.