$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Cause and Symptoms:

Prologue- The Cause

By ReddAlice

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Author's Note: The song Megalomaniac heavily inspired me, and this is the product. Please give it a shot, and review (questions, comments, opinions *thoughts*)! This is my reintroduction into fanfiction.net! After this I will start posting regularly, along with updates on my more popular fics like Sensei!, NMYG, and my Escaflowne fic Make Me Real.

Warning: I can't say where this will go, but I can say for the prude, none of my work is for you. Duo isn't typical; he's got an unusual attitude for good reason.

Pairings: I hate it when authors give away their stories.

Declaimer: [Located at the end of the fic]

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

The Prohibition

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Heero felt the liquor burn down his esophagus and warm his insides. Vodka was inexpensive, and easy to come by on L2, most of it he came to understood was plundered from cargo bays on large ration vessels heading for more lucrative colonies by the few remaining pirates. From there it was distributed to black market dealers who sold it for dirt cheap under the counter. L2 was under a prohibition. No Alcohol. It was supposedly to help maintain order by stripping the fuel that fed mindless violence, however, it only recreated it on a larger scale.

Looking down at the small amount of vodka swirling at the bottom of the bottle, Heero closed his eyes and tossed back the rest. The world was numbing, and his skin tingled. When his eyes opened they anchored on the streets below. Heero was sitting on the ledge of a skyscraper, one of three at the colony's heart. When the cluster was first constructed they were a key marketing point, printed on every postcard and every commercial: Come to L2 were the technology touches the stars! Now... no one would piss on it to put a fire out if there were a thousand guiltless children burning.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Steam rose off the Nooksack River's rusty water, mounting up around the steel frame of its namesake bridge. On the brittle metal guardrail, holding a bar above head, hanging his torso above the angry waterway stood Duo. He stood there smiling a lopsided grin, his hair hanging around his face, torn from its woven tail. "The water's so dirty."

Heero nodded. "Pollution."

Duo stuck his nose out and inhaled the noxious air. "Nothing could live in it, nothing is alive in that water. There isn't any uncontaminated body of water to cleanse it. Remind you of any place, Heero?" Heero ebbed closer to the rail, and looked down at the swirling colors of the river through the light of the hazy moon. "It reminds me of the colonies."

Clenching his fist, Heero watched the Nooksack roar, he didn't need to look to Duo to understand. Duo wanted to go home. Duo was leaving him.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

If he dropped the bottle would it kill someone? Would anyone notice? Would the body of the nameless creature below make headlines? Or would it be shuffled to an incinerator? The Incinerator. It had been a gift from Earth to help purge the compiling corpuses in the gutters. Heero dropped the bottle; it soared down 30 floors before hitting the ground with a nova blast of microscopic glass shards. If it hit anyone, no one would have had time to scream. If he were lucky, it would strike Duo upside the head and knock him dead.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

It was barely noon when screams irrupted in the bedroom. Heero had taken the earliest flight to L2 to consult Duo about the news being covered live on every radio and TV channel. The representatives were meeting, Quatre Winner and Wufei Chang among them. Instead of turning on the television, they tore into the bedroom like an F-5 tornado, clothes and sheets soiling the red carpet. In bed, they weren't enemies, nor were they comrades who hadn't laid eyes on each other for months, they were heavy lidded and primal beasts.

It was hours before the fell unconscious; the only thing touching meaningless legs sprawled over the others.

Heero woke late the next morning when he heard Duo moving in the bathroom, refreshed, and amused. He jauntily climbed from the bed and stalked to the bathroom like a predator. He was up for another round.

Instead of finding a bright eyed, scantily clad lover he ran face first into an immaculately dressed man, his hair done tightly in a no-games braid. "Sorry Heero, I gotta run. You can stay here if you'd like, but I have business I gotta tend to."

"Where are you going?"

"To Earth, I have tickets. I'm a civilian speaker at the meeting tomorrow." Duo brushed his braid behind his back and slid passed Heero, cautious not to bump into him. "I'll see you around."

Heero's brow twitched. "How long have you had plans to leave?"

"I've had the tickets for a week. Quatre asked if I would give a speech representing the civilians of L2. And that's me... a civilian."

He hadn't bothered to tell him, he was just going to up and leave. "When are you coming back?"

Duo shrugged, opened his bedroom closet, pulled out a small pre-packed suitcase and walked to the door. It was perfect blow-off executed. "I don't know, couple weeks... months." Duo rested his hand on the doorknob, his eyes on the ground. "When I feel like it." With that he left, the door automatically closing even before his silhouette had disappeared around the corner. Duo left him.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

"At 10 this morning in New York City, in a close-to-the-public meeting, the a council joined together to discuss the decline of the colonies and resolutions to save the millions of people who sleep amongst the stars. It was a passionate debate, and several times mikes had to be cut to keep communication on a stable level.

At a quarter till 2, civilian speakers were given the option to support, interrogate, or defend their native cluster to the council as representatives of the populace.

As you can see behind me, citizens have gathered to protest the public's exclusion in this important litigation, but their earlier chants were silenced when Vice Foreign Minister Dorland spoke. Here is a clip."

"To keep violence for erupting, and maintain peace, and orderly conduct, I moved to keep our discussion and vote closed to the public. After a decision is made and the life and colony quality has been brought up to standard through necessary actions, we will reconvene, everyday people will be admitted, and the ballot will become public to those registered to the colonies."

Right now we're waiting for word of the final decisions. Ones that will affect us all."

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Heero stood up, his body turgid from the Vodka's quick consumption. He swayed, and in his vision the milieu pulsed in time with his heart. Nothing had gone the way he had hoped...

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

"At 5pm today, Relations President Eva Palla made the announcement."

"Decisions were made, and they were difficult, and some harsh... but before I release what was unanimously determined, I would like to say, we must take necessary steps to preserve the peace and health of our worlds that so many young soldiers died to protect. It's important that we put preservation first, so we don't fall to decay that polluted the hearts of so many children and people and eventually... resulted in war, and death.

All colonies will be under lock down. Passes will be distributed for limited travel in cases of emergency, and help will be sent in the form of money, rations, and supplies to bring construction up to pair. Weapons, drugs, and alcohol will be seized and prohibited to bring violence under control, there will be no tolerance and acts of such will be punished without discrimination. All of this effective as of next week under the: Sanitation Act 470.

I ask that everyone be as cooperative as possible, and things will go over quickly and smoothly."

"That was Eva Palla, and I am Rini Tatsu for your International Relation's report at 6 signing off. Let us all pray that things go well."

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Bile rose in Heero's throat. Why was Duo such close-minded? Wasn't he the man who preached tolerance?

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

"Heero..." Duo was frozen in the doorway, his eyes wide. "You're still here." A woman was with him.

"You said I could stay as long as I wished." Heero said starring. "So I did."

Duo shrugged, and nervously rubbed his neck. "Well... Uh, Keli this is Heero, Heero this is Keli Winner. She's a relative of Quatre's, and an active colonial rights activist." It was another term for terrorist who justified their actions by the New Constitution, a pirate. "Hey, man... can I talk to you for a sec?"

Heero nodded his accent and followed Duo the bedroom.

"Heero, why did you stay? Why don't you go home."

"I live were you do."

"I haven't lived here in 4 months! You've been here this whole time? Don't you think that's a little messed up?"

"What are you doing with her? She's trouble."

Duo shook his head, his anger piquing. "No, she's going to help save the colonies. It's oppression, Heero! We fought for peace and freedom and now their turning our sweat into blood! They're threatening what we worked for, and if I have to go to war again... I do it... and I'll do it again, and again, and again... and again if I have to! I'm not going to be told I can't carry a riffle, that I can't drink a shot of whisky if I wanted to."

Heero raised an eyebrow, "You don't drink."

"That's not the point, Heero. I'm not going to take it up the ass, and if you don't want to help save these people... these people who are being killed on the street by trigger-happy-gun-slinging Preventers, kids who were weaned on our stories, in the name of Sanitation Act whatever-the-fuck, then you better run... Because not even you can stop me from cleaning up the blood they spilt with their mangled bodies." Heero was floored; Duo was passionate, his eyes glistening.

"You just don't want peace, you don't know what to do with yourself, Duo."

"I want peace, but peace and freedom ain't free, man! It takes a blood price; it may as well be theirs and mine. Don't you have a heart for the babies dying out there in the womb? Our are you as cold and dead as people say." Duo laughed. "Heero, help us. If anyone can fix this, we can, but we have to want to!"

"I'll help you Duo, but not your cause."

"Then I don't want you're help, Heero, I hope you rot in your self-righteousness, you inept fucker, get out of my home. Go back to Earth."

So Heero left Duo.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

A war cry ran like a torrent through the youth, and kids were quick to enlist under a Gundam Pilot, the pilot of Shinigami, the Angel of Death. They didn't know the only gift he could give was a burden to the families that lost their youngest to an underground resistance called the Colonial Rights Activists. Dressed with red and black bands on their right arms, they were educated and trained by Duo Maxwell and company to destroy and preserve the colony. To man weapons that were created and hidden in the base reserve inside the core of each colony in case a time arose. To add fuel to the rampant flames, the cluster government condoned such acts of patriotisms. The kids were where gonna die were saluted in school, and the last time Heero saw Duo Maxwell, he was on the news after a civilian Preventer cruiser was taken down before they could announce their purpose. They were missionaries in a relief effort to put suave on the gaping wounds of the public, Duo had spat at them, and announced that colonies weren't earth's problem, and declared the colonies a separate nation. Shortly after, Duo was elected one of three leaders to help move the revolution.

He sneered, his cobalt eyes smoldering. Did Duo think he was just going to take it up the ass? There was a big misconception about the soldier named Heero Yui. It was rumored he was inhuman, bred for battle. It was gossip in the brigs of Preventer academies that he was even a cyborg, incapable of understanding human emotions. It was even whispered that he had fallen out of touch with his humanity when he was shot in battle, that when the bullet pierced his chest it disabled his heart and the beating organ rotted in his chest leaving him without pity, mercy, or remorse.

Heero would kill this faux revolution, and he would bring people back to their senses. He would save the kids Duo swore to protect and now sacrificed by the dozen. He would end this war before the next beat of his heart; the Duo he loved was dead. When he was shot in the chest, and the bullet pierce his heart... it shot Duo between the eyes. It was time to help 'Duo's Cause. '

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ To BE Continued

Disclaimer: The Nooksack River and place described is actually a place right outside my town. AS FOR - Shin Kidousenki New Mobile War Chronicle Gundam Wing A.C. was created by Hajime Yatate & Yoshiyuki Tomino and is licensed to Bandai Entertainment, Sunrise, and Satsu Agency and others.