standard disclaimers apply

Part Four

Wufei realized that he was awake before he opened his eyes. Seared onto his eyelids was the afterimage of a dream. Meiran. She had been shouting something to him, he knew that much, but the words he had either been unable to hear or could not recall. What he could recall was her face, which had been marked by fear. No. More than fear. Terror. He had never seen Meiran afraid, in life, and he had thought that he had put her spirit to rest alongside his Gundam. His stomach tossed and turned on itself; he felt groggy and ill.

There was something ringing. Wufei listened to it for a while before he realized it was his mobile phone. Then, finally, he opened his eyes. He was lying on something hard, the texture rough against his cheek. He sat up. He continued to ignore his phone for a moment in order to take in his surroundings - his mind was still moving slowly, like swimming against the tide. He seemed to be in a warehouse of some sort, the floor unevenly hewn of concrete.

He reached into his trouser pocket, fishing for his phone. His fingers found the tiny hunk of plastic and he absently turned it off. This was what it had come to, then - he and Duo were hiding out in an ancient abandoned warehouse. That must be it.

With his legs unsteady and almost unwilling to support him at all, Wufei eased his way upright. Duo was nowhere to be seen, and for one brief, paralyzing moment, he was afraid that his comrade might have abandoned him or run off alone to cope with the situation. But that wasn't Duo's way - no, he would be there somewhere. Wufei just had to find him.

And when he did find him, he would give him the lecture of a lifetime, too.

What the hell was that idiot thinking? Wufei wondered. There had been absolutely no need to kill that doctor, and doing so had made their situation at least a hundred times worse than it had been. No discipline…no common sense…what did I even waste my time rescuing him for anyway?!

That was going overboard, but it was something to think about while looking for his absent companion. Eventually, he found him sprawled out next to the wall, an arm thrown haphazardly across his face to block out the faint rays of light filtering into the building. Wufei wondered if he should let him sleep. He wondered how long it had been since they had made their escape. He wondered if they should move on to a different location. He was wondering about a lot of things that hadn't touched his mind since the wars.

Things were beginning to come back to him now, but the memories were still a little fuzzy. Mostly it was just a lot of desperately trying to stay upright while he and Duo were getting away. When he hadn't been able to go any farther, they had pulled over into the warehouse, and after that it was just black.

Wufei left Duo for the time being, and made his way to the exit and discreetly out onto the street. There was a vending machine full of newspapers just on the corner; Wufei fished out a bunch of change and slid it into the slot to purchase one. There, right across the top of the front page, was the headline he had been most afraid he was going to see: One Dead as Former Gundam Pilot Escapes L-2 Institution.

"Fuck it," Wufei muttered, feeling utterly defeated. He took the paper and headed back into the protective cover and darkness the warehouse provided, leaving behind the artificial colony sunlight. The article read much the way he had expected it to, full of mixed feelings of confusion, fear, and excitement. Lady Une had made a statement for the press about his behavior, but Wufei noted that it was deliberately vague. He was relieved to see no mention whatsoever of either Sally or Hilde. The other pilots - the ones whose whereabouts were known, that is - had been "unavailable to comment," which Wufei took to be a load of rubbish, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. Somewhere, somehow in this big mess, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

After the wars had finally given way to peace, a big ruckus had been made by the public to know the identities of the five mysterious Gundam pilots, who some considered "saviors" and others simply terrorists. The information had eventually leaked along with the names of all the other soldiers in the war, but by that point everyone save Quatre and Wufei himself had been so safely steeped in anonymity that it was soon passed over in favor of other, more pressing news.

The acceptance that had greeted the two ex-pilots in the public eye had surprised Wufei for months - but it seemed that people finally were truly ready for peace. Quatre had held a few press conferences in the wake of the leak, where his charm and sincerity were largely successful at smoothing ruffled feathers. His popularity seemed undimmed by the revelations. Wufei had been cornered by journalists a few times in the early days of the story unfolding, but having been so smoothly assimilated into the Preventers he was boring enough to be largely overlooked. His image did not sell stories the way Quatre's did. He had a feeling those days might be over, now.

"What're you reading?" Duo's voice floated towards him, still thick with sleep and exhaustion. Wufei raised the paper and pointed out the article.

"You didn't have to kill that woman," he said pointedly.

Duo sighed. "Don't start lecturing me, Wufei, okay? I did what I had to do."

"How was that necessary?" Wufei exploded. "We were out. We were out! That woman was, what, petty revenge? Really, what do you consider it; I would like to know."

"I consider it none of your business, actually."

Duo's snide tone did nothing for Wufei's choppy temper. "Don't be an ass, Maxwell," he growled. "I was there, too. This lands on both of us. Do you get that? You committed murder. You murdered a civilian. A woman."

Duo leapt to his feet, pacing in a tight circle, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "Fine, yes, I did. I did. You weren't involed in Cummings' death. If you're that concerned, I'll drop a letter to the press abut it, clear it all up for you."

This was fast about to descend into yet another fight. Wufei had to work hard to suppress the urge to get to his feet and let his fists do the talking. He occupied his hands with the newspaper instead, re-folding it and then rolling it up as tight a tube as he could. Retreating into cold rationalism, he continued, "It's going to play against us in public opinion. It gives colony officials reason to press charges, on top of the infamy that we'd already have had to deal with from this escape."

"Look, Wufei, I'm sorry I killed Cummings, okay? Is that what you want to hear? Fine. You've heard it. And thank you for your help yesterday; it goes without saying I couldn't have done it without you, but if you're starting to have some doubts about helping me out here, maybe you'd better go turn yourself in now, because I can tell you straight off that this ordeal isn't over yet."

Wufei felt cold all of a sudden, like all of his blood had suddenly frozen in his veins. "What exactly are you suggesting?" he asked quietly, and even he didn't like the way his voice sounded. There was a familiar cagey look in Duo's eyes. Wufei stared him down, implacable.

"They're gonna be looking for me - for us. They probably are right now. Like it or not, we're criminals again, Wufei. Well I don't plan on letting them catch me. Now I'm out of that place, I can do what I'm supposed to do."

Wufei's breath quickened slightly, for what reason he couldn't tell for certain. "Hilde said you wanted another war…"

"Yeah? Maybe I do."

"Shut up," Wufei snapped. "You do not!"

"What the hell, Wufei! You said you believed me. And you admitted it yourself, for crying out loud! The Eve Wars did crap for the colonies. We Gundam pilots set out to liberate ourselves and our homes -"

"They are liberated!" Wufei shouted. "Shut up! Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about, Maxwell, so just…shut up."

To his surprise, Duo did. Giving Wufei a last glance, he sullenly paced away, farther back into the dim recesses of the warehouse. Hot tears stung at Wufei's eyes, but he didn't let them fall. He scraped the back of his hand across his face and tried to pull himself together. He would have liked to step back outside into the fresh air, but common sense denied him that particular pleasure.

He was a Preventer agent. It was his sacred duty to protect the peace. He had tried to keep fighting once already, and he saw now the disaster that would have been if he, if the Barton Rebellion, had succeeded. What did Duo think another war could accomplish that hadn't been done already?

But…

What right did he have to be shocked by what Duo was saying? He had said back there, back in that cell, that he believed Duo. What else had he been expecting? Should he have left him to rot? No. Wufei still couldn't believe that. That would not have been justice.

So he was left with this.

When Duo returned some minutes later, the slight echo of his footsteps gave him away. "What is it?" Wufei demanded of him gruffly, though he refused to look up at his approaching friend.

"Look," Duo sighed. "I'm not making any promises; I can't do that when I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do, understand? But the thing is, I can't ask you to fight for anything you don't believe in, so I'm not going to, simple as that. I think it's better if we part as friends now, with the understanding that we might meet again as enemies tomorrow, than to end with one of us stabbing the other in the back because one of us is pretending to believe something we don't."

Standing slowly and turning around brought Wufei surprisingly close to Duo's earnest face. He nodded, and the bitterness that had been building in Wufei's chest became suddenly lodged there much more firmly. "I understand," he said lowly.

"Good." Duo nodded too.

The two of them stood there, for what felt like minutes on end, awkwardly shuffling from one foot to the other, and neither willing to actually say goodbye. Wufei couldn't quite bring himself to meet his friend's eye, until Duo caught him off guard yet again by throwing his arms around him in a warm embrace, which Wufei tentatively returned.

"I'm really sorry," Duo whispered. "For everything. Tell them all that for me, would you?" Unable to say anything around the lump rising in his throat, Wufei just nodded. "And thanks, man, for getting me out of there. I really would have gone nuts if I'd had to stay locked up in that place. And…and…"

There was nothing more to say, except: "Goodbye."

"I'll see you, Duo."

And that was that. With no other words spoken between them, Wufei broke away from the hug, and from there the two of them went their separate ways. Wufei didn't let himself look back as he walked out of the warehouse. He freed his hair from its bindings to help hide his face, and walked slowly back through the L-2 streets to his hotel.

That was where it became tricky. He was able to find the building easily enough after some quick consultations with the colony maps available at just about every gas station in the area, but doubtless the hotel had opened his room up to the police for searching and his possessions would have been taken into custody.

The point of returning there defeated, Wufei continued walking right past it. The only thing that had been there which he might have needed was his passport, but he couldn't very well use his own identity for getting off the colony anyway. The only viable option was stowing away somewhere, on a cargo shuttle or something. Wufei grimaced at the thought - it was something he hadn't done in six years, and he had never enjoyed it, sitting in the cold, dark cargo hold for hours on end, with nothing to do and no way to move or stretch his limbs. It hadn't been an appealing prospect when he was sixteen years old, and now that he was both taller and broader it was even less so. Too bad it was the only way to go.

Once he reached the port it was easy enough to pick an appropriate shuttle and get on board without being noticed, and by the middle of the afternoon, Wufei was in space, heading back towards the Earth, more specifically Strasbourg, just as cramped and cold and uncomfortable as he'd predicted - and in the end more so, because he hadn't eaten since yesterday and had to put up with hunger pangs as well.

Finally, to make a bad day worse, when the shuttle finally landed, at about three o'clock in the morning, the entire city was covered with a thick blanket of fog and rain. By the time Wufei had even managed to creep out of the shuttle port he was soaked. At that point he no longer particularly cared about being recognized, and just waited impatiently for a bus to arrive. Chances were nobody was going to recognize him anyway, with the picture he painted then - soaking wet, utterly disheveled, unshaven, running on two hours sleep… The one thing he didn't want to risk was being caught entering his apartment, which brought him to Sally's instead.

Her home wasn't so much an apartment as half of an ancient townhouse in the historic zone of the city, which had later been divided into multiple properties. The other half of the building belonged to a wealthy elderly woman who rented it out to tourists. The electrical wiring and plumbing were about as ancient as the house was, but there was enough room for a tiny yard outside, which Sally painstakingly made use of.

It took half an hour to get there, even with the practically nonexistent early-morning traffic and otherwise empty bus. Wufei tripped over the steps in the dark, and leaned on the bell without letting up until the outside lamp switched on and he heard someone stirring inside.

"What the hell is it?!" Sally grumbled as the door banged open, and she stood there, glowering and blinking owlishly at the same time. Her mouth formed a tiny "o" of surprise as she recognized him, and she demanded disbelievingly, "Wufei?"

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Sally stepped sideways, allowing him to walk past her. "I'll get you some coffee," she finally managed, turning away and padding towards the kitchen. "Start getting out of your wet things - and for God's sake don't drip on my rug!"

"Typical," Wufei huffed quietly to himself, and began untying his shoes.

True to her word, Sally returned moments later with not only a steaming mug of black coffee but a towel and bathrobe as well. She sent him into the bathroom to change, and didn't press him until they were both seated comfortably at the kitchen table, which Wufei was grateful for. Of course, there was no putting it off forever, and within moments of his sitting down Sally had started.

"I hope you realize that Une's been in conniptions because of you for the past twenty-four hours."

Wufei snorted into his drink. "I can imagine. She hates dealing with the press."

"I'll have you know I was dealing with my own set of worries thanks to you." Wufei grimaced, and opened his mouth to apologize, but Sally wasn't through yet. She cut him off with, "You've planted yourself and Duo all over the news, called the Preventer agency under suspicion, and never once bothered to let anyone know what was going through your head, much less whether or not you were actually all right."

"Sally I'm sorry," Wufei finally managed to cut in.

"Too damn right you are. But I'm still waiting for some answers."

There was a time, once, long ago, when Sally never would have questioned his actions - but that was when he owed his allegiance to nobody and people merely joined his cause. That had been during the war. He couldn't help but admit to himself that he was at least half glad that that time was over.

"I just… I just can't believe that Duo deserved to be in there." The words sounded weak, even to himself. Sally was actually unable to help the incredulous gasp of laughter that escaped her lips.

"So you just decided to help him escape, then, is that it? And kill someone in the process? I suppose you know all this by now, but Une finally managed to get in touch with the clinic. They suspect he has schizophrenia, Wufei. Duo's displaying all the classic symptoms - paranoia, delusions, irrational behavior, and he's right smack in the middle of the age range for men who suffer from the disease to start displaying symptoms. Without treatment, he can only get worse."

"I've just told you that I don't believe any of that. I don't regret my actions. Given the chance to do it over, I'd help him again if I had the opportunity." Wufei stared down into his coffee, watching as it sloshed around in his mug, waiting for Sally's rebuttal. It never came. When he ventured a glance up at her, she was staring blankly past him, out the window, at the rain dripping down the panes. Her mouth was drawn tightly over her teeth, and Wufei noticed for the first time some lines etched in her face.

"Sally…?"

She stood abruptly, the chair she'd been sitting on scraping loudly across the tile. "Wufei, I can't deal with this right now. The police are looking for you and Duo, you know. So are Preventers."

"Are you going to call them?"

"Who, the police? No. You're welcome to spend the night; I'm going to go back to bed. I'm going to call Une in the morning, regardless of whether or not you stay."

"I will," Wufei assented. He'd have to face up to the consequences at some point. He finished off his coffee and went to put the mug in the dishwasher. "And Sally, I really am sorry…for everything."

"We'll worry about it in the morning."

She didn't say he was forgiven, but she did reach out and briefly squeeze his hand. Wufei received the gesture gratefully, reassured he may have weathered this part of the storm. Still, the worst was yet to come.