Part Eight

"Middie is working for Duo?!" Wufei clutched at the edge of his desk with both hands in an effort to hold himself steady. "You had better be pretty damn certain of that, Fire!" He hadn't any need for confirmation of Noin's statement, though; it was plain to see from her face that she was certain -- and that she was also hesitant about reporting those facts to him.

"Don't do anything rash." Noin sounded calm and rational (and, to Wufei's ears, damn sanctimonious). "The situation is under control."

Wufei narrowed his eyes. To Noin, perhaps, the situation was under control -- preparations were doubtless already underway to return Duo to the loony bin, this time under lock and key. "What about the officers previously sent out to find him?" Wufei demanded, determined to make his point and get himself out there and involved with the situation. "Duo was able to elude them…" He trailed off as Noin flinched slightly and gave herself away: Duo had done more than simply elude capture, he had disposed of the agents sent after him. And as it had been an inside Preventer event Une had had control over who heard of it. Obviously, no one had trusted him with that information.

"The situation is under control," Noin repeated more sternly. "You are not coming out here, Smoke, get that idea out of you head right now. I have the backup assistance I need to apprehend the targets. You are needed with the Vice Foreign Minister in case anything unexpected occurs. Do you understand?"

Wufei drew a deep breath and let it out slowly before allowing himself to respond. "Yes. I understand." But that doesn't mean I'm going to obey your orders… He just somehow knew that he had to go out there. "Who is your backup? They had better be good; they'll need to be."

"They are." Noin hesitated momentarily, her eyes dropping to the floor. "Pilot 01 has made a reappearance and will be aiding me in the raid."

Wufei was so stunned that for a moment he actually did not believe his ears. Heero had revealed himself to Noin and was going to assist her in getting Duo back under control? Impossible. Then he leaned limply back into his chair and shut his eyes. Disastrous. He had to go now; he had to…to warn Duo…

"Signing off." He punched the button on the comm unit to terminate the communication and then just sat a moment, numb. He was disgusted with himself. He was actually planning on violating his probation and betraying the organization he worked for, for a second time. And he was going to do it to protect someone he didn't even agree with! When had he gotten to be so wishy-washy, so squeamish? "What the hell's wrong with me?" he groaned into his hand. "What in the hell is wrong with me?"

===

It was almost noon. Wufei was almost frantic; he hoped he wasn't too late, but it had taken him that much time since Noin's last communication to get there. He didn't see Noin or Heero anywhere around, but he didn't expect to; naturally they would be well hidden -- either that or they were already in the building, taking over.

Either way, Wufei had finally decided he didn't care. It had taken him his entire journey, but he had come to the conclusion that he no longer cared about whether or not he was throwing away his future so long as his conscience was clear. And though he didn't understand it, this was the only way to keep it clear.

He ran up the steps of the Carnivale Playhouse and into the building. His hand was resting on the hilt of his gun, just in case. He ignored the queue he was supposed to use to get inside and easily bypassed the tubby security guards who tried to stop him from barging his way in there. "Duo!" he yelled as he sprinted along, not giving a damn who heard him or what they thought of him. "Duo!"

He was following the same intuition that Noin had done the previous day and was working his way backstage when Heero stepped out of the shadows, aiming his gun point blank at Wufei's chest. "I expected you'd show up," he said coldly. "Three times a traitor."

"At least I have my honor," Wufei growled as he lunged past Heero. He heard the gun go off and felt a bullet graze the top of his shoulder, taking a small nick out of him as it went. Heero's mistake: any secrecy that he might have hoped for would certainly be gone now. Duo would be ready for them. Wufei fired blindly behind him in return and picked up his pace.

There were stairs ahead, some leading up and others down. Wufei chose down, continuing to yell his warning as he went. He couldn't tell if Heero was close behind him or not. There was a hallway stretching away from him at the bottom of the stairs, dimly lit but seemingly well used -- either storage space or dressing rooms was Wufei's guess. Whichever, neither mattered, because finally -- finally, Duo was there, alive and prepared for trouble. There were others with him, too, people whom Wufei had never seen before, but all of them were armed; and it was this group of people who began running up the hall toward him. Wufei thought for a moment that they were charging him -- but no, they were going past him, up the stairs to meet Heero's ambush. It was Duo who, smiling, came for him, wrapping him up in a brotherly hug and thumping him on the back. "Thank you," he said, over and over again, but Wufei wasn't sure whether he was the one Duo was thanking or not.

"You've got to get out of here," Wufei panted.

Duo nodded, turning serious at Wufei's words. "Yeah," he admitted, "everything's starting a lot sooner than I thought. -- But it's nothing, everything will be okay. We'll get out; the guys know where to meet me. We're gonna start this thing today and by the time we're finished everything will be fine. Better than fine, even!" He grinned again, the cheeky smirk Wufei was used to seeing from their Gundam pilot days. "Follow me."

He led Wufei through the tiny web of corridors underneath the old colony theater, out of the maze and into a tiny lot outside -- presumably where the actors and stage crew would have gone during their breaks for a breath of fresh air. A wave of relief washed over Wufei, leaving him a little wobbly-legged. His giddiness was short-lived, though, because the sound of shots and shouting from inside quickly drew him back to reality. Sirens were also beginning to sound in the distance.

"Will they be all right in there?" he whispered.

"It's two against twenty and we knew they were coming. Out soldiers aren't trained really well yet, but they know enough to get out of there without too much fuss or blood. Besides, they've gotta get used to fighting Preventers sometime. Now come on -- it's the two of us I'm worried about. I'm the real target here and your being with me isn't exactly going to look good for you either, you know."

Duo started walking again, briskly. Wufei hesitated only a second, to check the wound on his shoulder. Fortunately, it wasn't at all serious; some antiseptic ointment and bandages and it would be fine in about a week. He touched it gingerly, and though his fingers came away sticky, his shirt had done quite a good job of staunching the blood. He hurried to catch up with Duo.

"Where are we going?" Wufei asked, looking around.

"You'll see. Now shut up, I think someone's found us." Wufei listened, and sure enough, on the other side of the walled-in lot, the side of the main street, footsteps were racing towards them. "Trying to cut us off at the entrance," Duo hissed. "Of course, it figures… We'll just have to do our best, there's no other way out."

He started running, and Wufei followed, listening to their pursuer do the same on the other side of the wall. Up ahead, at the corner, the cement wall became a chain-link fence and had a gate leading out into the back alley. Duo reached it a few paces before Wufei did and began fumbling it open, just as Heero appeared at the head of the alley.

"Clever, Heero!" Duo called to him. "Find the other exit and block it, huh? Well sorry, pal, but it ain't going to work this time."

"Shut up, Duo."

The gate swung open and Duo walked out, ignoring Wufei as he stomped up towards Heero. "You have a gun to make me? Funny, doesn't look like it. Did you lose it inside or something? Did my guys surprise you a little bit, maybe? A bit better than you expected, huh? Now get out of my way."

"Damn it, Duo -- you're crazy and I'm not going to let you ruin this world!"

"You don't have a weapon. You can't kill me." That was it; Heero sprang forward like a tiger going for its prey. Duo met him head on, and though they wrestled for a few minutes, neither got much headway against the other until Duo called Wufei over to help. Even with his shoulder hurt, with two against one the advantage was, for once, not on Heero's side. As Duo released his grip on Heero's neck the ex-pilot sagged to the ground, unconscious. Duo sighed and stepped backwards, leaning against the wall to catch his breath.

"He just doesn't get it, does he?" he asked sadly of Wufei. "He just doesn't get that we're both fighting for the same thing. I'm not trying to ruin the world, Wufei," he said, turning to his friend with an almost desperate look on his face. "I'm trying to make it the best that it can be… This is just the only way. This is the path that I've been led to."

Wufei shifted uncomfortably, as the time came yet again for him to play Devil's Advocate. "Can you prove that?" he asked quietly.

"What?"

"I asked if you can prove it," Wufei repeated more firmly. "Look, Duo… I've been running around here playing both sides of this stupid game like a lunatic, trying to make sure no one I care about dies or gets hurt. That needs to stop, right? I can't fight both sides. I've tried to convince myself that what you're doing is wrong and that what you're saying is crazy, but practically despite myself I just keep on getting dragged back over to you. So I need to know for sure if you're doing the right thing."

Duo just stared at him.

"You've got to admit that some of what you're talking about is pretty damn far out there! This isn't just some kid asking, 'Okay God, if you exist, let me find a quarter over this next hill' -- this is life and death, this is a fucking war you're starting! I'm just asking you to show me how you're on the moral high ground here, and if this divine presence is really talking to you and guiding you that shouldn't be beyond you." When Duo still said nothing, it was all Wufei could do to keep himself from taking him by the shoulders and shaking him until he answered. "Don't you get it?!" he shouted, "I'm telling you that I'm willing to give up everything I've got if you can just prove to me that you're right! Just prove it to me."

Duo shook himself a little, as if rousing himself from sleep. He looked indecisive for a minute and then told Wufei, "You don't want that."

"What?! Duo, yes I do! I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want the proof, if I weren't killing myself trying to figure it out on my own!"

Defiant, Duo stood up and demanded, "Well what if it kills you to know and that's just the way it is? What then?"

Wufei was slightly taken aback by the ferocity of Duo's words, but he drove on. "Then at least I'll know if I'm right or wrong."

Duo was pacing back and forth, a nervous frown creasing his forehead. Doubt began to settle in Wufei's stomach, along with a burning disappointment. "It's not up to me," Duo said, and Wufei suddenly realized, He can't do it. He's basing all this on air.

But then he went on, "I don't know when it'll happen, Wufei, and honestly I wish it wouldn't, but like I said I can't control it. So just know that it will, okay?"

"When?"

"I don't know! Too soon, that's all I can say. Is that good enough for you?"

===

Wufei sank into the cushioned shuttle seat and leaned back against the headrest while Duo settled in next to him. "You really are something," he remarked, somewhat disapprovingly, but Duo only laughed.

"You got that right, buddy! Anyway, I don't see you refusing free passage off-colony."

Wufei didn't bother to respond; there was nothing for him to say -- Duo knew perfectly well that he was in control and that for the moment Wufei was simply following him.

"It's lucky we're getting off this quickly," Duo continued, "They'll be stopping everything in a couple of hours, trying to find us."

"It won't take them long to figure out where we've gone, either," Wufei countered. "Noin -- and Heero especially -- aren't stupid, it won't take them long at all to connect us to the stolen tickets. You'd better have a plan, Duo. A good one."

"They're only going to be able to trace us into the L-2 cluster; they're not going to be able to stop all travel between the colonies of a single cluster, that would be impossible. They'll never be able to find us until we're ready for them."

"Hm. We'll see." Wufei was silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity got the better of him. "Duo…" he asked slowly, "why are you so against my having proof that you're right?"

"You just don't give up, do you?" Duo sighed. "Why are you so adamant about having it? After all, no one else who's with me has any more proof than you do right now, they're just with me because their beliefs and their faith tell them to."

"None of the other pilots seem to have joined up with you and your faith," Wufei retorted. "In fact, they seem rather set against it, don't you think? Of the five of us, you and I are the only two on this side -- and you've got your proof, you're the one talking to this thing! Look…maybe we're just two different sorts of people. I've come this far for you on blind faith, Duo, now I just need to know that I'm doing the right thing."

Duo hunched over in his chair, thoughtfully, his eyes faintly troubled. "Do you remember," he asked, lowering his voice further so no one could overhear him as the shuttle began to fill up, "when you asked me why I was the one being spoken to? I told you that it might be because I was the one who was willing to listen. Well… I've been doing a lot of thinking since then, especially since so many people began joining my cause, and I'm beginning to think that I'm the only one He talks to because I'm the only one He can talk to, you know?" He paused, thinking over his last words. "That sounds like such a cop-out. Have you ever read the Bible?"

"Only a little."

"Well, there's a famous prophet written about in there named Moses -- and he's famous because he's the only one of his people who can talk to God face-to-face. Now, I'm not trying to say I'm a second Moses or something…but it seems possible that maybe there are only ever a few people in the world that can actually stand to have this sort of communication going on inside of them, and anyone else would be hurt or killed by it. I don't think you're taking that risk seriously."

"Maybe I'm not," Wufei admitted, "but this is something I need to know before I go any farther helping you. I think that's reasonable."

"I guess we'll see." Duo laughed, but the sound lacked conviction; he was still nervous.

Wufei found himself annoyed by Duo's continued reluctance over the matter and to avoid talking about it further announced, "I'm going to sleep."

===

The arrival on L-2 and the jump to U3446 went smoothly. They were taken there, to Wufei's surprise, by Duo's old friend Howard, who had apparently decided to throw in his lot with Duo once again. On the colony, Duo waved goodbye to Howard and again took the lead, steering Wufei through the winding streets until they stopped short in front of an old, rundown Laundromat. "Welcome to our base of operations," Duo told him and opened the grimy door.

It was almost empty, except for an old lady sitting in front of one of the washing machines and a middle-aged, balding man behind the counter. Duo waved at him as they walked past, and led Wufei over to a door marked Employees Only, which opened onto a set of stairs down to the basement.

They were the only two people down there, but the floor was strewn with mattresses and other signs of human occupation. "You live down here?" Wufei asked, incredulous.

"Those of us who have nowhere else to go, sure. It's big, it's comfortable enough, it's soundproof. No one knows we're here, what better place is there?"

Wufei walked slowly around the space, and had reached a large, somewhat clumsily constructed radio when Duo grabbed him and spun him around. His eyes were wide and feverish and he demanded excitedly, "Are you ready?!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than suddenly all Wufei's awareness was taken up by a loud roar, as if some door in his consciousness had just opened up and this sound was suddenly free to rush in. It was as though there was no room inside of him for anything else, and the pressure beating outwards against his skull was enormous. And rather than ebbing away it seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment until it was almost unbearable and spread to encompass his entire body. Wufei was almost certain that he was about to explode; everything hurt so badly he couldn't even see… There weren't even spots or pricks of light in front of his eyes, there was just black, empty space all around him.

Before long, it began to seem as though Wufei had been there his entire life. He had always been feeling this pain, always been listening to this indescribable thunder. Perhaps there had never even been any place but this black hole he was in…

When Wufei finally came to himself, he was kneeling on a cold tile floor in front of a toilet, throwing up. His muscles kept seizing up, cramping and then relaxing and spasming. He was soaking wet, from sweat and tears and he didn't know what else. Never had Wufei felt so out of control of his own body in his life; and when his arms and legs could no longer support him he collapsed into a boneless heap on the floor.

===

He woke up lying on his back on a mattress. The events immediately preceding his loss of consciousness did not come instantly to mind, but drifted back to him slowly and dimly, as if they had been a part of a past life or a dream. It was…completely and utterly surreal.

Wufei opened his eyes, and there was Duo on a stool beside him. He shrugged one shoulder and heaved a sigh. "There's your proof, pal." He shrugged again. "Sorry."

"That's your God?" Wufei asked loudly, but his voice only came out as a harsh rasp. "That's your God telling you to fight this war? How the fuck did you get that message out of that feeling?" And then, much more importantly, "How do you live with that?"

A wince. A short chuckle. "It's…different for me. I guess it's like I told you, there are only some people who can live with it. It's just not as rough on me as it obviously is on you. I mean, quite frankly, I think it would kill a lot of people on the spot. I'm not surprised the last Moses we hear about is from who-knows-how many thousands of years ago. I dunno. I can read that, though. And -- you know, I bet if you concentrate really hard, Wufei, I bet you can too."

Wufei shuddered involuntarily. "I wouldn't want to."

"There's more behind what I'm doing than just that, though. People aren't joining me just because they believe God's talking to me, you know. They're coming in because I'm right. You live on the Earth, Wufei, where the Preventers are. You don't know what it's like up here in space anymore. That's why you fought before -- because you knew what it was like. You had knowledge and understanding that the people living on Earth didn't. You've lost that now. So let me fill you in a bit." Duo took a long, deep breath, and Wufei was content to just lie back and listen for a while.

"Okay. To start. You and me, and everyone you know -- we all know that Quatre Raberba Winner is a good guy, right?" Wufei raised a brow. He didn't know how anybody could believe that Quatre was anything else. "Exactly. But the problem is, a few years down the road, what about the guy who inherits all his cash? His business? His power? Is there any guarantee that the next person who gets all that is going to be as selfless as our Quatre? No way, especially seeing as the Winner Corporation is family owned and operated. Now, don't object yet, I've got more to say. I know that a few corrupt businessmen are not that huge a deal, especially when the ones we're talking about haven't even cropped up yet. The biggie, even with someone as great as Quatre, is the sheer amount of control that his wealth gives him.

"The war wiped everything out. No one's gonna dispute that, right? Practically the only industries that were booming were the mobile suit manufacturers. War's over, they go bust. What the hell is left? Entire cities are in ruins on the Earth and there's no longer an established government to do anything about it. The colonies were falling apart before the war and none of their governments were thriving enough to help out -- how are they supposed to do that after they fought that expensive war? Yet look at the Earth today. And I know what you see the colonies as, too -- sparkling gems and oases in the middle of space, right? Recession's over, rah rah rah? Well come on, Wufei, where'd all that money come from? I can think of three families. Know who they are?"

Wufei nodded uncertainly, still unsure but thinking he knew where Duo's reasoning was beginning to take him.

"The Winners. The Dorlians. And the Peacecrafts. And those last two are embodied in one person and one alone: Miss Relena, former Queen of the World and current Vice Foreign Minister. And the Winners -- well, obviously Quatre's at the head of that one now. Is it a coincidence that they also happen to be the two individuals on the Earth and colonies that have the most power and influence? Come on, a person would have to be pretty dumb to believe that. Do you have any idea how much control those two people have, Wufei? Any idea? Quatre's not technically a part of the government and yet he's more influential than anyone else in the colonies. The colonial governments are so damn scared of doing anything without his approval. And, you know, he's a sweet guy and one of the best people I've ever known…but nobody should have that much power. No one person should be more powerful than the government they live under. That makes sense to you, right? And the way it is now -- and the way it's going to be for the rest of the foreseeable future if we don't do something -- the colonies depend on Quatre Winner. They need him. He has the power to control them. That's not right, and that's why it's such a big deal that the people in Quatre's place years from now might not be such good guys. You see what I'm saying?"

"Yeah… Yeah I can see why you think all this is such a problem, but shouldn't that make your fight be against Quatre and the colonial governments instead of against the Earth?"

"No, because it's not their fault. They can't be any other way with the Earth in position it is. Two hundred years ago, Earth sent the colonies up into space, which automatically put the Earth in the dominant position. It was the Earth governments setting up puppet governments in space with the purpose of using them and controlling them to gain more power on the planet. That 'we're better than you' ideology is still in place, even now that the colonies are supposed to be considered independent entities. I mean, that's what the Eve Wars were fought on, wasn't it? The fact that the Alliance government on Earth was stepping all over the colonies' right? That's why you and I got up in our Gundams; that's why we became pilots. And we won, Wufei. So why aren't things changing? Because despite it all, the Earth is still making that impossible! I know Quatre would break the Winner business up into its different parts and make them all independent companies if he could, but that would be tantamount to a death sentence up here, because he's the one uniting everything and the one who understands everything. He's trying, but even with everything he's doing the gap between rich and poor up here is huge and it's getting bigger every single day. I mean, you've got billionaires running L-4 and then you've got the slums, which are fucking enormous. And a large part of that is due to the fact that the colony economies are stifled by the Earth. The people down there don't get it because for all the colonial diplomats that go down there or whatever, they never come up here. They never see the reality that they're creating. They see Quatre Winner and his company and they think all colony businesses are like that, which is bull. The Earth's feeding itself a load of crap and encouraging the crap that's going on in the colonies.

"It's all going to blow up someday, Wufei -- but if I bring it to a head today, I guarantee you I'm going to save a whole lot of people a whole lot of suffering. This is the only way that the message is going to get through and change things. And, you know, I'm not looking to kill a lot of people or anything like that. We've all seen too much death already. I'm going to make this a quick and painless change for the better. And I have faith that I can actually do that, because I in turn am being guided by someone higher than myself -- higher than any of us, anyone in the world." Duo smiled, and leaned in closer. He seemed truly happy and to truly believe what he was saying. "You see how this all fits in, Wufei? Do you see it? Do you understand?"

Wufei shut his eyes. He thought about the deafening noise that had been in his head before he had lost consciousness. Had that really been God? Could he decipher words in that? It was like nothing he had ever experienced before or heard about from others.

"Yes. I understand. You've proved your point, Duo. I'm convinced."

Just let him be right. Let it be quick and painless. Please…

===========

RRRR. I should not be having this much trouble with the changes FFN's made to their upload system! Random characters aren't showing up, my scene breaks aren't showing up, and I have to figure out substitutes. Well. Hopefully I've got it worked out now.

Anyway! Wow! Sorry I always take so long everyone. (Should I say -- anyone still reading after I vanished for so long?) Look, I just want to say this: I'm not afraid of criticism, and I don't want readers to be afraid to criticize me and my writing. I would very much like to improve, and receiving criticism is one way that I can. I might not be able to promise to agree with your point of view, but I can and do promise not to throw a pissy fit if you tell me that you don't like my story/why you don't like it. I'll even defend you if anyone else tries to throw a pissy fit about what you have to say. (Hehe, in case you're wondering what brought this on, I paid a visit to the ever-infamous "fanfichate" a couple of weeks ago and realized that for certain writers this might not be something that goes without saying.)

Believe it or not, if my fic and my writing sucks, I'd like to know. Because I can't always tell.

Anyhoo, onto Ch. 9.