Shattered
Reality Part 22
Friend or Foe
by
Sailor Janus
Duo plastered a calm look on his face, but deep down he was worried about the outcome of the fight. 'We'll be battling both Heero and Hotaru.... Damn this bites. Why must we fight them? I don't wanna die, but I don't wanna kill them either.'
"Duo? Duo, are you there?"
"Huh?" Duo blinked and glanced up from his cockpit then turned to the video communications screen. "Hey Deej! How's the flying going?" he grinned, feeling slightly better at seeing her glittering jade eyes, wild burgundy curls that seemed to compliment her pretty face and serene voice..
"It's going well. You just seemed to have zoned out for awhile."
"Yeah, just lost in a thought."
Deidra bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah, whatever happens, happens. But I believe, we'll be okay in the end."
"Hope you're right, babe" Duo softly said wishing he could be anywhere at the moment rather than in a gundam.
Deidra smiled sadly at him. With a sigh, she turned her attention to the radar. Oh shit," she gasped with wide eyes. "mobile suits, dead ahead!"
"Uh, did you have to say dead?" Duo winced for a moment before shrugging. "Oh well. Let's go turn them into the soup cans they deserve to be!"
"Wait!" Trista shouted, preventing the L2 teens from charging forward. Rapidly she typed in a few commands to get a better look at the large metal army. "They seem to be splitting into two sectors, each led by a suit piloted by a human. I'm transferring the data to all of you."
"So? Let's destroy them all," Wufei scoffed from inside Altron.
"No! I'm pretty sure it's Heero and Hotaru," Quatre announced as he moved his fingers quickly over a small keyboard in hopes of linking into the cockpits of the two enemy pilots. A brief second later a flash of Heero and Hotaru with a very look in their eyes before the screen quickly went black. "I'm right. They're leading the Daemon Dolls."
Deidra bit her lip nervously. "Think we can handle them all? I mean damn that's a shit load of scrap metal!"
"That's a colorful way of putting it Deej," Duo chuckled.
Quatre examined the two armies of mobile dolls each led by a single mobile suit piloted by one of their friends. He knew it would not be an easy fight and hoped that any drastic measures such as sacrificing oneself would be unnecessary. 'Why must it come to this?' He sadly questioned himself. Pushing the thought away, Quatre studied the two armies once again. The total was approximately 600 Daemon Dolls plus two mobile suits. It certainly wasn't going to be an easy battle. "We'll have to split off into sections. Trista, Trowa, and Wufei will take the eastern sector. Duo, Deidra, and I will take the west leaving approximately 100 dolls for each of us."
"What about Heero and Hotaru?" Trowa inquired with a blank expression on his face.
"We'll have to do what we can," the blonde sighed.
"Yeah. Hopefully they snap out of the damn programming before anyone has to die," Duo said, hating the idea of fighting again to begin with.
"If we have no choice, Maxwell, then we have no choice," Wufei bluntly said.
Duo glared at the sound of the Chinese pilot's voice. "Yeah, well I didn't make any funeral arrangements for anyone so it won't come down to that." Smirking he added, "Now let's go do a little recycling." Immediately the Deathscythe Hell pilot powered up his scythe and charged ahead.
"Duo!" Deidra yelled before launching her Dualblade Gundam towards his direction to follow him. 'Don't you dare pull any suicide mission shit with me, Duo Maxwell or I'm gonna hunt down your ass in the underworld and give you a piece of my mind!' she angrily thought.
Quatre sighed, shaking his head as he put his gundam into gear and raced after his two teammates. Trowa and Trista silently decided they too should go into battle and sped toward the other group of mobile dolls.
"This is it, Nataku. Let's show them the true meaning of justice," Wufei softly said before trailing after the L3 teens.
*~*~*~*
Deidra gritted her teeth, trying to brace herself as a shower of bullets assaulted her gundam. "Damnit. I just got this thing looking all shiny and new and now look at it!" Flipping a switch, she powered up her thermal fans and moved in for the kill, taking out three Daemon Dolls with one swipe. Suddenly, her gundam began shaking as bullets and missiles pounded against the hard metal. 'Good thing this puppy is nearly indestructible,' she decided, firing her own shower of bullets at the seven dolls.
Thrusting the gundam into full speed, she rushed ahead, slicing more with her fans. "Ten down. A hell of a lot to go."
Duo swung his scythe through another set of dolls. "If these things are equipped with Heero and Hotaru's data, then why are they so easy to destroy? Something's not making sense," he muttered with a scowl.
"Don't know, but who are we to complain?" Deidra shrugged as she took out two more dolls. "This is too easy," she whispered pausing in thought "But why…oh shit!" she gasped as two dolls barreled towards her and blasted her gundam with an onslaught of bullets. Quickly she spun out of the attack with a few scrapes on her gundam but was blasted forward as a low grade beam hit her in the back. Deidra shrieked as Dualblade jerked hard, throwing her head roughly against the seat.
Duo turned around and watched in horror as sparks flew from Deidra's gundam. "No! Deidra!" he yelled then threw his gundam into gear. Unfortunately, just as he neared full speed, a doll plowed into him, forcing him away. Duo narrowed his eyes and swiped at the doll with his scythe, but the doll dodged the attack. "Fuck! Get the hell out of my way!" Duo fired a missile at it, but that too was avoided by the doll. In rage he pounded his fists on the controls and blasted bullets at the doll. Metal flew through the air as it blew up, but another doll quickly took it's place, preventing the Deathscythe Hell pilot from helping Deidra who was still getting pummeled. Quickly he hit the intercom. "Quatre, Deidra needs help and I'm getting pissed because these fucking sons of bitches won't let me do anything! Think you can help her?"
Quatre looked at the fury in Duo's cobalt blue eyes and winced. Immediately his gundam was hammered with a shower of bullets, rocking him violently. "Oh no! I'd like to do something, but I'm having a problem as of now too. It seems these dolls know of our gundams' weakness and are using them to their advantage."
"Wonderful," Duo sarcastically said. "So Quatre, what kind of flowers do you prefer on your grave? Lilies, violets, or roses?"
Quatre grimaced. This was not a good sign. It was clear that the dolls may be more than they could handle not to mention there was still the brainwashed Heero and Hotaru to deal with. The odds were definitely against them. "Well Duo, you did say we have gotten good at winning losing battles so let's hope that still proves to be true," he said, slicing through one doll with his heat shoals.
"Right," Duo snorted slamming the back of his scythe into a doll. "Hope the others aren't having as much fun."
"Duo, behind you!" Deidra broke in as a large beam was shot in his direction.
Duo gasped and ducked out of the way. Instead, the beam hit a doll which immediately exploded. Deidra, Quatre, and Duo stared in horror where the doll once was. "Shit! That was intended to kill me!"
"This looks bad. Real bad," Quatre softly said.
"No shit, Sherlock! We're gonna die," Deidra growled as she fired a missile at the doll which tried to execute Duo, but it evaded it and fired one of it's own in return, hitting the shoulder of the Dualblade Gundam. "Oh no. I think I found the mobile suit….and I have a bad feeling that it's Heero Yuy."
*~*~*~*
Trowa twisted out of the range of a missile, prompting it to destroy a mobile doll instead. 'One for one,' he thought firing a missile in exchange towards the threatening doll, destroying the left arm in the process. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Timewarp fired a blaster beam at three charging dolls which immediately blew up with a shower of sparks.
Trista gracefully spun her gundam around, and used the bottom of her staff like a club, smashing an offending doll upon contact. She narrowed her eyes briefly and was slammed by a mobile doll from behind. 'Where did that come from?' she thought as it blasted her with a spray of bullets. Timewarp shook violently then stopped. Trista looked up and found the Heavyarms Gundam shielding her from the assault. "Trowa," she whispered in amazement.
"Are you okay," he softly asked, delivering his own attack to the doll with a hail of bullets. Moments later it exploded in a flash of light.
"Yes. Thank you," she replied. The brief moment ended quickly when several missiles fired by ten mobile dolls hit both gundams. The two L3 teens braced themselves and gritted their teeth as the sound of metal being scraped and dented echoed in their ears. "They're creating formations," Trista said in disbelief.
Trowa nodded bitterly in agreement. "Yes, and from the looks of it, they meant to mislead us into believing that they were programmed to attack in one way when it's actually more sporadic than we could even imagine. Long range, short range, suicidal, even dog fighting tactics. Quite amazing."
"Will you two stop praising Iron Fist's battle strategies and give me a hand!" Wufei grumbled through the vid. cam."
Trowa raised an eyebrow at his comrade. It wasn't everyday that the Chinese pilot pleaded for assistance. "Are you okay, Wufei?"
The Video screen with Wufei's image on it went fuzzy and blacked out for a second. Angry words in Chinese blared through the inner com. "No I'm not okay! I'm fighting 20 mobile dolls and Hotaru Tomoe single-handedly.
"I'd think you to be happy about that, Wufei," Trista said as she fired a round of bullets at three dolls.
"Shut up. I'm almost out of bullets. I have no missiles left and my trident's power level is dropping."
"Okay, we'll be there as soon as we can," Trowa nodded and turned his attention to the mobile dolls surrounding him and Trista. 'Great. How are we supposed to get through these? There had to be at least seventy-five dolls if not more.'
*~*~*~*
Wufei clenched his teeth as his Altron took another blow from Hotaru. 'This is not my day,' he thought firing another round of bullets at the two offending mobile dolls. Suddenly his gundam violently rocked as a beam made contact. It appeared that Hotaru was toying with him, which did not speak well. He slammed his fists against the controls. This was not going well. 'I guess today is the day I'll join you Nataku.'
Abruptly two explosions broke him away from his thoughts. Wufei looked up and recognized his saviors in the forms of Heavyarms and Timewarp. He briefly smiled and said a silent thanks.
Trowa sprayed the mobile dolls with a shower of bullets, throwing a missile in the mix every so often for good measures. He glanced to his left and realized that Trista was using the same maneuver. "Stay clear of the suit. We need to avoid it as much as possible until the brainwashing wears off."
"Understood," Trista nodded. However, just as she switched to missiles, her gundam was thrown. She spun around, and tried to block another attack from the suit. Apparently Hotaru decided to target her now. 'She must have realized that she had weakened Wufei's offensive so now she's going to try the same with me then that way it'll be easier to eliminate us as threats.' Trista flipped back to bullets and made a mental note of the location of the Daemon dolls. "Trowa, I'm going clockwork."
"What? Trista, it's too dangerous," Trowa said realizing which maneuver she was planning. A formation which literally looped one in and out of the center of the of danger, could prove to be deadly.
"Trust me, Trowa. Watch my back," Immediately Trista switched her turbo on and sped straight towards the dolls. At the last second she looped back as she dropped several explosives in her departure. Shards of metal flew through the air from the twelve Daemon dolls. Quickly, she rushed back towards her two comrades.
'I'll be damned. She did it,' Trowa thought. It was an extremely gutsy move, but it was pulled off masterfully.
Wufei blinked in surprise. He couldn't believe anyone could survive attempting to do what Trista had just done. It was mind-numbing.
*~*~*~*
Duo's eyes widened as he stared at the mobile suit which Deidra had indicated was piloted by Heero. Fighting the Perfect Soldier was never good thing and usually ended up in catastrophe. More than anything he wished this was all a dream and that he would wake up any second in his nice warm be, but knew that was highly unlikely. "So it comes to this. "Deidra, get out of there," he grimly said.
"I'm trying but I think your buddy is dead set on making me dead," she replied. In a desperate measure, Deidra fired three missiles in the mobile suit's direction, but the pilot expertly avoided them and then shot Deidra's gundam with three of his own, disabling her left arm. "Oh shit."
"Deidra! Damnit!" Duo cursed as he rushed towards her but was blasted back by five Daemon Dolls. "Oh this is going well. Quatre! Help her!"
"I'm trying but I'm having a few problems myself," Quatre said through gritted teeth as Sandrock was being pelted with bullets.
Duo growled and then threw a deadly smirk towards the mobile suit. 'Guess I have no choice. I knew I should have signed those benefits papers. I wonder what'll be on my epitaph,' he thought, flipping on the turbo. "Deidra, as soon as you can, back as far away as possible, babe."
Deidra raised an eyebrow and looked at Duo through the video screen. "Duo, what are planning? Please don't do anything stupid."
"Sorry, babe. Just to let you know, you looked hot in that mini skirt."
"If you survive whatever you are planning, you owe me big time," Deidra softly said as she blinked away her tears. She knew he was planning something to keep the casualty level down, even if it meant he would be the only casualty. Despite how he acted sometimes, Duo had to be the least selfish person ever. He always put others before himself, even if it meant his life.
"Dinner sound good?" Duo grinned.
"Yeah," Deidra laughed. "And maybe a Scooby Doo marathon?"
"Sound perfect to me, Deej. Just no Scrappy Doo."
"Wouldn't dream of it," she smiled. "I love you."
"Love you too, Deidra," he whispered as he powered up his scythe and charged towards the mobile suit.
Tears rolled down Deidra's cheeks as she too switched over to turbo, preparing to back away as Duo asked of her. However at the last second, she sped her gundam towards the suit instead with all the speed she could muster.
Duo watched in horror as Dualblade was hit with the beam cannon. "DEIDRA!"
Deidra's head smashed into the video screen as her gundam flipped and barreled into several somersaults towards the L1 colony, where it crashed. Amazingly enough, it did not explode.
Duo pounded his fist into the intercom button. "Deidra. Deidra talk to me. Deidra! DEIDRA!" He waited for a moment but did receive a reply. Duo swallowed thickly and powered his gundam to its max then flew at high velocity towards the mobile suit. He didn't care who was inside, they were going to pay.
Deathscythe Hell threw itself into the offending mobile suit with enough force that the two suits fell towards the colony as well, landed hard in an abandoned field.
The mobile doll then abruptly threw the gundam off and powered up it's beam cannon.
"Oh fuck," Duo cursed, realizing that he hadn't considered a plan of action if he did survive. He had completely forgotten about the beam cannon in his rage and it appeared that the irrational attack would be his undoing. Quickly he tried to retreat, but none of the controls were working. "Oh shit. You broke something vital, didn't you buddy?"
In the next instance a bright white light shone in his face, and became brighter as it neared. Almost immediately everything went black as Deathscythe Hell exploded.
*~*~*~*
Heero blinked as pieces of the gundam scattered everywhere. Something inside him told him that this was a very bad thing. "What did I just do?"
*~*~*~*
Author's Notes: I am SO incredibly sorry for this being so VERY late. I was extremely busy up until well, now, finishing school, moving, finding a job. Life just got hectic but I'm getting better time organized so I should be able to get this particular story completed by the end of the year, I hope. Anyway, thank you for being patient and let me know what you think.
SJ