Gundam Wing

The Memories of Duo Maxwell

Chapter 1

By gametaken

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Gundam Wing, nor do I own any products, characters, and/or the other Gundam series.

Author's Note: I thought I'd do a serious – at least semi-serious – Gundam Wing fan fic. I mean, it's hard to be serious with Duo Maxwell, isn't it? This fan fic was inspired by an RP game I was doing on a forum. It lasted a long time and I thought it was a pretty good idea for a fan fic.

In this fan fic, Duo Maxwell has a sister (that I made up) named Hannah. She's about 6 years younger than he is. There was a war between the Colonies and the Alliance that the Gundam Pilots, Heero, Trowa, Wufei, Duo, and Quatre – along with several others – got caught up in. During the battle, an enemy pilot got the sneak on Duo and attacked him from behind. The Death Scythe exploded, with Duo still inside. Heero and the others thought he was dead after a while of searching, when actually the explosion caused him to lose his memories – amnesia, doy! Heero, feeling somewhat responsible for the "death" of Duo, decided to take in his sister, Hannah, and teach her how to fight and how to pilot a Gundam.

This is where we leave off, a year later, on a small space colony . . . somewhere . . . over the rainbow . . . in a galaxy far-far away . . .

Another day of training with Heero left Hannah Maxwell exhausted and worn out. She was staying with her past brother's fellow pilot, Heero Yuei, in his Gundam base. She slumped down on the couch in the small living room quarters of the base.

Her hair was as long as her brother's hair was and in two braids, tied with black bands at the end. She wore a white tank-top over a black one and black shorts and sneakers. Those were her training clothes and, at the moment, she didn't feel like changing out of them.

Her eyes were just like her brother's – big and blue – yet her skin was a shade darker. It was always that way. If they both dressed alike, it was hard to tell them apart. The only thing that gave them away was Hannah's shorter height, darker skin, and the fact that she didn't have a flat chest.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, letting the air fill her lungs, her stomach, and every other part of her it would go, then letting it back out slowly, just as controlled. She practiced breathing like this all the time. Heero always told her it was important to control her breathing or else she'd tire out in the middle of a fight.

Her peace was broken as she felt a towel being dropped over her face. She sat up straight with a start as she pulled the towel off.

It was Heero who through it on her face. "At least take a shower, Hannah," he said sarcastically. "You reek."

Hannah smirked at Heero and retorted: "Well, you don't exactly smell like a basket of roses!"

Still, she got up, rubbing the sweat off of her face with the towel, and left to take a shower.

When she returned, she was dressed in what she normally wore every day: A black dress that reached to her knees with white frills around the square cut collar and hem. The sleeves were white and loose, mostly because the buttons on the cuffs were undone. She wore black stockings and boots and black stud earrings. It must've been in the family genes to wear black and white.

She pulled on her brother's hat, the one keepsake she had left of her brother, and buttoned the cuffs of her sleeves. Heero was no longer in the living room, so, knowing no better place to find him, she walked to the Gundam hangar that held her practice Gundam and Heero's own Gundam, the Wing Zero.

His was finely made, tuned, and armed. Hers, in contrast, was a dull olive drab green with scratches and battle scars all over the hull. There were several, iron colored patches that covered up holes and gashes in the Gundam's armor from her past practice sessions with Heero.

No matter how crappy it looked, no matter how low rate the weapons were, it was Hannah's and that was enough for her. On the right flank of the Gundam's hull on the arm, Hannah had spray painted a scythe, sharp and straight, in honor of the Great Shinigami.

There was a large, bulky figure draped in an olive tarp in one corner of the hangar. It was the remnants of the Death Scythe, or whatever they could salvage of the remains. Heero never let her get a good look at it, but she knew what it was.

Hannah was right to expect Heero to be here. She looked away from the tarp and up to the cockpit of her Gundam, the K-88, and saw it was open. Heero was inside of it, tweaking with some of the malfunctioning computer controls.

"Hey, Heero!" Hannah called, waving up to him.

He stopped and looked down at her. "What?" he asked bluntly.

"I'm goin' for a walk, k?"

He shrugged and went back to his work. "Be back by curfew."

"I will."

Hannah tugged on the hat, making sure it was on straight, turned around and walked out of a back door in the hangar. The door hinges squeaked in rusty protest as she opened it.

She looked up at the simulated sky: They decided it would be sunny with a few drifting clouds today. She sighed and walked around the hanger to the fence that surrounded it. She stopped and cracked her knuckles.

"Alley-Oop!" she said as she grabbed hold of the top of the fence and launched herself over it. This came easy to her because she's been doing things like that all her life – plus she was a rather light girl.

Hannah loved to walk through the city. She passed nearby shops and apartment buildings on her way to her favorite playground – Lin's Garage. It was basically a large, fenced in area filled with old parts from Gundams and cars. Piles and piles of old parts littered the area. Although it was illegal to do this, Hannah liked to rummage through the piles in search of parts she thought might be useful for her K-88.

She walked around the tall fence, looking for that familiar spot. The spot was a rip in the chain fence where she could crawl through. Trying to climb over this fence would leave to nothing but a bunch of painful scratches from the barbed wire lining the top of the fence.

She pulled back the loose fence like a door and crawled through. She was behind the garage building and hangar so she wasn't expecting to bump into anyone back here. She walked through the junkyard, winding her way through the piles of old car parts until she got to a large pile of Gundam parts.

Most of the parts were either salvaged from the war or old parts Gundam pilots tossed from their Gundams. Hannah thought they were stupid to do that because most of these parts were still good, "ya only had to know how to tweak em to get em to work," were her exact words to Heero one day.

She rolled up her sleeves and pulled her brother's hat on backwards so the bill of the hat won't get in her way. She had to keep an eye out for the owner of the junk yard so she wouldn't be caught, which never ever happened to her before. She was a pretty sneaky cat burglar, if you want to put a name to the profession.

She grabbed hold of a protruding part and got a grip for her footing and made her way up. Most of the good parts were at the top. The part in particular that she was looking for was the right muzzle to go with the assault rifles she had equipped to her Gundam. The one she had was low rate and often disintegrated under all the firing like silencers often did.

Hannah must've gotten really into searching for the right parts because she didn't notice a man walk up to the junk pile she was rummaging through.

"Hey, you," he called. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Wha-? Oh, crap!" Hannah jumped and lost her balance. She flailed her arms around like a bird trying to fly, but to no avail. She tumbled down the pile like Jack and Jill and landed on her crown.

"Hey, are you OK?" asked the man, hurrying to aid this strange junk yard raider.

With swirled eyes () she nodded her head and said in a wavered voice, "I'm okie dokie Mr. Man!"

BONK!

A metal part fell off the pile and bonked her on the head.

"Oh, great," said the man, worry in his voice. "Hey, Lin, get out here! Hey, kid, say somethin'!"

Hannah's eyes peered up at the blurry image of the man; he had long brown bangs and big blue eyes. That was all she could make out before she passed out again.

Hannah woke up to the sight of a small living room furnished with two cushioned arm chairs and one sofa, which she guessed she was currently laying on. She could feel that she no longer had her boots on and she looked over at her feet. A start before she reached up to grip the back of the sofa and pulled herself up to a sitting position.

She soon regretted this decision because a painful throb streaked through her head. "Argh, my head," she said, rubbing a sore spot on the top of her head.

Hannah heard footsteps coming from behind her. Looking around, she saw a woman with black hair pulled back in a ponytail walk up to her. She had pale skin and kind brown eyes. She wore a white T-shirt under a pair of jean overalls and brown boots.

"Looks like our little thief is awake," said the woman.

Hannah's heart jumped into her throat, so to speak, as she remembered being caught. Quickly, she put her hands together and over her head as she bowed apologetically to the woman. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I promise I won't ever come here again just don't turn me in to the police! Gomenasai!"

The woman laughed, a reaction Hannah wasn't really expecting, and said, "It's OK, kid! There are more than enough parts to go around. Most of this junk I don't really need in my lot."

She paused and looked at Hannah as Hannah straightened herself and looked back up at the woman. There was something odd in the way she was looking at her, like she was trying to recognize her.

"Uh, what is it?" Hannah asked, feeling rather uncomfortable. "I got somethin' on my face?"

The woman laughed again and said, "No, no, it's just that you look so familiar, like someone I know. Do you have an older brother or something?"

The mention of her brother brought a sharp pain in Hannah's heart, as if someone had stabbed her through with a sharp needle. She looked down at her hands in her lap and said solemnly, "I had a brother. Duo was his name. He passed away about a year ago in the space war between the Colonies and the Alliance."

A saddened look fell over the woman's face. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bring that up, it's just that you look like someone I know, honest."

Hannah nodded. "It's alright," she lied, trying to be polite. Then, realizing that neither of them has introduced themselves, she said, "My name's Hannah. Hannah Maxwell." She extended her hand to the other.

The woman smiled and shook Hannah's hand, saying, "My name's Lin. Lin Mei. I'm the owner of this junk yard. My partner's name is Max. I've got no idea what his last name is so I just call him Max."

Hannah laughed. "He must not like his last name if he didn't tell you."

Lin shook her head and said, "The guy had amnesia when I found him about a year ago. He was wandering around the city in a torn up piloting suit. He wandered by here when I found him half starved. When I asked him his name, he said the only thing he could remember of his name was Max." She shrugged and added, "You want some coffee?"

Hannah absentmindedly nodded her head as Lin's story sunk in. Amnesia? Wandering around the city in a torn up piloting suit? It all sounded too crazy to be what Hannah was thinking. This Max guy must've been some other pilot from the space wars. Heero and the others said Duo was dead.

She shrugged it off and looked back up at Lin, who was walking out of the small living room area and through another door. She stopped and turned back to Hannah. "Cream and sugar, right?"

Hannah nodded her head again. "Yes. Thanks, Ms Mei."

Lin laughed that light laugh of hers and said, "Drop the formalities. You can call me Lin, OK Hannah?" She walked through the door and Hannah could hear her going through the cupboards. "Hey, Max, where'd you put the sugar?" she called.

Hannah could hear footsteps coming down the set of stairs at the back of the living room. "I put it where it always is, Lin! Right next to the coffee grounds. Geeze, can't you find anything?"

"Oh, shut-up, lame brain! I looked next to the coffee grounds and it aint there."

Hannah held in her laugh as she looked back at the stairs. Her smile vanished and her eyes were open wide, staring in disbelief at the man walking down the stairs. He had long brown hair in a single braid and wore a white T-Shirt and black pants. His eyes were big and blue like Hannah's and he held that familiar smirk on his face.

"Hey, it's not my fault if you can't find it. I put it right next to the coffee . . ." He trailed off when he saw Hannah sitting on the couch and said, "Hey, she's awake! How's your head?"

Hannah couldn't believe what was before her very own eyes. She answered his question with a very odd reply.

"Duo . . . ?"

To Be Continued . . .

Author's Note: TA-DAA! (Why do I do that at every ending author's note?) What do you all think? I tried to make the ending suspense. "What will happen between Duo – or Max – and Hannah?" "Will Duo get his memory back at the sight of his little sister?" "Will he laugh and say, 'I'm not Duo! My name's Max,' and break Hannah's moral?" Those are the kind of questions I wanna see! Don't be lazy and actually send those questions. Ask anything that's on your mind at the time! Even if they're completely random. Any tips for the next chapter? SEND THEM!