Wings of Destruction
Chapter 24
Questions & Answers: Part I

Ricky held the gun to her face and looked her dead in the eye. He stared at her, waiting for her, wondering when she will strike; if she will strike. He snarled out the truth of his life, of his job, about the company prone to take down half the world. He spoke about Synodd and his achievements, on how he was bred for their revival and renewal. All he had to do was pull the trigger.

But he couldn't.

He couldn't pull the trigger to end her life, to kill of what happiness the two of them had shared, to end the rein of the rebel fight. He couldn't shoot her and send her to where she belonged before the war took place. He needed to; God how he needed to!

But he couldn't. He knew he should send her to Heaven before the life of war condemned her to Hell but he couldn't squeeze the trigger. But he couldn't. Staring into her eyes was like staring into the eyes of the only reason one has to remain living. She was his all, his everything. Without her he'd go rampant and he wouldn't be able to go on.

Uno was his pride as he was hers. No, he couldn't pull the trigger and instead lowered the gun, his gaze dropping to the ground with it. Through the puddles they were standing around he saw she was still staring at him, still daring him to do the unthinkable. But he couldn't; God how he needed to but he couldn't!

He thought for a brief moment about what choices he had left. Certainly Synodd would be upset if he failed once again and as close as he was to even finishing his goal. They would have had it with his innocence and rid him of his Synodd position. No; he's lived far too long to be taken out of the game so suddenly.

He contemplated, for a second, about whether he would be able to hide. Of course, if Uno and her family really cared for him then they wouldn't mind listening to him, to let him confide in them, to help hide him. He could always stay hidden in the mansion until he and Uno fled. But no; Synodd would eventually find him and his life would be even worse for telling off all the secrets about his father's achievement and Uno still had to fight this war alone. He contemplated joining her side and helping her fight but he knew that it would only be harder.

And with no other option in mind, he returned to stare her in the face, to see her eyes dead set upon his, and raised the gun to his own head. He didn't want to kill her and he didn't want to kill himself but one of them had to die. He knew he should have picked her since she was still so innocent but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He's killed many a men in his lifetime but he couldn't bring himself to kill her!

"Damn you Uno," he spat out as the tears begun filling his eyes. He remained staring into her eyes, sorrow filling his own for having to leave her in a life that will soon become as wretched as a Hell Hound escaped from Satan. With love and concern, he gave her one final spark of hope before finally pulling the trigger and seeing no more.

-

Uno's eyes slowly opened to stare up at an off-white ceiling. She took a deep breath but didn't make any attempt to move. The dream she had was so realistic and so horrifying that she couldn't believe it had even happened, that it had actually happened once before.

But from Ricky's eyes.

For the first time Uno was finally able to see herself through Ricky's eyes. For the first time she was finally able to hear his thoughts. He, too, had wanted to run away and hide from life like she! He, too, was thinking about hiding in the mansion away from everyone. But like herself, he, too, knew it would be impossible to run from fate.

And so he took his life because he loved her too much to take hers.

Uno swallowed the vile taste that had made itself stuck in the back of her throat. Wincing against the pain searing through her chest, she braced herself furthermore and attempted at sitting up.

"Don't," she heard. The voice was soft and broken, no doubt from hours of depressed crying. The tone of it had a brightness to it that once found its way into her nightmares, to lurk in the shadows of her despair.

She frowned and turned her head towards the sound, thoughts of sitting up no longer running through her mind. What she saw she wasn't prepared for. Sitting in a chair besides her, she saw the outline of the body to know it was male. The head was hanging and she didn't see the face but she recognized the clothing. When her eyes trailed over the figure she saw the hair and it reeled her back three long years to the final times she's ever known happiness.

"Duo?" Her voice had squeaked when she breached the barrier. Slowly, his head raised and she saw his eyes, filled with a fresh wave of tears, and saw his cheeks, stained with old ones. His hair was tousled but still tucked tightly into the braid. His clothing attire seemed to have changed slightly, fitting a more hidden state of despair—he wasn't in the same clothes he always wore around her but they were black no doubt.

"Am I…?" She whispered, unable to finish her question.

Duo slowly shook his head and lowered his eyes to the floor. "No," he murmured, "you're not dead. And neither are we."

Uno's lips parted as if to speak but she had no breath to word them with. She squeaked when she tried to breach the subject further. "Where have you been?" She managed to whisper instead.

Duo took in a shuddering breath before blowing it out roughly. "We had to run," he choked on unshed tears. His eyes closed as another trail of tears fell. "There were far too many and we couldn't handle them all. I wanted to go back to you but they were already up stairs."

Uno closed her eyes as the moments of that day returned to her. She remembered being off in a dream-like state while Ricky sang through her stereo. She remembered hearing gun fire and a lot of noises. Then when she opened her door, she saw a Synodd soldier and knew there was no turning back, that her life had just begun.

"When we did return, several weeks later, we found you have already defeated everyone there in the combat we taught you and you have already accepted the mission," he breathed out jaggedly and found it hard to inhale another breath of air. "The laptop screen died and the imprint of the accept button remained visible."

Uno took in a shuddering breath but when she released it, it sounded more like a gasp, as if she had finally begun to settle nerves that were far too long locked up.

"How did you find me?" She whispered.

"Justin," Duo whispered back. "Somehow… he found us."

"Why?" Her voice was barely even audible but Duo heard it nonetheless.

"To warn us," he replied just the same. Duo took a breath and swallowed back his shaking nerves as he explained himself. "You're doing too much, Uno. Justin is worried about you—all of them are worried about you—and now I am, too. You can't fight this war alone, Uno. You can't win it by yourself; you'll kill yourself before you accomplish anything. Even Heero needed our help."

"Duo," Uno breathed out. "Why?"

Duo stared at her for a moment and swallowed back some of the tears that continued to fall. Staring at her so closely now that she was older and more mature, a fighter like he once was, he was able to see just how much of an influence he never knew he had over her.

"We love you, Uno," he murmured. She gasped as a few tears strolled down her cheeks but her lips were formed into a smile. It was as if she hasn't heard those words at all, that hearing them was what she needed to pull her out of the Hell she thought life was all about.

"What happened to you?" He asked with concern. "What happened to make my little Uno so guilty? To give her the scars she walks around with? To send her flying into nightmares whenever she sleeps and make her cry for those she lost so long ago?" Duo swallowed hard again and took a deep breath, hic voice changing octaves when he tried to reason once more. "What happened?"

"I," Uno paused to swallow back the dryness of her throat that nearly caused her to squeak out a response. "Doctor J and Professor G trained me the way you never had."

Duo closed his eyes. "Ah God," he whimpered out before more tears fell from his already soaked eyes.

Uno continued despite the tears that cascaded down her cheek. "When I killed those Synodd soldiers back at the mansion I felt weird… like I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. They taught me how to move on, that constantly fighting will keep my mind astray from thinking back to the crimes I've accomplished, and so I fought." Uno swallowed once again before continuing. Duo opened his eyes and found she had opened hers and was staring up at the ceiling, reliving the moments as she explained them.

"Then delivered me to several assignments where I had to carry out orders upon Synood tasks, fitting into the enemy's defenses to weaken their support. I had to play it safe, to dismantle their guard one-by-one, so I could later take it down. When they had me meet the rest of the team I dreaded it, not remembering how to communicate with anybody, not remembering how to be humane and be in the public," she frowned. "You see, Doctor J felt it was best to help rid me of my humanity, much as he had to Heero. He said that if I let my kind heart get in the way of my task then I would be immediately spotted and killed on the spot."

"Uno," Duo choked out.

Uno closed her eyes and breathed out the rest of her exclamation. "So after two months of living in a closet, never seeing another face, they released me and trained me on three computer programs. The first I found was simple, as it did nothing but speed up the mind's senses—"

"Tallgeese," Duo murmured.

"Then they put me against a machine that tried to tell me who my enemy was and who to follow—"

"Zero," Duo winced and felt his heart breaking. God, she has been through so much without him!

"—and it tried to control me but I remembered when it did the same thing from Heero's laptop and I took control of the situation. But the last one they put me up against—it tried to kill me."

"Epyon," he whispered. "God Uno… what have I done?"

"It was as if the machine was alive and tried to implant itself into my brain, like a virus into a computer," she said. "It made me angry and I finally told it who was boss. I gave it the orders to follow and it did."

"What have I done?" He breathed out.

"You didn't do anything," she frowned and opened her eyes to face him. "You wanted me to fight if a war came, knowing full and well that you wouldn't be around."

Duo hung his head. "I shouldn't have done this to you," he sobbed. "I can't believe I let pride get in the way. My immaturity caused me a great deal and I wish I never asked you to become Shinimegami."

"Duo," she stifled a smile and reached out for him. Duo took her hand and grasped it immediately, gasping in shock at her icy touch. "You didn't have to ask me. I chose to follow you."

"Uno—you're cold like ice!" He gasped. "What—how—"

"It comes from having a cold heart," she replied nonchalantly, which reminded him so much of Heero. "I have to have a cold heart to fight Synodd. They are so horrible, you have no idea. The things they plan to do and what have already been done—even Shinigami would have been stunned."

Duo tried to say something but words wouldn't form on his lips. Instead, he closed his mouth and only stared into her eyes. However, now that he was staring at her, face-to-face, he was clearly able to see things he hasn't noticed before.

"Uno," Duo frowned and reached out to stroke her cheek. Upon instinct at the soft caress, Uno's eyes closed and her breath caught in her throat. "What happened to you?"

She swallowed, choking on the breath that she took to speak. "Duo," she gasped, "I had a mission and I botched it."

"Uno," he whimpered.

"I fell into a trap and I was captured," she explained. "But there was no one there to save me. I did a horrible thing before I left—I shot my teammate for getting in my way and the rest of them were angry with me. Despite the fact that I warned them when we first met, they didn't listen, probably thinking I'd change as the years moved on."

"Uno," he repeated. His thumb caressed the raised flesh where a line traced across the center of her face.

Uno swallowed back more tears. "They tortured me, wanting to hear me scream, but I wouldn't." Uno stifled a smile but clearly Duo saw how weak it was. "I was strong, Duo. I gave them a fair fight."

Then the smile faded into a deep, depressing frown, and tears fell from her eyes. "But they begun cutting me and the pain was too much to bare. I screamed—God how I screamed. And after they stopped cutting at my body they continued to whip me. They were sadistic, wanting to cover me in my own blood. When the finally got me coated with it they raped me."

"God," Duo's eyes closed and he began to sob. "Oh my God, Uno. My poor little Uno."

She took in a deep, shuddering breath. "They only let me live, thinking I wouldn't survive. They threw a uniform of their own at me, a gun, and released me. I barely survived as I returned to the scientists and commanded them to do to me what Mandy had done to her. They enhanced my immune system and snipped my tubes."

Duo opened his eyes to stare into hers. He shown regret in his but saw she only showed determination in hers. "You can't have children," he breathed out.

She actually smirked from that. "I wouldn't want to force a child to live like we did, Duo."

Duo closed his eyes and repeated her words. "Like we did," he whispered. "All of us didn't deserve it."

Uno didn't say anything back but only closed hers and breathed deeply. Her chest ached badly and her lungs struggled to contract. She could barely even remain conscious let alone she had to speak. But no; she needed her rest and would save her breath for another time.

Duo seemed to have noticed as he leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. Uno's heart ached from that slight touch and more tears fell from her eyes. When he pulled back she wept silently, missing that tiny glint of affection she wasn't used to receiving anymore.

"Rest," Duo had whispered into her ear. "Save your strength for later."

Uno swallowed hard and breathed out, "I love you, Duo," before finally returning to the black void of her Hells.

Duo took in a shuddering breath and let it out just the same. He pulled back and stared down at her while he stood. Uno, his little Uno, was so strong now, so powerful, and so guilty. If he could turn back time he would, but he couldn't and it ate away what little he had left in his soul. He turned from her then and headed for the door, to tell the rest of the group what she had just told him. He reached for the knob and glanced back at her before exiting the room, to see her frail body sleeping so peacefully now that her some of sins were finally laid to rest.

"I love you too," he breathed out, "Uno."

And with one final choke on the sobs that wracked his body, he tore his gaze away from what he had created and headed for the living room.