(Yay! Another chapter is finished and it's only 2:33 in the morning. Once again, thanks for putting up with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter. There is some mild language. I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, but the story has drastically changed from the original, now missing, draft. See you (hopefully in the near future) in the next chapter!
Ps. I'm sounding really pathetic, but please review. It can be one word. Or it can be many in the form of an opinion or suggestion.)
Diolyn woke up slowly with a pounding headache and on Zarinthia's office couch. Zarinthia herself was sitting across from Duo holding both of his hands and talking softly. A box of Kleenexes was half empty and a trash bin sitting beside her was full. Duo was smiling and apparently listening to Zarinthia catch up on year's worth of news. Diolyn wanted to beat the smile off his face, but was currently feeling weaker than a newborn kitten.
Alex came over and handed her a glass of water. She accepted it with a glare. She knew what he'd done. Winking at her, he helped her sit up then leaned her against him. "Sorry, I didn't want to add murder to our little list of crimes," he whispered. She made a rude noise and gesture at him and drank the water.
From the corner of Duo's eyes, he watched Alex help his old friend. And she accepted that help, albeit with little grace, but she'd never actually accepted and kind of help from him in the past. Zarinthia was telling him about how they'd actually gotten the idea to start their current means to an end and how they'd gotten the cash to begin in the first place. He could feel the pride his once foster mother had in their achievement.
"And here we are!" She finished with a grand wave of her hand ten minutes later. Releasing one of Duo's hands, she cupped his cheek with one of her own. "You've grown so much and become such a handsome young man! Tell me, after you left, were you safe? I had hoped so bad that you were okay and I was dreadfully worried about you. How have you been doing the past few years?"
Alex and Diolyn had been quietly listening to the two talk, and Alex could now feel tension positively flooding the girl leaning into him. He stood and helped her to her feet. Smiling at the two still sitting, he explained Diolyn and his own departure, "Diolyn has a killer headache right now and I'm going to get her some aspirin."
Duo didn't miss how Dio smiled up at the tall youth and he was shocked to feel jealousy towards the other guy and his easy and affectionate relationship with Diolyn. "Oh, would you like for us to come with?"
Diolyn bared her teeth at him in a mock smile. "Not necessary, really, the infirmary is quite small and too many people make it very cramped." She walked to the door and before she left, she tossed in an extra verbal barb, "Besides, we've learned to adapt to changing circumstances, such as deserters. I've found that such people are not to be depended upon and have no idea as to what happens to the people around them. Adam and Zarinthia aren't those kind of people, and I would gladly stay with them till the end of time." She turned and left, completely ignoring Zarinthia's gasp of dismay.
Zarinthia stared after her daughter. Diolyn could be a real bitch sometimes, but she never actually set out to hurt someone's feelings. Facing Duo, she barely caught the look of pain flash across his face before he expertly hid it behind a cheerful smile. Shrugging, he admitted sheepishly, "I guess I deserve that. I did just disappear without telling you were I was or informing you that I was okay."
"Well now, that all depends on what your reason's for leaving are. If they're good, I just might take your side. So, young man, why did you leave us?" She let go of his other hand and leaned back into her comfortable chair. Folding her hands on her stomach, she gave him a nod that clearly told him to begin.
Duo sighed and rubbed his temples. "You know how when you first found me, I wouldn't tell you what happened to me?" Zarinthia nodded, her eyes troubled. "But later you told me that you had been at a church orphanage and that it had been destroyed and the priest and nun that you cared for were killed." Duo's mouth tightened. "Yes, that's true. I wasn't there when the church was destroyed. I was trying to steal a mecha when it was crushed by the Alliance. You may have heard of the incident. It was called the Maxwell Church Tragedy."
Zarinthia's mouth almost dropped open in shock. He was a survivor. Then she began to frown. 'Why had he been stealing a mecha?' Duo smiled bitterly. "I was trying to help the very people my actions destroyed. What I also failed to mention was that I found Sister Helen alive, but barely. She begged me to be good, and not to hate the people who had ordered a church full of innocents destroyed. She asked that God give me his blessing. She died after saying this to me."
Duo took a deep breath. "I stayed by her body for a long while after that. The only thing that finally shook me from my stupor was a drunken soldier who took a shot at me with his pistol. He missed, but alerted his not so drunk comrades to my position. I ran at the guy who shot at me and tackled him. He was so drunk he went down easy and knocked his head against some rubble. I didn't know if he was dead or just knocked out, but I didn't stay to see if he ever woke up. The other soldiers chased me, but I managed to get just far enough ahead of them to hide. They searched for me for a long time."
I was still hiding when Dio found me." Duo grinned at the memory. "I was in a trash can, thinking that I'd been so clever about where I'd hidden myself. Apparently, I'd left a little bit of blood somewhere close by, cause it led her straight to me. She asked if someone was hurt and kept repeating that she was a good girl and she'd help whoever needed it. I didn't believe a word of it and tried to stay as still as possible when I heard her start rummaging through the things around the trashcan. When she lifted the lid to my can, I launched myself at her. That's why she had that bruise on her back, I pushed her into a crate."
Zarinthia raised an eyebrow. She remembered every bruise and cut on both the children and the large bruise on her daughter's back had definitely caught her attention. Diolyn, at the time, claimed to have slipped on something before meeting the boy and falling on a crate. She snorted now. Her suspicions had been correct.
Duo continued. "As you remember, we both came to you that day with a lot of scrapes and bruises. We had a…" he paused searching for a word that would adequately describe what happened, "short fight which ended with me in a head lock I couldn't break. I don't really recall how she got me to your house, but I remember that it was painful when I tried to escape. Any way, things happened as they did and life was good until one day, I met a rather interesting doctor." Duo rested his elbows on his knees and put his face into his hands.
"This is the part you are really gonna dislike. I snuck aboard a ship that was going to depart and having a good time toying with the guards when I bumped into a man who introduced himself as Professor G. Somehow, he knew almost every thing about me since my time at the Maxwell church and what I'd done to the alliance. He wanted me for a special project. And Zarinthia, I was going to say got to hell and take your project with you, but then I saw what it was."
He took a deep breath. "It was a new typed of mecha, one that was made of gundanium, as opposed to titanium alloy. It was strong and fast and in it I saw a way to redeem what I'd done when I messed up bad enough to cause the deaths of so many people. I just left with him. I didn't think about what I would be doing to you two at the time. And after that first step, it was training and missions, the other pilots, the war and finally peace. When I finally did try to find you guys, you weren't where I'd left you and I couldn't find out a god damned thing about either of you."
Zarinthia couldn't quite suppress a grin. Duo noticed and tilted his head to the side, his long braid swinging with the movement. "Diolyn," she explained, "learned a ridiculous amount about computers and decided that we didn't need people butting into our personal life. She practically erased our actual history and made us a new, more "respectable" life. When she was finished and I read over, I laughed so hard, I was tearing up by the time I managed to stop." She chuckled now in spite of herself. Sighing, she asked, "So what brought you to my humble abode?"
Duo shifted nervously in his seat. He wasn't sure Zarinthia was going to like this part. Sighing and surprised at how he wanted to put off the inevitable, he forced himself to get it over with. "I was here with the other pilots of the Gundams. We had just seen the tent show, which was awesome, by the way," Zarinthia smiled with pleasure, "and after we decided to play some of the games that were offered. We ended up playing at the dunk tank were I first saw this blonde and brunette. We got some bears and went to eat and left the park. While waiting for our car, I watched the brunette get into a truck with a bunch of other people, all of whom were dressed in black."
Taking a deep breath, he pressed on. "I didn't think anything of it until this morning when I was watching the news and the same girl was shown on tape stealing mecha parts. Not just any parts either, but Gundam compatible parts only. I decided to find out what I could and followed the girl today. I trailed her for a while and she finally led me to her shop, where, needless to say, I was caught. From there I found out that the chick was Diolyn and that you were both doing fine. Here I am."
He waited for her to get mad.
She waited for him to continue. When he insisted on being silent, she guessed he was waiting for her to say something. "So, what did you do to make her dangerous enough to try to kill you?" At his surprised look, she finally saw what he'd been worried about. "You thought I'd be mad that Diolyn stole those parts, am I right?" At his nod, she laughed. "Honey, I taught her everything she knows and I give her a lot of warnings before she goes out each time. What I'm curious about is what you're planning to do now that you know who the thief is and why she was out to get your blood?"
Duo answered slowly. "I don't know what I'm going to do about the mecha, but if she's now planning on trying to oust the government or start another war, I don't really care. And as far as I'm concerned, I think that she wants to hurt me cause I left and hurt her. I don't really know cause she was going to shoot me and ask questions later when Alex knocked her out." Duo ran his hands through his hair before remembering that it was in a braid. Looking up at Zarinthia, he asked, "What the hell am I going to do with this mess?"
She looked down on him with a mixture of love and pity. "Walk quietly, carry a big stick. Wear Kevlar, and bring back up. My boy, you are going to clean up your mess. But don't worry," she said, pulling him into a hug, "I'm here to help."