Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. Merely borrowing them for a little torture.

Warnings: Shounen-ai (because I suck at yaoi) , major A.U, some OOC I think, mpreg (mentioned, implied, so on)

Reflections of the Past

Part 8

"What the hell are you saying?!" Zechs yelled at the warrior. "What happened to Treize?" He reached out and grabbed the Shifter by the front of his shirt.

Karisen stared at his new tribe chief unable to say a word. The rest of the tribe was frozen in place as the rain continued to soak through everything.

Irritation and shock started to give way to rage and grief when no answer was forthcoming. An inhuman snarl built deep within Zechs. "Answer me!" He barked. "What happened here?"

"Zechs," a soft, quavering voice from his elbow brought him out of his rage as Zechs swung his head towards a pale and shivering Duo. "Stop, please," his cousin's voice the barest of whispers.

The blond Shifter cursed violently and released Karisen abruptly, turning to gather the visibly swaying Duo into his arms. "Let's get you out of the rain," he said in a much more gentled tone, at least the best he could muster, almost sprinting for the nearest dwelling, Treize's. He could kick himself. He should have been more alert on Duo's condition, and making him stand in the rain while he argued with a warrior hadn't been the best of ideas. "You," he threw over his shoulder at Karisen. "Get in here and explain yourself."

The rest of the tribe dispersed at that, going into their own dwelling to grieve for their fallen and out of the way of their irate tribe chief. They would have to explain themselves to him later and surrender themselves to his judgement on why they had let their leader fall. For now they would grieve; they would offer prayers to the Ancient to guard his spirit, which had now merged with the Forest; and they would hope that Karisen's explanation would be enough.

Between them, the two warriors got a lively fire burning while the Forest did its own mourning. Once the dwelling was warm enough, Zechs proceeded to strip the wet clothes of his cousin, rubbing him down with a large towel, mopping up the dripping moisture. Zechs peeled off his own shirt and dropped it carelessly on the ground before rummaging through the closet for something dry for both of them. He found another towel and threw it at Karisen.

"Dry yourself," he said curtly. "I won't have you dripping all over." He took a deep breath before motioning the intimidated Shifter to a chair. "Just sit down for now, Karisen. We'll deal with this later." He had to work on his anger, he couldn't let grief take over just yet. There would be plenty of time for that later. Besides, he needed to take care of Duo, who was one step away from being catatonic.

Karisen nodded, setting himself in a chair, wiping at the stray tears that fell unheeded. Today was filled with joy and sadness; sadness because their leader's existence had ended and joy because their new chief and the prodigal son had returned.

Zechs wrapped Duo in a thick tunic and continued to murmur softly to him. He was becoming increasingly alarmed when Duo didn't appear to respond. He wished his dragon was here. His dragon would know what to do. He had never seen Duo so out of it, so detached, but his dragon had and Wufei had been the one to bring Duo back to the present. There was a commotion at the entrance and Karisen leapt to his feet, prepared to defend his new chief to the death.

"Get out of my way, warrior," a familiar cold tone froze the warrior in his tracks.

"Heero!" Zechs exclaimed, relieved. "Wufei!" He felt something lifting from his shoulders as his dragon crossed the small distance and just held him.

Heero took one look at his mate and flew to Duo's side. He made to gather Duo into his arms when he realised that he too was dripping wet. Accepting a change of clothes from Zechs, he quickly divested himself of the wet clothes and returned to Duo's side. When Duo remained unresponsive in his arms, Heero shot Zechs an alarmed look.

"What's wrong with him?" Heero sounded almost scared. He remembered Duo this way, he remembered almost losing Duo to his memories, to his father.

"Treize is dead," Zechs told him, sorrow evident in every line on his face. It was as if the fact had just hit him and it felt like a harsh blow to his chest. He was unable to stop the sobs from wrenching out of his body as he finally realised his father was gone from this world. Wufei merely held on to his mate, unable to do anything more. He had never seen Zechs breakdown like that and he found himself at a loss on how to handle it.

"I don't know what happened, Zechs," Karisen explained mournfully. "We were out on a hunt yesterday, to replenish the food stores. He got separated from us. We searched for hours and when we finally found him. . . ." He was pleading silently for Zechs to understand. "That night, he just started failing. Our Healers tried, all through the night to tether him here. He wanted to live, the Forest told him his son and his heir was coming home and would probably reach home today. We could all see him fighting but in the end he just faded away. It was as if something was sucking his energy." His frown turned contemplative. "Whatever it was drained our Healers almost to the point of death."

Silence fell for a long while, leaving each in the room to digest the information. Heero, however, had no part in this. He was trying frantically to cause his mate to respond to him, and with little success.

"Please," he begged. "Don't do this to me again, Duo. Talk to me, tell me what's the matter. Let me make things better for you." He shook Duo gently but violet eyes remained stubbornly glazed. Where was Quatre? "Wufei, help me."

Wufei jerked his head up and realised for the first time how awful Duo actually looked. The Healer was still trembling, from cold, fright or shock he didn't know, but there wasn't a drop of blood left in his already pale face. His eyes were horribly blank and he lolled about in Heero's arms. Alarmed, Wufei disentangled himself from Zechs and started across the room.

"You may leave," Zechs told the warrior evenly.

Thus dismissed, Karisen left the two couples alone, taking a long look at Duo before exiting the dwelling.

"What's wrong with him?" Heero asked, hoping Wufei would be able to tell him. Wufei had helped Duo before, he may be able to do so again.

After a few moments of futilely trying to get the long haired Healer to respond, Wufei sat back with a sigh of defeat. "I think he's in shock, or grief. I don't know."

"He became like that once he heard about Treize," Zechs stood behind his mate, already having buried his emotions and was now trying to get himself to think like a tribe chief. The shock was still overwhelming to him. Although he had been groomed to take this place eventually, he had assumed eventually to be another ten to fifteen years away. Treize had seemed so immortal, so constant. How wrong Zechs had been. His mind spun as he thought of the many duties Heero and Treize carried, the duties that he too now carried.  It was a daunting task.

"Duo," Heero called relentlessly. "Wake up, talk to me." He took Duo's limp hand in his lap and placed it on the slight curve of his mate's stomach. "Your children need you. Don't hide away."

That was apparently the right thing to do as Duo moaned slightly, some form of coherency filtering into his eyes as they lost some of the blankness. Those in the room heaved a huge sigh of relief as Duo's hand free hand crept towards Heero's clutching it hard.

"Odin, where's Odin?" Duo muttered, staring up into Heero's worried face.

"Odin's with Trowa and Quatre. They'll be here when the rain stops," Heero explained, glad that Duo could understand what he was trying to say. He was shocked to the core when Duo shot out of his arms and made a bee line for the exit.

"I want Odin," Duo said petulantly and was almost out the door before Wufei caught him.

"No, Duo," the dark haired Shifter said firmly. "Odin is fine."

As if a puppet with his strings cut, Duo slumped against Wufei, defeated. He walked woodenly, guided by Wufe,i back to his mate. Heero hugged him tightly, whispering assurances into his ear but it seemed they went unheeded. It wasn't that Duo was almost catatonic, he just was extremely immersed in his own thoughts. Heero had expected him to react very much the way Zechs had, to burst into tears seeing he was just about as emotional as Quatre, but it disturbed the chief to see him dry eyed and sunk in reverie. Heero knew Duo saw their son as somewhat of a security blanket, tangible evidence that something was real in this crazy world he lived in. Odin was a tether of sorts, something that reminded Duo that he existed.

It was a few hours later that the rains stopped and not more than a few minutes when an excited voice attached to a little body came tearing into the dwelling. Odin leapt into Heero's arms with an excited, "Father! This place is fun, there were rains and puddles and mud and…"

"Hello, Odin," Heero reluctantly released Duo to catch a flying Odin. "Behave," he warned, before giving his son a kiss on the cheek.

"Ewww," the little Shifter squirmed away, wiping his cheek. "Father has cooties," he said and threw himself at Duo before Heero could bark a warning to be more careful with his mother. "Papa, not fair, you ran first. Why can't I run?" He pouted adorably while Duo stared at him steadily. "Papa?" He asked uncertainly, a little unnerved at the intensity of Duo's gaze.

Duo pulled Odin into a vicelike grip, burying his nose into the messy mop hair. He sat there for a long while, until Odin wiggled to get more comfortable and Trowa  burst into the dwelling, frantic.

"Where are you, little hellion?" There were mud splatters all over the tall Shifter's clothes and for once, his other eye was clearly visible, an indication that Trowa had repeatedly run his fingers through his hair, the only nervous tick in the normal calm and collect Shifter.

Odin quickly edged behind Duo for protection.

Trowa was about to say more, but something in the detachment of Duo's amethyst eyes stayed him. He exchanged an almost worried look with Zechs and Wufei, who both took it as a signal to vacate themselves from the dwelling while Zechs made plans to have their guests housed. He was also worried about his son, who was currently in Quatre's care.

"Come on, Odin," Wufei knelt, holding his hands out the boy. "Why don't you bunk with Brinan tonight?" He wanted to leave the couple alone tonight, confident that Heero would be able to sort Duo's twisting, confusing feeling straight before it ruined him.

"No," the word exploded out of Duo in horror.

Odin, halfway across the room, pivoted and stared at his mother in alarm.

"Go with them, Odin," Heero directed, turning his mate around, forcing Duo to look up at him. "It will be fine," he told Duo firmly, wanting very much to find out what was wrong and why he wasn't getting any of the reactions he expected from the normally predictable Duo Maxwell.

When the boy continued to stare at his parents with worry, Wufei walked over and swept him into his arms. "Tell you what? We'll make this into an adventure and we can take Anarian with us."

Odin looked insulted. "He's a baby." And that said it all.

Heero watched his mate watch them walk out of the dwelling, and indiscernible expression crossing Duo's handsome features for a second. Long after they were left alone, the silence continued, until Duo abruptly broke free from the prison of Heero's arms and entered a room, which Heero knew wasn't at random. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it had been Duo and Solo's room. When Heero had first entered the village, he had intimidated a young sentry into telling him where his mate was and was informed that he was in the previous tribe chief's dwelling.

Previous.

That word had caused alarm bells to ring painfully in Heero's head. He had been worried of how Duo would take the news. After all, it was his father that had just died. He, therefore, had been shocked to find Duo at first in shock then completely emotionless. He followed his mate slowly into the room and found Duo curled up in one of the two beds, hugging a small toy that looked extremely like his son's Miya.

"What's going on, Duo?" Heero sat next to Duo, touching his knee.

"Nothing," came a muffled reply.

Heero sighed, looking around the room. It was stark and if he didn't know better, he would have thought that this was an empty room. There were two beds, two trunks of clothing and a table. There didn't seem to be anything that would personalise the area, to show who had lived there, nothing, except for the toy cat. Heero's heart tightened at thinking of the barren existence Duo had lived and how many things he had decorated their dwelling with. Flowers from the stream, small wooden structures he carved, little vases, figurines, even Duo's hair ties. They lay strewn all over their dwelling, making it their home.

"I know you must be sad, but we will find out what happened," Heero decided to take a stab in the dark. "I know you needed to face your. . . ." He trailed off, seeing Duo's shaking shoulders. "Duo?" Unable to resist, he gathered his mate into his arms in an effort to soothe his tears.

It was then he realised with a jolt. Duo wasn't crying, he was laughing.

"I'm not sad, Heero. I was actually glad when I heard my father had died."

tbc…

Whee, Duo sounding evil when he said that?? Oooh…. He's not that heartless, don't worry, it would all be explained…. Soon?

Thanks everyone for their reviews, they meant a lot to me.

Ooh, Annie Maxwell and I have FINALLY collaborated with yet another GW mpreg fic by the name of Only Love Matters under the penname of Annie_Tsu.

Alright, Duo maybe female NOW, but only for another chappie only, he turns back into a full fledged guy after that… TRUST us… or not, where does the 'mpreg' part come in? Hehehe…

Well, another chappie up, for those who think this story is moving too slowly, please tell me, nicely I hope… I have a fragile heart *sniffs*