Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Well the prologue is a bit cryptic but i wanted it to be.

Enjoy the read.

Chapter 1: A Dangerous Mission

Quietly a messy haired Preventer crept up to an old abandoned hanger. He slowly placed his hand against the wall making sure not to make any sound. He and his partner couldn't afford getting noticed, at least not yet. As he leaned against the wall he used his other hand to pull out his gun. 'Just in case.' He thought as he inched closer to see around the corner.

What he saw was two soldiers; he was guessing they were OZ soldiers of some sort. They were arguing about something.

"Sir! I don't think it's a good idea to go in there, it looks like it'll fall any minute." The shorter one said.

"Are you going against my orders?" He must be the leader

"Uh, no sir, I was…"

"Worried about our safety? You're a coward, you only worry about yourself! If you don't want to go in there, then I'll have you put away!"

"But sir,"

"Get going, I need to know what they're up to!" The taller of the two ordered.

The Preventer straightened out and sighed. They were in the right place after all. Who ever this lieutenant was he didn't like him, he liked to push his men around and that made him very dangerous. 'I guess I was right to pull my gun out; I might have to use it from the way this looks.'

"Hey what was going on over there Heero?" His braided partner asked confused. He really hadn't changed much since the wars. He was still skinny and just as annoying. The only difference was he had more muscle definition, was a bit taller, and his eyes were different somehow. He couldn't quite put a finger on it but he couldn't help but feel his partner was getting tired or something.

"There was an argument about entering the hanger. One of the men thinks it'll fall down."

"Heh, I don't blame the guy, it looks like it might! Who's the guy in charge?" He asked.

"I don't know, I've never seen him before, but I do know there was one of those odd soldiers there. Duo, do you remember what I told you?" Heero asked looking at his friend.

Duo scratched his head. "About the super soldiers, yeah. You told me not to attack them, since they're twice as fast. But how do we avoid that, let alone live to tell about it?"

"I'll take care of him, I want you to keep me covered if we end up in a gun fight."

"Sure, lets just hope we get there first then." Duo sighed. Heero had a feeling Duo felt it was going to fail. He had to admit, even he felt bad about this mission. After all he only volunteered for it, his actions weren't the ones he would be held accountable for; Duo on the other hand, would be held accountable.

Moving forward to see if the coast was clear Heero looked back. Duo was looking off to the side past the trees, something was nagging at him Heero could tell but what was it? "What is it?" Heero asked.

"Huh?" Duo looked back to his best friend, "Oh I was just thinking."

"Hmmm…well don't! I don't want you to lose focus on what we're doing." Heero said seriously.

"Hey, let me be a little human here okay! Don't worry I can focus on the mission." Duo growled.

"…." Heero watched Duo as he pulled out his gun. Duo's hands were shaking but not bad enough to cause him troubles or so Heero thought.

Moving closer Duo wondered exactly why the OZ revolutionists wanted the small shipment of gundanium. 'It's not like they can use it. We would know if they were building anything.' Duo thought.

There was just too many odd things going on lately, and he was having a lot of trouble keeping up with it all. Heero started to volunteer as a Preventer from time to time, same with Quatre. Hilde even thought about it but he had talked her out of it. He couldn't afford to lose his best friend in a gunfight or an accident. Of course Hilde had been mad at him about it for days, but he didn't want to lose her. In reality there was something going on, something he didn't like and it was reflected in his friends' actions.

Slowly he and Heero made their way around to the front and both slipped into the shadows inside.

"There in the back I bet that's it." Duo pointed out. There was what looked like a few metal crates covered by tarps. Both he and Heero knew what they looked like from during the war but the OZ soldiers were moving in the wrong direction. Most likely they'll pass it by.

"It's right in their faces but they're to stupid to notice" Duo whispered as he mocked the soldiers. "I don't think they've improved much since the war ended."

"Shhh!" Heero reminded "That one over there can hear you if you get to loud. We don't want to attract attention to the crates or ourselves."

"Humph" Duo pouted.

Slowly they made their way around the soldiers and toward the crates. So far no one noticed them, actually he had the feeling they would be leaving soon. But Duo's happy thought was crushed when he felt dust falling from above.

"…" Duo looked up only to see what was about to happen, Heero was going to kill him for this but it was either they both live and take a chance, or one of them Dies.

"HEERO, LOOK OUT" Duo called as he lunged at his friend saving them both from the caving ceiling. Unfortunately they caught the unwanted attention Duo was dreading.

"Hey who's there?" One of the men called.

"I think it came from over here!" Another called out as he moved swiftly toward them. Duo guessed this was the guy Heero had warned him about since the debris meant almost nothing to him.

"Oh damn he's moving towards us, now what?" Duo asked getting up.

"We'll have to make a stand." Heero said as he surveyed the surroundings and moved to make a barrier. "I'll focus on him and you on the rest."

"Okay, I miss a good gun fight," Duo smiled as he moved into position. There was little time to come up with a strategy, so Duo decided to hit each in the leg in order to give Heero more time.

Heero leaned back against the piece of ceiling he had set up as a barrier. Duo had made the right decision in getting him out from beneath the cave-in but the attention may have cost them.

Waiting for his target to get near him, Heero watched the soldier as he moved through the debris, studying each movement. 'He's clumsy, a lot more clumsy than the girl, this may prove less difficult than I thought.' Heero cocked his gun and waited.

Looking over his shoulder he watched Duo for a moment. His hand had stopped shaking and he seemed to be calculating the distance and speed the others were moving at. Although he didn't let his best friend know it but Heero often felt Duo had nearly similar skills when it came to gunfights. He sometimes thought his friend was a better aim, or wasit all the risks Duo often took in a fight? Something Heero rarely did. 'Was this feature what made him live this long? Where did he learn all this? I doubt theprofessor taught him all the skills he has, it just doesn't add up.' Heero looked away slowly and watched his target again.

Duo sighed. 'They're to damned slow, I just want this to end and quickly.' He thought rummaging in a backpack he had brought with him just in case. "Damn it!" Duo cursed.

"What is it?"

"I can't use these!" Duo held out a grenade. "We would have been able to finish this easily if I could."

"Your right, this place would fall on us if you did, and killing them is not what we want."

"Yeah that was my point, you took the words right outa' my mouth." Duo smiled. "So I guess we'll have to give em' hell." Duo's smile broadened. He didn't mind spending more time sharpening his aim; it had been a while since he had a moving target to shoot at.

"Are you ready?" Heero asked. Duo felt Heero thought he lost his edge.

"Are you kidding, I've been dying for a good struggle it reminds me of old times." Duo laughed.

"Old times?"

"It's a figure of speech Heero." Duo slapped his forehead in defeat. He had to get Heero a sense of humour one of these days even if it killed him. "Man you just don't get it! It's like I'm talking to a zombie!"

Heero sent Duo a glare, one that told him it was time to shut up and start taking them out.

Smiling Duo pulled his gun and shot the closest one in the leg. "One down, several more to go…. Heero how many are there here?"

"Ten or twelve"

"What!" For a moment he was worried, but the odds could have been worse than that."Great more for me then!" Duo joked as he shot two more and watched as they fell face first in surprise.

Heero wasn't fairing nearly as well as Duo. Actually his target moved in and out of the shadows revealing a trick he had only seen once before. 'Damn it we may have to pull back at this rate. If he gets any closer he'll see the crates and get us.'

His earlier assumption was true but to a point. The soldier wasn't like the girl he had run into in the past but he had other attributes that made Heero worry.

"Hey buddy how's it going there?"

"…" Heero let lose three shots but they hit only metal. "Duo shut up!"

Duo watched him for a moment as he struggled trying to hit the target he had set for himself, and then went back to his own.

Suddenly after Heero had sent a bullet in the direction he felt the man had gone, the soldier disappeared. 'Where did he go? I don't like this.' But he never appeared again, instead Heero felt as though there was something behind them.

Turning to look behind, Heero saw nothing. What ever it was he dismissed it. 'It was probably my imagination. But where did he go? He should be on top of us by now.'

Heero looked to his right, to Duo. Duo was focusing on hitting as many as he could without killing them but he wasn't having much luck since they had all gone for cover.

"Hey what's up?" Duo asked not looking away from the men he was aiming for. "You stopped shooting."

"Yeah I'm going to go see where he went."

"What!" Duo looked at him. "What are you nuts, they're shooting at us, getting up would be fatal! You'll look like Swiss cheese if you do that!" Duo was partially right. He would look like Swiss cheese if he actually stood up.

"He was over there last I saw him." Heero pointed to the shadows on his left, "Do you think you could cover me?"

"Sure that's easy enough, I've got most of em confused and stuck behind their cover." Duo smiled. Heero nodded and moved to where he saw his target last.

Watching Heero move out from behind their measly shelter, Duo couldn't help but worry. "He's still pullin' off crazy stunts. Someone's gatta tell this guy he's not immortal or something." Duo muttered as he shot another of the OZ men in the thigh.

Heero losing his target bothered him. Since when did the perfect solder miss or even lose a target, it was all very confusing.

So far the retaliation from the other side was minuscule but also very calculated. Duo was lucky he wasn't shot yet. "Man there's someone sorting them out, I need to move fast, or else I'll have to find new shelter from these guys." He muttered He hated it when he wasn't winning , and he couldn't afford to lose.

Looking to his left he saw that Heero had reached the spot he had shown him. 'Good now I can let lose on these guys, they can't see him from there.' Duo thought as he reloaded his gun and took aim. He really wanted to hit the red haired soldier. He was a pain and very good; it's better to get rid of the stronger people first. But his luck was waning as a bullet grazed past his head and hit the metal support behind him. "Damn another shot like that and that part of the ceiling will come down on me." Duo sighed, as he looked around frantically for a new spot to hide.

Heero had made it to where he saw his target last. So far all he saw was a bloody splotch. From the angle the shot had come from he knew it was his own and he had hit him but the question still remained. Where was he?"

Moving to his right, Heero continued to move through the shadows, trying to mirror the movements his target would have continued, to get at them.

After two more minutes he had found more blood, a lot more. He was right to be worried. The soldier had made it so close he was ready to shoot to kill. Something stopped him though. From the way the blood had splattered, he had been shot several times, but there were also signs of a struggle.

Moving further Heero found his target. The man was definately dead. Heero had shot him in the shoulder, but someone shot him twice in each leg, once in the chest and a final shot between the eyes. Whoever the shooter was they had really good aim, and had meant to kill. Taking a closer look Heero also noticed several slashes in the man's left arm and one through his throat. The killer was also very thorough.

Looking back to Duo, Heero watched as the red haired soldier made a close shot at Duo only to hit the metal post behind his friend. Duo looked worried about his position. From the looks of the place they had one chance to get out.

"Duo!"

Duo looked over, "What is it, I'm a little occupied."

"How long do we have if you throw your grenades?"

"Not long, a few seconds." Duo called back.

"Can you make it here." Heero asked. If they wanted to make it out alive they needed to use them from near the entrance.

"I gottcha' I'll be there as soon as they stop shootin' at me" Duo grunted as he shot another man in the arm.

Heero waited patiently in the dark for his friend to slip away on the soldiers. Duo was the best at getting away from a fight. Like many times before he managed to slip away with little effort.

Duo sighed for a moment and listened, as the men he was shooting at were confused because no one was shooting at them anymore.

"Well I made it in one piece." Duo then looked behind Heero with a horror stricken face. "What the hell happened to him?"

Heero turned for a moment and sighed. "I'm not to sure, it bothers me that I didn't notice at all. I should have heard something."

Duo shrugged. Heero felt he did that a lot. 'Is this how he deals with his problems? By letting them bounce off him?' Heero thought. Either way his braided friend hadn't been acting much like himself for a few days now and it was odd.

"Lets get going, we might as well destroy the crates in the process, and we can't let them get it."

"Yeah but what about them, we made an oath not to kill people."

"I know." Duo was right, but he had already worked it out. "What I want you to do is to throw the grenades at the crates, the soldiers are too far to be directly affected by it. The beam up there will fall first making a sort of barrier. That should be enough for them to escape it."

His friend just stared at him in disbelief. 'He should expect me to come up with plans like this.' Heero thought.

"Gee Heero do you ever lose your edge? I mean really are you sure this will work?"

"It should" Heero shrugged and turned to the entrance they had entered earlier, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows.

Duo watched the perfect soldier continue walking away. The only way he would be able to do this was to throw the grenade from the entrance. Sighing Duo started walking in the shadows following Heero as he went. The soldiers he was shooting at weren't too happy about him disappearing on them like that but he was going to lose if he stayed there.

"Great just great, how does he do that? I'm always stuck with the dirty work and his crazy plans." Duo sighed. It wasn't fair to him that he had to do all the grunt work, while Heero got to leave already.

Stopping at the entrance Duo looked back making sure no one had gotten too close. Luckily they were all standing and looking around confused. The red haired guy, the one in charge; was talking to one of his men sending him in another direction with five other people. That worried Duo, 'What's he up to?' He thought rubbing a sore on his neck.

Pulling the grenade out of his bag Duo pulled the pin and let it fly. "So far so good, and now on a lighter note, Duo Maxwell has left the building." Duo joked to himself as he left running to where ever Heero went.

Heero waited for the sound he was looking forward to. Sure enough just as Duo had made it to where he was waiting the explosion went off. Debris flew out from the walls and dust went out from all directions. So far his plan had gone the way he wanted it to, except one thing.

Several of the OZ soldiers had made their way out before Duo had thrown the grenade and the others will be out soon.

"Aww man I can't believe this. Do these guys ever give up?" Duo asked.

Heero watched as they looked around, they were going to see them no matter what they did.

"Duo." Heero looked back behind them. "We have two choices, run or make another stand here."

"I'd say run!" Duo sounded really scared.

"Good I was hoping you would say that" Duo made an upset face and glared.

"What kind of question was that?" Duo was really not too happy about the way Heero had asked the question. He couldn't help but think his braided friend thought the would make a stand out in the open.

Heero started to back up. "Don't worry about it now just get moving!" Heero ordered.

"Right behind you." Duo cheered.

Both preventers ran as fast as they could. The alley way held no places to hide or to fight back from. Turning a corner they were faced by a dead end.

"Great just great, we went down the wrong road." Duo muttered.

Heero looked around a moment and found something that would supply them enough shelter.

"Behind there, we can hold the rest off now." Heero pointed to the dumpster. Suddenly a bullet ran right through his outstretched arm. "Damn it" Heero cursed as he pulled is arm closer into his body.

"Damn those bastrads"

Quickly they both ran behind their protection. Duo took in a breath and tore open his bag, looking for something he had packed that morning.

"Here you shoot I'll bandage." Duo offered.

"Hmmm…" Heero grunted and shot two of the soldiers following them, the rest had flung themselves to the side. It wasn't going to be much longer until they have reinforcements.

"Done!" Duo smiled as he looked over the top of the dumpster and fired three shots. "What the hell!"

"What is it?" Heero looked up to his friend.

"One just went kamikaze on me, he took the shot I was hoping would hit the guy over there."

"Duo!"

"What?" Duo looked down with a confused look.

"Forget the rules. Do what you think you have to."

"But…"

"If you follow the regulations the preventers gave you, you won't live much longer. We need to let them know we won't back down but at this rate we're going to lose this fight. And being captured is not an option."

"Oi, I can't believe you but okay, I'll go by what you say." Duo smiled. He was dying to end it fast. Grinning Duo moved out on Heero's side. "I have a question though first."

"Duo we can't afford questions."

"No wait this one is a good one." Duo said as he stood for a moment and shot one in the chest. "Exactly how many are there, I must have gotten all of em by now." Duo looked back to his best friend. He had him there, Heero quickly looked around the corner.

"You're right. Can you see if there are any you hit earlier?" Heero asked.

Duo slouched beside Heero for a moment. 'What does that have anything to do with us surviving?' "Sure whatever." Duo muttered, he would have to put himself on the line to do this.

Looking up he noticed the guy he had shoot in the chest earlier actually standing, he was waiting for Duo's next shot. 'What the hell, it's like we're fighting the dead or something.' Duo wasn't used to his targets to stay standing when they should be dead.

"So?"

"You won't believe this but I could have sworn I shot him in the chest." Duo said as he knelt down next to Heero again and pointed out the man he had shot. He knew that guy had to have died, he had been hit where his heart should be.

"How many had you shot to kill so far?"

Duo looked around the corner and sighed. "At least three."

"Damn."

"What?"

"I knew they'd do this sooner or later." Heero was confusing him. Obviously he knew more than he was telling. "Hit them between the eyes. I think that was the message we were being sent in the hangar."

"Message?"

"Just do it."

"Yes sir. Yesh you need to lighten up a bit." Duo stood up and hit the man he had tried to kill earlier in the forehead. He watched closely as the target fell and stayed down. "Yes, one down." Duo smiled but then frowned "Many more to go."

He shot four more in the same spot before things started to quiet down. Of course nothing was going to stay that way when the others who were left behind in the hangar joined the last man.

"Heero!"

"Yeah, I see them."

"Now what? I'm runnin' out of ammunition."

"Me too."

Suddenly there was a loud eruption of noise and then silence.

Heero heard several people cry out in pain. This confirmed his suspicions. They weren't alone in this fight; someone else was helping them win. Or was there a separate agenda?

Slowly Heero stepped out from behind the dumpster. There were no shouts and no gunfire.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? We don't know if they're all gone." Duo yelled trying to grab Heero by the sleve.

"There's no one here except for those who are dead, Duo it's safe."

"Man you just keep doing that." Duo sighed as he moved out from behind their shelter and followed Heero. "You're absolutely positive they left?"

"Yes, they left." Heero confirmed. Duo was as right to be worried. This was the first time he had run into the super soldiers and they were very difficult to kill.

"Okay then, so now what, do we head back?"

"Not yet there maybe something left behind by whoever helped us."

"Right and maybe it was the Easter Bunny! " Duo jested. That was annoying Heero hated it when Duo joked like that. "Look they were using their gun I heard it!" Duo sighed. "You're paranoid, you know that?"

"Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up!" Heero grunted. 'He's all worked up now, and I can't think when he does that.' Heero moved forward and saw what he was looking for. Lying on his face was a man who was surrounded by a puddle of blood. What caught Heero's eyes was the way the man was laying. Part of his chest was being held up by something.

Duo waited as Heero moved towards one of the killed men. There was no point in checking, what was it going to prove anyways? That the attacker used a handgun or a rifle. Either way there was no way to track them.

Coming up behind his friend Duo watched as Heero rolled the man onto his back. 'Yup he's dead.' Duo thought to himself partially relived the man was dead. But something was still bothering him. 'What if this guy had a family or if he was married or something. His kids would have no father and his wife would have been widowed. There's a reason why we have these rules, but what choice did we have? Did I do the right thing listening to Heero?'

Slowly Duo inched forward, sure enough there was some proof to whoever it was that killed the man. Duo watched as Heero tried to pull the knife from the man's chest, but it proved to be more difficult that the perfect soldier had thought.

"Try pulling and twisting, it might be snagged on a rib." Duo added after Heero let go of the handle and sighed in annoyance. In total surprise Heero looked up at Duo.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I've had that happen to me once, I didn't like it, but it has to be removed either way."

Heero nodded and did exactly as Duo had told him. With a sickening sucking sound the blade came out but only after it gave Heero quite the fight.

"Man that was in good." Duo commented, with a face of utter disgust.

"Yeah but they never came down here."

"Huh but how can you do that? You need to literally stab a guy pretty hard to get that to happen."

"Here take this I want to check his ID." Duo made a weird face. Since when did they check ID? That job was for clean up.

"Sure Heero but I'd rath…." Heero handed Duo the knife but before Duo could finish what he said he dropped the blade. "What the hell, that thing is as light as a feather."

"You noticed huh." Heero stood up with the man's wallet.

Duo looked down at the knife. It was pretty long,it was probably a dagger of some sort,and from the way it was shining in the light, it was pretty sharp. Picking it up Duo ran his finger over the edge. Sure enough it drew blood easily. "What is this made of?"

"Guess."

"Well it's light weight that's for sure. It's very sharp, and very tough." Duo looked up at Heero with horror. "There's no way they can do that, it's a waste of money!"

"But what if they had scraps left over?"

"I guess but just melting it down is expensive."

"True but it lasts twice as long." Heero concluded. Duo hated it when he was always right.

"Sure but still the amount you need would be very small but where would you get that little. Last I checked the shipments only came in large amounts."

"This one was pretty small."

"Yeah true but you're talking to a Sweeper here. I know there is small shipments but they're a lot more expensive and even that one was average if you only wanted enough to make spare parts or repairs." Duo knew what he was talking about. Often he had managed to get small shipments like the one they were after. But they were costly and he only used them to make missing or extra parts.

"Okay then we're looking for something made of gundanium." Heero sighed. Both knew it was a bad sign.

Duo put the blade in his bag and moved next to his best friend. "So this guy got a family?"

"No. He's not attached to anyone or anything. All there is this ID card, but it's useless."

"Well we should call for clean up and report this to Une, don't you think." Duo said as he stretched his arms. "She won't like to hear what happened here but it's better she knows about you super soldiers right?"

"Yes that's true but tell her I killed the men, not you."

"Why? I did!" Duo hated lying but now he understood where Heero was coming from.

"If she finds out it was you, you would lose your job and I don't think having one of us arrested is a good thing at this point. We need to keep clean. If I tell her I did it then I'll be let go, I'm not really a preventer, I was onlycalled in to help."

"Okay but are you sure you want to take all that blame. It's quite the bit to hold on you shoulders."

"What choice do we have? I want to make sure all five of us are able to retaliate if something happens."

"You mean another war?"

"Maybe, either way there's no choice."

"I guess you're right." Duo sighed He didn't want to lie, and technically he wasn't but he knew it would bother him for days afterwards. As both started to walk away Duo suddenly realized something. "Hey you're going to leave again aren't you?"

"Hm…" Heero grunted.

"Man, Relina won't like that, you were her 'bodyguard' for a while and then you disappeared. She'll be mad at you I hope you know that." Duo knew enough about the relationship between the two young people that Heero would leave anyways. "Are you listening to me or what?"

"…" Heero made no response and kept walking. Duo stopped and watched him.

"Heh, I guess you'll be visiting her sooner or later." Duo smiled to himself about what he felt would happen between the two. He knew Heero had feelings for the Vice Foreign Minister. But he had troubles showing them. "Hey wait up, will you!" Duo called out as he ran after Heero.

TBC...

A/N: Hmm i wonder what girl Heero was talking about? Well you'll have to keep reading to find out. Compared to the other one this story will have a lot more happening in it so it'll be abetter and easier read.

Please review!