Title: Child Behind The Mask

Author: Mrs. Tara Yuy Maxwell

Disclaimer: Do I own Gundam Wing? Hell yes! After all, I AM dreaming, so why the hell not? And-wait! What the hell do you mean I'm not dreaming! Shit! I've come back to reality already! No. No, I guess I don't own Gundam Wing. BUT! I will one day, just you wait!

Pairings: 3x4; ((Well, here's what I got for the votes of the pairings!There were10 votes for1X2; there were10 votes for 1X2X5; and there were2 votes for 2X5. That means the poll is still up untilI update the next chapter and tell you who breaks the tie! Keep reviewing to get the pairings you want!))

Summery: Who is Duo really? Is he really the cheerful optimist that he always seems to be? Or is there more to it? To him? What will he do when he goes blind (maybe temporarily)? Will the other pilots even notice? Or are they to wrapped up in themselves to care?

Child Behind The Mask

By Mrs. Tara Yuy Maxwell

Chapter One

The Incident

"Good morning day

Sorry I'm not there

But all my favorite friends

Vanished in the air

It's hard to fly when you can't even run

Once I had the world, but now I have no one."

Drown by Three Days Grace

Duo woke up a few hours later that morning, curled in the same position in which he had slept. The first thing he became acutely aware of was the blazing migraine that resided just behind his eyebrows and eyes. He yawned sleepily against the fluffy pillow that was wrapped within the comfortable embrace of his arms while he used his right hand to open the closet door. Crawling out with the pillow still burrowed to his chest, Duo couldn't help but wince when the warm rays of the sun pierced into his still sensitive eyes.

The Gundam pilot 02 stood up, stretched and made his way to the dresser before pulling out the day's clothing. A black shirt and pants, the usual. With his garments in his hands, Duo carefully made his way to the bathroom taking care that no one saw him in such a state along the way.

He gave a silent prayer of thanks to Shinigami when he arrived without incident. After locking the door, Duo stumbled over to the mirror to blearily check his face for any signs of last night. His eyes were still pink and swollen and he had horrible bags under his eyes. His complexion was deathly pale and his cheekbones were more prominent. It looked like someone had taken his skin and stretched them tautly over his face. In short, he looked like shit.

The braided man cursed himself and his lack of control. Boys don't cry! He softly scoffed and dropped his clothes before stepping into the shower.

Duo closed his eyes and sighed as the hot water streamed over his sore muscles. The water felt good and it soothed the knots and aches in his body. It also helped to rid him of the after affects of last nights nightmare.

He gazed down at his body and couldn't help the sneer that over took his lips. His body was so weak and scrawny when compared to Heero or Wufei's muscular bodies. It disgusted him. His form was practically embedded with battle scars. There was no way anyone would ever want him when he had a body like this!

Trying to relieve his mind from the such a disagreeable subject, Duo bathed his face in warm water and began to roughly scrub his body clean. He washed his hair several times with multiple hair products. His hair had to look good. After all, it was the best quality about him. It was the only thing he was proud of. He had had it for as long as he could remember and knew that he would be absolutely lost without it. If he were to ever lose it, he would never be able to maintain and stay the same person he was now.

A half an hour later Duo stepped out of the shower and wiped the condensation off of the steamed mirror. As he once again studied himself, he found that his skin looked healthier and his swollen eyes were not half as noticeable as they had been before. Slightly more pleased with himself, Duo pulled on a pair of pants and gently began to towel dry his hair.

When his chestnut strands were no longer dripping water, he started to patiently comb the thick mass. Said hair was a comforting heavy weight that he long ago found made him feel safe. He supposed it was like a toddler with his safety blanket. The motions of combing his hair was soothing and Duo was soon a puddle of goo that had melted up against the wall. His hair had always been a hot spot of his.

It took awhile, but eventually he had brushed the tangled rough mass of knots into a silky velvet. He easily separated his hair into three pieces and began to tightly braid it with years of expertise.

Five minutes later when Duo was satisfied that his hair had been properly bound together, he tied of the end off with a rubber band. A wave of security flowed through him when the damp and heavy braid rested against his back.

Pulling on his joker's mask, Duo hurriedly cleaned up the mess in the bathroom and rushed downstairs for breakfast. With a large goofy grin in place, he burst into the kitchen and began to babble about nothing in particular. As was usual, they all ignored him. Heero gave Duo his customary glare of death, Quatre 'mm-hmmed' without really paying attention, Trowa ignored him completely, and Wufei bluntly told him to 'shut the hell up.'

All in all it was a usual morning.

Quatre dazedly placed a bowl of slightly burnt pancakes in front of him that positively oozed with syrup. Duo blinked. Well, that was odd. Quatre NEVER burnt the food. Something serious must have been on his mind for him to have been too preoccupied to pay attention to the food. Nobody commented on it.

Not even Duo. Instead he chose to continue with usual morning routine and senselessly babble about nothing until Wufei could take it not longer and began to threaten to cut off his braid with his katana. That would shut the braided boy up immediately.

Just when Duo was beginning to relax and think the boys had simply chosen to forget last night's incident, Wufei opened his mouth and fairly grunted at him, "Just where did you go last night, Maxwell? I checked on you when I woke this morning and you weren't in your room."

All eyes flew to him.

Duo stiffened. He needed to quickly think up an excuse that wasn't a lie but wasn't quite the truth either. I mean, he couldn't very well go tell them that he had decided to sleep in the closet now could he? "Well, I WAS in my room...I just--"

Fortunately for Duo, the alarm on Heero's watch rang signifying a mission had been sent. Heero instantly stood up and stalked out of the kitchen and into the living room. He opened his laptop, booted it up, and read the email containing the necessary information.

The other pilots followed Heero into the room, curious as to who would be going. "It's for Duo," he informed them with a look that positively screamed, "Shoo!" They scattered.

Once the others had left, he trained his icy eyes on Duo. "Your mission is to gather all the blueprints on a new mobile suit they are creating. Afterwards you are to destroy the OZ military base located directly 63 miles north and 15 west at Garfield's Assembly of God. (1) You were chosen to perform for this mission because of you have past experiences with churches."

Duo simply stood there stunned and horrified beyond belief. They wanted him to blow up a church? A fucking church! "But..."

"That is your mission, Maxwell. Don't screw it up!" With a snap Heero shut his laptop and stalked away leaving no room for complaints.

"Shit!" Duo muttered helplessly, trying to stop the painful liquid from welling in his eyes. 'Boys don't cry. Boys don't cry!'

Duo stood in front of Garfield's Assembly of God mournfully. The church was old, but also tall and elegant. It reminded him so much of the Church he had grown up in. For a moment, he didn't know whether or not he would be able to do it, but he had no choice in the matter. Either he blew it up or they blew him up.

His black clothes melded into the night and left him with the perfect camouflage. Cautiously, Duo crept over to the door and picked the lock. He easily got inside and quickly he began to make his rounds. After checking out the building Duo soon found the mainframe. He turned it on and began to hack into the system. He was good at this and falling into such a familiar habit helped him to keep his calm. It only took a few minutes to get where he needed to be.

Sighing in relief, Duo inserted a disc and began to upload all the needed information on to it.

Now that he had time to think about it, Duo could tell something was off. He didn't know quite what it was, but something just wasn't right. It was to easy, to simple. He glanced at the screen, 61 percent.

Argh! Why did it have to take so damn long! Paranoid, Duo glanced around the room and his feelings of unease deepened.

91 percent.

"Come on, come on...yes!" he whispered gleefully as he grabbed the disc and shoved it in his pocket. Just as he did so, the lights above him began to flash red and a siren wailed.

Shit, it was an ambush!

Guards flooded the building leaving him no choice but to shoot all in his way. Duo hightailed out of the church, checking his pocket to make sure the disc was still intact. It was. Things seemed to be looking good for Duo as he successfully made his way to Deathsycthe Hell without encountering a single enemy.

He jumped up into the cockpit and just as he turned the Gundam on, mobile suits began to appear all around him. "SHIT!" They flew for him, hitting right and left. "All who block Shinigami path will not be spared. He will send you straight to hell!" This said, Duo grabbed his thermal scythe and began to destroy all who came at him.

But there were to many, he wouldn't be able to make it out of here alive if he tried to destroy all of them. Turning, he locked onto his target, the church, and readied the missile. He swallowed thickly as he gazed at the church, his finger trembling above the button. He couldn't press it, he couldn't!

He didn't need to. Duo was hit so hard from behind that he was thrown forward his head cracking loudly against metal of the suit. As a result, his fingers pressed the button and the missile flew...right into the church which exploded in a crackle of sparks. "NOOOOO!" the scream tore from his throat and he could only watch with horror as the scene from so long ago was once again played in front of him.

Tears dripped off his chin and he spun around in a malicious rage. He quickly spotted a nearby targets and released his fury onto all close by. When he came to his senses, all he could see before him was carnage. A horrible carnage unlike he had ever seen before. He was dimly aware of a warm stickiness leaking from his forehead into his stinging eyes.

Duo's chest heaved as he surveyed the area, he was the only one left. The church had long since stopped burning and was now a pile of rubble before him. It also looked as though he had begun hacking into some innocent trees during his madness.

With wide dazed eyes, Duo fled the scene, seeking refuge at the safe house. Along the way, he offhandedly noticed the dimming of his vision and shook his head to clear it. This trick worked for several seconds before growing worse. He made it back to the house just before it got so bad that he was unable pilot Deathsycthe Hell.

Stumbling into his safe haven, Duo dropped the disk on the kitchen table before stumbling up the stairs and into his room. He didn't quite make it to the bed before his vision gave. He ended up tripping on a pile of clothes on the floor and landing conveniently onto his bed, face first. He was asleep seconds after his exhausted body hit the mattress.

To Be Continued...

Authors Note:

Wahhh! I'm sorry it's taken me almost a year to update! :ducks rotten fruit as they fly past: I was having a lot of problems at home, my best friends were moving away, I was starting a new school, I had two surgeries, I had a bit of a mental breakdown, AND a lot of other shit was going down. My mind was simply not in the state of mind to do anything with this story. Every time I tried (and believe me I tried) I ended up completely destroying the story. I tried to start Chapter One so many different ways since it's not funny. I'm not even satisfied with this chapter, that's why it's so short! Please be happy that I decided to update at all. I had honestly almost given up on this piece.

You can probably tell the end was rushed. This is because my muse was dying quickly and I KNEW that if I didn't finish it then, I never would. Please be aware that I will revise this and make it longer soon. I promise.

I would, however, like to thank each and every one of you who reviewed. It was because of your reviews that I forced myself to pick up a pencil again and continue this story. And that in itself was a very hard thing to do, especially since I was in a slump and writer's block was keeping me company.

Another thing, I desperately need a beta! And for more reasons then grammar and spelling errors! If I had a nice and strict beta they could force me to write and update more often then I am! If you want to become my beta (and I really hope one of you out there does) go to my profile for more info!

Oh! And please don't forget to check out my web pages. Yes, I have WEBPAGES! They're not all up to date and some are under construction but! they are getting there. Thanks for being such a great reader. Oh, and don't forget to review! Remember, the more you review the more likely I am to not only continue this story, but to also update quicker. Just click the little button and I will be very much obliged!

1) Okay, I made this name up off of the top of my head. If there really is such a church out their (and I truthfully wouldn't be surprised if their was) I just wanted everyone to know I was not trying pinpoint and pick on the church in question.