A/N: Guess what people…I got a very nice person to check my writing for me. Isn't that cool?! May I introduce…ta da…Becky. I hope that the chapter will be much more fun to read now. Thanks again Becky!!!!!
I forgot to say my thanks to everyone who read chapter 13: SORRY!!! So here we go: Akennea (Thanks! I will. I will. I'll bring the fic to an end!), Eri (Yeah, I thought so, too. It was kinda strange after all!), Happy Fan (Happy New Year to you 2! I'm late for about a year but hell now it's the perfect time. ), Eternal Sailor Darkness (Wow, you must be black and blue after being sick!), Cesia (I'll try to keep that in mind.), CuriousDreamWaver (I would have liked to see that.), Devona Wolfe (Aha, you're having naughty thoughts there!!! ), Sakura123 (Yep, it was weird. Hope you didn't mind too much!), silverblueenchantress (Yup, sure.), Chapter 14: TARIGARMA (Yeah, I know. I was quite shocked to see just how "often" I updated last year. --), CuriousDreamWaver (Yeah, he is. He's making progress, ne?!), Mystical-Maiden (Oh, I think you're going to be disappointed! Sorry!), Yasei Raiden (You'll see. You'll see.), x-digitalangel-x (The fever is gone down already – luckily for them. Quatre and Trowa are only good friends like Wu Fei and Duo. Don't worry!), cool youkai (Yeah, poor Duo, ne?!), DaughterofDeath (With such a pen name, I should better not refuse, ne?!)
Chapter 15: GuiltTime seemed to have stopped as OZ stormed the clearing.
"Get out of there, Maxwell! If they get the gundams, everything will be over. There is nothing we can do now!" Wu Fei yelled to his friend over the com link. He started up Nataku and went skywards, pushing the OZ soldiers back with the heat waves his gundam emitted.
Duo scowled. "No way Chang. We can't leave the brat here." He yelled into the com. "What – what do you think J will do once he figures out we lost his precious pilot?!" Duo was greeted by silence.
Then he heard Wu Fei sigh. "You know as well as I that J values Wing more than Heero's life. And you know that he is right. If OZ gets the gundams, the resistance is done with."
Shinigami's pilot knew his comrade was right. Another matter though was his conscience, which kept yelling that you do not leave a kid with OZ if you ever want to see it again. And to Duo's amazement, he did indeed want to see Kenji again. That little guy seemed to have grown on him. With a growl of frustration, he stamped his thoughts down, put Deathscythe in gear, and went after Wu Fei who had already taken care of Wing and was by now almost out of eyesight.
Their flight continued in silence. Wu Fei sent Duo the coordinates for their new safe house where they would meet up with Quatre and Trowa. It was quite far and Duo knew he would spend the time agonizing over the fact that he felt horribly guilty about leaving Kenji in OZ hands. He was fairly sure that OZ had found the kid. His over imaginative mind had an easy way of showing him just how they could get the kid to talk. He was bitterly reminded on his life back on L2. What happened to street kids who were caught by the wrong kind of good police officers...
"God damn it." Duo had the urgent need to hit something - anything. Most likely Yuy, who's damn fault it was anyway to get shrunken to a cute kid which had goddamn wormed his way into Duo's heart. Though he'd made sure the kid wouldn't ever find out about that. No - hell would rather freeze over. He'd take that little secret with him to his grave.
The black clad teen was angry. Angry that he'd failed once again to protect someone close to him – someone innocent. But it didn't matter if he concentrated his anger on OZ, J, Wu Fei or Heero. Somewhere in his gut he knew it was his own damn fault. He got careless, distracted by the kid and now he had the result. Duo knew it would be much easier to pretend he was happy that the kid was gone – hey, it was exactly what he had wanted all along, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Anyway, there was no one to pretend to. So why bother. He still had a couple of hours to pull his act together.
The hours dragged by slowly, but finally their destination came into sight. From the looks of it, the house was most likely one of the Winner estates. When Duo landed his gundam next to Wing and Nataku, Wu Fei was long gone. Probably in search of Quatre and Trowa. Just the thought of explaining what had transpired at the safe house resulting in kind of loosing Kenji made his insides feel squishy. Quatre was usually the sensible one in their team, but he had been touchy before about Kenji. Duo didn't dare imagine how he would react to their news. The best way would be to let Wu Fei take the brunt and then come to his rescue.
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Duo carefully sneaked into the house listening for any indications that Trowa and Quatre were already there. He was just about to peek into the kitchen when he felt someone breathing down his neck.
"What are you doing Duo?"
Said pilot just managed to refrain from jumping and whirled around to face a suspicious looking Quatre, with Trowa in tow, who looked at him quizzically, an eyebrow raised.
"I – I was looking for Wu Fei." Duo swallowed and grinned at them. "How did the mission go?" He slowly peeled himself off the wall he was pressed against and tried to get past Quatre into the kitchen. To his dismay though the blonde followed and innocently asked the most dreaded question.
"Where's Kenji?" Duo stared at Quatre willing the blonde to forget what he just asked.
"Duo?" The blonde leaned closer.
Snapping out of his daze Duo blinked and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "We lost him." Seconds ticked by while Duo was mentally hitting himself. But what else could he say without lying. 'Stupid Wu Fei. Never here when you need him.'
Quatre stared expressionlessly at him. "Come again?" Looking at Trowa who was wildly shaking his head and making all kinds of gestures Duo couldn't quite figure out. Duo's gaze travelled back to the blonde pilot before him. A deep frown was marring the blonde features now and Duo was preparing himself for what he was about to face. Trowa obviously realized there wasn't much he could do now, and was slowly backing off.
"Did you just say YOU LOST KENJI?" Quatre asked disbelievingly.
Duo looked like a deer caught in the headlights and nodded slowly. "Well, you see … it was like this …-"
"YOU LOST KENJI?!" Quatre's face was coming closer and closer and Duo desperately tried to vanish into the wall. No such luck. The blonde's eyes were narrowed at him whatever half way decent explanation had been floating in Duo's mind went down the drain when Quatre fully exploded.
"JUST HOW CAN YOU LOSE A KID? HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? I KNOW YOU DON'T LIKE YUY BUT KENJI IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT MATTER. HE IS INNOCENT FOR HEAVENS SAKE." Quatre got quite red in the face while he continued ranting at poor Duo. "You were supposed to look out for him. We are a team after all, and Yuy is part of our group whether you like the idea or not. We are in a war here, and there is no place for childish, selfish behaviour. And here I thought he was safe with you! After all, he trusted you the most!"
Duo paled at this and let his head hang low. Quatre was right. What did it matter that he actually liked the kid, if he had failed to keep Kenji safe in the end? In his opinion, he totally deserved to be yelled at. Trowa who had been watching the rather one-sided exchange saw the downcast expression on Duo's face before it vanished just as quickly as it came. A determined look replaced it and suddenly Duo pushed Quatre away and stormed out of the kitchen.
Quatre was about to go after him but Trowa hold him back shaking his head. "Calm down Quatre. I know you are disappointed in Duo but let's find Wu Fei. I want to hear what happened. I don't think Duo is quite up to that right now."
Sandrock's pilot nodded slowly.
"What was that all about? Maxwell almost ran me over." Wu Fei stood in the doorway and one look at the other pilots and he knew what was going on. "So you know about Kenji then?"
Quatre's head snapped up and he said sadly. "How could he only leave Kenji behind?"
"Because I told him to do so." Wu Fei replied flatly.
"WHAT?!" Quatre looked at him unbelievingly.
"You're kidding?" Trowa asked looking as flabbergasted as his blonde team partner.
"You – you…" Quatre sputtered. "You what?"
Wu Fei rolled his eyes at Quatre, and pushed past them to lean against the kitchen counter. "I ordered Duo to take off and leave the kid behind." Wu Fei said coolly to the smaller boy. "The gundams were compromised. You do know that the evacuation of the gundams has priority. OZ stormed the safe house, and Duo got us out. It wasn't his fault that Kenji didn't make it in time to the rendezvous point." Wu Fei clearly looked pissed. "It's not as if he wanted to. Believe me, that child means more to him than he lets on." The black haired teen turned to Trowa. "Let's find out if we can trace Kenji. Maybe Winner can figure out HIS priorities in the meantime." With that Wu Fei strode out of the kitchen ignoring the silent blonde.
Trowa stopped to pat Quatre's back. "Go, apologize. He'll understand. He always does." Quatre nodded, slowly wandering off in search of Duo, regretting his outburst. He sighed. 'Somehow this always happens when I get ticked off.'
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Okay, people you still with me?! What do you think should happen next? I mean we can't just leave Kenji wherever he is now, right?! I promise to update more quickly as soon as I'm done with this semester. We have to bring this story to an end.