Review Responses

yaeko- Heero and the others were, in general, evil and malicious bastards. No one stole anything, but they accused Duo of stealing from them.

Elliott's girl- I like the middle east. I was actually trying to work it so I had a spot west of Bombay, and Pakistan worked. ; Sorry if I scared you.

Tatsu Satsuki- I understand what you mean, but we're pretending that Richard is stupid and slightly unobservant. Thanks for pointing it out. And here's how the thing works with alphas: they are strong, stable people, mentally and physically. Unlike a dominant, these are leaders who would do anything to help his or her pack, and those related to the pack. Duo knows this, which is why he trusts Richard.

DuoHarryVegeta- Yes. Yes it is.

silentblade2- Thank you! Here's the next chapter!

SS- Someone do the disclaimer! Now!

Richard- SS owns neither Gundam Wing, nor Anita Blake, nor herself. They belong to Bandai, LKH, and someone called Gaara, respectively.

Title- Broken

Rating- M

Summary- Duo and Richard talk about things they have in common. Sort of. Heero gets destroyed by his guilt.

MISSION SPECS 04: MEMORIES 03

By the time dusk hit, the pair was halfway between Surat and Bombay, and Duo had discovered that Richard did not have a bladder. Honestly, they had made three (unfortunately necessary, but useful for trying to get rid of meddling alphas) rest stops, but the man hadn't needed anything, aside from the burger and the forty-four ounce cola! Duo was convinced that the older male was peeing next to the car when they had stopped for gas. By the time they reached Surat, Duo had realized something: the man was like a dog with a bone, he wouldn't let the subject of Duo's fear go.

It was starting to get really annoying, but it also brought up more of Duo's fears. Could Richard smell the disgusting taint of infection on him? He had tried cleaning everything to the best of his abilities, had tried covering his scent, because who knew what crazy things Dr. J had decided to do to 01 for the sake of—

gag— perfection.

But was it enough? Richard hadn't said anything so far...was it possible that he truly didn't know? Could Duo really begin to hope that he would get away with his escape without interference?

Would he truly be free? The answer, he realized, was—

(No)

—all dependant on the assistance of one woman, whom he had never seen before in his life. She was his idol, and would hopefully be his savior. She was the one woman who had more kills in her books than he did.

The Executioner.

Anita Blake, Richard thought with no small degree of amusement, was one hell of a bitch. That was one of the reasons why he loved her. But she was so damned moody! After all, he was the one trying to keep her safe when the stupid vampire almost tore off her arm. As a reward? He gets sent on a freakishly weird trip to Pakistan. PMSing? Maybe just a touch.

He wondered what she was doing now, and could've slapped himself because of his stupidity. He could reach her through their link! That is, if she didn't have her mental barriers up.

Or he could just ask Duo if he had a cell phone. You know, whichever was easiest.

"Do you have a cell phone?" he heard himself asking absently. He could have smacked himself for his randomness, but opted to shrug instead. That decided that!

Duo looked at the other man out of the corner of his eye. "...Bag in the glove compartment," he said reluctantly. "Number's untraceable, and it probably won't work out here."

"Why not?" Duo looked at Richard with increasing incredulity.

"Tell me, Richard," Duo paused to gesture out of the window, "have you seen a cell tower in the last hundred miles?"

"No, but what does that— oh." The man had the grace to look sheepish at least. Duo chose to shake his head and press the button that operated the CD-player. He smiled as he heard Marilyn Manson's cover of "Personal Jesus" announce his favorite mix. Linkin Park, Seether, Velvet Revolver, and Evanescence were also on here, among others. They were all loud songs, songs that made him want to go out and hurt someone, to go out and demolish things. They were his work-out songs, the songs that got his blood pumping. They were the songs where he was strong enough, in his mind, to make the traitors bled like he'd bled, hurt the way he was hurt, cry the way he had never allow himself to cry.

Richard would deny it if he was told that he had jumped when the CD started. He wondered if it came as a surprise to him that Duo liked rock songs. He thought that it would be more surprising to Duo if he learned that Richard enjoyed showtunes, long walks on the beach, and tea instead of coffee.

But that was not the point. The point was that he was stuck in India without a working cell phone, and he had no idea what time it was in St. Louis. Not that Anita wasn't used to late-night calls, but there was the off chance that it was daytime, and no one was around Anita's place in the daytime. The house had developed a strange habit of betting attacked in the daytime, if inanimate objects could develop habits.

"You know, mumbling under your breath about personification is a sure sign that you belong in a room with a straightjacket," Duo's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Next thing you know, you'll be talking about the walking dead."

"Only if Anita and Jean-Claude aren't talking about me."

!Scene Break!

Anita sneezed. "Someone is talking about me," she muttered, glaring around the room in a paranoid manner. Nathaniel sighed, knowing that she was probably right, but they would never find Richard if they focused on that.

"Forget it, Anita, it doesn't matter right now. So you said that you told Richard to go help someone last night, and he storms out in a huff, but his car never leaves the driveway."

"Yep." Nathaniel sighed and bent forward. Anita stroked his braid sympathetically.

"This place gets more fucked up every day, and our pard is usually involved in some way. Did you know that?" Anita felt herself nod automatically.

"Yep."

!Scene Break!

Duo couldn't stop his body from swaying to the beat of Incubus's "When It Comes", he was too anxious. In half an hour he would be on a first class flight from Bombay, to Los Angeles, to St. Louis, all paid for by OZ, preferred terrorists of the space colonies. He would force himself to forget—

(DON'T FORGET MEMORIES KEEP YOU STRONG KEEP YOU SHARP KEEP YOU ALIVE Don't forget)

— the bad things, if he could. But somewhere, some subconscious part of him, knew that something out there would remind him of those damned traitors. Colors, scents, words, something would keep them alive, and fresh, and horrendously real in his memory. He wondered if Anita Blake knew a hypnotist.

And he knew he had fucked up when Richard answered him.

"No, but she knows a hell of a lot of therapists," was the absent reply. Both men froze as reality sank in; Duo had actually said the part about Anita Blake out loud.

Duo spotted the parking lot for Bombay's International Airport, and turned into it with a curse. He was receiving a lobotomy from the force of Richard's gaze, and dammit, he liked his brain! He turned the car off and sighed. Looked like it was time to pay the piper.

"I found out really early on in life that I was able to see, hear, and talk to the dead," he said quietly after a pregnant silence. "Seeing as I was raised on the streets, I was too poor to learn how to hone my skills, and when someone finally took me in, they told me that the things I could do were evil and wrong. So I ignored it, and dealt with the ghosts and walking dead animals following me. When I was ten, I learned that I could use the force of my will to lay them to rest, or drive them away at least.

"I am, was, a Gundam pilot, one of the so-called terrorists that fights for peace, justice, and the downfall of OZ. About two and a half years ago, I had a mission in the US, and I heard all sorts of wild rumors. Rumors about a woman who had more legal vamp killings on her list than anyone, about a woman who could raise an entire graveyard without a human sacrifice. Rumors about a woman called Anita Blake.

"I did follow-up research on her, learned that the rumors were true. I told my fellow pilots about this, and they laughed at me, told me that the internet was highly unreliable. I pretended to listen to them, but I knew this stuff was real, had seen these things happen.

"I worked in a group of five. 01 and 05 never liked me, and they made it clear to me that I was just a nuisance, that I wasn't important, the mission was. I thought for awhile that they could have changed. 03 and 04 were okay, up until now. They had led me to believe that we were friends, but 05 and 01 lied to them about me.

"These last three weeks of my life have been pure hell. I've been punched, kicked, stabbed, insulted, and demeaned many times in my life, but never by people that I cared about. I've never had sex, never been raped, until these last three weeks. I have been treated like a hooker, whose pimps have made it crystal-clear that they can, and probably will, kill him.

"My sister, and the thought of finding Anita Blake, have been the things that let me keep hold of my shredded sanity. I accidentally bought two first class tickets, through an account that is totally not mine, for Relena and I. It didn't occur to me at the time that she wouldn't be able to go with me, but I know now. Relena is the one thing in the world that 01 cares about. He would track her down, and through her, me.

"So yes, I am afraid, but I think I have a right to be. What's your story?" Richard frowned at the young man.

"I was dating Anita Blake. So whose account did you use?"

"Someone from OZ. Don't worry, he's pretty rich, he hasn't noticed yet. You really dated Anita Blake? What's she like?"

"She's short, sarcastic, and she get's a little trigger-happy when she's PMSing. You've done that before?"

"There were times that I had to, just to survive, and to keep my Gundam in top order. I chose this one guy, a couple of years back, and stuck with him. Dude puts in two hundred thou every month, so I'd take a quarter. I found out on my last mission that he pimped out prisoners to other OZ officers, as a form of torture."

"Well then. Kudos to you. When's the flight?" Richard inquired. He blinked rapidly to digest the onslaught of information that he had just received. Duo looked at his watch.

"An hour. C'mon. Let's get out of here." Richard nodded his assent. They left the car simultaneously, with Duo grabbing the bag from the back seat, and Richard retrieving the bag from the glove compartment. They walked toward the building ahead of them, neither one looking back once.

MISSION 04 STATUS: COMPLETE

Kali- We realize that it really doesn't make sense, what with Duo going into the airport looking all fucked up, but let's pretend that Duo started wearing foundation and other makeups to cover any facial wounds, alright?

SS- It is really late over here, and I am so sorry for the long update!

Athena- It's because she's been focusing on schoolwork. It's a good thing that the girl is smart enough to know that she can't pull off straight As, but she does have two As, three Bs, and one C.

Duo- It's also because she was working on the Naruto story, Dancing In The Dusk. It's pretty good, actually. You guys should go read it.

Kali- We have a request that needs to be fulfilled! Our good friends, leemax and Tatsu Satsuki, wants to know about the pain and misery that we've made our antagonists endure.

SS- This little skit takes place in Heero's POV, three years after chapters 2-4. And, oh baby, I have made this bastard suffer. :grins maliciously:

MISSION 04B SPECS: MERCILESS

We heard that he died, four years ago, today. I've read the reports, watched the videos, and seen the photographs, a million times, a billion times. Why, you ask? Partially as a form of penance, so that I never forget him, that wild-eyed, young, braided boy. As if I ever could. As if any of us would ever be able to forget him.

Duo Peacecraft, alias Duo Maxwell.

Some part of me doesn't accept his death, and maybe, it never will. I punish myself with those endless thoughts of 'maybe'.

Maybe he survived. Maybe he didn't trust us enough to come back to us. Maybe he stopped believing in us. Maybe he found someone, someone who cared for him, respected him, made him feel like he was important.

Someone who treats him the way we never did.

Relena had told us that she was glad he had died, since it got him away from us. We had acted confused, like we didn't know what she had meant. She told us to shut up, because she had seen what we had done to her brother. That shut us up.

She told us of how elated he had been to find out that he had real family, blood family. She told us of his past; how he had been a thief and street rat on L2, how he had been at the destruction of the Maxwell Church, even about the man called Howard.

Then she told us of how he hadn't cried to her once during those three weeks. She had seen the bruises and scars, and she had, but he wouldn't, couldn't, let us have the satisfaction of breaking him.

"You called him a whore. You, disgusting, filthy people, who beat and raped him, had the gall, the unmitigated and astounding gall, to call him a whore? I have something worse to call you: OZ worthy rapists and torturers. You disgust me!"

She had slapped us all, saying that if we ever came near her again, she would have us arrested. I couldn't even begin to try and justify our deeds. Hearing those words, hearing that dirty ugly truth had broken us down. Duo hadn't been anything like the bastards at OZ. We had.

Today is the night of the full moon. I can feel the power inside me, the beast, waiting to be released. Wufei and I are both werewolves. He is black with golden eyes, and I am white with blue eyes. We are monsters, yet not monsters. Our beasts are pure, not us. Not as humans.

I'll run tonight, if only to help me forget my dream. It's the same dream, every night, and every night, I wake up crying.

Wufei and I are walking down a hall when we stop before a door. We can hear laughter behind it, so I open it and we go in. And we see him.

He's talking with a woman, a short, buxom woman who smiles easily with him. He looks away from her, and he sees us. The terror that fills his eyes pains me, and I know, I just know, that Wufei doesn't recognize him, but I do. I can see the woman glaring at us, and I know that he trusts her with not only his life, but his heart as well.

"Duo?" I can't help but whisper incredulously, and that is when I wake up.

It hurts.

It hurts to think that somewhere out there, Duo might have placed his faith in someone else. And it hurts to think that Duo is alive, and well, and afraid of me. But do you know what hurts the most?

That Duo might be out there, alive, and not know what I feel for him. That I do love him, I do cherish him, that I am sorry for everything I have ever done to him.

That he could be happy because he hasn't seen me...the merciless Perfect Soldier.

The object of his nightmares.

MISSION 04B STATUS: COMPLETE

SS- :sweatdrops: I can't believe that I'm still cognizant at 2 in the morning. Or that I wrote that. O.O

Kali- Please read and review, people. I'm gonna take her to the back room to, ah, sleep it off.

Duo- Translation: she plans on molesting SS while the author can't fight.

Athena and Duo- Bai-bai-buu!

Shinigami's Sister