Sorry it took me so long to post another chapter for this story. I have multiple chapters done for this story, but they just needed proofreading, and I wanted to get through this segment of the story before I posted one of the chapters, I kept feeling like I was going to miss/forget something if I didn't proofread the chapters in one go. But then I got stuck trying to figure out how I wanted to work things after this segment, so I took a break from that and am hoping that proofing the chapters will help me figure it out.
So, without any further to do, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 14
After Trowa left, everything settled down…somewhat. One thing was for certain, Amara was glad that Trowa left. In her mind, it was one less pilot she had to worry about being around Serena. If Amara had her way, none of them would be around Serena, but Michelle was making that difficult. Even Serena was making that a little hard, ever since they had that argument about a week ago. So, she decided to behave, for Serena's sake. At least, she was being a little bit nicer to her Princess' brother. But the other one, the one with the braid, his name was Duo if she remembered correctly, was really asking for it. After awhile, she started to wonder if Duo was getting back at her for the argument she had with Serena.
Another thing had been decided within that week, and that was of when Duo and her Princess' brother were going to leave again. Of course, that decision was made between the two Gundam Pilots; the rest of them just had to live with the decision. Apparently the rest of them didn't have a say in the matter.
"Are you sure about this, Master Quatre?" Rashid asked, one night, while he and the two Gundam Pilots were down in the underground hanger. "Master Wufei could still show…" Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish what he was saying, as he was cut off.
"We can't wait much longer." Duo stated, as if that one statement explained everything.
"Duo's right." Quatre agreed, explaining it further for Rashid, "We have a set date to do all of this. Everything is already set up and waiting for us. All we need to do now is bring the Gundams."
"And besides, he knows all of this already." Duo said, before Rashid could say anything else.
"Rashid?" Quatre said, trying to detour him from thinking of something else.
"Yes, Master Quatre." Rashid said, giving Quatre his full attention.
"Look after Serena." Quatre said.
"But, Master Quatre…"Rashid started to say, but was cut off.
"You don't need to worry, Rashid." Quatre tried to reassure him. "Duo will be with me."
"Very well, Master Quatre." Rashid agreed, giving in, and trying not to sigh realizing there was no way he was going to get Quatre to change his mind.
So, by night, Duo and Quatre worked on getting the Gundams out of the underground hanger to the mobile suit transport carrier that Duo used and left nearby to use later. Duo figured it would be easier that way, instead of having to find another one. It took them a couple of nights to do this, since it was just the two of them moving all four of the Gundams to the transport carrier.
After the week was up, Duo got ready to say his goodbyes to Serena and her friends, for after they took care of the Gundams, he wouldn't be coming back to Quatre's house. He figured he would go and try to find Heero. So, they sent Rashid off to find Serena, while they waited in the living room.
"Serena?" Rashid said, gaining Serena's attention once he found Serena with her friends in the garden, outside. "Master Quatre and Master Duo are waiting for you in the living room."
"Ok." Serena said, acknowledging that she heard what Rashid said.
"Don't keep them waiting to long." Rashid said, as he turned to leave. Serena knew that that was meant to be taken as him teasing her a bit, but he also meant what he said.
Serena watched Rashid leave, before she finished up what she was doing. Which was watering, and tending, to some of the plants. She always found this two be relaxing.
"I suppose we should get going." Serena said, as she turned the water off and looked to where Amara and Michelle were. The two of them weren't far off; they were either helping or watching. Mainly, Amara did the watching, while Michelle did that helping. Serena watched as Michelle finished tending to a plant, before she got up and started to head over to where she was.
"Let's get going then." Michelle said, once they got over to Serena.
The three of them made it to the living room in relative silence. No one said anything, other than Amara wondering what the two could want now. They were greeted by Duo first, once they made it to the living room.
"Hey, there you are!" Duo practically cheered, when he saw Serena enter the living room.
"We're here now. What could the two of you want now?" Amara asked, before Duo could do anything else. Amara got a slight hit in the arm from Michelle and a reminder to be nice.
"Well…" Quatre started to say, but was cut off by Duo.
"I was thinking that I wanted to say goodbye to you before I head off back to L2." Duo said, in a way of explanation. "Hilde is probably going to kill me for being away for this long. Probably will say that I've been slacking off. But, hey, I deserve a vacation once and awhile!"
Serena giggled a bit when Duo seemed to ramble a bit. "Do you really have to go?" Serena asked, it was fun having Duo around.
"Yeah, everything's probably been pilling up on Hilde back at our salvage yard." Duo explained. And Duo wasn't lying about that either. He'll probably go back to L2 after he tried to find Heero, or whatever else he wanted to do first.
"I see." Serena said, taking all of this in, realizing she didn't have much choice in the matter. "Well, it was nice to get to meet you, and it has been fun while you've been around."
"Hey, don't worry." Duo said, when he saw she had a bit of a sad look on her face. "We'll see each other again. The four of us are always popping in and out of Quatre's places."
"I'll try to keep that in mind." Serena said, a bit of a smile appearing on her face.
"Duo?" Quatre asked, gaining Duo's attention, a silent question being asked, as the two of them looked at each other.
"Yep, I'm done." Duo said, as cheerful as ever. "Your turn."
"Your turn?" Serena repeated, a bit confused by what Duo said. "What does he mean by that?"
"Well, you see…" Quatre started to say, trying to find the right words to tell his sister what he needed to say. Amara showed a bit of a smile, thinking that this was it; this was when he was going to tell her. "I'm going to be gone for awhile." Amara lost her smile, disappointed that he was going to continue to delay telling her the truth. "I have some business I need to take care of."
"Oh, I see." Serena said, letting all of this sink in, and the bit of a sad look that Duo succeeded in getting rid of, was now back on her face.
"Don't worry, Serena, I'll try not to take too long." Quatre tried to reassure his sister. "And Rashid will be here if you need anything, ok?"
"Ok." Serena agreed, coming to the conclusion that she had no other choice than to except it.
"We probably should get going, don't want to miss my flight, ya know." Duo said.
"Right." Quatre agreed.
"Alright?" Serena said, trying not to make it sound like she was whining.
"I'm sorry; we probably should've told you sooner that we were going to be leaving." Quatre said, giving his sister a hug. "But, I thought I'd see Duo off at the Space Port since I'll be leaving not to long afterwards."
"Just, hurry back, alright?" Serena said, accepting, again, that she didn't have much choice in the matter, and hugged her brother back before he could get the chance to leave.
Serena watched as the two of them left. Still feeling a bit sad at them having to leave. Who knows when she'll get to see Duo again, she kinda liked having him around.
"Come on, let's go back to the garden and finish taking care of the plants." Michelle suggested, as she place a hand on Serena's shoulder, as well as breaking the silence that seemed to take over when the two boys left. All Michelle got for an answer was Serena nodding her head, and not saying a thing. Michelle took that as an acceptance to her suggestion. So, she put her other hand on Serena's other shoulder, and steered her back in the direction the three of them had come from. And Serena let Michelle do so, not really paying attention to where she was going anyway.
It took about a couple of days to get out to where everything was set up for the Gundams, it was safe to say, that they had safely made it to the disposal satellite, that they were going to use, without any problems. It didn't take them that long to get the Gundams off of the carrier and into the disposal satellite. What did take them awhile was getting the four Gundams into the containers. There was a container for each of the Gundams. They ended up setting the fifth container aside, since they didn't have Wufei's Gundam with them. So, they just took care of the ones they had with them, and hoped that Wufei would show up at some point, before they were done. And they waited for as long as they could to see if Wufei was going to show or not. Once they finished putting the Gundams into the containers, Duo and Quatre just hung around, just floating there and looking at their Gundams for the last time.
"So, as long as this peace continues, there's no need for Gundams." Duo said, making it sound like it was half a question and half a statement of fact; he couldn't take his eyes off his Gundam even as he said this.
"It's tough parting with them." Quatre said, agreeing with what Duo was getting at, as, he too, couldn't take his eyes off of his own Gundam.
"No, it's ok." Duo said, though he sounded a bit reluctant, but resigned to the fact that they had to do this. Then he turned to face Quatre, "Well, let's hurry up and send them into the sun with this disposal block."
"Right." Quatre agreed, looking over at Duo.
With that said, Duo was the first one to start heading back to the transport carrier they used, where the controls would be for sending the disposal block to the sun. Quatre followed Duo after he took one last look at his Gundam.
Once they got back to the carrier, they took their helmets to their spacesuits off, and headed for the controls for the disposal block, they had a great view of it too. They stood there for a few moments as they just looked, before Duo bent over and hit the button that activated the engines to the disposal satellite, as it started on its way to the sun.
"I'm going to miss you, Sandrock." Quatre said, as he watched the disposal satellite head off towards the sun.
"See ya later, Old Buddy." Duo said, as he too, watched the disposal satellite head off towards the sun.
The two of them just stood there for awhile, watching as the disposal satellite got farther and farther away from them, as silence descended, as they watched. This silence was broken by Duo when it was almost out of sight.
"I'm surprised that Wufei never showed up." Duo commented, still watching, since it wasn't completely out of sight yet.
"I know." Quatre agreed, as, he too, continued to watch. "I would've thought he would bring his Gundam around the time Heero and Trowa did."
"Well, I wonder how he's doing." Duo pondered, as the disposal block got out of sight.
With that said, and their job done, the two of them said their goodbyes. Duo stayed in the transport carrier, while Quatre headed back over to the shuttle he used to get there. The two of them thought it was a good idea to go separately since they would be going in separate ways after they sent the Gundams to the sun. The two of them said their final goodbyes, and headed in their separate directions, Quatre heading back to L4, while Duo decided to go and hunt Heero down for the fun of it, before heading back to L2.
I hope you all enjoyed the, long overdue, chapter. And did anyone see that coming? With what they did with the Gundams? This chapter had a big hint, (dunno if it can even be called a hint), as to what I'm going to be diving into with the next chapters? Dunno if anyone else had figured out what I've been setting things up for or not, but I do hope you all enjoy it just the same.