Chapter 7: The Video

Flashback

Heero's POV

We all stared at my laptop as we were connected to Doctor G. We were all eager to know what the heck had happen to Duo just a day ago. We didn't know how to get a hold of him, only Duo knew that…but he was gone right now. I emailed Dr. J and demanded that he get G for us. And now you found us sitting and waiting.

About 9 min later G appeared on the screen and before he got a word out I growled out "What the hell can Death scythe do to Duo."

"Well that's a very nice hello from you," G replied unfazed by my glares, "you don't greet me like Duo does. He does it with such enthusiasm or a death threat, but still it is a nicer greeting than yours."

"Shut up and just tell us what we ask or we all will find you and kill you," surprisingly this was Wufei who spoke the threat.

"Fine, what is it that you wish to know." He said in a bored tone.

"We told you, what is it that Death scythe can do that our Gundams can't." I growled.

"Oh that yes, well this is going to be a rather long story, so I suggest you sit down while I tell you, or better yet I will show you." He said with an insane looking smile, "We recorded everything we did with him, including when we first found him and interrogated him. Here's the first video, and I will pause at points to tell you things so don't get pissed off at me when I do.

He played the movie"

On the screen was Dr. G and young boy that had to be Duo.

"How old are you?" video G asked

"I really don't know but I think I'm about 10." stated the young boy.

"Tell us of your first memories on L2..." Video Dr. G trailed off not knowing his name.

"Duo…I may run, I may hide, but I never lie…that's me in a nutshell, Duo Maxwell." the young looking boy said.

"Fine Duo, tell us of you first memory's."

"Ok, but I doubt you'll like it," the boy said grinning, "I first remember yelling, lots of yelling…I believe it is what you call a mom, she was the one yelling. She was yelling at a man that I guess was my…what do call them… … father yea that's it a father. She was yelling at him because he got her pregnant and that he should take 'that damn useless brat.' Well the man didn't like that idea so he left the building and never came back, and that's what I remember of my so called 'father'. Yup just running off and never looking back that damn bastard. I was, I believe, 3 at the time this happened. I was young yes, but I knew what went on around me.

"Now my mother was not very kind and didn't care for others, except herself, she knew that this was going to happen so I guess she had a plan on how to get rid of me. When I said my 'mother was mean, she was mean, she didn't kill me, which is obvious enough because I'm here. But she decided to be crueler and leave me on the streets to defend for myself, nice lady. She drove out into the middle of the city and left me in an ally and took off, leaving me very confused. At this Quatre made a sob of pain for Duo's sake. We all had no idea he actually remembered his parents abandoning him, which is hard to handle.

"Now I had to learn and learn fast if I was to survive, so the first thing I knew I had to do was find shelter. I did but mind you it wasn't a very good one, being a 3 year old though it was good enough. I taught myself how to steal, of course in the beginning I was caught, like, all of the time and severely punished, which were beatings with fists, sticks, and sometimes pipes. I would nearly starve to death at points, but I knew I could never stop trying or I would die, I didn't feel like dying. I would manage to get enough at a time to survive and get stronger, but that is when I got lucky. One time when I was still recovering from a beating, a group of older boys passed by that seemed to have lots of money and were only touring the colony, don't ask me why they would want to tour this armpit of the colonies. They spotted me, and I looked like a skeleton with skin, while they were fat and could tell that they lived good lives. The boys came up to me with grins on their faces, I didn't trust them because how they looked. Then the leader of the group bent down and offered to me what seemed to be fresh fruit, key word FRESH, which is rare to come by in the slums. The boy said I could have it and extended his hand toward me. I watched him because I knew I wasn't going to get it, but I was so hungry and it looked so good. I went against my better judgment and I reached for the offered food. All of a sudden the fruit fell and the boy and his friends smashed it into the dirt making sure nothing was salvageable; I really wanted to hurt them. The fat bastard told me he lied and how he would never give anything to a piece of trash, and then they began to beat me up knowing I was to weak to defend myself. After the ass holes left me beaten it was then that I decided I would never lie to anyone, it hurt to much to be betrayed when there was a glimmer of hope."

'If anyone hurts Duo now I will kill them, I'm just sorry he had to go though this, and he was only 3.' I thought this silently to myself.

"After about a year on the street and I was now 4, I never did remember my real birthday but it was a new year so I said I was 4, deal with it. I knew how to take care of myself now, given my year alone on the streets. I now knew how to run, speak clearly, from looming around all the people in the street market and I could steal as well as an adult. I was still small and thin, but no one gave me a second look because of this, so it gave me an advantage others didn't have. Now this went on for about another year until I got into a tiny bit of trouble... G in the video looked at Duo hard as if saying to tell the whole truth. Fine I got into a huge shit of trouble. I stole from some OZ pigs, when some rats started to squeak like hell was at their tails and one of the OZ bitches turned around looking scared. Video Duo started to laugh out loud at this part. I mean come on it was a rat and he looked ready to piss his pants. Now I knew I was royally screwed when he saw me and started to shout, so I took off running with what I had. I ran and they followed, but I couldn't lose them because I wasn't fast enough because my damn legs never grew any longer. So we played follow the leader for about a good mile until I took a wrong turn straight into a dead end, yea go me. The soldiers smirked coldly at me and were about to shoot me when rocks began to rain down on them, and it freaked me out a bit. Someone grabbed my arm and began to drag me out of the ally, it didn't take long for me to start running with my unknown savior. After the stranger thought we were far enough from the soldiers did he tell me who he was. He told me his name was Solo and that he ran a gang and wanted to know if I would join and help save other kids as well. I readily agreed since I grew tired of being alone, and I knew I could trust him. I remember Solo telling me I should always be in a group. When I asked why he told me that if you're alone then no one can help you when you get in trouble, but if you're in a group you can pull together and beat the odds. I took this advice and I will never forget it." The video was put on pause.

"So that's why he wanted all of us to join forces, he was thinking of his time on the streets and put it to use in the war." Quatre said the real G just nodded his head.

"I never thought of being in a group could help…I only thought others would get in the way" I told true fully.

"We owe Duo a lot for showing us how we should fight together and never alone. Otherwise I believe all of us would not be alive right now." Trowa said and we all nodded are heads in agreement. G suddenly played the video again making us all go silent.

After two years of being with Solo and the gang, I felt for the first time as if I had a family. Solo and me were best friends and would always help each other out. Solo and I were the best thieves in all of L2; we rarely got caught and knew how to avoid being caught. We stole for the other children hoping to help them out and for them not to sell their bodies. I would bring back food for the other children so they could eat… it made me feel good about myself when they smiled at me and thanked me. It was then that I realized I could care less about what others thought of me, I had people that cared for me and that was all that matter. I was happy and content for the first time in my life, I realized I had friends and family here… I did have friends and family… until the plague hit us."

To say we all didn't know about the plague that struck L2 would be a lie, everyone on Earth and in the colonies knew, but most didn't care.

"When the plagued hit it hit hard. The first to die off were the old and the young, most of my gang were to young and didn't have enough antibodies… they were the first to go. They would tell me how much it hurt, their backs, stomachs, and chest. Their faces were always scrunched in pain, and they would plead with Solo and I to make the pain go away…but I didn't know how to help. Everything I did seem to be in vain and the kids would die anyway. I can still hear their screams of pain, and when I close my eyes I see their faces pleading with me to help…but I always let them down. Days passed and even more children died despite Solo and my efforts. I remember a mark would appear…the mark resembled…a skull if I recall right. This mark would appear anywhere, but you would first get the mark and after a few days you would become ill. The mark would seem to taunt me because every timed a child died, the mark would become bright red on the paling skin of dead body. It was then that Solo got the mark and I became devastated.

I tried to cure Solo myself by doubling my efforts but all failed as before…until on day I heard of a cure. I was about to steal some food to feed to everyone when I heard some men talking about it. I remember them saying, '…cure for the plague?' the first man asked which is what caught my attention. 'Yea but I seems they charging for it and quite a lot might I add. Bloody greedy bastards should go straight to hell if you ask me.' said the sells man. 'I agree hand it out to all, all but the bums and the street trash, I also say…' I stopped listening after that because what the man called 'street trash' is what I was and I didn't feel like listening to the same old rants again. I was just happy that there was a cure that I could get, but I did not know were to find it. After eavesdropping on other conversations, I learned that it was at one of the better hospitals.

I now hate going to hospitals for 3 reasons, #1. Reason is I hate the smell of them…they smell like death everywhere. #2. The Damn bitches of nurses are mean as hell if you step out of line." to say in the least we all chuckled at that. Even at a tender age of 6 he still acted like he does now. "#3. I hate the fact that the greedy bastards of doctors wanted money to save a person's life. I tried to get the medicine by asking, but that was thrown back in my face by them laughing telling I needed money and I was street trash that didn't need to be saved. I was getting really pissed off at all of them. I had to hurry and find a way to get the medicine to Solo before it was to late… I then decided that I would just have to steal it since I could not get it any other way.

Later that night I snuck into the hospital, they weren't well guarded because that cost too much to hire and security systems were far too expensive. So they thought the staff would be enough, the morons. I found out were they held the vaccine and after about an hour I got it and ran full speed, out of the hospital not caring who I bowled over. When I got back to the gangs hideout I realized at least 3 more of the children died in my absence. I felt bad at not being able to save them but didn't have time for that, I had to get the vaccine to Solo. I rushed over to where Solo lay an saw how hard he was breathing. I told Solo how I had gotten the vaccine and how I could now heal the rest. I gave Solo the injection along with the other children remaining… I used all of the vaccinations saving none for myself. The next day it began to rain and the other children were out finding some wood to help cover their hideout some more. I sat with Solo who still didn't recover, and I didn't understand as to why. Solo told me not to cry because big boys never cry and told I was to be a big boy. That stopped my tears, and I then told him how my name would be Duo. I told him it was because he would always be with me and that I would live for the both of us, just the two of us. After I said my speech, Solo's eyes glazed over and stopped moving all together. I didn't cry because of what Solo had said to me… I have never cried in my life before then and I would not cry now since Solo said not to.

I took care of the children then, but one day one of the children spotted the mark of the skull on my lower back, but I didn't care anymore. I had used all the vaccine on the others and left none for me, I thought I was as good as dead, and I was happy. I now felt the pain everyone else had, but I would not let the others feel as I did while I watched them. I would not scream or moan out loud in pain, I would only scrunch up my face and bear it all. Days past and the pains began to fade, until one day they stopped all together. To say I was relieved that the pains were gone was an understatement. I don't under stand why I survived while everyone else died...the mark is still on the lower part of my back as a reminder."

"Show me," the video G asked.

Little Duo lifted his shirt to allow the video G to see the mark. The video zoomed in to get a closer look at it. When we the video focused an we saw the mark, we realized video Duo was right, it did resemble that of a skull…a mark of death.

"I have never even seen this on Duo's back," Quatre voiced everyone's thought.

After I recovered I went back to taking care of the children noticing that some have left while I was sick. I knew that they couldn't get enough food because they were not skilled enough in thievery as I was, and didn't manage to get enough food. So they left probably to sell their body's on the street, I was torn up inside at the thought.

A year later, was now 7, and I was pick-pocketing from random people in the street market. I was getting a nice haul until I was caught by a man wearing all black with a white color, and a golden cross on a silver chain around his neck. That is how I first met Father Maxwell. The Father was a very kind man and forgave me, and surprised me by asking if I wanted to stay at the church. I didn't agree until I asked if I could bring my whole gang to, and he surprised me even more when he readily replied. After all of the gang was brought to the church life seemed to get better again. I didn't have to worry about food as much and everyone got to sleep in beds. I still would steal things though, saying it was against my nature not to.

"Sister Helen was a nun at the church, and was kind to all of the children. She would scold me for stealing, but would always treat me like a mother would her child…not like my mom at all. I remember she tried and cut my hair once, but I put such a fight she gave up. She then showed me how to braid my hair by demonstrating with her own, because I wouldn't let her touch mine anymore… in fact no one is aloud to touch unless I give them permission. I was once again happy as to where and who I was. I still missed Solo and some of the other kids that were in his gang, but they were in a better place and would want me to be happy. One Christmas day everyone had a new present to play with, everyone except me. I didn't ask for one and purposely missed the head count for presents, so when it came to the time when everyone would get a present, I was left out. Father Maxwell saw that I didn't get a present so after he passed out everyone else's he came to me and asked why I didn't get one. I told him I didn't need one and that it would save money, and he could get more things to help the church. The Father wanted to give something special to me I guess and finally thought of something to give. He reached around his neck and unlatched his cross and gave it to me, I was so happy he trusted me with it."

'I never knew he got that cross from Father Maxwell…no wonder why it's so special to him,' I thought.

After about another two years tragedy struck on all of us yet again. The war got very close to the Maxwell Church and many people were being injured. The church served as a mini hospital to help those in need. The rebels finally made their way into the church as well and began to say it would be a base for them. Father Maxwell began to plead with the men's leader to leave the church to find another base, but the leader of the rebels only agreed to leave if he got a mobile suit. I took this as a challenge and yelled toward the man asking if he would really leave if I got the mobile suit. The man agreed with me and I left to get one for the them, to help save the church. Unfortunately I would never come to see it whole again.

When I got to the base, I saw how little security the base had. These OZ forces are really full of themselves, thinking that no one in their right minds would try and sneak in. Of course I have never been in my right mine." video Duo gave a dark chuckle at his statement.

It was unnerving that Duo was like this at this only at the age of 10. His whole past was a battle to survive, it surprised me he turned out the way he did and not more like me.

"I snuck into the base easily and got to were they were holding all of the mobile dolls. I jumped into one of the trucks caring a mobile doll and manage to drive out of there with out getting shot. When I got back to the church I stopped the truck and stared in disbelief at burnt remains of Maxwell Church. I ran up to the remains looking for any survivors. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and realized it was Sister Helen. I ran over to her asking her what happened, she told me the men didn't believe I would come back and shot Father Maxwell. The Father told Helen that he was proud of me, and that I should never stop smiling. She told me how then the church was then bombed by the Allies with the children still inside killing them all, just to get to the rebels. The building was becoming unstable and fires started to spread on the remaining structure. She said how she tried running back in to save them only to have the building collapse on her. She died in my arms telling me what had happened. I let out a howl of pain and even though I tried not to, I cried for the first time in my life. I lost my second home…my second family."

The boy shrugged his shoulders and said, "I then wondered the streets for another year, until you found me, basically dead. I didn't bother to make friends on the street anymore, because I thought it would just kill them. I didn't care anymore…I wanted to die. But I started to think that you can't kill death. I know I am death, because everyone close to death dies. You might as well call me the Shinigami because that is what I am now. The Shinigami." The tape ended.

"Duo said he was Shinigami when he was only 10, he has lived though so much pain and heartbreak," Quatre said.

"Duo has known more pain than I could of imagined" Wufei stated.

"He seems so happy all the time you think he had a different past, but I guess what Father Maxwell said as a final request, Duo does it just to honor him," said Trowa.

"You still haven't answered our original question G." I said, changing the subject back to G and his explanation.

"Ah, yes. The question on what Duo did with Death scythe before he disappeared, right?" G asked

"Get to it G" Wufei growled out.

"Fine, well after he told us his story we had him checked out and gave him rest. Later we began to train him to become a pilot in the war. His stealth skills were already great, but he got even better with more training. He learned fast for his age, and he hungered for more knowledge. He could crack some of the toughest codes we put against him and he could pick some of the strongest locks in a matter of seconds. He was a great prodigy, but what got my attention was that he survived the plague without a vaccination. I put other poisons against his body, ones that we could cure if he could not fight it off." G added the last part in quickly after receiving death glares from the 4 remaining Gundam pilots. "We discovered though these testing that Duo has an unusually strong immune system. He was able to fight off many diseases that should kill even a grown man if not treated."

G put in another tape and said, "We put a program in Death scythe that would make it faster and stronger than other Gundam. The only problem was it would either cause major harm to the pilot or even kill him. It moved to fast and the speed would put to much pressure on the bones wearing them out. Also they could not handle the power that would course though them, the program would control them instead of them controlling it. The program was only meant to kill anything that moved, so you had to be a ruthless killer to be able to control this program. We couldn't find a pilot that could master the program not even you Heero could of mastered this device."

"So how is Duo able to control it?" asked Trowa.

"Duo doesn't really control it he just pilots it and kills anything, basically he becomes like the program." G replied, "We had to develop a serum to help make the body and mind stronger, so it could withstand the force and mental capability. Once completed, we gave the serum to some test subjects to see if it would work. It seemed to work but after a few days the subject word become deathly ill, and be in so much pain he/she could barley move. Many of the subjects we gave the serum to died, but the others that lived were left to immobile in pain, to do any piloting." G played the movie showing an older looking boy than before, strapped onto a table. The boy had to have been Duo yet again, then the doors open up behind Duo's figure to show G.

"What the hell am I doing strapped to this table G!" Video Duo yelled out.

"We need to give you the Serum to see if you can pilot." was all video G did to reply.

"You mean the one that has almost killed everyone you tested on? The one that if you survive, you are left in to much pain to move and do much of anything for your entire life?" The video Duo asked, seeming to mock the questions he asked.

"…Yes, is there a problem with that?" The G in the video asked.

"What…oh no, no problem at all I just love the feel of pain coursing though out my entire body leaving me in so much pain I can barely walk…why the FUCK would I have a FUCKING problem with that. You damn BASTARD. You better not inject that fucking serum into me or so help me the first thing I do when I get up is kill you. Let me the FUCK UP." Duo started to wrestle against the restraints.

"Calm down we need to test you with this serum or you will never be able to pilot the Gundam to its full power." Duo was still struggling after G told him this, "hold still before I inject this into your eye."

Duo held still and looked at G, then said, "I will go though this and I will then pilot that Gundam your building, and I will when this war to help everyone under this shitty government." Duo then closed his eyes.

"Fine, I agree with this just don't struggle any more." G then injected the serum into Duo's arm, making Duo shut his eyes harder in pain.

"There it's done now all we can do is wait and see if it takes affect." G then left the room, leaving a still Duo in the room.

Duo was just staring for a little while, as if thinking then he whispered out, "I will survive this, I will not give…I will win the war for all who have suffered because of it, I will not give up." and with that said he closed his eyes and slept.

The movie stopped and G came back into view. He looked a bit tired but none the less alert for their questions.

"He got sick like the others did but he held all the pain inside. Eventually the illness past and none of the trait's the others had developed seem to stay with him. We dubbed the project a failure and gave up on it. We never did remove the program; we never thought he would activate it, knowing what it would do.

"Why did you inject the serum into him if you knew he could die or be render useless?" I all but growled out.

"Calm down, we knew he could fight though it…well…we were mostly sure he could fight the illness. His immune system was stronger than others so we thought he could fight off the serums sickness. This is obvious that he did, because he has been fighting with you guys, so it doesn't matter now. Also this is his second time using the program in his modified body.

"What do you mean 'second time'?" Wufei asked.

"Oh yea…he hadn't met any of you yet…well I might as well tell you. We don't have a video for this story so I will tell you from what he told me. If you want a more correct story you should ask him when we find him."

I felt a bit happier when G said 'when we find him' and not if we find him.

"He went to a base on one of the colonies to find out information then destroy it. As he gathered information he realized that many of the people that worked at the base were citizens of a near by town. It seemed that the citizens were being forced to work at the base, their families being threaten by OZ saying they would blow the town up. Duo learned of this so he set his explosives to go off by remote. He would make the people evacuate the building by setting one of them off in a disclosed area, so no one would be hurt. He was going back to Death scythe, when he heard some yelling. He followed the voices to only see and OZ soldier pointing his hand gun at a little boy while a man was on the ground looking as if he was begging. Duo heard the OZ soldier tell the man he had been disobedient and he must pay a price. The man was pleading for the solider to take his life and not the boys. Duo saw the OZ soldier smirk and shot the boy 5 times before the body hit the floor dead. The man on the ground stared in disbelief and started to crawl to the lifeless boy. He reached out his hand to grab hold of what could have only been his son. A shot sound the air and the hand fell never touching the little boys, the soldier began to laugh at this. Duo became enraged and charged the solider screaming. The soldier paled and then tried to shoot Duo; his gun clicked and realized that he used up all of his ammo. He screamed as Duo pulled out a knife and ended the mans life by slitting his throat. Because of the scream, other Oz members were alerted, and Duo then ran to his Gundam knowing there was little hope to get past the army of mobile dolls. When Duo was trying to fight off the army he realized that all of the people looking up and watching. They were the town members and the workers; they were forced into a circle with OZ soldiers pointing guns at them. Then the soldiers began to shoot the people. Duo saw the people scream and fall to the ground dying. This enraged him so he thought of the program and didn't care what it could do; he knew it would kill all of the soldiers though. He typed in the program and it started up, he says the rest is fuzzy and never really remembered what happened. He did know, however, that he killed all of the soldiers; he also knew that he killed all of the people as well. The people were moving and the program took hold of Duo making every living thing a target. He killed everyone and left the town in ruins."

Everyone knew Duo hated to kill innocent people, they could only think of how much pain Duo went though once he knew he killed all those people.

"We found him later on by tracking him down. As a side effect to the serum and mental stress, Duo lost his memories. It took about 2 weeks until he finally remembered everything, he went into a depression.

"It is without a doubt, that I think Duo has lost his memories once more. He is probably on a colony or on earth not knowing who he is. He might remember some things, but they will be a blur. When we find him, we have to help him remember. He will regain his memories because they are only stored up in his mind, so he can cope with things and have a little peace. It will be difficult to find him since he left his tracker with you, so we will have to search though out space. You all still need to do your missions that are assigned to you. The war is not over so Duo will be your second worry, the war comes first."

With that the screen turned off and left us staring. We did not want to believe that Duo would forget us if we did not find him. He was out there somewhere in space and I knew I would find him no matter what.