Author's Note: Last chapter's reference was when Duo mentioned Copy Chris, a mentioned OC in the fic Criss Cross who didn't make a physical appearance. ShadowMajin got the closest to getting it right. Now, this next reference is going to take after the last one, being that it's a person. Can any of you get this one right? And please, can I get more guesses this time around? A person can only have so much fun with two other people… Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Please Don't Die!

Xavien observed dispassionately at the mess that his facility had become. Even now as the clean up crews were scrambling to clean the place up and others were working on sealing up the hidden hallway to his weapons' commons area, the man stood in the midst of it, uncaring if he was in the way or standing in a pool of blood left over from last night, which he currently was doing.

Within him, though, two different feelings warred for supremacy. One was a feeling of pride at seeing first hand what one of his weapons could do. The other was fury at what had occurred only hours ago, something he had been assured would never happen. He couldn't settle on which one but he had called a meeting in which he was late for so maybe that might help him out.

His brown trench coat billowed behind him as he suddenly moved, much to everyone else's fear. He marched through the remnants of the carnage without a second thought, literally stepping on bodies of his dead employees, dismissing the respect that one would normally give to the deceased, leaving behind only a trail of bloody footprints. He made a mental note to find out the total number of casualties and injuries; it would give him a good idea as to just how far Project Maxwell had progressed.

Whether or not Septum would be pleased about this, he had no idea but was not going to think of that anytime soon.

He had chosen a boardroom that had a nice view of the messy commons area for this meeting. That way, if anyone tried to deny or claim that last night wasn't real, the proof would just be outside the two-way mirror. Also, it would make him seem more imposing when he demanded his answers.

He burst through the doors without fanfare, startling the boardroom's inhabitants. Despite the different colors of his eyes, both were clouded with his not unheard of rage that was just begging to be released and released soon. He continued his death march up until he reached the mirrors and gaze out at the new angle of the commons area that he had been presented. Hmm, they were going to have to replace a few of those tables…

"Gentlemen!" he began calmly, smirking to himself as he heard the sounds of his staff jumping in surprise. Turning around to face them all, he continued, "Would someone kindly explain to me what happened here?"

All at once, everyone began to talk, trying to prove either themselves as innocent or blaming someone else for this. Amidst the ruckus, Xavien stood there before shaking his head and taking seat. Still his staff vied for his mercy and slowly he began to become annoyed with them. He developed a tic in his left eye, his green eye, but it seemed like that warning sign was ignored.

Do I have to do everything myself? Xavien thought to himself just before pulling out a gun and firing at the ceiling. This effectively shut everyone up.

"Lets start from the beginning, shall we?" Xavien suggested lightly, lowering his gun. "Or maybe…it should be the end?" he added, pondering his choice of words. "It's fairly obvious that one of our weapons has decided to go rogue or has malfunctioned. If I recall correctly, we were also administering that final test last night as well. So someone, please, tell me what were the results of that test? Is it #11085 who is dead or is it #12093? Talk to me people."

"About that…" one began, a young man that Xavien mentally identified as "Freddy" Quentin, "We…haven't found any trace of either 11085 or 12093. Their cell is wide open and there didn't seem to be any trace of any struggle inside the cell that we could tell."

"What, there's no blood? No dust?" Xavien inquired. "Do you think they may have taken their fight out of the cell?"

"We only found the door…or what was left of it," Quentin admitted sheepishly. "But there were no signs of a struggle in the hallway either and I don't think that 12093 would have let 11085 get as far as the commons area without some sort of damage along the way."

Xavien absorbed this information and looked at it from all angles. Since he hadn't been down to the cells area, he could only take Quentin's word on it, for now at least. Then an idea clicked in his mind. They had cameras all over the place, monitoring the weapons' behaviors and making sure that none would try anything without their knowing of it first. That should mean that they had some record of what happened in that cell.

"What about the footage?" he asked, much to his staff's confusion. Frowning at this, he elaborated, "We have cameras all over this place. There should be some recording of what happened last night." Xavien's frown only intensified as he saw how uncomfortable his staff had become at his words. Did they know something he didn't? "What?" he demanded.

"About that…" someone else spoke up hesitantly.

"What is it you are not telling me?" Xavien asked, his voice becoming ominously soft.

"It is true that we have cameras set up everywhere in the facility," the unfortunate man blurted out, desperately seeking to lessen some sort of blow that was inevitably going to fall. "We can monitor everything here."

"Just spit it out," Xavien ordered.

"…we…don't have any…monitoring equipment…set up in the cells," the man finally said.

Xavien only stared at the man, the silence ensuing setting everybody on edge. "And who exactly was in charge of setting up security here?" Xavien finally asked.

"Me…sir," the man answered.

"Really?" Xavien replied, his eyebrows rising. Then without warning, he raised his gun up and fired another shot, the bullet cutting through the air and into the man's skull and brain. As the body slumped, Xavien abandoned all pretenses of a calm demeanor as he glared at his staff, his feelings of fury triumphing over his earlier pride. "I do not care how you go about it," he uttered malevolently, "I do not care who you have to kill or what you have to destroy but I want those weapons found and I want them returned, alive, gentlemen. On another note, I want 'monitoring equipment' installed in all the cells while you're at it. Now go."

When no one moved to do his bidding, Xavien's face twisted into an expression of fury and he roared, "NOW!"

That had the effect of emptying the boardroom in seconds, Xavien finding himself all alone now with a corpse.

"What do you have to do to get good help nowadays?" Xavien sighed to the dead body as he slumped back into his chair.

---

It was a beautiful thing, you know, to see the sun rising while in the middle of a barren wasteland. Yet for Solo, who hadn't seen the sun in who knew how long, it was more than beautiful, mere words couldn't describe it.

After seeing nothing but the cold grey walls that had surrounded not only him but Ki—Duo for so long, to see such colors, despite the fact they were pale, it just made him giddy from it all. Even if he did drop dead from exhaustion right now, it would have been worth it.

Nonetheless, exhausted was the key word here. Hey, you try running all night through a desert without stopping once and see how well you come out of it. So what if the desert itself was nothing more than dried out ground and no sand; so what if his endurance had increased since he had last been outside; it made no difference as he was heaving his lungs out, gasping for air as he finally allowed himself to collapse onto the hard ground below him.

"Solo? Are you all right?"

Huh, Duo was awake after all. Sometime during his flight, he had felt the braided boy nod off for sometime. Not that it made it easier carrying him, mind you. It was just he suddenly had some dead weight on him, that was all, and one could only go so far like that.

"Go on without me," he wheezed melodramatically. "I can't go any longer. Save yourself."

"Solo, don't talk like that!" Duo exclaimed, removing himself from Solo's back and shaking him, trying to coax him to do something other than lie there.

"I'm done for," Solo moaned. "Go, while ya still can…"

"No Solo! Please don't die!" Duo cried.

Solo made no more movement, having not enough energy to do anything anyway. All he felt like was just laying there and falling into a deep, dark sleep and stay that way for a hundred years, maybe. He could feel his heart breaking, even as it pounding in his chest, pumping blood hastily though his body, as he heard Duo cries and even though he wanted to do something, he just couldn't…

Okay, he could hear Duo walking away, just like he told him to. Took him a while, hadn't it? Well, at least he knew Kid was going to make it. He had that other personality, hadn't he? He would make it, of that he was positive.

"Solo!" He heard the sound of bare feet running back towards him and something begin to shake him urgently. "Solo get up! You gotta get up!"

Solo moaned aloud. What was it going to take to get through this kid's head? Honestly! Couldn't a guy die in peace already?

"C'mon Solo! You gotta see this! C'mon, get up! Please!"

"OKAY!" Solo bellowed as he tiredly pushed himself up, glaring daggers at the braided boy as he did so. "I'm up! Okay!? Jeez!"

"Hurry Solo!" Duo urged, not in the least intimidated. The boy had a hold of his hand and was trying to pull him in the direction he wanted with all the impatience of, well, a boy.

"Where's the fire?" Solo mumbled as he got up on his unsteady feet and trudged after Duo going at his own pace, no matter how insistent the boy became. It wasn't like he was doing this willingly, you know?

Duo led him maybe a hundred feet or so, pointing and jumping excitedly at what lay before them just over a rise in the terrain. Looking up to where the braided boy was gesturing, Solo's green eyes widened as he saw something just as good as seeing a sunrise early in the morning.

It was a town. In the middle of this Godforsaken place, there was a fucking town of all things! It was at this moment that Solo was able to dredge up some last dregs of energy that he didn't know he had, a large grin splitting his face almost in half. Oh how he could just kiss Duo right now…but he wouldn't be doing that since it would make things weird.

"Kid, have I ever told you I love you?" he said aloud, the grin on his face not disappearing for a second.

"Uh, Solo? What's love?"

Solo blinked and looked at Duo who was looking up at him oh so innocently. He could see that the kid honestly had no clue.

"It's…uh…it's…like! It's when you like someone a whole lot!" Solo answered, grasping onto whatever words he could.

"Oh, okay," Duo said before saying, "I love you too Solo"

Ugh, maybe he should have just stuck with the kissing. It couldn't be half as weird as this, right?

---

Boulder was a simple town, a place where nothing happened, where if one wanted entertainment, they'd have to go to the nearest city. Of course, the nearest city was a couple hours away and that was just driving at the speed limit.

Living and growing up in Boulder were two different things. If you were a teen, this place would be like Hell on Earth. Unless you counted cow tipping as a sport, which even then the pasture land here sucked like hell, then yeah, it was dull. However, despite being far from any large cities, it had its own high school where teens from other nearby towns would have to go to if they wanted an education.

As for the rest of the residents of Boulder, they were wrapped up in themselves and true conservatives when it came to government, which is to say the less government the better. They didn't like it when things got out of control, the only thing really up in that category being the noise complaints about a party a high schooler was holding.

You got the idea by now, don't you?

So when two strange youths wandered into the town, no one took any notice. Their lives were already perfect; why should they care about something like that? As long as nothing happened, then no one would even know they had been there.

Needless to say, that tranquility was about to be torn asunder.