Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence

Lost Souls

Kid Duo found himself surrounded in darkness, trapped deep within the darkest corner of his mind and unable to do anything to get out of it. He had done everything he could think of: scream, throwing a tantrum, tell some dirty jokes Solo had told him, anything that could get him out of here.

But it was all for naught; he was stuck right here wherever he was and it didn't seem like he would be getting out of here any time soon.

He had exhausted himself into submission by now and had curled himself into a ball, or at least the mental image of himself since it couldn't be said that he was physically solid. Being trapped in your own mind was such a bitch…at least that what he thought Solo would say if he were in the same predicament.

"It's about time you shut up," he heard his darker self, Reaper mutter, the other personality "sitting" next to the mentally immature kid. "Was beginning to wonder when you were gonna run out of steam."

"Shut up," Kid muttered into his arms. "Least I'm trying ta do something than sit here."

"And you think I haven't tried my luck?" Reaper said incredulously. "If I could have gotten out of here, I would've done it a long time ago, Kid."

"Ya didn't even try!" Kid grumbled at the other, refusing to look at him.

"Ain't gonna do us any good if we're at each other's throats," Reaper sighed.

"If ya had come out earlier, we wouldn't be here in da first place!" Kid snapped.

Reaper looked as if he was going to retort but stopped and sighed again. "Goddamn it, can't argue with that."

"Bet Solo wouldn't've gotten caught like that," Kid continued to grumble. "He woulda punch that guy's lights out da minute he saw him."

"I didn't notice you were trying the same thing," Reaper retorted.

"That's 'cause you're da tough one," Kid snarked. "I'm weak and we both know it."

"Not arguing with that one either," Reaper said, receiving a full on glare from the other boy. "What? It's the truth!"

"Why don't'cha shut up?" Kid sighed and turned his back to his other.

"And do what?" Reaper challenged. "We're in a place that no one can reach us and we can't get out of. What else am I suppose to do? It's boring here!"

"Ya can think of a way ta get out of here!" Kid erupted, uncurling from his ball and actually had enough guts to lay a punch on Reaper's cheek. While no pain was actually felt since neither were connected to their brain's senses, Reaper was nevertheless taken aback by the unexpected action and fell back from the other. "You're suppose ta be the smart one, da tough one, da know-it-all! I'm weak, stupid, an'…an'…whatever else I am! If anybody can get us out of here, it's you and don't give me any shit that ya can't 'cause we both know it's a fuckin' lie!"

"Well sorry to burst your little bubble but I don't know how to get out of here!" Reaper roared back. "We're as stuck as we're ever going to be and sooner or later we're gonna be destroyed because Xavien doesn't like us! What the fuck do you want me to say? I don't know what that nun told you but nothing ends with happily ever after, you little shit!"

"Don't ya talk 'bout Sister Helen like that!" Kid yelled back.

"Oh, let me guess, she's God now right? She can't be wrong, at all!" Reaper retorted sarcastically with a nasty edge in his voice. "Well guess what, she's wrong! That's right, I said it! It needed to be said! I like her just as much as you do but even I know that she isn't some perfect person!"

"SHUT UP!" Kid yelled, covering his ears with his hands.

"You know that won't help you not hear me," Reaper stated. "We're the same person in the same mind. I can say anything I want and you'll hear me as if I was right next to you and you know it! Why won't you grow a spine or better yet, GROW UP!? This little act of yours, trying to act like a fucking child is getting annoying already!"

By now, Kid was crying, "hearing" every single word his other said and tried with all his might to ignore it.

"Oh what now? You trying to ignore me or something?" Reaper said sardonically. "It won't work; you know it, I know it, hell, everybody knows it! Face it, Kid, we're gonna be stuck with one another for a long, long time if we're not deleted like some fucking computer file first."

"Leave me 'lone," Kid sobbed, curling back up into a ball.

"Ok, I'll leave you alone, but I'm not going anywhere either," Reaper snarked. "Who are you trying to fool anyway? Everybody around you or just yourself? You ain't innocent, not one single inch. You're more intelligent that you let on but you just don't want to have to do anything. That's why you created me, created that other us, in the first place! You've never wanted to take responsibility for anything, never wanted to feel unpleasant in any way. I don't know what the hell Solo sees in you! He'd be better off without you clinging to his side, you know."

"No…" Kid denied, his balled-up body trembling with sobs. "No…"

"You know what, maybe I will shut up," Reaper sneered as he turned away and began to fade into the darkness of their mind. "Since you don't want to face truth or anything that might challenge your 'perfect' existence, I'll leave you alone. In fact, that's all you'll be for now on. Alone and by yourself, just like Xavien wanted in the first place. Maybe now you'll be fucking happy."

And then Kid was all alone, trapped with only himself and no one to talk with, to keep him company, nothing. The cold chilled him and the boy could only feel sorry for himself as he sought to bury himself further into the darkness, never wanting to see the light again.

---

The young boy strummed the strings of his lute with a prodigal skill, the sound of the song he was playing soothing yet upbeat at the same time. Each vibration of the pulled taunt strings was carefully planned ahead of time yet the way the boy performed one would think that he was making it up as he went.

This impression would definitely hold true as the boy had his eyes closed, his thin head rocking gently, keeping his beat constant. Long fingers treated the string instrument as if it was the most delicate object in existence, the instrument itself held in thin arms that balanced it against a just as thin body that at first looked didn't seem to hold any muscle at all. The boy only slowed his playing down, not stopped it, as he tossed his head, throwing long golden locks out of his face, the long strands of hair settling on his back for the moment. Firm and pouty lips voiced soundless words, as if the boy was singing a song known only to himself, one that few if any people ever heard.

To see such a sight was not a particularly strange sight but the fact that he was playing inside a large metal container where hardly any light shined into. Every now and then, the container would bounce and shake, causing the boy to lose his place and have to pick the song up quickly, all the wild throwing a glare in a seemingly random direction, revealing bright green that would remain open for about a minute until he closed them again and delved back into the hidden intricacies of his music.

Occasional interruption aside, Stone Sunbeam was content, both in mind and in body, doing the one thing he enjoyed doing since he could first play an instrument.

However, Stone wasn't just any musician, far from it. Through music, he could channel his psionic abilities and accomplish anything that he wanted. The almost mystical talents he possessed were virtually limitless if he put his mind to it but he was a very relaxed child, one that wasn't in a hurry to do anything thought he wasn't lazy, not one bit.

Currently, Stone was on assignment, a simple one to be precise. Through his music, he was casting a "sleeping spell" of sorts on his nearby "roommate" if you could call it that. His job was to make sure that the other person in this container remain practically comatose and until they had arrived at their destination where he would then be unleashed.

Cracking open an eye for a second to take a look at his roomie, he inwardly shuddered at the sight of the creature once known as Sigmund.

He did not envy the guys who were about to be paid a visit by this guy, no sirree.

---

Trowa hated the city, especially the one he now found himself in. The concrete jungle that was surrounding them all, it was so suffocating and so…dead. Yeah, that was the word; the plantlife that had once resided here had been mowed over and destroyed to make way for the progress of civilization.

However, in the section of Los Angeles that the group found their selves in, civilization didn't look as glamorous as everyone made it out to be. Then again, maybe that was because they were in the ghettos, practically every flat surface available a paint-cover billboard of graffiti that Solo was eyeing critically and as if the nonsense designs made sense to him.

It was all gibberish to Trowa and, from the looks of it, Dorothy. Already, the unibanged young man wanted out of here and not because they may have been on the "wrong side of the tracks" but because the sense of death that permeated every stone structure was starting to overwhelm him.

"Okay, Trowa, which way do we go?" Solo suddenly asked as he stopped at a corner, his eyes darting from side to side as if searching out for unseen predators that might be lurking.

Sighing as the toll the city was taking on him seemed even more oppressive, he said, "Give me a minute." Closing his eyes, he concentrated and search for any sign of plant life that could at least brighten up this bleak landscape. There wasn't much to find as this was certainly not one of the wealthier sections of the city. Expanding his awareness here was even more of a challenge since there were no nearby plants to support and ease the strain that result from doing this.

In fact, the strain he was experiencing was great, almost as great as when he first began using his powers all those years ago. Suddenly, like sonar, he got a ping from somewhere near the city's center, a wealthy spot to be sure as there were some plant there. Focusing on this oasis, he questioned the life he found there, given samples of the lifeforce that the wildlife in Arizona had identified to be uniquely Duo and after what maybe been hours but were only a few minutes, he got something.

Practically collapsing onto his knees, he gasped aloud. "He's that way," he pointed in what seemed to be a random direction. "I don't know where precisely he is but he's that way."

"'Bout time," Solo muttered, eyeing the unibanged young man with a little concern but more worried about where they were. He had grown up in a place similar to this and he wanted to get moving quickly before they attracted the wrong sort of attention.

Unfortunately, about a block away that attention found them, much to Solo's displeasure. It was a street gang, the blond could tell by the colors they would and the way they walked. Five in total, he could see that these guys were predators and the way they were eyeing them meant that they were going to "investigate" the newcomers who had the audacity to trespass on their turf.

"Heads up," he muttered to his two companions as he halted in his tracks, Trowa and Dorothy copying him all the same.

"Hey sweet thing!" one of them catcalled to Dorothy, initiating the "negotiations" that were to occur, one that would inevitable end in either threats or violence.

Solo was leaning more towards violence this time around.

And no, it wasn't because Dorothy had shuddered in disgust at the greeting; he really could care less about that. No, it was memories of being young and being forced to be a victim by assholes like these that was igniting the fire that was coursing through his veins. He'd try to rein it in, if only to keep a low profile, but with each passing second he was loosing the battle. Not that he was trying hard in the first place, mind you.

"Haven't see yous around here 'fore," one of the gang members said, his eyes holding a predatory glint in them. "I guessin' you're newbies, aight?"

"We don't want trouble," Solo said, holding his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. "We ain't gonna be here long anyway."

"That's what you think," another gang member said, smirking and coming around so that he was being them. "This our turf here, ya know?"

"Hey, we ain't here for our health, ya know," Solo stated, clenching his teeth together as Trowa and Dorothy watched him with no little surprise. Neither of them had seen him try to be this diplomatic before since he usually charge in with fists flying. Goes to show how much they knew about city life. "We'll be outta ya hair soon enough. Just passin' through."

"Yous not in any hurry, are yas?" the leader said. Before Solo could answer, the leader said, "Well if ya wanna get around here, yous gotta pay the toll, ya know?"

Solo narrowed his eyes. "What toll? I thought this was public property."

"Oh it's public, aight," another member jested. "We're the public and you're on our property."

"What do ya want," Solo demanded, close to losing it. They didn't have time for this shit!

"Just yer wallets," the leader replied, pulling out a gun, a cop killer variety if Solo recalled correctly. The one behind them had pulled out a gun of his own while one other took out a switchblade, the other two just standing back and watching gleefully. "And maybe that girl of yours," the leader continued, eyeing Dorothy and licking his lips.

Perfect, they would have the luck to run into a group of would-be rapists.

"Sorry, but she ain't for sale," Solo stated, lowering his arms and clinching his hands into fists.

"Did I say you had any choice?" the leader snarked and pointed his gun right at the blond's forehead.

Solo's hand snapped up and grabbed the gun's barrel, twisting and distorting it so that it was point back at the gang leader, said leader's eyes wide at the feat. Quick as a snake, Solo let go of the ruined gun and grabbed the other's wrist, twisting it sharply and shattering all the bones in it, nearly tearing the guy's hand off in the process.

"Fuck!" the leader shouted as he pulled himself away from Solo. "Cap his ass!"

There were a few gunshots and Dorothy screaming at the sound but Solo remained standing. Shaking his body slightly, bullet shrapnel fell off his body, no signs of blood or anything showing where they might've hit. As the gang member stared with bulging eyes at him, Solo whipped his arm out and slammed him into the wooden fence they were right next to, the gang member going through the wooden barrier and right into a Rottweiler that had been snarling at them for some time.

"Solo," Trowa warned, stepping aside to show that the guy with the knife was attempting to hold Dorothy hostage by holding the blade against her knife.

Solo paid no attention to what he was saying as he already was right in front of the two before the guy could even finish his threat. Solo took hold of the sharp blade and pulled it away from Dorothy's neck, squeezing down on it and bending it out of proportion. Pushing the blonde girl out of the way, he grabbed the guy by the neck and held him up high in the air, nearly throttling him.

Hearing footsteps running away, he looked up to see the other two gang members running away like the cowards they were. Using the guy in his hands as he projectile, he threw him right into the fleeing gang members, the three all making close friends with the sidewalk. Not done yet, Solo leapt high up into the air and let himself land ass first right on top of the pile, three screams of pain ripping out of their throats before they all fell into unconsciousness.

Getting back up to his feet, he smirked wickedly at the remaining gang leader who was trying his best to get away only to not get very far as Trowa delayed him. Solo was right behind the leader in an instant and he spun the leader around and picked him up by his shoulders.

"C'mon man!" the leader half-whined, half–whimpered. "It was just a joke! We's was only kiddin'!"

"Really?" Solo deadpanned. "Well, let me tell you that I'm gonna ram your ass into this car right here and I just want ta let ya know that I'm kidding."

Not giving the guy a chance to say anything, Solo did exactly as he said and slammed the guy right into the car right next to him, the car sliding out into the middle of the street due to the force of the body slamming into it. Not a second later, the car was rear-ended and Solo winced at the sound of metal hitting metal.

"Done?" Trowa inquired not looking as if he regretted letting Solo beat the gang members up.

"Not yet," Solo replied. "That was just an appetizer. Now where was Duo 'gain?"

"After me," Trowa said, taking the lead as the blond followed.

Coming after them was a shaken up Dorothy who was clutching at her throat, the memory of the knife pressed there at the forefront of her mind. Walking around the pile of unconscious gang members, she grimaced at the sight of how easy the other two were dealing with this.

She really needed to get her head checked out; it couldn't be healthy hanging around these two all the time.