Warnings: violence, language, references to child prostitution, references to rape, deaths of minor characters

Chapter 2

::Interlude::

Duo's POV

I had decided I was going to spend my evening camped out by Big Jerry's shop. It was a risk but it usually paid off. Big Jerry's was in "that" part of town, you know? The part where it didn't matter that I was only a 6 year old boy. Though don't get me wrong, I wasn't there to pick up Johns. I was never into that shit no matter how much my life sucked. No, I was there for the easy pickpocketing. You'd be surprised how many didn't notice you're robbing them blind when they're more focused on trying to cop a feel. The risk was that Big Jerry felt my presence scared off customers. So if he saw me he'd send out some of his boys to "discourage" me, and by discourage I mean beat the shit out of me.

I was watching the few pedestrians walking the street, judging their potentials as marks, when this blond kid arrived. He was walking along with his head down watching the sidewalk minding his own business when suddenly his head shoots up and he stares right at me. Pretty weird, right? He started to head right towards me, not breaking eye contact the whole time. I wasn't sure if the guy was even blinking. Anyways, the kid certainly freaked me out a bit and so I did what you should always do when something in that part of town freaks you out, I up and hauled ass.

Now let me tell you, I may have been a scrawny kid but don't doubt my ability to run. I was one fast little shit. Thing is, that blond kid was one determined mother fucker. I'd never had someone give me such a run for my money before. I think the guy chased me over half the damn colony. It certainly made me even more freaked out the longer the chase went. I hadn't even stolen anything from the guy yet! It took clear through the rest of the night cycle and a third of the day cycle before I finally ditched the freak. Just to be sure though I went to one of my back up places instead of my main place. I was pretty pissed off by the time I curled up to sleep. I was fucking exhausted from my trek all over L2 and I'd only gotten to rob three people. As I entered the world of dreams I had one final thought go through my head; I really hoped that was the last time I saw the kid with dirty blond hair and seafoam green eyes.

I couldn't catch a fucking break. I tried to vary which times I went out and what places I hit but I always ended up being chased to hell and back. I was followed by the blond kid twice more but it seemed like he was part of a gang or something because even if I didn't run across him there was always someone trying to catch me. I hadn't had a good haul in over a week! It was even worse than the time I nicked the local crime lord's family heirloom watch. Hey, I thought it'd be fun. How was I suppose to know the thing'd been in his family for nine generations?

I was actually starting to worry. Between all the running and not being able to steal much, I was starting to get weak. I really needed to eat something soon.

It was the third time I met up with the blond kid when my luck finally ran out. I gave it my best try, going down this alley that had a nice, tall chain link fence I could normally use to get people off my tail, but this time it didn't work out as I'd hoped. I was halfway up the fence when the edges of my vision started to grey. It was all I could do to simply hold on to the fence. I heard footsteps pounding down the alley behind me and knew I was caught. I really hope these freaks aren't pervs. I could feel myself lose grip on the fence as my vision went to black.

The first thing I noticed when I came to was that, well, that I came to. So they obviously hadn't murdered me in my sleep. The second thing I noticed was a pain in my skull pounding in time with the beat of my heart, meaning I probably hadn't been drugged. There were no other pains, so I probably hadn't been raped either. Finally, and the strangest of all, I noticed I was actually comfortable.

A quick glance around showed me I was in what seemed to be a storage room. I was on top of a somewhat dirty but still nice blanket with another covering me, and I was warm. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a hideaway that was actually warm.

A soft click was all the warning I had before the door to the storage room swung open and the blond kid who had become the bane of my existence over the past week entered the room. He was carrying something in his hand but I couldn't really make out what it was from where I sat. He noticed I was awake and smiled.

"You're a tough little shit to catch, you know that, kid?"

"That's sorta the point. An' I never asked you to try ta catch me so why're you complainin' ta me about it?"

The blond boy laughed. "Well, ya certainly have a point there."

He walked across the room to me and I started to edge backwards. "Hey, ya don't gotta be afraid of me. I'm just giving ya this for your head. You smacked it dang good when you fell off that fence." It was then that I made out that what he held in his hand was a bag of ice wrapped in a towel. I let him get near enough to hand over the ice pack and then he took a few steps back but didn't leave the room.

I eyed him warily. "What do ya want with me?"

"I want ya to join my clan."

"Clan? What the fuck's a clan? And just so ya know, don't be gettin' no ideas if you're a pimp. I'll cut off your balls before I let ya sell me."

The blond kid laughed again and mumbled something to himself that sounded like, "He sure knows how to pick 'em." He returned to speaking so I could hear him when he replied, "Dun worry. I ain't no pimp. And a clan.. uhh.. guess you could call it a gang. We just kinda hang out and look out for eachother, ya know?"

"And why do ya want me to join your gang?"

"It's a favor to a friend."

I just stared into his seafoam green eyes. A favor to a friend? What the fuck does that mean? No one tries ta give ya somethin' for nothin'. "And what would ya expect me ta do once I'm in your gang?"

"Jus' the same as everyone else. Look out for eachother. Maybe help with gettin' supplies once in awhile. We'll look out for you too."

It was right then that my stomach decided to make known that I hadn't fed it properly in over a week. I couldn't help but blush.

The blond kid gave another smile and yelled toward the open door, "Hey, Jen, did Chase get back yet?" I heard a female voice respond with a faint 'yeah'. "Well, what's he waitin' on. Have him come in here already!" Barely any time later another kid entered the room with a small white paper bag in his hand. He handed it over to the blond boy and then hurried back out. "Here ya go, kid. Enjoy." The blond boy tossed the bag to me.

I opened it to find a bag of potato chips and something wrapped in thin white paper. The object in the white wrapping turned out to be the most delicious looking turkey sandwich I had ever seen in my life. I promptly started to devour it.

"Hey! Slow down, kid. Dun gotta eat so fast. We ain't gonna take it from ya." The blonde boy chuckled. I slowed down, but kept my eyes on him to make sure he didn't come near me or my sandwich.

When I had finished all the food, I started to feel drowsy. A thread of panic went through me before I took stock that it was natural drowsiness and not drug induced. I couldn't hide the yawn.

"Go ahead 'n sleep, kid. You're safe here. I'll have the boys get ya something more ta eat when ya wake back up." The blond boy started to head to the door before pausing to call over his shoulder. "Oh, if ya need anything just ask any of the gang ta find me. The name's Solo." And with a jaunty wave he left the room.

I was surprised how quickly I adapted to being part of Solo's gang. I had been on my own for as long as I could remember so I figured it would take some getting use to, but it didn't take long before it seemed like I had always been a part of the gang. I kept up my pickpocketing, but Solo never let me go into any of the really bad parts of town anymore. I even occasionally caught one of the guys keeping an eye on me even when I was in the "ok" parts of the town. I always gave my pickpocketing haul to Solo. I guess he divided it up between the gang or something, but they let me keep any food I stole. I didn't even have to steal food anymore, because the gang got me three fresh meals a day. I was in heaven! I was certainly glad I never had to go scrounging in dumpsters outside of restaurants anymore.

I don't know if it was because the rest of the gang was all older than me, the youngest being around 12 or so, but I quickly became sort of the gang's "mascot". It seemed they all were trying to look out for me, and I had no shortage of hair mussings whether I wanted them or not. I spent most my time following Solo everywhere he went. The rest of the gang started to jokingly call me Duo.

The only thing I could wish for was that Solo would tell me who his friend was for which he was doing the favor of taking me in, but any time I asked, Solo would just tell me that if I hadn't been told already, it wasn't his place to say.

It all went to hell on a gloomy day the L2 colony had a scheduled "rain". The weather system on L2 never was the best, and the rain sprinklers never worked well. They gave off more of a mist than anything at all. I always wondered why the colony even bothered with rain since it wasn't like L2 had actual plants like the other colonies, but I had been told it was something to do with cleaning. Not like that reason actually made sense though; L2 was filthy whether it "rained" or not.

Solo was out doing whatever he did when he didn't let me follow him, and I was hanging out in my "room", the little corner of the storage room I had originally woken up in. I was busy trying to do a workbook Chase had gotten me that was meant to teach me how to spell when I heard a commotion out in the main part of the warehouse. When I went to see what was going on all I could make out was chaos. Some of the gang were practically carrying others into the main room, and there were gang members laying on the floor all over. Most of them looked even paler than usual.

Over the next few days, they gradually all got weaker. I didn't know what it was but it seemed most the gang had caught some sickness. I kept asking what was wrong, but they ignored my question. The only time someone answered, they had said something about "colloidal silver" in the weather system, but I had no idea what that was suppose to mean. I ended up just hanging out with Solo in his room holding his hand hoping he'd get better but watching as he gradually got worse.

It was nearly a week. I never could get Solo to eat any of the food I offered, and no matter what he never seemed to get better. Just short of a week after the strange outbreak, he closed his eyes never to open them again.

Solo always told me that boys don't cry. So I tried to keep the tears inside as I cradled his head in my lap. I'm not sure I succeeded.

Sometime that same night, I heard another commotion in the main room, but I just couldn't gather the will to bother finding out what was going on. I eventually heard the door slam open and what sounded like multiple people rush in the room. I looked up to see an older man and a younger man, neither of which I knew, standing just inside Solo's door. The younger man seem startled at first to see me before gaining a determined expression and started to walk towards me. It was then that I noticed the gleaming, blood covered dagger he held in his hand.

The older man hadn't moved from the door, just watching the younger man approach me. Just as the younger man reached me and pulled back his arm holding the dagger, the older man called out, "Wait!" He quickly left his position by the door and came near. He kneeled down in front of Solo and me, gripped my chin with his weathered hand, and tilted my face towards his. He seemed to be staring at my forehead. "I'm sensing a claim spell. I think this one may be human."

The younger man looked back in my direction, mouth agape. "You mean the monsters were keeping a kid as a pet? The sick fucks."

The older man removed a necklace, and bade me to loosen my grip from Solo so he could hand it to me. I took the necklace from him and looked down at what I held in my palm. It was a small silver cross. I looked back up at the older man, wondering what he meant for me to do with the necklace.

It was the younger man who spoke first. "Shit! The kid really is human. What do you want to do with him, Father?"

The older man gave him a stern look. "Why are you even asking? We'll take him back to the orphanage like all the other children we've come across while hunting. Just because this one was claimed instead of merely being a victim at the wrong place and time doesn't change a thing." I didn't want to, but the older man eventually convinced me to let go of Solo and stand up. Using one arm just below my rump, he lifted me up. He place his free hand on the back of my head and directed my face into the crook of his neck. I couldn't see anything as we left the warehouse, but the silence of the place was deafening.

I guess I fell asleep while the old man carried me because I only vaguely remember a car ride. I don't even remember getting out of the car either. I eventually woke up at some point to find myself on a small cot bed. The bed I occupied was only one of many, lining both sides of a long narrow room. Each bed had a small foot locker situated on the floor in front of it. I was completely alone in the room of beds.

As I got out of the bed, I felt something in my hand. I still had the silver cross the older man had given me. I stuck the necklace in my pocket and continued with my explorations. Once in the hallway, I could hear a slight humming. I followed the lyrical tones and found myself in what appeared to be a laundry room. A short, robust woman was folding items before setting them in a basket.

I entered the room, figuring she could probably tell me where I was at least. "Umm… hello?"

The woman started, yelling, "Oh glory be!" She saw that it was only me and calmed down. "Good heavens, child. You'll scare a poor woman to death sneaking up like that."

"Sorry? Umm… could ya tell me where I am?"

"You must be the poor thing Father brought in last night. You're at Father Maxwell's orphanage. Now that you're awake he'll want to talk to you. Come on. I'll take you to his office." The woman grabbed my hand and bustled me through the halls.

The woman took me up to a large, dark wooden door. I hate to admit it, but the thing was sort of intimidating, even if it was only a door. She rapped smartly on the door and waited for the quiet "come in" before pushing the door open and depositing me inside.

I found myself alone in the room with the older man I met the night Solo had died. The man gave me a small warm smile while motioning for me to sit in one of the chairs facing his desk. Once I was seated, he promptly began to talk. "I'm sure you have questions, child, so I'll try my best to explain everything. I'm Father Maxwell and this building is a church and orphanage I run. You're welcome to stay here until we find your family to reunite you."

I gave the man a questioning look. "My family? But I was with my family when ya found me."

The man gave me a sharp stare. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable and began squirming in my seat. Father Maxwell finally said, "I think you'll need to explain more to me, child."

"Well, ya see, Solo and his gang were my family. I never had no family before Solo took me in." I took a deep breath to try to calm myself. I will not cry. Solo says boys don't cry. "Though, Solo's dead now. He got sick 'bout a week ago and he never got better. Solo was the one ya found me with."

Father Maxwell was quiet for a long moment. "So, you're saying that… boy we found you with and his… gang were your family?"

"Yeah. So ya can just take me back to Solo's place. I know a few of the gang didn't get sick. I can go stay with them."

The man seemed to have a slight puzzled expression on his face. "I'm sorry, child. They aren't… there anymore."

"Huh? They moved? But, how'm I suppose to find 'em now? I gots no other place ta stay. Use ta live on the street but I'm sure all my places got taken over by others by now."

"This is an orphanage, child. If you have no other family then you will stay here."

I could feel a slight blush on my cheeks. "Umm… I dunno what an orphanage is."

Father Maxwell gave a small chuckle. "It's pretty much just that, child. An orphanage is a place for children with no families to stay and be cared for."

"So, you're sayin' you're gonna feed me?" I suddenly got suspicious. "I don't gotta do nothin' I wouldn't wanna, do I?"

The Father laughed outright at that. "Well, you may have to do the occasional chore, but that's it. What's your name, child?"

"M'name's Duo."

"Well, Duo, it's nice to meet you. I'll call Sister Helen to help get you settled."

I didn't have to wait long before the short, robust woman was back. She gave me an enthusiastic kiss on the forehead and welcomed me to the orphanage before leading me out of Father Maxwell's office. She brought me to another room where she gathered me a few changes of clothes, then led me back to the room of beds. She pointed out which bed was going to be mine and showed me how to open and lock my foot locker, while placing all but one set of my new clothes inside. After my bunk was all set up, the woman, who kept insisting I call her Sister Helen even though she wasn't my sister, led me to yet another room. This room had a large ceramic tub on one side of the room, and I had no idea what the room's purpose was. Sister Helen set aside my remaining change of clothes and quickly turned some knobs near one end of the tub and water started to pour out, slowly filling the tub. I was amazed. I'd never seen so much water in one place before.

I blame the novelty of the water for my distraction because before I knew it, Sister Helen was stripping me out of my dingy rags I called clothes. I admit it, I sort of freaked. In my experience, it was never a good thing when people you just met try to rip your clothes off. That woman must've been fucking magic though because no matter how I fought I couldn't do anything and before long she had me buck naked and tossed in the tub. She promptly grabbed a washcloth and a bar of soap and began to scrub. When she got to washing my hair, I decided it was kind of nice actually.

After making sure I was all clean for probably the first time in my life, Sister Helen helped me get out of the tub and draped a huge fluffy towel over me, rubbing it all over. I got dressed in my new clothes, and she grabbed a hair brush to start working on taming the knotted mess on my head. When she grabbed the scissors though, I nearly ran. She tried to convince me, but I'm a stubborn little shit when I want to be and eventually she gave up on trying to cut it. Sister Helen ended up doing something to it she called braiding, to help keep it from knotting so much. I sort of thought it looked girly, but if it kept her from cutting it then what the hell, right?

Living at the orphanage was very different from living with Solo. Some things were better and some things I didn't like so much. My favourite was meal time. All the kids would gather in this big room with this really long table. There were matching long benches on either side of the table so everyone could squeeze on together and all eat at the same time. It was great! The guys in Solo's gang never would eat with me, always going off on their own. It always made meal times with the gang lonely, but here I got to talk to everyone! Though Jimmy stopped sitting next to me because I always snuck bites of his mashed potatoes, and Krissy wouldn't sit next to me because I'd never share my pudding with her. Who shares pudding anyways?

What I didn't like were the chores. I'd always be told to dust the church pews or help Sister Helen fold laundry or whatever else they could think of for me to do for punishment. It wasn't even my fault I got in trouble so much! One day I got in trouble when "Christopher" started crying because I kept calling him Chris. It's the same thing! One's just shorter and easier to say!

And how was I suppose to know you shouldn't nick the stuff off the altar? They shouldn't have it sitting out like that if they didn't want anyone to take it. Luckily Sister Helen has stopped yelling at me whenever I bring her my haul. She tried for awhile. Even made me wax all the pews after one time I brought her all the stuff. My arms hurt for a whole week after that one. Finally she said something like, "Well at least you're returning it all", and ever since then only gave a long sigh each time.

I knew I could always just stop stealing, but there wasn't much else to do in this place. The other kids got along with me just fine, but I guess I was just not use to kids my age. Whenever I was around them it usually just made me miss being back at the warehouse with the gang.

Other than stealing, my favourite game was trying to sneak up and scare the marks, or "mommies and daddies" as Sister Helen would call them. The couples who visited looking for a kid to adopt generally were all sorts of quiet and boring. They had to have appreciated my efforts in spicing up their life! Sister Helen would try to tell me that I'd never get adopted if I kept that up, but who would want to get adopted by people who were so boring? I'd probably end up dying of boredom, and anyways, I would have prefered staying with Sister Helen and Father Maxwell. Though this sneaking up on people thing was kind of fun. Maybe I should start doing it to the other kids too instead of just waiting on the visiting parents?

Suzy was the one who ratted me out. I should have known she'd be a snitch. You'd think she would have just kept quiet about it but nooo. The frisbee had been up there for weeks now and it was obvious that it wasn't going to come down anytime soon. I figured I would just go up there and get it. Certainly didn't look that hard. All I had to do was climb up the first floor window, grab onto the second floor window and pull myself up, then a small leap over to the stone pig thing on the corner of the roof. Sister Helen kept saying the stone pig thing was called a gargoyle but it really just looked like a pig thing to me. Once I had ahold of the stone "gargoyle" then it'd be a piece of cake to pull myself up to the roof. I'd been climbing things all over the church; it was one of the best ways to scare people. No one ever suspected you to jump out of somewhere they didn't think you could get to in the first place. It was just as I had got one of my feet on top of the pig thing's head to push myself the rest of the way up when I heard Suzy scream. I glanced down just in time to see her run into the church. I didn't think anything of it and just went ahead and got the frisbee. I tossed it down to Kyle who was yelling about how that was, "The coolest thing I have EVER seen!"

I was just walking around the edge of the roof seeing if I could make out any buildings I recognised in this part of town when Sister Helen ran out with Father Maxwell not far behind her. I heard Sister Helen gasp and when I looked her way I saw her holding a hand to her breast. "Oh God in heaven! Duo, get down here this instant before you break your neck!" Father Maxwell was oddly quiet in comparison to the racket Sister Helen was making.

I shrugged my shoulders and made my way over to the pig thing. I held on with my arms and dropped my legs down to dangle below me. I knew the next step would be the tricky part. I started to swing my legs back and forth. I had to get enough momentum that I could reach the second floor window sill. I timed my swing and let go. I heard Sister Helen scream but paid no attention to it as I grabbed the window sill and then quickly scrambled to better my grip. Then it was no time at all to clamber my way down the windows and drop onto the grass ground below.

Sister Helen instantly ran over to smother me in a bear hug. I think she was even crying. Father Maxwell was just kind of staring at me. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was sizing me up. It was just like the look I use to see on some of the guys on the street just before they got in fights.

I was "grounded" for an entire week after the frisbee thing. Those church pews have probably never been cleaner. It was on the last day of my enforced servitude that Father Maxwell approached me. He told me he wanted me to follow him, and since I figured whatever he wanted had to be better than polishing church pews, I followed. He led me to a back hallway of the church. I knew this particular hallway well since it had the only locked door in the whole building. That door had been the focus of many hours of thoughts, wondering what could possibly be behind it. I felt a thrill of excitement when Father Maxwell walked passed all the boring doors and pulled out a key from his pocket. He went straight to the mystery door, opened it, and bade me to follow.

The door opened onto a dimly lit spiral staircase leading down. I trailed my fingers along the wall as I descended. The stairs let out into a large windowless room. In the center of the room there were a pair of men I didn't know but vaguely recognised from seeing them pass through the orphanage hallway. They seemed to be fighting each other using wooden sticks, but no one else seemed to be taking note of them or trying to stop them so I guessed it was some sort of game. Covering the sheet metal walls of the room were various metal objects, plenty of knives of various shapes and sizes along with many other things I didn't recognise. The long thin metal things I guessed were swords. They matched the description Sister Helen gave during some story she read us a few weeks back.

I stared at all the new sights until I heard a mildly sneering voice ask, "What's the pet doing here?" I looked to the owner of the voice and saw the younger man that had accompanied Father Maxwell the night I met him.

Father Maxwell yelled back, "Mikhael! I will not hear you calling him that again! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Father."

By now the two fighting men had stopped and stood facing Father as well. Father Maxwell turned slightly to include them in what he said next. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Duo. He is going to be training here from now on. I expect everyone to make him feel welcome."

One of the men in the center smiled at me while the other yelled over, "Nice to meet you, Duo!" I grinned at the both of them.

Whenever I wasn't sleeping, eating meals with the other kids, or in lessons with Sister Helen, I was in the basement room practicing with different weapons. The guys had tried to teach me many of them but some just weren't my thing, you know? Daggers were easy. I'd already had some practice with daggers. If you could get your hands on one, they were really useful for keeping off pervs. I also took to the handguns. I didn't like the swords. They just seemed awkward. And what was the point of throwing stars? A good dagger is better than a throwing star any day.

Today Mikhael was teaching me how to make bullets. I was busy keeping an eye on the silver ingots as they melted over the electric burner. The stuff stank pretty bad even though this part of the room was set up with an exhaust fan and ventilation. I also had to make sure my braid didn't hit or fall in anything as I turned my head to watch Mikhael remove some bullets we poured a bit earlier from their molds. He held one up to eye level to inspect it. "Perfect. The monsters won't know what hit 'em." I'd gotten use to Mikhael talking about 'monsters' though I really had no idea what he was talking about. The other guys never gave him odd looks when he said it so I figured he wasn't a crazy like the old guy I met who lived in the alley off 5th Street. The one time I had asked him what he was talking about he simply told me, "Just like that thing we found you with." It took me awhile to figure out he was talking about Solo, and when I did I was even more confused. Why would he call Solo a monster? I never did bother asking him to explain it again.

Everything changed the day the rebels took shelter at the church. They yelled at Father Maxwell and even hit Sister Helen! I told them I'd get them what they want if they'd just promise to leave afterwards.

Getting into the Alliance base was pretty damn easy. The fuckers tried to shoot me a few times but I made it to the mobile suit transport unscathed. It was a simple matter to hop in and drive off.

My eyes went wide when I made it back to the church. The church… the church was burning…

"Father Maxwell! Sister Helen! Suzy! Jimmy!" I started calling the names for everyone I knew. The smoke was making my voice hoarse and my throat ache.

I heard someone say my name. I turned and saw Sister Helen laying on the ground. I ran over and kneeled next to her. I told her I'd find a doctor but she stopped me. She told me the Alliance attacked the church.

It looked like it took all her strength to lift her arm. She placed it on my cheek. "M-May you... have God's… blessing…" Her hand fell limp.

Solo always told me that boys don't cry. I'm not sure I succeeded.

-x-

-Author's Note-

Writing 6 year old Duo just plain made me depressed. I felt like such a bitch making his life suck so much. No kid should live like that. :(

(Yes, yes, I know he's a fictional character in a fictional story. Stop looking at me like that!)

Writing Solo's and Duo's lines were harder than I expected. Kept having to say them out loud to hear how they sounded and thus could only really work on this when I was by myself to keep from making people think I was crazy.

If it somehow wasn't clear, yes, Father Maxwell and his assistant totally killed off Solo and his entire clan. Also, I totally feel evil for having one of Duo's families kill the other, but I just couldn't help myself.

I really hate the death scenes in this chapter. I have a complete lack of ability to write angst and the death scenes just seemed to fall flat. Sorry. :(

Timeline: Episode Zero (manga)