Warnings: language, violence, blood, blood drinking

Chapter 5

I swerved swiftly between the trees as I guided the motorcycle back to the Gundams. I listened for sounds of pursuit. I detected none. It seemed the confusion caused by the Leo pilot worked in our favor.

I could feel warmth soaking into my back from where Duo leaned against me. This warm, vivacious human had protected me with his life. There was barely even time to think, and yet he used it to push me down and place his body between mine and the danger. Most humans guard their short lives so selfishly and yet he was willing to throw his away to save mine. For what purpose? To him I was simply another human. One who wasn't even that social or even nice. Was he that selfless? Did he not realise how much life was bundled into his small frame?

I felt Duo's arms around my waist go lax. I slowed the bike. If he had lost consciousness, he risked losing his balance on the bike. I jerked my shoulders to jostle him and called out, "Duo!"

He jerked up with a snorting sound. "Huh? …Oh, sorry, Ro." His grip firmed around my waist again. It seems my guess of a concussion was correct. I'd have to keep an eye on him.

We reached the Gundams and I gripped his upper arm to support him as he climbed off the bike. I noticed the cut on his brow had yet to stop bleeding. I had gone and licked it to trigger the accelerated healing before I even realised what I was doing. He stared at me, giving a few slow, languid blinks. "Did you just lick me?"

I turned from him and started to head toward Wing. I hoped if I ignored his question, pretended nothing happened, that combined with the concussion maybe he'd forget. He stared for a bit longer, then shrugged and headed toward Deathscythe.

After our mutual startup sequences were finished, I once again shifted Wing into flight mode, and Duo had Deathscythe grab on for easy transport. Deathscythe gave a slight shimmer and disappeared from view. I headed back towards the OZ base. Time for Phase 2.

The base was fully lit. Soldiers and Leos alike all scurried about like a riled up ant's nest. The nearest Leos noticed my arrival just as I reached the perimeter fence. I could hear the faint pings of bullets ricocheting off Wing's Gundanium plating as Duo spoke over our private comm channel. "Heads up. Letting go." I felt the weight shift and adjusted to maintain my flight. I then shifted the lever to turn Wing back into a mobile suit.

I used my Buster Rifle to take out two nearby Leos. I heard a yell of "It's a Gundam!" over the OZ comm frequency before the Leo who broadcasted split in two and exploded, Deathscythe shimmering into view next to the destroyed Leo. Duo had opened an area-wide broadcasting channel and I heard him. Duo was… Duo was giggling.

More Leos rushed over from all over the base. I heard yet another OZ Leo broadcast, "Oh, God! A Gundam!" before a luminous acid green scythe severed his suit in twain. There was another bout of giggling. I activated the private comm channel. "02, focus on the mission." Deathscythe moved two Gundanium fingers to his 'brow' and gave a jaunty salute. Of course Duo wouldn't simply comply with my request in a quiet, normal manner. Leaving the Leos to Duo, I turned the Buster Rifle to the base's private shuttle launch and fired. The yellow-orange beam hit it squarely and I saw the metal supports melting around the edges of the beam. I then pressed the button to fire the Vulcan Guns and turned Wing's 'head' to pan across the parked shuttles, using the rapid-fire smaller round ammunition guns to rip through their metal exteriors.

I did a quick survey of the base. Duo was finishing off the last Leo. The buildings were mostly still intact but the shuttles and launcher would be out of commission for a long while. I opened the private comm again. "02, time to move out." I shifted Wing into flight mode and waited for the slight shift in balance signifying Deathscythe was in position and picked a random direction to fly in. Once I felt we were far enough away from the base, I turned and headed back to the boarding school.

I brought the Gundams to our original hiding spot and let Duo land first before I shifted and landed Wing. I kept an eye on Duo, worried about how his concussion would affect his balance, as we both pulled our camouflage tarps into place. He moved a bit slower than usual, seeming to focus a bit more on his movements, but he was able to handle the task just fine without my help.

Once the Gundams were as hidden as we could make them, we turned toward the school. We no longer had the motorcycle so we were facing a pretty long hike to get back. I saw Duo shift the supplies backpack a bit higher on his back and give me a weary smile, then start to head off. I followed behind him.

We reached my dorm room first. It seemed like Duo planned to continue on to his own dorm. I decided to perform a test. I called a quiet "Duo" and when he turned I tried for another glamour. "Stay in my room and let me check your concussion."

He snorted. "Sure, Mama Yuy." He complied with my request, but once again it was of his own will, not that of a glamour. I was baffled. I had never heard of a human other than a Claimed being completely immune to glamours. Hunters have a sort of resistance. They can usually fight off the glamour but it still 'sticks' at first. Why did Duo respond like a Claimed but didn't have the feel of one? I sensed no Claim spell from him and had noticed no block when I fed from him previously.

"Ya just gonna stand in the hallway all night?"

I walked over to Duo and peered into his eyes. They seemed to be focusing now and Duo seemed more alert overall. "How do you feel?"

"Felt like shit there for awhile. Was kinda worried I was gonna 'chuck all over my buddy 'Scythe, but started feeling better on the way back here. So what's the verdict, Doc?"

"I think you're over your concussion, but you should probably sleep here so I can keep an eye on you."

"Where are you gonna sleep? I can't keep putting ya out like that."

"It's not important."

"No. Don't be like that." I raised an eyebrow in question. "Don't go thinkin' you're not important or nothin'. So, where ya gonna sleep? It'll be a bit snug but we can always share the bed. I promise ta keep my hands to myself. Well, unless ya don't want me to." He gave me a wolfish grin.

I just stared at him.

"Joking! Joking! Come on. We'll just sleep. Nothing more." He scooted over to the far edge of the bed and patted the area in front of him. I walked the few paces to turn off the light and then made my way back to the bed. He shimmied himself under the blankets and held them up for me as I slid myself into the bed next to him. I rolled to my side to face him. He smiled at me. "Night, Ro."

"Goodnight, Duo." He fell asleep quickly. I laid there and contemplated the strange human before me. The more I learned about Duo the more confused I became.

We went back to the routine of pretending to be nothing more than mere students. It was a few days before I was finally contacted by Dr. J with the newest information on OZ's movements. There was to be a shipment of Tauruses to Siberia. As I was reviewing the details I heard my dorm door open. I turned quickly but saw that once again it was only Duo. He had a serious look on his face that seemed out of place from how he had been around me lately.

"I've got a bad feeling about this one. OZ's transport plan is good. From what I can gather, they're gonna be taking two routes, by air and by land. Heero, could you take the air route? I'll fight them on the ground. We'll lose unless we have our own plan this time."

I couldn't argue with his assessment so when I turned back to the information sent by Dr. J I focused on the air route.

Duo and I set off for our Gundams together. Duo was silent the whole way there. I wondered if he was nervous about this mission. One of the routes was obviously a decoy, but it shouldn't be more than either of us could handle.

The silence continued as we both went through our start up sequences. I shifted Wing into flight mode and once again carried Deathscythe to help with travel speed. We reached the point where we would have to split up to head to our respective transport routes.

Duo gave an oddly solemn, "See ya around, Heero," and boosted his vernier engines, shooting off to his own destination.

I angled Wing to head towards my own intercept coordinates.

When I neared the coordinates, I detected mobile suits already deployed. Sensors showed the mobile suit OZ was calling 'Gundam 03' was already there. I still wasn't too sure whose side the suit was on, but since it seemed to be fighting the OZ forces I decided to leave it be. I would deal with it if needed, but I should take out the smaller forces first.

When I got within range, the Leos started firing upon me. A few shots landed on Wing's left side, destabilizing my flight. I quickly shifted Wing into a mobile suit to use my Buster Rifle to lay down counterfire.

I took out a number of the enemy Leos but then Wing's sensors picked up an incoming suit. I assumed it was one of the Aries troops but a simple visual check proved it to be too large. I didn't recognise the model so I ran a quick database check. "No match" was the response written on my screen.

The unknown model was coming up fast. I raised my Buster Rifle and fired but the white suit was too quick and dodged upward. I felt the tremors of large rounds hitting on and near my Gundam as it returned fire from above.

"That's enough, Gundam 01." Whoever was in the unknown model had opened a broadcasting channel. "We should have no need for beam rifles or cannons between us." The gun detached from the suit and fell to the ground. The unknown pilot pulled out a beam saber. "We'll fight for recognition of superiority. You are a Gundam pilot. I'm sure that'll suit you."

I gave a quick check to my screens. Gundam 03 had taken out most of the OZ mobile suits and was heading toward the supply base. If I provided a distraction for this suit then 03 would have no trouble with the base. Then a distraction I shall be.

I dropped the Buster Rifle and pulled out my own beam saber. I boosted the engines and charged the opposing suit. It dodged my initial swing and counterattacked with a strike of its own. I blocked it with Wing's shield.

We continued our back and forth of strikes, dodges, and parries, seemingly evenly matched. An unknown female voice came in on my open comm frequency saying, "Calling all Gundam pilots." I performed a simple parry one handed while my other hand flew across my equipment panel. A few key presses later and I saw that the new voice was from a long range broadcast. That didn't help me narrow down who it was. The voice continued.

"We are now in position to stage an all out missile attack on the colonies. We have seized all missile satellites from the former Alliance. It's reasonable to say we control the destiny of all colonies. This isn't a bluff. I demand all pilots to surrender at once and hand over your Gundams!"

OZ would go so far as to threaten to destroy the colonies? I couldn't allow that to happen; the loss to my people would be too much. I was amazed a human would even consider it. The death count of my own kind would be astronomical, and yet they made up only a small percentage of the inhabitants of space. That a human would think to murder than many of their kind was shocking.

The other suit paused in its onslaught. As I was trying to figure out what it was doing, yet another broadcast invaded the airspace of my Gundam.

"Attention OZ." It was Dr. J. What is he doing? "I never would have imagined that you people could be so incredibly foolish. The space colonies have no intention of fighting OZ. This is my personal battle that I'm staging against you!" I was just about to try to piggyback a long range private signal to ask him what he was planning but he continued.

"In your eyes, inhumane moves such as attacking the colonies are just if that's what it takes for you to come out victorious. Right? I have no choice but to surrender." Ah. I understand now. I unbuckled my harness and hit the key to open the hatch. I stepped out of Wing. "I surrender but I will not hand over the Gundams." This was going to be pretty risky. I had to hope my body could handle it. I couldn't let Treize get such a powerful weapon as my Gundam, but I also couldn't allow OZ to kill so many of my people. "I repeat, I surrender but I will not hand over the Gundams."

I held up my fist. Gripped in my palm was the trigger for Wing's self destruct. I hoped my plan worked. My thumb slid onto the red button. I pressed it firmly.

My world became sudden heat and extreme force. I was propelled forward from my location. I had just enough time to note that it seemed like my predictions were correct, standing outside the Gundam had allowed the explosion to push me away instead of pulverizing me with the rest of Wing. Then I hit the ground and the serene nothingness of unconsciousness released me from the pain.

I slowly felt myself regain consciousness. Seems I was successful. Then the pain registered. I groaned.

"Here." I heard an unfamiliar voice as I felt the cool press of a handgun against my temple. My eyes shot open. Before me was a human male. He seemed to be roughly Duo's age. He had brown hair that was longer in the front and swept over part of his face. He was raising the wrist of one hand to my face while his other hand held the gun to my head.

"Drink. It'll help you heal faster. But make sure you control yourself and stop soon enough or I will make you stop." His eyes quickly shifted to the gun then back to mine. "Hollowpoint silver bullets."

I didn't understand why he was doing this but I certainly wasn't going to turn down his offer. I sank my fangs into his wrist, keeping my eyes on him the whole time. I could feel the warm blood rejuvenating my battered body.

He didn't taste as good as Duo.

I stopped myself before he could feel any adverse side effects and licked the puncture wounds to make them heal. He removed his wrist and the gun, switching on the safety and holstering it.

"One month has passed and OZ has done nothing to the colonies."

I was stunned. I knew I would take time to heal, but an entire month? I must have cut it closer than I thought with that stunt. I eyed the young man. He had taken the time to save me after something that would have killed any human. He knew what I was and he used silver bullets. "Are you a hunter? Why did you save me?"

"The mercenary troop I grew up with was trained to kill your kind. We had to be ready to handle any contract. And I saved you because it seemed like you were an ally. I don't know why one of your kind is fighting OZ but we could use any allies we can get." He turned and walked to the door, pausing just before passing through. "You're welcome to stay here until you heal as long as you don't cause trouble."

Just before he left I called, "Who are you?" I heard his faint response of "Trowa Barton" as he walked out the door.

I stayed with Trowa while I healed. It took much longer than I would have liked. He only let me feed off him the one time, and was adamantly against me feeding off any of the other members of the circus troupe he traveled with.

Trowa was a very serene companion, only speaking when needed and remaining in silence the rest of the time. It was a companionable silence.

Being around Trowa was quite different from being around Duo. If you had asked me before if I preferred to be around someone who was mostly silent or someone who could carry on an entire conversation by himself then I would have picked the former. But I found myself oddly wistful of the time I spent in the boarding school with Duo.

Trowa allowed me use of his computer. I often checked public news sources and hacked into OZ's private information. I searched for any mention of Gundams or their pilots. There was a sighting of Gundam 05 listed in OZ's files, and I read that an attack was staged on the desert rebels believed to be hosting Gundams but the rumors were unconfirmed.

I had no idea what happened to Duo after we parted ways before that last mission. I hoped no news about him meant that he was fine, that he was only in hiding.

I found myself looking forward to seeing the perplexing human with the alluring violet eyes again.

While I healed, I wasn't able to do much other than gather as much information about OZ as I was able. I hacked every OZ system I could while remaining out of sight to their counter infiltration programs. I found out the pilot of the unknown white mobile suit was a Colonel Zechs Merquise but even more interesting, he had been rebuilding Wing. There were mentions of him being ordered to stop progress and destroy what he had rebuilt, but I had my suspicions. If you were to ignore OZ enough to rebuild a Gundam, would you then comply and destroy it on OZ orders right after? He certainly obtained enough Gundanium for two mobile suits.

The question was why? Why was Zechs rebuilding Wing? It obviously wasn't for use by OZ since he was ordered to stop. What reason would he have for rebuilding my Gundam?

It was during one of the times I was searching for information on Gundam pilots that I stumbled upon it. Someone else was searching. Someone else was searching for me specifically.

I double checked my IP was being rerouted so many times I was unlikely to be tracked and then followed the search to its source. I exploited a small weakness in the system programming that I knew of and opened a simple blank text file on the other computer.

Using the text file I typed, "Why are you looking for me?"

I waited, staring at the little blinking bar on the text file mirrored on my screen.

Then slowly the letters appeared. "I didn't expect you to really be alive. My name is Lucrezia Noin. I serve under Colonel Zechs. Colonel Zechs says he'd like to meet with you. As a fellow pilot of a mobile suit, Colonel Zechs wants to see you in hopes for another opportunity to fight you in the near future."

So Zechs was rebuilding Wing simply to finish our interrupted battle? I typed back, "Where is he?"

"I can provide transport. Just tell me where to meet you."

When Trowa learned what I was planning, he insisted on going as well.

We loaded Trowa's Gundam, Heavyarms, onto the provided transport. Noin and her men worked quickly to get the transport on its way.

We were heading for Antarctica.

-x-

-Author's Note-

I have trouble telling when I'm being suspenseful and mysterious or when I'm being vague and an idiot.

I'm hoping to get to throw in some more vampire politics when the politics of the show gets all crazy but right now I'm kinda just using this story as relationship practice. (For the record, my goal for this point in the story was for Duo to think of Heero as being a friend and Heero to think of Duo as being a very interesting not-enemy who he is maybe sorta kinda friendly-ish towards.)

Some (obvious) changes to Heero's post wake-up conversation with Trowa.

First 'major' change to what is seen in the show. Had to come up with a new way for Trowa and Heero to meet up with Noin. Didn't really feel like doing the whole "asking the Noventas to kill me" story plot.

Timeline: Episodes 9-15