Oh wow! I was this close to forgetting to update today.

CHAPTER FIVE: The Mermaid (EsterGilbert89 and Staryday)

Aboard the ship, everyone turned to the next person next to them as a shout was heard…

"WHAT?"

…shrugging to each other, they returned to their tasks, disregarding the shout. Something was bound to happen anyway with the Gundam pilot on-board.

"What do you mean some of the parts are missing? How did this happen? What-"

Howard interrupted. "If you'll let me explain first, then you can ask questions later... mind you, it's not me that did this, so I'm not really in the know. Ya' know?"

Duo huffed and crossed his arms. "Explain," he ground out.

Howard grinned. "As far as I can tell, someone, and here I'm assuming the boy Heero, took some of your inner workings and matched them with his Gundam, thus making his Gundam ready for his er...task. He also left a note." Here, Howard pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket.

Due grabbed it angrily. He read the note and then crumpled it up in disgust.

It said:

I took some of your electrical parts. They'll be easy to replace.

Heero Yuy.

Far away in Gundam 01, Heero smirked. He had a feeling that Duo was cursing his name. Oh what fun.

Now, time for his mission...

When Duo had finally calmed down, he went back to Harry. He knew that the child would be doing something. He scowled. Probably helping in the kitchen or doing some cleaning.

As expected, he found Harry in the kitchen, trying to help the cooks, and it looked like he was succeeding.

"Ya know kid, ya really have to stop that. It isn't your chore, you don't have to feel obligated to cook for all of us, and it is definitely not your responsibility to do anything here."

Harry turned around, startled. He hadn't heard Duo come up. That was bad. Not hearing someone come up behind you usually ended up with a slap around the head... amongst other things.

"B-but if I don't, what am I supposed to do here as repayment? I can't do nothing. It-it's not proper Mister Duo."

Duo snorted. "Mister? Me? Uh-uh. You got the wrong dude pal. I ain't no Mister. Never have been, never will be. It's just Duo, ok? Or you can call me Shinigami, but that ain't right for you either. No, just Duo."

Harry looked skeptical. Duo sighed, walked up to Harry and picked him up

"There now, little guy. It's ok, why don't we go back to the room and read for a bit? How are ya with that? Or do you wanna go back on deck and see what the other guys are doing? I might have to leave soon for another...meeting, but I'm sure that in the meantime, we can do something fun for a little while!"

Harry tilted his head in thought. He had had enough of the room, and he liked to be in the open again, so he replied. "Can we please go outside for a bit?"

Duo nodded. "Sure thing, little man! We'll have some fun outside...maybe annoy a few people. Who knows? We'll find something to do!"

And with that, they headed from the kitchen to the deck.

Harry loved the feeling of the wind rushing through his hair as they swept through the ocean. While Duo was talking to a few members of the crew, Harry made his way over to the rails, trying to see as far across as he could. But there was no shore-line in sight. Harry looked down and gasped. The water was so pretty! Little white things on top of the blue ocean, and below that, he could see some sort of large fish swimming along with the boat. Some of them had pointy fins, and some had some funny curved ones, but each of them was so beautiful, swimming down there.

He leaned over more to get a better look, and suddenly, he was slipping over the rail. He screamed out in fright, and before he knew it, he was in the water, and some of those pretty large fish were coming towards him.

Duo turned around as he heard the scream, and suddenly he knew what had happened. Harry was nowhere in sight. He turned back to the crewmen, and shouted.

"Harry went overboard! Sound the alarm! I'll go in after him!"

He turned around and sprinted to the edge, jumping off in a dive to get to Harry. He didn't know what was in the water, but he didn't even know if the little one could swim. He had to get to him. If there was anything dangerous down there, he at least had a small gun that would do some damage. All he had to do was get to Harry.

As soon as he hit the water, he knew that something was up. It was cold, there were waves that swelled to a meter because of the boat, but there were no dolphins or any other fish around.

He cursed. He saw it then. Harry was sinking down, sharks were swimming around him. But what really surprised him were that there were dolphins trying to head off the sharks. In the center, Harry was unconscious.

Duo began to swim toward Harry as fast as he could, but not fast enough. One of the sharks had come too close, snapping at Harry, before something amazing happened. The shark flinched back, looking stunned as if its nose had hit a wall. But that's impossible, there wasn't anything in the ocean that could do that!

He swam faster and at last reached Harry. He didn't feel any resistance, so wrapping his arm around Harry, Duo started to swim upwards, Harry limp in his arms.

As he reached the surface, he began looking for the float. It was a few meters away, but with reach without too much effort. The dolphins came up above them, swimming around then, guarding them, guiding them, and finally they reached it. Duo settled the float around Harry and took hold. They were on their way up.

As Duo was lifted with his precious cargo, he wondered what on earth could have made the shark act like that. He sighed. Another oddity with Harry. As they reached the top, the crew pulled them over and they were safe.

Now all Harry had to do was wake up and hopefully, answer some questions.

Harry saw the water rushing towards him and barely had a chance to close his eyes and mouth before he was plummeting into the cold ocean water. His head swam as the sudden change in temperature made him dizzy and almost passed out. Harry opened his eyes and cried out as the salt water stung them. Water poured into his mouth and the little air Harry had left rushed from his lungs, leaving him choking and swallowing gulp after gulp of saltwater. He tried to kick his feet and swim upwards but Harry no idea how to swim or which way was even up.

Suddenly, something hit his back and Harry was sent forward, his head reeling even more than it already was. He wasn't sure what hit him but he didn't like it. There was no air left in his lungs and Harry felt his body beginning to sink as his vision clouded over. Just as he was sure he was about to drown a beautiful voice reached his ears. It was a woman. She seemed to sing her words instead of speaking them.

"What's this? A poor little boy has fallen into my depths."

Harry's blurry vision cleared just enough for him to make out the face a beautiful woman with flowing red hair. Her eyes were solid green and her face and hands were dotted with shining fish scales. She had no feet, only a fin that allowed her to glide around Harry through the water.

"Oh, a little wizard boy." Her laugh was musical. "No, no. I can't take a wizard child to my depths. Your kind are more trouble than they're worth." She touched his face and Harry stared at her with dull eyes. "I think you need to go back to your family, little wizard child. Look, he comes for you now. The dolphins will protect you until he arrives."

Harry didn't have a chance to understand her as the darkness finally overcame him and he passed out. When he awoke, he was back on the ship, coughing up water and gasping for air. Duo was next to him, soaking wet and resting a hand on Harry's back.

"You okay there, kid?"

Harry blinked up at him miserably. "My throat hurts…" he whispered.

"Not surprised, after all that." Duo sighed and lifted Harry into his lap. "Someone get him a blanket and something for his throat!" The crew hurried to obey as Duo ran his hand through Harry's hair. "Now I know you like it outside, but maybe next time you want to go swimming you let me know first, okay?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall."

"Well of course you didn't." Duo held him back and looked Harry over carefully. "Are you sure you're all right? None of the sharks got ya?"

Harry shook his head. "No sir. The mermaid said the dolphins would protect me."

Duo blinked. "The what?"

"The pretty mermaid. She said the dolphins would protect me. And she said I was a wizard."

Duo half smiled. "Harry, there's no such thing as wizards or mermaids."

"Then who was the pretty woman?"

"It was probably just a dream, kiddo." A crew member appeared with a blanket and hot tea and Duo wrapped Harry up tightly. "Let's get you to bed."

Duo sat with Howard, a coffee in his hands. It was late, nearly midnight. Harry had been ordered to stay in bed all day and Duo had enlisted the help of the whole crew to make sure the boy stayed there while he worked on his Gundam. Heero's note had been true, getting the parts to replace the ones he stole was easy, but it was just time consuming to fix everything. He was still only half finished and expected to pull an all-nighter to complete the task.

"So how's that kid doing?"

"He'll be fine. Keeps talking about pretty mermaids though."

Howard smiled. "It's good for little boys to have dreams. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's rather healthy."

"Maybe. What's not healthy is putting up invisible shields around yourself to keep sharks away."

"What?"

"Nothing." Duo stood. "I think I'm going to finish working on Deathscythe. If that kid gets up, let me know."

"Sure thing, Duo."

As soon as Duo entered the cockpit to his Gundam, a message flashed on his view screen. He frowned and made sure the transmission was coded before opening the file. His eyes took in the words quickly, memorizing them effortlessly. A minute after opening the file it was deleted completely from his system. It was time to get back on track. He had a new mission to complete.

Duo spent most of the night fixing up Deathscythe and when he was finished he began preparing for mission. It was going to be a long one and, hopefully, his last one. Gathering all his supplies and preparing Deathscythe to move was a long and tedious process. Howard woke at the crack of dawn and was shocked to see Duo still up, nursing a cup of cold coffee.

"Still not finished?" he asked the young teen.

Duo glanced at him. "I got a mission. I'll be leaving by noon today."

"How long?"

"However long it takes." Duo tossed aside a wrench and grabbed some pliers. "You still okay with watching Harry for me?"

"Of course. We all love the kid."

"Good. When I get back, we need to talk about what to do with him."

"What d'ya mean?"

"I mean I can't keep him." Duo stood and ran his hand over his braid. "Don't get me wrong, Howie, I want him. I really do but come on, I'm a Gundam pilot. A freaking terrorist. I can't keep a kid."

"Duo," Howard placed a hand on his shoulder, "if that's what you want to do, then you better do it quick. Harry's already attached to you and the longer you wait the more it's going to hurt him and you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Duo jumped into the cockpit of his Gundam and powered the systems up. "I'll be back in a couple of days and figure something out then."

Howard quickly moved out of the way and watched as Deathscythe stood and launched into the sea. It vanished in the ocean's depths within moments, completely free from detection. Howard sighed and leaned over the railing.

"Howard?" a tiny voice called. The old man turned in surprise.

"Hey now, we told you to stay in bed. You had a bad fall earlier." Harry hesitated, shuffling from side to side. Howard smiled and knelt down. "What's wrong, kiddo?"

"Where's Duo?"

"He had to go to work. He'll be back soon."

"He didn't say goodbye." Harry's eyes went wide, his expression one of shock and fear.

"Duo never says goodbyes. He says goodbyes are forever and he doesn't like forever." Howard lifted the light boy into his arms. "Let's put you back to bed. As soon as Duo gets back, all three of us will sit down and talk."