Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams?

Author's comment: Yeah sorry again for another long wait. I've been working these cosplays for the last few weeks x.x since they're almost done I'll probably start updating regularly soon. Lol or as regularly as I normally do. Anyways, enjoy!

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 12

"Welcome back, agents," one of the techs said as soon as they'd exited the shuttle. Heero didn't say anything besides a small grunt of acknowledgement. Wufei didn't even register the tech's presence. But then this was a normal occurrence for the two. The tech wasn't even fazed. Trowa at least nodded to the young male while Quatre gave his customary greeting.

Everything was how it would normally after a mission except for the braided male who was spinning around in Zero-G looking at everything with an awed look on his face.

"Wow, this place is huge!" Duo burst out his voice echoing but not loud enough to draw attention to himself. They were still in the docking station which serviced a little over a dozen shuttles a day. Voices carried easily from inside the spacious area as did the sounds of techs working on repairs. It was just a noisy area in general.

"Come on, Duo," Quatre said easily floating over. The docking station stayed at zero-G for no more reason than that it was easier to maneuver to the higher places, especially with large tools, without having to worry about gravity to weigh you down. Duo was still spaced out with everything going on and only moved when Quatre got to him and tugged on his arm.

They'd become pretty good friends quickly especially while on the shuttle. Since the time after Wufei and Duo's little heart to heart, Duo had started to open up more to them bit by bit.

He still wasn't telling them much about OZ, but he at least didn't mind telling them about life at Maxwell Church. Whenever Heero looked and caught sight of Duo looking his way, he thought he could see a bit more of his personality there in his eyes. He seemed less guarded now at least.

Duo seemed to take notice of Heero looking at him, the smile on his face dropping for a moment. Heero thought for a moment he saw red growing in the other's cheeks. But then he found himself staring into the glimmering Violet eyes and ended up quickly turning away, heart thundering in his chest.

Heero wasn't accustomed to this feeling, the clenching in his chest. Once he'd reported to the Colonel, he'd take a moment to talk to a nurse to make sure it wasn't anything serious he needed to be concerned over.

By the time Heero looked back, Duo was laughing and carrying on a conversation with the others animatedly like the moment never happened. Their little group floated along easily till they got to the entrance at the end. Floating into the interior of the small looking lobby made gravity become more noticeable. As he got closer to the other exit, his feet eventually hit the floor before he was walking out.

Duo had been partly avoiding him lately, ever since the whole, 'join you in the shower,' thing back in the motel on L2. It seemed only to have gotten worse since they'd been on the shuttle, especially after his latest attempt at trying to crack the password on Duo's laptop. Had he been careless in his intentions of getting inside it? He'd thought he'd kept his mind clear but maybe he hadn't.

Whenever Heero would look over at Duo he found the other staring at him. In all cases, either Heero would look away first or Duo would after the awkward moment. Whatever was going on in that skull, it made Duo a bit more cautious around him.

"So you guys made it back safely I see."

"Colonel." Heero went to attention first before he heard the others doing it behind him. Colonel Sally Po stood with hands on her hips as she watched them in amusement. She ran Division 3 and so was actually the boss of Trowa and Wufei, who were part of that division. While Heero followed under Colonel Une of Division 1, Quatre was under Colonel Noin with Division 2.

"I see you're as rude as ever," the colonel said looking past Heero. He stayed in attention.

"Then you should be used to it," Wufei said in response sounding frustrated.

She laughed a little, smiling at him with obvious fondness. "At ease." They relaxed and Heero looked back at the others. Everyone had saluted except for Wufei and Duo of course. Wufei never saluted. It might have had to do with their brother-sister type relationship despite Wufei denying it every moment. They had a unique history together, similar to Trowa and Catherine who actually were brother and sister.

"So this is subject 02?" she said walking over to the braided male.

"The name's Duo Maxwell," he corrected sounding irritated at OZ's nickname for him. Yeah…he'd made sure to correct them every time they mentioned the name quite adamantly. Something along the lines of "if you want me to come with you then you need to at least get my name right." Yeah, something like that.

"Duo huh?" She smiled at him kindly. "I apologize. We're so used to OZ's name for you. But I think I do prefer the name Duo for you more. It fits you."

"It's fine," Duo said becoming less like a cat with its ears back and rubbed his finger under his nose in a nervous reaction. Interesting. "Uh…your name?"

"My, I'm being a bit rude all around today. If I'm not careful I'll end up like Wufei." Wufei just snorted at that but didn't bother to defend himself. Well at least he knew he was rude. The words did make Duo grin though. "My name is Colonel Sally Po," she said resting a hand over her chest as she introduced herself. "I run Division 3."

"Infiltration group, right?"

"That's correct," she said smiling at him not looking the least bit surprised. "By the way, Heero," she looked at him when said his name. "Colonel Une wanted you to report to her as soon as you got back."

"Hn." Heero nodded his head though he didn't move right away looking over at Duo who quickly averted his eyes folding his arms. The Preventer frowned at the reaction before turning to Sally again.

"I'll go see her after Duo has been taken care of."

"She sounded like it was something urgent."

"…." Heero frowned before he saluted her. "Alright. I'll go see her now."

"We'll take care of things here, don't worry," Sally said walking over and patting Wufei's shoulder who scowled in response. Heero glanced at Duo frowning when the other still didn't look at him before he turned heading off. He heard Trowa mention something about visiting his sister but he'd already tuned it out. He wondered why Colonel Une was so persistent about seeing him now.

Division 1 was all the way on the other side of the space station, literally opposite of Division 3 which they stood in now. The whole HQ area was, literally, like a half moon with the docking station being the fat piece at the center. However, it was quicker to get to Division 1 by going back through the docking station to the door on the other side. Division 2 was of course in the center with its own exit through the docking station. Literally either way he went, it would take about the same amount of time to get to Division 1 from here.

When Heero got to the Division 1 side he headed for the elevator. Colonel Une's office was up on the third floor as were the other colonels. Only the most elite agents, like the four of them, and scientists were allowed access to the third floor. So unless you were summoned, you had no business trying to access the third floor. It was just common knowledge.

The second floor housed all of the dorm rooms for everyone staying onboard, divided by Division of course. His very own room was close to the elevator on the second floor, for emergency reasons of course. All four of the special elitists were like this. Despite not having anything on them to make them stand out as one of the elite, people knew who they were. Rumor mills were dangerous for a reason after all.

First floor was something like the social networking place. You had your eating places like the cafeterias, one of which he liked to sneak down to Division 2 for sometimes because of the better quality of food. Then you had places like the gym, a small garden get away, the medical team, clothing stores, and something very similar to a club where you could dance, drink, and literally just talk the night away if you were bored. There were more things too but he didn't really care for all the things that the first floor had to offer.

Heero stepped into the elevator and turned around pressing down the third floor button and at the same time announcing his name loudly enough for the elevator to register it. "Heero Yuy."

"Access granted," the elevator responded before shutting the door and starting to move. Access to the third floor required three things, voice recognition, a finger print scan, done when one touched the third button key, and announcing one's name. Without those three things and the correct clearance, the elevator would not respond.

Heero got off before looking to his left at the office door belonging to his boss. Going right would take you further down the hallway lead to an interrogation room, a few laboratories, a bathroom, and a room strategically placed at the center of the hallway hovering over the docking station. There was limited access to the room though if Heero wanted to he could easily hack into the code to get inside. He'd done it before anyway. There was also Colonel Po's office at the far end to the hallway and Colonel Noin's placed somewhere in the middle.

Heero knocked waiting for confirmation to enter before opening the door. Colonel Une wasn't at her usual spot at the desk. Instead, she stood in front of the wide expansive window, her arms behind her back as she stared out into open space.

Heero closed the door behind him before saluting going to attention. "Colonel…"

"At ease. You're not on duty right now." Heero relaxed instantly. They did this all the time. It was literally just habit now. "So," she said turning to look at him. "You found 02?" Her hair was down instead of in the usual buns most people saw her in. When dressed like this, all casual like, she stayed calmer, looser, and much more approachable. But when the buns came out, it was like a demon came with it. But she was powerful and the perfect person to run Division 1. Usually she preferred to be called Lady Une in this situation, but she was really only like this when in her office or going to a diplomatic meeting. It seemed people would listen to you better when you were in a calmer, more controlled state and not looking like you were ready to bite their heads off.

"Yeah..." Heero said, studying her. "He goes by the name of Duo Maxwell."

"Duo huh?" She walked over to her desk pouring two cups of water before she sat down. Heero walked over as well and sat down across from her grabbing one of the glasses. "Tomorrow I want you to do the simulation training. The others will probably be doing theirs as well."

"Hm?" Heero looked up at her, glass pressed to his lips in the process of getting ready to drink before he frowned lowering it down. "Is there a reason for the sudden training?"

"Just as a precaution," she said smiling and waving at him to settle his worries. But then she placed the cup back on the table and learned forward a little, placing some papers on the table in front of him. "Your last report…" she said before leaning back in the chair picking up the water. "You said in your report that OZ made robots out of a rare type of metal. Do you believe it might be the same one we used?"

"I…believe so yes." He finally took a sip of the tasteless water frowning into the glass. He'd said a lot of things in his report. To be honest, the information Duo gave them wasn't enough. The only thing he could do was assume…but from the way Duo made it sound…even if the sounds the robots produced did nullify the pain, it shouldn't have been able to crush a body high on Fly-Z that easily. But it wasn't like they could experiment on Duo to find out the results.

"Duo Maxwell is strong," he continued looking up at her. "Because of Fly-Z. I can contest to that being a true statement. I was there to see him shot point blank by the enemy and suffer no injuries. The same could be said of 01 whom I shot multiple times with little effect." Heero reached out sitting down his own cup. "It's as though his skin is an iron casing." But he'd felt that skin before. It was soft, extremely soft…almost delicate to the touch. So if it wasn't hard skin then…the elasticity maybe?

"If OZ has been making these robots like we suspect…and if they're made from the same material then we need to be prepared. It's possible they could attack us at any time."

"Yeah…but I doubt they will," Heero said frowning. "They wouldn't want that attention on them, especially attacking a well-known group like the Preventers who fall under the Queen herself."

"But if they had a reason to…OZ…no…the Romefeller Foundation that runs OZ would use it against us. And especially now that they know we have Duo Maxwell, they might try their hand at this." Her eyes turned cold as she stated her next words. "I believe they want to either retrieve the evidence of their experiments…or destroy it."

Heero didn't like the way she said that at all. It meant they were trying to recapture Duo to place him into a solitary confinement. But if that failed then they'd probably just resort to killing him outright, which would be the reason for the robots…and for 01's existence. "So now we're waiting for them to attack," Heero said and frowned a bit when he saw her nodding her head.

"It'll only be a matter of time before they do attack us…especially since we won't know what reason they'll use against us."

"Hn." Heero frowned. OZ was already something dangerous to mess with but…Romefeller…the founders of OZ wouldn't be a group he'd want to pick a battle with since they dominated most of Earth.

"On another note," Une said drawing Heero's attention to her again. "I want to get Duo Maxwell to join the Preventers."

"…What?" Did his ears really just hear right?

"Everything you said puts him down as being soldier material. He was fast enough to give you guys a run for your money." She smiled innocently enough to not make it feel like an insult…even though it was. Heero snorted narrowing his eyes slightly in frustration. She knew how to push his buttons at times too, especially when she was in the lady-like state. "And you said it yourself, he's fast, he's strong, and he's smart. He already knows about OZ and computers and I'm betting he's good with fighting too."

"…." Well it wasn't like he could say anything against it. Duo could fight...seeing he was good enough to stop one of Heero's kicks. "…Can you trust him?"

"Hm?"

"Duo Maxwell," Heero said staring straight into her brown eyes. "Can you trust him? We barely know anything about him except that he was an orphan made OZ experiment."

"…Well let me reverse that question and ask…do you trust him?"

"…I…" Heero frowned looking down at the partly full glass on the table. Did he trust Duo? Well it was true that he'd, so far, never been lied to. He'd thought that when they were riding back from L2. But at the time he'd just been thinking of Duo as a person. Thinking of Duo as a comrade, as someone that would be fighting beside him…did he trust Duo like that? Could he trust Duo to protect his back in a battle?

Well it wasn't like he was that much better after trying to hack into Duo's diary. It'd been a failed attempted to the point he'd just given up. But that didn't stop him from making a copy of the files and saying he'd check them out when he got back. But…he really had no right to say he didn't trust Duo when he was doing things behind his back as well.

"…"

"Hmm…I wanted to put him through the simulation testing as well but…" she smiled at him and he couldn't help looking up and frowning at her in suspicion. "For now we'll put him through the Preventers training. Usually it takes a month to do…but I'm giving it a week in his case. The trainers will be the four of you who escorted him here. I'm sure there will be no problems with this."

"That seems kind of-"

"You can start training him tomorrow afternoon. And after the training is done, before we make our decision on him being a Preventer, I'll ask you again if you can trust him." She smiled at him before she stood up from the chair. "In the meantime, you should get your rest for tomorrow. I'm sure you must be tired from your travels."

"Colonel-"

"Dismissed, Yuy." She said it kindly, but the look in her eyes showed she brooked no argument. Even a lady could get tired of being nice all the time.

"…Ma'am…" Heero stood saluting her before he turned leaving room. This was bothering him now. How did she expect him to rest when she was making him think about all these things? OZ…Romefeller…Duo…the Preventers as a hole. The Preventers were there to protect the peace and to make sure that Romefeller didn't get out of hand since everyone knew they had little love for the colonies. They were there to stop the little skirmishes that rogue soldiers had.

Whether Duo joined or not was irrelevant. He would do everything in his powers to keep war from destroying mankind. And if it meant having to kill stupid leaders, then he'd do just that. And even though the thought of Duo joining them as a team bothered him, he couldn't necessarily say he didn't get at least a little bit excited at the thought.

For now though, he'd make a little run to the nurse before he headed to his room to wind down. Tomorrow was going to be a long day…not just for him, but apparently for the others and Duo as well.

TBC….

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know did when I wrote it. :D Also so much fun teasing Heero.