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"Pax Ultima"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Angst, violence, language, sex Pairings: If you need to know, please email me
and I will be happy to tell you. Summary:They fought for peace, but peace took away what they loved the most. A very grim tale of suspense and betrayal, set post-canon and featuring character death. Thanks as always to the always fabulous Cuzo
for being my beta! "Pax Ultima " Chapter Nineteen "You let Trowa find you," Wufei realized. Duo nodded, but his gaze was still locked with Trowa's. "I could have killed you," Trowa realized. He could have killed Duo and never even known the truth of what happened to Heero. Duo gave him a smirk, a "sure you could have" look. Trowa narrowed his eyes. "Yeah," Duo admitted. "That part of my plan didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped. I was sort of hoping to be tying you up and calling Wufei to come rescue you." Wufei arched an eyebrow. "That was quite a gamble." Duo stepped back from Trowa, dropping his hands down to his sides and shrugging. "Yeah, he said again, "but it's not like I had much to lose and I needed you two. I... I can't do this thing along." "How did you get the intel?" Trowa asked. "Some of it was before - Heero and I did a fair bit of hacking the Futurum databases. The rest... we'd already established a window into their firewall so it wasn't that hard for me to collect the data, the feeds from what they did to him." "How did they get him in the first place?" Wufei asked, and Trowa was glad. He wouldn't have been able to ask the question without it sounding like he was blaming Duo for that already. Duo sighed and looked between them, as if judging their ability to hear what he had to say. "You guys haven't watched all of the feeds yet, have you?" Trowa shook his head, as did Wufei. "Only - only until Heero's death," Wufei said. "I wasn't sure the other ones mattered." Duo arched an eyebrow at Trowa. "And you wanted to rush off after me as soon as you saw that one, right?" "It was Wufei's idea to track you down," Trowa defended himself. Duo smirked. "Yeah. You were supposed to be the one who watched all of them and pieced it all together." "Why me?" "Because I'm almost positive I know who's behind all of this, but I can't be certain. I need you to watch the last feeds and tell me if it's - tell me if it's really him." Trowa glanced towards the laptop, at the files that had finished downloading while they ate and fought. "We can look at that stuff after," Duo said, and his voice was soft. "I just need to make sure I'm not crazy, that it's really - we need to watch the other feeds first." "Wait," Wufei stopped Trowa from going to the laptop. They both looked at him. "I know that this isn't... this certainly isn't as important as figuring out what happened to Heero and avenging him or putting a stop to Futurum, but I think the two of you need to talk. There is too much bad blood between you - too much about Heero that you haven't admitted to." "Want us to go find a therapist and talk about our feelings?" Duo asked, his mouth twisted into a disdainful sneer. "No," Wufei said and there was anger in his voice. "I want the two of you to admit that you've been wrong and that you've fucked up and figure out how you can move from it. I'm not going to help either of you do anything else until I can trust that you won't let the past affect you anymore." Trowa scowled. Wufei was right. Trowa might no longer want to murder Duo, but he was still having a hard time listening to him and not thinking about everything that had happened. "So how far back are we going?" Duo asked. "You gonna make Trowa apologize for blowing up my Gundam?" Wufei glared at him and looked ready to snap, but the question startled a laugh out of Trowa. Duo looked at him, his lips tipping up just slightly, and it reminded Trowa that once, once they had been friends. It was an old joke between them - they had been partnered together for their very first Preventers mission, and Une had kept a watchful eye on them during the mission planning phase, convinced that they were going to rip each other's throats out. Things had been tense, that first time, when they still didn't know each other that well, and it was only when they started to work out together, running and sparring together, that things had eased. Every time they sparred, whenever Duo landed his first punch on Trowa of the match, he would always say "that was for my Gundam." But that had been before. And a lot had happened between before and now. "What happened between you and Heero?" Trowa had to know.
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