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"Friends "Written By: Karina
Series: Friends Pairings: 2+6 Ratings: M 15+ [In Australia] Rated in the event of bad language and violence. Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the characters. That’s the way it is. Warnings: Not a death fic despite how it starts.
Aussie spelling and unbetaed. Summary: When Milliardo Peacecraft is abducted
and left to die a solitary death Duo Maxwell decides to take a hand
in the proceedings.
Chapter 34 They were moving closer. He could feel Maxwell’s life force added to theirs and he knew, at some time in the future, Duo would be seeking answers from him. Answers he was not particularly inclined to provide, but he owed some form of explanation to the man who had braved the storm to save his hide. Quite frankly, Duo Maxwell astounded him. Why had the man come after him? They did not know each other. They had been barely acquainted, yet the braided one had come for him. He was alone of necessity. Safety depended on the distance he maintained from those he held dear. He had forced Noin away; forced her to hate him. Better to have her contempt than to know she would be used and perchance terminated. They would have no compunction in using her to gain what they wanted from him and they would make use of Duo if they suspected he knew anything. If they suspected Maxwell had come to mean something to him. He had suggested Maxwell run and bury himself in anonymity for a time. It would be a necessary precaution to protect himself from the repercussions of this mad moment of compassion that had brought him out into the wilds of Sanc. Duo had enough street smarts to evade and elude those who would pursue him. //A mad moment of compassion. Why did he do it? He has not told me enough to account for his presence. If it had been one of his friends he had come for, that I could understand. He will need to answer my questions, as much as I will need to give him some sort of explanation.// They were coming closer. He could sense their proximity to each other and his fingers curled around the butt of the gun. Confrontation was imminent and he would do what he could should the need arise; but Maxwell was warned and he was no novice. Zechs knew he needed to have faith in old skills one never forgot when one had depended on them so long. Maxwell might not have cause to use such skills in these days of peace, but Zechs knew he would still practise them. Those who had become the elite, the survivors of the worst confrontations during the war, could not help but be aware of the potential for danger. “What the fuck are you doing here?” His fingers closed tighter about the gun and he exhaled slowly, calming the spike in anxiety as he had learned to do. He needed to keep control of himself and could not permit the shadow within to run loose. Maxwell, quite obviously, knew their unannounced visitors and he did not sound particularly thrilled with the company. “Oh wait. I know what you’re doing here. You came to recover the corpse, didn’t you?” //Lovely. I’m a corpse, am I? Well, I should be, true enough. I would be, were it not for you, Duo Maxwell. Certain people will not thank you, though I certainly do. If I did not need to return to the fold to determine who it is who wants me terminated, I would take advantage of this ‘death’.// There would be at least one of the pilots in the group. They worked for Preventers, though Yuy was on secondment to Relena’s security and, if the rumblings he had heard were accurate, Yuy was doing a little more than guarding Relena’s person from danger. He was uncertain how he felt about that, but no doubt she would not appreciate him playing the role of protective older brother. Unfortunately Relena seemed well enough content to forget he existed. Not that he could blame her. He was certainly an embarrassment to the Peacecraft name, not that she used the name. “Guess you found out Maxwell wasn’t just blowing hot air, didn’t you?” That was the voice of an angry young man, one who felt betrayed by those he had considered friends. Zechs could sense Duo’s temper as a rising darkness, not too dissimilar to his own shadow, though thankfully not so dangerous as his shadowy persona. At least not yet, he amended. “Couldn’t you even trust me to come back to town with the guy no one believed needed help in the first place? Did you think I was dead too?” It appeared they had little to say, though Duo was not giving them much of an opportunity to respond. He could imagine how Duo would look. Sleep mussed, wisps of hair escaping the tight braid, wide eyes tinting toward that fierce passionate violet as he warmed to his subject. Maxwell would look rather fetching in a dangerously sexy way. //Enough of that.// He did not need random thoughts of sex making an appearance to further complicate the situation. Maxwell deserved better than to become a part of a sexual fantasy to assuage physical needs too long denied. If he lost control it would culminate in the bursting of a dam held rigidly behind stressed barriers for too long. “So he’s dead then?” “He would have been if it had been left up to you to act.” //Yuy.// So it was Preventers who had come for him, not those Others who professed to control him. Despite it being Preventers who reached him first, they would have taken precautions to protect their interests. He could not afford to relax, nothing had changed. Yuy’s presence was a surprise however. The former pilot of Wing Zero should have been attending to his sister’s security, not traipsing around the mountains in the middle of the night. “So where is he?” That was one voice he was not pleased to hear. Chang Wu Fei and he did not sound in a particularly good mood. Typically Chang, however, no nonsense, always direct to the point and no time for the social niceties. Treize had thought him wonderfully entertaining. He pinched the bridge of his nose, counting slowly to five, taking the count to ten, forcing the surge in the shadows within him to remain within his control. He could not afford to lose control now. He needed to get over his pet dislike for the man. Chang had been a child, for all he thought himself to be worldly and adult. He had been, like the others, too young to realize he was being used. They had all been used by those older and supposedly wiser. “…didn’t give a shit when it actually mattered.” “We have a mission, Maxwell, kindly get your head on straight and allow us to do it.” Chang had obviously not mellowed in the intervening years. Perhaps he now understood how he had been used and it had served to sour his disposition further. Or perhaps he was simply tired. What ever the reason, Chang Wu Fei was sure to rub Duo the wrong way and spark off a confrontation. “Ah yeah, the mighty Preventers have arrived-late as fucking usual-but we won’t mention the time, will we? You arrive and everyone else has to shut up and piss off ‘cause Preventers will take care of everything. Back off Chang, I don’t give a shit about your badge.” As he had feared, Duo’s temper was flaring and a full fledged confrontation was developing. It was to be expected as he was sure Duo had been feeling cut off from those who had fought beside him during the war. Isolated, unable to find stable footing and seeing them progress, content with what they had chosen to do, digging his heels in when they determined such work would suit him. Zechs had witnessed this type of reaction before, during his days in the military. If someone did not intervene Duo Maxwell might well close himself off from what was possibly the only peer support group he had. //Don’t do it. Don’t say it. Bite your tongue, just don’t push them aside. It will be the worst thing you can do to push them away.// “I think we need to calm down, people.” //Ah, someone who can see the danger of things getting out of hand. It’s not Winner, I’ve heard his voice often enough. Barton? Did Une assign the Gundam pilots to round me up? It would make sense, they would know how to handle the dark side of me and I might appreciate a bullet in the brain. The bloody nanobots might not be able to save me from that.// “We need to rest and tomorrow transfer Marquise to New Port City. The helicopter is a reasonable hike from here, so we will need an early start. I take it there is another room with better shelter.” That might be Yuy’s version of a tactful side step, but he doubted Maxwell would respond too kindly to the tone. He was more than a little disturbed by the undertones running through the group. He had thought the Gundam Pilots were closer. “Not for you there isn’t and he won’t be hiking to your chopper in the morning. You know shit about what is going on, but you are on a mission and you intend to complete it, no matter what. That’s the way you work, isn’t it, Yuy? The mission is everything.” It was not only Yuy who was mission oriented. Amidst those trained at so high a level the need to complete a mission was almost compulsive. There were many more besides Heero Yuy who had difficulty breaking that extreme level of conditioning. At one time he had been almost as bad, though Treize had kept his hand on the young Zechs Marquise and ensured he at least was taught how to switch off from that dark place he had been trained to inhabit. For the good of the peace. It was always for the good of the peace that dark things were perpetrated. //Fuck the peace. What has it done for me?// Treize would not have been amused with him and he knew it was the shadow stirring, insinuating darker thoughts, plucking at the harp strings of his discontent with his position. //Always for the peace of others. I am heartily tired of working for others.// He could be a selfish bastard when he was descending into darkness and he needed to stop that plunge now, before it was too late. “… to your bloody chopper and get some sleep. I might feel more sociable after I actually get some quality down time.” //More sociable, Duo? Only if you do not dream again.// “We are not traipsing back through this storm without Marquise.” Zechs felt his upper lip curl. Chang could not possibly keep his mouth shut and allow other people with cooler heads to deal with Maxwell. What was it about the irate youth which had so attracted Treize? The man had taken delight in goading the Gundam pilot and in duelling with him. All of the pilots had fascinated Treize, but none more so than Chang Wu Fei. Neither Zechs Marquise nor Milliardo Peacecraft had liked that. //No, I don’t think I will allow myself to go down that road. Not now. Not here.// The Shadow was hovering too near to release for him to dare to examine his feelings of jealousy for Chang. Treize Khushrenada had known how to play his people and Zechs was not willing to raise old wounds. Treize had played with his emotions enough when alive and he refused to give a truly dead man that power over him. “… some time to dig them both out and make them flight worthy. We will require daylight for that. That leads outside?” He pressed a hand to his temple, rubbing gently against the pounding pulse beat. His shadow needed to be contained but their anger was beating at him. The emotions of others always had an effect on him and the tensions in the other room were not helping him subjugate the dangerous urge. He could, if he needed to, gain his feet. If he let loose the anger and fed it to the shadowy persona he could, even in his weakened condition, give them a run for their money. They would not be expecting to face what he could become. Une would not have warned them. He was uncertain exactly how much she knew, but she would know he had performed missions deemed too dangerous even for her pet pilots. She would know enough to suspect, though not enough to earn her death warrant. Not unless she had been digging where she had no cause to be. They would inform her only of what They required her to know. She in turn would tell her operatives only what she deemed necessary to get the job done. Need to know. It was the military’s excuse for keeping secrets. No, it was unlikely these young men would suspect what he could do. They might think they knew what he was capable of, but they would be underestimating him. The days of the war were far behind them and his handlers had taught him new tricks. He needed to keep them safe in their ignorance. “… says I’ll find my smile again when I find what I want to do in this shit arsed world full of people who think they know what is best for me. I’ve got patience enough to wait to find out what that is, but no one else seems to have.” Patience was a luxury, one he was pleased Maxwell could entertain. He needed time and was willing to take it to determine his future. Time to find where one belonged was a rare luxury and if they supported their friend they might well find they were not as content with their choices as they professed to be. Perhaps that was one of the problems they needed to deal with. Maxwell had not jumped into Preventers and had steered clear of Winner’s security department as well. From what he had learned Duo had tried his hand at one or two things with no real interest in them. It was, of course, a mistake, but one he had learned from and determined not to repeat. Maxwell had restless feet and a bad case of the fidgets. Post war stress would account for some of it, but there would be other factors at work and he had said he was seeing psychologists. Some people found their way more easily than others and Zechs wished Duo Maxwell luck in finding his way out of the sinkhole his life had become. “… flew out in darkness in this wind, the exact same thing you were grousing at me for doing not so long ago. Why didn’t you wait until morning when the wind drops and you could bloody see where you were going?” “We fly when we are instructed. Une is not amused by this entire incident and wants the matter dealt with speedily.” “I’ll just fucking bet she does.” Yuy was not having much success dealing with his erstwhile rescuer, Zechs mused. Everything he said, though he likely did not intend for it to happen, seemed to set Duo off; perhaps it was Yuy’s tone of voice? Duo’s last retort dripped sarcasm and Zechs was fairly sure the blue eyes would have been close to turning fully violet. “Duo, is this really the time or place for this? It is late, we are tired-all of us are exhausted-and when the sun comes up we have to dig out the helicopters and see about returning Marquise to New Port City. Let’s just settle in for the night and get some rest.” New Port City? Barton’s comment stilled the rising shadow and he held his breath, eyes widening. Within the Shadow trembled and he stared into the darkness of the pantry, wishing his eyes could see beyond the darkness, unwilling to loose the shadow so that he could, indeed, move through it. //They have been instructed to take me to New Port City? What…? That would be the last place the Organization would want me. I expected a secured facility, the Preventer air terminal perhaps, and a discrete transferred to one of the Organization’s transports.// “And who says he is going to New Port City?” “Commander Une assigned us to locate and return Marquise; with discretion.” “Oh yeah, I bet she stipulated discretion was paramount.” //Don’t, Duo! Don’t rouse their suspicions. Don’t make them look at it more closely. The fewer people who suspect anything is wrong the better.// “Yes, Maxwell, with all due discretion. The man is supposed to be dead after all.” “Well, Mr. Mission-is-all-Yuy, answer me this. How discrete can one be in broad daylight moving around a dead man?” //Let it go, Duo. // He was suddenly bone aching tired. //It will be easier for me to disappear if they are not suspicious.// “Enough already!” “Yo, Tro man. Kitty Kat rubbing off on you?” “Or something, Duo. We are here; we can not trek back to the helicopter tonight. So… shelter?” Pursuit of practical purposes was safe. Relaxing slowly back against the backpacks Zechs rested the gun his fingers had been compulsively tightening around, in his lap. He was propped up against the packs, shivering in the cold but unwilling to lie down and leave his fate to others. Duo would no doubt not appreciate him shooting his friends, though he sounded distinctly tetchy. If he took his hand away from the source of the temptation, it might sooth the shadow to fully retreat and give him some rest. “… outside or in here, because there sure ain’t enough room for anyone else in the pantry.” No, there was barely sufficient room for he and Duo, with the stock pile of timber dragged in to warm them. He supposed they would choose to pitch a tent in the icy room and he wished them luck in their chilly shelter. Conditions would be improving outside, but it would be hours yet before the storm let up. The wind was easing and the snow fall should be too, but it would be far more pleasant within solid walls than it would be sheltering from the wind in a tent. “Yo Zechs! Just me, okay?” //Yes, Duo, just you is okay. I don’t think the
Shadow will shoot you.// ~ * ~
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