Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Reflections ❯ Eyes From the Past ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Broken Reflections by Angel Barton

• Chapter Four: Eyes From the Past •

"You're a… a girl!" stammered Duo. He gawked at the person before him, wondering how he had missed seeing it before. The shadows, her hair tucked in her cap, the wrappings covering her face, the loose jumpsuit masking her curves. Duo realized he hadn't even heard her talk. No wonder I mistook her for a guy. Grinning, he realized that no one who looked at her now would mistake her for a member of the opposite sex. He took in every detail of her face, letting his eyes meet her resolute azure orbs.
She fixed the boys with a frigid glare, apparently undeterred by their open stares. "Is there a problem?" she asked.
"N-no," Duo stuttered, slightly taken aback by the apathetic tone of her voice. It didn't seem quite right to him. A girl as pretty as she was should have a pleasant, melodic voice, not the utterance void of feeling he had just heard. "I just thought you were a guy." He mentally kicked himself for not being able to salvage enough of his wits to come back with a snappy reply. "Um, back to my earlier question. Why in the world did you launch those torpedoes?"
"I had my orders," she replied evenly. "We can talk later. Do you mind if I take a shower first?"
"Uh, no. Go right ahead," said Duo. "Go through that door into the main hallway. Showers are in the fourth room on the left," he said, pointing her in the right direction.
Nodding, she turned to leave. "Hey, do you need some clothes or something?" he asked as she opened the door.
"I have something on under this," she answered, walking through the door to the walkway beyond.
Grinning slyly, Duo turned to the boy next to him who, to his amusement, was still staring after the girl. "Man, she's hot," said the braided boy, shaking his head as he walked back to the control booth of the crane.
Heero still stood where he was, gazing at the opened doorway. Although he hadn't let it show, he was almost as shocked as his annoyingly talkative host. That guy is right. She is beautiful. But there's something else about her. It's almost as if I know her…
• • •
Half an hour later, the same thought was still echoing through Heero's head as he stared into the dark liquid in front of him.
Duo sighed. He had been sitting that way ever since they had retired to the small closet that Duo and the rest of the crew considered a lounge. He hadn't even taken a sip of the coffee Duo had given him. He just leaned forward, fingers wrapped around the white porcelain mug, letting the steam waft eerily around his dark features.
Duo regarded him steadily from his position across the small room. I wish I at least knew his name, he thought. He reflected back on the conversation he had tried to start when his "guest" had first woken up.
"Hey, how are you feelin'?" Duo asked cheerily.
Silence.
"Okay, what's your name?" he ventured. The boy shot him a hard glare.
"Sheesh, are you always like this, or did that shot to the head leave you
mute?" he asked, grinning.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back, sprawled across the
metal floor.
Duo sat up, rubbing his jaw where the boy's left hook had solidly
connected.
"Baka," muttered the boy as he stood over Duo, who chuckled.
"So, the Iceman speaketh," he said.
After that, all Duo had managed to get out of him was confirmation of his guess that the spandex-sporting boy was indeed the other Gundam's pilot. Well, thought Duo, smirking, that and the fact that he's antisocial, physically violent, and hardly speaks.
Now that he had fit this one piece into the enigma that had been bothering him ever since he had first seen the abandoned Gundam, his thoughts turned to the attractive markswoman who had joined the swirl of unanswered questions in his head. Just how does she fit into this? he wondered.
As if on cue, the door creaked open and the girl in question walked in. Duo tried to keep his mouth from dropping open, but failed miserably. He looked at the silent boy across from him and was pleased to notice that his eyebrows were raised and his eyes a bit wider than normal. Feeling better, Duo turned to gaze at the blue-eyed vision standing in the doorway.
Her skin fairly glowed, a slight pink from recent scrubbing flooding her lightly bronzed color. Her hair, freshly washed and slightly damp, reached slightly past her hips in waves of silky, light brown shot through with honey-colored streaks. Her shapely torso was covered in a black tank top, not unlike the one his silent companion wore, except hers, much to Duo's delight, was slightly tighter. Duo let his gaze fall to take in her cut-off blue jean shorts, sneakers, and smooth, well-toned legs.
Ignoring the boys' lingering eyes, she strode over to the wall behind Heero's chair. Slightly to his right, she leaned against the wall and folded her arms across her chest. Her eyes wandered, taking in every detail of the room.
"Well, you sure clean up nicely," stated Duo before he could stop himself. Her blue eyes locked on his, and he could almost feel the fire behind her glare burn through him. Sweatdropping, he put his hand behind his head and laughed nervously. Just be glad she didn't pull as gun on you, Maxwell, he thought.
"Yeah… okay then. Well, let's get down to business," he announced, trying to returning to his normal cheery self. He turned to the moody boy sitting at the table. "The Mobile Suit I pulled up is yours, correct?" asked Duo, although he already knew the answer. The boy glared and nodded. "And Deathsycthe," he said, referring to his Gundam, "belongs to me." He shifted his eyes upward to look at the girl. "So that would make neither of them yours," he said, grinning cynically. The girl merely looked at him. "So," he continued, "I wanna know what in the hell made you think that you could blow up things that don't belong to you!"
At this point, Duo completely lost the control he had been trying to recover since she had walked in the room. "I mean, is this some way you take out your aggressions or something?! Or did you just happen to walk by and think 'Oh, I bet it would be fun to blast those two Mobile Suits out of the water!'? Not to mention shooting some guy in the head!" The seated boy's eyes narrowed visibly. "By the way, thanks for stopping him from shooting me. But geeze, what was running through that pretty little head of yours? Why? Just tell me why!" Duo paused to catch his breath as he looked expectantly at the her.
The girl, who had remained silent during Duo's ranting, looked unfazed. "I had my orders," she stated simply.
"Arrgg!!!" Duo said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "What is it with you people! Don't you know how to say more than five words?!" he wondered aloud as he turned to the empty wall behind him. Regaining composure, he spun around to face the two annoyingly brief girl. "You had your orders," he said suspiciously. "Orders from who? The Alliance? OZ?" The girl's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Don't even suggest," she said, scorn flooding her voice, "that I am in any way affiliated with either of those organizations."
Duo's cobalt eyes widened. So she isn't an enemy, he thought. Does that make her an ally?
"Okay, if you're not with them, who are you working for? Or are you a private citizen who just happens to carry around a handgun and has an obsession for blowing things up? Although," Duo said, rambling on, "I'd have to doubt that, since your marksmanship is above average. Unless you meant to kill this guy and you missed your…"
Duo never finished his sentence. As soon as he had let the word "missed" roll off his tongue, the girl had whipped out a pistol she had hidden behind her back. Quick as lightning, she brought it level with the braided boy's head and let off a shot. Duo yelled and threw his arms over his face as the dark-haired pilot whirled and leapt to his feet, his own gun leveled at the girl, who merely smirked.
Duo stood frozen. Slowly, he dropped his arms and looked over to his right. There, about an inch from his head, was a small, neat hole in the wall. He turned to gape at his assailant. She simply returned the gun to its place behind her back. She glanced at Duo. "I don't miss," she said evenly. The other boy kept his weapon trained on her as she returned to her spot against the wall.
"All right. Enough small talk. Who are you working for?" the boy said coldly.
She didn't flinch at the sight of the gun's muzzle aimed right between her eyes. "Kill me if you wish. I do not fear death." She regarded him with empty eyes. "Though the plot has thickened enough to keep me interested.
The boy seemed to struggle with his decision, but he slowly lowered his firearm.
Duo breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Okay. I get the point. No smart-ass comments and don't doubt your shooting expertise. Got it."
He looked at her in a new light. It just blew his mind that someone who looked like the Cover Girl of his dreams could be so deadly. He smiled wryly as the other boy turned his back on her and sat down again. I gotta give him credit, thought Duo. I know I wouldn't want to turn my back on psycho-chick.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "You know, we all got off to a pretty bad start, what with the shooting and the torpedoes and all. I think we should start over." He grinned and held out his hand. "My name's Duo. Duo Maxwell. Or if you prefer, you can call me the God of Death, hehe." Neither of the room's other occupants took his offered hand. Duo withdrew it, waiting. After a moment, he put his hands on his hips and said, "You know, it's customary that when someone tells you their name, you tell them yours," No answer. "This is starting to get a little creepy. You guys are acting almost exactly alike. What, were you like separated at birth or something?" He stopped and bit his lip. It was more than a little unnerving to have both sets of frigid glares on him at the same time. So similar… definitely a little creepy. He brushed off his jitters. "Tell me one thing," he asked, looking at the two. "Why won't you tell me your names?"
"It doesn't pertain to the mission," both replied in unison. Duo stared.
Heero spun to face the strange girl. She merely stared back, the barest hint of a smile playing over her lips. He had been more than a little caught off guard when he heard his response echoed word for word by her soft, yet firm, voice. He looked her directly in the eyes and, for the slightest moment, remembered.
*~ Heero walked through the hanger of Dr. J's laboratory. A stone-faced, attentive boy of eight years, he watched as the various engineers and technicians scrambled over the huge forms of the various Mobile Suits housed in the hanger. A flash of movement caught his eye and his gaze was drawn to a particular Leo MS.
Sitting atop the suit's massive "shoulder" was a small figure clad in a black, skintight flight suit. Heero quickened his pace as the person moved down to the open cockpit hatch of the Leo. He stopped beneath the MS and looked up at the stranger. A black helmet covered the person's face, but through the tinted visor he thought he saw a flash of intensely blue eyes. ~*
He didn't allow his shock to show. His mind raced. There's no way, he thought. Dr. J told me it was a mechanic that was taking the suit for a routine test flight. Would he have lied… But if that was her, how and why is she here?. No, it can't be. But what she said, that response… the one I had been trained to say… how could she know?
Heero looked again more carefully. Her face was composed and imperturbable, her eyes glacial and expressionless. Those eyes… he thought. They're so cold, so emotionless, so… like mine, he realized.