Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Business Proposition ❯ Ten ( Chapter 10 )

Epilogue      "And he was all, 'but I've been here the whole time...'," Heero noted in amusement to Lucretzia as he sat in the chair beside her bed. "Like we weren't calling them up by rank. I was about to backhand him before another soldier interceded. I made Wufei do something more than entertain my boyfriend then..."

"It was such a hard day," Wufei noted in mock dismay.

Lu grinned at him.

"I'm not...annoying, am I?" Matty asked, a perplexed frown on his face.

"Matty?" Wufei asked. "What did we do all day?"

The guy blinked at him.

"That's right," Wufei agreed. "We hung out doing absolutely nothing while the other four scurried around like rats on a sinking ship...and you're thinking there's sincerity in my saying I had a hard day?"

The guy grinned as he actually thought about that. He hadn't meant that Wufei's response bothered him—it was more that he tended to follow them around, and some people didn't appreciate that. He did have to admit, though, that Wufei almost seemed to look for him.

"You guys have no idea," Wufei added quietly, setting his cup on the roll-around table. He ran his hands over his face and started shaking his head.

"What?" Lu asked, giving him a concerned look.

"What's wrong?" Zechs asked—he was sitting on the trundle-bed that was against the wall. "You look more stressed than you should."

Wufei ran his hands through his hair.

"Well?" Heero asked, considering the man.

"It's...it has the damn whip of Epyon," he returned.

Heero closed his eyes.

Zechs stared at him in evident confusion a long moment, then looked around to Lu.

"And the shield-generator of Mercurious."

Duo's hands moved to his face.

"They have Deathscythe's cloak in it."

Trowa dropped his head back, staring at the ceiling.

"And he calls it Demigod," Wufei finished, staring at the wheels of the bed. "I named it Demigod."

"Is it a gundam?" Lu muttered, staring at his face intently.

"Only parts," Wufei returned, smiling sadly at her. "The gundams were gods among men...and it's only part gundam."

"Apt name," Quatre said quietly, looking toward the window. "What's it made of?"

"An Aries and a Leo," he noted in amusement. "They have some mixture of a Taurus and a Leo in there, too...how many bases do you suppose are making similar things?"

"Probably most," Heero said quietly.

"I don't understand," Lu muttered, looking them all over. "Who has that? Why do you know about it?"

"There were four guys in black-ops with loyalty to Marsh," Wufei noted, raising his eyes to look at her. "Four guys in black-ops...and two of them had access to the pink."

They all stared at him.

"Err...the nothing," he corrected himself, shaking his head. "Out of the guys taken from 27, there were more than enough who had black-ops passes...and from the ones that aren't accounted for?" Wufei looked to Heero a long moment, then met Lucretzia's eyes again. "They broke through the barricade, scrambled the satellites...and they're on earth."

She looked away from him, then across to Zechs.

Zechs was staring at the bed.

"There have been some...unconfirmed downloads," Heero added quietly, rising to his feet. "Before I went in and recoded...the information related to the special research," he indicated Wufei as he started to pace. "They have some of the information—and most of it only needs parts of other MS. During the wars, every colony was equipped with MS repair stations...so they had all they needed. They had the whole stock of the damn colony to tear up, too...and then some," he looked around to Lu.

"So you think...it's another revolution?" she asked quietly.

"I think," Duo noted, "that it's a small-time coup."

"I think it's dangerous," Wufei noted, looking between the pair of them. "Marsh shouldn't have the resources that Barton did...but he is on earth, and we don't know where on earth. Enough of the old bases were left stripped and ignored that there are...hundreds...of places," he looked around to his friends.

It was part of one of those old bases that they had the gundams hidden in.

"And in any one of those bases," Heero noted, "they could have been stock-piling weaponry...I just want to let you lot know that I'm not looking forward to this."

"So...what happens now?" Zechs muttered, looking between them.

"We go home," Wufei returned, staring across the room. "We go home...and get Deathscythe."

"Deathscythe?" Zechs demanded, turning his head to look at Duo. "What are you talking about?"

"The god of death had a baby?" Duo muttered, looking to Wufei with interest.

"You hurt me," Heero informed them both, snorting slightly.

"You guys destroyed the gundams," Matty noted quietly. "I saw the video."

The former pilots looked away.

"No, you did," Lu protested, the heart-monitor starting to beep faster. "You did and recorded it and..."

"Way to break the secret," Trowa muttered dryly.

"How could you have not told me?" Lucretzia breathed, staring at Duo.

Duo stretched his neck and refused to look at her.

Zechs considered Duo a long moment, then looked around to the woman. He rose, then, and moved across the room to stand near Duo.

Duo shifted back slightly, eyeing him warily—more than one of their fights had started similarly enough.

Zechs offered his hand, then took Duo's as he offered his hesitantly. "I owe you more than I give you," he noted quietly. "And my pettiness was cold. I'm sorry."

Duo shook the hand, still eyeing the man warily. "I suppose the feeling is mutual."

Zechs snorted—that hadn't been an apology, that had been the acceptance of his. There was a slight relief in that, though. He'd never really trusted Duo with his fiancé because he'd never truly believed Duo'd given up hope. Their fighting and pissing contests were fun enough, and usually when the shit deepened enough, he came away from them feeling less stressed...with the way Duo'd offered his response, it didn't have to end just because he'd stopped being an idiot.

"I saw the footage of the gundams blowing up," Matty protested, shifting forward where he sat. Alarm tinged his tone, and there was almost a squeak to the words.

Heero sighed, resting a finger across his lips as he met eyes with the teen.

"I'm just..." Matty started.

"Quietly," Duo noted, moving around Zechs and Heero both to squat in front of the young man and study his eyes. "Just quietly."

"But..." Matty shifted where he sat. "If they aren't destroyed then they can be used again...you can be used again!"

"Quietly," Duo repeated in a near whisper, gathering Matty's hands in his own as he studied Matty's eyes. "No one but us know where they are."

"You said home," Matty whispered back. "You said..."

"They aren't in LA," Duo reassured him. "I know where in LA I'll store Deathscythe, but..."

"The kid has a point," Zechs said quietly, looking around the room. "We saw the footage."

"You of all people," Lu noted, "know how footage can be altered if it's not live."

He nodded, giving her a brief look.

"Altered?" Matty repeated, looking back to Duo. "What does she mean?"

"Shenlong was destroyed," Wufei said quietly. "Shenlong is destroyed." His gaze shifted to the window.

"Please tell me Wing is gone," Zechs muttered, rounding on Heero.

"Wing has absolutely no power left in him," Heero returned quietly.

"Him?" Matty asked blankly.

Heero laughed coldly, looking back to the guy. "Wing...isn't entirely...inanimate," he noted. "Wing..."

"It has an artificial intelligence system in it," Quatre spoke up. "A system that can learn, and did learn...and can cause...disturbing...side effects."

"Side effects," Duo noted dryly, thinking back to his experience before shaking his head. "You call that side-effects?"

"It's lovely hallucinations," Trowa noted, shifting forward where he sat. "Screws with your head...he's the only one who can handle it," he gestured at Heero. "And I don't even know if he could anymore."

"I'm not trying," Heero retorted, looking them all over. "Wing is going to stay dead from here to eternia."

"Or...something," Trowa agreed. "Tell him about Sandrock," he suggested to Quatre.

Quatre gave him a level look, but Matty looked back to him in almost concern. "Sandrock has a learning system in it, too," he noted. "Not so advanced as Wing," he gestured with his head at Heero. "But it did something once that touched me...in the head."

Trowa guffawed.

Quatre flashed him a brief smile, running his hands through his hair. "When we were trying to get back to space," he added, thinking, "the port we were using...well," he smiled at the boy briefly. "Long story short, I was holding the base as best I could, but running out of time and opportunities. Sandrock...ejected...me."

Matty tilted his head slightly.

"At the time," Quatre added, "it hadn't occurred to me just how much the machine could think...but it self-destructed behind me. It ejected me after I hit the button."

Matty blinked, then tilted his head.

"It...left enough pieces behind to be rebuilt," Quatre admitted, looking around the room nervously. He knew he wasn't the only one who preferred not to think of that time period...and he himself specifically didn't like what followed.

Wing should never have been built.

"I thought you started in a different machine," Matty muttered, looking up to Heero with a slight frown on his face.

"I did," Heero agreed, moving to sit next to him again...and use his foot to knock Duo onto his ass since the guy was still holding Matty's hands. "It...died."

"It," Matty noted, raising an eyebrow.

"Wing Gundam was...a MS. Wing Zero...is...something else."

"And so very dead that if it turns back on I'll piss myself," Duo agreed, picking himself up and kicking at Heero's shin. "Wing Gundam..." Duo thought a moment. "Wing Gundam sort of disappeared after Epyon took the field."

"I left it there," Heero reminded him. "It was probably gathered up and dismantled."

Duo nodded, then turned to look at Zechs and Lu. "Trowa's refused the use of Heavyarms. Wing and Sandrock need to stay dead...and Altron...Shenlong...Nataku," he gave Wufei a look. "Nataku was..."

"Nataku is no more," Wufei supplied. Nataku was no more like his wife was no more.

Yet another thought he didn't want.

"Out of the four...three are refused."

"You're going to bring your gundam out?" Lu asked, staring into his eyes. "Duo..."

He looked away from her. "Wufei can't do it alone."

Zechs, who'd had his mouth open, turned to look at Wufei.

"Trowa refuses...and I suppose Heero or Quatre might be compelled...but they don't want their machines used. I think they might be better to have on the ground anyway—me and Duo, we can do what needs doing."

"I didn't say I wouldn't help," Trowa said quietly, looking up to Wufei. "I never said I wouldn't help."

"But yes," Wufei muttered. "Duo is going to fight...with me."

Lucretzia looked away.

"You fight," Duo snapped at her. "Look where that got you! How much worse will it be for me? I'll be on earth."

"I'm not arguing with you," she snapped back, still not looking at him.

"I'm going back to the hotel," Duo snapped to the others, glaring at Zechs in particular for a few moments, then starting for the door.

"I'll...come with you," Zechs noted, rising to his feet. He was boiling inside, but the tone sounded casual enough.

The nod of Duo's head confirmed it.

Duo knew his comments had triggered the fight. On top of that, there'd been all sorts of issue around them going off alone together after they'd "saved" Zechs from his imprisonment.

"You will do no such thing," Quatre spoke up before the men could reach the door. His arms were crossed as the pair stopped and looked back at him.

"Zechs is hardly bi," Lu noted sardonically.

The look he gave her was daggers as he stopped with Zechs and pointed back inside the room.

"Quatre..." Duo started.

"You're not going to fight him," Quatre snapped back.

Lu wasn't the only one who started at his tone—and probably the realization.

"We aren't going to fight!" Duo retorted. It was obvious from what Quatre could feel that the lie was not intended for him. It was intended for the rest of the room.

"I'll come with you," Quatre retorted, sliding by Zechs. He moved across the room to take Lu's hand in his, then lean forward and kiss her forehead. "I'll come back before we leave, alright?"

She nodded.

He smiled briefly at her, then turned to glower at Zechs again.

"We wouldn't have hurt each other," Zechs protested as they started for the door. "When have we ever done more than rip each other up?"

"I'll see you before we leave," Quatre retorted, giving the man a look.

Zechs hmphed at him, then turned back to the room again.

"You were really going to fight him?" Lu demanded of him in exasperation. "After apologizing?"

"He's too easy to get pissed at," Zechs retorted, moving to sit on the trundle bed again. "You know that."

"And then some," Wufei noted dryly. "I'd go with them, but I think Quatre has his mind on alone time."

"They really are lovers?" Lu asked, looking from him to Heero. "Really?"

"Quatre's still a virgin," Matty noted in amusement. "Why do I know that?"

Lu started giggling.

"You're just that special," Heero muttered, patting Matty's leg, then pulling it slightly to him so his arm rested around it and Matty was sunk lower on the couch. Matty snorted, shaking himself free, then moved to climb into Heero's lap.

"I want to be held," Lu protested at Zechs.

"You're like...tied to that bed," Zechs retorted. "If you can figure out how to get me in there without a nurse, I'll do it...but..."

She snickered at him, then looked around to Wufei.

"Hm?" he asked, rising and moving across the room...to sit at the foot of the bed. Trowa tsked, then moved in as well himself.

"You will be careful, won't you?" she asked quietly. "You'll remember it's not made of gundanium?"

"With Mercurious' shields," he returned, "I doubt I'll have to bother."

She leveled him with a dirty look.

He snickered, then started to pet her shin. "Jinli and I are going to visit some of the others this summer...the other guys I grew up with."

She blinked at him. It took her a minute to understand what he meant—he had plans for his future, he had no intentions of dying.

"It should be fun," he noted after a moment, looking around to Trowa and Heero. "And I'll go all over this damn cluster."

Trowa rested a hand on his shoulder, wondering if he should point out he'd only wanted his friend to go to the memorial. He decided against it though, and settled for shoving.

It was nice to hear Lu start giggling, even if he had to dart damn fast to get out of arm's reach. The look Zechs gave him was funny, too...and he had to admit, Matty giggling didn't hurt, either.

- -

"They're fucking nuts," Qingfu hissed to Jaden as the group of them moved into a private airplane. "Are they seriously going to try and kill those pilots?"

"I haven't been able to talk them out of it yet," Jaden returned, looking around nervously. Ranger and Rabid disappeared into the machine. "I've been trying."

"They will eat them like dog meat," Qingfu protested. "And us, if we're caught."

"Then stay here," Jaden retorted, mounting the stairs. "Stay in China and find yourself a bluff to jump off of."

Qingfu grinned briefly at that, then gave chase. "I'm not leaving you to the dogs."

"Oh sweet lover," Jaden retorted sarcastically, but grinned at his friend. He and Qingfu hadn't really been friends at first, but as time went on, they'd realized they were the only truly sane ones with any authority in Rabid's group. They hadn't opened their friendship until they'd ended up in China, though.

"Sweet lover, indeed," Qingfu retorted. "Ranger might indulge those fantasies of yours, but I am not interested."

"Am I really that ugly?" Jaden protested good-naturedly at him.

Qingfu looked him over from head to foot, then nodded. "Yes. Yes you are."

They both laughed...but that stopped when they saw Ranger and Rabid looking back at them with interest.

"You're no peach yourself," Jaden hissed to the other, then moved out of arm's reach. "If we're going to go through with this psychotic plot," he added, "let's get it over with so we can feed the vultures and ravens...there are still wild ravens, aren't there?" he added to Qingfu.

"They're considered pests at some places," Qingfu agreed. "I don't remember if Los Angeles was one of them, though."

"You two are stupid," Ranger noted, giving them both skeptical looks. "Why the hell are you worried about animals?"

"I don't know if you remember or not, you've been on earth so long," Jaden dropped into his chair. "But in the colonies...the only wild animals are mice, rats, cats, or dogs. The notion of seeing more birds..." he looked out the window, searching the sky. "I want to see more birds."

"It might be fun," Qingfu noted, "to go to one of those aquariums, too. You know? See a whale? The fuckers are supposed to be huge," he spread his arms as wide as they would go.

"Joy," Rab noted sardonically to Ranger, "sightseeing. Colony tourists..."

Jaden and Qingfu looked at him levelly, then looked to each other again and settled back.

It was going to be a long flight in that company...and Jaden knew it would be twice as long before things were over.

Not for the first time, he wished he'd never gotten involved with Marshal Gerrange.

The man was going to get him killed.

- -

"So come down to earth with me," Wufei muttered, following after Jinli. "I can give you the rent money and shit—but if you just come move in with us..."

"That second apartment you mention only has like...five rooms, doesn't it?"

"It's like six...but one is a glorified closet. You can have that one."

"That is an attractive offer," the man retorted.

Wufei hesitated a moment, then shrugged and darted after his friend. "Okay, you can have the one I claimed for myself."

Jinli turned and gave him a look.

Wufei pursed his lips, looking away and shrugging.

"Why is it that easy for you to say?"

"What?"

"Just telling me to move in like that...how can it be that easy?"

"Because we have the room?" Wufei suggested, not sure what the man was on about.

"You haven't even talked to the others about this," the man protested.

"Trowa demanded why I hadn't already talked to you about it," Wufei protested.

It'd been an interesting morning. He'd figured the man would balk, and had been trying to think of how to offer the space. Heero'd asked him in confusion if he'd told Jin to move in with them, but he and Matty had been running around packing. Duo'd come in and asked when Jin was going to be moving in, and when Wufei had noted he hadn't offered yet, Duo'd given him a confused look. Quatre'd reminded Wufei that they knew Jinli was important. Quatre'd started yammering on about some childhood friend he'd had, and somehow that had flown into his sister being pregnant, and he hadn't talked to her in forever, he needed to. Duo'd flashed him a grin, then followed after the former-blond with the admonition to tell Jin he was welcome. It hadn't been long after that at all that Trowa'd come to the door with his arms crossed and just stared at Wufei.

The conversation had been wordless, but Trowa'd still been demanding why Wufei hadn't done it.

Jin gave him a look.

"They were all starting to make plans," he added. "Figuring out how to get you a job and around town before you got yourself a car."

Jinli blinked at him.

"My friends are nothing, if not loyal," Wufei noted with a slight smile. "If you want to live on earth, we can help you get there, and then you can get yourself set up whatever way you please."

"I'm going to have a hard enough time with our summer plans as it is," the man said quietly.

"I can afford it," Wufei noted. "And you can pay me back if you feel you really must."

The man stared at him.

"The thing is, though," he muttered, "that I'm not...on the flight home with them."

"So I can just come with you," Jinli muttered, blinking more at him. "If I decide to do it."

"No," Wufei returned, "I'm on...a military flight. The only people who can take it are ranked officers." Or gundam pilots taking a MS back to earth.

"Oh," the man blinked.

The wonderful thing about Deathscythe's cloak was that it made the machine invisible for all electronic purposes. Anyone who saw it wouldn't be able to get a picture of it...no cameras, even high-speed ones, could get a picture of it.

He certainly hoped that thermal imaging things didn't work, he didn't remember the full stats on the stupid cloak—it did overheat after a time, though.

"You can go without them," Wufei added, "but we all have to run across earth for a few days, and I was thinking if you went down, you could hang out with Matt."

"You want me to babysit?" the man asked dryly.

Wufei gave him a very level look.

"All right, okay," the man muttered, shifting back. "I'll think about it...I'll let you know."

"I don't have a lot of time," Wufei muttered, starting away backward. "My stuff is going with my friends, and as soon as I'm done here, I'm heading back to base. I won't have my phone available until...until I'm home."

The man stared at him.

"So ten minutes or two days, you make up your mind." He smiled at the man, then turned and started down the hall. Jinli had met up with them in the hospital, and the others would be finishing up their goodbyes now. He should have stayed in the room, since they were all leaving in moments, but he hadn't been able to say more than goodbye before Jin had started away.

"Well?" Trowa asked quietly.

"He didn't give me an answer," Wufei returned dryly. "One of you can poke at him after I go off. I have to go," he added, moving forward to pull Lu into a hug. "Get better," he ordered the woman, petting her hair. "Next time I see you, you better have your feet under you."

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, studying his eyes. "You be careful," she said quietly. "You are the one I'm worried about...you and Duo," she looked to the other pilot.

"We're the last ones you should worry about," Duo retorted, kicking Wufei's rear as he moved by to offer a hand to Zechs.

"You upset my woman," Zechs started.

"I won't upset your wife," Wufei retorted, shaking the man's hand and grinning at him. "Don't worry...your wife won't have her heart broken by me."

"We aren't married...yet," Lu noted.

"Yes you are," Wufei informed her with a grin, starting for the door. "Just admit it already."

"But..." she started.

He winked at her, and darted out the door.

He was running late as it was.

- -

A chill wind raced along the cliff-side, and Duo wrapped his arms around himself as best he could. It was strange to think of a cold wind in Peru, but then, maybe the wind hadn't been cold.

He stared down at the rocks below them...at the ocean waves breaking against the stone.

"No time like the present," Heero noted quietly, yanking hard on the rope he had hooked around a rock. "I'll go get the lights," he added...and dropped into the hole.

Duo looked off over the edge of the cliff as he heard his friend land below them—on metal.

"I never really wanted to see this place again," Quatre noted quietly. He was standing at the cliff-side itself, staring across the ocean. His position looked casual enough, but the harness around his waist and through his legs looked strange.

After the wars had subsided, the realization had been made that having multiple bases put nations in mind of having soldiers. Soldiers were used to keep the peace, or in war. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bases around the world had been destroyed, creating huge sinkholes where they'd burrowed into land, or being cleared for new developments. Very few of those bases were properly remembered, but this one...there'd been a battle there at one point, and many men had died. Locals had been heard to claim it was a haunted area, and there were no people living within miles of it.

Haunted or no, the fact remained that the only access port was the hole in the ground Heero'd dropped into. There was an internal generator for lights, and the door—the huge hidden doors. The cliff-side was...not entirely real. The creators had sheared off the cliff-side, and attached that to giant swinging doors. Those doors would only open when the power was on and the button was hit.

No one on the earth but the five pilots themselves knew where it was or what was in it...but Oz had been O.C.D., and many of their bases had the same sort of look. There was a similar hangar near LA...and at this point—Duo glanced at his watch. At this point, Wufei should be securing Demigod in that hangar.

"Did you ever really believe we'd be having a quiet life right now?" Quatre muttered, turning to look at him.

Duo gave him a look in return, moving to make sure their ropes were secure. He'd thought he'd be dead by seventeen, and every day after that was a new adventure.

"Me neither," Quatre returned, moving to sit at the edge of the hole and dangle his legs in it. "I certainly never thought I'd be an uncle."

"I wonder if I have any blood-kin," Duo muttered, sitting himself. "That'd be weird to think of like...a nephew running around somewhere."

"Another you?" Quatre gave him a look. "That's scary."

"Hahaha," Duo retorted, hearing a loud click below. He sighed, watching the hole for light—Heero would have searched the area for intruders before going to the generator. "I...I hate that this is necessary," he muttered.

"We all do," Quatre reassured him. "But...if it has to happen, I'd rather deal with it, wouldn't you?"

"No," Duo lied, meeting his eyes. "I think we should assassinate Marshal and be done with it."

"Assassination," Quatre spat to the side. "Think about Heero. People thought assassinating the first Heero Yuy would put an end to things—and that brought what?"

"We aren't tyrants," Duo muttered bitterly.

"Aren't we?" Quatre returned with interest, studying his face. "What did we just do in that base? We arbitrarily reset an entire system without so much as asking permission or getting a consensus. We took over and recreated everything that had been working fine before."

"If it had been working fine," Duo retorted, not liking the symmetry, "then we wouldn't have had to reset it."

"And what about that is different, really, then what happened to the colonies? People thought they were working fine and they were all segregated from each other. Oz took over everything and...tried to remake it how they wanted it."

"You're not a pacifist, don't play at one," Duo retorted bitterly, looking away as he pulled the gloves he was wearing down more on his fingers.

"I'm just playing the devil's advocate," Quatre noted in amusement, also fiddling with his gloves. "When we start thinking of the easy way out, then we step on our own feet. Why didn't we destroy the gundams, Duo?"

Duo sighed, and the lights switched on from below.

"Time is," Quatre muttered, and slid into the hole.

Duo stared up at the sky a long moment, then dropped down himself. The moment of freefall jerked his stomach, and it took him a moment to remember he had the gloves on. He caught the rope in both hands, and it jerked him hard. A moment later, he had ahold of the lever-end, and started letting himself down again—just controlled.

Quatre had landed on the metal platform, and had ahold of the rope for Heero's harness, staring deeper into the confines of the base.

Duo landed, studying his boyfriend a moment before focusing himself.

Heavyarms was the nearest of the four, collapsed in its stand so it looked almost to be kneeling...on the left, Sandrock was sitting, almost sprawled backwards...in shadow. Wing Zero was also there, toppled sideways so the light didn't reflect off its face...and there was Deathscythe, arm caught on the platform that led out to it, nearly on its knees.

It seemed an apt vision...the gundams kneeling.

The light was behind Deathscythe, and the new position seemed to give it a halo of gold.

Quatre gagged.

Duo unhooked the harness, moving forward to the edge of the platform. "The god of death silhouetted in holy raiment," he muttered quietly.

Quatre gagged again, trying to tear his eyes away...from his position, it almost seemed that Heavyarms was kneeling to Duo, and Sandrock was falling away. Wing Zero was far away and aloof...and that light, that raiment that silhouetted Deathscythe...it silhouetted Duo, too.

End