Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cult Characteristic ❯ Chapter 14

Title: Cult Characteristic 14/?

Author: Lethanon

Archive: www.geocities.com/lethanon

Notes: Sorry it took so long, I've been out of town with no computer. Still, here's the next part and more o come soon! Kkls, Leth

FOURTEEN

"So…the people who burned down that church…they were led by the Devourjac's?"

Wufei nodded wearily, trying to ignore Heero's icy glare. He knew why Heero was glaring, hell if it would help Wufei would be glaring too, but it wasn't helping. It was just making everyone nervous as hell.

"We still can't let him do this…This isn't the war anymore…" Noin trailed off, gaze shifting to the small window that revealed space without. It looked so calm, so peaceful. It was sad to think it was about to be shattered.

"It is a war…for Duo. And he's been fighting it alone from the day he was born." Heero was all but snarling, daring anyone to stop Duo from his chosen path, leaving no doubt that anyone who wished to do so would be going through the perfect soldier first. Wufei certainly was not about to volunteer. Milliardo on the other hand…This did, after all, involve Relena. Thinking of which…

"Shit!" Wufei whirled around in his chair and punched a number into the com device. It blinked to life and Relena's secretary appeared on screen.

"Yes? Oh, Mr.Chang! What can I…"

"Where's Relena?" Wufei demanded, so panicked he used her first name and not her title. Well, Relena could yell at him later, after he saved her life. Not that he really wanted to, but she was necessary for peace. Supposedly.

"Senator Peacecraft is on L2 with Miss Devourjac, Mr.Chang…"

Wufei swore as he disconnected the call. He had no doubts that Duo knew exactly where Relena was, and while he doubted Duo would actually kill Relena there were worse things than death and Duo knew them all.

"Barton, catch that ship…" Wufei hissed under his breath, glancing at Fiona. She had the strangest look on her face. A mix of fear, memory, hate, anger and desire. Desire most of all. Hunger, Wufei realized. Hunger for the kill. How would that little girl ever be `normal'? Wufei knew the truth; she never would be. She would forever be the street rat who adored Shinigami, worshipped the ground he walked on because he got them lives to live off the streets. Because he ended the war. Wufei knew she would never fit properly into society, just as the Gundam Pilots did not. Which meant he had some serious talking to do with her adopted parents. But that could wait until they got back. He was distracting himself.

"We need a plan…" Quatre whispered from his place, still standing between Fiona and Wufei. He had that faraway `don't disturb' look all over. The same look Wufei imagined he had when piloting Zero. It wasn't exactly pleasant.

The com link blinked and Wufei connected the call immediately, recognizing the flashing green number as that from the Sweeper ship. The same man popped into view as before. Wufei realized he didn't even know his name.

"What's your name?" He demanded, amazed at how cold he sounded when he felt so frazzled. He needed to pull himself together!

"Hunt, Sir. Michael Hunt. Howard's on his way to the bridge right now. The Kid's getting ready to bail."

"How far out are we?" Wufei spared only a tiny glance for Heero in the co-pilots chair.

"About ten minutes…"

"We won't make it, and there's no way we'll catch the Gundam," Trowa pointed out logically.

Quatre suddenly leaned over Wufei's shoulder.

"Do you have any mobile suits on board?"

"Only salvage ones. A few Leo's, but they're not the best."

"But they'll get you from point A to point B, yes?" Quatre was thinking fast. Wufei wasn't sure he liked it. Hunt was nodding enthusiastically, apparently hoping they had a plan.

"Trowa, we're boarding the Sweeper ship. Now."

And that was that. Trowa suddenly altered their course and headed straight for the ship while they awaited Howard's arrival on the bridge. Judging by the time it took the `captain' to reach the controls, the Sweeper ship was not exactly small. Then again, Howard called Peacemillion his `baby'. Wufei didn't really want to see his big boys.

There was some mumbling over the com link and suddenly Howard's voice boomed through the speaker. `Chang! What's that neo-nazi doing on my tail?' And suddenly there he was, in all his Hawaii shirt glory, grey hair sticking up in all directions as he no doubt glared at them through his black shades. Wufei raised a questioning eyebrow. Neo-nazi? Huh.

"Howard, open your baby up, we're coming in!"

"Now listen here, you pompous wheat-puff! You're not coming anywhere near my ship until you give me one good reason why I should let you!"

Wufei narrowed his gaze. He was getting tired of the name calling. Only Duo called him names…

"I'm going to save Duo's life. I'm not going to arrest him."

It was true; Wufei wouldn't. Milliardo, on the other hand, was a loose canon, but then…hadn't he always been? Howard looked surprised, but it was hard to tell since his eyes were covered by his thick, black shades. Wufei made a note to remember just how disconcerting that little tactic could be. Duo had tried to explain it, a long time ago, but it wasn't until Wufei actually faced off against Howard that he understood.

"I'm opening the doors. I hope you have a plan, because I didn't come up with much and he's gone…"

Howard didn't come up with much. Wufei saw Heero twitch, the only outward sign that he was starting to panic. Howard always had ideas; the best ideas! And he always thoughts of the things no one else would think of. If he and Duo combined hadn't come up with anything that would guarantee Duo's safety, there probably wasn't anything. Which only made Wufei wonder exactly what Duo planned to do.

*

Had Wufei not been worried about what Duo was going to do, he might have spared a thought for what Duo had already done. This small fact had not escaped the one person it actually mattered to. Duo himself.

He sat calmly, the small seat surrounding him like a shell, perfectly molded to fit his lithe form. His completely unlike-it-was-one-year-ago form, he reminded himself coldly. The longer he sat in his black cocoon, the more the past festered and the rage boiled. They had brought this on themselves. They had taken him from his home. They had stripped him of all the things he loved. They stuck him in a pit. They poured blood on him, threw dying bodies to drown in his arms…waiting for him to show them the way to the afterlife…the way to immortality. He denied their madness. But now…He would show them all the way.

Fuming, Duo reached out, wrapping skeletal fingers about the slender controls. So familiar, but not the same. Duo's fingers knew this was not Deathscythe, and it only made him madder. Nothing could replace the black demon who had reaped his justice. This was just a tool. A tool crafted for one purpose.

"I'm going to do exactly what you asked for…" He whispered in the pitch cockpit. "And you're going to beg for me to stop."

The lights on the console lit up as his fingers placed enough pressure to waken the machine. On the outside a set of glowing cobalt eyes lit up and glared at the colony wall. The letters were faded, scratched from battles, blasted into darkness by a war that should never had had to happen, but had nonetheless. Duo felt no guilt bringing another to its door. This war was old. It needed to end. He would end it. Simple.

Flicking on the appropriate switches he saw the right hand lift into the vies of the screen, felt the shudder run through the machine as the dark red light flared in a wide arc. A red scythe…like blood. Duo grinned manically as he brought the arm down and cut the colony open. The door ripped off the thick metal wall and floated by his head, grazing along the machine's face-like helmet, a rain of gold sparks trailing in its wake. Duo ignored it all, firing the thrusters and throwing himself into the small space even as the secondary protective hull slid out from under the other layers to fill the hole he had made.

Garben had breached so many times over the years, a system had to be created to fill in the gaps. Multi-layers, triggered by small sensors, were all that held the colony together. Duo didn't mind. It was the only way he could get in without hurting his home. Or what was left of it.

Once he was positive the hole was filled, Duo watched the oversized hand reach out and tear to entrance door from its place in the wall, leaving a bright doorway of fake light. Duo sneered at the image, no longer filled with the desire to walk in the light. There was no time for such foolishness. With one calculated heave, he lifted the left arm and aimed high, using the new tracking device Howard had helped install to focus. It was a long wait as the small orange triangles lined up on the screen, but Duo was patient. Death had all the time in the world.

When at last the lines fell sentient on top of one another, a broken boy used its newest toy to destroy the control tower of the colony of L2. The colony malfunctioned. Life support stopped. The lights went out. Darkness consumed.

*

The hatch opened and Howard watched memories replay in his mind. A small blonde head appeared, followed by a similarly small body and while it floated in a meandering, gentle way, as if carried by the breeze itself in a perfectly tailored suit, Howard knew this was not an innocent. He had seen those hands kill, listened to that mind tick. Quatre knew better than any how to hurt the heart. Close on his heels was silence made manifest, smooth, cutting through the gravity-less space between point a and b as if there were no space there at all. Cold, calculating, careless. Trowa Barton had not changed one bit. Then came Yuy. Not that Howard had any problem with him. On the contrary, he thought the stoic Mr. Perfectionist was the best joke since G told him he had allowed that little thief to steal his finest weapon. Alright, so maybe Yuy came in as the second best joke, but still! And just look at that sour, fuming glare…Nope, no change there. Howard shifted his gaze to the Milliard and Noin, but they were carefully blank, decidedly neutral. Howard had never really liked or disliked either of them. They were just there. Then came the stuck up pain in the arse. There were only two people in the world Howard argued with. At least once in a while he knew he would win an argument with Duo. Howard knew damn well he was never going to win an argument with Chang Wufei.

"Chang…what the hell?" Howard stopped dead in his tracks as he reached out to hit the gravity switch, already laughing in his mind about the look on the Chinese boy's face when he suddenly dropped on the floor like a dead weight. But of course, while Howard had no qualms about dropping Wufei, a small little blonde waif was quite another matter.

Wufei approached him in silence, something Howard knew had never happened before. When they were close enough to lock gazes without interruption, Wufei bowed low, straightened and motioned his comrade forward.

"Howard, meet Fiona. Fiona, this is Howard."

"Waif…" Howard smiled down at the small cherub, but his humor faded when he looked eyes with her green glare. So familiar, but not the same.

"I know who you are."

And that, it seemed was all she was going to say to him. Without another word, she crept off to Heero's side and, pulling a gun from his leg holster, proceeded to look straight down the barrel while Yuy tried to have a heart attack.

"Quite a handful you have there…"

"Not now old man," Wufei snapped, and Howard sighed. He had wondered how long it would take him to come to life. Apparently not long. "I need to know everything about that Gundam, where its headed, what it can do, what Duo intends to do with it, and how I can stop him."

Howard cocked his head to the side.

"No."

"What do you mean no?" Wufei fumed, predictably.

"Let me tell you about that Gundam," Howard said loudly, catching everyone's attention. "It's twice as thick as Heavyarms, lighter than Shenlong. It's faster than Zero, and easier to handle than Sandrock. It's got all the stealth technology and weaponry from Deathscythe, and its pilot to boot. But do you know what scares me the most?" He stepped into Wufei's personal space, a death wish to any man, but he didn't care. "The back panel is not gundanium. It's ordinary mobile Suit sheet metal. It's twisted and molded into a long thick plait that runs down the whole machine's spine…like a braid, and at its very base there are light scratches in the metal where someone tried to carve something. Light scratches, as if made from pins of some kind…the kind of pins you use to pick locks."

He looked over his shoulder and met Heero's steady gaze, knowing the young man had already guessed, already knew…And knowing it wasn't going to stop him, so Howard turned back to Wufei.

"I say no, Wufei, because nothing can stop that Gundam unless the pilot lets it, and Duo isn't going to let anything get close."

"Oh yes he will!" Wufei got ready to rant and Howard stepped back, resigned. He never could win…

"No."

They all turned to look at Heero in shock, but his head was turned, as if he could stare straight through the wall at the colony.

"We can't stop the Gundam…" Heero said softly. "We can only get its targets out of the way."

"But…Heero…" Wufei had never looked so completely unlike himself, in Howard's not so humble opinion. It was breathtaking to see. "Why?"

"Because of those little scratches," Heero replied coldly. "Because Duo has had his name on that suit since he became Duo Maxwell."