Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Dilemma ❯ Without you ( Chapter 1 )

Without you

By Jarrod

I don't own Gundam wing, nor do I pertain to anything else to do with said programme….

I do not get paid to write about them… if I did I'd be really rich… any C&C welcome

This is not a death fic

zech3@msn.com

No flames either… they really piss me off but hey, go on make my day…laffin…

*blah* denotes thoughts

Trowa lent his shoulder against the door jam of Duo's room and watched as the braided boy crammed what meagre possessions he had into the battered duffle bag, along with his only change of clothes. His once cheerful expression gone, only to be replaced by sombre lines.

"Will you wait until the others return"? Trowa asked.

Although there was no reason for the pilots to inform each other of their where about's there was something about this mission that really sucked… Trowa was not happy, his distaste was clear on his face, and showed also with his attitude.

Duo's head disappeared under the bed as he looked for the missing trainer to the one in his hand; muffled exclamations came from beneath the bed.

Pushing away from the door Trowa made his way over to the dresser, on the other side of the room and picked up the missing item, then walked back round the bed and put the said trainer in Duo's hand.

"They'll be back soon, why not wait?" Trowa asked again.

Duo sighed, straightened and after shoving the trainers in the duffle bag, closed it and grinned up at Trowa, he really hated lying to his friends, especially now he knew that he had said friends.

Duo had received a transmission from 'G' stating that if he didn't report to the designated recall sight, with-in forty-eight hours, then Deathscythe would be detonated, weither he was piloting or not, and knowing 'G' as well as Duo did, he'd do it , regardless of the consequences.

"Trowa, I need Deathscythe, I'd be lost without him, same as you with Heavyarms." Duo tried to look into both of Trowa's eyes, which was impossible because of the bang over one, hoping to see some enlightenment there. *Guess maybe Trowa don't understand as much as I thought he would.* He shrugged his shoulders and tried to find a way to break the tension in the room.

"Look…. I'll see what "G" wants, get it sorted and come back, it'll take all of of what?" he cuffed his sleeve and looked at his watch.

"Five hours tops, No probs. I'll be late for tea." *which will really piss Quatre off* "As for Wufei and Heero, well they'll not even notice I'm gone. More food for them. So no probs there either. Ne?"

Trowa, trying not to smirk at Duo's summary of the group, was not looking forward to having to explain why one of theirs was not present for the group's meal, especially Quatre. As Duo had said, Wufei and Heero would just pass it off without question, but not Quatre. He always had a sixth sense about these things. Trowa was just about to try a different approach when he felt Duo behind him muttering something, there was pressure on the side of his neck, and then he lost consciousness.

Duo lay Trowa gently down on the bed, checked the room one last time to make sure that he had everything he needed, and then headed down the stairs and out the front door.

Deathscythe was in the large barn that had come with the huge mansion, which belonged to Quatre's family, along with Wing and Sandrock. The other Gundams had been secured else where. Duo scrambled up the gantry and climbed into the cockpit… The blast doors hissed shut and the engines kicked in, at the touch of a button, but Duo didn't bother with preliminary checks, time was short…..

As he exited the barn, Duo turned on the external camera's and could just make out the car that carried the other pilots, coming down the dirt track that was called a road. Duo turned Deathscythe west, taking a dozen steps to clear the barn, before hitting the rickets, taking off before the car arrived and he had to answer more questions.

Quatre bounded in through the door, looked around and then went upstairs, leaving Heero and Wufei to bring in the shopping, while he went in search of Trowa. The last of the goods had been brought in when Heero spied Quatre, who was helping Trowa down the stairs. Heero dumped the bags onto Wufei and helped Quatre to get Trowa over to the sofa. Wufei, mumbling to his self, took the shopping onto the kitchen and then went in search of a cool pack. He did wonder where Duo was, as it was so quiet, there was usually some noise when he was around, shrugging to himself he wandered back into the sitting room with the cool pack, catching Trowa's last words.

"I tried to talk him out of going" He said, as he took the cool pack from Wufei's hand nodding his thanks and applied it to his neck

"'G' gave him co-ordinates, I never got to find out where he was going, he'd shut the computer down before I got to it"

"Didn't we put a tracer on Duo?" Quatre enquired, turning from watching Trowa to confront Heero.

"Yeah, but he found out about it and flushed it away" Wufei replied, smirking as he remembered how Heero had been listening in at the time, and had not been impressed with the loss of valuable equipment, or having to hear the sound of Duo's ecstatic laughter as he dropped the tracer down the toilet and flushed it away. Heero's ears had been ringing for days afterwards. Wufei still got a good laugh out of it. All eyes turned to Heero, waiting for a reply, all Heero did was raise an eyebrow and leave the room.

"Was he actually smiling?" Trowa asked no one particular, wincing as he tried to follow Heero's progress over to his laptop.

Duo was heading Deathscythe out to sea. After checking the computer maps and co-ordinates that 'G' had given him, he hoped that there was a boat or land of some kind out here, as he'd hate to ditch Deathscythe in the sea. Saltwater and Gundams don't mix. Scanners where at maximum and still didn't pick anything up. Duo really hoped that 'G' had made arrangements of some kind. Fuel was getting low. Just then the communicator light blinked and Duo checked to see who it was before switching to visual and putting on a cheery face.

"Hey, boss man, who you doing…?"

"G" looked just as ugly as ever, even the smirk on his face didn't help and in his hand he held a remote that Duo was all too familiar with. Duo was starting to have misgivings about not telling the others where he would be going, had he misjudged this situation so much?

"I trust that you followed my instruction to the letter and didn't inform your colleagues of your destination?" He watched Duo nod his head. "Good, I want you to understand that it is with a heavy heart that I do this" he paused dramatically "and have to inform you that you are no longer needed in this war, your contract is terminated as of now." He depressed the remote button and Duo felt his mecha shudder to a halt, then all except the screens and external camera's shut down. He felt Deathscythe right its self before plummeting feet first into the water below. Duo cursed fluently as he tried to restart the engines, then thought about blowing the doors, but "G" had thought everything out, Duo could see his face before him.

"Nothing you do will enable you to restart the engines or escape Duo. I have also taken the liberty of dumping the excess fuel and oxygen. You have approximately fifteen minutes or so of air left. If there is a god you do believe is I suggest that you make your peace with him." The screen then went blank. Duo tried to re-establish contact, but "G" had sealed it all off, Damn, he should have checked the systems, maybe then he could have found what that bastard had done to his beloved Deathscythe. He hit out at the screen, thumped the controls kicked out and cursed any and everything, including himself for being so stupid.

The external cameras were still operational, so Duo could see outside. Even the external lighting was on. Duo smirked, finding light entertainment even in times like this.
"Now I know what a goldfish feels like" He puffed making motions with his mouth like a fish

All he could see before him was blue sea, the occasional fish, but mostly water. Deathscythe had now reached the bottom of the ocean floor and was stood swaying gently with the current. Duo checked the depth metre, and swore again. To make matters even worse "G" had put a countdown on the screen in front of Duo, so now he could watch as his time seeped out, like the sands of an egg times…

13:25

*How long would fifteen minutes take? Duo no baka how long do you think. What would Mr Perfect do at a time like this…? Ha, he'd probably panic as well… there must be something that "G" has missed, something small…….*

13:20

*Time sure passes slowly. Wonder if Trowa will get over what I did? He'll have a sore neck for a while, amazing what you can pick up reading and watching….* Numerous thoughts passed through the pilot/s mind, thoughts of happy times mixed with perilous ones.

"At lease I made it to earth, that was one of my best mistakes."

13:15

*So what… I'm just going to sit here and wait for the end? Kind of give up, like Heero did once? Hang on… external lighting still on… maybe, if I can by pass……*

Suddenly Duo released the harness straps and turning round in the cock pit started pulling panels off.

Wires and circuits where exposed to Duo's eyes and an evil grin spread across is face. He pulled a mini screwdriver from his braid and fished out the small blade Heero had given him, then set about splicing some of the wires together, changing a few circuits here and there and re-routing some of the cables. Sweat ran down his face, into his eyes, which he swiped out with his arm, it also slid down the back of his neck, causing him to shiver.

"Damn, can't think what'll be worse, freezing to death at this depth or drowning, neither is a choice I'd like to pick.

Checking the thermostat, he blew his bangs out of his eyes and after cursing fingers that seemed too stiff from the cold that now crept into every bone in his body. Without engines to keep the internal generators going, the heating had gone… He twisted round and started to hack into the other circuits, gleaning anything he could, just to get the systems up and running again and to at least get the heating on the go… it would be a start at least.

"Just need to get some of these things out and bypass here."

Duo mumbled to himself as he tried to find ways to get Deathscythe's back ups working…

"Just this once, I'd like things to go my way, something had to work, and I can't have this kind of bad luck all the time."

8:40

Dropping down into the seat, Duo tried to activate the key panels in front of him, shaking his head to clear the grogginess that had started to close in; his fingers flew across the keys.

"Please work…. Please work…"

Time was fast funning out. Duo had tried everything he could think of…

Sounds of metal groaning and creaking where heard inside as the huge mecha swayed too and fro in the currant.

7:50

The green glow from the onboard computer, which Duo had somehow gotten booted up, started to become hazy and Duo was finding it extremely hard to stay focused on what he was doing.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit." Duo exclaimed as he watched the water slowly seep into the cockpit

"So much for being air tight. Speaking of which, this air is getting even thinner."

The air was indeed getting thinner and Duo found himself trying to drag in deeper breaths to help compensate for the lack. His eyes blurred again and his head rocked backward, the forward suddenly as he tried to keep conscious. Shaking his hands and feet, this had suddenly become too cold to move. Duo once again tried to complete his tasks. Ignoring the water that now lapped around his calves.

Duo cursed some more…

5:00

"Must keep awake, only chance to get out of here, can't let go now."

Duo's head rolled back again then fell forward, smashing against the console in front of him. His body slide to the floor, the water coming up to his waist. Duo's last conscious thought was that he really did screw up this time and he still had four minutes left. Damn "G" for the shit that he was….

00:00

The proximity alarms went off and a few minutes later divers from Howard's cruiser where in the water.

Duo never heard the clamps being attached to Deathscythe. He didn't see the divers around his Gundam, nor did he feel it being pulled up from the seabed or the rush of fresh air that filled the cockpit when the blast doors where opened.

He didn't feel the hands that gently pulled him out and place him on the gurney, below his beloved mecha. Nor did he see the concerned looks on the faces of the other pilots, as his lifeless body was ushered past them; he didn't hear the shouts and commands coming from the people beside him as they tried to resuscitate him

Heero watched as they pulled Duo out of Deathscythe, His face paled as he saw how lifeless the body was. Turning, he watched as the med-team placed Duo on the gurney and wheeled him past the pilots out of the hanger, into the E.R. where Sally and her team where waiting. Quatre turned to Trowa and between the pair of them they managed to get Heero out of the way, so that the resuscitation team could get to work on their friend.

"We'll find out what happened Heero, but we really can't do anything here at the moment, we must let these people do what they have to….Wufei's gone to get something to drink, what say we all go to the waiting room… The Dr does will know to go there if we're needed for any reason." Quatre reasoned with Heero as he led him to the waiting room.

Heero craned his neck round Quatre, trying to see where they were taking Duo.

"They'll page us, right?" Heero asked of Quatre, for once in his life looking like the lost boy that he was, lost in both body and soul without Duo.

Quatre was having his doubts about his friends survival rate, but was adamant that he would do his level best to find out what had indeed happened to Duo, starting with the suppose mission that he was sent on.

All the pilots sat or stood as was Trowa's case, indifferent areas of the waiting room, Heero looked out of the window, Wufei sat cross legged reading a book, Trowa stood propping the wall up and watching Quatre, who was sat watching Heero, picking up his fear, anger, hate and love. Feeling eyes on him, Quatre looked into Trowa's and tried to smile, but knew that his soul mate was worried about him as much as Heero was about Duo.

The doors opened and all eyes turned to watch Sally walk in

"Any news yet?" Quatre asked, hopefully, smile fading as he was the look on the others face.

Sally walked over to Heero and spoke quietly to him, asking that he follow her. The other boys started to do the same, but were glared at by Sally and went back to their former positions, watching the door close with finality, behind their friend.

Out side one of Quatre's many houses, a small group of friends gathered to pay their last respects to their former friend and pilot, Duo Maxwell. The marble statue was of a figure holding a scythe, with a 3ft long braid of hair, curling sensually round its body. With a manic grin it stood looking out over the grounds. At its base was a plaque with the inscriptions in bold outline. "Let your demons now rest in peace, Duo Maxwell. Shinigami's spirit still lives on"

Paying their respects where Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei, Heero Yuy, Howard and the 'mad five' as Duo liked to call them.

Wufei had been the chosen to speak first. Telling of the one time that he and Maxwell had shared a cell while staying on the lunar base.

"I know that I use to complain of him and his incessant chatter but I will deeply miss both." bowing his head Wufei stepped aside, allowing Quatre to say a few words. Quatre seemed to find it very hard to control his facial features and just shook his head moving away to Wufei's side. Trowa looked up at the statue.

"I know that Duo would've loved this, seeing all of us in one place. He'd crack up if he saw this statue. The time that I did spend with him will be the only memory that I have to carry with me." Trowa stood down letting Heero take his place. Heero nodded to everyone as he stood before them

"You all know that I don't go much on words unless they have a purpose. Today I am saying goodbye to one of my friends. We all fought our own internal battles, Duo more so than others, we also shared a lot of good times and bad. None of us had much of a childhood, what with training and such, but I wouldn't swap it for anything. I was honoured to serve with Duo and his friends" turning he head he looked at each and every one present. Then bowed his head. "I will not rest until I have found the real reason for his untimely demise…. This I swear." Raising his head again, Heero's features where set determinedly in stone…