Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Missing Pieces ❯ Three ( Chapter 3 )

Missing Pieces

By Anne Olsen

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency. I promise to return when I'm finished, honest.

Thanks to: Bast for beta reading and support. Also to Maureen, I really appreciate all your encouragement and feedback. And Lorena; you can put away your bloody hatchet now, this is the final chapter J

Feedback to: anneo@paradise.net.nz

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Chapter Three

Duo wiped his face, the stiff collar on his priest's outfit rubbing uncomfortably against his cheek. Get a grip. The God of Death does not cry. Going to pieces wasn't going to help Quatre. Think, Maxwell, think.

He leant back against the wall, his back scraping against rough brickwork, as he tried to collect his scattered thoughts. Moving his arms to the side in order to attempt a position someone with a sick sense of humour might term comfortable, he halted mid gripe as something sharp dug into his side.

Shit. What the hell was that? When they got out of here, he was going to send a letter of complaint to OZ regarding the facilities. What next, tap dancing cockroaches? Wouldn't surprise him. Only way to improve this place was to level it. Gundam redecorating at your service. He grinned. Yep, he and Deathscythe would do it at a very reasonable cost.

Damn stupid…One more minute and he'd be able to reach it. How the hell had it gotten inside the waistband of his trousers? Duo wriggled, cursing as he manoeuvred, his arms protesting as he strained against his restraints.

Yes! As his index finger and thumb grasped the object and pulled it free, Duo couldn't help but laugh. How the hell had his lockpick…? Nah, not his lockpick. Quatre, you're a freaking genius.

The blond had moved closer to him for protection before that creep McKenzie had taken him. Protection? Yeah right. McKenzie was gonna be the one needing protection once Duo got his hands on him.

He muttered a few words regarding the OZ soldier's parentage under his breath as he worked to free himself. Just need to wriggle that bit there, another inch should do it. Crap. Move, you stupid…. Duo could feel the small droplets of sweat running off his forehead, soaking into his hair, but he didn't care. One more minute…

The cuffs dropped from his wrists, the chain swinging back against the wall with a satisfying thud. Man, those Oz guys had better watch out. Shinigami's back and he's pissed. Majorly pissed. No one messes with the God of Death or his friends.

Duo stood for a moment, rubbing his wrists as he thought about his plan of action. The cell door wasn't going to be much of an obstacle now he'd gotten rid of those cuffs. He reached into his braid for his own picks, his fingers closing around them with a sense of security as he placed Quatre's into his pocket. Thanks pal, I owe you one.

He busied himself freeing the length of chain holding the now empty handcuffs from the wall, pulling it taut, running the cold metal across his palm with a degree of satisfaction. Always pays to be prepared, he decided, the ironic justice of defending himself with the restraints they'd used against him and Quat appealing to his sense of humour.

Click.

Uh oh, company. Winding the chain around one hand, Duo took up a defensive position to the side of the door; readying himself to knock the crap out of whoever entered.

The door swung open cautiously, light footsteps accompanying the creak of the tired hinge. Duo stepped into the frame, raised the chain and swung, as the slight figure ducked and rolled, the chain missing him by inches.

"Duo!"

"Quatre? You nearly scared the shit out of me, buddy." You're okay. Thank God. Duo reached into his pocket, grinning. "I think you forgot these when you left."

The blond grinned back as Duo gave him the once over, checking for any signs that McKenzie had done anything he was going to regret. The Arabian pilot was slightly dishevelled, his shirt ripped across his left shoulder and Duo could make out a large bruise beginning to form on the pale skin.

"I'll kill that bastard," he muttered under his breath, eyes travelling downwards as he noticed Quatre's belt buckle half undone.

"It's okay. He didn't get the chance to do what you're thinking." Quatre smiled ruefully. "I hit my shoulder on a table as I was diving for the gun. Hurts like hell but I'll live." He laughed, a look Duo could only describe as wicked reflecting briefly in his eyes. "McKenzie will think twice before he takes on a Gundam pilot again."

Duo shivered, glad he hadn't been on the receiving end of whatever his friend had done to the OZ officer, even though the guy had deserved it. "Quatre…" he began.

Quatre let out a small giggle. "Nothing like that, Duo." He paused before continuing, taking the gun out of his waistband as he tightened his belt. "Though it will be interesting to see how he explains to his superiors how he came to be bound and gagged with his own underwear."

"Remind me never to piss you off." Duo peered through the open door, torn between relief and disappointment at the sad lack of OZ soldiers in the vicinity. He'd been so looking forward to kicking some OZ butt. After hours stuck in this damn cell he was itching to get some action. His hand strengthened its grip on the chain in anticipation.

Quatre slipped past him, gesturing for him to follow. "The hangar where they have our Gundams is this way," he whispered, indicating a flight of stairs directly to their left. "Hopefully there's a terminal so we can wipe out their new weapon at the same time."

Duo grinned. "Now you're talking." He increased his pace, falling into step beside the blond who was already poised on the top step, waiting for him. "I'll give them the God of Death. They're gonna regret our little stay. Oh yeah. Shinigami one, bad guys zero."

Quatre glanced around, pausing as they reached the door. He opened it cautiously, gripping the gun with both hands as he surveyed the hangar for signs of the enemy. "Clear here," he informed Duo, his tone all business.

Duo checked behind them again. "Still clear here too." He frowned. "This is too easy. I don't like it." As if in answer a klaxon rang out, signalling their escape had finally been noticed. "Took you long enough." He set off towards Deathscythe, calling over his shoulder to his fellow pilot. "Cover me."

Quatre nodded. "Will do." He moved into position, his gun trained on the door they'd entered, as Duo concentrated on making his way to his Gundam. No point in leaving while the weapon that had disabled their systems was still online. They wouldn't last five minutes out there; and no way were either of them going to chance it being used against the other pilots.

"Good to see you again, old buddy." Duo placed a reassuring hand on Deathscythe as he eased himself into the pilot's chair, running his fingers under the seat as he felt for the floppy. Yeah. Heero's virus programme, with a few important alterations. After all if you're going to leave your calling card, gotta do it properly.

A few shots rang out, echoing through the hangar. Company. "Give up and we won't hurt you." McKenzie sounded pissed. Wonder why? He grinned as he pulled out a hand gun and several grenades. Ozzies hadn't done a great job of hunting for weapons. Idiots had probably had found those he had on him, and hadn't bothered looking for the backups. Their loss.

Shoving the disc into his back pocket, he exited the Gundam, taking a couple of shots at the approaching soldiers as the hatch closed behind him. Terminal. They needed to find a terminal. He glanced around the hangar again; noticing a small exit hatch on the opposite wall to where Sandrock and Deathscythe were standing side by side. If they could distract the enemy; he doubted they'd think of them heading away from their mecha. It could work to their advantage, and give them a chance to find what they needed to disable the base.

Quatre took out McKenzie's right hand man with one clear shot, and Duo nodded in approval, as the guy went down clutching his arm. Typical Quatre, shoots to maim, not to kill. Bet he's apologising under his breath. The blond was one hell of a good shot, whether behind the controls of his Gundam or with a hand weapon.

"Get him. He's only a fucking kid." Yep, McKenzie sounded well and truly pissed. Duo fought the urge to giggle as a fun mental picture of the situation the man had been left in entered his mind.

Quatre turned, his eyes seeking out Duo and the Deathscythe pilot indicated his plan with a few simple hand signals. The Arabian nodded, diving for cover behind the untidy stack of crates to his right as Duo threw the first of his grenades. The American waited a minute then let lose with the other, heading towards the hatch he'd noticed earlier in the confusion.

"Should keep them busy for a while," Quatre commented as he climbed into the ventilation shaft after Duo. "What the hell was in those grenades?"

Duo gave him one of his trademark grins. "Just a little extra something I cooked up. By the time they recover and realise we're gone they'll be screwed." He crawled along the shaft, coming to a sudden halt in front of a grating in the side wall.

"Computer access?" asked Quatre hopefully, his hand resting on his friend's shoulder as he followed Duo's gaze. Duo swallowed, his mouth dry as he realised just how small a space the two of them were in and just how close the blond was. He blushed, thankful for the fact it was dark, and Quatre wouldn't have noticed.

Quatre let out a sharp breath, and Duo wondered for a moment if he was the only one reacting to their close vicinity. The hand moved, as Quatre shifted, leaning back awkwardly on his haunches as he tried to give Duo room.

"Nope. Guys locker room." Duo paused, pretending to drool. "Shame we haven't time to stop and appreciate the view properly."

"Duo!" Somehow Quatre didn't sound as shocked as he should. Duo wriggled over to give him a better look, then moved forward fast, before the other pilot discovered the truth. "Store room," the blond muttered under his breath as he caught up.

Duo shrugged in the darkness. "Hey, got to get your fun where you can. Got your hopes up for a moment, that's what counts." Bet he's blushing. Duo fought the urge to bring his hand up to Quatre's cheek to check.

"As long as that's the only thing that came up, I suppose that's okay," replied the blond, squeezing past the American as he made his way to the next grating.

Duo sat up with a start, his head colliding with the ceiling with a painful thump. Shit, Quatre was full of surprises. I didn't just hear that. Nah.

"I've found a computer," called Quatre softly, and Duo shuffled over to him quickly, his mind switching to the business at hand. Bingo. The room was empty, save for the couple of desks, and the terminal they needed. Working together they quietly prised the grating from its hinges and slipped through the opening, Quatre locking the door as Duo turned his attention to the keyboard. He shifted the half full cup of cold coffee; covering the keyboard in liquid before the virus had done its job wouldn't be a good idea at this stage of the game.

He interlinked his fingers, holding his hands out in front as he cracked his knuckles before setting to work. Man, he was looking forward to this. "I can imagine Heero's reaction to the lack of security on this system," he casually remarked as his fingers flew over the keys. "He'd have a field day in here."

Quatre checked the lock on the door, then came to stand behind Duo, eyes flickering over the screen. "You're not exactly a slouch in the hacking department you know. I was going to offer to help, but I think you have it all under control."

"Yeah, these Ozzies are going to regret messing with us Gundam pilots." He produced the disc from his pocket, grinning from ear to ear. "Let's see what happens when I do this." He typed a few command codes in, then leaned back in the chair and waited. A few minutes later, the screen went blank to be replaced by a menu.

"Upload Shinigami welcomes you to hell."

Check.

"Destroy all systems."

Check.

"Gotta love this programme. Heero's all purpose little computer virus. The guy's a freaking genius, and cute with it."

He removed the disc, returning it to his pocket as the menu on the screen was replaced by a little model of Deathscythe with a huge grin pasted on it. The words 'Welcome to Hell" rolled across the screen in red flames. "Like the graphics?" he asked Quatre. "Heero's programme is brilliant, but, me, I like the personal touch."

Deathscythe's grin was replaced by a clock, which as Duo tapped into another command, began commencing its countdown from ten minutes. "And there's our escape window," he explained, noticing the smile on Quatre's lips.

"You've thought of everything," noticed Quatre. "I'm impressed."

Duo bowed. "All part of the complete Shinigami service. C'mon let's get outta here before company arrives." He pushed the chair back, ignoring the loud noise it made as the legs scraped against the concrete floor.

Quatre drew his gun, placing one hand on Duo's shoulder as he joined him at the door. "Ready?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair, in what seemed a nervous gesture, with his free hand.

"Quatre?"

"What?" Aquamarine eyes stared into his, mirroring the confusion on his friend's face. As Duo leaned over, he wondered if the other pilot knew what was coming or sensed the reason why.

"This." Duo placed both hands around Quatre's waist, bringing him close, holding him in a hug before reaching over to capture his lips with his own. God, what am I doing?

Duo started to pull away, to apologise, but to his surprise, Quatre's mouth opened, his tongue seeking out Duo's as he leaned into the kiss. Time slowed as they clung to each other, each tasting the other's essence, enjoying the touch of another soul, each desperately reaching out for that which was missing.

Quatre pulled away first. "I'm sorry," he said, cheeks colouring as he ran a single slender finger across Duo's face. You're sorry?

"You've got nothing to be sorry about. I shouldn't have done that, don't know what came over me." How the hell do I explain this? Sorry, Quat, I've lost it?

"You don't have to explain. I understand." Quatre's voice was soft, a single tear running down his face.

Duo gently lifted Quatre's hand away. I'm not worth crying for. /I/ should be crying for you, for Trowa, for Heero, but I can't. A trickle of envy washed through him momentarily, then was gone. "I shouldn't have done that," he repeated. "I…" Just get on with it. "You're a good friend, you and Trowa deserve each other, you know. " His words began to fall over each other in his rush to get them out. "I know he's the one you need to become whole, same way Heero is for me. We both have missing pieces and it's not each other. But sometimes, like now, I wonder if in a different time, a different place, if Heero and Trowa weren't in the picture, it might be you and me. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Duo watched Quatre for a reaction, not sure how he was going to react. God, he'd just told the guy he had feelings for him. No, not feelings in the romantic way, he corrected, but still something that went deeper than just friendship. He shook his head. Maxwell, you're seriously losing it.

Quatre's answering smile lit up the room, and Duo let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't going to get decked, that was something. "I know what you're trying to say, Duo." He put his arms around Duo, giving him a quick hug, then took a step back. "It's okay. We have something special, we both know that, even though we're not the right person for each other, at least not in this lifetime." The smile grew sadder. "We need to find Trowa and Heero, to put things right, to tell them how we feel but we also need to realise we aren't alone. I do have feelings for you, Duo, but as a friend, a friend I value and care about. Sometimes a kiss can convey that more than words." Quatre giggled, breaking the tension. "But I'm not going to try and explain this to Heero, so next time use the words, okay?"

"Glad to see your sense of survival is still intact," Duo drawled, glancing down at his watch as the lights flickered then came back to life. "Stage one of Heero's fun virus," he explained. "Now would be a good time to escape before the Ozzies work out what's coming next."

"How long before the rest of the programme kicks in?"

"Five minutes."

"So we need to get our Gundams out of here before that happens?" Quatre was no slouch when it came to putting two and two together. Brains and good looks in one cute package.

Duo grinned. "Got it in one." He opened the door slowly, taking note of the couple of soldiers patrolling the corridor, then closed it again. "Two, both heavily armed."

Quatre nodded, pulling back the safety on the gun already in his hand. "Meet you outside the base once we're clear."

"Take care, Quat."

"You too, Duo." Yeah it was time to show these OZ bastards how well he and Quatre worked as a team. Maybe they'd forget levelling the base, this time. After all once the virus had done its work, everything would be so fried, it would take them months for them to recover. Good message to the rest of OZ. Don't mess with Gundam pilots, or this could happen to you.

They slipped through the door together, exchanging a couple of hand signals as to their plan of action then strolled nonchalantly down the corridor, giving the impression they didn't have a care in the world.

As the two soldiers Duo had noticed the minute before drew closer, Quatre put on his best innocent look and waved at them. "Excuse me," he said. "My friend and I appear to be lost."

"Lost?" Duo tried not to laugh at the expression on the guy's face, as the soldier turned to his partner, his total confusion evident.

The moment his guard slipped was all they needed. Duo dropped one guy with his fist, the other following as Quatre's well-aimed kick introduced him to the wall. Duo shook his head. That innocent routine never failed; Quatre had it down so pat, the bad guys never suspected until it was way too late.

"See you out there." Duo gave Quatre the thumbs up then took off at a run, glancing at his watch.

Four minutes.

It was gonna be close. He could hear the blond's footsteps on his heels as they headed for the hangar and the Gundams.

Sirens started blaring and Duo's voice came over the loud speaker. "Shinigami welcomes you to hell." Loud music followed the announcement, then the sound of ticking. "You have one minute till…"

Pause.

"Nah, not telling. Oops did I say one minute?….Make that thirty seconds and counting…." The ticking grew louder, then stopped.

Three minutes.

Duo heaved a sigh of relief as they reached the hangar door. Only four guards on duty? Whoa, these guys were slipping. As if he'd been overheard, the man in front opened fire, taking aim at the two boys.

"You'd think OZ would at least teach these guys to shoot straight," Duo complained as he returned fire, his free hand reaching into his pocket for his remaining grenade. He held up three fingers to Quatre, in a prearranged signal, then pulled the pin and threw.

The two pilots dived towards the grenade as the soldiers scattered. Duo stifled a laugh, instead concentrating on reaching Deathscythe. Never failed. While his other grenades had contained the usual fun cocktail of explosives and added extras, this last one had only smoke and light effects. Those guys were going to shit themselves when they'd worked out they'd been had. And by the time that happened he and Quatre would be outta here.

Duo settled himself into the pilot's seat, fastening the straps, as he brought Deathscythe to life. He quickly manoeuvred the huge machine towards the hangar door, taking to the air with a sigh of relief. "Glad to be back, buddy. Miss me?" He hovered for a moment, then seeing Quatre and Sandrock following close behind, leaned over and hit the comm switch.

"04, this is 02. We need to put as much distance between us and the base as possible."

The vidcom crackled to life; the transmission weak. Damn this was going to be close. Whatever had taken down the Gundams beforehand had obviously left some residuals in their systems. He'd stop by Howard's and run a complete diagnostic before his next mission. OZ bastards. No one touched his Gundam.

Quatre's image was grainy but clear enough to reassure Duo that he was okay. "Roger that, 02. 04 out."

Once outside the fallout zone, Duo impatiently tapped his fingers on his knee as he waited for Sandrock to show. "And two, one," he muttered, his watch ticking down in sync with the timer on the virus programme. "C'mon, Quat. Move it!"

He tuned the frequency of his radio into that used by the OZ base and waited, heaving a sigh of relief as he picked Sandrock up on his scanners. He didn't know what he would have done if he'd lost Quatre after getting this far. True their Gundam's systems shouldn't have been infected with the virus, but after being in the hanger with the Ozzies doing who knew what to them, he didn't want to take any chances.

The loud hiss of white noise on the OZ radio band was followed by a loud squealing noise, then silence. Total silence.

"Woo hoo," Duo hit a high five into the air. "Got ya." He leaned forward and flicked the switch to resume contact with Quatre. Be okay, pal, be okay. The radio crackled into life before he had a chance to initiate transmission.

"..to 02. Are you alright? Duo!" He could hear the concern in the Arabian's voice, even through the interference. He gave a thumbs up to the other pilot as the visual kicked in. "Thank Allah. What was on that disc? There's nothing coming from the OZ base. One loud squeal and everything went dead."

Duo smirked. "Cool programme, eh? Not sure how Heero did it, but it seems to cut out anything electrical for a range of ten miles or so. They'll get their power back eventually, but when they do everything that contained a microchip in any shape or form will be totally fried."

Quatre answered his grin with one of his own, and a low whistle. "Very clever. So if OZ had managed to get into our systems, we'd be hooked into theirs and fried in the process?" He patted Sandrock fondly before continuing, much to Duo's amusement. "I knew disabling entry was a good idea. When you get the chance, I wouldn't mind a copy of that virus. It's a good way of bringing down the enemy with minimal loss of life."

Typical Quatre, always the pacifist at heart. His spaceheart…Duo paused as a thought occurred to him. Did his friend feel the bad guys die when he killed them? He shuddered, part of him not wanting to know the answer. Or was the blond only hooked into him and the other pilots at that distance?

"…going to meet with the Maguanacs. I promised Rashid I'd check in after the last mission." Huh? Duo realised he hadn't been paying attention. "Take care, Duo."

"You too, Quat." The screen went blank as Quatre cut the connection, and Sandrock headed out. "Good luck"

He sat there for a few minutes, his mind drifting, before heading off himself. Time for a break. Back to the junk yard and Hilde, with a small detour on the way. Duo set his course, then paused, taking a final glance in the direction Quatre had taken. "I hope we both find who we're looking for," he whispered. "Our missing pieces."

~Fin~