Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Some Way Back ❯ True Colours ( Chapter 10 )

Ok…here is the next installment…finally got a little inspiration…its not as long as most of the others… sorry for that…but it reveals some nice information. Review away please… hope you like it! BTW thank you all so much for the reviews…they really help me to keep motivation to write

~#~ = flashback

#*# = scene change

~and words in between~ indicates thought

^^- song words hehe…^^ cause italics doesn't want to work again

~~**~~ = end of chapter

Some Way Back : True Colours

Duo woke early the next morning. After all the information had been processed the day before, there was a lot of work to be done. Not allowing himself time to dwell he jumped out of bed and entered the bathroom, taking a quick cool shower so that he didn't dwell on anything. He had taken to braiding his hair again at night, like he had done so often before the war. Pulling it out of his braid he brushed it quickly and efficiently, rebraiding it before he cleaned his teeth. Dancing away to the music he had let play through the sound system, he swayed his hips as he took his pills and put on coffee and pop tarts. He knew it wasn't the most nutritionally balanced meal, but hey at least he was eating.

Frowning, he stood in front of his cloths cupboard, his hips never missing a beat, and picked out a pair of soft leather pants and a deep red singlet. He felt like feeling special. Shimmying into the pants he started singing as he pulled the top over his head…cranking one of his favorite songs louder, thinking absently that he was happy that the walls were sound proof.

^^But I'm on the outside

I'm looking in

I can see through you

See your true colours

Cause inside you're ugly

You're ugly like me

I can see through you

See to the real you^^

He drew strength from music…music always soothed him, made him feel stronger…and the words…words could empower him when put to music. He jumped around the large room, playing the air guitar because he wasn't sure of the next set of the words, but let the music free him and carry him along. And then the chorus came again, and he raised his unique voice in song once more.

^^But I'm on the outside

I'm looking in

I can see through you

See your true colours

Cause inside you're ugly

You're ugly like me

I can see through you

See to the real you^^

^^All the times that I've cried

All this wasted

It's all inside
And I feel all this pain, stuffed it down

It's back again and

I lie here in bed

All alone, I can't mend…but I feel

Tomorrow will be OK^^

^^But I'm on the outside

I'm looking in

I can see through you

See your true colours

Cause inside you're ugly

You're ugly like me

I can see through you

See to the real you^^

He was panting by the time the song ended, and slowly became aware that there was someone in the room with him. He looked up and saw his best friend's happy green blue eyes watching him. Duo smiled at him and bowed.

"You know Duo…you actually have a lovely singing voice…if you wouldn't growl so much." Quatre hugged his friend good morning.

Duo grinned his trademark impish grin. "Awww Cat… you don't have to say that. Besides its hard rock…you can't not growl it! That's sacrilege!"

"You're not religious Maxwell." Wufei entered and gave Duo a raised eyebrow as a greeting.

"That's nice `fei…insult a man's beliefs." He snickered a little as Trowa entered and offered his taller friend a conspiratal glance. "So Trowa…how the hell do you put up with these two?"

Trowa smirked. "You can come and watch sometime if you want Duo…you might learn something." Duo worked hard not to seem shocked at his usually quiet friends fresh comment.

Quatre and Wufei seemed to be having the same problem.

Trowa looked a little exasperated. "What…I'm not allowed to have the dirty thoughts you guys do and voice them as well…that is injustice…" He wiggled an eyebrow.

~Must have got laid this morning~ Duo grinned to himself. He shrugged uncomfortably…that itching feeling between his shoulder blades was the strongest it had been since he had come to this room a week ago. Suddenly something clicked in his brain, and it was something he didn't like. He remembered the roof tile that he had shut out of his mind, and he remembered how reliable his instincts usually were. He was never wrong about something like that, and it hadn't been a cockroach in years.

"Guys…keep it down please…shush…" He closed his eyes and concentrated…focusing on the feeling of being watched and where it was coming from. Finally he pinpointed the spot, turned smoothly bending to the knees while drawing his gun and aimed.

"Today's show was brought to you by the letters F and U and the number 2…Bye bye now." He shot twice…once to shatter the ceiling tile conceiling the camera, and a second time to blow the camera up. His friends just looked at him slack jawed.

Sighing Duo looked at his watch, ignoring his friend's stares. "Well lets just hope she's in her office at 7am then shall we…I don't feel like wasting most of the morning waiting for her…Boot up, get started …I wont be long. I want at least one raid to sink my teeth into by the end of the week."

He left the room and stormed towards Une's office, not really aware of the impact he had on the people that he passed. Duo had never been overly confident about his looks or who he was. He had always hidden behind masks. Needless to say…the early eager members of the preventer staff, both male and female, were well and truly affected by the delicate toned long haired man who stalked passed them on his way to the boss's office.

Walking past Une's secretary Duo simply put out a hand in the stop sign to the women as she went to phone him in. "Don't bother." He swung past her and tested the door, which was locked, and proving how much not in the mood he was Duo aimed a calculated kick at the door, on just the right angle splintering the lock and allowing the door to o pen for him. He sauntered into the room, grinning at Sally and Une's surprised faces.

"You might want to get that door fixed ladies…"

Une revcovered first. "Duo…there is no need for that."

"Oh but there is lady Une" The sarcasm he used when he spoke out her name dripped from his lips and made her cringe just a little. "I am getting a little tired of your cat and mouse games ladies. You kill my partner, just because you don't think asking me a simple question is an option…I won't dwell on his stupidity at the moment; then you play me for stupid by not telling me the full story and then…oh and this one just takes the cherry on the cake… then you spy on me. I am not a fucking criminal ladies…and if that is what you think of me then fuck you too. You do not keep one of your own agents under surveillance unless they are suspected of doing something against the peace or the unit. So fuck you both…keep this up and I may forget that I don't usually beat the shit out of women." With that the braided man turned and left the office. He stopped briefly at the secretary's desk and leant over to her, smiling with a wink, flirtingly. "You uh…might want to call a carpenter and a locksmith." The girl giggled and blushed.

"Uh…Yes Sir…"

Duo pranced away, smile firmly fixed in place, and muttering under his breath. "Where they get some of these people from is beyond me…" He made his way back to the room.

#*#

Making it back to the room Duo literally punched the code in to open the door and strode into the room, wishing he had a punching bag in there so he could take care of the aggravation that was running through his body at that moment. He stopped as he realized four heads had turned to look at him as he entered the room.

Zechs had come to join them and Duo cringed a little when he noticed the obvious bandaging through the blond man's cloths. They had work to get done…he didn't have time to dwell on whether or not he should have gone easier on the man.

"So troops…how's it going." Duo forced a smile onto his face, trying to make it reach his eyes, but he knew he wasn't being very successful. His left arm itched…so he scratched it.

Though Quatre could feel that his friend was somewhat peeved off, he exercised discretion and thought that Duo would tell him when he was ready to talk. Instead the blond concentrated on the tasks at hand. But first…

Reaching out a hand Quatre pulled Duo's right hand away from his injured left arm. "Duo…stop scratching it…you don't want to pull the stitches out too early."

Duo scowled a little, but knew his friend was right, so he started to fidget with his rings instead.

Quatre pulled himself away from the screen and grabbed Duo's chair…pulling his friend down into it. Frowning Quatre noticed Duo had lost weight…that wouldn't do…but he would worry about that after he had filled Duo in on everything.

"Well… um… ok here goes. From everything that we have been able to gather… through information supplied to us from our dear three friends yesterday and from the other research we had undertaken it looks like GHD is a lot larger than we originally thought." He paused, looking up at his friend. Duo nodded to him, showing he was listening and that Quatre should continue.

"GHD is known in public circles as just that… no one knows what the initials stand for, unless you dig in the… shall we say less favourable circles. GHD is one of the main peace supporters that have emerged since the war. I should probably say `appears' to be one of the main peace supporters, since…"

Zechs had perked up a little at the mention of GHD…something was clicking in his mind. "GHD…that's one of Relena's pet organizations. They have given amazing support to the war recovery projects. Sorry…just thinking aloud." He was quiet again and Quatre continued.

"Well I should also say that they appear to give amazing support to the war recovery efforts. They undertake many fund raisers, but even though everything on the surface and a little underneath looks completely legitimate…they are pocketing a lot of this fundraising money for themselves and filtering it off into its many subsidiaries."

Trowa placed a hand on Quatre's shoulder, taking over for a minute. "The subsidiaries were hard to piece together…that I can tell you… amazingly hard. They are hidden behind every possible disguise you can think of. So far we have been able to draw out 3 named subsidiaries that all have ties if not direct links into GHD. These subsidiaries not only go against the peaceful countenance that GHD is attempting to maintain… they actually seem to encourage the exact opposite." It was one of the longest speeches Trowa had given in a long time.

Wufei decided it was his turn to elaborate further… "Infact, there are a couple of them buying up arms on the black market, and others of them funding certain rebel groups on the colonies. The only thing we can't find are direct links to Habito…there are many fleeting references but nothing that could pin any of this on him."

Duo frowned and put his head in his hands…sighing. "Have any names of Corps yet?"

"Like we said D… a few…" Quatre shuffled through some printouts. "Mmm okay… here ya go…Introspection Corporation, Einigkeit Corp. and Unity Corp."

Duo giggled a little. "Heh… Einigkeit…means unity in german I think… or something very similar anyway…these guys really have no imagination whatsoever. " He looked back up at his friends. "They the three names you have so far?"

He received three nods in return. "Okay…guess we start there hey…Zechs can you correlate the list of names these guys churn out with the results you got yesterday?"

Zechs nodded and turned to his computer to bring up the relevant files.

"I need to go grab some fresh air… I promise I wont be long guys…" Duo left the room before anyone could say anything.

Quatre turned to Zechs and looked at the man till those blue eyes turned his way. Raising one platinum eyebrow, Zechs spoke: "Yes?"

"Spill Marquise…what the hell happened yesterday…" It was very rare for Quatre to swear…even rarer for him to call someone by their last name like Wufei did; and rarer still to find him almost losing his temper.

Zechs sighed. He had known it would come to this…he had even spoken to the others about this very thing the day before. He had to tell them…they would find out eventually and he just hoped he could soften the betrayal a little by being the one to tell them. Duo would no doubt get emotional and blow things out of proportion. ~Trying to make yourself feel better Zechs…shame on you…he couldn't blow them out of proportion if he tried~ Raising his eyes to look at each of them in turn Zechs began to relate the events.

"You've probably all noticed that Duo is…well has been acting a little differently in the last few days?" Three nods. "Well…you see…we were having no luck with the case… Heero couldn't crack it and as much as he hated to admit it…he knew Duo was the only one with a chance to crack into the systems. So…well we had discussions and he was of the opinion that the only way Duo would work to his full potential, was if he…well if Heero was no longer there to impede him." He ran a hand through his long locks and tried to push the shudder away that ran through his body… he couldn't tell them… he just couldn't… but he had to give them something.

"As you've already realized, Duo wouldn't compete with Heero, for many reasons…and mainly because there was no real need. So I don't actually think Heero realized he could just ask him… you know how dense to human emotion and feelings he could be sometimes." Another three nods. "He… he thought the only way he could solve this mission…was if he was no longer in Duo's life. Now Heero wasn't stupid and neither were we… we knew breaking it off wouldn't work. There was no way Duo would be motivated enough to do what needed to be done if Heero just left him. So Duo needed to be motivated…he needed to have a hunger to get back at these people. It was our only chance to get these guys…and you know how Heero is about his missions. If he didn't do it… if he didn't cause Duo to feel that pain that he needed to do what needed to be done…he would have failed his mission. I know he didn't know he could just ask Duo…I am sure he didn't…or he wouldn't have agreed." Zechs took a deep calming breath.

"So we decided to set Heero up… we knew there was a leak… and we leaked the information over it…so they would know where he was and when he was going to be there. The information wasn't supposed to be there as soon as it was though… Something went wrong. Heero was supposed to be able to spend Duo's birthday with him… was going to give him the rings…going to show him how much he loved him. But it didn't work… we had to go with the plan the way it was… it was too late to back out then." Tears were running down his face… and he had no idea when they had started to do so…but he gathered himself…looking at his hands…not liking the accusations in the eyes of the others.

"He should have known what it would do to him shouldn't he? None of us expected Duo to make an attempt on his own life… none of us expected him to lose it like that. We expected his lust for revenge to drive him to looking for the culprits almost straight away. I mean it got him through the two wars didn't it? That was our reasoning…it… it…"

Quatre stood…his usually serene face contorted in anger. "It was a fucking mistake on your behalves." His small hands were clenched into fists at his sides and his eyes flashed. "You have no fucking idea do you? Do you?" Zechs just looked stunned.

"He is ill… he has been ill for years by the looks of things…didn't know that did you? The perfect fricking soldier managed to forget to tell you all that in his reports didn't he? He probably didn't realize that something like his death could tip Duo over the edge."

Zechs was stunned, he had no idea what Quatre was talking about. Quatre had researched the drugs he had brought for Duo the previous day…wanting to know exactly what was wrong with his friend so he could know how to help. This information was making him angrier than he had ever felt before in his life. Trowa and Wufei were angry as well, Quatre could feel it… but they were also bewildered, since they too had no idea what he was talking aboutl.

"Quat… love…what do you mean?" `Fei's voice was soft.

Quatre fought back the tears of rage in him and tried to even out his voice…and for once… he didn't succeed very well. "Duo… suffers from Bipolar disorder…he is a manic depressive…with violent tendencies." His voice was showing the emotional stress he was under.

Zechs felt like the floor had dropped out from under him. Heero had known this? "Heero…knew this?"

"Of course he fucking knew. He was the one who helped him take the pills damn it. Not even I knew till two days ago. Of course a shock like the death of someone he loved more than life was going to effect him…it was the only stability he had in his life…and you fucking selfish pricks took it away from him."

Quatre swearing under any other circumstances would have been decidedly comical, but as he was actually angry…and talking about a subject that he was passionate about, it wasn't the comical situation it could have been.

"No wonder he did what he did…no wonder he hates him…" Quatre looked with tear filled eyes at his two lovers…"Promise me you'll never decide that your missions are more important than me…promise me?"

"I promise little one." Trowa rose and put his arms around the blond.

"I promise love…" Wufei gathered both of them into an embrace.

Zechs, feeling very out of place, decided it was time for another visit to Une's office.

#*#

Almost a repeat of the previous days entrance…Zechs slammed open Une's office door…noticing it was a little stiff…it looked new. But he didn't dwell on that thought for long.

"Good both of you are here. Perfect really." He was angry again…and both of the women could tell. Making sure the door was closed this time Zechs turned to them.

"Guess what Mr Heero Yuy decided to neglect to tell us. Come on guess ladies…this one is a doozie."

"Um… I have no idea Zechs." Une wasn't very patient at that point in time.

"Guess what duo suffers from?"

Sally looked a little startled. "Suffers from…what do you mean?"

"Exactly that…Suffers from."

"He's ill?"

"Yes…in fact he has an ongoing illness…that could fill in the blanks and tell us why the fuck he reacted the way none of us foresaw…but the way one of us should have been able to see."

"Heero knew?"

"Oh yes… Heero knew amazingly well."

"Just tell us Zechs." Une almost growled at him.

"Duo is a manic depressive…"

"…" Une wasn't growling anymore.

"No…" Sally looked horrified. "No…"

"Yes Sally. " Zechs's face was full of rage. "Well fucking done Heero… there was no way Duo was not going to react like this. That was pure selfishness on his part…he should have known…" And Zechs turned on his heel to leave the room, pausing before he did so. "Now my promise is worse than before…do you have any idea how hard it is going to be to help him like I promised I would? I can't help someone who will never trust anyone other than his three old war comrades ever again." The platinum blonde left the room, walking back to go and help the others continue their research, leaving two very subdued women behind him.

"Shit…" Sally finally broke the silence.

"Why didn't Heero tell us that…I don't understand." Une seemed to be at a loss.

"I don't know Une… all I do know, is that it was a mistake. Maybe he thought Duo was strong enough to deal with it, maybe he thought Duo wouldn't dwell…that he had overcome things…"

"But he was wrong…he was so wrong…this could destroy him Sally…"

"I know… I know Une…" She looked at her friend and colleague sadly.

"But it's too late to back out now…we just have to see it through to the end I guess." Une shrugged uncomfortably.

"Yeah…and hope there is still something left of who he was when he's finished."

They sat together in uncomfortable silence.

#*#

Duo stood for a while on one of the balconies on the third floor. His mind was empty…released…he couldn't think, and didn't really want to. He felt hollow, like he could no longer let this affect him, like nothing else would ever hurt him… he was a husk…

He smiled…this was much easier. Turning… he re-entered the building walking to the room, he kept a hold of that feeling…so nothing and no one could ever hurt him again

~~**~~

To be continued

Ok ok so its only day 7…Please tell me what you think so far…Hope you enjoyed it!!! BTW the song is Outside by Staind

~Arith