Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Taking Flight ❯ Suspicions of Betrayal ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 07 - Suspicions of Betrayal

"I'll tell her after the war, maybe."

//...// denotes thought.

A.N.: If my formatting does funny things again on either FF.net or MM.org, I'm not going to bother to go back and change it. Sorry for any inconvenience. The two links to alternate versions of the story are as follows: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1350042 and http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_st.php/36431/ .

***

About forty-five minutes after gliding off the top of the roof of the safe house, Duo gingerly touched down on top of a low commercial building, and then fluttered carefully down into the messy alleyway behind it. He drew in his wings then donned his jacket and swept his fingers through his wind-blown bangs, trying to smooth them. He was still breathing hard as he peered around the corner to see if anyone was looking. Duo was watching for Hilde more than anyone else; she would be far more suspicious of seeing him come out from behind a building than a random drunk would be. Seeing no one, he walked out front, took several steadying breaths, and then walked inside the convenience store where he had said he'd pick up Hilde.

He quickly located the surveillance devices and was careful to keep his face hidden as e walked toward the familiar loud woman, who was trying to have a conversation with a harassed-looking storekeeper. She saw Duo immediately and practically bounced up to him.

"There you are, Duo! About time you showed up; I can't understand a word this guy is saying, 'cept something that sounds like 'hole-a'."

Duo grinned, his first real smile in days. "It's great to see you too, Hilde." He laughed.

She did too. "So, shall we get out of here?"

"Let's blow this place." At Hilde's questioning glance, he just laughed and left through the door.

As soon as they were outside, Hilde wrapped her arms around Duo and drew him into a warm hug. He was surprised by the sudden gesture, but returned it a moment later. Hilde's scent reminded him of the alpine forest, chocolate, almonds, and peppermint. "It really is great to see you, Duo." She told him genuinely.

Normally Duo would have a witty comment for just such an occasion, but a curious warm sensation bubbled up in his stomach and seemed to trip up his brain. "I, uh, um…" he stammered, then wished he had just kept his mouth shut.

Hilde laughed.

Suddenly feeling a very uncharacteristic need to distract himself from these fluttering sensations, Duo asked seriously, "So, why did 'ja page me anyway? What brings you here?"

He watched her closely guarded expression with interest. "Well, you know, I was on Earth with nothing much planned, and I heard news of a Gundam attack in Europe, figured I'd just follow the trail of destruction and find you…" she told him in a joking, singsong voice, but her eyes told another story.

Duo's mouth twisted into a superior grin. "You're a long way from Germany." He pointed out.

Hilde blanched just as their walk took them outside of the illumination radius of a street lamp and, she would have been saved by that fact if she hadn't allowed a bit too much offense to creep into her voice. "Well, I didn't exactly think you'd be stupid enough to stick around there! And here you are anyway, so ha!"

Duo laughed at her red face as they passed beneath another street lamp and jokingly stuck his tongue out at her. "So here I am! Nya!"

"Nya!" she stuck her tongue out as well, stopped, placed her hands on her hips, and mock glared. Duo followed suit with a flourish. They stood there about two seconds before they both burst out laughing.

A Spanish man shouted something probably obscene from a high window above a closed shop and threw a piece of trash down, missing badly. As the crumpled can rattled across the sidewalk, the last of the two teens' giggles died away. Hilde noticed with a flush that somewhere in between, she had fallen onto Duo's chest and he had supported her. As they met each others' eyes, she jumped back and held her arms behind her back nervously. Duo seemed to be in a similar state of disquiet.

"Duo, I…" Hilde began.

"Let's head to the safe house." Duo cut her off. "From there, we'll secure another location for you to stay." He smiled kindly, but it was a guarded expression. His eyes were a whirl of confusion.

…As were her own.

***

"Ha ha! And when we-…!"

"Yeah, and then you shoved it up-…!"

"And the PVC pipe-…!"

"But it was too big-…!"

By the time Duo and Hilde reached the door to the studio apartment safe house early that morning, they were in fits of laughter, and Duo's side felt as if it would burst from the sheer hilarity of the things they were reminiscing about.

He reached for the doorknob, but it swung open before he had a chance to turn it. Four serious faces crowded the narrow hallway on the other side.

"Oh, hey guys, guess who decided to show up?" Duo said, grinning.

"I was about to say the same thing." Wufei growled scoldingly. "Where have you been all night? Is this what you snuck off for?"

Hilde saved Duo from having to decide between lying and self-preservation. "Yes, actually, it is." She said with just a hint of offense.

Quatre, ever the naive one, incredulously asked, "All night!?"

Red flooded Duo's face as other interpretations for that question filled his mind. He sniggered, realizing that he would have teased himself for how this looked, had he been able.

Again, Hilde saved him. "I was really far away, actually, and yanno, cars aren't as easy to jack as they used to be…." She tried to keep her voice from wavering as she suddenly wondered just how Duo could have gotten to her as fast as he first had without jacking a car or some kind of motor vehicle. Then again, it seemed that the braided boy was always full of surprises. She supposed that it wouldn't be nearly as fun to work with him once she discovered them all….

"Hn." Heero said plainly, then locked eyes with Duo. Surprisingly, Heero was the first to turn away. He walked back to his room and shut the door behind him with finality. Duo wondered what that was all about.

After a moment of uneasy silence, Quatre nervously asked, "Not that it's much of my business, or that I was really listening…" he sputtered and mumbled, "but what were you two talking about before you came in?"

Suddenly realizing just what it sounded like they were talking about, Hilde and Duo burst out laughing again. When Duo calmed down a bit, he spoke to Quatre, still with a bit of a laugh in his voice. "We were talking about a time right after we first met, when I was trying to fix a mobile suit that I had stolen, using unconventional tools."

Hilde sniggered again.

Quatre's blush faded and he looked down. "…Oh," he merely said.

***

Heero, of course, had insisted on getting right to work on securing some other place for Hilde to live, but that still left her and Duo plenty of time to get caught up.

Duo was working in his room at his desk on a recent project with his back to the door when Hilde snuck in from behind and launched into an all-out tickle assault. The only time when Duo could be caught so unaware was when he was concentrating on a project… or watching TV.

Their wild game soon landed Duo on the floor gasping for breath as Hilde leaned over him. "Gotcha!" she teased.

"Ah… ahah…" Duo panted, then pretended to be shot. "Aaargh, ya got me…" he curled up and pretended to writhe in agony, and then when he was sure that Hilde was significantly incapacitated with giggles, he launched at her and returned the tickle attack.

Hilde shrieked ant tried to squirm away, but Duo was right there. From the room directly below them, Wufei shook his head, muttered, "Maxwell…" with contempt, and quickly returned to his reading.

Duo continued to mercilessly tickle Hilde until he had her pinned to the floor. As he stated into her smiling, teary eyes, he suddenly came to a startling revelation. His fingers halted their work, and he mentally reproached himself, //"What the hell am I doing!?"//

"…Duo?" Hilde's giggles had calmed down. "What's wrong? Why'd 'ja stop?"

"…Nothing, Hilde, I just remembered something." He paused long enough to get up off the floor. "I have to go do… something. It's that… thing I … forgot to do." He walked quickly out the door without looking back, his face ashen.

"Duo?" Hilde called after him, but gained no response.

***

//"Supid, stupid, stupid!"// Duo beat himself up over his actions after having locked himself in the bathroom. He sat with a sour expression on his face as he sat on the closed toilet. His wings were curled behind him in an uncomfortable position, almost too big to fit in the bathroom now. He would have to think of somewhere else to let them out soon. //"I can't get involved in a relationship now!"// He grabbed one hand with the other to stop it from shaking, but just ended up perpetuating the problem. Craving something to busy his hands with, he reached to the side and began preening his feathers, expertly running his fingers through them, fingers constructed for delicate work. //"It wouldn't be fair to Hilde, it would compromise security…"// He paused, lifting his hands to remove a single loose feather. //"Great, now I'm molting…."// Duo stuffed the feather in the pocket of his jacket, which lay nearby, then sighed. //"It wouldn't be fair of me to keep secrets from her, and if she finds out then Heero will, and then all the pilots will… and not even one person is supposed to know. …People do have a history of destroying things that they don't understand…"//

A quiet knock on the bathroom door woke Duo from his reverie. "Duo?" It was Hilde. "Are you all right in there?"

"Yeah, just fine!" Duo called back.

"You've been in there for fifteen minutes already! Did'ja fall in?" She asked with humor.

"Nah, but I'll be out in a minute!" he replied, unable to think up a retort. //"I'll tell her after the war, maybe."// Duo thought as he flushed the toilet to create enough noise to hide the sounds his wings made as he clumsily turned and brought them back in. He turned the sink on for about a minute as he searched around for stray feathers, stuffed those he found in his pockets, got his fingers wet, turned off the water, dried his hands, and then fixed his hair quickly in the mirror. Opening the door quickly inward, he found Hilde's beaming face on the other side.

"Honestly, Duo, you spend more time in there than me! Are we having a beauty contest here?"

"If we were, I'd win." Duo retorted, sticking his tongue out.

Hilde laughed and Duo cracked an impish grin, resulting in a crazy, lop-sided expression that only made Hilde laugh harder. "Not with that face, you wouldn't!"

"What do you mean? Of course I'd win with my face! I'm gorgeous!"

The ensuing argument might have involved the entire house, was well as gratuitous discussion of Quatre in a lacy pink bikini ("Oh, my!") it Heero hadn't descended the steps at that exact moment. It briefly passed through Duo's mind to wonder what he had been doing upstairs when both his room and the bathroom were on the first floor, but he didn't worry about it.

"A location has been secured. It's time for you to go, Hilde." Heero told her plainly.

Despite Hilde's riotous complaints and Duo's own feebly humorous ones, Duo was secretly glad.

***

Duo landed on the roof less than an hour before dawn the next morning in that gray period just before the sky would begin to flood color back into the world. He silently prayed that no one heard him land as he pulled his wings back in and readjusted the clean linen and gauze that he wore around where his injuries had been to please the other pilots. He slid his black shirt and jacket back on as well. The braided boy was breathing heavily and smelled of sweat and wood smoke from helping Hilde set up the wood burner in the small, impoverished house that she had been unceremoniously dumped into early the day before.

He climbed into the building from the door on the roof, which he had left unlocked for himself and carefully made his way down the stairwell to the pilots' floor, removing traces of his presence as he went along. Then again, he realized with humor that the shabby state of the halls as he climbed further down did well to hide his passing, so much so that his own expert attempts did little more than make his footprints completely disappear even in the dust and carpeting.

When he reached the door to his apartment, he still hadn't caught his breath, so he leaned against the wall and took in several deep, steadying breaths before breaching the door and slipping silently through unto the nearly light-less apartment.

The light switched on.

Duo's dark-adapted pupils contracted as the shock of the bright light hit them, and he flinched away reflexively.

"Where have you been." Heero asked so forcefully, so monotonously, that for a moment Duo couldn't figure out if it was a question or not.

"Ah, Maxwell, did you forget that we were starting early today?" Wufei grinned maliciously like a cat toying with a particularly fat, juicy mouse.

Duo's eyes slowly readjusted to the light and he relaxed only marginally enough to see that all four of his fellow pilots were before him in the hall. //"Not good."// he registered vaguely, then blinked.

"Duo, where were you? We've been up for an hour already worrying!" Quatre supplied next. Duo suddenly felt guilty, thinking about the treatment that Heero, Wufei, and Trowa must have received when Quatre had realized that Duo wasn't in the apartment.

"Why did you go out there?" Trowa surprised him by asking next. "You know you could have easily exposed us." His voice contained a few more non-verbal cues than Heero's, but still carried the brunt of its force in the lack of emotion and near silence of it.

Duo risked a quick glance at Heero, who only stared emotionlessly back and grunted a quick, "Hn."

"What were you thinking!?" Wufei demanded Duo's attention.

Duo's mouth hung open a moment as he tried to think of a way to diffuse the situation without lying.

Mercifully or perhaps not, Heero interrupted the strained silence by stating coldly, "Every night since we came here, you've done this." He paused almost infinitesimally. "Why."

In an effort to keep from stammering like an idiot, Duo slowly raised a hand to scratch the top of his head, keeping it in sight the entire time to draw of his friends' soldier instincts. His fingers brushed the small 7mm handgun that he kept hidden at the top of his braid, but he ignored that sensation. Then, he put on his best "I'm Duo Maxwell, I'm so charming" grin and laughed, "Needed some exercise, ok?"

Though it was a good excuse, it left the boys confused. Quatre approached Duo with concern clear in his face. "Duo, what's wrong? You've been acting strange ever since… ever since your surgery. If anything is bothering you, you need to tell us. That mission almost ended in disaster because you insisted that you were all right!" It seemed like it took a lot for Quatre to say that.

Though it hurt him to do so, Duo shrugged Quatre off. "You worry too much, Q-ball. They checked me out, and I'm just fine," then with a devious grin, he added, "…just hungry. Got anything to eat?"

Cruelly, Wufei pointed out, "You missed breakfast, Maxwell."

Duo pouted, looking broken hearted, and no one save maybe Trowa noticed as Heero slipped silently back to his room.

Taking pity on the braided boy, Quatre relented, "Take something quickly, we need to get to work."

That was all it took to lift Duo's spirits again. He nodded happily and practically skipped to the kitchen, humming randomly the entire way.

"If he starts singing that disgraceful music again-…" Wufei seethed, catching the opening riffs to a song that he had been playing far too loudly two days ago, but was too late as Duo launched into a song, one that he had apparently only recently become enamored with.

Before he even got a few coherent words out, Wufei whirled around and bellowed, "MAXWELL!"

***

Later on that same day, Duo sat quietly in one corner of the large divided room in the middle of many seemingly haphazardly strewn white objects, most of them papers. He wore a heavy frown on his face and a single battered white feather between his fingers. The CD player next to him had been playing the same rock CD for hours, and was set to a low volume ever since Wufei mad him turn it down. Duo always had a habit of staring into blank space when he thought no one was looking, but recently it had seemed to intensify.

//"They shouldn't have been able to catch me."// Duo insisted as his thoughts wandered to the scene in the hallway that morning. //"Not even Heero should have noticed my coming and going. I'm usually so much better than this. Damn it, he's caught me every night. Why didn't he say anything? …Why didn't I do anything?"// His eyelids lowered a fraction of an inch more, and his frown deepened almost imperceptibly. //"…Maybe I really wanted someone to catch me. Maybe I really want… someone to… know."// He blinked without hanging his expression. //"But who am I kidding? I couldn't do that, could I? Well, they might understand…"// Duo screwed his eyes shut and bit back a frustrated growl. //"But I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone. After all, I have just as much to fear from… outsiders… as them back in that big crater city do."//

Duo paused then. He had never truly thought of his friends as outsiders before. They had always been the closest thing to true friends he had during the war, his only equals. This sudden alienation (Duo congratulated the creators of the English language for their ironic choice of words) carried with it a feeling of isolation so powerful that it still felt surreal. No matter how hard Duo tried to convince himself that the mission was his first priority, he found himself inevitably distracted by this problem and the need to sort it out. //"I have to try harder in the future, I can't let the others become suspicious. I'm almost one-fourth done with the two months this is supposed to last. I can separate from them for a while, do a few solo missions, and be back like… nothing happened…"// But something had happened, and Duo knew that no matter how hard he tried, he could never forget that. His head slipped into his cupped hands, covering his eyes as if the light hurt them. //"Solo, I'm so sorry. I just don't know what to do. You always told me to take care of myself and follow what my heart and soul wants. …Well, I don't know what I want. I'm not even sure if I need what I think I do. Why can't you be here to tell me what I need to do? You always made things sound so simple, even when they weren't…."//

Trowa silently strode up behind Quatre, who had been watching Duo through gaps in the sheets, half the large room away. "How long has he been there?" he asked in that low, almost silent voice of his that was both clear and deep.

"Since he came back this morning." Quatre replied. He loved that voice; it promised safety, forgiveness, security, and a sort of deep, fragile ambiguity. He wished to hear it more often, but supposed for a moment that if he did, then it would spoil the effect. Quatre's eyebrows pursed as he sighed, bringing his mind back to where his heart told him that it needed to be. "Trowa, I'm so worried." He told the tall European in a near whisper so Duo wouldn't even hear their voices over his music. "He's been acting strange since that escort mission. He's just not acting like himself anymore."

"Do you think perhaps that his injury might still be bothering him?" Trowa supplied without any real conviction.

"No, his physical reactions aren't hampered in the slightest. " Quatre analyzed, thinking back to their battle in Germany with the barest shudder. "Actually, his movements are smoother than before. He just seems… detached, if that makes sense. He's normally so quick and adaptive, but recently he seems unable to concentrate. …And through Wufei would probably disagree, he's too quiet. He's not even working on a project and he's not humming or fidgeting or anything-… ok, so he has been twirling that feather for the past half-hour. Do you think he suffered some sort of mental complication?"

"He has been acting strange." Trowa agreed. "He hasn't actively sought to annoy Wufei or Heero even on the ride out of the desert. He seems as competent as ever during battle, however."

"…Yes." Quatre sighed again, remembering the calculated risk taking and precise offense of the Deathscythe Gundam. "However, he hasn't reported being at Deathscythe's repairs yet."

"If his mental abilities have been compromised-…" Trowa began in a warning tone.

"…He'll be ejected from all future missions as a Gundam pilot, for his own safety." Quatre finished for Trowa. "Knowing Duo, he'll probably just steal Deathscythe again to keep anyone else from piloting it, and go on self-appointed missions. He'll get himself killed doing that."

For a few awkward, contemplative moments, silence stretched between the two as the reality of what exactly they were discussing sank in. The song on Duo's all-important CD player changed to one that the pilots immediately recognized as being short from the many times the play list had already cycled that day.

"We should take him to Sally if it gets too bad. For now… we need to confront him about sneaking out at night. He puts us all at risk by doing that." Quatre decided.

"And then there's the question of where he goes, what he does. It was his information, remember, that nearly caused our last mission to end in disaster, not to mention fail."

"What are you suggesting?" Quatre asked, suddenly fearful of where the discussion was leading them.

"I'm not sure, but it's entirely possible-…"

The cherubic boy's eyes widened as he suddenly realized what Trowa was trying to say, and he finished the sentence for him, "…that Duo isn't Duo."

Quatre suddenly received the distinct impression of the blade of a guillotine falling as Trowa bowed his head in affirmation.

Tentatively, Quatre admitted with a mirroring nod, "I've thought of that as well…" Then quicker, he sputtered, "But let's not jump to conclusions! The fact remains, we must confront Duo. He won't lie to us… if it's him." Quatre almost kicked himself for adding that last part.

"And if it's not him?" Trowa advocated, not missing a punch, "How will we know?"

Quatre took the moment to peer back through the space between the many sheets at Duo's brooding form, twirling the battered, abused feather again. "I… don't know." He sighed. "I need to take a walk."

Trowa nodded. "I'll check on Wufei. He was entirely too pleased with himself after taking only two minutes to get Duo to turn down the stereo's volume."

Trowa turned and left, heading for the far wall by the stairs. However, as soon as Quatre walked outside onto the balcony, instead of entering Wufei's room, he climbed the staircase to the second floor. He quickly checked to see that Duo was still preoccupied before slipping into Duo's room, which neighbored his own.

The first thing that Trowa noticed was a small, egg-shaped device sitting on the desk amidst various spare parts and tools. When he compared it to the drawing he found on yellow scratchpad paper next to it, it looked just about complete. It didn't seem all that important; Duo had shown the pilots his new invention earlier when they had asked about it, so Trowa doubted it held any secrets.

He began his search by opening Duo's closet. It was quite bare, and Trowa didn't find anything but wires and various projects that Duo had long since completed and shown them. Trowa made a mental note to check them for tracking devices later when he had more time.

He found only two CD's in Duo's "important" bag under his bed, various guns, most with modifications, various types of ammo, mostly silicon bullets but some rare lead ones and some filled with liquids as well. Trowa remembered Duo telling them about the poison and charges in these special bullets. The ones with the poison were meant to shatter and deliver a quick acting sleep agent, causing a beautiful wound and making it look like a kill, but just rendering the victim unconscious for a few hours. The other bullets were filled with a thin, sticky, conductive liquid that hardened after stringing out following the impact, and delivered a powerful electric shock with an EMP device in the base of the bullet, triggered by the impact. In a silenced weapon, these were highly useful for taking out mechanical targets at a distance. Trowa had only caught Duo use one on people to quickly take out a group. The effectiveness of the ammo was horrifying, and that had made Trowa suddenly glad that the bullets ere so expensive and time-consuming to create.

Most of what was in Duo's bag were broken parts of various mechanical and computer bits, and Trowa couldn't find anything wrong with that. Notes on his other projects and theories were scattered around, and other than a few food wrappers, most of the drawers on the desk contained nothing.

Only one of the drawers was locked. Trowa was about to conclude that Duo probably kept the key on him when he discovered the glistening hunk of metal underneath his pillow. He inserted the key, twisted the lock, pulled out the drawer, and discovered… feathers?

Trowa heard a clank as someone began to climb the spiraling metal stairs and he nearly jumped. He quickly closed the drawer, re-locked it, returned the key to its hiding spot, and quickly, nimbly, and silently slunk out of Duo's room and into his, where he quietly closed the door and listened through the grate between his and Duo's room.

Sure enough, it was Duo who had climbed the stairs and entered his room. There was a bit of shuffling, then Duo unlocked, opened, and closed the one locked drawer, and tinkered with the thing on his desk. He only did that for a few minutes, and after straining to hear him for so long, Trowa jumped when Duo shouted, "Hey, guys, I'm going to get to the repairs! I'll be back in about four hours!" There was another rustle; Duo had grabbed his jacket.

"Take someone with you, Maxwell!" Wufei advised him strongly.

"Nah, I think I'll be fine on my own. "He stalked out of the room and climbed down the stairs, and Wufei came out of his own room.

"Don't hijack a car, Maxwell. We don't want to draw attention." Wufei continued from his doorway as Duo passed by.

"Hey, it might draw attention when you jack cars, but you're talking to one Mr. Duo Maxwell here, 'fei!" Trowa found it odd that Duo would word things as such. "I'll be just fine."

As Trowa peeked out of his room, he noticed that Duo had a lumpy bag of electrical bits slung over his shoulder. His argument with Wufei didn't last very long; Duo seemed very determined to leave, and after he shut the front door behind him, Trowa snuck back into his room to get a better look around.

***

//"Duo left…"// Quatre vaguely realized as he walked slowly back and forth across the balcony. Numerous potted plants and vines lined the railing, and Quatre admired the deep green hues of their leaves as he tried to clear his head. He plopped down on the small chair nearby as walking began to grow repetitive, and rested his face in his hands, eyes closed. He was still very sorry for ever admitting what he though to Trowa. It was a cruel thing to say, or even think, and cruel was one thing that Quatre was not.

//" 'I never went anywhere.' "// Quatre remembered Duo having told him at the beginning of this crazy series of events. He smiled now, finally getting the joke. Duo had known what he was talking about and tried to diffuse the situation, or at least lighten the mood with humor, as he always tended to do. Now, however…

//"He's been moody."// Quatre reflected. //"His jokes aren't funny, he laughs at things we don't understand…"// Quatre paused. //"…He's been brooding. Something is really bothering him. A spy wouldn't want to draw that kind of attention… but by observing Duo, this is the side of him that a spy would get to know…"// Quatre only managed to frustrate himself. No matter how much he tried to eliminate the possibility from his mind, it just seemed more and more likely that Duo was already gone from among them.

Quatre sighed and opened his eyes. Something pearly and white rested among the plant leaves in front of him. Curiously, he reached down and lifted the shiny feather up to his face and twirled it. It certainly was an entertaining pastime…

His gaze shifted and Quatre spotted another feather a few feet away and walked over to pick it up. This one was long and black, and most of its length was fuzz instead of a flat plane of fibers. He swished it through the air slowly and watched the light filaments bend back. Quatre suddenly wondered what sort of bird this could possibly come from, then peered closer to the first feather, and noticed something strange. The fibers seemed almost scaly. Quatre had learned a little about birds in school and had played idly with a few real feathers during his short stay on Earth, and he was pretty sure that no birds he'd ever heard of had feathers like this.

Quatre looked around. He was mildly surprised to see several more among the plants. Curious, he moved around to pick them up.

***

About an hour later, both Heero and Wufei were sitting at the small table in the kitchen. Wufei was doing paperwork, and even though he normally hated this kind of work, he wore a satisfied smirk on his face. Heero was working on his laptop, as always, when Quatre came in and dropped an armload of feathers on the table. Both working boys looked up.

"Hn." Heero asked without asking.

"Honestly, Quatre, if you want to make crafts, do it someplace where the rest of us aren't trying to work." Wufei flicked a feather off the top of his work.

"I found all these on the balcony." Now that he was inside, telling the others of his probably irrelevant discovery seemed silly, but it was too late to back out now without losing a great deal of his friends' respect. "I was wondering if, just for fun, one of you might be able to tell me what bird they come from."

Wufei smirked. "You should be more interested in your Gundam's maintenance than some stupid bird's feathers."

At that precise moment, Trowa walked in from the front hallway. No one had heard him close the front door. "They aren't."

"What?" Quatre asked softly.

"They aren't bird feathers, or at least not any of the kind of birds that we know." He placed a thick dinosaur book on the table, open to a picture of a colorful, scaly bird. This confused Quatre, and though he would never admit it, Wufei too. "They resemble the scales of reptiles, the only like to which I found is this entry on Archaeopteryx." He flipped the page to show a detailed picture of a fossil imprint of one of the feathers of the ancient bird next to a diagram of its bones and various captions on the entries.

"Trowa, what do you mean by this?" Quatre asked, unable to follow.

Trowa shrugged. Apparently he didn't know either. "The feathers aren't mechanical, and if they're synthetic, they're awfully convincing, but maybe this will intrigue you more:" he pulled a handful of feathers from his picket and placed them on the table next to Quatre's pile. No one could tell the difference between the two sets, "Duo has been collecting them."

Quatre cocked an eyebrow. "Why? What reason could he possibly have to do a thing like that?"

"That, I don't know. I was hoping Duo might be able to enlighten us on that subject." Trowa replied.

Suddenly, Quatre realized what Trowa must have done to find this out. "Wait, you went through Duo's things? Trowa! How could you?"

Trowa just shrugged as if it didn't matter. "I was searching for clues, trying to find out anything I could before jumping to conclusions. This looks like a clue to me; they were in his only locked drawer."

"Duo has been acting strangely." Heero said in a tone that in itself added, 'and only that', like that alone wasn't worth their attention.

If Wufei had been a more expressive person, he would have rolled his eyes. As it was, he crossed his arm over his chest. "I don't understand how Maxwell's silence bothers you. It's a blessing." He told Quatre and Trowa.

Reluctantly, Quatre spoke up with a sigh in his voice. "We don't want to jump to conclusions, but it's entirely possible that Duo… Duo…" he couldn't seem to get it out, and turned to Trowa.

"Isn't Duo." Trowa finished for him firmly and without hesitation.

"Hn." Heero asked without any change to his tone of voice. It was difficult to determine what he was trying to communicate by that. The light behind his eyes seemed closed off.

"What?" Wufei asked seriously.

Quatre fidgeted nervously as he elaborated. "…Professor J's orders to escort weapons to that hidden base weren't well-explained. Without those details, we have no leads to follow as to what exactly convinced J to assign that mission. It could very well have been a skillfully placed setup by OZ to lure away one of our own. They've already used your information, Trowa and Heero, to program Mobile Dolls to fight like us. It would be unerringly simple to train one soldier for the purpose of replacing one of us, even with limited data, and then have that soldier implant an intelligent autopilot in Deathscythe based on Duo's fighting data. Plastic surgery and hair implants could take care of his physical description."

"And wouldn't it be fitting for the God of Death to brood like that?" Trowa surprised everyone with his insight, especially Quatre.

The cherubic boy made a face and wrung his hands as he continued. "…I really hope, for Duo's sake, that he just experienced some sort of personal epiphany while he was in that hospital, but it's entirely possible that the real Duo Maxwell could be sitting in a dark room, systematically being…" Quatre swallowed hard as his voice rose in pitch and forced it back down, "…tortured and questioned while a decoy is stationed here to throw off our missions, report secret information, and… buy time."

"It's not true." Heero immediately said, glaring in Quatre and Trowa's general direction.

That startled everyone. Trowa narrowed his eyes in curiosity. "…How would you know?"

"Hn," was Heero's inconclusive answer.

"With all the time you've been left alone, it's entirely possible that you might have been planted among us to thwart suspicion." Trowa glared.

Heero glared right back.

Quatre placed a calming hand on Trowa's shoulder and the teen slowly relaxed. "…Trust is often the first casualty of war. I'm sorry, Trowa, Wufei, Heero, I'm sorry I brought this up."

"Still, the fact remains," Trowa continued calmly, "Duo's strange behavior can't go uninvestigated. We need solid evidence that he is or is not who we think he is, and if he is, we need to find out what's bothering him and fix the problem before his instability begins to pose a threat to us all."

Out of the other pilots' sight, Heero fingered a small white feather, similar to those in the pile, that he had found earlier. He sighed internally. "I'll tun a quick scan of Deathscythe's programming and hardware." He offered, then stood and exited without waiting for a response, not that he needed one.

***

Minutes later Heero drove up to where he new Duo's Gundam to be, and was mildly surprised to see Duo working diligently. Heero noticed briefly that Duo must have shed his shirt-possibly because of the afternoon heat-and there was a distinct lack of another vehicle in the area. Heero's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he moved toward the prone Gundam's cockpit.

Duo only noticed him when the stoic boy climbed up on top of the Gundam. His concentration was broken by Heero's foot passing inches in front of his face. Duo flashed him a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes, and spoke with a falsely cheerful voice, "Yo, Hee-buddy. What's up?" 'Yo'? Duo wasn't normally a 'yo' kind of person.

"Hn." Heero responded noncommittally as he hooked his laptop up to Deathscythe's computer system. He types on a few keys, and had already hacked in by the fifth keystroke.

Narrowing his eyes, Duo imitated Quatre's tone of voice as he mock-scolded his almost emotionless friend. "You're not even going to ask if you can take a look? How rude!"

Mildly annoyed, Heero relented, "Hnn. May I."

"Sure buddy, you don't even need to ask!" Duo laughed cheerfully.

"Hn. I didn't." Heero barely responded and continued his search.

"Seriously though, what'cha lookin' for? Maybe I can help you find it." Duo asked as he peered over.

"Hn." Heero said inconclusively. Do couldn't tell if it was a 'yes', a 'no', or an 'I really don't give a damn, I'm just doing it because I can', 'hn'. Heero shifted away as Duo tried to win a glimpse, so the braided boy flopped back down where he had just been sitting.

"…Or not." Duo scratched the back of his head and his fingers brushed a few random objects that he kept stored in his braid. "You know, Heero, it really takes more than a one word vocabulary to hold a meaningful conversation."

"You do enough talking for the both of us." Heero replied cruelly.

Duo's eyes widened. He felt put-off, but at the same time amazed by Heero's response. "…Was that a joke? From Heero stone-up-his-ass Yuy?"

"Duo."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Duo sighed and leaned back. "Riiiiiiight."

***

Heero returned within the hour after downloading Duo's significant data. It took almost three hours to decode and manually process the information because he was well aware of the viruses that the Gundam scientists had programmed into their systems to discourage or at least delay this sort of hacking from OZ should the Gundams be captured. OZ had long since found ways around them, however, and though it was child's play for Heero, the process was still tedious.

After he was done, he placed the laptop and all his paper calculations on the table in front of the other pilots where they had been busy with discussion of their next mission. "Nothing." He told them. "Duo's fights are his own." Heero brushed a stray feather roughly off the keys of his laptop as it landed.

"And what does that tell us?" Wufei asked harshly.

"It means nothing more than he fights like Duo, and nothing less." Trowa replied quietly.

"Then what should we do?" Quatre asked with a note of fatigue to his tone.

"Confront him." Heero continued. It wasn't a suggestion. "It's almost dinner time, and Duo won't miss a meal."

"If he's Duo." Trowa pointed out sharply.

Hero only gave the barest hint of a shrug as he sat, not wanting to stand out when Duo walked in through the door.

Sure enough, the very moment Heero sat down, Duo opened and closed the door as he walked in humming, a bit disheveled and wind-blown. A few white fuzzy things were poking out of his pockets and he tried in vain to shove them in before leaving the hallway, but failed, shrugged, and kept walking. As he came out from behind the wall separating him from the kitchen, he said cheerfully, "Hey guys! What's for-…" he stopped abruptly, eyes going wide as he spotted the pile of feathers on the table. "What the-…"

"Duo, what's been going on?" Trowa interrupted him. "You've been acting strangely for quite a while now. And… we have reason to believe that you aren't truly yourself."

If it was physically possible for Duo's eyes to go any wider, they did. "Wait a second, not myself? Who else could I be, Tro-man?"

Trowa cringed at the nickname, one that Duo had used so often before the fateful mission that had led to this.

"Though I don't mind that you aren't constantly bothering me," Wufei covered for Trowa, "we have reason to believe that you are an OZ spy." That was Wufei all right, never one for the subtle approach.

Duo sputtered, dumbfounded for an instant. "Wha-… what!? How the hell did you come up with that one!? What an insult!"

Quatre wrung his hands as he spoke sadly, "Duo, I don't want to believe it, but your recent behavior has been too strange to ignore." He looked to the feathers on the table and picked one up, twirling it near the edge of the table. "I found these feathers all over the balcony, and Trowa found more in your room. Why have you been collecting them?"

"Wait, you went through my stuff!?" Duo shouted. The pilots had never heard him so outraged toward anyone but the Ozzies. "How the hell could you!? I respect your space, Trowa! What the fuck were you doing in mine!? Don't you trust me?"

Trowa crossed his arms and made a sound like, "hmph."

Duo couldn't think of any words strong enough to say to that. He had been angry before, yes, but the source of his anger had never been a force that he couldn't physically fight, or at least stave off with a witty comment or two. Duo's expression grew dark for several long moments as he attempted to reign in a temper that would have impressed even Wufei. His eyes seemed to have lost their luster completely, and without a smile to hide it, the dark rings under and around his eyes gave him a sunken, skeletal look. Several unerringly simple, yet absolutely unacceptable solutions came immediately to mind, and Duo clenched his fists and winced with a sound that was more of a hiss. When he spoke again, his voice was low and serious, but his posture had relaxed, and now he only looked tired. "Trowa, I forgave you for deceiving me, I even forgave you for destroying Deathscythe, but you of all people I thought would understand that my personal space is sacred to me. If you ever pull something like this again, any of you, I-will-leave, and I won't be coming back. I don't care if this is some sort of joke; it's not funny. I've been through a hell of a lot lately, and I've been trying my hardest to help things seem normal around here for the sake of the mission, but I don't need this bullshit. I don't care if you thought I was the Easter bunny, that doesn't give you the right-… You have no right-…"

Quatre's distress at Duo's anger was apparent in his eyes. "…Duo, I'm sorry-…"

"Don't apologize." Trowa said curtly, and then quickly crossed the threshold while Duo was still surprised and lifted a handful of crushed white feathers from his pocket. "More feathers." He stated seriously as he held the crumpled, scaly white feathers triumphantly. "What are you doing with these?"

Duo curled his upper lip and glared as he grabbed for the feathers, his face growing red and hot. "Give those back!"

Trowa nimbly avoided Duo's wild swipes and stood back.

Duo shoved his hands into his pockets, glared, and hunched his shoulders defensively. "Find, if it means so much to you, keep them. You seem to have quite the collection already, who am I to deny you another addition?" Duo mocked him cruelly, the shadows around his eyes almost black.

Quatre was visibly shaken. He was eerily reminded of Duo on the battlefield and had a sudden irrational fear of him and a desire to hide behind someone.

Meanwhile, Duo was housing an internal battle of his own. //"Well, you got what you wanted,"// a sardonic little voice told him. //"They have you now; you should just leave before the situation requires… alternative action."// Duo didn't like that sardonic little voice, especially as it suggested alternative action in such a maliciously gleeful tone. Duo knew well what that meant.

//"No."// He told himself firmly. //"I can't tell them the truth, but they're still my friends, the best ones I have."//

//"They don't seem to think so."// That malicious little voice replied, relishing every word it spoke. //"Sure they're your… 'best' friends,"// it leered, //"but they're also your only ones, and right now they're just about to throw you to the wolves. Tell me, what sort of friends would do that?"//

//"Shut up."// Duo told the voice. He recognized immediately exactly what part of himself he was arguing with, and he was filled with a horrible sense of dread and shame. Though he tried to convince himself that he was fully in control of his actions, Shinigami was in control of his thoughts, and it became more and more difficult to fight him off every time Shinigami found cause to rise into his conscious mind. //"Shut up, I don't need this right now. I'm not on the battlefield, I don't need to think like I am, I don't want-…"// Duo cut his thoughts off abruptly there, but they still echoed weakly through his mind. //"I don't want them to meet you."//

//"Ah, so now we're at the root of the problem!"// Shinigami laughed triumphantly as a deadly chill spread from Duo's fingers up his arms.

//"No, we're not."// Duo firmly replied. //"And why the hell am I thinking in plural!? Just shut up!"//

//"Well, I wish you'd make up your mind as to whether or not you want me to answer your questions."// Shinigami retorted ruthlessly.

//"Is this how I always sound?"// Duo morbidly thought, then quickly decided, //"You know what?"//

--//"No, why don't you introduce me some time?"// Shinigami thought as the impression of a vicious smirk wove itself into the forefront of Duo'' mind, and made a ghost of an appearance on his face.--

Duo ignored that completely and forced his lips into a frown. //"No, I don't want you answering my questions! I don't want to hear anything out of you unless I'm on the battlefield, so just shut up!"//

A thick silence descended over the area of his mind where Shinigami had provoked him from only moments before. The chill in Duo's hands was almost painful, and he resisted the urge to rub them for warmth.

Duo looked up. Not surprisingly, all the pilots were staring at him with expressions more or less akin to confusion, worry, fear, and a range of others. Quatre stood half behind Trowa and peered over to Duo with all of the above and more clearly visible in his eyes.

"Duo, what's going on?" he asked quietly. "If you really are… yourself, you can tell us. This isn't like you, brooding almost constantly, hiding most of the day, and sneaking out at night." Quatre paused, the kind expression on his face growing sad. "Whatever is going on, if you don't want to tell anyone, at least tell me. Duo, you almost died last time you didn't…"

Quatre's pleading look was almost too much for Duo. It seemed to tear a hole through his side through which all of his anger, hostility, outrage, and resistance drained out. How could Duo resist a face like that-no, a person like that, who's only wish was for everyone's happiness except his own? Duo sighed and found that he had to look away. He couldn't bear to even twist the truth when his voice crackled to life again. "…I…"

"Spit it out, Maxwell!" Wufei ordered him impatiently.

"By Allah, Duo! Just tell us!" Quatre begged him, compelling Duo to speak once more.

"…I… can't." Duo choked out, barely above a whisper.

"What!?" Trowa's voice raised itself to a normal inside volume, shouting for him.

That was it. Duo whirled around, fists clenched and eyes blazing as he repeated the truth. "I can't tell you, all right!? I promised that I wouldn't, so I can't! You're my friends, I thought you'd trust me! You have to! You just have to…" His voice failed him in the last few moments.

Wufei was shocked by Duo's outburst, but not so much as not to respond. He fell back into one of his most familiar range of responses. "Well now, I don't see how we can, especially after that outburst."

Duo stared on, dumbfounded. He moved his gaze to Trowa, who refused to meet his eyes, and then looked to Quatre. The meek boy's face was only inches from the tall European's.

"Duo, I want to believe you…" Quatre's words were heartfelt. He still truly wanted to believe that this was Duo that they were talking to, "but honestly, from your words alone, I can't."

"Quatre, it's me!" Duo shouted, then regretted raising his voice to the kind boy and lowered it, losing all of his severity, but none of his desperation. "This is insane. Ask me something only I would know, I swear I am who I am!"

Wufei frowned. "Weren't you listening? We can't trust your words! Anything you might say could have been tortured from the real Duo."

"He would have been easy to crack, all people truly are." Trowa added.

Wufei snorted. "He was half cracked already."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." Duo sneered sarcastically, that strange dark look twisting his face and revealing that Duo wasn't at all amused by his own comment.

//"Ah, a bitter jest, when the satire lies to near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind…"// Shinigami's voice echoed chillingly through Duo's thoughts with a cynical laugh to its tone.

//"I thought I shut you up."// Duo counterattacked the voice with his own thoughts. Despite the fact that he knew the sardonic voice to be his own, his recent lack of control over his own thoughts was beginning to scare him.

//"The job of satire is to frighten and enlighten."// the voice told him in a tone that was at the same time both flippant and maliciously piercing.

//"Go away."// Duo forcefully thought. //"I don't need to be thinking like this right now."//

"Trowa, we still need solid evidence. We can't say either way until then." Quatre advocated in a warning tone for Duo against the others' paranoid tendencies.

Trowa shook his head, interpreting Quatre's words as a need for medical tests. "The only medical files he has are at that hidden base, where the trouble started. We only have our own memories to go by."

"That's it!" Quatre shouted suddenly with glee.

"What's it?" Wufei asked.

"Duo's wound!" Quatre explained, sure that this would finally prove that indeed, Duo was standing right before them. "It's impossible for it to have healed completely."

Duo's expression remained dark. No, it wasn't impossible, not for him.

Heero still stood by without participating. If the proceedings interested him, he didn't show it in the slightest.

"Surgery might have taken care of those scars as well." Trowa pointed out.

"But at least if he has scars, we can be more sure of who he is…" Quatre's logic failed him as he thought it over. He lifted his gaze and tried to catch Duo's eyes through the darkness that had overshadowed them, tried to tell him that he was trying his hardest to help, but all the light from within them seemed to have been stolen.

//"See? They have you now. These dangerous people that you call your friends might trust you for your talent and skill, but the moment that you begin to act differently, to take their advice and invest in some serous introspection, their inappropriate paranoia sets in."//

//"I thought I told you to shut up."//

The voice continued unheedingly. It was eerily similar to Duo's, yet infinitely different in its tone and inflections. //"We should escape now, while we still have a chance. Only Heero knows where Deathscythe is, and in any case, they won't be guarding it all the time… We could do plenty of damage here before leaving as well-…"//

//"Fuck off. There is no way in hell that I'm pulling an escape like that here."// Even as Duo pushed away the notion, he had to agree that it was probably the best course of action, and that just for a moment, he had truly wanted to do just that.

//"You know it's what you want to do."// Damn.

Duo definitely looked afraid to the four pilots watching him. Trowa and Wufei had been slowly moving to flank him as the dark youth seemed preoccupied. Wufei, though secretly grateful that the baka hadn't bolted on them, was suddenly forced to wonder just what could be drawing Maxwell's attention away at this critical moment, and perhaps if it was the same thing that occasionally caused him to drop his guard on the battlefield.

Unable to truthfully deny his own thoughts, Duo instead lashed out against them with another point, in a vain hope that if he could disprove just one of Shinigami's assertions that his entire platform would crumble. //"And stop saying 'you' and 'I' and 'me' like I'm schizophrenic or something! I do not talk to myself-…"//

//"Actually, you often do, but that's not the point."// Shinigami's flippant tones, so similar to Duo's own teasing voice yet harboring a deadly malice that Duo would never dare voice, served more to disarm Duo's mind than the words that were actually said. After a moment of stunned silence where Duo wondered exactly where that came from, Shinigami apologized in a way that meant he wasn't sorry at all, //"Sorry, couldn't resist."// Then he laughed. //"No matter, you'll be begging for me to get you out of this situation soon enough. Look around."//

Duo's eyes went wide as he noticed Wufei and Trowa preparing to grab him, and for a moment, light reached his eyes and his heart shone through those amethyst depts. Quatre subconsciously lifted a loose fist up to his chest as he sympathetically felt the edge of Duo's shock and sudden fear.

//"How could I have missed that!?"// Duo barely had the time to think as he started and the two boys on either side of him lunged forward and arrested Duo's arms. He realized then with morbid humor that he truly had noticed, or must have for that snide voice to have told him with such triumph. Without thinking his actions through (as he would have done if he was on the battlefield) Duo struggled and tried to break out of the two stronger boys' hold by aiming a handy foot at Wufei's shin, but the stronger boy looped his own leg around Duo's and locked it in place. Duo was about to go for Trowa's next, but he hesitated as he questioned the move. That was all the time it took for the taller boy to lop his own powerful leg around Duo's and step closer, so he and Wufei had arrested his torso and shoulders as well. A powerful notion to use his head to knock against the two and stun them entered Duo's mind, but he fought it down and looked to each side. There was no way he was going to break away from Trowa and Wufei; Duo was the second physically weakest pilot next to Quatre. Even though Trowa was number three on that list, the built European could probably bench three Duo's and a card table, whereas Duo doubted that he could even lift two Trowas. Even if Duo tried to pull a move, Wufei would probably "unleash the Dragon" on his ass before he could even react. Even so, after the pilots got a good look at his back, the situation would probably take a nasty turn for the worse. Duo didn't want to hurt his comrades-no, his friends-but who knew if they would feel the same in a few moments?

"Quatre, get over here and take a look!" Wufei yelled irately, obviously not pleased about a number of things having to do with this situation and his own proximity to Maxwell. As Duo turned his head to glare at Wufei, he and Trowa forced him to bend forward a little to further arrest his movement, and make it easier for Quatre to lift the back of his jacket and shirt once he got there. Duo winced as the unexpected movement sent shock waves through the bones in his back.

Quatre hesitated when Duo lifted his face and looked ad him willingly, forcing the sparkle back into his eyes for just a moment. "Quatre, I'm all for doing a strip tease, just not in front of you guys. …And because these two obviously won't listen to me, could you please, please, please get them to let go? This is really uncomfortable…" Duo even let a ghost of a laugh grace his voice, but that faded when Wufei next spoke.

"Now, Quatre. This was your idea. I know of a few more painful methods of interrogation if you'd rather we take alternative measures." Wufei growled out. Duo frowned darkly for a moment, redirecting all of his anger uselessly at him as if it would somehow give Wufei a kick in the butt for him.

Quatre nodded and wrung his small hands as he slowly began to move with Heero in tow.

"Quatre, buddy," Duo's voice took on a more desperate tone, and his eyes were too large for the hollow grin he managed to paste on his face, "come on, this is embarrassing. Please don't do this. Quatre!"

//"You've already lost them. You're only making the situation worse."//

//"Shut up already!"// "Quatre, come on, please? No, come on, seriously now. Come on, I promise I'll keep my stereo volume down, I'll even stop picking on Wufei all the time! Quatre, please, I'll leave Wufei's underwear alone, I'll even take the itching powder out of the back of the drawer-…"

"That was you!?" Wufei roared as he scratched his ass.

"…Er…" Duo declined to comment, though Wufei's grip on his arm became oppressively tight. "Please, come on, please, I'll do anything, just leave my back alone! Anything, Quatre, anything! I'll clean my room, I'll clean the kitchen too, I'll clean the whole house!" By this time, Quatre had stopped right behind Duo and could no longer look the ten in the eyes, though he knew that they were filled with desperation, just like his voice. "Quatre, no! Come on, now, I'm your friend!" Duo's voice was strained from shouting by the time that last word echoed through the house.

"Come on, Quatre. If he's a spy, he deserves much worse." Wufei hissed.

Duo pushed against him for that.

//"It's too late to argue with them! We can still escape if we go now!"// Shinigami yelled, and Duo's inhibition nearly burst apart with its force, but Duo's conviction held firm.

//"I will escape some other way, and I'm not shooting any of my friends to do it."// Duo stated resolutely.

//"Fine, then. Have it your way."// Shinigami told him without truly compromising. His voice echoed darkly, and the space it had come from suddenly felt woefully empty again.

With his darker desires locked away-or perhaps merely willfully dormant again-the resolution Duo had felt sank quickly into agonizing dread. He felt the back of his coat lift slightly as Quatre's fingers tentatively grasped it.

"…I'm sorry that I have to do this, Duo." Quatre's apology was truly heartfelt, and Duo realized suddenly that Quatre was perhaps just as torn about this as he was.

Duo hung his head in defeat. He couldn't bring himself to struggle anymore, not as he began to understand that the strained emotions, nervous tension, and looming sense of betrayal among the team was entirely his fault. The sad gravity of what was about to happen suddenly hit him like a two-ton punch in the gut, and he squeezed his eyes shut to keep the threat of tears back. Duo Maxwell never cried, never for himself. "…I forgive you." Duo whispered for Quatre's ears alone.

The cherubic youth pushed Duo's jacket and shirt up his unresisting form until the articles bunched at his armpits and just below his neck. Duo's back muscles shivered as the cloth brushed his sensitive wings through the thin layer of skin and the bandages he wore around his torso to appease the other boys. He randomly remembered Doctor Arwel telling him that his wings were so sensitive to various types of heat, cold, and pressure because of their need to sense subtle changes in air currents. Duo, too emotionally exhausted to care, generously forgot to curse her name.

Quatre's hands began their careful work on his bandages, and Duo, as starved for human contact as he was, might have enjoyed the gentle touch if it wasn't for the weight in his stomach that seemed to be slowly moving up his throat and threatening to close off his air supply. Quatre handled Duo's bandages as if the braided boy was an exquisite piece of glass, and was so focused on being careful that he didn't realize that there was nothing beneath the wrappings until he reached the very end of the clean linen and gauze.

Quatre gasped and took a step back. There were plenty of horrifying slash marks, bullet scars, and other painful-looking records of past injuries on Duo's sides and front, but where the worst scars should have been, nothing but immaculate, unmarked skin gleamed before Quatre's eyes. Curiously, but with no betrayal of the thoughts within visible on his face, Heero stepped forward and ran the backs of his index fingers up the soft muscle on either side of Duo's spine where the worst of the injury had been. Duo bit his lip and shivered at the pleasurable contact, but fought the feeling down and made an offhand mental note never to let anyone but Hilde do that.

It wouldn't have been far off the mark to say that all hell broke loose then. Heero turned away with a visible scowl on his face, Wufei and Trowa demanded to know what was going on. Duo sighed and whispered a quick apology and went heavily limp, forcing Trowa and Wufei to let go of him or be dragged to the floor. Once Duo had his hands free, he tore a gun out from the top of his braid, rolled back to free his legs, and came up next to Quatre, who shrieked. He promptly took the boy hostage, holding his arms behind Quatre's back with one arm and the gun to his head with the other.

"Nobody move!" Duo shouted at the stunned soldiers, his black short and jacket falling around his bare torso with a soft rustle even as a horrifying chill penetrated every cell in his body. Quatre whimpered at Duo's icy grasp, wondering how just moments before this boy had been so warm to the touch. "I swear I'll kill him if you move!" His voice spoke of a malice that was felt as well as heard, and each pilot was left with no doubt that Duo wouldn't hesitate to do just that. They couldn't even see his eyes under their heavy shadows, but they could see all his teeth as he frowned and bared them. //"Stupid boy."// Shinigami seethed. //"It's too late now, too late. The little Arab is the only thing keeping them from jumping me, and even that defense won't last long. Heero will take out his gun, or Trowa will pull a move, or Wufei might kick Quatre to knock me off balance. Even if they don't get a chance to do any of those, Quatre's shock will wear off soon, and he knows how to handle a hostage situation. I can assume that the others know the layout of the shrouds in this room as well as I do; Heero might know them even better. I could get halfway to the balcony before they regroup or I get in a confrontation. I could dispatch anyone but Heero without firing a shot. Even that won't slow him unless it's a vital shot. Any confrontation would draw the attention of the others. There is a 65% chance that at least one of them would die as a result of this plan, 15% of an even higher mortality rate. If I go for the door, my chance of escape as well as the survival rate would drop significantly. I have a 75% chance of success by jumping off the balcony and flying around the side. It's 90% likely that if anyone would be mortally wounded, it would have to be Heero. I have 2.5 seconds."// All this ran through Duo's mind in about one-tenth of a second. His head was swimming and there was a rushing sound in his ears. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and miles away. He barely felt it as his body lurched back, dragging Quatre with him through the first curtain, then shoving Quatre back through that one as Duo advanced silently through the second.

//"Step silently, wait, watch, go, stop, start, listen, look, walk, run…"// His flight through the ghostly rippling sheets was all a blur. The pilots were hunting him exactly as they would an intelligent foe, which he most definitely was. Duo was halfway to the balcony before, exactly as predicted, Heero tore through the barely rippling sheet behind him, one arm outstretched and the other slowly aiming a gun, or at least it only seemed slow.

Duo whirled around so gracefully and quickly that it seemed for a moment that instead of him turning, the room had merely spun around him. His aim was level with Heero's chest, and his head was tilted so far down that, though Heero knew Duo was looking at him, he could only see the whites of his eyes as a stray ray of light was reflected into them.

Duo's index finger strained the trigger even as Heero's own trigger-happy fingers just began to put pressure on the firing mechanism of his gun. For the barest of instants, Heero felt a strange emotion tickle his insides; he couldn't even identify the fear that threatened to bore through his gut like the bullet in Duo's gun planned to do to his chest. His fingers suddenly refused to move, and Heero's eyes widened.

[End Chapter 7]