Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Yesterday's Hero ❯ Prologue. ( Prologue )

Name: Maille<maille1x2x1@btinternet.com>

Title: Yesterday's Hero.

Rating: PG-13 for language.

Warnings: AU, Sci-fi theme, WAFF. Swearing. Yaoi, Shounen-ai. NOT a Deathfic.

Pairings: 1+2+1 leading to 2x1, 3x4x3, 5xS.

Summary: It's after the war and the Gundam pilots are all working as Preventers. When a mission goes wrong and Heero's shuttle is lost in space the boys find themselves racing against time to rescue one of their own. But the universe is a big place, and time has more than one trick up her sleeve.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and am making no money from this fiction.

Author's notes: This is my first fic and I really hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday's Hero.

Prologue.

Date: Friday 2nd February AC197.

Time: 01:43:22AM

Location: The old Delta Juliet Zulu satellite laboratory in orbit around L1.

How long had he been sitting there now? One hour? Two? He didn't know. Somewhere between the scream of the monitors and the rush of the scientists he'd lost track of the time, not even stirring when the harsh cry "Preventers! Freeze!" filled the room. Since then the room had been in uproar. How long had it been since they had arrived again? He wasn't really sure...but then again; he didn't really care much either.

All around him now agents were working, replacing the 'coats of earlier and yet, to his eyes, doing much the same work as they had been. He watched them absently, seeing and yet not seeing as they catalogued various machines and marched out prisoners to the shuttle that waited in the docking bay; at once both right in the middle of the action and yet somehow apart from it all. The room hummed with activity, the long, continuous tone from the monitors mingling with the shouts and yells from the Preventers as they worked... and yet his own little circle was eerily silent.

It was over.

He sat hunched on the seat, pulling his body up into a protective ball, knees up to his chin and arms wrapped tightly around his shins. His head dropped forward and now rested on his forearms. Every line in his body screamed exhaustion yet he refused to leave, greeting every person who had approached him with intentions of escorting him to the shuttle so far with Shinigami in full force...when he bothered to reply at all that is.

The sound of soft footsteps approaching him made no difference to his posture but the unknown figure still knew he had been heard. They stopped close by, one hand raised, barely a hair's breadth from touching the exhausted pilot's shoulder. Duo still didn't move, making no signs of having heard them at first, but after a while when the figure showed no signs of leaving he exhaled a shaky sigh and, without looking up, whispered tiredly. "WuFei." The word was a greeting, a question and a plea all wrapped up in one and the Chinese seemed to realize this. His reply, when it came, was...despite it's harshness of tone... almost subdued.

"How long do you intend to sit there, Maxwell?"

Duo shrugged, "Hadn't decided really," he murmured. "'Till Hell freezes over perhaps...sounds about right." He raised his voice a little, "You're not the kind of man to sit idly by while others are doing work Chang, what do you want?"

If WuFei was surprised by Duo's tone he made no outward sign of it. "I have the First Aid kit for your wrists. Someone needs to tend to them." 'And you are obviously not in the right frame of mind to do it yourself' was the unspoken thought in his head as he took in the sight of his comrade.

Duo looked up, "First Aid?" He echoed. "Hn, whaddya know, I'd almost forgotten about that." He rubbed at his arm absently as he spoke; the skin was bruised and bleeding, twin bracelets of purple adorning his wrists where he had pulled against his restraints with a crazed fervour not even seen in his days as a Gundam pilot. He held out his arms almost meekly, allowing WuFei to clean and dress his wounds in silence.

WuFei did this quickly and efficiently. Finally he tied off the last bandage and after placing the used wrappings back in the small box he leant back against the console and stared at Duo hard. It didn't take Duo long to notice.

"What?"

"What happened?"

Duo shrugged before replying. His voice was quiet and held no trace of emotion, either good or bad. "What do you think happened 'Fei? We got cocky, we got caught. You want more than that then read the official report." He sighed, running a hand through his bangs in a gesture that belied his tiredness. "No offence WuFei but I really don't want to talk about it at the moment. It's over. Can we go home now?" His eyes were large and shadowed with barely suppressed emotions. Ghosts, WuFei thought to himself even as he winced internally at Duo's plea, they all had them but it seemed that Duo had managed to gain a few more from this latest mission.

"Not yet. Une wants the lab shut down completely. We need to search the premises thoroughly, make sure no one is hiding, before we seal the place off."

"It's not here we need to be searching." Duo ground out. "It's out there. But...Aw Hell! What does it matter." He slammed his fist down on the console, causing a few of the Preventer agents close by to startle and glance in their direction for a second. WuFei caught their glances and shook his head meaningfully even as Duo continued, unaware of the curious stares. "What does any of it matter now," he repeated softly to himself.

"Yuy is resourceful Duo...perhaps the most resourceful one out of all of us."

Duo snorted, "He may be resourceful Wu but I don't think he'll be coming back from this one." He picked at a worn thread on the arm rest of the chair, pulling and twisting it around his index finger idly. "I mean, Jesus, I've been sitting here for God only knows how long now and all I've heard is static...just static and that...that fucking alarm." He swallowed convulsively; "I really hate those things." He trailed off, his voice becoming little more than a whisper.

"Hai, it is piercing isn't it." WuFei said softly. Duo didn't answer.

It wasn't that the noise was especially annoying...it was what it symbolised that was the problem, WuFei knew. Looking over at the monitor, he cast his eyes over the system in a scrutinizing stare. A junior Preventer agent close by was just finishing up the preliminary examination of the hardware and, as he watched, the single paper printout was ripped from the system and the reams of paper folded up and placed in a plastic box. The Chinese raised an eyebrow at the other officer and nodded his head once, purposefully in the direction of the snow-filled monitor. Catching the silent question the Preventer nodded in answer as he hefted up the box and turned to walk away. WuFei turned back to Duo. "If it bothers you that much you could turn it off now," he offered. "It looks like we have all the information we need from the databases. Once we get the all clear from Lady Une we can go."

Duo took in a deep breath and uncurled himself from the protective ball, placing both feet securely on the ground. It was unnerving to WuFei to see Duo in such a position as it was the first time the braided Preventer had ever been seated on a swivel chair without at least rocking the seat back and forth slightly. Duo's hand reached out, hovering over the power button on the console. He smiled, a small wistful upturn of the lips, as he ran his finger over the switch. But he didn't press it.

"We can go?" He echoed faintly, WuFei moved as if to lay a hand on his shoulder but aborted the action at the last second. Duo didn't notice the faux pas, "Just as easy as that ne, WuFei?"

WuFei closed his eyes for a second. "Yuy would...will understand." He corrected himself hastily but from the set of Duo's shoulders he knew the other boy had heard the slip up.

Duo snorted, "I'm sure he would." He, unlike WuFei, made no effort to correct his use of the past tense. "Stupid bastard..." his tone turned soft again as he focused inwards, "...always did have a death wish."

"Une will look for him you know." WuFei said, "We're not going to just leave him out there." He turned to half-face the console, watching the fuzzy, snow-filled monitor as it crackled. They were all alone now, the others had finished their work and left them, one person even turning off the lights at some point...although neither of the two left behind in the room had noticed. The darkness only added to the atmosphere as the light from the screen threw a greyish cast to the immediate area while throwing the rest of the room into blackness.

"Yuy will find a way to prove us wrong. He's done so before and he will do so again." The conviction in WuFei's voice sounded flat even to his own ears. Once more he reached out towards Duo, this time his hand reached it's target and settled tentatively on the braided boy's shoulder. He was no good at this sort of thing; Quatre was their emotional buffer, not him.

Duo, it seemed, realized that too as he shrugged off the uneasy hand firmly. "Look WuFei, no offence man but I'm really not in the mood to listen to empty promises right now okay." He stood up slowly, the weight of weariness bowing his shoulders. "I'm tired, my head hurts, I think I have some sort of cold coming on and...oh yeah..." he growled, "My best friend and partner is dead and floating around space somewhere in a glorified sardine tin. The mission was a bust but it's over now. You can keep deluding yourself if you like but in the meantime I'll be in the shuttle, reporting in with Lady Une. Right now I can't wait to get the fuck away from this place." He walked away, the only sign of his emotion the balled up fists at his sides. Reaching the doorway Duo called back to the Chinese, a faint echo of his jokey personality trying and failing to surface. "Get the lights on your way out would ya, Wu?" Then he was gone.

WuFei stood in silence for a while watching the space where the braided boy had disappeared. A faint crackle from the monitor pulled him back to the present and he turned his gaze to the screen, a look of sorrow in his eyes. "Get the lights." he murmured to himself, repeating Duo's words.

The only source of light in the room came from the monitor. Now it was filled with static but a mere hour ago it had held the image of one of their own on it's surface. Heero Yuy. All of the instruments on this panel had been connected to the former Wing Zero pilot in one way or another. Devices crafted to measure respiration, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels. There were cameras, microphones...

...An EKG monitor.

WuFei sighed as he actively listened to the flat tone once again. A tone that had been sounding out its alarm for over sixty minutes now. A tone that was only meant to sound in the instance of a cardiac arrest.

Duo was right, he decided, Yuy would definitely not be coming back from this one. Reaching out he placed his palm firmly over the power button on the console and hesitated for a second. Firming his resolve he depressed the button, severing the last remaining link between the satellite and the shuttle.

The console powered down immediately, the display screen blanking out with a flicker; even in the darkness WuFei could still see it's position as the screen glowed a lighter shade of black in the darkness of the room. With a final reluctant blip the alarm cried itself out.

Left alone in the dark and the silence WuFei bowed his head. "Sayonara, Heero Yuy," he whispered, choosing to say his final goodbye in Heero's native language. "Rest in Peace my friend."

TBC...............