"Heero Yuy, L6, and the Second Suit Wars "

Part 3

Written By: ELLE

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Gundam Wing (unfortunately) and they were used without permission, but all the words are my own.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: occurs post-EW, language, angst, sex, hopefully acceptable OOC, 1st person POV (*shudder* sorry, no way around it!), plus a ton of minor and a few major OCs (since it's 1st person, you get to avoid dealing with them too much.)

Pairings: 1x2x1 plus others TBD

Summary: Jack Kaufmann has no recollection of the braided man who claims they were once more than friends, but his quest to recover his memories leads him to discover a plot much larger than himself that is a threat to the peace he'd once fought to protect...

The lovely Miss-Murdered beta'd this for me and frankly this story wouldn't exist without her encouragement.

"Restitution of a Former Life "

3.3 The Set-Up

 

I hoped by this point in our relationship Quatre understood that wherever Duo and I were together, destruction would follow.

It didn't take me long to scope out that the vid-phone in the shared sitting room had a USB port and so I ripped it out of the wall and took it off line with the intent of destroying it completely once Duo and I reviewed the information Trowa had given us.

After thoroughly scanning the room for listening devices and video cameras, Duo sat down behind me on the bed, straddling me, resting his chin on my shoulder to look at the screen while his arms encircled my waist. I was a bit surprised by how close he wanted to be because we weren't usually like this, but to be honest I enjoyed it and found my fingers brushing across his arms lightly every so often just to feel him.

Once I was satisfied that any tracking software they had on the vid-phone was rendered ineffectual and the device truly was off line I plugged in the drive and opened the launcher file which brought up a simply written program to display the blue prints on any machine.

We perused the design documents with mixed levels of horror and fascination. It felt strange to be staring at a completely new type of mobile suit design, similar but vastly unfamiliar to the ones we had piloted ourselves. The material they were made of seemed to be a lightweight alloy designed in low gravity that was somewhat flexible and well suited for space. Duo murmured speculations about its ballistic resistance and I knew he was awed by the composition analysis.

The suits themselves didn't appear to be weapons of war, at least as far as I could tell. Not that they couldn't wreck havoc if they got into a colony or found their way past Earth's atmosphere - and certainly they'd intimidate the hell out of civilians - but the intent behind them didn't seem destructive. They had no weapons capacity of their own, though I had no doubt they could wield weapons and in fact it seemed there were a few loose specs on weapon designs that mounted in the arms. Of course, that left me pondering the intent at all but I supposed I would have to confer with Quatre for more details on that.

"There's something missing," I muttered as I flipped through the hundreds of blue prints for a third time.

"Huh?" Duo asked and I felt his chin turn on my shoulder and his eyes appraise me but I didn't meet them.

"Something is missing. He left something out. Deliberately. Information in the omission." I paused and closed my eyes. Duo tilted his face into my shoulder and I felt the gentle warmth of his breath on my shoulder blade.

Then he chuckled and lifted his head. I opened my eyes and turned to look at him and he parroted embarrassment.

"HERA. There's nothing on it in here. There's little on the cockpit design at all, in fact."

I quickly flipped through the specs again and realized he was right. But I didn't understand why Trowa would omit that information. It was potentially the most important information he could've given us. It wasn't like Trowa to be so thorough and then leave such an important detail out. He certainly couldn't have been afraid of the ramifications. Which left two options. Either he was feeding us this information deliberately and was truly an operative of Nexxus or there was actually nothing to offer.

"Likelihood he's a double agent?" I mused and Duo moved to sit next to me on the bed instead of behind me.

"Don't really want to consider it," Duo admitted and he rested his chin in his hand as he thought. I don't know if it was the flashbacks from HERA or what but for a minute he looked so young curled up like that, lost in his thoughts, like he was when we'd first met.

"Unlikely. I don't understand his motive. Nexxus knew we were there, right? He said so himself. They certainly didn't need him to allow us on or off the colony and yet he went out of his way to do it anyway. He wanted to see us, he wanted to give us this information. If Nexxus wanted us to have it then they could've just handed it to us at any time."

"He said they wanted us to see the suits," I pointed out and Duo shrugged.

"Yeah, but they didn't volunteer the information. I feel like this Sergio guy was testing us, like this is a game to him. He might know Trowa was going to give us the information, but I don't think he put him up to it. I think Sergio wanted to see if he would."

I sighed, frustrated. What Duo said made sense but these types of guys always pissed me off. Treize was like this - every time you thought you knew what cards he had in his hand you realized you were suddenly playing a completely different game.

"Then there's nothing there," I said and it was Duo's turn to sigh.

"What does that mean?"

"Something is different about these suits," I answered wearily. "Something is different about the pilot interface. A five-year-old child isn't strong enough to push the thrusters, no matter how light these suits are compared to Gundams. And even if they compensated due to lack of pilot strength, a five-year-old isn't coordinated enough to pilot effectively anyway."

"Why are they using children then?" Duo asked, concern wrinkling his forehead.

"That's the question, isn't it?"

"They used us because children are easier to condition, they have more moral objectivity, more flexibility," Duo mused darkly.

"No," I disagreed, setting down the phone on the bed and grabbing the base of his braid to force him to look at me. "They used us because we cared, because we all wanted to do the right thing." He tried to turn his eyes from me but I pulled, hard, and his eyes tracked quickly back to mine, furious. "Even in my anger, I still wanted to do what was right. You did too. And we did. That war is over now. We're not fifteen any more. It's not Professor G working with those children."

Duo grabbed at my hand and I released his braid so he could sulk. I removed the drive from the tablet and placed it back around my neck for safekeeping. Then I ripped out the guts, grabbed the spoon left for us on the coffee tray refreshed this morning and scratched the hell out of the memory components. Then I snapped the pieces in half, filled the sink up with water, and placed the parts in it. Maybe that was overkill, I thought I as I assessed the mess, but I didn't care.

I walked back into the bedroom where Duo seemed to recover from his pout and met his eyes with reservation. I knew the moment we walked out of this room that it was over. Had these past forty-eight hours been easy? No. Not for either one of us. But the reprisal of our sexual relationship, the forgiveness he'd given me, the kind words we'd shared with one another - all of that would be gone. We would have to be mission focused again. And while that would hopefully be easier now that our relationship, such as it was, was sorted out, as much as it ever would be, I knew that I at least would feel a longing for these few tender moments amidst the wreckage of the shit storm we were going to have to willing walk into in order to ever make things right.

Despite having been lead here in no uncertain circumstances, it was still my shit storm, it was my responsibility, and I knew Duo would stand with me until the very end but it had to be dealt with. I had to risk him. And part of me wanted to lock him up in that room and keep him there where I knew he would be safe and his soft, gentle touch would never falter but another part of me wanted him more to be by my side again, my partner, a man who understood my actions and intentions better than anyone else was ever going to. It was when we were partners that we truly shone. When we were lovers is where we struggled.

Eventually it was that realistic part of me that took over and I guess he could see the change in my eyes or something because he smiled a little. Not happily, really, but more like an acknowledgement that we were returning to normal.

"Ready to try again with Quatre?"

He winced. "It's probably painfully obvious what we've been doing up here, huh?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. I didn't see what it mattered.

Duo sighed and stood. "Sure, I guess."

So we wandered around the palace to find Quatre when we were eventually told by a member of staff that Quatre penciled us in for later that day but that we were welcome to use any of the facilities. That pissed Duo off so he spent most of the afternoon brooding while we waited on the veranda, snacking on whatever was brought to us and staring gloomily across the brightly manicured landscape.

My head churned as I tried to piece together the past few years so that I could formulate a plan of action from here. Although if Quatre was still using ZERO it made anything I could think of to do seem woefully inferior.

What I had was this: Sergio for some reason unknown to me - I won't buy into this evolution of human consciousness bullshit - wanted to create another ZERO system and he needed Quatre's and my help. If I had to wager any amount of money, I would suspect that Sergio was responsible for the assassination attempt which ended in Quatre's concussion and the triggering of ZERO's residual affects in his head requiring Quatre to become his partner. In desperation Quatre agreed to whatever Sergio proposed. Despite working with him, they clearly held healthy suspicions of one another if Sergio didn't tell him about the suits on L6 and Quatre didn't tell him about the Gundams either.

Perhaps I was being too hard on Quatre. Perhaps I was just upset by being a pawn myself that I assumed he was a pawn too. Maybe I wasn't giving him enough credit. Maybe he was working with Sergio but working his own angle as well. I would have to confirm this with him when our designated meeting time came up.

I wondered about Trowa. I wondered why he left. Quatre knew, maybe, at least Trowa thought he did, but I didn't. And it bothered me. He knew Quatre and I were close. A part of me assumed he was jealous, even back then, but I buried it as self-vanity and let it go. Now I wondered how much he knew. Surely he was on L6 because he saw how shit was going to go down with Sergio, Quatre, and I and he knew someone had to be there, someone had to be on the inside.

Then I wondered if Sergio knew who Trowa was. If Sergio was playing him too. What Duo said earlier needled me - did Sergio know Trowa would give us the information because we were colleagues? Did Trowa know he was a pawn?

I looked over at Duo, arms folded across his chest, perfect scowl twisting his features downward. I wanted to speak but I didn't know what to say. I wanted to reach out to him and hold his hand but it made me feel silly to think that way so I didn't. I just watched him until I apparently had stared too long and he turned irritated eyes to me and snapped.

"What?"

The singular word was harsh but that didn't surprise me. Duo hated to wait. Duo hated to sit and think about anything too long. He wanted to do. I wondered if Quatre planned this to rile him but then I figured Quatre probably had legitimate work to be doing and it was just the way it was.

I turned my eyes back to the lawn. I didn't particularly like waiting either, but I handled it better than he did.

Thankfully a member of staff came for us before too much longer and we were led to a grandiose office off the main hall. Quatre seemed to have recovered from the emotional disaster that was our earlier meeting and he sat there with cool composure, staring out from under the fringe of his hair without a twitch of his lips. He gestured us to sit, which we did, and I was surprised when Duo didn't immediately launch into a tirade.

"You have a meeting on Earth in two days with Sergio Caldas."

Well. Cue tirade.

"What the fuck Quat?! You just sold us out to this guy without even consulting us? What the fuck were you thinking? For fucks sake, I hope it's a goddamned neutral location. Maybe we can just go waltzing right back into L-fucking-6 while we're at it!" I saw his clenched fists and let him go. We did have to wait an extraordinarily long time, after all. There were a few more choice words before he petered out and his whole face glared at Quatre.

"I hope you find the Peacecraft mansion in Sanc acceptably neutral."

"Fucking hell, 'Lena?" The wind left his proverbial sales then but Quatre shook his head.

"No. Milliardo."

That drew my attention. In that singular moment I realized exactly who it was that approached Edward about sending men to L6 to be reformatted and why Relena did nothing about it. But before I could get a word out Quatre was talking - calm and confident.

"Despite what you might believe about me and my involvement in the L6 project, I constructed those Gundams as a counter offensive to whatever his future plans involved. I know Sergio to be a man of peace, of grand vision, but I haven't been blinded by his vocal idealism. The fact is, he didn't tell me he was constructing mobile suits and I don't know why he has. He is powerful and dangerous and the ESUN cannot control him. Milliardo may try but I'd be damned if he knows more than I do.

"I need you and you need me if we're going to figure out just what Sergio really has planned. And he wants to meet with you, so you'll meet with him, and you'll play nice, and you'll extract whatever information you can from him."

"And then we're supposed to compare notes?" I asked coldly. As if I could trust him. Fuck - as if he could trust me. As close as we got pouring over research to reverse ZERO, the whole thing was built on a lie. A lie he was required to propagate because when he needed me years earlier I was too fucked up to help. Too lost in a post-war world, too lost in myself.

"Naturally. What can you do by yourself?" Quatre scoffed. "You couldn't even fix your own brain."

I couldn't help but bear my teeth at the intentional rile. "You've never asked for my help before," I snapped back and the hostility was palpable as our eyes met.

We stood at an impasse for a moment before I finally announced, "We're taking suits." Quatre didn't flinch at my demand but Duo sucked in a quick breath to prepare his assault.

"Fuck no I'm not -"

"Duo." I turned hard eye towards him, stopping his words instantly. "We're taking suits."

He glared at me in a way that would make a lesser man's skin crawl. But I just glared back. The decision was made.

"You're taking HERA out." Duo had turned his head back towards Quatre but I shook mine, my eyes still locked on him.

"No. You're piloting HERA."

"Why?" His head snapped back around, hands gripping the arms of his chair so tightly I thought his fingers might bruise. Quatre chuckled, appearing self-satisfied by our argument.

"We'll discuss this later." I shut down the argument by turning to meet Quatre. "We leave at 2100." Then I stood, walking away without another word. I heard Duo rush after me as I made my way back up to our rooms.

"Heero! Heero - I'm not doing this!" he called but I ignored him until we reached the safety of our rooms and when finally there I turned on him, trying to tamp down my frustration at being fought tooth and nail by my partner when this was the way it had to be. Fuck, if I could change it I would but it was too damn late now and I was acutely aware of how this whole situation was entirely my fault.

"Does Howard still have a freighter in the Pacific?"

Duo blinked, not expecting the question and probably not really wanting to answer it but it threw him off so the answer was likely automatic. "Yeah, probably, but -"

"We can stow the suits there."

He crossed his arms over his chest then, defensive and defiant to the bitter fucking end. "I'm not getting Howard involved in this shit, 'Ro. Seriously, this is some real illegal shit which is fine for a multi-billionaire but a scraper, not so much."

"Howard supplied him the parts, though." It was obvious to me. I figured Duo had to have come to the same conclusion at some point.

But Duo paused and evaluated what I said skeptically. "Huh?"

"Who else could Quatre trust to procure him Gundaniam?" I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I tried not to get this way with him but he was trying every last ounce of my limited patience.

Duo's skepticism fell away with the obvious nature of my statement and turned to anger. "Why wouldn't he tell me?"

I snorted and turned from him, thinking the answer was evident. Duo would be angry. Duo would get involved. Duo had enough on his plate with my issues and my disappearance and he didn't need Quatre's problems as well. Howard was just trying to protect him.

"But I'm not piloting HERA."

I shook my head as he followed me out into the next suite.

"Yes, you are," I replied simply and pointed to the vidphone. "Call Howard."

"Why does it matter if I pilot it or not? I don't want to. You shouldn't try to make me." I rarely heard the tone of voice he took with me just then. It was desperate, his voice was strained, and I met his eyes to see the hurt there. I knew he felt like I was betraying his feelings, using the fact that he loved me against him, expecting him to capitulate to my demands because of that. I wanted to kiss his fears away and let him know I'd never meant to hurt him like that but I knew he wouldn't let me and it would sound pretty damned insincere at this point so I tried to soften my own face in response.

"It's different," I explained as gently as I could, although I imagine I have the tenderness of a pitbull most of the time. "I don't know what's going to happen, but if all those suits have HERA installed, you're going to be at an extreme disadvantage if you don't." I stroked my hand across his cheek but he flinched back from my touch. I tried not to let that hurt. I guess I failed and that's why my next words were pointed and cruel. "What are you going to do? Go in swinging against a bunch of children?"

He gnawed on his lower lip and his eyes fell to the floor.

"Even though I don't fully trust what Quatre has told us, this system is different - this isn't the war. This isn't ZERO. These aren't violent machines piloted by soldiers. You might need to connect with them at some point. But for now, just tell HERA not to connect you out," I offered a bit more sympathetically. "You'll see. It's totally different." I stared at him and watched as his eyes shifted from upset to fear.

"Duo." He looked up at me. I mustered up every bit of understanding I had in me as my own fear of losing everything we'd just rebuilt rocked me. "You'll be fine. I know you're nervous but you're the strongest, most intelligent person I know and you can pilot this system." The confession was a rare one for me and he tried to restrain the smile threatening to break out across his face as he let it sink in.

"I guess that memory wipe made you forget that you don't compliment people, huh?" Duo grinned and ruffled my hair before complying with my earlier order to call Howard. I felt a moment of self-disgust as he made pleasantries with the older man and I thought of how easy it would be to manipulate people who loved you. I hoped that wasn't what I was doing. But I didn't see any way around him piloting HERA. He couldn't fly blind into this. Not now that I had a basic understanding of the system.

"Soooo we're gonna be landing on the big turtle tonight if he's still floating around tango eighty-five." I knew the Sweepers had some convoluted way of referring to latitude and longitude that was based on rouge memorization and completely indecipherable to an outside listener.

"Nah he's at omicron dragon now and ya know I'd always love ta have ya but what's this 'we' stuff?" I couldn't see him on the screen from where I leaned against the wall but I could imagine him eyeing Duo over his shades and I guess I was probably right because Duo scratched his neck self consciously and then side stepped so that Howard could view me.

I slid my eyes over to stare at him from under my bangs but didn't acknowledge him otherwise. Couldn't really see him on the screen anyway.

"No shit - Heero Yuy back from the dead again, eh?" Duo stepped back in front of the screen and Howard's voice lowered dramatically but thanks to my altered senses I caught every word. "Be careful with him. It's only a matter of time before he leaves you again."

"I know, I know - got the same lecture from the princess," Duo retorted impatiently. "I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself."

"But you shouldn't hafta -"

"Frankly I'm gettin' déjà vu here." He bristled with irritation. "We've got enough to talk about involving what you've been scraping the last few years without going into my issues." I knew that voice. It had an edge to it that was powerful and unyielding. Howard must've heard it too though he didn't really lighten his tone, he just let it drop.

"Yeah we'll talk about it when you get here."

They disconnected the call. I chose not to say anything about their conversation and Duo's eyes were unnecessarily apologetic. Not like I didn't know what people thought of me. Not like I didn't deserve it to some degree.

"Well... Guess I could always fuck you before we head out of here." Duo suggested with a coy grin. I shrugged as he approached, capturing my lips with his own as he wrapped his arms around my neck. I sure couldn't think of anything better to do.

~ * ~

tbc...

Chapter 4

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