The Fifth Star
Part Two: Duo's Confession
The green went out, eyes fading back into space, and Heero was
enveloped in blackness again. He pulled out his gun even as he ran down
the hallway, following the photographic map in his mind. He could hear
the glass cracking beside him even as he couldn't see it. His pace
increased, rushing to get out of the corridor, knowing that if the
glass broke he'd be sucked outwards into space.
Heero dived as he neared the end of the corridor, rolling on hard metal
as he pushed himself up onto his knees and slammed his palm unto a
nearby button, a safety seal coming down in front of him. He could feel
the thick metal slam down, separating him from the glass hallway, could
feel the air being sucked up, then... everything was silent.
His breath came in short pants as he collected himself, standing up to
continue on to the base of commands at the core of headquarters. The
back up lights had come on, and he found himself making his way down a
narrow, barely lit hallway. A trail of small brown lights lined the
right side of the floor, each roughly two feet apart, providing just
enough light to make a path. Something moved a few yards away, right
where the path curved into itself, and Heero hunched against the wall
and shouted towards the form.
"Preventer Hawk. State your name."
"Heero? Heero, it’s Duo." The other boy jogged up to him at a casual
pace, stopping a few feet away. It was too dark for Heero to make out
anything but his silhouette against the hallway walls. "Hey, man,
what's with the gun?"
Heero watched as Duo laid a hand on his own pistol, glancing around for
any threats. "There's some one in the mobile suit."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The suit is not empty. It's active."
If it were possible, Heero though he could feel Duo frown in the dark.
"Heero, Wufei has commandeered the suit... barring the obvious setback,
it should be in the hanger in by the time we get down there. There's no
one inside."
After Heero didn't respond Duo turned, going down the hallway and
obviously expecting the other boy to follow him. Heero did so, padding
along, still thinking about the suit. Its eyes had glowed, he hadn't
imagined that, and they wouldn't have unless the thing were active...
and if it were active it had to have a pilot inside, unless it was
being controlled from a remote location. Given Duo's vehement
statements that the suit was empty, it was probably the latter, and in
that case still a threat.
"Heero."
Heero focused on irritated cobalt eyes, staring at him as their owner
walked backwards through the dark.
"You wanna put away the gun?"
Heero nodded, slipping the gun back into the holster, but keeping on
guard just in case. It didn't take that long before they were at the
hanger, and Heero surveyed the commotion in the area. There must have
been hundred people there, swarming around the massive black
suit, and
Quatre was in the middle of it. The blond boy sat in the open cockpit,
J and some other scientist around him as they tried to figure out the
machinery. Heero passed by the control station as he and Duo walked
towards the activity, noting on a nearby computer screen that the
hallway he had been walking through and had sealed off had been
completely obliterated.
"Yo!" Duo shouted up to get every one's attention, starting to climb
the ladder to the platform that rested against the suit's chest. "I
found Heero!"
Heero followed, noting as he climbed up that the suit's cockpit
actually held two seats, and Wufei was settled into the second one.
"Talk about fast. You guys didn't waste any time." Duo lingered at the
entrance of the cockpit, peering in with a manner that, to Heero,
almost seemed uninterested. Heero, on the other hand, peered inside the
suit, taking in the wiring and machinery the same way Quatre and Wufei
were.
"This is nothing like a gundam." Quatre was at a loss, running his
hands over the unfamiliar controls near him, not knowing what to do.
"Or any other kind of suit we know of." Wufei fiddled around with the
panel in front of him, eliciting no reactions from the mecha. "I
suppose we take it apart. It's obvious we can't work it."
The former gundam pilots were ushered out of the suit as the scientists
took over, instructing the mechanics as to what to do. They soon found
themselves in front of Une, who thanked them for being there and
basically told them to go away.
"Well." Duo swung his arm around Heero's shoulders. "It looks like
we're not wanted here. Hungry much?"
* * *
Heero found himself walking towards the hanger after the five pilots
had eaten dinner together. The experience had been pleasant enough. It
wasn't often that they were all together in one place, and the
awkwardness the situation started with had soon dissipated into a kind
of stiff comraderie. Heero had hoped, though, that he might have had
the meal to talk to Duo alone. Then, when dinner was over, the American
boy had been pulled away from Wufei, and Heero found himself walking
towards the alien mobile suit.
The thing was huge. Pitch black that glistened, just like space, with
green detail work around the edges. It didn’t seem to have any weapons,
but Heero didn't know what its huge wings might be hiding, or really
what the wings were there for. They formed the hulk of the machine, and
were large enough to wrap the suit in a giant cocoon.
Une was on top of the platform with a few of her subordinates, watching
three of the gundam scientists working with a handful of mechanics.
They had managed to remove the cockpit from the rest of the suit,
though the two pieces were still connected with a huge web of thick
wires, and Heero was slightly impressed to see that the main control
panel was lit up.
"... the interface is completely alien.... lucky we actually activated
it..."
Heero climbed up onto the platform, ignoring the minor bustle and
walking towards the detached cockpit. It was easier to see now that it
was out of its shell, and Heero inspected the controls. There was not a
symbol any where, no labels or signs of languages, just buttons and
wires. J had some kind of contraption hooked up to the wiring below the
control panel, something like small flat computer.
"Heero, glad you're here." J extracted a disc from the computer and
tossed it at Heero, who caught the tiny cd in his palm. "See what you
can do with this. We extracted it from the suit's databases,
surprisingly easily, almost as if some one wanted us to find it."
The Japanese boy looked at it, then at Une, who nodded at him. "I trust
you to come to me with any information you find."
Heero nodded before walking back to his and Duo's room. He couldn't
help but feel a foreboding around the suit. It unnerved him that no one
knew anything about it, and determined he would do some of his own
investigations into the matter later on. Still, it was a threat, too
much of a threat for them to keep the thing intact in his opinion, and
he couldn't help but feel it wouldn't bring any good into any of their
lives.
Heero finally got to his room, not surprised to find Duo laying on his
bed, though he was pleased with the turn of events. They were all
scheduled to leave the base that day, but now with the new suit here,
it seemed every one had silently agreed to stay on.
"Hey." Duo watched as Heero headed to his laptop and slipped the disc
in. The longhaired boy had changed out of the Preventers outfit he had
been wearing. Now he was dressed in snug black pants and boots and a
black button down shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and top two
buttons undone. His silver cross lay, as always, on his pale chest,
looking almost sinful against his flesh. He was the perfect picture of
masculinity, even with the braid of hair that trailed down to his
waist. "Are you up to doing something tonight?"
"Can't." Heero could almost kick himself. "I have an assignment."
"My loss then." Duo gradually lifted himself up from the bed, moving in
slow, lazy motions so that he was sitting at the end of the bed near
Heero. Horizontal lines of strange symbols scrolled down the screen at
an unreadable rate, though Heero seemed to have no problem keeping up
with the text. "Codebreaking?"
"J extracted it from the suit."
"Ah. Well, good luck."
Heero turned as Duo as the other boy started to stride towards the
door. "You're not offering to help me?"
Duo turned around and leaned against the doorway, throwing a smirk
towards Heero. "I think you've got it down. Any way, I feel like
playing. I'll probably take a shuttle down to the colony and find a
club or something. I figure a lot of people will be celebrating
tonight, what with Dekim Barton defeated and all."
Heero had almost forgotten all about the last battle. It seemed like
ages ago, now that the suit occupied his mind. "Will you be back
tonight?"
"Do you want me to be?" Duo's smirk grew a little wider.
"I'll stop when you get back."
Duo nodded before he disappeared, door swinging slightly before it
banged shut.
Heero, on the other hand, turned back to the sprawl of symbols in front
of him. He looked for patterns, repetitions, treating what was
obviously a complex language like it was any other code. He was making
process, though, putting together enough pieces so that he might be
able to translate it given a lot of work and some time. His laptop
flashed 5 am when he felt a pair of familiar arms wrap themselves
around his chest, and he fell into a tangle of limbs and silk.
* * *
Heero watched Duo's chest as his breath even out, looking at the way
their glistening skin tones complemented each other. Bronze and cream,
with scars that looked as though they interlaced despite the fact that
they belonged to different people. Heero waited until Duo was asleep,
knowing he would wake up in just an hour, then left to go back to his
computer. When Duo did wake up, eight o'clock on the dot, he found
Heero sitting in front of his laptop, still nude from their previous
exploits.
"Any progress?" The words were drawled out, Duo still not fully awake.
"A little." Heero got up and laid back in the bed beside his sometimes
lover as Duo propped himself up on his pillows. "Ready to face another
day with the Preventers?"
"Mmm."
Heero felt his heart beating a little faster as he stopped Duo from
reaching for his boxers, forcibly calming it. It all came out of his
mouth in a rush, his earlier practice failing him. "I was wondering if
we could move in together."
"What?" Duo blinked before he jerked away, ambling towards his clothes.
Heero sat up, waiting for the other boy to say something. Duo was
silent for awhile, pulling on his boxers and pants from the night
before. He fell back onto the bed then, after a moment, seated so he
wasn't facing Heero. "So. You haven't broken the language?"
So Duo was avoiding the issue. Still, it wasn't an outright no, and Duo
would have to answer him some time. Even if that answer came in the
form of Duo leaving without even addressing the issue. "No. I haven't."
"Then we'll go to the hanger, and I'll tell you what it says."
Heero blinked, confused, before grabbing for his own clothes. He really
didn't know what to say after that enigmatic statement, except 'what
are you talking about', and it was clear that he would find that out
soon enough.
He followed Duo out of the room and towards the hanger in silence. In
ten minutes they reached the suit, and Duo climbed up the platform,
saying a few words to Noin as he headed to the cockpit. Quatre and
Trowa were in the seats, trying to take apart the wiring with the
scientists' supervision.
"Hey." Duo grinned at Quatre. "Mind if I have a try?"
"Ummm... okay."
Duo slid into the seat as Quatre vacated it, casually running his hands
over the panel. After a sequence of movements every one was shocked
when the whole gundam lit up. The eyes glowed, the green around the
wings and suit body lighting up, and the suit actually lifted up its
head. Then, the screen in front of the controls lit up, bathing Duo in
a kind of blue light. The data Heero had been looking at flashed
through the bottom of the screen, and he realized it was a software
program. The screen blinked once, then cleared to show a video of some
man dressed in white robes, his face shadowed. He was speaking, though
no one could understand the language. Then the video was over, the man
stuck in a still, with Duo sitting in his seat with a distant
expression on his face.
"Duo." Wufei, who had been standing near the scientists, had shock
written all over his features. At this point, no one in the room, with
the possible exception of Duo, knew what was going on. "How the hell
did you do that?"
Duo looked around, shifting in his seat, and every one questioned
whether he would answer Wufei or not. The Duo turned his eyes to Une,
who had ran over as soon as everything started happening, and kept eye
contact with her. "This is my mobile suit."
* * *
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Every one seated in one of the headquarter's lounge areas, really just
a piece of space that was left over after all the offices were claimed,
decorated with a dreary futon and coffee table. The alcove they were
seated at looked over the hanger, and Heero watched as the scientists
tried to fiddle with the now active suit. Every one had so many
questions to ask the American boy that no one really knew where to
start. And Duo was, at best, being evasive.
"I knew what the suit was doing here. I knew what the video was going
to say. So... I don't know... I just wanted one more night, I guess. So
I waited to tell you guys."
Wufei looked even more confused now than ever. "Duo, you're not making
any sense."
"Okay, fine." Duo sighed, blowing his bangs out of the way. Heero was
trying to decipher his earlier words. One more night. "Haven't you guys
ever wondered why I can summon a thermal weapon underwater? Why
Deathscythe can just vanish into nothing? It's because I'm not exactly
from this world. And that suit is mine, it was sent so I could go home.
That's what the guy in the video was saying. I have to go back."
Duo's explanation only created more questions, but no one said
anything, and it was obvious Duo wasn't going to explain any further.
Heero was focused entirely on Duo's last sentence. He had to go back.
"So now what?" It was Une who asked the question, her face and voice
stern.
Duo shrugged. "So now I go back. If it’s okay, though you really
wouldn't be able to stop me. I'd appreciate it if you put my suit
together."
"So that's it?" Quatre was clearly upset, his features more expressive
than any one else's in the room. "You're just going to leave us now?
And what are we supposed to do, pretend you never existed?"
"I have no choice in the matter."
Une was clearly hesitant, looking down at the scientific find. But she
knew as well as Duo that they wouldn't be able to use the suit without
his help, and the now peaceful society didn't need the technology
anyway. The only reason they had commandeered it in the first place was
because of its potential threat. "We'll put your suit together for you,
Duo. On the condition that you stay until at least nightfall to let
your comrades say goodbye."
Duo nodded, not minding the condition at all. Truth be told, he was
somewhat loath to leave the galaxy he had called home for the last five
years. People started filing out of the room then, the whole issue that
had been the source of commotion for the last two days settled and done
with. Quatre stopped in front of Duo, the eternal leader of their group.
"You know," he said. "You can't get out of spending your last day here
with the rest of us. I expect to see you in the mess hall for lunch in
one hour."
Duo smiled, his first one since he had made his confession. "I'll be
looking forward to it."
Heero waited until he was the only one left with the other boy, sitting
on the coffee table so that they were face to face. "Why didn't you
tell me?"
"What? I already explained that."
"No, I mean..." Heero broke his eye contact with the other boy, looking
down to where his ankles were crossed on the floor. He remembered last
night, how he hadn't spent Duo's last night here with the boy, how he
had spent it instead pointlessly cracking some useless code. "Why
didn't you tell me. Just me. I could have gone out with you then, last
night. We could have..."
"I wasn't completely sure I had to leave."
"You were sure enough, at least, to do everything you did."
Duo shrugged. "Then I didn't think about it."
"About me, you mean. You didn't think about me." Heero raised his head
up then, eyes slightly angry as he stared into Duo's befuddled orbs.
"I didn't think I had to."
Heero's fists tightened around the table as anger took a hold of him,
along with a type of self-pity. He had been stupid to assume that Duo
held him in the same regard that he held Duo. "My mistake."
Then he pushed himself off of the table, walking briskly to the door
even as Duo stared after him.