Once at the top of the tunnel Heero found himself in a huge garden. Birds were singing atop boxed hedges and the sun was suddenly bright and cheerful. All in all it made Heero sick. //I wonder what I have to do to put it back the way it was.//

    He climbed from his perch atop the urn the tunnel had opened into and slid to the ground. This world, he decided, suited Duo just fine. It was as crazy as he was. The pilot tred lightly, studying the grass with infinit care. Who knows, it could turn out to be some giant's head or some equally inane thing. He bent and ripped some up. Nope, just grass.

    He walked through a gap in the shrubbery, "Hn, If I go straight toward the castle there's no way it can change around on me a. . . gain." He stared ahead of him. He had just walked theough a gap right next to the one he had left from. "SHIMATTA!!!!" He ripped the hedge from the ground and through it across the lawn.

    "Ouch! That hurt us you know!"

    Heero blinked and pulled back the dead plant, Under it was a robbed nobleman with an odd hat on, the hat turned into a long neck and on top of it was a woman with glasses and her hair in a tight bun. "Who the Hell are you?"

    "I am Une and this thing growing from my neck is Trieze."

    Heero blinked from one to the other, "Aa."

    The creature sat on the urn Heero had come from and the main head stared off into nowhere. The soldier cleared his throat, "How do I get to the castle?"

    The man didn't answer.

    "Kisama! How do I get to the castle!"

    This time the woman's head answered, "Shhh! Can't you see he's thinking?! And don't stare, it's very impolite, stand up strait don't. . . Ack!"

    Heero returned his gun to his shorts and glarred at the man, "Now, how do I get to the castle?"

    "Ah so you want to get to the castle."

    The woman's face smiled, "How's that for brain power?"

    Heero shot her again.

    "Sometimes the way forward. . . is the way back. And. . . sometimes the way back. . . it really foreward. Quite often we seem to be getting nowhere  when truely. . . we are."

    Heero quirked a brow.

    "All is not always . . . as. . . it. . . seems." He held up a small beggers box.

    "Hn." Heero walked away. //That was pointless.//

    Duo had always told him, "Mind what you say to a begger it might be death in disguise. Heero was starting to think Duo made sense. That was really frightening.

    A blood chilling roar stopped all thoughts Heero was thinking and he glarred in the direction it came from. //Well I'm not getting anywhere here.// Besides, the way things went in this place it was probably a mouse or some. . . He stopped cold in his tracks and stared, //ok so it's not a mouse.//

    The beast roaring was a huge lion/dragonwith knives for claws and curled blond fur. The roars were obviously from pain since it was being attacked by four little demons with piranha like monsters on sticks which nipped at its fur painfully.

    Heero rolled his eyes and picked up a rock from the ground. Chucking it at the nearest goblin he knocked it's helmet around.

    "Hey! Who turned out the lights!" He leaped around blindly until his stick hit another of the goblins. "Ouch! G! What was the meaning of That!"

    "Of what?"

    The other nipped his partner with his weapon.

    "Ouch! Who did that?! H? Is that you?"

    The other goblins had turned from their attack, watching their friends fight was much more fun.

    "Go get 'em G!"

    "Beat him to a scientifically un-named glob of flesh J!"

    A few more well placed throws and the little creatures retreated. Heero walked up to the beast. "What are you?"

    The thing tried to bite him.

    Heero glared, "What are you?"

    "Christien."

    Heero arched a brow and shrugged, "Do you know the way to the castle."

    "Christien Friend."

    "uhuh. Right." Heero walked away and the beast followed. "Stay."

    It didn't listen.

    The pilot glarred but it still followed.

    "Damn."

    "Damn." It repeated proudly.

    Heero had the intense urge to shoot someone.

    After walking a while he found two more doors. //Do all doors in this place come in two's?!// They were regular doors except for the knockers. They were faces, one had the knocker ring in it's ears and the other in it's mouth. //Now which one?//

    "It's very rude to. . ."

    Heero jumped and blew the face away than paused, "Hn, oops."

    The other one startled to mumble and shiver and a trail of something wet trickled from it.

    //Did that knocker just wet itself?// Heero blinked and choose the door he had shot.  He went through but the Christien stayed behind. //Hn, finally.//

    The perfect soldier found himself in a deep forest surrounded by the sounds of hooting and laughter. "Duo?" He walked further into the darkness, "Duo is that you?"

    "Yeah! What's up!" A giant robot jumped out in front of him and Heero cried out involuntarily. "I said what's up?!"
    Heero pulled his gun but the huge robot crushed it between two fingers.
    "Now cut that out right know ya hear?!"
    "Yeah!" Another popped out from the trees, "That won't do any good!"
    "No sir!" Another one dropped into view.
    Soon Heero found himself among six of the huge things.
    "We're the Gundams!"
    "Yeah!"
    They started yipping and howling and taking off body parts the toss at each other. When they broke into song, the perfect soldier ran like a bat out of. . . the other place.
 

    Relena laughed out loud when Heero started to run, "So that's what it take to scare him!" She held the crystal up for Duo to see, "Look there little one. Your Heero is running away."

    "Heero?" Duo called out.

    Heero froze, "Duo?"

    "HEERO! Don't leave me!"

    He swung left and right but couldn't find Duo anywhere, "Duo where are you?!"

    "At the castle!"

    Relena's voice came next, "Run fast Heero, only a few hours more and you'll never have to worry about this braided baka again."

    "Hn! I always finish the mission."

    "But do you really want to?"

    Heero covered his ears and ran faster.
 

    The Goblin queen sat by the window playing with her crystals. "Come to me Heero, sleep and dream of me and come to me Heero."

    Duo snatched the glowing thing away, "Hey how does this thing work?!"

    "Give that back!"

    "Hey cool! Keep away! Can't get me!"

    Relena screached and Duo ran to find a place to hide.

    As he settled down to wait out the queen's tantrum, the sphere glowed brighter and sucked him into it's swirling depths. "Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!"

    Relena saw it float away and screamed at the top of her lungs. That was the last thing Duo heard before the music got too loud to hear passed it.
 
 

    Heero uncovered his ears and looked up in suprise when a bubble came floating toward him. Soft music poured forth from it until he was caught in it. He was the music, the music was him, he was swaying, dancing! Inside the bubble in tight dress slacks and a tie up vest.  He danced through the crowed, pulled as if by some unseen force toward one of the other dancers. He caught a quick flash of a braid and amythist eyes before the crowed closed around him.

    The ball room had known opulance. between glittering cornices were hung many long and gothic chandelers holding dripping black candels whos wax formed reaching tendrals down toward the dancers. Threadbare silk wore of the walls displacing the iridescen twall of the bubble they were in. The music began, soft and haunting.

~There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes
a kind of pale jewel open then closed within your eyes
I see the skys, within your eyes~

    Heero watched the people carefully as they watched him from behind grotesque masks. The men wore silken shirts open to the waist and tight velvet britches that matched his own. Capes and Hats and walking sticks were spread among them as the danced with their ladies, all with low gowns slipping from their shoulers and dipping between their ample breasts.

~There's such a fools heart, beating so fast
such a frail dream, a love that will last within your heart
I'll place the moon within your heart.~

    He watched them dance with a kind of lethargic brilliance. Heero looked into a mirror a gasped, spining just in time to see Duo dance by in the arms of a volumpuous lady.  He tried to reach them but the croud closed in around him again. Watching him like birds of prey and making him wish he had taken his chances with the Gundams.

~As the day slips through makes no sense for you
Every thrill that comes wasn't to much fun at all~

    There! He saw Duo again! Whispering smething to the woman. Touching her. . . Heero turned away in anger and embarrasment only to see Duo in the mirror behind him, standing alone and beautiful. His chestnut bangs fell into his eyes temptingly and he was clothed in a midnight frock coat, diamante ar the neck, shoulders and cuffs. Ruffs of pale silver silk at his neck and wrists set off the palor of his skin. On his legs he wore black tights and high leather boots. He stared at Heero in amazment then held out his hand, unsure.

~But I'll be there for you yes you
As the world falls down~

    The soldier turned, not expecting him to be real, like so many other things in this place, but there he was. Still waiting with his hand outreaching. Heero took the offered hand, feeling dizzy as he was whirled away across the dance floor. He felt liek the most beautiful person in the room. Because of the way Duo was smiling at him. The touch of the braided pilot's hands was thrilling! He knew this feeling was wrong but this whole world was wrong, so why couldn't he feel, just this one time.

    "You're beautiful Heero." Duo breathed softly, "Are you really here?"

    Heero smiled ruefully, "I don't know."

    Duo laughed, "Don't you?"

~I'd paint you mountains of gold I'd spin you valentine evening
Though we're stranger to love we're choosing the path between the stars
I place our hearts, between the stars~

    He shook his head, "I feel like I'm in a dream, but I don't remember dreaming anything like this before."

    "I have." Duo smiled and hugged him closer, "Since the first night I met you."

~As the days slip through make no sense for you
Every thrill that comes wasn't too much fun at all.~

    "Duo. . ."

    "You'll have to find your way into the part."

    Heero actually smiled then, "I think I can do that."

~But I'll be there for you~

    "We can't dance forever Heero."

~As the world falls down.~

     "Why not?"

~As the world falls down~

    Duo kissed his head softly, "You have to get me back."

    "In a moment."

~Falling in love~

    Duo smiled and leaned into the warm arms of his partner and friend. "Yeah, just a little longer, ne Heero?"

~Falling in love~

    "Aa."

~Falling in in in
fallin in love~

    Suddenly the bubble seemed to shatter and Duo gasped up at Relena who was glarring daggers at him. "Opps, eh. . . busted?"

    "Damn right!"

    "Ho boy."
 

    Heero was flying through space, the ballroom had collapsed when Duo disapeared and crumbled to junk. Strange things and pieces of things were falling through the air around him. Some falling back, some overtaking him.

    As he fell he began to recognise some of them. He favorite gun shot past along with several of his books, their pages flapping loose in the wind. The bear Relena had given him once was not far off and behind that some bullet clips and pieces from Wing. It was an aerial Saragasso Sea filled with everything he had ever seen or imagined arranged in the most improbably combinations. His whole life must have been at that ballroom in disguise! No wonder the people had been glarring at him! The maelstrom of junk went faster and faster taking Heero with it until the rush of air became a screeching and then stopped.

    Heero was on the ground in his own clothing once again, He blinked and stood up, he was back in the room of the safe house. Laying on the floor! Had in all been a dream? He took a step and. . .

    "Ere!" a man covered in junk stood stiffly, "Get off my back!"

    "Aa. . . who. . ."

    "Howard, and you, young man should look where the Hell you're going!"

    "I  Was looking." Heero growled.

    "Then where were you going?"

    "I. . ." He paused, "I can't remember!"

    The junk man sniffed, "Well you can't look where you're going if you don't know where you're going."

    Heero really wished he had a gun. "I was looking for something. . ."

    "Corse you were." The junk man said sarcastically, "Me to, I found plenty."

    Heero searched the mess on Howard's back for a gun.

    "Can't find classic parts like these anymore!"

    Heero grunted and started to leave.

    "Oh don't be that way! I'l help you find some things to get you started."

    "I don't want. . ."

    "Course you do!"

    //Well I could us my gun. It must have fallen here somewhere. . .//

    Heero blinked as Howard began piling stuff on his back, "Here's your laptop! Oh you love your laptop don't you! And look! Your com link, can't recieve missions without that, Oooh lookie here! Gundimanium alloy! Should come in handy, Oh Oh I found something! Your spandex! So usefull! And bullets can't fight a war without those and gernaids and wow! Missles! Gotta keep a few of those!"

    "There was something I was looking for . . ."

    "Nonsense it's all right here. Look! Your gun! You love that don't you? And Here's your tools it's all here, your whole life!"

    Heero had to stop listening or he swore he would cry. Had his life been so trivial? He walked to his desk and picked up a photograph in a frame. In the picture was him and a taller boy with a long braid who had his arm around Heero's shoulder, in the corner was scrawled, 'Through dangers unknown and hardships unnumbered. Heero and Duo AC199.'

    "Duo!"  He stood up and knocked all of the parts from his back.

    "Eeh, what's wrong son?"

    "It junk! It's all junk!"

    "No wait a minuet! What about this?!" Howard held up the laptop again, "This is NOT junk!"

    "Yes it is!" It was all junk! The litter of a time in his life he was now despirite to leave behind, the only good thing about that time was. . . Duo! "I have to save Duo!"

    Before Howard could grab him Heero launched himself through the rotting wall and out into the open. Very near now he saw the goblin city, The castle. Duo! He trudged on faster, //Almost there, Almost. . .// "Duo!"
 

~tbc~