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Part 7 Duo's sleep-fogged brain sensed something missing long before he woke up enough to be conscious of it. He reached out blindly, seeking, but encountered nothing but air and rumbled blankets. Finally, the search penetrated to his consciousness and his eyes flew open. "Wufei!" he cried, frantically looking around for the pilot. The room looked like it had been ransacked. Drawers had been left open, with the clothing within them disturbed, as though a few had been selected in haste and the rest abandoned. Duo jumped up and quickly took stock of the room. The pager and even Wufei's sword were still here, though some clothing, a gun that Wufei rarely used, and some of his electronic equipment was missing. His heart in his throat, Duo tore out of the room, calling Wufei's name, opening doors and slamming them as he searched. Trowa and Quatre were gone, though there was a note on the kitchen table saying that they had stepped out to do some grocery shopping. Heero emerged from the mission room, having heard the commotion, and shook his head soundlessly when Duo glanced at him. "He's not here, Duo," Heero said quietly, his voice devoid of emotion. Duo nodded once and quickly began stepping into his shoes. He was halfway to the front door when Heero spoke again. "Wait." Duo stopped in his tracks, and suddenly it occurred to him that he was alone in the house with Heero. Wufei had told him - under great duress - what Heero had intended that day, three days ago, and as Duo remembered, his heart began thudding in his chest. "What do you want, Heero?" he asked, his voice surprisingly firm. "You won't find him that way. Come with me," Heero replied. Duo whirled to confront him, anger supplanting the terror. "Don't think you can tell me what to do just because Wufei isn't here, Heero!" Heero stared at him with blank eyes. "Come with me, please," he said simply. Then he turned and walked back towards the mission computer room. Shocked into obedience, Duo followed, flinching as he crossed the threshold and remembered the last time he had been in here. Had it only been a few hours before? It had been afternoon when the transmission came, and now it must be evening, but he felt like he must have slept for days. Heero sat at the computer and began typing. The laptop now sat where the tower had been, but the rest of the set-up was the same. "What are you doing?" Duo asked. "Wufei came in here before he left. I heard him typing at the computer. I'm trying to find out what he was doing." "Why are you doing this, Heero?" Duo had to ask. The typing ceased and Heero sat, motionless, for a moment. Finally he replied. "I remember some of what Dr. J taught me. Not all, but some." He looked up at Duo. "Wufei is becoming like me. That's not who he should be." A glimmer of sorrow flickered in Heero's eyes and died an instant later. "You deserve better, I know that now." Duo's jaw dropped and he stood in shocked silence as Heero turned back to his programming. His mind whirled, but he was unable to think of a reply before Heero spoke again. "He purchased a ticket on a supply freighter bound for L5." The printer whirred and spit out a sheet of paper. "Here is the ship, and where it's docked. You'd better hurry. It's leaving in less than 2 hours." Duo clutched the paper to himself. "T-thank you, Heero," he said and turned to leave. At the doorway, he suddenly stopped and turned back to the other pilot. "Heero, I-" he swallowed hard and continued. "I can't say I can really forgive you for what you did to me, but..." he took a breath. "I hope you can learn to undo what Dr. J did to you. You deserve better, too." Heero stared at him, his face inscrutable, then he nodded, once. Duo flashed him a grin, then headed out of the house. He met Quatre and Trowa coming in, their arms laden with groceries. "Duo!" Quatre exclaimed when he saw him. "What's going on? Is Wufei all right?" "He left! He's headed back to L5, and I have to stop him." Trowa fished a ring of keys out of his pocket and pressed them into Duo's hand. "Take my bike," he said. Duo smiled his thanks and raced towards Trowa's motorcycle. "Thanks Tro! It's that or fly DeathScythe. Don't worry you two, I'll be back soon!" "Be careful, Duo!" Quatre called over the sound of the engine. Duo raised a hand in acknowledgement and sped away. When he reached the turn to the main road, he stopped and looked in one direction, then the other. Finally, somewhat regretfully, he turned away from town and headed into the forest. He knew where he had to go before he went to the spaceport, and he only hoped that Treize was still at the mansion. He deserved a chance to help, somehow.
Duo caught himself convulsively clenching furrows in the expensive leather-clad arm of the wingback chair for the fortieth time and stopped himself with an effort. *He's not coming, give it up.* He glanced at his wristwatch and tapped his foot for a few seconds before halting that nervous motion and glanced at his watch again. *He's probably not even in the country.* He stood and paced the length of the room three times, then checked his watch again. *Less than an hour left before launch. I have to leave.* He took a regretful look towards the oak doors, and was heading rapidly towards the balcony, when the doors flew open and Treize staggered into the room. He was clearly distracted and half-asleep on his feet and it took Duo three attempts and enough time for him to strip down to the waist before he noticed the Gundam pilot. When Duo finally resorted to planting himself in front of the General and shouting his name practically into his face, Treize started and blinked in surprise. "Duo! What are you doing here?" he asked, his bronzed features colouring as he realized how inattentive he was. "I... I apologize for the state-" "Never mind that!" Duo cried in exasperation. "Wufei's gone! We have to get him back!" "What?" Treize's eyes were no longer at half-mast; they were wide with concern. Duo shook his head, taking a deep breath and glad that at least he had the OZ General's attention. "I don't have time to explain. What we tried to do backfired, I think. He left while I was asleep and he's booked on a transport to L5, leaving in..." he checked his wristwatch again. "47 minutes. I'm going to try to stop him, and I wanted to give you the chance to help in whatever way you can." A look of determination settled in Treize's features and he crossed the room to begin rummaging through drawers. "I'm coming with you," he pronounced, drawing out a polo shirt and jeans. "Coming with me?" Duo repeated incredulously. "You can't come with me, you have a war to fight! What if I have to go to L5?" Treize stripped off the remaining pieces of his uniform and donned the jeans and shirt in quick, efficient movements. "Then we'll go to L5 together. The war will go on without me for a few days, if necessary. Besides," he glanced at Duo, a small smile curving his lips. "You and Wufei have a war to fight, too. Une can run the war without me for a few days, but you can't afford to lose two-fifths of your fighting force if things go badly." Duo shook his head. "You're a strange man, General." "Never mind that, let's get going. We'll take your motorcycle and you can explain what's happened in more detail on the way."
On the way to the spaceport, Duo drove the bike and Treize wedged his larger body onto the seat behind him. The cool wind was kept at reluctant bay by Treize's arms, wrapped around Duo's waist, and by his chest pressed against Duo's back. Duo concentrated on answering questions over the twin roars of the motor and the wind and on ignoring exactly *who* it was he was talking to. By the time they'd arrived at the spaceport, Duo had described in detail everything that had happened from the time the transmission had come in to when he had left the house, though they still hadn't worked out much of a plan. They pulled into the huge parking lot and hurried into the port almost at a run. Duo cast about, looking for a likely direction, already feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the press of humanity and the droning sound of announcements all but drowned out by the swirling conversation of everyone around him. Suddenly, Treize tapped him on the shoulder and seized his hand, pulling him in a direction where he now glimpsed the word "Departures" periodically as the crowd parted to allow them through. "Good thing you're so tall!" Duo almost shouted to Treize. Treize only nodded, the look of determination on his face growing deeper by the second. A few moments later, Duo saw what was making the General so nervous: the security gates were ahead. "Hey, wait, we don't have a ticket-" Duo began, but Treize hushed him sharply and he fell silent, stung, and allowed himself to be pulled along sullenly. *Who the hell does he think he is? I shouldn't have wasted so much time going to him.* Duo thought savagely. *He just gets in and takes over. If it weren't for going to his place, I'd have gotten Wufei back by now.* By the time this had passed through his mind, they had pulled up to the security gates, where long lines of people were waiting to pass through the sensors and show their tickets so they could continue on to their destinations. Though few passenger ships travelled to the colonies, especially during the war, atmosphere planes took off from this port, as well as ships that travelled in the upper stratosphere, taking advantage of the lower gravity and thinner atmosphere to make trips around the planet quicker. Treize pushed to the head of the line, stopping only when the security guard stepped in front of him. "Excuse me, but where do you think *you're* going, mister," the burly guard growled, crossing his arms across his chest as well as he could, given the size of the muscles in his upper body. Duo stared up at the guard rudely and waited to be thrown out on his ass, hoping that he could use Treize to break his fall. "That is not your concern," Treize said authoritatively. "Let me though, immediately." Two other guards moved surreptitiously towards them from either side as the guard in front of them sneered. "Get to the back of the line, and then show me your boarding pass when it's *your* turn." He dropped his hand towards the butt of his service pistol and Duo tensed, his own hand moving slowly towards the gun secreted in the waistband of his pants. He didn't know what Treize was thinking a firefight would accomplish, but he didn't intend either of them to *lose*, if he could help it. Treize didn't flinch. He reached slowly into the breast pocket of his shirt and withdrew a small plastic card. He smiled pleasantly at the brute and held the card in his palm so it wouldn't be visible to anyone behind them. "Here's my boarding pass, sir. I'm sure you'll see everything is in order." The guard paled and took a step back. His hand made an abortive motion upwards towards a salute. "Uh, yes, sir, that will suffice. Please go through." "Thank you," Treize replied, without a hint of courtesy, and began pulling Duo along again. "Wait a minute," the guard said, a hint of the bravado creeping into his voice again. Treize turned his head to look at him. "What is it?" The guard pointed at Duo. "Who's he? Is he covered by your 'boarding pass'?" Treize glanced down at Duo and then back up at the guard. "He's with me." And they headed through the sensors - which hooted and hollered, but were ignored - and towards the gate where Wufei's transport was docked.
Despite the fact that the spaceport appeared to have been designed with the deliberate intention of ensuring that no passenger made it on time for their flight, Treize and Duo arrived at the correct gate before Wufei had boarded the freighter. They spotted his dark hair and pony-tail as soon as they came within sight and redoubled their efforts to push through the crowd towards him. Treize caught the tail-end of what the blonde-haired woman taking tickets was saying as they approached. "-have to show me some ID, sir. Flights to the colonies are for authorized, *registered* personnel, only! Don't you realize we're at war?" Wufei was standing opposite from the woman, on the other side of a sort of podium with a computer and a device to read the magnetic strip on an ID card, with his back mostly towards Treize and Duo. He took a step around the podium so that he was closer to the woman and laid a hand gently on hers, which was resting on the keyboard of the computer. The movement turned him enough that Treize could see the expressionless, distant look on the boy's face. As he touched her, he spoke, "I don't need to give you my identification, do I?" The woman's eyes seemed to lose their focus and she swayed. She turned her blue eyes towards the Chinese boy and blinked rapidly. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" "Thank you," Wufei replied. "I'll board the ship now." He released her hand and stepped past her, towards the gantry leading to the freighter. She shook her head as though clearing it and seemed to forget about Wufei completely as she gestured the next person forward. Treize and Duo finally emerged from the press of the crowd just as Wufei disappeared into the tunnel, and they ran full-tilt towards where they'd seen him last. "Wufei!" Duo called. "Wait!" As they passed the woman she exclaimed. "Hey, where do you-" Treize ignored her and didn't slow as they entered the claustrophobic passage. He saw Duo flip her the bird out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but smile. He felt his spirits rising even as he ran, there was no way Wufei could get away from them now, not with them right on his heels. They would take him home and make sure he never encountered the people who had done this to him, again, and he would be safe. They rounded the corner and saw no sign of Wufei, though they could see the open portal of the freighter ahead of them. Suddenly, Treize saw a blur out of the corner of his eye, rushing towards them faster than a human could move. Before he could blink, it was on them and there was an explosion of agony in his head. He heard Duo's scream as his hearing faded. And then there was blackness. | |
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