Archivist's note: This story was written for Ravensilver's Preventers Five contest.

It was supposed to be a simple mission, but then they were all supposed to be simple missions. The life of a Gundam pilot was one of simplicity itself. Get in, destroy or incapacitate or steal whatever the target was, and get out again, and if you can't get out then you self-detonate. Heero had self-detonated three times, nearly died each time, and now here he was, trapped in an office at the top of a skyscraper in New York, and he didn't even have that option. Heero Yuy, Gundam pilot and hero of the Mariemaia War, and he was probably going to die trapped in a freaking office five hundred feet above the ground. Well at least he wouldn't die alone. God, what a morbid thought.

Duo couldn't believe his luck. Sure, once again people were shooting at him and trying to kill him; that was hardly news as it had been happening for the better part of his life though mostly since he got his Gundam Deathscythe. But just that it seemed like he was going to die dressed in a suit he hated, trapped in a goddamn office building full of idiotic rebels against the new policies of peace and cooperation. Leftovers from OZ and the Romefeller Foundation, they had decided to hide their faces behind legal enterprises, while they built their power and influence. The Preventers had caught on to their plans and had selected Agent Wing, Heero, to infiltrate the terrorists. Duo was only along because Heero had asked him to come, logically pointing out that two sets of eyes and ears are better than one, and that backup was never a bad thing. Damn him and his logic. Well, at least he was trapped just like Duo was, the calm bastard. Another bullet slammed into the door and Duo's attention returned to just how they were going to escape.

The mission came to Heero first, who had been rudely awakened in the middle of the night by a ringing phone, which he had promptly thrown across the room and destroyed, before realizing that the call could have been important. Thankfully when his cellphone rang he exercised a bit more restraint.

"Agent Wing, Control. Confirm identity."

"Control, Agent Wing. Code Wing Alpha D M 0 2 Omega."

"Identity confirmed. We have a Beta-priority recon op that needs your skills. Details have been forwarded to you through regular channels. Op framework is single operative but recruit as needed. Threat risk moderate but no direct action will likely be required. Do you accept?"

"Confirmed. Timeline for completion?"

"Seventy-two hours. Will advise if parameters change."

And with that the phone went dead and Heero sighed, not because there was a new mission to take on, but rather that he really did want someone to accompany him on the mission and there was really only one person to choose. Setting the cellphone aside, the newly-minted 18 year old swung his legs over the bed and rubbed his face with his hands, already running through likely scenarios and requirements even before he opened his laptop and called up the op information. Deciding that a cup of coffee would be needed, despite the fact that he was almost completely awake and alert, Heero started the coffee maker before sitting down in the living room of his townhouse and opening up the expensive laptop waiting on the coffee table. It took several seconds to input the biometric and alphanumeric codes before the laptop even booted up, and another set before it would call up the heavily encrypted mission packet e-mailed to him. Loading the decryption software, Heero sipped his coffee, and idly checked to see that the handgun was still strapped under the coffee table, exactly as he had left it the night before. Once the files were decrypted and decompressed, Heero started to absorb the data like a sponge. A group of potential terrorists were known to be operating in New York out of a building in the financial district, with ties going back to OZ and the Romefeller Foundation. No mobile suits or heavy weapons had been reported in the area, but that didn't necessarily mean that they weren't planning something. And just what they were planning was of great interest to the Preventers.

If Relena hadn't felt so strongly about needing the Preventers to help stave off any lingering militaristic tendencies around the globe caused by the Earth Sphere United Nation's formation and the rapid disarmament around the world, Heero would have had serious doubts about wanting to join up at all. In the end, someone else had made the decision for him, and though it sometimes cost him a good night's sleep, Heero didn't really resent it. Well, sometimes maybe. Damn Duo Maxwell, backing him into a corner and coercing him into being a spy and saboteur again. Maybe the braided baka needed some punishment for his actions after all.

But as he always did after such thoughts, Heero smiled and remembered how much closer the two had become, even closer than having fought together in their Gundams not so many years before. It wasn't the fighting that did it, or anything to do with the Preventers, it was that they lived next door to each other and went to the office, when between missions, together. They cooked together, went to movies together, they may as well have just bought a single large house instead of two townhouses for the amount of time they actually spent apart. Friendship had never come easily to Heero, but the friendship he had with Duo was something he knew he wouldn't have survived all the wars without. The other Gundam pilots, they were his friends as well, but as with most things in life, one of them rose above the others, Duo was his best friend, no question at all.

Duo seemed to enjoy the situation as much as Heero did, thankfully for Heero had no idea what he would do if he were to end up alone without his constant companion by his side. Sure, they fought at times, swore and cursed and Heero still relished the baka's long braid that was such a useful means of controlling him. Take it in one hand and suddenly the boisterous American was like putty.

"Hn," Heero grunted, reading deeper into the file, his disguise and plans for false documentation forming.

It wouldn't be a difficult mission if the brief was to be believed. Heero snorted at that thought. When had any of his missions ever gone completely to plan. Wasn't it one of the irrefutable laws of battle that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy intact? Fine, he'd plan for the plan to fail and make it up as he went along as usual, and with Duo along he'd have some back-up, a trump card up his sleeve.

"Hn."

His coffee nearly gone, Heero decided there was little point in delaying waking Duo. Draining the dregs in his mug, Heero threw on a jacket over his standard tank top and shorts sleepwear and headed next door. He had the keys and security codes for Duo's house and Duo had the same for his, given that they alternated cooking breakfasts and dinners most nights, and to look after each others homes when the other was on a long mission.

Letting himself in silently, Heero quickly disarmed the security system and then reactivated the perimeter sensors. Bolting the front door again, Heero crept upstairs and towards the larger of the two bedrooms. The door was open so Heero poked his head in and sure enough Duo was dead asleep, the blankets tossed aside and the sheet wrapped around his slim form. The former Gundam pilot was spread-eagle on his back, head cocked away from the door and long braid draped across his pillows. Seeing his friend sleeping so soundly had Heero letting out an unconscious sigh and he stepped back from the doorway, leaning heavily on the wall. Maybe it was a stupid idea after all. Maybe it would be best to go solo on the mission

Duo Maxwell found himself tossing and turning most of the night, even more than usual. He wasn't sure what was disturbing his sleep; he hadn't had more than a few drinks with Heero that night and he hadn't had anything overly spicy. He loved adventurous food, but it didn't always love him back. It wasn't the nightmares that he usually suffered from either; nightmares about the Maxwell Church Massacre and all the battles he and Deathscythe had been through and all the lives he had taken. Whatever it was it was slowly drinking him insane.

For the tenth time that night, Duo looked over at the alarm clock on his bedside table and saw the time, letting out a soft groan of agony. 3:12am, precisely twenty minutes since the last time he had checked the time. It was summer and fairly warm, even in the evenings, so Duo had left his bedroom door open to circulate some air and had taken to donning one of the number of tank tops of Heero's that he had acquired over the years, the one he currently wore being a dark green. Finally he got up and out of bed, biology making him realize that regardless of whatever was keeping him up, he now needed to use the bathroom. Since the ensuite was a disaster area of broken toilet and clogged shower and sink, Duo had taken to using the other upstairs bathroom instead of actually fixing the problem. Yawning, Duo moved with surprising grace and stealth for being exhausted and surprised himself when he noticed the figure slumped against the wall outside his bedroom door.

"Jesus," he swore, clutching his chest and his racing heart. "Heero? What the hell are you doing sitting in my damn hallway at 3am?"

Heero didn't reply right away, still surprised that he hadn't heard his friend rise, but given how lost in thought he'd been it was understandable if not forgivable. Yes, it seemed the Perfect Soldier wasn't exactly so perfect any more, nor had he been for some time.

"I'm sorry I scared you," Heero apologized, rising and getting a good look at his friend in the dim moonlight from the hallway skylight.

Duo looked tired, more tired than usual given his past, but he still looked as fit as ever, his violet eyes still as mischievous and alive as Heero remembered from the first day they had met and Duo had shot him. No, stay focused, Heero thought. Forget those thoughts, it can't happen. I can't let it.

"I shouldn't have come," he continued, turning to leave. "Get back to bed and I'll talk to you later."

"Come on Heero, out with it," Duo pressed, more awake now and his voice was back to its usual whiney/sultry tone. "You didn't come over here at this time of day to sit in my hallway. At least, I hope not because that would be pretty weird even for you."

Fighting back a smile, Heero turned back to his friend.

"I have a mission, beta-priority, and I wanted to ask you to go with me," he said, gauging Duo's facial expressions for any helpful hints as to his thoughts. "It's not required but my instincts tell me two is better than one in this case."

For a moment Duo didn't seem to even register the almost un-Heeroesque verbosity of the response, but finally he mustered a wan smile.

"Tell you what, meet me downstairs with a glass of water in a couple minutes and we'll talk," Duo replied.

"You too busy at the moment?" Heero quipped, putting his budding sense of humor to work.

"Well I don't plan to wet my shorts," the American retorted, playfully sticking his tongue out for an instant. "And unless you plan to help out in that department, fetch me a drink before I call the cops."

Now Heero let out a laugh and headed downstairs, leaving Duo to his business. Watching as his friend retreated, Duo let his confusion at Heero's lack of composure take over, wondering just what was bothering his Japanese friend so much that he almost seemed like a different person.

Their flight had gotten in only a few minutes late, a minor miracle even with the capabilities of current aircraft in Heero's opinion, and from there they took a cab to the hotel. Glancing briefly to his right, Heero saw that Duo was enjoying his visit to New York, his first as he'd pointed out on the plane. The sights were still impressive, towering modern buildings and modern cars, everything clean and orderly but still somehow inviting. Heero shook his head and tried to focus once more on the mission at hand, not an easy feat lately. Heero opened his briefcase and started re-reading the briefing from his laptop within it, until a shadow fell across the screen and he looked up to see Duo's face only a few inches away.

"Whatcha doin there?" Duo asked, then spotted the briefing and rolled his eyes. "Oh come on Heero, you've read that a million times now, do you think something is going to have changed since the last time?"

"I'm just being thorough," Heero countered, somewhat colder than he really intended, not that Duo chose to acknowledge his tone. "I might have missed something."

"You never miss anything," Duo pointed out, then poked a random key on the laptop before Heero could react, just to irritate his friend.

Heero gave him the infamous Glare of Death but Duo just smiled through it, knowing that there was no actual heat in the glare anymore and hadn't been for a long time. Fighting together against incredible odds to save humanity from itself tended to do that, and though Heero was still not the poster boy for normal, Duo was thankful everyday that he had someone like Heero in his life.

"Baka," Heero muttered, suppressing a grin at Duo's antics. His friend was always looking for new ways to make Heero lose control, including a rather unorthodox attempt at tickling, but after Duo had had his braid summarily stuffed into his own mouth while duct taped to a kitchen chair, the tickling had gone the way of the dodo. "Try to focus. Let's have one mission go according to plan."

"Spoilsport," Duo replied, turning away in a false huff, looking periodically over his shoulder to see Heero still watching him, still stony faced but his eyes were alive with laughter. "All right, we have a little less than three days now. We need to locate the terrorist leader or his office and hack their database to find out if they really are a threat or not. Get in, get what we want, get out, without being detected, sound about right?"

"Must you always try to make everything so simple?"

"Must you always try to make everything so damn complicated? We work great together, and even if something unforeseen comes our way, we'll get through it. We always have."

Heero didn't know what to say to that, mostly because Duo was actually right and that was always frightening on those rare occasions that he was, but the cab pulled up in front of their hotel before he could reply. Perhaps that was for the best, because some rather offensive words were on his lips at that moment.

Duo looked up at the hotel and smiled.

At least the Preventers are footing the bill on this place, he thought. This place would be WAY out of my price range even for only a few days.

That wasn't strictly true, given that all Preventers, and most especially the field agents, were paid rather exorbitant salaries.

"Come on Heero, bring the bags and let's get settled," Duo called, then turned and ducked just in time as Heero threw the small shoulder bag at his head. "Hey!"

"Pick up your own bags baka," Heero growled, inwardly laughing.

Duo sighed and picked up his bag and then retrieved his suitcase from the trunk of the cab, paying the man from his own money as Heero had left already to check in. Grumbling all the way, Duo dragged his suitcase into the lobby and up to the front desk. The man behind the counter was in a rather expensive-looking suit and Heero was already on his way to the elevators to go up to his room. Duo knew that he and Heero were on the same floor but at opposite sides of the building, just in case. Never hurts to be careful.

"Duo Barton checking in," Duo announced, smiling widely, to the complete disinterest of the man behind the desk.

"Indeed, sir. I see your reservation here. You are in room 1510. If you'll just take the elevators to your left to the 15th floor, and make a right once you get out you are at the end of the hall."

"Um, yeah, thanks."

Taking his room key from the boring guy, Duo headed for the elevators, astonished that anyone could be so boring and lifeless at work, beyond Heero that is. No wait, that wasn't fair. Heero was just methodical, cold, and calculating, he wasn't lifeless. Boring at times sure, but not lifeless. The elevator ride was brief, and the hallway that Duo emerged into was as opulent as the lobby. Following directions, Duo made a right and quickly found his room, passing the card over the sensor and the door swung inward. The suite was immense, far larger than was even remotely necessary for the mission, but Duo would enjoy it for the few days he had it. Leaving his shoulder bag and suitcase in the living room next to the couch, Duo opened the double doors into the single bedroom and goggled at the room. It was almost the size of the second floor of his house. Turning back to the living room, Duo opened his shoulder bag and pulled out the sweeper. Used to detect hidden surveillance devices of all kinds, it was a necessity when on a covert op. It only took a few minutes to sweep the suite, but once Duo was satisfied, he set the sweeper aside and activated the scrambler and set it on the coffee table. Dropping onto the couch, Duo pulled out his laptop and booted it up, checking to see if Heero had sent any updated mission info but as there was nothing, he took the time to set up the button cameras at various locations throughout the suite, then spent a few minutes checking the remote video links and the memory on the button cams then decided to check out the minibar. He was rummaging through it and deciding which of the incredibly expensive food he wanted, when there was a knock at the door. Completely on instinct Duo opened his briefcase and reached under the false bottom buried beneath the usual junk found in a briefcase. A quick thumb scan and the bottom released and Duo pulled out a silenced pistol from the X-ray-absorbent lead-lined compartment, where another pistol and several magazines of ammunition also lay. The precaution wasn't necessary for the flights that Preventer agents took as their organization always got them on exempted flights, but when it came time for infiltrating their targets, it never hurt to be cautious.

Moving to the door, weapon in hand, Duo checked the peephole and saw Heero waiting for him. Tucking the pistol into the back of his suit pants where the jacket hid it, he opened the door to let Heero in then quickly shut and locked it again.

"We're clean," Duo said, in answer to Heero's unspoken question.

"My room is secure too," Heero replied, moving to the small kitchenette and getting a glass of water. "I thought we could go over our cover stories once more today and then go for a walk to check out the area."

"Sounds like a ton of fun," Duo sighed, but silently agreed that it was a smart idea. "Can we at least take the night off before we get into this? The jet lag is going to play havoc with me if we don't get some down time tonight."

"Agreed."

Heero beat Duo to the couch and sat down in front of the laptop which Duo had forgotten to secure, but for some reason Heero didn't comment on that.

"Good cam coverage," Heero absently said, then called up the mission profile. "So you are Duo Barton, client relations specialist. I'm Heero Winner, legal analysis specialist. We've recently been brought in from a rival investment firm, which we can't name due to the confidentiality contracts we signed with our former company. Now the firm we're infiltrating is New Horizons, and they control the top five floors of the building. Everything we've got says that they are legitimate, but we know better."

"Do we have any information on the employees or suspected terrorists?" Duo asked, stealing a sip from Heero's water. "Anything that would tell us who to look for specifically?"

"There's nothing here, and I'm not surprised. They've been in that building for more than six months but we've only now learned of their existence. We're going in blind, don't doubt that."

Duo leaned back and evaluated the situation, and had to ask the biggest question on his mind that had been nagging him since he had found Heero sitting in his hallway.

"Why did you need me to come along for this again?"

The question caught Heero somewhat off guard, though in a way he had expected it for some time. His previous reasoning, logical and precise, just didn't ring as true to Duo's ears, and Heero knew it. The truth then? No, that was the last thing that this situation needed. Another lie then? Every time he lied to Duo, even though they were all well-meaning lies, it was another dagger twisting between his ribs. Some best friend he was, treating someone who had saved his life, maybe even his soul, so poorly. And still the lies came so easily to his lips.

"I didn't need you to come along, but I thought it made sense to have another with me," Heero tried again, the words like ashes in his mouth. "Besides, you weren't doing anything useful at the time, so what are you complaining about?"

Duo gave him an odd look as though he meant to challenge what his friend had said, but in the end seemed to decide against it.

"So we're about fifteen blocks away, so if we're going to give it a looking over, we should start out now," Duo said, pulling the gun from the uncomfortable position in his belt. "We should walk and try to get the lay of the land a bit better in case something goes wrong and we need to make a getaway."

"Good idea, for a change. I will meet you in the lobby in five minutes."

Heero left and returned to his own room, mind in turmoil but knowing that the mission had to come first. Maybe afterwards there would be time to finally deal with what was eating him alive. His room was almost identical to Duo's, right down to the hidden cams throughout it and the scrambler sitting on his own coffee table. His own briefcase was of a different make than Duo's but it had the same security features and a similar content. From his suitcase Heero set aside the few clothes he had brought, and underneath them he opened the other hidden compartment and drew out the additional supplies he had brought. He wasn't certain he would need all of them, or indeed any of them, but he almost felt naked without a good supply of weapons on hand, and the other tricks of the Preventer trade. He strapped on a dual underarm holster before sliding a pair of silenced pistols into them and making sure it was all cinched down tight. Putting his suit jacket on over top and buttoning it, Heero took a moment to check himself out in the mirror to make sure his weapons weren't visible and that he looked the part. Satisfied, he put the other equipment back into the suitcase and locked it before sliding it under the bed. The living room was the same story, hiding all evidence of who he really was and at last deactivating the scrambler and pocketing it. With all the button cams recording any activity would be recorded for examination when he got back. Making sure that the door locked behind him, Heero took the elevator down to the lobby and walked to where Duo stood waiting for him, briefcase in hand.

"Do you think we're going to need that?" Heero asked, his voice low enough that only Duo could hear him, as they walked out onto the street.

"I doubt it, but I thought that we could use a more complete map of the building so I left most of my toys in my room and brought the omni-directional resonance sensor suite with me."

"Bio-readings detector?"

"Of course. Yeesh, you'd think this was my first dance."

Another dance reference; the subject never seemed to stray far from Duo's mind but then he was an exceptional dancer. Heero was envious about many things his friend could do or lose himself in that left the Japanese boy behind, but the way he lost himself in the music without any shame or regret at the rather, scandalous, way he usually ended up gyrating in their living rooms at least once a week was simply amazing. Heero often found himself bobbing his head or tapping his foot to the rhythm as he watched his best friend dance in the low lights or with the disco ball in his own apartment spinning away. For a long time Heero had tried to assure himself that it was the music that was getting to him, that it had nothing to do with Duo or his dancing or any combination of those two things or any amount of alcohol he might have had that evening. For all the lies he told himself though, Heero knew the truth and it always depressed him, knowing that he would never have Duo dancing for him, truly for him, or with him. The best he could hope for was that they stayed as close as they were for as long as possible. Heero didn't relish the thought of being alone again.

"Sorry," he replied, realizing that Duo had been waiting for his reply for some time. "I was thinking."

"Shocking," Duo laughed, gently nudging his well-dressed friend with his shoulder.

Heero knew that he looked good in a suit, even with his still tousled hair, but Duo, well it was best not to go down that road of thought at the moment.

"At least I think unlike someone else I know," Heero retorted, bringing a snort from Duo.

"I think plenty and you know it. I just happen to prefer a bit more action to constant thinking. But then we're different people, I'm pleasant and outgoing and funny, and you're introverted, psychopathic, and well lets face it you haven't gotten the hang of humor just yet. So don't go throwing stones in glass houses mister, cuz you're not so big that I won't kick your ass."

Heero turned away and smiled, knowing that Duo hadn't meant any of the false-heated things he had just spewed, but that it was always funny when he got the normally cheerful American to be remotely serious. It didn't last long however, for soon Duo was back to normal, gabbing away about everything he'd heard about New York and pointing out the few things he had seen in a guide book at one point or another, but Heero didn't mind. For all those early times when Duo had annoyed him to no end with his constant talking and trying to wheedle any sort of conversation out of his stoic partner, now Heero was glad that the braided baka had made the effort for so long when anyone else would have simply given up.

"There it is," Duo said at last, breaking Heero from his trance.

Sure enough, up ahead on the right was their target. It wasn't the largest building in the area, but it was still impressive and quite stylish. It was unfortunate that it was a terrorist den. If it weren't for the innocents inside, and that with the war over such tactics weren't permitted, Heero would have been just as glad to reduce the entire building to rubble. Infiltrating was always a risky and seldom rewarding venture, but if those were the orders then that is what he would do.

"We'll take a few passes around it," Heero said, Duo nodding and activating the ODR sensor with a tap on the remote he had secreted in his left pocket.

"Give me a few seconds to let it get a fix on our target."

The constant press of people kept them hidden from any prying eyes as Duo kept the business end of the briefcase focused on the building they wanted, before he and Heero started off once again. They walked around the block a few times as well as stopping to get more details scans at several points, but after a good hour they both decided that there was probably nothing more to be gained and so they started back to the hotel. Taking a different route to better scout the area, Heero nearly groaned when he saw the business front up ahead.

"A club! Great!" Duo exclaimed. "The NightSky. Sounds great. What do you say Heero? Up for a little clubbing for a change?"

"We have a mission," Heero patiently replied, shaking his head. "We need to go over the sensor scans and get a good night sleep before we show up to work tomorrow. You need at least an hour in the morning for your hair alone. So do you think going to a club tonight is a good idea?"

Duo sighed with such a dramatic flair that Heero almost laughed. It was as if he'd suggested the youth sever a leg for no reason, or to stop breathing, but then to Duo that was how important dancing was.

"How about once the mission is over, if we have time, we can stop by," Heero suggested. "We don't need to present our report in person, and there was no timeframe for our return, so we could take a later flight back."

"Really?" Duo asked, grinning so widely it seemed his head would come apart, eyes positively dancing with manic glee. "That would be great! I knew you'd see it my way, after all you've never been before and New York is supposed to have some of the best clubs in the world. I was just reading in..."

Heero partially tuned Duo out at that point, letting his friend ramble on once again but seeing him so engaged and excited about something was worth the annoyance about hearing about the intricacies of club conduct and decorum, of which there was none apparently.

Duo couldn't believe his luck. Heero had agreed to going out to a club with him, for the first time in...well ever, to be honest. He knew that Heero didn't have the same passion or need for music and dancing as he himself did, but still what young guy didn't like getting out on the dance floor and shaking his groove thing. Thanks to Doctor J Heero hadn't had anything resembling a childhood or a family, so that left him more than a little scarred and out of touch with other people his own age. Duo had watched how out of place Heero had seemed when the Gundam pilots had ever gotten together, how isolated he seemed to be even in a room full of people a lot more like himself than he wanted to admit. Sometimes Heero decided to take on the weight of every decision they had all made, making himself the scapegoat for their mistakes and failures. That was one of his more annoying personality traits, at least in Duo's mind. Heero constantly took on more than he needed to, even signing up with the Preventers when Lady Une, head of the organization after Relena had basically ordered its creation, had asked Duo to join. Duo had accepted, not knowing what else he could do with his life but knowing that he could still be of use. Remembering how excited he'd been and talking to Heero nonstop about it, maybe that was why the still reticent Japanese boy had signed up too. Was it possible that Duo had pressured him into doing it, even unknowingly?

Shaking his head to clear such thoughts away, Duo let out a brief cough of laughter, drawing a brief stare from Heero. No, Duo reasoned, Heero doesn't do anything he doesn't want to unless it was an order back in the war. Hell, he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to even now, except when I ask.

They were nearly back to the hotel when that revelation hit Duo like a Gundam at full thrust. That's why he joined up with the Preventers, he realized. Because I asked him to, in a way, and because he knew that I really did want him there with me just like in the old days. Oh jesus, what have I done.

They took a quiet elevator ride up to their rooms, Heero checking his over quickly and deciding that everything was in order before they both returned to Duo's room. As Duo reached for the keycard in his pocket, he felt Heero brush past him, a hand reaching into his jacket for one of his holstered weapons.

Even now, Duo thought as he passed the card over the scanner plate, he throws himself in the path of any attack for me. Does he think he owes me something from the war? He sure saved my ass more than once, and I returned the favor, but maybe he feels that because I tried to be his friend all along that he owes me something more. That jerk, I was just trying to be nice and thought we could both use a friend! I should beat his head against the wall if that's what this is all about.

Heero entered first, weapon in hand, other hand reaching for the second weapon. Duo marveled once again at Heero's feline grace and stride, so precise and powerful, each movement meaningful and nothing wasted. Closing and bolting the door behind him, Duo let his friend clear the suite before setting the briefcase down on the coffee table.

"It's clear," Heero said, coming back into the living room, his hands darting into his jacket in a heartbeat and coming out empty again.

"I'll download the scans into the rendering program," Duo replied, pulling his laptop out from under the couch where he had hidden it. "It'll just take a minute. Could you grab me something to drink? And anything you need obviously."

"Hn."

Leaving Heero to the task of food and drink, Duo opened the briefcase and took out the compact sensor package and using a connector cable, plugged it into the laptop and started the data download. A shadow fell over him and he looked up into Heero's face, an arm extended with a bottle of water.

"Thanks," Duo replied, hand accidentally brushing Heero's when he took the water. "Give me a sec, I'm going to change into something a bit more comfortable. Take off your jacket and stay awhile."

Duo left the stumped Heero behind and retreated into the bedroom, closing the double doors behind him. Almost at once he started shaking, and flopped down onto the bed until it passed.

"What the hell was that?" he breathed, not understanding what had just happened to him

Surely simply touching Heero's hand couldn't set him off into a nervous panic like this, to the point that he couldn't bring himself to even stand up. He'd touched Heero a hundred times before, at least. Hell, he'd even hugged him once or twice. Why would simply brushing his hand nearly give him a heart attack?

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Duo demanded of himself, finally feeling confident enough to get up so that he didn't wrinkle his only suit.

He quickly changed into jeans and a T-shirt, black on both counts, and then set his suit out on the bureau for the following morning.

"Toss me the water Heero," he said, coming out and catching the bottle as it soared in straight for his face. "Hey!"

"You didn't say where to toss it," Heero replied, nonplussed.

"You're just so damn funny aren't you," Duo snidely remarked. "What if I'd missed it, what then Mr. Perfect Soldier? It could have broken my damn nose!"

"If you'd missed it I would have been very disappointed. And as for your nose, one more break won't change it any more than the other times have."

Duo opened his mouth, then closed it again when he realized that Heero had noticed all the times his nose had been smashed or damaged in the cockpit of Deathscythe, and that it had always somehow been repaired just as good as the original. Something was definitely up with his fellow ex-pilot, but that was something best saved for a long flight home, or over dinner once they got home. With a mission looming over their heads, Duo was shocked Heero wasn't focused exclusively on the details and planning to the exclusion of all else, as was normal. That was just fine with Duo; the mission-intensive Heero could sometimes be a bit much and piling extra stress on top of the already stressed American youth would not be a good idea.

"The building is standard in terms of its construction," Heero began, as Duo dropped down onto the couch next to him. "There hasn't been anything overly obvious done to the top five floors, which is where our intel puts the terrorist cell. I'd guess from these scans that the large central office on the third highest floor is the one we're after. It's centered in the five floors they control and almost perfectly equidistant from all other sides of the building. It would be the best place to put their central computer mainframes."

Duo listened with only half an ear, noticing briefly that the water he was drinking wasn't quite as cold as he'd like it, and also that Heero had removed his suit jacket and tie and he still looked like he was ready for a night on the town. Oh god, Duo inwardly groaned, not this again, anything but this. Just focus on the goddamn mission and get the job done!

"Did you say something?" Heero asked, breaking off his summation of the situation to look at Duo, who suddenly seemed nervous and was blushing slightly.

"No, no nothing at all, I'm sorry, I spaced out for a second. Last I heard was that the central room was the best location for their mainframe because it would be the easiest to secure and covertly fortify to protect. Did I miss anything else?"

Heero had the good grace to look shocked, his face betraying him for a moment before he recovered, helping to lessen the terror Duo had felt that he had said his inner most thoughts aloud.

"That was pretty much it," Heero replied. "I was thinking we should go in tomorrow, put on our faces, just walk around and try to get a look at the place from the inside. That's what new recruits, legal or otherwise, would do at first anyway. The following day we just stay late, saying that we have some initial paperwork that really needs to be done for the next day and that we'll let ourselves out. There are bound to be guards patrolling at night, but if we take the first day and use the tour to plant button cams throughout those floors, we might be able to pick up on a particular route or pattern that could help us avoid them."

"We're attempting to avoid a direct confrontation I assume?" Duo asked, finishing his water and still feeling parched and too warm. What was it with him lately? It was like he was having hot flashes. "Minimal loss of life and all that?"

"You've actually read the briefing, I'm impressed," Heero countered, sarcasm dripping from every word, earning him another glare from his braided friend. "Yes, we don't want to kill anyone if we don't have to, but the mission comes first, as does our safety."

"Gotcha," Duo replied, heading for the minibar again. "I need another water. Do you need anything?"

Heero glanced briefly at his still unopened water and shook his head.

"Hmm, maybe I'll have a drink instead. They have all these nice little bottles of liquor here, and they're just begging for me to drink them all."

Duo had no intention of even having one of the tiny bottles, but he was hoping to earn himself a patented Heero Yuy Death Glare. Sure enough, when he turned around there it was waiting for him, coming straight out of those Prussian blue eyes.

"Oh no, the Death Glare!" Duo shrilled, grasping at his stomach. "Oh my spleen! Aim it a little higher would you and put me out of my misery!"

Duo watched as Heero tried, really tried, to put a little extra heat into the glare, but he was struggling too hard not to crack a smile so it eventually became so pathetic that Duo had to laugh.

"Oh come on, that's the best you've got?" he challenged, returning the tiny bottles to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. "The old Heero would have skewered me with a glare that would have roasted me alive. You're getting slack Heero, and you know I'm going take advantage of your new weakened state."

"The old Heero would probably just have shot you for what you just said," Heero reminded him, then drew one of his pistols from their holsters and looked at it with a great deal of interest. "Then again, I do have the silencer on, so perhaps that's just something I could take care of right now."

Duo laughed nervously, not completely certain that Heero wasn't kidding, but deciding that he was after his friend gave him a rare smile.

"Don't do that," Duo gasped, clutching at his chest in mock pain. "I thought you were actually serious for a second."

Heero again looked thoughtful, as though pondering still shooting his friend, but the gun in his hand deftly slid back into its holster and Duo relaxed again, shaking his head as he dropped down next to his friend.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, mostly with talk of the mission and their strategy for placing button cams before Heero finally retired to his own room, leaving Duo alone.

It wasn't overly late as yet, but Duo knew he needed to get a good night sleep. He secured his equipment and prepared his clothes and briefcase for the next day. Once he had done everything he could to avoid going to sleep, Duo decided that maybe a drink wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. With only small lamp next to the couch on, Duo held the glass of vodka in his hand and swirled it, the ice cubes clinking against the glass. Something was unsettling him this night, and he didn't know what it was. The mission seemed simple, and between the two of them Duo had no doubt that they would succeed, but still there was something gnawing at him. Taking a deep drink, Duo leaned back on the couch, dreading going to sleep, knowing that all that awaited him were the nightmares. Other than Heero, they were probably his closest friend, which made Duo take another gulp of his drink in disgust, feeling weak for letting his memories rule his life. Heero certainly didn't let his past ruin his future, beyond self-detonating a few times, and throwing himself in the path of any enemy he could find. Duo laughed, feeling the alcohol starting to get to him. Heero was just as much a slave to his past and his training, and his emotional and mental state left something to be desired at times, but he was always true to himself. He didn't lie or hide things, or pretend to be something he wasn't, unlike his so-called best friend. Duo slammed back the rest of his drink, feeling it burn on the way down. Eying the empty glass, Duo was sorely tempted to get another, but his body was already feeling numb, so maybe one would be enough to sleep tonight. Standing up somewhat shakily, Duo staggered to the bedroom and collapsed on the bed, already feeling the darkness coming to claim him. Please let me sleep tonight, Duo pleaded as the darkness surrounded him. Just one night without the nightmares.

Heero was up before dawn, the same as most days, so he took a moment to watch as the sun started to rise on the horizon, fortunate that his room faced in the proper direction. He hadn't slept well again, strange dreams plaguing him the entire night, and had woken stiff and not rested in the least. Some stretching had at least helped with the soreness, but the mental exhaustion wasn't something so easily cured. A glass of water would have to hold him until breakfast downstairs. Duo wouldn't be up for at least another hour, Heero knew, and it would take him at least an hour to get ready for breakfast, thanks to his long hair. Sighing, Heero took a brief cold shower and got dressed, deciding to spend the next while until Duo came knocking on reviewing mission data and preparing his own briefcase of equipment. He tried to minimize the weapons, taking a large supply of the button cams and other hacking equipment should the opportunity present itself. Checking the battery on the laptop and making sure all his hidden cameras were still transmitting on a secure and stable link but the laptop only had so much space on its harddrive so Heero called up the recordings from the previous day and night to delete them and save space. The first few hours were easy to delete as there was nothing there, but Heero hesitated when he got to the recordings of himself and Duo from the previous evening. It was odd, to watch oneself from so many different angles, without any sound to help understand what was happening. Heero smiled slightly as he watched the interchange between the two of them; Duo narrowly catching the bottle of water before it hit him in the nose; Duo playing with the small bottles of liquor as Heero threatened to shoot him. Heero felt ashamed that he'd pulled his gun on his friend, even in jest, but Duo didn't seem to mind, merely considering it another part of their playing around. But did it matter if Duo didn't mind? Heero had always tried to live by the rule that if you drawn your weapon you'd better be prepared to kill with it. Had he been prepared to kill at that moment? At that Heero let out an amused chuckle; there was absolutely no chance of that happening. The gun was even on safety the previous night.

"Worrying about nothing," Heero muttered to himself, as he saved the recordings and compressed them to save disk space. "We're both broken and we're not about to blame the other if we slip up once in a while. Besides, the baka had it coming to him."

Heero, despite being of distantly Japanese heritage, had never learned more than a smattering of words, and more as a means to insult Duo and confuse him at the same time, always a fun prospect. Baka was his favorite, though he wasn't certain why, and it certainly got Duo's attention more often than not. The same could be true of grabbing a hold of the baka's braid, but Duo had quick reflexes and that was easier to say than do. Checking the time, Heero sighed, his stomach rumbling at the thought that he still probably had more than half an hour before Duo would be ready for breakfast. Well, it would do him some good to eat less, given that he'd been putting on a few pounds thanks to all the food he and Duo had been cooking since the end of the war. Cooking together usually ended up causing quite a mess, and dinner usually wasn't finished until well after sundown, and they hadn't quite got a handle on the "healthy cooking" thing either, so it was taking more and more exercising to stay in shape. Today, Heero vowed, he would have a well-balanced breakfast, none of the greasy food Duo seemed to prefer. While he waited, Heero took the time to send an e-mail out to their fellow Gundam pilots, not telling them of course what he and Duo were doing at that moment, but more just to catch up with their friends. With the other ex-pilots spending most of their time on the colonies and Wufei working for Preventer, they had little chance to get together often, and it was usually weeks or months between messages. After a few perfunctory opening remarks, Heero found himself lost for words, not an unusual condition for him. Finally he just decided to leave the e-mail alone and send it out. Before he did, he put both his own and Duo's names on it. A few moments after he hit the 'send' button, there was a knock at the door. Slipping a compact pistol from inside one of the couch cushions where he had hidden it when he had first arrived, Heero went to the door and checked the peep hole, and rolled his eyes as Duo stuck out his tongue at him from the other side.

"Ready to go?" Duo asked, as Heero opened the door. "I'm starving."

"Shocking," Heero replied, earning a glare and then returned his weapon to the cushion. Securing the laptop and hiding it once more, Heero picked up his briefcase and followed Duo back out. "So what are you going to eat?"

Duo looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned.

"I was thinking bacon and sausages and eggs, and toast of course, maybe a steak..."

Heero let his friend carry on for the elevator ride down, enjoying the almost carnal descriptions of all the food Duo planned to consume.

Just as planned, Heero had some fruit and toast, while Duo make good on his threats to eat an extremely unhealthy meal that nearly made Heero sick as his friend wolfed it down.

"I hope you aren't too full to complete the mission," Heero scoffed, as they walked towards their target, lost amongst the hundreds of other people doing the same thing. "It would hinder us more than a little if you throw up on our first day."

"You're a real laugh riot," Duo remarked, scowling. "I didn't eat that much, and if I can stomach your cooking I'm sure I'll be just fine."

"At least I don't drag my hair through every meal I make."

"Jerk."

"Baka."

Though he enjoyed the banter, Heero stayed focused on the mission, gesturing to Duo that their fun was over as their target came into sight. Unconsciously straightening and keeping himself calm and centered, trying to project an air of greater age and experience, Heero led the way into the lobby. They moved to the elevators without incident, but Heero could feel several of the guards in the lobby watching him and Duo with more than casual gazes. It seemed that the New Horizon had their people throughout the building, not just on the top five floors after all.

"Two of them," Duo breathed, his lips barely moving at all.

"Yes," Heero replied, glad that his partner was still as good as he'd ever been.

They silently took the elevator up to its highest floor, the same floor that the elevators for the top five floors began on. They were greeted by a security desk with three men behind it, and despite their simple security uniforms, Heero could see how they held themselves and their gazes, each of which marked them out as soldiers.

"Welcome to New Horizons," the central guard said, his face as unwelcoming as any that Heero could remember seeing. "What is your business here today?"

"I am Heero Winner and this is Duo Barton," Heero announced.

"Hmm," the guard replied, calling up the list of authorized employees and quickly locating the hacked files placed in the system by the Preventers prior to the missions beginning. They wouldn't hold up to intense scrutiny, but would be enough to get them inside for the two days they needed. "All right, I see you in the system. I have your passcards. I wouldn't suggest losing them."

Taking the proffered cards, Heero and Duo swiped in at the console next to the security desk, then entered the elevator.

"My card says I need the first level," Duo said, looking the passcard over and reading his access information. "Duo Barton, hmm, still doesn't sound as good as Duo Maxwell."

"Be silent," Heero hissed, looking over his own card. "We must assume that we are under constant surveillance."

"Sorry," Duo replied, sounding genuinely embarrassed that he had made such a stupid mistake.

Heero took his friend at his word, knowing that he meant it, and found out that he was on the second level.

"I wonder what will happen if we push a button for a level we aren't authorized for," Duo wondered, still pushing the correct button for his level and swiping his card through the reader to confirm his access.

"Don't try it," Heero told him, doing the same for his level. "I'll code my card today for all levels, and prepare yours for the same. Today, just try not to get too overly noticed. Remember the plan."

"No I don't, could you tell me for the millionth time?" Duo laughed, shoving Heero slightly with his shoulder. The elevator came to a stop and Duo stepped off, saying nothing more but looking back over his shoulder briefly, and Heero met his eyes for the split second before the doors closed. The look didn't mean any one thing, and that was the most irritating part, but Heero knew at the very least that it was a silent wish for his safety and success.

Duo found his office quickly, thanks to a helpful woman who smiled the moment he'd said hello to her. She would have led him there personally, but Duo begged off saying that he needed to look around anyway and get more familiar with where he was working. He found the copy room quickly enough, and the small break room, but it seemed that there was little there, indicating that most people ate in their offices.

Duo's office was a good size, larger than he expected but then, his file said he was quite the closer when it came to getting new investors. The computer was a powerful, three-monitor setup, the desk was large and oak, with several filing cabinets along the wall. Duo wanted to laugh, having such an office yet he would be there for barely less than two days. Setting his briefcase on the desk to the left of the computer, Duo sat down and powered it up. There was a password needed but even though Duo wasn't as good as Heero at hacking computers, it still only took him five minutes to get past the rudimentary safeguards, and another ten minutes to determine that his system wasn't connected to the mainframes on the third level. The computer itself contained nothing important at all, just basic programs someone in the industry would need. Knowing why he was there, Duo opened his briefcase and released the hidden panel just long enough to collect the small cylinder that contained twelve of the button cams, each with the short-range encrypted transmitter that relayed only to the laptop in his briefcase. A brief walkabout would empty the cylinder, and the rest of the day Duo would monitor the feeds and track the movements of everyone on his level. He could only hope that Heero would accomplish the same on his level, and perhaps even manage to breach the upper floors even for a few minutes, just long enough to plant a few cams and escape again.

Knowing that his task wouldn't get done if he just sat around all day, Duo got up and slid the cams into his pants pocket where he could quickly dispense them. Checking himself briefly in the monitors, Duo left his office after planting a cam above the door frame to record anyone coming into his office during his absence. There were surprisingly few people on his level, something that made Duo all the more suspicious that he already was. Surely no company could survive with only a handful of employees to run an office so large and make any sort of profit. No, something didn't sit right at all. It proved to be very simple to place all twelve cams and after getting some coffee and exchanging another smile with the flirty woman from earlier, Duo returned to his office and unlocked his briefcase and laptop, letting it boot up before he started checking the feeds. All twelve were coming in strong and clear, and laying out their locations over the resonance scans, he smiled in pride as he realized that he had placed them exactly where they needed to go.

"Beat that Yuy," Duo muttered, picking up his coffee mug and taking a long pull, deciding that it wasn't a bad blend, before wondering what he should do with the rest of his day. "I guess I'd better look busy."

Leaving the laptop to record all that it could, Duo began to create false data files throughout his computer's memory, pulling random information from profiles he had read about in Preventer files or on the news to create a false client database. Since he had all day in order to make himself look as good as Heero had made him out to be, Duo found his mind wandering a bit and pondering just what was distracting him so much of late. It wasn't work, given that he was mostly on-call if there was a mission that needed his skills, and the occasional day spent at headquarters filing reports and paperwork or sitting in on a strategy session. It wasn't his personal life either; he hadn't been so happy and at peace since he could remember, though the occasional mission still called for him to put skills to use he would rather forget. But when the possibility of another war could result from his lack of action, Duo found he had no good reason to put innocent lives at risk when he could keep them safe. It still didn't help with the nightmares though. They had always come and gone during the wars, but lately they had been occurring far more often and with far greater intensity than he could remember. There were still many about the Maxwell Church Massacre, of that he would never truly be able to free himself, but there was another that seemed to disturb him even more. As with dreams, it was almost impossible to remember enough of the nightmare to truly understand it, but it seemed to be a repeating memory from one of the earliest battles in the Eve War. Almost every night Duo watched in numb horror as Heero stood at the armored entry to his Gundam, announced that his mission was suicide, and self-detonated. When Wing 01 exploded, it almost always catapulted Duo back into the waking world, but other times he was forced to watch as Heero's mangled body was hurled away with the first shockwave, his eyes lifeless, blood spraying from his wounds, until he landed in a heap upon the ground. The first time he had woken from that nightmare, Duo had rushed to the bathroom and vomited until there was nothing left and spent the rest of the night in a heaving mass on the floor. He had never told his friend why he had looked so ruined the following morning, fearing that Heero would blame himself, or worse, think Duo weak for not being able to banish the horrors he has seen as completely as Heero had. Duo felt his hand unconsciously tightening on the mug in his hand, and quickly set it down before he shattered it. His hand still shaking, Duo tried to refocus on the task at hand but found it almost impossible, his mind constantly wandering to all the things that had come since the war, good and bad. Checking the time, Duo saw that it was well past noon and decided that perhaps something to eat would help him to focus on the mission again. On his way down the elevator to the restaurant on the main floor, Duo wondered if he would run into Heero.

Heero had decided against going out for lunch, and had opted to bring an apple with him alongside his tools of deception and death. It was quite the lunch box. Much as Duo had, Heero had hacked into the computer terminal and determined that it was practically worthless for their purposes and loaded in prepared files that made it look as though he had brought work with him. As that was insinuating itself into the computer, Heero had gone for a coffee ostensibly, and yet had only gotten one after he had placed his own cams, casually wondering if Duo had bothered to get his level under surveillance yet or not. With a cup of hot coffee in hand, Heero returned to his office and booted his laptop, and once satisfied that the cameras were all well placed and transmitting a good quality image, set the laptop aside until it was time to leave. Then it was a simple matter of activating the built-in satellite repeater that would beam periodic compressed files of all the camera footage back to Heero's other laptop in the hotel room. Duo's computer had the same, and between the two of them they should be able to determine the average movements and timing of the security sweeps, if there even were any. They wouldn't be able to infiltrate the higher three levels until the actual night of the mission's true execution, but they would act on the times of the first two levels and assume, though Heero hated assumptions, that it would take approximately the same amount of time for the other three levels. Once they were inside the mainframe room, they would have all the time they needed to get what they wanted since they could just wait for the guards to pass them once again before they made their escape. It was a risk to assume that the guards had no access to the mainframe room, but given the expensive nature of the equipment, and the fact that the guards might be merely rented security, Heero was nevertheless confident that they would not have the access codes to check the room.

Sipping at the remains of his coffee, he pondered the foe that the Preventers said resided in the building. Something just didn't sit right with him somehow, as though it had been too easy to insinuate themselves into the organization's front company. For such a well-funded and well-organized group, it should have been much harder to infiltrate them. With such success, Heero hadn't been willing or wanting to look any further into any of it, but now he had to wonder just how it had all happened so smoothly.

Draining the last of his mug, Heero locked down both computers and went back to get more. Duo had gotten him onto the terrible concoction, along with alcohol, and even occasionally meat. It seemed that Duo had been responsible for his slide from temple of perfection to, well, a regular person. For the life of him, Heero just couldn't figure out if he was grateful or not. As he refilled his mug, Heero decided to leave that to another day along with all the other things he had been setting aside to deal with that had been cropping up of late. Turning to leave the break room, he heard voices coming and decided to remain hidden and see if he could learn anything useful.

"Have you met the new guy?"

"What new guy?"

"The guy that just started today, Heero something, over in legal analysis. Looked pretty young but in this business who knows right."

"True enough. I just didn't hear that they were bringing anyone new on board. Our performance hasn't been slipping that I've seen, so I guess I'm a little surprised."

"Well it only bugs me because now we have to split the bonuses with another person who didn't even start out the fiscal here."

The two continued on and Heero smiled slightly, satisfied that he and Duo's cover seemed to be little more than office gossip and nothing overly sinister seemed to be on the minds of the people on his level. Going to take a sip from his mug, Heero realized that it was somehow empty again. During the forty-five seconds that he had been eavesdropping he had somehow finished off the entire cup. Damn Duo, Heero thought, then almost without conscious thought refilled the mug again. Damn Duo, he thought again, taking a sip.

The remainder of the day had passed quickly, and Duo knocked off at five, as he and Heero had agreed to. Saving all the falsified data that he had created in an effort to create a more plausible cover, Duo locked down the computer and opened his laptop. The data feeds had worked all day without fail, and none of the cams had failed or been discovered, so it was a simple matter to activate the satellite repeater software and have the already compressed video files sent to the laptop back in his hotel room. Knowing that Heero was doing the same thing and possibly even at the same moment made Duo smile for some idiotic reason. Or maybe it was the fact that Heero was probably doing it with a mug of coffee unconsciously clasped in one hand? Yeah that was probably it.

Leaving the laptop on but secured, Duo slid it into one of the desk drawers to continue running all night, the repeater automatically sending the video recordings every hour to the hotel. With his work accomplished, Duo picked up his briefcase and closed his office door, taking the elevator down the one level. There was now only one security guard at the desk, and Duo smiled and waved slightly at the dour looking fellow as he entered the main elevators and met Heero in the lobby.

"How was your day?" he asked, honestly interested and glad to see his friend after more time apart than was normal save during solo missions. "Was it productive or did you just drain the coffee urn dry?"

"Keep laughing," Heero advised, fixing Duo with a glare and getting an even wider grin in return. "I still haven't gotten you back for getting me hooked on that crap."

Duo didn't let up with his grin until Heero's look softened and the corners of his mouth twitched ever so slightly. It was true, Heero had become well and truly hooked on coffee, to the point that Duo had had to purchase a proper grinder and a large supply of fresh beans so that when his friend was over he could make a pot of "that crap" for breakfast. For Christmas this year, Duo planned to buy the other youth the biggest, fanciest coffee machine he could possibly find. It would preferably have more power than a Gundam, be able to grind a years worth of beans at once, and brew a pot of coffee in less time than it took to actually turn the machine on. It would be expensive, of that there was no doubt, but Duo didn't care. What would he do with all his money anyway? The Preventers paid a ridiculous salary, paid for his home and bills, so why not spend his money on what he truly wanted and Heero's smile at seeing the monstrosity sitting on his counter Christmas morning would be better than all the high-class vodka or nightclub outings that Duo could cram into a year.

"Things went smoothly," Heero was saying, drawing Duo back to the real world. "The cams are in place and the data is set for one-hour retrieval. I think that if we wait until midnight, we should be able to piece together a fairly accurate picture of activity there for the mission tomorrow. I would prefer to strike in the early morning, to minimize any witnesses on the street or neighboring buildings."

"Just in case something goes awry?" Duo smirked, as they walked back to their hotel room, somehow almost alone in the teeming mass of people. "You plan on getting your gun off tomorrow Heero? I know it's been a while, but come on, this is supposed to be a stealth mission."

Dodging the slap to the back of the head he would have received, Duo pressed onward.

"Well as long as we don't end up self-detonating or something equally painful, I'll be okay with it."

"Baka," Heero growled.

"Should we pick up something to eat or just order room service?" Duo continued, not even waiting for an answer. "Definitely room service. The Preventers are picking up the tab so why not live large. Too bad we have the mission tomorrow or I'd order us up a bottle of vodka to cap it all off. Oh well, when we hit the club that should take care of the craving."

"And what craving would that be?" Heero asked, as they entered the hotel lobby.

"Shaking my groove thing and get my drink on," Duo laughed. "What other craving is there?"

His friend just shook his head, so Duo considered himself the victor once again, and even was gracious enough to hold the elevator door open for Heero, even going so far as to push the button for their floor. Since his partner wasn't going to acknowledge his generosity, Duo crossed his arms and tapped his foot until Heero grunted an acknowledgement.

"Thank you," Duo said, sarcasm dripping from the words but as usual lost on his Japanese friend. "Your place or mine?"

"Mine," Heero replied, stepping out of the elevator as it came to a stop. "Knowing you, your hotel room is probably already a shambles."

"A shambles?" Duo gasped, in mock shock that Heero would suggest such a thing.

"Perhaps that was too strong."

Duo feigned relief at the apology, but almost choked on his reply when Heero continued.

"A hazardous materials waste dump would probably be more accurate."

With that finishing blow, Heero headed for his room, leaving a stunned Duo in his wake, mouth hanging open for several seconds until at last he started laughing.

"I guess it's my fault for getting him to develop a sense of humor," he muttered to himself, when the fit had passed. "I'll have to watch myself more now. He's not as easy a mark as before."

Swiping into his room, Duo moved quietly as his hand slipped into his briefcase, releasing the false bottom and drawing out a knife in only a few heartbeats, before setting the briefcase aside and silently closing the door behind himself. Blade reversed in his right hand to keep it partially obscured, Duo made a quick sweep of the room to ensure that all the button cams were still where they should be and that his belongings hadn't been touched. There was not a single sign that anything had been tampered with, so he took a moment to review the security recordings and there was nothing whatsoever, the cleaning crew respecting the "No Entrance" sign both he and Heero had hung on the door as a simple precaution to prevent someone from stumbling onto something they shouldn't. Erasing the worthless files to keep the harddrive as free as possible, Duo retrieved his briefcase and replaced the knife within it. He called up the satellite repeater program and the security files from the New Horizons building appeared exactly as they should. Satisfied, Duo started the decompression and decryption programs and decided that a quick change of clothes might not be a bad thing. He left the suit out as he had the night before; taking care to keep it looking good and thinking that maybe running the suites' iron over it wouldn't be a bad thing. Deciding that he had absolutely no desire to do that, Duo just made sure everything was laid out nicely and then threw on a loose pair of black pants that rode low on his hips, and a shirt to match that he only buttoned in a few places. He left his feet bare, socks lying on the floor and dress shoes tucked under the bed, an odd contrast in organization and chaos. Checking himself out in the mirrored closet doors, Duo did a little dance and smiled at himself.

"Looking hot Duo," he told himself, spinning around, his braid almost wrapping itself right around him. "Too bad the club has to wait for another day. Oh well, at least I'll finally get Heero out on the floor, see him get his groove on. He'll probably only be able to do the robot."

For some reason, that thought had Duo nearly on the floor with laughter, imagining Heero doing the robot dance, straight face and no emotion showing at all.

"Oh...god!" Duo gasped, finally able to breathe again. "One of these days I'm going to laugh myself to death. Whew, I'd better get over to Heero's before he comes hunting for me."

Darting back into the living room, Duo gathered up his laptop and fled down the hallway to Heero's door. What a thrilling night lay ahead, he groused. Well, maybe he could sneak some of the liquor from Heero's minibar before he noticed.

The annoyingly loud knock at his door told Heero exactly who was there, but still he took the small pistol from the cushion and checked the peephole, then unlocked the door to admit his fellow Preventer.

"Sorry, I got a bit distracted," Duo said, by way of explaining why it had taken him almost ten minutes to do what should have taken two, but Heero wasn't surprised or really upset at all. Duo was Duo, and that was that.

"It's okay, I've been getting the files ready myself," Heero replied, locking the door behind them and taking a seat before his laptop, sliding down the couch a bit to make room for Duo. "It should only be another minute before the files are all ready. I set my laptop in my office to compress and transmit every hour, so that should let us get a pretty good picture of what we're dealing with."

"Yeah, except it means we have to stay up really late," Duo whined, sighing. "If we want the most complete data, we should get at least two hours worth of footage past our insertion time. I was thinking about a midnight strike myself, what do you think?"

Heero thought about it, unable to help himself be surprised with the professionalism that seemed to just erupt out of Duo at random intervals, and decided that Duo was right.

"Midnight," he confirmed. "And let's go three hours past, just to be sure. I'm anticipating no more than four guards on a sweep time of all five levels of no more than thirty minutes."

"Hn," Duo grunted, the sound almost identical to Heero's usual reply to almost any question or comment. "I was thinking six guards and twenty minutes, but I guess that all depends if the guards are in on the whole thing or just rented security."

"We'll know tonight by how they act and conduct themselves. Just try to stay sober enough to be of some use," Heero needled, and noticed that Duo looked embarrassed, a hint of a blush on his cheeks, like he was caught in a lie, something he had never done to Heero's knowledge. "So planning to raid the minibar were you?"

"Maybe," his friend challenged, crossing his arms and looking defiant. "What's it to you?"

He couldn't help it, so Heero just started laughing, the last several days' worth of Duo's comments and actions hitting him all at once and he decided to just let it out or it would drown him alive. Clutching his sides the former Wing Zero pilot gasped for breath, even felt several tears pooling in his eyes as his friend simply stared at him in uncomprehending amazement.

"Heero, what did your mind finally snap or something?" Duo asked, laughing at last, joining his friend. "I mean creepy man."

"Stop, I'm begging you," Heero gasped, his sides aching. "I can't take any more!"

It took several minutes, but finally Heero felt his body calming and did nothing to rush it. He had always tried to hold his emotions in check during the wars, to make sure he was acting rationally and logically rather than on spurious emotions, like Duo and even Wufei were known for. Now he no longer held the power of life and death in his hands with the same ease he had once, and he had no need to put himself forward as nothing more than a weapon of the colonies. Now he was just Heero Yuy, and when your best friend happened to be Duo Maxwell, controlling your emotions was impossible.

"Damn Duo," Heero gasped, wiping at his eyes and fixing Duo with a look. "Get me a water please."

"Sure."

While Duo made his way to the minibar, Heero began running through the cam footage starting at the beginning but running it at four times normal speed. At that rate it would only take a few minutes to go through each set of four cameras that the screen could display at once. He was so engrossed in tracking any particularly interesting people that he didn't feel the approach until it was too late.

"Baka!" Heero bellowed, clutching at the back of his head where the water bottle that Duo had thrown at him had struck. "What was that for?"

"Ha, I knew you weren't perfect!" Duo replied, in triumph. "I didn't even throw it that hard, and you still didn't see it coming."

"Because I was busy working!"

Still rubbing at his sore head, Heero felt Duo sit down next to him again and drape an arm over his shoulders.

"Sorry Heero, I guess I don't know my own strength," Duo semi-apologized. "Guess I'd better be more careful in the future."

"Especially if you don't want to wake up to find yourself suffocating on your own braid," Heero threatened, still watching the camera footage as he sipped his water.

"Ouch, harsh. Anything interesting so far?"

As they talked, Heero realized that Duo's arm was still around his shoulders and that the American had leaned in rather closely, the better to see the screen his mind told him. But still, it was almost distracting now and growing more...comfortable. No, there was a mission to accomplish.

"Why don't you work on your own computer for the time being," Heero said, reaching up and patting Duo's hand and feeling like he'd been shocked with electricity. "There's a good baka."

Duo laughed and loaded up his own cam recordings and began reviewing them, but as with Heero, it seemed that there was little to see until the after hours recordings started coming in.

Having expected this, Heero got up and retrieved the room service menu from the small kitchenette and started looking it over.

"Is it dinner time?" a hopeful voice asked.

"For me," Heero replied, finding a number of suitable options for his own meal. Apparently the hotel was no stranger to those that preferred a more vegetarian menu. "You don't get anything until you're finished there."

"Awww," Duo whined, pouting as best he could, but Heero would not be swayed.

"If you're going to behave like a child I'll treat you like one," he teased, already picking up the phone in the kitchenette to order his dinner. "However, you have the twenty or thirty minutes until the food gets here to finish. If you don't, I'm sending it back. So get over here and make up your mind."

There seemed to be no movement and yet Duo was at his elbow in a flash, babbling away as he looked over the impressive selection, pointing out a half dozen things he wanted.

"Try not to embarrass me," Heero sighed. "If they deliver enough food for ten people but see the two of us here, there are going to be questions."

"Like I care," Duo replied, shoving the menu in Heero's face. "Look, they have cheese burgers and onion rings and French fries and..."

At that point Heero knew he had lost, and after placing his order with room service, handed the phone to the practically slavering American and returned to the couch, shaking his head in disbelief at what his friend ordered. They were not that different in size and weight, and yet Duo packed away enough for a family of four on a regular basis. Heero had always assumed he needed the extra energy to fuel his manic personality but had never found any scientific proof, and when he had asked for Duo's assistance he'd received a glare that would have put the sun to shame with its intensity. After that, Heero hadn't bothered to look into it again.

"Now shut up and let me work," Duo said, dropped onto the couch and running through his security recordings as fast as he could, determined to gorge himself on his meal.

Not pointing out that it was Duo who tended to be the one that distracted the two of them, Heero finished off the few recordings he had and deleted them as there was nothing there, only to have the first of the after hours recordings arrive. As they were only an hour long each, it took only seconds to decompress and decrypt them, and again Heero found nothing useful, save that it seemed the last of the employees cleared out before 6pm. The security patrols would probably start in the next hour or two.

"New feeds arriving," he informed Duo, who was frantically trying to get through all twelve button cams worth of footage. "Should be nothing there, but check anyway."

"Hn."

Smiling to himself, Heero went and fixed himself a drink, deciding to cut loose a bit and have a vodka on the rocks. He had barely had his first sip when there was a knock at the door.

"I'm almost done!" Duo shouted.

"Don't worry about it, I didn't actually plan on sending your food back," Heero replied, setting his drink down and answering the door.

The young lady pushing the cart smiled at him as she wheeled it into the room, handing him the bill which stated that the cost would be added to the total cost of the room when they checked out.

"Thank you," Heero said, bolting the door after she had left. The smells wafting up from the heavily laden cart were causing his stomach to rumble. "Finish up and get your food before I eat it for you," he threatened.

Ignoring the threat Duo threw his way if he touched his food, Heero lifted the first two covers and swallowed at the sight of the roasted vegetables and the penne alfredo. Setting the covers on the counter, Heero removed the others and revealed a huge hamburger loaded with cheese and a dozen other fixings, a medium-rare top sirloin steak with baked potato, and surprisingly a Caesar salad.

"Vegetables Maxwell?" he said, incredulous. "I was certain that you didn't eat anything that didn't moo at some point in its life."

"Haha," Duo muttered, pushing the laptops to the rear of the large coffee table to make room for the food. "Bring the food Yuy or you're going to be minus an arm I'm so hungry."

Doing as he had been 'ordered', Heero strongly considered dumping the food in Duo's lap, but decided that since something had died already to make the food, wasting it would be disrespectful. Plus, he'd have to pay for cleaning the couch and carpet.

"Gorge yourself on the corpses of animals," Heero flourished, depositing the two meals before his friend, then the smaller salad.

"Oh stop, its not like you haven't enjoyed some meat now and again," Duo laughed, eagerly taking the cutlery Heero offered and cutting into his steak. "Mmm, so good."

Placing his food on the table as well, Heero retrieved his drink and took a belt. Nothing like a little burning on the way down to remind you that you were alive.

"Turn on the TV," Heero said, sitting down and picking up a fork before spearing a large mushroom. "I was hoping to hear about the results of the Earth Sphere United Nation vote on the bill regarding banning firearms outside of law enforcement personnel."

"That's boring," Duo groaned, turning the large TV hanging on the wall on and finding a rather flashy and noisy science fiction movie. "Now here's some stimulating entertainment."

"Baka," Heero muttered, between mouthfuls of his pasta.

The movie progressed with a typical lack of a real story, at least in Heero's opinion, but it did distract him from the horror that was watching Duo Maxwell eat. Sometimes it seemed the only way for the self-proclaimed God of Death to eat without making a horrible mess was from a trough, but Duo never found that suggestion particularly funny. Heero finished the last of his dinner, and then drained the last of his drink, enjoying both the fine meal and the drink. While Duo finished up, Heero called up the last few hours of cam footage, watching the patterns of the guard movements, how they held themselves, whether they carried any weapons or not. It was pretty obvious that they weren't rented security, but Heero would wait for Duo's opinion before concluding anything. Despite appearances he wasn't as dumb as he looked.

Duo finished the last of his steak and let out a burp, muffling it as best as he could with his hand, and looked guiltily at Heero and breathed a sigh of relief that his friend seemed not to have noticed. Once more it seemed that Heero was engrossed in work, reviewing the next two hours of footage from their spy cams. After such a good meal, Duo hated to ruin it with work, but it had to be done.

"Anything good?" Duo asked, peering over Heero's shoulder.

"I think we have our answer as to whether or not the guards are in on it."

As the footage was replayed, Duo found himself nodding as he watched the movements of the guards, their lack of conversation. It was like watching soldiers on patrol, and Duo realized that that was exactly what they were.

"Not a lot of firepower," Duo noted, indicating the simple pistols in hip holsters. "But given that there are four of them, and that they're on the highest floors, wouldn't exactly make it easy for anyone to just break in. They seem to be more of a precaution than an actual attempt to protect anything."

"It seems to take them about fifteen minutes to clear each floor," Heero added, watching the clock on his laptop. "Check yours to see if they are consistent."

Not bothering to point out that he wasn't stupid, Duo loaded up the most recent hours of footage and watched, noting that the guards patrolled in a simple circuit, investigating each office as they went, passing the other pair at the rear of the floor, and then re-searching those offices that their counterparts had already searched. It was efficient, somewhat redundant but showed little laxity, and it was a brisk sweep. Checking the time, Duo noticed that it was indeed just over fifteen minutes for the four guards to meet up again at the elevator to take it up to the next level. He could imagine that it was locked down each time they ascended to another level, and locked down again once they returned to the security desk. But there did seem to be enough time to accomplish the mission, but there would be little room for error if they didn't want to start shooting up the place.

"Are you still sure we can do this without a body count?" Duo asked, watching his footage again to look for weaknesses.

"It will be difficult, but not impossible," Heero replied, and his friend could see that the youth was deep in thought. "I'll need to code my card to override any commands to the elevator, but that will not leave us much time. We will need to get to the third floor before them and into the mainframe room before they come up behind us. There may still be guards at the entrance, so we'll need to take them down, but a paralytic neurotoxin should do the trick."

"So put simply, we knock out the guards, take the elevator up just as they start searching the first level, get to the mainframe, get what we want, and then leave while they're searching above us."

"It seems the most logical plan. What do you think?"

Duo wanted to ask just when Heero thought his input really mattered, but it seemed that his friend actually meant what he said, so Duo just smiled.

"Sounds good to me. No killing for a change, I don't know if the God of Death can handle that."

"Well the God of Death will just have to live with it. You aren't the only one with nightmares about the past, and I'd rather not have more ghosts haunting me."

It was a rare admission, Duo knew, for Heero to admit that his past had so bothered him. Throughout the war he had tried to stay focused on just getting the job done, but Duo knew that all the killing and the destruction had taken its toll. To know that his friend suffered as he did just made Duo all the more glad to be along on the mission with him, to give him the practical and emotional back-up Heero needed. To be truthful, there was more to it on Duo's part, things that he wished with all his heart he could act on, but there was too much at stake. Without Heero...he didn't even want to contemplate that.

The rest of the evening passed well, and at 2am they finally called it quits, reviewing the hours of footage over and over again, looking for anything they had missed but both were confident by then that they had everything pegged. Leaving Heero with all the dishes, Duo headed back to his room and after checking it over, probably unnecessarily, decided that it was a good time for bed. He secured the laptop and hid it once more in the seat of the couch, and took one last look around. Satisfied that he had everything organized, he picked up his briefcase and retreated to the bedroom, quickly checking to make sure that his clothes were ready for the next day. Taking his briefcase and opening it, Duo began to think about what gear he wanted, deciding to leave all the computer stuff to Heero. There was no denying that the other was much more adept at hacking, but Duo knew he was hardly a slouch thanks to all his training. A silenced pistol and several spare magazines were first, followed by the dart-gun and a clip of the paralytic darts. There was still ample room so Duo followed up with the spring-loaded wrist knife and a trio of throwing knives and several micro-explosives with a remote detonator. Testing the weight distribution, which wasn't heavy given that both guns were plastic and the throwing knives were only seven inches including the hilt, Duo nodded slightly in silent satisfaction. Throwing the usual assortment of dummy gear into the briefcase just to make it look more anonymous, Duo tossed his clothes on the floor and after hitting the lights crawled into bed. Maybe tonight would be different from so many others lately. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to watch innocent people die over and over again. Maybe he wouldn't have to watch Heero die over and over again.

The day had passed quickly, with no signs of any problems that Heero could detect. He had met Duo after work as normal and they had returned to the hotel, changing into their stealth armor, before putting their suits back on over top. The stealth armor was lightweight but capable of stopping most grazing or non-straight shots from low caliber weapons, as well as helping to mask lifesigns and heat signatures, and protection from shrapnel and bladed weapons. It was like a second skin and Heero had found it beneficial more than once. He had already packed his briefcase the night before but he had left some gear in his office, just in case. It had been risky taking it in, and leaving it there had been even more so, but he would be damned if he walked into a potential firefight with his bestfriend and hadn't tried to plan for a way out. Hell, it wasn't even much of a way out, but it was better than nothing. He didn't have Duo's skill or interest in knives, so he had a silenced pistol and magazines for it in his briefcase, a dart-gun with paralytic rounds, plus the other part to the escape plan. Heaven help him if it came down to that. They wouldn't be moving in until midnight which seemed to be the start of the third rotation of patrols, a group of four guards searching all five levels every two hours. By midnight the idea was also that they might be less attentive, having gone through the routine enough to be bored by it. That was the idea anyway.

Checking the clock, Heero watched it change to 6:12pm, and nearly sighed in frustration at having to wait at least five hours before they would even head out. The worst part about any operation, be it as a Gundam pilot or as a Preventer, was always the waiting. No, that wasn't true, Heero thought as he corrected himself with a mental slap. Watching people die, especially innocent people, was the worst part about any operation. Dropping onto the bed and nearly knocking his briefcase to the floor, Heero's face found its way into his hands as he tried to get the images out of his mind from the night before. He hadn't slept well, worse than in a long time, and it wasn't the more common memory-nightmares of the little girl and her dog from his time training for Operation Meteor. Lately, he watched as Duo died, Deathscythe blasted apart by enemy mobile suits, or as he self-detonated, or as he was tortured by OZ on Barge after he had been captured. Heero knew exactly why Duo was fixing so much in his thoughts, that wasn't the point, but what he couldn't tell exactly was why he had a bad feeling. There was nothing to indicate that there was anything wrong with the mission whatsoever, so why was he so certain that it wouldn't go to plan. Looking into the still open secret compartment of his briefcase, Heero seriously considered changing the parameters of the op and going lethal, just to be sure that as few enemies as possible remained between the two Preventers and their safest way out. No, he didn't want to start down that path again. It was too easy to go down it and never look back, but maybe there was another way. The plan called for entering the lobby through a security door at the side between it and a neighboring building, bypassing the weapons detectors completely. At the very least, Heero planned to switch to more lethal armaments than the plastic pistol. He got up and pulled his suitcase out from under the bed, opening it and lifting up the shielded compartment. Inside were the rest of his weapons and equipment and a stealth backpack, thin and light, and most likely completely invisible under his suit jacket. Nodding absently, Heero took off his jacket and set it next to the briefcase, and put the backpack on, adjusting the straps to perfection before putting the jacket back on. There was a hint of a bulge, but nothing that anyone would be able to detect with only scattered streetlights and moonlight to work with. Removing the jacket and backpack, Heero swapped the plastic gun from his briefcase for a proper 10mm weapon, exchanging the magazines for 10mm clips at the same time. Two smaller 9mm pistols were slotted into the backpack on racks that would pop from its sides to allow him to reach the weapons. No silencers anymore. Figuring that if it got to that point, gunshots would be the least of their worries, Heero was going for stopping power over silence. The back-up weapons would only have their ten-round clips, but Heero decided that running too heavy could create its own problems. Backpack next to his briefcase, Heero made sure the secret compartment was sealed and then loaded in the hacking gear he needed, securing it all down and then closed it. Sliding the suitcase back under the bed, locked once more, Heero left his equipment laid out on the bed and began to think of things to do for the next five hours. It had been ten seconds when his mind was made up for him.

Duo knocked on Heero's door, hoping that his friend was as jittery as he was. Something just wasn't feeling right about the whole thing, but there was nothing concrete he could take to Heero, so Duo had simply gone for more weapons. A 10mm pistol the same as Heero's was in his briefcase now with its spare clips nestled next to it. Since he wasn't doing any hacking, Duo had a 10mm machine pistol taped to his back, and several spare mags were taped to his legs, easily accessible through his pants pockets since he had cut through them. Unsure about telling Heero about his new choices, Duo decided to leave it be. If he was wrong and everything went perfectly; he didn't want his partner to know just how skittish he'd been.

"What's the password?" a voice demanded from the other side of the door.

Duo rolled his eyes and tried to think of the idiotic password that he had suggested once on a mission with Heero a year past.

"Duo Maxwell rocks."

"That is correct. The password, I mean. The statement is obviously wrong."

"Just open the damn door," Duo growled, unconsciously reaching for the pistol in the small of his back.

The door opened and a completely serious-looking Heero Yuy stood there, and Duo arched an eyebrow.

"I can't believe you remembered that idiotic password," Heero said, and Duo once more felt himself reaching for his weapon.

"Yeah, yeah," he laughed, bolting the door behind himself. "Anyway, I thought we could watch a movie or something to kill the time. And yes, I know, no drinking. We can do that tomorrow at the club. Ha, you thought I'd forget didn't you? Well this braided baka isn't going to let a golden opportunity like this pass him by."

Smiling at his friend shaking his head, Duo plunked down on the couch, wincing slightly as the machine pistol dug into his back, but deciding that it wasn't a big deal. Grabbing the TV remote, Duo started flipping around to find something worth watching, and heard Heero making a racket in the kitchen.

"What the hell are you doing?" Duo asked, still too fixated on finding the most mindless movie he possibly could. "Oh here we go, Invaders from the 10th Dimension, a classic, and right after that, Invaders from the 11th Dimension. Imagine our good fortune Heero, two movies of this caliber and you without an excuse to avoid watching them."

"Who said anything about excuses?"

Turning around at last, Duo saw Heero walking towards him with a heaping bowl of popcorn.

"The braided baka forgot the popcorn," Heero observed. "We never watch a movie without it, as the braided baka knows."

"Silence you," Duo scowled. "Just sit down and share, unless you want Shinigami to go medieval on your ass."

A bark of laughter and Heero was at his side, and Duo found himself thinking. If it wasn't for the large caliber weapon in his back and the stealth armor, it would almost be like any other night at home.

Heero checked his watch. 11:55pm, perfect timing. He and Duo had left their rooms only twenty minutes earlier and could not have arrived at a more precipitous time. Crossing the street in near perfect darkness, they ducked around the side of the building and Heero saw the security door even in the low light. Eyes more sensitive than most people, Heero needed less light to function, and deftly opened his briefcase and pulled out the swipe card reader and small toolkit. Quickly prying open the outer casing, Heero hooked up the code-hacker, splicing it into the system with fluid movements, downloading the codes to the swipe card reader, and waving it over the sensor pad. It took all of forty seven seconds and he and Duo were inside. Re-sealing the panel and closing the door silently behind them, Heero let Duo lead the way to the elevators. There were only two that went to the floor they needed, so they picked one at random and entered it, but Heero hacked into the control systems even as the doors closed. He locked out the tracking systems and audio announcements, that way there would be no advanced notice that they were coming. Drawing out his dart-gun, Heero nodded at Duo to press the button, and the elevator started up. Both of them had the dart-guns in hand now, jackets open to quickly reach their secret weapons. Clicking the safety off, Heero took a breath and silently assured himself that they would be just fine if they stuck to the plan.

All too quickly the elevator slowed as it reached its destination. The moment the doors opened even slightly, Heero slid through, dart-gun clicking near-silently, the other four guards caught entirely by surprise. Between the two of them, Heero was glad to see that Duo managed to stick each of his two with a pair of darts each, guaranteeing that the four would be out for at least six hours. Dart-guns were dropped into briefcases as the two went to the elevator leading up. He checked the time, and almost groaned. They had been even more efficient than he could have hoped. The guards would only now be heading back towards the elevator, so there were seven and a half minutes to kill. Watching the time closely, Heero gave it nine minutes before he swiped his card. The moment the doors opened he was inside, Duo right behind him, and punched for the third level, swiping his card. It was a twenty second trip, and punching the button for the second level to return the elevator to where the guards would expect it to be, Heero led the way to the rear of the level. If the schematics they had generated were remotely accurate, the entrance would be most likely at the rear of the level, and sure enough there were a pair of very heavy-looking metal sliding doors.

While Duo kept an eye and an ear out for anything unexpected, Heero jacked into the door control systems, the smaller palmtop computer still more than a match for the security systems thanks to Heero's custom modifications. With more than five minutes still to spare, the doors slid open and they were in.

All silent, Heero gestured for Duo to stay close, and led the way inside. The mainframe room was jammed with some of the most expensive and top-of-the-line equipment Heero had ever seen outside of Mobile Suits or Preventer headquarters. Back-up memory storage and encrypt-decrypt computers lined the walls, a huge back-up battery system at the very head of the room, just in case of a power failure. In the center of the room was the mainframe itself. The doors slid shut behind them, but Heero was already at the computer terminal, jacking in via his palmtop and generating the satellite uplink. The security on the mainframe was of a much higher caliber than the rest but still it was no match for Heero Yuy. Two minutes later the mainframe was spilling its secrets, and via Heero's palmtop it was all being beamed up to the Preventer satellite in orbit, to await the download command. There was a lot of information, several terabytes worth at least, so Heero settled in and checked his watch. 12:31am. Flashing the watch face at Duo, who checked his own, Heero settled in for the wait. It would be safe to leave in twenty minutes, and then it was over. Mission accomplished.

Duo still couldn't shake the feeling he was having, and it was beginning to bug the hell out of him. From the look of the computer room, it was completely sound-proof so at least the guards wouldn't be able to hear Heero typing away at the computer. Checking his watch again, Duo grimaced. It had been three minutes since he checked last and he felt stupid for even bothering. When it was time to leave Heero would tell him. In the meantime he tried to focus on clearing his mind and staying focused. So far everything had gone exactly to plan so why was he still so certain of disaster? Shaking his head, causing his braid to whip about dangerously, Duo moved to the computer and started to read over Heero's shoulder, desperate for anything to distract him from...everything. The data that Heero was reading seemed to pertain to some sort of new drug and hypnosis combination that New Horizon seemed to be experimenting with. Most of the chemical formulas and technical jargon were well beyond Duo's understanding so he just skimmed it, looking for anything telling about the groups objectives. A number of the files uploaded were heavily encrypted so there might have been more there, but it would take time to get through the security so those would wait for later. Finally the upload was complete, the entire database taken and awaiting download on a satellite miles overhead.

Heero rose, after rewriting the security passwords and encryption routines, and headed for the doors. Duo watched as his friend checked his watch, and then held up three fingers. Three more minutes, and then they could make their escape. Reaching behind his jacket, Duo quietly slipped the safety off his weapon, just in case.

At last Heero palmed the door open and led the way out, case in hand. Duo followed close behind, proximity to his friend lending him strength he felt he sorely needed. They were truly alone and made it to the elevator to Duo's relief. As Heero hacked into the system and called the elevator, Duo allowed himself a brief moment of disbelief that they were going to get away with it all. He had worried for nothing. The elevator arrived and they took it down, Duo smiling all the way. But no sooner had the elevator come to a stop, and the doors started to open, than he heard the racking of weapon slides. Without thought Duo shoved Heero to the far side of the elevator and threw himself backwards, both of them now out of sight of the countless guards.

"Come out and throw down your weapons!" a voice commanded.

Duo looked across at Heero, unsure of what his partner wanted to do, but there was a look in Heero's eyes as he returned the glance, and it both chilled and warmed Duo despite the dire nature of their situation. Duo nodded, trusting that Heero knew what he was doing, and wasn't surprised when Heero hit the button for the second level. The guards moved forward as the elevator unexpectedly started back up, their quarry unexpectedly being able to override their lockdown.

"What the hell happened?" Duo demanded, fumbling with his briefcase for his weapons. "I didn't hear any alarms."

"I don't know what happened," Heero replied, pulling the 10mm from his briefcase and pocketing the extra clips. "There were no safeguards tripped when I was in their systems. All the hacks were clean."

"Well it doesn't matter now," Duo decided, forgetting about his briefcase and pulling the machine pistol from behind his back, enjoying the look of surprise on Heero's face. "I had a bad feeling, so don't judge me. When it comes to y...the mission, I don't take any chances."

"Neither do I," Heero assured him, leading the way from the elevator to his office. "I just need a second. I had a bad feeling too, but I didn't know what it was about, so I left a little something in my office."

Inside, he reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a cartridge of some sort as well as the laptop he had left behind.

"I'm glad I programmed mine to automatically surge," Duo smirked, watching as Heero manually wiped his computers components. "What's that?"

Heero tossed him the cartridge.

"Monofilament," was his only response.

"Fine, don't tell me. Let's just get the hell out of here."

Taking a moment to grab his weapons from the briefcase, Duo then tossed it aside, holding the machine pistol with both hands to steady it. Heero had done the same, though he had also pocketed his hacking equipment and a bizarre device was tucked into the front of his pants.

"Follow me," Heero said, and Duo relinquished the lead.

Before they could even exit the office a barrage of gunfire greeted them, forcing them back inside. Duo, flat against the wall, snuck a quick peek outside with the blade of one of his throwing knives. Holding up a hand with four fingers, he gestured to Heero that there were two guards at either end of the hallway. Getting an answering nod, Duo set his weapon to full automatic, and dove out into the hallway, spraying a line of bullets towards the guards on his right, Heero doing the same to his left. Their attack was sudden enough that all four went down with only one even getting off a return shot. Duo got up fast, weapon still smoking but still half loaded, Heero swapping out the mostly spent clip from his pistol.

"This way," Heero said, and Duo was only too happy to oblige, keeping an eye over his shoulder for more pursuers.

They hadn't gotten to the end of the hallway when Duo saw another squad coming around behind them and ripped off a volley, driving them back seeking cover.

"Move it Heero," he shouted, firing again until the slide locked open.

They cleared the corner of the hallway as the guards returned fire, blasting great chunks from the wall, forcing Duo to cover his eyes lest he be blinded by debris. The spent magazine dropped to the floor and Duo reached into his pants pocket and pulled a spare out and slapped it in, the slide snapping forward once again.

"In there." Duo looked where Heero was pointing and nodded, poking his weapon around the corner and firing even as Heero did the same the other way, squads of guards moving in and trying to get them trapped in a cross fire.

"Go," Duo ordered, another spent mag clattering to the ground as he loaded the last spare. He drew his 10mm and clicked the safety off, covering Heero as he picked the lock into the office he had pointed to.

Moving fast, Duo fired down each hallway, trying to keep up as steady a stream of fire as possible, but there were at least a half dozen guards now on each side, leapfrogging from office to office. Even as both his weapons clicked empty, Duo only succeeded in dropping one. The machine pistol joined its empty clips on the ground and Duo reloaded the 10mm. Finally Heero got the door open and Duo was in right after him, closing it again and locking it, for all the good that it would do. Heero threw the desk over on its side and they both cowered behind it, just as gunfire ripped through the office, the door somehow remaining locked and on its hinges.

"So what's your brilliant escape plan that has us trapped in here waiting to get blown to pieces?" Duo snapped, firing over the top of the desk and not giving a damn if he hit anything.

"Give me the cartridge," Heero said, pulling the device from his belt and taking the cartridge from Duo. "This isn't the safest way to go, I'm not going to lie to you, but given that we're trapped seventeen stories above the ground, slim hope is better than none."

"True enough," Duo replied, firing off a few more rounds to keep the guards guessing. "But whatever you're going to do, you'd better do it now. I don't really fancy ending up in another interrogation cell."

"Even if you did," Heero remarked, too busy with his device to realize what he was saying. "I'd always be there to get you out."

Duo did a double take, but before he could say anything more gunfire brought him back to the situation at hand and he fervently hoped that Heero knew what he was doing.

Heero really hoped he knew what he was doing. The ascension gun could theoretically do what he planned, but it hadn't exactly been tested from quite so high a height, or with the weight of two people. Thankfully on that count Heero knew that both he and Duo weighed nearly the same, barely a hundred and thirty pounds a piece, and the monofilament line was rated at three hundred pounds, but no one had tested dropping from so high a height either. So many variables, so many risks. Looking up for a moment, Heero watched as Duo's face was a mask of anger as he fired back at the mounting army outside the office, and couldn't believe that this could be how it ended.

"No, not like this," Heero muttered, locking everything into place and setting the braking speed detector to minimum safe deceleration. "Duo, time to leave."

Heero stood and blasted the window apart before tossing his weapon aside. Kneeling at the windows edge, Heero used the sensors on the ascension gun to measure the distance so that it would function at its best. Waving Duo over, Heero fired the piton into the steel beam built into the wall above the window frame and strapped the gun to the American's waist before his startled friend could react. A feeling came over him and with lightning speed Heero triggered the backpack beneath his jacket and pulled the 9mms free, spinning and firing as quickly as he could squeeze the triggers, felling the two guards that tried to rush the door, forcing the others back once more. Firing until the weapons ran dry, Heero turned and tackled Duo, and then there was nothing below them but open air.

They fell for what seemed like forever but it was probably only a few seconds, the two friends clutching each other with all the strength they could muster in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Bullets snapped past them as the guards fired down at them, one even striking the now empty backpack Heero wore, but finally the ascension gun slowed them enough that with a quick press of the release button they dropped the last two meters, landing in a heap. Both were up quickly and pelting off into the darkness, shedding their most obvious weapons and their jackets down sewer grates as they could spare, Heero simply tossing his backpack into a dumpster, not caring if anyone found it now that it was empty. They ran together, arms pumping and legs churning, Duo seemingly knowing where to go and Heero thankful for that given that his mind was so confused at that moment. How had the guards known they were there? How could they have known? Was it all a setup, to see just who they were dealing with? None of it made any sense to Heero but tonight that didn't matter. Checking his watch he saw that it was nearly 1am and thankfully the streets were nearly deserted, except for a mysterious line up of people up ahead of them. It took him several minutes to realize just where they were headed and he almost shouted out to Duo to stop, that he was insane, that his idea was stupid and wouldn't work. The more he thought about it, Heero decided that the youth with the impossible hair was right. There was nothing that New Horizon could do in a huge crowded area, even if they were even able to find them; there would be too many witnesses. This round could still go to the good guys if only they could make it. Seeing the line of people waiting to get in, Heero also only had to hope that Duo had brought money because he only had a few dollars in a back pocket. To bribe their way in would probably require more than he had.

"I have money," Duo somehow confirmed, panting only slightly with the exertion. "Let me do the talking."

Heero could only nod, knowing that these situations were Duo's forte, so to speak. Sure enough, they charged up to the bouncer and Duo started in right away, extending a hand and greeting the hulking man as though they were regulars to the NightSky. The bouncer was a professional, that much was clear, and nothing fazed him in the slightest and he played along with more skill than Heero would have thought someone like him capable of. The good sized wad of money that Duo had slipped him would probably have gone a long way towards that.

Duo waved him in, smirking a bit at the crowd and Heero followed him in, checking behind them to see if they had been spotted. The streets were clear and there were no other pounding feet to be heard, just the pounding of the music from inside the club. The path into the club was a half-circle, the better to keep the heat and the noise in, and it was lit with flashing strobe lights that gave the brief journey an almost surreal feeling. Heero felt lost already and that feeling only grew with each strobe of the lights and with the rising volume of the music ahead. Finally they emerged into the club itself and Heero decided that there had to be some sort of sound dampening technology in the entrance way; so great was the sound that bombarded him that it was like walking into an invisible wall. The NightSky was a rough square with a bar on each side and a huge central dance floor almost throbbing with people. The music thumped and the people thrashed, the lights strobing in time to the beat of the music and Heero found himself fearing to move through the crush of bodies to the bar where the only seats were. The DJ at the rear of the club had apparently decided that the song he was spinning was too slow and so he cranked up the tempo and the volume. Obviously sensing his friend's apprehension, Duo took Heero's hand and smiled at him before tugging him into the crowd.

Bodies constantly jostling him, Heero clutched Duo's hand as though it was a lifeline, and in a way it was. If Duo let go Heero was certain that he would be swallowed up by the crowd and never escape. After several minutes they managed to break free and reach the bar they had aimed for. He hadn't even danced but Heero already found himself sweating and panting, his hand slippery and hot in Duo's but neither seemed able to let go just yet.

"What's your pleasure?" a beautiful young woman behind the bar asked, polishing a glass with a towel.

"Two vodkas on the rocks and make 'em doubles," Duo grinned. "The good stuff too, please."

After Duo had passed over more than enough cash to pay for the two drinks, the bartender was only too happy to fill their order. In only moments and with deft movements almost impossible to see, two tumblers appeared, a lot more full than a double would normally be and already sweating in the heat of the club, not unlike their purchasers.

"Bottoms up," Duo said, trying to reach for his drink with his right hand which was still holding Heero's left. "Hmm, we seem to have a problem."

At first Heero had been confused about what his friend meant, given that the drinks were there and they could both use one, and then to his embarrassment realized that he was still holding Duo's hand.

"Sorry," he murmured, releasing the sweaty hand and knowing that he had turned slightly pink in his embarrassment before grabbing his own drink and taking a hefty slug.

He glanced at his friend and expected him to make some joke or maybe even be offended, but Duo's smile was genuine and without mockery, his own cheeks seeming pinker now even with the pulsing lights.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Duo said, leaning in so that his friend could hear him better and for a measure of privacy. "I can drink with my left hand and it can be intimidating your first time so if you wanted..."

Duo seemed to trail off, obviously unsure about himself and nervous but Heero seemed to understand, and his heart started to beat faster than even during a Mobile Suit battle. Maybe he hadn't been imagining things all along or deluding himself into thinking that there was a hope for more. Heero watched at Duo took a heavy pull on his drink, refusing to meet his friend's eyes, and decided that the possibility of his friend's words was too good to pass up.

Duo couldn't believe what he'd started to say, and drained the rest of his vodka, feeling it roll down his throat and ignite in his belly, the alcohol already threatening to take control and make him say and do things that his sober mind would scream in terror at. The adrenaline from the botched data theft, the thrill of plunging off the side of a building, the beat of the music, were all conspiring against him to do something that could ruin the only good thing he had. Beckoning the bartender to refill his glass, Duo reached down to his right rear pants pocket for more money, but he never got close. Jerking in surprise, Duo's head snapped around and looked down, seeing a hand tentatively taking his once again. Almost not daring himself to follow the hand back to the person it belonged to, Duo did so anyway and found himself looking into Heero's grey-blue eyes, and saw that the normally unflappable Perfect Soldier seemed as nervous as he himself felt.

"You did say you could drink with only one hand," Heero joked, obviously trying desperately to reduce the tension he could feel building.

Duo couldn't help himself and grinned, taking Heero's hand fully in his own and squeezing it.

"Silly me, it sure seems like I said that," Duo replied, picking up his refilled glass. "Look at that, it seems I was right."

Heero smiled, really smiled, and it set Duo's heart beating faster than Deathscythe could fly, and that was damn fast.

"Are...are you sure..." Heero stammered, so sincerely insecure that it just made Duo want to wrap his arms around him.

"I'm sure," Duo assured him, never more sure of anything in his entire life. "If you want proof, I'm willing to give it."

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"When you are, let me know. I've hoped for this for longer than I care to remember," Duo admitted, unconsciously rubbing the back of Heero's hand with his thumb. "I just never expected you to feel the same way. That is if..."

"Now who needs proof," Heero smirked, standing and getting rather close to Duo, who could feel the heat radiating off the two of them being trapped between their close forms. "Everything you ever needed to know the truth was there for you to see, and the same was probably true for you. Neither of us was just willing to take the chance and risk what we have built since the day you shot me."

Duo winced at that, but Heero's tender hold on his hand assured him that there was no anger in his statement, merely a stating of the truth. Duo tried to think back to the first time he had felt for Heero as more than just a comrade in arms or a friend and wasn't certain there was such a definitive moment in their history. Maybe when they had first met they had sensed something in the other, a sense of shared pain and a kindred spirit.

"Why now?" Duo asked, despite the fact that he had initiated almost everything. "Why not after the war when we started working for Preventer together?"

"I could ask you the same thing. The truth is...tonight was a close call and if we ever do get into a situation that we can't get out of...I couldn't risk either of us dying without being truly honest with you and accepting the consequences of that."

"I couldn't help myself," Duo admitted, blushing even more. "There have been lots of times before when it was all I could do not to throw myself at you and damn the consequences. When it's just the two of us against the world, or just the two of us alone together, I've never felt as whole as I do then. The nightmares that keep me up and haunt my every night and day aren't just about the Maxwell Massacre or the wars, they're about you dying over and over again. Memories turning against me, trying to show me that to waste the best chance I will ever have to feel true happiness would damn me more surely than the evil people I've killed. I'm the God of Death not because I kill so many, but because everyone close to me dies, and if you were to join Solo and the others I couldn't live with myself if you did so without knowing that one person here doesn't see you as a weapon or a monster."

Duo would have said more but Heero pulled his hand free and the American thought he had gone too far and said too much, fearing that it had all been just an illusion of the adrenaline wearing off, when his friend moved in even closer and slowly put his arms around him. Almost unaware of his actions, Duo returned the embrace and closed his eyes, just letting himself relax into the moment. Everything around them fell away and all was silent as they just stood there, two damaged people determined to go through life without loving so that they would never have to lose those people special to them anymore. Two broken people that had found the one person who would never leave them, death be damned.

"Heero," Duo breathed, tightening his arms intending never to let go, but was still conscious of what others could see. "Why don't we dance? Celebrate...whatever we've started?"

Heero let him go and smiled again at him, something the serious young man needed to do more because it positively lit up his face and Duo kissed him, before the other could react. It was brief, barely enough time to be properly called a kiss, but it was greatest thrill Duo had ever experienced. Smiling back, he pulled away, his hands briefly catching Heero's.

"Why don't you watch me and see how it's done?" he suggested, still grinning, the taste of Heero still on his lips. "Come and join me when you think you're up for it."

Spinning round and causing his braid to swing menacingly, Duo moved onto the dance floor just as another pounding rhythm started blaring, the lights flickering and making him look almost ethereal. Remaining near the edge of the crowd, Duo closed his eyes and let the music wash over him, let it direct his movements and control his soul. Soon he was writhing with the crowd, but through it all he could feel a pair of eyes watching his every movement, slipping over his body, and he smiled. The mission had been screwed but something potentially wonderful had come out of it. Thinking about it, Duo knew he would do whatever it took to show his friend that every movement and every word were the truth. And that someone truly did love the Perfect Soldier.

Heero watched for a few minutes, admiring the sensuous and nearly feline like way Duo moved on the dance floor, far beyond even what he would do at home. At home. The mere thought made Heero soar in disbelief that for once he might have found the second most elusive thing he had sought out all his life. A home that wasn't designed to train him into a killer. A murderer. An assassin. Tonight he may have indeed found that home, and with it the greatest thing that home could ever contain; someone that loved him. At least that's what things seemed like, and Heero had known all his life that nothing was truly what it seemed at first glance. At first glance it did seem that there was something between him and the braided youth, but just what that was hadn't been decided yet, and may never be decided. Unconsciously raising a hand to briefly touch his lips, Heero pondered his last thought. Maybe it had been decided after all. Would that really be so bad? Watching his friend gyrate and thoroughly enjoy himself without having to hurt or kill anyone Heero decided that if they both wanted the same thing, and he felt they did, then he couldn't be happier. Their drinks were still sitting on the bar, so Heero bolted his down and looked at Duo's, then turned to the bartender.

"How good are you at catching?" he inquired, and when she looked at him in confusion, he held up Duo's still half-full glass.

"Depends on the tip," she grinned, polishing another glass to crystal perfection.

"Gigantic. Enormous. Biblical. Planetary."

"Then I can catch anything you throw at me hot shot."

Smiling, Heero took the glass and approached his friend, no longer overwhelmed by the number of people pressing around him he slid through them spilling nary a drop of the precious liquor. Duo was totally into his moves, though he knew someone was approaching despite the alcohol messing up his senses. He turned, opening his violet eyes, and there striding towards him was Heero, glass in hand and a cocky grin on his lips.

Dodging a flailing arm, Heero moved and stood toe to toe with his now motionless partner, their eyes locked.

"Looks like hot work," he commented, taking a sip from the still cold vodka.

"You have no idea," Duo replied, eyes alive with desire and other emotions too powerful to even contemplate.

"I thought you could use a drink," Heero explained.

"More than ever."

Heero drained the last of the glass and tossed it high over his shoulder, his aim perfect and the bartender barely had to move to catch the sailing tumbler. Stepping forward, Heero leaned into his friend and pulled him close at the same time, and then pressed his lips to Duo's, releasing the liquor into the other's mouth. For several seconds they exchanged the drink, only a little of it slipping between their tightly pressed lips, ignoring the few looks that came their way even though they were only filled with envy that the two shared such a bond. Heero finally pulled away, leaving Duo breathless and sweat running down his face and back, and grinning like he'd just won the lottery. Maybe he had at that.

"Are you feeling better now?" Heero asked, not letting go for an instant.

"Not really, I think that made me feel even hotter," Duo quipped, and not lying for a minute.

"Perhaps we should go back to the hotel then, the water here is probably ten dollars a glass."

"I'd rather see you dance first."

Heero sighed in mock resignation, and stepped back following Duo's lead and closed his eyes for a moment to let the beat of the music take control. As he began to move, Heero could feel Duo behind him, a hand on his right hip and moving with him. Together they danced and had little care for the rest of the world. The hours passed and seldom did they slow and never did they stop, too lost in finally finding someone to share their burdens, burdens that had been wearing them down for too long.

It was nearly four in the morning when, partially drunk and nearly exhausted, they stumbled from the club, laughing and grinning like there was no tomorrow. Staggering down the streets and alleys they finally returned to their hotel, Heero holding the door open and then nearly tripping as he followed Duo in. They rode the elevator up to their floor and after a rather chaste look and a brief touch of hands, both of them having decided that letting themselves get swept away might not be the greatest of ideas, they returned to their own rooms to recover before returning home. Watching with bleary eyes as Duo managed to get to his room and let himself in, Heero turned and entered his own, not even thinking to check the cameras or the laptop, he simply bolted the door and stumbled to the bedroom, collapsing on the bed before letting himself slip away into oblivion.

Duo couldn't keep his eyes open, and when he managed to the room wouldn't stop spinning.

"Damn spinning rooms," he mumbled, prone on his bed.

At last he drifted off to sleep, a smile on his lips and Heero's face constantly flashing before his eyes. Duo was so far gone that he didn't hear his hotel room door being opened, nor did he hear the silent footsteps as they came towards his room. He did not even feel the pressure of the injection gun on his neck that took him from his pleasant dreams into a black nothingness from which he did not awaken.

Heero awoke with a groan, his head pounding and his mouth like cotton, but still he managed to smile when he remembered why he was in such a state. Heaving himself from the bed, Heero headed straight for the shower and after a good hot blast of water to get himself going, he got dressed and headed for Duo's room. They had open tickets for the return so they could get in a nice big breakfast, or lunch now as it was almost 1pm Heero noticed as he checked his watch. Knowing Duo though, it would be at least an hour before he was ready, but that was a small price to pay. Knocking on the door, Heero waited patiently for several minutes, knocking again and again, but still Duo didn't answer. Frowning, he tried again, pounding as hard as he could, even calling out Duo's name, but when he still received no response, Heero drove his foot into the door, driving it open with a loud bang. Inside the room was unchanged and nothing looked amiss, but Heero did not stop as he continued to the bedroom and saw that the bed was empty as was the bathroom.

Impossible, Heero thought. He'd never leave without telling me, and never without a shower to fix his hair.

Turning to leave Heero stopped dead in his tracks. There, hanging from a carbon black combat knife driven into the wall, hung a note in plain typed letters.

We have your partner.

You have until midnight to return the data or he dies.

Do not contact Preventer or he dies.

Bring the data on a laptop to the New Horizons offices.

Don't be late.

Heero felt his legs give out and he fell to his knees, disbelieving what he was reading, but there it was, not a drunken hallucination. They had taken Duo and Heero had only eleven hours to accede to their demands or his friend would be lost to him forever.

Jackson Steele sat at his desk at Preventer headquarters and wished once more that something at least remotely exciting would happen. As soon as he said it he regretted it and willed whatever gods there might be to keep his life as dull as possible. Excitement in the life of Jackson Steele usually meant there was someone that needed to die, and he had killed too many people. Even now he could see their faces. Closing his eyes and trying to stifle the images, Jackson groaned as he saw an e-mail come in. It had been more than nine months since his last mission and he had hoped, with the end of the Mariemaia War and Relena Darlian pushing the Earth Sphere United Nations towards completing its major stages of military disarmament that his talents would finally be allowed to die off. It seemed that someone had decided otherwise.

Opening the e-mail Jackson frowned in confusion as it contained only a phone number, and not one that he recognized. He attempted to trace the e-mail, but it had been routed so many times through so many different servers and countries that it was impossible to trace or identify. Finally deciding that given his ultra-secret status within Preventer, Jackson had to assume that someone with the right access had sent it, he picked up his cellphone and dialed the number.

There was a noise of connection and then silence.

"Hello?" Jackson asked. "Who is this?'

"They took him," a voice said, raspy and hard to understand, and yet it seemed familiar.

"Who too him?" Jackson demanded, now even more confused. "Who is this?"

"They took him," the voice repeated, sounding more lost than Jackson could ever remember hearing someone sound.

Then he remembered the voice.

"Heero?"

"I need your help."

Heero sat on Duo's bed, staring straight ahead at the wall, only blinking when his body forced him to, and waited. Waiting for what, he didn't know, but he knew he'd know it when it happened. It had been two hours since he had found Duo missing and only five minutes since he had managed to send the e-mail to the only person at Preventer he thought might be able to help him.

He had thought about contacting Trowa, Quatre and Wufei, asking them for their help, but they were out in the colonies or on assignment and too far away to help in the time he had left. Heero felt a sinking feeling inside as he was forced to rely on someone he didn't know of, but everything he had managed to locate on the Preventer network seemed to indicate that Jackson Steele, codename Agent Steel, was a covert operative of the highest order, but Heero couldn't locate any reference to any missions he had completed in the last year. Something didn't seem right but Heero didn't care. He had no choice and right now he didn't feel remotely capable of rescuing his friend alone.

His head suddenly felt too heavy to hold upright and Heero let it drop into his hands and tried to breathe as his chest suddenly felt too tight, crushing the life out of him.

Hyperventilating for a few minutes, Heero couldn't just sit still any more and bolted for the kitchenette and started grabbing the small liquor bottles out of the minibar. He downed then all as fast as he could unscrew the tops but it wasn't nearly enough to stop his brain from repeating the same damn thing over and over again.

Duo is gone.

Finally the booze seemed to be hitting him after draining more than a dozen of the small drinks and exhausting the supply in the room. But there was more in his own room.

Heero made his way down the hallway, weaving slightly but still focused on the one thing he knew of that could take the feelings running through him away. He barely swiped his card before throwing the door open and making for the minibar. Empty bottles shattered on the floor as he finished them, not even wasting the time to set them aside as he reached for more. Some part of Heero knew what he was doing was selfish and meaningless, but that part was quickly drowned in alcohol. As he quickly became aware that he was out of booze, Heero managed to make it to the phone and order up a proper bottle of vodka to be left outside his door. As he waited Heero looked about his empty hotel room and realized that they could be watching him even as he was standing there; that just because they only kidnapped Duo they still could have bugged his room. Staggering to his bedroom, Heero dug the sweeper out of his suitcase and somehow managed to switch it on. He made the most half-assed sweep of his room imaginable, something that ordinarily would have been unthinkable, but Heero was no longer thinking coherently. Suddenly he realized that he was unarmed and dropped the sweeper in the middle of the living room floor and rushed back to his room, and pulled the suitcase from under his bed. It took several attempts to unlock it and get into the weapons compartment, but Heero managed to find a weapon he liked. With his silenced 10mm in hand, Heero made his way back to the living room and checked the door to see if his liquor had arrived. It had and it was moments later when he was tilting it back, staring out the living room windows at the sun as it started to slowly descend towards the horizon.

He knew what he needed to do. It wasn't exactly difficult to do what the terrorists wanted; he'd give them whatever they wanted if they would return his friend but he also knew that the chances that they would still kill Duo just as a warning to the ESUN and Preventer. Heero felt his hand clenching on the butt of the pistol and almost wished for them to cross that line. He might not have the Wing Zero any more, but there was more to Heero Yuy than his piloting of a warmachine. When his mind finally managed to extricate itself from the dark path it was heading down, the sun was far lower and there was a knock at the door. Heero took yet another slug from the half-empty bottle and did not hear it, did not hear the electronic lock being overridden but he did hear the door make a slight creak as it opened. In his drunken haze Heero assumed that New Horizon had come back for him after all, spun and raised his weapon, stalking towards the door and flicked the safety off. Let them come. They would not live to regret their mistake.

Jackson had taken the hypersonic diplomatic courier on reserve for Preventer using some rather ingenious forged orders he only used when the situation warranted, and the situation certainly seemed to warrant it this time. Modern air travel was a godsend to one such as Jackson Steele, someone who needed to make the occasional high-speed getaway when a mission was cut a little closer than he would have liked. The courier was capable of the fastest speeds yet attained by man, and its diplomatic status ensured that it received priority landing status and no customs inspections. Useful when one was traveling with an arsenal in his suitcase. It had only taken three hours from when he had hung up with Agent Wing to when the courier touched down in New York. Eight hours left on the ultimatum and there were so many variables to consider. Taking a limousine from the airport to the hotel he had triangulated Heero's cellphone at, Jackson had to wonder at what Heero had told him.

"You need my help?" he'd said, incredulous that the notoriously independent and secretive Heero Yuy, Agent Wing, would be asking for help from someone he didn't know. "Tell me what's going on right now or I'm hanging up."

"They took Duo."

That brought Jackson up short. He knew of both Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell, having met the latter briefly once at Preventer headquarters, knew more than either of them probably suspected he could know. For all the secrecy surrounding the Gundams and Operation Meteor it didn't take much for someone like Jackson Steele to hack both the old Alliance's and OZ's databases and compile the information into profiles for each pilot. A little background digging through colony records and he soon had all there was to know about the Gundam pilots, just in case it was necessary to remind them of who they were supposed to be fighting for. In the end he hadn't needed his information and had shelved it alongside all the rest of the target data he had collected over the years. Thinking of the ex-pilots as possible kindred spirits, Jackson had considered seeking them out, especially once Wufei, Heero and Duo signed up with Preventer, but that would invite a lot of questions about his own past, and that was something Jackson didn't reveal lightly. But with that one chance meeting, only a few moments in a hallway seven or eight months back, Jackson had learned more about Duo Maxwell than possibly his own friends knew. The youth was honest with others but not himself, considered himself destined to spend his life alone lest he lose more people he cared about, and he had a true zest for life, not wanting to lose his easily or without an equal tradeoff when the time came. In those few seconds, Jackson had decided that he liked the loud American, so to hear that someone had kidnapped him was truly upsetting.

"Who took Duo?"

"New Horizon. We...we were to infiltrate them, gather data to prove or disprove terrorist activities. Somehow they knew who we were and they set a trap for us. We managed to escape but they tracked us to our hotel, something that should have been impossible, and they took him. I don't know why they took Duo over myself, or why not both of us, but I will not let this stand."

There seemed to be more to the story than Heero was letting on, but Jackson felt that there was enough to justify a little private mission. He had arranged with Lady Une, the head of Preventer, that he would work with her but not for her. Understanding the difference, she had agreed, giving him the highest security clearance they had to better, facilitate, his activities both for Preventer and solo.

"Have they issued any demands?" he'd asked, already gathering the few things from his office that he would need for the trip.

"They want the data we stole back or they'll kill him."

"Do it then," Jackson retorted, halting preparations. "If all they want is that information in exchange for his life, give it to them."

"They won't give him back."

Knowing Heero's history and experiences, Jackson left his office as Heero continued.

"They knew we were coming, and they knew where we were staying. The only people that could possibly have given them that information are at Preventer, so I know that something larger is going on. They won't return Duo so I need to take him back, but I can't do it alone."

"Why did you call me?" Jackson asked, as he took an elevator down to the underground parking garage. "For all you know I'm a part of whatever conspiracy may or may not exist."

"Duo mentioned you to me once, said you seemed nice but that there was something about you that made him think you weren't all that different from us. I don't have a lot of time or choices so I made a decision. Was it the right one?"

Jackson climbed into his car and considered that for a moment.

"We're talking about a rescue mission right? Insertion with severe prejudice and minimal enemy survival preferred?"

"Yes."

"Then you called the right guy. I can be with you in about three hours."

Heero hung up without telling him where to go but Jackson had already triangulated the signal so he didn't let it bother him.

Lugging his large duffel and suitcase, Jackson reached Heero's door and knocked, waiting for an answer that wasn't forthcoming. Trying again several times Jackson grew concerned, wondering if New Horizon had somehow intercepted the call and come for Heero. Dropping the duffel he pulled two large knives from their forearm sheaths beneath his suit jacket, slipping one beneath the electronic door lock and popping the panel free before cutting several wires with a flick of the wrist. The door released and Jackson pushed his way in, only to find a completely lost Heero staring at him in a drunken rage with a loaded weapon. Pushing forward Jackson heard the firing pin click and the 10mm round thudded into his shoulder, pain exploding through the entire arm but the stealth armor he wore took the brunt of the impact. Another click and another bullet shot past his left ear, but Jackson had already halved the distance to the gunman. Reversing one of the knives and throwing it in a single deft move, Jackson managed to strike the gun and sent its next shot wide and giving him the time he needed to grab Heero's wrist with his now empty left hand and reverse the knife in his right hand before slamming the pommel into the other agent's temple. Normally it would have dropped Heero, but he was too drunk and too unstable for a single attack to bring him down. The bottle of vodka in Heero's other hand came around with surprising speed and strength, but Jackson smashed it with a swift forearm blow and then with his left hand hit Heero's pressure points and forced the gun to drop to the ground. Heero lashed out with his right fist, but Jackson was too fast and tossed his knife into his left hand and caught the punch, swinging under the blow and wrenching the limb up and behind Heero's back, before he slammed the pommel of the knife into Heero's temple again. At last the incredibly strong youth collapsed in Jackson's arms and he hefted him off the floor and took him into the bedroom and left him on the bed. Deciding that Heero would be out for a rather lengthy period of time, he had struck the youth rather hard after all, Jackson retrieved his bags and left them in the living room before heading for Duo's room. Examining the locking mechanism, it was clear to Jackson that it had been tampered with, even before Heero had kicked it in. It was a precision job, that much was certain, so Jackson let himself in, ready to call upon his spring-loaded knives should it be necessary. There were no signs of a struggle or of any foul play, so there was at least that. The odds were that Duo was taken alive, at least so far as the circumstantial evidence indicated. Jackson easily spotted the button cameras that had been placed throughout the suite, but they seemed to be Preventer issue and their expert placement did hint that they were placed by Duo. There was no computer that Jackson could see that would be receiving the camera data, but it would probably be hidden somewhere close. Not even bothering to search for fingerprints or footprints in the carpeting, as if the abductors were even half as good as they probably were there would be no such traces, Jackson headed to the bedroom. It was the same as before with no signs of a struggle or obvious evidence of how many infiltrators there had been, but Jackson knew from his own experience that it would have been two, possibly three, the easier to smuggle the ex-pilot from the hotel.

Spotting the knife in the back of the door along with the note as it still hung pinned, Jackson gave it a looking over, seeing if he could spot anything on the note itself or if he could recognize the knife from a particular faction or individual. Everything was pretty standard, nothing to indicate anyone that Jackson knew of. Quickly collecting up Duo's belongings and putting his suitcase and briefcase in the living room, Jackson set about locating the computer holding the camera footage. Checking all the places that he would have hidden a laptop or palmtop, he located it hidden within the middle couch cushion. Activating it, Jackson had to work himself through a large number of security layers in order to access the memory. There were a few close calls with some of the security measures that Duo had put in place, but Jackson was one of the finest hackers alive, perhaps even better than the legendary Heero Yuy. Pulling up the cam footage, Jackson scrolled through the footage until he located what he wanted, and watched as two men broke into the suite at 4:52am and promptly moved to the bedroom where an obviously drunken Duo Maxwell lay nearly-comatose on his bed. One of the men, both clad in non-descript black clothes, shoved an injector gun into Duo's neck and obviously shot him full of a tranquilizer. After that, they smuggled the unconscious agent out and disappeared. Playing through the videos several times, Jackson found that there was nothing extra to be gleaned from wasting any more time. Collecting all the button cams lest any evidence of Preventer activity remain behind, he took all of the equipment and returned to Heero's room, just in time for the unconscious agent to groan and open his eyes once more.

Heero woke and felt as though his head would explode, and he wasn't certain if it was because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed or the devastating blows that the man he could only assume was Agent Steel had landed. Either way, he felt a sense of regret for attempting the kill the man who had come to help him save...Duo. There were other words that came to mind, but Heero decided that it was best to keep this as professional as possible. He had already failed his friend when he had succumbed to his own emotions, but now it was time to fix those mistakes. Trying to rise, Heero felt himself too dizzy and collapsed again, turning his head to see Jackson returning to his room.

"I cleared out Duo's room," Jackson informed him, setting the suitcase and briefcase aside. "There shouldn't be anything left that would indicate a Preventer operation. I also checked the button cam footage but there wasn't anything useful there. Two men took him, beyond that we know where to look for them."

Jackson came over and set the carbonized combat knife on the nightstand next to Heero.

"I thought you might want this."

Heero managed to roll over and took the blade in hand, feeling its weight and wanting nothing more than to sink it into whoever had orchestrated this betrayal.

"I have been considering our plans," Jackson said, breaking into Heero's thoughts.

"I'm not surprised," Heero replied, taking a deep breath and sitting up slowly. "How do you plan to get into the building without alerting them before I locate Duo?"

"The roof. I will drop onto the roof exactly two minutes after you enter the building and fight my way down to you. I'll have you with a small radtracer so even after I jam all transmissions within the building, I'll be able to find you. I will endeavor to remain in the shadows, but I do not leave enemies behind me. Anyone that sees me will die."

Heero actually felt himself shiver at the calm way that his new partner spoke of how he planned to enact his part. Heero had killed many times, had killed so many hundreds if not thousands of people, but he had never considered himself that cold in doing what needed to be done. He had missions to accomplish and did what he needed to do, but he still tried to avoid civilian casualties, even disobeying orders to continue to battle no matter the cost. The way that Jackson spoke, Heero found himself wondering just what he did for Preventer, and what he may have been doing during the wars. Those were questions he needed answered before they decided on anything.

"I need to know what your role at Preventer is," Heero said suddenly, interrupting Jackson's recitation of his plan. "And what you did during the wars, if anything."

This seemed to catch the agent off guard, and Heero kept his hand on the combat knife, in case the man before him turned out not to be a friend after all.

"My past is something that I prefer not to talk about, as is my role at Preventer. Only Lady Une knows more than what is in the general files, and even she knows only the smallest details."

"If we are in this together, I will know as much as I can before I must trust my life, trust Duo's life, to a man I don't know."

"Hardly a man, given that I'm only two years older than you are, or at least as old as everyone assumes you to be. Is it true that you don't know your true age?"

Now it was Heero's turn to be caught off guard, but found himself answering anyway.

"Yes, it is true. How do you know even that much about me?"

"I may not have piloted a mobile suit, but I fought in the war even longer than you. I have my connections and my own database about all those I found myself considering potential threats."

"If you didn't pilot a mobile suit just what did you do?" Heero pressed, not only curious now but suspicious. He had no longer made it a point to hide his past from most people he knew, nor did any of the Gundam pilots despite the carnage they had wrought and the lives they had taken. It seemed impossible that one man without a mobile suit could have had as great an impact on the wars, and so Jackson's reluctance was a cause for mistrust.

"Please," the other replied, a look of pain crossing his face, a look so sincere that Heero set aside the knife. "I live with it everyday, and I would like at least one person that someday might consider me a friend not to look at me like the monster I see in the mirror."

Heero felt a kinship at that moment that surprised him with its strength, for that was how he saw himself far too often, save perhaps when he was with Duo and saw what the other saw in him.

"I ask not to torture you, but if we are to risk our lives together, and if I am to place my closet friend's life in your hands, I need to know what kind of man you are," Heero told him, doing his best to convey the truth of his words. "You cannot possibly be more a monster than I, and I have killed thousands and they haunt my dreams."

"Yes, but can you see each and every face as though they were still standing before you?" Jackson asked, meeting Heero's eyes. "You killed from a distance, mobile suit to mobile suit. I killed fewer people yes, of that I have no doubt, but I killed up close and more often than not ended up covered in the blood of my enemies. I worked for no one beyond my own twisted notions of good and evil, but I see the world today and I do feel that perhaps I did contribute something besides giving the undertaker more work."

Heero remained silent, letting his fellow agent speak and present himself as openly as he could to someone he had only read about and studied from after action reports.

"My parents were supporters of the United Earth Sphere Alliance," Jackson began. "They were like General Noventa, trying to reduce the Alliance's domination based on military strength and control and return it to the peaceful governing body it had always meant to be. They were highly placed in the Alliance's political structure, but when OZ began to make their plans for the Alliance's downfall a number of the most peace-oriented people on both sides started to disappear. My parents were murdered in their own home, as I watched cowering in a closet. I would have been next but I had my father's assault rifle from his military days and there were only two men in the room. They came for the closet and I killed them both even as I cried. I was ten years old and I had just killed two men in cold blood. After that I ran, trying to escape my parent's murderers. I lived on the streets for several years, until I was forced to kill again in order to feed myself. That time I didn't cry."

Heero couldn't believe what he was hearing and yet he did not doubt a single word. There was no deception in Jackson's voice, and his eyes held nothing but the pain and stigma he felt at being what he was.

"I had always been good with computers and managed to get myself into a school nearby. For two more years I trained myself, body and mind, excelling in academics as easily as I did in athletics. I was stronger and faster than everyone, and soon I found myself unable to partake in any of the more physical games for fear that I would hurt someone. It was then that I started to train myself with knives, the only thing I could truly master in the secrecy of my boarding room without anyone being the wiser. I read book after book, read every site I could find on the internet that talked about or showed any blade techniques, and when I was satisfied that I was ready, I hunted for the people that had ordered my parent's deaths. The first one I killed when he was coming home from a meeting with the OZ military machine. In his arrogance there was only him and his driver. I took the driver's head from his shoulders as he tried to protect his passenger, who managed to scream once before I took his head as well. The others I hunted down over the next two years, and all five of them are now dead, along with anyone that got in my way. I can still remember the faces of the one hundred seventeen people I killed to enact my revenge, I even still have my first sword that I killed my first victims with. After that, I decided that it was over, but the blood on my hands wouldn't wash off, and the memories wouldn't stop haunting me, so I was never able to keep a stable job until I got an internship at a hospital with my falsified credentials. Until OZ and Romefeller made their move, I spent every moment I could tending to the sick and I found a peace and a mission that helped quiet the souls of those I had murdered. At least, for a while."

Heero watched as Jackson seemed to grow stronger for a moment as he talked about helping others to repent for what he had done, but any strength fled as he recounted his actions during the wars.

"I located any OZ soldiers or Romefeller Foundation members I could, and I killed them," Jackson continued. "I didn't have the weapons you pilots did, so I couldn't go to the colonies and fight, or even fight on the front lines on Earth, so I did what I could. I infiltrated any OZ base I could find and slaughtered the officers, leaving the soldiers without leadership or direction. Sometimes I was discovered and I was forced to fight my way clear and more people died, but thankfully that did not happen often. By the time the war ended I had killed another four hundred eighty nine people, my contribution to peace."

At that Jackson laughed for a moment, and Heero removed his hand from the knife completely. This man was the same as he was, haunted by the past and uncertain if he had any place in the peaceful world taking shape all around him. All too often Heero had found himself wondering if it wouldn't be better to finish what all his enemies had started and terminate himself. What harm would it be to the world to have one less monster in it?

"At least, that's how I justified it," Jackson finished. "Now, I'm not so sure, but there it is. I hope it was worth it."

"From what I've seen so far, I think it will be," Heero answered. "The world is already a better place for not having the Gundams in it, let alone all mobile suits. We most likely won't see the world become the peaceful place we fought for in our life times, but I am already glad to see the beginnings of it. Maybe all the people who died during the wars didn't die for nothing."

"That's why I keep doing what makes me a monster. If I do what killing is still necessary, then no one else will have to and perhaps that will save someone else from going down the path I'm on."

Jackson met Heero's eyes again, and Heero knew something he wouldn't like was coming.

"I've been honest with you, so now I expect you to be honest with me," Jackson stated, in a tone that brooked no argument. "There is more going on here than I expected so tell me, just what is Duo to you?"

Jackson watched as Heero started and could practically hear his heart beating harder, unsure if he could even answer that question let alone if he wanted to. One moment Heero seemed to know the answer and the next he didn't, and then the next he wasn't sure he wanted to know at all. It was all too confusing and painful when the person he was obviously thinking about was in danger.

"I...I don't know," Heero tried. "So much has been changing and I don't know entirely what to make of it all. All I know is that he had been my closest friend, and at times my only friend, regardless of whatever has happened around us. We've fought together more times than I can count, bled together and nearly died together."

"What would you do to get him back?"

"Whatever I have to."

"What would you do if he dies before we can rescue him?"

"Kill everyone I can find until I fall, by their hand or mine."

"Do you love him?"

The question was probably over the line but Jackson didn't really care. Heero had pushed him for all the painful truth of his own past, so a little quid pro quo wouldn't kill him. Besides, that one question would tell him just how far Heero would go in the battle ahead.

"I...I..."

"It's not a hard question," Jackson pressed. "When you think about all the times that you've been the happiest, is he there? When you wake up in the morning, what are you most thankful for; that you're alive to enjoy another day or that he's alive to enjoy it with you? When he smiles at you do all the people you've killed and that drain your soul suddenly seem to vanish?"

Heero seemed to be shaking, his eyes wider than Jackson could have imagined but all the talk seemed to be pushing him towards a decision he knew that he needed to make but was fearful of at the same time. With one word his world would forever change, and that was daunting to anyone let alone someone so broken as Heero. Jackson waited and watched, until at last Heero seemed to calm and make the decision that he wanted to make.

"I don't know what loving someone means because I've never had that before, to either give or receive it," Heero tried again, fumbling over his words in such an unfamiliar topic. "Attaching a word to something as, difficult, to grasp as emotions makes no sense. What I feel, or Duo feels, it is something that I don't think can be so easily explained."

"That was the longest 'yes' I've ever heard," Jackson quipped, smiling at his new friend's discomfort. "If you're concerned about how I might label you, don't be. I don't have the right to judge anyone for anything, given what I have spent most of my life doing. Besides, I envy you."

"Envy me?" Heero asked, confused.

"You have two things that I will never have," Jackson explained. "A chance at a future and to not have to do it alone." Standing, Jackson turned to leave. "Rest a bit more and I'll get you some water. I think you'll need it. I'll spend the time preparing for tonight."

Locating the minibar and grabbing a bottle of water, Jackson smiled as he thought of Heero's answer to his question and truly did envy his new partner in his chance for a future beyond killing. Jackson knew at the same time that that he would never have such a chance and that he truly didn't deserve one. There were too many ghosts surrounding him and they were all that filled his soul and always would. Returning to the bedroom, Jackson saw that Heero was asleep, truly asleep this time, and left the water on the nightstand next to the knife. Returning to the living room, Jackson set about with his preparations for the coming mission.

His head aching more than any time that he could remember, Duo awoke in darkness, his body still fighting off the last vestiges of the sedative that his kidnappers had injected him with. Fortunately it seemed that they had done their homework and whatever concoction they had used hadn't played any nasty tricks on his enhanced metabolism or nervous system. Opening his eyes, Duo tried to sit up but still found himself mostly paralyzed. Knowing that he was probably under surveillance with infrared cameras in his cell, Duo tried to keep any movements he made as minimal as possible as he tried to work himself through his paralysis. The fact that he wasn't uncomfortably cold told him that he wasn't naked, something that relieved him to no end. The idea of some stranger stripping him down was repulsive, and Duo felt his skin crawl at the thought. So he wasn't naked, restrained in any way, but from the feel of the floor his cell would be solid steel.

Heero.

Duo nearly bolted upright, but his condition made that impossible. Did they get Heero too? Was he in the same complex or held elsewhere? Who the hell were 'they'?

Trying to speak, Duo heard his voice in his own ears and it sounded weak and hoarse but he would not simply lay still and silent.

"Who...are you...people?" he demanded, hoping that someone was actually monitoring him. "What do...you want with me?"

"You are awake at last. I am most disappointed in how long you have been asleep. I would have expected one such as you to be able to recover faster."

"I don't give a damn what you expect," Duo snapped, feeling his voice and body growing stronger and stronger. "Who the hell are you?"

"You can call me Janus, and you had better start caring about what I expect. The life of your friend depends on it."

"Heero..."

"Indeed. Consider your actions when we come for you."

"Come for me? What do you expect me to do for you?"

"Oh, you'll do many things for me, not least of which is beg for mercy."

A laugh came over the intercom before the connection was cut off, and Duo had a feeling he would not like what was to come.

Heero woke once more and this time did not feel as though his entire body had been run through a meat grinder. A bottle of water was beside him just as promised and he drank it down in one long go, thankful for it in a way he could never have imagined. Not exactly being a heavy-weight drinker Heero had only been drunk a handful of times before, and never to this reckless extent and now he knew why it was something to be avoided. With the water finished Heero sat up and decided on a shower given how dirty he felt from the previous day's exertions. Once the shower had warmed up he stepped in and felt some of the tension melt away as the searing hot water massaged his body. For nearly half an hour Heero just stood facing the shower head, the water cascading over his face and soaking his hair before rolling down the rest of his body. He so seldomly spent time doing things he considered to be a waste of time, but now he could see why Duo could spend so long in the bathroom, beyond trying to brush the absurdity that was his hair. Finally Heero decided he had allowed himself enough relaxation and finished his shower quickly, dressing in casual clothes before meeting Jackson out in the living room. There were weapons and equipment everywhere, far more than anything that Duo or Heero had brought, even combined between the two of them, and none of it seemed to be Preventer issue.

"Nice equipment," Heero commented, reaching down and picking up a sheathed sword from the coffee table where it lay next to another identical sword. Pulling it partly from the scabbard, Heero admired the quality of the katana, a sword he knew to originate in feudal Japan, and ironically a place he knew from his limited history to be a part of his heritage. "Wufei would appreciate this sword."

"I can set him up with some when this is over," Jackson offered, methodically loading rounds into a magazine. "I have contacts that can get whatever I need, though swords are usually made to order to ensure the best quality. I've had those two since I started to live this life I've chosen."

"I suppose this is where you get your operative name from then," Heero observed, setting down the sword not out of revulsion for how many it had undoubtedly killed, but out of respect for its owner. "Agent Steel."

"Well, partly. I had wanted Agent Hitokiri, but it just didn't sound right, and since I do tend towards blade work, Agent Steel was as good as any."

"Hitokiri?"

"It is an old Japanese word. It means, roughly, manslayer. I've always felt it appropriate, and I use it as my contact name with my suppliers or informers. With you however, Jackson will be acceptable, or Agent Steel if you insist."

"Jackson it is," Heero answered, picking up this time a large assault rifle and examining it. "This seems an odd weapon for someone like you, given your preferences."

"There are times when a blade is the wrong tool for the job, and few things will strike down my enemies as well as that weapon. 15mm armor piercing rounds, cyclic rate of 700 rounds per minute, and accurate on full-automatic out to half a kilometer, it's the finest gun I have ever owned. It's rather large though, so for full stealth missions it isn't much of an option, but for tonight well, I'm thinking about all the angles."

"Don't do anything stupid or any more dangerous than what we are already considering," Heero warned, ejecting the large cylindrical magazine and eyeing the large caliber rounds before slapping it home again and working the slide. "I may not know you well, but I don't want to see the person who came all this way to help me die saving Duo."

"Don't worry," Jackson assured him. "I plan to live for a long time yet. I have too many sins to atone for before I can die and too many ghosts demanding my service before I can sleep."

"Hn."

Knowing that the conversation was painful for his friend, Heero set the assault rifle down again and decided to grab something to eat from the minibar to fuel him for the day to come. Checking his watch even as he munched on a jar of nuts and a bag of chips, food he would normally avoid, Heero saw that it was nearly eight in the evening, seven hours since he had found Duo missing. How could so much time have simply disappeared on him when there was so much still to do?

"I'm guessing that since you let me sleep that you've already decided on a plan that you think will get us through this in as few pieces as possible?" Heero asked, downing another bottle of water to wash down all the junk he was trying to fill up on.

"Some of the details I won't know until I get on site, so you'll just have to trust me on that," Jackson replied, setting down the magazine he had finished with and picking up the last empty one in front of him. A number of piles of different caliber clips lay in neat piles before him. "The basic plan is simple, which I think is to our advantage. You will take the data to them in a laptop I brought with me. It contains a timed surge device built into it. If they attempt to download the information before the timer expires, it will instantly flash the harddrive clean. You will take it into the building through the front door in a briefcase, one with no hidden compartments or weapons, as they will be looking for those. Save for this one."

Jackson held up the briefcase and showed Heero what he was talking about and the ex-pilot nodded his satisfaction with that stage of the plan. It seemed to carry a certain poetic justice to the youth and it strengthened his resolve all the more.

"I will be essentially unarmed, but there is little way to avoid that," Heero interjected. "They will obviously scan me thoroughly for any equipment at all, so the radtracer should probably be in my shoe. It is undetectable by normal means, is it not?"

"Correct. Unless they have very specialized equipment with them, like I will, it will be impossible to detect. You will enter the building at five minutes to midnight, to minimize the chances of this being witnessed by too many people. It will take you several minutes to be checked and to reach whoever will be overseeing this within their offices. At two minutes to midnight I will breach the roof entrance and make my way towards you. You will know my signal to move, so do nothing until then unless you absolutely must. At the signal make your escape and I will rendezvous with you. I will have with me a lifesign detector, and given that Duo is probably as different from human norm as you, his lifesigns will be just different enough from normal that we will be able to pinpoint him anywhere in the building. After that, you two escape while I cover you."

"Simple," Heero admitted, seeing few problems apart from trying to time it all so closely. "I would like to have more time to plan this, to try and work out timing issues, but there is no way to do so in this case. We will just have to trust each other and in their paranoia."

"If you were inviting a Gundam pilot into your midst, you'd be a little paranoid wouldn't you?"

"No, because I'd have shot me on sight."

"Good point. Okay, I'm going to go and get the preparations underway. I will be back in a few hours so don't worry. We'll have plenty of time to get this done right. We'll bring Duo home."

With that Jackson left, and Heero was thankful for the privacy as he found his hands shaking again. What if things were not so simple after all? It should have been a simple mission the night before and look at how that had turned out. What would he do if the worst should happen?

Heero eyed the katana again, and knew that there was only one choice if everything fell apart. Duo might call himself the God of Death, but if New Horizon killed him, Heero would show them all just what death was.

Jackson had a mental checklist of what he planned to get done in the little time he had. Still dressed in his suit he was lost amongst the still teeming streets. It was hard to believe that the streets could still be so bustling, but Jackson supposed that was because it was a Friday night. That could offer some problems, but those sorts of problems were easy to rectify. He had the blueprints for the area and quickly found a manhole that would give him the access he sought. Half a block from the New Horizons building it was given limited cover by several newspaper boxes. Poorly lit and with few people paying any attention, Jackson knelt down and with a small pry bar he pried the cover up enough to get a hand under it. He may not have been as strong as Heero, but Jackson was still far stronger than the average person his age and with some effort heaved the cover aside and climbed down before pulling it closed again. Descending into the bowels of the city's power and sewer distribution network, Jackson read the labels on the overhead power conduits and quickly found his way, working his way back towards New Horizon. It wasn't very difficult to locate what he wanted and to do what he needed to. Continuing along the same bearing before heading left, Jackson proceeded to let himself out several blocks over and found himself right next to the car dealership he had located on his brief flight into the city. It was an upscale place, with what should have amounted to formidable security, but to someone like Agent Steel, it was the same as if it was unlocked. It took three minutes to boost the car he wanted and park it legally within half a minute walk or a ten second sprint from the target. That taken care of and deciding to take a walk and see the lay of the land in person rather than taking an aerial satellite photograph at its word so to speak, Jackson located the perfect place to make his assault from. As much as he wanted to go above street level and see all that he wanted to, there was simply too much at risk to be discovered before they were ready. There were still more than three hours until the terrorist ultimatum so Jackson took the opportunity to pick up a decent meal at a vegetarian restaurant on the way back to the hotel. He knocked on Heero's door and waited for the faint sound of footsteps on the other side of the door.

"Hitokiri," Jackson said, keeping his voice just high enough that only Heero could hear him.

The faint click of a gun hammer being cocked reached his ears, but he knew that Heero was only being careful. The door opened and Jackson walked confidently through, Heero closing the door behind him and bolting it, flicking the safety on again.

"You're back sooner than I expected," Heero said, tucking the weapon into the back of his pants.

"It wasn't hard to get things ready," Jackson told him, setting the food down on the kitchen counter. "Everything seems to be set now. I thought we should eat something decent before all this goes down. A little salad with a nice vinaigrette, some roasted vegetables in a mild garlic sauce, and some Greek rice. Nothing too fancy but better than nuts and chips."

"Good idea."

"Grab a plate and help yourself."

Taking moderate portions of all three, Jackson returned to the living room to continue his preparations, but found that all the weapons had already been cleaned and prepped, everything organized except for his katanas, an omission that brought a slight smile to his face. Sitting down and eating for a few minutes in silence, Jackson reached for a polishing cloth and took one of his swords and drew it clear before working the blade slowly and methodically, polishing the already gleaming blade to a mirror shine.

"Why are you cleaning those?" Heero asked, between mouthfuls of his own meal.

"It is something of a ritual," Jackson replied, not looking up from his duties. "If I am to use these to take lives, they will be as pure before as they will be after. It is also a show of respect to those I kill, that they are slain by a perfect blade."

"I felt the same of my Gundams," Heero replied. "I may not have always been able to have them repaired as I would have liked, but I always tried to make sure that when I had to kill that it was a clean kill. Causing suffering because of poor aim or faulty weapons shows a lack of pride and honor, at least in my mind."

Jackson nodded, losing himself in the task even as Heero watched him and continued to eat in silence, something that his new friend appreciated. The preparation before battle was at least as important as the battle itself, and so Jackson only used magazines that he had loaded himself, and polished his swords even though they were always cleaned after they had been put to their unfortunate use. It was cathartic in many ways, and gave him some semblance of normality in a world where his only reason to exist was because there were people that needed to die and if he didn't kill them then someone else would be forced to.

"You don't have to keep doing this," Heero said, jolting Jackson out of his thoughts. "You don't need to live this life anymore, not when the world has changed so much."

"Has it really changed so much?" he countered, looking up at Heero. "Look at what has happened just today. Look even farther back at what your mission here was in the first place. Infiltrate a possible terrorist organization and gather evidence of any illegal activities. There may not be mobile suits engaging in grand battles for the fate of the world, but there is still much more to accomplish if we are to elevate ourselves above the past, above our base natures. I can't rise above my nature, and so I have given into it until the day my existence is rendered meaningless. When that happens the bullets I've been dodging will catch up to me."

"I thought that way once," Heero replied. "I thought I had to fight because if I didn't, no one else would. I thought that my only reason for being was to fight, to battle against those who would threaten the innocent for their own gains. A noble goal perhaps, but arrogant too. It took me a long time to realize that there is more to life than fighting and dying, and that there is a lot more to fight for than just peace. Peace is just a word, an ideal, but someone you care about, that is something tangible that you can touch. That person can make all the pain and blood and suffering in the world worth enduring. In the end I destroyed the Wing Zero without a thought, knowing that its purpose had been fulfilled and for its companionship I was grateful, but no matter the risk there was always one person that I never gave up on, and who somehow never gave up on me."

"Duo," Jackson said, knowing without a doubt who Heero meant, but curious as to what he was trying to get at. "The difference between us Heero, is that I don't have any friends or someone like Duo in my life that I can turn to and use as a foundation for a new life. My family is gone, and my soul is drowning in the blood of the lives I've taken. I'm sorry but what you have done just doesn't compare to the blood I've waded through in my revenge or self-important missions."

"One of my first training missions in the colonies involved the bombing of an OZ military base. I infiltrated the base and set the charges before I blew it to hell. I watched it burn, and I watched as a Leo exploded and sent another mobile suit into an apartment building nearby. After the smoke cleared I saw that I had leveled most of a city block and killed countless innocent people, including the girl and her dog that I had seen only hours before. I killed them just as if I had wrapped my hands around her neck and squeezed. In a way that would have been better, better to take only one life instead of hundreds."

"All life has value, but I no longer consider myself alive," Jackson said, standing up, sword in hand. "I've given up all claim on my humanity, just as you would have if you hadn't changed Operation Meteor, or if you hadn't opposed Dekim Barton and Mariemaia, or if you hadn't let Duo in and given yourself a chance. I never had a chance, and it's much too late to worry about this any more. We have too much to do and I will need a clear head for tonight."

"Agreed, but I will say this," Heero conceded. "After the Mariemaia War I swore that I wouldn't kill again, but you know what changed my mind? Not that I love battle, or that I enjoy taking lives, but that because I recognized that at least for now there would still be occasions when there would arise an enemy that couldn't be defeated by words. I fight still, kill still when I have to, so that someone else doesn't have to learn how to fight and kill. It's the greatest gift I can give to everyone around me, and it's the best way to ensure that when the time is right, the future will be safe for me and..."

"Duo."

"Without Zero I can no longer see my future...but for every nightmare that invades my dreams with blood and horror I have a dream about where we are safe and happy and enjoying life as it should be enjoyed, as if our lives hadn't been stolen from us and been programmed only to kill."

Jackson had to admit that there was something to what Heero said, but he just didn't know if it would apply to him. They were two different warriors, each fighting for a different reason, but each wanting the same end result, peace without the clouds of war darkening the skies. But each time he thought about leaving his life of death behind, Jackson saw the faces of his victims flash before his eyes, no matter how tightly he closed his eyes against their dead staring eyes. Without even realizing it, he had squeezed his eyes shut against the faces, but opened them again when Heero placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You have at least one friend now," the youth told him, eyes locked with his own. "What else could I consider someone who would do this for someone he didn't know?"

With that Heero left and returned to his room, leaving Jackson in turmoil. Looking down at his sword, Jackson realized that he was gripping it so tightly that his knuckles had gone white. Letting out the breath he had been holding for some reason, Jackson sheathed the sword quickly and set it down, taking a step back from his tools of death and tried to imagine a time when he had been innocent and happy, looking forward to a future filled with promise. To his heart-rending dismay he realized that he couldn't see any farther into his past than the day his parents had been killed, everything before that being a haze he could not penetrate no matter how desperate he was. Collapsing on the couch Jackson looked down at his shaking hands and all he saw was blood dripping from them and wondered if there would ever be a way to get them clean again.

Duo woke again and groaned in agony from the treatment his captors had subjected him to. The bastards had gassed him with something, but it hadn't worked as well as they'd hoped, so when the two men had come for him Duo was ready. Obviously thinking their prey unconscious and blind in the darkness, they wore nightvision visors, but Duo was accustomed to fighting in space, picking out distant targets with little more than faint starlight to see by. He'd been on the first man before they'd realized he was awake, scything his legs out from under him before tackling him and snapping his neck with a quick twist from his hands. The other man was unarmed as was the dead one, obviously no one was taking a chance that Duo would get his hands on a weapon, but each of the Gundam pilots was a living weapon and even if he wasn't up to Heero's level, Duo was no slouch. The second man tried to make a break for the still open cell door, but Duo landed a devastating flying kick in the small of his back, driving him into the doorframe so hard that he was rendered unconscious. Noting the darkness beyond the door, Duo bent to retrieve the visor the guard wore but lights blazed on in his cell and the corridor, lights so bright that Duo thought he might never see again. Stumbling backwards in agony, he shielded his eyes as best he could but still took a punch to the gut that nearly doubled him over. Purely on instinct he managed to grab the foot coming in towards him and pulled, dropping a hand onto the guard's knee and snapping his leg upwards. With a terrible scream the man crumpled, and Duo found that he could make out faint shapes in the whiteness. A fist took him in the temple but he was too angry now, too lost in being Shinigami once again. He heard a pistol clear a holster and moved towards the guard too fast for the man to take a bead. Grabbing the guard's wrist and ducking under the outstretched arm and behind him, Duo broke his wrist and took the gun, shoving the man into another of his comrades. Turning the weapon on another guard Duo fired, but instead of the crack of a solid round weapon as he had hoped for, it released a surge of electrical energy and sent the man writhing in agony to the floor of the cell. Finally Duo's sight cleared even as half a dozen guards leveled their stunners at him and he felt himself lose all motor control even as his nervous system screamed in pain. After that it had been fifteen minutes of being beaten over and over, every possible part of his body bruised and battered, one eye swollen closed now, and the other perpetually bathed in the searing white light that now filled his cell every minute of every hour. Duo had no way of knowing that it had been only been thirteen hours since he had been kidnapped and barely nine hours since he had first regained consciousness in his cell. As he laid bleeding and gasping for breath through at least two broken ribs, he could only wonder what they were doing to Heero.

"I see you have decided to resist."

"You didn't actually expect me to just lie down and die, did you?" Duo rasped, laughing for emphasis. "I've piloted mobile suits in both wars, and I'm still here. If you think threatening my friend will get me to cooperate with whatever you're planning, think again. Heero would be the first person to tell you where to shove your threats, so don't waste your time. Actually I'm surprised he hasn't killed you yet. He must be just waiting for the right moment. Don't worry though, he'll get you when you least expect it and I'll be right there with him."

"You certainly don't lack confidence, but your bravado is wasted. You may have been a Gundam pilot once, the scourge of OZ and Romefeller, but now you're just a man. You will bend to my will, or I will break you."

"Janus, I'll tell you this just once, so listen closely, okay? I'm going to kill you, with or without Heero's help, and I'm going to enjoy sending you to hell cuz there's lots of guys I've sent down there in the past, and they'd love to make your acquaintance."

"Let's see if you can keep your humor through the trials ahead. Your screams will certainly entertain me."

Duo would have replied, but the cell door opened and a large group of men came in and roughly manhandled his battered body onto a stretcher and strapped him down. The straps bit sharply into his wrists, ankles and chest, but Duo was already in so much pain that he barely noticed. They took him through a maze of hallways before at last coming to a stop. Suddenly Duo found himself flying but his amazement was short-lived when he realized that the stretcher he had been strapped to had simply been lifted from the ground by a large armature that then held him in the center of the room at a nearly ninety-degree angle to the floor. All around him he could see surgical equipment and readouts, chemical equipment and at least half a dozen men in white lab coats and full face masks that hid their identities.

"Welcome to your new home for the next few days," Janus's voice informed him, as two of the men began cutting Duo's clothes away and attaching all manner of medical sensors to his body. "You can begin screaming any time now."

Even as he said it, Duo felt a pain of such monumental intensity burrow itself into his brain that he screamed louder than he could ever remember doing in his entire life, and did not stop until his throat was hoarse and the pain had receded to a merely mind-numbing intensity.

As the pain surged again, the last thing Duo heard before passing out was Janus's laughter echoing through the room and the blank faces of the doctors watching him.

Heero decided to wear his suit again though he couldn't figure out why. Rather than fixate on why he'd chosen those clothes to wear on what could easily be his last mission, Heero focused on what he would do and how he would act. And on Duo's face as it kept running through his mind. Duo smiling in the club, Duo with a look of mock indignation on his face from the hundred times Heero had slipped an insult into their conversation, just to enjoy his response. Duo looking at him as though he was the only thing his friend could see.

No, those thoughts would distract him with all that lay ahead, and Heero tried to banish them by furiously rubbing his temples and squeezing his eyes closed against his friend's visage.

Think only of weapons and death, on punishing those who took him, Heero thought desperately. Forget the na?e non-killing shit after the Mariemaia war, focus on the promise you made yourself with your heart, not your head. Fight and kill anyone who would try to return the world to its war-torn past for their own gain so that no one else will need to. New Horizon won't see another dawn.

With that declaration, Heero headed for the living room where Jackson was packing up his gear into his duffel and returning any extra equipment to his suitcase.

"I take it you will take all our gear back to the courier before we begin," Heero assumed, only then realizing that he had a case of weapons under his bed and that it would be dangerous to simply abandon it.

"It will only take me about an hour round trip," Jackson replied, zipping the duffel and locking the suitcase. "Its only 10:30 now, so there is plenty of time to drop this stuff off and still get back in time. I didn't think it would be a good idea to just leave these weapons lying around for the cleaning staff."

"Is there anything else I can do?" Heero asked, desperate for something to focus his attention on that didn't involve his lost friend.

"Download the data into the laptop and test out the little surprise I told you about earlier. Other than that, just be ready. I...I'm better now than I have been in a long time, but when the blood starts to spray, I become different. Just...be ready for that. Remember, be there five minutes before midnight, and don't forget to put the radtracer into your shoe."

Heero saw the last of the equipment that Jackson had left and watched as the other went and gathered Heero's suitcase before lugging all three and the duffel out the door and disappeared. Now all that was left was the waiting. God how Heero hated waiting having long ago decided that it was possibly the worst torture a warrior could endure. He sat on the couch and pulled the single briefcase that Jackson had left and opened it, then opened the laptop contained inside. There was no password so it took Heero only a few minutes to gain access to the Preventer satellite and start the download of the data. Watching the timer countdown occupied him for a few minutes until he blurted out an animal bellow in frustration and stood, pacing aimlessly around the room. That managed to kill another fifteen minutes during which the download completed and left Heero completely at loose ends. Shutting down the laptop, Heero tried out the surprise built into the briefcase and smiled a grim smile as it worked to perfection. At least he had a chance for revenge, no matter the outcome.

Unbidden Duo's face appeared in his mind again, forcing Heero to start reciting his role in the battle ahead out loud to try and drive away the smiling face. But no matter how hard he tried all Heero could do was wonder just what hell Duo was going through at that moment. If they had hurt Duo, he'd make them pay for it in blood, all their blood as he watched the light leave their eyes. No, he couldn't lose himself like that again either, as he had lost himself in drink only hours before. He wasn't a murderer any more, but anyone who stood in his way this night would die, of that Heero knew and welcomed it. Welcomed a means to vent the rage inside him, the sadness, the loneliness. All the other pilots had termed him the Perfect Soldier given his lack of outward emotions and single-minded drive, but they had all grown to know him better than that, and even though the term had stuck, they meant it now as a compliment for they saw in him the noblest qualities that a warrior could possess and still be a warrior. He may not be as outgoing and outwardly emotional as Duo, or even Quatre and Wufei, but he was also not the almost complete emotional blank that Trowa seemed to be. Beneath the fa?de he had constructed to let himself focus on battle, Heero felt his emotions churning as they desired to be free. They had gotten a taste of freedom in the NightSky only half a day earlier and again when he had started drinking to quiet his sense of loss, and now they wanted more than ever before but Heero could not let them loose again. If he did, he would make even Jackson blanch at the atrocities he would rain down upon New Horizon, here and throughout the solar system. Oh god no, Heero thought. Don't let me become like the monster I've always feared. Not when I've finally found peace and someone to share it with. Haven't I suffered enough, bled enough, killed enough?

He dropped onto the couch and cradled his head in his hands, trying to make peace with himself and not sure if he truly wanted to, and that was how Jackson found him when he returned.

"You ready?" Jackson asked, a greatcoat wrapped around him and cinched tight.

"Yes," Heero replied, standing and picking up the briefcase and realizing that he truly was. No matter what happened he was ready to do everything he could to save his friend. "Go first. I'll leave in three minutes."

Extending his free hand, Heero waited until Jackson took it before he spoke again.

"No matter what happens, thank you."

"Thank you, Heero. No matter what happens, I'm glad I came. The ghosts aren't quite as loud as they once were. Maybe tonight will quiet them forever."

With that cryptic remark, Jackson left, and Heero went back to waiting. Deciding to hell with it he headed for the elevator and took it down to the lobby before marching confidently out the hotel's front doors. He almost hoped New Horizon had people watching him, almost hoped they could sense his emotions at that moment. They would have run for the hills. The streets were nearly empty now so it was a simple matter to gauge his walking speed so as to arrive at the proper time, and he did so barely fifteen seconds early. The doors to the building opened as he approached, six armed men visible inside, weapons held ready but not aimed. They waited for the doors to close and electronically lock behind Heero before one of them slung his weapon and produced a scanner and started running it over Heero, obviously looking for any hidden weapons or communications devices or other surprises the spy might had prepared for them. The guard also scanned the briefcase thoroughly but seemed satisfied and soon they were escorting Heero to the elevator and sent him up alone, obviously remaining at ground level to prevent any escape attempt. When the elevator came to a stop and the door opened, Heero found himself facing another six armed men and was herded into the elevator to the New Horizon offices and sent up three levels to the mainframe floor. Four guards met him there and moved to circle him and marched him around the central area to the rear of the floor, armed men at every office. Finally they stopped at a door leading to what was labeled a janitorial closet, but after it opened Heero realized that it was a large office luxuriously appointed, obviously the place from which the terrorist cell was led from. A man in a well-tailored suit sat behind the expansive wood desk and watched with his hands clasped on the desk as Heero was ushered in and then the door closed behind him, two large guards standing only a foot behind him to provide security.

"Heero Yuy, I presume," the man said, not moving as he spoke. "Your reputation is somewhat of a legend, especially to those who will soon become your enemies."

"My reputation has nothing to do with this," Heero replied, not moving but his eyes were locked onto the man behind the desk. "I have your data and you have a Preventer agent. We will trade as your demand said and part ways, all bets off for our next meeting."

"The bets are off now," the man laughed. "Did you think that you could just walk in here and get your friend back so easily? You killed a number of our men and stole top-secret information of our group, and you think that we would be so generous to return your friend without seeking any reprisals? I must admit, I'm rather disappointed in you Mr. Yuy."

"I don't care if you're disappointed in me or not," Heero snapped, his calm veneer fading fast. "Either return Duo to me now or I destroy your data and you lose all that you have been working for."

"Finally, some signs of life. Bring the laptop to me so that I can verify the information and so that I can check certain subroutines embedded in the code to determine if you have made additional copies of it."

With the guards close behind, Heero moved slowly but unerringly to the desk and set the briefcase atop it, imputing the code and popping the catches. It took only a few seconds to bring the laptop out of standby and to spin it around so that the man could see the data scrolling down and fading in and out on the screen. After several minutes of watching, the man smiled and nodded.

"Excellent. It appears that you have abided by our demands. Unfortunately your friend will not be returned to you until we are fully satisfied that the data is whole and uncorrupted and that Preventer has not received any copies."

"That wasn't the deal. You have what you want now return Duo or suffer the consequences."

Another smirk cross the man's face and Heero truly accepted that they had never intended to return Duo alive.

"Take him somewhere and shoot him," the man ordered. "Make sure to dump the body somewhere Preventer can't find it until we're away from here."

Even as the guards closed in on Heero the lights all went out and he knew that the time had come. Having never let go of the briefcase, Heero entered the secret code into the left locking mechanism and a knife shot out from the lid, the same knife that the kidnappers had left behind. Heero grabbed the hilt and spun, slashing both guards across the throat in a single lightning-fast motion, feeling in the dark as their arterial blood sprayed over his face and hands, heard them collapse gurgling to the ground. Emergency lights came on a few seconds later and the man had risen from behind his desk, gun in hand but found himself aiming at nothing. Even before he could try to flee, having seen his dead guards lying in a widening pool of their blood, a blade slipped around his throat and tightened, drawing a rivulet of blood.

"Drop the weapon," Heero breathed, his voice low and dangerous, his hand tensing and desiring to drag the blade through the man's flesh.

The gun clattered to the ground.

"I won't tell you anything," the man said, confident that his other guards would be coming for him in seconds. "You kill me and you're dead, and I promise it won't be quick. Let me go, and I'll make sure you meet a swift end."

"Where is Duo?" Heero asked, ignoring the man's suggestion. "Is he in this building or another of your bases?"

"I hope you were a better mobile suit pilot than you are at threatening people," the man continued conversationally. "Even if you kill me and escape here, we will find you. You have no idea how far our reach is. We aren't like the Barton Foundation or Romefeller. We're shadows and you can't kill shadows. We will always be there when the light fades."

The man smiled as he felt the knife being withdrawn from his throat, thinking he had won, but Heero had simply decided that a quick death for him was too generous. All the man could do was let out a strangled wheeze as the knife slid through his back and into his right lung before Heero twisted it sharply and let the man collapse, passed out from the shock. Not even bothering to stop and pick up the dropped gun, Heero left the man gasping to death behind him only to have a shadow appear before him.

"Heero."

"Did you find Duo?" Heero asked, taking the assault rifle and a belt of spare magazines that Jackson offered him.

There was a pause that told Heero all that he needed.

"He's not anywhere in the building."

Jackson nodded, confirming what Heero had feared for all along, but that didn't do anything to soften the blow.

A metallic click behind Heero had him spinning around, assault rifle bucking terribly as the huge rounds caught the man as he tried to aim his pistol. The hypersonic rounds lifted the man up and exploded him through the window behind him before shredding him into indistinct chunks that rained down on the street below. Normally Heero might have felt some remorse at having obliterated someone in such a manner, but there was no room for remorse now.

"We should go," Jackson said, turning and leading the way with his silenced pistols, though the element of surprise was clearly lost.

Heero hefted the rifle and realized that he was glad that they would be facing a prepared enemy at last. It would be all the more satisfying to kill them all.

Not fifteen minutes earlier Jackson was sitting atop his chosen building, unpacking his equipment. Already his suit was gone and only his stealth armor remained, and he was slotting his various knives and guns into the sheaths and holsters built into the armor. His katana's were over his shoulders, the huge-bore assault rifle slung between then with a belt of magazines for it around his stomach above another belt of clips for his pistols and compartments holding other tools of his trade. It took only a few minutes for the duffel bag to hold only the discarded suit, leaving Jackson moving swiftly to the roof edge, slipping the nightmag visor over his head and activating both it and the jammer built into it, turning the darkness into daylight. Staying low at the edge of the building, Jackson could see the guards patrolling the roof of the New Horizons building amidst the ventilation stacks and air-conditioner intakes. The nightmag visor he wore let Jackson see as though it was broad daylight and he could easily see the four men patrolling the rooftop, what looked like silenced rifles in their hands. Frowning, Jackson looked for any sign that they knew the specifics of his plan, but the almost random way they were moving made him confident that they were merely doing what they had done every night since even before the Preventer infiltration. Clad completely in his stealth armor and loaded down with his weapons, Jackson readied the grapple launcher, its laser targeting equipment linked to his visor for perfect aiming. He triggered the anchoring grapple and it buried itself in the concrete stairwell access several meters behind him, and aimed the other grapple at the two-storey shorter building across the way. He waited until the guards were as far as possible from his travel path and fired, waiting the few seconds until the grapple struck the other stairwell enclosure and bit deep, the monofilament cable retracting tightly to prevent sagging. Before the guards would start to circle back, Jackson leapt off the edge of the roof, holding tightly to the grapple launcher and slid silently towards his destination. It was a long ride as it crossed the six-lane street below, but the angle made the trip last only seconds. Thinking he was clear, Jackson let himself take a calming breath to stem the rising flow of adrenaline rushing through his system, only to watch as one of the guards started back towards where his grapple was anchored sooner than he had anticipated. Reaching back over his right shoulder to the hilt of the sword there, Jackson waited until he was certain of the timing before he pulled the sword free of its scabbard. His momentum and the strength of his swing took the guard's head clean from his neck in a gout of blood before the body collapsed to the rooftop. Absorbing the impact on the stairwell enclosure with his legs, Jackson dropped silently to the roof, alert to any attention his dispatching of the guard might have drawn. His visor told him that the other guards were still patrolling, and out of eyesight of each other as well in the gloom. Poor training, or else laxity in their routines, but either way Jackson would exploit it to his best advantage. Choosing the farthest target, a guard well out of sight of the others and standing with his back to the killer in their midst, Jackson moved. His rubber shoes kept him silent as he made his way across the roof, leaping over or ducking under anything in his way. The guard still had no idea he was dead until he felt a hand on his shoulder and then it was too late. Before the man could turn, or even react, Jackson had leveled his sword at the guard's neck and slipped it through his 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae with a powerful horizontal thrust. Angling the blade so that the guard slid soundlessly from it to the rooftop, Jackson moved to the next and found the guard turning towards him. A single strike removed the man's hands and the weapon he held, and another took his throat out before he could scream, a wet noise emerging from his mouth as he fell down and died. There was a scuffing noise to the left and Jackson let fly with a throwing knife that caught the last guard in the chest and knocked him to the ground, weapon lying out of reach of his spasming fingers. Finishing him quickly as a small mercy, Jackson moved to the access door and waited. Checking his watch for a moment and seeing it change over to midnight; Jackson pulled the remote detonator from a pouch on his belt, flipped up the thumb-cover and depressed the button hidden underneath it. The charges that he had placed on the power conduits hours before exploded, severing the conduits and plunging the entire city block into total darkness, and in that darkness Jackson easily pried open the now powerless security door and entered New Horizons. Thankful that his visor made it seem as though the lights were still functioning, but as the corridors were so narrow Jackson quickly wiped and sheathed his sword before drawing a pair of silenced 10mms. Activating a small control on the side of the visor, Jackson loaded up a small scanner suite built into the visor that was clearly showing Heero's position within the building, as well as the fact that there were no other augmented lifesigns anywhere within the scanner's range. Knowing that the elevator was the only way between levels, the assassin slipped down the darkened corridors, waiting for the emergency lights to come on and spoil his advantage. Several guards were milling about in confusion, trying to communicate with the rest of their forces but the jammer in the visor was keeping the separated, and Jackson gunned them down easily. Time was of the essence so he moved quickly, snapping off killing shots whenever he needed to, before coming to the elevator doors. It would undoubtedly be locked down on the third level where Heero was, so Jackson jammed one of his blades into the tiny gap between the doors and forced them open before wedging himself in and opening them enough to see the car down below him. With a single cable running down that connected the elevator to its power source, there weren't a lot of options for a quick descent. Leaning out and grasping the cable, Jackson let himself slide down and dropped through the emergency hatch. The elevator was dark and empty, but it took only a few moments to pry the doors open and emerge out into the offices again. At last the emergency lights came on and Jackson was no longer an invisible shadow in the darkness. Several guards next to the elevator saw him and tried to draw a bead but were shot down mercilessly as Jackson headed as quickly as he could for Heero's signal, knowing that save for the hidden knife that his friend was unarmed and at the mercy of the terrorists. But even with the best intentions it seemed that every office held another guard, all of them firing now having seen him and forcing Jackson to abandon half-measures and go deep into the person he loathed. Diving and rolling, he squeezed the triggers until three more men were dead, then ducked into a small coffee room and ejected the spent mags, loading the fresh ones with practiced ease. Holstering the weapons, he used a small fiber optic camera to peer around the corner and locate the guards waiting for him, automatic weapons raised and ready. Fixing their positions firmly in his mind, Jackson drew more knives and darted across the hallway into an office, hands snapping out and launching the weapons with deadly accuracy, felling all four men even as they tried in vain to target him. Widening his lifesigns detection threshold, Jackson could make out the faint signals of the guards as they rushed towards where their fellows had just fallen, and so he circled around behind them and slipped his swords free. The corridors were narrow so it required some unorthodox maneuvers to ensure the blades didn't get stuck in anything, but Jackson was a professional and a perfectionist. He carved up the last three guards that were between himself and Heero, running the first through even as he spun and slashed down at another and took him from shoulder to hip, then disemboweled the last, leaving him in agony on the floor as he tried to keep his entrails in. Heero's signal was still strong but it was moving now, so Jackson made haste to a door that was labeled for janitorial supplies, obviously a false name plate to hide the office behind it. The signal approached the door and Jackson waited until Heero opened it.

He had given the assault rifle to Heero, who then promptly demolished a man in a very nice suit, who seemed to be having trouble breathing, made worse when he was blown apart and shot out a window. Heero seemed intent on taking the lead, and Jackson was willing to let him, as his friend seemed to have something to prove, or perhaps something to vent. With the assault rifle thundering and cutting down everything in its path with high-caliber armor piercing rounds, Jackson found himself gratefully useless, the blood of twenty-two more people stained his hands but this time the ghosts of his past did not rear their heads. Perhaps, for the first time, he was fighting and killing for the right reasons. Dismissing such idle speculation, Jackson ripped a blade through a guard who had popped out from an office after Heero had already blazed his way past. Shell casings littered the floor and Jackson had to watch his step lest he slip on them, a dangerous proposition when holding swords. A spent magazine clattered to the ground, the second one Heero had expended and the offices could testify to the intensity of his fire, as could the half-dozen mutilated bodies that were intermingled with the spent shells.

"Elevator," Jackson said, opening the doors and waiting for Heero to enter before letting them close again.

Heero pushed the rifle up through the emergency hatch and then jumped up and pulled himself through, Jackson doing the same. Using the maintenance ladder rather than pulling themselves up the cable, the two continued their battle towards the roof where Jackson's escape route waited for them. Though he had mostly cleared the fifth level on his way down, Jackson found himself gun in hand once more as the survivors had somehow guessed that any escape would be made from the roof. A desk had been hauled out and tipped over on its side and three guards were clustered behind it, pinning Heero and Jackson in the elevator shaft. Holding the door open by jamming a knife in the track, Jackson bellowed to Heero.

"Shoot through the desk!"

Heero didn't respond, but shifted his aim from trying to pick off the guards themselves to simply firing his devastating rounds right through their meager protection. Jackson watched as the desk disintegrated beneath Heero's unrelenting salvo and even as it was reduced to wood chips the men behind it were already dead, fist-sized holes punched clean through them. Heero led the way again, reloading his weapon almost by instinct as he hardly seemed to be affected by anything that was going on around him. Concerned about where Heero was going, Jackson got close and whispered in his ear, weapons ready in case more guards arrived.

"Heero, don't give in now," he told the youth before him. "We'll get him back, but if you lose yourself now, you'll hate yourself forever."

"I'm going to kill them all," Heero replied, turning and Jackson saw in his eyes exactly what he had seen not all that long ago in his own, the look of complete lack of concern for his own life in the face of his revenge.

"You think you're ready for this?" Jackson hissed, angry at Heero for giving in when Duo could easily still be alive and a prisoner. "Fine, I'll show you what it means to be a true killer."

Tearing his visor clear and holstering his guns, Jackson drew a pair of long knives and moved ahead, the poor emergency lighting making him seem otherworldly as he approached two guards coming down the corridor to check on their comrades. Bolting forward at nearly inhuman speed, Jackson veered right to throw off their aim, then dodged left, leaping up and kicking off the wall to change his trajectory. He tackled one of the guards and buried both knives in his chest, then pulled them out, turned and stabbed upward in a single motion. The blades caught the guard in the stomach and with his legs working like pistons Jackson lifted the guard up as he rose, slamming him into the wall and pinning him there ever so momentarily with the tips of the knives protruding from his back. Already unconscious and dying, the guard didn't notice when Jackson drove a third knife with all his strength through the man's heart. Half turning and bending over backwards to land with his left hand, Jackson triggered the spring-loaded blade under his right forearm and it took the last guard clean through the throat. Even as he staggered gasping through his blood filled throat, the guard was still alive long enough to realize that Jackson had placed both swords across his throat and simply took his head and hands clean of with a quick scissor move. Blood covered the floor and sprayed up the walls, dripped from the katana blades and ran down Jackson's face and armor, even as he breathed as though he had run a marathon. Turning slowly to face Heero, Jackson showed him the horror that he had only been moments from reveling in.

"Decide now if you are so ready for this," Jackson growled. "More will come. But if you would rather keep your soul so that your friend can be rescued by the one he cares for instead of a monster like me, then follow me."

Flicking his blades angrily to remove as much blood as possible and then sheathing them, Jackson led the way up onto the roof and knew that Heero was following from the sounds of sticky footsteps through the blood. Out in the night air Jackson let the killing rage drain from him, and he closed his eyes and took a deep cleansing breath.

"Where do we go now?" Heero asked, ejecting a mostly spent clip and slapping another home, racking the slide.

"Right over here."

Jackson grabbed the grapple launcher and hit the power retract button, and gestured for Heero to move closer.

"I'd suggest holding on tightly," Jackson advised, as they walked to the edge of the roof, the launcher high over his head with the safety loop secure around his wrist. "It's a long way down."

For a moment Heero seemed to grin, and Jackson could imagine why; nothing like a few hundred foot drop, for the second time, to clear your head. Heero slung the rifle within easy reach and wrapped his arms and legs tightly around Jackson, who then took them out over the city street below and when they were clear, hit the rapid descent control. It was nearly as breathtaking as freefall, and Jackson couldn't help but grin. With fortune on their side at last, they made the descent without further blood shed and managed to get to the car that Jackson had prepared even as the sirens started to get closer. With Jackson driving they made it to the airport in good time and were aboard the courier back to Brussels less than an hour after the deal had gone sour. Though Jackson was still optimistic about their chances of recovering Duo, he could tell from the dejected way that Heero sat in his seat that he was already imagining his friend lost. For once, Jackson didn't know what to do so they made the return trip in silence, each wondering in their own way as to the fate of Duo Maxwell.

Duo tried to move and found himself once more unable to, for it seemed like his entire nervous system had been fried. He didn't know how long they'd kept him strapped to the examination table as they performed whatever illegal and immoral experiments on his battered body, which still seemed to be healing despite the agonizing pain that still raced through him.

In such a state he was obviously no threat, and so the lights in his cell had been reduced to a normal level so at least when Duo found himself prone on the floor and staring up at the ceiling it wasn't like staring into the sun. For the first time he saw the small toilet in a far corner; at least they didn't plan for him to make a mess of his nice clean cell. Clean now after the bodies and wounded had been removed from the earlier fight. Duo managed to clench a fist as he remembered how good it had felt to fight back, to kill an honest enemy again.

"Feeling better yet?"

"Come in here so I can strangle you and I'll be great," Duo replied, imagining how Janus would just laugh at the threat, given that he could see how helpless Duo was. "Or just kill yourself, whatever is easier for you."

"Good, your strength is returning if you are able to joke once more. You weren't capable of that when we were testing you. But the screams, oh the screams, you brought a smile to my face."

"Well I'm so glad for that. After I remove your arms and legs and you're screaming as you bleed to death, I'll probably be smiling too."

"Excellent."

"What the hell are you talking about now?"

"Oh, you shall find out soon enough Duo Maxwell. You are more important to us than you can know."

"If you think that torturing me will get me to tell you what you want, you've got another thing coming pal," Duo bit back. "I've been tortured and beaten by the best. You guys are just amateurs playing at a game you can't understand let alone win."

"You truly don't understand what is going on here," Janus laughed. "Torture? Well I guess that it would seem like that from your perspective, but you are so far off the mark. You were a weapon once, and we will make you an even greater one now. It's time for your next session."

Duo tried frantically to move but couldn't and the cell door opened and the stretcher came for him once again.

As they took him back to the room of his torment once again, Duo railed against them with all the fury he could muster, all the while wondering where Heero truly was and why he hadn't come to save him.

Heero sat in his home and nursed his drink, unable to determine what his next step should be. He'd only been home for three days, but already he found it an empty place that just didn't seem like the home he remembered. It was still organized and clean in an overly compulsive way, something that Duo had teased him mercilessly about, but there was none of the energy that had been there whenever Duo had invited himself over, and that had been often. Taking a drink, Heero tried to steer his mind towards more practical things, like how he would locate New Horizon and force them to reveal Duo's location, or his fate, to him. Jackson had already returned to Preventer and would be speaking privately to Lady Une to present a report on what had happened, but Heero didn't really care about that right now. The most important thing they needed to tell Une was that Preventer had been infiltrated by New Horizon and that she needed to begin an investigation. Heero knew that it would take too long to make a difference to his plans to find Duo, but at the same time it might just bear fruit and give him a way to direct his rage and frustration. Draining his glass Heero turned on the stereo and the last music disc that Duo had left in the player blared to life and set Heero to reminiscing once more and this time he did nothing to stop it. As the music thumped he could practically see his friend before him, lost in the beat and more often than not lost in the vodka as well, but always smiling and eyes that lit up whenever the music started to play. Actually, they seemed to light up whenever Heero entered a room or came over unexpectedly. Leaning back on his couch and letting his head loll back and stare at the ceiling, Heero tried not to believe how stupid and blind he'd been. All the signs had been there but he had been too afraid, something he never would have considered a possibility in the past where every battle could have been his last, but with the ESUN in charge and disarmament well underway, there had been no excuse for letting something so important slip away. And now look at where he was, alone again after one evening of feeling the most human, the happiest, he'd ever felt in his entire miserable life. If he had only done what he should have done two years previously, he could have enjoyed what he had enjoyed only a day before, and closing his eyes Heero could only imagine where that would have led him and Duo. A relationship? Something more? One thing he was certain of, he would have left Preventer and taken Duo with him; it was just too much like their old lives and too much risk when there were others now to take up the torch and defend the cause. With his computer skills Heero saw himself doing freelance security and network jobs for companies, or even just seeing if Quatre needed anyone at Winner Enterprises. Duo, well that was a more difficult future to see with the erratic youth prone to starting but not finishing things, but music and dance were passions he had never relinquished. He also wasn't too bad with a computer; perhaps the two of them could get a business started, throw their famous names out there and see if people still remembered those people who had fought for peace. Heero didn't know how long he had sat there letting his mind run away with him, but when his cellphone rang it startled him, causing him to crush the glass in his hand and giving himself several small cuts in the process.

"Damn it," Heero muttered, fishing out his phone even as he moved to the kitchen to dispose of the broken glass. "Hello?"

"Agent Wing, Agent Steel. Scramble channel."

Heero hit a few keys on the phone and activated the pre-arranged encryption he and Jackson had decided upon, reluctant to use Preventer codes any more.

"Scrambled," Heero said, dropping the glass into the garbage and pulling a few slivers of glass from his hand. "What did Une say?"

"In regards to the mission she was surprised when I told her that it had failed, and given your reputation I'm not surprised as to why, but when I explained the situation she seemed far more concerned and angry. The idea that someone could infiltrate Preventer so deeply as to compromise the top-secret missions you are normally assigned has her more worried than she wants to admit."

Heero could well imagine the consternation that Lady Une would be experiencing given that Preventer was her mandate from the ESUN and Vice Foreign Minister Darlian, and she was ultimately responsible for everything done under is auspices. Now the real questions were just how badly was Preventer compromised and how many spies were in their midst.

"Did you tell her that we managed to copy the data after all?" Heero asked, concerned that his trump card was now revealed but knowing that Jackson would keep the secret.

"No, she doesn't need to know given that they would want to take it from us, and we can't afford it to get tied up in bureaucratic red tape or share it with anyone. Have you gone through it yet?"

Heero wanted to lie, just to assure Jackson that he wasn't completely useless without his partner, but every time he tried to go over the data he just lost himself in his misery and couldn't focus.

"No, I haven't," Heero admitted, getting the first aid kit out from under the sink and spraying disinfectant over his wounded hand.

"Stop worrying and get to it. We need to know if there is anything we can use. I'll call again if my contacts turn up anything, or if anything happens at Preventer."

"I'll start on the data and likewise call if anything points to someone or someplace."

Hanging up, Heero got a new glass and emptied what was left of his last bottle of vodka into it, then debated simply throwing it all out. It was barely noon and he was already drinking, but for the moment it helped keep the worst of the emotional turmoil from overwhelming him. Knowing that he would have to deal with it at some point, Heero took another belt and headed for the living room, dialing down the volume on the stereo and bringing the laptop out of standby. Calling up the data he had stolen from New Horizon, Heero started to read through the endless pages of text but found nothing but scientific research for something called Project Janus, some sort of process to implant hypnotic suggestions in an agent so that he could operate in the midst of the most secure places and under intense scrutiny and only reveal his true nature when a certain trigger activated the hidden commands. It was hardly new research from Heero's own experience, but there did seem to be several advancements and breakthroughs mentioned, though the data was so convoluted that Heero couldn't make heads or tails out of it. There were no names or dates or places mentioned or even hinted at in the hundreds of pages of results and bland reports of test failures or needs for additional resources. What the data did reveal was that New Horizon was a much larger and more well-funded organization than Heero would have imagined. Though if they had infiltrated Preventer, they would have had to be both, for the security measures faced every day, and the checks and interviews before being brought into the ranks of agents was extremely thorough. His glass empty again, Heero checked the time and saw that it was nearly 3pm and his stomach was telling him that he needed more than just vodka to keep himself going. Making a call to a vegetarian restaurant for a delivery order given he was in no mood to cook, Heero decided to check his mail and saw that he had finally received a message from Quatre in response to his own message from several days earlier.

Heero,

I'm glad to hear that things are progressing well for Relena and ESUN, and that you and Duo are still fighting the good fight. Don't worry, it won't be much longer that any fighting will need to take place at all.

Things in the colonies are going well with the disarmament of Earth. Rebuilding and creating a more independent colony government is proceeding well, and hopefully within another year, maybe less, we'll be able to open negotiations for an alliance with ESUN on more equal footing.

WEI is doing well again, though my sisters have been doing much of the work, knowing that I'm not exactly at my best yet, even after so much time. Trowa stops by whenever he can and the circus and Catherine seem to be doing well. Wufei I seldom hear from as he always seems to be undercover for Preventer, but his last message stated that everything was satisfactory and that he was holding true to his integrity. Sometimes he hurts my head.

Anyway Heero, stay in touch more and tell Duo that I miss both of you and hopefully we can all get together sometime soon.

Quatre

Heero heaved a breath and felt ashamed for having kept Duo's situation secret from their closest friends, but with Duo's life in the balance Heero hadn't been willing to risk sending out messages that could be intercepted and compromise his attempt to track the terrorists. Setting up a complex internet search to locate any mentions of New Horizon or Project Janus, Heero decided that he could trust Quatre to remember his war training and properly decode a heavily encrypted message. In as orderly a manner as possible Heero laid out just what had happened, completely leaving out the personal interchange between himself and Duo, and keeping Jackson's involvement to a minimum to hide his true involvement. In the end he apologized for keeping such a secret but that he didn't know if he could trust the channels of communication, and asked that if Quatre or any of the others heard anything that they let him know immediately.

The message sent, Heero started working through the search results with a fanatical focus, barely hearing thirty minutes later when there was a knock at the door. The alcohol did nothing to slow Heero's reaction time and he had a silenced 10mm in hand procured from under a pillow before the echo from the knock had completely faded away. Flicking the safety off, Heero approached the door with his finger on the trigger and used the built-in monitor next to the door to use the security cameras outside to determine that it was just the delivery man. Still loathe to take chances, Heero switched the gun to his left hand and opened the door with his right, using the doorframe to keep the weapon hidden.

"Good afternoon, sir," the young man said, smiling. "I have your order here. That comes to 19.78 all together."

Making as if to check himself for cash, Heero deftly tucked the weapon into the back of his pants and handed the man twenty five as he took the food, returning the wide grin at the huge tip with a small smile, partly not to be suspicious or creepy, and partly because it felt good to make someone smile, even if it wasn't Duo.

With his food now Heero really dove into his work, and the hours fled as he finished the entire order though he had ordered enough for several days so that he wouldn't have to go out for groceries, but Heero just hadn't realized how hungry he was. The stress and anxiety had taken their toll on him, and since he had no Duo with which to cook a gourmet meal, he took the next best thing. The sun had completely set by then and even though he had searched through hundreds of websites and gone through thousands of individual articles and message boards, none of it mentioned New Horizon or Project Janus in anything other than partial words or random phrases referring to something else entirely. Frustrated Heero cranked up the music again, and then noticed that his e-mail was indicating that he had a message.

Blinking in surprise that Quatre had managed to get back to him so soon, Heero opened it.

Heero,

I have ordered all of my hackers to begin a net wide search for anything to do with this New Horizon and I have already sent out my agents and spoke with my contacts throughout the colonies. If these bastards have any connections out here we'll find them that I promise you.

I sent word to Trowa and he has asked me to relay to you his willingness to help. Say the word and he can be on Earth or wherever you need him in a matter of hours and the same goes for me. We may be separated by a few million kilometers but we aren't about to let this go, not without a fight. I have not heard from Wufei, but I don't expect to any more than usual, given his duties.

I don't know who this Jackson Steele is that is helping you, but if you trust him then I trust him, and give him my regards. We'll find Duo, and we'll punish everyone involved in his kidnapping. No Preventer, no ESUN, just us, Gundam pilots unleashed. Stay strong and I'll be in touch.

Quatre

The message was far more than anything Heero could have asked for, and indeed he hadn't asked for so great an effort on the part of his old comrades, but it seemed that they considered an assault on one of their own to be an assault against themselves. Heero wondered what he would have done if it had been Trowa, Quatre, or even Wufei who had been taken, and all he could see was himself and Duo storming an enemy base, weapons blazing. Yes, he may have to keep secrets from his fellow ex-pilots, save Duo, but they were truly the only friends, the only family, he had ever had and could remember and he would fight to protect that family. Sending a brief note to thank Quatre for his help, Heero decided that he should check out Duo's house to see if anything looked untoward, perhaps indicating an enemy doing recon on a target. Throwing a jacket on to hide his gun, Heero secured his home and went next door, letting himself in without incident and beginning his search. The security system logs showed no alarms or attempts to circumvent the system, and the last time the system had been activated had been when he and Duo had left for their mission. Everything in Duo's home, albeit messy, was where it was expected to be, namely on the floor or in a corner. Absently as he swept the place, Heero started to tidy up. He re-shelved books and music discs, put dishes in the dishwasher, and picked up who knew how many sets of clothes and dumped them into the laundry room in a heap to be sorted out later. The main floor done, Heero headed upstairs and couldn't believe that Duo could stand to live in such a travesty. It didn't take him long to put things right, but it did take him nearly an hour to clean and unclog both the toilet and shower in Duo's ensuite.

"Baka," Heero growled, as he dug out a gigantic clog of hair from the shower drain and threw it away.

There was absolutely no reason for Heero's actions at attempting to beautify the toxic waste dump that was Duo's home, but as he worked and cleaned and straightened up, Heero felt some of the gut-clenching terror he'd been fighting back with alcohol and that had crept up on him again abate, as he focused on giving Duo a surprise when he came home. A clean home; yes that would be a surprise for the braided youth, Heero decided. When everything was attended to, Heero returned home and spent another three hours fruitlessly searching through web page after article after vague reference and to his disgust came up with nothing. Finally he initiated a remote access link to the Preventer network and hacked his way into the classified surveillance and financial tracking department databases and started a search there as well as throughout the entire network. As it ran, Heero quickly popped back to Duo's and grabbed the three bottles of vodka he could find from his friend's freezer and brought them home, cracking open one and refilling his glass, enjoying the icy feel of the glass and the burning in his stomach. The search still had nothing on Project Janus and on that count Heero wasn't surprised, but there were a few interesting financial connections between the Hew Horizons investment firm and a number of medical research and development facilities both on Earth and the colonies. At first it looked as though everything was above board and legal, and though Heero was hardly a law or financial expert, he could see that some of those connections seemed to run a bit deeper. New Horizons would invest heavily and then suddenly the R&D facility would announce a new breakthrough of some sort and their stock would rise and New Horizons would rake in a huge profit. It was no wonder they were so well funded, Heero decided. If you could so expertly manipulate the system, you could make untold riches, something that Heero knew he could do if he so wanted to but his morals and Duo's unhappy face had always been enough to stem such thoughts. One particular facility in the L4 colony cluster, on colony VC-454, seemed to have made several such breakthroughs that had generated such huge profits, and yet Heero couldn't see any sign that the medical products described had ever reached the market.

"Perhaps Quatre will know more about them," Heero muttered, sending another message and asking Quatre to look deeper into Rising Sun Medical Research.

Finding the gun still digging into his back, Heero set it aside and finished his drink, noting that it was nearly midnight and that he was exhausted from the last few days of hectic planning and plans gone wrong.

Making sure everything was saved, secured and locked, Heero quickly found himself laying on his back in bed and no matter what he did he could not sleep, barely even could he close his eyes for more than fifteen minutes at a time. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, he was so bone weary as to be utterly ridiculous, but something just wouldn't let him go quietly. Then as if a lightning bolt had struck, Heero knew what he wanted, what he needed, and somehow managed to make his way to Duo's home before collapsing onto his friend's bed and as he clutched a pillow tight against him and breathed in the scent of Duo's favorite shampoo Heero felt himself slip into a deep sleep.

Duo lay curled up in a corner of his cell, trying to block his eyes from the light and somehow get some sleep. His most recent session in the torture chamber as he thought of it had lasted for hours and every nerve ending was ablaze with fiery pain, but Duo found himself finally able to block some of it from his mind and no longer was he paralyzed. The meager food that had been provided was barely enough to give him enough energy to think, and that was something Duo knew was hardly an accident. A weak and sleep-deprived prisoner was easier to manipulate and control than a rested and vital one. At least this time they weren't pumping the atmosphere out of the cell as had happened to him during a previous incarceration.

Somehow finding a position in which his body was able to relax and that kept the worst of the light from lighting up his closed eyelids, Duo finally fell asleep as his body decided that it had had enough. His last thought before he essentially went unconscious was of Heero and hoping that he was being spared this misery.

Heero woke before dawn and at first found himself completely disoriented as to where he was, but as his vision cleared he remembered and felt embarrassed at his emotional fragility. The scent of Duo in the sheets and pillows however soon resumed their hold over him and he no longer cared about why he was sleeping in his friend's bed merely that it felt better than he could remember any previous night's sleep he'd ever had. Rising and returning home, Heero started the coffee maker and pulled his cellphone from his pocket and called Jackson.

"Agent Wing?"

"Scramble channel."

There was a beep as Jackson did so, and then came back on the line.

"I know where we should look first," Heero said. "How long until you can be ready to leave with the documents we need to go to colony VC-454 with as little notice as possible?"

"Two hours," Jackson replied, almost no hesitation in his voice. "We can commandeer a diplomatic shuttle and with high-level diplomatic passports we can be through security in minutes and our cases won't be scanned."

"Perfect. Pick me up at my place and I'll be ready."

"See you in two hours."

The line went dead and Heero looked out as the sun just started to crest the horizon, and smiled. Today he would take the first step to finding his friend and bringing New Horizon to justice. Whether it was legal justice or vigilante justice would depend entirely on what state he found Duo, and part of Heero almost wanted the terrorists to give him a reason to hunt them all down. The scent of Duo's shampoo was still in Heero's mind and he smiled and any desire for revenge was gone. All that he cared about was getting his friend back, alive and well.

"Duo," Heero whispered, and watched the sun rise.

The guards at the spaceport snapped to attention when Heero flashed his diplomatic identification, falsified of course and provided by Jackson when it became clear that they would need to travel to VC-454 quickly and with as little paperwork as possible. Any leak of information that got back to Rising Sun Research could give them enough time to destroy critical intelligence that Heero needed to track down New Horizon. The similarity of the two names, Rising Sun and New Horizon, were not lost on Heero and indeed had him suspecting far greater ties between the two groups than he had initially thought. Jackson was already through, watching as their 'diplomatic papers' were loaded onto the intrasystem diplomatic courier shuttle that they had, borrowed, from ESUN's fleet with even more falsified papers. Heero didn't like deceiving people that he supported and considered his allies, but he would take no chances with Duo's life. There was no telling how deeply New Horizon had infiltrated Preventer or if they had also penetrated ESUN. After he met up with Jackson they took the stairs into the nicely appointed cabin and strapped themselves in at the rear of the ship, the better to converse and plan without being overheard though Heero had brought a low-level sonic dampener just in case, something that wouldn't interfere with the shuttle's systems.

"Everything looks like its ready," Jackson told him, as they swiveled their chairs to face each other. "We should be at VC-454 in four hours and I have a car that will be waiting there for us. Rising Sun is near the largest hospital in the city center so we'll have to be discrete or else we'll have the police all over us before we can blink."

"We'll do what we have to," Heero corrected him, but understanding where his friend was coming from. "I will try to contain myself, but if I find that they were in any way responsible for Duo's abduction, I'll come down on them like the wrath of whatever god they worship."

"Just try to control those warrior tendencies," Jackson grinned, knowing that he was hardly one to talk. "We'll get to Rising Sun and find the highest-up person we can and flash our Preventer and diplomatic ID and see what we can shake loose. I think we can be plenty intimidating enough to get some answers, or at least access to their database so that we can locate whatever answers we want."

"Have you heard anything from your contacts?" Heero asked, turning and locking his chair into position at the request of the pilot who was taxiing for take off.

"Nothing useful yet. They have heard of the organization, but nothing beyond their existence. To be this large and well-funded though, I think that most of my sources will be out of their depth."

"I agree. Infiltrating Preventer is no small feat. Lady Une is most thorough and vigilant."

"She's only one person. All it takes is one person in the right position to decide that they don't need to work so hard and the system fails."

Heero pondered that as he felt the shuttle accelerate rapidly towards escape velocity. Having been through the procedure any number of times, Heero knew what was happening, that the shuttle was speeding towards the launch ramp that would help it get into the proper angle of attack before the booster engines were ignited. There was a thunder of sound as the boosters blazed to life and shoved the shuttle into space faster than any normal spaceship could possibly go. There was something to be said for hijacking the latest shuttle in the government fleet.

The vibration was still noticeable but Heero still managed to focus on the coming mission. It would take all of his control to not grab the first Rising Sun employee by the throat and have them lead him to the nearest mainframe and take whatever information he could dig up. Jackson had been right that drawing too much attention would not be a smart idea, but Heero knew that attention was the least of his worries. All it would take was one person at Rising Sun to communicate his investigation to New Horizon and they could decide that Duo was too great a liability and execute him. Heero felt his heart clench in his chest at the mere thought, at the idea that he would never see those cobalt eyes watching him as he performed the most mundane activities again and the smile that would follow him around the room. He might not see Duo dance again and lose himself in the moment, might not ever hold him again or taste his lips and know that someone had found something in himself to love.

Love.

He had tried to tell Jackson that what he felt for Duo, and what he was finding he truly hoped Duo felt for him, was something beyond a simple word but the word was suddenly one that Heero wasn't afraid to use. Yes, he loved Duo, and indeed probably had for years which only made the current situation worse. Jackson didn't know it but the suit that Heero was wearing was actually one of Duo's and just having something that was a direct reminder of what he was fighting to get back helped, not to mention he just looked good. A stewardess came towards them after they had cleared the atmosphere and adjusted their course for VC-454 intercept and offered them food and drink to pass the time. Taking an orange juice Heero set his laptop up on the table that came up out from the arm of his chair, he tried to lose himself in the data from New Horizon again, hoping that he had missed something that could help link everything together and give him some hint as to where to look for his missing friend. Something in the data seemed to hint at the overall plan his enemies seemed to be working toward, but Heero couldn't seem to pull the pieces together yet. All the data seemed to focus on mind control, something that had never been particularly reliable in the past, but seemed to hint at a breakthrough that would finally create a stable trigger to activate a sleeper agent. The technical data didn't seem to give any means to undo the process, but did suggest that someone of strong will could fight against the treatment and potentially ignore trigger commands. Perhaps there was more to Duo's abduction than simply wanting him as leverage against Heero and Preventer to leave New Horizon alone.

"Penny for your thoughts," Jackson said, sipping at his own juice. "Is there anything you missed in the data from before?"

"Nothing useful," Heero admitted, clearing the data and pulling up his mail to see if there was anything from Quatre or the others. "But it has me wondering if perhaps there was more to Duo being taken than I suspected. Perhaps they are hoping to use him as protection from Preventer, and at the same time use him as a test subject for their mind control experiments."

"That would make sense," Jackson mused. "Hopefully they haven't begun yet or gotten too far. I know I only met Duo once and don't know him well, but I wouldn't feel too confident that he could hold out under that level of torture and mental probing."

"You're right, you don't know him well," Heero countered, leaping to his friend's defense without hesitation. "He's suffered more than most people I know and still manages to live life with so much energy and zest it sometimes scares me. I would trade all my inhuman strength and emotional baggage to be able to be as he is. Maybe then it wouldn't have taken me so long to admit that I want and need more from him that just his friendship and that together we might be able to move past the nightmares that I know wake him every night."

That got Jackson and Heero took a perverse pleasure in backing him into a corner and browbeating him.

"Touche," Jackson replied, smiling and taking no offense at Heero's tirade. "We have a long trip ahead of us, so maybe you could tell me more about Duo. Who knows when it might come in useful."

Finishing his drink, Heero paused to collect his thoughts before he answered.

"You already know what's in Preventer's files," Heero started, losing himself in his memories of the American Gundam pilot who had so impacted his life. "The first time we met he thought I was trying to kill Relena and ended up shooting me twice. Anyone else would probably dead now for that, but after we rescued our Gundams and he started talking to me about anything and everything, I couldn't do it. I ended up stripping his Gundam for parts for my own, possibly as an unconscious effort at payback, but Duo never hated me for it and never demanded an apology. Time went on and we started partnering for missions on a regular basis, our styles fitting together the best I think of all the Gundams, and even of the pilots. We were undercover in school together, shared a dorm room, and over time I realized that for all his obnoxiousness and loud manner, he was a good person, funny, witty, loving and living life in a way that I am still a pale imitation of. He showed me friendship when others showed me suspicion. When I went to rescue him from Fortress Barge I held a gun on him and basically gave him a choice; live or die. Duo told me to pull the trigger, but the way he stood, the way he clenched his eyes closed against the bullet, told me that he didn't mean it. He just didn't think we could escape together and wanted to make certain that he wouldn't slow me down. I think that was the first time I truly felt something more than just friendship with him, and yes we were friends at that point even if I tried to stay completely focused on just fighting and completing my missions. I think the greatest reason that we didn't see what we truly had in those days was because of the way in which Relena kept inserting herself into our lives for no reason. I understood what she stood for, and what her role was, but I think her infatuation with me got in the way more than it helped, but I still risked my life countless times to save her and I think that that was when Duo decided that friendship was good enough. He thought I loved her, but the only thing I loved was the concept of a peaceful world that Relena was striving for, a place where I wouldn't have to keep killing just to make a place for myself in the world. You think Duo is weaker than myself, or yourself, because he seems frivolous and loud, always talking and never seeming to say much of any value, but that is because you don't know him. Perhaps when this is over you can get to know him as I do, well perhaps not exactly as I do, but enough to see what I see. Nothing kept me going more during the darkest days of the wars than his friendship and the notions of a potential future with him that I dreamed about. Duo is more emotional than I am and so he feels the weight of what he has done and what he has lost more keenly than I do, but still he is risking his life to help bring peace."

"Quite the guy," Jackson remarked, with not a trace of sarcasm. "I guess I missed all that in the hallway months ago. The one thing I can truly see is what you see in him physically."

Heero looked away, embarrassed and certain that he would begin to blush visibly.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

Smiling at the image of Duo in his mind, Heero turned back and met his friend's eyes.

"Don't be. You're right, I don't think I've ever met someone that catches my eye nearly so completely and in every way. Even that braid of his, though I don't know why, just adds to his appeal. His eyes, his face, his smile, his lips, everything, it's as though I built him in my imagination one day and then he simply appeared. I've never looked at anyone in the same way as I look at him, and I only hope he can say the same."

"Oh he can," Jackson grinned. "We only talked for a few minutes in the hallway that day, but as soon as your name came up he started off and it was only because I had a meeting with Lady Une that I was able to escape. Trust me, he might even think more of you than you do of him."

They had another three and a half hours to VC-454 but Heero spent most of the rest of the trip smiling and thinking only good thoughts of what the future might hold and thanking whatever god was watching that Duo had come into his life.

"Soon you will be finished Duo Maxwell, and then you will see the strength of our convictions."

Even as Janus's voice faded away Duo stood up, his body barely protesting anymore even after the rigorous hours of tests that the scientists had put him through. Duo couldn't understand how you could get accustomed to torture, but he wasn't about to argue too loudly given that he really didn't want to be curled up in a corner anymore. His head was the worst by far, pounding and throbbing so badly that Duo imagined it might just explode at any moment but every time he would stop pacing for a neurotic moment to see if it would, he was somewhat disappointed when his head remained on his shoulders. What was truly bothering him now, even though he had no way of knowing what was going on outside of the facility, was that he hadn't seen Heero come to his rescue. Janus still hinted at times that Heero was as much a prisoner as Duo, but that was a lie that Duo just hadn't bothered to call him on.

Heero would have put up too great a fight, Duo thought. That's why they chose me for this suffering, because I'm the weaker of the two of us. They knew that they couldn't take him without revealing themselves, so they took me instead.

It was a sobering thought, but not the first time it had run through Duo's mind given how often he and Heero had partnered on missions and fought together, or even just been at school together. It was always painfully obvious which of them was the strongest, the smartest, the best pilot, and it was never Duo. Thoughts started running through Duo's head and he cringed at them, so dark and violent they were but at the same time they were exhilarating. Grasping his head and trying to force the thoughts out, Duo found himself with his hands balled into fists and before he knew it he had slammed a fist into the cell wall. He cried out in pain and clutched at his throbbing hand, but even more incredible than the pain and his complete loss of control was the fact that there was a noticeable dent in the metal panel he had punched.

"That's impossible," Duo breathed, staring at his hand and the wall in equal horror. "Oh god, what have they done to me."

"We have made you more than you ever were," Janus laughed, interrupting Duo's thoughts and that only increased his anger. "Before you were just another ex-soldier and now you are more than human."

"I never wanted to be more than human!" Duo screamed. "All I ever wanted was to be normal and live a normal life. But people like you made that impossible and thanks to you I never had a childhood that I want to remember! So fuck you and you'd better hope I never fucking find you or I'll take your fucking head off!"

Panting after his raving Duo felt a surge of shame at his outburst and staggered backwards into the wall he had just pummeled and slid down it until he hit the floor and just stared at his knees and hands in silent horror. There was more at work here than just some science experiments; Duo was feeling emotional surges and tendencies that were scaring him both with their intensity but also with their nature. It seemed as though whatever the terrorists were doing to him had unleashed every dark impulse that he had ever thought or felt and suppressed as any normal person would. It was all too much and Duo felt a monumental headache coming on and brought his hands to his head in a futile effort to try and hold himself together.

"What have you done to me?" he asked, no strength behind his words as he felt himself start to shake, emotions reaching their boiling point.

"We have made you better and soon you will be ready," Janus told him, truly telling him nothing at all. "You will be my greatest weapon against the government you helped put into power and then I will reshape it to my own will. Everything will be as it should always have been."

"You're a monster. You would turn what all those people died for into a perversion."

"They died so that I might learn from the mistakes of the past, the mistakes of the Alliance, OZ, Romefeller, and Barton. There will be no military build up, because I will have my agents everywhere to remove those who would threaten my power. The masses will have no idea as to how tightly they are ruled, for there will always be those they can turn on as the cause of any unrest or dissatisfaction. I will rule Earth and the colonies and anyone who resists will simply disappear."

It was at that point that Duo realized the true scope of New Horizon's ambitions, and his heart sank as he realized just what they had been doing to him all along. They were turning him into a controllable agent that they could use to implement their terror plot and use him to consolidate their power. It was at that moment that Duo truly wished to see Heero one last time, and started looking for something with which to end his life before he could do anything to harm all that so many people had died for.

"Welcome to New Horizon," Janus said, and the cell door opened and a canister flew in, gas pouring from it before it even hit the ground. "I can't wait to see what you are capable of."

Duo tried to struggle to the door, but the gas was too much for him and he felt his body going numb and unresponsive until at last he crashed to the ground and before consciousness fled him he cried Heero's name as a tear of impotent rage rolled down his cheek.

Jackson watched as Heero jerked in his sleep during the last hour of their approach to VC-454, obviously in the throes of a nightmare he could not escape. Though the urge to wake his friend was strong, Jackson also knew that Heero needed to face his demons at some point and he could only hope that Heero proved to be the stronger.

"Would you care for something else to drink or perhaps something to eat?" the stewardess asked, indicating her cart.

"Another orange juice please," Jackson replied, as he eyed the cart. "And perhaps a sandwich...do you have turkey?"

"I do," the stewardess smiled, handing over the sandwich and juice. "If you need anything else, please let me know."

"I will. Thank you."

As he ate his sandwich, Jackson continued to watch as Heero battled the ghosts of his past and the demons lurking in the future, sometimes seeming to win and other times seeming to lose.

Now I know what I look like when I sleep, Jackson mused, with no humor. I only hope that someday it will stop, for both of us.

Subconsciously chewing as quietly as possible, lest he somehow wake Heero, Jackson pondered the mission before them. It would be unlikely that anyone at Rising Sun would be remotely prepared for their arrival or have any notice about it, and they had their identification that would grant them unlimited access, unless someone decided to stonewall them. The two agents would need to present a certain official authority to quickly intimidate any low-level peons that would attempt to sideline them, but Jackson knew it would be difficult to keep Heero in line. They both were committed to the enterprise, but Heero was unraveling as time went by and no progress was made to find his friend despite all their efforts. Over the few days since they had returned from New York Jackson had seen Heero try to fight his despair but more and more he had started to find his only solace from a bottle, though not to the same extent that had once had him trying to kill Jackson with selfsame bottle in hand. There was no judgment in Jackson's heart, for he too knew the emotionally draining effect of losing someone so important to you for it was the same feeling besides the mind numbing terror that he himself had experienced when his parents had been murdered. Finally Heero quieted and seemed to sink into a proper sleep, though only to have the shuttle prepare for its final approach. Jackson took a moment to pull out his phone and confirm that the car was waiting for them outside the VIP disembarkation area. The landing was flawless as Jackson had expected, so flawless that it didn't even manage to rouse Heero, so his friend was faced with the unenviable task of waking him.

"Heero," Jackson said, softly, as he gently shook the sleeping youth's shoulder. "Time for vengeance."

Whether that statement made partly in jest and partly in truth, somehow reached Heero and woke him or if it was the shaking or simply good timing, Jackson was startled when Heero bolted upright.

"I take it we're there," Heero stated, standing and stretching to unkink some knots that had formed during his unexpected nap.

"Well you can always just open the airlock and find out," Jackson suggested, getting himself a death glare in return for his comment, and decided that it would haunt him forever. "Perhaps not. The car is waiting for us so let's go and get this started."

Heero followed silently behind as Jackson let the way down the gangway and into the VIP lounge where they retrieved their luggage from the conveyor belt and went outside to where the limousine was waiting for them.

"Hn, some car," Heero observed, at the sheer opulence of the vehicle.

"We're important VIPs," Jackson explained, as the driver opened the trunk for them to deposit their cases inside before climbing into the back of the sound-proofed vehicle. "We have to arrive in a certain way, and this is the way they expect."

"I wasn't complaining. This is nicer than a mobile suit cockpit."

"Just stay out of the liquor until we're done," Jackson advised, and saw the remark stung Heero exactly as he had intended. "We have to conduct ourselves in a certain way. We need to be polite but at the same time assert our authority and the fact that we are only being polite as a courtesy. You be the aloof and observant one so leave the word games to me."

"I still think there are easier ways to do this," Heero sighed, and Jackson was tempted to slap him to keep him from going down that road but decided that that was counter-productive. "Possibly hacking in by remote or going in at night."

"Their mainframes are all self-contained so we can't get in remotely," Jackson reminded him, knowing that Heero was just frustrated. "And going in at night is too risky. Don't you think enough people have died so far, or are you that eager to bathe in more blood? Should I show you again what it really means to drown in blood?"

That seemed to take the wind out of Heero's sails for he slumped slightly and stared down at his hands, no doubt imagining the blood they were already stained with and truly not wishing to add any more to it than was necessary.

"I'm sorry," Jackson said, after the car had pulled away towards their destination and the silence had lingered longer than he was comfortable with. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"Yes you did," Heero countered, clenching his hands into fists. "And you're right. I don't like what I've become during all this, and I only hope that I can go back to being the person I was. I need you to keep doing and saying whatever you have to until this is over to keep me on the right track. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I cost us the chance to bring Duo home."

"Don't worry, I'll give you both barrels as often as you need to keep you focused," Jackson promised. "Now what is your name?"

"Hiroshi Takahashi, aide to Undersecretary of Health Warren Thomas."

"Who would be me, at least for today," Jackson finished. "Excellent. We can assume they have competent security in place, and our ID will ensure that they don't frisk us or scan us. The colonies might not be under ESUN governance but they aren't stupid enough to violate diplomatic rights."

"That is what you hope at least."

"If it turns out differently, you just might get your wish to get your gun off."

Heero had to smile at the expression, and Jackson smiled back, glad that it was taken as a joke.

"I'd rather just find the information we need rather than, as you put it, getting my gun off," Heero replied, shaking his head at the very idea.

"Just keep yourself focused on that and we'll be fine. We're here."

After retrieving their briefcases from the trunk, Jackson led the way into the rather large and intimidating building, where they were both promptly stopped at the front desk by an employee as security looked on.

"Welcome to Rising Sun," the young lady said, smiling. "How can we help you today?"

"We are here to see Director Toshi," Jackson said, flashing his identification and stealing her smile away.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked, all business now. "The director is a very busy man."

"Indeed he is," Jackson agreed, still holding his diplomatic papers though not throwing them in her face. "I've been attempting to get in contact with him to make an appointment for a number of weeks, but he has been rather incapable of returning a phone call. So I am here in person, to ensure that he gets the message this time."

"I understand Undersecretary, but the director does not take unscheduled guests. You will have to contact his assistant and find an appropriate appointment. I'm sure that if you plan to stay on the colony for the next few weeks we can surely get you in to see him."

"We will see him now," Jackson informed her, once again holding up his ID. "You perhaps may not be aware of diplomatic privileges guaranteed between the Earth Sphere United Nations and the colonies, so allow me to refresh your memory. It means myself and my aide are to have unrestricted access to any and all publicly owned or overseen businesses and facilities, as well as all companies that colony government has a more than twenty-five percent holding in. Would you care to guess if Rising Sun falls under those legally binding mandates? So, if you would be so kind, please have someone escort us to the director. Now."

There was no more defiance on her face as she hurried off to her large desk and called up to someone upstairs with more obvious authority.

"Weren't you pushing a little hard there?" Heero muttered, barely moving his mouth lest he attract any attention.

"I was ten seconds away from shooting that bitch," Jackson growled, under his breath. "Just be thankful she's going along with us."

"Thankful, that's the word I was looking for."

Jackson gave him a quick scowl, but all too soon a woman in a lab coat approached them, not at all pleased by their presence.

"I am Doctor Susanna Markham," she introduced herself. "I understand that you are insisting on seeing Director Toshi."

"You understand correctly," Jackson confirmed. "I do hope you are here to take us to him, otherwise I will be contacting your colonial government to file a diplomatic protest at the breech of diplomatic privilege you have been clearly guilty of."

"The director is currently in a meeting, but I will be glad to answer any questions or show you whatever you'd like," Susanna assured him, clearly eager to defuse the situation.

"Excellent," Jackson smiled, gesturing towards the rest of the building. "Please, lead on. I am most curious about your advancements in retroviral research."

"Of course, my office is several floors up. If you would follow me."

Jackson and Heero followed the good doctor to the nearest elevator as she waved them past the security guards posted around the scanners that led into the labs and offices of Rising Sun. There was no conversation on the ride up or the rest of the way to Dr. Markham's office, but once inside she was clearly looking to get rid of them as soon as possible.

"Was there a particular interest that brought you to us today?" she asked, leaning forward from behind her desk in an effort to seem eager to help and fooling no one.

Jackson exchanged a brief look with Heero, telling the other to activate the audio dampener concealed in his briefcase.

"I am here for several reasons," Jackson informed her, crossing his legs after laying his briefcase on the desk before him. "One reason is I'm looking for a friend of ours, and the other is that I'm looking for information on New Horizon."

Jackson watched the doctor for any signs that she was informed as to the potentially terrorist activities going on at Rising Sun, and sure enough the mention of New Horizon caused a small flinch in her facial expression and suddenly she seemed slightly less assured.

"I'm afraid we haven't received any visitors recently, at least not that I have been made aware of," Susanna tried to assure them. "And I am second under Director Toshi in running this research center. As for this New Horizon you said? I have not heard of it before, so I'm not sure how much help I could be to you."

"Oh come now Susanna, you know exactly what I'm talking about," Jackson laughed, and was pleased when the doctor shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Our friend, Duo Maxwell, might have been a guest of this facility sometime in the very recent past. You might recognize him; a little under six feet tall, long braid, Preventer ID in his pocket, being held against his will."

"I assure you that..."

"I assure you that if it is discovered that you knew of his kidnapping and incarceration let alone whatever else he has been subjected to," Jackson promised. "You will not live long enough to experience colonial justice. I'll let my associate here spend the next week killing you in as slow and painful a manner as he can devise, and I assure you again doctor that he can probably come up with many options right now."

"How dare you..."

Jackson could see it coming a mile away and did nothing to stop it, equally tired of wasting his time with this woman. Heero reached into the hidden and shielded compartment of his briefcase and pulled out the silenced pistol and trained it on the doctor, the sight no doubt centered between her eyes.

"I will dare to do whatever I want," Jackson informed her, standing once more and watching as Heero stood as well, his aim never shifting. "You know exactly what I'm talking about and unless you plan to cooperate with us now, you won't live to regret whatever horrors you have been perpetuating here. Now, Duo Maxwell, have you seen him?"

"No, I swear I haven't," Susanna breathed, not even looking at Jackson but rather focused on the gun pointed at her head. "If your description is remotely accurate no one like that has ever been in this facility."

"Fine, I believe you," Jackson admitted, and he truly did as he measured her reactions and voice compared to the terror most people would be feeling having a weapon trained on them. "But as for New Horizon..."

"I...I have heard of them, but all their contact with us has been through Director Toshi. Please, don't kill me."

"Cooperate and you most likely will survive to see another dawn. New Horizon. Start talking."

"I don't know much," Susanna pleaded. "They came to the director almost two years ago and wanted to use our facility to perform some sort of research. I don't know exactly what happened between Hew Horizon and the director, but I do know that the research started barely a week later...and three months ago there was a human trial of whatever it was that they have been developing."

"And you knew about this?" Jackson asked, his anger mounting with each confession. "You knew that something most likely illegal and immoral was happening here and something that involved illegal human testing?"

"What could I do?" Susanna argued, and then calmed once more when Heero drew back the hammer on his weapon. "They knew that I knew what was going on, at least in the broad strokes. If I had tried to talk to the director about it or gone to the authorities they might have killed me."

"You were bound by law and conscience to report them, but you didn't," Jackson informed her, knowing what would happen even as he said so. "You have one chance at redemption. You will give us complete access to the mainframe so that we can download its contents to my associate's laptop."

"Of...of course, it will just take a moment."

Jackson came around behind the desk and watched as the doctor accessed the central data network and accessed the secure mainframe. Seeing that she was cooperating, at least for the moment, Jackson retrieved the laptop from his own briefcase and plugged it into the front of the terminal and opened a data channel into the mainframe. There was a lot of information, much more than a laptop no matter how advanced could hold, so there was a measure of trepidation on Jackson's part. Starting a search for several key words, Jackson could only hope that it would bring up the information that they needed or else the entire mission was worthless.

"Why are you doing this?" Susanna asked, nearly shaking in her fright, Heero still completely steady.

"Your company has allied themselves with a terrorist organization," Jackson explained, working the laptop to find the data he wanted. "They kidnapped my associate's friend to test their research in order to destabilize the government and seize power behind the scenes."

"But how is this possible?"

"That's what we are here to find out. Here we are. The files are encrypted but that won't be a problem. While I'm downloading them, you'll record a video testimony of all you know regarding this situation."

Producing a small vidcam from his briefcase, Jackson had the doctor sit as he checked the settings and indicated for her to begin. She only knew a few details and nothing overly damning, but combined with everything else that they would undoubtedly uncover Jackson didn't think they would have trouble building a solid legal case.

"Thank you doctor, this could prove very useful," Jackson informed her, returning the vidcam to his briefcase. "As will the files I'm sure. I would suggest that you disappear after we leave lest New Horizon or your boss think that you've been aiding us or told anyone about their indiscretions."

"But...where will I go?" Susanna begged, her hands shaking at the enormity of what she was facing for letting things progress so far. "You have to know that they will find me wherever I go."

"You feel you deserve some sympathy?" Jackson asked, and exchanged a look with Heero. "You won't find any here. People like you are the reason people like us exist, so no we don't have any sympathy for you. Mercy, that we can give you, if you consider a bullet to the brain better than what New Horizon will do to you when they find you."

Susanna was completely white now, but Jackson was through wasting his time.

"I suggest you remain quiet until after we leave, unless you truly want to die today."

Jackson packed up the laptop and turned to leave, nearly walking into a guard who had entered unannounced. The guard had obviously seen Heero with a weapon raised as he went for his own weapon. The plastic knife was in Jackson's hand in a flash and it slipped under the guard's chin and up into his brain. Pulling hard, Jackson tossed the body back into the room and came out looking as composed as ever. Heero was close behind, his weapon back inside the shielded briefcase.

"Doctor Markham?" Jackson asked, already knowing the answer and having no problem with it.

"I granted her more mercy than they gave their test subject," Heero replied, as they left Rising Sun and climbed into the car that was still waiting for them on the street.

"Was it mercy or revenge?"

"This time...mercy, I think."

"I think so too. Spaceport," Jackson ordered, as the driver pulled away from the building. "We should be long gone before they find the bodies."

"What did you find?" Heero asked, obviously anxious as to what files they had downloaded and if they would be of any help in their search.

"Why don't you find out?"

Heero didn't even remember the ride back to the spaceport or getting on the shuttle, but he remembered how heavy the laptop felt and how desperate he was to boot it up and start decrypting the files that Jackson had downloaded. As soon as he took his seat at the rear of the shuttle and belted in, Heero set the laptop on the table that he pulled out from his chair and started the laptop.

"Watch the decryption," Jackson advised. "Who knows what countermeasures they might have built into the files."

"I know what I'm doing," Heero snapped, working the keyboard furiously as he ran the highest-level decryption programs that the laptop had. "It will still take a few minutes. Where's the lady with the food?"

Ignoring Jackson's head shaking, Heero continued working at the files, hacking his way through layer after layer of fragmentation programming and corruption viruses that were programmed to activate if the files were accessed outside of certain terminals at Rising Sun. Despite being the one to ask for something to eat, Heero didn't hear the stewardess come, or the shuttle take off. In fact, he didn't notice anything until the sandwich hit him in the side of the head and fell to the floor.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded, turning to face Jackson who arched an eyebrow.

"I've called your name about four times to give you your damn sandwich, so I decided to just throw it at you. Would you rather I threw your drink at you first?"

Smiling despite the frantic nature of his work, Heero accepted the bottle of juice and picked up the sandwich, thanking Jackson for remembering to get a vegetarian sandwich, and wolfed them both down as his code ran its course and at last unlocked the data.

The laptop was practically overflowing with information on Rising Sun and their experiments and illicit activities, and Heero could hardly decide where to start first. The most intriguing and damning evidence was that of obvious human trials of the mind control techniques that Rising Sun had been developing with New Horizon. There were no pictures or hints at whom the trials had been performed on, but Heero could well imagine the poor individual being executed after the tests were completed, regardless if they were successful or not.

"What have you got?" Jackson asked, leaning over Heero and reading over his shoulder. "Jesus, I can't believe they went so far."

"They seem to want to destabilize the ESUN for their own gains," Heero reminded him. "The using up of a human life, or many lives, would mean nothing to people like this. It's OZ, Romefeller and Barton all over again, except that these people hide in the shadows and don't seem eager to reveal themselves."

"Part of the fun is in the chase," Jackson interjected, but still agreed with Heero. "But I would much rather have a readily visible target to strike at than one shielding themselves with shadows and innocent lives."

"This section of the test results indicates that there was something else done in conjunction with the mind control," Heero pointed out, indicating the passage he was reading. "Look, they use the term Project Janus for whatever they did to this person. I knew that all this was connected and this is the key."

"My god, look at the kinaesthesia factors there. The muscle growth and bone density numbers aren't normal and look at the reflexology. I'm strong and fast, but not to this degree. I don't think I'd be able to defeat whoever this is one on one."

"I could," Heero replied, suddenly realizing what the medical data and reports he was reading were implying and none of it was good. "This looks like they were trying to genetically engineer someone to be superior to normal humans."

"How do you know that?" Jackson asked, still reading the screen. "There's not enough proof here to be certain of anything other than the immorality of it."

"I'm sure, because this is what Doctor J did to me years ago before he told me I would pilot the Wing Gundam."

It was the most horrible and shameful secret Heero had, and he had just told it to someone he had met only days earlier. Even Duo didn't know the full truth behind Heero's remarkable abilities or ability to survive, though Heero had planned to tell him given their new course together.

"That would explain a few things," Jackson observed, and there was no prejudice in his voice to Heero's relief. "You did seem a bit more, confident, in our escape from New Horizon, more so than I would have expected from even a veteran soldier or mobile suit pilot."

"I would gladly trade that confidence and all my abilities just to be normal," Heero assured him. "Doctor J never gave me much choice in the matter. He told me that it would make me the strongest mobile suit pilot and that it would aid me in completing the missions that he gave me, and at least in that he didn't lie. He was more humane than these people seemed to have been as I was sedated through the worst of the genetic re-sequencing. It took days for me to fully adapt to the changes, but it was a drastic change over my old body. Now I can bend steel bars with my bare hands, hear things more clearly and farther away, and more. My piloting skills surpassed everyone I have ever fought, though not always by a huge margin, and allowed me to survive where others would have perished. But now I wish I had refused and run away. Or ended up like this person."

Jackson saw the line to which Heero was referring.

"Testing and analysis completed. Subject terminated."

"That's what I was to Doctor J, a subject," Heero concluded. "He may have changed later, or even regretted what he had done, but in the end he still did it and it's your actions not your intentions that make you an angel or a demon."

Reading through all the information they had stolen Heero couldn't find any mention of Duo, just all the cold scientific data that no doubt indicated the horrors that they could be perpetrating on his friend even at that very moment. Heero looked down at his right hand and found it clenched into a fist and it took a concerted effort to relax enough to free the hand up to run through the data once more. There could be something couched in other terms or phrases that might give him a clue as to where Duo was. Over the hours of the return flight back to Earth, Heero read and re-read the hundreds of pages of information but there was nothing that could help him locate his missing friend, only data that made him all the more fearful for Duo's life.

"There's nothing here," he concluded, any sense of accomplishment at getting in and out of Rising Sun with the data gone. "It will help us bring down Rising Sun and someday New Horizon, but there's not a damn thing here that will help me find Duo."

"Then we're back to square one," Jackson agreed. "The question is where do we go from here? I already had Preventer check and New Horizon have completely vanished from their New York offices and no one has any idea where they went to from there. Unless your friends in the colonies can get us a fresh lead, I honestly don't know what we're going to do."

That was hardly what Heero wanted to hear but he also recognized that his friend was right. The shuttle came in for its atmospheric re-entry and the buffeting only served to help distract Heero from the distinct possibility that he wouldn't find his friend again unless their enemy was so generous as to return him. And if wishes were horses...

The shuttle touched down and as they were leaving the terminal for Jackson's car stored in the secure parkade for VIPs, Heero looked around suddenly as he felt a familiar presence. The terminal was busy even with its limited clientele and Heero saw no one that he recognized, but still the feeling persisted.

"What is it?" Jackson asked, on alert now as he saw the alarm in Heero's eyes.

"I don't know," Heero replied, still looking around as the feeling of the presence slowly faded away. "I just felt like there was someone I knew here, watching me or just somewhere close by."

Jackson relaxed as he scanned the crowd as well, but when they both admitted defeat and moved on, Heero could not shake the feeling that had washed over him. Just what was going on?

Duo woke suddenly as a large rat ran across his chest, and he recoiled in disgust and slapped the rodent away. Not a common sight any more, still no one could find a way to finally eradicate rodent infestations, either that or this was one resilient rat. His eyes just wouldn't refocus so everything around him was incomprehensibly blurry. Trying to sit up, Duo put his hand into a puddle of something that he hoped was water and found himself leaning against a wall. Blinking rapidly and rubbing at his eyes with his non-soaked hand, Duo finally saw where he was sitting and almost wanted to laugh out loud until he realized that he had no idea how he had ended up in the alley. The last thing he had remembered was being in a metal cell somewhere, and then a brief flash of an airport, no spaceport, terminal, and now an alley.

"My head," he groaned, clutching at his throbbing head that seemed to be threatening to implode or explode depending on the moment he found himself in.

The sun was still out which was a good thing so far as Duo was concerned, and he wasn't naked either which was another good thing, indeed a great thing. But how had he ended up in the alley?"

"Janus!" Duo blurted out, and then looked around to see if anyone had appeared and heard his bizarre outburst. "Jesus, I need to get home."

Climbing back to his feet, Duo found himself feeling tired and drained but none the worse for wear considering and so he managed to make his way out onto the sidewalk and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that he knew where he was. Checking his pockets Duo wasn't surprised to find that all his ID and money hadn't been returned and without that or a cellphone it looked like he would be walking home.

The first few minutes were tenuous, Duo feeling completely uncoordinated and clumsy but gradually he found himself regaining his confidence and navigated the crowds with ease, no one sparing him a second look. As he walked past a store front Duo stopped for a moment to look at himself in the large window and was repulsed by what he'd seen. His eyes seemed slightly sunken and haunted with bags under them that would explain why he felt so bone-weary. His hair was disheveled but still in a braid and he was wearing non-descript black clothes, and something told him that the clothes weren't his. Basically he looked as though he hadn't slept in days and then rolled down a hill just for fun.

"It's going to take a long shower to fix this," Duo sighed, then turned and focused on making it home.

The hours passed and Duo found himself fighting to stay awake as the sheer length of the trek threatened to steal whatever energy he had left. Each kilometer seemed to be harder than the last, but Duo didn't relent as he somehow found the strength to put one foot in front of the other. Thoughts started running through his mind causing his head to throb even more forcefully, but Duo bore it all and instead tried to bring the blizzard of images and feelings into some semblance of order. Heero's face flashed by repeatedly and often and each time it did Duo felt his heart speed up for just a moment and a warmth spread over his body that started to give him the strength to go on. Another face appeared, but it wasn't clear enough for Duo to figure out who it was, but the mere presence of the face was enough to drive the good feelings from his body once again and leave him feeling even more drained that before. Confused and alone, Duo found himself unconsciously turning into the suburban neighborhood where he lived, his feet somehow knowing to take him home even as his mind was in turmoil and the agony in his head threatened to overwhelm him. Finally he came to his house but as he approached the door realized that without keys he had little hope of entrance. Praying that Heero was home, Duo staggered to his friend's door and leaned heavily against the doorjamb as he knocked with the last of his energy. Several seconds ticked by and Duo felt himself tear up as he imagined collapsing on Heero's doorstep to be found god only knew how many hours later when his friend returned home. Just when all hope had nearly fled, the door opened and there stood Heero, looking every bit as amazing as he always did.

"Duo?" he asked, incredulous that his friend had somehow been returned looking a little haggard but alive and mostly well.

"Heero," Duo gasped, before slipping into unconsciousness, never feeling that Heero caught him before he struck the concrete stairs and carried him inside.

Duo felt himself slowly come awake for the second time that day, assuming that it was still the same day, and realized that he was lying not on the street this time but in a bed, and a comfortable one at that. Sitting up slowly, Duo found himself feeling so much better than the last time that he almost considered the idea that maybe he had died there on Heero's porch, but a quick look around the darkened room with only the moonlight through the blinds to aid him told him that he was in Heero's guestroom. A Spartan affair, as Heero's entire house was, it was still the most welcome sight that Duo could have imagined. Just as he felt a surge of relief it was replaced with terror as he heard footsteps approaching the bedroom door. New Horizon. It had to be. They'd found him and they'd killed Heero first and now they were coming for him. Duo knew that he should try to fight back, find something in the room to take down as many of the terrorists as he could before they killed him, but he found himself paralyzed as a jumble of memories overloaded his mind and left him staring in horror at the door as it slowly opened.

"Duo?" Heero whispered, checking to see if his friend was awake, and nearly dropping the tray when he saw the terror in his friends face. "What's wrong? Is someone here?"

When Duo didn't reply, Heero quickly set the tray of food on the dresser to the right of the door and drew one of his trusty silenced 10mms and swept the room.

"Heero," Duo managed to squeak, his hands clutching at the bedding and trembling as he tried to clamp down on his rampant emotions and memories. "Heero."

"I'm here," Heero replied, setting the gun down on the nightstand and turning on the small lamp there. "It's just me, no one else. You're safe."

"No, not safe. They'll come for me. I won't let them take me again!"

Duo moved faster than he could ever remember moving and grabbed the pistol, getting the silencer to his temple and pulling the trigger, but the bullet never struck as Heero managed to slap the weapon out of position before hitting the magazine release and detaching the slide in an amazingly deft movement. Duo felt himself start to cry and as ashamed as he was, his amazement overwhelmed him as Heero sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled him into an embrace that Duo quickly lost himself in, wrapping his arms around Heero so tightly he thought he would break him in half.

"It's okay," he heard Heero whisper in his ear. "You're back now and I won't let them take you again, ever again."

"Oh god, Heero," Duo choked. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stop them. I tried, I swear that I tried. I killed several of them but there were too many, too many..."

"It doesn't matter now," Heero told him. "You have nothing to be sorry for. They do, and they'll pay for everything, that I promise you. All you have to do now is rest. Just rest and get your strength back. I'll be here all night, I promise. I just have to do a few things and I'll only be gone a couple minutes, so just sit here and wait for me okay?"

"Okay," Duo agreed, releasing Heero and immediately feeling better just having his friend in the same room. "I'm sorry for that."

"For what?" Heero smiled. "It's hardly a first for us anymore."

With that Heero was gone but the door was left open and Duo knew that it was an effort to make sure Duo could yell for his friend at any moment, regardless of the reason. Still fighting against the adrenaline coursing through his system, Duo climbed out of bed and went to the tray that Heero had brought. It wasn't anything fancy, just a glass of water and a bowl of chicken broth, but Duo downed it in seconds, not even bothering to use the spoon provided. Dropping onto the edge of the bed again, Duo heard Heero talking to someone and rose and went out into the hallway to stand hidden at the top of the stairs.

"I don't know how he got away or how he made it back here," Heero was saying. "And I don't care. He's back and he's alive, and that's all that matters, but he's terrified that New Horizon is coming back for him. Get over here and bring your gear. You know the password. No, I don't think I'm overreacting. I hope they do come for him because I'm going to kill every last one of those bastards and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. I'd announce your presence because I'm shooting to kill."

With that Heero hung up and Duo rushed back to the bedroom, his mind churning with questions he knew he couldn't ask and yet, how could he not?

When Heero came back into the bedroom he was carrying another tray this time more laden with food and drink, and the sight had Duo's mouth watering and his stomach demanding attention.

"I see you already finished the appetizer," Heero observed, glancing at the soup slopped all over the previous tray. "And with the typical Duo etiquette as well. At least you didn't lose that."

Duo didn't know why, but slapping Heero on the shoulder made him feel immeasurably better, though Heero rubbed his arm as though gravely wounded.

"What was that for?" he demanded, but only got a smile in return.

"So...who was that on the phone?" Duo asked, pointedly avoiding Heero's eyes now as he picked up a sandwich from the tray and bit into it.

"His name is Jackson Steele. You actually met him once a number of months ago at Preventer headquarters. When...you were taken, I needed help to get you back. All the others were too far away in the colonies or on undercover missions, so I took a chance from what you told me of him. We weren't able to bring you home, but he's been a good friend during all this and kept me from losing myself in my anger or a bottle."

"How long was I gone?" Duo asked, still concerned about the role that this Jackson Steele, of whom he did have vague memories of, was having in Heero's life.

"About five days," Heero told him, hardly able to believe it myself. "To be honest it has seemed much longer than that."

"You don't know the half of it," Duo smiled, trying to restart the old dynamic with his friend but finding himself more than a little strained. "There are huge holes in my memory, and what little I remember is so blurry and impossible to make sense of that I have no way of knowing what they were doing to me. All I know is that I didn't just sit in that cell for nearly a week."

"Tomorrow, when you've had a decent night sleep, we'll take you to Preventer and get you checked out," Heero promised. "Just to be sure, and to make sure you're still the hyper, crazy baka you were before."

This time Duo's smile was real and effortless, but the sandwich was gone as was another large glass of water, and he was still exhausted.

"I'm really tired," he yawned, the cue for Heero to remove the tray from the bed lest it be overturned. "Wake me in the morning and we'll go to Preventer."

"Don't worry about that. Just sleep as long as you can and the rest we'll take care of when the time comes. Do you need anything else?"

Duo almost said exactly what he wanted but decided that that was something for another day, one in which he didn't feel as though he might pass out at any moment. But there was something he wanted, needed even.

"Would you..." he began, unsure of how to put his request before just deciding to just say it. "Would you stay with me, at least for a little while until I fall asleep?"

For a moment Heero didn't do or say anything and Duo feared that he had gone too far, that the NightSky had been a one time thing or a mistake, and then Heero smiled and pulled the gun from behind his back before coming around the far side of the bed and hopping up to join Duo.

"I'm all yours," Heero replied, and put his arm around Duo and pulled him down onto his chest. "Get comfortable but first hit the light."

"Actually, I'd rather leave it on," Duo whispered, not comfortable with complete darkness after the last days in constant blazing light.

"Works for me."

Duo carefully wrapped his arms around Heero and laid his head onto his chest. He felt Heero lay his other arm over top of him and couldn't help but smile.

"Are you comfortable?" Heero asked, making sure that his weapon was just to his right and easy to grab if the need arose.

Duo couldn't reply because he was already asleep.

Heero couldn't help but enjoy the situation as Duo slept atop him, twitching occasionally but otherwise somehow sleeping soundly after all that he had undoubtedly been through. So natural it seemed that Heero found himself nodding off and did nothing to stop himself. When he jerked awake several hours later, Heero heard the creak of a footstep on the stairs coming up from the main floor and his weapon was in hand before he could even form a conscious thought. Pistol trained on the open door, Heero waited for the password but still eased the hammer back on his gun just in case he was wrong.

"Hitokiri."

The tension vanished as quickly as it had come and Heero set the gun down on the bed before trying to see how he could separate himself from Duo without waking the other.

"I'll wait downstairs," Jackson said, whispering given the lack of any noise he was hearing in the bedroom.

Heero finally managed to worm his way from Duo's embrace and made to leave, but at the last moment turned and kissed Duo's forehead and gently ran his hand through the other's hair briefly before heading downstairs.

"How is he?" Jackson asked, leaning against the back of the couch dressed all in black.

"As good as can be expected really," Heero admitted, looking back up stairs. "He looks worn and strung out, but that can only be expected after five days of torture and experimentation, if indeed the data we have is accurate."

"I'm just glad he's able to sleep. I brought my gear, as you requested. I take it you'd like me to help ensure that if he did indeed escape that New Horizon doesn't just waltz in here and take him back?"

"They can try," Heero growled, hand tightening on the grip of his weapon. "I need you to help keep watch because right now I'm not sure I'm able to keep from shooting at shadows."

Jackson nodded and started to unpack his equipment onto the coffee table, shrugging off his stormcoat and holstering weapons everywhere that his stealth armor would allow.

"Have you thought about the possibility that they let him go?"

The question hardly caught Heero off guard as it was one that had been running through his mind almost since the moment that Duo had collapsed on his door step. Sure he wanted to believe that Duo had fought his way to freedom, he almost needed to believe it, but one look at his friend told Heero that Duo had not been in any shape to attain his own freedom.

"Yes," Heero replied, at last. "They probably did set him free, and why I don't know. I almost don't even care or want to care, but we have to assume it can't be for any good reasons."

"I'd say not. Any ideas on that front?"

"I can't even think right now," Heero admitted, running his free hand over his face. "Too much has happened and I'm just not able to deal with anything more right now. Tomorrow we're going to Preventer to get him checked out, and then after that we'll start trying to track down New Horizon again, and maybe find out just what they had hoped to accomplish with all this."

"Fair enough."

Leaving Jackson to do whatever it was he planned to do, Heero went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of vodka from the freezer and regarded it. Once it was a part of the evenings he and Duo spent together, and then it was a crutch for after Duo had been taken. Now what was it? Replacing the bottle and grabbing a water instead, Heero sat down at the kitchen table and stared at the gun he had placed before himself. Whatever symbolic meaning vodka had to him, a gun was far more significant. It was a tool as much as a weapon, giving him the ability to defend those who were helpless from those who would seek to dominate them. And it was as much that as it was a prison, trapping him in his former life, a life that Heero so much wanted to leave behind and yet couldn't, now more than ever.

"I've got button cams already set up outside," Jackson said, coming into the kitchen. "The laptops in the living room are set up to receive the signals but not record given that we don't need that. I also have weapons there, just in case, but I honestly don't expect them to come after him, or us. They set him free for some specific reason."

"I know," Heero told him, still regarding his weapon. "All of it ties in together, but how and why are eluding me. Maybe a good night sleep would help, because at this point I'm all out of ideas."

"Then get up to bed," Jackson told him, reaching over and putting the pistol on safety.

Heero didn't even reply to that, he simply picked up his gun and headed upstairs, hesitating at the top as he tried to decide which bed to go to, to decide which morning he wanted to wake up to.

"Don't make me shoot you," Jackson hissed from the bottom of the stairs, causing Heero to smile and head for the spare room where Duo was still fast asleep.

Indeed Duo was still lost to the world, sprawled now across the entire bed and breathing deeply, no sign on his face that he was battling his all too often nightmares.

Shaking his head, Heero moved to the right side of the bed and gently lifted Duo's arm and placed it on his chest before climbing into the bed. Another gentle movement had Duo rolled onto his left side and Heero wrapped himself around his friend, draping his right arm over the braided youth. Adjusting his pillow Heero started when Duo suddenly interlocked fingers with him and whispered his name from deep in whatever dream he was experiencing. A sense of peace and belonging overwhelmed Heero in that moment and he kissed Duo on the head and pulled him in closer and tighter, closing his eyes and letting sleep carry him away. The nightmares would not come this night to either of them for the first time in far too long, as two candles in the dark blaze brighter than one candle standing alone.

Duo woke first and for the life of him couldn't figure out why he felt so warm. As the fog of sleep cleared he saw that he was still holding Heero's hand from the night before and that the heat he was feeling was caused by their two bodies pressed so closely together for so prolonged a period. Suddenly the heat didn't bother him anymore and Duo pulled the clasped hands up to his face and kissed Heero's, a small thank you for staying that night and driving the inner demons away for the first time in months. Duo Maxwell sleeping through an entire night, would the miracles never cease? Looking again at the arm holding him tight, Duo smiled and thought to himself that he hoped they never would. There was one miracle that seemed to be ongoing for the moment and he couldn't wait to see just how this one finished up, though obviously Duo hoped for a bang and not a whimper. Gently releasing Heero's hand, Duo managed to turn to face his friend and saw the blissful slumber still heavy on his face and decided not to wake him. Preventer wasn't a difficult place to get to, though getting in without his ID would require more security checks than normal, and Duo felt himself stronger and more ready to take on the day, perhaps doing so by himself to assert his strength would be a good thing and speed the emotional healing.

"Thank you," Duo whispered, his voice so low that even he could barely hear it and Heero slumbered on. "When I get back we'll talk. But right now I desperately need a shower. I...I love you."

Kissing Heero quickly and softly lest he wake him, Duo made his way to Heero's bedroom and using the ensuite managed to get himself clean and freshened after almost a week of brutal torture and deprivation. Hair cleaned and teeth brushed so vigorously that he might have worn them down to nubs, Duo borrowed some of Heero's clothes and headed downstairs where Jackson was sitting on the couch and watching the button cam feeds.

"Morning," Jackson said, not even turning around. "Heero's still asleep I assume?"

"You got it," Duo replied, heading into the kitchen and firing up the coffeemaker and checking the time. "Not too bad, just a little after nine."

"I didn't know if you guys wanted a wake up call or not so I just assumed you both needed the sleep."

"Thanks. Yeah, I needed some major Z's or I was going to die, and I think I mean that literally. I don't think I got more than a few hours sleep the last five days and it was definitely starting to wear on me."

"I've been there before. It's not fun."

Once the coffee was finished Duo downed several cups in the space of five minutes and headed for the door.

"Forgetting something?" Jackson asked, extending a wad of money and a cellphone. "You might need this."

Duo slapped his forehead to acknowledge his stupidity and then took the generous offering.

"It has the same number as before, as well as all the toys," Jackson said, answering the unasked question.

"Thanks. I'll get Preventer to replace all of my ID today and I'll hit the bank for some cash to pay you back."

"Don't worry about that, I'm kind of in the same situation as you and Heero with regards to the money thing. But get going because if he wakes up soon you know he'll catch up."

Waving goodbye, Duo headed out and made his way to the nearest thoroughfare and flagged down a taxi to take him to Preventer headquarters. The taxi driver gave Duo a look for a moment, understandable given that that wasn't a common destination. The ride wasn't overly long, but it gave Duo a chance to think and to decide just what he wanted to do. Today would be just to get his life back on track, however slightly. After paying his driver, Duo took the main entrance into Preventer as the secret entrances required his ID card, which he obviously didn't have thanks to a week in captivity. Few people were quite as memorable as Duo Maxwell and after a quick retinal and palm scan, as well as visual scan against his most recent security image, he was let through. The guards were thorough just as Duo had expected, and after he had been cleared through security Duo headed up to the administration floor. A brief visit with the department that issued security passes and Duo managed to force himself to visit the medical department. Thankfully Doctor Ian Marcus was on duty, someone that Duo had been able to partially confide in during previous examinations when old injuries and scars had come up.

"Morning Duo, how are you these days?" Ian asked, barely glancing up from his computer screen.

"Oh, some things are terrible, others are blowing my mind," Duo smiled. "It's the terrible things that have me visiting today. I need a check-up and a big one if you have the time.

"How big are we talking here?"

"Massive. I don't know how much I can tell you honestly, but basically I was on a mission that didn't go to plan and I think I need a thorough going over."

"Well I'm free all day so far, so let's get started. I'll get the injection guns, you strip down and get on the exam table."

The following three hours were ones that Duo would try fervently to forget, but the sheer number of tests and x-rays and blood tests were such that he never would. Finally, as he say shivering in just his underwear on the exam table, Duo saw Ian coming towards him with a medical chart filled with dozens of reports and feared the worst.

"I see some malnutrition and other electrolyte imbalances," Doctor Marcus announced, flipping over page after page of test readouts. "A few new scars but nothing troublesome or unexpected given your duties. I did notice a few tiny shadows on your MRI and CT scans, but nothing that seemed to have any lasting repercussions. Is there anything I should know in order to interpret these results?"

"Well, maybe," Duo admitted. "But you know how it is, classified and top-secret and all that. So there's nothing that jumps out at you as overly abnormal or dangerous?"

"Nothing that I see honestly. These shadows could be the precursors to something, but they aren't located in the areas of the brain that I would normally be concerned about, especially given their size and lack of depth in the tissue. Given how many concussions you've had I'm not surprised that there is something on the scans. I'd say as long as you come in monthly for the next little while to give me a chance to chart any changes, you may as well get out of here."

"Thanks. See you next month then."

Duo was just on his way out of headquarters when his phone rang. Excited thinking that Heero had woken up finally and was calling to see how things went, Duo answered without even verifying the number.

"Hey hot stuff, what's shakin?" Duo asked, practically hopping down the stairs to the street below.

"Time to wake and embrace your destiny."

Duo did not hear what came next, nor did he feel himself start to walk away deeper into the city. After all, that was the point.

Heero had just woken up and realized that he was alone when the phone rang downstairs. The guestroom had no phone so Heero left it up to Jackson to answer it.

"Get down here!" Jackson shouted, causing Heero to bolt up from bed with his gun in hand and race downstairs.

"What the hell is going on?" Heero demanded, looking around for some unseen assailant.

"That was Lady Une. There's been an assassination in the city. Undersecretary of Health Warren Thomas and his aide Hiroshi Takahashi were gunned down as they left a medical conference fifteen minutes ago."

Heero nearly dropped his gun when he realized that he knew those two names.

"But, those were the people we were impersonating on VC-454," Heero breathed, realizing that he and Jackson were the reason those two innocent people were dead. "Oh god, we never planned for this."

"I know," Jackson sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I never expected this, or I never would have used real people to infiltrate Rising Sun."

"Regardless we have a problem now. What else did Une say?"

"She wants us, or rather you, on the scene right now."

"Be ready to go in five minutes."

Heero used that five minutes to shower and change clothes. With his Preventer jacket on and ID secured, Heero debated for a moment whether to take a weapon or not but quickly strapped on his underarm 10mms and tucked a few spare clips into the pockets sewn inside his standard-issue jacket.

Jackson was waiting downstairs and together they climbed into his car and sped to the crime scene which was already swarming with police. Even as they came to a stop several officers came to warn them away.

"Preventer," Heero informed them, flashing his ID and glaring at them until they parted before him. "Who's in charge here?"

"That would be me," a plainclothes officer said, intercepting Heero before he could reach the crime scene barrier. "Lieutenant Hans Rollmann. I was told you would be coming. You must be highly placed for Lady Une to be assigning you to this case."

"It would be better for you not to know who I am."

Hans was obviously an experienced investigator and no doubt had seen his share of battle during the wars, but the look on Heero's still-young face was enough to tell him that he truly did not want to know just how this young man fit into Preventer.

"I know who we have here," Heero said, trying to keep himself detached even as he saw the faces of the dead men and guilt stabbed deep into his heart. "Cause of death?"

"Single high-velocity round to the heart," Rollmann said, reciting from memory. "We haven't gotten forensics on this yet, but I'm thinking military-grade 12.5mm round from a M942 sniper rifle. I saw what they could do during the wars, and the wounds are consistent."

"Any trajectory yet?"

"We don't have any ideas beyond the fact that it was from a high-angle and at least twenty seven hundred meters away given the state of the slugs we dug out of the building. They went through and through."

"M942 indeed," Jackson muttered, just loud enough for Heero to hear. "It doesn't have the muzzle velocity for that, not if he has the range down. Not unless whoever did this is using some round I've never heard of."

"What type of round was it?" Heero continued, acting as though Jackson hadn't said anything. "I'm assuming a hypersonic armor-piercing round, possibly reinforced titanium."

"How did you know that?" Hans asked, now suspicious about the involvement of this youth who seemed to know far too much about what was classified military technology the last Hans had heard, and that was from very unofficial channels. "I'm the only one the ballistics guy has talked to."

"Because I don't sit behind a desk," Heero snapped, now conscious that he and Jackson were sitting ducks. "Jackson, track the ballistic line and get me a sniper nest. Lieutenant, I suggest you get this scene policed as soon as possible and advise your men to be on alert. Whoever did this may not be done."

Heero turned away and Jackson was at his side instantly, having already determined which building was the place from which the killings had taken place.

"That one," Jackson said, subtly indicating one building about twenty five hundred meters away according to Heero's mental ruler. "From the roof. That's where I'd do it from."

"Get us there fast and we go in hot."

"You got it."

They tore away from the crime scene all the while Heero raged at himself for letting his own emotions get the better of him.

I should have insisted on using fabricated identities, he thought. Using real people was a stupid call and now two people are dead. How much more can I justify just to bring down New Horizon?

Even that question caused him to hate himself even more, because he knew that there was nothing he wouldn't do to give Duo closure over the horrors he had suffered.

Together Duo and Jackson marched into the lobby of the office building, flashing their IDs and drawing their weapons, not knowing what to expect on the roof. The elevator was a twenty second trip that gave Heero a chance to disengage the safeties on his pistols and coordinate the arrival with Jackson. They each took a side, shielding themselves beyond the door opening and when the elevator came to a stop and the doors did open, Jackson hit the emergency stop and it froze in place. A nod from Heero and Jackson lobbed a stun grenade onto the roof and the moment it exploded they burst out, weapons searching everywhere for any sign of movement.

"Clear," Jackson said, his voice still low just in case.

"Not completely," Heero countered, holstering his 10mms and walking to where the rifle lay on the rooftop. "Looks like you were right after all."

Heero pulled on a pair of gloves and picked the rifle up by the barrel, knowing that any prints or DNA would be concentrated at the rear of the weapon around the stock, sight, and trigger.

"It is an M942," Heero muttered, looking it over. "But it looks like it's been heavily modified, definitely not the standard model. 12.5mm, five round mag, semi-automatic fire. Recoil suppression and barrel reinforcement. Someone knows their hardware."

"We have a direct line of sight to the crime scene," Jackson added, peering through a small single lens range finder he had pulled from somewhere. "The conference center is twenty five hundred sixty eight yards from here, minimal windage. A tough shot, but with that rifle I doubt I'd have trouble with it, even if I was an amateur and I doubt that this hit was some low-rent contractor."

"Someone from New Horizon tracked the names we used and found the real people and killed them, thinking they were us."

"That's what I'm assuming. It fits the facts we have, and I have little doubt that they'd be ruthless enough to gun down the real Warren and Hiroshi even if they realized that they'd been duped. At the very least they'd use this attack to send us a message."

"Message received," Heero muttered. "I can't until they get my reply."

"I presume it will include a lot of bullet points?"

"A lot of bullets at least. So what now? We obviously aren't going to get anything off this rifle or the blind here, and the crime scene won't tell us anything we haven't just figured out."

Jackson looked at the rifle and his eyes narrowed.

"That looks like an auto-adaptive lens with up to a hundred-power magnification tactical scope," he said, and Heero looked closer and found that he was indeed correct.

"That means we might be able to use its current setting to determine our suspects' optometric specs, maybe even pull a reflective image or retinal image from it," Heero finished.

"It's worth a try. We're going to need Preventer facilities for this though."

They made their way back down to Jackson's car just in time for Lieutenant Rollmann to pull up with half-a-dozen officers and several forensics people.

"Is that the weapon?" Hans asked, waving one of the forensics guys over to take it for analysis.

"It is," Heero affirmed, glaring the CSI man down. "We're taking it to Preventer to run tests to see if we can determine enough information about the shooter to compile a profile."

"I'm afraid that my cooperation extends only so far," Hans informed him. "I cannot allow you to remove evidence from a crime scene before we can photograph and print it, even though you've already violated standard protocols by moving the rifle before we could do our jobs."

"Your cooperation extends however far I demand it to," Heero snapped, Jackson casually opening his coat to reveal his weapons to the good lieutenant. "You know how high up my authority goes. Do not make the mistake of thinking me a child simply because I don't have grey hair and a paunch. I've done more in my short life than you can possibly dream of. You, give me that bag. The roof is yours, but this is mine. I expect you to send the rounds you've retrieved to Preventer ASAP. Am I being perfectly clear?"

Heero and Jackson left, rifle securely sealed inside an evidence bag, before Hans could even reply.

"Arrogant little prick isn't he, sir," one of the officers muttered, watching the two agents drive away.

"Yeah, he is, but he wasn't lying either," Hans replied. "It was his eyes; they've seen a lot more than they should have. Quit standing around everyone. Secure that roof and gather what evidence we can."

Duo frowned as he found Heero's townhouse empty with no signs of where Heero and Jackson could have run off to so quickly that they couldn't leave a note or at least phone him.

"Well, now this isn't very nice," Duo muttered, checking the time and deciding that it was time to get something to eat.

It was almost two o'clock so Duo decided on lunch instead of brunch as he had initially intended to make with Heero, but as usual there wasn't much to choose from at Heero's so Duo settled for ordering in a pizza and settled back on the couch to wait for it.

"Wait a minute," he said suddenly, bolting upright as he remembered the time he had seen in the kitchen. Pulling out his cellphone Duo felt an incomprehensible dread as it showed almost exactly the same time. "That's impossible. How could I have been gone for almost five hours?"

Panic started to settle in as Duo's mind started churning out any possibility that it could put together to explain where he had lost so much time and Duo found his heart racing at the mere implication.

"Where the hell is Heero?" he asked the empty room, fumbling with his cellphone as he tried to dial Heero's number but an incoming call interrupted him and he answered it. "Heero, is that you?"

"Time to wake and embrace your destiny."

Duo's face lost all emotion and his eyes settled on an invisible point somewhere in the distance as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. After several minutes Duo hung up and left the cellphone on the couch as he headed upstairs into Heero's bedroom. In the closet behind a false panel was Heero's personal arsenal and Duo started to help himself to it. He left shortly thereafter, his weapons hidden beneath an overcoat, and walked off into the city.

Heero stood watching the scanner pass itself over the rifle again and again and nearly swore at himself for setting it to maximum resolution and maximum accuracy.

"How much longer?" Jackson asked, just as impatient.

"Thirty seconds," Heero replied, turning as there was a knock at the door to the lab. "Yes?"

"Uh, sir, this just arrived for you," a twenty-something lab assistant stammered, handing Heero two bags holding the two sniper rounds dug out of the ground at the crime scene.

"Thank you," Heero said, and the assistant left as quickly as he was forgotten. "Hypersonic armor-piercing and titanium reinforced, just as I thought."

"That's classified military technology, and not something from the war," Jackson reminded him. "That's something designed by Preventer totally in-house. No one outside active senior field agents, Lady Une, and a handful of other people should even know that we have it given that it's a violation of our own mandate."

"Lady Une has always been someone for whom rules are secondary to the needs of the mission, very much like myself. So we have someone who managed to obtain a military-grade sniper rifle and top-secret ammunition from within Preventer itself. What do you want to bet that the rifle is Preventer-issue too and that our manifests will show us full up but a hand count will put us one down."

"You won't get me taking that bet. I'll get a hand count done right now on the armory. If we pull the access logs and surveillance footage we might even be able to catch who did this."

"It's worth a shot," Heero admitted, but was dubious that someone so capable could make such a simple mistake and said as much.

"Well, it has to be done so let's just do it," Jackson countered. "Get the rifle finished up and I'll lead the count. Call me if you get something."

Heero nodded blindly and stared at the rounds in their little bags and tried to piece together the puzzle that just seemed to be getting more and more complex the more he tried to solve it.

Finally the contraption before him beeped several times announcing that it had completed the task it had been assigned and data began scrolling across the display screen. As Heero had suspected there were no finger prints that would be of any use, indeed none at all, but there were some skin flakes around the scope and an eyelash. The DNA was being run through the database as he continued on down the list of meaningless readouts until he got to something that stopped him dead. The data from the auto-adaptive scope had been downloaded and the ocular setting that it showed from the last use was all too familiar to Heero. He had seen it on any number of medical reports over the years and knew it as well as he knew his own. Pulling his phone out, Heero tried to dial Duo but all he got were endless rings and his anxiety ramped up another notch.

"Jackson, I think I know who our assassin is," Heero said, having called his fellow operative.

"Great, so I can stop this nonsense," Jackson sighed. "It would have taken me all day to go through this place."

"It's Duo."

There was a pause before Jackson came back with a disbelieving expletive-filled reply.

"I know how it sounds," Heero pressed, making his way through the labs towards the nearest elevator. "But I know his retinal patterns and how he sets his sights on any weapons he uses almost as well as I know my own. That and the fact that he so conveniently escapes after a week of being a secure prisoner god-knows where? There are too many coincidences and the evidence is mounting."

"Where is he now?" Jackson asked, and Heero could hear him on the move as well even as the elevator took the troubled young man into the underground garage.

"He should have gotten home hours ago unless he decided to go shopping or something," Heero replied. "But he isn't answering his phone and when he found me missing when he got back he would have phoned me right away."

"I'm heading up to see Une. I'll brief her when I get there and we'll try to figure out what to do on this end of things. You find our boy and get him locked down tight before he does even more damage than we can clean up for him."

"I'm taking your car," Heero informed him, even as he was climbing into Jackson's car.

"I still have the keys you know."

"Not a problem. I'll call when I find Duo."

Tossing the phone aside Heero hotwired the car with his Preventer-issue ignition inciter and sped off home, desperately hoping to intercept Duo before anything else went horribly wrong. The drive was all of twenty minutes but Heero had never found it so long as that day and was weaving through traffic at high speed to shave off any time he possibly could. Squealing to a halt outside his house, Heero raced up to the front door and felt his heart sink as he found it unlocked. Reaching under his jacket for a weapon, Heero pushed the door open and drew the 10mm free, flicking the safety off with his thumb. The security system was also disabled, another sign that something was wrong. Duo was forgetful at times to be certain, but he never forgot the important things like securing the front door and arming the security system even when at Heero's. Closing the door, Heero called out to Duo but merely got a silent reply. If Duo had been there he was gone now.

The doorbell rang and Heero whirled, weapon leveled at the door before he even realized it.

"Who is it?" Heero demanded, and then slid his weapon away when he heard the voice of their usual pizza delivery boy.

Heero opened the door and took the proffered pizza and tried not to let his distress show through to the young man standing there. Instead he handed over far too much money and went back inside, setting the pizza on the kitchen table as he tried to figure out what was going on. Duo had obviously been home long enough to order a pizza but why was he now gone? It wasn't like Duo at all and that was what had Heero really worried. So many things seemed to be so far out of character for Duo since his return...and then it hit him.

Heero pulled out his phone and called Jackson, even as he rushed upstairs.

"Jackson," he said, even as he saw the open armory in the closet. "He's already got another target."

"Damn it," Jackson cursed. "Any idea who he's after?"

"No, there was nothing that I saw that would tell us where he's going," Heero replied, cradling the phone between his shoulder and ear as he started pulling weapons from their racks and piling them on the bed along with boxes of ammunition, spare magazines and a full set of body armor. "He took weapons and ammo and body armor so I'm guessing it's something big, something more dangerous than a simple assassination."

"That doesn't help us. Get back here quick and we'll talk to Une and get Preventer mobilized. He can't have gotten far and when we get a hundred agents on the streets we'll find him."

"I'll be there in twenty. Get to Une now and get her up to speed. I need to get ready for this."

Without waiting for a response Heero hung up and looked at the instruments of death before him and silently prayed that he wouldn't have to employ them to stop Duo. Quickly changing into a set of stealth armor, Heero then strapped the tactical body armor overtop before strapping a pair of pistols under his arms and a pair of knives to his thighs. There were more weapons before him but Heero decided that spare mags would likely be smarter than lugging around too many extra weapons. Armed and armored Heero tucked his cellphone into a pocket and turned to leave the bedroom but hesitated at the door. If he wanted any hope at breaking through whatever conditioning Duo was acting under Heero knew he could need something more than just words. There was something he had bought some time back when he had first thought to tell Duo the truth of how he felt but had never worked up the courage. It was still in his nightstand gathering dust but maybe the time had come for it to see the light of day and save Heero from what he knew he may have to do if he couldn't turn Duo back. Taking it from the nightstand and tucking it away, Heero fled downstairs but as he reached the front door there was a beeping from the living room. Heero had spun and raised his pistols before he even recognized the sound as a cellphone messaging alert. Confused, he holstered his weapons and found a cellphone on the couch, a phone that looked exactly like the one that Duo had once possessed. Picking it up Heero saw that there was indeed an instant message and opened it. The number that had sent the message was a public payphone, that much Heero knew, but the message was both a tremendous relief and also near-paralyzing. New Horizon had obviously decided to go for broke and strike at the only organization that was poised to interfere with their plans to manipulate ESUN.

As he was speeding back to Preventer at a speed normally reserved for aircraft, Heero's mind kept taking him back to that message again and again and he managed to get Jackson's car to go slightly faster as he buried his foot to the carpet. There had only been one word to the message but it couldn't have been clearer if it was an entire sentence, and Heero could only imagine how much effort it had taken for Duo to free himself for those few seconds to send it.

Une.

Heero ran a red light causing a multiple car pile up and could only hope he was in time before his bestfriend was lost to him forever.

Duo walked up the steps towards the main entrance to Preventer headquarters and no one tried to stop him. It was still almost a minute before Heero would get the message that had been sent and until then Preventer had no idea what hell was about to be unleashed upon it.

Duo's mind was fighting against the programming and could only watch in horror through his eyes as his body came through the doors and immediately gunned down the two security guards that manned the security desk. Two more came quickly from the station around the corner and were similarly drilled with 10mm rounds. People were screaming and running as Duo walked through them, greatcoat falling to the ground to free up his enhanced form. Preventer was built like a fortress and so the sounds of gunfire did not travel far but there were still security cameras that covered every corridor and every entrance or exit and the agents manning the cameras raised the alarm. A wailing siren started to echo down the corridors, agents and security guards mobilizing in short order, but the first to encounter Duo were taken apart without mercy or hesitation. Like all the Gundam pilots Duo was faster and stronger than most people thanks to his extensive training and conditioning, but New Horizon had taken him beyond what any human could imagine or achieve. Now the opposition were carrying automatic weapons but even they could not gun down the traitor in their midst. Duo was too fast, never remaining stationary enough for them to draw an accurate bead before his twin machine pistols thundered and put them down as he dodged at inhuman speed. Leaving the bleeding bodies behind him, Duo ejected the spent clips and let them clatter to the ground before reloading and entering a stairwell to take him to the next floor. In less than five minutes the first floor of Preventer was left destroyed and silent save for the groans of wounded people and the distant roar of weapons fire as Duo ascended towards his target.

Heero roared into the parkade and sprinted for the elevator, pulling his cellphone out and dialing Jackson even as he drew a pistol with his free hand.

"I'm here," he said, keying the elevator for non-stop to the top floor. "Have you found Duo yet?"

"We don't need to find him, he's already here," Jackson informed him. "I've lost contact with everyone on the first five floors. I've routed the security camera feeds to Une's office and we've been watching the carnage your friend has been wreaking."

"Oh god," Heero groaned, closing his eyes and leaning against the elevator wall. "How many dead so far?"

"So far our medical teams have only found wounded but that kind of luck can't hold forever. Sooner or later we're going to have to break out the body bags if we don't do something soon."

"Stay with Une and block her door. Anyone coming through it without the password should be shot on sight. If I can't stop Duo...I'm sorry but I doubt you will be able to bring him down. I'll try to weaken him enough but until he comes through that door don't interfere."

"Do you think you can reach him?" Jackson asked, honest hope in his voice.

Heero thought of what he had brought with him and prayed that it was enough.

"I hope so," he replied, straightening as the elevator came to a stop. "Just let me do this. Keep Une safe but don't interfere."

"Good luck."

"To us all."

The seventh floor was quiet still so Heero assumed that Duo had yet to reach it so he made his way through the already evacuated floor towards Une's office at the end of the central hallway. There were offices scattered down its length and all of them deserted and open, leaving Heero with a number of places to seek cover should it be necessary. Only seconds later Heero watched as Duo came around the corner of the hallway, the still smoking machine pistols in his hands and a dead look in his eyes. It broke Heero's heart to see what he had been dreading confirmed. Duo was indeed the assassin, as his rampage through Preventer headquarters proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. His friend's eyes were the most disturbing change, now empty of the energy and vitality that had once shone so brightly, now they were staring and blank, void of the humanity that Duo had tried so hard to hang on to through all those battles. He seemed to be wearing body armor underneath his Preventer jacket evidenced by several bullet holes in the shoulders and sleeves that were free of blood, and his skills had only been heightened with his experiences. Heero knew that there were miraculously no dead among Preventer personnel, with each of Duo's shots somehow wounding but not killing, something that just didn't seem possible given his programming but it gave Heero hope that just maybe there was some Duo still there under the hypnotic suggestion and mental conditioning.

"Duo," Heero said, not really expecting any response other than gunfire but determined to try anyway, all too aware of the weight of the pistols in his hands.

His friend stopped advancing but that was the extent of the reaction he received.

"Can you hear me Duo?" Heero asked, taking a step closer but saw how Duo's body tensed and retreated the same distance. "If you can hear me Duo I want you to know that no one here has died today. Somehow everyone has only been hurt, though some will need emergency attention. You can still stop and we can work through this, but if you keep going and kill Une, that will be a line you can never uncross. I don't want you to cross that line Duo, so I need you to drop your weapons."

Heero pointedly avoided the word surrender, not knowing what reaction it might trigger in his friend.

The silence stretched on as Heero watched for any sign of the old Duo trying to fight for supremacy against the insidious mind control forced upon him.

"Please Duo, don't let things end like this," Heero begged, hands tightening on his weapons until they started to ache. "I just found you after all this time, I can't lose you again."

There was a series of loud clicks as Duo eased back the hammers on his machine pistols and Heero's heart beat a little faster and his soul died just a little more at the thought that he might have to kill his friend in order to save him from a lifetime of servitude to evil.

"Don't," Heero pleaded, not sure if he could allow himself to cry at the thought of what was coming. "Please, don't do this."

Both raised their weapons at the same time and started moving even as the first rounds left their barrels. Heero strafed quickly towards the open office to his right, pistols thundering under the slightly louder roar of Duo's weapons as they unloaded on full auto. A single round glanced off of Heero's left shoulder and the stinging pain forced him to focus that much more and bury his churning emotions lest he die before he freed his friend. Heero fired on the move until the doorframe shielded him, taking the brief respite to reload his weapons as they clicked empty. The roar from Duo's weapons was echoing down the corridor and distorting Heero's perception of his friend's location as the rounds ricocheted off the walls. Finally the deafening cacophony ended and Heero could hear the clatter of empty clips hitting the floor and knew the time was now or never. Bolting out from behind cover Heero snapped his pistols up and started firing, shocked that Duo wasn't attempting to seek cover but rather was standing in the center of the hallway reloading his weapons. Heero didn't want to kill his friend if there was any possible way to avoid it, so he was shooting for center mass where the armor Duo wore would be strongest. As he expected the 10mm rounds did not penetrate but they staggered Duo and caused him to even drop one of the clips he was reloading. The other pistol came up and sprayed fire but Duo's aim was way off and each round went wide. The empty pistol dropped from his hand and Heero knew what was coming but wasn't quick enough to avoid the small throwing knife that slid into his right shoulder, the agony causing the pistol in that hand to drop. His other weapon clicked empty and Heero dropped it, landing a flying kick to Duo's battered chest that send the braided youth flying. Pulling the blade from his shoulder, Heero tossed it aside and tested the shoulder's motion but though it burned everything seemed to be working. Duo was already back up on his feet, hands empty but advancing with a purpose. Adopting a defensive stance, Heero waited and braced himself for what he did not doubt would be a brutal assault. Sure enough the punch came in lightning fast and hit with the power of a sledgehammer as Heero's blocking arm surged with pain from the impact. Another punch came in and Heero ducked it and came in hard with a shot to the ribs, his hand aching as it struck armor but he knew that Duo had felt it from the unconscious look of pain that flickered across his face. Another blow followed before Heero ducked back from Duo's retaliatory strike, and then lashed out with a foot that took Duo in the side of the head and sent him to his knees. Any sense of accomplishment was quickly banished as Duo spun and took Heero's legs out from under him and then leapt at him, driving a left and then a right into his jaw. Prone and with his right arm flaring in agony, Heero managed to work a knee and then a leg up under Duo and with a quick pull and shove, sent the slightly smaller youth sailing over his head. Rolling and climbing back to his feet, Heero couldn't believe the sight as Duo seemed to have landed crouched and on his feet, knives in hand now. Quickly drawing a pair of similar knives from thigh sheathes, Heero reversed the one in his right hand, angling the blade towards his elbow to better block. Duo came on and his knives flashed, diving in towards Heero's wounded side.

So fast, Heero thought, as he parried the strikes and found himself being forced on the defensive. He's as strong and fast as I am, maybe even stronger and faster. I don't want to hurt him but if I can't reach him, I will have to take him down.

"Duo, listen to me," Heero begged, throwing up his right arm and intercepting an overhead swipe at his neck. "Don't listen to the voices in your head. All they're telling you are lies. You don't have to do this just because they're trying to make you. You're stronger than this. I've seen you face off against dozens of mobile suits, you can fight back now too."

Still Duo would not speak, but there was something different in his face now and Heero could only hope that his words were starting to penetrate the layers of posthypnotic suggestion that New Horizon had implanted in his mind. If Duo could just take control even for a few moments, Heero could take him down easily and they could try to undo whatever had been done to him.

"I know you can hear me," Heero continued, moving as fast as he could to try and keep up with Duo but the pain in his jaw and his shoulder were starting to take their toll. A blade came in and sliced open his left thigh but the cut wasn't serious. "If you're worried about what you've already done, don't be. I won't let them do anything to you. I only just found you and no one will take you away ever again. We'll face the consequences together and leave this all behind. Do you remember the NightSky? Do you remember what happened there? All I've wanted since then is to see where it could go, to see if what we both felt is real."

Duo came in again, blades whirling and darting and scoring several minor hits even as Heero did the same, his own knives weaving through the almost complete lack of defence Duo seemed to be putting up to slice into his stomach and arms. It was then that Heero realized just how hard his friend truly was fighting for his salvation. Somehow Duo was resisting the commands his brain was throwing at him and leaving himself wide open again and again hoping that Heero would land the killer blow and put a stop to the insanity he had been suffering. The warrior in Heero wanted to oblige and his hands tensed on the hilts of his blades but Heero knew he couldn't kill Duo any more than he could kill himself.

"I won't kill you Duo, I can't," Heero told him, stepping back and changing his stance, lowering his guard slightly to show that he truly meant what he was saying. It was now or never because Heero could feel his body starting to fail under the dozens of minor cuts and several deeper wounds. "I didn't go through all this just to kill you now."

"Kill me."

Heero blinked in surprise at the words that somehow forced themselves from between Duo's lips, as he stood rigid, obviously battling with all his will against his programming.

"Kill me," Duo managed again, and Heero felt his heart break as he saw the tears in his friend's cobalt eyes as he begged for mercy.

"No," Heero gasped, barely able to speak now and felt himself losing all control of his knives as they nearly slipped from his sweating hands. "I can't do it, I can't kill you..."

"Please."

"I can't!" Heero shouted, tears running down his own face now. "You may as well ask me to kill myself! I could never live with myself without you, not anymore. I need you more than I need the air I breathe."

Duo was visibly shaking now as the war within him raged and Heero knew that there was only one more chance to break the deadlock. Either Duo would regain control or he would be lost and only the puppet would remain so Heero took a deep breath and locked his eyes with Duo's before saying something that he had held back saying that fateful night in the NightSky but had known he would say for years.

"I love you Duo, more than I ever thought I could love anyone," he revealed, and it felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from his chest at last. For so long he had feared saying those words and now upon finally saying them, Heero felt himself lighter and more unencumbered than he could ever remember. "When you kissed me in the NightSky I thought I could fly faster than Wing Zero on full burn. I want to know that feeling again. I want you to come home with me."

For a moment it seemed to Heero that the battle had been won for Duo lowered his weapons and stood still, smiling at last, as it seemed he had overwhelmed the programming within. Any hope was soon dashed as Duo rushed forward, a look of horror on his face as he realized that he was not acting under his own volition. Heero tried to block the twin knives but Duo was inside his defenses before he could fully prepare. He managed to deflect the first blade that came in a high arcing move that would have seen it delving deep into his neck, but Duo's second knife came in low in a wide arc and Heero's parry was too slow. The knife wasn't too long, only eight inches, but it was razor sharp and slid through Heero's armor and into his side, slipping between his ribs before angling up and slashing his stomach and his left lung. Pain of a rare intensity nearly caused Heero to black out for a moment as his weapons fell from his now numb fingers and his body collapsed to the floor, the blade still held securely in Duo's hand sliding free. His blood pumping out of him rapidly, Heero managed to look up at Duo's horrified expression and smile.

"It's not your fault," he gasped, his wounded lung filling with blood. "This isn't you. I love you."

With that Heero lost consciousness and did not hear the clatter as the blood stained blade fell to the floor or the cry of anguished loss that came from the finally freed Duo.

Blood rushed over Duo's hand as the knife blade stabbed deeply into Heero, and it sprayed and splattered as his friend's body collapsed and jerked the blade free. His heart thudding in his ears Duo didn't hear the last words that Heero gasped before falling unconscious, though he could be dead for all that Duo knew.

Dead. Oh god no, he can't be dead.

The thought blasted through his head and in that soul destroying moment all the malicious thoughts and commands that New Horizon had burned into his brain were washed away and the truth of what he had done took hold.

"Heero," Duo whispered, his legs giving out beneath him and dropping him onto his knees. "Oh god, Heero, you can't die! Somebody help me!"

Duo crawled to Heero's body and lifted him into his arms, not caring that the blood soaked him even more completely that it already had, did not care that his own wounds were still bleeding freely.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Duo babbled, trying to hold Heero's wound closed even as he heard the pounding of approaching footsteps. "I love you Heero, don't leave me please don't leave me."

Jackson and Lady Une came rushing over from Une's office, and medical personnel came around the corner behind Duo, who ignored them all as he looked down at Heero's pale face and cradled his body.

"Forgive me," Duo begged, as the paramedics gently separated him from Heero and started to administer to his friend's wounds. "Forgive me."

There was one last bit of programming that Duo had not managed to overcome when he had seen Heero's collapse and possible death. The suicide imperative didn't come into play until the mission could no longer be achieved or if the operative was in danger of being captured. Duo knew what was coming and did nothing to stop it, so lost in his grief and wanting to die. Before anyone could stop him, Duo had scrambled over to where one of his machine pistols lay, scooped it up, pressed the barrel to his temple and fired.

Duo's eyes snapped open and then closed again as the bright lights assaulted his senses. Opening them more slowly now, Duo gave himself a chance to adjust to the light before taking a look around. He had half expected to see fire and brimstone, but all he found was a hospital room, clean and sterile with the only other bed in the room closed off with a curtain. Sitting up, Duo felt the tightness and pain from his many wounds but could already tell that he was on the mend, no doubt thanks to whatever doctor had treated him so quickly.

"Heero," he blurted, tearing the monitors from his body and ignoring the high-pitched whine that indicated a sensor malfunction.

On instinct Duo stumbled over to the cordoned off bed and jerked the curtain back and there was his friend, swathed in bandages and intravenous drips in both arms pumping him full of medications and nutrients as it appeared that his jaw was too swollen to chew even if he had the energy.

"Oh god," Duo whispered, not daring to approach any closer as he couldn't know if there were any lingering killer urges just waiting to re-emerge. "What have I done?"

The lifesigns monitors were showing strong readings across the board, but such knowledge did little to appease Duo's ever mounting guilt and having put his friend in such a position. Heero seemed to be healing as fast as ever, as was Duo now, but thinking about it only pained the American more. He had always been amazed at what Heero could do and coining the phrase Perfect Soldier to describe the Japanese youth, but now Heero looked just as fragile and helpless as anyone else. Tempting fate, Duo moved closer to his friend as quietly as he could lest he wake him from his healing slumber. Time passed and still Duo simply stood and watched, not caring that his legs were aching and tired or that his stomach was demanding food, but he spun around instantly as he hear the door behind him open. Without his armor and weapons Duo didn't know what kind of defense he could mount against any New Horizon agents that were coming for them, but he'd die trying.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake," Jackson said, and Duo relaxed as the sight of a friendly face. "I was more than a little worried that the suicide programming would stop your heart even though the gun you used was thankfully empty."

"I wish it wasn't," Duo said, unable to meet the others eyes. "Look what I did to him, and he let me on the faint hope that I could stop myself."

"You did stop yourself. It may have been at the very end, but you did."

"After I nearly killed him. After I stuck my knife into him and tried to bleed him dry. I've called myself the God of Death for so long now for just this reason; everyone I care about dies because I'm too weak and powerless to stop it."

"So you think you're weak because they were able to program you to kill without your knowing it?" Jackson asked, curious as to Duo's reasoning but the other was having none of it.

"Obviously I am. Heero would never have fallen for their lies. He never would have stopped fighting to free himself and strike back, but after a while I just let them do what they wanted and didn't even put up a fight. That's why they took me in the first place, because they knew who he was and they knew that he wouldn't be turned as easily as me."

"I can't deny that they chose you because they felt you would be easier to manipulate," Jackson admitted, and Duo felt his heart sink even lower. "But they came to regret their decision didn't they? You proved them wrong and Heero right."

"What do you mean?" Duo asked, now confused. "Proved Heero right about what?"

"On our way to VC-454 Heero told me all about you, how you were stronger than you seemed and how much like you he wished he was."

Duo didn't know what to say to that, turning and looking at Heero's sleeping form and gaping at his friend, unable to believe that he could have said something like that. And yet, given what they had shared at the NightSky, it was indeed probably true.

"He respects you and cares for you more than you might be ready to accept," Jackson continued. "Things will only get more complicated from here on in, but if you persevere the rewards will be greater than you can imagine."

"Oh, I can imagine quite a lot," Duo replied, smiling nervously. "It's a matter of if it will come to be or not."

"Do you really doubt that?"

"I have to. I won't let myself get lost in what I'm feeling."

"Why not?"

"Because if he doesn't feel the same, I'd rather be dead than without him."

"Well congratulations, he feels the same. Now get down to business and don't worry about New Horizon. I'll track them down and we can decide what to do then. In the mean time, I think Heero's awake."

Duo turned back to his wakening friend, then back to the man by the door only to find Jackson gone as quickly as he had appeared.

"Duo?"

Pulling a chair over and sitting down next to Heero's bed, Duo looked into his friends Prussian blue eyes and saw that there was little pain there anymore.

"I'm here," Duo replied, not sure just what physical contact he could initiate and then deciding to throw caution to the wind and laid a hand on Heero's shoulder. "How are you feeling? Oh god, don't answer that, that's a stupid question."

"I'm fine," Heero told him, smiling slightly. "Thanks for the concern. Another day and I'll be back to normal. Until then I'm just going to enjoy all the painkillers and rest I'm getting."

"At least you finally know what it's like when you hit me all those times," Duo grinned, remembering the power behind the sucker punch Heero had landed when they were infiltrating colony X-18999. "Now maybe you'll think twice before you start beating me up for no good reason."

"I think I have a lot of reasons," Heero observed, waving a hand slowly across the numerous cuts and bruises that his body sported though hidden beneath the blanket covering him. "Well, they are there, so don't think just because you can't see them that you're off the hook."

"Well, I think I need proof," Duo countered. "I'm not going to get all guilty if I don't get to see all these injuries you supposedly have."

"You just want to look under the covers."

"And your point being?"

Heero actually laughed at that, and Duo felt a weight lift from his shoulders, and then Heero reached up with a hand trailing IV tubes and took Duo's hand in his.

"How much do you remember of what happened outside Une's office?" Heero asked, and Duo felt the weight return and start crushing the life out of him once more.

"Everything," he admitted, and started to pull his hand away but Heero held on tightly and wouldn't let him. "Until the very end, I just couldn't stop myself and by then..."

"I'm still alive aren't I?" Heero asked, the question clearly rhetorical. "My injuries will heal fully, and you managed to free yourself. Mission accomplished, I'd say."

"But I didn't free myself," Duo explained, remembering his despair in the cell he had been kept in. "I spent more time in my cell wondering where you were and why you weren't saving me than actually trying to free myself. All I wanted was for you to charge in to my rescue like on Barge and save the day. That's why they took me and not you Heero, because I'm weak."

"You aren't weak," Heero snapped, squeezing even tighter to the point that Duo thought his hand might shatter. "You fought two wars that ended up killing thousands of other people, and you didn't survive by hiding in a corner somewhere waiting for the end to come. You were in the thick of battle and you survived. So how does that make you weak? You think you're weak just because you despaired in an impossible situation? I've felt the same before, and I don't consider myself weak. If anything, I think I'm too strong at times, too willing to ignore my feelings in favor of completing the mission, single-minded to the point of disaster. I wish I was more like you."

Duo didn't even realize he was doing it but he soon found himself leaning over Heero's body and his lips found the others and once again he got the feeling of absolute happiness just as he had experienced in the NightSky. At first there was no passion in the kiss, but Duo felt himself being pulled in closer and tighter as Heero began to kiss him hungrily and Duo couldn't have been happier. Time slowed and in the end Duo wasn't sure and didn't care how long they had been pressed together, but finally needing breath they parted and seeing the look on Heero's face, Duo knew he could press forward with the questions he needed answered.

"I also remember everything else," Duo added, and he saw the concern in Heero's eyes that perhaps he shouldn't have said what he had said. "I...I need to know if you meant what you said or if all you wanted was to keep me from killing Une. Was it all just a tactical move or was it real?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"Not that I know of."

"The answer is no. Tactically deceived, maybe. Lied, no. Yesterday was real, as real as what we had at the NightSky, and that was as honest and real as it gets."

"So you weren't just trying to talk me down?"

"I meant every word I said," Heero told him, raising a hand and placing it on Duo's cheek. "Everything."

Duo reached up and put his hand over his friends and closed his eyes, unable to believe what was happening and even more unable to believe that the youth before him was about to confirm it with the five words Duo had never expected to hear.

"I love you Duo Maxwell."

If the world had ended at that very moment Duo would not have noticed nor cared, but thankfully the world didn't end and so he would get to see just where things were heading.

"I love you too, Heero," Duo whispered, opening his eyes and smiling down at the bandaged youth before taking the hand from his cheek and kissing it. "I guess the only question I have now is where do we go from here?"

"Well first off, you're taking me home in a few hours after they give me my discharge exam," Heero informed him, in a tone that brooked no argument. "They didn't want me to leave so soon, but as you now understand, I dislike hospitals."

"Oh, I think I understand that now."

"Beyond that...I think we may need to talk about it further to make sure we're both on the same page."

"Well what page are you on?" Duo pressed, now curious as to what was making Heero so reticent. "Read me the details of this page you speak of."

"Baka," Heero smiled. "Well my page tells me that there is no point in continuing to pay for two homes when we spend all of our time together anyway, even before our revelations."

"Such a romantic story," Duo joked, enjoying the blush that came to Heero's cheeks and then kissed him fiercely. "I love it. Keep going."

"I've also given some thought as I lay here in a semi-coma," Heero continued, giving Duo the most loving death glare ever recorded. "I don't plan to attach any words or labels to what we are to each other or anything like that..."

"But?"

"I bought something for you a long time ago. It's probably still there in my clothes if you want to take a look. I brought it to help bring you back...and to prove to you that I mean what I say."

Duo reluctantly released Heero's hand and went to where his clothes and armor lay on a trolley next to the window, left by Jackson no doubt. Rummaging through the pockets Duo quickly came across something that he nearly dropped, his heart was thumping so hard.

He really means it, Duo thrilled. He really means all of it.

From his hand dangled a chain of platinum and from the chain hung a crossed pair of scythes also made of platinum. Lifting the scythes up closer to his eyes, Duo could see that there were words engraved across the blades and down both shafts.

For Duo Maxwell

An Angel with Black Wings
An Angel who Stole My Heart

For a moment Duo thought his own heart had stopped beating completely as he felt wetness running down his cheeks. Slowly turning back, Duo watched as Heero blushed even more furiously and looked uncomfortable at what he knew would be running through Duo's mind at that moment, and he would not have been too far off.

"It's beautiful," Duo breathed, wiping quickly at his eyes with his free hand, smiling to let Heero know that he truly understood the depth of the gift. "I take it this is supposed to be similar to say...a ring?"

"That might be what is on my page," Heero smiled, as Duo came back and sat down next to him again. "Obviously that depends on if you like what you read."

"Hmm, I don't know, maybe I should hold off on any commitments for now," Duo mused, looking at the ceiling and trying to seem as deep in thought as possible. "I mean, maybe I can do better after all. I mean look at me. You sure you're in my league?"

"I know that I can't dance like you," Heero admitted, also looking thoughtful to play the game. "But I can drink more than you can, shoot straighter, drive better, and I can do more sit-ups and push-ups than you can. Well, maybe not now but we'll have to have another contest to decide that. You're also a complete disaster at home, despite the fact that you can cook. It took me hours to clean up your toxic waste dump of a house, and I don't even want to know how long that toilet had been clogged for."

"So basically it sounds as though we should really cut our losses," Duo observed. "We're obviously not compatible so we should just walk away."

When he went to look down at Heero, Duo was instead face to face with his friend, Heero having sat up on the edge of the bed.

"If you ever left me, I don't know what I would do with myself," Heero whispered, no more humor in his tone. "We've been friends for years, and if you honestly tell me that you don't think what we've started is worth risking that I'll understand, but I won't ever stop loving you. If it weren't for your constant chattering and forcing me to do more than just look to my missions, I would still be the soldier I was instead of the person I am now. I've wanted to tell you the truth of how I feel for a long time, but I couldn't be sure that you could love me back. Now that I know you do, or at least that you might in time, I'll do anything I can to show you that I love you more than anyone else ever can. I..."

"Oh shut up," Duo said, and then pulled Heero to him and again they were lost in the passion of another kiss that neither had ever dared to dream would ever happen. When at last they separated, Duo put the chain around his neck and tucked it inside his tattered shirt so that it was as close to him as it could be.

"I've loved you, truly known I've loved you, before the Eve War was even over and I've lived every day since loving you more and more and yet fearing to tell you in case you didn't feel the same," Duo told him, unconsciously running his eyes over Heero's revealed body and though he was saddened at the wounds that he had inflicted there was also a thrill at seeing the nearly naked body of the person he loved mere inches away. "When you took my hand in the NightSky, I thought that my heart would leap out of my chest. I took a chance then and kissed you but I had no guarantee that you truly cared for me, until you came out onto the dance floor and kissed me in return. I've never been that happy Heero. Never. You have no idea, or maybe you do, how hard it was for me not to drag you into a corner somewhere and kiss you all night. I swear that I can still taste you from that night. If you want to move in together, I'm all over that. If you want to date as a couple for a while I'm game, but if you think what we've been doing the entire time we've been friends has constituted dating and you just want to be my boyfriend then I couldn't be happier...unless you intended this to mean something even more than that."

Duo grabbed the scythes through his shirt and hoped that Heero would say those magic words.

"I never want you leave me," Heero whispered, never breaking eye contact with Duo. "I've never loved anyone before, but I know what I feel and I know how much I want you with me. Marry me."

Duo could have sworn that he had blacked out for a moment with all the emotions coursing through him, but in reality he had just taken some time to himself to make certain that he wanted this. God did he want this.

"You couldn't get rid of me now even if you tried," Duo grinned, tracing a finger across Heero's chest. "You're stuck with me now, with or without a ring or anything, so you better get used to it."

"I think I've made a horrible mistake," Heero teased, grinning back. "Maybe I should have shot you in that hotel room after all."

"Oh, the Heero Yuy wit, I've been pierced through the heart again," Duo mimed, leaning back heavily in his chair as he faked being shot. "Just for that we're moving into my place not yours and you'll just have to live with the mess. Wait, did you say earlier that you cleaned it up?"

Heero nodded.

"All my germs and moulds, dead and gone!" Duo cried. "Oh the humanity!"

"Oh shut up," Heero laughed. "Now get me the hell out of here before I try and take you."

"Would you even know how to do that?"

The look Heero gave him was so full of lust and desire that Duo found himself blushing and feeling hot enough to start sweating.

"You've seen how much time I spend on the computer...what do you think?"

"Duo, I swear I'm going to kill you if you can't learn to put your clothes in the hamper!"

Duo smiled as he stirred the scrambled eggs that were cooking in the frying pan and started the toast, as they wouldn't be long.

It had been five days since the two had moved in together in Duo's home, their home now, and it had been some of the best fun that Duo could remember having. They hadn't left the house the entire time, ordering in their groceries or food and spending the rest of the time simply relaxing and being together. Heero was completely healed again, as was Duo, and that was fortunate for they had discovered just how passionate they were together. Hardly an hour went by when one or the other wasn't grabbing their lover and throwing them up against the wall or onto the couch and kissing them as though the world would come to an end. Duo lamented the day that the passion in their lives would fade, but given how young they still were and the shower make-out session that very morning he didn't anticipate that happening for quite some time. Duo smiled at the memory, standing under the water for nearly an hour just he and Heero lost together until at last the hot water expired and the icy blast destroyed the passion they had been building. Turning down the heat on the eggs to just keep them warm until Heero was done, Duo found himself somewhat frustrated that he and Heero hadn't gone the final step in their relationship and become physically intimate, but at the same time realized that there was no need to rush things and that mere sex could hardly compare to waking up in Heero's arms.

"Baka," Heero muttered, coming up behind Duo and wrapping his arms around him. "Leave your wet towel on the bathroom floor again and I will destroy you."

"Oh, that sounds like it could be fun," Duo replied, turning in Heero's embrace and facing him before embracing him back. "And just how would you plan on destroying me?"

Heero leered at him and Duo found himself feeling warm once again.

"Oh," was all he could say in reply to that look, and then they were merged together again, breakfast forgotten as they freed their long-suppressed desires again.

The moment stretched on for almost ten minutes before the ringing of a phone ruined it, a disgusted Duo pulling away from Heero albeit reluctantly, and pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Duo's house of pleasure," Duo said, causing Heero to roll his eyes at the comment.

"Scramble channel."

Meeting Heero's eyes and nonverbally telling him that something was up, Duo hit the encoding command into the phone and spoke into it.

"Scrambled."

"Good. First I'm going to ask that you two keep the music down after midnight. Some of us aren't madly in love and wanting to party all night."

Duo grinned and nodded at Heero when he mouthed Jackson's name. Jackson had moved into Heero's old townhouse and was a regular visitor when his activities would permit.

"We'll try, but when Heero commands a dance I can hardly refuse."

"Whatever. This isn't just a social call. I think I've found our mole."

Now any playfulness Duo was experiencing was gone and only the soldier remained. Hitting the speakerphone button so that Heero could hear as well, Duo asked Jackson to repeat what he'd said.

"I think I know who the mole is," Jackson repeated.

"Finally," Heero hissed, taking Duo's hand in his and holding tightly. "Who is it? Who betrayed us?"

"As far as I can tell you've never even met him," Jackson replied, clearly consulting the information he had gathered. "He's part of the data gathering department, been there for about two years, and seems to only have normal security access."

"Obviously he's more than capable of getting past our security if he compromised us," Duo remarked.

"Obviously. Regardless, his file is completely clean and that is what first caught my eye. No military record that I could find under the name we have, but if he can get around Preventer security programs than he could obviously create a false identity convincing enough to get him through the screening process."

"What's his name?"

"Paul Lloyd but his codename is Agent Loki."

"Loki," Heero muttered, drawing a look from Duo.

"Something on your mind?" he asked his lover.

"I'm not sure. There's just something about that name that bothers me. Let me think on it. Have you found any concrete evidence besides a shady past?"

Jackson audibly rifled through some papers over the phone before answering.

"Well for one thing, he was one of only a handful of agents that weren't at headquarters when Duo was reported to be gunning for Lady Une."

"So why don't you suspect the other agents?" Duo asked, confused by Jackson's supposed evidence.

"Because all the other agents were on well-documented assignments like your friend Wufei. Loki on the other hand, well there's nothing anywhere to explain why he ignored the call for all agents to return to headquarters that day. Not to mention the fact that he has a large number of absences from headquarters for someone in his position, and none of them have solid reasons or any orders behind them."

"Why didn't someone notice this before?" Heero demanded, upset that his and Duo's lives could have been lost because some paper-pusher hadn't done their job.

"Whoever this guy is he's pretty good. Everything was misfiled and hidden extremely well but not so well as to draw undue suspicion. All my instincts are telling me that this is the guy."

"Come over then and we'll deal with this," Duo told him. "Do you know where he is right now or how to find him?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm watching him right now inside his house and quite the house it is."

"How long will it take you to get here?"

"About thirty minutes."

"See you then."

Duo hung up the phone and stared at it for several seconds, making Heero somewhat concerned until his future husband, for that was truly what the gift of the chain meant to them both, turned and gave him a look of supreme satisfaction.

"We found the bastard," Duo said, pushing closer to Heero and tossing the phone onto the kitchen table. "Finally we found him."

"Yes, we did," Heero replied, a sly smile forming on his lips as he knew what was coming. "And we're going to wring a confession out of him before we kill him for what he did. Wait, now I remember what I was thinking earlier. Loki and Janus are both mythical historical figures that are considered two-faced, Loki even turning against the ancient Norse gods and siding with their enemies."

"Is there anything you don't know?"

"Do you have to ask rhetorical questions?"

"Have I told you lately that I love you?" Duo asked, knowing that he told his boyfriend that so many times a day it was impossible to keep track.

"I'm not sure," Heero replied, leaning in closer. "Perhaps you should tell me again."

"How about I show you?"

Duo tapped his foot impatiently even as Heero busied himself cleaning and test firing the assault rifle that Jackson had given him as an engagement gift. Duo had received one of the katanas that Jackson had wielded for so long. Neither had known what to make of the gifts at first, but had decided later that it was a small way that Jackson could begin to move beyond his past. Besides, the weapons were exquisite and even if they had never found Janus they would have hung them above the fireplace or on the mantle, reminders and memories of the past.

"How longs it been?" Duo asked, impatiently looking at his watch.

"Twenty seven minutes," Heero replied, without even looking at his watch, which irritated Duo to no end.

"Could you at least pretend that you had to check the time before you said that?" Duo whined, causing Heero to roll his eyes and punch him in the shoulder. "Put some music on or I'm going to go nuts waiting."

Soon dance music was reverberating through the house as Duo tried to calm himself in the face of his revenge. It might have been wrong or selfish or any number of other words, but the scars that New Horizon had left on his psyche demanded that Duo do something to exorcise his demons.

"I like this song," Heero observed, unconsciously bobbing his head and Duo smiled. It had taken some effort but Heero was a more regular dance partner now during their evenings. Not as good as Duo yet, Heero still managed to cut quite the figure when he moved and more often than not Duo ended up throwing him to the couch and ravaging him with kisses after only a few songs, so great was his desire.

"So do I," Duo replied, feeling those desires building again as he watched his lover groove to the beat. "Seriously though, stop the head bobbing or I'm going to tackle you."

"Head bobbing turns you on?" Heero replied, shaking his head in mock disgust. "For shame Duo. You need to learn some self control."

"Look who's talking," Duo laughed. "You nearly froze me to death in the shower when you started in on me."

"Hey, until we ran out of hot water you were enjoying it!"

"Well obviously. I think you have the bruises on your thighs to prove it."

That had Heero blushing somewhat, and Duo couldn't stand it anymore. Heero was too attractive, too amazing, and do Duo bore him down into the couch and met no resistance as he pressed his lips to his lovers and they wiled away the last few minutes until at last there was a knock on the door.

"We should make him wait," Duo breathed, smiling down at Heero.

"We should get our revenge first," Heero suggested. "And then celebrate for a week."

"That sounds way better."

Duo kissed Heero fiercely once more before climbing off of him and helping him to his feet. Leaving Heero to cover the door with the assault rifle, now loaded, Duo opened the door fearlessly and allowed Jackson in.

"Quite the welcome," Jackson observed, as Heero lowered the rifle. "I don't think I want to ask what you two have been doing while you waited."

"Not really," Duo agreed, grinning at Heero who smiled back. "You'll have to forgive us, we're a bit excited at your news."

"Shocking. I assume that we aren't considering simply arresting him and handing him over to Preventer?"

Duo gave Jackson a look that assured the other that there would be no substituting justice for revenge, not this time.

"Stupid question."

"Very stupid," Heero agreed. "We'll deal with the situation. All we need from you is to get us there and hold back the police if they arrive. Hopefully we can take care of all of this before they even get a phone call."

"Not too quickly," Duo cut in. "I want this Janus, or whatever the hell his name is, to suffer as much as I did."

"We don't have five days to do it remember."

"Oh, I already have ideas so don't worry about that. We need five minutes to pack up and then we can go."

Duo strapped on his stealth armor in record time, slotting throwing knives into every sheath and looking across at the selection of weapons he had arrayed on the coffee table.

"Do we care about subtlety?" he asked Heero, who seemed similarly torn as to his choices. "I mean, if you're taking that cannon with you, does it really matter if I bring a few grenades with me?"

"Not particularly. I'm taking the cannon, as you call it, and some 10mms. I'll leave the knife work to you."

"Good choice. Hmm, so many choices, what is a boy to do."

"Hurry up. I'm not getting any younger."

"Shut up or I swear I'll stick this sword where the sun doesn't shine."

"Baka."

Duo smiled as they bantered, somewhat distracting himself from the fact that he was contemplating cold-blooded murder. Murder. This wasn't self-defense any more, or killing in the line of duty. Killing Janus was nothing more than revenge, but Duo was certain he could sleep with that on his conscience.

"Help me get this settled," Duo asked, trying to get the sword secured over his right shoulder, and Heero helped cinch it down tightly. "Okay let's go. He has two names so its only fitting I carve him into at least two pieces to match. Jackson, get the car started, we'll be out in a second."

When the other was gone Duo faced his other half, or better half as Heero undoubtedly would state, and looked for any sign that Heero was uncomfortable with what they were about to do.

"Are you having any doubts about this?" Duo asked, stepping closer but not making any physical contact that might force Heero to answer against his heart. "If you do, I don't want you coming."

"Are you serious?" Heero replied, and at first Duo thought that he was grateful for a way out until Heero put himself toe to toe with Duo and smiled at him. "I'm with you, all the way. Even if you didn't want this son of a bitch dead, I do. He almost took the only good thing I have from me. So don't worry about me, just worry about you. Get this guy and we'll work through the rest together."

"Do you have any idea how much I love you right now?" Duo asked, rhetorically.

"Oh, I think I have some idea."

Duo kissed him then, nothing overly amazing but one promising more if only they could come home again.

"Let's go," Duo smiled. "It's time to end this."

They piled into Jackson's car, uncaring if anyone noticed them toting such an arsenal in broad daylight. They made the drive in silence, save for Heero as he checked and re-checked his massive weapon, not wanting one of the immense shells to misfire and jam the magnificent rifle.

"Stop playing with that," Duo whispered, elbowing Heero in the ribs that earned him both a glare and a chaste kiss. "Hmm, maybe I should tease you more often."

That time he got an elbow in his own ribs for his trouble and wisely shut up for the rest of the trip. Duo stared in amazement at the size of the home that they pulled up across the road from.

"Not exactly being subtle is he," Duo muttered, though Heero nodded having heard the remark.

"It looks like he's still home and alone," Jackson reported, regarding the mansion through the magnoculars he held in hand now.

"Then let us serve an eviction notice," Duo said, reaching down and flicking off the safeties of the machine pistols holstered on his thighs.

Seconds later Duo and Heero were making their way quickly towards the front door of the home, Duo in the lead with hands on the butts of his weapons. With no need for stealth, or indeed any desire, Duo gave the door a solid kick just to the left of the door handle and watched as it splintered in a number of places where there were hidden deadbolts to secure the door. In the face of Duo's new strength though they just weren't enough, and the door banged open, Duo pouncing through with his weapons suddenly in his hands and searching for the man he came to kill.

"I know you're here Paul Lloyd," Duo called out, listening intently for any sign that his quarry was moving towards then. "Or do you prefer Janus? Or perhaps Agent Loki? Come out unarmed and I promise I'll kill you relatively quickly. Make me work for my revenge and you'll suffer as long as I can drag it out."

"You truly are pathetic," Janus replied, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. "Do you think that I will just surrender because you managed to deduce my true identity? Agent Loki may have out lived his usefulness now, but another agent will not be hard to insert into Preventer if I so choose, and that agent will be one of my covert soldiers."

"Oh, I doubt you'll manage it a second time. Lady Une will already be changing all of our security measures. Your little plan required access to Preventer files and influence, and now you won't have that."

"I will find a way, I always do. I'm a survivor. I will survive your changing sides, I will survive the loss of access at Preventer, and I will survive today."

Duo swung left facing the dining room and saw a flicker of movement and opened fire, his enhanced strength making controlling the bucking pistols so much easier than the past. Moving forward Duo continued to rake the room with automatic fire, splintering the expensive oak table and chairs and wreaking havoc on the walls. When as last his weapons clicked empty, Duo took a moment to assess his reaction and chided himself for wasting so much ammunition. Heero would certainly bring that up on the way home. Replacing the spent magazines, Duo quickly crossed the destroyed dining room to the door that led to the kitchen and saw that a jacket lay on the ground near the door, hit repeatedly by weapons fire.

"Damn it," he muttered, toeing it aside and turning to Heero. "Go ahead and say it."

"Nice shooting Tex," Heero deadpanned.

Duo shot him a not too pleasant look but felt his heart leap into his throat as Heero raised his rifle blindingly fast and squeeze off a single shot that whizzed past Duo's head and took a plate-sized chunk out of the doorframe behind him. Knowing just what Heero had done, that being saving his life, Duo dropped low and spun around, pistols searching for Janus. Heero came up slowly behind him with the still smoking weapon held steady in his arms and braced at the shoulder.

Unsure of the safety of assaulting the kitchen blind, Duo holstered one pistol and pulled a grenade from his belt and activated it with his thumb before tossing it into the kitchen. Flattening himself quickly against the wall and drawing his pistol again, Duo nodded to Heero who also moved to the wall beside him. A thunderous explosion rocked the house and Duo was instantly up and through the doorway, but the kitchen was nothing but a smoking ruin with fires guttering amongst a smashed table and several overhead cabinets. Checking the debris for any bodies or booby traps, Duo spotted something dangling from a charred overhead cabinet.

"He's got the entire house wired with speakers," Duo muttered, tearing the small three-inch speaker from the last wire holding it up. "That's how he was projecting his voice."

"We can't underestimate him," Heero agreed, looking about warily. "To have gotten this far he is not likely to make a simple mistake."

"I'm glad you agree," Janus' voice rang out from the surviving speakers all around them. "You should have let the past be past, but now you will die like all those who have opposed us."

A rattling noise startled them both and had them looking around with their weapons searching out the source of the sound. Duo saw it first as a cylindrical object dropped out of the ventilation fan above the melted stove and clattered to the ground. Faster than he could imagine, Duo tackled Heero back into the dining room, protecting Heero with his own body. The grenade exploded spectacularly, incinerating anything remaining in the kitchen that had survived Duo's similar assault moments before, even blasting its way through the adjoining wall into the dining room, showering the prone pair with debris.

"I am beginning to dislike this guy," Heero observed.

"Join the club," Duo groaned, climbing off his lover and helping him to his feet. "He's upstairs obviously. Any ideas about how to get up there without using the one set of stairs that is sure to be booby trapped or have him waiting for us?"

"The only other solution I see is equally risky, but he may not have thought about it."

"I prefer your way to his. What do you want to do?"

Looking around the dining room, Heero selected the far right exterior corner and moved towards it before training his assault rifle upwards and opening fire. Six precise shots and suddenly there was a gaping hole in the ceiling leading up into the room above. Duo watched as Heero slung his rifle and cupped his hands.

"You better know what you're doing," Duo muttered, holstering his pistols and stepping up into Heero's hands before finding himself hurtling through the hole.

Landing with both feet on either side of the hole, Duo had his weapons out before he even touched down and found himself alone in a well-appointed bedroom.

Moving to cover the closed door, Duo heard Heero pull himself up and move up close.

Using hand signals perfected after years of fighting together, Duo motioned for Heero to cover him as he opened the door. With the rifle trained on the opening, Duo slowly reached for and opened the door, pulling it open with just enough velocity to open itself entirely while he dropped back. The door opened silently and when no bullets started flying, the pair headed for the door and Duo used a small mirror to peer around the doorjamb and look down the hallway. At first glance there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but as he looked closer Duo could see something protruding ever so slightly from another room farther down the hallway. Indicating to Heero that he saw something, Duo moved out and kept flat to the left-hand wall, knives and not pistols in hand this time. He passed a bathroom and peeked in for an instant and found it empty and continued on, at last coming to the bedroom door with what was obviously a silencer protruding from it. Turning to look back at Heero, Duo smiled at him briefly and then plunged into the room, driving his blades into what he found there and bore it to the ground. The silenced pistol fell from the mannequin's hand as it struck the ground, Duo's knives buried deep in its chest.

"What the hell?" Duo exclaimed, and then the closet in the hallway behind him exploded.

The fire washed over him but the closet door had muffled the worst of the explosion at the cost of it being turned into shrapnel. Wood splinters flew everywhere, several catching Duo across the back of the head but Heero took the worst of the punishment as he was out in the open. Duo could hear his friend's groans of pain and rolled off the mannequin in time to see Janus come out of the bedroom closet clad in stealth armor and wearing a number of weapons, not least the silenced submachine gun in his hands.

"Well played," Janus laughed, weapon trained on Duo. "If you had bothered to locate the cameras hidden throughout my home your plan would have worked. However, this is just one more indication that you were a failure. Thankfully where I failed with you I succeeded with myself."

"You used your experiment on yourself?" Duo asked, disbelieving his ears.

"Of course, though from the information gathered from your enhancement has allowed my scientists and I to refine the procedure. I am now beyond even you or your friend, who lies bleeding and dying in the hallway."

"Just one more thing for you to pay for," Duo hissed, readying himself for the coming attack.

"Perhaps one day," Janus grinned. "But you will not be there to see it."

Duo could see his attacker's finger tighten on the trigger and knew it was now or never. With a quick snap movement of his right wrist, Duo sent the spring-loaded knife cutting upwards and deflecting the barrel of the weapon just as it discharged, spraying fire into a wall. With only a heartbeat until Janus would be able to bring the gun back around, Duo was up and charging. He knew that the experiments performed on him had given himself increased strength and speed, but with Duo's adrenaline pumping and his mind screaming about Heero, he lifted Janus clear from the ground and smashed him through the wall. Drywall and studs shattered and splintered from the impact, which also caused the terrorist to drop his weapon, and the two ended up in a clinch in another bedroom.

"You continue to impress me," Janus grunted, holding Duo's arms at bay as the other tried to wrap his grasping fingers around his throat. "It is unfortunate that you would not side with us."

"Keep talking," Duo hissed, pressing forward another inch. "I'm going to enjoy watching the light leave your eyes."

Duo almost reached Janus but the other managed to get a leg under him and kicked out hard, sending Duo crashing into a dresser where he grunted in pain from the impact. Even as Duo recovered Janus was coming towards him, a knife stabbing for his chest. On impulse Duo reached up and grabbed the handle of one of the dresser drawers and jerked the drawer out free, sending it crashing into Janus' face and distracting him long enough for Duo to regain his feet and draw a knife of his own. Blood running down his face from a deep cut in his forehead, Janus was off guard and defended madly as Duo worked his blade with total precision, scoring a few glancing blows that mostly struck armor and failed to draw any significant blood. Finally Janus managed to swipe a hand to clear the blood, which had clotted at last and gave Duo a look of utter hatred and rage.

"What?" Duo asked, grinning. "You expected me to just roll over and die? Think again."

The two met again, blades screeching as they struck at each other again and again with lightning fast genetically enhanced blows. It would take hours for either to tire enough to make a mistake or be unable to continue and Duo knew that Heero could be gravely wounded. When Janus stabbed towards him again, this time Duo stepped into the move and grasped his enemy's wrist and squeezed the proper pressure points and caused the knife to fall from temporarily numb fingers. Striking hard, Duo landed a number of sledgehammer punches before decking Janus in the jaw and dropping him to the ground. Leaving the momentarily stunned terrorist on the ground, Duo made it out into the demolished hallway and found Heero still lying there though conscious and trying to move. He was riddled with jagged splinters, including several large ones through his right shoulder and side.

"Are you okay?" Duo asked, checking to see if the explosion had given his other a concussion. "Can you hear me?"

"I'm fine," Heero replied, his voice still strong though in pain. "I just need a few minutes. Behind you!"

Duo turned without thinking and his hands snapped out, six small knives spinning end over end and striking Janus in the chest and stomach, dropping him to the hallway hardwood, pistol clattering from his hands. Turning back to his love, Duo could hear Janus start pulling the knives from his body and dropping them to the floor but didn't care.

"Hurry up and get better," Duo joked. "We have a week of celebrating ahead of us remember?"

"Why do you think I've got so much wood?" Heero replied, referring to the debris all around him and the shards of wood driven into his body.

"That was awful," Duo whispered, before leaning in and kissing his lover. "I'll be back soon."

Turning and standing in a single motion, Duo already had his auto pistols out but Janus was gone, the bloodstained knives lying on the floor where he had been.

"You move pretty quick for a guy slowly bleeding to death," Duo commented, seeing that the trail of blood drops lead farther down the hallway towards what seemed to be the master bedroom judging from the open double doors on the left.

Nearly passing the stairwell, Duo heard movement and ducked for cover just as Janus came out from the master bedroom and raked the hallway with automatic fire from an assault rifle he had retrieved from somewhere.

"Heero, get into cover!" Duo screamed, hoping that his friend acted with his customary quickness despite his injuries.

The stairwell wall wouldn't provide cover for long so Duo popped his weapons up and returned fire, hoping to force Janus to seek cover as well. The roar of his own weapons were almost lost in the din of the assault rifle, but both of them soon drained their weapons and had to reload, Janus ducking back into the bedroom to do so and leaving Duo with rapidly dwindling cover to hide behind.

"Heero are you okay?" Duo called out.

"Just kill this guy already!" came the response, but Duo could hear the clattering of Heero's weapons on the tile floor in the bathroom and knew his friend was safe.

Incoming fire started to nibble away at Duo's cover once again and he knew that he would only have another few seconds to make his move before Janus finished him off. He grabbed another grenade and thumbed the timer to three seconds before tossing it back over his head towards the bedroom. A single round deflected off the top of the stairwell wall and punched into Duo's forearm, causing him to curse loudly and grab at the wounded limb to staunch the blood flow.

"Damn it," Duo hissed, squeezing the wound to give his new metabolism time to clot the wound.

A near-deafening explosion behind him made Duo smile through his pain and he was quickly moving forward again, auto pistols in hand. The master bedroom was a smoking ruin and from the flames came Janus, armor smoking and face covered in ash but otherwise very much alive. The terrorist tackled Duo who lost his weapons as he struck the floor in the small sitting room across from the master bedroom. Two quick punches snapped Duo's head back and forth, then the Preventer agent counterattacked by grabbing his attacker's armor and pulling him close enough to deliver a devastating head butt. Janus recoiled dazed, and Duo kicked him with both feet to the chest and knocked him into a wall. Duo was starting to feel himself slow, the few wounds he'd taken conspiring to weaken him just as rapidly as his failing adrenaline rush. Janus wasn't looking much better and in fact was even more badly wounded but having taken himself beyond even the experiments done to Duo, he was still more than ready to continue the fight. At least it seemed that way until he made a dash for the stairwell.

"What the..." Duo said, giving chase.

Hands snapping out every which way, Duo sent a virtual hailstorm of throwing knives at Janus who skillfully ducked and dodged them until he was out of sight around the curve of the stairs. Duo came pounding down and caught a knife in the left shoulder and went sprawling. Move knives came in, Janus now on the offensive but Duo was too quick and ducked into the living room, hearing knives driving themselves hilt-deep in the wall behind him. Reaching up and pulling the bloody knife free, Duo drew a 10mm and fired off a few rounds before darting out into the foyer.

It was empty.

Confused, Duo didn't see the shadow descending towards him until it was too late. Janus had used Duo's attempt to find cover to use an ascension gun to disappear up into the cavernous open foyer ceiling and wait. A boot knocked the pistol from Duo's hand and the other struck him across the face, stunning him and driving him to the ground. Duo tried to pull away but took another powerful kick to the chest and slide across the marble floor until he came to rest at the foot of the stairs.

"A valiant effort," Janus acknowledged, breathing heavily. "But you could never win."

Duo looked up into the face of his tormenter and smiled.

"But I already have," he replied.

Janus arched an eyebrow and then took several steps back when Duo suddenly covered his face with his arms. Those steps back had him standing with a flash grenade only a few feet beside his boots. It exploded with a blinding light and, still unused to his modifications, Janus screamed as his optic nerve was assaulted, rendering him temporarily blind. As he scrabbled uselessly at his eyes and tried to fight through the pain, Duo came up behind him and drove the katana through Janus' lower back, severing his spine before coming out his stomach.

"Told ya," Duo breathed in his ear.

Ripping the blade free with little care of causing any additional injuries, Duo flung Janus into the wall next to the stairs and left him there bleeding to death and paralyzed from the waist down. Aching all over, most notably from the bullet lodged in his left forearm, Duo made his way upstairs and met Heero coming down the hallway, most of the wooden shrapnel pulled clear from his body but still covered in a fair amount of blood.

"Looking hot," Duo smiled, wrapping an arm around the limping Heero's shoulders. "Thanks for doing this with me."

"I definitely think I should have shot you in that hotel room," Heero deadpanned.

"And I definitely think I'm taking you out for dinner when we get all healed up again," Duo replied, kissing his partner on the cheek. "Come on, I can hear sirens coming and I want us both to be there when Janus dies."

They slowly made their way down to the foyer and came to a stop, staring at Janus who was gasping for breath, left arm limp but right hand holding what appeared to be a remote detonator.

"I may die here," Janus burbled, blood bubbling on his lips and running down his chin, the ground around him already a spreading red lake. "But I will take you with me and without you, New Horizon will prevail."

"Aren't you New Horizon?" Duo asked, confused but also planning on exactly how he was going to save both he and Heero from the suicide of Janus.

Janus tried to laugh but it came out more as a gasping cough.

"I am but one arm of New Horizon," Janus replied, his outstretched arm starting to shake with the exertion of using the last of his strength to hold the detonator. "You have struck us a blow, but we are not finished. When I am gone you will be faced with more shadows to uncover and before you do, this government shall fall."

Even as Janus died and his arm started to drop, Duo dashed forward and flicked his sword blade up, taking the dead man's hand off at the wrist and sending into the air where Duo caught it, keeping the thumb pressed tightly over the dead-man's switch.

"That's disgusting," Heero grimaced, watching as his lover held the severed and dripping appendage tightly. "I suggest we get out of here before the police arrive and ask why you're holding a severed hand."

"But it's such a conversation starter," Duo laughed, as they made their way outside and towards the car where Jackson waited, arms crossed. "I guess you're right, I should leave it here."

Tossing the hand back over his shoulder, Duo heard it strike the path leading to the front door and the clatter of the detonator as it popped free.

There was moment when Duo thought that the bomb had been a bluff, that Janus was just attempting to mess with their heads one last time, and then the bomb went off. The heat and pressure were terrible, nearly sending the two flying to the pavement but they managed to keep their feet and turn to watch as successive explosions ripped the mansion into a million pieces and cast columns of smoke and fire hundreds of feet into the air.

"Pretty," Duo observed. "Got any marshmallows?"

"No, I have a large number of splinters however," Heero replied. "Are we ready to go home so that you can spend the next few hours pulling them out of my ass?"

"God, you'd think we were already married," Duo remarked, sliding the sword back into its scabbard.

"I'm already rethinking our plans in that regard."

"You do that and I'll stalk you forever."

Together they eased their way into the back of Jackson's car as he watched in disgust at the blood that they were getting all over his seats. As they escaped the scene of destruction to avoid entanglements with the local authorities, Duo and Heero pondered just what they would do with their revenge complete.

"I'm not sure I want to stay with Preventer," Duo admitted, expecting a scolding from Heero about not sticking through with his commitments.

"I don't want to stay either," Heero replied, causing Duo to emit a sigh of relief. "I only got in because of you, and that isn't a problem so don't worry. But now I want to do something I really want to do and maybe it would be something we could do together."

"Any ideas?" Duo asked, having a few ideas himself.

"Well, I was thinking of seeing if Quatre needed anyone for computer security. Or perhaps just starting my own business and doing the same. A piloting job wouldn't be too bad either, something like shuttle runs between the colonies and Earth or even just working for Quatre."

"I like both of those choices," Duo admitted. "I was thinking about maybe opening up a club. Given that I spend so much of my time in them, why not make some money?"

"Good point. We could do both really, you start your club and me fly around the galaxy."

"Just so long as you wouldn't be gone too long," Duo informed him, leaning over and resting his head on his lover's shoulder.

"That would be the whole point," Heero replied. "Any time away from you is a great time."

Duo punched him in the stomach for that one though not hard given that both were smiling at each other. Their future looked good now that Janus was out of the way, but Duo couldn't shake the fact that the rest of New Horizon could decide at any time to seek revenge for the loss of one of their members. Perhaps it was too soon to just throw away their skills and positions with Preventer...

"If New Horizon comes for us, we won't go quietly," Heero promised, almost seeming to read Duo's mind. "Just because I don't want to kill for anyone else anymore doesn't mean I plan to sit back when someone comes gunning for us."

"My god it's like we're of one mind," Duo exclaimed, drawing a look from Jackson. "Besides, I didn't really want to throw away all my toys. I mean this sword is awesome, and that cannon you have, I'd hate to have to see you leave it with Preventer."

"They'd have to pry it from my cold dead hands. Speaking of which, we maybe should have kept Janus' hand to see if DNA or fingerprinting could help us identify who he actually was."

"You'd have been carrying it then. That was creepy having to hold onto that thing. I was glad to throw it away."

"Baka."

Four months later:

Duo stood on the balcony overlooking the rest of the colony as Heero finished up in the kitchen. The penthouse was higher than almost every building around it and though it had cost a small fortune to buy, Duo was glad of it for such early morning views and for the peace it offered being so high above the rest of the bustling colony. He and Heero had moved four months earlier to the L4 colony cluster, to Quatre's home colony as a matter of fact for Heero was now head of Corporate Security for Winner Enterprises Incorporated, a position he seemed to relish the challenges of. Four months and the two had been married for nearly all of that. In fact it had been the first thing they had done after finding a place to live and moving in and it had been everything they had hoped it would be. Duo could still see Heero standing there before the judge, dressed in a tuxedo that made him look every inch the man Duo knew him to be. Only their closest friends had been invited: Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, Hilde, Sally, Relena, Howard, and Jackson.

Duo had tried to coerce Heero into a more elaborate ceremony but his love had refused to budge, saying that rather than spending a ton of money on a one-day party that it would make more sense to put that towards the new club opening. Knowing how much it would cost to start up his dream Duo relented. Despite the simple ceremony the party afterwards at the penthouse had been a raucous affair resulting in inviting the neighbors from the apartments below them to join in lest they call the cops. It had taken two days to clean up from that event, and Duo was certain that it had taken a week to catch up on his sleep.

Two months later Club Angel opened its doors to unending lines of people, partly due to the TV advertisements thanks to Duo's connections with Quatre and WEI, and also the public flyers and posters that Heero had designed and placed up all over the colony. Ever since that opening night there had been no slowing down and Duo found himself spending more and more time running the business and putting in face time and that made him concerned that Heero would become upset at his absences. If anything his partner in crime had been even more supportive, often helping out with the bookkeeping and supply orders, as Duo was more of a people person than a details person. Every time he saw Heero hard at work on something club-related Duo wanted to take him then and there for his dedication and support, but usually managed to restrain himself after the incident where Heero's laptop had been damaged during a rather impromptu lovemaking session on the living room coffee table. It had taken a week of apologies and the purchasing of an incredibly expensive new computer to pacify Heero. But behind all the joys and the incredibly, mind altering sex, was the threat of New Horizon seeking its revenge and taking away all that he had found.

It was a sobering thought but Duo managed to push those thoughts away by remembering that he had someone always at his back now, someone who would do anything it would take to protect him. The thought of Heero taking on the entire remnants of New Horizon when they made their move made him smile. Whatever they thought of themselves, the terrorists had no idea just who they would be messing with if they tried to take Duo Maxwell away again. Heero had told him everything about the days when Duo had been a prisoner of New Horizon, and it hadn't taken much for Duo to picture Heero striding through the hallways of the New Horizons offices and gunning down everyone in a cold rage for the loss of his love. Just how close he had come to truly going down a one way road hadn't escaped Duo, and he had done all he could to show Heero that his risk and efforts had not gone unnoticed. That session had taken a day to recover from and they had needed to replace a kitchen table and several doors. Two genetically enhanced soldiers throwing themselves at each other with a passion that would make the sun dim in shame seemed to cause a lot of damage so Duo was thankful that Club Angel was making a huge profit. Club Angel. It was a great name in Duo's mind, both simply because it was a great name and because it was chosen for what it meant to him. Heero was his angel and so what better way to always honor that than to have the most successful club in the colonies named for him.

"Duo, lunch is up."

Turning and heading back into the penthouse Duo saw Heero ladling out some chicken noodle soup into the bowls already on the table, a salad for himself and several tuna sandwiches for Duo. Though he was a vegetarian, Heero was willing to bend his ways for special occasions; however lunch generally didn't fall under that category.

"Looks good," Duo told him, pulling up a chair after kissing his husband and grabbing his ass and dodging the ladle that came arching in towards his head. "Mmm, tuna sandwiches, did you spice them up?"

"Do you see the word idiot tattooed on my forehead?" Heero replied.

"No, but I see the word sexy across your ass. Better come closer so that I can check."

Heero smiled at him and lunch was forgotten until they realized that Duo needed to eat and get to the club to get it ready for opening in a few hours.

"Sorry," Heero apologized, and that guaranteed another five minute session of him pressed up against the counter with Duo ravishing his lips.

"Never apologize for that," Duo whispered, finally pulling away. "Ever."

"Gotcha," Heero grinned, and tucked Duo's chair in after he had sat down. "So, how goes the club?"

"Great, but then you know that given all the work you put in. I know I say this every week, sometimes twice, but you don't have to help out as much as you do. I really can manage it myself."

"Never said you couldn't," Heero replied, and Duo considered throwing the sandwich half that he had in his hand at his lover. "But your skills aren't at bookkeeping, and we both know that. You're a people person. You need to be on the floor, not up in an office. If you can make me human you need to be the one greeting clients and talking up the promoters."

"You aren't just human," Duo pointed out, a mouthful of tuna making Heero roll his eyes at his bad manners. "You're superhuman and I love that, especially when I throw you through a door."

Heero let out a bark of laughter at that, and Duo couldn't help but join in, remembering how not all that long ago that his friend and now husband did everything he could to keep his emotions controlled. It was amazing to see someone truly relax and let who they truly were shine through after so many years.

Duo ate in silence for a moment, eyes settling on the ring that he had bought for Heero for their wedding day and wondered if his partner had ever taken it off. He doubted it but for some reason he felt compelled to ask.

"Nope," Heero replied, munching on his salad. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know," Duo admitted. "I guess it was just something I needed to know. I don't think I've ever taken your gift off either and I don't think I could because I might lose it. You know me..."

"Oh I do," Heero admitted. "And I know that you're not so much worried that I've taken my ring off as you are worried that what we've been working so hard to achieve might be taken away if New Horizon comes gunning for us."

Duo looked down at his other sandwich and realized that he should have known better than to try and deceive Heero; no one could look right through him the way his lover could and with such ease.

"Maybe," Duo admitted. "I've tried to forget about the past and move forward, but the past is what has brought us together and shaped the future we're living in so I can't just forget it. I get the feeling that everything isn't over and that they will try again and I'm afraid."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Everyone feels fear; its part of being human and it can help you survive when an uncaring universe doesn't seem to give a damn how much you've suffered to build a life out of the blood and bodies that you've waded through for as long as you can remember. But remember this; they aren't just coming after Duo Maxwell or Heero Yuy anymore, they're coming after us and together we can take on anything."

Duo looked up from his sandwich and knew that what Heero said was true, all of it, and that there was also one last thing he needed to do before going to work.

"You finished yet," Duo asked, getting up and coming towards Heero who he had to assume knew what was coming.

"I could be," Heero replied, pushing his lunch away and rising as well. "Don't you have to be at work in an hour?"

"Since I own the place I think they'll understand," Duo breathed and pushed Heero up against the wall and then all was forgotten as they once again found the love that had gotten them through two wars and let it take control.

It was more than an hour later then they stood on the balcony together looking out over the colony wearing nothing but their underwear and not caring if anyone could see them holding each other.

"Are you coming tonight?" Duo asked, still basking in the afterglow of one of the most intense experiences of his life.

"Well I have all this laundry to do, and there's a special on TV regarding the new political relations forming between the colonies and Earth that I think I really should watch."

Duo missed the humor and looked at Heero oddly for a moment until Heero kissed him soundly and held him tight.

"Oh, I'll be there," Heero whispered, running a hand through his lover's hair and causing Duo to thrill. "Just make sure you have my bartender on duty. I need someone who can catch a glass thrown from twenty feet."

"You know what I want right now," Duo replied, pressing Heero up against the railing and running a finger down his exquisite chest towards his perfect stomach.

"You'll be very late," Heero pointed out, grinning and not putting up much of a fight.

"I don't care," Duo told him, pulling him with little effort towards the bedroom for a change.

Yes, Duo thought as he and Heero lay next to each other once again and happier than they could have ever imagined. Maybe something good can come from war after all or maybe even something completely amazing.

Looking over at his love's peaceful face Duo definitely found himself leaning towards completely amazing. And this was just the beginning. Who knew what the future would hold...