Conversation with Death Part 4
Heero sat in his office and stared at the screen of his computer. After the whole freaky incident with his home computer nothing else had happened. He had gotten tired of sitting around and asking the seemingly empty air to talk to him, so he had returned to work, earlier than he should've. It was somewhat comforting to hear the sounds of live people around him.
He had thought about trying the stunt with the knife again to get some more answers, but after discovering how Duo had died, that seemed particularly cruel.
But then again, Duo had killed him. Or had he? Was he the same person reborn? Or was it just a weird coincidence? Or maybe the whole thing was some kind of hallucination. Who knew?
Making a quick decision, he decided to use his Preventers network access to see if he could dig up anything else.
First he researched Duo Maxwell.
No birth certificate. No childhood background. Apparently part of the colony side during the first Eve war. Gundam pilot. Excellent record of service in the Preventers until he shot his partner by accident and then killed himself.
There were more pictures though, that so familiar face, smiling, laughing in every picture- until the last one. The one taken on the day of his partner's funeral, the day he had gone home and opened his wrists in the bathtub of their apartment.
He didn't look like the same man. Haunted, dark-circles under his eyes, pale- supported on one side by another familiar looking face.
Chang Wufei. The same name as Heero's current partner. Heero knew that his Wufei had been named after a famous ancestor- this same one? Another Gundam pilot?
He looked at the other faces in the pictures, recognized only one other, a diplomat that he had once provided security for. The photo identified him as Zechs Merquise, but he looked an awful lot like Vice-Minister Peacecraft. He was walking with a slim blonde woman, identified as his sister, Heero Yuy's widow.
Widow?
Heero looked at the girl's face. She looked somewhat familiar. Where had he seen her before?
He went digging again.
Heero Yuy turned up two names, the first he was able to discard easily enough- a leader of the colonies. The one his parents had named him after. The other was a Gundam Pilot.
Again, no birth certificate, no childhood records. A marriage certificate dated the day before the fatal shooting. His wife had been a widow only hours after he married her. Her name was very familiar- Relena Peacecraft. And Heero realized why her picture had looked familiar. Even today she was lauded for her political work. But Relena had been married, had children- her youngest grandson was even holding his grandmother's former position. Heero had never heard any mention of this first marriage in any of the things he had read about her.
There wasn't anything that pointed to the shooting being anything other than an accident. Yuy and Maxwell had a sterling record. No signs or records of discontent.
He leaned back in his chair.
"What happened?" He asked again. "Why did you kill him?"
No answer.
He pulled up Maxwell's id screen again. The face was the same- the braid, the eyes, the smile... could it all have been a hallucination? Had he seen a picture of Maxwell before?
Chang returned from his lunch to find his partner staring at the screen blankly. Heero Yuy was usually blank, but this was kind of disturbing. Maybe he shouldn't have returned to work so soon. Wufei leaned over his shoulder to see what had fascinated his partner.
"Looking at the old pilot records?" He remarked. Yuy started.
"You've seen them?"
"Well, I looked up my ancestor's of course after my parents gave me his journals to read. What a bore."
"Huh?"
"Oh, the old guy goes on and on about duty and honor- it gets seriously boring after awhile." Chang studied the picture on the screen. "So that's Duo Maxwell. Great-great grandpop said a lot of stuff about him. I guess he accidentally killed his partner and then killed himself. Sent the old guy into a huge rapture about death and dishonor."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah." Chang waved his hand in the air. "I guess Maxwell there liked to call himself something like- the God of Death, Morpheus, Shinigami... something creepy like that. His gundam was called something equal morbid- Deathrock, DeathZero, Arms of Death... something..." Chang shrugged.
"What about his partner?" Heero flipped the screen back and Chang blinked.
"Wow! He an ancestor of yours? He looks just like you!"
"I'm not sure," Heero frowned. "I thought I was named after the colony leader."
"Well, still could be related somehow, since this guy has his name too. That's cool- our ancestors knew each other. I should've thought of it, but I was thinking you were both named after that colony guy. I don't remember too much about what the old guy said, but I'll bring it in for you to read if you like. Just don't loose it, okay? Family heirloom I have to make my kids read and treasure and all that."
"That'd be great, thanks."
"No problem. Are you ready to go meet with the boss about our little bust? You up for it?"
"Sure." Heero followed his partner down the hallway.
~*~
Heero silently cursed to himself. How did he end up in these situations?
The gun tapped his temple. "Don't move."
"I didn't."
"Shut up."
Heero sighed. The bust had been going okay- just another pawn shop selling illegal weapons. The guy had folded, they were collecting evidence- when the guy went nuts and grabbed Heero, pulling a gun that someone should've found on him and placing it against Heero's temple.
Heero was tempted to simply slam his head back against his captor's, but the guy had two guns- and only one was pointed at him. The other was pointed towards Wufei and the others. He had to wait for a good chance to move.
Wufei was calmly discussing the situation with Heero's captor, who occasionally felt the need to tap his gun on Heero's head to make a point.
Heero was going to feed it to him if he got a chance.
He let his eyes move around the room, looking for possibilities, when he noticed the figure in the corner, leaning against the wall, scythe beside him.
Heero's eyes widened and his mouth opened.
Death shook his head, raised one finger to his lips while his other hand made a circling motion next to the side of his head.
In other words: 'Don't talk to me now, or they will think you're nuts.'
Heero snarled silently. Death shrugged, but looked faintly relieved.
Heero tried to convey with just his eyes that Death could talk and Heero could listen.
Death shook his head and pointed to the man behind Heero, raising an eyebrow, clearly conveying that Heero needed to think more about his present situation.
Heero did not like that answer in the slightest. He frowned, conveying that Death could talk and he could still pay attention to the rest of the situation.
Death raised both hands in the air in a 'it's too complicated to get into now' gesture.
Wufei wondered if Heero's wounds were acting up. He was making the most horrible faces.
The perp tapped the gun against Heero's temple again.
That was it. Between the tapping and his uncooperative Death, Heero had reached his limit.
He grabbed the gun at his temple and turned, his free hand capturing the perp's other hand and pushing upwards, so the barrel of that gun was pointed at the sky. He smacked the gun against the perp's head, knocking him out.
The perp slid dazed to the floor. Heero took both guns and turned, intending to confront Death.
Death shook his head and smiled faintly. He tapped his wrist in a 'gee, look at the time' gesture and vanished.
TBC...
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