Warnings: POV switch. Heero starts this chapter. I know, I know... but we kinda needed to show what's going on inside his head. On that one- the bold, italic and bold italic are all the different voices in his head. Halfway through, we go back to Duo. Oh, and a language warning as well on this one.
Many apologies....
Deliveryman Two Part 11
My master was agitated. I could smell it. Something was upsetting him.
I struggled to maintain my balance. Couldn't flip out on Duo again. We were about to confront G. I needed to be ready in case he needed me.
It was getting easier to control myself, and that was scaring me. I was becoming used to my programming. I couldn't waste time fighting it, not now... but if it got too settled in...
He won't leave me! I won't let him!
I can't tie him to me when I'm like this...
Howard was waiting for us in the docking bay. I followed Duo down to the floor. Danger levels were low; it was safe to let him go first.
Howard was not a threat. He has always been loyal to Duo and the Gundams. We could trust him. I stood back and let Duo accept Howard's hug of welcome.
Mine! I don't like it when others touch him!
It's only Howard. Howard is like a father to Duo. It's okay.
"What are you doing here?" Duo asked him.
"G needed someone who knew how to fly his toy. Since I built it for him, I'm here." Howard led us off at a brisk pace.
"You built it for him?"
"Sure, after the first war. You know..."
"Just in case." Duo sounded mad.
Did I do something?
He's not mad at me.
Duo should have figured all this out much sooner. He has high intelligence levels. After the war he worked for the doctors as they prepared just in case there was another conflict. He should not have been surprised that there were other plans in place and that other people were doing the same thing.
Duo believes in people. He trusts them. I hope it's not misplaced here.
No one will hurt him. I will not let them!
"The doc is waiting for you. The attack is going to begin soon." Howard tells us.
"What attack?" We followed Howard onto a lift. The doors slid closed and we began a smooth upward ascent.
"NWO is planning on attacking the nations that didn't join. We're thinking that it will happen in about 8 hours. That's when Relena is holding a news conference in front of the Sphere's leaders."
A prime moment to launch an attack. Psychologically sound. Optimal results. Immediate capitulation.
"Crap. I assume G has a plan?" The lift stopped and Howard ushered us into a small room.
G was there, his back to us, studying view screens.
Danger! Threat! KILL HIM!
That is not logical. There is only a 10 chance of G betraying us. He needs us.
If he tries to do anything to Duo, he's dead.
"Of course I do. But I'm afraid I'll need your help. Come and sit down."
Duo was tense beside me.
50 chance that Duo will attack the doctor.
Good! Let's hurt him!
Duo merely strode across the room, frowning, sinking into the chair G pointed out. I sat at his feet, letting my head rest on his knee.
G will have to go through me to hurt him.
Watch him carefully.
"My help?" Duo repeated.
"NWO plans to launch those mobile dolls of theirs in order to force the countries to capitulate. They only have one base on Earth."
"The one Dr. J is in."
"Yes. They've had to be careful. All of the colonies have joined, and they might have bases in space, but I don't think any attacks will be launched up here."
Calculating.
"It is not logical." I said. "If there are bases near the colonies they are for the reinforcements."
"I believe so too." G nodded.
"And if you are both wrong and an attack is launched from space?" Duo's leg was tight with tension under my cheek.
G is distressing master... kill him...
No- Duo is worried about the colonies. About L2. It's not G.
"Then this ship will be in position to stop them. Or at least slow them down a little."
"You want me to take on an entire army of mobile dolls and you think I'm going to come out in one piece?"
I'm going too! And you will!
"Of course you are." G smirked as he looked at me. I showed him my teeth. "Heero is going with you. We have a gundam for him here- one designed with his new abilities in mind."
Duo touched my head gently and I turned to look at him.
"Heero? What is our success rate?"
I had already done the calculations. G had left something out.
"G has not explained all the parameters. Scythe will need to be hooked up to the new Zero system. If we do that then we have an 80 chance of success."
I saw Duo's eyes widen with panic.
It hurt him last time. Nearly destroyed him...
The system has been updated. There is only a slim chance he'll be hurt. And I will be there with him this time.
I will protect him.
No one will hurt him!
"Yes Duo." G nodded. "I'm sorry, but otherwise you won't have a chance against that many mobile dolls. We're talking about several armies worth. The Zero system allowed you to integrate fully with the suit. You'll need it."
"I've fought mobile dolls without it before!"
"Not this many." I told him. "If you do not, our possible success rate drops to 30."
The look Duo gave me was not a happy one.
I'm sorry beloved.
Don't be mad at me!
"I'm still not sure this is a bad idea. So Relena takes over, so what?" Duo turned back to G.
"It's not Relena. According to J, Relena is being controlled by this gentleman." G gestured to a screen over his head. On the screen J was talking to someone I recognized from when I was assigned guard duty over Relena.
"J is unsure if Duke Catalonia is also controlling Merquise."
"Catalonia? Not Dorothy's..."
"Uncle." Duo snarled.
"Fucking Machiavellian family. What are they up to?"
"I don't know. J might."
Duo sighed.
"Do you want the Catalonias to rule the sphere? Do you want to leave that poor girl under their control? As their puppet?"
Duo was frowning.
He's never liked Relena. But I don't think it will stop him...
He will agree.
"Fine. But if I survive this I'm going to come back and carve your heart out with a spoon!" He growled at G.
And I will help you, master!
"And that will be after you fix Heero!"
G looked surprised. "Fix Heero? I can't fix Heero. He's not broken."
"WHAT!" Duo got to his feet, dislodging me. I crouched there waiting...
Order me to attack. Let me kill him for you!
We cannot kill him yet. Duo needs him.
Damn it.
"Duo, sit down," I whisper to him, a hand on his leg. "It's okay. Stop. We'll deal with this later. We have a mission first."
Duo is vibrating under my fingers. G wisely edges towards the door.
"We'll talk about Heero later. Right now we are bringing the ship down onto the surface of the planet. Once there, we'll be ready for you to get in the suits and get into position. We will call you when we're ready for you." G turned and fled the room, leaving us alone.
Duo slumped back into his chair.
He is distressed.
I turn on the floor so that I can face him.
My master. I rub my cheek along the inside of his thigh.
"Are you okay?"
"Just dandy," Duo frowned. "Why couldn't things be easy? Why do we keep getting dragged into this over and over? I should've just left the docs on that ship!"
"That's not how you are."
He sighs again. "I just hate this Heero. I really do. I hate that I'm sitting here getting ready to help one of the guys that fucked you over. Why should I?"
My loyal Duo.
"Because it's bigger than him." I get to my feet and climb into the chair with him, pulling him onto my lap, burying my face in his hair. "And you will always do what you need to do."
His smell. Mine... all mine...
"But Zero... that scares me Heero. I didn't do well on it last time..."
"I will be with you."
"In another suit! What if I attack you?"
"You will not attack me."
Taste him...
"Mmm." Duo murmurs as I kiss him.
We have time.
He needs this... I need this. Just in case this is the end for us.
I want him. Now!
"Heero?" Duo manages after a moment. "We can't...ohh.."
"They won't need us for a while yet. We have time."
~*~
Heero was right. We had just enough time. Fortunately he had prodded me back into my clothes before Howard came to fetch us.
I never would've heard the end of that one.
Not that I cared, either. 80 chance of success was success in stopping the suits, not surviving. There was a good chance that one or both of us was not going to make it.
I didn't ask Heero for the odds.
Scythe was waiting. Heero had gone down to a different bay, apparently to get hooked up to his gundam.
G was waiting by Scythe's foot, a nasty looking syringe in his hands.
"You are not..."
"You need to be hooked into the neural net, just like last time. I think I've fixed the psychosomatic reaction- you shouldn't feel everything Scythe gets hit with."
Shouldn't. Well, that was reassuring.
Not.
"You should also be in more control this time. I modified the formula. Heero is also hooked in to the system and you are sharing it between your suits. You should be able to account and sense each other."
Well, it's not like there was a huge choice here. I accepted the injection.
"We are nearing the surface. Go in and start protocols. You are fully loaded and charged. We'll be dropping you off as near as we can get. Wait until I tell you to before you hook into Zero."
Yeah, like I was going to rush that.
"Good luck Duo. The world is depending on you."
Yeah, yeah, being Superman sucks sometimes. Just ask Heero.
I gave G my best grin.
Then I punched him. Hard.
He flew in the air and landed against the wall with a satisfying thump.
I grabbed the tether and rode up to Scythe's cockpit feeling just a teeny bit happier. Satisfied. Something.
He had that coming.
I ran the systems check in Scythe. Everything looked good. I tried to ignore the new little black box next to the chair. Fucking Zero system.
My comms unit beeped and I hit the button thinking that it would be Heero or Howard... or G if I hadn't broken his jaw.
"Hello Duo."
"Quatre?" I blinked at the screen. Was he going to come after me for stealing Scythe?
"I hope I've given you enough time to cool down," he smiled faintly. "Because there's a problem. My intelligence says that NWO is going to attack the countries..."
This sounded familiar.
"That didn't join during Relena's speech. The one she's about to give soon."
He blinked at me.
"Exactly. How did you..."
"We met up with some old friends. I'm on the planet. Our intelligence says that there's a base here..."
"The only NWO base there." Quatre nodded, "though we suspect that dolls are hidden elsewhere on the planet. Some in each country that haven't joined yet..."
"Shit. How many is that?"
"Relax Duo. I have people out there now, getting in place. The base and then the NWO HQ are the most important places. Do you have the base covered?"
"Heero and I do, yes."
"Then I can get all of the others. Once you've finished at the base, will you meet us at the HQ?"
I was used to Quatre being the war leader, but...
"Do you trust both of us there?"
Quatre met my eyes. "Yes. I messed up Duo. I should've trusted your judgment." He sighed and the 'fearless leader' pose dropped away. "I'm really sorry Duo. I should've trusted you. It's just things are so tense right now and this whole mess just dropped out of nowhere... I only wanted to get Heero help..."
"G says he can't help him. He's stuck like... he is."
"We'll fix it then. We don't need his help." Quatre met my eyes. "But in the meantime, we need him like he is, right?"
"Right." I nodded, relieved. Some things were finally going right at last.
"Then we'll see you at HQ. Take care." And Quatre signed off.
I waited a minute and my comm unit went off again. Well, well, someone had been eavesdropping.
"You will follow Winner's direction." G glared at me, an icepack on his jaw.
He was going to have one hell of a bruise.
I grinned.
"I was planning on it."
"Excellent. Prepare for drop."
I moved Scythe out of his bay. We were above an ocean- our target some 50 miles to the west, according to my readouts. Scythe dropped off of the ship and I hovered waiting.
Wing joined me a moment later.
He didn't look exactly the same... but it was good to see him. I activated my comm unit.
"Heero?"
"I'm here. I monitored Winner's transmission."
"Acceptable?"
"Yes. Hook yourself into Zero now. Maintain radio silence. Stealth mode."
The screen went blank and Heero's gundam vanished a moment later. How the hell were we going to do this without hitting each other?
I engaged Scythe's stealth mode and flipped the switch to activate Zero.
That familiar sliding feeling started up immediately. Damn it, I thought as I tried to process the information Scythe was feeding me, it's faster! They tweaked it again!
Duo. Relax. I'm here. Don't collide with me.
I realized that Wing was on my right side, only a few meters away from Scythe. I made the needed adjustment automatically before realizing that the radio wasn't on. It couldn't be in stealth mode...
How had I heard Heero?
Zero. I'm in the net with you, remember? No one can monitor our communications this way. Stay with me. He added as I nearly jolted out of the system in shock. Don't! Keep the system on. We're approaching fast. It looks like the dolls are being released.
I looked at my monitors. Sure enough, a large blip had appeared on my radar. There were dozens of them. This was going to be quite a party.
TBC...
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