This is the END of Deliveryman 2! Thanks so much for reading!
Warnings: Language. Duo swears- a lot.
Deliveryman Two Part 12
The dolls and the base didn't know we were there. They were just heading out to join the forces already fighting in the holdout countries...
They never saw us coming.
The lead dolls blossomed into orange flowers of fire, raining petals of falling wreckage onto the base below, destroying buildings and igniting a burning hell around us. We blew through them like a wind, everywhere and nowhere at the same time, making the puppets dance on the end of our strings. Kin killed kin as the dolls frantically tried to target us, and ended up destroying each other instead. I felt the Shinigami raise his head from the dark recesses of my past and smile that old familiar smile.
I could feel Heero covering my back, always behind me to insure I was safe, watching me even as I watched him. Zero guided us both in unison, keeping us so busy with doll trajectories and our maneuvers that it was a miracle I was able to hang on to my sanity this time. What kept me sane - experience, Heero or just another tweak in the system - I'll never know.
The dolls tried to regroup, tried time and time again to figure out where we were, how they were being attacked, and failing over and over. Zero and I easily predicted their moves. There was no intelligence on the other end of these dolls, no creative intuition that could have discovered our ruse. No- these were just machines.
Heero!
I turned, knowing he was in trouble, seeing the attack coming down from above, the dolls had finally decided that we were cloaked and were attempting to bodily crash into us in order to disable our shields and find us...
I knew he couldn't move in time. Zero presented me with an option and I took it.
I flipped off my stealth unit and the dolls changed trajectory.
Duo! What the hell are you doing?
Giving them a target. Optimal choice.
The dolls moved at me in masse and I felt Heero's desperation, Zero had plotted the best outcome for us this way- but it meant that I wouldn't make it.
NO! NO! Something snapped in Heero, I could feel it across the link in Zero.
Heero?
No one will take what is mine!
Zero whirled, confused, unsure, and Heero's suit popped into focus, plowing through the dolls, decimating them, faster than I thought that a suit could move.
Zero couldn't keep up with him.
The dolls didn't have a chance.
Dolls fell in reams before I finally shook off my shock and moved to cover him, Zero sputtering in the back of my mind. We tried to cover him, tried to predict his moves, and failed completely.
I couldn't keep up with him so I only took out the ones he missed in that destructive roll.
I worried that he would hit me by accident, but he never did. I was getting flashes over our Zero link- disturbing flashes that I didn't have time to worry about...
Enemies. Wanting to take what was mine. Hurt what was mine.
I will not fail.
This is my mission.
The dolls fell into pieces, torn, burned, destroyed...
And then there were none.
Heero stopped. The base lay in smoking ruins around us.
I flipped the comm on. "Heero? Heero?"
There was no answer.
I tried over our Zero link... Heero?
Confusion...His mind was disordered, a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions and I nearly lost myself as I saw up close and personal what I had been seeing on his face for days. Oh gods- I should've broken G's neck for this!
HEERO! I reached out the best I could. I'm here...
Duo? A center in the storm.
His mind slowed down a bit, and I took in a deep breath.
I'm right here. Are you okay?
No. But I'll make it to the end. What do we do now?
We go to the HQ.
"Howard?" I flipped channels on the comm. "We're done here. Do you need us up there?"
"Nah kid," Howard replied after a moment. "The backup troops tried to go down, but we stopped them. The doc wants you two to go to the NWO HQ."
I entered the coordinates into Scythe's navsystem and sent them to Heero.
I maneuvered Scythe into the air, Wing behind me, and we once again engaged the stealth units.
I wonder if J was on that base still?
I don't know, Heero replied. Insufficient data.
I hope he wasn't. I want to rip him to pieces...
Duo-
Don't defend him!
They can't fix me. You saw... I can't be fixed.
Underneath I could feel his despair- the knowledge that I wouldn't want Heero this way, his worry that he would hurt me, drag me down...
It was an effort to yank back.
Stop that! I won't leave. No matter what. You'll have to kill me first.
~*~
When we arrived at the New World Order HQ, it was surrounded by Maguanacs mobile suits. Trowa was out front waiting, with a squad from the Maguanacs mobile infantry division. We decloaked and landed. I took a chance and popped open my cockpit to call out to Trowa.
"Did we miss the party?" I hollered at him.
"Just about." He smiled coldly and tilted his head back.
Heero and I disembarked from our gundams and I made my way over to Trowa. We saw Relena on the steps, head down, shaking. Noin had an arm around her shoulders.
"It was just as we thought. We interrupted the little announcement. O had surmised they were controlling her using a drug they had developed during the first Eve war- so I made sure she got an antidote right away." Trowa patted the tranq gun at his side and smiled.
"Guess her little speech didn't go as planned?"
"No- she got confused, and then an aide ran in with the news of your attack on the base." Trowa shrugged. "We had a little skirmish after that."
"Outcomes?"
"Relena was dosed- so was Noin. We already sent Abdul to check Une out. Dorothy and her uncle tried to run but we caught them."
"In custody?"
"Dead. They resisted." Trowa shook his head. "So did Zechs unfortunately- we tried not to hit him, but he ran right for Relena- tried to take her out."
"Who got him?"
Trowa nodded at Noin. "He's with the medics now."
"What's Quatre doing?"
"Suggesting to the representatives that control be given back to the regular government, that the NWO coalition be banned- and all members checked for signs of tampering."
~*~
We all met inside the base to get debriefed on all the events that had happened in our mini-war. Heero had requested I let him stay with the Gundams, for his own safety and that of the others. I told him it was ok, and when I arrived at the debriefing room, I don't know who was more relieved, me for not having to worry about what Heero might do to the others, or the others seeing that I had left Heero elsewhere. The debriefing was long and tedious. Dorothy and her uncle had been busy little bees. But they were definitely the ringleaders. Relena sat silently, tears coursing over her face, but it was Noin's expression that made me hurt for them. To be betrayed by those you trusted sucks- as I know only too well.
I told my part quickly- base blown up, no sign of J, all the dolls destroyed.
"So, that's two doctors gone," Quatre frowned.
"TWO?"
Wufei snarled. "Howard reported in that G escaped."
What! There was no way G could've escaped off that ship without some help!
"So, basically we have no signs of J and Howard let G get away!" I snapped. Howard and I were going to have a little talk later... I rounded on Quatre. "What's O's status?"
"Secured." Quatre told me.
I was a bit worried about that. I wasn't sure it was totally safe to let Quatre keep O- but then again I was fed up with the sphere at this moment in time. If Quatre wanted to set himself up as king I would bow gracefully as long as I was allowed to just take Heero and go off someplace and be left alone.
I sighed and headed towards the doorway, as a familiar nagging feeling hit me right between the eyes.
HEERO! DANGER!
Fuck! Not AGAIN!
I broke into a full sprint towards the hanger where the gundams were stored, swearing under my breath. I heard footsteps pounding along behind me- I didn't look back to see who followed.
I found Heero underneath Wing, stretched out, looking up at the suit above him. For a moment, relief flooded me. Then I got a good look at him. He was pale. His breathing was hitching...
"What did you do!" I demanded as I knelt down beside him looking for a wound... for something... damn it! His pulse was slowing down underneath my fingertips.
"Can't stay..." he told me. "Too dangerous- you saw!"
"What did you take?" I checked him quickly for wounds; Quatre was calling for medics behind me somewhere. I could hear the panic in his voice and was grateful for it... I was afraid the others would want him dead...
"I didn't take anything. I can shut myself down. Easily done. It doesn't hurt. Don't worry Duo..."
I leaned over him, ready to protest, to argue, to go with him if that's what he would let me do. My sixth sense shrilled once and then I collapsed on the floor as pain shot along my nerves. I heard screaming.
I think it was me.
"Duo?" Quatre's voice.
"Beloved?" I could feel Heero's hand on my cheek and oh it hurt! I screamed again. I couldn't help it.
"Pilot 02," J's disembodied voice boomed over the loudspeakers like some evil god. Why the fuck wasn't he dead? Where the hell was he? God damn were we ever going to get ahead of them? "Once 01 is dead, you will report to me at once for experimentation."
"I'd rather fucking die!" I screamed back.
"You won't," his voice was amused. "But I will make you wish you had." The pain increased and every inch of my skin burned with agony. "You will report in, or this pain will never go away... every moment from now on will be nothing but pain..."
"STOP IT!" That was Heero. He sounded a bit stronger than he had a moment ago.
"You stopped your self destruction process 01? Why?"
"Stop it!"
The agony ceased and I took in a gasping breath.
"Why?" J sounded amused... I was just happy the pain had stopped.
"Duo must be protected."
"And who will do that if you die?"
I opened my eyes. Heero was breathing quickly. But he was sitting up, less pale now... And I saw J's plan.
Damn fucking bastard. But if he got Heero to live, I would have to let him live as well.
"If you die 01, then 02 is fair game for us. We've used him before."
"And if I live?"
"Then he's yours."
"Why are you doing this?" He demanded, and I knew that Heero had seen J's reason as well.
"Many reasons. Most you wouldn't believe. But what is the answer, 01?"
"I need you Heero," I managed. "Please. I don't care. We can live away from everyone else. Anywhere. But I need you."
Heero's hand brushed my cheek again. "All right."
~*~
"So, you don't miss the delivery business?" Trowa asked, eyebrow arching upwards, Quatre leaning lazily over his shoulder. He called us every week or so- just to check up. Wufei called us every three days exactly, and some of our other friends checked in at regular intervals. Phone calls were all we were allowing now. Heero wasn't dangerous, but we both felt we needed some time.
"Not in the slightest." I smiled at them over the link. "We're good here. We have everything we need- and I thank you for that."
Quatre shrugged. Surprisingly, he was back at WEI, having disbanded his army and opened up his satellites for inspections. He had dismissed all of his help as just a 'concerned former war vet'. It made for a good story and he got out of being entangled in all that government stuff.
Mind you, I still think he had some tucked away in other places- just in case. And I think the politicians knew it. Not that I cared- all the better if it made some of them rethink their attitudes. knowing that someone was willing to step in if they tried a takeover again.
"How is Heero doing?" Quatre asked.
"Better. I think he's more centered now that he's accepted the programming. He still worries, but it's all okay."
"We haven't found any sign of the doctors." Quatre frowned.
"I know it. We won't either." I grinned. "Still have O?"
"Yes. He's safely secured," Quatre assured me. "Don't worry."
After assuring them both one more time that Heero and I were fine, I hung up the phone and sighed. Heero was outside, sitting on the porch steps, watching a bird build a nest. I sat down beside him and put my head on his shoulder.
"You all right?" He asked me.
"Fine."
"How are the others?"
"Just fine. Everything's good."
We sat silently for a while, watching the bird carry tiny twigs back and forth, constructing her delicate house.
"Duo..." Heero's voice was a sigh.
I knew what was coming. We'd had this same discussion several times.
"Heero, all I want is you. I don't miss my business, I don't miss the city. This is paradise here with you. I love you and I'm happy."
He kissed the top of my head. "Me too."
OWARI
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