The Opposing Side

[virg]

the opposing side by Virg


SUMMARY: AC 195, In the battle to save the Sanc Kindom, Duo self destructs his gundam. All the remaining Gundam pilots saw it and thought Duo had died. Two years later, Duo is seen by Une’s side, as her right hand man & adopted son. Has Duo changed sides? where do his loyalties really lie?

Fiction Rated: M for language and make-out scenes here and there

Pairings: This fic is NON-yaoi, pairings so far are DuoxHilde

The full story can be viewed at www.fanfiction.net/~virg

Disclaimer: as u no, I don’t own g.wing..

Also im changing the story a little, and as u no in the cartoon, the war goes for a year.. in MY story it goes for a few years!

Ch1: Duo’s death

Heero sat in the kitchen on Howard’s ship. The room rocked side to side as the waves of the ocean outside hit the sides of Howard’s large ship. It was sunny and Heero sat himself at a table next to a window, using the sunlight that shone in to see his laptop as he typed up a report on his last mission. He stopped typing with one hand and used it to pick up the sandwich that lay on a plastic plate next to his laptop. Just as Heero bit into the ham and cheese sandwich, the loud rumbling of the Deathscythe landing rang through his ears.

“Baka.”

About ten minutes later, Duo walked into the kitchen and looked around to see who was sitting down to eat lunch. When Duo spotted Heero, he smiled and headed straight for the table. He pulled out the chair opposite to the silent boy and sat. He crossed his arms on the table and plonked his head on them, letting out a huge sigh. “Ah, I’m beat.’

Heero kept typing, occasionally looking at the American teenager in front of him. Duo’s cross lay next to Duo’s head on the table, its long gold chain snaking across the table. Heero found Duo’s faith, or lack of, fascinating. He took his fingers off the laptop and picked up the silver and gold cross with his right hand. He ran his thumb over the cold metal and pulled it closer to get a better look at it. Duo felt the chain pull and he lifted his head. Heero stopped pulling the cross when he realised that he was also pulling Duo towards him. “Sorry,” Heero said as he let go of the cross.

“It’s okay,” Duo smiled, taking the cross and slipping it down his collar and into his shirt. Then Duo’s eyes headed down to Heero’s half-eaten sandwich. As usual, Duo’s mind had jumped straight to the idea of food. “You gonna eat that?” Duo asked, his fingers creeping their way towards the sandwich.

“Yes,” Heero said bluntly, not taking his eyes off the laptop. Duo’s fingers stopped their walk towards Heero’s sandwich.

“So you’re gonna make me go and make my own?” Duo groaned.

“Yep.”

“But I’m beat!”

“Then don’t eat,” Heero replied.

Duo groaned and turned his head to the side. He scratched the side of his face with his middle finger. “Hmm, what should I make?” Duo said to himself. He said it to get Heero’s attention of the bird Duo was flipping at him. When he was satisfied that Heero had seen it, he stomped his way to the kitchen to make himself some food. Heero may not have smiled on the exterior, but he was smiling on the inside. He could’ve spared Duo some of his sandwich, but he couldn’t resist pissing the braided boy off.

Shortly after, Duo returned with a plate with three sandwiches and a glass of milk. Heero continued to type, but the sight of Duo devouring the sandwiches, as if he hadn’t seen food in a week, was more interesting than the laptop. Heero closed the laptop and picked up his own sandwich. Before taking a bite, he asked, “Do you believe in God?”

Duo stopped chewing for a second, a little taken back by the question. Heero had rarely started up a conversation with Duo, let alone started it up with such a personal question. He eventually swallowed his mouthful of ham and cheese. “Truthfully?” Duo asked, buying time to come up with an answer.

“Truthfully.”

“Do you want the long answer, or straight to the point?” Duo asked, still trying to put together a coherent answer in his head. Heero shrugged in reply. “Okay,” Duo sighed. “Knowing you, you probably want the short, straight to the point answer. So here goes,” Duo said. “I absolutely believe in God,” Duo explained. He lifted his sandwich to his lips and paused. “And I absolutely hate the f**k*r,” [1] Duo added before taking a bite.

Heero was a little taken back by such a hateful response, but even though he was curious as to why Duo was so angry, he didn’t press the matter any further.

“What makes you ask?” Duo asked with a mouthful of food.

“Your cross,” Heero replied.

Duo finished eating his sandwich. He hadn’t told any of the gundam pilots anything about his past. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them; it was because it brought up too many bad, painful, and often repressed, memories. And so, Duo didn’t elaborate with why he is the way he is. For a guy who’s mouth never stops, Duo never actually talked about himself. “Oh,” was all Duo could reply. He picked up his and Heero’s empty plates and stood up. “I gotta go,” Duo explained. He felt that he didn’t have to explain to Heero where he was going, as Heero never does. But Duo felt that he had to explain that he wasn’t coming back to the table after he takes the plates to the kitchen.

Heero nodded at Duo’s explanation and Duo headed to the kitchen. Heero was felt concerned for Duo’s sudden change of mood, but he had learnt not meddle in other people’s business, so he let Duo do his own thing.

Duo walked towards his room that he shared with Heero. Howard didn’t have many rooms left to offer to Duo, so he asked the two of them to share the one room- Even though that usually meant one of them would have a black eye by the end of the night. And that person was usually Duo. Duo walked in and saw that Heero had taken the single bed on the far side of the room, so Duo walked to the bed that sat along the wall next to the door. Howard had someone bring Duo’s backpack to the little dorm while Duo got some lunch. Duo sat on his bed and surveyed the room. The walls were wooden with two portholes on the wall that Heero’s bed was pressed up against. Duo hadn’t turned the light on, but the beams of sunlight that poured that streamed in through the portholes were enough. The sunset outside was beautiful, with the clouds in shades of pinks and oranges. But Duo was too tired to care. Duo pushed his backpack off the bed and he watched it hit the floor next to the foot of his bed. He hadn’t slept in two days, so the only thing on his mind was to sleep. And so, he lay down, hoping to get some well-deserved shut-eye. The next thing Duo knew, Heero was standing over him, shaking Duo’s shoulder. It was now dark, and the lamp was on in the Heero’s corner of the room. “Heero?” Duo said groggily as he sat up.

“We’ve got new orders. We’re to meet the others in Norway in six hours. From there, we all go to the Sanc Kingdom. OZ troops are gathering in nearby countries for a massive invasion of the Sanc Kingdom tomorrow night.”

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“Heero! Watch your left flank!” Quatre could be heard over the radio. Duo watched as Heero’s Gundam turned to its left and start shooting mobile suits heading his way. Duo tried to hold off the massive amount of Leo suits from penetrating the east wall of the Sank Kingdom, but none of the Gundam Pilots predicted that there would be such a massive amount of mobile suits. Only three days earlier, Relena had announced that the Sanc Kingdom would become a pacifist nation, and that they would destroy all their weapons, as a demonstration of peace.

“Oh, when I get my hands on that girl!” Duo growled to himself as he sliced three suits with his scythe. Duo forgot that his radio was still on, and that the other pilots could hear him.

It wasn’t until Wufei replied, that Duo realised. “Not if I get to her first, baka!” Wufei said half-jokingly. Even though Wufei preferred not to harm a woman, Relena’s move pissed him off. “That girl is going to be the death of us all!”

“Let’s hope not,” Quatre replied.

The OZ mobile suits were closing in with such a force, that Duo felt he couldn’t hold them off any longer. His suit had been knocked to the ground with the numerous laser blasts. “A little help here, guys!” Duo called over the radio. “I can’t hold off this wall for much longer!”

“I got your ba-!” Trowa replied, but the transmission was cut off.

“Trowa!” Quatre called out. The Heavyarms was knocked to the ground. A swarm of Leo suits surrounded it and began firing on the gundam. Quatre was torn between defending the south wall and trying to save Trowa. Duo saw what was going on, and realised that no one else would be able to help Trowa if Quatre didn’t do anything right away. Heero was up in the air, drawing a lot of the incoming fire power. Wufei was defending the north wall and seemed to be having a little trouble keeping the mobile suits at bay. Duo quickly thought up a strategy.

“Quatre! Help him!” Duo called. “I’ll cover the south wall!”

Duo turned his attentions back to the mobile suits swarming around him. He barely heard Quatre say ‘thanks’ over the loud blasts that were aimed at him. Duo positioned his gundam so that it stood at the corner of the south and east walls. No one had expected such an attack on the capital city. With the majority of the Sanc Kingdom’s weapons destroyed, if the gundams failed, it would be the end of the Sanc Kingdom. Duo didn’t want to admit it, but it was a battle that they were losing. Troops had gotten into the city and the mobile suits were too much for the gundam pilots. Duo looked around to see if any of the pilots could help him out. Wufei and Heero both had more suits on them than they could handle. Quatre and Trowa together tried to defend the west wall, only barely managing to hold off the opposing suits.

Duo could feel his arms grow weary. They’d been at it for hours and he ran out of bullets more than an hour ago. All he had left to fight off the mobile suits was his sythe. The war was going to end one way or another, “So why not go out with a bang?” Duo asked himself. He didn’t mean to say it to the other pilots, but what he said had caught the attentions of the other boys.

“Maxwell!” Wufei called. “Don’t do anything stupid!”

“We all know that we can’t win this. So if I’m going to be destroyed, then I’m going to do it in style!” Duo explained. He hit a dark metal panel on the side console with his fist and the metal panel slid across to reveal the self-destruct button.

“Hey!” Heero’s voice could be heard over the radio. “This is no time to-” Duo turned off his radio before he could hear the rest of Heero’s speech. Duo grabbed the heads of the two nearest Leo suits and crushed them with the Death scythe’s hands. He then spun himself around, still holding the two damaged Leo suits, before propelling the two suits into other nearby enemy mobile suits.

“Now that I have your attention!” Duo said to himself. He grabbed the controls in front of him and the Death scythe propelled forward, away from the city, zooming its way through the swarm of mobile suits that were on their way to the Sanc Kingdom. Most of the suits around him followed, just as he had hoped. He sliced through them with his scythe until he got to the centre of the swarm. The OZ suits closed in on him like rabid dogs to a piece of raw meat. Duo took his hand off the controls and slid his right hand over to the consol where the self-destruct switch was. His finger hovered over the button for a second.

‘I guess this is it.’

The remaining gundam pilots were forced to watch their friend die in an enormous fireball, taking out most of the enemy mobile suits with him.

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author’s notes: how bout that for a dramatic end? Well leme no watcha thought of it! Also I made this chapter short on purpose.

[1] I stole this line from Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. Sorry if it pisses anybody off! Lol but it’s such a good line!

[virg]

Ch2: Rebirth

AC 197

Heero unlocked the door to the apartment he had been using as a safe house. They’d been using this safe house slash apartment for so long, that Heero considered it as the closest thing to a home he’d ever had. He was sharing it with Trowa and Quatre, but they were out on missions, so he had the place to himself. He turned on the light and took off his jacket. The apartment had deep blue walls and the carpet was a cream colour. The apartment was extremely neat. Heero walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He looked around the apartment. The cream couches sat opposite each other, with a glass coffee table in between. Heero remembered the days when he had to share a safe house with Duo. Duo was the epitome of the typical American boy. The apartment would always be in a mess. Magazines would always be piled up on the coffee table, plates, empty glasses would sit on the floor next to the couch where Duo would sit to watch cartoons. It would drive Heero mad the way Duo lived his life. But at the same time, he was envious. Duo lived every day like it was his last, and he seemed to enjoy it that way. Duo would always find something funny in almost all situations, and Heero sometimes envied that quality.

It had been almost two years since the battle in the Sanc Kingdom. The gundams lost the battle that day, which also made it harder for the boys to look for Duo’s body. The Sanc Kingdom had been taken over by OZ, and the boys were forced hide in a neighbouring country. Now, almost two years later, the war against OZ was still going. Heero didn’t have a mission in weeks. He had no idea what J was upto, but he’d left it to Heero’s to chose what was worth doing to stop OZ. He rarely received missions anymore. To pass the time, even though it had been years since the death of his friend, Heero sat at his laptop whenever he could and looked for any trace of Duo out there in the world, or outer space. But every day Heero’s little glimmer of hope slowly degraded.

He walked over from the kitchen and towards the small dining table where his laptop lay waiting. He was a bout to sit down, but today something stopped him. He stood motionless, looking at the laptop. For some reason, he just couldn’t bring himself to turn it on and begin his daily search for Duo. Every time he searched for Duo with no avail, it killed Heero that little bit more. ‘Are Trowa and Quatre right?’ Heero asked himself. ‘Should I finally let Duo go?’

He was the only pilot that didn’t accept Duo’s death. The others had told him numerous times that Duo could never survive an explosion like that but he never gave up searching. He was convinced that Duo was still alive out there, until now. Heero felt bad at the thought that he had finally decided to abandoned his search for friend, even if it was two years later. He didn’t want to accept that Duo had died, even though Heero saw it with his own eyes. He turned around and walked over to the couch. He turned on the T.V, and for the first time in possibly years, he relaxed in front of the T.V. A show called ‘Dr. Bill’ was on, as Heero watched for a couple minutes as he talked about family break-ups. Heero sighed and changed the channel.

The television flicked to a news broadcast on a conference held by Lady Une. Heero was about to change the channel, but something caught his eye. Heero put his glass down on the coffee table and sat on the floor. He shuffled on his knees to get closer to the television to get a better look at the person standing to Une’s right. The young man looked so familiar, yet so different.

The young man looked about 18years old, with short brown hair. His brown bangs fell over his large violet eyes. The young man was looking straight ahead at the crowd in front of him, a proud smile on his face. Heero’s eyes widened as soon as he realised who the young man was.

“Holy sh*t.”

Heero grabbed a tape from the cabinet next to the T.V and pushed it into the v.c.r to record the broadcast. Even though it didn’t show on the outside, a million thoughts ran through his mind. The guy on the T.V was Duo, or a very good likeness of Duo. Suddenly, the phone rang. Heero picked up the cordless phone from the coffee table.

“Yeah?”

“Heero!” Wufei called through the phone. “Turn to channel 23!” Wufei demanded. “You’re not going to believe it!”

“I’m already watching it,” Heero replied. He wanted to shout out ‘Duo’s alive!’ but the stoic boy still felt uncomfortable with emotions, even though Duo always told him that if he’s going to live according to your emotions, you have to express them.

“How is it possible?” Wufei asked. “That’s Maxwell, right?”

Heero shuffled back to the T.V to get another good look. “It’s him alright. Just without that stupid braid.”

“Do you think he’s been undercover all these years?” Wufei asked. “How could he be alive all this time and we didn’t know it?” Wufei asked again.

Heero walked back to his laptop and started it up. “I don’t know, but I’m going to check it out.” Heero typed in his password and logged onto the internet to begin his search for the young man on the television.

“I’ll come help. I’ll be over there tomorrow night,” Wufei explained before hanging up.

Heero hung up and began his search for Duo again. He felt extremely relieved to see Duo alive, but at the same time, he felt bad that Duo had been alive all this time and none of the pilots knew, or could find him. “How is that possible?” Heero asked himself.

He began his search in the OZ databases for the name Duo Maxwell, only to come up empty. The only reference to Duo Maxwell was that he was a gundam pilot KIA (killed in action) two years ago. There was a blurred picture of Duo exiting an airport two years ago. The photo looked like a shot from a security camera. It wasn’t the clearest photo, but you could still make out that it was Duo. Heero sighed and began looking through the files of all the OZ soldiers. ‘This is going to take a while,’ he told himself. Heero made himself comfortable and began flicking through the enormous list of OZ personnel.

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“Heero!” Duo complained. “Would you put that thing away for two seconds so I can explain something to you!” Duo huffed. Heero felt Duo’s eyes burning on him as he stopped typing on his laptop and turn his head to Duo. Once Duo was satisfied that Heero was looking at him, he continued talking. “Now, if I’m going to leave my Deathscythe here with Howard and you, I want lay down some ground rules. Firstly, no stealing parts from my baby, you got that?” Duo explained. Once Heero nodded, he proceeded on with the rest of the ground rules. “Okay, I think that just about covers it. I’ll be back tomorrow,” Duo explained. Heero instantly went back to typing on his laptop. Duo huffed at Heero’s lack of verbalism. “Yeah, good bye to you too!” He grumbled as he turned on his heel and headed towards the doorway.

Heero watched from the corner of his eye as Duo’s braid swung around, following the rest of Duo’s body. He’d remembered how Duo constantly tries to get him to say things ‘normal people would say’, and something about Duo leaving for a mission made him want to wish Duo luck. Duo stopped typing and looked up from his laptop. Just as Duo reached for the door, Heero said in his usual stoic tone, “Be careful.”

Duo paused and turned around to face Heero. He gave Heero a genuine smile. “Looks like there’s some hope for you yet, Heero.”

Heero opened his eyes and realised that he was just dreaming of the day when Duo was leaving for a mission with Hilde, three days before he self-destructed in the Sanc Kingdom.

He’d fallen asleep at the dining table. He lifted his head off his arms and looked at the laptop. He’d been up all night searching through OZ personnel files. So far, he was up to ‘L’ in the list, and it had taken him over 10 hours to get up to there. Heero walked to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich. He then sat back down and continued to search the Oz personnel records for Duo.

After about another hour, Heero paused his search at a page containing a young man by the name of “Dustin Matthews.” His eyes widened at the find. Heero studied the profile before him. Under the white letters that spelled out ‘Dustin Matthews’, there was a picture of the infamous Duo Maxwell. Just like on the television, Duo’s hair was now cropped short, but his bangs still covered those violet eyes. “Dustin Matthews. Eighteen years old. Adopted by Lady Une 12 years ago. Registered as OZ personnel eighteen months ago. Part time student at University of New York,” Heero read aloud. Heero began searching for Dustin Maxwell in the University of New York’s records. By the time Wufei arrived, Heero had already downloaded Dustin’s uni timetable and had booked himself a ticket for New York.

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“And today we will also be brushing up on commercial law. Make sure you all pay attention because the exams are in three weeks..”

Heero walked into the lecture room and spotted Dustin Matthews instantly. The young American sat in the second last row, in baggy jeans and a black T-shirt. He leaned back in his chair, with his combat boots resting on the chair in front of him. He was writing furiously as the lecturer spoke. Heero walked up the wooden staircase and sat in the row behind his old friend. He sat a few seats to the left of the American boy and watched him for any signs that Duo recognised him, but the young American seemed to not notice Heero’s entrance. Heero felt his chest ache when his best friend didn’t even look up when he entered the room. Two years ago, Duo would’ve been the first to spot Heero walking into the room. To Heero, Duo was the closest thing he had to a best friend. They may not have shared everything about themselves to each other, Heero felt that they had a genuine friendship. Duo would annoy him, pester him, and yell at him if he even looked at the Deathscythe in a weird way. Even though he would never have admitted it two years ago, Heero missed Duo’s antics and humour.

Heero had become good friends with Wufei and the other gundam pilots after Duo’s apparent death, but Duo’s humour and thirst for life seemed to emanate from him and it made Heero feel more human while Duo was around. It amazed Heero how Duo could be so full of life, with a happy-go-lucky nature, but at the same time, he was so willing and ready to die. Duo was full of contradictions. He never let his cross out of his sight, yet he wasn’t religious. He had a thirst for life, yet was prepared to die at any moment. He spoke more than all the five pilots combined, and yet he never spoke of himself or about his past.

As Heero watched the now short haired, young man in front of him, Heero realised that Duo may not be the same person he was two years ago. For two years, Duo had been living under the guise of an OZ troop and son to Lady Une. And the fact that Duo never contacted the gundam pilots in the last two years opened the possibility that Duo really may not know who he really is. Heero never thought Duo to be that good an actor to stay successfully undercover for two years. Heero moved over a couple of seats to his right so that he was sitting directly behind Duo. He then tapped Duo on the shoulder. When the young man turned around and did not recognise Heero, Heero had to force himself to speak up as if he wasn’t waiting for a reaction of recognition from Duo. “I forgot my book. Do you mind if I read off yours?” Heero asked as if he was a student in the same class as Duo.

The American boy smiled and nodded. He then tapped the seat to his left, ushering Heero to sit next to him. Heero let out a smile and climbed into the row in front of him and sat down next to Duo. He then opened the notebook he brought with him and began writing as the lecturer spoke. In the corner of his eye, Duo outstretched his hand in Heero’s direction.

“Dustin Matthews.”

Heero looked at the outstretched hand, and then took it, shaking it. “Heero Yuy,” He introduced himself, looking at the smiling face in front of him. Heero searched Duo’s eyes for any hint that he may recognise Heero, but when the young man returned to writing down his notes, Heero figured that Duo might have amnesia. Heero pretended like it didn’t bother him and returned to writing in his notebook. After a minute or two, Heero noticed that Duo had stopped writing. Heero didn’t dare look up in case Duo was looking at him. Heero’s eyes began to wander to his right as he saw Duo’s hand begin to draw on the side of the page. He couldn’t help but stare as he saw a scythe being sketched out on the page. The rough outline soon turned into a detailed sketch.

Heero’s eyes soon wandered up Duo’s arm and to his face. Duo’s violet eyes were fixed on the page in front of him, but he seemed to know that Heero was staring at him. “You seem familiar,” Duo said, stopping his drawing. He looked at Heero, and began studying his face. “Have we met before?”

“Maybe in a past life..” Heero joked. “..Or around Uni..” Heero continued. Heero was amazed with himself when he let out a little smile in Duo’s direction. Heero was a little hurt when Duo didn’t react to his smile. After all the effort and arguments Duo and Heero had, the main ones were about how Heero wasn’t ‘human’.

Duo smiled back and continued drawing. Heero returned his attentions back to the lecturer. Pretty soon, he too was leaning back on his chair and paying absolutely no attention to the lecturer. After all, it wasn’t even his class! Heero was never much of an artist, but he too found himself doodling on his page. He felt so sad that he was sitting next to someone whom he thought died before his eyes two years ago, and he couldn’t even hug to him and tell him how glad he is to see him alive. Heero didn’t even realise he was doodling a picture of the cross Duo usually wore, until Dustin Matthews pulled him out of his own world.

“So when’s your next class?” Duo asked suddenly.

Heero stopped his doodling and looked up at Duo. At first he was a little embarrassed of Duo seeing his drawing, but when Duo didn’t react to the picture, he figured that maybe Duo didn’t wear it anymore. “This is my last class for the day,” he replied. He’d intended on following Duo for the rest of the day to see where he lived, but of course, he couldn’t tell Duo that.

“Me too,” Duo replied. Then Duo did something that caught Heero off guard. “You wanna go play a game of basketball after this class?”

Heero nodded. He hoped that maybe with the extra time he could spend with Duo he could somehow jog Duo’s memory. As soon as the lecture was over, Heero followed Duo to the parking lot. “I thought we were going to play basketball?” Heero commented. Just as he said this, Duo pulled a set of keys out of his backpack and opened the boot of his silver sports car. “Yeah, but I gotta get the basketball outta my car first,” he explained. Duo threw his backpack in the boot and exchanged it with a basketball. He tilted his head towards the car as he faced Heero. “Stick your bag in the boot,” Duo smiled. “I’ll give you a lift home.”

“Thanx,” Heero replied. “But my motorbike is just there,” Heero explained, pointing to the parking area reserved for motorbikes behind him.

“That’s cool,” Duo replied. Duo closed the boot and they walked to the university’s basketball court. Heero looked at his own feet. He wanted to tell Duo who he was, and that Duo was a gundam pilot, just like him. Instead, his eyes moved to watch Duo’s hands as he passed the ball from one hand to the other as they walked. “So, tell me about yourself, Heero.”

Heero looked up at Duo’s face. He couldn’t tell Duo that he was a freedom fighter and one of the gundam pilots that are opposed to OZ, whom ‘Dustin’ now apparently worked for. If Duo didn’t remember who Heero was, then Heero wasn’t prepared to tell Duo everything just yet. “I’m 18, enjoy long walks on the beach..” Duo laughed at Heero’s joke. “Nah, I go to uni, and live with two other friends, and we live like every day teenage boys,” Heero explained. “You?”

Duo stopped playing with the basketball and carried it under his arm. “I only remember the last two years of my life,” He explained. “My mom said I was in a horrific car accident. I woke up in the hospital almost two years ago and I couldn’t remember anything. My mom was there at my bedside and told me about the accident.”

“Do you remember anything now?” Heero asked. He prayed that Duo remembered some part of his life.

“Not really,” he explained. “But I sometimes..” Duo drifted off.

“Sometimes..” Heero continued on. He wanted to hear what Duo had to say.

“Nah, it’s stupid.” Duo waved his hand as if to dismiss the issue.

“Come on, Maxwell. Tell me,” Heero pushed on, acting as if he accidentally dropped Duo’s real name. If Duo remembered anything, he wanted to hear about it.

“It’s Matthews,” Duo corrected. Heero watched as Duo seemed to pause, as if thinking of something. “Are you sure we haven’t met Heero?”

“Don’t change the subject,” Heero replied. He didn’t want to lie to Duo, but he wanted to know what Duo knew first, before telling him anything. If Duo worked for Oz, then Heero would be able to use that to infiltrate the corporation. “Sometimes..” Heero said to refresh Duo’s memory.

“I cant believe I’m saying this,” Duo ran his hand through is short cropped hair. “Sometimes I have dreams that I’m one of those gundam pilots. You know, the ones we always see on T.V. I know they’re terrorists and all, but the dreams seem almost real. There’s one dream I keep having where I’m fighting Oz mobile suits. Just before I self destructed, someone calls me Maxwell.”

Heero was glad that Duo remembered something, even if it was of that day in the Sanc Kingdom. He wanted to confirm Duo’s dream by telling him it was a real event, and not only a dream, but all he replied was, ‘Hmm.”

Duo stopped walking and Heero followed suit. “So, have we met before?” Duo asked. “Before my accident two years ago?” Duo added to make the question more specific.

Heero didn’t want to lie to Duo, but he wasn’t sure if Duo would be able to handle the truth just yet. “Yes,” Heero replied anyway.

“Are we friends?” Duo asked. Before Heero could respond, the sound of a mobile phone could be heard. “Oh, that’s me.” Heero watched as the American boy dug his hand into his back pocket and pulled out the mobile. “Hi mom…yes.. just playing some basketball… with a new friend… soon.. okay, bye.”

Duo hung up and slipped the mobile phone back into his pocket. “I gotta go,” he said. “But I’ll see you next week in class, right?” Duo asked.

“Right,” Heero replied, even though he wasn’t sure if he would even sneak into the class next week.

“Nice meeting you, Heero,” Duo smiled before walking off to his car. As Heero watched Duo’s body shrink in size as he walked through the parking lot, Heero could sense someone was standing directly behind him.

“He still seems as cocky as ever,” A male voice commented over Heero’s shoulder. Heero turned around to face the speaker. The Chinese boy was standing right behind Heero, and Heero had to take a step back to prevent head butting Wufei.

“Wufei! How did you..?”

“You told me you were going to New York, and Duo’s new name, and that he goes to Uni here. So, I decided to check it out for myself,” Wufei explained. Wufei turned his attentions to the sports car starting up in the parking lot. “That him?”

“Uh-huh,” Heero replied. He then smacked Wufei on the shoulder. “Tag. You’re it.”

“Where are you staying?” Wufei asked. Heero slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a crumpled business card of the hotel he was staying at. Wufei took it and looked at it. He then slipped the business card into the back pocket of his own jeans. “Alright. I’ll meet you there later.”

“You’re gonna lose him if you don’t leave now,” Heero commented. Duo’s sports car could be heard raging out of the uni parking lot at a faster speed than necessary.

Wufei smirked. “Doesn’t matter,” Wufei explained. “I shoved a tracking device under his car while you two were walking to the basketball courts.”

“Nice,” Heero exclaimed.