lanerose

Posting this here as a way to keep it accessible, though it gets a major WIP labelling. This started as my Nanowrimo project, but I didn't have time to finish it then... consequently, it's my Nanowriye project. ^.~ This'll be posted in chunks because when I tried to put all of what I have up at one time Livejournal spazzed. XD Apparently 13K+ is too many words for it.

Title: The Braid
Part: Prologue
Warnings: Gundam Wing x Fullmetal Alchemist Crossover. FMA spoilers through 50, GW spoilers upto but excluding Endless Waltz. Definitively AU for both stories, diverging from points in FMA 50 and GW 49. Pulls in elements from GW manga Episode Zero, but AUs a bit of it. Heavily Ed and Duo centric. *Heavily*. However, this is also non-slash.
Pairings: None, except those in the canon of the series, and even then only unobtrusively so. This is so *not* a romance story.
Words: 5267

The Braid

Prologue

“You are like your father, after all.” Dante said, her violet eyes gleaming malevolently. Ed glanced quickly away from her, towards the child held close in Rose’s arms. An alchemical array flared to life on the child’s the stomach, and before Ed had time to truly process what was happening, the gates rose majestically before him.

The gate… He thought, eyes widening slightly. The doors swung open, pulling him through. There was the brief tearing sensation, followed by a semblance of weightless flight. Then pain, as all thought fled his mind.

“Ouch.” Ed began, rising unsteadily to his feet as the world slowed from a dizzying whirlwind into a more regular landscape. His mind swiftly recognized that he no longer stood in the abandoned city in which he had been speaking to Dante. No, this place seemed much too soft – picture frames on the wall, a vase filled with flowers sitting neatly upon a table. “What… What’s going on? My eyes…”

He struggled to focus his vision, and went to rub at his eyes. Shocked flooded Ed’s mind as his slightly raised right hand crossed his line of sight. The hand, so long mechanical, a reflection of his sins – the hand was covered with flesh, and could not have been made of anything other than bone and tissue. Disconcerted, he raised his eyes once more, trying to get a better view of the room. As he glanced swiftly around, a reflecting glass hanging on the wall drew his attention.

“Who’s that?” Ed queried aloud as he stared at the stranger in the mirror. The trademark braid that had hung down his back for so long seemed to have disappeared. The features of his face, grown familiar over many years, had subtly altered to something sharper, more angular. “What the…?”

SLAM! Ed jumped and turned around as the door swung open behind him. There stood a man he recognized all too well. The man was, after all, one of the few people he had truly hoped to never see again in his life… his father.

“Edward!” The man said, reaching forward and grabbing his arm, before turning to pull him through the door. “What are you doing? A ship is falling to Earth!”

“A ship…?” Ed asked, as he stumbled into the open air. Regaining his balance, he jerked his arm from his father’s gasp. “What do you mean, a ship? Pops, why are you here? What is this place?”

“Pops?” Hoenhime questioned, turning to look more closely at his son. “Edward, what are you saying?”

“Didn’t you go to Dante’s place?” Ed replied, drawing himself upright in the doorway of the house. He briefly surveyed the surrounding area. “What is this place? What’s happened to me? This face, these hand - ?”

He glanced once more at the flesh and blood arm attached to the right side of his body. Hoenhime followed the boy’s glance, then strode forward and grasped Ed by the chin. He stared deep into Ed’s eyes, before nodding to himself.

“You… are my son Edward.” The man said, his brown eyes gazing seriously into the boy’s golden orbs.

“Of course I am.” Ed answered scornfully, pulling his face harshly from the hand that had held it steady. He glared at the taller man as he drew himself a step back, closer to the door frame.

“What are you doing here?” Hoenhime asked, his gaze never breaking from that of the child before him.

“That’s –“ Edward began, but was silenced as the piercing shriek of a nearby siren cut through the air. Both he and Hoenhime glanced in the direction from which the wail had come momentarily. Then the man once more grabbed his son by the arm and began to pull him swiftly through the street.

“Let’s go! It’s coming!” The taller figure shouted over his shoulder as he dashed swiftly through the neighborhood. Ed ran as swiftly as he could, lengthening his own stride to match those of the man before him as best he could.

“What is it?” Ed called ahead as the two joined the throng of people rushing through the city streets. The elder man had released his arm, but for lack of a better idea the boy followed him still.

“Libra.” Hoenhime replied, continuing to run.

“Libra.” Ed repeated softly. A blast rocked the sky, and he looked swiftly skyward to stare at the buildings towering overhead, all the while hot on Hoenhime’s heels. There, in the midst of the atmosphere, was a falling chunk of metal that could only have been constructed by humans.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Impossible odds…” Duo mumbled to himself as he studied the massive group of mobile suits he faced alone. “Just the kind I like…”

Violet eyes narrowed at the screen before them, debating the best course of action for a few moments longer. The mobile dolls before him were still motionless, but he had no doubt that would change shortly. After a moment’s consideration, a braided head nodded once swiftly, and then a small body burst into almost frenzied action.

The Gundam brandished its scythe momentarily before striking at the dolls nearest him. Empty as they were, the pilot had no fears of injuring others. For a single, shining second, the dolls stayed still and allowed themselves to be hit. Those that had been in the way of Duo’s weapon exploded in brilliant flashes of light. The others, though, all seemed almost to be waking as their heads raised and the true melee began.

Slash, parry, slash, slash, dodge, slash, parry, slash, dodge, parry, dodge, parry, slash slash dodge parry slashdodgedodgeslashparryslash… Duo lost track of time as he focused on trying to stay alive. The intricate dance of such a fight could never truly be described, particularly when the speed at which things happened began to almost have the motion occur before the idea to initiate it crossed his mind.

Given that there were several hundred mobile dolls and only one Duo, the braided pilot was holding his own fairly well. It was, however, slowly becoming obvious that regardless of what he did here, this would be the end of the God of Death’s supreme reign. Still, pilot 02 fought tirelessly.

Deathscythe’s movements began to slow almost imperceptibly. That small change, though, began to take its toll as the dolls came that much closer to hitting the only occupied suit on the battle field. At last, it seemed that the battle was approaching its end, and that Deathscythe would at last be destroyed, avenging all those it had destroyed.

At that moment… the dolls stopped moving.

“Hey, they’ve stopped moving…” Duo said as he looked around himself, bewildered. “Not that I’m complaining, you know, but hey – I thought we were battling here.” Duo studied the dolls, his fingers not daring to stray from the controls they had been operating moments ago. The beeping sound echoed through Deathscythe’s cockpit, followed by the moniter in front of Duo lighting. The braided boy glanced at it and smiled. “Yo, Trowa!”

“I’ll come and join you. I’ve completed my mission here.” Trowa responded as calmly as ever.

“Roger that.” Duo replied, the grin that had lightened his features brightening a notch. Then, as swiftly as it had come, the joy faded from his face as he noticed the rigidity of Trowa’s posture. “Where’s Quatre?”

“I’m… right here.” The blonde’s voice sounded laboured, as though speaking were difficult for him. His face, when it at last showed on Duo’s moniter, was contorted with pain. Duo slowly released the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“Okay.” He said. A reassuring smile crossed his face, as much for his own benefit as for that of the two receiving images of him. “When we’re done here, we’ll celebrate with some expensive champagne!”

“That sounds great.” Quatre responded, forcing his own mouth into a tight but nevertheless present grin. “As long as it’s non-alcoholic.”

Duo laughed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ed and Hoenhime, having at long last escaped the dangers of the city, stood in a peaceful if somewhat deserted field. In the sky above them, lights too bright to be stars lit the night sky with the blaze of day. Ed watched the lights as they flashed this way, then that way, and this way again. At the back of his mind, the soft tickle of memories long forgotten arose. The vague and hazy feeling that those lights were somehow familiar wrapped itself firmly around him.

“This world is filled with death.” Hoenhime said as the two observed the flashing lights. Ed’s eyes remained focused on the sky over them. “In this world, they use things known as mobile suits to fight meaningless wars against each other. In the future, even more people will die. You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”

Ed drew in a breath sharply as the images pressed upon him by the gate flew into the forefront of his mind.

“All these lives from the past and those from the future become the source of alchemy.” Hoenhime continued. Ed’s breathing became ragged, and Hoenhime paused a moment.

“The source…?” Ed repeated confusedly. He took a step towards the man before him, eyes going wide. “What are you talking about? Isn’t alchemy -”

“The Law of Conservation?” Hoenhime finished for his child. He turned at last towards the boy, unable to keep himself from observing how innocent and childlike Ed looked without a body marred by metallic parts. Amazing how time could pass both so slowly and so quickly, how the baby he had once cradled in his arms could have become the young man who stood before him in a world not their own. Hoenhime glanced back at the sky. “To return a broken radio back to what it was, not only do you need the same mass, but you also need the energy to perform the restoration. By ignoring this, it doesn’t follow the Law of Conservation.”

Ed bowed his head.

“The lives dying in this world cross the gate… and provide energy for our transmutations?” Ed asked, his voice shaking ever so slightly. Hoenhime faced his son once more, bringing his left hand to rest against his chest. The boy looked up as he spoke.

“We all have within ourselves a small gate. Alchemists open this gate and connect to this world, to convert lives from here into power.” He replied calmly. Ed’s body contracted slightly for a moment, before exploding forward in anger.

“So you were with that woman!” He shouted at the taller man before him. “’There is no Law of Conversation?’ You two say the same thing…”

Ed allowed his voice to trail off. The anger evident in his stance, however, could not quite mask the hurt in his eyes. Hoenhime’s arm fell back to his side, his shoulders slumping forward as a soft frown took over his expression.

“You’ve met Dante…” He answered quietly.

“I also saw the love letter you sent 400 years ago! You guys extended your lives by switching bodies over and over again! Isn’t that right?” Ed said heatedly, stepping forward. He paused a moment to gather his will power, before staring straight at the man as he asked painfully, “Why… did you marry Mom? Did you want to play around and have a child with some normal person?”

“Because I loved her.” The answer was swift and silent, a well-spring of regret filling it. Ed’s eyes widened as some of the rage fell from his face, the tension of his body escaping at the confirmation of this most hoped for but least feasible reason. Hoenhime took advantage of Ed’s silence to continue. “Your mother… Trisha… I loved her. It was with her that I knew love for the first time.”

“You’re lying!” Ed exclaimed, pulling his anger back into himself. This was, after all, the man who had left his mother to die alone, wishing for his return even with her last breath. How could he possibly know what love was at all? You stay with people you love, and keep them close – you don’t leave them behind. “Then why…”

As Ed started to ask the question which had burned within him for so long, he noticed Hoenhime’s arm slowly lift from his side. Ed stopped, transfixed. Did this man who had the audacity to call himself his father intend to strike him for his impudence? No – the motion was too slow for something like that, too easy to avoid. What could he be…? The arm froze parallel to the ground, and Ed stared in confusion as the other hand rose to grasp the sleeve of the first arm. The sleeve pulled back slowly to reveal the hideous sight of decaying human flesh.

“Because I didn’t want to show you this rotting body.” Hoenhime replied. Ed eyed the decomposing body with growing disgust. It was awful to look upon. Clearly, nothing was without its price – even a life of four hundred years. In spite of himself, Ed couldn’t help but feel the tiniest flicker of understanding for his father.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Both Duo and the other pilots, all three of them, were flying fast towards Libra. It seemed a chunk of it had broken off, and was now headed on a course for collision with the Earth.

“Damn! We’re not fast enough!” Duo cursed as they chased after the falling hunk of space craft. If that massive meteor were allowed to hit the planet, the consequences were unthinkable!

“We’ll have to ruin as much of it as possible to reduce damages to Earth.”

“Wufei!” Trowa exclaimed as Nataku raced past the other gundams. The presence of a buster rifle clenched in its hand was all the response they needed or received. Desperately, they headed onwards. This could not be allowed to happen, not when true peace finally seemed to be possible. It would not!

They arrived at the falling block, and with wordless nods went separate directions. All stores of weapons came into play. This was it. Whatever remained at the end of this battle would be useless anyway. Having leftovers that could have made the difference if used was unacceptable when the price of failure was the end of Earth.

“We’ll smash it to smithereens before it falls on Earth!” Duo declared as he swung his scythe mercilessly at the ship’s walls. A smile covered his face, his eyes glinting determinedly. Destroying things that weren’t in the midst of attacking him? This, he could do.

“One should never give up till the end.” Trowa remarked, launching missiles at nearby walls. “That’s what Heavyarms has taught me.”

“Chance of success is almost nil.” Quatre added, wincing as the pain from the wound Dorothy had given him laced through his body. He ignored, turning Sandrock to continue slashing at walls with his scimitars. “Still, this is better than sitting back and not doing anything.”

Several minutes passed, as they continued to try to break the block. Then, suddenly, the pilots found themselves struggling to maintain their gundams balance as the chunk of Libra rocked from side to side. All was quiet for a few moments, and then a voice crossed their comm.

“I’ve given Heero his buster rifle.” Wufei’s voice said simply.

“We’d better get out of here so we don’t get in Heero’s way.” Quatre replied. The faint sound of cheering echoed through from his com link. Duo and Trowa assented, and all the pilots swiftly extricated themselves from the block.

Once outside, it was immediately clear what Heero would be attempting. Wing Zero flew ahead of Libra as Heero struggled to get a safe distance between the two objects. Then Zero rotated slowly, coming face to face with the block. Heero raised its buster rifle.

“C’mon, Heero, man. You can do this, buddy.” Duo remarked, his voice inordinately quiet. The chunk of Libra that had broken off gained even greater velocity as it came closer and closer to delivering the final strike that would destroy Earth.

Wing Zero wavered slightly, heat shining around its edges as it entered the atmosphere. The entire gundam seemed to tremble, and Heero’s grunt as he struggled for control of it was notably audible. The large space craft loomed menacingly above him, its course as unsteady as his own. Heero fought desperately to maintain the stability of his suit.

“I will… I will…” Duo heard over the com link. Pieces of the gundam were visibly being ripped from it now. The beam cannon leveled at Libra wavered minutely in its aim as the ship followed a similar pattern. “I will… I will survive!”

With that last triumphant shout, a burst of light exploded from the beam cannon’s end, driving itself with massive force into Libra. For a moment it appeared as though the effort was in vain, the remants of the ship clinging to one another. Then, the light of the cannon began to appear on the other side of the ship. Seconds later, the light resolved itself into a single ray as the ship collapsed under the cannon’s power, breaking into smaller, meteor-like chunks.

Ironic, Duo observed to himself, that meteors should be both the beginning and the ending of this war. Duo unobtrusively crossed his fingers, waiting for the light to clear enough for him to see what had become of Heero. The beam began to fade from view, its intensity waning.

“C’mon, buddy, where are you?” Duo asked aloud, his voice low and deep. The light retreated a bit further.

“Heero?” Quatre’s voice came over the com link, instantly solicitous. The blond watched the monitor in front of him worriedly. “Heero, can you here me? Is everything all right?”

“Ngh…” The sound echoed in each pilot’s cockpit. While it couldn’t have quite been described as a cry of pain, it definitively failed to match with Heero’s usual non-responses. When nothing followed, the undercurrent of tension swelled to a feverish pitch. The beam finally gave way.

“Heero!” Several voices shouted at once, for there, falling ceaselessly to the planet below it, was the gundam known as Wing Zero. Its wings hung limply by its sides as it spiraled deeper into the atmosphere. The increasingly thick air, combined with the pressure of the atmosphere, seemed to slightly counteract the effects of gravity. However, it was clear that this alone would not be enough to prevent the mobile suit from having a high velocity impact with the ground.

Before Duo had even realized what he was doing, Deathscythe was rushing into the planet’s atmosphere.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Dante couldn’t create the Philospher’s Stone by herself.” Hoenhime explained simply. “That’s why I’ve been hiding all this time. But, I knew she had her eyes on you.”

“Were you sent beyond the Gate by Dante, too?” Ed asked somewhat incredulously.

“Dante separated my body, mind, and soul in the Gate.” The man remarked. He added almost whimsically, “I think I’ve been wandering for some time, but I managed to make it beyond the Gate.”

So mind, soul, and body could be separated in the gate… Ed contemplated the human flesh of his hand once more.

“This body…” He began, staring at a limb he had never thought to see in any form other than automail. Was it possible that this was not his own body? Could he be in someone else’s body, in this other world? A thought brushed the back of his mind, the image of a boy with long brown hair and unforgettable violet eyes.

“In this world, the difference is that alchemy wasn’t developed.” Hoenhime said, his voice cutting through Ed’s thoughts and drawing him from the memory that had threatened to drown him. “Other than that, it is quite similar to ours. That’s why there is a child that looks like you. Perhaps, somewhere, there is a child that looks like Al.”

Ed looked at the older man askance as Hoenhime turned and began to walk away. Could it be that there was a child here, untouched by the sin they had committed as children? Would fixing Al on his own side of the Gate destroy the Al on this side, if humans from this side fueled alchemical reactions? But wait – how had Hoenhime even known where he was? Unless he had sought him out…

“So you were living at this child’s side?” Ed asked as the man walked slowly past him. It seemed a good way to alleviate one’s guilt – by making up for his faults to the only child he hadn’t failed yet.

“Your body is still inside the Gate.” Hoenhime replied, ignoring his son’s question. His face held in an immobile mask. “Your soul and mind must have been attracted into this Edward’s body, younger than you though it may be.”

A pair of soldiers appeared at the far end of the field from which they had been watching the battle above them. As the two ran towards the blond men, Ed studied his body for a moment. Yes, the features were sharper than his own… and his hand, his leg – they could be made of nothing but flesh! Still, the muscles were weaker than he remembered his being in some time… weaker than before Sensei’s training. The body his soul had landed in could not have been more than twelve years old. The soldiers stopped in front of them and saluted.

“Lady Une needs to speak with you.” One of the two said, leaning close to Hoenhime in an effort not to be overheard. Hoenhime’s face hardened almost imperceptibly, and he followed the two back towards their car.

Ed stood for a moment, frozen in thought. He was younger…? Would Al here be younger, too? Would he even be able to find him? What about - - The familiar face flashed once more before his eyes, taunting him with hints of something he should know. Long brown hair… A braid. Ed shook off his lethargy as Hoenhime began to descend a flight of stairs across the field. He chased after him.

“Please wait!” Ed called as a soldier opened the door to a waiting car for Hoenhime. The taller man paused. Could it be possible that his son had chosen to address him, chosen to speak with him, and was doing so without a trace of anger in his voice? He looked down, keeping his back turned. It would be better this way – Ed may hate him, but at least neither he nor Alphonse would be alone.

“Open the Gate within you...” Hoenhime said, steeling himself as he turned at last to his son. “…and find your own body inside it.”

“You, too, come back!” Ed replied, truly looking at his father for perhaps the first time ever. Hoenhime’s head shook slightly.

“I can’t. My body has already crossed the Gate.” Hoenhime looked away once more, making a gesture with his arm as an excuse to turn his head. A bittersweet smile crossed his face. “In this world, I can’t use alchemy. However, it isn’t too late for you.”

“I’ll do something about it.” Ed said determinedly. He stared harshly at the older man, defying him to think of a reason for him to not at least try. The man raised his head, and glanced entirely too briefly at the man his son was becoming, sharp surprise crossing his features. A quick real smile quirked the edges of his mouth, before fading back into its slightly sour predecessor.

“I will die here… in this body.” Hoenhime answered, his certainty thereof unbreakable. The smile returned for a moment more as he continued, “In this body and shape that Trisha loved.”

Hoenhime seated himself in the car, careful to keep his gaze from wandering to the boy just inside his periphery. “It’s a relief to know that the Law of Conservation isn’t true.” He remarked simply. “You don’t always need to pay a price to gain something. When a parent loves his children, there is no price or reward.”

The four hundred year old’s eyes gazed far into the distance. An aide shut the door, and without further remark from either party, the distance between them began to grow. Funny how such simple lessons were often those that could only be learned when life at last approached its end.

“Even so…” Ed remarked to himself as his father’s car vanished into the distance, putting the man at long last where he had always wanted him. Funny how he didn’t truly want this to happen as he once had. “Even so… if I work hard, what will I gain?”

Ed turned and began to walk slowly down the road before him. Where precisely he was headed he could not have said… Only that the journey needed taking. He sighed softly to himself. Would anyone be equally blessed for making an effort? By paying a price, would anyone receive equal happiness? I want to believe in the Law of Conservation. Reality is - Reality isn’t like that. So even if you call it a theory for children, being childish is fine for me. I don’t want to believe that it’s possible to pay a price and not receive anything.

“A gundam is falling!” exclaimed a voice from the front seat as a loud bang echoed across the land. Ed and Hoenhime turned almost simultaneously towards the source, somewhere equidistant between them. Hoenhime gasped in shock as his mind immediately determined the projected land zone from its trajectory.

“Gundams…” Ed remarked, entranced by the falling machinery. Suddenly, a dam seemed to shatter in his mind. The vague images of a braided baka with deep violet eyes solidified itself in his mind and fleshed itself out. Hundreds of scenes danced across the once vacant corners of his memory, repainting themselves onto the canvas that had once been wiped clear of them. A church – a priest – a boy…

“Kip…” Ed said softly, his attention torn between the recollection of things nearly forgotten and the captivating beauty of an angel falling to Earth, its wings spread wide. He gasped.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wing fell faster now, spiraling towards the Earth at an alarming rate. Duo gave chase as quickly as he could in Deathscythe, but even he could see that there would be little, if any effect to his efforts. Still… he had to try.

The ground beneath them slowly began to resolve itself into mountains and plains, into hills, lakes, and forests, into cities and towns. A town – damn it, what would happen if they hit a town? How many could be killed in the process? Presuming Heero managed to survive – and he damn well better, or there would be hell to pay ‘cause no one dies without the God of Death’s permission – how much worse would it be if once more others had gone in his place?

“Ironic…” Duo laughed morosely under his breath, pouring more power than was truly safe into the mobile suit. He stared at the terrain below them. How appropriate that it should end here, of all places on Earth.

“What’s ironic, Duo?” Relena’s voice echoed over the com link.

“It’s the Sanc Kingdom.” Quatre’s cultured tones replied. The blond pilot stared at his screen, watching as one of his friends tried frantically to save the other. “They’re headed straight for the Sanc Kingdom. C’mon, you can do this, Duo, you can catch him…”

But he could not. The ground was approaching too quickly, Duo and the other pilots all knew it. Still, the braided pilot pushed his machine harder, forcing it to an ever quicker – and more dangerous – chase speed. Slowly, steadily, Deathscythe gained on Wing Zero. Below them, a city formed steadily more clearly. To the south, north, and west, there were suburbs and towns – but the eastern border of the city backed onto a forested patch of land.

“Forgive me for this, buddy.” Duo said quietly. He brought Deathscythe on level with Zero, and took a deep breath. Then, he began furiously typing commands as he brought the two gundams into collision, altering their landing vector and pointing it towards the east.

Both gundams spiraled somewhat unstably for a moment. Duo strove to regain control as quickly as he could, working harder at it then he had at anything else, pushing himself further despite his exhaustion. One gundam crashing into the planet at this speed would be bad enough, but two?

Deathscythe shook, twisting this way and that as it fought against gravity, its own acceleration, and the force of the collision with Wing Zero. It struggled, rolled, turned… For a long moment it seemed nearly certain that the braided pilot would be unable to regain control. The ground was rising closer, closer now.

Finally, mere moments before Deathscythe would have collided with the ground, it pulled out of a barrel roll and spun to face the still falling Wing Zero. It stabilized in the air, and Duo looked up at last to watch the outcome of his actions. Zero wouldn’t hit the city, that much was sure. He had managed to avoid a complete disaster – but would it be enough?

Zero revolved in the air as time suddenly seemed to slow, drawing itself out in length. A glimpse of gold on the ground caught Duo’s attention. As Zero began to plow into the Earth, Duo had just enough time to process that it was a person that stood on the road through the forest.

His breath caught in his throat as Wing Zero collided with the ground and the figure, for he could not decide which name to scream.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ed’s gaze, once so focused on the falling objects above him, had misted over as he was captured in the embrace of memories long forgotten. He couldn’t move. Frozen, Ed stared into the distance as thousands of images flooded his mind.

So caught in them was he that he didn’t notice the mobile suit headed straight for him until it was a mere matter of meters above his head.

He clapped.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Solo.” Duo breathed the word into existence, his face blanched by shock. A sore left unhealed ached fiercely for a moment before he shook himself, and screamed, “Heero!”

Deathscythe raced towards the ground and landed quickly. Duo sprung from his gundam, dashing towards the flaming wreckage that had once been known as the gundam Wing Zero.

“Heero!” He called frantically as he began searching the wreckage. He started mumbling under his breath. “C’mon buddy, I know you lived through that. You never say things you don’t mean, after all. Now say something so that I can make sure you keep surviving this situation.”

A low moan to his right caught Duo’s attention. He turned and sprinted towards it. There, amongst the scattered pieces of a machine he had once known nearly as well as his own, was the bloody and beaten body of Heero Yuy… who was still breathing.

“Oi, Heero, man!” Duo exclaimed as, after a cursory check for spinal injuries, he scooped up the body of his comrade. “Let’s not do that again, all right?”

The lolling bob of an unconscious head was the only answer he received.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here's hoping that this doesn't kill Livejournal. XD