by Nix Winter
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, alas.
Warning: Angst, sap, mpreg, memory issues.
Note: I know I put this out every now and then, but if there's anyone out there that might like to rp with me, I'd be happy to play ☺ 1x2x1, or other ideas ☺
Chapter One
"Captain Maxwell," Marrow growled, "You have been a decided liability to my operation."
Duo Maxwell, a captain with the Preventers, an expert in poverty and juvenile crime, he was respected and could have been the head of the L2 office. He was also on his knees, a tooth missing, and one eye swollen shut.
"You should have kept to the terms of your probation, Marrow, then I wouldn't have come to arrest your ass, again."
Marrow was a born and breed rock kicker and he had the build to prove it too. He'd taken good to colony life though and he ran a mining crew that did diamond runs, among other things. He'd lost an arm on the belt somewhere and had it replaced with metal, garish, that didn't even try to look human anymore. Such prosthetics cost money, a lot of it. People would pay for body parts, for immortality. "You should have accepted the natural order of things. The economy is a system, Captain Maxwell. The smart and strong make the rules and the skittering masses hope to live long enough to breed. You were here. You know these things and yet you want to go around like you can make law the great equalizer. You shouldn't be Captain Maxwell. You should be Sheriff Maxwell."
"Law is here to stay," Duo said, before spitting blood at the man's face. "I'm not going to let you sell the kids of this colony or any other."
"I guess that's how you got through the war," Marrow said, "Be believing you can do anything, uh, Maxwell? Well, you go thinking I'm the bad guy and you're the good guy. Every person has value, some more than others. I'm saving lives, getting things where they need to be to save people of value."
"Everyone is 'of value'," Duo screamed, struggling against pain and exhaustion to get up. Hands cuffed behind his back, with his own cuffs. "Don't do this. Those embryos are viable. Some of them are advanced clones of living people."
"No? Really? Someone you know, Maxwell?" Marrow wiped the blood off his suit, from where Duo had spat on him. "You know if you'd waited, if you'd let the Earth authorities pick me up, you probably could have stopped me, but you had to do it yourself. Who's little cloned self was so important to you that you couldn't take any chances, Maxwell? There's just the two of us, Captain Maxwell, just us. I might be the last person you ever get to tell, so you should just confess. Whose DNA is so precious that you'd take such big risks?"
"What risk? You think I came here alone?" Duo shifted weight off one bruised knee.
"You didn't come here at all," Marrow smirked, making an open handed gesture to his clean, professional office. "Why would a mentally over stressed Preventer need to come here? No, Captain Maxwell, you were somewhere else. Some disreputable people obviously beat you near clean to death and I think you're going to have a very bad nervous breakdown, so you tell me whose DNA was so important to you, and maybe I'll give it to you? It'll be a gift for all the fine things you've done for my home and a nice experiment as well."
Duo licked at his swollen lip, tongue slipped through the missing front tooth. His partner would be here, was running surveillance. Backup would come. It had only been maybe an hour. They were late, but they would be here. He needed more time. "You have an embryo, a clone of Heero Yuy. That's why."
"Oh," Marrow said, eyes narrowing in glee. "Now I understand. Parker."
Duo's eyes went wide, even the one that hardly opened.
"Sorry, Duo, but this isn't the war, you know?"
Duo made it to one foot, his bruised knee refusing to straighten, as he spun. "You idiot! What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm just seeing things clearer than in a long time. You were my hero, but you're just wrong. This way, I'm saving your life and mine."
Rage so bright that Duo could hardly see through the white of it, and he growled, "There's lots worse things than being dead, Parker! If we'd worked together, we'd be having a beer right now!"
"Commander Long told me to do this, Duo. You're bad for business," Parker almost pleaded for understanding.
The injection stabbed his arm and Duo jerked, feeling his body pulled back hard against Marrow, as the injector pressed five more needles. Fancy fucking old style injector, he thought through a pain free haze. He was too angry to really give thought to dying. He wasn't going to die. He couldn't. He had so much to do. Heero's child. It wasn't really Heero's child, but it felt that way to Duo. His body relaxed, leaving him leaning against a man who had bought away his friendships, sold the child of the man he loved, and made everything seem so peaceful. In that peace, he could see Heero's eyes, blue as the sky over earth, and hear his voice. Heero was going to be happy with Relena. Heero wouldn't be hurt by this, Duo accepted, floated away, only remotely aware that he was being picked up off the floor by strong hands. Heero, Duo whispered in his mind, at least he'd never ruined Heero's life. He'd never confessed to Heero, never ruined their friendship. It was the drugs in the injection, he knew, that gave him such a strong feeling of peace as he dropped away into darkness, as he fell into Heero's beautiful blue eyes.
It had been three weeks since Duo Maxwell had tendered his resignation to the L2 Preventer's office and left without a trace. Heero had gone over every scan of every object leaving L2 big enough to hold even part of a human. He was convinced that Duo Maxwell had not left L2.
There was angry. Duo was his best friend, his only friend on some level. Heero didn't know how to explain it. He cared for Trowa and Quatre, respected Wufei, enjoyed Relena's company, and yet he craved Duo. Duo's flippant laugh and Duo's nightmares, he felt like a whole person when they were together. He loved to watch Duo cry over a movie which Heero found unbelievable in most ways, and there were many movies that had that effect.
He couldn't imagine an intoxicated Wufei leaning forward to kiss a friend the way Duo had done. That kiss had woken deep feelings in Heero and he'd tried to explain them to Relena. He'd tried to get Quatre's opinion, but of course he hadn't been able to explain to either of them about whom he was thinking or what had actually happened and that probably made it more difficult.
Wufei had left a romance novel on Heero's desk several months after that kiss and Heero had stared at everyone in paranoia for weeks. The book had been ridiculous. Why two humans with so little in common would be so drawn to each other made little sense to Heero. Yet, the feelings were strangely like what he felt for Duo. Sweet, warm, addictive, and confusing those were what his feelings were like. He found so many things confusing.
He knew Duo had not resigned from Preventers though. He knew that Duo Maxwell was alive and he knew that he was going to find him.