Warnings: blood drinking, violence, language, kinda gruesome imagery

Chapter 9

I woke up shackled on a transport ship with Quatre beside me. Heavily armed guards loomed over us. Trowa was no where to be seen.

We landed back on Lunar Base and one of the OZ guards jabbed me roughly with his gun. "Come on, Gundam scum." I shot him a glare but complied. There really was no advantage to fighting back at this point in time.

We only made it as far as the hangar. Not because Quatre or I suddenly came up with a means to escape, but because of outside influence. Another group of armed guards showed up to surround us. They wore uniforms similar, but just slightly different to the OZ uniform. I heard one of the OZ guards near us say something about 'the Treize Faction'. Seems there's dissent in the ranks. Interesting. Though I didn't know if this actually helped us at all. Seeing as we were passed from one armed escort to another, as they continued to lead us back to the cells. It seemed more a situation of 'out of the frying pan, into the fire'.

We were tossed into a cell. It looked the same as when I left it with one very noticeable difference. Wufei and Duo were gone. Did they escape? I hoped that was the case. I had to just assume it was. Thinking about the other possibilities would be just too distracting.

Our quiet contemplation was interrupted some hours later by the cell door being opened. One guard entered the room, two metal trays of food in his hands while another stood in the doorway, gun at the ready. The trays were tossed on the floor, the food jostled, but remained on the metal surface while the guard turned back to the door leaving us once again in silence.

I walked over to the trays, picking up both of them. I sat near Quatre and handed him his share. I picked at the food. It seemed appetizing enough… for human fare. And while I can eat food, it does absolutely nothing for me. Being locked in a cell with Quatre though, I felt I needed to keep up appearances.

"Give me that."

My tray was suddenly no longer in my lap. I looked up to see Quatre setting it on the floor beside him. I raised a questioning eyebrow at his actions.

"You and I both know that's useless for you. I'll eat it to bolster my strength, and you can feed off me."

His attention never left the food on his plate, but he held his left wrist up towards me. He can't possibly mean what I think he means, right? But… what else could that mean? I realised I was open-mouthed staring and composed myself. He finally glanced up at me.

"You're going to need to keep your strength up if we're going to get ourselves out of this mess, and I'm sure it's been awhile since you've fed." My eyes shifted back to my former tray on the floor. He rolled his own eyes. "I already know what you are. And since the guards have just been here, it'll probably be awhile before they're back. Now would be the best time, assuming you don't want to get caught in the act?" He moved his hand in such a way as to draw attention back to his raised wrist and express impatience at the same time.

I brushed off my shock. While I was surprised he knew what I was, he was also correct. I really needed to feed to be at my optimal strength, to be ready for whatever may happen. I gripped his wrist and brought it up to my mouth. I gave a last minute check for confirmation. He nodded at me, then went back to eating his food one-handed. I opened my mouth, and sank my teeth into the soft, yielding flesh of his wrist.

The crimson liquid welled up. The Hunger sang in pleasure. Quatre let out a low moan and I instantly jerked back. A quick mental check showed I still had a thorough block locking down the Connection, so why did it seem he was feeling what I was feeling? I stared at him with wide eyes.

He gave me a slightly sheepish look. "Sorry. It's my empathy. Runs in the family."

"You're an empath?"

He gave a quick glance at his wrist still held in my hands. I followed his look to notice the twin thin rivulets of blood just starting to drip to the floor. I brought his wrist back to my mouth and tried to keep my mind blank as I fed.

"I call it my Space Heart. It's actually how I could tell what you were. For some reason vampires just feel 'different'."

I made sure not to feed too much. While I needed to keep my strength up, he needed to keep his up as well. I healed the puncture wounds and thanked him for the offer.

He gave me a small smile, a quiet "You're welcome" and turned back to finish his meal.

I nudged Quatre awake when I heard the door unlock. A pair of the green uniformed guards entered the room. "Alright, you pilots, follow us. And don't give us any trouble." We were lead out of the cell and down the many nondescript metal halls. My mental map informed me we were heading towards the research and development labs. Are Dr. J and the others still here?

Sure enough, when we entered the lab all five of the Gundam scientists were there. Right away they made Quatre sit in a chair near their machines and hooked up EEG sensors so they could monitor his brainwaves. They were interested in if the system from that new Gundam had any permanent effect.

I took the time to get a status update from Dr. J over the current political situation. He informed me that Romefeller had decided to remove Treize from command, resulting in OZ splitting into two factions. Is this part of your plan, Treize? Or has this gotten out of even your far-reaching control?

"The other two pilots, Duo Maxwell and Wufei Chang, escaped during OZ's internal unrest." My interest piqued with that comment from J. I let out an internal sigh of relief. Duo escaped. They didn't terminate him. Duo… my Duo… is safe.

I frowned at that. I had never really thought about having a Claimed human before and I hadn't come to terms yet with what this would mean for me. It was really just a spur of the moment decision to Claim him in the first place, and I had never planned to see him again. Though, by custom, I really have an obligation towards him now. In exchange for the human being 'theirs', a vampire is expected to protect and provide for their Claimed. Some treated their Claimed humans as little more than pets. I snorted at that, trying to imagine Shinigami letting anyone treat him like a pet. He'd probably eviscerate me simply for the thought. Others treated their Claimed as friends or companions. And then there were the ones whose Claimed were also their lover.

A felt a sensation like a swarm of butterflies taking roost in my stomach. Is that what I want? Do I want Duo to be… my lover? Duo was definitely a trusted ally. And despite my attempts otherwise, I would have to call him my friend. But did I feel about him in that way? I'll have to think on this more...

The Treize Faction for some reason gave us free reign of their systems. I sat in front of one of their computer terminals reviewing schematics and technical data for the new Gundam. Do they even have any idea what I could do with this terminal alone? I mentally shook my head at the naiveté of this new faction.

"Heero." Quatre's voice breaking the silence nearly startled me. "I've been wondering who our allies are and who our enemies are in this war. I get confused thinking about it."

I turned the chair to face him. "Quatre, the ones after your life and the targets you aim to defeat are the enemy."

"But… what if you find you were mistaken?"

"We're not mistaken about this." Anyone after my life is an enemy and will be treated as such, regardless of faction or alliances… but there does seem to be a lot of shifting alliances. If this war is no longer following Treize's plan, then is it out of control completely? "But..." Quatre had assumed my pause was the end of the conversation and had started to turn away, but he turned back at my call. I met his eyes with my own. "It's possible this period of war has gone nuts."

Both of our heads shot to face the door at the sound of gunfire. When we checked the hall outside we found it empty of even the guards that had been stationed there. Suddenly there was the sound of static and then a voice over the station's PA system.

"Members of the Treize Faction, we have surrounded your hideout." As Duo would say, seemed things were getting interesting once again. "I must say I have some reservations about fighting against former comrades without talking things over first. I think we can avoid senseless bloodshed. First of all, I can't promise to release all of you. However, I guarantee that you will all live. As long as we can cooperate with each other." Stop with the speech and just get to the point already. We started heading down the hall to the main room. The voice continued, "I didn't know that you doctors were in there as well." Sounds like J is cutting in. Maybe we'll get somewhere now. Just before Quatre and I made it back to the main hall we heard, "We'd like you to hand over the Gundam pilots to us. Because we want to record combat data on the Gundam."

I looked over to Quatre. He squared his small shoulders and gave me a nod. Together, we entered the main hall to face whatever would come next.

The OZ troops wasted no time in attaching brainwave sensors to my head and having me enter Wing Zero. I gave a quick assessment of the cockpit layout. It really is just like Wing. The only difference was a small, unassuming switch located in the corner of the equipment panel. That must be the ZERO System Quatre mentioned.

I went through the regular start-up pattern of switches, buttons and levers. Then I reached to hit the switch in the corner. I felt the oddest sensation. It was almost like a cool liquid slowly being poured into my brain, leaving a calm blankness in its wake.

Once everything was ready, I pressed the button to open a broadcasting comm frequency to inform the OZ troops to start their tests. A battery of targets showed up on Zero's interface. The test had begun.

It started out slow, only a few targets, but they gradually increased as I destroyed them. There were three on the left, I "turned" Zero to fire upon them. The interface showed the simulated explosions and the dots disappeared.

Two on the right, fire. Straight ahead, fire. Above, fire. On the right again, fire. Fire. Fire. Fire.

Everywhere I turn there are enemies…

Press button. Turn joystick. Fire. Fire. Fire.

Enemies… surrounded by enemies...

Fire. Fire. Fire. Flip switch. Press lever.

My enemies… are the ones after my life.

Move forward. Pull saber. Swing. Explosion.

Fire. Fire. Swing. Fire.

Cut. Rip. Fire. Charge. Swing.

Enemy?

"Heero, that cockpit increases your fighting abilities but at the same time you lose control."

Quatre. Enemy?

"Quatre. I've got a very clear view of the enemy. If you're going to be an enemy, then I'm going to have to kill you."

"That Gundam is all on its own but we must've fight alone, right? You lose sight of the target when you fight by yourself!"

My enemies are the ones after my life and the targets I aim to defeat.

"I can see my target. I see my enemy."

Charge. Swing.

"There's still a self-detonation system left in this suit. If you won't stop fighting, I will destroy these two mobile suits right here! These mobile suits are the least necessary things in outer space right now! But there's something else that outer space needs even less."

"Outer space needs the Gundams. And I'll fight to defend outer space!"

Press advantage.

"We aren't needed. WE AREN'T NEEDED IN OUTER SPACE, HEERO!"

"What!?" I jerked back in shock. What am I doing? What's the matter with me? I nearly killed Quatre.

What the hell just happened to me!?

My stomach started to heave. It's this system. It's just not right. I need to get out of here, now! I pressed the switch to open the hatch. I barely even waited for it to fully open before I dived out, not bothering with the cable used to enter and exit the Gundam. I felt myself slam against the hard metal floor.

"Are you ok, Heero?" Quatre ran up to my prone form and helped me to stand. "Heero, let's go to Earth." The colonies no longer want to fight. Gundams are for fighting. Gundams are no longer needed in space. I nodded in agreement. We made our way to the shuttles, stealing one and set in a course to Earth.

Quatre brought the shuttle in to land on a stretch of beach. Since we didn't have any supplies and neither of us knew the direction toward the nearest settlement, we decided to just wait for whatever faction was nearest us to come investigate and then go from there.

It wasn't long before a small troop of soldiers showed up. Their uniforms had no distinguishing characteristics identifying a faction so I couldn't tell if we were in for a fight or not. The fact they didn't try to kill us on sight was a promising development. They informed us they were a small country defense force loyal to the Romefeller Foundation, but given the friendly treatment we received, the laid back attitudes of the guards on us, and the little detail of them not following through with Romefeller's standing execution order on us, I surmised they weren't that loyal.

It was sometime that night when Quatre noticed it. The "guards" they had set on us were just a couple of dogs. We took it as a message that they wanted us to quietly leave so they wouldn't have to deal with us and the trouble that follows us. We weren't about to turn down the offer.

We stole one of the troop's planes and took off. They probably thought we were going to simply escape and bunker down somewhere, but we're Gundam pilots. Fighting is what we do. And we still had enemies out there.

We headed toward the nearest group of Romefeller troops, a small fleet of warships off the coast. We came in hot, the plane sliding across the ship's landing pad, guns firing. Not having the time to wait for its slide to come to a stop, I dove from the plane into a roll. Quatre provided cover fire as I sprinted to the door granting access to the decks below.

I ran down the metal halls. I had to make it to the ship's hangar before the other ships could respond. Rounding a corner, I came across three soldiers. Quick as I could, I invoked a glamour, simply yelling, "Freeze!" They gave me no trouble as I ran past.

None too soon I finally made it to the hangar and jumped in the nearest Leo. I rushed the start-up, not waiting for the usual safety checks and brought the Leo's rifle up to fire on the nearest two boats. I then provided backup as Quatre charged the command bridge.

We forced the crew to evacuate, claiming the ship as our own. We really had no need for a warship, but it would hurt OZ's troops to lose it.

"Heero, where should we head to now?" Quatre gazed onto the sparkling ocean waters. "There are lots of kind people right here on the earth. But we'd be causing them a great deal of trouble by doing nothing more than just meeting them." He sighed. "There is no place for us to go, is there?"

"As long as earth's a war zone, I'm going to fight." I have to end this war. It's not even about Treize anymore. This war has gotten out of hand and has to be stopped for both vampire and humankind's sake.

I laid on an empty bunk in one of the ship's crew quarters. Quatre had picked a direction to head the ship but I couldn't really care less where we were heading. It really made no difference. I'll be fighting no matter where we end up.

My enemies are the ones after my life. OZ continues to try to kill me. They are my enemy. Romefeller decreed the execution order for Gundam pilots. They are my enemy. Treize tried to have me killed. He is my enemy. The Treize Faction… are they my enemy? Are they actually receiving orders from Treize or just remaining loyal to him? They haven't tried to kill me yet. They aren't my enemy?

I heard footsteps echoing down the metal corridor outside. Since Quatre was the only other person on the ship, I knew it had to be him. He entered the room and sat on one of the bunks facing me.

"It's been a few days. How often do you need to feed?"

"Unless I experience massive blood loss I can generally go a couple weeks between feedings. And since our situation is unstable right now, I'll probably take up sleeping. That will help me conserve my energy and I'll be able to go longer before I feel the need to feed again. You don't have to worry. I won't be forced to make you weak from anemia or force myself to starve." I saw him visibly relax and gave him a small smile.

His face lit up in a returning smile. "Don't hesitate to ask if the need arises though. While I don't fancy the idea of being weak when we may face a battle any moment, you're the more competent physical fighter if it comes to that and I don't want to compromise that."

"Understood."

He stood up and started to head to the door. "I'll take first watch. So you get some rest."

I gave an affirmative nod and settled into the bunk.

My Gundam glided smoothly through space, dancing to my ever shifting control. Every fire of my buster rifle took out yet another mobile doll. The calm blankness in my mind helping me to focus. I went from enemy to enemy. Destroying them all.

The targets seemed endless. Wave upon wave. I just kept fighting, never tiring. Eventually I was done. The last target destroyed. I blinked and it seemed like my eyes suddenly focused. I looked at the destruction around me displayed on Zero's view monitors. Bits of debris floating, spinning aimlessly. Then I noticed one particular piece of debris. Part of a black mobile suit.

I quickly grabbed the controls to spin my suit around, looking every which way. I found it above me. Deathscythe. Duo's Gundam. It was drifting silently, not moving.

An entire arm was missing, up to where the cockpit would be located.

I boosted the thrusters as I opened a private comm channel. "Duo!" When I reached his Gundam with no response, I switched to all channels. "Duo! Respond! Now!" I inspected his Gundam. The metal appeared almost melted at the edges. But only certain weapons could cause damage like that, Duo's scythe, and my buster rifle. " No…" The cockpit could be seen through the damage. It was empty. "No." My eyes shifted frantically over the debris displayed on my screens. Then I saw it. A body, floating among the pieces of mobile dolls and black Gundanium. A body with a very distinctive braid of hair. "No!"

Zero responded to my command and we were instantly by his side. I reached out with Gundanium fingers to cradle his form and pull it closer. His suit was torn and burnt in places. His helmet was completely missing. "No… please no." His lips were already blue. His face was already bloated from the depressurisation.

He's dead. Duo's dead.

I pressed the palm of my hand against the viewscreen displaying his body, touching his image. I'll never see his smile again. Never hear his laugh. Duo's dead.

He's dead and it's all my fault!

I jerked awake, forehead nearly slamming into the bunk above mine. I bent my legs and pulled them toward me, wrapping my arms around them. I buried my face in my knees.

It took some time to finally calm myself.

When we reached Quatre's chosen destination, we dealt with the ship. A few safety stops disabled and valves turned shut later, and we stood on the beach to watch as the engine overheated causing an explosion. Since those ships are designed with most of the important equipment toward the center of the ship as to prevent damage from enemy fire, an engine explosion would fully disable the ship, taking out all the other delicate equipment required for it to run. OZ could always salvage the hull, but for the most part that ship was now useless to them.

We turned and head toward the nearest civilisation. We needed to stock up on some supplies.

While grabbing some rations for Quatre, we noticed some members of the Treize Faction getting supplies as well.

The ones after my life are my enemy. The Treize Faction hasn't tried to kill me. They aren't my enemy? OZ is my enemy. The Treize Faction is OZ's enemy. Is the Treize Faction an ally?

"Heero, I've got all the supplies I'll need for now."

I turned away from my observation of the soldiers. "Quatre, I'm going to help the Treize Faction fight."

"What? That's absurd, Heero. It's a dispute within their organisation."

"OZ is my enemy. The Treize Faction is OZ's enemy. I'm going to fight with them. Execution orders have been issued for us Gundam pilots. It's my way of retaliating."

"I can't go along with this." He picked up his supply bag and pulled it over one shoulder. "If you insist on doing this, then this is where we part ways."

"Understood." I left him there to meet up with the soldiers.

The Treize Faction troops had no problem with letting me fight against OZ with them. We slowly started taking out the OZ forces in the surrounding area. Everything went smoothly until OZ decided we were a big enough threat to break out their new model of mobile dolls.

The Virgos' energy shields were too much for the Leo rifles to handle. The mobile dolls slowly and steadily advanced, cutting through the Treize Faction troops with little resistance. My Leo received fire to the left shoulder. The whole left arm was lost. I'll fight through this. I forced my suit to stand back up. To resume return fire. I'll fight through this longer than anyone. I didn't have the firepower to break through the shields, but I continued firing anyway. I'll fight through this! It's my way of retaliating!

Suddenly an Aries flies up out of nowhere, disabling the nearest Virgo. Quatre's voice came in over a comm channel. "Heero, are you alright? Heero, we can't die yet!" I know I can't die yet. I haven't yet stopped this war. "Listen to me! We have to protect the Sanc Kingdom!"

What? "The Sanc Kingdom?"

"That's right! That's the job we must do here on earth!"

Why would we need to protect the Sanc Kingdom? A low-flying plane appeared overhead and something fell from it's hatch landing on the ground nearby. When the dust settled, I could see it was Wing's buster rifle.

"You're Gundam pilots so I'm sure you know how to use that." Noin? Is that Noin flying the plane?

Quatre flew his Aries over to pick up the gun. The beam had no trouble eating through the Virgos' shields and he quickly dispatched the battalion of mobile dolls. The plane landed and the hatch opened, displaying Noin. "Come on! Get on and I'll get us outta here!"

Quatre and I left our suits and sprinted over to the small plane. Noin wasted no time in getting it back in the air. Quatre walked up to her and leaned against the pilot's chair. "We need to go to the Sanc Kingdom."

Noin smirked. "Well, then it's a good thing that that's where I was planning on bringing you."

-x-

-Author's Note-

Kept putting this chapter off so I finally gave myself a deadline and then proceeded to do what any proper, respectable adult would do. "Oh no! I can't work on this now I suddenly have to go do laundry!" "Oh no! I suddenly have to go vacuum all the floors!" "Oh no! I suddenly have to go clean the kitchen!" "Oh no! I suddenly have to go through all the crap in storage and drag the junk I don't need to Goodwill!"

Gundam Wing has a surprising amount of boring crap between all the cool stuff. Sometimes I just want to type "they do stuff".

One thing I've never understood… how the hell do Duo and Wufei actually escape Lunar Base? Une turns the air back on, but they're still in the cell (which they tried getting out of when the air got cut off in the first place and failed) but then you see them in their new Gundams. Also, where the hell did the Treize Faction get a whole army's worth of slightly different colored uniforms outta nowhere? Does OZ just have a whole warehouse of reject uniforms somewhere? "Ugh… they made green ones again instead of blue. How many times must we tell them blue? Put 'em with the others."

That dream was suppose to be fluffy cuddles or something. But my brain was all, "NO! I want some ZERO System PTSD shit!" and woke me up at 3 in the morning to force me to write that.

Timeline: Episodes 26-30