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From here, it continues…

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--Field outside Safe House 023E

Quatre screamed as the green, white, and orange mobile suit moved towards Deathscythe Hell.  His scream turned into a choked gasp as the enemy suit pulled out a beam saber, then a pleading gasp as it raised the weapon.  It was all over, however, as soon as the suit sliced through Deathscythe’s midsection.  If Duo had been alive, he wasn’t now.

“No…Duo…no…please…” Quatre whispered, even as Deathscythe half-exploded, throwing shrapnel for a good distance.  Trowa bore a look of pure shock, and Draco’s face was torn by sadness and anger.  Just then Altron stepped out of the hangar.  It paused for a second, and Quatre could almost imagine Wufei’s face.  He could have predicted what happened next—Altron was THROWN forward by a severe blast of thrusters and slammed its trident deep into the back of the other mobile suit.  There was a crackle of electricity and the hatch opened.  A young girl with silver hair and bright blue eyes leapt out, running quickly away from the mobile suit as it exploded.  Quatre noticed.

“Quick!  Catch her before she gets away!” he shouted urgently.  Trowa looked over, but then noticed that Altron was moving.  The dragon fangs slammed into the ground in front of the girl and behind her, with remarkable precision.  She froze, and when she tried to move to the side, the fangs shook ominously.  Her only remaining choice was to stand still.

The others rushed over, and Draco grabbed the girl, roughly restraining her.  Eyes wide, she looked on, as if totally in shock about everything she saw.  Which, Quatre reflected quietly to himself, she just might be. 

“Rusted eyes.” She said, looking at Draco.  “Rusted…eyes.  Rusted eyes.”

Just then, a blast of thrusters caused them to turn.  The girl, surprisingly, held completely still in Draco’s grip.  The others watched as Wing Zero flew out of the hangar and away. 

“Duo?” Quatre gasped.  He turned to Trowa, but Trowa, sensibly, had already returned to the task at hand.

“What’s she talking about?” Trowa asked quietly.

“My eyes.  You see, machine projects have blue eyes, like hers.  If you’re created a machine project but your program fails, your eyes ‘rust’, and become reddish-brown, like mine.” Draco explained.  He turned his face towards them and they saw that, indeed, his eyes were a rusted color.

A dull thud rocked the ground, and they all turned to see the silver suit standing behind them.  The hatch opened and the man that had warned them about the weapons sabotage—just a bit too late—leapt out.  He swept his long bangs out of his eyes and looked at each of them in turn. 

“You’ll do.  We need to attack the laboratory.  We’ll make a plan first, of course, but we should leave as soon as possible.” He told them, calmly and simply.

“But there are only three of us!” Quatre said. “And Duo, but we don’t know where he went to!” 

“Three will do.  You’ve also got Draco and me. And if your friend catches up to us he’s welcome to join us.” He told the blonde boy.  He turned to Draco.  “Restrain her and secure her in the prisoner compartment of your mobile suit.  We’ve got to leave as soon as possible.”

Trowa spoke up.  “But how will Quatre and I get there?  Our Gundams are, at the moment, unusable, to say the least.”

“Do you have a car, or a truck?” Draco asked.

“A truck,” Quatre informed him.

“Ride in it.  We need somebody to sneak in the front entrance anyway and distract them—you two will do quite nicely.  Now, as for a plan…” Draco started, looking at them all in turn.  As they added their bits, Wufei leapt out of his Gundam and started talking as well.  Soon, they’d come up with a plan—and they were ready to storm the laboratory.

--Secret Laboratory (A bit later)

Quatre nervously ran his fingers over the door handle of the truck.  “Trowa?  Are you sure this will work?”

Trowa reached over and put his hand on the blond boy’s shoulder, offering him silent reassurance and comfort.  After a second of staring into each other’s eyes, Quatre sighed and gripped the door handle in his hand.

“Okay then.  Let’s get this going.”

The boys got out of the truck and gathered backpacks from the bed.  Slinging the packs on their backs—in reality, they contained special explosives and backup weapons, not books or other items—the two readied their other weapons for immediate use, then walked towards the laboratory.  They reached the doors and Quatre hit the intercom button, which was just where Draco had said it would be. 

“Yes?” a harsh voice spat at them.

“Delivery of chemicals for Dr. Meitour.”  Trowa said calmly.  “You’ll find it clearly marked on your register.”

A quick ruffling of papers could be heard through the intercom, then the voice spat back at them, almost as if warning them against insolence.  “Fine.  But don’t waste time and don’t hang about.” The doors slid open.

Trowa and Quatre stepped through the doors, and began the trek to their destination.

On the other side of the base, Draco and the tech, who’d asked to be called Tooi, slipped into the hangar.  They looked around quickly, and then climbed up the side of one of the MS there.  Reaching the shoulders, they hunched down as a guard made his rounds.  Pulling out a pistol, Tooi aimed and hit the guard in the back of the head with a perfectly aimed, silenced shot.  Turning to Draco, the man said a simple phrase.

“Come on.”

With that, they slipped back down the sides of the MS and started making their way through the tunnels.

Meanwhile, in the other part of the labs, Quatre and Trowa walked past rooms filled with sickening sights.  Children, just like the strange girl, with silver hair and bright blue eyes, strangely similar, all blank eyed, as if they had no souls.  Some were practicing fighting, but they moved as if they were robots—there was none of the soul striking grace that they saw in Wufei’s fighting.  Quatre shivered.

Trowa compared a piece of paper from his pocket to a nameplate next to a door, and then knocked at it. 

A scientist—the one Draco had told them about—opened the door.
”Yes?” he asked, a bit harshly.

“Are you Dr. Meitour, sir?” Quatre asked, politely.

The scientist nodded. “That would be correct.  Who are you?”

“We’ve been enlisted by the Roberts Chemical Corp to bring you some chemicals you ordered, sir.” Quatre replied.

“Oh!  You’re the two from Roberts, eh?  Well, come in then.” The scientist stepped back, opening the door wider.  The two boys stepped in and looked around slightly. 

The other man led them over to a table.  “Set the chemicals out here, I’ll be in the back if you need me.” With a slight nod towards them, he walked off.

Quatre pulled out what looked like a box of chemicals.  Reaching two fingertips into a break in the cardboard, he pressed a button inside what was actually a dual contact device and explosive.

Trowa began pulling similar boxes out of his backpack, and Quatre the same.  Stacking them neatly, they turned to leave, but they suddenly couldn’t walk any further…

“Ha ha, think you’re gonna get me with something as stupid and obvious as that?” Dr. Meitour asked from behind them.

Quatre froze, his eyes widening, as he pressed at the air…force field…?…with his hands.  It remained solid.

From behind them, the scientist smirked.  “Let’s see how well you do against about twenty of my creations.” He said.  Suddenly, the room filled with silver haired, blue-eyed teenagers…all holding weapons.

Spinning, Trowa pulled a pistol from its concealed place underneath his jacket and fired.  Once, twice, hitting someone with each bullet and dropping them, but two more people seemed to take their place.  Pulling his own weapon out, Quatre began shooting as well, and as the projects started to return fire, the boys had a terrible feeling that they were doomed.

The battle looked impossible against the two boys, who were taking hits right and left even as they continued to drop enemies like mad.  Then, three more figures joined the fray, two expected, one not.

Draco and Tooi leapt from a concealed entrance at the side of the lab and opened fire, drawing projects towards them, and then dispatching them quickly.  The third figure, one dressed all in black, dropped from the ceiling and opened fire, shooting wildly, and hitting much of the time.  Soon enough, the projects appeared to be falling back, and the scientist looked scared.  Draco and Quatre finished off the last of them as Trowa slumped towards the ground.  Duo mysteriously vanished once there appeared to be no more threat, even as Tooi started towards the scientist.

“Got anything to say for yourself, Meitour?” the silver haired man asked the scientist threateningly.

“I’ve got force fields.  You can’t break those.” The scientist said with forced calm.

“Watch me.” Tooi hissed.  He leapt forward, clawing at something invisible—even as the scientist shot him once, twice—he was through—the scientist shot him again—

Then Tooi pointed his gun at Meitour’s head, and pulled the trigger.

The two men fell, together, hopelessly bloody, both obviously dead.

And then…it was all over.

Draco tossed one of Quatre’s arms over his shoulders, then went over and did the same for Trowa, on his other side.  He looked back at Tooi.

“Tooi…I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out of here before it blew…but rest in peace.  We’ll always remember you.  Keep that in mind.”

With that, Draco darted out of the base. Bypassing his own mobile suit, he went for Trowa and Quatre’s truck.  Mindful of their injuries, he put them carefully in the seats, grateful that the truck was an extended cab.  As he started to drive away, he contacted Wufei on his pocket communicator. 

“Everything’s in order, you can go ahead and destroy the base now.”

“Roger tha-“ Wufei started, when another voice broke over his comm. 

“No, I’ve got it.” Wufei looked around, and saw Wing Zero in the sky, aiming the rifle at the lab.  In a flash of golden fire, the base was demolished, all as Wufei stared in confusion.

“Duo?”

“Slipped again, Wufei.  Starting to call me by my first name, now are you?” Duo replied over the communit, and then started to fly away.

“Maxwell!  Where are you going?” Wufei ordered.

“Oh, home.” Duo said blankly. 

Wufei noticed another blinking light on his panels, so he tapped the corresponding button.  Une’s face came on screen.  “Wufei!  A Preventers laboratory in your area has been destroyed!  We need you to go take a look at it.”

Wufei looked down at the labs with growing comprehension and fear on his face, and then set down nearby to start the conversation with Une.  This would take a while.

--Hospital, Trowa and Quatre’s Room (a few hours later)

Wufei walked into Trowa and Quatre’s room.  The two pilots were groggy from surgery but looked up when he came in.  Quatre managed a feeble grin.

“Hi…Wufei…” he said, before slumping back.

“Don’t overexert yourself on my account, Quatre.” Wufei said quietly.  “I just came to tell you that Draco and his sister are going to be joining the Preventers.”

“That’s great!” Quatre said, coughing a bit.  “I’m sorry I can’t be more enthusiastic…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Wufei assured him.  “Also…Duo hasn’t turned up.”

Quatre’s expression faded from happiness to worry.  “Where could he be?”

“Well…I just have this feeling he’ll turn up soon.” Wufei said.  “Don’t worry about him.”  Wufei looked at the clock.  “Well, I’m going to go now.  I’ll come back and visit you again tomorrow.”

“All right.” Quatre said, watching Wufei as he left.

--Hospital, Heero’s Room (about the same time)

Duo sat down in the chair next to Heero’s bed and laced the fingers of his right hand with the fingers of Heero’s left. 

“I hope you don’t mind my borrowing your Gundam, Heero.” Duo said quietly.  Heero remained still, remained silent.

Duo went on, telling Heero about the fight, and other things, and when he reached the end, paused.

Well, he’d fulfilled what he’d said to Wufei.

It’s just for me, home is a person, not a place.

--Preventers HQ (about the same time)

“I can’t believe this.” Une said, talking to Zechs through the long-distance comm. link.  Behind the blonde man, an impressive panoramic of Mars was visible through the windows.  Red dust blew through the scene periodically.

“Well, it just seems something got past our guard, that’s all.” Zechs told her.  “Take steps to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again.  The Gundam Pilots are too valuable to waste.”

“They may not be pilots anymore, you know.” She told him quietly.  “Deathscythe Hell destroyed, and Sandrock and Heavyarms need major repairs.”

“Then maybe it’s time for the Gundams to sleep.” He replied, then seemed to listen for something.  “Noin’s calling.  I’ll call you back when we get done with this new unit.”

“All right.” Une said, turning off the comm. unit.  “We’ll watch out for you, Gundam Pilots.  This won’t happen again.”

And so it ended.  The scientist was killed, and new Preventers were found.  But were all the remnants of his research truly destroyed?   Possibly.  Then again…

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And here…it ends ?

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