He dreamt in blood. 

 There was an acrid taste in the air, a mix of burnt wood and gunpowder. Scattered amidst the rubble were the bodies of people he’d once known. Some had been burned or shot. Others were crushed under mortar and fallen rafters. 

 Sister Helen lay a few paces away from him. Curls of blonde hair haloed a face that was dirt-stained and still and a thin trail of red leaked from the corner of her small mouth. Two holes punctured her chest and abdomen, the fabric of her black robes crusted with blood that had long since dried. A slim hand reached for him, palm towards the sky, beckoning him to a spot he had not knelt by in nearly nine years. 

 Duo dropped to his knees beside her, taking the cold hand in his own, once more hearing the words she had spoken to him as she died. 

 “The Lord bless you… and… keep you…” 

 Another voice, a small child’s, which echoed through the now-fallen rafters of the church. 

 “I’ll steal a Mobile Suit for you! In exchange for that, you guys are out of here, right?” 

 “I was trying to help,” he said, gripping her hand a little more tightly. “But it never works out right…” 

 Father Maxwell was sitting next to him, his arm wrapped around Duo’s shoulder. “I told you before, remember?” 

 “Told me what?” He looked up at Father’s weathered face. 

 They were standing behind the altar now, looking at the rows of empty pews, the Church intact. Father Maxwell gave Duo’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 

 “Remember,” he said, and though the words came through, the sound of the voice was hard to make out. “As long as you try your best. I’ll be proud of you for that, son.” 

 Son. It had started out as ‘my son’, the way any boy might expect to be referred to by a priest. After that first family that had tried to adopt him but couldn’t accept him, Duo had returned to the Church to find Father Maxwell waiting at the front doors. And he had called Duo ‘son’, as if the boy was his own child, and Duo had felt that he was home. But now, while he could hear the words, Duo could no longer hear the voice. The memory had been pulled thin over too many years. 

 “So, what now?” Duo asked, leaning into Father Maxwell’s arm. 

 The smile Duo received was melancholy. “Now,” Father Maxwell told him, “you wake up.” 

***** 

 There was a small kitchen located in the base, just outside the sleep and recreation areas. Being situated underground, there were no windows or natural sources of light, but the walls of the hallways had little lights running along them near the floor like a night-light. The kitchen counter was similarly lined, giving off a faint glow that illuminated the counter but only outlined what lay beyond it. 

 It was terribly early in the morning, so when Howard turned on the kitchen light he was rather surprised to find Duo sitting at the table tucked in the far corner of the room. The young man blinked back at him owlishly, trying to shield his eyes from the light with one hand. The other was wrapped around a mug half full of the brown, caffeine-loaded sludge that passed for coffee at the base. 

 “The bed on fire?” Howard asked, scratching his balding head. 

 “Ha, ha,” Duo muttered through a yawn. 

 Yawns being contagious things, Howard responded with one of his own that felt like it was going to crack his jaw. He wasn’t exactly a morning person either but he had to go out and pick up supplies and the trip was going to take all day. 

 Duo grinned at him sleepily and rested his chin in his palm. “’S muck still in th’ pot,” he offered, tilting his mug. 

 Howard shrugged and went over to the counter. Duo had snagged the last clean coffee mug so he settled for pouring it into a plastic cup, along with half the sugar from the jar in the cupboard. 

 “So what woke you up this early in the freakin’ morning?” he asked, slumping in a chair opposite of Duo. 

 “Figured I’d sit here and try to think out what The Succession is up to.” 

 “Nicely evaded. Now answer the question.” 

 Duo looked at him, but with Duo’s eyes half-lidded as they were Howard couldn’t tell whether he was being glowered at or if it was just a blank look. Howard let the question drop after a few moments with no answer. 

 Duo downed the remaining contents of the mug, then folded his arms on the table and rested the side of his face against them. “’Kay, tell me again what we know about these guys.” 

 Howard leaned into the chair and inhaled a preparatory breath through his nose. “First thing’s obvious: they have Mobile Suits when there aren’t supposed to be any more. Their targets have been limited to the Preventers organization, at least for now. They used to be OZ but split into a separate faction—“ 

 “Why?” Duo asked against his sleeve. 

 “Hmm?” 

 “Why did they split? What was the reason?” 

 “I don’t’ know. It happened before Operation: Meteor went into affect and we didn’t have enough information to know enough about how OZ was functioning back then.” 

 Duo lifted his head. “Well… I can think of two people who would know.” 

***** 
 

 Relena dropped into a boneless heap in the leather-bound chair behind her desk. She had closed her doors to the news conferences and diplomatic meetings for the evening, turned off all the lights save the antique desk lamp, and tried to melt into the cushion of her seat. Surprisingly, there’d been no questions about her brother Zechs, or anything about the shooting to answer to. Noin’s foresight had thankfully involved more than the immediate problems of her brother’s homecoming. 

It was a pleasant room, spacious but with dark colors. There was a couch and a few chairs in the far corner by the ceiling length bookshelves. There was a quaint little bar along the wall and dozens of light fragments glinted off the faceted glasses. She spent several moments just staring at the warm glow on the glasses that the lamp cause, the soft lighting somehow mesmerizing in the late hour. 

She was nearly asleep when she caught the soft hiss of her door against the carpeting. Her eyes snapped open, trying to focus on the slim figure that was standing in the doorway. She stood as the figure stepped closer. Male, though too short to be Zechs. It wasn’t one of the servants; they would have knocked. 

“Yes? Who’s that?” she asked. 

“Hey, Ojousan! You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get an appointment to see you so I figured I’d just go ahead and let myself in.” 

Her fingers froze in their search for the alarm button positioned under the ledge of the desk. She knew that voice! 

She took several quick strides over, her eyes wide. The face was easier to make out once she’d reached him. Large, violet eyes gazed back at her, the expression a little more guarded than she was used to. The lips were set in the customary smirk that he always wore the few times he’d ever spoken with her. 

“You!” she gasped. 

“Me.” 

“You’re alive!” 

“Surprise!” 

The sound of flesh hitting flesh met her ears. The next thing she knew, Duo had stumbled onto the couch behind him and she was staring in shock at the tingling hand she’d just slapped him with. 

“Shit, Relena!” 

“Oh! I’m sorry! Oh, I’m so sorry!” 

“Pacifist, my ass!” He snapped, more to himself than at her. He rubbed his cheek and jaw lightly. “Man, I think you knocked a tooth loose!” 

He stayed there and cursed under his breath while Relena stood over him. It hadn’t actually hurt that much, but it had definitely caught him off guard. 

She was giving him the oddest expression. He resisted the urge to run a hand through his considerably shorter hair self-consciously. 

“You cut—“ 

“My braid, yes.” Duo grinned wryly. “I’m never going to hear the end of this.” 

After a few moments of staring, she brought her hands up to cover her face, then dropped them again. “What happened to you! I thought you were dead!” 

He caught the underlying anger, and watched her warily. She looked ready to swear. Or slap him again. “You’re supposed to.” 

She practically fell into the seat across from him, shock still fighting with anger for prominence on her face. “I… fell asleep, didn’t I? And I’m dreaming…” 

Duo snorted. “If you’d fallen asleep, I’d be Heero right now.” 

“Then… what are you doing here?” she asked. 

“Need your help. We have to find Zechs and we need to find him quickly. We figured you’d know just where to look.” 

“But why you? If I’m supposed to think you’re dead?” She leaned closer as some inner hope sparked. “Does that mean the others--?” 

“No, it doesn’t,” Duo cut her off, glaring at her hard. 

She drew away sharply, hand coming up to rest curled at her collar. 

Duo tried to regain some of the balance that had rapidly evaded him from the moment he’d walked in the door. “Sorry to burst your bubble. I’m here ‘cause we figured you’d trust me more than some stranger, ne?” 

“Oh. This has something to do with the new Gundam, hasn’t it?” she asked. 

 “If I were the Queen of the World, I’d be more worried about what it has to do with the war The Succession just declared.” 

“I suspect the two are related, are they not, Duo?” she asked, giving him a pointed look. He merely shrugged. “I see. And how is it that you wish my brother to help?” 

Duo paused, considering. Relena’s lips were slightly pursed, which meant that she probably wouldn’t tell him where Zechs was if Duo didn’t provide her with a straight answer. Or at least something that sounded like one. 

“Zechs and Lady Une are the only ones alive with the kind of extensive knowledge about OZ’s inner workings. We figure that sort of information’ll come in handy.” Duo smirked and pointed at himself. “Can you see Lady Une telling me *anything* other than ‘shut up’?” 

She looked at her hands, mulling over what he was asking and weighing the consequences. “Will it put him in danger if I trust you with this information?” 

Duo smiled thinly. “No more than he isn’t already in.” 

She pursed her lips again but went to her desk purposefully. Duo followed, watching over her shoulder as she wrote an address down on a slip of paper. There was a great deal more she wanted to ask, needed to ask, but she wasn’t sure where to begin. There were questions concerning the safety and security of the peace they’d both fought for. But there was something about the way Duo was holding himself that spoke of urgency and she suspected it would take some time both to get straight answers and for Duo to tell them. 

“This is where he is right now,” she said, tucking the paper into a pocket on the front of his jacket. “He would have been moved into the palace had you come a week later. But if this is as important as it seems, I don’t think you want to wait that long.” 

“Not really. Thanks, Ojousan.” He walked around the desk heading in the direction of the large oaken doors. “Before I go… why did you slap me?” 

She sighed and gave him a small smile. “I am sorry, truly. It’s just that…” Relena closed her eyes, looking for the words to say what she felt. “At first it was just Heero… he was so strong and I… I wanted some of that strength. And then I met all of you and you were all so… I’d come to rely on you being there. I’d thought you were all dead and finding out that you really weren’t… ” She shrugged helplessly. 

Duo nodded in understanding. Then he offered her a smirk. “And here I thought you only followed us because you had the hots for Heero.” 

Relena blushed. Duo waved a goodbye and slid through the door, pulling it closed behind him and walking down the extensive carpeted hallway. 

So, he thought. Relena Darlian. Guess you’re a real person in there after all. 

***** 
 

He sank to his knees in the battle field, the borrowed Sank clothes smudged with dirt, and gathered the dying soldier into his arms. 

“Protect… protect Treize-sama,” the man coughed, blood welling out of his nose and mouth. He stared at the man with his singular intensity, his expression never wavering even as the stranger’s last breath brushed across his face. 

“You felt something there, didn’t you Heero?” 

He raised his eyes to glare sharply at the boy hovering next to him. A fleeting look of surprise crossed his face. 

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” he said flatly. 

“I’m Shinigami,” Duo grinned, sparing a glance at the dead soldier still in Heero’s arms. “Of course I’m supposed to be here. 

 “He confused you, ne?” Duo continued. “All it took was one plea and there went another chip in your armor.” 

 “He was fighting for something. For someone.” 

 “And what are you fighting for, Heero?” he asked, reaching out to smooth those unruly bangs away from Heero’s eyes. There was a soft smile on Duo’s face that Heero found confusing. 

 “I don’t remember.” 

 The sky was darkening and he could hear the explosions from the battle, see the reflection of the fires in the clouds that were gathering. 

 “Try Heero,” Duo encouraged. “It’s going to be important soon. You have to remember.” 

 There was something looming over them both now, something dark and red. 

 “Duo?” the slightest hint of alarm was creeping in to his voice as Duo stepped away, falling back into the thing’s shadow. 

 “Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” Duo reassured. His grin turned wicked. “You never could keep me out of you head for long, that won’t stop now.” 

 Then Duo was gone. The battle field disintegrated, at first leaving only the lingering memory of the smell of smoke. And Heero was left alone, floating in something that felt like sleep. 

End Part V