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((I could only hope that so far I'm playing Quatre right. Please pm me if I get it all wrong! gonk ))

Quatre pause for a momment and relized what she meant. "O... I er.. I'm sorry... I.. tend to think ahead sweatdrop ... I didn't mean to be bold redface . But, I'll still be friends with you, if nothing else." He kinda slauch ((I think that's the spelling for bad posture sweatdrop )) abit and give a small smile.

((slouch wink There can be some work done to improve how you rp as him, but he is older now and can't be expected to stay the same as he was when he was younger.))

Alisha couldn't help laughing just a little. "Of course. Friendship should be a better thing to have instead." He was quite interesting in how he acted and she just accepted it as part of his charm. She hoped that either she'd hear word from Heero that he found something or word from Daniel about their...unwelcome guest.

(( and here I'm used to having Mia paired off with Quatre... LOL... ))

"Catching up," Mia chuckled. "Yeah..." Duo laid back, his hands folded under his head.

"So...?" he asked. "Are ya gonna tell me or are we just gonna sit here?" Mia smiled a bit.

"Okay," she said. "Where should I start? It's a lot to tell."

"I know..." Duo said. "And I have a lot of questions. How did you get out? Where did you go? Where have you been? How did you get a Gundam? How did you find me?" He stared at the ceiling. "I guess... I guess just start at the beginning."

"Sister Helen tried to sneak us out the back, to get help," she said. "After you had left, the rebels that had taken over the church continued to argue with Father Maxwell. You were taking so long to come back that we thought something had happened. One of the rebels found us and only three of us managed to get away out the door before he closed it and locked it." Mia sighed. "I don't know much else, but I knew I had to stay away.

"I thought about going back, but that's when I saw the smoke," she continued. "I knew something terrible had happened, so I ran. I stowed away on a shuttle and went to Earth. A boarding school was taking in war orphans, so I went there. I stayed until the War of 195. That's the first place I met Heero. I didn't make the connection to his arrival and the school being attacked until after I saw him fighting in his Gundam later that year in Luxembourg. He took me to see Treize, and suggested I find you."

"He did, huh?"

"I think it was the name," Mia said. "I started using Maxwell after I left the Church."

"You dropped Trinity?" She nodded. Duo sat up. "But, they were like your parents."

"Yeah... but at the same time, they weren't," Mia said. "They adopted me."

"Then why did you take Maxwell?"

"For the Church," she said. "It was the last place I had called home. I never really felt like I fit in at St Gabriel's." She looked at him. "Why did you take Maxwell? I mean, I know you didn't have a last name when you came to the Church... and Father Maxwell let you use his name when he signed you up for school."

"Yeah..." Duo sighed. "It was kinda the same reason," he said. Mia nodded. "So, how'd you get Omega?"

"Treize gave it to me," she said. "Right before he left for space. Heero had left with Epyon by that time, and Treize had spent a lot of time working on the Tallgeese II... I didn't know he was making Omega. I still don't really know why he gave it to me, either."

"So, if he gave it to you, then you had to have had it during the Eve Wars," Duo said.

"But you guys didn't," Mia said. "The fact that you guys had all sent your Gundams into the sun after Libra's destruction was all over the news... especially because so many people were trying to get those Gundams during 196."

"Yeah, tell me about it... White Fang diehards, People for Perfect Pacifism... It got a little hairy with that attempt on Quatre's life by Sogran and the White Fang."

"So, I figured I was alone," Mia said. "There was no way I could have done anything."

"We thought we were alone when we first came to Earth in 195," Duo said. "None of us had any idea the others were there." Mia shook her head.

"I wasn't ready."

Duo nodded.

"Yeah, I think I understand," he said.

"What made you rebuild them?" Mia asked. Duo looked up at Deathscythe.

"A gut feeling," he said. "When Epyon De Telos held all those delegates at Relena's party, we used a dummy version of Wing Zero to get their attention. Of course, we didn't expect Zechs to be involved, but it turns out that Noin had suggested he go undercover when they had discovered their plans on Mars. But, it turned out to be getting harder and harder for us and the Preventors to keep the peace. Let's just say it was a precaution."

"So, the dummy Wing Zero?"

"Rebuilt into a real one." Mia nodded.

"Well, if you need a sixth..." she glanced around, "...or seventh Gundam, Omega's available." She smiled a bit.

"It would be cool to have you around, Mia," Duo said. Mia felt a lot better when he said that.

(( A long one, yes... but just some catching up. Excerpts from the series, Endless Waltz, and the manga Blind Target, Battlefield of Pacifists, and Preventor Five. biggrin ))

(( As for Relena... she's not a bad character if you just pay a bit of attention and think about things a bit. She's one of the ones that grows and changes the most throughout the story.

Also, I forgot to add that I was referencing some of the Episode Zero manga in my last post as well... same references for this one. ))

"So, what about you?" Mia asked. Duo looked at her, his back to Deathslicer. "What happened to you after the incident?"

"Well... I stuck around the colony," Duo said, "basically doing what I had done before I ended up at the Church. I finally got stuck on a Sweepers ship and ran into the guy who came up with the initial design for Deathscythe. He was impressed that I got past his security system and decided I could stick around. It somehow worked out that I was to be the pilot. When we realized the true intentions behind Operation Meteor, we bolted. I tried to destroy Deathscythe, but he didn't want me to. At first, we tried to hide, but then the Alliance came after us. I took Deathscythe and bolted for Earth. Our own version of Operation Meteor started.

"I'm sure you know about the war... and you said you saw me on TV that time, so there's no point going into a lot of details," Duo said, giving her a small smile. Mia smiled back. "Of course, we didn't really all start working together until about three months or so into the fighting. It turns out we had all ditched the Barton Foundation's original plans of dropping one of the colonies on Earth, and one of us had even taken the place of Dekim Barton's own son." He shrugged. "When it was over, we weren't really sure what to do with the Gundams. I think part of the reason I hung on was because I'd gotten attached to him. I didn't wanna blow him up. But, after Quatre was almost killed, and the P3 organization came after us about Vulkanis, we knew it was time.

"Quatre managed to convince most us into sending them into the sun on Vulkanis. Only Wufei kept Altron. But, when the Barton Foundation made another attempt at Operation Meteor, we realized we had acted too soon... All those Virgo3's were too much for a disarming nation, and Noin and Zechs were the only two standing in their way. The Tallgeese III and one Taurus couldn't possibly have done it on their own. And, even after we joined in, it was too hard... Luckily, the soldiers realized what they were doing was wrong and stopped fighting us before it was too late."

"What if... they hadn't stopped?" Duo shrugged.

"I don't think about it. No point, since they did, right?" he asked. Mia nodded. "That's when we thought to give it a more permanent shot. Wing Zero had already been destroyed in the fight. We self-destructed the remaining Gundams. Trowa, Quatre, and I did ours together... but I heard later that Wufei did his on his own. Sally told me she had found him just as he did it."

"And then you all rebuilt them anyway?" Mia asked.

"I don't know about *all* of us... but I know Heero and I did," Duo said. "I haven't heard from Quatre in a while, which has got me kinda concerned. But, he's usually pretty busy anyway with the Winner Foundation and being a colony rep. As for Trowa, he travels a lot, so I'm used to not hearing much from him. Wufei's with the Preventors... or was, last I'd heard... and we don't really socialize much anyway." Duo shrugged. He and Wufei respected each other as soldiers now, having gotten past their initial differences, but that's pretty much where it ended for them.

He looked down at the floor the hangar far below them, swinging his legs off the side of the hatch. Sometimes, he looked back and didn't feel so bad about things. Other times, he wished he could have just had a normal life and not been forced to grow up so fast. And, still yet, he even regretted his actions, feeling depressed over some of what he had to do to survive. They were all still pretty young, considering... and it was easy to forget that since they had all been living in the world of adults from so early on in their lives.

Mia stepped out and then sat down behind him. She sighed.

"Tomorrow," she said. "Tomorrow, I'll take you to see Omega." She smiled at Duo as he turned to look at her. He returned the smile.

"Okay."

Matt smirked now to get out of here..he made Rasmus move, not caring if he trod on a few people in the process. Rasmus started to walk out the hanger..

The Lieutenant had been talking to one of the mechanics/techs about Matt's Gundam when it first moved. He hadn't realized that the mobile suit was an AI...and he only knew for certain of that because the cockpit door was open and no one was inside. Thankfully, the gundam had missed his people, and he looks at Heero. "01, do you think you could hold that thing off?" He wasn't waiting for a reply, talking into his radio to give orders and contact Miss Alisha. He also made a bolt for the prison area rather sure how it happened.

Duo glanced back at Deathslicer when he heard the small beep. Mia followed his gaze.

"Your friend's Gundam?"

"Yeah," he said. "She's in there." Mia nodded.

"Are you gonna say hi?" Duo frowned.

"She just seems upset about something," he said. "I'm not good at that kinda stuff." Mia huffed.

"That doesn't surprise me in the least," she said. Duo shrugged. Mia headed over to Harpy's suit. "Hey, you okay?" she asked her.

Duo watched Mia try to talk to Harpy and felt bad. He just had no concept when it came to dealing with upset girls. He usually ended up making things worse, so he tended to avoid it altogether.