Author - Pamela Eaton

Email Address - [email protected]

Spoilers - Um... The series and Endless Waltz, as well as a little of Duo's past most likely.

Disclaimer - You know 'em, I don't own 'em. Wish I had come up with the Gundam concept. And I certainly wouldn't mind having cute little pilots in my possession. *_* This is 'a non-profit thing'. I'm doing it for fun.

Distribution - You want it, take it, just give me credit and email me so I know where it is.

Warnings -

Duo/Hilde fanatics may wish to avoid this fic. I like that pairing myself, so don't think just because I wrote this that I'm making a personal stab at all of you. I try to be extremely gentle in it.

Also, if you hate Dorothy, you may want to avoid this, though my version of Dorothy may interest some, so don't write it off unless you're dead set on it.

I'm just putting these warnings to avoid flames. I'm a first time GW fanfic writer, and my flame shield isn't lined with Gundamium yet.

Classifications - Adventure, Action, Romance, Dark Angst.

Rating - PG-13 - Mainly for violence, cursing.

Authors Intent -

Just a real quick note on my intent by writing this. It wasn't to knock current favorite couples, or to piss people off. I'm writing this for myself. This is one couple I've wanted to see for a while, but the only times I could find this couple together... well they weren't bad, but they were never focused on seriously (as in not including humor, or character-bashing fics) so far as I know. I wanted to do something unique. So this is the result.

Takes place two years after Endless Waltz, though note that I haven't seen any of it except the end. Expect spoilers though for those who haven't seen any.

Last Note - The title. The last part is pretty obvious. Dorothy loves War, Duo thinks of himself as Death. The Demon Star bit comes from the nickname of a star (Algol) in the Constellation Perseus, which is also representave of the head of Medusa (which Perseus is supposed to be holding). It is an eclipsing binary (which means it is actually two stars revolving around each other). The brightest star is three times the diameter of our sun, the dimmer is even larger. As they revolve, the dim star eclipses the bright star once every three days.

Now! Onto the fic!

*     *     *

My name is Dorothy Catalonia. The year is After Colony 205. It's been ten years since the war for the colonies. Ten years since Treize-sama and my grandfather joined my parents in the afterlife. Ten years since I faced the Gundam pilots in battle. And ten years since I first heard the name and saw the face of the only person I've ever completely trusted.

I had loved men before him. Treize-sama, who was like an older brother to me, someone I idolized as a child. I would have done anything for him back then. I still would give anything to see him alive again. Except maybe two things. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I also loved Milliardo-sama, though not in the same way. You could probably say he was my first crush.

Needless to say, he wasn't my first love, and in no way was it love at first-sight. Or second or third for that matter. Though he changed me a lot, and I changed him. Though the way we effected each other was unique between us. My life would be empty without him. I would like to think he feels the same.

~ * ~

A.C 198

The artificial light and refined oxygen made Dorothy Catalonia wish that she were back on Earth. She never did care much for the Colonies, or the Space Stations. Give her solid earth, trees, rocks, wind, streams and actual air any day. But her chosen profession insisted that she take trips of this nature. With Relena-sama leading a majority of the Earth, it wasn't too difficult for Dorothy to see that power would remain in her favor for the time being. The actions of Treize-sama's daughter, Mariemeia, had only increased things. At the authority of the Vice-Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft, Dorothy was the current head of Demilitarization of the former Romafeller Foundation and all of it's holdings. Her connections with the organization made her the perfect choice.

And this job is what forced her to shuttle up to the Colonies. Romefeller stored it's weapons all over, and her grandfather did not disclose or leave all the information on them, even when he was forced to step down from his position. And since the War had killed many of the high officials, there were still many weapon caches hidden all over. Every so often a component of a special project would turn up, or someone would find a storage facility full of mobile dolls. This trip was to investigate one such incident.

The place she was looking for, was incidentally, a scrap heep. A junk yard. A dark haired girl stood near one such pile, sorting through the rubble as if something important would actually appear. Clearing her throat, Dorothy made herself known, "Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to work here, would you?"

Spikes of hair fell in front of her face, one thick lock covering one of two large blue eyes before she brushed it aside and responded, "Yeah, can I help you?"

"Were you the one who contacted Minister Peacecraft?" she went straight to what mattered.

"Relena? Oh! You're here to take care of that. So you must be..." She struggled as if in search of a name.

"Dorothy Catalonia. Can you tell me what caused me to take a shuttle all the way up here?"

"Come on, he's in here. I'm Hilde, by the way!"

Hilde? Ah yes. Must be the spy who helped get the information on Libra to the Gundams. The face had been shown to her briefly, and now that she thought about it, she did look familiar. So this was one of the Gundam pilot's friends? Did this mean that it was a Gundam pilot who contacted Relena-sama?

"Are you coming?"

Dorothy was pulled out of her thoughts and noticed that Hilde was already half way to the small building that was to the side of the scrap yard. Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and giving a light shake of her head, she moved after her without giving a verbal response.

Banging on the door, Hilde yelled, "Look alive, boys! We have company!"

Boys? Dorothy didn't get the chance to think on that as the door opened and she followed Hilde inside. And inside her light blue eyes settled on not one, but three Gundam pilots.

Two she recognized from personal experience, one she just knew from pictures and records. The one who held the most of her attention was, of course, Quatre Raberba Winner. Three years of growth hadn't changed him very much. He might have been an inch taller, but he still looked like the same little blonde boy that she accused so often of being weak.

The other boy she recognized instantly was Trowa Barton, the pilot who had arrived on Libra to help Quatre after she had run him through the stomach. Mustard brown hair was longest in the front, sloping down to cover one eye completely. She noticed him second because of the fact that Quatre was standing right next to him.

The other boy present was the pilot of 02, Duo Maxwell. She'd seen a few pictures of him, and heard his name, as well as going over research on what his Gundam had been capable of and his recorded battle tactics. He was learning against the far wall, long braid over one shoulder.

When she had stepped inside, whatever conversation had already stopped with Hilde's pounding. And it didn't take long to realize that Quatre's eyes were locked on her, just as much as hers were on his. She hadn't seen him this close since the incident on Libra, and she had made sure he was nowhere she was visiting before she left. He was supposed to be on another colony. Dorothy was going to maim whoever got her miss information.

While she was still not prepared to face him, she wasn't about to let him know that. Folding her hands in the small of her back, Dorothy raised her chin a little and spoke, "Quatre Winner. I did not expect to find the head of Winner Enterprises in a junk yard. But then again, it is oddly fitting." Her tone was humored, but she had been meaning to stab at him.

"Dorothy..." he finally managed in a soft voice.

Before he could add more than her name, Dorothy turned away from him and looked at Hilde, "Who contacted Relena-sama about the Virgo dolls?"

"Oi! That would be me." Maxwell jumped up from the wall and waved at her with a wide smile, "Duo Maxwell at your service!"

"Dorothy Catalonia," she responded, approaching the young man with the braid to avoid looking at Quatre anymore.

"Dorothy..." Duo glanced between her and the blonde Arab for a few moments, then something seemed to click and he shared a brief look with Trowa, who had stood there silently since she entered. "Ah... Follow me! I'll show you what was brought to us." He threw a wink towards Hilde, then moved through another door, in the back of the room.

Dorothy was the only one who followed him through the door, which she was quite glad with. She didn't want to face the boy she had nearly killed right then, nor the man (who was hardly as silent at the time) who had come to his rescue.

"So.. you're the one who as behind the Virgos during the attack on Libra?" Duo broke her train of thought quite effectively.

"Yes." is all she gave in answer.

"They were pretty tough!"

"Thank you. And you, Zero-Two, were quite impressive yourself." She wasn't complimenting him. Just speaking the truth. He was a Gundam pilot, and all of them were impressive in battle. Even Quatre.

Leading her through another set of doors, Duo brought her into a room filled mostly with one lone object. She recognized it immediately. It was most of a Virgo shield generator, including a large chuck of the doll's back region. "Who found this?"

"Some space scavenger sold it to us. He hinted that there was more where it came from when I expressed interest in it. He left a frequency to notify him on if I wanted more." the boy was grinning like an idiot. Or perhaps, more accurately, like a smart ass.

Dorothy couldn't help but chuckle softly, because he looked positively silly. Her laughing seemed to brighten him up even more, as if it was some personal accomplishment, making her laugh. "Then we should contact him in a little while. Relena-sama will supply the credits to get the dolls back, so they can be destroyed." Though, as long as she handled the actual transaction, she could make sure Relena and Duo both got misinformed on the actual amount. She needed a few extra Virgo parts.

"Shit, ya better get yourself a place to stay a few days. Scavengers tend to take their time replying!"

Looking around at the various items scattered throughout the room, Dorothy reached up and ran fingers over her dark forked eyebrows, "You would be the one to know that, Duo-kun." With a spin, she turned around and added loudly, "I'll be back tomorrow. Contact your fellow 'junk collector' by then."

"This is a repair shop, cockroach-brow!"

The insult made her stop short in her trek through the building and out of this place. Most people didn't verbally bash her eyebrows anymore, not to her face at least. The shock that someone would is the reason she was drawn up short. They had done that before, when she was a child. Everything from forkbrow to eyebrow-feelers. But by the time she was around ten, no one dared anymore. Because they were all afraid of her. None of the Gundam pilots were though. Nor was Relena-sama. Right then, she wished that the braided boy was afraid of her. But he wasn't. So instead of turning and stabbing at him verbally, she just walked away. She would get him later. Luckily, upon returning to the first room, she found that Quatre and Trowa were no longer present.

*     *     *

We didn't get off to a very good start, but it only got worse. If only I hadn't been so secretive...

~ * ~

A.C. 198

Duo Maxwell was working on repairing a short in the knee joint of a construction suit when Quatre and Trowa finally returned. Cockroach-brow had scared them away. Trowa was in the Colony with the circus (Hilde was still trying to beg the silent clown into getting her free admission), while Quatre was there on business (or more likely to visit Trowa and Catherine). "Oi! Trowa! Pass me that wire cutter, would you?" he called down as soon as the tall boy was close.

Getting the requested tool, Trowa handed it up in silence and the Shinigami replied a thanks before going back to work.

"Dorothy mentioned something about Virgos?" the blond Winner boy voiced from below after a few moments.

"Hai! Hai!" Duo responded, still finishing up the repairs, so most of his attention was on the various wires. "I ran across part of a Virgo. Since that girl, Relena, wants to destroy all of 'em, I sent her a message. Looks like cockroach-brow's workin' for her."

"Oh." Quatre voiced almost too softly for Duo to hear where he was. There was a few moments of silence below until he added, "Did she say where she'd be staying?"

Forcing blue eyes away from the work, Duo glanced down at the blonde millionaire and the killer clown. Why was Quatre so interested in that creepy girl who nearly killed him back on Libra? Trowa did not seem surprised, in fact, the boy even nodded lightly when Duo met his eye.

"She didn't say. But she's probably staying in that building Relena always does." The princess herself had visited the area a few times, and almost each time she dropped in to see him and Hilde, or more accurately, to as where Heero might be. Duo really hoped Quatre didn't like creepy-brow. Watching Relena follow behind after Heero like a love-sick puppy was bad enough already! little old. He was never going to let anyone do that to him. He may not have his Deathscythe anymore, but he was still Shinigami! And no pretty face was going to turn him into a love-starved pup.

"Where's that?" To Duo's shock, the question came from Trowa, not Quatre. They both wanted to see her then? This was getting kind of interesting!

"Lemme finish this up and I'll take you guys!" he called back down to the two and quickly connected the wires he needed to, made sure they wouldn't spark a fire if he left them alone, then jumped down. "Come on. You two really shouldn't hang around here so much or Hilde'll find you all jobs!"

"I heard that, Maxwell!" a yell came from off in the distance near the shop.

"Oi. Busted. Move it, Qua-chan, Tro-kun."

He got the two of them out before Hilde could reap vengeance, or whatever her mood happened to be right then. He liked to tease her, but honestly she was his best friend.

Relena always stayed in the nicest area of the Colony, so that's where he lead the other two pilots. The building was as tall as most around it, stretching well over 30 stories. He kinda hoped Dorothy's room was near the top floor. The elevator was outside the building and nearly all glass. Very cool! Unfortunately who they saw in the lobby negated any purpose to go on the elevator.

Dark blond hair, fancy dress, and a large entourage marked the presence of Relena Peacecraft. When she saw the three Gundam pilots enter she immediately broke conversation with one of her groupies and moved towards them.

"Relena-san!" Quatre said brightly, bowing in front of her. "I didn't know you were in the Colony." Trowa just nodded in her direction.

"Hey!" Duo supplied, "Did you come here with forkbrow?"

"Dorothy? No. I arrived prior to Dorothy. You've seen her already then?" Relena didn't bother to give any formal greetings and she looked more then a little concerned.

"Relena-san? What's wrong?" Quatre caught on to the concern as well. Not that that was a surprise.

"Yeah, we saw her not three hours ago." Duo added in while he could.

"Three hours? I only saw her here an hour ago..." Relena signed and closed her eyes briefly. Quatre asked his question again and she opened her eyes with a start. "Oh, Quatre-san. I'm sorry. It's just... Dorothy. I think she might be planning to do something. She's been stealing the weapons she's supposed to be having destroyed."

What? Duo glanced to the other pilots and noticed the shocked and hurt look that suddenly crossed Quatre's face. Trowa just watched, and was the first to speak, "How did you find out?"

"I didn't. Heero did. He sent me a message telling me just two days ago." Relena shook her head, no doubt a little burned that it took a possible act of war for Heero to contact her.

"Damn. Roach-chan's got some explaining to do!" Duo said rather loudly.

"I tried to talk to her, but she took one look at me and ran."

Ran? That didn't seem like the Dorothy he'd heard about. Though, if she had, the reason would be obvious. The look of betrayed knowledge was all over Relena.

"We'll help you look for her." Quatre immediately offered. Trowa nodded in agreement, but Duo waved his hands in immediate protest.

"Hey! Shit, I came here to snicker at you two and demon-brow, not go on a wild goose chase! 'Sides, if she's been running an hour she's probably on a friggin' transport by now."

Relena gave him a quick out (and gained a point in his book!), "You don't have to. And I think she might try to go back to set up the last transaction."

Duo was about to jump on that excuse to go when Trowa butted in, "Relena. How many weapons does she have?" Leave it to the mostly silent one to ask the good questions. Hrmpt!

There was a reluctant pause from the Former Queen of the World, "According to Heero, she has taken enough to have well over a thousand Mobile Dolls, about six hundred Virgos, the rest are Taurus suits. And at least a hundred other manned suits of most the types. He isn't too sure on the numbers, and thinks there might be more. Dorothy knows how to cover her tracks pretty well. He doesn't even know where she's storing them."

A thousand mobile dolls? Oi. "Shit." is all Duo voiced on the matter, but that was tame compared to his thoughts at the moment. If it had been a hundred he probably would have cheered and said something about target practice. But a thousand was pushing it! They didn't even have Gundams anymore!

Cobalt eyes flickering towards his fellow pilots, he saw Quatre looking sad and disappointed. What? Did he think she was a good guy? One look at her proved she wasn't good guy material. She was actually worse then Heero! Before this got worse, Duo decided to bail for now. If Dorothy was going after one last supply, she'd have to go to the shop and get the frequency. And he'd left Hilde to take care of things.

"You three have fun looking. Tell me how it goes!" He didn't want to be left out if this turned into something big. Hopefully the Preventors had scrapped together a Deathscythe for him. He wouldn't mind a little action. He just hoped that it didn't erupt into a war again.

They let him go, and he hurried back to the shop. But upon arriving he found out he left the others a little too late.

Hilde was pushing herself up off the floor of the front office when he made it inside and he immediately went to help her, "Shit, Hilde, you okay?"

"Yeah... I've gotten hit harder." She started to rub at the back of her head and flinched away from a wound there. When she drew her hand back there was a light trace of blood.

Duo pushed hair aside to get a look, but it wasn't that bad, which was good. If it had been much worse he would have had to kick Dorothy's ass. "You should check into a doctor, but I think it just grazed your scalp. Dorothy?"

"Yeah. She wanted the frequency of the scavenger you had contacted. I wouldn't have given it to her, but she pulled a gun..."

"Don't worry. It doesn't matter." He helped her up and over to a chair before adding, "I may have to be gone for a while. Can you finish up the repairs we got lined up?" If this was going to erupt into another war... he certainly wasn't going to let it be fought there.

Hilde watched him for a few moments, then nodded, "Yeah, Duo. I can handle things. A bump like this won't keep me down."

"No shit." Duo grinned, straightening and starting towards the desk to get a few things that he would need if he was going to try to catch Dorothy before she got out of the Colony.

"Dorothy was on Libra, wasn't she?" Hilde asked suddenly.

"Yeah. She worked with the Romafeller foundation on Earth and the White Fang in Space. You remember seeing her?" he was looking for his back up communication transmitter, which would have the frequency. Hilde probably gave her the primary.

"Vaguely." she said, before musing, "Romafeller, White Fang and now Relena and the Peace Government. She certainly allies with groups in highest power. Kind of funny, since all three were fighting each other at one time."

"Yeah. But somehow I doubt she's that devoted to peace." Stealing weapons, pointing guns at people... it all hinted towards the possibility that she was about as devoted to the peace effort as her grandfather obviously had been. Finally, he found the transmitter and pocketed it, then went looking for his own hand gun. Just incase Dorothy was going to be gun happy.

"Be careful, Duo." Hilde said as he fixed the gun behind his back, secured in place with his belt.

"I'm always careful."

*     *     *

Sometimes I wonder how things would have been different if we met the before the war broke out back then, like I had met Heero and Quatre in the Sanq Kingdom. Would I have challenged him instead of Heero in the school? I also wonder what might have happened if he had been the one to find the mobile doll control room, instead of Quatre. Would he have killed me? Would I have killed him? Somehow, I fear that I would have killed him, more then the possibility that he would have killed me.

~ * ~

A.C 198

Dorothy Catalonia didn't like this. It didn't follow her original plan, and it was extremely risky. She had no more choices in the matter, because Relena knew at least part of what she was doing, and no doubt wished to put an end to it. She needed to move everything before she found out too much, or everything she'd worked towards the past two years would be ruined. She'd worked too long and too hard to throw it all away.

She couldn't risk using the transport she came to the Colony in, Relena would have posted guards, and she was hoping to avoid hurting anyone else. Besides, next to the communicator she had gotten from Hilde had been a transportation permit. Duo Maxwell had his own shuttle, and a private dock for it. Must be a benefit of having been a Gundam Pilot. She was about to add that shuttle to the long list of things she had stolen in the last two years.

Her piloting skills weren't awful, but as soon as she got into the craft she noticed that he had made a few personal modifications to the controls. That's the reason that it took her so long to get everything figured out, and that delay gave the owner of the craft time to find her.

She heard the door open in the back of the shuttle, and not a minute later there was a voice behind her. Duo Maxwell's voice, to be specific, "Oi, oi. And here I thought high class ladies were supposed to be above petty theft!"

Dorothy let out a small sigh before saying, "I sincerely hope you closed the hatch behind you." As soon as she finished, she hit the panel to open the outer doors. Since she hadn't taken the time to decompress the doors stuck a few seconds before opening and the air rushed out, the shuttle was jerked forward a little as well. It didn't take long to realize he had closed the hatch, proven by the fact that she was still breathing.

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"I suggest you sit down."

He hadn't, and when she controlled the shuttle to move out into space, the jerk forward was followed by the sound of something falling to the ground. Duo must have been holding something because there were two metallic clicks as something hit and slid to thunk against one of the walls behind her. He didn't move much, so she wondered if he was knocked unconscious, but she didn't even glance back until she'd cleared the space surrounding the Colony and set the shuttle onto auto pilot.

Unfastening herself, Dorothy moved to check on him, and found that he had brought a gun with him, and had no doubt had it drawn on her when he entered. He wasn't unconscious, but he was having a hard time getting up, because his clothing was caught on an open panel and wasn't coming loose. A little bit of blood around the catch showed that it had cut into his skin as well.

"Stop moving." she ordered the pilot as she pulled a knife she kept on the inside of her boot and knelt forward to cut the fabric around the catch so he could get his arm free. He protested, pulling away and saying he could do it himself. What? Did he think she would stab him? "Calm down, Duo. I have no intention of hurting you." She put her knife away, but kept kneeling there beside him, his gun in her other hand now.

"Just like you had no intention of stabbing Quatre and hurting Hilde?"

"I had every intention of doing those things." Dorothy said, "If you do plan to stop me, there's only one way you're going to accomplish that." With that, she turned the gun she was holding around so that she had the barrel and held the handle in his direction.

Duo blinked at the offer, then took his gun back and kept it trained on her as she knelt in front of him calm and with no weapon drawn herself, looking right into his eyes. Finally he let out a breath, "You really are crazy."

"Perhaps." Dorothy smirked lightly and straightened, turning her back on him as she moved to sit down at the pilot's seat. "If you don't plan to kill me, you might want to sit down."

"I'm going to regret this, I just know it." he grumbled as he sat down beside her in the passenger/co-pilot seat, the gun still in hand and trained in her general direction. "Shit, Heero would have shot you."

"You're not Heero," she responded simply as she pushed the transmitter into the console to ready to send a message to the scavenger who had the dolls.

"Yeah, well, I still should shoot you."

He was making her grin a little more each time he spoke. But the worst part was, she agreed with him. "I would've shot me too." That earned her another odd look before she continued, "It's actually good that you decided to drop in. You've spoken to the man before. Find out where I can go to buy the Virgos he has."

"What makes you think I'd help you do that?"

"Because you didn't shoot me when you had the chance."

"And just how do you intend to pay the man? Relena certainly won't pay for it."

"Incase you don't remember, I happen to have a great deal of money myself." She'd inherited the majority of her grandfather's fortune, not to mention a substantial amount from Treize-sama. She didn't need Relena's money to get what she desired, it just made it easier to get around Relena's watch dogs when she had a perfectly good reason to be buying the weapons."

"Let me do it." Duo grumped, leaning over and clicking the transmitter around until it settled on a channel, then started to speak. "This is Duo Maxwell. Please respond." Static. "Respond. I have someone with me who's very interested in the Virgo." More static, then, suddenly a voice.

"Duo? You're with Dorothy?" It was Quatre's voice. She should have known he was up to something when he started to switch the frequencies.

In one motion she clicked off the transmitter, punched Maxwell in the face and knocked the gun out of his hand. Though not exactly in that order.

"I thought you had no intention of hurting me?" he said, rubbing his cheek.

"I didn't." she responded simply, pulling her own gun and training it on him, "Don't even think about going after your gun again."

Removing the stolen transmitter, Dorothy put it aside and pulled out the one she had in her own pocket. Once she had her own transmitter in and pointed on the right channel she was planning to contact the people working with her. Keyword there being: planning.

She hadn't even noticed the approaching transport until they fired. The blast hit on Duo's side of the transport, shorting the lights for a few seconds and making a few other electric systems flicker. Dorothy was strapped in, so besides being jerked to the side, she wasn't thrown from her chair. Duo wasn't quite as lucky, and he landed half on her, knocking the gun out of her hand as he was catching himself.

"Shit!" he cursed loudly, but Dorothy just pushed him off her and tried to get the com to work.

"This is Dorothy Catalonia! Cease fire imm--!" Another blast hit and she was thrown against the side, banging her head hard against the metal. She felt the blood roll down the side of her face as she tried the com again, "Cease fire!"

Duo pushed himself up and quickly undid the belt fastening her into the chair, "Get out of the damn chair."

"Get your hands off me!"

"Get out!" he grabbed the fabric of her shirt and literally heaved her out of the chair as they were struck again, this time near the back. He broke her fall, but immediately pushed her off or him. "Shit!" She was sprawled on the floor of the shuttle while he was strapping himself in, "Damnit. They hit the main thrusters." That didn't stop him from dodging the next blast sent at them. "Secondary and backups still working. I suggest you get your ass strapped in and hang on. Your friends busted the com with that last hit."

Pulling herself into the co-pilot chair, Dorothy looked at the controls to try to see what she could do. He may not think too highly of her, but she wasn't going to just sit in a chair and watch if she could offer some assistance. "Close range sensors are still working."

"I see that. Just sit there and look pretty. I'll take care of this."

Dorothy threw him a glare that would have sent any of the girls she went to boarding school with cowering in fear. He just glanced for a second and said, "Or you can sit there and do a lousy Heero impression. But don't touch anything unless you really are as suicidal as you act." She didn't like that one bit. He wasn't at all afraid of her.

Muttering harsh words under her breath, Dorothy didn't listen to him and kept watching the sensors. He was doing a very good job of getting out of the way just in time. She'd feel a little better if they'd missed by more though. Suddenly something else came into the range of the sensor. She brought the image up and said, "Duo, you may want to see this."

"Shit, I told you... Oh shit!" the boy certainly had a mouth on him. "That's Trowa's! Damnit! I can't tell them to get out of here!"

"Who cares! They're turning some of the fire their way. Let's get out of here while we can!"

"Damnit! Quatre was worried about you! Trowa was too! I sat by his fucking bedside with Trowa and Rasid as he recovered from that wound you gave him and all the while he was worried about you!"

Dorothy sat there stunned as he said all that, then looked at the picture of Barton's shuttle. They'd been hit a few times and were having a hard time dodging. On impulse, Dorothy threw herself at Duo, pushing the back up thrusters to move the shuttle between the firing craft and Trowa's shuttle. The following blasts hit Duo's side and flung her violently the direction she had just came from.

To be continued...