The morning finds the two haphazard companions asleep near the dead fire. Heero wakes first, looking down at Duo as the sun filters through the treetops and the dawn light catches in his hair, giving the auburn and chestnut mass a warm glow and a life of its own. He sneers at his own inner observations and gets the fire going again to warm some of his rations for breakfast.

    Upon waking, Duo smells the food over the fire and his stomach rumbles. Wordlessly, Heero hands him some of his food, accepting, at least, the need for cooperation.

    Running his hands over his eyes repeatedly, trying to replace the images burned into the back of them by his dream with darkness, Duo eats his breakfast quickly and then checks over Heero’s wound before the other young man snaps, “Can we get out of here already?”

    Wiping his eyes once more, agitatedly, Duo nods absently, gathering his few possessions and standing. “You leading or am I?” he asks disinterestedly.

    Heero frowns slightly. “You’re the native,” he says, gesturing him forward and waiting for him to move out.

    Duo does so, reluctantly, setting out with the sun over his left shoulder, away from Lahan. “So, you’re obviously not from around here,” Duo begins.

    Heero grunts in response and follows Duo as he wades through a patch of brambles, arms swinging casually at his sides. Duo raises his above his head and tries again, “Where are you from?”

    “Why don’t you just stop asking questions?” Heero replies, tone icy.

    “Because,” Duo replies, pulling out of the brambles and turning to face his uncooperative companion, “I’m bored and talking helps to pass the time. If you don’t like it, find the way out by yourself.”

    Heero’s eyes narrow and he says, “Where are you from?” he asks, “Since you find it so important to talk, let’s talk about you instead of me.”

    “I don’t know where I’m from anymore.”

    “Anymore? So you knew before and now you don’t?” Heero asks, mildly interested as he follows him forward again.

    “Let’s talk about something else,” Duo says stubbornly.

***

    The day progresses and the two of them exchange few words, until finally even Heero becomes fed up with his companion’s stubborn avoidance of the subject of his own life.

    The late afternoon sunlight filters over Duo’s right shoulder, and he says, hands placed carefully as he hauls himself up the next rise, “Why are you out here?” he asks again.

    “I was assigned to a mission that involved coming here,” Heero says, tired of evading the question and hoping to draw an answer from his evasive companion.

***

    The fire crackles as the two companions sit at it.

    “I’m sorry,” Duo says quietly.

    Blinking, Heero looks up at him. “What?”

    “I said…” Duo takes a bite of the jerky he’s taken out of his pack, “that I’m sorry… I’ve been really uncooperative all day.”

    Heero snorts. “You think so?” he grunts, shifting against the rock in an attempt to get into a more comfortable position where his bullet wound won’t antagonize the muscle it sliced through. Duo frowns and falls silent.

    After a moment, however, he snaps, “It’s not like you’re being any different!” Sighing when he receives no response from Heero, Duo leans his head back to look at the stars through the trees. “I don’t know why I expect any sympathy from you anyway… it’s not like you’d care why I’m in this cursed place.”

    Expression softening as he glances at his impromptu companion across the fire, Heero says, “Maybe I do.”

    “Yeah, right,” Duo says, looking down and taking a sip from his canteen.

    “Duo… why are you in this forest?”

    “Because…” Duo’s voice is soft, the honest question catching him off guard, his voice somewhat broken as he answers with the first thing that comes to mind. The truth.

Why am I telling him this?

    “Because my village was attacked… and it was all my fault.”

    Heero blinks as he stares at Duo across the fire.

    “If I hadn’t been there then none of it would have happened.”

    “How can you be so sure of that?” Heero protests, recalling the events leading up to his trial. “Just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time doesn’t mean that it was your fault the people died.”

    Duo glances across the flames between the two of them and looks at Heero, “What do you know about it?”

    “You said your village was attacked, what the hell does that have to do with you being there?” Heero stares him down.

    “It was my fault, all right? There must’ve been something else I could’ve done… some way I could’ve…” Duo trails off. “What the hell would you know about feeling that sort of a responsibility anyway?” he glares at his uncooperative companion, “It isn’t like you can understand how it feels to be accountable for the deaths of people you love and care for.”

***

    “I’m worried about Duo,” Sally says quietly to Hilde as they load the villagers on the transport that will take them to Shevat.

    “Would you like me to go after him to be sure he’s all right, Doctor Po?”

    “No, Hilde, you go along with the villagers up to Shevat and be sure that they get settled in well. I’ll go and look after Duo until the time comes.”

    “But Doc -”

    “I don’t think that under the circumstances, you’re the best person to go, Hilde. I know your feelings for Duo, and I don’t think it’s good for you to be trying to protect him right now. Go along with the villagers and send my love to Wufei, will you?”

    “Sure, Doc,” Hilde replies, a challenging look in her ice blue eyes as she turns and heads up the small walkway after the last of the orphans and refugees from Lahan.

    Sally takes a step back as the small shuttle lifts off and heads towards the sea for it’s route to the Babel tower, where it will rendezvous with the shield-protected floating city. She sighs, thinking of her absent husband, and then turns her thoughts to the Gear standing awkwardly in the clearing and the young man who last piloted it.

I promised the Emperor that I would do this, it is my duty as a Guardian Angel to see that Duo gets through all these trials safely, and I will. I’m sorry I must be so long absent from you, dearest.

    “Well, Deathscythe, looks like it’s just you and me for a while.”

***

    “How would you know?” Heero snaps in response. “You don’t know anything at all about me, and now…” he trails off as he sees that Duo has turned his back to him. He starts to speak up again but images flash through his mind of that dreadful day and the blood that coated the walls of the corridor in the upper Solaris levels.

    Duo sighs, looking down sullenly, his thoughts focused on the image of Solo falling in a hail of bullets from the enemy Gear, and the rage that had consumed him at that instant. He is so wrapped up in himself and the memories of his closest friend that he doesn’t hear as Heero turns and retreats farther forward down the path into the forest.

    He is finally startled into the present by a shout.

    “Heero!” he exclaims to himself, acting without thinking and turning to run towards the noise of the shout.

    Duo comes into a large clearing to find that Heero is facing off, not too poorly, against a gigantic reptile, and as his violet eyes watch the scene Heero takes a deep wound to the chest, falling down and inching back. “Leave him alone!” Duo shouts, leaping forward to attack the beast.

***

    Sally frowns as she hears the commotion from deep within Darkmoon Forest, and pushes the Gear harder to get to the source, perhaps a little too hard because she feels one of the joints chafe under the duress of her urgency. Landing in the clearing she sees a young man fallen and Duo fighting a Renkar barehanded.

    “Duo!” she cries out, landing Deathscythe and opening the hatch.

    “Doc?!” he replies incredulously, blocking the Renkar’s strike.

    “Get into the Gear, Duo, it’s the only way you stand a chance of beating that monster!” she cries out to him, but he stubbornly shakes his head.

    “No way, Doc, the last time I got on that thing I destroyed Lahan!” As he banters with Sally, Heero’s eyes widen as he realizes that Duo is indeed the young man from the village he was sent to single out. “I won’t do that again!”

    “It’s suicide to keep up this hand to hand battle, Duo!”

    “You pilot it then, Doc!”

    The Renkar strikes forward, narrowly missing chomping off Duo’s head, and he leaps backwards. “Ok, Doc, but you’ve got to promise me that if I start to go berserk you’ll shoot me!”

    “I promise Duo,” she says in an exasperated tone. “Now get in!”