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'Til Death us do part	By : ClareSelley Category: Gundam Wing/AC > Crossovers Views: 896 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or Highlander, and I make no money off this.

Chapter List
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Duo rolled over, sleepily curling up around the thin duvet of the safe house's lumpy bed, trying to ignore the incessant beeping signalling an important message had arrived in his email inbox. He'd hardly gotten any proper sleep the night before - not that he wasn't used to uncomfortable beds, L2 wasn't known for its famous luxury sleeping quarters after all - but he'd been having strange dreams that were fading from his memory even as the beeping penetrated his restless mind.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, stretching lazily before tossing the covers off and rolling out of bed, wincing as his feet touched the cold stone floor. "Keep your panties on."

The small computer could make a lot of noise for such a compact machine, he thought wryly, sighing as he opened the lid of the laptop to see what his next mission would be. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the short message. "What the hell G... Do it properly this time? I always do it properly!" he muttered to the empty room, before clicking sharply on the attached profile.

Scanning it, he nodded to himself, researcher, OZ base, and as he'd thought, it was the one nearby... assassinate and destroy - oh he liked those missions - target location, and the picture of his target.

"What the..." Duo blinked at the image on his screen, of a slim brown haired, brown eyed man standing amongst a pile of mismatched books. "I killed him already!"

Checking the date on the mission, to make sure he wasn't looking at an old one, he noticed the name of the target, Adam Pierson. Frowning, he tapped in a few searches, lightly touching on the OZ personnel database. Apparently Alax Adams had left the base he was working in several months ago, hadn't died, just resigned his position. "But I killed him! I know I fucking killed him!" Duo growled, searching for more information on Dr Adams, but the man had simply disappeared. And, the braided pilot concluded, had started work on a different base a few weeks ago under the name Adam Pierson.

He called up his recollections of the mission he'd had to assassinate Dr Adams and ran through the mental images of the body. He'd checked to make damn certain of his mission's success. The man had been utterly still, no pulse, no breath, eyes staring, skin clammy with shock, all vital signs pointing to his abrupt and violent death. The bullet had gone right through the heart and had even chipped the desk in front of him for God's sake! The man had been dead as a drowned dodo. Intellectually, he knew that there was no way in hell it was the same man, but the image, with a recent date label on it, said otherwise, and the picture in the personnel database matched it, confirmed the man to be a dead ringer for a target that had been, well, dead. Should still be dead, in fact!

He typed back a quick reply of two words - Mission accepted - and threw his underclothes on, taking more time to brush his hair and rebraid it from the bird's nest it always seemed to work itself into during the night, adding in a slender length of wire into the braid with the lockpicks that lived there during the day.

Next went on a weapons harness, a lightweight webbing that strapped around his torso. In that went his dual knives around his waist, a couple of pistols in the under arm holsters, and he eyed up the longer knives that slid into the cross sheaths across his back, but decided against them - a trip in Deathscythe wearing them could be painful on his back. On top of that went his black coat, and he shook himself to settle the weapons in place under it.

Finally, into a pocket went a little invention of his own based off of Deathscythe's hyperjammers that, in theory, would render him invisible to sensors, both heat and visible for short bursts - though he hadn't had a chance to test it yet. The theory was sound, so he figured now was as good a time as any.

It didn't take long to do the slightly more in-depth mission research - the base was a standard OZ base, and God did he love their military precision and standards. Adams, Pierson, whatever, was in the research quarter, so the passcodes and plans were easy enough to find, and Duo couldn't resist releasing a small virus into the system that would turn all their document text pink while he was at it. The virus was harmless enough, though it would make them paranoid it was a symptom of something much larger and hopefully distract them... well, until the base went sky high that was.

Deathscythe had been hidden in the woods surrounding the safe house with the hyperjammers left on even though it was highly unlikely anyone would spot the giant mecha either by sight or sensors. Duo found his friend easily, the cable lift was exactly where he'd left it, and he let it lift him into the tight but comfortably familiar cockpit.

Settling his rear into the seat that had become moulded to his form, he ran a few quick system checks before moving off as stealthily as he could into woods, taking advantage of the farm tracks for the mech's feet.

"Well, buddy, we've got a new mission," the pilot rambled as he settled into motion, the base wasn't too far away - the previous message from Professor G had specified this safehouse for a reason - and he'd transferred Deathscythe via lorry a few days before. "Though this one's a bit of an odd one y'know? The guy I'm taking out seems to be a guy I've killed before, weird, huh? How can he still be alive after meeting Shinigami?" He laughed to himself, stroking the console, "Well, today he'll meet him again and find out. And he'll meet you too, and nothing can survive both of us, right 'Scythe?"

The mecha didn't answer, but silently marched on towards the base.

This time, Duo wasn't going to risk using a gun on Pierson, Adams, whoever. Obviously he'd somehow missed with bullets, and Adams had, somehow, survived. Checking his knives in their sheaths, he adjusted them so they sat comfortably, checked the weapons in his braid, and dug under his coat to pull out the guns and check they were loaded. It wasn't as if Deathscythe needed a pilot to walk in a straight line across country. He kind of wished the suit was capable of Wing's atmospheric flight, but no, G had concentrated on stealth rather than getting from A to B - a fact that he was grateful for in battle, but it was still annoying when travelling. At least Trowa had the circus to help move Heavyarms while Q practically owned half the transport network, he wasn’t sure what ‘Fei did, but suspected it was the same combo of money and hotwiring he used himself.

Slipping his laptop onto the console, he downloaded the relevant data into the mecha, and settled down to planning the best way to infiltrate the base, and the easiest way to blow it up afterwards.

It didn't take too long for the suit to reach the base - just enough time for its pilot to come up with as much of a plan as he usually did. Storing the mecha in a nearby wood, lying it down carefully to prevent the tall suit poking over the tree line, and ensuring the jammers were on, Duo swung out of the cockpit, patting his friend on a metal shoulder. "I'll be back soon, hey 'Scythe. Then we can have some fun together!" He grinned and double checked his weapons again, adjusting the harness slightly where it dug into a shoulder. Giving his friend another pat, he started walking out of the woods towards the base.

Creeping through the undergrowth at the edge of the base, the braided pilot stayed silent, he'd been watching the incomings and outgoings of the staff and vehicles for a few hours now and had detected a small pattern which he could take advantage of to slip in under a lorry. Sneaking around to an appropriate place to launch himself onto the back of the next lorry that passed, he scanned the area warily. He didn't expect to be seen, but as the old saying went, old habits die hard, and caused people to die harder.

Nothing catching his senses, he took a deep breath before launching himself onto the back of the passing truck, quickly squirming his way under the semi-trailer and wedging himself between the back wheels with a grunt that was swallowed up by the roar of the engine. Once secure, he rummaged around in his pocket for the prototype device, pulling it out and pressing the button hopefully. He almost held his breath as soldiers swarmed over the truck, checking over the inside of the trailer, he could feel the vibrations from their footsteps reverberate through him on his perch, and he stayed motionless as the torch swung under the truck, praying to any god that was listening that the cursory inspection he'd seen previously was standard among this group of guards, especially near the end of their shift when they just wanted to be getting inside for a break.

He sighed in relief as the lorry moved away, the torch having missed his hiding place entirely, and held on as it swung around to the unloading bay. As the lorry turned though, a pothole jarred his arm and the jamming device fell from his hand to be crushed under the tyres. Duo swore under his breath, it had taken weeks to develop it along with a fair bit of guesswork that he wasn't sure he could replicate if he tried.

Footsteps made him freeze where he was as the unloading lift began to move down from the rear of the vehicle and people swarmed the area to begin to divest the trailer of its contents. The pilot swore again silently as he saw the remains of the jamming device just peeking out from the edge of the lift.

He stayed there, frozen, for what seemed like hours, his eyes fixed on the remains just under the lift, hoping that no one would notice the tangle of wires and circuitry. It wasn't as if they could rebuild the thing or even figure out what it was for - there were too many intuitive random leaps of pure Maxwell logic in the thing - but it still screamed that someone was around who probably shouldn't be.

Suddenly there was an exclamation and the lift rose slightly to allow a hand to slip the wreckage out from under it. Several shouts went up and torches dived under the trailer to light up the empty darkness.

That... is not good, Duo thought, diving behind a load of cargo dumped on the side of the bay before beginning to crawl off towards the entrance to the main base from the loading bay and hoping the distraction of his poor destroyed prototype would at least be of some use in persuading the guards at the door to move away for the split second that he required to dive safely inside.

Luck was on his side it seemed, the guards were moving forward with weapons raised, speaking into their comm units. "S2Q1B12 to Security. S2Q1B12 to Security. Potential enemy device found. Does not appear explosive."

"Roger that S2Q1B12, set cordon around device and seal the area. Squad A21 on the way. Repeat, set cordon around device and seal the area."

"Roger that Security."

Duo grinned a wicked smile as he launched himself across the room on the other side of the bay door, pausing to locate the camera in the room. How nice of the enemy to give him his exact location to orientate himself in the building. Noting the camera was currently trained on the entrance - probably to capture any issues with his dead device, he frowned, hoping he'd been quick enough to evade notice. Probably not.

His smile faded to a grimace as the security breach warning lights came on, and he sighed and moved to the air ducts, thankful he'd not worn the back knives - the sheathes were flexible enough to move along the narrow tubes, but the blades were solid and inflexible, hardly ideal for such an enclosed space. Quickly taking the cover off, he squirmed his way up the wall, muttering about asking Trowa to give him gymnastic training if he ever saw the other pilot again, before he turned in the tight space and pulled the cover back up behind him just as the first soldiers entered the room.

Duo was far down the tubes by the time the guards pulled the cover off themselves, silently slipping along the network of thin tunnels and torn between wishing that they would turn the air conditioning off and grateful for the whisper of wind that brushed passed him, covering any slight noises that he made by careless movements.

Navigating his way by the map he had burnt into his mind, he made his way to the sector where research was carried out and dropped out of the air conditioning ducts into a shadowed corridor after a while - even OZ had to realise that he was using them eventually and would start searching them specifically, so it was better to get out now. It wasn't hard to pass through the security doors, the passcodes from the computer system appeared to be up to date and let him through without a hitch, and he ghosted along the corridors to Pierson's laboratory and office.

The corridor was quiet - the din of the security alert having faded into the distance, and even if it had penetrated out here, it was highly unlikely researchers would think that anything in the real world could possibly affect them. He'd seen Howard studying a particularly interesting mechanical problem, the world could have exploded and the old guy wouldn't have noticed until he'd found a solution to the problem in front of him. He grinned, noticing a flashing light much further up the corridor, obviously the alarm had gone off and someone had come out and disabled the noise for disturbing their concentration.

A few moments at a control panel and the camera in Pierson's room was disabled. He disabled several others around the base at the same time to confuse security before moving to his quarry's door.

Pierson's room had a window in the door, and Duo peered in carefully. You'd think the guy'd be more careful, he thought with a frown, the guy's already survived one attack and he still has his back to the door and air con duct? The room was literally covered with books. It looked like Adams, Pierson, whoever, had just lifted the office wholesale from one base to another, and that just confirmed that the thin brown haired figure at the desk was the same person that he knew, for a fact, had been dead.

Cracking the door open he slipped inside, pausing and then freezing as the researcher tilted his head slightly before turning to regard him.

"And you are?" The man's voice was calm and quiet, the brown eyes wary but cool as he raked his eyes across Duo's body. The pilot had the feeling Pierson was weighing him up, measuring his skills just from looking at him.

"Shinigami." Duo hissed, his normal personality fading as he entered the cold deadly combat-ready state pulling his daggers from his waist and lightly spinning them between his fingers. "I have no idea how you survived last time, but this time you won't be so lucky, Dr. Adams."

The researcher blinked before sighing and leaning down to grasp something by the side of his desk. The pilot growled, "And don't go pressing any security alerts, you'll be dead before they get here and I'll be gone."

Pierson shook his head as if Duo was a naughty little child who'd stolen a cookie from the jar, "You're new at this, aren't you?" Standing up, the shnick of a sword being drawn was clearly audible and the researcher smiled, all academic calmness flowing from him into a stillness that reminded Duo of the calm before a storm was unleashed. "Well? Are you going to tell me your name before I take your head?"

"Take my what?" Duo's dark amethyst eyes blinked in confusion even as he brought the daggers up to mirror the researcher's, no, warrior's stance. "I told you, I'm Shinigami and all I've come to take is your life!"

"Ah well, I won't know what to put in my journals, but, honestly, God of Death? Don't you think that's a little melodramatic?" With a wry smile, the older man advanced, bringing the sword up to meet Duo's first thrust.

The room was suddenly a whirling spin of blades, the storm unleashing itself with unbridled fury onto the Gundam pilot. It was all Duo could do to keep the blade away from him with the constant sweeping strikes of the quiet fighter.

"Who... Are you?" Duo growled, parrying another strike that dove towards his neck, "You're meant to... Be a bloody researcher!"

Pierson smiled, seemingly not at all out of breath by the frantic exchange of blows. "I am. I'm also a fighter. And you cheated last time. What is this? A game to you? Is it fun to torture your prey?" The sword snaked in, nipping at Duo's throat with the calm words, causing a trickle of blood to run down the pilot's neck.

Duo pushed the blade away with a dagger, dancing backwards on his toes and tossing his braid away from his shoulders as he reset his stance. "A game? I cheated? You're the one that cheated death - you shouldn't even be alive!" he snarled, shadows deepening his purple eyes.

"Then take my head, child."

The dance began again, and even in the madness that had arisen in and around him, Duo began to notice that Pierson was only really aiming for his neck. Sure, there were blows aimed at his limbs and chest, but most of those had been feints, and the guy had only scored light gashes which, although they would sting later and one or two would probably need stitches, were hardly life threatening. It seemed that the madman really did want to 'take his head'. Literally.

On the other hand, Duo had barely scratched the man, one or two lucky strikes, but, nothing else. How the hell did he get this bloody good with a sword? a faint part of his brain wondered, then, Shit! as it was distracted by dodging the sword sweeping down in an elaborate move that caught the tip of his braid as he spun, slicing the tie and a few stray wisps of hair off across the room.

Dark amethyst eyes went black. "You. Will. Die." Even as his hair unravelled around his shoulders, the chestnut strands mingling with the blood soaking his clothes, and flaring out behind him, he saw an opening, levelled the dagger and threw it underarm towards the enemy.

A wet 'thump' noise stopped the sword even as it swung down again, and the man's eyes opened wide as he looked down to where the hilt nestled between his breastbone "You... Cheated. Again." he said accusingly as he sat down heavily against the desk, one hand reach up to touch the hilt.

"I didn't know we were playing a game." Duo hissed, advancing on the man, his hair now flowing free behind him forming a cloak of molten copper, the lockpicks and wire clattering to the ground. "Now die damn you!"

The last was almost a yell as Duo brought his other dagger down to swipe across Pierson's throat, cutting the jugular cleanly and allowing the blood to flow freely. He did have a moment of guilt that the few papers scattered around the floor of the desk were getting liberally covered in blood, but the darkness still ran within him and he slowly pulled the blade from the heart, nodding to himself as the blood flowed sluggishly from the gaping wound.

"Shinigami always wins." he said, checking the pulse and breathing of the corpse had indeed stopped, waiting for longer than usual to double and triple check the life signs before turning and gathering up his lockpicks and garrotte wire and tucking them into his pocket.

He paused before he left, moving back to the corpse to check that yes, it was still a corpse, and with that reassurance, he lifted the sword from the cold hands and wiped it clean on the dead man's clothing. He wasn't normally the type to take trophies, in fact he somewhat detested the whole idea, but after watching the cold grace of the swordsman, he wouldn't mind at least trying to learn the man's skills, and hell, he already was damn good with daggers and it wasn't like a dead man could use it anymore.

Duo grabbed an elastic band from the desk and tied his hair back into a rough bun, not having the time to braid it, and then he was gone, back up into the air conditioning duct above the desk and moving silently through the base towards Deathscythe.

About half an hour later the man on the floor groaned, blinking his eyes open in surprise and pain as he touched his throat lightly. "What the..." His hand coming away wet with drying blood, he sighed, "Next time I think I'll just kill him if he's going to play stupid games."

Frowning, he levered himself upwards, noticing his sword was gone at the same time that he realised his blood was spread over the papers scattering the floor. "Damn it all!"

He resisted the urge to go and chase the long-haired idiot - if he was right, the boy was Pilot 02 and would be miles away already, or at least lost in the maze of corridors. And he could hardly hit the security alert with blood all over him and the marks of a fresh stab wound clear for the world to see.

Rubbing his forehead tiredly, he moved to a cupboard and dug out a change of clothes and a towel. There was a shower just down the corridor in case of chemical burns that he could probably get to without a problem, and hopefully this time he'd not have to leave his bloody job. It was a good job, he enjoyed it.

He almost pouted, but the siren going off made him freeze. "Oh gods above, what now?" he asked the ceiling, rolling his eyes upwards in frustration.

"Gundam approaching. Hostile. All personnel evacuate. Repeat, Gundam approaching. Hostile. All personnel evacuate."

And didn't that put the bloody icing on the bloody cake. Moving over to the door, he drew the blind closed and locked it before switching off the light.

Rushing quickly through the room, he tossed books and scrolls into book cases, pulling down the shutters over the front and locking them securely, shoving papers and memory sticks into the desk, locking those as well and throwing the few remaining on the floor into his specially commissioned wardrobe, before he ducked in after them. He sat down in the base of it, rubbing the gundanium that lined the wardrobe, drawers and bookcases reassuringly. Reaching up to seal the locks he lent back with his arms crossed in sheer frustration at the world in general and prepared to die yet again from the heat of the missiles exploding. Although given the gundanium should protect him from that, he was likely to just be buried alive for a while. This was getting boring. And he'd have to find a new job after all. Damn.
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'Til Death us do part