***
Chapter 2 : The Game Begins
***

Or perhaps life is not a play, but a game. Everyone
likes games, don't they?

\\Slide. Click.\\

But how do you know when it is your turn?

\\Slide. Click.\\

How do you know the rules?

\\Check.\\

How do you win such a game?

\\And Mate.\\

A game no one leaves alive.

***

The colony was almost beautiful in a bland way. It was
amazingly clean, at least in this area, and heaven
compared to his old home on L2. People pushed passed
him, the mindless scurrying of ants with places to be.
Duo kept an eye out for familiar faces in the crowd.
Thanks to some old contacts, he had managed to get
here before the two Preventors. This was the
checkpoint for the entrance to the colony. Unless they
were on an industrial shuttle, they'd have to pass
through here.

//Shuttle 837 is docking,// the loudspeaker pronounced
in an artificially animated voice.

**Didn't Wu say that was the one they were taking?** 
He certainly hoped so, his stomach was protesting his
long wait.

There was a flash of dark hair out of the corner of
his eye. He turned to see Wufei presenting his ID to
the official who was probably nervous about letting
armed men on board. The Chinese man seemed taller than
he remembered and Duo cursed his own lack of height.
Malnutrition had apparently stunted his growth. Still,
he wasn't as tall as his companion.

The man was recognizable from his infamous
transmission to Earth if that was whom you were
expecting, but it was clear that the pictures hadn't
done him justice. Like Wufei, his long hair was pulled
back from his face in a ponytail, bangs framing a face
that reminded Duo of pre-colony paintings of angels.
The vision exchanged a glance with his shorter
partner, who was gesturing in Duo's direction. He
raised a hand in the air and was rewarded with a nod.
With that, the pair made their way over to him,
awareness of their surroundings shown in the way they
skillfully avoided the other passengers.

The trio walked out of the press of people without a
word, before Zechs turned to him.

"Duo Maxwell, it's nice to finally meet you."

And wasn't that the sexiest voice he'd ever heard?
Damn, you're on a mission here, Maxwell. Don't let
your hormones get out of control. Just because
Heero... He stopped the thought and grinned.

"The one and only. I run, I hide, but I never lie.
It's nice to meet you too, Zechs. I'm glad to see you,
Wu-man." He looked between his two companions. Wufei
was glaring. "You guys worked out any hotel
arrangements yet? I found a place not too far from
here, but I wasn't sure..."

That deep voice purred again. "That would be fine. We
were a bit rushed."

"Okay, I'll call us a ride and the hotel, if you want.
You guys just get your stuff."

"Thank you."

Man, he understood now why Wu didn't mind the company.
**Well, Heero's out of the picture. You might as well
accept it. Time to move on.** He bounced off, braid
swinging behind him. There was no time like the
present.

***

"Here we are! All the comforts of home." The door to
the room flung open with a flourish revealing a plain,
but clean, room with two double beds decorated with
cheery floral wallpaper. 

Zechs walked passed Duo, avoiding his outrageous bow
as the younger man gestured for the Preventors to
enter. Despite the gravity of the situation that had
brought them here and lack of sleep, the Prince of
Sank smiled. There was just something irresistible and
irrepressible about Duo's personality that outdid the
room's artificial brightness a hundred fold. It was
hard to believe at times that he had been a Gundam
pilot.

With long strides, Zechs made his way into the room
and set his meager bags along the back wall out of the
path of the incoming Dragon who followed his example.
Duo, instead, bounded inside and dumped his stuff on
the bed nearest the door, ignoring the attention
directed at him.

Wufei wore what he had come to know as his
"exasperated face". Fortunately, the look was hardly
ever directed at him, though he'd come to know his
partner's stony glare quite well when they were first
assigned to each other. It was the same glare that had
caused three transfers of partners due to "personality
conflicts". They'd managed to work out their
differences eventually, though neither had mentioned
the true cause. Trieze was still too raw in both their
hearts, even after all this time.

Duo ignored Wufei's annoyance and spoke, "So, you guys
hungry? Want to order room service or something,
'cause I'm starving?"

Truthfully, so was Zechs, so he nodded. "I wouldn't
mind." He looked at Wufei questioningly, but the dark
eyes were not directed at him.

"We should report to Lady Une first." It was as if the
Chinese Preventor was waiting for someone to
contradict him. 

"Sure, 'Fei."

"You're probably right. Then she'll know where to find
us if she needs to." Or where to check to see if
something has happened to us. Given what had happened
previously, the second wasn't as unlikely as Zechs
would have liked. Though sometimes irritating, Wufei's
tendency to stick to the book had proved beneficial in
the past.

It was only a short communication, just long enough to
impart the essentials. There was no new information on
any of the involved or suspected parties.

"So, food. Do you guys want anything specific or..."

When his partner made no reply, Zechs answered for
him. "Call and order whatever you want."

"Don't blame me if you don't like it, then." The quick
smile flashed in his direction was heart stopping, but
it vanished from view as Duo went to look at the
possible options. Pilot 02 certainly knew how to make
an impression. He was far too pretty for his own good,
especially when he smiled.

"Hmmm... what do we have here?" A few slightly wicked
chuckles emanated from behind the braided boy.

A thought flickered through his mind. **This could be
interesting.** He was not just referring to the meal,
either.

***

Despite his earlier threats of escargot, Duo had
settled for a more mundane meal and was munching on
the remains of a sandwich. He watched the other
occupants of the room expectantly as Wufei dug out the
files on the case that he had been unwilling to send
over an unsecured line.

"Is this when you finally let me in on all the
details?" Duo asked.

Zechs spoke first. "I'm sure you've heard the news
about the Preventor deaths on this colony."

"Yeah, who hasn't. 'Preventors killed in incompetent
raid on small time smuggler.' I read it in the paper
this morning while waiting for you guys. Something
about an explosion. A lot of people are questioning
the Preventor's effectiveness over this, no offence."
He paused for breath. "I'm taking that's what were
here for."

Wufei narrowed his eyes as the headline was repeated
and felt a ball of anger in his gut. It was an
injustice how failures were all that were noticed and
he hissed heatedly, "Idiots." He had personally been
involved in several missions that stopped outright war
from occurring. The facts that had reached the press,
however, were not the true ones. It had seemed best to
spread misleading information with smatterings of
truth, at least until the matter was brought to a
close.

"Yes, and no. Quite a few things didn't make it to the
papers."

Wufei continued for his partner. "There were no
explosives. Something ripped them to shreds, but the
building was untouched."

Duo stared at him. "So that's why you wanted back up.
I'd wondered why you would call for something like
that."

"It also wasn't just a smuggler. They suspect he was
also fencing goods from a piracy ring, one that's been
plaguing this entire sector for months and is thought
to have been responsible for the disappearance of at
least ten ships along with their crews."

"And?" 

Maxwell glanced between the two Preventors. Zechs'
face was grim. "One other thing missed the papers. We
have a witness. There was a survivor."

***

"His name is Michael Ramsey. Ex-Alliance soldier with
a very good record and joined the Preventors seven
months ago. Only family still living is his younger
brother, who we haven't been able to contact."

It was difficult for Duo to keep up with the blond
man's longer steps as the trio made their way through
the hospital halls. The sterile white was broken only
by doorways painted a dower green. Stepping sideways
to avoid an unoccupied wheelchair, he collided with
Wufei and was rewarded with a glare. **Man, he sure is
touchy.**

Zechs stopped at a desk manned by a plump woman with
mousy brown hair in a bun and a nametag that read
'Nancy'. The desk was messy, but had the feel of
organized chaos, as did the woman behind it.

"Yes?" The voice, while not hostile, was not friendly
either.

With a graceful hand, the former Lightning Count
reached under his tan coat and pulled out his ID.
"Preventors," he said smoothly. "We're here to see Mr.
Ramsey." 

Nancy's assessing gaze swept over the three of them,
lingering on Duo questioningly. Yeah, so he looked
young. He was young. **Deal with it, lady.** He smiled
back at her, but the smile was as questioning as her
own gaze. Her eyes flicked back to Zechs and down to
her computer. She clattered the keys, frowning at the
screen, before looking up. "He's in room 502. They're
expecting you. I'll call up and tell them you're
coming."

Wufei nodded at her abruptly and headed for the
elevator. Zechs followed. Duo paused and winked at her
once with an almost vicious smirk. He hated being
thought less of because of his age.

They were met on the fifth floor by a balding dark
haired doctor.

"How is he?" Wufei asked.

"Physically, his injuries weren't that serious. Some
stitches were necessary and he'd lost blood, but he'll
recover."

It was the squint near the eyes, the tightening of
wrinkles that showed that there was something wrong.
"But?" Duo asked.

"I don't know how much he'll be able to tell you. He's
been talking about demons since he woke up. It may
pass, he's had a rough time, but these sort of things
take time and counseling."

Zechs paused his step in front of the room. "Time that
we don't have, I'm afraid." 

The doctor reached for the door. "He's been restrained
since he's been easily agitated and we don't want him
to hurt himself further. I'll be right outside if he
gets violent."

"Thank you."

With that the three passed through the threshold and
Duo blinked, eyes adjusting to the dimmer light of the
room. Along the left wall was a man dressed in a green
hospital gown and, as his eyes attuned themselves, he
could make out a white bandage across one cheek,
contrasting itself against the deeper tan of the man's
skin. Short scruffy dark hair stuck out in all
directions and wild eyes jerked upwards at their
approach. 

"Who are you?" The voice was ragged and harsh, as if
it had been misused recently.

"I'm Preventor Stone." Wufei jerked his head in the
blonde's direction. "This is Preventor Wind and Mr.
Maxwell, an outside consultant." Duo nodded. "We'd
like to ask you some questions, Mr. Ramsey."

"You can ask if you like." The man laughed. "You just
won't like the answers. You'll just think I'm crazy,
same as everyone else."

"Do you mind if we sit down?"

"No, do whatever you like. It's not like I can
object." He tugged the restraints loosely, emphasizing
his point.

There were two chairs, uncomfortable orange
monstrosities such as those found in public schools.
The black haired Preventor settled in the nearest one
and whipped out a notepad and a pen. Zechs and Duo
looked at each other for a moment before the ex-Oz
officer gestured graciously with his one hand for him
to take the seat.

"I'll stand," Zechs nearly whispered.

"Thanks."

He saw Wufei wince at the slight squeak as Duo brought
the chair up beside his and settled himself and Zechs
leaned behind him against the wall.

"Can you tell us exactly what happened?"

***

"Something about this is just wrong."

"Of course it's wrong, Maxwell," Wufei spat back at
him in exasperation. "The man said his dead father and
sister spoke to him before tearing his team mates
apart."

"That's not what I mean. There's just something
familiar about all this, like I've heard about it
before." The way the man's eyes had raked over him
sent goose bumps up his spine.

//"You know, don't you. You're friends don't believe
me, but you do. I can tell."//

How had the man known?

"Something like this?" Zechs turned ice blue eyes that
would be so easy to get lost in on him and tilted his
head to one side. 

Duo broke contact first and swore. "Damn if I remember
where, though."

"Hm."

Wufei cut in. "That's impossible."

"I just have a feeling, okay? Like something bad is
just around the corner."

Before Wufei could say anything else, Zechs quelled
him with a fierce look of his own. Duo was relieved,
but the itch was still there. He tugged at the end of
his braid. Demon's weren't his specialty, for all the
name Shinigami, but he was sure he could find someone
who would know better.

As they left the building, he could still feel
Michael's gaze despite the impossibility.

//"'We'll tear your souls apart,' he said. But they
couldn't run, the door closed on them. The monster
skinned Ventiz first..."//

Yes, he needed to find out more. Anticipation filled
him. Let the hunt begin. 

TBC...