Part Three: Anywhere but Here

The hallway had filled with a dark mist and for a moment Duo was rather disappointed- he'd always thought death would be... well, not this. But it didn't take long for him to find the fault in his dismay; Heero smacked him upside the head and since things aren't supposed to hurt when you're dead Duo figured he wasn't dead after all only... only... well he didn't know but by the look of things the four very disgruntled pilots surrounding him thought it was his fault.

"What?" Duo rubbed his head and glared at Heero, then the others in turn who were doing their best to return the favor.

"You're not dead, baka." Heero growled.

"Yea, but may soon be, What did you do?" Wufei fumed, whatever had happened it was strange and unexpected so it was automatically Duo's fault.

"What did I Do, you think I have some sort of magical powers! I didn't do anything! It's not my fault!"

"Well, somebody did something, people don't just disappear into thin air everyday you know!"

"Why am I getting blamed for this, I didn't do anything! I always get blamed for this shit!"

"Don't use an infinitive, and no one's blaming you, it could have been any one of us or none." Trowa sighed pulling Wufei off the American. Wufei grumbled but calmed down after a few minutes cooling off out of sight in the dark mist. The others watched him stomp off, listening to his curses a while.

"Still, what did happen?" Quatre broke in trying to ignore the odd string of Chinese that just barely translated into something he really didn't want to hear. The others shrugged as Wufei came slowly back out of the misty shadows. He glared at Duo then looked at Heero who was watching Duo... no, Duo's hand....no, the ring on Duo's hand... when did Duo get a ring... Where've I seen that ring before.... wait a minute!

"HA! It was you!" Wufei burst out shrieking and pointing at the offending ring. The others jumped back from the madman, Heero turned and regarded him with suspicion then saw the direction of his attention and stepped back to watch the madness.

"We're not blaming anyone remember." Quatre tried to sound firm but came off in a sort of desperate babysitter tone.

"Like hell we're not, look, it's the ring!" Wufei was beyond all logic, perhaps if he had stopped and thought a moment he would have seen that but this misty realm in the middle of an Oz base under heavy weapon's fire was no place for logic.

"What?"

"Look, it's that damned wish ring!" He held Duo's hand up to the others pointing to the offensive ring.

"What are you on, Wu-man?" Duo jerked his hand away as the others stared.

" I heard you, just before we teleported here, you said ‘I wish I were anywhere but here.'" Wufei did a dramatic little mock of Duo's wish before returning to his hysterics, "and now we Are! Dammit Duo, how do you get us into these things!"

"You didn't take your Prozac this morning did you? [1]" Duo smiled.

"Wha... how dare you, I'll show you Justice for that!" Wufei leaped for the manic grin and suddenly disappeared in a shimmer of golden glitter as a deep green mist swirled about him then faded away.

The others facefaulted.

"Wha... who... where? Huh?" Duo came up with a rather cognizant string of gruntle inquisitions while Quatre stared paling a little and leaning against Trowa for support. Heero walked slowly around the dissipating green fog, inspecting the strange mirrorlike surface of a vertical pool left behind. He walked around it, he couldn't see it from where Wufei had been, or from the side, but from where Duo stood, in front of it, it was fully visible as a shimmering surface of clear water reflecting the banks of some distant lake shore. Heero glanced at Duo.

"I didn't think he'd run into it." the American shrugged.

"Run into what?" Quatre asked stepping forward. Duo's head snapped up and Heero shot a warning glance at him but it was too late, he disappeared into the pool before the others could stop him. Trowa's visible eye widened as he reached out to catch the boy but missed. The three stood a while staring at each other and the pool. Duo was reluctant to try anything stupid, like tempting fate with one sided glitter pools and Heero looked disinterested. Trowa sighed and stepped casually into the pool. Heero followed and Duo, never one to be left alone put his arm in to test the waters. It was cold and wet so he quickly pulled out, glancing around himself wearily. He paced a few steps and in moving saw more pools, reflecting more scenes of far off worlds, he saw hills and mountains, lakes and glaciers, ocean depths and strange worlds he'd never even imagined as well as a few more familiar places too. He walked about looking at each of the glassy pools he found all the while careful not to lose the one his friends had plunged into. He recognized a few of the scenes, L2 and one in the basement of Relena's mansion- nevermind how he recognized that one. He was beginning to enjoy the odd grey mist when an eerie sound echoed over his soft footsteps, a low and threatening howl...

"Where is that baka!" Wufei growled shaking the water out of his clothes.

"Heero, why did you just leave him there?" Quatre rung his shirt nervously with his hands as Trowa rubbed his shaking shoulders.

"Hn." Heero scoffed looking out over the water, waiting, tapping his foot under the waves. Just then a large black duffel bag surfaced from somewhere in the middle of the lake followed closely with the loud gasping splash of a very frightened and out of breath Deathscythe pilot.

"Took you long enough." Wufei grumbled as Heero helped him up. The five stood, dripping wet, heavy duffel bags thrown over their shoulders wishing they had gone ahead and got the waterproof ones- well four of them were anyway, Quatre had gotten a waterproof duffle- with no clue as to where on earth they were. They could only assume they were in fact on earth due to the horizon not curving up like it would in a colony and the lack of any truly strange things like multiple suns, purple grass or a fushcia sky. They took in their surroundings slowly. A lake in the middle of a big green forest.

"Trees." Trowa commented offhandedly.

"Lots of trees." Duo nodded.

"I've never seen so many trees..." Quatre stared in awe.

"Hn." Heero glared at the offending greenness.

"Yes, yes, trees, we all know what trees are! Now Where are we?" Wufei snapped having given up on patience entirely.

"Forest." Trowa shrugged as he wandered off into the trees. Quatre followed and Duo skipped off after them Heero keeping close behind. Wufei was left by the lake still dripping and still very lost.

"So now what?" Duo chirped, glad to be away from the misty place but quickly getting bored. Trowa stopped, leaned against a tree as Quatre thought a moment then shrugged. Heero was still glaring at the bright wilderness when Wufei came up behind them.

"What do you expect we do?" Wufei growled, "We're lost in the middle of some strange forest, Gods know where, with no food, no way to contact our officers and a mission left undone!" Heero's eyes widened, flared at the thought. He dropped his duffel on the leaf strewn ground and pulled out his beat up laptop. Turning it on he tried to establish a wireless connection so he could at least finish the mission by sending the files, but by his reaction the others guessed- rightly so- that the connection wasn't working.

"Well, we do have food." Quatre offered watching the smoke rise from the hole through the laptop's screen. Heero put back his gun and staked off ignoring the odd glances he got from the others. They watched him go and Duo laughed a little at the string of Japanese that could faintly be heard in the distance. Quatre pulled out the pancakes and fruit from breakfast as they discussed their next course of action.

"Even if it did work we can't use the computer now." Duo nodded to the still smoking machine, "So how do you plan on radioing for help, Wu-man?"

"For the last time, Maxwell, it's WU-FEI!" The Chinese snarled, "And we can try just that, a radio." Wufei shuffled through his bag, pulled out a string of detonators and C-4, some scraps of paper which he snatched back angrily when Duo's hand began to inch toward them, and then his swords and a whetstone before he found the old CB. They played with it a few... hours but gave up eventually when Trowa reminded them that even the best CB only has a range of a hundred miles or so, and besides the lake water dripping from the circutry, he suspected they were farther than that from anyone who was listening. Wufei kept at the CB a while as the others tried to think of another option.

"Walk." Trowa suggested.

"Nani?" Duo cringed from the implications.

"Walk, if we do a steady march we could cover a hundred miles in three days, I'm sure we'll find some form of civilization within that radius and from there we can contact headquarters and make arrangements to get us back." it all sounded so logical when he said it.

"A hundred Miles in Three days! What are you, some sort of power walker! Not even a horse can cover a hundred miles in three days!"

"Um, actually, Duo, horses can go a hundred miles in one day, Arabs do that regularly- Ghengis Khan was known for that..." Quatre trailed off deciding now wasn't the best time for a history lesson.

"Hey, wait I have a GPS!" Quatre chirped and plunged into his bag. As small as the bag was it held a surprisingly large quantity of junk, all neatly packed and catagorize for easy access. Quatre filed away his clothing, removed the accessories bag holding his hair brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap, towel and other such miscellaneous commodities, hid the Katar under his instant tea and coffee maker and pulled out the sleek and stylish khaki GPS receiver. "Let's see, we want to know where we are..." he pushed a few buttons and they waited patiently.

"Oh." The tone in his voice made the others suspicious, Quatre doesn't say ‘Oh' for nothing you know.

"Oh, what's Oh? Oh doesn't sound good to me Quatre what's Oh?" Duo crowded the boy to get a better look.

"Well, from this it says... well it says we aren't on earth." Quare replied turning the receiver to them.

"It's broken." Wufei grumbled banging on his CB still.

"No, it worked just this morning."

"Yea, well it's been at the bottom of a lake since then."

"It's waterproof."

"Well, this ain't MARS! The thing's broken." Wufei must have been really pissed to let his grammar slip like that, or just spending too much time with Duo, either one it wasn't a good thing.

"So now what?" Duo asked again flopping down under a tree.

"I guess we wait till Heero comes back... Where is he anyway, he's been gone a long time." Quatre put the GPS receiver back in his bag and looked about.

"Hn. Not long enough." the familiar nasal voice crept out of the woods. Heero looked a bit flush and his hair was messier than usual, complete with sticks and laves as if he'd been running in the underbrush. He walked slowly into the middle of the small party and slung something on the ground he had been carrying over his shoulder. Duo peered at the dead rabbit, cocked and eyebrow, shrugged and smiled up at Heero.

"Horsie!" he chirped holding up the grey mass that sort of resembled a horse, in a way, if one were to use their imagination. Heero narrowed his eyes at the lump of molded plastique and stomped back into the woods to get some firewood. Quatre giggled at Duo's attempts at artistic achievement and Wufei snatched his C-4 back and rolled it into a neat ball all the while grumbling about the braided baka. Trowa skinned the rabbit and Wufei put it on a spit when Heero returned with wood. They sat there watching the meat slowly cook when Duo looked up, tilted his head to Heero and smiled.

"Oi, Heero, I didn't hear a gunshot, how'd you get that rabbit anyway?" "Hn, how do you think." Heero picked a leaf out of his hair and flung it onto the fire. Duo stared, blinked then shrugged it off and munched on his apple.

"I'm bored." Duo sighed to the placid Arab sipping his tea. Wufei looked up suddenly.

"Isn't that how all this started?" The Chinese asked, "Quick find him something to do." he whispered to Quatre loud enough for Duo to hear.

"Hey! I thought we weren't placing blame!" Duo took the defensive.

"Hush, both of you, here have some tea." Quatre handed them both a steaming cup from his portable brewer and returned to his book. Duo stared at the tea, tasted it, and deciding it lacked sugar went off to find something better to do.

"What are we going to do? We're lost, we're so lost..." Quatre quipped when he hit the bottom of his teacup.

"Walk." Trowa remained firm in his original suggestion.

"I didn't see anything to the north, or the north east, so that leaves south, east and west." Heero recounted.

"We should split up." Wufei put in.

"No, we have to stay together, there's no telling what sort of trouble we could get into out here." Quatre shuddered at the thought.

"My point exactly, we should go now and leave Duo to the woods."

"You don't mean that." The Arab scolded best he could.

"Say that and look at my face." Quatre stared into the oaken depths of Wufei's eyes and was silent. "Didn't think so... This is all his fault you know!" Wufei continued.

"Then you should be thanking him, Wufei." Trowa stated flatly.

"Nani?" it came from all three.

"If it is Duo's fault we're here, then it's also Duo's fault we're not back at the Oz base, down a dead end hall, cornered by a rank of soldiers and mobile suits facing certain death. You should be thanking him, we should all be thanking him, he saved us." Wufei slunk back muttering under his breath, "Oh, and Wufei, don't forget, it was your sector that Oz detected movement in." Trowa hid a smug smile in his teacup as the Chinese pilot sputtered. Quatre sighed and looked about nervously for Duo who had wandered off out of the little clearing.

"Where is Duo?" Quatre asked just as a high pitched squeal ripped through the deepening dusk. All four leapt up at the cry and rushed the woods. Wufei was the first to reach the source of the odd squeal. Duo stood with his gun pointed to a bush, his knife lodged deep in the tree behind it.

"What happened?" Wufei breathed. Duo turned frightened eyes on the boy then smiled weakly, getting over the initial shock of the monster before him.

"You got here fast." Duo grinned. Wufei grimaced and began to turn when the bush shook suddenly. Both boys turned on the movement, Wufei produced his swords from seemingly thin air and the little creature stopped suddenly standing still, at attention. The other three broke the trees and Duo finished explaining the circumstances to Wufei. He'd been walking leisurely in the woods when the little fiend jumped him. Duo kept his gun leveled on the creature as Quatre stepped nearer to examine it.

"What is it?" the arab inquired. Duo shrugged.

"C'balt [2]" the thing quipped turning it's nose up at the boys.

"It speaks! [3]" Wufei observed astutely and they all drew nearer.

"Yae, i' spek. An' ya stink." it snapped.

"Rude little fellow." Quatre frowned at the fuzzy imp.

"I's no rud' At ‘un's the Brut' he thru he's daggar a' me!" the creature rebuked crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at Duo.

"It jumped me!" Duo defended throwing up his arms in exasperation.

"I's felld on ye." the imp replied.

"How was I supposed to know?" Duo shrugged. Quatre sighed and knelt down to face the thing eye to eye.

"I'm terribly sorry, but we've just come here under some rather... extenuating circumstances and we're all a bit tired and short tempered, you must forgive Duo, I'm sure he meant nothing by it." Quatre tried to explain. The little furball just glared at Quatre now. "How can we make it up to you?" Quatre offered. Heero had watched this all with cool detachment but as he followed the little creature's eye through the trees his gun suddenly found target and let slip a mighty ring through the quiet eve. Quatre jumped back as the little thing fell limp to the ground and they all turned on Heero who pointed his gun now at the trees [4]. Quatre was going to give a lecture on etiquette when the forest howled and dropped hundreds, maybe thousands of little fuzzy imps on the party.

Wufei's swords cut through the writhing mass of fur and teeth and Heero shot a few bullets into the churning tide then began swinging his fists wildly, saves ammo that way. Duo kicked at them until he had pulled his blade from the tree and then slashed with deadly skill while Trowa picked up a stick and clubbed them off Quatre and himself. Still they surged upon them. It was only when Trowa fell under the sea of claws and Quatre began ripping off fuzzy limbs with his bare hands in a hot rage [5] that they withdrew and the group was left, scratched and bitten but none the worse for wear. Wufei, Heero and Duo stared a while a Quatre who was panting and glaring off into the trees to where the things had retreated as Trowa got slowly up. The taller pilot put his arm around Quatre and pulled him back from the trees, holding him tight and caressing his flaxen hair whispering softly to him. Quatre's breathing slowed and his eyes returned to their normal size and gentle countenance. Then the two turned back to the group. Duo blinked and shifted his weight.

"So, is food ready?" he grinned and skipped off back to the fire. The others followed more slowly and when they got there Duo had already devoured a good share of the rabbit, they pulled him off it and divided the rest up more equally. They ate heartily and no one looked forward to the next day at all. The meat was good, a little burnt but not bad, and the flavor provided a nice compliment to Quatre's leftover breakfast and berries Duo had found.

[1] No, no he didn't.
[2] Kobold, little dog-like goblinoid critters that plague all of D&D's many landscapes, generally evil and sly, stupid creatures, good beginners stuff not much of a threat.
[3] barely.
[4] you learn to appreciate safety in numbers when Cobalts travel in packs- of ,oh- say, two hundred.
[5] He went Zero System, so Quatre's got a little berserker in him, nobody's perfect.

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.