It was near nightfall when the two pilots emerged from the cave and out from behind the falls.
They both paused and looked off into the distance from a ledge at the top of the trail.
"Dang, that sure is pretty," said Duo absently. "I wonder what country is off in that direction."
Katja felt a sudden lurch in her stomach. She knew but didn't answer.
Duo turned his gaze away from the horizon and looked to her for an answer.
Realizing that she was being watched Katja turned away from him and started down the trail.
Duo stood there a while longer then followed Katja down the trail.
When he reached the bottom, he found Katja sitting cross-legged with her elbows on her knees and chin in her hands on the box by the river, waiting for him. A scowl replaced her happy demeanor from a few minutes ago.
Duo, who knew from experience, didn't want to get her mad or she'd pull a gun out and shoot him without a second thought. She had had a rough life and a lot of times when they were growing up, he heard about it or felt it when he pissed her off, so he quietly took a seat by the tree and relaxed.
"So what are your plans now?" asked Duo cautiously, trying to change her mood.
Katja didn't answer, but continued to ignore him as she just glared off into the water.
A few minutes passed. Katja gave a sigh and got down from her perch.
"I've got to get some stuff from the truck," she stated bluntly, then looked down to see Duo looking up at her in curious confusion.
"Do you want to help?" she asked, still stone-faced and stern.
Duo shrugged, hopped up and followed behind her.
"Where did you get the truck?" asked Duo as they approached it.
"It's the result of a deal with someone," answered Katja as she opened the tailgate.
Duo paused for a second, worried that she might have sold out to someone, but then shrugged it off and climbed in the back and pushed two narrow rectangular, wooden crates to the edge of the tailgate.
Duo stopped and looked at them curiously. When Katja wasn't paying attention, he worked his fingers under the lid and pulled it open.
Inside, packed with straw, were a variety of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, plenty of magazines and a bundle of thermal flairs.
Duo scanned his eyes over the weapons like a child looking though the glass window of a candy store.
"Hey nosy," said Katja, who was leaning against the car near the opening, her mood obviously different.
Duo's head snapped up in surprise and he gave a sheepish grin.
"You need two crates?" he asked, trying to deter her attention from his opening of the crates without her permission.
Katja smiled and explained while helping him get the lid back on.
"Well a girl can never be too prepared. Besides I was planning on distributing some of these weapons to you guys when I saw you."
Duo hopped out of the back end and they both took an end of the first crate and carried it to the river. After they got the second crate to the bank of the river. Duo and Katja both sat down hard onto the ground.
"So is there any food in those things or are we going to be eating wood tonight?" asked Duo after his stomach gave a loud protest.
Katja got up, opened the second crate, pulled out two boxes of military rations and tossed one at him.
Duo caught it and started laughing.
Man, you are always prepared. How many do you have in there?" he asked while he went through his own box.
"I have four more and you are only getting one," said Katja in response as she turned from putting the lid back on the crate and sat down across from him.
"Well I guess IĦ|ll go get some wood for a fire so we can have some light to eat by," said Duo as he got up to go collect firewood.
"I'll help you," said Katja as she began to get up.
"No, you stay here and check if you've got some matches in the box over there," said Duo sternly, referring to the black box with the lock on it. Katja complied and walked over to the box, picked it up and carried it over to where she was sitting.
She unlocked it again and opened it. The message started to come on again and she just turned off the monitor, then she began to dig through the contents.
Like Professor G had said, there were a few weapons in there. And two boxes, each about a foot squared, at the bottom. Curious, Katja pulled one out and opened it. Inside were some rations, a first aid kit and matches. She set that box aside and retrieved the other one from the bottom.
This one was cool to the touch and had another lock on it. So Katja typed in her code again and opened it. Smoke billowed out from underneath the lid. Katja opened it further to see at least eight-dozen syringes for her medication surrounded by dry ice. She closed it so the contents would stay cold, placed the small lock box back into the larger one, and locked it. So Duo wouldn't see it.
A few minutes later, Duo emerged from the forest with a bundle of wood in his arms. He dropped it in front of her, knelt down and started to build a fire.
"Did you find some matches?" he asked as he finished breaking up sticks for kindling.
"Yep," said Katja triumphantly as she handed him the book of matches.
It only took one match and the wood caught fire. After a while they had a small campfire going and they started to eat their rations in silence.
"So why were you hiding in the cave?" asked Katja with her eyes focused on the packaged food in her hand.
Duo looked up from his meal and answered. "I got a note from Professor G telling me to guard the cave until you came."
Katja looked up at him and their eyes remained locked together for a few minutes. Both just content to have the other's presence.
"POP!"
Both of them jumped at the sound to the exploding pinesap and came back to reality. They both started to laugh hysterically for a few moments.
Then they both settled down and were staring off in to separate directions, both in a daze.
"Feels like when we were younger, doesnĦ|t it?" asked Duo as he broke from his trance to look in KatjaĦ|s direction.
Katja didn't reply. The smile dissolved from her face as she went deeper into the trance. Then the words spoken triggered her mind to switch back to reality. She blinked a couple times and looked at Duo, returning his cheerful smile with a weak replica of what just graced her face.
"Yeah, we did this often didn't we?" she asked mockingly.
"Sat around a campfire eating military rations in the middle of a war," she continued with a sting of serious contempt in her voice.
Duo again became serious.
"Are you okay Katja?" he asked directly.
"You know you can tell me. Just like you used to," seeing that she wasn't going to respond any time soon, he lowered his gaze to his hands and started to remember how he had basically adopted her as a sister when they were younger.
Katja was nine-years-old when they first met; Duo, a half-year older. She was in a sever state of grief for her age; she hid it well behind a mask of quiet obedience and recklessness.
She had been on prior missions but wouldnĦ|t specify what they were. During one failed mission she almost took her own life, at least that is what he assumed from the scars on her wrists.
From the time they met, Duo took her under his wing, always by her side, and protecting her from any sort of verbal abuse. He even became furious when she was subject to intense training that was hard even for him to complete. She would never complain, though, but would always face the challenge with high intensity and reckless abandon, as if she had a personal grudge with the exercise.
About a year after they had met, he found her in the cockpit of his, still being built, Deathscyth, sobbing her eyes out. Immediately she tried to cover it up but after a few provoking questions the story came out. Oz had murdered her parents two years past. That was the source of her grief as well as her intensity and was the main reason she was so quiet. She didnĦ|t know how to handle the grief, so she became a silent warrior. Letting the grief eat her away from the inside out, to the point that all he saw then was a shell of what she used to be.
After they both let their guard down, Katja and Duo became inseparable. They each seemed to have a job to fulfill to the other. Katja to keep Duo on task and to push him to do his best and Duo to make her laugh every once and a while. Both acted as sounding boards for each other. Sometimes Duo would feel more of what was bothering Katja then hear it because he would volunteer to be a punching bag for her frustrations. The best alternative to her breaking a hand punching a wall. Katja would try to do the same but he could never bring himself to hit her no matter how much she provoked it. He'd rather punch the wall.
Remembering all this, Duo didn't seem to notice the long pause between them. She was answering with her silence, and turning her face away from him.
Duo opened his mouth to ask a question but was halted.
"Don't start with the interrogation," said Katja bluntly as she turned back to face him. "I've gotten better at going through interrogations and I don't feel like it. Besides, you know very well I won't tell you." she finished sharply.
"Why should now be different then back then? You told me once why not now?" he asked, becoming a little agitated with the constant cold shoulder he had been getting. He sat a little higher, getting ready for a vicious argument, but Katja again looked away and remained silent.
Duo sighed, shrugged his shoulders and finished his rations. Katja did the same, as she knew that he wouldnĦ|t press the subject, at least for now.
They had been silent for about an hour. Duo, every once and a while, got up to get some more wood while Katja went through the black lock box more thoroughly checking the weapons and making sure that everything was in place. When a cold gust of air blew its way across the river. They both shivered as the cold air went through their cloths.
That single gust of air caused KatjaĦ|s jaw to start chattering. Noticing this, Duo walked over and offered her his jacket.
"N-No thanks. I'm f-fine," she replied through her jittering teeth.
Duo shrugged and tossed the jacked on the ground beside her. Just in case she wanted it. Duo had sat back down in from to a tree and returned to watching the flames dance in silence. Then Katja started a conversation.
"I th-thought that it was alw-ways warmer by the w-water," said Katja.
"Not necessarily. Sometimes it's a lot colder. It's probably the falls that is causing it to get really cold," answered Duo with a smile.
Katja nodded, understanding what he was saying.
"Aren't you cold?" she asked, sounding like a little girl.
"I'll be fine. I don't get cold easily," he answered with confidence. Katja smiled at his response, and went back to her work.
A few minutes later Katja closed up the lock box and curled up on the ground beside it after she gently placed Duo's jacket on top of it.
Duo sat across from the fire with his back against a tree, gazing across at Katja.
She's just like a cat. She can curl up anywhere and fall asleep, he thought to himself.
While looking at her, he noticed she was still shivering. So he got up, walked across to where Katja was laying, and covered her up with his jacket. Almost instantly her shivering stopped, but she didn't wake up.
Feeling a little better, Duo walked back to his seat by the tree, and went to sleep.
In the middle of the night Katja had woken up shaking again, the fire was out and she found Duo curled up by the tree, shaking like a leaf in the breeze. Katja smiled, got up and walked over and sat down beside him, draping his jacket over the both of them, resting her head on his right shoulder.
The sudden sensation of warmth and touch woke him up. Duo moved a little trying to figure out what was going on. Katja lifted her head from his shoulder.
"Don't get cold easily, huh?" she said mockingly.
Drowsily Duo smiled, reached his right arm up and around so he could hold her close. Katja shifted her head to rest on his chest. And there they slept until dawn.
