Cracked Reflections 2/5+ Epilogue & Prologue
        Poisoned Hearts
Rating: R
Series: Gundam Wing
Genre: AU/Angst
Pairings: 1x2x1 (background), 3+4+3 (suggested), 5xMerian
Spoilers: Yes, but only of you can recognize the changes. (Can't say more or I'll ruin the story.)
Warnings: Het, Yaoi, Death, Angst, AU (in a weird way), Violence, Suggested NCS, Prostitution, Suicide, Drugs, Bastardized Quatre (I think...), Language, and Generalized Freaky Things
By Moon Faery
Archived: (eventually at) Moon Faery's Garden (https://www.angelfire.com/anime4/moon_faerys_garden/); FFN (http://www.fanfiction.net); Kiss of Death [my new site!] (https://www.angelfire.com/gundam/kissofdeath/);

Disclaimer: A statement created solely to save one's ass from becoming lawn for the proverbial legal mower. I do not own Gundam Wing, nor does anyone I know own it. However, this story line and plot are MINE. (Holds fic close to her.) Grrrr....

Author Notes: I have absolutely NO idea what it's like to be a prostitute (a fact for which I am extremely grateful), so please don't take any of this at face value. ^^;; I did my best, but I glossed over a lot, just because I'm neither good at nor comfortable with writing things like that. Just fill in the missing bits with your imagination, please. ^^;; Another note: I'm assuming that the currency values have changed in 200-something years or more, so if the amounts used sound off, they're supposed to!

*** AC 187 ***

Sister Helen followed the suit-clad man out the door. "This is a church, you can't do this!" She grabbed his arm, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Where will our wards go? No other church on L2 will take them in!"

The man shrugged and turned to glare down at the young nun, tilting his sunglasses down his nose to do so. "Ma'am, you have three weeks to ship the brats off somewhere else, whether it's to families or the streets. They're no longer the state's concern." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a handful of papers, shoving them under Helen's nose. "You were going to loose funding in three months anyways."

Helen snatched the papers, eyes widening as she deciphered the legalese. "Orphanages, free clinics, soup kitchens..." Her jaw dropped slightly. "No longer supported by the government! What's this nonsense?" She threw the documents on the ground, anger flashing in her normally placid eyes.

The man shrugged. "They encourage poverty and willful hopelessness. The plan was approved and supported by Heero Yuy."

"Get. Off. This. Property," Helen ground out slowly, advancing on the man and pushing him backwards, out the door. "I never want to see your face again."

The beauracrat grinned sickly, but backed out the door. "Not a very godly a thing to do, Sister, kicking a man out of a church."

"The Lord commands up to help the less fortunate," Sister Helen snarled. "And people like you are what makes it so difficult." She slammed the door in his face.

"Sister..." A small boy with his chestnut hair pulled back in a braid scrambled over to her, wrapping his thin little arms around her leg. "Are you 'kay?"

She smiled down at Duo softly before her face crumbled. Kneeling, she gathered the little boy in her arms and began sobbing brokenly. "Oh, Duo..." she choked out. You know how much we love you, right?"

Duo's dark eyes closed as he hugged the only mother he'd ever known. Something told him that this question was more important than it sounded "Yeah, Sister, I know..."

*** AC 190 ***

"Get back here, you little punk!"

Duo ducked behind a building, breathing shallowly even though his lungs were screaming for air. His ten year-old frame trembled with exhaustion, but he never stopped moving. He knew the fate that waited for him, hidden behind the smiling faces of spokes people and the nice-sounding words. No matter how hungry or cold or sick he got, nothing was worth having part of his brain cut out and his balls chopped off.

"Come here, brat!" the government agent snarled, peering through the dank alley. "You know the deal: food, warm clothes and shelter, but you have to come with us!" The Peace Keeper banged around at the mouth of the alley, obviously trying to flush the boy out of hiding.

Duo froze for a brief second before slipping through an unlocked door. He shut and leaned against the wall, barely feeling himself from gasping for air. In the cul de sac he heard the man curse and stumble out into the main street, looking for easier prey. He sighed, letting his eyes drift closed for a second.

"Well, what've we got he'e..?"

His eyes flashed open, violet depths darkening to midnight blue as they settled on a group of twenty or so people. Most of them were wearing rags, like he was, but they all exuded a confidence that reeked to Duo's street-wise senses of one thing: a gang. And he had walked right into it.

"Hey, kid," one of them grinned sickly, icy green eyes narrowing at Duo. He stepped forward, out of the protection of the group. The short braided boy shrank back, knowing danger when he saw it. "What're ya doin' here? This's our warehouse."

"I- I din't mean to..." Duo's knees began to quiver. "I-"

"But you did," the Leader pointed out, taking another step forward. "You came in here widout even knockin'. You owe us, kid."

"I-I don' ha-" Duo began to stutter out. He reached behind him for the doorknob, only to find that there wasn't one.

Leader grinned again, moving so close that Duo could feel something sickeningly hard and hot pressing against his chest through his thin shirt. He tilted his chin up to look Leader in the eye, doing his best to ignore the chuckles of the rest of the gang.

"We'll think of somethin'," Leader almost purred, reaching out to grab Duo by his hair. The young boy screamed as he was assaulted.

Hours later, Duo's unconscious body was dumped on the far side of the colony, battered and bleeding from the vicious gang raping and multiple beatings that had followed. Beside him on the ground was his hair, crudely hacked off with a knife and tied at both ends.

*** AC 192 ***

Duo slid sideways between the cargo crates, fighting the changing gravity levels. He'd gotten lucky to find a ship headed to Earth that hadn't complied with the new laws about oxygen and gravity levels in cargo holds yet. His chin length hair alternately rose and fell as the ship adjusted its course and threw the ancient gravity-generator out of wack. It sputtered and coughed, but somehow managed to continue working.

He pushed his way to the very back of a large pile of crates. It was going to be a long trip to Earth...

*** AC 195 April 7 ***

A slight pain directly over his heart made Duo pause in the middle of the sidewalk. He gasped, eyes bugging out slightly as the pain ripped through him like a knife before vanishing, leaving only a ghost of sadness and pain. He came back to himself to find his forehead pressed against the cracked and dirty glass of a run-down electronics shop. In front of him, a old black and white television was turned to the news. The words "Urgent Update" flashed over the bottom of the screen in red letters. "... leader Heero Yuy has just been assassinated minutes ago. His killer..."

Duo paused to watch the newscast for a second as he ran by, tattered jacket wrapped around his skinny frame. On the dirt- streaked screen, a boy with raggedly cut bangs and long chocolate-brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail glared back at him from a small window beside the newscaster's head.

"...committed suicide just seconds ago, almost immediately after firing the shot. He threw himself off a 100 story skyscraper, and is believe to have been the assassin known only as Killer, who is believed to have killed Master Edwin[1] Winner..." Duo caught himself staring at the image of the boy on the screen. He raised his hand to trace the scar that lead down the assassin's cheek, the frost-tinged glass sending shivers of cold down his fingertips. The boy was beautiful, but he had a lost, stolen look of pain that made Duo smile sadly underneath his cheap makeup and heavy lipstick. 'I hope you're happier where you are now, buddy. I really do.' Turning from the image of the dead man, he started jogging, wrapping his jacket tightly around him. It barely blocked the icy wind, but it was better than what other people had to make do with, a fact for which he was grateful.

He managed to make it to his usual street corner just before someone else claimed it. He received several glares from other street walkers as they moved on past him, continuing their search for a good spot to offer their services.

It was a long, cold wait for business. Part of the attraction of this particular corner was that it was nearly deserted, which made it easier to avoid the Peace Keepers who constantly patrolled for prostitutes and the homeless.

Just when Duo was about to give up, a dark-colored car turned the corner, lights on low. It pulled up beside Duo, and the passenger side window rolled down. Duo sauntered up to the window, bending over to stare at the man inside with a heavy-lidded look. "What'll it be?"

The man eyed Duo's skinny frame, the exposed flesh slightly blue from the cold. "How much?"

"Twenty an hour, forty if you want something exotic, and I'll decide what that is," Duo answered flatly, eyes hardening. "I don't do multiples, and you use a condom or you find someone else."

The man nodded. "Get in."

*** 3 hour later ***

Duo kicked the dead man's body, stumbling over to the toilet and throwing up. He only had a few minutes before the Peace Keepers arrived to investigate the gunshot. He swallowed, fighting back the urge to wretch again as the world spun in front of his eyes. Before he felt himself moving, he was on his knees and leaning against a water-stained wall of the cheap motel's bathroom, his completely ruined shirt slipping off his shoulder. The tile was cold against his back and legs. The thought crossed his drug-fogged mind that he should have at least remembered to pull on his shorts before killing the bastard.

"Damnit, ya just had to pump me full of shit, din't ya?" he growled at the corpse in the other room, feeling his heart stutter as the drugs began to spread through his system. "I ain't livin' as no druggie," he murmured, fumbling around on the linoleum tile blindly. His hand closed on something small, cold and metallic. His stomach churned at the movement, but he managed to haul himself to a sitting position and pressed the barrel of the gun against his temple. Sad deep blue eyes crossed his vision. In the man room, someone began trying to batter down the door.

"Well, buddy, looks like I'll be seein' ya on the other side," he muttered, pulling the trigger. The gun fell to the floor with a harsh clatter, even as Duo's body did the same. The thud of the motel door slamming open covered the sound of his body hitting the wall and sliding down to the floor.

"Peace Keepers! Don't move!"

***

[1] As far as I have been able to discover, Quatre's father has no known first name. So I made one. ^^;; Sounds geeky, doesn't it?

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