Title: It's A Wonderful War 8/?

Author: Sony_Mouse (Sony_Mouse@hotmail.com)

Pairings: 1+2

Warnings: Language, LOTS of violence, AU (well OUR Universe really),
different look on war (I hope).

Disclaimers: GW not mine, knowledge and info used for this fic came
from James Clavell's Shogun (READ IT), Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a
Geisha, David Mak's Kabuki, and Anthology of Japanese Literature. And
from great people like Misa and Katu, and other's who've e-mailed me.
(Whew what a disclaimer).

Archives: If for any reason you wish to read my other fics or the
first 4 chaps of this one go to www.gwaddiction.com You know I
realized the other day that sometime after I left for Europe, my hit
number went past 10 000. I'm SO PROUD AND HAPPY

DEDICATION: TO VINCE CARTER, who just signed on to the Raptors, for 6
MORE YEARS. YES! YES! YES! YES!


***********************

Part 7

Smith was about to bring another blow to his head, when he felt
strong arms holding him back.

"Sir, his head!"

"So what? He deserves to die."

Seeing that Wufei wasn't going to give in on this, the Captain took a
few deep breaths and shrugged the lower ranking man off. He then give
Heero and the chair one last kick, which made both soldier and chair
hit the ground hard. Smith walked out of the tent without a second
glance, he knew that Chang would fix everything up.

He was a good kid, that Chang, one of the few Chinese soldiers who
actually spoke English. Came from a rich family. He trusted him more
than some of his own men.

Chang aside, Smith was still upset about the Japanese soldier. Just
the thought of him brought images of that monkey raping the young
pilot who now lay in the infirmary. Chang was right, he couldn't kill
him... yet.

But he would make sure he paid, for everything he's done, and his
damn country.


*****************************

Quote of the day: Two quotes because their from that lovely anti war
T.V Show M*A*S*H:

"Look, all I know is what they taught me at command school. There are
certain rules about a war and rule number one is young men die. And
rule number two is doctors can't change rule number one."
Henry Blake (Anti-war character from M*A*S*H)

"I'm sick of hearing about the wounded. What about all the thousands
of wonderful guys who are fighting this war without any of the credit
or the glory that always goes to those lucky few who just happen to
get shot."
Frank Burns (Ironic comment coming from proud, war loving character
of M*A*S*H)



**************************


Part 8



Wufei was not happy with the way things were going. He was left in
charge of keeping a supposedly important spy or high ranking officer
alive, and everything he did to do that was thwarted by either
Captain Smith continually banging him up on the head, or the other
soldiers feeling the need to aggravate his wounds for fun.

The Japanese soldier was quickly becoming the troop's punching bag.
Admittedly, Wufei was not exactly found of the prisoner, he wanted
nothing more than to make that young man scream for his life, beg
forgiveness for what his country's done to the Great Chinese Empire.

The Japanese should feel indebted to China. With the exception of the
Ainu, all Japanese were descended from the ancient Chinese dynasty.
Everything from their writing to their style of kimonos was derived
from Chinese beginnings. And this was how the Japanese thanked them.

But beating up this soldier wasn't going to make him or his country
feel any better. Wufei needed answers that this young man might just
be able to answer. Maybe he had some influence up top, if not a high-
ranking officer, than maybe he was the son of one. It would do no
good to kill him now, and the Americans needed to realize that, and
learn how to torture properly. By this rate the Japanese soldier
wouldn't last long.

They needed a torture method that would keep him alive, yet bring him
much pain. But Wufei knew that he really wasn't going to get much say
in the whole affair. The only reason why he had any standing at all
was because he was from a rich family and spoke fluent English, but
he was still a very low ranking officer and was tolerated only as a
token soldier. The Chinese were after all indebted to the Americans
at the moment; they need their help, so a token position was better
then none.

Smith had actually returned to the prisoner late last night, and
Wufei had been worried that he might try to hit him some more, but
all he had done was snarl at him and rip the dog tags from the boy's
throat. It must have been painful, but the metal quickly gave way,
and Smith stormed out into the night.

Normally Wufei would never have even bothered to say anything to the
Japanese soldier, but the moment those tags were ripped from his
neck, there was this odd look of anguish or loss that appeared on the
boy's normally stony features. So after Smith had left, Wufei
approached the boy, cleaning up the blood splashed all over him from
before.

"You've really done it this time. You may have had a chance to
survive, be held for ransom, but not anymore. Those tags will be your
undoing."

Wufei turned away to wash the clothes clean of blood in the small
basin, so he almost missed the soft reply spoken to him by the silent
prisoner.

"I didn't rape him."

Wufei looked at him oddly.

"You charged with more war crimes than I can count, and the first
thing you say to defend yourself is about not raping the kid. You
have an odd sense of priorities."

The soldier's arms had to be untied so Wufei could clean them, he
knew that there was no chance of him running way, he was too weak.

The moment his hands were free, they immediately went to the spot
where the dog tags had once laid on his chest.

"If I didn't know you better, I'd almost say you missed him. But it
was you who threw him away, and it was you who hurt him, so it's
hardly like you deserve him. How can you be so sick to love something
you hurt so much?"

Heero looked up into Wufei's eyes and somehow managed a dangerous
glare in his weak state.

"Well you don't know me, so you'll never know."

The prisoner never spoke another word all night, or the next day, and
Wufei was left with nothing to say to him, why should he, he was
nothing but a dishonorable Japanese soldier. However, Wufei was left
with an odd feeling in his gut.

It was not strong enough for him to feel any pity for the soldier,
but it was strong for him to go seek out the American pilot. He was
also quite curious how the boy was doing; the pilot seemed to have an
odd effect on everyone who met the boy, including Wufei Chang.



*********************


It was late in the evening by the time Wufei made it to the makeshift
infirmary. Duo was still wide-awake.

Standing at the doorway for just a few seconds, the Chinese soldier
was able to admire Duo's concerned features. The soft brow that was
now creased slightly with worry, the lovely eyes that looked deeply
at the cot as if it held an answer to some unspoken question, and the
long hair that was like nothing Wufei had ever seen before, thick
with a light chestnut colour and many other colours intertwined
within.

The pilot intrigued Wufei; the mere fact that he had survived so much
impressed him, and made him pity that boy all the more.

Duo looked up at him as soon as he entered the small tent, his eyes
wide with questions, but the confident comment he made soon after
nearly knocked Wufei off his feet.

"If you hurt him, if you hit him with your gun again, or kicked him
with your boots, I swear, injured or not, I'll make you pay."

Not knowing what to say, Wufei denied the accusations, though he
didn't offer information about Smith either.

"We thought you'd be happy to hear about him being taken away. I
don't understand."

"That's right, you don't understand, you don't think either. Heero
saved me, and when I crashed he healed me, in more ways than one. I
owe him everything and owe you nothing." But just as suddenly as his
angry rant had begun, it ended and turned into something more
pleading. "I'm begging you, you have to help him. Let him escape,
talk to the officers, anything. He doesn't deserve this."

Wufei wanted to scream at the boy, of course the Jap deserved this,
it was justice for what he and his country had done to him. But Wufei
wisely refrained from saying so.

"It's beyond me now. He'll be able to tell us things we may need to
know to win this war. And he may just have been nice to you as a spy,
have you ever considered that?"

"He's a fucking foot soldier, he spent the entire time teaching me
about his country, not trying to get non-existent information from my
head."

Deciding he'd had enough, and not really knowing why he'd come, Wufei
made to leave, this was the last thing he needed or wanted to hear
write now. But he was stopped by the pleading voice from the cot
behind him.

"No! Don't go! I'm sorry, I'm just upset. I do need your help. You're
the only one I know who has access to Heero right now, or at least I
think you have access to him."

Wufei stiffed and refused to turn around. "I'm sorry, I told you,
it's beyond me right now. And even if I could, I wouldn't. His
sacrifice will be important to this war, even if what you say is
true."

"Well that's a sacrifice I'm not willing to make for this war, I've
made enough already."

"Then that's something you'll just have to deal with, good night."
Before Duo could even so much as protest, the Chinese soldier was out
the door, trying as hard as he could to forget the look in those wide
violet eyes, and to forget the surprising strength he met with behind
the fragile good looks.

Wufei had to be careful, or the boy might just convince him.


******************************




The whole night and following morning, Duo didn't get a wink of
sleep. He was too worried to even think of nodding off. Every moment
of silence conjured up pictures of Heero.

Duo was that to himself that it was amazing to see difference in his
attitude towards the Japanese soldier. He couldn't even pin point the
exact moment he stopped hating him and started… not hating him. But
he had.

And it had grown into something much more, Duo trusted Heero, like
he'd never trusted anyone before, and that was an amazing thing since
Heero had been someone he was brought up to hate and despise.

Yet he didn't, he couldn't, no anymore. It was the exact opposite
now. Duo was starting, or had been starting to... feel more for him,
a lot more.

But all that didn't matter anymore, Heero was going to be tortured
and killed and it was all because the brown haired boy had decided to
help his lost troop and save his worthless American ass.

If only Heero had let him die, left him for the vultures, ran away
for real that one time, anything so he'd be safe now. But he hadn't,
he'd stayed, for him.

Part of Duo, a very large part, was thankful that he hadn't abandoned
him. IN a few short weeks, Heero had been able to change his entire
out look on life and the war. But now only the guilt remained, and
all Duo could ponder was at what cost did Heero give him this gift?

His only chance was to somehow get a hold of the Captain and convince
him of the truth. It shouldn't be so hard to explain things to him
once the Captain actually sat down and listened. But as it was, he'd
only seen Quatre, his news reporter friend and that Chinese soldier
who'd hit Heero on the head and was as stubborn as anyone he'd every
known. The Captain was no where to be seen, and time was running out
for Heero.



It actually wasn't long after this thought that Duo did get to chance
to see the Captain again, it just wasn't under the circumstances Duo
would have liked.

During the same morning, a unit had been attacked and a few soldiers
had been severely wounded. Since this small `camp' was the closet
thing to a base in the area, and it held at least one orderly, they
were rushed them there. But chances of survival were not good.

So the reason why Smith had once again showed up in the small
infirmary was not because of Duo's being there, but because his
little brother, Matthew Smith, who was one of those severely wounded.

The Captain didn't even spare Duo a second glance, maybe not even a
first one as he rushed in to see how he could help his brother
survive. Unfortunately there wasn't really anything anybody could do,
it was just too late.

Quatre did try his best, but he wasn't a doctor, only a low orderly,
and a young one at that. All four men didn't make it, but Matthew
Smith was the last one to die.

The whole time, Duo tried his best to block out the noise of the
screaming men, the sounds of everyone trying to save them, and the
sounds of Quatre yelling out orders. Even thoughts of Heero were
better than this torment.

But nothing he did could remove the sound of the once strong Captain
finally giving up and breaking into tears because he'd had to witness
his baby brother's death.

After awhile, most of the bodies were moved out of the tent, but the
Captain stayed protectively at his younger brother's side,
apologizing for somehow preventing the one thing that life assured,
death.

After a few hours, Quatre came over and gently suggested that the
Captain get some rest, have a cool drink, maybe even a hard drink.
Smith just nodded sadly and stood up to leave.

But before he could get to the door, Duo's voice was heard through
the thick fog of his mind.

"I'm sorry... sorry about your brother."

Smith actually smiled a bit at that, and made his way to where he had
been sitting the day before.

"I'm the last one you know. There were four of us before, four
strapping boys. The oldest one, Chris, he was a pilot just like you,
he died at Pearl Harbor. The second eldest, Danny, he died over in
Europe, the Nazi's got him just over a year ago. And now Matt... I
raised Matt, the others were old enough to move out, but Matt only
had me when our parents died. He's too old to be my son, but he meant
more to me than a brother."

"I'm so sorry..."

Smith's eyes shot up from where he had been looking and he gave Duo a
nice hard stare. "Don't ever apologize, you've done nothing wrong,
you're just a victim like the rest of us here. More so, you're
innocent, and you've had to witness and undergo horrible things.
Those barbarians don't seem to understand that they're killing our
sons and our brothers."

Duo didn't want to bring up Heero right now in the man's time of
grief, especially since he didn't seem fond of the Japanese, but Duo
didn't know when his next chance would be, and he couldn't let Heero
down."

"We're killing their sons and brothers!"

Smith looked generally surprised at the comment, but then just
brushed it aside. "We're only getting back at them, it's different
when it's revenge. For every soldier they kill, we'll kill ten or
theirs. Anyway, they started it."

Once again, the defiant gleam rose in Duo's eyes. "Then when does it
end?"

"When we finish it!" Reaching into his pocket, Smith retrieved a
shiny object and threw it gently into Duo's hands. "You of all people
should understand that."

Staring down at the object, Duo's eyes widened in surprise. "How did
you get these, I haven't had them since I first landed here and
Heero... "

"The Jap had them on him. Seems like he took quite at shinning to
you, and I'm sorry for whatever he did to you, I really am."

For the moment, Duo was at a loss for words. Heero had kept these all
that time, but why hadn't he seen them before? Maybe he only recently
started wearing them. But the fact that Heero would do something like
that made Duo all the more eager to get him out alive and in one
piece. Smith's words suddenly sunk into Duo's brain and he could
barely contain his anger.

"Heero did nothing to me besides save my life. I owe him so much and
you all think he tried to kill me or rape me or something."

Now it was Smiths turn to get angry. "But you're afraid of him and
hate him."

"I don't hate him, and I'm afraid FOR him. Why do you all think that
just because he's Japanese that he was out to get me?"

"Because he was!"

"He wasn't!"

Smith immediately stood up, knocking his chair over, and took a step
forward, but then quickly rethinking his actions he took a few steps
back and towards the door.

"I can understand how hard this must be on you, maybe you're in
shock, maybe you're too scared to admit the truth, maybe it's all
repressed, maybe you just have a lot of spirit, that's ok, I like
spirit in a kid. But you should be careful of what you say, you're
talking about a fucking Jap here."

"Well, I'd risk my life to save that fucking Jap any day over you!"

There were no words to express the anger that rushed into the
Captain's face. But none of it was spent on Duo, the man simply
turned on his heal and stormed out of the tent flap, leaving Duo to
worry about just who that anger would be spent on.



**************************


Heero felt another large burst of pain, as he was smashed to the
ground once again. For no reason, Captain Smith had suddenly appeared
at his holding area and had started to beat him up. There were no
questions asked no threats about information made. Just words of hate
and... jealousy thrown his way.

The hate made sense to Heero; he'd seen enough of that since before
the war had ever started, but the jealousy? That was something
unexpected. And it took the Japanese solider a few more kicks to the
stomach to fully realize just why the man was so jealous over him.

Duo. Duo was the cause behind this.

Oddly enough, at that moment Heero felt very separated from his body
which was being thrown and kicked and punched all over the place. But
all he could think about was that Duo was ok somewhere out there and
was obviously still thinking of him. He hadn't forgotten about him,
despite Heero's telling him to do just that.

Heero couldn't figure out exactly why the man was so jealous over him
and Duo, but he had a good idea. Duo must have stood up for him, just
like he'd promised. Tried to get him free, and the man hated him for
it. It was no reason to try to beat him to a pulp, but it was a start.

"You go around killing without mercy, our families, MY family. But
that's not enough for you is it? You have to steal the innocence from
our young men too, don't you?"

Smith had actually stopped beating him and had raised him by the hem
of his shirt, slamming him against the wall to talk to him, but doing
nothing more than just that.

"He wants to save you, you, of all people. I think he may even like
you, he seemed kinda happy that you'd kept his dog tags. How sick is
that? You're nothing but a disgusting breed of low life scum, and
that once innocent American boy has been corrupted by your evil. My
whole family has been corrupted by your evil! And does the kid think
about that, no, as long as your ok he's happy. In fact, he'd risk his
life over you disgusting piece of shit. He said so himself. He'd
rather save you then fellow American soldier, but I don't blame him,
I blame you. He'll learn soon enough about what you people are really
like. But I'll make sure you pay, I swear my god-damned life on it."

Throwing him to the ground, Smith watched as the weak soldier coughed
up a large amount of blood. He'd survive, unfortunately.

Heero didn't move a muscle as the Captain walked away; he probably
couldn't even if he wanted to. But he was still in that out of body
phase and all he could think about was the fact that Duo not only
cared about him, but was also willing to risk his life for him. And
Heero prayed to every Shinto god and goddess he knew of, that Duo
would never have to do such a thing.


****************

After Captain Smith had left the area, Wufei and the British orderly
were called upon to clean up the mess.

As soon as Wufei heard about what had happened, he had asked if that
Captain had learned anything from the from the day's work.

Smiling grimly, Smith replied in a surprisingly light tone. "Yeah, I
learned today that it hurts a million times more when something you
love is taken away then when a thousand bullets hit your body."

Not really knowing what to say, Wufei inquired some more. "And are
you going to use this information."

"I'm already working on it. Good Night Wufei."

"Good Night Sir."

TBC…


WHEW, that's done with. Only one or two more parts to go

I BEG of you to send me comments, because I've been getting so many
latly, I'be been rushing with these new parts.

Sony_Mouse@hotmail.com