Soul Switch
    'Breathe, have to remember to breathe...'  The pain in his chest seemed to have effected his brain, or maybe that was due to the lack of oxygen making it to his brain... Somehow he hung onto conciousness, piloting Sandrock in the battle and destroying the OZ mechs that got in his way.  Trying to ignore the metal pushing in on him he moved his Gundam between the fallen Deathscythe and an incoming blast.
    The blast laid the Gundam flat and nearly caused him to blackout.  As it was his head was spinning so fast that he had to close his eyes to keep his stomach from lurching in protest.
    At the edge of his hearing he caught part of Trowa's voice.  "... Quatre?... out, leave Sandrock..."
    A sudden caming warmth spread through him and he knew what he had to do.  Blindly he reached for the self-destruct control.  Opening a channel to the rest of the Gundams, he took as much air into his crushed lungs as he could manage.  "I have one weapon left that I can use against them.  Friends... evacuate now.  I'll give you ten seconds.  Hurry."
    "Quatre, you can't..."  Duo started to protest.
    Unwilling to let anyone else he cared about die he open a video link to the others.  A sad smile curved his lips as he saw their expressions change, though in Trowa and Heero it wasn't much.  Dry blood cracked along his neck as he moved slightly in an attempt to edge away from the metal on his chest.  "I'm dead already.  But I can either die alone or I can take some of them with me.  I'm going with the second choice.  Your ten seconds start now.  10-9-8-..."  He shut off the video-feed and watched silently as the others... his friends... left.  Then with his sad smile still in place he let his finger fall.
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    He woke up.  A dull ache in his head.  Sitting up in the ragged bed he looked around the dimly lit room.  Getting to his feet he moved slowly over to the dresser and turned the lamp on.  What he saw in the mirror made him gasp in shock.
    It was his face but his blond hair was dyed pitch black, a hoop earing dangled from his right ear and a long white scar marred his cheek, looking down at his cloths he found himself in ripped blue jeans, a loose black shirt and a stained jean jacket.  Underneath the jacket he felt a gun holster, complete with gun.
    Shouting drifted in from the hallway and ever so slowly he made his way to the entrance and opened the door.
    If he thought his appearance was bad, well what he saw in the hallway knocked him for a loop.  Wufei stood, holding a book in his hand and wearing a pink shirt and white pants.  His ponytail was gone and his hair seemed to feather around his face, added to that was a pair of glasses and a calculator peeking out from the pocket of his shirt.
    But the shouting wasn't coming from him, it was eminating from a boy with long bangs.  Unmistakeably Trowa, who was wearing a red silk shirt unbuttoned to reveal a hard chest, a black leather vest and black leather pants.  His normally unemotional face was beat red in anger.
    He was yelling at a dangerously quiet Duo.  A sinister little smile sending chills up and down Quatre's spine.  He wore a long black trech coat, military-like pants and boots and a green tank top.  His arms were crossed and he was looking at Trowa or he seemed to be looking through him.  And cowering behing the braided pilot was... Quatre had to blink... Heero.  The dark-haired boy was wearing his familar black shorts but he wore no shirt or shoes and he seemed to be wearing a dog collar that was hooked to a chain Duo was holding.
    His ears rung as Trowa yelled again, stepping back Quatre hit the door and it slammed shut behind him with a loud bang.  When he looked back up all four of them were down on their knees beforehim, well Heero was flat on his belly, but what really surprised him was the look of fear, hatred and grunding admiration in all of their eyes.
    Unsure of what was going on he decided to play along.  Twisting his face into a scowl.  "Well?"  To his surprise his voice was as cold as ice.
    It was Duo who spoke.  "A minor argument, Lord.  Too trivial for you to bother with."
    Quatre  stared hard at the Deathscythe pilot.  "Any fight between you is trivial unless it interfers with my plans.  My question to you is ... does it?"  The words had left his mouth before he'd thought about it but somehow he knew it was 'right' for these strangely familar people.
    Duo visibly swallowed hard before a grin crept over his face.  "Why of course not, my lord.  We would never disrupt your plans..."
    Quatre narrowed his blue eyes.  "I would hope not.  Now, if you would kindly get out of my way... I feel like blowing something up."
    As they parted he moved past them clinging to his facade in desperation as he forced his feet to stride confidently down the hall, not even five feet past them he stopped dead and growled, "By the way, get back to work!"
    Though inside he was shaking he slowly made his feet take him to Wing Zero.  Where-ever he was, who ever he was he seemed to instinctively know that THAT was his Gundam.  If only he could find the 'good guys'... his memories seemed to indicate he was the leader of a malicious military gang and... the good guys were Trieze and... Miligard Peacecraft... What his memory told him of Relena made him want to throw up... Somehow he had to figure out what was going on and how he could get out of the crazy messed up world he was in...
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MEANWHILE...

    Duo couldn't believe Quatre was still alive.  The explosion should have killed him but Sandrock managed to eject him somehow.  As it was he'd gotten a broken arm, a couple of broken ribs, a concussion the doctor said he'd wake up from soon and an assortment of cuts, scrapes and bruises.
    All four of them were in his room right now.  Quatre should have been hurt a LOT worse then he had been...
    A groan came from the smaller boy and Duo moved to the edge of the bed as he sat up.  "Easy Quatre."  He put a hand on his shoulder.
    Cold, blue eyes devoid of emotion looked up at him.  A tiny, disturbing smile on his lips and a voice sharper than his Deathscythe's blade, "Remove your hand before I remove it for you... at the wrist."  When Duo stood still in disbelief the blue eyes hardened.  "Shinigami I know you're a little slow but do NOT make me repeat myself or I will punish that dog of yours."
    Duo removed his hand but blinked dumbly.  "Dog?"
    Quatre sighed and slide out of the bed walking over to Heero.  "This DOG!"  He looked over Heero and frowned momentarily before smiling icily.  "You finally took my advice and lost the chain and collar.  Good."  He sniffed the air and nodded.  "And you had him take a bath, that's even better."
    Heero's eyebrow rose, "Excuse me?"
    Quatre's eyes narrowed just before his fist knocked the pilot into the wall.  "SLAVES do not speak to their MASTER.  Shinigami you're getting careless."
    Wufei stepped between the two.  "What the Hell's gotten into you?"
    Quatre's laugh chilled Duo's blood.  "So the SCHOLAR wishes to fight does he?"  Seeing Wufei's hesitance he leered, "Or is he too chicken?"
    The Chinese pilot launched forward.  Quatre ducked a fist and blocked a kick before expertly flipping backwards into the air and landing on a nightstand before sending a foot into Wufei's face, the force knocked him back a few steps.  Springing forward, ignoring his injuries he did a one-handed handspring and using his momentum and his own body as a missile that laid Wufei flat.
    If he hadn't known better Duo would have sworn it had been Heero fighting.  Licking his lips he found his voice.  "Quatre...?"
    The younger boy wheeled on him, eyes flashing.  "YOU aren't to call me that!"  Then his eyes widdened.  "Oh, I see.  You haven't figured it out yet.  You see, me and youre Quatre... switched places."
    "What..."  Duo gaped.
    "I'm from another dimension and that explosion... somehow it switched our... minds or awarenesses."  He laughed harshly.  "I'd like to see how he handles the treachery of MY Gundam Pilots!  He's just too... ugh, sweet and innocent.  How pathetic!'
    He didn't notice Trowa come up behind him and push the needle with the tranquilizer into his arm.
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    As soon as he was out far enough from his 'Domain' he sent a coded transmition to Milligard Peacecraft and was relieved when he immediately responded.
    Before the older blond man could speak Quatre filled in the void.  "Your Majesty.  I know you aren't going to believe me but I'm not who you think I am."
    Milligard's face remained impassive.  "And who do you think I think you are, Lord Winner?"
    Quatre sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  "That's who you think I am.  Lord Winner, a-a really... bad person."  He finished lamely, his eyes tearing up.  "There really is no way for you to know that I'm just Quatre, no way for you to know that somehow him and I switched places."  He looked pleadingly up at Milligard.  "I just want to get back to my own dimension.  Here my friends... they're, they're... not my friends, they're people I don't even know.  Back home... Duo's always cheerful, Heero's referred to as the perfect soldier, Trowa's quiet, and Wufei's honor-bound and a true swordsman..."  His voice trailed off.
    It was Milligard's voice that brought him back from his thoughts.  "What of you?"
    Quatre's eyes widdened a moment, "Me?  I'm not that important..."
    "Then why is it so imparative to send you back?"
    Quatre slumped back in his seat.  "I suppose there is no really good reason, except that if I was able to fool... the others... my counterpart might be able to so too.  If that's the case then everyone I care about is in terrible danger... especially if he gets a hold of Heero's Gundam."
    "You mean Sandrock?"
    "Sandrock?  No, Sandrock is mine.  Wing Zero is Heero's..."  Unconciously he laid a hand over his heart, wincing.  "If he got Wing then, then my family and my people..."  Looking up he met Milligard's gaze.  "Please!  I'll do anything!  I'll surrender to you if you can just help me get even a message to them... I'll gladly give you my life."
    Peacecraft stared at him a moment.  "One moment."  His back turned towards Quatre.  A couple of minutes later he turned back.  "Power Wing Zero down, I have a transport on the way sho will escort you to a neutral base where I'll meet you."
    Quatre swallowed hard and nodded, "Alright."
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    Duo stared at his friend.  They'd had to shackle him down.  He'd tried to slit Trowa's throat when he'd recovered from the tranquilizers.  So either Quatre wasn't Quatre or he'd hit his head a lot harder then they'd thought.
    The blond's eyes flickered at him and then they narrowed, just as suddenly he smiled that cruel smile.  "I bet you're wondering why your Quatre and me are so different, right?"
    Duo plastered a smile on his face.  "Something like that..."
    "You don't know his secret.  None of you do.  You think that he's just a sweet, innocent airhead.  You don't know about the event that made him the passifist extreme and me well, made me my charming self."  He laughed, a sound that sounded too harsh to be coming from Quatre's throat.
    Duo shrugged, "Everyone has secrets."
    The boy became serious.  "Yes but your young friend has one of the darkest you could ever imagine.  Death is a heall of a thing but guilt is worse."
    Wufei lifted an eyebrow.  "Guilt?"
    "Yah.  See, though, the real difference is he holds onto it and goes to unmeasureable lengths to help make the world a better place.  Me, I gave up on the world.  Let the world knjow my misery, my pain."  He smiled again.  "You know if I had killed you, that boy of yours would have felt so guilty he would have done a lot more to himself then those little nics and cuts he inflicts on himself, he might have even killed himself... wouldn't that be nice."
    "Quatre would never do that."  Trowa said quietly from where he leaned against the window sill.
    The cold, blue eyes fixed on the ceiling.  "Oh?  And you think that trying to be the emotionally stable one, the one people confide their darkest secrets to can just keep smiling, totally oblivious to the horror going on around him.  He openly cares for everyone... even all of you... and he never complains, never tells you what's bothering him.  He takes your silence, your babbling, your suicidal tendencies, your honor-bound beliefs and does his best to protect and help you.  Always knowing that he himself is worth nothing, that he's useless, a liability, in the way.  All of you deal with death, Trowa isn't afraid of it, Heero waits for it, Wufei accepts it, Duo understands it but Quatre embraces it like a friend.  None of you know his pain, but I do!  His strength is even stronger then I could've hoped for, but his heart can't take much more, soon... very soon, he will die."  The words cut at Duo like a knife as he admitted the thread of thruth within them.
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    "So, what your saying is that the only way for me to get back is by causing Wing Zero to self-destruct?"  Quatre asked softly.
    Milligard nodded, "Yes.  As you said, that's what happened before you got here.  The trama should be enough to switch the two of you back."
    "Then that's what I'll do."
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    Quatre was as far out in space as he could get, determination darkened his eyes as he pressed the button.
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    Wufei had been on the verge of using his fist to shut the Lord Winner up, if it hadn't been for Heero he would have.  But no two seconds after the blond stopped mid-sentence.
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    Quatre blinked a couple of times before he slowly raised his head to look around.  A blush crept over  his cheeks when he saw the other's angry glares and the shackles he was wearing.
    "No one got hurt did they?  He didn't..."  He inhaled sharply as the pain suddenly hit him and squeezed his eyes shut.
    "Quatre?"
    He peeked out from his pain haze to focus on Trowa and gave him a sad smile.  "Yes.  I'm really sorry about this whole mess..."
    "Oh man, Quatre loves to blame himself for everything if you let him.  Sooner or later he'll start saying that there's no air in space because he didn't work on it hard enough!"  Quatre looked up into Duo's smiling face in surprise when the Deathscythe pilot gripped his shoulder, hard.  "Quatre, promise me something."\
    Dumbfoundedly he blinked, "Uh, what?"
    Duo's face became serious, "You'll try no to blame yourself so much for things that are out of your control."
    Before Quatre could open his mouth to respond, the others joined in.
    "It isn't honorable to accept blame for another's mistakes."
    "I agree."  The growl came from an angry looking Heero.
    "Quatre?"
    His eyes moved to Trowa.
    "We need you and you need us... we're... family."
    Duo squeezed his shoulder.  "Just say you promise, and mean it... or else..."
    He blinked again, "If it'll make you guys happy... I promise."  Duo beamed at him, Trowa and... HEERO smiled slightly while Wufei nodded.  "Um, would someone mind telling me what brought this on?"
    Duo smiled sadly, "Let's just say that you don't realize the importance of things you take for granted until you loose them.  We've just decided we don't want to loose anything so important ever again."