The Lion Deathscythe

 

          He blinked at the bright light shining in his eyes and tried to sit up in the bed he found himself in, for the life of him he couldn’t remember how he got there.

          He felt a hand on his shoulder and his first reaction was to leap out of the bed and out of reach, his hands automatically looking for a weapon.

          “Hey take it easy, we aren’t going to hurt you.”

          He looked through his bangs and smirked, “There’s not much you could do that would actually hurt me.  But you’re uniforms aren’t of the Federation, so who do you work for?”

          The young man in black squared his shoulders.  “I’m Commander Keith Akira of Voltron Force, part of the Galaxy Garrison.”

          “I’m Duo Maxwell, I’m a pilot.”

          Keith nodded, “I know, your robotic machine crashed, it’s where we found you.”

Duo grimaced, “How bad is it?”

“Well Pidge and Huk have pretty much fixed it up.  Wherever it was made, it sure impressed Pidge and that’s hard to do.”

“Let’s go see it.”

          Keith held up a hand, “No I don’t think so.  You’ve got bruised ribs, a concussion, sprained wrist…”

…………………………

          Keith’s voice caught in his throat as he met Duo’s eyes.  The violet was as cold as cold as ice.  “You can’t stop me.”  The words were low and dangerous and Keith had no problem believing the unspoken threat.

          “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  The boy nodded causing his unusually long braid to bounce and straightened his black, priest-like outfit.

          “Lead the way.”                                   

…………………………

          They’d barely set foot into the hold when the boy pulled a gun from his clothing and leveled it at him.

          “Move, slowly.”

          “Keith, we finished… geez he’s…”  Pidge started and Hunk moved in front of him, making himself his friend’s shield just in case.

          “Look Duo, can we talk about this?”

          “Keith, I appreciate what you’ve done, you and your friends but… well if Heero were here instead of me you’d already be dead and his Gundam would have self-destructed.  I’m not sure what your Galaxy Garrison is but I do know that I can’t let OZ get their hands on my Deathscythe… If I did… well not just Heero but Wufei and maybe Trowa would be out for my blood.  The only one I’m sure wouldn’t kill me would be Quatre and for how long that would last… who know…”

          “Duo, I’ve never heard of OZ before…”  Keith started but Duo cut him off.

          “Never heard of… how could you not have heard of OZ or the Federation?  They’ve killed thousands, destroyed towns… Father Maxwell, the orphanage, Sister…”  He moved so that he faced the three of them and something akin to shock crossed his face.  His gun shook slightly.  “You really don’t know do you?  What kind of place did I end up?  Am I dead?  Finally after all the near misses, risks, missions… did I finally get to die?”

          Keith was startled when Pidge spoke.  “You mean you want to die?  You’re not afraid.”

          Duo laughed, “Afraid?  Au contraire, my dear lad, if Death came for me I’d greet it as an old friend.  That’s why I call my Gundam and myself Shinigami, you see, because to all those I fight in battle… I am Death.  Course I don’t take it to extremes like Heero, but I don’t apologize to everyone I have to kill like Quatre either…”  The merriment went out of his eyes.  “I suppose I shouldn’t have drawn the gun on you, but you can’t be too safe, being tortured isn’t fun… I know that only too intimately.”

          “Tortured?”  This time it was Hunk who spoke.

          Duo shrugged, “You get used to it.  So Keith, if I put the gun away can we call it even and start over?”

          “Of course.”

          As Duo lowered the gun Keith let out the breath he’d been holding.

…………..

          Duo eyed the two who’d been working on Deathscythe.  “You must be Hunk and Pidge, Keith said you were working on Death for me.  You did a good job.  He looks better than ever.”

          “It’s a very intriguing machine.”

          Duo smiled at the young man in green.  “Then, that means you’re Pidge.  Keith said my Gundam impressed you… I can see it did.”

          “Duo?”

          He turned and faced Keith, “Hmmmm?”

          “I think we need to talk.  Pidge, Hunk… get Allura and Lance and meet us in the Rec. Room.”

          “Right.”

          “Sure.”

………………….

          Keith faced Duo silently a moment, “What would you have done if we had seen OZ?”

          “Destroyed my Gundam, myself and try to take all of you out while I did.”