You wouldn't expect cheerful (Sardonic, sure, but cheerful) Shinigami to cry in his mobile suit when nobody's looking, would you? 'Course not. Wouldn't expect him to have a thought in his head that could conjure such strong emotion, right?
No? Good.
Because he doesn't cry in his mobile suit, looking at that long braid of his that holds so many memories of his friends and "parents." He doesn't think about how nobody he loved has ever survived him. He doesn't think about how many people he's failed. (I'm never good enough to save anyone's life... except, of course, my own.)
He most definitely does not wonder which of his few friends will be next to go because of knowing him. (Especially the ones who keep attempting to kill themselves... are they trying to save me the time?)
All he is - is cheerful Shinigami. Don't look too closely at him... that mask of his might break, you know, and then where would you be?
You need him, you know. Someone to take out your frustrations on, someone to blame for your anger and confusion. (It's not like I deserve anything different if you get nasty about it, either.)
So don't query cheerful Shinigami too often if he shows up sometimes with red eyes, OK? It's not like he's been crying in his mobile suit.
Duo Maxwell, for the first time in his life, entered a mobile suit. Not just any mobile suit, but the one declared to be HIS - the Gundam Deathscythe.
He knew what the cockpit looked like, what each control did. It was all precisely as diagrammed, and Duo had been a quick study. But there was something *different* about being there, in the flesh.
He muttered to himself for reassurance as he began powering up the Gundam. The outside speakers were off and the hatch was closed, so there was really nobody else to talk to. "Dr. G said I should get acquainted with you, so here we go. My name's Duo Maxwell. You're Deathscythe. We're supposed to destroy OZ."
"Hello."
Duo yelped, shooting straight up in his seat. The voice hadn't sounded like it was anywhere but in his own mind, but it was NOT anything he could make up. It was a combination of a purring bass and an electronic squeal... and it terrified him. Dr. G hadn't mentioned anything like THIS. "So I'm goin' insane, is that it?" he said out loud.
"Not unless I am, as well." The electronic keen died down more and more as the thing talked. "I'm sorry for startling you, but you... scared me first, I could say. I haven't ever had a real pilot, you know."
"What the hell are you?" Duo demanded shakily.
"You know my name... Deathscythe. I think what I AM is a small program glitch. My creator didn't intend this, I feel."
"So you're alive."
"Not exactly. I think and feel, but I don't think I can die. Together, aren't we Death?"
"Oh, yeah, partner, oh yeah."
Death sat quietly looking at the orders specifying whom he was supposed to kill. As it sank in, he began to laugh. And if the laugh held something of insanity... who was there to hear? "I knew it!" he crowed. "I KNEW it!" He instantly sobered as he saw the time frame he had to work with. Silently, Death went to perform Death's duty.
Afterward, Death bathed his hands in the blood. Still holding the fatal weapon, he noiselessly left for another's room. Silently, he opened the door and woke the occupant with a foot. His hands were too bloody to touch the other.
The silent clown blinked at him, instantly coming to his feet when he saw the blood on Death's hands, and the knife in them. "What - ?"
Death quietly spoke the first words he'd uttered that night. "Kill me."
"Why?"
Death held up his crimson hands, and the bloodstained knife. "Mission orders. You *want* to shoot me, you just don't know it yet."
The clown's voice was flat, and somehow *knowing.* "Who?"
"Heero Yuy."
Before Mariemaya, I was all for Relena's Absolute Pacifism. Before Mariemaya, it was WORKING. Peace was... weird. Nothin' like I'd ever experienced. People weren't fighting. Too exhausted, I guess. People were trying to talk through their differences.
After Mariemaya... I wasn't so naïve. Peace isn't something you can finish... you've got to fight for it. Peace is so temporary... it won't ever last more than a few years. Mariemaya Kushrenada and the Barton Foundation taught me that.
Which is why I didn't kill Deathscythe like everyone thinks I did. Couldn't. I mean, the last time we tried to destroy the Gundams, we got Mariemaya and the Barton Foundation. Call me paranoid, but I get the feeling that when people think the Gundams are gone, they'll start causing trouble.
And me being me, I'm gonna be around when they do. I'm NOT gonna have some kid get involved in another war. Not while I'm around to stop them. Innocence should be preserved.
And while Death has been called a lot of things, "innocent" hasn't been one of them for a long, long time.
Duo knelt on the floor almost completely dressed and grinned at the various articles in front of him.
*Liability in combat, my ass.*
He started inserting various objects into his braid. First, the all-important lockpicks. *Never go anywhere without 'em!* They'd gotten him out of more scrapes than the rest of his "accessories" ever had. That wasn't to say that the rest had no value, however.
Once he'd gotten the 'picks secured, Duo stuffed a couple of "light bombs" into his hair. Somebody had once called him the Master of Light and Darkness because of his tendency to blind his opponent with them. *Fair play? Yeeeah. Right.*
Next came the knife. It was very sharp, and Duo kept it that way religiously. The sheath and handle were covered in hair... NOT his own, but alike enough so's to be invisible in his braid. *Always a handy thing to have around...*
Duo contemplated that a coil of copper wire was an odd thing to keep in one's hair. Smirking, he remembered the time he'd managed to hotwire a communications console with that and the string he also kept...
Duo reflected on the tragedy that he'd never found a gun small enough to fit unnoticeably into his hair as he left for the day's mayhem.
The End