Not Born from the Streets (Part 1)

Duo and Hilde's residence

"You are pretty lucky you didn't have to work today," Duo said as he walked in through the door. They'd had sick days more than once with each other, so he fully intended her to be half listening unless she was really sick. Hm. Nowhere around the TV at all. Must still be sick. Duo took off his work jacket and lied it on the couch. He looked into her room. "Hild."

She was looking worse, not better. He went to her room and felt her head. "You are burning up something awful. Have you taken anything?" So delirious she wasn't even answering back. He went to the bathroom and got a washcloth for her head along with some fever reducer. He placed the washrag on her head. "Come on, take this." This time, her eyes looked up toward him slightly. They were worried. "Just a fever. It's okay, it happens. Earthling germs, you're probably more susceptible." He held out the pills to her. Her hand gestured to the end table next to the bed.

Duo looked. There was a letter, addressed to Hilde. With something else inside. He really didn't want to mess with it, but he had no choice. Hilde hadn't pulled it out. She'd opened it but otherwise didn't mess with it. "Oh, being me sometimes." He managed to pull the letter away from the envelope and shut it. "I had a feeling Jewel probably paid for that." It was somebody's finger in there. Alive or not, she definitely paid for the letter she sent. Without it, the others would be in even bigger trouble. Duo opened it up and started to read.

Yep. "It's just your standard form letter being extra pissed off they didn't get away with what they wanted," Duo said. "Boy. They are some sore losers. We'll still pay, face your past to save your present, yada yada yada." He put the letter back down but looked at her again. "Hild? Can you even talk?" Yeah. "Then again? Come on, Duo's taking you to the hospital right now."

---

The Hospital

Duo remained at her side near her hospital bed. Hilde never did anything risky, there was no real chance of it. "If I hadn't been there." She'd probably be dead. Somehow, Hilde had sepsis. He'd got her in soon enough considering the high fever that hit her, but if he hadn't been there. "You'll be okay. Doc says you'll be out in no time." She wasn't feeling conversational. "You were treated soon enough, the kid will probably be okay too."

She looked up toward him, her eyes shiny. "How? When?"

"I think we know the answers to that." Revenge of the Lost. Somehow, they must have done something to trigger an infection. "It won't happen again, Hilde. I swear, I'll get this Revenge of the Lost."

Sepsis. Why? Duo thought more closely about the letter. They had said that line about facing his past to save his present, but they also mentioned the doctor. Since Hilde couldn't come home tonight, it might be time for a visit to old Howard. He wasn't leaving her alone though. He dialed up Trowa. "Trowa? I need a favor. Hilde's in the hospital with sepsis. I can't leave her alone, but I gotta go talk to someone. Can you watch her?"

"I found Middie Une."

"Oh." Damn. "I understand." He just couldn't leave then.

"I lost her. She left me an address. I tracked it and it was the address of the person who took her, but she wasn't there. Neither was he. She hasn't returned."

Oh man. "Revenge of the Lost?"

"I think so. I don't think she's coming here, it wasn't far away. I'll set up a trip camera but I'll come watch Hilde for you."

"Thanks." That was good news for Duo, but not for Trowa. "Sorry. Hope you can find her again." But, wait. "You carry a trip wire system on you?"

"Duo. I was coming to tell a spy that was responsible for the death of people I knew as a kid, that she was carrying mine. I had to be ready for anything."

"Yeah." None of them came out unscathed.

---

Howard's Base

///Duo: You better not be doing anything with that group./// Duo smiled and waved at Howard. Most likely, the other doctors were dead, but he'd seen everything in his lifetime. "Hey, Howard! Can I talk to you?"

"Duo Maxwell, you bet," Howard said as he came down. The old scientist hadn't changed, still rocking the Hawaiian shirts.

"Hey." Careful. "I don't suppose you know anything about the other gundam creators? Like Professor G? Any make it out?"

Howard shrugged. "Uh? No," he admitted. "Why?"

"A friend of mine is sick." Duo watched him carefully. "Hilde?" No guilt so far. "She got pregnant." There, that was something.

"Uh? Aw, Duo." Howard sighed. "You should have been more careful. Life's fun should be limited just a little."

"Not by me," Duo complained. "Well, actually it is by me. But it's not by me." Yeah, he didn't know anything. "What happened to their old testing labs? You know, making sure we could be all we could be?"

"Testing?"

"Yeah." ///Duo:/// Come on, Howard./// "We all didn't just pop in."

"Practically did."

"But not quite. I mean, Operation Meteor, but we all still . . . " Howard was fine to talk to, when you didn't need information right away. "Oh come on, we were all tested in different ways! What happened to it all?"

" . . . you mean like muscle fitness results and stuff?"

Close enough, same area. "Yeah. Where's that?"

"Uh? I think they pitched it all. Not really useful after they knew you were qualified enough." Howard shrugged. "I would have. Waste of space."

"Pitched it?" Was he kidding? "You don't really think they did that?" Okay, he'd have to come clean. "I got a letter involving all the previous pilots. Claims of a woman being pregnant for each one of us, and at least two out of five is confirmed so far. So?"

"It sounds like this group found their places. No one would be guarding them," Howard pointed out. "They are gone. No one's ever contacted me. Honest, Duo."

"They just broke in." Simple as that. The doctors really were all gone. Damn. "Do you know anything about our past?" Duo asked him. He went ahead and drug out the letter Hilde had received from his pocket and gave it to him. "Hilde's in the hospital with sepsis."

"Oh. Well?" Howard was trying. "They were all trying to gather forces toward the end. So maybe? Maybe all their information is gathered in one place, Duo. Like a final gathering base to analyze everything." Howard touched his chin. "Come to think of it, it's less of a need of a final base. More of a need of a gathering . . ." Howard started to head inside.

Duo followed. "Final what?"

"They always wanted me to leave my ocean view to get involved again. They might have sent it my way. Oz was already bugging my place out, but after they got the Tallgeese, they stopped watching everything. So maybe by that time?"

Whoah. "Hey, that would be a nifty idea." Duo approached Howard's computer base. "Great. I always wanted to see my muscle records matched against Heero's," he kidded around.

"It'd be down somewhere I never work." Howard moved through the files. "Let's see. Where would they put it at it? If I have them, no guarantee."

"There." Duo clicked on a folder called Final Showdown. Inside was all kinds of information about the gundams and the pilots. "Time capsule. Cool. Let's break it open." Because Revenge of The Lost just crossed a line. There was no way they were getting away with anything else. Duo clicked on his folder. "Damn, blood tests and everything. Oh." Maxwell Church Massacre. "Wait." There was another folder, even farther back. "What?"

"Yeah. With your matching blood type tests, I imagine that wouldn't be so hard. As long as she wasn't an orphan."

Duo stared at the picture on the screen. So. That's where he got his hair color. "How'd they match that up?"

"Thorough. Most likely on the colony you were found on. Age. Percentage rates. Cracking into old hospital files. The harder something is, the more us kooks had fun." Howard lowered his shades. "She was a looker."

"Yeah. She was." His mom. They actually found a picture. She was a young thing. "Attack." Not uncommon. Survived that attack but . . .

"Mmmm, I think I see what you see," Howard said. "You okay?"

"If they think that's funny." He managed to keep his anger in check once, once. War was senseless, killing was senseless but- "She died by sepsis."

"Yeah. Maybe they really did break in," Howard said to Duo. "Sorry. I'm sure they'd have watched it better."

"If they were still alive." Duo was staring at the picture of his dad. He had a rap sheet records long, and not for just destruction of property. There was no name relation either and very little about him. Smidge, but important smidges.

"I can see why G. didn't want to say anything," Howard said, trying to make him feel better. "You don't bother him, he won't bother you. He probably doesn't even know you exist."

"Yeah and I'll keep it that way 'cause with her name in his kind of rap sheet, my folks weren't datin'." Sickening. He never wanted to see that face again. He closed the folder. It was better before he even knew. Better to think he was just born from the streets. Been better thinking his parents were just innocent victims killed on the streets. His mom was. His dad was living on Earth, about 300 miles of where they were at, imprisoned for life. Exactly where he should stay. "You know, sometimes I guess I forgot you didn't just have spare change in your wallet to make all your scifi stuff." Trying to get it out of his head but there was more too. He had two more brothers. Twin half brothers. "Gin and Finn."

"Hey you got brothers. That's something positive." Howard looked to the rest of the files. "You gonna risk sending that data to the others?"

"Nah, I don't think they are near their computers right now. I'll just download it manually to my phone and get it to them through there when I contact them." He clicked Quatre's folder. "Oh, man." Duo looked at Howard. "You think Revenge of the Lost is . . .?"

"Is trying to kill all the mothers of your children, like your own moms went?" Howard asked gently. "Maybe. Revenge is in their name. Sepsis isn't uncommon though. Hard to tell."

"Yeah. Well, I'll still be watching." They weren't doing it again. They weren't getting to her again. "Hilde better like Vitamin C. because I'll make sure she gets a ton of it."