Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Pure Blood ❯ Part Four ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vision of Escaflowne or Gundam Wing. They are owned by Sunrise and Bandi and their own respective creators.

Pure Blood Part Four: Reunited Friends and Memories

By: Elf

Folken stood there. He couldn't act with them, but he had helped them. He needed to stay in Zaibach for just a while longer. Dornkirk had mentioned altering Fate before, but Folken knew it was scientifically impossible to do so. He did smile as Duo came charging in his guymelef though and as Van ran to the hanger in the confusion to get Escaflowne.

Folken knew that Van and the others could get away now. He looked at the two girls from the Mystic Moon. Hitome looked at him with wide green eyes, almost as if she knew what was going on in his mind. The other, the blond, was crying softly as she looked up at Heero Yuy in the machine, blood dripping from his screaming and writhing form.

"Stop them!" Folken shouted at the stupefied soldiers. They charged as Duo attacked, slashing at equipment with the scythe he had created. They ran to the hanger, to get guymelefs of their own. Hitome looked at him and he whispered, "Get them out of here."

******

Van climbed into Escaflowne. He moved the gears and the majestic weapon sprang to life. He swung the sword and began to run back into the room that they had been in, the one that Duo was now destroying. It was almost like the other boy had suddenly came back into his own mind and wanted revenge.

He ran back into the room, where Heero was strapped. The black guymelef was tearing into the machine that held him. "Duo!" Van called out.

The face plate opened to reveal Duo Maxwell, the true Duo Maxwell. The elfin boy smiled as he caught his breath. He said, "I'll distract the Pretty Boy from Hell if you get Heero and Relena out of here."

A noble offer, Van had to admit as he looked at the pilot. He wanted to stay and fight though. Especially when a familiar voice shouted, "Oh, Van! Time to DIE!"

He felt all of his rage directed at the demon. He shouted and spun around right as the crimson guymelef disappeared from view. He could see it move. It was weaving in and out, coming toward him.

"The God of Death is back from Hell!" Duo shouted as he charged the path in front of Van. Van watched as his curved blade caught some pipes, sending steam everywhere, showing the demon guymelef. Duo shouted, "Get them the fuck out of here! Your suit's faster than mine and can hold more people!"

That burst of logic made Van realize what he had to do. "Damn," the young king cursed as he rushed to the machine. He lifted up his sword and hacked into the machine.

"Heero!" Relena shouted as Heero began to fall from the attachments and such. Van made a quick grab for him, being careful of his wings. Van knew from personal experience that having your wings grabbed could be very painful, especially by a guymelef.

He landed and careful laid Heero on the ground, where Hitome and Relena rushed over to him. He looked down at the two young women from the Mystic Moon. He said, "We're gonna need to get out of here, quickly."

******

Relena barely heard the young king as he said, "We're gonna need to get out of here, quickly." She knelt before Heero, whose eyes were closed, his body shaking in silent pain. Despite the fact that he was dripping blood from the various injuries inflicted by the machine, he was very beautiful.

She seemed transfixed to the lovely pair of silvery white wings that Heero supported. She wanted to run her hands over those feathers, to feel how soft they were, to see if those angelic wings were real. He really did look like a fallen angel, but the low, tortured groan he gave yanked her back into reality.

She choked back a sob as she gathered him into her arms. He was cool to the touch, his heart beating rapidly against her own chest. She rubbed his back soothingly and smoothed the silky hair from his face.

"Relena, get up now," Van's voice was insistent. She looked up at the young king and gasped. His mobile suit had transformed into a dragon and he and Hitome was sitting on its back. The handsome young king, like Heero in his own way, had his hand held out to her.

"Heero," she protested, pressing him closer. A dark pair of blue eyes opened, looking directly into hers. He moaned as he tried to move. "Heero, you're hurt," she whispered to him, "You've lost a lot of blood."

"Relena," he groaned as he gripped her suit sleeves. He slowly, painfully started to stand up. She went with him, holding tightly to him. "We've got to get on Escaflowne," he told her in a hoarse voice.

Suddenly, Van reached down and wrapped his arms around the stoic pilot. He grunted as he lifted the barely conscious Heero onto the dragon's back. Relena grabbed his outstretched hand and settled behind Hitome, with Heero's body pillowed between them. The dragon started up and Relena automatically grabbed the bony structure.

"Hold on to him," Van said grimly as the dragon took flight.

******

Duo was keeping his wits about him. He briefly saw Escaflowne transform into a winged thing, kinda like a dragon, and start to fly off. He could see a pair of silvery white wings there as well and took that as a good sign. "Oh, Van!" Dillandeu shrieked.

The red mobile suit came into view. Duo grit his teeth and charged at the insane boy. The suit hit hard, jarring his whole body. He cursed and kept pressing. He braced his body as he saw the other suit whip its hand toward him. He took a deep breath and sighed.

He reacted quickly, blocking the suit with his own arm. He felt the impact ring through his arms and vibrate his body. Duo groaned as he swung his other arm out, trying to crush the other suit's head.

"Burn!" Dillandeu crackled as a blast of fire engulfed him. Duo cried out as he immediately backed off. He was surrounded by other suits, all facing him with their flame throwers drawn. It was unbearably hot in the suit. It felt like Hell. He heard Dillandeu's cackling laugh as the dragon flew away. Duo smiled and licked his lips.

"Now, time to die!" Dillandeu sneered as he extended his liquid blade toward him. Duo smirked and brought the curved blade to it, throwing the liquid metal away. He slashed up, causing Dillandeu to jump.

Duo said, "Death hasn't got my name yet." Then he flew up and hit another pipe. Steam poured over the other suits. He took a deep breath and shook his sweaty bangs out of his eyes. He narrowed his eyes and then flew after Escaflowne, taking as much of the fortress out as he could.

******

He was use to pain. In fact, he was very good at ignoring it. He had gone off to fly his Gundam with over 200 cracked bones and two bullet wounds. He healed very quickly. He had set his own broken leg, and there was only one thing that the Draconian that called himself Heero Yuy could think of.

It hurt.

Heero's body was aflame with sheer agony. The places where he had been stabbed by the machine throbbed mercilessly while the rest of him was going numb and cold. His body was drained of its strength and he could barely keep his eyes open. He was aware of Relena cradling him next to her warm body though, stroking his throbbing wings as she quietly cried.

"How is he?" Van asked.

Relena answered, "He's hurt pretty bad. We need to get him help immediately."

"Van, do you think Millerna could help him?" Hitome's hopeful voice asked, but the tone also betrayed that she knew the answer to that.

He closed his eyes. "Heero, open your eyes, look at me," Relena commanded as she lightly stroked his face. His eyes opened against their will as he peered up into Relena's aristocratic features and turquoise eyes. "You need to stay awake," Relena demanded.

"I can't," he told her truthfully.

Relena gripped his hand almost painfully. She said, "You must. If you don't . . ." She kept the sentence hanging in midair. Heero almost welcomed death. It didn't frighten him.

"Your friend was responsible for our escape," Van said.

Heero opened his eyes even more to see the guymelef turned into a dragon. Relena was gripping the bony frame and holding him at the same time. Van was flying the thing, using a series of levers. Heero licked his dry lips and asked, "What?"

"Duo, your friend, was the one who managed our escape," Van answered truthfully.

Heero gave a tiny half smile, just a quick up turning of his lips. He was glad that Duo was back to being . . . Duo. He looked around on the dragon's back, expecting to see a long, chestnut braid and Duo's grinning face as he said some sort of wisecrack. He rasped, "Where is he?"

"Heero, you need to stay calm," Relena demanded, pushing him down as much as she was able. Despite all the injuries he had faced, he was still much stronger than she was. He struggled to stay up, but his injured body and Relena's protests were responsible for him being pushed down.

Van answered, "He stayed to fight. He seemed very angry about it."

Duo would resent being brainwashed even more than I would, Heero thought dryly.

"Maybe you should try to get some sleep," Hitome suggested.

Relena glared and snapped, "That insane, we may never get him to wake up again."

"That's just stupid. If he keeps on moving, then he'll just hurt himself worse," Hitome sneered, her green eyes narrowing.

Van merely looked ahead, wisely staying out of the argument. Heero sighed. Relena said, "We should keep him awake by asking him questions, keep him talking."

"It doesn't seem like he talks very much in the first place," Hitome retorted, crossing her arms. She and Relena glared at one another. Van shifted corse, causing Relena to instantly hold him harder.

Heero simply closed his eyes. He knew he wasn't going to die. He was sure of it, so he closed his eyes and let the darkness over take him.

******

"Heero," Relena began, about to shake the fallen Draconian awake. Hitome watched as his wings retracted in his back, just like Van's did when he collapsed after that horrible battle. The one that they found that whatever happened to Escaflowne, happened to Van.

She wrapped around her arms around Van tighter, almost an impulse. She looked back at the stoic boy. She reached out and touched his hand. Then, a vision swept her.

"Did you see it?!" Heero demanded, jumping up and covering half of his face with his hand. He was dressed in a space suit, his helmet being held in the girl keeling beneath him. She looked at him with wide, turquoise eyes.

Relena asked, "See what? Are you hurt?"

An ambulance siren was blaring in the near distance, growing nearer. Heero jerked back and pressed something on his suit. There was a small explosion and he fell back on the sand. The blast was meant to kill him, and he was still alive.

With a grunt, he jumped off of the sand and ran toward the steps. The scene suddenly shifted to a balcony that over looked some mansion type building. Heero watched the scenery, lost in his own thoughts of how to kill the girl that saw his face.

"I like your name," Relena chirped behind him.

Heero turned around as she handed him an envelope. She said, "Tomorrow's my birthday party. I'd like you to come."

He ripped the envelope and its contents. He let the white shreds fall to the ground. He faced Relena's teary face. He reached up and gently wiped a tear from her eye. He leaned over to her and whispered, "I will kill you."

The scene shifted again. Heero was falling, the obnoxious boy with the braid shouting things at him. He needed to die. He wanted to die. Then he heard Relena shout, "Heero!" He was snapped out of his stupor as he pulled the cord to the parachute on his back. It came too late.

Then he was standing in the opening of a huge robot. He had something in his hand. It looked like a detonation device. He said, "Mission accepted." Then, he pressed the button to the advice. The white robot exploded, sending a bloody and battered Heero crashing to the ground.

"I will . . . I WILL . . . I WILL SURVIVE!" Heero shouted as he was targeting the huge piece of spaceship. If it hit the earth, there would be a severe nuclear winter. Nothing left. Life on Earth would be dead as he knew it. He let loose the buster rifle and the shard exploded into brilliant pieces of shrapnel.

Hitome blinked and looked at him. She said, "He's been through a lot. He's a warrior for many and he saved the world."

Van scowled, saying nothing. Relena sat there, looking down at him. She said, "He's a hero, that's for sure."

"He'll survive this," Hitome said. She knew he would. After all, she had felt his determination in the visions as well. He wasn't about to die. Not yet.

******

"What happened?" Millerna asked as Heero was brought into the makeshift infirmary. Van eased the Draconian's injured body on the Gurney that was there. She started to inspect all of the wounds and Heero himself.

Van answered, "Zaibach hooked him up to one of their machines."

"Van, he's a Draconian. I can't do anything. I don't know about his physiology. Like you," she said, twisting her delicate hands.

Van grunted and asked, "Is there anything you can do? Anything I can do?"

"He's lost a lot of blood, Van," Millerna answered as she dug bandages out. She started to clean the various wounds on the boy's body. Van stood back and watched as Millerna cut off the other boy's unusual clothes and began to clean the wounds on his legs. She straitened up and said, "I don't want to give him any painkillers or stitches because I don't know what they'll do to his system." She began to wrap bandages around his body as she said, "This is all I can do, Van."

Van sighed and set down beside Heero's prone form. It was strange. He had been envious at Heero at first, of his control and strength, but now . . . It was odd seeing him helpless like this.

He remembered a boy that he had met a long time ago, when he had been a small child. He looked very much like Heero, he realized as he studied the Draconian. The voice was similar as well as the look in the dark eyes. Being a small boy, he had tried to befriend the other boy, but he had ran away.

Some times Van wondered what happened to that boy. He was quite sure that he had that boy was lying before him. Quite sure. He just wondered what had made him the person that he was and how he could repeat the process on himself. To become a better warrior and a better leader for his people.

He sighed again. Hitome had a vision about him while they were escaping, that was for sure. She had said that he wasn't about to be beaten. Maybe he was sent here to help them. Van knew that they could use all the help that they could get.

******

Duo screamed as the liquid metal penetrated through the suit's shoulder, coming inches away from his own shoulder. He spun around and used the flame thrower, blanketing Dillandeu's suit in fire. He crashed to the ground and put up the stealth cloak.

He had a feeling that he needed to keep this suit. Besides, it was kinda cool and he was finally getting the hang of it. He took a deep breath as he hid in the trees as Dillandeu began to search for him.

He had managed to shake all of those pretty boys off, except from Dillandeu. "He's gotta be part demon," Duo grumbled to himself. Then he smiled softly. Many had said the same about him over the years. Maxwell's Demon, which he also found out was a broken law of physics, which also applied to him.

"Oh, Duo, come out come out wherever you are!" Dillandeu cheered in his creepy singsong voice.

Duo smirked and thought, Not on your life, you little femme fucker. He waited as Dillandeu stomped around. He realized that Dilly-Boy was a pyromaniac. And Pyro Boy had flame throwers. "Fuck," Duo cursed as he jetted out of the trees, slicing directly into Dillandeu's suit.

Dillandeu moved to retaliate, but Duo grit his teeth and did something that he hated to do. Something that grated on him so much that he couldn't stand it. He groaned.

He fled.

But he did shout, "Fuck you, Dilly!"

******

"The Atlantians were our ancestors, Kora," the tall, dark and handsome man told the smaller blond woman. She was tiny, but instead of looking elfin, she looked angelic, as did the handsome man.

Heero gasped as he saw the resemblance to those two and himself. He had his man's clean cut, angular features and the woman's keen blue eyes. My Mother and Father, Heero thought in awe as he looked at the couple.

A baby wailed suddenly and the woman, Kora, Heero's mother, picked up an infant. Heero's heart skipped a beat as he realized that the baby looked much like him. She rocked him gently in his arms and Heero felt a twinge of sorrow. He couldn't remember his parents much. What he generally came up with was blurred images and feelings.

"Taran, but we cannot make those same mistakes as they did. It was too recent a tragedy," she said as she looked at the tiny baby in her arms. Heero marveled at her tenderness and beauty. She looked back at Taran and said, "We need to think things over for our son."

Taran lifted the tiny bundle into his arms. Heero saw his infant arm wave happily at his father. He said, "Hiltan is a strong and fine boy. He'll make us proud."

"I fear that he's going to be like you," Kora replied, moving toward him.

Taran smirked and replied, "I'd hope so. You think too much. You seldom act for the sake of acting."

"You're reckless," she replied.

He said, "And you're too careful. So it all balances out in the end."

"But I was talking about altering fate," Kora said softly.

"An ability long lost to this world and to us," Taran said with a smile to pacify her fears.

She grimly looked at the baby and said, "I hope so."

Altering fate, what do they mean? Heero thought as the dream began to end.

******

"An enemy guymelef is coming, a Dragon Slayer," one of the guards called out. Van stood up and left the sleeping Heero. Hitome stood up with him and Relena stayed sitting, at Heero's side.

He ran out to the deck to see the black guymelef, seriously battered. Allen's men were getting ready for combat and Van shouted, "No, don't! He's a friend."

He stood there as the guymelef landed. The harness opened and a slightly tattered Duo Maxwell tumbled out. He sat on the ground, holding himself up on his hands. He took deep gasps of air as he looked around. He looked up at Van with alert violet eyes. He stood up, still panting for air.

He said one word. A name as a question. "Heero?" he asked, still gasping for air.

"I'll show you," Van told him as he directed Duo to below deck. He kept sneaking glances at the other boy. He was dressed in a fine black silk trimmed with silver uniform, elegant and flowing. He had seemed proud and arrogant when Van had first met him. Now, he seemed out of place in that suit.

Duo took off the over coat, leaving him in black shirtsleeves. He rolled them up to his elbows, looking a little more comfortable. He moved to place his hands somewhere near his hips, then he realized something and he ended crossing them on his chest.

Van opened the door and Duo's eyes fell. He rushed over to the bed and was automatically on his knees. Hitome stood up and left, seeing that she wasn't needed here. Relena strode over to him and snapped, "This is your fault."

"Shut up, Relena," Duo hissed, not looking at her. The distress was evident on his face. His eyes were huge and wavering.

She sneered, "You almost killed him."

"Shut up!" Duo snapped as he stood up and spun around to face her. He growled, "I was brainwashed. I couldn't help it."

"You seemed like you were enjoying it," Relena accused.

"Shut the fuck up!" Duo shouted, spinning back to the bed.

Van said, "Leave."

"What?" Relena asked.

Van looked at the regal young woman. He stood up to his full height, tapping his fingers on the Sword of Fanala. He said, "Leave. I'll call you back soon, but for right now, leave."

"How dare you?" Relena stuttered.

Van simply answered, "I dare because I'm the king of Fanala, that is why. Right now, Heero is one of my subjects and this is how I see fit."

Relena sent him an icy glare as she stomped out of the room. Duo gingerly reached out and touched one of the bandages. "He's bad, isn't he?" Duo asked in a lost voice.

"Very. We cannot care for him," Van told him, watching his reaction.

Duo slammed his fists into a table. He snapped, "Fuck. This is all my fault." He turned away and sighed. He looked down at Heero and said, "You know, I was wondering when I was going to be the cause of Heero's death."

"What do you mean?" Van asked. He was surprised and curious. He had no idea what Duo was talking about.

Duo laughed and sat down. He rested his head between his knees and sighed. He answered, "Never mind, but this is all of my fault."

"You were brainwashed," Van reasoned.

Duo gave that chilling laugh again. He shook his head and sat up, leaning back in the chair. He answered, "But it was my mind and my body that did this. I killed an angel."

******

"I can't believe he did that," Relena huffed.

Hitome studied the girl. She thought that she deserved it. She crossed her arms and said, "He needed to be alone."

"Van's in there," Relena huffed again.

Hitome smirked. She said, "But he's Van. He does this a lot. He knew that your friend needed someone to talk to."

"Duo is not my friend," Relena sneered, crossing her arms.

Hitome walked over to her. She was upset that Relena was being a bitch. Sure, she could understand her being upset over Heero, but it wasn't fair that she was taking it out on everyone else.

"He's a street rat," Relena added.

Hitome blinked. That was uncalled for. She held out her hand and sneered, "I'm sorry, but you deserve this."

She pivoted and put all of her weight into a mighty slap. Relena's head snapped back and she looked at Hitome with startled eyes. She rubbed the red spot on her cheek. Hitome stood to her full height and said, "Now, you needed that."

"How dare you!" Relena sneered, moving towards Hitome. "This doesn't belong in my philosophy, but . . ." She brought her hand down in a sharp blow. Hitome's cheek stung with the force of it. It was a sharp, hot, stinging pain, throbbing her entire face.

Hitome made a fist and brought it down to Relena's face.

To Be Continued!

Author's Notes: This story is to the Princess Elaine. She's really cool. Anyway, I've gotta say that I'm having fun with this story! And thanks to Cyberwolf and everyone else reading this story.