Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Gundam Wing Ghost Story I & II ❯ Poisoned ( Chapter 17 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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A Gundam Wing Ghost Story II

8. Poisoned
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"WATCH OUT! SOLDIERS!" Ryu yelled, while everyone was fleeing out of the haunted villa, still with Duo in tow (^^: The poor guy is still in the net.).

Quatre looked in the direction Ryu had meant and saw several dozens of heavy armed soldiers. Their leader, Rashid Kurama, also heard the noise in front of him and wanted to know the reason for it. So he asked a soldier, who was riding behind him.

"What's going on there?"

"Apparently an assault, Kurama-san!" the soldier stammered.

"I understand. GIVE ME MY WEAPON!" Rashid ordered.

The soldier obeyed and gave Rashid his spear-like weapon. The tall man took it and got off his horse. Then he gave the sign to attack. Half of the soldiers under Rashid's leadership rushed up to Ryu, Quatre, Duo and the Maganacs, while the rest watched the cart with Mr. Winner on it.

The latter one didn’t believe his eyes. Those two boys over there looked like his sons Quatre and Ryu. But that was impossible or could it be...? If they were his sons, what were they doing here? Maybe to free him?

"Ryu? Quatre?" he asked unbelieving.

No, he hadn’t deceived himself. Right before him were his boys and all of the Maganacs, which usually were under his command. Who would have thought that they really would free him?

"There is father!" Quatre suddenly shouted and pointed to the cart.

But they had other troubles now, because the Imperial Soldiers were still heading for their direction. What should they do now? Then Duo stepped in:

"Why don’t you lure them into the villa? This ghost must still be there and we can let him take care of those soldiers. What do you mean?" he suggested.

Ryu and Quatre looked at each other.

"Good idea! Come on!" the Chinese yelled and now everybody was running back into the villa.

Rashid and his men followed them. But then Ryu and the others must find out that the ghost had destroyed all their traps within the villa. And no sign of the monster.

"Damn ghost!" the Chinese cursed.

Now they really had a problem. They were surrounded. The monster ghost was probably somewhere here and the Imperial soldiers were behind them. So they only had one option – to attack the soldiers and so to free Mr. Winner.

"Okay, listen! We attack, since it's our only option now. Let's go!" Ryu ordered.

"Ahem...is it possible to get me out of that net first? It's a little bit uncomfortable in here." Duo whined.

But just as both young men helped him out of the net, Duo saw the ghost again.

"WATCH OUT! THE GHOST IS BACK!" he yelled and started to flee.

Ryu shouted some quick commands and then everyone looked for a suited hiding place. Just in time. Rashid and his men appeared hardly one minute later. Rashid ordered them to stay outside. The bearded man waited for a moment and then made matchwood out of the door with the help of his weapon.

Slowly he went inside, but stopped when he saw the monster. But Rashid showed no sign of fear of the giant ghost. On the contrary, he smiled and then shouted:

"I'm not afraid of you. I've defeated bigger giants than you." he shouted and then attacked the monster.

The sharp blade hit the ghost in the middle of his forehead, but didn’t hurt in the least. So Rashid continued his attack.

Ryu, Duo and Quatre took advantage of this chance to sneak out of the villa. Arriving outside, they rushed off with drawn swords and towards the soldiers, which were waiting in front of the villa, attacking them with loud yelling.
Meanwhile Duo hid himself behind a tree since he didn’t want to be involved in the heavy fights. He looked around.

The Chinese boy and the blond boy were busy fighting against several opponents at once, while the carriage with the Winner Brothers father was unguarded since the soldiers, who should guard it, were already lying dead on the ground. Duo thought for a moment and then decided to free Mr. Winner.

"Please wait a moment! I'll free you." He said to the prisoner.

The braided boy looked down and saw a sword beside a dead soldier, picking it up.

"Well...I'll take this sword and free you with it!" he replied.

But never take a sword in your hand if you can't handle it. At the same moment Duo had taken the weapon in his hands, an armed soldier went up against him and challenged him. The scholar gulped very had. Why was he always so lucky?

"Okay, please don’t hurt. Why don’t we find a peaceful way to solve this? We could talk about!" Duo complained and threw away the sword, which ended up on a root. But it was no use throwing it away, the soldier attacked him anyway. Duo shrieked and ran away after grabbing the sword again, totally frightened and with the soldier right on his heels.

Then the braided boy tripped over another root and crashed with full force on the dirty forest floor. Unfortunately his left arm landed onto the sword handle and flung it through the air until it bored right into the chest of the soldier and this one fell dead on the ground.

But just one moment earlier his sword fell out of his hand and barely missed Duo's private parts. Then the man fell onto Duo.

The braided boy looked nervously at the blade, which had almost castrated him.

"Very dangerous thing, such a sword!" he laughed nervously and pushed the corpse of the soldier off of him.

*

Rashid finally had a hard time to be a match for the ghost because the fight of both had shifted outside the old villa. Then he managed to cut off the ghost's arms and finally his head. But this didn’t mean that the monster ghost was defeated.

Several giant insect legs unfolded from the trunk, putting a headlock on Rashid by winding around the man's hip. Somehow the bearded man succeeded to free himself from the ghost's death grip and to spear one of the two ghost arms, which now were haunting the area, with his sword.

The other arm attacked one of the remaining soldiers, choking him. Ryu used the opportunity and rushed to his brother, who was already busy to free their father. Together they tried to cut the chain.

But they had forgotten the head of the monster ghost, coming up to them roaring and with an incredible velocity. Mr. Winner saw him first and warned them.

"Be careful! Behind your backs! Please get to safety and don’t look after me!" he shouted.

"No, we're not going to let you down, father!" Quatre cried.

"But..."

"No, I'll take care of this. You'll free father!" Ryu ordered, taking his sword.

The blond boy nodded, while the Chinese threw himself for the head. He caught it and began to fight with him. It was a hard fight, something he hadn’t expected. Suddenly a thick steam of fog, mixed with slime, shot out of the monsters mouth and hit him in the middle of his face.

Disgusted, he threw the head against the next tree and sank onto the ground, gasping for air and his eyes unnaturally wide open. Ryu stared at his hand. Something very strange had happened to him and it hadn’t been anything good. He felt suddenly so strange.

His head was spinning and he had the feeling as if something evil and dark began to crawl beneath his skin, slowly taking over his soul and mind. What was happening to him and why did he suddenly feel so cold?

In his current state, Ryu didn’t notice that the head had started a new attack. Quatre didn’t notice either. He was too busy to free their father to see the renewed attack. Only Duo saw the danger the Chinese boy was in and shouted:

"Watch out!! The thing is coming back."

Slowly Ryu turned his head and saw it coming, but was unable to move. But just as the head reached him, a figure shot out of the earth and made a somersault before standing right before the fallen Chinese, blocking the head's way. Duo and Quatre recognized him. It was Trowa.

*

"Sorry, if I'm late. I think I'll take care of this now." The warrior monk said, holding several ban papers in his right hand.

He took quick care of the remaining head of the ghost who had chased him and Duo the night before. Trowa murmured some magical words which straightened the amulets and caused them to glow fiery. Then he flung them at the head which burst like an overripe melon. Satisfied with himself, the monk turned to Ryu to help him.

Holding out his hand, he offered to help him getting up. The Chinese only glared at Trowa, a strange wildness in his eyes and on his face. Internally the Asian felt strange, as if his personality had been replaced by another one, a more dark and dangerous personality.

And this other personality seemed to get the upper hand.

"I think I can do this by myself." Ryu snapped angrily, grabbing his sword.

"Fine!" was Trowa's only answer.

But he watched the Chinese, just to be on the safe side. Something had happened, something bad and Trowa was sure it had to do with the ghost. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the young Chinese trying to get up, using his sword as a support. The Asian succeeded but everyone could see that he was standing on shaky legs.

"I...Is everything alright, Ryu?" Duo asked concerned.

"I'm fine. Don’t ask such stupid questions!" Ryu growled, throwing dark glares at the braided boy.

This one gulped and bit his lip. Something had happened to his beautiful Chinese and Duo didn’t know what. But the braided scholar didn’t have the time to continue his trains of thoughts, because he saw suddenly Ryu, who arched and held his head in pain. Without thinking the scholar rushed towards him.

*

Ryu tried to walk back to the villa. It hadn’t been his intention to be so mean to Duo, but for some strange reasons he couldn’t react otherwise. Suddenly a sharp pain flashed through his head. Biting his teeth together, he tried not to cry out aloud but before he even could react further, his vision darkened suddenly and he fell unconsciously in Duo's arms, who luckily had reached him in time.

*

Duo stared in horror at the unconscious figure in his arms. Somewhere in the background he could hear Quatre crying out. But the braided boy couldn’t believe that something like that had happened. Not to his beautiful Chinese. He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t notice two other persons beside him.

"Gods, what happened to him?" Quatre asked worried.

"I don’t know. Can anyone tell me what happened before my arrival?" Trowa, who was standing behind the blond, asked.

"Well...There was this head and attacked Ryu. They were wrestling with each other and then came some sort of fog out of the head's mouth and he sprayed it directly at Ryu." Duo explained the situation.

"Hnnn...I understand. Okay, at first let's get him inside. I'm sure there are still soldiers out there."

"Do you know what happened to him?" the blond boy asked the monk.

"I have an idea. But I hope I'm wrong!" this one replied and picked up Ryu.

Quatre and Duo exchanged worried glances, but didn’t say anything while they followed the warrior monk back to the villa. Mr. Winner and the Maganacs, who somehow had managed to overpower Rashid and who was now in their safekeeping, joined them.

*

It was already getting dark, when the small group were back in the old villa. While some of the Maganacs kept Rashid Kurama in check and the rest were guarding the building, the rest of the group took care of the still lifeless figure, which was now lying with its head in Quatre's lap.

"So, what's wrong with him?" the fair-hared boy asked.

"Hnnn, after what you've told me I have the fear that the ghost poisoned him!" Trowa said, still checking on the Chinese.

"P...POISONED?"

Duo, Quatre and Mr. Winner looked shocked at each other. They hadn’t expected something like that. Trowa just nodded.

"Yes. And if I'm right and we don’t do anything, he will also turn into a ghost."

"Oh no..."

Quatre almost cried when he heard that. He didn’t want lose his half-brother like that, but what could they do? The blond boy knew only one man who was responsible for the present situation. It only could be this Rashid Kurama.

Furious, he got up and glared at the older man.

"This is your fault. I'm going to kill you." He growled and wanted to rush to the other man, but Trowa held him back.

"Calm down, Quatre. His troop is somewhere out there at the moment. He is more useful to us alive. So we can take him as a hostage." He said.

Quatre wanted to reply something, but suppressed any further comment. Trowa was right. Slowly he sank back to the ground beside his brother, but did send Rashid a few hateful glances.

"But what can we do if he turns into a ghost?" Duo asked carefully, although he didn’t want to know the answer.

Trowa was silent for a long moment, thinking about the best way to tell them the unavoidable answer to this question. He sighed.

"Then we must kill him." The monk said.

*

The reactions to his answer were different. Duo and Mr. Winner just looked horrified, while Quatre got really furious.

"WHAT??!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! HOW COULD YOU DARE...? I REFUSE TO LET YOU KILL MY BROTHER WHILE HE'S GOING TO LIVE! I WON'T ALLOW THAT!" the blond boy yelled, glaring indignant at Trowa and then at Rashid.

"HE'S RIGHT! THE TRAITOR MUST DIE!" the Maganacs shouted, aiming their weapons at Rashid's throat.

"STOP THAT AND YOU, QUATRE, CALM DOWN!" Mr. Winner suddenly yelled, stopping them.

Quatre and the Maganacs looked at him and then slowly headed back.

"It doesn’t matter if we kill him or not. It won't change our recent situation. There are too many scoundrels with his Majesty, who don’t bother about the simple people. Maybe it's really the best he kills me and gives my head to the emperor, so he can see that my intentions are honestly!" the older man then said.

"No, father, please don’t do this. Without you we haven’t a leader anymore. Take my head instead!" Quatre requested.

"NO, TAKE OUR HEADS!" the Maganacs shouted in chorus.

Duo, who had watched the whole discussion, had enough.

"WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE STOP THIS NONSENSE? HONESTLY, I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ANYONE CAN HAGGLE ABOUT A HUMAN HEAD!" he yelled at every present person in the room.

Trowa just raised an eyebrow, while the rest was silent, astonished about Duo's outburst.

"And who do think you are that you can give orders to us?" Mr. Winner asked him.

Duo was dumbfounded for a moment, but recovered quickly.

"I'm the wise scholar Howard!" the braided boy answered.

"The wise scholar Howard? The one with the comprehensive knowledge?"

Quatre's father looked questioningly at his son and this one only nodded.

"Fine. If you're really Howard then give us your advice!" he asked Duo.

"Well...Nobody of you should die. It wouldn’t change anything and the emperor will still insist on his mistake." The braided scholar said after some thinking.

Mr. Winner didn’t have to answer, because just in this moment Ryu's eyes snapped open and he sat up abruptly, causing several people to jump back. Duo and Trowa were so surprised that they fell on their backsides, while Quatre began to cry of joy. All three young men blinked.

"Brother, I'm glad you're alive." Quatre sniffed.

"Are you alright, Ryu?" Duo asked concerned.

But the Chinese didn’t answer. He just looked at them with a blank face and strange empty eyes. Trowa narrowed his eyes. There was definitively something wrong with him. But he didn’t know what. But his question was answered right away.

Wondering, why Ryu didn’t say anything, Duo came nearer and touched the Chinese's shoulder. But at the same moment he had touched him, Ryu's eyes went black and Duo was flung through the entire room, ending up on a straw bale. Startled, Trowa tried to get one of his ban papers, but suffered the same fate as Duo before he could get one. But in contrast to Duo he ended up crashing through a woodened beam and into the next wall.

"I guess I was right!" he mumbled, rubbing his aching bones and head.

"Ryu, what are you doing?" Quatre shouted.

But his half-brother didn’t listen to him. In fact, he only hissed at Quatre before getting up. When the Chinese then turned round his face had changed. It was now a demonic grimace and everyone could see and fell the dark, evil aura around him.

"Oh no. What happened?" Quatre whispered with wide eyes, when he saw his half-brother beginning to be suspended, a stormy wind blowing in everyone's faces.

"I'm afraid I was right with my foreboding. He has turned into a ghost!" Trowa replied.

"But what can we do now? And I don’t mean your plan to kill him." Duo said who had joined them again in the meantime.

"I know. But I must think about another plan for a moment. However, first he must back down on the floor!" the monk said.

"Well, we can try it!" Duo said.

Quatre nodded and gave some of the Maganacs a sign. Two men of them slowly got nearer to the ghostly Ryu, ready to grab him. But they were hardly near him, when Ryu opened his mouth and spat a dark fog at them, which turned quickly in several poison snakes as soon as it had touched the men.

Totally horrified, they threw off the poisonous reptiles and headed back. Meanwhile Trowa had developed a new plan and started now his attack. The warrior monk quickly took out one of his ban papers and set it on fire. After doing that, he flew towards the Chinese. This one tried to spray his deadly fog at the monk but Trowa was faster and shoved the burning amulet into his mouth.

Ryu's black eyes widened and before he could do anything, Trowa pushed a long needle in the back of his neck. The Chinese let out a loud, blood-curling scream and began to change into another form. His skin shrank until he looked like an ancient mummy. Everyone shrank from him, when they saw him, because no one had expected anything like this.

"What now?" Duo asked Trowa.

"Okay, I exorcised the ghost from his body. But now he needs new energy or he'll die definitively."

Duo bit his lip.

"And how are we doing this?"

Trowa didn’t say anything, but threw a meaningful glance at Duo, whose eyes became as big as saucers when he realized what the young monk meant.

"You're joking, right?"

"Do I look as if I were joking?"

"No, but...!"

"Listen, I would do it but I need my energy for the case something goes wrong. And the ugliness is only outwards. Internally he's the same person!"

The braided boy sighed. What should he do now? Help Ryu or not? After a short internal battle with himself he settled for the first task. He had to help the boy who looked like his Wufei.

"Okay, I'll do it, but you must help me!"

"Of course!"

"Fine, do it then!" Duo sighed again.

Trowa smiled a little and then quickly said his magic words.

Immediately Duo began to rise up in the air towards the Chinese. When he had reached him, the braided boy grabbed him and gave him a long, energy-donating kiss (*-* *sigh*). Unbelievable, but true – Duo's method succeeded. While both boys rotated kissing in the air, Ryu slowly changed back into the young man, he had been.

Duo on the side was glad that he could help Ryu. But at the same moment he felt slowly his life energy drifting away. But it didn’t matter. The main thing was that Ryu was going to live and this last kiss was more than anything he ever had dreamed of, since he had met Ryu.

*

Everyone was watching the play that was going on up there in the air and they hoped everything would be alright soon. Especially Quatre hoped so. On the other side he knew that he now didn’t have a chance with the braided boy anymore, because this one seemed to have made his final decision.

*

Finally, it had seemed like an eternity, both boys sank back down to the ground. Ryu opened his eyes for a brief moment just to see Duo smiling at him before the braided boy lost his consciousness as well as the Chinese. One second later both landed on the floor, slumping together.

Immediately the others rushed towards them. Trowa pulled the needle out of Ryu's neck and began at the same time to give artificial respiration to Duo, since the braided boy had stopped breathing. Both boys looked very pale and Trowa hoped that it wasn’t too late for both of them. He sat the Chinese upright, his hand on his back, and continued to breathe new life into Duo, until this one moaned weakly, giving Trowa a sign to stop.


In the meantime a strange procession came closer to the villa. The guards noticed them first and ran into the house right away to give report.

"Winner-sama, there's a procession coming nearer. What shall we do?"

"Could you recognize someone?"

"Well...Yes. One of them looks like a priest in a golden robe!"

"Priest in a golden robe?"

The guards nodded. Everyone was now standing there at a loss. Rashid took the advantage to free himself. As soon as he was free of his bonds, he snatched away Quatre's sword and quickly grabbed Mr. Winner, aiming the sword at his throat. Immediately the rest were ready to fight him, but they didn’t dare as long as he had taken Mr. Winner as a hostage.

"Lay your weapons down or he'll die!" Rashid ordered.

"Do it!" Quatre replied.

The Maganacs did, as Quatre had said and threw their weapons on the ground, although unwilling. Mr. Winner closed his eyes, expecting his fate. But nothing happened. The older man threw his sword away instead, much to the surprise of everyone.

"I've seen with my own eyes, what happened. And now I can say that you're loyal to our state and our emperor. We may have different political views but nevertheless I'd like to help you. The name of the priest out there is J.

He's the first at whom His Majesty turns to when he has religious questions. I'm sure if I tell him everything he can put in a good word for you, because he has a great influence. Please trust with this, Winner-san!" Rashid said and went outside, leaving a stunned group behind.

"Do you think we can trust him, father?" Quatre asked.

"I guess we have to."

*

Rashid had gone outside, where the entire procession was waiting. There were many young women in front of a big, luxurious, but veiled sedan-chair which rested on a big carrier that looked like a big golden crane. The sedan-chair was guarded by four men who all wore black robes and a golden mask to cover their heads and faces.

Rashid knelt in front of the litter and bowed his head before he began to speak:

"Please excuse this disturbance, but I, Rashid Kurama, allow myself to pay a visit to you, Your Holiness. But my coming has a reason. I request you to stand up for Winner-sans right. He is no traitor, but honest and fair!"

"Today justice is often mixed up with injustice. You'll have to understand that the emperor has his difficulties to decide well-balanced. But I'll report this case to the Imperial House and order what to do. Amen."

"I'll thank you, Your Holiness J-sensei!"

Then two of the young women threw petals in front of the sedan-chair and two of the guards opened the veil, covering it. Slowly the priest put a foot on the ground with the petals, followed by the other. Carefully he went towards the villa, followed by the four men and some of the girls. Rashid wanted to follow him, but one girl with long blond hair and strange eyebrows, who was carrying a large golden, sceptre-like stab, held him back.

"Please wait here or you will disturb His Holiness' concentration." The girl said before rushing to the group and walking before the priest.

Rashid looked after them and watched when the small group vanished inside the building. He wondered about what the girl had said, but obeyed.

*

Inside everyone was suddenly very awake and suspicious when the four men and the two flower girls arrived at the entrance, followed by J and the blond girl with the sceptre.

All present persons looked at each other. The priest wore a long orange-golden robe with a headgear. His eyes couldn’t be seen because of a sort of glasses he wore. But everyone could see the golden aura glowing around his whole body.

So that was the distinguished and respected priest J.



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Tsuzúku -> to be continued...
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Yup, another part ready. Sorry for the delay, but I'm writing another yaoi ghost story (this time Weiß Kreuz). If you'd like to read it you can find at my archives. And I finally got GW on DVD ^^. It's a really good series although sometimes to long-winded for my taste. Comments like usual to:

Terrenis-sama@web.de

Ja ne!

^-^ Terrenis-chan ^.^

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