Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Gundam Wing Ghost Story I & II ❯ Memories ( Chapter 18 )

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

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A Gundam Wing Ghost Story II

9. Memories
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All the Maganacs were still ready to fight, alarmed by the sudden increase of the numbers of people in the villa, but Mr. Winner gave them a sign to put their weapons down. Then he went to J and bowed in front of the priest.

"The former minister of economy sends his deep respect for you, Your Honour."

After that he dropped onto his knees, the rest following his example. But J lifted his hand.

"That's enough. What is so important for you that you've to bother me? But first - please forget all aggressive thoughts before articulating your request."

Mr. Winner nodded and then began to talk:

"Your Honour, I swear by my honour I'm innocent. I only tried to help our nation and His Majesty. I had no idea that my actions would considered as treason. Please help His Majesty to save the land."

There was a moment of silence before the priest spoke.

"Although life in these times is a catastrophe, are there mistakes which can be corrected." He said with a faint, barely visible smirk on his lips.

Then he folded his hands to a prayer and began to murmur quick words in a barely comprehensible language. It almost sounded like a prayer, but wasn’t one, as everyone would find out soon. As soon as J had began to spoke, the atmosphere in the room was changing rapidly.

Suddenly every present person began to feel strange. As if they were on a trip. Dizzy and high. Mr. Winner had the sudden urge to bang his head on the cold ground, to punish himself for all his "sins", which he also did then. Again and again he slammed his head on the hard floor, not able to control himself. He went on until his forehead was all bloody. At the same time he cried over and over:

"I've done so many bad things in my life. That's why I deserve this."

The others suffered a similar fate. They all seemed to be in a sort of trance. Some of the Maganacs got up, driven by an eerie force, and walked zombie-like towards the strange priest. But they didn’t fight a bit against his power, because they simply hadn’t the will.

Suddenly several white rays of lights shot out of their bodies, roasting them while alive, until only a pile of ashes was left. Duo and Ryu, who also were under the influence of J's powers, only smiled, their mind not able to recognize the danger they were in.

Both young men had also the sudden urge to go to J and to deliver themselves to his mercy. They got up and also began to walk towards J's direction. Just at this moment Trowa snapped out of his meditative state, realizing that something wrong was going!"

"What the hell happens here? That's no prayer, but an evil spell!"

Like a flash he jumped up and stuffed a torn to two pieces ban paper in his ears, to protect himself against the spell. Then he rushed to Duo and the Chinese and forced both boys to sit down on the ground. He repeated the same action with Quatre and the rest.

"You stay here! It's a trick and much too dangerous for you!" he shouted before turning to the "priest".

The young monk pained his sign on his palm and shouted:

"STOP!"

Immediately J stopped his mumbling and looked at Trowa. It seemed as if the monk had become suspicious and seen through him. But this silly boy had no idea who he was in truth.

"Who are you? Are you a demon?" Trowa shouted, glad that he had been able to put a temporary stop to J's influence.

J didn’t say a single word, but grinned. That simple action let Trowa only fly into a rage.

"It doesn’t matter. If you're a demon I'll see that you're going straight back to where you've come from."

Some of the remaining Maganacs seemed to think the same thing, because they stormed forwards to kill J. But they didn’t come far. The priest only clapped his hands one time and several flashes of lightning flashed through their bodies. The men trembled for a short moment and then fell to the ground, all of them dead.

Trowa looked with wide, fearful eyes at the size of J's powers, but didn’t think one minute of giving up. On the contrary, it only encouraged him to fight harder against this evil being in the form of the priest. The monk made a somersault backwards and stood protectively in front of the others.

"I'll destroy you, you demonic creature! Wind......!"

Before Trowa could continue, J clapped his hands again and several explosions shook the room, which still could be heard outside. The young monk attacked again.

"Wind, Fire, Thunder, Lightning!"

He created with rotating motions of his arms a black tunnel of pure energy around J. Then Trowa tried to send his sword through it but J was faster and a large wave of his evil power hit Trowa with full force, causing him to be flung backwards on the ground where he stayed, trying to catch his breath.

"I can't make it. He's too strong!" the monk gasped.

Now there was only one possibility left. He had to get the others to safety and then to try it again. Using his last reserves of strength, Trowa got up and began to murmur quickly magic words. He tried to concentrate all of his power what was left. It worked. Behind them the wall began to part until a small opening could be seen, big enough for one person to slip through.

"You have to go. I can't stop him any longer."

"But Trowa...!" Quatre cried.

"GO NOW!" the young warrior monk shouted.

He already felt his last powers vanishing from him, causing him to cough up some blood. The others had to go now or he wouldn’t last any longer. Quatre knew that and finally gave in. Duo was the first to climb through the opening and then Ryu followed him. But just as Quatre and his father wanted to go behind them, two tentacles shot down from above and pulled them upwards.

Trowa barely managed to close the opening before he suffered the same fate. Satisfied with himself, J turned round, but a part of was still angry, since two of the mortals had managed to escape. But it didn’t matter. He would get them sooner or later.

"Catch them and bring them to me! ALIVE!" J said to the four masked men.

"YES, MASTER!"

They bowed and followed Duo and Ryu. Then the Priest turned to the blond girl carrying his staff.

"Let's go, Dorothy dear! We have still a lot of things to do!" he said, smirking devilish.

The girl also smirked and followed him outside to his sedan-chair. Rashid waited there and came to meet him halfway. He wanted to know what was going on because he had heard the noise from inside.

"What has happened?" the bearded man asked.

"Nothing. They realized their foolishness and admitted their faults. Now they're gone."

"So there had been an argument?"

"You're wrong. I'll give you an advice: Don't think too much about it, so you can't upset. Amen!" J said and sat down in his sedan-chair.

The procession continued their journey shortly after, leaving Rashid behind. This one narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Something was definitively wrong here. The bearded man went inside to check the situation, but found just an empty room. That was really strange. Something had happened here and the priest had something to do with it. And he, Rashid Kurama, Soldier of his Highness, the emperor, would find out what.

*

Duo and Ryu on the other hand had their own problems. It was true that they had managed to escape the clutches of the demon priest, but now they were running through a pitch-dark forest – for their life. Both boys were chased by four demonic figures, J's Men to be exactly, which followed them on hovering, glowing discs. Ryu had trouble to support Duo, who was still weak from the donation of his energy before.

But their chasers came dangerously nearer and the Chinese only saw one way out to save them both. When they reached a small lagoon with a small waterfall, he made the only reasonable decision and jumped down the waterfall with Duo in his arms, to get rid of their hunters. These ones screamed angrily when they realized that they had lost their targets.

As soon as Ryu ended up in the ice-cold water, he lost Duo out of his eyes for a moment. Only when he resurfaced and looked for the braided boy, his eyes widened and his heart made a painful jump at the terrible sight before him. Duo was floating motionless and with his face down in the water. The Chinese immediately swam to him and managed to get them both safe ashore.

There he laid Duo on the hard ground and stripped him off of his wet clothing. Then he made a fire to dry his and Duo's clothes. Ryu sighed. The whole past events came suddenly crashing down on him and he tried his best to stop shaking. What should he do now? He didn’t even know if his brother and father were alright or if they were already dead.

The loud chattering of teeth interrupted his train of thoughts and Ryu looked after Duo, who was shivering with cold. Ryu thought for a moment and then did the only thing that came to his mind. He went to the braided boy and covered Duo's trembling form with his own body, intending to warm him with his own body heat (*.*:*sighs*).

It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. On the contrary, it was the same feeling he had whenever the braided scholar had been near to him, like he was now. It was as if they already knew each other for a longer time. But it was impossible since he had met Duo only a few days ago.

After a few minutes, Ryu sensed that Duo had stopped shivering, but had begun to talk in his sleep. The Chinese could hear one name called out again and again. Wufei. Duo had called him Wufei a few times. Ryu wondered if he had been a past love of Duo. And how did he may have looked like?

The young Chinese would have asked him, but now Duo was dreaming. Of Wufei. Of the past.

"Wufei, Wufei!"

##..."What's your name?"

"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell! And yours?"


"Chang, Wufei Chang!"...##

"Please don’t leave me, Wufei?"

##..."I'm sorry, Duo, but I can't stay any longer. But the sun rises and I really have to go now." He said sadly.

"I know." Duo sobbed.

"Farewell Duo! I'll never forget you and what you've done for me. Thanks for everything. I...I love you and I always will! Good-bye!" the Chinese finally said.

"I love you too. Always."...##

"Why did you leave, Wufei? I love you so much! I need you. It's so hard without you!" Duo cried in his sleep.

Ryu couldn’t do anything but to warm the braided boy further and to comfort him, doing so by caressing his cold skin. This Wufei must have meant a lot to Duo, when the braided boy still thought of him.

"You're so good to Wufei. Even now your thoughts are only aimed at him. You must miss him very much." Ryu whispered to Duo and stroked the silky, brown hair. Duo looked so beautiful, especially when he slept.

*

The next morning, after the Chinese had dressed himself and Duo, he took the still unconscious Duo in his arms and carried him to the next town, where he finally found a small tavern and a room for himself and Duo to stay over night. Ryu laid Duo down on the bed and waited for him to wake up.

His gaze suddenly fell on Duo's scroll and without knowing why, he unfolded it carefully and took a closer look at the picture there. Ryu looked at the portrait of the young Chinese man. So that was Wufei Duo had spoken of so many times. Now he could understand the braided boy's feelings. The young man on the portrait was really handsome and... The young Chinese gasped slightly when he realized that the young man on the picture looked like...Himself.

Ryu's eyes widened. Why didn’t he notice it before? How could it be...? Now he understood all of Duo's actions and why the latter one had addressed him with the name Wufei. He must have mistaken him for his lost love.

"Wufei!"

The name came out as a small whisper, before the braided boy began to stir on the bed. Ryu smiled a little. Duo had finally woken up. The braided boy turned his head slowly towards Ryu.

"Wufei, is that you?"

The Chinese froze for a moment. Duo still seemed to think that he was his Wufei. Then something strange happened. Duo jumped up and placed himself in front of Ryu, intending to protect him from the sunlight.

"Why are you still sitting there, Wufei? You must hide from the sun or your soul evaporates and you can't be reborn. Why do you hesitate? Can't you hear me, Wufei? Wufeeeeeeeiiiiiiiii!" he shouted, trails of tears streaming down his face.

Ryu didn’t know what he should do. It seemed as if Duo was still shaken because of the events of the past few hours and believed he was still with his Wufei. The Chinese decided to wait until the other one had gotten a grin on himself again. This one turned round, when nothing happened.

Ryu saw the empty, haunted look in Duo's eyes, which normalized quickly, when Duo realized, that his Wufei wasn’t sitting on the chair before him, but the other one, who just looked like him. Ryu Winner.

"You're not Wufei!" Duo whispered.

"No, I'm not!" Ryu answered.

"I'm sorry. I guess I was confused and mistook you for him."

Ryu got up slowly, never losing sight of Duo.

"So there was a Wufei! It is the boy from the picture, isn’t it?"

Duo nodded. Ryu guided him to the bed and both boys sat down.

"Please tell me of him! I want to know everything so that I can understand!"

"Okay. His name is...was Wufei Chang. I met him a long time ago. He was a ghost, who was enslaved by an ancient tree demon. I helped to free him and his soul. I buried his urn after, so that he could be reborn. I guess I'll never see him again!" Duo said.

"I...If you like you can call me Wufei! Temporary!"

"Temporay?...Oh, I understand...Thank you!" Duo smiled.

"But can I ask you something?" he continued after a moment of silence.

"You're engaged, aren’t you?"

"Yes, but I hadn’t a choice. It was decided at my birth!" Ryu replied.

"I understand. Wufei was engaged, too, and he said the same thing. Do know that you two are really similar?"

"Really?"

"Yes."

A knock at the door interrupted their conversation and the cook entered, holding a tray with a can and two cups. Duo didn’t know why but he was sure that he had seen him before.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. Here's your tea. The meal is also ready soon!" he smirked and left.

Duo looked after him. From where did he know that man? And then it came to his mind. This guy was that cannibal cook, who had served him the meal of horse and men. Damn it, they were in trouble now. He turned round and saw Ryu who just tried to drink a cup of tea.

"Don’t drink this. The tea is poisoned!" he shouted and knocked the cup out of the Chinese's hand.

The cup fell on the floor and the liquid evaporated with a loud hiss.

"We have to get out of here. We're in great danger!" Duo said and grabbed their belongings. Both climbed out of the window and ran away from the tavern just in time.

Downstairs the cook had already boiled water for them and was now getting his fellows, who were waiting for them. Each of them had a sharp knife and a marked hunger for fresh men meat.

Yelling out loud, they stormed the room and hit with their weapons on the empty bed, just to see that Duo and Ryu had gone.

"DAMN IT. OUR MEAL IS GONE!"

*

It was night again and both, Ryu and Duo, ran again through a pitch-dark forest. This time their pursuers were a hungry pack of wolves. Neither of them had hopes to make it in time to a safe hiding place.

"It's too dangerous here because of the wolves. I fear we aren’t going to make it anywhere!" Ryu shouted.

Finally they fell exhausted to the ground in front of a tree. Here, in view of their most likely death, Duo couldn’t lie any longer to the Chinese and decided to tell him the truth about himself.

"Ryu, I have to tell you something important. My name isn’t Howard and I'm not a scholar. I'm just an unimportant debt collector and my name is Duo Maxwell!" he said.

Ryu stared astonished at him, before he smiled and caressed Duo's cheek.

"I don’t care who or what you are, Duo. I'm happy if I can die with the one I love with all my heart."

Duo looked at the Chinese and could see the honesty in his eyes. He was suddenly so happy. Ryu loved him and he loved the Chinese so much. That was the best thing that happened to him for a long time.

"I love you, too and now we'll never get separated again." Duo said.

"Never again. Please hold me and never let me go again!" Ryu whispered.

With these words he embraced Duo and looked into his eyes. They were so beautiful. Slowly their faces and lips got nearer until they ended up in a long, deep and slow but passionate kiss. Duo was so happy that he was about to burst of joy. Now he could die without any regrets, because he had gotten what he wanted for so long.

The kiss ended finally and exactly at that moment Duo's gaze fell upon the overgrown stone next to him. Duo pushed the leaves aside and read with wide eyes the name, which was written there in big letters.

NATAKU – TEMPLE.


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Tsuzúku -> to be continued...
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Hey, I'm still alive. I was just busy with other Fics and have to deal with my annual summer writer's block. Sorry for the sappy chappie. I just couldn’t help myself.

Comments and criticism like usual to:

Terrenis-sama@web.de

Ja ne!

^-^ Terrenis-chan ^.^

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