Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wing ❯ Broken Wing - Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

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

Authors Notes: Hi all and welcome to chapter fifteen of Broken Wing



Authors Notes: Hi all and welcome to chapter fifteen of Broken Wing. This is the longest chapter of BW yet, simply because I had so much that I NEEDED to fit into this chapter. Which reminds me; I've got an announcement to make. But I'm not gonna make it until after the last chapter of BW! Ha! See, I know how to keep you guys coming back for more! Thankies to TrenchcoatMan (he's an author now! Check out his fic, Great Duo Hunt!) to Marika Webster, and VeeBees and all of you guys!

Disclaimer: ::grumbles:: I don't own 'em. None of 'em. So plft.


Broken Wing - Chapter Fifteen


"It's pink."
Quatre blinked and took his eyes from the massive Gundam to look at Wufei, who was glaring up at Setsuna. The Chinese boy had his arms crossed and seemed none too happy about this mysterious Queen's color choice.
For it was, indeed, pink. Quatre tore his gaze away from Wufei to return it to the Gundam, which towered above them much in the way they towered above ants and other insignificant insects. Not only was it a bright shade of hot pink, it also was a giant even compared to their own Gundams. It also had a distinctively feminine shape. And . . . what looked suspiciously like two buns perched on the top of its metallic head.
"It has odangos," Duo murmured just loud enough for Quatre to hear, and the blonde saw his indigo eyes trail to Usagi and her own two, golden buns.
"It's gorgeous!" Usagi squealed in delight and rushed forward, standing just beside the left foot of the massive thing and staring up the complete length. She nearly fell over backwards.
"Where's the power source?" Hiiro, of course, was being the logical one.
"In the back," Ami replied, leading them all, though it was obvious that she did this reluctantly.
Around the back of the Gundam, nestled in a panel that came away from the right leg, was a small hole where something apparently fit. No one said a word. Quatre had no idea about what it was that mysteriously powered this ancient mobile suit, and none of the others apparently did either. Except . . . Duo was looking at Usagi again, and the girl had a thoughtful expression on her calm face.
"You know what to do, Usagi-chan."
"Hai." The golden one nodded at Ami and took out the brooch again, flipping it open to reveal the miraculous gem. The jewel that was just the right size to fit into the place for the power source.
"That little piece of glass is going to provide the power for a mobile suit?" Wufei crossed his arms, looking at Usagi and Ami skeptically. "Not just any mobile suit at that, but this monstrosity!"
"Alpha was built specifically to draw upon the energy emitted by this Crystal," Ami stepped forward, supplying the answer, as she always seemed to do. "Don't worry, it will be more than enough."
"I'll believe THAT when-"
Wufei was cut off when Usagi removed the gem from its place- how, no one could say exactly- and replaced it inside of Alpha's leg. Immediately came the slow hum of energy coursing through the machine, flowing through its parts and building within its weapons. The darkened eyes lit up, bright shades of glowing pink. Wufei said nothing else.
"Can she pilot it?" The next question came from Duo, who stood beside Usagi, indigo eyes dark with worry. Quarter understood; if Duo had not asked the question, he would have. Alpha seemed enormous and at a power level much beyond their own Gundams. Quatre questioned whether any of them, trained as they were, could pilot the thing. Usagi had no experience with mobile suits at all.
"She will need training," Ami sighed, taking her glasses from their perch on her nose and giving them a good wiping on the hem of her white lab coat, "Not even Usagi-chan can pilot a Gundam from pure instinct."
"We'll train her then."
Quatre nodded, agreeing with Trowa. "Yes, we have to. If she's insisting on doing this, then the least we can do is train her."
"Right," Duo agreed, and Hiiro grunted his affirmation.
"We've already taught the woman to use more mundane weapons," Wufei growled, "We might as well teach her how to use the ultimate ones. I just hope we don't regret this later, although we most likely will."
"Would you please stop talking about me like I'm not here!!" Usagi gave Duo a good whap upside the head to drive her point home. "Yes, I will pilot Alpha, and I appreciate the help you guys will give me. But you can't teach someone if you treat them like they're invisible!" Her cheeks were flushed cutely in anger, and Quatre saw Duo blushing himself, watching the beautiful golden-haired girl. "Now, I think we should get started. . ."


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


The next couple of weeks passed in something like a state of serenity for the five pilots and their young, energetic, somewhat dangerous student. That is to say, none of them noticed the time passing because they were too busy dodging a misplaced foot or buster blast from Alpha. Ami had certainly been correct; some things Usagi could do from instinct, but piloting a Gundam was NOT one of them.
"Usagi-chan! Watch it!"
"Gomen, Duo-kun!"
"ONNA!"
"GOMEN!"
Relena sighed, gazing out of her office window. This summer "cottage" was far away from the main palace of Sanch and any unwanted onlookers, but she still worried that the bright lights and crashing trees might bring some attention to their training. Yet, did it really matter? The pilots could handle anyone who came without reason. And no one would, because Relena had given specific instructions for no one save Noin to be permitted within ten miles of the hideaway.
The truth was, she wanted to be out there with them.
Not because she wanted to learn how to pilot a dangerous weapon. No, she just wanted to be with a group of people her age, having fun, and they certainly seemed to be having fun. Even Wufei, who grumbled and crossed his arms, and who would never admit it. Even Hiiro, who must be having fun because he was doing the only thing he knew how to do. Trowa and Quatre were together, and that was all they needed. Duo always had fun, and Usagi . . . well . . . she was fun. The girl was like energy wrapped up into a little ball that needed to be let out, and it was contagious.
"Miss Relena."
She turned, seeing Noin bowing in the doorway.
"Yes?"
"I have the reports you wanted." The woman stepped forward, offering a manila envelope to her young princess. Relena took it and retrieved from its depths a single sheet of paper.
"This is all of it?"
"Yes. They only had one encounter with her, on Barge, about a week after the escape of Duo Maxwell and Chang Wufei. She knocked down a guard with an energy blast-"
"'From an unidentified weapon.' The Crystal, it must be." Relena sighed and scanned over the rest of the report. "It says that she is to be captured on sight and brought to the nearest OZ installation." A pause as the princess read over the sheet twice more. Then her blue eyes lifted to the lieutenant standing before her. "Are you sure this is all? Even after the incident at Elizabeth Base?"
"Yes, there have been no more reports or orders concerning Usagi-chan, Miss Relena."
The princess set the folder on her desk and turned her gaze out the window once more. She'd been certain that there would have been more written on the girl after her rescue from OZ's Elizabeth base. She'd been expecting an order to have her killed on sight. But no, nothing, not even an update. Only the highest ranking officers would have any idea at all that Usagi had ever been captured, let alone escaped. Without an internal report the lower officers and foot soldiers would be completely in the dark.
OZ doesn't want to admit that they made a mistake.
"Miss Relena?"
"Thank you. That will be all, Miss Noin."
"Yes." Noin bowed again and turned, leaving the princess to her own deliberations and thoughts.
OZ can't be giving up on her so easily. What are they planning?


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Duo shook with barely contained fear. Sweat streamed down his sheet-white face as he clutched Deathscythe's controls in a vise-like grip. He felt his eyes widen until the bursting point, and managed somehow to cough instead of cry out in terror. Not two feet away from Deathscythe was a large, smoking hole in the ground.
"Gomen nasai, Duo-kun!"
"P-Perfect-tly a-alright, U-Usagi-c-chan."
"See, baka Onna! Watch your aim! Your aim is completely off! This isn't a pistol, this is a Gundam, and Duo is lucky that Deathscythe protected him, because three feet on either side of your beam is enough to fry a person!"
"I understand that, Wufei-baka!"
"Take it easy on her," Quatre's voice filtered in from Sandrock, standing not too far to Deathscythe's left, "she has to get used to the controls. It takes strength she isn't used to having to work them."
"I can't," Wufei answered sharply, "you know better than anyone the destructive power of Gundams. And we all know that an inch to the left or right could mean the lives of innocent civilians." Silence followed the Chinese boys words, a silence in which most of them wondered what Quatre would say in response, and in which Usagi wondered what they were talking about.
"It was a mistake I'll never make again." Quatre's reply was made in a voice as flat as a lake on a calm day, but everyone knows that beneath such a serene seeming surface, the water is actually teeming and swirling.
"Let's make sure, then, that Usagi-san never has to make that mistake at all."


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


"A toast, to the fair pilot, Usagi-san, who pilots the loveliest Gundam I've ever seen!"
Duo got an elbow in the side for that one, but he didn't care, because it was Usagi's elbow, and Usagi's elbow could never hurt him. Much.
"Hmph. To training," Wufei raised his glass, looking uncomfortable, "may it all have made it through that thick skull of hers."
"To Quatre," said Trowa, very simply, "and courage."
"Here, here," Usagi tapped her own wine glass, filled with grape juice, then raised it to meet the other three, "To . . . Time. May there always be enough of it, and may it always remain changeable."
Hiiro grunted and raised his glass without a word, though his expression revealed much.
"To peace," Relena stood and added her own glass to the menagerie, "and friendship."
All eyes then landed on Quatre, who sat quietly in his own chair, gazing into the grape juice as if it held within its deep purple depths the secrets to the universe. He had been this way since the beginning of what Relena called a celebration banquet, to "celebrate" the ending of Usagi's first four weeks of training. Truthfully, Quatre had been quiet since that day two weeks ago when Wufei had reminded him of his actions in Wing Zero. And he remained quiet now, seeming unaware that everyone was waiting for him, or that it was his turn to toast at all.
"Quatre." Trowa murmured to the blonde softly, placing his free hand on the boy's shoulder with all of the weight of a feather.
"What?" Quatre blinked and looked up, eyes shifting about the group until he realized what was going on and stood. Even then he took a moment to think, and when he finally lifted his glass, his words were choked with sorrow, "To life."
"To life," they all whispered, Usagi with tears in her eyes. Even Duo wiped his eye, though under the pretense of some annoying eyelash or other sort of ocular invader.
"Let us eat then, shall we?" Relena gestured to the table and its opulent spread.
The five . . . six . . . pilots sat at their places and began to eat, minds mostly wiped clean of thoughts of fighting, or war, or training. For this single moment in time they were allowed to forget all of that and be teenagers. For one, small moment.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Doctor Mizuno Ami sat in her seat on the transport rocketing through space towards the L2 colony cluster. A nice doozy of a headache was just settling right between her eyebrows. What next, Kami-sama? She leaned back, closing her eyes and massaging her forehead. On the back of the seat in front of her, the vidphone snapped on and gave a much too cheerful chip, showing the face of one of the stewardesses.
"Doctor Mizuno?"
"Hai- I mean, yes?"
"There's a call for you from L2. She claims to be an old friend."
"I don't want to talk to anyone right now-"
"She says it's urgent. She wants me to at least tell you her name: Serenity."
Ami sat straight up in her seat.
"Put the call through."
"Right away."
A static screen. Then:
"Ami." No sight could have been better than the smiling face of her former princess and queen. Even if the smile was strained and there were dark circles beneath Serenity's eyes.
"Serenity."
The use of suffixes had died out long ago. The Senshi had hung on to them for a little while, determined not to let any part of their culture or who they were die. But after a few centuries they finally decided to give them up, and the world had seemed . . . less colorful without them.
"I'm glad to see you on your way. I'm surprised I remembered that Setsuna sent you. How are they, on Earth?"
"The boys are fine. They're teaching Usagi-chan . . . you, how to pilot Alpha. It was strange, watching that before I left. It was almost like seeing you in that thing again, incinerating hordes of Black Moon Family soldiers. And I finally know now why you had me build it in the first place. You thought you could handle it, being older and more powerful than before, didn't you?" Ami paused, looking at the silent visage of her queen, the eyes that said so much with a hue of serene blue. "Something's going to happen, isn't it? How bad will it be?"
"It almost killed me."
"Oh Kami-sama . . ."
"That's why I need you, and the others, here. When it happens, I'll feel it all over again, and I . . . I don't know if I can do that even with you here to support me."
"Serenity . . . no . . ."
"I may not make it this time, Ami."
"I'll be there in two days."
"Hurry."


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Usagi poked her head around the corner just enough so that her cerulean eyes could see into the adjacent hallway. Ah yes, there was her prey . . . slowly, silently the golden-haired one tip-toed around the wall and reached forward to pounce . . .
"Konnichiwa, Usagi-san," Quatre said the second before her hand gripped his shoulder.
"Konnichiwa, Quatre-kun." Usagi deflated quickly, having lost her chance for a sneak attack. "You're no fun to sneak up on."
He shrugged with a smile that was kind, but seemed sad nevertheless.
"I suppose that's one of the pitfalls of being an empath."
But the girl had forgotten that.
"Why are you so sad, Quatre-kun? Does it have something to do with what Wufei-baka said? I'll stomp him if you want me to."
Quatre sighed and shook his head, white-blonde bangs swishing over his forehead. His eyes locked to the marble floor and refused to move for several moments. Usagi stood, waiting patiently, beside the young boy, and when at last he began to speak again she was not prepared for what she heard.
"My father . . . was killed by his own colony. OZ had them believing the Winner family to be selfish and concerned only with their own wealth when truthfully we've given most of our money back to the colonies." He paused, then swallowed hard and it took all the strength Usagi had to keep from wrapping her arms around him in comfort. "When he died I enacted my revenge by . . . by using Wing Zero to destroy colonies. I destroyed two colonies with that Gundam before Trowa and Hiiro found me. Even then I nearly killed them both. I never could have forgiven myself if Trowa had died."
"Quatre-kun . ."
"I wasn't thinking," the boy continued relentlessly, as if to punish himself, "I let the Zero system control me and I fired at Trowa, damaging his suit beyond repair. It exploded in space. I thank Allah for the miracle that saved his life, even if it cost him the memory you had to return."
"Quatre-kun, you don't have to-"
But the dam was broken and couldn't be sealed again.
"I might have killed Hiiro too, to get to Trowa, but something stopped me, I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the vision that Zero had given me of you. Maybe some part of me already knew I loved Trowa. Maybe it was Setsuna calling my name through the viewscreen. I don't know . . ."
Tears hovered on the edges of his eyelids like suicides, and as Usagi watched, they followed each other down the cliffs of his face and dropped from his chin to the floor. She stood there, wanting to comfort him but knowing it was not her place. Quatre had always been the most sensitive of the pilots, but to actually see him cry . . . it was strange, and heartbreaking.
"Usagi-san?"
"Hai, Quatre-kun?" Her voice was soft, low, filled with her suffering on his behalf.
"Will we ever be normal? Will we ever be able to life peaceful lives? Will there ever be a day when we can walk through a town and not have to consider the fact that those people may be dead in a few hours?"
Usagi swallowed, not knowing how to answer. This Time, she knew, had been long without lasting peace. War after war had nearly drained her precious planet of its spirit and life. Even here in Sanch, where things were so much more peaceful and happy than in other places, a sense of dread settled over the citizens. They all knew that OZ wouldn't stay away forever.
Would this always be the way? Usagi shook her head to herself. She couldn't believe that. It wasn't possible for humankind to live this way for too long. War and peace both are short-lived, but peace is more sought after in the end.
"Yes, Quatre-kun," she finally answered him, with a deep conviction lording in her eyes, "you will have all of your wishes granted. I know." Holding her head high like the princess she was supposed to be, Usagi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I know it."
Like the mother of the colony child shown to her, Usagi's smile washed away all of Quatre's fear and concern. His tears stopped and relief flooded his blue orbs instead. Slowly he nodded.
"I believe you. If you say this is true, then I must believe it."


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Two days later, a mere two days, all Hell broke loose in Sanch.
Usagi and the boys were taking a much needed rest within the cottage while Relena made some last minute decisions which Noin promised to take to the main palace immediately. The older woman was just setting her hand on the doorknob when the ground shook and the air was saturated with the whine of flying Aries mobile suits.
"Princess Relena Peacecraft of the Sanch Kingdom, we know you are boarding Gundam pilots and an OZ fugitive in your land!"
"OZ?!?" Noin stumbled back from the door, eyes and mouth open wide.
"We are willing to deal with you, Princess."
"Deal?" Duo growled and ducked beneath a window, peering over the sill, "Like hell, there are four of them. Plenty firepower to level this building, with us in it."
"They can't do that with Relena in here," Noin grunted, lowering herself beside him, "It reflects badly enough on OZ that they've come into Sanch at all."
"If you give us the fugitive, we will grant pardons to all of the Gundam pilots, providing they promise to cease their terrorist activities."
"WHAT?!?" Duo, and everyone else, turned to a stunned Usagi. She sat in the center of the room, pale-faced and trembling, no doubt remembering the last time she had spent a luxury weekend at an OZ facility. While the others took positions at each window, Duo crawled over to the girl, careful to keep himself out of the mobile suits line of sight. "Don't worry, Usagi-san, we won't hand you over to them. There's no way in Hell we'd do that to you."
"Chan."
"Huh?"
"You can call me Usagi-chan, Duo-kun."
Duo blinked, looking at the girl with shocked eyes. How could she make such a comment NOW? Right in the middle of an OZ attack, and she's . . .
She's granting me a closer friendship. In case . . .
"Quiet," he snapped at her, though the exasperation he tried to evince didn't show in his eyes, "Like I said, we aren't giving you to them, so we're gonna haveta fight our way outta here. You ready for that? Your first real battle?" She didn't answer. "Usagi-sa- Usagi-chan?"
"Hai."
Duo signaled to the others, and one at a time they all began moving towards the small hallway and the back door, which would lead outside and to the hanger disguised as a barn. Inside nestled all six Gundams, Alpha being the hardest to hide. Its twin odango tended to stick out of the huge pile of hay stacked around it.
After making certain that the shaken Usagi was safely situated inside her suit, Duo traveled the line laboriously into the cockpit of Deathscythe. Everything seemed to be moving incredibly slowly, from the time it took him to boost the suit, to getting into a standing position, and finally stepping out into the encroaching sunlight from the barn's darkness. He was the first to make it outside, even before Usagi.
"Don't panic, Usagi-chan," he told her through the comm, "it's just like training, only now you have real targets."
"R-right."
Igniting Deathscythe's boosters, Shinigami surged forward in a sudden battle frenzy, striking down one of the four enemy Aries. Behind him he heard the sounds of five other engines humming to life and knew that the others were on their way. Six Gundams against three Aries . . .
"Heh, this won't last five seconds."
Fate works in strange ways.
Like Wufei letting his guard down at Elizabeth Base.
Later, Duo would realize that Ami and Setsuna both had seen it coming, or at least suspected.
"MAXWELL, PAY ATTENTION!"
Too late, Duo understood that he had made the same fatal mistake as when he let Usagi get captured . . . he let his guard down. He didn't need to turn Deathscythe to see the three Aries attacking him at once. He could see them in his mind's eye as he closed his physical orbs, waiting for the strike.
It came.
Not from the OZ suits, but from the other direction. From Alpha.
From Usagi.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Serenity paced back and forth around the small living room of her colony apartment. Her twin rivers of gold trailed behind her, batting at the floor as she walked. Where was Ami? She'd said two days . . . two days had been over at 11:00 that morning, and it was 1:00 in the afternoon! She glanced at the clock. Correction: it was 1:02! It couldn't be long now.
"Serenity, please, you're making me nervous." Rei sat on the edge of the couch, hands clenched together in her lap. Beside her Makoto made a show of sitting lazily with her arms draped over the backrest, and on her right Minako was blowing her nose into an already tear-sodden tissue. Michiru was perched precariously on the couch arm, Haruka standing beside her with a hand on the elegant woman's shoulder and a protective eye locked onto Serenity. Hotaru stood at the door, prepared to open it the moment Ami arrived.
"Where is she? She should be here by now."
"It's been a while since Ami visited you," Makoto offered with a shrug, "maybe she just lost her way."
"But she told me she'd be here before it happened!"
"She was just trying to make you feel better, Serenity no baka!" Rei growled and tossed her hair, trying to look angry and not succeeding very well, "YOU don't even know exactly when it's going to happen, how could she promise to be here before a non-existent time?"
"You don't always have to be so bitchy about being right, Rei-chan!" The suffix slipped from her mouth easily, an old habit raised to the surface once more by desperate despair. The feeling of ancient friendship the sound brought forth in them all was too much, and even Makoto and Haruka joined in the tears that followed. Serenity and Rei hugged, apologizing into each other's ears, just in case Serenity's premonition about her fate would prove true.
"She's coming," came Hotaru's hushed voice from the doorway and she laid an old, still tiny hand on the antique doorknob. Opening the door that was odd in this new era, Hotaru was the first to great Ami as the doctor came stumbling hurriedly through the entrance. Therefore, she was the last to see Serenity keel over in pain.
"Serenity!" Ami rushed forward, her hand connecting roughly with Hotaru's shoulder, the girl-woman falling backwards in the aftermath of her elder's passing.
"Usagi-chan!" Minako leaped from the couch, her hand fisted around her tissue and clenched in dread to her upper chest, just at the base of her throat. Her blue eyes were wide with terror.
But it was the raven-haired fire priestess who was first to the fallen queen's side, gripping the woman's golden head in her hands as Serenity convulsed and pitched. Writhing, mouth opening in screams that bumped against her inner throat but never quite made it out, her muscles tightened beneath Rei's searching grasp. Mars was trying to find some way to hold down her queen, keep her from hurting herself or them with her seizure-like spasms.
"Usagi, can you hear me?"
Serenity didn't answer at first, locked into a fit of a pain that wasn't her own.
Pain.
Oh . . . oh Kami-sama the pain . . .
I hear you, Rei-chan.
She had said those words aloud, hadn't she?
No, of course not. She couldn't speak through the pain. It was syrupy, oozing through her body and her mouth, down her throat, its thick pulsings of agony searing her mind, keeping her from making any coherent sound. She knew it wasn't her pain. She wasn't hurt, nothing had happened to her own body. This pain belonged to some other person, some innocent human beings who had been puppets. Marionettes, dancing about on the strings of military politics, dancing wherever and however their puppet-master had directed them. It wasn't her pain, yet she couldn't be rid of it.
Because she was its cause.
In the present she was its cause.
In the past she had been its cause.
Present and Past were mixing together, and Usagi couldn't keep them separated anymore, because she was the Past but she was also the Present but then who would be the Future, because the Future was always malleable, formable, changeable, but that couldn't be true either because while she was the Past and the Present, she was also the Future and if in the Present she did something that she hadn't done in the Past well then the Future would be different, changed, re-formed, and she would be different but not different, because she wouldn't remember having been changed . . .
"STOOOP!!"
Blackness.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Quatre watched as the pink beam from Alpha's slender buster rifle heated the air, making the atmosphere wave like the sea during a storm. It was going to hit Duo and the three Aries suits. Duo would probably be safe, the Gundanium alloy of Deathscythe's creation being strong enough to resist most blasts . . . from normal suits. But the three OZ soldiers . . .
"Usagi-san, you're going to kill them!"
"Kill them?" There was a distinct question in her voice, and in that moment Quatre realized the pilots' mistake.
They had always told her she would be fighting mobile dolls, for they expected OZ to send their newest creations after her. They'd never bothered to mention the other types of suits . . . the ones that harbored living people inside. Usagi thought she was firing at soulless, empty machines.
He and the other four killed regularly. Usagi did not.
"Oh, Allah!"
Quatre returned his attention to the targets in time to see Duo move Deathscythe out of the way just in time to avoid the majority of Usagi's blast. The three Aries were not so lucky. Bright pink washed over their forms, the heat no doubt tearing at the fragile metal of their hulls, and already the pilots were screaming. They knew their fates.
The blonde empath expected to feel their deaths. The three pinpricks of pain in his heart were not unforeseen. The eruption of pure agony from Usagi, however, caught him unguarded. His back arched against the strikes of phantom pain he felt from her . . .
Confusion. Agony. Remorse. Grief.
"Usagi-san," Quatre managed to say through clenched teeth as his hands slipped from Sandrock's controls, "W-what's . . . h-happening?"
"Quatre?" Heavyarms strided towards Sandrock in the slowed, weighty way of Gundams.
Quatre screamed at the exact same moment Usagi did.
He felt his breath retreat into him, falling back into his lungs where he could not reach it. He closed his eyes, struggling to pull in the scant air that seemed to recoil away. Sandrock's cockpit was cramped, enclosed in misery and horror. And somewhere in his mind Quatre knew that this was merely a diluted version of what Usagi was suffering within the cruel metal grip of Alpha.
"Quatre, please, oh God, Quatre talk to me!"
Arms, wrapped around him. Thin arms, but warm all the same. Comforting.
Quatre dared to open his eyes and looked up into the drawn white face of Trowa. He turned his head, seeing Hiiro and Wufei kneeling beside him as well, concern marring their usually unbreakable masks of stoic apathy.
"Usagi-san," he choked on the words, pushing himself away from the arms he wanted to disappear into, "Usagi-san, where is she?"
Trowa released him, relief flooding his face the moment his little one had revived.
"Duo's getting her," Wufei said.
"She's . . . I don't know what happened . . . the soldiers?"
"Dead." Hiiro stood, staring down at Quatre, his mask retrieved. "Incinerated."
"She killed them. Oh merciful Allah . . ." Quatre was on his knees, and bowing with his arms crossed over his stomach in revulsion, he called on his god once more. He had done so more times in the past few days than in his entire lifetime. "She's a killer now."
"So are we, Quatre," Trowa reminded him quietly.
"But she didn't have to be! She wasn't supposed to be! She was pure, don't you see, Trowa? She was pure . . . and now she's . . . she's tainted! Because of us! Something we did caused this to happen to her! Oh Allah, forgive us . . . forgive us, sweet, merciful Allah!"
Sobbing, the blonde Arabian took his hands from his stomach and placed them flat against each other, resting them on the ground and his forehead on them. And he prayed. He prayed for forgiveness with more passion and desperation than ever before.
In the background of his prayers, Quatre could hear Duo trying to calm a raving, manic Usagi.
A mad Usagi.
Insane.


End Chapter Fifteen.