Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cult Characteristic ❯ Chapter 23 ( Chapter 23 )

Title: Cult Characteristic 23/?

Author: Lethanon

Archive: www.geocities.com/lethanon and mediaminer.org

Warnings: occult, Angst, psychological, post ew, Preventers, general weirdness...

TWENTY-THREE

They waited until the voices grew loud enough to cover any miniscule sound they might make by accident, Rose and her brother getting into an argument with Fiona about what the hell she meant. They stayed in the same tight formation, the injured going before Wufei to ensure no one arrived at the top without back up. As he climbed up the steel ladder on the pit's side, Heero felt the steel vibrating slightly in his hands. It took everything in him to not look down at Duo, knowing full well his partner was shaking. He would let him deal. He would.

"What do you mean, like a firefly?"

"I mean what I said! What, you don't know what a Firefly is? That's NOT my problem! Hell, I can't even read properly and I know what they are!"

"Of course I know what a Firefly is, that's not the point!"

"Then what is?"

"What does a Firefly have to do with Shinigami?"

"Nothing…who said it did?"

"You did!"

"No, I didn't. I said it clings to the light…and they do!"

"Yes, but what has that to do with Maxwell surviving?"

"Oh, well that's a different matter…"

"What is?"

"Maxwell."

"Maxwell what?"

"Is a different matter. You asked what it had to do with Shinigami…that's not the same thing."

"But they're the same person!"

Heero had to stop climbing, clinging to the ladder as he tried to kept he laughter bottled within. He could understand their frustration perfectly, having dealt with Duo in such a situation more times than he cared to recall, but now…well, he was beginning to see the funny side of things.

"No, they're not."

He barely resited the urge to `HN' in response to that, and felt Duo tapping softly on his shoe. He looked down to find Duo and Wufei clinging similarly to the ladder byt heir elbows, fingers flashing as they spoke…

`I didn't teach her anything!' Heero quirked a brow at Duo's flashing fingers but couldn't get his attention, which was completely focussed on Wufei.

`You taught her enough!' Wufei was glaring at Duo…Heero studied the pair, took in the tilt of Wufei's head and decided Wufei was almost ready to jump into a justice rant, and Heero knew exactly why, even if Duo was at a loss. It was enough to make Heero smile; not a good thing when one considered he was currently trying to block out two amusing conversations, one silent the other oh so loud.

Wufei was trying to overcome his instinct to protect Fiona, and Duo was the easiest source available, and yet Wufei could not bring himself to do anything to hurt Duo either, so he had settled for blaming Duo for something harmless. Heero wondered if his friend knew exactly how far Fiona had crawled under his skin. He assumed she was just as far within Wufei as Duo was within him, which basically meant there was no escaping.

"I think you need a dictionary…" Heero nearly fell off the ladder at the seriousness in Fiona's tone of voice. He couldn't let himself imagine their faces, knowing he would end up making some kind of sound. Once he never would have let himself become so distracted, but Fiona had changed all them in some way. Firefly…

Duo tapped on his shoe again and when he looked down this time their eyes met. Duo was hiding it, but he was in pain. Heero knew his ribs had to be killing him, his own were a fiery ache he was choosing to ignore. Still, Duo shifted his weight to his elbows once more to free his fingers.

`There's someone else in the room.'

Heero gaped at Duo's fingers, wondering if he had misread the signals, knowing at the same time that it was impossible. He never made a mistake, no matter how distracted. To make a mistake would not be…right. Nodding that he understood, Heero focussed in on the sounds of the room, listening avidly, trying to close in on whatever had led Duo to his conclusion. He could see Wufei doing the same.

Fiona was on the altar, as were the Devourjac's. There was someone by the door, possibly two guards, but Heero did not think they were who Duo was talking about. He moved on, finding the weapon racks, metal whispering slightly in the cold. The water still dripping below them in the sewers created a metallic ringing in the metal room…the Gundanium under his fingers reflected the sound, creating waves, slight alterations appearing when they hit certain objects…

Through the metal he sensed it, as only a pilot as familiar with the metal as himself could; a vibration that spoke of life, of the living, of breath…Heero let his mind spiral in on that sense until he heard it; the slide of a foot, the exhale of a breath, moving so slowly it was almost not there. They were moving across a metal surface above the door…Heero knew what was there. The head of the Gundam Deathscythe, and someone was lurking inside it.

`In the head over the door,' Heero signed down at the pair. Duo nodded that that was where he had pinned the sounds down to. Wufei Looked a little sceptical, but was willing to go with their evaluation. He did have something else to add that the other two certainly hadn't picked up on however…

`It's a woman.'

`How do you know that?' By the way Duo's fingers moved Heero could tell Duo had wanted to had `the hell' to that and was almost grateful he had been the one to create their hand signals. Not only would Duo's have been longer and harder to learn, but he suspected they would still be making new signs…

`She's wearing heels.'

Heero listened to the sounds once more and found he actually agreed with Wufei, and understood why Wufei had had trouble hearing exactly where the sound was coming from. If you listened to the sound itself, it was simple. Listening to the quality of the sound enabled you to tell what kind of shoe was creating the sound, but it blurred the location…It was yet another subtle difference in their training. Heero would have known exactly where to strike but would have used full force. Wufei would not have known exactly where to strike but would have known how hard.

A gun fired. Someone screamed, then silence. Heero could hear heavy breathing, hear feet shifting as they searched for the shooter. He heard a female snarl and guessed it was Rose. He heard short panting breaths he knew had to be Fiona, trying not to be scared but suddenly not so sure of herself. Heero guessed one of the guards at the door was down, most likely dead.

Another shot rang out and his reflexes kicked in, arms catching at the rungs of the ladder as he pulled himself silently up the rest of the way, the heavy feel of the metal telling him Wufei and Duo were doing the same.

Heero didn't hesitate when he reached the top, slipping his gun from his waist holster to his hand and leaping over the edge. Eyes scanned the surprisingly bright room, catching on the Devourjac's even as knees gave, rolled, arm came up, fired. Heero watched one of the robed figures go down and grunted in satisfaction; they had both been robed but the succinct, male yelp identified the person he had shot as male.

From the corner of his eye Heero saw Wufei roll into position behind Rose, then his katana was at her throat. Heero hadn't even seen his hands move.

A certain uneasiness suddenly filling his veins, Heero spun around and realised what it was; Duo was nowhere in sight, though he knew Wufei would not have left the pit without him. Heero opened his senses and realised there was one less Scythe on the wall, heard a soft foot fall and spun, opening his mouth to cry a warning a moment too late.

Duo emerged from the shadows, bathed in the soft firelight from the torches on the wall sconces, scythe in hand, and charged at Rose. The scythe smacked hard against katana…Heero breathed out heavily, then moved to help Wufei, mind in overdrive.

"Duo, put it down!" Wufei snapped, katana giving slightly under the weight of the hooked blade.

"They have to pay!" Heero heard the choked voice reply and thought he would break, but continued forward, determined. It would be right; he would make it so.

"They will Duo."

Something in his voice, perhaps, made Duo stop. Heero watched the braid swing slightly to the side and knew Duo was listening; listening to every scrap of his voice, trying to sense a lie that was not there.

"They will pay with a lifetime of darkness, locked away in a rotting stone cell with nothing but cold metal bars for company. They'll never again see the sun. They will never again hear laughter unless it's their maniacal voice when they lose their minds. They will never again know the touch of another human being."

Duo turned to look at him now, but the scythe didn't move and Heero noted Wufei's attention was still on the katana, which meant Duo was letting none of his attention waver from the weapon, despite where he looked.

"That is not the law any more."

"In Sanc, no it's not," Heero agreed. He was suddenly unable to keep the feral grin from his face. "But the Devourjac's are not citizens of Sanc, or the Earth…"

Understanding lit in Duo's eyes and the scythe fell from limp fingers. Under Relena's guidance Earth had adopted Sanc's prison policies, which were little different from house arrest. However, L2 had needed decidedly harsher laws…In L2 death was not the harshest penalty.

Movement caught Heero's eye and he winced as the katana moved, not toward Duo but back to it's originally target. Two guns fired at the same time the katana swept upward, from an angle that must have hurt Wufei's wrist, and then there was blood. Heero and Duo looked on the scene in a state of shock, for a moment frozen. Heero was pushed into action as Duo threw himself at Wufei, who had stumbled and was clutching at his shoulder while his other hand gripped a bloody sword.

"Fei?" Heero heard as he rushed to Rose Devourjac's side.

"It's just the shoulder Duo," was the soft reply. "I will be fine."

Heero fell beside Rose and winced at the blood pooling on the front of her shirt. Lifting it from her waist he could tell without examining that it was not fatal. Wufei had cut her from rib to hip, deep enough to hurt like hell, refraining from that last centimetre that would have had her guts polling on the floor at her feet. There was also a bullet in the woman's right arm; her firing arm.

Heero felt satisfaction with what he saw; he knew he had heard two guns. Looking about he easily spotted the gun Rose had used to shoot Wufei, not a metre from them where she had dropped it as she fell. Taking in where it sat Heero guessed that without the wound to her arm Wufei would not have a bullet in his shoulder, but in his heart. He looked up at the Gundam head, opened his senses, but heard nothing. Whoever had been there was either dead, which was unlikely at best, or long gone.

"Excuse me? Can someone please untie me?"

Heero laughed as he looked from Fiona's all too knowing face to Duo's pale, shocked and slightly amused. He had a feeling their house was going to get very interesting.

*

Dorothy stalked out the front door and glared at the camera across the street as she pulled the small mobile phone from her pocket and dialled Une's number.

"Assignment?"

"Complete," Dorothy replied quickly. "Chang has a bullet in his shoulder, Graham Devourjac is dead; Heero's doing. And Rose Devourjac is close to it. Need medivac asap. Fiona is fine"

"Acknowledged. Howard is waiting at the docks. Take the Gundam to him."

Dorothy stared at the phone in shock. She had expected Une to order her to destroy the Gundam, and yet…she was pleased it was to remain. For starters, it would make excellent evidence in the case she was trying to build. Secondly, a world without Gundam's had been a very boring world indeed.

Dorothy tucked the phone back in her pocket and moved on, leaving the clean up to Preventers.