Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Falls the Shadow ❯ Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )

C H A P T E R 7

Duo trumpeted into the hotel room full force. "Hey, Quatre, I'm back with the Preventers girl!"

Diana followed two steps behind. "Who has a name, might I add."

"Heh… okay, then. I'm back with Diana! Happy now?"

"That's better. Now, where's Quatre?"

"Eh? Um…" Duo scanned the tiny hotel room, which could have passed for a large closet if racks of clothing had decorated the walls. The only bed stood in the middle of the far right wall, facing toward the center of the room, and consequently got in the way if one wanted to cross to the other side. Next to the bed was a nightstand, complete with an old telephone and a list of local restaurants that deliver. After that was the far wall. A small television set on a wide pine dresser rested across from the bed, further hindering any movement and leaving a mere two feet of walking space. If one could manage the journey, on the other side sat a cheap brown lounge chair and the sink that, for some reason, was not included in the bathroom. The bathroom, strangely enough, was not included in the room. "Well, I guess he went to go take a shower down the hall. He's been talking about doing that for the past hour."

"How are three people going to sleep in here?" Diana huffed after giving the room one good, long look. "Couldn't you have gotten a double room or something? A private bathroom would be nice too, but at least two beds…"

"Couldn't afford it. Scavengers and circus clowns don't exactly make a lot of money, you know." Smiling and patting Diana on the back, he added, "We'll figure something out with the sleeping arrangement; probably split it bed, chair, and floor. We'll draw straws or something."

The door opened behind the pair, and Quatre slipped in while vigorously rubbing his head with a towel. "I'm not sure I like these shared showers, although I have to admit I've dealt with worse conditions than these…" Peeking from beneath the cloth, he noticed Diana. "Oh, hello." He held out a hand and smiled, the towel slumping onto the floor. "I'm glad you got here okay."

"Me too." Diana took Quatre's hand and squeezed it numbly. "You have no idea."

Quatre smiled at her sadly, taking into consideration their present situation before answering, "Probably not." He bent down to pick up the fallen towel.

Diana's arm stopped him. "Hold on a sec." She pulled him back up and squinted at the blond's neck, now curiously free of all signs of injury. "How the hell did your neck heal up so fast?"

Quatre shrugged. "I'm not sure. It must have healed up during the time the Sulegna had me." He rubbed his neck, and with a small smile added, "I can't really say that I mind. It hurt."

"I had no idea that something was wrong," Duo put in. "I mean, Trowa mentioned something, but…" He cut himself off, noticing the Arabian's hair in disarray. "Do something with that head, will ya? It'll dry like that if you don't." Quatre crawled across the bed to the mirror above the sink, found a comb, and began running it through his hair. As soon as Quatre was sufficiently distracted, Duo leaned in and whispered the end of his sentence. "But he seemed to be keeping something, which is weird for two reasons. One, Trowa's a better liar than to be so obvious, and two, what the hell would he hide from Quatre? Anything happen out in those woods between those two that I should know about? A fight or something?"

"Nothing that I know of," Diana answered, keeping her voice equally low. "Why don't you ask Quatre what's wrong? He'd have a better idea than me."

"He doesn't want to upset me," Quatre answered from the mirror, causing both Diana and Duo to jump from surprise. He turned to face them. "I could hear every word of that conversation, you know."

Duo smiled, a hint of embarrassment shining through as he put an arm behind his head, scratching the back of his neck as he let out a tense chuckle. "Okay, okay, sorry about that… Well, since you heard, come join the conversation." Quatre crossed over the bed again and sat down at the other end; Diana sat at his right and Duo took a seat by their feet on the floor. "So, what happened between you and Trowa?"

"Nothing. That's what bothers me."

"Nothing?" Duo echoed, sighing with exasperation. "You two are great with answers, you know that?"

Quatre shrugged slightly, a little guilty that he had no better answer. "Nothing at all."

Thinking, Diana pulled her legs onto the bed and sat cross-legged, slouching forward and allowing her chin to sink into her hand as the conversation between Duo and Quatre continued. "So, you're saying that he just started acting weird out of the blue?"

"Yes. And it's not consistent."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sometimes he seems secretive and guilty, and other times there appears to be nothing unusual about him at all. I don't understand why, and I'm worried."

"Hm…"

Diana's eyes lit up with a theory, and she sat up. "You think he might be blanking out like you've been, Quatre?" Quatre and Duo looked at her quizzically. "You said it was inconsistent; sometimes he's acting weird, sometimes not. He might not even realize it's happening."

"I always knew that I had blacked out after the fact," Quatre countered gently.

"Well…" Diana stood and walked around the bed toward the sink, not looking at the other two. She looked down at her hands briefly before picking her head back up to speak. "I didn't."

A thick blanket of silence filled the room until it was torn apart by Quatre's hushed voice. "You, Diana?"

"Yeah, me. I blanked out while talking to Wu Fei." She hesitated, and then turned toward her audience. "Apparently I started crying, begged him to help me, and called him Tsohg. I don't remember it… but my conscious never skipped a beat. It's like those thirty seconds never happened."

"Damn," Duo breathed, pulling himself to his feet and following Diana's arc to the sink. "Listen, Trowa's supposed to call later, and we're going to exchange info and decide what we're doing from there. Maybe this `blanking out' thing'll change what we're going to do, maybe not. Either way, it makes things a bit more critical." He took Diana by the arm and guided her to sit back on the bed next to Quatre, sitting down as well. "But until then, there's really nothing we can do. He's our inside information, and we sure as hell can't fight what we don't know, right?"

Diana looked over at Quatre, who nodded gravely and added, "We just have to be careful until then." Diana bobbed her head once to show her agreement.

Satisfied, Duo hopped up. "All right then; that's settled. Who's up for some dinner?"

* * * * * * * * * *

"How long has he been unconscious?"

"A few hours, I think."

"He must have really angered the lord Kaivér, to have received so much harm. They say he won't remember anything when he comes to."

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"This traitor… he's to be Rusaert."

"Rusaert?! A traitor like him... a member of His Divine Court? Are you certain?"

"I find it fitting enough. Rusaert was a traitor to the order once himself, you know, being Leine's adulterous lover. That's why Rusaert's memory was stripped… and this one's, too."

"Is that so? Well, then, I suppose you're right."

`These voices…' The green eyed figure on the bed cracked open his eyelids, then quickly squeezed them shut against the burning light and whimpered a little, bringing an arm up over his face to further shield his eyes. This movement caught the attention of the two attendants watching him.

"Go, get the lord Kaivér. I'll talk to him until He gets here." The other attendant left, and the first pulled his chair closer to the bed. "Stay calm. Nothing here will harm you." Slowly, the bed-ridden captive opened his eyes again and turned to face the speaker. "Introductions shall come later, but let me have the immense honor of saying this first to you:

"Welcome to the Order of Wodahs, Rusaert. We are the Sulegna."