Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ For Love of Darkness ❯ Flames in the East ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or FMA, so don't sue me.

 

Warnings: Past NCS, OOC, AU, crossover, violence, language (*happily slaps warning after warning on*)

 

Pairings: 5x2, 3x4, (No one for Heero yet. DX If anything, it would be 1+(3x4) {Does that even make sense? Heero likes both Quatre and Trowa. Probably.})

 

Chapter 7

Flames in the East

 

1913, June 24th (AC 201, July 1st)

The city was quiet as Duo and Wufei slipped through the empty streets. Spotting a few dead soldiers and some piles of ash in the moonlight, the pair was afraid they were too late to be of any assistance. Already they had killed nearly a dozen Vampires wandering the city streets, looking for victims.

“How do you think Nikolai's controlling them?” Duo asked, glancing over at his lover.

Wufei remained silent as another pair of Vampires jumped out from around the corner. He had long since run out of the magic bullets, so he summoned up a burst of fire and drove it into the first Vampire's chest. As he watched the young man die, Wufei was barely aware of Duo tearing out the throat of the other Vampire. The woman drowned in her own blood before Duo set fire to the thrashing body. They left the area before the orange glow of the fire could attract more Vampires.

“I've heard of a spell that could control the undead, but it takes so much energy to perform for even a short amount of time, most Magicians don't use it. Erik, however, is more than powerful enough to use it on multiple targets.”

“What are the after effects? For the Vampire, I mean,” Duo said suddenly.

Wufei sighed. “It leaves the victim exhausted, and they can't remember what happened during the time they were under the spell.” Wufei had stopped calling all Vampires monsters when referring to them. Throughout his life, he had met Vampires like Duo, innocent people forced into the position they were in. In fact, some Magicians could be called monsters in the barbaric ways they treated the Vampires. Duo was suspiciously quiet. Wufei looked over at him. His violet eyes were unfocused as they unconsciously scanned the streets for more Vampires. “What are you thinking about?” Wufei said softly, gently prodding Duo out of his thoughts.

The braided Vampire smiled at him. “Just thinking about what everyone's doing right now. Back home, I mean.” Duo dropped his gaze. “We're fighting a war here, and who knows what they're doing. Quatre's probably overworking himself again, and Trowa's shadowing him everywhere. Heero's probably killed or scared off half of Quatre's employees with his glare.” He laughed.

The laughter was abruptly cut off when they found the Eastern HQ. The walls had been alchemized into gigantic fortress-like barricades. There was no door to the interior of the base. “Dammit,” Duo whispered. Wufei nodded his agreement. With no door to get into the base, the two of them were left to try to survive in the Vampire-infested city. That was not something Wufei wanted to attempt right now. “What are we going to do now, `Fei?”

Wufei sighed. “We'll just have to find a safe spot for the night and try to survive,” he said calmly, despite the fact he knew there was little chance of them seeing the sunrise in the morning. “Come on. We should get going. No doubt there're Vampires nearby.” He turned away from the supposed safe haven. He found himself face to face with nearly three dozen Vampires.

“Shit,” he heard Duo mutter. They were way outmatched; they were about to be killed in a horribly gruesome fashion.

Needless to say, they were surprised when two stone spikes drove themselves into the nearest Vampires. The other Vampires froze, and Duo and Wufei spun around to see where the spikes had come from. Duo groaned softly. “Duo Maxwell! What a pleasure it is to see you alive!” Armstrong yelled in his deep, aristocratic voice. He motioned for several soldiers to move forward, rifles at the ready. Nearly a dozen more Vampires fell to their bullets. “Come with us, Major Maxwell! We'll hold them off.”

The soldiers escorted the two travelers into the high walls of the base. Wufei noticed the walkways at the top of the walls, preventing Vampires from scaling the barriers. Tents were set up throughout the base's expansive grounds; the surviving population of East City was inside the walls of the base. Soldiers helped the civilians set up their tents and locate loved ones. The pair was impressed with Roy's ability to keep the peace during the attack.

They walked into the main building of the military base. Duo could hear people making frantic calls to Central in the telephone room, and Wufei narrowly avoided three soldiers carrying supplies outside. “Where's Colonel Mustang?” Duo asked a passing clerk.

She stopped shortly and turned to the alchemist. “He's in his office,” she said tiredly. “Major Elric is in there as well, though, and I heard them arguing.”

“Thank you,” Wufei said quickly, and the clerk nodded before rushing off. The two soldiers walked up the stairs towards Roy's office.

As they approached the office, Duo and Wufei could hear the fore-mentioned argument continue. “Mustang! That man is a threat! I saw his teeth! They're exactly like the bloodsuckers'!” Edward yelled angrily. Duo flinched at the harsh words. His argument with the blonde came back to him in stark detail.

“Ed, has he ever once acted like them? Do you know of any occasion where he attacked normal people?” Roy said calmly, although the exhaustion was clear in his voice. “I haven't heard any incident concerning Maxwell or Chang, so for all I care, he could be a bloodsucker, but he's still human.”

The young teen gave an angry cry and stomped to the door. Slamming it open, he came face-to-face with the targets of his rage. “Monster,” he growled at Duo.

Ignoring the voice in his head that said it was a bad idea, Wufei grabbed Edward by the shoulders and threw him up against the wall. Fear flickered through amber eyes as Ed gasped in pain. Wufei mentally acknowledged several soldiers stopping to stare. “Duo is not a monster. He went through a lot of hell, and a little brat,” renewed anger gripped Ed at the insult, “will not judge him. Do you understand?” Ed glared at him. Wufei shook him violently. “I said. Do. You. Understand?” Each word was accented by a forceful shake. Ed jerked a nod, and Wufei threw him down the hall. “Get out of my sight. Now.” Ed pushed himself to his feet and retreated down the hall, pushing past some of the onlookers. Wufei turned back to Duo. The braided young man stared at the floor. Wufei felt ashamed that he had embarrassed his friend.

“Chang. Maxwell,” Roy said stiffly. He had witnessed the entire confrontation from behind his desk. “Get in here now, and close the door.” The two soldiers quickly walked into the room. Hearing the door click softly, Roy sighed. “Maxwell, Ed has a good argument. If you're a bloodsucker, that could pose a lot of problems for all of us. The stress is at an all-time high, and finding out there is a bloodsucker, the enemy, in our midst, people won't hesitate to kill you.” Duo nodded slightly. “I want you to stay here in the building. I'll assign you tasks, but I don't want you anywhere near Ed. He's furious, Maxwell, and I don't know what he'll do to you if he ambushes you.” The young colonel turned to Wufei. “Chang, you're going to help the soldiers fight these things. You both have experience fighting against them, and that's what we need right now.” He looked down at the papers thrown across his desk. “You may leave,” he said simply. As Duo turned to follow Wufei out the door, Roy looked up. “Maxwell. I want to talk to you.”

Duo glanced over at Wufei, who nodded, before he stayed behind. “What do you need, Colonel?” he tried to say as calmly as possibly. He was hesitant to remain alone here during the battle; friends often turned against each other for seemingly no reason. He was not about to take that chance, being one of the same things that were attacking the city.

“Maxwell, I'm taking a risk with keeping you out of the brig. I know you won't do anything against us. I've already made arrangements for you and Chang to stay in the room attached to the Records. It's isolated, and people tend to avoid it if they can.”

Duo smirked slightly. “Speaking from experience, sir?”

Roy laughed slightly, and then dismissed the young man. “Get out of here, brat.” Duo laughed the entire way to Records.

 

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Wufei heard the explosion and the wall crumble before the screaming started. He ran towards the battlefield. The Vampires had used alchemy and explosives to destroy the wall, and they were quickly massacring the ill-prepared guards near the breach. Wufei summoned up a sudden wind to cut the first wave down. He stood surrounded by the dead and dying. Many of the soldiers that had survived the initial attack were either mortally wounded or bitten, so they were as good as dead.

Another wave of Vampires stormed in, and Wufei glimpsed Nikolai and Erik run in after them. A group of soldiers fired into the crowd of Vampires. “Take care of them! I'm going after the other two!” The soldiers nodded, continuing to gun down more Vampires.

Wufei ran after the two masterminds through the halls of the Eastern Headquarters. Ed barely avoided a spark of lightning aimed at his head as he emerged from Roy's office. “What's going on?!” he yelled at Wufei who simply ran past. Ed motioned to Roy, and the two alchemists raced after the three people.

Wufei recognized where they were heading. The third story of the building was designated for the extensive Records department. It was avoided by most of the personnel of the base for various reasons, so it was deserted most of the time.

It also meant Duo was alone. While he was a competent fighter, the two were far more powerful than he was, and he could be killed. Wufei couldn't take that chance. As the group approached the stairs, Wufei launched a large burst of fire, which nearly exhausted his energy reserves, at the pair of traitors. It caught Erik in the back. The Magician quickly put the flames out, but his back was severely burned. Wufei wondered why the master Magician used such a weak spell to simply stop the fire but not heal the wound. He began to slow down, weakened by his injury. Wufei knew that Nikolai would not hesitate to leave a wounded human behind, no matter how useful the man was before.

Bursting into the records room, Wufei was surprised to see Duo standing in the middle of the large room. The shelves were pushed away from the center, leaving space to draw a large circle.

The blank look in Duo's usually lively eyes and ring of red light peeking out from under his uniform collar signaled that something was wrong with the Vampire. His mind raced back to the conversation they had only 13 hours earlier. `Could it be…?' It certainly explained Erik's conservation of energy. If he were using the spell a lot, he would want to save a lot of his energy. “This… This was your plan all along?!” he yelled at the two rivals. “Waiting until he stored up enough energy to force that damn Gate open again?!”

Nikolai turned towards them, smirking. “Of course,” he said confidently. He grabbed the younger Vampire and pulled his limp body to him. “The Magician,” he sneered at the wounded human near him, “thought that two years of feeding on you would give him enough energy to open the Gate of Truth long enough for us to get through.” Nikolai pushed Duo into the circle. It began glowing softly as Duo curled up slightly. The man frowned at the weak light. “Not enough!” he yelled angrily. He grabbed Erik and threw him in there as well. The light flared up exponentially.

“What are you doing?!” Erik cried weakly. He pushed himself up until he stood, shaking with fatigue.

Nikolai frowned. “I have no need for a weak human.”

“You swore to me that we were partners!”

Nikolai ignored the man. “You're the fool who made a deal with a Vampire, human.” He laughed. Erik slid to the ground, too weak to move anymore.

As the Vampire laughed, Wufei rushed forward. He knew that trying to take on a Vampire like this was near suicide, but if he could get Duo away from them, he would gladly give up his life. What he didn't expect was Roy and Ed joining the fight.

Sparks leapt pass his head, heading straight for the Vampire. Nikolai yelped in pain as his arm burned. Water condensed around the flames, putting them out. “I'll get you for that, human,” he growled at Roy. The Flame Colonel smirked back.

Wufei rushed past the Vampire and grabbed Duo's arm. Now that the spell was wearing off, Duo was quickly returning to normal. He was exhausted, but he tried to help Wufei pull him from the circle. Wufei knew that Duo would probably die if he couldn't get him out in time.

Nikolai noticed what was going on behind him. He turned towards the two soldiers. “I won't let you ruin my chance to get back to my birthright!” He summoned a long, thin blade.
Time seemed to slow for Wufei as he turned to face his attacker. He could feel Duo trying to push him out of the way of the sword coming down on him, and he could see Roy and Ed running forward in an attack of their own on the evil Vampire.

The blade easily cut through uniform and skin, and Wufei fell into darkness.