Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ❯ Part Twenty-Nine ( Chapter 29 )

Part Twenty-Nine

By three days time they had made it to the capital.

And they couldn't leave.

Heero was in such a condition he could hardly walk. Sometimes he felt perfectly fine, but always she attacked him when he was feeling best.

Duo was growing sick of the capital. It may have been huge, exciting, but it held nothing but reminders of pain for him. How Heero would writhe in anguish and not be able to move. He'd vomit food and blood, his body would convulse, he'd loose control, and even when he had control he would try to rip of his skin from all the pain. He just wanted to be *out*.

And Duo could do nothing.

He didn't think Heero saw how upset he was. How the tears poured from his eyes like rivers of rain as he tried to stop the hurt. Tried to keep him from ripping apart his own body.

Right now, Duo was off duty watching Heero (though he almost had to be dragged from his bed) and had come back up from the bar where he had tried to eat, but found he couldn't lift the fork to his mouth. Quatre was becoming worried for he looked as though he'd lost ten pounds and he hadn't started out in the peak of good health.

Right then he was hugging his knees and dabbing at his eyes, sitting alone in his room, on the bed, whimpering.

"Why, Heero? Why must I see my love suffer so...? If only...if only it were me.... I don't matter, but you...."

Suddenly the door opened and Heero walked in.

"Duo?" Heero murmured, walking to him and joining him on the bed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm.... Heero, you should be in bed."

Heero shook his head. "I'm fine now."

He lifted a hand to Duo's cheek, caressing it gently.

"You shouldn't worry anymore."

"Heero...."

Duo's breath caught in his throat. He thought he was merely dreaming as Heero leaned over, soft hair brushing against his cheeks, fingers lacing with his own.

But when their lips connected, it felt so real....

Once more he tasted the sweet--

"What in the name of Holy Light--!" Trowa raged, slamming open the door and interrupting Duo's thoughts and their kiss.

"Trowa!" Duo gasped.

Then Trowa lifted Heero and threw him into the wall.

For a brief second, Heero wasn't Heero, in Duo's eyes, but a woman with long blond hair and vicious snarl.

"Heero...." Duo whispered, digging his hands into his hair in confusion. "What's going on?"

Through the door, Heero was lying on the bed. Back in the room, Heero rose, seething with rage.

"Reisun!" he hissed, physically assaulting Trowa, who easily bound his wrists in his own.

"Reisun!" he screeched again as Duo's mind reeled. "You bastard! You illegitimate child! You won't defeat me! I'm carrying Shukan's child!"

Suddenly the shade dropped and she was Heero no long as Duo crashed to the floor, falling on his knees.

"Don't worry, Johné," the tall man comforted, resting a hand on his broad shoulder. "We'll find the Earth Artist and fulfill the prophecy."

"I hope you're right, Reisun," he replied. "I hope you're right...."

Duo started to scream as Trowa threw the woman into the wall. There was a loud splintering sound as her body broke boards. Blood began seeping from the splintered pieces.

Springing from the boards, she dashed forward.

"Reisun!" she seethed as Heero began to howl in the other room.

He looked in on the tall man buried in his own books as he whispered verse and tried to understand the meaning behind the words.

"Just a little longer, Johné," he begged softly.

"You should have more concern for your health, Reisun," was the reply. "There are people that need you."

"Their may be no one left to need us if I cannot figure out the meanings that are trapped inside these books."

He sighed. "Tomorrow we leave...."

Quatre and Wufei stood in the doorway, trying to process the situation in a matter of moments.

"She's one of them," Trowa shouted, attacking her as they exchanged blows.

Heero's cries from the other room were blood curdling and Duo's were near as bad as he hunkered on the floor, pulling out his own hair in frustration.

Why now?! Why the visions--?!

Wufei lit her dress afire.

Quatre tried to appease Trowa's mind and make him think more clearly.

Heero died.

"I'm carrying Shukan's baby, you thieves!"

She began to shriek as she beat the floor and tried to rip off her dresses.

"Reisun," he whispered, his head resting on the other man's chest.

"Johné.... Shh...." his whispered back, his fingers running soothingly through his blood soaked hair.

A sharp, painful intake of breath and....

"The others?"

"Shhh.... They'll be fine...."

"We never found Earth, Reisun...."

"But I found the Sky...." came the gently reply with the soft meeting of lips to follow it.

He smiled a small smile of love. "You'll be okay...right?"

"Of course," Reisun scoffed in mock indigence, but the tears in his eyes were clear even to the blind.

"I'm just going to take a little nap," came the too light voice.

"I'll be waiting for your wake."

"I love you, Reisun...."

Duo's eyes shot open and everything was in flames.

"Just like hell...." he murmured, totally calm. A smile came across his face. "Death is so warm...."

"Reisun...." her voice gurgled, yanking Duo back into reality. "You killed me, and so you killed the last heir of Shukan, the only heir."

"He isn't Shukan, nor a direct descendant," Trowa replied firmly as the room burnt down around them.

Flame sucked at their feet, lapping for their lives.

Screams were heard outside. Screams of pain, screams of fear, children...crying.... In the streets....

Pain.

Fear.

Crying.... So much crying.... So many tears to put out all the raging flame....

The flame that gives life and takes it so easily away.

"No heir," she whispered.

"There can't be an heir.... I can't have an heir...."

"And heir to what, Reisun? You are intoxicated so much that you can't even remember that which you own most of. Nothing," he muttered sadly.

"I have you," Reisun replied.

"That's right, Reisun. I cannot produce you an heir, nor could you give me to them if I could," Johné replied solemnly.

Reisun giggled stupidly. "I wouldn't want to give you to them."

Johné smiled. "Good, because I wouldn't want to be given up. Hey.... How long has it been...?"

"Since?"

"Since we started studying the books?"

"Long time...."

"It was my forty-eighth summer.... Funny.... I lost count...."

"It's been five springs, Johné," he spoke, melancholy thick in his voice.

"Five.... When did we meet the others?"

"Almost three winters...."

"Oh.... So long ago.... So much longer to go...."

Slowly Duo stood...and began to walk. Through the inferno.

To the other room.

To Heero....

Heero lay still, face down in his own pooling, drying blood.

"Your wake...my lovely...my precious.... Waiting for your wake," he spoke monotonously from dry, cracked lips as he knelt down by Heero's body.

"I love you.... Forgive the mistake...." Duo stroked his hair, sore eyes forced open on his will.

"I'll only kiss you...now...."

Duo flipped over his still body, looking on his face, cradling it in one hand.... It was painted.... Painted crimson....

He pet it, eyes unable to produce tears even for his one and only.

"Duo--!" a voice gasped.

Only background noise.

Soft, lost in the fire.

Soft.... Lost in the fire of his heart....

Duo pressed his mouth fervently to Heero's. Stale blood, sticky, copper pain filled his mouth and covered his tongue.

"Waiting...." he managed, before he became dead to the world.

~Til Then~