Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ III. Nocturnal State ❯ Sacrificial Demons ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sacrificial Demons

“He’s going to be freezing,” Duo muttered as he and Wufei turned into an alley end.

“He picked up a jacket somewhere,” Wufei reminded the other.

“But still,” Duo muttered. “Unless it’s military issue, it’s gonna get soaked through eventually. It was fine when he first left, but it’s been raining for four or five hours now.”

“Yeah,” Wufei muttered, clicking on a flashlight and swinging it around the edges of the alley…before the light fell on a disheveled blond with a tear-streaked face, squinting up the beam.

“Quatre!”

x x x

I flinched at the bright flashlight, staring around it at what I could see of…

“Quatre!”

“Wufei!” I muttered, moving to get up and hesitating as my balance took another dive.

“Easy,” Duo muttered…

Duo?

I stared at him as he came to my side, helping me to stand. His expression wasn’t exactly happy, and he wasn’t meeting my eyes…

“You piss Heero off again?” I asked blankly, studying the bruises and the band-aid.

He met my eyes, his own narrowing.

“They got into a fight,” Wufei muttered, moving closer to grab my arm—which I pulled promptly away from him. He frowned grabbing my hand as I hissed, pulling it forward to push back the sleeve.

I whimpered at him, though I didn’t move…it hurt…it…

“We found him.”

I looked to Duo again.

“His wrist is fucked up,” he added before meeting my eyes. “He looks…a bit worn. We’re off of Minuet.”

I looked to the road at the end of the alley and stared at it in disbelief.

Not that I could remember much more of the directions.

“Ow!” I gasped in pained shock as Wufei rotated my wrist, trying to yank away from him as my entire arm seemed to burn.

“No…not broken,” Wufei returned quietly, following the bones up my arm. “You did something to it, but it’s not broken.”

“That hurt,” I muttered, pulling my wrist back protectively to my chest, realizing I had tears in my eyes.

“I had to see how bad it was messed up,” he reassured me quietly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I noted Duo was running a hand through his hair, then looked to Wufei. “I’m gonna head home.”

“Duo!” I protested, stepping for him.

He stepped back, giving me a very wary look.

“Duo?”

He met my eyes and looked away as he shook his head. “I’m going home.”

“With us?” I asked.

“No, Quatre,” he said quietly, meeting my eyes. “I don’t feel safe with you. I’m going home to my wife and my kids.”

“Wife?” I asked blankly. “Kids?”

“I left Brazil with a widow from the village I was in,” he returned. “She had a little boy, and I’ve adopted him…and we have a son.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“I have work in the morning, and I need to take my boy to a check-up…and all sorts of shit. I need to crash.”

“You’re leaving?” I asked, feeling the tears again, breaking away from Wufei to grab him…and just started to cry. For some reason, he’d flinched away from me, but he did relent finally and hug me.

“Quatre,” Wufei said quietly, grabbing my arm.

“You’re leaving again?” I demanded, meeting Duo’s eyes. “How can you leave me again?”

“I’m not leaving you,” Duo noted. “Besides, I’ve already left. The only reason you’re even seeing me now is because Wufei got caught on camera with Hilde.”

What?

I blinked at him.

“If you promise me that you won’t do shit to me,” Duo added seriously, “then I’ll visit with you more often.”

“Promise you?”

He nodded, pushing me away. “You used to burn me…or hit me…laugh at me, you remember?”

I thought back, catching vague images that didn’t quite make sense.

He sighed, standing me up straight. “You be nice, and I’ll come see you, okay?”

I frowned slightly, noting something in his voice that had more meaning than the words themselves. I nodded slightly.

“Promise?” he persisted.

“Promise,” I muttered back.

“I’m gonna go,” he added to Wufei. “Seeing Heero makes me sick to my stomach.”

I stared in disbelief.

“All right,” Wufei muttered quietly. “Take care…I’ll let you know what’s going on, huh?”

“Yeah,” Duo agreed, then patted my shoulder with a smile…and turned to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Heero demanded in anger, moving up around behind me and starting for Duo.

Duo spat at his feet…and walked away.

Heero stared in disbelief.

“Just let it go,” Wufei suggested quietly to the Japanese man.

“Hello,” we heard Duo’s voice floating from around the corner. “They found Mr. Winner in the little alley off Minuet…yeah. Yes. They’re all there…Dugan Scott…yeah, Maxwell…” he laughed slightly as we heard a car stop. “I’m heading home,” he noted. “My address is on file.”

The car door closed, and after a second a taxi passed the end.

“We have to run,” I gasped, looking to Wufei. “We have to…”

“No,” Wufei muttered, grabbing Heero’s wrist. “You need help for your arm.”

“Wufei,” Trowa started in a dead-wary voice…

“No,” Wufei repeated, looking between the three of us. “We wait here, and we do this right.”

“You can’t make me,” Trowa noted.

“But I can make them,” Wufei returned, meeting Trowa’s eyes.

I looked between the pair of them, then back to Heero. Heero was looking away down the alley…and he looked like he’d been in a fight.

“Are you all right?” I demanded, moving to look at him closer.

“I’m fine, Quatre,” he returned, not meeting my eyes. “I’m…fine.”

x x x

“In a startling discovery this afternoon, channel seven news was informed by the chief of police that last night, the former Gundam pilots…”

Nassaiya looked away from the screen, which Duo was watching, and focused on Vasu, who was looking at the screen himself. “You want pudding or cookies?”

“Pudding,” Vasu muttered, meeting her eyes a moment, but the way his father was watching the screen suggested something serious. He moved across their apartment to sit with his father on the couch, studying the bruises and cuts a moment.

“Hey, champ,” Duo muttered, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Your day?”

“Normal. Yours?”

“I hit work, got off early to take brother to get some shots, came home and almost got mobbed by paparazzi.”

“Normal,” Vasu noted.

Duo grinned down at him and the boy smiled back.

“Duo, turn that off,” Nassaiya muttered irritably.

“…with a form of schizophrenia called ‘disorganized’,” the reporter was muttering as the screen showed a shot of Quatre being unloaded from an ambulance. A guard was escorting Trowa and Heero toward the same building. “And last night suffered from a series of hallucinations and delusions which at times made him think he was still in the war. This form of post-traumatic-stress has been found common in the younger soldiers of the wars, and adding in the schizophrenia, Mr. Winner was not mentally able to…”

“Duo,” Nassaiya persisted. “Your son is watching that.”

Vasu looked to his mother with a frown.

“Just a minute,” Duo snapped back. “Shit, Nas.”

“Dad,” Vasu protested, not liking that his father had said that.

Duo gave him a brief look and focused on the screen again.

“…as we speak three of the five pilots are undergoing psychiatric evaluations. This leaves some to wonder…what about the fifth pilot? What about Duo Maxwell?”

The screen showed a shot of Duo with Camden in his arms, the child’s head was covered by Duo’s jacket.

“Duo Maxwell was going by the alias Dugan Scott after having taken sanctuary from his United States government two years ago.”

Vasu was staring at the screen in disbelief.

“He underwent psychiatric counseling and was found to be stable, and though we couldn’t say before, he works for Miss Splieker herself as a member of her privy council…and is married to a woman we’ve yet to get a shot of, and that is their youngest son Mr. Maxwell is holding.”

“You just love gossip, don’t you?” the male reporter teased.

It focused back on the pair as they started talking.

“Dad?” Vasu asked quietly.

“Yeah, son?”

“You’re a Gundam pilot?” he looked to the man sincerely.

“I was,” Duo agreed.

“And we left the jungle because those men were trying to catch you?”

Duo nodded again.

“But…they know you’re here now, right?”

“I fought with him,” Duo noted as the screen showed a close-up of Heero’s face and noted that he and Duo’d gotten into their fight.

“You kicked his butt, huh?” Vasu asked with some pride.

“No son,” Duo returned, watching the screen. “I was scared.”

Vasu looked up at him.

Duo met his eyes. “I only did that because I was scared.”

“But you fought in the wars,” Vasu protested, thinking about what he’d been taught in school.

“In a big metal thing that was all but indestructible,” Duo retorted. “Things have changed, and fighting is wrong. Your mother made me sleep on the couch last night.”

Vasu looked to his mother in surprise.

She gave him a tight smile, turning back to the sink.

“Come on,” Duo added, glancing to his watch. “We need to wake Cam up. I want to go out for pizza tonight.”

Vasu grinned impishly at that.

Nassaiya sighed in exasperation. “What is your fascination with pizza?”

“I could tell you, but there are innocent ears about,” Duo noted with a grin as he rose.

Nassaiya sighed in exasperation again, looking to the ceiling.

Duo almost giggled, bouncing over to kiss her…before turning with Vasu and heading toward the bedrooms.

“…the four pilots will be held for further evaluation and counseling,” the male reporter muttered. “The genetic history of the Winner family does show schizophrenia in the line, but the other three pilots are assumed to be suffering under PTSD. We can hope for the sake of our heroes, who did save the world, that things will be worked out…and maybe they, too, can have a happily ever after.”

Nassaiya crossed the room…and turned off the television.

End

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E/N: And there we go...I hope you all enjoyed this story. Not sure when I'll get to the next story, but that'll be Trowa's...