Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ ShadedViolets ❯ Reaper ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

ShadedViolets : Prologue

Scene 2: Reaper

Note: (...) is words spoken through a cellphone

( Duo! Duo, are you there? Duo, answer me, damnit! DUO! )

Duo woke up to Heero yelling at him. That seemed normal, as did the dreadful pounding in his head, but the heavy pain in his chest and side wasn't. Was he hungover? What was going on? Duo he felt like he was in pain everywhere, especially his right arm. He couldn't remember anything...

Duo opened his eyes and saw a red blur. He shifted, inhaling sharply at the wave of pain it sent through him. He took a moment tried again, moving his left arm to wipe away the warm liquid coursing down his face. Duo looked at his hand, his vision focusing enough to see that it was covered in blood. He looked beyond his hands and focused on the shards of shattered glass coating the ground below him.

"What the...," Duo inhaled sharply as the memory of the headlights came back to him suddenly, and the terrifying sound as the truck had collided with their car. Duo began to shake as shock set in. He realized he was hanging upside down, still held in by his seatbelt, the roof a crumpled mess beneath him. His door was crushed inwards and the thick scent of smoke and gasoline coated the air. The car was a mess around him, a twisted monster of metal. Duo could hear Heero's muffled voice calling his name through the cell phone he'd been talking on, the call still connected.

And then Duo saw Solo and his instincts reacted. "Solo! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Duo's bloody hand fumbled and slipped at the seatbelt as he unlatched it in a sudden panic, fearing the worst. The release dropped him onto his shoulder, and the pain that shot through his right side was excruciating, making Duo shout out curses. He had definitely broken his right arm in the crash, as he couldn't even try to move it without pain shooting along like wildfire. He spared no time to rest his injuries, his fear for Solo overwhelming anything else.

The truck had hit Solo's door straight on at full speed. The impact had crushed the entire frame of the car inwards severely, and all Duo could see of his brother was his torso, head, and right arm. The rest of Solo was swallowed by the dash and door, crushed inwards viciously, consuming him. A thick gash across Solo's forehead was bleeding heavily, flowing over his closed eyes and dripping to the car roof beneath his skull. Duo saw blood all over his brother. It was literally everywhere. So much blood...

"Solo! Solo, please... please!" Duo begged out loud as he reached for Solo's neck with his uninjured arm, desperately trying to find a pulse. Time seemed to slow, to freeze as Duo pleaded silently with all the gods he knew that he would find a pulse. And as the seconds slowed to feel like an eternity, Duo felt like his heart was being crushed under an unbearable weight, an ache so great forming in his core. He was holding his breath, holding so still as he waited to feel the flutter beneath his fingertips, the faint beat of a heart, the bare hope that Solo was alive...but there was nothing. After a long moment, Duo finally swallowed, the reality digging its way inside his heart cruelly as he pulled his fingers away. He began to breathe fitfully, his chest aching as the truth dawned on him.

Solo was dead. His brother was dead. His heart had stopped and his blood was everywhere. Solo was dead, gone forever...

Duo suddenly felt a wave of anger wash over him, drowning his soul. "No, damnit! This isn't...Solo...this isn't fuckin' happening!" Duo screamed his anger, denying what was so obviously visible in front of him. "You can't die! You can't fucking die!" Duo tried again. He pushed against Solo's wounds to try to stop the bleeding. He pried and pulled at the metal pinning his brother's body down, clawing until his hand was sliced open. He shook Solo, begging his brother to wake up, to respond in any way. But Solo was dead, and as the minutes passed and Duo still could find no pulse, he truly fell apart.

"Damnit, I need you, you can't...Solo! " Duo broke into sobs, covering his eyes with his blood covered hand to erase the sight of Solo's lifeless face. But it burned like an imprint under his eyelids. Blood and more blood. Blood everywhere. "Please, please, please...," he wept brutally as he collapsed on his uninjured side, his heart and soul and very existence crumbling inside him. Duo had never been without his brother, Solo. This wasn't supposed to happen. Solo wasn't supposed to be like this, growing cold as his blood drained from his corpse. But that was all he was, now. A corpse.

Solo was gone forever.

And Duo had never before so desperately wished that it was him instead.

( Duo, answer me, please! Duo! )

Heero's voice broke through Duo's grief. Raking his left hand through the glass and debris, Duo found his cell phone. The screen was cracked but it was still working and connected, amazingly. Duo tried to wipe the blood off, shaking terribly. He put the phone to his ear, his body still torn with deep sobs.

"H-heero," Duo reached for the only lifeline he had. He tried to stop his sobs to breathe, to speak. His words came out broken. "Solo...Solo's dead, 'Ro. He...he's dead. Blood...blood's everywhere...I can't breathe," Duo grabbed at his chest, where the ache was too deep and too much. "I can't...he's fucking dead..." Duo broke down into a wail, an almost inhuman cry of grief and sorrow. He clutched at the phone with a white knuckled grip, pleading and pleading for the nightmare to end.

( Duo, you have to listen to me. I need you to breathe, ) Heero spoke to Duo finally after a moment of silence from his end, his voice strong and calm. Heero was always strong, always in control, unlike Duo. He tried to focus on Heero's voice as his grief drowned him. ( Are you hurt? Tell me if you're hurt, Duo. )

"Yeah," Duo answered obediently, his voice breaking to breathe as he trembled. "I think...I think I broke my arm...an' some ribs. My right side hurts. There's a lot o' blood, 'Ro..." Duo's voice wavered, his focus fading.

( Just do what I say, Duo, ) Heero ordered sharply. ( Can you get out of the car? I need you to try and get out, now. )

Duo looked over at his door. The metal was mashed in like some sort of sick modern art piece. "No, I can't...the car's upside down. I can't get out."

( Okay, tell me where you were when you crashed. I'll come to you, Duo, ) Heero continued quickly, distracting Duo's momentary thought process. ( Where are you? )

"I...I think it's...we were on Valley Drive," Duo recalled the turn onto their road, and the stop light. His breathing became quick and rapid as the memory flashed in his mind again. "I-It was a truck 'Ro. It drove right through the fucking stop light an' hit Solo's side."

( What intersection? )

Duo tried to think back to how far they'd gone down Valley Drive. Was it one, or two lights? Duo felt that it had been so quick, it had to be the first intersection after their turn. "Cherry. It's Cherry Street." Which meant that home was only four streets away. They had been less than two minutes away, where Hilde was waiting with baby Cadence, unaware that her husband was dead at this very moment. Duo's fist clenched unconsciously as he thought of Hilde, and the poor kids. The pain in his heart grew.

( Do you hear sirens? Heero continued asking questions. I need to know if there's an ambulance coming. )

Duo replied quickly to this one. "Yeah, I can hear them." The sound was faint, but growing, the wail piercing the calm night air.

( Okay, I'm going to keep you on the line, Duo, ) Heero explained. Duo heard the sound of an engine starting. ( Don't let the call end. I'm coming to you right now. I'll be five minutes. Just keep talking to me. Stay with me. )