Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami's Judgement ❯ One: Arrival ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Notes: I'm glad the people who've read this story have liked it so far! If anyone wants to know when new chapters come out, e-mail me at reckless_abandon182@hotmail.com, and then I'll e-mail you when the next chapter comes out. :-) Read on!

Chapter One: Arrival

Duo blinked open his eyes slowly. He felt stiff as he stood up, attributing it to old age. His surroundings were unfamiliar. The last thing he'd remembered was a sudden dull but powerful pain in his chest and falling to the floor of his living room before passing out. But now he was in a white hallway, doors on either side marked with blue nameplates, and lights along the ceiling with pale blue shades.

"What the hell?" Duo muttered, but his voice startled him. He spoke again. "Where am I?" Something wasn't right. His voice sounded... younger. He looked down at his clothing. Black, as it always had been, but robes. Lying on the ground was a scythe. Duo's eyes widened. He looked at his hands, and saw that the wrinkles and lines that once criscrossed his skin were gone, and his veins were less prominent. "Shit, what happened?" Duo exclaimed as he pulled his braid around his shoulder and discovered it was pure chestnut brown again, free of the grey streaks.

He was fifteen again.

"Holy fuck," he whispered, picking up the scythe slowly. Duo glanced down to both ends of the corridor. It seemed to be endless, but eventually Duo turned to the right and started walking. He didn't recognize any of the names on the doors. Duo started speculating.

Where the fuck am I? And what happened to me before? I think I had a heart attack... that doesn't explain why I look like I'm fifteen years old or how I got here. Shit! His mind came to a screeching halt. "I think I'm dead!" he exclaimed.

"Good guess Maxwell," came a voice. Duo whipped around. Nobody was there. He could've sworn he'd heard the voice of Chang Wufei behind him.

"Wufei? Are you there? Come on Wufei, talk to me. Is this heaven or something?" Duo shouted. "Wufei!"

No answer. Duo grumbled and kept walking, until he reached another idea.

"After all I've done, why am I in heaven? If this is heaven, that is," he wondered aloud. "I don't even believe in God."

"That doesn't mean He won't give you a chance." This time, it was Trowa Barton that eluded Duo.

"Stop doing this! Trowa, come out here and talk to me!" Duo yelled in vain. "Dammit..." He continued his trek down the hallway. A fork was soon placed in his path, and Duo furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to choose one. "Oh what the heck. Let's go left," he said to no one in particular. He thought he'd seen people down there anyway, and started in that direction.

He bounced back, ricocheting off the opposite wall. "Hey you stupid fuck! Lemme through!" Duo shouted.

"Some things aren't meant to happen, Duo," a gentle voice told him. Quatre Raberba Winner.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Silence, as expected. Swearing profusely, Duo took the other hallway. Soon he was met by a large, unmarked door. "Am I supposed to go through here or something?"

"That's your choice."

"Heero?" Duo spun around and was faced with his longtime comrade, friend, and lover, also looking like a teenager. "Finally, someone who talks to me directly," he smirked.

"Are you going in or not?" Heero said bluntly.

Duo was slightly miffed. "Not even a hello? An 'I missed you'?" he murmured. "I missed you."

Heero's usual stoney glare softened a little. "Of course you missed me. You couldn't see me. But I saw you Duo. Every day. I know everything you've done in the past seven years," he said quietly. "But so does God. And that's why you're here. So decide now if you want to go in."

Figuring that, contrary to what Heero had said, he didn't have a choice, Duo opened the door and was quickly ushered inside by Heero. Duo was confronted with a startlingly bright room. A podium that stretched into the clouds was in the centre, to the right, a long table and several chairs, to the left, a smaller table with one chair. Duo figured that the lonely table was his place, and sat there. Heero sat at one end of the long table, and suddenly Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei joined him. Just as suddenly, an audience appeared where Duo had once been standing.

An angel stepped forward from the front row. "Lord, we present to you the case of the world versus Duo Maxwell in regards to his entrance to the kingdom of heaven."