Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Creed Arc ❯ The Creed: Impervious ( Chapter 1 )

- Impervious -

Heat. The burning kind. It's so familiar as it whips across my face, threatening to swallow me whole. I don't move to evade it, don't try to get away. It can have me, if that is what it wants. But I don't truly believe it will hurt me. It never has and in my mind it never will. I am impervious to its caress.

The mission has gone awry. Not wrong but not right, trapped somewhere between. It's so like me, I don't want it to end. I want to feel this way forever, pushed to the limits, forced to keep going until it ends. In this place I would never feel it, never know if I was hit in the back in some isolated corridor. There is only the rush of blood to the head that says go forward, and I obey.

My fingers are playing across the plastic explosive, fastening it expertly to the underside of a walkway. I'm hanging upside down, the ache in my knees not registering, the skin scraped raw invisible. I see only those fingers, working like mechanical spiders. They are almost beautiful, unearthly. Then I see the dirt and I know they're mine, human and capable of mistakes and I feel panic scamper through every thought. I don't allow it to reach those hands, somehow keeping the mental on a tight leash and letting the physical run free.

Then I'm falling, twisting in the air to land expertly on the floor below, launching into a run as I hurry between the intersecting lines of search parties, barely escaping notice, hurrying to reach the next target location. There were so many soldiers, all looking for his slight shadow. He felt almost important.

Is this how it feels to be on top of the world? Is this happiness? Is this the best there is? I can't say, because if I say I must say it true, and I know there is more than this. I've had it, in my grasp for the smallest time before it is snatched from my grip. I am powerless against myself, and I am Shinigami…

I will keep them safe. Why do I have to repeat it so often? Why do I always push the thought from my mind only to have to snatch it back again, grabbing onto its tail edges like the lifeline it is. I WILL stay back. I WILL keep them safe. No matter what.

I'm looking at my fingers again. This time I'm not upside down and they aren't buried in plastic explosive. They're flying across a keypad. It beeps green and a door slides open. Silent, aware and deadly I sneak inside, quick as a weasel with a cheeky grin. My eyes are shimmering with tears, but I'' not sad. I'' not happy either. I'm excited. So excited it hurts. I feel ready to burst as I drive on, slipping between the lines of missiles, randomly choosing one and fastening the last bomb to its side.

They were each connected, my mind told me as the finger-spiders worked, each one calling to the next through the air between them. Duo wouldn't just let them talk to each other. No, he intended to make them sing. Sing so loudly no one would be able to ignore them, and then they would know. Shinigami was here.

The heat has reached me again. It's burning my back. I can feel the little blisters forming but it doesn't matter. Soon this fire will be nothing, completely forgotten.

I'm on my feet again. I can hear fighting and I know its Heero, somewhere outside, already completed his part of the mission and trying to get out. Does he even know I'm still here? Probably not. The missions were separate, just in the same location. I hadn't known Heero was going to be there. That was half the reason it had gone wrong. They had damn near killed each other, each trying to reach their goal but destroying one another's plans as their progress worked in opposite directions. Heero's mission was a success. He had blown the intelligence building in the heart of the base.

While I was still inside!

Pushing down the indignation and the cold burning loneliness, I pushed himself harder, faster, heading for the distant hanger where I had crash landed Deathscythe. Yes, crash landed. Oz had known I was coming, or known Heero was…it didn't really matter which. They had both suffered, and so had the mission. Heero would never forgive me.

The fire is still on my heels. It's been there from the moment I grabbed the disk from the main computer's hard-drive. I could have escaped the blaze, but not without leaving the information behind. I knew when I heard the first explosion that the base had been hit, and I knew I couldn't leave. So I stood there, knowing the flames were growing all around me. I waited until I had it all, and then I ran. I stopped at strategic points, placing bombs, killing those who should have been watching…

I was at the right distance. I fumbled in my pocket, those strange dirty white fingers once again coming to my aid. They're pressing the button. I can't stop the grin that's spreading over my face. Then it's all red. I should close my eyes; watching this can blind me. I don't. I ask myself why but the body doesn't answer. It just watches.

There's not much to watch. I'm stuck between two hangers and have to leave. My body knows this, long before my head. I'm running, my feet leading the way. They always know where to go, my feet. And when to move. They're so well trained. Too bad feet can't fly a gundam.

Deathscythe is in bad shape. I observe the scratches and gashes in the metal as I climb into the cockpit. The board is crackling, circuits burning...

It will work. It has to.

I flick every switch I can think of and a loud groan responds as Deathscythe is forced into a standing position.

"Come on buddy, we can do this. The flames won't hurt us. MOVE!" I yanked on the controls, swinging the unresponsive mammoth around to face where I knew the earlier fighting had been. There's nothing there but smoking ruin. Heero is long gone. I don't think he knew I was here at all. How he explained for what went wrong with his mission I have no idea, but he did not reach the right conclusion. At least, I hope he didn't. Some small part of me didn't want Heero to think so little of me. I didn't want I didn't want to be that alone. Then I wouldn't be empty, I would be dead.

Deathscythe's control panel made a ripping, grinding howl then the red lights were flashing dangerously.

"Not now Buddy!" Duo moaned, rubbing his thumbs up and down the board consolingly. "You can do this! All you have to do is fly away. See, Heero even cleared the way!" Even as I said it I knew it wasn't true. In the screen Deathscythe was showing me a team of Leo's heading straight for us. I knew they had lost Wing and had returned to base...to find there was no base. They would be doubly pissed, and now the busted pilot had returned…

I grinned, pleased with himself. I had one last trick up my sleeve. I just hoped I was right. Flicking a well-hidden black switch on the right side of the piloting chair, I couldn't help but laugh as the chair dropped back and I found himself staring at the ceiling. A small panel opened. One small screen blinking pale green in the dark and six coloured knobs. Reaching out a hand, yes one of those hands, I used the white switch to turn the system on. It buzzed loudly before coming to life, writing on the screen. Next came the grey switch. While I couldn't see outside the cockpit, I could hear the confusion coming over the open intercom from the milling Leo's. Deathscythe had slipped from sight. Tapping my finger near a green switch, I shook my head. No, not that one. Yellow….no. I wanted red.

And it was there, right where G had always said it would be. I flicked it on and the screen changed colour. There were several strange glyphs and I struggled to recall their meaning. I had to touch one. The right one, or the gundam would self destruct. I just had to remember which one…

By the bottom right hand corner was a small triangular shape. It looked like an upside down t. I grinned. Like a broom…

I pressed firmly on the screen and the panel slammed shut, damn near slicing my finger off in its hurry to seal. The seat pitched forward and the harness sliced into my clothes. I didn't cry out. I started laughing. Deathscythe was moving, all systems cancelled and a program all that remained to hold it upright. That wasn't what was so funny. What was funny was the fact that Deathscythe was moving, languidly, smoothly, sliding and gliding; he was dancing.

I almost didn't care about the consequences. I had always wanted to see this! I remembered the day G designed the program.

`Should Deathscythe Hell find itself at its end it must be capable of doing the final dance…'

Yes, he was dancing beautifully. I watched as the Scythe extended to the side to balance the machine, the program responding to outside stimulation as it cut through the unsuspecting Leo's.

Deathscythe launched itself into the air. I screamed in delight. There was an incredible sense of weightlessness as my head crashed against the dead controls. I was not part of the dance, merely an observer. Deathscythe no longer had a pilot, only itself and it was not afraid to sacrifice the pilot's chair. That became terrifyingly obvious as the scythe grazed along the hatch, cool air smashing through the airlock and sucking everything out. I felt it pulling against me and once again the harness was slicing into me.

"You're perfect, buddy…" I wheezed with the last of the air. There was no reply. Deathscythe just continued to fly toward the last known safe-house, some fifty miles from the current one. I was so dead.

Something smashed into us. My arms smashed into the controls and I stopped laughing, my mirth replaced with screams. Not even I could deny the hot agony that laced through me. There was no need to.

"Come and get me God!" I bellowed as Deathscythe came to an abrupt halt mid-air. But we didn't fall. We just sat there, Hanging limp in the air.

"Duo?"

Heero was on the screen. He couldn't see me. I had the visual link switched off. What was Heero doing here? Why had e saved me? He shouldn't have. Now they were in danger again! Tears prickled in my eyes at how close Heero had come to being set free. He could have saved them all if Heero had just stayed away.

"Duo, daijoubu ka?" He was worried. For him to be showing that much emotion in both voice and facial expression I knew it was true. Why hadn't he just stayed away!

I forced myself to place my hands around Deathscythe's controls, to make myself look in control, as if my arms were still useful. They weren't. The mask was donned. I kicked the visual com link to life.

"I'm fine Heero."

And just try to tell me I'm not. I'm so covered in dirt you can't see how pale my skin is. My eyes are still so filled with battle lust you can't see the pain. My grin is so perfect you can't see the lie and my hands are wrapped so well around these controls you think I can pilot. Even if this piece of shit wasn't falling apart in mid-air, I wouldn't be able to hit the self detonation switch before we plunged to our deaths…And that was the point, right?

Apparently Heero was still having doubts. His face scrunched a little. He was glaring at me through the com link.

"Status?"

Would it matter? I was going to die anyway. I was already going to hell. What was one last sin? It was almost worth it.

"Unharmed."

I lied.

It didn't matter. I was falling. Heero had nodded and foolishly let Wing release Deathscythe. My hands dropped from the controls and I kicked the vid link off as we plummeted.

"Don't worry Deathscythe ol' buddy, Hell cannot harm us. We're impervious to the fire."

Falling…

Impervious…