Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Psionic Saga ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter Sixteen

One minute his feet were planted firmly on the ground, arms wrapped around Quatre, the next he felt weightless and when he looked down the floor was getting further and further away. Looking up, Trowa locked his gaze with Heero's. Together they turned to face Duo.

Duo was closer to the ground than anyone else, but even he could not keep his feet on the floor. His braid snaked out in the air behind him and small tendrils floated around his head, electrically charged.

"Duo…" Quatre moaned, reaching out a hand toward their friend, but it was useless. Duo did not seem able to hear them. Trowa doubted Duo was aware of anything in the room but himself. He was staring at his hands.

Heero was swimming toward the window. For some reason this struck Trowa as funny and he started chuckling. Quatre turned to see what he could possibly find funny and was soon giggling. Their good humour seemed to catch the Psionicists off guard, because they suddenly turned their attention to the pair. Even Trowa could have told them in a few words what a stupid idea that was.

Wufei realised his mistake a split second before the others and began swimming much as Heero had, only he headed for a table. Or, more precisely, under a table. Trowa narrowed his eyes when he realised Wufei was dragging Treize after him. What was it with Wufei?

"Duo, no!" Heero bellowed, but it was too late. All attention in the room swung to Duo, who's slight form was rising, arms outstretched.

All the air in the room seemed suddenly sucked away, as if there was a great vortex and Duo was its core. Trowa struggled to breathe but it was useless. His eyes bulged as Duo's form seemed to shimmer in a deep haze, as if they were in the desert and not the school cafeteria. Quatre almost gasped at the sight, his lungs fighting to draw breath.

The light explosion that followed could not be explained. Their weightless forms rocked on waves of nothing. Trowa lost his grip on Quatre and opened his eyes, but could see nothing. All around him was an impenetrable wall of white. He did not understand it. He didn't even try. This was unexplainable, impossible, and right before his eyes.

Seeing is believing, some part of his mind tried to tell him, but there comes a point when you can only see so much before it becomes too much. A point where you know it is happening while still knowing it is not.

Trowa blinked. And fell.

A yelp escaped him as he fell, perhaps the most undignified sound he had ever made, but he was not ashamed. Far from it. As the ground closed in on him, Trowa tried to think of some way to save himself, but he was falling from a window five floors up and knew no roll the circus had taught him could ever absorb his impact.

Then he was slowing down, the ground was still approaching, but not as quickly and he dove mid air, one arm outstretched, unbendable, and he rolled, down the arm, across his back and was on his feet, smiling genuinely at the relieved form of Quatre in the window high above.

Knowing the day was far from over, Trowa ran bolted through the nearest door and headed for the stairs. Whatever was happening, Quatre appeared to be playing a large part in it, and if Quatre was involved, Trowa was involved. Simple as that.

`Or it would be simple,' Trowa thought to himself, `if people weren't making fires erupt out of nowhere, draining your life through your skin, freezing you in place, making you float all over the place, then stopping you from breaking your neck…'

Trowa decided `simple' was not a word he would use to describe life. In fact he didn't think `simple' should be allowed back into his vocabulary.

He hit the top of the fifth floor stairwell at a sprint and didn't stop, tumbling through the cafeteria doors and coming face to face with Wufei.

Wufei had managed to make a small barricade from the table, but the table itself had been flung backwards in the odd light blast. Hence, Wufei and Treize were still hiding behind it, only the table was now sitting in front of the door, instead of near the far window.

Wufei grabbed Trowa's wrist and pulled him behind the small barrier. Trowa didn't argue, unsure of what was happening in the room. After all, it was better to have some protection when you yourself had none.

"It's all a charade!" Wufei hissed in his ear, ignoring the scowl on Treize's face as he spoke. "That's why they wear the hoods! It covers this!"

Wufei turned on his knees and lifted his pony-tail to reveal a small device attached to the top of his neck. It looked like a watch, the same sort of face and size, but it was glued to Wufei's skin….

"What…"

Wufei let his hair drop and turned to face Trowa again.

"It's a tiny version of Duo's bands. It took the doctor's years to make them. They're more powerful than Duo's, because they're connected to the nervous system."

So there was a pin in the back that went into Wufei…Trowa did not like that at all! Still, it was becoming much clearer as to why Wufei had gone with Treize. Sure, Wufei was attracted to the guy, that much was obvious. But that alone would never have led Wufei astray. A weapon to use against the Psionicists however…That was too Wufei.

Trowa grinned and nooded. Wufei lifted a hand and faced the palm toward the cafeteria door. A second later the door erupted in flames. Trowa's heart skipped a beat. The fire had been Wufei?

He should have realised none of the Psionicists had ever had that gift, should have put two and two together, but he hadn't.

"Quatre has one too," Wufei explained quickly, placing one slender finger on Treize's lips, which amazingly shut off the man's protests. "It magnifies his gift…He can feel everything that is going on…Everything!"

It seemed very important to Wufei that Trowa understood the full implications of `everything'. All that seemed to go through Trowa's mind was the way Quatre had moaned Duo's name, the way he had tried to gasp…

Moan, gasp…ways of expressing pain. Duo's pain?

Wufei was nodding, reading the vague expressions on Trowa's face.

"The doctors are using machines to create Psionicists, just as Duo did, but they are missing the link that allows a human to become a Psionicist without mechanical assistance!"

That's why they were given that particular assignment Trowa realised. They knew what Duo would do it on, knew Duo would do into all the lesser understood regions of the topic, and in doing so would reveal the missing link. But Duo hadn't written his assignment…Duo's thoughts were not on paper, but in his head. They were safe, if they could just escape…

Trowa looked around the table barrier, aware of people screaming in the hallway beyond the cafeteria. Someone had finally noticed Wufei's little fire. They were no doubt evacuating the building; it was the perfect cover. They just had to get out…

The tables and chairs were all thrown against the walls. Tangled among them were the groaning forms of Hilde, Relena, Une and Professor G. Professor J seemed only to have recently gained his feet and was heading for Milliard and Noin, who seemed to have formed a protective barrier around themselves on the right hand side of the room. In the middle of the room, only one Psionicist remained, apparently untouched and unconcerned with what was happening. Trowa wondered what Sally Po's special talent was but didn't have time to ponder. Not five metres from her Duo lay unconscious on the floor, hair still floating around his head…he was still actively charged! Trowa was not sure it was safe to go anywhere near him, and he realised Sally, who was so close, was not getting any closer…

Quatre was hiding behind a table on the far side of the room. He waved to let Trowa know he was alright, but his face was pinched.

Trowa locked eyes with Heero, who was pushing himself up from the wall between the two broken windows. Trowa assumed he had been thrown there in the blast. Heero looked away from Trowa and spotted Duo. He took one clean sweep of the room and raced forward, knowing there was danger and simply not caring.

Trowa rocked back on his heels, stunned. Heero didn't care about a lot of things, but he was not in the habit of needlessly putting himself in danger.

A light hand fell on his forearm and Trowa turned his dazed eyes to Wufei, who only grinned and placed his other hand in Treize's. That did not help. Trowa looked back to the scene again and almost gaped.

Heero was kneeling beside Duo, pulling the limp form against his chest as his own hair began to stick up in all directions from the energy Duo was emitting. Heero's gaze was locked on Professor J, who had moved to stand between Heero and the cafeteria doors.

"Move."

Trowa had never heard a voice like that. No warmth, no feeling, no anything. Heero sounded like a machine. If Trowa had not known Heero, known him as well as he knew himself, he would have sworn on anything and everything he held dear that Heero was a machine.

"I can't do that Heero. I need that boy. My life's work comes down to what is inside him."

Heero didn't move for a long time. In that space Milliard and Noin moved to flank Professor J. Trowa assumed they wanted what was inside Duo as much as the Professor. Trowa would too if it meant he could finally take a chunk of metal out of his neck.

Heero suddenly released Duo's legs, placing the lax feet on top of his own. One strong arm wrapped itself around Duo's waist, the other around his shoulders, pinning the slight form to his chest. Heero whispered something in Duo's ear, but there was no response. Heero tilted his head to the side and said the one word that could strike pure fear into Trowa's heart.

"Quatre."

Quatre responded immediately, slipping out from the behind the table and walking calmly to Heero's side.

They talked to each other in quiet whispers, so soft Trowa could not hope to hear, especially with the roaring of Wufei's fire at his back.

Quatre moved and Trowa's gaze was plastered to his form. Uatre picked up one of Duo's limp hands on held it out, palm up as Wufei had held his.

Wufei moved first, leaping up and walking into the flames he had made. They did not harm him. Trowa assumed he could chose who the heat touched and realised he had not felt any heat coming from the fire as he had the first time.

Wufei opened the cafeteria door.

Heero began walking, very slowly so he didn't disturb the way Duo was pressed against him. Quatre moved with him, still holding the hand out, palm facing Professor J.

As they got closer, Professor J moved aside, his lackey's moving with him, a deep snarl on his face. Trowa noticed a strange pressure pushing him back.

"It's the leftovers of Maxwell's party," Wufei snapped, his tone telling Trowa to move. It snapped Trowa from his daze and he stood in unison with Treize. Trowa raised an intrigued brow at the older student.

"I'm in love with him," Treize shrugged and moved to stand with Wufei.

Trowa just gaped and wondered if he would ever be unsurprised again.

"I knew I should have stayed in bed today."

"And miss this?" Wufei asked as they met at the door.

Heero and Quatre were almost there and Treize stepped forward, palms raised…against Professor J.

Trowa decided this was a day for surprises. Quatre released Duo's hand and Heero, taking the hint, easily swept Duo into his arms and hurried out the door.

Trowa grabbed Treize and hauled him bodily from the room, the cafeteria doors swinging shut in their wake. He heard Professor J's voice muffled through the door and started to run. It was time to leave, leave, leave….

When they reached the school front doors they almost ran straight into a fireman.

"Passed out from the smoke," Heero explained coldly when the fireman asked about Duo. They were told to go to the ambulance waiting on the far side of the lawns.

Nodding as if that was exactly where they were headed, Heero then turned off toward the dorms, which were completely untouched by the flames. Many students were being herded in that direction.

Trowa stopped and fell in step with Treize.

"They've had enough time to get out…"

Wufei looked at Trowa in shock, then nodded, a wicked grin making its way to his stern features. All of a sudden the fifth floor windows exploded with flames.

Trowa slipped his hands in his pockets and hurried to catch up with Quatre.

End Chapter Sixteen