Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Psionic Saga ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter Seventeen.

Quatre left Trowa asleep in their room and, sneaking out via the window, made his way to Wufei's place. He left a small note on his desk that would be indecipherable to anyone else, but that Trowa would easily understand. He was not worried about Trowa panicking, sensing the bone-deep calm in his companion.

The night was calming to Quatre, not because of the cool breeze that caressed his hot skin, but because of it was quiet. During the day it was almost impossible to keep the millions of differing emotions from flooding his senses, but at night…people slept, and the world was calm. Or calmer.

Wufei's light was on. Quatre had known it would be. He could sense Wufei, calmly waiting in the living room, on the couch…a small grin broke out on Quatre's face as he pushed open the front door. Knocking was useless. Wufei knew who it was by the way Quatre had walked down the hallway.

"Quatre."

"Wufei."

Quatre nodded as he greeted his friend, casually sitting down on the single couch directly across from where Wufei was sitting. Quatre felt no unease from the Chinese boy and allowed himself to relax completely. They had been to the same place, seen the same thing. They just needed to know what it meant.

Treize was not, thankfully, in the room. While Quatre could sense the older boy would do nothing to harm Wufei, Treize had no such inclination toward the rest of them. Quatre would not have been comfortable talking with the `couple'.

"He is in his own room, trying to reconcile his differences with Milliard."

Quatre only nodded.

They sat in silence for a time, simply enjoying one another's company. Quatre could not remember the last time he had just sat, quietly, contemplating, reflecting. It had been too long.

Finally Wufei shifted in his chair and Quatre could sense it was time. Time to try, even if it was impossible. Even if the Professors, in all their years of trying, had failed.

"Did you know, before you went to Treize?"

"Yes."

Quatre nodded. He had no idea what the Professors were up to; had thought no one did. It had not occurred to him that Wufei might have known things the rest of them had only dared dream about. Even Duo had failed to put all the pieces together. Or rather, Duo had avoided all the pieces, some part of him already knowing the answer.

"What is the difference, exactly?" Wufei asked, onyx eyes shimmering under the gold light embedded in the ceiling.

Quatre sighed and leaned back into the chair. Where did one start?

"Well, the Professors devices are stronger. Even at full strength with Duo, I could only blow up your microwave and send an electric shock as large as this room."

"But?"

"But these devices don't teach you anything. The Professors had to knock you out cold three times just to contain the fires you kept starting!" Quatre pointed out, still trying to forget the way a massive fireball had plummeted into the wall but an inch from his face. It had taken three hours for Wufei to wake, only so he could shoot out ten more of the damn things. Luckily, his aim got better. These fireballs chased the Professors around for ten minutes before they finally put Wufei to sleep again.

Even Wufei was smiling at that particular memory.

"Duo's bands are subdued. I think…"Quatre shifted in his chair and tried to gather his thoughts. It really was hard to compare the two, especially to someone with experience of only one device.

"Duo's bands lock in on the frequency of your bio-electricity. It hones in on the very core of your existence, but only the core. I think they ignore all the frequencies that are even the smallest bit different."

"So, if the body has more than one frequency, all of which were controlled by the core one…" Wufei's voice trailed off, his eyes narrowing as he tried to gather his thoughts.

Neither were finding this an easy conversation.

"…Duo's device would not enable you to access anything other than the controlling frequency. You could gain the knowledge, but not the power needed to make it effective." Qutre finished for Wufei. The Chinese man was nodding; the answer had been what he expected, but Quatre sensed he was still perplexed.

"What is it?"

Wufei looked at him steadily, mind racing, trying to remember all the things his friends had done in the past few weeks.

"If the body has more than one frequency, Duo knows it."

Quatre almost fell out of his chair. How he had not thought of that before was beyond him. He blamed it on the fact he had been kidnapped and had a metal plug stuck in his head. Things tended to slip your mind in such circumstances. Still…

"If he knows that, why didn't he make his bands capable of accessing a wider variety of frequencies? Why just the controlling ones?"

Wufei shrugged. He had as much a clue as to how Duo worked as Quatre did. He didn't doubt Duo knew a lot more than he was letting on though.

"What did you feel, when Duo…"

Quatre quailed at the memory, but forced himself to drag it up. This was important! It could be a clue and they needed every clue they could get their hands on.

"Duo panicked…and turned inward. It was like his entire being just folded inward…Then, for a second, it was like Duo wasn't there any more. It just felt…empty."

Quatre barely held back tears of fear that threatened to spill. The memory was so strong he could almost taste the panic, feel the empty longing.

"Then what?"

Quatre held up a hand to silence Wufei's pushing.

"It was like someone walked over my grave. You know, when you get that shiver down your spine? And Duo was…cold. Like…death. Just as he had turned inward he turned out and everything he was exploded from him! It was agony…as if…" Quatre stopped, head cocked to the side in thought. Was it really like that? Yes it was. And it had felt like that!

Wufei was on the edge of his seat, dying to know more but unwilling to break Quatre's unspoken command to let him go at his own pace.

"Wufei, make a fireball!" Quatre squealed excitedly.

Wufei fell back in shock at the excited desire written all over Quatre's face and heavy in his voice, but he obeyed, drawing on the device in the back of his head and forming a small ball on his hand. Quatre watched avidly the whole time, but his eyes were slightly unfocussed, watching something apart from the physical.

"That's it!" Quatre leapt to his feet and began pacing.

"Duo made his devices to teach the core frequency how to access its Psionic abilities. The Professors devices are a core frequency in themselves. When you made the Fireball I felt nothing of you in it. The device gathered all the bio-electric frequencies from around the body but used its own fake frequency to create the fireball. It's like…you are just the battery that runs the device."

"Whereas?"

"Whereas when Duo…I told you it was agony, as if every piece of life within him was dragged to one point and then shoved away. But that one point was not mechanical; it was Duo. Some twisted, dark part of him I've never seen, but it was still him!"

Quatre continued to pace, mumbling excitedly to himself, aware of Wufei, still perched on the very edge of his seat, onyx eyes fastened on the carpet nearby. Quatre could sense many things in the Chinese man. Fear, anxiety, anticipation, desire…

Quatre grimaced. Desire to have that device out of his head. Desire to have what Duo seemed to have…And what the Professors wanted.

"What will they do if they get the secret?" Quatre pondered out loud.

There was a deafening silence. Finally, thin and uncharacteristically frail, Wufei's voice shattered the moment.

"They will rule the world."

*

"They will rule the world," Wufei said softly, knowing his voice was filled with all the things he was feeling, knowing it sounded weak but not caring.

Quatre stopped pacing and turned to face him. His small face was white, drained of colour, his eyes watering. Wufei could only imagine the things he was feeling, thinking…What would the Professors do with a world at the command? What evils would be unleashed at their scientific whim?

"Quatre." Wufei waited until Quatre was calm and facing him. "When they put the device in you…were you awake?"

Quatre nodded solemnly.

"Did you see something?"

Again Quatre nodded, eyes a little wider.

"Was it…a boy…in chains?"

Quatre sat down in his chair again, shivering, trapped in the emphatic memory, the residual emotion.

"He's hanging in a white room," Quatre whispered, once blue eyes now a stray, fogged grey. "The chains are so tight, they hold everything back. He is empty, cold…He does not understand. There is blood…its all over his skin…his head is down…He's asleep."

Wufei had been creeping slowly closer to Quatre. He was right by his feet when Quatre's hands snapped up and gripped on his shoulders, eyes wide, searching for something only he could see.

"You must not let him wake Wufei! If he wakes…the blood will spill…the chains will break…he will be free…"

Wufei shook Quatre hard, trying to remain calm, forcing his body to breathe evenly even as his mind was screaming that something was terribly wrong. Were these really Quatre's feelings and thoughts, or were they from…whatever it was.

Wufei had seen it, for a brief second. There had been the sharp stab of pain, then a flash of white light, then the vision. The boy in chains, surrounded by an intense white fog. His head was down, body slick with blood that dripped into the white abyss. Wufei had been afraid for the first time in his life.

Treize had seen the same thing. They had spoken of it for only a moment, each confirming the other had seen the same. They all saw it, once they were linked to the device…they all feared.

Quatre collapsed. Shaking, Wufei found enough strength to carry the limp form to the bedroom, dumping him on the bed and returning to sit in front of the TV cabinet. He needed something to help him take his mind off that boy. He picked up the remote…

TV. Remote. What?

Wufei stared at the remote for several minutes before he realised it had no brand marks. In fact, it was smooth, black, slim, and covered with silver etching that formed a mad clown face. The clown face, for some obscene reason he didn't want to think about, reminded Wufei of Trowa.

Wufei had no idea when Duo had found the time to make the TV, let alone smuggle it into his room…Hesitantly, Wufei switched it on.

At first it looked as if nothing had happened. Then he noticed a small green light flashing on the plastic board under the screen and he waited patiently. A vague image began to appear on the screen. It was hazy and blurred, distorted somehow. As the minutes clicked by the distortion cleaned up and it turned into Wufei's living room…from the televisions perspective.

There was the two seater couch, right in the centre of the picture, whatever was on it still too blurred to make out. In the background was the kitchen, to the side the bedroom door, on the other side the bookcase…it was all there. It was weird.

Waiting a few more minutes Wufei finally realised the thing on the couch was moving. In fact, there were two things on the couch…

A little black bunny suddenly popped into existence along with a strange blonde-ish one. They were….

"ON MY COUCH!" Wufei bellowed, leaping to his feet. He pressed the off button but the picture just faded to reveal an image of Duo yawning.

"Let me guess…you're on your feet, with no one else around, and you're bellowing about your precious couch?"

Wufei fumed at the image. Was it really so much to expect Duo to just make the television, and make it act normally? Televisions were not supposed to speak. Televisions were not supposed to have Duo Maxwell, prankster extraordinaire stuck inside them…

Someone knocked on the door and Wufei snarled for them to come in. Treize hesitantly stepped into the room. He took one look at Wufei and began searching the room for whatever had made him mad. His eyes settled on the television, which was looking at him…

"You were watching a videot of Duo?" Treize raised his brows as if he wasn't interested. "I didn't know you were into that sort of thing."

Wufei gaped, looked from Treize to the television, then smirked.

"Well, I might be if it wasn't Maxwell on the screen. You should have seen what came first."

End Chapter Seventeen.