Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Psionic Saga ❯ 21: Quatre's play ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter Twenty One.

Quatre felt the earth rumble, felt the rock jolt as he was thrown backward, almost falling in the hole, saved only by Trowa's tight grasp on his wrist. Sighing in relief, he felt rather than saw Sally waken, the outward blast sending his senses reeling as he fumbled at Trowa's chest, trying to remember to breathe.

"Something is wrong!" Quatre hissed in Trowa's ear as Duo finally found his feet and fumbled toward Heero. Quatre reached out with all the power he possessed, but not matter how hard he tried there was no reply within Duo. No echo of thought or feeling. No sign of life at all.

Quatre watched in fascination as Duo's hand fell on Heero's shoulder. At any other time he would have expected Heero to throw it off, but sensing what was raging in the Japanese boy now, Quatre was not surprised at all when Heero's arm snaked out around Duo's waist, tucking the smaller boy against his side. Duo was talking, pleading, begging. Quatre could tell by the way his face was slightly scrunched, eyes wide, nose slightly turned upward. Heero was not listening. Or rather, he heard every word but acknowledged nothing.

It made Duo furious, and as Heero tried to pull him toward Relena, Duo finally snapped, diving out of Heero's hold and falling hard on the ground. He didn't seem fazed by the blood Quatre saw spilling down his elbow, rising quickly to his feet and glaring at Heero.

"You are right," Trowa whispered. "This is not right," he said as he plunged off the rock and dove after Duo.

But it was too late. Quatre reached out a hand but it was too late to stop Trowa as the blinding blast of white light knocked him back, followed quickly by an all too familiar feeling that he weighed nothing. From the corner of his eye he saw Trowa barrelled into a tree then he himself was slamming into something solid, only it yielded on impact and they both went soaring across the clearing.

As quickly as he was thrown back, Quatre felt himself rising and fear clutched at his heart as the ground moved further away. Standing far below he could see Duo, the only one still grounded, staring up at Heero with cold, dark eyes. Eyes that Quatre did not know.

It's a dark, twisted version of Duo I've never seen before…Quatre's own words to Wufei came back to haunt him.

But its Duo nonetheless.

Quatre spurred himself into action. He knew he had power, could feel it coiled within every fibre of his being. He had felt its potential when he blew up Wufei's microwave. He could destroy. He could do terrible things. But most of all, he could make others do the same.

Gathering his strength, Quatre directed a trickle of his own ability at Duo and was rewarded with the oh so subtle touch of that foreign mind. Closing his eyes, Quatre went in for the kill. He had no idea what he was getting himself in to.

`You dare enter here?' An unfamiliar voice hissed at Quatre from a darkness so intense it burned. `You are not welcome here.'

`Duo?'

Silence.

`Duo, will you listen to me?'

Contemplation.

`You have to stop, or I will stop you…' Quatre didn't like threatening people, but there was no choice.

Laughter was his reward.

`You still don't understand. You still don't see.'

Quatre was confused. He reached out with more power, felt the slight flicker of energy and touched it…

Falling, burning, tumbling, fumbling, screaming…toward what? Quatre didn't know what had happened. For that brief moment he had touched Duo, but it was not Duo, not a living form as he knew it, then he was falling…

Then had had fallen.

It was dark. No light in this darkened place. Quatre forced his mind to search, calling for the part of his friend that was familiar. There was no reply, so he dove deeper, delving the deeper depressions of dormant dreams hiding in Duo's subconscious, always calling, begging for a response.

`Duo?' Quatre called, aware he could no longer contact his own body, though he was still drawing on his own Psionic gift.

`Quatre.'

Looking up Quatre found himself looking straight into those beautiful lilac orbs and nearly fainted. How could he see Duo, in this darkness…was it darkness? What was this place?

`Where are we?'

`The core. You fell into my frequency when you tried to take over my mind with your own.'

So matter of fact. So carefree and emotionless. Quatre had never heard a voice so dead. Even Heero was cold. This was just…dead, as if it did not exist.

`Why is it so empty here? When I touch Trowa he is full, like…spring…' Quatre's voice trailed off, his mind trying to fathom what he was sensing, feeling. It just didn't compute.

`Can't you feel it?' Duo asked, walking around in a small circle, arms outstretched as if he were running his fingers through something.

Quatre tried. Tried so hard it almost hurt. But there was nothing but deep emptiness, deeper than bones, deeper than the soul. And that was the point.

Quatre gasped, hoping he was wrong, knowing he was right. They had told them, after all, Duo and Heero, tried to warn them what was happening, but they had not understood.

`You're the antithesis of Heero.'

`Yes.' There was a slight twinkle in Duo's eyes.

`Heero is every frequency, but you….you are anonymous, featureless, a space between two others. You are no frequency.'

`Yes.' The twinkle was growing.

`You're passive energy.'

`Yes.' A visible grin marked Duo's face.

`You…take life…steal energy…destroy…'

`I am the great destroyer,' Duo agreed readily.

Quatre's mind was reeling, not only from his new discovery, but from the extent of the nothing that was Duo. How could Duo, who was so full of life, so completely eager to explore and expand on the experience of living, be what he claimed to be?

Time was running out. How long he had spent conversing with Duo's core Quatre could not tell. He only felt he had to escape, to return, but he was not leaving without what he had come for. Ignoring the fact this was Duo, Quatre formed a plan and without hesitation or remorse, instigated it.

`What is your gift?'

`I am a melding,' Duo explained excitedly, a hint of his personality showing through the dark. `I control Telekinetics, or motion. That is how I am able to throw people around. I control Aerokinetics, or air. That is why when I throw you you cannot breathe. But most importantly, I am Gyrokinetic, controlling gravitational fields. That is how I make you float, Quatre. How I take the weight of the world from your shoulders.'

Quatre hid himself well. He was so proud of himself at the moment, for keeping a straight face, for subduing everything he was, all the things his heart was screaming for him to do. Instead, he kept to the plan. He fell of his own volition, plummeted after his own decision.

As he fell Quatre felt his own external frequencies, still trapped within the frequencies attached to Duo's core. He sensed his body and the rest of his abilities and he lunged for them/ But he did not return to his body. Instead he halted himself on the border between that part of existence that was himself and the part trapped between himself and another that was Duo, and he struck out, sending violent probes into the empty space and tangling the mess within.

A scream ripped from Duo's body before it fell limp and Quatre felt his own body plummeting toward earth, Duo's hold broken. Twisting his psychokinesis about Duo's mind Quatre wrenched on Duo's kinetic energy and felt the descent of those around him slow until they were gently placed back on the ground. He then re-established gravity and air flow. He did not release his hold on Duo, ignoring the pleading wails echoing in the back of that trapped mind.

Quatre finally looked around. The scene that met his gaze was horrifying.

The professors were standing on either side of Heero, egging him on as he pressed his finger to Relena Peacecraft's forehead. Behind Relena, Hilde was staring at her hands in sick fascination as her skin glowed a faint blue.

Milliardo was arguing heatedly with Treize, who was trying to protect Wufei. At least, Quatre assumed that was who he was trying to protect. The murderous look in Wufei's eyes made Quatre wonder if Treize wasn't trying to protect Milliardo from a certain little dragon.

Which made Quatre wonder what had Wufei so rattled.

Then Quatre saw Trowa, lying still on the ground behind Wufei, red marks glowing on his skin. Like a road-map of his genetic make-up….so familiar…so tortuously familiar. Nearby stood Une, hands glowing red with unused energy, smile feral and cold.

It was growing cold. Looking frantically around, Quatre saw Dorothy, hands outstretched as she seemed to touch the air itself….

Cryokinetics…Quatre wondered how much colder it was going to get before Dorothy used herself up. There was so many, each awake and so much more powerful than ever before. All the professors dreams were unfolding before his very eyes and Quatre finally had an inkling of what Duo had been trying to prevent, though he had a feeling he did not know it all.

He tried to remember all things Duo had tried to tell him about Psionicists; about himself! Only one thing came to mind. One horrible, all consuming threat.

"With these two elements Psionicists would be able to manipulate Bioelectricty and electro magnetic fields. Ultimately, they could destroy the genetic make-up of a human being." Duo, holding up that damned book in the library, reading it in a funeral tone…

Magnokinetics. Electrokinetics. Combined they made road maps. Combined they ignited your blood. Together they destroyed frequencies.

Quatre was running before the thought was finished and as he ran he reached out with his mind, tugging on the strings he had snagged through the body, pulling Duo to his feet like a marionette in a play now wholly of Quatre's devising.

Quatre ran not at Trowa, who he wanted to help above all others, an not at Wufei who was doing what Quatre knew he should be doing himself. He didn't even run at Heero, who was watching the Professors in something akin to a baby looking at a parent for the first time.

Instead he ran at Hilde, who was slightly apart from the others, still staring at her hands in dumbfounded fascination, Duo on his heels.

`Not Hilde! Don't make me touch Hilde!' Duo's mind was wailing wildly, images of an attempted physical assault led by Hilde surfacing in Quatre's mind along with all Duo's fear and anguish. Quatre didn't flinch, not daring to feel long enough to lose. He had to win, and if he had to be cruel to be victorious, so be it.

"Will it work Duo?" Quatre yelled at the boy over his shoulder, the shout echoed in both their minds.

Duo was silent a long time. When Quatre turned he was terrified to see Duo standing perfectly still, completely unresponsive to Quatre's urgent pulls. He had escaped his hold.

Duo's gaze swept the clearing before he surged forward toward Hilde. Quatre didn't know what to make of the look on Duo's face, but he would not forget the words he said for the rest of his life.

"It had better."

End Chapter Twenty One