Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ XXI ( Chapter 21 )

Unbeta'd

Warnings: Angst, some dubious consent in a later chapter.

 

Pairings: 1x2/2x1, and the pen dabbles around a bit

 

AN: Thank you guys for reading, favs and reviewing!!

 

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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to help them live a little.
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XXI

 

Heero shot up into a sitting position, trying and failing at shaking off the heavy fog from his mind to determine what had woken him. He lay back in the warm spot his body had made on the cold, sparse hay covered stone floor trying to slow the world's spinning. Everything throbbed like his heart beat for awhile before he could focus on anything except the floor.

 

He swallowed with some difficulty, his mouth dry and pasty with some sort of herbal tang clinging to the sides of his tongue. The combined thirst and pasty taste warred with the nausea and the dizziness. He squeezed his eyes shut until the nausea waned and his vision didn't tunnel. Heero chanced opening an eye, blinking several times until the blurry shapes in front of him came into focus, they were thick black bars.

 

Even though he sat up slowly, his vision threatened to start spinning on him again. How … how long has it been? He wondered while he surveyed the area. Stone and more stone, the temple then. He'd been down in the cells deep beneath the temple's foyer before as a part of his training.

 

As if locking me down here for four days without food or light could be really called training, Heero snorted, popping the bones in his neck, hoping it would alleviate some of the stiffness there.

 

Although he hadn't expected to be awake to see anything ever again. There had been bits of drugged glimpses of Jirrad then Senjit trying to get information out of him. Then an instance where Khushrenada had come to him, but with all the drugs in his system he wouldn't have been very receptive to anything he had to say.

 

The last clear moment he remembered at length was Jirrad reaching out to take Duo's hand. But that wasn't right. Duo wouldn't go to Jirrad willing, it was the being that Duo had become that had gone to Jirrad. There was no other word to describe him. He had become something else teeming with power. Power he had borrowed from all of them but capable of so much more. It occurred to him then, that Duo had unknowingly done the same thing to help Zechs and everyone, including him, thought Relena had done it.

 

Heero gritted his teeth. The very thing that he had been trying to prevent had happened - Duo had returned to him and Jirrad stepped in taking him away. Heero cursed himself, tired of hurting, of losing. A flash of memory greeted him when he closed his eyes of his sisters being killed before him and his father - body headless in their yard and the eyeless head resting on their doorstep. His jaw ached so he unclenched his teeth with a shaky exhaled breath. It seemed he couldn't protect or prevent harm to the people he cared for and loved, past or present.

 

Trowa. One of the people he truly thought he could trust and cared for, turned out to be what he had feared of Zechs in the beginning. Heero held one side of his head trying to still the room and rubbed away dry blood from the dull ache running from his right ear into his hair. He growled his frustration, punching the stone floor of his cell. He was tired of lamenting and his mind wandered back to how long he'd been here.

 

Unconsciously, he reached for the black stone on his left shoulder guard and found it gone as were all his weapons even the small blade he had strapped to the inside of his thigh. The black stone was made of the same stone-metal mix as the bars of his cell. The stones were conditioned by Zechs to respond to a captain or a high ranking soldier who bore a small, thorny circlet tattoo on the back of either shoulder. The tattoo was inked in the paste from ground fragments of the conditioned stone and before he'd been imprisoned, Heero remembered having it still. Each stone was unique to its possessor, so it wouldn't work for anyone but him. He checked his cell once more and cursed. He had only the clothes on his back and been down there long enough for someone to bother with stripping him of his weapons.

 

Too long. Heero forced himself to stand and ended up collapsing to one knee. The abrupt fall made everything faded out then came back to him in a nauseating wave. Heero gripped the wall, trying to keep still and not upset aggravate his wounds further. He'd forgotten about the deep gash in his side. The stone floor rumbled beneath him and he pressed his lips tightly together to muffle his scream. The yawning rumble sounded from somewhere deep and far beneath the stone. It almost sounded like someone crying or calling out. Heero held his breath at the faint pull in his chest. It was weaker than he'd ever remembered it being.

 

Duo... Heero rose and stumbled to the bars of his cell. He yanked at them mindless of his injuries, and then let them go stiffly. He winced and held his left arm away from his ribs, although it did little to lessen the hot pain that lanced through his side. He held onto the bars as he panted, collecting himself.

 

He realized his strength was half of what it should be. He'd been only capable of shifting the bars in their slots, causing sandy grit to shower down from the ceiling and bend them some, but that was all. The next rumble made more sandy grit rain down on him. He looked up when it stopped and found cracks all across the ceiling.

 

Heero froze at the hissing sound that came from behind him. He found more cracks along the floor while he tried to find the source of the hiss. He squinted in the low light. The sound came from a crack in the stone floor where he'd been laying. He saw water erupt, from it sending chips of stone flying across the floor. Heero held tight to the bars when another rumble shook the floor and more dark water shot up through the cracks. He soon found himself ankle deep in it.

 

This didn't bode well for him or anyone else being kept in these cells. It took him longer than he would have liked to shift his vision to the sight with the incessant throb at his temple. Soon he was looking past his cell walls but not up through the ceiling, all he saw there was stone. The barrier that prevented him from looking through it was much like the one that protected the undercity.

 

Heero pressed his head against the cool bars to distract him from the strain and the building headache as he glanced over another empty cell. He rubbed his head against the smooth bar then stopped, spotting another presence sprawled across the floor a few cells down. His nostrils flared and twitched, picking up a mixture of smells, but blood was the freshest among them - his own and the body in the other cell. He smelled of the sun, herbs and sweat.

 

“Quatre?” Heero frowned, what he could see of Quatre's presence was dull. It looked ordinary like people who didn't possess a wielder's gift to wield, but his nose wouldn't deceive him.

 

“Quatre?” He got a groan in answer then a watery cough. He watched the dull energy that outlined Quatre's shape get up on its knees and brighten slightly with a shake of his head.

 

“H-he... `Ro?” Quatre's voice was rough and crackly. He sounded as bad as Heero felt.

 

“Aa.” Heero flinched, returning to his normal vision. He kicked the bars of his cell and displaced the water in a wide arch. Heero put his arm through the bent bars then tried his shoulder. He frowned, finding the space between the bars still too narrow. Heero made an aborted move for the black stone again. He growled lowly, fisting his hand and dropping it back to his right side.

 

Heero's back became rigid at the heavy creak of a door opening and the sloshing sound of feet treading water. Heero frowned. It was coming from somewhere near Quatre and not the stairs. His brows disappeared beneath his matted bangs at the head of dingy blonde hair that came around the corner. Quatre slid along the wall then used the bars of Heero's cell to support himself before leaning on them.

 

“How did you -” Quatre's battered and bloodied face stopped his question as the petite wielder lifted his head to smile at him. Heero could see why Quatre had difficulty talking, there were several finger shaped bruises on the side of one cheek and a large circular bruise blooming out from the corner of his mouth. Quatre blinked unfocused aquamarine eyes at him in confusion.

 

“You-?” Quatre made a face, “You o-open my cell? But you're over... H-How did... Oh, I'm not. I'm `ere.” Quatre shrugged the shoulder he wasn't leaning on and winced, letting his arm go limp against his side and pulling it closer to his body.

 

Heero frowned at him curiously, noticing the dark bruising on Quatre's limp arm through his ripped tunic sleeve. There was an odd lump visible at the top of his shoulder, “Quatre?”

 

Quatre turned his head looking around the hall. Then he turned back to Heero letting his head rest back on the bars. He slouched against them while squinting blue green eyes tried to focus on his face. Heero sighed and Quatre smiled as if he were saying `Oh there you are.'

 

Heero rubbed his aching head, “They drugged you.” then started, with the realization that Quatre was reallylooking at him. Quatre giggled, glossy orbs trained on him, “Right. Drugged. You can see?”

 

Quatre nodded, another giggle slipping free, “Th-they didn't understand. S-said I'm getting sp-special treatment `cuz the One didn't w-want me ...to be protected. I w-wonder why Relena would say that.”

 

“It's not Relena.” It wasn't Duo either. He remembered how close Quatre and his bonded had become, if Duo had more control he doubted the blonde wielder would've been harmed as much as he had been. It was probably best Duo hadn't said anything. Back in the dwelling, he could barely smell Duo, his scent fading in the energized air.

 

“Oh,” wide aquamarine orbs, one half shut from the dark swelling around it, stared up at him from his slouched position in wonder. He had this beat-up, helpless puppy look that made Heero snort to stop a smirk from curving his lips.

 

Quatre, cute? He frowned at himself. He could feel a slight tremble along his skin. Heero pressed his fingers against the throb in his temple and winced, the wound was hot and his forehead slick with sweat. He was becoming delirious.

 

“Oh, I got sm-smacked for not sp-speaking and then ... then they asked me lots and lots of questions like I w-was a ch-child.” Quatre tried to clear his throat to lessen the scratchy sound of his voice, but the purplish marks on his throat suggested the effort would be wasted. Quatre didn't let that stop him. The more he talked, the more his stutter eased, “C-called me tunnel rat trash and got mad when they got lots of answers. They broke bones in my-my arm before… he came but they had already done something to my-my shoulder that m-made it pop! I gave them m-more answers like the sun sets in the west and rises in the east and desert rabbits have big ears and loooong whiskers. The sand is alive you know! I told them that! It can swallow you up without a guide, but they haven't been back… since.” Quatre nodded to himself, “G-Guess they didn't find what they were looking for. They didn't even bring that medicine stuff they made us eat.” Quatre nodded again, and then blinked up at him as if he'd asked a question. “Yes! My eyes!” He smiled brightly as if he had just realized something and his eyes watered from the obvious pain it was causing him to do so, “It must have happen when Relena-”

 

“Shh, Quatre.” Heero frowning still as he tried to find focus. Now wasn't the time for Quatre to talk about what had happened in the mountain dwelling, especially not in a place where voices carried.

 

“And Duo said I should put my hands-”

 

“Quatre. I need you to-”

 

“Then there was so much light! Heero did you see!! And then Tam-Tam …?” Quatre frowned adorably with his half swollen bottom lip poking out. “No Trowa-”

 

“Quatre, shut up!” Quatre did and giggled as he started splashing in the calf-high water.

 

Heero sighed deeply and braced his head against the cold bars close to Quatre's head. It eased the heat and throbbing at his temple a little. “Can you find my shoulder guard?”

 

Quatre gave him a quizzical look, “They'd leave it down here?”

 

“Aa. Jirrad would, if only to taunt me.”

 

Quatre made a face, lips pursed in a pout before he nodded his head like it weighed too much. Quatre took a cautious step forward in the rising water and then another without the support of the bars. Quatre managed to take a few more before his legs buckled under him. He fell to his knees in a splash, then backward and under the water.

 

“Quatre!” Heero saw the water splash as Quatre struggled to sit back up but it seemed that the few steps he'd taken sapped what little strength he had.

 

“Quatre!” Heero shouted and dropped to his knees in the rising water. He reached through the bars and toward where he'd seen Quatre disappear beneath the water. His fingers grasped at nothing. Heero's chest and collar bone complained as he pressed hard against the immovable stone-metal melded bars. He tried looking for a hint of Quatre's golden locks but the water was too dark and turbulent, with little white capped waves rolling over through the area.

 

He could see nothing.

 

Heero slipped into the sight again and saw Quatre lying just out of reach in the water. His eyes slipped back just as quickly, a stabbing pain in his head forcing one eye to close and him to brace the side of his head again. Heero saw bubbles erupt at the water's surface and reached out, shoving his arm through the bars trying to reach Quatre. He strained and stretched until he felt hair slip through his fingers. Heero winced as he forced his shoulder further and his fingers tangled in Quatre's hair. He pulled the blonde wielder close enough for him to pull him the rest of the way by a shoulder sleeve. He brought Quatre's head out of the water by his hair but the petite wielder was unresponsive.

 

“Quatre! Breathe! Breathe, damn it!” Heero pulled Quatre to the bars and shook him. Then he pried his mouth open to remove as much water as he could and turned him to face him through the bars. He pressed down on his chest with one hand, glad when it rose on its own. Quatre's eyes shifted behind closed lids, more water spilling out of his mouth and nose but his chest stopped rising.

 

Heero cursed, pushing Quatre's face up against the bars and trying to force air into his lungs through his mouth. He pushed down on his chest again, and then forced more air down into the petite blonde's chest. A rumble later, Heero was rewarded with a spray of water in his face. Heero shifted Quatre on his arm and awkwardly rubbed Quatre's back as the petite wielder coughed up water and choked down the air. Heero absently rubbed his face across his shoulder and did the only thing he could at that moment, while Quatre tried to stop coughing, and that was to keep him from slipping back under.

 

“Quatre.” Heero called to the battered blonde, who stilled against his straining, partially numb arm and the bars. Quatre snuggled up against the bars, frowning at the hard bars, and then looked up blearily at Heero's pinched face. “Can you move?”

 

Quatre nodded stiffly, his face pale and a visible tremor making him bounce lightly against the bars.

 

Must be wearing off, Heero thought at Quatre stiff movements and helped Quatre sit up straighter. He was tempted to pop Quatre's shoulder back in place, but he wasn't sure he could do it through the bars without inflicting more damage to his broken arm.

 

“We need to get you and Duo out of here. When did Trowa suppress you?”

 

Quatre gave him a confused look, and then he looked off as if he was seeing beyond the stone walls. “Against the light... he came to me. Trowa-”

 

Heero stopped him with a finger to his lips. He didn't want to tell him there had been no light. There was so much pain evident in Quatre's voice just from saying Trowa's name. He knew he'd have to keep Quatre focused if they were going to find a way out. It was strange. Tamien's real name, Trowa, came to them easier than saying Tamien ever did. He couldn't figure out when Trowa had marked Quatre or when they had accepted each other, but he knew that was the only way Quatre could've been suppressed so completely without inhibiting his ability to move. It had been done by mutual agreement. It also explained why he remembered Jirrad giving Quatre to Trowa without a second thought. Heero had little doubt that if Jirrad had seen Quatre before he had been suppressed, Jirrad would have never given him away.

 

Quatre being left in an open cell though, added to his suspicions about Trowa but he wouldn't say anything about it, not until he was sure. “I understand. Can you look for my shoulder guard?”

 

“...key?” Heero shook his head. There was no point in having Quatre try to do anything more than find his shoulder guard in his weaken state and the blonde wielder won't have to worry about soldiers because they were always posted outside the doors to this level. Once he was out of his cell, he'd deal with them. Heero helped Quatre to his knees and with a pat to his back, Quatre shuffled through the water while holding onto the bars and the wall along the way.

 

Heero nodded in approval, Quatre was cognizant enough to move without making too much noise. He shook himself free of what water he could and saw the sources of the dull light, the lichen, all brighten where they touched the water. Glow fuzz, he thought fondly to himself for a moment and was glad the things didn't release spores into the water.

 

He tore a long strip from the bottom of his under shirt, wrung it of what water he could and packed it against the gash in his side. Heero felt a sharp pain shoot up into his arm when bones that shouldn't move did. Biting his lip, he pulled his jerkin down. It fit well enough to keep the makeshift bandage in place. He could only hope being bruised and loose was the worst of it. The bar door to his cell creaked open as the stone latches withdrew from the floor and ceiling. He paused with a hand on a bar of his cell, realizing Quatre couldn't have opened.

 

Given the state Quatre was in, it would've been near impossible for him to lure one guard away without attracting the attention of his partner, let alone figure out how the stone worked that quickly.

 

Heero slipped out of his cell quietly, easing through the water and found no sign of Quatre. He started toward the stairs, picking up a broken stone-metal bar along the way and kept to the shadows. He found Quatre's limp form being picked up from the stairs by a hooded Nartob soldier. He hadn't considered how complicated things would be taking a nearly incapacitated Quatre with him to rescue Duo, but if he left him behind it would be impossible to return for him. He raised the bar above his head, at the same time pained aquamarines struggled to stay open as half moon slights, “Trowa?”

 

Heero aimed the pointed end of the bar at the middle of Trowa's back and pressed, “Let him go.”

 

Trowa shook his head, remaining still but squeezing Quatre closer to him. “I did what I could for his shoulder, but he needs a healer. I came for him and... you.”

 

“And you expect me to believe that?” Heero pressed the rigid tip of the bar harder into the center of Trowa's back in response to the groan he heard from Quatre.

 

“Believe what you want. I'm taking him with me.” Trowa turned, elbowing the bar aside as it dragged across the back of his jerkin and met Heero's icy stare. Trowa's hair was pulled back, showing both verdant eyes and Heero found himself lowering the metal bar.

 

“You're free of the conditioning.”

 

Trowa nodded, took the shoulder guard from Quatre's semi-slack hands and tossed it to Heero. Trowa gently shifted the petite wielder in his arms but Quatre started, slivers of blue green appeared between pale lashes. Heero watched Trowa lean down and whisper in his ear before Quatre went limp again. The green eyed man started up the stairs without a backwards glance.

 

“It happened after it chose Fraix.”

 

Heero winced, griping the bar in his hands tighter.

 

“I don't know what it healed in me but the fire rose so high-”

 

“It pulsed.” Heero muttered through gritted teeth, the memory playing out clearly in his head. Trowa frowned at him, when he continued. “The fire pulsed, like a heart's beat.”

 

Trowa nodded slowly, “It-”

 

“Duo,” Heero corrected in a growl, tossing the metal bar aside with enough force he lodged it into the stone floor.

 

Trowa grimaced, “Yes, Duo.” He spared Heero a glance out the corner of his eye. Heero put the shoulder guard, running his fingers over the rounded, black surface and waited for the unlatching clunk from the door he tighten it. Trowa shouldered the door open, his voice dropping to a barely audible whisper, “He allowed me to break away from the conditioning in a way I couldn't have before then. I think that's why we were never allowed to be healed by the One ... Relena or any of the stronger healers she taught. Only the lesser healers were allowed to tend to us. It gave me just enough time to reach Quatre when I remembered the message I sent back. It was too late for anything else.”

 

Heero followed, ignoring how the guard agitated his bruised shoulder, “Guards?”

 

Trowa shook his head, “There was no one on this level. Most of them have gone to the disturbance in the garden.”

 

“Strange.”

 

Trowa nodded, “If not for his obsession with the… Duo, it would've been another week before I could rearrange the guard placement without much resistance but I still had to be subtle or Michal would've noticed. Then Jirrad doubled the guard around Duo and has been very distracted as of late. Several times he appeared agitated and haggard when I caught him off guard. I thought that you had said something to him...”

 

Heero shook his head. Even half out of his mind from the drugs, he was trained by the bastard too well to reveal anything worth using. He gritted his teeth, he couldn't care anymore. The man was doing everything in his power to take all that he had and he wouldn't let him keep Duo for his affection. He was going to kill Jirrad.

 

“He became lax in his duties for the past few days. But still if not for the disturbance, it would have been awhile before I could safely move you both.”

 

Again, he itched to know how long he had been separated from Duo, how Jirrad had had... Heero pressed back on the need to ask. Instead, he tried to decipher some inkling from his memories. His memories were shaky, altered because of the drugs and his perception of time too skewed to be of any use to him. He could remember little from the interrogations. Though, there had been a blurry moment where Treize had come to his cell. Heero frowned. He remembered movement and traces of Duo's scent, but nothing else. “Khushrenada?”

 

Trowa shook his head, “The last I saw of him, he was being escorted away with Jirrad and Michal close behind him.”

 

“Duo is coming with us.”

 

“I never doubted that.”

 

“You'll be the first I kill if you betray us.”

 

Trowa snorted, a small smirk curled one corner of his mouth and he stepped over two unconscious guards on his way up the stairwell. His expression turned grim. “Jirrad has Duo confined to a room adjoined to his and the floor is heavily guarded.”

 

Heero cracked his knuckles, took the weapons off the downed soldiers and followed Trowa out into the open hall. “I'll make them clear the way.” Heero promised. He kept his face expressionless, while his eyes gleamed with deadly intent.

 

 

 

Tbc…