Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ XXV ( Chapter 25 )

Unbeta'd

Warnings: Angst, death, violence, and vague reference to past NCS and abuse.

 

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

 

AN: If you come across any misspellings or problems with the flow, let me know I'll go back and work on it. Thank you guys for reading this confusing story of mine, favs and reviewing!

 

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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to see them in different situations, and then sit back and watch the fireworks. *grin*
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XXV

 

Heero spotted Duo, stepping out from the foyer and moving past the columns of the open colonnade at the next blinding flash of light. He could hear the groan of the foyer's supports before it caved in on itself. Plumes of dust and smoke exploded through the walls on that side of the palace-temple. He saw people running out of the smoke, aflame and the yellow-red glow flickered through the ominous smoke before it flared outward as if reaching for their fleeing backs.

 

Heero wrinkled his nose as the smell of more burning flesh drifted on the wind. It carried an underlying scent that was far too familiar for him to be mistaken about.

 

“Jirrad.”

 

Heero's eyes flicked back to Duo, who was continuing his silent stroll without a misstep. Duo's face was cloaked in shadows, which added a gaunt appearance to his face. His pale skin was nearly white in the graying light and the dark circles Heero had noticed under Duo's eyes had grown darker. They looked like sickly furrows or thick, black smudges of ink that made Duo's already wide eyes appear larger than they were.

 

He looks like death… Heero shook off the paralyzing thought, Duo, I'm coming. Just wait.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Heero caught the glint of metal in the faded afterglow of a lightning flash. He sidestepped the sword thrust, but he wasn't quick enough. He winced, sucking in his stomach and barely catching the sword plunging toward his abdomen.

 

He yanked on the sword, ignoring the pain of the blade slicing open the palm of his hand in favor of keeping the soldier's arm overextended and off balance. The soldier glared in surprise, certain he had had the upper hand.

 

Heero ensured the soldier couldn't recover the ground he'd lost, his shoulders tensed as he launched his forehead into the soldier's face. He head butted him twice more before pushing the sword away from him and sending the man in a tremulous spin in the same direction. The soldier's sword dropped to the ground, trailing while he wobbled and crashed into people.

 

As soon as the soldier was out of sight, Heero searched for Duo again. The braided wielder was steadily making his way toward the center of the grove where he could see Relena had risen to her knees but was leaning heavily on a feline Wu Fei at her side. Heero followed, his steps slowing as his brows bunched together at the ground Duo had previously treaded.

 

He watched Duo step over the fallen without any hesitance, and simply step free of a hand that grabbed his foot. It stayed upraised briefly before it fell limp to the ground. There was an eerie stillness in his wake and the number of bodies Heero saw on the ground was far fewer than what made sense. Heero frowned, looking at the bodies Duo had just passed. The bodies appeared to fall apart and fade, blending with the dirt, grass and other plants in the grove until there was nothing left.

 

“Nothing. Nothing left but the earth.” Heero absently muttered to himself, the thought left him chilled to his core before he snapped himself out of its depressing pull.

 

“Du-!” Another thunderclap drowned out his call.

 

The angry throb in his head and the fire along his temple increased in a sudden dizzying wave that blurred his sight. He squeezed his eyes shut, swaying on his feet, and then blinked until his vision cleared. Heero searched the writhing bodies and found Duo again, undaunted and steadily moving forward.

 

Heero started forward and growled a curse as four soldiers encircled him, blocking his way. He narrowed his eyes at one soldier in particular. The man had darkening bruises across his bloody, most likely broken, nose. Heero recognized the man right away as the soldier he had spared and left stumbling behind him mere moments before.

 

“Always,” the soldier spat bloody in Heero's direction, “thought you were better than us, didn't ya?”

 

Heero barely recognized the sneering soldier as someone he'd trained with as he excelled under Jirrad's special attention, and then in turn, commanded alongside Treize. “The commander's not going to protect you anymore.”

 

“He never did,” Heero snorted, glaring at the foolish man the other three had chosen to backup. “Move.”

 

The other two men laughed and all of them converged on him, but Heero was faster. He surprised the two men on his left by flinging the blood, which had pooled in his injured palm, into their eyes and faces. He ducked under the swinging arm of another, kicking then kneeing the soldier in the gut on his way up. Heero then caught the man by the back of his neck and yanked him down to greet his knee again, finishing him off with a sharp elbow jab to the center of his back.

 

Panting, Heero barely had time to kick the man out of his way before he was doing a flip over the staff coming at him from the side with a pain filled grunt. He landed awkwardly, but caught hold of the staff and shoved it back into the bloody face soldier's throat. The man stumbled and Heero disposed of him with two quick whacks to the head. He turned, dropping the staff and balling his fingers of his throbbing, bleeding hand into a fist. He brought up his forearm, extending it in front of his face like a shield and barreled into the soldier he had mistakenly spared.

 

“Yu-ah!” The man bellowed, spittle flying from his mouth as Heero forced his sword away from him and his knuckles cracking the mouthy soldier's jaw. Heero kept his forward momentum and heard the soldier grunt then his teeth clack together when his forearm connected with the man's chest. He reminded himself there was still one more soldier to deal with as the other one shook of his shock and began to struggle half-way above him.

 

The soldier winced, his feet dragging and twisting awkwardly when he tried to regain his footing. He smiled down at Heero's exposed back and raised his sword in preparation to drive it down into the vulnerable cloth covered expanse.

 

Heero caught movement in the corner of his bruised eye. A quick glance to his right revealed the last bloody faced soldier charging at him from behind. Heero reached over his head, ignoring the pain in his left side from the stretch, and caught his captive's sword hand. He sandwiched his fingers in between the soldier's and squeezed them over the hilt, ensuring that his captive couldn't escape his hold or fling the sword down at him. He grunted, gritting his teeth against his wavering vision as several blows rained down on his head. Heero kept the sword aloft, twisting the soldier's hand and making him yowl in pain.

 

“Idiot! I don't need to use my sword!” Heero flinched when the soldier's fist connected with his sore ribs. He pivoted on the balls of his feet and shifted the soldier's weight from his arm to his shoulder. “I can do more than enough with one fist! I'd like to see the face of the idiot who trained you - with a move like this; it seems he spent more time fucking you than teaching!”

 

The soldier slapped his rear and groped him, but his amusement was short lived. His laughter turned stained by the hitching of his own breath. The wicked glee that played on his face became shock as his whole body jerked and his head thudded against Heero's back.

 

Heero saw the soldier's eyes stretch and his mouth open on a dark bubble. The soldier jerked again as he pressed him forward and further onto the other soldier's sword. Before the other soldier could recover from the shock of killing his comrade, Heero threw the dead soldier he used as a shield into the other. They collapsed in a tangle of limbs and Heero vaulted over a knot of combatants struggling on the ground. Heero screamed behind gritted teeth and bloodless, pressure thinned lips as his landing sent fire along his ribs and through his chest.

 

“Duo!” He choked out and skidded to a stop.

 

Suddenly, Heero flung his arms wide for balance. A strong wind, lined in debris, scooped up a handful of people into the air. He grunted at the unexpected pull on his arm. Everything grayed out then faded back into focus, but his body was already reacting on instinct - he leaned backward and dug his heels into the ground to resist the pull of the wind.

 

Heero looked down his arm and frowned at the mud covered person, who had a desperate grip on him. Shocked, Heero stumbled forward and heard the person whimper before he leaned back, avoiding another sweep from the wind in their direction. He shook his head, welcoming the pain from his head wounds to counter the one from his ribs.

 

He started to pry the fingers off his arm without any real thought, until his eyes fell upon the tear strained, muddy face of the person - young child - for a second time. There were multiple lacerations and bruises on the child's face, but his death grip on his arm told him he was aware enough of what letting go of him meant. The feeling of a numb, hot wetness going down his side troubled Heero. But Heero pushed the dread away from him, clenching his jaw and looping his arm around the boy to pull him backward. Heero kept pulling until the boy was free of the wind's grip.

 

They fell.

 

Or, at least, he knew they should have fallen because that's the only way he could explain how he was currently on the ground. He couldn't remember the actual fall, just a distant thud somewhere. Heero slowly came to realize he was panting, while he watched the swirling gray-white masses filling the sky in a daze. His head rolled from shoulder to shoulder, the cold sweat that sprung up all over his body made his skin feel too tight and his blood feel like it was straining to pass through every vein.

 

Heero exhaled in a shudder that left a deaden feeling in the left side of his chest and sound returned in a pop of cutting pain. His left side was mostly numb except for the steady quiver in his arm and the heavy ache in his chest when he breathed. The clouds shifted, some forming lumps that churned amongst themselves, making the sky above look like a large mixing bowl of gruel.

 

Others swirled, falling toward the earth, before swirling back up again and forming a circle of open space. Heero looked on and realized there were dozens of them. Some of them were solely masses of ominous clouds, but several had cones and some held the same distinctive dark circles in their centers. It drew the eyes and many people all over Maheran paused to look at them in helpless wonder.

 

Heero had to look away; the swirling movements were making him dizzy and he forced himself to sit up. He instantly straightened, his face pale from when he started to curl forward. He ended up coughing until a coppery tasting film coated his tongue. He spat in the grass to the right of him, squinting at his left side to find the boy still holding onto him with his eyes closed and a white fingered grip on his arm. He freed his arm by prying the boy's fingers loose. Heero paused long enough to check the boy's breathing and pulse, which were rapid but steady, before he pushed himself onward.

 

His surroundings blurred in and out until he found Duo standing in the middle of a flat grassy dip. The flat grassy area sat between the ridges of rock Jirrad had stood atop previously and the dirt mound Relena eased her way down on Wu Fei's arm. Heero approached calmly, unconcerned with the people who bumped into him or tripped him. A thunderclap reverberated though his chest and made him aware of how hard it was for him to breathe, but he didn't let that slow him down.

 

Duo rose up on the tips of toes and the soft soled shoes Heero had hastily put on him crumbled, leaving his feet bare as he floated a few feet off the ground. Black eyes surveyed all in disinterest. Duo's head tilted to the side as he observed the people fighting and pushing each other closer and closer to him. All at once, Duo's look became calculating.

 

Heero frowned at the sudden hollow sensation beneath his feet. In the next second his eyes went wide as he leapt backwards, narrowly missing the wide crack that appeared in the ground as soon as his feet left that area. He had little doubt falling into that pit would have lead to his demise. He followed the seam as it broke up and opened in several different places around Duo. Unsuspecting people fell to their deaths, and their screams silenced by the ground snapping shut over them. The subsequent quakes from the shifting earth rocked many from their feet in the vicinity.

 

Then the lightning came. It struck random people, leaving scorched impact cracks along the ground with a flurry of ash and charred chunks of flesh and clothing. It revived the smell of burnt flesh in the air. Others found their bodies ballooning out then shriveling around them, before they collapsed, leaving shinny husks of blacken skin stretched over the hard lines of bone.

 

Although many of their people had fallen, none of the people from Acai were affected by the forces at work all around him. Heero wondered if it was because they were wielders, but he dismissed that as a reason because the majority of them couldn't wield. So it had to be that Duo recognized Quatre's symbol. Armed people, fire wielders and shifters from both sides struggled to defend themselves while protecting the earth wielders, who worked to counter all that Duo had let loose upon them. They tried to protect others by closing the ground as soon as Duo had opened it, diffusing and blocking the lightning with walls of earth and grounding those the wind tried to claim or cushioning the fall of those the wind had taken with mud vines.

 

There was a low deep rumble in the sky and then in a flash of lightning, the stench of fear and death returned tenfold. The wielders from Acai, Maheran and those who had come because of Duo's call were soon overwhelmed and horror filled screams followed the lightning that jumped cloud to cloud. Unpredictable in its strikes, the lightning left lines of charred remains amongst shops in the market place and all through the palace-temple grounds.

 

Just as quickly, one of the circles in the sky disappeared in a swirling descent of whitish gray fluff near the outer edges of Maheran. An answering stir of wind from the ground kicked up dust and shacks in its rush upward and away from the descending column of clouds. When the cloud funnel withdrew, there was an eerie hush and stillness in its place. Many of the buildings had been replaced with strips of debris and empty lots.

 

There was an even larger cloud funnel dropping down in the distance over a city Heero knew to be in that direction and it stayed down longer. A plum of black smoke raced outward from where the funnel seemed to meet the ground. Some of the black smoke was sucked up into the swirling mass as a deep red-yellow fiery glow flashed though the billowing clouds of black and gray smoke at its base.

 

Heero stubbornly moved forward, stumbling as his legs trembled in warning, but he had his sights set on Duo's pale visage where he remained standing, staring unwaveringly up at the sky. Heero followed his gaze and his eyes widened, a frown furrowing his sweaty brow. Duo was standing directly under one of those wide circles of darkness. Time seemed to stop everywhere else except for the clouds. They began to cover the dark circle in a conical shape that started a descending tilt toward Duo.

 

Heero wanted more than anything to be there with him and in his next breath he was.

 

Heero gasped through the sudden shock of finding himself in front Duo and shuddered uncontrollably. He was weak kneed and needles pricked his left side, the sharp stabs of pain were dulled by the heavy pressure filling his chest. It was the only thing he could feel on that side of his torso and it distracted him from the displaced air shifting agitatedly around him. Heero hugged himself and locked his knees until it subsided. The rumble of thunder drowned out his heavy breathing and lightning flashed, whiting out everything. All Heero could see was outer edges of Duo's profile.

 

Color slowly bled back in, revealing the sharp contrast between the dark bruises and the sallow white coloring of Duo's skin. When next Heero blinked, he found depthless black orbs trained on him. He avoided getting caught in them and instead he looked down at Duo's arm stretched out in the space separating them. Heero's gaze flicked up to meet Duo's eyes and then down again. Duo's hand was cupped, knuckles almost brushing against Heero's chest where he held the crackling energy of lightning as if it were nothing. Heero could smell Duo's skin burning as the lightning bolt danced agitatedly across his palm.

 

Obsidian orbs copied his movement with a flutter of lashes. Duo's expression tweaked in surprised irritation, before he dropped his hand to his side and smothered the energy against his thigh.

 

Heero gasped, reaching out to stop him, but Duo was too quick. He watched the sparks burn holes through Duo's dark blue leggings on its way down his leg. Once the lightning reached Duo's bare foot, Duo rubbed it into the ground and smoke whiffed from around his dirt smudged feet.

 

Wu Fei and Relena stood stiffly at the bottom of the mound a little ways away from them, but their focus was on Duo. They had seen it too - Duo had stopped the lightning bolt from hitting him.

 

“Duo,” his breath left him in little white puffs, the air around Duo was cold and getting colder.

 

Duo's brow twitched, while the dark orbs watched him with blank detachment. What little emotion Heero had seen was gone, but he could still smell him. Duo's scent was stronger even though that same foreign smile remained fixed on his face. “I know you can hear me. What are you doing?”

 

The smile curled further on Duo's lips, “What I was called to do, my vessel.”

 

“To kill?” There was another twitch in Duo's brow, a faint movement Heero would have missed if he allowed his heavy eyes to close like they demanded.

 

“They needed to feel it. They need to know the pain of all those that were. They needed to know why I've come. They know this and fear it. They fear me. Even in praise they fear me, but not you…” Duo's head tilt inquisitively toward him, and then his brows unfurrowed as if he remembered something, “You accept me.”

 

Heero nodded, even though his vision swam with the movement.

 

“Hmm.”

 

The deep contemplative rumble slipped like fingers along Heero's ear and through his hair. Heero swallowed, frowning at the twitch of interest in his pants. He tried to focus on one of the twin Duos standing in front of him, “Duo, this is not like you.”

 

“Then you understand nothing. They chose this path, so they answer for it.”

 

“You're killing people. Most of them are innocent.”

 

“Most... No one is purely such.” Even as the words left Duo's mouth, a frown crinkled his brow with a fleeting look of mild frustration, “You, speaking blindly? Of all others, you know how they are and what they do to each other. When you lost your family, no one stopped what was being done to you.”

 

The color drained from Heero's face as the past came back to him. But what worried him more was that Duo somehow knew. Heero stopped himself from gritting his teeth and caught the steady gaze Duo had on him. Duo was watching his response. He blanked his face as best he could, not wanting to reveal anymore of himself than he already had.

 

Duo doesn't know. He wouldn't.He had tried to tell Duo about how bad things had gotten, about what had happen to him and his family but Duo had stopped him. No one else knew except Relena, Treize and his uncle. Unless, Jirrad told Duo.

 

“Fraix,” he wasn't sure he had actually spoken his uncle's name, considering the knot of anxiety suddenly lodged in his throat. Heero held on to his dead uncle's image, letting it reassure him and help force his mind away from the darker memories.

 

Duo snorted, “One person, while everyone else chose not to do anything and you still defend them?”

 

Heero shook his head in answer, the motion was jerky but he held Duo's dark gaze unflinchingly, “That-that one person makes-made all the difference. You were the first to get me to see that, Duo. They were not responsible.” He said with as much conviction he could muster even though his voice had become reedy while he spoke, “I won't agree to the punishment of innocents for the faults of others and you shouldn't either, Duo. It's not something you would do, considering - Duo... they have families. You'll leave their children at the mercy-”

 

“Enough!” Duo snapped and with it, Duo's scent grew stronger.

 

“You'll be repeating what Jirrad has done to you! To Relena. Quatre… ”

 

“To you?”

 

“Yes, even to me, and countless others, leaving them to be preyed upon.”

 

Heero noticed the vacant smile couldn't settle on Duo's face as easily this time as it had the last. It kept collapsing on itself when it tried to spread wider, twitching at the corners of Duo's mouth.

 

“You know, better than me, the kind of life they - you'll be subjecting them to. Don't focus only on what happened here or what you experienced in the mountains. What would you be accomplishing then?”

 

Duo shuffled his feet, “It is as they made it.”

 

“Are you saying you like it like this? That you condone what Jirrad and others have done to bring us to this point?”

 

“No,” Duo whispered absently with a shake of his head, “I was called for retribution and I've come to give it.”

 

“That's not all you are. Don't let only the darkest of your emotions control you. Don't forget-” Heero swayed, stumbling forward while he tried to find his center and he lost his train of thought.

 

The unintentional movement brought him closer to Duo and Duo allowed it with an inquisitive arch of his brow. Duo watched Heero curiously, like he was waiting for him to fall, and it would be an amusing thing to see.

 

Heero didn't give into gravity; instead he struggled for his next breath. The heavy pressure in his left side was spreading with a kind of prickly numbness that made his heart beat harder and his chest hurt worse.

 

“You've done enough.” He rasped out, in a voice he barely recognized as his own. Heero tried to remember what he had been saying before. Clenching his teeth to stop their chattering, he cleared his throat with some difficulty. He tried to lick his dry lips, but his tongue was a lazy, weighty thing in his mouth. “C-come with me... and we'll …leave.”

 

Duo shook his head, a peevish glint in his eyes and a familiar irate twitch to his brow. “It has only begun.”

 

“No. It's finished. You will stop. Do as I say!” Heero reached for him when the familiar flare of anger and defiance flashed across Duo's face. Heero was smiling without realizing he was doing it, softening his expression at the color swirling back into Duo's once opaque orbs. “Come... home with me. You belong with me, Duo as I... to you.”

 

Duo flinched back into his shoulders. Heero looked down at his hand, brows knitting together in understanding when he remembered Jirrad mentioning something about using him as parts.

 

“It's ok. No tricks. I'm whole...” he wheezed and a cough cut off his attempt at a chuckle, “Well, I'd be whole if I wasn't missing you.” He stepped forward cautiously, slowly removing the remaining distance between them. His heavy breaths were becoming more frequent, “It doesn't have to be... this way. There's so much more to these people and between us then the pain, loss and violation we've suffered. Remember... Acai? We'll go... to Acai or-or somewhere away from Maheran and... and m-make a home. No, you are my home. We'll start anew. I'm-”

 

“Don't! Don't touch me.” Duo's voice wobbled, coming out too high then dropping to something flat and emotionless.

 

The odd shifts in Duo's voice brought Heero back enough to realize he was still talking, but his words had dissolved into mostly nonsensical mumbles and in one hand he held one end of Duo's wide sleeves. Taking in the shuttered distress he saw on Duo's face, he wondered if that was how he looked when he tried to shut everyone out the first time his family took him back from Jirrad. Heero had hoped to keep Duo away from it, but he had been betrayed.

 

All the emotion that had given life to Duo's face fled as soon as the vacant smile tried to edge its way back across Duo's features. The words that followed were hollow and as cold as Duo's blue tinged lips looked, “No... You are no different. You are afraid. You stink of it.”

 

“I do.” Heero suppressed a cough and tried to swallow as pain raked across his chest. He ignored the growing throb in his head and dug his nails into the cut in his hand to make his wandering mind stay present. Blood seeped unnoticed through his fingers from the agitated wound, “I do feel fear, but it is not for me, Duo. It's for you.”

 

“I am-”

 

“Duo. You have always been. You will always be my bonded... Mine. Nothing has ch-changed that... Your element… even… as the One, y-your actions are dictated by what you're feeling. It thrives on whatever you're feeling strongest…” Heero brought up a shaky hand to rub at his temple, the throb there relentless, and frowned when the needle-like sensation began to fade in his left side. He gasped for breath and swallowed back the warm bubble in his throat. He was running out of time and he had to reach Duo before it was too late. “Duo, I accept all of you, as you are. He's - Jirrad's gone. I'd ha-” Heero stopped his stream of words when he saw Duo's bottom lip quivering and his face slowly coloring with emotion. Heero tried to smile, but it turned out to be strained as his eyelids drooped and things became hazy.

 

“Duo-Duo… I-I … y-yo-” Heero gurgled out, his vision darkening as a metallic flood of warmth filled his throat on his next exhale. It trickled from the corners of his mouth when it gushed onto his tongue. It exploded from his mouth when deep, wet hacking coughs rocked his body. He felt himself sinking, falling away from everything and the only thing that mattered most to him in this life.

 

Duo…

 

He couldn't even keep the vision of Duo with him; Duo seemed to get smaller and farther away from him. Heero smirked bitterly at himself. He would have laughed, if he had enough breath to do so.

 

He had failed again.

 

 

Tbc…