Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Yami no Megami ❯ Over the Horizon, Below the Earth ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its cast do not belong to me. I'm just "borrowing"
them for a little...fun. *giggles like a crazy girl*
Author's note: In case you didn't guess, Yami no Megami means Goddess of
Darkness in Japanese, and since Heero is a Japanese, he understood what it
meant when Yami first introduced herself. Hope you all are enjoying this!


Yami no Megami
Part Two: Over the Horizon, Below the Earth
By: Silver Star


He walked out of the Palace with an expression on his face that seemed
to be a mixture of shock and delight. Shock, because he'd never dreamed that
he could get an assignment like this, and delight, because now he would finally
be able to carry out his revenge.

Slowly, the shocked expression turned into a malicious little smile.
Yes...now he could finally get his revenge on the one who took his father
away...the one whom they called Death...

Ah, yes, revenge is so sweet...

And the laugh that followed brought a sudden chill to the night air.

Yes, indeed...

~ * * ~

Duo shivered as a gust of wind blew through the open window of the
library. The sky is dark and the air became colder and colder since the sunset.
After his little confrontation with Heero in the hall, he had been wandering around
aimlessly around the mansion, thinking about all kinds of different things.

But there is only one thought that he always comes back to.

Heero Yuy.

After he gave the direction to Heero, he somehow felt...guilty? No, that's
not right. He felt...protective? Of Heero? Definitely, not! It's quite obvious that
Heero was tense and he seemed to be...angry or something, and if anything,
Duo should be feeling fear for the new pilot!

Actually, now that he thought about it, he IS feeling fear for the girl. He
knew exactly how powerful and fast Heero is, but the girl doesn't, and if Heero
really is mad, he might not be able to control himself.

Duo snorted and rolled his eyes. Yeah, right, as if "The Perfect Soldier"
ever looses his control. But still...

Wait a sec, why in the world is he being so protective of the girl, anyway?
If anything, he should feel angry at her, for taking Heero away without even trying
to, while he was over here trying everything just to get some sort of reaction out
of him, even if it is anger and annoyance.

Heero might not be trying to find her because he's in love with her, you
know, Duo's mind pointed out with logic. After all, he did seem to be pretty
angry.

Yeah, but Heero was actively seeking her out! Duo retorted back. He
never tried to find ME before!

True. Very true.

ARGH!!! You don't have to agree, you know!

This time, his mind decided to be smart and didn't answer. Duo sighed
and put his head in his hands. He blinked and
started for his room. He needs sleep. A LOT of sleep. As he passed the door to the garden, he thought he
caught a glimpse of something. He stopped...and stared.

Is Heero HUGGING the girl?!

~ * * ~

Yami no Megami, the Goddess of Darkness, sighed and pulled away
reluctantly. Even though the pilot of Wing was cold and distant, his embrace was
warm and surprisingly comforting. Before her little breakdown, the only person
she'd ever trusted was her closest friends and her brother, and the only one who
could ever comfort her was her brother, or in other words, the God of Death.

She smiled to herself.
She might be cold and distant in the beginning, but she's not stupid, and she did
not miss the longing in the pilot of Deathscythe's eyes when he looked at Heero.


She stepped back a step and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I-I'm sorry. For breaking down like this."

Heero stared down at her, silent, but for some odd reason, his eyes
weren't so cold anymore.

"You want some answers, don't you?" she said, more of a statement than
a question. Heero nodded curtly. "Well, I guess I should tell you everything,
shouldn't I?" She took a deep breath and sat down onto the green grass. "Sit.
This might take a while."

Heero hesitated for a moment and then sat down, leaning his back against
the tree trunk.

"Let's see...where should I start?"

"How about explain to me why you are here." Yami looked up at him,
slightly surprised by the sound of his voice. He WAS silent the whole time, you
know. Even though he didn't say it, she could hear the unspoken question, 'And
why is HE here?'

"Why I'm here?" she paused, turning to look into the distance where the
sun had disappeared. "Well, I suppose that's as good as any place to start. I'm
here...well, basically, I'm here to keep Duo's butt from being kicked by the
Fates." She shrugged and turned to look at Heero's reaction. Just as she
expected it to, the tension broke.

"That is NOT funny," Heero said, a hint of annoyance creeping into his
voice. Yami smiled slightly, but her expression suddenly turned serious, and she
caught Heero's eyes with her own.

"I will tell you everything that I know. In exchange, you must not tell
ANYONE of what I've told you," she said, voice calm and controlled, almost like
how she sounded before her carefully carved mask broke. "Not even Duo."

Heero narrowed his eyes and considered the request. Slowly, he nodded
his head. "Alright. I promise."

She let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding, and
looked relieved. "Good. I-" here she paused, as if unsure. "I want to tell him on
my own. When the time is right."

Heero nodded again, but instead of urging her on with her explanation,
like he wanted to, he kept silent. Unlike a certain braided baka, whose name just
happens to be Duo Maxwell, he knew when to keep his mouth shut.

"Alright. Here's what I know of this situation." Yami looked at the sky and
her eyes became distant. "Even though I am the Goddess of Darkness, one of
the top most powerful...Devin being, I guess you could say, all I know is that my
brother had descended to the Human World and assumed a human identity."
She suddenly turned and looked at Heero. "But I have no idea why he did what
he had done." But her eyes, although opaque, told him that she knew exactly
why her brother came to the Human World.

"Yes, you do," Heero stated coldly and calmly. Yami looked slightly
shocked.

Suddenly, Yami's eyes narrowed, and her voice was cold when she asked
her question. "How did you know?"

Yami was quite...shocked, to say the least. In all of the six thousand years
she had been the Goddess of Darkness, no one had EVER found out the things
she was determined to keep secret, not even her own brother had. The only
people who had even suspected were her closest friends, the Goddess of
Hatred, and the Goddess of Destruction.

And believe me, the fact that she suspected Heero being the reason that
her brother had descended to this hell-like world was something she really want
to keep secret.

Heero didn't answer for a few seconds. "It isn't hard. I'm a soldier. I can
tell."

Yami did not know what to think. This...human just guessed something
that she really wanted to keep as a secret. He just guessed something no one,
NO ONE, had ever managed to find out about, not even the Fates.

Yami frowned slightly. He isn't a Fate, she's positive of that. She's not
stupid, she can tell between a human and a Fate. It's not hard, anyone that have
even a drop of immortal blood in them can tell because the Fates gives off an
aura that distinct them from the Gods/Goddesses and the humans.

She knew he's one of the more...special humans; that's why she's coming
to him of all people for help against the Fates. But even if he is a Chosen,
Chosen Ones don't have much power against Gods and Goddesses, only to the
Fates.

There's also something else about him that makes her back track and
think. There's something very...familiar about him. Something VERY familiar.

Yami narrowed her eyes. She stood up slowly and looked down at him.
Although she's not showing it, the wheels in her head was turning rapidly, almost
giving her a headache. "Who the hell are you?"

Heero seemed surprised by her question, but then the cold, stone mask
settled firmly onto his face. He stood up as well. "I am who I am. I'm Heero
Yuy."

There was a long time of silence. Yami decided to drop the subject,
especially it seemed that Heero genuinely doesn't know what she's talking about.
But then again, it was hard to tell what the other boy is thinking about, with that
stone mask of his.

"I want to ask one question," Heero suddenly said. "Why me?"

Yami understands what he meant. "Let me start from the beginning. In
the beginning of the Universe, there were four Fates: the Fate of Past, the Fate
of Present, the Fate of Future, and the Fate of Eternity. The first three Fates
were the three sisters spinning the webs of life, death, and rebirth. The last fate,
the Fate of Eternity, was their cousin. It was written in the book of Eternity that
when she was first born, she was not given a job, like her three cousins. It is
said that she shall be the turning point of everything.

"It was not known why she did this, but on the year the planets aligned in a
straight line, the Fate of Eternity descended and turned into a Goddess, the first
Goddess ever. It was she who created the Goddess of Darkness and the
Goddess of Light. Yami no Megami and Hikari no Megami." Yami smiled
slightly. "Me and my...counterpart."

"Counterpart?" Heero raised an eyebrow. "I'd thought that the Goddess
of Light would be your enemy."

Yami laughed, and it caught Heero off his guard. He realized that it's the
first time he heard her laugh, and he was surprised that it doesn't sound...sinister.
In fact, it sounded kind of pleasant. Heero snorted to himself.

"No, we are not enemies. Yes, we have our disagreement, me being the
representation of the darkness, and her being the representation of the light, but
that doesn't mean we battle each other every step of the way.

"I may be the Goddess of Darkness, but that doesn't mean I'm evil." Yami
turned to Heero and smiled. "Certainly quite surprising, ne?"

Heero kept silent, unsure of what to say.

"Now, let me get back to my story." Yami took a deep breath and
continued. "The Fates controls the Gods and Goddesses, because we are the
creation of the former Fate of Eternity. To prevent the Fates from controlling us
completely, the Goddess of Darkness, the Goddess of Light, and the very first
Goddess, the Goddess of Forever, mixed our powers together and created the
mortals, or humans are you called yourself.

"The Fates also control the mortals. After all, they do spin the threads of
destiny, but there are few that escaped the grasp of the Fates. Those few
humans are called the Chosen Ones, the ones who can destroy, and maybe
even control, the Fates.

"And when I say 'the Fates', I don't mean the original three Fates. No, I
meant the Lesser Fates. The Lesser Fates are Fates, but they are not as
powerful as the original three Fates, and they don't control a mortal's destiny.
The only one who can control any of the three original Fates is the Ultimate
Chosen One." Yami stopped and looked at Heero straight in the eyes. "And
you're one of those Chosen Ones, Heero. And I need your help to protect my
brother from being killed by the Fates."

Heero let the words sank in. But there's something that doesn't make any
sense... "If you need help so badly, why don't you go to your Fate Goddess?
She used to be a Fate, wouldn't she help?"

Yami suddenly stiffened and a pained expression came to her face. She
turned away quickly, but Heero saw it despite the fact that she's trying to hide it.
A few minutes passed before she finally replied. "She's gone. She could be
dead for all we know. I don't know how it happened, or why it happened, but one
night, she just disappeared. She's just gone. There's no clue or anything that
could lead us to her, or tell us what had happened. There is simply nothing."

Uncomfortable silence settled onto them for a few long minutes.

"I may be the Goddess of Darkness, one of the first two creations of the
Goddess of Forever, but you, Heero, is the only one who can help protect my
brother right now." It was a statement, a quite simple one, at that, but Heero
knew she meant more than just stating a fact to him. She wants him to help her.

"I'll do it," Heero replied curtly. He wondered if it was his choice at all. In
the logical part of his mind, he decided that it was all preplanned, and that it was
not his choice. But somewhere deep in the soul that he thought he had lost, he
knew that it was his choice all along.

"Arigatou, Heero." Those words were said so softly that Heero wondered
if she actually said that, or if it was just a figment of his imagination. Yami stood
suddenly, and turned to walk away. When she spoke again, her voice was cold
and calculated, like the way it used to be. "I have the outline for our next mission
and I will announce it first thing in the morning. Have a good night, Commander
Heero Yuy, and I will expect you in the library at 8 A.M. sharp. Tardiness is not
to be tolerated. Understood?"

Heero stood up and snapped to attention. "Understood."

"Good. Goodnight." With those words said, Yami no Megami, the
Goddess of Darkness, walked briskly away into the night.

~ * * ~

Duo stared up at the ceiling of his room with his hands behind his head.
His face was devoid of emotions; his amethyst eyes empty with none of the usual
sparks in them. This is the real Duo, the Duo that no one knows about, the Duo
without the jester mask. This is the Duo that wakes up every night screaming
because of the nightmares of his past. No one has ever seen this Duo before.

Except Heero.

Duo just simply couldn't understand. The new pilot has been here for one
single day, and already, she caught Heero on her hook. But there was also
something else. Part of the time, Duo was jealous of the girl, but for the other
part of the time, he was actually jealous of Heero because he was the one
holding the girl! He knew he wasn't in love with the new pilot, that much he was
positive. What he felt was more like a brotherly protectiveness for her.

Duo frowned. He
shivered as the cold draft of air blew through the open window. He got up, slowly
walked over to the window, and shut it tight. But the chill stayed.

He walked back to the bed, and slipped under the covers. He paused just
before getting into the bed, and looked at the window again, as if to make sure
he really shut it. It felt as if the window is still open.

He wrapped the quilt around him tightly, hoping to shut out the cold draft,
but for some odd reason, it wasn't working. He shivered again, and then curled
into a tiny ball.

He was so, so cold. He didn't know why, either. He tried to think, but the
numbness was creeping to his mind, freezing it, render it hopelessly useless.

And then, without warning, everything was burning up. Sweat broke out
from his forehead and trickled down the side of his face, plastering his brown hair
to his face.

But even as he was being burned little by little from the inside, his skin felt
cold to the touch. He knew, without knowing how he knew, that when the fire
met the ice, he will die.

He tried to scream, to yell, for help, but all that came out was uneven
hoarse breathing. A single crystalline tear escaped from his tightly clenched
eyelid.

~ * * ~

Yami walked down the corridor swiftly, jumping from shadow to shadow,
hiding within the darkness so effectively that she doubts even the great Perfect
Soldier wouldn't be able to find her.

She paused, stopping right in front of the door leading to Duo's room.
There was a long silent moment before she took a deep breath and knocked.
The knock is loud enough so that if he's awake, he should be able to hear it, and
if he's asleep, it won't wake him up.

After waiting for a few more minutes, she silently turned the handle of the
door, knowing that it won't be locked. She knew because none of the private
bedrooms in Quatre's mansion have locks in them. The mansion was secure
enough so that no one was afraid of assassins or robbers, and if there was an
attack, then a person could come in and shake the sleeper awake with no time
wasted.

And that was why she was alarmed when she realized that the door
wouldn't open. She tried a few more times, and it was when the door wouldn't
open even when she used her full strength did she realized that the door wasn't
just stuck.

She became silent and concentrated. With a sinking heart, she detected
the faint, well-hidden, aura of the Lesser Fates. She started pounding on the
door, hoping against hope that her brother is alright.

"Duo?! Duo, are you in there?! If you are, open this door right NOW!!!"
She yelled, becoming almost desperate. "Damn it, Duo, wake up and open this
damn door!!!"

Almost absently, she heard running footsteps facing toward her. She
turned and her alarm turned into relieve as she realized it is Heero. Her mind
supplied her with the information that Heero's room is right beside Duo's.

"What's wrong?" Heero demanded a frown on his face.

Yami took a deep breath to calm herself down a bit before answering. "I
want to make sure if Duo's alright so I tried to peek in on him before going back
to my room. But the door won't open."

Heero's frown deepened when the door didn't open after he tried turning
the knob. "It might be locked."

Yami shook her head. "No. I know none of the private bedrooms here
have locks on the doors."

"It could be stuck."

Yami took a shaky breath. "No. I used my full strength and it still won't
budge. I'm positive it's one of the Lesser Fates, Heero. I can detect the Fate's
aura. My Goddess powers are mostly immune to the Fates, and if he or she had
cast a spell on the door, then no matter how much I try, I wouldn't be able to
open it."

"The aura," Heero said, voice empty of any emotion. "I can feel the aura."

Yami's head snapped up and she stared at Heero in complete surprise,
her mask forgotten for the moment. Yami shook her head. "I think you may be able to open it. You're one of the Chosen Ones, and
there are very few things that the Fates could use against you."

"Back off."

Yami jumped back just before Heero's foot completely shattered the door
into tiny splinters. A wave of nausea washed over her, making her want to vomit.
She pushed that feeling back and rushed to the bed. There, at the center, is the
writhing form of Duo. Sweat-soaked hair plastered to his forehead and side of
his face. His braid somehow came undone and the rich strands were spilled all
over the place. The quilt was half off the bed and the sheet was twisted around
his body like a white snake.

And he was shivering violently.

For a moment, Yami saw nothing but red. The rage consumed her
nausea and fear until they were nothing. There was nothing but hate and rage,
and the thirst for revenge.

But the hoarse scream for help coming from the twisting form in the center
of the bed brought her back from that rage. She took several deep breaths to
calm her down, then reach out a hand to Duo. She turned to Heero and reached
out the other hand to him.

"I need to be in physical contact with a Chosen One in order to break the
spell the Fate put on him," Yami explained. Her voice sound strained. Her face
looked as if it's in anguish. And her eyes were filled with hate and rage.

For one second, Heero almost backed away from her. But one look at the
form in the bed destroyed all thoughts of running away. He took Yami's
outstretched hand.

For a few long minutes, nothing happened. And then, Yami's eyes began
to glow and a faint purple haze, the same color as Yami and Duo's eyes, outlined
Duo's sweat-soaked form.

Heero watched, mesmerized by the swirling color. Duo stopped writhing
and finally settled down. His breathing evened until it was deep and sound,
signaling that he was deep in sleep.

Yami stared at the peacefully sleeping Duo with tired, but content, eyes.
Then, without warning, she fainted.

~ * * ~
To Be Continued...
~ * * ~

Part Three: Mission
Duo has no memory of what had happened that night, and Heero cannot tell him
because of his vow to Yami. The detailing of the next mission was given and
with Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei gone on a mission 3 hours ago, there was no one
but Heero, Yami, and Duo to do the job. It was SUPPOSE to be a routine
mission; get in, destroy, get out. Too bad they underestimated their opponent...