POSTED: 8/29/00
REVISED: 12/27/00
AUTHOR: Jay / carboxylated@yahoo.com
ARCHIVE: Gundam Wing Addiction (Tyr), Desolation Angels (Ashura, if
she wants it)
[Full fiction index @ http://www.geocities.com/fenris_wolf0]
Disclaimer: Scroll down (invariably at the bottom)
Title: Eden
Category: AU, yaoi, shonen ai, angst, horror
Timeline: Adapted Post-EW (Treize is alive to serve my purposes...
^^)
Pairings: 1+2, 3+4, 5+13, 6+9
Rating/Warning: R. Violent, and graphic descriptions of what is best
describe as "icky" situations. AU somewhat confusing, especially with flashbacks
and whatnot. YAOI = little anime boys snuggling. You've been warned.
Feedback: Craved, desired, wanted, coveted, yearned for, wished for,
and longed for. C&C will be repaid with dancing G-boys, my endless
adoration, as well as a nice slice of karma.
/... .../ = thoughts
"Heero?" Noin's voice was calm and collected.
He turned and looked at her expectantly.
"You need to kill me."
"Me too," Zechs walked over to stand by his wife. "We're... liabilities."
"No," Trowa said firmly.
"We're a threat to mission integrity."
Duo looked unsure. "You..."
"We should be seen as the enemy," Zechs finished, smoothly. Nothing betrayed his inner torment.
/I'm so sorry, Relena.../
His sister however, shook her head. "Forget it. I think if... Lucas... really had a hold on you, we'd be dead by now."
Quatre laughed, a dismal sound. "Relena, if Lucas *wanted* us dead, we would have been killed the moment we stepped off the shuttle."
"It doesn't matter," Noin said, sternly. "What matters is that we've lead him to you before, against our wills, and you have to assume that we'll do it again."
"I refuse to," Relena said quietly.
Zechs glided in front of her. "You can't refuse, Lena. I've... I've killed you before-- I'll do it again. I'll kill all of you and damn myself to another life wasted as his servant." Noin stood beside him, nodding her agreement.
"Dorothy?" Her voice betrayed none of her emotions. "Will you do the honors?"
Dorothy's upper lip quivered. "No."
Noin's voice snapped. "I'll do it myself if I have to. I won't ever let myself-- ever-- not again..." She drew out a small handgun, placing it against her temple. She glanced at Zechs, briefly. "Love."
And fired.
"Awake, little Hunters." His voice was sweet and hard. "Now."
The gun jerked up and fired into the ceiling. White flakes of paint settled in Noin's hair. Her face was shocked, furious, and relieved. The relief faded once her feet left the ground.
The gun dropped from her nerveless fingers. She tried to scream, to cry out.
/Oh, God... the burning.../
The scar on her shoulder was an angry red, like she had been freshly branded. Her mouth twisted as she tried to find her voice. She finally choked out, "Burning." Noin hovered, halfway between the ceiling and the floor, helplessly dangling in the air.
Zechs stumbled and reached out a hand to his wife, the star on his wrist a flaming scarlet. "Lucrezia!"
Their fingers brushed, just barely, before Zechs was pulled from the floor. They stood there for a moment, both writhing together in agony-- at the terrible burning and smell of burnt flesh, his blond hair wrapping around her shoulders, her dark purple eyes wide-- before they both collapsed onto the floor, their breath rattling in their throats.
Relena rushed over, falling onto her knees. "Milliardo... Lu... what... what..."
Her brother's eyes fluttered open. "Get away from me," he rasped. Relena sat, motionless.
"Goddammit!" Her brother's voice was like a slap, tight with anger and hopelessness. "Do you want to die again?"
Quatre pulled Relena away from the two figures. "Right. Mission objective is to find the means to destroy Lucas," he said crisply. "6 and 9 should be considered counteragents." His blue eyes wandered over to the sprawled bodies.
/How can you treat this like a mission?/
Noin moaned.
"Move out," he snapped, still not turning to look at his friends behind him. In his mind, Noin laughed. Zechs smiled and put his arm around her. No one moved.
/Forgive me./
He turned around, his eyes icy and cold. "I said to move out. That's a direct order."
Duo shook his head as he ran up the stairs. Quatre had an authoritative streak to match damn well any military leader three times his age. When the little blond gave orders though, it was best to follow them.
"No elevators," Quatre had said. "They control the power. I won't be stuck in-between floors when Lucas finds us."
When they'd climbed to the thirtieth floor, Quatre nodded sharply. "Get the door open."
Heero had taken one look at the keypad and took one shot at it. There was a faint hissing of broken wires. Then, carefully, he aimed at the door's locking mechanism.
One more shot.
He calmly pushed open the door and walked in.
"Heero, see if you can hack into their system and contact Preventers HQ. Duo, Wufei, watch the door. Treize, make sure the girls are okay. Trowa, come with me."
"Oi, Quatre, where're you going?" Duo asked.
"Reconnaissance. If we're not back in ten minutes, move out again and continue pursuing mission objective." Quatre's voice was grim. Noin's laughter still echoed in his head.
/Damn you, Lucy./
/I'm sure we'll become good friends./
/Damn you./
After twenty minutes of Heero's furious typing and growling, they decided to leave. Duo scrubbed his face, angry and helpless.
/Where the hell are you guys?/
Quatre had swept down the 29th floor's hallways before something struck him. With his heart in his throat, he aimed and fired at a door.
/What kind of guy brings firearms on a vacation?/
He smothered his inner voice and stepped in hesitantly. Trowa stood by the door, the rearguard. "Find anything?"
Quatre stepped out, wiping his hands on his shirt distractedly, and shivered. "They're all dead," he said flatly. The blood... their mouths... "Lucas has one sick sense of humor, Trowa."
Trowa stepped inside and walked towards the body on the bed. It was a young woman. Her lacerated body's blood bled through her expensive clothes and decorated the sheets. Her pillow was splashed with crimson. Her arms, though, were folded on her chest-- hands clasped, as if praying-- around an apple.
What was worse was the star burned into her throat. Letters were spelt out underneath in burned flesh. EDEN. Her lips were twisted into a nightmare smile.
EDEN.
"They're all dead, Trowa."
"Because of us."
"Because of us," Quatre repeated. "Because of-- who we are. I'm..." his fingers trembled on the gun. "I'm tired of it, Trowa... I'm tired of people dying because of us."
"Well, then you'll be very relieved, I think, to know that it's almost over now." Lucas' voice rang across the room, amused.
His mind whirled as his eyes opened. He lay; his face downwards, pressed on a metal surface. He was bleeding from a long horizontal slash just above his collarbones. Shallow, but blood dripped from the wound, into a waiting goblet. He stared at it curiously: it looked heavy, made of gold, in the semblance of a screaming cherub.
Drip.
Another drop hit the growing pool in its gaping mouth.
Drip.
They'd found the dead woman. They were silent as they saw the meticulous details.
Relena clutched her stomach and wobbled silently.
"Duo," Heero asked, abruptly. "What do you know about him?"
"What, Lucifer?"
"Hai."
"Well..."
"Can you explain his Eden fascination?"
Duo obediently recited a passage. "'You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in the Garden of Eden, the garden of God...' Ezek. 28:12, I think."
"He was cast out," Wufei murmured.
Duo stared at the gleaming apple in the woman's dead hands. "They called him the ancient serpent."
"The Original Sin?" Wufei asked.
"Is our way out," Heero said. "It's our way out of his Eden."
They'd split up again. Treize frowned. The first time was a disaster. Why should this time be any different?
"There's a secondary mission objective," Heero had said. The light hit his eyes in strange ways. He had never looked so angled before, so defined. It was like someone else's face cut had been cut into his. "Survival. We revert to this objective upon sighting Lucas. Understood?"
He looked at Treize, his eyes smooth but glinting with commiseration. His voice, however, was dry. "Treize, it means run. If you see him, run."
/Even Wufei didn't mumble about injustice and weakness./
Treize was almost amused. Wufei hadn't even argued when he'd taken off his long-sleeved shirt and tucked it around the younger boy's shoulders.
"You look cold."
Wufei had scowled, but slipped into the white shirt anyway.
He looked over at Duo and Relena. "Which way?"
Duo nodded left. "We'll go down the hall, descend on the stairs, and repeat."
Relena's breathing was heavy; it was not labored but rather, thick, almost palpable in the darkness.
Lucy's musical voice drifted in the darkness. "I'll give you twenty seconds to run. Then I Hunt."
Their heads whipped around. Lucy grinned; she was neither a small blonde girl now, or the petite young woman they'd known, but almost a mirror image of her father-- dark, terrible, cold eyes; magnificent by the sheer force of her presence-- like a lurking darkness, waiting like a phantom of the unknown.
"19." Her lips curved. "18."
"Run," Duo snapped, and grabbed Relena and Treize. They sprinted down the hall, making it to far end. Duo opened the doors to the stairs.
"5."
Treize looked back for some unfathomable reason.
"4." Her eyes fell on his, mesmerizing. Her porcelain hands lifted up.
"3."
There was a scrap of white cloth held between her thumb and forefinger, stained red.
/Wufei.../
"2."
"Wufei."
"1." Her eyes teased. "Ready or not, here I came."
The significance of the flimsy piece of fabric hadn't escaped Duo. He stood, teeth clenched, one hand on Relena's shoulder, the other urgently tugging on Treize's arm.
"Go," Treize said, flatly. "I'll keep her busy."
Lucy's laugh rang in his ears. What was there now? Some bare fifteen seconds between him and death?
"Treize--" Relena tried to plead, but Duo shook his head and gave Treize a quick nod. Affirmative.
Ten seconds now, maybe.
Duo dragged Relena through the door. The clatter of their feet against the stairs faded as they descended.
Six seconds. His mind wrapped around the number wistfully. Five seconds.
Lucy stood a scant two inches from Treize and let the scrap of silk flutter to his feet. Treize stared at the piece of white and red cloth.
Three.
/Little dragon.../
Her hands reached for him.
One.
"We can't leave him there!" Relena hissed.
"No one was going to change his mind."
"But--"
"It might just be us now, Relena."
Her voice faltered. "How... why do you think so?"
"She had... Wufei's down. We have to assume the worst."
"Oh, God. Heero. Dorothy."
Duo shook his head, blinking out tears.
/Gavrie... Heero.../
"Relena?"
"Duo?"
"Maybe... Noin and Zechs... they were on the right track." He hesitated and brought out a gun. "Kill me. You have to-- I have to die. Then he won't be able to finish it."
"And what if he's still strong enough, with those four?"
Duo's lilac eyes were bleak. "I don't know," he whispered. "This is the only option I see."
"No one will be killing anyone." Zechs' voice was almost pleasant. Duo spun, gun aimed at the blond man behind him. He shifted, adjusting his stance so that he could see Relena. Duo cursed inwardly, seeing Noin pin the girl's arms behind her back. Zechs only smiled slightly.
"Drop the gun."
Duo glared at him.
Noin forced Relena to the floor, knee to her back, twisting her arms savagely. Relena stifled a cry of pain.
Zechs looked at him mildly. "Check. Your move."
"Get out, Duo," Relena's words were cut out by a sharp intake of breath.
Noin adjusted her hold. "I can shatter your spine, break your arms, or crack your skull from here."
Duo snarled, but dropped the gun and raised his hands. Zechs looked pleased.
"Checkmate."
End Part 9
Guess what? Names *and* meanings!
HEERO: Gavrie (1: man of god); Nathaniel (2: gift of god)
DUO: Matthias (1: gift of god), Abijah (2: the lord is my father)
TROWA: Thane (1: attendant warrior), Brishen (2: meaning unknown, gypsy name)
QUATRE: Reyhan (1: favored by god), Leron (2: the song is mine)
WUFEI: Samuel (1: asked of god), Xiao Long (2: little dragon)
NOIN: Lucia (1: bringer of light), Calypso (2: concealer)
ZECHS: Zeke (1: the memory of the lord), Hadrian (2: dark one)
RELENA: Tahirah (1: chaste, pure), Cecania (2: free)
DOROTHY: Iman (1: faith, belief), Portia (2: offering)
TREIZE: Wuxing (1: fifth star), Soterios (2: savior)
Jay
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