The Baron is the strongest in a powerful Voodou family called the Ghedes. They guard the cemetaries and the passage of the dead. The Baron was once the Loa of sex and sensuality, and still retains a strong propensity for light-hearted if vulgar, sexually-oriented language. He can always be counted on for accurate advice, but what he says often makes little sence until later. His symbols are the cross, the coffin and the phallus, his color is black, his food is rum in which 21 hot peppers have been steeped.
"We have to bury this again." If Heero's tone was naturally cold, it was positively artic now.
"WHAT?" I snapped out of my daze to stare at him with what had to be a dumbfounded expression. "This is fame and fortune right here! I mean look! Real food! Water that not hogged by the algae vats. Just think what this could do for everybody!"
"I have." He picked up a round peice of rusted metal and threw it aside idely. "We can't handle this place and if word gets out to the people that it's here."
"The Winner Corporation will take it over." I felt cold and miserable. Neither had anything to do with the lousy environmental controls in the area.
"And the war starts again." He finished for me, flipping off his flashlight. The overhead lights were din but sufficent. "Howard will be here soon."
"Let him." I insisted. Heero shot me a warning look. "I can't keep this from him." I offered up as an explaination. It was true enough, besides which, even we couldn't do a cover up job fast enough, or well enough to fool the old man. "We'll colapse the opening later."
Heero seemed to find this acceptable.
"Now! Lets see what we can find around here!"
"What?"
"Well, we ARE on a scavenger mission ne?" I grinned at him, making my tone as persuasive as possible. "So it makes sence to take our advantages where we can. Here's a place that we KNOW has goodies. OR we can walk another ten miles to a place we only have vague rumors about being untouched."
"Suit yourself." That was as close to a full steam ahead as I'd ever get out of that block of ice. I knew that he was rather mad at me for not taking this seriously. I was worried, really I was, it's just that I don't show it like everyone else.
Besides, I was always one to make the best of a situation.
I was halfway down the first road and picking up speed when I heard Howard's "Holy sweet mother of Jesus H Frog!" There are those times that remind me why I like the guy so much. His way with words was one of those reasons.
Chuckling to myself, I set myself to finding out what wasn't nailed down. I knew Heero would explain the situation, and that Howard would realise the consiquences as strongly as we did. It wasn't well known, but Howard was in the thick of things as well.
After Dr G got through with me, I was too sick to so much as move for the longest time. Howard was the one that saved my sorry rear and gave me something to do while I recovered enough to fight. I'm not much for lifedebts and all that honor stuff, but I owed him bigtime.
Anyway, it wasn't long until Heero and Howard joined me, an edge of panic speeding up their movements. The stuff we got from the area was pretty standard, but valuable. The real treasure came with an antique cd player, a few disks, and some spare self recharging batteries from about 10 AC. A collector would pay an arm and a leg for those if we ever decided to sell them.
A few things started to stand out to me as I worked. After trying to chew over what it was that bothered me, I brought it up with Howard. (Heero was checking out a near by pavillion at the time.) "Have you noticed a lack of dust around here, or is it just me."
Howard squinted, gazing around the area. "Well, I'll be damned. A good filtration system then?"
"I'm not so sure. The last building we checked was two inches deep with the stuff."
"There can't be anyone living here kid. By the looks of the doors you decimated, there's not much of a chance of anyone getting in before us."
I shrugged, unconvinced. He had a point though.
"Did you find any place to sleep?" He asked, catching me off guard.
"Huh?" I responded eloquently.
"Sleep." I blinked at him a few times. This wasn't my idea of an ideal environment. "Now look, you may have taken a nap today. On my time I might add, but us old geezers can't go for 24 hours. Sixteen has been pushing it."
It was hard to tell on Howard any signs of exhaustion. His ever present sunglasses has been removed for the trip here. (They were rather silly in pitch darkness.) He just seemed dimmed around the edges. I would have sworn even that idiotic shirt of his was a little less bright.
Fortunately, I didn't have to make the decision; Heero did that for me. He lightly glided out of the pavillion.
"There's a tree in there. It would be a good place to stop for the night." He simply shrugged when I glanced at him. "I overheard you talk."
"Eh, I'm going to do a bit more searching. Might find more of these." Howard held up a CD gleefully. "I'll stay nearby, I think I saw a bed in a house across the way when I went through it."
"Sure you get all the luxeries."
"If you make it to my age you can make people spoil you too."
I grinned and followed Heero. There really was a tree. I'd never seen one outside of a book, and the fact that it was indoors was even more impressive. It was hunched in full bloom under the ceiling, and thick twisting roots have torn through the floorboards.
There were a few drawings and decorations hung around the thing. Most of them looked rather old, but expensive. Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to take any of them. Someone obviously really liked that tree.
We didn't say a word to each other, just wrapped a bit of line from our belts around the tree itself. With the low gravity, you didn't have to worry so much about sleeping on a hard floor as you did floating off into something truly dangerous.
We laid down, back to back, our supplies sercured on the other side of the tree. It was odd, in a comfortable way. It reminded me of the better times of the war. We used to do this a lot. I could almost imagine time had taken a hiccup backwards.
The air was cold down here, and I was glad for the warmth coming off Heero's stiff back, even if there was no real comfort from that angle. Feeling my body lift gently off the floor as I relaxed, I was lulled into sleep by the thrum of the inner colony.
If I had known then, what I know now, I probably would have chosen a better and safer spot to sleep.
The dreams that night were long, and seemed very very real. Unlike most, who disperse and dance away when you shake off the grogginess of sleep, this dream clung tenaciously to me, like a waking memory. That's why I remember so much of it, so clearly still.
It started were I was still curled up under the tree in that strange, decorated room. People little by little began to fill it, until "sleep" was almost impossible. They seemed to gather around me and pull me to my feet.
Someone was playing the drums in an intense, fast beat. People were laughing and dancing, whirlings around. The hands that bore me upwards pushed me into the celebration. Confused, but never one to turn down a celebration, I gave into the beat and whirled and laughed with the dancers. It reminded me of the Festival.
The rhythm gained intensity and my lungs burned for air and my legs ached for releif. I tried to get away from the circle of the dance, but those nameless unremarkable faces were merciless, allowing me no releif. I heard somewhere that you aren't supposed to feel pain in your dreams, but whoever said it was a liar.
Unable to dance on my own anymore, I was simply flung stumbling from dancer to dancer. Then suddenly the hands were friendlier, steadying me on my feet. The boy who caught me was golden haired, and his blue eyes were all compassion. Behind him, I could vaguely see two women, one soft the other cruel looking, but both were transparent, like ghosts.
Without any preamble, he leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. Somewhere from the center of my stomach a warmth welled up. Not quite lust, more like a feeling of being incredibly protected. I was to stunned to do anything more than stare. This was NOT how my typical wet dream went.
The blond stranger pulled away again, giving me a regretful look and pushed me into the next set of hands. Another stranger, this one with muddy redish-brown hair that fell over one of two emerald eyes.
His face was blank of all emotions, and he seemed to be looking more at the blond than me. He too leaned down and kissed me, but it was almost a distracted peck on the lips than anything else. When his lips touched mine though, even for that brief second, it was like a jolt of electricity that cleared the haze of my mind.
I was pushed away less gently, but the hands that caught me were rough but friendly. Dark passionate eyes looked out at me from an exotic bronzed face. This one I recognized; even after we parted ways after the war, it's hard to mistake WuFei. I liked him, sure, but this was getting too weird. I struggled in his arms, but I was still too tired from the dance to break away.
He too leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. A burst of energy raced through me, leaving me dazed but without pain again. He pushed me back, a smug twist hardening his lips. This time I was flung away, tossed into someone else's arms.
Those intense blue eyes from my first dream stared down at me, cold but with something else behind them. I never made out the face of this one, but the kiss was full, open and intense, like the dancer was taking everything out of me at the same time he was pushing everything into me. Now this was following some of my more interesting dreams, what swept through me was definatly lust, but also power and something else I didn't understand yet.
The world fell away, and somehow I was standing outside my own body. There was a haze over everything now, the dance and the dancers. I felt it creeping over me, that haze. It was the same dead comforting feeling of Shinigami. I hadn't felt that since the war, but time had not dulled my recognition of it. I remember figuring that it was reappearing then because I had used Deathscythe so much. There had always been some indefinable connection between them.
When in that state, I felt at a distance from the world, industructable. All the feelings I've buried all my life boil to the surface and focus, coming to a sharp, curved edge, projected into my partners deadly glow. I could take out all my pain, all my hate, all my fear. All I needed was a victim.
If Deathscythe and I were partners, she and Shinigami were lovers.
But as distanced as that would make me feel, I'd never been outside of my body before.
"I thought this wasn't normal." I said outloud. Why I thought this was or wasn't normal must have made sense to the dream me.
A rather jovial looking black man appeared next to me. Well, not appeared, like blink: one moment here, one moment not. More like, I just noticed him standing inches away from me. He wore a tophat, a split tailed overcoat, and a shit-eating grin like he had just gotten the ultimate punchline.
Strangely enough, I recognized him. I'd seen him on one of Hilde's tarot cards. She gave me a long explaination about him, all of which I had promptly forgotten.
"Heh, you're about as normal as a hermaphrodites idea of masturbation, gason [1]." He drawled out, leaning back against the air casually.
I blinked at the man a few times as what he said sunk in, then said slowly, "You really need help, you know that?" The man just grinned manically as a reply and turned back to watch the show. I couldn't blame him, it was facsinating, watching myself from afar, but it wasn't me, the voice, the expression, just the way I moved was different. I was carrying myself like an old man.
"Who is in..." I fished around for the terminology that Hilde used in her whirlwind lessons. I wished now that I had paid attention to her mumbojumbo.
"Riding you?" He drawled it out, giving the simple phrase so many more implications. The lewd wink and the pointed glance at my body's pants did nothing to help either. "That would be Legba himself. He's a rare one for making an appearance. He just usually says who stays and who goes. He's probably why you're out watching yourself now, poor horseman without a horse."
"That can be done?"
"Not normally, you should thank your marassa." There was that damned word again.
"Okay, that's the second time. What the hell does marassa mean??" I nearly shouted. It was rude, and probably not wise in retrospect.
In my defense though, I was way over my head, and for the first time since I could remember, severly coming close to realizing this. I wasn't used to stress, I could usually bury my worries without a second thought, but somehow out ... here... or wherever that inbetween world was... it was harder. I was being forced to face reality.
The black man, fortunately, was more tolerant than I deserved. "Your twin of course."
I glared. "I'm an only child."
"So you think!" the man crowed. "But I'll tell you true, you're not the only soul in that body. Legba may be your met'tet, but I rule the head of your better half."
"Who..?" I started, but the grinning spirit seemed to loose his patience.
"Peche.[2] If you want to know who he is, you should ask HIM. After all, it IS your head."
"That's enough Baron." Legba commanded, bringing my body in front of us, and talking with my voice. It was odd, seeing my face, my body, and knowing that in there were thoughts going on, in there the heart was beating, the lungs were filling with the hot Festival air and pushing it back out into the night, but I was out here, watching instead of feeling it.
My own body was a stranger.
The Baron seemed to lose his good cheer at the command. He tipped his tophat quickly, and simply disappeared into the whirl of dancers.
"Ghedes." Legba mumbled, shaking his/my head. He turned and looked right at me. "And you, you have work to do."
For the second time in that dream, the world went dark. I was back in my body, but somehow that fact gave no comfort to me. Blackness crept around the edges of the dance, seeming to take them as it's partners engulfing each one by one. They seemed oblivious.
Now a stranger prowled against the black that had oozed around the area. He was wearing cloths that were somehow darker than black and long unbound hair who's very tips swayed behind his knees. His face was hidden by a delicate porcellian mask with a leering grin painted across it's exaggerated features.
The masked stranger turned directly towards me and summoned Deathscythe into his hands like a master conjerer. She jumped to life, the green glow of her pure light turned sickly in his hands. The sleek termal blade became jagged and sloppy, her tendrils of green heat curled around the unphased stranger like a lovers caress.
Slowly, I came to realize in my parnters glow, people I knew were dimmly illuminated. Her tainted light revealed looks of horror and fear, on Hilde's face, on Howard's, on WuFei's, on Heero's. Both the nameless dancers and everyone I knew or cared about...
The stranger seemed to revel in each's panic before leaping into a twisted dance, Deathsycthe leading the waltz.
I cried out and struggled, knowing KNOWING what was going to come. But it was like I had no control over my body. All I could do was sit and tremble... watching my partner slash into everyone I knew.
I tried to move, tried to wake up rather than see them try and get away, see the agony. It was so real, to real. I could almost smell thier flesh burning as the scythe cauterized the wounds. I knew I was dreaming, but it didn't help.
Finally, the stranger got to Heero. He faired a bit better than the other. He bore Wing, and the two weapons danced gleefully, testing their weilders' skill. It was a sick parody of the simple rhythems of the earlier dance.
The fight was terribly short and unbalanced. A sword is akward against the curve of a scythe... and my partner bore down, biting deep into Heero's shoulder. An arch of blood, so bright and so unrealistically red, arched liked neon against the black of my dream.
Something in me snapped.
It was just too much, seeing industructable Heero go down in the graveyard of my friends. Anguish choked my throat, and I think I screamed. Whatever was holding me back before had no power over me now.
I rushed my nemisis, my fist taking the stranger dead in the face. The grinning mask gave a satisfying crunch under my knuckles, and piece by glittering piece it fell away from his face... My own violet eyes stared back at me, but the doppleganger with my face was doing anything but grinning.
"What's wrong brother?" My... his voice was mocking. He licked the blood off of one finger in a movement that was half sensual, half utterly revolting. "You don't look happy to see me."
That was about the time that Heero punched me. Given my low pain tolerance, it's not much of a surprise how fast I woke up. The dream was still racing around in the back of my mind, so despite my throbbing jaw, I didn't know whether to hit him back or thank him.
For the next act, he just glared at me, and with a sickening pop, shoved his left arm into his shoulder joint. I could feel my gorge rising.
"Oh god Heero! Do you HAVE to do that in front of me." I fought down a few massive shudders. The expression on Heero's face hadn't changed. "What the hell happened anyway?"
"You hit me with that damned stick of yours."
"I what?" Suddenly, I felt my stomach drop to my toes. Deathscythe was sitting innocently in one of my hands. The last traces of sleep were burned from my mind instantly in panic. The scythe, Heero's shoulder... it couldn't have been a coinsidence. I didn't even stop to wonder how I had managed to get it out of my back harness while I slept. "It .. erm... wasn't on was it?"
"If it was on, would I be sitting here in one piece? Baka." An irrational releif welled up in me. He was right, I was being an idiot, but even without the blade I'd managed to hit him hard enough to hurt him. In my sleep for Christsake! If I wasn't so shaken, I'd have been bragging.
I wondered briefly if I had kissed him too in my sleep. My face went hot at the thought but I don't think it embarrassed me as much as would have thought. Still, I wasn't going to ask him. I don't have a death wish.
"And we have company." He said, almost offhand, breaking me out of my thoughts. Outside I could hear Howard protesting.
"Lady! Can't we work something out?" My hands fumbled with my tether. Finally getting the blasted thing undone and free from the tree, I shot outside, taking advantage of the low gravity to speed the way.
"YOU!?!" An outraged female voice called out to me as soon as I exited the small pavillion. I sighed, knowing without looking who it was.
I waved to Catherine halfheartedly. "Hi Ojosan. Can you have that guy put down my boss?"
TBC
Note:
[1] Man, or sir
[2] Sinner
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