Title: Alternate Dualities
Author: WingNut
Archive: http://www.fanworkrecs.com
Disclaimers: I don't own the characters from Gundam Wing, I just play with them for non-profit fun until they run screaming back to their creators.
Warnings: AU - AAAAAAAAAAAU. Some yaoi, lemon, violence, language. You should be a legal adult to read this. Open-mindedness helps, too.
Pairings: all over the map; Duo-centric. yaoi and het.
Author's Notes: A huge helping of "suspension of disbelief" would be appropriate before you read this. I'm sure J or G could explain the science behind it, but they're kinda dead right now...
Part 4 ~ Confusion (cont'd)
Intense purple light coiled inside the targeting dish, and then speared outwards. In a heartbeat, where once there had been a huge buckled door, a Preventer assault team, an opposing force of Pandora guards, and various bits of machinery there was now... nothing. Inside a sphere some 10 metres across, matter had simply vanished.
Duo found himself pulled forward irresistibly, and just for an instant, he could see a circular distortion at the centre of the destruction, where the purple light vanished. It didn't look black, as he had imagined a black hole would, but rather as if the world had been bent out of shape at that point. Almost before the perception registered, the purple light died, and a return flash of purest white shot from the distortion to the generator.
The force pulling at him had stopped. The warped area was gone, if it had ever really been there in the first place. The generator ceased humming, and silence fell on the ruined lab. Duo took a step or two forward, his footsteps seeming unnaturally loud. He couldn't believe it. A dozen or so people, just... gone. Wiped away in an instant. The sphere of vanished matter cut through the floor of the lab, the remains of the door, the wall...
Movement caught his eye and he turned slightly, still feeling dazed.
Three more Preventers stood just inside the remains of the cargo door, guns aimed straight at him.
The point man, 'Cyclone', looked down at the remote still clutched in Duo's good hand, and his face twisted with rage and grief. The other Preventers followed his lead as his arm straightened and his finger tightened on the trigger, and -
To Duo, the bark of the guns seemed simultaneous with the impact of the flying body that struck him and sent them both tumbling to the floor behind one of the workbenches.
Duo rolled and sat up, pushing Heero off him slightly. The Japanese man did not respond, and Duo felt a spike of dread as he realized there was a spreading pool of warm blood flowing across the floor.
He managed to turn his partner over awkwardly with his good arm to see the extent of the damage. Dread turned to horror - there was so much blood! Heero had been hit in the side, and again high up in the chest, but by far the worst danger was the gaping hole in his thigh, spurting with each pulse of his heart.
Duo shoved both hands into the wound, putting direct pressure over the torn artery. His wounded arm blazed with pain but he gritted his teeth and forced it to perform. The fountain of blood slowed, but he couldn't stop it entirely.
His mind raced, trying to come up with a solution. Half-formed plans disintegrated under the realization that he needed a tourniquet, but didn't dare remove his hands to create one... Catch 22.
A slight scuff nearby had the muscles of his arms jerking with the need to snatch up his gun, but he couldn't... he just couldn't lift his hands from his partner's leg and condemn him to die.
He looked up with a snarling glare, his arms buried in gore past the wrists, to see Wufei, jaw clenched and dark eyes wide with desperation, his gun held rock steady. The Chinese man's gun hand tensed, and Duo abruptly remembered what Heero had said about Quatre... 'He left a trail of eleven bodies behind him... He eviscerated them... Wufei followed, and discovered Quatre had killed Trowa, and was drawing designs on the wall with his blood...'
"'Fei!" Duo said forcefully, trying to reach past the horror of the other man's memories. "He needs a tourniquet."
The dark eyes stared towards him without any sign of comprehension.
"Wufei! Heero needs a tourniquet!! He's dying!! I can't move my hands or he'll bleed to death!"
The white knuckled finger started to squeeze the narrow trigger...
"WUFEI!! GODDAMNIT ALL TO HELL, HELP ME!!!"
Finally, volume accomplished what reason had not. Wufei started slightly and looked, really looked, at Duo.
"Heero's bleeding bad, 'Fei," Duo said evenly, trying to project calmness. "He needs a tourniquet, but I can't ease up on the pressure or he'll die. Shoot me later if you want to, but right now I need your help to save Heero." He held Wufei's gaze with his own, trying to show his sincerity, his sanity, through this meeting of eyes.
The moment stretched endlessly, until Wufei blinked, and nodded. He holstered his gun and approached quickly, pulling off his sash.
Relief washed through Duo, stealing his strength and making him lightheaded. He took a deep breath and concentrated on Wufei's deft hands, slipping the sash beneath Heero's leg, knotting the ends, and tightening it with a retort rod from the workbench.
Heero moaned and opened his eyes as the tourniquet began to squeeze his thigh. His gaze was unfocussed, his features slack and pale. "S- samui..." [1]
Cold. He was probably going into shock. "Hang in there, buddy!" Duo managed to gasp out. He wasn't feeling very well himself. His arm hurt like blazes, and the dizziness was getting worse, tingles spreading down his limbs... His jaw fell open as he realized that he was about to...
Agony spread over him, snapping like electricity along his nerves
...he was about to...
He fought it, forcing his will onto his traitorous body. He couldn't release the pressure on Heero's thigh until the tourniquet was completely tightened.
...to rip apart...
"'Fei, hurry!" He would not let go. He would not.
...to tear in two...
"...hurry... I can't..." But he couldn't hang on.
...to die...
His vision passed into white light and he felt himself falling sideways, hands slack, useless, felt himself lift free of the terrible pain, saw himself slump down, saw one more welling of blood from the torn thigh, felt an irresistible tugging, saw the tourniquet tighten and clench, the bleeding slowing, stopping, felt himself whirled away into the star-flecked night...
End Part 4
Note:
[1] "I'm cold", or "It's cold"
Many thanks to Kayo, mighty translator of anime, for official Japanese phrases! ^_^
(:./wingnut/alter6)
