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 7 ~ Premeditation (cont'd)
part added 13-May-2003
The waves washed forward, and back, forward and back. Duo floated above them, calm and serene, and watched the patterns of the waves and the foam and the swirling clothing by the rough boulders. The waves surged and receded, leaving a broken body sprawled on the jagged rocks.
The water rose and fell, and rose and fell further. It came to him suddenly that the tide was going out, and he was mildly pleased that he had noticed.
He drifted nearer, drawn by the bright red splotches on the pale skin; pretty red patterns welling, sliding down whitish bones, dripping into the sea. Bright red drops hitting the water, spreading, fading... Bright red, and white, and flashing silver.
Silver?
He looked again, intrigued: bright red blood, whitish bones, pale skin, dark rocks. There was nothing silver. It hadn't been a reflection from the sea; it had been on or above the crumpled body, but he could see nothing there now.
He swirled slowly over the still figure, from splintered legs to bleeding head. He didn't find the source of the silver flash, but he did notice something else curious.
Whenever he drifted down closer to the twisted husk of flesh, the pale skin lost a touch of its grey hue, becoming ever so slightly more rosy. As he drifted higher, the slight movement of the ribs lessened, and the pallor increased.
It made him uneasy.
He went nearer, looking at the ravaged body more carefully. With a shock of recognition, he realized that this crushed shell, this poor bleeding wreck, was him - or at least a part of him.
Compassion flooded through him, washing away the detachment he had been feeling. He hovered closer to his body, letting his spirit revive the poor thing a bit. What had happened to it?
Slowly, the smashing impact with the water surfaced in his memory. The long fall had clearly not been good for his physical shell. It was badly damaged now - it might not even survive.
Worry wrung him. Non-survival was... bad. His body was dying. Alone, he could do nothing to heal it. He needed help.
He swirled upwards, looking for the other being who had been near him at the top of the cliff.
But no, the other body was lodged inside the metal cage down deep under the waves. It was clearly no longer housing any spirit. There would be no help there.
He slid back down to his body, noting the toll his brief absence had taken. Poor thing. He moved closer, skimming the surface of the pallid skin, and was sucked inside.
PAIN!! Nerves clamouring, bones shattered, blood and life leaking away, and over it all, through each part of it, the overwhelming agony.
He fled, fighting free of the heavy flesh encasing him. He found himself hovering, alone and frightened and shuddering with relief, above the bloody rocks and the ever-shifting sea.
The brief immersion inside his mortal shell had reminded him of many things - the way his body should feel, healthy and strong, and the reasons why it had been damaged. But more importantly, he had remembered why he could not allow this body to die, for although it was his, he was only keeping it for another.
He remembered himself, and his counterpart, and the differences between them. He remembered Wufei, and Zechs, and the look on the tall blond's face when he had said Wufei's name. He remembered Heero, and the hopeless surge of love/affection/devotion that had broken over him at the sight of his Japanese friend. He remembered Quatre, and the strong link between their spirits, and with that realization he fairly pulsed with happiness and relief.
Perhaps there was something he could do after all.
He gathered his strength, channelling all his fear and worry and compassion for his poor borrowed body, and he sent it like an arrow to his friend Quatre, in that direction. He gathered more, and sent it again, and again, and again, until a monotonous mechanical clatter interrupted his concentration.
A helicopter, he realized, as the machine soared over the cliff and down to skim the waves. He could see Heero piloting, with Wufei riding shotgun. In the back, two members of an emergency rescue medical team were crouched in the open cargo door. Behind them, Quatre was half-reclining in Trowa's arms, his face turned to the window, his pale skin almost luminescent in the darkening night.
The chopper began to pull away down the coast, the searchlight beneath the main compartment trained on the base of the cliff. With a shock, Duo realized that his friends hadn't even seen the rock farther out to sea, let alone the figure sprawled on top of it.
Duo felt a wave of panic course through him - his body wouldn't last much longer without help. Almost simultaneously, Quatre winced and clutched at his heart, pointing back the way they had come. The helicopter came around, slowing.
Duo concentrated, sending warm waves of encouragement to Quatre as the helicopter neared, and chilling fear every time it strayed off course.
The rough guidance was enough. The searchlight swept along the shore once more, then swivelled to highlight the waves. The bright circle caught one outflung hand, swung sideways, and then starkly illuminated the body over which Duo was hovering so protectively.
Now that help was at hand, Duo turned his attention to his physical shell. He was disturbed to see how faintly it breathed, how much it still bled. He spread himself out like a blanket, trying to steady the faltering heartbeat, to warm the cooling skin.
He knew that plucking him off the rocks would not be easy for his friends. It was incredibly dangerous to hold a helicopter this close to a cliff, especially with the waves stirring up the air currents from below. The helicopter swung and dipped with each gust, so much so that the first two attempts by the rescue team to land beside their patient were foiled.
Then a third man lowered himself on a cable, but instead of waiting until the helicopter was positioned directly above the target, he began swinging back and forth. He built up momentum, and then let go, trailing a line behind him. He somersaulted through the air to make a precise landing on the rocks, not three feet from Duo's body.
Most of Duo's concentration was focussed on keeping his lungs and heart going, but a tiny part of him was amused at Trowa's flashy entrance. It was always the quiet ones...
Trowa knelt swiftly, firing a cable-anchor into the rocks without hesitation. "The medics are coming, Duo. Just hang on a little longer." The acrobat attached the cable he had been towing to the anchor, then yelled, "Clear!" into his comlink.
Within moments, the med-team had descended and were assessing the damage. After doing what they could to stabilize his condition, they slid gentle hands under Duo's mangled body and lifted it onto a stretcher.
Duo tried to rise at the same rate, to stay close without touching, but he brushed against the torn flesh and was immediately pulled inside. Sight, hearing and consciousness all disappeared, smothered in the agonizing darkness.
"...sing him, we're losing him!"
Pain. He was surrounded, immersed, composed of pain.
"Blood pressure dropping..."
The voices were becoming clearer as he rose gently toward the curved ceiling, the excruciating torment of his body fading away. Then he was floating free - free of the agony, free of the dead weight of unresponsive flesh, free of his cares and responsibilities...
Responsibilities.
He wavered, drifting above the medics and their urgent activity.
Responsibilities. He was fairly sure he had some, but what were they?
"The pain is gone." The whispered words directed his attention to two men sitting together in the back seat of the helicopter, their eyes rivetted on the actions of the people below him. He felt a surge of contentment as he recognized them - Wufei and Quatre.
Although it was Quatre who had spoken, it was Wufei who drew Duo's gaze. The Chinese man looked strained and horrified, crushing one of Quatre's hands between both of his own. There was something he should know about Wufei...
Then Duo remembered - Wufei was his lover! - and fairly glowed with happiness. He felt warm and cherished. But Wufei's distress was rising, and that didn't seem right.
Duo looked for what was upsetting 'Fei so, and saw the EMTs working frantically on his own still body. Memory rose sharply. *This* was his responsibility - he was to keep this body alive, for it wasn't really his.
Quick as thought, he turned and dove down into the lifeless figure. Agony exploded across him, and he sank into darkness. He could feel the laboured thump of his heart, hear the relieved words of the medics above him. Then, just before his consciousness was extinguished, he found himself rising up again, sliding out of the pain-wracked form.
Surprised and confused, he dipped back down. Once again, he was pulled in on contact; once again he was swept away in black torment; and once again he slipped free of the confining flesh.
Grim determination gripped him. He would NOT fail. He forced himself down once more.
The next few moments were an exercise in frustration. As soon as he immersed himself in his body, his consciousness was crushed in the painful darkness, and he popped out again. From the muttered exclamations he overheard exchanged between the medics, he gathered that they were getting desperate to stabilize him.
Duo was feeling desperate as well. Somehow he needed to animate his physical shell without losing focus and will. But wait... down on the rocks, his body had reacted to the mere approach of his soul. If diving in made him lose control, then maybe he shouldn't go that deeply.
Bracing himself, he sank down again, going more slowly. As soon as he brushed the bleeding form, he felt the now-familiar strong pull. He fought against it, barely managing to halt his progress before his consciousness faded completely. He pulled out just a fraction more, feeling his clarity return slightly.
Gods, but it hurt! Pain snapped and crackled through him as if he had plugged himself into a live power source.
Across from him, Quatre groaned and pressed a fist to his heart. Duo glanced at him, then took a second, closer look. His friend was... glowing. No, sparkling was a better word. Glittering silvery motes swirled around Quatre's form, whirling out into the air and back again. Whenever they touched Duo, the blond's face would twist with pain.
So that was what empathy looked like...
Wufei looked from Quatre's grimace to the suddenly slowing medics. "Is.. Is he..." Fear and dreadful anticipation swept across that handsome face.
"N-no," Quatre gasped. "He's... it hurts... but he's fighting... to stay." Wufei made no reply, merely ducking his head to hide the expression on his face.
Quatre took a shaky breath and held it, his eyes closing in concentration. The sparkles whirled around once more, and suddenly swept back under the blond's skin. Quatre relaxed with a sigh, the fist over his heart loosening as he sagged back against the seat.
"I'm sorry, Wufei. It hurts so much. I... I had to block him out."
Wufei shook his head, not looking up. "No, you... I understand, I..." He cleared his throat and continued a little more evenly. "Please, don't apologize. If you hadn't insisted something was wrong, hadn't guided us right to him... We never would have found him."
"But we did find him, Wufei," Quatre said earnestly, "and you have to believe that Duo's doing everything he can to return to you."
Duo struggled to follow the hushed conversation, but it was too much of a distraction. He narrowed his concentration down to his soul's position, trying to ignore the electrifying jolts sizzling through him. He held himself still, neither sinking in nor floating away, suspended between responsibility and freedom, mutely enduring for the sake of his alter ego's life.
The helicopter flight to the hospital took entirely too long.
Ever so slowly, Duo eased himself out of his aching flesh. His body, stretched out on an operating table and encircled by a team of surgeons and life-support equipment, felt much stronger than it had either on the rocks or in the helicopter. Surgery had started almost an hour ago, and Duo finally felt confident enough to try separating his spirit again.
The feeling of being constantly electrocuted faded as he slipped free. He checked carefully, but his body's pulse and breathing remained steady despite his departure. He floated up to the ceiling with relief.
Glancing down for the fourth or fifth time to ensure that he wasn't harming his body with his absence, he was intrigued to see a flash of silver similar to the one he had seen by the sea. Relieved to have something less upsetting to dwell on than the bloody surgery taking place beneath him, he froze in place and looked very, very carefully.
After a few minutes of manoeuvring and... well, 'squinting,' for lack of a better term... he saw it again. This time, he was able to isolate it: a pale, thin line leading from his body's chest up to - he swivelled and looked down - a sparkling, silvery, constantly-changing shape hanging in midair directly below him.
He darted away from the semi-transparent thing, only to discover that it moved with him. He moved again, more slowly, verifying that the glittering cloud was, in fact, himself.
Who would have thought that spirits looked so... amoeba-like? Sure, the colours were pretty, but... a blob? What about angel wings, or lightning bolts of power? It was a little bit of a letdown, to be honest.
The silvery cord was interesting, though - a literal life-line connecting body and soul. Closer inspection showed that the flash that had first attracted his attention only occurred when he was looking down at exactly the right angle as he passed over the cord's anchor point. The life-line was virtually imperceptible when seen from the side, but it shone brightly when viewed along its length. Like looking down a soda straw into the heart of a star, Duo mused.
Having nothing better to do while his body was being repaired, he experimented a bit. He discovered that a) he could diffuse his soul enough to fill the entire room, b) he could not tie a knot in his life-line -whenever different parts of it touched, they merged together and smoothed out into an even cord again, and c) he could not shape his spirit into a really cool pair of bat-wings - the blob simply lacked the ability to form sharp corners.
He settled himself up near the ceiling when playing with his bodiless state began to pall. Duo felt his spirit ripple with amusement as he realized that he could now say with complete honesty that he was bored out of his skull.
At least the surgery seemed to be going well. It was well into its fourth hour now, but the doctors seemed cautiously pleased.
A sudden, sharp crack from outside the operating theatre caused an instinctive reaction. Intent on assessing the threat, he flowed through the wall without even thinking about it, coming out in a waiting room.
Wufei pulled his fist out of the hole he had punched in the plaster and turned with deceptive calm to face a Preventer Duo didn't recognize. "No, Agent Lava," the Chinese man said tightly, "I was not aware that Agent Shadow's blood tests showed a high level of Noxitone sleeping gas. No, I don't know how he was exposed to it. And no, the rumours that my personal relationship with Agent Shadow is faltering are not true."
End Page 33
(:./wingnut/alter33)
