01-Aug-2000
Revised: 24-Oct-2000
Random notes: Posted this story a while back. Finally finished it, yay! <I try to finish all my stories... sooner or later....=)> Also modified the first part, so here it is!
Title: Resurrection of Angels
Author: Draco
Category: Cross over with Evangelion
Warnings: Yaoi, Angst
Notes: Running through the story there is a Latin prayer (gomen
gomen, I'm a classics major!) The translation of it is towards the
end of the story, so be patient. Although, you can probably guess
what it means. I also switch back and forth between perspective
rather quickly, be warned...
Space time curved like satin. Soft, and smooth. Rei wrapped the eons around herself, trying to take comfort in its perfection. Nothing helped. She was lost, and she couldn't remember what she was trying to find. Space time rippled gently, pushing her to yet another world. Searching for something she's lost . . .
Duo cursed as Deathscythe took two direct hits of the sides. His hands racing over the controls, forcing the broken gundam to rip the remaining mobile units apart. Breathing heavily, Duo laughed, "No one who lies eyes on a gundam shall live!" Somehow, the line was beginning to loss its charm. Duo pushed aside the thought. When he was in the Deathscythe, he was Shinigami. Something was wet on his forehead, absent minded he wiped it off. Sticky . . . blood . . . oh S*#& . . .
The Deathscythe collapsed into the ground.
Large robots . . . Rei's mind forced out a coherent thought. Large robots piloted by children . . . Why did this seem all so familiar? Rei floated to the fallen giant and stared at the unconscious pilot. He was bleeding. Some part of her lost memory told her this was not a good thing. Gently, she put her hand over his head to cover up his wound. It didn't help, blood still gushed out. She better tell him to stop.
"You should stop bleeding," Rei told the pilot.
"OYA!" Duo exclaimed. There was a girl with purple hair and soft red eyes staring at him intently. His head injury must be worse than he thought.
"If you don't stop bleeding, you will die," the girl was telling him. Her eyes were large and watery, but there was no light in them. Her voice was not cold, but there was no emotions behind them. She looked lost... Something about her... she reminded him of Heero.
Despite his better judgment, Duo begins talking to the ghost, "I can't exactly control whether I bleed or not."
"Oh," she said simply, and began to float away.
"Wait!" Duo called out, "Are you lost?"
The girl turned back and nodded, "I'm searching for something . . ."
"What are you looking for?" Duo asked curiously.
She thought about it for a moment, and then she stared back at him, "I don't know."
There was something fragile in her face, an innocence that Duo could not describe; an innocence that he world could not touch. Without warning, Duo felt fiercely protective of her.
"Why don't you stay with me for a while? Maybe I can help you find what you are looking for," Duo offered.
She watched him for a long time... and finally nodded.
/Angele Dei,/
Heero jumped out of Wing and raced over to the fallen Deathscythe. With flowing motion, he opened the hatch and caught Duo as he tumbled out. The braided pilot's head was bleeding. Blood stained the long braid.
"Baka." Heero cursed as he carefully carried the American from the damaged gundam.
Duo's eyes were tightly closed, and his heart shaped face formed a deep frown.
"Baka," Heero cursed again. More softly this time as he brushed a strain of hair from Duo's face.
Duo woke up in his bedroom of the safe house. He had a headache size of L2, but at least the pain reminded him that he was alive. What a weird dream! Duo thought as he stared into the darkness. It seemed so real. The girl's eyes were so haunting. Absentmindedly, Duo ran his fingers through his hair and discovered that half of his head was covered with bandages. Head injury... the battle... how did I get here?
The door cracked open slightly. Heero's unmistakable figure walked in with a bowl of some kind. It smelt like chicken soup.
"Did ya carry me here?" a smiling Duo asked Heero.
Heero eyed him evenly. Planted the soup on the table near Duo, and walked to his laptop.
"I knew it, you do care!" Duo laughed as he stood up to get to the bowl. He quickly regretted the move because the room began to spin around him and he collapsed back in to the bed. Heero turned at the sound of Duo dropping back into the bed. With a grunt, he stood up from his desk, retrieved the bowl, and handed it to Duo.
"Thanks!" Duo flashed him another brilliant smile, as he tried to drink from the bowl. Unfortunately, Duo's hand was shaking so much that he got more on to his shirt than into his mouth. With another grunt, Heero planted himself on Duo's bed, and held the bowl for Duo to drink from.
Duo couldn't thank Heero this time because Heero was shoving the soup in his mouth, but his eyes were unusually watery when he looked at Heero.
"Why did he save you?" Rei asked the boy. The boy was asleep again.
The boy hesitated before answering, "I'm not sure. My gut tells me it's because he cares a tiny bit about me, but my head is saying it's because I'm useful to him."
"Why did you cry?" Rei felt the tears in the boy's eyes when the other boy was feeding him. More and more she was beginning to sense what he was feeling.
"I did not cry!" the boy said loudly.
"Oh," Rei said simply.
"I suppose, it's because that's the first time someone has ever fed me," the boy said after a long moment of silence. "I mean I'm sure somebody had to feed me when I was a baby, but since then... no one ever fed me while I was sick. When I was training to be a Gundam pilot, whenever I'd get injured, Dr. G would just sent me food, and occasionally check to make sure I was alive..."
Rei tried to remember if anyone's ever fed her, but the images were so confused in her head that she gave up after a brief moment.
"Sometimes I'm pretty good at convincing myself that he cares," the boy looked away. He was searching for something. Is he searching for the same thing as me? "I know there is a real human being behind that perfect soldier facade even if he always follows orders without questioning, killing without regret."
Rei felt a flash of memories strike her. Perfect soldier... always following orders... why did it all feel so familiar?
"They made him so he would be nothing but a machine," the boy's eyes were still focused on a distance, "They created him so he would be a perfect soldier. They forced him to kill ever since he was small. Forced him to feel nothing, want nothing except for whatever they plant into him. They tried to squeeze every ounce of humanity out of him." The boy looked up suddenly and stared Rei in the eyes, "But they have failed. I know they have."
Humanity?
"What about you? Are you the perfect soldier?" Rei asked thoughtfully. She knew it was important somehow, but she couldn't remember why.
The boy laughed, "Sometimes I wonder that myself. I kill with no more hesitation than Heero and when I am Shinigami, when I have no mercy, I am a far better soldier than Heero. I think I would have made a much better candidate than Heero to be the perfect soldier, but then someone showed me love. And in the moments when I have no soul, those memories of unconditional love bring me back... that is my salvation."
"What will be my salvation?" Rei whispered. Salvation... the word was too distant to even understand.
"When someone loves you," the boy smiled as he suddenly hugged Rei.
"Why are you hugging me?" Rei asked curiously.
"For no reason at all."
Rei cuddled in the warmth of the embrace. Funny how I never notice I was cold before. Perhaps I will stay here longer. It's warm.
/qui custos es mei,/
Duo woke up from his dream, finding himself cuddling a pillow. He dreamt about her every night since his head injury. It was nice, really, to have someone to talk to. Someone who he didn't have to keep a smiling mask for. She was so innocent, and those eyes... eyes of an angel. A lost angel, but an angel nonetheless. Duo was sure of it. Sister Helen once told him that everyone had a guardian angel. Perhaps it was time that he got his. Either that or he was going crazy. Duo shrugged. Not a bad way to go crazy. It could be a lot worse.
Heero was typing away at his laptop as always. He always went to sleep after Duo and woke up before the crack of dawn. Duo wondered how Heero was able to keep sane with so little sleep. Duo's eyes traced the angles of Heero's face. The light from the computer shone darkly over Heero's face, giving him a soft halo. In Heero's unguarded moments his face was so beautiful. Another lost angel, Duo mused. Perhaps it's my mission to help lost angels find their way. Duo almost chuckled at the thought. Mission accepted.
"We have got a mission," Heero said suddenly. Obviously aware that Duo had woke up.
"All right! Time to kick some OZ butt. I still have to get revenge for the last time they damaged Deathscythe," Duo smirked. Finding comfort in his own cheerful voice.
Heero nodded.
Rei felt the heat of battle in the boy. She could feel his heart beat faster with the excitement. The rush of aggression surged through his system. Rei wasn't sure why, but the way the boy was piloting the large robot seemed... inefficient. Tentatively she reached out to the machine. The metal felt cool against her, inviting. She let her mind stretch into every inch of the machine until they were one, her mind to its body. Her movement matched the movement of the machine. For the first time since she wondered through the eons, she could move. Through the machine she had real motion! She could feel its arms and legs.
Her mission? To save the boy. He still had much to teach her. She couldn't let him die yet.
Heero watched with silent alarm as Duo's gundam suddenly seem to take on a life of its own. The movements of the metal giant always resembled a human warrior, but right now it seemed too human. It's joints seem to acquire a fluidity of motion impossible of machines. Duo was a good pilot, but there was no way he could respond that fast. Not even under the Zero system could that efficiency be reached. Something was wrong.
A blast hit the side of the Wing because Heero had temporarily lost concentration. Focus, Heero told himself.
Duo watched his gundam move as if he was watching from a dream. It was her controlling it, he was sure of it. He didn't know how it was possible, but he knew.
Rei was bleeding. Her arm bled the same place that Deathscythe was damaged. Yet she was not surprised. It seemed as if it was the most natural thing in the world that she should feel the pain of the robot. She watched the last opponent fell, half expecting it to come back to life again. They always come back to life. What? What always come back to life again? Rei's mind was confused. Images of large robots not of this world fleshed through her mind. For the first time since her wanderings, Rei felt her an emotion. Fear. There was something about fighting giant robots that scared her. A lost memory that she did not want to reclaim. Frightened, she sunk deeper in to the boy's mind.
"What's wrong?" Duo asked. The girl was hiding in the corner.
"This seems familiar," the girl's eyes darkened as if the light had been sucked away from them. As she cradled herself, she suddenly looked mechanical, like a broken doll. Her arm was bleeding slightly.
Duo felt his insides cringe at the sight of his angel's plight.
"It's aright," Duo gently drew the girl away from the dark corner, and begin to bandage her arm, "You don't have to fight. It's me fighting. I'm the soldier here, not you. You are safe now. I will protect you, I promise."
Rei reached out and felt the strength of the boy. On borrowed strength she stepped away from the shielding darkness. He promised to protect her. No one had ever made that promise to her. Like a faded photo she remembered someone who had once felt sorry for her, another boy... but he had been scared of her. He was scared himself. But this boy... he was different... he had a kind of raw courage and unquestioning faith that Shinji never had... Shinji? Who is Shinji?
Someone who once made her feel something... but he couldn't protect her. In the end she was alone again.
She felt the warmth of the boy's body tighten around her.
/Me tibi commissum pietate superna;/
Heero frowned. He didn't even know he was frowning until he looked up and saw his reflection in the window. Duo had been unconscious for over twelve hours. As far as Heero could tell, Duo wasn't hurt in any way. Something was very wrong.
"Duo, wake up!" Heero called out illogically, "If you don't wake up, I will blow up the Deathscythe."
Duo shook himself awake. Someone was threatening to blow up the Deathscythe.
"Don't you dare, Heero!" Duo said as he opened one of his eyes.
Heero was staring intently at him.
"What happened?" Heero asked him.
"What?"
"The efficiency of your gundam increased by 120%," Heero told him.
Somehow, Duo didn't think Heero would believe him if he told the perfect soldier that a lost angel was helping him.
"Hn..." Duo turned around in his bed to face the wall. Duo didn't lie. He didn't always tell the whole truth, but he didn't lie to his friends. Especially not to Heero.
He felt Heero's eyes on his back for a long time. The sound of typing finally replaced the silence.
End Part 1
Should I continue or just let it die? What do you think...
(:./draco/resurrect1)
