8 Jan 2001
Another revealing hypnotic session
DISCLAIMER: All Gundam Wing characters are property of Sunrise, Bandai Visuals, Sotsu Agency, and Asahi TV. This work is not written for profit, but for entertainment purposes only.
PAIRINGS: 6x5/5x6, 13x6/6x13, some very mild 4x9
WARNING: AU/modern day San Francisco; implied yaoi will turn to yaoi and eventual lemon in later chapters
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: To Alfred Hitchock who directed the incredible film, "Vertigo."
Language note: "yang ren" means "foreigner" or "Westerner" in Chinese.
"Dreams are the Royal Road to the unconscious."- Sigmund Freud
When Zechs appeared at their next session, he looked pale and exhausted. His eyes once again held the same haunted look they had had when he first arrived in Treize's office, and his voice wasn't much louder than whisper.
"The dreams," he said, not looking up at Treize, "they're getting worse."
Treize abandoned the questions about Noin that he'd been planning and leaned closer to the blond man. "Can you tell me about them?" he asked softly.
"That feeling," Zechs murmured, "of something bad... it's so strong now. It starts in the cemetery... when Fei goes to the Indian Monument." Zechs's voice was shaking and his eyes strayed to Treize's face. "It's... it's all around him... the bad thing... I can see it - at least... in the dream I know I'm looking at it, when I look at him, but I can't do a damn thing about it."
"Think about that part of the dream, Zechs. Concentrate on it. Can you get any hint of *why* you can't do anything about it?"
Zechs thought for a moment. "I try to move towards him," he said at last in a faint voice, "but then..." He shook his head. "I don't know," he said in frustration. "Something's keeping me from moving." Running a hand through long bangs, Zechs gave Treize a pleading look. "Please," he whispered, "please make these things go away. They come every time I close my eyes, now."
Treize's hand closed over Zechs's. "Would it be all right if we tried a hypnosis session again. Carmen is here, doing paperwork this evening. I could ask if she'd mind coming in a doing a brief trance session with you. What do you think?"
"Sure," came the whispered reply. "Anything, really. I don't care anymore."
Standing up, Treize crossed the room and fetched a small bottle of water from his office refrigerator, handing it to Zechs as he headed for the door. "Drink some of that and I'll go talk to Carmen. Be right back."
As it turned out, Carmen had been haunting the staff lounge, looking for an excuse to avoid her paperwork. Since the only thing she'd been able to find were several ancient copies of Field & Stream, she jumped at the chance to do something else.
They went through the induction procedure exactly as they had in the previous session, with Treize observing behind the one-way mirror. More than ever, he felt, an objective outsider was necessary for this kind of session, and he was grateful that Carmen had been there.
When Zechs appeared to be deeply hypnotized, Carmen, who had been briefed by Treize, asked him to imagine himself walking with Wufei from San Luis Rey's church to the cemetery.
"Tell me about the cemetery," she asked gently. "What does it look like as you two walk into it?"
"We walk outside the church... the entrance to the cemetery is next to it - an adobe archway with trees beyond it. The first time we came here, Fei decided it was his favorite entrance out of all the missions we'd seen... When we walk in, we're in an enclosed area... the walls are really columbarium niches - where they store people's ashes when they're cremated. They have lots of flowers by them. And in the middle, there are lots of little headstones and crosses... I like the crosses there, that's why I decide to sketch them..."
"Can you feel anything unpleasant at this point?" Carmen asked.
"No... not really," Zechs answered. "Now Fei's going to look at the Indian Memorial... a big white monument... wooden cross on the top... he's standing in front of it." The blond man smiled. "He looks so beautiful... so I stop sketching crosses and sketch him..."
Behind the mirror, Treize felt his heart ache. /You're still so much in love with him, Zechs... no room for anyone new...?/
"Keep going, Zechs," Carmen encouraged. "What's happening now?"
"He's... wait," Zechs murmured. "Who is tha- What? Why would -? Oh, that *light*..." He held his hand up, in front of him as if looking at something too bright for comfort. "Forgot to put my... sunglasses... on..." His voice trailed off and he raised a hand to his hair, fingers beginning to twist a long, golden lock of it as his face went blank.
"Treize?" Carmen said softly, "look at the way his fingers are moving. Did you notice that he twists the hair exactly the same way, every time? This is a textbook example of an absence seizure - the movements are automatic. That's why they're always the same."
She was addressing Zechs again. "Zechs? Can you hear me? Are you still in the cemetery?"
For a moment the blond did nothing and then, very slowly, he blinked several times and nodded his head.
"Where is Wufei now?" she asked.
"Next to me... telling me to wake up... he looks... angry?"
"Is he angry at you?" Carmen asked.
"I ask him what's wrong, but he says he just wanted to make sure I'm all right. I feel strange - bad - I tell him I want to leave, so we head out of the cemetery entrance again and walk back through the church to the colonnade."
"Now, I want you to think back on what just happened in the cemetery, Zechs. When you were watching Wufei at the Memorial, and sketching him, was there anyone else in the cemetery?"
There was utter silence in the office for several moments and then Zechs's voice came, deep but trembling. "I... I don't want to talk about this..."
Carmen leaned forward a bit, concentrating on Zechs's expression, his posture, trying to read him and his tolerance for being pushed a bit.
"Why don't you want to talk about it?" she asked. "What are you feeling that makes you want to stop?"
"That person..." Zechs muttered, "shouldn't have been there... why? How did... no one really knew we were down there. So why...?"
"Who is it, Zechs? Who's the person you're seeing, talking to Wufei?"
"So confused," Zechs said. "The light - it got in the way... I don't want to..."
"Let's move on then," Carmen said gently. "I want you to go ahead in time to when you and Wufei are at the far end of the colonnade. You're about to ask him if you have time to sketch the tree... Are you there, Zechs?"
Slowly, he nodded.
"Do you get a chance to ask?"
"No... When I turn to him, he's looking up at the bell tower of the church and then - Fei!!" Once again Zechs seemed to be fully immersed in the scene he was remembering.
"All right, Zechs - tell me," Carmen said quickly, before you run after him - do you look up at the bell tower, too?"
Zechs nodded.
"Do you see anything up there?"
There was a tense moment as Zechs simply stared, eyes seeing something that had happened six months earlier, something only he could see. "Yes..." he said in a hoarse whisper. "But... *how*? It's not possible..."
"What's not possible, Zechs?" Carmen said. "What do you see?"
"How could *she* be here? And why is Fei - why is he so upset? I... don't understand..."
"Is it the same person who was in the cemetery?" Carmen asked.
"Very slowly, Zechs shook his head. Impossible... I have to go up there. Why of all people would *she* be *here*?"
"Where are you now?"
"Climbing the stairs... I can hear them... arguing... never heard Fei that angry..."
"What are they arguing about, Zechs?"
"Me... She says, 'You can't have him... he's *mine*... I've decided I won't give him up...' and Fei... Fei says -" Zechs frowned slightly inclining his head as if to listen to something. "'You never *had* him'... 'Doesn't love you that way... just ask him, he'll tell you... or can't you just face the truth...'"
"Are you at the top of the stairs now?" Carmen asked quietly.
"She's furious with him... he's... seething... then she sees me... and he turns around..."
"What's happening now?"
"He's shouting at me to leave. He doesn't want me up there and she... she's saying my name... over and over.... I can't get a word in - trying to ask Fei what's wrong... what's happening... Damn!" His hand came up again to shield his eyes. "Not again..." he said weakly... "Fei... "
His face took on the familiar dreamy expression and long fingers entwined in his hair, twisting it gracefully, rhythmically."
"It's all right, Zechs," Carmen said softly. "I'm going to bring you out now. You just relax..."
As Carmen led Zechs out of the trance state, Treize gathered his notes. /'She'... it was a woman Wufei saw in the bell tower... a woman who was jealous of him... saw Zechs as more than a friend... I think... I think it was 'S'... Sylvia Noventa... what was she doing there? Did she kill Wufei out of sheer jealousy? Is that what Zechs can't quite remember? Dear God.../
He walked back into his office. Zechs was looking relaxed, the darkness still haunting his eyes and Treize had a good idea now why it *was* so dark.
"Carmen, thank you," he said. "I really appreciate it. I think we picked up some helpful details."
"As I said, I'm happy to help," she replied. Then she turned to Zechs and asked if he felt all right.
"Yes - I... I remembered someone... in the tower, didn't I? Someone that Fei was arguing with?"
Carmen nodded. "We didn't get a name, but it's a step in the right direction. Good work, hon." She gave his shoulder a squeeze. "You just keep working at remembering, okay? I have to get back to my paperwork."
They said their goodbyes and then Treize settled in his chair across from Zechs. It was going to be hard introducing the topic, but it had to be done.
"Zechs... I've been reading the diary you gave me - Wufei's diary - and I've been meaning to ask you about something in it."
"What?" Zechs asked, looking puzzled.
"Did you have a female friend whose name began with 'S'?"
Thinking for a moment, Zechs then nodded. "Yes. Her name's Sylvia. Why?"
"Well, Wufei mentions her several times in the diary. Surely you must remember that?"
The blond man dropped his gaze. "I... I haven't read it," he said, voice full of guilt.
"You what?" Treize asked. "I'd just assumed... Why not?"
"I couldn't bear it," came the simple answer. "I still go to pieces when mail comes for him. I could never read something he wrote - in his own handwriting..." He put his head in his hands. "Too many memories... dangerous, you know..."
Treize sighed softly. "I'm sorry. I just wasn't thinking. It's all right, really," he said, a hand going out to pat Zechs's shoulder.
Zechs shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said looking up again and wiping his eyes. "I'm just spineless when it comes to that. But why did he talk about Sylvia?"
"Apparently they were meeting once a week or so. It sounded like she was upset about the relationship between you and Wufei. Is that possible?"
Zechs made a sound that almost sounded like laughter. "Oh, that's definitely possible. She... she wanted a lot more from me than I could give her. I told her I was gay, but she didn't seem to accept it much. I visited her once in awhile, because she seemed so unhappy. Fei came a couple of times, but then... well I stopped going. It seemed to just get her hopes up. I don't understand why Fei would have been meeting her."
"The last entry I read said that she was talking to him about how upset she was over the two of you. He seemed perplexed as well that she'd want to talk to him about it." He looked thoughtfully at Zechs. "Tell me, did Sylvia know that you and Wufei were going down to San Diego?"
Staring at him for a moment in puzzlement, Zechs's eyes gradually grew wide. "You don't think... You don't think that *Sylvia* was the one he saw in the tower, do you?"
Treize shrugged. "It *does* make sense, given the conversation you overheard. It sounds as though they had begun to argue about it, possibly even before you two went down south."
"So... you thinking she may have followed us there?" Zechs asked and then his mouth dropped open. "Oh God - you're thinking that she killed him, aren't you? That she... that she *pushed* him... Oh God... No, that can't be true... Sylvia was upset but she'd never *kill* someone over something like that!"
"Shall we see what else Wufei said about her in here?" Treize said, getting up and fetching the diary from his desk.
Zechs paled a bit on seeing it, but acquiesced. "If you don't mind... perhaps you can read it aloud."
"Treize nodded and opened the diary to the place he'd stopped before.
"January 29th..."
End of Chapter 15
(:./kumiko/rr15)
