18-Dec-2001
Title: Two Roads Diverged
Part 9/?
Author: Truth
Archive: A whole bunch of neat places but my complete Gundam Wing fic collection can be found at GW Addiction
AU - The sequel to It's the Pilot - Wherein we see the Gundam Wing Universe as it might have been had Duo been sidetracked just before Noventa's death. First person stream of consciousness/POV.
Rating: Shading into an R rating. Shounen ai.
Warning: Take almost everything you thought you knew about GW and stuff it out the nearest airlock. Hang onto your laser rifles kiddies. From here on out, it's foreign territory.
Multiple perspective switches once again. As usual, if any of them are unclear, please mail me at dhaunea@yahoo.com and I'll tell you who they are.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters. Chang Chen, Lian Saiming and Lingwei all do belong to me, however.
My deep gratitude goes to my beta/editor Bronze Tigress for her hard work and dedication as shown by her repeatedly slogging through this piece on my behalf.
Wufei retreated to his room, leaving me alone with
Chen and his luggage. From the set look on our new
roommate's face, I figured that the Wu-guy had spilled
his guts. Which royally sucked. I made a mental
reminder to bitch at him later. Just because he
wasn't speaking to _me_ doesn't mean that I can't
shout at _him_.
Chen dropped his bags, helped himself to a chair and stared at me. "What the hell has been going on?"
"Beyond our little song and dance with the OZ elite?" I remained standing, wanting to have the extra range of movement if he decided to kick my ass. I had no idea what Wu had told him, and I didn't want to give myself away if I didn't have to.
"Don't play games with me, Maxwell." He gave me a nasty look, strongly reminiscent of Wu at his worst. "Wufei told me all about Treize Kushrenada. I want to know why he allowed himself to be defeated so easily. I want you to tell me what has gone wrong between the two of you."
Oh, this was bad. I didn't want to be the one to break the news to Chen that his cousin was borderline suicidal. I definitely didn't want to tell him that I had taken advantage of Wu while he was still shaking like a leaf. I knew enough about the Chang family and their various scions to know that if Chen decided to get really pissed at me, I would be in a _world_ of hurt.
I'd terrorized him when I'd been Cadet Lt. Maxwell, but he knew who and what I was now. He knew that I wouldn't hurt him unless he tried to kill me. And that gave him a _huge_ advantage. One that he wasn't afraid to use, obviously. "Um, it's sort of a complicated story, actually."
If they'd tried to replace me with Chen, they might actually have gotten away with it. Well, assuming they'd managed to get him to cooperate in the first place, that is....
"You're stalling." His eyes narrowed accusingly. "What have you done, Maxwell?"
I shrugged unhappily. I'd give him the truth, as far as it went. I had no real choice. If he was going to risk his life to help our mission there was no way that I _couldn't_ tell him what was had happened. Of course, that didn't mean that I was going to answer that last question, not if there was any possible way to avoid it, that is.
"He asked Kushrenada to kill him. He still thinks that he's responsible for the Noventa fuck-up, and it's eating away at him from the inside. I overreacted when I found out what really happened, and he hasn't spoken to me since."
"He did what?" Chen's voice was even, but his hands had clenched tightly on the arms of the chair.
"He went into the fight angry. I think that everything finally became too much for him, and he didn't _want_ to win. When he was defeated, he asked Kushrenada to kill him." I didn't want to tell him this, and I guess it showed. "And you're letting him fly missions like this?"
I laughed, bitterly. "I don't have any choice. It's just the two of us right now, and we need to make it look like there are at least four of us. We can't have them start to wonder what we're up to if we're not running about blowing things to hell." "He's going to get himself killed!" Chen was furious.
"No."
That shut him up. Shinigami is a nasty person, much nastier than I've ever been around Chen, and that's saying a lot. I put as much force into that word as I could. He stared at me for a long moment. "He's not going to do anything that would risk others. He knows that lives depend on him. He won't chance either losing the Gundam or doing something that could possibly lead OZ to the rest of us." I forced myself to drop the death glare (Patent No. 234784574893-45, Copyright, Heero Yuy.) and relaxed a little. "As far as I can tell, he's not actively suicidal. I think he just saw an opportunity and took it."
"And how are you going to keep him from _making_ another opportunity?" Chen demanded.
He was furious. I reaffirmed my decision not to tell him about that _other_ kiss. The last thing Wu needed was to have to try to explain my corpse to the others. "That's what you're here for." I told him.
Chen narrowed his eyes. "I see. My coming here was your idea, then?"
"Your clan elders sent you to Earth, but you'd never have found us without our permission," I told him. "Wufei needs someone he can talk to, and that person doesn't seem to be me."
"What did you _do_ to him, Maxwell?"
Well, shit. Chen is fast on the uptake. Not as fast as Wufei, but fast enough. My first mistake had been in avoiding the question when he had asked it before. That had alerted him to the fact that I _had_ done something. Wu must've told him that I don't lie. My second mistake was hesitating over my answer when he asked again. Chen was right up in my face before I'd come up with a decent response, ie one that wouldn't get me killed.
Note to self: Don't ever go up against Chang Chen without a gun.
"Speak to me, Maxwell. Don't make me go in there and ask Wufei."
That tore it. He got his answer all in one frustrated breath. "He as much as asked me to kiss him, and I did. Don't look at me like that and don't _say_ anything. There's nothing you can say that can make me feel any worse about it than I already do!"
"Wufei asked you to what?" Chen's eyes were wide with surprise. I don't know what he'd expected me to say, but I'd obviously shocked him. Great.
I _so_ did not want to talk about this. "Kiss him. You know, the act of brushing one's lips together, occasionally utilizing the tongue? Kiss? Smooch? Make out? Tonsil Hockey? Are you with me on any of this?"
Chen favored me with a death glare of his own. It wasn't as impressive as mine but he's only 14 and has not, to my knowledge, ever killed anybody. That didn't mean that he wasn't dangerous, mind you. I knew damn well that he could probably kick my ass in unarmed combat.
But it took the edge off the glare.
"Wufei is not the type."
That floored me. "What type?"
"The type to _ask_ for a kiss."
Okay, color me totally lost. "What?"
Chen put one hand to his forehead as if fighting off a headache. "Sit down and tell me _exactly_ what happened. From the beginning. And Maxwell?"
"Yeah?"
"No creative omissions."
I am the most fortunate girl on the face of the planet.
Relena _Peacecraft_ has resurfaced, and is making no secret of the fact. She is staying with a nobly born distant relation until her formal debut into political circles, a debut which I will certainly make a point of attending. I have the software for the new Gundam operating system sitting on my desk.
And I have Duo Maxwell exactly where I want him. Or I will have shortly.
Using just these three elements, I am going to change the face of the world.
Some girls get excited about new shoes, others give little screams of delight over good-looking boys or fancy parties. These things do not excite me. I am an addict, and my drug of choice is called power.
No one will ever remember my name in conjunction with the things that I have done. No one knows that I was behind the unfortunate events at the Noventa estate, although it was a programming error that caused the rampant slaughter there. No one will ever be able to connect my name to the temporary and involuntary adoption of Duo Maxwell by Zechs Merquise.
I know these things, and that is enough.
There is a plan in the works even now to develop a set of Mobile Dolls, machines that need no direct operator to sit at the controls as the machine goes into battle. All that is needed to make them the most frightening tool of war ever seen is a slight technological upgrade or two.
And when the elusive Deathscythe Hell with its oh-so-unique operating system falls into my hands, the world will be mine to play with as I like.
If only I could get into Kushrenada's head, I would have nothing at all left to worry about. Grandfather thinks that Kushrenada is a convenient weapon, to be turned in any direction that he chooses.
Hah.
Blind obedience is not one of the man's strong points. He is far too clever and his little cabal is up to something. What that something is, I have yet to discover.
But I will.
Commander Treize has been very quiet of late. He still works long hours, but he doesn't smile as much as he used to. He travels as little as possible and the files on the Gundams and their pilots have taken up a semi-permanent residence on his desk. He seems to think that they hold some sort of answer to his problems, some secret that he can unravel by will alone.
Until that time, however, he has given me other orders.
It was not his first choice in plans and certainly not one of OZ's most memorable moments. However, we had nothing better to go on. We needed information from our captive Gundam pilot and Commander Treize had made it quite clear that he would not allow torture under any circumstances.
Lewis Jones is being kept under constant surveillance. His room is monitored on a 24 hour basis. The visual records from the security cameras in the public areas that he is allowed to frequent are saved in a separate file and he has a constant shadow in the form of his personal guard.
The Commander thought that it would a good idea to have one of our best and brightest to monitor and attempt to win the confidence of this boy. It was sheer luck that one of our most promising young officers is only 17, his position gained both through private military experience and battlefield promotion. Hopefully he will be able to convince the Gundam Pilot to confide in him.
In the meantime, however, he has been assigned to keep careful track of everything that Jones says and does. The log of his various interests and activities during the course of the day is placed on my desk every evening. Lt. Barton has sole possession of the various keys, codes and passwords that are needed to do so much as requisition a meal in this place. Jones cannot lift a finger without the Lieutenant's aid and observance.
Commander Treize is stalling as much as he can, but our time is running out. The Romafeller Foundation is pushing ahead with their plans for subjugation and the matter will come to a head in a matter of months. Things would be much easier if we could convince Jones to simply hand us the information that we seek. The questions are innocent enough. We are not as interested in the Gundams at this point as we have been. No, the answers we are looking for concern those five pilots.
Noin has been co-opted by the Commander and assigned to Zechs permanently. They are up to some secondary plan which I am not privy to. When I inquired as to their mission, the Commander merely made some comment about not keeping all of his eggs in one basket.
Yesterday I discovered something very disturbing which effectively caused me to lose any interest in the activities of Noin and Zechs.
My private files have been hacked. Not once, but twice. This knowledge led to a flurry of inquiries and I discovered that there are at least four double agents within the OZ intelligence division. One or more of these agents is apparently stationed here at headquarters.
It is my responsibility to keep Commander Treize safe. I will find these traitors, and I will determine who sent them.
No matter the means.
"I told you so."
I looked up from my paperwork to see Zechs standing in the doorway of my office, one elbow resting on the jamb.
"Told me what?"
"That the damn thing would be black."
I blinked. Playing at non-sequiturs before brunch is not one of my hobbies. "What are you doing here, Millard? I thought you were supposed to be in bed after playing so hard with your new toy."
"It's not a toy. In fact, that's how I got here today." He let himself into my office, closing the door behind him and immediately removing his mask. He tossed the thing onto a nearby chaise longue and crossed the office toward my desk. "But you're not paying attention."
"What am I supposed to be paying attention to?" I smiled. It was rarely difficult to smile around Zechs. He brought out the best in me simply by expecting it. "That damnable Gundam. I _told_ you that it would be black."
Ah. His obsession with Gundam 02. "You've seen Maxwell's Gundam?"
He grinned, a flash of teeth curving into a blinding smile. "Better."
Raising both eyebrows I leaned back in my chair and steepled my fingers. "Do tell?"
He came around the desk and slipped a disk into my computer. "Some kind soul left me a little present. One of Une's spies dropped this off at my duty post yesterday, and I was the ranking officer present at the time."
I sat bolt upright in my chair as information flowed across the console. The screen froze and I found myself staring at a positively demonic black Gundam wielding a glowing scythe. Above it arced a pair of black, bat-like wings, which only added to its somewhat melodramatic appearance.
"Shinigami. I begin to see why Maxwell told you to call him that..."
He laughed, leaning over my shoulder to retreive his disk. "It's worse than that. They've named it Deathscythe Hell, after the quirks of its pilot, presumably.... Although in light of their subsequent disposal of the young man in question and his abandonment to my somewhat questionable keeping, it seems a bit odd."
Zechs knows exactly how to make me laugh.
"Are these the complete technical specifications?" I asked, bringing his attention back to the matter at hand. This information could be of incredible use to us, not simply because it would make it easier to fight the Gundams but because we finally had a Gundam of our own to experiment with.
Zechs caught my hopeful expression and lost his smile. "This information is not of much use as far as Tallgeese goes, Treize. Don't get your hopes up."
"How so?" I wanted this to be easy. I prayed that it would be easy.
My prayers are often for naught.
"The technical specifications are there, but in almost every case there are indications that they have been tinkered with. The power signatures are provided, but there is no information as to _how_ they managed to produce them. And those readings are nothing less than awe-inspiring. Maxwell does the impossible on a daily basis, it seems. Probably some sort of bizarre hobby." Zechs sighed.
"We'll probably discover next that the others do stand-up comedy or live the lives of international playboys."
"Do you think that they're all so young?" He asked me.
"Wouldn't that be terribly humiliating, Milliard? Brought to our knees by a group of children," I sighed and poked moodily at the files covering my desk.
"Not just any children." Zechs turned back to the computer. "Maxwell personally tampered with the scythe, the stealth system and apparently forced the operating system itself through some very interesting changes that even its creator could not begin to figure out."
"Is there nothing we can use?"
I must have sounded as despairing as I felt, for he brightened again instantly. "There are a great many things. However..."
I waited.
"What we really want is that stealth system."
He looked like a child outside a toy store, his nose pressed to the window. I smothered a smile at the inadvertent mental image. What Zechs desperately wanted, above anything in the world, was to challenge Duo Maxwell to a fair fight. It was a pipe dream, but it was a great deal less self-destructive than his previous obsessions.
If he could find a way to acheive this strange duel, I would not stand in his way.
I somehow do not think that Maxwell would kill him.
I have no doubts that the same young man would take sadistic delight in peeling off my skin one strip at a time, however. I can't blame him, either. I hadn't meant to do what I did to the boy.
Chang Wufei is a thing of beauty, but the events set into motion by those in power have broken him. I am the tool of those forces, to my shame. I wanted to give him some gesture of apology, of comfort.
But I inadvertently pressed too close. I could see the pain in his eyes and I acted without thought, something that I do only rarely.
However, for all his maturity, Chang Wufei is only 15 years old and there are some lines that I do not cross. But if he hadn't been so badly torn inside, I think that he might have been someone who could understand me.
Someone I could trust.
I listened to Maxwell as the entire story came pouring out. To his credit, I don't think that he left anything out this time. It was too surreal to be anything but the truth. I was in shock, although having seen some of their previous adventures I shouldn't have been surprised.
When he finally came to the end, I said nothing. Maxwell was observant enough, but he still did not know enough about our clan and my cousin to fix this mess. He was missing too many pieces of the puzzle.
On second thought, I don't think that he _can_ fix this, but at least he wants to try. I would help him as best I could. This was my opportunity to repay my cousin for what he had done for us back on L5.
I found myself wishing for a moment that I was my elder brother. Lian had been born under very boring stars. He was allowed to do as he willed because the elders thought him of no importance. I would trade my life for his in a heartbeat. I wondered how much of a headache I would have when all this was over. How much should I tell Maxwell about our clan?
Maxwell was fidgeting by the time I had made up my mind, and I took a great deal of sadistic pleasure in asking him for something to eat, as I had been traveling for quite some time. It was an interesting sensation, this transfer of power. He was hanging on my every word.
Once I had my dinner, some bizarre sort of sausage, I decided to simply follow his example and tell him everything.
"Chang Wufei is the heir of our clan," I began.
Maxwell's eyes widened. "Does that mean what I think it does?"
"Our clan is a bit stranger than most and a lot of things changed when we left the Earth, so probably not. Just listen, all right?"
He nodded, pushing his own untouched dinner to one side and granting me his undivided attention. It was a bit unnerving, actually.
"Our clan has a number of very old customs, among them the position of clan head. As you probably noticed, we have a council of elders, usually between six and seven of our oldest members. They keep the family records, track the various bloodlines and make sure that our clan traditions are carried on. For the most part, the head is in charge of the more mundane business of the clan. He does not interfere with the, well, cultural end of things." I sighed.
This was difficult to explain, particularly in a fashion that Maxwell would understand. It had taken several years of schooling before I had followed some of the more complicated aspects of it all, and I was Wufei's designated successor.
"So the old guys run your life and the clan head is supposed to pay the bills?"
I constantly underestimate him. I nodded. "Very broadly, yes. Wufei is supposed to assume his position as clan head upon his eighteenth birthday."
Well. That explained one hell of a lot. "But he's clan heir _now_. So when we commandeered that shuttle, the pilot gave it to us because Wufei _owned_ it?"
"Generally speaking, yes." Chen drummed his fingers lightly on the table. "At least, as far as he knew. By that time, Wufei wasn't the heir anymore. Of course, no one knew that but Wufei and the elders."
He was staring at me. I realized that I had been waving one hand absent-mindedly toward the back of my neck, searching for my braid. Damn it all. I put both hands flat on the table. "Was that what his little speech was all about?"
"I'll get to that. Pay attention. Wufei was born under a certain set of signs. The elders took this and interpreted it to mean that he would do great things, bringing a great deal of both honor and glory to our family. They said that his destiny was to bring fame to our clan through wisdom and knowledge. All of this was decided before he was more than a few days old."
"So the Wu guy was destined for greatness. Then what happened?"
Chen frowned at me. I don't know if it was because I'd interrupted him or if he was just pissed at the clan elders. "His parents died. The position of clan head went temporarily to my father, until Wufei was judged old enough to assume his proper place. Wufei became the responsibility of the entire clan. He lived alone in his parent's house with his tutors and his servants. Our family kept him company on formal occasions, but aside from frequent visits by the elders, he was mostly alone. We were not allowed to disturb his studies, and any energy he might have had for rebellion or play was turned toward meditation and pursuit of various martial arts."
"Are you trying to tell me that he's _always_ been this way?" I felt sick to my stomach. "Hasn't he ever had any friends?"
"No. They kept him isolated on purpose, Maxwell." Chen rubbed his forehead. "Wufei is the last of a direct line. The elders have been struggling to keep that line alive and as pure as possible for centuries. They did not want him forming any 'unfortunate' attachments."
Oh, this was bad. This was really, really bad. Chen's face had gotten all stiff there near the end, just the way Wu's did when he was _really_ upset but didn't want anyone to know. "Let me guess. There's someone you're interested in and you can't have her for more or less the same reasons. Am I right?"
Chen sighed and looked down at his hands. "Yes. We are all in the same boat, but the families of Wufei, Saiming and myself are most directly affected. We are not allowed to marry without the permission of the elders because we are so close to the original bloodlines and they want to keep control of that."
"That sucks." I was slowly beginning to get angry. I had always known that there was more to Wufei than met the eye. I had been surprised, but not shocked, to find out that he had been married. I knew that he had all the social skills of a rock when dealing with us pilots, but I never knew why. God, even _I_ had been given more control over my life than that.
"I do not approve of what they tried to do to my cousin. By the time he was 12 he was not only an accomplished scholar but had been thoroughly indoctrinated with all the beliefs and prejudices that the elders had chosen for him. They wanted him to be absolutely perfect." Chen looked like he'd bitten a lemon. This was nothing less than brain-washing and he knew it.
I leaned forward again, resting my weight on my elbows. This explained a whole hell of a lot, but I knew that I was still missing vital information. "And then what happened?"
"They made a terrible, terrible mistake," he whispered.
His face darkened a little. Saiming had told him all about Meiran. Perhaps she had seen the signs that I had missed, signs that our perfect cousin was starting to crack under the strain. Maxwell knew the entire ugly, tragic story of my cousin and his wife. Saiming had probably thought that Wufei's closest friend ought to know. But we really only knew half of the story.
Meiran had been very close to Saiming and Lingwei, but Wufei had not spoken of their marriage to anyone.
"So basically, his first chance at friendship and any sort of relationship outside the pages of a book was a total disaster." Maxwell sank his chin down on his folded arms and stared at me. "And then he went almost directly to Earth and found us."
"I didn't think that he had the capacity for personal relationships," I admitted. "When he told me that we went to the school to rescue a friend, I was shocked."
Maxwell smiled a little. "We weren't exactly friends before all this started."
"I can't imagine why not," I drawled. "At any rate, I got back to L5 quite a bit before you did, and alerted the elders. We got you back, and that's when the trap sprang closed."
"They were waiting for him." Maxwell had one hand fluttering at the back of his neck again. It looked like a habitual gesture; something he did while he was thinking.
"They were waiting for him," I agreed. "They wanted him back desperately. This wasn't how his life had been planned out and the elders _hate_ to be flouted. They had been trying to get him to return since the moment that he left. I can't decide if they were afraid that he would develop a mind of his own or were actually worried about him for himself."
"They don't give a shit about him," Maxwell told me grimly, opening his eyes again. "If they cared about him they would have known better than to so totally piss him off. What happened that morning, Chen?"
"They were getting ready to marry him off." I could feel my expression freezing up, but couldn't manage to relax. "Poor Lingwei had nothing to say about it. They were going to tear her away from her sister and her family to marry her off to the clan heir, and she was supposed to be properly dutiful and obediently happy about the whole thing."
"She didn't want to marry Wu," Maxwell agreed. "Even I could see that much."
"It's more than that," I told him. "She's madly in love with someone else."
He winced. "Okay, that's beyond cruel."
I could feel my mouth twisting into a bitter smile. "We are all the puppets of the elders, Maxwell. I was angry when Wufei took Shen-long and went to Earth. He had escaped and left the rest of us behind. I was furious and bitterly afraid. After what happened with Meiran, we knew that he had strength of will. He had enough anger and courage to stand up to the elders. We, Saiming, Lingwei and our other cousins, were praying that he would take his position as clan heir and eventual clan head as an opportunity."
"You wanted to be free."
I nodded, my expression bitter. "Even if I succeed Wufei, if I attempt to stand up to the elders it will be thought that I am doing so merely for personal reasons, not for the good of the clan. They will not accept my efforts to change things."
"I'm sorry." The sentiment was sincere. I could tell.
"I am used to it," I told him. "At any rate, they had a meeting all arranged for him. We managed to arrive before he did because he went home to dress properly for the occasion, as instructed."
Maxwell blinked, surprised. "I should have realized that Wu would have a house."
"It's the one you thought was a museum," I told him dryly.
He actually flinched.
"Wufei is clan heir, Maxwell. He embodies everything that we are and everything that we stand for. He never realized just how thoroughly the elders imprisoned him, body and soul. He has seen the world now, realized that the power he wields is for the entire clan, not just for the elders. His sense of responsibility will always bring him back to us." I sighed and stared down at my empty plate. "It will be a return to a prison, although a larger prison than before. And he hates us for it."
There was a brief silence before I could recapture my train of thought.
"But he was brought up to be obedient, and he agreed to the meeting. The clothes he was wearing when he arrived were not the ones they had laid out for him. He was supposed to be dressed entirely in red. Do you know the significance of color in my culture?" I asked him.
"White is for mourning, I know that much," he told me.
"More than most, then. My family is very fond of the color red, as I am sure you have noticed. That color means a large number of things, but it is most widely recognized as bridal."
Maxwell stood up so suddenly that he knocked his chair over. "You mean they were trying to marry him off right there!?"
I nodded. "You have no idea what we felt when he came through that door wearing the wrong clothing and the wrong color."
"And he told them...?" Maxwell gestured impatiently.
This was the part that I knew he would not like. In retrospect, I should have realized that Wufei's little speech had been merely a symptom of a much larger problem. I thought for a moment. I have always admired my cousin's ability to speak, and this particular speech had been nothing short of masterful. It would be impossible to translate and reproduce it properly, so a summary would have to do.
"He began by thanking them for their aid in rescuing one of his comrades in the fight for freedom and justice. He spent a moment or two on the subject of freedom and how those with honor would never deny it to another. He then accused them of being hypocritical power-hungry bastards who were enslaving their own people in the chains of custom and convention. He glanced off the fact that the battle being fought by the Gundams is so that all people everywhere will have the freedom to choose their own lives, and ended by stating that their attempt to force Lingwei into a marriage with him was nothing short of tyranny."
"Ouch." Maxwell rocked back onto his heels. "I knew that he was royally pissed off, but that's bridge-burning with a vengence."
"It gets worse. When one of the elders told him not to act like a spoiled child, he rejected them. He renounced his place as clan heir. He told them that he was dead to them, and to the rest of our family as well. He said that he would always fight for us, but that the good he was fighting for was larger than the petty bickering of some elderly dictators who were putting their desire for control over the needs of their own clan." I closed my eyes, remembering the control in my cousin's voice.
Wufei and I had never been close, although we knew each other in a stilted, formal fashion. When we went to the school together, I could sense a change in him, but I had not known what it was. I opened my eyes again to see Maxwell righting his chair and frowning at it.
It had been Maxwell. When we met up again on L5, Wufei and Quatre had both impressed on me the need to handle Maxwell carefully because of the extreme difference between the Duo that they knew and the Cadet Lt. Maxwell of my nightmares. Wufei had risked his own life, mine and those of a large number of our clan in order to save this boy. I had not been able to fathom _why_ until just now.
Wufei had saved Maxwell. Perhaps Maxwell could return the favor now.
"The elders had a huge argument. Lingwei, Saiming and I crept back later to hear the end of it. They decided that they needed Wufei back, for the good of the clan. He had impressed several of them both with his insight and his sense of honor." I was suddenly, unbearably tired. "He is still clan heir. He is still their golden child. They want him to do what he feels he must, then return to them. He will be clan head, and he will take control of our colony. It is his 'destiny'."
"It doesn't sound as though either of you are very happy with this," Maxwell observed.
"We're not. Wufei will force himself to do it, however. And he will do a very good job. You still don't understand him, Maxwell." I rubbed a hand across my eyes. "He can't just walk away from us. Somewhere deep inside, he doesn't really want to. We're his family, no matter what has gone on between he and the elders. We're his responsibility."
Maxwell looked about as happy as I felt. "And he will never walk away from a responsibility. He's trapped."
"And he's searching desperately for a way out," I whispered. "All this weight has been on his shoulders ever since he was old enough to understand it. Lingwei will never be free to marry as long as Wufei is also single, and he respects her too much to force her into a loveless marriage with himself." I bowed my head.
There was a very long silence. When I finally looked up, Maxwell's expression caused me to inhale sharply.
"Is defeatism a Chang family trait?" he asked with deceptive mildness.
"No."
He nodded, once, and strode from the room. I rose tiredly and followed him. This was Shinigami, again someone I had been warned about, and I wanted to see what he would do next.
He halted in front of a closed door and knocked. "Chang Wufei, open this door. Now."
There was no answer. Unsurprising. Maxwell had told me how Wufei had been acting.
With a plastic, cheerful smile, Maxwell kicked the door in.
It was at this point that I withdrew. Gathering my luggage, I made my way to the last bedroom down the hallway and began to unpack.
There was nothing more that I could do, at the moment.
I pray that Maxwell knows what he is doing.
End Part 9
Quatre: What about _me_?! Truth: We're getting there. Since when were you so whiny? Quatre: Since you gave all the screen time to CHEN! Truth: Jealous? Quatre: Yes! I'm off on a terribly hazardous secret mission and you're not giving me a chance to say _anything_! Duo: I'll trade you my relationship problems for that mission. Quatre: On second thought, I'm quite happy with the way things are going. In fact, I think I left an aardvark in the oven.... *disappears* Truth: I thought so. Duo: I hate you, you know? Truth: Calm down. Things are progressing nicely. Duo: Says you. Truth: *sighs*
Truth
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