Author notes: This was a challenge on my new favorite writing forum fictionpost com. I rather enjoyed writing it.
Summary: There's a flower called the Black Mercy that latches onto people and puts them into a trance, showing them their greatest desire. If attacked by the Black Mercy, what would you see?
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.
They wouldn't break him, not him. They could try all they wanted, but he'd just laugh in their faces all the while. Beating him up hadn't worked back when he was just a kid on the streets and it sure as hell wouldn't work now. He could take anything they would dish out and thanks to the good doctor's tampering drugs were hugely ineffective on him. The last few hours they'd been alternating between beating him and drugging him all while barking questions at him.
He snorted as he once more tugged on his restraints. He was getting bored of hanging around like this, but had little choice. After he'd first escaped they quickly learned to restrain both his arms and his legs and not allow him any movement. his long hair hung down his body in lose wavy strands; they'd taken even his hairtie after he tried to strangle a guard with it.
Behind him a door opened and a stranger came in. He didn't know this one and figured they sent in some fresh meat hoping that this one might break him finally. Right...as if.
"Yer wastin' yer time bud. I ain't gonna break for no one so ya might as well give up now. Save yer breath n all that." he said dully. He yawned for effect.
"We'll see. Sweet dreams 02." the man said carefully staying out of his line of sight. He frowned at this and wondered what the man meant.
"Drugs dun work. I thought yer guys wus smarter than that. It innit worked since when I wus a little rat and it innit gonna work now." he growled. The man remained silent though and simply left the room again.
He blinked at this then looked down as he felt the strange sensation on his ankle and gasped. He might have been a street rat, but he wasn't by any means as stupid as he sometimes pretended to be and he knew what this meant. He tried his hardest to kick his leg, but knew it was useless. The vines had wrapped tightly around his ankle and weren't letting go.
"Black mercy...damn...hurry the fuck up guys..." he muttered glaring at the vines and kicking violently. He could already feel his consiousness slip though.
"...o ...uo...DUO!"
"Eh?" he blinked drowsily and turned to see sister Helen standing behind him.
"There you are Duo. Look at you, have you been picking fights again?" she said sternly. Duo blinked in confusion and allowed the nun to drag him into the kitchen and take a wet towel to his face to clean him up.
"No..." he murmured.
"Sister Helen have you seen Duo? Oh there you are. Duo I need you to go prepare the church for tonight's mass, can you do that for me?" an elderly priest said smiling warmly at him.
"No..." he murmured again trembling now.
"Duo? What's wrong?" Sister Helen asked worriedly.
"NO!" Duo cried backing away.
"Duo?" the priest said quietly.
"I...I can't...I can't..." Duo stammered.
"Why not Duo?" the priest asked watching him with those sad yet warm eyes.
"Because...because...I can't...this...you...it's..." Duo whispered looking at the floor and fighting his emotions.
"What's wrong Duo? Won't you tell us?" the priest asked warmly as he reached out and placed a hand on the youth's shoulder.
"This is...all of it...you're not real...you can't be real..." Duo murmured not looking up.
"What are you talking about Duo? How can we not be real? We're right here are we not?" Sister Helen said.
"You are, but you can't be...you can't be real can you? Because...because you're dead...you're dead all of you are..." Duo whispered unable to fight the tears anymore.
"Duo..." the priest said in that familiar voice with that familiar sigh that always made him feel guilty for what he'd done to deserve that one word sigh.
"It's true...you're dead...I know this...I know because...because I was there...I held the sister as she died and I burried everyone...I burried them, made them graves with their names on it...this...it's..." Duo whispered through his tears.
"We're right here for you Duo. Whatever you think you saw was just a bad dream sweety." the sister said wrapping her arms around him. He gasped at her familiar scent.
"...o...uo...duo...Duo! Wake up Duo please!" the voice seemed so far away. Duo pulled away reluctantly.
"I...I have to go..." he said quietly.
"Don't be sucked in Duo! Wake up!" the voice called a little louder now.
"You don't have to, but if you must we won't stop you." the father said warmly.
"I know...I...thanks...for everything...I'll never really get to tell you that...I..." Duo whispered.
"Duo? Duo it's me. I'm getting you out of here Duo!" the voice said once more.
"I know...thanks Fei...m sleepy...such a nice dream..." he said quietly as the last of the images slowly faded from his sight and were replaced by a bright light.
"Thank the gods...for a moment I thought I'd been too late. Any longer and it would've...I dare not think about it." Wufei said lifting the lithe frame of his friend off the floor.
"S okay Fei...t wus a nice dream, but that's all it wus..." Duo murmured dreamily. Wufei sighed quietly and carried his friend out of the enemy base and into his awaiting car. He knew the other would be okay now. He'd been worried when he saw the black mercy wrapped around his friend's legs. Duo was strong, much stronger than he'd given him credit for. If he were in that position he wasn't sure if he'd not give in to what the plant would show him.
"Nah, yer wouldn't...yer like me...we both can't have what we want most...dead dun come back...never..." Duo murmured as Wufei put him down gently.
"That's right my friend...now rest. I've got your back." Wufei said warmly.
"Hm...always do...s nice...thanks..." Duo murmured drifting off in seconds. Wufei smiled. It spoke of how deep their friendship had become in so short a time that Duo trusted him enough to sleep.
Hope you enjoyed it!