Title: Alternate Reality
Warnings: Yaoi, bloodshed (and lots of it), strong language, angst (Later…), General insanity.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the pilots, but I DO own Shinigami the cat and Duo's pikachu plushie if they show up in this fic.
The characters Vitani Desdemona D'Solo, Andy D'Solo, Teal Zevan D'Solo, Dro X, Calou Kernond Varnique, and Xavier D'Solo are © Me. Please don't steal. It shall reduce my happiness drastically.
A sensation of cool empty space surrounded Duo's body. Air was coursing through him, filling him with a sense of being lighter than the gases in the atmosphere. He didn't feel the pain of his mutilated anatomy. On the contrary , he couldn't feel anything. He was part of the air around him, and his particles were dispersing into nothingness.
/=/ So this is what dying feels like…/='
His thoughts too, were just appearing randomly, in no actual order. They strayed to people, to incidents, to friends, to the past, the present, the future, with no real composition at all. Just as he felt. Disordered, but at peace.
He opened his eyes just in time to see the last patch of light above him fade. For a brief second, no longer, he glimpsed a distant shadow hunched over in that circular window of light, head bowed and looking…sad. Then it faded, just as everything else seemed to do. He could see nothing but himself, etched out clearly against the black.
"Heero?"
His words came out as blurred noises, echoing off the non-existing walls. He was enclosed in black, yet he wasn't closed up at all. He was in space, and at the same time in a place that would kill a claustrophobic person. Nothing made sense, and opposites both existed at the same place at the same time, if that was physically possible.
All of a sudden, he started spinning. For no appropriate reason either, the 'air', or whatever it was that he was surrounded by, was still. Maybe it was just the impression of spinning, because he couldn't SEE himself spinning. He just felt it.
/=/I don't think I like dying anymore…/=/ his blurred thoughts managed to compose.
And he kept spinning, and spinning, and spinning…with no feeling whatsoever in his body, awareness being jumbled into a mix of scattered thoughts and twisted versions of feelings.
And then all at once, it all came back.
Awareness, pain, feelings, his mind, thoughts, cold, the whole nine yards. In less than a second he travelled from total oblivious 'bliss' to reality.
As he was slammed hard against cold bumpy tarmac without actually falling towards it to begin with. It had just began to register with him how sore and bruised he felt, as if every bone in his body had been cracked open and sloppily glued back together again. Cold rapidly climbed from the wet tarmac into his body, sending a shiver down his stiff spine, which cracked in protest. A slight drizzle was coming from above him, and a chill wind cut through the air, brushing against the ground where he lay face down.
/=/ What the HELL?/=/ Duo blinked several times, adjusting to being back in the real world. Or real to an extent. Hadn't he just died?
He tasted his mouth with his tongue. No blood. He curled his fingers in a claw-like manner, to find that both hands were intact. And the sharp pains in his neck were gone, no warm blood was gushing out of any insanely fatal wounds. Duo placed both palms against the cold ground, and made an attempt to haul himself up. He was freezing cold, and who cared where he was, he wanted to get out of the rain.
He'd been so busy with musing over still being alive, that he hadn't noticed the steady footsteps coming his way in quick strides. The next thing he knew, he was slammed to the ground again as the owner of the boot- clad foot that had just impacted with his side crashed on top of him.
"The hell!?" his attacker leapt up again, holding a small slender knife in her right hand, and was poised for battle.
Duo was confused, and slightly irritated if one could call it that. Startled, perhaps. He scrambled to his feet, quickly brushing his bangs out of his face so he could see his opponent. A light haze of water still sprayed through the air, and not much light was available. But as a trained Gundam pilot, he was able to distinguish the girl in front of him. He looked into eyes much like his own, with a stubborn and very lively factor to them. A long slender brown braid cascaded from her head, moving slightly every time she twitched, expecting him to move. Her face was pale, and it wasn't hard to guess why, judging from the time of night she was outside. Duo gaped, torn between shock and overwhelming happiness.
"Duet?"
She stood up straight, giving him a curious frown. Duo took it as an acknowledgement of the name and felt like crying.
"You know…Duo?" His eyes gave her a desperate look, but she remained blank, glaring slightly. It made it worse. He'd missed Duet so much during the time she'd been absent. And now she was here…and had no clue as to who he was. It's one of those cases where something is right in front of you, but so far out of reach. You can' t make someone remember something that hadn't even happened to them.
/=/ Damn this stupid different word../=/ Duo thought to himself, letting an angry tear join the mist coating his cheeks. It'd only taken him a fraction of a second to realize he wasn't at home any more. Duet was here…but it wasn't really her. He felt as if he'd been misplaced, put somewhere he didn't belong. And that WAS true. He had been misplaced. But one creates ones own belonging.
"No…how the hell did you know my name?" the tone was harsh and cold, very unlike Duet.
Duo didn't answer, trying to keep the choking feeling in his throat from escaping. Duet smirked, in that kind of way she'd always done when one of the boys acted 'stupid'
"No clue. I just did." He snapped back at her, angry for some odd reason. She narrowed her eyes in fixed him in a glare that reminded him very much of Heero…a little too much, possibly.
"Heero…" he whispered. He hadn't counted on anyone catching the words. But Duet did, and her eyes widened. She backed up slowly, giving him a shocked look. She stared at him for a few seconds, and Duo realized what he was said, stepping back as well, shaking his head. Duets eyes narrowed dangerously again, and she stepped forward, grabbing Duo's braid harshly in her hand.
"OUCH!" Duet grinned cruelly. She knew damn well how much having your braid pulled hurt. She marched purposefully down the stained street – stained with things Duo didn't even care to name – taking quick strides. Duo stumbled behind her, head tilted to avoid putting stress on his precious hair.
"You know just a bit TOO much for your own good, pal." She stated grimly, tugging mercilessly at his braid. Real Duet would NEVER do that. Pulling Duet's braid was a privilege (Torture) accessible to no one apart from Duo himself. In such an approach, it hurt in more ways than one.
"Let go! Goddamnit!" Duo screeched at her. It was too much. Having his braid pulled crossed the line, it was just something you did NOT do. But this Duet payed him no attention, reinforcing her grip on his hair and increasing her pace. She shot Duo a venomous look from her sleep-deprived eyes, stained red with fatigue.
"You're not going anywhere until you've explained" There was the slightest bit of fear biting her voice as she hissed at him. Fear of being discovered, caught, the fear that you see when a villain has had his or her plot unravelled. But Duet wasn't a villain…she would have done worse to Duo than simply 'take him in for questioning' if she was.
"Explained WHAT?" Duo's voice was slain with anger, all propelled by his no- longer-free-braid which was clasped in the slender hand of someone who in another world meant everything to him. She abruptly let to of his braid and swung around to face him, a fearful expression surfacing on her bony face.
On second glance, Duo could see that she really didn't look well at all. She looked tired, and a few scratches and large bruises covered her bare arms. Not to mention how thin she was, barely a skeleton. Duo fell silent as soon as his braid was released.
"How you knew my name." She stated simply, shivering from slight cold but trying her best to hide it. Duo opened his mouth to say something. /=/ Should I tell her that I died in suicide and was transported over here? Huh? Does that make sense? /=/ He shook his head. He couldn't lie to her, or to anyone else for that matter. He just had to rephrase the truth a bit, make it slightly more believeable. But that was lying too. He decided to put it exactly as it was, may she believe him or not.
"I died, and was transported here. You were in my former life. So was everyone else." He finished with a sigh, looking at her grimly with his head tilted to the side. He'd expected Duet to start laughing any minute now, and dismiss him as a psycho. But that didn't happen.
"Aa. I've heard stranger." She muttered, looking at the glistening tarmac. Duo looked stunned. Stranger? Than THAT? He'd been here for a mere 10 minutes, and already it seemed that this…'place', held more oddities than his own mind. Duet eyed him closely for a few seconds, and phrased another question.
"If I were to say Vitani Desdemona D'Solo…" She paused, watching Duo for any reactions at all. His face remained completely blank at the mention of the name, and his eyes indicated a sincere 'Huh?'. Which was exactly what he asked only seconds later.
"Huh?" Duet shook her head slightly.
"Nevermind." Duo gave her an odd look and waited for her next 'instructions'. He could always escape, the seemingly half-dead entity in front of him didn't seem as if it could do much damage. But why? Where else could he go?
"Come…we're going to the Quarter." She said quietly, turning around without even giving him a sign to follow. He did, anyway, tripping over his own feet and slipping slightly in slippery spots on the ground. His mind was already filled with a thousand questions, but he didn't know which one to start with. He chose the first one that came to mind, off the top of his head.
"Who's Vitani?"
Oddly enough, Duet flinched and shook her head, as if she didn't want to talk about it.
"You don't want to know, trust me." She murmured, grinning in a crazed way. A glaze covered her eyes for a few seconds as she ran the thought and name through her tired mind a few times. Duo gave her a confused look, but she shrugged it off.
"Come on, I WANT to know." Duo whined, putting on his best puppy dog face complete with big googly eyes and quivering lower lip. It'd worked where he'd come from, hadn't it? When she had been alive.
Apparently, things don't change too much between dimensions.
"Don't give me that look!" she stomped her foot angrily, folding her arms and looking cross. Duo smirked and put some more effort into his puppy- look.
"Pleeeeeeease?" He whimpered pathetically. It went smoothly, very, smoothly.
"OK OK OK! Just…don't do the dog thing!" Duet glared angrily at him and opened her mouth to speak…
…but was interrupted. A huge irregular black shadow swept over them both. Casting a hasty glance upwards, all Duo saw was a HUGE black reptilian creature much like a raptor from the dinosaur era, with spindly black wings arched over it's slender scaly form. In a flash of steely claws, three spike-lined whips for tails, and dagger-like teeth, it had knocked them both over in a lazy swoop to the ground, delivering more power than was necessary even if it was meant as 'gentle'. Duo groaned from where he lay face down on the ground, feeling bruised and fragile. Duet scrambled shakily to her feet a few yards away. Her eyes were wide in fear and shock, whichever determined the expression she wore wasn't clear.
It took Duo a few minutes to recover and he achingly stood up again, rubbing his sore head. He gave Duet a questioning look, and turned to look in the direction she was pointing with a quivering finger. The grotesque shape had soared further off across the rooftops, emitting ear-splicing screeches and lashing it's tails out in all directions.
"That, is the demon. Vitani…" She was shaking, relieved the 'thing' had only brushed past them.
Duo stared dumbfounded at the retreating reptile, and gawked. Without even having to be told, he realized there would be a lot of trouble revolving around Ms. Vitani in this world. For a brief second, he regretted ever asking.
TBC
A/N: It's hard to use Duet in a fic (Duet = NOT MY CHARACTER) 'cause I don't know her personality very well…ah well, might as well give it a try, ne? ^^;; R&R-ness, puh-lease.
Warnings: Yaoi, bloodshed (and lots of it), strong language, angst (Later…), General insanity.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the pilots, but I DO own Shinigami the cat and Duo's pikachu plushie if they show up in this fic.
The characters Vitani Desdemona D'Solo, Andy D'Solo, Teal Zevan D'Solo, Dro X, Calou Kernond Varnique, and Xavier D'Solo are © Me. Please don't steal. It shall reduce my happiness drastically.
A sensation of cool empty space surrounded Duo's body. Air was coursing through him, filling him with a sense of being lighter than the gases in the atmosphere. He didn't feel the pain of his mutilated anatomy. On the contrary , he couldn't feel anything. He was part of the air around him, and his particles were dispersing into nothingness.
/=/ So this is what dying feels like…/='
His thoughts too, were just appearing randomly, in no actual order. They strayed to people, to incidents, to friends, to the past, the present, the future, with no real composition at all. Just as he felt. Disordered, but at peace.
He opened his eyes just in time to see the last patch of light above him fade. For a brief second, no longer, he glimpsed a distant shadow hunched over in that circular window of light, head bowed and looking…sad. Then it faded, just as everything else seemed to do. He could see nothing but himself, etched out clearly against the black.
"Heero?"
His words came out as blurred noises, echoing off the non-existing walls. He was enclosed in black, yet he wasn't closed up at all. He was in space, and at the same time in a place that would kill a claustrophobic person. Nothing made sense, and opposites both existed at the same place at the same time, if that was physically possible.
All of a sudden, he started spinning. For no appropriate reason either, the 'air', or whatever it was that he was surrounded by, was still. Maybe it was just the impression of spinning, because he couldn't SEE himself spinning. He just felt it.
/=/I don't think I like dying anymore…/=/ his blurred thoughts managed to compose.
And he kept spinning, and spinning, and spinning…with no feeling whatsoever in his body, awareness being jumbled into a mix of scattered thoughts and twisted versions of feelings.
And then all at once, it all came back.
Awareness, pain, feelings, his mind, thoughts, cold, the whole nine yards. In less than a second he travelled from total oblivious 'bliss' to reality.
As he was slammed hard against cold bumpy tarmac without actually falling towards it to begin with. It had just began to register with him how sore and bruised he felt, as if every bone in his body had been cracked open and sloppily glued back together again. Cold rapidly climbed from the wet tarmac into his body, sending a shiver down his stiff spine, which cracked in protest. A slight drizzle was coming from above him, and a chill wind cut through the air, brushing against the ground where he lay face down.
/=/ What the HELL?/=/ Duo blinked several times, adjusting to being back in the real world. Or real to an extent. Hadn't he just died?
He tasted his mouth with his tongue. No blood. He curled his fingers in a claw-like manner, to find that both hands were intact. And the sharp pains in his neck were gone, no warm blood was gushing out of any insanely fatal wounds. Duo placed both palms against the cold ground, and made an attempt to haul himself up. He was freezing cold, and who cared where he was, he wanted to get out of the rain.
He'd been so busy with musing over still being alive, that he hadn't noticed the steady footsteps coming his way in quick strides. The next thing he knew, he was slammed to the ground again as the owner of the boot- clad foot that had just impacted with his side crashed on top of him.
"The hell!?" his attacker leapt up again, holding a small slender knife in her right hand, and was poised for battle.
Duo was confused, and slightly irritated if one could call it that. Startled, perhaps. He scrambled to his feet, quickly brushing his bangs out of his face so he could see his opponent. A light haze of water still sprayed through the air, and not much light was available. But as a trained Gundam pilot, he was able to distinguish the girl in front of him. He looked into eyes much like his own, with a stubborn and very lively factor to them. A long slender brown braid cascaded from her head, moving slightly every time she twitched, expecting him to move. Her face was pale, and it wasn't hard to guess why, judging from the time of night she was outside. Duo gaped, torn between shock and overwhelming happiness.
"Duet?"
She stood up straight, giving him a curious frown. Duo took it as an acknowledgement of the name and felt like crying.
"You know…Duo?" His eyes gave her a desperate look, but she remained blank, glaring slightly. It made it worse. He'd missed Duet so much during the time she'd been absent. And now she was here…and had no clue as to who he was. It's one of those cases where something is right in front of you, but so far out of reach. You can' t make someone remember something that hadn't even happened to them.
/=/ Damn this stupid different word../=/ Duo thought to himself, letting an angry tear join the mist coating his cheeks. It'd only taken him a fraction of a second to realize he wasn't at home any more. Duet was here…but it wasn't really her. He felt as if he'd been misplaced, put somewhere he didn't belong. And that WAS true. He had been misplaced. But one creates ones own belonging.
"No…how the hell did you know my name?" the tone was harsh and cold, very unlike Duet.
Duo didn't answer, trying to keep the choking feeling in his throat from escaping. Duet smirked, in that kind of way she'd always done when one of the boys acted 'stupid'
"No clue. I just did." He snapped back at her, angry for some odd reason. She narrowed her eyes in fixed him in a glare that reminded him very much of Heero…a little too much, possibly.
"Heero…" he whispered. He hadn't counted on anyone catching the words. But Duet did, and her eyes widened. She backed up slowly, giving him a shocked look. She stared at him for a few seconds, and Duo realized what he was said, stepping back as well, shaking his head. Duets eyes narrowed dangerously again, and she stepped forward, grabbing Duo's braid harshly in her hand.
"OUCH!" Duet grinned cruelly. She knew damn well how much having your braid pulled hurt. She marched purposefully down the stained street – stained with things Duo didn't even care to name – taking quick strides. Duo stumbled behind her, head tilted to avoid putting stress on his precious hair.
"You know just a bit TOO much for your own good, pal." She stated grimly, tugging mercilessly at his braid. Real Duet would NEVER do that. Pulling Duet's braid was a privilege (Torture) accessible to no one apart from Duo himself. In such an approach, it hurt in more ways than one.
"Let go! Goddamnit!" Duo screeched at her. It was too much. Having his braid pulled crossed the line, it was just something you did NOT do. But this Duet payed him no attention, reinforcing her grip on his hair and increasing her pace. She shot Duo a venomous look from her sleep-deprived eyes, stained red with fatigue.
"You're not going anywhere until you've explained" There was the slightest bit of fear biting her voice as she hissed at him. Fear of being discovered, caught, the fear that you see when a villain has had his or her plot unravelled. But Duet wasn't a villain…she would have done worse to Duo than simply 'take him in for questioning' if she was.
"Explained WHAT?" Duo's voice was slain with anger, all propelled by his no- longer-free-braid which was clasped in the slender hand of someone who in another world meant everything to him. She abruptly let to of his braid and swung around to face him, a fearful expression surfacing on her bony face.
On second glance, Duo could see that she really didn't look well at all. She looked tired, and a few scratches and large bruises covered her bare arms. Not to mention how thin she was, barely a skeleton. Duo fell silent as soon as his braid was released.
"How you knew my name." She stated simply, shivering from slight cold but trying her best to hide it. Duo opened his mouth to say something. /=/ Should I tell her that I died in suicide and was transported over here? Huh? Does that make sense? /=/ He shook his head. He couldn't lie to her, or to anyone else for that matter. He just had to rephrase the truth a bit, make it slightly more believeable. But that was lying too. He decided to put it exactly as it was, may she believe him or not.
"I died, and was transported here. You were in my former life. So was everyone else." He finished with a sigh, looking at her grimly with his head tilted to the side. He'd expected Duet to start laughing any minute now, and dismiss him as a psycho. But that didn't happen.
"Aa. I've heard stranger." She muttered, looking at the glistening tarmac. Duo looked stunned. Stranger? Than THAT? He'd been here for a mere 10 minutes, and already it seemed that this…'place', held more oddities than his own mind. Duet eyed him closely for a few seconds, and phrased another question.
"If I were to say Vitani Desdemona D'Solo…" She paused, watching Duo for any reactions at all. His face remained completely blank at the mention of the name, and his eyes indicated a sincere 'Huh?'. Which was exactly what he asked only seconds later.
"Huh?" Duet shook her head slightly.
"Nevermind." Duo gave her an odd look and waited for her next 'instructions'. He could always escape, the seemingly half-dead entity in front of him didn't seem as if it could do much damage. But why? Where else could he go?
"Come…we're going to the Quarter." She said quietly, turning around without even giving him a sign to follow. He did, anyway, tripping over his own feet and slipping slightly in slippery spots on the ground. His mind was already filled with a thousand questions, but he didn't know which one to start with. He chose the first one that came to mind, off the top of his head.
"Who's Vitani?"
Oddly enough, Duet flinched and shook her head, as if she didn't want to talk about it.
"You don't want to know, trust me." She murmured, grinning in a crazed way. A glaze covered her eyes for a few seconds as she ran the thought and name through her tired mind a few times. Duo gave her a confused look, but she shrugged it off.
"Come on, I WANT to know." Duo whined, putting on his best puppy dog face complete with big googly eyes and quivering lower lip. It'd worked where he'd come from, hadn't it? When she had been alive.
Apparently, things don't change too much between dimensions.
"Don't give me that look!" she stomped her foot angrily, folding her arms and looking cross. Duo smirked and put some more effort into his puppy- look.
"Pleeeeeeease?" He whimpered pathetically. It went smoothly, very, smoothly.
"OK OK OK! Just…don't do the dog thing!" Duet glared angrily at him and opened her mouth to speak…
…but was interrupted. A huge irregular black shadow swept over them both. Casting a hasty glance upwards, all Duo saw was a HUGE black reptilian creature much like a raptor from the dinosaur era, with spindly black wings arched over it's slender scaly form. In a flash of steely claws, three spike-lined whips for tails, and dagger-like teeth, it had knocked them both over in a lazy swoop to the ground, delivering more power than was necessary even if it was meant as 'gentle'. Duo groaned from where he lay face down on the ground, feeling bruised and fragile. Duet scrambled shakily to her feet a few yards away. Her eyes were wide in fear and shock, whichever determined the expression she wore wasn't clear.
It took Duo a few minutes to recover and he achingly stood up again, rubbing his sore head. He gave Duet a questioning look, and turned to look in the direction she was pointing with a quivering finger. The grotesque shape had soared further off across the rooftops, emitting ear-splicing screeches and lashing it's tails out in all directions.
"That, is the demon. Vitani…" She was shaking, relieved the 'thing' had only brushed past them.
Duo stared dumbfounded at the retreating reptile, and gawked. Without even having to be told, he realized there would be a lot of trouble revolving around Ms. Vitani in this world. For a brief second, he regretted ever asking.
TBC
A/N: It's hard to use Duet in a fic (Duet = NOT MY CHARACTER) 'cause I don't know her personality very well…ah well, might as well give it a try, ne? ^^;; R&R-ness, puh-lease.