Note: Chimeric - unreal; imaginary; highly unrealistic
Antonym – Real.
Note: A bit longer for the longer wait.
"I have to quit doing this," Duo groaned as he leaned up against the fence that surrounded the front yard. Chang gave him a wry grin and silently agreed with him. "Where did tall, light, and studly go?" This brought a snort from the other man.
"I am pretty sure he went into the house," was the answer. "He told me to bring you back in when you are feeling up to it, before you decide to leave the property."
"Well, I have some questions to ask him myself. I don't think he knows what he is talking about. I'm a null, there is nothing else to that."
"He's a long-lived being that has been around quite awhile, Duo. I would listen to what he has to say." Wufei did not like the tree-hugging light being, but he had to admit that he usually knew what he was talking about. "I told you that you felt different," he said defensively.
"Wufei, I'm the same I was two hours ago. There is nothing different about me," Duo said adamantly, not sure which one of them he was trying to convince more.
"Says you."
"Yes, says me. Help me up, here." Duo let out a grunt as he was pulled to his feet none too gently. They made their way through the blue police forms that had done nothing but continue to get thicker as time went on, or so it seemed. Like before, they parted ways as they saw Duo come towards them.
Inside the house was a bit more clear as information was gathered and it became closer to the time they could all leave. As he entered the house it was as if Duo had come into the house for the first time. There was a tang on the back of his tongue that had nothing to do with the blood that was spilled upstairs. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had a feeling that he wouldn't like the answer if he had asked. There was also a smell that hung heavily in the air, almost as if something had been burnt recently.
Duo glanced over at Wufei and it didn't look like the other man was acting any different than he usually was.
"What's that smell?" Duo ventured to ask at his own risk.
"What smell?" Wufei asked in return.
"Something burnt. Was it just their meal that was in the oven too long or-"
"Oh, that... You will get used to it. It means that magic has gone wrong and there was ill intent from the magic user."
"You can tell all of that from the smell?" Duo's eyes widened a bit in amazement. Why had he never noticed that before? He had been around many magic users all his life, but he had never sensed anything like this.
"Basically." Wufei led the way up the stairs and down to the back bedroom at the end of the hall. They stopped, sharing the doorway as they looked into the room again. This time, Duo was not sure of himself and really did not want to walk back into that room again. He did not know what happened earlier, and he did not want anything of the same nature to happen again.
"Welcome back," Zechs called out. He had a grim look on his face, but it was not unwelcoming. He came from around the other side of the bed with his hands held up and walked towards the door. "I see that you are faring better now."
Duo snorted and took one step into the room. "So, what happened here? Do you know?"
"Do you make it a habit of passing out at crime scenes, Duo Maxwell?" Duo did not like how this man was saying his name. Like it was candy to roll around on the center of your tongue and savor every bit of it.
"Just get to the point," Duo snarled.
"Touchy, touchy. Come further into the room, so that I can see if the blood will react to you again," Zechs told him.
"I'd rather not."
"I would rather he did not," Wufei said at the same time as Duo.
"I can speak for myself," Duo berated his friend. He glanced over to the bed once again. The blood was still in constant motion, but it was much darker than before, the red almost black. "Why is it doing that?"
"Well, I can't be 100 percent positive, but I think it is waiting for somebody to finish the ritual."
"What do you mean, finish it? I thought it was done and over with." Zechs gave a small laugh.
"I think it is waiting for you."
"Damn well should not be. I am a null." Duo clung to this as his last hope against the swelling uneasiness that was starting to grow in his stomach again.
"You are as much of a null as I am an evil lizard." The guy thought he was funny or something.
"Okay, wise guy, what the hell do you want me to do?" Goosebumps ran up up his arms and down his back. The air conditioning was on and a vent was right above his head. He really hoped that he could get a shirt soon. "And what do you mean that it is waiting for me?"
"Well, if you are a null, as you have stated many a time now, then you will only get a bit dirty. It won't change anything and then you can turn around and walk away." Duo nodded, this much he could deal with. It was late and he wanted to get back home before the sun rose above the horizon.
"Please come towards the bed. Watch it, do not step in the blood." The man also mumbled something under his breath that he could not hear, but Duo decided to ignore it for the moment. "There, that's good." Zechs had Duo stand at the foot of the bed, facing away from the door. Duo still looked unsure of himself, but Wufei had said that the guy knew his stuff.
"Place your right hand in in front of you, palm facing the bed, about chest height." Duo did as he was told, trying to keep his face a blank mask. He turned his head to look out the door and saw that he had attracted another crowd.
"When I tell you to, slowly reach out with your hand until it is over the edge of the bed." Zechs ignored the growing crowd and stepped closer to Duo, but still a little behind the man. He was hoping if there was any backlash, then Duo would take the brunt of it and he would remain safe.
"Okay, now, slowly, push out with your hand. You should feel some resistance. Tell me when you push past it." Zechs believed that the spell was waiting for Duo and that they had to act before the moving blood had changed completely to black in color. Even he did not want to be around when that happened.
Duo faced the bed and watched the blood along the wall behind the bed. It swirled counter-clockwise. There was just something tangibly wrong about the whole situation. He tried to keep his mind off the body that lay on the bed. The sheets seem to have been drained of all the blood, leaving the victim seem even more bare. Here, the stench was stronger and the smell of her bowels was strong enough to make him want to leave the room. But, if Zechs was correct, then he had to do this. Maybe, perhaps, he could find a clue as to who had done this.
He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and slowly let it out as he pushed his hand forward. Like Zechs said, there was a firm resistance in the air. Almost as if he had to push through mud, but he could not see anything in front of him. He pushed harder, and was slowly successful. All of a sudden, the pressure that was in front of him was gone. He stumbled forward, trying to catch himself, but fell face first into something invisible.
"Keep your hand up," Zechs yelled. "Watch!" Duo regained his footing and tried to ignore the pain in his nose from hitting the invisible wall. "Spread your fingers apart and cup your palm as if you were palming a ball."
Duo did as he was told, and watched what was unfolding in front of him. The blood on the wall shot through the triangle hovering above the mattress. The three dimensional triangle filled with blood, slowly at first, but more steadily as Duo's breathing hitched and it became noticeably hard for him to breath.
In. Out. In. Out.
The triangle was almost filled to the top when Duo suddenly felt that he really did not want to be standing there when it filled all the way.
"Do not move," Zechs growled. Duo had second thoughts about obeying that order, but tried to stand firm.
The triangle filled to the top and still blood was trying to push its way into the center. Something, he was not sure what, pushed back at his hand, traveled up his arm, and into his chest. The tension in the room continued to climb and he started to fidget. He cried out as there suddenly was a loud popping noise and the triangle shape exploded. Blood spurted out from the center above the bed, covering every available surface in the room. The dresser, each one of the walls, the carpet - it was all covered in dark red blood.
Duo was dripping with the substance. His skin ached from the hotness of it, even his face was covered.
"Can, can I move now?" Duo asked, clearly shaken.
"Um, yeah," Zechs replied sounding just as shaken as the man in front of him. Standing just off to the side and behind Duo, he fared better out of the two of them.
Duo pulled his hand back towards him and used his other hand, somewhat cleaner, to try to wipe the blood from his face. He looked towards the door and saw that Wufei had not been spared. There were even blood spatters that one could see into the hallway. "What the hell was that?" Duo asked, sounding angry and not feeling bad about it.
"Yes, Zechs, did you know that was going to happen?"
Duo, with the blood wiped from his eyes, looked at the bed once again. The marks were gone. There were no more concentric circles, there was no more triangle, and there were no more blood trails around the bed, on the wall above the headboard, or coming down from the ceiling. He wanted to sit down, but there was too much blood on the floor.
It looked as if more than one person had died in here and had been completely drained of their blood. Where had it all come from? He did not realize that he had spoken this aloud until Zechs spoke up behind him.
"It was witch's blood. It thins out to the point of inconsistency and can look like there is much more than there really is." Duo nodded like this made complete sense.
"I am so done right now," Duo said loudly. His hands were shaking and his knees did not seem to want to hold him upright. He pushed past Zechs and almost ran from the room.
"Duo!" Wufei called to him and tried to follow the other man. The police were packed into the hallway, everybody that could feel magic wanted to know what in the world just happened.
"Chang," Zechs yelled before the Chinese man got too far away from the room. "Let him calm down for a moment. It's no wonder that he wants to get out of here as fast as his little legs can carry him."
"Are you seriously joking right now? Really?" Wufei was pissed. "How dare you try to stick a null in that mess. What if the back lash had killed him? Or you! What would you have done then?"
"Settle down. I was not expecting that strong of a reaction, true, but I think it went rather well." As he was saying this, he was removing his suit jacket that was also dripping with blood. "And, I do not know how many times that I have to repeat this, but he is not a null."
"He does not hold magic like we do," Wufei insisted.
"While that is true, that does not mean that he is a null. A null could not have done what he did back in there." They were walking down the hallway towards the front door, suspecting that Duo was back outside and somewhere in the yard. They passed a large crime scene trash bag, and Zechs dumped his suit jacket into it.
"Then what the hell is he?" Wufei asked, exasperated.
"Well, that is where it gets tricky," Zechs calmly stated. Inside, he was anything but calm. But, if he was right, then it would be the biggest discovery in recent history.
Outside, they saw Duo bent over the flower bed dry heaving. A very nice female cop was kneeling down beside him, holding his braid out of the way and saying soothing words to the young man. She saw Wufei and Zechs approaching and told Duo. Wufei could see that Duo had wiped off a lot of the blood that had clung to his skin. There were red splotches here and there on his skin from the thin blood drying too fast before he got a hold of the towel that lay at his feet.
"So, you pass out and throw up at crime scenes," Zechs teased.
"Fuck off," Duo growled out bitterly.
"Do you have any idea what you did in there, Duo?"
"Does it look like I have any idea what I did?"
"Well, no, but I figured you would have a question or two about-"
"Of course I have questions!" Duo yelled. He pulled his braid out of the woman's hands and stood up. "How dare you put me in that situation!"
"Oh come off of it. You were just as curious as I was to see what would happen." Zechs yelled right back. "Besides, by the spell reacting to you so violently just proves my point that you are not a null."
"Then what am I?"
"See here, that is the tricky part, but I am almost positive about that answer. You, my dear youngling, are a chimeric."
"Huh?" Duo so aptly replied.
"Shit," Wufei uttered, not too far away from where Duo was standing.
"For all intents and purposes, you should not exist," Zechs replied. He crossed his arms and too late realized that there was blood on the back of his hands that was now on the undersides of his arms. He shrugged it off and continued to try to explain something he did not totally understand himself.
"A chimeric is something our ancestors came up with to explain how a null could come into magic long after the time they should have come into power. These were the beings that were hunted down and killed on sight because they could just not keep their magic hidden from the eyes of the church. As far as we knew, this type of being had become extinct."
"So... what does this mean for me?"
"I would be very careful in the next couple of days as you will notice that you are completely open to the world of magic now. You will be able to move faster, see more clearly, and your thinking processes will increase in speed and clarity."
"This does not make any sense," Duo muttered. He looked down at his hands that still had a slight tremor to them.
"You are now a magic dweller. Your powers will grow exponentially over the next couple of weeks. Your magic is different from ours. Your aura will leak and don't be surprised if people avoid you out in public. I don't know much else to tell you at this point. I have some old contacts that I can get in touch with that may be able to give me some more information to pass on to you. I'm sorry that I cannot do more at this time."
"I don't think that it is your fault, so I guess don't worry about it too much," Duo told him. He turned to Wufei. "Can I go home now?"
"Uhm, sure?" Wufei made it into a question as he looked at Zechs for confirmation.
"I don't see why not. I saw what happened upstairs. You guys can go for now. Wufei, we'll meet tomorrow to go over everything that we can to move forward with the investigation."
"All right," he said with a nod. "Let's go Duo." Duo nodded and followed Wufei out of the yard and to the car that was parked a bit down the street so that he could go home and try to go to bed.
