I never got around to congratulating The Priestess of the Wind on making the best guess so far and after reading only two chapters when I didn't even really give any clues. Congratulations – you're brilliant ^_^. This is a VERY OCC chapter on Wufei's part but not very graphic. Keep in mind that he bent a steel door when you get to parts dealing with strength.
Virus
Continued
5. Instinct
Wufei came out of the darkness that was his dream slowly. As he opened his eyes he saw the two objects slide from his vision once again. He still had no idea what it was he was seeing but he wasn't interested just at that particular time. He took a moment to survey his surroundings. He was in a large cage in a bare room with only a mirror fixed into one wall and a tiny window fixed into another. The window was open and sunlight was pouring in onto the floor of the cage. He noticed that his body was purposely positioned out of the way of the light. Not remembering anything that had happened after being locked up in Dr. J's observation room, he found this to be rather odd.
"Did you sleep well?" A voice asked. Wufei had already seen Trowa in the room and wasn't surprised when he spoke.
"No. What happened?"
"Dr. J had to drug you."
"Why?" Trowa made a confused face at Wufei.
"You don't remember?" he asked.
"Remember what?"
"Where you went, what you did to Quatre…"
"Nonsense. I didn't do anything to Quatre." As fate would have it, Quatre entered the room just then. Wufei stared openly at his black eye.
"Does it really look that bad?" Quatre asked sheepishly.
"How did that happen?" Wufei demanded. Quatre exchanged glances with Trowa. Trowa shook his head.
"Well, Dr. J's shot seems to have gotten you back to yourself, but somehow it's taken away a few of your memories." Quatre told Wufei. An expression of panic started to form on Wufei's face but it was quickly replaced by a malicious smile.
"This is one of Maxwell's stupid pranks, isn't it?" he sneered. "I don't know how he got all of you to play along but I've figured it out now so you might as well let me out of this cage." Quatre moved closer to the cage.
"I'm sorry Wufei, but this isn't a joke. There really is something wrong with you. We can't let you out until we fix it. You've become… dangerous."
"I've always been dangerous. And today I'll become lethal to that braided idiot."
"No, I mean you're actually dangerous. You killed someone. A young girl…you said you…ate her." Now Wufei stood and walked to the front of the cage.
"I'm losing my patience. Open this cage so I can beat Maxwell into the ground."
"I'm sorry, Wufei." Quatre replied solemnly, shaking his head. Wufei's entire body began to tremble as rage built inside of him. Before he knew it, his hand was around Quatre's throat. Trowa instinctively jumped up to help Quatre but Wufei let go before he reached them. He pulled his hand back into the cage and examined it while holding it with his other hand. He looked up from his hand at Quatre and felt a pang of guilt as he saw his neck starting to bruise. Then he looked further up, past Quatre and Trowa into the mirror in the wall. He froze in shock, his mouth wide open. He could see long glistening fangs inside of his mouth but that wasn't the first thing he noticed. The irises of his eyes were now completely yellow, his pupils rimmed with a sickly green color. He blinked slowly and finally saw what had been sliding out of his vision – a second pair of eyelids. An evil smirk crept across the face in the mirror. His reflected self began to shake with laughter. He found himself backing away from the mirror and from his two friends. His laughter doubled in volume as he bumped gently into the bars that made up the back of the cage and slid to the floor. He threw his head back, laughing even harder causing his face to turn red. A thick dark substance oozed out of one of his nostrils and he continued to howl with laughter despite it. Neither Quatre nor Trowa tore their eyes from Wufei.
"I don't think that's good…" Quatre murmured.
***
Wufei hugged his knees close to his body as he rocked gently back and forth. There was a deep scowl on his face which was amplified by his serpent-like eyes. He sucked on one of his fangs as though it was an old habit, tasting the bitter-sweet venom that seeped out of it. He was immune to the poison, it being produced by his own body, but he knew full well that it could kill another human. 'No, just a human, not another human. You're not a human anymore.' Wufei reminded himself. He began to smile again at this thought. He didn't think it was funny but he couldn't keep himself from laughing. Somehow it just expressed his feelings better than anything else. He was aware of the other pilots and Dr. J watching him. They were standing right in front of him, after all. They attempted to comfort him and get him to think clearly but he shut down all their efforts simply by ignoring them.
"Wufei, I assure you that we'll be able to create an antidote." Dr. J repeated for about the tenth time. "We just need some more of your blood." Wufei continued to rock back and forth and didn't respond. Dr. J let out an exasperated sigh. Quatre approached him.
"Can't you use what we got already?" he asked. Dr. J shook his head.
"I tried to keep it moist but the cells dried up and died. I need new specimens or I can't continue the serum." Everyone jumped as Wufei spoke for the first time in hours.
"How long?" he demanded. His friends stared at each other. Finally Dr. J answered him.
"If the mutations continue at their current speed, I estimate you will be completely transformed by 10 o' clock tonight." A quiet chuckle rose from Wufei. Chills ran down numerous spines. 'I was weak before.' Wufei thought. 'But now I am becoming something powerful. I will avenge you, Nataku. I will fight for you and our families. I wanted to die but now I see what I can do. I won't just destroy OZ. I will destroy everyone who wronged you. Everyone who is weak and everyone who helped to create the weapons that took you from this world will die. I will destroy…the entire human race.'
"It's time for your shot again." Dr. J said, interrupting Wufei's thoughts.
"Come give it to me." Wufei replied, an evil grin on his face. This was exactly what Dr. J had feared. Wufei's brain had gotten too far off balance and he was no longer thinking like himself. He was essentially a completely different person. He finally uncurled from his protective ball and leaned back against the bars of the cage, still avoiding the sunlight. He sighed contentedly and smiled slightly. Another chuckle escaped his lips. Dr. J walked up to the area of the cage that Wufei was sitting by and pulled out a syringe. Wufei glanced up at him, his yellow eyes glinting. There was no readable expression on his face.
"I dare you to touch me." he said. His voice sounded chillingly calm. Dr. J backed away from the cage. He cleared his throat.
"Heero," he called. "Come here and give Wufei this shot." Heero grunted to show acknowledgement then moved forward to do as he was commanded. He didn't hesitate to grab Wufei's arm but he didn't expect what happened next. He never saw Wufei move but he felt his arm being grabbed and his body being turned around. The next thing he knew Wufei had his arm around his throat and the needle pressed to his skin. After getting over his initial shock, he realized that his airway was being cut off. He pulled at Wufei's arm but found he couldn't budge it. This was impossible to him; he had always been the strongest of the pilots. His head clanged loudly against the cage's bars as he fought to get free, his brain already beginning to suffer from the lack of oxygen.
"What will happen if I inject this into Heero?" Wufei asked, smirking.
"It…it will…tranquilize him." Dr. J lied. He knew that the dosage of drugs in the syringe was enough to put Heero into a coma or even kill him. Wufei's smile grew bigger.
"You're lying. I can smell it." Wufei turned to look at what he was doing. Heero's eyes started to roll back in his head as he was gasping for air. Wufei pushed the needle into Heero's skin. Trowa acted without thinking. He flipped agilely toward the cage, snatched the needle from Wufei and flipped back. Wufei glanced at his hand then seeing that the syringe was gone, he growled at Trowa. The growl was completely non-human. He slammed Heero's head against the cage violently, knocking him out, and then let his motionless form fall to the floor. He stared at Heero for a moment then, realizing what he had done, held his arm out for the shot. Dr. J took the syringe from Trowa, got a fresh needle and hesitantly proceeded to inject the medicine into Wufei's arm. Wufei twitched briefly as the drugs started to take effect. His eyes closed and he slowly fell to the floor of the cage.
"I don't want this…" he mumbled just before unconsciousness overtook him.
***
While Wufei was unconscious his friends endeavored to create a "vaccine" to combat the organism that was taking over his body. They also ran more diagnostic tests on him to try to figure out what mutations had occurred in his DNA and how it was affecting him. The whole time they monitored his brain waves to see when he would need another shot. Duo sat in the observation room behind the mirror with his feet up on the control panel. Quatre was in there with him, keeping track of Wufei's life signs. Duo was supposed to be watching the brain wave chart and he was, just not completely. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Wufei was having an intense dream. He was drifting aimlessly through the dark. A small light appeared and he floated towards it. He saw Sandrock clearing away debris then everything was dark again as the dark substance leaked into what he now realized was his helmet. He felt himself screaming but there was no sound.
The graphing machine beeped loudly causing Duo to jump. He glanced at it. There was a large spike on it. He tapped Quatre on the shoulder.
"Quatre, what do you think this means?" he asked. Quatre stared at the spike but just as he was about to say something the machine beeped again. Both boys saw an even larger spike drawn onto the paper.
"I don't know what it is but if it's making the machine beep it probably isn't supposed to be happening." Quatre said. He glanced through the window at Trowa and Heero, who had recovered, performing tests on the still sleeping Wufei.
Wufei was running. He wasn't running from anything. He was chasing something. He enjoyed the way the freezing wind felt on his skin and the way it blew through his loose hair. The human tripped – big mistake. He pounced…
Duo and Quatre hopped around frantically, trying to control the onslaught of paper streaming from the graphing machine. It had started beeping faster and faster and now it was simply holding one long annoying tone. The spikes were going off the edges of the paper. Unfortunately, Trowa and Heero could neither hear nor see what was happening behind the mirror and they had no idea what type of danger they were about to be in.
Wufei ripped the human to shreds and tore into her flesh. The blood was sweet and the meat was tender. He threw back his head and let out a cry of both pride and defiance. It was not a human sound.
Duo punched the intercom button, filling the testing room with the racket of the machines and causing Heero and Trowa to look up from their tests.
"Heero, Trowa! GET OUTTA THERE!!" he cried. Heero and Trowa exchanged glances. Heero saw Wufei's hand twitch.
"Did you see that?" he asked Trowa.
"What?" Wufei's whole arm twitched this time.
"That…" Without warning, Wufei sat bolt upright on the table, even though he had been strapped down with steel cuffs. He inhaled dramatically, his elongated fangs glistening in the black light. His eyes shifted nervously back and forth. Sweat poured down his face and he started hyperventilating.
"Wufei -." Trowa began. Wufei jumped off the table and pinned Trowa to the floor.
"Hungry…" he panted. Heero yanked Wufei off of Trowa and threw him against the wall. Wufei's mind was being overloaded with thoughts, senses and nerves. 'Pain, anger, hunger – what's that smell? Blood – food! Human…food…too much…I can't take it! I CAN'T TAKE IT!!' Wufei cried out and took his head in his hands.
"IT'S TOO MUCH!!!!!" he screamed. He moved without thought; he was ripping into something, someone and he didn't care. He needed to stop the pain of the overload. He felt hands trying to grasp his body but he wouldn't let them. He found himself backed into a corner. All of the other pilots and Dr. J were standing in front of him. They were all injured in one place or another, their clothes were shredded almost to the point of not even being there and there wasn't anything in the testing room that was still in tact. He opened his mouth and expelled his rage. His former friends covered their ears as the horrible sound swamped them. Wufei couldn't believe that he was making this noise but he kept making it anyway. The humans squeezed their eyes shut in pain, giving him ample opportunity to escape. He leapt up to the ceiling and latched onto the exposed air duct by thrusting his fingers right through the metal. Someone called for him to stop. He didn't recognize the voice; human speech meant nothing to him now. He slithered into the ventilation shaft. The other four pilots and Dr. J heard Wufei struggling through the vent then the noises ceased and they knew he was gone. They stood there in silence. After a long while, Dr. J spoke.
"We have to keep him from getting out into civilization." he said emotionlessly. They exited the room gravely, their hopes of restoring Wufei all but shattered.
***
Wufei crawled through the air conditioning system in search of food. His human mind struggled to regain control of his wayward body but it kept getting suppressed by his insatiable hunger. His new heightened sense of smell revealed the presence of living animals near by. He approached a vent and peered through it into a rather large room filled with caged test animals. His eyes locked onto a cage holding white rabbits. Saliva dripped from his open mouth. His logical mind screamed in protest but he was beyond listening to its tiny voice now. Unfortunately for him, one of the lights was on and the switch was all the way on the other side of the room. In the middle of figuring out how to turn off the light, Wufei spotted another cage near the light switch. It held a cow. 'Why would Dr. J have a cow?' Wufei wondered. For a moment his human mind came back to him and he started to think about Dr. J and the other pilots. Then the cow let out a loud 'moo' and his appetite took over again. Wufei flipped over onto his back and dug his fingers into the metal of the shaft. He popped open the grate, ripping the screws directly out of the wall, and proceeded to crawl along the ceiling avoiding the light by moving along the edges of the walls. 'Beef,' he thought. 'It's what's for dinner.'
*Yeah…I kinda like that chapter. So do you guys think I should take out that thing from the last chapter or what? The next chapter is where the story gets interesting – the pilots and Dr. J have to figure out how to stop Wufei from changing as well as from killing before it's too late. Or is it already too late?*