To the person who screamed no to romance in their review I would like to say that as always, this is a non-yaoi fic. There is no romance. There are only scenes which I said that people who wanted to see them as romance could think of them as romance. I like to be open to all readers and to write stories that anyone can enjoy. Thank you. And also, the anti ff.net is sort of a joke some one started, a dare if you will. Nevermind that, it's nothing to be concerned about, no one is threatening this site to my knowledge. ^___^
Virus
Continued
12. Release
Trowa and Heero dove off to the sides to avoid flying debris. Duo slammed against the far wall and slid to the floor, in between states of consciousness. Worming his way in, Wufei scanned the room for his first victim. His now fully reptilian eyes came to rest on Quatre, tied to a rolling chair, trapped, helpless – easy prey. He made straight for the delirious boy, his massive bulk making the floor tremble as he went. Trowa saw where he was heading and fired a couple shots into his back. But Wufei continued on, unfazed by the wounds. Growing desperate, Trowa looked around for something, anything that he could use to stop Wufei. The light switch caught his eye. The lights in the room were off. All he had to do was turn them on. For that moment, he didn't think about what would happen to Wufei once he was caught in light. He simply acted on impulse, driven by both fear and anger. Rolling to the side he sprang up and made a mad dash for the switch. Wufei sensed the movement; his tail lashed out quickly, sweeping Trowa's feet out from under him. He fell forward, time crawling agonizingly slow as he watched his fingers come closer and realized he was going to fall short. Turning his head to the right he could see the tail coming at him again, moving almost as if something was holding it back. But it was going to hit him from underneath. Maybe he could use that to his advantage. Stretching as far out as he could he waited for the tail to hit and it did, stunning him more than he had anticipated. His hand went limp almost instantaneously but as he was swept up into the air he felt the switch under his fingers. He heard a very distinct click and knew he had succeeded. But he was not awake long enough to fully appreciate it. Already stunned, he barely felt the wall as he slammed into it. The momentum caused him to bounce off and fall face forward on the floor. But as consciousness rapidly left him, his eyes transmitted one last image to his mind, an image that to him was the best thing he'd seen in days – light.
Wufei roared in both pain and anger as the light swamped him, blinding him, hurting him. He stumbled in unfocused furor and fell onto his side. Heero stood and took aim with his gun as Wufei started to twitch and transform again. Realizing that he was going back into his "human" form, he snatched the bottle of brandy from its place on a desk which fortunately had not been disturbed. He dove on Wufei as soon as he was completely transformed, ignoring the fact that he was almost completely naked and pinned him to the floor by his throat. Opening the bottle of brandy with his teeth, he squeezed Wufei harder so that he would open his mouth. As soon as both Wufei's mouth and the bottle were open, he poured the copper colored liquid down Wufei's throat. He had forced him to drink nearly half the bottle before he saw any results. Wufei started to gag, his stomach muscles contracting violently.
"Get – out." Heero growled. In an explosion of slime and blood the alien organism that had infected Wufei came out of his body through his mouth and latched onto the ceiling. Duo, who had been watching the whole thing, was vaguely reminded of an ancient movie in which an alien exploded from a man's chest. Wufei stared open mouthed up at the creature who had stolen his humanity. No thoughts would register in his mind. Only one word echoed through his head – released. He had been freed, he had been unchained…he had been released. Unable to take the light the creature moved away but fell to the floor before it could go very far. Heero poured the remainder of the brandy on it and watched as it shriveled and dried and turned to dust. He sat back and wiped his brow. For all that they had gone through…if they had only given Wufei a drink they could have saved themselves all this trouble. It seemed so ridiculous. How simple the solution had been, how easy it had been to kill the beast…how many people had died while they endeavored to concoct some intricate and complicated vaccine…all that, and all they had to do from the very start was do something as simple as give Wufei a glass of wine. A small chuckle to his right attracted his attention. Duo was starting to laugh.
"That was some experience, huh? Whew, we went through so much trying to get that thing out…seems kinda funny that all he needed was a good stiff drink." After saying this, the braided boy broke into all out laughter. Heero stared at Duo in disbelief; even after going through so much he could still make jokes. It was amazing. He looked in another direction as a small moan reached his ears. Quatre was slumped over yet again, but this time he seemed to be in pain. Seeing that brought him back to himself and he remembered that he needed to find the antibiotics for Quatre. He stood to head back to the cold storage area but he laid eyes on Wufei, unmoving on the floor. Something else he had forgotten; he needed to tie Wufei up in the room they had set up for that specific purpose. Employing the help of Duo, he managed to get Wufei into the hospital bed and tie his arms and feet with steel wire rope. After they were finished Duo pointed at Wufei's face.
"Hey, what's that stuff?" he asked, indicating a dark trail of liquid running from Wufei's nostril down his lips. Heero examined it briefly.
"Blood…" he said after a moment. "Come on, we need to help Trowa and Quatre." They left Wufei in the darkened hospital room to go help their comrades. A faint beep sounded from a digital clock as it registered midnight. 'I am free...' Wufei thought. 'I have been…released…'
***
Once Wufei was secured, Trowa was left to watch both him and Quatre while Duo and Heero retrieved Dr. J. Fortunately for them, the slime Wufei had used to hold Dr. J wasn't numbing as the slime he had used on Trowa and Heero had been. After a few hours Dr. J was well enough to help hook Wufei to some IV's so he wouldn't go into withdrawal. They kept the room well lit, having discovered that light did no physical damage to Wufei and he'd only been afraid of it because the organism had programmed him to be. As long as the room was lit, Wufei couldn't transform again so they made sure that all the lights were on. As soon as he was able, Dr. J made preparations to perform the blood transfusion. He carried out the procedure with ease and it seemed that everything would be fine. Wufei was now on the track to recovery and the world was safe once again. Heero stood at his post outside the observation room and watched as Duo fed Wufei. He had never agreed with letting Duo have that job but he and Quatre seemed to be the only people who could get Wufei to eat. Dr. J walked up next to him.
"Duo told me what happened." he said. Heero showed no sign of acknowledgement but Dr. J knew he was listening. "So you saved the human race. I suppose you feel good about that. But you have nothing to feel good about. You hesitated. You let fear get in the way of action, thinking. Perhaps you are due for some re training. I don't have any time nor any use for cry babies and scaredy cats Heero, you know that." With that Dr. J left to attend to other matters. Heero only watched as the last of the raw steak disappeared down Wufei's throat. A very small, very miniscule part of him wished it was Dr. J and not a steak…
***
Days passed and they tested Wufei's blood often to see if his old DNA was taking its rightful place and saw, much to their satisfaction, that it was. They were able to collect a venom sample from Wufei's fangs and create a vaccine to cure Quatre and he made a full recovery. Everything was going according to plan – or so it seemed. Everyday the dosage of adrenaline and dopamine lessened, giving the effect of Wufei being weaned off of the stimulants. It was hoped that once the two substances were at a normal level Wufei would be able to think as he once did. Finally it was at only twice the normal level and Wufei seemed to be able to make rational decisions. Duo walked into the room, a cheery smile on his face.
"It's time for breakfast, Wuffers!" He set down the tray of steaks and turned to look at Wufei who had been strapped to the same bed for weeks. He expected the same thing he always received when it was his turn to feed Wufei – a glare and a growl and occasionally a good cussing out. But as he turned all he saw was Wufei's back.
"Wu-man? You okay?" He walked around to the other side of the bed and looked into Wufei's darkening eyes. Wufei just stared straight ahead and gave no response. Duo waved his hand in front of Wufei's face. Still he received no response. He turned to the mirror.
"Heero, something's wrong with Wufei." he called. Heero examined the data output of Wufei's brain but everything looked normal. Dr. J doubled checked the readings just to be sure. They couldn't figure out what was going on. Upon hearing this, Quatre walked into Wufei's room and pushed past Duo. He picked up a steak from the food tray and held it up to Wufei's mouth. Wufei only closed his eyes and moved his head away. Quatre replaced the meat and after a moment he asked,
"Dr. J, is it possible that Wufei is depressed?" Dr. J paused to ponder the question.
"Well, even though we have been keeping his dopamine levels elevated, I suppose it is quite possible for him to be depressed. He has good reason to be distraught, after all. This experience is a good deal for anyone to take in. He just found out that aliens really do exist; shocking to the best of us I would say. His body was invaded and controlled by another creature, so he probably feels violated. Then there is the realization that for a moment in time he was neither physically nor mentally human. Let us not forget all the innocent people he killed and ate. If he is depressed, I can understand why. No person should have to go through what he's been through." While Dr. J was speaking no one noticed that Wufei's pale fingers wrapped around the cord running from the IV machine to his arm.
Afterwards it was the same everyday. Wufei refused to eat or speak and most of the time even refused to move. But it hadn't been three days later that they became positive he was depressed. It was Quatre's turn to feed him and he was in the room with a tray of food trying to do so.
"Come on Wufei," he was saying. "You need to eat." He smiled triumphantly as Wufei's mouth opened. Only looking away briefly to pick up the food, he turned back just in time to see Wufei's eyes roll back in his head and then the seizure began. Before he was pushed out of the way he saw Wufei's hand clenched tight around the IV cord. He knew then that Wufei had put himself into withdrawal. He had been trying to kill himself. Of course he had to be pumped full of drugs to stabilize his body and from then on they watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn't try anything like that again. Eventually they were forced to give him an IV for food; he still would not eat. Quatre became increasingly worried. The way he and Wufei had seemed connected had been incredible to him. He had never known Wufei had emotions like the ones he'd felt but at the same time it had been horrifying because the hatred had started to envelope him as well. But now he could sense nothing from the boy. He couldn't feel pain or happiness in Wufei. There was just an empty void, a black hole where Wufei used to be. He never showed any kind of emotion anymore. He just laid there on the bed with his back to the observation mirror. There was never an expression on his face. It just looked blank and empty all the time. They could only tell he wasn't brain dead from the scanners. And as hard as they tried to prevent him from harming himself they just couldn't seem to do so. Another day Duo was trying once again to get Wufei to eat. Being very unfruitful in his endeavors, he settled for just talking to the Chinese boy.
"You know eventually you're gonna be back to normal. Then you can go back to trying to beat me up. And you can go back to piloting your gundam! It's all fixed up now." He paused a moment to shoot a grin in Wufei's direction. Unfazed by the fact that Wufei had buried his head under his pillows he continued to ramble on. It was not till minutes later when a long shrill tone echoed through his ears that he realized what had happened. He was pushed out of the way so that the pillows Wufei had used to smother himself with could be removed and oxygen put back into his lungs. Following this incident Wufei was allowed only one pillow and a very thin and light one at that. The others simply could not understand why he constantly tried to end his life. Only he knew the reasons for craving death. The voice, low and hateful, filling his mind, replacing his thoughts…it was what told him to end his pathetic, meaningless life.
"Look at you." it would hiss. "You're worthless. You're pitiful. Why are you still alive? All you're doing is wasting air. You can't even kill yourself." Wufei used to argue with the voice mentally but now he no longer wasted the effort. To him there was no point in arguing; clearly the voice was right. He should be ashamed of what he had let happen. How weak he had been to let his body and mind be taken over. Disgraceful the way he had treated his allies, disgusting the way he had treated innocent people. He could never show his face anywhere ever again. He had to die. Eventually another idea came to him. It had been Quatre who'd discovered this one.
Everything seemed to be going according to schedule. He stood next to Heero and watched Wufei through the one way window that the distraught boy never looked into. Dr. J pointed out something on one of the monitors. A massive drop in blood pressure had occurred in Wufei's body as well as other sharp decreases. Just standing there Quatre may have never noticed but Dr. J's observation made him look harder. Once he did sharpen his gaze he saw the blood staining the sheets that covered the pale, thin body. Wufei hadn't even tried to cover it up but it was almost invisible anyway as the stains fell where many creases and shadows were. And so it was found that Wufei had cut his wrists on the metal hand restraints. Much to their dismay and discomfort they were forced to use a softer type of restraint. It was hoped that Wufei would not be able to break free due to his atrophied muscles. But only a few days later an alarm went off, alerting them to some problem with Wufei. Those of the group that had been away now rushed back to the room expecting an answer but finding only more questions. The restraints were broken, the window was open and Wufei was gone.
*Sorry that this chapter is so short. But the next chapter will be the last one anyway. Think that Wufei shouldn't be so depressed? Well wouldn't you be feeling a little upset if that happened to you? Ah, you have to think about those things. And no I don't own Aliens™ but I really wish I did.*