NIOBE'S VIOLETS

NIOBE'S VIOLETS

by Ashura

DEDICATION: For Dan, for his 1x2 School fic contest

DISCLAIMERS: The usual. I don't own any of the characters, names or places from GW, I've just warped them.

WARNINGS: Yaoi (3x4, 1x2), Yuri (HxC, RxD)

ARCHIVE: Desolation Angels (http://www.dreamwater.net/ashura)

AUTHOR'S NOTES: AU, Humour, Drama. Contrary to what you may think, the inspiration for this actually came from watching "Real Genius" for the millionth time, but influences include the X-Men, Harry Potter, Escaflowne, the Young Ones, the Heralds of Valdemar, HF's fic "The Silence God," Neon Genesis Evangelion, and my friends' old Shadowrun game. The title...well, that should be explained later.

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Chapter Eight

***********

Duo awoke to someone shaking him--Hilde had let herself in again. "Wake up--you're going to miss breakfast again, and I don't want to come all the way back up the stairs to get you--come on, wake up!"

"Wha--okay, okay, Hilde, I'm awake." By the time he rolled out of his bed and untangled his legs from the duvet, she was already shoving clothes at him. He noted idly that her actions should have irritated him, but never in his sixteen-year-long life had he ever found anyone so willing to take care of him as Hilde--at least in the little, day to day things, like making sure he got breakfast and was wearing clean clothes. It warmed him, though he would never have admitted it to her.

He tugged on the t-shirt and jeans she threw at him, tying his hair back in a hasty tail at the nape of his neck. He raced after her down the hall as she tugged him along behind her, his untied bootlaces flapping around his ankles.

Lady Une had her hair down, and Duo let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't worn her glasses since the first day he'd met her, and he'd decided that in what the rest of the students termed her "Saint Une" personality, he actually liked her. She was sweet, and she brought him chocolate bars when he and Quatre were working with Treize and their energy started to flag.

She was still lecturing to them on wish manifestation, but Duo realised that he was far closer to understanding it than he'd been previously--perhaps it was the atmosphere of the school, where such things were taking as routine, that made his mind so quick to accept.

"Everything is made of energy," she explained, her soft eyes flickering around the room. "Everything. It's all the same stuff--and energy can never be created or destroyed, it can only change form. Organic matter, unalive things, the air you breathe, the chemicals that make you up--all of it is formed of the same substance. So is your will, your drive, the power of your mind. So it is not such a hard thing to work together with the energy around you and make things happen."

She smiled gently. "But the universe is greater than you are--than we all are, even joined together. It is greater, it is older, and it is far, far wiser. Never seek to control it, because you will fail. Only ask it...work in partnership with it. Small influences can set the streams of time and space in motion and make your heart's desire into reality. See that you never misuse it."

Duo found himself nodding solemnly in response, even though the directive was not for him alone. Une smiled at him warmly, and clasped her hands in front of her. "That's all for today. No out-of-class work, because you all have projects you're working on already."

"Hmm...she doesn't look too worried," Hilde noted worriedly under her breath as they filed out of the classroom. "With Romafeller wanting to shut us down, you'd think she'd be stressed. I was surprised she was in Saint mode today."

"Probably Mr. Treize hasn't told her," Heero suggested. "I expect he knows what it would do to her as well as we do."

Relena nodded. "He's probably saving it til after he has a plan of some kind. Then he can just explain things in that calm way he has, and tell her what she needs to do."

"One problem with that," Quatre joined in, catching up to them in the hall on the way to Zechs' garden. "Lady Une is Mr. Treize's tactician. He needs her to help him /make/ the plan."

"Really?" Hilde and Heero looked at Quatre, startled, and the Siren nodded.

"Treize Khushrenada is an incredible force to be reckoned with, and he has grand ideas. But he leaves the implementing of them to Lady Une." He broke off his explanation to wave eagerly to Trowa and Catherine, padding across the grass toward them in perfect synchronisation. He continued, then, as the twins hurried closer. "Anyway, Wufei and I had him this morning. He's still working things out in his head. Determining where all the pieces are, and where they're likely to fall."

"What did your sister say when you saw her?" Relena asked.

Quatre shrugged--not promising, but neither was it problematic. "She'll do what she can. We still own enough of it to stall them, but all they really have to do is find something to get us investigated for and it'll bog her down too. Besides--" he faltered, but by then the twins had reached them, and Trowa spoke up to finish his sentence.

"All Romafeller really has to do," the tall doppelganger explained, "is leak us to the media. If they force us into the public eye--well, you know how most people will feel about us. They'll have no problem closing the place down, and we'll end up in Romafeller's hands anyway under the pretense of 'research.'"

Relena nodded. "After all," she spat bitterly, "our own families don't want to be reminded we exist, the rest of the world certainly doesn't want anything to do with us."

"It'd be like the first Newtypes," Hilde agreed. "Poking and prodding at us--/analysing/ us--"

"And it didn't get any better for /them/," Duo agreed, remembering how violently he'd protested to Iria in the hospital that he was not one of the biotechnological creatures. The original products of advances in metaneurological and g-nome research, the Newtypes had first been hailed as the "new breed of human."

Then the old breed of human had remembered how it disliked to feel threatened. GeneTech, the company responsible for the Newtypes, had been burnt to the ground in a confrontation with its own creations--Duo had been very young at the time, staying in a shelter for homeless children run by a Catholic nun and priest. He remembered overhearing them say what a shame it was, that someone would create children in such a fashion and then refuse to let them lead normal lives. The one they were speaking of was only twelve at the time. It was an androgyne, a word Duo hadn't learned til long after, but it could lift cars and huge machines with its mind, shoot lightning out of its fingers, and, according to a gang of older kids who claimed to have met it while it was hiding on the street, could control your mind and make you do things. Duo had never known how much to believe, but thinking back on it gave him an entirely new perspective and sympathy for the creature. Nicknamed Andy, it had finally taken one of the other Newtype children, its 'little sister' Leia, burnt GeneTech to the ground, vanished completely.

There had been others, though not so well-known, and they were treated with curious suspicion at best, outright hatred at worst. They had all been registered at their creation, and the governments of the world had taken care to keep track of them, and monitor their movements.

Imagining that happening to himself and his friends, Duo suppressed a shudder.

"It'll be all right." Heero's voice in his ear was almost too low to be heard, barely a vibration of tones in the back of his mind and warmth on his skin. He forced himself to nod, and the other boy rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Come on," Heero said dryly. "Let's go try and talk to some plants. Worry about Romafeller later."

"Good idea," interjected Zechs Merquise, attracting their attention immediately to where the shaman stood gracefully against the branch of the willow whose slender fingers draped into the pond. He projected calm, and peace, the way only a true child of nature can--the sort of peace of a universe that continues the endless circle of death and birth and life completely independent of the actions of humans. "I think I'd like you to start with this one."

"The tree?" Catherine asked incredulously. "We haven't even gotten feelings out of flowers yet."

Zechs smiled reassuringly. "I know. But trees are older than flowers, and some of them--like this one--have greater minds. I think if one of you asks her properly, she'll tell you a story."

The students looked at the tree, at their teacher, and finally at each other, skepticism on their faces.

"What, no-one cares to try?" Zechs sounded disappointed.

Quatre stepped forward, almost nervously. "I suppose I will."

"That's cheating," Catherine grumbled good-naturedly.

He made a face at her over his shoulder. "Fine, you do it then."

"Oh, no." She waved her hand in dismissal, the corners of her lips quirking upward. "I just move things around. I'll leave it to you to get stories out of trees."

Quatre shrugged. "All right."

Over the past few days, Duo thought he had gotten used to hearing Quatre sing. From the ecstatic brilliance of the talent show, to the unconquerable terror of their practice the last few days, he thought he had begun to build up an immunity.

He realised, glancing at his enraptured classmates before the song swallowed him utterly, that none of them had.

Because it wasn't just Quatre singing this time. The Siren had pressed his hands to the trunk of the willow, and whatever sound it was leaving the boy's lips was coming from the tree as well--it was as old as life, intensely sorrowful, and infinitely eternal. It was profound and heartbreaking loss, staggering grief that resisted all healing--but hidden deep was a core of hope, as well, of knowledge of some rapturous cosmic truth that if discovered would make an Eden of their hearts.

And then it was gone. The students blinked vaguely out of their trance, and Quatre slumped against the tree trunk as if he couldn't bear to let it go. " Was that right?"

Zechs hastily dragged a tattooed arm across his eyes, where tears like dewdrops had glistened mere moments before. "I've never seen it done quite that way before, but--yes."

*************

The rest of the day went much the same--Duo learned things he'd never dreamed of, and each time he did, his desire to understand grew. He was a little disappointed when Miss Noin took over the Philosophy class and sent him to meet Treize and Quatre for yet more practice. Trowa was extremely irritated that she didn't excuse him to go as well.

But by some miracle he couldn't explain even to himself, Duo wasn't as afraid of hurting him this time. Somewhere, something inside had clicked, and he could feel the Power in his veins even when he wasn't using it--he was more confident than he'd ever been that he could channel it at will, make it answer his demands.

Or rather, his requests. "Work in partnership," Lady Une had explained, and it made sense to him, under his skin, in an intuitive way that had nothing to do with explanations or words.

"I want to try it on my own," he heard himself say. "Without Quatre frightening me."

Treize nodded, surprised but pleased. "Proceed."

Duo closed his eyes, willing the power into his hands--harder, harder! He gathered it, but that was all, and it clogged at his wrists as if he couldn't quite manage to--

"You're forcing it too hard," Treize said gently. "Duo, relax."

"I'd like to try something," said Quatre. "Something besides scaring him."

Without waiting for approval or answer he began to hum--unobtrusive, insinuating, nothing like the grand shows he'd given before. At first, Duo hardly noticed. He was concentrating on Treize' words, his urgings to relax and let the Power flow through his body.

But slowly, the tune began to grow inside him, twining with the Power and merging with it, washing through him, bringing every cell in his body gloriously, ecstatically to life. Duo melted into the flow of green, coursing within him like the blood of his life.

Feel it.

Become it.

Everything is one. You are me, I am you, we are us and everything. This is you.

Don't fight it. Don't fight yourself.

Work together with it. Work together with me.

We are one.

And we are eternal.

The sheer intensity of the /joy/ that poured through him was blinding--but he didn't need to see, he could /feel/, he was part of everything, he was the entire omnipotent Universe and everything in the world was part of him. The painted mark on his chest blazed to brilliant life...vivid green light pooled in his upturned palms, dripping through his fingers to vanish into the carpeting on Treize' office floor. He was never quite sure if Quatre's hand was really touching his shoulder, or when the Siren had ceased to sing, or how long any of it had been.

He knew only that when the feeling faded and he solidified into himself, that he was exhausted.

And grinning.

************

"I'm telling you," Quatre told Wufei firmly as a salad-bowl soared over their heads across the dinner table, "he's got the hang of it now. Don't you, Duo? So stop worrying and make yourself useful."

The firestarter grumbled. "Because of course I've been indulging in parlour tricks all this time? When you have a better idea, Winner, I suggest you share it with the rest of us."

Quatre remained undaunted--in fact, he shot Duo a grin and a wink from his end of the table. "When I do, I will," he assured. "What's Dorothy got for us?"

The blonde girl shrugged, stalling for time til she could finish the bite she was chewing. "Names of the people on the committee responsible for getting us closed down," she answered, almost smugly. "Of course, that wasn't too hard. One of them is my grandfather, after all."

Relena frowned. "That settles it, then, doesn't it? They do want to make a weapon out of us."

Dorothy winked at her girlfriend playfully. "That's right, waterbaby. That's the other little present I thought I'd bring you all." Fumbling for a moment in her bookbag, she deposited a stack of papers on the table. "Presenting the Romafeller Foundation's plans for all of you. Care to see?"

A flurry of suspiciously-caused wind caught the stapled collections, and dropped one neatly in front of each student. Duo mumbled "Thank you, Cathy," along with the rest of them and picked up his copy

"01-Darlien, R: useful in salvage operations and placement of underwater weaponry," Relena read aloud, growling. "In other words, find them sunken treasure and hide their damn mines."

"Mine's no better," Trowa said softly. "'Espionage and undercover operations, replacement tactics,' it says."

"That means," Dorothy informed him succinctly, "that they want you to off the leaders of the competition and take their place until they can find a way for 'em to legitimately turn up dead."

Trowa met her eyes. "So I gathered." He glanced back at the photocopied page. "And you're espionage as well, of course."

She nodded. "Codebreaker. And Quatre they discreetly refer to as 'diplomatic relations.'"

"They don't classify Heero," Catherine remarked suddenly. "Or Sylvia, or Hilde."

"Yes they do," Dorothy said, suddenly sounding troubled. "Down at the bottom. Research and development."

"Doesn't that mean--" Cathy began, and Heero interrupted her.

"Yes, Cathy. It means they want to cut us apart and see what makes us tick." He sighed, pushing his plate away and climbing off the bench.

"Where are you going?" the knife-thrower asked, sliding a protective arm around her girlfriend, even though cutting Hilde open seemed like a profound waste of a scientist's time.

"Just got some things to think about," he answered, shouldering his bag and vanishing down the hall without further explanation.

Hilde shrugged. "I don't blame him. It's been a long day anyway, and I still have a project to work on for Sally that I promised a week ago. You want to head upstairs, Duo? You look like you're about to fall asleep in your soup."

Quatre chuckled. "He had an even longer day than the rest of us." He was interrupted by a yawn, then, and corrected himself: "Except maybe me, and I still have work to do too. Trowa...?"

"I'll help," the taller boy promised, as they departed as well--this time, Duo suspected from their expressions, they actually did plan to study.

Duo was, he admitted, tired. The session with Quatre and Treize had worn him through, exhausted him, but had invigourated him at the same time. So as tired as he was, it wasn't a /sleepy/ sort of tired, and he needed to wind down before he could even consider relaxing.

It made sense to go for a walk. He supposed, if he were trying to justify it, that it made sense too for him to find himself on the balcony where only two nights before he'd met Heero. //Hoping he'll be here again?// he asked himself, and wasn't at all surprised by his answer. //Yes...yes I am, a bit.//

"I wondered if you'd find your way out here." It was the only indication that the boy sitting on the balcony railing dangling his feet over the edge even realised Duo was there, let alone had been waiting for him.

"Is that all right?" Duo asked tentatively, his heart pounding behind the sign still warm on his chest.

Heero /did/ turn to look at him at that, his deep blue eyes dark and bottomless. "Of course it is." He swung around on the railing, alighting on the balcony floor with an angel's grace. "Come here."

Duo, curious, stepped forward, a thrill shooting through his over-sensitised body as the other boy caught his hand. "You're worried," Heero said simply.

Duo found himself nodding. "Aren't you?"

No motion--only the breeze lifting strands of Heero's wild hair. "There are too many factors to consider," he said gravely. "More than any of us or even Trieze and Romafeller are counting on."

"What do you mean?" Even with his newfound enlightenment, Duo realised he didn't completely understand.

And if Heero did, still he struggled to find the words to form it. "There's something more mixed up in all this, that's all. Fate, or something--whatever it is that brings all the cycles back around to the beginning again. Sometimes I think the only one who notices is Sylvia, but--oh, Duo, can't you feel it? It's like it's alive, inside all of us."

//Feel it.//

//Become it.//

//We are one. And we are eternal.//

"I--I think so--" Duo stammered. In truth he wasn't sure if the 'life' Heero was describing was really some cosmic force or merely their own proximity, the slightly-sweaty softness of their fingers entwined, the rapid pounding of his heart in rhythm with Heero's pulse against his wrist.

"Do you?" Heero asked, breathlessly, hopefully.

"I think so," Duo repeated, stumbling as the other boy pulled him close in desperate joy, delight at sharing even the possibility of understanding. He fell into Heero's arms, and at that abrupt touch he was sure he /did/ see, even if it was gone in the flash of awareness that his own body brought him back to.

"Duo--"

"Heero--"

Neither was ever completely sure who initiated the kiss, whose lips first sought out the other's from their awkward twining. They only knew that they both wanted it, desperately, and whatever Fate was alive and taking interest in their affairs had grown tired of waiting for them to acknowledge their desire on their own.

Heero's fingers caressed Duo's neck, slipped up into his hair, easing the mass of chestnut from its matted tail. "So beautiful," he murmured against Duo's lips, and received another kiss in return as the long-haired boy's own slender hands reached up to cup his face.

"...Take off your shirt," Heero whispered, his lips blazing up the length of Duo's neck, eliciting a soft whine of absolute pleasure. Duo nodded, too lost in the sensations drowning him to speak--every touch, every emotion an entirely new experience, and he could no longer even be sure his feet were still planted on the ground. He fumbled with the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head to bare his smooth chest and the intricate violet knot inked onto his skin. Heero's hands slid down his sides as he dropped to his knees--delicate fingers traced the painted lines, and Duo's head fell back, his knuckles clenching, fingers grasping for purchase in Heero's cotton-clad shoulders. The mark was still warm, it had been all evening, and while Heero's touch was cool against it, it set his decourated skin ablaze. The dark head bent closer--utterly lost in the moment, his lips pressed to Duo's chest, his tongue flicking along the lines and planes of the street-boy's undernourished body, tasting the faintly acrid flavour of the paint on his skin. Warmth leaked from Duo's chest to Heero's lips, flooded through them both, wrapped them in the sensation of a tangible moment--

//Feel it.//

//Become it.//

//We are one.//

//And we are eternal.//

Duo sunk to his knees, facing Heero, claiming his lips with pleading urgency. They remained their, enrapt in one another, til Duo's hands slipped beneath Heero's shirt, questing, tugging at the hem. Heero caught his hands--gently, almost reluctantly, lifting them away.

"Duo...don't."

Violet eyes opened wide, and he saw Heero wince at the hurt he was sure reflected in them. As if to make amends for stopping him, he pressed a gentler kiss to Duo's swollen lips.

"I'm sorry...please. Not now. Not yet."

"But you--"

"You'll understand, later. I promise."

Duo nodded wordlessly. He didn't understand, not yet, but he still felt flooded with the newness of experience, the trail of paint and kisses emblazoned on his body, and the softness of Heero's lips. He recognised the reluctance in Heero's blue eyes, and could not fault it--and if Heero said he would come to understand, well, then Duo would trust him.

How natural that trust seemed.