Author's Note: Okay. Here we go. Maybe ~someone~ will understand what's going on when the chapter is done. Hope you all like it. ^_^
Psyche: Can we just continue with the fic?
Sure!
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing -
Psyche: So if you're want to sue, you can bloody well piss off!
You just like saying that, don't you?
Psyche: Yep! ^_^
* thoughts * ~emphasis~ *( Psychic/empathic thoughts/emotions )*
PART SIX
Duo finished the plate of lukewarm spaghetti in record time, even for him. He wiped his mouth on his hands, which he wiped on his pajama pants. He chugged the rest of his water down. Quatre and Wufei watched him. He looked back, and when the glass was empty he set it on the carpet.
"What?" he demanded.
"What do you recall from last night?" Wufei asked.
"Well..." Duo began, stretching and using it as a cover to glance up at the stairway. No sign of Heero or Trowa. Damn. He was worried almost to the point of getting up and running after them, despite what Wufei had said right after Trowa left, that he "needed to recuperate from his experience." "There was lots of weird stuff going on, and I did something to save your life, I think. I - "
He broke off and frowned.
"I don't remember what it was, though... " he finished lamely.
Wufei arched an eyebrow.
"Well, that's not too unusual. Many of the psychics I've met found their first time so traumatic that they blotted the exact details from their minds. I can't remember ~my~ first experience, either," he said. "But I was told of it."
"Really? What was it?" Quatre asked, blinking curiously.
Duo turned his head to throw a quelling look at Quatre. The braided boy found the fact that Quatre was taking all this "psychic" mumbo-jumbo in such good stride annoying. Where was the disbelief? Where were the denials and rejections? * Well, Quatre has an overly-trusting nature. And some freaky-odd things happened recently... I'll give Wu a chance, I guess... *
"Never mind. I'll tell you about it sometime. My point is that none of us can tell exactly what happened last night until we get Heero here. It all started with Heero," Wufei answered cryptically.
"Wufei, do ~you~ know what I did to save you? I ~did~ save you, right? It wasn't Trowa or Heero, was it?" Duo asked.
"I was not in a position to recall much. I do know that it ~was~ you who saved me. For that I am deeply indebted to you," he said, clasping his hands in front of his chest and bowing as best he could while in a semi-reclined postition.
"Heh, don't mention it," Duo replied with a grin, a little uneasy at the formality of the statement. "You would've done the same for me, right? That's what friends do. But it's a bit of a switch, huh? I'm Shinigami and I pulled someone ~back~ from the brink of death."
Quatre and Wufei looked bemused, but the moment was broken by Heero and Trowa hurriedly coming downstairs. Duo heaved a silent sigh of relief, then cracked a more believable smile. Heero was still wearing welding goggles and gloves.
"Ahhh!" he shouted in mock fear. "Run for your lives! It's a bug-eyed alien from Neptu- ohhhh, it's you. Sorry, Heero."
Quatre smiled at this, and Wufei cocked an eyebrow wryly. Trowa just ~looked~ at him. But he couldn't see Heero's eyes through the green-tinted plastic of the goggles, so the glare he knew was there didn't count. Then Heero removed the gloves and goggles, and sat on one of the unoccupied couches. Trowa sat down on the far armrest of Quatre's couch and crossed his arms.
"What happened?" Duo asked, anxious to know if the sudden fear he had, when he ~knew~ something had gone wrong with Heero was founded. He tried to ignore how hypocritical he was being by disbelieving Wufei and yet following his... hunches this closely. * It's not a prediction or an omen or something like that... *
"The safey cord on Wing snapped. I was knocked unconscious. Trowa woke me up and we came back here," Heero explained succinctly. He crossed his arms as well, his intense gaze darting from Wufei to Duo sharply.
* Whoa. I was... right. He ~was~ in trouble. ....This is weird. *
"So... what now?" he asked as silence began to settle around them like a thick haze of smoke.
"We each tell our sides of the story. I think we can all agree that something... not easily explained by science or logic is going on," Wufei said. "I ask you to please consider what I am going to say, and not reject it out of hand." He tossed a significant look in Duo's direction, who snorted in response.
"Go on. After what we saw last night, I'm sure we can afford to be a bit credulous," Trowa said. Heero gave a single sharp nod to signal his agreement.
Wufei examined all four faces for a moment, as if searching. Then he took a deep breath.
"I am a psychic. That means in very blunt, general terms that I am more connected to the energy that makes up matter and life and all the different levels of reality."
"Like a - a newtype?" Quatre asked, something like hope in his voice.
"Possibly, but not necessarily. Psychics have been around since the dawn of humanity, while newtypes are exacty what their name says: new. There is some debate as to whether it was humanity's natural state to be psychic, but somehow or another most people have blocked off their talents. Now most are born with the blocks already in place. With some work, anyone can remove these blocks. But there are a few who don't have them when they are born, who are inherently more open to the ebb and flow of energy in the universe. I am one such. Duo is another. I realized this after Duo's attack on the stairs," he explained.
"You see, when a person is born with more innate connectedness, it is especially hard for the blocks to form. This leaves most psychics open their entire lives. Duo, you are the first born-psychic I have met that has a block like a "normal" person. But it is not ~exactly~ like a normal block. It is susceptible to pressures from outside." He paused to take a sip from his glass of water.
"This brings me to a point. There is a... pressure here in this house. A very ~strong~ pressure. Strong enough to crack Duo's block. That is why you had an attack on the stairs. As soon as I manipulated my own energy to form a sort of mental shield around you, it stopped."
Duo frowned, but couldn't think of anything to say to discount this little speech, other than outright rejection of everything. And he couldn't do that, not after last night. He grudgingly admitted - just to himself, of course - that it ~did~ help explain, if you suspended your disbelief enough.
"Keep talking," he urged in a tight voice, aware that they were all looking at him.
Wufei resisted a sigh of relief. Duo was starting to accept it, starting to give a little ground. The others didn't really have to believe him, not now at least. But it was of the utmost importance that Duo did not block himself off again, however he'd managed to do it in the first place.
"That having been said, I think you are ready to hear my version of events last night." Wufei leaned back on the armrest of his couch. The others listened intently as he spoke, telling of his encounter with the mass of energy, and Heero's flight. When he got to the part where he confronted the parasite in Quatre's room, he had to pause to drink again.
There was a small silence. Quatre was deathly pale. Trowa looked sharply from Quatre to Wufei and back. Heero merely watched them all with a slightly detatched air. Wufei studied him. The Japanese teen was trying to look unmoved, but if one looked, one could see the muscles of his jaw clench and relax repeatedly. Duo seemed to be caught between skepticism and something deeper.
* Good. *
"It was sucking the life force from you, Quatre. I could feel it draining you. I grabbed you and wrapped you in my shields, and ran out of the room. It could have followed, but it let you go. Then I realized that it was because it had nearly sapped all of your life force from you."
Quatre's eyes were the size of plates, and he blinked. Trowa shifted slightly on his armrest. Wufei noticed the quick sidelong glance he tossed the blonde. * Heh, now ~there's~ something I didn't expect. * he thought sarcastically.
"I had to restore it. I stripped Duo of the shields I put on him, and poured that power into you. It worked in that it kept you alive, but, unfortunately, too much of my own life force went into the effort. I'm not ~quite~ certain on the events after that, other than a vague recollection of speaking to Heero afterwards," Wufei finished.
"I remember you passing out. Trowa was trying to restart your heart, but CPR wasn't working," Duo told him. Then a peculiar unfocused look came into his eyes, and he frowned puzzledly. "I knew... something was wrong. So I... did something. I don't know what, though."
Heero looked slightly startled at that, but he quickly regained his emotionless countenance. Wufei noted this out of the corner of his eye. * Hm. Interesting. *
"Neither of you can remember?" he asked.
Wufei and Duo both shook their heads.
"Duo... You went into a sort of trance, I guess. You went over to Wufei and pushed Trowa out of the way. Then you... kissed him," Heero said in a dead sort of voice.
"I did WHAT?!" Duo demanded, sitting bolt upright, staring with disbelief at Heero.
* That ~is~ surprising. * Wufei thought, feeling his eyes widen.
"There was a swell of something like static electricity," Trowa went on. "Then it was gone, and Wufei's heart started again, obviously. Duo, you passed out after that."
Quatre was looking from Heero to Duo and back rapidly, a smal furrow in his brow as he absentmindedly rubbed his chest. Duo had turned an alarming shade of red. He seemed to find the pattern on the comforter he was wrapped in very interesting. Wufei felt a faint blush on his own cheekbones, but it wasn't nearly as bad as all that, was it? Or was Duo straight after all? Wufei wasn't sure. The braided pilot gave so many mixed signals that is was most likely he wasn't sure himself.
"Don't take it for anything significant. It was merely a way to transfer the energy," Wufei told them all. Duo gave him a look that could've boiled glaciers, and he felt his face grow redder. "Such a feat is very tricky. It's part psychological. It is an incredibly intimate thing. Also, one has to ~feel~ like they're giving off energy, otherwise it doesn't work. Your subconscious mind decided that since it was mentally intimate, it should be physically intimate as well."
It also had to do with the necessity for balance between the astral and physical plane, but Wufei didn't feel like getting into a detailed explaination of the statement "As Above, So Below." that could take hours. But the others kept staring at him skeptically, and Duo did so accusingly. He felt himself blush yet ~more~ darkly, this time with annoyance.
"Be glad it was just kissing. A few psychics can only transfer energy by having full intercourse," he snapped, then tossed his tangled hair out of his eyes so he could glare at them.
This didn't seem to mollify Duo in the least, though, and there was an awkward pause.
"Wufei," Heero intoned at last. "You said that it was too late for all of us. What did you mean by that?" His posture was almost challenging.
* I wonder what he's so upset about... *
"I was most likely delirious. I have no idea what I could have meant by that," he replied evenly. "Heero, what woke ~you~ up in the first place?"
Heero hesitated, his eyes turning troubled for a split second. Then he seemed to firm himself.
"I had... a dream. A nightmare," he said.
Wufei resisted the urge to blink in surprise. It had never really occured to him that intense pilot 01 would dream at all, much less have nightmares. * But then, he ~is~ only fifteen, like the rest of us. Too young to be killing for a living. * A twinge of memory beckoned from the edges of his conscious, but when he tried to followw it, it vanished. He merely had the impression that this could be important.
"Do you have them often?" the Chinese boy asked in a neutral tone. Heero shrugged. "What was it about?"
"Is this necessary?" Heero frowned, glaring at Wufei. What was that in Heero's voice? Hidden underneath the unvarying monotone, was that a hint of... suspicion? Distrust? Maybe even.... fear? For a second Wufei groped for something to justify this question, knowing that it lurked somewhere in the back of his mind. He resisted a frustrated sigh. It might be dishonorable to lie, but he had to invent to keep Heero from avoiding answering.
"It would help explain your frame of mind. Yuy, you don't want to admit it, but last night you were practically hysterical. What was your dream about?" Wufei repeated, glaring back at Heero, hoping this argument would be enough until he knew the ~real~ reason he had to know this.
They kept their eyes locked for a long, long moment. The tension was heavy and thick, with definite dimentions. He was almost ready to break down and let it slide - for the moment, at least - when Heero took a breath and spoke.
"I don't know when I first started having them," he began, his voice so low that the rest had to lean in to hear him. This was humiliating; he was appearing weak in front of people whose respect he not only needed but - he admitted reluctantly - craved. "But lately, I've been waking up in the middle of the night. Last night was the first time I had a really ~clear~ memory of a dream. I had another today when I was knocked unconscious."
Duo was watching Heero like a hawk. "What happened in your dreams?"
Heero met his gaze, and Duo blanched a little.
"Both times I was in the desert, standing next to a line of people. They were marching across the desert, and there were so many that I couldn't see the start or end of them. Last night, I tried talking to them, but they were all dead. Walking corpses," he said, hating the flat quality of his tone. He might as well have "FEAR" tattooed on his forehead.
Around him the others looked uneasy as well and did not comment.
"Then this... girl came up to me. She... She was very familiar, but I didn't recognize her. She told me that the dead are lost, then made me turn around. And then I was nowhere near the line of dead people, she was gone, and there was a storm. I was buried in sand," he went on, then cleared his throat. "Then I woke up."
A philosophic pause followed as everyone digested this.
"What was the other one like?" Quatre queried after a moment, looking at him with bright aquamarine eyes. The depth of empathy within them surprised Heero.
"I was standing on a dune beside the line of dead, and I saw the girl ahead of me, looking at something. I went to follow, but the sun was so hot. I was dying of thirst, and the sky had turned oragne. Then the girl was right in front of me and wasn't going to let me quit. I went with her until she stopped. She pointed at something. On the very edge of the horizon was... something. I don't know what. But that was where the line was headed," he said, faster now. * Treat it like a mission debriefing. *
"Orange sky?" Wufei asked, his brow furrowed as if he was having trouble remembering something.
"Yes."
"That means something," Wufei muttered, half to himself. "Heero, thank you. Tell one of us if you have another dream like that."
"Ryoukai."
Wufei smirked slightly at that. He'd just given Heero Yuy an order. He forced himself not to get smug, and turned to Duo, who was looking at Heero with an odd, preoccupied. expression.
"Now, Duo. About your abilities... " he trailed off. *( Something... )*
"Wh-hat, Wu-man?" Duo asked, glancing around nervously.
Wufei did not respond, though a part of him was vindicated. * Good. He feels it, too. *
A creeping feeling of unease swelled in his chest. He thought he saw something stir from the corner of his eye, and he jerked his head to the side, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. There was nothing there.
The others followed his glance, though no one appeared to have seen anything. Wufei wished passionately that he was recovered enough to expand his shields. He wanted to keep that... ~thing~ as far from them as possible. But as it was, his shields were shrunken, clining tightly to him like a second skin. * Damn. It's going to be at least a week to regain my full power. How will I protect them? *
"Never mind. I think... it's here," he said in a low voice.
END PART SIX
That help any?
Thalia, Eros, Psyche: NO!
Oh. Well then. I'll just have to give it another shot, won't I? ^_^
Thalia, Eros, Psyche: ::fall over::
Eh, Review, huh?
Psyche: Can we just continue with the fic?
Sure!
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing -
Psyche: So if you're want to sue, you can bloody well piss off!
You just like saying that, don't you?
Psyche: Yep! ^_^
* thoughts * ~emphasis~ *( Psychic/empathic thoughts/emotions )*
PART SIX
Duo finished the plate of lukewarm spaghetti in record time, even for him. He wiped his mouth on his hands, which he wiped on his pajama pants. He chugged the rest of his water down. Quatre and Wufei watched him. He looked back, and when the glass was empty he set it on the carpet.
"What?" he demanded.
"What do you recall from last night?" Wufei asked.
"Well..." Duo began, stretching and using it as a cover to glance up at the stairway. No sign of Heero or Trowa. Damn. He was worried almost to the point of getting up and running after them, despite what Wufei had said right after Trowa left, that he "needed to recuperate from his experience." "There was lots of weird stuff going on, and I did something to save your life, I think. I - "
He broke off and frowned.
"I don't remember what it was, though... " he finished lamely.
Wufei arched an eyebrow.
"Well, that's not too unusual. Many of the psychics I've met found their first time so traumatic that they blotted the exact details from their minds. I can't remember ~my~ first experience, either," he said. "But I was told of it."
"Really? What was it?" Quatre asked, blinking curiously.
Duo turned his head to throw a quelling look at Quatre. The braided boy found the fact that Quatre was taking all this "psychic" mumbo-jumbo in such good stride annoying. Where was the disbelief? Where were the denials and rejections? * Well, Quatre has an overly-trusting nature. And some freaky-odd things happened recently... I'll give Wu a chance, I guess... *
"Never mind. I'll tell you about it sometime. My point is that none of us can tell exactly what happened last night until we get Heero here. It all started with Heero," Wufei answered cryptically.
"Wufei, do ~you~ know what I did to save you? I ~did~ save you, right? It wasn't Trowa or Heero, was it?" Duo asked.
"I was not in a position to recall much. I do know that it ~was~ you who saved me. For that I am deeply indebted to you," he said, clasping his hands in front of his chest and bowing as best he could while in a semi-reclined postition.
"Heh, don't mention it," Duo replied with a grin, a little uneasy at the formality of the statement. "You would've done the same for me, right? That's what friends do. But it's a bit of a switch, huh? I'm Shinigami and I pulled someone ~back~ from the brink of death."
Quatre and Wufei looked bemused, but the moment was broken by Heero and Trowa hurriedly coming downstairs. Duo heaved a silent sigh of relief, then cracked a more believable smile. Heero was still wearing welding goggles and gloves.
"Ahhh!" he shouted in mock fear. "Run for your lives! It's a bug-eyed alien from Neptu- ohhhh, it's you. Sorry, Heero."
Quatre smiled at this, and Wufei cocked an eyebrow wryly. Trowa just ~looked~ at him. But he couldn't see Heero's eyes through the green-tinted plastic of the goggles, so the glare he knew was there didn't count. Then Heero removed the gloves and goggles, and sat on one of the unoccupied couches. Trowa sat down on the far armrest of Quatre's couch and crossed his arms.
"What happened?" Duo asked, anxious to know if the sudden fear he had, when he ~knew~ something had gone wrong with Heero was founded. He tried to ignore how hypocritical he was being by disbelieving Wufei and yet following his... hunches this closely. * It's not a prediction or an omen or something like that... *
"The safey cord on Wing snapped. I was knocked unconscious. Trowa woke me up and we came back here," Heero explained succinctly. He crossed his arms as well, his intense gaze darting from Wufei to Duo sharply.
* Whoa. I was... right. He ~was~ in trouble. ....This is weird. *
"So... what now?" he asked as silence began to settle around them like a thick haze of smoke.
"We each tell our sides of the story. I think we can all agree that something... not easily explained by science or logic is going on," Wufei said. "I ask you to please consider what I am going to say, and not reject it out of hand." He tossed a significant look in Duo's direction, who snorted in response.
"Go on. After what we saw last night, I'm sure we can afford to be a bit credulous," Trowa said. Heero gave a single sharp nod to signal his agreement.
Wufei examined all four faces for a moment, as if searching. Then he took a deep breath.
"I am a psychic. That means in very blunt, general terms that I am more connected to the energy that makes up matter and life and all the different levels of reality."
"Like a - a newtype?" Quatre asked, something like hope in his voice.
"Possibly, but not necessarily. Psychics have been around since the dawn of humanity, while newtypes are exacty what their name says: new. There is some debate as to whether it was humanity's natural state to be psychic, but somehow or another most people have blocked off their talents. Now most are born with the blocks already in place. With some work, anyone can remove these blocks. But there are a few who don't have them when they are born, who are inherently more open to the ebb and flow of energy in the universe. I am one such. Duo is another. I realized this after Duo's attack on the stairs," he explained.
"You see, when a person is born with more innate connectedness, it is especially hard for the blocks to form. This leaves most psychics open their entire lives. Duo, you are the first born-psychic I have met that has a block like a "normal" person. But it is not ~exactly~ like a normal block. It is susceptible to pressures from outside." He paused to take a sip from his glass of water.
"This brings me to a point. There is a... pressure here in this house. A very ~strong~ pressure. Strong enough to crack Duo's block. That is why you had an attack on the stairs. As soon as I manipulated my own energy to form a sort of mental shield around you, it stopped."
Duo frowned, but couldn't think of anything to say to discount this little speech, other than outright rejection of everything. And he couldn't do that, not after last night. He grudgingly admitted - just to himself, of course - that it ~did~ help explain, if you suspended your disbelief enough.
"Keep talking," he urged in a tight voice, aware that they were all looking at him.
Wufei resisted a sigh of relief. Duo was starting to accept it, starting to give a little ground. The others didn't really have to believe him, not now at least. But it was of the utmost importance that Duo did not block himself off again, however he'd managed to do it in the first place.
"That having been said, I think you are ready to hear my version of events last night." Wufei leaned back on the armrest of his couch. The others listened intently as he spoke, telling of his encounter with the mass of energy, and Heero's flight. When he got to the part where he confronted the parasite in Quatre's room, he had to pause to drink again.
There was a small silence. Quatre was deathly pale. Trowa looked sharply from Quatre to Wufei and back. Heero merely watched them all with a slightly detatched air. Wufei studied him. The Japanese teen was trying to look unmoved, but if one looked, one could see the muscles of his jaw clench and relax repeatedly. Duo seemed to be caught between skepticism and something deeper.
* Good. *
"It was sucking the life force from you, Quatre. I could feel it draining you. I grabbed you and wrapped you in my shields, and ran out of the room. It could have followed, but it let you go. Then I realized that it was because it had nearly sapped all of your life force from you."
Quatre's eyes were the size of plates, and he blinked. Trowa shifted slightly on his armrest. Wufei noticed the quick sidelong glance he tossed the blonde. * Heh, now ~there's~ something I didn't expect. * he thought sarcastically.
"I had to restore it. I stripped Duo of the shields I put on him, and poured that power into you. It worked in that it kept you alive, but, unfortunately, too much of my own life force went into the effort. I'm not ~quite~ certain on the events after that, other than a vague recollection of speaking to Heero afterwards," Wufei finished.
"I remember you passing out. Trowa was trying to restart your heart, but CPR wasn't working," Duo told him. Then a peculiar unfocused look came into his eyes, and he frowned puzzledly. "I knew... something was wrong. So I... did something. I don't know what, though."
Heero looked slightly startled at that, but he quickly regained his emotionless countenance. Wufei noted this out of the corner of his eye. * Hm. Interesting. *
"Neither of you can remember?" he asked.
Wufei and Duo both shook their heads.
"Duo... You went into a sort of trance, I guess. You went over to Wufei and pushed Trowa out of the way. Then you... kissed him," Heero said in a dead sort of voice.
"I did WHAT?!" Duo demanded, sitting bolt upright, staring with disbelief at Heero.
* That ~is~ surprising. * Wufei thought, feeling his eyes widen.
"There was a swell of something like static electricity," Trowa went on. "Then it was gone, and Wufei's heart started again, obviously. Duo, you passed out after that."
Quatre was looking from Heero to Duo and back rapidly, a smal furrow in his brow as he absentmindedly rubbed his chest. Duo had turned an alarming shade of red. He seemed to find the pattern on the comforter he was wrapped in very interesting. Wufei felt a faint blush on his own cheekbones, but it wasn't nearly as bad as all that, was it? Or was Duo straight after all? Wufei wasn't sure. The braided pilot gave so many mixed signals that is was most likely he wasn't sure himself.
"Don't take it for anything significant. It was merely a way to transfer the energy," Wufei told them all. Duo gave him a look that could've boiled glaciers, and he felt his face grow redder. "Such a feat is very tricky. It's part psychological. It is an incredibly intimate thing. Also, one has to ~feel~ like they're giving off energy, otherwise it doesn't work. Your subconscious mind decided that since it was mentally intimate, it should be physically intimate as well."
It also had to do with the necessity for balance between the astral and physical plane, but Wufei didn't feel like getting into a detailed explaination of the statement "As Above, So Below." that could take hours. But the others kept staring at him skeptically, and Duo did so accusingly. He felt himself blush yet ~more~ darkly, this time with annoyance.
"Be glad it was just kissing. A few psychics can only transfer energy by having full intercourse," he snapped, then tossed his tangled hair out of his eyes so he could glare at them.
This didn't seem to mollify Duo in the least, though, and there was an awkward pause.
"Wufei," Heero intoned at last. "You said that it was too late for all of us. What did you mean by that?" His posture was almost challenging.
* I wonder what he's so upset about... *
"I was most likely delirious. I have no idea what I could have meant by that," he replied evenly. "Heero, what woke ~you~ up in the first place?"
Heero hesitated, his eyes turning troubled for a split second. Then he seemed to firm himself.
"I had... a dream. A nightmare," he said.
Wufei resisted the urge to blink in surprise. It had never really occured to him that intense pilot 01 would dream at all, much less have nightmares. * But then, he ~is~ only fifteen, like the rest of us. Too young to be killing for a living. * A twinge of memory beckoned from the edges of his conscious, but when he tried to followw it, it vanished. He merely had the impression that this could be important.
"Do you have them often?" the Chinese boy asked in a neutral tone. Heero shrugged. "What was it about?"
"Is this necessary?" Heero frowned, glaring at Wufei. What was that in Heero's voice? Hidden underneath the unvarying monotone, was that a hint of... suspicion? Distrust? Maybe even.... fear? For a second Wufei groped for something to justify this question, knowing that it lurked somewhere in the back of his mind. He resisted a frustrated sigh. It might be dishonorable to lie, but he had to invent to keep Heero from avoiding answering.
"It would help explain your frame of mind. Yuy, you don't want to admit it, but last night you were practically hysterical. What was your dream about?" Wufei repeated, glaring back at Heero, hoping this argument would be enough until he knew the ~real~ reason he had to know this.
They kept their eyes locked for a long, long moment. The tension was heavy and thick, with definite dimentions. He was almost ready to break down and let it slide - for the moment, at least - when Heero took a breath and spoke.
"I don't know when I first started having them," he began, his voice so low that the rest had to lean in to hear him. This was humiliating; he was appearing weak in front of people whose respect he not only needed but - he admitted reluctantly - craved. "But lately, I've been waking up in the middle of the night. Last night was the first time I had a really ~clear~ memory of a dream. I had another today when I was knocked unconscious."
Duo was watching Heero like a hawk. "What happened in your dreams?"
Heero met his gaze, and Duo blanched a little.
"Both times I was in the desert, standing next to a line of people. They were marching across the desert, and there were so many that I couldn't see the start or end of them. Last night, I tried talking to them, but they were all dead. Walking corpses," he said, hating the flat quality of his tone. He might as well have "FEAR" tattooed on his forehead.
Around him the others looked uneasy as well and did not comment.
"Then this... girl came up to me. She... She was very familiar, but I didn't recognize her. She told me that the dead are lost, then made me turn around. And then I was nowhere near the line of dead people, she was gone, and there was a storm. I was buried in sand," he went on, then cleared his throat. "Then I woke up."
A philosophic pause followed as everyone digested this.
"What was the other one like?" Quatre queried after a moment, looking at him with bright aquamarine eyes. The depth of empathy within them surprised Heero.
"I was standing on a dune beside the line of dead, and I saw the girl ahead of me, looking at something. I went to follow, but the sun was so hot. I was dying of thirst, and the sky had turned oragne. Then the girl was right in front of me and wasn't going to let me quit. I went with her until she stopped. She pointed at something. On the very edge of the horizon was... something. I don't know what. But that was where the line was headed," he said, faster now. * Treat it like a mission debriefing. *
"Orange sky?" Wufei asked, his brow furrowed as if he was having trouble remembering something.
"Yes."
"That means something," Wufei muttered, half to himself. "Heero, thank you. Tell one of us if you have another dream like that."
"Ryoukai."
Wufei smirked slightly at that. He'd just given Heero Yuy an order. He forced himself not to get smug, and turned to Duo, who was looking at Heero with an odd, preoccupied. expression.
"Now, Duo. About your abilities... " he trailed off. *( Something... )*
"Wh-hat, Wu-man?" Duo asked, glancing around nervously.
Wufei did not respond, though a part of him was vindicated. * Good. He feels it, too. *
A creeping feeling of unease swelled in his chest. He thought he saw something stir from the corner of his eye, and he jerked his head to the side, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. There was nothing there.
The others followed his glance, though no one appeared to have seen anything. Wufei wished passionately that he was recovered enough to expand his shields. He wanted to keep that... ~thing~ as far from them as possible. But as it was, his shields were shrunken, clining tightly to him like a second skin. * Damn. It's going to be at least a week to regain my full power. How will I protect them? *
"Never mind. I think... it's here," he said in a low voice.
END PART SIX
That help any?
Thalia, Eros, Psyche: NO!
Oh. Well then. I'll just have to give it another shot, won't I? ^_^
Thalia, Eros, Psyche: ::fall over::
Eh, Review, huh?
