Author's Note: Heydee hey, y'all! ^_^

Thalia: Cheerful again?

No, not really.

Psyche: Yaaaaaaaaayyyyy!!!! ^__________________^

Eros: Ready for the next chapter?

Yep.

Thalia: You ~are~ planning on wrapping this up soon, aren't you?

Yep.

Thalia, Eros, and Psyche: Finally!

The things I put up with.... ::rolls eyes::


Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing.





PART TWELVE




Trowa watched Quatre intently. The blond boy didn't look well. His hair was greasy and crispy with dried sweat. The blue silk pajamas were sweat-stained and rank-smelling. His cheeks were blotchy from the prolonged fever. His breathing was shallow, and he was deathly pale. Trowa gripped the blond boy's unbandaged hand in both of his own.

* Did you mean it? * he silently asked the pathetic sight before him.

He lifted Quatre's hand and pressed it to his cheek. It was cool. Strange, because ever since he'd been unconscious, he'd been feverish. Now he was cool. The fever had broken, but only just recently. Trowa didn't know how to interpret this. Did it mean Wufei had freed him? Or did it mean he was gone for good?

That would be the cruelest thing, if the angelic boy died before Trowa could tell him.

* I love you. Come back to me, Quatre. *

Footsteps on the stairs startled him into dropping Quatre's hand. He stood as Heero came down to the common room, the American slung over his shoulder. Trowa took it as a sign of how odd his life was getting when he felt no surprise at this. What ~did~ surprise him was that Duo was still conscious, though haggard.

Heero deposited Duo on his couch and wiped his own forehead. Trowa sat back down on an armrest with his arms crossed and waited for them to explain.



"Wufei's been taken down," Duo told him, correctly interpreting the look on his face.

The tall pilot wilted at hearing this. Duo grimaced in empathy.

"What do we do now?" Trowa asked.

"We go after them," Heero declared.

"Nani?" Duo's eyes widened in surprise.

"It's the only way."

"How do you intend to accomplish this?" Trowa inquired evenly.

"If what Wufei told Duo was accurate, then I can travel to this entity in my sleep. I'll go there and - "

"And what?" Duo interrupted, suddenly angry. Things were happening too quickly. "What ~can~ you do? We don't know what we're fighting. And did you have all that much success the last time you were there?"

Heero was taken slightly aback by the ferocity in Duo's voice.

"What?"

"You said that last time you got trapped by the thing. Only with the combined efforts of the chick in your dream, myself, and Wufei did you get out of there. Have you had any huge revelations that would give you an advantage?" Duo demanded, but didn't wait for Heero to respond. "No. Even the chick said you needed help to defeat this thing."

"Just what are you getting at, Duo?" Trowa interjected.

"If you're going anywhere on the astral plane, you're gonna take me with you." Duo crossed his arms stubbornly and glared at Heero.

"Ryoukai," Heero agreed after a long reluctant pause. Duo nodded once sharply, satisfied.

"But ~how~ do you plan to do this?" Trowa repeated.

"Ummm..." Duo trailed off, thinking. "Well, first Heero has to get there. Have you ever tried going there on purpose?"

"No. But I'm certain I can do it. It's just a matter of controlling my brain-waves."

Duo rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You go to sleep and I'll watch you're aura and play it by ear. I seem to know what to do by instinct; that'll have to be enough," Duo said with a shrug. "What I'm worried about is what we do when we get there."

"What're are you afraid of?" Trowa asked, his voice giving away a hint of worry - maybe even fear.

"Wufei said he was back up to full strength before he left to determine what this thing is. I'm betting he found out," Duo replied heavily. "And if it can take Wu down, either killing him or trapping him, it's not your average poltergeist."

"Point taken," Heero said. "But we have no other choice."

"I know," Duo sighed hopelessly. "Doesn't mean I hafta ~like~ it."

"When will you two get started?" Trowa shifted on his armrest to gaze down on Quatre's wretched-looking form. Duo looked from the blonde to the equally-wretched Chinese boy on the other couch.

"Not right away," Heero answered, drawing Duo's attention back to him. When their eyes met, Heero look away. Duo cocked his head.

* What's up with that? *

"I want to finish Wufei's gundam today. Duo, how are you doing with the body work?" the Japanese boy asked.

"Shenlong didn't take as much damage as our gundams, so I got about half of it done," Duo told him in a businesslike manner.

"Trowa, you take care of the rest of the body work while I finish with the cockpit and diagnostics. We'll begin tonight."

Trowa nodded. "Ryoukai."

"Oi! What about me?" Duo called as the other two stood. Heero met his gaze for a moment, then turned toward the stairs.

"You should rest," he said quietly before following Trowa up to the main floor.

Duo frowned. He knew from the pounding inside his skull that he still was recovering from the shock of Wufei's passing. Still, he didn't like being treated like an invalid. He glowered in silence as Heero and Trowa left. He would have preferred to work on Shenlong, if only to take his mind off of everything for a while. The whole situation got worse the more he looked at it.

* Complete and total SNAFU * Duo thought dismally. * And me and Heero are the only hope they have. Why does this seem like a bad idea? *

Maybe it was the way Heero had been acting lately.

* What's going on between us, exactly? * Duo wondered. * And what's with the significant looks and things? God, you'd think we're flirting or something. * Duo chuckled at that - the idea that Heero would ~flirt~ was just too ridiculous. But the laugh was a bit too forceful, too eager to dispel the notion. Perhaps... lurking somewhere in that observation was a hint of truth?

That thought silenced him. He frowned darkly for a moment. Then he shrugged it off, not wanting to face it. His life was already too messed up without something like that.

He was honestly concerned about this evening, though. How ~were~ they going to do this? He didn't like it. Without a strategy, or even an idea of what they were up against, the odds were that they'd fail miserably. Duo turned over restlessly, and then regretted it as his migraine renewed itself. But as much as he wanted to dwell on the likelihood of failure, he knew he needed to sleep to recover at least some of his energy and be of any use tonight. He closed his eyes and fought his way into an uneasy doze.




Wufei tested his boundaries, though he had no doubt that they hadn't changed since he last tested them. The multi-hued rope of the parasite's energy held him fast, and sapped the energy from his shields slowly. The creature had vanished into the blackness of lost souls some time ago to go do God knows what in preparation for the other pilots. Wufei knew that Duo and Heero would try to rescue him and Quatre, though he wished that there was some way - any way - to prevent it.

* The bastard already has two of us. That is more than enough. * he told himself, full of shame. He drew back into himself, rippling in frustration and self-disgust.

Why hadn't he sensed the thing's grip on Quatre from the start? Why hadn't he been able to save his friend? Why couldn't he save them both now? Why couldn't he warn the others? He knew the answer to all the questions; he knew, too well.

* I am weak. *

He'd been weak the day she died, too. Not even pouring most of his life energy into her had saved her. And now because of ~his~ weakness, ~his~ faults, the others were going to pay for it.

*(THAT THEY ARE, GUNDAM PILOT. SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?)* a depressingly familiar mindvoice said.

Wufei recoiled as the energy vampire emerged from the whirling, shadowy depths around him. The repulsive being loomed closer, reaching out many threads of power that wrapped around Wufei's own and drew him near. The contact made the Chinese psychic cringe and pull back, but the grip was too strong. Too strong...

*(THAT'S RIGHT. YOU CAN'T FIGHT ME. NOW, IT'S TIME TO PREPARE TO GREET YOUR FRIENDS.)*

*(Shut up, you piece of shit.)* Wufei snapped, because he knew that he was indeed too drained to fight.

The creature gave wave after wave of madness-tainted laughter as it enveloped him.




Duo woke all in a sweat. He sat up slowly, and scrubbed at his face. His headache was gone, but his foreboding had increased tenfold. Disturbing half-dreams had plagued him in his sleep, and not all of them had to do with the impending mission to the astral plane.

* Don't think about h- it. You don't need it. You can handle this. * he told himself as he got up and crossed the common room. He wanted a shower before Trowa and Heero got back, and now was better than never. He glanced at his watch as he walked down to his room. He'd been asleep for three hours, apparently. He felt all thick and strange, the side effects of taking a long nap in the afternoon. Yawning, he undid his braid when he entered his room and brushed his hair as he gathered soap, towels, and most importantly shampoo and conditioner.

He was fairly certain that water was as valuable in the desert as it had been on his home colony, and had taken it into account. After all, a daily shower wasn't absolutely necessary, and before he had gotten spoiled by the boarding school he and Heero had been hiding out at, he'd considered bathing in general both luxury and frivolity. Now, he smiled ruefully, he'd had to trim his showers back to every three days. Having grown up in a place where water was a limited resource, he knew to how to ration his shower time to be as efficient as possible. He was done in exactly seven minutes, and congratulated himself on cutting his time by a minute and a half.

He dried and braided his hair, then dressed in fresh black clothes. Feeling much more awake and like his normal self - the sense of impending doom included - he flounced upstairs to the kitchen. He was ravenous, having missed lunch. Unfortunately, he had no idea of how to cook. So, with some trepidation, he dug through the huge industrial-sized refrigerator in search of anything edible. He'd just dug out the least questionable left-overs he could find when Trowa walked in.

"Am I glad to see you! You're cooking, tonight, aren't you?" Duo asked with a smile, flinging the container of semi-edible "food" into a nearby garbage. "Make something fast and Italian!"

Trowa raised a weary eyebrow at him. "Feeling better, I see."

"Yep. Now get crackin'. I'm ~starving~!"

"Ryoukai," Trowa replied, brushing past him to the stove.

Duo hovered eagerly around Trowa, as if pestering the European would incite the linguini noodles to cook faster. The taller pilot only tolerated the braided boy underfoot for a few minutes before he lost his frayed temper. Then Trowa quietly but forcefully demanded that Duo remove himself to some other location until dinner was ready. Duo pouted, but left for downstairs again.

Heero was just walking into the common room from the hall to the bedrooms as Duo hopped off the banister. From the Japanese boy's wet and tussled hair, Duo surmised that he'd just gotten out of the shower. He was wearing his green tanktop for the first time since his nosebleed, though how he'd gotten the massive bloodstains out of it Duo didn't know. He sat down on his couch and bent to tie his yellow sneakers.

"So, are you serious about this?" Duo asked, plunking down beside him.

Heero turned his head to look up at him. "Hai. Are you?"

"Of course. But you realize we're probably going to lose."

Heero was silent for a moment, then sat up after he finished with his shoes. "Hai. But we can't not try."

"True."

Duo couldn't think of anything more to say. Heero looked at him with an unreadable expression. He half-smiled and shrugged under the scrutiny. The other boy "hn"ed softly.

Silence fell, heavy, waiting, desperate.

After a painfully long time, during which both boys were lost in their own realms of contemplation, Trowa's voice floated down the stairway.

"The linguini is ready."

Duo jumped up, grinning broadly. "Yosh'! I'm so hungry I could eat a mobile doll. C'mon, Heero!"

Despite Duo's cheer, the dinner had a feel of the last meal. Afterwards, Trowa enlisted the other two for dish duty while he went to take a shower. Heero scrubbed in silence, and Duo tried not to look at him as he babbled aimlessly.

Finally, they all gathered in the common room downstairs. Heero laid down on his couch and slipped into a doze easily. Duo waited for a moment. Then he turned to Trowa.

"Trowa, I have to ask you a favor."

"Nanda?"

"You have a gun?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if we lose, we're going to get possessed. If that happens, shoot us. Put us in our Gundams and set them all to self-destruct. Can you do that?"

Trowa paused for a very long time.

"Yeah," he said, and his voice was strange.

Duo put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you."




END PART TWELVE




Bad place to end, I know, but I've got work to do. ^^;; I sort of kind of have to take notes on seven newspapers tonight still because I have a current events test tomorrow. I dislike government class. _ I promise to continue it soon! Yeah... "soon"...

Eros: REEEEEEEEEVVVVIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEWWWW!!!