Save
Eternity for Me
Enter a
new character this chapter...and no, it's not for what you think. Like I'd set things up to be /that/
obvious....
****
[chapter
three: fortune's star]
"We're
back in the dark ages," Catherine grumbled irritably, preceding the solid
thunk of a knife into the wall above the television set. "What's next, burning people at the
stake?"
Dorothy,
sprawled in an easy chair in the corner of the lounge, glanced up from reading
her well-worn copy of /The Prince/. "Never underestimate the power of large unruly groups of stupid
people," she advised sagely.
"We
shouldn't have left." That came
from Quatre, his voice soft and sorrow-tainted. "We could have stopped them."
"Are
you crazy?" snapped Hilde. "That's why Miss Noin told us to come back--because we /couldn't/
stop them, we'd have just gotten into trouble too."
"I
could have stopped them!" Quatre
repeated more firmly.
Trowa,
stretched out on the floor at his sister's feet, reached out to touch his
boyfriend's hand gently. "Probably. But you could
have made things a lot worse, too, love...using your power on them? You wouldn't want to put the whole school
in danger. Trust Miss Noin."
Quatre
subsided, but reluctantly. The topic of
discussion was a report on the news--the demonstration they had fled from in
the city the day before had ended with a riot, and an old woman who told
fortunes in the park had been beaten and finally hospitalised.
"She
read cards there for twenty years," Heero observed irritably. "Nobody'd ever even heard of Newtypes
then, how was she supposed to be one?" His arms tightened around Duo's waist; they were spooned together on one
end of the sofa. Wufei grumbled
something that sounded like agreement, but he too was bent over a book, only
pausing periodically to push his reading glasses up when they slipped down his
nose.
"There's
something strange going on, that's why." None of them had noticed Mariemaya arrive, but she was there now,
lounging casually against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest,
her brow furrowed thoughtfully. "There's got to be a reason for it. Somebody wants to get the public all worked up and scared."
"But
why would people /listen/ to that poisonous crap?" Catherine
demanded. Her dagger his the wall and
clattered to the floor--she'd thrown it so many times its edge was dulling. "They should know better!"
"That's
how politics works," Mariemaya explained patiently. "Trust me, I lived around it for a long time. Unc--Dekim and the others--they used to only let things leak when
they wanted to cause controversy. The
politicians don't even have to tell people what to think, really--they just
bring the issue up, and there are always loud people ready to do the hard work
for them."
"She's
right," Quatre admitted.
"I'm
stuck on their motivation," Wufei said without looking up from his
book. "GeneTech wants to continue
its experiments, right? Which nobody
agrees with--wouldn't it be better for them to keep things quiet?"
"Maybe...." Dorothy let /The Prince/ drop into her lap
and looked up thoughtfully. "So
maybe instead it's someone opposing GeneTech. Or...they have some other motive we can't figure out in the space of
five minutes."
Quatre,
Wufei and Dorothy looked up, and locked eyes.
"Are
you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?" Quatre asked, his eyes glittering
evilly.
"I
think so, Brain," Dorothy replied, "but how are we going to fit in
the dogsled?"
Cathy
let out an incredulous laugh. "Don't tell me you're going to take on GeneTech--"
Dorothy
shrugged. "If we have to. Hey, everybody needs a project."
"I'm
going to help," said Mariemaya, in a polite but allow-no-opposition tone
that made it very clear whose daughter she was.
"Aww...." Cathy twirled her now-dull knife on her
fingertip. "If you're all doing
that, while my brother and girlfriend are building that stupid sled and Heero
and Duo are off in Lover-Land, what the hell am I going to do around
here?"
"Try
to take over the world," Wufei responded, deadpan. The dagger sailed past his ear.
****
An
explosion burst into being at the corner of Duo's vision. The core of the earth shook beneath him, and
tall stone buildings that looked as though they had stood for centuries toppled
into wreckage around him. He ducked,
covering his face from falling debris, coughing the smoke from his lungs to
call--"Heero!"
No
answer came. Black streaks of ash
rained from the sky, searing his skin and melting his pores wherever it
touched. His shirt already hung in
tatters from his shoulders, his jeans were torn and only his favourite, everpresent
combat boots seemed likely to survive this encounter.
"Heero!"
He ran,
displacing the toxic soot with each pounding step, ducking into deserted alleys
and between dilapidated buildings. Some
of them he recognised from years on the street, some were completely new, and
still others he thought he'd seen in postcards and history books. None were spared from the devastation.
Still
there was no sign of Heero, or for that matter any other living creature. //Where the hell is everybody?//
And
suddenly, unexpectedly, an answer. //Hell is very accurate, actually.//
He
spun, scanning the shadows for signs of this speaker whose voice echoed in his
mind. //Come out! Who are you? What the fuck is going on?//
//Which
do you want first?// it replied. The
shadows shifted, the grey light shimmering in front of him.
It
formed into a--boy? Girl? To be honest Duo couldn't really tell. Either way it was barely adolescent, all
sharp bony lines and rough angles. A
tousled mop of shaggy silvery hair fell in its bright gold eyes, and its
costume of jeans and a worn grey t-shirt was almost as tattered as Duo's.
"Wanna
get outta here?" it asked, reaching out a hand toward Duo.
Duo
eyed the child and the hand suspiciously. "And go where?"
A shrug. "Back to the ether'd be my guess. It's your dreamscape, not mine. You have a real thing for mass destruction,
you know that?"
Duo
stared at him--her--it--in disbelief. "/What/?"
It
sighed. "You. Have. A Thing. For stuff blowing
up. I'm sure it's not healthy."
Duo
blinked. "If this is my dream, are
you here for a reason?"
The
golden eyes narrowed to an exasperated glare. "Right now, to get you out of this--unless you /like/ wandering
around in the apocalypse. So make up
your mind already, are you coming or not?"
//If
it's only a dream anyway--// Duo reached for the outstretched hand.
****
"Heero!"
The
seraph blinked awake, the frantic sound of his name on his lover's lips
startling him into consciousness. But
after a moment's confusion, he realised quickly there was no real, immediate
danger. Duo was still cradled against
his side, his hair loose and tangled, his eyelids sticky with sleep.
"Heero!"
he called again, more desperate this time.
Heero
shifted, tightening his arms around the other boy's body and pressing a kiss to
the curve of his neck. "It's a
dream, Duo," he whispered gently. "You can tell me about it in the morning...."
****
//It's
more comfortable here.// It may have
been a question, a request for confirmation, or it may have only been an
observation on the part of the dream-child, Duo wasn't really sure. The city of destruction was gone, and he was
surrounded now only by mist, a soft, comforting silver fog where he floated,
silent and insubstantial.
//This
is how you came to me before,// he observed. He felt, more than heard, the other's affirmation.
//Yes. It's easier than going into your real
dreams.//
That
surprised him. //Then you're not a
figment of my dream--what are you? A
spirit?//
//No,//
it answered, almost laughing. //I'm as
real as you are. And I'm going to need
your help soon.//
//Is
that it?// demanded Duo. //Soon? Is there a reason you're here tonight?//
//There
was,// it replied. //I needed to know
something, and I've already learned it.//
Duo
started to feel used, and made no attempt to hide it. //Glad to be useful to you.//
//Don't
be like that.// The voice sounded hurt,
and tired, and sad. //I wouldn't be
asking you for help, you know, if I wasn't desperate, and I'm trying not to get
you involved til I absolutely have to....It's just that you're my only hope.//
****
Duo
hated mornings.
Normally
he felt a bit better about them if he woke up next to Heero, which only rarely
happened on school nights. This
particularly Monday morning, not even that was good enough to keep him from
feeling over-tired and grumpy. His
dreams had not left him rested, and apparently it had rained during the
night--never mind the thermometre had been reading more than ninety for almost
a month.
He sat
up, shaking off the wet blankets, and Heero stirred next to him. "Is it morning...?"
"Fraid
so." Duo kicked the blankets
completely off and flopped back down onto the bed. "Think Miss Une will believe me if I say I'm sick?"
"Riiiight." Heero rolled onto his side, propping his
head up by one bent elbow. "Duo--what were you dreaming about last night?"
Violet
eyes shot wide, still glazed from their slow transition from sleep. "What--why?"
His
reaction made Heero, if anything, more troubled. "You called my name is all...are you all right?"
Duo
forced his expression bland again--not difficult, since he was barely conscious
already. "Fine, yeah. Just a bad dream...no, nothing about /that/,
so you can stop looking worried, Heero. No past lives, just my fucked-up subconscious."
It
wasn't entirely true, but Duo could not explain, even to himself, why he was so
reluctant to share the dreamchild's warning with his lover. //Maybe I'm over-analysing, and I really
just don't want to worry him. Yeah,
whatever.// He rolled out of bed,
fumbling for the nearest rumpled heap of more-or-less-clean clothes.
Heero
glared fiercely at the clock. "I'm
buying you an alarm clock. I am. I'll see you in class, Duo, I've got to race
back to my room and get my books. And
dressed."
His
only answer was a sleepy, irritated grunt.
****
Panting
for breath, Duo skidded in the classroom door barely two steps ahead of Miss
Une and virtually throwing himself into his desk. Normally she was annoyed by his perpetual tardiness, but this
morning he saw a smile quirk the corners of her mouth.
"I
appreciate your efforts getting here, Duo, really I do. But you're not going to be in this class
today."
He
stared up at her, waiting for this information to register. "I'm not."
She
shook her head. "Not this
time. I'm to send you down to Mr.
Treize' office as soon as I see you. So
now I've seen you, why don't you catch your breath and head down there now?"
She had
a way of wording things that /sounded/ like a question, but really wasn't. So tired, miserable, and now curious, Duo
gathered up his books and trudged down the long hallway to Treize Khushrenada's
office.
He
expected, when he opened the door, to see Treize. He would; it was the headmaster's office after all.
But the
girl standing in the centre of the immaculate study bore no resemblance to the
Khushrenada warlock whatsoever. For one
thing--no, more than one thing--she was at least part Chinese, and female, and
couldn't be too far from Duo's age. For
another thing....
Her
hair was tied up in a loose, scraggly bun at the nape of her neck, held in
place by a pencil stuck through the hasty knot. Streaks of vivid purple were painted through it, dangling around
her delicate, glitter-painted face in loose strands and half-finished
braids. Her black t-shirt, advertising
some rock band called Antisocial Behavior, was tucked into a pair of cutoff
jean shorts that could barely be considered clothing. It wasn't even that they were too short--just that new holes were
wearing through the myriad of patches that already decourated them. A collection of pendants dangled from her
neck, without a single one matching either each other or the row of small
silver hoops lining each ear. Purple
socks peeked out from a pair of battered combat boots that, if such a thing
were possible, looked to have seen even worse days than Duo's own. An Army surplus bag swung from her shoulder
as she turned to greet him, her dark eyes lighting up with curiousity.
"Hi,"
said Duo, now quite confused.
"Hi,"
the girl returned. "Are you Duo
Winner?"
He
nodded, and she grinned warmly, extending a hand. "Cool. Nice to meet
you. I guess I'm your new
tutor...Meiran Ron."
****
