Oh Plot Bunny! Files #4: Ashes, Ashes
By: rainjewel
Disclaimer: I don't own a dang thing, unfortunately. If I did, there'd be no need for this fanfic or any other of my illustrious *laughs* works.
Author's Note: And the plot bunny dilemma continues! You don't know about my plot bunny saga? I suggest you check out my author's page for all the wacky details. In this story, there is a hint of 1x2 shonen ai (that pairing is the most interesting thing on the planet, as far as I'm concerned). The timeline is after the conclusion of the series (with total disregard to Ground Zero and Endless Waltzoops).
~*~
Duo stood in shock; his thumb still pressed down on the red detonation button.
Oh God.
Quatre was crying. Duo didn't need to turn and see him to know. The smoke from the collapsed buildings drifted over and stung his eyes, making them tear up. Quatre was protected from the hot smoke by his goggles. He cried for another reason.
Duo slumped over, going down on one knee. Through the smoke the fire blazed and he heard sirens in the distance. Their wailing and the crackling of the flames were the only sounds in the night air.
The building had collapsed too quickly for anyone to scream.
"Duo, we have to get out of here," Quatre said. His heart bled. He dropped his own detonation switch.
"I" Duo looked on in horror. Quatre walked up and put his hands on the American's shoulders and shook him. The boy looked through him and onto the blaze.
"Come on. They'll be here any minute," he said. He kept the tremor out of his voice but tears rolled down his cheeks in unmerciful torrents. They caught the stars' light and made his face shimmer.
Duo rose but wouldn't move. Quatre forced the boy to turn around and walk back to their concealed motorbikes. He placed Duo's hands on the machine. Quatre held his breath for a moment, but then the braided pilot shook himself and hopped on the bike. Quatre climbed onto his own.
Duo looked at the fiery skyline and then at the detonation trigger still in his hand.
I am Shinigami.
He screamed.
~*~
The minute Duo entered the Winner Mansion he fled up the stairs to his room. Quatre, scrambling through the front door, called after him but Duo was gone before the blonde had even finished speaking.
Quatre trembled and tried to keep from weeping. His soul ached. He felt like he had just died along with—
The holophone beeped, making him jump. He looked around dazedly, then recognized the sound was coming from his private line in his office. He ran down the hallway, wiping his face so that the tears wouldn't show.
Quatre walked into his office and flipped open the holophone. Rashid's somber face stared back at him.
"Rashid!" he cried. His heart lifted at the sight of the beloved Maganac leader.
"Master Quatre," Rashid acknowledged. "I was hoping you'd be home."
"What is it?" Quatre asked, mildly concerned. He prayed to Allah that he wasn't red-faced from crying. Rashid wouldn't know about the mission—this damnable, nightmare of a mission.
"I was worried. I expected you back two days ago," Rashid said.
Quatre slapped his head. "I'm sorry! I completely forgot to tell you. Rashid, I had anan engagement I couldn't miss."
Rashid nodded, his eyes knowing. "I see. I trust everything went well?"
Quatre struggled. He bit his lip and looked away from the monitor.
"For me," he whispered. Quatre looked back to Rashid's troubled face. "Forgive me friend, but I have a comrade who needs my assistance. I will join you as soon as I am able."
Quatre flicked off the monitor, feeling guilty for being so abrupt. Stillhe sighed. Duo had had enough time alone. The blonde ducked out of his office and went to the braided boy's door.
Still locked.
"Duo?" he called. No answer. "It's Quatre, would you please open the door?" he pleaded.
There was still silence. Quatre tried a few more times but not a sound came from the American's room. Feeling increasingly worried he returned to his office. He had to talk to someone. Trowa was with the circus troupe and unreachable for the moment (he'd already tried five times that day). Wufei wasWufei. Quatre had always been a little intimidated by the Chinese pilot and he needed someone that he could talk openly with. That left the reclusive Heero.
Quatre flipped open his laptop and quickly searched for any info on the pilot. He still didn't understand the other boy one iota but he knew Heero would listen to him. He'd always been there when the two had been staying in the Sank kingdom, and Quatre had no doubts that he could help this time. Especially if the situation concerned Duo.
"Ah-hah!" Quatre cried. A Heero Yuy had been registered at a Japanese high school two weeks ago.
Old habits die hard, huh Heero?
Quatre knew Heero probably wouldn't have a holophone on school grounds but he'd at least have a regular telephone. Besides, Quatre really didn't want to have Heero's icy blue eyes staring at him while he talked. He hacked into some files and found a phone number. Quickly he punched it in.
"City morgue," answered a deep voice.
Quatre blinked. "H-Heero?"
"Who is this?" growled the voice after a pause.
"Quatre," he answered.
"Quatre? What do you need?" Heero's tone showed the slightest hint of surprise.
"Duo and I had a mission" Quatre cursed himself. He was crying already.
"Quatre?"
"It went horribly wrong! All we had to do was blow up an old MS factory that some rebels had taken control of andand there was an accident. Something went wrong in one of Duo's sections. He—"
"Is he alright?" Heero's voice cut in.
Quatre shook, realizing what Heero was thinking. "No, no, he's not dead. Heero, one of his explosives didn'tI don't know what happened. There was an orphanage next to the factory andand it was completely d-destroyed."
There was complete silence on the other end. Quatre fought for composure.
"The orphanage just exploded along with the factory. I don't know how it happened. It doesn't make any sense. Duo and I planned the whole thing out and it was flawless. I mean, that sounds arrogant but it was perfect! And now Duo isupset. He's in his room and he hasn't said a word to me even though I went to his room and he—"
"Quatre!"
"Huh?" The blonde felt dazed.
"Go to bed. Cancel your plans for tomorrow morning."
"But"
"Duo is a strong individual. Take care of yourself first. I have to think."
"Can you help?" Quatre whispered.
The line was already dead.
~*~
Duo didn't sleep that night. Instead he locked himself in his room and flipped on the television, searching for news on the bombing. Destruction and flames of past and present promptly greeted him.
His heart cried out and a wave of agony rolled over him.
By himself there wasn't a need for a mask. His face was a nightmare of sorrow. And yet he found himself numb. Duo realized he'd become so good at hiding his emotions that he had lost the ability to be aware of his feelings entirely. He knew he hurt, but it didn't seem to matter. He was detached. He didn't think on how much pain he was in.
After all, how much pain had those children felt?
Stats flashed on the TV. Duo moaned.
I brought death to eighty-six children all under the age of eleven. Twenty-three of them were infants.
The thought caught in his mind and began to play continuously like a broken record.
Duo kept watching the news. The bombing was said to be a terrorist attack. Good, the Preventors name wouldn't be tarnished. Yay for them.
Yes, yay for them, because instead of putting out fires I just started one. And I used children's bones for firewood.
He waited. Lady Une—no, now it was General Une—had arrived on the scene to "take a look" around and "evaluate" the situation. She'd be gone in ten minutes, buried in paperwork and journalists.
Duo turned off the TV and grabbed his jacket.
~*~
The heat was intense. The destruction had finally been watered down and the flames put out by the local fire department, but heat still radiated off the site.
Duo tossed another brick aside and wiped his brow with the sleeve of his borrowed police jacket. He had soot all over his face and his hands were burned. It didn't matter.
He was picking through what had been the city's main orphanage. He had sneaked through the Preventors' lingering men unnoticed and "joined" a civilian police unit. Hundreds of policemen and firemen had swarmed the downed building. Since the rescue efforts were for a civilian building, the Preventors had no jurisdiction. The MS factory was supposedly abandoned.
Duo had been working for four hours. All he had accomplished was pulling up layers of cement and wood. He was laboring right by the only standing wall of the orphanage. No one had been cleared to dig here, but Duo figured he had faced far more dangerous situations than a rickety old wall. A few people had questioned him on it, but no one had the guts to order him away.
"Hey you!" called a voice.
Speak of the devilwait, that's me.
Duo looked up. "Yeah?"
"You shouldn't be in there! That part of the site's still unstable! If that wall comes down" a grizzled fireman pulled a finger across his throat.
Duo took in his smoky, dangerous surroundings. He almost hoped the cement wall would collapse on him and put him out of his misery.
"How long have you been in there?" asked the man.
"Four hours," Duo answered. He went back to digging.
"Jesus Christ. That's it kid, you've got to get out of there." The man began walking towards him.
"I'm not going anywhere," Duo said in a deadly voice. "Dangerous or not, there are still children trapped in here. I am not going to let them down. Don't—" Duo stopped. A dirty brown arm protruded from the rubble. Quickly he flung the debris covering the body away. A young boy of five or six years stared back at him. A large chunk of rock was imbedded in the boy's side and half of his head was crushed.
For a split second a vision of a bloody nun's habit filled his eyes. Duo blinked it away and focused on the boy. The child was undeniably dead.
He felt for a pulse anyway. Of course there wasn't one. He gathered the small broken body up in his arms and walked over to the grimy fireman.
"See if anyone has any info on him," he said.
The man nodded, taking the body from Duo. He seemed to have forgotten what he was going to say. Duo turned back around and went back to digging. His eyes were pitch black.
Two hours later Duo wasn't showing any signs of fatigue. He had channeled all of his limitless energy and was working like a madman. Perhaps he was a madman. After all, only psychopaths killed innocent children.
He'd pulled out seventeen bodies. Five were infants.
Duo knew there wouldn't be records of them. They were unknown children, just like he had been, was, and forever would be. But as he dumped corpse after corpse into the arms of tired rescue workers, he told them the child's name and age. He'd had enough experience with kids to know the age of any child he ever saw. And he'd be six feet under himself before these children would go to unmarked graves.
Stories grew about the longhaired young man who toiled selflessly under a wall of impending doom. It was rumored he worked with a demon's speed, stared with unblinking, unseeing eyes and somehow knew the names of the dead.
Duo didn't care. The wretched cement wall above him stood poised to strike. Body after body was uncovered.
Taking a short thirty-second break, Duo brushed his bangs out of his eyes and sat up. He'd reached the bottom. All he had left was the rubble right under the wall. Still no one had come to help. It was too dangerous.
He pushed his way through the rock and glass. Sure enough, a hand poked out from under the ruins. He sighed. Numb yet wretched, he felt the wrist for a pulse.
Duo gasped. A weak thump thump trembled through the cool skin. Immediately he began tearing at the debris. A piece of glass caught his arm and created a long gash down his forearm. Blood rained down from the wound.
"I need some help over here!" Duo screamed. He clawed at more cement. Above his head the wall trembled.
"Help's coming, hold on," Duo said to the hand. He picked up the last piece of rubble and a boy of eight or so was revealed. His brown eyes were wide and pained.
Duo screamed at the rescue workers again. The boy's front was a bloody mess.
"Hey there," he whispered to the kid. It was a voice he'd used to soothe hundreds of children. "My name's Duo. What's yours?"
The kid's dry lips bled as he spoke. "Kenneth."
"Well you're in luck," Duo said hurriedly. He ripped of his jacket and began bandaging the boy. "The EMT's are on their way and you're going to get all fixed up."
"You're lying," said Kenneth. His eyes shone with a clever strength that came from the streets.
"I never lie," Duo said. Knowing he shouldn't, but also knowing the EMT's wouldn't make it in time, he gathered the boy up in his arms. Kenneth moaned and grabbed onto Duo's shirt with a fierce grip born of pain. The braided boy began running towards the rescue workers.
"Stop, stop!" the small boy said. "My sistermy sister Hannah's in there."
"You first," Duo said. Almost there.
Kenneth's eyes rolled back in his head. "It's too late," he said.
"No," Duo whispered. The boy's body went slack. "NO!"
He arrived at the medical station. Quickly he dumped the boy on a stretcher before him and made way for a doctor. The man bent over the child and checked for vital signs.
No pulse. No breath.
The doctor shook his head. Duo breathed in heavily, trying to keep himself together.
"My fault," he whispered. "Completely and utterly mine."
The doctor took a step forward and placed a hand on Duo's shoulder. "No lad, it's not—"
"Don't TOUCH me!" Duo screamed, stepping back. Suddenly his eyes flashed.
The sister
"Shit!" he said. Duo turned away and ran back to the site. A pair of large men blocked him from getting near the wall.
"Sorry, but this area is too unstable at the moment. That wall's going to fall any moment now," said one of the men.
"You said that hours ago!" Duo said. "I have to get through! There's a girl in there who's quite possibly alive!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow it," said the man.
Duo's shoulders slumped. "I understand."
The men nodded. Duo looked up and smiled maniacally. With almost preternatural speed he punched the taller man straight in the gut then scooped a chunk of cement and hit the other man across the head with it. Both fell to the ground instantly. Duo took off running.
"Hannah!" he cried. "I'm coming! Just hold on!"
He fell to his knees and began digging. The wall moaned and creaked. Time was running out.
"Hannah, I'm here. Don't worry. I'll get you out," Duo chattered. He prayed the girl could hear him.
Under a rock was a pair of gleaming brown eyes that matched Kenneth's. Duo almost cried out in frustration. The child was buried under two layers of cement.
"Hannah?" he questioned, scrambling to uncover the child's body. Slowly, ever so slowly, the eyes blinked. He took that for a yes.
"Thank God," Duo said. "I need help here NOW!" He heard footsteps running towards him. He turned, expecting to see the EMT's coming. Instead he saw a lone figure in pale jeans and a green tank top. What?
Above him he heard a low rumbling sound and he knew his time had run out.
Duo turned back around and began flinging debris every which way.
No no no no no
Bits of cement began tumbling down and pelted Duo as he used his body to shield the girl.
No no no no no
"Hang on," he said. He had one layer left. He squeezed the girl's one free hand.
"Duo!" called a deep and familiar voice.
The wall roared. Duo felt the sun disappear as the falling bricks blocked it out.
Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed his sides, pulling him away. Those haunting brown eyes called out to him in terror.
"NO!" he screamed. He fought for all he was worth. His hands and feet connected with flesh but the person's grip didn't yield. "Hannah!" he screamed, nails raking the arms that held him, "Hannah!"
Duo felt his body jerk back as his captor pulled him from under the toppling wall. He fought desperately and looked on as the building collapsed before him.
"NO! HANNAH!"
~*~