Part Four of "Eien ni" By Marie Whi Mitshue (4 of 6)
Author's note: Sorry, but I can't remember if Romafeller faction and Treize faction fighting fits in with the supposed place in the Gundam Wing Timeline that this story is at, so…ignore the timeline! Timeline, What Timeline? Also, some angst, violence… interrogation… sigh… when can I go back to the sweet and touching plot-lines? Why must the munchkin in my head that is my Muse make me write this…
//thoughts//
*emphasis* ( the more **, the greater the emphasis)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was no body to bury.
But Quatre, sweet and thoughtful Quatre, had erected a headstone for Duo beneath an oak tree the American had loved so much, on one of the Winner Estates's grounds. The blond Arabian had said quietly that if any of them should fall in battle, this was were their bodies – or monuments, if there were no remains – would be placed. If they agreed.
All of them did.
That was where Heero was now, sat on the simple stone bench beside Duo's grave.
The Japanese boy wore black – in mourning, or perhaps in memory of Duo's black clothes – trousers, long-sleeved shirt, jacket, and boots. His head was bowed, and he stared at the flowers he had placed on Duo's grave: yellow roses of their Friendship Eternal, White carnations for their Pure and Ardent Love, Larkspur for Duo's Open Heart, pink rosebuds for his Beauty and Youth, Heliotrope for Heero's Devotion, and Forget-me-nots for their True Love.
The words on the headstone were simple:
Duo Maxwell
Died AC 196
Honoured Soldier
Cherished Friend
1 Immortal Beloved{1}
The words meant nothing to Heero, even though he stared at them intently.
"I miss you Duo." He whispered to his lover's grave. "It's only been a week. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei miss you too. They've been watching me like a hawk and I overheard Quatre asking if they shouldn't disable my self- detonation switch. But I wouldn't do that. Not until all those who caused your death are screaming in Hell. Then, maybe…"
Heero knelt on the damp grass in the twilight and hugged the cold, marble headstone, trying to pretend it was the energetic, laughing, light- hearted young boy he loved.
The cold of the marble stung his cheek, and spoiled the fantasy he was trying to weave, and hot tears trickled down upon the stone.
~~~~~~~
Duo Maxwell stared up at the ceiling he was barely able to see in the dimness of his cell. Fresh wounds added now to the pain throbbing from injuries a week old and barely healing.
//How can they heal when they keep getting reopened by the interrogators?// Duo mused to himself.
He rolled over carefully on his side and let his mind slip into the dreamworld that he'd been using to keep from telling the interrogators anything:
Heero shifted in their bed and drew him nearer.
"My beautiful, annoying baka…" Heero's voice drawled in his ear.
Duo started to turn, face indignant. "Oi! I object-" His objections to being called an idiot were smothered by Heero's mouth descending to his.
2 Duo wrapped his arms around his itooshi and—
(The sudden opening of the cell door and the toe of someone's combat boot thudding painfully against Duo's leg snapped him out of his wistful daydream.
"Dammit!" He snarled, incensed, at the torturer and guards that stared, stone-faced, down at him, "I was just getting to the good part!"
They dragged him up, ignoring his snarls and his noises of pain, and headed for the interrogation cell.
~~~~~~
Heero sat once more on the bench beside Duo's grave. It was twilight all around him, and rain fell softly on him, all around him, locking him in a dim, wet world where only pain and Duo's absence existed. He wore black yet again, and his clothes clung wetly to him. His head was bowed, dark, wet bangs clinging to his face, and, despite the rain, the droplets that slid down his cheeks were clearly tears.
A single flower – a globe Amaranth, the flower that stood for Unfading Love – was clutched in his hands, bent and bowed by the rain.
He slipped from the bench onto his knees, not even noticing the wet grass beneath him. He cradled the rain-soaked blossom to his cheek, wishing it was the hand of his lover, the touch he'd never feel again…
~~~~~~
Chang Wufei found Heero where he had expected to find him: curled up on Duo's bed. The five pilots lived here at one of Quatre's safehouses when they weren't on mission. So most of their things were here.
Wufei, Trowa and Quatre had had to go to the boarding school Duo and Heero had been at with him to get their things. Heero had been too shell- shocked to be of much help. They had had to explain since Heero's battered appearance, numb reactions and Duo's absence had brought up too many questions.
Quatre had explained to the Headmaster that Heero and Duo had been mugged in the city…and that Duo was dead.
The Headmaster was shocked and sympathetic. Ever since the day Sanoki Dori had kissed Duo and the truth about the two boys had come out, the Headmaster had taken an interest in them. They had never done anything but hold hands in public – besides the kiss in the chemistry lab on the day Sanoki kissed Duo – and they were well behaved, discreet, nice boys, in Headmaster Dori's opinion. He wasn't going to expel them just for following their hearts.
Heero had promptly put his and Duo's things in Duo's room at Quatre's. If he wasn't on a mission, then he was at Duo's gravesite or in Duo's room.
Wufei stood in the doorway and stared at Heero. The Japanese boy lay on his side, one of Duo's black, silk pyjama tops clutched to his chest, curled around a black pillow that still smelled of Duo, since Heero refused to let anyone wash it. The last maid who tried was undergoing counselling for being traumatised. He was still dressed in the damp clothes he'd wore out to visit Duo's grave. Hell, he'd still be out there in the rain if Quatre and Trowa hadn't gently coaxed him into the car and back to this safe house. His hair was almost dry now, but wildly tousled, falling over his eyes in little spikes, rather than his usual bangs.
"Heero." Wufei said quietly.
"Hn?" That trademark grunt. That's all any of them had been able to get out of him in a week and a half.
"Were getting some kind of live feed from a Romafeller base. Trowa's trying to decrypt it. Looks like there are Trieze faction troops hiding among the Romafeller faction."
When Heero remained silent and didn't stir, Wufei hid a sigh. Damn him!
A soldier shouldn't permit love inside. This is what it led to.
Although Wufei could certainly see how Heero had fallen in love with Duo – He cut that thought off before it even finished. Duo Maxwell was *dead*. Even if he had been alive, Duo loved Heero with all his heart, mind, body and soul.
"Trowa could use your help. You're better on the comp-"
A sudden disbelieving cry, sounding like Quatre, from downstairs cut the Chinese boy off. Then Quatre screamed out, "**HEERO!!!** Get down here! You *have* to see this!" The normally soft-spoken and well-mannered boy's voice was commanding, brooking no opposition.
Heero shoved himself to his feet and trotted listlessly after Wufei.
In the den, Trowa sat at the desk, laptop before him, Quatre hanging over his shoulder. Trowa turned and rose as Heero and Wufei entered. The Latin pilot pushed Heero into the seat.
"This is a live feed from inside a base controlled by the Romafeller faction," Trowa hastily explained. "The Treize soldiers said something about a miracle to us. They… they showed us –"
Trowa stopped as the dark, shifting picture on the screen cleared to show four soldiers hauling a snarling, defiant and dishevelled Duo Maxwell into what was obviously an interrogation room.
Heero stared, not believing…then he leaned forward and clutched the sides of the laptop, eyes locked onto the most beautiful sight he had ever seen…never mind that his koi's clothes and skin were splattered with fresh and dried blood, clothes ripped and burned in spots, ugly bruises up his cheek, temple and forehead. Never mind that his braid was partially undone, snarled, tangled and matted in places with dried blood. Never mind that his left wrist was crudely splinted, and he was hunched in pain, hand clutching his chest.
The audio came on as the guards manhandled Duo into a chair and strapped him down. Duo, of course, was chattering at them, fast and furious.
"You know you'll never get anything from me. I won't tell you a damned thing. You start hurting me and off I go-e-o," The crazy American sang, "Into my little safe-world in my mind. And there I… ammmm … safeee…and you can't get meeee…" He smirked at them despite the bruises and scratches on his face and sang the last words at them in a taunting voice. Then he stuck his tongue out at them and crossed his eyes.
"Zero-Two, you'll tell us everything we want to know today." One of the men growled.
"BBBWHAHAHAHAHA!!" Duo barked out that trademark insane laugh of his that he reserved for slicing enemy mobile suits apart, or for when he was teasing Wufei. "*I* am Shinigami! *You* are nothing but a piece of shi-"
A fist connecting with his torso shut him up; it also sent a horridly large amount of blood fountaining down his chin as he gagged on pain.
"You see," the man went on, "We have one of your friends. Zero-One."
Duo's head snapped up, face paling beneath the bruises and blood. "*I don't believe you!!*" He snarled.
One of the men pressed a button on the wall speaker and agonised screaming came from it. Who ever it was *did* sound like Heero, but, obviously, it wasn't him, since at that moment Heero was watching from Quatre's.
But Duo had no way of knowing that.
Duo's face went dead white and he uttered a strangled noise somewhere between a sob and a shriek. It sounded like Heero, maybe, but how could he be sure? But if it was, what terrible things they had to be doing for *Heero* to be screaming like that!
"I…I don't believe its him!" Duo gulped, but his voice was uncertain.
"You co-operate and we'll let you see him." One of guards said.
"No. If it is him..he.. wouldn't want me to –" Duo stopped as the screams peaked, and then the screamer shrieked out, "GOD… *DUO!!* …
aaaahhhhA AAAHHHHHHH!!"
Duo's face contorted into a terrified, unsure expression. A tear slipped down his cheek, making a track in the blood and dirt on his skin. His lips moved, but his voice was too low for the sound pick-up. But all four gundam pilots watching could make out what he had said: 'Heero, oh, dear God, Heero!'
"I..won't…tell you anything!" Duo rasped out. "If that *is* Hee - Zero One, he wouldn't want me to endanger the other pilots. If that's *not* him, then telling you will endanger him. No. I won't!" Duo groaned and yelped as one of the men stuck a needle in his arm and emptied the contents into him.
That man and one of the guards moved away from Duo, but the pick-up still had them.
"What's that, Doc?" The guard asked of the man who'd injected Duo.
The doctor smirked. "He'll tell us where the other gundam pilots are soon. What I gave him will give him hallucinations and make him susceptible to suggestion. So, if I tell him he's seeing his friend being tortured or dying before him, it'll be as real to him as if it was truly happening."
The picture split in two: Duo lolling in the interrogation chair, the drug suffusing through his system, on one side, and the Treize faction soldier who was sending this on the other.
"Get out of your location, if Zero Two knows of it." He told the gundam pilots. "I'm sending you the co-ordinates of this base. He won't last much longer. I'm amazed he lasted this long!" The screen flickered, then slowly faded out, the last thing coming over it was Duo's sudden scream. "***HEERO!!!***"
Heero jumped to his feet, eyes memorising the co-ordinates instantly as they flitted across the black screen. Then he tore out of the room, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei right behind him.
{1} This last is inspired by a note found in Ludwig Van Beethoven's things after his death; "My angel, my all, my very self… my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved…I can live only wholly with you or not at all…" This is not all of it. If you wish to know more about the greatest composer who ever lived, watch the movie "Immortal Beloved".
Itooshi – beloved, sweetheart, darling, etc.
Shinigami – God Of Death
End of Part Four
Author's note: Sorry, but I can't remember if Romafeller faction and Treize faction fighting fits in with the supposed place in the Gundam Wing Timeline that this story is at, so…ignore the timeline! Timeline, What Timeline? Also, some angst, violence… interrogation… sigh… when can I go back to the sweet and touching plot-lines? Why must the munchkin in my head that is my Muse make me write this…
//thoughts//
*emphasis* ( the more **, the greater the emphasis)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was no body to bury.
But Quatre, sweet and thoughtful Quatre, had erected a headstone for Duo beneath an oak tree the American had loved so much, on one of the Winner Estates's grounds. The blond Arabian had said quietly that if any of them should fall in battle, this was were their bodies – or monuments, if there were no remains – would be placed. If they agreed.
All of them did.
That was where Heero was now, sat on the simple stone bench beside Duo's grave.
The Japanese boy wore black – in mourning, or perhaps in memory of Duo's black clothes – trousers, long-sleeved shirt, jacket, and boots. His head was bowed, and he stared at the flowers he had placed on Duo's grave: yellow roses of their Friendship Eternal, White carnations for their Pure and Ardent Love, Larkspur for Duo's Open Heart, pink rosebuds for his Beauty and Youth, Heliotrope for Heero's Devotion, and Forget-me-nots for their True Love.
The words on the headstone were simple:
Duo Maxwell
Died AC 196
Honoured Soldier
Cherished Friend
1 Immortal Beloved{1}
The words meant nothing to Heero, even though he stared at them intently.
"I miss you Duo." He whispered to his lover's grave. "It's only been a week. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei miss you too. They've been watching me like a hawk and I overheard Quatre asking if they shouldn't disable my self- detonation switch. But I wouldn't do that. Not until all those who caused your death are screaming in Hell. Then, maybe…"
Heero knelt on the damp grass in the twilight and hugged the cold, marble headstone, trying to pretend it was the energetic, laughing, light- hearted young boy he loved.
The cold of the marble stung his cheek, and spoiled the fantasy he was trying to weave, and hot tears trickled down upon the stone.
~~~~~~~
Duo Maxwell stared up at the ceiling he was barely able to see in the dimness of his cell. Fresh wounds added now to the pain throbbing from injuries a week old and barely healing.
//How can they heal when they keep getting reopened by the interrogators?// Duo mused to himself.
He rolled over carefully on his side and let his mind slip into the dreamworld that he'd been using to keep from telling the interrogators anything:
Heero shifted in their bed and drew him nearer.
"My beautiful, annoying baka…" Heero's voice drawled in his ear.
Duo started to turn, face indignant. "Oi! I object-" His objections to being called an idiot were smothered by Heero's mouth descending to his.
2 Duo wrapped his arms around his itooshi and—
(The sudden opening of the cell door and the toe of someone's combat boot thudding painfully against Duo's leg snapped him out of his wistful daydream.
"Dammit!" He snarled, incensed, at the torturer and guards that stared, stone-faced, down at him, "I was just getting to the good part!"
They dragged him up, ignoring his snarls and his noises of pain, and headed for the interrogation cell.
~~~~~~
Heero sat once more on the bench beside Duo's grave. It was twilight all around him, and rain fell softly on him, all around him, locking him in a dim, wet world where only pain and Duo's absence existed. He wore black yet again, and his clothes clung wetly to him. His head was bowed, dark, wet bangs clinging to his face, and, despite the rain, the droplets that slid down his cheeks were clearly tears.
A single flower – a globe Amaranth, the flower that stood for Unfading Love – was clutched in his hands, bent and bowed by the rain.
He slipped from the bench onto his knees, not even noticing the wet grass beneath him. He cradled the rain-soaked blossom to his cheek, wishing it was the hand of his lover, the touch he'd never feel again…
~~~~~~
Chang Wufei found Heero where he had expected to find him: curled up on Duo's bed. The five pilots lived here at one of Quatre's safehouses when they weren't on mission. So most of their things were here.
Wufei, Trowa and Quatre had had to go to the boarding school Duo and Heero had been at with him to get their things. Heero had been too shell- shocked to be of much help. They had had to explain since Heero's battered appearance, numb reactions and Duo's absence had brought up too many questions.
Quatre had explained to the Headmaster that Heero and Duo had been mugged in the city…and that Duo was dead.
The Headmaster was shocked and sympathetic. Ever since the day Sanoki Dori had kissed Duo and the truth about the two boys had come out, the Headmaster had taken an interest in them. They had never done anything but hold hands in public – besides the kiss in the chemistry lab on the day Sanoki kissed Duo – and they were well behaved, discreet, nice boys, in Headmaster Dori's opinion. He wasn't going to expel them just for following their hearts.
Heero had promptly put his and Duo's things in Duo's room at Quatre's. If he wasn't on a mission, then he was at Duo's gravesite or in Duo's room.
Wufei stood in the doorway and stared at Heero. The Japanese boy lay on his side, one of Duo's black, silk pyjama tops clutched to his chest, curled around a black pillow that still smelled of Duo, since Heero refused to let anyone wash it. The last maid who tried was undergoing counselling for being traumatised. He was still dressed in the damp clothes he'd wore out to visit Duo's grave. Hell, he'd still be out there in the rain if Quatre and Trowa hadn't gently coaxed him into the car and back to this safe house. His hair was almost dry now, but wildly tousled, falling over his eyes in little spikes, rather than his usual bangs.
"Heero." Wufei said quietly.
"Hn?" That trademark grunt. That's all any of them had been able to get out of him in a week and a half.
"Were getting some kind of live feed from a Romafeller base. Trowa's trying to decrypt it. Looks like there are Trieze faction troops hiding among the Romafeller faction."
When Heero remained silent and didn't stir, Wufei hid a sigh. Damn him!
A soldier shouldn't permit love inside. This is what it led to.
Although Wufei could certainly see how Heero had fallen in love with Duo – He cut that thought off before it even finished. Duo Maxwell was *dead*. Even if he had been alive, Duo loved Heero with all his heart, mind, body and soul.
"Trowa could use your help. You're better on the comp-"
A sudden disbelieving cry, sounding like Quatre, from downstairs cut the Chinese boy off. Then Quatre screamed out, "**HEERO!!!** Get down here! You *have* to see this!" The normally soft-spoken and well-mannered boy's voice was commanding, brooking no opposition.
Heero shoved himself to his feet and trotted listlessly after Wufei.
In the den, Trowa sat at the desk, laptop before him, Quatre hanging over his shoulder. Trowa turned and rose as Heero and Wufei entered. The Latin pilot pushed Heero into the seat.
"This is a live feed from inside a base controlled by the Romafeller faction," Trowa hastily explained. "The Treize soldiers said something about a miracle to us. They… they showed us –"
Trowa stopped as the dark, shifting picture on the screen cleared to show four soldiers hauling a snarling, defiant and dishevelled Duo Maxwell into what was obviously an interrogation room.
Heero stared, not believing…then he leaned forward and clutched the sides of the laptop, eyes locked onto the most beautiful sight he had ever seen…never mind that his koi's clothes and skin were splattered with fresh and dried blood, clothes ripped and burned in spots, ugly bruises up his cheek, temple and forehead. Never mind that his braid was partially undone, snarled, tangled and matted in places with dried blood. Never mind that his left wrist was crudely splinted, and he was hunched in pain, hand clutching his chest.
The audio came on as the guards manhandled Duo into a chair and strapped him down. Duo, of course, was chattering at them, fast and furious.
"You know you'll never get anything from me. I won't tell you a damned thing. You start hurting me and off I go-e-o," The crazy American sang, "Into my little safe-world in my mind. And there I… ammmm … safeee…and you can't get meeee…" He smirked at them despite the bruises and scratches on his face and sang the last words at them in a taunting voice. Then he stuck his tongue out at them and crossed his eyes.
"Zero-Two, you'll tell us everything we want to know today." One of the men growled.
"BBBWHAHAHAHAHA!!" Duo barked out that trademark insane laugh of his that he reserved for slicing enemy mobile suits apart, or for when he was teasing Wufei. "*I* am Shinigami! *You* are nothing but a piece of shi-"
A fist connecting with his torso shut him up; it also sent a horridly large amount of blood fountaining down his chin as he gagged on pain.
"You see," the man went on, "We have one of your friends. Zero-One."
Duo's head snapped up, face paling beneath the bruises and blood. "*I don't believe you!!*" He snarled.
One of the men pressed a button on the wall speaker and agonised screaming came from it. Who ever it was *did* sound like Heero, but, obviously, it wasn't him, since at that moment Heero was watching from Quatre's.
But Duo had no way of knowing that.
Duo's face went dead white and he uttered a strangled noise somewhere between a sob and a shriek. It sounded like Heero, maybe, but how could he be sure? But if it was, what terrible things they had to be doing for *Heero* to be screaming like that!
"I…I don't believe its him!" Duo gulped, but his voice was uncertain.
"You co-operate and we'll let you see him." One of guards said.
"No. If it is him..he.. wouldn't want me to –" Duo stopped as the screams peaked, and then the screamer shrieked out, "GOD… *DUO!!* …
aaaahhhhA AAAHHHHHHH!!"
Duo's face contorted into a terrified, unsure expression. A tear slipped down his cheek, making a track in the blood and dirt on his skin. His lips moved, but his voice was too low for the sound pick-up. But all four gundam pilots watching could make out what he had said: 'Heero, oh, dear God, Heero!'
"I..won't…tell you anything!" Duo rasped out. "If that *is* Hee - Zero One, he wouldn't want me to endanger the other pilots. If that's *not* him, then telling you will endanger him. No. I won't!" Duo groaned and yelped as one of the men stuck a needle in his arm and emptied the contents into him.
That man and one of the guards moved away from Duo, but the pick-up still had them.
"What's that, Doc?" The guard asked of the man who'd injected Duo.
The doctor smirked. "He'll tell us where the other gundam pilots are soon. What I gave him will give him hallucinations and make him susceptible to suggestion. So, if I tell him he's seeing his friend being tortured or dying before him, it'll be as real to him as if it was truly happening."
The picture split in two: Duo lolling in the interrogation chair, the drug suffusing through his system, on one side, and the Treize faction soldier who was sending this on the other.
"Get out of your location, if Zero Two knows of it." He told the gundam pilots. "I'm sending you the co-ordinates of this base. He won't last much longer. I'm amazed he lasted this long!" The screen flickered, then slowly faded out, the last thing coming over it was Duo's sudden scream. "***HEERO!!!***"
Heero jumped to his feet, eyes memorising the co-ordinates instantly as they flitted across the black screen. Then he tore out of the room, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei right behind him.
{1} This last is inspired by a note found in Ludwig Van Beethoven's things after his death; "My angel, my all, my very self… my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved…I can live only wholly with you or not at all…" This is not all of it. If you wish to know more about the greatest composer who ever lived, watch the movie "Immortal Beloved".
Itooshi – beloved, sweetheart, darling, etc.
Shinigami – God Of Death
End of Part Four