Chapter 2!!
By
Golden Rain Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing( Sorry.. I've changed the ages again *laughs sheepishly* soz 'bout that Ages Duo: 14 Heero: 12 Quatre: 12 Wufei: 12 Trowa: 11
Last time on The Spirits of the Animals
Every time our human counterparts fail to destroy Ozeana, we will be reborn into a different lifetime, ready to yet again attempt to destroy Ozeana!!!" Everyone nodded in agreement. Then they started to pool their energies to send their energies and powers to send their souls into the future.
NOW!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~FIFTEEN THOUSAND YEARS IN THE FUTURE~~~~~
(AN BIG TIME JUMP LOL!!)
Wufei was broken, his body was broken, his spirit was broken. He had been captured for three weeks, been submitted to torture every day, every hour. All sorts of injustices had been done to his poor broken body. His mind was a screaming well of pain. At the end of his first week he had given up hope of being rescued, or escaping. His life was all in vain. He had no pride in himself left, all he knew was he hadn't betrayed his friends, Oz hadn't even asked him any questions about the pilots, they had just asked simple questions about Wufei's past, he didn't understand it. What he did understand that he had screamed the answers out.
The door started to open again, gunfire could be heard in the background, a body came flying through the open door, Wufei huddled up in to feral position, it was one of his torturers.. Then a familiar braid could be seen backing into the room, gun out. The once proud and arrogant Wufei tried to stifle his whimpers, he didn't want to be seen like this, he was so. dirty. from having different people touch him in different ways.. One of the 'prisoners' had begun to befriend him, to try to help him keep his mind, but later, Wufei discovered, it was all a hoax. The prisoner bribed the guards, to let him help with the torture, if he could be set free. the guards had agreed. His friend had betrayed him. who's to say that others wouldn't. Wufei started shaking, rattling his chains.
Duo jumped slightly, he turned around and saw Wufei, as naked as a newborn baby, and as fragile and thin as one too. He yelled out "Guys I've found him. come in gently and quietly, he's scared of us!" There was the sound of several hurried footsteps which slowed down as they reached the door. Trowa came in first followed by Quatre then Heero who promptly stood by the door on guard duty and started shooting anyone who came near.
Duo set his gun on the floor; wincing at the amount of blood he saw on the floor, felt rage building up inside of him as he saw that Wufei was still bleeding heavily from the lower parts. Duo was furious that someone could do such injustice to his friend! Wufei, seeing the rage building up in Duo's eyes, thought it was directed at him, he let out a whimper, and curled up as tight as he could, in a darkened corner of the room, shivering uncontrollably from cold, fear, and pain. Duo pushed his anger away and took off his jacket which made Wufei cry out. Duo then put his hands in the air to show Wufei that they were empty apart from the jacket, he walked slowly towards the scared Chinese boy, and stopped a couple of feet away from him, when he gave a cry.
"Wufei. hey Wu-man. it's me Maxwell you know. the braided baka! Come on you. look up, come on Wuwu. look up. please!" If there was anyone Wufei trusted it was probably Duo as he looked after all of them like the father none of them had (AN: THEY WERE ALL ORPHANS WHO LIVED ON THE STREETS (APART FROM TROWA) UNTIL THEY WERE SCOOPED UP BY THE DOCTORS)
He looked up at his friend, and gave a small, slight nod and then put his head on his knees. Duo walked slowly over with his jacket in his hand then knelt down on the floor sticky with blood and dirt. He put his jacket over the thin Chinese man's shivering shoulders. And frowned, when did you last eat Wufei he thought, how much have they been feeding you. how dare they do this to any of my friends. they will pay! Wufei flinched at Duo's touch. Duo crawled back a few spaces to give his friend some air (AN. JUST TO TELL U.,, THERE IS NO YAOI IN THIS FIC SO DON'T GET NE IDEAS LOL) Duo spoke in a whispered voice "Wuwu. I'm gonna pick you up so we can get you out of this hell hole. is that alright?" Wufei rapidly shook his head, visions of his torturer's hands caressing different parts of his body, holding the burning irons to his body, slashing at him with a knife all sprang to his mind, his eyes got wider and wider, he started shaking more, "NO!!!!! STOP IT!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!" he screamed, he pushed himself into a corner throwing the jacket off in the process. Then he started thrashing around
The pilots looked at each other worriedly; even Heero turned his gaze onto his friend, a bit of worry shining in his eyes causing him to be shot in the arm. Duo ran over to him shoving caution to the wind - terrified that his friend would hurt himself more, he threw himself on the ground beside Wufei and grabbed his fists with his hands, Trowa was there in an instant and held on to Wufei's body to stop him from hurting himself. Wufei- fearing his 'friends' would hurt him as well, struggled harder, he was crying out now in pain and fear. Quatre was looking lost, stuck between helping his friends, and keeping away so he didn't add to his friend's fear. In the end Heero said "leave him!" Quatre nodded and turned around to try to block out the sound of his friend's cries.
Wufei struggled as hard as he could. he was right. his friends were betraying him, they were going to hurt him. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head 'calm down Wufei, calm down. They're trying to help you. not hurt you!' 'Who are you?' thought Wufei; 'I can't say right now. but please, trust me.' answered the voice.
Wufei's struggling weakened then completely stopped, he collapsed against Duo, completely exhausted with tears running down his face, Duo just sat there rocking him in his arms gently calming him down, Wufei was just a shivering wreck. Now he was slightly calmed down, Trowa took a couple of steps back to give his friend time to recover and a bit of air.
Suddenly there was a surprised cry of pain. Wufei cried out and Trowa spun around, Heero was on his knees having taken a shot in the side of his stomach, not fatal, just very painful. Quatre was steadily shooting at the soldiers that he could see, Trowa joined Heero on the ground and pulled him out of the way, then he to started shooting. Wufei clung onto Duo tighter and started shaking as he gently picked him up to take him out of the way of the bullets.
"Wuwu," Duo said "we're gonna have to get going, before more soldiers get here. I'm gonna carry you, ok?" there was silence for a few seconds in which Duo held his breath, then Wufei gave a small nod. Duo gave a friendly grin "great. lets get moving then eh?" He reached over and gently picked up Wufei frowning inwardly at how light his friend now was. Then he ran over towards the door with Heero and Trowa clearing the way in front of him, and Quatre protecting him from the back. Wufei leaned his head on his friend's shoulder, too exhausted to do anything except try to block out the mind numbing pain. When they reached the outside Heero pressed the button on the remote to blow up the bombs that the G-boys had placed around the building when Duo had got Wufei to a safe distance away.
Just as Duo was catching his breath from the long sprint, he heard a growl coming from the darkness "uhh. guys. do you hear that?" Heero nodded in an answer, he already had his gun out. Duo started out into the night, and gave a gasp, out of the darkness and gloom, Duo saw little pinpricks of light - eyes! He said "guys. it's wolves, come round here, we must protect Wufei, the wolves shouldn't hurt us. but even so. we must be ready. If you do have to shoot a wolf, try not to kill it!" the others nodded and took their positions in a circle around Duo.
Duo suddenly collapsed to the floor in pain, all of the pilots did apart from Wufei, a loud voice could be heard reverberating in their heads. "Move away from me!" it said. "where are you" cried out Duo, "I'm in the one you know as Wufei!" it answered, "NO!" yelled out Duo, I'm not leaving Wufei. what are you doing to him?" "DON'T QUESTION MY JUDGEMENT!!!" Roared the voice, the nearby trees started to shake even though there was no sound outside the boys' head. "IF YOU STAY NEAR ME. YOU WILL BE ATTACKED BY THE WOLVES!!!" Duo answered back "so we should leave Wufei so he can be attacked by them...never!" "YOU WILL OBEY ME!!!" roared the voice. Duo looked around at the others, Quatre was looking pale, Duo remembered that he had a fear of wolves; Trowa was supporting most of Heero's weight, Heero who was looking very pale and was almost blacking out from pain and loss of blood. The earlier show of bravado from when Duo had first heard the growling was gone. He looked like he was on the edge of blacking out - partly due to the pains in his head as well as the gun wounds.
Duo looked at them all, and they looked at him, "no!" forced out Heero, "we're not leaving Wufei, he wouldn't leave us. we're not leaving him" then his knees completely buckled out from underneath him and he collapsed onto the snowy ground shivering. Duo looked around again, all the pilots were cold, probably Duo worst of all as he had given Wufei his jacket. However, he locked his knees up to stop himself shivering, and said in a strong voice while walking over to Wufei "I'm not deserting my friend! Quatre, you and Trowa get Heero, carry him over here, we're going to get around Wufei so we keep him warm, Heero too will also go in the middle as he's been shot a couple of times, Quatre you go close to as you were shot as well. Trowa, you take off your jacket and try to place it over those three as best as possible, but most over Wufei, then get in the circle as well, Quatre you take off yours and Heero's jackets as well, then spread it over all of you, your jackets.
Then get in the circle as well, you guys keep each other warm, I'll keep an eye on the wolves. Then the voice yelled in Duo's head alone, making him collapse once more to the snowy ground "I SAID OBEY ME!!! KEEP AWAY FROM ME, THE WOLVES WILL DESTROY YOU!!!" "I. won't . let. them!!!" forced out Duo, "THEN YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!!!" the voice roared, the pain in Duo's head grew and grew until if felt like it was going to explode he heard vague cries in the background of "Duo!!!" from Quatre and Trowa, but it sounded like they were calling from the other side of a thick layer of ice. Duo struggled to get up to show them that he was alright, but his body wasn't responding to him, he heard a voice in his head yet again sounding very hazy, but a voice all the same "come on Duo, I'm sorry for the manners of my friend, but you must understand, he is terrified, he has been through a lot. The same as your friend, but you must try to fight this pain, there is an avalanche coming down, and you must get your friends to safety, also the wolves are closing in, the one you know as Quatre is terrified, but is trying to disguise it, the same with Trowa as you call him, come on young man, you can do it!" Duo listened to this voice, he tried with more effort than he knew he had in him and staggered to his feet "that's right!" cheered on the voice, now yell out Swiftwind. stop this!" Duo opened his mouth, and forced out with energy he didn't know he had "SWIFTWIND. STOP THIS!!!" immediately the pain was gone, with only a memory of it remaining, the wolves too disappeared, silently as if they had never been there. Duo ran at the others, shaking his head, trying to understand it, ignoring the icy coldness that bit away at him, "guys! We gotta get moving, an avalanche is coming! And Oz is closing in. GET MOVING, Trowa, you get Heero, Quatre, you help me with Wufei!" the other two nodded, understanding the seriousness of the situation, then they got to there assigned jobs, with Quatre supporting Duo as much as he could. "Get going, try and find a big rock or cave or something, Trowa, you run as fast as you can, we'll find safety, just get you and Heero to safety!" he yelled, suddenly a couple of shots rang out from among the trees, with one hitting Duo in his already shaky legs, he fell to the ground with a cry, spraining his ankle. Quatre stopped and set Wufei down to start shooting "Go!" cried Duo, "I'll take care of the soldiers, you follow Trowa with Wufei, go! Hurry!" "but." stammered Quatre "what about you? You might not make it!" "I'll be fine!!! I'll get rid of these fools and then find shelter now GO!!!" Quatre looked back once, and then carried on running with gunshots at his heels.
Duo scrambled to his feet and took aim with his gun, he fired once and then again intentionally missing the soldiers so he could get their attention, his plan worked. The gunfire was soon directed at him. He dodged every single one he could see, but was shot twice more, one in the same leg as before and one in the arm. He quickly fired off two shots, and saw that he killed two men out of five. Then he took aim once more, and killed the last three men.
He sprinted off after the others with a faint roaring filling his ears - the roaring of an avalanche, he sprinted faster.
Every now and again he would glance behind to see how far away the mound of snow was, it was gaining on him. He carried on running, his breath gasping in his ears. Suddenly just ahead of him he saw a big rock, with what looked like a cave in it. Duo ran toward it, new hope in his eyes. He made it just in time, the snow came crashing past him as he threw himself into the cave gasping. As he struggled to catch his breath, he watched the snow tumble past, he was amazed at how close he had come to cheating death. then he shook his head, this is no time for idle thinking, I've gotta put a bandage on my leg and arm, I hope the others are ok. in the morning when I've got a bit more energy, I'll work my way out, and go find them. With that decided, he tore a bit of cloth of his shirt, and wrapped it around his leg which was slowly turning red, then he did the same for his arm. Afterwards, he curled himself up into a little ball, to try to keep his body heat and tried to get to sleep, but he was too cold, he looked around to see if he could see any twigs or something, but he couldn't. I guess I'd better stay awake, otherwise I might die he thought grimly this will be fun and so the night passed by slowly for Duo as he struggled not to let his weary eyes rest. Eventually when he guessed it to be morning he walked over towards the entrance and started climbing through the thin layer of snow, in a few seconds he reached the top. He pulled himself out of the snow and wincing stood up, man. my leg and arm really kill, anyway. I don't have time to worry about my own feeble injuries, I've GOT to get back to Trowa and the others, Trowa will need a hand with them because Quatre was injured as well, and if I remember correctly Trowa was shot once. I have to hurry!!! Duo broke into a run, making most of his cuts start to weep once more, but Duo didn't care, he had to get to his friends. After a few minutes, he stopped to catch his breath, he was beginning to feel really dizzy, but he shook that feeling out of his head, and started running again, he tripped over a half submerged root, and started to push himself up, when his arms completely gave out, he was exhausted and couldn't go on any longer I.must carry on thought Duo and once again he tried to push himself up, this time he made it to his knees, then to his feet. He stood there swaying for a few seconds, then he started to do a stumbling walk, falling often, but continuously getting up. After about an hour, he fell one last time, and didn't have the energy to get up again, he tried and tried again. but he failed. A single tear welled up in his eye to his surprise, why am I crying? he asked himself, then he realised what his body was trying to tell him, his body hurt like hell, his makeshift bandages had come off a while ago, and his wounds were all red and sore, the world started spinning around again, and Duo kept on getting black spots before his eyes, as more tears dripped out of them, he was failing his friends, he was going to be a failure to them, if they died it would be his fault. and those were his last thoughts before he at last blacked out.
~~SEVERAL HOURS LATER~~
"Duo....Duo....Duo!! answer us!" Quatre was limping alongside Trowa trying to find their missing friend "oh Trowa. what if he. died. saving us?" asked Quatre worriedly "he'll be fine. he's Duo!" answered Trowa, who also looked worried. Quatre nodded "I hope so, I think I should go back, to make sure Heero and Wufei are alright after all, they are still unconscious." Trowa nodded, "I was just about to suggest you did that. I'll be back in no longer than 2 hours." Quatre nodded and went back to the abandoned hut they had found.
Trowa went on alone, calling as he went, it had been about an hour and a half when he was about to turn back, when he noticed some footsteps in the snow. Duo! he thought eagerly as he followed them at a run, he got worried as he saw how many times the person had fallen over, and ran faster - Duo was injured, suddenly he saw a little heap in front of him, it was Duo!!! But he was unconscious with no jacket on and holes in his shirt!
Trowa ran the last few steps to the unconscious boy, Duo was slightly blue around the lips and was barely breathing, though the breath was there his skin was looking very pale and the snow under him was quite red. Trowa placed the back of his hand against his own forehead and then against Duo's, the boy had a temperature and was shivering badly. Trowa quickly pulled off both his jumper and jacket and wrapped the American up in them. Duo opened his eyes slowly as Trowa rubbed warmth and life into his friends body "Trowa. your alive. I failed you, I'm sorry, I couldn't find you anywhere. I failed you all, are the other's ok?" said Duo in a hoarse voice "don't worry about it Duo, you did all you could! You definitely did NOT fail us, you did more than any of us could have! The others are all fine, Heero and Wufei are still unconscious and Quatre is with them, a little stiff but apart from that fine. We need to get you to them though, your freezing cold! Come on!" after that unusually long speech, he helped Duo stand up, but he promptly fell down again, his legs shivering too much to hold him up, "I'll. carry. you" said Trowa, feeling scared at such close comfort, though he had to do it. Duo couldn't walk on his own. "I'll manage" said Duo, "no!" answered Trowa " I said I'd carry you, you can't walk!" Duo felt too weak to argue, so he let Trowa pick him up. Just as Trowa set off, Duo started coughing, a painful barking cough which scraped the back of his throat. Trowa rubbed his back sympathetically, and then broke into a run as speed was needed. About 15 minutes later he made it back to the hut, and saw Quatre sitting anxiously at the window, his face broke into relief as he saw Trowa, but immediately was concerned again when he realised that Duo was being carried. He opened the door to let Trowa in and took Duo off of him, and placed him on a chair by the fire where both Wufei and Heero were also, Heero was now awake however, and was sipping a cup of tea, firmly wrapped up in blankets. Wufei was lying on the sofa also wrapped up in blankets. Quatre immediately made Trowa put a blanket over his shoulders as he had only a long-sleeved shirt on. Then he gave him a cup of tea, and got started on Duo, he bandaged all his wounds and laid him down on a chair smothered in blankets. "the kind owner of this house has just gone out to get some food, he found us out in the woods and bought us to his house. He hates Oz with a passion, even if he is lying, we needed a place to stay, so we had to trust him." Spoke Quatre, Duo nodded his head and opened his mouth to speak, when he had another coughing fit. Quatre frowned slightly and felt his forehead, it was hot and he was still shivering quite badly. Quatre added another log to the fire and gave him another blanket, then he went into the kitchen and made him a cup of warm tomato soup, he sat Duo up and gave him the mug, but he was shivering too much, so Quatre got a spoon, and fed Duo the warm liquid, spoonful by spoonful. After a couple of mouthfuls, Duo threw up. He didn't finish until there wasn't a scrap of food left in his body. Quatre cleaned him up, and looked at Trowa worriedly, Duo was ill! And quite badly so. if he couldn't eat anything. Heero looked on, a bit of worry shining in his eyes as well. he hoped his friend would be ok. to him it looked like he had the flu.or.possibly puenomia Heero hoped desperately that his friend didn't have puenomia. he spoke up "Duo either has puenomia or the flu." the other two looked at him. "puenomia!" gasped Quatre, "or the flu" added Trowa trying to be positive, but looking equally shocked "oh well" croaked Duo, "I've got what I've got" Trowa immediately realised that Duo was trying to disguise how much it hurt to speak "Duo," he said "I don't think you should be talking" Duo used some effort in turning his head around to look at Trowa and realised that he knew how much it hurt. He nodded, then he started coughing again, each painful cough racking his body, Trowa listened carefully for signs he knew from personal experience of puenomia, his face paled as he heard the sound of water sloshing about in his friends lungs, when he had lived with the mercenaries, he had had puenomia,
~FLASHBACK~ The leader of his 'family' the mercenaries liked having Trowa as a human toy, he played with his pain senses by seeing how much pain the child could take before he blacked out, it turned into a competition, and that pain included raping. Anyway, one harsh winter, Trowa was summoned to the frozen river with no clothes on, he was told to make a hole in the ice big enough for a full grown man to get in with his bare hands while being raped from behind, the raping would stop when the ice - thick enough to ice-skate on was broken, Trowa immediately began, and about 47 hours later with no breaks, (the men who were doing the raping switched when they were tired), he finally finished, then he was thrown head-first into the water, and held there for the count of thirty, then allowed up for thirty seconds, then shoved down again, then up again etc, this went on for 3 more hours before a 5 yr old Trowa was finally allowed rest, a result of this was now Trowa hated water and had caught puenomia, 5 days later, his leader finally realised how sick Trowa was, by that time he was almost dead, he couldn't walk anywhere after the first day, and had received terrible punishments for this. Trowa wasn't fully recovered for about a year, but after a few weeks, he was forced to be up and about again.
~END FLASHBACK~
He knew what it was like to puenomia, also he knew the symptoms, he knew Duo had puenomia! "what, what is it?" asked Quatre noticing Trowa's pale face "Duo has puenomia!" said Trowa quietly "how can you tell?" asked Quatre, "because when he coughs, you can hear a sound like water sloshing through his lungs, does it feel like that Duo?" Duo gave a weak nod, "then he has puenomia!"
Wufei gave a quiet groan and Quatre walked sadly over to him, "Wufei's waking up!" he said, Wufei's eyes snapped open and saw Quatre's face looking down at him, he gave a cry and rolled himself into a trembling ball to hide from him, Quatre said softly "Wufei.Wufei, it's me Quatre, don't worry, I won't hurt you, I'm your friend! It's ok, your among friends now. don't panic" soon under Quatre's gentle soothing, Wufei calmed down, "where's Duo?" he asked worriedly looking around "Duo!" he called, sounding like he was a lamb who had lost it's mother "Duo!!!" he called again, beginning to panic again "where's Duo!!!" Quatre once again soothed him, Duo looked at Trowa and signalled for him to come over, Trowa did "is puenomia contagious?" whispered Duo, Trowa shook his head "no" "ok then, could you carry me over there please" whispered Duo once more, "because Wufei won't calm down properly unless he knows I'm here." much as Trowa knew Duo had to stay in bed, warm, he agreed and as gently as he could by missing Duo's wounds, he carried him over to Wufei, "here's Duo," he said gently placing Duo down on some cushions.
Wufei flung his arm's around Duo's neck, and stayed like that for a while, gently sobbing. With Duo just rubbing his hand up and down Wufei's back, trying to hold in his coughs but not being very successful. Soon Wufei noticed Duo's shivering, and attempted coughs "Duo? Are you ill?" he asked fearfully, Duo nodded slightly and Wufei immediately took one arm away, and got a blanket, he tried to move the blanket so it covered Duo as well, but it hurt his ribs and arm so much that Quatre had to gently help him, Duo nodded his thanks. Suddenly the door opened and the owner of the hut came in, laden with shopping bags and wood. Wufei immediately tensed up, and tried to roll away from the big man, but he couldn't, he whimpered in fear and started trembling once more. The forester realised him mistake, and took several steps back, "I see you found your missing friend, he must be tough to survive that avalanche!" he said in a gruff voice. As soon as Wufei started to freak out, Duo immediately bought him in for a hug, and gently rubbed his back while trying not to shiver at the blast of cold air. The forester (whose name was Don) shut the door and noticed that Heero was awake "well, nice to see your awake!" he said smiling cheerfully, how's your stomach, I bandaged it up as best I could, your lucky that I had a first-aid kit, I need to have one, in case I manage to chop my own finger off or something" Trowa beckoned for that man to come into the kitchen using the excuse of unpacking the shopping, as soon as they were out of earshot he started speaking "Duo, the one who's comforting Wufei, is very, very ill. he has. puenomia. that's not a rough guess, I know it for certain. do you have anything that we could use to help him." Don shook his head "I'm sorry, you'll have to take him to a hospital" "but we can't!" burst out Trowa, Don looked mildly surprised "why not. what's troubling you little one? I can see something very bad has happened to you all, I mean, how did such young boy's as you get so wounded, and what's more bear them without showing any pain, I know I certainly couldn't do that. and why were you so anxious about me being enemies of Oz?" Trowa looked awkward for a few minutes "you can tell me." pressed Don, "well.. Ummm.." Stuttered Trowa, at loss of what to do, "as your putting up with us. I guess I should tell you. we're the gundam pilots." Don looked at him flabbergasted "wh- what?" he said disbelievingly ". but your all kids. the one who's ill if barely a day older than 16, and your what.15?" "they're all 12 and Duo's 14 and I'm 11." said Trowa "bu- but how? I guess that explains why you were cautious about Oz, and how your injured, I presume you lot just set Wufei free, and got separated in the avalanche." said an amazed Don "well not exactly." said Trowa
He told Don the whole story, and surprisingly, it made him feel a lot better, he even told Don how he was blaming himself for what happened to both Wufei and Heero. he thought it was his fault, what amazed him was he told Don all about the mercenaries, his fears that they would come back to life. all the times they had had to kill people, how all the deaths got him down. How scared he was whenever he was captured, treated pretty much the same as Wufei had been, but never telling the others for the fear of being touched. comforted. At one point a tear rolled down his cheek, and soon many others followed, he tried to stop them, tried to tell himself that he was weak. but it didn't work, Don just put a hand on his shoulder, knowing not to touch him in any other way, and felt deeply sorry for the child I hate it that this is happening to these kids, their too young to have the responsibility of fighting a war on their shoulders. particularly this one. they shouldn't have to know death of any one, yet alone their whole families and then killing others, that Heero, going through that kind of training, it makes me want to wring those Dr's necks, how dare they do this to kids! Their too young, having to kill at this age. most men my age couldn't do it{AN. DON IS 54 YRS OLD} he thought then he said "Trowa, listen, you guys can all stay here for as long you want! Even when Duo's better, I'm going to look after all of you, I have so many hidden compartments in this place. Oz would have to look for years to find you. I can give you a hand! I'm not bad at the odd bit of medical work. I'll do my best, also you must NOT blame yourself for any of these things, none of them were your fault, I'm amazed that you kept yourself together, I know many a fine man who could not do half the things you do! You're not a coward either, you've gone through a rough life, that's all! And then to go and risk your life afterwards, that's not what I call cowardice, that's bravery! When you guys win this war, you and the other's can come and live here with me.. Don't worry about feeling sad about killing people, I'm sure the others do as well they all just hide it. You shouldn't try to hide your feelings, or fear. no one will think worse of you if you do show them, I think I'll have a chat with Heero as well, 'cause, he's going to cause himself some mental harm if he carries on this way, you all will. Remember, I'm always here for you all! Trowa looked up at him, the first bit of hope in a long time was seen to be shining in his eyes. He said ".really. you'd really do that for us?" Don answered, "you bet!" Trowa's eyes teared up once more, this time with gratitude, however this time he didn't let them fall. Then he and Don quickly unpacked all the shopping, Trowa asked Don "but what can we do about Duo? He's not going to survive much longer. When I had puenomia, all I did was stay in bed and rest, also, because of the throwing up. I think he has a bit of the flu as well, Duo can't die. he just can't! You saw how he had to comfort Wufei, we all look to Duo as a father, if he dies. we lose our spirit, the gundam pilots die." Don saw the boy was getting distraught once more, he said "Trowa. I'm going to do my best to help Duo, I've got some antibiotics here, though whether they'll be the right ones I'm not sure. I also have plenty of blankets etc, and several hot water bottles. I think what we do is, I'll have a look in my medicine cabinet, you go up to the room you slept in last night, and in the right-hand cupboard, you'll see lot's of blankets, a couple of duvets and about 10 hot water bottles, if you put the kettle on to boil now. then you can get the bottles. ok?" Trowa nodded and set about his assigned task "oh, and also are any of you allergic to any foods?" Trowa thought for a second "not that we know of" "ok then, I'll get some supper cooking, you boys need a bit of fattening up especially Heero and Wufei! Now get going kid!" Trowa nodded once more and ran up stairs to get the duvets, covers, and anything else he could find to keep people warm, he even found two electrical blankets! In his head, he wondered why on earth there were so many duvets and things for one person.
~~ in the bathroom with Don~
Now. here are my antibiotics. and there's some cough mixture, I'm fairly sure that he's got hypothermia as well. hmmm I'm going to make Heero put on something else apart from just that thin top or else he's going to get even more ill than he is already. none of them are in very good health. they're all a bit thin and all have something wrong with them. all they need is someone to look after them though. I hope Wufei and Duo will be fine. they're the two I'm most worried about. and mentally it's Trowa and Heero, I wish Trowa would let me see his scars. because I'm sure that he has cuts underneath his long-sleeve shirt, cuts which need a bit of cleaning. the poor lad. I'm sure that he gets tortured the worst because of his age. Oz do that to children. I should know from what happened to my own kids and Sally's tales. Oh!!! Of course!!! I'll contact Sally Po. she's a doctor. and works against Oz. after all. I hide her people here when they're on the run. it's time she can do me a favour! then he got all the equipment he needed (antibiotics, bandages, antiseptic, thermometer, cough mixture) and went back to the kitchen where he was met by a pile of covers etc.
"I got all the things I could find" said Trowa, do you think that I should spread them out, giving Duo the most of the things, then Wufei. then Heero, then Quatre and then myself?" "I think that would be a good idea, but you should give you and Quatre the same amount of things, giving Duo and Wufei the electric blankets, also I think I should move you to the hiding compartments now, so Oz won't catch us unawares." Trowa agreed, they went into the sick room and told the other's what they were going to do. Quatre immediately got up and went with Trowa and Don to start making a comfy place to stay in. They walked into the cellar and Don showed them a particular bottle of wine which you lifted up, under it was a switch which you pressed open, that then opened up a dark tunnel going down under the ground, he pressed the light switch and the dark tunnel was flooded with light, they walked for a couple of minutes going steadily deeper and deeper underground until they reached another dark tunnel which Don yet again flipped another light switch, that tunnel too was flooded with light, they carried on walking for about five minutes when they reached a dark room, Don switched that light switch and they came into a big spacious room with a kettle, stove, fridge, oven, microwave, 15 beds, a fire place, couch, electric heater and other things a house has {AN. A MASSIVE ROOM LOL} Trowa and Quatre looked on, amazed "what do you do down here?" asked Quatre "well." now it was Don's turn to look embarrassed "I do a bit of work with this group called the Preventors, they basically do work against Oz, kind of like you guys except that their a big group, with different age groups, and no one younger than twenty, so quite different from you guys as well, one of the top ranks is someone called Sally Poe, {AN NONE OF THE PILOTS KNOW ABOUT THE PREVENTORS OR SALLY} she is a doctor as well and I was wondering if you'd mind me calling her to come here. because none of you are in top health you've all got some injuries, and then there's Duo. also if I'm correct Trowa, you've got a couple of infections, the same with Heero and Wufei could do with a lot of stitches. I won't call her unless I have your permission, but it would increase Duo's chance of survival." Trowa and Quatre looked at each other, then they both nodded as one, "ok" said Quatre smiling. Don smiled back and said "ok. you guys get yourselves settled down here, and I'll go phone her, she too as always wanted to meet you guys so. I won't tell her you ages. I'll tell her to bring lots of stuff!" Quatre laughed and Trowa began to get to work, he walked back to the kitchen (with Quatre behind him) and grabbed as many of the things as he could, and Quatre did the same, then they carried them down to the room and dumped them on the floor, they walked back meeting Don on the way with an armload of things as well. "Share the last load between you" he said "there's not much left" the boys nodded and got the last load down to the room.
They started to make the room comfortable, and sorted out whose bed was who's. In the end it was Trowa, Wufei, Duo, Quatre with Heero on the end, Don said that Sally would be sleeping down there as well, so they put her next to Heero. As they were walking back up to where the other boys were, Don said "I'll take Duo, you two take Wufei between you, and then Heero can come in the middle, he can walk if I'm correct?" Quatre nodded "though he shouldn't be. Trowa can take Wufei, I'll help Heero." Don said "ok then" and they went to get the boys.
About half an hour later, everyone was settled downstairs (apart from Sally who hadn't arrived yet) Duo was wrapped up in blankets in a fitful sleep, Wufei was lying there on his back, trembling every now and again, but he was slightly calmer although definitely not at ease with the others yet Quatre was sitting there on watch duty, the same with Trowa, Heero was lying there trying to get to sleep but failing and Don was waiting upstairs for Sally to arrive. About another hour later, someone knocked on the door in what was clearly a password, and Don went to answer the door, in came Sally with several bags. "Hi Don!" she said as she shook the snow from her hair "lovely weather your having, so you really have the Gundam Pilots here? With the amount of medical supplies you asked me to bring, you'd think I was going to be treating an army, not just five men. So where are they? Underground room 1?" Don nodded, "one of the boys, has hypothermia and puenomia, they all have a bit of infection but Trowa's and Heero's is the worst, Wufei is very injured, he was almost dead when they bought him to me, but I didn't tell them that. Heero has the flu the same with Quatre, in Heero's training, he was injected with all sorts of things to stop any poison's which Oz threw at him, I think that he had an allergic reaction to some of those, and they are all underfed. also when Quatre is breathing, if you listen carefully you can hear a slight wheeze, Quatre is aware of it, also they have some illnesses/ diseases which they picked up in various Oz bases, though I'm not sure what they are yet. for instance with Trowa, you notice, that he has a slight fever but not too high, about 49 degrees I'd say, he should be in bed, but he and Quatre insisted that they go on guard duty." Sally looked impressed "you always amaze me with your observation skills Don. but one question you keep on talking about them as if they were kids." Don hid a smile "oh. but they are, Trowa is 11 Heero, Quatre and Wufei all 12 and Duo is 14, they all look on him as their father" Sally was silent for a few seconds "your kiddin? You've got to be kidding.. Wow!!! Come on, let's get down there, looks like I got some serious work to do" Don nodded and beckoned for her to follow him "oh yes, Trowa is very nervous he lived with mercenaries when he was younger, who mistreated him. also all the boys have been raped several times. Wufei the most recent, he was rescued yesterday and had been captured for three weeks he won't let anyone touch him but Duo, Trowa, Heero or Quatre." Sally frowned. "Poor kids. they shouldn't have to deal with that yet!" Don nodded "I agree. I felt like strangling the doctor's earlier when Trowa was in tears, he never talks to anyone and just bottles it up, he's scared still about the mercenaries, also. Don't look angry when you go in there. Wufei will think it's something he did, same with Trowa.." Sally nodded, and fixed a smile on her face as she walked into the room, as she did, four heads quickly turned her way, two of them with guns in their hands, and one of them giving a whimper and huddling into a ball, when they saw who it was, they relaxed all apart from the boy who Sally guessed was Wufei, and a boy with platinum blonde hair went to comfort him. The youngest looking boy walked over to her, to Sally's practiced eye, she too noticed the slight limp barely noticeable and the slightly shiny complexion of his skin, also how pale he was. They all looked pale, she held out her hand gently showing it was no threat "I'm Sally Poe" she said quietly "Trowa" he answered shaking her hand, "those two over there are Wufei whose lying down, and Quatre whose comforting him, and that's Heero" he pointed to a boy with very messy brown hair, he looked like he was trying to sit but it was too painful for him Trowa walked over to him "it's ok Heero," she heard Trowa say "she's an ally, come on now, try to get to sleep. Sally's going to have a look over Duo, to see what she can do, then she'll look at all of us in turn." Heero nodded his head and let his body lie back down instead of struggling to get up, Trowa stayed with him until he was certain that he was asleep. Then he walked back over to Sally, "and Duo's over here" he said walking over to a boy who was all wrapped up in blankets, and was sleeping fitfully, frequently coughing, and mouthing words which Sally wasn't quick enough to read, though it appeared he was saying things like stop and leave me alone, quite often, Duo's back would arch as if he was in a lot of pain in his dreams, Sally's heart reached out to the poor child.
Trowa gently placed a hand on Duo's shoulder to wake him up, as soon as he felt the contact, his eyes flew open, and he tried to sit up, but collapsed into coughs. Trowa helped him to sit up, and rubbed his back until the coughs subsided, by which time Duo was shivering once more. Sally looked at Don anxiously; she could see what he meant about how sick all the boys were, Duo especially. She stood in front of his line of vision and said quietly, "hi, I'm Sally Poe, I'm a doctor. I'm going to do my best to get you boys up to full health once more." Duo nodded weakly leaning against Trowa. Who then laid him down again while covering him up in covers. "Do you mind if I touch you Duo?" asked Sally, he shook his head. Then Sally set down her bags on a spare bed and opened up one of them, she took out several bandages, some medicines, a thermometer and lots of other stuff. "You guys have done the right thing by keeping him as warm as you can, that was good well done! But now what you need to do, is you need to get into bed - all of you, it's one o'clock in the morning, and you need your rest! I've got some soldiers here with me who are patrolling the perimeter, they're all trustworthy. A couple of them are going to sleep down here if that's ok with you guys." Trowa tried to bite back a yawn as he said "I've got to stay up, Quatre can go to sleep, but I've got to stay up. if Wufei or Heero or Duo need me, anyone else would scare them. I have to stay up" Sally looked at the boy, she saw the reason in what he was saying, but then underneath a mask he had put up, she saw a cold, tired little child. "Trowa come here" she said kindly, Trowa walked he few steps toward her, his body swaying slightly with exhaustion but legs trembling with fear. When he was in touching distance of her he stopped "yes Sally," he said, barely able to keep the waver of fear out of his voice. Sally reached her arms out and pulled him into a hug, his body tensed up for a few seconds and he trembled worse than before, but after a few seconds, he let himself relax, and he sort of leant into her embrace shoulders shaking as he tried to hold in his sobs. Sally gently stroked his back, relaxing him, soothing him. Then she picked up the crying boy and carried him to his bed, she laid him down and covered him up like a mother comforting her child. She stayed by him for a few minutes gently stroking his back until his sobs stopped, and his breathing evened out - he was asleep.
Quatre looked on surprised and Duo with worry "is he ok?" asked Quatre "he will be" answered Sally, "he just needs a bit of rest and patching up. Then he'll be fine, but speaking of rest, you could do with some yourself" "but. what about the others. Trowa was right when he said needed one of us." Sally frowned for a second and then came up with a conclusion "you go to sleep now, and if any of the others need you, I'll wake you up ok?" Quatre nodded "ok!" then Sally came over and tucked him in as well, "go to sleep little one" she said softly. Obediently Quatre closed his eyes, and in a few minutes he too was asleep. Sally smiled softly watching him and Trowa, they looked so innocent when they were asleep. it was a pity that they faced such horrors in real life. Then she walked back over to Duo who smiled at her then he opened his mouth trying to say something, and whispered "thank you, Quatre's nice and obedient as you saw, but Trowa's normally impossible to get to sleep, that's the first time I've ever seen him cry though. he worries me. they all worry me" as he was saying that, his face contorted with pain, and just as he finished he broke into a bad fit of coughing, Sally immediately sat him up, and rubbed his back, but Duo's cough wouldn't break, she began to pat it gently as well as rubbing it, and his coughing soon stopped leaving him gasping weakly, looking paler than before. Sally asked "Don, can you come over here and hold up Duo please" Don came over, and was just about to take him from Sally, when he completely tensed up and did his best to keep away from Don. Don took a few steps away from him, a confused expression on his face, and Sally gently wrapped her arms around the shivering boy and held him too until he calmed down. "I expect it's about what you told me earlier Don," she said, he nodded then she said "if you go to the front of the house, you'll see some of my soldiers, if you can ask for someone called-" she paused to think for a second "someone called Carla, and then bring her down here please" Don nodded again and went running off to find her leaving Sally gently soothing Duo {AN SHEESH.. I'M MAKING Sally SO KIND AND GENTLE LOL. IF ANYONE COMPLAINS THAT I'M MAKING THE G-PILOTS WEAK AND EMOTIONAL, LOOK AT THE AGES, REMEMBER THEY'RE ONLY KIDS. ALSO I'M WRITING THIS WHILE I'M ON HOLIDAY, AND AT THE MOMENT I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THE ANIMALS SPIRITS *LAUGHS SHEEPISHLY*. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE NOT IN THIS CHAPTER MUCH. ALSO, AS I'M ON HOLIDAY AT THE MOMENT, I PROBABLY WON'T BE ABLE TO POST THIS CHAPTER UNTIL I FIND ANOTHER INTERNET CAFÉ. IT WILL BE DONE ASAP. NEWAY. ENOUGH OF MY RAMBLING, LETS GET ON WITH THE FIC}
A couple of minutes later, Don was back with a dark haired woman "Carla, this is Duo Maxwell, I know you know who he is, all the pilots have been through a lot of harsh times, and they're not that keen about being touched by men. so if you can please come and hold up Duo, he's ill at the moment." Carla looked amazed at how young Duo was, then she looked around the room and saw all the pilots. One of them - a Chinese man was the only other one awake apart from Duo. His face was littered with cuts and bruises, and he was obviously terrified of her. Another of the boys, who had tousled brown hair was tossing and turning in his sleep, whimpering every now and again, obviously having a nightmare, Carla looked at him for a few seconds and noticed, that he was bleeding "umm Sally" she said and pointed at the boy "shoot! That's Heero, come here please and hold Duo, I need to wake Quatre." Carla ran over and took the shivering boy into her own arms, she started to do what Sally had been doing and was rocking him gently, just like she did with her own kids when they were upset. Sally walked over to a sleeping boy with platinum blonde hair - Quatre, Carla guessed, and gently woke him up. She placed her hand on his shoulder, and he was up awake in a second, jumping, obviously startled. "Where's the enemy?" he asked, as if he was still half-asleep, "are the others ok?" "shhhhh. it's ok Quatre, you're with me, Sally, the enemy's not here. Don't worry, I woke you up because Heero's having a nightmare, and I think one of his wounds have re opened again, because he's bleeding quite heavily." Quatre was on his feet in an instant, and was walking towards the bleeding boy. "Heero," he said as he neared the sleeping boy, and that was all it needed to wake him up, he immediately sat bolt upright, the gun on his bedside table in his hand in a second and he was aiming the gun at Quatre's head. It was then Carla realised what it was that made the Gundam Pilot's so dangerous, their reflexes, their courage. she was astounded and furious at the same time about this happening to kids. about 20 years younger than herself.Quatre said "err Heero. can you put the gun down," Heero did so, a sheen of sweat on his face, his face was a complete mask, you couldn't see anything in it, apparently Quatre realised something was wrong because he said "Heero. are you ok?" Heero nodded his head, but Sally noticed that he had one hand on his stomach, trying to hold in the blood, she shook her head "no Heero, you're not ok." Heero turned his emotionless gaze onto her, she had to work quite hard to suppress a shiver, but if she looked deeply into those eyes, she could just about manage to see some hidden pain, she repeated herself "no Heero, you're not ok!" but he just carried on looking at her, he opened his mouth, and spoke "fine. I'll show you I'm fine" he tensed his muscles slightly, so it was barely noticeable, and then he stood up with a sheet wrapped around his waist to hide his wound, though Sally noticed the blood flecks on it which he was trying to cover with his hand, his face paled slightly at the effort of standing up. He swayed slightly, and one of his eyes wasn't focusing on her properly, apart from that, you couldn't tell anything was wrong, unless you looked carefully. "See, I'm fine" he insisted obstinately, he was just about to sit back down, when his right knee cap completely came out of place, causing him to fall "Heero!!!" cried Don, and Sally rushed to catch him, but no one was quicker than Quatre who caught him a few centimetres above the ground, once again Carla was amazed at the kid's reflexes. Heero's skin had gone a new shade of white, and he was visibly sweating now, Sally said once more "as I said before, Heero, you're not alright!!!" at last Heero nodded his head in agreement while lying on Quatre's arms. As he was falling, his sheet and hand had fallen away, showing a gun wound bleeding very heavily now, the stitches had snapped. Quatre gently lifted Heero back on to the bed so Sally could put the stitches back. "Don. can you bring a thermometer please?" Don walked over with in his hand, and passed it to her, before he went back to stand guard by the door. "Heero, can you open your mouth please so I can put the thermometer in" requested Sally, Heero looked like he was going to refuse, but at a look from Quatre he did so and then shut it again with the thermometer inside. Quatre put his hands on Heero's broken knee, and with a brief show of strength popped it back into place. Carla looked at Heero's face expecting to see a flash of pain, but his eyes held a glazed look, obviously not even noticing what Quatre had done. A quiet beeping occurred, and Sally took the thermometer out of Heero's mouth. She looked at it, frowned and walked over to Don, who looked at it as well. She shook it as if it wasn't working properly, and then gave it to Don to go and wash, "what is it?" asked Quatre worried, "it's ." said Sally, pausing briefly as she looked at him "it's not that bad." she finished. Quatre looked like he didn't believe her when Heero called out, "Trowa! Quatre! Duo! Wufei! Where are you? Guys? Don't leave me here!!!" Quatre's attention was immediately focused once more on Heero, "Heero?" he said gently "I'm here, it's me Quatre, the others are on the bed. We won't leave you!" At Heero's calling, Trowa had woken up once more, Sally went over to him, placed her arm over his shoulders, said something to him and then helped him to stand up and walk over to Heero's bed, "I'm here as well Heero" he said. As he set himself down at the edge of Heero's bed, Quatre reached out and grasped hold of his hand, he looked over at Trowa "can you get Wufei over here as well Trowa?" Trowa nodded and walked over to Wufei's bed, said a few more words, and then gently picked him up when he gave a nod. As he was walking, Sally got out the way, giving him a wide berth. He got to Heero's bed and sat him down and while holding him up, "Wufei's here now as well." Said Quatre. "Come on Heero, we're all here for you, apart from Duo who's just over there, he's here for you as well!" Heero stared hard at them all as they began to come into focus. "Quatre, Trowa, Wufei" he said looking at them in turn. They all nodded, and Heero smiled before he fell back asleep. Trowa carried Wufei back, and Sally came over to stitch up his wound - amazingly, he didn't wake up! Then she woke him up long enough to give him some medicine, instantly fell asleep again afterwards, Quatre got slightly worried "is he ok? We're all getting sick." "He's just tired" answered Sally, "and you've all been sick for quite a while, it's just you haven't had had a home where you've had a chance to relax, and let your illnesses get better." "Oh." said Quatre "is that why we've all been getting more tired lately?" Sally nodded "now.back to bed with you young man, I'll wake you when it's your time to be examined." Quatre clambered back once more, and yet again was asleep in a few minutes.
Sally walked back to Duo who by now had calmed down. She took his temperature, and showed it to Don once more, also he bandaged up any wounds which she could find, and gave him a few injections and some medicine. When she had finished (she had spent about 2 hours on him) she said "Duo, I'm going to give you some sleeping pills so you can sleep better, hopefully with no nightmares, a now very tired Duo nodded his head and took 2 pills, in a few seconds he was asleep. Carla gently laid him down on a pillow and looked around at the other boys all of whom were now asleep, "shall I go upstairs to tell the others to change shifts now so some of them can come down to sleep?" she whispered Sally, who nodded "be quick and tell them to be SILENT, if they don't I'll string their guts out and use them as a washing line!" she whispered back, Carla nodded and tiptoed out. Sally moved back to Quatre's bed, and once more gently woke him up "Quatre" she whispered when he was awake "can you help me with Wufei so he won't completely panic?" Quatre nodded and clambered out of his bed, shivering slightly in the cold night air "put a blanked on over your shoulders" Sally suggested, Quatre did so. Then together they walked over to the sleeping Chinese boy.
Quatre woke up Wufei very gently so that he knew he wasn't in any danger, "Wufei" he whispered "the doctor Sally, needs to stitch up you wounds so you don't get infected or anything, then she's going to treat any illnesses you have. can you handle her doing that?" Wufei nodded "I'll stay right here" promised Quatre as Sally walked over.
In the middle of her examination, 4 soldiers walked in with Carla, silently, as she'd said. They startled Wufei slightly but Quatre kept him calm. Another 3 hours later, Sally was finished with both him and Quatre, then she moved onto Trowa (having given them both sleeping pills) and finished with him (he had Don by his side) in 1 hour and a half. Then she gave him a sleeping pill, and moved onto Heero. She sorted out his wounds, gave him some medicine and was done with him in just over an hour. By now it was about one o'clock in the morning, "how are they?" asked Don "pretty much in the condition's you said. I'm going to be staying here for a while. they all need a lot of attending to. we're looking close to a month. They're all seriously under weight as well. what I'm suggesting is 4 balanced meals a day" "but will they survive?" Don cut in "I'm not sure." answered Sally, "I'm worried about all of them, Trowa most of all. he just doesn't have the mental strength. also Duo cause of his health, Wufei has serious injuries, Quatre isn't in good health and the same with Heero - you'd be surprised at the amount of broken bones I found, and those were without an x-ray, the best thing to do now, is to go to sleep, I'll stay down here, and I'll have one soldier on guard when I'm not asleep, that way, if there are any problems - they can wake me up. You go rest now Don, we're doing our best!" Don nodded and went off to bed.
END OF CHAPTER 2!!!
YAY!!! I FINISHED!!! I'll post this out at the next internet café I come 2. don't 4get 2 review ( Ja ne Golden Rain
By
Golden Rain Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing( Sorry.. I've changed the ages again *laughs sheepishly* soz 'bout that Ages Duo: 14 Heero: 12 Quatre: 12 Wufei: 12 Trowa: 11
Last time on The Spirits of the Animals
Every time our human counterparts fail to destroy Ozeana, we will be reborn into a different lifetime, ready to yet again attempt to destroy Ozeana!!!" Everyone nodded in agreement. Then they started to pool their energies to send their energies and powers to send their souls into the future.
NOW!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~FIFTEEN THOUSAND YEARS IN THE FUTURE~~~~~
(AN BIG TIME JUMP LOL!!)
Wufei was broken, his body was broken, his spirit was broken. He had been captured for three weeks, been submitted to torture every day, every hour. All sorts of injustices had been done to his poor broken body. His mind was a screaming well of pain. At the end of his first week he had given up hope of being rescued, or escaping. His life was all in vain. He had no pride in himself left, all he knew was he hadn't betrayed his friends, Oz hadn't even asked him any questions about the pilots, they had just asked simple questions about Wufei's past, he didn't understand it. What he did understand that he had screamed the answers out.
The door started to open again, gunfire could be heard in the background, a body came flying through the open door, Wufei huddled up in to feral position, it was one of his torturers.. Then a familiar braid could be seen backing into the room, gun out. The once proud and arrogant Wufei tried to stifle his whimpers, he didn't want to be seen like this, he was so. dirty. from having different people touch him in different ways.. One of the 'prisoners' had begun to befriend him, to try to help him keep his mind, but later, Wufei discovered, it was all a hoax. The prisoner bribed the guards, to let him help with the torture, if he could be set free. the guards had agreed. His friend had betrayed him. who's to say that others wouldn't. Wufei started shaking, rattling his chains.
Duo jumped slightly, he turned around and saw Wufei, as naked as a newborn baby, and as fragile and thin as one too. He yelled out "Guys I've found him. come in gently and quietly, he's scared of us!" There was the sound of several hurried footsteps which slowed down as they reached the door. Trowa came in first followed by Quatre then Heero who promptly stood by the door on guard duty and started shooting anyone who came near.
Duo set his gun on the floor; wincing at the amount of blood he saw on the floor, felt rage building up inside of him as he saw that Wufei was still bleeding heavily from the lower parts. Duo was furious that someone could do such injustice to his friend! Wufei, seeing the rage building up in Duo's eyes, thought it was directed at him, he let out a whimper, and curled up as tight as he could, in a darkened corner of the room, shivering uncontrollably from cold, fear, and pain. Duo pushed his anger away and took off his jacket which made Wufei cry out. Duo then put his hands in the air to show Wufei that they were empty apart from the jacket, he walked slowly towards the scared Chinese boy, and stopped a couple of feet away from him, when he gave a cry.
"Wufei. hey Wu-man. it's me Maxwell you know. the braided baka! Come on you. look up, come on Wuwu. look up. please!" If there was anyone Wufei trusted it was probably Duo as he looked after all of them like the father none of them had (AN: THEY WERE ALL ORPHANS WHO LIVED ON THE STREETS (APART FROM TROWA) UNTIL THEY WERE SCOOPED UP BY THE DOCTORS)
He looked up at his friend, and gave a small, slight nod and then put his head on his knees. Duo walked slowly over with his jacket in his hand then knelt down on the floor sticky with blood and dirt. He put his jacket over the thin Chinese man's shivering shoulders. And frowned, when did you last eat Wufei he thought, how much have they been feeding you. how dare they do this to any of my friends. they will pay! Wufei flinched at Duo's touch. Duo crawled back a few spaces to give his friend some air (AN. JUST TO TELL U.,, THERE IS NO YAOI IN THIS FIC SO DON'T GET NE IDEAS LOL) Duo spoke in a whispered voice "Wuwu. I'm gonna pick you up so we can get you out of this hell hole. is that alright?" Wufei rapidly shook his head, visions of his torturer's hands caressing different parts of his body, holding the burning irons to his body, slashing at him with a knife all sprang to his mind, his eyes got wider and wider, he started shaking more, "NO!!!!! STOP IT!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!" he screamed, he pushed himself into a corner throwing the jacket off in the process. Then he started thrashing around
The pilots looked at each other worriedly; even Heero turned his gaze onto his friend, a bit of worry shining in his eyes causing him to be shot in the arm. Duo ran over to him shoving caution to the wind - terrified that his friend would hurt himself more, he threw himself on the ground beside Wufei and grabbed his fists with his hands, Trowa was there in an instant and held on to Wufei's body to stop him from hurting himself. Wufei- fearing his 'friends' would hurt him as well, struggled harder, he was crying out now in pain and fear. Quatre was looking lost, stuck between helping his friends, and keeping away so he didn't add to his friend's fear. In the end Heero said "leave him!" Quatre nodded and turned around to try to block out the sound of his friend's cries.
Wufei struggled as hard as he could. he was right. his friends were betraying him, they were going to hurt him. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head 'calm down Wufei, calm down. They're trying to help you. not hurt you!' 'Who are you?' thought Wufei; 'I can't say right now. but please, trust me.' answered the voice.
Wufei's struggling weakened then completely stopped, he collapsed against Duo, completely exhausted with tears running down his face, Duo just sat there rocking him in his arms gently calming him down, Wufei was just a shivering wreck. Now he was slightly calmed down, Trowa took a couple of steps back to give his friend time to recover and a bit of air.
Suddenly there was a surprised cry of pain. Wufei cried out and Trowa spun around, Heero was on his knees having taken a shot in the side of his stomach, not fatal, just very painful. Quatre was steadily shooting at the soldiers that he could see, Trowa joined Heero on the ground and pulled him out of the way, then he to started shooting. Wufei clung onto Duo tighter and started shaking as he gently picked him up to take him out of the way of the bullets.
"Wuwu," Duo said "we're gonna have to get going, before more soldiers get here. I'm gonna carry you, ok?" there was silence for a few seconds in which Duo held his breath, then Wufei gave a small nod. Duo gave a friendly grin "great. lets get moving then eh?" He reached over and gently picked up Wufei frowning inwardly at how light his friend now was. Then he ran over towards the door with Heero and Trowa clearing the way in front of him, and Quatre protecting him from the back. Wufei leaned his head on his friend's shoulder, too exhausted to do anything except try to block out the mind numbing pain. When they reached the outside Heero pressed the button on the remote to blow up the bombs that the G-boys had placed around the building when Duo had got Wufei to a safe distance away.
Just as Duo was catching his breath from the long sprint, he heard a growl coming from the darkness "uhh. guys. do you hear that?" Heero nodded in an answer, he already had his gun out. Duo started out into the night, and gave a gasp, out of the darkness and gloom, Duo saw little pinpricks of light - eyes! He said "guys. it's wolves, come round here, we must protect Wufei, the wolves shouldn't hurt us. but even so. we must be ready. If you do have to shoot a wolf, try not to kill it!" the others nodded and took their positions in a circle around Duo.
Duo suddenly collapsed to the floor in pain, all of the pilots did apart from Wufei, a loud voice could be heard reverberating in their heads. "Move away from me!" it said. "where are you" cried out Duo, "I'm in the one you know as Wufei!" it answered, "NO!" yelled out Duo, I'm not leaving Wufei. what are you doing to him?" "DON'T QUESTION MY JUDGEMENT!!!" Roared the voice, the nearby trees started to shake even though there was no sound outside the boys' head. "IF YOU STAY NEAR ME. YOU WILL BE ATTACKED BY THE WOLVES!!!" Duo answered back "so we should leave Wufei so he can be attacked by them...never!" "YOU WILL OBEY ME!!!" roared the voice. Duo looked around at the others, Quatre was looking pale, Duo remembered that he had a fear of wolves; Trowa was supporting most of Heero's weight, Heero who was looking very pale and was almost blacking out from pain and loss of blood. The earlier show of bravado from when Duo had first heard the growling was gone. He looked like he was on the edge of blacking out - partly due to the pains in his head as well as the gun wounds.
Duo looked at them all, and they looked at him, "no!" forced out Heero, "we're not leaving Wufei, he wouldn't leave us. we're not leaving him" then his knees completely buckled out from underneath him and he collapsed onto the snowy ground shivering. Duo looked around again, all the pilots were cold, probably Duo worst of all as he had given Wufei his jacket. However, he locked his knees up to stop himself shivering, and said in a strong voice while walking over to Wufei "I'm not deserting my friend! Quatre, you and Trowa get Heero, carry him over here, we're going to get around Wufei so we keep him warm, Heero too will also go in the middle as he's been shot a couple of times, Quatre you go close to as you were shot as well. Trowa, you take off your jacket and try to place it over those three as best as possible, but most over Wufei, then get in the circle as well, Quatre you take off yours and Heero's jackets as well, then spread it over all of you, your jackets.
Then get in the circle as well, you guys keep each other warm, I'll keep an eye on the wolves. Then the voice yelled in Duo's head alone, making him collapse once more to the snowy ground "I SAID OBEY ME!!! KEEP AWAY FROM ME, THE WOLVES WILL DESTROY YOU!!!" "I. won't . let. them!!!" forced out Duo, "THEN YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!!!" the voice roared, the pain in Duo's head grew and grew until if felt like it was going to explode he heard vague cries in the background of "Duo!!!" from Quatre and Trowa, but it sounded like they were calling from the other side of a thick layer of ice. Duo struggled to get up to show them that he was alright, but his body wasn't responding to him, he heard a voice in his head yet again sounding very hazy, but a voice all the same "come on Duo, I'm sorry for the manners of my friend, but you must understand, he is terrified, he has been through a lot. The same as your friend, but you must try to fight this pain, there is an avalanche coming down, and you must get your friends to safety, also the wolves are closing in, the one you know as Quatre is terrified, but is trying to disguise it, the same with Trowa as you call him, come on young man, you can do it!" Duo listened to this voice, he tried with more effort than he knew he had in him and staggered to his feet "that's right!" cheered on the voice, now yell out Swiftwind. stop this!" Duo opened his mouth, and forced out with energy he didn't know he had "SWIFTWIND. STOP THIS!!!" immediately the pain was gone, with only a memory of it remaining, the wolves too disappeared, silently as if they had never been there. Duo ran at the others, shaking his head, trying to understand it, ignoring the icy coldness that bit away at him, "guys! We gotta get moving, an avalanche is coming! And Oz is closing in. GET MOVING, Trowa, you get Heero, Quatre, you help me with Wufei!" the other two nodded, understanding the seriousness of the situation, then they got to there assigned jobs, with Quatre supporting Duo as much as he could. "Get going, try and find a big rock or cave or something, Trowa, you run as fast as you can, we'll find safety, just get you and Heero to safety!" he yelled, suddenly a couple of shots rang out from among the trees, with one hitting Duo in his already shaky legs, he fell to the ground with a cry, spraining his ankle. Quatre stopped and set Wufei down to start shooting "Go!" cried Duo, "I'll take care of the soldiers, you follow Trowa with Wufei, go! Hurry!" "but." stammered Quatre "what about you? You might not make it!" "I'll be fine!!! I'll get rid of these fools and then find shelter now GO!!!" Quatre looked back once, and then carried on running with gunshots at his heels.
Duo scrambled to his feet and took aim with his gun, he fired once and then again intentionally missing the soldiers so he could get their attention, his plan worked. The gunfire was soon directed at him. He dodged every single one he could see, but was shot twice more, one in the same leg as before and one in the arm. He quickly fired off two shots, and saw that he killed two men out of five. Then he took aim once more, and killed the last three men.
He sprinted off after the others with a faint roaring filling his ears - the roaring of an avalanche, he sprinted faster.
Every now and again he would glance behind to see how far away the mound of snow was, it was gaining on him. He carried on running, his breath gasping in his ears. Suddenly just ahead of him he saw a big rock, with what looked like a cave in it. Duo ran toward it, new hope in his eyes. He made it just in time, the snow came crashing past him as he threw himself into the cave gasping. As he struggled to catch his breath, he watched the snow tumble past, he was amazed at how close he had come to cheating death. then he shook his head, this is no time for idle thinking, I've gotta put a bandage on my leg and arm, I hope the others are ok. in the morning when I've got a bit more energy, I'll work my way out, and go find them. With that decided, he tore a bit of cloth of his shirt, and wrapped it around his leg which was slowly turning red, then he did the same for his arm. Afterwards, he curled himself up into a little ball, to try to keep his body heat and tried to get to sleep, but he was too cold, he looked around to see if he could see any twigs or something, but he couldn't. I guess I'd better stay awake, otherwise I might die he thought grimly this will be fun and so the night passed by slowly for Duo as he struggled not to let his weary eyes rest. Eventually when he guessed it to be morning he walked over towards the entrance and started climbing through the thin layer of snow, in a few seconds he reached the top. He pulled himself out of the snow and wincing stood up, man. my leg and arm really kill, anyway. I don't have time to worry about my own feeble injuries, I've GOT to get back to Trowa and the others, Trowa will need a hand with them because Quatre was injured as well, and if I remember correctly Trowa was shot once. I have to hurry!!! Duo broke into a run, making most of his cuts start to weep once more, but Duo didn't care, he had to get to his friends. After a few minutes, he stopped to catch his breath, he was beginning to feel really dizzy, but he shook that feeling out of his head, and started running again, he tripped over a half submerged root, and started to push himself up, when his arms completely gave out, he was exhausted and couldn't go on any longer I.must carry on thought Duo and once again he tried to push himself up, this time he made it to his knees, then to his feet. He stood there swaying for a few seconds, then he started to do a stumbling walk, falling often, but continuously getting up. After about an hour, he fell one last time, and didn't have the energy to get up again, he tried and tried again. but he failed. A single tear welled up in his eye to his surprise, why am I crying? he asked himself, then he realised what his body was trying to tell him, his body hurt like hell, his makeshift bandages had come off a while ago, and his wounds were all red and sore, the world started spinning around again, and Duo kept on getting black spots before his eyes, as more tears dripped out of them, he was failing his friends, he was going to be a failure to them, if they died it would be his fault. and those were his last thoughts before he at last blacked out.
~~SEVERAL HOURS LATER~~
"Duo....Duo....Duo!! answer us!" Quatre was limping alongside Trowa trying to find their missing friend "oh Trowa. what if he. died. saving us?" asked Quatre worriedly "he'll be fine. he's Duo!" answered Trowa, who also looked worried. Quatre nodded "I hope so, I think I should go back, to make sure Heero and Wufei are alright after all, they are still unconscious." Trowa nodded, "I was just about to suggest you did that. I'll be back in no longer than 2 hours." Quatre nodded and went back to the abandoned hut they had found.
Trowa went on alone, calling as he went, it had been about an hour and a half when he was about to turn back, when he noticed some footsteps in the snow. Duo! he thought eagerly as he followed them at a run, he got worried as he saw how many times the person had fallen over, and ran faster - Duo was injured, suddenly he saw a little heap in front of him, it was Duo!!! But he was unconscious with no jacket on and holes in his shirt!
Trowa ran the last few steps to the unconscious boy, Duo was slightly blue around the lips and was barely breathing, though the breath was there his skin was looking very pale and the snow under him was quite red. Trowa placed the back of his hand against his own forehead and then against Duo's, the boy had a temperature and was shivering badly. Trowa quickly pulled off both his jumper and jacket and wrapped the American up in them. Duo opened his eyes slowly as Trowa rubbed warmth and life into his friends body "Trowa. your alive. I failed you, I'm sorry, I couldn't find you anywhere. I failed you all, are the other's ok?" said Duo in a hoarse voice "don't worry about it Duo, you did all you could! You definitely did NOT fail us, you did more than any of us could have! The others are all fine, Heero and Wufei are still unconscious and Quatre is with them, a little stiff but apart from that fine. We need to get you to them though, your freezing cold! Come on!" after that unusually long speech, he helped Duo stand up, but he promptly fell down again, his legs shivering too much to hold him up, "I'll. carry. you" said Trowa, feeling scared at such close comfort, though he had to do it. Duo couldn't walk on his own. "I'll manage" said Duo, "no!" answered Trowa " I said I'd carry you, you can't walk!" Duo felt too weak to argue, so he let Trowa pick him up. Just as Trowa set off, Duo started coughing, a painful barking cough which scraped the back of his throat. Trowa rubbed his back sympathetically, and then broke into a run as speed was needed. About 15 minutes later he made it back to the hut, and saw Quatre sitting anxiously at the window, his face broke into relief as he saw Trowa, but immediately was concerned again when he realised that Duo was being carried. He opened the door to let Trowa in and took Duo off of him, and placed him on a chair by the fire where both Wufei and Heero were also, Heero was now awake however, and was sipping a cup of tea, firmly wrapped up in blankets. Wufei was lying on the sofa also wrapped up in blankets. Quatre immediately made Trowa put a blanket over his shoulders as he had only a long-sleeved shirt on. Then he gave him a cup of tea, and got started on Duo, he bandaged all his wounds and laid him down on a chair smothered in blankets. "the kind owner of this house has just gone out to get some food, he found us out in the woods and bought us to his house. He hates Oz with a passion, even if he is lying, we needed a place to stay, so we had to trust him." Spoke Quatre, Duo nodded his head and opened his mouth to speak, when he had another coughing fit. Quatre frowned slightly and felt his forehead, it was hot and he was still shivering quite badly. Quatre added another log to the fire and gave him another blanket, then he went into the kitchen and made him a cup of warm tomato soup, he sat Duo up and gave him the mug, but he was shivering too much, so Quatre got a spoon, and fed Duo the warm liquid, spoonful by spoonful. After a couple of mouthfuls, Duo threw up. He didn't finish until there wasn't a scrap of food left in his body. Quatre cleaned him up, and looked at Trowa worriedly, Duo was ill! And quite badly so. if he couldn't eat anything. Heero looked on, a bit of worry shining in his eyes as well. he hoped his friend would be ok. to him it looked like he had the flu.or.possibly puenomia Heero hoped desperately that his friend didn't have puenomia. he spoke up "Duo either has puenomia or the flu." the other two looked at him. "puenomia!" gasped Quatre, "or the flu" added Trowa trying to be positive, but looking equally shocked "oh well" croaked Duo, "I've got what I've got" Trowa immediately realised that Duo was trying to disguise how much it hurt to speak "Duo," he said "I don't think you should be talking" Duo used some effort in turning his head around to look at Trowa and realised that he knew how much it hurt. He nodded, then he started coughing again, each painful cough racking his body, Trowa listened carefully for signs he knew from personal experience of puenomia, his face paled as he heard the sound of water sloshing about in his friends lungs, when he had lived with the mercenaries, he had had puenomia,
~FLASHBACK~ The leader of his 'family' the mercenaries liked having Trowa as a human toy, he played with his pain senses by seeing how much pain the child could take before he blacked out, it turned into a competition, and that pain included raping. Anyway, one harsh winter, Trowa was summoned to the frozen river with no clothes on, he was told to make a hole in the ice big enough for a full grown man to get in with his bare hands while being raped from behind, the raping would stop when the ice - thick enough to ice-skate on was broken, Trowa immediately began, and about 47 hours later with no breaks, (the men who were doing the raping switched when they were tired), he finally finished, then he was thrown head-first into the water, and held there for the count of thirty, then allowed up for thirty seconds, then shoved down again, then up again etc, this went on for 3 more hours before a 5 yr old Trowa was finally allowed rest, a result of this was now Trowa hated water and had caught puenomia, 5 days later, his leader finally realised how sick Trowa was, by that time he was almost dead, he couldn't walk anywhere after the first day, and had received terrible punishments for this. Trowa wasn't fully recovered for about a year, but after a few weeks, he was forced to be up and about again.
~END FLASHBACK~
He knew what it was like to puenomia, also he knew the symptoms, he knew Duo had puenomia! "what, what is it?" asked Quatre noticing Trowa's pale face "Duo has puenomia!" said Trowa quietly "how can you tell?" asked Quatre, "because when he coughs, you can hear a sound like water sloshing through his lungs, does it feel like that Duo?" Duo gave a weak nod, "then he has puenomia!"
Wufei gave a quiet groan and Quatre walked sadly over to him, "Wufei's waking up!" he said, Wufei's eyes snapped open and saw Quatre's face looking down at him, he gave a cry and rolled himself into a trembling ball to hide from him, Quatre said softly "Wufei.Wufei, it's me Quatre, don't worry, I won't hurt you, I'm your friend! It's ok, your among friends now. don't panic" soon under Quatre's gentle soothing, Wufei calmed down, "where's Duo?" he asked worriedly looking around "Duo!" he called, sounding like he was a lamb who had lost it's mother "Duo!!!" he called again, beginning to panic again "where's Duo!!!" Quatre once again soothed him, Duo looked at Trowa and signalled for him to come over, Trowa did "is puenomia contagious?" whispered Duo, Trowa shook his head "no" "ok then, could you carry me over there please" whispered Duo once more, "because Wufei won't calm down properly unless he knows I'm here." much as Trowa knew Duo had to stay in bed, warm, he agreed and as gently as he could by missing Duo's wounds, he carried him over to Wufei, "here's Duo," he said gently placing Duo down on some cushions.
Wufei flung his arm's around Duo's neck, and stayed like that for a while, gently sobbing. With Duo just rubbing his hand up and down Wufei's back, trying to hold in his coughs but not being very successful. Soon Wufei noticed Duo's shivering, and attempted coughs "Duo? Are you ill?" he asked fearfully, Duo nodded slightly and Wufei immediately took one arm away, and got a blanket, he tried to move the blanket so it covered Duo as well, but it hurt his ribs and arm so much that Quatre had to gently help him, Duo nodded his thanks. Suddenly the door opened and the owner of the hut came in, laden with shopping bags and wood. Wufei immediately tensed up, and tried to roll away from the big man, but he couldn't, he whimpered in fear and started trembling once more. The forester realised him mistake, and took several steps back, "I see you found your missing friend, he must be tough to survive that avalanche!" he said in a gruff voice. As soon as Wufei started to freak out, Duo immediately bought him in for a hug, and gently rubbed his back while trying not to shiver at the blast of cold air. The forester (whose name was Don) shut the door and noticed that Heero was awake "well, nice to see your awake!" he said smiling cheerfully, how's your stomach, I bandaged it up as best I could, your lucky that I had a first-aid kit, I need to have one, in case I manage to chop my own finger off or something" Trowa beckoned for that man to come into the kitchen using the excuse of unpacking the shopping, as soon as they were out of earshot he started speaking "Duo, the one who's comforting Wufei, is very, very ill. he has. puenomia. that's not a rough guess, I know it for certain. do you have anything that we could use to help him." Don shook his head "I'm sorry, you'll have to take him to a hospital" "but we can't!" burst out Trowa, Don looked mildly surprised "why not. what's troubling you little one? I can see something very bad has happened to you all, I mean, how did such young boy's as you get so wounded, and what's more bear them without showing any pain, I know I certainly couldn't do that. and why were you so anxious about me being enemies of Oz?" Trowa looked awkward for a few minutes "you can tell me." pressed Don, "well.. Ummm.." Stuttered Trowa, at loss of what to do, "as your putting up with us. I guess I should tell you. we're the gundam pilots." Don looked at him flabbergasted "wh- what?" he said disbelievingly ". but your all kids. the one who's ill if barely a day older than 16, and your what.15?" "they're all 12 and Duo's 14 and I'm 11." said Trowa "bu- but how? I guess that explains why you were cautious about Oz, and how your injured, I presume you lot just set Wufei free, and got separated in the avalanche." said an amazed Don "well not exactly." said Trowa
He told Don the whole story, and surprisingly, it made him feel a lot better, he even told Don how he was blaming himself for what happened to both Wufei and Heero. he thought it was his fault, what amazed him was he told Don all about the mercenaries, his fears that they would come back to life. all the times they had had to kill people, how all the deaths got him down. How scared he was whenever he was captured, treated pretty much the same as Wufei had been, but never telling the others for the fear of being touched. comforted. At one point a tear rolled down his cheek, and soon many others followed, he tried to stop them, tried to tell himself that he was weak. but it didn't work, Don just put a hand on his shoulder, knowing not to touch him in any other way, and felt deeply sorry for the child I hate it that this is happening to these kids, their too young to have the responsibility of fighting a war on their shoulders. particularly this one. they shouldn't have to know death of any one, yet alone their whole families and then killing others, that Heero, going through that kind of training, it makes me want to wring those Dr's necks, how dare they do this to kids! Their too young, having to kill at this age. most men my age couldn't do it{AN. DON IS 54 YRS OLD} he thought then he said "Trowa, listen, you guys can all stay here for as long you want! Even when Duo's better, I'm going to look after all of you, I have so many hidden compartments in this place. Oz would have to look for years to find you. I can give you a hand! I'm not bad at the odd bit of medical work. I'll do my best, also you must NOT blame yourself for any of these things, none of them were your fault, I'm amazed that you kept yourself together, I know many a fine man who could not do half the things you do! You're not a coward either, you've gone through a rough life, that's all! And then to go and risk your life afterwards, that's not what I call cowardice, that's bravery! When you guys win this war, you and the other's can come and live here with me.. Don't worry about feeling sad about killing people, I'm sure the others do as well they all just hide it. You shouldn't try to hide your feelings, or fear. no one will think worse of you if you do show them, I think I'll have a chat with Heero as well, 'cause, he's going to cause himself some mental harm if he carries on this way, you all will. Remember, I'm always here for you all! Trowa looked up at him, the first bit of hope in a long time was seen to be shining in his eyes. He said ".really. you'd really do that for us?" Don answered, "you bet!" Trowa's eyes teared up once more, this time with gratitude, however this time he didn't let them fall. Then he and Don quickly unpacked all the shopping, Trowa asked Don "but what can we do about Duo? He's not going to survive much longer. When I had puenomia, all I did was stay in bed and rest, also, because of the throwing up. I think he has a bit of the flu as well, Duo can't die. he just can't! You saw how he had to comfort Wufei, we all look to Duo as a father, if he dies. we lose our spirit, the gundam pilots die." Don saw the boy was getting distraught once more, he said "Trowa. I'm going to do my best to help Duo, I've got some antibiotics here, though whether they'll be the right ones I'm not sure. I also have plenty of blankets etc, and several hot water bottles. I think what we do is, I'll have a look in my medicine cabinet, you go up to the room you slept in last night, and in the right-hand cupboard, you'll see lot's of blankets, a couple of duvets and about 10 hot water bottles, if you put the kettle on to boil now. then you can get the bottles. ok?" Trowa nodded and set about his assigned task "oh, and also are any of you allergic to any foods?" Trowa thought for a second "not that we know of" "ok then, I'll get some supper cooking, you boys need a bit of fattening up especially Heero and Wufei! Now get going kid!" Trowa nodded once more and ran up stairs to get the duvets, covers, and anything else he could find to keep people warm, he even found two electrical blankets! In his head, he wondered why on earth there were so many duvets and things for one person.
~~ in the bathroom with Don~
Now. here are my antibiotics. and there's some cough mixture, I'm fairly sure that he's got hypothermia as well. hmmm I'm going to make Heero put on something else apart from just that thin top or else he's going to get even more ill than he is already. none of them are in very good health. they're all a bit thin and all have something wrong with them. all they need is someone to look after them though. I hope Wufei and Duo will be fine. they're the two I'm most worried about. and mentally it's Trowa and Heero, I wish Trowa would let me see his scars. because I'm sure that he has cuts underneath his long-sleeve shirt, cuts which need a bit of cleaning. the poor lad. I'm sure that he gets tortured the worst because of his age. Oz do that to children. I should know from what happened to my own kids and Sally's tales. Oh!!! Of course!!! I'll contact Sally Po. she's a doctor. and works against Oz. after all. I hide her people here when they're on the run. it's time she can do me a favour! then he got all the equipment he needed (antibiotics, bandages, antiseptic, thermometer, cough mixture) and went back to the kitchen where he was met by a pile of covers etc.
"I got all the things I could find" said Trowa, do you think that I should spread them out, giving Duo the most of the things, then Wufei. then Heero, then Quatre and then myself?" "I think that would be a good idea, but you should give you and Quatre the same amount of things, giving Duo and Wufei the electric blankets, also I think I should move you to the hiding compartments now, so Oz won't catch us unawares." Trowa agreed, they went into the sick room and told the other's what they were going to do. Quatre immediately got up and went with Trowa and Don to start making a comfy place to stay in. They walked into the cellar and Don showed them a particular bottle of wine which you lifted up, under it was a switch which you pressed open, that then opened up a dark tunnel going down under the ground, he pressed the light switch and the dark tunnel was flooded with light, they walked for a couple of minutes going steadily deeper and deeper underground until they reached another dark tunnel which Don yet again flipped another light switch, that tunnel too was flooded with light, they carried on walking for about five minutes when they reached a dark room, Don switched that light switch and they came into a big spacious room with a kettle, stove, fridge, oven, microwave, 15 beds, a fire place, couch, electric heater and other things a house has {AN. A MASSIVE ROOM LOL} Trowa and Quatre looked on, amazed "what do you do down here?" asked Quatre "well." now it was Don's turn to look embarrassed "I do a bit of work with this group called the Preventors, they basically do work against Oz, kind of like you guys except that their a big group, with different age groups, and no one younger than twenty, so quite different from you guys as well, one of the top ranks is someone called Sally Poe, {AN NONE OF THE PILOTS KNOW ABOUT THE PREVENTORS OR SALLY} she is a doctor as well and I was wondering if you'd mind me calling her to come here. because none of you are in top health you've all got some injuries, and then there's Duo. also if I'm correct Trowa, you've got a couple of infections, the same with Heero and Wufei could do with a lot of stitches. I won't call her unless I have your permission, but it would increase Duo's chance of survival." Trowa and Quatre looked at each other, then they both nodded as one, "ok" said Quatre smiling. Don smiled back and said "ok. you guys get yourselves settled down here, and I'll go phone her, she too as always wanted to meet you guys so. I won't tell her you ages. I'll tell her to bring lots of stuff!" Quatre laughed and Trowa began to get to work, he walked back to the kitchen (with Quatre behind him) and grabbed as many of the things as he could, and Quatre did the same, then they carried them down to the room and dumped them on the floor, they walked back meeting Don on the way with an armload of things as well. "Share the last load between you" he said "there's not much left" the boys nodded and got the last load down to the room.
They started to make the room comfortable, and sorted out whose bed was who's. In the end it was Trowa, Wufei, Duo, Quatre with Heero on the end, Don said that Sally would be sleeping down there as well, so they put her next to Heero. As they were walking back up to where the other boys were, Don said "I'll take Duo, you two take Wufei between you, and then Heero can come in the middle, he can walk if I'm correct?" Quatre nodded "though he shouldn't be. Trowa can take Wufei, I'll help Heero." Don said "ok then" and they went to get the boys.
About half an hour later, everyone was settled downstairs (apart from Sally who hadn't arrived yet) Duo was wrapped up in blankets in a fitful sleep, Wufei was lying there on his back, trembling every now and again, but he was slightly calmer although definitely not at ease with the others yet Quatre was sitting there on watch duty, the same with Trowa, Heero was lying there trying to get to sleep but failing and Don was waiting upstairs for Sally to arrive. About another hour later, someone knocked on the door in what was clearly a password, and Don went to answer the door, in came Sally with several bags. "Hi Don!" she said as she shook the snow from her hair "lovely weather your having, so you really have the Gundam Pilots here? With the amount of medical supplies you asked me to bring, you'd think I was going to be treating an army, not just five men. So where are they? Underground room 1?" Don nodded, "one of the boys, has hypothermia and puenomia, they all have a bit of infection but Trowa's and Heero's is the worst, Wufei is very injured, he was almost dead when they bought him to me, but I didn't tell them that. Heero has the flu the same with Quatre, in Heero's training, he was injected with all sorts of things to stop any poison's which Oz threw at him, I think that he had an allergic reaction to some of those, and they are all underfed. also when Quatre is breathing, if you listen carefully you can hear a slight wheeze, Quatre is aware of it, also they have some illnesses/ diseases which they picked up in various Oz bases, though I'm not sure what they are yet. for instance with Trowa, you notice, that he has a slight fever but not too high, about 49 degrees I'd say, he should be in bed, but he and Quatre insisted that they go on guard duty." Sally looked impressed "you always amaze me with your observation skills Don. but one question you keep on talking about them as if they were kids." Don hid a smile "oh. but they are, Trowa is 11 Heero, Quatre and Wufei all 12 and Duo is 14, they all look on him as their father" Sally was silent for a few seconds "your kiddin? You've got to be kidding.. Wow!!! Come on, let's get down there, looks like I got some serious work to do" Don nodded and beckoned for her to follow him "oh yes, Trowa is very nervous he lived with mercenaries when he was younger, who mistreated him. also all the boys have been raped several times. Wufei the most recent, he was rescued yesterday and had been captured for three weeks he won't let anyone touch him but Duo, Trowa, Heero or Quatre." Sally frowned. "Poor kids. they shouldn't have to deal with that yet!" Don nodded "I agree. I felt like strangling the doctor's earlier when Trowa was in tears, he never talks to anyone and just bottles it up, he's scared still about the mercenaries, also. Don't look angry when you go in there. Wufei will think it's something he did, same with Trowa.." Sally nodded, and fixed a smile on her face as she walked into the room, as she did, four heads quickly turned her way, two of them with guns in their hands, and one of them giving a whimper and huddling into a ball, when they saw who it was, they relaxed all apart from the boy who Sally guessed was Wufei, and a boy with platinum blonde hair went to comfort him. The youngest looking boy walked over to her, to Sally's practiced eye, she too noticed the slight limp barely noticeable and the slightly shiny complexion of his skin, also how pale he was. They all looked pale, she held out her hand gently showing it was no threat "I'm Sally Poe" she said quietly "Trowa" he answered shaking her hand, "those two over there are Wufei whose lying down, and Quatre whose comforting him, and that's Heero" he pointed to a boy with very messy brown hair, he looked like he was trying to sit but it was too painful for him Trowa walked over to him "it's ok Heero," she heard Trowa say "she's an ally, come on now, try to get to sleep. Sally's going to have a look over Duo, to see what she can do, then she'll look at all of us in turn." Heero nodded his head and let his body lie back down instead of struggling to get up, Trowa stayed with him until he was certain that he was asleep. Then he walked back over to Sally, "and Duo's over here" he said walking over to a boy who was all wrapped up in blankets, and was sleeping fitfully, frequently coughing, and mouthing words which Sally wasn't quick enough to read, though it appeared he was saying things like stop and leave me alone, quite often, Duo's back would arch as if he was in a lot of pain in his dreams, Sally's heart reached out to the poor child.
Trowa gently placed a hand on Duo's shoulder to wake him up, as soon as he felt the contact, his eyes flew open, and he tried to sit up, but collapsed into coughs. Trowa helped him to sit up, and rubbed his back until the coughs subsided, by which time Duo was shivering once more. Sally looked at Don anxiously; she could see what he meant about how sick all the boys were, Duo especially. She stood in front of his line of vision and said quietly, "hi, I'm Sally Poe, I'm a doctor. I'm going to do my best to get you boys up to full health once more." Duo nodded weakly leaning against Trowa. Who then laid him down again while covering him up in covers. "Do you mind if I touch you Duo?" asked Sally, he shook his head. Then Sally set down her bags on a spare bed and opened up one of them, she took out several bandages, some medicines, a thermometer and lots of other stuff. "You guys have done the right thing by keeping him as warm as you can, that was good well done! But now what you need to do, is you need to get into bed - all of you, it's one o'clock in the morning, and you need your rest! I've got some soldiers here with me who are patrolling the perimeter, they're all trustworthy. A couple of them are going to sleep down here if that's ok with you guys." Trowa tried to bite back a yawn as he said "I've got to stay up, Quatre can go to sleep, but I've got to stay up. if Wufei or Heero or Duo need me, anyone else would scare them. I have to stay up" Sally looked at the boy, she saw the reason in what he was saying, but then underneath a mask he had put up, she saw a cold, tired little child. "Trowa come here" she said kindly, Trowa walked he few steps toward her, his body swaying slightly with exhaustion but legs trembling with fear. When he was in touching distance of her he stopped "yes Sally," he said, barely able to keep the waver of fear out of his voice. Sally reached her arms out and pulled him into a hug, his body tensed up for a few seconds and he trembled worse than before, but after a few seconds, he let himself relax, and he sort of leant into her embrace shoulders shaking as he tried to hold in his sobs. Sally gently stroked his back, relaxing him, soothing him. Then she picked up the crying boy and carried him to his bed, she laid him down and covered him up like a mother comforting her child. She stayed by him for a few minutes gently stroking his back until his sobs stopped, and his breathing evened out - he was asleep.
Quatre looked on surprised and Duo with worry "is he ok?" asked Quatre "he will be" answered Sally, "he just needs a bit of rest and patching up. Then he'll be fine, but speaking of rest, you could do with some yourself" "but. what about the others. Trowa was right when he said needed one of us." Sally frowned for a second and then came up with a conclusion "you go to sleep now, and if any of the others need you, I'll wake you up ok?" Quatre nodded "ok!" then Sally came over and tucked him in as well, "go to sleep little one" she said softly. Obediently Quatre closed his eyes, and in a few minutes he too was asleep. Sally smiled softly watching him and Trowa, they looked so innocent when they were asleep. it was a pity that they faced such horrors in real life. Then she walked back over to Duo who smiled at her then he opened his mouth trying to say something, and whispered "thank you, Quatre's nice and obedient as you saw, but Trowa's normally impossible to get to sleep, that's the first time I've ever seen him cry though. he worries me. they all worry me" as he was saying that, his face contorted with pain, and just as he finished he broke into a bad fit of coughing, Sally immediately sat him up, and rubbed his back, but Duo's cough wouldn't break, she began to pat it gently as well as rubbing it, and his coughing soon stopped leaving him gasping weakly, looking paler than before. Sally asked "Don, can you come over here and hold up Duo please" Don came over, and was just about to take him from Sally, when he completely tensed up and did his best to keep away from Don. Don took a few steps away from him, a confused expression on his face, and Sally gently wrapped her arms around the shivering boy and held him too until he calmed down. "I expect it's about what you told me earlier Don," she said, he nodded then she said "if you go to the front of the house, you'll see some of my soldiers, if you can ask for someone called-" she paused to think for a second "someone called Carla, and then bring her down here please" Don nodded again and went running off to find her leaving Sally gently soothing Duo {AN SHEESH.. I'M MAKING Sally SO KIND AND GENTLE LOL. IF ANYONE COMPLAINS THAT I'M MAKING THE G-PILOTS WEAK AND EMOTIONAL, LOOK AT THE AGES, REMEMBER THEY'RE ONLY KIDS. ALSO I'M WRITING THIS WHILE I'M ON HOLIDAY, AND AT THE MOMENT I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THE ANIMALS SPIRITS *LAUGHS SHEEPISHLY*. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE NOT IN THIS CHAPTER MUCH. ALSO, AS I'M ON HOLIDAY AT THE MOMENT, I PROBABLY WON'T BE ABLE TO POST THIS CHAPTER UNTIL I FIND ANOTHER INTERNET CAFÉ. IT WILL BE DONE ASAP. NEWAY. ENOUGH OF MY RAMBLING, LETS GET ON WITH THE FIC}
A couple of minutes later, Don was back with a dark haired woman "Carla, this is Duo Maxwell, I know you know who he is, all the pilots have been through a lot of harsh times, and they're not that keen about being touched by men. so if you can please come and hold up Duo, he's ill at the moment." Carla looked amazed at how young Duo was, then she looked around the room and saw all the pilots. One of them - a Chinese man was the only other one awake apart from Duo. His face was littered with cuts and bruises, and he was obviously terrified of her. Another of the boys, who had tousled brown hair was tossing and turning in his sleep, whimpering every now and again, obviously having a nightmare, Carla looked at him for a few seconds and noticed, that he was bleeding "umm Sally" she said and pointed at the boy "shoot! That's Heero, come here please and hold Duo, I need to wake Quatre." Carla ran over and took the shivering boy into her own arms, she started to do what Sally had been doing and was rocking him gently, just like she did with her own kids when they were upset. Sally walked over to a sleeping boy with platinum blonde hair - Quatre, Carla guessed, and gently woke him up. She placed her hand on his shoulder, and he was up awake in a second, jumping, obviously startled. "Where's the enemy?" he asked, as if he was still half-asleep, "are the others ok?" "shhhhh. it's ok Quatre, you're with me, Sally, the enemy's not here. Don't worry, I woke you up because Heero's having a nightmare, and I think one of his wounds have re opened again, because he's bleeding quite heavily." Quatre was on his feet in an instant, and was walking towards the bleeding boy. "Heero," he said as he neared the sleeping boy, and that was all it needed to wake him up, he immediately sat bolt upright, the gun on his bedside table in his hand in a second and he was aiming the gun at Quatre's head. It was then Carla realised what it was that made the Gundam Pilot's so dangerous, their reflexes, their courage. she was astounded and furious at the same time about this happening to kids. about 20 years younger than herself.Quatre said "err Heero. can you put the gun down," Heero did so, a sheen of sweat on his face, his face was a complete mask, you couldn't see anything in it, apparently Quatre realised something was wrong because he said "Heero. are you ok?" Heero nodded his head, but Sally noticed that he had one hand on his stomach, trying to hold in the blood, she shook her head "no Heero, you're not ok." Heero turned his emotionless gaze onto her, she had to work quite hard to suppress a shiver, but if she looked deeply into those eyes, she could just about manage to see some hidden pain, she repeated herself "no Heero, you're not ok!" but he just carried on looking at her, he opened his mouth, and spoke "fine. I'll show you I'm fine" he tensed his muscles slightly, so it was barely noticeable, and then he stood up with a sheet wrapped around his waist to hide his wound, though Sally noticed the blood flecks on it which he was trying to cover with his hand, his face paled slightly at the effort of standing up. He swayed slightly, and one of his eyes wasn't focusing on her properly, apart from that, you couldn't tell anything was wrong, unless you looked carefully. "See, I'm fine" he insisted obstinately, he was just about to sit back down, when his right knee cap completely came out of place, causing him to fall "Heero!!!" cried Don, and Sally rushed to catch him, but no one was quicker than Quatre who caught him a few centimetres above the ground, once again Carla was amazed at the kid's reflexes. Heero's skin had gone a new shade of white, and he was visibly sweating now, Sally said once more "as I said before, Heero, you're not alright!!!" at last Heero nodded his head in agreement while lying on Quatre's arms. As he was falling, his sheet and hand had fallen away, showing a gun wound bleeding very heavily now, the stitches had snapped. Quatre gently lifted Heero back on to the bed so Sally could put the stitches back. "Don. can you bring a thermometer please?" Don walked over with in his hand, and passed it to her, before he went back to stand guard by the door. "Heero, can you open your mouth please so I can put the thermometer in" requested Sally, Heero looked like he was going to refuse, but at a look from Quatre he did so and then shut it again with the thermometer inside. Quatre put his hands on Heero's broken knee, and with a brief show of strength popped it back into place. Carla looked at Heero's face expecting to see a flash of pain, but his eyes held a glazed look, obviously not even noticing what Quatre had done. A quiet beeping occurred, and Sally took the thermometer out of Heero's mouth. She looked at it, frowned and walked over to Don, who looked at it as well. She shook it as if it wasn't working properly, and then gave it to Don to go and wash, "what is it?" asked Quatre worried, "it's ." said Sally, pausing briefly as she looked at him "it's not that bad." she finished. Quatre looked like he didn't believe her when Heero called out, "Trowa! Quatre! Duo! Wufei! Where are you? Guys? Don't leave me here!!!" Quatre's attention was immediately focused once more on Heero, "Heero?" he said gently "I'm here, it's me Quatre, the others are on the bed. We won't leave you!" At Heero's calling, Trowa had woken up once more, Sally went over to him, placed her arm over his shoulders, said something to him and then helped him to stand up and walk over to Heero's bed, "I'm here as well Heero" he said. As he set himself down at the edge of Heero's bed, Quatre reached out and grasped hold of his hand, he looked over at Trowa "can you get Wufei over here as well Trowa?" Trowa nodded and walked over to Wufei's bed, said a few more words, and then gently picked him up when he gave a nod. As he was walking, Sally got out the way, giving him a wide berth. He got to Heero's bed and sat him down and while holding him up, "Wufei's here now as well." Said Quatre. "Come on Heero, we're all here for you, apart from Duo who's just over there, he's here for you as well!" Heero stared hard at them all as they began to come into focus. "Quatre, Trowa, Wufei" he said looking at them in turn. They all nodded, and Heero smiled before he fell back asleep. Trowa carried Wufei back, and Sally came over to stitch up his wound - amazingly, he didn't wake up! Then she woke him up long enough to give him some medicine, instantly fell asleep again afterwards, Quatre got slightly worried "is he ok? We're all getting sick." "He's just tired" answered Sally, "and you've all been sick for quite a while, it's just you haven't had had a home where you've had a chance to relax, and let your illnesses get better." "Oh." said Quatre "is that why we've all been getting more tired lately?" Sally nodded "now.back to bed with you young man, I'll wake you when it's your time to be examined." Quatre clambered back once more, and yet again was asleep in a few minutes.
Sally walked back to Duo who by now had calmed down. She took his temperature, and showed it to Don once more, also he bandaged up any wounds which she could find, and gave him a few injections and some medicine. When she had finished (she had spent about 2 hours on him) she said "Duo, I'm going to give you some sleeping pills so you can sleep better, hopefully with no nightmares, a now very tired Duo nodded his head and took 2 pills, in a few seconds he was asleep. Carla gently laid him down on a pillow and looked around at the other boys all of whom were now asleep, "shall I go upstairs to tell the others to change shifts now so some of them can come down to sleep?" she whispered Sally, who nodded "be quick and tell them to be SILENT, if they don't I'll string their guts out and use them as a washing line!" she whispered back, Carla nodded and tiptoed out. Sally moved back to Quatre's bed, and once more gently woke him up "Quatre" she whispered when he was awake "can you help me with Wufei so he won't completely panic?" Quatre nodded and clambered out of his bed, shivering slightly in the cold night air "put a blanked on over your shoulders" Sally suggested, Quatre did so. Then together they walked over to the sleeping Chinese boy.
Quatre woke up Wufei very gently so that he knew he wasn't in any danger, "Wufei" he whispered "the doctor Sally, needs to stitch up you wounds so you don't get infected or anything, then she's going to treat any illnesses you have. can you handle her doing that?" Wufei nodded "I'll stay right here" promised Quatre as Sally walked over.
In the middle of her examination, 4 soldiers walked in with Carla, silently, as she'd said. They startled Wufei slightly but Quatre kept him calm. Another 3 hours later, Sally was finished with both him and Quatre, then she moved onto Trowa (having given them both sleeping pills) and finished with him (he had Don by his side) in 1 hour and a half. Then she gave him a sleeping pill, and moved onto Heero. She sorted out his wounds, gave him some medicine and was done with him in just over an hour. By now it was about one o'clock in the morning, "how are they?" asked Don "pretty much in the condition's you said. I'm going to be staying here for a while. they all need a lot of attending to. we're looking close to a month. They're all seriously under weight as well. what I'm suggesting is 4 balanced meals a day" "but will they survive?" Don cut in "I'm not sure." answered Sally, "I'm worried about all of them, Trowa most of all. he just doesn't have the mental strength. also Duo cause of his health, Wufei has serious injuries, Quatre isn't in good health and the same with Heero - you'd be surprised at the amount of broken bones I found, and those were without an x-ray, the best thing to do now, is to go to sleep, I'll stay down here, and I'll have one soldier on guard when I'm not asleep, that way, if there are any problems - they can wake me up. You go rest now Don, we're doing our best!" Don nodded and went off to bed.
END OF CHAPTER 2!!!
YAY!!! I FINISHED!!! I'll post this out at the next internet café I come 2. don't 4get 2 review ( Ja ne Golden Rain