::yawn:: Man! This "Adult Swim" thing is really kicking my tail.
Doncha just hate it when your desire to watch TV conflicts with your common
sense? OFCOURSENOT!!! I didn't think so ^_^ Anyway, this part with Trowa...
I was going to begin his own little monolouge with this section Drift is
dealing with separate from this whole series, so I'll only go so far.
Whaddaya think? [insert futile ploy to have you send her your ideas:
sakura_maxwell@yahoo.com ... also thanks all of the people who already
have. Thanks you guys! I really appreciate it!] ::sighs:: If only this
stuff was an exam or something... I'd be kicking this mother. ANYWAY,
enough with my whining. Enjoy and please R+R ^_^
* * *
The boy could only open his mouth in protest but no sound came out. He could only feel the knife sinking in through his flesh, puncturing the tight area between the thick bones of his rib cage. The older man grunted. "So now you know to respect your elders, eh boy?" He jerked the knife out, then lunged to stick it farther into the boy's chest.
But this time, the boy did not let it happen. Through instinct he stepped quickly aside to let the force of the lunge carry through, and as the man cried out, trying to catch himself from falling, the boy grabbed the knife from the dirty fist and thrust it instead into the stomach of the assaulter. The man merely winced and fell down, and the boy was left to stare blankly at the lifeless shadow on the ground before him. Vaguely the feeling of cold as the wind picked up swept through the tiny frame and he dropped the knife, again blankly.
_I did this. And I did this without thinking. Does this mean.._. He paused and looked out behind him, only using that vague sense of self- awareness to see that his hair was close to growing over his eyes and the redoubled sense of self-alertness that caused his eyes to naturally widen like a prey's. _I did this without thinking... is that what taking the bad stuff out does? Or is that what being all alone does? Maybe this is what I'm meant to do... put the lives of men down like this..._ Again he looked around, and, his gaze randomly trailing from the clusters of buildings behind the library to the somewhat openness of the snow-filled field ahead of him. He saw a small light, like a fire, in the midst of the wreckage in the field and led himself blindly toward it.
Once he was within seeing distance, one of the like-hims turned a face to him and blinked. He thought of them as 'like-hims' because by their countenances, they were... just like him... somehow finding themselves in a place that they hadn't planned to be... huddled around a fire in the middle of a smoking wreckage. Curious, and somewhat hungry, he staggered toward the like-hims and dropped to his knees, staring at the fire.
"Hey kid, are you hungry?" said one of the guys compassionately, not at all like the other guy had... he blinked and didn't say anything. The guy laughed lightly and put some tough-looking food in his hand, patting him on the back. "Here, take this."
The boy stared at the food, then absently nibbled at it. The man sat back with his friends and continued the discussion as it had been before the ex-Star had stumbled there, seeming to forget about the quiet, disoriented little boy. Quietly, he drifted into his thoughts, but the men huddled together and talked leisurely about him.
"Who's the kid, Aike?"
Aike, the man who had offered the boy food, shrugged lightly. "Dunno. Quiet kid."
"Maybe he's a mute. Or even deaf. Probably another war orphan. Maybe his parents were in this field when the MS battle crashed here?"
"Maybe."
"Danged MS's nothing but trouble. Probably the hundredth family this week that this war has torn apart. Shame."
"Shame."
"Are you going to do anything with him, Aike?"
Aike glanced at the boy and shrugged again. "Dunno. Doesn't look like he'll be much trouble though."
The other men laughed. "Not much trouble. I guess like you, eh Aike? Perfect little orphan."
Aike grinned moderately and looked back at the boy. "Yeah... perfect little orphan."
* * *
"Are you the new intern?" said the doctor. Duo nodded quietly and the man motioned for him to follow.
As they walked, the doctor led Duo through a door in the back, opening to a completely new brightly lit hallway. Duo frowned slightly. He had never seen this before.
"We've been looking for a long time for someone to fill the internship, Heero. We are very happy you are here and expect that you will perform your duties to the best of your abilities."
"You bet I will," said Duo softly, half to the man, half to himself. After passing four or five closed doors, the doctor halted and knocked on another plain white door.
"I'll leave you here with the head of our department, Heero. He'll get you aquainted with the place and then tell you what assignment you will be taking over." The doctor turned and put a hand on Duo's shoulder as he was leaving. A strange admiration gleamed in his dark eyes. "We can do this. Just believe." He patted the same shoulder, then slowly walked away.
Duo glanced around, suddenly feeling cramped. "Man, this is getting a little too deep. I think I'd better split before--"
The door opened. "Is that you, Tomoe?"
"Tomoe?" hissed Duo quietly. The doctor that just left. Duo smiled quickly as the door opened the rest of the way. "No, I'm the new intern. My name is--" Duo's mouth dropped open. "Azuya Kurijiko!"
The man in the doorway laughed heartily and grinned at Duo. "Duo Maxwell! What a sight to see!"
Duo Maxwell's mouth narrowly avoided dropping open. "No kuso."
* * *
Wufei jumped as someone touched his shoulder, awakening him from an unplanned drift into sleep. He shrugged the hand off and looked up irritably. It was another man inquiring about how long he was going to say at the computer. He merely grunted an apology and lifted himself out of his chair to leave the library.
As he walked toward 'home', he thought remotely about his just-ended dream. The nightmares about his L5 colony blowing up were by no means new to him, but the ones he had been having lately... weird. Just too weird. Too weird and too vivid for only a dream to be. He had been dreaming about each person on that colony, imagined knowing that they would be destroyed in only an hour, and experiencing the fear and rage in their minds as they realized that he, Chang Wufei, would be the only one to escape. Then the colony would blow up and his dream would end. He ran his fingers over the top of his head. He needed rest, real rest, not this nightmare-ridden crap he had been experiencing.
When he had finally reached the home stretch several hours later, a chill ran up his spine and he growled to himself for leaving his jacket at home. "Baka."
"Are you cold, fellow sufferer?"
Wufei jumped, scolded himself, but didn't turn around. "No."
"I think you are cold. Would you like something to keep you warm, Wufei?"
"No, I'm already close to home. I--" He stopped short. "How did you know my name?"
Giggles. "Of course I know your name, Wufei! I know you because we are just alike, and soon, we'll be together. Then everything will be all right."
Wufei spun around. "Now wait just a--"
No one there.
Wufei merely stared at the empty spot where the voice had come from, doubting his hearing, him mind, and his sanity, but still hearing the ring of that childish voice in his head. "Minute."
* * *
Duo faced Azuya with a neutral look on his face. He couldn't think of anything to say. Azuya grinned and opened the door the rest of the way. He looked at how tall Duo was and sighed, still smiling. "You've grown a lot, Duo. You've changed."
"A lot of things have changed," said Duo finally, his voice strangely quiet. "Have you changed any?"
Azuya shook his head. "Not much, not much."
Duo twisted his mouth wryly. "I heard you'd disappeared, buddy."
Azuya laughed and motioned for him to come in. "Yes, I'm sure. Why don't you come in, Duo?" He grinned again. "I won't bite."
Despite the lightness of the comment, the braided pilot couldn't help but feel the shiver go down his back. He glanced at the safe-looking environment behind the mysterious man and grinned fearlessly. Outwardly. "You'd better not."
Once inside, Azuya led Duo to one of the hospital-looking tables and motioned for him to sit on it. Without a moment's hesitation, Duo hopped onto the table and sat down, crossing his legs under him and waiting patiently for the other man to grab a rolling chair and sit in front of him. As it was, Duo was looking down on him, but Azuya pulled the chair high so they were face to face. Yet again, Azuya grinned.
"You're looking good and healthy, Duo. You must have found something good to do with yourself if you're coming to be an intern here."
Duo shrugged. "I guess you can say that."
"You used the fake name Heero Yuy to get here. That's an interesting choice of a name. Why'd you pick it?"
Grin inwardly. "No particular reason. The name's been stuck in my head for a while. But there are three or four Heero Yuy's I've met before, so maybe that's why." _Heero Yuy the Random Mecha Violence Controller. Heero Yuy the "I Will Kill You" brotha man. Heero Yuy the Evil Knievel Wanna Be. Heero Yuy the "I need you to enlist as a doctor on L2" lame party crashing back stabbing freak..._ "But enough about me. What have you been doing here? Where have you been?"
Azuya sighed. "I had the feeling that was coming. Duo, remember what you were like a long time ago."
Duo smiled wryly. "That's not difficult. Try again."
"Remember what your L2 colony was like when I found you."
Duo slowly frowned. "I remember. Where are you going with this?" When Azuya didn't answer, Duo blinked at him. "Azuya!"
"I remember," said he, not appearing to even know that Duo was still sitting there, "so much pain. So much violence and death and children... it was then that not only did you find adults on the streets, but you found kids too. Any of them between the ages of two and fifteen you could find there walking by themselves or crying in the middle of the street or laying in a corner of disease knowing they were going to die." He finally turned to Duo. "That was the state I found _you_ in."
Duo's voice was stony at the remembrance. "I know."
"People like you were always the people that I wanted to help, Duo. I tried, you tried, and we didn't do much."
"But we did help, Azuya."
"When I cured you, Duo, I had to, _had_ to ask you if you would help me help other kids like yourself. I had to get someone who knew what it was like to know there was not any help and that they didn't have much time to live. I mean knew that the next day they were going to die. Those are the kids we saved. Those are the kids you saved. You didn't do it for long, but you did it, Duo, and now I'm asking you to do it again."
Duo's head whipped up. He gaped a little. "What do you mean? It's not like it was, Azuya. Most of the kids are _gone_. We've gotten much better."
"True, it's not like it was, Duo," answered Azuya bitterly. "It's worse. And do you know why it's worse? Because there shouldn't be any kids on the streets. In the time of war, the governments, both on Earth and in the colonies, spent all of their money on weapons and war machines. In this time of it's so-called 'peace', the governments now spend their money on 'terraforming' and destroying weapons... building new places for themselves, commerce, international--"
"Where are you going with this already?" said Duo irritably. "There's no--"
"There's still no place for the children, don't you see?" exclaimed Azuya. "It's worse now because in war there were homeless children, and in peace there are still just as many! Just as many, Duo, do you hear me? Your body has changed over these years, and like your body the body of war has changed to peace, but just because the body changes, it does not mean that the soul has changed. Still there are children just like you were, just like you are, all over space."
_Azuya... what is wrong with you? I understand what you mean when you want to help, but why are you so crazed about this? I mean... what's wrong with you? There's a dark look in your eyes I just can't figure out..._
"What can you do about it, Azuya?" snapped Duo finally. All of this talk about what it used to be like in his old life was making him uncomfortable, especially how this man he hadn't seen for probably 5 or 6 years was saying that it was still the same. He'd give anything to stay away from where he used to be. Anything. "A lot of kids died then. A lot of kids die now. It's a fact of life."
"Not a fact of life," said Azuya stonily. "It's a fact of _Earth_." He touched Duo's arm. "The colonies aren't supposed to be like that, like this. All forms of evil should stay on Earth, not the colonies. Don't you see, Duo?"
Duo stared at him. "You can't possibly be saying that the Earth is evil."
"Basically, yes I am."
An empty laugh. "It isn't the Earth itself that is evil, or the colonies depending on who looks at it. It's people themselves. People are mean, man. And in case you hadn't noticed, the people that are here originally came from Earth. We're not all that different."
Azuya's eyes glittered. "That's where you're wrong, Duo. Look at you and I, born and raised in the colonies. Or born and _lived_ in the colonies I guess I can say. We were born in this place with more possibilities than any place like Earth. Look around at where we are! This is a new chance for peace like we've never had!"
_Which is what I've already fought for. If you can see all of these dying children, why can't you see how much pain I've gone through to bring peace to people like that?_ Duo was silent.
"I know you've fought, Duo, and look at what you've fought for. Absolutely nothing. Nothing changed. Sure, they're getting rid of weapons on Earth. And in space. But someone always has to start the fight. And then it's hell all over again. So, what do you say we end it?"
Duo was immediately alert. "What do you mean _end it_?"
"Let's show the world what it means to be a homeless kid, Duo," responded Azuya softly. "Let's show them... what it was like to be you."
* * *
"Please, please be quiet here, Quatre," whispered Minoru as he led the slowly recovering Sandrock pilot back out of the little room and into the hallway opposite the direction of Quatre's old room. Quatre remained stoically silent as they tiptoed through the patterned hallways, every five or six seconds ducking into an empty room. He didn't question Minoru's odd way of sneaking around, but noted that the pattern of the boxes changed in every direction... the boxes rotated until they were diamonds, then rhubi, the back to boxes. Finally, after what could have been between 30 minutes to an hour, Minoru reached a dead end--there were no boxes, but dead black walls on three sides.
Again signaling for Quatre to be quiet, Minoru moved to the center of the dead end wall and pushed his back against it has hard as he could. The weight of it was obviously great, but the familiar-looking boy didn't make so much as a groan or grunt as the wall gave way, sliding back away from them and rotating on an axis. Quatre hurried behind Minoru and they both pushed the wall until it fix in place on the other side.
Yet again both were in darkness, but Minoru, so like a cat, adjusted quickly to the darkness and took hold of Quatre's arm, leading him forward about 90 paces before taking a left, then a right. Quatre sensed that the walls on both sides were falling away, and he could hear a very low sound in the distance, unable to hear which direction it was coming from. After an abrupt turn, Minoru led the boy to a halt. He drew Quatre a little further, then pressed his thumb against the base of Quatre's throat.
_If he tried to tell me to be any quieter I wouldn't have any breath left,_ thought Quatre, slightly amused, but wonderingly. He narrowed his eyes but still couldn't see a thing. The low noise was a little louder. _I wonder what he wants me to be so quiet about..._
The was a small sound as Minoru lit a match, and fluidly but carefully, while holding Quatre's throat, put it to the face of the corpse.
As suspected, Quatre began to utter a sound, but Minoru pressed the base of his throat and it prevented him from finishing the action, but nearly making him cough. Minoru waved the light out, released the other, having made his point, and lit two simultaneously. Quatre watched, appalled as the two lights traveled over the bone-thin form of the corpse.
He could tell from height that this corpse had once been a boy. His hair was short, fine and dusty colored, hanging to the side, for he looked like a rag doll thrown in sullenness against the wall on which he was propped. His once dark pants had been ripped to just below his knees, and he had only old, torn remnants of a shirt. His skin was a dark grey or sickly blue, perhaps richly black at one time. He had a smoothly defined nose, closed eyes, but his mouth... his mouth was still defined. Shrunken, but smoothly defined, as if once his smile had been the one to welcome the sun...
Quatre forced his eyes away from the boy and looked quizzically at Minoru. Minoru motioned vigorously back to the boy's face, which Quatre returned to. There was another low noise.
The mouth twitched.
Quatre clapped his own hands over his mouth and his throat this time. The corpse was not a corpse. The boy was still alive. But because of the small sound of skin to cheek, the boy twitched again and swiveled his head toward the sound. The skin over his eyes slowly receded, revealing painfully real deep brown eyes. Fearful. Then surprised.
The blond boy nearly swallowed his own tongue. Even if he had not been forcing his hand into his throat, he would not have uttered a sound. The rag doll boy made a sound in his own throat and his eyes widened, immediately tearing, somewhat thankfully. He rasped. "Heart..."
The lights abruptly went out and Quatre felt himself harshly dragged away from the room and back to a wall. This was a different wall, for there was a small light that appeared in a small opening that he was forced into. Then the light disappeared as he was dragged quickly for another 15 minutes, again until they hit another dark, empty room.
"Quatre, you nearly got us killed!" hissed Minoru. "Why did you do that?"
"What happened to him, Minoru?!" emitted Quatre, voice high-pitched. "That corpse--he was supposed to be dead! And he looked at me!"
"That's exactly what will happen to you if you don't hold your tongue!" Minoru made a frustrated sound. "I led you there only to let you see why you had to leave... you have to leave, or that's what will happen to everyone... not to just _you_, not just _him_, Hikaeru, but your friends, your 'Trowa', your world... everyone..."
"Everyone..." Quatre leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling dizzy. "A-are all of the others here like that? Are they all dead? Or.. half dead?"
Minoru led him to another set of rooms and opened one of the nearest doors, standing aside for Quatre to peer inside. As he hadn't expected, there were four or five boys sitting on the beds, all with the same type of expression on their faces... empty. He stepped cautiously inside and inspected the nearest boy. His skin was turning blue.
"I don't understand... what's happening here? I-Is everyone dying?"
"Without the presence of a heart," said Minoru lowly, "a lot of things can happen. Have you seen enough, Quatre?"
Quatre swallowed thickly and rose, tearing his gaze away from the corpse-like boys he could not save. "Yes. Let's get out of here."
-----------------------------
Oooooooooo. Gotcha yet? ^_^ Until Next Time.
* * *
The boy could only open his mouth in protest but no sound came out. He could only feel the knife sinking in through his flesh, puncturing the tight area between the thick bones of his rib cage. The older man grunted. "So now you know to respect your elders, eh boy?" He jerked the knife out, then lunged to stick it farther into the boy's chest.
But this time, the boy did not let it happen. Through instinct he stepped quickly aside to let the force of the lunge carry through, and as the man cried out, trying to catch himself from falling, the boy grabbed the knife from the dirty fist and thrust it instead into the stomach of the assaulter. The man merely winced and fell down, and the boy was left to stare blankly at the lifeless shadow on the ground before him. Vaguely the feeling of cold as the wind picked up swept through the tiny frame and he dropped the knife, again blankly.
_I did this. And I did this without thinking. Does this mean.._. He paused and looked out behind him, only using that vague sense of self- awareness to see that his hair was close to growing over his eyes and the redoubled sense of self-alertness that caused his eyes to naturally widen like a prey's. _I did this without thinking... is that what taking the bad stuff out does? Or is that what being all alone does? Maybe this is what I'm meant to do... put the lives of men down like this..._ Again he looked around, and, his gaze randomly trailing from the clusters of buildings behind the library to the somewhat openness of the snow-filled field ahead of him. He saw a small light, like a fire, in the midst of the wreckage in the field and led himself blindly toward it.
Once he was within seeing distance, one of the like-hims turned a face to him and blinked. He thought of them as 'like-hims' because by their countenances, they were... just like him... somehow finding themselves in a place that they hadn't planned to be... huddled around a fire in the middle of a smoking wreckage. Curious, and somewhat hungry, he staggered toward the like-hims and dropped to his knees, staring at the fire.
"Hey kid, are you hungry?" said one of the guys compassionately, not at all like the other guy had... he blinked and didn't say anything. The guy laughed lightly and put some tough-looking food in his hand, patting him on the back. "Here, take this."
The boy stared at the food, then absently nibbled at it. The man sat back with his friends and continued the discussion as it had been before the ex-Star had stumbled there, seeming to forget about the quiet, disoriented little boy. Quietly, he drifted into his thoughts, but the men huddled together and talked leisurely about him.
"Who's the kid, Aike?"
Aike, the man who had offered the boy food, shrugged lightly. "Dunno. Quiet kid."
"Maybe he's a mute. Or even deaf. Probably another war orphan. Maybe his parents were in this field when the MS battle crashed here?"
"Maybe."
"Danged MS's nothing but trouble. Probably the hundredth family this week that this war has torn apart. Shame."
"Shame."
"Are you going to do anything with him, Aike?"
Aike glanced at the boy and shrugged again. "Dunno. Doesn't look like he'll be much trouble though."
The other men laughed. "Not much trouble. I guess like you, eh Aike? Perfect little orphan."
Aike grinned moderately and looked back at the boy. "Yeah... perfect little orphan."
* * *
"Are you the new intern?" said the doctor. Duo nodded quietly and the man motioned for him to follow.
As they walked, the doctor led Duo through a door in the back, opening to a completely new brightly lit hallway. Duo frowned slightly. He had never seen this before.
"We've been looking for a long time for someone to fill the internship, Heero. We are very happy you are here and expect that you will perform your duties to the best of your abilities."
"You bet I will," said Duo softly, half to the man, half to himself. After passing four or five closed doors, the doctor halted and knocked on another plain white door.
"I'll leave you here with the head of our department, Heero. He'll get you aquainted with the place and then tell you what assignment you will be taking over." The doctor turned and put a hand on Duo's shoulder as he was leaving. A strange admiration gleamed in his dark eyes. "We can do this. Just believe." He patted the same shoulder, then slowly walked away.
Duo glanced around, suddenly feeling cramped. "Man, this is getting a little too deep. I think I'd better split before--"
The door opened. "Is that you, Tomoe?"
"Tomoe?" hissed Duo quietly. The doctor that just left. Duo smiled quickly as the door opened the rest of the way. "No, I'm the new intern. My name is--" Duo's mouth dropped open. "Azuya Kurijiko!"
The man in the doorway laughed heartily and grinned at Duo. "Duo Maxwell! What a sight to see!"
Duo Maxwell's mouth narrowly avoided dropping open. "No kuso."
* * *
Wufei jumped as someone touched his shoulder, awakening him from an unplanned drift into sleep. He shrugged the hand off and looked up irritably. It was another man inquiring about how long he was going to say at the computer. He merely grunted an apology and lifted himself out of his chair to leave the library.
As he walked toward 'home', he thought remotely about his just-ended dream. The nightmares about his L5 colony blowing up were by no means new to him, but the ones he had been having lately... weird. Just too weird. Too weird and too vivid for only a dream to be. He had been dreaming about each person on that colony, imagined knowing that they would be destroyed in only an hour, and experiencing the fear and rage in their minds as they realized that he, Chang Wufei, would be the only one to escape. Then the colony would blow up and his dream would end. He ran his fingers over the top of his head. He needed rest, real rest, not this nightmare-ridden crap he had been experiencing.
When he had finally reached the home stretch several hours later, a chill ran up his spine and he growled to himself for leaving his jacket at home. "Baka."
"Are you cold, fellow sufferer?"
Wufei jumped, scolded himself, but didn't turn around. "No."
"I think you are cold. Would you like something to keep you warm, Wufei?"
"No, I'm already close to home. I--" He stopped short. "How did you know my name?"
Giggles. "Of course I know your name, Wufei! I know you because we are just alike, and soon, we'll be together. Then everything will be all right."
Wufei spun around. "Now wait just a--"
No one there.
Wufei merely stared at the empty spot where the voice had come from, doubting his hearing, him mind, and his sanity, but still hearing the ring of that childish voice in his head. "Minute."
* * *
Duo faced Azuya with a neutral look on his face. He couldn't think of anything to say. Azuya grinned and opened the door the rest of the way. He looked at how tall Duo was and sighed, still smiling. "You've grown a lot, Duo. You've changed."
"A lot of things have changed," said Duo finally, his voice strangely quiet. "Have you changed any?"
Azuya shook his head. "Not much, not much."
Duo twisted his mouth wryly. "I heard you'd disappeared, buddy."
Azuya laughed and motioned for him to come in. "Yes, I'm sure. Why don't you come in, Duo?" He grinned again. "I won't bite."
Despite the lightness of the comment, the braided pilot couldn't help but feel the shiver go down his back. He glanced at the safe-looking environment behind the mysterious man and grinned fearlessly. Outwardly. "You'd better not."
Once inside, Azuya led Duo to one of the hospital-looking tables and motioned for him to sit on it. Without a moment's hesitation, Duo hopped onto the table and sat down, crossing his legs under him and waiting patiently for the other man to grab a rolling chair and sit in front of him. As it was, Duo was looking down on him, but Azuya pulled the chair high so they were face to face. Yet again, Azuya grinned.
"You're looking good and healthy, Duo. You must have found something good to do with yourself if you're coming to be an intern here."
Duo shrugged. "I guess you can say that."
"You used the fake name Heero Yuy to get here. That's an interesting choice of a name. Why'd you pick it?"
Grin inwardly. "No particular reason. The name's been stuck in my head for a while. But there are three or four Heero Yuy's I've met before, so maybe that's why." _Heero Yuy the Random Mecha Violence Controller. Heero Yuy the "I Will Kill You" brotha man. Heero Yuy the Evil Knievel Wanna Be. Heero Yuy the "I need you to enlist as a doctor on L2" lame party crashing back stabbing freak..._ "But enough about me. What have you been doing here? Where have you been?"
Azuya sighed. "I had the feeling that was coming. Duo, remember what you were like a long time ago."
Duo smiled wryly. "That's not difficult. Try again."
"Remember what your L2 colony was like when I found you."
Duo slowly frowned. "I remember. Where are you going with this?" When Azuya didn't answer, Duo blinked at him. "Azuya!"
"I remember," said he, not appearing to even know that Duo was still sitting there, "so much pain. So much violence and death and children... it was then that not only did you find adults on the streets, but you found kids too. Any of them between the ages of two and fifteen you could find there walking by themselves or crying in the middle of the street or laying in a corner of disease knowing they were going to die." He finally turned to Duo. "That was the state I found _you_ in."
Duo's voice was stony at the remembrance. "I know."
"People like you were always the people that I wanted to help, Duo. I tried, you tried, and we didn't do much."
"But we did help, Azuya."
"When I cured you, Duo, I had to, _had_ to ask you if you would help me help other kids like yourself. I had to get someone who knew what it was like to know there was not any help and that they didn't have much time to live. I mean knew that the next day they were going to die. Those are the kids we saved. Those are the kids you saved. You didn't do it for long, but you did it, Duo, and now I'm asking you to do it again."
Duo's head whipped up. He gaped a little. "What do you mean? It's not like it was, Azuya. Most of the kids are _gone_. We've gotten much better."
"True, it's not like it was, Duo," answered Azuya bitterly. "It's worse. And do you know why it's worse? Because there shouldn't be any kids on the streets. In the time of war, the governments, both on Earth and in the colonies, spent all of their money on weapons and war machines. In this time of it's so-called 'peace', the governments now spend their money on 'terraforming' and destroying weapons... building new places for themselves, commerce, international--"
"Where are you going with this already?" said Duo irritably. "There's no--"
"There's still no place for the children, don't you see?" exclaimed Azuya. "It's worse now because in war there were homeless children, and in peace there are still just as many! Just as many, Duo, do you hear me? Your body has changed over these years, and like your body the body of war has changed to peace, but just because the body changes, it does not mean that the soul has changed. Still there are children just like you were, just like you are, all over space."
_Azuya... what is wrong with you? I understand what you mean when you want to help, but why are you so crazed about this? I mean... what's wrong with you? There's a dark look in your eyes I just can't figure out..._
"What can you do about it, Azuya?" snapped Duo finally. All of this talk about what it used to be like in his old life was making him uncomfortable, especially how this man he hadn't seen for probably 5 or 6 years was saying that it was still the same. He'd give anything to stay away from where he used to be. Anything. "A lot of kids died then. A lot of kids die now. It's a fact of life."
"Not a fact of life," said Azuya stonily. "It's a fact of _Earth_." He touched Duo's arm. "The colonies aren't supposed to be like that, like this. All forms of evil should stay on Earth, not the colonies. Don't you see, Duo?"
Duo stared at him. "You can't possibly be saying that the Earth is evil."
"Basically, yes I am."
An empty laugh. "It isn't the Earth itself that is evil, or the colonies depending on who looks at it. It's people themselves. People are mean, man. And in case you hadn't noticed, the people that are here originally came from Earth. We're not all that different."
Azuya's eyes glittered. "That's where you're wrong, Duo. Look at you and I, born and raised in the colonies. Or born and _lived_ in the colonies I guess I can say. We were born in this place with more possibilities than any place like Earth. Look around at where we are! This is a new chance for peace like we've never had!"
_Which is what I've already fought for. If you can see all of these dying children, why can't you see how much pain I've gone through to bring peace to people like that?_ Duo was silent.
"I know you've fought, Duo, and look at what you've fought for. Absolutely nothing. Nothing changed. Sure, they're getting rid of weapons on Earth. And in space. But someone always has to start the fight. And then it's hell all over again. So, what do you say we end it?"
Duo was immediately alert. "What do you mean _end it_?"
"Let's show the world what it means to be a homeless kid, Duo," responded Azuya softly. "Let's show them... what it was like to be you."
* * *
"Please, please be quiet here, Quatre," whispered Minoru as he led the slowly recovering Sandrock pilot back out of the little room and into the hallway opposite the direction of Quatre's old room. Quatre remained stoically silent as they tiptoed through the patterned hallways, every five or six seconds ducking into an empty room. He didn't question Minoru's odd way of sneaking around, but noted that the pattern of the boxes changed in every direction... the boxes rotated until they were diamonds, then rhubi, the back to boxes. Finally, after what could have been between 30 minutes to an hour, Minoru reached a dead end--there were no boxes, but dead black walls on three sides.
Again signaling for Quatre to be quiet, Minoru moved to the center of the dead end wall and pushed his back against it has hard as he could. The weight of it was obviously great, but the familiar-looking boy didn't make so much as a groan or grunt as the wall gave way, sliding back away from them and rotating on an axis. Quatre hurried behind Minoru and they both pushed the wall until it fix in place on the other side.
Yet again both were in darkness, but Minoru, so like a cat, adjusted quickly to the darkness and took hold of Quatre's arm, leading him forward about 90 paces before taking a left, then a right. Quatre sensed that the walls on both sides were falling away, and he could hear a very low sound in the distance, unable to hear which direction it was coming from. After an abrupt turn, Minoru led the boy to a halt. He drew Quatre a little further, then pressed his thumb against the base of Quatre's throat.
_If he tried to tell me to be any quieter I wouldn't have any breath left,_ thought Quatre, slightly amused, but wonderingly. He narrowed his eyes but still couldn't see a thing. The low noise was a little louder. _I wonder what he wants me to be so quiet about..._
The was a small sound as Minoru lit a match, and fluidly but carefully, while holding Quatre's throat, put it to the face of the corpse.
As suspected, Quatre began to utter a sound, but Minoru pressed the base of his throat and it prevented him from finishing the action, but nearly making him cough. Minoru waved the light out, released the other, having made his point, and lit two simultaneously. Quatre watched, appalled as the two lights traveled over the bone-thin form of the corpse.
He could tell from height that this corpse had once been a boy. His hair was short, fine and dusty colored, hanging to the side, for he looked like a rag doll thrown in sullenness against the wall on which he was propped. His once dark pants had been ripped to just below his knees, and he had only old, torn remnants of a shirt. His skin was a dark grey or sickly blue, perhaps richly black at one time. He had a smoothly defined nose, closed eyes, but his mouth... his mouth was still defined. Shrunken, but smoothly defined, as if once his smile had been the one to welcome the sun...
Quatre forced his eyes away from the boy and looked quizzically at Minoru. Minoru motioned vigorously back to the boy's face, which Quatre returned to. There was another low noise.
The mouth twitched.
Quatre clapped his own hands over his mouth and his throat this time. The corpse was not a corpse. The boy was still alive. But because of the small sound of skin to cheek, the boy twitched again and swiveled his head toward the sound. The skin over his eyes slowly receded, revealing painfully real deep brown eyes. Fearful. Then surprised.
The blond boy nearly swallowed his own tongue. Even if he had not been forcing his hand into his throat, he would not have uttered a sound. The rag doll boy made a sound in his own throat and his eyes widened, immediately tearing, somewhat thankfully. He rasped. "Heart..."
The lights abruptly went out and Quatre felt himself harshly dragged away from the room and back to a wall. This was a different wall, for there was a small light that appeared in a small opening that he was forced into. Then the light disappeared as he was dragged quickly for another 15 minutes, again until they hit another dark, empty room.
"Quatre, you nearly got us killed!" hissed Minoru. "Why did you do that?"
"What happened to him, Minoru?!" emitted Quatre, voice high-pitched. "That corpse--he was supposed to be dead! And he looked at me!"
"That's exactly what will happen to you if you don't hold your tongue!" Minoru made a frustrated sound. "I led you there only to let you see why you had to leave... you have to leave, or that's what will happen to everyone... not to just _you_, not just _him_, Hikaeru, but your friends, your 'Trowa', your world... everyone..."
"Everyone..." Quatre leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling dizzy. "A-are all of the others here like that? Are they all dead? Or.. half dead?"
Minoru led him to another set of rooms and opened one of the nearest doors, standing aside for Quatre to peer inside. As he hadn't expected, there were four or five boys sitting on the beds, all with the same type of expression on their faces... empty. He stepped cautiously inside and inspected the nearest boy. His skin was turning blue.
"I don't understand... what's happening here? I-Is everyone dying?"
"Without the presence of a heart," said Minoru lowly, "a lot of things can happen. Have you seen enough, Quatre?"
Quatre swallowed thickly and rose, tearing his gaze away from the corpse-like boys he could not save. "Yes. Let's get out of here."
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Oooooooooo. Gotcha yet? ^_^ Until Next Time.