Author's Note: I don't own Gundam Wing, if you happened to miss all my other disclaimers.
~ Skeletons in the Closet ~
Part 10
By Zero's Wings
The Second CallHeero escorted a nearly unconscious Duo back to his hotel. As he parted with his drunken friend just outside the revolving glass doorway, rain began to fall. The storms had been off and on all night. This was the storm of which Trowa had spoken, Heero was sure of it. It was the watery catharsis that would herald doom for them all.
Heero yanked the collar of his tattered leather jacket up to his cheekbones. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked into a curtain of rain.
Heero's apartment was a hollow shell without Relena. The night without her was hollow as well. He splashed some hot water on his face, but his veins were still ice. Why do I feel like this? Heero thought. He stared at the pallid, foreign moon in the mirror with a mixture of dread and confusion. His eyes were spheres of jagged glass; his lips were drawn as a short, bloodless strip. Heero shivered in his deepest sleep, but no dreams came to him.
Around 1:30 in the morning, Heero received a call. As he reached for the vidphone on his nightstand, he felt a sudden muscle spasm in his arm, and a cold tremor radiated from his fingers across the length of his arm and straight down into his gut. After a slight pause, he wearily picked up the receiver.
"Who is it?" he croaked.
"It's Lady Une, Heero. I was just checking to see if Relena ever made back to your apartment."
"No she didn't. I assume she stayed over at Preventer's HQ."
"The doorman says he saw her leave at 9:30. We haven't heard from her since, and the limo driver that took her home never checked back in."
Heero's pulse quickened. "Do you have any idea where he was supposed to take her?' Heero asked.
"She usually just goes straight to your place or her house by the old Sanc palace. I can't imagine wh…" Une was cut off by a sudden jolt of static.
"Une!" Heero yelled desperately in the phone. There was no reply. Just as he was about to hang up the phone, the static was swallowed up by a deep, dry laughter.
"You know, it really came in handy putting a hard-line into Preventer H.Q. Not only do they keep extensive files on the whereabouts of you Gundam pilots, but they also have your home phone numbers." Emulat sounded as twisted and arrogant as ever, even when Heero could not see his face.
"You son of a bitch!" Heero screamed back into the phone. His hatred toward Emulat was so deep; it came to him almost as a reflex. "When are you going to let me be?"
"You have more pressing concerns." Emulat said dismissively. "I just wanted to bid farewell to my most traitorous creation. You see, I have decided to rid this fledgling planet of an arrogant and self-satisfied race. Mankind has had ample time to redeem itself, but we only repeat our past mistakes and failures. You know, many people believe that animals and lower life forms don't have souls. They believe that our superior intellect gives us exclusive rights to an immortal, non-physical consciousness. But only our egos separate us from other forms of life!"
"I've heard this speech before." Heero said. "I recall it was just before your death."
"You mean the death of one of my many containers. With this cycle of clones, I have transcended death. And I will be the first human to carry on in the form of a non-corporeal presence. You see, Ymir, my child, will destroy the colonies and lay waste to the earth, ridding it of all but the most resilient and basic organisms. Then, it will be destroyed in the fires of this changed world. In a reproductive schism, it will sacrifice itself so that its race may populate the new Earth.
"What is this Ymir?" Heero asked. "You've mentioned it before."
"The Norse god responsible for the creation of heaven, hell, and the domain of man. But presently, Ymir stands as my greatest achievement. He is a living mobile suit. And when your world ends, he will retain my consciousness in the mechanized portion of his brain. I will be the sole survivor of this race."
"I've never heard anything more selfish or arrogant," Heero retorted. "How could you possibly presume to stand as judge over your entire race, and then choose to condemn your own kind?"
"Name me a better judge!" Emulat argued back. "Most people are so wrapped up in their daily lives that they can't function outside their so-called "real world." They're blind, soft, and wallowing in the meaningless nature of their own existence. And then there are people like you: cold, antisocial and nihilistic. You're pathetic. You can't even function within the simple grind of humanity. People who lack your biological gifts are ten times as effective in just living out their lives. You wallow in self-pity, ignoring every natural call to rise above the lesser mass of your race. You're a complete failure, by anyone's standards!" Emulat burst into spiraling peals of laughter.
"That's enough!" Heero screamed, his voice becoming hoarse. "What have you done with Relena?" He felt lost in his own fury, being swallowed up by cascading emotions.
"Ah, the girl. A very practical concern. You've always been one to get to the heart of a matter. She is the precise reason I'm calling you now. I believe that your relationship with her is the closest you've ever come to any sort of personal achievement. Despite that, you can offer her nothing. I can only assume that she feels pity for you." Heero was haunted by those words. Earlier this week, he had contemplated the exact same thing. "Anyway," Emulat continued, "I was just wondering if you'd ever like to see her again."
"As much as I want to bury you forever, Emulat." Heero said, his voice shaking with intensity.
"Oh. How very unfortunate for you. Because neither of those things will ever happen." The line went dead.
End part 10