*****
First: * Okay, this works as though it were chapter 11, since it's the happier ending. (Sort of... ^_^;) This should be my second last posting for this fic, unless I get high demands or something to write a sequel, but then- I don't know what I'd write about, so perhaps it's best I don't! ^_^ *
Second: * Disclaimer: I've never owned Gundam Wing, or the characters portrayed herein, excluding Noria. Yay! *
Third: * The dedications. =P You guys are great: Mich Maxwell, D.A., Nini, veronica, Blossy, miyu, shi-shi, Airurando, Seiji Takayama, Little-shinigami, Shining Emerald, Symee-Sama, Lorimlowe2, selene947, and Seak5! Thank you SO much for taking the time to review! *
Fourth: * Ssenmodnar. Brought to You by: Band Auditions- They Suck. *
Fuu: ;_; "I have to re-audition for honour band on Wednesday morning!"
Umi: "I hope you know your song."
Fuu: "Yup... 'Rhapsody Blue.' It's pretty at least."
Umi: * She pulls out some duct tape. * "For old times sake?"
Fuu: * She sighs. * "Okay. AAAHHH!" * She runs. *
Umi: "YOU DIE! DUO WILL BE MINE!"
Fifth: * I just realized something. It doesn't really matter how you read these chapters, since... Well... This/these one/two chapter(s) I'm putting out can really just go at the end of the other story and still make sense! I think I just broke my own brain. =( *
Note: You want to make sure you ARE NOT EATING when you read this chapter... It's kind of descriptive with the whole... Rotting stuff, etc... So... Yeah... Enjoy!
~soulwithwings
((Possibly no new chapter until Friday, sorry! ;_;))
*****
Hilde awoke to a series of low, monotonous screams. They chilled her skin, curdled her blood. She couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened. The last thing she remembered was a gun being jabbed into her back. She reached over her shoulder, and felt a sharp pain shoot down her arm.
"So I was shot.." Hilde's voice echoed into the nothingness.
'Hilde...' She stopped short. It was that voice. The one she'd heard earlier on, when she was unconscious due to the almost lethal amount of turpentine. 'Hilde... Can you hear me, Hilde? Come to me, Hilde...' Recognition faded.
"My name is Hilde?"
'It is... Come to me, Hilde Schbeiker."
"Hilde Schbeiker.." She tried the words on her tongue, but they came out clumsily, as though foreign.
'Come, we cannot waste time...' A shadowy figure rose in front of her, its face overshadowed and the only thing visible a long chestnut braid.
"Duo? Duo Maxwell?"
'He is dead, child- as are you. You have been so for aeons. When one dies, their soul rests for thousands, sometimes millions of years before it once again arises, ready to make the journey to the new world.'
"No... He can't be- it just can't be..."
'Come, we must hurry if we want to reach the new world in time...'
"The new world?" The figure did not respond. It only held out it's hand, long, thin and bony, for Hilde to take. She hesitated before grabbing it. It was clammy, like death itself. "Are you... Death?"
'Some call me that. Others the Grim Reaper, others still the Destroying Angel. Some even call me Shinigami.' Hilde lacked strength suddenly- as though the life in her was truly being drained out, but she wasn't alive, she had to remind herself. She was a spirit now... 'Flesh is useless in this world. Once we enter the new dimension you will become an aura. That bruised face of yours will disappear.' Hilde gasped aloud.
"What? But... This face is my identity! How is anyone going to be able to recognize me, how I anyone else?"
'You won't. It's as simple as that.' Hilde felt her fists clench.
"That isn't right. I can't live like that."
'You won't be living like that. You're dead.' Hilde felt like punching Death in the face. He was such an insensitive jerk... Wait- who had fit that description before....?
Duo sat up, in a full out darkness. The air was stagnant, and smelled like hell.
"Perhaps this is hell," Duo mused to himself. "It would account for a lot of this."
'Duo... Can you hear me, Duo?'
"I can hear you... Wait, is Duo my name?"
'If you wish it to be...' Suddenly the memories came flooding back.
"HILDE!" A shape turned in the distance, searching for something. Duo could not detect it, his senses too numbed.
'Take my hand.' A clawed hand reached down, Duo took it hesitantly and stared up and the hooded figure, its eyes blazing blood-red on a rotting skull.
"You are Death," Duo paused. "I thought I was the Shinigami." He paused, half joking, half trying to con some answers out of the figure. It nodded slowly.
'That I am.' It helped him up and pointed down a long road. 'I am Shinigami, Death, the Grim Reaper, the Destroying Angel.'
"Duo Maxwell, nice to meet you." Duo snapped back.
'No need to be afraid. You, Gundam Pilot, have slept here for ten thousand long years. The time has come for you to fulfil your destiny.' Despite the disgusting nature of Death's hands, Death was rather kind, sorrowful; yet kind.
Duo nodded slowly, trying to take in everything, skeletons littered the earth, if it could be called that, it was more of a wasteland. Birds flew above, vultures, scouting the ground below, watching for any sort of prey they might gain. Crows nested on the barred branches of old, gnarled, trees, often in groups of three or four. The ground was a copper brown, dusty, and repugnant. It's ugliness in the scene made it seem like a hellish place, and fear seemed to emanate off every thing, of the trees, off the birds, off the bleached set of bones beside him, picked clean by scavengers. Beside that, a few pieces of rotting flesh remained, unfit for consumption.
Hilde looked up to the figure beside her.
"Death...?"
'Yes?' He faced her.
"Why is it that human hearts are so fragile?"
'Hilde,' It paused, as though unsure. 'If they weren't, would there be room for love?' Hilde shook her head.
"I suppose not..." Hilde trailed off. The rest of their journey seemed to fall in silence, the two travelled down dark hallways and around deep crevasses. As the neared a particularly deep crevice, Death spoke.
'Be forewarned, do not gaze too far into the depths of that crevice, for if one stares too deep they may never return.' Hilde nodded, and tore her gaze from a pair of haunting yellow and green eyes as they passed by.
'Duo, we are nearing the end of this journey, but we must hurry still.'
"Tell me what I am expecting," He pleaded. "I need to know where we are going, what I will be doing.."
'We are going to the judgement room. Whatever your alignment, when judged it shall determine your fate. You will go without flesh to the land of death, most likely.'
"Then.. As what?"
'An aura, a separate and determinable aura from the rest. Though your face will not show through, your actions and behaviour certainly will.' The figure seemed mildly amused. Duo nodded slowly.
"Do you guide every spirit that comes through here?"
'I do. I have different entities that walk with each person. Your entity, for example, is Death, the original form I took on. Certainly there are others though, more frightening, and less so. It depends on what one sees Death as, or sometimes on the last thought on one's mind when they die.'
"I had you as my last thought?"
'You had your soul as your last thought.'
"Are you my soul... The way I see it...?" The figure remained silent, and Duo did as well, knowing they were nearing the judgement room.
First: * Okay, this works as though it were chapter 11, since it's the happier ending. (Sort of... ^_^;) This should be my second last posting for this fic, unless I get high demands or something to write a sequel, but then- I don't know what I'd write about, so perhaps it's best I don't! ^_^ *
Second: * Disclaimer: I've never owned Gundam Wing, or the characters portrayed herein, excluding Noria. Yay! *
Third: * The dedications. =P You guys are great: Mich Maxwell, D.A., Nini, veronica, Blossy, miyu, shi-shi, Airurando, Seiji Takayama, Little-shinigami, Shining Emerald, Symee-Sama, Lorimlowe2, selene947, and Seak5! Thank you SO much for taking the time to review! *
Fourth: * Ssenmodnar. Brought to You by: Band Auditions- They Suck. *
Fuu: ;_; "I have to re-audition for honour band on Wednesday morning!"
Umi: "I hope you know your song."
Fuu: "Yup... 'Rhapsody Blue.' It's pretty at least."
Umi: * She pulls out some duct tape. * "For old times sake?"
Fuu: * She sighs. * "Okay. AAAHHH!" * She runs. *
Umi: "YOU DIE! DUO WILL BE MINE!"
Fifth: * I just realized something. It doesn't really matter how you read these chapters, since... Well... This/these one/two chapter(s) I'm putting out can really just go at the end of the other story and still make sense! I think I just broke my own brain. =( *
Note: You want to make sure you ARE NOT EATING when you read this chapter... It's kind of descriptive with the whole... Rotting stuff, etc... So... Yeah... Enjoy!
~soulwithwings
((Possibly no new chapter until Friday, sorry! ;_;))
*****
Hilde awoke to a series of low, monotonous screams. They chilled her skin, curdled her blood. She couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened. The last thing she remembered was a gun being jabbed into her back. She reached over her shoulder, and felt a sharp pain shoot down her arm.
"So I was shot.." Hilde's voice echoed into the nothingness.
'Hilde...' She stopped short. It was that voice. The one she'd heard earlier on, when she was unconscious due to the almost lethal amount of turpentine. 'Hilde... Can you hear me, Hilde? Come to me, Hilde...' Recognition faded.
"My name is Hilde?"
'It is... Come to me, Hilde Schbeiker."
"Hilde Schbeiker.." She tried the words on her tongue, but they came out clumsily, as though foreign.
'Come, we cannot waste time...' A shadowy figure rose in front of her, its face overshadowed and the only thing visible a long chestnut braid.
"Duo? Duo Maxwell?"
'He is dead, child- as are you. You have been so for aeons. When one dies, their soul rests for thousands, sometimes millions of years before it once again arises, ready to make the journey to the new world.'
"No... He can't be- it just can't be..."
'Come, we must hurry if we want to reach the new world in time...'
"The new world?" The figure did not respond. It only held out it's hand, long, thin and bony, for Hilde to take. She hesitated before grabbing it. It was clammy, like death itself. "Are you... Death?"
'Some call me that. Others the Grim Reaper, others still the Destroying Angel. Some even call me Shinigami.' Hilde lacked strength suddenly- as though the life in her was truly being drained out, but she wasn't alive, she had to remind herself. She was a spirit now... 'Flesh is useless in this world. Once we enter the new dimension you will become an aura. That bruised face of yours will disappear.' Hilde gasped aloud.
"What? But... This face is my identity! How is anyone going to be able to recognize me, how I anyone else?"
'You won't. It's as simple as that.' Hilde felt her fists clench.
"That isn't right. I can't live like that."
'You won't be living like that. You're dead.' Hilde felt like punching Death in the face. He was such an insensitive jerk... Wait- who had fit that description before....?
Duo sat up, in a full out darkness. The air was stagnant, and smelled like hell.
"Perhaps this is hell," Duo mused to himself. "It would account for a lot of this."
'Duo... Can you hear me, Duo?'
"I can hear you... Wait, is Duo my name?"
'If you wish it to be...' Suddenly the memories came flooding back.
"HILDE!" A shape turned in the distance, searching for something. Duo could not detect it, his senses too numbed.
'Take my hand.' A clawed hand reached down, Duo took it hesitantly and stared up and the hooded figure, its eyes blazing blood-red on a rotting skull.
"You are Death," Duo paused. "I thought I was the Shinigami." He paused, half joking, half trying to con some answers out of the figure. It nodded slowly.
'That I am.' It helped him up and pointed down a long road. 'I am Shinigami, Death, the Grim Reaper, the Destroying Angel.'
"Duo Maxwell, nice to meet you." Duo snapped back.
'No need to be afraid. You, Gundam Pilot, have slept here for ten thousand long years. The time has come for you to fulfil your destiny.' Despite the disgusting nature of Death's hands, Death was rather kind, sorrowful; yet kind.
Duo nodded slowly, trying to take in everything, skeletons littered the earth, if it could be called that, it was more of a wasteland. Birds flew above, vultures, scouting the ground below, watching for any sort of prey they might gain. Crows nested on the barred branches of old, gnarled, trees, often in groups of three or four. The ground was a copper brown, dusty, and repugnant. It's ugliness in the scene made it seem like a hellish place, and fear seemed to emanate off every thing, of the trees, off the birds, off the bleached set of bones beside him, picked clean by scavengers. Beside that, a few pieces of rotting flesh remained, unfit for consumption.
Hilde looked up to the figure beside her.
"Death...?"
'Yes?' He faced her.
"Why is it that human hearts are so fragile?"
'Hilde,' It paused, as though unsure. 'If they weren't, would there be room for love?' Hilde shook her head.
"I suppose not..." Hilde trailed off. The rest of their journey seemed to fall in silence, the two travelled down dark hallways and around deep crevasses. As the neared a particularly deep crevice, Death spoke.
'Be forewarned, do not gaze too far into the depths of that crevice, for if one stares too deep they may never return.' Hilde nodded, and tore her gaze from a pair of haunting yellow and green eyes as they passed by.
'Duo, we are nearing the end of this journey, but we must hurry still.'
"Tell me what I am expecting," He pleaded. "I need to know where we are going, what I will be doing.."
'We are going to the judgement room. Whatever your alignment, when judged it shall determine your fate. You will go without flesh to the land of death, most likely.'
"Then.. As what?"
'An aura, a separate and determinable aura from the rest. Though your face will not show through, your actions and behaviour certainly will.' The figure seemed mildly amused. Duo nodded slowly.
"Do you guide every spirit that comes through here?"
'I do. I have different entities that walk with each person. Your entity, for example, is Death, the original form I took on. Certainly there are others though, more frightening, and less so. It depends on what one sees Death as, or sometimes on the last thought on one's mind when they die.'
"I had you as my last thought?"
'You had your soul as your last thought.'
"Are you my soul... The way I see it...?" The figure remained silent, and Duo did as well, knowing they were nearing the judgement room.