Scarlet Love
Chapter Fifteen:
Light inside the Darkness
By: NightChild
***
Steel-gray eyes glinted with the glare of the security monitor as their owner watched four ex-Gundam pilots dart through the hallways of the base. His base. The man ran a hand through his graying, brownish hair as he grinned. 'Only a matter of time.' He thought sinisterly.
A knock from the shadows, at what had to be a door, made the man look up. "What?" he barked out.
"Commander [1] Phearsun, sir, the captive pilot's condition is unstable. The medical team sent to his cell sa--"
The soldier behind the door didn't get to finish before his commander stood before him, the door that was hidden in the shadows of his office flung open. He glared at the said soldier, the black-and-white of his dress uniform making him appear to be some sort of angry, slightly aging, mythical creature. This was the man in charge; the man that had been in the ex-pilot's cell just a few hours before. Without a word, Phearsun [2] was gone down the twisting hallways that led to the captive ex-pilot's cell.
When he reached the rusted cell door, Phearson didn't even bother to announce himself before bursting in. As he looked at the aforementioned ex-pilot, he almost felt his stomach lurch at the blood, pale, torn, burnt skin. Almost.
The young man, Heero Yuy, laid still on the slab-like gurney, his arms, legs and torso strapped down with thick, leather-like restraints. His eyes were closed in unconsciousness. The skin of his face was paler than it should be, his lips carrying a slight bluish tint. Blood was still slightly dripping down onto the floor from various cuts on his body and face, leaving a fairly large puddle of semi-chunky, congealed, reddish brown. There were red, blistering burns on his legs, chest, neck and arms; his shirt having been torn or cut off long ago for easier access to his flesh for…negotiation…purposes. The slow, ragged rise and fall of his chest showing signs of--perhaps--near-death.
The rank, rotten smell of burnt flesh and the metallic tang of blood that hung in the air were enough to send a person unused to such smells reeling and vomiting, but Phearsun was used to such smells and sights, that didn't however, keep his stomach from protesting at the sight and stench.
Phearsun took a deep breath to calm his near-rolling stomach and motioned for the medical team that were working on Heero to leave--which they did, rather quickly--before barking out, "Who did this?!"
Silence was his answer.
Raising his voice in volume, "Who did this?!"
Silence…then a slight shuffle and rasping sound like someone trying not to breathe at all. Almost growling to himself, Phearsun followed the sound to its source. Upon finding where, more like whom, the noise had come from, he dragged the man out of the shadows. It was the same man that had been left with the prisoner hours before. "So it was you, was it?" he accused, continuing, he didn't even wait for the man to reply, "How did this happen?"
The man that was being held in Phearsun's tight, iron-like grip gathered up his courage and stared his commander in the eyes. "He wasn't talking, sir."
"'Wasn't talking' or wasn't giving the answers you expected?" Phearsun asked coldly, his steel-gray eyes hardening even more than they had been. He didn't wait for an answer; instead, he called for a guard to take the man away and have him "held to be dealt with". Then he turned to Heero, who by this time had nearly stopped breathing. With a sigh, he just left the room. 'He was just bait for the other, anyway.' He thought with a shrug as he walked down the hallways to his office.
***
I was floating…weightless…almost like I was in space, but there were no stars. No light of any kind. Just blackness. Darkness. Blessed, sweet, wonderful, painless, dark, blackness. So peaceful. I didn't want to leave it. But--something, I was supposed to do something, or talk to someone. I don't really remember, though. I-I think it was important.
I shake the head I can't exactly feel or see, but just know is there. Nothing matters but the painlessness of this place…. Maybe I'm dead. That would be the only logical conclusion, but, there's something that doesn't really make me feel like I'm dead, I don't really know what it is…. But there's something.
I would have sighed if I could, apparently, I'm just a mass of formless consciousness in this place; even though I feel like I have a body, I can't see it. I'm thinking way too much. That's the problem with this darkness; it lets you think too much.
I was about to try not to think anymore when I heard it. A soft whisper of my name, hardly loud enough to even be heard. I turn my non-existent body toward the sound, straining my ears, trying to catch where it could be coming from.
"Heero…" I hear it again, and catch a glimmer of light, more like a flash.
I try to move toward it, but it fades away.
"HEERO!"
Heero snapped his eyes open and instantly regretted it, because his eyes met the bright light that was affixed to the ceiling and it caused his whole body to remember that he was greatly injured, therefore, should be in a lot of pain. His body promptly made up for that lack of remembrance and proceeded to thrum in pain, making Heero clench his teeth to keep from crying out.
"Heero!" he heard a very, very familiar voice, one he didn't think he'd ever hear again.
"D-D…uo…?" he rasped out through his clenched teeth, and then promptly passed out.
***
Duo, Wufei, Quatre and Trowa were all running as fast as they could to where they thought the interrogation-and-torture section of the base was. The strong stench of blood and a scent that could only be death was getting stronger and stronger with each hurried step they took. They were getting closer to the right section.
They turned a corner and had to stop dead in their tracks because of the rank, hideous odor of the corridor that they now faced. This had to be the place they were keeping Heero. Lines of rusty-yet-strong-looking doors ran the length of both sides of the long, wide hall. The floors were made of a rough, gray stone, an extreme contrast to the pristine white floors of the other sections of the base they had ran through. The walls were made of the same stone, another extreme contrast to the white of the other walls. Dark stains littered the floor and walls in various places; those stains looked sickeningly like dried blood that hadn't been cleaned up well.
Duo stared hopelessly at all of the cell doors. "How do we find him in all of this?" he asked in a voice that sounded broken, devoid of emotion, while gesturing to their surroundings.
Quatre looked around, then randomly walked up to a door. "Let's try this one." He said, as if he knew that Heero would be behind it.
Trowa nearly grinned. 'Quatre's doing his physic thing again.' He thought as he walked up to the door that Quatre was standing by. Duo and Wufei just watched, one with a sense of forlornness and the other with a sense of impatient interest.
Deftly, Trowa worked on the lock on the cell door. Soon the lock was picked and he pushed the door open. Stepping inside, he glanced around then gasped at what he saw sprawled out on the medical-like table. Just as he was about to turn and tell the others not to come in, he heard Duo and Quatre gasp, and Wufei cuss under his breath in Chinese. None of them were wondering how Quatre had known exactly where Heero was; they were too shocked.
"Heero…" Duo gasped as he saw his love spread out on the table. Blood mostly congealed on the floor, cuts that were trying to scab over all over the parts of his body that his ripped pants didn't cover, blistering burns, bruises, needle marks….
He took a faltering step forward, then ran to Heero's side, "HEERO!" he screamed as he reached Heero's side, noticing that he was hardly breathing and his skin was so pale that it held a slight grayish tint.
Heero's eyes snapped open, then he tensed in pain.
Smoothing over Heero's hair, Duo cried out in joy, "Heero!" when he saw his eyes open.
"D-D…ou…?" he rasped out, and then passed out, shattering Duo's joy, replacing the joy with dread and worry.
***
[1]: I know nothing of military ranks or anything like that…so I doubt I'm using the right rank or whatever for him, oh well.
[2]: My sister helped me come up with that name. I like it a lot when it's said, it's said, "Fear-sun"… Don't ask why we came up with it or how, but I like it.
AN: This chapter is for Holly, she helped me a lot with that first-person bit that I have in there and she's a great and dear friend to me.
Wow…this chapter is about two and a half pages just chapter content. It's the longest chapter of "SL" so far, I think.
In result of the poll I took for ten days, I'm going to be keeping up with the shorter chapters with the (hopefully) short spaces between updates. So, you can expect me to keep doing things as I have been.
THANK YOU to Jade Crescent; PATTY 40; Bunch-o-Nuts; Duo-js; fukushuu, Fragile Reflection; Alana Quinn (Gohans-girl); Yin's dragon, Yang's soul; Angel Of Reincarnation; Reaper02Angel; and Lord Havok's Minion for reviewing and brightening my day. I write partly for myself, and partly for all of you.
Until next time…
Ja`ne