Scarlet Love
Chapter Eighteen:
The Blood That Flows
By: NightChild
***
As the dust in the air cleared, it was deathly silent; so silent that it seemed the blast had killed everyone present in the L-shaped hallway. That was until Phearsun's voice rang out through the still-dusty air. "Clever, very clever, but not clever enough, I'm afraid." His tone was condescending, cruel, but it changed with his next words, turning to icy, deadly. "Send pilot zero-two out, or you'll be getting that grenade back, three-fold."
Duo's head snapped up at the words spoken, he had been looking at Heero still, hoping desperately he would be okay. 'Three-fold…?' That would probably kill them all, they wouldn't be able to move fast enough to duck into any alcoves and drag Heero at the same time. Despondently, he slowly started to stand from his sitting position by the wall, violet eyes dull. It was Heero's only hope; he had to surrender to Phearsun. He took a faltering step, sealing his fate, that he would die slowly, tortured… But he was doing it for Heero, Quatre, Wufei, Trowa…so, in some twisted way, it was okay. Another step, then another, another, and suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed his forearm.
"Duo! What are you doing?" came Quatre's voice, the hand on Duo's arm tightening. So, it was Quatre holding onto his arm, then.
"I have to, Quatre…" he took a deep breath to keep his voice from trembling, but failed to keep the tremble from it. "T-Tell Heero that I love him." With those words, he felt tears stinging his eyes, knowing that he'd never know Heero's response to that, if he felt the same way for him or not. He shook Quatre's hand off of his arm, setting his mind with a cold determination of a man condemned, and took another step, walking with hesitant, faltering steps, but pushing himself to walk down the hall.
"No! Don't do it, Duo!" he heard Quatre's voice call out, the pain, loss in it almost making him turn around, but he didn't. This was something that he had to do. He knew that if he didn't, the others would die along with him, and he couldn't stand that.
Not turning even his head, he called back, voice dull, numb, "I have to." With that, he took the rest of the steps that led him to the other section of the L-shaped corridor. Dull eyes looked to Phearsun, the smile on his thin features was perverse in the way it was twisted with sadistic glee.
"Ah, so the 'hero' sacrifices himself for the common good." Came the mocking voice from the man that stood be fore Duo, the face twisting more with sadistic glee.
***
I was in that wonderfully dark, oblivious place again. Maybe they had succeeded in killing me this time. It wouldn't surprise me, after all, there's only so much that I can take before it would kill me. Only so much blood I could lose, pain I could endure….
I'll miss Duo…. Wait. Was that his voice? "T-Tell Heero that I love him." That's surely his voice. He…loves me? I would have blinked out of pure shock, then smiled if I had a body to do so with. He loves me. I love him.
That was Quatre's voice, I think, but I wasn't really sure. He worries too much. Poor Trowa and Quatre… This whole mess will probably effect their happy life together in some way.
I know that voice… "Ah, so the 'hero' sacrifices himself for the common good." That's the voice of that sick, sadistic bastard that's in charge of Neo Romefeller Foundation.
***
"No! Duo!" Heero yelled as his Persian-blue eyes snapped open and he bolted up from his sprawled position by the wall. Frantic eyes scanned the corridor, searching for the long, braided, brown haired, violet-eyed owner of the name that had been yelled. Upon fining said person missing, Heero forced his badly bruised, cut, and otherwise battered body to stand, a hand going to the wall for a brief moment to steady him.
"Yuy, what are you doing?" Wufei asked as he watched Yuy stand up and lean on the wall.
Heero ignored Wufei, instead glancing at Trowa. "I need a gun." He said simply, glancing to the corner where he knew Duo was just beyond. Saving Duo came first, he, himself, came later.
Trowa glanced at Heero, taking his eyes off of the corner for a moment, gauging his physical condition. Not too good still, but he should be able to take Phearsun out. With a nod, he tossed a semi-automatic at Heero, knowing the ex-pilot would catch the gun out of reflex, and being right.
Checking the gun to make sure it had a full clip in it, Heero took a step forward, limping slightly, and then pushing the pain in his leg from his mind. Pain was not important; saving Duo was. With that, he quickly broke out into a run, ignoring Wufei's cuss in Chinese, the calling of his name from Quatre and Trowa, ignoring everything. 'Must save Duo.' Were his only thoughts as he ran, turning the corner and holding the gun in front of him, only to come to a dead stop at the sight that greeted him, his arm falling back to his side.
Duo's head snapped around when he heard the echo of Heero's voice. 'He's awake…he'll be okay now.' He thought dismally, head still turned toward the other section of the hallway. When a rough, large, strong hand grabbed him and pulled him flush against a tall, lean body, Duo jumped, eyes going wide while he tried to pull away, only to have a knife pressed to his throat, and a gun pressed to his back.
Phearsun had watched pilot zero-two turn, he knew that pilot zero-one would come for zero-two, and he needed to have some form of protection. Quickly, he whipped out a gun from his pants, and a short knife from the cuff of his sleeve. Silently, moving so fast it was almost inhuman, he grabbed Duo, pulling him close, knife going to the young throat when the pilot started to struggle, gun going to press into his back. "Don't move." He warned as he sneered at Heero, who now stood just beyond the other section of the hallway.
Staring at the sight of Duo being held like that with a knife to his throat, Heero lost it, and charged with a strange, somewhat strangled yell, the hand with the gun in it coming up, sights lining up for a head-shot on Phearsun. If he had seen the gun, had a different angle, he would have done things differently, but he didn't and what he was doing seemed to be the best course of action.
"Heero!" Duo and Quatre yelled at the same time.
Quatre had by that time come around the corner, with Wufei and Trowa; armed as best they could, ready to lend help. But the blond had seen the flash of chrome that was the gun, and knew that it was pressed to Duo's back, then did the only thing he could, yell in warning.
Duo knew about the gun as the muzzle was pressed to his back, and had yelled out to warn Heero, knowing that somehow, Phearsun could manage to shoot the charging ex-pilot.
Turning his head toward Quatre to see why he had yelled, Heero never saw the gun whip out from behind Duo, never had the time to dodge it when the trigger was squeezed…
BANG!
Blinking, Heero stumbled to a stop, looking down at his chest. He watched in bemused horror as his dark blood flowed from the wound, nearly gushing, and he stumbled to his knees, gasping. Wide, dulling eyes stared at Duo, whose throat was slightly trickling blood because of his struggles to get free.
"HEERO!" four voices cried out in unison, a violet-eyed ex-pilot struggling in the grip of an insane military commander; a aqua-eyed ex-pilot having to be held back by his green-eyed love as tears flowed from his eyes, knowing what was going to happen; and an onyx-eyed ex-pilot cursing the unwanted tears that came to his eyes.
Mouth opened, snapped shut, then opened again, but finally the choked, pained words were said. "I…love you, too…Duo." Heero said, the last of it coming out in a gasp as his eyes rolled back in his head, body going limp and falling forward into a puddle of his own blood. His chest rose and fell once more, before it became completely still, he became completely still.
"NO! HEERO!" Duo yelled, somehow throwing Phearsun's grip away, and he ran, trying to reach Heero's fallen form.
Phearsun raised the run, aimed and fired at the back of Duo's head.
BANG!
Duo never had a chance to dodge as his back was to Phearsun, and he wasn't able to see. He went down instantly, eyes wide, staring, unseeing. Blood pooled around him, creating a wide, shallow puddle of scarlet.
"HEERO! DUO!" Quatre yelled, trying to push away from Trowa to go to the now obviously dead, fallen ex-pilot's side, with the desperate delusion that they could somehow possibly be alive.
"Quatre!" Trowa called out frantically, trying to keep his hold on the struggling blond. "I-It's too late, Quatre." He said softly, pulling Quatre to him as he began to sob. Tears worked their way to his own emerald eyes, slowly falling down his face as he held his crying love.
Wufei watched in horror as Yuy, then Maxwell went down, shot, dead. At hearing Winner's desperate, distressed calls, he decided that he had to get Winner and Barton out of the base and the only way to do so was to… Nodding to himself, he steeled his mind, quickly darting over to Barton, ripping the bag with the grenades from his shoulder, grabbing one, pulling the pin, and running straight for Phearsun. This was the right thing to do. This way, at least two of them would make it out alive.
"Wufei! What are you doing?!" yelled Quatre as he saw Wufei charge toward Phearsun, the grenade that was going to explode soon held tightly in his hand.
"Get back Winner, Barton!" called back Wufei as he continued to run at Phearsun. This had to be done. He knew that Barton would have figured it out by now and would have got Winner to safety.
Grinning with a sick sort of satisfaction as he eyed the corpses on the floor, the scarlet blood staining the whiteness of it, Phearsun failed to notice pilot zero-five hurtling toward him until it was too late and he had been tackled to the floor with the pilot on top of him. He stared with wide, terrified eyes as he realized what the pilot planned to do.
'I'm coming, Nataku.' Thought Wufei, his eyes closed, as the grenade went off with a flash of light and a deafening explosion, and he thought no more.
***
An older, but still young, Quatre stood in front of three gray, tall headstones. "It's been seven years today, Wufei, Heero, Duo. I hope that you somehow found peace after the hell we all went through." He whispered to the silent grave markers, eyes closed, a tear falling down his cheek and another fell. "Trowa and I are still together." His voice was worn, strained with tears. "Today's the last day I'll be coming back. I hope you all understand… I have to move on now, and accept that you're all gone…" his voice broke with a strangled, half-sob, but he continued, forcing the words out. "I'll never forget you all, you'll always be in my thoughts and dreams. Someday, I'm sure we'll meet again. Goodbye." With that said, he quickly turned, and walked away from the graves.
A shadow detangled itself from a tree near by and followed Quatre. "You did well, chibi tenshi [1]." Came a voice that sounded much like Trowa's, only deeper, slightly older with time. The owner of the voice wasn't sure why he still used Japanese after seven years, but he supposed that it was a strange way to honor Heero's memory.
Quatre stopped and turned, a watery smile on his face as he flung himself at the man. "Oh Trowa, I miss them so much still." He said as he started to sob into the man's--now known as to be Trowa--shirt.
"I know." Trowa said softly, as he held the shaking form of Quatre. "But it's like you said, we will meet them again." With that, he gently kissed Quatre's blond hair. "It's going to rain soon, let's go home."
Nodding, Quatre released Trowa and took his hand in his own smaller, paler one. They both took a step at the same time, walking away from the gravesite and toward a new future. Toward the time all of the gundam pilots would meet up again. Toward happiness.
***
[1]: I believe that should mean "small angel" in Japanese, but if I have that wrong, someone please tell me.
AN: Yes, it is finished. *Authoress ducks flying objects of various kinds* I know, I know…probably most of you hate me for that ending, but it had to be done. There was no way total waff, fluff, or sap would have worked for this story, it would have completely killed the rest of the story because of how dark it is. But at least I made it so Trowa and Quatre can be happy, ne?
Anyway, this chapter is for Angel of Reincarnation, Holl-chan (Berrful Hunter) and Ryll-chan (Emilie Grant), for their help on writing this and support.
THANK YOU to Marilyn, My Bitterness; Kira R. Chan; PATTY 40; Alana Quinn; kris; Freefall; Kurai Kaiba; and Shinigami's Forlorn Angel for reviewing, most of them throughout the whole fic, and giving me threats, encouragements, and praise.
NightChild