Shinigami 2
Disclaimer: I don't own the Gundam Wing Characters so please don't sue me for borrowing them . . . .
He stared idly at the cell door quietly contemplating how best to break free of his confines, the chains on his wrists and ankles rattled whenever he moved and made movement impractical and painful to say the least. The sound of keys rattling outside his cell drew his attention as much as the footsteps did. A shadow blocked the red light that shined into his dismal little confinement.
"You awake now Wufei?" The chiming sound of Duo's voice made him glare at his former friend. "Now, now don't give me that look; I did warn you that you should have never come. I even tried to get you to leave. I guess you should be grateful though, most of your men survived . . . and at least Sally wasn't part of the hunt."
"You bastard!" Wufei cursed making it to his knees before the chains sent him crashing to the floor.
"Yea might wanna ease up there Wufei; those chains can be pretty heavy sometimes." Duo smirked as he bent down to stared at him, "I should know they were once mine." Duo held up his wrists to show the red scars that circled them.
Wufei stared at Duo's wrists in an effort to avoid looking into those piercing eyes that could hold him in their icy grip so easily. This . . . person standing before him was not Duo, could not be the Duo that Wufei had known during the war. This person was different, cold, calculating and sure whereas Duo had always seemed like someone trustworthy with a quick smile and an equally quick wit. Needless to say, he missed that Duo, because that Duo was predictable, the one he faced right now . . . .
"Scared, Wufei?" Duo's voice whispered in his ear. Duo stood taking hold of the chains as he pulled Wufei to his feet. The rattle of chains echoed in Wufei's ears as Duo reached high to lace the chains over a hook protruding from the ceiling of the cell. Wufei grunted as he stood there with his arms suspended above him by that hook. Duo's eyes flashed dangerously as he took hold of Wufei's chin, a flash of silver and the jagged edge of a piece of rusted metal came to a screeching halt right in front of Wufei's left eye. "Want me to show you why they called me Shinigami?"
There was something behind those eyes that Wufei thought he recognized but it was gone before he could remember what it was.Wufei glared up at Duo pulling his chin out of Duo's grasp despite the threat of getting his eye sliced, he brought back his leg and kicked Duo as hard as he could in the balls. Wufei did not even see Duo's hand move but suddenly he was lying flat on the floor with Duo on top of him. Duo's face hovered just inches from his, an arrogant smirk spread across Duo's face as he stared down at Wufei. Duo's hands stretched upwards pulling the chains that bound Wufei's wrists until his hands were stretched out above him.
"Get off me you asshole!" Wufei cursed struggling to throw Duo off him.
"Why should I? You are my prisoner after all, aren't you . . . Wu-chan?" Duo's face moved closer until his forehead rested against Wufei's. "I can do whatever I want with you . . . ."
"Duo . . . get the hell off me!" Wufei cursed again giving one last successful push to throw Duo off him.
Duo chuckled as he got to his feet staring down at Wufei as the Chinese boy rolled onto his feet despite the heavy chains.
"Tense . . . aren't you Wu-chan?" Duo laughed as he stepped aside avoiding Wufei's mad charge foreword with ease. "Or is it that you wanted me to take advantage of you?" Duo stepped backwards out of the cell and shut the door. A loud thud echoed from the other side as Wufei slammed into the door repeatedly cursing for Duo to come back and fight.
"You lied to him, Shinigami." A low voice whispered against his ear and he turned to see Ami standing behind him with a slight smile on her face.
"About what?" He asked innocently as he moved off down the hall.
"About his comrades . . . you know as well as I do that none of them survived the hunt." She replied stepping in beside him. "Giving him false hope won't end his suffering any quicker, you know that."
"Ami, the only reason I tolerate your presence is because Luna trusts you . . . ." Duo rounded her, grabbing hold of her arm and throwing her against the wall. "But betray me . . . and you're in for a world of hurt. I'll make what I did to those men and women look like a mercy killing. Do you understand that?"
"Loud and clear, Shinigami . . . loud and clear." She replied.
"Leave Wufei to me . . . I'll deal with my former comrade as I see fit." Duo growled as he pushed her aside and walked away. He knew without turning that she would follow him, ever since the day he had met the two girls he had felt a strange connection with them and the glass cylinder they protected so fiercely. Luna, the youngest of them all, had managed to escape to the outside world as they had planned but the complications that had happened as a result worried him. Ami would not speak more on the matter but he knew that Luna's escape had something to do with the sudden increase in aggression. Only his history kept the two of them from being next on the menu, after all who would be stupid enough to try and kill a God of Death?
We can't last much longer . . . Luna I hope your doing better on your side then we are over here.
Lady Une felt her knees shake and was certainly glad that she was sitting down. When she had seen Heero walk in with this girl and heard him say that she had a story Une should listen to, this was not what she expected. At first she did not believe a word the girl said, who in their right mind would? After all, everything she said seemed like something out of a fairy tale, there seemed to be nothing logical about her story at all! Luna seemed to have sensed her disbelief because halfway through her story she stopped and glared up at Heero as if to say that she knew this would happen.
"That's a lovely story but if you'll excuse me, I need to find my missing men before anything else goes wrong." Une had replied in irritation, she did not have time to entertain the fantasies of a single child.
"Shinigami told me this would be useless!" Luna had shouted angrily her fists clinched at her sides, "It's senseless to try and explain such things to people who have closed their minds to the possibilities!" Heero had taken hold of Luna's hand to stop her from leaving and looked back at Une.
"Lady Une, you know me. I would not have brought her here if I thought her story to be untrue." Heero replied calmly. Une sighed as she nodded for them to continue remaining silent until Luna had finished, and even then she did not believe the girl. It was not until Heero had . . . demonstrated the truth of Luna's words in a rather drastic move. She had watched as Heero had pulled out a small pocket knife and sliced the blade across the girl's wrist. Une cried out too late for Heero to stop too panic stricken to see that Luna was unharmed and that the wound had closed as soon as the blade had left skin. Luna lifted her arm to show the healed wound as if it obvious, flexing her fingers to show that she had taken no damage.
"Are . . . are the others like you?" Une asked looking up at the child.
"No . . . every one of us is different but extremely powerful. Shinigami is the only other one, the others . . . I don't know about them." Luna shrugged, "Spend five years in a place like that . . . and you'd be dying to get out, literally."
"Then how did you escape?" Une demanded. This girl, and everyone like her were a danger to the peace and she had to take command of this fire before it got out of hand.
"Shinigami let the shield down long enough for me to escape . . . it was dangerous but we were getting desperate." Luna replied easily.
"Who is this Shinigami?" Une frowned she felt like she should remember that name for some reason but just could not place a face to it.
"He always called himself a God of Death on the battlefield . . . hearing her stories I suppose he's finally become one for real." Heero whispered more to himself then to anyone else.
"He was once called another name . . . it has been long since I used it, since anyone used it to be truthful," Luna frowned in thought, "But I think he was once called . . . Duo."
Wufei jerked awake at the sound of keys rattling and pushed himself upright against the wall, ignoring the pain that screamed through his body from sleeping on the cold hard floor with the chains on his wrists and ankles. Twice now blood had seeped through the raw flesh and much of it now stained the floor he lay on. Dark black eyes looked up to meet Duo's hypnotic cobalt blues as he stood over him like the dark apparition he had become. Wufei struggled to stand, unwilling to allow this Duo the chance to see him weak and unguarded. How long he had been in the cell, Wufei could not remember what he could remember was that the keys generally signaled Duo's arrival.
"Let's go." Duo replied grabbing the chains in one hand he pulled Wufei out behind him before the other boy knew what was going on. Wufei struggled to keep up but the half healed wounds on his ankles prevented him from walking very far or very fast for that matter. He did not know how many steps he took outside the cell but he did know that the ground had suddenly rushed up to greet him. Duo stopped looking down at Wufei with those compelling eyes but try as he might, Wufei just could not get his feet to function properly.
"Damn it Wufei." Duo cursed as he bent down and lifted Wufei up into his arms with an angry snarl. "I don't have time for this!" Duo swung around and dropped Wufei onto a cold hard metal table; the chains rattled as Duo unlocked them and let them fall to the ground. Wufei was coherent enough to know that the chains were off and he was free but he could not make his limbs move. Duo 'tsked' over and over again as he rummaged through something behind him pulling out white boxes and other things from some unseen drawer.
"How long do you think he has?" A new voice spoke up from the other side of Wufei but he could not take his eyes off what Duo was doing long enough to see who had spoken.
"Not long, maybe a few hours if the wounds don't bleed too much and if he lives through the first stage." Duo turned back around to face the person on the other side of Wufei, "Don't interrupt me when I'm working Ami, go outside and make sure the others don't get in."
"Can you blame them? He's about the only one left and they want to see what you'll do to him."
"Get out or die, it's your choice." The malice in Duo's voice was not fringed; he really would kill the person if he or she did not do as Duo said. If the other person left or not no longer matter when Duo's eyes turned back on him, that gaze capturing him like a deer caught in the headlights of a car.
"I'd be lying if I told you this wouldn't hurt . . . ." Duo replied as he lifted a syringe filled with a strange dark red liquid. Wufei could not remember what happened when the needle pierced his skin and the liquid hit his blood stream, he could not remember much of anything after Duo had spoken those words. All he could remember was the blinding pain that seared through his body and the rapidly closing darkness that engulfed him a moment later.
The sound of screams echoed in his mind as he shut the cell door behind him, leaning back against the door for some support. When had his plan gone horribly wrong? When had the world become drenched in blood and screams? He could no longer remember when his life had become this living hell, all he could remember was that this was hell and he had somehow become its keeper.