Okay, so, final chapter. it's longer than the last one. I should be studying for my latin intermediate II final on monday or sleeping before work tomorrow at 9am on mother's day, but i'm uploading because I am anxious. Hope you enjoy
Disclaimer: I do not own the gundam pilots or anything from their world, I just solely wrote this story for my own general good. I am not getting paid for it. However, the characters from Heaven, Hell, and the God's Ledge are mine. Rafael is my friend's character that she and I created. No takie without the asking. k? k.
Chapter the Thirty-second
The God of Death returns
"Is he coming around?" Someone knocked on his head with their knuckles.
"Stop that! If he has a concussion, that could make it worse!" Someone else, a female, said. Her voice sounded familiar. Someone, perhaps the familiar female, slapped the skin of someone else; perhaps the male who had previously spoken.
"What's a concussion?"
"How do you not know what a concussion is? Get with this century, Raf."
"Lady Death, I am with this century, but we don't have such things as 'concussions' here on the God's Ledge."
"Well, you could have told me that before hand."
"He's coming around. His head just turned." Ah, a new voice; female as well.
He opened his eyes. Blink blink. Blink blink.
"He's awake!" He turned his head towards the voice. A blue eyed, dark blue haired woman was leaning inches away from his face. Behind her was a woman with black hair and violet colored wings in a dark shimmering blue dress, and off to the left in the corner was a brunette man in a brown robe-like thing.
"Duo?" He turned his head to the blue eyed woman.
"Alex?" His voice sounded the same, "Why are you so close to me?"
Her face screwed up and a very educated "Huh," exited her mouth. "You got whacked on the back of the head by the door. Kaori said she heard energy blasts and she came to investigate." At this, Alex turned and gave the violet haired woman a dirty look.
Kaori threw up her hands, yelling out loud, "I didn't know that he was going to be standing right by the door. I just jumped in."
Alex sighed, "In any case, how's your head doing?"
"My head is fine. I feel like Deathscythe just did a lively tap dance with a polka right afterwards on it."
All three of the other occupants of the room gasped.
Alex leaned in closer. "Did you just say Deathscythe?"
"Yeah…" Duo leaned back as Alex came closer, peering into his face. She turned around to face the brunette and Kaori.
Hop-skipping over to them, she started gesticulating wildly with her arms.
"-eyes are glowing still!-"
"-hair still brilliant-"
"-remembers me?
Randomly she pointed back to the young God who was still laying on the floor. He could hear snitches and snatches of conversation, as the three of them looked over at him at rare moments. Out of nowhere they all stopped. Walking as a group, they came back over and kneeled by the young god who'd sat up Indian style. He looked from one person to the next, finally settling on Alex.
The person who spoke first though wasn't Alex. "Do you remember me?" The brunette pulled Duo's attention towards him.
"Of course I remember you. You're Rafael; my friend and co-conspirator-able to control the elements. I've been friends with you for centuries."
Kaori leaned forward now. "Do you know who you are?
He sighed. Apparently they didn't think that he was who he said he was. "My name is Duo Maxwell. I'm a Gundam Pilot. I pilot Gundam Deathscythe. I've known Alex for about three years now. I'm friends with Heero, Quatre, Wufei, Trowa, Vicky, and all of you. My speed unicorn's name is Misty. I traveled through the Valley of Death with you, Alex, to get my god soul back. My soul itself is over two millenniums old. Have I answered all of your questions, Kaori?"
Rafael smiled and said, "Well, it seems that the knock on the head you gave him, Kaori, helped to un-jumble the mess that was his inner psyche. Congrats, we have Lord Death the Gundam pilot back in our possession."
Alex had sat back on her heels at some point during Duo's speech. Her face was held in an openly shocked position. Without warning, she launched herself at the gundam pilot, locking her arms around his neck and kissing him for all he was worth. When she pulled away from him, she refused to let go of him.
"Apparently, Alex wanted the old Duo back, the one whom she fell for." Kaori said to Rafael.
The brunette god nodded his head, "Apparently so."
Duo looked down at the blue eyed girl by his side. "Alex, I need to eat something. I'm hungry."
"Then we'll go to the cafeteria. I'm sure your friends will be very happy to see you."
The God of Death attempted to stand up, unsuccessfully falling back to the floor with the weight of the goddess at his side. "Love,…I need you to get up with me."
"Oh." she said and together they rose, still locked together at the hip. Alex turned around and said to Kaori and Rafael, "Come with us. We'll all eat together, yes?"
"Of course," the Violet haired goddess replied. She picked up her staff from the floor near the door and lead the way out with Duo and Alex second and Rafael closing the door behind the two deities.
The three walked in considerable silence through the while halls. After passing four different hallways, Duo heard his name being called from behind him and stopped to turn to see who it was. Darien stood with a book in one hand, his blond hair swept to the side, and Victoria right behind him, her gown a golden color matching her hair.
Darien sidled up to the four dieties. "Duo, it's so nice to have you here with us again. After Hearing that Kaori knocked you out-"
"It was an accident! I mean it, Darien!"
"-we're happy to have you back with us."
Duo sighed, "I never left. My past self just casually reinstated himself and Kaori simply knocked the two of us back into being. I'm still me. I still remember everything that happened, granted there are a few things that I'm not sure about."
"Oh?" Darien asked, closing his book, "Like what?"
Duo paused, collecting himself, and beginning to walk again, "Like why I suddenly feel extremely protective over Alex concerning Joseph and why I don't feel hungry for anything but wine and cheese."
"Oh that's easy!" Darien laughed, shaking his head a bit. "In the time before your resurrection, your past self continually had to protect his wife from Cupid. Cupid has had the hots for Alex for centuries; even farther back than her resurrection. And the cheese and wine thing, that's just the norm for gods and goddesses. We all delve into the wine, mead, Elixir of the Gods."
"Damned Elixir…."Alex mumbled.
Just as the six of them moved into the cafeteria, the other four pilots hailed them over to the table they were at. The two groups converged, pulling tables together. As they sat down, Duo turned to Alex.
"So, why exactly is it the 'Damned Elixir'?" He asked, curiously.
"I don't want to say."
"Oh come on."
"No."
"Okay, now I have to know. What's the reason?"
Alex was silent, keeping her eyes focused on the table.
To her right, Kaori chuckled. "She got a little bit too drunk on the Elixir a few years ago. I still have happy memories of our dear Lady Death dancing around the halls of the God's Ledge in nothing but her under garments singing I'm Too Sexy."
The aforementioned goddess gave the water deity a scathing glare who only chuckled again in response.
Her glare was shifted to Darius as he continued the story. "Yeah, I had to chase her around, trying to catch her. Finally, I tackled her to the ground and carried her fireman style back to her room."
Everybody in the group was chuckling as Alex slowly turned the color of a ripe tomato. She made to get up, but Duo caught her around the middle, pulling her back down again.
"Calm down. Everyone has their drunken stories."
"Yeah, like how you sprinted around one of Quatre's mansions, butt naked, screaming that you were Captain Kirk and you were going to save the universe after you finished a bottle of jager." Wufei laughed, "I'll never stop laughing from that. Two in the morning and Duo streaking around the house."
Alex chuckled, "Captain Kirk?"
Immediately Duo got up and started walking away, only to be stopped as his braid was yanked backwards. He turned to glare at the goddess.
"Sit down, Duo. Jeez, speaking of calming down."
"I'm going to get food."
"Fine." She shot him a glorious smile. "Don't get lost in space, Captain."
His parting glare had everyone laughing.
For an hour everybody sat and ate, catching up with each other. The pilots told Duo what he had missed on earth. Vicky told him about her many travels to different dimensions and the people she had met. Alex simply rehashed everything that he already knew about what had happened on the God's Ledge. A few times, while Alex was joking around with everyone, she'd catch the young god staring at her out of the corner of her eye. She never called him out on it, but she knew he was looking at her.
Suddenly, he got up, saying that he wanted to go for a walk around Angelic City. When he was asked, he declined saying that he simply wanted to think about a few things. Everybody shrugged, tossing it up to the fact that he was himself again and not the older God of Death.
After he'd left, the group started breaking up. The pilots needed to head back down to Earth so that they could work out a few things. Maybe they could get Duo a job with the crew that they were all working with. Darien needed to go manage a few personal things and Kaori and Rafael decided they would go spar together, possibly channeling the water elements.
Vicky and Alex decided to go back to Alex's room which was on the far side of the Ledge. They were about halfway there when from behind them, they heard the call, "Goddess!"
They both turned to see Meryl walking towards them. Her white hair was streaked with silver and her animal print dress was now gold instead of bronze.
"Goddess," She said again, "I need to talk to you. It is of the utmost importance."
"Is something wrong?" Vicky asked of the witch.
"No, nothing is wrong, but if it wasn't important I wouldn't have left my home."
The Goddess and the Warrior Woman looked at each other before turning to the witch again.
Meryl motioned Alex into one of the side rooms, leaving Vicky to continue on to the Goddess's room alone. When the witch and the goddess were away from the public eye, Meryl looked at Alex very sternly.
"Now, I know how the Lord Death isn't what you were expecting, but your Duo is still in there. He still lives. However, both your soul and his needs to be together in order for immortality to be intact. Even if the two of you don't marry, you cannot leave him for someone else. It is your destiny to be with him. Am I making myself clear?"
"Crystal."
Meryl sighed, "Good. Now, the reason why I say this is because I realized something very important just the other day. Do you remember when you fell asleep oh so many years ago, before you were the Goddess?"
"I do, indeed, yes."
"Well, the long figure you saw wasn't just any figure. It was yourself-your previous self. Your previous self wandered the earth until her human resurrection had been born. Otherwise, the world would have been thrown into a chaos. There needs to be a God or Goddess of Death at all times, but when Duo died, though your heart was broken and you wanted to follow, you couldn't. So you waited and when finally your human self had been born, you allowed your soul to be free to fly away with your loving husband's until the two of you met again."
"That does make a lot of sense. Then I went to sleep for five hundred years until he was born again as Duo Maxwell."
"Exactly. So, in order that this doesn't happen again, I need you to keep your husband alive. He may be a god, and he may be immortal, but there is always a way to kill someone or something. Can you do that? Can you keep your Beau alive?"
"Of course. I'm not retarded. I can keep him alive."
"Good. Now, I need to return to the Land of the Dead because I despise the God's Ledge. Bunch of power hungry ninnies they are."
"Excuse me! Standing right here!" Alex huffed loudly.
"You are excused, Milady Death. Now, I am off." And saying so, she was out the door as quick as can be.
Alex stood staring after the witch, scratching her head. "What a strange person," she mused.
Shrugging she continued back to her room. As she neared her door, she heard her name again. This time it was Duo calling her. She stopped and waited for him so the two of them could walk together to her room where Vicky was waiting.
"Alex," he said, "I know how everybody has been saying that we can't be apart. That it is bad for our powers, seeing as they are uncontrolled for the most part. I also know how I've enjoyed your company for-what is it? three years now? And just today I realized how much I love to see you smile and laugh. When I was Duelius for a bit, I was akin to his love for you, and I began to realize just how very much I loved you myself."
Alex turned to Duo just before the door, and as she grasped the handle she said with a big smile, "I love you to, Duo."
As she turned the handle, and began to open the door, Duo got down on one knee and took a box out of his pocket. Both Alex's and Vicky's faces registered shock as he asked when the door was wide open, "Then will you marry me and be mine for eternity?"
Vicky was looking at Alex and back to Duo, to the goddess and back to the god. She watched as Alex's jaw worked, as if it were broken, just hanging open.
Duo was staring up at the goddess from the floor, blue diamond ring held out. There was absolute, complete and total silence.
Finally, Vicky looked right at the Goddess and said, "Well, for crying out loud, answer the God!"
"Oh my God. Oh my god.! Yes. Yes! A thousand times yes!" Alex launched herself at the god, toppling him over backwards onto the floor, hugging him and kissing him.
Vicky whooped off to the side, clicking her heels together. "Yeehaw! There is going to be a party tonight!"
ok, i'm very nervous to ask for feedback. This is the last chapter for this story. however, I have ideas for another one and a side story pertaining to Anarhria and Duelias. I'll try to get them started soon, but I dont know when i'll be able to. i'm maxed out for credits for summer and fall, and i'll have a heavy schedule for the spring before hopefully( fingers crossed) graduating. I'm looking into my masters in education as well. So, I'll do my best. and update when I can as well as if i can. until then, I bid you adieu.