Author's Note:

Holy shit, where is my mind?

Chapter 13

 " FUAAACK!!!" was the scream that send a team of medics, Zechs Merquise and a frowning Trowa running towards a room in which a comatose Quatre had laid in for the past 5 days…until now.

 A slender, darkly clad man was lounging on his elbows, his head against a wall, his legs crossed, on what you could call a cot, only it was a really expensive looking cot…definitely worth more than what, let's say, a military cot would usually cost.

'I think they call this an ottoman or something…'

Yeah… an ottoman of some sort in a vast-more like gigantic attic prison of some sort… with a slanted roof and a large window with a beautiful view somewhere in this labyrinth of a house, smoking a cigarette, a monster was held 'prisoner' until Quatre Winner regained consciousness.

'Which he would do any second now…'

Oh, the pleasure of being nearly omni-potent. When it comes to life or death that is…

He took another drag of his menthol fag, holding the smoke in his lungs, as if he was savoring the fresh, mint, burning sensation then released it in two streams of smoke, from his flared nostrils. Straightening up, he stretched his upper body, his hands reaching up, the dark t-shirt he was wearing rolling up to reveal paper white, milky skin and a rose encrusted cross tattoo. A brutal yawn opened his mouth to reveal four protruding canines, the cause of recent head and mouth aches he had been experiencing since his capture. He extended his cigarette wielding hand towards a small, rickety wooden table that was ages old and shook some ashes in a silver bowl then placed the nearly extinguished stick in his mouth and rested his chin on his fists, his elbows digging in his thighs.

It was a beautiful day, again. Most of the attic was cast in shadows, save a large beam of light streaming through the locked window. The entire room was hundred of feet square, but it had been necessary to fit him in there, since his onyx-colored hair took up almost half the space. There were some chestnut-colored strands framing his face, the only remnant of his previous hair color. His tree-trunk-thick braid lay in a corner, a coiled snake, its tips occasionally fluffing up and sweeping the surprisingly clean wooden floor.

This was the cleanest attic Duo has ever visited, that's for sure.


 "GET this shit off me. GET THIS THE FUCK OFF ME!" A wiry, gaunt man growled repeatedly as he ripped an IV from the back of his left hand and yanked an oxygen mask off his face. Around him two nurses in track suits were attempting to shut off the high pitched noise emitted by the now-disconnected heart monitor and the resident doctor was trying to restrain the frantic patient. In the back of the sunlit bedroom, Trowa and Zechs looked on, not knowing whether to get involved or to stay away from those flaying fists.

"Mr. Winner-PLEASE! Get me something to calm him down-Lydia! GET ME SOME-" He was immediately punched in the face by a very angry ex-Gundam pilot. He flew backwards and landed 10 feet from the bed.

"I am your employer, if you stick another needle in my body I swear to ALLAH you would lose your job." Quatre said to the surprised RNs, his chest heaving. He looked like shit. There were dark circles under his eyes, his lips were dry and cracked and his thick hair was unusually flat, dry and matted to one side of his head. He looked malnourished and his skin had an unhealthy gray tone to it.

"Where is he?" He whispered, staring at nothing. Then jerking, he lifted his pajama top to observe his stomach, where a thick bandage was placed near his pelvic bone. "What happened here?"

The doctor spoke from the floor, sitting on his ass, where he had landed after being socked. "We don't know exactly how you acquired that wound, Sir; it would seem something applied a strong vacuum to the inside of your stomach, creating some internal injuries..."

"He tried to eat me…that bastard tried to EAT ME-"

"What are you talking about?" Trowa asked, finally daring a few steps in the room.

"Duo, in my head, his…he tried to suck my insides out! And he killed me! He killed-where is he?"

Trowa snapped. "You decided to leave me and go chasing Duo across the universe and it got you killed. So your ass better stay glued to that bed until you stop looking like death warmed over. Do you understand?"

Quatre looked defiant for a second then collapsed back onto the bed.

Merquise just shook his head and left.


While he was no where near alone, no one from Quatre's party had bothered coming up to his attic prison, except an older man. Marcus Labelle, that's the name he had given. It seems only Zechs and himself were aware that Labelle was no longer of the living…Zechs having seen, with his own eyes, the man poison himself and die a horrible death, and Duo, well…having been able to smell the underlying rot and decay wafting around his gaunt form from a mile away.

Still to this day no one really knows how he had been able to get past Quatre's impenetrable security system, as he had just appeared out of a corner and had damn well nearly been shot, as Zechs and a large troop of security servants were heading towards the pool in a full run, that ill-fated afternoon.

Zechs had at that point damn near been ready to make him eat his gun, but he then remembered something he had read on the man's file: apparently he had been quite involved in the occult during his youth. Marcus Labelle at that point spoke in a European accent: "I tried to prevent zis from happening-" Weapons were at that point shoved, from all sides, in his face. He showed no signs of panic but raised his voice. "I TRIED TO PREVENT, mister Marquise but no one would let me!" He was dressed in a priest outfit, his white collar, and his entire outfit stained with grass and dirt. His face was dirty and in his hand he held a large volume that appeared to be ages old. At his waist was a large pouch.

"Do you have any knowledge on what is happening to Duo Maxwell, and whether it is connected to your organization?"

"It is so easy for ze military to peg us as terrorists. For so long zis 'military' has been involved with the tactile maneuvering of the World they have forgotten that zere exist a life before and after zis one."

Zechs frowned but listened on. He remember the strenuous, long interrogation, in which Labelle had revealed that the whole time he was undercover in Quatre Winner's staff he had been spying on Duo, waiting for signs of a certain 'awakening' that he had to prevent at all cost. Labelle suddenly became agitated.

"Have none of you realized zis yet? He is Yama! Morrigan! Freya! Thanatos! He is de God of Death incarnation! He has come to end existence! Did you smell it yet? Did you, Monsieur Merquise?"

No one could now ignore the stench of sulfur that seemed to spread for miles.

"Do you know what you have brought on with you ignorance! You have doomed us all."


The Security guards speculate it was perhaps because the man had once worked for Winner, and had been arrested under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against L2's Prime minister, Duo Maxwell, that he had been able to get on the Winner property but only Duo knew how he had been able to get past all that security…also…no one seemed to have been aware of the fact that Mister Labelle had been a necromancer. Or they would have taken him as far away from Duo as possible.

"Stupid humans!"

Duo got up from his post and swayed toward the doors at the far left of the room, his hips moving the bits of a normally inaudible beat. The place were he has been laying for the past five day, and not getting any sleep, which he no longer seemed to need, was opposite the large window, a little offset to the left, where the bright sun rays seemed unable to reach it. The rectangular room was bare of any other furniture than the faded pink ottoman and that small table. But it seemed so crowded and noisy now, what with the countless spirits crawling about. He had been sitting there for hours watching a man plead for his life as he was ripped apart, repeatedly, by dog-sized crows. It was entertaining for the first hour, but it had gotten tedious after a while. On top of that, there was no blood. That quickly takes the fun out of things. The Duo-side of him was so excited by all these new sights, but Shinigami has been doing this for eons. The room was teeming with faces, some deformed, some of mind-bending beauty, but all dead.

Though, being able to conjure up your own jazz-house band at will was a pleasure he would never, ever get over. The loud electronic music seemed to have all the spirits in a good mood, making some fly over and out of the room; others added their voices to the instruments, all making the most beautiful music Duo had ever heard. The wonder of it had had him weeping for hours a couple of days before, when he had realized he had the power to make such a thing happen.

His hair trailed behind him from the far right side of the room, flayed and twisted by an invisible wind, seemingly weightless. His black shirt also seemed to float, never really making contact with his skin, around his form, his linen trousers trailing on the wooden floor.

"Marcus…m a r c u s . . . your chanting is so useless…"

He flattened his body against one door, closed his eyes and with an exaggerated expression, stroked the space between the doors, as he would a lover, his breath catching between each deadbolt, his breath pushing out oh so slowly.

"Oh, Marcus! Marcy poo, why are you so retarded?"

A muffled voice replied behind the doors. "Do not call me that. Please."

"Why? Because only your mother called yah that? She's in the room with me. Do you want to see her?"

One bolt unlocked itself, a sharp sound in the otherwise quiet room.

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me.

"Your beloved mother here wants to know why her only son hasn't crossed over yet."

Aqua lateris Christi, lava me
Passio Christi, conforta me

The second bolt went, quieter than the previous one.

"She wants to know how long you're gonna keep jumping around, until you decompose to the point of dismemberment? Now what am I supposed to tell her, Marky? It's my job to make sure you stay dead when you're supposed to."

The last bolt yielded, and the left doorknob twisted itself. With a small squeak, it flew open.

"But you're not supposed to rest yet, are you? And you're not sitting there by your own power, are you?"

O bone Jesu, exaudi me
Intra tua vulnera absconde me
Ne permittas me separari a te
Ab hote maligno defende me

Beyond the door there was a hallway as wide as that room was, and at the end of that hallway was a flight of stairs. On the right a row of windows, each letting in a large amount of sunlight, not that Duo minded the sun… no, he just happened to prefer a shadow, that's all.

As soon as the thought left his mind, the hallway dimmed as if filters had been applied to the window. But it wasn't filters, just spirits cramming themselves around the window frames, fairly blocking some rays.

Ten feet from him a man was sitting in a circle made out of a pink powder. The same powder was used to draw a line about halfway from where Duo stood at the doorframe, and Marcus Labelle.

In hora mortis meae voca me,
Et jube venire ad te

"Is this thing supposed to keep me in?" Duo smirked, pointing at the chalky line.


Ut cuem sanctis tuis laudem te
In saecula saeculorum.
Amen

The man finished his prayer, and stood with his back still facing Duo. "Actually, yes it is, seeing that iz was made by grinding the bones of your mother's pelvis."

The smirk quickly disappeared off Duo's face, replaced by fury.

The hallway went black.

Then slowly light seeped back in.

"Ah! Ah ah! You almost made me lose it there! You see, I was told I have no mother. But seeing that you are in possession of such a thing, either Shinigami is weaker than he told me he was to let sucha thing fall in your hands, or he gave it to you. Now where would a low-grade occultist like you get the power to resuscitate himself, not with the help of any one, himself, after death?"

Marcus gave no response, made no movement. The smirk reappeared on Duo's face.

"You're my baby sitter, aren't yah?"

"The one you refer to as 'Shinigami' gave me the task of making sure you do not abuse your powers too soon."

"From what I've heard when you were alive you were trying to have me killed. You're a two-faced fuck, aren't yah? The others probably think you're on their side to, don't they? Stupid humans."

"He was aware of your cocky nature, and I am to make sure you do not do anything foolish while you become aware of your powers."

"I order you to turn around and not move, and to shut the fuck up, Marcus." Marcus pivoted on one foot, so fast, that he lost balanced, tottered a bit then steadied himself. He was a man in his late forties, with a large forehead and receding hairline. His eyes were sunken in, his nose had been broken more than once, and his lips non existent. He still could pass for alive, despite looking a bit discolored.

Duo's lip curled in distaste. Then he gave Marcus a bright smile.

"Hey Marcus, your mom is hot."

On cue, a short, naked woman appeared in the doorframe. Her skin was milky, her bosom was large, her waist small, her hips large, her thighs strong. She was gorgeous, with an oval face, short red hair that framed her face, plum, round lips and didn't look a day more than 25. However, her gaze was empty. In the place of her eyes laid a void, a darkness that seemed to have no bounds. The light shone through her, as if her particles had yet to correctly meld but as soon as Duo placed a hand on her she seemed to solidify.

He placed a finger on the back of her neck and led her out of the doorframe to face him where he was leaning, against the door on the right that was still closed. He then jerked her around to face her son. She was about Duo's height.

"Marcus…" She whispered, and gasped as Duo inserted a finger inside of her, from the back.

"She is a beauty! How did something as ugly as you come out of this?" He roughly inserted another finger, making her moan. He grabbed her hair and pulled her towards him, making her arch her back. "Lilies, she smells like lilies. That was her name, wasn't it?"

Marcus eyes had widened to the point of ridicule, but he didn't say a word, and watched as Duo held his mother tight with one arm hooking hers, and the other unbuttoning his pants. " Watch carefully", he said, as he placed himself inside of her and started pounding into her, making her large breast bounce up and down, her moans intensifying by each thrust. He was unable to turn away as Duo's face contorted after a while, in ecstasy as he ejaculated inside his mother and pushed her away from him.

She landed on her knees, and fell on her face, her ass in the air, trembling.

Duo's chest was heaving, his penis still erect, glistening as it pointed towards his body. He smirked. "Well it seems you and I have at least one thing in common. Our mothers were whores. But at least yours loved you, didn't you, Lily? You can turn away now, Marcy poo."

Marcus did, his shoulders trembling.

His eyes stayed on the circle he had traced around himself. Behind him, Duo grabbed Lily's hair and yanked her face from the floor.

"Come now Lily, we've got some more fucking to do."

Lily moaned as she was dragged by the hair back into the room. The door closed itself.

Then it reopened . Duo's head poked through.

"You know where the rest of my mother's bones are?"

"Yes."

"We're leaving to visit them tomorrow."