Hi!
Wow, thank you all for the reviews! I love love Love LOVE reviews!
Yeah, sorry for the long times between updates, but I had AP exams at my school and I had to take two of them. But now I should have more time.
And, oh look! Is that moonpixi I see with a whip standing over there?
Disclaimer: I decided to pull my couch apart in my desperate attempt to find the rights to owning Gundam Wing. They were, unfortunately, not there.
Yeah… so enjoy!
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Guardian
Cold.
Dark.
Nothing.
Then –
Thousands of stars!
The place between worlds.
A twist of mind –
Look for the one, grab it –
Hold.
Then pull –
What?
Who watches?
Anger!
Who da-/Duo/
Pull!
Light…
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"Duo!"
Duo opened his eyes, finding himself lying on the ground, which was very black and shiny. Heero was kneeling on one knee next to him, touching his shoulder with one hand. He looked like he was having trouble deciding whether to be worried for or angry at Duo.
"Ow…" Duo muttered, pushing himself up to a semi-sitting position.
"What was that?" Heero hissed. Anger seemed to be winning over worry.
Duo tried to think around the pounding in his head. "What was what?" he asked, confused.
" 'What was what?' What was that! You almost got Lost! Do you realize how very dead you would have been had you stayed in Limbo (1) any longer?" Heero hissed again at Duo, for once pretty much loosing his mostly calm demeanor.
"Umm… no?"
"Duo." Heero's voice went deathly calm. "What could have possibly possessed you to stay in Limbo that long?"
"I don't remember." The world was starting to spin. "Ask me again in a few days." Duo moaned, shutting his eyes and laying back down.
Heero gave a disgusted sigh. "Headache? Serves you right for doing something so incredibly stupid. I know the first thing they tell you in regards to Limbo is to not stay in for longer than you have to. Duo no baka."
Heero jumped up on a 10-foot rock jutting out of the ground. For a few minutes, there was silence.
"Where are we?" Duo moaned from where he lay.
Heero spared Duo a glare from his vantage point. "Milish. If you bothered to look around, you would see that the whole planet is made of this shiny black rock. Most of it is flat, but little 'groves' of boulders and rocks such as what we are in are sprinkled all over the place. Crushing the rocks makes what little soil there is, but it is a long and expensive process to make the soil, though it is extremely fertile. Water is drawn up by wells from under ground –"
"Please Heero, not right now." Duo cut in, pleading. "My head is killing me."
"Gee, I wonder why." Heero snorted.
"Please, just – not right now." Duo whimpered.
"Hn."
Another silence took over. Heero suddenly took his eyes off the landscape and looked at Duo.
"Duo. Do you know what our true purpose is?"
"Heero –"
"Now."
"…"
"Do you know why we are called Guardians?"
"Because we guard. I don't know, Heero."
Heero sighed. "Demons, Duo. Our true purpose is to protect others from demons. If there are no demons, then there are rules that keep us from interfering in the affairs of the inhabitants of the worlds. You must remember that no matter how bad things are, we must only use our powers to keep the demons in line."
"Mhm…"
"Duo?"
"…"
Heero sighed. Sleep would probably be good for Duo, but still. Duo needed to know.
He looked back out over the barren landscape. Far, far to the west he could just barely make out the lights of a settlement. Hopefully, help would come soon – preferably before night came. Nights were not pleasant things on Milish.
He looked back at Duo, who was out cold. He would probably be like that for the next day or so while he recovered his strength. That was the problem with Limbo. It drained your strength until you had nothing left.
Heero looked around. No one was coming. He jumped into Limbo.
Nothing.
Cold.
Stars.
But… still nothing.
He jumped back out.
He could, of course, sense them. But they were no longer active, and lay "sleeping" in Limbo. They had died a long time ago. A full circle of Guardians had decided not to die by Final Strike, but to defy Fate and to fade into oblivion by going into Limbo and simply not coming out. Only the High King or Queen could sense them, what little bits of them that remained still in Limbo. But they were inactive, dormant, "sleeping", dead. Duo could not have been so distracted by what he did not sense.
So what had caused him to stay?
Heero sighed again. It was a question that required Duo, and currently Duo was un-accessible.
In a way.
Heero used a touch of water magic to change their clothing to things more commonly found on Milish. It would do them no good to be found in clothing that screamed "foreigner". He might as well wear a big sign that said "shoot me now", as the clothing on Milish was pretty much the same everywhere, and what they had been wearing was in no way shape or form anything like the very simple, plain clothing that the people of the world wore.
Again, he scanned the horizon. The lights were still there, and he judged dusk to be a good hour away still. The thought struck Heero that it would probably be very bad for Duo to suffer through a night on Milish in his weakened state.
Figures. I put all that emphasis on gathering strength, and Duo manages to use it before we even get here.
Still, having said that, Milish's nights dropped to temperatures well below freezing and the wind was almost sharp enough to cut. The little "grove" they were in would provide some cover, but would it be enough? Heero's Element would automatically keep him warm enough, and Duo's would protect him from the wind, but they could not share those innate defenses.
The chance that Duo's going to come out of this sick is about 87.3, due to the severe drop in strength because of Limbo and the night were are about to have.
Heero blinked at himself.
Damn, I thought I had stopped thinking in percents.
Again Heero scanned the horizon, holding out some hope that someone would come before night swept in. However, with only an hour to go, he knew it wasn't likely. And he didn't dare take them out of the shelter of the rocks. That would be suicide.
So he waited.
And waited.
With about 15 minutes left to go till dusk, Heero gave up. He jumped down and placed Duo in the shelter of two of the largest rocks before settling down near him.
/ Vir, if you're listening, you'd better do something really nice for him. You know, in payment for all the dreams you sent. Maybe by keeping him unconscious through this, because it won't be pleasant for him if he wakes up. /
He could have sworn he heard something like… like… well, something. But with Virginia it could be really hard to tell, considering she had become part of the Ether about 1000 years ago.
He'd just have to wait and see.
Because frankly, he knew personally what these nights could be like, and he was going to be busy trying to keep the pain of the winds at bay. If Duo woke up, he didn't want to listen to the former pilot as he tried to keep from freezing to death.
Night fell like an axe.
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Poor dears. J
Stuck all by themselves on Milish. L
It's not impossible to survive the night. F
No, just close to it. B
They have their defenses. R
One, protection against Wind. B
The other, protection against Cold. D
Both Elements run rampant in the night. G
They cannot each protect against both. COne will freeze while the other is cut to shreds. L
He called to Her for protection. R
They will survive. F
It would do well for the rest of you to remember that they are still Guardians, no matter what else. Silence, all of you. They do not need your help. Let me rest, if you do not wish to. M
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About 12 hours later, Heero was mentally and physically exhausted. Duo had – thank whatever deity was watching over them – not woken up during the night. And they were both still breathing. Always a positive.
However, from what he could sense from Duo, his partner's temperature had gone up, and he had not stopped shaking from cold when the morning came.
Great.
He sensed a slight resentment from something, and a sense of waiting for something –
/ Thank you, Lady. /
Something like appeasement came back, and Her presence faded completely. Heero was struck by the notion that if a Shinigami found him with Duo like this, he was going to have to talk very, very fast.
Heero tiredly climbed back up the rock. This was not how he had wanted to spend his first night here.
Actually, it had not been as bad as last time. Perhaps being in close proximity to each other had helped them a little?
What is that?It looked like people from the settlement he had seen last night were coming their way. That was good. He glanced back down at Duo, who was still unconscious on the ground.
He waved tiredly at the group, and was pleased when he got a wave in return. The group also seemed to quicken its pace.
Heero jumped down off the rock, landing a little clumsily. I must be more tired than I thought. He settled himself next to Duo to wait, judging them to be about 15 minutes away.
I'm very good at that, he thought tiredly when, about 15 minutes later, voices calling out hailed him.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
Thank you. "We are here." Heero stated, standing up. Slowly.
A man dressed in practically the same white/gray clothing Heero and Duo wore appeared around a rock. He had black, black hair and emerald/gold eyes. He looked slightly worried.
"Did you both spend the night here?" The man asked.
Heero nodded. "We were caught without shelter, as my friend here was not well. I fear that his condition has only grown worse thanks to the night." He said, indicating Duo on the ground.
The man's eyes widened, and he looked back over his shoulder. "Fey, I've got one sick and one injured." He turned back to Heero. "My name is Kel."
Heero blinked, before realizing that the wind had cut him up, and pretty badly, too. Wind that does physical damage. Lovely. "I am Heero, and my friend is Duo."
A woman appeared out of nowhere, sapphire/silver eyes framed by short blue/black hair. "Oh dear, what is this? Kel, we need to get them back to the settlement."
The man nodded. "I had gathered that. Come on, we need to get the both of you back to a safer place…"
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Cold…
So very cold…
They're watching!
Duo woke up instantly, remembering nothing but a feeling of discomfort and of being very, very cold.
But it was little more than a memory of being cold. He could feel without opening his eyes that he was tightly wrapped in heated blankets in a warm, comfortable bed.
He reached out mentally for Heero. / Do I have to get up this time/
He received a rather sleepy reply. / I highly doubt that they'll even let you get up, no matter what I say about it. Now leave me alone. / The feeling of "Heero" cut off.
Heero had not seemed worried, so they were probably safe. Duo opened up his eyes. He was in a very white room, with a large window that showed a city outside. From what he could tell, the whole city was mad out of the white material. He seemed to be about four stories up, with the highest building being about 6 or 7 stories up. Red plants were everywhere, and balconies seemed to be everywhere as well.
Everything in his room was white, except for the two red plants sitting in pots in a corner. He could tell he was probably in a medical facility, as the place had a distinct sterile taste to it and there were several monitors that were above him on the bed.
It was… kind of weird, actually.
But he was very, very warm, and he had a feeling that not all of the feeling of being cold was from that dream. Something in him was saying that to get up now would be on the Bad Idea list.
So he curled up and went back to sleep, hoping for no dreams at all this time.
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1 – If you look up "limbo" on you get 4 definitions. I am using the word in context to the fourth meaning: "An intermediate place or state." It is what the Immortals call the place between worlds.
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Dark Lady