More evil laughter...

Part 9 of ?

Quatre wanted desperately to look away. He didn't want this to be his last memories of one of his best friends. He knew if he watched Death take the braided pilot, he would see it in nightmares for the rest of his life. But the apparition held his gaze like a cobra's hypnotizing stare.

Therefore, he was the only one to see as Death reached towards the comatose boy. He watched in horror as the bony white hand stretched to ryve the life from the youth and the laughter from a group of far too solemn pilots. His mouth dropped open in total disbelief as the hand stopped.

Under the hood, Death's face was a rictus of shock. Less than half an inch from the boy's flesh a bronze hand had flashed out and grabbed his, stopping him in his tracks.

"You dare, mortal?" the spectre's voice seemed to be both a whisper and a shout, heard by both the ears and the minds of everyone in the room as he became visible. Heero had his gun in his hand in half a breath, but even he doubted it would do any good with this foe.

"Yes, I do," Wufei said calmly, not even looking back at the person he was talking to. "He's not going to die, so just get away from him."

The god of Death growled and yanked his hand away. He still wasn't sure how the boy had managed to grab him, his touch itself was Death. But he wasn't going to waste anymore time with this mortal who had dared lay a hand on him. Both of the mortals would die.

His scythe was in his hands as he launched a blow at the black haired youth who had tried to stop him, but didn't even deign to look at him. Once more he found himself shocked as the boy ducked under the swing, and caught the pole of the weapon before it could move against the other body in the bed.

"What part of 'He's not going to die', do you not understand?" he growled. Finally he lifted his gaze away from his love and turned to look at the apparition behind him. Dimly he heard his teammates gasp and knew his eyes must be blazing with anger. "This is none of your business and none of your concern. Leave, Thanatos."

"Sh-Shi-Shinigami-sama?"

Wufei spared a glance around and almost smiled. The other three pilots looked as if they were in shock and about to faint. All of the Perfect Soldier's vaunted stoicism and the banged pilot's silent passiveness were blown away by this revelation. His eyes turned back to the god in front of him and all traces of amusement were gone from his face. He raised an eyebrow as he glared. "Are you stil lhere?"

Thanatos drew himself up. "My lord, you can't just cancel a duly fated death."

Wufei glided to his feet like a panther rising to hunt. "Can... I... not?" his voice was quiet but there was a power and command within it, like nothing the other pilots had heard before. It seethed with menace, while still cloaked with a veneer of civility. A voice that warned that there were far worse things than death and he was intimate with them all and wished to pass that knowledge on. All this in three words. Heero, the master of short and to the point, was very impressed.

So was Thanatos, if the way his skin changed was any indication. The bone white couldn't get any paler, but his complexion sallowed and turned almost yellow. He backed away, and disappeared without another word.

Wufei sighed and the tension drained from his body as he turned to his beloved priest, laying so silently on the bed. How could Duo's day of death be changed without his consent? This needed looking into immediately. He also needed to see one of the healer gods about an antidote to the poison Duo had been given. He brushed his lips over the forehead of the other boy, ensuring him a gentle sleep, then stood and turned to the others in the room. Looking at their expressions, he closed his eyes. How, exactly, was he supposed to explain this? Maybe he could put it off for a while?

"He's sleeping peacefully right now, could you watch him until I get back?" he asked, moving quickly to get out of the room before they could gather their wits.

"Hold it!" Heero ordered.

/Knew it was too good to last,/ Wufei sighed to himself even as he turned to look at the other pilot. "Yes, Yuy?"

"Where's Wufei?" he asked shortly, his gun rising.

"I'm right here, Yuy."

"I meant the real one, Shinigami. If that's who you really are," Heero's voice was hard.

Wufei shook his head. "There has never been another, Heero. I'm the same person I've been since the beginning of this war, the same one who has fought beside you for the last year."

"Why?" Quatre asked softly.

Shinigami knew what he was asking and turned once more to the boy on the bed. He smiled slightly before looking back at the blonde. "He has loved Death most of his life, is it truly any surprise that Death loves him back?"

"Why didn't you tell him before now?" Quatre asked.

"You mean that I was Shinigami?"

Quatre shook his head. "I mean that you loved him."

"It would not have been just," Wufei answered simply. Quatre smiled at such a Wufei-like statement. "He can not truly love me until he knows all of me, and saying anything before then would have raised his hopes too high." //And dropped him too far if he had decided he couldn't handle it./ He carefully did not think about what it would do to him if he said it and then found Duo could not love all of him. "And I wasn't allowed to tell him who I was without Kami-sama's consent."

"I still want to know about Chang Wufei," Heero didn't let the conversation distract him.

"What do you want to know Heero Yuy?" Wufei turned to look at him in exasperation. "Chang Wufei is me. The original fifth pilot was supposed to be a girl, Meiran. She died before Operation Meteor took place. I simply put myself in a place where I would be found as a replacement pilot. I needed to get to know Duo and I felt this was the most efficient way to do so."

"So this whole war didn't mean anything to you?" Trowa broke his silence to ask.

"Not at first, no," Wufei agreed easily. "It was just more work. The only good thing about war was that it concentrated the deaths in one place so the collectors didn't have to go looking for the dead. However, once I started knowing not only Duo, but all of you and the others, such as Sally Po even Relena, it became more personal. Not just a matter of Justice and Death."

"That's another thing." Heero didn't seem any happier. "If you are the god of Death, who was that other?"

"Thanatos is the god of Painful Death."

"And you are?"

"I know, I know! You're Justice, aren't you?" Quatre grinned.

A small breaking voice came with a laugh from the patient on the hospital bed. "Death is, after all, the final Justice."