Ayashi no Yuugi II: The Final Sunrise
Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers Apply.
Chapter 8: Immortal Soul, Mortal Heart
Immortals live for such a long time, that despite the company of their brothers and sisters and fellow immortals, they suffer through long years of loneliness. Despite the nightmare and the trials that is immortality, the heart of an immortal is sure and calm. Because of this, when an immortal falls in love, they will love one person, and only that person, and no one else. Therefore, the Creator forbade love between an immortal and a mortal, for such loves are fleeting, and the death of the mortal would sunder the two for all eternity, and thus heighten the pain that surrounds an immortal life…
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Kamui Gaia 07: We have decided on a pairing at long last!
Mitsuki Cosmos: And no, we will not change our minds.
Kamui Gaia 07 and Mitsuki Cosmos: We have decided on a pairing, and that is that! There will be no changing of our minds! The passage above should have already told you that!
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It's dark…
It hurts…
A flash of gold...
Warm blue eyes…
Brown hair…
A single flash of green…
Cold blue eyes…
Clicking of a laptop…
A pale figure performing a kata…
Onyx eyes…
Who are you?
You seem… familiar…
Do I know you?
Why are you so sad?
It hurts...
Help…
Please…
It hurts…
It hurts…
IT HURTS…
IT HURTS!
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March 16, 200 AC; 11:56 AM
Colony L2, Asuka residence
Quatre Raberba Winner woke later that evening to find the link he'd thought had been lost was back in place. Slowly, his hand moved to his chest, resting right over his heart, a slight smile of relief tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Shinn…" he said quietly to the darkened room, "don't you ever scare me like that again, my friend."
As he slipped back into the warm embrace of sleep, he thought he saw a dark figure with a braid extract itself from a shadowed corner of the bedroom, a small smile of amusement on its lips.
He thought he could hear the familiar voice of the Deathscythe Hell pilot's laughter and the mock hurt whisper, "So much faith in me…"
And with a quiet chuckle, the small Arabian slipped away into the warm darkness.
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March 17, 200 AC; 4:49 AM
CSA Sanq Kingdom Headquarters
The battle had ended nearly seven hours ago, when Admirals Alexa Morse and Kayla Mitsuki decimated the enemy troops. There had been few casualties, but it had been enough, especially since the Gundam piloted by CSA Admiral Shinn Asuka, First Class, Type Two Unlimited, was destroyed. They had lost another Heir of the Triad, one who, like the Admirals Arashi Tsukino and Miyuki Tsukishirou, would be next to impossible to replace.
Rescue workers now combed steadily through the wreckage that had been Sector D7, the computer labs of the CSA Base. Here and there, they found the pieces of the defending Gundam, the Descendant LX, which had been piloted by the Admiral Shinn Asuka.
Suddenly, one of the workers gave a shout. Others raced over, and found the impossible, the cockpit of the Descendant LX, still intact, although the console was damaged beyond repair, with the Admiral still strapped inside. There was shard of glass jammed into his shoulder, and in his abdomen. Miraculously, he was still breathing, although in shallow gasps that were beginning to slow. They could hear his breath rattling as he inhaled, evidently his lungs were filling up with fluid.
"We've got to get him to Medical!" a worker yelled as the others rushed forward to free the Admiral from the damaged cockpit.
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March 17, 200 AC; 6:00 AM
Colony L2, Asuka Residence
The pilots were roughly roused from their beds by Wufei's voice that morning.
"Get up! Now!" the Nataku pilot bellowed.
Trowa was jolted awake, and was on his knees beside the bed, a gun in hand, before his eyes had time to focus on the floor. His heart was beating twice as fast compared to a minute ago, and his senses where on high alert.
In the next room, Heero was instantly awake. He grabbed the gun from under his pillow and kicked the door open and launched himself into the hallway, his gun trained at the stairs. Heero's eyes scanned the area, taking in everything at once, analyzing and recording it in his memory with one hundred percent accuracy. Nothing.
Across the hall, Quatre jolted awake, and had his gun in hand as he flung the door open and launched himself out into the hall, dropping onto one knee, training his gun on the window behind Heero. He allowed his senses to wash over the house, seeking out hostile auras and emotions, only to find an irate and thoroughly upset Asian Pilot downstairs.
Downstairs, as if realizing what his bellow may have unconsciously communicated to his fellow pilots, Wufei harrumphed and called up the stairs, "Get down here, now! It's Maxwell, he's hurt, and Sally says that he might not make it, so we'd better leave now if we want to see him while he's alive!"
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April 1, 200 AC; 9:07 PM
CSA Sanq Kingdom Headquarters, Infirmary
Shinn/Duo's POV
At first, there were only voices.
"... too long already."
"... should have been dead." I know that voice… Sally…
"...sure there isn't any brain damage?" Hilde…
Slowly, I rose to the surface of consciousness, listening to the sounds around me. Where am I?
"There was minor damage, but evidently... the scans show somehow... it seems to have repaired itself." Sally, again.
Gradually, I became more aware. I could feel a burning pain with each breath I was forced to take. A breathing tube.
"We'll have to wait and see." Sally.
Slowly, the memories resurfaced…
Battle
Earth
Insufficient reaction time
Burning in abdomen
Gundam destroyed
Console self-destructing
My hands twitched, unconsciously reaching for controls that weren't there.
"He moved." Is that… Heero?
"Muscle spasms." Sally.
Sharp pains in chest
Bubbling during inhalation
Lungs filling with fluid
I'm still…alive?
Impossible…
I furrowed my brows. Something was wrong.
"No." Wufei's voice. "Look, he moved."
I felt fingers on my forehead, gentle fingers.
"He's waking up. Duo? You hear me? Open your eyes, Duo." Trowa?
I choked on the tube. Panicked. It had to come out. Now.
"Calm down, Duo. Relax. You are in medical." Quatre's voice. Fingers continued to lightly stroke my face. "Breathe with the flow. It helps you. Calm down."
I gave up resistance, slowly opening my eyes. I blinked furiously at the light. There was a face above me. Quatre. It took me another minute before I could focus on that face. He looked horrible. He had dark shadows under red-rimmed eyes.
A bright light shone in one of my eyes and I averted my head, annoyed. The gentle fingers on my forehead were snatched away. I frowned. I wanted those fingers back, it had felt... nice.
"Shinn. Look at me." Sally leaned over me. "Do you know where you are?"
I nodded, once.
"Do you remember what happened?"
I nodded, again.
"I'm going to remove the breathing support."
I took a deep breath on my own as the thing came out of me and promptly had a coughing fit. My throat hurt. It hurt to breathe. "Water," I managed, hoarsely. Heero reached over, got me a cup, and held it to my lips. I took a few careful sips and the cool liquid soothed my throat.
"How?" I managed afterwards.
"You were caught from behind," Alexa said.
"No shit," I croaked. "How and why am I still alive?"
"We're not quite sure," Kayla said quietly, "The Descendant LX blew into pieces, and apparently, the blast blew the cockpit out of the Suit. We found it amazingly intact, but for the ruined console and the broken monitors. You were still strapped inside, and had several broken ribs, a broken leg, your left shoulder was dislocated, and there were shards of glass imbedded in your abdomen and your right shoulder, and one of your ribs had punctured a lung, as well as various bruises and cuts, and second degree burns on various parts of your body."
Sally said, "You were flat lining as you arrived in medical. I revived you. But, your brain was without oxygen long enough to cause brain damage."
I looked up at her, alarmed. "What?"
"You should be dead. A babbling idiot, at least." She shook her head, "not that you weren't already," she continued teasingly.
I narrowed my eyes, but chose not to answer the insult, while Sally continued seriously, "I didn't think you'd make it. Under normal circumstances, you'd be comatose; a constant-care patient, depending on life support. But..." she trailed off. "It took your body two weeks to repair the damage, with medical support. You really are hard to kill."
"Two weeks?" That was amazing. To come back from the dead, literally. Then again, as an immortal, I can never die, my mortal form may age, but the body can't die, and even if it did, my immortal soul would merely revive the body, or move on to the Divine Realms to take on a physical form before returning to Earth to finish the mission.
"You always did have the devil's luck," Quatre said lightly, "I guess Death couldn't handle you, eh, Shinn?"
I forced myself to smile. "You look like hell, Qat. Something happen to you too, while I was out?"
He averted his eyes, embarrassed.
"No," Sally said, "the idiot hardly left your side. It took two of your gang to convince him to go to sleep, once in a while. They took turns watching you."
"Oh." I blinked. I should have expected that. This was Quatre we were talking about; of course he would do something like this.
Enough, now." Sally said briskly. "I'd like to take a few tests from our patient, here. Go sleep, all of you." She dismissed them with a wave of her hand. "He'll be fine, now. You can talk later."
Quatre nodded, reluctantly got up from his chair at my bedside and hesitated, his hand reaching out to mine, laying on the sheet. But, before he could touch me, he snatched his hand back, turned abruptly and left the room. The others gave curt nods before following. I stared after them until Sally cleared her throat. I looked up, wide-eyed, and she smirked at me.
"He really was worried, you know?"
"Uh-huh," was all I could manage.
"So, you up for a few tests?"
I groaned.
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(Normal POV)
April 3, 200 AC; 3:09 PM
Colony L2; Asuka Residence
Sally had finally allowed Shinn to leave, and the first thing Shinn had done was arrange for a transfer shuttle home.
Lady Une, being the considerate woman she was, had put the other ex-pilots on the reserve lists so they could spend some quality time with their injured and out of action companion.
The Triad, however, were not so accommodating, and the moment Shinn was cleared for release from Medical, Alexa and Kayla were swept off with a flurry of new missions, while the injured pilot was given papers to push.
At the moment, Wufei was busy practicing his katas in the backyard. Trowa was at a warehouse several miles away, working on his Gundam. And Quatre was in the library, reading. In the meantime, the recently-revived-from-the-dead God of Death, was attempting to teach Heero how to summon a high level paper spell servant, a feat that normally should have been ridiculously easy, considering Heero's current skill and power level. This lesson was, however, made much more difficult by the student's worry of overexerting the teacher.
"Heero, pay attention!" Shinn snapped irritably. "If your concentration falters for even a moment, the results could be disastrous, especially with your amount of power! Stop worrying about me, and worry about getting the spell done right!"
The Japanese pilot sent the braided male an ineffectual glare before closing his eyes and concentrating on the paper spell in front of him.
Half an hour later, Heero FINALLY managed to make the spirit manifest itself. Shinn rubbed his temples tiredly and said, "Very good, now dismiss it, and we'll end the lessons for today."
After three near disastrous attempts to dismiss the Spell Servant, Shinn barked a command and the servant vanished. He then leveled a smoldering glare on the Wing pilot who suppressed the urge to cringe.
Ever since the discovery of the CSA and the disposal of the mask called Duo Maxwell, the pilots had found that the Deathscythe pilot was capable of leveling a glare that could reduce even the Perfect Soldier into a whimpering heap. Then again, only Shinn and Quatre knew that it was the immortal behind the mortal flesh that could intensify the look enough to cow the Perfect Soldier.
"What is the matter with you, Heero?" Shinn demanded. "You don't normally have such problems during the lessons. If you're worried about me overexerting myself, then allow me to remind you that for me, these lessons are more of a mental and magical exercise than a physical one. Keep in mind that with your level of power, one mistake, even a minor one, can have serious consequences, so you have to concentrate on your spell instead of on me! If I feel tired, I will stop the practical lesson, and I will have you study the theory. I've told you all of this once before."
Heero nodded. Shinn sighed and picked up his crutches and rose.
"We'll leave it at that for now. By this time tomorrow, I want you to be able to perform that spell with no mishaps, and we'll start on the Theory for the Spirit Voice. Hopefully, we can start on the next and last lesson, the theory for the spell that your power was shaped for, the Shadow Sacrifice, by the tenth, and end your training on the thirteenth."
As he spoke, the shimmering black lines of the protective bubble around them faded and soaked slowly back into the injured pilot.
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Shinn found Quatre sitting on the window seat in the library, looking out at the small, manmade lake positioned directly under the window. The window was open, allowing the fragrance of the lilies floating in the lake to drift into the room with the breeze.
"There used to be a time, when lilies were buried with the dead, in hopes that the sweet fragrance would be enticing enough that I would lead the spirit safely to the afterlife," Shinn said quietly from the door.
Quatre nodded to show that he had heard, but didn't answer.
"I doubt that the ancient humans never realized how useless that gesture was. So long as they believed, we would exist, and as long as we existed, we would fulfill the duties we were created for." Shinn leaned the crutches against the wall and walked forward to stand directly behind the small blonde. "Even so, the first thing I was aware of at the moment of my creation, was the scent of lilies, and even after all these years, they remain my favorites out of all the flowers offered during the rites of death."
"Then it explains why most of your hair care products are lily scented," Quatre said quietly.
Shinn allowed a small, sad, smile to grace his lips. "You've been unusually quiet lately, Quatre. Is something wrong?"
Quatre looked up at his friend and felt his chest constrict painfully. "It was… That time, two weeks ago… When you left for that mission…"
Shinn's eyes narrowed fractionally as an idea began to form in the depths of his mind. In the meantime, his breath caught in his throat, as he watched those beautiful sapphire pools fill with tears. 'This is forbidden.' He thought. 'I can love, but I cannot keep. No matter how badly I want to, I can never keep.' His face was composed.
"I thought… For a while… I thought for a while… I thought that you'd left us…"
Shinn reached over and gently pulled the Arabian into a gentle embrace. "I'd never leave before the set date, Quatre. I run and I hide, but I never tell a lie."
Quatre let out a choked sob as his tears began to fall. "Still… After a while… I could sense you again… Then that call… I still can hear Wufei's words… 'It's Maxwell, he's hurt, and Sally says that he might not make it, so we'd better leave now if we want to see him while he's alive!' I was terrified that we'd loose you… We'd already lost 'Duo' and even 'Shinn' was better than nothing, since both are technically the same person…"
"Hush… I'm still here, Quatre… I'm still here…"
Shinn felt a pang of guilt in his heart. 'I am the cause of his tears. Of his pain. If my mortal form had indeed died, his pain would be so much worse. He'll hurt even more when I leave… But the pain won't compare to if he knew, and if I left… Best not to tell him… Spare him the pain… Forbidden… What I want, what I could give him, what he wants, what we could share, what we could have, all forbidden…'
"And then there was Sally, listing all your injuries… And her words, 'He may never wake up'… God, Shinn… I was so scared…"
Shinn swallowed hard. 'Forbidden, the Creator forbade this! This is forbidden! I can befriend, I can care, I can help, I can love, but I may never profess! It's forbidden!'
He felt something in him break as Quatre's words trailed off, and the small blonde wept uncontrollably into his chest.
Gently, Shinn slid his fingers under the Arabian's chin, tilting his head up so amethyst eyes locked with sapphire, and whispered, "To hell with the rules," and gently brushed his lips with his own.