Asbestos Gelos Part 6
There was nothing. No light. No sound. No feeling. Duo simply was.
He remembered her face. Her features that twisted into a sick smile at his agony.
Was he dead? Did she kill him? Was this what the afterlife was truly like? Was the paradise his momma spoke of just a lie?
"Oh no little one!"
Duo started. That voice! It was something he never thought he'd hear again. "Momma?"
From out of the darkness a small glow grew into a great blinding light. From the very center of that light a beautiful woman with long chestnut hair appeared. "Yes my little one." Her smile was simply stunning.
Duo took a small step toward her. "Momma?"
Diana Maxwell nodded took a step and held her arms wide.
Smothering a sob, Duo ran at her and flung his arms around her shoulders and buried his face in the crook of her neck. "Oh momma I've missed you so much!" Duo didn't care about how he must look- clinging to her and sobbing like a child.
"It's ok little one." She gently stroked his head and rocked him like she had when he was a baby.
Duo pulled away and gazed into her familiar face. "Am... am I dead?"
Diana smiled and shook her head. "No." She ran her fingers through his bangs. "You're very very sick. That demon calling herself Relena is the cause of this."
"Relena? A demon?" Duo blinked in surprise.
"Yes." Frowning, Diana sighed and closed her eyes. "It was her accusations that sent the men to our cabin that night."
Duo just stared in mute silence. Even though he knew it wasn't true, he'd always wondered if it had been something he'd done that sent the mob to their house. To learn that it had actually been the small blonde girl was at one time a great relief, and also infuriating. "I'm not dead?"
"No!" Diana grinned and Duo met her eyes with a grin of his own. He was alive. And he would have his revenge.
~*~
"Heero! Heero!"
Heero looked up from his paperwork annoyed at Quatre's abrupt entry. "What?"
"Duo! He collapsed in the garden! He's dead!"
Heero froze. All it took was one second for his world to completely collapse.
Rational thought was gone. For a moment he couldn't even believe that Quatre had said it. He stared with his mouth open waiting for the punch line or for Duo to jump out and laugh at the look on his face.
It didn't happen.
Springing to his feet, Heero ran out the door uncaring of how hard he pushed Quatre out of his way. All that mattered was getting to Duo. Heero raced down the twisting halls of his palace- uncaring of how it looked for a ruler to be running at top speed.
He turned the last corner and ran into the garden in time to see Wufei spread a white sheet over a prone body.
"No." Heero ran to the body and dropped to his knees. He ignored his friend and the other people standing around him. With dread in his heart Heero slowly pulled the sheet back and revealed what he never dreamed he would see- Duo's beautiful face stilled forever in death. "No." There had to be some sort of mistake. Duo couldn't be dead! He was asleep... or sick or...
Heero felt at Duo's neck for a pulse. He didn't immediately find it so he switched to the other side of Duo's slender neck. Again nothing. "No nononononononono!"
Suddenly arms came around his waist. "Come on Heero..." Wufei tried to pull him from Duo's body.
"NO!" Heero pulled away form his friend. He gathered Duo's limp body into his arms and cradled him gently. ~He can't be dead! He can't be dead!Hecan'tbedead!hecan'tbedeadhecan'tbedead~
~*~
"How?"
Diana sat. It looked rather odd because the surrounding area was still a void. She was sitting crossed legged, but floating in space. "By using the powers your father has given you."
"My father?" This was getting really weird now...
"Yes." She sighed and closed her eyes. "The moment I died he was there to lead me to the other side." Diana opened her eyes and let the tears slip out. "All those years I had thought that he left us... that he just fucked me and went on his merry way... but it wasn't true!" A sad smile broke out over her face. "He went to his family to ask permission to bring me back with him. They had even agreed, surprised that their son was going to settle down."
Duo listened with increasing interest. All that he remembered of his early life consisted of his momma... he really didn't remember even asking about his father.
"On his way back to our village he decided to take a shortcut through the Sank forest." She laughed a small bitter laugh. "Oh the irony right? The same forest we lived beside and the same forest you fled to... Well, remember how it was always rumored to have a horrible beast living there? She did."
He gasped. No... it couldn't be. That would just be too cruel.
"You've guessed it. He was attacked and killed on his way back." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sure his family formed a search party and found him... But it was too late. She had already fled into the village and disguised herself as Peacecraft's daughter. And they didn't come for us because he never told them who I was!"
Duo pulled his mother into his arms and let her cry. "It's ok momma..."
She pulled back. "No it's not! Because of that demon I never got to see my baby grow up! You never had a father, and now she's trying to steal your happiness. She cannot win."
Duo nodded. "But how can I..."
"That is where I come in." A masculine voice broke in.
Duo whirled. There stood a man only a few feet from him.
The man was short and slender, with long black hair and even from where he sat Duo could see the man's eyes were a clear blue. The man's heart shaped face was achingly familiar... it was the same one he saw every day in the mirror.
"You... are you?"
The man nodded. "My name is Xander, and I'm- I'm your father."
"My father." Duo stared blankly. It was just so much to process. He just stared at the man.
Xander began to shift nervously under the scrutiny. "Uhhh maybe I should come back later..."
"NO!" Duo jumped to his feet and threw himself at his father. He wrapped his arms around Xander and gave him a weak smile. "We've lost too much time already, ne?"
"Right." Xander returned the smile.
"And now you're going to tell me how to kill the demon bitch who seems intent on destroying our lives."
Duo's eyes took on a vengeful glow that made Xander glad he wasn't the one on the receiving end of Duo's anger. "Exactly."
TBC...
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