Author: Snow Tigra
Rating: R
Pairing: 1+2
Warnings: AU, Gundam Wing characters in the Utena storyline with a few changes.
Archive: Fanfiction.net
Revolutinary Duo-kun: Eternal Revolution Part 1
So Close Yet So Far
The sword broke flesh and Heero winced at the sound. He must not have been paying attention, he'd fought back and his blade had struck home. The duel was over. Heero watched in frozen horror as Duo clutched his chest and crumbled to the ground. No!
"Duo!"
Heero dropped to his knees next to Duo. What to do? No! His mind panicked and he felt completely helpless. He couldn't help Duo, that was a fatal blow, he would die! And it was all Heero's fault. One small mistake had brought everything down into pieces. He watched Duo's large purple eyes as the American boy coughed up a small amount of blood.
"How could you Heero?" the boy hissed with hatred.
Heero was struck stone cold. Duo hated him. He had to. After all, it had been Heero who'd killed Duo's family. Never mind that he'd been following Treize's orders at the time he'd still killed them. It didn't matter who had ordered him at the time, the point was he had done it. It was his fault. It was all his fault!
"I hate you." The words escaped Duo's lips as he died, a look of sheer hatred frozen on his face. Heero's body shivered at the tone of the boy's voice. It was so full of hatred. True hatred and he deserved all of it. Heero hugged himself and felt the guilt rise up in his soul. The guilt moved like a smoke around his body and surrounded Duo's lifeless corpse. Heero watched with pain filled eyes as the body of his love slowly stood up, the cape of Death hanging from his shoulders. Slowly Death reached forward and touched Heero's chest with a cold hand.
Heero felt his body shake and a sword appeared in his chest. Duo, as Death, drew the sword and glared with hatred straight into Heero's eyes. Then, in one swift movement he plunged the sword into Heero's heart. But Heero's body didn't accept the sword as a part of him, instead the metal cut flesh and blood splattered.
A small tear moved down Heero's cheek as his heart slowed. Yet he didn't cry out. Dying was only part of the punishment he deserved.
~*~
Heero sat up in bed with a small cry. His eyes wide he gasped for air and clutched at the blankets so hard until his fingers and knuckles hurt. Blinking rapidly he tried to banish the images from his mind, tried to get rid of the dream, but it was no use. It was the same dream that had been haunting him every night since it had really happened. Every night for a year... it didn't matter if he had the dream anymore, the images were permanently burned in his head.
Heero leaned back against the bed frame and sighed softly. His cobalt eyes shifted to look out the window as the clouds passed over the full moon. A whole year. A whole year of the same dream, and even though he knew that wasn't how it had really happened the images still haunted him. In the end Duo had forgiven him, he'd said so himself. Heero knew he'd been forgiven for it all, his part in all of it. But he still felt it was all his fault. No matter what Duo had said in the end he still felt responsible, and somewhere inside he still felt he needed to earn that forgiveness. And that was something he couldn't do until he found Duo.
"Where are you Duo?" he asked the twilight filled room. Slowly his hand reached up and touched his cheek, tracing the trail of a solitary tear. He had searched for almost a year and still no trace of Duo. After the duel everything was a blur. He couldn't remember what had happened after he'd fought Treize, and it didn't really matter. All he cared about was finding Duo and if Treize was still alive, well he'd deal with that problem later.
With a sigh Heero laid back down under the covers. Rolling on his side he looked across the room to the chair. A new school uniform sat there neatly folded. A new uniform, a new school. In the morning he'd be on his search again, but this time he wasn't excited about the possibility of finding Duo. He'd searched every school in the area, this was the last one. If this didn't work out he had no idea where to look next. It Duo wasn't at this school he didn't have any other leads.
Heero drifted slowly back into a fitful sleep as he faced the worst fact of all. If Duo wasn't at this school, he may just have to give up.
~*~
The class came to attention as the teacher closed the book on her desk and stood up. Heero entered the class at Sally Po's beckoning and stood in the front of the classroom, emotionless and silent, as she introduced him to the class. It was still too easy to drop back into the guise of being the Star Prince for him. Still too easy to just be emotionless and not care as people killed each other over a power they honestly would never receive. At least in this instance he was just being introduced to a new classroom. They knew nothing of the duels, they knew nothing of the Star Prince. And if all went well, he would be gone even before they got a chance to learn anything about him.
As Sally Po introduced him to the class he scanned the student's faces for the familiar grinning boy. No luck. He allowed himself a very small frown as he scanned the classroom a second time to make sure. No, Duo wasn't here. He'd failed again.
"Heero-kun, you can take the seat next to Mariemeia."
Heero grunted a small response and moved to the seat to sit down. The mentioned girl, Mariemeia, watched him sit down in his seat and proceeded to watch him the majority of the class. Heero ignored her as best he could but she reminded him of Relena in a way. She'd done the exact same thing to him the first time they'd met, she'd just sat there and stared at him all class long. Before it hadn't bothered him, but now it did. He wasn't used to people paying attention to him, he was used to them treating him like a doll, a puppet, a key to some forgotten great power-
He gave a silent sigh and shook his head. You're not the Star Prince anymore, he reminded himself, stop acting like nothing has changed! Heero pushed all his thoughts away and concentrated on the sensei. He'd worry about this all later. He realized it would take a while to learn to stop acting like an emotionless puppet. He just wondered how long it would take.
"Nice to meet you Heero. My name is Mariemeia Kushrenada."
Heero glanced up slowly as the class emptied the room at the end of the period. Mariemeia stood in front of him smiling brightly, her smoky blue eyes shining with glee. He pursed his lips to keep from responding. Had she just said Kushrenada? His mind worked quietly as he took a quick stock of her looks. Yes, she did resemble Treize, vaguely. Her orangish hair was only a shade darker then Treize's and her eyes matched his perfectly. The only distinctive trait she was missing of Treize's was his double eyebrows. It was perfectly possible that she was related to Treize... which brought up a whole new set of complications. Heero opened his mouth to respond to her comment when another voice from the door interrupted him.
"Yuy."
Heero glanced up to find Wufei leaning against the doorframe of the classroom, his arms crossed and his face set in a low scowl. A surprising but welcome distraction. Heero grabbed his bag and headed for the door, leaving Mariemeia to glare after them at being ignored.
"What are you doing here?" Heero asked as they stepped behind the school building outside to talk in private.
"I could ask you the same question," Wufei retorted in an unfriendly tone.
Heero said nothing. He'd asked first and he knew that if he gave in to Wufei's stubbornness he'd never get an answer out of him. And he was right, after a few minutes of stubborn silence Wufei relented.
"You're looking for him aren't you?"
Heero gave a short nod. "And you?"
Wufei turned away and huffed in frustration. "You met my reason. Mariemeia Kushrenada, the daughter of Treize Kushrenada." He paused, letting the information sink in. "I'm here to make sure she doesn't follow in her father's footsteps."
"And you'll kill her if she does."
Wufei whirled back to face Heero, his face covered with rage. "If that's what it takes yes! The duels are over and I'm going to make sure it stays that way!" Wufei's rage melted and cooled slightly as he clenched his fists. "I don't expect you to understand. After all, you were just Treize's puppet, you have no idea what we duelists went through."
Heero glared but didn't respond. In a sense Wufei was right, but at the same time Heero had a pretty good idea how the duelists felt. They had all been puppets for Treize, not just the duelists.
"Solo! Chotto matte!"
Thankful for the small destruction Heero turned to see where the voice came from. While he and Wufei had been fighting the campus lawn had filled with students. They were everywhere, swarming home from classes and to clubs. It didn't take long for Heero to find the source of the voice and it should really have mattered, until he saw who the girl was yelling to.
A girl dressed in the normal female uniform was racing across the lot to a silent and rather depressed looking boy a few feet away. The boy was the one who caught Heero's attention with his waist length chestnut colored hair. Heero watched in disbelief as the boy turned and he caught a glimpse of violet eyes. Impossible! Heero didn't even try to hide his shock, it was Duo! He blinked but nothing about the scene changed, he wasn't dreaming! Heero took a step toward the two but was stopped as Wufei's hand clasped onto his shoulder.
"Don't, Yuy." Wufei said in a quiet voice.
"Why not?" Heero growled back without turning.
"That's isn't Duo."
Heero turned in surprise and stared at Wufei for a moment, then looked back at the two teens as they stood under a tree discussing something too quietly to be heard. In spite of himself he admitted that something about Duo looked strange. He looked depressed, as if he hadn't smiled for years and he didn't show any signs of ever smiling again. His violet eyes, which should have been bright with laughter, were dark and deep as if he were hiding many secrets. He didn't even move like Duo, all his actions were guarded, carefully chosen before he even moved. But the resemblance between the two was uncanny, even though this boy wore his hair down instead of in a braid. Wufei stepped up beside Heero.
"His name is Solo Kama. At first I thought he was Duo as well but the two are completely different. I've been here almost six months and I've never seen him smile, not once. He's always with that girl, Catherine Bloom. He almost never talks to anyone else and avoids all the other students. He is nothing like Duo Maxwell." Wufei stepped between Heero and his view of Solo and Catherine, his face covered with the look a scolding parent would give their child. "Is that what you've been doing all this time? Looking for him?" Wufei scowled. "Face it Yuy, Maxwell is dead. You killed him just like you killed Melian."
At that comment Heero snapped, he'd had enough. Grabbing the collar of Wufei's uniform he threw the former duelist back against the wall of the school building and locked his eyes in a death glare. Wufei reacted a second later by knocking Heero's hand away, Heero moved to punch him without even thinking but Wufei caught his wrist in a stone tight grip.
"For someone who used to be a puppet you sure don't handle emotions well," Wufei hissed.
Heero glowered at him and yanked his hand away.
"It makes no difference whether you believe me or not. The truth still stands, *that* is not Duo. I don't know what you remember from the arena but I know you killed Melian at the end of those duels, I saw her die. Face the fact that the same thing happened to Duo. Just because you aren't a puppet anymore doesn't mean everything is right with the world. Now take you anger and guilt and regret and go home, leave the innocent out of this!"
Heero moved to make a quick response but Wufei interrupted him once more.
"The duels are over Yuy, and I swear if you start them again-"
"There will always be duels, Wufei, with or without the help of Treize and OZ and the Star Prince." Heero's voice lowered to an almost threatening whisper. "Not all duels are fought in arenas with blades and roses."
With those words Heero turned and walked away, leaving Wufei to sort out his own thoughts.
~*~
Trowa glanced up from his book to find Quatre smiling down at him sweetly. "Is it eight already?" he asked glanced at the clock on the wall with a raised eyebrow.
"Hai," Quatre replied. Trowa closed his book and placed it back on the shelf, then circled the table and took Quatre's hand in his own. Hand in hand they left the library, completely obvious to the stares from the other students. They had been a couple since the duels ended a year ago and were quite used to the stares and comments now. They didn't care, it didn't really matter what other people thought. Quatre and Trowa were happy with each other and that was all that mattered.
As they walked down the street Quatre leaned his head up against Trowa's arm. "Trowa, how do you think the others are doing?"
Trowa didn't answer for a moment, lost in thought. "Living their lives, I suppose," he replied quietly.
Quatre frowned. "Do you think Heero ever found Duo?" Trowa came to a stop as the shorter boy hugged his arm tighter.
Trowa responded with a small smile and took Quatre in his arms. "Don't worry, koi, I'm sure they're just as happy as we are." With those words he tilted up Quatre's chin and kissed him softly.
With a smile Quatre cuddled against his chest as they stood alone under the solitary street light. "I hope so."
From behind them a tree branch snapped and a small flock of birds took off to the sky. Trowa and Quatre turned to see a dark figure watching them from the shadows. A quick movement and something flew out toward them to land at Trowa's feet. Trowa knelt down slowly and picked it up. As he stood back up he heard Quatre gasp. A dried black rose. Trowa quickly stepped in front of Quatre and faced the shadowy figure.
"Who are you?" he demanded softly.
The figure pushed off the tree and stepped closer to the light, illuminating part of his body. He wore an old student council uniform, complete with the gold star duelist badge and in his hand he held a sword.
"Quatre, leave," Trowa whispered.
"You don't have a sword," the other protested. "No."
Trowa pulled his arm away from Quatre's worried grip, all the while keeping an eye on the dark shape. "I'll be fine, you need to warn the others."
"But..."
The shadowy figure raised his sword and charged, without warning, straight at the two, moving fast. Trowa shoved Quatre out of the way and tried to dodge it, but the blade caught the side of his arm and he hissed as it cut a gash across his skin. "Go!" he ordered Quatre then turned his full attention to the shadowy figure. Strange, it almost seemed as if the figure was wearing a cloak... which would explain that no matter how hard Trowa tried he couldn't see its face. Trowa got back to his feet and jumped backward as the shadow struck again, missing this time. Trowa brought his fist straight for the shadow's chest, thinking he had an opening but the shadow whirled toward Trowa and caught him in the stomach with his free fist. As Trowa doubled over in pain he felt the cold steel of the sword against his neck and froze.
Quatre watched from behind a set of bushes where he had retreated with fear. Trowa had lost, and he lost so quickly! It wasn't fair, he didn't have a sword. But something told Quatre that this was more serious then any of the duels had ever been, who ever this cloaked figure was they were playing for keeps. All Quatre could do was watch and it was killing him!
The shadow stepped up to Trowa and a slender hand reached out to caress his cheek. Trowa stood completely still as the hand moved down his cheek, neck and settled over his heart. Then the fingers closed into a fist and began to glow. Trowa cried out as he felt the hand reaching inside of him and grasping his sword. His eyes went wide as a hilt appeared in his own chest and the shadow quickly ripped it out. Trowa's knees suddenly gave way and he crumbled to the ground, feeling all energy leaving his body. The last thing he saw was the shadow holding both swords in one hand and them melding together in one.
The last thing he heard was Quatre's cry.
"TROWA!"
TBC...
Back to Snow Tigra's Fanfictions Page