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"Tenebris"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: angst, language, violence, smut, death,
gore, vampires, drug use, character death Pairings: past 1x3x5, past 1x5, past 3x5, past
1x3, 3x?, 1x3x5, 1x3, 1x5, 3x5 Summary: Nine years after the last war, humanity is yet again on the brink of destruction. A new threat emerges from the colonies, one more horrific and defiant than any before. A/N: For Tina - wishing you a very happy birthday! A/N: As always, thank you Ro for the support and the beta! A/N: Set post-canon
"Tenebris"
Part 2 Six Months Later "You're wrong. You're just flat-out wrong." Wufei sighed, not bothering to hide his irritation, and he lifted one eyebrow in a silent, mocking invitation. Across the table, a patronizing sneer on his face and his body indolently sprawled out in a chair, Kevin Abbott leaned forward. "A show of military force was the only way to put the colonies in their place. Economic sanctions hadn't been working - half of those people just don't even get it, and used the sanctions as an excuse to develop more dangerous underground and black market operations. If the Earth hadn't stepped in and started engaging with colonial rebels on the colonies, the whole Earthsphere would have imploded." "You think having it explode is preferable," Wufei muttered with a sneer. Abbott gave a derisive snort. "Yeah, well, we can all sit back in our chairs and go on and on about how great pacifism is, and searching for diplomatic solutions to conflicts, and extolling the endless virtues of Minister Peacecraft or whatever - but we only have the chance to do that because of the direct military intervention of the Alliance forces. Otherwise, the colonies would have become a black hole that drained all of the Earth's resources and continued to abuse their own citizens simply because they could." Wufei stared at Abbott, taking in his tanned skin, his height, his broad shoulders and chest, his bright blond hair. He was a Terran - and any colonist would be able to see it immediately. Not only was it clear that he had been born on Earth, but he had also clearly never spent significant time in space - not with his skin or bright hair. He was also, Wufei knew from previous arguments, the son of former Alliance officers who had both served in the war. Who had, Wufei had discovered after doing some late-night hacking, participated in the 'direct military intervention' Abbott was so fond of defending. "Only a colonist," Abbott continued, "would suggest that the Earth should have refrained from military action. Only a colonist would want the Earth to be weak." "And only a blood-thirsty Terran would suggest that the Alliance's use of germ warfare and mobile suit invasions on peaceful colonies was justified. Weakness is engaging unarmed, civilian populations of children and elders. Weakness is exiling millions of people to a derelict colony in the hopes that it vents atmosphere and everyone dies - and when that doesn't work, sending in two separate invasion forces to wipe them out. Genetic cleansing is weakness. Wars waged on civilians is weakness. Murder-" "Okay, let's take a pause there," the instructor interrupted Wufei. "See, this is one of the things about recent Earthsphere history that we all have to keep in mind - there are a lot of different viewpoints and, because it's still so recent, a lot of narratives exist that individuals might have a personal attachment to - but also that we don't necessarily have the data to corroborate." Wufei was irritated at the fact that he had been interrupted, but he was infuriated by the suggestion that his past was somehow a debatable narrative. He looked around the room, though, and noticed most of the people gathered around the table nodding in agreement as they reached for their datapads to keep typing notes. "Now, as much as Mr. Abbott and Mr. Chang might have enjoyed that little detour in our lecture, let's get back to discussing the events that led to the assassination of Heero Yuy." The instructor gestured towards the data projection at the center of the table. Of all the things Wufei could be getting his doctorate in, Colonial History had seemed to not only be the most obvious choice, but the most pertinent. When he had made the decision to go to university five years ago, the state of the Earthsphere had been in such upheaval that there was every chance it would slide into chaos, or possibly even open warfare again. The decision to leave Preventers and go to school - to walk away from his comrades and the only way of life he had known since the age of 14 - had been a difficult one. But, even though it had taken several years, two wars and countless conflicts, Wufei had decided to return to the scholarly life that he had, as a child, dreamed of. Of course, the intervening years had changed Wufei - he was no longer able to pursue learning simply for the sake of knowledge, and his patience for philosophical and ideological debates that ignored reality was almost non-existent. Especially when they came from some dilettante who had no first-hand knowledge of anything he was talking about. Wufei forced himself to focus on the lecture and push aside his irritation with Abbott - and with the course instructor, a young Terran professor who, Wufei was certain, had also gone through the war relatively unscathed. Of the twelve students in the lecture room, perhaps three of them were colonists. Across campus, and certainly in Wufei's courses, that ratio held true - even though the university was on the moon, Terrans outnumbered colonists four to one. In addition to the small number of colonists at one of the most prestigious universities in the Earth Sphere, there were an even smaller number of veterans from the war - and most of those were former OZ and Alliance soldiers who had been able to apply for government educational grants that simply weren't available to the rebelling colonists. Everything is different, and everything will always be the same. Trowa used to say that, used to come back from missions and drop his bag on the floor before sitting by the window and staring vacantly into the distance for minutes or hours - however long it took before Wufei came home to find him there and ask him about the mission. He didn't always have that kind of cynical glib response - sometimes he barely managed a noncommittal shrug, and other times he would offer up a small, somber smirk and say that it had been a success. Wufei pulled his thoughts out of the past. He rarely thought of Trowa - well, he rarely allowed himself to think of Trowa. And he needed to focus on this lecture. "...pacificism. So why did Heero Yuy pose such a threat to Alliance forces?" The instructor looked around the room at his students, his eyes glancing over Wufei hurriedly - not since the first two weeks of the semester had the instructor dared to actually make eye contact with Wufei, lest he encourage him to speak out even more. "Clearly," Abbott started in - assuming, as always, that the entire class waited with baited breath for whatever brilliant gem he wanted to share with them next, "Yuy was trying to upset the natural order of things. He wanted to create some kind of bogus egalitarian system that took away Terran authority and made the colonies equal partners with the Earth. He proposed an economic and political system that was deeply flawed and inherently dangerous. If he hadn't been taken out, then it's likely the colonists would have revolted earlier and been more unified - and done more damage to the entire human race." Wufei could only stare. Sometimes, it was impossible to wrap his mind around the garbage that Abbott in particular, but other Terrans as well, spewed from their mouths. "Any other thoughts?" The instructor prompted cautiously, eyes darting in Wufei's direction as if to gauge his reaction to Abbott's words. "So what about the assassinations of Quatre Winner and Relena Peacecraft?" The question was asked by one of the other colonists, Karen Heim, a young woman with blonde hair shaved close to her head. "What does that have to do with Heero Yuy?" Abbott sneered. The woman rolled her eyes. "Nothing - well, not nothing. But it's a counter to your argument. After the wars, an egalitarian government was established that used pacifism and diplomacy to unite all of the Earth Sphere. The Earth and the colonies were in an equal partnership to govern the ES. So, if that was so unnatural, when Quatre Winner and Relena Peacecraft were assassinated three years ago, shouldn't the government have fallen apart? Shouldn't we be faced with another war, or the end of the human race?" Abbott glared at her, but Heim just stared back at him. As much as Wufei hated the very thought of siding with Abbott on an issue, he had to speak up. "Violence isn't the only way to keep the colonies in line. The ESUN is, nominally, an egalitarian governing body. But look at the economics - look at the mining contracts in the Belt, and how heavily those favor Terrans over colonists. Look at the taxation on imports between colonies versus Terran products. Terrans learned their lesson, after Heero Yuy, after the wars - if you want to oppress people, you don't do it with mobile suits and starvation. You do it with government aid and taxes. It's easy to form a revolution around the concept of 'stop murdering and starving us'. It's a lot harder to do it when your rally cry is 'level the inter-colonial tariffs to five percent.' Not to mention the fact that Winner and Peacecraft were killed by colonial extremists, and..." "And the assassins were gruesomely murdered, and the vid feed played all over the ES," Heim finished for Wufei. She sighed. "Right. I get that. But I'm just saying, living in peace isn't really against human nature. Kevin is suggesting that pacifism is against human nature, and I'm just saying - look, if humans were so devoted to violence and war, wouldn't we have liked that video of the assassins being murdered? Wouldn't there have been cheering in the streets when those eight guys were literally ripped to shreds?" Heim looked around the room, at the pale faces of her classmates. Everyone was likely thinking back to that day three years ago, remembering where they had been when they had seen the video. Wufei had been at Preventers HQ, had been in the situation room standing beside Une as the Preventers Director oversaw the operation to capture the eight assassins who had put the Earthsphere on the brink of war by killing the two brightest pacifist leaders on both the Earth and the colonies. Wufei had stood there, watching a live feed that, for all that it was live, had been on an eight-minute delay because the assassins had holed up in the Asteroid Belt. Wufei had battled his irritation at not being selected as part of the team sent to bring them in, had felt both anxious and jealous as the feeds from Duo and Trowa's body cams played out over the sit room screens. Wufei had listened to Une repeatedly order Trowa and Duo to stand down once the assassins had been subdued and their limbs zip-tied together. But it had been Heero, his visitor's badge shining in the dim light of the sit room, who had tapped on an analyst's screen and ordered her to pull up the feed. It had been Heero who had realized what was happening, before all the rest of them. Heero who had shoved the analyst aside and tried to shut down the separate, illegal, broad spectrum feed of the confrontation that Duo and Trowa were broadcasting on an open channel to the entire Earthsphere. Wufei had been frozen in place, had stared wide-eyed as Duo and Trowa, their voices muffled and distorted, drew tearful, pleading confessions from the assassins. He had been unable to look away from the sight of the two former Gundam pilots methodically, with unimaginable brutality, killing each assassin, one at a time, while the rest screamed in terror. The entire sit room had been silent - except for the handful of analysts crying or vomiting at their desks. All three feeds - the two from the body cams and the third from the camera set up to the side of the room - had cut to darkness as soon as the last assassin passed away with an excruciating gasp of pain. It had been the last time Wufei had seen Trowa or Duo. The last time he had heard either man's voice. For him, the video of the assassins being murdered had challenged everything he knew and believed - it had very nearly destroyed him, and it had been his impetus to leave Preventers, to leave everything and try to build a new life for himself. One that was free of the past. It was his own fault, then, that he kept having to face it - after all, what was history but the study of humanity's collective mistakes? What was Colonial History if not the examination of everything Wufei had witnessed, had caused, had fled from? "No one cheered," Heim continued. "Not on L1. I was in a biology class, and when the feed cut into the lecture - people were crying. People were begging those two men to stop. Violence isn't part of the natural order. Unless," she turned to Abbott with a sneer, "what were you doing during the feed?" Abbott scowled, and he picked at the corner of his datapad, refusing to meet Heim's fierce gaze. "Obviously, no one was cheering - that wasn't... that was something an animal does. That wasn't normal or natural or anything - those two monsters were even worse than the assassins. It was disgusting. There was nothing inspiring, nothing - no one could ever support their actions." It had been Heero who had first realized that, too. Six months after the incident, six months after Trowa and Duo had vanished into the ether. Heero had realized why they had done it. It wasn't about revenge - not just about revenge. It was about making sure that humanity had absolutely no desire, no ability to pursue an armed rebellion to demand justice for Relena and Quatre. Trowa and Duo had made sure that no one had the stomach to go to war again. "Maybe if the Alliance had made an example of Heero Yuy's assassin - not ripping him apart, but at least making an effort to find him and bring him to trial, it would have been at least an attempt to appease the colonies. It could have prevented the wars." "No," Wufei sighed. "It might have prolonged the period before outright war, but humanity needed to see just how devastating a conflict between Earth and the colonies could be so that we rejected the idea entirely. Just like what happened with Winner and Peacecraft. We needed to see what retribution looked like so that we could reject it." "So," Abbott said with a self-righteous smirk, "the Alliance's actions were justified - without their provocation, humanity-" "No," Wufei interrupted him savagely. He hated interruptions, and tried his best never to interrupt someone, regardless of what they were saying, but this was going too far. "There was absolutely no justification for unleashing plagues on the colonies. There is never justification for-" "Okay, okay," the instructor stood up, his hands splayed out as if he could wave down Wufei's fury. "I think this is actually a good place to stop for the evening. We've had an interesting discussion, and I think that this has been really productive. Next week, we're going to look at the fall of the Peacecraft family on Earth, and the rise of the hardliners in the Alliance." There was a tense, silent moment as Wufei and Abbott continued to glare at each other, but then Heim walked over to Abbott and ruffled his hair. "You're such an ignorant fucking ground-pounder," she muttered, before leaning down to kiss him. Abbott smirked at her, turning away from Wufei. He couldn't help but watch them, curious and mildly disgusted by how easy it was for Heim to simply ignore the way that Abbott felt about the colonies, the things he said and what he believed. It baffled him. Wufei packed away his things and shrugged on his jacket before leaving the classroom, unconcerned by the clusters of his classmates who shot looks in his direction or muttered things about him under their breaths. He was used to it. And he was used to ignoring them. As Wufei fell into stride with the tide of students leaving their evening classes on the Teslane campus, he couldn't help but wonder how many of them found it just as easy as Heim and Abbott to put aside their differences - not to simply coexist, but to be attracted to one another - to want to be in a relationship with someone so seemingly diametrically opposed to their very existence. For the sake of humanity, Wufei was glad, in a way, that they could find a foundation for a relationship despite everything. For the sake of logic, he couldn't wrap his head around it. And for the sake of colonial pride - whatever meager, dormant kernel of it remained in him. All around Wufei were the signs of progress, of coexistence and peace within the Earthsphere. The legacy of the wars, of Relena Peacecraft and Quatre Winner. Even, Wufei had to admit, of Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell. It seemed that humanity finally had learned how to live peacefully. Not equally - only a fool would think that the Earth really shared power with the colonies - but at least there wasn't outright war. At least civilians weren't being murdered and- Wufei, passing by one of the corner news scroll displays, stopped dead in his tracks. On the enormous screen were images of corpses, pale bodies with open, vacant eyes and scabbed puncture wounds on their necks, arms or legs. He couldn't hear the newscast voiceover, but he could read the captions across the bottom of the screen. Mystery plague continues to spread in the L2 and L3 colony clusters. Yesterday, M184A in the L1 cluster was discovered to have several victims, bringing the total number of victims to 95,000 over the last three months. So far, only twelve survivors of this plague have been found - and each of those died in a matter of weeks. The first reports of death were thought to be homicides, but last month, scientific analysis of the bodies showed that in addition to the small puncture wounds found on their bodies, each victim had also suffered severe blood loss and their DNA had demonstrated as-yet-unknown mutations. In other news, the rising murder rates in both the L2 and L3 clusters have some citizens wondering if the colonial governments will request the intervention of the ESUN for aid. Just this year, murder rates over both colony clusters have risen by nearly 800%. Speculation that the rising murder rates and the plague could be linked together are as yet inconclusive. Wufei stared at the screen as the images of plague victims and HAZMAT-suited aid workers disposing of their bodies. Plague. The Alliance had tried to wipe out his colony using germ warfare. The Alliance had unleashed several plagues in the L2 cluster in efforts to wipe out the populations, but also to use the colonies as a test lab to perfect their weapons. Wufei had survived, and so had Duo - and neither could hear the word plague and not wonder if the government was somehow responsible. 95,000 wasn't statistically that overwhelming - not when the combined populations of the L2 and L3 colony clusters was ten billion - but the gruesome, inhuman conditions that the corpses of these plague victims died in had caught the attention of the media immediately. Wufei had only paid slight attention to the story, just enough to wonder if Trowa was right - if everything would always be the same and if the ESUN had decided to experiment on colonists once again. But the news of the plague, combined with the rising murder rates, piqued his interest. That was not the recipe for continued peace. Wufei finally looked away from the screens when someone shoved into him from behind. With a sigh, Wufei straightened back up and continued to walk. There was a shuttle that ran from the campus to his neighborhood, five kilometers away, but Wufei preferred to walk it. It took him longer tonight, nearly an hour and a half, because he kept stopping at nearly every corner to see if the news scrolls had any developments to add. They didn't, and by the time he got home Wufei was tired, hungry and frustrated with both himself and the news scrolls. His apartment was situated in a quiet, middle income community. Most of his neighbors worked in the mining operations on the Moon, which meant that hours were odd for everyone. As a result, Wufei had never really had to even introduce himself to anyone, and he had settled into the anonymity peacefully and gratefully. It was a one bedroom studio, and Wufei was sure that most Terrans would be horrified at just how small it was. But Wufei had spent most of his life in space, and while he occasionally missed the spacious apartment he had shared with Trowa and Heero on Earth years ago, he didn't mind the cramped quarters. Especially not since he had been able to convert one entire wall of the apartment into bookshelves. He let himself in, sighing in relief at the familiar scent and feel of his living space. Putting his keys and bag beside his desk, Wufei toed off his shoes and made his way to the small kitchen to put on the tea kettle and start making his evening meal. Wufei was halfway across the room when he realized he wasn't alone. Sitting on the small couch, his back to the door and the streetlights just barely illuminating the fall of his auburn hair over his cheek, was Trowa Barton. "How the hell did you get into my apartment?" Trowa turned slightly, looking at Wufei over his shoulder. "The super let me in." The answer, so simple and matter-of-fact, gave Wufei pause. He looked Trowa over. It had been three years since he had seen him, and even now, despite the darkness, the solid strength of his broad shoulders and the almost fragile line of his long, exposed neck were achingly familiar. "Why?" Trowa's lips twitched. "Because I asked nicely. Or maybe because I gave him fifty creds. I also helped him fix the heating unit in 5B." "No," Wufei growled, "why are you here?" Trowa's throat worked as he swallowed, and he turned away from Wufei's fierce, accusing stare. "I need you," Trowa finally whispered, his words low and raw. Wufei stared at his profile. Years of anger and loneliness - of questions and fear, of doubt and self-recrimination, of hatred and desire. All of it weighed down on Wufei. He was frozen in place, unable to move towards Trowa, unable to walk away. Unable to vocalize all of his conflicting emotions. "I needed you," Wufei finally bit out. Despite all of it, despite what Trowa had done and despite the fact that Wufei had been left alone and had had to struggle to reconcile Trowa as a vicious murderer with the Trowa he had known intimately as a partner, friend and lover. "Heero-" "Heero needed you, too, Trowa. We both needed you. Do you have any idea what - why? After everything we did, after everything you did, how could you just turn your back on us?" Trowa met his gaze again, and there was so much darkness, so much despair in his eyes. "Better for me to leave you than watch you and Heero walk away from me. I know what I am. I know what I did was... unforgivable." Wufei stared at him. "Yes," Wufei agreed, walking towards the couch. "But we've all - you, Heero and I - we all did unforgivable things. Impossible things that no one else could have done or would have done. I can't forgive you for what you did, but I can't judge you for it either." It was a lesson Wufei had learned from Heero. With Trowa, Wufei had always felt at ease, had always felt as though he was in the presence of someone who understood him and desired him as an equal. But with Heero, it had been different, had been complicated. Heero had seen Wufei at his worst so many times, had fought him as Wufei made mistake after mistake, and Wufei had always felt it was impossible to measure up to Heero. He had feared, had been so certain that Trowa would simply prefer Heero over Wufei, would see just how righteous and strong Heero was compared to Wufei. But it had been Heero who had come to Wufei, who had assured Wufei that no one - not Heero, not Trowa, not anyone - could judge Wufei for the things he had done. They had been children fighting in a war, with the weight of the colonies and the entire Earth Sphere oppressing them as they struggled to survive and make sense of the chaos around them. I will never judge you, Wufei, Heero had said as he leaned close and pressed a kiss to Wufei's lips. But I will stand beside you. And he had, until Wufei had told him to go. Wufei stopped beside the couch, just in front of Trowa's bent legs, and he waited for Trowa to look up at him again. "I needed you," he repeated, and Trowa sighed. "Wufei." Trowa reached out and wrapped his hands around Wufei's waist, pulling him close and burying his face against the front of Wufei's jacket. Wufei stared down at his bent head, intimidated by the desperate way Trowa clutched at him, shocked at the feel of him after all of these years. Cautiously, he raised his right hand to Trowa's head, allowing himself to comb through the long, fine strands of hair that had always refused to be managed or styled. He could feel the tension in Trowa's body, as if he were waiting for a blow to land, and Wufei felt a sharp stab of despair. Wufei smoothed his hand down Trowa's cheek, over the smooth skin and the slight stubble, and he shivered at how cold Trowa's skin was. "I need... Wufei, I need you to kill me." -o-
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