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"Halfway to Sublimity"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, male/male pairings, language Pairings: 1x2x1 Summary: When Duo moves to a new town on the river,
he meets a young man running the river and a rich boy who seems nice.
Maybe he'll settle down for awhile, or maybe not. "Halfway to Sublimity" Chapter Twenty-Five Heero took up the story from there, while Duo caught his breath. "I had been lying on the ropes and bag, resting my back-not napping. Now, I was sitting upright, as much as possible in the confined space, and staring at Duo. I thought the scream had come from him." "Well, that explains the freaked-out look on your face. You were there, mouth open, like a fish!" Duo shook his head and worried the end of his braid with his fingers, fanning the hair into a brush and then twisting it back to a point, over and over. He smiled a little to think how long it had been since he'd done that to control his anxiety. What he needed was a little more Heero-time, he decided. But that wasn't going to happen for awhile, so he sighed deeply and continued on. "I probably looked the same. I pretty much just sat there and stared into the hole again half expecting to see a demon face staring back at me, but nothing, not a thing had changed in there, in Treize's Tomb." "That's what we named it," Heero supplied. "It wasn't going to be ours." "Lord, you boys had it bad in dere. Did somet'ing come out?" "Heh, heh," Duo chuckled grimly. "Ya gotta wait. We had to! As I stared down that opening, waiting; there was no motion, only darkness past what the lantern lit on. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, but nothing else" "Not one other sound could be heard in the cave," Heero concurred. Duo locked eyes with his lover who had shared the terrible adventure with him. "And then suddenly I heard a scraping noise behind me. I nearly knocked myself out hitting my head on the overhang when I straightened up!" "What was it!" Quatre cried out, ending in a tight little squeak. "It was just Heero moving to turn on his lamp, but I was so wired it nearly sent me to my grave. Then Heero spoke and I nearly jumped outta my skin." "I wanted you to take the larger rocks and put them into the hole," Heero explained. "Whatever animal that had made that noise might have been able to get through the opening." "That sounds like a sound idea," Wufei said offering his input for the first time in a long while. "But then how would you be able to go back through?" "Didn't matter," Duo used his distressed braid tip to sweep that concern away. "I really needed to do something at the moment, so I grabbed a few big rocks and hoisted them through the opening. I slid the rocks as far back into the tunnel as I could reach, creating a wall between us and the other side. Since the squeeze was so small it didn't take long. I kept thinking about that noise and how I was sure it hadn't come from any animal, like "Ro had said. I didn't know if he really thought it was, or if he was just trying to convince himself. I didn't say anything to him about what I thought either." The two exchanged communicative gazes. "You didn't need to," Wufei surmised. Heero shook his head, thinking about what had happened. "Talking about it wouldn't have helped. Since then, though, I have tried to come up with some possible source for such a noise. It was a cross between a man screaming in fear, and a cougar screaming in pain. It sounded like it came from the hole and was roughly 100 feet away. The horrific noise reverberated through the cave, and through my ears for, I'd estimate 8-10 seconds. It was hard to tell." "It is difficile to tell how much time passes w'en you're listening to a solo from de bowel of Hades," Trowa said. His hollow tone made Quatre shiver and snuggle partway onto his lap. "No shi-it. I know all this is probably hard to swallow, um, it is for me...really." His voice was hoarse and he looked around for his mug. Wufei gazed darkly in Trowa's direction. Duo wondered if he was pissed about Quatre snuggling in Trowa's arms, and if that meant anything. "Pass me that pitcher of ale, please. Maxwell needs a refill." Trowa shrugged, arms full. "What happened next?" Quatre asked and assisted filling everyone's mug, since he was between Trowa and his reach of the table. After a long guzzle of ale, Duo said, "Well, after I filled the back of the passage with about five rocks, we just sat there listening to the silence, except for my panting. Oh sure I considered throwing in the towel about then, but neither of us spoke. It stayed quiet, and we knew we couldn't just sit there forever, but we didn't want to move. We knew we had to remove the rock barrier eventually to get on. It was Heero who finally pulled himself together and said we should just take a whack at it and get it over with-" "You don't mean you went BACK down that hole where the scream came out?! How could you?" Quatre cried out. "No choice. We would have to keep an eye out for movement ahead, but going through or backing out were our only choices, at the time," Heero put in. "And I volunteered to remove the rock blockade and put a light at the far end of the passage that would shine to the back of Trieze's Tomb." "The wind had stopped and the rumbling was gone. To say I was nervous woulda been an understatement. I didn't say anything to Heero, nor did he." "There was nothing good to say. I just took over the work." "Which was fine with me. I wasn't exactly worn out, but I didn't mind being further from that hole. Heh, heh... So I waited. I could hear you scraping rocks and then stopping every so often." "I was listening." "And I was sitting, watching you busting your ass down in the tunnel, with my light on. Every time my light cast some bizarre shadow, though, my heart would jump. My imagination was running wild. He seemed a lot less bothered overall about the strange noise than me." "I wasn't in the passage when the noise came out, not like you were," Heero said in explanation. "I became totally absorbed with rock moving and on getting through the passage." "Gotta love his ability to focus under the gun, 'cause there I was straining to hear some kinda warning sound, totally unable to move. I heard nothing but the sound of Heero scraping stone on stone." "I know you, you were contemplating the possible scenarios which might play out on the other side of the passage," Quatre said with a friendly smile. "I guess so, 'cause after a bit I got excited again about getting through the tunnel." "Maybe it was fatigue takin' its toll on your mind," Trowa suggested with an understanding smile. "Maybe, heh, heh..." "But you got through," Quatre was quick to point out. "Right. Heero came back out and suggested I might give it a shot, being the resident cave expert that I was. If the tunnel narrowed too much, then it was a dead end and we'd have to back out. God, I hated to think it had all been a waste so far. But that kinda thinking was loser stuff, so as I got to thinking about the best way to enter Treize's Tomb so that when I got to the narrowest places, I was taking up the least space possible." Duo flattened his back against the windowpane, feeling the icy cold through his shirt, which wasn't unlike that of the cave passage he was describing. "Hey, I can show you how I did it!" He arranged his body into position as he described it. "I placed one arm over my head, turning my head sideways like this, and slowly worked my way in. But I could see that this wasn't going to work any better than not doing it if the hole got really small. If I was going to make it in without widening the hole any more, I was going to have to put both arms over my head, in a diving position, like this, and turn my head sideways, and 'slip' into the tomb. The width would be the limiting factor. The height was sufficient. The arms-overhead position flared my shoulder blades out, but there was still room to get through and room for a wider-shouldered Heero, too. Plus, the arms-overhead gave me the best squeeze side to side." "Dear, Lord, you didn't actually try doing that, did you?" Quatre burst out. "He did," Heero said. "He had little choice. Also, I did tie my rope to his feet, just in case I'd have to pull him out." "See? We had everything covered!" Trowa shook his head. "Yeah, in solid rock." "Yeah, well, that's true, too, heh heh... Where was I? Oh, yeah, so I took a shot at it getting the usual minor scrapes and scooted along, passing where I'd last worked pretty easily. Heero'd done a super job making the space bigger, but I could still feel the rocks touching all around my shoulders and chest. It was not stopping me, but I was definitely scraping up my body. I decided to just push through, keeping in mind that I was gonna to have to come back out eventually. The pain wasn't too bad, and I was in! Well, my upper body was in. At least I could get a good idea what the tomb was gonna to be like." Duo hopped down and demonstrated his technique on the floor using the sitting room couch to squeeze under. "Even though this was the largest part of the crawl, it was still small. I could move my head around freely, but every direction that I turned I was staring at a wall of solid rock." "Unbelievable," Wufei gasped. "It's mind-boggling that he could do that and not lose his mind," Winner agreed. "Who's ta say he didn't?" "Trowa!" Quatre jabbed him in the stomach with his elbow. "You're untamable today." Duo smiled as he watched Trowa whispered in his lover's ear and get the reaction he certainly must have been looking for. A flushed-faced Quatre settled back quietly, and turned his face toward the window. Judging the time to bed, perhaps? "When he spoke to me," Heero said, "his voice sounded muffled, like he was talking in a small box." "I could rest my chest on the passage floor, but the rocks were uncomfortable. I turned my head to look further ahead, but couldn't see past a wall of rocks we hadn't yet cleared out. We'd have to move them before Heero'd be able to get in. I didn't know if I could squeeze through the end of the passage or not if it narrowed more. The entire time I was in the passage, Heero was just kicking back, listening to my descriptions and progress reports." "I was watching your ass," he chuckled. "Not much of a show in the dark." "It was all I had." "Up to this point the size of the passage wasn't too big a deal. My arms could move freely; I was pretty chill. Then it was time for a push." Quatre groaned. "This is just too awful for me to fathom you doing this." "In order to rotate my hips to the best angle to pass I had to lean my upper body on my forearms, use my feet to climb the wall outside the hole, and slowly 'crawl' into the hole. My hips barely fit. Once they cleared one tight spot, I could relax a bit and get in position to work toward the squeeze. I decided to try the one-arm-forward technique to get through. The passage was so narrow that whatever position I started with I would have to stay with through the entire length. There was just no room to move around or change positions. I would also have to turn my head one way or another, and keep it in the same position. This crawl was tight as virgin ass, ah... sorry 'Fei!" Wufei blasted him with a hot glare. "You just ruined the entire experience for me." "Sorry, dude, really. Just slipped out, heh heh... ah shit, well, anyway... Moving forward at this part of the passage was okay, but it became out-and-out clear that we were gonna to have to remove more fuckin' rocks, because I was constantly scraping my chest on rocks. They were sharp and it was starting to hurt like hell. But, other than that, I boogied fast down that first little bit of the crawl, appreciating that little bit of breathing room I had. "Then the walls started to close in around me. I had a few extra inches on each side, but the top of the crawl was getting very low. I could feel the top rubbing my back as I would arch. After another 1/2 foot I couldn't arch anymore. If it got any lower, the lantern wouldn't fit and I didn't think Heero would either. I had to just push ahead with my toes and pull with my forward arm. I decided it would be a good time to see if I could back out. I tried it and it was pretty easy. That gave me a lot more confidence. And, I did have Heero at the other end of that rope attached to my feet. "Just to add to my other aches and pains, my neck was starting to get sore from being cranked to the side. If I opened my eyes, I was staring at the wall just 4-5 inches from my face. Most of the time I wasn't watching the wall. Either I had my eyes closed or the light wasn't shining in a direction that did me any good." "Did you hear that scream again?" Quatre asked. "All this time it was very quiet," Heero stated. "Yeah, in the tomb, other than my own heavy breathing it was quiet--" "--As the proverbial tomb." "Thanks 'Fei. Yeah. Quiet, which was good, and wind was back and cooled me off. Oh, yeah, and I could gauge the size of the passage that my body would soon pass through by lifting my head and carefully touching the ceiling from time to time." "Much like a cat using it's whiskers to gauge an opening in a fence," Wufei noted. He had long left off teasing the fire into a fury and was seated on the hearth, soaking up the warmth. "Yeah, just like that! And that's how I could tell things were about to get real tight." "How could it get tighter and you even move? I can't... I couldn't have done it, that's all. Just couldn't." Quatre used Trowa's arms like a blanket and wrapped them firmly around his shoulders. "Never." "Well, while lying in the darkness, in a passage deep within a cave, one is in a unique position to ponder," Wufei remarked. "I assume Duo did some thinking as well." "No shit." "What with a mountain literally resting on top of him and the entire earth lying below, just one tiny movement of earth and he would cease to exist. Trapped deep within the heart of Mother Earth, incapable of freeing himself from his earthen prison-" "Um, Fei'? I didn't really dwell on that 'being imprisoned' part much, but I did think." "About what?" Wufei asked. He dropped the haughty tone and sounded sincerely curious. "How to move!" Duo arranged himself on the floor under a low table to complete the scene. "Picture yourself in my position: lying on your stomach your left arm is extended over your head. Your right arm is at your side, having only a few inches in which to move. Your arms and hands are sore and bleeding from crawling across broken rocks. Your entire body is resting on the rocks. Once you start again, you have to push with your toes to scoot your body forward, sliding across the rocks. After moving a few inches you are breathing hard and have to rest. As you inhale you can feel your back pressing hard against the top of the squeeze. It takes several minutes before you recover enough to press forward. The entire time you are lying there you think about how you are going to get back out. And, what if...?" "Duo, that's just too terrible to conceive of," Quatre said with a voice clogged with emotion. "Well, that's pretty much what I was going through at that point in the passage." He'd left everyone with something to puzzle out, so he took a few moments to run to the table, empty his mug, and catch his breath, before returning to his story. "When I reached the point where my back was rubbing and I could feel with my head the passage was not getting bigger. It wasn't looking too good for getting through. Still, I decided to give it one more push. I was pretty pumped. I took a few minutes to rest, and then I went for it. I exhaled completely all of the air in my lungs. This caused my chest to collapse enough to scoot forward a few inches. Because it takes so much effort to scoot I only went a few inches before I had to stop and breathe. As I inhaled, my chest pressed hard against the floor and my back against the top. It took a little longer to get my breath back. Unbelievably, I did it again! "Exhale, scoot, rest. "Again, only a few inches. "Repeat. "I took a few extra minutes to 'enjoy' this position," he grinned. "Pinned in a piddlin'-poor passage," Trowa said, grinning in return. "Yeah, good one. Wow, you know, thinking back, I can't believe how relaxed I was! Anyway, I tried one more time to exhale and scoot. My back was rubbing too much to continue, though. Despite the failed effort, I was psyched. Heero had been encouraging me the entire time. I could hear him cheer as he saw my shoes go deeper and deeper into the hole." "That was me screaming at you to get out," Heero said. "Yeah, heh, heh... I know. And I figured that if we cleared more rock, I'd give it another try, so I backed out." "I would have yanked you out by the rope, but I didn't want to skin you." "Which was good. I did a first-rate enough job on myself. After struggling to find a good position I gave up and just pulled my upper body out." "SCRAAAAPE!" Trowa provided the sound effects with nails on the table top and Quatre punched him. "Stop that!" "Oof! Yer a testy little bugger today." Trowa didn't look too bothered by that, Duo thought, and imagined the two of them tussling in the sheets and blushed thinking about where his head could take him sometimes. "Anyway, my shirt got pulled up over my head, and I had some nice scrapes on my shoulders, but I didn't care. To me the trip was a success. I had pushed myself beyond what I though was possible. Between the work and the excitement, I was pretty crapped out, so I just sat on the rope bag, grinning-Shazzam!" "Like a jack-ass eatin' briars," Trowa chuckled. "I know dat look." "Whew! What a trip!" Quatre said, sounding relieved. "But is wasn't over by a long shot, Quat; we were just getting started," Duo assured him. "If only we had stopped and really examined the cavern we were in then, and not later," Heero said, sighing. "But I took my turn and doggedly cleared out rock. I crawled through that damned passage and went through what Duo pretty much described, moved more rocks, until I thought I could make it." "For the second try I claimed first rights to go again. I wanted to get out of that hell hole!" Duo said with a hand-slam to the tabletop, making Quatre jump from Trowa's lap and nearly land on the floor. "Once I got my upper body through the hole I shined the light ahead of me to work out a plan of attack. The passage didn't seem any bigger than last time I was there, but Heero'd cleared deeper in the squeeze. Once my toes were inside the cave I used them to push forward. To keep from scraping my body I would 'walk' using my shoulders, knees and toes, slow but steady. "A foot or two before the tight spot I could already tell there was a lot more wiggle room. Even so, I began to touch the roof of the passage with my back. This time, however, I was able to keep moving forward. I reached the lowest point in the passage and I could tell it was still going to be tricky. Even with the work 'Ro'd done clearing out the loose rocks, I still felt sharp pebbles rolling under my chest as I slid along. "When I could feel my back brushing the top of the passage in several places, I reverted to my technique of exhaling. Before I began, though, I took a minute to lay there in the passage. Rays of Heero's light managed to get past my body so it wasn't all dark. I could feel the cool breeze evaporate the drops of dirty sweat on my forehead. I could feel a thousand sharp edges dig into the surface of my skin. But nothing killed the excitement I got from thinking 'Holey mackerel, this could be it!' It made me want to keep moving, no matter how tight the passage became. I breathed in and out rapidly for a few moments, and then began. "Exhale. "Scoot. "Stop to catch my breath. "Repeat. "After just a few inches of scooting, I could raise my head off the floor of the squeeze and tell that the passage was opening up! I relayed this back to Heero and we both took a few seconds to celebrate. During the rest of the slide through the passage, Heero cheered me on." "I was so ...hopeful," Heero said. "Was?" Quatre said in a weak whine. "So was I! Anything like progress was so fucking sweet! Still, even though the passage was beginning to get larger, moving was still glacial. I had to continue scooting along for another foot and a half before I could slide my arms underneath me to use them to crawl. I kept thinking that my journey was about over, and then I was able to sit up some and move the last of the rock 'wall' we had erected earlier. "Those rocks served as a somber reminder that a little caution would be wise," Heero whispered. "Ooh, no, Wufei, stop that!" Quatre moaned, regaining his place fully seated on Trowa's lap. "I just know this is going to go bad now." "Yeah, well, shit. Anyway, that last push did it." "De mountain gave bir't to a bouncing baby Maxwell." "Sure, 'Tro, something like that. Geez, wadda comedian. So, I shouted back to Heero that I was through! We both took a moment to congratulate ourselves on our success. I gave him a description of what the cave looked like, even though I couldn't see far into the passage. There was a gentle right turn and then it seemed to go for a ways, but all I had to go by was the little light from Heero's lamp at the far end. I was unable to do anything at this point but sit, due to the size of the passage. "A lot of the broken rocks we had pushed through Trieze's Tomb were around me, but there were no other signs of human intrusion. This bothered me to no end-- and it should have bugged me more. I started to wonder how this could ever have been some kind of escape route from the governor's place, but let it go in favor of getting a move on. "Heero had tied the end of the rope to my leg, remember? And I had pushed my lamp through the squeeze. After I got the light fired up, the only thing I could see was a narrow passage with a low ceiling. I would easily be able to get through it, but I would have to crawl-like that would be a problem, right? "At the end of the crawl, the cave bent slightly to the right. I climbed up a gentle slope and was able to stand by the end of the next section of cave. Not only could I stand, but I could move my arms. The floor was covered in rock, which crunched as I crawled, and then walked across it, while the walls were basically the same popcorn stuff, except pristine white. It was obvious no one had been there before me, but... well I was caught up in the moment to much to think, I guess, 'cause that was significant. "You were distracted," Heero commented. "Right. That, too. I was not even through the second section of cave and I could barely hear Heero." "Caves passages are not acoustically friendly," Wufei commented. "Right... I shouted to 'Ro that I would go for a bit then return. He said that would be fine, and to be careful." "I said to come back and I'd go with you, idiot." "Bad acoustics, like Chang said," Trowa said with a tight smile. "Like you say--," Duo chuckled. "Yeah, so, with his blessing, I explored some more. I could walk nearly upright at this point, when I discovered a bunch of crystals stuck together on the wall to my right. It was in several layers on the wall, with this clear candle wax looking stuff that seemed to melt and drip down the wall. There were several of these, the longest was about the size of my hand. There would have been one much longer, judging by the size of the base, but it had broken off. I looked to see if I could locate where it ended up, maybe collect it? But I couldn't find it." Duo's shoulders sagged and he looked down at the floor, then at his cutup hands. "I also couldn't find where the passage continued on. And the rope wouldn't stretch any further, which made me think Heero was signaling me to go back; you know, reeling me in. Anyway, that put the kibosh on it at that point--I had reached another dead end." "How disappointing after all that hard work!" Quatre and Duo shared a commiserating glance. "Yeah, it was." "And then it happened." Heero bent his head and studied his empty mug, avoiding everyone's stares. "What?!" Quatre cried out. "What happened?" "From behind me I heard this scraping noise." "Oh, no! Duo!" "It was loud. It was close! It was coming from the large room I had just left! I wheeled around to face whatever had made that noise. When I did, I forgot where I was and stood up at the same time." "Crunch!" Trowa remarked. "Ouch." "You got it, 'bro. My head crashed into the passage ceiling. My lantern bounced against the wall and blinked out, and I was buried in the heavy darkness. Pain shot through my neck and down into my back. Fear enveloped me and my knees began to weaken, and buckle and..." "Oh, no!" came a whimper from Quatre. Trowa's low crooning became a background murmur, softening the blow, the memory of all the pain the empath had felt the night before, and bringing him peace of mind. "Somehow, I got my shit together to set down the lantern gently even though I was seeing stars from the pain in my upper back. The scraping noise lasted only a coupla seconds, and now the only sound I could hear was my own freaked out breathing. Not only could I feel the fear crowdin' my chest but also the dark held me in place. I felt-" "Like you was on de chopping' block, non?" "He was vulnerable from every direction," Wufei snapped. "Anyone would be frozen in fear under the circumstances." "Yeah, thanks," Duo said. "I wanted to turn and look behind me, and to the side of me, and in front of me. But everywhere I looked, I saw black." Quatre whimpered and covered his face with his arms, "I felt that." "Sorry, bud. Couldn't help it. I did finally I crack through the... stupor of terror long enough to reach for a match. The first one I struck, wouldn't light. I nearly cried! I had forgotten to put fresh matches in my pockets and I'd be lucky if I'd find one that wasn't damp. I tried two more until one took and I lit the lantern. It was better than nothing. In the lamp light, I strained to get a glimpse of any movement in the room." "Nothing." "Yeah, nothing, like 'Ro said. I was shaking like crazy sitting there trying to figure out what to do. My mind went all zooie and mungy-don't ask. I honestly thought I was going to die right there in the cave. I was nearly sobbing with fear. I knew the only way out of here was back the way I came. But SOMETHING was there! There was no way call to Heero, so I tried to think of another plan, but I could only focus on the memories of that grinding sound. I slumped against the side of passage, breathing as if I had just ran a marathon and never breaking eye contact with the shadows. As my shoulder touched the wall I had a powerful jolt of pain remind me of my run-in with the roof of the cave." "Despair, agony, terror," Quatre intoned. "I felt those. I didn't know they were coming from you." "Wufei was fighting off guards that followed him, so what you felt was probably a mixed bag coming from all of us." Heero tucked his hands in his pockets and slouched deeper into his chair. "I can't say exactly how long I sat there, but my feet were tingling and my knees were sore. The pain in my back crept lower, although my neck felt no different. I resolved to move and exit that fucking passage alive. Screw the thing in there with me! I knew if I waited too long I would lose what little light I had. I couldn't stand straight; I didn't have the strength, so I crawled slowly to the near end of the large room, dragging one end of my rope beside me and keeping the lantern upright in front. I think knowing that Heero was at the other end of that rope was all the supplied me with the resolve to go on." Duo smiled wanly at his lover before proceeding. "I used the walls of the cave to cling to for support, and got into a kinda hunched over position. That got me to breathing rapidly, so I stood there a minute. I had dropped the rest of the rope at some point and I could see it trailing off into the murky distance. I knew I wasn't going to feel any better waiting, so I plodded across the room. My eyes were staring straight ahead, straining for any signs of movement. With every step my light would cast damned creepy shadows on the wall, keeping me busy trying to look at every one. My eyes burned from not blinking. "How many? How long had this been going on, I wondered?" "The only sounds I could hear were the crunch of my feet on the broken rock, and the wheezing of my breath. And I reeled in my rope, each step bringing me closer to the tomb." "Closer to Heero," Quatre said. "Closer to safety, was my thought," Wufei put in. Trowa just summarized what they were thinking with "Same thing." "Yeah, that's what I was thinking to keep going. But that short trip through the room took me forever. Everything about that cave seemed to give off fear vibes. And at the far end of the room, I could just barely see the round rock. Something seemed different about it, but I couldn't tell what." "What round rock?" Wufei asked. "Didn't I mention that? Oh, well, it was by the crystals. Big round rock near the wall. Had to go around it to get by. It didn't seem awesome or anything, considering the crystals the first time I went past it. But going back--," Duo's face fell into a dark expression, remembering the experience. "When I got within a few feet of the thing, I could finally tell what had changed. It had moved! THAT was the sound I heard." "Moved? What-- the rock!" Quatre slipped off Trowa and ran to Duo, taking him in his arms. "The rock?!" "Yes! I was absolutely terrified! I realized how close I was to... something, but I had no choice but to continue on." "How did you get the courage to move?" "Well, Quat, I gotta tell ya, it was not easy. I inched toward the rock, holding the lantern ahead of me while my hand was shaking like mad. I stopped just this side of the rock and wound up the slack in the rope, and then it stretched tight. The rock was sitting on the rope. There's no way in hell that it accidentally slipped under a rock the size of, well, the sofa there! It had to have weighed tons, right?" "Yes..." Quatre's answered in a weak voice. "But...how?" An answer must have come to mind because his face paled in the golden glow of the fire. "AH!" Trowa hushed him with quiet word, and pulled him to the couch where they could sit comfortably close. "Den w'at?" "I used my knife to cut it free and wrapped the loose stuff around my waist. Good thing I only lost a couple feet of rope, because I'd need all I could get later. Right 'Fei?" "Yes, for the climb down. That was close." Duo sighed and locked eyes again with Heero. "I had never felt so alone and helpless." "Buried deep below, voluntarily in, his casket of rock." Wufei stooped and looked at Quatre who had clicked his tongue in a disparaging way. "It's a poem!" "A famous haiku, in fact," Heero commented. "When I felt the rope go slack, my heart stopped." From the look on his face everyone could believe he meant it. "That's why I tied the other cut end right back onto my ankle as fast as possible." "I know, and when you tugged three times, my heart started beating again." "W'at about de rock?" "Oh, my eyes never left that fucking round rock. My breathing was rapid, my throat dry as ashes and aching and my mouth had gone all dusty. With every crunch of the rock below my feet my heart tried to jump through my throat." "Did you see anything?" Quatre asked. "Well, in the glow of my lantern, nothing moved. Nothing. I passed the rock-" "Boulder." "Thanks Wu-man. Boulder, then, in several rapid steps." "Dat's 'quick like de gator'." Duo stared at them both. One, then the other until they looked down, abashed, then he smiled. "Okay, I slipped past the boulder quick as a shit-assed gator, and when I reached the other side I jumped back in horror at what I saw." "What, WHAT?" Quatre shouted, standing again. "In the side of the passage near the floor was a hole-- with another passage revealed. It had been covered by the rock! BUT NOW IT WAS EXPOSED!" "De rock. You t'ink it moved, really? How could de rock have moved by itself?" "I wondered that myself, and I gotta tell you, I didn't like any of the answers I was coming back with. So, I backed away from the hole and collided with the opposite wall. I hadn't been paying attention to the pain in my back, but now it came back to me in all its fury. I stared down the newly discovered, passage." "You did go down that, did you Duo? Tell me you went back the way you came! " "Not immediately, he didn't," Heero told their sensitive friend. "He was-" "Nuts." "Crazy." "An idiot." "All those and more," Duo agreed. "Probably I wasn't thinking straight at the time. I just wanted to get one little look. I held up the light and could see that the hidden passage went down sharp and continued straight for as far as I could see. The lamp lit up the passage enough that I could tell the walls were fairly smooth, cut. The floor seemed to be the same way, unlike the rest of the cave. The passage was about 3 feet around as far as I could see. It would have been an easy passage to explore, if I'd had the least desire to do so." "That passage sounds unnatural," Wufei declared. "Manmade." "My thinking as well, and right then I wanted out of that cave and into the daylight, er, moonlight, more than anything else in the world. I slowly backed away from the hole thinking all the time about returning to Heero. I never took my eyes off the abyss. I nearly tripped over the dangling bit of rope in my hand as I turned to leave, and noticed how dark it was getting. My lantern was practically dead! I wanted to sprint back to Trieze's Tomb and from there to Heero. I really needed to hear the sound of his voice. "As I turned away from the large rock and the hole, I felt this total sense of panic fill my entire world, like I'd stepped under an ice-cold waterfall. Like a mob of demons was about to attack me from behind! I felt like my salvation lie ahead of me and Lucifer was behind me, trying to hold be back. I found myself sprinting faster than I shoulda been able to. My only thought was to get out pronto. I remember, vaguely, passing the crystal formation, barely even noticing its beauty this time. "Every time I ducked to avoid a rock I felt my back scream it's reminder of my injury. When I got to the point in the passage where I had to crawl, I put out the lantern, and dumped it, flinging myself down on all fours, barely slowing down as I dropped. When my hands hit the cave floor a shock shot all the way down my back and down my arms. For the first time since this nightmare had begun, I let out a scream. I crumpled down and lay there on the rock, with new levels of pain coming at me every time I breathed, whimpering from fear and pain, and listening for any other noise in the cave. The silence pounded in my head, but then I felt this calm presence. I knew that Heero was still out of earshot, but he was close. "Forcing myself to move was killing me. I winced as I pulled my body along the cave. I grabbed onto the loose end of the rope so it wouldn't catch up on anything, but I gave up checking behind me, and focused totally ahead of me. "I reached the point where I could yell, but I didn't want to stop long enough to talk yet. When I reached the last stretch of cave before the squeeze, crawling toward the beginning of the 'tomb,' that's when I called to Heero." "God, when I heard that call..." Heero's voice cracked with emotion. "It had been too long since you'd left and I knew something was wrong by the sound of your voice. I answered back, and then you screamed for me to get everything ready to go. I asked if you were okay, and when you said no, I felt sick." "That's right. I told you 'no,' 'cause I wasn't okay, and said to get everything ready to go because there was something in the cave with us!" Duo's voice still held some of the terror he had felt at the time. Reliving the horror was upsetting him and he choked up, losing his voice. "Sit." Heero pulled him to a chair at the table. As he poured out the last of the ale for Duo, he took up the story. "Luckily, while Duo was risking his life in total terror, I discovered the other passage. It was completely out of sight from below, but I had to move around while waiting, and, so, I had climbed onto the outcropping, and then to another shelf of rock, and found this big opening about three feet high. It looked as if it had been used, but not recently by the settling of dust over the threshold." Heero sighed. "When I studied it carefully, I found two holes that looked to have been man-made below the opening. I think wooden pegs once fit in the holes, from which a rope ladder might have hung, at one time. So, while Duo caught his breath, I told him about the alternate route." The drink restored his voice and Duo could talk again. "Man, I was so stoked to get outta there and that news was like manna from heaven. You had some 'splaining to do, but that could wait till later." "You seemed saner after that, which was why I let you lead. I also intended to be right behind you, because that was going to be our last chance. We'd either get through together or not at all." Heero wiped a hand on a thigh and kneaded a strained muscle. Duo hadn't forgotten that the trip had wounded him, too, and so he nudged Heero with his hip in a comradely gesture and coaxed a smile from him. "My lantern oil was running low and I noticed that Duo had jettisoned his already at some point. He was limping and bleeding so I asked about his status again." "And I'll bet he said he was A-okay," Quatre said with a chuckle. "Almost exactly." "Well, hey? My back ached with every move I made. I knew it didn't matter, though. I was going to get up to that high passage as fast as I could, injuries not withstanding. And wouldn't you know it, just as I started to climb, the wind came a-blowing up from the tomb and with it the most nauseating stench I have ever stumbled upon, and I have slept in sewers... Well, it smelled like damp, rotting, rancid, putrid, DEATH. I almost started to dry-heave. I pulled my shirt up over my nose. Damn it wasn't the God-awful smell. "I smelled it too," Heero said. "Yeah, you started yelling 'what is that?' as if I knew shit for pancakes!" Trowa and Quatre exchanges curious looks and Wufei snarled, "Don't' expect me to translate L2 slang," but his voice carried no malice, and then he smiled fractionally to prove it. "I was urging you to move your ass," Heero corrected him. "Oh, well I told you I was going as fast as my aching head would let me, then I took a deep breath through my shirt, finished the climb, and waited at the opening for you to hand me the bags and your lantern, mine being left in the other passage, useless, if you recall." "And when I reached Duo, I tied the pack with the plans to his rope and told him to pull it through. Then I told him to start heading into the tunnel-- that I would catch up with him when I got through." "You sure were ordering me around a lot, I know that." Duo smiled wanly. "I'm sorry I yelled at you..." Heero paused and settled a soft look on Duo, which melted away all the chilling memories. "... but I was anxious." "Yeah, well it really heaped on more fear and panic, as if I needed any more, but I get where you were coming from. I mean, I had my own brain failure going and was working at getting us out of that place. I didn't mention my bum head and back and boo-boos, which probably would have made a difference, huh, 'Ro?" "Boo-boos?" Trowa crooned in the background. "I would have taken the lead and pulled you through, had I known!" Heero assured him. "Hard to tell w'ich is de leader wid d'oes two." "They take turns," Quatre whispered back. His eyes slid askance over to Duo. "You do, er, did in the cave, didn't you?" "We always do," Heero said, effectively ending the subtle inferences. "Which was why I didn't complain. I was hurting, but I could control the speed being in front. With every step, pain shot through my lower back and my neck. My arms were shredded and my shoulder had a nice gash in it. I couldn't see my head, but I know that was sporting a cut or two. I honestly believe that were it not for the terror I felt at the time I would not have had wherewithal to climb out. I was running on pure excitement, which was about to end." "But you got out!" Quatre insisted. "We sure did. That upper passage 'Ro discovered was the ticket. You see, most of our hours in the cave had been fucking wasted moving rocks and squeezing through freakin' rat-ass sized holes. Once we got into that tunnel, we moved like hell-on-wheels. Heero took the packs and I took the lantern. We crawled until it opened up so we could run stooped over." "Duckwalking," Quatre said. "You called it that before. I think that's very descriptive." "Hn," Heero said dismissively. "Duo? I think I only had the one bag by then, ditching mine with a few spare things-- like my coat-- when we had to get through a tight spot. We had about a half an hour of relatively easy climbing then crawling the rest of the way." "Yeah, but we were moving like shit on a skillet all the way. I didn't see or hear Heero until I reached the final drop that would take us out of the cave. I called out to him when I could see moonlight, and I could tell he was as tense as I was when he told me to start climbing down and not wait for him. Of course, I didn't; I had the only lantern. We both knew that would be too dangerous and not something we would ever normally do. I stood there looking down at the rock fall like it was a red carpet to freedom and waited for him to join me." "You danced around in the moonlight. I didn't see how you had the energy for that." "Did I? heh heh Don't even remember doing that. In front of me was my link to the outside--to light and, safety. Behind me was darkness, fear, the unknown. I'd cheated death and that made me like the God of Death! And for a fucking fleeting moment I had the feeling that I had outwitted the monster and had reached the front door of the haunted house." "Just as he reaches for de knob he hears a sound behind him and turns, only to see..." "Trowa! Stop that! I'm already plenty creeped out." "Sorry, love." "When I caught up to you, it was just in time. As we started the climb out when you nearly fell a couple times." "I was getting all weak. That little dance musta've used up everything. I managed to recover enough to get myself down the last few feet without breaking a leg, though." "You did and then we heard Chang's voice from far below. He had our horses and that's when we learned we had to use our ropes to climb about 60 feet down a cliff before we were done." "Without 'Ro I never woulda done that. I never woulda made it." Quatre let out a loud sigh. "That's the most romantic thing I've heard you say." "Well, I...ah..." and Duo felt the tips of his ears burn. "I can be romantic." "Please, not now," Wufei said, interrupting. "You're almost done with the story. You can romance it up when you're done." "Ya mean that?" Duo said, eyes twinkling in amusement. "In private," Wufei insisted. "In that case," Heero put in, "I'll hurry this along." He smiled a sly little smile Duo's way and then went on. "We had exited the cave, and through a series of steps, bound together enough rope to reach nearly to the bottom where Wufei stood. I lowered Duo and then I sent down the things we still had with us. When it was my turn, I rappelled slowly because I could hear the tension in the rope as a stretching noise. I couldn't believe that the rope would break; it wasn't damaged. But I hoped it would hold up with me still attached to it. The second that I reached bottom, I untied it from my waist and thought about climbing up the cliff and feet yards only just enough to recover some of the rope. But then I saw Duo kneeling down by Wufei, the lantern making his features glow and he looked so... pale. I limped over to him and collapsed." "You were a mess, too, 'Ro. For the first time in a long while we could really see each other. We just stared. I knew I looked like shit, but didn't know that he was in such bad shape." "Oh, he was nothing as bad as you looked," Wufei said. "Duo had cuts and scrapes on every exposed surface of his body, which was a lot since his clothes were in shreds. His face was pale, almost white. His mouth and his eyes were wide open. He was breathing heavily. Almost gasping. He was going into shock and we had a 15 mile ride yet to go. That is why I had them both in a bath the minute we got in." "You did?" Trowa managed to instill all the innuendo possible into his question. "Not me-- them!" Wufei said with a sharp tone to stifle any further discussion. "Yeah, well, the real shock came when we saw the rope move." "How did the rope move? Wasn't it tied to something up at the cave on top?" Quatre asked. "Yeah, tied. It shouldn't have been moving. Maybe swaying in the wind, but this wasn't like that. I was frozen in place. Overwhelmed with fright." "I watched the knot on the end rise in the air." Wufei shook his head. "Simply transfixed at the sight." "We all were," Heero said. "It started slow, and then suddenly the end of the rope zipped up and over the edge of the cliff, the speed of it causing a humming noise as it went. Watching the rope fly over the edge was- it brought back the feelings I had, when the rope attached to you went slack." "It wasn't doing anything good for me at the time either." "You were both just laying there, wide eyed, staring until the point the rope disappeared. I didn't know anything about what had transpired inside that cave-- not until just now. I thought the governor's guards had materialized outside the cave and were about to come barreling down that cliff after us." Wufei's eyes widened and he repeated himself, methodically. "So when your rope disappeared up that cliff... I thought Trieze's guards had found us, were after us, but, that... that might not have been so!" Duo chimed in with a sing-song voice, "I told you there was something in the cave." "But did you ever see anything come out it?" Quatre was quick to ask. "No," Heero said. "Not after the rope trick. We did some shouting at each other, which seemed to break the trance, and we got on our horses and got away from the cave and the left the whole fucking nightmare behind us." Duo stopped and smiled. "And that's what I did on my summer vacation." "Oh, you! Very funny," Quatre chuckled. "That was very spooky and horrible for you, I'm sure. I felt some of it! But I got to thinking...," "Me, too," Trowa interrupted. "Dat rope trick, might have been juss dat. In de circus we have dis rope that's made twisted so w'en it's stretched too far and den released... it snaps back. Coulda been somthin' like dat, non?" "Maybe," Heero said cautiously. "Very possible, I would think." Quatre liked that reasoning and brightened. "Actually, I've been thinking about the purpose of that underground tunnel." "Beyond being a secret escape path?" "Yes, what if that's a place where the dead bodies of his enemies get stored. When Duo passed by that round rock, boulder, he might have sprung some kind of mechanism that made the rock move, or it might have been broken and just opened and closed periodically on its own. And when the wind was right, the smell would come up." "But the tunnel Duo passed through via Treize's Tomb hadn't been used before and the one I found that took us out of the cave hadn't been utilized in a long time." "And the tunnel we took out from his office to the stable was pretty darn dusty and in bad shape." "I'll bet that there has been a new tunnel built and it opens into the mountain in a different spot entirely, but shares that passage revealed by the moving rock. No one but you, Duo, would have tried those other tight passages." "So, we should be able to locate another way in, maybe." Trowa looked up, startled. "De ol' barracuda himself, Dekim, tol' me of a cave once. I never saw it or knew w'ere it was, 'cause I ran off, but dat could be w'ere he hides bodies or uses as an armory--," "Or for hiding tchotchkes!" Duo suggested. "Treasure?" Wufei spat. "Guns I'll believe, and get that look out of your eyes, Maxwell. We are not going to go back and start a treasure hunt. No for all the diamonds in L4. Not today." He cast about for support and since no one was about to budge, including Duo, he turned and out the window. "That's a myth, by the way," Quatre pointed out. "About the diamonds. Now, emeralds, that's something else. Oh, look, more snow." Snow fell in large wet clumps, piling up on the ground. "We aren't going anywhere today," Heero decided. Quatre rose and checked the weather for himself. "I'll see that our rooms are still available." "Three rooms," Trowa said. Wufei shot him a hard look. "Yes, three." "Ah, shucks, Wu? I was thinking it was our turn to keep ya warm. Heh, ha, ha!" Duo laughed at Wufei's scandalized expression. "Counting on it!" "Duo?" Heero ground out. "Yeah?" "Shut up!" and that came from Heero, Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre all together. One thing they could unanimously agree upon. Once again, Duo brought them all together, united, a single front to face the next stage of their adventure. "So, what about the scream? What was that?" Duo asked. "I need to wash up," Quatre declared. "Find the john..." Duo could also drive them apart, but not for long. "You," Heero growled in his ear, "are coming with me." And the look in Heero's eyes told Duo the innuendo was completely intentional.
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