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"Fire Born "Written By: Keiran Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters... Shame about that. Pairings: 1+2+1, 3+4+3, mentions R+1, mild Relena
bashing. Rating: R Important Note: This fic has been inspired by Madam Hydra’s ‘Balancing the Scales’. There will be some similarities. The author needs to get a good line to express her thanks to Sundaire, for putting up with her creepy use of commas and other mishaps. The author is very happy to have such a good beta.
"Fire Born" Chapter 2 Once the background was explained, the group settled down and listened to the disturbing news. In the end, the supposedly late general conjured a book and read a few chosen passages. “…and thus the Elemental Wars came to an end.” Treize finished reading and put the book down. He looked around the room. Everyone was silent. “So… that’s what the council is teaching the trainees now?” Quatre asked, his voice wavering slightly. “They don’t even mention Laure.” “No. Are you surprised? They remember him though. They just don’t want anyone else to remember,” Milliardo said, shrugging his shoulders. “Well. They might be right,” Wufei said from his place at the wall. They were all sitting in Heero’s and Duo’s guest room. “How can you say that?” Quatre said sharply. Trowa laid a hand on his shoulder. The blonde occasionally threw temper tantrums, which left any enclosed spaces he was in at the time in ruins. And that would be particularly dangerous, considering that they were sitting in Duo’s prized living room. They all remembered what happened to Wufei when he accidentally cut off a branch of a holly with his katana when running after the braided wonder. Quatre’s zero episodes were nothing when compared with Duo fury. “Nobody would like to have anything to do with us if they knew. They couldn’t have that, we are their ‘heroes,'” the black-haired boy replied dryly. “It would be rather hard to explain the reasons behind what happened.” “Pardon me for interrupting, but could you please stop talking in circles? I have no idea what you are all talking about. Starting with that Laure guy?” Duo said firmly, but not unkindly. He could feel the tension in the room grow until it was almost visible. Nobody dared to look into his eyes for a moment. Quatre lowered his head. “Laure… he was a companion of ours during the Elemental Wars,” he began carefully. “He was a Fire Born, like Wufei and you and the Dark Lord too.” “He was? You mean he hasn’t been born again with you?” Duo inquired. “No,” Quatre’s voice shook. “He wasn’t. He was… burned. If you die in a fire that consumes your body, you cannot return. Same as when you’re drowned and left in the water until there’s nothing left of your body, or buried alive and never recovered. Also, if you die because of lack of air and your body is destroyed without any outside help. That almost never happens; it’s a very complicated suicide method. Actually, the latter three are all so very rare that almost no one knows of their results.” “Why so? I mean, why can they never come back? There’s a difference or something?” Quatre breathed freely. Duo seemed to have swallowed the bait, line hook and sinker, at least for now. He would definitely ask for answers later. The rest of the room shared Quatre’s relief. “Because dying like that means that you’re consumed by the element entirely. It swallows you, so to speak. In all other cases there is a link to anything, like the ground, the place, the person that lived and stayed. Something of an anchor,” Milliardo cut in. “Now it turns out that you actually can handle an explanation. While you’re being so informative, would you mind telling me what’s the deal with being a Fire Born or something?” Duo said, fluttering his eyelashes. The white-haired man snickered. “Are you sure it’s wise to do that when your boyfriend is watching?” he said, referring to the movement of Duo’s lashes. Duo beamed. “Every child is born under an Element,” Milliardo started to explain. “That’s where the name for the war came from, you know. No one could think of anything better, so they called it the War of Elements. It later became the Elemental War. Sort of stupid, because the people were doing the fighting, not the elements, but the name needed to be catchy. Anyway. Everyone has Elemental power. The only difference is that the type of it varies. We have the power necessary to use magic, while the ‘normal’ folk have the power to understand the reasons behind everything. None of us would be able to invent anything mechanical, past a wheel perhaps. We were not made to. We owe the supposedly normal ones basically everything, clothes, furniture, means of transportation and so on. “In return, we are able to protect them from the damage they’re doing to the Earth with their inventions. Of course, it’s not like any of us would be able to snap our fingers and fix the ozone layer or something, but we can slow its expansion and keep everything from spreading too far too fast.” “But I was able to fix Deathscythe during the war. We all know how to run machinery,” Duo put in, puzzled. “Yes, how to run it, perhaps.” This time it was Treize who answered, while Heero and the other teenaged pilots silently edged out from the room. “But you would never be able to design a machine. All the things like repairing and using are no problem if you are intelligent enough, which we know you are. Building is something quite different though. “And it’s not just the technical knowledge. Do you believe in God?” the man asked suddenly. Duo shook his head slowly. “That’s because we are able to see the spiritual world, if only subconsciously. We know what happens after one's death, even if it’s only instinctual. We do not have to make a theory out of it.” “So… God does not exist?” Duo asked, somewhat sadly. It hurt to hear that all of the people in the Church died, and there was nothing waiting for them. “Not exactly the God you’re thinking of. Have you ever heard of Democritus?” “Um, as in the guy who introduced the concept of atoms?” “Yeah. He said that just like matter, a soul is made of atoms,” Milliardo said, launching another round of explanations. “These soul atoms behave like all others, and when a person dies their soul is divided into atoms, the Elements determine the type of the atoms, which are scattered once again. They then may become a part of another human soul. Or any other living being’s. So people live… sort of. We might get reborn wholly as humans, because we are more in tune with our elements. Our souls keep themselves together in their designed shape.” The man paused. Then he shrugged. “However, there’s no telling, there might even be a God.” “That sounds odd. If you ever said something like that in front of church officials, you’d be dead meat! In the old days, I mean,” Duo said ruefully. “Well, a few untrained mages were actually burned for ‘Heresy' you know,” Treize put in, smiling. “Most of them were reborn, because they weren’t completely burned when the fire died down.” “This living-dying business suddenly sounds a lot less disturbing,” Duo mused, picking on his braid. “Less than usual, at least.” *** Elsewhere, the four remaining pilots were trying to achieve a level of understanding regarding their long-haired companion. So far, it included one swollen jaw, a nearly broken wrist (courtesy of Heero) and some tears (provided by Quatre). “Heero, start thinking with your head, for once! With you it’s either the gun doing the thinking, or your damn heart. What do you want us to do? Keep Duo in the dark until Rauko kidnaps him and enlightens him about what great friends he has?” Wufei let his temper get the better of him. “The last time I used my head to think, as you put it, I ended up making the worst mistake of my life,” Heero snarled. “I’m not doing it again!” “Heero, none of us want to hurt Duo. But he needs to know what he is getting into. He is not Laure, Heero. Remember that. He will understand… eventually,” Quatre said softly. The brown-haired boy glared at him. “I know he isn’t! It’s you who’s got problems with seeing that!” he forced through clenched teeth. Trowa narrowed his eyes. “Get a hold of yourself Yuy! No one wants to take your boyfriend away from you!” he whispered furiously. “Look. I will tell him. But not right now,” Heero answered softly, glaring at his friends. He was quite angry. He knew better than anyone who Duo was and who he wasn’t. Even if he was a Fire Born, even if he felt like a blazing fire, even if his loved ones meant more to him than anything else… Duo was not Laure. Although they were quite similar in some ways, he simply couldn’t compare the innocent, sweet cleric he fell in love with before the ancient war with the ruthless soldier called the God of Death. There was simply too much contrast between the two. Heero spent a lot of time contemplating the reasons for getting involved with Duo. The main problem back then was whether he liked Duo because of Laure, or because of who Duo was. Now he was fairly sure that while loving Laure might have played a part in his feelings (after all, character-wise they were quite similar) as of now, he only had feelings for Duo Maxwell. ‘So much for the soul-mates crap people have been feeding me.’ “I swear,” the soldier continued. “I will explain everything to him. But I will do it myself and none of you will interfere.” “I will hold you to your word, Yuy,” Wufei interrupted Quatre’s attempts to argue. “But do not expect me to wait forever for you to do it. He must be informed before the war breaks out.” Heero looked him in the eyes and nodded solemnly. Having arranged something, they returned to the living room, just in time to see Duo attempting not to set anything on fire with a tiny ball of flame he juggled. “See, Heero’s been teaching me stuff. Cool, eh? It’s handy on the campsite,” he beamed, making the light disappear. “Where have you been?” he asked curiously, seeing his friend enter the room again. Heero was opening his mouth to answer, but Wufei beat him to it. “We needed to discuss a strategy for dealing with the idiots that rule the World. We weren’t sure how they would react to us now.” The long-haired boy bounced on his seat. “Don’t tell me. The high, mighty and I-don’t-have-a-clue-kind, right?” “Not exactly. More of a high, mighty and I-know-it-all kind,” Milliardo supplied helpfully. “Those kind of people. Don’t know which is worse,” Duo muttered while the rest of the guys sat down. “This feels so like a fantasy novel. Therefore, right now we should go and see the guys who rule the underworld and go on the quest to find a Thimble of Power, or something. How close am I?” he asked no one in particular. “We need to go and see a council, that’s true. We have to do so soon, unfortunately,” the general said, taking a sip of his coffee. “I’m not sure about the Thimble of Power though… It might just work, now that I think of it. It would be less conspicuous than strange rings, for example.” Heero barely restrained a growl. He pulled his boyfriend as close to him as possible, while said boyfriend looked at him sideways, a funny expression on his face. If anyone tried to take Duo away, they would pay dearly. Probably with their very lives. Or worse. **TBC**
Chapter 3 |
