Quatre sighed and glared at the stars outside his shuttle’s window. Trowa’s hand closed around his. Quatre’s eyes slowly faced his lover’s orbs of deep-sea green. Trowa always had no problem expressing his feelings in his eyes when his angel was the one person who might see it. During the past seven years since the MaireMaia war, he had been getting better at not worrying about the others around him, however Catherine still complained about his lack of emotion when Quatre was not around, or the subject of the conversation. Rasid even commented on Trowa’s change. He said that when Quatre was around Trowa was more open, talkative and emotional, however when Quatre was busy elsewhere the older and taller boy found no reason to be part of the crowd and would sulk back into the shadows and only grunt his responses. Quatre helped ease much of his pain, but Trowa had a long way to go before he was healed completely from his past.
“Are you gonna be ok?” asked Trowa, worry sprinkled into his wonderful eyes.
Quatre sighed, his heart was aching, and he felt guilty for making his lover worry like a mother hen. “I…I…I don’t know Trowa, I just don’t know. It will be nice to see Duo and Heero again.” Quatre sighed again.
“Yea, I just wish it was under different circumstances.”
“Less than an hour till we arrive, sirs,” the flight attendant announced over the shuttle’s loud speaker.
~~
Wufei coughed and woke himself up. He was in a dark room, and his head ached. He remembered being in the computer room “Nataku!” he called out, remembering his dead wife’s voice. He tried to get up, but then realized he was bounded to a bed. His arms felt like thick leathery-rope was tied around them, and his around his ankles he felt cool, thick metal. He relaxed and tried to give his eyes time to adjust to the darkness, but it was unlike any darkness he had ever seen. It was thick, not with just plan feeling, but almost as if the darkness was alive itself, as if no light could ever penetrate it. A masculine voice whispered something. Wufei had never heard the language it spoke before. A female whisper responded. Wufei tired to turn his head to get a better look at them, but it was of no use. His eyes couldn’t even make out slight shapes.
“Shhhh….” cooed the female, “There is no need for your struggle, Wufei.”
“Meiran?” Wufei asked, recognizing the voice.
“Kind of.” A hand slid across Wufei’s chest, he realized he was naked. A light blinded Wufei for a moment. He tried to close his yes, he did close them, but the blinding whiteness was under his eyelids as well. Meiran commanded something in that language again, and the white left Wufei’s view to be replaced with the red-black of the back of his eyelids. Wufei slowly opened his eyes, expecting to actually be blind. His eyes stung, he was sure the damage done by that damned light was beyond repair. Instead he realized he could see. He saw Meiran holding a glowing ball of the same light that had almost blinded him. It barely lit her face, showing the malicious smile spread across it and accenting the bends of the smile with shadow, making her look devilish. Somehow Wufei knew this was not his Meiran, sure the face appeared like his dead wife’s but it was not her. Somehow he also knew that the ball of light had come from him. He felt exhausted and he ached all over, she had torn that light out of him. Somehow this “person” in front of him had reached into his soul and pulled out physical light. He knew that was an inaccurate description. “What are you? Where am I?”
The evil smile grew wider, “Why, I’m your wife--”
“No you are not. You disgrace that image by wearing it! I demand to know the truth.”
She laughed at him, a wicked, evil laugh that matched her smile. “Let’s think about this shall we? Me…standing, fully clothed and something you don’t even understand. You…tied up, naked and human. Humans are so fragile, Wufei, you know that. You asked ‘what’ am I not ‘who’. You know I am not what you are!”
Wufei was too stunned to answer.
“As for where you are,” She dropped her hands and the ball of light remained where it was. “You are in heaven, or hell, or the place where non-human things live.” The way she said ‘human’ you would thing it was a dirty word. “After all, the difference between Heaven and Hell is really up to the person experiencing it.”
Wufei still didn’t know how to respond, and remained silent.
“But for you, for you, I think this will be hell.” The light that had come from Wufei soared to the ceiling of the room and exploded as it hit the top. The light spread into the stone above Wufei’s head and dimly lit the room around him. He was able to get a better look around. There were no windows and there didn’t seem to be a door. A tall man in black, or at least very dark, robes stood by the wall away from the bed. The room was a rough circle and the walls were a textured black rock. The female smiled and reached into her own robes, they matched the male’s. She pulled out a very long blade. Wufei glared at her.
“Don’t look at me like that, Chang. I’m going to have my fun no matter what. But I will give you one thing, I’ll drop this guise. Show you the ‘real’ me.” As she spoke Meiran’s face melted into another face. The eyes rounded, the hair grew, the face narrowed became round, the skin paled, and the nose grew longer and a bit wider. Wufei stared, wide-eyed as his beautiful wife changed into someone completely different. With Meiran’s face melted away the woman laughed and stalked towards Wufei, the weapon pointed towards his skin.
~~
Duo yawned a stretched his arms above his head. The elevator door dinged, telling him the double doors would be opening. He stepped inside as they did and heard someone yell his name, “Duo! Hold the elevator for us!” Duo held out his hand to stop the elevator door from closing. Quatre’s pale face smiled as he quickly moved into the elevator, closely followed by Trowa.
“Hey Quatre,” said Duo, cheerfully. “Long time no see.”
“Yeah. It’s a shame we have to meet again because of these circumstances.”
Duo nodded, “To be honest, I have no idea why they are calling us together though. It’s not like we have any idea where Wufei is.” He jokingly glanced sidelong at Trowa and Quatre, “Riight?”
Quatre looked Duo and giggled. Trowa sighed slightly.
“I see you haven’t changed, Duo.” Trowa said nonchalantly.
“Nor you, Tro.”
Quatre grabbed Trowa’s hand as the elevator opened to the 35th and last floor. A hallway lined with numbered doors opened to them.
“Damn, now which door where we supposed go into?”
Quatre took look at the paper he was holding. Duo assumed it has directions scribbled on it. “Um….Door 10.” Together they stepped from the elevator and walked down the hall.
Heero waited for his old comrades in a white-painted office with a long brown table lined with blue cushioned chairs. He sat in one of those chairs now, actually he had seated himself at the head, and he stared at the door, waiting for his comrades to open it and walk in.
“8…..9…..10! Here we are!” Duo opened the door and allowed Quatre and Trowa to enter first. He followed closely behind them. He closed the door behind him and finally surveyed the room. “Hey Heero!” He said cheerfully. “How’s it going?”
Heero grunted. “Duo.” He said by means of a greeting. Duo sighed and walked to sit across from Quatre, who had seated himself next to Trowa, who was to the right of Heero. There, Heero, take that, he thought smugly, knowing very well that probably Heero didn’t care that he had chosen to not sit next to him and that if, when they were alone, Heero ordered him to strip and bend over, he would strip and bend over…
Duo’s thoughts were interrupted by Lady Une entering the room from the door opposite the wall he, Trowa and Quatre had entered from.
All four young men looked up at her when she walked in. They had aged as Wufei had aged, losing little youth and lessening the expressions the wars had given them. Quatre looked like a pale angel. Duo had a smirk that fit a jokester. Trowa even had a curious look in his eyes. Each of them was worried about their friend, in his own way. Une held in her hand a tape. “This,” she held it up, “Is the security tape of the room Wufei was last seen in.”
She walked to the TV stationed against the wall of the room. Each pair of male eyes followed her as she popped the tape into the VCR. It began to play.
Wufei turned off the computer. A voice behind him whispered his name. He demanded who it was. The voice asked “Don’t you recognize my voice?” Wufei whispered his long-dead wife’s name.
The four young men watched as Wufei gingerly stepped towards the other human outline in the room. The camera finally recognized the darkness and switched to night vision. The room was shown in an eerie green light. It was Meiran. Everyone in the room recognized her from the one picture Wufei had of her. The one picture each had had the liberty of seeing. “Impossible,” whispered Heero. Quatre gasped. Suddenly the room was flashed with a bright light and static appeared for a second before the room came back, completely empty.
“How?” asked Heero.
Une sighed, “We don’t know. That woman in that room looked just like Meiran. We can’t prove it was really her though. Could have been re-constructive face surgery for all we know. I mean all we have to judge is a single picture. The only person still alive that would know for sure is Wufei. If he even is still alive.” She held back tears.
The room was silent. “How could she have gotten in and how did she get out?” asked Heero.
“We don’t know how she got in. If you view the tape, she just appeared. Millardo theorized that maybe that flash of light, somehow lead them out.”
“Traveling by light?” asked Trowa.
“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s all we can come up with. Logically, she should not have been there, and they should not have traveled out of there.”
“Damn it. This isn’t cool! It only leads to more questions! Does Sally remember anything?” Duo asked.
“No. She says he was working on reports when she went to bed. This is really eating her up. She’s really fond of him you know.”
Quatre nodded, he had always sensed that. “I wish there was just a way to know he was still alive!” Trowa reassuringly reached his hand on Quatre’s back.
“He is.” A male voice said from behind him. Surprised all five of them quickly glanced to the origin of the voice. A man with long white hair stood behind them. He had violet eyes, just like Duo and strong arms crossed against a white T-shirt.
“Who the Hell are you?!” Duo demanded.
The man smirked, Heero wondered where he had seen that smirk before, “Why, Duo. I’m your father.”