In Love With Death 2 [Final Part]
Over the next few days, Heero met Duo every night in his dreams. He hadn't had a single nightmare since he'd met Shinigami and he was beginning to find that he ran on autopilot during the days, thinking of getting to sleep just so he could meet with Duo. Once he was with Duo, he found that he dreaded the moment he'd have to wake up again. Duo was so cheerful and bright, so different to what Heero had imagined Death to be like. Heero found it easy to talk to the braided boy and he found himself telling Duo all about his life, about each day, everything. He wanted to spend every moment with Duo. He was so beautiful, too, especially his eyes when he laughed. Every morning Heero awoke with the memory of that one kiss tingling on his lips and the image of Duo's smiling face was all that got him through the day.
Heero sat on the shuttle next to Hilde, listening to the latest news about Mariemaia's army. They were headed to a battle, once again ready to fight for peace. It was still going to be over an hour until they reached their destination, though, and Heero found himself drifting into sleep. Hilde looked over at him and sighed, deciding to let him rest. He must have been up late, she supposed, and it must be hard on him having to rescue Relena and all.
Heero opened his eyes to find himself lying on a patch of cool green grass beside a stream. That was another thing he loved about Duo; every night the dreamscape was different. He'd been beneath the ocean, on the surface of the moon, in the depths of a forest... Heero smiled, catching sight of Duo sat next to him, a little further up the bank.
"Strange time to sleep," Shinigami commented, grinning. Heero moved over to sit beside him and stared down at the trickling stream, amazed at how peaceful he felt.
"I wanted to see you. I'm on the way to X18-999 to rescue Relena Peacecraft." He told Duo. He sighed, glad that he could leave the "perfect soldier" persona behind when he talked to the braided boy.
"More fighting?" Duo asked sympathetically, laying his head against Heero's shoulder and looking down at the water. Heero forced his heart not to hammer in his chest at having Duo so close, and couldn't resist playing his fingers through the braided boy's chestnut hair.
"Yes. It never ends, does it?" He murmured, wishing he could be in this peaceful dreamscape forever with Duo.
"Heero?" Duo asked suddenly, turning to look at the Wing pilot.
"Hmm?" Heero replied. Duo looked a little uncertain and that caught his attention.
"Do... Do you love Relena?" He looked into Heero's eyes, searching for something. He was startled when Heero laughed and shook his head.
"No. She's a friend, but I don't love her. Why?" Heero grinned mischievously at Duo's blush.
"I-I just wondered..." Duo stammered, trailing off at the look in Heero's cobalt eyes.
"I don't love her..." Heero repeated, leaning closer to Duo and capturing his lips in a light kiss. Duo smiled into the kiss and deepened it, his arms snaking around Heero's neck and Heero's arms holding him around his slim waist.
"Do you love me?" Duo asked breathlessly when they finally broke off, panting.
"Yes." Heero replied truthfully, leaning in for another kiss. Duo met his hungry lips gladly.
"I love you too, Heero." Duo told him when they parted. Heero smiled and stroked Duo's hair, but stopped, frowning when he felt the familiar tugging of reality pulling him back.
"Duo...I don't want to go back to all the blood and pain. I want to stay here with you, forever, where I don't have to be the perfect soldier anymore. Please, Duo, let me stay?" Heero asked urgently, struggling against waking up. Duo looked into his eyes sadly and shook his head, running his fingers along Heero's jaw.
"My beautiful Heero... You can't stay; you have to return. The world needs you to bring it peace; without you Mariemaia will win. Besides... To be with me for longer than a dream you have to die, and I could never ask that of you. One day, though, when you've lived your life, we will be together. I promise." The words faded away to nothing as Heero slipped into the darkness between dreaming and waking, taking only a second to return to the world at war.
Heero sat in Wing Zero beneath the ocean, his eyes closed. He wanted to fall asleep and go to Duo, never to return to the world of fighting and bloodshed again. He'd just fought Wufei and, in the middle of the fight, Duo's words had come back to him.
"When you've lived your life..."
Didn't he understand that a life without him was no life to live? Heero didn't want to go on without Duo, so he plunged Wing Zero into the ocean below him, not caring what happened anymore.
But... The earth needed him. If he didn't help, everything he'd fought for would be destroyed, and his friends would probably be killed.
There was a soft sound and a white light as the dormant Zero system switched itself on.
"Zero?" Heero murmured, opening his eyes. "Can you move?"
In answer Wing Zero hauled itself up on the ocean floor and stood, awaiting the next command. The Zero system blinked at Heero, offering a solution to his predicament that Heero accepted with a soft smile.
"Accepted. This will be your last fight, Zero. And mine. We'll stop Mariemaia and save Relena." He said, switching back into perfect soldier mode and taking off slowly towards the battlefield outside Mariemaia's sealed fortress.
Wing Zero's final blast burst against the fortress shields, exploding in a flash of white light as it bought the underground mansion to its knees. Wing Zero, with Heero inside, gave a final creak of protest as the engines failed, then plummeted towards the ground, landing with a crash that shook the ground around the crumbling fortress. After a moment Heero emerged from the remains of his decimated Gundam, wounded and weary, then raised his gun in one bleeding hand and stumbled towards the mansion entrance, knowing that he had to ensure that Dekim Barton, the one behind the Eve wars, was dead.
"I have killed Mariemaia. I will never kill again. I... I don't have to..." Heero murmured, dropping his gun as he collapsed into Relena's arms.
"Oh! Get some medics in here! Heero, hold on!" Relena gasped, ignoring the blood pooling around her and staining her clothes from Heero's many wounds. Three of the paramedics rushing in to tend to Mariemaia came over and frowned at the unconscious boy, laying him out on the floor and setting to work on his injuries.
Heero opened his eyes a little, focusing on the many gloved hands of the medics pawing at his wounds. He looked up, past the heads of the medics who he barely noticed even though they were all around him. He felt cold, the pain that had been throbbing through him until he had collapsed all but gone now. It was so hard to see anything, so hard to keep his eyes open... but there was something he had to find. Finally he caught sight of Duo stood in the shadows far back behind the paramedics, staring straight at him.
"You'd really give up your whole life, just to be with me? They can save you, you know." Came Duo's husky voice, as clear as if he were leaning over Heero and whispering in his ear. Heero's eyes slid closed wearily and he spoke in his mind, knowing that Duo could hear him.
"I love you... I don't want this, not any more. If I have to live without you then I don't want to live at all. Please, take me away, Shinigami?" Heero begged, opening his heavy eyes again a little in time to see a single tear trail down Duo's pale cheek as he smiled softly then began to walk forwards. He continued walking right up to Heero, passing through the medics as though they weren't even there, then knelt down and kissed Heero's lips gently. Everything around them paled as Duo's ghostly fingers reached down into Heero's chest and touched his heart, bringing the erratic beating slowly to a stop. Heero's eyes closed for the last time and a hint of a smile flickered across his lips for a moment before his tortured body fell back limply.
"His heart stopped!" One of the medics cried, grabbing the shock pads and calling for everyone to clear out of the way. The rest of the medics jumped back as the pads came down on Heero's still chest and his body jerked up for an instant, falling back once the jolt had passed. Relena watched in disbelief as they tried again and again, getting no response from the still soldier. Finally, after almost half an hour, the medics gave up and covered Heero's body with a blue sheet, just another casualty of the war. Relena broke down and sobbed that it was unfair, he had survived so much, why did he have to die now, when everything was at an end? It wasn't fair...
I stumble through my jaded life,
Longing to be free,
But now my pain is all behind
For Shinigami saved me.
Death holds me in his gentle arms,
And in my ear he sings:
"I'll keep you close for all of time,
Enfolded in my wings."
Don't cry for me, for you must know
That now I'm with my love,
And here we'll be, eternally,
Watching from above.
This is not the end, my friends,
Lift the sadness from your hearts,
This is not the epilogue;
It's where the story starts.
On a misty plain of green grass somewhere far above the world a light sprinkle of rain began to fall. Heero took Duo's hand and smiled softly, then they both turned and walked away into the white mist floating around the edges of the dreamscape, together at last for more than just the span of a dream. On the peaceful earth, far below, the first soft flakes of snow began to fall on Christmas day.
End.