>1. Have Wufei sing a Prince Song or the Artist formerly known as prince song or be the subject of a Prince songfic
Okay, you asked for it....
Warnings: Yaoi. Oh and get kleenexes.
Spoilers: End of series.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing characters and universe are the property of the copyright owners. My stuff is mine. No money being made here.
Notes: I know there are already a bunch of good fics on this subject but when did that ever stop me???
Y'know how I claim everything I post is a "my first"? This is my first songfic and my first answer to a challenge. (heh heh)
Feedback: Any and all comments, feedback, critiques welcome, be they short or long.
"I'm not gonna kill U
I want U 2 do me a favor
I want U 2 tell all your friends about me"
"What are U?"
The battle was over. The Earth was saved. The Colonies were finally speaking as one group, for peace and cooperation. The Gundam pilots had fought for justice and somehow justice has prevailed...
It was time to find the dead.
Wufei parted from the others quickly and silently, knowing Duo would follow Heero, and Trowa would see to it that Quatre made it to medical care. On Earth, and in the Colonies, there would be celebrations... then mourning. In time, there would be much work to do, to clear the debris of war from Space. For now, those who'd survived the horrible carnage could only find their way to places of rest and try to understand why they lived.
Wufei would not be joining them. He had business among the dead.
It took time, but he found the broken pieces of Tallgeese, floating in an arched orbit that would bring it down into the Earth's atmosphere to burn. Perhaps Treize would have wanted that - to be cremated by re-entry, his dust given to both Earth and Space. But Wufei did not intend to let it happen.
Carefully he gathered the pieces of the prototype mobile suit, curling Nataku's dragon arms around them. The last piece he found was the cockpit, ripped open, it's contents spilled into space.
Treize was not inside.
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it works
If there's life after, we will see
So I can't go like a jerk
Wiping his eyes, Wufei glanced reflexively at the console clock. He'd been in the orbital battlefield for 6 hours, searching. Nataku was down to so little fuel that it would be a miracle of he could make it to any place safely now. He hadn't eaten or rested, and the small supply of water in the cockpit was almost gone. It didn't matter. He would find what he was seeking, or be found here on some future day by others. He would not give up. There was nothing left to hold him, nothing to keep him from doing the only task left with any meaning.
As he searched, the final moments of his battle with Treize replayed in his mind over and over, like a broken recording set on infinite loop.
"Treize," he muttered, not even aware he was speaking aloud after so many hours alone in the search. "Why did you have to choose me to carry out your plan? Did you hate me so much? Why was I appointed executioner?" The words were half slurred, complimented by a chorus inside his head of other things that even the solitude could not wring from his lips... Why hadn't he realized? Why hadn't he stopped? Why had be been so certain of his understanding, and how had the Oz leader manipulated him so deftly that he hadn't even suspected what was to come until it was over?
"You said I understood you... I thought you didn't care about all those who died in your insane war of principle... but knowing... knowing that you counted, remembered, knew each one by name... does that make you less a monster? Are they not just as dead? Was L5 not just as betrayed?"
Systematic overthrow of the underclass
Hollywood conjures images of the past
New world needs spirituality that will last
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it works
If there's life after, we will see
So I can't go like a jerk
The claxon warning on Nataku's fuel gage had been ringing unheeded for twenty minutes. Absently, Wufei reached over to silence it. There... something beyond the next group of shattered mobile dolls... probably another Oz suit, another dead soldier...
It was just another figure in a spacesuit, helmet dark, face averted. Wufei opened the cockpit and went out after it, as he had done 7 times before this, knowing he would only see another dead face, or at best, a helmet so filled with blood that no face was visible.
This gently floating figure had a scorched area along the left side, probably from a suit explosion. Something about the burn tickled at his mind but he was so tired...
Grasping the arm of the figure, he turned it, bracing passively for the next horror.
It was Treize.
Yellow Smiley offers me X
Like he's drinkin' 7-Up
I would rather drink 6 razor blades
Razor blades from a paper cup
He can't understand, I say 2 tough
It's just that I've seen the future and, boy, it's rough
Wufei stared at the still face, closed eyes... for a wonder, no disfiguring wounds were visible. For a few moments Wufei couldn't move... it was as if he could not believe he had found what he had been searching for.
At last, he came to himself, and began pulling the body with him, back to the Gundam. Bringing it into the cramped cockpit was not easy but he managed it by putting Treize in the pilot's seat and then wedging himself beside it, working the controls around. Once the hatch was sealed, and re-pressurized, he took off his helmet, then took off Treize's.
Knowing it was pointless, Wufei held a finger close under Treize's nostrils, trying to detect any sign of respiration. There was nothing on his body to indicate a mortal wound, but the suit hid a great deal. There would be no indication if there were massive internal injuries cause by the Tallgeese's explosion.
No.. no breath... or... was it...?
Staring down at the still face, Wufei realized that he was not sure if he were hallucinating or not. It wasn't possible that he could be...
Another warning bell sounded on the console but Wufei hardly noticed it. The Altlong tried to inform it's pilot that his oxygen supplies were running low, along with fuel.
"I'm not going anywhere," Wufei said absently, brushing his fingertips along the smooth cheek, tracing the curve of forehead and brow. "I'm staying here with you. I know you wanted to be cremated... I was going to take you to the sun... but Nataku won't make it with what little fuel we have left. Someone may find us... What will they think, finding you here with me? I don't know or care. No matter how hard I've tried, my life has been one mistake after another. I'm not complaining, Treize-sama. The stars don't shine on everyone. But why you... how could this have been your plan? Was I to go on, bearing the burden of your death until my own? I think I'll stay here a while before that happens. Perhaps I have surprised you at last, do you think?"
Frowning, he brushed at the moisture that seemed to be falling on Treize's still face.
I... I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it works
And if there's life after, we will see
So U can't go like a jerk - no, no
I've seen the future and it will be
Wait a minute
So shallow... but it was a breath. I'm having oxygen deprivation visions, Wufei thought, but there was nothing wrong with going along with it. It was time to stop struggling. Reaching behind him, he grabbed an oxygen mask from the console and hit the switch that diverted the airflow to the mask, placing it over Treize's face. Then he placed his hand over the base of Treize's breastbone and pushed - hard.
"Come on, kisama - fight! You of all people to give in so tamely... making every word you ever spoke to me a lie... FIGHT YOU BASTARD!!!"
At the second blow, there was a horrible, rattling, wet sound, and suddenly the airmask was full of blood. Wufei jerk it away, his head spinning, gazing with agony at the bright red splashes that marred the face of the man he had...murdered... but something... gasping for a breath of his own, Wufei blinked, for Treize's mouth was open, and his chest moved...
Reaching behind him, Wufei hit the switch again, sending the airflow back to the cockpit vents, and reached a trembling hand to touch the red-stained face, wiping the blood away, leaving smears.
Pretty pony standin' on the avenue
Flashin' loaded pistol, 2 dumb 2 be true
Somebody told him playin' cops and robbers was cool
Would our rap have been different if we only knew?
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it works
And if there's life after, we will see
Don't go out like a jerk
Treize opened his eyes, unable to comprehend what was happening. His chest burned, and his head throbbed with agonizing pain... but the pain meant something important, if he could just remember... the pain meant...
Blinking, he looked up, seeing the haggard face of the Chinese pilot above him, chin smeared with an absent swipe of blood, dark eyes open and staring down into his own circled by purple bruises that aged him like a sick child.
"Treize..." Wufei whispered, as if calling a ghost.
Suddenly Treize realized what the pain meant. It meant he was alive.
The console crackled.
"Wufei! Wufei!" the voice repeated insistently. Staring at the ghost of his enemy, Wufei absently thought the voice sounded a bit like Trowa.
"Wufei, I can see you... answer!"
Reaching behind him, Wufei opened the comm.
"What do you want?"
The comm made a noise, as if the person on the other end was expressing something non-verbally. "Thank god you're still alive. Hold on, I'm coming to you."
Without turning, Wufei lifted Treize's helmet and put it over his face. He saw the Oz man's lips move, as if he were trying to speak, but Wufei finished sealing the helmet, and then put on his own. When the proximity sensory indicated Trowa was outside, he opened the hatch.
Systematic overthrow of the underclass
Hollywood conjures images of the past
New world needs spirituality that will last
I've seen the future and it will be, alright
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it will be
Before he would allow Trowa to transfer the extra fuel and oxygen to Nataku, Wufei made the Heavyarms pilot swear he would not reveal to anyone that Treize was still alive. Trowa judged that if he argued with him, Wufei would simply push him out of the Gundam, and seal the hatch, dooming himself and the Oz leader to death by asphyxiation.
After the promise was made and accepted, Trowa helped Wufei take on the extra supplies.
"How did you come to be here?" Wufei asked.
"When you didn't show up anywhere, I asked around. Heero told me what you would be doing. Quatre told me you wouldn't come back when you needed to. So I came. Altlong is not that hard to find, even among all the debris." And after a moment, "Where are you going to take him?"
"Trowa. Thank you for coming. I will try and thank you properly at a later time. But I can't tell you that. I've done all I'm going to do for the Colonies, Earth... Just... just forget you didn't find me alone."
There was silence for a short time, then Trowa said, "All right. You were alone. Wufei..."
"I'll get in contact with you," Wufei said. "In a little while."
Reaching around the pilot's couch, Wufei grabbed the controls and Nataku's jets fired, arching away from the battlefield.
Some time later, on a small colony satellite populated by survivors of L5, Wufei sat beside a bed, watching the man laying in it drink from the cup of tea he had brought.
"I'm fine," Treize said, setting down the cup. "I can leave any time."
Wufei looked at him, his expression unreadable. "Do I own your life?"
Treize smiled slightly. "Yes. Yes, of course. I was dead. What do you want to do with such a thing as my life, young warrior?"
"I'm not a warrior any more," Wufei said. "And what I will do with it... You can not be Treize Kushrenanda. Treize must stay dead. If he were to live, the peace would vanish like a dream. "
Treize said nothing, merely watched the boy's face, marveling at what he saw there.
Finally he nodded.
"You are Tianrui," Wufei said. "I hold you to your honor that you will stay out of the affairs of the Earth and the Colonies. There is one other thing," he said, handing Treize, now Tianrui, a small picture. "This is my wife, Meiran. You will find a shrine, and make an offering in her honor, once a year on the date of her death. Beyond that, you may go where you wish and live as you please, as long as you do not contact your friends."
Oh
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it will be
I've seen the future and it will be
"And is that all you want?" The man who had been Treize Kushrenada said.
Wufei grazed at him for a long moment. Then he lowered his eyes. "No."
Reaching out, Tianrui lifted Wufei's face with a firm but gentle touch. Shaking his head, he said softly, "I thought I knew what you were. I thought what I chose for both of us was the best thing, for us, for the Earth... "
Wufei looked back, his face still showing a hint of the dark purple bruises that had stayed with him for many days after the battle.
"You would have died there with me," Tianrui whispered. A tear slipped from the corner of one blue eye. "I was wrong."
Wufei's eyes closed for a moment and his body shuddered slightly. Then he opened his eyes, blinking away sudden tears of his own. Moving closer, he placed his arms around Tanrui's neck, and placed his head on the man's shoulder.
"Yes," he said simply. After a deep breath, "Now... I can love you."
"Think about the future!"
A note about the name chosen by Wufei for Treize. It's Chinese (of course). It expresses the conflict between the past and the future.
Tian - quiet, calm peaceful Rui - sharp
bonnejeanne
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