Dream Walker (formerly "untitled Rescue Ficcie") -----part 1----- Quatre and Wufei struggled in the chains that bound them to the walls within the OZ prison. Duo was in a separate cell, across from them, where they could watch him being tortured. On the sixth day of their captivity, a guard walked into the cell with a long pole. He forced one end up inside of Duo, then wedged it against the floor beneath him, grinning as blood ran down the pole from someplace deep inside of Duo. "NO!" Quatre screamed. "You're killing him! Please, don't kill him!" "Tell me what I need to know and I'll see to it your friend gets medical attention." the guard said. "Until you cooperate, I'll just let him bleed to..." The guard's threat was cut short by the sudden arrival of Trowa and Heero who had come to rescue their companions. Heero's eyes flared with rage when he saw Duo. He grabbed the guard and snapped the man's neck, easily. Then, he withdrew the blood-streaked pole from inside of Duo and unchained the unconscious pilot. "Please, Kami-sama, don't let me be too late." he begged. -----part 2----- "Heero," Duo whispered as he regained consciousness for the moment, "you came. I knew you would." "I'm sorry I took so long." Heero apologized, kissing Duo. "Just hang on a bit longer. I promise I'll take you to the best hospital I can find. ." Trowa got Wufei and Quatre unchained, then all three of them grabbed the weapons from the now-dead guard's belt and fought their way out of the prison with Heero bringing up the rear, carrying Duo in his arms. Quatre contacted his family's private doctors. They listened in horror as Quatre told them about what had happened to Duo. As soon as the pilots arrived at the hospital, they rushed Duo into emergency surgery. "Heero," Quatre asked, as Heero stood up, "where are you going?" "To buy Duo a ring." Heero said. "When he wakes up, I'm going to ask him to marry me." "Heero, what if..." "I don't want to think about that,." Heero said, firmly. "He is going to wake up. And when he does, I'm going to ask him to marry me." -----part 3----- "May I help you?" a saleswoman asked as Heero looked over the cases which held the rings. "I'm looking for something in a man's ring." Heero replied. "It's for a friend." "I special friend?" the lady asked. "A lover perhaps?" "A lover most definitely." Heero replied. "A fiancé, I hope." "Well, we've got just the thing." the lady showed him a beautiful diamond solitaire ring, but Heero's eyes went, instead to the ring beside it which bore a diamond between two flawless gems that were the color of Duo's eyes. "What about the one next to it?" he asked, pointing to the ring he had noticed. "Those gems are the same color as his eyes." "He must be beautiful." the lady smiled. "You have not seen beauty until you've seen my love." Heero replied as he paid for the ring and raced back to the hospital. The lady waved to the departing Gundam Pilot as her co-worker approached. "Gay?" the other woman asked. "Mm hmm,." the saleswoman sighed. "It's always the handsome ones, isn't it?" the other woman shook her head and gave a light-tipped smile. Heero hurried back to the hospital. He made his way into the waiting room and found it empty. "Heero?" Wufei said, walking in from the hallway. "You just get back?" "Where were you?" Heero asked. "Is Duo awake?" "He's still in surgery." Wufei replied. "The others are in the cafeteria. We need to eat if we're gonna keep alert during this vigil. We don't know how long the surgery will be." Heero showed him the ring. "The gems are the same color as Duo's eyes." he told the Chinese pilot. "Did you buy them to match his eyes, or to remind you of them?" "He's not going to die, Wufei." Heero insisted. "I bought them to match them." -----part 4----- Hours passed, each one taking its toll on the four companions as they sat awaiting news on their teammate's condition. "Kami-sama. Onegai shimasu." Heero whispered. A doctor joined them a moment later. "We just finished surgery." he said. "However, your friend is in a very deep coma. We don't expect him to survive the night." "Heero," Quatre said, gently, "I'm so sorry." "Shut up, Quatre." Heero snarled. "Duo is not going to die!" Wufei put a hand on Heero's shoulder. "Heero," he said, gently, "how much do you love Duo? Do you love him with all of your heart?" "What kind of question is that?" "If your love for him is unfailing, there may be a way to save him." Wufei explained. "But it's extremely risky." "I don't care about the risks." Heero told him. "Just tell me what to do." "You have to put yourself into a dream-state." Wufei told him. "Once you do, you have to join your mind to his and call him back to us. If you're not careful, you could end up in a coma and you could die when he does." "So, either way I'll be with Duo." Heero nodded. "Okay, so how do I enter this dream state." Wufei, who was a lover of Martial Arts films, and who had watched an old copy Mortal Kombat: Annihilation that Duo had managed to liberate from its previous owners with the team just before they'd been captured, couldn't help smiling as he said. "Well, there's a slow way, and there's a fast way." Heero's eyes narrowed. "Don't even *think* about it." he warned. "Okay," Wufei smiled. "The slow way isn't much slower anyhow." Duo stood alone in a desolate landscape. All around him the ravages of war could be seen. Death, destruction, and pain. They were inescapable. Miles away, but visible on the horizon, there were green fields with flowers and sunshine. Dogs and cats romped and frolicked and familiar children laughed and blew dandelion seeds into the wind. He knew their faces, all of them. They were the children who had died in the Maxwell Church Massacre. As he reached the border between the war-torn place in which he walked and the beautiful field in which they played, he noticed one child he didn't expect to see. Himself. "Duo?" he asked. The child looked up and nodded. "Hi!" he said, cheerfully. It was not the false cheerfulness the older Duo put on for the sake of his teammates, but a true happiness that Duo had not felt in years. "How can you be here?" the older Duo asked. The child's face became serious. "I'm the part of you that died when the fire happened." he said, gravely. "You stopped believing when God took Sister Helen away." "There is no God." Duo whispered. "There is only Shinigami, and he is me." "You are not Shinigami." the child told him. "You took on a burden no human being should be permitted to bear when you claimed that title. I know who you really are, Duo." "Tell me." Duo whispered. "I forgot a long time ago." "You're incomplete, Duo. Until I am resurrected you will always be incomplete." "And who are you?" "Your faith." the child replied. "I'm the part of you that holds all of your hope and all of your joy." "There's nothing to believe in anymore." Duo told his younger self. "Nothing at all." "You're wrong, Duo." The words came not from his younger self, but from an approaching soldier. One who was familiar and who made Duo's heart skip a beat. "What have I got, Heero?" Duo asked, sadly. "War? Pain? Death?" "Love." Heero told him. "Love?" Duo asked, sadly. "If only that were true. But where would I find love in a place as cold and as dark as this?" "Right here." Heero replied, pointing to his own heart. "Duo, listen to me. You're in a coma and I want you to wake up. I want you to come back to me." "Why?" Duo asked. "Because I love you." Heero told him. "But I'm used... dishonored." "Duo," Sister Helen said as she put her arms around him, "that doesn't count. You were taken without consent, you didn't make love or give freely of yourself, so it doesn't count." "Sister Helen," Duo sobbed, "I'm sorry. It was my fault that you died." "No, it wasn't." the nun told him, gently. "You are only responsible for the enemy pilots you shot down in the war. All those other deaths, ours, your parents, you are not to blame for them." "She's right." Father Maxwell told him. "Duo. Please, stop hurting yourself for something that you didn't do. You didn't kill us." "People die all around me." Duo pointed out. "We're in the middle of a war, baka." Heero rolled his eyes. "I think people are dying because of all that, not because of you." "Your lover is right, Duo." Father Maxwell told him, smiling at Heero. "I thought the church didn't approve of same-sex relationships." Heero remarked, sounding puzzled. "The church approves of love." Father Maxwell explained. "And you have my blessing." "For what?" Duo asked, confused. "You'll find out when you wake up." Heero told him. The child looked at the others. "May I be alone with Duo for a while?" he asked. Father Maxwell nodded, then turned and headed back over to the group of children he had been playing with earlier. "Duo," Sister Helen told him, as she prepared to follow, "you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to us. We never blamed you. We've always loved you. Go in peace now, and remember what I just said. It's not your fault, Duo." Duo watched her leave with a tear in his eye. He wanted to follow, but a barrier would not let him pass. He sat down on the steps of a war-ruined building and cried. Heero wanted to go to Duo and hug him. But he had a feeling that this time, Duo needed to accept the hug from someone else. The child put his arms around Duo, but Duo held back. This troubled Heero. Duo never held back. He was the type who would rush in where angels fear to tread and send you postcards. Just then a third Duo rushed onto the scene. This one was dressed in his pilot's uniform, his hair in its familiar braid. He grabbed Heero and kissed him passionately. "Duo." he said, speaking to his less aggressive self as he released Heero. He grabbed the other Duo who struggled against him. "Stop fighting me. You've been avoiding me and fighting me ever since we came to this place." "Accept him, Duo." the child said. "Accept both of us. Then go back to Heero." "I know who you are." Duo told the child. "But not who he is." "But you do know me." the warrior told Duo. "I'm the part of you that holds your desire and your self-esteem. You turned away from me when those men raped you. But I never left you. Accept me and the child, Duo. You are incomplete without us." Duo sat there in silent contemplation for several minutes, then nodded. Heero watched as all three embraced, fusing into a single being, a Duo Maxwell more radiantly beautiful than he ever thought possible. He went over to Duo and put an arm around him. "Duo, come back with me now." he said. "I love you more than words can say. Come back and let me show you how much." Duo nodded. "Okay, my love." he agreed. Heero came out of his trance and looked up at the clock. Only two minutes had passed since he had closed his eyes. A doctor walked into the room. "I don't know how, but he's awake." he told them. "I know." Heero said, calmly, as he walked past the doctor and into Duo's room. "Heero," Duo said, "I had the strangest dream." "I know." Heero said. "Duo, I promised I would show you how much I loved you." "You came to get me." Duo said, in wonder. "You've already showed me." "I have more to show you." Heero said, taking Duo's hand and slipping the ring onto his finger. "Duo, will you marry me?" Duo nodded. "Yes, Heero." he replied. "I will." -----Owari-----