Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Jewel of the Nile ❯ Chapter 6
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Shi-chan 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / / Romance / Suspense | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 02.09.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 559 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / / Romance / Suspense | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 02.09.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 559 | Status: Completed
7 Oct 2001
First, a HUGE thanks to my beta readers... Misu for catching all my STUPID mistakes, and Hana for helping me fix all those trying parts! Thank you thank you thank you!
Second, I cannot believe it! I finished it on time and before the Nanashi deadline! Yay me! Though I doubt very much it'll win with all the great fics in the categories I entered it in... But hey! I got to enter my fic this year! So I'm happy enough!
Third, here's the CONCLUSION TO Jewel of the Nile!
Author's notes: A brief historical note here, this is set sometime between 753 BCE and 612 BCE... That means sometime between the birth of the Roman Empire and the end of the Third Intermediate Period in Ancient Egypt. Assyria is in domination of Mesopotamia, Rome is a Monarchy, and it is somewhere between the Age of Tyrants and Age of Democracy in Greece. Christianity has not risen into view and the worship of many gods is prominent. End of history lesson. ^_^ Another note: Any assumptions about ancient Egypt are not meant as insults or jokes, but used to further the story... I am sorry if this offends anyone... ::bows humblely::
Thanks: Sony_Mouse for the title... ack, who gave me the idea? SteelSong, Spooks? Yeah.
Warnings: yaoi, angst, conspiracy, abuse/torture, death
Category: AU
Pairings: main 1x2, 13x6; other less focused on 3x4, 1xR, 13x2
Jewel of the Nile by Willow
Part 6
Biting desert night chilled the tender flesh of the sleeper, waking the young man. Duo blinked once, twice adjusting his eyes to the twilight. Groaning quietly as he moved to sit up, the Grecian boy took note of his surroundings.
He found himself in a cage-like contraption, cuffed to the bars. In the cage with him, to his dismay, was Heero, the young Pharaoh to whom he'd given his heart.
'What have I done that I merit such tortures? What have the Gods against me?' he thought as he kept his head lowered.
Never did he dare question why Heero was in the cage with him. Not once did he have the urge to look into those deep prussian eyes and beg the boy to understand, to forgive.
And so the silence remained, only the snorting and shuffling of the camels and horses breaking the still of the approaching night.
-------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------
Heero watched as Duo drifted back to sleep. He wanted with all his being to go over to his love and cradle the small body to him. Apologies flew through his head, everything he wanted to say but couldn't.
Duo was deep asleep as midnight approached, yet Heero remained awake and alert -- scanning his limited view for bandits as were to be found in the deep desert. Luckily, none came and he let his attention drift.
He found himself staring at Duo as the boy shifted in sleep, murmuring softly. One rather intelligible murmur caught his attention and his eyes widened.
"...mm... never lied.... you... love you... Heero... forgive me...."
Duo loved him. Duo hadn't lied to him, just didn't tell him what he didn't need to know... Heero felt terrible all over again. 'I yelled at him and accused him of betraying me... am I such a paranoid and pompous ass that I would believe anything that would fit my delusions?' he asked himself.
"Obviously so," he grumbled under his breath. "What a fool I've been... if I could only tell him..."
The cage lurched to a stop and Heero noticed that they had reached a large structure... The building was seemingly made out of caked clay and rose tall against the sky.
"Up and at 'em," grunted a dark skinned and bulky man in Greek as he unhitched the lock. "Get yer buns a-movin'..."
"Mueller, Mueller..." a blue eyed foreigner chided in the same language. "Don't talk to the prisoners... They are but slime and are not to be spoken to as if they can understand."
"Yeah, Boss... Whate'er you say."
"Good... get them inside and strung up..." The fair skinned one paused, then turned back to face his subordinate. "Oh.. the long haired one goes in Master Treizus' chamber... see to it that he gets there."
"Right-o, Boss."
Heero cursed as the black man wrapped his grubby hand around Duo's slim arm, pulling him out of the cart just as soon as the shackles were released.
"Now you be good, buddy boy... I'm gonna take yer lil pretty here and put him where he belongs, then I'll be back for you," Mueller chortled, closing and locking the cage.
The Pharaoh watched as Duo was carried out of sight, then, in exasperation, slammed his head back against the bars.
"Ow..."
---------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
"-- ake up..." a smooth voice sing-songed in his ear. "Come on, little prince."
Duo's eyes shot wide open as a wet tongue squirmed around his ear. His body jerked away from the repulsive feeling of being so close to Treize only to find he was bound and could not move. His hands were tied above his head, looped over a hook in the ceiling and his feet were trussed the same and bound to an eyelet on the floor.
"That's better... it's rather hard to break a slave when they are unconscious."
"I'm not your slave, Treize... I'm not your anything!" Duo bit out furiously. Rage boiled his blood. Twice had this man ruined his perfectly happy life, and for what? Duo had done nothing to the man, never in his life had he caused the man strife or pain, but here the Roman stood before him, ready to ruin the young prince's life all over again.
"That's where you're wrong, pretty child... Utterly, utterly wrong."
------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"I want nothing to do with this, Treize," Relena said walking beside the man as he entered Heero's cell.
"Oh Relena, you know I will not force you to be a part of my delight--"
"I never agreed to let you torture them! I figured we'd just send them off somewhere to live alone!" The girl's cornflower blue eyes whirled with distress, darting to lock with Heero's for a moment then back at Treize.
"What's the fun in that?" Zechs asked, hefting his burden higher on his shoulder. Heero's eyes widened as he realize what Zechs held, or more accurately, who.
"You are sick, Milliardo... Both of you are just sick!" And with that she turned on her heal and left the room.
"Truss him up?" Zechs asked, ignoring his sister's departure.
"Yes... and do it to where he's facing our dear Pharaoh. I want him to see his lover's lovely face," Treize chuckled.
Heero watched in horror as Zechs hooked the rope that bound Duo's hands over the embedded hook in the ceiling. Duo's face was a sickly pale -- almost grey in color -- and his eyes were blank, listless. The boy's naked body was covered in bruises and tiny cuts encrusted with dark, dried blood.
The young king didn't know whether to cry or vomit. Frantically he pulled at his bindings, trying desperately to free himself and get to his wounded lover.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Zechs admonished, waggling a finger at the fighting boy. "The more you fight the more he will suffer."
Immediately, Heero stilled, settling for glaring at his captors instead.
"That's better," Zechs chuckled. "Ready when you are, Treize."
The Roman man smiled, pulling a glistening blade from his tunic. "This blade..." He drew the razor sharp edge along the pale skin of Duo's torso, a scarlet stream making it's passing. "... was dipped in Deus Mortis [1] -- the slowest..." Slowly, the blade made another trek over Duo's epidermis. "... most painful poison available."
Heero's eyes widened as cut by cut Treize explained what this Deis Mortis did to the human body.
"... A tiny slice, not perforating past the outer layers of skin..."
Another tiny slice, this time along the tender under belly of Duo's forearm, teasing the pulsing vein beneath.
"... will cause more pain than driving a nine inch blade through the stomach."
Heero watched in utter horror as the Roman reached back and rammed the blade into Duo's unprotected stomach. The suspended boy cringed in pain, eyes widening in shock as he was torn open. A gurgling scream tore from the pale throat and a trickle of blood dripped down Duo's chin.
Pain etched on his own face, Heero cried out, fighting against his bindings with the fervor of a startled animal.
Treize walked toward the restrained Egyptian King. "You pick them well..." he soughed, licking his lips. "He was a very luscious piece, if I do say so myself."
Eyes blazing, Heero launched himself forward with a growl, only to be jolted back in place by the restraints that still bound his wrists.
"Tsk, tsk, Heero."
A cry tore from Heero's throat as the ginger haired man removed the blade, blood pouring from the mortal wound onto the dirt covered floor. The dark haired young man watched helplessly as Duo's life blood spilt upon the filthy floor.
"No!" Heero yelled, face contorting as he watched color drain from his love's face.
"Such a pretty little jewel, isn't he?" Treize asked idly. "How fitting that your court called him the Jewel of the Nile."
The older man made a show of dancing about and slicing at the immobile boy, casting a smattering of new cuts over the graying flesh.
Heero's head was spinning, his vision blurring. Suddenly, he was no longer in the clay outpost, but in a room made of metal.
The walls were lined in this dark grey metal, the slightly metallic gleam reflecting the light that streamed from the tiny barred window in the door across the room. The door swung and a black bundle was pushed in, landing with an 'oof' at the bottom of the two short stairs.
"Nnnn," the bundle groaned piteously, stretching out to lay on its stomach.
"You got captured," Heero heard himself say distastefully.
"Yeah, but I got some information," the exhausted voice said happily, glittering eyes focusing on a figure behind Heero. "Your Gundam and mine are being rebuilt, gonna be better than ever."
That voice, he'd never forget that voice. The sweet one that sang to him in the darkness, softly when his lover thought him asleep. The voice that cried his name over and over again when they made love. The voice that would haunt him beyond his grave.
"Then I can be Shinigami once again... but right now... I need some sleep."
Just like that, as Duo's eyes closed and his breathing evened out into sleep, Heero found himself back in the dirty cell, watching as the tall Roman turned his beloved's dying body into mince-meat.
A growl started deep his his soul, working it's way out of his mouth as he tore his bindings and launched himself at the stunned politician.
Treize blinked in rapid succession as he found his sharp little knife pressed against his throat, his arms held in a vice grip behind his back. "Wha--"
"Don't move, don't speak, don't do anything or this knife will end up in your Adam's apple." Heero hissed. "Untie him." Treize nodded, indicating that Zechs should do as he was commanded.
Once Duo was laid carefully on the floor and covered with Treize's toga, Heero bound the two men together in a corner.
The young Pharaoh moved back to the side of the mortally wounded boy, trying with all his might to remain strong for the one he loved. Tears leaked from his eyes as he clutched the small, mangled body to his chest.
Deep inside his soul, he could feel their hearts pulsing together one last time as Duo's own heartbeat stuttered and slowed. Fear gripped him as he knew he would soon lose his soul mate...
"Gods, I'm so sorry, Duo..." Heero whispered, cradling the boy in his arms. "I love you, please don't leave me... please."
Pain hazed violet eyes stared deep into Heero's own prussian orbs. "... love... you... too..." Duo rasped, coughing as blood bubbled in his throat, splattering out onto his chin. A mewling sound pulled from Duo's throat as he scrunched his eyes shut, a tear leaking from the corner. "... 'm... dying..."
The whispered words tore at Heero, faced bluntly with the reality that his love would not survive this. "No, love," Heero assured him, placing a kiss on the clammy forehead. "No, you are going to be just fine... I promise."
Duo smiled weakly. "... liar..." [2]
Heero's smile faded as Duo's features relaxed. He felt the warm spot that had filled his heart, the warmth he had not even been aware of until it was gone, grow cold and empty. A cry tore from his throat as he pulled the lifeless body into a death grip, holding on for dear life.
--------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Hilde's eyes blinked open as her cell door creaked open.
"Pharaoh!" she cried, launching herself from where she sat slumped against the wall. She stopped as she saw the sheet wrapped bundle in his arms. Crimson splotches stained the cloth and a tattered rope of chestnut hair trailed from the folds. "Duo?" A nod. "Is he...?"
Heero nodded again, his eyes reflecting all the pain in his soul.
"Oh Gods!" Hilde cried, bringing her hands to cover her mouth as she sank back to the ground. "Oh... gods..."
------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------
Heero stared listlessly out the balcony window. Trowa sighed as he turned his attention back to the table. The young king had been that lifeless since he'd returned baring the corpse of his lover not two weeks before.
"They must die," Wufei growled, slamming a fist on the table before him. His sloe eyes narrowed as he glared at his cup, imagining the chalice was one of the slime-born offenders.
"I agree," Trowa added quietly, holding the mourning blond to his chest.
"Cruelly," Quatre sniffed, voice icy death.
"Painfully," Wufei nodded, clenching his fists.
Trowa shook his head. "We only lower ourselves to their level that way."
"Then what is a happy medium," Wufei snarled. His front was crumbling, tears threatening to blur his vision.
Trowa thought for a minute, then emerald eyes lit with epiphany. Quickly he outlined his idea, glancing between his companions then to Heero. Quatre and Wufei nodded, turning to look at their friend and king.
Heero looked up as he felt three sets of eyes on him. "What?" he asked, voice indefinately sad. Trowa related their suggestion to which he simply shrugged. "Whatever you think best..."
------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------
"Premius Treizus, Prince of Rome; Milliardo, Prince of Cinqante..." Heero's voice echoed through the open-air courtyard and over the masses in attendance. "You are both found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the Throne of Egypt and the murder of the Royal Concubine. Your respective countries..." He paused, glaring at the men lashed to the carts. "... recognize you not." Heero paused, casting a glance at Relena whose eyes were still red rimmed from her tears -- not for her brother, but for the murdered youth she'd come to care for. "I have decided to grant leniency... You are to be mummified alive and your names lost in time."
-------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------
-42 years later-
"My time has come," the old King rasped to his trusted aids. "I pray my children rule well."
The aqua-eyed man, whose hair once gleamed yellow like the sun now grey with age, looked sadly at his friend then to his lover who nodded. The golden skinned warrior, hair and eyes still blacker than night, stepped forward and bowed to his Lord.
"May the Gods be merciful, my Pharaoh. May they grant you what you have a lifetime been denied," he said, reaching out and kissing the hand of his aged friend.
"Thank you, Wufei..." Heero replied smiling. "Ever the scholar and poet. Go now and leave me..."
All three did as bade, closing the large golden doors in their wake. Heero sighed as they disappeared.
"I will find you, Duo... How ever many lifetimes it takes... With the Gods as my witnesses, we shall be together again." [3]
Prussian eyes drifted closed, breaths stilled, the heart beat no more.
--------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
-A.C. 195-
"I dunno, but it looks to me like you're the bad guy here."
Clutching his arm, the dark haired boy turned toward his assailant freezing in midturn as prussian met violet in a charged glance.
------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
the end
Author's notes:
[1] God of Death in Latin... ::grins:: Thank you, Une-chan.
[2] À la "Independance Day".... it seemed fitting.
[3] Reincarnation is not a major Egyptian belief as
far as I know, but... yeah... some people did hold it.
I'm not doing an epi... JotN is officially finished! The End! Owari!~ C'est finis! Get it? I tried to end it as best I could, but... hehehe... I've got a sequel that is unknown length (maybe a one-shot, maybe a small series, maybe a fairly long series) that shows the GW universe as affected by this fic planned. IE: Slightly AT GW fic using this as a bg... Heero half Egyptian (sorry to take the half/half idea, seraph)... Duo being American could have anything in his blood! (I know I have odd stuff -- but like the blood stuff would be a connection for Duo since he had not offspring and Heero, being Pharaoh, did... and that's gonna connect... oops! shhh!)... etc... So if I get that done, it will be coming out.
First, a HUGE thanks to my beta readers... Misu for catching all my STUPID mistakes, and Hana for helping me fix all those trying parts! Thank you thank you thank you!
Second, I cannot believe it! I finished it on time and before the Nanashi deadline! Yay me! Though I doubt very much it'll win with all the great fics in the categories I entered it in... But hey! I got to enter my fic this year! So I'm happy enough!
Third, here's the CONCLUSION TO Jewel of the Nile!
Author's notes: A brief historical note here, this is set sometime between 753 BCE and 612 BCE... That means sometime between the birth of the Roman Empire and the end of the Third Intermediate Period in Ancient Egypt. Assyria is in domination of Mesopotamia, Rome is a Monarchy, and it is somewhere between the Age of Tyrants and Age of Democracy in Greece. Christianity has not risen into view and the worship of many gods is prominent. End of history lesson. ^_^ Another note: Any assumptions about ancient Egypt are not meant as insults or jokes, but used to further the story... I am sorry if this offends anyone... ::bows humblely::
Thanks: Sony_Mouse for the title... ack, who gave me the idea? SteelSong, Spooks? Yeah.
Warnings: yaoi, angst, conspiracy, abuse/torture, death
Category: AU
Pairings: main 1x2, 13x6; other less focused on 3x4, 1xR, 13x2
Jewel of the Nile by Willow
Part 6
Biting desert night chilled the tender flesh of the sleeper, waking the young man. Duo blinked once, twice adjusting his eyes to the twilight. Groaning quietly as he moved to sit up, the Grecian boy took note of his surroundings.
He found himself in a cage-like contraption, cuffed to the bars. In the cage with him, to his dismay, was Heero, the young Pharaoh to whom he'd given his heart.
'What have I done that I merit such tortures? What have the Gods against me?' he thought as he kept his head lowered.
Never did he dare question why Heero was in the cage with him. Not once did he have the urge to look into those deep prussian eyes and beg the boy to understand, to forgive.
And so the silence remained, only the snorting and shuffling of the camels and horses breaking the still of the approaching night.
-------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------
Heero watched as Duo drifted back to sleep. He wanted with all his being to go over to his love and cradle the small body to him. Apologies flew through his head, everything he wanted to say but couldn't.
Duo was deep asleep as midnight approached, yet Heero remained awake and alert -- scanning his limited view for bandits as were to be found in the deep desert. Luckily, none came and he let his attention drift.
He found himself staring at Duo as the boy shifted in sleep, murmuring softly. One rather intelligible murmur caught his attention and his eyes widened.
"...mm... never lied.... you... love you... Heero... forgive me...."
Duo loved him. Duo hadn't lied to him, just didn't tell him what he didn't need to know... Heero felt terrible all over again. 'I yelled at him and accused him of betraying me... am I such a paranoid and pompous ass that I would believe anything that would fit my delusions?' he asked himself.
"Obviously so," he grumbled under his breath. "What a fool I've been... if I could only tell him..."
The cage lurched to a stop and Heero noticed that they had reached a large structure... The building was seemingly made out of caked clay and rose tall against the sky.
"Up and at 'em," grunted a dark skinned and bulky man in Greek as he unhitched the lock. "Get yer buns a-movin'..."
"Mueller, Mueller..." a blue eyed foreigner chided in the same language. "Don't talk to the prisoners... They are but slime and are not to be spoken to as if they can understand."
"Yeah, Boss... Whate'er you say."
"Good... get them inside and strung up..." The fair skinned one paused, then turned back to face his subordinate. "Oh.. the long haired one goes in Master Treizus' chamber... see to it that he gets there."
"Right-o, Boss."
Heero cursed as the black man wrapped his grubby hand around Duo's slim arm, pulling him out of the cart just as soon as the shackles were released.
"Now you be good, buddy boy... I'm gonna take yer lil pretty here and put him where he belongs, then I'll be back for you," Mueller chortled, closing and locking the cage.
The Pharaoh watched as Duo was carried out of sight, then, in exasperation, slammed his head back against the bars.
"Ow..."
---------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
"-- ake up..." a smooth voice sing-songed in his ear. "Come on, little prince."
Duo's eyes shot wide open as a wet tongue squirmed around his ear. His body jerked away from the repulsive feeling of being so close to Treize only to find he was bound and could not move. His hands were tied above his head, looped over a hook in the ceiling and his feet were trussed the same and bound to an eyelet on the floor.
"That's better... it's rather hard to break a slave when they are unconscious."
"I'm not your slave, Treize... I'm not your anything!" Duo bit out furiously. Rage boiled his blood. Twice had this man ruined his perfectly happy life, and for what? Duo had done nothing to the man, never in his life had he caused the man strife or pain, but here the Roman stood before him, ready to ruin the young prince's life all over again.
"That's where you're wrong, pretty child... Utterly, utterly wrong."
------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"I want nothing to do with this, Treize," Relena said walking beside the man as he entered Heero's cell.
"Oh Relena, you know I will not force you to be a part of my delight--"
"I never agreed to let you torture them! I figured we'd just send them off somewhere to live alone!" The girl's cornflower blue eyes whirled with distress, darting to lock with Heero's for a moment then back at Treize.
"What's the fun in that?" Zechs asked, hefting his burden higher on his shoulder. Heero's eyes widened as he realize what Zechs held, or more accurately, who.
"You are sick, Milliardo... Both of you are just sick!" And with that she turned on her heal and left the room.
"Truss him up?" Zechs asked, ignoring his sister's departure.
"Yes... and do it to where he's facing our dear Pharaoh. I want him to see his lover's lovely face," Treize chuckled.
Heero watched in horror as Zechs hooked the rope that bound Duo's hands over the embedded hook in the ceiling. Duo's face was a sickly pale -- almost grey in color -- and his eyes were blank, listless. The boy's naked body was covered in bruises and tiny cuts encrusted with dark, dried blood.
The young king didn't know whether to cry or vomit. Frantically he pulled at his bindings, trying desperately to free himself and get to his wounded lover.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Zechs admonished, waggling a finger at the fighting boy. "The more you fight the more he will suffer."
Immediately, Heero stilled, settling for glaring at his captors instead.
"That's better," Zechs chuckled. "Ready when you are, Treize."
The Roman man smiled, pulling a glistening blade from his tunic. "This blade..." He drew the razor sharp edge along the pale skin of Duo's torso, a scarlet stream making it's passing. "... was dipped in Deus Mortis [1] -- the slowest..." Slowly, the blade made another trek over Duo's epidermis. "... most painful poison available."
Heero's eyes widened as cut by cut Treize explained what this Deis Mortis did to the human body.
"... A tiny slice, not perforating past the outer layers of skin..."
Another tiny slice, this time along the tender under belly of Duo's forearm, teasing the pulsing vein beneath.
"... will cause more pain than driving a nine inch blade through the stomach."
Heero watched in utter horror as the Roman reached back and rammed the blade into Duo's unprotected stomach. The suspended boy cringed in pain, eyes widening in shock as he was torn open. A gurgling scream tore from the pale throat and a trickle of blood dripped down Duo's chin.
Pain etched on his own face, Heero cried out, fighting against his bindings with the fervor of a startled animal.
Treize walked toward the restrained Egyptian King. "You pick them well..." he soughed, licking his lips. "He was a very luscious piece, if I do say so myself."
Eyes blazing, Heero launched himself forward with a growl, only to be jolted back in place by the restraints that still bound his wrists.
"Tsk, tsk, Heero."
A cry tore from Heero's throat as the ginger haired man removed the blade, blood pouring from the mortal wound onto the dirt covered floor. The dark haired young man watched helplessly as Duo's life blood spilt upon the filthy floor.
"No!" Heero yelled, face contorting as he watched color drain from his love's face.
"Such a pretty little jewel, isn't he?" Treize asked idly. "How fitting that your court called him the Jewel of the Nile."
The older man made a show of dancing about and slicing at the immobile boy, casting a smattering of new cuts over the graying flesh.
Heero's head was spinning, his vision blurring. Suddenly, he was no longer in the clay outpost, but in a room made of metal.
The walls were lined in this dark grey metal, the slightly metallic gleam reflecting the light that streamed from the tiny barred window in the door across the room. The door swung and a black bundle was pushed in, landing with an 'oof' at the bottom of the two short stairs.
"Nnnn," the bundle groaned piteously, stretching out to lay on its stomach.
"You got captured," Heero heard himself say distastefully.
"Yeah, but I got some information," the exhausted voice said happily, glittering eyes focusing on a figure behind Heero. "Your Gundam and mine are being rebuilt, gonna be better than ever."
That voice, he'd never forget that voice. The sweet one that sang to him in the darkness, softly when his lover thought him asleep. The voice that cried his name over and over again when they made love. The voice that would haunt him beyond his grave.
"Then I can be Shinigami once again... but right now... I need some sleep."
Just like that, as Duo's eyes closed and his breathing evened out into sleep, Heero found himself back in the dirty cell, watching as the tall Roman turned his beloved's dying body into mince-meat.
A growl started deep his his soul, working it's way out of his mouth as he tore his bindings and launched himself at the stunned politician.
Treize blinked in rapid succession as he found his sharp little knife pressed against his throat, his arms held in a vice grip behind his back. "Wha--"
"Don't move, don't speak, don't do anything or this knife will end up in your Adam's apple." Heero hissed. "Untie him." Treize nodded, indicating that Zechs should do as he was commanded.
Once Duo was laid carefully on the floor and covered with Treize's toga, Heero bound the two men together in a corner.
The young Pharaoh moved back to the side of the mortally wounded boy, trying with all his might to remain strong for the one he loved. Tears leaked from his eyes as he clutched the small, mangled body to his chest.
Deep inside his soul, he could feel their hearts pulsing together one last time as Duo's own heartbeat stuttered and slowed. Fear gripped him as he knew he would soon lose his soul mate...
"Gods, I'm so sorry, Duo..." Heero whispered, cradling the boy in his arms. "I love you, please don't leave me... please."
Pain hazed violet eyes stared deep into Heero's own prussian orbs. "... love... you... too..." Duo rasped, coughing as blood bubbled in his throat, splattering out onto his chin. A mewling sound pulled from Duo's throat as he scrunched his eyes shut, a tear leaking from the corner. "... 'm... dying..."
The whispered words tore at Heero, faced bluntly with the reality that his love would not survive this. "No, love," Heero assured him, placing a kiss on the clammy forehead. "No, you are going to be just fine... I promise."
Duo smiled weakly. "... liar..." [2]
Heero's smile faded as Duo's features relaxed. He felt the warm spot that had filled his heart, the warmth he had not even been aware of until it was gone, grow cold and empty. A cry tore from his throat as he pulled the lifeless body into a death grip, holding on for dear life.
--------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Hilde's eyes blinked open as her cell door creaked open.
"Pharaoh!" she cried, launching herself from where she sat slumped against the wall. She stopped as she saw the sheet wrapped bundle in his arms. Crimson splotches stained the cloth and a tattered rope of chestnut hair trailed from the folds. "Duo?" A nod. "Is he...?"
Heero nodded again, his eyes reflecting all the pain in his soul.
"Oh Gods!" Hilde cried, bringing her hands to cover her mouth as she sank back to the ground. "Oh... gods..."
------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------
Heero stared listlessly out the balcony window. Trowa sighed as he turned his attention back to the table. The young king had been that lifeless since he'd returned baring the corpse of his lover not two weeks before.
"They must die," Wufei growled, slamming a fist on the table before him. His sloe eyes narrowed as he glared at his cup, imagining the chalice was one of the slime-born offenders.
"I agree," Trowa added quietly, holding the mourning blond to his chest.
"Cruelly," Quatre sniffed, voice icy death.
"Painfully," Wufei nodded, clenching his fists.
Trowa shook his head. "We only lower ourselves to their level that way."
"Then what is a happy medium," Wufei snarled. His front was crumbling, tears threatening to blur his vision.
Trowa thought for a minute, then emerald eyes lit with epiphany. Quickly he outlined his idea, glancing between his companions then to Heero. Quatre and Wufei nodded, turning to look at their friend and king.
Heero looked up as he felt three sets of eyes on him. "What?" he asked, voice indefinately sad. Trowa related their suggestion to which he simply shrugged. "Whatever you think best..."
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"Premius Treizus, Prince of Rome; Milliardo, Prince of Cinqante..." Heero's voice echoed through the open-air courtyard and over the masses in attendance. "You are both found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the Throne of Egypt and the murder of the Royal Concubine. Your respective countries..." He paused, glaring at the men lashed to the carts. "... recognize you not." Heero paused, casting a glance at Relena whose eyes were still red rimmed from her tears -- not for her brother, but for the murdered youth she'd come to care for. "I have decided to grant leniency... You are to be mummified alive and your names lost in time."
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-42 years later-
"My time has come," the old King rasped to his trusted aids. "I pray my children rule well."
The aqua-eyed man, whose hair once gleamed yellow like the sun now grey with age, looked sadly at his friend then to his lover who nodded. The golden skinned warrior, hair and eyes still blacker than night, stepped forward and bowed to his Lord.
"May the Gods be merciful, my Pharaoh. May they grant you what you have a lifetime been denied," he said, reaching out and kissing the hand of his aged friend.
"Thank you, Wufei..." Heero replied smiling. "Ever the scholar and poet. Go now and leave me..."
All three did as bade, closing the large golden doors in their wake. Heero sighed as they disappeared.
"I will find you, Duo... How ever many lifetimes it takes... With the Gods as my witnesses, we shall be together again." [3]
Prussian eyes drifted closed, breaths stilled, the heart beat no more.
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-A.C. 195-
"I dunno, but it looks to me like you're the bad guy here."
Clutching his arm, the dark haired boy turned toward his assailant freezing in midturn as prussian met violet in a charged glance.
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the end
Author's notes:
[1] God of Death in Latin... ::grins:: Thank you, Une-chan.
[2] À la "Independance Day".... it seemed fitting.
[3] Reincarnation is not a major Egyptian belief as
far as I know, but... yeah... some people did hold it.
I'm not doing an epi... JotN is officially finished! The End! Owari!~ C'est finis! Get it? I tried to end it as best I could, but... hehehe... I've got a sequel that is unknown length (maybe a one-shot, maybe a small series, maybe a fairly long series) that shows the GW universe as affected by this fic planned. IE: Slightly AT GW fic using this as a bg... Heero half Egyptian (sorry to take the half/half idea, seraph)... Duo being American could have anything in his blood! (I know I have odd stuff -- but like the blood stuff would be a connection for Duo since he had not offspring and Heero, being Pharaoh, did... and that's gonna connect... oops! shhh!)... etc... So if I get that done, it will be coming out.