castleinthemist | 005 | Face what I've done and do my time

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005 | Face what I've done and do my time | Open

Duo was moving through the halls out towards the stairs that lead towards the stairs which lead to the trolley system. He was armed, gun drawn and moving in haste as if something was after him. Suddenly, he ducked down in the hole where that box was and looked up and around. Was it a game? Was he just playing around and training himself? That's certainly what it looked like to a casual observer. After all, for those who knew him it wouldn't be outside of his usual behavior.

He looked up and around, looking for something anxiously. He then grabbed at his backwards baseball cap and ducked suddenly as if someone had thrown something at him, or shot at him. If this was a pretend training game, he was really playing the part.

But it wasn't. To him? He was on the run, a half dozen or so enemy soldiers on the war path led by Heero Yuy. One time friend and now enemy, he was outnumbered and out matched. A shot rang out when he thought he saw something back where he came from, and he leaped out of the hole he was in, dashing for the stairs. Goddamnit!

"Quatre! Wufei! Where are you guys!?"

[OOC: So this is part of Dream/Memory!plot. As in you can get some of Duo's memories transferred to your characters to have them have to relive themselves. I'm pretty flexible at how this thread goes. You can just react to what he's doing if you want and I'm posting his memories here in my journal. The memories are transferable by touch and it doesn't matter if Duo's seeing it or not.]

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"DUO, STOP!" Haku screamed when Heero dropped to the ground. She knew he wasn't listening, though. At least not in the way he usually did. He wasn't hearing her and that wasn't something she knew how to fix.

She tried to go after him, forgetting for the moment that there was still a gun in her hand.

When he was dropped, he had to catch himself, fall correctly or else he'd risk getting hurt himself. He fell down, onto his hands and curling into a somersault. He climbed to his feet and then dove at Heero, throwing his weight into him.

This couldn't continue. "This is for Sally you traitor!" He aimed his first blow for Heero's chin, only to reach his hands around his neck.

The pain in his chest was all but forgotten when Duo launched himself at him. He landed on his back, hands gripping at the older man's shoulders to try and hold him off.

Sally? What had happened to her? What had his counterpart done? Before he could even ask (like it mattered), Duo had aimed a blow to his chin, connecting and causing his head to whip to the side. Then he felt hands reach around his neck and his hands went around Duo's wrist, trying to pull him back and shifting his legs to strike Duo in the stomach again.

Duo pushed forward still, his teeth grit and his grip only tightening. Angry tears appeared at the corners of his eyes and were gone as soon as they arrived when he kneed him in the stomach. He grunted painfully, one hand being pried off as he coughed.

"Not..." he seethed through his teeth. "Not gonna defeat me that easy!" He tired to tighten his grip. He was going to kill Heero, and that was exactly his intent.

If Duo had been paying attention, he might have noticed the ground start shifting subtly under him, and then suddenly as if awoken. However, with his concentration else where, the movement likely wasn't detected until he was already being dragged backwards and away from the younger man.

The ground didn't stop moving him until he was pressed back against the nearest wall, arms and shoulders strapped in by the stone itself. It wasn't an uncomfortable hold- at least not for the time being, but struggle as he might he wouldn't be able to get away and would only end up hurting himself.

When she was satisfied with her work, Toph relaxed her stance. Her face was turned towards Duo, hiding worry as best she could. Something was wrong with her friend. He wasn't physically hurt it looked like, but he was ... not there.

Her small fists clenched at her side.

"What exactly is going on here?"

Haku was just as helpless as she had been when the whole thing started, and when the two of them started trading blows she could only drop the gun and throw her hands over her face as she cowered back away from them.

All at once it was over, though. With a rumble of the ground and the sound of shifting stone, Duo and Heero had gone momentarily silent and the noise of the fighting no longer reached her ears.

Slowly she lowered her hands, tears rolling down her pale cheeks as her eyes swept over the area, seeing Duo pinned by a certain new arrival.

"T... Toph..." she hiccuped shakily, "H-he's not himself... s-something's wrong, i-it's like we're not even here..."

Quatre had followed just behind Toph, and while Duo was clearly the larger problem, he was at least subdued for the moment. He felt that pull towards Heero that he'd felt since they'd escaped Dekim's hands. And even though this Heero was different, it was still there. The strangeness of it didn't worry him as much as it probably should, so he tried to ignore his doubts over the odd feeling. He went over to Heero and knelt down next to him.

"Do you think you can still get up and walk?"

Only one hand was removed from his throat when he kneed Duo, but one hand was better than none. He released one wrist and brought it above his hand on the other, pulling more to do something about that grip. It was vice-like on him neck.

Suddenly Duo was gone, off of him and across the room and pinned against the wall. Coughing a little himself, he sat up and rubbed his jaw, looking over at Toph as she stood there. Another one of Duo's friends? But then he saw Quatre above him, looking down at him with what he thought was concern. He coughed a little and sat up, rubbing at his jaw and still ignoring the pain to his ribs.

"Yeah. Thanks, Quatre."

He didn't notice the stone at all when it rose behind him, he didn't even hear it. So focused was he in his rage and anger that when it yanked him back he had a delayed reaction. Once against the wall, he gasped, reaching out only to have his arms pinned to his side and the cold stone walls wrapping around his wrists and chests, knees and ankles. He couldn't move!

The wall! The metal wall just swallowed him up! "Aaah!" He cried, panicking. Pretty sure nobody installed this in the moon base!

"Noin! Wufei! Someone!" He yelled, thrashing and struggling against the rock. That's when he noticed Quatre, staring at him. "Quatre! Help me!"

Edited 2012-03-15 04:25 (UTC)

Duo's shouting startled Toph and she flinched, covering her sensitive ears. She had half a mind to cover his mouth, too, but didn't think that would accomplish much to calm him down.

She turned towards the others.

"What's wrong with him? We heard him screaming from down the hall. He sounded like something was killing him."

For all he knew, someone was, but she didn't understand that.

Haku didn't like the yelling any more than Toph did, though it had nothing to do with sensitive ears and everything to do with how panicked and upset he sounded. She put her hands over her own ears and shook her head frantically to Toph's question. Heero may have been able to provide an answer as to what Duo was possibly seeing, but that didn't tell them WHY it was happening.

Looking up at Duo, Quatre tried to figure out what could be going through his friend's mind. He knew other people had been living their memories and he'd had a very strange string of dreams himself. Since Heero was confident that he could still walk, Quatre went over to Duo with a confused expression. "Duo...I'll do what I can to help you, but you have to tell us what's going on. And why you were attacking Heero."

While Quatre went to talk to Duo, he pulled himself off the floor and wrapped an arm around his middle. Bruised ribs no doubt. This Duo could really pack a punch.

He moved over to the gun Haku dropped in her frightened state and picked it up, tucking it safely away in the waistband of his jeans. The he looked to Toph. "He thinks he's being chased by me, or rather, his version of me."

That question gave him some trouble, as if someone had just seriously challenged his highly convicted beliefs or something. A hard question that he had no answer. His struggling cut short and he just stared at Heero, then Quatre.

"Whatduya....Ha..." he stammered, no less calm than before. "He was attacking me! He killed Sally-" To his perspective, he was literally surrounded by his enemies. Soldiers.

"You're with them?" His voice heightened by despair, and he looked at Quatre with disbelief.

Toph listened, but wasn't so much paying attention to him as she was Duo's voice. She didn't need to feel the wall behind him to know that the man was totally convinced that they were trying to hurt him. She recalled him having said something about alternates.

"You okay, Haku?" she asked, not looking at her. The android sounded shaken, and Toph was concerned. Hey, it happened.

Y'know, maybe Duo just needed a good slapping about the head. She was willing to do it. Who knew, maybe it'd work. If nothing else, maybe it'd shut up his yelling.

Haku heard Toph, but it was Duo's voice that was still ringing in her ears as he went on, unable to recognize anyone around him as his friends in the castle.

She shook her head to Toph's question, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Sally? Duo...that was years ago..." His concern was dripping into his voice. And if Duo was talking about Heero killing Sally, and sides...

"Duo, none of that...it already happened. Why are you thinking that its happening again?"

This was news to him. No wonder Duo wanted to kill him so badly. Killing Sally was just...wrong. He couldn't imagine himself doing it to his version of her.

Heero moved to stand next to Haku and Toph, watching Quatre try to get through to Duo.

Harth stood a good ten yards from them leaning against the dining table. With his enhanced hearing, he could hear all they were saying. With his spell cast, he could see both what Duo was seeing if he focused enough, and what the others were doing and saying as well. Though with Heero and Haku there he dared not venture forth.

Just didn't want any unnecessary confrontation.

Duo stared at Quatre, flinching as the others neared, as he saw Heero's cold heartless eyes fall on him. He just couldn't believe Quatre. He was seeing it with his own eyes! But this already happened. It already--

Castle... Aah. Duo hung his head, wincing at the strain of trying to remember and the clashing memories just confused him. He didn't know what to do, or he didn't until he watched Heero send in the order to have him be picked up by Trowa again.

He narrowed his eyes, scowling at Heero. It's all he could do. For him it was too real, and none of Quatre's words were helping, it was only serving to confuse him.

"Quatre, if you don't let me go, Trowa's gonna haul me off and do who knows what. You heard him just now! Help me!" He cried out in frustration, struggling against the binds. It wasn't working, Quatre. It just wasn't.

Toph folded her arms across her chest before moving towards the big noise maker. She didn't like this- a friend was hurting and she didn't know how to help.

"We should probably get him into bed or something, try to get him to sleep it off. If nothing else, we at least need to get him back to his room. The last thing we need is his noise catching the wrong kind of attention." Like the shadows... did anyone truly know where those things could and couldn't go, or how they would respond to the sound of an inhabitant in pain or peril?

She reached up to his chest, grabbed his shirt, and by using her Earthbending hold on the stone around him effortlessly pulled him down to the ground to sit against the wall. He was still restrained by the wall and the floor, but at least now he was in a more comfortable position, and probably one that made him feel smaller and more guarded and less like an exposed target. Maybe that would help quiet him. Or maybe not. At least he wouldn't be uncomfortable while they deliberated.

Toph wasn't exactly one for much physical contact, but she made an exception. A hand remained on his knee while she crouched beside him. She felt his heart rate and listened to his breathing.

"It's like he's in the worst nightmare he's ever had, and he can't get out of it," she muttered to no one, gaze off somewhere in the distance.

"Nightmare..."

Something pinged in Haku's mind at those words, red eyes studying Duo's face from a distance. She sniffled and rubbed at her face, trying to banish her tears and focus on what Toph was saying. What about that sounded so damn familiar? The memory wasn't far, but it was hazy at best.

"I... I agree with Toph, we should get him away from here... e-even if it doesn't make him stop yelling, the shadows might think us as easy targets because of it..."

"Trowa isn't here Duo! Heero is NOT trying to hurt you! He's not even the same Heero that we knew...but...I am going to help you Duo. Okay?"

They all had nightmares, but if this was a nightmare, why was Duo so awake? Sleep walking couldn't explain all this. But if this was Duo's nightmare, and he was talking like this, he wasn't going to calm down anytime soon. Remembering what Trowa was capable of gave Duo enough trouble on a good day. If he was trapped in a nightmare with the threat of Trowa on the way...not only was Duo scared, he was also more dangerous.

Getting Duo out of the common room and back to his bedroom was a good idea, but moving him in state would be complicated. Toph could move him with her earth bending, but it would be much more unneeded stress of Duo. Maybe the best thing to do was move everyone away from Duo and let Quatre work on getting him settled down.

Looking over his shoulder, Heero checked for shadows and spotted Harth standing by the tables. He kept his eyes on him, watching to see what he would do. There was just something he didn't like about the guy. It was odd. He didn't even know the guy.

Harth only briefly looked to Heero when Heero looked at him, then turned his attention to the others. He bore no recognition for either Heero or Haku, just simply watching before slipping into a chair, but he continued to watch from the table.

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