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

[stillshinigami]

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.]

Comments

[stillshinigami]

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!"

[tophbeifong]

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.

[sakedrinking]

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.

[shadeofawinner]

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."

[stoicperfection]

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."

[stillshinigami]

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.

[tophbeifong]

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.

[sakedrinking]

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.

[shadeofawinner]

"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?"

[stoicperfection]

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.

[herotherhalf]

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.

[stillshinigami]

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.

[tophbeifong]

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.

[sakedrinking]

"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..."

[shadeofawinner]

"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.

[stoicperfection]

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.

[herotherhalf]

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.

[stillshinigami]

Tophs action certainly did change things. He didn't feel like he was being held up, as if someone much bigger had grabbed him. Like the hand of a gundam. He was still bound, still shaking. Now he just felt small, pulling a knee up and pressing himself against the wall behind him.

He just couldn't believe that Quatre wasn't helping him. That he was stuck here with no escape. Nothing the other boy made any sense! He hunched his shoulders, tense with strain and glared up at them defiantly. He'd fight em' all off if he had to.

[tophbeifong]

Toph's hand remained on his knee as she listened to the others. From the feel of his heart racing and breathing hitching every time Quatre spoke, or refrained from moving, he was doing little more than scaring Duo even more. Or at least upsetting him.

She could feel him tensing, and put her other hand against the wall. The stone snaked around him sneakily, holding him tight and secure. If he'd tried to lunge at anyone like he'd been restrained, he likely would have dislocated something or pulled a muscle, and that pain could have been confused for something they inflicted. With more restraints, he could probably wiggle, but he wouldn't be able to get enough momentum to hurt anyone, not even himself.

"Maybe we just need to back off, or knock him out. Something."

[sakedrinking]

Haku caught Heero looking around the area, and for some reason she couldn't quite understand she started following his gaze. Her vision landed on Harth, half hidden by shadows but still recognizable even at that distance.

Nightmares. Dreams. He had walked in her dream. They talked, without even physically being face to face.

Was he the one doing this to Duo? Was he the reason he couldn't see anyone as his friends?

She started to point him out just after Toph had suggested knocking him out, but something stopped her. Her vision distorted, seeing metal walls instead of stone ones. Where there should have been torch light, there were dim yellow lamps that barely lit anything up, and voices that didn't belong to anyone there.

The castle flickered in and out of her vision, changing places with the strange walls that she didn't recognize. And it hurt. It wasn't a pain that came with her nerves being damaged. It was something else, like a warning going off only without the actual noise.

She didn't cry out, but her hand went to the wall and she rested against it heavily, trying to find her voice if only to warn them about Harth being there.

[shadeofawinner]

"No..." Quatre shook his head, glancing at Toph. "I'm not knocking him out when he's already afraid. Duo...I swear we're not going to hurt you. I would never do anything to hurt you. You still trust me, right?"

[stoicperfection]

Heero kept his eyes on Harth, even as he looked away from him. There was just something about him that bothered him. Like he had seen him before somewhere or just thought he did. It was awfully suspicious that Harth would be watching them, yet with the way Duo was screaming it only made sense for people to start gathering.

Shaking his head, he looked away and back to Quatre and Duo before he noticed Haku acting a bit strange. He watched her as she leaned against the wall, trying to work her mouth to say something and she couldn't. Was it a malfunction?

"What's wrong?" He asked her, placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her to look at him.

[herotherhalf]

Well really he was just trying to act like the curious bystander, too shy to step over and join them or ask what was wrong. So he remained where he was and watched them all. With the way Heero looked at him, he was wondering about him again. Wondering if he'd seen him through that casket or he had some kind of sensory abilities he had yet to understand.

Or perhaps Haku had mentioned him? Or Quatre? He knew that both of them encountered him in their dreams.

He wasn't afraid of them finding out about him dream walking, not in the least. Catching Heero's eyes again he gave him a look. 'what?'

[stillshinigami]

"Trust you?" His eyes went hard.

"I don't know if I can at this point!" He winced a little, a headache brewing all of a sudden. He squirmed in an effort to grasp his head. "Aaah."

Damn. What was-- He looked up at them, eyes wide with surprise. Was that? "--Toph...?" Right next to him. He flinched as she suddenly turned back into the soldier.

"Wha... What? What is this?" Gaah! Okay. He swooned, nausea and a wicked headache taking him. If he were standing, he'd have fallen to his knees.

[tophbeifong]

Toph snorted at Quatre's comment.

"I was just kidding, geeze. Do you really think I-" she stopped when he spoke her name.

"Duo?" she asked quickly, eyes wide. She grinned widely.

"Hey, guys, I think he's- ... uh oh. Haku?" she turned her head to aim an ear and listen. "Geeze, we fix one, and another breaks. What's going on?"

She still hadn't noticed Harth. His movements were too far away to catch her interest, as her focus was on the ones in her immediate area.