Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. Lines taken are (c) the respective owners. Please don't sue. Please?
AN: Yet another one out! It's getting easier to bang these out, but I hope the quality isn't slipping. See what happens when you review? A happy Wulf is a wordy Wulf. ^ - ^ Thanks as always, guys!
Additional AN: Small squick warning for Duke Dermail's little psychosis problem. But I guess if the gore didn't scare you off, then he won't either. Compared to the earlier chapters, this one's pretty tame, focusing more on Mariemaya, Relena, and Wufei. Since this is an AU, I messed around with a couple of things, first off, the second war was with some one else, anyone else, but not Mariemaya. But since the story takes place in A.C. 199, she's nine. Also, Lady Une is now her mother. (She just fits the part, and it's my story anyway. :P) Um, I think that's it.....
Oh! Don't worry Trowa fans, I promise to return him to you in almost perfect condition.
And for the Quatre fans out there, the next chapter will focus mostly on our little Arabian sweetheart, so stick around.
And as always, review, review, review! Let's see if we can get to 100 by the times this fic is done! If I get that many, I've got an idea for a sequel focusing on the plot from Code: Veronica.
Wow, this may be the longest author's note I've ever written. .........I'll shut up now. Enjoy. (But please excuse the grammar/spelling errors, I have no beta, but I try to catch them all. It's hard to edit your own work.)
"Not even remedies can master incurable diseases."
-Seneca, /Epistulae ad Lucilium/
Mr. Dermail had been a very bad man, a very /sick/ man. And she was in there with him, the young girl with the pretty long hair, and her friend, the man with the harsh look on his foreign features. He had a scowl on his face, but he looked good, like movie star good.
Mariemaya winced, rubbing her feet, wishing she hadn't worn her new shoes. They were starting to make her feet hurt. She sighed, peeping through the keyhole once more to watch the goings-on in Mr. Dermail's office, staring as the young girl stepped back from him while the young man walked closer. Shifting her position, Mariemaya saw that the girl's body was still on his desk, the really pretty one with the long flowing hair.
Since her arrival at the police station several hours previous, Mariemaya had been hiding, pretty much. She had learned early on that hiding was a good thing, ever since she had seen Mr. Dermail, had found out what a sick man he was and what he had done to the young woman. She had watched it all through the safety of an overhead air duct, watched and couldn't do anything about it, and remembered crying and crying because her parents left her at the police station, /something/ was after her, and nothing made sense anymore.
Mariemaya turned away from the door, staring up at the huge stuffed tiger. She reached out and stroked its oil-rich fur, just lightly, with her fingertips. She knew it was childish, the tiger was dead, but somehow, she felt safe around it, like it was protecting her. Yes, it would protect her from the monster that was after her, that terrible thing she had caught a glimpse of in one of the downstairs hallways, the big screaming thing with the-
A noise, behind in the room, footsteps coming closer.
Mariemaya pulled away from the tiger, trusting him to protect her until she got to her sanctuary, her little den behind the statues of the knights in the other room. She was safe there; there was no way any of the monsters could fit through the tiny little ventilation hole that led into the air ducts.
Dermail let his head drop slightly, his chin dipping into his chest. The insolent little Chinese boy said something, poking him roughly in the chest with something cold. Dermail didn't twitch however, wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Sylvia was with him, and he would protect her, despite what he told the Peacecraft girl.
//Yes, I know who you are, Relena. I know everything.//
The young Chinese man and the Peacecraft girl left, mercifully enough, heading out the other door, which meant that sometime they would have to return, since all the other door led to was a dead-end. Yes, they would come back and then they would--
/It's okay, Duke,/ Sylvia was speaking to him again, her soft quiet voice just a whispery breath in the large office. Dermail stared at her angelic face intently; Sylvia always knew what to do. /There is always the Sanctuary, Duke. Take me back there. Please protect me. You promised my grandfather. Please, Duke...../
Sylvia trailed off, but Dermail was already standing, already hefting her lithe form against his bulk, already slapping at the controls that opened the back wall. He gripped Sylvia more securely in his arms, and she stared up at him, adoration and admiration playing up on her tiny features. /Thank you, Duke./ Dermail smiled slightly, caressing Sylvia's cheek. Yes, he was taking care of her. He pressed the button to close the wall, then pressed the one next to it, the one for the elevator that would take him down to his Sanctuary, where he and Sylvia would finally be in peace.
Holding the girl in his arms, Dermail stepped into the elevator, the metal door closing smoothly behind him as the lift began its decent. Sylvia smiled up at him again, snuggling closer to his chest. As she did so, her already short skirt hiked up, revealing even more of her creamy soft white skin, her high-cut silk panties-
Dermail forced his eyes away. He would protect her at all costs. He promised Noventa.
/You'll always be my night in shining armor, Duke,/ Sylvia whispered. Then she kissed him.
Quatre carefully checked each isle of the church before guiding Trowa to one of the front pews, laying him down to rest. Trowa was getting worse- Quatre could see it in his face, the way his sweaty skin twitched, his stumbling walk, the way his vibrant emerald eyes had turned to the color of dull jade, the way he--
Quatre shook his head, struggling vainly to shake the terrible thoughts from his head. Instead, he focused on his surroundings. The church was empty, there were no signs of the nightmare outside. It was dark, with only a few candles at the altar lit, lighting up the front of the church. By some bizarre twist of fate, there was a cardboard box behind the altar, covered by a small coarse blanket and full of canned food and plastic silverware, and a few clips for a nine millimeter which were tucked in the corner.
Quatre smiled slightly, despite himself. //At least there's one place still sacred in this hell hole.// Tucking the clips into his back pocket, Quatre dragged the box near Trowa's pew, leaving his pocket knife on top of one of the cans, just in case the tall boy got the munchies. The blonde covered him lovingly in the coarse blanket, brushing errant brunette locks off his sweaty forehead. Quatre stared down at his lover, realizing how small and child-like he appeared as he slept, his chiseled features pulled tight, a grim expression on his face even as he slept. Quatre bent down to lay a kiss on his fevered brow, vowing that by the time he returned, he'd find a cure for whatever was attacking his precious Trowa, and then they'd get the hell out of this nightmare.
"No! Let me /go/!" the little red headed girl screamed, tugging furiously at Relena's hand, but the young woman held firm. Relena and Wufei had followed the pitter-patter of tiny footfalls, and had ended up in a small room where a little red-headed girl had been cowering in the corner, trying to hide herself among shadows.
"Easy, easy! I'm /not/ a zombie!" Relena retorted, still struggling with the little girl, who was putting up one hell of a fight. She finally calmed down however, faltering in Relena's grasp, burying her tiny face in Relena's stomach and letting the tears finally fall, tears that she had held in since the beginning, since she had seen what Mr. Dermail had done to that girl.
"--Easy, it's okay, you're safe now," the lady was saying, softly stroking her soft red hair in a soothing gesture. Mariemaya looked up, suddenly feeling childish and stupid that she had tried to run from such a nice lady. She was pretty, too, in a plain kind of way, but when she smiled, her face lit up.
Relena got down on one knee, eye-level with the girl. She smiled again, her movements slow and fluid, as to not upset the girl again ad she stroked her soft red hair. "What's your name?" she asked in a soft voice, smiling.
"Mariemaya Khushrenada," the girl replied, sticking her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels. She glanced over to Wufei, who stood at the doorway, his arms crossed, but his features soft and warm.
"I'm Relena, and this is Wufei," Relena stated, motioning at Wufei. "Do you know where your parents are?"
"They both work with OZ, at the chemical plant, near the city limits."
"Chemical plant?" Relena stopped, staring passed Mariemaya. Since when did OZ have a chemical plant? And why the hell did they need one? The wars were over.....
Mariemaya nodded, trying to be as helpful as possible. She liked Relena, and even Wufei. She liked them a lot. "OZ set up a chemical plant here a few years ago, just after the second war. My parents were sent to work there, so we moved here."
"Well, what are you doing here?" Wufei asked, stooping down as Relena had, reaching out to lightly caress the girl's head. She blushed, but continued with her story.
"Mom called and told me to go to the police station, because it was too...... /dangerous/ to stay at home."
Relena and Wufei stood up, exchanging glances. She knew Wufei wouldn't like it, but they couldn't leave her here. Yet, to her surprise, Wufei was the one to speak up first.
"From the looks of things, I'd say she was probably right, but it's dangerous here, as well. Why don't you come with us?"
Mariemaya had been smiling, she knew she liked them, both, a lot. Relena was friendly and nice, pleasant to be around. Wufei.... Wufei was cool. He was dressed in black, a cool leather jacket neat combat boots, his silky black hair was pulled back, with a few strands hanging loose that he was constantly brushing out of his eyes. He looked good, even better when he smiled, and a lot better when he smiled at her.
But when he told her to come with them.......
She wanted to tell them that it was a bad idea, she didn't want them to get hurt. There was something loose, something coming after her. She had to get away, to lead it away from Relena and Wufei.
"Mariemaya...." Relena started, squatting down to look the girl in the eyes-
"/Graaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!/"
-when something screamed, howling in fury, something very, /very/ close. Relena stood up, her eyes wide. "What was that?"
"There's something out there, a lot bigger than those zombies, and it's coming after /me/!" Mariemaya screamed, pushing by Wufei who grunted and made a grab for her, but she was too quick, already passed him and heading for her little sanctuary behind the suits of armor, when she could hide in the air ducts, safely leading the monster away from Wufei and Relena. She crawled into the winding darkness, hoping it wasn't already too late.
"Mariemaya, /stop/!" Relena called after the girl, who pushed passed Wufei. Relena followed, but the girl was gone, and staring at the pathetic little hide-away tucked behind the suits of armor at the mouth of a ventilation hole, the threadbare blanket and the candy bar wrappers and empty soda cans, she realized that Mariemaya must've been hiding there for some time.
Relena crouched down, but couldn't fit herself in the hole, no matter how small she was. And now Mariemaya was gone, long gone, crawling through some dusty and dark air shaft, probably scared out of her wits. But whatever had frightened her so badly was gone, as well......
"Hey," Wufei say, laying a hand on her shoulder, startling her. She hadn't realized she had been staring nto the dark hole for so long. She smiled gratefully, wiping a tear from her eye, squaring her shoulders.
"She'll be all right," Wufei continued as they made their way to Dermail's office. "She's a smart kid, if she survived this long, and she's obviously been here for some time. She'll make it."
Wufei's warmth surprised her; she hadn't known him that well back in the days of the Eve Wars, but the few times she had met him he seemed like a masochistic prick. But that had been a while ago, when they were still young, when Wufei was trying to assert his feeble adolescent manhood and she hadn't even gotten breasts yet......
Relena shook her head slightly, //this is most definitely not the time to be reminiscing about the "good ol' days," 'Lena, let's try to act our age, eh? Mariemaya's out there and she's probably cold and frightened, and you need to keep your head in the present.//
Wufei and Relena stepped back into Dermail's office, only to find him-- gone.
The moon was high in the sky, almost full, casting its light down upon the city, lighting the way as Quatre back-tracked his way to the police station. He kept an eye out for the big guy in the trench coat, but hadn't seen him since the scare just outside the station a few hours earlier. It was probably near midnight by now, and cold as hell; Quatre could see his breath come in small white puffs as he ran.
Once he neared the station, getting in was easy, most of the zombies had left, probably gone in search of hot food or too far gone to do much but moan and fall apart. Gross.
Checking behind his back once more for anything that looked the least bit dangerous, Quatre grabbed the ice-cold metal handle to the double doors of the police station and stepped inside, not sure what he would find.