~~ Oi! This little ficcie has some self-insertion in it. Just a forewarning. I still don't own Gundam Wing, just the DevAngels and Myself. Hopefully no one hates it, just don't go expecting me to ask forgivness for this!
Oh, yeah, and the title for this fic came from Pearl Jam's Better Man. Just givin' credit where it's due! 0^_~0 ~~
(Stage Two)
I awoke as though from some horrible nightmare. Sweat shone on my slightly tanned skin, and my hair clung to the back of my neck, making the heat worse.
Quatre scuttled over and looked down at me, his eyes glittering with concern. Something I wasn't used to.
"Are you alright Marelle?" He laid his hand gently on my bare shoulder, his touch cooling my heated skin. I tried to slow my breathing and nodded. He crawled over me and laid down at my side. I tensed.
"You sure everything's okay?" He must have been able to tell. I was so readable sometimes. I shrugged, not trusting my voice and not wanting to wake Trowa.
The couple had been more than willing to let me share their tent with them. Fallyn kept giving me looks, I knew what she was thinking. Trowa interrupted my thoughts with his soft voice.
"Marelle, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." How true that was.
I shook my head, indicating nothing was wrong, but Trowa wouldn't have it. He slipped up to the other side of me and took my hand. He placed it against his bare chest, his body heat catching my nerves on fire. I looked, frightened, over at Quatre, who simply pulled me into a sitting posistion.
"Tell us. About the nightmares. Tell us." His soft voice held a note of pleading in it and I smiled wryly.
"I'll never be able to tell either of you no again." They both grinned at me and pulled their sleeping bags to either side of me, in a way that I found comforting.
I pulled my knees up and circled them with my arms, looking down into the darkness hidden in my little enclave. "A girl. I called her Moue-Moue. I don't remember her real name, it was far too foreign to my tongue, and by the time it wasn't, we were used to her being Moue-Moue to me." I smiled slightly at the memory.
"Moo-Moo?" Quatre asked softly, a cute puzzled look on his face. I nodded.
"Em. Oh. Yu. Ee. Dash em. Oh. Yu. Ee. Moue-Moue. She was asian, though I couldn't tell you if she was from Earth or the colonies, or even to which Asiatic culture she belonged. She was always my Oriental Moue-Moue. She taught me how to defend myself. We would spar sometimes, though the Biggigs didn't like it."
Trowa interrupted me as I paused. "Biggigs?" I nodded again.
"Yeah. That's what they wanted us to call them. They told us we were their pet project. They claimed to protect us, but I saw enough people go through the doors to the forbidden area and never return, that I doubted it. So did Moue-Moue. She and I actually snuck down into the forbidden area. We almost got caught, but we found out what was going on. The Biggigs were doing experiments and using all of us as guinea pigs. Moue-Moue and I decided that we were going to get out of there somehow." I paused, my voice lowering to ease the cracking of it. "Moue-Moue never made it.
"She gave one helluva fight. I was there, by her side. She gave me two of her weapons and told me to fight till I could get out. I told her we would go together. She nodded, but I could tell in her ebony eyes that she wasn't going to go. She..she..." I sighed, trying to fight the tears that threatened. "She didn't make it. They managed to separate us, but had moved me to the way out. Moue-Moue screamed for me to run and I did. I bolted right out the door and kept running. I stabbed anyone that tried to stop me, too. I still held onto her weapons. I heard Moue-Moue's final scream and I nearly ran back to her. I didn't, though, 'cuz I knew she wouldn't have appreciated it. She died for honor and she died honorably, saving my life." I tried to dry my eyes, but the tears kept coming. I sniffled a bit and laid my forehead on my knees. Gentle, comforting hands carressed my back, making me feel a little bit better. Slowly, I continued.
"I ran for days. I knew if I stopped for too long, they would overtake me. So I kept running, wondering when exhaustion would claim me. I wanted to die, but I knew Moue-Moue wouldn't like that very much. She was very honorable and honor-bound. She tried to teach me honor, and I think I learned fairly well. But I ran, till I couldn't run anymore. Then I walked and wandered the woods. I wasn't paying attention to where I was or where I was going, and I stepped on a twig. The only one I had stepped on the entire time. It brought me out of myself and I looked frantically around. That's when I saw Cherish, though I didn't know who she was at that time. When she turned and looked at me, I bolted behind a tree, where I stayed. I glanced at her, but stayed behind the tree, the only protection I felt I had. When I looked again, she was talking to Wufei. I saw him look my direction and I knew what was going to happen, so I tried to escape by climbing the tree. I didn't realize how exhausted I was. I can usually climb trees and be far away quickly, but not yesterday. I did manage to be quiet, and if it weren't for you, Trowa, seeing me, I don't think any of you would have found me."
I had laid back down in that time, curling up on my side facing Quatre. I felt Trowa's arms around me, encircling me in warmth and safety. Then I felt Quatre's arms encircling both Trowa and myself and I felt doubly safe. I drifted back off to a dreamless sleep as I heard Quatre whisper, "No harm will befall you with us. I promise."
~~~~~~~**~~~~~~
Fallyn sat up in the tent she shared with Duo and Heero, her loves. She was trying to figure out why MAJ was here, and what the girl was trying to do. Marelle had looked so frightened when she had breathed the word 'MAJ', Fallyn couldn't figure out if it was an act or sincere. She had a bad feeling, but it didn't emenate from the girl. No, if anything, Fallyn could only feel fear from Marelle. The kind of fear that Fallyn knew all too well.
As she drifted off to sleep, Fallyn decided to get to the bottom of this to ease that fear from Marelle.
~~~~~~~**~~~~~~
I woke early in the morning, as usual. I felt oddly warm, then I remembered where I was. Slowly, I removed myself from the embrace of Trowa and Quatre, without disturbing them. With the quietness of a whisper, I left the tent, glancing around the camp to see if there was any disturbance. A few snores emenated from the other two tents, but there were no other indications of anything bad. So I quietly climbed a tree near the camp.
I reached a branch that was sturdy, yet narrow, and proceeded to walk out onto it. I withdrew two ivory chopsticks. Well, they look like chopsticks, but they're really the weapons my Moue-Moue gave me. She had taught me what she called "choptanas". She and I went through them every morning, long before any of the Biggigs were around to catch us.
So, on the narrow limb of the tree, I began the routine. I held the sticks tightly in my pinkies, curled almost all the way back to my palm, my middle two fingers a little ways from them, curled half the distance, and my forefingers supporting farther out. My thumbs stayed stiffly out of the way, running adjacent to my palms.
About halfway through my second excercise, a disturbance in the camp caught my attention. I watched as one of the tents opened and a young man with dark hair appeared. Wufei carried his kitana with him, his white pants and black shoes the only things he sported. He stretched and walked to just outside the camp. I watched in awe as he began what my Moue-Moue had called "kanatas", his movements as fluid as mine. I went back to my routine, watching him as I went through the motions.
