Merrillian Part 11
Heero knocked quietly on the door to his father's office.
A moment later the door was opened and the boys found themselves within Odin Lowe's preferred world. Books lined every wall, from floor to ceiling in a mess that was actually orderly in its chaos, or so Odin claimed. Books everywhere, the pattern only broken by the old computer, which sat on his father's desk. But the machine was so old that it only really worked to type up documents and print them out. It was far too slow for the internet or anything else that one might have wanted to put on it.
Odin's excuse was that he liked turning pages.
"Dad?" Heero pushed the door open farther and looked around for his father. It took a moment before he found the older man hunched over in the far corner, rearranging a few of the books.
"Have you seen my copy of "The History of War: An Endless Waltz"? I seem to have misplaced it."
Heero smirked and stepped into the room, Quatre following him silently and stared at all the books in wonder. "Three shelves above you and to the left," Heero said with barely a look.
Odin sat up and glanced up to the place he'd indicated. "Well, what do you know? Hm, I wonder what made me put it there." He murmured a few more things to himself then grabbed the book and began paging through it in search of some unknown little tidbit of knowledge.
"Hey, Heero. These all of the mythology books?"
Heero glanced over to see Quatre looking at another shelf lined with particularly thick volumes. He stepped over and scanned the shelf for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, that should be all of them."
The blond nodded his own head and pulled one down. Flipping it to the back, he began scanning through the index. Behind them Odin made his way over, still paging through his own book.
"And what are you boys so intent on finding?"
Heero frowned and turned to his father. "Ever heard of something called the Merrillian?"
"Merrillian? Now why does that sound familiar?" Odin scratched the side of his head and gently pushed Quatre out of the way, his eyes beginning to scan the shelves and book titles before him.
"I think it's the name of a red stone, and I'm pretty sure it's one of the artifacts I helped you catalog at the museum." Heero supplied.
Odin Lowe scanned the shelf, muttering the name to himself a few times, then frowned. Turning, he took one book off the very edge of the shelf, right next to the wall and leaned back. Flipping to around the middle, he turned a few pages then grinned.
Quatre looked up, waiting patiently.
"Lesser well known then its cousin, the Oracle of Delphi, the Merrillian Oracle has a much more complicated history." Odin read from the book without glancing at the boys. He paused and turned the page, scanning for a moment before saying anything else.
"That's it," Heero said softly. Behind him, Quatre closed the book he was holding and swallowed hard.
Odin continued.
"The oracle gains its title from the name given to the stone which is believed to hold its powers. Unlike the Oracle of Delphi, though, this Oracle had only one host, who was almost always a young boy just entering his teens. The boy was selected from a nearby city and taken away from his parents to become the Priest who would share his visions. His name would be replaced, his whole identity erased for that matter, and from the point of his initiation he was only addressed as The Merrillian.
"The Merrillian was well known for his accurate visions, which were obtained through a dreamlike state after the questions were asked. However, the Oracle carried with it a shaded reputation. Due to unknown circumstances, all Merrillian Priests never lasted more then three years in their posts, some even less."
Quatre began to tremble and slowly backed away, searching numbly for a chair, or something to support him. He soon found himself leaning against the edge of Odin's desk as the man continued to read.
"Though it was never completely explained, the common tale is that the Priest would fall asleep, to gain answers for one of the many people who traveled to this particular oracle. Eventually he would not wake up. Nothing else would be wrong with him, in fact the Priest would still appear to be breathing and alive, but he would refuse to wake up or respond to anything said or done to him. Eventually the boy was disposed of and another Priest was chosen, thus beginning the cycle again."
Odin frowned and looked up from the book, apparently reaching the end of the small entry. To his surprise he found Quatre leaning against his desk, the blonde's face pale and drained. Meanwhile Heero had a scared look on his face, his eyes locked on the book. Odin's frown deepened.
"What's this all about?" He asked the boys quietly.
"Dad," Heero said softly. "What happened to that stone? I remember seeing it at the museum."
"Now that I know exactly what artifact you're talking about, I do remember it. I cataloged it, like my job was, then it was shipped off to another museum for an exhibit. But somewhere along the line it was lost. The museum did an official inquiry, but nothing was ever found. And since the stone was so small it was passed off as a case no one could really do anything about. Now Heero, what is going on? Why are you two acting like I've got a gun pointed to your heads?"
Heero swallowed hard and walked over to Quatre, a concerned look on his face. Not responding to his father's comment he wrapped a comforting arm around the blonde's shoulder.
"Quatre, you ok?"
Quatre nodded, taking a few deep breaths and calming down.
"Heero?" Odin repeated, in a lower, more demanding voice.
Heero frowned and turned to his father, his face set in a very serious expression. "Please, dad, don't ask."
"I know I said I wouldn't ask before but-"
"Then don't." Heero interrupted harshly. "Just please, don't."
Odin's mouth dropped open at the harsh words, but for the life of him he couldn't come up with a response. All he could do was stand there and watch as Heero helped Quatre out of the room quietly, leaving him standing with the thick book in hand. As the door shut behind them, Odin sighed softly and placed the book back on the shelf.
"Damnit. I've always sucked at being a parent," he muttered quietly.
His eyes drifted to the desk, where a small framed picture sat of him and his wife, holding Heero as a baby in the hospital bed.
"But this time, for his sake, I'm not backing down."
~*~
From up in his room, Heero watched the car pull out of the driveway. Quatre was tucked safely in the front seat, not saying a single word to anyone after what they'd heard, save to call his mother for a ride again. As the car pulled off, Heero could see him sitting in the window, gazing out with a blank expression.
Everything they'd heard, all they knew, it was mind blowing to finally place all the pieces together. They now knew why Duo had disappeared, they knew why he was in a coma and they knew why Heero kept seeing Duo in his dreams.
All of it centered on a small stone called Merrillian.
Heero sighed softly and dropped down on his bed, rolling on to his stomach so as not to hurt his bandaged back. And slowly, as he lay there, he went through all the pieces, placing them side by side in his head.
He was connected to Duo and was seeing the dreams, as far as he figured, because of that one day they'd met at the museum and both touched the stone. Something about Duo had made the stone react to him, and that was most likely his strange powers, which he'd inherited from Quatre's family. Then the stone disappeared from the museum and Duo went missing.
But Duo had never really gone missing. Instead he'd slipped into a coma and Raymond, his father, had been so pissed he'd placed Duo under a false name at the local hospital where Catherine now volunteered. Raymond knew about Quatre's family's strange talents and hated them for it, blaming them for everything bad that had ever happened to him. And Heero received the dreams because of that moment which he'd touched the stone with Duo.
That small moment bound them together in this and was what had gotten him pulled into this entire mess. That small moment and...
Heero lifted his head and glanced across the room at the painting on his wall. Olive green eyes watched him back from the painting, shaded only slightly by long bangs.
That moment and the death of a close friend. Trowa.
Heero sat up and looked up at the painting, frowning to himself. The image of Trowa and his mother watched him back with calm eyes and cool smiles, almost as if they were telling him that they had faith in him that he could figure out the missing pieces.
After all, they knew how Duo had been trapped, they knew what was holding him, they knew why... they just didn't know how to set him free.
But there just had to be something...
Heero stood up from his bed and walked over to the closet. Opening the door he pulled out his other painting, the first one he'd done of the dream. Swallowing hard, he turned it so he could see it.
Despite having seen the dream nearly every night since this had all started, the image still struck him as eerily realistic. As he looked at the painting, he was overcome by a strange urge to try and reach into the painting and help untangle the poor boy from the chains. His eyes even moved over the network, figuring out how exactly he could untie everything...
"Damn!" Heero swore loudly, his voice echoing through the entire room. Clenching his fists hard he stared at his white knuckles as they shook and the blood drained out.
There had to be something he could do! Something!
And then it hit him, like a bolt of lightning.
Heero literally stumbled back from the painting, staring at the strange shape of the boy hanging there as he realized exactly what he was thinking.
True he was pondering a way to set Duo free, just as he'd told Quatre he would. But, now, for the first time, he realized the horrible truth.
~*~
Whiteness surrounded him, swirling around him like a blanket. He closed his eyes and let the pulling stop, ending to let him rest on the hard concrete floor. He felt the pulling wash away and the sound of the heart monitor filled the air around him. Now that he knew exactly where he was, he could make out more details.
He could smell the sickeningly clean air. He could hear the heart monitor beeping faintly yet steadily in the background, almost as if the machine itself were struggling to keep going at that beat. It sounded like it would shut down at any moment. He could pinpoint all the things that made this room identifiable as the very hospital room where he knew Duo lay.
He knew the pulling was done and that he'd arrived, and yet Heero couldn't quite bring himself to open his eyes. He remembered how Duo had looked earlier that day, how pale and broken and weak he'd seemed lying behind his father. It was one of Heero's fears that he might actually be like that still. Or worse.
It seemed to take forever but Heero finally forced himself to open his eyes and look around the room.
To his surprise, or perhaps not, he found it to be no different then usual. The room was the same simple hospital room, showing signs of only one inhabitant and no visitors. The white surrounding him, which might have been blinding in real life or even in another dream, took on an almost soothing tone and Heero soon found his fear disappearing and being replaced with curiosity as his eyes moved towards the bed and Duo.
Just like the other times in the hospital room he found Duo sitting there silently, watching him with quiet and patient eyes. There was no red anywhere in the room; nothing to even hint at the stone that Heero now knew held the boy hostage. Heero took a deep breath and approached the bed.
Violet eyes watched him closely; a questioning look on the boy's heart shaped face. He watched Heero calmly, but there was something different. It took a moment for Heero to notice it but when he did, he stopped cold in his tracks.
Duo was watching him with a kind of fear. Caution.
As Heero stopped, the world around him began to swirl and fade.
Right before his eyes, the hospital room wavered away and red chains appeared, almost gently lifting Duo into the air until he was hanging suspended much as the first time Heero had ever seen him. But this time there was a major difference.
This time the chains weren't all red.
This time many of the chains were blue.
And those blue chains reached back to Heero's fingers.
Tears slipped from Heero's eyes as he tried to pull his hands free. Yet every move he made caused Duo to give a look of pain, since the chains were still attached. He tried everything, his mind building into a near panic until he realized, finally, that all he was accomplishing was hurting Duo more.
His knees collapsed out from under him and Heero dropped to the floor, where he crouched, crying and staring in horror at his own hands.
He'd wanted to help save Duo, to stop all of this... but now he was only making it worse. Somewhere along the line he'd started helping the stone, which held Duo captive instead of helping to stop it. But where?
Where had everything gone wrong?
A soft tapping of something against the cold ground under his feet caught his attention and Heero looked up slowly.
Duo stood before him, still wrapped in the now blue and red colored chains.
Crying softly, Heero watched as the violet-eyed boy reached toward him, sadness in his eyes.
"I'm sorry..." Heero whimpered softly. "I'm so sorry."
A small understanding smile crossed Duo's lips and he wrapped his chain encircled arms gently around Heero's body. All the while Heero trembled quietly and kept murmuring his apologies.
"I'm sorry... but I don't want to set you free anymore. I'm so sorry. So sorry..."
TBC...
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