Don’t Look Back in Anger
Another Song-fic
By Lena Ban Obsidian

Disclaimer: The song is by Oasis, and the charas aren’tmine.

Open on raging battle in space; the end is coming. Trowa has picked up Quatre from the duel between the Arabian and Dorothy, Duo has dropped the scientists off on Peace Million, Heero and Zechs are fighting, Wufei and Treize have started their duel. Treize lunges at Wufei, and the Chinese boy bows his head, allowing the man to destroy him with a single blow. Shenlong explodes in a fury, and Treize screams: NOOOOOOO!

Trowa and Quatre are coming out as this happens, hear the scream and see the explosion. Quatre cries out weakly, clutching his chest and keeling over to the side, unconscious. Trowa stares blankly, unable to comprehend what has just happened.

Slip inside the eye of your mind,
Don’t you know you might find
A better place to play

Duo flies over to Trowa, followed by the Maganacs, and sends a cheery hello over the comm. The circus performer manages a small comment:

“Wufei’s gone.” Duo blinks, saying what? But when he is met by silence, he knows Trowa must be telling the truth. Duo screams, an unholy sound that cuts through all the fighting and brings Heero and Zechs back to reality.

The two Zero-ed pilots come over to ask what’s going on, Duo is still screaming and they aren’t heard. The battle comes to a screeching halt, and is interrupted only by Treize pressing a self-destruct button and Duo continuing to scream: the thought running through all Gundam pilot’s minds (that are conscious) is: Not one of us. Not a Gundam pilot.

You said that you’d never been,
But all the things that you’ve seen
Are gonna fade away

Relena and Une and Sally call up Noin, asking her what has happened. Even though she had always disliked Wufei’s attitude, she is crying, and she manages to convey the message: Chang Wufei is dead.

Sally’s eyes go wide and she staggers back, shocked.

So I start a revolution from my bed
Cause you said the brains I had
Went to my head

Wufei- or, rather, the soul of Wufei- is slowly ascending through a tunnel. He doesn’t have any idea how, but he doesn’t care, closing his eyes and remembering the past- Meiran berating him for being a mere scholar and dying to teach him that he needed to be stronger. Even now it makes him sad, and angry, but he is smiling. I was the stronger, but… He sighs to himself, You were Nataku.

Step outside the summertime’s in bloom

Quatre awakens to see Trowa’s slightly anguished face. Neither smiles at the other- they both cannot get over the fact that Wufei is dead. Duo is in the next room over, being watched by many nervous nurses. Taking a closer look, we can see there are angry red scabs where Duo must have attempted suicide at least once. His eyes are closed, but he is not asleep- he is crying. Heero paces in the hallway beyond the two rooms, watched closely be Relena, a scowl on his face.

Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out

Wufei’s spirit sees someone who looks very familiar…he smiles at her, even though she is glowering at him. ‘It was not your time, scholar boy. You have done the wrong thing.’ He shakes his head. ‘If I was successful, it was not the wrong thing.’

“Oh really?” Meiran crows, and then she grabs him by the wrist, yanking him around so that he can see what is happening in the other world. Sally appears in their line of sight- she is in a sort of coma, too upset by what has happened to recover, according to the doctors. Wufei feels a pang of regret…he had no intention of making anyone suffer…

“There’s a lot more,” Meiran growls accusingly, dragging him off to another scene.

And so Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As we’re walking on by

Sally’s pulse suddenly stops, and Wufei feels it.

“NO! You mustn’t!” He shoves her soul forcibly back into her body, the pulse restarts. Meiran tries to take him elsewhere, but now he is keeping an eye on Sally.

Her soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger
I heard you say

While Wufei steadily refuses to go anywhere else, Quatre slips away bit by bit. Trowa, Catherine and Heero watch him go, smiling faintly even though he is crying, and then he is gone. Trowa shivers convulsively and collapses into Catherine, sobbing. Catherine has frozen, mouthing the word no. Heero lets loose a small, anguished cry and puts his head in his hands.

Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows
If it’s night or day

Quatre’s spirit floats idly by Wufei, waving as he passes, moving much more quickly up to the top of the hole they are in. Wufei almost doesn’t notice, but he does catch a glimpse of his fellow Gundam pilot.

“Quatre?” He calls, almost too surprised to recognize the Arabian. The blond spirit disappears from view before a reply can be made- resolutely, Wufei goes back to watching Sally.

Please don’t put your life in the hands
Of a rock and roll band
Who’ll throw it all away

Duo is humming old American pop songs, edging towards his guard nurse. He takes her out, tying her up and stealing her keys, and leaves the room to search for Quatre. He walks in to find that Quatre has just died, and before any of the three stunned people in the room have time to think, he takes off, running for the bathroom. After locking the door, he scrabbles through the medicine cabinet, finding a nail file, and plunges it into his own chest, screaming out the lyrics to Green Day’s song, Prosthetic Head.

I’m gonna start a revolution from my bed
Cause you said the brains I had
Went to my head

Meiran shows Wufei, who is still reluctant, that Duo has killed himself. The other boy’s soul is no where in view- frantically, Wufei dives down to find out where Duo is. The other boy’s spirit is steadily descending- when Wufei asks why, the boy mouths the word suicide and then grins crazily.

He had lost his mind long before succeeding in killing himself.

“Suicide is worse than homicide, Scholar boy.” Meiran shakes her head slowly. “And your other friend is about to do it.” Wufei pales and goes racing for the place where Heero is…watching the stoic boy, he sees nothing out of the ordinary.

Strange, He thinks. Heero usually paces a bit before even suggesting suicide to himself…

Step outside the summertime’s in bloom

Trowa gently strokes Catherine’s cheek, apologizing for knocking her out. He stands shakily and makes his way to Quatre, trying to touch the dead boy but unable to bring himself to do it. Tears are streaming down his face, but that is the only sign of inner turmoil there- the boy remains deadpan. He turns back to Catherine, who is laid out on the floor, and smiles at her, knowing that she will be crying for him.

“You’re the better half…” Shaking violently, he collapses to the floor, still clutching the bottle labeled ‘cyanide’ that he has just downed.

Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out
And so Sally can wait

“He has done it,” Meiran says sadly, shaking her head. Wufei looks back at Heero, confused, and then realizes…

“TROWA!” He cries, diving back down to the place that Duo had been. The spirit of the other boy is sinking quickly, eyes closed and knees drawn up to his chin, arms crossed over his chest. He shudders, knowing full well what he is headed for.

“No…” Wufei whispers brokenly. Meiran sighs, refusing to tell Wufei that Sally’s soul is slipping out of her body once more.

She knows it’s too late
As we’re walking on by
Her soul slides away

Too late, Wufei remembers about Sally. He returns to the place where he can see her, and then rushes up the chasm, looking for her. The confused boy looks to Meiran for an answer.

“Sally didn’t believe in any afterlife. When she died, her soul entered this place and simply faded out.” The Chinese boy degenerates into tears, screaming, “Why, why? Let me change it!”

But don’t look back in anger
I heard you say

Meiran closes her eyes, stretches her arms out, palms up, and begins to…glow.

“IT WILL BE DONE,” She says in a loud, booming voice.

So Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As she’s walking on by

Sally reappears in her body, and time begins to rewind, stopping Heero just as he was about to stab himself. Trowa shakes and stands up, spits out the cyanide before he can swallow it, Catherine regains consciousness.

Our souls slide away

Duo comes back up from hell, Quatre back down from heaven, and they reenter their bodies. Time continues to rewind, until Wufei is pulled out of the chasm and into his body once more. Time stops, for a brief second, and Meiran whispers in his ear, ‘I will be there when it is your time, beloved.’

But don’t look back in anger

Time restarts, Treize lunges at Wufei, Wufei lunges back and slices the former leader of Oz. As the Tallgeese explodes, Wufei screams:

“No!” Timeline is restored, and immediately, Wufei forgets that any of it happened.

Don’t look back in anger…

Several months later, Wufei and the other boys are around Treize’s grave. The Chinese boy bows his head, and the others maintain silence, knowing that it is hard to accept that this way must be the way things are meant to be.

I heard you say…

Up in heaven, Meiran smiles at Treize and the two of them call out to Wufei happily, waving and laughing even though they know that he can’t hear them.

Please not today

The pilots disperse, and the lone dragon smiles up at the heavens.

“Thank you, Nataku.” He walks away to the nearby coffee shop, where Sally is waiting for him.

~End~

Smiles, wipes away a tear.
Okay, I like that one.
Thank you.

Dedicated to Cheshire. It may sound corny, but she would not have cared whether it was corny or not.

Thanks! Five minutes pause begins...now!

~Lena