Heero pulled out his shotgun and leveled it on the last guard. The man's comrades lay scattered at his feet, their corpses twisted in grotesque, pained shapes. The final survivor was terrified, and as Heero pulled the trigger, the guard whirled around with a scream of terror, gun shaking. But still standing…damn. Heero realized he was out of bullets. He'd take the man down by hand.
The guard was reaching a level of hysteria. "Come out, damn it, whoever you are, I'll kill you, come out, come out, quit hiding…"
Heero had been about to charge the guard, but he came up short when the man collapsed with a shrill scream, clutching his chest.
Duo.
"Saving your ass again, eh, Yuy?"
Heero didn't bother to acknowledge the boy's presence, except for a small turn of his head; he walked towards the gasping body of the dying guard instead.
"Well, shit, at least you could say thanks for making your job easier. Looks like you already had all the fun here, eh?" Duo let out a strange, almost manic chuckle as he looked at the scene in front of him. "You gotta love our jobs."
Heero realized that the guard was still alive. The man looked at him with sheer terror as he knelt beside him. "When does the next guard shift arrive?"
The guard's eyes widened, and he stared at Heero.
"Tell me, or your death will be more painful."
Slowly, a strange look of incredulity spread over the man's features, and Heero blinked in surprise.
"I'm….dying…" the man gasped, "and all you care about is that?"
Heero heard Duo come to stand behind him as he answered. "I have a mission. Now. When does the next shift arrive." He flexed his arm. "Or you will die painfully."
As blood bubbled out of the man's lips, he started to laugh, a horrible, rasping sound that seemed to rattle Heero's very bones. "I'm about to die, and all you care about…."
Heero could never have predicted what came next. The man looked at him with pity.
"How can you live like that. Who did that to you…." The man began to cough, and as the spasms racked in his body, he rolled his eyes upwards, as if searching for something, upwards upwards….and then he was dead.
For a long time, Heero didn't move.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Duo and Quatre exchanged pained looks. The Oz guard shouldn't still be alive; his bdy was crushed, broken by the explosion. Quatre looked away as the man gasped out breath from his crushed lungs. Heero pulled out his gun and trained it on the doomed man.
"Wait." The man looked at Heero with passionate, terrified eyes. "Not yet. God it hurts…"
Heero stood still as a statue.
"I need a priest….please, we may be enemies, but…..please….."
Heero looked at the man emotionlessly. "You will die before one can arrive."
The man made a noise of desperate despair. "I can't say them myself….please."
Trowa made a noise of pain. "They shouldn't allow the religious to be soldiers."
Suddenly Duo walked past, and pushed Heero's gun down. He knelt by the broken man's body.
Reaching inside his shirt, he pulled out a gold cross. He bowed his head, and placed his other hand on the man's bloody chest. The man watched him with wide eyes.
And then Duo began to pray. "Through the holy mysteries of our redemption, may almighty God release you from all punishments in this life and in the life to come. May he open to you the gates of paradise and welcome you to everlasting joy-"
A look of peace crossed the man's face, and as blood continued to bubble from his wounds and mouth, his lips began to move. He looked up at the sky, a look of hope. Duo finished the ritual, crossed himself, and then kissed the man on the forehead.
"Thank you father…" the man whispered.
Duo nodded to Heero, who fired the gun. Duo didn't flinch as blood splattered onto his already dirty face. Slowly he rose, put the cross back into his shirt. The rest of the pilots stared at him in complete silence. Even Wufei watched with a stunned look. He had forgotten to wear his look of disdain. Duo looked at them with an inscrutably emotionless face. "Let's go."
They went.