After Dark comes Death
By Abby Ebon
"Y-years?" Quatre stammered his baby-blue eyes wide with his distress at Dark's announcement.
Dark merely nodded calmly, a slight pressing of his lips betraying his own worry. Trowa and Heero exchanged glances, while Wufei's ebony eyes narrowed at Dark.
"Why?" The Chinese Gundam pilot demanded sharply. There was no need to ask 'why what'. Dark and the rest of the pilots knew the answer; why had Duo needed to be taken from them to 'calm' down?
"Well there are two possibilities, one he is slowly dieing; or his magic is being sucked out of his soul…which about the same as dieing really." Dark murmured, watching the four carefully.
If they had done it, he would have known by their reactions, no matter how good they were a few hundred years of practice at reading people, was better then all they had learned at it.
He was infinitely relieved to see none of them showed symptoms of guilt, he'd hate to kill one of them, Duo was rather… fond…of them.
"How…?" Heero demanded, rage in his eyes, his reaction seemed to please Dark, who smiled…it wasn't a nice smile.
It was vicious, blood-thirsty, and above all down-right deadly to the person who'd be the victim (though they didn't know who)…It was a smile that sent chills up Quatre's spine, and gave Heero a pause.
"I indeed to find out," Dark purred, scratching Wiz behind the ears.
"Wiz," The aforementioned beings ears twitched, and its eyes rolled up to look at its beloved master. "Show me the one who hurt Duo…" Dark finished with a slightly more pleasant expression.
"Kyuu…!" The little rabbit's fur bristled, Dark watched calmly as it hopped out of his lap, its form twisting, glowing, melting, and reshaping itself into the enemy.
This was why Wiz watched Duo, guarded him, instead of becoming one with the three of them.
Wiz never missed what occurred around Duo; never forgot, and always investigated even the most minor disturbance to his magic and soul.
A young man stood where Wiz had been.
A young man Dark knew all too well- yet had thought long dead. By the expressions on the pilot's faces- they didn't know him, hadn't known of him until now. They weren't likely to forget him though…
"Satoshi…" Dark heard himself say; even if it wasn't his voice. It was Daisuke's voice, coming from his lips. Dark knew what that meant and did not fight the change.
Dark's purple-black locks became shorter, more wild, and red. His narrowed amethyst eyes, widened, became innocent, and a kind crimson hue.
It was Dark's turn to watch over Duo; and Daisuke's to deal with the pilots- and his own mixed feelings.
Wiz saw the distress on Daisuke's face, and changed to the rabbit form again, and jumped into his lap, to nuzzle the red-heads cheek.
Wiz's actions brought the pilot's attention to Daisuke, who managed a weak smile for them. He was at least a year younger then any of them; and felt more innocent then should be allowed…
"How could he?" Daisuke whispered, lowering his eyes to stare into Wiz's, who licked the beginnings of tears from his eyes.
Satoshi, for a time, had been Daisuke's friend, and while the silver-haired, blue-eyed boy had always gone after Dark; he had never targeted Daisuke.
"You know him?" Wufei asked incredulously, Daisuke nodded abruptly.
"We…we were school mates." He finished lamely, as Wiz cooed comfortingly at him.
"I see…" Wufei muttered, glancing at the other three pilots, at a loss as to what to say.
"Were you…close?" Quatre asked, quite sure it was none of his business, and the kind red-haired boy would turn into an angry Dark at any minute. Quatre sensed something pained in the red-head, and he felt he had to try to address it- to make it better…easier for the boy to bear.
"Not really, I just didn't think he'd do something like this." Crimson eyes caught and held Quatre's own; a light flush was on the red-head's cheeks. Dark chuckled in the back of Daisuke's mind- and Daisuke did his best to ignore his other half.
A moment of awkward silence later and Trowa cleared his throat. "
One of us should start looking for this…Satoshi." Heero took the hint, and left the room, to go to his laptop that in the excitement had been forgotten in his and Duo's room.
Heero found Satoshi worked with Oz (he wasn't surprised at that, really- just furious) he left them a nasty virus; it would eat memory and anything put in from now on; while sending the information it 'ate' to him.
Now that he was alone, he could think. Daisuke knew Satoshi, somehow. Yet until today Heero could find nothing on Dark or Daisuke, in connection with the braided pilot, let alone an Oz solider.
Nothing in Satoshi's file mentioned either of the two 'spirits' that made up Duo's soul (it didn't surprise Heero that there were two different beings that made up his 'Duo'; it was fitting somehow) other then a brother whose name was Krad, which was Dark spelt backward.
Next time Dark emerged, Heero would make sure to confront him with that bit of news. Something told him it wasn't just important; it was vital. He also wanted to know just how Daisuke knew Satoshi.
They couldn't have been school mates; no record pictured the red-haired boy. That kind of hacking job; erasing someone's very existence…was nearly impossible…
You could erase that person's going to certain places, but not who they were, even if you changed their name.
Too many people would remember them.
There were so few red-haired boys Daisuke's age that he shouldn't be this hard to find out about…
It hit him then, they were spirits that made up Duo; they had never mentioned how old they were…
This might be their second life, there was no telling how old the spirits were (no matter how young they looked), or when they that known Satoshi…
Keeping this idea in mind, Heero left his shared room to rejoin his fellow pilots.
"I've found Satoshi," Heero announced, and sure enough, five pairs of eyes (and what 'felt' like a sixth, could very well have been Dark) landed on him. "He's a soldier for Oz." Heero managed to say this without any negative emotion affecting his tone, save for an edge to it which promised revenge.
"Should have known…" Wufei muttered, eyes studying the floor in thought. Quatre glanced at Daisuke to see his reaction. There was none; unlike with Dark; Daisuke couldn't look through Duo's memories that he hadn't been a part of.
"What's Oz?" Daisuke asked, feeling as if he was missing something significant. The pilots stared at him in disbelief. They're the Bad-Guys Duo fights…Dark told him, and Daisuke flushed, not meeting their eyes. In his embarrassment he allowed Dark to take over, feeling far too much the fool to meet the eyes of Duo's companions any time soon.
"Right…So how do we go about getting rid of Satoshi…and hurting Oz while we're at it?" Dark asked the four, not really expecting an answer right off. He should have known better. Surprisingly it was Quatre who indicated he had an idea.
Dark smiled viciously to indicate the blond should speak, and Quatre surprised him; by smirking just as darkly back.
AN: For Firehedgehog, and my Imoto, who wanted so badly to see the 4th chapter. Hope you like it!