A/N I'll keep it short, seeing I can keep telling y'all I'm sorry, I've decided to just stop blabbering, and start posting. This chapter is a sort of in between chapter, setting the scene for the next part of the story... I want to thank you all for reviewing, they always keep me going. Even though I'm too busy to write, they make me find time for it!

So all I'm gonna say now is: enjoy!

7

Darkness surrounded him.

An endless moan seemed to haunt him in this dreary mist.

From every direction it clawed at him.

"Murderer…"

"Weak…"

"Worthless…"

He tried to put his hands to his ears, but his arms seemed to be immobilized next to his body, held in place by an invisible force.

Turning his head to look around him, he saw nothing. An endless fog, swirling through the dark hole that seemed to surround him, whirled around him.

A flutter of wings was the only sound overpowering the moans around him.

And then, he was falling.

The air left his body, cutting off the scream that threatened to come out of his throat. The fall seemed to take forever, making Luke feel nauseous and light-headed. That is, until the ground caught up to him, and his body landed with a dull and painful thud.

As Luke stretched his legs, he suddenly noticed he could use both his legs. Putting his hands under him, he slowly pushed himself up, his entire body aching as if fire was burning through his veins.

Finally he was standing up straight, and looked around. The moment he did this, he wished he had stayed down…

The air around him was thick with smoke, a tractor standing next to him on a piece of his uncle's farmland. Through the smoke, he could feel the burning sun on his skin, as it lit just enough of the land to show the beginnings of jungle-area around him.

Overwhelming were the sounds, and they sounded as if they had never left him. Gunfire blowing overhead, flashes of grenades blinding him, and the screaming…

The screams were the worst of it. Agonizing moans, overpowered by shrill screams coming from grown men, who were using their final breaths.

The smell of napalm clung to the mist surrounding him, burning his throat as he breathed in the polluted air around him.

Whirling around on aching legs, Lukas Duke suddenly found himself in one of his worst nightmares…

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"Ya think he can hear us?"

Daisy Duke asked her Uncle as they were seated around the hospital-bed containing their seemingly sleeping cousin.

Looking over his oldest nephew, seeing the sunburnt face, chapped lips and the slight frown covering his handsome face, the Duke patriarch slowly nodded his head.

"Yeah, I think he can," he whispered, looking over to the door, knowing his youngest nephew should be here too.

Seeing her uncle look at where Bo had disappeared an hour earlier, Daisy felt a pang of pain shoot through her heart. Her baby-cousin wasn't taking this well.

She couldn't even imagine what he had been through, finding Luke in the state he was, and then waiting with him until the paramedics came. She had seen the pain in his eyes the minute he had walked through the doors of the hospital, and within time it had only gotten worse.

Her vibrant cousin, who always seemed to find the slightest bit of hope in a desperate situation, was now silent. His eyes averted from the people he loved, and the sparkle which had always been there, was now nowhere to be seen.

An hour ago they had been allowed to go see Luke, but the minute Bo had seen his cousin lying there, pale and small in the hospital-bed, his leg elevated and thickly bandaged, he had promptly turned around, almost knocking her over on his way out of the room.

She had wanted to follow him, but her uncle had stopped her, telling her he probably needed some space.

So now they were sitting there, with one cousin in a coma in the stark white room, and another lost in a completely different way.

Wiping a stray tear from her face, she grabbed Luke's free hand, whispering in his ear.

"Come back to us Luke, we need ya…"

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"We need ya…"

The whisper was so soft he almost didn't hear it over the moans still surrounding him.

But the next moment the sentence was completely forgotten as another familiar voice came through the noises around him.

"Sarge!"

Placing one foot after another, Luke slowly moved away from the tractor, making his way to where the voice came from. Even though he didn't want to come anywhere near the jungle around him, his body seemed to have a mind of its own, as he came closer and closer to the tree line filled with gunfire.

Ducking, he suddenly noticed his old army helmet covering his pounding head, and as if an old friend took over his body, he slid back into his role of Sergeant Duke…

"Henry?" he whispered, not wanting to let the Vietcong know where they were.

"Sarge!" the voice yelled loudly, "Yur here!"

Looking around him, Luke noticed the helmet first, sticking out of the bushes next to him. Crawling over he expected to see the maggot-infested face with the eyes hanging out of their sockets, but when he looked up in the blushing face of Henry Gale, he felt the relief flood him.

His eyes revealed a sense of relief, but also sadness.

"Why you here sarge?" he asked, his voice quivering.

"I mean, I'm kinda glad yur here cause it's real scary, but you…" he paused looking thoroughly confused and sad, "Ya shouldn't be here Luke…"

"Whatta ya mean Henry?" Luke asked, not really understanding Henry's babbling as he had been cautious of any enemy-fire.

Grabbing Luke by the arms, getting his attention immediately, Henry Gale suddenly seemed different then all those years ago. To Luke, he seemed… Dead.

"Ya don't belong here buddy. I made my choice ta go with em, but I know you didn't. Don't let them win Luke!" he snarled, scaring Luke a little.

As the sky darkened, both men looked up, immediately noticing the flock of crows flying over the misty jungle.

And as one crow flew down, landing right next to them on a tree branch, Luke heard the gunshot. Henry's eyes got big, as his chest seemed to explode from the impact of the bullet. Blood sprayed Luke's face and chest as he caught his falling friend.

Laying there, with him in his arms, for the second time in his life, Luke felt an overwhelming despair fill him.

"No… Not again" he choked.

"Don't worry," the man in his lap croaked, blood flowing over his lips, "I chose this… I killed… My punishment…" he coughed one final time.

Looking around him, Luke noticed the crow sitting next to them, blood still circling his beak as it hopped onto the body of Henry Gale, its claw like paws buried into the wound in his chest.

"Alone…"

It was the only word the crow belted, but its echo seemed to surround him forever. Backing away from his friends body, seeing the crow peck at his eyes, Luke Duke turned around and ran.

This was not happening…

Enemy fire was around him, and he avoided a couple of sniper bullets as he ran deeper and deeper into the jungle.

One bullet splashed into the sand underneath his feet, and all of a sudden an obstacle was in his way. Too late to stop, his feet got caught up into the soft tissue of a body lying there.

Even as he was falling, he caught site of blonde curly hair coming from underneath a green helmet…

Hitting the ground hurt his aching body, but all he could see were the blonde curls.

Turning around slowly, he recognized the body immediately as a wail escaped his mouth.

"Bo!"

Backing up against a tree he started to shake his head.

"No…" this couldn't be happening. He wasn't there. He was never there… Not even in his nightmares. He hadn't been there… But now…

A flash of his cousin, lying next to the tractor bleeding from a gaping wound in his chest, with lifeless eyes staring at him, hit him like a bullet never could.

Crawling over to the body, Luke let his hands run over the lifeless form of his blood brother. Blood stained his hands after touching Bo's chest, and he was mesmerized as he looked at them as if in slow motion.

Putting his hands down ever so slowly, his eyes searched the blue eyes he knew as well as his own eyes. They were closed…

Running his bloody hands over Bo's face, leaving red marks behind, he started to shake him.

"Bo? Wake up cuz, I'm sorry," he cried.

"I'm so sorry…" he chanted, still touching his cousin's face reverently.

"So sorry…"

The grenade exploding next to him got his attention for a second. And as he turned back to his baby cousin, wide pale blue eyes were now directed at him.

"You did this to me Lukas."

The voice was cold and scratchy, but it came from his cousin's mouth.

"No…" Luke shook his head, "It… It was an accident…. The mowing machine…"

"Why was I there?" his cousin's voice cut him off.

Looking away from the cold eyes, Luke closed his eyes, admitting the truth to himself, as well as his cousin.

"For me…" he whispered, "Ya where there ta help me…"

"And look where it get me," the voice mocked, and Luke wanted to put his hands in front of his ears. But the truth was hard, and he knew this was it.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, "I wish it was me…"

"Well now, there's something we agree about," 'Bo' mocked again.

Looking at his cousin with disbelief, Luke looked at his bloody hands.

"I'll fix it… I'll stay here with ya, I promise…" Luke said hoarsely, "I'll never leave ya alone."

A laugh escaped the bloodied mouth while one seemingly lifeless hand shot up to grab Luke's bloody hand.

"Don't ya understand? You already did leave me, and now yur alone. All alone!" he scratched, his voice turning into a familiar voice belonging to a black creature haunting him.

Scurrying back, Luke pulled his hand out of Bo's grasp, looked at his cousin one last time, and flew through the jungle again, hearing the laughter behind him die down.

He ran until his legs hurt, and still he ran. He ran until he stepped on something hard, heard a click, and the world grew white.

From then on, Lukas Duke knew no more…

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And on the steps of Tri-County hospital a sleeping Bo Duke shot up, blue eyes wide with fear and grief, as the flashes of a dream floated through his mind, only to disappear into a whirl of images of jungle, crows, blood and laughter…