Okay, I finally wrote the next chapter. Gawd, the end is gonna be great, I promise you, but the individual pilot chapters are killing me! Can I ask a favor of you all? If you review this story, could you put all the words in English? I know maybe seven words in Japanese so when you write things in Japanese I have no idea what you're talking about. Thanks! ^_~\\//

6. Silence

          Yes, now they see. Now they know. They are beginning to realize… they are beginning to come… they are beginning to suffer…

          Trowa sat up in a daze. 'Where am I?' he wondered. His surroundings looked vaguely familiar but he couldn't quite place it… His thoughts were rudely interrupted by a blast of light. A curtain had been abruptly drawn back letting the sun pour into Trowa's unadjusted eyes.

          "Hey!" a rough voice called. "You're on in five! Be – ready." With that, the curtain was whipped close and Trowa was able to open his eyes again. Glancing down at himself, he noticed that his clothes had changed. Upon closer examination his discovered that his clothes were actually changing. The outfit stayed the same, a skin-tight leotard, but it kept changing colors. He cocked his head inquisitively and watched as the fabric darkened into purple then lightened into blue, melted into green and transformed to yellow to orange and to red…

          "Wake up!" Yet another voice tore Trowa from his thoughts. Trowa jumped back in surprise, reaching instinctively for a gun that wasn't there. The over-comically painted face that had been directly in his line of vision had startled him. A yellow and red bike horn was honked in his face.

          "Who…" Trowa began, but he couldn't focus enough to finish.

          "Come on, we've got an act to do!" Trowa could now hear the feminine hint in the voice and realized that he was looking at a girl. He still didn't recognize her, though. She grinned at him then reached up and squeezed a huge red ball at the end of his nose. It squeaked comically. 'What the –?  That wasn't there before…' He observed silently. He was pulled off of what he'd come to realize was a bed and led through the curtain. He winced automatically, expecting to be hit with another beam of sun, but the place he entered was actually very dimly lit. Spotlights were circling over and through the audience.

          "And now ladies and gentlemen," a voice boomed throughout the big-top. "For your viewing pleasure, the amazing, death-defying knife-throwing act!" Excited cheers rose from the crowd. It finally dawned on Trowa that he was back in the circus. He wondered why he hadn't realized it before. It didn't really make a difference, though. He had thrown knives plenty of times before, so that wouldn't be a problem. What bothered him was the question of how he had gotten back to the circus in the first place. Hands wrapped themselves harshly around his waist and he was lifted off of his feet.

          "Hey! Let me go!" he cried. He gasped at his tiny voice. He sounded so…young. Trowa struggled futilely against the icy grips of his captors as he was strapped to a large red and white target. The young clown girl was standing a few feet in front of him, facing the crowd and bowing deeply. Trowa took in her costume, trying desperately to figure out who she was. Her outfit was much like his – a simple leotard – but hers was black and didn't become any other colors. She straightened from another bow, this time with her arm outstretched, and Trowa saw the freshly sharpened knives she was holding. Trowa felt a stab of cold dread in his stomach as he realized what was about to happen to him. A long mahogany colored braid fell from the over-sized baseball cap she was wearing. A pained expression of fear and anger came over Trowa's face.

          "No…" he hissed. "It can't be…" The girl started to turn slowly and it seemed as though all the sound in the big-top was being sucked toward her as she did so. She completed her turn quickly and there was silence. Trowa's suspicions were confirmed. The girl was actually Duo. Duo grinned evilly at Trowa, his malicious smile partially concealed by a large red ball on the end of his nose. That was all that remained of the clown make-up.

          "Are you surprised, Trowa?" Duo asked. Trowa glared in response. "You shouldn't be, by now." Duo squeaked the clown nose then removed it and threw it off to the side.

          "Why are you doing this?" Trowa demanded. Duo turned his attention to the knives he still held. He picked one out with his free hand and examined it.

          "That's a good question. But I have an even better question – why am I doing this?" Duo hurled the knife through the air at Trowa. Trowa choked and spluttered in pain as the knife pierced his hand.

          "Duo…" he gasped. "Why won't you stop?" Duo selected another knife from his handful.

          "You stop first." Trowa ground his teeth together to keep from crying out as the knife sliced through his other hand.

          "What?! What do you want me to stop?! Tell me!!"

          "You could have saved me, Trowa." Duo sighed, taking aim with yet another of the sharp utensils. There was a clear whooshing sound as the knife flew perfectly and buried its blade in Trowa's thigh. Trowa choked back the roar of pain building in his chest. He had been injured a thousand times worse than this but for some reason this pain was becoming too much for him to bear. If only he had realized that it wasn't just physical, but emotional pain, too…

          "You let me die. Now you have to join me." Trowa coughed up blood as a knife entered his chest.

          "I couldn't…" he moaned.

          "Yes you could've. If you had tried…but you didn't even do that. You didn't even try to save me! You just stood there and watched! What kind of a friend are you?!" Trowa would have argued, but he did want to. Somehow, he felt that Duo was right. He should have tried to save him. He didn't deserve to live any more than Duo had deserved to die.

          "So now you understand. Now you know why you have to die." Duo said. Trowa nodded. "I have one knife left, Trowa."

          "See you in Hell." Trowa grumbled. Duo smiled at his comment.

          "Haven't you figured it out, Trowa?" he giggled, drawing his arm back. "You're already there." The knife came straight for Trowa's face – then, silence.

*(Recording starts playing.) Hi, this is GW-Imp. I'm not here right now because I am currently running from an angry mob of Trowa fans. If you would like to say something about the fic or just generally yell at me for abusing Trowa, leave a review after the beep!*