Author's note:

I am terribly sorry for the confusion in chapter 2 before I changed it. I kinda got my story mixed up...you see, this one is for this story and the previous chapter 2 was for 'Kidnapped' sorry for any confusion this may have caused!

Oh, and thank you Nubia for all the great reviews, you're very kind! . You make me happy with the reviews you give me!

Now, on with the story...

Chapter 2:

Before them was Heero, Daggers in his arms, a pike through his chest, wounds all over him, burn marks, and a nasty gash on his forehead that trickled blood down the side of his head. He didn't even move, but the slight labored rise and fall of his chest was the only thing that told he was alive. Barely.

"We have to get him down!" Duo cried as he rushed over and stepped back, noticing all the torturing equipment Heero would be staring at if he were awake. He had whip marks that cut deep into his skin on his back and his shirt hung in tatters, what little remains of it on him. His pants were almost shredded too, showing his boxers, which had dark stains from the blood running over his body.

Trowa looked around for the keys and found them hanging on the wall. "They must have put them here, trying to show him that they had him locked and he couldn't get free." He said quietly.

He got the locks off of the chains that held Heero in midair, and he fell, Duo caught him, his face, even though he was unconscious, contorted in agony. Duo looked at the puddle of fresh blood and dried blood that had been where Heero was held midair that must have dripped off his wounds.

Duo looked at Trowa. "We have to Sally over here." He said. "She's the only one skilled enough, and she'll come over as fast as she can, or we can find her and meet her." He said firmly.

Trowa nodded and they made their way quickly back to the shuttle. Trowa rushed in, carrying Heero and put him as gently as he could on a bed, but the when he noticed the spike that went his body. He nearly gagged at the site: the daggers, the blood, the pike, the cuts, the bruises, the burns, the red streaks from getting slapped, and lacerations.

Duo ran straight for the cockpit and took off, before enemy fire could hit them. "Where's Heero?" Relena asked eager. Duo went rigid.

"Relena, I'm sorry about this, but..." He hit a presser point under her chin, and she passed out. He got a screen display and finally located Sally who was in an area nearby in space, working on finding a new Terrorist group that was threatening peace.

"Sally Po here." Sally said as the vid screen displayed her in the pilot seat of her craft. She looked at the person who called. Duo looked in a panic. "Duo?" She asked.

"Cut the chit-chat!" He said sharply, startling her making her jump back in her seat. "Sorry." He rushed. "You have to get over here as soon as possible, it's about Heero, we need your help, badly!" He shouted, loosing his breath after he finished.

Sally nodded. "Well, if you're in a panic, that means it must be something bad." She said. "Where are you heading?"

"No time." He said breathlessly. "You have to abandon your craft and get over here NOW." He said quickly.

"Alright." She said alarmed. She got into a space suit and then jumped out of her craft, carrying the medical equipment that Duo told her to bring and then hit the button that would let her on the craft. She fell in with a crash and then she got to her feet and stripped out of her suit, wearing her normal clothes.

Duo rushed to meet her. He pointed to the room over down the aisle. It was slightly ajar. She ran over and opened it. "Oh my god." She whispered, her eyes taking in everything. She was shocked. "Heero!" She exclaimed, looking at the bloodied form of the young pilot.

Trowa looked at her, looking like he was going to throw up. Trowa had him in an upright position on the bed, but he wasn't awake obviously. He couldn't even lie down because of the wounds on his back. He was barely breathing and it came labored.

"We-We have to get him to a hospital!" She shouted and told Duo to go to the nearest colony. "I-I can't take care of these wounds." She looked at Heero. "I can give him some shots to easy the pain, but I-I'll have to test his blood first to make sure there's nothing in it that would kill him if I were to give it to him."

Trowa nodded, understanding and she took a sample of his blood, and taking as much as she dared, not wanting to strain his body even more with what little blood he still had. She put it in a vile and began testing to see what was in it. "My god. Who did this to him?!" She said louder than she meant to.

"Some terrorist organization after the Gundam's. I'll tell you the whole story later."

"There's a lot of sedatives in his blood. They must have drugged him when they tried to capture him. Then there's poison too." She shook her head. It's a small sample, but I don't want to strain him even more. If he weren't as strong as he was, he would be dead by now." She said. "Why?"

"They wanted to know where the Gundam's were. He would rather die then tell them." He said sadly.

"How did he get captured in the first place?" She questioned. Trowa shook his head, later. Her concentrated on holding up Heero.

.:Somewhere in the Darkness..:.

Darkness.

"You don't remember me, but I remember you

I lie awake at night and try so hard not to think of you

But who can decide what they dream and dream I do."

Then there was the light. "Life." He opened his eyes and remembered the pain.

Gundam's and the pain.

Blood every where.

The Doctor, the training, the missions, four other people with faces and a girl with a dog that called out to him with a poppy in her hand.

There were others, but they were just as smudged.

The War.

The little girl and her dog.Mary, the dog, that's what it's name was. It's body, with the poppy flower on the grave. The gun to his head, about to pull the trigger and a voice registering in his mind, holding his fire. More missions, defeat OZ, then Romefeller, then the other terrorist groups... but before that, the end. Was it the end? Trieze was dead, gave up on his fight to bring peace. Was it all planned? Everything, his whole life staged out, no time for rehearsal, and the final act of that era.

Then the last mission, the very last one that the doctor relayed him, when destroying Libra. 'Don't die.' It said clearly through all the commotion. He was dead, the doctor, so he could die, right?

He opened his eyes wide and someone looked at him. Another brunet hair colored boy and a girl with her hair in braids wearing a green outfit.

Heero groaned and Trowa said something. "Who-..." He tried to talk and got the hang of it after moving his mouth whispering silent words. "Who are you...?" He collapsed again. The light was too blinding to see that faces. After being in the darkness about sixty percent and ten percent unconscious, the light really comes back to hit you hard.

Trowa stared at Heero, he had opened his eyes, but Heero didn't seem to hear what he had said. He asked a simple question that made Sally start to tend his wounds frivolously, whether or not she had the medical equipment it would be better than waiting for him to die at the hospital.

'Who are you...?' His low voice asked, Duo walking in to hear this part stared at the Japanese pilot being supported by Trowa.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Duo asked, trying to put on a brave smile, but failing horribly.

"No--"Trowa said, but was broken off by Sally who had a pile of bloody clothes around her from cleaning his wounds.

"Yes." She said, opposite to what Trowa said, "I need to and Trowa to hold Heero up, I have to get these out of him." She pointed to the daggers and pike. Duo gulped audibly.

"Look, if you don't want to..." Sally said, not looking up from her work, Duo told her it was all right. Sally produced a piece of leather, then tossed it back into the bag, shaking her head. She got up unsteadily. "I have to pull it out by my hands." She said, drawing an unsteadily breath.

Walking over to Heero's side, she gripped the wooden stake and then got a better hold on it, then pulled on it with all her strength, it came out slowly, with blood on it. Heero screamed, his muscles tensed in their arms as he tried to break free from their grasp, anything. His screams seemed to shatter their remaining nerves.

"Anything....anything...no more...no more pain..." He whispered through an unsteady breath as a fever took hold of him, and Sally quickly took out a needle to stitch up the open wound.

"What about these, why didn't you take them out before that. Obviously it hurt more." Duo said, pointing to the daggers with contempt. Why was she making it so hard on Heero?

Sally reached for the daggers, one in each hand and pulled them out, Heero winced and groaned in agony. "Because, he wouldn't feel the pain of these compared to the pike."

"Such a pleasant theory." Duo said, his face paling at the sight of the wound. Sally took out all the bandages that she had and then wrapped all the large wounds with it, doubling it over tightly so it wouldn't leak as much blood on them.

Trowa looked at Heero, and took a wet wash rag and placed it gently on his face. He flinched under the touch. "How do you think he will do?" Trowa asked. "We have to pick up Relena and get the others back at the base. I don't trust the secretary of hers." He said lowly.

"Neither do I, but she was probably just a soldier in the war, that's all." Duo said, laying Heero gently on the bed, now that he could lie down without the pike protruding his flesh.

"Something's not right about her." Trowa said back, still not listening to Duo's advice. He got off the bed to help Sally dispose of the blooding bandages.

"He'll last." Sally said, looking over at the pilot. Duo looked at her. "About you're other question, Trowa. He's doing fine. His condition is stabilizing, nad hopefully it will stay that way. If it were him during the war, he would have given up, not wanting to live since he was captured..." She told them quietly.

"He hasn't really woken up to really do anything yet." Duo muttered and shifted a little bit.

"Yeah, but he hasn't changed that much..." Duo sighed heavily, still sitting on the bed, Heero groaned from his spot on the bed and everyone looked at him, but his face didn't relax like they expected. It held no expression, like it did when he was awake.

"Usually his face relaxes when he's asleep or unconscious." Trowa said.

"How would you know, he's never around any where really. When that guy doesn't want to be found, he can't be found." He stated.

"During the war, when Heero self destructed, he stayed with me in the circus where I hid for a month while he was unconscious." Trowa said, in a monotone voice, looking at Heero still. "I wonder what they did to him." He thought over this. "Or what happened to him." Trowa said.

"What do you mean?" Duo exclaimed. "They tortured him!" Duo shouted at the calm pilot of the Heavyarms.

"Wounds wouldn't stop Heero from being like this. He would have escaped; those sedatives had to have an extremely high dosage, almost on the point of being able to stop a normal person's heart to work on him. The only person who could make medicine like that would be Doctor J, he's the only one who knows his limit." Trowa pointed out; the other pilot was speechless.

Sally looked at the pilot laying on the bed. "Maybe this was the last straw." The pilots looked at her with a 'huh?' expression written on their face. She turned to look at them, still crouched on the floor, causing her leg to cramp, so she stood, painfully at first. "Maybe everything was building up." She said, looking at them. "Go fly the plane." She said to them, shooing them out of the room. "I'll look after my patient."

They left, mumbling stuff to one another. She heard duo say something about her being a "Bossy know-it-all doctor." She shook her head, letting out a deep sigh.

She sat down on the side of the bed. "Heero." She said, moving a bang away from his eyes. "What's happened to you?" She whispered. His eyes flew open, and he shied away from her, his cold eyes staring at her hard.

She hadn't seen that look on him for a very long time, ever since the war, and that was in the beginning when she didn't and the other's didn't start changing him from the machine inside of him. He had grown softer, and that was a good thing during the peace, but so much was still not known about him!

"Heero!" She said, moving closer to him, but stopped when she noticed he moved farther from her each time that she moved closer until he couldn't because of the wall.

She tried to get close to him again but stopped when she saw his eyes panic. He clasped his head, pulling his knees in, like he could protect himself from her. "Don't touch me! Don't come any closer! Get away!" He screamed at her, she sat their stunned. She noticed how a small tear passed silently down his cheek while he continued telling her (very loudly) not to come any closer.

"Heero! I'm not going to hurt you!" She said. She moved closer to him, and held him in her arms. He was still screaming at her. "It's me! Sally, remember?" She said.

"Don't touch me! Go away!" He shouted, but he couldn't take any more of how he was holding up and his body relaxed in her arms, Sally hopefully thinking that he remembered her, but sat their down heart when she saw he had passed out.

"Heero." She whispered, tears running down her face as she hugged him tighter, noticing he still had an emotionless, and not peaceful look on his face.

She heard thumping around in the front and duo and Trowa rushed in, having to set the plane on auto pilot before rushing back. They saw Sally crying, hugging the limp Heero.

"What's wrong?" Duo whispered. "He didn't die, did he?" He said quietly. Sally shook her head; he let out a sigh of relief.

"What just went on?" Trowa asked, "We heard screaming." He added. "You couldn't scream like that." He said quietly, his eyes, now with a sad look in them drifted to Heero.

"What happened?" Duo asked, all the calmness in his voice drained.

Sally looked at them, released Heero from her embrace, then wiped away her tears. "You want to know what happened?" She said sadly. The listened to her story, she described everything vividly to them, not telling them about the tear she saw Heero cry, but other than that leaving nothing out.

"God..." Duo muttered. "What the hell did they do to him?" He asked, clenching his fists, then unclenching them.

Author's Note:

Well, wat do y'all think of that? Nice and long and lots-o-action. This is my Halloween gift to all of you and I hope that you have a happy Hallows Eve! I love reviews and suggestions! Red Tail