Kryptonite
By Symee-Sama

I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind.

David Keller looked wistfully at his plane ticket. He would be leaving tomorrow, flying to Paris. He would be leaving the friends that he had made, the home that he had learned to love. He wished that he could say goodbye to his friends, that he could wish them well in their lives, but he couldn't. He couldn't let them know that something was wrong, that he was leaving. They would try to stop him. They would try to make him talk about what drove him to leave. They would do what all good friends would do.

It truly hurt that he had to leave them, but he couldn't stay here. He couldn't settle down and live in this place. There were too many memories here, memories that would remain with him. Everything here would remind him of the sins that he had committed, of the sins he would commit. Staying here would drive him mad. So he would move on, just like he always did.

He was going. He would leave all his belongings here. He wouldn't need them anymore, they would be of no use to him for where he was going. Hell. He wanted to sigh. It shouldn't be this hard. You would think that after seven years, he would be used to leaving people and places behind, but he could never quell that pang of regret. No matter how hard he tried.

David pulled out his handgun, screwing on the silencer, and placing it in his pocket. Yes, he would leave London, but first, he had some unfinished business to take care of.

Hours later, David wore an uncharacteristic smile on his face. It had been a successful mission. A very successful one. The target never even new what hit him. David had caught up with him easily. He had been walking down the street without a care in the world. A pretty lady holding onto his arm, chatting quietly with him. They hadn't known that he would be there. The fools.

A single shot, muffled by the silencer had taken care of the woman. It had pierced her left lung, stopping her from screaming, and killing her quickly. David was pleased with that kill, he didn't like painful deaths. They were pointless in his eyes.

He watched silently as the man collapsed beside her, screaming her name. She was coughing up blood now, and he held her tight, not wanting to leave her alone while she died. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, so full of grief that he never even realised that David had come up behind him.

"Zechs," David said softly, and the blonde haired man turned around to see who was calling his name. Just in time to see a flash of black as the butt of David's gun came crashing down, and sent him spiraling into darkness.

Zechs woke up in a dark, cold room. He tried to stand up, but found that he couldn't. he was chained to the floor. "How are you feeling?" Zechs' head snapped to the side, searching for the voice he had just heard. "I'm right here." The assassin stepped into the light and Zechs strained against his chains when he saw who it was.

"David!" He lunged forward only to be stopped by his chains. "I trusted you!" He struggled in vain to reach the figure in front of him. This man had been his friend, had been on of his best friends in fact, but he had betrayed him. "Why?" He asked in broken tones, sinking to the floor, tears filling his eyes as he remembered what had happened on the street. "I trusted you, and you killed Lu."

"That was regrettable, but necessary. I could not have any witnesses." The assassin sat down on the floor, inches out of Zechs' reach. "She was a nice girl. I'm sorry." He said, but there was no warmth, no sympathy in his voice. "I don't like killing innocents. I gives me a sick kind of felling." He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I felt the same way when Anne died."

"You're the one who killed Treize." Zechs' voice was barely above a whisper. "You're the one who shot him while he was visiting Anne at the hospital." There was a clinking sound as Zechs renewed his struggles to reach David. "You bastard."

David looked unperturbed. "Was Treize in love with Anne?" He asked quietly, and Zechs nodded." I thought as much. Poor girl." His eyes took on a glassy quality as he played back the incident. "She suffered from a split personality you know, and shifted between weeping and cursing at me."

Zechs glared at him, his eyes murderous. "He tried to protect her of course, and actually succeeded in shielding from the bullets." David continued, unaffected by Zechs' hatred. "Treize had to die, there was no choice, but I regret Anne's death. Poor girl." He said again.

"Then how did she die?" Zechs asked in a strained voice. "Treize's death had affected him deeply, and all his grief, all his pain was caused by the man sitting in front of him. "They said that she committed suicide, but was it really her?" His eyes narrowed. He wanted nothing more than to be able to strangle this man. "Did you push her out of the window?"

"No. She jumped." There was nothing in his voice and Zechs wanted to kill him for not caring. "I tried to stop her, but I wasn't fast enough." Personally, David had thought she had been stupid to throw her life away like that. He'd wanted her to life. He'd spared her, but she acted like his gift of life was nothing, and threw it away. "I didn't want her to die."

"Don't lie to me, David." Zechs growled. He was a mix of emotions, and he was having trouble sorting them out. Anger because he had been foolish enough to trust this man. Grief for Lucrezia. Helplessness for the first time in his life. "It doesn't suit you."

"Do you think that I enjoy doing this?" David asked him, anger seeping into his own voice. He had tried to escape this life he had tried to terminate his connection with the government, but they wouldn't let him go. They would never let him go. "Do you think that I like killing people?"

"You must or you wouldn't do it." Zechs refused to pity this man. He had killed Lu.

"We all do what we need to survive." David smiled grimly. It was time to turn the tables. "Don't we, Milliardo Peacecraft?"

Zechs stiffened and David could see him gathering his composure before he spoke. "You've got the wrong guy." He said quickly. "My name is Zechs Merquise."

"I don't think so." David stated simply. "You're a Peacecraft. You've got their looks, and you have a mysterious background that you refuse to talk about."

"You're going to kill me because I don't want to talk about my past?" Zechs asked, amused for some reason at the whole situation. "Maybe I just had a hard childhood, and don't like to dwell on the painful memories."

"Losing family is hard," David agreed. "Yours was assassinated right?" Zechs said nothing, but David knew he had hit a soft spot. "Terrible thing, assassination. They killed your entire family didn't they? Your parents, grandparents, and cousins. It didn't matter if they were young and old."

Zechs growled at him. "Stop this, David."

"Why?" David feigned ignorance. "It shouldn't bother you too much if you're not a Peacecraft. So that proves my point."

"It proves nothing," Zechs growled. "You don't have any solid evidence do you? You're just going to kill me because you assume that I'm a Peacecraft."

"I do have evidence." David informed his friend. "It seems that Lu wasn't as trustworthy as you thought she was. "Zechs' head jerked up at this. "She told one of her friends that you were Milliardo Peacecraft, and word gets around." Zechs' hands were trembling now, but he kept his composure, hiding his emotions behind a mask of indifference.

"Say that I am a Peacecraft." Zechs began carefully, mourning the betrayal of the woman that he loved, but refusing to admit that his friend was right. "Why would you want to kill me?"

"You are a Peacecraft," David stressed. "And you have to die because you have too much influence on the people. The Peacecrafts were a well-liked family and the people would listen to you talk about your ideal world of total pacifism. Your opinions could turn the people against the government."

"That's why you killed Treize." Zechs' throat tightened at the memory of his fallen friend. "Because he spoke out against the Alliance's tyranny."

"You always were clever." David smiled slightly as he pulled his gun from its holster. "Kushrenada also had too much influence. I'm glad that you figured it out, but I'm afraid that it won't save your life, and it won't save her either."

"Her?" Zechs arched an eyebrow. Did he mean Lu?

"You have a sister, don't you?" David didn't have to ask. He knew the truth, but he wanted to see how the blonde man would react.

"No!" Zechs yelled, straining against the chains again, and David smiled inwardly. He had finally broken through the calm composure and made Zechs admit that he was a Peacecraft. "Leave her out of this! She doesn't want to rebel. She won't rebel!"

"Nice try." David tapped the gun against his palm. "But I know the truth. She's already begun to promote the ideals of Sanq within her school and has a small following that grows with every passing day. She is a threat to the Alliance."

"If you kill her..." Zechs began quietly. "Her followers will revolt. She will be a martyr and you will still lose."

"Not if she shames herself." David had to stop himself from shuddering at the sick look on Zechs' face. Why were this man's emotions affecting him so much? He had done this many times and he had never felt so miserable. He forced himself to smile. "Not if she commits suicide. Which is what I'm going to drive her to."

"You can't." Zechs sputtered.

"I can and I will. It's a game, you see." David cocked the gun. "I play it all the time, and I never lose." His smile faltered slightly as he aimed it at Zechs' heart. "Any last requests?"

"Yes," Zechs grinned defiantly, but before he could continue, David pulled the trigger, he had to get rid of that smile. Zechs' grin faded slightly as he collapsed, pressing one manacled hand to his neck, and pulling off a silver chain with a heavy medallion on it. The seal of the Peacecraft family. "Give this to Relena." Zechs said in a pained voice as David took it from him and placed it in his pocket. "She'll need it, when I'm dead."

He was having trouble breathing now, and his breath came in short gasps. He tried to staunch the blood flow with his hand. David crouched beside him, pity rising in him. "She didn't mean to tell me." He said softly , and Zechs looked at him, asking a question with his eyes. "Lu," David clarified. "She mentioned it by accident, and made me swear not to tell anyone. She never would have betrayed you, Zechs."

"Thank you," Zechs smiled at his friend, happy knowing that she had remained true to him. Happier to know that he was going to be with her soon. "David, I have another request. .. one more important than the seal..." He coughed weakly, and David motioned for him to continue. "Protect her. Protect my sister." Zechs sighed, and his eyes filmed over as the fire that had once burned in them was extinguished.

David stood frozen in place for a moment before he snapped out of his reverie, and cursed. He should've expected something like this from Zechs. Blood was splattered over the walls, and the man who had been David's best friend was now nothing more than a cooling corpse, but David had to respect him. He had never been afraid of his fate. He had been angry, and remorseful but never afraid. In stead of the fear that David was used to, he had seen defiance in Zechs' eyes. But...

"Damn," David cursed again. He had liked Zechs. Genuinely liked him, and he felt bad that he couldn't honour his last request. "You bastard," he said as he stared at the body of his friend. "You knew that I would feel guilty. That's why you were so damn smug."

I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time.

He said a silent goodbye to his fallen friend and walked out of the door, resisting the urge to run away from the scene of the crime. It had been seven years now. Seven years of making friends, and then killing them. Seven years of pretending to be who he wasn't, and changing his personality to be accepted. It had been seven years now, and David was sick of it.

He was sick of switching identities every few months, He was sick of killing himself at the end of every assassination. He had been Russell Johnson a year ago, but Russell had gone missing during a trip to America. Two years ago, he had been Peter Finch, and he had died from cancer. Now he was David Keller and he was going to commit suicide.

He walked into his room, switching on his laptop, and began to type a suicide note. He couldn't take it anymore. He had lost his mind, and in a fit of rage had killed Lucrezia and Zechs. Then, full of remorse, he was going to throw himself into the river.

He left the note on his desk where it would be seen by his roommate and walked to the Thames Bridge. This was perfect. He stropped off his coat, making sure that his wallet and ID were inside of it, before throwing it off the bridge. They would find his note, and would assume that he had gone through it when he didn't show up for class. If they found his coat, then their suspicions would be confirmed and they would close the case. No one would put too much time and effort into this case. They would see him as just another teenager who couldn't handle the trials of life.

He watched silently as his coat floated down. Rest in peace, David Keller. He thought grimly and walked away. There was new work to be done, a new identity to be taken, and a new friend to be made. He ignored the cold breeze that whipped by him as he walked down the silent streets towards the airport. He probably should have taken a cab, but he needed to think about what had happened tonight. He needed to find explanations for his actions, and a quiet street was much better suited to thinking than a cab.

I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon. I feel there's nothing I can do.

Death didn't bother him anymore, not usually. He had seen pain, and he had seen death. He had watched his parents die when he was twelve – hell he had killed them. Pain and suffering was nothing new to him, but with Zechs...

Why had it affected him so much? Why had that single death affected him more than the deaths of his parents? As it because he had been friends with Zechs? No, it couldn't be. He had been friends with all of them, and he hadn't felt remorse for the others.

He racked his brain for the answers as he walked down the silent streets, ignoring the odd siren that pierced the night. Why had he cared when Zechs died? It was his defiance. He decided. I was the fact that I respected him for not being afraid. That had to be it.

Another thought struck him as he neared the airport. He had told Zechs that it was a game, and he had meant it. When had it become a game to him? When had he become desensitized to the violence? When had he stopped seeing his life as reality?

He cursed the Alliance. Cursed them for making him what thew as today, for making him a killer. He hated the Alliance with what was left of his filthy soul, but he couldn't escape the government. He couldn't escape their grasp. They would kill her if he did.

They knew his weakness and had kidnapped a childhood friend of his when they had taken him for training. He had been 'given' to Doctor J, and had been trained for years. Following orders, completing minor mission, even going so far as to kill his parents.

All for her. All because they had threatened to hurt her. Threatened to hit her for every time he refused to do something, to starve her every time he failed to complete a mission. What would you think if you saw me now? He asked her silently. What would you think if you saw the monster that I had become? Would you still be able to accept me like you used to?

He shook his head slightly as he reached the airport, and made his way through customs. Of course she wouldn't. e was a different person now. He was a monster, or worse, he was a machine. A killer who couldn't feel remorse for those he killed.

He sat down in the uncomfortable airport chairs and listened for them to announce that his flight was boarding. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small slip of paper, and opening it. It was a waste of his time. He knew the contents by heart, but it was a way to ease his boredom.

He read it over quickly, and grimaced. David was dead, but a new identity had been created to take his place. He glanced at the paper again. It was strange that such a small slip of paper could hold the direction that his life was going to take. Seven words that could change his entire life.

Target: Relena Peacecraft
Codename: Heero Yuy