Wings of Destruction
Chapter 10
Fatal Recovery

"Errm… Duo." Justin replaced the bag of ice on top of the girl's head as she constantly burned up with a fever. Uno thrashed her head to the side but Justin was right there grabbing it to keep from making her concussion larger and more vital.

"How is she?" Vincent asked from the doorway of the bedroom.

"Not good at all," Justin replied. "She's survived the bullet wounds but she's lost a great deal of blood. I don't know if she'll pull through."

He looked down to the floor where the discarded bloodied bandages lied. When he pulled his head back to look at her face he noticed the outlines of her expression, grim and pained. He looked back down again, slouching on his knee caps.

"How's Mandy?" He asked Vincent and looked over. Vincent was leaning against the door frame, both of his arms crossed over his chest.

"She's fine," Vincent replied as he watched Justin glanced back to Uno once in a while. He stayed motionless, sitting next to her on the cot. "Just fainted—that's all. She told me she wasn't supposed to get over excited and the shots barely missed her, causing her heart to race."

"But she's alright?"

"Yeah," Vicent replied. "And her?"

Justin sighed and looked back at her. "I don't know. I don't think she'll make it. I've transferred blood from me to her but it wasn't enough."

Vincent bit the inside of his cheek as he stepped inside the room to take a seat on the other bed. He noticed the swollen arm beneath the bloodied bandage on Justin's left elbow and slowly shook his head as he turned away. He knew Justin had a thing for this girl; if he denied it, it was written on his expression the moment he saw her tumble through the door.

"How's Chris?" Justin brought Vincent out of the dark and back into the open once again. "What's he doing?"

"He's digging in the boxes in the living room—I don't know why though." Vincent muttered. "The kid scares me—he's trying too hard to be something he's not."

"He's trying to toughen up, to become hard and mature." Justin turned to him.

"He's trying too hard."

"He's trying to grow up, Vincent," Justin snapped at him. "It isn't easy when you're alone. He's looking up to us as idols."

Vincent blinked back just then. "Well," he paused and stretched. "He's looking at the wrong guys if he's facing us."

"Just let him be," Justin replied and turned back to Uno who was muttering 'Duo' over and over again in her sleep.

Vincent turned to her and sighed with a sad smile. "Who's Duo?"

"I don't know," Justin replied honestly. He leaned over to come closer to Uno's face.

"Uno…" He murmured.

"Erm… where's… Duo?" Her eyes winced tighter before relaxing back again.

"Uno, who's Duo?" Justin asked. She didn't answer right away but she drew her head back from him and a small trickle of a tear fell down her cheek. Justin wiped it away but another one fell directly afterwards.

"She's crying?" Vincent mumbled in total shock.

"Yeah," Justin replied hoarsely.

"Holy shit—Uno the hard-core bitch is actually crying?" His eyes were larger now,

"Vincent," Justin turned to him with anger in his eyes. "Just… shut up, will you?"

Vincent shrugged and Justin turned back to Uno again. "Uno, who is Duo?"

"Duo… I'm sorry," she murmured. Justin blinked and pulled back.

"I think he's her dad…" Vincent looked down in thought. Justin turned to him in wonder and blinked. "I remember; Duo Maxwell was a Gundam Pilot in the past Oz wars… piloted Shinigami, if I remember correctly."

"Oh." Justin looked down. "Uno's following in his footsteps."

"It appears so… they went missing I think…" Vincent shrugged. "Or died."

"Why do you say that?" Justin turned to him with concern for Uno's well being. "What are you saying?"

"They have to be… they wouldn't let Uno fight alone when they're in good enough condition to fight alongside with her."

"Uno," Justin turned to her once again. "Uno, where is Duo?"

"Dead," she replied. "Dead like…"

"Like who?" Justin got closer, his attention at full command. "Uno, like who?"

She sniffled before more tears fell heavily down her flushed cheeks. She muttered out two names very softly before finally returning to the dark void of sleep.

"What did she say?" Vincent asked.

Justin turned to him in utter confusion. "She just called out for a Ricky and Theresa… that's it."

"That's it?" Vincent blinked back.

"Yeah," Justin replied. "That's all."

"Who are they?" Vincent wondered. Justin only shrugged.

"I don't know… she's keeping too many secrets."

"We'll ask later," Vincent stated strictly. Both of them turned and watched as she silently slept, the tears no longer falling but remaining on her skin in fresh sparkles.

"Mandy!" Chris practically leapt out of his chair when he saw the other woman step into the living room. "You're alive!"

Mandy stood there dumbfounded and blinking in total shock at his sudden outburst. Chris smiled brightly. She only looked around cautiously with her eyes.

"Um… I'm not injured from the incident, Chris. I fainted because my heart hammered too fast and I wasn't supposed to do any quick moving." Mandy explained. "I was supposed to relax."

"But you're okay now?" She nodded and smile got larger. "Great!"

"How's Uno?" Mandy asked as she stepped up to the couch and sat down besides him.

Chris's smile faded and he looked away. His voice lowered to a mumble. "Justin says she's only getting worse."

"Worse?" He nodded and she felt her heart slam against her chest in fear for her comrade. "No…" she murmured.

"Yeah… he and Vincent left to go to the store for more supplies and they took her bike because we had no other car."

"What's wrong?"

"She's lost too much blood and Justin couldn't give her all of it. Vincent would have tried but he said he didn't have the right blood type."

"What's she got?" Mandy was almost out of her chair by now. "I'm AB positive—I could help."

Chris shook his head. "Just in was O positive, Vincent was AB positive."

She paused and blinked at him. "She can't take it?"

"No, only O positive can receive O positive."

"What are you?"

"I'm B positive," Chris replied. "I can help Vincent or you but I can't help Justin or Uno."

Mandy sighed and relaxed back in the couch again. "Damn it… I feel bad now."

"I know… I do too."

Justin and Vincent returned later that day with a whole bag of stuff. Most of it were first aid supplies for Uno and a few were scattered things for the rest of them, like sugar and sweets and health food—damn Chris and his practical fright of unhealthy things.

Justin immediately ignored everything and went straight to the room to check up on Uno and dropped the bag the second the door opened. The items in the bag scattered the moment it hit the ground and Justin felt his heart hammering hard against his chest.

"Vincent!" He called out before rushing to her side. Vincent ran in from hearing his name being roared out and paused the moment he saw her.

Uno was lying still on the bed, the bandages a dark red with her fresh blood and a nice puddle underneath the cot. They had thought they stopped the bleeding but it didn't cease to flow outside of the wounds. Vincent rushed to Justin's side and both of them struggled to stop the flow of the blood. Finally, it halted and Justin immediately put his hand under her chin.

"Well?"

"She's got a pulse but its faint," he looked her over and felt himself growing weary of her pale body. "She needs more blood."

"Eat this then," Vincent opened a bar of pure chocolate and literally shoved it under Justin's nose. While Justin ate the candy bars, the bags of M&Ms, and the peanut butter cups Vincent was busying prepping up the pipes and wrapping the tubing around Justin's arm.

"You ready?" Vincent asked cautiously. Justin took a heavy breath in his lungs and released it in a shaky nod. He turned back to Uno with determination and winced when he felt the prick of the needle dig into his flesh. Vincent pricked Uno with the needle and bandaged her arm to keep it still then began the pumping.

Uno's eyes scarcely opened and light flooded her face the moment she did. She winced in pain from all over and tried to sit up but her body was too heavy to move. She felt something tied to her arm and a warm presence besides her. When she turned her head she saw yellow tubing wrapped around her upper left arm and Justin was sitting on the floor besides her, his head resting on the cot just to the side of her waist.

She blinked and noticed the same tubing was wrapped around his arm and a long pipe connected between the two. How much blood as she lost that he had to give her some!

Fear of blood transfusion scared her stiff just then. He could kill her if he had the wrong blood type. She was O positive and if he wasn't O then she was literally fucked. But she would have died already if he didn't have O and now that she thought about it and saw how much blood was on her and around her and even on the floor, she was wondering how much she lost and if Justin had enough left in his body to keep himself alive.

She swallowed hard, feeling the dryness of her throat and the aching of her head. She tried to opened her mouth and call out to him but her lips were too parched and her tongue couldn't help moisten them. Her head was aching badly and wanting to lie back down. She would have loved to stay away but she was using all of her energy to keep her eyes open and already her head was weighing a ton.

She lied back again and shut her eyes and before she knew it, she was fast asleep.

Short chapter… I know… I hate it but the other ideas I had in mind I couldn't do in this chapter without wrecking the atmosphere.

BIG QUESTION: Is Uno safe or is she still going to die? Will Justin live or did he transfer too MUCH of his blood to save her? Only time will tell…. And reviewing helps speed up that time. –winks-