Update:) I couldn't help myself, I had to update this one before my HP fic, after the horrible cliffhanger I left it at in the last chapter.
Enjoy!
"How could you betray me like this!"
Wufei stared at Duo, any fear threatening to swallow him whole instantly replaced by utter incredulity.
"Betray you! YOU!" A slightly hysterical edge tinted his laughter. "That's rich! After what you've done to me!"
"You deserve what you get for being a traitor. I'm only sorry your friend managed to save you from, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," Duo replied coldly, his face ominously expressionless.
Wufei looked like he had been slapped, then out of nowhere, a self-righteous anger he hadn't felt in a long time reared its ugly head from the depths of his emotional turmoil. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he spat, throwing all his weight and strength as he shoved the ice sculpture before him. Duo, caught off guard, stumbled back in shock. "Are you really just going to sit here and let that BITCH-" Wufei threw an acidic glare over towards Dorothy. "- control you like this? Whatever I did to betray -you-, you have no right to be angry with me because you're obviously not my Duo. YOU are a puppet. YOU are nothing but a plaything begging to be controlled by everyone else but yourself. You have NO REASON to do any of the bullshit Dorothy makes you do- Do you even know what you yourself believe in?"
The deep pain that had flickered so briefly before when he had gotten close to Heero earlier began to surface, twisting Duo's blank mask with confliction.
"Shut up."
"Shut up. Witty comeback, really," Wufei sniped, on a roll now that he was beginning to get things off his chest. He shoved Duo again, sending him backwards into one of the plush couches. "What's wrong? Am I touching a -nerve- maybe? Duo, MY DUO, would not let anyone walk all over him like this. He despises it. He won't let anyone jerk him around on such a short leash as Dorothy has you on. As far as I'm concerned, Duo doesn't exist anymore. In his place is this -weak-, -pathetic- toy blindly following that- that MONSTER'S command-"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Duo roared, gripping his head, his fingers knotted into his long hair to the roots, as if it were about to rip wide open.
"This is suicide," Quatre gasped, stepping towards them, but Trowa held him in place with a warm touch on his arm. Heero stood, unable to move at all, as they all watched the confrontation.
He was finally breaking through Dorothy's influences. He was finally getting a real response out of the frozen replacement of his lover. And it broke his heart to know what he had to do next to really batter at his mental bondage.
Wufei leaned close, lips almost touching Duo's ear as he whispered with a voice thick with anguish, "-My- Duo is gone. Now I have Heero, so that I won't be left alone."
Duo staggered to his feet, still clutching at his head, and moved unsteadily away from the Chinese man as a low keen of distress bubbled in his throat. Dorothy glided towards him, her face lit up lividly in rage.
"Don't listen to him, darling, he's lying," she hissed, grasping one of his arms with a claw-like hand and wretched it away from his head. "Lies, I tell you. He is a traitor, he is only trying to get under your skin and distract you from your purpose." Her icy blue eyes shot daggers around the room at everyone.
"Oh yes, I'M the one who's lying," Wufei replied waspishly. "Look at this, even now she is trying to control you."
"Hold your tongue," Dorothy ordered harshly.
"Why?" he asked defiantly. "Because I speak the TRUTH? You are disgusting, can't you do anything for yourself? Or must you always feel the need for dominance over others to get your kicks? What YOU do is unjustifiable, not anything I've ever done to your kind. You are not a god who reigns over the fates of others."
"Says you," she smiled coldly, then with an irritated huff, she threw Duo away from her side. "Get up! Kill them already!"
He crumpled to his knees, his body trembling visibly as his subconscious battled between conflicting wills. "No!"
"Dorothy, please, stop! This is getting us no where!" Noin pleaded, looking upset.
"Stop?" the blonde turned to the bar, her voice low with deadly malice. "I will not stop until the betrayers are dead. Wufei betrayed you- Heero betrayed you- should they not die?"
"This is stupid! Heero didn't do anything!" Noin argued, glancing over at the Japanese man among the slayers, but he refused to meet her gaze.
"Didn't do anything?" Dorothy laughed. "HE was the one who killed Treize and Milliardo! Not Wufei and the slayers!"
A heavy, oppressive silence swallowed the room in trepidation. Noin and Une stared from Dorothy's triumphant smirk with Duo fallen at her feet to Heero, whose expression was frozen amid the uneasy ones of the slayers. Then to Wufei's grim frown that confirmed all.
"It can't be..."
"No, it's true," Heero spoke at last, looking back to Wufei and Duo. "I killed them. I wanted to save Wufei and Duo, it was the least I could do for Wufei after everything he had been through. He had never wanted to be one of our kind, Zechs used him as practice for Treize, then cast him away like garbage on my doorstep. He broke the ancient laws first. Never do you abandon a newly-turned vampire, no matter what the circumstances."
Noin mouthed something soundlessly, then Une had to rush forward as she fell faint to the ground.
"Oh dear, I don't think she handled that very well," Dorothy chuckled depreciatively, raising an eyebrow. "Do it now, Duo, now that everyone has heard it out of Heero's own mouth. Kill him. And Wufei. Get rid of the traitors!"
Duo shook his head viciously, tearing at his disheveled hair. "NO! No, no, no, I won't-" A guttural sob garbled his speech.
"Come over to me, Duo," Wufei coaxed gently, crouching down level with his violet-eyed lover. "Come back to us. Let me and Heero take care of you."
He held out his hand as Duo looked up through his tangled bangs. Slowly, and with no small amount of effort, Duo released his grip and went for Wufei's outstretched hand. A tornado could have ravaged the club and no one would have been budged or made a noise.
"Don't," Dorothy's imperious voice rang through the silence and Duo froze, cut to the quick in the moment of complete vulnerability. "Stop sniveling down there and get up. I gave you orders and now you must -obey- them."
He moved as if invisible strings were yanking him every which way, half still wanting to reach forward to Wufei, the other half complying to Dorothy's command and rising up. The sight was rather grotesque to say the least, like a caged animal worked up in a claustrophobic frenzy.
Heero cast a look over the horrified expressions of the others before finally breaking away and swiftly approaching the deadlock. He gave Dorothy a wide berth, his fist clenched tightly around the handle of the gun at his side, before kneeling next to Wufei.
The sight of him and Wufei so close seemed to snap something behind all the confusion and Duo flew to his feet, an intense pulse of power knocking them both backward as he whirled around to Dorothy.
"I knew you would come to your senses," she purred as he came closer and sent Heero and Wufei a contemptuous sneer. "See? Nothing you can do will-"
Whatever she was going to say was abruptly cut off by a ghastly scream as Duo suddenly launched himself at her, tackling her to the floor. The sickening sound of flesh ripping and blood gurgling followed with another violent burst of energy as she turned to dust underneath his body.
Duo collapsed in a boneless heap and remained motionless.
The spell over the room broke and Quatre, Trowa, and the sisters rushed over to the other side of the club just as Heero and Wufei reached Duo's prone form.
"Duo?" Wufei said tentatively, grasping his cold shoulder and rolling him onto his back. "Wo ai, please- Please wake up." He brushed his fingers down Duo's dust covered, pale cheek.
"...'Fei," Duo's eyes fluttered open and he inhaled deeply. Then painful realization crashed on to him and before Wufei and Heero pulled him entirely on to his feet, he pulled away from them.
"I can't do this," he whispered hoarsely, backing further from them. "I- I-"
"Wait, Duo, let us just sit down and talk," Quatre said convincingly, trying to touch him, but he fled out of the club.
"We need to stay with him," Catherine remarked. "He shouldn't be left alone."
"No, he has a lot to process," Heero sighed, not willing to look up and meet Wufei's hurt expression.
"All we can do is go home and wait," Trowa replied, embracing his blonde lover comfortingly. "He'll come back to us."
"I hope so."
"You're not going anywhere!" Noin snapped, coming from behind the bar with Une at her side. "You have a LOT of explaining to do to us!"
"What is there to explain?" Heero crossed his arms over his chest. "Yes, I killed Treize and Zechs. But they deserved it. Now, I'm with them and we're leaving."
"Well, that sounds good to me," Une shrugged.
"Middie!"
"What? It's not like we need Heero to run this place anyway, we've practically ran it for him ever since he took over," she answered. "And really, Treize and Milliardo did deserve what they got. This is our chance for a fresh start, Lu, so let's take it."
Noin's brow furrowed thoughtfully, then after a moment she smiled. "All right," she glanced over at the others. "You better leave before I change my mind."
Catherine was just about to make a sarcastic retort, but Irea grabbed her by the arm and steered her out of Midnight Masquerade behind the men. It was going to be a very long, painful walk back to the apartment.
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