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Chapter 43 - The Thin Thread of Life

Heero POV

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He froze, hearing the macabre sounds of an infected greedily feeding on corpses. The monster was so busy tearing meat and breaking bones that it didn't notice that one of his future meals was still alive.

This slight advantage, however, might have been insufficient. Heero had no weapons with him and was severely injured; he stood no chance against Runner, who would notice any move at any moment now. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, for a short moment, he preferred to close his eyes, lie down, and wait patiently for death.

But… the words of that motherfucker calling himself 'Relena's brother' about her destiny kept rumbling in his head... ordering him to continue fighting for every second of his feeble life.

Then, suddenly, in the glare of the rising sun, he noticed his own gun, which he had rejected last night when he had been cornered by Fireflies. The weapon was lying on the ground, less than two meters from him.

So close...

Without thinking any longer, leaning on his only arm, he began to crawl in the direction of the pistol. He mentally cursed his inert left arm, which he was now dragging across the floor, while his consciousness focused like a ray of light in the lens on a pistol, which was getting closer…

But then the Runner noticed him and ran towards him with a high-pitched scream.

Seconds before the foul, rotting body hit him with full force, Heero managed to roll over onto his back and stop Runner's raging jaws by digging the elbow of his only arm into the infected's throat. The monster roared wildly, almost deafeningly, pulled out for a moment, and attacked again from above. Heero still managed to block the raging beast by grabbing the Runner's throat with his hand.

Heero glanced helplessly at the gun. It was so close, and at the same time too far... while the Runner kept pushing against him. The monster's jaws were getting closer to Heero's neck with every second. Wounded, and fighting against the beast with only one arm, Heero quickly started losing strength...

Fuck, if I only had two good arms…!

Then suddenly, a silver, long blade pierced through the very center of the monster's head like a skewer, and the infected stopped moving. Heero held his breath, feeling the Runner's weight slowly slide off him when he noticed that the machete was conducted by a hand belonging to a familiar-looking man…

"Trowa-"

"Heero… That was close…" the tall, green-eyed man threw aside the bloody Runner's body and looked down with horror at Heero's wounds. "Jesus, you look like shit… What the hell happened?"

"Heero!"

Another familiar voice. It was Quatre. He ran from around the corner, holding a shotgun in his hand, looking a little bit winded. "Oh, thank God, we've found you! We noticed Treaty and Zero hidden there… Are you okay?"

Heero gasped in disbelief, breathing heavily. He stared for a long while at his friends, still unsure if because of the blow to the head, he wasn't delusional. "You two... Why you're here?"

"It's a terribly long story," Trowa replied, cleaning up his machete.

"Few weeks after you left, a refugee from Houston came to Evergreen. It was one of the doctors forced by the Fireflies to cooperate. She told us that the Fireflies are conducting experiments on humans..." Quatre started talking in one breath, then paused, "and lots of other awful stuff. But, what was most important, she told us in detail how to get to the laboratories and about the laboratories themselves. Having this information, we simply couldn't leave you like that. We decided we need to stop those sick son of bitches ourselves or help you in that."

Heero listened to Quatre patiently, then twisted his lips into a tired smile. That was something. Looks like his luck still didn't run out. "Appreciate that…"

"What happened here?" Quatre suddenly asked, looking at Heero's wounds and around, especially at the Fireflies' rotting corpses. "And where's Relena?"

With Trowa's help, Heero slowly sat up, letting out a groan of pain and glancing with fury once more at his inert left arm, then clenched his right fist. "The Fireflies took her."

Crouching in front of him, Quatre and Trowa looked at each other with undistinguished concern.

"They ambushed us here in the middle of the night. It turned out..." Heero snorted, "that the leader of the Fireflies, a certain Zechs Merquise, is her brother."

Quatre's eyes widened in surprise. "You're not saying... Milliardo? So he's alive?"

Trowa first remained silent, as it was only Quatre who could know Relena's brother from their childhood, but then asked: "Why did they take Relena? Do they know that she's immune?"

Before answering, Heero remembered that both his friends didn't know about a vaccine that Relena had with her. He preferred it to stay this way for the time being… Then he felt his head hurt again from the blow inflicted by Zechs. He gritted his teeth and touched his aching forehead with his right hand, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Heero, you're all right…?" Quatre's concerned voice reached him.

"I'll be fine. They want… to create a cure using her immunity. I'm not sure what exactly they want to do with her, but they won't keep themselves from… killing her if that way they'd develop a drug-"

"Jesus Christ...!" he heard Quatre's breathless whisper again. "Heero... your hand..."

"It's nothing," Heero growled impatiently, not even looking up at them, pressing his fingers to his eyes until he could see scotomas, "I... I don't have a feeling in it, but at least it doesn't hurt."

"No, Heero..." Quatre's voice was clearly trembling now. "Your right hand."

Heero looked up, noticing that Quatre and Trowa were eying him intently; their faces were pale as if they had seen a ghost.

"What-" Heero snapped at them impatiently, then scoped out his own hand, and his heart lurched at the view.

On the side, halfway between his fingers and wrist, appeared a bloody mark in the shape of a human jaw. Bright red blood oozed from the wound, lazily tracing thin stream along his wrist.

It didn't even hurt… Given the amount of pain his body was subjected to in the past hours, the slight injury was like a bite of the mosquito. Heero didn't even notice when Runner managed to bite him fleetingly during the fight.

Time seemed to stand still before Heero fully realized what happened and what that little, shallow bite meant to him. He suddenly remembered everything he knew about the deathly fungus, the stages of the infection, how the fungus mutilates the host's body, makes the man lose their mind, and turns it into a bloodthirsty monster… he realized that all that would happen with him soon.

After all these years… luck eventually did run out.

"…it's over," he heard Trowa's voice as if through the fog. The tall man stood and turned away from him, holding his head. "Fuck...!"

Quatre sprang up from his knees as well; there was an inexplicable sense of guilt on his face, even if he hadn't been at fault in any way.

Breathing heavily, Heero looked up at his friends who clearly and carefully moved away from him to a safe distance as if he was a leper. Or as if he was to lunge at them right then.

The atmosphere in the room grew thicker as if all the air was suddenly sucked out, and after a moment of silence, Heero began to notice the hostility lurking in both men's eyes.

"...let's finish this," Trowa sighed, breaking the silence and reaching for his pistol.

No.

Not yet.

"Trowa, wait-" Quatre tried to stop him.

At the same moment, with the last ounce of his strength, Heero grabbed his gun with his right hand, then, lying on his back, aimed it at Trowa.

Simultaneously, Quatre drew out his own weapon and aimed it at Heero.

"The fuck you're doing?" Trowa gasped.

"Heero, leave him alone!" Quatre muttered, his voice much softer than one would have expected from a person pointing at a gunman. The weapon didn't match this fragile youth. "Drop your weapon."

Heero remained silent without losing the center of Trowa's head from his sight and his aim. Blood was throbbing in his head, but despite his wounds, he held the gun firmly and steadily; it was clear that he would never miss his target.

"You're crazy? You want to suffer?" Trowa continued, "we should end it here and now-"

"This is my life. I'm the only one to decide when to end it," Heero growled. "If you have a problem with that, I'll take one of you to Hell with me."

A sullen and ominous silence filled the room as they held their sights in the deadly triangle, and neither of them was about to back down.

"Heero, if you want to wait for death, that's fine," Quatre continued after a moment, stepping back and nodding knowingly at Trowa. "Nobody will decide for yourself. We're withdrawing, just let go of your gun…"

Heero narrowed his eyes menacingly, but he didn't lower his gun even an inch.

"I can't die until I get her out of there."

Trowa snorted. "You've really lost your mind. Even without a fatal bite, you're seriously injured."

"The infection is progressing. In a few hours, you'll begin to lose control over your body… and then," Quatre continued. "There's no hope, Heero... I'm so sorry…"

Heero didn't answer right away, never taking his eyes and the aim of his gun off Trowa. Though his heart was beating like crazy, he didn't let it show. He had already made his decision.

"I won't leave her there," he grounded out. "As long as I'm still fucking breathing, I'm not going to leave her... I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna find her, even without your help, but it's gonna be much harder... And I may... not make it... in time…"

He was breathless, his chest tightened painfully. Whether because of the torrent of emotions and stress or the rapidly-developing infection, he was finding it harder and harder to speak. He scowled at his friends, watched as the weight and power of his words slowly reached them. Trowa and Quatre glanced at each other with uncertainty.

"The clock is ticking," Heero suddenly growled. "Make up your mind fucking faster!"

x

Relena POV

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Lying in the hospital bed, still buckled in belts, Relena didn't have a right angle on people entering her room. Movement around her bed had been almost negligible for the past few hours - which she accepted indifferently, as she had no influence on it. So when she finally heard the door open slowly, she continued to lay motionless, not even forcing herself to open her eyes.

"How are you, little sister."

It was the voice of her brother. It was the first time she had heard him since ... Relena jerked her head up off the mattress and scowled at him with hateful eyes.

"...get out of here," she muttered through her teeth, letting her head drop on the mattress again and shifting her gaze towards the wall so that she wouldn't have to look at him.

The sounds she heard made her realize that Milliardo Peacecraft didn't think of obeying her. He apparently put his hands in his trouser pockets and strolled to Relena's bed.

"I'm sorry about Dorothy," he began. "She shouldn't have talked to you about this test."

"She did well," Relena replied still without looking at him. "You wanted to hide it from me so I wouldn't have a chance to react?"

"Do you think that if this test could really make a difference, I would've taken your opinion into account?"

Relena gritted her teeth and didn't answer. Having him in her room, even hearing his voice, made her feel sick. Milliardo was silent for a moment as well, but she could feel that he was staring down at her. "You think it's easy for me?"

Relena snorted. "You've certainly been doing much worse things. I'm sure that the sacrifice of your sister's life for the good of humanity is actually one of a few valuable cards in your record..."

"We haven't seen each other for twenty years, Relena. You know nothing about me, and you have a very rash judgment on me. What gives you the right to do this?"

Relena finally turned her head, focusing her eyes on him. "The last few hours were enough for me," she replied. "You've lost your humanity. You've become a monster."

Milliardo raised his eyebrows with a sarcastic smile, then shrugged.

"You're talking so because of rage and regret for this smuggler. Therefore, you're not objective. But I don't blame you for that. After all, you two must have had some, let's say bond since you not only widened your legs in front of him, but you also allowed him to get you pregnant."

Relena looked away at such degrading words and the mention of Heero. Her fingers tightened around the straps coming from her wrists as her brother bend over her.

"You're like our poor father, Relena," Milliardo whispered, brushing her hair back from her forehead with something like a warm, almost fatherly gesture. Still, Relena flinched at the touch of his fingers. "You're a naive idealist. Such people don't change the world. Only strong people can change the world. Ruthless. Capable of sacrificing anything-"

"Anything?" she interrupted. "Sacrifice anything… for what?"

Her words made him stop short and feeling her heart swell with a hot wave, Relena didn't let him continue. "Perhaps years ago, when those people wronged our mother, you pledged to sacrifice everything for revenge and for a better world... I believe that, Milliardo. But you've changed. Now all that matters to you is power."

Milliardo narrowed his eyes. He slid his hand down Relena's neck, taking the shell pendant in his hand and twisting it slowly between his fingers.

"All that matters is power. How else do you want to change this world if not without power?" Milliardo leaned over her so close that Relena could feel his breath on her face. "This terrible disease has reduced our lives to a primitive, primal struggle for survival. Humanity went back to the times from before fire had been invented - when every worst shit preyed on us. This vaccine is like the first flame of fire over which man gained control and which gave way to the supremacy of humans as the leading predators on the globe. It gave us control over nature."

"….How many forests were burned to create farmlands? How many cities were burned to the ground to fight the fratricidal wars of people for power? How many people were burned at the stakes because they thought differently from those in power?" Relena asked her brother a series of rhetorical questions, then she made a significant pause. "You're right, Milliardo. The vaccine, the Cordyceps cure, is exactly like fire. It may have the power to purify, give life, and ward off dangers... but can also bring death and disaster. And you can very easily burn yourself with it."

She resisted the menacing look in Milliardo's eyes. The fear Relena felt in front of him was suddenly gone. The only thing she felt was hatred. "I know what you came here for," she suddenly felt confident. "To ask for forgiveness."

Milliardo withdrew his hand from Relena's shoulder as suddenly as if she had burned him.

"There's a part of you that is desperately trying to justify yourself… why you killed Heero and why you want to kill the baby and me. Guilt eats your heart out, huh? And that's only the beginning, brother," Relena continued ominously, narrowing her eyes at Milliardo, and rising a bit off the bed. "I swear. My spirit will haunt you after my death because I'll never forgive you. And I'm gonna make sure you never forget that, Milliardo."

Milliardo Peacecraft's eyes went still, frozen in time, completely devoid of emotions, and then the hostility was slowly creeping in his gaze.

"Our father's probably rolling in his grave as he's listening to what you're saying," he said. "I'm not asking for forgiveness if that is what you mean, Relena. Instead, I'm looking for reconciliation. And you're old enough now that you shouldn't believe in ghosts anymore, little sister."

As he turned away from her and walked out of the room, Relena held her breath, then felt her heart pound at dizzying speed. By confronting her brother, she found strength in herself that she hadn't expected to find. It was like a bucket of icy water. This strength didn't allow her to give up. She had to save herself and the baby.

She just had to.

x

Heero POV

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They rode their horses for about two miles through the streets of Fourth Ward, then the Central Business District, fortunately without encountering any obstacles or Fireflies' squads. The streets of Houston were filled with thousands of overturned cars, between which they forced their way like through a maze, probably perfectly visible to any snipers who could have been hidden on the upper floors of the surrounding skyscrapers. Thankfully, nobody shot them.

They met the first Fireflies' patrol around the tracks and tram stop of the 700 line. At that moment, the sun was already high in the sky. Trowa and Quatre quickly got rid of the guards, then trio rode a few hundred yards. They decided to leave their horses at the building of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

Getting off his horse, Quatre looked over his shoulder, then walked over to the bay-colored stallion. "Heero, do you need help…?" he asked with sincere concern in his voice.

Sitting still in Zero's saddle, Heero looked down at the blonde but then noticed Trowa as he measured him with an unfriendly, utterly disapproving gaze.

"I'm fine. Back away from me, Quatre," Heero said with an indifferent voice. As Quatre retreated a step, Heero gripped the saddle with his only hand, then dismounted, only slightly losing his balance as his injured leg touched the ground. Then he reached for the load on the saddle, to take his shotgun out as usual, but hesitated.

His left arm was suspended in a sling and tied tightly to his chest with a bandage so that it wouldn't bother him during the fight; plus, it allowed to appropriately dress the nasty wound under his left clavicle. Heero still didn't regain feeling in his left arm, and he realized that with each passing hour, the chances of getting it back were running low. The wound in his leg was less severe - no nerves had been severed. He only felt pain when walking, but managed to alleviate it with a tight bandage.

But all that didn't matter; his fate was sealed anyway. He had only a few hours before he turned. The bite wound on his right hand reminded him of it. The lines around the bite were already turning black.

Nothing here for a shotgun, with only one hand, he thought. Instead, Heero reached for both of his revolvers, packed under his jacket all the ammunition he had, three grenades, and a bottle of gasoline with a rag - the best instrument to blow this place up.

Before he left, he stopped for an instant and patted Zero's neck, looking at his animal companion with tenderness. Indeed, he was fortunate to come across a horse with a heart way more gallant than many people had. Zero looked at him out of the corner of his eye, neighing knowingly. As if he knew that it was goodbye. Heero leaned over, stroking Zero's silky nostrils.

"Thank you, Zero," he whispered.

He let Zero go, grasped his shotgun, and walked confidently towards Quatre and Trowa.

"Quatre," he called the blonde and handed him his long rifle. "I don't need it anymore. Make sure to use it well."

Accepting the weapon, Quatre smiled sadly at Heero and, after a moment of hesitation, slung the shotgun over his shoulder.

"Let's go."

They continued on foot, not through the open streets where they were perfectly visible, but through the empty buildings surrounding St. Anthony Medical Center. They reached their destination at noon when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. According to the intel from the girl that got away, it was in this hospital that the Fireflies set up their headquarters and conducted tests. It shouldn't be surprising - the building was intact, undamaged for twenty years, probably all the medical facilities lying there could still be used.

Surprisingly, the main entrances to the complex were almost unguarded, and within minutes the trio ran inside the hospital corridors and moved deeper, taking down individual Fireflies patrols together.

"Where the fuck are they?" Heero snapped impatiently as he checked the next corridor, his gun held in front of him. "We should have met some troops long ago, not only single guards…"

"It's definitely this place," Trowa muttered, searching the body of the Firefly that they had just killed, then pulled the radio out of his pants, that continued to make a screeching, monotonous noise. He turned the device off, then turned it on again and began humming into the microphone. "Epsilon, Epsilon, this is the first-floor patrol, waiting for instructions, over."

Heero looked at Quatre with surprise. "Epsilon is a code, some kind of emergency," Quatre explained. "We know it from this girl that got away."

After a moment, a metallic voice came from the radio. This is Epsilon, use the fucking codes next time. Meet at a fixed location in five minutes, change of guard, over and out.

"Yessir, over and out," Trowa muttered into the microphone as he rose from his lap. "Fucking amateurs. If nothing has changed, they have meetings in the ICU waiting room. It's on the second floor."

Heero gazed at Quatre. "This is also from this girl?" Quatre smirked at him knowingly, and Heero pursed his lips in admiration. "Clever."

"Here's an emergency exit," Trowa pointed out, running in the direction of the wide double door. "It'll be faster up the stairs."

"After you."

The boys ran up the stairs two floors up, not encountering any difficulties on the way, apart from two Fireflies, knocked down simultaneously by Heero and Trowa. Letting the enemy's inert body to the ground, Heero gritted his teeth and cursed violently under his breath, pressing his right hand to his chest.

"Heero!" Quatre gasped as he made a step in his direction.

"Don't come near me!" Heero growled, then caught his breath and looked down at both sides of his hand. The black veins were already spreading from the mark, reaching beyond his wrist. The surface of the skin felt hot to the touch, almost burning…

"What are we doing…? This is madness," Heero heard Trowa sigh behind him, as well as a nervous but quiet conversation with Quatre.

He dropped his head onto his chest and breathed heavily. He knew they were afraid of him. He knew he was a threat to them. It was understandable. He just hoped he wouldn't start to be scared of himself... Heero gritted his teeth, then got up from his knees.

"Let's hurry. We must attack during the assembly when everyone is in one room. That's our only chance."

x

Relena POV

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"It's time, Miss Relena."

She didn't react in any way to the nurse's words. She didn't flinch, staring blankly and absentmindedly at the ceiling. "Miss Relena?"

Two nurses approached Relena's bed and leaned over her to look her in the eye.

"What's with her? Is she in shock?"

"What's this smell?" the other snarled, then had a look under Relena's quilt. "Shit… She has wet herself."

"Gosh," the other pulled a bunch of keys dangling on a long lanyard and started unbuckling belts from Relena's wrists. "You go get the mattress from the other room and dry underwear. I'll start changing her."

"You sure?" the other hesitated, "Shouldn't we be doing this together?"

"Look at her, she turned into a fucking vegetable," the nurse lifted Relena's hand and dropped it, watching it fall limply on the mattress. Relena's body didn't even twitch. "Poor thing. It's horrible. Get that mattress, quick."

As the nurse left the room, the one who was left unbuckled the belts at Relena's legs and leaned over her, lifting her wet nightgown up. "Here we go... Now up-"

The nurse didn't have time to finish the sentence as one of the keys that dangled around her neck sank deep into her throat.

Blood bubbled in the woman's throat and splashed onto the white gown and sterile floor, the nurse aggressively sunk her fingernails into Relena's arms trying to break free, but Relena gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain, and pressed the silver key in her hands even deeper, slicing the nurse's aorta with a sharp ridge. Ultimately, the woman stopped fighting and fell to the ground in a pool of her blood.

Relena looked down at the woman lying on the ground for a long moment, realizing that she had just killed a human.

She felt hot, she had ringing in her ears, her heart pounded like crazy. She felt sick - after all, this woman alone did nothing wrong to her... But then, ultimately, her clear-headedness came back - she wasn't safe here. Relena jumped off the bed to the floor and hid behind the door.

Fortunately, the second nurse entered the room, holding a large mattress in front of her, so she couldn't see her friend's bloody body. She made no resistance when, by surprise, Relena inflicted her a sharp blow to the back of her head with a metal container.

Breathing hard, Relena stood for a moment over the bodies of both women, wondering what to do next. She didn't think she would be able to break free; she had no plan on what to do next. As if to calm her nerves and give herself just a few seconds, she slipped her wet nightgown off her shoulders, then reached for a dry one and quickly put it on her naked body. Whatever happened, she didn't want to die in wet clothes.

She leaned out of the room into a corridor that was still empty, illuminated by the faint light of fluorescent lamps. She left her room and ran barefoot towards the ward exit, but the main door was locked. She looked around; just around the corner, there was a nurses' station with another pair of doors leading to the staircase. Relena ran there then, taking a route down, thankfully without encountering any patrols on the way, but also without the slightest idea which way she should choose.

She was realizing too painfully that she was so amateurish. If they caught her, she wouldn't stand a chance. Think…! What would Heero do in this situation?

When she ran down to the third floor, the whole hospital building was suddenly shaken by an intense explosion that almost made her lose her balance and knocked her off her feet. Immediately after that, the piercing sound of the fire alarm reverberated in the building, and bright-red fluorescent lights came up.

Holding on to the wall, Relena heard the sound of tens of feet. With no other place to hide, she slipped behind the row of low, plastic chairs.

Then, a group of about eight people, all in lab coats, ran out from the corridor on the right.

"Everyone out! We need help on the second floor!"

Speechless, Relena peeked out from behind her hiding place. She knew that voice. It belonged to a tall, pretty doctor who spoke to her. Then she saw that woman, as she ran into the corridor with the others and commanded the people. "We're under attack! We have to save our men! Get onto the second floor, now!"

"Dr. Noin, and the lab?"

"Fuck the lab! Hurry, our boys need us!"

Relena watched the last medics rush out of the corridor, then Noin locked the door to the passage, and ran after the other doctors down the stairs to the second floor. Relena didn't come out of hiding until the only sound she heard was the shrill alarm and the sounds of battle from the level below.

"Under attack...?" she sighed, trying to understand what the hell was going on in this madhouse.

x

Heero POV

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The Fireflies didn't expect an attack on their base. They were so carefree and inattentive that only three grenades thrown into the center of the room were enough to turn an armed group of men into bloody pieces of meat.

Of course, reinforcements began to arrive almost immediately, and soon a regular battle broke out on the hospital's second floor. The rain of bullets was incessant, although the dust from the explosions hadn't still settled yet. Quickly the scales of victory began to tip in favor of the attackers - they shot much more accurately than the surprised and terrified Fireflies.

Fireflies, however, had more people. As the entire unit seemed to have been wiped off the face of the earth, further reinforcements were heard down the hall, tormenting the attackers with an endless rain of bullets.

"We can't get stuck here," Trowa roared, firing a series of shots from behind an overturned metal desk.

"Trowa's right," Quatre admitted as he ran between the shields. He stopped behind the pile of rubble from the granite explosion, kneeling right next to Heero. "What we do?"

"We burn this shithole down."

Heero muttered these words, lightening a rag tucked in a freshly prepared Molotov cocktail, then threw the bottle towards the corridor. When the passage caught fire with a bright flame and the screams of burning Fireflies resonated throughout the floor, he knew that he had hit the target.

A few Molotov cocktails later, killing those few Fireflies that survived the conflagration was just a formality, and the three ran out of the room into an empty corridor with en exit to the main staircase with the inscription "Evacuation route" over the doors. There they stopped, looking around; an empty hallway in front of them led to the other wing, and behind them, an entire floor was already burning.

"Let's split up," Quatre suggested. "This way, we'll be able to find Relena sooner."

Trowa looked around. "It's the perfect spot. Following this corridor, we can reach the administration wing. By taking these stairs, we can reach the laboratories, the ICU, and even take the evacuation route straight outside the building."

Heero nodded. "Let's do this."

"All right, sooo… on this level, we have those motherfuckers' command center. It's there, in the administration wing," Quatre said, then eyed Heero with a stern look. "Heero, Relena may be held only either in ICU downstairs or in the labs, upstairs-"

"I'm staying here. On this level."

Trowa and Quatre looked at him with confusion in their eyes, but he resisted their gaze in silence.

"But… you came here for Relena!" Quatre gasped. "She's waiting for you!"

Heero hung his head, gazing down at his right palm. His fingers trembled slightly as he held his hand in the air. The veins in his wrist were swelling with black blood, the skin around the bite mark was smothered with a red rash, full of the painful blisters.

He wasn't sure what he felt watching this advancing rotting of his own body, while his blood was still warm; maybe apart from frustration that the goddamn infection would finish him sooner than he will accomplish his last mission.

He still had a score to settle before he died.

Heero gritted his teeth, then lifted his gaze at his companions again, but the expression in his eyes was unreadable, hidden behind the long bangs that shadowed his face.

"It's not gonna take much longer now... and Relena had already seen me die," he said, his voice confident and ice-cool. "One time is enough. I won't rise up from the dead before her eyes only to die again right after that."

Trowa watched Heero with still gaze, while Quatre looked like he wanted to protest for a moment, but meeting Heero's confident look, he remained silent, submitting to Heero's decision, even if he disagreed with it.

Heero clenched his fist and gazed at both men, not allowing himself to be or to look touched, as they stood in a safe distance from him. He knew that in their eyes, he was already a walking corpse. He didn't need their or anyone's pity.

"Tell her that-"

Heero's hoarse voice eventually trembled, but instead of letting it crack, he froze up.

What should one have to say in their last word to not sound so miserable? Should he say that she should continue living? That he's thankful to her? That he's sorry? That he loves her - so much more than he was able to show all this time…?

Are the last words to the beloved person, which will later be remembered and guarded like a most intimate secret, indeed the right moment to say things that were neglected during one's life? Did he have the right to do that…

No, Heero thought. It's better to just walk away. Vanish.

He swallowed, never taking his eyes off Quatre and Trowa.

"Find her… and get her out of here safely. Do you understand…?"

It was the last thing he asked them to do. Or rather, he ordered them, because the glow in his eyes was so intense that it could break bones. It was the only thing he cared about, the only thing that still mattered.

Trowa frowned, and Quatre's eyes glittered. "We do. We'll safely get her out of here."

Heero felt something ease deep in his heart and that they could undoubtedly notice in his gaze. And their eyes told him they would keep their word.

Then Trowa looked back as he heard footsteps in the distance. "We must go."

"Go," Heero urged them with an indifferent, distant voice.

"Good luck, Heero," Trowa nodded in Heero's direction, then started walking away, his gaze never leaving Heero's.

"Yeah…" Quatre sighed, then slowly walked away too, but still didn't look away from Heero. "Heero… thank you… for everything… good luck…!"

Heero neither moved nor said a word, watching the only friends he ever had vanishing on either side of the corridor - Trowa running up the stairs and Quatre down. Finally, they disappeared from his sight… and, paradoxically, he was relieved to finally be over it.

The fire from his Molotov cocktails was continuously spreading throughout the whole floor; the smoke of the burning plastic bit his eyes. He felt himself getting incredibly hot. His bitten arm felt as if it was on fire, and its disturbing heat was spreading across his entire body. He couldn't take off his clothes in the usual way due to his bandages, so he pulled his knife out of his pocket and cut the shirt he was wearing into small pieces, remaining only in a black tank top. Only then did he notice that the black veins were already outlined at the length of his elbow.

At least Relena won't see him like this…

He took a deep breath, then strolled ahead, passing the burning corpses of the Fireflies, toward the administration's wing.

.

.

.

TBC

Any resemblance to real objects or places is coincidental.

I want to thank you all for your fantastic reviews!

Relena finally gathered strength, she became a real badass. And I'm sorry if I broke your heart again with Heero... but I'm afraid that this time, there's probably no rescue for him…

What will happen next?

Three chapters left until the end. The next title: "The Ticking Clock."

Stay safe,

~enelle