I've loved the comments I've gotten for this story, but haven't dared to respond... because most of the time I just want to laugh evilly ^_^.

Part 8 of ?

Duo ducked his head as he sprinted towards the jeep, trying to keep up with the Perfect Soldier ahead of him. Without wasting a second, he swung himself into the driver's side, letting Heero take the gunner's position. Slamming the jeep into gear, the tires practically squealed as he tore out of the driveway. His mind was working like a well-oiled machine as he calculated the route most likely to get him and his partner out of the trap the safe house had become.

However, even as he set Heero up for a shot at an incoming truck while keeping out of the range of an OZ soldier with a grenade launcher, his eyes searched desperately for a glimpse of white and black. Quatre and Trowa were already on their way out in a low slung sportscar he had stolen several towns away, but Wufei was nowhere to be seen. Duo swung the jeep in besides the sportscar, it might be fast, but it was far more delicate than he was happy with considering it was carrying two of his friends through a battlefield.

"Where's Wufei?" he shouted over to the banged pilot. Trowa shrugged. He was hanging out the side window, his gun trained on the soldiers in front of them. He looked backwards towards the sound of an engine that was heading straight at them and a smile of relief actually crossed his face for a second.

"Duo!" he yelled. Once sure he had the braided one's attention he pointed backwards.

Duo took a quick glance in the rearview mirror. If he had dared, he would have stopped the jeep and run over to hug the Chinese youth, heading towards them on a deadly looking black motorcycle.

With the five of them together, they had enough fire power to blast their way out of the trap they were in. Once they were well past the last sentries, they split up. All of them knew the plan and headed in different directions to ditch the now traceable cars and get new transportation to reach the back up safehouse.

"Love ya', Fei-chan!" Duo yelled as they split up.

"Be careful, Maxwell!" was Wufei's response as he roared out of sight.

Duo pouted. He had expected more than that from his boyfriend. Then again, this was Wufei. It had been hard enough getting him to say something in private, to expect more when there were others around was silly.

Duo sent the four-wheel drive vehicle off road, planning on cutting over to a parallel road. He watched the motorcycle for as long as possible in his rearview mirror before sighing sadly. His normal carefree smile was still absent from his face as he turned to his companion.

"How do you think they found us?" he asked solemnly.

Heero just looked at him.

"You think it has to do with..." Duo let his voice trail off.

Heero nodded sharply. "No one else knew we were there."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Duo complained. "I mean, why would he go to all the trouble to do that to my room, only to try to have me killed a couple of hours later?"

Heero shrugged. Then his eyes widened slightly as a logical reason came to him. Before he could say anything, Duo slammed on the brakes and stared at him in horror. Obviously they had come to the same conclusion.

"He wanted to separate us. But that means he had to know us well enough to know we'd split up if the safe house was compromised." He threw a hunted glance over his shoulder.

"There's been no indication that anyone is following us," Heero reminded him.

"Excuse me? This guy has never shown up on infrared or visuals, got into our house without setting off any alarms... the fact that we can't see him following us is *not* extremely reassuring!" Duo's voice was almost a shout.

Heero looked at his partner in well-hidden consternation. He had spent many days in the talkative pilot's presence at myriad boarding schools and safe houses. He had noticed that Duo had what was probably the best mask of them all. Unlike his own, Duo's mask was hard to see, because it did show emotion, either cheerfulness and mischievousness, boredom or annoyance. But never had true fear, worry or anger been allowed to show in the presence of other people. To see it so obvious now was a measure of how truly rattled the American was.

"Get out," Heero said gruffly.

"Nani?" Duo was shocked. That wasn't quite the answer he was looking for. "What, you just gonna leave me here by the side of the road and let him get me?"

"Baka," Heero shook his head in annoyance. "You're obviously in no mental condition to drive, and we need to move, not stay parked in the middle of nowhere."

"I can drive," Duo said defensively.

Heero glared at him until he got out of the car and walked around the passenger's side. By the time he was in his new seat, Heero had the car started and was ready to move.

Duo sulked silently beside him.

"Stop the car!" Duo suddenly screamed.

Heero slammed on the brakes. His gun was in his hand in a nano-second as he searched for the danger his passenger had seen. Nothing was there. He turned to glare at the other pilot and stopped, arrested by the look of horrified realization on his face.

"Oh my god, oh my god!" Duo muttered. "What if it's not me? I mean this guy, he can get into the house without being seen, what if he was in the yard? What if he saw me and Fei-chan? If he's like, courting me or something and he saw me with Wufei... Maybe he's after Wufei, and Fei-chan's all alone!"

Heero shook his head as he started the jeep again. "Chang can take care of himself, Duo."

"But..."

"We will meet in two days, as planned. If... whoever... is after Wufei, you will simply have to trust him to take care of himself until then. Going after him to try to protect him will just draw unneeded attention to both him and us. We will continue with the plan as required." Heero's tone left no room for argument.

Duo understood the reasoning behind Heero's argument, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He settled back into a sulk, hiding his worry behind it.

So convinced was Duo that the stalker would go after Wufei, that what he saw upon waking the next morning was a total shock. The smell was the first thing to impinge upon his consciousness. He rolled out of bed with his gun in his hand and his heart in his throat as the combined scent of blood and roses registered.

Unwillingly he looked at the bed beside him, and sighed in relief. Heero was sleeping peacefully, no sign of blood on him at all. The blood was once more over the bouquet of roses sitting on the dresser across from the bed. There was something else there as well. Stealthily, Duo rose to his feet and checked the rest of the room. Nothing else seemed out of place. Only the roses, and the piece of paper on the dresser next to them.

Carefully, using a knife he pulled from his bag, he opened the paper out. It was a letter, written in something that looked remarkably like dried blood. Duo really didn't want to think about why that

would be.

My Love,

Soon we will be together forever. In death, you shall be mine for eternity without end. Your immortal soul bound to mine by bonds of love no one can break. Do not worry my love, it will not be long now.

Love,

Your Beloved Master

"Beloved master? Yeah, right!" Duo practically shouted.

Heero woke abruptly at the sound, out of bed and holding a gun within seemingly nanoseconds.

Duo ignored him as he continued ranting. "I don't call any man master, you slimy son of a bitch, and I sure as hell ain't gonna start now." He turned to Heero, who was looking at the roses in utter disbelief. "This guy's a Grade A psycho! A totally sick sleazeball! Spend eternity together, binding my immortal soul. I *don't* think so, bub. When I find this jerk, I'm going to show him eternity. Eternal pain that is!" He looked at Heero who was still staring around. "What's your problem?"

"How did he get in without waking me up?" Heero had been trained to wake at the slightest out of the ordinary sound. Duo's snoring never bothered him, but a person passing in the hall would have woken him up while still ten feet away from the door. How did someone manage to get into the room without him noticing! It was totally impossible!

"How did he find us? How did he know which room was ours? We'll just have to beat the answers out of him when we find him. I'll do it gladly," Duo's smile was extremely bloodthirsty. Duo was extremely pissed at whoever this slimeball was, but still, if he was here doing this, he must not have gone after Wufei as he'd been dreading.

He grabbed up his things and slammed out of the room, Heero following quickly behind. Duo let out a yell of rage as they reached the sedan he had stolen the day before. He reached in and grabbed the single blood soaked rose that rested on the dashboard of the car. "Look at this! Can you believe this jerk? (%*(&*$! The ^&%$&$ thing bit me!" He threw the rose on the ground and stomped on it before sticking his thumb in his mouth to take away the sting and heading off to find another car. There was no way he was going to drive that one anymore. Who knew what that sicko had done in there?

Heero followed along silently. He was almost as angry as the other boy was, but the last thing they needed was for both of them to explode. Duo was doing quite well on his own.

The next day Heero wasn't angry, he was worried. Duo was feverish and raving, his hand swollen to twice its normal size. Obviously that rose he had pricked himself on had been poisoned. Heero had considered stopping at a hospital, but Quatre's estate was close by, and his doctors were not only capable but also trustworthy.

He pulled up in front of the mansion and stopped quickly. Quatre came out to welcome them, smiling warmly. The smile fell from his face as he watched Heero open the door and pick up Duo. "Duo!" he cried out, rushing forward. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's been poisoned," Heero said shortly, striding toward the house. "That stalker found us yesterday morning and left one of his 'gifts'. He's been feverish for the last four hours."

"Wufei! Wufei!" Duo called out, thrashing around in Heero's arms.

"He's also been calling out for Wufei since it started. I don't suppose..."

Quatre shook his head. "He's not here yet, we only got here a couple of hours ago ourselves." He led the way through the house as he talked. Luckily the infirmary here was well stocked and the doctor was one of the best. Since this house was only to be used in emergencies the chances were high that at least one of the people who came would be hurt.

Three hours later, the doctor came to talk to the four worried pilots. Wufei had arrived only an hour before and was chomping at the bit to be able to see his boyfriend. The doctor did not look happy.

"Doctor? How's Duo?" Quatre asked worriedly.

The doctor looked into the concerned blue eyes of his young master and sighed. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"What do you mean, sorry?" Wufei practically shouted.

"I mean, that there is nothing we can do. The poison is unknown to our computers, and it's spreading fast. That young Duo has lasted this long is nothing short of a miracle and is due entirely to his

own strong will. Still, he's not expected to live for more than a couple more hours."

"He's not going to die," Wufei growled.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Chang, but there is nothing more we can do."

Wufei pushed past the doctor and headed towards the patient's room. The others hurried after him. Quatre had tears streaming down his face and the two silent pilots had shell-shocked looks on their faces. The fact that one of them could die was something they'd lived with since the start of the war, but they'd expected it to be in battle. Not because of something like this!

They reached the room to see Wufei sitting next to the bed, holding Duo's hand in a death grip. "You're not going to die, you hear me love? I'm not going to let you."

"Fei-chan?" Duo murmured weakly. "You love me?"

"Yes, baka, I love you!" Wufei said emphatically. "Now, hurry and get well so I can show you, okay?"

"I'll try," Duo tried to smile. "But it hurts, Fei. Can't you make it stop hurting? Please, Fei-chan."

The doctor spoke from behind them. "The poison is eating through him from the inside out, almost like an acid. It won't be long now."

Quatre stepped forward, trying to be brave when he suddenly gasped and grabbed at his heart.

"What is it, Quatre?" Trowa asked, pulling him close.

Quatre stared at a spot over Duo's bed. He was the only one who could see the dark apparition that was reaching out a bony hand towards Duo's body.

"Death," he whispered.

TBC...

AN: :laughs evilly: