Chapter 2

The jungle. Everything smelled fresh, unpolluted. Fresh earth, trees, his body moving with liquid grace through the wild. Nothing had ever made him feel so at home before, so much freedom. The smells of the raw rain forest intermingled with a familiar musk. Feline. Predator.

Duo was rudely brought back to consciousness, the chartreuse eyes of a panther lingering like a bad nightmare in the back of his mind. He was in a stark, sterile hospital room. Duo looked around, no one was there, just him and the beeping machines next to him by the bed. He scrunched his nose, the antiseptic smell of hospitals had never bothered him before, but it was like the powerful, enduring scent of rain forest from his dream made it so much harsher than usual.

It took him a moment to remember why has in there. Of course, once he thought about it, a dull ache spread from his shoulders to his waist. Duo lifted the bed sheets and saw his torso completely encased in thick white bandages mottled with dark bloodstains. He was confused. It looked a lot worse than it felt.

Duo pushed himself up into a sitting position as the sound of approaching footsteps filled the room. The door opened and Sally entered, followed by Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa. Sally froze in the doorway, staring at Duo in utter shock.

"What are you doing sitting up?! You're going to pop all your stitches!"

"I thought you said he'd be out of it for a couple of days?" Trowa asked amusedly, though he looked immensely relieved.

Sally glanced at her medical clipboard. "I know all your tolerances to sedatives and painkillers, why do you think I'm the one that patches you guys up?" she replied, doubt creeping into her voice.

Wufei and Quatre ignored Sally and Trowa's conversation, making a beeline for the bed. Wufei clutched one of Duo's hands in an iron tight grip, his face worn and pale from worry. Quatre's cerulean eyes were bright with pain, but it lessened as Duo fidgeted about trying to get comfortable. "How are you feeling?"

Duo turned his gaze over to Wufei and he smiled reassuringly. "I'm feeling fine, promise," he said, using his free hand to rub his chest. "These bandages are itchy. My skin is itchy. I really want to take this shit off."

Sally and Trowa joined them.

"Well, that was why I came in here with the crew. I thought I was going to need them to hold onto you while I changed them," she said, shaking her head. "Can you tell us what happened? Do you think it's connected with all the other attacks?"

Wufei's grip tightened almost painfully over his hand. Duo took a minute to try to piece his disjointed memories together. "I can say that it is definitely connected, but I don't know how to explain without sounding completely insane," Duo sighed, scratching absently at the bandages again.

"Try us," Trowa remarked, curiosity filling his expression.

"Wufei and I were checking the perimeter when I got the feeling someone was watching me. I put my back to the wall and scanned the area like three times and couldn't see a goddamn thing," he frowned, still unhappy with the fact that someone snuck up on him. "So, I step away from the wall, talking to 'Fei and thinking everything's clear, then this guy just appears out of thin air. I don't know where the fuck he came from. I tried to talk to the guy, then he rushed me..."

Duo trailed off, paling visibly as he pictured the man suddenly on top of him, turning the black leopard. Quatre's concerned voice cut through the image. "What's wrong?"

"I've never seen someone move so fast. It wasn't even a blink and then we were on the ground," Duo said, shock tingling through his limbs.

"I didn't see a man, I saw a panther," Wufei replied.

"The man turned into the panther." Silence. No one spoke, but Duo knew that no one believed him.

"I'm serious! The guy fucking changed! It was like he shed his skin and there was a panther underneath," he insisted vehemently.

"Catherine likes to rescue exotic animals people have trained and abused into pets," Trowa said calmly, as if it explained everything. "Maybe you were just caught so off guard that you didn't notice the guy call his pet. It would make sense-"

"NO!" Duo yelled, furious. "I swear he did it! I could feel this bones shifting under his skin! I saw it vanish under fur!"

Sally cleared her throat uneasily. "Let's get these bandages off."

"You believe me, don't you, 'Fei?" Duo asked, turning his gaze to Wufei. "You said yourself all you saw was the cat. If he didn't change into it, where in the fuck did he go?"

Wufei looked like he was swallowing something bitter filled with broken glass. "Yes, all I saw was the panther."

"I hear a 'but'," Duo said, his temper flaring even worse.

"By the time I got around the building to you, the man would have had ample time to run and conceal himself view," he answered reluctantly.

"I am not fucking crazy. I know what I saw."

"No one is saying your crazy, Duo," Quatre said soothingly.

"No, but you're thinking it."

"Lean forward so I can cut the tape on your back," Sally interrupted, attempting to resume normalcy.

Duo was fuming as Sally reached behind him and worked on the bandages. With one final snip, they fell off into his lap, cool air hitting his warm, itchy torso and making him sigh with relief.

"Holy shit."

Duo forgot his anger when Sally swore. "What?"

All the stitches in his injuries had snapped, but they were designed to do that when the wounds were healed enough to no need them. Another great invention of war, if you were stitched up and out in the battlefield, you didn't have time to find a doctor to remove them, so they became chemically aware of your body. Once the blood stopped producing the chemicals that caused clotting to close the wounds and let them heal, it was the cue of the stitches to break so you could pull them out yourself without doing harm. Duo had started pulling out the popped stitching when he realized everyone was staring at him in complete astonishment.

"What?" he repeated irritably.

"Duo, those wounds look a week old," Sally said incredulously.

He didn't like the sound of her tone. "Yeah...and?"

"I brought you in less than twenty four hours ago," Wufei responded carefully.

"I don't understand it, those cuts were at least two inches deep when I stitched you up," Sally shook her head again, reading her medical chart as if the answers were there.

"Good, then I can go home, right?"

"I guess so, but I'm not sure," Sally hesitated. "You're still feverish, the temperature monitor says you're at 101. But you blood work doesn't show any kinds of infection, and we gave you a precautionary rabies shot when Wufei said you were attacked by an animal."

"Then I can go home," Duo replied stubbornly.

Sally sighed. "Fine, you can go. But the minute something feels off, come back in."

"Sure, whatever you say, doc." Duo then dutifully ignored everyone by going back to removing his stitches. The injuries were nothing but slightly scabbed, shiny pink new scars dribbling down his torso. It should have bothered him that he had healed so fast, but at the moment, he was too pissed off at everyone for not believing him.

An uncomfortable silence followed as Sally left the room to officially check Duo out. Once the door shut behind her, Quatre started chafing his arms as if he were cold.

"Something feels different."

Trowa looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"I feel like there's energy dancing on my skin," Quatre stopped rubbing his arms. "It's been doing that since we came in here."

"Yes, now that you mention it, so do I," Wufei frowned deeply as Trowa also nodded in agreement. "It's almost like that 'heebie jeebie' sensation we felt before you were attacked, right, Duo?"
"I dunno what you're talking about. I don't feel a damn thing," Duo replied shortly, but he was perplexed.

Wufei and Trowa checked the room and the hallway as Quatre claimed Wufei's chair by the bed. He cerulean gaze was intent, as if he were trying to see inside the walls with X-ray vision. Another stifling silence filled the room, they couldn't find the cause of the discomfort, which only made it worse. Duo had finished peeling away all the stitching by the time Sally returned to say he could leave.

They were leaving the hospital when Duo felt it like a slap in the face. Angry or not, he couldn't ignore the others know.

"Guys, I think we're being followed," he said quietly, fighting the urge to look around.

"Yeah." Wufei unlocked the car and they climbed in, apparently he had picked up Quatre and Trowa from the space port while Duo was unconscious. They used the opportunity to casually glance around the parking lot. It looked harmless, whoever it was, was very well hidden.

The drive to the apartment seemed to take ten times longer than it normally did. They all tried watching the roads, but in the city traffic, it was close to impossible to tell if someone was tailing them. They searched the apartment thoroughly when they got there. Nothing.

"Fuck, this is getting old, very fast," Duo swore, trying to squelch the feeling. "I'm going to go take a shower."

He knew without seeing that Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre shared a look behind his back. Now that the immediate threat had been momentarily neutralized, all their thoughts went back to wondering about Duo's state of mind and the unnerving, seemingly miraculous healing of his claw marks. This was understandable, because his thoughts went back to that too. But he knew what he saw and he wasn't crazy, so he dwelled on the fading scars on his body as he climbed into the steaming hot shower.

Duo scrubbed himself several times until he felt like he had gotten all the dried clear goop and blood off. He started massaging generous amounts of shampoo through his hair as he frowned down the length of his torso. The mild scabbing was now gone, leaving only the shiny new pink look of fresh scars. They looked more like two or three weeks old, though not even an hour before, Sally had said only one week. As much as he appreciated skipping a long, irritating healing process, Duo was bothered. Not even Heero could have done this, and he had seen him do a lot of crazy shit. He remembered when they first met, when he had busted Heero out of the Alliance hospital and the idiot had tried to kill himself, but ended up breaking his leg. Heero had set it himself, using a wrench as a splint so the injury wouldn't get in the way as he continued his mission. Heero had admitted years later that he should have been out of commission for at least three weeks, and it had taken six for it to heal. That he didn't know how many bones in his body had healed improperly because of his negligence. But at the time, the mission was more important, so he ignored it, just like he had been trained to do.

Duo didn't have any pain to ignore, he had just woken up and was fine. More than fine. In fact, the shiny pink newness of the scar already seemed to be fading away. It was like trying to watch a flower bloom, it didn't move as you stared, but the second you blink or glance away than back at it, it had moved. Something was definitely wrong here.

The fuzzy, faint creepy sensation Duo had managed to efficiently smother roared up over his skin as if he'd stuck his finger in an electrical socket. He tensed, straining to hear anything over the steady stream of water. Before he had a chance to turn off the shower, the sound of the door being kicked in exploded through the bathroom.

"Duo?" It was Wufei.

Duo pushed open the shower door and stuck his head out. "You scared the living shit out of me, 'Fei. I thought our phantom stalker was busting in here," he laughed, but the expression on Wufei's face made him stop. "What is it?"

Wufei motioned towards the other side of the room, Duo's gaze following the line of sight. Their bathroom was one of those nicer style master bathrooms, the shower and bathtub separate so that the tub could be bigger for luxuriating like you're supposed to in a bath, and with room for more than one to luxuriate. There was a window above the bathtub with curtain more for privacy than for decoration. The curtains had been pulled back to reveal the open window, both the window and the curtains had been closed before Duo had got in the shower.

But it wasn't the fact that someone had snuck up on him, not once, but twice, within two days that made Duo shudder. It wasn't cold air, he had been in the shower long enough to turn the bathroom into a mini sauna. It was the pony-sized blank panther curled up in the bathtub like it was its bed, a big crimson red ribbon tied artfully around its throat. It took several seconds for Duo's brain to comprehend that a card was attached to the ribbon, like you would do to a bouquet of flowers to be delivered.

"That is a very big cat," Trowa remarked softly. He rarely shows any serious extreme facial expressions or vocal tones, so for him to come in and practically gawk in astonishment was a feat. They all stood rooted to the spot like rabbits caught in the sight of a hungry wolf, not wanting to even breathe too loudly.

A deep, reverberating sound shattered the heavy silence, startling them out of their shock. Duo jumped so badly that he was forced to stumble naked out of the shower or risk busting his bare ass on the tile floor.

"Is that what I think it is?" Wufei asked, his voice as soft as Trowa's had been, as if he was still waiting for the panther to fly out of the bathtub and eat them all.

"It's purring." Yes, Trowa was definitely flabbergasted.

"I think it likes all the rapt attention," Quatre said, looking like he was about to purr in contentment himself as he channeled the big cat's emotions.

"You're the animal pro, Unibang. Go pet and distract it while we run out screaming like little girls," Duo said warily. At Wufei and Quatre's dirty looks, he shrugged, "Fine, I'll run out alone screaming like a little girl. Have fun."

The panther turned its full gaze on Duo and he suddenly had the irresistible urge to go over and climb into the bathtub with it. 'Come, cuddle with me like a teddy bear, you know you want to,' was what the feline gaze implied.

Duo didn't even have a chance to wonder how an animal could convey such a thing, he was walking towards the other side of the room like it was perfectly natural to cuddle naked with a giant cat in a bathtub.

That thought did stop him dead in his tracks, and was aware of a tight grip on his arms holding him back a foot away. But he was close enough now to read the elegant script on the card.

'To Duo.'

"Let me go."

Wufei gave him a look that clearly said he thought Duo had lost his mind, but slowly did what he was asked. Duo cautiously knelt down close enough to pull the ribbon that released the card. The panther watched him, still purring quietly, as he slid the card out of the envelope with his name on it.

'The full moon is soon. We can't wait to see you again. Your New Best Friend.'

Duo read it aloud, a fine tremble beginning to creep through his whole body. The asshole was trying to fuck with him, as if attacking him wasn't enough. What the hell is the message supposed to mean anyway?

Duo let out an undignified shriek when a long, rough tongue licked the side of his face, and he toppled over on his ass to the floor. The panther was already gone through the open window when someone's shot splintered the tile on the wall a second too late. Wufei and Trowa both ran past, staring out of the window.

"Where in the hell did it go?" Wufei swore.

"It licked me," Duo muttered, trying to swallow his heart back down into his chest. "It fucking licked me."

"I think it was actually meant to be a soothing gesture," Quatre said, coming to kneel beside Duo.

"Oh, is that what your empathetic little space heart told you?" he asked sarcastically. Anger was much better than fear. Yeah, anger. Definitely anger.

"Actually, it is," Trowa answered, stepping out of the tub as Wufei shut the window and curtains. "For cats, it's like a hug for comfort, or a sign of trust that they're willing to let the other get close enough to do that and not rip its throat out. I remember the cats at the circus being particularly touchy and clingy to me when I was suffering from the amnesia and the pain of not being able to remember anything."

"You could cover yourself in raw steaks and none of the animals at the circus would lay a claw on you," Duo replied, confusion replacing the anger. "You're just one of those animal people, like Tarzan or something. It's not that I don't like them, just I'm not THAT animal friendly like you are."

"Who cares about the intricacies of animal psychology," Wufei cut in sharply. "What I want to know is what this note means, why they're targeting Duo, who they are, whatever the hell is going on here."

"I'm sorry, Wufei, you're right," Quatre apologized, standing up. Wufei nodded, grabbing Duo's towel from the towel rack.

Duo scrubbed the side of his face with the palm of his hand, not able to get rid of the feeling of the panther's tongue. "We should research whoever the private investor is and exactly what kind of club they're building," he said tiredly, gratefully taking his towel from Wufei's hand and wrapping is around his waist as he got to his feet.

"Do you think they could be involved inthis?" Trowa asked.

"It doesn't hurt to check it out just to be safe," Quatre replied with a sigh. "Besides, the note said 'we can't wait to see you again', implying that we already know how to find them, which leads to the scene of Duo's attack at the warehouse."

"Heero should be coming in from the colonies tonight, he said he would be here first thing in the morning," Wufei said.

"Jesus, did you call in the whole cavalry just for me?" Duo remarked incredulously.

"Yes, I did." Wufei didn't even sound embarrassed, it made Duo feel all warm and fuzzy. "I want this guy caught for what he did. When Heero comes in, we'll let him hack the system for this private investor. He's always been better at hacking then the rest of us."

"What we will do until Heero arrives?"

"Quatre and I will read through the reports Sally sent you so that we're up to date on the situation," Trowa replied, heading for the door.

"You and I still need to file our own report with Lady Une, then we can start preparing for whatever plan we come up with," Wufei added as Trowa and Quatre walked out of the room.

"All right, lemme go get some clothes on and we can call up to HQ and talk to her."

Duo followed Wufei out, heading to their bedroom while Wufei joined Trowa and Quatre. The bad guys had made a very, very big mistake, and now they were about to find out just how big of a mistake it was to piss off the Gundam pilots.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't know just how bad the bad guys really were.

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