Warnings: Violence (lots of death, no main chars)
Summary: David is not a murderer. Except, he is.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Jumper, characters or anything else associated.
A/N: Response to the 100 Fic Ultimate Challenge at jumperslash . The prompts I used - #57. cacophony and #14. deadly precision.

Bloodbath

David forced himself to sit up. He was trembling and sincerely wanted nothing more than to just collapse on the ground, but he had to see what he had done. He crawled over to the woman who held a shiny metallic thing in her hand – he knew that that was the electric weapon. She was lying on her face and there was a rapidly growing pool of blood around her. He carefully turned her over only to fall back in shock – there was a big bloody hole where her nose was supposed to be. He had shot her in the face.

"Oh, my god," he gasped. He tore his gaze away from the macabre sight and tried to stand on his shaky legs. He walked or rather, stumbled over to the man who was lying on his back. The paladin's eyes were open and his breathing was shallow, accompanied by a wheezy sound. David saw blood gurgling at the corner of the man's mouth.

Along with blood and spit the paladin also coughed out a word, "Murderer."

David swallowed forcefully. He stood over the man and counted the bullet holes in the man's body. Three. One in chest, one amongst ribs and one in leg. That makes altogether four hits. He must have fired the other two in the air. Just four hits and such a devastation.

"I'm not…," he protested quietly. "I will help you," he promised. "I just need to check, if.." he gestured to the third body lying on the ground a few meters from them.

He walked over to the woman he had shot first. She was lying on her side, her eyes closed. He dropped to his knees beside her and laid his hand on her neck. Her pulse was weak, but she was still alive. David turned her on her back and saw the freely bleeding stomach wound. He finally dropped the gun in his left hand and pressed both of his palms against her wound to stop the bleeding.

"You're going to be alright," he said shakily to the unconscious woman.

He glanced around, but there was no sign of Griffin or any other paladins except another dead one a few meters from him. David knew that the man was dead, because his head was turned the wrong way – the sight was sickening.

He took a deep breath trying to get enough focus to jump when movement in the corner of his eye drew his attention. The paladin who was still alive and conscious had crawled over to his partner and was looking at her face in shock and disgust.

"I'm so sorry," David said desperately.

The paladin didn't answer, just looked at David with eyes so filled of hate it made David shudder. The paladin reached for the electric weapon and jerked it out of the woman's death grip.

"Don't," David pleaded. "Please don't," he asked.

The paladin raised his hand with his last strength and aimed the weapon at David. David didn't think he just let go of the woman he was trying to save, took up the gun again and fired three times. Only one shot landed, but it was enough. The paladin collapsed on his already dead colleague; David had shot him right between the eyes.

David's hand trembled as he dropped the gun. He had promised to save that man. He took three quick breaths; he still had a person to save. He pushed again against the wound on the woman's stomach. He tried to imagine a hospital, any hospital, but he couldn't hold a single image in his mind – all were fleeting.

He didn't have time, damn it. He tried to jump, but he couldn't. Whenever he imagined an emergency room, a hallway, a simple hospital room – anything, the image shifted as soon as he tried to hold on to it. He couldn't jump.

"No!" he cried. "No! I can do this," he told himself. "I can do this."

His hands were red with blood almost to the elbows. He kept pushing against the hole in the paladin's stomach not noticing that the blood wasn't flowing like before, not noticing that the woman was already dead.

-

Coming out of the kitchen Griffin caught a sight of David outside the diner and he grinned. He walked out of the diner with a bang and a loud complaint about his ruined jacket when he finally noticed the carnage around David. Involuntary he grimaced at the mess.

He knew he had to tread carefully and not because of the dead bodies and blood spilt all around, but because of David. The younger man was covered in blood up to his elbows. The young woman he was trying to save was obviously dead. Griffin summoned as much sympathy as he was capable of over a death of a paladin and gingerly approached David.

"Come on!" David muttered under his breath. "Come on! I can do this! I can…"

Griffin kneeled by David's side. "Mate, you do know – she's dead."

David finally noticed Griffin's presence. He shook his head madly. "She can't be. I'm not a murderer, I'll save her!"

Griffin sighed. "This is the first time you killed somebody?"

"No!" David protested violently. "No! No! No, I didn't kill anyone. I'm not a murderer, I didn't...," he let go of the dead woman and fell backwards on his ass. "I promised that I would save her."

"Well, she promised that she'll kill you," Griffin said quietly. He looked around and did a headcount. Four dead paladins here and one cooking in a volcano - sounded about right.

"I'm not a murderer," David voiced it as a question.

"No, you're not. You're alive, that's what you are," Griffin said strongly. "She's a paladin and you're a jumper. Our kinds don't mix. Yeah, you killed them, but if you hadn't they'd killed you, now stop whining and get your shit together. The fact that you offed a few psychos does not make you a murderer," he meant to sound kinder, but who knew how long before others showed up. Where there was a paladin, others were always nearby.

This was a diner on wheels in the midst of nowhere. Griffin had jumped it here a few months ago for this specific showdown. There was nobody here, but them. When David had pretended to be a waiter previously – Griffin had actually thought that he was talking to a paladin. So, he hazarded a guess that it would take a while for other paladins to get here if this pathetic bunch had called for back-up, but to be honest, Griffin didn't want to stick around to find out.