After Dark
Part VIII
By Mieren
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
With a bit of persuasion and a lot of money stolen from Oz accounts, Heero managed to convince the owners of a small apartment complex to give him a room that same day. From the window, he watched the small unassuming club across the street, unblinking.
He, Quatre and Wufei had arrived at the location early in the morning. Only Heero was awake, the other two pilots getting some much needed sleep. The perfect soldier didn't bother them, knowing that once the sun set, they would need all their strength. He honestly didn't expect Xellos to show himself before then anyways. After all, the club was closed off and boarded up by day.
It wasn't until a few minutes before sunset when Trowa arrived. Heero saw him approach the complex easily. Surrounded by fifty or so filthy, scowling men, he wasn't exactly easy to miss. Trowa raised his gaze to lock eyes from Heero. He didn't hold the stare, looking back to the men accompanying him and saying something that caused them to scatter into the city without a trace.
Trowa entered the room only seconds later. If Heero was surprised by the speed he was able to move to get to the third floor in that time, he didn't show it. He merely frowned slightly at the expressionless pilot.
"Those are mercenaries?" he asked bluntly.
"Every man you saw has killed over a hundred wolves," Trowa answered disinterestedly. Heero grunted. "They can take care of themselves."
"Where did you send them?"
"Off to prepare for nightfall. They'll be back before we need them."
"Hn."
Trowa pushed past him to look out of the window at the nightclub for a few seconds. He looked back at Heero several times, emerald eyes troubled. Finally, he turned to face the scowling Japanese pilot fully.
"Hold your fire if you see Duo," he said finally. Heero's eyes widened.
"Why?" he demanded.
"I have reason to believe he hasn't fully turned yet."
Heero pushed Trowa into the wall, wild cobalt eyes demanding an answer. Trowa simply shrugged him off, refusing to elaborate. For several seconds, Heero fought with himself, debating the European's words and wondering if he could trust them. Finally, he made his decision and nodded reluctantly, knowing that Trowa wouldn't have said anything had he not been absolutely sure of his information.
"What formation will the mercenaries take?" he asked, switching subjects. Trowa's lips turned upward in a macabre smile.
"They'll work around us," he responded quietly. "They're accustomed to hand to hand combat, so watch where you aim."
Heero glanced at him, shocked by the amused barb the pilot had tacked on to the end of his commentary. His aim was perfect. Trowa's warning was completely unnecessary. He was considering retorting to the jibe when the taller brunette left the room to wake the other two pilots.
The other three pilots entered the living area in under a minute. Impassive as always, Trowa wandered to the window to glance at the club, already knowing that there was nothing to see, but feeling it necessary to check in his restless mood. Quatre glared at Heero and Trowa and refused to say anything, opting to retreat to the small kitchen to mope in solitude. Resigned to his fate, Wufei simply settled to the floor near the wall, waiting for someone to tell him what to do.
Without warning, Trowa shoved Heero to the floor in his sudden urgency to get to the window. He only peered out for a moment before swearing and running for the door, Heero immediately on his heels. Sensing that something important was going on, both Quatre and Wufei dragged themselves out of their own thoughts to follow the two sprinting pilots. Mercenaries were already swarming the area when they exited the apartment complex.
The sun had gone down.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Duo shook his head in amusement. Four pilots and several dozen mercenaries were swarming the streets and preparing to enter a seemingly innocent nightclub, the former armed with various implements of destruction and the latter using only their bare hands. Duo, however, had absolutely no intention of going inside. He knew what was in there and had no desire to enter a second time.
Sighing, Duo reconsidered his position. Even though he didn't want to enter the underground lair, he didn't feel comfortable letting his friends go in alone. Mentally cursing Heero's impatience and interference, he ghosted out of his hiding spot and tried to blend into the mercenaries as they thundered into the deadly establishment. Several of the men eyed him strangely and one went so far as to take a swing at him, but in the end he succeeded in hiding in the masses.
The moment the mercenaries and pilots entered reached the bottom of the shadowed stairs, they were met with a bloodbath. The pilots were trying desperately to hold off over a thousand vampires with only a few crossbows and stakes. The mercenaries each held some sort of blade and were darting through the pale figures faster than Duo had ever seen anyone move. Duo had only the small knives he kept hidden in his boots to fight with. Even with the mercenaries, they had no chance to win. They were quickly surrounded and forced into a small knot.
It was pure reflex that caused Duo to ram Heero and knock him to the ground a moment before a thrown knife would have hit him in the chest. Duo grunted and ripped the blade out of his shoulder, using it in collaboration with one of his other knives to behead the nearest vampire. He didn't need to glance down at Heero to know that the Japanese pilot had turned his crossbow sights on him.
"Pull the stick out of your ass and pay attention!" Duo snapped, decapitating another figure that strayed too close to him. "I'm here to help!"
A jerking movement in the corner of his eye alerted Duo that Heero had pulled the trigger to his crossbow. Expecting a bolt to connect with the side of his head, Duo tensed. His jaw dropped in shock when the wooden shaft passed a hairsbreadth from his nose, thudding stolidly into an approaching figure he hadn't seen in his argument with Heero.
All of the vampires near Duo pulled back several feet and he froze, expecting some sort of trap. His suspicion was increased when he noticed that a respectable clearing was forming around all of them. In a few minutes, at the very most, they would have been overrun and killed.
Pain lanced through Duo and he gasped loudly, dropping to his knees. His hands clawed at his heart, tears streaking his face. A hand slipped under one of his arms, pulling him to unsteady feet. Shocked at Heero's display of assistance, it took Duo a moment to realize that he was being addressed from somewhere in the crowd in front of him. Recognition dawned and he felt his blood turn to ice.
"So you survived after all," a smooth voice said.
Unwilling to look helpless in front of the purple-haired man a second time, Duo jerked away from Heero and stiffened, stubbornly ignoring the agony shredding his insides. Cursing loudly, he threw one of his knives directly at the smiling man, who easily caught the blade in midair and tossed it aside.
Undaunted, Duo charged, using his inhuman speed to throw himself at his opponent, knives leading. Xellos sidestepped him with ease, tripping him as he passed with some sort of staff in his hands. Aware that he had too much momentum behind him to stop, Duo dropped into a tight roll and flipped immediately to his feet, not pausing in his assault. He was deposited on the floor again.
"Stubborn," Xellos chuckled, moving a few feet back before Duo could get up to try again.
Duo started to get up again, freezing when the red orb at the end of the staff was held inches from his face. Growling at his own cowardice, he tried to roll away to gain distance to attack again. Fear lanced through him when he found that he couldn't move anything except his eyes.
"You see," Xellos beamed. "It's so much easier when you don't fight."
Duo flicked his eyes over to his friends, realizing that they were still surrounded and were unable to help him. He settled for glaring at the smiling face above him. He found himself rising to his feet against his will, following the movement of the staff.
"Why?" Duo grated, eyes flashing with hatred.
"Pardon?"
"Why me? Why this?"
Xellos beamed again, obviously pleased that Duo had asked. "Because of the man that sent you to kill me. When you arrived, I could only assume who had given you the orders, but I checked after you left. The scientists from the colonies have been hunting me for many years now. They've already sent those two," he said, waving his hand absently at the pilots.
Unbidden, Duo's eyes flickered over to where his friends were clustered, trying to protect themselves from the swarming vampires. The mercenaries were doing all they could, but they were slowly being pushed back. What was even more frightening was the fact that the vampires weren't trying yet.
"That's how they knew not to waste their time attacking during the day," Xellos continued. "I only show up after dark." Duo's eyes promised death, but the purple-haired man seemed not to notice. "As for why I chose to do this to you, it's simply so that I can send someone after those old men without drawing suspicion. They've found a way to hold me off, but they won't know to fight you."
"And what makes you think I'll cooperate?" Duo spat.
"Simple," Xellos smiled. "You don't have a choice."
Duo could feel his very being turn to ice at those words. His eyes widened in mute horror as the staff was pressed gently against his forehead. Fire lanced through his skull, spreading to race through his veins. He shrieked in agony, arching his back involuntarily as his muscles began to spasm from the pain.
Heero watched his friend suffer with clouded eyes. He forcefully reigned in the grief coursing through his soul from the crushed hope he had suffered. For a moment while they were fighting, he had allowed himself to believe that Duo would be okay. Grimly, he raised the crossbow in his hands and pointed it at the braided pilot.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
To Be Continued…
For those of you who are complaining that I'm being too mean to Duo, I'm sorry! It can't be helped in a fic like this. ;_;
And for those of you who DO like Duo torture, I have a fic out called Afterimages. Since it's NC-17, it probably won't be posted here, but I'll leave notes on the homepage so you can find it. That one is going to be as realistic as I can manage. And, just to warn you, it will be extremely brutal, even by my standards.