After Dark
Part XIII
By Mieren
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
After waiting at the safe house for another two days, the pilots realized they had to do something immediately. Quatre hadn't figured out anything and Duo was clearly having trouble with his self-imposed fasting. Trowa had taken it upon himself to find something that the braided pilot would be able to eat. All attempts at feeding him raw meat had resulted in the American vomiting rather violently. Finally, Wufei had witnessed enough gagging and had snuck into the nearest city, breaking into a hospital and stealing a few gallons of blood. To the dismay of the other pilots, Duo couldn't keep that down either.
Desperate to keep his friend alive, Quatre had volunteered to let Duo bite him, theorizing that it was the heparin in the hospital's blood that was making the American ill. Heero had refused adamantly, stating that they did not need another of their numbers as one of Duo's personal slaves. Wufei agreed, albeit reluctantly, to let Duo bite him again. The results were immediate. Duo scrambled to the bathroom where he was noisily sick.
Grumbling something under his breath, Heero left the room to fetch the medical supplies. Stalking crossly into the bathroom, he roughly jammed an IV into Duo's arm and wrapped the limb in duct tape to hold the needle in place. He shrugged one shoulder at the withering look that the American directed at him.
"It would have come out," he said tonelessly.
"What's in this?" Duo asked slowly, gripping his upper arm. It had begun to throb.
"Saline solution with additional amounts of glucose," Heero intoned dryly. "As well as a few base proteins and a ready supply of free amino acids." Violet eyes narrowed.
"It hurts."
"If you want to starve to death, by all means, take it out," Heero snapped. Duo tried to glare but wilted where he was still seated on the bathroom floor.
"We need to do something soon, Heero," Duo said in a trembling voice. "I won't be able to help for much longer."
"I know," Heero sighed. "We'll attack tomorrow night while there are still five of us. Trowa said that the wolves would continue to help us as long as we're fighting. Even if Quatre isn't ready, I still think we stand a better chance with five than three."
"Three?" Duo snapped, coming to attention. "What do you mean, three?"
Heero hesitated. "I thought you knew. When you die, so does Wufei."
"Shouldn't that free him?"
"Normally, yes, but due to Quatre's tampering, you two are too linked."
"Shit," Duo groaned. "We don't stand a chance, do we?"
"No," Heero said honestly.
"Well," Duo said dryly. "If I have to die, I want to at least go down doing something extremely stupid."
Cobalt eyes narrowed. "What are you thinking?"
Duo grinned, deliberately lengthening his teeth and flashing his eyes to pure gold to give himself a truly sinister look.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Trowa stood beside Heavyarms, running a diagnostic. His numerous guns had been revised to hold nothing but tainted shots. He had recruited the other werewolves to help him contaminate modified scattershot rounds with either saliva or blood. No single shot would be dangerous to vampires normally with the pebble-sized bits of shrapnel that would be fired, but if their theory worked out, anyone hit would explode. Heero and Quatre were beside him working on Wing Zero and Sandrock, armed with their standard thermal weapons and in preparation for Xellos, nuclear warheads. Duo and Wufei had been deemed unfit to pilot their Gundams for fear that they could change sides at any moment. Even though they had expected the decision, it still stung their pride. It was suspected to be the reason Duo was creating his own, personalized arsenal.
True to his word, Duo appeared to be preparing to die doing something very stupid. Between himself and Wufei, they had packed four very large duffle bags with explosives that Duo had prepared himself. He refused to tell the other pilots what exactly he had put in the charges, but the manner in which he was delicately handling everything made them suspect that it was extremely dangerous. Wufei almost flat out refused to take his two bags when he saw the American pilot shaking and sweating heavily after assembling a strange looking glass tube filled with three separated layers of liquid. Heero had rifled through all of the bags after that, examining several items curiously before grunting and returning to his laptop. Duo had only offered a few words to Wufei before they left on their mission.
"Do not drop anything. Do not get anything wet, especially the ones with red markings. And for the love of God, if one of the glass vials breaks, run like the world behind you is ending, because it will be."
"What's in the glass vials?" Wufei asked.
"The reason that G kicked me permanently out of the chemistry labs on L2."
"Chemistry lab… wait. Don't tell me that was the incident a few years ago where an entire city block melted on L2 and the entire atmosphere on the colony had to be replaced."
"Okay. I won't tell you. I won't tell you either that on L2 there was only an ounce of it." They had a little over four gallons between them. Wufei paled.
"That's it. YOU are carrying all of the glass vials."
"Shouldn't you two be in hazmat suits?" Trowa asked drolly.
"Wouldn't make a difference in the slightest," Duo responded. Trowa edged away from their duffle bags and gave the braided pilot an unreadable look. "Oh, and stay back until the place blows. You don't want this stuff on your Gundams."
"It will not harm gundanium plating," Heero said, still typing on his laptop.
"Wanna bet?" Duo muttered. Four horrified looks were leveled in his direction.
"What exactly is in those vials?" Quatre managed after a few seconds.
"Don't remember the compound's name right off," Duo admitted. "I figured it out about a year ago. It has twenty seven syllables."
"You're joking, right?" Quatre asked, incredulous. When Duo shook his head, the other pilots made him move the bags away from their Gundams.
On their way out, Duo pulled Trowa aside and handed him a dart gun and a set of empty darts, expression grave. He waited intentionally until the other three were out of earshot before speaking.
"Fill these with your blood. If Xellos turns me again, shoot me," Duo whispered. "Please." Trowa nodded, emerald eyes sympathetic.
"On one condition," the European pilot said softly.
"What?"
"Keep the glass tubes away from me."
Duo snorted, managing to smile at his comrade's joke. "Deal."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
To Be Continued…
Sorry for the delay. I'm suffering from a horrid case of writer's block on this fic. I nearly drove myself nuts trying to get this part out. On the bright side, the story is drawing to a close. Final battle of the fic should be coming up (yeah right!). R&R!