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A/N: Happy End of the World! That's right, today, December 21, 2012 is the end of the world. So, I"d like to thank you all for reading my stories and enjoy the last chapter I'll ever write.
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Chapter 13: Extermination Hunters

As soon as the cab had stopped in front of the hospital, Gon opened the door and helped me out, despite my protests. Leorio and Kurapika's cab had pulled up behind ours and they got out to help me as well. I insisted I was fine and that I could handle myself, but Leorio insisted otherwise. I reminded him of my previous occupation and all the training I did.

He scoffed, "That's no excuse for not wanting help."

"Guys," I said, "seriously, it's not that bad. It's just a cut. There's no need to worry."

"Have you seen yourself?" Leorio asked, "Your whole right side is red and you're trying to say it's 'not that bad'? Bullshit. Now let us help you into the hospital."

I was getting frustrated. I said, "It doesn't take three people to help one person get somewhere. Especially when that one person is fully capable of walking on his own two feet. Honestly, compared to what I've been through during my training, this is just a scratch." I exhaled and continued, "Look, I'm thankful that you were there to help. I'm thankful that you care enough about me to worry about my well being, but this is honestly nothing. I don't need your help anymore. I can manage fine on my own."

"You're sure about this?" Kurapika asked, "From our view point, it looks pretty bad."

"Yes," I said, "I'm sure. I'll go in the hospital, get it cleaned up, maybe get a couple stitches and be out of there in no time. I'm sure you have a lot of other things you have to do and they're probably more important than worrying about me."

"I'm still not that sure we should just leave you alone," Leorio said.

"Who says I'm alone?" I asked, "I've got Gon. You know he'd make me go through with this. So, please, just get back into your cab and go do whatever it is you're gonna do now."

Leorio was going to say something, but he saw that I was being sincere. It was very rare when I was being truly sincere and this was one of those times. I guess I was like Gon when being truly sincere: stubborn and unreasonable. Kurapika stared at me for a while and then nodded. He grabbed Leorio, who sighed, and they both climbed into their cab.

As the cab was pulling away, Leorio opened the door and yelled, "Make sure you call me when everything is over."

I promised I would and raised my right arm to wave goodbye. I winced, forgetting that there was pain there. Gon said my name, concerned, and I told him I was alright. Our cab driver turned off the engine and got out. I told him that he didn't need to come in and that Gon and I could handle everything, but he insisted.

"You kids got into my cab," he said, "That means I gotta take care of you, no matter what."

"Alright," I said, "but you're not getting anything extra out of this. You know that, right?"

The cabbie laughed and said, "I'm not expecting anything extra from a couple of young Hunters such as yourselves."

"Good," I said as I turned around to walk into the hospital. When the realization of what he had said sunk in, I stopped, turned around and asked, "What? How did you know…?"

My voice trailed as the cabbie laughed again. He pulled out a card that looked almost identical to mine and Gon's and said, "I'm a Hunter, myself. An Extermination Hunter, to be precise. There aren't that many of us, but we're really good at what we do."

"What is it," Gon asked, "that Extermination Hunters do?"

"I'm sure you know what a Blacklist Hunter does," he said. We nodded and he continued, "Well, we're kind of like that. Only, we don't hunt dangerous criminals. We hunt dangerous creatures. The Hunter's Association has been aware of creatures, like the one you called Kitakura, for a while now. They realized that these creatures were too dangerous to preserve and so we were sent to exterminate them."

"Wait, how did you know about Kitakura?" I asked, "We never told you that."

The cabbie laughed again and said, "Let's take care of that wound you have first. I'll explain everything then."

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I was sitting on a hospital bed with Gon washing my wound. The nurse that originally brought us to the room had wanted to do it, but Gon insisted he could do it. I could tell he was about to say 'better than you can' to the nurse, because that's what I would say, but he didn't. He told the nurse he'd call for a doctor when the wound was clean. I figured he just wanted an excuse to touch me when my shirt was off.

"So," I said to the cabbie, "you're saying that you could have jumped in at any time during our fight?"

The cabbie, who had introduced himself as Joel when we entered the hospital, said, "Yes."

"Then why the hell didn't you!?" I yelled while waving my left fist at him.

"Killua," Gon complained, "don't move! I need to get this cleaned and when you move, more blood comes."

Gon continued to wipe my wound with a wet cloth. A little bit later, he started kissing my neck and my back. I shrugged him off, saying it tickled when he kissed my back. Admittedly, it wasn't the smartest thing to say. Especially to Gon, as he continued kissing my back. He started rubbing my chest, as well, but I hardly felt it.

"Well," Joel said, looking a little uncomfortable, "I was about to, when your friend just showed up and- um…" He turned his eyes away and said, "Maybe you two would like a little privacy?"

I felt Gon's caress move lower as Joel was talking. I felt it move to my waistline and when I felt my pants being lifted, I elbowed Gon in the stomach. I hadn't meant to hit him hard; just enough to get his hand out of my pants. However, I heard Gon fall off the bed and hit his head on the floor.

"Ow…" He said as he sat up, rubbing his head.

"You see Gon?" I asked, "This is why I don't let you kiss me in public; it makes people uncomfortable. Now get back up here, wash my shoulder and keep your free hand to yourself."

Gon got back on the bed, grumbling. I had to hold in a laugh. I started a conversation with Joel again, asking him how long he had known about Kitakura. He said that he didn't know about Kitakura specifically until my outburst last night. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, as I didn't remember seeing him there. Had he come in while I was sleeping?

"Killua," Gon's voice was a bit worried, "I think the cut is deeper than you had first thought. No matter how much I wash it, more blood keeps coming. Maybe we should get the doctor in here."

"I'll go and get one," Joel said.

As Joel got up out of his chair, Gon whispered in my ear, "Isn't there an assassin trick you can do to stop the blood?"

Joel left the room in search of a doctor. I had to concentrate on stopping the blood flow to my shoulder. It was tricky, since I hadn't had to do it in a very long time. However, I managed it and Gon continued to clean it. A few seconds later, Joel returned with a doctor. The doctor asked Gon to move so he could get a better look at my shoulder.

"Hey, doc," I said, "I'm planning on leaving the city today and I don't know when I'll be able to get to a hospital so, could we skip the stitches?"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, son," the doctor said, "This wound is simply too deep for anything else."

"Couldn't you just tape it up?" I asked.

"Hmm…" the doctor said, examining the depth of my wound, "Tape only does so much. I doubt it'll do anything for this, though."

"Shit." I said, disappointed.

"Um," the doctor said cautiously, "how, exactly, did you receive this wound?"

"Um…" I was caught off guard. I couldn't think of a response. The only thing I could manage was, "I…"

"He fell out of a tree," Gon added quickly, "We were climbing trees in the park and he lost his footing and fell. I was going to carry him here, but this nice man," he gestured toward Joel, "saw us and picked us up in his cab."

I was surprised. I was even amazed. Gon had just lied to somebody. Not only that, but he had made up a story so believable, that covered every little detail, you had no choice but to believe him. Not to mention he said it in his 'it was all my fault' tone of voice.

The doctor was satisfied and didn't ask any more questions. He asked me to lay down on my front so he could do the stitching. As part of my assassin training, I was tortured with pins and needles digging into my flesh. I was trained to not feel anything that small. The stitching process didn't take long because I told the doctor he didn't need to worry about the freezing part.

Once I was all stitched up, the doctor said, "I imagine with a wound that deep, that it'll take a few days for it to heal so, leave the stitches in there for at least a few days. If you can't make it to a hospital to get the stitches out, then I'm sure your little friend here," he put a hand on Gon's shoulder, "would be more than willing to take them out."

Two things about what the doctor had just said had scared me. The first was that I made no mention of Gon coming with me when I left town. The doctor had just assumed that on his own. The second was what scared me the most, however. Gon taking out my stitches. My mind imagined all the possible outcomes of that. Most of them were good, however, there were a few that didn't end so well.

The doctor said that I could rest in the room until I was feeling up to leaving. Of course, I was up to leaving that place as soon as he was finished with the stitching, but I decided to take advantage of the time to rest. Especially after the fight with Kitakura. I thanked the doctor as he left the room. There was a silence that lingered in the room for a moment that was broken when Joel started up a conversation.

"I have a proposition for you," he said.

I sat up so Gon could sit on the bed as well. I looked at Gon, who shared my expression: a raised eyebrow. We both looked at Joel, expecting him to say more. However, he let the word 'proposition' hang in the air for a while. He might have been expecting us to say something. I seized the moment and took the bait.

"What kind of proposition?" I asked.

He smiled, "The Hunter's Association is well aware of your sudden interest in creatures known as 'Super Soldiers'."

"How…" Gon's voice trailed.

"The card you used was successfully traced to you, Gon Freecss," he said, "However, the deletion got cut short due to a sudden crash in the computer you used. But, that's not the point. The point is that we're willing to pay you eighteen billion Jenny for your help in the execution of these Super Soldiers. We have all the information needed thanks to your friend, Kite. It's a shame what happened to him."

Gon's hand clenched his pant leg. He probably still had some repressed anger of that incident. He probably wanted to find the bastard that killed Kite and kill him in the same manner. However, I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let Gon become what I had stopped being. I didn't want Gon to become a killer.

"Sorry, but-" I began.

Joel cut me off, "Before you answer, you might want to know that we also have information on a certain fountain that might interest you. Also thanks to your friend, Kite."

My interest was peaked. There were so many things I wanted to know. For starters, I wanted to know how the bloody hell he knew about our interest in the Fountain of Youth. We hadn't told anybody. Not even Leorio and Kurapika, our closest friends.

"Ah," Joel said with a grin on his face, "Interested, are we? Well, you'll only get the information if you agree to our mission."

I sighed. "Fine. We'll do it. But only because we have some unfinished business with those bastards."

Joel smiled. "That's what I like to hear." He got up and walked to the door, "I'll have all the information you need in my cab. So, when you're ready, you can meet me there."

He left and Gon and I just stared at the floor. Neither of us wanted to talk. Neither of us wanted to move. We just wanted to soak in the mood. I was the first one to break the silence by reaching for my shirt.

"Killua," Gon said, "If we find the bastard that killed Kite," he paused, "I might kill him. So, I need you to promise me one thing."

"Sure, Gon," I said, "Anything."

"If it looks like I'm about to kill him," he said, "I want you to kill me."

"What?" I asked, "Gon, that's crazy! You know I could never-"

"Promise me!" He looked into my eyes and it looked like they were threatening me to promise.

I sighed and hit him on the head. I then proceeded to put my shirt back on. After his usual 'that hurt!' and 'what did you do that for?', he went back to staring at me. He knew that he was asking me to make a promise that I couldn't keep. He knew that if I killed him, then I would kill Leorio and Kurapika and go back to being an assassin for the Zoldyck family for the rest of my life. I would probably find a way to kill myself shortly after my return to my family. It was something that I wasn't willing to do.

"I'm not going to make you a promise," I said, "that I know I wouldn't be able to keep. Besides, if I killed you, then our whole journey to find the Fountain of Youth would be pointless."

Gon blinked. "Oh. Right. I never thought about that."

He laughed and I hit him on the head. I said, "Come on, we need to leave now," and got off the bed.

I walked to the door and Gon followed. We walked outside the hospital to a waiting cab. It was late afternoon, I noted. Somehow, the whole day had felt longer. I was about to reach for the handle to the cab when Gon's hand reached around me and grabbed it first. He opened the door with a cheeky grin on his face and I climbed in.

After Gon had climbed in and closed the door, Joel handed us a binder. He said that it contained information on the Super Soldiers that wasn't found on the Hunter's Website. He also said that it contained information on the Fountain of Youth that was very rare. I wanted to ask him how he knew we were interested in the fountain. I needed to ask him! So Gon asked him.

He handed us a familiar looking book and said, "Sorry. While you two were in the park, I quickly looked through your bags and found this book. I needed to know if you were the right ones for the job so I did some improvised research."

I took the book and quickly skimmed it to see if any pages were missing. None were. We asked Joel to take us to the airport and we took off. On our way, Gon and I looked through the binder. There was a lot of information that would take a while to read through. Descriptions of physical appearance, mental capabilities, average strength. All of these and more were just part of what I saw.

As we pulled up to the airport, Joel gave us a card. He said if we needed anything that we could call him at the number, no matter where we were. We thanked him and offered to pay him for taking us all over, but he just said that our accepting the mission was payment enough. We got out of the cab and headed into the airport. We bought our tickets and boarded our plane.

The plane took off as the sun was just beginning to set. It had been a long day, indeed. As soon as the plane had taken off, Gon had cuddled up close to me and began to doze off. I didn't blame him; I felt like doing the same. However, I needed to compare what was in the book to what was in the binder.

At first glance, nothing seemed different. However, as I got into greater details, I found that there was a name that appeared in the book several times. I looked at the information in the binder and noticed that the same name appeared only a handful of times. The last time the name is mentioned in the binder, another name appears right after it.

I had decided that we would need more information about the Fountain of Youth. Or, at least, clarity on certain subjects. We needed to find the person mentioned in the book several times. We needed to find the one who wrote the book. The 'One Who Knows'.

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A/N: Did you really believe me at the beginning of the chapter? Ha! No, the world didn't end today. It's just a prank some crazy Mayans pulled with their calendar. They sure got people good, though, I have to admit. Anyways, on to more serious matters. I'm sorry, once again, for no new "Killua's World". It's just this story pulled me right in with its... um... story. However, since I was having some writer's block with this chapter, I'll try and work on "Killua's World" before starting on more "Redux".
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