Warnings: violence, language

AN: Back to Heero POV

Chapter 3

It was actually pretty common (more common than most vampires would be willing to admit) that the longer a vampire lived, the more likely they were to pick up a few odd… hobbies. My father was no exception to this. One of his most whispered about hobbies was what was referred to as his "human zoo". Now, that was a bit of a misnomer. My father didn't go around locking humans away in cages. It was more of a compound, such as a small self contained city, and the humans were able to enter and leave at will. There were actually quite a number of them scattered about the Earth Sphere, but the compounds weren't just for any human, they were only for the truly unique.

During my father's travels around Earth and the colonies tending to his royal duties, any time he came across a human who was particularly interesting or unusual, he would offer them living accommodations at one of his compounds. Not only that, but they would pretty much have their every wish provided to them. The only requirement was that they would occasionally have to visit my father at his leisure to discuss any projects, activities, or plans they had been working on, or give a display of whatever physical feat they had done to catch my father's eye.

For the most part, I had simply ignored the existence of any of my father's more eccentric hobbies, but I found myself now being quite thankful for this particular one. I remembered my father being rather enamoured with this one particular human, who seemed to also be enamoured of the ability to use the royal coffers to fund any research or project he wanted to do. So now I found myself heading to one of my father's compounds located on the L1 colony to meet with the strange human who simply went by the name Doctor J.

The car dropped me off outside the nondescript house at the edge of what all the other human residents of L1 thought was simply a high class gated community. I had only been here once before, and the house looked as lived in as the last time, that being not at all.

I made my way through to the "basement" door and entered the discrete elevator. Most of the humans in my father's "collection" were happy enough with simple, normal houses and every expense paid, but Doctor J had wants just as unique as the man himself. He had requested a laboratory to be built to his specifications. He compromised on the above ground house when it was pointed out that a facility style structure would stand out and gain unnecessary attention when located in a gated community.

The elevator door opened with a light ding noise and I stepped out into the brightly lit, long metal hallway. I really hoped I could find the old man in what was considered the main lab because I had seen floorplans of this place when it was first being built and it was vast. I really had no idea how much of the sub-colony space was actually used, but I knew that it was a winding, maze-like structure, allowing for outside workers access to colony-specific pipes, wiring, and other structural things while not requiring access into the lab itself. I simply hoped the place hadn't been remodeled or had any additions since the time I saw the plans.

The door to what had been on my previous visit and hopefully still was the main lab slid open with a quiet whoosh sound and I stepped into the room. There were mechanical parts and papers scattered about the room on every available surface. Near the center of the room, I saw Doctor J, his back facing me, slightly hunched over as his attention was focused on whatever was on the table in front of him. I stepped farther into the room; the door shut with a slight snik noise, making Doctor J straighten and turn to face me.

"Ah, this must be it then. You're here to inform me that with your father's passing, my funding has been cut?" His metallic left arm, which was some sort of contraption that looked like it had been stolen straight from a child's arcade claw game, made a snapping motion.

"No. I'm here because I think you can help me."

~Years Later~

I sat in Wing's cockpit waiting on the sound signifying imminent atmosphere entry when I heard another noise. I glanced at the control panels, currently displaying data being rerouted from the external shuttle into Wing's computer, and saw that it was a proximity alarm.

I pressed a few keys and the visual display honed in on the craft. It appeared to be a human civilian shuttle. I readied my weapons systems. The Alliance wasn't much for subtlety and stealth, but I wanted to be ready in case the shuttle turned out not to be what it appeared. Also, it was an unfortunate fact, but I also wanted to be prepared in case the shuttle decided to take unwanted interest in my shuttle and needed to be taken care of.

The shuttle had yet to open a comm channel to ask why I was not on a registered flight plan, and I was just about to relax when I heard yet another proximity alarm. I glanced at the readout. I muttered a quiet "Damn it." It was a small Alliance carrier, probably carrying two to three mobile suits.

I disengaged the external shuttle, freeing Wing's flight mode. There was no more need for cover with the Alliance already onto me, and I needed the mobility if I was to face Alliance mobile suits. The carrier deployed a suit. I was surprised to note it was a Leo. Why engage in an aerial battle with a ground type mobile suit? I dodged the Leo's first shot, but I underestimated the enemy pilot. They responded with more speed than I anticipated and the second shot clipped the left side of Wing, causing the drive engine on that side to malfunction. The carrier deployed two more suits, Aries models this time, and I knew I would have to depend on firepower more than mobility to win this battle. I pushed the lever and initiated Wing's transformation from flight mode into mobile suit mode.

The Aries suits flew an intercept course and opened fire. I could feel the slight shudder through my Gundam at the impact of rockets and could hear them rain down bullets uselessly against Wing; the staccato sound muffled by my Gundam's exterior. I turned Wing to face the enemy suits, the controls far more unwieldy in suit mode than flight mode, and took aim with my buster rifle.

I pressed the button to fire. The thick yellow-orange beam shot out; electricity flicking into lightning around the blast. The beam engulfed both Aries suits at once. The firepower of the buster rifle was amazing. It was at that moment that I felt a wave of elation as the full realisation hit me. With the help of Wing, I could make a stand against Treize. I found myself laughing due to the anticipation but cut myself short; there was one more suit to deal with.

My weapons system locked onto the Leo and I fired a second shot, but once again the Leo pilot proved their skill with a swift dodge of the beam. The Leo then pulled a beam saber and charged me. I stopped the Leo's attack by gripping its wrist with Wing's hand, but realised too late that the move was a feint. The Leo suit locked around Wing, restricting movement.

I jerked the controls, hearing the straining gears fight against the resistance, but could not budge the Leo. There was nothing I could do at the moment. I would just have to wait and see if an opportunity arose.

A glance at the display and I saw that I was on course to crash in a body of water. I watched as the water loomed ever closer, and I braced myself. The impact was jarring. I was sure that if I had been a mere human I would have never survived. I fought the edges of unconsciousness, and checked the displays. I was in luck. The impact with the water had shook loose the Leo. I hit the hatch release button and undid my harness as water gushed in from the widening opening and swirled around me.

I swam through the hatch and surveyed my surroundings. I was mildly disoriented. I couldn't even tell which way was up; probably an unfortunate result of the harsh impact. Not being able to sense which way was up didn't stop me. Gravity was sure to pull my Gundam down, so I just swam in the opposing direction.

I could feel myself tire and my will began to slip. I sensed the fuzzy greyness of unconsciousness encroach again and was no longer able to fight it. My thoughts and senses faded to black as the disrupted sediment whirled in the eddies around me.

When I regained consciousness I found myself on a beach. I was not alone. I jerked away from the young human girl and tried to hide my face. I could not have my image reported to any authorities. I didn't want to warn Treize of my involvement too soon.

She seemed to be trying to calm me down, and I heard her mention calling an ambulance just before I heard the sirens of its arrival. There were too many potential witnesses. I had to get away.

I charged toward the EMTs and knocked them out of my way as I headed to the ambulance. I gripped the top of the ambulance as I jumped and shoved both legs through the ambulance side window. The driver seemed frozen in startlement and I wasted no time in shoving him out the opposing door. I gripped the steering wheel, shifted the ambulance into drive, and made my escape.

Doctor J was somewhat more familiar with human everyday life than I was and he had coached me on ways to blend in as a human of my apparent age. He informed me that I appeared to be a human in his young teens and that other humans of that age would be in schools. So I wasted no time in enrolling myself at a nearby boarding school to develop a cover.

The next morning I was introduced to a bevy of humans. They all were so young, barely more than children. I was momentarily worried if I would even be able to handle blending in with the rest of them. I took a seat and pretended to take notes on the following lecture.

It was during one of the between-class breaks that I was approached by a gaggle of girls. The one in the lead I recognised as being the girl from the previous evening. She handed me an envelope, saying it was an invitation to a birthday party.

Does she recognise me as the boy who washed ashore yesterday? Does she realise the significance? If she did she could be a liability.

But then again, if she knew who… what I was, would she do something as trivial as invite me to a birthday party?

I tore up the invitation. I had to focus on my mission. I had to focus on stopping Treize. The celebration of the anniversary of yet another human child coming into this world was not worth my time.

I had to prevent this girl from meddling further into my affairs though. If she became a liability I would have to end her existence. I figured threatening her with just such an occurrence would prevent her further involvement.

I walked closer to her, close enough that the rest of the girls would not overhear.

"I'll kill you."

I made just enough of a show at the beginning of equestrian class that no one would question my lack of attendance later before finding an unobserved section of the school and scaling the wall to break into a student's dorm room. I wanted to use an internet connection unaffiliated with myself just as an extra precaution, though I was sure they would not be able to trace me.

I used the computer I found in the room to first hack into the Alliance systems, searching for anything I could use. I had to stop the Alliance from getting their hands on Wing, even if I had to resort to destroying my Gundam. I found something that would fit the bill, and then went on to my next task, hacking the school systems.

Once I had all my records cleared as Paid, I turned off the computer and made sure everything was as it was when I arrived. I then left the room and made my way to the Alliance military port to obtain the torpedoes I had picked out just moments before.

After locating the torpedoes and getting them ready, I then planted bombs around the military port. Activating the bombs would cause chaos and keep the personnel busy, preventing them from interrupting me.

As I was programming the target into the torpedoes, I heard someone call my name. I turned to find the girl Relena once again being where she shouldn't be. I had thought my warning would have been enough, but it seems this human was lacking in the survival instincts department.

I didn't particularly want to kill the young naive human, but this had gone far enough. She was now getting in the way of what I needed to do. I drew my Beretta handgun and aimed it at her.

I was just about to pull the trigger when I heard a gunshot. Even with my reaction time, I was only able to dodge enough to get hit in the arm instead of some place more vital. The bullet stung far more than a bullet should, but that couldn't be. My attacker had to be a random Alliance that just happened upon the scene in the midst of the chaos and shot me, but that didn't explain the pain. It stung like silver. No Alliance would use silver bullets, would they?

I looked over at my attacker. That certainly wasn't any Alliance uniform. It almost resembled a priest habit. Shit. Could it be a hunter? That would just top off my bad luck. The Alliance detects my shuttle on entry, my Gundam gets sunk into the ocean, I have a meddlesome human following me, and a hunter shows up.

I reach for my handgun which I had dropped during the attack, only to get shot again. Though it was at this point that the human girl surprised me. She jumped between the hunter and I, blocking any further shots. Then she proceeded to wrap my injuries to try to stop the bleeding.

I was then surprised even further, Wing broke the surface of the water, being towed by another mobile suit. I didn't recognise the suit with Wing, but at this point it didn't matter; I couldn't let Wing fall into any enemy hands no matter who they were.

I leapt onto the readied torpedoes. The hunter started to fire upon me again. I slammed my fist into the startup key for the torpedoes and let them fly. I saw them arc towards Wing as I fell through the air behind them. I could feel the blood loss hitting me hard. I should have fed while at the boarding school before this mission, but I had incorrectly assumed this would be an easy task. I heard the impact of the torpedoes as I once again fell into the realm of the unconscious.

I awoke to find myself restrained. A discrete glance around and I could tell I was in the Alliance No. 3 Medical Facility. I couldn't decide what was worse, that I had been captured by the Alliance or that I was in a human hospital.

The existence of vampires was still a staunchly kept secret, and something that under medical evaluation could be discovered. It wasn't often for vampires to end up in the hospital but still many hospitals had one or two vampires on staff secretly to help make unfortunate records "disappear" in the case of a vampire requiring hospital stay. I only hoped there was one here, because I'd have my hands full with simply trying to escape and wouldn't be able to deal with my own records.

I pulled on the restraints with all my strength. The restraints were strong but I was pretty sure I would be able to break them if needed, but then I would still be in a locked and monitored room. I was starting to worry I wouldn't be able to get free when there was a change on one of the nearby monitors. It was the hunter! Did he come here to finish the job?

He was talking into the monitor to allow me to read his lips. I ignored most of his babble until I caught him say he'd help break me out. He came to help me? Why would a hunter help a vampire? Maybe he wasn't a hunter? But then, why would he use silver bullets? Silver bullets certainly weren't standard equipment. Whether he was a hunter or not, if he was set on helping me escape, he seemed to be my only option.

I didn't have to wait long before the wall next to me exploded inward; the maybe-hunter being revealed as the dust settled. I jerked my wrist free from the restraint as he ran over. I had the maybe-hunter give me his knife to remove the rest of the restraints and we quickly left the way he entered.

I was following him through the hallways, assuming that since he got in, he knew the way out, but as we neared a junction in the hallway, instead of making a turn, I saw him make a movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to see what he was doing, I saw him toss a grenade at the wall in front of us. I dove to the ground right alongside him, then quickly back up and running as soon as the explosion happened.

I ran to the opening and jumped out. I was astonished to see the maybe-hunter do the same. We were at least 50 storeys up. What was he doing? Humans can't survive a jump that high. The maybe-hunter held up a stick that turned out to be some electric helicopter type contraption to slow his fall. It wasn't until I registered the humans calling me that I remembered I needed to at least attempt to break my fall. Couldn't let them see I could handle a 50 storey fall, no problem.

The landing was a bit rough but nothing I couldn't handle. The maybe-hunter slowly descended beside me. I didn't know if I could trust him, but he did help me out. I decided to continue following him when a boat came by to pick him up.

We ended up on a salvage vessel. The crew bustled about, some greeting the maybe-hunter as he passed, but seemed to simply ignore my presence. I learned that the maybe-hunter went by the name Duo, and as I observed him I was more and more sure that he wasn't a hunter. I started to think he wasn't even aware I was a vampire, but the more sure I became, the more confused I became by the silver bullets.

I heard a crewman yell, "We've located it!" Duo became excited at this proclamation and yelled back that he would man the winch. It wasn't too much longer before a suit was brought up. It was the same suit I had seen with Wing before. As I got a closer look at it, I could tell that it greatly resembled mine. That and the fact that it had survived the torpedo blast from before made me sure that this suit was a Gundam as well. I eyed Duo. What was he doing with a Gundam? The man just grew more and more confusing.

After unhooking the black suit, the winch cables were lowered once again. I took that time to actually look at Duo. I had been so distracted earlier in trying to decide if he was a hunter and going to attempt to kill me or not I hadn't really looked at the man himself. He wore an outfit that was all black except for a white undershirt that folded up at the sleeves and peaked through at his collar, greatly resembling a priest's collar. He had a thin, lithe figure, and a very striking braid of chestnut hair that reached down to mid-thigh. From my angle, I could just barely make out his eyes. They were an unusual violet color that was currently sparkling with enthusiasm as he focused on his current task.

I heard a splashing noise and looked over to see what was being hoisted out of the water now. I watched as rivulets of water cascaded off Wing as she was slowly being raised from the ocean.

Duo offered to have the ship's engineers repair Wing along with his suit but I didn't feel comfortable letting people I was unfamiliar with near my Gundam. I opened the mechanic's panel, bringing out the diagnostic tool and started a scan. Reviewing the results showed that the repairs needed weren't too bad, but I would require a few replacement parts. I started to work on repairing what I could.

A few hours into my repairs I heard a noise from the cockpit. I jogged over and jumped into the pilot's seat, quickly bringing up the display. I had a mission. Wing wasn't even repaired yet, how was I suppose to pull off a mission? An image of the black mobile suit flash through my mind and I suddenly had a plan.

I worked late into the night. The engineers working on Duo's suit slowly retired one by one to their rooms leaving only Duo and I remaining. I kept waiting on him to leave for the night as well but the longer I waited, the less that seemed likely.

Eventually I noticed a general lack of sound coming from the other side of the hangar. I quietly made my way over. I found Duo face-planted next to an open plating of his Gundam, obviously fallen asleep mid-repair. I quietly got to work taking the parts I'd need to repair Wing from his mobile suit. I hoped he wouldn't wake until I was done.

I could feel that it was a few hours before dawn by the time I finished repairing Wing. I was just about to hop in and head for my mission when I paused. I glanced back in the direction that I knew Duo was in, even though he was hidden by the black mobile suit at this angle.

I slowly made my way over to his side of the hangar once again, and worked my way around to where he was. I watched him, half cross-legged sitting and half slumped forward against the mobile suit. His breathing was the slow, steady breaths of deep sleep. He had slightly drooled against the Gundanium plating.

I inched closer. Paying close attention to his breathing or any other signs of him waking. I sat behind him and slowly slid one hand between him and the Gundam. I manoeuvered him to leaning against me. I tilted his head to the side, and pushed down the priest-like collar, revealing a smooth expanse of creamy skin. I leaned forward and as gently as I could, sank my fangs into that tantalising skin.

I reveled in the sweet warmth I drank from Duo. It seemed vaguely familiar, but I eventually gave up trying to place why. I had to focus more on restraint. It had been far too long since I had last fed, and with losing blood on top of that, it was difficult to not be greedy, but I managed. Duo would awaken lightheaded and feeling weak, but I had avoided drinking until his death.

I licked the small puncture wounds to trigger the accelerated healing. At this point Duo would be too out of it, so I had no fear of awakening him. I moved myself into a crouch, looped one arm under his legs, and lifted him up. He was lighter than I expected, even considering the lithe form. I carried Duo over to a clear, flat surface and laid him down. I then rushed over to Wing's cockpit and dug out the blanket from my emergency supply, bringing it back to where I had laid Duo to rest. I draped the blanket over him, pulling it up to his chin. It wouldn't be as comfortable as a bed by far, but would certainly be an improvement over his half hunched against a Gundam sleep from before.

I then made my way over to Wing and started my pre-flight checks. I had a mission to perform.

-x-

-Author's Note-

And thus, here is the next installment of this horribly clichéd tripe. Hope you love my guilty pleasure as much as I do. :3

I don't know handguns in the slightest. I actually did a bit of a Google search and compared pictures and kinda guessed on a manufacturer based on similarities. I don't know if Heero's gun even is a real model in the first place, but if I got it wrong, please tell me. (As a sidenote, I think Duo's gun is a Browning.)

Timeline: Episodes 1-4