Chapter 86: Counterstrike

Duo was washing up in a sink, a clean shirt hanging on a towel rack beside him, when Quatre walked in and stared at him through the bathroom mirror.

"You're ready for this?"

Their eyes met in the reflection.

"Yeah."

"It's okay not to be."

Duo frowned and turned off the sink. He angrily shook water from his hands before reaching for a rough towel, his eyes never leaving Quatre's.

"You all don't have to treat me like I'm fragile and about to break. I'm a professional, you know."

"We're worried."

"The plan is good. As solid as we can make it."

"Not about the plan, Duo. About you."

His gaze turned into a glare as he tossed the towel aside and grabbed the shirt. He wasn't changing his bloodied undershirt, but Quatre didn't say anything about that as he watched his friend deftly work snap buttons on the black garment. Each click made him more uneasy. Something seemed off about Duo.

"I'm fine, Quat. Let it go."

"There's no way that can be true."

"Wufei accepts I'm fine."

"If he does, he's a fool."

Duo turned and wordlessly walked past him, purposefully knocking into his shoulder in a sign of aggression. But the blonde man grabbed his arm and stopped his progress. His grip was tighter than it needed to be, but he wanted to make sure Duo would have to struggle if he tried to escape.

"I'm worried. Milliardo is obviously worried or he wouldn't be here. Une must be worried if she told him, knowing he'd come to L2. Wufei is worried, only he's better at hiding it. Just promise me you won't do anything stupid."

Heat was building between Quatre's hand and the skin on Duo's arm. Tension was high. Higher than it's been in a long time between them, at least in private when they didn't need to keep pretending to hate each other. Part of him wanted to let Duo go, aware that confining him would only irritate him further. Instead, he stood his ground.

There was anger in Duo's voice when it dropped low and he growled "Define stupid."

"Don't put yourself in needless danger. I don't want to have to explain to Heero why you aren't there when he wakes up. I don't want to lose any one of us Gundam pilots. Not to death, and not to pain. We need you, do you understand? We were never the same while you were gone. We came together as friends, we got close, because everyone with half a brain missed you so much they tried their best to fill that void you left. Even the idiot who thought you leaving was a relief understood that when you're missing the group doesn't work like it ought to. So promise me."

Without turning to face him, Duo responded "Promise." Quatre slowly released his grip, then watched as his friend stalked away, heading back to where the others were getting ready to head out. Reminding himself that Duo didn't lie was the only comfort he had. If he made a promise, he'd do his best to fulfill it.

Erik, Duo's contact, made quick work of finding where Chevalier tended to hole up. People were furious with the attack on the community center and the murder of a child, and that loosened lips which would've otherwise remained sealed. Duo was right when he said the strike was the biggest mistake of Chevalier's life. As a direct result of the attack, folks in the neighborhood finally opened up about the oldest rumors surrounding the man.

They were done falling in line.

In his call to Duo, Erik conveyed all he learned. Chevalier kept a base of operations in an abandoned factory off 33rd and Giroux Streets. The neighborhood was slated for a revival several times, but his presence scared away investors. Even the locals who stayed kept clear of him. They said he wasn't typically violent, but he had an aura of bad news. The less they crossed paths, the better. But that didn't mean they ignored him, and it didn't prevent them from keeping low key tabs on him and the gossip surrounding him.

The man was from L2, but not from poverty like Duo initially thought. That was one of many stories he circulated about himself that became "truth" over time. But those oldest, quietest rumors told another story. Instead, he was from an upper-middle class family. That background implied he wasn't severely impacted by the plague, and he certainly didn't live a childhood filled with a struggle to survive, though that didn't mean his upbringing was problem free. One rumor, from years ago that never quite got silenced but was taboo to speak of, suggested he rebelled against his parents by "slumming it." No one could confirm that, but rumor had it anyone who openly spoke of that was disappeared, or had their home destroyed. That story would explain how Duo's investigation into the man pointed to him being a product of the streets. He wanted people to think he grew up a street rat.

All they did know, the only consistent rumor, was that he lost his family in the war. Depending on who you asked, he then turned their money, or his own, into his first business selling contraband during one of the many embargoes against L2. Getting into the black market took him progressively further into criminality.

But the journey from criminal into murderer was obscured in too many farfetched rumors to make sense of them. After all, one of the best ways to hide your identity would be to confuse everyone with dozens of origin stories, and Chevalier did exactly that. The tame rumors were silenced over the years, and fear meant no one dared spread them further. As a result, the prevailing rumors were focused on how dangerous a man he was. Duo suspected he used an old and frowned upon trick from the streets, something unforgivable, and took credit for other people's crimes. Solo always told him never to boast about someone else's actions. It was a code to live by. But Chevalier didn't grow up like him, and probably didn't follow the code. If he'd been curating rumors about himself, he probably took credit where it wasn't due in order to build his image. It made him more of a boogeyman than anything real, and that was how he managed to stay in operation as long as he did.

Not that Duo planned to let him stay in operation very long.

As they all geared up, Duo reached a hand to touch the light scar on his forehead that Zechs spoke of earlier. The strong scent of commercial grade soap flooded his senses, courtesy of Preventers budget and suppliers, and he quickly pulled his hand down. He looked at his friends, two looking tired and one looking ready to go. For whatever reason, that worried him. He pulled Zechs aside and spoke quietly with him.

"Listen, man. You're here as a sniper only, okay? If your position is compromised you do not change positions, you do not stay and defend. You get the fuck out."

"Duo—"

"I'm not letting your kids grow up without you."

Zechs shot him a crooked smile.

"You know I'm still a Preventer, yes?"

"What you do on your own time, what you and Noin agree to, is your choice. But when you're with me you follow my lead. Your first priority is going home to those kids. Got it?"

"Sure. I got it. As long as you get home to Heero."

Duo frowned.

"Why the fuck is everyone telling me that? Do you think I have a death wish or something?"

In an effort to lighten the mood, Zechs gave him a small shove to his shoulder.

"No. But you have a history of full of heroics that happened in a time when none of us really knew what you were up to, even me... aside from that mission together. It's normal for them to be scared that you'll prioritize the mission over your own safety."

"But I'm here and that means I came back every damn time!"

"People fear what they don't know and don't understand."

Those words drew Duo's eyes to meet his friend's. It was hard to ignore him when his vivid eyes were so intense. Sometimes Duo forgot how beautiful they were. Heero's eyes were a deep blue, an ocean you could lose yourself in and never find perch to escape from. Zech's often looked like shallow, clear turquoise water. They were the opposite of Heero's, and in moments when those eyes distracted him, Zechs always got to finish whatever he wanted to say.

"Until you really talk to them about what you did those long years you were gone, they'll always fall back into their imaginations. And they'll assume the worst, because I'm certain what little they know thus far hasn't been reassuring. Moreover, you haven't had the best track record of coming out of things injury free since you've been back in their lives." Duo began to frown, but Zechs continued. "Yes, you had many missions they didn't know about and didn't ask about, but the ones involving your friends haven't really gone your way. For now you need to accept that other people are going to worry about you, and you need to understand it's not a bad thing."

Momentarily, Duo wondered what he could possible say just to be a contrarian.

He settled for "okay."

When they arrived on scene it became apparent that Erik's information was good, and the fear Chevalier struck into the community no longer outweighed their anger.

Zechs parted ways with the others a few blocks out. The buildings surrounding Chevalier's base of operations were empty and abandoned outside of a few squatters who lurked in the shadows. Duo assured him anyone squatting in this neighborhood was desperate, not dangerous. He knew better than to second guess Duo on matters like this. Their vastly different upbringings gave one of them the advantage here, and it wasn't him. He kept his alert up, but ignored the few people he passed as he climbed several flights of stairs to position himself with his rifle.

Most of the windows were broken and knocked out long ago, and that meant a variety of locations to choose from. He settled on the 5th floor, which would give him a solid vantage point to track the others. At that distance he could easily track higher floors and all the way up to the roof as well. He held a hand up to his earpiece and flipped the mic from push to speak into voice activated. He'd need both hands for his task.

"Ready and in place."

"Roger that. What do you see?"

"Same as expected, Chang. I count nine, there might be more. Looks like they're largely relaxed in one area on the second floor. Six are playing cards, two are on their phones. Another looks to be sitting and chatting with them. Once you enter, the closest stairs are nearly immediately to your 9:00."

"Is Chevalier there?"

Zechs frowned. He wasn't sure if Duo's single-minded focus was a good or bad thing.

"I could be wrong, but based on his booking photo, I think he's the one chatting with the others. But it's definitely a decommissioned mobile suit factory from the war that they're using. Large open spaces with plenty of catwalks and landings. I'm betting it was originally made to build or repair Leos."

"What do these guys need such a large place for?"

"You've never been in a gang, have you, Wufei?" Duo's tone conveyed experience, and Zechs couldn't help grinning to himself. "The larger the place, the more impressed other gangs and the public are, and the more escape routes and hiding places you got."

"You really think that's their angle?"

"If they're classic L2 hoodlums, or posing as them, yeah. Whole lotta show. Not always a lotta bite."

"They bit pretty hard before."

Everyone was quiet at Quatre's words, and Zechs began to worry that comment was a careless mistake, one that would cost them Duo's confidence. But the former Deathscythe pilot didn't allow the silence last terribly long.

"The last time they were prepared to die in order to wound or kill one of you. Chevalier told me I paid for Heero's execution. That he used the ransom to compensate a suicide mission."

Wufei told Zechs about the men who admitted to being offered bonuses if they killed a Preventer's agent, and the idea that Duo's money would be used to pay for those bonuses horrified both of them. When he heard Quatre's response, he realized Wufei must not have clued him in. He was hearing about those incentives from Duo for the first time.

"Oh god! You can't believe—"

"He's proven himself a liar. I don't know what to believe, other than that this man likes things to be theatrical. Everything from his actions down to his threats is designed for theatrics, to force others to yield before they even strike. He did that on Earth when he confronted me, he did that here when we got to L2."

"Then are you sure we want to use my plan? The last time—"

"Shut it, Quatre!"

Duo sounded pissed. His anger pleased Zechs, because it indicated his focus.

"Your plan isn't to blame for the outcome. It's not your fault Heero was shot. And if it's anyone's fault Bastien was killed, it's mine."

Worry hit him as hard as Heero did back at the hospital on Earth. They couldn't afford for Duo to start blaming himself right as their operation was set to begin. Then, in a lower voice weighted with emotion Zechs assumed came from some sort of interaction he wasn't present for, Duo added words to ease his heart.

"Wasn't it you who told me no one could've predicted how things turned out? Plans can't always predict what a person will do, especially one who is unstable. You can't always have a perfect outcome. You can only do your best to have a good one."

Silence consumed the line until Quatre responded.

"Yeah."

Then, with more conviction, he heard Quatre assure himself as much as anyone else.

"You're right. Let's do this."

Their plan wasn't entirely dissimilar to the one used to extract the kids. Zechs would cover them from his perch with the sniper rifle. Wufei would take lead and head into the building with Quatre and Duo following. It was unspoken between the three of them that Duo needed to be last on the scene. They weren't sure how he might react, and he would likely have better control in a position to cover his friends. Their intent was to capture everyone inside with a surprise raid.

News about the attack was spreading rapidly, and even the L2 authorities couldn't let the perpetrators off the hook with a bribe. Someone had to go down. Preventers had no jurisdiction, but they could gift wrap Chevalier's lackeys. For the man himself, they could capture him and go through the process of extradition. He did, after all, violate his release agreement and was still awaiting trial back on Earth for both solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder. Whether those charges would stick more than kidnapping and murder on L2, no one was certain, but taking chances with local authorities wasn't high on their list of things to do.

From his vantage point, Zechs was their eye in the sky.

"First floor entry seems clear. I'll let you know if they are alerted to your presence." He watched the others use hand signals he didn't know from Preventers, but he'd learned from Duo in the field. The Gundam pilots all seemed more comfortable working together using their wartime signals than Preventers standard, and he couldn't blame them when they were the only members of their team. He found it annoying when Duo insisted on teaching those signals to him, but he belatedly realized it was a way of welcoming him into their fold, like teaching him a secret handshake.

As soon as they were inside the building, he saw one of the men on the second floor turn his head and lean back in his chair to look somewhere outside of Zech's line of vision. A second later, the man looked suddenly alert, and after that the others all perked up. They must have a security system.

"They know you're here."

"Roger."

"Most seem unarmed. A few are scrambling for weapons. The one who looks like Chevalier is on the run."

"Where's he going?"

Duo, of course, had a singular focus.

"Up another flight of stairs. Opposite side of the building."

"Track him."

He didn't want to track Chevalier, he wanted to cover his friends. A man fleeing was less dangerous than a man arming himself to stay. Zechs reminded himself to trust Duo. Still... he could do more than one task at a time. He chose to disobey the order and focus on the men about to be confronted by their team.

Only one of the armed men had his gun at the ready, pointing towards the staircase Wufei, Quatre, and Duo were climbing to the second floor. Zechs took a non-lethal shot, and the man dropped to the ground. He shot a second armed man as Quatre and Wufei entered the floor, guns drawn. The last armed man simply surrendered, dropping his gun and raising his hands into the air. Zeches watched closely as Quatre trained his weapon on them, barking orders with an intensity that surly struck fear. He listened to Quatre keep them in place with the threat of further violence as Wufei began to cuff and tie them to the railings overlooking one of the large open spaces that once housed Leos. The two of them were efficiently subduing the remaining men.

The two of them.

Where was Duo?

Zechs felt a sense of urgency come over him as he asked "Who has eyes on Duo?"

Two voices came on the line each wondering why he didn't have eyes on their final party member. Wufei cursed but had to secure the last of the men with Quatre before leaving them under his control. Then he took off, taking the stairs Chevalier originally ran up and demanding Duo respond on their line. No response came.

In the precious half minute before Wufei was on the move again, Zechs repositioned his scope upward scanned the third floor. Each empty room made his stomach clench a little more. There was no way Duo should be going after anyone on his own. Not in his mental state. He was capable, and professional, but he was surely hurting in ways no one was able to fully calculate or predict. He wasn't sure when the last time he felt such a strong underlying dread was, but he felt it as he searched for Duo in the factory, acutely aware that not every room was visible to him.

"Chang, I can't see any of the rooms to your 3:00. The rest of your floor is clear, I'm checking the 4th now."

A long minute later he spoke again.

"Four is clear, you can skip directly to five when done on 3."

It was on the 5th that Zechs spotted both Duo and Chevalier.

"Fifth floor! Approach with caution, Chang. Chevalier just turned and trained his gun on Duo. He looks incredibly angry, if you startle him—"

"Got it!"

Wufei was whispering back, and that meant he understood the message. He would approach with as much stealth as possible.

Duo and Chevalier's weapons were drawn, and they were facing each other at point blank range. When he heard voices in his earpiece, he knew Duo hadn't turned off his mic. He'd only switched to one-way audio. This was something he'd done in the past, when he claimed other people's voices were distracting him. Zechs realized he just didn't want to hear his friends try to talk him out of whatever he felt he needed to do. The conversation between them seemed aimless until it wasn't. Everyone was listening.

He heard Quatre's gasp in his ear. He heard Wufei's breathing, barely audible from his run up the stairs.

Then he got angry.

Why wasn't Duo taking the shot? He had his gun trained on the man, too. Zechs homed in on the Chevalier's hand, looking for signs of a nervous trigger finger. He hoped they'd stay within view and not move locations where he couldn't see them. He'd feel utterly useless if he couldn't even provide cover fire.

As if on cue, Chevalier began to move, and his shot was gone. Instantly he picked up his gear and ran to his left. The angle he had on them was now unusable. As he ran for a better vantage point he continued to listen, hoping not to hear any gunshots before he could find another perch.

He confirmed his next position was good and dropped into place, steadying his bipod assembly on the sill of a broken window. After a second or two he found them once more. The new angle was good. He could clearly see and hear the two men talking. As much as he wanted not to interrupt, he spoke over them.

"If it looks like Duo's in over his head, I'm taking a shot."

Quatre chimed in.

"We're counting on you."

Zechs didn't reply, instead he focused on Duo's confrontation. With each passing second Chevalier looked more unraveled, but it was his words that were concerning. The agony of hearing them speak, while knowing nothing he or his comrades said to Duo would be heard, was visceral. He wanted to warn Duo that he was ready to shoot. He wanted to tell him to either stay still or lean a little to his right for an even clearer shot. He wanted to remind Duo of his promise not to do anything too reckless. Instead, as Wufei made his approach, getting closer while maintaining cover, they all listened intently as Duo grew frustrated at Chevalier's words.

Then, before Wufei could make it across the building, something changed in Chevalier's demeanor and tone. Zechs saw it clear as day. It was a look he recognized; one he saw more often than anyone ought to. A steadying of his stance and hands.

Chevalier intended to kill Duo. And he was imminently going to pull the trigger.

Ignoring the group of men on the second floor entirely, Duo ran straight up the stairs and trusted Quatre and Wufei to take care of the men there. Eight against two wasn't bad odds for two ex Gundam pilots with a sniper on their side. He didn't think twice about the shots when they came, his trust in his friends was absolute. By the sound of it, the distance, the echo, and the pitch told him those shots were from Zechs.

He visually scanned the third floor before taking a gamble and heading directly to the fifth. Most factories built to construct or repair Leos has similar layouts, and he infiltrated enough in the war to know that the third floor was largely comprised of simple catwalks for repair access and several rooms along one edge used as offices. The 4th floor usually was open with no cover. Leos, because of their size, didn't have as much critical access at that height. The third floor was for mechanics and planning, and the 4th was a mix of catwalks and observation decks. If Chevalier was looking to run, the 5th floor, in his experience, tended to have access to an auxiliary building via a skyway.

He could flee through the secondary building and make his escape. Duo wouldn't let that happen.

Running quickly over suspended metal floors wasn't as quiet as he usually moved, but he still managed to keep light footed enough to go unnoticed by his mark until they were nearly upon each other. His weapon was already trained on Chevalier when the man turned to him, gun drawn. They stared one another down until Duo ran out of patience.

"What the fuck is your deal, Laron?"

Those pale blues bore into him, and Duo thought they looked like a wolf, or a husky.

"You're back to first names?"

"Well you did murder a child in front of me, so I'm not particularly inclined to be polite."

Rage grew in those wolf-like eyes.

"Your kind are all the same."

Duo was taken aback.

"Are you kidding me? My kind? What kind is that, exactly?"

"The entitled."

His brain stopped. It full on stopped. The man in front of him, Laron Chevalier, who came from what on L2 was considered money, who grew up with a family, who never had to forage for food or water on the streets and didn't spend his childhood watching the people around him die, who didn't get pulled into fighting on the front lines of a war, let alone as a child, thought he was entitled?

He blinked.

"What?"

The man smirked, and Duo wanted to wipe it off his face.

"People like you never have consequences for your actions."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You already know."

He didn't. He absolutely didn't.

If anything, it was the man in front of him who was used to getting what he wanted. Chevalier brandished fear as a weapon, and through carefully cultivated fear he gained increased power. What consequences did he face for the chaos he sewed?

"What? No witty reply? You betray L2 and team up with Quatre Winner at the first opportunity and you have nothing to say?" His voice lowered into a growl. "How's that been treating you?"

"Why Quatre? What did Quatre ever do to you, or to this colony?"

The cracks in Chevalier's veneer were rapidly expanding. It was evident at the church that the man he met back on Earth was not what he seemed. And now, as he lost his cool and his patience, it was clear he was never the polite and calculating man he presented himself as. Instead, he was grasping at straws. The cool demeanor he exuded on Earth seemed to devolve into something much more primal on L2.

"My sights were set on Zayeed Winner! But when he was killed, I needed a new target."

Duo could feel his blood pressure rising. That was an old grudge, dating at least back to the war. But it was something to work with. "Zayeed Winner was a good man whose board of directors made terrible decisions behind his back."

"His company could have spared us on L2 from the plague!"

Bingo. He was getting somewhere. And Duo was not about to let up.

"He barely had anything to do with Winner Pharmaceuticals! His biggest crime was allowing his want to mediate between the Alliance and the colonies to distract him from the inner workings of companies he owned. It's short sighted and frankly stupid to blame him for our lack of supplies during the plague!"

"Are you saying you never blamed him?"

Duo flinched, recalling the hurtful accusations he leveled at Quatre many months ago. Back then he was angry and lashing out in an attempt to hurt someone, but now he was levelheaded. Now he was thinking clearly. Now he remembered how to look outside of himself and take into account a larger picture.

"I'm saying once I grew up enough to understand the world, I didn't blame him specifically, no. At least not when I was thinking clearly. He was at most complicit through ignorance. The man I've heard about from so many people over the years wouldn't have stood for our deaths if he knew what was happening. Every single person who knew him spoke of nothing but his kindness and his devotion to helping others. I'd bet my life that Zayeed Winner would have gone against his board of directors to bring medical aid to L2 if he'd any idea what was happening behind his back."

Chevalier shot him a disgusted look. "You've let his son distort your views."

"I'm just being reasonable! You're allowing anger, not reason, to distort yours!"

He watched Chevalier clench his jaw and tense up. It was obvious he'd hit a nerve. The man circled him like a predator seeking a weakness in his prey, and Duo remained on alert. They both kept their weapons trained on one another.

"After he died I thought I'd never get my revenge. But then I remembered who else ruined L2. Only I couldn't find him."

Duo didn't like his tonal shift. There was something unspoken there, and a voice in the back of his head told him he didn't want to know for sure who he was talking about. Still, it was now or never. And he couldn't let anything go unknown. Not after the destruction this man caused. Not after the children he displaced, injured, and killed. Not with Heero still lying in a hospital bed.

Against his instincts, he asked the only questions he could.

"Yeah? And who's that, hot shot?"

With a snarl Chevalier answered, "You!"

Duo stared him down, unamused. "I've only ever fought to help L2."

"You ruined everyone on this colony's lives!"

Instead of reacting, Duo eyed Chevalier critically. The man appeared to believe what he was saying and that brought back bad memories. Some of those memories he knew were accidentally caught up in the accusations. There was no chance he knew about how he stole a mobile suit from the Alliance, and how that lead to the attack on the Maxwell Church. No matter what Chevalier dug up on his past he doubted anyone alive knew about that aspect of the story. And if he thought his own actions were Duo's fault, if he was being blamed for what Chevalier himself did, that was ridiculous. He wondered if his man was a simpleton.

"What exactly did I do to ruin everyone's lives?"

"You already know."

He didn't. But if Chevalier wasn't going to elaborate under direct questioning, he'd take a more circuitous route.

"You don't want Quatre dead."

The man before him barked out a hollow laugh and bristled. Something in his eyes shifted. His gun was held just a hair steadier. Duo recognized that look in his eyes. He was a man ready to kill.

"I'm not an idiot. He was a small child when his father's company let the people of L2 die. He was only ever a target because his father was already gone and you were missing. Then I saw the local reports from Jalisco square, and your photo was there. You were just in the background but it was certainly you, and I knew you were still alive. But you disappeared again after that. Do you have any idea how divine it was when you were described to me as the one who thwarted the attempt on Quatre's life? I knew in that moment everything lead me to you. I didn't need your friend anymore."

A shot rang out, and Duo could feel the sticky warmth of blood on his skin just as he heard a gun drop. Chevalier was clutching his hand, mangled and bloody from a high powered round. Zechs, it seemed, acted. A new hatred filled those pale eyes as Chevalier stumbled backwards, smirked, and purposely careened over the railing behind him.

Duo moved on instinct, dropping his weapon and leaping forward to catch the man. Unfortunately, the only hand he could catch was the bloody appendage. Chevalier had no grip strength, and the pressure from Duo's hold on him seemed to be squeezing more blood from the wound, making it incredibly slick.

"Grab hold with your other hand!"

Their position was becoming painful. With the weight of a full grown man pulling at his arm, Duo could feel strain on his barely healed shoulder. His good arm was behind him, grabbing onto the railing in an attempt to keep himself from fully falling forward and plunging to the floor below along with Chevalier. He didn't have much perch otherwise, his feet were lifted from the ground.

"Why? You'll just kill me later."

"I'm not like you!"

"But you are a murderer."

He couldn't believe they were discussing this now, with both their lives on the line. Duo could vaguely hear Wufei in the near distance yelling something. His brain didn't process the words, only that the yells were getting even closer. But not fast enough.

"I was only a killer in the war."

"Don't make me laugh, you've killed since. You killed today. With or without the approval of authorities, a murderer is still a murderer."

No one could deny that, and Duo wasn't going to try. He did sometimes have to kill on missions. In the 13 years since the end of the war he'd killed many times. And he'd shot those men dead in the church after Bastien was killed without a thought.

"Why'd you do any of this? Why me? Why target the kids?"

"You know why."

"I don't!"

He felt Chevalier slip and tightened his hold. His shoulder was on fire and his muscles began to weaken. Blood was gushing where their hands met. Cold blue eyes remained fixed on him.

"Once a murderer, always a murderer."

Then, just Wufei reached for him, Chevalier was gone. The warmth of his hand in Duo's was replaced with cold air. He could feel the wetness of blood cooling on his skin even before he witnessed the man hit the concrete floor below. When his body impacted, the sound was sickening. That sort of bone breaking sound always took him back to Heero resetting his own leg. It nauseated him then and made his stomach clench even harder than it already did now.

Duo remained in his position, half suspended, as blood began to pool under the man he couldn't save. It felt like forever before those hands that were on him dragged him up until his feet were solidly on the floor and his torso was no longer fully bent over the railing. Wufei was urgently saying something, he just didn't know what. He was still holding the railing in a death grip when Wufei dragged him further from the edge. Eventually Duo raised a hand to rub at a growing headache and stopped. There was so much blood on it. He didn't want that blood on his face.

He idly pawed the bloody hand over his pants in an attempt to clean it off.

"Hey, Wufei?"

He still wasn't sure what his friend was saying, but the Chinese man did shut up.

"Let's get outta here."