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"Greeting Cards"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Yaoi, funeral practices, AU, fluff Pairings: 1+4, 1x2x1, 3+H, 5xH, 3x4, 6x9 Summary: Each chapter is based on Heero’s
greeting cards and Duo's mortuary. "Greeting Cards " Chapter 37 -- April Showers, Part 5 of 6 (o) Heero's POV Curiosity killed the cat, but it is what makes the scientist tick and adds creativity to the artist. With my friends stationed outside and in, I had a lot of time to myself, so I circled the entry chamber to the crypt, snooping. It was more of a cavern carved out of the rock than a room. In my multiple circumventions of the subterranean space, I had come upon no more than the original three passageways. Wufei had taken the upper, Duo the lower, so I took the one at the end which led deeper into the mountain. I knew where that one led; I'd played there before. A minute or so into the passage, my hand felt an opening to one side I didn't recall being there before. I was not certain if I had made a real discovery or if I had simply forgotten about it. Possibly I had made a real find after all and this was a recent entrance to the tomb. What I discovered was a room for storing clone test subjects that had died. I spent a long time examining the area, making certain there was no way out except for the way I had come in. I had never seen so many dead people before. Other than the sheer quantity of corpses in varying stages of decomposition, bagged and stacked in orderly rows, it was uninteresting. I was on my way out of that eerie side room to continue my explorations, when I got Duo's call. The good news: Duo had located Leia Barton's burial and collected the samples for later testing. I returned to the entry chamber, where I left a note directing Wufei and Duo to follow after me down the third passageway. After I left them a message, I dashed down the passage. If my memory was correct, I would enter another large chamber before continuing on in a tunnel, boring through the mountain to the underground laboratories. I should have waited for the others or not gone at all, but I was excited. It was just my curiosity. I wanted to see a room I'd once played in as a child. Were my drawings still on the walls? I was only a teenager when Keel had threatened to destroy everything I created. I took to hiding my drawing books behind shelves at the downtown library. Since he was here on Zodiac Island, I wanted to know if he'd found my wall art and destroyed that. I justified my actions; it would only take a few minutes to look then we could all leave. That was what I was thinking about, not paying proper attention to where I was going, when I heard the safety slide off a revolver and a brilliant flash of light blinded me. "Don't move or you're dead." The assassin stood in a flood of light, holding a lantern in one hand and a SIG handgun with factory installed Crimson Trace® for night shooting. My hand automatically twitched, going for my gun, but then I hesitated and dropped the hand to wipe my palm over the loose leg of my coveralls. No reason to make him think I was armed. Not yet. Oh, yes, I knew that voice and the gun, one of an arsenal I'd handled in the past. Whether he was a faster draw, a more accurate aim, or a more deadly killer than I, was a mute point. I was already in his sights. I needed time for my eyes to adjust to the light. My gun was in a deep pocket and would require eight seconds to retrieve and fire it-- ten if the walkie-talkie was in the way. I'd be dead before I touched cold metal. After all the precautions we'd taken, I should have had the gun more accessible than that. Idiot. I'd slipped it into a pocket without thinking, now would I pay for that error with my life? Sweat beaded under my clothes, in spite of the chilled air. I rarely sweated unless I was at the gym, because I handled stress extremely well and avoided unpleasant exertion. Love-making, for instance, was acceptable. Perspiration ran down my back, and I was feeling ill. He always made me sick to my stomach. As my eyes adjusted to the light, the darkness retreated to the corners, and the face of Ty Keel emerged-- the face to match the voice of my nightmares. The assassin examined me in a fixed stare. My skin sizzled where his abrasive stare swept me. Hot, cold—I ached. I tried to remain standing straight, but my shoulders wilted. I was lost! There would be no escape. No, those were dark fruitless thoughts, I reminded myself; the kinds Ty wanted me to have so he could control me. "You look like a bundle of uselessness," he said. I could feel his hands on me, counting ribs. Next, he would beat me into submission, unless I could get away. I wanted to fly away through the gaping hole widening overhead. Smell the sea air? Outside it was spring. I could fly to a meadow and look for wildflowers to paint. But, no! The darkness closed in on me again and the air turned stale. Fantasizing an illusionary escape wouldn't solve my problems. I pictured Duo's face and imagined him standing there with me. I channeled my lover and it helped. I drew courage from his cocksure strength. "Oh, well," I said with a shrug of indifference, "I shall have to choose someone else to write my obituary, if that is the best you have to say about me." It was, I admit, a weak attempt at humor, but only Duo could pull off "Duo" on command. "I shouldn't think you were concerned with obituaries- you are so young yet." With the gun pointed at my chest, he picked at my coveralls, and I had to fight the reflex to withdraw from his touch as he ran his free hand over my back, down my side, and over my ass to my thigh. "Is this the new fashion?" he asked. "Tacky, even for you." God, I wanted to break his arm in two. I would not let him abuse me again. "So, I am on trial?" I asked making sure my voice stayed firm. "Call it that, if it pleases you," he said. It seemed to me as if he were straining not to hit me. I hoped he permanently maimed what was left of his psyche with the effort. "I understand," I said. "In that case, I should tell the truth. What I am wearing is appropriate for entering cold, dirty caves." I was speaking to a cruel man, quick to anger, and arrogant. I didn't want to forget that, but I also didn't want to let it overwhelm me. He removed his hand to gesture at our surroundings, and I felt a weight lift like a suddenly disappearing headache, leaving me with the illusion of weightlessness. I was no longer a boy. I was a man with a lover who valued me. I was a successful artist. I was something that mattered now. "Caving?" he asked with a sneer. "When did caving become a pastime of yours, unless you're considering taking up cave painting again?" And, yes, I could make out a few of my paintings on the walls as my eyes acclimated further to the low light conditions. The colors had not faded in the dark, but moisture strains had muddled the lines. I had to smile at one of the affected pictures. One of the figures appeared to be jerking off when he had actually been depicted carrying a sword. "This is funny to you?" my antagonist asked. "Caving is no particular interest of mine. Friends of mine enjoy it, and if you draw the wrong deductions from that then it is your fault, not mine." Standing up to him felt good. My mind cleared. His moves became easier to read. I think he disliked my tone, because his eyes widened before the dark brows drew into a frown. As his face distorted into a supercilious smile, I prepared myself for a personal attack. "You should wear make-up. It's becoming on a young man of your sort. You're soft, pretty, and perfect for make-up. But not too much! You want to look vulnerable, but not prettier than the girls." That was weak. He was off his game, and I was reading him well. His attempts to screw with my head were not getting him the results he expected, was my guess, which made me wonder what exactly he would try next? He might just enjoy taunting me until I break down, but I was not going down easily. "I shall remember that," I said, then promptly forgot it, because I had no need to hide from him in a fantasy world anymore. Duo was in the real world, and I wanted to share my life with him. My thoughts moved elsewhere. I was concerned for the welfare of my friends and Duo especially. I had planned to be gone only a minute to investigate the last passage. Duo had secured his prize, so it was only a matter of collecting the rest of the group and leaving. I should have just waited for the others. We would have been on our way home by now. It had been a gamble and I had found my wall art. I also wanted to find the door connecting the crypt to an underground tunnel to the laboratory. It was just for curiosity's sake, but that was what killed the inquisitive cat. How many lives would have to be sacrificed to satisfy my overactive curiosity? My friends had only the one life to lose and they were not cats, or sacrificial lambs, or laboratory rats—not anymore. I had, however, determined that the passageway still did lead to the lab, because that was how Keel reached this point. Unfortunately, he intended to drill me for information, and more, probably--but I would never, ever let him have sex with me again. How long had we stood here playing a game of wits? It seemed like hours. My keen sense of time did not operate in the absence of data. No sun, no twilight, no comfortable routine. Next I guessed he would talk like we were old chums. Ty's voice broke through my revere. "I'm glad you sought me out in private." He laughed without substance. He meant nothing he said. "In any case, a little praise for delivering Barton is due you." "Ah, thanks." I swallowed back the words I wanted to say. "But I'm more than a little concerned that you chose to bring your little Preventers agent friends here. I'd been told you were going to the beach." So, Une had passed on that misinformation. That had been part of our cover story. The question was: did Une know who Ty Keel was, or had the information trickled down to him? The man was waiting, fingers drumming on the lantern in one hand, impatient as always. "Change of plans." I said. I was grasping at straws and not confident I could diffuse the situation with witty repartee. "Can we move on to business then?" Ty was not asking, he was informing me of his intention to move onto unpleasant subjects. I guess it had been Duo's influence on me, but I chose to reply with heavy, and undisguised, sarcasm. I lifted one foot and set it down in place as if I couldn't move. "Apparently not." His hand came out of nowhere, and the hard slap to my face stunned me. Stars exploded in my vision. I nearly lost consciousness. "Don't toy with me like one of your idiotic friends, and do not lie to me. Why are you here? Why did you bring them to this particular place?" He could feel the imprint of Ty's hand on my cheek, stinging, the blood rising to the surface. It worked to concentrate my mental faculties on the problem at hand. I blinked away tears and looked directly at my "ex", eyes still watering, and asked, "Just to satisfy my curiosity, why are you covering for Treize Khushrenada's mistakes?" He did not evade my question or pretend a misconstruction, even if he did not know which mistake I was interested in. Still, he asked, "Why? Because it is no business of anyone's, and the information can disturb lives best left at rest." "It is Trowa's business," I countered, "and I'm making it mine." Ty looked away to set the lantern on the rock floor and lowered his gun slightly. Opportunity! I jammed my hands in my pockets, hoping to find a tool or weapon. Wrong pocket! I had to get a grip on myself. I couldn't let that man rattle me so much! I thought of Duo conducting autopsies day after day, always the calm professional. He kept his focus on the important duty he had to perform to society and his customer. I could do the same. "I suppose I could tell you everything before you die, if you are interested?" Keel's voice had changed, softening, but still edged with dangerous cunning. I knew all his tricks, but almost missed this one. It happened so fast, I nearly let the words pass by without comment as I located the communication device and a loose battery. No wonder it had stopped working; one of the batteries had fallen out! I worked the back cover off and turned slightly in order to hide my activity, but my eyes never left his. I had to keep him engaged on my face and not my hands. "Yes, I'd like to know," I said. "It's complicated but not a long story. Love affairs can be so messy." My fumbling knocked the second battery loose. I nearly cried out in anger, but smacked that down to ask, "You mean Treize and Leia Barton? I don't recall ever meeting her, did you?" "Possibly as a child. He however has lived for a very long time, keeping his youthful appearance. He knows the secret to long life." I nodded, understanding, and pushed one battery back in place. I hoped it was in right and not backwards. The number of possible combinations... I had no time to try them all. One down, seven more combinations to go... "Right." I stuffed the second battery in and pressed the open-the-line button. No signal. Bad luck. "I have seen a few of his less than successful results." "Not pretty, I agree. It would have saved so much time and trouble had I received the complete treatment, but that's not how it happened. You see, what you don't know, what I discovered secretly, and has not been told to anyone but you, now, was that Lady Une also had a fling with Treize." "No." I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming in frustration. The battery slipped and I got it back, turning the sweat-slicked battery around until I was pretty sure it was in the opposite position it had been before, and pushed it into the slot. The springs held as I pressed the button to open the line. For joy, it worked! I hoped Duo would pick up the call and hear this. "Ha! My feelings exactly. Treize really loved that Barton woman best, you know, but she betrayed him. Women always do. She was transferring evidence of the lab work to that traitor, Dekim Barton, and his White Fang organization of turncoats." "So, Khushrenada murdered the woman he loved?" I asked. "Not directly. He sent Odin Lowe to do that, but not before she managed to get a letter to Zechs. She also told the boy, er... Triton Bloom, everything. At least, Treize thought so." "He was so scared that she had told Tr-Triton the family secrets, he tried to kill him?" I wanted to pump him for as much incriminating information as I could, before he killed me, or tried to. "Father flubbed that, didn't he? Got soft on the boy. But he lost his memory and that was all the counted." I was not about to tell him how much Trowa had regained, but it was tempting just to rub his nose in his craptastic failings. I grinned inwardly and silently thanked my lover for his colorful vocabulary infecting mine. "You have done your share of killing lately," I said. "Noventa..." I thought I might test another theory and added, "Mariemaia." He snapped to attention. "Not her! Noventa murdered her after seeing her with that Triton boy. He claimed Triton knew everything and told her about it, but I know that wasn't true. I knew it then!" "You cared about the girl then? She was carrying your child when she died." He had not known that, apparently. "What do you mean?" he snarled. "How would you know a thing like that?" The man lost his temper and blew up, waving the gun wildly in my direction. I kept my eye on the thumb on the safety again. Should it move... I had to calm him down. "She was autopsied. Read the police report if you don't believe me." His agonized expression told me he might even have loved her, but like all twisted minds, his took one pain and turned it in on itself to make another for somebody else. "Maxwell's Mortuary, of course. And I'll bet your lover got his rocks off discovering that! Just one more reason to kill him. He takes you from me, mutilates my... young girls' bodies..." His voice trailed off with his thoughts. I readied myself for a new topic. "Maxwell should have been dumped from the program! Keep the street trash out of the gene pool... Revenge will be sweet." Oh, fuck! I did not want him putting "Duo" and "revenge" into the same sentence. I wanted him to tell me everything he knew about the lab work. "Were you part of this program?" I asked. Short-cropped hair, square jaw, the flinty grey eyes of an assassin drilled into me, but did not hold my eyes. He looked at my hands, chest chin, swept the cavern. "I was dropped in favor of you." His face screwed up into a nasty smirk. "You were the perfect specimen." Hardly. "Me? Superior to Ty Keel? Who ever thought that?" I asked. "The doctors of OZ, of course! Doctor J, he was excessively proud of your abilities. Odin fell for that crazy man's assertions and took you in, trained you. I had a momentary flash of mechanical-looking goggles and a cybernetic right arm on a man urging me to "choose your own fate." "The doctors," he practically spat the word, "selected prime meat, pumped it full of chemicals, and removed samples to grow even more perfect soldiers that would live forever." He dove close to me, his breath sour in my face. "Then the doctors chucked out the garbage. And here, it all comes back? Vacationing? More like a sewer backup!" I pretended to ponder the situation while listening carefully for signs that my friends were on their way. (o) Quatre POV I took the walkie-talkie from Duo's back pocket. I could hear it crackling. "Who could be calling?" I held it up to my ear to hear better over the din. "I'm getting some static," I said. "It's Heero! Now I hear him. He's with someone, I think." I stood stock-still, not wanting to miss a word of what the stranger was saying. I felt the blood drain from my face. "Where is he?" Duo demanded. "In there, right?" He pointed into the dark passage with his long knife. "I guess. He's not talking to me. He's with someone and it sounds... like he's in danger!" Duo took off. "That's good enough for me." Wufei, stone-faced, pushed Hilde, me, and Trowa ahead of him, intent on his goal and oblivious to the crush of bodies and continuing fighting, letting Zechs handle it. "I hear 'Ro's voice," Duo called over his shoulder, taut with excitement. "Up ahead!" I seized his elbow, preventing him from running blindly into the chamber. "Wait! We need a plan. Listen first to what's going down in there." Duo scowled back at me. "Okay, here's my plan: get Heero and get out." Trowa squeezed in close, listening intently to the conversation coming through the walkie-talkie. I felt the catch in his breath when he tried to move his arm. I was about to ask him if I could help, when I heard Heero call out the name of the man he was with. "Ty Keel—did you hear that? Heero just said the name!" I whispered as loudly as I dared. Trowa said, "Ty warned him not to leave Sanc." "When was tha--?" Duo started to ask. "Shhh..." (o) Heero's POV "First, I want that Bloom kid, Barton." Ty cocked his head to the side. "Could that be him now, coming to your rescue?" I could hear activity down the main passageway, too, only I figured it was Duo-- Duo and Wufei, at last. I tried to appear unconcerned and shrugged my shoulders. It was important that I appear confident, which is why I smiled so sweetly to my molester, thinking all the time how too much of my life a smile had been stretched across my rage, like a tightrope across a volcano's cauldron. "I can go get him." "Too late, he is on his way or dead. You had your chance, now you can wait and see how everything has been thought of." "Like a toy puppet," I muttered beneath my breath. "What did you say?" I shook my head. I thought I heard noise in the tunnel behind us. I wished my tormentor would shut the fuck up. "No matter, when Treize discovered the arrival of so many persons of interest, he ordered his army to find you and let out the wolves." I tried not to react to that news, but my past experiences with the island wolves had been traumatic. Where would the animals go? Would they head to the cabin where Hilde and Quatre would be unaware of the danger? Had Trowa been drawn out into the open to help? I didn't mean for the groan to escape. "You don't like wolves? They seem to like you," Ty chuckled darkly. "When the animals didn't go a-hunting toward the beach, as I had expected, I knew my information was... wrong." He kept on talking but I stopped listening to him. So much of what he had to say was pure rubbish. Duo talked a lot, but he was interesting. "-- However, there's a file on you here. Didn't you know?" I shrugged. I no longer cared what he said. His words no longer held sway over my mind like they had. My gut twisted when he looked at me and I cringed at his touch, but I wasn't capitulating. I would not surrender my hope as long as I had Duo to live for. "It said that you liked to come here to these caves to play. I wondered if you might have brought your friends along to play, too?" I barely followed what he was saying. I did hear the sound of boots on rock and voices in the tunnel. I acknowledged him enough to distract him from turning to look. "Hn." "Anyway, it brought you and me together for this lovely talk. Treize and his personal guards should be here directly, then your friends will be properly dealt with." "He set armed guards on my friends?!" I started for the exit. "You are all insane!" "Not at all." Keel charged on me with dangerous intent, ramming the gun barrel into the side of my head. I could feel the cold metal trigger by my ear. "I will kill those friends one by one with agonizing slowness, and you can watch. You will not upset the work so close to fruition." "Leave them alone. This is between you and me." "How valiant you are! Maybe I can save just one to use--" "Stop!" I shouted. I didn't want to hear about what he would do to my "one." My eyes were locked on the tunnel opening, while very aware of where Ty was pointing his gun when he shoved it into my jaw. "Forget about escaping. You will choose one." I snapped. If my friends were listening then these could be my last words so I wanted to make them count. If they were thinking of foolishly attempting to save me, then I'd keep talking to give them time to formulate a plan of attack. "Duo. I am in love with him. Are you satisfied? Does that make me weak? Well, you are wrong. He is wonderful for me. I would marry him if he would have me. Touch him and I will kill you, I swear it! Or any of them. They are loved. They have people who care about them. Have you forgotten what family Quatre Winner is a part of? You think his family won't raise hell if you harm the heir?" "You take me too lightly. Accidents on this island explain away many deaths. Planes are notoriously uncertain." "Ty Keel, you are not that infallible, or that good." Of course, insulting him and standing up to him only made him madder, but it felt good. "Are you so in love that you will die for the man?" "Yes. I have finally found something worth living for. I will not give up on him or my life. It's rather simple." (o) Duo POV The sunken cheeks, hard, sharp features, buff build of a deadly killer—all rolled into Ty Keel, assassin. At last, I saw the "ex" that had shaped Heero's psyche. I stayed hidden in the passageway with the others so I could hear everything. Heero loved me. He loved me enough to stand up to Ty Keel that way. "I love you too," I whispered too quietly for anyone to hear and stepped forward. Trowa's grip tightened on my arm, holding me in place. "Hold on, hold on...not yet. Give Heero a chance to get out of that hold." Hearing the sound of a gun being cocked was all it took to push me to action. I jerked free, dashing toward the flickering lantern light. Trowa was on my heels, charging into the room, followed by a stampede of everyone else. Heero smiled as he saw me with my stringy hair falling out of my braid and clothes caked with mud. He looked lovelier to me than any movie star or runway model. "Stupid children," the assassin said with a barking laugh. He stepped backwards into the opening to the corridor leading to the labs, running his hand along the door jam, feeling for something. Feeling for an alarm button! I plastered on an impish grin and asked, "Is now a bad time?" Keel's smile was half snarl. "Oh, no, you're right on time. Ready to join the greatest experiment of all time?" I shook my head. "Hell, no! I want no part in your fountain of youth schemes. You won't get me." Ty Keel moved his grip to Heero's throat and flipped his gun my way as a contingent of armed lackeys thundered out of the corridor and stormed into the crowded chamber. "Leave the boy with the ridiculous braid, and this one, but take the others." Ty Keel may have been marginally sane prior to this moment, but not any longer. Maybe it was the pressure. He ordered his henchmen to attack us without reserve. The gun, once turned on Heero, now was aimed at me. Looks like he was making me part of his personal vendetta; he would take me out himself. I was busy fighting off another man, blocking Hilde from an attack. I knew the danger I was in. (o) Heero POV I batted away an armed man. "Duo! Get down!" In the space between blinks of an eye, the many minutiae of the possibilities crossed my mind: shout, run, duck-- Duo would be safe with Trowa and Quatre, Hilde would need Wufei- that decided it. In the next instant, my reflexes took over. I leaped in front of Duo, tripping him and knocking him to the floor as Keel fired. I held Duo close and looked up to see Trowa tear a gun from the guard nearest him and slam it down, decking the man senseless with the butt end. He tossed the gun into the air, caught it one-handed, stepped to the side, aimed, and fired twice, taking out two more of the armed guards. Then, he slumped against the wall, looking pale and grimacing. His arm was tied to his chest. So he'd been hurt already! The rifles Hilde and Quatre had brought were practically useless in such close quarters, and, apparently, they hadn't thought to grab any of Trowa's arsenal. Instead, I watched as Hilde covered Quatre and he recovered dropped weapons. It was dark, which made it difficult to see. Quatre scuttled about close to the floor, avoiding detection. He was nearly stepped on by one of the henchmen as he retrieved what looked like a cattle prod-- something I didn't recognize but which was probably used for inmate control. Hilde managed to shoot an enemy's foot and his knee with one of the recovered hand guns, sending the man hollering into the wall and saving Quatre. "Over this way," Quatre called out and started pushing Trowa nearer to the exit passageway. Wufei cold-cocked a guard in the jaw and took his automatic. He shot the semiautomatic out of the hand of an attacker just entering the chamber, fired off a few shots down the hall, and when he was satisfied that no more enemies were coming, he closed the door and turned his attention to the opponents inside. Luckily for us, Keel's shot flew wide, missing both me and Duo, but one of his men lurched past him, intent on reaching us. I twisted to shield my lover with my own body as Ty fired a second shot. "Ugh!" I gasped as pain exploded along my shoulder blade. Another bullet flew over Duo's head and into my chest. The last thing I saw as a guard kicked me to the side was another enemy heading for Duo, blade ready to stab my love through the heart. (o) Trowa's POV I couldn't see Wufei, but I could hear his shouted directions to Zechs. Zechs swept into my line of sight, aimed to kill, and blasted the guard to the floor, sending his knife clattering to the floor at my feet. My ears were ringing from the reverberations of the shots fired in the stone-walled room and my vision narrowed, blackness creeping around the edges. My legs went rubbery. I thought I'd pass out. I shook Quatre's arm. "Help me get out, now!" Quatre swung a cattle prod with all his strength, striking and disarming a man about to rush at them from the side, but he only managed to clip him on the free arm and didn't engage the shock control. I kicked the attacker away, shouting again, "Move!" But the wounded guard appeared once more, thrusting out with a long, curved bladed knife. Hilde screamed as it pierced her thigh. She wrapped both hands around the knife handle, which was embedded in her limb to the hilt, braced her feet, and yanked, wincing as the notched blade slid past muscle and scraped past bone. Quatre nearly fainted. "Oh, God!" I took a pistol from Quatre's weapon collection and, without bothering to aim, blasted a hole in the attacker's gut. Quatre watched wide-eyed, going into shock, I thought, then surprised me by shaking it off and jumping to support Hilde. "Lean on me!" Wufei rushed to her side to thrust them out into the passage. My arm and entire side had gone numb and I knew I hadn't much fight left in me. I shuffled behind them when I noticed Duo diving for the floor. "Zechs!" I shouted to the closest man. "Get Duo!" "No, no..." Duo cried out. "What stupid, brave thing you did. Don't you dare die on me!" Then I saw Heero and shiny blood on the stone floor. I gripped Quatre in order to stand upright and watch. Heero's eyes were closed. I couldn't make out if he was breathing or not in the dim light, surrounded by chaos. Duo spotted the dull shine glinting off the discarded knife. He claimed the knife and with one last look at the spreading blood, I could hear him yell, "For this, he dies." Duo sprang to his feet, blind to his own dangerous situation. He located Keel, who was still holding his gun, barking orders at his few remaining minions. Duo, impulsive as his actions were, was exacting in his delivery. I could see Zechs watching as Keel jerked his head in Duo's direction. If Zechs waited any longer, the assassin would get another shot off. He wasn't liable to miss a second time! "Shoot Keel!" I screamed. The assassin pivoted and raised his gun to shoulder height. Zechs attempted to fire at him with his own weapon, but I heard it jam on the first try. Duo gauged the distance and the angle before swiftly flinging the blade, sending it arrow-straight directly at Ty Keel. Without skipping a beat, Zechs fired again, this time hitting the man's hand. The weapon flew out of Keel's hand and spattered blood on the wood pillar behind him. Keel screamed as he fired again, missing widely, chiseling out chunks of rock and dust with a spray of bullets. Zechs was about to fire again when he realized Keel was no longer moving. Duo had directed all his anger, all his grief, and all his hatred into his throw. The knife blade hit its target, passing through flesh and pinning Keel's neck to the rough-hewn timber pillar as rock debris rained down. Wufei stepped back into my view, his gun leveled at the remaining two guards, expecting them to drop their weapons upon seeing their boss was dead. Instead, they launched themselves in separate directions, falling to the ground under a volley of shots as Wufei and Zechs finished off their rounds of ammunition. "That's all of them," Wufei pronounced. "God, no! 'Ro!" Duo cried out, grief-stricken. Heero was draped over a heap of enemy bodies. Hilde sank to her knees and crawled to Heero. "Oh, no," she said, pulling up alongside Duo. Her professionalism took over immediately. Hilde thrust her fist into her bag and dug furiously for material to staunch the flow of blood. "Come on... Got it!" She began pulling out wads of gauze and ripping at Heero's coveralls. "Hurry! Hold it for me to stop the bleeding." She plastered tape over the mass to hold it in place. "Help me turn him." "It went all the way through," Duo gasped, face anguished. "No, this is another entry wound over his h-heart," she said, choking up as she pressed another wad to the wound and secured it with safety pins. Duo wasn't given more time to worry. Zechs pulled Duo the rest of his way to his feet, and gave him a shove to the exit. "Go!" "Not without Heero!" Hilde remained crouched over Heero. Duo stumbled over bodies on his way to his side. "Is he breathing?" "Barely. He needs a real doctor fast!" "That's it then." Zechs nodded to the door. "There's the penitentiary hospital at the end of that tunnel from the maps I studied. If there's any hope it's that way." "I'll run ahead and secure the way," Wufei said. "And call for backup as soon as I get cell phone coverage. Hilde—" "I've got her. Don't worry. Do your job," Duo said. Zechs lifted Heero in his arms. "Someone get that door for me." Wufei was already a step or two ahead of him. He'd pressed the button operating the sliding door, picked up Hilde's bag, and squeezed her hand. "Duo will carry you. Don't fight him." "Hold on to my neck," Duo said to her. I knew then that she must have been in a bad way, since she didn't argue with either one of them. Duo carried her past me and into the passage behind Zechs with Heero and Wufei with firearms in both hands. Quatre and I limped behind. Quatre did his best to support my weight. We were chilled to the bone as the sweat evaporated off our skin, thoroughly dirty, stinging with small cuts, and aching from bruises. The shock of what we had just gone through hadn't even settled in yet. There wasn't time—after all, it wasn't over yet.
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