Dark Hunter

By: Lyndaura

The darkness descended quickly, and so did Duo. Careful not to slip on the rain slicked grass, he silently crept, hugging close to the wall of the ammunition factory. He tried to control his breathing. He was trembling with fear, not only for himself but also for Heero. "You'd think I would have been used to it by now."

Heero was not far away, fulfilling his own separate mission. Duo began to assemble and program the bomb as quickly as he could. His heart was pounding, and sweat dripped off of his forehead. There was something wrong. Duo's hands shook for a moment, and he had to pause and take a breath to recollect himself.

"It's nothing, relax man, bad tacos, that's all..."

A voice sounded in Duo's ear piece, startling him and making him drop a component of the explosive. "Shit."

"Duo," the cold harsh tone rang in Duo's ear, "the security personnel have been dealt with. I have the disks. There are reinforcements on the way, get us out of here."

"One escape route coming up," Duo didn't know how he was able to keep his voice calm, but he thought he was able to pull it off convincingly, "Setting the clock for five minutes. That enough time?"

Heero never answered. Duo shrugged. Heero could probably get out in under two minutes, and even if he didn't, Heero seemed to be immune to getting blown up. "Break out the marshmallows boys and girls, its about to get toasty."

"Duo," Heero spoke into the comm.

"The one and only," Duo smiled to himself, as he began to get up, checking to see if there was anyone watching him.

"Shut the fuck up," Heero snarled.

"Yes dear," Duo quipped and rolled his eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes." For a moment, Duo wondered how Heero knew that he had done it, but then it struck him, it was Heero. He could swear Heero spent his spare time analysing the other pilots, learning their attitudes, tendencies, weak and strong points, and even bad habits. For tactical purposes only of course.

Duo laughed, and it calmed him a little. He had only known the other pilots for a matter of months, but they had bonded like brothers, and although they would never say how close they were, they knew each other like the back of their hand.

Duo took a small bottle out of his inner breast pocket. "Just this once... just to calm the nerves," Duo spoke quietly enough so that Heero wouldn't hear him. Duo downed the vodka. Almost immediately, he was able to feel it relaxing him, and his cheeks burning up. The alcohol always worked faster on an empty stomach.

Duo turned the timer on and set it with deft speed. He was about to slip away into the night when there was an odd sound. It wouldn't be the only time tonight that he would hear a weird sound. Little did he know that tonight would shape the rest of his life.

Duo looked back to see what it was. The red lights on the bomb's timer were blinking far too fast.

"Shit, I knew this didn't feel right," Duo took a deep breath as he saw the numbers counting down ten times faster than they should have been. He began to run away from the tall structure.

"Heero! There was a problem with the timing mechanism, the bombs messed! Get out now! Before its too-" Duo saw Heero coming out at the entrance right by the explosive. In a second Heero and Duo's eyes met. Duo was paralysed.

In that moment, Heero realized what Duo said, and knew what was about to happen, but had no time to brace himself. Duo's eyes met with Heero, and he had a horrific premonition.

"Blood," was all Duo could say as he trembled. His reaction slightly slowed by the alcohol that he had been sneaking throughout the night.

Caught up in the moment, Duo and Heero were both unaware of a silent witness who had been watching for the last twenty minutes. Waiting.

The night sky lit up with a bright yellow hue. A couple secondary explosions from the ammunition contained within the building sounded, and sent pieces of rock and glass everywhere. Duo was thrown to the ground. Pain ravaged his body, and he was barely able to stop himself from retching.

Looking up, he searched for Heero among the debris.

Laying a hundred yards away was Heero. Duo could barely see through all the smoke, but he knew that it was bad. At least part of his premonition that had flashed in his mind had come true. It looked exactly as he had pictured it.

Ash rained down from the sky. The heat and burning chemicals stung Duo's eyes. The building was still falling apart, and bricks fell off of the main skeleton of the structure, which remained intact. But not for long, it was slowly falling over, its base not able to support its weight.

Duo ran to Heero. Checking for a pulse, he confirmed that Heero was alive... barely.

Heero was covered in blood. Everything seemed to be bleeding, but Duo couldn't find a main source to put pressure on to stop the bleeding. Heero shirt was completely ripped and burned off. His pants were stained red. Duo could see the bone showing through one of Heero's arms. Duo had to swallow to stop himself from throwing up. The other arm was bent the wrong way. His legs were completely mangled, with pieces of metal and debris implanted in them. Glass has streaked cuts across Heero's face, and some of the glass was still there, flicking in the light of the fire.

The building blazed before him. Duo fought off the heat and smoke to check Heero for apparent broken bones or other serious injuries. "Heero, come on man, wake up," Duo shook Heero slightly, but not even a groan escaped Heero's lips. "Alright buddy, here we go," Duo tired to pick Heero up and swing him over his shoulder. An odd sound stopped Duo though. He hadn't heard the sound before, yet it was familiar.

In a moment, the truth froze Duo. It was the creaking groan of the collapsing building. "Shit."

The building was falling apart... onto Duo and Heero. Duo tried to run, but Heero was too heavy, and the building was falling too fast.

In a moment, his life flashed before his eyes. One simple mistake was about to rob Heero and him of their young lives. It was too hard to believe. Suddenly though, Duo was calm. So this was it. He could see the funeral, only attended to by Trowa, Wufei and Quatre. His last family. It would be short, maybe Quatre would say a useless prayer, or maybe even a few words of remembrance. The other two would stand still and give their respects in their own way. It was almost... beautiful.

Duo fell down to the ground, covering Heero with himself, not that it was going to do much good. It was weird... like a dream. One moment, all Duo could see was ground, and then the next, all Duo could see was ground, fifty feet away from where he began.

"Okay, what the fuck?" Duo looked around. He couldn't begin to explain what had just happened. He must have blacked out or something. Duo shrugged, he didn't care how he got to where he was, but he was safe... for the moment. Now he had time to get Heero to a hospital.

Duo knew that it wasn't wise to go to a public hospital, but he had no choice. There was one nearby, and if he registered under a fake name, and then broke Heero out in a day or two, he should be fine. He would deal with the details later, right now he had to get Heero to a doctor.

Strangely, there was a car just sitting by the side of the road. Duo didn't care to think why a brand new car was just sitting after hours on the road, or even where the owner of the vehicle was. Of course, it was of no consequence to Duo, therefore no concern. Duo just threw Heero in the car as gently as he could and then hot wired the car. The stranger watched from safety, hidden by the darkness.

Duo drove as fast as he could down the road, with one hand steering and the other hand clutching his cross. The cross was more of a sentimental artifact than a religious icon to him, but it calmed him to hold it when he was in troublesome situations... much like now.

Duo looked over to Heero and stopped clutching his cross to check for a pulse, "Don't die on me now man..."

Duo almost thought that he was dead, but he felt a faint pulse for a second. It was enough to satisfy Duo till they arrived at the hospital. Duo would deal with all the emotions that were running through him later, Heero's life was depending on Duo keeping calm and preferably sane. Though Duo couldn't help thinking about what had happened. He couldn't explain anything that had transpired in the last five minutes. It was a flash in his mind. "Just 'cause everything happened so quickly. It'll make sense in the morning," Duo began to talk to himself.

Less than three minutes ago, he didn't think that there was going to be a tomorrow.

He was shaking. He told himself quietly that it was because of the adrenaline, but deep inside, he knew that it was partly because he was scared shitless.

Anybody else dying, well, he was prepared for that, it was almost expected. He was always surprised when the pilots made it out of battles alive. Especially when so many others didn't. But Heero? After surviving so much, it seemed that he was invincible. He was too smart, too fast, too strong, too well trained to get killed. It seemed the only thing Heero wasn't able to do right was kill himself.

Duo pulled into the hospital parking lot. Screw paying for parking, he wasn't coming back for the car anyway. Duo hopped out and ran to the passenger side of the car to get Heero out.

Duo let out a small yelp of pain as he picked Heero up. He was in so much pain, but he didn't care, as soon as Heero was stable, and NOT on the verge of death, Duo would figure out what he did to himself.

As soon as he entered through the sliding doors, and nurse was by his side, a walkie-talkie in her hand, calling for assistance. A few moments later, a paramedic and a doctor were taking Heero from Duo's arms and placing the bloody and beaten body onto a stretcher.

Duo followed them dumbly. A nurse was trying to put a cuff on Heero's arm to get his blood pressure, but his arm was too badly injured and she gave up. Another nurse was putting an IV into his arm.

"Do we have any idea of his blood pressure or pulse?" One of the doctors shouted.

"He's losing a lot of blood," one of the nurses warned.

"Pupils are uneven, dilated and unresponsive," another nurse shouted.

"Internal brain haemorrhaging," the doctor shook his head, "Can we get some blood for him?"

"Do we know his blood type?"

"I think we may need amputation for the right leg."

"I can't get a pulse, we're losing him!"

Duo just watched on helplessly. A nurse stopped him and took him back to the front desk, "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Duo nodded his head. He must have looked like shit, but he was more concerned with Heero.

"You'll get checked out in a second, but first, how will you be paying for this?" Duo looked at the nurse dumbly. He hadn't thought about that. It was so stupid. Duo tried to think, he didn't have any insurance. He had trouble even remembering what country he was in.

"I'll take care of it, he's with me," a tall, dark haired girl about 25 stood behind Duo.

"Can you fill this out Miss?" the nurse handed a clipboard filled with papers. The woman accepted the clipboard and pen.

"What happened?" the nurse asked. Duo knew it was because if there was a shooting or beating, the police had to get involved. The nurse knew it was very unlikely that someone could get that hurt doing something legal.

"Car accident, they were following me to the movies, and I suddenly braked, they couldn't get enough traction because of the rain. The car spun and rolled. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt," the woman began to break out crying, tearing were streaming down her face.

"Sorry," the nurse looked at her with sympathy and helped her to a seat, and handed her some kleenex.

After she was sure the woman was okay alone, she returned to her desk and began to do paperwork.

"Hey," Duo was about to talk to her, but she stopped him.

"Don't worry about things, go check up on your friend," the woman smiled. Her cheeks still stained with tears. Duo wasn't keen on trusting complete strangers, but he didn't have much of a choice. He smiled.

"Thanks."

"Go."

Duo rushed through the ER doors and found where Heero was immediately. He was surrounded by ten or twelve doctors and nurses. They were shouting things to each other, trying to save Heero's life.

"What blood type is he?"

"AB," someone shouted back.

"Universal receiver," one of the doctors said back.

"We need blood now," a nurse called.

"I can give blood," Duo offered. He felt it was the only thing he could do.

One of the nurses turned and looked at him oddly. "Its fine, we have enough..."

"Bullshit, I know you guys have to import blood from other countries because you don't have enough. Come on, it'll only take a second."

Duo didn't know why he was so urgent about giving blood. He knew that he had had some alcohol, but he wanted to do something. After all, it was partly his fault that Heero was dying.

"Sit down in that chair over there," one of the nurses said. She left the room for a moment.

As Duo waited for her, he listened to the doctors shout commands in a desperate attempt to save Heero's life.

"Can you fill this out?" the nurse handed Duo a paper. He hadn't even notice her come back.

"Yeah," He took the pen, and ticked off the questions, lying on a couple of them, but he knew Heero could take having a bit of alcohol in him. Duo had had a cold a bit before, but he checked off on the chart that he hadn't. Heero was strong enough to take it, besides, he was completely over it. The nurse didn't even look at the form.

"We usually have to screen blood," the nurse stared at Duo.

"If you need me to sign a waiver, I will," Duo replied.

"Roll up your sleeve," the nurse ordered. Their eyes met and for a moment, Duo saw an image of the nurse pulling the needle out, and then licking the trickle of blood that had escaped from his arm. Duo shook his head. He didn't know what the hell that was, but he didn't care.

He didn't know why he kept seeing these disturbing images that night. He hadn't taken any drugs that would explain the hallucinations. Duo decided not to think about it and focus on what the nurse was doing.

Her blonde hair had come lose from it's pony tail and she pushed it out of her face, showing her yellowish brown eyes. It was an odd colour. Probably contacts.

"All done," the nurse said and then applied some pressure on the entrance point before pulling out the needle. It looked nothing like what Duo had seen in his head. He took a deep breath. It was just the stress getting to him. He just needed a good 13 hour sleep.

A second nurse came and got the blood, hurrying over to Heero.

"Is he going to make it?" Duo asked nervously.

The nurse gave Duo a long hard stare, studying him, "I think he'll make it, thanks to you." She smiled.

Duo was a little confused, but it made him feel a little better.

The woman that had covered for the hospital fees came into the room. The nurse that had taken Duo's blood rushed to her, and growled under her breath, "You can't be here Desrea."

"I'm family of the patient, Salara" Desrea smiled.

"What?" Salara turned and watched as the doctors hook up the blood to Heero. She then looked at Duo and narrowed her eyes. She turned back and glared at Desrea. "You still have to get out, no unauthorized personnel are allowed in here, especially when we are trying to save someone's life. You could get in the way. You wouldn't want to be responsible for his death, now would you? Accidents can happen."

"What about him?" Desrea pointed to Duo.

"Take him with you on your way out."

Duo stood up, knowing he had outstayed his welcome. He joined Desrea out in the hallway, watching them work on Heero through the windows.

"You know her?" Duo asked, a little confused about the transaction.

"Yeah, we used to work together," Desrea shook her head.

"I know it isn't any of my business..." Duo began, but before he could finish his sentence, Desrea was already answering his question.

"I had a change of heart. I didn't think I belonged where I was. Salara took my leaving personally. She thought that it was an act of rebellion against what we stood for, what we believed in. Basically, by leaving, I was indirectly saying that was she believed in, and what she worked for, was wrong. She never forgave me for that. But I can't blame her. She was absolutely right."

"I take it you aren't talking about nursing," Duo laughed softly. He always made the weirdest friends. He didn't know how he was able to laugh. It was a part of his character which he valued. The ability to laugh in any situation. Duo said that it kept him sane, but he was beginning to think that maybe it proved his insanity. Whatever it was, it helped him to cope. "You don't need to say anymore. The less I know, the better."

Salara was probably OZ and was partnered with Desrea, and then Salara thought Desrea was a traitor when she left. When the two were talking about family in the er, it was probably Desrea saying that Heero and Duo were on her side. Duo thought that it would be stupid to say that, but they were in a hospital, and so Salara couldn't touch them without blowing her own cover.

"That's very wise Duo," Desrea laughed softly.

Duo smiled. He felt comfortable around this woman.

Without warning, he got a flash of a knife slitting open his arm, then a fist coming down on him multiple times. Nails digging into his flesh. He could hear his own screams of pain.

Duo doubled over in an instant from the intensity of the feeling and images. It was actually physically hurting him. Duo curled up against the wall and panted. The images were burned in his mind, and he felt he wasn't even able to deal with the intensity of the light around him.

Desrea put her hand on him and tried to comfort him, "Its okay, its over, you're going to be fine, Duo."

Duo looked up at her with the look of a beaten puppy. He saw her face, and for a moment, she looked like an angel. She smiled and laughed. "How do you know my name?" Duo asked.

"Its my business to know," Desrea smiled at him. Duo didn't trust her, but he felt comfortable with her. Right now, she had paid for the hospital fees, therefore saving Heero's life, and she had gotten the nurse off his back. Now she was helping him even more, and he didn't even know who she was.

"Just to let you know, this is really kinda creepy," Duo laughed softly, "You just kinda show up and help me out without question, and I keep wondering why do it? Not to mention all the other weird things that have been happening tonight. Did you have anything to do with the other stuff? I wouldn't call you my enemy, but I wouldn't call you my friend either. What's in it for you? How does this benefit you?"

"I guess asking you to trust me, and wait till tomorrow for an answer, is too much."

"Kinda," Duo swallowed, his throat was dry.

"Here," Desrea handed him a can of sprite out of her purse.

"I don't suppose you have some aspirin in there do you?" Duo asked, his head was swimming in pain.

"Aspirin is an anti-coagulant, it stops the blood from clotting. It isn't good for bad cuts," Desrea motioned towards Duo's head.

"This thing is already clotted, besides, its also has anti-inflammatory properties, which would make any swelling because of a concussion go down," Duo smiled back.

"Yes, but you also shouldn't mix depressants, and with the amount of alcohol that you have had, it isn't safe. It'll knock you out, which is also bad for concussions."

Duo looked at her and Desrea smiled back. He hated to admit it, but she was right.

"But do you know what is really good for headaches and upset tummies?" Desrea began digging through her purse. Duo glared at her for the use of the word 'tummies', but waited for her to answer anyway. "Lemon. I mean, its good for the stomach, as a pain reliever, its limited, but as soon as your nausea goes away, you're head won't matter as much."

"And you have a lemon in your purse?" Duo crossed his arms and looked at her incredulously.

"Of course," she pulled a lemon from her bag and a knife, and cut it up into small pieces, and handed an eighth piece to Duo.

"Thanks," Duo shook his head, "You are one weird lady."

"I pride myself in being different."

Duo smiled. He felt at home with her.

"So what do you get out of helping me?" Duo asked.

"Services," Desrea answered, taking some of the lemon for herself, "Just suck on it though, don't eat it."

"I know," Duo shook his head, "What kind of services?" Duo asked wearily, waiting till Desrea had had a good deal of lemon before he took a small taste of it. Just the smell of it was helping his stomach. And she was right, the better his stomach felt, the less and less his head mattered.

"Let's just say I can't discuss it here," she crossed her arms, and leaned up against the wall.

"Nobody is listening except me," Duo whispered.

"You never know who is listening," Desrea whispered back.

"Are you worried about Salara?" he asked not looking at Desrea. Her eyes were too intense, too focussed. Almost the way Heero was. Duo couldn't stand to keep looking into them. It felt like every second she was studying him, analysing him and burning a whole through him, all at the same time.

"Salara already knows what I want to tell you, but what I have to say is... radical, and if other people hear, we will be in more trouble than we already are. And if I am not mistaken, you don't want more trouble."

"What do you mean, 'more trouble than we are already in'? Because last time I checked, the only trouble was that Heero was hurt bad. What else is there? What did you get me into?" Duo asked, getting slightly angry.

"Excuse me," one of the senior doctors came out, taking off his blood covered garments, "Are you relatives of the patient?"

"Yes," Desrea answered. Duo froze. His heart was pounding in his ears. He had been ignoring dealing with the thoughts about Heero, and Desrea had been a nice distraction, but now all the thoughts, images and emotions came back.

The doctor seemed grave,"We need to talk."