Title: Mercy

Author: Lyndaura

Disclaimer: I don't 'em…… well yeah I do, but shh! Don't tell!
Rating: I don't know…… PG-13?
Warnings: death, angst, violence, OOC (well I think so, but it's justified) TWT? language
C&C: Sure, flames will be given to my pet flying chibi monkey Pyro George for his disposal. Compliments will be graciously rewarded with chibi Duos!
Author's Notes: It's midnight, I'm sick. I'm not feeling good and instead of taking it out on my brothers, I am putting it in a sad little fic revolving around Duo and Heero. I hate short fics, I don't know why I wrote a short one, but hey, like I care at this point. I'm too high on NeoCitrin, aspirin, cough syrup, vitamins, and whatever caffeine I could scrounge up. So I don't know what I am writing, let me know if what I wrote was even coherent, okay? Pyro George is the one who came up with
this one for me. I don't know why, maybe he's trying to tell me something, hmm? So thanks to Pyro George who is keeping me up by poking me with sharp pointy objects, so I can write this. So, here it is,
whatever it is……

Mercy

Duo gently guided Deathscythe Hell to the awaiting ground and lowered it into a soft landing. Heero, Quatre and him had successfully annihilated the out perimeter and were sent to destroy the training base and all occupants. From the information gathered, they were training elite Oz soldiers that would either match or exceed the training that even Heero had been put through.

Intense shit.

Duo grabbed his gun and opened the hatch to get out. Descending himself to the earth below him he gracefully hopped down and approached Quatre and Heero who were waiting a few meters away. Duo crouched low to the ground, although they had destroyed the outer defenses, they likely still had strong inner defenses.

"I'll set the bombs, Quatre, Duo, you cover me," Heero instructed and they slithered stealthily to the entrance. Heero typed away at the key panel for a moment and then they were granted access to the depths of the unknown.

The halls were all white and buzzing fluorescent lights shone overhead. Doors lined each side of the hall endlessly. Each congruent to the next and never ending. Heero scanned the empty hall and once he confirmed its safety he ran to one of the doors and jiggled the handle. It was open.

Heero peered inside and found it to completely empty. Heero swore at himself, he hoped that they had not had a chance to evacuate. That would mean survivors, and the doctors would not be happy about that at all.

Heero pushed his own thoughts aside and snuck in, he crouched in a corner and began working on assembling and arming the bomb.

"How long do you need?" Duo asked impatiently.

"Five minutes," Heero answered curtly.

Quatre nodded to Duo and they took their post outside the door. They both knew that the personnel and trainees here were more than professionals and that this was a very risky mission if something went
wrong. Duo was beginning to get trigger-happy. He was so nervous he swear he would shoot anything that moved. Duo tried to cover up his fear with pointless chatter. Perhaps if Quatre were too concerned about Duo shutting up that he wouldn't notice Duo's shaking hands. He had a bad feeling about this. Quatre was more than aware of this sinking impression of trouble.

"Can't wait till this mission is over, I SO need a good shower," Duo rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Shh! We don't want to draw attention to ourselves!" Quatre whispered back.

"Oh come on, no one is on this level," Duo shrugged.

"I am," a little girl no older than ten appeared before them.

"What the hell?" Duo looked at the small brunette. She was quite small and she looked so fragile. Her hair was cut extremely short, almost bald. Her eyes were deep pools of jade, but they were dull and looked so…… sad. Quatre and Duo couldn't help but let their heart melt. The poor child was all skin and bones and her face had so many scars on it, it was hard to tell what was skin and what was scar.

"I said that I'm here," the girl repeated.

"I can see that," Duo couldn't get his eyes off of her. She was wearing grey pants that looked five times older than her, and a grey tank top that was so dull and worn that Duo wondered if it was older than the
pants. But worst of all was the bloodstains that decorated the pants and tank top. In this little girl Duo couldn't help but see himself. At her age he would have been on the streets, stealing and trying to live
through death. Trying to find a way to get over the sadness and guilt of everything he had lost. Only living to steal from other people. He was a burden to society at that point. Was it the same way with this little girl?

The little girl drew a gun from the back of her pants and held it with such grace and ease that only came from familiarity. Was that the way that it was for Heero? Duo could just imagine Heero like that at such a young age. It was something that Quatre would never understand. At that age, Quatre would have been playing with his sisters, or being taught by fancy tutors, worrying about making the next grade, not living the next day. Maybe that was why Quatre was so forgiving. He had not experienced the pain of war growing up, only in the last year had he TRULY felt the devastating effects that war could have. Duo looked at her and his heart ached for her.

"Kill me," she ordered. The gun still drawn and now aimed at Quatre. Quatre held his own gun firmly, but gently lowered it.

"No, I won't," he saw the look of pure hatred that shone in her eyes.

"Baka," she hissed and Quatre was flown across the hall coinciding with a booming crack emanating form the little girl's gun. The gun was a funny thing; it looked more like a toy than anything else in her hands. She was barely able to hold it properly, and it seemed severely over sized for her small and weak hands.

"Kill me," the girl repeated and aimed the gun at Duo. Duo wanted to turn and run to Quatre that lay across the hall in a bloodied heap but he knew that as soon as he turned his back she would fire. Duo breathed deeply. He couldn't kill her; he didn't possess that kind of cruelty, did he? She was only a small girl. She didn't know what she was doing, she had been brain washed, could he kill someone whom he thought was still innocent? But was she innocent? Her looks were deceiving. She had just tried to kill Quatre, and now she would kill him. Duo aimed the gun at her head. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact. No, he couldn't do it. She was too young…… too innocent. There was no way. He
would help her, he could, and he had to. But could he? He didn't know what she went through. Duo shook his head. It didn't make sense to him. She reminded him of the gundam pilots in so many ways. They were all forced to grow up to quickly, too soon. She would never have a childhood like a normal child had. She would never experience the joy and fun that being a child should be. She wasn't truly a child. She was a product of war. But she was still human. Duo was caught between two choices. To
kill, or not to kill. She would kill him if he didn't shoot, but then again, could he bring himself to fire?

He didn't have a chance anymore. He was dead on the inside. He wore a mask of a hyper, happy, and nonchalant boy, but inside, he was dead. War hadn't killed his body, but it had killed his soul. The death of the Maxwell church and Father Maxwell, the death of even his parents. The constant death that surrounded him. He was Shinigami, and that meant that he was Death. Death had no soul. He had never seen a miracle, but he had seen lots of dead people. Death, that was who he was, now all that was left for himself to die. The war would continue without him, but could he continue without the war? The question intrigued him, but the child grew restless.

"I can't kid," but before he could finish the sentence she fired her gun and Duo found himself in a pool of his own blood. Duo tried to talk, but all that came up was blood.

Poor kid. Poor fucking kid.

"Idiot," she whispered and looked up to Heero who was standing at the door, obviously completed his work.

"Do I have to ask?" she looked at him with painful eyes. Heero sighed and lifted his gun and aimed at her head. Duo looked in astonishment as she smiled. She actually smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered and closed her eyes. The sound of Heero's gun echoed through the halls. Duo watched as he head literally exploded. Brains flew against the wall behind her and blood splattered onto Heero. Her bloodstained clothes were soaked once last time in crimson. She died smiling.

Her lifeless body lay on the floor motionless. Duo felt extreme pain overcome him as he tried to move. He took one look at the body and had to look away. It was one thing to kill in battle and have a mobile suit explode; you didn't actually see them die. And it was another to infiltrate a facility, because as soon as you shot someone, there was another one to take their place, and you never really focused on the
death of one person. But the cold execution of the little girl was almost more than Duo could take.

Get a grip, you're Shinigami, the God of Death, the Great Destroyer. This is what you do.

Do I want to keep doing this anymore?

Why do I constantly do this?

Peace. There will never be peace. There will always be war, if not between the colonies and Earth, then in my soul.

Do I even have a soul?

Duo pried his eyes off of the girl and looked at Quatre. Quatre's chest heaved up and down in erratic and what seemed to be painful sobs, but Duo knew that he was in the bliss of unconsciousness.

"Duo?" Heero knelt down beside Duo just as Duo slipped into blackness.




"Duo?" Heero spoke quietly as Duo opened his eyes to a bright and whiter than white room. He hated hospitals.

"Whoa! Brightness or what?" Duo grunted painfully.

"You have a ruptured spleen, a bruised rib, and a punctured lung," Heero informed monotoned.

"You have great bed side manners you know that?" Duo hissed angrily.

"Hn," Heero shrugged and pretended there was something interesting outside the window.

"Why did you kill her?" Duo finally broke the silence.

"She wanted me to," Heero answered simply.

"She didn't know what she wanted. She just didn't want to kill. You could have saved her and taken her with us! There were other options! Oh wait, I forgot, Heero Yuy, Perfect Soldier doesn't show mercy! Now does he? That would just kill you wouldn't it. But then again you try that enough yourself that it wouldn't make much of a difference would it!" Duo shouted and immediately felt excruciating pain as a direct result.

"I did show her mercy," Heero ignored Duo's blatantly rude attitude.

"No you didn't! Or did you forget? You killed a fucking nine year old!" Duo shouted back despite the reeling pain.

"I showed her the only mercy I could," Heero repeated.

"By killing her?" Duo yelled anticipating the suffering he would have to endure for it, but he was royally pissed, and any logic that would dictate for him not to yell, in order to stop the pain, could wait.

"Yes," Heero stopped looking out the window and glared at Duo with such intensity it made Duo grasp the sheets in his hand in a tight fist.

"How the hell does that work Heero? Sometimes I just don't get you!" Duo nearly spat at Heero in disgust.

"What do you think her future would have been like Duo? I've been there, and look where I am. My whole life is war and death. Her life would have been nothing but pain and death. She had nothing to live for. It was the only mercy I could show her," Heero explained patiently. He was hurting inside for what he did, but he knew it had to be done. If he were her age again, he would want someone to do it for him.

"It doesn't matter, we could have helped her! We could have given her a better life!" Duo wanted to strangle Heero, sometimes he could be so thick headed. Yet in a way, it was getting through. He knew what Heero was saying.

"Could we?" Heero asked the dying question. Could they have erased the pain and torture that she had gone through? Could they have revived the dead emotions?

"We could have at least tried," Duo slammed his fist on the hospital bed.

"I've been there. I know what they did to her. Its better this way," Heero lowered his head at the memories that came flooding back. Sometimes it wasn't even tangible, just pain. Hours, days, weeks, months of just pure pain. Like the girl and her dog…… The girl had no future. She would just be forced to live one tragedy over and over again.

"So you're saying you want to die?" Duo shot at Heero.

"My life is worthless, but I am fighting for a cause. That girl wasn't. She wasn't fighting for peace. She was fighting because it was the only thing she knew. What would happen after she was done fighting? Would she be a hired assassin? Would she be paid to do someone else's dirty work? Or maybe she would be teaching others to do the same thing she does. Training more helpless young children to murder and torture other people. Duo think about it," Heero bit his lip. It was hard for him to make this argument when it was so personal. Deep inside he was screaming that that was what he would have wanted.

"Well guess what, I want to die too! Kill me Heero! KILL ME!" Duo screamed at the top of his lungs. Blood came curdling up and spurting out over Duo's hospital gown. Heero knew the nurses would be coming soon.

"Duo," Heero tried to keep his voice calm and emotionless.

"What? Why won't you kill me Heero? I'm just like that little girl. So kill me!" Duo wiped the blood from his face.

"You're not well," Heero stood up.

"If you won't do it then I will Heero, and you know that it will be a lot more painful for me that way. So as a friend I'm asking you, kill me."

Heero stood still. He comrade, his companion, his friend, was asking him to kill him. After the personal conflict that had arisen inside of him he couldn't fight against Duo. He had no reason to give Duo to live.
Could he even remember why HE was living?

"Kill me now Heero," Duo struggled with the words, "Please."

"I won't kill you Duo," Heero tried to remember that Duo was sick, he wasn't thinking straight. Or was he? Heero wouldn't kill his best friend, but then again, Heero didn't think he would kill the child either, and when he saw her eyes pleading to do it, he had to. He knew what she was feeling. And now as he looked into Duo's eyes, they were saying the same thing.

"Do it, or I do it, which one Heero?" Duo swallowed. He was absolutely serious. There was no second-guessing it. Heero was right, he had no future.

"Don't do it Duo," Heero ordered more than asked.

"Do you know how hypocritical you sound? After that whole speech about the girl, and then all your own suicide attempts, who are you to tell me not to do something that you practically preach to me everyday?" Duo raged as a nurse bolted in.

"What is going on in here?" she asked as she saw Duo's heart rate, the blood on his gown and the enraged state that he was in.

Duo whipped around and grabbed the nurse by the neck and took a scalpel from a tray nearby and held it to her throat.

"Kill me Heero, either kill me or I kill her, and then the state will kill me, and if they don't it then I will. I'm going to do it one way or another Heero, it's just a matter of will you help me or not. Please
Heero," Duo pressed the blade closer to the nurse's throat. It was like the girl all over again. Threatening another's life in order to end their own. Heero pulled out his gun.

"Drop the scalpel Duo," Heero commanded.

"You'll have to shoot me first," Duo closed his eyes. Just like the girl did. Heero winced at the memory.

A moments indecision left Duo pressing the blade more fiercely into her neck.

"Gods please stop," she bawled.

"I can't," Duo began breathing strongly and heavily.

"Duo," Heero tried to keep his poise, "Put it down. I know how you feel Duo, but she had no future, you do. You are fighting for peace, remember? You are fighting for the colonies, so others don't have to
fight, so we won't need people like us anymore, so little girls like her don't have to live in suffering anymore. Duo, the colonies and the world need you. You can't die, not yet."

"I know," Duo dropped the knife and the nurse; "I just hate it so much," Duo shook his head and let a single tear slide down his cheek.

"It's going to be okay one day Duo, I promise you," Heero told himself more than he did Duo.

"Promise?" Duo looked to Heero in exhaustion and desperation.

Just before Duo passed out from exhaustion Heero whispered, "Promise."

~The End~

Authors Tidbits: Well, what do you think Pyro George? Can you stop poking me with that knife? Thank you. So e-mail me with what you think. Please take into account that I am high on every cold medicine known to man (and woman) right now. Thank you, and hopefully you will hear from Pyro George and I soon.

P.S. Pyro George wants to know if he should die his hair red (I think it's cause he doesn't like it when I mistake him for the lettuce). What do you think?

P.P.S. Pyro George is copy righted by me, and appears whenever I have drugs, caffeine, sugar or Jolt. (Basically all the time). He's the one responsible with the stories, not me, so blame him! Not me! I'm innocent I swear!