Smells Like Teen Spirit
By Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 55
Don’t Fear the Reaper

(x) X (x)

Trowa ran almost all the way to the police station, which was certainly quite the feat considering it was near the other side of town. Even with his mutated strength and reflexes, the lacrosse goalie was quite winded by the time he got there, and had to spend a few precious moments gasping for air near the bicycle rack in the station's parking lot.
It didn't take him long to explain the situation to the police chief when he finally went inside, as he already had a respectful integrity among the other officers, even if he was just a temporary intern. He told them everything he knew of J and his history, as well as his new discretions in regards to Quatre. He also informed them of the trouble with White Fang and their involvement with J, and how Duo, Heero and the rest had been dragged into the middle of everything. He was extremely pleased at how smoothly everything went, and hoped that things would move efficiently enough to get some armed officers over to J's house before things got terribly ugly.

Once all that was taken care of, Trowa knew there was little else he could do other than wait, so he decided to take his time walking back in order to relax his racing mind. His stomach was fluttering, and it lurched every time he thought of his friends. It was the uncertainty of how things would play out that really tried his nerves, though, and no matter how hard he tried not to think of it, he couldn't help but return to the topic.

He was just making his way down one of the busier streets in town, not really paying much attention to anything other than his feet, when suddenly, he felt a pair of arms fling themselves around his neck, startling him out of his dazed state. He stiffened, blinking in surprise as he tried to figure out what had just happened. He placed his hands on the hips of the person who was currently clinging to him, registering by their curvy shape that it was a girl. He pushed her away so he could get a look at her face: “Cathy?” he said, bewildered, when he realized it was his sister.

“Oh, Trowa, you're just the person I wanted to see!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck again. She sounded like she'd been crying a little, and his shoulder was damp from where she'd pressed her cheek.

He pried her off of him again, putting an arm around her shoulder and guiding her towards a nearby bench. He forced her to sit down and then took the spot next to her, asking her in a calm tone, “What's wrong, Catherine?”

“Oh, just everything!” she said with a frustrated groan, balling her fists and banging her thighs with them. “I just ran into stupid Relena, and she was just so-oooh! It makes me so mad!”
“What did she do?” Trowa asked, still keeping his voice even, a talent of his even in the most pressing of situations. “She can't have made you angry by just, say, crossing paths with you on the street, could she?”

“Yes, she can… and she did!” moaned Catherine, shaking her head and causing her red bobbles of hair to bounce.

Trowa waited patiently for her continue. Having lived with a sister so long, he knew that if there was something bothering a girl, even if you didn't want to hear it, remaining silent long enough ensured that she would inevitably tell you.

A few seconds later, Catherine let it all out. “Did I ever tell you what she said about mutants? About you?” she asked, her voice slightly more controlled than before.
Trowa shook his head negatively.

“Well, it was completely uncalled for, and it bothered me like you would never believe, so I let her have it,” Catherine summed it up simply, crossing both her arms and her legs as she leaned back against the bench. “Now, whenever she's not preaching big words about whatever her opinion is on mutants and such these days, she tails me… keeps saying she wants our old friendship back.” Catherine snorted, tossing her head indignantly, “Well, I have news for her: it's not ever going to be the way it was if she's going to keep acting the way she does!”

Trowa soaked all this in and nodded. Then he said, “But I thought you two agreed on just about everything.”

“Just about everything isn't everything,” Catherine clarified. “She just assumed I agreed with her silly views on mutants, and I never had the guts to tell her otherwise until recently.”
Trowa nodded again. “Well, that's good,” he said. “A healthy relationship can't survive if you don't share your honest opinions with each other.” He arched his eyebrows at Catherine as she stared quizzically at him. He went on: “Friends can agree to disagree, Catherine. You don't have to be identical in every respect to get along, you know.”

“I know, but….”

Shaking his head again, Trowa stood up and finished his point before starting on his walk again. “So next time, instead of telling me these things, tell her, and tell her calmly, rationally….” He took a few steps away and then stopped again, adding, “If she's really your friend, she'll understand, and she'll respect what you have to say. You'll know she's worth it if she listens.”

And leaving his sister to ponder that, Trowa went on his way again, glad for the momentary distraction, but still weighed down by the gravity of his friends' situation.

(x) X (x)

With a sharp tug, J wrenched Quatre towards him, ripping him out of Duo's grip. The blonde, propelled by the momentum of the harsh pull, Quatre stumbled across the wood floor and into J's torso. The insane scientist was quick to throw his clawed hand around Quatre's neck, its sharp edges dangerously close to his throat, and grabbed his prisoner's arm firmly with his human hand. The threat couldn't have been clearer, and Duo felt frustration bubble up in his chest as he growled at J, unable to take a step without fear that the scientist would do something to his friend.

“If you get out now,” J said in a calm tone, glaring at Duo through his small, round glasses, “I'll turn a blind eye to this whole, little incident.”

Duo felt his hands ball into tight fists at his side as he glowered back at his enemy, his eyes narrowed dangerously and his mouth locked in a tight frown. “What makes you think I won't go running straight for the cops?” he asked tersely.

J gripped Quatre tighter and pressed his horrific metal claw harder against Quatre's throat, a rather dark grin spreading across his face. “Oh, I rather think that you won't if you know what's best for your little friend here.”

“Fuck,” growled Duo, banging a fist into the nearby wall with anger, knowing very well that J was right.

Despite being in such a dangerous position, Quatre was handling the situation quite calmly, though his breath was coming quickly and in large gasps, his eyes slightly wider than usual. J had proven to be much more physically strong than he had expected him to be, and he knew there was little chance for him to break free of the man's iron-like hold. But he did not panic, and had one not known any better, it might have even seemed as if Quatre was merely acting his part in a grand play.

J nodded at the door, giving Duo a very pointed glare. “Go on, boy,” he urged impatiently. “Turn around and leave… save yourself and forget any of this ever happened.”
Unfortunately for J, his words had the complete opposite effect on Duo. Instead of making Duo want to avert personal disaster, it only did to make the longhaired mechanic even angrier. Taking a defiant step forward, he said in a menacing voice, “Like you've got an awful lot of fucking room to talk.”

“Watch what you say, boy!” snapped J, his human hand clamping down even tighter on Quatre's one arm, pinching his flesh beneath his gnarled fingers so sharply, that the blond youth couldn't help but gasp in pain.

“Oh, I am, I am,” retorted Duo with a snide expression on his face. He glared intensely at J as he went on, “And I mean what I say when I tell you to lay the fuck off of Quatre!”

J shook his head, his long tatters of gray hair swishing behind his back as he did so. “You really are just as stupid as Solo always said you were.”

Just the mentioning of that name made Duo's very blood start to boil, his eyebrows melting in anger and knotting over his nose. His teeth bit into his bottom lip, and his fingernails were digging into the palms of his hands as he clenched his fists even tighter. His entire body was tense and coiled, the slightest disturbance enough to make him spring and lash out. He was so vengeful at that moment, even the slightest twitch of J's fingers would have been enough reason for him to attack.

Seeing all the warning signs in Duo's poise and expression, Quatre chanced to whisper, “Duo, don't be reckless!”

“Shut up, boy!” J shouted at Quatre, giving him an unfriendly jerk.

Duo allowed himself to relax slightly, though he was still very on guard. Quatre was right that he shouldn't allow himself to react too easily to the situation, which could prove to make things even more dangerous for both of them, and there was no promise of an easy escape this time. He could only hope that Heero and the others had thought to do something by this point. With any luck, maybe they would be there to offer some backup, and then he wouldn't be left in such a cornered position.

So instead of coming flying at J with a flurry of wild punches, Duo steeled himself and instead asked just one, simple question: “Why?”

J frowned, squaring his shoulders a little. “Shouldn't that answer be obvious?” he said curtly. “I'm a scientist, and it is my profession to learn more about the world around me through observation. Mutants are a strange, offshoot evolution of homo sapiens, and I have dedicated myself to understanding what caused such an anomaly in human DNA. I want to know what it is that could make mankind a perfect race. Because when everyone is special, then no one will be.”

Duo could feel his rage starting to mount again. “So you think that just makes it okay to pluck whatever the hell mutant you want off the street and do all kinds of sick things to him? There's certain limits, even in science!”

“There have always been scientists pushing the bar in the name of research,” retorted J, his hold on Quatre still firm. “Look at da Vinci, digging up and dissecting dead bodies when it was considered illegal to do so! And stem cell research has paved the way to much medical knowledge, despite the moral controversy around that!”

Duo looked absolutely disgusted. “A dead body or a ball of cells doesn't have a family and emotions that could be tampered with by doing… whatever to it! Did you ever think about the poor children you just snatched up for your sick experiments? Perfection is not worth that! What you did to Heero is inexcusable, and I won't let you do the same to Q!”

“Pushing Heero to his limits brought me invaluable information,” spat J, as if that made it all okay.

Snorting, Duo regarded J distastefully, his hands on his hips. “You just wanted someone to control,” he rejoined bitterly.

A snarl curled J's old lips, and his eyes flashed behind his round spectacles. “What do you know about it anyway? You're just a street rat! A forgotten, stupid mutant that no one cares about!”

Duo's face faltered at that comment, and he took a nervous step backward without even realizing that he was getting backed into yet another corner. “Yeah… that… that might be, but….” He paused for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts.

J wasn't about to just let it go there; he wanted to push the envelope even a bit more. “Just how no one cares about this brat here, and how no one cares about Heero Yuy!”
At J's words, he regained his nerve, and shouted passionately, “How the fuck can that be all you have to say about what you did to Heero as a child? The poor guy lost his friends and his dad, and not only do you have the fucking balls to do the things you did, but you barely acknowledged him as your grandson! Do you know what kind of shit that sort of treatment does to a kid? What the fuck-hell is your excuse for that one?” Duo's shoulders heaved up and down, winded from his rant.

J's face faltered for a second, but it was so brief, it was hardly noticeable. “I was Heero's legal guardian, and I still am,” he said flatly, his bushy eyebrows angling downwards. “I raised him as I saw fit.”

“Well you sure did a fucking bad job!” Duo screamed, itching to just rip off J's metal arm and beat him to death with it. If it weren't for Quatre, Duo was pretty sure he would have let himself fly off the handle, consequences be damned.

J arched an amused eyebrow. “Oh?” he said, sounding curious. “Because you know so much about him, I'm guessing?”

“A fuck-load more than you!” Duo snapped back. “Heero's a nice guy who's just never gotten the chance to exercise that sweet nature of his on anyone because certain people suck at being a parent!”

His voice grim, J countered, “Don't talk about Heero like you know anything about him. I can assure you, boy, that you don't even know half of what you think.”

“Well, whatever,” snarled Duo, reaching up to grab the nearby banister, feeling the wood splinter slightly beneath his hand. His body was starting to flicker between his two physical make-ups, unable to remain stable as long as his mood was in such a dangerous place. “The fucking point is that ever since Heero got away from you, he's been able to live a pretty happy, normal life, no matter how powerful his mutation is. And the same fucking thing goes for Quatre. So let him the fuck go!” His eyes became dangerous slits as he added in a low growl, “Before I really get fucking pissed.”

A bark of laughter escaped J, giving him an air of confidence Duo did not like. “I don't think you are quite in the place to be making negotiations, Maxwell,” J said menacingly. The dark shadows that lived in the corners of the old house seemed to have come creeping out from their places against the walls and swathed J in an unfriendly darkness. It unsettled Duo.
Gritting his teeth, Duo took another few steps back, his hand still curled around the post at the bottom of the stair railing. Using all his strength, he forced himself to look away from J and his captured friend, staring ahead at the cluttered living room that branched off from the foyer where they stood. He had to think, and think carefully at that. His usual methods had already fucked up, and there was no chance of running away and trying over. This was it.
The house was a dirty mess, hardly looked after at all. The white, plaster walls were stained and cracked, and the only things that weren't caked in layers of dust seemed to be the scientific equipment that sprouted from the most obscure of places: beakers and Bunsen burners atop the piano, textbooks littered across the floor, an aquarium housing a three-legged toad beside the old typewriter beneath the window. It was strangely creepy and beyond surreal, and it was the last place Duo would ever damn a person he cared about to reside.

It was then that he made his decision, a choice he'd been toying with the second J started rattling threats off to him. There was no way he was going to let the mad scientist get away with whatever plots he had in mind, and he had come to the end of his rope. So with his intent clear in his mind, resolved to help his friend no matter what the cost, he turned back to J, steeled himself and said: “Then take me instead.”

Time lurched to a stomach-churning halt. Quatre's eyes seemed to widen even more, his lips parted in shock as he started to shake his head in protest, and J's face seemed to become grossly contorted with glee. “You swear to me that you won't try anything funny?” J demanded coarsely after a few moments of silently weighing up Duo's offer, his grip on Quatre loosening a bit. “Because if you try to pull a fast one, I will hunt down both this one and your precious Heero to make sure they both pay for your blunder.”

Concealing the nervous swallow that sunk down his throat, Duo managed to regain his cocky attitude. “You're a twisted motherfucker, ain'tcha?” he said with a tough grin, placing both hands on his hips as he took a swaggering step towards the narrow hall where J stood. “Well, you can have my word that I'll be good. I don't motherfucking lie, by the way, so you don't have to worry that I'm just shooting the bull.”

“For your sake, I hope not,” J snapped callously. Slowly, he let his arms drop to his sides, allowing Quatre the freedom to step away from the frightening old man. The blonde pressed himself against the staircase and slipped away from the scientist as quickly as he could, letting out a quiet sigh of relief, though he couldn't help but send a worried glance over in Duo's direction as the braided teen started walking towards his captor.
But just as Quatre and Duo had almost completely reversed positions, there was a loud, deafening thump against the front door. All three snapped their heads in the direction of the door, staring wide-eyed at it as another ear-splintering crack resonated throughout the old house. In morbid fascination, they watched as the row of deadbolts that lined the door flipped open as if by magic, one right after the other. Then, there was a familiar yell, and the door burst open, revealing none other than Heero Yuy, who was standing in the doorframe wreathed in the yellowish light of the street lamps outside and looking like he was being driven by the Devil himself.

“Where are they?” he growled, his eyes slit into glowing lines of fury.

“Oh, if it isn't the man of the hour. You're just in time to collect the Winner brat. I won't be needing him anymore,” said J with a degrading sneer as his metallic hand lashed out to snag Duo by the wrist, clamping down hard enough to make a painful, bone-cracking noise whisper through the tense air. Duo scrunched his face up and bit his bottom lip, but refused to make a single sound that might give J any satisfaction.

Heero was horrified, by this point, to see Duo in J's sinister grasp, and he was easily able to piece together what must have transpired to land his longhaired lover in such a predicament. He wasn't quite sure if he ought to admire or condemn Duo's actions, though either way, it left Heero and a loss as to what course of action he should take. He wondered, briefly, why Duo hadn't tried to teleport his way to safety.

Simultaneously, Duo was thinking about just that very thing. He was sorely tempted to use his mutation to get away from J, but then he kept recalling the threat to make both Quatre and Heero pay should he try to pull any fast moves. The wrist J was holding was searing with a dull pain; Duo couldn't tell if the bones were seriously injured or not, but the throb was enough to suggest to him that they most likely were. He supposed he really shouldn't have been so shocked by the doctor's shameless use of brute force.

Right then, Heero decided he wanted some answers and that he wanted them right away. He grabbed Quatre by the arm and jerked him to his side, hissing to no one in particular, “What the fuck is going on here?”

With a dark laugh, it was J who ended up supplying the response. “Mr. Maxwell has been gracious enough to offer his services in the place of the good Mr. Winner,” he said, yanking Duo a bit nearer to him to emphasis his point. Duo stumbled over his own feet awkwardly, hating the feeling of helplessness that had suddenly overtaken him. He flashed a warning glare in Heero's direction, silently begging him to take Quatre and beat it.

Resolutely, Heero stood his ground, scrunching his nose and cracking his knuckles against his thighs as his eyes flashed a dangerous shade of stormy blue. “Despite your claims of working in the name of 'science', as you call it, you have no right to manipulate people the way you do, mutant or not,” Heero declared, his voice dropping several octaves lower than its already deep timbre. The danger coiled within Heero was more than evident by his tone and stance, like a limber tiger ready to pounce and rip apart its prey.

Curling his upper lip, J regarded Heero up and down like he was examining a dirty, old bum, and not an angry, intense teenager such as Heero. “You, especially, boy,” he spat degradingly, “have no right to dictate what I may or may not do. If anyone, it should be you who stays with me,” J went on; “You should be thankful to your little slut-whore here that you don't have to.”

Were it possible to see Heero's aura crackling around him, the flames would have doubly intensified at J's last comment. As it was, the air around Heero already had a rather unsavoury, prickled quality to it-which Quatre could feel acutely, even though he wasn't standing terribly close to the Japanese lacrosse player-and that static energy seemed to darken the air and make it throb like it was beating in time with Heero's own heart. His voice a menacing whisper, Heero said, “Don't you ever speak about Duo like that again, Ojiji. You don't know the rope you're walking.”

A sickening bout of laughter erupted from J's throat as he gave Duo another heartless jerk, his backwards step almost unnoticeable. “Ha!” he roared. “You say it like I don't know what kind of a sick pervert you are, boy! I knew it even when you were a brat that you were even more twisted than the average mutant.”

Heero's shoulders stiffened as he fought to curb his mounting anger. He was so livid, he couldn't even find the patience to string together a decent retort, and instead focused his brainpower on choosing a satisfactory way to rip J limb from limb. Then and there, he decided that no matter how many gruesome stabs J took at his personal life or his genetic makeup, he wasn't going to let any of it affect him until he had the grim satisfaction of making the man pay for destroying his life and so many others. But to Heero, even worse than making him out to be an object, or haphazardly throwing away lives, what had sealed J's fate was his careless attitude towards Duo, like he was a shameful waste of creation with no integrity or worth. Perhaps in the eyes of many, Duo was nothing more than a laughing fool, a twist of bright entertainment in an otherwise bleak existence, but to Heero, the young man was worth so much more, both as a human and as a part of his life. Funny and a hilarity, sure, but Duo was also a delicately layered individual who was just as frightened of the world as Heero, and after sifting through the debris so long, Heero knew he wasn't ready to let Duo fall through his fingers like muddy water. And he wasn't about to allow J the pleasure of stealing Duo from his life yet again, no matter how selfish it seemed.

“Look at you! Getting so riled up over a boy! You're a shame to your father,” J crowed, clearly satisfied with the way his hurtful words were making Heero boil and oblivious to how unbelievably unwise it was to taunt him so. It was apparent that the old scientist had become overconfident, convinced that he had secured himself the position of power in the situation.

Seeing the way Heero had begun to tremble, Quatre knew that it was just a matter of waiting until J said something that would completely push Heero over the edge. Perhaps in another place and another time, Quatre might have said or done something to pull Heero's rage back, but frankly, the blonde felt that J deserved every bit of Heero's wrath, and that Heero, most of all people, deserved the right to lay the full extent of his vengeance upon the old scientist.

Meanwhile, Duo had a very different perception of the matter. “Heero, you fucking ass! Stop being such a pigheaded moron and get the fuck out of here with Quatre!” he shouted, trying to pull his arm free of J's, but found the motion in vain. He was still afraid to try much more than that. “I can take fucking care of myself without any outside help, thanks!”

To be perfectly honest, Duo was beyond pissed that Heero had decided to insert himself into the situation. Yes, he was flattered that Heero cared enough to be pushed to such an extent of anger on his account, but it wasn't necessary, as far as Duo was concerned. He knew he would eventually find a way to worm himself out of trouble - he always had before, and there was no reason as to why this should be an exception to the rule - and Heero's continued presence was threatening to ruin fruits of the risk he'd just taken on Quatre's account. Sometimes, he really wished Heero's actions weren't so ruled by his passions, though he knew he sounded quite hypocritical thinking such a thing.

“Silence, brat!” snapped J, interrupting Duo's string of mental grumbling. He reeled Duo back towards him and pulled his free, human hand back, landing a rough smack across the side of Duo's face. The force of the slap twisted Duo's head around and left a raw, slightly bloody handprint on the side of his face. Duo's head hung to the side, his eyes frozen wide with shock; he'd never expected that!

Upon seeing J hit Duo, Quatre was quick to jump back, pressing himself against the wall. It didn't take any stretch of his Sense to know that J's fatal mistake had been physically hurting Duo in Heero's presence. The reaction was sure to be a surge of raw emotion.
Unsurprisingly, Quatre's prediction was completely on-target. Mere seconds later, Heero's head snapped up, his mouth twisted into a snarl and his eyes blank circles of Prussian blue and murky shadow. The air hissed around him, and almost seemed to be sucked into the aura of rage that hovered around him. Faster than a flash of lightning, Heero launched himself towards J, a terrible yell rising in the back of his throat.

J was quick to realize the danger of the situation, and hurriedly threw Duo away, sending the still-dazed youth stumbling into the wall, against which he exploded into a static flurry of confused particles. Sensing the impending danger, the dark cloud of atoms zoomed out of the tight, bottlenecked hallway, landing in a solid sprawl on the floor in Quatre's vicinity by the door moments later. Both were too riveted by the scene unfolding before them to even consider making a break for it.

By this point, Heero was nearly right on top of J, his outstretched hands hardly inches from the old man's exposed neck. Things were moving so quickly, and yet, they still almost seemed to be occurring slower than physically possible. In a panic, J took a few hasty, impressively nimble steps backwards, and then, with a bit of quick improvisation, grabbed a tall vase on a nearby table and flung the ceramic pot at the speeding teenager who was just seconds away from snapping his neck.

The vase had its desired effect as it shattered against Heero's head, large shards of pottery cutting his skin and flying past him like projectiles; the old, thorny roses that had been wilting in the pot left pink scratches on his already raw flesh as they sailed by and grazed him. Heero collapsed out of the high arc that had shaped his forward throttle towards J, and landed upon the floor on all fours, panting and sputtering as he fought for the energy that had long since left his body. All his power had been drained by the Zero spell, and Heero barely had the strength to move. Still, clawing himself forward, not at all willing to give up just yet, Heero called upon the dregs of his strength to summon up enough psychic energy to impede J as he tried to escape, commanding the door at the end of the hall to slam closed and lock itself, blocking J from the kitchen and the backyard door. With a satisfied grunt, Heero smirked at J's back before completely collapsing to the floor.

J whirled around, anger apparent on his gnarled features as he glared at Heero's prone body, lying in a puddle of old water amid the broken ceramic shards and dead flowers. He stalked towards his adopted grandson, nudging him roughly with one toe as he growled, “What did you do, boy? Since when did you know a trick like that? Eh? Speak up!” He paused for a moment, and then kicked Heero harder, though it did nothing to make him stir. “Answer me, boy!”

J was so preoccupied with Heero and his displeasure at being stopped so abruptly, he didn't notice Duo, who had since gotten to his feet and now loomed beside the stairs like a phantom, blocking the other end of the narrow hall. His eyes were dark, almost as dark as Heero's, narrowed and sparked with a flame that made him look almost inhuman. Clutched in one hand was a long piece of broken pottery, its sharp edges digging into Duo's palm and making him bleed a bit, though the longhaired mechanic hardly seemed to notice.

Slowly, he started to approach J with lethargic movements that made him seem like a grisly demon out of a bad horror film. J was just about to jam his foot into Heero's side once more when the heavy thuds of Duo's boots on the hardwood floors finally registered in his ears. Seeing the pair of black shoes enter his field of vision, planting themselves on either side of Heero's body, he looked up, horrified to find Duo standing above Heero protectively, the ceramic shard raised forward like a sword and pointed dangerously close to J's neck. “Go on, kick him again,” Duo purred, his voice calm, yet barbed with a poisonous quality that promised vengeance. “I fucking dare you.”

For the first time, it was truly beginning to dawn upon J how much the tables had been turned, and his fear was apparent as his round spectacles slipped down his nose and revealed the white rounds of his eyes. The only sounds he could hear were his heavy breaths and his heart, which was thundering like a stampede of horses in his ears. He glanced down at the unwavering shard Duo held aloft in his bloody hand, focusing on the glittering, deadly tip. A careful step backward put a bit more of a comfortable distance between him and the makeshift blade.

Duo remained stock-still, still glaring at J dangerously. Only his lips moved when he spoke. “You can stand there and spout all the scientific nonsense and threats you want, but that's not going to stop me from being the one to fucking kill you.”

His laughter now nervous, J's voice wavered. “You'll be arrested… you'll just help me prove my point that all you mutants are dangerous… that your place is in the lab until you can be properly regulated.”

“Mutants? You think this is about mutants? Ha!” Duo shook his head, a ghost of his usual good nature riddling his expression as he let out a short guffaw. “This was never about mutants. This is gang business now, you bastard. You hurt one of my own, I pay you fucking back. And the cops stay the fuck out of it.”

“You're being quite the idealist if you think you can kill me and get out of it,” J sneered disdainfully, eyeing Duo up and down. Despite what he said, what scared him was the fact that Duo obviously could have cared less what the consequences for his actions were-all that mattered was revenge. He had observed the way White Fang operated long enough to know the way they dealt justice.

Duo had had about enough of J's babbling by that point. He jabbed the thick shard at the old doctor again, growling, “Look, the only fucking topic under discussion is me kicking your fucking ass, so don't try and avoid it, you asshole!”

Regaining some of his former confidence, J straightened his back and said spitefully, “Well, then, boy, if you're so adamant to kill me, why don't you do it! Enough talk!”

That one goad was enough to push Duo to the edge of his limitations. “Watch me!” he screamed as he took a quick step forward. J leaned back as Duo swiped the shard at him, narrowly avoiding a deep gash across his chest. The old man was shockingly fast. Duo had expected him to have extremely cumbersome movements, especially since he had always seen the old man walk with a cane.

J continued to evade Duo's mindless jabs with the shard, backing up until he found himself pressed against the door Heero had closed and locked before he'd collapsed. Grabbing at Duo was useless, as whenever he did, Duo just allowed his mutation to save him. It wasn't long before Duo had closed the distance between them. He grabbed the collar of J's white lab coat and pressed his forearm against the man's chest, pinning him against the door. He held his sharp weapon over his head in his other hand.

Grinning darkly, J gasped, “You still won't do it. You're too afraid, aren't you, boy?”
Then, a frightening thing happened: the most sickening, perverse grin crossed Duo's lips, and his eyes burned even more with that ghoulish intensity. “I am not afraid,” he murmured almost indistinguishably. “I don't have anything to be afraid of anymore.”

However, in the lull of Duo's onslaught, J took the opportunity to possibly save himself. With a vicious shove, he pushed Duo off and started to stagger down the hall, his eyes shifting between Heero's body and the front door, and despite his rush, seriously contemplating if it was worth it to try and find a hasty way to drag Heero with him-he'd invested far too much time in that boy to just leave him.

Whirling around, Duo narrowed his eyes and wasted no time in stalking after J. He had no idea what the old scientist was thinking, and frankly it didn't matter; all he knew was that his enemy was fast nearing Heero and Quatre, which sent all manner of warning alarms off in his mind. He would thrice damn himself before he let that man even sneeze on either one of them.

Reaching out with his free hand, he was just able to grab the back of J's coat, violently jerking him backwards and wrapping him in a similar hold to the one the doctor had previously had on Quatre. His arm was bent like steel around the wretched man, and he wasted no time in placing the pottery shard against J's neck, his intent clear.

“Quatre,” he growled, looking up at his blond friend, who was still lingering at the bottom of the stairs. Quatre met his eyes, waiting for him to continue. “Wufei is next door; get over there so he knows you're okay, and tell him that I have everything under control here.”
Eyeing Duo and J warily, and knowing that now there would be nothing that would stop Duo from making J's life miserable, Quatre hesitated for a moment, unsure it was really wise to leave the braided mechanic to his own devices. But one more look at the dark expression on Duo's face was enough to confirm to Quatre that there was nothing left for him there, and no matter what he said, Duo would exact his retribution on J if it was the last thing he ever did. So instead, he said quickly, “You be careful, okay? If you die, I'll kill you.” And with that Quatre did just as Duo ordered.

When Quatre had gone, slamming the door behind him, Duo returned his attention to J, though he still kept a careful eye on Heero's prone form, which lay a foot or so in front of them. There was the slightest hint of movement from the Japanese lacrosse player, a twitching of the hand that was splayed out forward. Duo filed that away for the time being, though, deciding that he would get J out of the way so he could tend to Heero without any interruptions.

J was struggling a bit, but Duo's grip on him was faultless, and despite his surprising virility, there was no competing with Duo's young strength and anger.

Duo had taken enough of J's games, and just seeing Heero on the floor, immobile, was enough to remind him of how much J deserved to die. So, feeling absolutely no remorse within himself, he let his rage towards J completely consume him, letting reason fly in the wind for a few blissful moments as he slashed the sharp edge of the shard across the pulse of J's neck. The man let out a strangled, garbled cry of pain as the weapon's pointed tip sunk into his flesh, hot blood bubbling up around it and jetting out around the shard in sickening, thick streams of crimson. The blood soaked Duo's hands and sealed his fingers together as the sticky substance spurted out over him. Dimly, the braided teenager registered the look of absolute terror frozen permanently in J's eyes, but he was hardly moved to remove the blade from the crazy scientist's throat. Instead, he felt a rather sickening amount of pleasure watching the horrid old man slowly die.

When the life finally drained from J's body and his head rolled limply against his shoulder, Duo let the old corpse drop carelessly to the ground, ignoring the urge to dismember the grizzled body even further with a few more stabs and gashes for good measure. The possessed feeling that had overtaken him was gone, and Duo felt very much like his usual self again, though he didn't hold an ounce of regret towards his actions. He proudly flexed his hand, which was so covered in blood, it almost looked like he was wearing a long, brownish-red latex glove. It didn't even bother him that a lot of the blood had dried in his hair. The long-run results of his actions would far outweigh a heavy-duty shower.

But more importantly than that, Duo had to make sure Heero was alright. He knew that there wasn't too much to worry about, as he had seen Heero stir slightly earlier, but he couldn't help the protective instincts that were currently overtaking him. He knelt down beside his fallen lover and rolled him onto his back, hauling him into an upright position in his arms. Heero's face was dirty and scratched, dotted here and there with patches of dried blood, but he was, for the most part, unharmed, if extremely drained of energy. He seemed to be coming back around, though; his eyes were moving beneath their lids, and his lips were puckering slightly, his eyebrow twitching a bit.

“Hey… hey, Heero, buddy,” Duo whispered, giving him an encouraging shake as Heero began to display more signs of consciousness. “Come on fellah, wake up. That's it….”

At long last, Heero's eyelids fluttered open, revealing dazed, midnight blue eyes. “Nngh, Duo?” he murmured, sounding a bit befuddled. “What happened…?” He glanced downwards, immediately noticing the blood-crusted hand that was wrapped around his arm, and his eyes widened with shock. He shot out of Duo's supporting embrace and grabbed the hand, holding it close to his face for scrutiny before flinging it back at its owner and glaring at him. “You fucking moron!” he shouted, no longer reality-shocked. “What the fuck did you do to make such a fucking mess?” Heero rarely swore so colourfully in rapid succession; it was clear he was rabidly pissed at Duo for being careless.

For one of the few times in his life, Duo was unsure of what to say. He just blinked at Heero, his lips warbling between a nervous smile and an ashamed frown. Then, taking a deep breath, he slowly explained what had just transpired.

Heero seemed reluctant to believe Duo after the story was told, despite the evidence that was all around him. But for some reason, just feeling Duo's hand against his back was real enough to make him believe that he was no longer dreaming, and that the scourge of his existence had finally been put to rest. And, unsure of how to quite word the torrent of emotions that were suddenly surging through his body, all Heero could do was fling his arms around Duo's neck and hold him close until Trowa arrived with the police.

(x) X (x)

a.n.: Title credit goes to Blue Oyster Cult

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