After Dark

Part I

By Mieren

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Duo watched closely as his target entered a nearby nightclub and scowled to himself. Trust his orders to have him following an absolute pervert. There was no way he could get into that nightclub through the front door and sneaking in might cause him to lose track of his target. If nothing else, he would have to hide among the crowds and risk someone questioning his age.

Deciding it was the best he could do, he circled the building, looking for a fire escape in back. Naturally, there wasn't one. The only other opening of any sort was a small window outside of either bathroom for ventilation. His eyes roved over the tiny opening and he huffed irately. He knew he was slender, but that was ridiculous. He'd be lucky to get one leg in, let alone his entire body. Growling something obscene under his breath, he circled back to the front. He was going to have to do this the hard way.

He leaned back against a nearby building and waited for the stragglers to disperse, leaving the bouncer at the entrance alone in the dark street. Putting on his best grin, he sauntered over and acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary as he walked by. If all went well, the man wouldn't even look at him. If things didn't go well, he'd just have to knock the bouncer's head against the wall a few times and go in anyways.

"Can I see your ID?"

Duo didn't even flinch at the expected question, instead answering with a roundhouse kick that connected solidly with the much larger man's head. The bouncer staggered at the blow and stepped back, blinking questioningly at the smaller boy in front of him. Duo suddenly realized that perhaps that hadn't been the brightest move in the world. The man was easily half again his height and at least three times his weight in solid muscle. Even worse, the blow hadn't done more than piss him off. To his utter shock, the man began to laugh.

"That young, huh?" he chuckled. Duo began to bristle and considered a more damaging attack when he continued. "Go on in. But if you get caught, it's you, not me, that'll be screwed."

Duo's good nature returned immediately and he flashed his brightest grin at the bouncer before sauntering in after his target.

"Hey, thanks man," he called over his shoulder. He glanced back when he didn't get a response, shocked that the street was now completely empty. A chill ran up his spine. Not only was that man strong, but he was fast and completely silent. "I'm beginning to get the creeps about this place," he muttered to himself.

He stepped into the nightclub to see that it was just a small room with small offices around a single stairwell in the center of the walkway. He paused, uneasy. There was no one here. That feeling was amplified a thousand times when he edged down the stairs and stepped into the milling masses within the deceptively large nightclub. The place was an absolute labyrinth! It extended at least several city blocks in every direction, the staircase letting out in what appeared to be the dead center of the place. Even worse, every person here seemed to possess his habit of wearing nothing but black. He almost turned around and charged back up the stairs.

He steeled his nerves and moved forward purposefully, trying his best to ignore the hungry looks thrown in his direction. Some of the women were eyeing him with clear interest, as were a number of the men. He blushed slightly and began to move faster. Some of these people were old enough to be his grandparents!

A familiar head of shoulder-length purple hair appeared over the crowds just a short distance from him and he let out a sigh of relief. He could finish his mission and get out of here. When he was only a few feet away, he reached for his gun, thankful that he had had the foresight to bring the silencer, and swore softly when his mark moved out of his range. Stowing the gun back under his jacket, he continued pursuit.

A strong grip pulled him to a stop. Shocked and more than slightly nervous, he turned to look at the young man holding his arm, perhaps three years his senior. Pale blond hair hung to his waist, unbound, accenting his slender frame. An angular face behind the pale locks was a sharp contrast, so pale that it made his hair seem dark. It was as though he had never seen the sun. His eyes, however, were what unnerved Duo. They were so dark they were almost black. He decided it had to be a trick of the light, colored contacts or bleached hair. There was absolutely no way that coloration existed naturally. Even worse, those impossibly dark eyes were studying him with an interest that made him decidedly uneasy.

"Excuse me," Duo began before his admirer could open his mouth. "I'm with that guy." He waved one hand towards the man he was following. The dark-eyed blond peered disinterestedly towards the man in question. He suddenly stiffened and stepped back nervously.

"Pardon my boldness," he said softly, still backing away. "I didn't know." With that, he disappeared into the crowds.

After that simple declaration, Duo noticed that it was almost pathetically easy to get through the milling throng. News seemed to spread more quickly than he would have thought possible about who he was with and the crowd seemed to make an actual effort not to get in his way. Duo shivered, wondering who exactly he was chasing. This wasn't the first time he had been sent on a dangerous mission, and by all reasonable standards, this should have been a simple one. All he knew was that this man was doing something that had gotten him tagged for extermination and that was all he needed to know.

He spotted his target again almost a mile from where he had started. The lighting in this section was poor at best and the people in this area made the youth he had spoken to look like a saint. The shoulder-length purple hair with perfectly even ends made him pause again. He couldn't say why, but the color and style just didn't look natural. He eyed the dark clothes and cloak, wondering why he was the one person not wearing solid black. The pale shirt stood out horribly in the darkness. It made him easier to identify, but anyone with two brain cells to rub together would realize that it made him a perfect target. Duo circled to a deeper section of shadows within the area and froze when he ran into something from behind.

He spun easily, almost laughing at his own stupidity when he realized he had backed into a wall. The underground club had to end somewhere, after all. Keeping himself fully hidden in the darkness he had found, he pulled his gun from his jacket for a second time and carefully took aim. The purple-haired man laughed at some joke his companion had told, completely unaware of the danger. Hesitating only long enough to make sure his aim was true, Duo gently squeezed the trigger, his gun issuing a small hiss through the silencer.

The purple-haired man continued to talk to his companion, neither hearing nor feeling the shot. Duo gaped. Had he missed? He dropped his aim from the man's temple to his chest. A shot any novice could make, but the embarrassment didn't bother him. He probably wouldn't have the opportunity to make a third try. Locking his aim just to the left side of his sternum, he pulled the trigger again. The man continued to talk to his friend, still unharmed.

"Are these blanks or what?" Duo muttered under his breath, pulling the trigger three more times in rapid succession. Still nothing.

"Sir," a voice came in his ear.

Duo jumped and tried to spin to face whoever was at his side, but a firm grip on his arm stopped him. Strong hands peeled his fingers away from his gun and the weapon was pocketed by the figure in the shadows beside him. He jerked in the grip and tried to escape, but the figure held on with enough force to break his arm. The man could have put Heero to shame. He managed to squint in the darkness just enough to make out the enormous form of the bouncer he had kicked earlier. His jaw dropped and he tried to think of something to say to get him out of this mess but was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice in front of him.

"Trying to kill me, eh?"

Unbidden, Duo's eyes traveled from the bouncer to the purple-haired man who had approached while he had been distracted. He found himself looking into unearthly violet eyes so much like his own and had to suppress the urge to shudder at the sight of the elongated pupils. Instead, he put on his best poker face and snapped his jaw shut. He knew when he was captured and had been trained not to say a word in such a circumstance.

"Who put you up to it?" the man tried again, a mock smile forming on his hard features. Duo remained silent and he sighed. "Take him to one of the rooms. I'll join you in a moment."

"Yes, sir," the bouncer said. He tugged on Duo's arm meaningfully and started moving towards a door that Duo hadn't seen previously.

Duo shifted slightly, testing the grip as the man paused to open the door. With one almighty jerk, he tried to wrench free, trusting his training to give him the strength to get away. His shock was complete when the man didn't have to strain to keep him in check, merely twisting his arm to a new angle. A sickening pop echoed through the air and Duo had to fight to remain conscious as he was dragged into the room by a dislocated shoulder. The bouncer threw him to the floor and turned to stand by the only door to the room to make sure that Duo didn't try to escape.

Not that I'm in any shape to try, Duo thought wryly, twisting to a sitting position. He pulled his right arm into his lap and tried to assess the damage to his shoulder. Perhaps he should try Heero's trick and just snap it back into socket himself. He was busy aligning it when a shadow blocked the meager light in the room. Wincing, he looked up to see the purple-haired man standing by the single lamp in the room on an antique oak table. Seeing the set look on the pale features, he resumed his poker face.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" he asked, reaching down.

It took every once of Duo's willpower not to flinch away as the slender fingers closed around his right forearm. He locked his jaw but made no sound or attempt to move as he was hauled into the air by his right arm, all of his weight resting on his dislocated shoulder. A slender eyebrow raised at his refusal to fight back in any way other than his stoic silence. Duo simply stared back, his violet eyes never leaving the eerie, almost felid, gaze.

Shrugging, the purple-haired man dropped him. Duo landed silently on his feet but made no further movement. His conviction not to cry out almost vanished when the bouncer twisted his arms behind him to hold him upright and still. He managed to quell his reaction to a slight twitch of one eye. Inside, he was howling in agony. With his arm at such an angle, his humorous was pressing at the flesh of his inner arm, the head of the bone threatening to break through the muscle and skin. A strange bulge could be seen through the cloth of his jacket.

It was that bulge that caught the attention of the purple-haired man. His narrow amethyst eyes widened to their fullest extent and he moved forward to inspect the strange lump. A wry grin appeared on his pale face.

"Impressive. Even though you're hurt, you refuse to cry out." He pressed one hand firmly against the bulge in Duo's shoulder, only causing the pilot to tighten his jaw slightly. "A fully trained assassin," he commented, an impressed tone entering his voice. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

Duo stiffened slightly at the words but gave no other indication that he had heard them. In his mind, though, every vulgarity and expletive he had ever learned was running in a loop. He could handle torture, but he most definitely didn't enjoy it, and unlike Heero, he would eventually end up crying out. Since he figured he was royally screwed no matter what, he decided to go out fighting.

He paused for an instant only before doing anything, trying to gauge the man in front of him. If he threatened to do harm, it would just result in laughter or a tightened grip on his arm. A direct order not to touch his shoulder would result in a tighter grip and his target backing away. Under threat of torture, no one told their captor how to hurt them. His mark seemed intelligent and Duo was sure that he would catch that kind of comment. However, the man, for all of his strange garb, seemed rich and well educated. For all of that, he must have developed manners of a sort over his years and might become offended if Duo carefully watched his words.

Now then, he thought. How would I go about pissing off Quatre?

"Fucking pervert," Duo muttered under his breath, his comment only falling a second or two after mention of breaking him. He was certain that his captors would both hear him and hoped that, like little blond Quatre, they would be horrendously offended by his profanity. On a good day, he could almost match Wufei, and in the midst of their more heated arguments, Quatre would eventually do them both bodily harm.

The purple-haired man's eyes narrowed to slits once more before closing altogether. For a moment, Duo believed that he was trying to keep his temper in check before realizing that the man was smiling. A genuine, if twisted, smile shone from the pale face and Duo wondered how badly he had misjudged his captor.

"You're so cute," he said, causing Duo to stiffen further. "Thinking that we would break you in such a crude manner." He reached for Duo's face with one hand and pulled the violet gaze up to his own.

As he opened his mouth to say something, Duo went to work. Though his plan had not worked exactly as he had intended, he was still in range. Steeling his nerves, he dropped his weight onto his arms and kicked his legs forward, wrapping his heavily muscled limbs around the pale throat before him. The man holding him cried out and tried to pull back, but he wasn't quite fast enough to stop Duo's legs from twisting once sharply. A loud crack filled the small room.

The thud of his target hitting the floor barely registered in Duo's mind before a cluster of sickening cracks and crunches filled his ears. Another thud quickly followed the first and he realized with a sickening feeling that he had just dropped to the floor after being thrown into a stone wall. Red filled his vision as blood flowed across his eyes from some head wound that he had incurred.

This is bad, he thought grimly. I can't feel any pain. He tried to reach up to see how badly he was bleeding only to come to a horrible discovery. Oh God, I can't move. My neck is broken.

Panicking, he shifted his eyes from the growing pool of blood on the floor to the bouncer standing beside the man who shared his fate. The limp figure on the floor shuddered once before unsteadily rising. Duo's eyes widened in anger and helplessness. That was impossible!

Another realization raged through his stunned mind as the pale man came over to him. There were four bullet holes in his clothes and a small smear of red on his temple. Duo sucked a breath in through his teeth. He hadn't missed. He was dealing with someone who could probably beat one of their gundams into the ground and even worse, he no longer seemed amused.

"So," he said lightly. "Still alive are you?" Duo tried to draw back from the cold voice, but was once again reminded that he couldn't. The infernal smile returned to his target's face. "Incredible. Most people would have been dead after a blow like that. But you… you took the full force of Kentaro's throw and you're still breathing."

Yeah, but little more than that, Duo admitted to himself in defeat. He should have expected the bouncer to try to ricochet him off of the wall. He winced again with his next breath, not liking the rattling sound it produced in his throat. One of his lungs had collapsed and he had no doubt that there was much more serious damage than that. Most of the blood running across the floor was not from his head.

"Tell me," his captor continued easily, not seeming to notice the red puddle spreading across the floor and covering his expensive shoes. "Who exactly trained you and why am I a target?"

Duo opened his mouth to let out a scathing comment, but succeeded only in a hoarse gasp. He was unable to even speak. In a last show of defiance, he looked elsewhere in a blatant dismissal of the question and managed a somewhat derisive huff. His belligerent attitude evaporated in an instant when his redirected vision focused his eyes onto the back of his legs. Realization slammed home of how bad the damage was from that single blow. His head had been twisted completely backwards. His back was folded at a ninety-degree angle and from this angle, he could see the source of the bleeding. Part of his hipbone and a good number of his ribs were showing through the torn fabric of his mutilated clothes.

"Oh? Finally noticed?" he asked casually. Duo's only response was to glare at him in utmost loathing.

The purple-haired man began searching through his robes for something, muttering happily to himself as he raided various pockets. Finally, he pulled out a single syringe and a small medical bottle filled with some sort of yellow tinted liquid. He hummed some obscure cheerful tune as he filled the needle and pulled out one of Duo's arms, making absolutely sure to keep what he was doing within Duo's line of vision. Still humming aimlessly, he carefully slipped the needle into the vein near his elbow and injected the yellowish gunk into his arm.

"Kentaro," he said happily, tossing the spent syringe to the side. "Take him outside and ditch him somewhere where he can contact his friends."

Duo raised his eyes to the extremely large bouncer as he approached, wishing he could make a run for it. Something in the shot had caused his entire body to start shivering, broken neck or no. He could see the thick-fingered hand bury itself in the back of his shirt just before he was lifted off of the floor like a sack of grain. His head flopped around with the upwards jerk and he could hear the loud pop as his back fell into some semblance of alignment. He was thrown roughly over one broad shoulder and more cracks filled his ears, making him grateful that he couldn't feel anything.

"Oh, and boy," the amused voice called out. "If you happen to survive, I'd like to speak with you. You're simply too amusing of a person to not meet again. If you come back this way, just ask for me. I'm sure you already know me since I was your mark, but for the sake of formality, my name is Xellos."

Duo could only glare alternately at the small of Kentaro's back and his braid dragging on the ground as he was carried back towards the staircase in the center of the underground labyrinth. The blood running from the wounds in his back soaked his braid, leaving a red line on the floor as he was hauled away. Several of the black clad people in the club stared curiously at him and his dragging braid. One was even so bold as to throw something at his head. The bouncer immediately turned and the offender scurried away. After that, the crowds parted more easily for the man carrying him.

They reached the staircase after only a few minutes of walking. By this time, Duo was on fire. Whether it was from shock, blood loss or the drug, he didn't know, but his entire body burned and his vision spun. He was barely aware that they had left the stairs and were headed steadily down a deserted street. His vision cleared slightly when they came to a sudden stop and he was deposited roughly onto the ground. He assumed he was leaning against something since he didn't flop backwards.

He blinked and rolled his eyes upwards when a thick hand pushed something cold between his head and shoulder. Several soft beeps filled the air and he saw the bouncer walk off, leaving him. Suddenly, a voice sounded in his ear.

"You have reached Japan's national directory. How may I direct your call?"

A phone booth. He left me in a phone booth, Duo thought blankly, wondering what he was supposed to do now. He couldn't speak. Afraid that the operator would hang up, he tried to say something that would help him.

"W-winner res-residence Tokyo," he croaked. Oh, please let her understand.

"Your name?"

"Duo Maxwell," he grated out. His throat screamed from the misuse, but he forced himself to keep his voice at an audible level.

"One moment, please."

He heard the click as the operator transferred him and silently prayed that the blond would be home. Several tense moments passed while the phone rang.

"Winner residence, Quatre speaking."

Duo wanted to cry out in relief but decided that it was useless to waste that much energy. Taking as deep a breath as his battered lungs would allow, he once again forced his shredded throat to work.

"Q-Quatre."

"Duo? Is that you? How'd you're mission go?" he asked happily, mistaking the stammer for weariness.

"Need help… hurt bad, Quatre," he forced.

"Duo? What happened? Where are you?" the blond asked, a note of fear entering his normally cheery voice.

"Don't… know."

"Don't worry. Heero's already tracing the call. We'll be there in a minute, okay?" he said in a rush. "Duo? You still there? DUO!"

Duo tried to answer, but couldn't. His already shredded throat rebelled against further abuse and had shut down entirely. The frantic cries sounding in his ear began to blur with his vision, both fading out completely after a few seconds. All he knew was the pain in his neck and the raging fever that had engulfed him. Awareness of time fled from his waking mind as blackness took over.

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To Be Continued…

Ooh! I started writing on this fic again! You'll never guess what I finally decided to do with it. But feel free to guess as the fic progresses. I'll have fun with that. I may even use some of the ideas I like. I've done it with other fics.