This one's a bit longer than the ones that have gone before it. Gomen! I
just got a little overenthusiastic, and I couldn't find a good cutoff
point.

--
Katsu "O-ka-ne" no Miko
"Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
kann man uns am Himmel sehen
wir haben Angst und sind allein...
Gott weiss ich wil kein Engel sein..." (~Ramms+ein~)



Warning: The characters belong to who they belong to and not me. Don't
sue me, I'm not worth your time. Special thanks to Laurell K. Hamilton
for writing the Anita Blake novels.

Addtional warning: Characters acting wildly OOC. You have been warned.

Additional Additional warning: Alternate reality fic. Events that have
happened or will happen in this reality not necessarily connected to what
happened in the real series in any way. Don't wave the time line at me, I
am beyond it now. A HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Additional Additional Additional warning: Extreme supernatural action.
Supernatural abilities are as defined by me in the shadow world, where
this takes place.

Additional Additional Additional Additional Warning: Story contains Yaoi,
Bad language, violence, and pretty much everything deemed as "unwholesome"
by Focus on the Family. (My Arch Nemesis...) If you are easily offended, do

not read. Also, extra warning is attached to this due to the "YUCK!" factor

during some scenes.


Acherontia Atropos Part VII


Until that time, I'd thought that I'd seen at all, that no horror the world
could throw at me could really touch me. I thought my sense of humor was in
impenetrable mask.

I'd seen a lot of ugly things in this war, a lot of things that I'd like to
forget, but know I'll never be able to no matter how long I live. Some
things stain the soul, but they're stains that you can live with. I still
had nightmares about everything I'd seen, but I'd gotten to the point that
I was used to them, because it was either that or go completely insane or
turn into Heero. Yeah, I'd thought that nothing could bother me.

God, I was wrong. I was so wrong.

Yan was suddenly bumped to the top of the list of bad shit I've seen. The
only things that were still over him were the carnage in Maxwell Church and
the dim memory that I have of the aftermath that killed my family and
destroyed my home when I was too young to know what violence was. Most of
the death I'd seen in the war were the clean, quick endings of mobile suits
or carriers exploding. Nothing like this.

There was something indecent about it, fundamentally wrong. Death is so
much more personal when it's someone you know, and violent death is the
ultimate insult. It becomes an attack on you. It's not really fair, but
that's how it works. Your emotions get so tangled up that you feel like
your one massive knot inside. On one hand, you feel guilty that the person
died, and you didn't. On the other, you suddenly feel relief so profound
that it almost brings tears to your eyes, relief that it was the other
person and not you, and that only makes you feel worse. You start wondering
if there was any way that you could have saved the other person, any way at
all, and even if there wasn't, you feel like shit because there should have
been.

I wouldn't be the God of Death if I couldn't admit that. It didn't make it
any easier, though. Somewhere between the rational and the emotional,
communication had broken down.

I knelt there in the moonlight, clutching my ribs with one hand and with my
face in the other, and asked an uncaring sky why the hell I'd left my room
that night without my gun.

Quatre hovered over me like a worried beam of sunlight. I ignored him. I
didn't particularly want to talk to anyone, least of all someone that would
try to pull me out of the guilt and self-accusation that I was wallowing
in. I wanted that guilt, because I knew it was /mine/ and it was not
something that I could ever lose, just because some vampire decided to get
pissy.

The other guys decided that there was no way we could clean this up or hide
the body, so we'd just have to do some damage control so that no one would
figure out that we'd been there.

I was glad that we weren't going to hide Yan's body. It would make life
difficult when they found it, but at least his parents wouldn't have to go
through the agony of not knowing what happened to their son. They'd be
hurting, yes, but at least they'd know.

Parents.

Ayako's parents still had no idea what had happened to her. There was no
way to tell them.

The guys left me alone while they cleaned up as much evidence as they
could. When they were done, Heero came over to me. I didn't say anything,
and he didn't say anything, either. The blood had long since soaked through
my pants and gone completely cold, numbing my legs, so wasn't even sure if
I could get up. Besides, when the power that had come from Yan had left me,
it took what energy I'd had left, so I don't think I could have walked if I
even managed to stand. Heero solved the problem for me. Without even asking
if it was ok, he picked me up and carried me in his arms like I didn't
weigh anything, all the way back to our room.

The fight had been far enough away from the dorms that no one got woken up
by the shooting, or at least if they had, they weren't out and about in the
halls. Heero carried me right into the bathroom, a very smart move on his
part, and managed to squeeze both of us into the tiny space by putting me
in the shower. My pants and shoes were completely ruined, not that I cared.
I just sat in the shower where he'd put me gently down and stared at the
dirty blood that was starting to drip from the cuffs of my pants and run
down the drain.

I'm not sure where it went from there. I managed to get myself cleaned up,
I'm pretty sure of that. Washing the dirt and the blood off of my legs and
arms went a long way toward making me feel better, though mental and
emotional dirt is unfortunately not nearly that easy to clean away. I used
more of Heero's shampoo to get the blood out of my hair, and the scent of
it comforted me. I got out of the shower under my own power and made it out
to my bed, where I let Heero take care of my ribs. If I hadn't been so
tired, I might have been worried by how nice Heero was being. As it was, I
really didn't care.

The next morning, I was awakened bright and early by the sound of sirens.
There were cop cars all over the place. Heero was sitting by my bed in the
hard wooden chair that seemed to have become a permanent fixture of the
room.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

I tried to stretch and winced as my ribs protested loudly. I did manage to
dredge up a little of my normal good humor, and I flashed Heero a grin. He
wasn't impressed. "I've felt better." I said, "But I'll live." I glanced
out the window again. The cop cars appeared to be multiplying. "They found
the mess pretty quickly, didn't they?" That's right, the mess. Think of it
as a mess, not as what's left of someone you know...

"Aa. Class has been cancelled. I overheard that the school is bringing in
grief counselors."

"Great." I wasn't sure whether to be sarcastic or not. No class was great,
it gave me some time to sit and deal with it before I had to go meet the
woman. Grief counselors...not so great. I would certainly be named as one
of Yan's friends, which meant that they'd probably come hunting
specifically for me, which also meant that they would be very hard to
escape. I didn't want to talk to a damn grief counselor. Psychologists are
right about the level of lawyers, in my opinion. Both stick to you like a
second skin when there's something they want. The only difference is the
type of coin.

Besides, I didn't need anyone to tell me that it wasn't my fault.
Intellectually, I was well aware that it wasn't my fault. I knew exactly
who was at fault, and I was planning to deal with them as soon as possible.

Try telling THAT to a counselor, though. You'd probably end up in a room
with rubber wallpaper.

I was feeling a lot better today, anyway. I was still a little emotionally
wound, but the bright light of day does a lot. It makes everything seem
brighter. And there aren't any vampires.

I don't know how long I stared out the window at the black and whites (just
another name for cop cars). Heero finally just stood up. The chair scraped
loudly across the floor, which is what drew my attention back to him.
"Where are you going, Heero?"

"Mission. I was just waiting until you'd woken up."

Despite the emotional load I was trying to deal with, I perked up, ever so
slightly. Heero had waited around to tell me what was going on himself,
instead of just leaving that to Quatre. It seemed that my little rant at
him yesterday had done some good, after all. Things were looking up. "Ok.
Be careful." I grinned.

Heero hesitated for a moment before gently grabbing one of my shoulders as
I started turning away again. I jumped at the unexpected touch.

"Trowa and I will be back tomorrow." He hesitated...he actually hesitated.
Mark this day on the calendar. "Don't go anywhere without your gun." Was
all he said. Then he abruptly let go and walked out of the room, shutting
the door behind him.

If I hadn't known better, I would have said he was nervous. What an
interesting thought.

***

The grief counselors tracked me down and attacked a lot earlier than I'd
thought they would. I was only half dressed, and my hair wasn't even
braided. I'd actually been trying to avoid that chore as long as possible.
Heero had let me go to sleep with it wet and it was a complete rat's nest,
though it wasn't really his fault, since he has short hair that he never
has to do anything with. Really, the only other people I knew that would
understand the trials of long hair were Wufei, whose hair wasn't really
that long, and Relena, who I wasn't about to sit down and have a chat
session with.

I was right in the middle of brushing my teeth when they started knocking,
calling my name through the door. I didn't wait around to see if they would
actually unlock the door and come in; I just grabbed my shirt and my
hairbrush, stuck the Browning .40 in the back of my pants waistband, opened
the window, and went right out onto the ledge that lined the building with
my toothbrush still clamped between my lips. Being on the third floor was
no problem at all. I pulled the window shut behind me and ran along the
ledge until I got to the window that I was pretty sure belonged to Wufei's
room. It would be a perfect place to escape to, since I didn't think Wufei
was back yet, and he had one of the few singles on the floor. The other
option was Quatre and Trowa's room, but that was on the other side of the
hall, and I just didn't feel like taking the detour.

The window locks were pathetically easy to open. I don't know why the
school even bothered with them. They weren't much of an obstacle. Then I
was sweeping the curtains aside and pulling the window shut behind me. Time
elapsed, thirty seconds. Damn I'm good.

"What do you want, Duo?"

"AI!" I yelled...well, let's be honest. I yelped. I don't like being
startled, and I'd been expecting the room to be empty. "Just escaping the
leeches, Wu-man." I tossed my shirt and hairbrush onto the room's desk and
headed toward the bathroom. Wufei was laying on the room's single bed with
one arm thrown over his eyes. "Back a little early, aren't you?"

"My enemies were weaker than I had thought. I finished them quickly." Wufei
said. He sounded very tired, and therefore, very grouchy. Not that Wufei
isn't always grouchy. Mornings just make it worse. "I just got back a few
hours ago and was attempting to catch a little rest when all hell broke
loose." He made that statement sound accusatory, like it was somehow my
fault that the school suddenly looked like it was hosting a cop convention.
I hate it when people automatically assume that any trouble was caused by
me in some way. Never mind the fact that this time, it was.

I finished brushing my teeth, then rinsed my toothbrush. Life seems a bit
brighter when you're feeling minty fresh, and when I bounded back out of
the bathroom to get my hairbrush, my cheer wasn't as forced as it had been.
It had also helped that we still had some of the painkillers left, so my
ribs weren't hurting me too badly. "Well, you don't have to worry about
class today, Wu-man. It's been cancelled."

"Cancelled? What the hell happened while I was gone?" Wufei sat up, loose
black hair trailing in front of his face. He'd lost his pony tail holder
somewhere, maybe on the mission. Who knows.

"Vampire attack." I said simply before I plopped down in Wufei's chair and
started brushing my hair out. The Browning dug into my back and I pulled it
out of my waistband and set it on the desk. I needed to get a shoulder
holster. A gun in the waistband might look cool, but it's uncomfortable as
all hell, because no matter where you put it, it'll dig into you when you
sit. Plus it's easier to draw from a shoulder holster.

Wufei eyed the gun as if he was expecting it to jump up and bite him, and
he was trying to decide what martial arts move to kill it with. I guess he
was a little surprised because he hadn't seen it before. "Well, Duo, maybe
you'd like to start at the beginning."

He's so cute when he's trying to control his temper. But for once, instead
of poking at him, I just told him everything, from how I got the gun, to
the woman I was supposed to meet, to the events of last night, all as
emotionlessly as possible. I /did/ leave out the entire bit about the weird
energy that I had felt, since I wasn't sure what it was or even if I had
been imagining it. When I got done, I was still trying to get the knots out
of my hair, and Wufei had rearranged himself into a lotus position and was
watching me thoughtfully. "How did you make the vampire follow your
orders?" He asked. He was taking the entire thing a lot more calmly than
I'd been expecting, but then again, Wufei can be one cool cucumber when
he's not ranting about justice.

I grimaced internally. I don't know why I had thought I could keep
something from Wufei. He was the first one that had asked, though, so I'd
been hoping that he would just let it slide. "I don't really know, Wu-man.
I can't think of any way to explain it without sounding all mystical and
shit."

"Then go ahead and sound mystical." Wufei snorted. "I think I should be
able to get the gist of what you're saying."

I blew a long breath out and went back to attacking my hair. "When Yan
died, he released some kind of...energy, power, magic, I don't know what to
call it...into the air. It ran right to me like I was a magnet and filled
me up until I thought I was going to explode. I somehow used it to actually
take control of the vampire and make it let me go. It escaped almost
immediately, though."

Wufei didn't say anything. He seemed to be thinking pretty hard. I shrugged
and went on brushing. Wufei was a smart guy, smarter than me. I figured
that if there was any good explanation for what I'd said, he'd come up with
it. He didn't come out with an answer, though. Instead, he just said, "Let
me think about this." and lay back down.

"Think all you want. If you figure it out, tell me." I'd finally gotten all
the knots out of my hair. Automatically, my fingers started braiding it.
"Oh yeah, Wu-man...you want to help Quatre be my backup when I meet the
woman today?"

"You're still going?"

"I said I would. Besides...I really do think that this has to be something
important." I tied off the end of my braid with the elastic band that I'd
wrapped around the handle of the brush.

"I'll go with you."

"You want one of the guns? Heero left the Beretta for Quatre to use. That
leaves us with an extra."

"No thanks. I'll stick with my sword."

I shrugged. "I'll take it along anyway. It never hurts to have a backup
weapon." I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. "Ne, Wu-man?"

"Aa." He was starting to get the tired/grouchy/annoyed/potentially
homicidal Wufei note in his voice.

"Can I hide out in here until it's time to go?"

Wufei blew a long sigh out. "Just try to shut up long enough to let me take
a nap."

***

"Duo, are you SURE that this is the right place?" Quatre asked
incredulously.

Wufei just stayed quiet, but he had a wild look in his eye that I wasn't
sure I liked.

Not that I blamed him. Whatever kind of place Carmelita's was, it
definitely wasn't for family fun. The all leather window display made that
pretty obvious.

I wiggled my shoulders underneath my black windbreaker, trying to settle
the straps of my new shoulder rig a little more comfortably. I'd managed to
convince the guys to leave for town a little early so we could stop and go
accessory shopping for the new toys. I had gotten a deluxe shoulder rig
with that had places to put extra ammo, and Quatre had picked up an
inter-pants holster. After I saw that, I got one for myself, too. We'd
actually bought the holsters, though the original plan (at least in my
mind) had been to steal them. I decided on second thought that it wouldn't
be a good idea when I noticed that the owner of the shop was watching me
closely...and that he was cleaning a rifle that looked like it would make a
really big hole. I'd also bought a black windbreaker from the clothing
store next to the gun shop...it had nice big pockets for even /more/ ammo,
since there is no such thing as too much ammo, and besides, I needed
something to hide the shoulder rig with. Walking down a busy street with my
guns showing just didn't seem like a good idea, especially considering how
jumpy the cops were going to be after the thing at the school. At least it
was still cool enough to wear a jacket. I had no idea what I was going to
do once we hit late spring. Melt,
probably.

So that brought us back to the present. Carmelita's. The all leather window
display. The blacked out windows. The peeling paint on the outer walls. The
bright red neon announcing the name. What a place. Oh boy.

"Yeah, I'm sure this is the right place." I said. "The lady answered the
phone with 'Carmelita's.' And this is the address that I was given." I eyed
the door with a great deal of trepidation. I'm not going to say I'm
innocent. Not by a long shot. But considering that I hadn't even gotten all
the way home, I really didn't think I needed to know about the weirder
varieties quite yet, which I had a sinking suspicion this place was devoted
to. I took a deep breath. "Ready to go in?"

"I'm never going to be ready." I heard Wufei mutter. He's surprisingly
prudish for a guy that was once married. I don't know any of the gory
details on that one, though. He was reluctant enough to even admit to it,
let alone get down to brass tacks.

Quatre wisely said nothing. He nervously tugged at his own jacket, a white
one that went with his light pink shirt and did a good job of concealing
the Beretta, which he'd tucked into the small of his back. I'd asked Wufei
if he was armed, and he'd said yes. God only knew what he was armed with,
though, considering he didn't have his sword with him, since it would have
been a little too obvious. I was afraid to ask again.

"Here we go." I said under my breath, and pulled the door to the little
shop of forbidden things open.

It was like walking into a cave. Well, kind of. Maybe not. It was certainly
cave-like in the fact that it was dim and fairly cool inside. That was
where the resemblance ended, though. Heavy metal music echoed pounded
through the shop so loudly that if Quatre and Wufei said something when we
first entered, there was no way I could have heard them. Bass pounded along
the floor and buzzed up through me. The air was chockingly thick with some
kind of musky incense that I think was supposed to lend it a sensual,
dangerous air. It was just cloying. And there were other things under the
heavy scent, faint whiffs of blood and other bodily fluids that I really
didn't care to think about.

I turned around to locate Quatre and Wufei. Wufei was doing his best not to
look at anything. Quatre was openly staring at a glass case that contained
some whips, several sets of handcuffs that glinted in the harsh light of
the display, and several...somethings. I've seen some seedy, nasty things
in my life, but I wasn't even sure what the hell these were. Quatre gave me
a wide-eyed look, half-shouting to be heard over the music. "Duo?" he
pointed at something that could have been underwear. Maybe. If you turned
your head and squinted. "Is it anatomically possible to put on something
like that?"

I did my best not to stare. Yeah, that's me, Duo, the well-traveled Gundam
Pilot that's seen it all. Right. "Hell if I know!" I yelled. Someone tapped
me on the shoulder and I spun around, my hand automatically going for my
gun. Me? Jumpy? Of course not.

The only way the woman in front of me could have worn less was if she
stripped. I kid not. I hastily directed my attention to her face, so that I
wouldn't either run away or start drooling. Ok, maybe I'm not gay. Who the
hell knows. This wasn't going to be the place I figured it out, though,
that was for damn sure. She had a nice face, though she was wearing way too
much eye make up. It made her look tired, instead of achieving the desired
effect. Whatever that was. Her hair was very, very blonde, obviously a
color that came out of a bottle, and it really offset her chocolatey skin
tone.

"Er...gomen, ojou-san. What can I do for you?" I grinned disarmingly.

The woman gave me a hard look, the expression on her face changing from
something that had been almost predatory to nearly maternal concern. Put
with the rest of her getup, it looked too weird for words. "Aren't you a
little young to be in here?" She said sharply, pointing a finger at me. She
had on fake fingernails. They were painted bright red.

I backed up a step so that her fingernail wouldn't impale me, and shrugged
helplessly. "We're supposed to meet someone here."

"A lot of guys your age are supposed to meet someone here. So you met
someone. Now get out and come back after you've reached puberty." She
gestured toward the door and moved forward, obviously planning on chasing
us out, if need be.

I dodged. "My name is Duo. I called yesterday. One of you ladies told me to
come down here for a meeting. I'm not joking!"

Whatever the magic word in my spiel had been, it stopped the woman cold.
"Duo, huh?"

I nodded. That's me. Ever helpful.

"She didn't say anything about any friends. Just one guy named Duo." The
woman crossed her arms, mercifully covering her breasts. I had been
starting to get embarrassed on her behalf.

I risked a glance back at Wufei and Quatre. Quatre was blushing. Wufei
looked like he was going to faint. He hissed at me. "Don't you dare leave
us alone out here!"

"I'm not going anywhere without my back up, ma'am. I hope that won't be a
problem."

The woman glared at us, then finally shrugged. "It's Carmen's own business
if she wants to take on three boys. Follow me." I let out a soft sigh of
relief and followed her, doing my best not to look at her butt. I'll never
understand how someone can stand wearing a thong. Dear god.

At least we had a name now, though. Carmen. I was hoping that was who I
talked to. If not, we were in big trouble.

She led us quickly through the little shop of horrors, which was nice,
because it didn't give us a chance to look at anything else. The nice
little conga line we formed followed the woman down a set of steps covered
with extremely worn, thin carpet and into a long, bare hallway. The hall
was lit starkly with several bare light bulbs. It was white, and the paint
was peeling badly, revealing an older coating of grey paint beneath it.
Graffiti covered every available surface. There were doors on every side,
covered with the same crappy white paint as the rest of the hall. I heard
faint clanking sounds and whimpering when I went past one of the doors. I
really didn't want to know.

When we were almost at the end of the hall, the woman stopped and opened a
door. "Go in. I'll get Carmen." She shut the door behind us.

Silently, all three of us took in the room. It was tiny, no more than four
meters by four meters. There was a bed along one of the walls, and it took
up most of the room. The light was provided by a dim, unshaded light bulb,
and there were all sorts of interesting looking hooks on the ceiling. There
was also a chest against the wall opposite the bed. It had faded red hearts
stenciled on it. That was it. The only places to sit were the bed and on
top of the chest. All three of us opted to stand.

Wufei glared at me. "What kind of place have you brought us to, Duo?"

"Sorry! I didn't know." I shrugged helplessly. "You have to admit, it's
certainly educational." I winked at Quatre while Wufei sputtered.

"Kisama!"

There was a scuffling sound outside the door, and the knob turned. As
nonchalantly as possible, I tucked my hand into my jacket for easier access
to my gun. Call me crazy, but places like this make me nervous for some
strange reason. The door opened, and woman entered.

The best word I can think of to describe her is "statuesque." She was tall,
she was beautiful, and even better for my personal comfort, she was wearing
a bathrobe. It was dark green, threadbare, and very tattered, which looked
odd when compared to her heavy eye make up, her careful done up curly brown
hair, and her pale skin. But it was a hell of a lot better than what the
woman upstairs had been wearing, so I was definitely not going to complain,
even if it looked a little odd. Without hesitating, she padded over to me.
She wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was still at least a foot taller than
me. "You're Duo." She said.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

The woman held out a hand and I hesitantly took it. Her handshake was firm
and business-like, nothing more. She smiled, and suddenly  the hair on my
arms stood on end. "I'm always happy to meet another practitioner of the
Art."