Duo jerked awake, trying to remember what dreadful thing had happened when darkness overtook him. The images clouded his vision, but through blurry eyes he could see the enemy aiming at the remains of Wufei’s body. ‘No!’ he shouted. He wasn’t gonna let them. It took all of him to run until he was able to cover his fallen comrade. When the bullet hit him, he arched his back in pain, but bit his lip. He wasn’t giving the bastards the pleasure. Out of the corner of his eye he got to see Sally’s horrified expression. Well, he was truly and well fucked if he was seeing dead people. But maybe Sally had stayed with Wufei as much as she could, and now he was gone too… all of them were gone. He tasted blood, damn, he had cut his lip again. But then he noticed, he was panting, his heart was thrumming, darkness was creeping in again. Shit, no, he had to protect Wufei, at least to grant him his dignity until the very end. He had to avenge them all. With a strength that surprised him, Duo managed to stand and grab his friend, running to the mountains. The world stilled then. He could smell it, smoke… smoke everywhere. The heat of the fire surrounded him quickly enough. Desperation grew and his heart was going now at impossible levels, but if he fainted now he was dead, and then no one could destroy the bastards who did this. He had to, he was Shinigami for fucks’ sake. With a strong growl that concentrated all his remaining energy he jumped through the flames and kept going. He felt the burns in his legs. It hurt so much he wanted to cry, but if he didn’t cry when Heero died, he fucking wasn’t crying now. He just needed to get to the lake. Just that. Wasn’t it so damned unfair? Why it was him who needed to remain until the very end? Why did they always abandoned him? How could he ever get rid of this fucking curse? If there was a way… he’d do it, no matter the pain, nothing could be worse than this, nothing. Strength failed him then, and he fell to the water. Unable to move his limbs he realized he was going to drown. What a shitty way to go after all. His lungs were burning, but he had given up. It all went dark again.
A mission gone wrong shows Duo the future that awaits them. Could he stop it on time? Can he protect Relena and the other pilots while keeping his secrets hidden? A lot of cursing and references to violence, death, blood and suicide.
My notes: Duo goes off the deep end - with reason - after a week of torture and captivity leaves him with nightmare visions of the impending deaths of Relena and the other pilots. CW for violence, irrational behavior, self-harm and attempted suicide. Despite that, it's not drenched in angst like some other fics. Duo isn't entirely rational, but he's got his reasons. And he's pretty damn BAMF in this one.