Lowell barely had time to hear Duo's muttered curse before the shadows erupted and the two were surrounded by numerous black-clad figures. He threw himself towards the dubious shelter of a pile of rubble to his right, even as he tried to aim at the dark shapes throwing themselves at him.
"Duo!"
"Watch your back, man, there's too fucking many...." Duo's voice cut off abruptly, but when he risked a glance that way, the younger man was still on his feet, backing towards the opposite building as he danced out of the way of three of their attackers.
"Get down..." Lowell whispered into the comlink. Duo dropped to the pavement, rolling suddenly against the legs surrounding him and knocking at least one of the swarm to the ground. Reaching into his jacket pocket, Lowell pulled out two of the flare grenades. He didn't know how the hell Dorothy knew he'd need these... and didn't care much at the moment. Making a mental note that he owed her dinner again, he pulled the pin on the first and tossed it into the center of the courtyard; and closed his eyes.
There was a sharp flare of light behind closed lids; when he opened his eyes, the nightmarish scene had become even more surreal. The grenade had exploded, igniting some of the trash lying heaped around the alleyway; but the most dramatic effect was the literal rain of phosphorescent gel onto the largest cluster of cult members.
Duo shoved off the faintly glowing man he'd grabbed as a shield against the grenade, and Lowell saw him grin as he pulled his own gun and began targeting the angry swarm of no longer completely black clad attackers. Between the two of them, they were managing to hold their own, and even keep most of the gunfire non-lethal; though once the initial shock had worn off, a few of the cult members had begun to return fire with weapons previously hidden beneath the black clothing.
Taking refuge behind the twisted remains of a fallen fire escape, Lowell tried to make each shot count. He and Duo had the advantage of superior training and weaponry, however their attackers outnumbered them and seemed to suffer from an almost suicidal fervor; it was only moments before he was forced to drop the gun and grapple hand to hand with them. He caught only scattered images of Duo, who had been bowled over by another group, before all of his attention had been taken up with his own fight. In spite of himself, he found himself being forced out of his shelter and backed towards the mouth of the alley. Tripping over a body on the ground, he staggered and heard a cry as Duo was thrust towards the fence.
"Shit." With a grimace, he thrust the second flare grenade into the cluster of his attackers and threw himself backwards out into the alley. This time the detonation was met with screams as the gel bomb exploded in their faces. Rebounding quickly back into the courtyard, he managed to dispatch the temporarily blinded trio. Turning to face the fence, he was stunned to watch as Duo spun into a roundhouse kick that knocked two of his attackers to the pavement; at least one of them with a broken neck.
Fewer of the cult members were on their feet by then, and it was quickly apparent that Duo was using much less finesse in taking out his opponents. Huh... guess that's what happens when you have an ex God of Death as your partner. Shrugging mentally, Lowell decided to follow his lead. No point in wasting the money to try all of these bastards....
It was only moments later that the two found themselves panting in a sea of black clad, groaning bodies. Lowell wiped a thin trail of blood out of his eyes, and scowled down at the bullet graze along his right thigh; but other than bruises, that seemed to be the extent of his own damage. Duo had fallen to one knee, but was more winded than injured as far as he could see. Lowell took a moment to retrieve his gun from the ground, turning as the younger man shook his head dazedly and reached for the fence to pull himself back to his feet. His only warning was a choked gasp, and he spun back towards Duo as the younger man collapsed into a boneless heap at the base of the trash-strewn fence.
"Fuck... Zechs, where the hell is our backup!" He yelled, even as he started across the courtyard towards his fallen partner. No one on the ground looked to have been conscious enough to shoot the younger man, and he had heard no gunshots; not even the whistle of a silenced one. The gathering darkness made his skin crawl as he knelt to touch Duo's throat. "Duo?" To his relief, he found a pulse, though it was beating far too fast for his comfort.
/"Get him the hell away from the fence, Lowell..."/ Zechs sounded on the edge of panic though the wire.
"Zechs? What...?" Lowell turned, half expecting to see the man behind him... but they were still alone in the alley. How the hell....?
/"No time... move him. Now!"/
In spite of himself, Lowell found himself half- dragging Duo away from the fence while still trying to keep a wary eye on the shadows. He still had no clue if someone outside the small area had done something to take down his partner. They couldn't all have been in this one place... could they? The thought of being watched by more members of the cult was unnerving, and he prayed silently that it was just paranoia, coupled with the terrible stench that seemed to have become one with both his skin and Duo's, that was sending his imagination into overdrive.
A movement at the mouth of the alley caught his attention, and he dropped Duo even as he moved into a defensive crouch over his unconscious partner.
"Status!" Zechs barked, before moving out of the mouth of the alley and into the courtyard. A team of Preventers in protective armor followed him into the area, spreading out to cover the fallen bodies strewn across the pavement. Lowell sagged back on his heels in relief, and let his gun hand drop to his side.
"Preventer down..."
Zechs' hand dropped onto his shoulder, even as he fell to his knees next to Duo. "Sally and Dorothy are already on their way... are you okay?"
"I... that was... a little more than I expected when I agreed to play bait. What the fuck took you guys so long?"
"I had to wait for them." Zechs nodded absently at the squad of agents sorting the living suspects from the dead ones, though he was still working at examining Duo. "I could find you, but they wouldn't have a chance in hell of tracking you through that maze."
Lowell bit back the instinctive question of how Zechs' had tracked them if the rest of the Preventers couldn't. There would be time for questions later, after they were sure Duo would be all right. Zechs peeled away the top layer of clothing from the younger man, with a disgusted grimace for what appeared to be a layer of slime on the filthy cloth from where Lowell had dragged him.
"No blood... good," the blond muttered as he checked Duo's pulse again. "What the hell is that smell...?"
"No idea...and I really don't want to know," Lowell muttered. "I'm just hoping it comes off...."
"No shit..." Zechs sighed. "Duo... come on, kiddo... don't do this to me... wake up."
There was no response.
"Was he touching anything else besides the fence when he dropped?" Zechs asked grimly, barely looking up from the pale face beneath his fingers as he slapped Duo lightly.
"No...not that I was aware of...."
"Shit..." Zechs turned his head to regard the fence, and Lowell bit back still more questions at the dark look on the man's face. "That was probably enough though..."
"He looked shaky right before though, and he'd stopped being careful when he was fighting."
"That doesn't surprise me any..." Zechs muttered. "I'm just glad he held it together long enough to kick some ass."
"You expected something like this? And you let him go on this mission?"
"No!" Zechs snapped at him, then sighed. "None of us expected this..." The man threw another haunted look at the fence. "If I'd thought he'd end up at the...site of the murders I'd have sent Dorothy in with you...."
"Yeah... that wouldn't have tipped off the bad guys..." Lowell frowned. "How do you know this is the site of all the murders?"
"You'll have to trust me on that one..." Zechs shuddered. "Which probably explains that damn smell."
"Zechs!" They both looked up as Dorothy and Sally arrived on the scene at a dead run. Sally took one look at the situation and dived to her knees next to Duo, her medical bag open in her hand.
"Injuries?"
"No..." Zechs shook his head. "None that we can find, anyway... he's unconscious, fast pulse rate... signs of shock..." He glanced at Dorothy, and for the first time, Lowell saw hints of panic in the pale blue eyes. "He touched the fence...."
She looked over Lowell's shoulder and turned pale. "That's... oh god...don't tell me..."
"Yeah," he winced. "And trust me...we haven't found all the bodies yet."
"Shit..." Dorothy growled, even as she picked up one of Duo's hands in hers. "What the hell was he thinking?"
"According to Lowell, he was being affected just by proximity... it disoriented him enough he may not have realized until too late..."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Lowell was almost relieved to find that he wasn't the only one mystified by the conversation, as Sally looked up long enough to glare at the two agents. "Touching a fence shouldn't have knocked him out unless it was electrified, and there aren't burns on his hands...."
"That's... not necessarily true in Duo's case..." Dorothy muttered, though it was obvious that very little of her attention was on the blond doctor. "Can't they give you any damn advice? And are we sure it's not this... crap... that's all over him?"
"They're... just a little occupied right now..." Zechs glanced over his shoulder and winced. "And I am pretty sure that's organic. We need to get him out of here... he's going to overload if we don't."
"Uh, Zechs, I hate to say this, but he's already reached overload," Dorothy growled. "That is why he's currently unconscious..." She frowned. "Organic, yeah. But would it be considered inanimate? He did react almost the same way at the Jameson's."
"If someone doesn't start making sense soon..." Sally raised her head and glared at the two agents. "You'll all be suspended. What the fuck is going on here?"
They gaped at her, and then flushed almost in unison while Lowell watched in fascination. Zechs blinked, then seemed to focus on something just past Dorothy's shoulder. Shaking his head a little, he looked back at Sally. "There's no time. We can't risk him waking up here. We need to get him back to Purgatory, now. Lowell, give me a hand..."
"Purgatory?"
"The Homicide office..." Zechs gritted out. "Sally... please. You have to trust us..."
She stared at them for a long moment, then seemed to reach a decision. "Alright. But I had better get answers and they'd better be damn good." Turning away, she motioned for one of the paramedic teams that had arrived on the scene while they had all been otherwise distracted. "Preventer down. I need him at the clinic as of two hours ago."
"Yes ma'am." A stretcher appeared and before Lowell or Zechs could react, Duo had been lifted carefully onto it.
"Jordan... I need a forensics team to go over every square millimeter of this place... keep it under guard and..." She glanced at Zechs. "Concentrate on that fence."
"Yes Ma'am, Captain Po."
"Let's go... you too, Lowell. Are you injured?"
"No..." He muttered, shaking his head a little. He wondered if maybe he'd taken a blow to the head that was keeping anything from making sense... but that wouldn't explain Sally's confusion either. "I'm okay."
"Zechs...give him a hand. I want Duo in my lab as soon as possible..."
He stood, with a hand up from Dorothy, as Zechs stared blankly at nothing. Then the man snapped out of his daze and followed the stretcher bearing Duo to the waiting ambulance.
Zechs closed his eyes, slumping into the passenger seat of the car and trying to block out the nightmare visions of the alley. It had been disturbing enough for the others, and they hadn't seen the cluster of dead souls milling around the fence where they'd all died. All were still bearing the marks of the cult's torture, and most did not appear to have any true sense that time had passed...or that the torture had ended when they'd died. He'd seen the horror on Treize's face as the older ghost had followed Solo into the cluster of dead to try to get answers; and then to convince them that they were dead and could leave this nightmare of their death behind.
I can't even imagine what Duo must have felt, touching the place where that many people had been tortured. This is my fault... I shouldn't have waited for more backup... I should have gone after them as soon as we realized it was a cult...
"Zechs?" Dorothy put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up in shock to see that they were parked behind the main Preventers complex. "Are you...?"
"I'm fine..."
"Yeah... right. You can't tell me that whatever was on that fence didn't affect you too." She glared at him. "You're white as a... as... well..."
"You left out the part where I threw up in the alley," he muttered, completely without humor. His eyes were locked on the ambulance directly before them, where Duo was being unloaded. Sally was hovering over the younger man, though there was nothing she could see to treat him for. Unseen by anyone else was the nun also hovering over Duo with a worried look on her face.
"Yeah well... lots of people were doing that." She nodded at where Lowell was climbing out of the ambulance as well, looking just as pale and shaken as Zechs. "Let's go... he's going to need us there to focus on...."
"Focus... Shit Doro... you're a genius..." He stumbled as he realized what they had to do, then grabbed her and in sheer relief... kissed her hard. She tensed in shock... then melted into his arms for a moment before shoving him back.
"Zechs? What are you doing?"
"Thanking you. I need you to go to Purgatory...grab the cross... and... um... do you have any jewelry without sentimental value?"
He could see the moment understanding hit her. "Right. Meet you guys there..." She nodded at the door to the clinic. "Stay with him?"
"Yeah. Hurry, though."
Dorothy dived into the back room of Purgatory, concentrating on finding Duo's cross so that she wouldn't think about the kiss. Not that that seemed to be working, since she could still feel the hard, warm pressure of Zechs' mouth against hers.
It's no big deal... he was just relieved. It doesn't mean anything, she told herself firmly, as she threw open the trunk with Duo's belongings and fished out the velvet bag holding the cross. He was in love with Treize... and now Duo. You're just the girl they both feel comfortable hanging around with. Don't make a big deal out of this and fuck that up too...
Swearing softly, she turned to dig through her own small trunk of belongings to find a neutral piece of jewelry. And it's all well and good to think this will work, but I hope he has an idea of how to imprint this... Finding a plain silver ring that was a little too big for her to wear comfortably, she slammed the trunk closed and ran for the door. He's got to be okay... we can't do this without him...Not anymore.
tbc