01-Mar-2001

Note: The arc is currently under a massive revision, and will be under revision for at least another four to six months, so there will be some discontinuities until I can get everything fixed.

Author: Dan
Genre: epic AU
Pairings: NA
Disclaimer: not mine, don't sue.
Warnings: AU, a positive plethra of OCS, high supernatural and yech factor, angst
Further Note: terms from such literary gems as Laurel K. Hamilton are used and then twisted beyond all recognition.

Of Wolf And Man by Dan

Part Seven

Duo met me on my way out of the building. I sensed him waiting there as patiently as death long before he ever sensed me, but I gave him no indication that I knew he was there. That would have unsettled him, and an unsettled Shinigami is a violent Shinigami. He watched me as I made my way towards my car. His eyes resting upon my back like a hand at my shoulder. If I had been in my other form I would have raised my hackles.

"Relena." I stopped in the middle of the parking lot. There was a lot of space between us. Enough space for him to clear his holster and take aim before I could reach him, if he felt the need. Apparently, Chang had informed him of the basics of a lycanthrope's abilities, as much as Chang knew--and that was only as much as I had felt necessary to tell him.

I turned slowly so he felt reasonably assured of my harmlessness. "Maxwell. What do you want?"

"I talked to Wufei about what happened to you."

"So I gathered. Can this wait until tomorrow?" I arched an eyebrow at him and gave him a bemused look.

"I just... " He breathed a sigh of frustration and glared at me. "I just didn't want you thinking that I attacked you. Or wanted you attacked."

"Oh, I know, Duo. If you had attacked me I would be dead." I smiled ruefully at him. "I understand perfectly well that you were not behind the attack. I also know that's not why you're standing here right now."

"When did you get all observant?" I couldn't tell if he was annoyed or merely teasing, so I said nothing. He pushed his unruly bangs out his eyes and sighed. "You weren't going to tell us, were you?"

"Tell you what?" I watched him with blank politician's eyes.

He growled in irritation. "You weren't going to tell us that you had been attacked, beaten, and raped. We're here to protect you. We can't do that if you don't tell us what the fuck is going on!"

I shook my head. "No. You are not here to protect me. The Preventors exist to protect the peace and security of the Earth Sphere United Nations." I tightened my hands into fists until my nails dug into my hands. "And what has happened to me is none of your concern. I can handle it myself. I do not need you involved in it."

"Fuck that. You are the peace of this little political system. Without you, the entire thing falls apart. So we're involved no matter what. Just because you don't like me doesn't mean you can keep me from doing my job." He was almost yelling, just like I was almost yelling. That hoarse muffled burst of outrage scratched along both of our voices. He twitched his shoulders before sighing gustily. "I didn't come here to argue with you, Relena... I just... I just wanted you to know that you can trust us. You can come to us."

"Us?" I knew I was being unnecessarily bitchy, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't get over the fact that he thought that he could be a part of this game I was playing with my life.

"The Preventors. Heero. Me." He raked his hand through his bangs ferociously and swore. "You were hurt and we didn't hear about it. Never would have heard about it if you had gotten your way, and that isn't right."

"Since when have you cared, Duo?" I was just curious. I didn't mean to be malicious, but I wanted to know. "Since when did it matter to you whether or not I was safe?"

"I never wanted you hurt." He dropped his hands to his sides and just looked at me. "I never wanted you hurt."

"And I don't want to see you hurt, Duo." I sighed and looked up at the sky. The moon was very nearly full. "So don't get involved. You may be strong, but you are still just human." He blinked at me, and I gave him a half smile. "Aidan wasn't joking when he said he could pulp your skull like an egg."

"So why do you care, Relena?"

"Because Heero would be sad if you were hurt."

He sneered at me. "Still chasing what you can't have?"

I smiled a little bit. "No. But I owe him that much." I tucked my hair behind my ear and shrugged. "I don't have the time for silly infatuations anymore."

"Sorry, reflexive habit." He held out his hand. I was slightly amazed at how pale it was in the darkness of the approaching night. "Look, truce. At least until we nail the bastards who hurt you."

I stared at his hand for a long time and then looked back up at him. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Offer you a truce?" The moonlight flittered through the buildings enough to catch the flash of his cross as he retracted his hand, slightly offended.

"No. Offer me your hand." I ignored the faint shift in the wind when it blew my hair across my face, and kept my eyes locked on his.

Duo looked at me and thought about it. "You'd feel the same as what's his name?"

"Aidan." I supplied quietly.

"Yeah. Him. You'd feel the same as that?" Duo looked at me before laughing ruefully. He rubbed his temple and looked down at the ground; when he looked back up at me, his eyes were filled with an emotion I did not quite understand. "Of course you would. You'd probably feel stronger."

"How do you know?" For some reason the chill of the damp parking lot did not faze me. My fascination with this new, friendly Duo Maxwell made the discomfort tolerable. We'd never really been friends. Now I thought I could see what the attraction was. "How do you know I'm stronger?"

"It buzzes around you like angry bees. I can feel something around you like ants marching down my arms." He gave me a small, very boyish smile. It was amazingly disarming. "You feel creepy as hell."

"So do you. You smell like death." Then I frowned as I tested the air again. That wasn't quite it; there was something in the air that was throwing me off. I didn't like it. "No, your scent is that of the approach of death. The whisper of it, as if it follows you like a faithful pet."

Duo's eyes had gone round and dark, his face pale and shuttered. I supposed that we all had our walls to hide behind, and he had just retreated behind his. "It follows me, eh?"

"I'm sorry if I offended you." And for once in our relationship I meant it. Unconsciously, I flashed my throat just a little. Not enough to say he was dominant to me, because he wasn't, but enough to say that I meant no threat. You can imagine my surprise when he knew how to read it.

"You just backed off." That deep, haunted look was replaced by avid curiosity, and—amazingly—a little bit of wonder. "You flashed your neck just like a wolf."

"I am a wolf occasionally. Apparently, I've started to act like one." I growled in irritation and fear. It scared me, badly, that I was starting to behave no better than a mere beast. "Dorothy finds it amusing."

"You think it's creepy." He sounded almost sympathetic, like understood faintly what this felt like. "You hate it."

The smell, rather like that of a snake forgotten underground, drifted past me again, demanding my attention. I narrowed my eyes and tested the air turning my head slightly to scan the darkness that had rolled in around us. "Right now I think it's very useful."

Thank God for gundam pilots. He immediately went on guard, his hand subtly dropping back towards his hidden gun. "Getting cold outside, maybe we should head in?"

I caught a faint flicker of movement towards our left and knew we had run out of time. Trusting in the strength Aidan said I had, I grabbed Duo and made a dash for the dubious cover of indoor parking garage. Duo barely had time to yelp in protest. Fortunately for me, he didn't struggle.

Whatever had decided to join us was a fast as I was, nearly, and not human. Definitely not a lycanthrope. But they could keep up with me; racing along with me just far enough into the darkness to be faint shapes. When Duo's cross suddenly gave off enough light to be a halogen lamp, I knew what had come to pay us a visit in the early darkness of dusk. "VAMPIRE!"

Duo inhaled sharply when something large, snarling, and russet-furred shot past us into the darkness. Something gave voice to an inhuman shriek of pain amidst ferocious growling. Aidan, apparently, was doing his job. I gathered myself and clutched Duo to my chest tightly before jumping onto the upper level of the garage. With any luck we had shaken off the first of our attackers and Duo could get a clear shot.

Duo was staring at me in near shock. "Relena."

I didn't look at him. I was looking for Aidan. Damned if I was going to let one of my people get hurt down there. "Do you have silver in those bullets?"

He blinked and then nodded a little too fast. "Yeah."

I blessed Chang reverently for his foresight. "Good." I kicked off my shoes and prayed to anything that was listening for strength. I prayed that I would be able to go down into that blackness and not remember it. "Try not to shoot me."

"Oh, no." Duo grabbed my hand, and I finally looked down at him. When I did he recoiled from me like I had slapped him. "Your eyes, Relena. They're glowing."

I smiled, and I knew my mouth was full of teeth that I should not have. "Yeah, they have a tendency to do that when I'm truly angry."

"Relena... " Now I understood the look in Duo's eyes. It was empathy. It scared me.

"Now is not a good time to be having a heart-to-heart chat. Just try not to shoot Aidan or me. It would really upset me if you hurt my Skoll." I didn't wait for a reply. I jumped down. I told myself that I would not remember what I was going to do. I told myself that the beast that lurked deep within me was not me. I told myself that I could keep my beast and my sane, safe, and human self separate.

I was wrong.

I felt one of my hands grow monstrous with claws that no human should ever have. I felt my eyes start to burn in the darkness like a predator's. I felt it when I ripped through one of those bodies like a silk cloth. And I will remember.

The very small part of me that still believed in pacifism, peace, and gentleness ran screaming, but lurking there right behind it was another part of me that was black and vicious. And she laughed.

Aidan immediately came to my flank. He was in his full wolf form. A deep russet wolf with great tawny eyes, but he was as large as a small pony. Not a natural wolf. I laughed when he bared his fangs at our attackers and growled. I dropped one hand onto his head and he butted against my legs like an affectionate pet. But I knew he was merely showing his support. And his eagerness. He really wanted to hurt them. He wanted to kill the people who had dared to attack his Geri.

I could see them as clearly as if we were in full daylight. I wanted them to be horrible and ugly. I wanted to see monsters, to make it easier to kill them. But they weren't. The vampires looked just like normal people, just like the silly little delegates I dealt with day in and day out. There were four of them left, and they could have been urbanites out on the town. Except that they had fangs, their eyes glowed, and they really seemed intent on removing my head from my shoulders.

"Who are you?" Even though my beast raged through my blood, I was still the consummate politician. I would talk before fighting. Some part of me still believed that if we could just talk to each other than maybe something could be done. Aren't I a little fool? "What do you want?"

A raven-haired man stepped forward from the group and smiled the same smile that I imagined snakes gave to small birds. "Who we are is not really all that important. For you see, what we want is you dead as our Master ordered."

Something whispered to me from my memory. "You mean the Master of the City?"

A faint shadow flicked across his fine-featured face. "Our Master."

Ah-hah. That told me something very interesting, even if I did not fully understand its implications. Aidan growled and moved restlessly at my side. He did not like all this talking. "Are you sure there is no other way to do this?"

He gave me that nasty little smile again. "Perfectly sure."

I smiled my coldest smile and made sure to bare all the new, very sharp, teeth. "Well, that's a pity, isn't it?"

Aidan launched himself with mind-boggling speed at the vampire trying to move around our left side. The one who had been ever-so-helpful shot forward towards me at the same time, swinging one hand in a wide arch and baring his teeth to display a fine set of fangs.

As my back hit the concrete, I heard Duo's scream of rage and a shot rang out in the damp air. I don't think it hit, but it got their attention. My head was ringing from the open-handed slap the raven-haired blood-sucking bastard had delivered. Two more shots echoed in the air, and I screamed a shrill warning. The vampire over me raised its head and snarled towards Duo. "Pathetic little human. We will play with you later."

I did not like the way he said play. When something in my peripheral vision started to move in Duo's direction, the human part of my mind was completely overwhelmed by my beast. I screamed Duo's name launched the vamp off my chest in a move that would have made Chang proud. He didn't even have time to hit the asphalt. I slammed my hand through his chest and flung him out into the waiting darkness.

Four more shots rang out, claiming my attention. Duo had nailed one of his attackers and was trying to get a clear line on the last one. He wasn't going to be able to do it. The vampire was moving too fast for him to see in the dim light. I screamed again when that undead thing hit him and sent the violet-eyed pilot careening against the wall. I couldn't find Aidan. I was afraid I wouldn't make it in time. I was scared he wouldn't be able to fight back. I was terrified he was going to die.

The vampire was holding Duo by his neck. He was desperately trying to pull off that insanely strong grip when I reached them. I didn't think. I didn't even feel myself moving. I just attacked. But when I reached inside that vampire's chest and ripped out its heart, I knew that it was me who did it. I knew that it was me who was glad I had done it.

I backed away from the body crying. Duo stood shaking slightly but on his feet. He had his gun in his hands. I could only stare and sob when he leveled his gun and pumped four bullets into the head. We stared at each other while I cried.

"Relena... " He knelt next to me and I flinched away from his touch. He reached out and shook me. Hard. "Get a hold of yourself. Please."

Aidan had managed to get up to us. He butted his huge head against my cheek. He rubbed the side of his face against my cheek and then brushed his nose against the sensitive patch of skin behind my ear. He was greeting me as a lower pack member, and trying to calm me. I buried my face against his warm fur and inhaled his scent, pulling it around me like a blanket. I used his scent to chase that little demon back into hiding.

"I feel left out." Duo was crouching next to me, slightly away, grinning like a maniac. Shinigami lurked right behind those guileless eyes.

"I... " My voice failed me and I looked down. Mistake. I rolled to one side and threw up. My hands were covered with blood and darker, stickier things. I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to know. Duo stroked my hair and held me upright.

"It's okay." He repeated that to me like a litany. We rocked together in the faint light while I tried to find some way to deal with what was happening. I couldn't. I just couldn't.

"I killed someone, Duo." My voice was thick. I wanted to rub at my eyes, but was terrified of my hands. "I ripped his heart out."

Duo made a low humming sound in the back of his neck. "Since he's already dead. I don't think it counts."

I laughed, God help me, when he said that. Duo gently took my hands in his and rubbed them clean with a ragged cloth. I blinked at him. He was using his shirt to clean my hands. "Duo, your shirt!"

"It's fine. It was already ruined." He gave an easy shrug with one smooth shoulder. I stuttered for a moment, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm not hurt, see?"

I blinked and then closed my eyes. I would not drool over Heero's boyfriend. I would not drool over Heero's boyfriend. I would NOT drool over Heero's boyfriend. Aidan butted his head against my side, almost bowling me over, and whined deep in his throat. I turned and blinked at him. In those deep wolf eyes I saw Aidan, and Aidan was not amused.

I laughed then and scratched behind his ear. When he rolled over and looked at me hopefully, I scratched his stomach. "But don't even think that this means I'm going to do this in when you're in your other form."

He yipped at me and one ear flopped over. I pushed at him playfully and then sighed. "I shouldn't be this okay, Duo. I really shouldn't."

Duo lifted my hair out of my eyes. "I don't think you are okay, Relena. I think you're pretty deep in shock."

I thought about that. It seemed to make sense. I had a very surreal sense of myself. As if I were floating above the scene, not really part of it. Like some part of me was detached from what was going on. I looked up into his beautiful purple eyes. "I think you're right."

Aidan stretched out and barked at me a little before trotting off.

"Where's he going off to? And, um, when did you get that huge mutt?" Duo asked rather belatedly.

An annoyed growled rolled out of the darkness. "That's Aidan."

Duo's eyes got bigger and I sighed. "Look, Duo. We're shapeshifters, right? Lycanthropes. Werewolves. That's Aidan's alternate form. He's going to go change back."

Duo's gaze followed the path Aidan had taken into the darkness. "Why'd he go off to do it?"

"Because, human, you probably wouldn't have the guts to sit and watch a shift." Aidan emerged from the shadows and stalked towards us on sandal-clad feet. I frowned. I really hoped he hadn't worn those to work. "And when you shift you're butt naked."

Aidan smiled down at me and offered me a hand up. Only because I was so tired did I not think about it. He tugged me against him and cupped my face. "You did good, Geri." I smiled hesitantly at him, and he dipped his head so our foreheads were pressing together. "Are you sure you won't scratch my itch in this form?"

I narrowed my eyes and growled at him before hitting him. Hard. He grunted a little but kept his hold. "Aidan, I swear by all that's holy, I am going to kick your ass for this."

He grinned and kissed my bruised knuckles. "I look forward to it."

That made my left eye start to twitch. Duo cleared his throat rather like a faintly embarrassed older brother. I should know; he sounded just like Milliardo. I turned to him and shrugged one shoulder. "Now do you understand why I don't want you involved in this?"

"I thought I handled myself just fine." Duo looked up at me from his kneeling position with an expression of challenge. I touched the side of his face where a long cut marred that pale skin. He smiled at me. "I've had worse, 'Lena."

"And you will get worse, much worse, if you run up against these guys alone." Aidan remarked. He wasn't being insulting, merely stating a fact.

I knelt next to Duo. "You are the scariest human I know, Duo. Much more frightening than Heero, but you are still only human. I don't want you hurt."

Duo ran a finger lightly over the bruise that was already beginning to fade on my cheek, and then over the long scrap on my arm. "You're already healing."

"It's one of the perks." Aidan and I said it at the same time, making him grin while I scowled. I tucked my hair behind my ears. "It wouldn't be right for you to be killed for someone you hate."

"I don't hate you, 'Lena." He blinked those pale purple eyes at me. "I never hated you. I just didn't like you very much."

I cocked my head to the side. "And you like me now?"

"I might learn to." He stood up and offered me his hand. "But, Relena, I will do my job, whether you like it or not. I may not be able to heal as fast as you, or move as fast, but I'm still Shinigami."

Aidan made a low sound in the back of his throat. "That is true. Maybe next time we should leave one of the blood suckers alive and see what our resident Necromancer can do."

I stared up at Aidan until he blinked at me in surprise. "What?"

"That's a good idea?"

"And I'm not allowed to have good ideas, Geri?"

"I just wasn't expecting it." I stood up and brushed off my suit. Not that it helped any; it was hopelessly ruined. I looked at the two men and arched an eyebrow. "Might as well take you home and clean you up. I don't want you going home to Heero like that. God only knows what he would think."

Aidan smiled slowly. "And why are you bringing me home?"

"Because Victor would have my head if I didn't do right by my Skoll." I laughed a little when he mock-pouted. "And I couldn't get ride of you now even though I want to."

"Well, I'm glad you finally figured that out." I didn't care for the finality in his tone.

End Part 7

(:./dan/wolf7)