What is Good and What is Evil?

What? Do I smell funny? Not one single Review, not even a flame? Oh well, I like this story. For those of you who may be following it, Please Enjoy and more is on the way. :)



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*I’m alive.* came Duo’s first thought, then *I must not have blacked out for long.* He lay quietly on what felt like a simple, yet comfortable cot and tried to take in what was around him. He could hear someone or a couple someone’s moving around wherever he was and speaking softly in Elven. He flicked open his eyes. He felt horrible. Why did he feel so bad? Had they chased him out of the village? What had happened? Serene aquamarine eyes swam into his mind’s eye. Duo bolted upright with a cry of fear and wedged himself into the corner of the wall where the bed sat. He cast about the room wildly searching for the blond elf. Heero and the nameless elf looked at him in concern. Duo’s eyes fastened to the elf as tears began pouring down his face again.



“Duo it’s alright. No one’s going to hurt you.” Heero stated softy and tried to calm him. He ignored the wood elf completely and stared at the high elf, panting in terror.



“Do you know me?” he asked quietly. Duo clamped his hands over his ears and rocked back and forth as if he could shut out the other’s voice. He crossed the room to the bed, moved to place a hand gently onto Duo’s face, to tilt it upwards. “I won’t hurt you,” he said softly. Duo pulled back before the elf could touch him, as though his touch would burn.



“You already have!” He sobbed loudly into his hands. “Every single night I sleep, every day I wake you hurt me more than I can put into words! And to have come to this forest as I have and have it end with you is more than I can bear!”



“You must think me someone else.” He stated confused.



“I would never forget the face of my best friend’s killer.” He stated as his voice shook with emotion. He looked up into the elf’s eyes as he stared down at Duo in confusion. The blond elf’s breath caught.

“Violet.” He whispered as he looked down. Duo rose from the bed hurriedly and limped across the room without touching the elf.



“I begged you. I fucking begged you to save her! I would have served you faithfully throughout the centuries in any way you wanted, I would have given you anything if you had only saved her!” He shouted. “But you let her die! You could have saved her, you said as much but you let the only person I cared about, the only one who cared about me die and then didn’t kill me!! And the bitch of it all is that I promised her I wouldn’t take revenge, I promised!! So now I can’t kill you!!! No matter how much you deserve it!” His knee protested with a twinge of pain as it buckled under him again. He struggled to his feet again quickly.



“Duo is your name.” The elf stated and Duo shuddered in dread. “I remember you now. Although it took seeing your eyes to do it, but I should have known you right away, you’ve hardly changed at all over the years.” He walked toward Duo slowly so as not to alarm him further. “I’ve been searching for you ever since that night. Though I thought you’d find me first to seek revenge, but I see now why you never came to me.” He paused talking a moment as he continued forward, backing Duo against a wall. “ You know most people wouldn’t let a little thing like a promise stop them from seeking revenge.” He commented. Duo was pressed hard against the wall his eyes fixed on the approaching man. He seemed to stop breathing, his chest barely moving with the rise and fall of life. His hands were splayed against the grained wood, his knuckles white. His body shuddered violently. “ Why should I believe you’re not lying now?” he asked.



“I run, I hide, but I never lie.” He whispered shaking as he found his voice. “Please let me go.” He asked his voice still barely above a whisper.



“But I’m not keeping you here.” He stated as he place his hands on the wall to either side of Duo. Tears sprang again to his violet eyes and trickled down his pale cheeks as the elf leaned closer.



“Please, I want to leave, I just want to go.” He pleaded sobbing.



“Then leave.” The elf told him evenly. “All you have to do is push past me and go. I won’t stop you.” Duo didn’t move an inch. “Why are you so afraid of me? I told you I had no quarrel with you. My fight was with her. I won’t hurt you.” he said gently and reached a steady hand to Duo’s tearstained face. Duo released a soft moan of dread as the elf stroked his cheek gently. The shorter man slowly started to pull Duo into a comforting hug. Duo’s form exploded into a thousand shards, each tiny winged form shrieking loudly in terror. The swarm whirled around the small cottage, knocking things over, beating against the walls and ceiling and windows in an attempt to escape. The shadowy forms battered against Heero repeatedly, driving him to the floor as they searched for a way out. The dark cloud parted and the blond elf stepped through it towards Heero.



“Quatre! Open the window!” Heero shouted when he saw that the bats didn’t touch his friend. Quatre shifted to where Heero lay and covered him with his body, forming a bubble of space around the two of them.



“If I open the window, he’ll leave.” Quatre said evenly over the screeching. After what felt like forever Duo’s form finally solidified in front of the closed window.



“Duo!” Heero yelled as the braided boy fumbled for the latch. Duo froze momentarily.



“That’s a new trick.” Quatre stated. Duo’s shaking hands worked furiously at the latch again.



“Quatre! Leave! Now!” Heero told the other elf emphatically. “Duo, stay, please.” He whispered with soft insistence as he rose from the floor. Duo’s hands froze again as Quatre climbed to his feet and left the room silently. They remained motionless for a few moments, and then Duo began to speak.

“I can’t take this. It’s too much all at once.” His voice shook with emotion. “ I can’t take all that’s happened and him both.” He started to cry again. Heero walked slowly to where Duo stood looking out at the darkening sky and wound his arms around the taller man’s torso. Duo trembled as Heero pressed himself against the warmth of his back.



“I won’t hurt you.” he assured softly. “We invited you here to heal and the offer stands. Won’t you at least let me send you off with some supplies?” Duo slowly griped Heero’s hands tightly in his own.



“Why do you want me to stay?” He whispered softly.



“I don’t know.” Heero admitted. “I want to help you, I want you to be happy and I don’t really know why. Maybe I’m just trying to make a new friend.” He stated. *Or maybe I want you to stay because I can’t stop thinking about you and can’t keep my eyes off you.* ~Where did that come from?~ he asked himself shocked. *Its true.* ~I doubt he’d want me to hit on him right now.~ he scolded himself. But he still found his hands running themselves under his shirt. His fingers lightly prodding the hard planes of the taller man’s body.



“What are you…” Duo started to say.



“Shh.” Heero cut him off softly. “Please let me. Trust me.” Heero asked softly.



“Why should I? You made me your slave when I thought I could trust you once.” Duo said bitterly.



“You tried to kill Zechs. You were sick and you didn’t know what you were doing.” Heero said patiently, even though he’d said it a dozen times since it happened. “I didn’t understand what I was doing when I put the ring on you, I just knew that it would suppress your magical abilities. I’m sorry. You have the rings now. I can’t hurt you, I never wanted to.” He told the longhaired boy.



“Then what do you want?” Duo countered guardedly.



“I don’t want you to be afraid forever. I don’t want you to cringe every time someone touches you.” Heero told him simply and nuzzled his face against the other’s long braid.



“Why? What would make you…care?” He asked confused. And wary. A total stranger wanting to help him? Yeah right! *Now all I have to do is find out when the dagger will stab me in the back.* He thought bitterly. *And why? What’s his connection to the golden bastard!* A shudder worked its way thru his body at the thought of the blond high elf.



“I won’t hurt you.” Heero promised softly as his hands once again played over Duo’s flesh. Duo clasped the elves’ hands through the material of his shirt, stilling them.



“How do you know that elf?” Duo asked evenly. Heero sighed.



“Quatre lived in Naïlo. I never knew him until I came here. He fought against the dragons that burned our home.” Heero said unable to keep the edge of anger out of his voice at the thought of the great battle. “Even now he fights against the chromatic dragons that still seek our the survivors of the Scorching. They hunt us.”



“I hadn’t known it was an active hunt. No wonder…” Duo trailed off mostly talking to himself.



“How does he kill them? The dragons?” Duo asked carefully.



“I’ve never gone with him on a hunt before.” Heero said. “No one has.”



“Rather convenient.” Duo snorted scornfully.



“He brings back the heads if you’re thinking he lies.” Heero said crossly. Duo shuddered at the thought of a dragon’s head being hauled around as a trophy. It was disgusting and he felt a little sick just thinking about it.



“Why do you hate him? He claims not to have done anything to you.” Heero said trying to figure out what was going on inside of Duo’s mind.



“He killed one of the only two people I’ve ever trusted.” Duo said gripping Heero’s hands painfully hard at the memory that welled up. “Then said he could have saved her, but didn’t. Even when I begged him, even when I swore to serve him my entire life, which is no small thing, he still let her die. He wouldn’t kill me.” Duo’s voice was thick with tears as he spoke.



“I’m sorry but you must be mistaken. Quatre would never kill without provocation.” Heero said. Duo pushed away angrily.



“He said she was evil! The only one to ever show me kindness! Does that make me evil as well?! If only that which is evil can love me does that make me black-hearted?! If my own parents tried to kill me and she saved me, cared for me, then why not kill me too?! Why leave me alive? Why not kill me too when he killed her! Why! I am as evil as she was!” He shouted in rage.



“Because at the time you weren’t evil. And you’re not now.” The blond elf stood casually in the doorway. Duo’s blood froze in his veins but he forced himself to speak.



“No, now I am broken inside. Now I am too afraid to move.” He whispered bitterly. “I cannot stay here he stated turning to Heero as he yanked open the window.



“Quatre damn it! I told you to leave!” Heero yelled.



“You do not know what you toy with here Heero.” Quatre whispered in an intense voice. As if each word lingered in the air around them.



“What of you old one? Does he know of you?” Duo asked casually.



“Do not.” Quatre’s voice held a note of pleading in it. And warning.



“Will you cry?” Duo asked.



“Yes.” Quatre said right away.



“Will you beg?” Duo asked again.



“If I must.” He said meaning it.



“Will you serve me?” Duo asked. The elf hesitated and Duo pounced.



“Even when I cried, even when I begged, even when I offered to serve you, you would not save my mother. You would not kill me. Why should I do you any favors dragon?” He demanded bitterly. And with that he burst into a thousand pieces and streamed out the open window.



Heero stared at the spot where Duo had stood for a moment in contemplative silence, then turned to Quatre slowly.

“Dragon?” was all he said. Quatre sighed deeply.



“Did you really think that a simple high elf would be able to kill dragons over and over again without being hurt? Even the best hunters get hurt by their prey. I am no different. I just heal faster. And I take twice as long as I should to leave and come back so as not to arouse suspicion. I have been playing the role of high elf for a long, long time. I am very good at it.” Quatre told him.



“So you’ve been lying to us, all of us, this entire time?” Heero asked outraged.



“What should I have said? Hello I’m Quatre, nice to meet you. By the way I’m a gold dragon! I dislike the way people treat me when they know I’m a dragon. Most of them want to bow and scrape like I’m some sort of royalty or god and that’s not what I want.” He declared adamantly.



“We’ve known each other for years, you could have let something slip! You know I’m not like that!” Heero argued. He sighed suddenly. “No friend, I’m sorry. You’re not the only one with secrets. Forgive my outburst. I was just surprised is all and you never really lied, because I never really asked.” Heero said. “Besides I too am more than I appear at first glance.” Heero told the blond carefully. Quatre simply looked at his shorter friend in slight astonishment. “My mother was a water-nymph, my father a wood elf. I’ve never told anyone, not since before the Scorching.” He said sadly. “The last time I admitted it, it didn’t go very well. That’s the entire reason that I lived through the fire.”



“I thought that you had left before the chromatics attacked.” Quatre said.



“I did. I told my lover about my heritage. I was accused of using my nymph blood to win him over when no one else could. He didn’t trust me, not at all, when I told him I had no control over it.” Heero said sadly.



“He? I…wasn’t aware that you favored men.” Quatre said surprised. “In fact I thought you didn’t favor anyone. You always seemed to want to be alone.”



“Mostly I do anymore. I truly cared about him. That he would think I would try to make him love me…I think something inside me broke. We had a huge fight and I left. He died in the fire and I never got to see him again.” They were silent for a moment. “I think that’s one reason why I always wanted to be around you more than most people. You never seemed affected by my nymph blood, now I know why. I was always comfortable around you in ways I never could be with others. I’m not offended that you never told me you were a dragon, just surprised. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to.” Heero guaranteed him.



“I should have known. If anyone could blow off not being an elf, it would be you. You just don’t care about things like that, it doesn’t really matter to you does it?” Quatre asked. Heero shook his head.



“If you knew that then why did you try to turn me away from Duo by telling me he wasn’t human, I already knew that. He told us before we got here, but wouldn’t tell us what race he was.” Heero wondered.



“I don’t even know what he is, at first I thought he was half-dragon, but he’s not he doesn’t really have any dragon characteristics. I know that even though he wasn’t evil when I met him years ago, evil hung about him in dark clouds. And now I can tell that he had become evil, but whatever happened to him on his way here has…tempered it, because the change seems fairly recent.” Quatre mussed.



“He said he was an assassin. That he killed people for money.” Heero supplied.



“I can’t see how that would cause him to have a change of heart.” Quatre said doubtfully.



“He was going to rob a caravan with the troop of bugbears that he came into the forest with.” Heero continued.



“And the three of you brought him here! To our home, where our children live!” Quatre demanded anger creeping into his voice.



“He was taken prisoner by the bugbears. He never told me why.” Heero said in explanation.



“Did he tell the others?” Quatre asked. Heero shook his head.



“He mostly only talked to me.” He told the other.



“I wonder why?” Quatre said thoughtfully. Heero merely looked at his friend in silence for a moment before speaking.



“I’m part nymph.” He supplied. Quatre laughed out loud.



“Why so you are.” He declared still laughing, and then turned serious. “ But that doesn’t explain why he suddenly turned away from his dark ways. And he has, although he could go back easily. I can sense these things, so I know.” Quatre said thinking out loud.



“Quatre think about what you’re saying. He was taken captive by bugbears. For months. In a forest where no one could help him. For months.” Heero said. Quatre looked like he still wasn’t getting it. “Alone with bugbears. For months!” Heero reiterated. Quatre looked at his friend blankly.

“Quatre they tortured him, beat him, starved him, raped him. They were doing it the night we saved him.” Heero said sadly.



“Why didn’t he use his powers to get away?” Quatre asked aghast.



“The leader had a set of magic rings that controlled his powers and he had to fight us. He begged me to kill him. If I couldn’t get the ring away from the leader he begged me to kill him, I would’ve too.” He whispered softly as he looked out the window. “I brought him back here to heal, but I had no idea he would pass out at the sight of you. So much for my good deed.” He commented with a sigh.



“Maybe not. Few can fly faster than a dragon.” Quatre said cheerfully.



“That might not be such a good idea.” Heero commented doubtfully. “You heard him. He thinks you killed his mother.” Heero said.



“Adoptive mother and I did.” Quatre said simply. Heero waited for the rest of what was to come. There must have been a reason for it.



//“I’d been hunting her for months. She showed all the signs of having a nest or young. I finally tracked her to her lair and planned on killing her young once she left and then her when she returned. But when I got there, still in my elven form I used to track her, I found a cave, not an underwater one, but above ground which was odd. And I saw something I never would have thought existed. The black dragon had pinned a youth, that appeared to be human, beneath its foot. The youth was screaming in anger and rage, the dragon only laughed. And just when I was going to transform and save the human, she let him up and he punched her in the nose! She let loose a bellow of pain and fell over. She moaned in agony and kicked her legs wildly.



“Look at me! Now my clothes are filthy. I just washed these!” he yelled and gestured to the black pants and shirt he wore. “Stupid lizard!” he kicked out as her and she howled. He pushed on her until she rolled onto her back. He crawled atop her and lay on his stomach kicking his legs in the air. “I missed you Vorel.” He said and sighed contentedly hugging her. “Why do you have to go away for so long?” he whined.



“I missed you too dumpling.” She grumbled laughingly.//



“I almost couldn’t kill her when the time came after a show of such affection towards a human but when I saw the death she helped to rain down on the people I cared about…I found it wasn’t as hard as I thought.” Quatre said evenly.



“I’ll go see if I can find him.” Heero said and started to leave.



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