Epilogue:

It had made national headlines – ‘Mysterious ‘Katana Killer’ Finally Caught’ – all the newspapers, magazines and television talk shows and news programs could only dissect analyze and discuss the person behind the Duo Maxwell persona. He must have had a troubled childhood. He must have been on drugs. He must have been insane. He deserved the death penalty! But despite the public outrage, there were still supporters who argued that Duo had only killed the vile ones of society. Some headlines had even begun to print out such headlines as ‘Avenging Angel or Cold Blooded Murderer? You Decide.’

At the other end of the spectrum, Heero Yuy had been recognized for his outstanding work. He had been applauded at the station even garnering reluctant praise from Kazuya and Mitsuomi for Duo’s arrest. The governor had wanted to give him the highest honor, promotions had loomed in the horizon and his name and face had been plastered across the media like the hero he had become. The future looked exceedingly bright for the young rookie and everyone had high hopes for his success.

So it had come as a major shock to the police force, none more so than to Zeman, when Heero had walked into his office to place his resignation envelope upon the desk. No negotiations, dialogue and even pleas would change the young man’s mind. He could no longer work with a good conscience as a police officer and simply needed some time away from it all. Zeman had not bothered trying to hide his disappointment, but had made a promise to always have a place for Heero if he ever did decide to come back to the force. A small farewell party was thrown for him but he hadn’t even been able to stay to the end. He had walked out of the precinct with his head held high and a heavy heart but with future plans to atone for his sins in any way possible.

__

Not one to be deterred by his friend’s absence from society, Wufei Chang let himself into the dark apartment and then cursed loudly as he almost broke his foot over something that had been placed by the door. He switched on the light and stared blankly at the array of boxes or cartons that lay in his path. Either a tornado had run through the small apartment or Heero was moving out.

“Is it too late to tell you to watch your step?” came the quiet question from the man seated on the floor within the living room. Heero was dressed in only a pair of dark slacks, his hair tousled and unkempt, the stubble of a day old beard shadowed on his jaw and eyes that looked like they hadn’t experienced sleep in a year. He was packing up a series of papers, at least trying to organize them. Many of his books had been taken off the now empty shelves. There were holes on the white wall where pictures had once been hung. In fact, save for the items still strewn on the floor, the place looked empty.

“Way late,” Wufei replied as he stepped over something that looked like a rolled up tent. He made himself comfortable on the floor beside his friend, reaching out to help arrange a few things. They worked together in companionable silence for a long while; neither saying anything although they had hardly seen each other in over two weeks. Wufei noticed that the cut on Heero’s cheek had faded away slightly. He knew there would always be a scar there but what was even worse was the one within his friend’s heart.

He cleared his throat and began quietly. “The trial begins Next Thursday. They say Duo should be out of the hospital by then and well enough to be in the courtroom.”

Heero said nothing.

“You know you can’t leave until it’s over right? You’re going to have to testify against him.”

The ex-officer tossed a few books into a box but still remained silent.

Wufei sighed. “I heard that Reiki and Satsuma were taken by the priests at the Shinto temple. I guess that was for the best, huh?” Finally unable to take the silence anymore, he burst out impatiently. “Damn it, Heero! You can’t just shut yourself away like this! Say something…anything!”

“Like what, Wufei?” Heero finally replied with a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Duo’s been caught and he will be sent to jail like the law requires, right?”

“Even though you know he doesn’t deserve to die? You do know the prosecutors will seek the death penalty.”

“Public opinion is beginning to sway towards his favor,” Heero observed dryly. “I’m sure they’ll go easy on him or better yet - release him.”

Wufei’s narrowed his gaze and he counted inwardly to ten to control his temper. “And what about you, hmm? Once this is all over, you’re just going to run away?”

“I’m not running,” Heero said softly. He picked up another set of books and tossed them into the box. “I’m just…going to find myself, I guess.”

“Bullshit.”

“Thanks,” he replied dryly. He rose to his feet and nearly buckled as his knees gave way. “Damn…been sitting like that for so long.”

“And it looks like you’re losing weight as well, pal. When last did you eat properly or even took a good bath! Look, why don’t you do us all a favor and go see him.”

Heero froze in his tracks and then turned around slowly to face Wufei, staring at his scowling friend as if he had grown an extra head. “What?”

“You heard me. Go see him,” Wufei repeated firmly. “You will go visit him everyday until you’re chased out of the hospital by the damn nurses or doctors. You will go visit him until that notion that you are responsible for anything that’s happened gets scrubbed out of your brain. Besides, have you ever wandered if the one thing Duo always wanted was a friend?” He rose to his feet and dusted the seat of his pants. “I’ll go make some coffee or something…if you still have your utensils out that is.”

Heero barely moved as Wufei walked past him, his blank gaze still stuck on the spot his friend had once been sitting.

A friend.

How utterly ridiculous – to think that Duo had been on his killing spree just because he wanted a…friend?

Was that the answer to the burning question that had always raged in his mind about Duo’s real motives? Was that all there really was to it? Had he been so selfish with his own thoughts and needs that he had failed to really think of how Duo must feel? He had gone on a small investigation of his own in the past week – visiting the foster home Ren had mentioned and meeting the kind and elderly Mrs. Sora. From her lips, Heero had heard about Duo’s past, of how his mother had to leave him for days at a time at the foster home while she went about getting money by working for the now deceased Big Daddy. It was Mrs. Sora who had taken Duo to his kenjutsu classes and had raised him like her own son. Duo was still a good boy and did come to visit her once in a while and it broke her heart to see him on the news being labeled like a common thief.

Heero could still remember how guilty he had felt as he had watched her dab her eyes with her handkerchief as she cried softly. It had felt like every eye of the children in the foster home had been trained on him, blaming and accusing him for sending Duo away.

And what about poor Ren? The young man who had become Duo’s only trusted companion had been adopted by distant relatives in the North. Heero had known that Ren had done his best to visit Duo at the hospital at any chance he got and now…there would be no one to take Ren’s place. There would be no one to visit or to say a kind word to the condemned man in his hours of solitude.

So why don’t you fill that void for as long as he’s free, Heero? That persistent voice whispered in his mind. It couldn’t hurt.

Couldn’t it? He doubted that Duo would welcome him back that quickly neither was he really sure of what he could say when he met the long-haired man again. But if that shared kiss on the rooftop was any indication of Duo’s feelings, Heero knew that he still had a chance to make things up to him.

“No...” he finally whispered softly to himself as he began to walk towards his bedroom to get cleaned up since he hoped to make it in time for visiting hours. “No, it can’t hurt at all.”

A few minutes later, he let himself out of the apartment quietly without letting his friend know and by the time Wufei was out of the kitchen a cup of steaming coffee in his hands, he wasn’t surprised to find that he was now alone. He eyed the hastily scribbled note Heero had stuck against the wall and shook his head softly with a small smile coming to his lips. At least no one could say that Heero Yuy wasn’t an impulsive young man.

He sat on the couch, not before tossing some of the junk that had accumulated upon it, and took another sip of his beverage. And as he closed his eyes in repose, he sincerely hoped and wished the best for both of them.

__

Within the isolated Shinto temple, hidden within the mountains of the East, two swords lay side by side in a special chamber in a glass case specifically designed for them. They had remained silent since their return to the holy place, now resembling old relics of glorious battles fought thousands of years ago.

However, on one quiet evening, while a young monk was sent in to purify the room, he noticed something rather odd about the katanas – for it seemed as if they had begun to thrum silently with barely suppressed energy eagerly anticipating their masters’ inevitable return.

~The End~