Danger Days

Kill One Another

They charged. Of course, the dracs were ready for them. They seemed to fight harder than they had before, probably because they knew their (and Party's) lives were on the line. It was now or never.

Ghoul and Diamond did their best to break through the battle. Jet and Kobra seemed to have it under control. They saw an opening.

"Go!" Kobra yelled. They did.

Breaking away wasn't easy, they had dracs on their tail, for awhile until Ghoul shot them down. Diamond just kept running, not stopping until they reached the white doors of the base. She turned around, shooting down the last drac following them.

"There will be more inside." Ghoul panted.

"I know. Get ready." Diamond pulled open the door. As expected, a new wave of dracs came pouring from the hallways into the main room. Diamond and Ghoul opened fire, taking them down swiftly. It seemed to be going well, until Diamond was hit in the leg.

She yelped in pain and staggered, managing to keep her balance despite the blinding pain in her leg. The burn hurt like hell as it began to bleed, running down her calf and staining her jeans. She continued fighting, but Ghoul looked at her, anger and worry in his eyes.

"Shit, are you alright!"

"I'm fine!" she ground her teeth; an involuntary tear of pain fell down her cheek. "Just focus on fighting!"

With that, Ghoul's face filled with rage. He yelled like a mad-man, taking down drac after drac with a speed Diamond had only seen in Kobra. It would have scared Diamond, had she been focusing all her attention on killing.

Within minutes, they were all dead. Ghoul stood in the middle of the room, panting, looking down at the corpse of the last drac to fall in front of him. Diamond walked over to the door and slid down until she was sitting, inspecting her wound. It wasn't bad, but it had bled a lot.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ghoul hurried over to her, examining the burn.

"I'll be fine. I can still walk. It's okay."

"I just don't want it to get infected." Ghoul bit his bottom lip in worry. Outside, they could hear the fight still going on. "There's more out there…should we go help?"

Diamond shook her head. "Jet gave us orders. Our top priority is Party. No room for error."

"There's always error." Ghoul muttered. Diamond remembered thinking that earlier. What would their error be? They hadn't run into it yet…

A door on the opposite side of the room opened. Diamond could see a long white hallway behind it, the person standing in the doorway was a complete stranger. He was handsome, with dark black hair, cropped short but still kept at a decent length. He wore a simple white t-shirt and black pants, and the same white BLI sneakers as Diamond. Ghoul, however, seemed to recognize him. He gasped.

"P-Party?"

The man only smirked.

They had met their error.

-x-

Fighting continued as it should. Kobra and Jet fought back-to-back, taking down drac after drac. Jet had tried to keep Kobra from drifting too far from him, knowing Kobra's love of hand-to-hand combat could get him in trouble quickly, especially when faced with this many dracs. It took a long time and, after sustaining several injuries, they managed to take down the last of them.

"Good job." Kobra turned around and high-fived Jet.

"We're not done yet." Jet replied. "We need to go-"

A cough. Weak, sickly. They turned, to see one of the dracs pulling off his mask. Kobra prepared to shoot.

"Wait!" Jet held up his arm. "He doesn't look dangerous."

The boy sat up, dark blood staining his white jumpsuit from the wound in his chest. He set the mask down beside him, shaking out his sandy blonde hair. He was only about seventeen. They rushed over, kneeling down beside him.

"I-I'm one of you." He coughed, barely speaking above a whisper. "Well, I was one of you." He smirked darkly.

"What happened?" Kobra lightly pushed the boy back down, seeing how much it hurt him to sit up.

"They c-captured m-me and my g-group." The boy's eyes were far away, "The r-rest of them d-died but K-Korse thought I w-would make a g-good s-soldier." He shuddered.

"They drugged m-me. Oh g-god the drugs…the th-things they made me s-see. Party's l-lucky, he was unconscious f-for his brain washing."

"What?" Kobra looked down, holding the boy's shoulders, "What about my brother's 'brain washing'?"

"It's standard p-procedure." The boy shrugged weakly, "They try and make you f-forget who you were, the people you knew…your own n-name even."

"You mean they did that to…" Jet couldn't finish his sentence over the shock and dread he felt building up inside him.

"Uh huh." The boy nodded slowly. "I w-was strong enough. The d-drugs have been wearing off on m-me for awhile. I had enough of m-my mind to st-stop taking those d-damn pills after I got s-some of my memory b-back. But they gave Party so much…It c-could t-take about a-a month f-for the drugs to completely w-wear off."

"Oh my god," Kobra leaned back, his eyes filled with tears. His brother. His idol. The boy he'd looked up to for guidance and help since the day he was born. He'd given in. He'd let them take his mind and twist it until it wasn't even his mind anymore. Kobra felt like he was going to throw up. He gave a strangled sob.

"I j-just want you guys to k-know, I tried to stop them. I tried to switch out the stronger medications for weaker ones, hold off the change as long as possible until you guys g-got her b-but…"

"It's okay, we understand." Jet shushed him, "You did everything you could, Killjoy. We're proud of you. Party would be, too."

"And I d-didn't want to f-fight you. I t-tried to take down as many dracs as possible in the c-commotion. I th-think I got a f-few." The boy coughed again, growing weaker.

"Thank you, for all that you've done." Jet whispered. The boy's eyes fluttered shut.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more…" he whispered, before fading away.

They left him lying there after a few moments of silence, walking up to the base quietly. They didn't even look at each other.