AN & Disclaimer: They are not mine! None of them! Okay so this is based on another story from another author I think it’s P_M’s Innocence Lost, Blackness Ensuest. It just goes on a different direction then that author’s. P_M hasn’t finished the story and there is nothing I dislike more than that, so I decided to twist her reality a little and create my own little story.
WARNINGS: Mature themes, slight language. It’s my first real serious fic and let me just say that it will lack my usual sap and fluffiness. Okay all you have to know about the original story is that Hilde was accused of attacking Relena. Please review.


A Place in the Darkness
by Oyuki



Hilde shifted uncomfortably in her narrow cot. The dampness and cold seeped through her skin and she shivered slightly. She opened her eyes only to see darkness, it was so dark. Her senses hadn’t fully awakened from sleep, she was bewildered as to were she was at the moment. Then she remembered, it was the same place she had been for the last five years. Hilde shivered again, it’d be so long and she still had not used to the freezing cold in this place.

The cold still got to her. It didn’t help that the cell door was facing the open courtyard. the scheduled rain didn’t’ help either, it just added more dampness to the stinking hole she’d been forced to reside in for such a long time. If Moira, the only other female in the place, didn’t tell her often how long she’d been here she would never know. The days blended together, neither day or night existed for them. It was limbo.

She heard footsteps on the metal stairway that led to her cell. Hilde shivered involuntarily, but not out of cold this time. Fear sent shivers up and down her spine. She willed that fear to disappear. She shut her eyes tightly, almost praying that the heavy footsteps hadn’t stopped at her cell door. Yet she knew differently. She should be used to it by now, though, but she couldn’t help feeling the old fear seeping through her strong demeanor.

The guards had been coming to her cell almost everyday for the last two years. They all wanted the same thing. It was degrading. At first she’d tried fighting them off, screaming for help or anything to keep their hands off of her. It hadn’t helped. And now she’d lost the will to pray for her escape from the maximum security penal colony.

Hilde cringed when she heard the cell door slide open and the booted feet step inside.

“Here we are again tonight, sweetheart,” a cold voice said to her in the darkness.

@--------------@


“I can’t believe it’s been five years,” said Duo while arranging presents underneath the tall Christmas tree. He couldn’t help but think of Hilde even more during this time of the year. She had been arrested a few days before Christmas Eve five years ago.

He thought o f her often, but this time of the year made him think of her much more. He had been shocked at what she had done, and without a second thought judged her. Judged and condemned her when he had no right to. He’d rushed to conclusions head first only to be attacked by guilt and shame a few months later, but by then it was too late.

**flashback**



The first thing Duo saw was blood. Everything was covered in blood. He then noticed the two figures lying on the floor. Hilde and Relena. The blood was also covering Hilde and Relena. He didn’t know which one to go to first. In the end he did the only thing he could think of: he called Heero. That was his first mistake. Heero arrived no less then five minutes later. He assessed the situation as Duo called the ambulances.

Heero noticed something Duo had failed to, the knife in Hilde’s hand. That sent him over the edge, and if Duo had not arrived when he did, he would have killed the unconscious Hilde. He had picked her up from the floor and proceeded to rearrange her face.

“Heero, Heero stop! Stop it!” Duo yelled as he ran to Heero. He grabbed Heero’s shoulders and tried to pull him off of Hilde but he was in a rage. He would not stop. Duo began to panic. Neither of them knew what had happened, how could Heero be doing this.

“Stop it, Heero! Stop!” Duo finally managed to separate Heero from Hilde. When Heero let her go she fell to the floor in a heap, still unconscious.

“What the hell did you think you were doing, Heero? We don’t know what happened, why are you doing this?”

“Did you see the knife in her hand? She had a bloody knife in her-- Oh my God, Relena!” he said as he rushed to her side. They both kneeled to see how she was. Her white shirt was completely covered in blood. Heero inspected her carefully and found she’d been stabbed numerous times. This and the knife in Hilde’s hand made her guilty in his eyes and would soon make her guilty in Duo’s eyes as well.

“Duo she had a knife in her hand, it was covered in blood...” said Heero in a quiet, but clear, voice.

“No... you don’t mean--” he started only to be interrupted by his friend.

“Yes Duo! She did it,” he said just as the ambulance and the paramedics arrived.

“Duo arrest her, you’re a Preventor, you have that authority. I don’t want to get near her, I might not have enough self control to keep myself from hurting her. Arrest her!”

With a heavy sigh Duo waited for the paramedics to check Hilde out...

*end flashback*

The rest was a blur. He didn’t really remember what’d happened the next few days. All he knew was that she’d been taken to a local jail and she’d awakened there. He hadn’t seen her since the trial, which had taken place a few days later.

There she had been sentence to life in prison for the attempted murder of Relena Peacecraft, whom had been unable to testify since she was in a coma. Duo had looked at Hilde with something akin to hatred in his eyes. She hadn’t broken down once since she’d woken up in jail. She hadn’t had a lawyer to represent her leaving her to try to defend herself. She’d looked pleadingly at him in the courtroom while he was sitting in the witness stand. Her eyes asking for help and compassion from him. Both of which he’d refused to give. When she’d been given her sentence tears slowly came to her eyes. They formed one perfect path on each cheek as they fell.

He had felt that it was the right punishment. He had felt so much resentment towards her for so long. He didn’t know when that hatred turned into bitterness, and finally into guilt. He’d felt so bad months later when Sally had told him what Hilde’d said when she was told of the crime.

*flashback*

“So you did talk to her?” he asked Sally one day at the Preventor building’s cafeteria. They were waiting for Heero to come back. Relena had woken up from her coma after almost three months.

“Yes, I talked to her. I was the one to tell her about what she had been accused of. She, of course, denied the whole thing. Said she didn’t do it, and that she didn’t remember what’d happened. That really pissed me off Duo! I mean I ran the blood tests on her blood! She was high!” she said indignantly.

“Is that all she said?” he asked a little more interested in what Sally was saying. The severe hatred he’d felt had turned to bitterness. He constantly asked himself how could he have trusted her? Why would she do that?

“No, then I told her that no lawyer wanted to represent her in the trial, and do you want to know what she said?” asked Sally bitterly.

Duo frowned and asked, “Yeah, what?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t really hear what she said next because she whispered. But it was something like, ‘It doesn’t matter, the only one that mattered doesn’t believe in me.’ And then I patched up a few scratches and bruises that she had and left her alone,” Sally finished. Getting up from the table she said goodbye and walked out of the cafeteria.

*end flashback*

Duo shook his head and stood up. It did no good to think about that now. It had been a long time ago, and there was nothing he could do now. He walked to the closet and reached up on the high shelf for a few more presents. Christmas was two days away and it was his turn to host a party in his house. As he reached the presents an big manila envelope fell to the floor. Duo frowned for a second before leaving the presents where they were and reaching down to pick up the envelope. He straightened and opened the envelope. Inside there were pictures of him and Hilde that he had never seen. There was also a video, which was addressed to him. It read his name. Duo looked at the pictures noticing that they had been taken five years ago. There were some of Hilde by herself and some were of both of then together. When he looked at the back he noticed the unfamiliar handwriting in which the dates had been written. He reached inside for the video and his hand was cut by something. “Probably a piece of paper,” he muttered.

He again reached inside the envelope to retrieve the paper. Duo unfolded the letter, and the first thing he noticed was that it was the same as the one on the back of the pictures. He began to read:

“Duo Maxwell:

This is the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen. I never thought that my little ploy to frame your girlfriend would work. It was fun to watch the way of you acted when you thought she had betrayed you, and watching the way all of her friends turn her back on her.

“We watched you two for weeks till we found an opportunity to put our plan into action. We had been planning this for a very long time. We just had to find the opportunity and the right person to sacrifice. The person who would be least likely to commit the crime, but at the same time everybody would blame.

“It was so easy! All we had to do was give her a drug that would put her to sleep so it would look as if she had taken a dose of a common narcotic. It was a plus that she didn’t remember what had happened. All of you were so easy to fool, and now look at what has happened. You have all forgotten about her, what she was to you... or have you? Have all of you moved on with your lives? Do you still think about her, about what she’d doing at this very moment?

“We tire of this situation. It is not fun anymore, you did not even pursue this case long enough to figure out it wasn’t her who attacked Relena Peacecraft. For this reason we have left you a little present. Some pictures of you and her, and, of course, the security tape that did not spend enough time looking for.

“Hope that this little bit of information doesn’t ruin our Christmas. We also hope that we hear from you soon!”

Duo finished reading the letter. His hands tightened on the paper and his knuckles went white. His eyes were closed tightly. ‘How could I have been so stupid? How could I have accused the woman I loved of trying to kill her best friend?’ he berated himself. He quickly pulled himself together and went into the living room area. He put the video in the VCR and sat down on the couch, anxious to watch what he desperately hoped was true.

There were a few seconds of static and then the video came one. It was obviously a copy of the original because it was only the scene which he was interested in seeing. Relena and Hilde came into the room with cups of coffee, he guessed. They were sitting in the living room of the house he and Hilde used to live in, the one he’d sold when Hilde was arrested. They were talking, they talked for about five minutes when the door opened slowly and three figures came into the room. The figures were dressed all in black and had ski masks to cover their faces. They must have shouted something because Hilde and Relena both looked at them.

One figure, a man, launched at Hilde who still had some of her soldier instincts. He held her and Duo saw him take out a seringe (sp?) and put its contents into Hilde’s arm. Almost immediately Hilde fell to the floor unconscious. Another man had launched at Relena, who had no way of defending herself. Duo shut his eyes and turned away at the sight of Relena being stabbed numerous times by the man. The last figure just watched the men do their jobs. Duo could tell she was a woman. She turned and looked directly at the camera, obviously knowing exactly where it was. She came closer and pulled at the cords in the back. There was a strange gleam in her eyes, almost as if she was enjoying this.

Duo could take no more. He broke down in tears. In reality, they hadn’t really looked for the security tape. The evidence they had was very incriminating. There was no use for it. Duo’s heart dropped to his stomach. He didn’t believe how wrong they had all been. They had accused Hilde and she hadn’t done anything! Nothing but be a friend to Relena and try to protect her.

He had to get her out of prison! He had to now that he knew the truth. He had to call Relena, Quatre, Trowa... and... and Heero. Especially Heero who’d wanted to kill Hilde the minute he saw her. He took deep breaths to calm himself. They would all be here sooner or later, they were all on their way to his house. All he had to do was be patient, Heero and Relena would be arriving any minute now. He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands and heard the doorbell ring.

He rushed to the door and opened it. Heero and Relena stood there. Heero with his always serious expression and Relena with her ever-present smile, but she immediately noticed his expression. “What’s wrong, Duo?” she asked.

He breathed hard and looked from her to his friend Heero.

“What’s wrong?” asked Heero to. It had been a long time since he had seen his friend this agitated.

Duo struggled with his words and he finally said, “Come in, there’s something I have to show you.” He walked to the living room and picked up the letter that was lying on the couch. He handed it to Heero. Duo then looked at the TV screen, which was snowing again, and rewinded the tape. It only took a few seconds for Heero to finish reading the strange letter and for Duo to finish rewinding the tape.

“Where did you get this? When?” Heero asked whose lips had thinned into a tight line and whose eyes had narrowed.

“It was strange, it was in my closet where I kept the rest of the presents. I was getting them from the top shelf and a manila envelope fell. I didn’t remember putting it there so I picked it up and opened it. There were a whole bunch of pictures of Hilde and me. Some together and some of them by ourselves, it looks as if they were taken when we were out or at our friends houses. They are all dated five years ago,” Duo explained as he handed the photos to Heero and Relena, who had been looking over her boyfriend’s shoulder.

She looked at the letter and at the pictures. Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d known that Hilde, her best friend, would never do something like that. The feeling hadn’t been enough convince her that Hilde hadn’t done it, but she had always doubted it. She’d felt sorry for Hilde when she had woken from her coma and found out about her. She felt even worse for not being able to do anything to help her. And now this... this made her feel like the worst person in the world. Oh God, she couldn’t imagine how Duo was feeling at the moment!

Heero hadn’t said anything else, he was too confused. Why would these people do this? He may be able to understand why they tried to kill Relena, but why blame poor Hilde? She had nothing to do with Relena besides being her friend.

“We have to get her out of there,” said Duo. He looked at Heero intensely. He wished the earth would open up and swallow him whole. “Heero? Did you hear me? I said--”

“I heard you. We... we have to look more into this, Duo. We can’t just go and get her out of prison because of some letter,” Heero explained.

“There’s more; they sent me a video. I’ve already watched it. The video is the evidence we need to get her out of prison,” Duo said as he instructed them to sit down.

He sat down next to Heero and pressed the PLAY button on the remote control. The video came on much like it had for Duo. Heero began to feel something in the pit of his stomach, it wasn’t nausea. The feeling began to move up until it pulled at his heart. It was almost a physical pain, he had to turn away from the television.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he said, “Let’s call the others, tell them to cancel their trips and brief them in on the situation. We’ll go to Lady Une and show her this. Well go to the penal colony as soon as possible.”
“Yes,” his friend agreed. “Let’s just hope nothing has happened to Hilde, and that she can forgive us.”

*******

A few days later Duo, Heero, and Sally were on their way to Penal Colony X-94518. Relena had wanted to come but Heero had objected saying she had too many peace treaties to sign and other matters to take care of.

It had been a shock for all of their friends. The rest of Earth and the colonies probably knew already. This kind of information spreads fast, and it wasn’t really top-secret. Five years ago it had been the most controversial case in years. Hilde’s release would also cause controversy. That’s is why they had to keep this ‘trip’ a secret.

Duo and Heero had been the ones chosen to go, and Sally was coming along in case medical help was needed or in case Hilde needed female companionship. Duo was restless, they were almos there and he couldn’t wait to see Hilde. He knew that their relationship would not be the same, that Hilde would not be the same but he couldn’t help the twinge of excitement and hope that surged through him at the thought of seeing her after all of these years and being one hundred percent sure that she was innocent of the horrible crime she’d been accused of. He paced, he ranted, he didn’t sit still until the docking area was in sight. “Hilde, I hope you can forgive me,” he whispered to himself.

When the three arrived at the main facility they were greeted by the news that there was a horrible deadly infection among the inmates. Many of them had died and many of them were sick. The worse part was that it was very contagious, and the infected person wouldn’t know if he or she had it until it was too late, and there were too many inmates to run tests on. The doctors knew that, if caught early enough, the infection could be cured, and it was only contagious in its last stages. There were so many of the inmates that had died were so great in number that they had stopped keeping track of their names.

So now Duo, Heero and Sally had to wait hours for the guards to look for Hilde. They didn’t know if she had died, and there was a fifty percent chance that she had not because there were only two women in the whole facility and so far only one had died. After four hours of waiting the guards found prisoner 458972. They did not know if it was Hilde but they let Duo go into the visiting area, which was a small room divided into two by a bullet-proof glass and a counter-looking thing, and one chair on either side.

Duo waited about five minutes until he heard the whoosh of the doors on the other side of the glass. Two guards flanked a figure wrapped in a wet blanket. The blanket covered her head so he could not see her. When she was finally inside she took the blanket off her head. Duo sucked in his breath. He took in the pale, thin face, the sunken eyes, and the thin, blue-tinged lips. “Oh my God,” he whispered. The sinking feeling in his stomach came back. His heart beat faster and his heart lurched in his chest. If he had not been sitting down he would have fallen. This could not be Hilde! Hilde was thin, but not to the point of being anorexic looking, she was pale but not sickly pale.

Hilde could not believe her eyes. He was here, oh God he was here! ‘Why? Why is he here?’ her mind asked. All she could think of was that he was here for something bad. He had to be here for something bad because she had never been visited in the five years that she’d been in the prison. All she could do was sit on the chair and try to hold the tears she hadn’t shed in years fall onto her cheeks.

‘She’s just staring at me,’ he thought to himself. “Hilde,” he said out loud. She was shaking, he could see it. Her lips were trembling. “Hilde, I’m here to get you out of here,” Duo told her in a low voice.

Hilde’s world went back. She fell out of her chair and to the floor in a boneless heap. Duo stood up from his chair so fast that his chair fell back. He pressed his palms against the glass and yelled her name. The guards were already picking her up and taking her to the infirmary.

Duo went back to the waiting are where he met with Heero and Sally. “What happened?” asked Heero when he saw Duo’s face.

“She... she just collapsed. I think she fainted when she saw me,” he answered and turned to Sally. “You’re a doctor, they’ll let you go in and see her.”

She looked skeptical but nodded and left to talk to one of the guards. When she was gone Heero began asking Duo questions about Hilde.

“She was so pale, Heero. Almost transparent, and her eyes! They had dark circles under them and they looked too big. They don’t shine the way they use to, Heero, and she’s so thin. She looks ill, like one of those terminal patients you see on TV. I couldn’t believe it was her. Oh God, and you should’ve seen the way she looked at me; like I was some king of monster! She was scared of me,” Duo said hoarsely. He was almost in tears and Heero didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t the best person in the emotional department.

All he could do was put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, she’s gonna be okay, and then we’re going to take her home.”

****

Inside the infirmary the nurses had put Hilde in a room where they kept the cases that needed to be studied. They were not sure it if was the infection, so they had to get her away from the inmates who were infected. They had taken blood samples and they were now checking her blood pressure. It was high and she had a fever. Her breathing was labored.

“Get oxygen for her, I fear it is the infection but not a severe case. We can still save her,” said the doctor, Ayan Rayo.

Sally came in to door with scrubs and a mask. “I’m Dr. Po, Preventor Wind. I’m here with Duo Maxwell and--”

“I know who you are. You’re here to tend to her?” Ayan asked pointing to Hilde.

“Yes, I want to know her condition,” replied Sally in a very professional voice. “We are also here to take her home. Her innocence has been proven.”

“We do not know yet, we have just now taken blood samples and given her oxygen, her breathing is labored and her temperature is rising,” explained the young doctor. She had treated Hilde a few times before for things other than illnesses. Hilde was a nice girl who had almost lost her will to live. Being put in this place at such a young age, 17, was devastating and being betrayed by the people you loved was even worse. Hilde had never discussed if she was innocent or not, but the doctor had a feeling that she was. She was too innocent when she arrived to be a hardened criminal.

“You have seen this infection, do you think she has it?”

“A few of her symptoms are the same, such as the fever and the fainting, but we won’t know for sure until we get the results back-- oh and here comes the nurse with them now.” Ayan took the folder from her and skimmed through them before handing them to Sally.

Sally gave a sigh of relief when she read the results. Hilde wasn’t going to die, she just had severe anemia. “I will be right back, I am going to inform my companions,” she said and waited for the doctor to nod.

Sally walked to the waiting area to tell Duo the good news. She had not had time to think of all this. For five years she’d thought poor Hilde was a cold-blooded almost killer, but she wasn’t. ‘I must be feeling just as bad as the others are. We all pretty much had her sentenced without considering what kind of person she was. She was a good person, she had never done anything wrong, anything to hurt anybody. Whoever was after Relena had known that everybody would blame Hilde despite her good nature,’ Sally thought.

When Duo saw Sally approach he stood up quickly and met her half way. “How is she?” he asked anxiously.

Sally put her hand on her shoulder and said, “She’ll be okay, she just has anemia. It looks like she hadn’t had any blood tests since she arrived here, and these conditions and the lack of nutritious food have taken a toll on her body. An organism can only last for so long...” she trailed off but regained her train of thought to say, “she’ll be okay. She will have to stay here for a few more days though, unless I can get a clearance saying that we have adequate care for her in the shuttle.”

“Get it, the sooner we get her out of here the better care she’ll have,” said Heero for the first time. He had to get out of this colony, it depressed him. He had not seen Hilde but the way Duo described her made him feel even more guilty. He wanted her to be somewhere comfortable where she could get on with her life... as if none of this had ever happened. ‘Who are you trying to fool Yuy? She will not pretend this never happened, she went through five years of who knows what kind of treatment and you want her to just forget it? It’s not going to happen.’

“Okay guys, I’m going to get the paper work going and we should be out of here in a couple of hours.


tbc...

AN: Okay I was planning on posting this when I finished it, but at the rate it’s going it will be a kinda long story. Maybe next chapter I post will be really long like this one and it will contain the end. REVIEW!!!! Oh and sorry for the grammar mistakes, I only spell checked I didn't proof read.