Daring Do had long ago decided that if there was a Hell, it had to resemble a hospital.

It wasn't the cramped, impossibly clean rooms with their plain white walls that disturbed her, nor the vague scent of chlorine in the air that refused to go away and the constant drones of heartbeat monitors and other machinery in the background; not even the doctors and nurses with their whispering voices and tones of concern, as if they were afraid that their patients would shatter if they spoke too loudly.

It was the long periods of silence and helplessness, of doing nothing but lying in your bed...or sitting beside your friend's bed, wishing that it was you lying on the too-clean white sheets and not them.

Phillip was lying unconscious on the hospital bed before her, his head and chest bandaged and his right foreleg in a sling, hooked up to an array of tubes and monitors. His chest rose and fell in time with the regular beeping of the EKG beside her.

"He has multiple fractures and is bleeding internally. He's also probably got a concussion, and there may be other issues that we're not aware of," the head doctor had told her in that whispering tone that made her skin crawl. "I'm truly sorry, Ms. Alibi, but there's only so much that our healing magic can do until he wakes up."

The implied "if" at the end of that sentence had hung in the air like the scent of nicotine on the wallpaper of her grandmother's home, refusing to leave even hours later. But she forced herself to ignore it: Phillip would wake up. He had to.

"Ms. Alibi?"

It took Daring a couple seconds to remember that she had to respond; she briefly reflected that one day, she was going to meet a contact for Daring Do while posing as A.K. Yearling or one of her other identities, and forget who she was supposed to be. Looking up, she saw Lieutenant Coonhound walking into the room, removing his helmet with his magic to hold it to his chest. Iron Shield stood at the doorway, looking unsure if he was supposed to be there.

"Irene, we are truly sorry this happened," Coonhound started to say.

"Don't apologize," Daring interrupted, speaking through her teeth and refusing to look up at him. She couldn't take any more sympathy acts today; and even though the logical part of her knew none of this was his fault, she really, really wanted to be mad at him and his Guards, if for no other reason than to give her an outlet for all the rage and grief that was burning her up from the inside out.

Coonhound sighed. "No, I really am. I shouldn't have..." He paused, staring at Phillip with a distant expression. "We've lost a lot of good ponies this week," he whispered.

Daring felt a wave of nausea rush through her, cooling the red-hot coals of fury inside her for a moment. "I know," she muttered. "And I'm sorry for that, too."

Coonhound trotted up and placed a hoof on her shoulder. She did not react to the sudden weight of his touch. "You saved some of them. That counts for something." He patted her on the back. "Listen. My Guards are still combing for any sign of the hyena. As soon as we find it, we'll let you know."

"Don't underestimate it again," Daring warned him, not raising her gaze from the prone body on the bed before her. "That's what almost got us both killed."

"Don't worry, we won't," Lieutenant Coonhound assured her, standing back up. "Also, for safety's sake, I'm going to have a Guard posted outside this room at all times, just in case the hyena comes back to try to finish the job." Daring nodded numbly. "If there's anything else you need, just say so."

Daring looked up at her two visitors and an idea came to her. "Actually, there is something that you can do for me." She stood up and pointed at Iron Shield. "You. Come here."

Blinking in confusion, Corporal Shield walked forward. "What is it?"

The next moment, a solid right hook to the jaw sent him crashing to the floor, knocked out cold. Daring scowled down at him, feeing a little better. Coonhound stared at her for several seconds in surprise before lifting his subordinate up onto his back and carrying him out of the room. He paused at the doorway, glancing back at her.

"I hope he gets better," he said.

Daring gave him a look. "You don't have to hope," she told him, sitting down next to Phillip. "He will get better."

Coonhound left to return to his work. Daring barely noticed him leave, returning her attention to Phillip's still form and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

For the next three days, Daring refused to leave Phillip's side. True to Coonhound's word, a Guard remained outside the door to his room all day and all night, switching off every six or eight hours, but Daring did not speak to any of them. In fact, she hardly spoke a word to anypony.

By afternoon on the fourth day, Phillip still had not woken up. "He's stable," the doctors told her, reassuring her with taut mask-like faces that they would know more when he woke up; then in the same breath, they told her to go home and get some rest, not to worry.

She always refused. Even though she knew that there was nothing she could do here but stare in silence, listening to the ever-present beeping of the heart monitor while waiting for her partner to open his eyes, she honestly did not know what else she was supposed to do.

Slowly, she reached out and took Phillip's cold hoof. He did not react, made no sign of being alive.

"Come on, Phil," Daring growled through her teeth, her eyes burning with unshed tears. "You've never let me down before. You're really just going to give up like this now?"

He did not respond. With a stifled moan, Daring lowered her head and wiped at her eyes. She heard a shuffling noise from the door and looked up to see a Guard, a young, light brown pegasus with sandy yellow hair named Dusty Winds looking into the room.

"What're you looking at?!" she snapped, glaring at the intruder. Dusty started violently and immediately retreated back behind the door.

At that moment, there was a very quiet groan. "Bloody hell, my head..." Slowly, Phillip opened his eyes, which sought out Daring. "Daring? What happened?"

"Hey! Get a doctor!" Daring shouted out the door. Dusty glanced back in and, seeing that their patient was awake at last, rushed off to get a doctor. Phillip tried to sit up, but immediately collapsed back down with stifled cry of pain.

"How are you feeling?" Daring asked, leaning over him.

"Like a ton of bricks landed on me," Phillip muttered.

"It was just a wheelbarrow, you pansy," Daring replied with a smirk. "You're going to be all right."

"Have you been here the whole time?" Phillip asked.

"I..." Daring suddenly felt ashamed and embarrassed without quite knowing why. "I was..." Scared you weren't going to wake up. "Keeping an eye on you to make sure that the hyena didn't come back."

A frown briefly crossed Phillip's face. A moment later, Dusty ran back in with a doctor in tow.

"Mr. Finder, glad to see you're awake," the doctor smiled. "Your friend here was really starting to get worried about you."

Daring raised an eyebrow at the doctor's back while he busied himself with his patient, examining his bandages and injuries. "Well, the good news is, you should be all right. But you're in for a rough healing, my friend; you still have a lot of broken bones to mend. We're going to have to keep you in bed for a couple more weeks at least."

"You know what's best," Phillip responded with a grateful nod. "Could you leave us for a moment?"

"Of course. I'll have a morphine drip brought in here in a few minutes. Just call if you need anything else." With a rather knowing smile and respectful nod to Phillip and Daring, the doctor exited the room. The Guard returned to her post.

As soon as they'd both left, Phillip returned to seriousness. "What's happened while I was out?" he asked Daring.

"Nothing," Daring replied. "The City Guards turned that construction site inside out and are searching the entire city for any sign of the hyena. So far, nothing."

"Which is what you were doing," Phillip added rather coldly.

"I thought you were going to die!" Daring protested. "I couldn't just..." She glared in fury, both unable and unwilling to justify her actions to him. She didn't even notice that she was still holding his hoof.

The two glared at each other for a moment more before Phillip finally sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "I know." He gently squeezed her hoof back. "And I'm grateful." He smiled. "Thanks for saving my life again, by the way."

"Some help I am," Daring muttered. "I fell right into that trap like a rookie."

Instantly, the smile disappeared from Phillip's face. The same realization struck them both like an icy north wind.

"That hyena came after us," Phillip said. "It followed us from the crime scene to our room, then led us into a trap."

"The ponies at the museum, Bones, Script, Exhibit...none of them were the targets," Daring spoke the words, hardly daring to believe them. "They were just bait to draw us out into the open. We were the targets the whole time." Her hoof disappeared into her coat, gripping her repaired whip.

"I'm staying here with you," she growled through her teeth. "It'll be coming back for us, and when it does, I'll be ready."

The night came far too soon. Every light in the hospital remained on, as if determined to hold the line against the oncoming dark.

Phillip was lying in the bed with his eyes shut and a morphine drip in his foreleg, but Daring knew that he wasn't asleep, merely pretending to be. She sat in one corner of the room, her hoof still on her whip inside her coat. The hallway outside seemed too quiet to her, as if somepony had pressed the mute button on the world, but she did not move from her position.

To say that Daring Do was completely fearless would be a fallacy. Fear, she had learned through hard experience, made a useful ally once it was tamed. Fear kept her alive and focused, reminded her to be cautious, gave her that extra burst of energy that she needed to fight or to flee.

The real enemy was doubt; a second's uncertainty could cost her her life. Or worse, somepony else's life.

She had to be absolutely sure that she was up to this. She had faced many enemies before; some just as deadly as the hyena, a few just as cruel. And she'd beaten them all before.

But...

She emerged from the tomb and stopped short. The sand beneath her hooves, which had been dry only hours earlier, was now slick with blood. The corpse of a zebra that she recognized as being one of the group's guides lay in front of her, torn open from the neck to the pelvis. Daring staggered away in horror, stumbling over the body of the navigator, lying facedown with a throwing knife the back of his leg and his neck. With a cry, she leapt away, only to back into a tree. Turing around at the sudden, unexpected touch, she was horrified to see her old friend and mentor, Professor Jackal, dangling upside down from a tree branch like a prize fish...his head severed at the neck.

While she stared in terror, a sound came to her ears, carried by the jungle wind...a distant, high-pitched whooping giggle...

Daring snapped herself back to the present, and hot anger surged through her blood. Not again, she vowed. Never again.

Suddenly, the lights flickered and went out. There was a half-second of silence, followed by cries of confusion, fear and annoyance from outside.

Dusty Winds looked into the room, his flashlight piercing the darkness. "Are you both all right?" he asked, his voice carrying the distinct twang of a Dodge City inhabitant.

"We're fine," Daring replied, standing up, half-drawing her weapon. Phillip gave a quiet grunt in response.

"The backup generator should be coming on any second now," Dusty said, more to reassure himself than his charges.

"It would've already," Phillip answered, reaching into his vest on the table next to him and pulling out his own flashlight, switching it on to lantern mode. The room was cast in a hazy half-light, the shadows lurking outside the flashlight's range.

"It's here," Daring breathed. "Eyes and ears open, mouths shut."

The trio fell into silence, Dusty and Daring placing themselves on either side of Phillip, weapons drawn and ready. The silence stretched into seconds, then minutes of tension. None of the ponies dared move: they felt as though the slightest twitch, a single sudden movement, could attract the predator's attention. A bead of sweat slowly traveled down a strand of Dusty's mane, dripping down onto the tile floor.

Suddenly, there was a noise from the darkness: the sound of claws scratching against tile floors. Dusty gave an indistinct shout and whirled, pointing his blade towards the source of the sound.

"Stay where you are," Daring ordered him tersely. "Don't let it separate us—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a small black sphere flew out of the shadows and landed at the foot of Phillip's bed. The smoke bomb detonated as soon as it struck the floor, filling the room with thick, choking smoke. Daring held her forelegs up in front of her, closing her mouth and holding her breath. She could hear her two companions coughing heavily, but the stinging smoke prevented her from seeing clearly.

She felt a sudden push of energy, as if an invisible hoof had shoved her down. She ducked, and felt a set of claws slice through the air where her throat was a second earlier. She twisted, unleashing a powerful kick to her attacker's side and was rewarded with the very satisfying sensation of breaking ribs. The hyena rolled as it hit the ground and was back on its paws almost immediately, snarling in frustration as the smoke cleared away. It glared at its targets, drool cascading from its bared teeth.

"Sweet Celestia's sun," Dust breathed, staring at the assassin in disbelief. "I didn't think they looked like that!"

The hyena shifted its weight slightly, then let out a loud growl and charged again, heading right at the Guard, who yelped in fright and held his sword up in a guarding position. Daring moved to intercept, snapping her whip out and ensnaring the hyena around the neck, pulling it towards her. The hyena stumbled and fell, but quickly rolled back up and counterattacked, swiping at Daring's legs. She vaulted over the attack, allowing the hyena to crash into the wall, then tugged it back towards her, causing it to sprawl onto the floor. Recovering his courage, Dusty leapt forward, stabbing his blade downward to finish the beast off.

But as the blade came down, the hyena clapped its front paws together, catching the blade between them. It twisted and kicked out, disarming the astonished Dusty and kicking him away before flipping back upright, severing Daring's whip and almost taking her head right off her shoulders as she leapt out of the way. Taking the sword in both paws, the hyena grinned at Daring, letting out its trademark giggle.

"What's so funny? You see your face in the mirror?" Daring replied, throwing her whip down and raising her guard.

"Careful!" Phillip warned her. The hyena barked something in its native tongue in reply, slowly circling its prey. Daring attacked first, faking a head thrust then kicking at the hyena's legs. It blocked her strike, then slashed at her head with the sword, the blade passing inches above her head as she ducked. She spun and kicked backwards, hitting nothing but air. The combatants whirled into each other in a deadly dance, limbs moving in a blur, the blade whistling as it cut through the air. Neither held anything back; the first to make a mistake would be the one to die.

Daring sidestepped a downward cut at her head, countering with a roundhouse kick to the stomach. She tried to follow up with a one-two punch, but the hyena ducked out of the way, responding with a spinning horizontal cut to her waist. Daring jammed the attack with her forelegs, knocking the sword to the floor, but the hyena tackled her, knocking her to the ground and biting down onto her shoulder. The bones crackled beneath the pressure of the biting jaws. Daring howled in mingled pain and fury, trying to shove the predator off her. The beast reared back, her blood dripping from its grinning mouth as it held her down. Its eyes focused on her exposed throat, and it surged forward again for the killing strike—

"Get the bloody hell off her!"

With a whirring sound, Phillip's boomerang sailed through the air and struck the hyena in the back of the head with enough force to knock it off-balance with a yelp of pain. Wriggling out from beneath the hyena, Daring brought her knees to her chest and kicked out, striking the assassin in the chest and sending it flying back into the wall. Daring flipped back to her hooves, clutching her shoulder in pain. The hyena got back up just as quickly, letting out a wheezing growl of pain and glaring at its uncooperative prey. A throwing knife appeared in its paw. Daring hesitated, her eyes instinctively going towards the weapon. The beast grinned, and with a sudden motion, threw the knife...but not at her.

"No!" Daring screamed as the blade flew right at Phillip, who could only watch, unable to avoid his death.

From out of nowhere, Dusty Winds leapt in, diving in front of the deadly weapon. It stuck deep into his abdomen and he tumbled out of the sky with a grunt of pain. Fury flashed through Daring and she turned back to the hyena, only to find that it had vanished while she was distracted.

A moment later, the repaired lights came back on with a hum. Blinking in the sudden light, Daring saw a ventilation shaft cover lying on the floor in front of her. The empty shaft was above her head; there was no sign of the canine killer.

"Medic! We need a doctor in here!" Phillip shouted out the door, looking at Dusty Wind, who was leaning against the wall, clutching his stomach in pain. Slowly lowering her guard, Daring trotted over to the others. The adrenaline faded from her system, quickly replaced by the pain of her injuries and the fatigue of her battle.

"Keep still. You'll be all right." she told Dusty. "And thank you," she added a moment later. Dusty nodded, managing a small smile even as he gritted his teeth in pain. Slowly, Daring lowered herself onto the bed, and felt Phillip wrap his good foreleg around her waist, gently squeezing her close in relief. She took his hoof in hers, not even caring if anypony saw.

Author's Notes:

I'm getting pretty good at releasing these weekly.

That was a close one, though. How are we going to stop this freak?