Chapter One: What the kids brought home
A loud commotion in the main entrance drew the Sythes from all corners of the building. Duo walked through the doors to see his second in command, Shadow, backing three of the younger members into a corner. Duo's curiosity poked it's head up, Shadow wasn't the kind of kid that let his temper run often, it took a lot to make him this mad, which was one of the reasons that Duo had chosen him as his second.
"…be so stupid! We don't work like this, and even if we did it wouldn't be from that part of the colony! Shin is gonna skin you alive!" Shadow was red faced and breathing hard by nowwhile the other three had turned white as a sheet and looked like they were going to either wet themselves or pass out. The youngest of the three, Tip, looked up shamefacedly, saw Shin coming toward them, and promptly burst into tears.
"Alright Shadow, what's going on here? Why is Tip crying and why do you think I'm going to skin them?" Duo put his hand on his second's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze to calm the boy.
"These three went into the upper district and kidnapped some guy. They knocked him out, brought him here, and he's in the side room now." Shadow spoke in a rush, obviously wanting to be anywhere than where he was.
"You did what?" Duo asked calmly and turned slowly to face the cowering three. Shin was at his scariest when he was quiet like this. The artificial sunlight glinted off of his violet sunglasses and the boys suddenly understood why rabbits would freeze when a hawk was about to strike. "What in the hell were you Thinking! I know you three are newer than most of us, but you have been here long e-freaking-nough to know that the Sythes don't DO kidnappings. Am I gonna have to start over in your training? Do you want to be kicked out? Because that's what it looks like to me when you put the whole gang in danger by doing something stupid like this." By now even Dart was close to tears, to a man the one thing that could scare any of the Sythes was Shinigami's disappointment. They followed him out of love, respect and loyalty, not fear or because they had to and to have him upset with them hurt worse than any physical punishment Shinigami would ever be able to dish out.
"No Shin, Please don't kick us out!" Tip cried. "I'm sorry. It was all my idea, Slip and Dart just went along with me to keep me safe from the Hawks! I'll do whatever I have to do to try and fix this, I'll take whatever punishment you wanna give me but please don't punish them." Tip stood there, the youngest of the three troublemakers, in front of the entire gathering of Sythes, with silent tears still falling and tried to take the fall for his friends. Duo was moved, he remembered long ago dayswhere friends would do that for him.
"We'll talk about this later you three, don't none of you try and hide after this is over, right now we've got a person to put back." Duo smirked slightly at the dumbfounded look on the trio's faces for being let off the hook so easily. "Well,"He sighed "let's get a look at the guy that got himself kyped by three kids." There were some laughs from the older members while Tip, Slip and Dart just gave a weak watery chuckle and a sigh of relief.
With his arm thrown over Shadow's shoulders, Duo walked at the front of the group to see their temporary captive. Duo looked through the slit that served as a peephole for the door and promptly forgot how to breathe. It might have been over ten years since he had last seen that face, but even slack from sleep Duo would have recognized him anywhere. Quatre hadn't changed much at all; He was taller, but that was to be expected, his hair was longer too, now pulled back into a tight ponytail with his bangs hanging in his face hiding his eyes when his head was hanging like it was. Clean shaven, his face had lost all trace of baby fat and he was more handsome than cute.
While he watched, Quatre blinked awake, crunched his eyes against either the light or the headache he must have been feeling and let out a small groan as he raised his head and looked around. The situation seemed to all come back to him however when his attempt to move was stopped by the ropes that bound him to the chair. Duo saw a cold calculation on Quatre's face as he looked around again more carefully, assessing the situation and probably the room for weaknesses and knew that even though it had been a while, Quatre hadn't let his soldiers instincts dull during the years of peace. As though sensing someone watching him, Quatre's eyes shot to the door and caught a pair of eyes watching him through blue/violet tinged glasses. The eyes disappeared abruptly however as their owner jerked away from the door.
Shadow looked on, confused, as Shin, the man who didn't twitch when confronted by the entire Hawk fighting force, went pale as a ghost and froze, staring in horrified fascination into the room for a couple of minutes before jerking back violently and slamming his back to the wall breathing hard.
"Shin?" Shadow asked quietly "You alright man?"
"Shit." Duo breathed out shakily. "Holy fucking shit." The gang stared at Shin waiting for him to elaborate. "Out of all of the people in the entire DAMN colony" Shin started out quiet but quickly increased in volume and turned blazing eyes upon the hapless three who were shrinking back against the wall wishing they could disappear. "You three had to go and kidnap Quatre FUCKING Winner! Are you trying to get us all killed! His bodyguards are gonna tear thisentire colonyapart looking for him!"
"Shin! Calm down. Please, you're scaring everyone." Shadow pleaded, seeing even the oldest members were backing away in the face of Shinigami's anger.
Duo breathed a deep sight and tried to clam himself. Getting worked up was a good way to get either himself or other members of his gang killed. As leader, he couldn't afford to lose focus, first thing's first. "Sniper, Scouter, Eyes-high. I want you three to double the watch. Keep an eye out for anyone new walking around with a small red hat, and especially watch for three guys. They'll be about my age. One's tall and thin with brown hair hanging over half of his face, one is Chinese with his hair pulled back way too tight and the last has dark brown messy hair and blue eyes. You'll be able to spotthem because they'll 'Feel' dangerous. Use you're instincts. They might not make it this far, but with these guys, you can't be too cautious. Trust me."
The three picked out turned and started calling out the names of the backup Watchers as they headed for their posts. Not a single one of the ten Watchers that went questioned Shin, they knew when their leader was serious and they trusted him unquestioningly. If Shin said these guys were tough SOBs then they would be prepared.
"The rest of you just be extra careful today. Stay in groups and watch out for any extra security and those guys I told the Watchers about. Be careful and make sure to come home safe." Shin told the remaining people. "Shadow, you stay here. I've got a special job for you if you're willing." Shin said quietly to the boy at his side while the others left to go about their normal activities. At Shadow's nod, Shin led him to the other side of the room across from the holding cell, as far away from Quatre as possible while still being able to keep an eye on the door.
"Shadow, I need you to do me a huge favor. If you're willing, I want you to be the one to take him back to the upper side. Not all the way, just to Dealer's Alley and turn him over to whoever might be waiting on the other side. I'll get a hold of the bodyguards and let them know he's coming. Keep Qu-Winner safe and try not to let him know his way back here, use as many back-alleys as you need to." Shadow was nodding his head in a duh kind of way but Duo could tell that he was taking everything said to heart. Giving the boy's shoulder a little shake to make sure he had his full and complete attention, Shin's face turned grim. "This is the most important part of the job. I chose you for this because I know I can trust you to be more discrete than anyone else here. Do Not, for any reason, tell him who I am. Don't mention the name of the gang, no physical descriptions, none of my tags, nothing. And be careful around him, he has ways of making you talk about stuff you don't wanna talk about. Just call us the Boss and the Gang when you need to talk about us at all.
"Alright…Boss." Shadow said with a lopsided smirk. "I do know how to be selective with my words remember? I learned it from you after all."
"Smart allic." Smiling back, Duo reached over and tugged gently on Shadow's topknot.
"Hey hey! Back off the hair man!" Shadow yelped, swatting at Shin's hands. Grinning, his hand darted forward and tugged Shin's calf-length braid. He was inordinately pleased with himself with the surprised yipe and mock glare he got from him.
"How'd you get so fast kid?" Duo asked, leading Shadow back towards the 'holding cell' and Shadow just grinned cheekily at him. When they were standing by the door, where Duo could see Quatre but Quatre wouldn't be able to see him, Shadow poked him on the arm to get his attention.
"Hey, Shin? What am I supposed to do if the Hawks jump us? I can defend myself just fine, but what about Blondie?" Shadow couldn't help but ask. He could see into the room at the man tied to the chair, and what he saw didn't impress him much. The guy had gotten himself caught by a thirteen, twelve and nine year old after all. That fact alone didn't ensue much confidence inthe man'sself defense ability. Not to mentionhe looked too soft and innocent to know how to defend himself.
"If it comes down to it, and the situation gets to be bad enough, give him your gun." The look on Shins' face was enough to tell Shadow that he was dead serious.
"What?" Shadow was taken aback by that. "You want me to give him, our captive, my gun if we get into a fight? How do you know that he even knows which end of a gun the bullets come out of? And besides, what if he shoots me?" the former was what bothered Shadow the most, he knew that he could take care of himself in a fight, but the thought of being in one armed only with his knives and a man of unknown ability watching his back unnerved him like nothing else.
"Don't worry. Before you take him back, tell him what the situation is and explain that you are there to help him. Without you as a guide he'd be lost in no time so there's no point in hurting you. He should listen to reason, and besides, you know that I'd never let anyone hurt you right?" Shadow nodded at Shin. He knew that at least two of the gang, maybe even Shinigami himself would be up on the surrounding buildings keeping an eye on the whole 'Return the Hostage' mission. "Oh," Shin said as he turned his head to look at the door hiding Quatre. His voice was thick with dark humor. "And about his ability…Don't worry about that in the least. He can take care of himself just fine.
Waking up with a splitting headache was never Quatre's favorite way to start the day. 'That's it.' He thought 'that's the last time I let Wufei talk me into going drinking with him and Heero, the morning afterjust is notworth it.' Blinking open his eyes he looked around nonplussed and wondered where he'd passed out this time.
When his attempts to stand didn't yield the proper result however, his present situation came rushing back to him. 'Captured.' Flashed through his mind in neon lights. Testing the bonds on his wrists and ankles, Quatre found them distressingly well done. Turning his attention to the rest of the room while still attempting to wriggle out of his bonds Quatre noticed that there was only one window, too high up to reach alone, and barred. There was one door with an eye-slit in it at the opposite wall to him. He only noticed the door out of the corner of his eye until he felt someone watching him. Whipping his head around to stare at the eye slit, Quatre found himself staring into two wide, shocked eyes hidden behind a pair of purple glasses. The glasses and the eyes, who's color they concealed, abruptly jerked away and Quatre could've swore he heard yelling going on outside the door. In moments the noise stopped, irritating Quatre, since he hadn't been able to make out anything that had been said.
Resigning himself to his fate, Quatre mentally preparing himself for what was probably to come. He knew the drill; abduction, intimidation, possible abuse, ransom, rescue by the guys (or self rescue), exact revenge…the usual. If these kidnappers thought they were being creative they were in for a surprise. He was not in the mood to play games and he was kicking himself for falling for their ploy. Damsel in Distress technique except with little kids, should've seen through that one, Heero'd never let him live this down. Quatre was sure that he was prepared for anything that came through the door to deal with him, be it Big-and-Burly-Bad-Guyto Evil-Megalomaniac-I'll-Kill-All-You-Gundam-Bastards-Bwahahaha. He'd seen it all. Or so he thought.
Quatre tensed slightly when the door began to open, steadying himself for whoever or whatever came through the door…and blinked in shock when a kid walked into the room as calmly as you please with a pleasant smile on his face. Definitely not the norm. the kid walked unhurriedly toward Quatre's bound form with the feline grace of a thief, or an assassin, before stopping just out of lunging distance.
"Hullo," He said with a smile. "My name's Shadow. We need to talk."
End Part One
6
A/N: Just in case the name thing gets confusing, Duo is used when he's thinking or when the story goes from his point of view, Shin or Shinigami are used when anyone else is talking to/refering to him. Nobody knows Shin's real name, not even Shadow.