This one is a little bit of an aberration. If you've read "Storybook Love" it will make a little more sense, though it's not necessary. Basically, this is in the same universe as that where Heero and Quatre are together and are raising a daughter.
Please be warned that there is the threat of serious violence to a child in this, and some actual violence. Nothing more severe than off-screen bruising, but I want to make sure you know what you're getting into. The violence to the Gundams is rather more significant, but it is also off-screen (and, as always, not sexual in nature).
I'm not entirely sure where this one came from. It just needed to exist. Maybe because I thought I hadn't given Wufei enough of a spotlight. So this one is for him.
Enjoy!
When the phone tucked tight within the most secure pocket of his uniform beeped, Chang Wufei answered it automatically, scarcely registering which phone had rung at all.
"Agent Chang," he responded absently, his eyes on the paperwork before him.
"Zero Five."
Only at Trowa's voice, colder than cold, did Wufei realize he had answered the phone that was his private mobile, one whose number was known to fewer than ten people. One that he typically kept silenced. But it had rung audibly.
"They'll only ring over a silenced status if one of us inputs a specific command prior to calling," Quatre had said when he gave them to the former Gundam pilots. "Which we'll only do if it's really an emergency, of course. I hope we won't ever need them, but just in case..."
Wufei's heart started to beat frantically and he wondered when it had stopped.
"What's happened, Zero Three?" Wufei demanded, paperwork and Preventers and everything else forgotten.
"An attack. We need you here." There was the slightest catch in Trowa's voice. "We need your help."
Wufei's mind whirled, then cleared. "I will leave the building in exactly seven minutes. Have the location sent to my phone by then."
"Understood."
Before Wufei had even ended the call, he was on his feet. He shucked off the Preventers uniform coat and hung it on the peg behind his desk, replacing it with a familiar, dark-colored duster that had been a gift a few years before - a gift from those who mattered most, who needed him now. Into the most readily-accessible inner pocket of this he placed the private phone. Then he methodically gathered his other personal weapons from his desk, including at least two small handguns even Une herself didn't know were hidden in the secret compartment he had installed under his bottom drawer. He buckled the sheath of his sword around his waist with a final sort of certainty.
Then he picked up his Preventers-issued firearm and swept from his office without looking back. Two minutes later, he entered Commander Une's office without knocking.
"Agent Chang?" Une looked up with cool reserve.
"I formally request a leave of absence as of right now," Wufei said, placing the Preventers pistol down along with his official ID card.
"Oh?"
"And if you do not approve my leave, I will resign my commission this instant."
Her eyebrows rose very slightly. "May I inquire as to your reason behind this?"
Wufei felt the coldness in himself as he answered, "I am needed elsewhere."
Une's face actually fell. "I was in the process of preparing to come and notify you myself," she said after a moment. "I take it you have heard from your own channels?"
Wufei said nothing.
"Your request for leave is granted, Agent Chang. Take whatever time you require. Just remember that you are not acting as an official Preventer agent from this point forward."
Wufei simply nodded once and turned to go.
"If I may, let me offer my condolences. And if there is anything I can do, either as head of Preventers or not, I hope you know you may call on me. I'm...very sorry."
Wufei froze, seized by a sudden desire to spin and scream at the woman. What did she know? What had happened? But he could not, would not show weakness, not now. Not when he didn't know who to trust or what had transpired. So he looked over his shoulder and said simply, "Acknowledged."
Wufei would never remember if he walked calmly through the Preventers Headquarters or if he sprinted through the building at speeds rivalling a Gundam. All that mattered was he was outside the building and on his way.
Trowa had sent the rendezvous information. Wufei's heart washed with frigid fear when he recognized the address as a private hospital on L4.
-==OOO==-
Too many hours of transit later, Wufei was met in the lobby by one of Quatre's Maganacs, Auda. Wufei had had cause to interact with the Maganacs several times over the years after the wars, and never, not once, did he recall seeing the man so utterly stoic and shaken, as though every trace of his usual humor had been snuffed out.
"They're waiting for you," was all Auda would say. He led Wufei to an elevator that required a key to reach a specially-secured floor. Wufei was not surprised to find more Maganacs filling the hallways at all strategic points, armed and either irately furious or coldly still.
Outside the door of a room at the end of the hall on the secured floor, Rashid sat rather than stood guard. Wufei wondered at that until he saw the field dressings wrapped around the man. Wufei guessed that Rashid had not left his post even to seek proper treatment, and from the dark, dry stains on the bandages, he had been sitting there for hours.
"Go," Wufei told him curtly. "You cannot do anything if you die here."
Rashid peered into Wufei's eyes for a long moment before rising shakily. Auda bent to take his elbow.
"He's right," Auda said. "And besides, there's...nothing we can do right now."
Rashid's head actually fell at that and Wufei was only surprised that the man wasn't weeping.
But he is still standing guard. He would not be here if Quatre were dead, Wufei tried to assure himself.
"Go in," Auda said. Then he paused in leading Rashid away to pin Wufei in a fiery glare. "Don't you dare fail us, Chang Wufei."
Wufei could only dip his chin in acknowledgement. He waited until the pair were away from the door before he pushed it open.
Only to have the cold muzzle of a gun press against his forehead before he had set any more than a foot in the room.
However, this was familiar. "Stand down, Zero Three," Wufei said.
The gun vanished and Trowa practically pulled Wufei into the room, closing and locking the door behind him.
"Chang." Duo looked up and his violet eyes were misty with rage and pain. "Thank God."
Wufei swallowed thickly at the scene.
Two beds stood side-by-side pressed close together. In one, Quatre Winner was as pale as the white sheets where his skin wasn't angrily bruised or thickly bandaged. Wires and tubes snaked from the bed to a variety of machines, and Wufei recognized on sight the difference between the IV stand feeding blood into the Arab and the three providing other fluids, at least one of which he knew for a powerful barbiturate capable of rendering even a Gundam pilot deeply unconscious. One arm was suspended in a heavy plaster cast, and Wufei thought he could see something wrong with the shape of the feet beneath the sheets as well.
Beside him, Heero Yuy was stretched out on the other bed. His face bore the sticky residue of a recently-removed mask, likely a tube to help him breathe. He was not covered with a sheet, revealing similar profound bruising and bandaging across his muscular frame. But the sight that twisted Wufei's strong stomach was the medieval-looking metal apparatus that was clearly bolted to Heero's body through his very skin, forming a cage that stretched from his navel to mid-way down his thighs. Towels had been tucked around it wherever possible to provide cushion and warmth, but there was no mistaking the fixed structure that was apparently holding Heero's body together. He, too, was littered with sensors and wires and several IVs of his own.
Wufei's hand fell instinctively to the hilt of his sword and he had to fight not to draw it outright. "What the hell happened to them?"
Duo and Trowa looked at one another before Duo sighed. "We screwed up."
Trowa frowned. "This is not our fault."
"Well, clearly we missed something, or this wouldn't have happened!" Duo switched from slightly despondent to fury between one breath and the next. It was only then that Wufei realized Duo bore a splint and sling on his left arm.
"Report, Zero Two!" Wufei snapped sharply. "Recriminations later."
Duo's eyes flashed, but he squared his shoulders and started to explain.
"There were some threats lately against WEI in general and Quatre specifically. Heero was looking into them, and he asked me to come in because he thought there might be a mole somewhere in Quatre's office and they know him too well over there for him to poke around."
"I heard nothing of such threats." Wufei scowled.
"Quatre was taking them seriously," Duo defended his best friend, "but he didn't want to open a Preventers case until he knew who to accuse. Anyway, a couple of days ago, WEI announced a new project that's about to make some really bad people pretty uncomfortable, something about funneling money into the kinds of places slime grows the best. You know what I mean."
Wufei did. Criminals fought to protect their empires, and one of the greatest threats to an established criminal syndicate of any kind was anything that might either give people a better option than to join their ranks or that improved the places where they had a base of power.
"They...we were out at lunch in a cafe down the street," Duo said, his eyes trailing back over to Quatre and Heero. "I got up because we spotted someone suspicious in the kitchen and Quatre sent me to check it out. It was only later," his gaze fell, "that I realized they were trying to get me out of the way."
"They were protecting you," Trowa said quietly.
Duo's good hand clenched into a tight fist. "I was halfway to the kitchen when the grenade came through the window. Heero was up before I even turned around. He and Quatre grabbed Quatre's briefcase and slammed it down on the grenade just as it blew."
Wufei looked over at the pair. There was no evidence of the sorts of injuries from shrapnel he would have expected.
"Quatre's briefcase was made of leftover Gundanium," Trowa explained. "It could deflect everything but the shockwave itself."
"They were right on top of it," Duo said, still not looking up. "The blast knocked me on my ass and I was halfway across the room - that's how I got a busted arm. They were lucky it didn't tear them in half."
Wufei added this information to the more specific injuries evident to him and drew a few conclusions of his own. Heero had likely been lying on top of the briefcase to hold it down, with Quatre behind him, an arm wrapped around him. That would explain the extreme damage to Heero's middle and Quatre's extremities.
"Do we know who did this?" Wufei asked.
"We know," Trowa said, "but you haven't heard everything yet."
The cold ice in Wufei's stomach froze like the absolute abyss of outer space.
"You know Protocol," Trowa continued. "If something happens to Heero and Quatre and they are both incapacitated or killed…"
"The nearest pilot takes over guardianship," Wufei finished.
"They took her," Duo said with wretched raw feeling. "I was so busy trying to get these two somewhere secure and everything, it took me too long to get to their place. Rashid got himself half-killed trying to protect her."
Wufei's rage went from icy cold to boiling hot in a single instant.
Trowa held out a piece of paper. It was obviously written on Quatre Winner's own stationery, but the handwriting was not familiar.
In payment for the damage done to me and my business by Mister Winner and WEI, I take my revenge by acquiring that which Mister Winner loves best. This is not a ransom demand. Sakima Winner now belongs to me. Should Mister Winner continue to interfere with me, he will join her in the hell of my choosing.
Wufei thought of the little girl, nine-year-old Sakima Winner-Yuy, adopted child of Quatre and Heero, one with whom he had spent a great deal of time over the years. In fact, Wufei was her favorite babysitter on account of the long, entertaining narratives he invented for her. She was related by blood to Quatre as the child of one of his sisters who had died unexpectedly with no father to claim her, and Quatre and Heero had become her fathers in both name and fact, though the truth of Quatre's marriage to Heero and her subsequent correct surname was a tightly-guarded secret known only to a few.
"We have to save her," he barely growled out around his hatred.
Trowa shook his head. "Not we, Zero Five. You."
"They've threatened Relena next," Duo said. "And Heero's out of it. The only person who can protect her and not piss off the other Ministers down there is Zero Three and you know it. And I…" He nudged his arm with only slightly-restrained loathing, "I can't exactly help on the ground."
"How badly are you hurt?" Wufei needed to know. It gave his rage something to do beside scream for justice and revenge.
"Bad enough," he answered. Then Duo looked at Wufei with anguish in his eyes. "If I go after the kiddo, if I find those bastards and they've hurt one hair on her head, Shinigami's going to rise. And...you know how that goes, especially when I'm hurt. I can't...I can't let Sakima see me like that...not if there's any other way."
Wufei understood. Duo Maxwell as Shinigami, hurt, cornered, and enraged to a fit of near-psychotic madness was nothing less than a truly nightmarish monster. Duo might not be injured enough to prevent him from tracking down the people who had taken the child, but by the time he found them, Sakima might well end more afraid of him than of her own abductors - and not without reason.
"If it comes to it, if it's the only way, you know I'll go," Duo said. "But...she…"
Wufei shook his head with a sharp gesture. "I understand. I would not wish her to know what lingers in any of us, but you are not adept at concealing it even under the best circumstances."
"I'll stay here and protect them in case those bastards come back for round two," Duo said, and his eyes glittered with renewed anger. "And as soon as Heero's awake, he'll help, too. They just had to put him out for the surgeries."
Wufei frowned. "And Quatre?"
It was Trowa who answered. "Heero woke in the hospital upon arrival and he was briefed on the situation while he was lucid. Before he was put under again, he gave very specific orders. Quatre is being held in a medically-induced coma for now and he will remain that way until we have more information about Sakima."
"But why?"
"Heero came out of that blast with a broken body and a concussion. Quatre came out not so badly hurt, but the concussion was worse. His empathic shields completely failed." Duo looked at his best friend. "When we realized what happened, what Sakima might be experiencing...well…"
Trowa finished, "Heero decided to keep him from being able to sense her. If they are hurting her, he won't be able to stop himself from trying to strike at them in spite of the distance and his current weakness, and the backlash could cripple him or outright kill him."
Though Quatre could almost certainly find her through his gift, Wufei considered. But they are correct. If any harm has come to the child, Quatre will break his mind to save her and destroy whoever is inflicting that harm.
And, as far as I know, his empathy is unreliable at a distance. He could rip apart the brain of a bystander as well as the perpetrators, or worse, even leak some of his attack to Sakima herself.
Intelligence about their whereabouts is collectable without such means. But we could not prevent or undo what Quatre would rain down were he awake to do so. He must be a last resort.
"Go to Representative Darlian, Zero Three," Wufei looked up. "Do not let her be harmed, and if you find any of those responsible for this attack, subdue them by any means that leaves them alive to tell us what they know."
"Mission accepted." Trowa nodded.
"Zero Two." Wufei turned to Duo, and he knew he did not imagine Duo's slight flinch. "You are not at fault for what happened. And you do not have time to dwell on the past. If I need you in order to complete my task, I will require you as clear-thinking as possible for you."
Duo smirked. "We'll have the argument about if I should have done better later, you're right. Count on it, Zero Five, if you want me there, I will take apart the entire Earth Sphere brick by brick."
"As will I," Wufei vowed. He moved closer to the beds and looked down at the pair lying unconscious before him.
Had they not been put through the rigorous training and modifications given to Gundam pilots, they would have been killed. They are barely alive now. And Sakima...
Something dark coiled around his stomach, a cold, burning rage that had fueled him many times before. But now it was so much worse. Wufei had not known such a profound desire for revenge since the destruction of his home colony.
But just like the tales he had told to Sakima herself on the nights he sat with her while her fathers were elsewhere, the brotherhood, the affinity between himself and the other former pilots had grown to unfathomable depths in the years since the wars. More even than Wufei's loyalty to his Clan, more than the ties of blood, Wufei belonged to the four who had been his enemies and his allies and at last his friends.
And they were his.
He would kill or die for any of them, would give every drop of his blood and every breath of his lungs for them. There was nothing he would not do for them. Truly and literally nothing.
Or for you, child. Be strong. I will find you and bring you home.
"I give you my word," he spoke to the unconscious pair who were his family and his heart and his sanctuary. "I will not rest until Sakima is safe with you again. And I will have justice for what has been done to you and to her. No matter what it costs me, I will make this right."
And if she is dead, every man or woman who had a hand in it will perish screaming in recompense for her pain. My word of honor on it. They will regret ever taking what is mine.
-==OOO==-
Wufei needed less than an hour to collect and examine the evidence Duo had gathered on the criminal group behind the attacks. He used his Preventers access in order to learn what the official forces had uncovered as well, noting as he did so that Commander Une should have shut down his credentials when he declared his leave of absence, and she was far too meticulous to have simply forgotten; he accepted it as her tacit approval and assistance. With every detail he uncovered, he drew a more complete picture of his enemies.
He also funneled this information to Trowa, who was already on his way to Earth to protect Representative Darlian. It might not be of much use, but the profiles and known affiliates might mean the difference between Trowa recognizing a danger before versus after a threatening action.
When one of Preventers' lists of suspected supporters flashed across his screen, Duo rose abruptly.
"I know him," he said. "And he knows me."
"Will he tell you what he knows?" Wufei asked.
Duo's smile was dark and feral and filled with malice. "You bet he will. I'll just go pay him a little visit. He's even local."
Wufei considered stopping him. After all, he was injured and the instant Wufei had actionable intelligence he would be away and hunting down all who had dared to harm Heero and Quatre and Sakima. However, he reasoned that Duo's persuasion might provide that actionable intelligence all the more quickly.
And Shinigami was clearly hungry for some revenge of his own.
"You have two hours." Wufei turned back to his analysis. "After that, I move without you."
Duo sketched him a mocking salute and quit the room.
Wufei glanced at the pair unconscious on the beds. "Neither of you will approve of what he is going to do, I believe. But you can hardly blame us for wanting it done."
-==OOO==-
Shinigami circled around his prey, his breath a low growl in the stillness. His shoulders were held up and hunched and his head hung low, weaving back and forth slightly as he watched his prey from under furrowed brows.
"P-p-please…" stammered the prey. "I don't know anything...I can't tell you…"
"YES YOU CAN!" The roar was deafening in the quiet and the prey flinched from the sinister smile that followed it. He stepped close enough to count the prey's droplets of sweat that spilled down a terrified face.
He lifted his gun and slid it under the prey's trembling chin, the cold metal catching the folds of skin that bobbed as the prey gulped.
"You're going to help me," he whispered. "You're going to tell me anything I want to know. Or you'll never see daylight again."
-==OOO==-
Ninety-five minutes from the time Duo had left the room, he returned.
"They've got a base on L3," he said without fanfare. "Colony X-17943. He didn't know the exact address, but it's a big yellow house with access to a private spaceport. Can't be too many of those around."
Wufei stood. "Likely not. I will set out now and will identify it on the way. You stay here and send me anything else you can."
Duo nodded. "What are you gonna tell Rashid and the others?"
"Nothing," Wufei answered. "I do not doubt their loyalty or their skill, but we cannot afford a war inside a colony, and an army of Maganacs howling for vengeance will begin just that."
"They'll want to help." Duo frowned. "They won't just sit here and let you leave without giving them orders."
There was a dry cough. "I will speak to them."
Both gazes swung to where Heero's eyes blinked open. The perfect soldier grimaced only slightly at what must have been severe pain from his injuries - his focus was all outside himself. His eyes swept the room for threats or outsiders before he settled his full attention on Wufei.
"I will handle Rashid. Do whatever you must, Zero Five. Bring my child home."
Only one who knew Heero as well as Wufei did could have heard the suffocating fear behind the steel of his words.
Wufei actually bowed at the waist, a proper bow of full respect. "Mission accepted, Zero One."
As Wufei gathered his computer and his bag together, he only half-listened while Duo figured out how to set up Heero's own ever-present laptop without dislodging any part of the external brace embedded in his body. No one offered any sentiment nor voiced even a hint of the sort of concerns about whether it was too soon for Heero to be awake, let alone working; such was beneath them.
And besides, Wufei thought grimly, it doesn't matter. Heero would rather tear the metal from his body and search out Sakima himself, but it would kill him. Anything less than doing whatever leaves him alive, no matter the pain, is better than nothing.
Just before he left, Wufei turned back. "I will alert you if I desire you to awaken Zero Four."
Heero's eyes clouded slightly, but he nodded. Then, with his laptop balanced upon his chest and his left hand already speeding across the keys, he reached out with his right hand to snag Quatre's pale arm that was nearest him. Heero avoided the lines of the IV and laced his fingers tightly with his husband's.
"If we wake him, he will hate himself for what he will do to them," Heero said quietly.
"And if we don't, he might hate us for leaving him out of it." Duo shrugged. "Face it. He's gonna be mad either way. Better mad without the extra guilt."
"I agree," Wufei said. "Let him rest." He felt his face soften as his heart beat a soft rush of sympathy. "His suffering is already too great. Unconscious he has no power, but we cannot assume he is entirely unaware of the situation and its...potential."
Heero could only nod.
-==OOO==-
It took hours aboard Quatre's fastest private shuttle for Wufei to reach L3. They were not idle hours, however. With Heero and Duo both working from their own laptops, Wufei was flush with data about his quarry, their location, and their security. Even half-killed, Heero was unsurpassed in his ability to hack any computer system no matter how secure, and long before Wufei arrived, he had schematics, guard shifts, even the perimeter cameras' own feeds.
Wufei also, he discovered, had about half the Maganac force following him approximately three hours behind. When he expressed his displeasure, Heero on the vid screen simply quirked an eyebrow.
"They'll follow your orders if you're still alive to give them. Otherwise, they'll pick up wherever you leave off."
Wufei supposed that was the best he could expect. But he did pass a strongly-worded command to the Maganac shuttle behind him for them to stand down and wait until he summoned them or failed. They agreed - barely.
By the time Wufei was docking at L3, his rage was under almost control, buried under layers and layers of discipline and focus. He was no less homicidally, violently angry than he had been, but he forced himself to leave those emotions untouched for now. There would come a time for revenge and devastation, but not before he had secured his objective.
Only when Wufei knew what had happened to Sakima would he exact justice for her treatment and that of her fathers from her captors.
Wufei moved through the streets of the L3 colony like a ghost, silent and leaving no impression at all behind him. He carried most of his larger weaponry and equipment, including his dao, in a bag over his shoulder, and with his face locked in a neutral expression he had mastered working undercover with Preventers, he was as unremarkable as the pavement beneath his feet. It was simplicity itself to make his way to his target location and walk its perimeter several times.
The yellow house did not rival any of Quatre's mansions for size or grandeur, but it was still large and broad-windowed, set back from the street behind a fence and a long expanse of grass. Wufei knew he would have a better chance of getting into the house undiscovered if he waited until nightfall on the colony when there would be far less light to reveal him, but he discarded that idea with a flash of fury.
Sakima had already been alone with these bastards for far too long. He would not ask her to wait any longer for him.
Wufei moved virtually without thought, his instincts and experience serving him well as he easily identified a gap in the base's security and exploited it, ruthlessly and unapologetically eliminating the guard at that post. He evaded security cameras via the mental map of them he had assembled from Heero's hacked information, knowing as he did so that Heero would likely be covering his tracks as he went.
Once he reached the house itself, however, Wufei had to reassess. There were not as many cameras in the interior of the base, and though he had a layout of the building, he did not have the same level of insight into the potential enemies on site, nor where precisely to locate Sakima.
He was lingering out of sight in a blind spot behind a door when two thugs in conversation wandered by.
"You should've seen it! The blast wasn't as big as usual, but that was almost better because we could see the damage."
"I'd've thought that pretty boy would be hiding under a table."
"Nah. He and that bodyguard jumped right on the grenade and got near blown apart. Sweetest thing I've ever seen, that rich bastard with his arm all blasted to hell and his feet lookin' like they were about to fall off."
"Sweeter than the little piece the boss stole from him?"
"Depends on what you like, I guess. But I'd have either of 'em-"
Before he could finish that filthy thought, Wufei erupted from his spot, sword drawn. He easily struck the despicable creature down, blood spilling as flesh parted from bone before his rage and strength. The second one had barely time to blanch at the sight of his friend's entrails before Wufei was upon him, dropping him to lie sprawled brokenly across the floor.
I might have showed mercy. Not any longer.
Wufei was sorely tempted to call out a challenge to every person in the house and face each in a duel one-on-one until not a single enemy remained standing to oppose him; it would please his snarling, vengeful spirit to make them all face his wrath. But he didn't dare risk the time. He was preparing to begin a grid search when he heard a familiar voice (alive, thank all that was good in the universe) in a belligerent shout.
"You let me go right now!"
Wufei was off like the blast of a beam cannon. Abandoning stealth, he tore through the hallways like a demon. Several men and women tried to step into his way and a few even made the mistake of firing on him or attempting to stop him.
Every single obstacle between Chang Wufei and the child under his protection fell in a blur of motion and precision. Not one would ever rise again.
Then Sakima cried out fearfully.
And Zero Five forgot about precision and struck out for revenge instead. The obstacles still fell, but now they fell screaming and gurgling before they died.
Wufei demolished a solid door with a high kick and charged inward, dao in one hand and a gun in the other. He barely bothered to examine the room beyond its obvious function as a study or library and instead focused all his attention on the slim, bearded man at the opposite end. The man with a narrow, sharp hand encircling Sakima's throat.
"Who are you?" the man demanded. "How dare you interrupt my business and attack me here? You will pay dearly for this insult, I promise you!"
Wufei ignored him. His eyes fell to where Sakima was visibly trembling, held against the man's body by his too-tight grip. He could see the marks of bruising on her face - clearly she had been struck more than once. But in spite of her terror and obvious pain, there was a stubborn line to the girl's expression, and flame in her gaze showed Wufei that her spirit was still unbroken.
"You're safe," he said to her.
Sakima opened her mouth to reply and the man squeezed her throat so that she could scarcely gasp as her face turned a terrible color.
"You have disrupted my operations and I will see you suffer for your insolence!" the man threatened.
And you are a fool if you think I care about you and your words. Doubly if you have failed to recognize that my only concern is the child you have hurt. I would have killed you anyway for raising a hand to her. Now I can kill you and know you died an imbecile.
Sakima closed her small hands on the grip around her throat and lifted her body. She swung backwards and slammed her little heels into the man's knee with all her strength. He dropped her in surprise, but then quickly regathered himself. Before she could so much as scramble a step away, he pinned her to the floor with a heavy foot that dug into her back.
Meanwhile, Wufei had used the distraction of Sakima's attack to close the distance between himself and his enemy. He was only a handful of paces from his objective.
"Release her now." His growl carried all the warning he did not voice.
The man looked at Wufei with honest disdain. "I don't take orders from the likes of you."
Sakima coughed at the weight on her fragile ribcage pinning her to the ground. But she lifted her head and peered at Wufei with eyes that blinked back tears.
"It's okay. I understand and I'm not scared."
Wufei met her eyes evenly. "Ninmu ryokai."
As Sakima ducked and covered her face, Wufei cleanly put a bullet each into the man's throat and his heart in shots so close together it seemed like a single roar of the gun. Before the man could even crumple onto her, Wufei scooped her up and pulled her clear. He gathered her into his arms and turned away from the body so she would not have to see it.
Mine. I've got you, child. I'm here.
Sakima buried her head into Wufei's shoulder, frail courage collapsing now that she was no longer alone. "Uncle Wufei! I knew you would come! But…"
Wufei's rage vanished against her fear and his own relief as he held her tightly. "Be strong, little one. It is almost over."
"But my Papa is dead!"
Wufei froze.
Sakima's tears wet Wufei's jacket as she stumbled through her words. "They said...they said they killed Daddy's bodyguard. They didn't know he was my Papa. They said he was dead and Daddy was hurt and…"
"You cannot trust what such evil men say," Wufei interrupted firmly. "And you know better, child."
At the chiding in his words, Sakima looked up, blue-green eyes, so very like Quatre's, swimming in tears.
Wufei leaned quite close to her. "Your Papa is far stronger than that. These people do not have the strength to kill him. No one does."
She gulped against a sob.
But he cautioned her, "They are both very badly hurt, it is true. That's why they didn't come for you themselves."
"They sent you." Sakima made a rather watery smile. "They sent you to rescue me."
"Yes, but I would have come for you even had they not. You know this, little one."
She nodded. "I knew you would find me. Or Uncle Trowa or Uncle Duo or Mister Rashid. I knew no one would leave me here forever. I just...tried to be brave until you came."
"Did they hurt you?" The question twisted in Wufei's stomach and he could barely stand to hear her answer.
"They...hit me some," she confessed after a moment, looking away. "Because I couldn't stop crying. And...they scared me."
"Scared you how, exactly?" He hated to make her do this, hated it, but he had to know.
"They were...going to sell me. Uh...that man said he would give me to someone who would…" She gulped back a terrible sob. "But that's all."
Unconscionable and despicable. I have never been so glad to know a man was dead at my hand.
Wufei stroked her fair hair with a gentleness he had learned from her and for her. "You have comported yourself with great honor, little one. I'm proud of you. But now we must go. Can you be brave a little longer?"
"I...I think so. I'll try."
"Good girl." Wufei dropped to one knee and set her on the floor, shrugging out of his jacket. "Do you remember the story I told you where Heero was a captain of the guards and Quatre was his valet? Do you remember how Duo took the princess away from the danger?"
She nodded.
He nodded as well. "Climb on my back and close your eyes, child. And do not let go, but do not strangle me, also. No matter what you hear, do not open your eyes. But don't be afraid. I will let no harm come to you."
Sakima obeyed, climbing onto Wufei's back where she could wrap her legs around his middle and hold on by his shoulders, taking care that she did not throttle his neck with her arms. Wufei quickly pulled the jacket back on over her and cinched his sword-belt tight around her, pinning her to his back and taking some of her weight from her shaky limbs. The jacket would provide at least a little concealment, and it might help keep her from seeing what he was about to do.
"Quiet and still now, child," he said. "I will protect you."
"I trust you, Uncle Wufei," she whispered. Her head leaned on his neck and he could feel the weight of her faith.
I will protect you, little one. You are mine and you will be safe for as long as there is breath in my body.
Wufei spent another hour in the house. By the time he left it burning to the ground as a fiery tomb for the scum who had died at his hands, every scrap of information that could be had about the criminal gang, their contacts, their plans, their suppliers, and everything else had been forwarded 'anonymously' to Preventers, directly to Commander Une. All but one name, and that was the name of the man to whom Sakima had been intended - that name Wufei sent with dark glee straight to Duo.
He was on the computer terminal long enough to receive Duo's response: Shinigami's going hunting.
Make it hurt, Shinigami, Wufei thought to himself. He had no doubt the man who would have taken Sakima was about to receive a far more brutal retribution than even Wufei himself could have offered, and he felt absolutely no remorse for it.
Only when the house was burning to the ground behind him and Wufei was well away from it did he stop in a secluded doorway down the street and open his jacket, loosening the belt as well so Sakima could slide free. She was pale and dazed and Wufei knew she had overheard far too much as he'd emptied the house of all remaining threats, but there was no help for it. He tucked his jacket around her securely and took her hand.
"Come, little one. It's time to bring you home."
-==OOO==-
Sakima slept all the way back to L4, curled up in the shuttle's co-pilot seat. There were more comfortable places to sleep including proper bunks aboard Quatre's shuttle, but Wufei understood the desperate look she had given when he brought her aboard.
She's brave, but she's also still just a child and she is afraid to be left alone, he thought. He tucked a second blanket around her just to be safe.
"Don't worry," he murmured to her. "I will protect you."
Sakima had shied away from people while they had been on L3. When the crowd drew too near to where she held Wufei's hand so tight her small fingers seemed to be growing into his palm, she would breathe sharply and hide behind Wufei's legs as she had not done since she had been a toddler confronted with the unexpected or a bout of childish shyness. Wufei separated her from the public as quickly as he could manage it, installing her safely on the shuttle with all speed.
But he was not quite fast enough to depart L3 before the arrival of the Maganac Corp members that had been tailing him. However, once the men learned that the child was safe, albeit traumatized and fragile, they did not storm the shuttle. If they had tried, Wufei was fully prepared to defend it with force. But the Maganacs, led by Abdul, accepted his guardianship of their Mistress Sakima and instead set about escorting his shuttle all the way back to L4 with the sort of obsessive attention to security that reminded Wufei of Zero One after an ambush.
He had, of course, contacted Heero directly to tell him Sakima was safe. He was not surprised when all he received in response was a terse "Acknowledged." Wufei was even less surprised when the majority of the Maganacs who had remained on L4 to guard Quatre and Heero turned up at the spaceport to form an intimidatingly impenetrable guard to deliver Wufei and his precious objective directly to the hospital. On Abdul's advice, none of the men tried to talk to Sakima or touch her, but she was clearly aware of their presence and Wufei thought perhaps some of her fear melted at their familiar faces that had always meant safety.
Rashid met them at the entrance of the private hospital. Sakima had been walking beside Wufei, still holding his hand, and at the sight of him, her chin trembled.
"Are-are you okay, Mister Rashid?" she ventured.
Wufei could see the tears in the large man's eyes and knew they were from relief, not pain.
Rashid dropped to one knee before the child. "I am sorry, Mistress Sakima. I am sorry I failed to protect you and you were hurt." His eyes skimmed over the still-darkening bruising along one side of her head.
Sakima released Wufei and stepped towards Rashid with warmth and concern in her face and posture. In Wufei's opinion, she looked more like Quatre in that instant than even he could have imagined.
"You got hurt, too," she said quietly, one pale hand reaching out tentatively to touch the bandages that criss-crossed his chest and arms. "Thank you for trying to save me. And thank you for protecting my Daddy and my Papa while Uncle Wufei came to get me."
Without rising, Rashid looked up at Wufei. "We of the Maganac Order owe you a debt, Chang Wufei."
Wufei drew himself up stiffly and properly. "No more than I owe Winner myself. It would be dishonorable for me to accept it under such circumstances."
"Yet we are indebted nonetheless."
"Neither of you should worry about something like that." Sakima bounced on her toes in a move that now reminded Wufei of Duo. "Wait - I can fix it! Here, Uncle Wufei!"
And before he, a consummate warrior and former Gundam pilot, could prevent her, the child had flung herself into his arms and gave him a kiss right on the cheek.
"Now you can both be happy again!" She grinned.
Rashid rose, smiling softly as Wufei fought not to sputter. "Thank you, Mistress Sakima. That will do nicely."
Wufei glared at him over Sakima's head as she slid back to the ground.
"Come, young one. Your fathers are waiting for you." Rashid settled across from Wufei on Sakima's other side to flank her as they moved deeper into the hospital.
In the elevator, Wufei looked down at the child. Her face, which had been pale with trauma and fear even an hour before, was alight now and upturned. He traded a look with Rashid and received a small nod of confirmation.
Quatre must be fully awake and is already using his gift to heal her mind of its ordeal.
At the end of the hallway, before they opened the door, Rashid looked down to Sakima.
"Now, remember. They are hurt but they are going to be all right, though you must not jump on your Papa for a while. It all looks very ugly, but they will be fine. Don't be frightened."
Her smile was pure sunniness. "I'm not scared of my Daddy or Papa no matter what!"
Rashid chuckled. "Very well." And he pushed open the door.
As Sakima went into the room, Wufei hung back to let the family have some privacy. He was startled to feel Rashid's large hand on his shoulder.
"Whoever gave her those marks had better be dead," he whispered venomously.
"They are." Wufei nodded. "All of them.
"Good." Then Rashid gave Wufei a slight shove. "Duo is still away," he said. "Make sure they don't over do it." And Rashid half-forced, half-guided Wufei into the hospital room before closing the door behind him.
Sakima had gone straight around to Heero's bedside and was reaching her hands tentatively for him. "Papa?" Her eyes were wide at the metal contraption pinning him flat to the bed.
"It's all right, butterfly," Heero said with warmth Wufei would never have thought him capable of when he had been the pilot of Wing Zero. "Come here."
He reached a bruised arm out and Sakima allowed herself to be gathered to him, putting her head down on his bare shoulder and nuzzling against his neck. "Papa. Papa, they told me you were dead! I was...so scared…" And she began to cry.
Wufei was concerned for a moment, but a glance to where Quatre was sitting propped up against pillows, his one undamaged hand tightly twined with Heero's other, showed that the empath was smiling slightly. Wufei trusted that if anyone would know the healing power of honest grief and how necessary it was to release those feelings, it would be Quatre.
Sakima cried for a great while, her arms around Heero's throat and her head tight against him, but not for as much time as Wufei might have expected. Before long, she quieted and finally grew still, looking up at Heero with a red face.
"I'm sorry I scared you, Papa," she said softly.
"I'm very proud of you," he replied. "You were brave and you never gave up."
Sakima glanced to Wufei and managed a trembly smile. "I remembered Uncle Wufei's stories. And how he said there was a list of things he wouldn't do for me or you or Uncle Duo or Uncle Trowa and it was short and had only one word on it - nothing. I was scared, but I knew someone would find me."
"And so we will, always and forever," Quatre spoke for the first time.
Sakima looked up across Heero to see her other father. She clearly debated clambering over Heero to reach him but decided better of it on her own and instead slipped from Heero to move around the beds to Quatre's side where she again hesitated, looking uncertainly at his bandages and heavily cast-bound right arm.
But Quatre had no such hesitation and bent to swoop her from the ground, cast and all, settling her on his lap and tucking her against him.
Sakima sighed with pure bliss and closed her eyes.
"I love you, Sakima."
"I love you, too, Daddy."
A moment later, Quatre looked across to Heero. "She'll sleep now and I'll keep her from having any nightmares, and when she wakes up, the worst of it will be over."
Heero nodded, and Wufei didn't miss the tightening of his grip on his husband. "I expected her to go to you first, not me."
"Oh Heero." Quatre smiled softly and shook his head slightly. "I have been holding Sakima in my heart from the instant she was in range and she knew it. She felt I'd already gotten enough of a hug and didn't want you to be left out."
"Hn." But Heero's hand left Quatre's and he stretched to touch her little face curled up against Quatre's chest.
The trio went quiet for a moment and Wufei contented himself with leaning against the door and watching over them. He had some suspicion that Quatre and Heero were communicating silently through Quatre's gift, and he did not wish to intrude. He could scarcely imagine the agony they had suffered.
Even though Quatre was unconscious, Heero was still connected to his gift. If not for that, I think he may have become what I did, what Shinigami did. His rage would have consumed him.
At that moment, Quatre looked up. "Thank you, Wufei. Thank you for bringing her home."
The words were simple, but Wufei could read the near-tears in the Arab's eyes and understood how heartily they were meant. He gave a short nod.
"Chang," Heero said. "I have a favor to ask you."
Wufei frowned and waited.
"Let Quatre repay you this time."
Before Wufei could respond, Heero held up his free hand.
"Don't be an idiot."
Then he doesn't mean money. Not that Quatre would offer it. So what does he mean?
Quatre's eyes met Wufei's and held them. "Only with your permission, my friend."
And Wufei understood. He swallowed thickly and nodded. "I accept."
It began slowly at first, but like a flower opening, Quatre's gift unfurled in Wufei's mind. With exquisite tenderness, Quatre eased warmth and peace into the places where Wufei still reverberated with his own fear and anger. He soothed the fires of rage and vengeance and absolved the small guilt Wufei felt for the lives he had taken. And Quatre offered him love and gratitude and loyalty and respect so profound and true they outshone the sun, moon, and stars. Wufei felt like a feather caught in a summer's breeze, or a note in a melody expertly played, carried along effortlessly and leaving the bonds of the world behind him.
Sakima will be fine, he thought at some timeless point, with this much power and love to restore her.
"As will you, Wufei. And Duo, too, when he gives me the chance."
Wufei came back to himself to find he was perched at the end of Quatre's bed and was holding onto Quatre's bandaged knee poking from beneath the heavy leg cast. Sakima was still plainly asleep, cuddled in Quatre's other arm, and Heero was tracing his nearer hand alternately over Quatre's and their daughter's hands.
"I'm glad," Quatre said gently as Wufei woke himself up, though he did not pull away, "that you feel that Sakima is yours. Because she is. And you belong to her, too."
"I know," Wufei said, and he did know. "Although I never wanted…" Another family. Another life worth losing bound to my own. And now I have five.
"Neither did we," Heero answered what he could not say. "Until we found one another."
"We are all safe," Quatre said. "Because we will always guard one another and keep one another. No matter what happens." He smiled warmly at them all as he leaned his head back and began to drift into sleep himself at last as he whispered, "Always."
"Ninmu ryokai." Heero closed his eyes, wordlessly trusting in Wufei to protect his family while he rested.
Wufei nodded and rose, settling himself in the nearest chair where he could watch over them all for a while longer. For as long as they needed him, he would be near.