Ha! I have to say, I think mine is more fun than the movie's version of these events. And, to me, it makes more sense. But that just might be the fact that it's the middle of the night and I've had my parents staying at my house for 3 days. That'll make anybody irrational. Or maybe that's just me.

Enjoy!

"Duo!"

Quatre was running before the end of Duo's braid had vanished. He'd never ever seen someone slip through the ground like it was water before, but that was undoubtedly what had just happened. And Duo wasn't coming up. The captain of Deathscythe could swim like a shark – if there was any way out of that odd white sand, he'd have already found it.

"Secure a vine and come after us!" Quatre cried out, flinging away his sword and belt-pouch.

"Quatre!" Heero drew up short with surprise.

"Trust me!" His gaze lingered less than a moment on Heero's wide eyes, before he took an enormous breath and threw himself into the sand.

The sand felt strange. The downwards pressure was powerful, drawing him deeper into what felt like a wide pool of thick, dry mud, if that was at all possible. It was so dry it felt hot on his skin, and the way the sand moved as it pulled him deeper and deeper felt like thousands of centipedes crawling across his body. And maybe there were centipedes in this Fire Swamp quicksand. Who knew? Either way, it didn't matter. Quatre certainly wasn't going to open his eyes to find out.

As he let the sand pull him down, he reached out with his mind.

Duo was there, a little below and to Quatre's left. The blond could sense Duo's fear and struggle, and the rising panic as he began to run out of air. He stretched out towards that familiar heart, sending ahead of himself a sharp lance of reassurance and calm. The sharpness of the emotion would signal to Duo that it was not his own but rather coming from an external source, but it would calm him all the same. He sensed Duo stop his furious struggle and conserve his energy.

The trust that rolled from Duo's heart, trust and certainty that he was safe because he knew Quatre was coming for him would have stopped Quatre cold in pleased surprise if the situation hadn't been so serious.

Instead, Quatre kicked out with his legs, stretching. His hand closed on material and he quickly pulled hard, drawing Duo's body close to himself. He hooked one arm around Duo's chest, and Duo twisted to curl his arms around Quatre's stomach. Duo's hands were shaking.

Quatre cast his mind upwards, now seeking Heero. That connection was infinitely more clear – he could almost hear Heero's thoughts as the soldier finished knotting a vine around his waist and dove into the sand head-first. Heero's heart was tight with fear, with the impending terror of renewed grief, and with a determination that could crack the world in two. Heero would break his arms off with his teeth rather than leave Quatre in that sandy hole. He would not lose him again.

Quatre reached for Heero's heart and pulled. There was surprise and then swift understanding and Heero began to fight to angle himself to where he knew Quatre was waiting for him. Quatre had trusted, had known that Heero would come after him. He was not disappointed as Heero twisted against the quicksand's pressure to bring himself closer to the beacon that guided him.

Quatre concentrated and was able to find the hand seeking his own. His lungs burned and he could feel Duo starting to choke against his chest. He yanked with a sharp urgency and Heero understood again. Heero guided his hand to the vine still knotted around him. Quatre began to haul himself upwards, hand over hand, aware of Heero following after him. Duo clutched Quatre's stomach tightly, but the grip was slackening. Quatre felt his own head swimming, and with each hand-span he climbed, his fingers became less sure as he fought not to try to breathe airless sand.

Until his hand reached up and felt no sand.

In a burst of adrenaline and hope, Quatre yanked and drew his head above the quicksand, gasping and coughing. He held on with one hand and with the other hauled on Duo's shirt, dragging his head up into the air, where the pirate started to retch. But they couldn't stay in the pool of sand, and Heero was still below them, so Quatre managed, with what felt like the last of his strength, to lunge for the root of a tree at the edge of the treacherous ground. He yanked Duo closer to it, pulling up the rope as he did so. The combined weight of Duo and Heero, plus the pressure of the sand, made his arms ache, but he succeeded in getting Duo close enough to the tree to be able to hold on himself. One more hard pull on the rope and Heero's head broke from the sand as well.

"Heero," Quatre coughed in a raspy, dry voice. He dropped the rope and offered a hand instead, and Heero closed his fingers around Quatre's wrist, nodding as he gasped and coughed. Quatre started to pull Heero as well, but his strength gave out and he almost let go of the tree in his exhaustion. But Heero was there already, reaching past him, kicking against the sand and getting enough purchase that he could reach the tree without help.

"Get Duo," Quatre managed, and coughed again. It was enough just holding on and keeping himself in the air now while the sand still swirled and clawed at him from below.

Heero nodded and pulled himself free of the sand entirely. He reached to where Duo was hyperventilating and retching in turns and grabbed him under the arms. With a smooth motion he lifted Duo clear and leaned him on the other side of the tree, safe on solid ground. Then he came back and held a hand to Quatre, who was grateful for the help. The blond wasn't sure he would have been able to pull himself out given that his arms felt like wet seaweed.

When Quatre was also clear, Heero plopped on the ground beside the other two, and all three of them focused on breathing shakily, coughing up sand and rubbing their eyes against the grit that clung to their faces for an indeterminate amount of time. Somewhere in the midst of it, Quatre moved and found Heero's hand as if by instinct, and he laced their fingers together.

"Knew you...would come," he coughed at last.

"Always, Quatre," Heero coughed back.

"That's...another one I owe you...Cat," Duo said, trying to smile. He dry-heaved again and took several deep breaths before saying, "Dunno anybody else who would find me in that."

Quatre looked around the tree and realized what Duo had noticed – the quicksand pit was many stride-lengths across, and the pressure within was not uniform. He was chilled at the idea of someone without empathy trying to swim around in that ghastly dry death in the hopes of stumbling upon the body of the person they sought by sheer luck. Only Quatre could have been able to locate Duo in that dark sea of endless sinking. And only Quatre could bring Heero to them both in time.

"Navigating the Fire Swamp was a bad idea," Quatre said, spitting out sand but grateful his throat no longer felt so very dry. "This is my fault."

"Oh, is this the part where," Heero coughed slightly, then smirked, "I'm supposed to moan about how we'll never get out alive and might as well die here? Because I could," he cleared his throat, "but I wouldn't really mean it."

"Yeah," Duo said, wiping his mouth. "If we hadn't come down here, we'd be up against that princey guy and his guards. I'll take fire and quicksand any day."

"Prince Zechs wouldn't have fought us," Heero shook his head.

"We don't know that," Quatre said softly.

"And what's some fire and sand anyway?" Duo grinned, smoothly intercepting the growing storm on Heero's brow. "We've got this thing figured out now. The fire is noisy and the sand is white. Pretty obvious once you know what you're looking for."

"What about the rats?" Heero asked. "Their size is legendary."

"Stupid superstition. I don't think they exist," Duo shook his head, getting into a crouch and finger-combing through the end of his braid to get the clumps of sand out.

"Oh yes they do," Quatre said, and the warning tone in his voice made them both look up.

Four rats, each the size of a small pony, were looking at them from a rough half-circle in front of them. Their yellow teeth glinted in the shadowy light, and they made snuffling, growling noises that were low and threatening. Their long tails whipped back and forth, and their noses quivered, their beady eyes staring at the three young men.

Heero, Duo, and Quatre exchanged a glance. Their back was to the quicksand, and none of them wanted to go back in there, so that left them forward, and thus a fight, as their only option. Quatre, moving his hand slowly, tapped his chest and nodded significantly. Duo and Heero nodded back.

Quatre stood and started to move forward at a near-glacial pace, his eyes never leaving the four giant rodents, but his path carrying him near to his discarded sword. After a few steps, the nearest rat seemed to gather into itself to charge, snarling. Quatre lashed out with his mind and heart, throwing all his force forward. He projected fear and intimidation with all the power he could muster, while simultaneously abandoning his slow pace and diving for the talwar. The four rats screamed as Quatre's empathy struck, but as they were not human or highly emotional creatures, the impact wasn't enough to stop them; it stunned them for a moment, but that was enough.

That instant of distraction was enough for Heero and Duo to get to their feet, Duo pulling out his own matching talwar. Heero reached to his hip, but of course his familiar sword was not there. But in a moment he found a sand-covered hilt pushed into his hands.

"Take it," Duo said, holding a fighting dagger in his other hand. "I got this."

And they launched into the fight.

Duo emerged from the thrill of battle a few moments later to take an appraising look at the others. Fending off a donkey-sized rodent with merely a dagger was a challenge that made Shinigami's blood pound darkly, but the look on Heero Yuy's face suggested Duo was not the only one finding some deadly joy in the battle. Heero wielded the foreign sword with grace, and it appeared he had already partially disabled his opponent. Duo blocked a lunge by his own rat by sticking the dagger into the thing's gums, looking around for Quatre.

He drew his breath in and shouted. "Hee-chan! To Quatre!"

Then he threw himself at the rodent with the full spirit of the God of Death singing within. This rat would die as fast as he was able to kill it, and if it held him up too long it would suffer.

Heero's head snapped up at the shout and he looked to Quatre, his heart skipping a beat. Quatre was on his back on the ground, and one of the rats was pinning him to the dirt with its teeth embedded in his left shoulder. The fourth of the rodents, wounded but still up, was circling around to come in for the kill. Quatre had lost his sword somewhere and was futilely trying to push the the gaping mouth away.

Heero roared. He would never remember slicing his own rat through the heart in one blow, just running towards his beloved, heart in his throat again. He managed to arrive at the same time as the charging rodent, slashing at its face to keep it from sinking any more teeth into Quatre. The rat hissed at him and bit for his hand but he struck it in the head, taking off an ear and part of its scalp.

Behind him, he heard Quatre cry out, but he couldn't look away, as badly as he wanted to, or they would both be lost. Instead, he charged the fourth rodent, diving at the last second to slit its throat open and spill most of the blood from its chest on the ground in his wake. Heero pushed the heavy thing off him in time to see Duo running forward.

He lifted his head and watched Quatre, who somehow had lodged his fingers in the creatures eyes, rolling over and over across the ground, dragging the huge creature with him as he twisted its head viciously. There was the shaking, spurting noise and a blast of fire erupted beside him. The rodent let out a shriek as the flames licked its body – and it finally opened its jaws enough for Quatre to slip free. The blond didn't even look up to where Duo and Heero were rushing towards him. He gathered his sword from where it had fallen and stalked back to the monster. With a strong blow, he severed its spine below the skull, leaving the carcass to burn.

Quatre turned to face the other two, his shirt torn half to pieces and his left shoulder bleeding badly from the deep wounds of the teeth. But there was a fierce anger in his eyes, a power of survival and strength that Heero had never known his love had possessed.

It was the spirit of a warrior. His Quatre had become his true equal.

Heero wasn't sure if he was pleased at the courage and strength that he so respected, now that he could clearly see it or sorry that his gentle Quatre had ever known the shedding of blood that had made him thus. But either way, there was no going back now.

The three of them, blood-soaked, had stood against the Swamp and survived – together.

-==OOO==-

"...'Oh, is this the part where,' Heero coughed slightly, then smirked, 'I'm supposed to moan about how we'll never get out alive and might as well die here? Because I could,' he cleared his throat, 'but I wouldn't really mean it.'..."

"'Cause he's not dumb!"

"What was that?"

"Quatre's being silly. Heero doesn't care where they are because they're together. And this isn't nearly dangerous enough for it not to be worth it. Quatre's way tougher than any old Fire Swamp."

"Heero doesn't know that yet."

"Well he should!"

"Yes, you're very smart. Now hush."