A/N: I think it's time to start pointing out that I am borrowing the idea of Pax Ultima from Serenity and their Pax drug. Didn't want to give that away before now. But… now that we are here, I want to acknowledge the awesome source material I'm stealing from.

Warnings: Angst, violence, language, sex

Pairings: If you need to know, please PM me and I will be happy to tell you.

Chapter Twenty One

"What happened after?"

Wufei's question startled both Duo and Trowa, tore them out of the stare they had been sharing, and Trowa was grateful. Desperate to have any reason to look away from Duo's blue eyes, to set aside his apology, his plea, and focus on anything besides forgiveness.

"After we fucked?" Duo asked, the frown on his face making it clear he thought Wufei should already know the answer to that.

Wufei glared and crossed his arms.

"No. After you left. How did we go from there to here?"

"Oh."

Duo swallowed hard and sighed. He sat down on the edge of the bed and shrugged.

Trowa felt some old part of himself react to that shrug, that slight lift of Duo's shoulders that meant he felt insignificant and impotent. The shrug of dead civilians and Une telling Duo he had done all he could. The shrug of children starving and Quatre telling Duo there were only so many problems he could solve.

Trowa ran a hand through his hair and then sat down on the bed beside Duo.

Duo slanted a look over at him, and maybe he remembered the time when Trowa had hauled him out of Une's office, had dragged him into the nearest toilet and locked the door and gripped Duo's shoulders hard enough to leave bruises until Duo relented, until that blank look and the careless shrug were gone and Duo's fingers dug into Trowa's back, curled around his flesh and held on as if there was nothing else to anchor him to Earth.

Duo drew in a deep breath and looked towards Wufei.

"We tracked down a few of the crew - from the clean-up on the colony? Talked to them, followed the money. They were all independent contractors and it was fucking complicated and you know how patient Heero is so -"

"Was," Trowa couldn't help but correct.

Duo swallowed hard and nodded.

"Yeah. Was." He cleared his throat. "It took us a few months and then we traced it all back to Futurum." He sighed. "And the company is fucking rich as hell and their server security was impossible to get past so we decided to break into one of their labs."

"And Heero was captured," Wufei suggested.

Duo scowled.

"No - Heero Yuy? Captured? No. That fucking bastard convinced Heero to join their fucking science experiment."

Wufei looked as confused as Trowa felt.

"What - who?" Wufei asked.

Duo ran his hands through his hair.

"I can't believe you didn't finish watching the fucking vids."

"Sorry that the death of my - Heero's death sidetracked me," Trowa bit out. He caught the glance Wufei sent his way, the question in his eyes. Trowa had almost said something that he would never have been able to take back, that Wufei would never have forgiven him for.

But it was clear Wufei knew he had almost said something, and that was going to be bad enough, Trowa knew.

He looked away from Wufei and back at Duo.

"Who?"

Duo hesitated.

"That's - watch the vids. I can't be certain but - you actually met the guy, you know what he sounds like, how he talks."

"Who the hell are you talking about?" Wufei demanded.

"Treize Khushrenada."