Edges of the Mind by jmi
Chapter 3
**Disclaimer** Gundam Wing characters are owned by Sotsu/Sunrise.
Quatre and Dorothy moved quietly along one side of the hall. Quatre stopped her when he saw Trowa motion that he and Catherine were going to inspect another room.
"I feel ridiculous with this gun," Dorothy whispered. "I would feel much more comfortable with my rapier.
"Just be glad we had enough guns to go around," Quatre murmured quietly. "Heero knows how good you are with a sword. He wouldn't bother fencing with you."
They resumed their silence when Trowa and Catherine emerged from the room. The slight shake of his head told them to move on. The next rooms were theirs. Standing on either side, Dorothy turned the knob and let the door fall open. They swung in unison, their guns training across the entire room. "He's not here," Dorothy shrugged as she walked on in.
"Dorothy! Be careful, we haven't checked everywhere," Quatre quietly urged her.
"All right," she sighed. "Check in here and I'll check my suite." She smiled and carefully went through the connecting doors. Quatre sighed and began to somberly check his suite. 'This house has so many places he could hide,' he shrugged in his mind. 'If only one of us had known what you were doing then Heero.' He yelped as a dark figure fell at him from behind the door he moved. He chuckled nervously as he gave the errant coat tree a kick. Dorothy would laugh if she'd seen him so panicked.
A few more tense minutes of thoroughly searching the closets, bathroom, and bedroom left Quatre feeling relatively certain that Heero was not there. He gasped at the sudden, painful tightness in his chest, as his eyes were immediately pulled to the connecting doors to Dorothy's rooms. 'Oh no,' dozens of horrifying thoughts began to fill his mind as he burst in the doors. In the dim glow he saw Dorothy sitting at her vanity.
"Dorothy," he called to her as he crossed the room and put his hand on her shoulder. Her limp head rolled back onto his hand. The pain in his chest increased exponentially as he gasped at the rag shoved in her mouth. The glint of metal in her lap caught his tearing eyes. He wanted to scream at the sword that was pinning her body to the chair, but his voice refused to work. His hand trembled as he reached up to close her glazed eyes. He noticed then, as a final humiliating assault to Dorothy, that the forks of her eyebrows had been clipped off.
"Oh Dorothy..." his returning voice small and weak, "it's so unfair." His knees buckled as the thought of the waste. After two years he had finally succeeded in bringing out the kind woman he knew had always been deep inside of her. Now that kind heart was gone before it had a chance to live. His soft sobs concealed the softer sounds of someone approaching him. Quatre didn't realize he was there until the strong arms wrapped around him from behind. One clasping his chest, the other covering his mouth.
"You know Quatre, you've always had too much heart to be an efficient soldier." Heero's voice had a strange soothing quality to it as he rocked Quatre back and forth as you would a child. "Let me help you with it."
The bright flash of pain lasted only a few seconds. As Quatre felt his eyes dim he looked up one last time and saw Dorothy smiling, holding out her hand for him.
Trowa stared pensively at the door, then at his watch. Ten minutes. Too much time has gone by. "Cathy, something's wrong."
His words took Catherine by surprise but she checked her gun and followed him. She carefully ran her hand across the knives concealed in her pocket. Not as widely destructive as the weapon in her hand, but they had kept her safe on numerous trips outside of the safety of her circus surroundings. They entered Quatre\'92s room. Trowa quickly surveyed the dimly lit area and proceeded to the double doors that led to Dorothy's room. Catherine paused to allow her eyes to adjust to the dimness. She had never before heard the pained cry that came from her brother's throat as he ran into the adjoining room. Catherine stopped at the door. She could barely make out Dorothy's blonde hair draped over the back of a chair, and Quatre's still form knelt beside her.
"Trowa?" she could not see him.
"Stay out Cathy," his words so short and insistent she winced as if she'd been struck.
"Trowa? Are they?" She didn't have to ask, she already knew in her heart.
"He was the best of us," Trowa's voice drifted in the darkness. "Despite everything he never lost his innocence, his hope...."
Catherine cried when she saw the starkly blank expression in her Trowa's visible green eye. "I want you to go find Duo and the others, and stay with them."
"Trowa please come with me," she pleaded, afraid more for him than for herself.
"He's here Cathy, and I will find him," he kissed her forehead and went back to the darkness.
Catherine ran down the hall weeping. She had hoped she would never see the emotionless mask that covered her brother's face again. But this.... the death of his best friend would be something he may never recover from. She staggered to a stop a the top of the stairs, the weight of that thought was unbearable. "Oh Trowa...." Her tears attracting the attention of sparkling blue eyes.