Chapter 2
Trio sat down underneath the bridge as the rain continued to pour down around him. It had been a week since he had left his newfound family, Duo Maxwell, and his friends, the other gundam pilots. He was cold, tired, and hungry, but he was determined to make it up to Duo before going back.
"I wish this rain would stop." a man said as he sat down next to him.
"Yeah." Trio said as he continued to look out at the rain. He had always been able to tell whether he could trust someone or not and right now, his feelings were telling him that this guy wanted something and nothing was going to stop him from getting it from Trio.
Looking around, he noticed that they were surrounded by four big men and that the others under the bridge were leaving the shelter to brave the storm rather than stay, like they knew what was going to happen and they wanted no part of it.
Deciding to follow their example, Trio stood up, grabbed his bag and tried to push past the men surrounding him.
"And where are you going little girl?" one of the thugs asked softly as he grabbed Trio's braid.
Even he had to admit that he looked like a girl with his big, baggy clothes, his heart shaped face and the long brain that reached to the middle of his back. He had started to wear it like this since he had left to remind him of what he had left behind.
"I'm not a girl and I'm leaving." he snapped as he grabbed his knife from his boot and slashed at the man holding his hair, who let it go as he jumped back to avoid the knife. The other men just burst out laughing.
"Sure and I'm a Gundam pilot." said the man who had sat down next to him, chuckling sarcastically.
"If you were, you would know that I'm the brother of the God of Death." he muttered softly to himself but the man in front of him heard. He had thought that the kid had looked familiar and now he knew why. This kid looked like that older kid that had been captured in the colonies for piloting 02.
He started to back up, but was stopped when his boss snapped at him to stop being a coward. "I would rather be a coward than be a deadman. This kid is related to that other kid who was arrested last year in the colonies for piloting that Gundam 02." he said gaining surprised looks from all present except the kid who had no expression at all on his face. "I'm sorry, but I'm out of here." he said and left, followed by two others, leaving Trio alone with just one thug and the boss.
Staring after the departing men, he didn't notice the remaining guy coming up behind him until two strong arms that pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him off the ground grabbed him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he snarled as he struggled to get loose or stab him with the knife, but couldn't get the leverage.
"Anything I want." the boss said as he approached the struggling boy and grabbed his chin. "You do look like that pilot."
Trio stared at him, wide eyed, for a moment before a fist crashed into his chin and blackness consumed him.
Trio worked his way to awareness slowly. Before his eyes were even open, he was aware that he was lying with his face on the cold, wet ground and his arms pinned above his head.
Before he could even open his mouth, something shoved its way painfully into his body, and he screamed in pain and his eyes flew open, and dimly heard someone chuckling cruelly. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the boss pounding into him. "Why?" he gasped as he tried to block the pain.
Instead of answering, the man just continued even harder, and Trio started to pass out from the pain, but another pain brought him back to awareness.
"Why don't you stay with us for a while?" the boss said as he yanked on Trio's braid and crushed his mouth against the boy's. Trio gagged as the bosses tongue pushed it's way past his teeth and ran around inside his mouth. His lips were cut from his teeth as they were crushed against them and some of his hair was yanked out as he tried to get away.
Suddenly, Trio bit down as hard as he could on the offending tongue invading his mouth. The boss jerked his face away and punched him across the face.
"You little basterd! Teach him some manners." he snapped as he stood up and shoved himself back into his pants and wiped the blood away from his tongue.
"Sure thing, boss." the thug said as he casually picked Trio up and slammed him into a support post for the bridge, right next to the road that ran under the bridge.
As he slid down the pillar, the thug grabbed him by his throat and started punching him in the stomach with his other hand. "Where's your spunk now? It's no fun when they don't try to fight back." the thug said as he backhanded him.
"Ugh..." Trio grunted as he landed on a broken bottle as he fell, slicing his chest and arms open. He hadn't relaxed it when he had woken up, but he was completely naked, as he had just painfully realized. As he was getting up, he received a hard kick to his ribs, feeling two of them break, right before landing on his back in the glass.
Groaning in pain, he slowly started to sit up until a boot abruptly pushed back down on his back, then continued pressing until another rib snapped and Trio screamed in pain again.
Suddenly, light swept over them as a car, the first all night, rolled by. The car stopped abruptly next to them and a figure stepped out. Trio didn't know who the person was and soon was unconcence again as the man pulled a gun out and pointed it at the surprised thug who still had his boot on his chest. But just before he blacked out, he noticed that the figure was wearing a strange mask.
Zechs Marque had been returning from a meeting with his sister, Relena Peacecraft, when he has seen the boy being roughed up by the thug. Never one to let a kid be abused, Zechs ordered the car stopped and stepped out of the car.
Pulling his gun, he asked in a cold voice, "Is there a reason for doing this to a kid?"
"Yeah, an order." the thug said as he started to back away from the gun. His boss had already left, sensing that something would happen to him if he didn't.
"And would you perhaps know who this kid is, or do you just pick any little kid to do this to?" Zechs said as he signaled for Lucrezia Noin to get the boy into his car. She was accompanying to the base to discuss her guard duty for his sister.
"He looks like that longhaired kid that pilots the Gundam 02, but that's all I know." the thug said and made a break for the shadows where Zechs' couldn't shot him.
Zechs' just calmly shot him in the head before he had gone two steps, then headed back to his car. "Noin is he all right?" he asked as he shut the door.
"Well, he has a ton of cuts from the broken glass he was laying in and a bruises and some broken ribs from the beating, and he appears to have been...um...raped...sir and a split lip." Nion said as she covered him up with the jacket that Zechs had handed her when he had gotten into the car.
"The guy said he looks like the pilot of the Gundam 02, Duo Maxwell. It seems that he was right. Maybe a younger brother or a cousin." Zechs speculated as he studied the boy curled up on the seat between him and Noin.
"Maxwell? Well I guess we can get a hold of them and see. Maybe Sally Po will know how."
The rest of the drive to the OZ base was made in silence. As he got out of the car at the entrance, Zechs told Nion, "Get him to the infirmary. I need to speak to his Excellency."
"Yes sir." Noin saluted then signaled one of the nearby guards to carry the boy to the infirmary while she called ahead.
On the way to the awaiting doctors, the kid woke up. "How are you feeling?" Noin asked softly as his pain glazed violet eyes focused briefly on her. "What's your name?"
"Tr...Trio." he managed between gasps of pain.
"Would you be related to Duo Maxwell?" she asked as they stopped in front of the infirmary's door, but received no answer as he struggled to hold onto awareness.
Noin opened the door and led the guard, who was carrying Trio, into the room, just as he passed out again.
"You brought an unknown person onto our base with out authorization?" Treize Kushrenada asked calmly as Zechs sat down on a couch in his suite.
"Yeah. I would have just sent him to Relena's estate with Noin, but he looks like Duo Maxwell. I figured that he would be able to give us some information." Zechs muttered as he sipped the wine that Treize had handed him.
"Looks like Maxwell? Interesting." Treize said as he sat next to his lover. "Maybe he can tell us where our young friend Wufie is."
"I wonder where he's been for the past week. He usually shows up at least four times a week." Zechs said as he casually took off his mask.
"Well, lets go see this child that looks so much like Maxwell." Treize said with a smile as he stood up and headed for the door.
"But Treize, I had other plans for this evening!" Zechs whined as he grabbed his mask and shoved it back on his head.
With his back to Zechs, Treize smiled knowingly. "But wouldn't it be better with our little dragon?" As he left, he heard Zechs mutter behind him something about inconsistent dragons and uppity, superior basterds. "Did you say something? he asked with a small smile as he turned around, one eyebrow arched and an amused expression on his face.
"No sir."
They continued the rest of the way in silence, and met Nion out side of the infirmary door. After saluting them, she began to tell them what she had found out. "His name in Trio Shays, from colony L2. He might be Duo Maxwell's younger brother but we are still unsure about that, as he fainted again before we could find out. He lived with his mother until she disappeared when he was five and it was assumed that he was missing with her until the police on the streets of the colony spotted him. He has three broken ribs, over two hundred cuts from the glass he was laying in, bruises from the beating and has been...um...raped, sir." she said softly.
"Why don't we go in and see this boy?" Trezie said and pushed open the door to the recovery room. Inside, Trio looked small and helpless as he huddled under the thin white sheet, on the bed. His face was molted with bruises and a couple cuts. The visitors couldn't see the rest of his as he clutched the sheet at his neck and it covered him to his toes. They could, however see the messy blond braid and the wide, haunted amethyst eyes that stare at nothing.
"Trio, this is his Excellency, Treize Kushrenada. He would like to meet you." Noin said softly, but received no response from the boy. When she put her hand on his shoulder, she could feel him shaking underneath the sheet. Before she could open her mouth to talk to him again, Treize spoke up.
"Trio, are you related to Duo Maxwell?" he asked quietly and received a surprising response. Trio uncurled and slowly sat up. He turned towards Treize, who stood next to the bed, and lunged at the startled man. Everyone was shocked as he wrapped his arms around Treize's waist and buried his head in his stomach, sobbing.
"Sir?" Zechs said softly, stepping forward.
"Leave him. He needs to do this." Treize said calmly as he sat on the edge of the bed and let the boy curl up in his lap. After a couple of minutes, the storm of weeping slowed and Treize asked softly, "What's the matter, little one?" in his most soothing voice.
"They hate me."
"Who hates you? Why?"
"Duo...Quatre. They have to hate me!" Trio said as he burst into tears again.
"Why would they hate you?"
"I turned Heero, Trowa, and Wufie into three year olds." he stuttered. "I didn't mean to, it was an accident! We didn't think the spell would work if it was said in English instead of Latin!"
Despite his shock, Treize said softly, "Why would they hate you? It wasn't your fault."
"Quatre didn't say anything bad but Duo looked like it everything was my fault. He wouldn't even talk to me and he hardly even looked at me."
"Maybe he was just in shock."
"But I'm her brother! She wasn't like this before!" Trio sobbed. As the three adults looked at each other in surprise, he suddenly fell asleep.
"Well, I guess that solves that question." Zechs said after a moment of silence.
"What question? If he was related to Duo?" Noin asked.
"Um...yeah." Zechs said quickly. He had forgotten that she was in the room with them, but Treize knew what he had been referring to. He had meant the question about what had happened to Wufie.
"It certainly does. But that doesn't answer why Duo and Quatre haven't attacked us as part of their missions." Treize said softly as he gently moved Trio off his lap and back to the mattress, where he covered him with the sheet again.
"Duo, it's been a week. I don't think he's coming back." Quatre said quietly to as they watched the children playing in the field in front of the safehouse.
Duo didn't say anything, but watched Heero tackle Trowa. The two of them rolled into Wufie and all three of them rolled down the hill, shrieking with laughter. This Duo was different from the always happy and joking teenager who never seemed to have a care in the world. In his place was a silent, withdrawn girl whose once common smile, now only came out while watching the children play.
'She reminds me so much of how Heero and Trowa were, never showing the feelings or expressions that much.' Quatre thought to himself as he went back to translating the scroll in front of him on the picnic basket. They had managed to translate roughly a third of the scrolls, mostly of which were illusion spells and spells to change yourself into something else, like an animal. They hadn't even attempted to do the books yet.
Suddenly, Duo took off into the air, only swooping down log enough to grab the children before taking off into the sky again. This didn't surprise Quatre or the kids. It was a safety precaution that they had practiced so that no one would find out about the condition of the four Gundam pilots.
Turning to the road that led to the house, Quatre watched tensely as a black car sped up to the front door. The back door opened before the driver could even come to a complete stop, and Relena Peacecraft jumped out. She rushed to the front door and started banging on it, shouting to be let in immediately.
Quatre sighed and approached the girl quickly, pasting a smile. "Relena, who do you keep finding us?" he asked as the girl turned around.
Ignoring the question, she grabbed him by his color and demanded, "Where is Heero? I heard something bad happened to him!" She started shaking him back and forth as he tried to form a coherent thought.
After he had pried he fingers from his shirt and the world had stopped spinning, he said firmly, "Heero is fine. Who told you he wasn't?"
"I did." a voice from behind him said and he spun around to see Nion standing beside the car. "and I got it from a very reliable source." she said firmly.
Before he could reply, Trowa came running up to the group and threw him at the surprised Quatre, who caught him by reflex. "Quatre, Quatre! Duo was being mean! She said that she would fly us around the clearing but she gave a longer ride to Heero and Wufie!" he cried as he clung to the teenager's neck.
"Trowa, you know that Duo wouldn't do that so why don't you go apologize to her for your bad manners." Quatre said soothingly and pushed the reluctant child in the direction he had come from.
When the boy had disappeared into the forest at the edge of the field again. Quatre turned back to the two women.
"Was th...that Trowa?" Relena asked stunned.
"Um... yes it was." Quatre said hesitantly. He silently watched as Relena fainted. "Let's bring her into the house." he said to Noin, as he helped the older woman pick her up and head towards the door.
"Trowa, you know, that when I bring you here, you are in danger and you are supposed to stay here until Quatre comes to get us." Duo lectured the little boy in front of her.
"I'm sorry, Duo. But Heero and Wufie got longer rides than I did." Trowa muttered quietly.
"That's not true, Trowa and you know it. What have we told you about lying? As soon as we get back to the safe house, you are going to sit in time out." Grabbing Trowa's hand she turned towards the safe house and started walking. "Heero, Wufie. We're going home, now."
"But I thought we were supposed to wait for Quatre to come and get us." Heero said as he grabbed Duo's other hand.
"Normally that is right. But because Trowa went to Quatre, they already know about you." Duo said and Wufie started shouting, "Trowa's in trouble, and now we're all in trouble because of him!"
"Hush Wufie, Trowa didn't mean to. Everything will be ok." Duo said as the continued to walk. after a minute, Trowa spoke up.
"Do I still have to sit in time out?" he asked with his best puppy dog face.
"No. I was just angry when I said that." she said and sigh. The rest of the walk was done in silence until they reached the front door.
"Ok you guys. They don't know about me yet so I want you three to go in while I fly up to you room, ok. Meet me there in three minutes." Duo said and the three little boys nodded. She flew up to the second floor windows while they opened the door.
Quietly, she opened the window to the room where the three boys slept, and slipped into the room, folding her wings so that they wouldn't hit the edge of the window seal.
'I hope Zechs didn't tell anyone about what had happened to me.' she though as she walked away from the window. She was so distracted by that thought that she bumped into he table and knocked a vase off. Duo held her breath as it shattered.
"Did you hear that?" Noin asked as she sponged Relena's forehead with a damp cloth.
"Yeah, I sounded like glass breaking." Quatre said as he stood up and head for the door. The three of them were in the guestroom trying to wake Relena up. Just as he opened the door, three small figures rushed by.
"Heero, Wufie, Trowa. How many times do I have to tell you not to run in the house?" he asked as the kids stopped and turned around.
"Sorry Quatre." they chorused together and walked into their room.
"Did you hear something a minute ago?" Quatre asked them right before they closed their door.
"Yeah. Duo probably knocked over the vase when she came into through the window. Bye!" Trowa said and closed the door.
From behind him, Quatre heard Noin ask, "What did he mean 'Duo probably knocked over the vase when she came in through the window'?"
"Maybe you should talk to Duo and let Duo explain." he suggested and she nodded. As they were leaving the room, Relena woke up and demanded to know what was going on.
As Noin explained what she knew, Quatre slipped down the hall and into the children's room. As he closed the door, he saw Duo picking up the broken glass by the window, while the kids played tag in another part of the room. "Duo, you should get out of here. Noin is coming to ask what happened to you." Quatre said quietly as he took the broom and dustpan from her.
"Yeah, I heard what Trowa said and I was going to take off but I didn't want to take off and leave the glass were they could get into it." Duo said as she headed towards the open window.
"Thanks. Call if there is any problems." Quatre said as he watched he take off towards the trees.
"Where's Duo?" Relena demanded as she threw open the door. She stood there with Noin, glaring at Quatre as he finished sweeping the broken glass up.
"Duo left to get some air. You might want to just leave, ladies, as I don't know when she'll be back." he said but they weren't even listening anymore. Instead they were watching as the children laughed and played.
"Noin, Relena. I think it's time you leave." he said firmly and hustled the two women outside before they could protest.
"Is there anyway to change them back to normal?" Nion asked as she regained her wits.
"I'm just working on it, and just how did you find us anyway?" he demanded as Noin and Relena got into the car.
"That's our little secret." Nion said and drove away.
"I wish I knew where Trio is." Duo muttered as she flew above the trees. She was passing above a large estate when something hit her in her side. Putting her hand on her side, she felt warm liquid cover hand. Pain burned her side as she looked at her hand. It was covered in blood and more was soaking her clothes around the wound.
Suddenly another shot hit her wing and sent her hurtling towards the ground. She managed to slow herself enough with her uninjured wing but not enough to stop herself from hitting the ground hard. She screamed as she felt two ribs snap on impact. As he screamed dissolved into silence, she painfully looked up as a figure came to stand above her.
"Well, what have we here?" Lady Une said as she stared down at the girl with wings on the ground.
"Lady Une!" Duo said and promptly passed out.
Lady Une looked at the figure on the ground in surprise and wondered what it was. It looked like a familiar looking girl with big black wings, but that as impossible.
"Let's see what the scientists think of it. I'll tell his Excellency about her later." Lady Une said to herself as she dialed security on her cell phone. The guards needed to get the creature to the infirmary so the doctors and scientists could fix its wounds and find out just what it was.
Duo woke up to find herself tied to an examination table with wires attached to various parts of her body. As she struggled to move, a face moved into her line of vision.
"Well, I see that you're awake." the man above her said as he brushed some hair off his forehead. "My name is Darien. What's yours?"
Duo refused to answer and just turned her face away. Staring at the far wall, she didn't see him open a small case and pull out a small knife. But she defiantly felt it as he started to cut her arm in a long slash and started to probe with the tip.
"I want to see what makes you tick, young lady." he said calmly as he probed deeper. "Are you a girl? Are you even human? But if so, where did the wings come from and why have there never been any reports about a girl with wings before?"
Suddenly he stopped probing and sliced a piece of skin off her arm. Duo had been able to handle the probing and cutting in silence, but this new pain was just too much and she screamed.
"So you can at least make a sound. I was beginning to wonder." Darien said as he placed the piece of skin in a container and sealed it to be studied later.
"While I and the other scientists study this and other samples that we have already taken, you will be put into isolation. Enjoy!"
Duo just watched silently as he gathered his things and left. As soon as he was gone, two orderlies came in and unstrained and unhooked her from the table and wires. She was silent as they wrapped he new wounds and escorted her to a new room.
The room was completely white and completely bare. As soon as the orderlies were gone, a complete silence filled the room. Even when she tried to say something, she couldn't hear anything, and here wounds no longer hurt.
Duo knew what to expect though. they would feed her twice a day and besides that, she wouldn't see anything or anyone unless they wanted her to. The same with feeling or hearing anything. She wouldn't be able to feel anything she tried to do to herself until they allowed it. The only reason she knew what to expect was that Professor G had put her though this during her training to make sure that she would be able to stand it if she was ever caught.
Knowing that they expected her to go crazy, she calmly laid down. 'I hope they finish this soon.' she thought as she closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. But unknown to her, two people where watching from a one way window on the wall.
"Well, that went well." Darien said as he watched her fall asleep.
"Yes. If I didn't know better, I would think that she was a Gundam pilot." Lady Une said as she turned to look at the man next to her. "Continue the tests. I want to know exactly what she is before I tell Treize." she said and he nodded.
"Yes ma'am." he said as he saluted her and then left the room.
Lady Une just watched him go before turning back to the window.
"Why are you keeping the kid here?" Zechs asked as he reclined on the couch in his lover's suite.
"He reminds me of those Gundam pilots and he could still give us some information about what happened to them." Treize explained as he handed Zechs a snuffer of brandy and sipped his own as he sat down next to him.
"But it's been two weeks and he still hasn't talked to us besides what he told you in the infirmary." Zechs protested.
"I know which is why he is staying here with me."
"Yeah. No one can get near him except for you."
Treize bust into merry laughter at that irritated statement.
"What's so damn funny?" Zechs snapped, offended and Treize asked in between chuckles, "Are you jealous of my little house guest.
"No!" Zechs shouted then looked around for Trio.
"Don't worry. He's staying in infirmary for tonight for some tests." Treize said as put his glass down and turned to the man next to him. "Which means that we are free to do what ever we want tonight." he said as he ran a finger along the seem of Zech's crotch and smiled as he felt the budge grow hard.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?' Zechs asked as he jumped up and pulled Treize into the bedroom.
Heero, Trowa, and Wufie were playing with playdough in the living room of the safe house when a squad of heavily armed men broke though the front door.
Hearing the sound of splintering wood, Quatre rushing out of the kitchen, only to be grabbed and muscled to the ground by two large men.
Heero and Wufie rushed forward to attack the men pinning Quatre to the floor, but two more men grabbed them before they even got close to their friend. Another man was slowly approaching Trowa as he backed up to the small table near the couch. Suddenly, Trowa spun around and pulled a small gun from the flower vase in the center of the table.
"Let them go now!" he said in a scared voice as the man stopped in surprise. Everyone stared at the small boy as he aimed the gun and made his demand again.
The man in front of Trowa chuckled and reached out to grab the gun but Trowa acted first. He jerked back the trigger but was unable to aim as he jumped back and stumbled on the table. The bullet grazed the man's biceps. The man growled in anger and punched the boy in the stomach.
The force behind the punch was enough to send Trowa flying backwards until he slammed into the wall. His head made a sickening crack when impacted then left a bloody smear as he slid down the wall to the floor.
"Oh my Allah, Trowa!" Quatre screamed as he struggled to break free from the arms holding him. He succeeded in getting away from the surprised guards and was half way across the living room to Trowa before one of the men tackled him, knocking him out as his head smashed into the corner of the table.
Heero and Wufie watched as Trowa and Quatre were carted out of the house and put in the back of a black van where Quatre was put in handcuffs and Trowa was buckled into a seat. The men holding Heero and Wufie buckled them into seats next to Trowa and the doors were closed.
They drove for nearly an hour before the van pulled to a stop in front of Oz headquarters. Quatre had just regained consciousness and was dizzy and confused as he was dragged out of the van by two guards who half dragged, half carried him to a holding cell and tossed him in.
Trowa was still unconscious and he was taken to the infirmary, along with Heero and Wufie for some tests. Heero and Wufie had been silent since they had taken from the safehouse, even when one of their guards, a nice young talkative man, had tried to start a conversation with them. The two three year olds had just given him their customary death glares. Coming from such young kids it had unnerved all that saw them.
Now they sat side by side on a bed, across the room from Trowa who was being checked out by a doctor. The man Trowa had shot was in another room further down the hall, yelling that the kids were insane. The voice was muffled as the nurse came back into the room and shut the door firmly behind her.
"here are the bandages that you wanted, Doctor." she said as she pushed a tray of bandages and rolls of gauze near the doctor. "And these are for you two." she added as she handed a cup of fruit juice and a cookie to each scowling little boy.
Heero and Wufie both gulped down the snack, unaware that there were tranquilizers in the punch. Within moments they were both asleep. The Nurse turned towards the doctor and sighed. "Did we really have to do that to them?" she asked as the doctor finished wrapping a bandage around Trowa's head.
"Yes I'm afraid that we did. This child shot at that guy and looked what happened to him. He has a huge bruise on his stomach and the skin on the back of his head is split. He's just lucky that he didn't split his skull open, as hard as he hit that wall from what I hear. If these other two kids got it into their heads that they had to protect themselves or each other, they could get seriously hurt." he explained gently as he handed Trowa to the nurse and then went over and picked up Heero and Wufie. Opening the door, the nurse led him to a room at the end of the hall, where they left the three boys curled up together on the bed.
Quatre woke up just before the van stopped. The only thing that he was aware of at first was the splitting pain in his head. He gradually became aware of being dragged into a room and being dumped on a hard floor.
As he struggled to push himself up, he noticed that his arms were encased in metal bands that went from mid-forearm to his wrists and were connected to each other somehow, kind of like a magnet.
"Where am I?" he asked himself as he struggled to stand. As he leaned against the wall, he tried to figure what had happened. Suddenly, he groaned and sank back to the floor. "Oh my Allah, Trowa." he whispered. Hearing a sound, Quatre turned his head in time to see the door slid open and a woman enter.
"Who are you? Where's Trowa and the others? What have you done with them?!" Quatre yelled before the woman could even open her mouth.
She could see that he was worried about the children, so she didn't take offence at his rudeness. "My name is Major Katie. You and the children you were with are at Oz HQ. Now, I have a couple questions I would like to ask you."
Ignoring the major's last statement, Quatre demanded again, "Where are Trowa and the others?"
"The children are in a room down the hall from the infirmary." she sighed then continued in a brisk voice. "Now, will you answer my questions now that I have answered yours? What is your name?"
"Quatre." he said flatly and turned away from her as he sat back down with his back to the wall. He had been warned by the doctor who had trained him never to tell them his whole name, like his was know to do when introducing himself, and never give any information about himself.
"Do you have a last name?" she asked but he just stared at the wall in silence. "Where do you come from?"
"..."
"Do you have any family?"
"..."
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"..."
"Can you...pat your head, rub your stomach, and sing at the same time?" she finally asked out of desperation to get him to say anything. She was new to her position and this was her first attempt to interrogate a prisoner. But the reaction she got was not one that she was expecting.
"I want to talk to Relena Peacecraft and Lucrezia Noin immediately." he said coldly and then was silent again as Katie stared at him.
"What?"
"You heard me." he said stonily. "Until I speak to them, you might as well leave. I won't say a word to you or anyone else until then."
Seeing that he was completely serious, she turned and left the cell, locking the door behind her. As she walked down the hall to her temporary office, she wondered what Miss. Peacecraft and Nion would say to this unusual request.
Just as she settled down to make the call, a young solider burst into her office. With a hasty salute, he said quickly, "Major, the girl with wings is going crazy. The doctor was in there checking on her and one of the aids mentioned the new prisoners and she started to freak out! She's already knocked the doctor out, along with several of the guards, and is currently beating up about ten other soldiers. If you don't hurry and do something, Captain Arnold said he would shoot her!"
"Take me to her." Katie snapped as she grabbed the tranquilizer gun that she always kept in her desk, loaded it with practiced ease, and darted out the door behind the young man.
Only a hall away from her office, they could hear the sounds of the fight, the shouts and screams of pain as Duo plowed her way through the men trying to restrain her. As they turned the corner, Katie stopped and stared in shock at the scene before her.
Duo was fighting off three guards at the same time while all the others that had tried to stop her were unconsience on the hall floor stretching down the hall and disappeared around a corner. Captain Arnold was already lining up a shot and it seemed that Duo was oblivious to it all as she pounded on the men.
"Where are they?!" Duo screamed as she through one of the men into the wall. "Where are Heero and the others?!"
"Captain, put down the gun." Katie said coldly and waited until the gun was holstered. Turning to the enraged girl, she spoke in a soft, soothing voice.
"Now why don't you calm down and tell me who this Heero is? We have no one by that name here that I know of."
"Do you or do you not have three small children that you just picked up with a short haired blond guy?" Duo snarled softly.
"Yes. Do you mean that one of the children id this Heero?" Katie asked.
"The kid with the dark blue eyes and the dark brown hair. Bring me to them now!"
Katie could tell that the girl could easily take her out if she wanted to so she quickly acted to ended it before some died. "Right at the end of this hall, last door on the right." she said pointing down the hall she had come from. As Duo rushed past her, she quickly fired a tranq that hit the girl in the shoulder.
Duo slowly turned around in shock and stared at Katie in shock before slowly collapsing to the ground as the dart took effect.
"Put her in the cell next to the blond guy that we picked up with the kids today. Hurry up, the dart shouldn't last to long." Katie ordered the two remaining guards, who nodded and picked up the girl and dragged her away. "Captain Arnold, you know our orders. The girl has to live long enough to get some answers out of her. You knew that, so why were you going to shoot her?" she demanded as she turned on the man.
"When an animal goes mad, you put it down." he said coldly, then saluted and left her starring after him, some choice words that she wanted to say to him on her lips.
"Beast." she snarled softly to herself before she stomped back to her office.
Heero woke up to find a hand in his face and a heavy weight on his chest, pinning him down. Pushing the hand away, he saw that it was Wufie draped over his stomach and Trowa curled up next to them. It had been Trowa's hand, Heero realized as he pushed Wufie off of him.
Getting up, Heero walked around the room trying to remember what had happened. He remembered being brought to the infirmary after Quatre was taken away and he remembered the doctor working on Trowa's wounds, but that was all. Everything else was just a blank, no matter how hard he tried remember.
He tried to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. Before he could try anything else, the door opened and a tall woman entered.
"My name is Major Katie. Are you Heero?" she asked as she squatted down to his height. At his curt nod, she smiled and stood up. "I have a couple of questions I would like you to answer. Come with me, please." she said and held out her hand for him to take.
He gave the hand a contemptuse look, then stalked out of the room, leaving Wufie and Trowa just waking up.
"This way, please." Katie said as she led the way to her office, keeping an eye on the scowling little boy beside her. After they had settled into her office, she asked a question that had been bothering her. ""How do you and your friends know Relena Peacecraft, Lucrezia Noin, and a girl with wings?"
As Heero had the mentality of a three-year-old with the mind of a sixteen-year-old, he just started blurting things out. "Well, before I was turned into a kid, Relena was always chasing me. I guess she had a crush on me or something, but who knows with that crazy girl. But I love Duo, even though I haven't told him yet, and I want us to get together like Trowa and Quatre who keep switching bodies. Wufie made Duo dress up like a girl and now he is one and I really like her wings." he chatted. "Duo's little brother accidentally turned us into kids, but that's ok. When Duo found out she made him so sad that he left and then Relena and Nion came two weeks ago and saw us then the big men came and hurt Trowa and Quatre and we were brought here. Don't know what happened to Duo, disappeared after Relena came by."
Katie just stared at the little boy in shock as he continued to ramble on about Duo and wings and crazy Relena and Zechs and space. Finally she interrupted. "Um...let me get this straight. Trowa and Quatre switch bodies and Duo dressed up like a girl and then got turned into one with wings, Relena Peacecraft has been chasing you around and you are in love with Duo even though she doesn't know it. Trowa and Quatre love each other and then you, Trowa, and another friend get turned into children by Duo's little brother...what was his name?"
"Trio." he chirped.
"Trio. Now Trio ran away and Duo id missing. Did I get that right?" Katie asked and Heero nodded his head. "And may I ask how all of this is possible?"
"Magic of course." he said as if that was the only possible answer. "Can I go see Quatre now?" he asked with his best5 puppy dog face.
Finding it hard to refuse those deep blue eyes anything, she nodded and took the little boy down the hall to the cell where the blond teenager was.
Quatre had been sitting against the wall since the woman had left, wondering if Trowa and the others were all right and wondering where on Earth Duo had been for the past two weeks. He was unaware of the girl in question being put into the cell next to his but he did hear the two guards talking as they dumped their prisoner and locked the door behind them as they left the cell.
"Can you believe the figure of that girl? I mean she has to be the hottest babe around!" one guard said, catching Quatre's attention.
"Yeah, but she's a freak. That's why I cut this off, and besides don't touch her, she'll kill you. You know what happened to Sam for touching her?"
"What?"
"He grabbed her ass and she threw him into the wall and then broke every bone in his hand."
"No way! So that's why he hasn't at lunch yesterday." Before the two men could continue their conversation, Quatre heard a throat clear and then the sound of the two men hurrying away. Hearing a pair of footsteps out side of his door, he turned away and started starring at the wall again. So he missed seeing the small blur that threw it's self at him until he was tackled to the ground.
He found himself on his back with a small figure clinging to his neck. "Heero!" he exclaimed as the boy pulled away long enough for the both of them to sit up.
"Quatre! I'm so happy to see you!"
"Are you alright? Where's Trowa and Wufie?" Quatre asked as he slipped his bound hands over the boy's head and gathered him close for an awkward hug.
"There fine but they didn't come with me when I went to talk with the nice lady." Heero said as he cuddled against Quatre's chest.
"What nice lady and what did you talk about?" Quatre asked sharply.
"Well, we talked about me, you and Trowa, and what happened to Duo and Wufie. She was surprised when we talked about Relena and Noin. But don't worry, I didn't mention the Gundams." Heero said cheerfully.
Katie had been standing outside the door while Heero and Quatre had their reunion. She figured that they could use some privacy, but she couldn't just leave the little boy alone with the blond. He had seemed so angry and unpredictable.
Their names, Heero, Quatre, Trowa, Wufie and Duo, seemed familiar and at the same time unfamiliar. But when the little boy said the word Gundams, it all clicked into place in her mind.
"Oh my God! You're the Gundam pilots!" she gasped, gaining the attention of the two boys in the cell. "It makes sense now that I think of it." Looking at the boys, she noticed them starring at her. "What?" she asked defensively.
Ignoring the question, Quatre stood up and demanded to see Trowa and Wufie. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow that." Katie said regretfully as the two approached her.
Suddenly Quatre reached out his bound hands and grabbed the color of her uniform. He dragged the startled woman forward until their noses were only an inch apart. He growled in a dangerous tone that normally wouldn't have come from the mild tempered teenager, "My life has been a living hell these past few weeks. First my friend is turned into a girl with wings, then I switch bodies with Trowa, and then Trowa, Wufie, and Heero are turned into children because of Trio, who disappeared. Relena and Noin find out about what had happened and then a bunch of armed goons break into my house and punch Trowa into a wall, knocked me out and brought the four of us here where I was put into shackles and throw into a cell. And on top of all that, Duo has been missing since two weeks ago and now you won't let me go see me Trowa-chan?!" he was shouting by the time he finished.
Katie just stared at the small teenager and tried to form a coherent thought. From all the reports she had read, the pilot of 04 was the mildest, most sweet tempered of the five gundam pilots, but this teenager seemed to be a wild, out of control kid that could very easily kill her with his bare hands.
She could see that Quatre's eyes were full of pain and anger as she stared deeply into them. "I can understand where you are coming from, but..." she started but was cut off by a swift shake from the blond as he shouted, "You have no idea what the last few weeks and the last few years have done to all of us!"
Before Quatre could continue, or Katie could say a word, before Heero could even get over his shock at seeing Quatre like this, all three heard a voice from the cell next door saying, "Quatre?"
Sorry this took me a while to get out. I haven't had time to type anything recently because of school. That kami that I'm almost through with it. The next chapter won't be posted for a while but I will try and get the next chapter for Duo's pain up soon and maybe Another world and Ranma Moon, too.
Ja ne,
Shinigami-chan
Trio sat down underneath the bridge as the rain continued to pour down around him. It had been a week since he had left his newfound family, Duo Maxwell, and his friends, the other gundam pilots. He was cold, tired, and hungry, but he was determined to make it up to Duo before going back.
"I wish this rain would stop." a man said as he sat down next to him.
"Yeah." Trio said as he continued to look out at the rain. He had always been able to tell whether he could trust someone or not and right now, his feelings were telling him that this guy wanted something and nothing was going to stop him from getting it from Trio.
Looking around, he noticed that they were surrounded by four big men and that the others under the bridge were leaving the shelter to brave the storm rather than stay, like they knew what was going to happen and they wanted no part of it.
Deciding to follow their example, Trio stood up, grabbed his bag and tried to push past the men surrounding him.
"And where are you going little girl?" one of the thugs asked softly as he grabbed Trio's braid.
Even he had to admit that he looked like a girl with his big, baggy clothes, his heart shaped face and the long brain that reached to the middle of his back. He had started to wear it like this since he had left to remind him of what he had left behind.
"I'm not a girl and I'm leaving." he snapped as he grabbed his knife from his boot and slashed at the man holding his hair, who let it go as he jumped back to avoid the knife. The other men just burst out laughing.
"Sure and I'm a Gundam pilot." said the man who had sat down next to him, chuckling sarcastically.
"If you were, you would know that I'm the brother of the God of Death." he muttered softly to himself but the man in front of him heard. He had thought that the kid had looked familiar and now he knew why. This kid looked like that older kid that had been captured in the colonies for piloting 02.
He started to back up, but was stopped when his boss snapped at him to stop being a coward. "I would rather be a coward than be a deadman. This kid is related to that other kid who was arrested last year in the colonies for piloting that Gundam 02." he said gaining surprised looks from all present except the kid who had no expression at all on his face. "I'm sorry, but I'm out of here." he said and left, followed by two others, leaving Trio alone with just one thug and the boss.
Staring after the departing men, he didn't notice the remaining guy coming up behind him until two strong arms that pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him off the ground grabbed him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he snarled as he struggled to get loose or stab him with the knife, but couldn't get the leverage.
"Anything I want." the boss said as he approached the struggling boy and grabbed his chin. "You do look like that pilot."
Trio stared at him, wide eyed, for a moment before a fist crashed into his chin and blackness consumed him.
Trio worked his way to awareness slowly. Before his eyes were even open, he was aware that he was lying with his face on the cold, wet ground and his arms pinned above his head.
Before he could even open his mouth, something shoved its way painfully into his body, and he screamed in pain and his eyes flew open, and dimly heard someone chuckling cruelly. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the boss pounding into him. "Why?" he gasped as he tried to block the pain.
Instead of answering, the man just continued even harder, and Trio started to pass out from the pain, but another pain brought him back to awareness.
"Why don't you stay with us for a while?" the boss said as he yanked on Trio's braid and crushed his mouth against the boy's. Trio gagged as the bosses tongue pushed it's way past his teeth and ran around inside his mouth. His lips were cut from his teeth as they were crushed against them and some of his hair was yanked out as he tried to get away.
Suddenly, Trio bit down as hard as he could on the offending tongue invading his mouth. The boss jerked his face away and punched him across the face.
"You little basterd! Teach him some manners." he snapped as he stood up and shoved himself back into his pants and wiped the blood away from his tongue.
"Sure thing, boss." the thug said as he casually picked Trio up and slammed him into a support post for the bridge, right next to the road that ran under the bridge.
As he slid down the pillar, the thug grabbed him by his throat and started punching him in the stomach with his other hand. "Where's your spunk now? It's no fun when they don't try to fight back." the thug said as he backhanded him.
"Ugh..." Trio grunted as he landed on a broken bottle as he fell, slicing his chest and arms open. He hadn't relaxed it when he had woken up, but he was completely naked, as he had just painfully realized. As he was getting up, he received a hard kick to his ribs, feeling two of them break, right before landing on his back in the glass.
Groaning in pain, he slowly started to sit up until a boot abruptly pushed back down on his back, then continued pressing until another rib snapped and Trio screamed in pain again.
Suddenly, light swept over them as a car, the first all night, rolled by. The car stopped abruptly next to them and a figure stepped out. Trio didn't know who the person was and soon was unconcence again as the man pulled a gun out and pointed it at the surprised thug who still had his boot on his chest. But just before he blacked out, he noticed that the figure was wearing a strange mask.
Zechs Marque had been returning from a meeting with his sister, Relena Peacecraft, when he has seen the boy being roughed up by the thug. Never one to let a kid be abused, Zechs ordered the car stopped and stepped out of the car.
Pulling his gun, he asked in a cold voice, "Is there a reason for doing this to a kid?"
"Yeah, an order." the thug said as he started to back away from the gun. His boss had already left, sensing that something would happen to him if he didn't.
"And would you perhaps know who this kid is, or do you just pick any little kid to do this to?" Zechs said as he signaled for Lucrezia Noin to get the boy into his car. She was accompanying to the base to discuss her guard duty for his sister.
"He looks like that longhaired kid that pilots the Gundam 02, but that's all I know." the thug said and made a break for the shadows where Zechs' couldn't shot him.
Zechs' just calmly shot him in the head before he had gone two steps, then headed back to his car. "Noin is he all right?" he asked as he shut the door.
"Well, he has a ton of cuts from the broken glass he was laying in and a bruises and some broken ribs from the beating, and he appears to have been...um...raped...sir and a split lip." Nion said as she covered him up with the jacket that Zechs had handed her when he had gotten into the car.
"The guy said he looks like the pilot of the Gundam 02, Duo Maxwell. It seems that he was right. Maybe a younger brother or a cousin." Zechs speculated as he studied the boy curled up on the seat between him and Noin.
"Maxwell? Well I guess we can get a hold of them and see. Maybe Sally Po will know how."
The rest of the drive to the OZ base was made in silence. As he got out of the car at the entrance, Zechs told Nion, "Get him to the infirmary. I need to speak to his Excellency."
"Yes sir." Noin saluted then signaled one of the nearby guards to carry the boy to the infirmary while she called ahead.
On the way to the awaiting doctors, the kid woke up. "How are you feeling?" Noin asked softly as his pain glazed violet eyes focused briefly on her. "What's your name?"
"Tr...Trio." he managed between gasps of pain.
"Would you be related to Duo Maxwell?" she asked as they stopped in front of the infirmary's door, but received no answer as he struggled to hold onto awareness.
Noin opened the door and led the guard, who was carrying Trio, into the room, just as he passed out again.
"You brought an unknown person onto our base with out authorization?" Treize Kushrenada asked calmly as Zechs sat down on a couch in his suite.
"Yeah. I would have just sent him to Relena's estate with Noin, but he looks like Duo Maxwell. I figured that he would be able to give us some information." Zechs muttered as he sipped the wine that Treize had handed him.
"Looks like Maxwell? Interesting." Treize said as he sat next to his lover. "Maybe he can tell us where our young friend Wufie is."
"I wonder where he's been for the past week. He usually shows up at least four times a week." Zechs said as he casually took off his mask.
"Well, lets go see this child that looks so much like Maxwell." Treize said with a smile as he stood up and headed for the door.
"But Treize, I had other plans for this evening!" Zechs whined as he grabbed his mask and shoved it back on his head.
With his back to Zechs, Treize smiled knowingly. "But wouldn't it be better with our little dragon?" As he left, he heard Zechs mutter behind him something about inconsistent dragons and uppity, superior basterds. "Did you say something? he asked with a small smile as he turned around, one eyebrow arched and an amused expression on his face.
"No sir."
They continued the rest of the way in silence, and met Nion out side of the infirmary door. After saluting them, she began to tell them what she had found out. "His name in Trio Shays, from colony L2. He might be Duo Maxwell's younger brother but we are still unsure about that, as he fainted again before we could find out. He lived with his mother until she disappeared when he was five and it was assumed that he was missing with her until the police on the streets of the colony spotted him. He has three broken ribs, over two hundred cuts from the glass he was laying in, bruises from the beating and has been...um...raped, sir." she said softly.
"Why don't we go in and see this boy?" Trezie said and pushed open the door to the recovery room. Inside, Trio looked small and helpless as he huddled under the thin white sheet, on the bed. His face was molted with bruises and a couple cuts. The visitors couldn't see the rest of his as he clutched the sheet at his neck and it covered him to his toes. They could, however see the messy blond braid and the wide, haunted amethyst eyes that stare at nothing.
"Trio, this is his Excellency, Treize Kushrenada. He would like to meet you." Noin said softly, but received no response from the boy. When she put her hand on his shoulder, she could feel him shaking underneath the sheet. Before she could open her mouth to talk to him again, Treize spoke up.
"Trio, are you related to Duo Maxwell?" he asked quietly and received a surprising response. Trio uncurled and slowly sat up. He turned towards Treize, who stood next to the bed, and lunged at the startled man. Everyone was shocked as he wrapped his arms around Treize's waist and buried his head in his stomach, sobbing.
"Sir?" Zechs said softly, stepping forward.
"Leave him. He needs to do this." Treize said calmly as he sat on the edge of the bed and let the boy curl up in his lap. After a couple of minutes, the storm of weeping slowed and Treize asked softly, "What's the matter, little one?" in his most soothing voice.
"They hate me."
"Who hates you? Why?"
"Duo...Quatre. They have to hate me!" Trio said as he burst into tears again.
"Why would they hate you?"
"I turned Heero, Trowa, and Wufie into three year olds." he stuttered. "I didn't mean to, it was an accident! We didn't think the spell would work if it was said in English instead of Latin!"
Despite his shock, Treize said softly, "Why would they hate you? It wasn't your fault."
"Quatre didn't say anything bad but Duo looked like it everything was my fault. He wouldn't even talk to me and he hardly even looked at me."
"Maybe he was just in shock."
"But I'm her brother! She wasn't like this before!" Trio sobbed. As the three adults looked at each other in surprise, he suddenly fell asleep.
"Well, I guess that solves that question." Zechs said after a moment of silence.
"What question? If he was related to Duo?" Noin asked.
"Um...yeah." Zechs said quickly. He had forgotten that she was in the room with them, but Treize knew what he had been referring to. He had meant the question about what had happened to Wufie.
"It certainly does. But that doesn't answer why Duo and Quatre haven't attacked us as part of their missions." Treize said softly as he gently moved Trio off his lap and back to the mattress, where he covered him with the sheet again.
"Duo, it's been a week. I don't think he's coming back." Quatre said quietly to as they watched the children playing in the field in front of the safehouse.
Duo didn't say anything, but watched Heero tackle Trowa. The two of them rolled into Wufie and all three of them rolled down the hill, shrieking with laughter. This Duo was different from the always happy and joking teenager who never seemed to have a care in the world. In his place was a silent, withdrawn girl whose once common smile, now only came out while watching the children play.
'She reminds me so much of how Heero and Trowa were, never showing the feelings or expressions that much.' Quatre thought to himself as he went back to translating the scroll in front of him on the picnic basket. They had managed to translate roughly a third of the scrolls, mostly of which were illusion spells and spells to change yourself into something else, like an animal. They hadn't even attempted to do the books yet.
Suddenly, Duo took off into the air, only swooping down log enough to grab the children before taking off into the sky again. This didn't surprise Quatre or the kids. It was a safety precaution that they had practiced so that no one would find out about the condition of the four Gundam pilots.
Turning to the road that led to the house, Quatre watched tensely as a black car sped up to the front door. The back door opened before the driver could even come to a complete stop, and Relena Peacecraft jumped out. She rushed to the front door and started banging on it, shouting to be let in immediately.
Quatre sighed and approached the girl quickly, pasting a smile. "Relena, who do you keep finding us?" he asked as the girl turned around.
Ignoring the question, she grabbed him by his color and demanded, "Where is Heero? I heard something bad happened to him!" She started shaking him back and forth as he tried to form a coherent thought.
After he had pried he fingers from his shirt and the world had stopped spinning, he said firmly, "Heero is fine. Who told you he wasn't?"
"I did." a voice from behind him said and he spun around to see Nion standing beside the car. "and I got it from a very reliable source." she said firmly.
Before he could reply, Trowa came running up to the group and threw him at the surprised Quatre, who caught him by reflex. "Quatre, Quatre! Duo was being mean! She said that she would fly us around the clearing but she gave a longer ride to Heero and Wufie!" he cried as he clung to the teenager's neck.
"Trowa, you know that Duo wouldn't do that so why don't you go apologize to her for your bad manners." Quatre said soothingly and pushed the reluctant child in the direction he had come from.
When the boy had disappeared into the forest at the edge of the field again. Quatre turned back to the two women.
"Was th...that Trowa?" Relena asked stunned.
"Um... yes it was." Quatre said hesitantly. He silently watched as Relena fainted. "Let's bring her into the house." he said to Noin, as he helped the older woman pick her up and head towards the door.
"Trowa, you know, that when I bring you here, you are in danger and you are supposed to stay here until Quatre comes to get us." Duo lectured the little boy in front of her.
"I'm sorry, Duo. But Heero and Wufie got longer rides than I did." Trowa muttered quietly.
"That's not true, Trowa and you know it. What have we told you about lying? As soon as we get back to the safe house, you are going to sit in time out." Grabbing Trowa's hand she turned towards the safe house and started walking. "Heero, Wufie. We're going home, now."
"But I thought we were supposed to wait for Quatre to come and get us." Heero said as he grabbed Duo's other hand.
"Normally that is right. But because Trowa went to Quatre, they already know about you." Duo said and Wufie started shouting, "Trowa's in trouble, and now we're all in trouble because of him!"
"Hush Wufie, Trowa didn't mean to. Everything will be ok." Duo said as the continued to walk. after a minute, Trowa spoke up.
"Do I still have to sit in time out?" he asked with his best puppy dog face.
"No. I was just angry when I said that." she said and sigh. The rest of the walk was done in silence until they reached the front door.
"Ok you guys. They don't know about me yet so I want you three to go in while I fly up to you room, ok. Meet me there in three minutes." Duo said and the three little boys nodded. She flew up to the second floor windows while they opened the door.
Quietly, she opened the window to the room where the three boys slept, and slipped into the room, folding her wings so that they wouldn't hit the edge of the window seal.
'I hope Zechs didn't tell anyone about what had happened to me.' she though as she walked away from the window. She was so distracted by that thought that she bumped into he table and knocked a vase off. Duo held her breath as it shattered.
"Did you hear that?" Noin asked as she sponged Relena's forehead with a damp cloth.
"Yeah, I sounded like glass breaking." Quatre said as he stood up and head for the door. The three of them were in the guestroom trying to wake Relena up. Just as he opened the door, three small figures rushed by.
"Heero, Wufie, Trowa. How many times do I have to tell you not to run in the house?" he asked as the kids stopped and turned around.
"Sorry Quatre." they chorused together and walked into their room.
"Did you hear something a minute ago?" Quatre asked them right before they closed their door.
"Yeah. Duo probably knocked over the vase when she came into through the window. Bye!" Trowa said and closed the door.
From behind him, Quatre heard Noin ask, "What did he mean 'Duo probably knocked over the vase when she came in through the window'?"
"Maybe you should talk to Duo and let Duo explain." he suggested and she nodded. As they were leaving the room, Relena woke up and demanded to know what was going on.
As Noin explained what she knew, Quatre slipped down the hall and into the children's room. As he closed the door, he saw Duo picking up the broken glass by the window, while the kids played tag in another part of the room. "Duo, you should get out of here. Noin is coming to ask what happened to you." Quatre said quietly as he took the broom and dustpan from her.
"Yeah, I heard what Trowa said and I was going to take off but I didn't want to take off and leave the glass were they could get into it." Duo said as she headed towards the open window.
"Thanks. Call if there is any problems." Quatre said as he watched he take off towards the trees.
"Where's Duo?" Relena demanded as she threw open the door. She stood there with Noin, glaring at Quatre as he finished sweeping the broken glass up.
"Duo left to get some air. You might want to just leave, ladies, as I don't know when she'll be back." he said but they weren't even listening anymore. Instead they were watching as the children laughed and played.
"Noin, Relena. I think it's time you leave." he said firmly and hustled the two women outside before they could protest.
"Is there anyway to change them back to normal?" Nion asked as she regained her wits.
"I'm just working on it, and just how did you find us anyway?" he demanded as Noin and Relena got into the car.
"That's our little secret." Nion said and drove away.
"I wish I knew where Trio is." Duo muttered as she flew above the trees. She was passing above a large estate when something hit her in her side. Putting her hand on her side, she felt warm liquid cover hand. Pain burned her side as she looked at her hand. It was covered in blood and more was soaking her clothes around the wound.
Suddenly another shot hit her wing and sent her hurtling towards the ground. She managed to slow herself enough with her uninjured wing but not enough to stop herself from hitting the ground hard. She screamed as she felt two ribs snap on impact. As he screamed dissolved into silence, she painfully looked up as a figure came to stand above her.
"Well, what have we here?" Lady Une said as she stared down at the girl with wings on the ground.
"Lady Une!" Duo said and promptly passed out.
Lady Une looked at the figure on the ground in surprise and wondered what it was. It looked like a familiar looking girl with big black wings, but that as impossible.
"Let's see what the scientists think of it. I'll tell his Excellency about her later." Lady Une said to herself as she dialed security on her cell phone. The guards needed to get the creature to the infirmary so the doctors and scientists could fix its wounds and find out just what it was.
Duo woke up to find herself tied to an examination table with wires attached to various parts of her body. As she struggled to move, a face moved into her line of vision.
"Well, I see that you're awake." the man above her said as he brushed some hair off his forehead. "My name is Darien. What's yours?"
Duo refused to answer and just turned her face away. Staring at the far wall, she didn't see him open a small case and pull out a small knife. But she defiantly felt it as he started to cut her arm in a long slash and started to probe with the tip.
"I want to see what makes you tick, young lady." he said calmly as he probed deeper. "Are you a girl? Are you even human? But if so, where did the wings come from and why have there never been any reports about a girl with wings before?"
Suddenly he stopped probing and sliced a piece of skin off her arm. Duo had been able to handle the probing and cutting in silence, but this new pain was just too much and she screamed.
"So you can at least make a sound. I was beginning to wonder." Darien said as he placed the piece of skin in a container and sealed it to be studied later.
"While I and the other scientists study this and other samples that we have already taken, you will be put into isolation. Enjoy!"
Duo just watched silently as he gathered his things and left. As soon as he was gone, two orderlies came in and unstrained and unhooked her from the table and wires. She was silent as they wrapped he new wounds and escorted her to a new room.
The room was completely white and completely bare. As soon as the orderlies were gone, a complete silence filled the room. Even when she tried to say something, she couldn't hear anything, and here wounds no longer hurt.
Duo knew what to expect though. they would feed her twice a day and besides that, she wouldn't see anything or anyone unless they wanted her to. The same with feeling or hearing anything. She wouldn't be able to feel anything she tried to do to herself until they allowed it. The only reason she knew what to expect was that Professor G had put her though this during her training to make sure that she would be able to stand it if she was ever caught.
Knowing that they expected her to go crazy, she calmly laid down. 'I hope they finish this soon.' she thought as she closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. But unknown to her, two people where watching from a one way window on the wall.
"Well, that went well." Darien said as he watched her fall asleep.
"Yes. If I didn't know better, I would think that she was a Gundam pilot." Lady Une said as she turned to look at the man next to her. "Continue the tests. I want to know exactly what she is before I tell Treize." she said and he nodded.
"Yes ma'am." he said as he saluted her and then left the room.
Lady Une just watched him go before turning back to the window.
"Why are you keeping the kid here?" Zechs asked as he reclined on the couch in his lover's suite.
"He reminds me of those Gundam pilots and he could still give us some information about what happened to them." Treize explained as he handed Zechs a snuffer of brandy and sipped his own as he sat down next to him.
"But it's been two weeks and he still hasn't talked to us besides what he told you in the infirmary." Zechs protested.
"I know which is why he is staying here with me."
"Yeah. No one can get near him except for you."
Treize bust into merry laughter at that irritated statement.
"What's so damn funny?" Zechs snapped, offended and Treize asked in between chuckles, "Are you jealous of my little house guest.
"No!" Zechs shouted then looked around for Trio.
"Don't worry. He's staying in infirmary for tonight for some tests." Treize said as put his glass down and turned to the man next to him. "Which means that we are free to do what ever we want tonight." he said as he ran a finger along the seem of Zech's crotch and smiled as he felt the budge grow hard.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?' Zechs asked as he jumped up and pulled Treize into the bedroom.
Heero, Trowa, and Wufie were playing with playdough in the living room of the safe house when a squad of heavily armed men broke though the front door.
Hearing the sound of splintering wood, Quatre rushing out of the kitchen, only to be grabbed and muscled to the ground by two large men.
Heero and Wufie rushed forward to attack the men pinning Quatre to the floor, but two more men grabbed them before they even got close to their friend. Another man was slowly approaching Trowa as he backed up to the small table near the couch. Suddenly, Trowa spun around and pulled a small gun from the flower vase in the center of the table.
"Let them go now!" he said in a scared voice as the man stopped in surprise. Everyone stared at the small boy as he aimed the gun and made his demand again.
The man in front of Trowa chuckled and reached out to grab the gun but Trowa acted first. He jerked back the trigger but was unable to aim as he jumped back and stumbled on the table. The bullet grazed the man's biceps. The man growled in anger and punched the boy in the stomach.
The force behind the punch was enough to send Trowa flying backwards until he slammed into the wall. His head made a sickening crack when impacted then left a bloody smear as he slid down the wall to the floor.
"Oh my Allah, Trowa!" Quatre screamed as he struggled to break free from the arms holding him. He succeeded in getting away from the surprised guards and was half way across the living room to Trowa before one of the men tackled him, knocking him out as his head smashed into the corner of the table.
Heero and Wufie watched as Trowa and Quatre were carted out of the house and put in the back of a black van where Quatre was put in handcuffs and Trowa was buckled into a seat. The men holding Heero and Wufie buckled them into seats next to Trowa and the doors were closed.
They drove for nearly an hour before the van pulled to a stop in front of Oz headquarters. Quatre had just regained consciousness and was dizzy and confused as he was dragged out of the van by two guards who half dragged, half carried him to a holding cell and tossed him in.
Trowa was still unconscious and he was taken to the infirmary, along with Heero and Wufie for some tests. Heero and Wufie had been silent since they had taken from the safehouse, even when one of their guards, a nice young talkative man, had tried to start a conversation with them. The two three year olds had just given him their customary death glares. Coming from such young kids it had unnerved all that saw them.
Now they sat side by side on a bed, across the room from Trowa who was being checked out by a doctor. The man Trowa had shot was in another room further down the hall, yelling that the kids were insane. The voice was muffled as the nurse came back into the room and shut the door firmly behind her.
"here are the bandages that you wanted, Doctor." she said as she pushed a tray of bandages and rolls of gauze near the doctor. "And these are for you two." she added as she handed a cup of fruit juice and a cookie to each scowling little boy.
Heero and Wufie both gulped down the snack, unaware that there were tranquilizers in the punch. Within moments they were both asleep. The Nurse turned towards the doctor and sighed. "Did we really have to do that to them?" she asked as the doctor finished wrapping a bandage around Trowa's head.
"Yes I'm afraid that we did. This child shot at that guy and looked what happened to him. He has a huge bruise on his stomach and the skin on the back of his head is split. He's just lucky that he didn't split his skull open, as hard as he hit that wall from what I hear. If these other two kids got it into their heads that they had to protect themselves or each other, they could get seriously hurt." he explained gently as he handed Trowa to the nurse and then went over and picked up Heero and Wufie. Opening the door, the nurse led him to a room at the end of the hall, where they left the three boys curled up together on the bed.
Quatre woke up just before the van stopped. The only thing that he was aware of at first was the splitting pain in his head. He gradually became aware of being dragged into a room and being dumped on a hard floor.
As he struggled to push himself up, he noticed that his arms were encased in metal bands that went from mid-forearm to his wrists and were connected to each other somehow, kind of like a magnet.
"Where am I?" he asked himself as he struggled to stand. As he leaned against the wall, he tried to figure what had happened. Suddenly, he groaned and sank back to the floor. "Oh my Allah, Trowa." he whispered. Hearing a sound, Quatre turned his head in time to see the door slid open and a woman enter.
"Who are you? Where's Trowa and the others? What have you done with them?!" Quatre yelled before the woman could even open her mouth.
She could see that he was worried about the children, so she didn't take offence at his rudeness. "My name is Major Katie. You and the children you were with are at Oz HQ. Now, I have a couple questions I would like to ask you."
Ignoring the major's last statement, Quatre demanded again, "Where are Trowa and the others?"
"The children are in a room down the hall from the infirmary." she sighed then continued in a brisk voice. "Now, will you answer my questions now that I have answered yours? What is your name?"
"Quatre." he said flatly and turned away from her as he sat back down with his back to the wall. He had been warned by the doctor who had trained him never to tell them his whole name, like his was know to do when introducing himself, and never give any information about himself.
"Do you have a last name?" she asked but he just stared at the wall in silence. "Where do you come from?"
"..."
"Do you have any family?"
"..."
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"..."
"Can you...pat your head, rub your stomach, and sing at the same time?" she finally asked out of desperation to get him to say anything. She was new to her position and this was her first attempt to interrogate a prisoner. But the reaction she got was not one that she was expecting.
"I want to talk to Relena Peacecraft and Lucrezia Noin immediately." he said coldly and then was silent again as Katie stared at him.
"What?"
"You heard me." he said stonily. "Until I speak to them, you might as well leave. I won't say a word to you or anyone else until then."
Seeing that he was completely serious, she turned and left the cell, locking the door behind her. As she walked down the hall to her temporary office, she wondered what Miss. Peacecraft and Nion would say to this unusual request.
Just as she settled down to make the call, a young solider burst into her office. With a hasty salute, he said quickly, "Major, the girl with wings is going crazy. The doctor was in there checking on her and one of the aids mentioned the new prisoners and she started to freak out! She's already knocked the doctor out, along with several of the guards, and is currently beating up about ten other soldiers. If you don't hurry and do something, Captain Arnold said he would shoot her!"
"Take me to her." Katie snapped as she grabbed the tranquilizer gun that she always kept in her desk, loaded it with practiced ease, and darted out the door behind the young man.
Only a hall away from her office, they could hear the sounds of the fight, the shouts and screams of pain as Duo plowed her way through the men trying to restrain her. As they turned the corner, Katie stopped and stared in shock at the scene before her.
Duo was fighting off three guards at the same time while all the others that had tried to stop her were unconsience on the hall floor stretching down the hall and disappeared around a corner. Captain Arnold was already lining up a shot and it seemed that Duo was oblivious to it all as she pounded on the men.
"Where are they?!" Duo screamed as she through one of the men into the wall. "Where are Heero and the others?!"
"Captain, put down the gun." Katie said coldly and waited until the gun was holstered. Turning to the enraged girl, she spoke in a soft, soothing voice.
"Now why don't you calm down and tell me who this Heero is? We have no one by that name here that I know of."
"Do you or do you not have three small children that you just picked up with a short haired blond guy?" Duo snarled softly.
"Yes. Do you mean that one of the children id this Heero?" Katie asked.
"The kid with the dark blue eyes and the dark brown hair. Bring me to them now!"
Katie could tell that the girl could easily take her out if she wanted to so she quickly acted to ended it before some died. "Right at the end of this hall, last door on the right." she said pointing down the hall she had come from. As Duo rushed past her, she quickly fired a tranq that hit the girl in the shoulder.
Duo slowly turned around in shock and stared at Katie in shock before slowly collapsing to the ground as the dart took effect.
"Put her in the cell next to the blond guy that we picked up with the kids today. Hurry up, the dart shouldn't last to long." Katie ordered the two remaining guards, who nodded and picked up the girl and dragged her away. "Captain Arnold, you know our orders. The girl has to live long enough to get some answers out of her. You knew that, so why were you going to shoot her?" she demanded as she turned on the man.
"When an animal goes mad, you put it down." he said coldly, then saluted and left her starring after him, some choice words that she wanted to say to him on her lips.
"Beast." she snarled softly to herself before she stomped back to her office.
Heero woke up to find a hand in his face and a heavy weight on his chest, pinning him down. Pushing the hand away, he saw that it was Wufie draped over his stomach and Trowa curled up next to them. It had been Trowa's hand, Heero realized as he pushed Wufie off of him.
Getting up, Heero walked around the room trying to remember what had happened. He remembered being brought to the infirmary after Quatre was taken away and he remembered the doctor working on Trowa's wounds, but that was all. Everything else was just a blank, no matter how hard he tried remember.
He tried to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. Before he could try anything else, the door opened and a tall woman entered.
"My name is Major Katie. Are you Heero?" she asked as she squatted down to his height. At his curt nod, she smiled and stood up. "I have a couple of questions I would like you to answer. Come with me, please." she said and held out her hand for him to take.
He gave the hand a contemptuse look, then stalked out of the room, leaving Wufie and Trowa just waking up.
"This way, please." Katie said as she led the way to her office, keeping an eye on the scowling little boy beside her. After they had settled into her office, she asked a question that had been bothering her. ""How do you and your friends know Relena Peacecraft, Lucrezia Noin, and a girl with wings?"
As Heero had the mentality of a three-year-old with the mind of a sixteen-year-old, he just started blurting things out. "Well, before I was turned into a kid, Relena was always chasing me. I guess she had a crush on me or something, but who knows with that crazy girl. But I love Duo, even though I haven't told him yet, and I want us to get together like Trowa and Quatre who keep switching bodies. Wufie made Duo dress up like a girl and now he is one and I really like her wings." he chatted. "Duo's little brother accidentally turned us into kids, but that's ok. When Duo found out she made him so sad that he left and then Relena and Nion came two weeks ago and saw us then the big men came and hurt Trowa and Quatre and we were brought here. Don't know what happened to Duo, disappeared after Relena came by."
Katie just stared at the little boy in shock as he continued to ramble on about Duo and wings and crazy Relena and Zechs and space. Finally she interrupted. "Um...let me get this straight. Trowa and Quatre switch bodies and Duo dressed up like a girl and then got turned into one with wings, Relena Peacecraft has been chasing you around and you are in love with Duo even though she doesn't know it. Trowa and Quatre love each other and then you, Trowa, and another friend get turned into children by Duo's little brother...what was his name?"
"Trio." he chirped.
"Trio. Now Trio ran away and Duo id missing. Did I get that right?" Katie asked and Heero nodded his head. "And may I ask how all of this is possible?"
"Magic of course." he said as if that was the only possible answer. "Can I go see Quatre now?" he asked with his best5 puppy dog face.
Finding it hard to refuse those deep blue eyes anything, she nodded and took the little boy down the hall to the cell where the blond teenager was.
Quatre had been sitting against the wall since the woman had left, wondering if Trowa and the others were all right and wondering where on Earth Duo had been for the past two weeks. He was unaware of the girl in question being put into the cell next to his but he did hear the two guards talking as they dumped their prisoner and locked the door behind them as they left the cell.
"Can you believe the figure of that girl? I mean she has to be the hottest babe around!" one guard said, catching Quatre's attention.
"Yeah, but she's a freak. That's why I cut this off, and besides don't touch her, she'll kill you. You know what happened to Sam for touching her?"
"What?"
"He grabbed her ass and she threw him into the wall and then broke every bone in his hand."
"No way! So that's why he hasn't at lunch yesterday." Before the two men could continue their conversation, Quatre heard a throat clear and then the sound of the two men hurrying away. Hearing a pair of footsteps out side of his door, he turned away and started starring at the wall again. So he missed seeing the small blur that threw it's self at him until he was tackled to the ground.
He found himself on his back with a small figure clinging to his neck. "Heero!" he exclaimed as the boy pulled away long enough for the both of them to sit up.
"Quatre! I'm so happy to see you!"
"Are you alright? Where's Trowa and Wufie?" Quatre asked as he slipped his bound hands over the boy's head and gathered him close for an awkward hug.
"There fine but they didn't come with me when I went to talk with the nice lady." Heero said as he cuddled against Quatre's chest.
"What nice lady and what did you talk about?" Quatre asked sharply.
"Well, we talked about me, you and Trowa, and what happened to Duo and Wufie. She was surprised when we talked about Relena and Noin. But don't worry, I didn't mention the Gundams." Heero said cheerfully.
Katie had been standing outside the door while Heero and Quatre had their reunion. She figured that they could use some privacy, but she couldn't just leave the little boy alone with the blond. He had seemed so angry and unpredictable.
Their names, Heero, Quatre, Trowa, Wufie and Duo, seemed familiar and at the same time unfamiliar. But when the little boy said the word Gundams, it all clicked into place in her mind.
"Oh my God! You're the Gundam pilots!" she gasped, gaining the attention of the two boys in the cell. "It makes sense now that I think of it." Looking at the boys, she noticed them starring at her. "What?" she asked defensively.
Ignoring the question, Quatre stood up and demanded to see Trowa and Wufie. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow that." Katie said regretfully as the two approached her.
Suddenly Quatre reached out his bound hands and grabbed the color of her uniform. He dragged the startled woman forward until their noses were only an inch apart. He growled in a dangerous tone that normally wouldn't have come from the mild tempered teenager, "My life has been a living hell these past few weeks. First my friend is turned into a girl with wings, then I switch bodies with Trowa, and then Trowa, Wufie, and Heero are turned into children because of Trio, who disappeared. Relena and Noin find out about what had happened and then a bunch of armed goons break into my house and punch Trowa into a wall, knocked me out and brought the four of us here where I was put into shackles and throw into a cell. And on top of all that, Duo has been missing since two weeks ago and now you won't let me go see me Trowa-chan?!" he was shouting by the time he finished.
Katie just stared at the small teenager and tried to form a coherent thought. From all the reports she had read, the pilot of 04 was the mildest, most sweet tempered of the five gundam pilots, but this teenager seemed to be a wild, out of control kid that could very easily kill her with his bare hands.
She could see that Quatre's eyes were full of pain and anger as she stared deeply into them. "I can understand where you are coming from, but..." she started but was cut off by a swift shake from the blond as he shouted, "You have no idea what the last few weeks and the last few years have done to all of us!"
Before Quatre could continue, or Katie could say a word, before Heero could even get over his shock at seeing Quatre like this, all three heard a voice from the cell next door saying, "Quatre?"
Sorry this took me a while to get out. I haven't had time to type anything recently because of school. That kami that I'm almost through with it. The next chapter won't be posted for a while but I will try and get the next chapter for Duo's pain up soon and maybe Another world and Ranma Moon, too.
Ja ne,
Shinigami-chan