Warnings: Violence, Heero torture, and more naughty language

Disclaimers: I have nothing, I own nothing

~OZ hideout ~

By the time Trowa and Heero reached the hideout they knew that something was up. There were a number of vehicles parked outside and around the place and they had never seen so many Ozzies in the warehouse at the same time. "Peacecraft must be really pulling something big for this kind of turn out." Trowa muttered as he took one last drag from his cigarette before stamping it out.

Heero nodded silently and began making his way towards the entrance. He had already had a bad night and Heero had a feeling that it would only get worse. "Let's just see what the bastard is doing now."

As soon as they entered the warehouse, Heero knew that something was definitely wrong. Everyone turned to look at him, or rather glare at him. The hostile looks being aimed his way were definitely a bad sign. Heero glared at Milliardo, who was sitting casually on the upraised portion of the floor in the center of the room. "Glad you could finally join us Yuy." The Peacecraft drawled. "I'm surprised you still aren't fucking with Solo's brother."

Trowa swore under his breath and moved forward. "What do you think you are doing Peacecraft? If you think you can turn us against Heero you are wrong."

The blond man laughed and stood up. "I didn't have to do anything Barton. Yuy did it on his own. All I did was tell the guys how their great leader has been fucking Solo's brother for weeks now. All I had to do was tell them how Heero let Solo just walk away. How he let Treize's murderer walk away just so that he can keep his little whore happy." Milliardo sneered.

"Leave Duo out of this." Heero said flatly.

"You see!" Milliardo said, addressing the large crowd. "You see how he defends his whore! He puts Solo and his brother over his family. Some leader huh?"

Cries of "Traitor" were heard as random people shouted at Heero angrily.

"You believe this asshole over Heero?! Heero has been our leader for years now and you are so ready to brand him as a traitor? Where is the loyalty now?" Trowa shouted.

"Don't waste your breath Trowa. They have already made up their minds about me." Heero ground out coldly.

Milliardo smirked. "We can do this two ways Yuy. You just hand over your leadership to me or you go through the Gauntlet (1) and be killed. Your choice."

The Gauntlet. The Gauntlet was any gang member's worse nightmare. It was the way a lot of leaders tried to get their respect back if they were being expelled, but no one had ever survived before. The idea was that you walk through two lines as the men beat you senseless with weapons and their fists. If you go through the whole line without getting knocked out you keep your leadership, how ever if you are knocked down you get beaten worse, and expelled anyway.

"The Gauntlet it is." Heero said flatly.

Trowa looked at his friend in alarm. "Heero no! Let's just get out of here, if they want to take his word over your - "

"I'm doing this Trowa. I want to see if they would actually turn their backs on me after all this time." The Japanese boy stated calmly as he eyed the large group of men that Milliardo was herding into two lines.

The green-eyed boy frowned and watched as his leader stripped off his outer clothes, revealing his already badly bruised body.

"You sure this is what you want Yuy? It's not to late to chicken out." The tall blond man said with a wicked smirk.

Heero narrowed his eyes and prepared himself for the worst. "Let's just do this."

**

Trowa flinched away from the scene in front of him; unable to look at he way his best friend was getting brutalized. The men - the guys Heero had once trusted with his own life - were doing their best to take his. They were punching, kicking, whipping and beating Heero with anything they could get their hands on. The lust for revenge against one whom they thought had betrayed them was so strong that they didn't think about anything else. They didn't stop to think that it had been Heero who was hurt the most when Treize died, they just wanted someone to take their frustrations out on.

Through it all Heero did not cry out once, much to the annoyance of Milliardo. Trowa was not sure how long the beating actually went on, but it seemed like an eternity. Pretty soon the only sounds that could be heard were the grunts of Heero's attackers and the dull thuds and smacks of hands and weapons against bare skin.

Finally the slender teenager made it to the end of the line and by that time he was so bloody and bruised that he was barely recognizable. He swayed unsteadily on his feet and Trowa rushed to his aid but Heero waved him off.

"He made it!" Someone gasped in awe.

There was murmuring throughout the crowd and Milliardo sneered at the injured boy. He strode forward and pushed Trowa out of the way roughly. The older man grabbed Heero by the back of his head. "You're finished you worthless bitch." He hissed and proceeded to push the smaller boy to the floor. "He's down, now get this piece of trash out of here." Milliardo shouted at the confused looking crowd.

"But he made it through the Gauntlet without falling once." Dean (2) protested as he stepped forward. He was one of the few guys who were still loyal to Heero.

"That doesn't fucking matter you little jerk! The fact remains that he betrayed us and - "

"Don't give me that shit. Heero would never betray us; he's more loyal to OZ then anyone in this fucking room. You always resented him for getting command after Treize died and now you are trying to get rid of him with this line of bull." Cody sneered as he stepped up beside his brother.

Heero tried in vain to stand up straight but he just slumped right back down into Trowa's arms. "Damare!" He growled loud enough for everyone to stop and look at him. "You.. You proved that you were never loyal to me or OZ.. So all of you can fuck off."

"Let's go man." Trowa said and picked him up easily. "..itai.." Heero mumbled weakly before he passed out. The taller teenager cast one last glare at the remaining guys in the room. "You're the fucking traitors." He snarled and strode out of the room, still cradling Heero in his arms. Dean, Cody and a few others ran after them.

"Now what Peacecraft?" A tall red head asked looking annoyed at the entire situation.

Milliardo glared at him. "Now what? Now we get Solo and his little whore brother since I know where they live now."

"Good, let's be out then." Someone else put in and a few guys started for the door.

"Hold it! No one is doing anything until I say so." The blond snapped.

"Look Peacecraft, expelling Heero was your idea and now you're backing down. What the hell is your problem?"

"Solo knows that Heero is - was the leader of OZ. He'll have a ton of people watching over both the complex and his brother. If we wait for a few days he will get careless and then we make our move." He explained slowly as if he were talking to a child.

The red head frowned but settled down. "Sure sounds like a chicken shit plan to me, but if you say so Peacecraft."

Milliardo said nothing and he turned to walk away.

"And Peacecraft - if you make us sorry.. If you make us regret doing that shit to Yuy.. And if I ever suspect that this shit is a set up - you're sorry ass is dead. You get me?"

The Peacecraft paused and narrowed his pale blue eyes. "Indeed." Then he walked out of the warehouse; already planning his next move.

***

~East Side Apartment Complex, Six days later ~

Wufei stared at himself in the mirror and scowled. The bruise on his head was still there but it had faded to a weird greenish yellow color. "I'll never be sexy again." He complained, then went to plop down on the couch next to his tall lover. "Solo.. What do you say we go back to my 'rents house? They are going to be gone for awhile and you haven't left this place in days."

Solo continued to stare at the ceiling. He had been doing that for a while now and he had learned that there were 9 cracks and 2 small holes in it. "There is a reason why I am still sitting here after days." He snapped.

The Chinese boy sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes because you think Heero is going to roll in here with an army of Ozzies and shoot us down because he had been 'playing Duo the entire time and the long haired idiot was too stupid to see it.' Did I get that all right?" He asked dryly.

Solo glared at him. "How can you act like this is no big deal? He was *screwing* Heero Yuy! He brought the bastard in to our home! He practically invited him to kill me. Are you missing that or what?"

Wufei groaned. "Give me a break man. It has been days and they still have not made a move, I really doubt that it would matter if we go out tonight. Besides I don't know why you are acting like the kid did it purposely. He didn't know and apparently neither did Yuy. So if you would kindly take your fucking head out of your ass for five minutes, we can go out and have some fun."

"Just whose side are you on anyway Dragon?"

"Look Solo, I'm on your side. But you have to realize that there is life outside of Romefeller. People fall in love, people make mistakes.. Shit happens! Everything can't be about who shot whom back when and what they did before. It's the past! Fuck it! And cut the kid some slack with all the glaring and the nasty comments.. He is going through enough shit without you adding more." Wufei exclaimed angrily.

Solo pursed his lips together and frowned. He knew Dragon had a point but he would be damned if he actually admitted it to anyone. "Fine, you want to go out. Let's go out. But only for a little while, I can't afford to have that careless fuck in there getting killed or running off."

Wufei rolled his eyes but didn't argue.

**

"Duo! We're going out for awhile!"

The longhaired boy said nothing as Wufei called through the door, he had nothing to say to anyone anymore. Solo hated him, Wufei pitied him, Quatre had tried to protect him but had only made things worse, and the worst thing was that Heero wanted nothing to do with him. Duo had never felt so alone in his entire life.

With a sigh, the violet eyed boy got out of his rumpled bed and pulled on some black sweat pants. His room was completely dark except for about a dozen candles scattered here and there. When he heard the front door slam, Duo walked out of his room and waited for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. He had barely been out of his room in the past few days and had tried to stay far away from Solo.

He sat down on the couch and stared at the phone, willing it to ring and for it to be Heero. He stared at it for several minutes.. And finally.. It rang.

"Hello? Heero?" He asked anxiously. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize that it had actually been the door bell that had rang, and by then he felt like a fool. With a disgusted sigh Duo got to his feet and swung the door open...

His immediate response was to swing the door back closed after he saw the shotgun that was being aimed at his face. However the person wielding the shotgun shot a nice big hole through the door and promptly kicked it open.

Duo stumbled backwards and dodged another bullet as the psycho began unloading the gun into the entire living room. Finally Duo just lunged for cover behind the sofa, and pinned himself to the part that wasn't already shot full of holes.

"All right that's enough, we need him alive remember?" A voice said calmly.

Duo's brow furrowed and he scooted back against the couch further. "What the fuck do you people want with me?" He shouted, feeling kind of proud that his voice wasn't shaking.

"Well boy, what I really want is your brother's head on a platter but I guess your scrawny ass will have to do for now. Grab him." The same voice stated sounding kind of bored.

Two thugs promptly reached over the ripped up piece of leather and hauled Duo up by the hair. Violet eyes narrowed skeptically as he eyed the man with the flowing blond hair and silver mask. "What the hell are you supposed to be?"

Milliardo scowled at the boy and crossed his arms over his chest. "And what is that supposed to mean?" Now that he had a good look at the child, he could see what Yuy saw in him. He was absolutely beautiful.

"Well what it means is that you look like some kind of fucking Sailor Moon reject."

The two thugs holding Duo actually began to snicker. Milliardo didn't seem pleased. He strode forward and smacked the smaller boy across the face. "If I were you, I would watch my mouth boy. Because we are going to get *very* close and you don't want to see me when I'm angry."

Duo snorted, unconcerned. "If you're going to kill me just do it, but if you ever try to rape me I will rip off your balls and feed them to your two boyfriends here."

The Peacecraft backhanded Duo again, this time the blow had the longhaired boy's head spinning. "Take this little bitch back to the warehouse and don't touch him until I say so. We are going to have fun while we wait for brother dear to join us."

Thug 1 and Thug 2 grinned eagerly and hauled Duo out the door.

Milliardo smirked to himself. This was going great; he couldn't have planned it better. Still smirking, he began writing a nice little note for Solo.

"Yes, this is going to be *very* fun."

_________________

TBC

1- I got the idea for the Gauntlet from Xena.

2- Dean and Cody, remember these guys from the first part?

AN ~ Well.. *Twiddles thumbs* I hope that was okay.. I wrote it at 3 in the morning so I was kind of out of it. ^^;

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