Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. No money made here.
Warnings: Some swearing, violence, a very bad man tries to do a very bad thing; attempted rape. Eventual yaoi of the 1X4 kind.
Chapter 6Heero Yuy.
Quatre had spent the last couple of days wanting to talk to him, and now here he was, standing right in front of him, and all the blonde could do was stand frozen and stare.
Of course, Heero was pointing a gun at him.
Footsteps rang in the hallway as another person turned the corner and stopped several feet away from the motionless boys. Quatre kept his eyes locked on Heero, but a flash of white out of the corner of his eye let him know who was there.
"You caught him," Mia said. She stepped into the blonde's line of sight. Her gun was out. "He took down both Byers and Park, but they're still alive. Byers was knocked out and Park has a gunshot wound to the leg."
The other boy merely grunted in reply, seemingly unconcerned with the fates of his fellows. Finally, he spoke, eyes still not leaving Quatre's face. "I'm escorting him back to the cell. Bring the others to meet us, Rai made a consequential error when he acted without me. I will inform him of that fact." Yuy was obviously not pleased.
Mia nodded once sharply and turned on her heel to do as ordered.
"Move," Heero gestured with his gun in the direction he wanted his fellow ex-gundam pilot to go. Quatre turned and went without any argument. As they walked the Arabian finally found his voice. "Heero, what's going on? Why are you with these people?"
There was no reply from behind him and Quatre sighed with frustration. "Will you at least tell me where we are?"
This time the other boy replied, but only with minimal information. "An old abandoned Oz base."
Well. That explains the concrete cell, and that nice feeling of familiarity, he thought. Sooner then he would have liked they reached said concrete cell. Two terrorists were already there, stationed one on either side of Eric. Their hostage looked terrified.
In minutes Heero had Quatre shoved onto his chair and tied back up. Just as he was finishing securing the last knot Mia came in with two others in tow. One was Todd Byers, who had a spectacular bruise developing on his forehead from Quatre's kick.
Heero straightened and looked at them. "Where's Rai?"
"I couldn't find him. I think he may have left the base." Heero's expression didn't change, but Mia took a step back anyway, afraid he would kill the messenger. Literally.
"Fine. I'll have to talk to him later." His monotone voice put no special emphasis on the word 'talk,' but everyone in the room knew he meant to do something a great deal more violent.
Heero's searing gaze moved over the five terrorists present, but he said nothing. Finally, Byers broke. "I'm sorry," he began to babble, "I let him get the drop on me, he said he had to go to the bathroom! I swear it'll never happen again!"
The brown haired boy looked at him, expression unreadable. "You should not have been put in charge of guarding him." He looked at Mia. "I suppose Setsuna authorized that too?"
She nodded mutely.
"His second mistake."
One of the other men hesitantly spoke up. "Sir, if that was his second, what was his first?"
"Kidnapping Quatre Winner."
Mia, assured that he wasn't going to kill her just yet, looked at him shrewdly. "This isn't just because he did the abductions behind your back, is it?"
"He brought a gundam pilot into our base of operations."
They stared at him shocked. Out of the corner of his eye, Quatre saw Eric's pale face turn and look at him in astonishment.
"He was one of your compatriots?" Mia said, stunned.
"The strategist of the group. He directed us in battle." Heero turned his emotionless face to once again regard the blonde. "If I hadn't gotten back when I did he would have incapacitated Red Thorn."
Quatre returned his gaze, his eyes sad. "I never led you, Heero. You did whatever you needed to do on your own. If anything, you were the one who led me," he said softly.
"So what do we do with him?" Mia asked. Her hand had reached inside her coat, making it abundantly clear what she thought should be done.
"For now he stays in this cell with a guard outside. No one is to remove the restraints. Move the other kid to a different location. Quatre won't leave without him."
As two of the terrorists moved to transport Eric, chair and all, to a different location, he began to struggle in a panic. "Get your hands off me. Quatre, no! Don't let them take me away! Help, please!"
Quatre broke his staring contest with Heero. "Eric, everything will be alright, I'll come for you. I swear it!" He yelled out into the hall as they carried the hysterical boy away.
Heero said nothing to Quatre's promise. He merely watched the drama unfold, apparently unmoved.
The blonde returned his bewildered gaze to the other pilot. "Why, Heero? Why are you doing this?"
The other boy locked eyes with him one more time. Then he walked out of the door, preceded by the rest of Red Thorn.
The metal door clanged shut behind him.
Quatre shut his eyes to the empty cell. His head still throbbed with pain, but his heart hurt more.
It appeared that Heero had really betrayed him.
Quatre sat in the gray darkness of the cell, feeling smothered by the walls, and weighed down by his emotions. He didn't know how long he remained still, how many hours had passed, but if felt like forever.
Then the door creaked open.
The Arabian looked up, feeling a sudden flare of hope, but it was gone just as suddenly, as he saw who had entered into his prison. It was Rai Setsuna.
The dark-eyed man stalked to him, and then knelt on the floor in front of the blonde. "My little princeling," he murmured, voice frighteningly soft and intimate, "I hear some interesting things. I hear that little prince can wield a sword and hasn't always remained in hiding." He reached forward and tenderly smoothed his blond hair. Quatre could feel goose bumps break out on the back of his neck at the disturbing touch.
"Pretty little princeling. There's no where to hide now, here you have no money, no power, no subordinates to jump at your every gentle whim." Rai grinned suddenly, appearing shark-like in the dim light. "Here, I have all those things." He leaned forward abruptly, grabbing Quatre's bound arms in a hard grip; the blonde could almost feel finger shaped bruises taking shape. The chair scraped forward across the hard floor as Rai pulled Quatre closer, mouth leeching onto his.
The blonde made a muffled sound of mixed panic and outrage, and then he bit down, hard. Setsuna pulled away with a curse. Quatre could see a perfect bloody imprint of his teeth on the man's bottom lip. The dark-eyed man touched the tip of his finger to the wound and then held it in front of his face, staring at the crimson liquid with curiosity. He did not look angry, but the pleasant expression he wore was actually scarier than rage would have been. He shook his head and sighed. "Little prince shows his true nature at last. No insignificant minions around to save him, no huge gundam either, so he becomes a desperate, cornered, animal." Rai smiled. "I like it."
He backhanded the immobilized boy across the face, splitting his lip. Out of his boot he drew a long, wicked looking knife. He held it to the collar of his captive's shirt. "Don't move now," he whispered, "I wouldn't want to slip and cut my little prince's pretty skin." He drew the knife over the cloth, popping the buttons. Quatre hissed in pain as Rai's dagger did end up slicing skin with cloth. He leaned back to admire his handiwork. The shallow cut down the blonde's torso bled profusely. He then ripped the ruined shirt away.
Quatre began to struggle frantically against his restraints, to desperate to care that the skin on his wrists and ankles was getting rubbed raw. He tried to head butt Rai when he began to get close again, but the man merely leaned back, and then hit him. This time it was hard enough to make the blonde go limp. The dark-eyed man claimed his lips again savagely, rubbing their blood together. His hand reached down and began to unbutton the stunned boy's pants.
Suddenly Rai was pulled away from Quatre. The Arabian opened his eyes woozily in time to hear the sickening sound of a bone being broken.
Heero Yuy had come back.
Neither of them had heard him come in. He had torn Setsuna away and then twisted the arm with the knife, breaking it. Heero ignored the dark-eyed man's cry of pain, and then punched him viciously in the face, with enough force to send him reeling into the concrete wall. Quatre heard a small gasp and turned his head to gaze blearily at the door. Mia Shahar stood there, her gun in her hand, a horrified look on her face as she took in the scene before her.
Quatre couldn't tell if she was upset with the beating, or with what had almost happened to him.
Soon he had his answer. Heero was just moving in for another blow when a shot sounded through the little cell. At first, Quatre couldn't tell what had happened. Both figures had come to a halt and were standing still. Suddenly the dark-eyed man began to topple over.
He landed on his back; a perfectly round bullet wound leaking blood, and other things, from between his eyes.
Quatre blinked up at Heero as he realized the other boy was standing over him, Setsuna's knife held in his hand. He bent down and began cutting the ropes from the blonde's ankles. When he reached the chains around Quatre's arms, he turned toward Mia.
"I need the keys."
Mia's eyes were blank and glassy and she was murmuring to herself frantically. Quatre thought she was saying something about "almost happened again."
"Mia!" Heero said louder. She finally turned and looked at him. "Keys." She blinked and then reached in her coat, pulled them out, and tossed them to him.
He caught them deftly and finished unlocking the restraints. Heero bent down and scooped the blonde into his arms, heading toward the door. Quatre felt dizzy, the sudden movement jarring his head. All he could do was cling to Heero and try not to throw up on him.
He was feeling so awful that he missed most of the trip through the building. Before he knew it, Heero was opening a door and they were heading into another room. There was a big bed in the center, a little table pushed up beside it. On the table was a gun. Heero's room, Quatre thought immediately.
The blonde was gently sat on the bed. The other boy went into another door and then came back out mere seconds later with his arms full. Must be a bathroom. The Arabian boy flinched as Heero shone a penlight into his eyes. "You have a concussion," he stated after staring measuringly at the other pilot's pupils. He picked through his pile and pulled out bandages and disinfectant and gentling began to dress Quatre's wounds.
Despite Heero's careful handling it hurt, but the blonde didn't make a sound. Soon, even with the pain, his eyelids began to drift shut. He was roused with a hard shake. "Quatre, you can't go unconscious yet. Let me just finish bandaging you and then you can go to sleep. I'll wake you every hour, you shouldn't sleep a long time with a concussion."
He felt fuzzy, and had a hard time processing Heero's words. After deciding they did indeed make sense, he nodded, and immediately felt sorry he had when bile rose up the back of his throat. He swallowed frantically until he got himself under control.
Finally Heero finished bandaging him. He picked Quatre up, being careful of his head, and settled him under the covers. The blonde looked up at him. Heero looked bleary around the edges, and was getting more indistinct by the moment.
The last thing Quatre was aware of before falling into unconsciousness was the shift of the bed as someone settled next to him.
Notes: Man I'm a bitch. I had poor Quatre knocked so many times in the head . . . no wonder he has a concussion. Oh well, my sneaky little way to get them into bed together, (of course, nothings going to happen, our boy is unconscious for god's sake.) I was almost really mean and made this a short chapter by stopping it right after Heero left the cell. But I just couldn't let people think Heero was a complete jackass. Oh, and I kind of lied last chapter in my notes. (Dodges tomatoes from rightly outraged readers). No answers here, but I swear that the next chapter the boys will have a nice long talk and we'll finally figure out what the heck is going on.
I've also been receiving a lot of compliments from people who like Quatre portrayed as a strong, kick-ass character. If your looking for a good set of Quatre-centric stories there's some over at Gundam Wing Addiction, written by Laekin. They are awesome. For those of you who haven't already read this stuff its called the Companions of Fate Arc and it's a fantastic mixture of both humor, drama, and smut. It's got the standard pairings, but is still great. If you want to go right to it here's the address: www.geocities.com/fenris_wolf0/.
Once again I have to thank my reviewers. You people are great! Also, thanks to Diane for those really comprehensive reviews. I'm glad to know that I'm making enough sense that you were able to catch on to some stuff. I really love the attention, so anyone can feel free to e-mail me if they want to chat about anything.