MY ONE AND ONLY WARNING: FROM HERE ON OUT, IT GETS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY STRANGE!!!!!

Kay: So you told that girl in school about us, huh?

Me: Yep. She's not surprised. And she's going to be helping me with one of my other stories! YAY!!!

Kay: You mean that really pathetic pirate story?

Me: It is NOT pathetic. I refuse to let you call it pathetic!

Kay: But it is. . .

Me: NOT, IT'S NOT!!! Don't make me go all NINJA on you!

Kay: (Whispered to Litane) This is an effect of estrogen I have not seen before. . .

Litane: (Whispered back) You haven't seen much, but this is actually sugar and a really horrible practice at school.

Jaelen: AUTHORESS!!!! THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU!!!

Kay/Litane: TATTLETALE!!!!! (Kay and Litane look at each other in shock)

Interesting . . . Sugar affects us all . . .

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What the mind does not allow, the heart does not grieve. –Anonymous

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Last time:

Trowa tightened his grip until it was almost painful. The man smiled wickedly and stood above them. "Winner, and Barton, though I know you stole that name. No one like you would dare carry the Barton name unless they were an incompetent. Now, we've got business to talk."

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"Trowa is not an incompetent!" Quatre yelled, his eyes fixated on the grotesque face before them. The man looked at him and glared with his glassy, black eyes. Quatre immediately slid back, afraid.

"You speak too much," the man snapped, waving his hand ominously. Quatre opened his mouth to retort, but he stopped. Tears filled his eyes and he turned into Trowa's shoulder. Trowa looked on in surprise. Sobs were shaking his body, but no sound went past his lips.

Quatre was horrified. He knew he should be making sound, but he could not feel the familiar hum in his throat that meant his voice was working. That man had simply waved his hand and Quatre could not speak.

This was starting to scare him greatly.

Trowa just carefully patted Quatre's back before he looked up at the man. The man seemed to be made of rubber, slippery and bendable. His eyes were placed a human's would be, but they looked like a snake's eyes, glassy and flat.

"Now, business. Since poor Master Winner is unable to talk, you must make the decisions for him," the man said, his voice smooth and sly. Trowa nodded slowly. The man let out an exasperated sigh. "He talks too much, and you talk too little! Speak!" The man waved his hand again and Trowa felt something weird happen to his voice box.

"No," Trowa snapped. Suddenly, his hand flew to cover his mouth. "Take this off of me," Trowa commanded, his gaze cold. The man chuckled lightly.

"No. It is amusing."

"You're sick."

"I've heard that before. Try something new."

Trowa resisted the overpowering urge to retort and clenched his jaw tightly. "Now, now, Barton. You won't let it ruin your day, will you?"

"What was this of business?"

The man grinned wickedly. "Yes. I have lost a child of mine. I want another to replace him."

"No one will ever replace a lost child."

"Actually, I can. I need the life of a person who is much like him in many ways. If they were to lose their life and the energy was to flow to my son, the boy would be alive again."

Trowa blurted out the next phrase that came to his mind. "You perverted old baka!" Trowa felt anger flare up his back, but a chill raced up right after him.

The man laughed. "My son is sweet and caring, spoiled and yet humble, can get into a horrible rage when angered or fighting. We, father and son, used to get into spats all the time. Do you know anyone like him?" Trowa felt Quatre shiver in his arms and he knew why.

The man wanted Quatre. Trowa kept his jaw shut until the man's eyes widened with sick pleasure. "Speak. Tell me."

Trowa felt his jaw open of its own accord and Quatre's name fell out of his mouth, the name rolling off his tongue. Quatre froze as if he had just heard his name called for the executioner's block, which in a way, he had. Instantly, Trowa gripped Quatre closer to him, forgetting that Quatre might bruise from the grip.

"Well, well, well. To think the one I needed the whole time is right here, in front of me, and unable to cry out in his defense," the man murmured, chuckling lightly. "Perfect. Daichi, take him."

"NO!" Trowa screamed, getting to his feet, holding his friend to his chest. Daichi did not listen to him and continued on over. "What sort of coward are you, refusing us time to fight back?" The man paused and grinned.

"Fine. Fight this." Power swelled over him, like silent thunder, shaking his whole body. Trowa felt the power ringing in his ears and unknowingly, he dropped Quatre and covered his ears.

The power stopped and Trowa weakly opened his eyes to see Quatre struggling in Daichi's grip. Silent sobs and tears ran down Quatre's face and Trowa ran to help him, but the power rang out again. Daichi pulled Quatre away as Quatre screamed silently at him. Trowa tried to stand, but the power came in a heavy wave and knocked him down.

"Coward!" he screamed, his own tears coming from his eyes without his knowing. "You COWARD! You cannot even fight properly and you think yourself so good?" The man stopped in the doorway and Daichi paused. Quatre's attempts to get away were not ceased though, and Daichi soon had his attention back to Quatre.

The power stopped suddenly and the man stared at Trowa with hatred. "You called me a coward."

"You told me to speak, and I will. You are a coward and I am not afraid of you! I hate you for all that you've done and all that you're going to do! And if you silence me like you did Quatre, I will continue speaking some other way, and you will not rest from me! You are a coward of the worst kind! You are a coward! Coward!"

The man was suddenly pinning Trowa to the wall. "So, you will call me a coward to my face? You are a brave man. I will give you one day to say farewell to him, but he will die next morning."

With that, the man dropped Trowa and Daichi threw Quatre back in. He slammed the door behind him and left them alone in the dark. The two looked at each other for a moment before Quatre crawled over to Trowa and rested his head on Trowa's lap. Trowa weakly stroked Quatre's hair.

Suddenly, he was aware of Quatre's hand wiping away tears he did not know he had shed. His pain filled face looked back at him and Quatre smiled bravely before mouthing words carefully and slowly.

"I am ready," Trowa repeated slowly, his voice quiet. He lifted Quatre so that they could look each other in the eye and he embraced Quatre tightly. "Oh, Quatre!"

Trowa cried himself to sleep, his entire form somehow fitting into Quatre's lap. Quatre only rocked his friend to sleep.

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Heero stared around the room, hoping for some clue somewhere. The hospital had not been touched as far as moving the furniture, but the staff had mentioned cleaning up a mess of the camera and a mess in the closet.

The only two escape routes were the door and the window, which had been closed when Duo had looked into the room the first time. Heero sighed mentally and looked out the window. It was probably ten feet to the ground into a soft bush. His mind started working quickly and dashed out the door without a word to the other two pilots. Duo cried out and ran after him, Wufei hot on his heels.

Heero paused by the bush and searched the branches. To his shock, there were broken branches all over the bush. "Heero, what is going on?"

"I found how they got him out," he answered, his eyes running up the wall to Quatre's room. He looked around the bush and found some branches and leaves not too far away. And there, an old mud spot with a slight mark of a foot. A muddy footprint was on the other side.

Duo and Wufei caught on and searched around until it was Duo who found another footprint. This was in the same direction as the other, and seemed to be about the same age. Wufei had moved on as Heero and Duo had examined the print.

"What in the world?" Wufei cried before there was the heavy, grating sound of metal on metal. Heero looked up to find Wufei pulling a sewer hole open. "Another print, right next to this. And it was moved."

Without a thought, Heero dropped down the hole and found himself on a small walkway next to rushing water. It smelled something terrible and he immediately plugged his nose. He stared around the darkness as he tried to figure out which way to go. There was a third way to the direct forward, but he did not feel like getting into the water at that moment.

"Let's try right," Duo suggested, his voice sounding hilarious with his plugged nose. Heero shrugged and did as he was told.

Half an hour later, there was nothing. What seemed like hours passed on, and Heero started to get the feeling that they were all wrong. There was a crack in the next sewer hole and he looked up only to find bright sunlight streaming down on him.

"It's morning," Duo said stupidly, stating the obvious. It was then that they heard the scream. It was inhuman and yet familiar, heart wrenching and telling of a loss. "That was Trowa!" Duo screamed unnecessarily. Heero ran past, forgetting the stench and the slippery floor.

"We should have gone left!" he muttered to himself, but made sure Duo heard it. A horrible silence came and he pushed himself harder.

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Muahahaahahahahahah . . . Who screamed and why? Take a wild guess: you'll probably be right. Or not. Right or wrong. It's a fifty-fifty chance. And I won't laugh (at you) because of what you suggest. . . I just want to feel loved and reviews do that. . .

You've gotta wonder why they did not think of looking out the window first. . .

I'm bored with my voices. So, I'm going to bring in a character to help play with my voices. *Poof*

Duo: What in the Earth Sphere. . . ?

Jaelen: (Big googily eyes) IT'S DUO!!!

Duo: Who are you? Why am I here? Why am I not . . . Wait a moment, that's what Heero meant a couple minutes ago. . .

Me: What did he say?

Duo: That this is all just a play. I thought he was joking.

Me: Nope. Quatre really doesn't have his voice taken. Wanna see?

*Poof* Quatre: Huh? Oh, hello Jaelen, Litane, Rinoa, Authoress. Oh, Duo! Hello to you as well.

Kay: (Stomps into the room, his eyes livid. A towel is covering his head) WHO DARED TO DO THAT??? I want to know who put brown hair dye in my shampoo!

Litane: (Giggle) Wasn't me, braid boy.

Duo: Braid boy? That's what she calls me. (Points at me) Why do you call him that?

Jaelen: (Hands him a photo of Kay) See? He wears a braid too!

Duo: Just like mine!

Kay: SO NOT TRUE!!!!!!! (Storms out)

SHOUT OUTS!!!!!!!!! (Giggles in glee: I put the hair dye in his shampoo!!) And thanks to those who reviewed! I was afraid I had scared everyone away!!

Misaki the Assassin: Hello again. You're not the only one who has not seen gundam. ^_^ I honestly have seen a couple episodes, the one movie (cannot remember –AHHA!) Endless Waltz, and own my very dear Episode Zero manga. I have studied that to understand their characters, and was quite pleased with how much I learned from that.

Kasazona: Thanks for the praise! Ten meters off the ground! Only five hundred. . . million . . . or so . . . left. (I mean, floating to the moon with a bloated head full of praise!) And yep, Relena is NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!!! (Confetti!!! Party hats and noise makers to all!!!!!! Relena: What's all this noise? Me: o_o;;)

TEASER!!!!!!!

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Quatre was pushed into the room where a decaying body was lying. He immediately plugged his nose and made a face that emphasized his disgust. The man laughed. "Well, it's pretty bad, isn't it? It's good, considering he's been dead for a couple hundred years."

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O-kay. So, we'll be finishing this chapter. Hmm. . . Jaelen has been very googily towards Duo lately. I hope she does not sabotage my plans for the other story in my head. She'd probably put herself in there just to make herself near Duo. Hmm. . .

O-kay. Last little thing: I'm going to be (once this is over) posting another story, which I'm sure you probably heard enough of. It's called FE DESPLAZADA and is in another world. I'm having loads of fun with it too. I have a taste of it on the last chapter, and will hopefully have it up SOON. Then I'll (hopefully) be posting the sequel to it (but not the same story, but- oh, it's hard to explain) and then the threequel. I know, I know, that ain't a word. (Voice of friend in head: DON'T SAY AIN'T BECAUSE IT ISN'T A WORD!!) (Me: Stop being a know-it-all. I want to talk slang, let me talk slang!!!)

Please keep your hands and feet near the computer, as the sharks will attack if you step away before the review is sent. So, for your own safety and for my own pocketbook, submit a review before you leave.

(Waves plastic shark in air as reader attempts to leave) THE SHARKS WILL GET YOU!!!

I need help . . .

~ Kay Kylo