Fic Title: Love, Trial, Prison, and War

Author: Taichi Ishida (kewldigimon4everyahoo.com)

Pairings: 34, 12 I think....

Rating: R

Warnings/Spoilers: Continuation

Challenge: Amy's Prison challenge

Website:

Summary: In the eyes of many the war is far from over. When an

unknown force attacks the Gundam crew, Quatre is the first to feel

the blade of its wrath. As the original crew succumb one by one to

trial, prison, love, and war, one question remains: Who's next?

Golden eyelashes fluttered rapidly as he tried to blink away the sleep-induced haze. He pinched the bridge of his nose and forced himself to his to focus on the task at hand. He gathered his wits, focusing each disconnected strand of thought until they converged on one item. Intercom.

Slowly, he ambled towards the small white box fastened to the wall near his bedroom door. This task, however, was deceptively hazardous. Though the floor was clutter-free, a short flight of carpeted steps raised his bed over the rest of the bedroom. His feet could hardly have been called cooperative, having missed the steps by several inches. He nearly broke his neck getting back to level ground again.

He mentally cursed himself for not having had the foresight to install the intercom closer to his bed. Still several feet from his intended destination, he staggered across the plush carpeting and threw himself against the wall next to the white-buttoned speaker. His mind reeled from the disorienting lack of sleep. The floor seesawed beneath his feet; his sight was warped from lack of sleep. I'm going to be sick.

The piercing siren still rang overhead. What was I supposed to do again?

His thoughts were blank, and he screwed his eyes tightly shut to concentrate. Clutching the intercom with both hands, he glared at the tiny buttons in puzzlement; the buttons' labels danced around before him without giving any help. After several frustrating minutes, he abandoned hope of deciphering the dancing letters next to the buttons and slammed the palm of his hand against the keypad, pressing them all at once.

"Yukino! What happened?" he demanded, hollering for the maid.

A daintily clad lady flashed onto the screen of the VidComm. "Junior-sama, please go back to bed. Quatre-sama will be worried if you wander."

"…"Junior-sama? Quatre wrinkled his nose for a moment. "Glad to still have the baby face, but…" He broke into a small smile, as the image of his son flickered in his mind's eye, Quatre Rabera Junior. He smiled warmly at the memory of his son, who hopefully was still asleep in his soundproof room, before turning his thoughts and attention back the much-agitated young lady before him.

"... Yukino, it's me, the senior, but more importantly, what set off the alarm?"

"Vandals were caught, trying to sneak into the castle armed with cuffs and chains," she cried, panic seeping into her voice

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and seethed, "We have protocols for kidnappers." Not worth waking up for.

"But Quatre-sama, these men claim to be neo-OZ soldiers sent here to arrest you … by royal order!!"

"Wait. They're here to arrest me?" by royal orders? Relena wouldn't… A chill ran down his spine. Would she? It was true that Peacecraft Inc. and Winner Enterprises have recently been tangled in a number of petty squabbles recently, but…

The clamor outside the castle was building in volume, almost competing with the castle alarm for his attention. He gradually realized Yukino was still talking.

"… The townspeople have captured these 'soldiers' and are holding them in the local prison. A riot has broken out demanding the execution of these men and all the workers of the castle have been called to help construct the gallows."

Never let it be said that Quatre Winner ignored his employees' words. After all, he was half-listening. His mind was still trying to rearrange the details and construct a concrete thought. He wasn't sure which to be more surprised by: 1-- that people were actually here to arrest him or 2-- that the loyal townspeople intended to hang the men before it even occurred to them to wake him up. …wait a sec…hang them?!?

"You intend to kill them?" he spluttered. In the mesh of thoughts and emotion, one stood firm and clear. He was appalled. Capture, stop them. Sure that was reasonable, but ... to take another human life? Bile rose into his throat.

Yukino groaned inwardly. "That's why we didn't want to wake you up. For God's sake, this is not the time to be merciful. Some idiot hit the alarm, thinkin' he could gather more workers. You can try to stop us, but we intend to hang these sons-a-bitches, come hell or high water."

"Yukino, don't…" Quatre was cut off. The transmission ended. The lights in the room shut down. And the emergency bolts locked into place. Instinctively, his arm seized the door handle. Locked.

He sprang for the windows, but the steel panels sealed the exit shut, moments before he could even touch the glass. Yukino had locked him inside, with his own security system. Damn me for giving her the password.

A computer's voice echoed in the background. "Emergency. Castle lockdown."

The floor beneath his feet started to move. The entire room accelerated towards the center of the fortress. Setting all the castle's rooms on moving tracks had seemed like a good idea at first. It could move everyone to a small inner location where security was higher, but he did not design it for this. He growled and threw a fist futilely at the wall of the room rushing him to safety, when he wanted…no, he needed to go to the opposite direction.

"Emergency Override," he hollered.

The computer paused to answer, "Override denied," before again repeating, "Emergency. Castle lock…"

"Emergency Override!"

"Override denied."

…so she disabled the override, too. He scowled, giving his bolted bedroom door a vicious kick. "Fuck."

Thank you for reading!!! PS. poke ;pls tell me what you think.

--ti