Drowning: Chapter 11

White Flame

Pairings: 1xR, 2xH, 4xOC

Irea's POV

Warnings: swearing

Notes: I'm back! And as promised lots of new chapters! I've got them written, just need to touch them up a bit so they should be up in the next few days.

Disclaimer: don't own

I've lived through the death of the only person I ever considered my mother. I've dealt with knowing that my sweet little brother was experimented on at the age of five and went off to war at the age of fifteen. I've lived through the assassination of my father. I don't know if I can live through this. The straw that broke the camel's back…heh.

Quatre's been gone for almost four hours now. Nobody knows for sure what happened. Oh, Allah…Allah please help me!

Don't cry Irea. Just don't. You must be strong now, strong for your family. Oh, Allah, how I wish Kadira was here. She always knows what to do. She should be here! She's the oldest after all! Why am I left to take care of everything every time?!

Thank God the other pilots are here. I think I would have gone mad except for them. Even with one of their best friends missing and one severely injured they remain calm and focused. I envy them that. Must be from all the training they received. They didn't survive two wars for nothing.

Qamra and Samirah have been quietly sobbing since the news about Cat came in. Lina has been trying to comfort them, but keeps breaking down herself. The other girls are handling the situation, meaning freaking out, in their own ways. Isra is on a shuttle from Earth already. I knew I could always count on her. There's only one sister separating us, with her being older than I am, and we have always been close. Quatre has always been close to her too. Please Allah, look after him wherever he is!

The three pilots secured the house and helped me call in all the most loyal body guards in the employment of the family. I would have felt just as safe with only the three pilots, but they went out to check on Duo and look for Quatre. I know if anyone could find him, it's them.

It was fascinating and terrible all at once to watch them prepare. It looked like they were going off to battle. Maybe they were. I've had the pleasure of seeing all three young men as they truly are: caring, kind, playful. To see them shut off emotionally was horrible. It was like they turned into machines; meticulously loading their weapons and placing them into convenient pockets and places on their persons. It made me wonder if Quatre looked like that when he got ready to fight. It was an awful image.

The news stations have been going crazy over this abduction. There's no doubt in my mind that that's what this is. Witnesses saw Duo get shot but Quatre was only downed with a tranquilizer and then picked up and carried off. On top of all this, Sara never reached the shuttle port. The shuttle with her aboard landed on autopilot, the pilots and other passengers tied up and out cold on the cabin floor. The news picked up on that story right after reporting that Quatre was missing. It was a good day to be in the media industry.

It took about two seconds after the stories broke for the guys to go into Gundam pilot mode. Their friends were in trouble and nothing anyone was going to do could stop them.

Heero was the first one to say it out loud, but we were all thinking it. Someone working for Dr. Azrael was behind it. Why else would they kidnap both Sara and Quatre, and on this day of all days?

So now I am utterly alone in a house full of people. I feel like nothing is in my control and I have nowhere to turn to. It's amazing how much I've come to rely on those boys in the few short days I've known them. I hope they come back soon.

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Duo had been rushed to the nearest hospital as soon as the shuttle port police had arrived on the scene. Those dumb shits could have prevented all of this had they been doing their job right.

Luckily Duo's a tough kid. Stronger than most grown men I know. He was unconscious when he was brought in, but the doctors assure me he'll make a full recovery once he gets out of surgery. Thank God for modern medicine.

No sign of Quatre.

Wufei and Trowa are sacked out on the living room couches. I suppose even Gundam pilots have to rest sometime. Heero is at the hospital waiting for Duo to wake up. Nobody got a good look at who had takenQuatre and the people on Sara's shuttle were equally clueless. It's so frustrating! I want to go and wake up Trowa and Wufei and scream at them to do something…but I wouldn't ever do that. They're stressed out and worried as it is. They're doing all they can…which is more than I'll ever be able to do. I don't know what I'd do without them…

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Duo woke up about a half hour ago. Even though he was on quite a lot of morphine he was still in pain. Heero explained that the normal dosage for someone Duo's size wouldn't be enough because he was trained to resist drugs like that. I told the doctors but they wouldn't give him anymore. Sometimes I hate doctors. That sounds pretty hypocritical, me being a doctor and all, but it's true that some doctors are more worried about being sued than helping people.

Even through all the pain however, Duo managed to give us an extremely detailed description of what had happened at the port. But I could tell from the look on Heero's face that it wasn't enough to help them find my brother.

Heero decided to stay with Duo until he was ready to leave the hospital, which should be in a few hours, knowing Duo's tenacity. I decided to get some coffee for my rattled nerves.

So now I'm sitting at a little table in the back of the tiny restaurant watching the demonstrators mill around outside. It's the same restaurant that Quatre likes to come to all the time. The host showed me to his favorite table and told me that whatever I wanted was on him. All of the waiters and even the manager came out to say how sorry they were about what had happened to Quatre.

For the past few minutes I've been sitting at my brother's favorite table, listening to all the people who know him talk about how much they like him. And listening to all these heartfelt sentiments I'm finally able to let myself cry.I'm so thankful that my little brother turned out to be a person that could have such an effect on people. I truly hope he's alright right now, because if those bastards touched one hair on his head, pacifist or no, I will kill them.

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The first thing I notice when finally coming home and entering the grand foyer is how quiet everything is. Usually the house is bustling with noise and confusion as sisters and servants run about doing various activities.

Without Quatre here everything seems dull and lifeless. It's like how it was when he went off to war.

Walking into the kitchen I suddenly realize why the house is so quiet. All my sisters and all of Quatre's friends are gathered around the big wooden table, sitting in complete silence. Everyone seems to be lost in their own thoughts. They don't even look up as I walk in.

At first tea feels like a good idea, but tea will only get me thinking about Quatre, and all the horrible things that could have happened to him and Sara. So I guess I'll sit here with the others and leave the thinking to someone who has a clearer head right now.

"I should have protected him better. If only I'd gotten back to him when I first felt something was wrong!" Duo says, slamming a fist down on the table. He looks a little worse for wear but the same old Duo Maxwell gleam is back in his eyes. He'll be fine.

"There was nothing more you could have done," Trowa says gently, laying a large calloused hand on Duo's arm, "Quatre is a strong person, and a Gundam pilot, just like all of us. You both did the best you could in the situation. Let's not dwell on who's to blame because that won't get us anywhere. Right now we need to concentrate on figuring out where Quatre and Sara A'Mal are."

"If Quatre hadn't gone to get that…that…woman from the shuttle port none of this would have happened!" Wufei spits out bitterly.

"Wufei,that kind of thinkingisn't going to help anything," Relena pipes in, "Right now we need to work on finding them and getting them home safe as soon as possible. If it's like you say and the people responsible are working for Dr. Azrael, who knows what they might do! I have several favors that I'm going to call in and get all of my people working on this as well." With that, Relena gets up and heads for the vid phone, once more becoming the leader that she is instead of the pale frightened girl of a few hours ago.

"I'll help, 'Lena," Hilde says softly and follows the blonde girl out of the room, "Duo, don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Ya right, like that's going to happen," Duo says sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Come on guys, lets go over what we know once more. See if we missed anything." Trowa takes out the many data pads that contained the results of their searching this afternoon and spreads them out on the table. Soon all for boys are engrossed in their task, leaving the rest of us girls to keep ourselves occupied.

"I feel like a little mocha ice cream with peanut m&ms is in order," says Qamra with a small smile.

"You know that's Cat's favorite…"

"Yes, I do. I think that's why we need some right now. Cat's coming back. I know he is. We can't give up faith. Allah will watch over him." And with that Qamra gets up to make Quatre's favorite snack to keep our hope and faith in him alive.

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It's four thirty in the morning and someone is yelling at me to wake up. Maybe if I just ignore them they'll go away…

Ughh, no such luck. It's Samirah. That girl could yell until the end of time and still have a voice left to yell some more. I'm beginning to think that she and Duo are long lost siblings.

"Ireeeeeaaaaa!"

"What!!"

"They fouuund somethiiiiing!"

"What?!"

I don't think I've ever moved this fast in my entire life. In no time I'm in the kitchen hovering over the boys' shoulders listening to everyone trying to out-shout each other.

"Quiet!!!"

"Thank you Irea. We think we found where they might be," Heero says calmly. I can't tell if he's excited or not but he certainly looks ready to dash off to fight at any second.

"That idiot that shot me and snatched Cat dropped something. We…uh…didn't find it sooner 'cause…well, it was lost in my hair," Duo says shamefacedly.

"Don't worry about it Duo. What did you find?"

"It's a button actually," Heero says, taking over for Duo, "There's an insignia engraved on the front, see? There are only a few coats that have buttons like that. These coats belong to members of a group of assassins known as White Flame. I can only imagine that Dr. Azrael hired them to take Quatre."

"But why? Why would they take Quatre and just not kill him. Don't look at me like that Irea! It's an important question!" Samirah says with no little exasperation.

"This we don't know, however it is fairly safe to assume that they have not killed him yet. If they had wanted him dead they would have shot both him and Duo. By the way Duo, you're lucky to even be alive. I've never heard of a White Flame member not completing their assignment."

"Obviously they didn't count on Duo, a former Gundam pilot, being there," Wufei adds, "But anyway, I still have yet to see how knowing who kidnapped him will help us get Quatre back."

"There are only a few places White Flame can run to anymore and I'm pretty sure I know the place they would have taken him. It would have to be a place that both Dr. Azrael and White Flame know about and where they can keep a couple of people without rousing any suspicion," Heero says.

"How do you know all this Heero?" Relena asks as she enters the room, her face lined with worry and fatigue, "Sorry, couldn't help but overhear what you guys were saying…"

"It's fine. You have as much right to know this stuff as anyone," Duo says, flicking his braid from one hand to another and toying with the rubber band at the end.

"When I was an assassin it was in my best interest to know as much about the competition as I could," Heero says matter-of-factly, causing a slight silence to fall over all those assembled in the kitchen.

"Hmm, yes I would imagine that such information would be invaluable to you," Trowa says, breaking the silence. I'm not quite sure if he's being completely serious or slightly mocking. Trowa's a hard kid to read sometimes. Probably serious. Actually, definitely serious. If I remember correctly, Cat told me once that Trowa used to be a mercenary. His and Heero's pasts must have been similar in many ways.

"Well then!" Duo breaks in, smiling in his usual charming way, "Let's saddle up and hit the road! Time to rescue small, cute and dangerous!"

This chapter was a bit short. Sorry 'bout that, but I could only write so much while on a plane…bleh…the other chapters are longer since I didn't have a crazy foreign woman sitting right next to me, babbling at her husband the whole time in Greek or Italian or something while I wrote them.

-NostalgieMalaak