Chapter Four:

"Heero Yuy." The pieces all fit together. Heero and Zechs just didn't fall ill like that and the only thing that linked them together was that system. The Zero System.

"What did Sally say about this? Does it have to do with—" She stopped, her body quivering slightly with this new information out in the opening.

"She thinks it's the Zero Sytem, she's doing all she can." Une said calmly, her business mask now in place to hide all her momentarily features back when Noin first called.

Noin's eyes widened slightly when she remembered something. "…Wait…"Une looked at her with a slightly confused and riddled look on her features. "If you have to use the system for a while, wouldn't that mean that…"

"Quatre!" They both said with wide eyes.

"Where is he?!" Noin prodded, "He could be attacked or something!"

Une fumbled around on her desk and the sound of papers rustling around was obvious over the connection they shared currently. "He's at a meeting over in the L1 sector. Trowa's over there with him." She said, replaying the information on the paper to the former OZ soldier.

"Do you think he could be targeted?" Noin bit her lip slightly with worry etched into her face and eyes.

"It's a possibility…"

"Quatre?" Trowa questioned as the boy stopped for a moment as they reached the building. His eyes were blank before he blinked and shook his head, flashing a smile to Trowa showing he was all right.

"Aa, it's nothing." Trowa still looked worried at the blonde. "Just zoned out for a moment." Trowa nodded, accepting this answer.

Just as Quatre touched the door knob, his form trembled and convulsed a little bit as he took a sharp intake of breath that sounded almost like a gasp or cry of pain cut short. A hand flew to his temple, trying to stop the pain flooding through his pounding skull.

Numbers flashed through his vision, dancing and taunting him. Then three words stood out on his vision. 'System on stand-by' danced before his wide eyes as his body turned off and he then black out.

"Quatre!" Trowa caught the teen with his lightning fast reflexes and in one deft motion, pulled a communicator out of his Preventer's jacket.

A crackled voice relayed over the line, signaling to state what was going on. "…Barton?" the familiar voice of a Preventer questioned over the private line.

"Wufei," Trowa said as he shifted the weight of Quatre in his arms while heading to the car at the same time. "Get me Lady Une."

"Roger that." Wufei said, rushing towards Lady Une's office.

Throwing open the doors, Une glanced up with slight shock to see Wufei standing there. Noin was still on the other line and was trying to figure out what all the commotion was about.

"Chang, don't you ever know the words 'knock first'?" Catching the look in the Chinese's onyx eyes she quieted herself.

He walked swiftly over to the desk, putting a communicator onto it. "We have a serious problem."

"What is it?" She questioned, easily catching the look in his eyes and his tone of voice when he said this.

"It's Quatre." Une looked over at Noin who had a frantic look in her eyes as Une spoke into the communicator.

"Barton?" A crackle on the line signaled her to start talking, showing that the former pilot of Heavyarms was listening. "What is wrong?"

"I don't know." Une thought she could actually pick up a tinge of worry in his voice. "It's Quatre, he just collapsed or something."

"Tell me exactly what happened."

"It looked a lot like what happened to Heero--" Then the line went blank for some abrupt reason.

"Barton?" Une tried different communication links. "Barton!?" She slammed the communicator and her fist into her desk, not even bothering to wince.

"What should I do?" Wufei questioned as he stood rigid before her.

"I don't know!" Une rubbed the side of her head slightly to try and stop the pounding headache that she knew would come. Three strong fighter's were beyond her help and she couldn't do a thing to help them. She felt so helpless. "Damnit!" She seethed with fury.

"Wha—" Noin was about to say but stopped when a knock on the door sounded and echoed in the quiet room.

The door's handle slowly opened as a puzzled Duo Maxwell opened up the door, blinking in confusion.

"How did your mission go, Maxwell?" Une questioned with a cool voice.

"I guess it went all cool." He said with a shrug. "What's going on in here?" They had yet to tell him about Heero, Zechs, or now Quatre.

Une sighed. "Maxwell, sit down." The braided youth obeyed, sensing that the news was going to be important somehow.

"While you were away we've been struck with a very serious problem." She said.

"What?" He joked, "Did Heero fail a mission?" He caught the look in her eyes when he had spoken Heero's name. "What's wrong with Heero?"

Une sighed. "We don't know but Sally and all of us are beginning to think we may have found out."

"So what is it?"

"We think it's the Zero System." Duo's breath caught in his throat.

TBC

Author's note:

I don't know about the pairings in this story; if people wanna take a vote fine with me. I've done HeeroxDuo pairings before and RelenaxHeero pairings before so I'm neutral.

Well, here y'all are, Quatre's been hit by the system. I think it might be kinda short so please don't murder me or anything -

About the story: Duo, Trowa, and Wufei will not be affected by the system since though they did use the system, they didn't master it like Quatre, Heero, and Zechs. Wufei kind o did but he never used the system again.

So I hope that this helps clear up some things.

A lot of people were wondering about Quatre, but I was trying to think of a way to introduce him to the system. I also need a pairing for Quatre rather it be slash or not since I'm going to do pairings in here. I hate how I'm so indecisive.

So people, tell me what pairing you would like to see in this story and we'll all take a happy little vote like Election Day!

BTW, thanks everyone for the great reviews! They really help me keep writing! Very sorry for the long wait everyone!

-Red Tail