((I find myself amazed at the number and sheer kindness of the reviews I got on the first part of this story, especially considering it isn't one of the most popular (or normal) of the pairings, then again neither was the other story I wrote, but just two of my personal favorites. I suppose that is why this chapter is being put up so quickly. . I'm beginning to understand those people who claim to survive off reviews. In any case, I hope this one does equally well, now that it's getting a little deeper into the plot. Ah yes, and I believe my 'seven chapter' guess on the last one might have been off, as I'm already writing the third and it looks no where near done. I tend to get carried away, forgive me? And again, all my gratitude to those kind enough to tell me what they think. ))

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It took Trowa almost twenty minutes to 'crawl' from the middle of the bed he shared with Quatre out into the main rooms of the apartment, and by the time he did, he was already wishing he had stayed in bed. Although the lack of a small, warm body next to his had surprised him and left him again with the odd thoughts he'd been finding frequently lately, thoughts that maybe he was getting too used to the blonde and beginning to need him in some strange way, it hadn't exactly worried him. There had been days before when the blonde rose before him, though they were few and far between. After the rough day yesterday, it could only be expected. But the moment he exited the hall and caught sight of the scene going on in the living room that nibbling voice of concern started doing it's work.

Duo still wasn't up or at least, he wasn't out here, but the other two members of his team were. Heero and Wufei were sitting together on the couch and neither looked pleased. The black haired boy was sitting cross-legged on the old cushions, wearing nothing but plain white sleep pants that he somehow made elegant and a scowl. His golden skinned arms were locked tightly over his chest (the only chest in the group that the brunette felt moderately jealous of despite his own efforts and Quatre's constant compliments), and Trowa could only imagine he was inwardly fuming about something.

Heero's appearance bothered him even more. The usually messy and untamable brown hair was worse then normal, hanging in disarrayed clumps around his face as if someone had been running their fingers through it for hours. As he watched Heero's hand raise and tug impatiently on the short locks before returning to typing, he saw that was exactly the case. He was also still in his nightwear, and Trowa couldn't remember the last time he'd seen that… A pair of black silk boxers decorated muscular legs, and after taking a second glance at the shirt above those, Trowa decided he was probably wearing one of Duo's. Last he checked Heero Yuy didn't own a red shirt with a chibi-style fat hamster on the front flipping the world off and with the words 'bite me' beneath said rodent.

Heero didn't seem to care about his outfit though, he was bent over the beeping laptop that was balanced on his legs and typing away at it furiously with a fierce expression that made the tallest pilot want to creep away. Quatre's laptop. For a moment his mind tried to deny that, because Heero never pried into other people's business, but he could see the stickers on it that Duo had impulsively stuck there one day a month ago. The little bumblebees and lazy looking flowers decals (he thought they were probably daisies) stuck out even from several feet away, and Trowa could suddenly remember Quatre throwing a piece of pizza at the braided boy when he'd discovered those, even though he was smiling as he did so. The blonde was the only one in their group that could have been okay with silly insects and flowers on his mission equipment. If it had been Heero's, dating or not, Trowa thought he probably would have scalped Duo.

His indecision as to whether to fully enter or to creep back to bed came to an end when Wufei suddenly looked up and spotted him.

It seemed he blinked, and then suddenly the black haired boy was in front of him, shaking his head and pointing towards the other figure on the couch. Trowa glanced to Heero to see he hadn't look up and then back at Wufei. After a few seconds of dazed disconnection, he realized Wufei's mouth was moving and focused on that finally.

"-locked us out! After pulling a stunt like this and -knowing- we'd have to know and check, he had the nerve to lock it up! Yuy's been hacking at it for twenty minutes and gotten NOTHING yet! Heero!! Did he talk to you about this? Did you know?!"

Trowa took a step back, leaning against the wall and staring at Wufei dully. "Know about what?"

"About what? What I JUST told you! Winner intercepted one of the missions and- … Barton? What's the matter with you?" The oriental boy paused in the middle of his upset rant, looking at the taller pilot thoughtfully. "Your cheeks are flushed… And you're sweating. Do you have a fever?"

Wufei didn't wait for an answer, just stuck his hand out and laid the back of it against one of Trowa's cheeks, his frown again appearing. "You're sick. Might be infection from your wounds… Get back in bed, Heero and I can handle this, and I'll bring something for the fever in a bit."

Nodding gratefully and silently thinking about snappy responses of 'yes mother' that would never be spoken, Trowa turned and started making his way right back to where he'd come from, one hand bracing on the wall. He paused at the doorway to his and Quatre's bedroom, looking back at the still unmoved Wufei with some doubt. "But what did Quatre do?"

"We don't know. He intercepted some mission and accepted it before it could go to the other computers, or maybe he chased after it an erased them once they got in, we don't have the details or anything. He should have told us or left a note like he usually does for his own missions, but we haven't found anything of the sort. He was already gone when Yuy got up at five. His packs and gear are gone too, and one of the bikes. We wouldn't have even known this, but he had to move the computer off the couch to sit down, and when he did he noticed it was still on. It was the 'mission accepted, 04' shutdown screen, so he must have only just missed him… We haven't gotten much more past that. He's got security codes all over that it, and Yuy thinks he's only gotten through -half- of them. It's just a matter of time."

"I noticed the other things. It's probably nothing, Barton, so don't worry. It just feels… Strange, not finding any of his notes and that he didn't tell us. Especially after yesterday. Maybe Winner just needed to go out and take a ride before reporting this to us, to calm him."

Even Trowa heard the doubt in Wufei's statement and looked at him flatly. "And Quatre usually goes out on a motorcycle, tearing around town when he's upset, doesn't he?"

That jerked black eyes up to his, a flash of anger in them before Wufei sighed. "No. But never mind that. Go to bed, Barton."

"If you get through the computer walls, wake me up and tell me what's happened." With that, he turned and slipped back into the blissful cool, darkness of his room. Back on the bed with both pillows gathered under his head and his brain throbbing hotly like an infection inside his skull, Trowa found sleep wasn't so easy to come. Where did you go?

-----

At the same time that his teammate was finally breaking through the last of the security codes on his computer several dozens of miles away, Quatre was opening his eyes to his new fate.

The harsh glow of fluorescents lit the chamber in uncaring perfection, burning the image of the cell in Quatre's vision long after he'd closed his eyes from the sudden stinging brightness. Unconsciousness had granted him a few minutes (or hours, he really didn't know) of blissful denial, and now that he was flickering back into awareness, he was left with the miserable memories of where he most likely was.

He'd been caught.

Again, he'd 'messed' up, though this time only with himself, and before things had gone down hill, he had completed his objectives. He could remember waking up early next to Trowa, and staring through the dim light in their room at the split that covered the tall pilot's leg. A wound that he had inadvertently caused and only one of the many. Heero thought him incompetent, his best friend was angry, and even the quiet pilot he'd somehow gotten to warm up a little was suffering the consequences of his rash decision. Wufei… Well, he didn't quite understand that lean youth. He either disliked everyone, or had a strange way of showing his friendly affection. But Wufei had been irritated as well.

And so when he'd wandered out into the living room in hopes of making some tea for the long night that lay before him and suddenly heard the incoming beep of his computer, it had seemed like he'd made the most natural choice. He could redeem himself. And protect the others also, since they were no where near recovered enough to already take another mission. They would have accepted it and probably failed because of the injuries, and since he wasn't hurt…

Intercepting the message, he typed in his 'yes' answer before he even fully read through it, determined to keep it from heading to the others computers. Afterwards he was relieved to see it was a mission that was possible to complete alone, maybe better with two people on it, but it wasn't as if he was sending himself on a suicide run by taking it on. Find the labs mentioned in the memo. Infiltrate and reach the main office of one of the head officials there. Hack into the mainframe from his terminal. And finally download the information on several new drugs that the lab was producing that the Doctors had their suspicions of. After that, it was exceptionally easy. He had his handheld transmitter, so the moment he'd taken the information unto a disk he could start sending it to them, and then he was supposed to walk out.

Things had gone amazing well until that last step.

He'd gotten in without a problem, slipping through the garage at the back of the lab through the delivery docks. He'd avoided the few wandering guards with ease, hiding in open corridors and shadows until they passed, with his gun drawn in case but aimed downwards for the most part as he sneaked around. Having gotten the layouts earlier when he'd gone online to scan the main reports he could get of the place, finding that office had been simple, even in the dusky dark of pre-morning. And the lock on the glass office door proved incredibly easy to undo, even for him having only had Duo try to teach him that particular talent four or five times. It was going wonderfully, and he expected to be back before at least half of his team had even risen for the day.

Likewise, getting to the office's computer and breaking through that's defenses was just… Fine. He'd gotten the information in record time and started transmitting it to the Doctors. It was once that was finished and he was pulling the plug of his transmitter out of the computer that he heard the sinisterly soft step behind him and realized he was no longer alone. He barely had time to wonder how anyone had been quiet enough to get the drop on him, OZ soldiers were so often badly trained in his experience, and to set his hand on the butt of his gun, before there was the stealthy puff of an air gun and the stinging pain in the base of his neck. The world had dimmed to black in amazing time, and he remembered just the shadowy trip downwards, blinking at the coldness of the tiles against his face and at the leg of the desk he had just been standing beside.

And now, here he was.

The blonde struggled to make his limbs react as he told them, finally shifting up into a sitting position and leaning his back against the wall behind his cot. The room he found around him was far better than most he'd seen or read of, but it was a cell nonetheless. Three solid walls of smooth white metal stared back at him, the fourth largely broken by a mirror and he didn't want to think who could be on the other side of that looking back at him. At least there were no cuffs on him, he had that to be grateful for. Other then the cot, there was the wonderfully stainless steel basin against one wall, and the matching toilet. He gave that contraption a distasteful frown as he rubbed at the back of his neck and gently fingered the raised area from the needle's entry. He planned on being long gone before he'd ever have to use such a thing with Allah knew who peeking in at him like a rat in a glass tank.

They'd come with their deals and promises in return for information, and when they did, it was only a matter of finding an opening to attack.

-----

"I would have thought we would have had a few more days before an attack of any form, Zechs." The honeyed blonde raised his eyes in the mirror where he was straightening his ruffled collar to meet those of the man standing behind him.

"Actually so would I... A week at the least. But nonetheless, we've had one, and we've now got the intruder in holding cell eight… Awaiting your decision on the matter."

He finished his adjustments and turned, resting one shoulder back against the mirror as he openly studied the suited form of the other male. "What did he get away with? Do we have any idea?"

As always, the paler blonde looked right back at him, blatantly ignoring the approving glances until Trieze could just about sigh with disappointment. It had taken him nearly three years to convince the beautiful younger man to become his lover, another two to actually make Zechs want and need him back, and he still found it impossible to get him to intermingle work and pleasure from time to time. Right now Zechs was in 'business' mode, and he's probably receive nothing more then a cold glare if he truly pursued the matter. But later… Well, he'd be melting that untouchable ice queen and turning Zechs right back into the passionate male he'd originally fallen for years ago.

With another sigh, he stepped around Zechs stiff form and moved to his desk, seating himself behind it and folding his hands on the polished surface as he listened to his top general report - "Some of the reports on the new nerve drug. Nothing incriminating or incredibly useful, just the effects it has on the human body after it's been processed. Not how to make it, or our plans for it… That bothers me. More so, that if it weren't for some of the weight sensors I placed for this very event, we wouldn't have caught him period. The night guards are incompetent, I've told you before we need to replace them or train them better!"

Well, there's a bit of passion. Maybe if I started a new training regiment and placed him in charge, I really could start bringing both sides together. For now, he dismissed the thought and gave Zechs a soft , winning smile. "Yes, I know, and we will. But you need to remember, that information isn't going to be helpful to anyone, Zechs. Let them do whatever they will with it, it's only a false front… And if they happen to use it and focus on that, it's exactly as we've planned, isn't it? They'll be ignoring the true activity in our other bases…" He glanced down at his hands, then leaned back in the chair with one lean leg crossing the other.

"I understand you are upset that security was broken through, but even that was what we wanted. Not too easy to seem suspicious, but enough so that someone would be tempted. We've gotten exactly what we want now. This intruder has broken in, gotten that false information, and sent it to whomever hired him. They will no doubt inform others of what they found… And while anyone who would stand against us is focusing on Solution 13 nerve gas, we will quietly be building our newest model of suits in the other basis. It's a decoy, and it's doing precisely what it's been intended for."

Rather then looking soothed by the information, his lover's expression tensed more at the dismissive tone. "I understand that, -Trieze-." Oh, how forced that name sounded and it made the older blonde wince. He'd asked Zechs not to call him Khushranada or Sir no matter what the circumstance, but the result was this choked name… When alone or off duty, his name never sounded so beautiful as it did coming from those lips, but the rest of the time Zechs managed to somehow make it sound like a curse. "But that isn't the point I am trying to make. Yes, he got in easily. Yes, we want that. But that it happened so quickly… We only just put this decoy plan into effect, no one should have moved on it for several more days at least. The quickness of this infiltration is almost impossible. We finalized the plan only yesterday morning, and this morning I caught this intruder on the main database downloading the statistics on the drug… In order for that timeline to work, the person would have likely had to know less than three hours after we'd made out choice on the matter."

That last sentence drilled something home for Trieze. Lips curled into a frown, his own mildly playful manner vanished. "And no one left the base within that time frame, we made sure of it… You are suspecting someone from here leaked then?"

"Someone from the meeting itself, yes… And if we'd been completely honestly there and told even one of them that we weren't truly interested in their scientists and chemicals, the plan would have fallen through. As it is now, any connection about our real building plans that surface here is a threat to your decoy until we discover who spoke out."

Now standing before Trieze's desk, the young soldier was an immovable rod of perfection in training… And it was hard to doubt what he said. The blonde hadn't earned his position because of Trieze's interest in him, but for his own deeds and efficiency. If Zechs suspected they had a spy, even a bad one at that, he believed him without question. If Zechs already had his guesses on whom, he would have felt safe in betting that he'd turn out right.

"Then we find the spy, and have him executed… And make that fact known as well." At Zechs momentary look of protest, he lifted a hand and continued steadily. "Not usually the way such things are handled, I know. But by doing so, whomever he gave the information to is almost guaranteed to hear, and it will look like we really do have something to hide. It even further masks our illusions."

Seeing that his top general was again quieted and accepted the suggestion, he nodded and leaned forwards over the desk again. Steepling his fingers before him, he moved to the other subject that had brought his formal lover here. "Now, as for the captive… We can also use him in this matter. -Make- him talk, find out who hired him, and through that we can possibly uncover the person working inside here without too much effort. You have your ways, kill him if necessary, and I'm sure you'll have the news to report to me by the end of the day."

Zechs blinked up at Trieze as those words washed over him in uncomfortable waves and gained an unusual expression of reluctance before his instincts again claimed him. After dipping into a clipped bow, the blonde turned in a whirl of flawless platinum silk that could have made an angel wept with envy and strode from the room.

Behind him, Trieze Khushranada, the wealthy, powerful, and often suave warlord and politician of battles, sat at his desk in puzzled silence. It was that expression that danced in the forefront of his thoughts. He couldn't remember seeing such an uncertain look on Zechs face for years, and more importantly, he didn't know what he had said that caused it... But he planned to find out.