Dead Ground

11

The Attic

Quatre's eyes widened as his met Trowa's. HeQuatre could feel pain and jealousy radiating from the other pilot... Although Trowa's face didn't change its expression, when his gaze shifted to Duo, Quatre could sense the strong hatred that seemed to consume him. Quatre could feel Duo stiffen, and the emotions of one who feels misunderstood and embarrassed rolled off him, as well as mild anger.

Duo blushed and quickly dropped his arms. Quatre let go of Duo and stepped away. "Trowa. It's... not what you..." Duo began but Trowa cut him off.

"What's going on in here?" It was said mildly and the average observer would have thought Trowa was disinterested in the scene before him. Quatre wasn't a casual observer though, and he could feel something wasn't quite right. It wasn't just the negative emotions that were coming from Trowa...

No.

It was something else... Quatre inched toward the bed trying in a vain attempt to disappear. It wasn't just the strangeness coming from Trowa that made Quatre uneasy; it was all that had happened earlier. Quatre knew he'd hurt Trowa deeply, and he felt ashamed. He wished with all his heart that he could throw himself into Trowa's arms and beg forgiveness for his words earlier. He knew he hadn't been fair to him; Trowa really had done nothing to him. He wanted to make it better, but he couldn't...

Even though he kept telling himself it had been a dream, part of him couldn't help feeling that it hadn't been a dream...

It took all of Quatre's will power not to reach up and touch the scars on his arms. They were reminders that nothing was what it seemed anymore. Trowa wasn't what he seemed anymore... The world seemed to be going crazy, and it was taking Quatre along for the ride.

"Well... I..." Duo stuttered, bringing Quatre out of his thoughts.

"Fuck, Duo... Just tell me what the hell is going on." The words clashed horribly with the soft tone Trowa was using. Quatre sat on the bed and looked at the floor as he listened to the two pilots talk.

"I wanted someone to check the attic out with me so I thought..."

Trowa raised an eyebrow and said, "You wanted a sick person to cover your ass?"

Duo's blush deepened. "No. Yes. No. I mean..." Trowa folded his arms and took up the attitude of one who is bestowing patience on a child. "I was going to ask you or Wufei, but you guys were asleep. Then I thought I'd see if Quatre was feeling up to going with me..."

Trowa glanced over at the broken dish, then to him. Quatre could feel Trowa's gaze and tensed when he sensed the possessive jealousy emanating from him.

"Obviously, he isn't up to it, Maxwell." Trowa walked into the room and Quatre scooted back on the bed until his back met the wall. He lifted his gaze to see Trowa looking down at him with a concerned look. "Are you alright, Quatre?"

Quatre looked away from Trowa's searching eyes. The tender caring he felt from Trowa almost convinced his paranoid mind that everything was fine.

Almost.

The compassion in Trowa's voice couldn't mask the felling of something not quite right. To Quatre, it seemed Trowa had begun taking a trip into madness, then decided to rest along the way, making Trowa only half mad instead of completely insane.

If everything was fine, Quatre wouldn't have been able to feel the other pilots' emotions. Each of the boys were usually very good at hiding their emotions from him.

Not now though.

Quatre wasn't sure what to make of the emotions from Trowa. In the room besides his, Quatre could feel Wufei's presence. The despair coming from the Chinese pilot was almost unbearable. Yet even this was confusing, for Quatre's eyes were just telling him, moments before, that Wufei was outside, and he also felt that Wufei was out there as well...

Then of course there was Heero. An involuntary shiver ran through him. The terror, guilt, and pain Quatre felt earlier from the pilot of Wing still lingered in the back of his mind like some sort of thick, slimy residue. The emotions had driven him from the supposed safety of his room, out into the living room to do anything he could think of to make it stop. Not out of any real pity for Heero, Quatre guiltily admitted to himself, but for the last bits of what might remain of his own sanity.

Quatre's eyes flicked to Duo. He was the only one who had not been affected like the rest of them, and Quatre had a vague idea why, though he couldn't put words to it for some reason. His mind just went fuzzy when he tried to think it out. Whatever the reason, it would change soon. When or how, he didn't know. He just knew that it would.

His gaze returned to Trowa in time to see him frown slightly before he turned to Duo and said calmly, with something close to contempt in his eyes, "I'm not ill or injured, so I guess I'm safe to go up to the attic with you."

Duo's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you are a fucking pervert who likes to pick up on sick boys." The blood drained from Duo's face and his eyes widened as Trowa delivered the verbal attack in a calm, but grated voice.

"It's... not like that..." Duo whispered in shock, eyes flicking nervously to Quatre then away again; clearly hurt and embarrassed.

Quatre's eyebrows knit together at the scene before him. There was obviously something going on between the other two boys. There had to be some reason Trowa would say something like that. Some reason Duo would respond like that... Something that Quatre didn't understand. The hatred, pain, and jealousy that came with Trowa's last words were... indescribable. Quatre moved his eyes to Duo who was plainly making an effort to keep his feelings in check as his embarrassment and hurt turned to anger.

Duo pressed his lips together, then said, "I'll wait for you by the hatch." Turning to look at Quatre, he forced a smile. "I hope... I hope you feel better Quatre. I'll come check on you later okay?"

Quatre wanted to tell Duo not to trust Trowa. As much as it hurt Quatre to admit it to himself, Trowa was unstable and maybe... dangerous.

But he kept silent.

Quatre didn't want to believe that about Trowa. He cared for Trowa, even though he was afraid to show it, he always had, but... but now... now he was afraid of the other boy. Quatre didn't know how... when it happened. He just didn't know anything anymore.

Quatre nodded numbly to Duo's statement, then turned his head and looked out the window.

Maybe he was just imagining everything.

Maybe.

As Duo stalked out of the room, Quatre cautiously glanced back at Trowa. The other pilot suddenly seemed uncomfortable and looked away. Quatre suddenly felt sorry for him. The emotions coming from Trowa were no longer anger, but shame, embarrassment, pain, and confusion. It was unnerving at how fast Trowa was changing from one emotion to another.

"Quatre. I... I'm sorry. I... whatever I did to make you... mad at me... I'm sorry." Trowa's voice dripped with the pain and confusion he was feeling, making Quatre want to cry, but he didn't have the strength. He wanted to reach out to Trowa, but didn't have the courage. He didn't want to feel afraid of the other boy, or be confused in the things he saw, thought, and dreamed... but he did.

When he didn't respond, Trowa turned and walked to the window. Quatre wondered if Trowa was able to see Wufei, but he didn't ask. After a few moments of silence, Trowa began in a whisper, "Quatre... I... I don't know what I did wrong. I'm not sure what is going on with you... or with me or..." Trowa trailed off and rested his head against the glass.

Quatre swallowed back the tears he felt threatening to come.

In the same soft whisper, Trowa continued, "I had this dream... something happened... there was someone... and a door... but I didn't go in... I can't remember anything else. Now everything is all wrong. I don't know how to explain it." Trowa squeezed his eyes closed. "I don't know what's wrong with me..."

Trowa lifted his forehead off the grimy glass and turned his head to look at him. Quatre felt a pain in his heart when he saw the perplexed agony in the other boy's eyes.

Trowa took a step toward Quatre and said quietly, "Quatre. I want you to know..."

But Trowa never finished. With the sudden movement toward him and the words, "I want you," Quatre gasped and involuntarily shrank back, the disturbing dream making an assault on his memory and emotions.

At Quatre's reaction, Trowa stopped and stared with a torn look on his face. When Quatre just stared back at him, Trowa turned and despondently left the room without another word. Quatre stared at the door for a few moments before he lowered his head into his hands and let loose the tears of pain, frustration, and fear.

Duo clenched his fists together tightly and made his way toward the stairs. That... Bastard! What the hell is his problem?! he thought angrily. Duo almost slammed his foot on the stair, but stopped himself. He didn't want to make a racket and wake Heero. Slowly and deliberately, Duo made his way up the stairs.

Despite the intense anger, he felt tears well up in his eyes. He had always had a decent relationship with Trowa and the sudden onslaught was not only confusing, but hurtful as well.

When he reached his room, Duo quickly grabbed a flashlight and a gun from his duffel bag and returned to the hall. He looked over the balustrade and saw Trowa going through his own stuff. Duo turned his gaze from the other pilot to Heero's door, and decided to look in on his friend to make sure he was alright.

Slowly he cracked the door open and glanced inside. The pilot of Wing was still asleep, but the sleep was fitful. Heero moaned softly and shook his head back and forth, making Duo wonder whether he should wake him or not. Before he could come to an answer, a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the door.

Before Duo could react, Trowa had his hand over the other boy's mouth.

"Shhhh." The hushing sound from Trowa was soft and light.

Trowa turned his quieting look from him and looked into Heero's room. Slowly, Trowa reached out with his other hand and grabbed the knob, but didn't shut the door immediately though. The pilot's green eyes rested on Heero for a moment, and Duo saw a slight tightening of his lips before Trowa slowly shut the door.

As if sensing Duo's thoughts, Trowa said, "He doesn't need to be woken." The words seemed to leave something unsaid, but Duo didn't want to know what those unspoken words might be. When he nodded, Trowa took his hand away from his mouth.

They stood staring at each other for several moments. Though Duo's expression remained neutral during the undeclared 'staring contest', Trowa's changed several times.

Anger.

Shame.

Frustration.

Pain.

Jealousy.

Uncertainty.

Confusion.

What Trowa could have possibly been thinking, Duo couldn't say. The expression changes, however, were unnerving and quickly made him nervous. There were several times Duo thought Trowa was going to say something, but he never did.

Finally, out of frustration, Duo widened his eyes and said impertinently, "Weeeell?"

Trowa shook his head slightly as if shaking off an unwanted thought, then turned to position the chair he had brought with him underneath the hatch. As Duo watched Trowa work, he began to feel his earlier reservations about going into the attic return, and absent-mindedly grabbed the cross he wore through his clothes.

When he realized what he was doing, Duo dropped his hand. After all, the thing never seemed to help before. Sniffing in exasperation, Duo said, "Ya know... either this thing is broken or someone up there just doesn't like me!" Trowa glanced at Duo with a blank stare for a moment before replying.

"Why do you wear it then? Why not just get rid of it?" Trowa asked, his voice sincere and curious.

Duo, not sensing the genuine curiosity, pushed passed Trowa and snapped, "It's none of your business, asshole." Trowa's eyes widened slightly as he watched Duo climb on the chair. Then as quickly as the wounded look came, it was gone, leaving a dangerous glint in narrowed eyes.

When Duo situated himself on the chair, he pulled out his gun, then looked down at Trowa, who took out his own gun and nodded in return. Duo tensed when he grabbed a hold of the hatch handle and pulled. It came down easily since it hadn't been shut tightly. Keeping his gun pointed up, Duo ducked as he brought the hatch swinging down.

When nothing came jumping down at him, Duo straightened, then gasped. The reason the hatch had been so hard to open the first time was because it had been nailed shut. The thick nails were coming from the sides of where the hatch closes, and were bent at an upward angle. Duo squinted at the upturned steel on one of the sides.

The nails were covered in red.

The small seven-year-old ran quickly down the sidewalk. He'd been successful in killing his target; the dirty politician had deserved to die... He knew that because Odin said the man was bad. The janitor, however, hadn't deserved death. The boy hadn't expected the nice old man to walk in. It wasn't fair. He hadn't wanted to kill the friendly custodian, especially since the old man had given him a piece of candy earlier when he and Odin had been checking the place out, but he'd had no choice.

The small boy brushed the tears from his cobalt-blue eyes as he ran. He could still see the shock in the grandfatherly face at seeing the politician dead, before the old man met his own death. The boy hated having to kill people, especially when they didn't deserve it. Yet, he'd had little choice in the matter. If he wouldn't kill, then Odin wouldn't want him around. And the last thing the boy wanted was to be alone; being alone was worse then killing.

Sore wa fukouheida, sore wa fukouheida yo!(1) the boy thought over and over again in his native tongue.

The young assassin stopped running when he was sure he was far enough from the government building. Leaning down, he put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. As his breathing began to slow, the boy turned his head and looked at the building next to him. It was a store with a large window for the people passing by to look in.

He could see himself reflected in the shop window. Standing up, the boy walked closer to the window, raking fingers through his dark, ever-messy hair. Realizing the window belonged to that of a pet shop, the boy forgot about making himself presentable and leaned against the glass to look inside. The featured pets were a large litter of kittens, and he gazed in innocent wonder at the small mewing creatures. After a few minutes, one of the furry animals noticed him and made its way toward the glass.

He was about to put his face closer to the glass when he noticed an older man reflected in the glass behind him. The man was wearing a business suit and was glaring down at him. The boy thought he may have seen the older man before but didn't know where. The boy remembered his cover story if asked where his parents were and turned around to speak to the man.

There was no one there.

The boy's eyes went wide involuntarily and he whipped around to look back at the window. The man was still there, but he wasn't alone. Now there were more men with the first, and they all looked very un-happy with him. The boy began to feel nervous and for some reason… guilty. The boy turned around again, and again there was no one there.

Noventa… The name flitted through the child's mind and he gasped.

Fear seized the boy's heart and he slowly turned to face the window again. There were even more people, some looked like soldiers and they were all angry... at him. The young assassin put his hand to his head, which was starting to throb. He'd never seen these people in his whole life, he was sure of it, but he felt like he had...

He began to shake his head as if he could clear the unwelcome people from his brain. The phenomenon was incomprehensible to the boy's young mind. Finally the boy did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

Duo reached out his hand and rubbed at the red on the nails.

It was blood.

Dried blood.

"Those must be what caused Heero's wounds," came Trowa's voice from below.

Duo looked down. "You think so?"

Trowa nodded. "Look at the thickness of the nails. Tell me, Duo, how old does that blood look to you?"

Duo returned his gaze to the metal before him and nodded. Grudgingly, he said, "You're right. It's dried, but it's not very old." Duo looked back down at Trowa. "But... if it's the nails that caused his wounds then why doesn't he have gouges on his other side as well, or even his back and front?"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "It really is obvious, you know. If Heero was standing directly in the middle when the hatch came down then he wouldn't have gotten hurt at all, but he wasn't. He was off to the side a bit and that little bit made the difference. Heero was lucky that he wasn't off to the side and back... or front for that matter." Trowa grimaced with the thought of being gouged in the front by the nails.

With the mystery of Heero's wounds being solved, Duo felt a little better about going into the attic. Not a whole lot better, but some.

Duo's original plan had been to pull himself up into the attic, but now with the nails he knew he would need a new plan to avoid getting cut himself. Looking down at Trowa, Duo said, "I think it will work better if you stand on the chair and give me a boost up. Then I'll pull you up."

The boy stopped running and collapsed onto a bench at the bus stop. His chest ached from the run and he had trouble getting his breathing under control. Thinking back to what he saw in the window, the boy shuttered and shook his head. Though he was being conditioned to bury his feelings, he wasn't, as of yet, an expert on hiding his emotions completely, and the people in the store window had frightened him more then he wanted to admit.

The young assassin looked around and his heart sank. There were soldiers, like the ones in the window, on the sidewalk and in cars. Some glared at him. Others just glanced in his direction. There were also many people, who weren't soldiers that were staring at the him as well.

The child swallowed hard. Many of them... Some of them... The boy was sure that he knew some of them... In some way... But then... There was no way...

The boy grabbed his head and shut his eyes. Wakaranai yo... wakaranai...(2) he thought while shaking his head back and forth.

Suddenly there was a barking noise and the boy looked up to see a little girl, about his own age, standing by the bench with a puppy beside her. The boy thought he knew this girl, knew her dog... but the knowledge was fleeting and he couldn't grasp onto it long enough to get an answer.

The girl was glaring at him and again the boy swallowed hard.

"It's all your fault," she said accusingly. His eyes widened. "It's all your fault!" She screamed.

His head whipped around as he looked fearfully at the people. They were all staring at him. The puppy growled as the boy quickly stood up. The young assassin felt cold and empty inside...

And guilty.

He began to back away from the girl and tripped over the bench as he turned to run away. Pain flared hot in his knees as the skin was roughly torn away by the sidewalk, but he tried to ignore it and stumbled to his feet. Looking down, he saw blood running down his legs, but that didn't phase him.

He needed to get away...

And, turning around, he ran.

Duo caught his balance after pulling Trowa up through the hatch opening, then glared balefully at him. "Ya know... you don't look it, but you're one heavy son-of-a-bitch."

Trowa glanced blandly at Duo before searching the attic with his flashlight. The uppermost room in the cabin was open and large. Dust particles floated in the dim light that streamed down through the hole in the roof. The light from the collapsed roof lit up the attic enough that as one got closer to the wreckage a flashlight wasn't needed. Broken crates laying in one corner of the attic, and a few picture frames dotting the walls were the only things worth any notice other than the pile of wood and old roofing shingles from where Heero had fallen.

"What the hell...?"

Trowa looked to Duo who was looking down and pointing his flashlight to the floor. Looking down himself, Trowa saw what the other pilot was looking at and raised an eyebrow. There were foot prints, obviously Heero's, in the dirt on the wood floor. Ordinary foot prints...

Except that they looked months old...

Duo looked at Trowa with a confused look on his face. Heero had been up in the attic that morning.

Trowa moved the beam of his own flashlight along Heero's tracks and stopped.

"Duo," Trowa said softly. "Look over there..." Duo shined his own flashlight to where Trowa's was at and took in a sharp breath.

"They're up there..." Duo whispered.

Trowa stared at the braided boy with a confused expression on his face. "What? Who?"

Moving his flashlight over the attic floor he whispered, "Them. All... of them."

The young boy threw himself onto the large pile of trash that dominated the dingy alleyway. He was shaking and near tears. Pulling his legs up near his chest, he gave into his emotions and began to sob. It was all so confusing… He didn't understand. Who were all the people, and what did they want with him? The boy was sure he knew many of them from somewhere, but he couldn't think of where! The child ran the name from earlier over and over in his mind.

Noventa, Noventa, Noventa…

The boy knew it from somewhere he was sure… but why did he feel so much remorse when he thought of the name?

A hand on his shoulder brought the boy out of his deep thoughts. With a strangled gasp, the young assassin whipped around grabbing the arm that was attached to the hand. Blinking the tears from his eyes, the boy focused his gaze on a man with a strong jaw and blond hair.

"O…Odin?" The man smiled, but the smile seemed greasy and unreal. The boy stared into the hard eyes. "A..Anata…(3)" He had to think hard for a moment then continued in a hesitant English. "You…you are not Odin."

One of the man's eyebrows lifted and the smile grew. "Oh? Is that who we seem to be to you?" The man looked shrewdly at the boy and continued. "You're very observant, the other one didn't realize until… well, that hardly matters now does it? No. You're very correct. I am not Odin."

The child looked even more confused and the man kept silent for a moment, as if enjoying the boy's confusion before making his next statement.

"He's dead."

Duo and Trowa swept the beams of their flashlights over the dirty attic floor. There were foot prints everywhere.

Fresh footprints... as if made only hours ago.

They walked to the place where Trowa first saw the tracks. "Who ever made these footprints... These people... were walking towards Heero."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "How can you tell?"

"Look." Trowa swept the beam of the flashlight around the room. "There's a pattern. Also, the tracks are all heading for Heero's tracks."

Duo looked disbelievingly at the other pilot. "I don't see how you're getting all this. All I see are a bunch of overlapping shoe marks in the dirt."

"How did you say you became a gundam pilot again?" Trowa asked scornfully.

"Fuck you."

Trowa walked toward the rubble under the hole in the roof. "Not if you were the last..." He was interrupted by a bright flash of lightning that was accompanied by a loud crack of thunder. A couple rain drops came through the opening in the roof.

"Let's just get this done and get the hell out of here," Duo said testily. He didn't want to worry about old and new footprints or the boot marks of a host of people that couldn't have logically been in the attic. He just wanted to get Heero's laptop and get back to the object of his affections before he woke up.

Duo kept his gaze on the floor as he made his way toward the pile of wood and shingles. He stopped abruptly at a different set of foot prints. Child foot prints… and a dog? A puppy? What the hell? Duo thought. Looking up, he was about to bring the prints to Trowa's attention when he noticed the other pilot looking through the rubble. Not wanting to be out done, Duo quickly made his way to the pile, forgetting about the strange prints.

Duo felt irritated when Trowa, not him, was the one to find the laptop among the rubble and pick it up. He pushed a few buttons, tinkered with a few plugs, inspected the damage and finally declared the slim machine busted.

"Let me see that!" Duo growled and grabbing the laptop roughly.

Trowa shrugged and picked up the makeshift antenna Heero had been attempting to use. "This would have never worked anyway..." Trowa murmured.

As Duo glanced over the laptop, he realized, as much as he hated to admit it, that Trowa was right. The electronic notebook had definitely seen its last all-nighter. Duo didn't look forward to giving Heero the bad news. Sighing, Duo picked up the laptop and looked around, his gaze finally stopping on an object near the far wall. As Duo approached, he saw that it was a gun.

Heero's gun.

Duo reached down and picked the weapon up and looked from the gun to the wall then back to the gun. It had been thrown against the wall, that much was obvious, but why? Duo remembered hearing the clicking noises of an empty gun earlier and checked the clip.

It was full... the ammunition in perfect condition.

Duo turned around. "Yo Trowa, I..." he began, then stopped. Trowa was standing in the same place Duo had seen him last, holding the makeshift antenna in a death grip, staring forward with an angry look on his face. "Trowa?"

No answer.

Duo opened his mouth to try again, then rolled his eyes and walked over to him. Reaching out, Duo roughly grabbed Trowa's shoulder and shook him hard. Quickly, Trowa whipped his head around and said fiercely, "He's not a bitch!"

Duo's eyes widened and a hint of a confused smile played on his mouth. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Trowa blinked a couple of times and said, "What? I… I…"

Duo narrowed his eyes feeling an unwelcome feeling of concern for the pilot of Heavyarms. He didn't want to feel concern for Trowa, he wanted to be mad at the other boy for being such a prick.

Trowa rubbed his eyes and murmured, "Let's check this place out and be done with it."

The small boy's eyes widened with shock, then narrowed in pain.

"Iie... no… he can't…"

Tears welled up in his eyes, and spilled over onto his cheeks without him being aware of them.

The man continued to grin, as if he were pleased with the result of the news. "You know, we're actually surprised to see you like this here. This age I mean. Very interesting. The other one was only a few years younger then he is now, but you…" The man laughed.

The young assassin sniffled and looked over at the man who looked like Odin. "Nani…uh, what do you mean? What other one?"

The man moved in closer and caressed the child's face with his hand. "Even I didn't realize your soul was so immature. This will be easy… easier than with the other one… yes, I'm definitely glad we changed my mind about that." The man chuckled and the boy shuttered at the sound. "Did you know he came half way? No of course not. You know nothing. It would have been better if he would have come closer, but this is still entertaining. We need him to control that bitch of his. The blond one has more power than he knows. I don't want to risk anything until… "

The boy didn't understand the man's ramblings, but he didn't want to interrupt him either. If he did, then the man might leave and he would be alone again. Being with this man, who looked like Odin, was better than being alone. The boy came out of his thoughts only to realize the man had stopped talking and was now looking at him intently, almost greedily. He swallowed hard.

"I know what you want, what you need. We can give it to you."

They young boy looked at the man with a confused look on his face. "What is that?"

"You don't want to be alone. I can make that happen. All you have to do is come with us."

"Come with you?" The boy looked doubtfully at the man. He wasn't sure what he felt about this man who looked so much like Odin. The man seemed… strange…

The man shrugged and stood up to leave. "Well, I can see you're not interested…"

"MATTE!"(4) The boy lunged forward and grabbed onto the man's pants. If the man left… then… then… he would be alone again… alone with all those people… staring at him… The boy looked up at the man's face then both ways down the alleyway.

"They are not who they seem, you know."

The boy looked back up at the man's face in confusion. "What… what do you mean? Who are they?"

"They are the same as me. Not only that but, they are we."

The young assassin's face showed the confusion he was feeling. "Wakaranai… uh… I… don't understand…"

"You will if you come with us. Follow me, do what I have planned for you to do, and you will know… and you will never need to be alone again.

He bit the inside of his cheek nervously, then asked, "What do I have to do?"

Duo made his way to the broken crates, but after kicking around the wrecked remains, he decided there was nothing of interest there. Next he looked at what used to be pictures. Now all that was left were the frames and tattered canvas. The last was an oval mirror that was covered with who knew how many years of dust. He lifted his shirt and wiped off the surface of the glass. The mirror was not only dusty, but it seemed to have a greasy film covering the surface that smeared slightly. When he was finished, Duo stepped back to examine his work and found Trowa's angry reflection behind his own, pointing a gun at him.

Duo froze; his heart beating anxiously. "Trowa?" he whispered. Trowa didn't move. Slowly Duo raised his hands in the air. Duo wasn't sure if Trowa would really shoot him or not, but with the way he'd been acting that day, he didn't want to chance anything. In the mirror, Duo saw Trowa smirk. Swallowing hard, he decided to take a chance and turned around to face Trowa. But when he did, Trowa was off at the other side of the room looking at more of the broken frames fixed on the walls.

Duo blinked in confusion. Suddenly, the mirror behind him shattered. Duo ducked low, covering his head. Trowa ran over to where Duo was huddling. "What happened?"

Duo peeked up at Trowa. "I… I don't know!" Duo stood, brushing glass off his clothes.

"What's this?"

Duo looked up as Trowa pried something from the wall where the mirror had once been. Trowa looked at the object in confusion for a moment then held it up for Duo to see.

It was a bullet.

The type Trowa's gun took.

Duo stared for a moment, eyes wide, mouth open. Slowly, Duo tucked Heero's gun into his pants, then quickly grabbed Trowa's wrist.

"Let's get the hell out of this attic!"

The man who looked like Odin walked to the other side of the alleyway to a large metal door and opened it effortlessly. Looking at the boy expectantly, the man gestured with his hand for the child to enter.

The boy stood and peered into the opening. It was dark and he was unable to see what was beyond the door. Slowly he took a step toward the doorway, then another. Almost in a daze the boy traveled the distance to the entrance.

"Go in," the man whispered eagerly.

Slowly, the boy walked over the threshold. His footsteps seemed to echo around him, and he was so nervous that he didn't notice the man slip in through the doorway and follow him.

A rat scuttled out of the way, nearly missing being caught in the slamming door. The rat sniffed the door for a moment, only to be frightened away by the sudden screaming within.
1- Sore wa fukouheida (yo) – It's not fair(!)

2- Wakaranai (yo) – I don't know(!)

3- Anata- You…

4- Matte – wait