Yeah, still taking longer than I'd like, but I'm working on it. Hope you like it.

SMACK!! Quatre's eyes snapped open. The force of the blow sent him rolling across the floor and he cupped his cheek. He caughed and scrambled further away from the strange man glowering at him. "Get up, you little brat." The man had pitch black hair topping his thin, strong build. When Quatre didn't move, he came over and hauled the blonde to his feet by his hair. "I said get up!"

Quatre tensed up, quickly calculating angles and risk and such. This stranger seemed not as strong as the other creature, maybe he could do something. The brunette pulled his fist back to punch and Quatre went into action. He reached up, deflecting the blow and twisting so he could kick into the strange man's chin. His head snapped back and he stumbled, cursing loudly. Quatre was already moving, pushing off the ground as soon as he landed and sprinting for the door. Abruptly, Quatre stumbled, electricity coursing through his body. A powerful hand grabbed his shoulder, pushing Quatre around. It was the blonde demon. He was bleeding badly from a split lip, but Quatre had no chance to wonder on the injury as a blade was shoved into his side.

"You little bastard! I won't lose you!"

Quatre gripped the man's wrist and glared. "I wouldn't bet on that." The demon yelped, pulling his hand away. Quatre stared at the pale, almost blue flesh before taking off again. He tripped, screaming, and grabbed at the thin collar, but this time he didn't stop as he was shocked again. He was getting out.

Running blind, Quatre was glad the building was small; he burst through another door and was suddenly outside in the blinding sunlight. He hesitated a moment before dodging around a few startled youkai and into the surrounding wood. He leaned against a tree, keeping one eye on the building he'd just left. The blonde demon stood just outside the door, glaring at the thick trees. "Think about this, little one. You're in a hostile land, wounded, and you're completely lost. And on top of the wild animals that will be hunting you, I will not let you get away, Quatre." Quatre bit his lip and ducked further into the forest, still listening to the demon. "You idiots, get out there and find him. I want that boy!"

The forest seemed never ending, but Quatre couldn't stop. Every breath hurt and he knew the dagger clipped either his lung or his diaphram. Finally he stopped, sitting and holding his aching chest. If he didn't heal, he was going to bleed to death. He could already feel his eyes getting heavy. There was a sudden, gentle heat, and Quatre couldn't help drifting to sleep.

"A mimic demon?" Kuwwabara was scratching his head. "Have we faught a mimicking demon?"

Yuusuke growled, still picking bits of glue from his hands. "Well, we must have. Or we beat the creep's brother or something like that."

Trowa was pacing behind the men. "So when we get to Quatre, it might not be Quatre at all?"

Koaenma nodded, doing his best to peel glue from his robes. "Not only that, but our lovely shapeshifter could have any number of bodies and abilities at his disposal. No doubt, he wanted all this time to prepare. Maybe even learn behavior from Quatre to fool us with.. Mimickers can learn about a person over time. On one's really sure, but we think they've got some phsychic abilities to do it."

Heero pinned the god with a glare. "Psychic? She can read his mind? Quatre knows a lot about Gundams and who knows how much else!"

Yuusuke growled, matching Heero's glare at the god. "And what about his knowledge about his friends? He could come out with some phobia that would paralize Duo or one of the others!" He shut his mouth with a clack and looked at Duo. "Then again, that's already happened."

Duo sat against a wall, curled in Kurama's lap. The two boys hadn't participated at all in this little breifing session, trusting Hiei to listen and tell them the important parts. Hiei had told the others shortly that Fei was gone and they would not mention it. So far, they'd allowed the silence so the other boys could mourn as they needed. Now they could not allow such a luxery.

Slowly Koenma went over to the two. "Kumara? What happened?"

The youko looked up, pulling Duo closer to his chest. "We were attacked by Karasu. When he left, WuFei was gone too. We can only assume he was taken."

Koenma gave a little groan and started pacing with Trowa. Heero stood abruptly and stalked over to the two of them. "That doesn't tell us anything," he growled. "Duo, I need a real mission report."

The braided boy sniffed, wiping at his eyes and pulling away from Kurama. He stared at the ground, eyes darting back and forth as he remembered. "Um...sniff...We came to a temple. Fei and us spread out, looking for whoever was there. Then, uh, that demon creepy guy –"

"Karasu," Kurama supplied.

"Yeah. Karasu made himself known. He bargained, distracting us and gaging our abilities. After he presented himself, he deliberately provoked Fei and then the rest of us. We acted foolishly and attacked recklessly. He distracted us and by the time we recovered, they were gone."

Heero nodded and reviewed the story in silence for a moment. The others were in shock that Duo, even in such a horrible state, could recall such detail. Not to mention read so much into actions that would have meant nothing to them. Heero frowned at Duo. "He provoked WuFei first?"

Duo nodded, still staring at the ground. "He targeted Fei specifically. He mentioned being able to sense his ki." Duo stopped, a realization forming. "He didn't hurt him. He wanted him for something else."

Heero nodded, pleased that he'd managed to snap Duo out of it. "So now we have two objectives. But Quatre is still our priority."

"But what do we do?" The group fell silent again, all eyes turning to Yukina. "I mean, since it's a shapeshifter, it's even more important to meet on our terms, not his. But we're running out of time."

The room was silent and still, Duo's sniffling the only noise for quite a while. Finally, Trowa turned on his heel. "I'm going back out there. I'm going to find him."

Yukina jumped as if shocked. "No, Trowa-san! It's getting dark and you've been working all day. You can't help him if you're too exhausted!" She reached for his arm, but Trowa pulled out of her reach and out into the forest again. Yukina watched after him, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. She turned to Hiei with big eyes. "Please go with him!"

Hiei nodded and moved back to Kurama and Duo, hugging them shortly before flitting into the darkening forest.