Arriving at the scene, there were several people just standing by and watching the police curiously. Even after being shooed off many times, the pedestrians just ended up gathering again so the police just gave up trying to make them go away. Duo and Heero were able to see the outside of the building was charred from a fire that must've died out because of the rain, and there was glass all over the parking lot below along with all the people either watching or trying to get everything organized.

Heero didn't bother trying to get into the parking lot itself, but just left the car parked on the road. Duo had already jumped out of the car before Heero had stopped, and jumped the yellow tape surrounding the vicinity of the bombed building.

"Tell me what happened! Have you found any survivors?!" Duo surprised the cops as they hadn't noticed the teenager's approach.

"This is a restricted area, and we'd appreciate if you would please back away from the area. It's too dangerous for a bunch of people as there's a chance the building may collapse or there could be a chance of a second bomb in there." A burly officer warned Duo, "I'm sorry to say we have not found any survivors yet, but if you're a family member there are others waiting over there."

He pointed to a group of people gathered under some type of awning, and another officer was taking down names of their relatives who may have been inside. Duo wasn't going to wait around like them though, he knew he needed to make sure for himself that his father wasn't in there. He ran towards the entrance of the building and evaded capture of any of the police standing around.

Pushing threw the now glassless front doors, Duo made his way past the front desk and to where he knew the emergency stairs were. As he made his way up the stairs, all his thoughts were concentrating on one slim hope.

'Please be alive...'

Once on the same floor as his father's office, he immediately went towards the area his father worked in, frightened of what he might see there. But as he looked around, there was no sign of a burned body or anything, and so Duo headed towards the room that everyone had eaten lunch in the last time he'd came. As he began to draw near, he could see that room had gotten the worst of the fire and was still possible on fire as smoke was pouring out of the room.

"Shit!" Duo didn't really think clearly as he began to run towards the room. When he made it to the door way he began to shout, "Dad?! Is anyone alive?!"

There was no immediate response, but then he heard a soft groaning from a man beside the door. Duo could see severe burns and a lot of blood, but amazingly the man was still conscious. The teenager took a deep breath and then held it, not wanting to inhale much more smoke, he hastily reached for the man. He grabbed onto the guy's arms, and began to drag him out of the room and into the hall.

After putting some distance between them and the smoking room, Duo knelt beside the man he had propped up against a wall. "Hey, you work close with my father, right? Timothy Maxwell?"

The man groaned and then murmured incoherently, "He and another man left for lunch I think... Please help me..."

Just as the man had said that, Duo could hear people coming up the stairs. "Don't worry, they'll take care of you... I'm so sorry, but I have to find my father."

He turned around and came face-to-face with Heero. Duo felt Heero wrap his hand around Duo's wrist, and then he was pulled along by the calmer of the two teenagers into another room.

Once the police officers and firemen went into the smoking room or else went to the man's aid, Heero tugged Duo and the two of them managed to get down a floor unnoticed. This continued until they were able to escape through the back of the building where Heero stopped abruptly and whirled around to scold Duo.

"What the hell were you thinking?! That roof could've collapsed and you could have died! We're capable of dying at any time in any circumstance, and I thought you of all people would understand that!" Heero regretted having to remind Duo of his past, but it was the only way he would get through the stubborn teenager. As he began to calm down some he tried not to get agitated again, "Listen, let's get out of here. That guy up there said your Dad had already left when this happened, so we know he's alright."

Duo nodded, but didn't say anything. He felt ashamed of his behavior, but he couldn't say he really regretted doing it. If he hadn't, then he wouldn't have known that his father wasn't in that room of dying or injured people, Duo felt himself chewing on his bottom lip almost like a child.

He stopped when Heero leaned towards him and kissed him softly, "Now we have to find your father."

Duo's cell phone chose to ring right then, and so the teenager answered without bothering to check who it was. This was a grave mistake as he heard the one thing he hadn't expected...

"Hello Duo, you'd best listen to me if you want your father to stay alive."

Heero seemed able to tell something was wrong, but Duo refused to give him the phone. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious Duo? Your father and I went out for lunch, and then that horrible bomb went off. I wasn't about to let him go back there when it was so dangerous." There was mock concern as the man continued to speak, "Believe me Duo, he's much safer here with me than there."

"Leave him the fuck alone! Where are you?!"

"I'm sure you remember the old building called Khushrenada Inc., right? So just head over there and you'll get to see him again. Oh, and bring Heero with you, I wouldn't want him to miss out on the party."

The line went dead after that, and Duo snapped the phone shut.

----

The nurse was pretty pissed off once she returned to her desk to see three teenage boys on her work computer. She shooed them all away and warned them if they did it again, she would make them leave the hospital. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei had feigned playing an innocent online game, and that made sure the nurse would have no idea of what they were really doing on her computer.

"So what are we supposed to do? All we know is that Zechs was the one who attacked Trowa and Catherine, and that he's Treize's adopted brother. It's good information, but it won't lead us to them. Or tell us why they're going through all this trouble just for Duo." Wufei pulled out his sword from behind the bed Catherine was sleeping in.

Trowa apparently was making sure his sister wasn't in any sort of pain, "I guess all we can do is go to Khushrenada Inc. ourselves and take a look around."

"I doubt they would hole up in there, the first place somebody would think to look was there." Wufei answered skeptically as he leaned against the wall.

"No," Quatre was observing Trowa as he spoke. "Actually that might be the first place they'd hide, considering the building is shut down and supposedly no one can get in. Not to mention it's a very familiar place for them, and most people tend to go back to places that they feel comfortable in. I say we should go have a look, even if we don't find them we might find something else helpful."

The three of them gathered up whatever they had brought to the hospital room, and then Quatre and Wufei left to wait in the lobby. Trowa stayed behind for a few more minutes in order to leave a note stating that he went to Quatre's home for the night, and then said goodbye to his sister.

"I promise I'll be back Catherine, no matter what happens."

----

He hated the place even more now than he had back then, all of the horrible things he had done... And those things had all been done without a second thought until he met Katherine. It was hard to believe she had also been working there, but she hadn't been aware of the true experiments the company did.

As Tim was forced to walk through the place, it brought back the memory of when him and Katherine had first met.

Katherine had worked in the ignorant part of the company, where they actually made the products that were sold at stores across the country. She hadn't been aware of what went on in the basement levels, where Tim worked. The first time they'd actually met had been an uneasy confrontation, as she was dating Treize at the time and had decided to have a look around the basement where she'd never been before.

----

Tim had been preparing to go home when the elevator door opened to reveal the young woman. Her amethyst eyes had such an innocent look that immediately drew him in, but when she attempted to step off the elevator he stopped her.

"You should know only authorized employees are allowed down here." He stepped into the elevator while still making sure she was unable to leave.

"Why is it such a big deal? I work here just like you do, so I should have automatic authorization to go where I need to go." Katherine's long brunette hair wasn't tied back and was allowed to hang free by her waist.

"Just because you're dating the boss doesn't give you authorization. Besides, nothing of any real interest goes on down here." He tried not to sound too harsh, but she was too stubborn to accept his answer.

She was glaring at him when she suddenly caught the name on his ID card. Katherine didn't reveal to him at first that she'd seen his name, and then asked him in a thoughtless manner. "So you're Treize's brother? I'd always heard that he had two brothers, but the only one he ever mentioned to me was his adopted one Zechs."

"My name's Takashi Khushrenada, not Treize's brother."

"Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! Please don't be mad at me!" She looked desperate not to be ignored by him, and for some reason he was unable to. "But I was just surprised to finally meet you after he always dodged my questions about you, I guess I got the idea I would never meet you."

"I'm not mad at you... I just get annoyed by everyone constantly calling me Treize's brother." He couldn't believe how childish she seemed to him, and he didn't want to know what would happen to her if she ever found out the experiments they did in the lower levels. "Are you off for the rest of the day?"

Katherine smiled at him, "Why are you offering dinner?"

"May-maybe, would you accept my offer?" He could feel himself blushing slightly.

"Of course, to be honest I'm not really that into your brother... so it'll be our secret, ok?" She held out her pinky, and it confused him. "Haven't you ever made a pinky swear?"

"No... what's that?"

"When I was younger we always use to make pinky swears whenever there was a secret we wanted to make sure was kept. All you have to do is wrap your pinky around mine, and then you can never tell."

He did as she instructed, and their secret never left either of their lips.

----

"Brings back memories, doesn't it Takashi?" Zechs continued forcing Tim towards the elevators. "Treize is waiting for you on floor number twelve. I advise you go straight there, but I have some business to attend to."

"You leave Duo alone!" Tim didn't think clearly as he attacked Zechs, the blonde man was caught off guard and didn't have time to react. "You bastards are the ones who killed my wife! And now you're trying to steal Duo from me!"

Zechs threw the man off and started getting up, "You're wrong Takashi, you are the one who gave Duo to us in return for stealing Katherine Maxwell from Treize. But you never upheld the deal, instead you changed your name and took on the surname Maxwell. You were always a coward, always ready to hide just avoid a confrontation."

Timothy stood up shakily as his body wasn't capable of handling all this pain, "I might've been a coward then... But I'm not going to let you two ruin my life all over again."

"You think you have any choice now? I already know your body is too weak to handle my powers, all those experiments on your body made it more vulnerable since they didn't know exactly what they were doing... but when you worked on my body you knew exactly how to make me perfect." Zechs laughed at the man as he struggled, "Won't it be wonderful to die at the hands of your own creation?"

----

Now a flashback into the past to start putting the pieces together. This was a somewhat difficult chapter to write, only because I don't want to reveal too much at once. So I'm hoping it wasn't too little for you guys as well because of me being so cautious. Anyways... hope ya'll enjoyed!

Please R & R!

Shari Maxwell