A/N: This is about the fastest I've ever churned out an update. Sadly, this does not reflect well on me, as the update follows at least a week of dead time. I'll try to get better about this. I'm sorry. I took extra care over this chapter; a lot goes on, and I hope it's understandable. In addition, there will be 3x4 content throughout the rest of this fic.

Chapter 12: An Ametric Waltz

Heero hung limply in Duo's arms while Duo stroked his air softly. He had been completely preoccupied with Heero since the unthinkable had happened. His friend had needed him, and for 15 minutes, nothing else had mattered. Heero had shuddered, Heero shook, and Heero had cried. But he was eerily calm now. Slowly the sobs had turned into gasps, and then to silent shakes, until finally Heero had gone completely, totally still. The way Duo could tell that he was still conscious was through his breathing. Heero's breaths, tickling his neck where his T-shirt had been pulled down, were still too measured, too calculated to belong to a sleeping man.

Duo was slowly coming back to himself. Noises were slipping past his consciousness, and he was starting to process what his brain had been filtering out. Nervous whispers and even giggles were starting to sweep across the classroom. He had forgotten about the other teenagers in the room. His brow creased in consternation. How were they going to get out of here? Resignedly, he opened his eyes, expecting to look upon a sea of curious and concerned students. What he did see was far more encouraging. Only 3, very familiar, concerned faces stared back at him. Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre were standing around Heero and him in a sort of semi-circle, obscuring them both from view.

"Is he ready to move, Duo?" asked Quatre in a whisper.

Duo nodded tightly. At least, he hoped so. Duo bent down and whispered into Heero's ear.

"Heero, buddy, do you think you could stand?"

There was no response.

"Heero?" Trowa asked in a tone he usually reserved for the shyest of animals.

Silence.

Gently, very gently, Duo grasped Heero by the shoulders, and lifted his upper body away from where Heero had buried his head in Duo's chest. If Duo was surprised by the glassy, vacant stare in Heero's eyes, to his credit it did not show, but Wufei swore uncharacteristically.

"Shit!"

Duo took a deep breath.

"So what do we do now?"

Quatre took a deep breath as he assessed the situation. Duo's voice now held a pleading note to it. He was at the end of his rope. Heero's breakdown had shocked him a lot more than he had let on in the beginning, and he was clutching Heero protectively to him. Someone needed to step into the role of leader and they needed to do it yesterday. The class was getting more impatient and curious, and the teacher was shifting nervously from foot to foot, reaching for the phone in the wall. Wait a minute, the phone in the wall?

"Don't touch that, Ms. Smedley,"

Quatre's voice came out sounding pinched and uncharacteristically cold, and the teacher dropped her hands and whirled around to look at Quatre, taken aback.

"I-I, well, I just thought that it might help if I called Dr. Johnson."

Quatre forced himself to calm down. He pasted on his best encouraging smile.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Ms. Smedley. Right now, Heero needs to be around people he knows he can trust, and although Dr. Gus surely has good intentions, he could only aggravate things at this point."

Understandably, Ms. Smedley didn't look as reassured as she could have. Her brow was creased and her lips pursed in indecision. Trowa stepped in.

"Ms. Smedley, we will notify Dr. Gus as soon as we get Heero back to our rooms and settled."

"Heero needs us right now," Wufei added, "Not a virtual stranger."

"Please, Ma'am." Duo added beseechingly.

"Well, I guess you gentlemen are right." She looked like she was about to add something, but if she did, none of the four heard her. They had completely refocused on the situation at hand.

Turning to Duo, Quatre took a deep breath.

"Duo, do you trust me?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Duo asked angrily. He was impatient to get Heero out of here.

"Just answer it!" Quatre snarled back just as impatiently. Duo sent him a hurt look, and Quatre apologized in his head.

"Of course I do!"

"Good. You're all going to have to trust me on this." Quatre rubbed at his chest unconsciously. "I know how to reach him, but it's not going to be pretty."

"What? Quatre, are you kidding? You promised you'd never…"

"Duo, just let me help! I know how to reach him."

"No! Look, Quatre, I know you're just trying to be a good friend, but I also remember that you lost control of your abilities once before! ZERO? You remember that, Quatre? I can tell you've been interfering, and I'm not going to let you mess with Heero's mind anymore. He doesn't need that!"

How could Duo? … of course Quatre remembered ZERO. It played an almost nightly part in his nightmares. Heero… and Trowa… Quatre tried to push his own hurt aside. He would deal with it later. All the same, he felt a rush of intense gratitude when Trowa defended him.

Trowa seethed inwardly with anger. How could Duo bring up such a painful memory at a time like this? He knew for a fact that Quatre still suffered the effects of his ZERO experience. He could tell when the bed underneath his shook every night because Quatre was struggling to keep quiet. Not to mention the memories it brought back for himself. The time between the Vayeate's explosion and his return to the battlefield was not one Trowa liked to remember. But there was no time for such personal problems. Heero needed help, and he needed it now. So Trowa schooled his features and steeled his voice.

"Duo, Quatre overcame his problems with the ZERO. You know that. You even took orders from him while he was under the influence! It doesn't matter anyways because the system is gone. I trust Quatre. If he says he knows what to do, then he knows what to do."

Quatre shot Trowa a wobbly smile. Now was not the time.

"Barton is correct. Now is a time when we need unity as a team. Infighting is not acceptable! I trust Winner." Wufei nodded curtly after his statement.

"I… well, alright. I do trust you, Quat."

Quatre didn't bother with thanks. He knelt down, mindful of his ankle, and looked into Heero's vacant eyes.

"01, do you read?" Quatre's voice was cold and impersonal.

"I read." The others barely repressed a shudder at the mechanical sounding words leaving their friend's mouth.

"What's your status?"

There was no answer.

"Report, 01!"

Quatre sighed. He hated doing this. He thought about his next move, Heero's dead eyes looking straight through him.

It's as I thought. He's shut himself down. Or rather, I've helped him to shut down. He thinks of himself as a nonentity; The perfect soldier. He's in the same frame of mind as he was right before he self-destructed the wing gundam. I can't let this go on.

"01, stand up!" Quatre's dominating tone of voice shocked all the other pilots.

"Quatre, don't be so cold!" Duo whispered harshly. But to his surprise, Heero rose, slowly and deliberately.

"01, walk to headquarters. Await further orders."

And with that Heero turned to leave the classroom.

"01!"

Heero turned around so fast it wasn't even funny.

"When you get there, sit on the bottom left bunk. Undress. Sleep."

"Understood." Heero stood there, as though awaiting further instruction. Quatre sighed heavily.

"Dismissed!"

Heero turned around and marched out of the class.

The other three watched him go, uncertain about what had just occurred. They all stared at Quatre in wonder. Duo regarded him searchingly. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Just go, Duo. He needs you."

Quatre, I…"

"Just go!" Quatre all but yelled. His breathing was ragged, and he had to resist the urge to clutch at his heart. His empathy didn't usually bother him like this, but he had overextended himself with Heero, and the people he was closest to were all in some degree of pain.

Duo took a last quick look at Quatre, then followed Heero. As soon as he was out of the room, Quatre seemed to fold in on himself. He let go of his crutches, which clattered to the ground. He would have collapsed, had strong arms not encircled him at just the right time.

"I h-h-hate doing that," Quatre half-sobbed.

"I know." Trowa rubbed Quatre's back in soothing circles, letting Quatre lean most of his weight on him. He felt rather than heard Quatre take a ragged breath.

"You hate doing what?" Wufei asked suspiciously.

Quatre moved back and wiped his eyes. He would not cry in front of everybody. He was stronger than that. He had told only Duo and Trowa the full extent of what he could do with his empathy. It was time to tell Wufei too.

"Sometimes," he whispered softly, so softly that only Wufei and Trowa could hear, "Sometimes, I can control what other people feel. I can project my own emotions just enough to let the other person feel a wisp of what I'm feeling. If their mind doesn't reject the feeling, they can hold onto it. It can become what they feel. That's what I did with Heero. I let him feel calm, and then I let him feel unafraid. Both were characteristics of the "perfect soldier," so Heero's mind held onto them to try to maintain some semblance of order. I-it came naturally… it was an instinctual reaction on my part to project, to try and protect him from all the pain he was feeling. He was having really dangerous thoughts-- Self-destructive thoughts. He really wanted to die! I didn't even realize I was doing it at first. Heero took those feelings I projected and held on with all his might. I thought, no, I knew I could help. I-I controlled him. I took control for his own good. I was just trying to calm him enough that he could deal with his feelings later. Later, when he wasn't thinking about how best to evade Duo and put a gun to his head. I had to do it, Wufei."

But Wufei only stared at him coldly.

"So Maxwell was right about your messing with his mind."

Quatre pulled back as though he had been slapped. Very quietly, he answered with a single word.

"Yes."

Wufei nodded and turned on his heel.

"Wufei!"

"No Winner! We could have helped. We could have subdued him! Nothing warrants mind control! I'm going to see Yuy. When I think I can talk to you without punching your jaw in, I will. Not before."

The door banged on its hinges as Wufei made his exit. Quatre turned desperately to Trowa.

"Trowa, tell me I did the right thing! Tell me I didn't hurt Heero."

"Quatre, what you did was necessary, even merciful. I don't know if it was right, but suicide is something Heero has struggled with before. Friends look out for each other, Quatre. I don't like to think what might have happened if you had let Heero stay hysterical. And he would have, Quatre. He had a huge nervous breakdown. He could have and would have killed himself. Nothing short of sedation could have calmed him down, and you know how Heero reacts to that."

Quatre looked at Trowa ruefully,

"It's more like he doesn't respond at all."

"Yeah." There was a long pause, and Trowa seemed deep in thought.

" I don't know if what you did was right. You did manipulate his mind." Quatre winced. "But I do know that if I were you, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Sometimes, there is no right or wrong decision, only the one you make because you wouldn't have been able to live with yourself had you made the choice to do nothing."

Quatre nodded uncertainly.

"I-I just…"

"I know, Quatre."

Quatre desisted. He took a deep breath, and took a moment to thank Allah he had a friend like Trowa. Trowa, who understood him when no one else did. Trowa, who had known right from the beginning what Quatre had been doing. He might even have sensed it; Trowa and Quatre sometimes shared a sense of each other. How else could Trowa have known he was in trouble on Libra? Quatre turned a grateful and exhausted gaze to Trowa.

"I don't think I'm welcome in our room right now."

Thank you.

Trowa sighed.

"Come on. Let's get out of here. We can go sit outside by the trees if you want."

You're welcome.

Trowa collected Quatre crutches and handed them to him. Nodding to the shell-shocked teacher as they limped past, the last of the gundam team left the English class.

Trowa and Quatre walked out of the school, unmindful of the fact that they were skipping class. A heightened awareness of each other and the connection they shared had followed the incident in English. They walked across the soccer field slowly because of Quatre's crutches, but in companionable silence. They settled under a grove of trees in the west corner of the school grounds, the afternoon sun shining peacefully down on them, in spite of everything which had just transpired. As Trowa helped Quatre to sit, Quatre found himself lost in Trowa's eyes. Green pooled around him until he could see nothing else.

"Quatre? Are you alright."

Blushing, Quatre tore his gaze away, before refocusing on the ground in front of him.

"It's nothing, Trowa. Just… thanks for standing by me."

Then Trowa did something that Quatre would remember forever. He reached across his own lap and Quatre's crutches, took Quatre's hand, and said,

"I'll always stand by you."

Duo was sitting on a stool beside Heero's bed, waiting for him to wake up. Beside him, Wufei was wearing out the carpet, pacing up and down the room.

" 'Fei, do you mind? You're driving me crazy!"

"I'm sorry. I'm just worried that I said some things to Quatre…" Wufei trailed off and wrung his hands.

Duo nodded.

"So did I."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Ya think that's Quatre and Trowa?"

"I don't know. Quatre seemed pretty upset when I left them."

The knocking came again, more insistently this time. And then, a familiar but unwelcome voice.

"Can I come in, boys?"

Duo groaned and Wufei snorted. Dr. Gus!

"Yeah, sure." Duo said in a cynical tone, "You can't possibly make it any worse."

Dr. Gus turned the lock and came in, his ever present grin not fading one bit.

"Glad to know you're so confident in my abilities, Mr. Maxwell. In turn, I promise not to comment on the fact that you are so obviously not in class where you are supposed to be."

Duo rolled his eyes, but failed to comment.

Dr. Gus took a seat on Quatre's bunk across from Heero's bed. His grin faded and was replaced with a look of complete seriousness.

"I was reliably informed of an incident that took place last block in English class. Care to explain?" Without giving them a chance to reply, Dr. Gus added, "You'd better start at the beginning."