See all warnings and disclaimers in the first chapter.

A/N: Umm, can't think of any questions you all had . . . wait, except one. What will happen to Relena? Well, I can't tell you that. It would just give too much away! But oh, I can't wait until it happens, whatever it is!

Heero: Aren't you the one who decides, you idiot?

Jewel: . . . you're mean. I don't like you one bit.

Heero: (raises eyebrow)

Duo: I like you, Heero! (flying tackle-glomp)

Jewel: Umm, yeah. So, on to the next chapter!

In a Game of Chess, the Winner Takes the King

Treize worked quickly. Relena had her trial hearing in two days. During that time the Imperial Court was in an uproar. Quatre decided to make his impassive observer role into something a little more proactive. He took a ground shuttle to the Imperial Palace to see Dorothy. Trowa paced at his side, looking very handsome in a glittering neckpiece of gold inset with multi-faceted emeralds the size of hummingbird eggs.

Dorothy wore a red informal gown that hugged her willowy form beautifully. Her long hair, closer to platinum blonde than the darker blonde of Relena's, was pulled into an artful twist, allowing becoming wisps to trail down her neck. Quatre had always thought of her in his mind as the schemer to Relena's conniver. The two women were more alike than either would admit. Which amused him.

"I'm glad you had time to see me, Dorothy," he said, taking her hand and lightly kissing the back. They were distantly related, but he found the woman, just slightly older than him, responded well to light flirtation.

She gave him a warm smile—at least, as warm a smile as she ever gave. "How could I not see my favorite cousin? And believe me that's saying something; I've got quite a few." She laughed lightly.

The biggest difference between Relena and Dorothy was this. Relena wanted people to believe she was the demure, dulcet-toned lady she portrayed. Dorothy didn't care if the whole empire knew her for the devious, cunning vixen she was. Which was the main reason Quatre, and not her, was the favored for the crown. The only reason he was close with Dorothy was his apathetic lack of interest in seizing the throne for his own.

In truth, Quatre simply didn't care. He was already wealthy beyond comprehension and powerful beyond measure. What did one more title matter? He couldn't help the tiny, faint grin.

"What?" Dorothy inquired, sitting down with care not to wrinkle her skirts.

"Oh, just thinking about everything that has happened these last few days," he replied, seating himself opposite her and resting a hand on Trowa's head. "And admittedly, I'm curious as to your thoughts on Relena's pending hearing."

Dorothy looked surprisingly calm at his words. "To tell you the truth," she said, "I hadn't given it much thought. I doubt there are many out there sympathetic to Relena's plight. She brought this on herself."

Quatre shrugged gracefully. "True." Directing his next question inward, he made sure nothing showed on his face. "Trowa, can you smell anything on her? Fear, anxiety?"

Trowa's eyes lazily roved over the room, no interest at all apparent in his green eyes. "Yes. There's a good bit of anxiety in her scent. She's worried about something, though it's impossible for me to say what."

"Does it bother you I'm the one who set up a meeting between her and Treize?" Quatre inquired.

"Yes," Trowa answered for her, amused and enjoying it.

"No," Dorothy said in an off-handed way. "I knew it was bound to happen one way or another. Father warned me about the path I took, but believe it or not I did want to spare Relena an embarrassing debacle with the courts."

"She's lying," Trowa said, lying down and idly licking one great paw. "She's hiding something."

Quatre had to fight to keep his smile off his face. Oh, he did love these games. "You are far more benevolent than her, I'm sure," he said softly, his gaze focusing inward. "Relena is sure you did her a grave injustice."

It was Dorothy's turn to shrug. "She gave me no other option. We were best of friends when we were children."

"I remember," Quatre mused. All that had changed in the course of two days. Two terrible, heart-breaking days. "What about her brother?"

Something softer entered Dorothy's cold eyes. "That was a true pity," she said quietly. "I really didn't want to implicate Zechs in Relena's doings, but he wouldn't defend himself or speak out against his sister. He left me no other recourse."

Quatre nodded absently. Everyone in the Imperial court knew of Zechs' unshakable loyalty to his sister. "Are you going to speak out against her?" he asked at length.

And Dorothy surprised him by saying, "No. But nor will I help her in any way."

Fair enough. Quatre found himself anxious for events to unfold, to see what was going to happen when things began to move. He couldn't fathom the directions the tides would turn. It just made all this that much more exciting.

o8o o8o

Duo heard them at some point coming down the hall, felt Heero's alertness when the wolf did, too. In the day or so they'd been held wherever they were, Heero hadn't changed back to his wolf form or tried to communicate mind-to-mind. It worried Duo, especially since his Bonded wouldn't tell him what was troubling him so much. Duo could feel it, like a cancer.

"I'm sorry I haven't been to see you, Duo," Relena's voice said as soon as the door hissed open, "but I've been very busy. Believe it or not, Quatre agreed to see me. Have you met Quatre?"

Duo, leaning against his pillows, was glad to be sitting up nonetheless. "Of course," he said. "How long to you intend to keep me here, Relena?"

"Oh," she said, sounding dismissive, "a few more days, maybe. Treize got the Court together to give me a hearing tomorrow to defend myself against Dorothy's allegations. When the Prime and Vice Chancellors vote during the trial, though, they will be split right down the middle. The Vice Chancellors will vote in my favor. Having even one Prime Chancellor on my side will assure my victory. That's where you come in, Duo-darling. I just have to give your busy father a little call and see to it things go my way during the end part of this."

Duo's stomach tightened at the thought.

"I have a lot of plans in motion, actually," Relena said in a very contented voice. "I'm going to do away with the parliamentarian government so that when I'm crowned empress, nothing will surpass my authority. I think I will take you as my consort, Duo. Would you like that, hmm? Be the most powerful man in the galaxy? I don't want to have an emperor. Oh no, that would take too much power away from me. But I can still give you all the power you ever dreamed of, Duo-love."

For a moment Duo wondered if Relena was mentally unstable. "I don't want power, Relena," he said slowly, wishing he could see. Visible cues were often the surest way to tell what someone was really thinking.

He could hear her smile, though. "I'm sure given time you'll come around to my way of thinking. But right now, I need to talk with your father. Exercise all my tremendous power of persuasion."

Duo didn't bother telling her there was no way his father would agree to this kind of threat. He heard some moving about, heard some soft beeping, felt Heero's tension level raise again. Then Relena's voice poured like honey through the air as she established contact with Denan Maxwell's aides.

"I'd like to speak with the Prime Chancellor, please," she said in those dulcet tones. "It's very important."

"I'm afraid the Prime Chancellor is busy and cannot be disturbed at this time," said the almost bored voice of the aide.

Duo recognized it. Lysaine, a stern woman without a sense of humor.

"Could he possibly become unbusy in the near future?" Relena asked. "Say, the next two minutes?"

"No," Lysaine said, flat this time. Now borderline rude.

"What if the person inquiring was holding his son captive and threatened bodily harm to the boy?" That said in the sweetest tone imaginable.

There was a dead silence for a moment. "I'll get the Prime Chancellor."

"Thank you," Relena said in that same syrupy voice.

It made Duo want to be sick. No one said anything in the intervening duration. Though it felt like forever, Duo knew it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Then he heard his father's voice.

"Relena," he said, sounding at once shocked and disbelieving, as though he wasn't sure she seriously meant Duo harm. "Do you have my son?"

"Yes," Relena confirmed. "If you're wondering why no one has noticed him missing, I'm afraid that's your fault. You keep him locked up in your fabulous mansion so much the only one who sees him is your servant, Karon. And she's been . . . let's just say, taken out of the picture."

The feeling of sickness intensified. Did that mean Relena had had Karon killed? Would she do something like that? There was silence from his father, and Duo could picture him trying to work this in his mind, see things from all angles, figure out if she was bluffing or there was something he could work with. Relena, apparently, got tired of waiting.

"Would you like some tangible proof?" she asked.

There was the sound of movement, and suddenly Heero was being pulled away from him. Duo could hear the Telmaran snarling, the sounds of a scuffle, then a muffled grunt. Pain washed over him—Heero's pain. Then two sets of large hands stripped the blankets away and manhandled him down onto the bed. Duo heard a sharp intake of breath from his father.

"Don't hurt him, Relena," Maxwell said in a barely constrained voice. It sounded like a cross between a plea and a threat.

"That depends entirely on you," Relena said. "I greatly dislike the idea of causing Duo any harm. But I need a favor, and you're the one who's going to give me what I need."

"And what would that be?" Maxwell asked, tone guarded now.

"I have a hearing and a trial in front of the Court," Relena said. "I want you to vote for my innocence."

Another pregnant silence. "Why would I help a known traitor?" Maxwell demanded in a hard voice.

Relena clicked her tongue. "Hardly complimentary words from a man whose son is in said traitor's hands," she pointed out mildly. "Boys, why don't we show Prime Chancellor Maxwell how deadly serious I am?"

Duo's heart leaped into his throat. The frayed remains of Heero's calm evaporated, and Duo could hear his terrible snarling, feel him struggling against his captors. Those big hands pulled Duo off the bed, and he gave them no resistance. He didn't know what they were going to do, but he certainly didn't want to make it worse. Any pain they inflicted on him, Heero would feel too.

They lifted him right off the floor and set him—not very gently—on the cold, hard surface of a metal table. He hissed when the cold touched his skin; the robe he wore was thin. They drew his hands over his head, locking his wrists into equally cold metal restraints. Something cold and slightly sticky was pressed against his temples. There was a brief, stinging sensation not unlike the prick of a needle, then hot, electric pain had his entire body seizing up as his muscles spasmed.

One cry escaped his lips before he clamped his teeth shut, refusing to cry out again. He couldn't stop the strangled moans, however. He could feel the pain backwashing through Heero, making everything worse—Heero was also struggling not to let it show.

It didn't last long. Duo's father caved first. "Relena, stop!" he begged, voice full of anguish. "Stop it!"

It stopped. "Believe me," Relena said in a voice just barely shaky, "I don't like seeing him in pain any more than you do. Have I convinced you, Prime Chancellor?"

"Yes," Maxwell said slowly, sounding defeated. "Don't hurt my son anymore, Relena. I'll see to it you get your pardon."

"Thank you," the woman purred, all former discomfort apparently forgotten. "I knew I could count on you, Lord Maxwell. I'll be contacting you again tomorrow, just to make sure you haven't forgotten or changed your mind."

"Unlikely," Duo heard his father spit out before the contact was terminated.

The moment they were left alone, Heero leaped onto the table and pulled Duo into his arms. His whole body was trembling wildly, and Duo was glad they'd unlocked the restraints so he could cling to his Telmaran Bonded. The wolf's chaotic emotions jumbled together in Duo's head, somewhat disorienting him. And Heero's hold was so tight it almost hurt.

"I'll kill her," Heero raved, his fingers clenching in Duo's hair, his snarl catching on every word. "I'll rip her fucking throat out!"

Duo said nothing. At the moment, he didn't trust himself to speak.