So I can't believe it really took me nearly a year and a half to update this. I am not letting it die. Not after this chapter. It took me so long to write it, but I'm actually proud, and kinda glad because I think I've grown at least a bit in my writing which will really give this chapter that extra punch. I thought I was going to wait until I had everything finished and update all at once, but I really wanted to put this piece out there. So really, enjoy.


Year: After Colony 233

March 14

9:00 am

Location: Colony Cluster L2; Colony 16NAK68

Dusk settled slowly onto the colony. Somewhere in the distance, sirens blared, carrying survivors of a huge battle from the destroyed hospital grounds to the shuttle port to be transferred to a safer location. Bodies of the dead littered the ground, and a few small fires still blazed as firefighters did their best to clean up the area. On one side of the hospital rescue crews worked to find those who might still be alive.

But none of this took place on a desolate side of battle ground. Here the ground was littered with pieces of building and mobile suits. Here the word death was printed in bold letters. There wouldn't be any survivors here, as here was where the final bomb had landed, shattering everything around it as it exploded on contact with the ground, either destroying it's victims on contact or burying them so deeply under layers of debris that they slowly suffocated.

However, it was here that a single metal bed rail shock slightly, shuddering as something pressed against it. It creaked loudly against the stillness of the surrounding area, before sliding forward and down a mound of debris. One pale, weak arm appeared slowly, followed by a second as their owner appeared to struggle to pull herself out from under the ruins, coughing hard as dust and soot entered her lungs. The small, brown haired, grey eyed girl pushed herself clear of her trap, and leaned forward on her knees. Her breath came in labored bursts as she gazed around her surroundings.

She remembered a battle; she remembered a missile aimed at two of her allies; and she remembered rushing forward to beat the missile. She recalled the feeling as her entire body heated to extreme levels and her mobile suit exploded around her. "I-iso-ke," she muttered, her lips cracking from dryness. Yet somehow, she was kneeling, alone, bruised, dirt covered, and sweaty, on the ground littered with bodies of innocent people and soldiers. Something was wrong; or at least more wrong than it should be.

A cough on her left drew her attention. She saw a beam shift slightly and then topple to the side as the body beneath it crawled to his hands and knees laboriously. He started looking around him, fear in his eyes. They softened for a moment as they fell on Kat, who by this point had tears in her eyes, unsure why she only saw Haru and what had happened.

"Y-yuy," for the first time, Kat heard the sound of another human being's voice besides her own. Both she and Haru searched frantically until they found the source. Haru struggled to stand, and managed to stumble over to the last remaining wall of the hospital. A mound of dirt, soot, and rubble had fallen burying nearly all of Trevet alive, and successfully trapping him within the ground. Only his face and one of his feet were visible. His breathing was coming in short gasps, the weight of the debris crushing down on his lungs.

"Hang on Maxwell," Haru shouted, his energy slightly renewed at the sight of his friend in danger. He began digging frantically, while Kat reached his side.

"Hurry. I can feel someone squeezing my leg. Someone's alive in here," he managed to get out." Haru stared at him. Trevet was barely managing to keep himself alive and yet all he could think about was rescuing the unknown person gripping his leg beneath the collapsed building. Haru never stopped digging, but began to dig faster at Trevet's urging, the fear apparent in his voice.

Slowly, but surely Haru and Kat pulled him free, and with him, a nearly limp Ayman, who instantly took a huge breath, then coughed out all the dirt particles that had settled in his lungs. Trevet instantly hugged the boy to his chest as Ayman's breathing steadied with his own. The small boy's closed eyes fluttered open and looked into Trevet's questioning ones. He let a small smile grace his lips.

"Air hole," he muttered, before letting his eyes close again in exhaustion. Trevet rested the boy's body against the wall and then stood, helping Kat to reach her feet as well. Haru was already standing, using the wall to steady himself. His eyes had resumed their frantic feared look as he searched. This couldn't be it. They couldn't be the only ones to have survived. And if they were, where were the bodies of their friends? Where was Nikki?

"HARUKO!" His head snapped up in response to someone screaming his name. Someone was running across the battered ground toward him, stumbling in weakness. He stared as she came closer until Ami collapsed into his arms sobbing. Her left arm was bleeding once again, and there was dry blood on her forehead that hadn't been their before the explosion. He held her shaking body, as he looked to where Trevet was seated with Kat who held Ayman in her arms. Trevet was calmly explaining what had taken place in the past few hours, telling her it was a week after the battle she remember. The hospital had been attacked. She'd been in a coma. And Isoke really was gone. They weren't able to salvage enough to rebuild him for her.

Haru turned back to the blond girl in his arms. He used his hand to make her look at him. "What happened?" he asked, seeing the horror in her eyes.

"Serpents. Serpents took them," she blurted out, before sobbing once again. Try as he might, Haru couldn't get her to tell him any more.


Year: After Colony 233

March 15

night

Location?

Nikki stood in a field of tall grass. One hand pressed down on the sun hat she wore, trying to keep it from flying off. The other was clasped in Haru's. He stood beside her, smiling down at her. In front of them was a lake.

"I'll race you," Haru told her, smiling cheerfully. He was no longer the twenty one year old she was holding hands with. Instead beside her was a ten year old boy wearing a pair of old swim trunks. She frowned at him, confused. "What's wrong? I'll give you a head start," Haru suggested. She suddenly realized she was looking up at him. She was eight years old again, wearing a bathing suit under a long sleeve shirt. Her legs had a few minor bruises on them, but she didn't care about any of this. She smiled and nodded, taking off running towards the lake. A moment later, Haru raced past her. He tripped over a tree root and disappeared underneath the tall grass. "Owww…" he groaned, as Nikki skidded to a halt. He slowly stood up as the sky grew dark. He was older now. Maybe fourteen, wearing a pair of pajamas. It started to drizzle as she noticed that she too had aged to keep up with him. She was wearing a long white, soaked nightgown, although it still wasn't raining that hard. She felt a slight pain in her head, as Haru stared at her, concern written on her face. She placed her hand on the back of her skull, and then pulled it away, watching as red blood collected on it.

Nikki gasped, and at the same time, lightning that had been playing in the sky struck the spot directly in front of Haru. She shielded her eyes from the blinding flash. When she could see again, Haru stood in front of her, back to the age of twenty one, wearing his piloting suit and helmet. She was dressed identically, her helmet clutched in her hands.

The spot where the lightning had struck began to smolder, and suddenly a raging fire appeared between them, moving steadily towards Haru. Nikki threw her helmet aside, dashing towards him, screaming his name over and over again. The flames surrounded him, until she couldn't see him anymore.

She slowly opened her eyes. She was currently chained to a cement wall, by both her legs and arms. Her head hung limply on her chest. Dried blood ran from the left corner of her mouth to her chin, as well as a gash in her forehead. Her right ankle was twisted in an odd direction; she didn't doubt that it was broken, but at least the pain had numbed. "Kuso…" she cursed under her breath, spitting a bit on the floor.

"You're awake," someone said to her. She slowly raised her head so she wasn't staring at her bare feet. She looked around and found Tarak hanging on the right wall, perpendicular to the one she was on. He looked bruised and beaten, and had been bleeding at some point from something. However, he was completely calm, just watching her quietly; and he was only wearing boxers. A chill went through her body as she slowly realized that she too was nearly naked, wearing only her bra and underwear. Sick bastards.

They weren't alone. Yul on the same wall as she was, between her and Tarak, his eyes closed. For a moment Nikki thought he was still unconscious, but then she heard the muttered whispers of a chant. He was meditating or praying. She wasn't sure. The last occupant of their cell hung on the wall opposite Tarak. Bren, unlike Yul, was still unconscious. The final wall held the door to the cell, which allowed the only light into the small room. "You ok?"

"I think so," Nikki replied. "What happened?"

"Bomb," Yul replied. "I think the serpents captured us once we were unconscious."

"The others?"

"No clue," Tarak told her. "We both woke up here." He saw Nikki's face falter. "Be brave. I'm sure he's alive somewhere. He wouldn't want you to be scared."

Nikki nodded slowly. "Ami either. They're together, Tarak. I'm sure of it. Kat too," she replied. "And Trev, and Ayman. They're all alive. We have to have faith."

"Faith?" The voice that cut into their conversation was cold. All three's heads snapped up, to stare at a man who had quietly invaded the cell while they were talking. He was a tiny man, with red hair and green eyes. Despite never seeing him before, they knew exactly who it was. The General sneered at them. "I hate to tell you, but if they really were alive do you think we would have left them behind? Your friends are dead."

"Kutabare," Nikki mumbled, too low for him to hear, although Tarak heard her well enough.

"Fuck you," Tarak cursed. The General just smiled. He walked towards Tarak, and placed his fingers around the young man's chin hard enough to draw blood with his nails.

"Insolent boy," he spoke. "Maybe you'll be first." He tossed Tarak's head to the side, and slapped it back with the other hand, causing Tarak to bite his tongue, drawing blood, which he coughed onto the floor. Nikki's face showed fear, while Yul remained, calmly and coldly staring at the man. "Your fathers had the same spirits. I won't make the same mistake twice."

"What do you know of my father," Yul spit out, the words rolling off his tongue like acid.

"I know what a lousy, low, worm of a colonial dog he was. He runs instead of fighting; leaving little puppies to do his job for him."

"Why you ass-"

"Shut up!" The General cut him off. His entire demeanor had changed in a heart beat, leaving Yul stunned as the man turned to leave, stopping for a moment in front of the still unconscious Bren. "She'd do well to stay asleep. I've got plans for all of you."

He brushed his finger against her cheek, a strange look in his eyes. It disappeared nearly as quick as it had appeared, and in a moment, he was gone, leaving the four alone once again.

"Trevet," Bren muttered, slightly stirring from her sleep. Her eyes slowly blinked up. Somehow she wasn't really surprised to find herself vertically attached to a wall. She looked first at Tarak, then Yul, and lastly at Nikki beside her. "Not Trevet?"

"No," Nikki responded.

"Who?"

"Do you want to know?" Yul asked her. Bren stared at him for a few minutes, getting several, very unpleasant ideas in her head about who had touched her. She shuddered against the stone wall.

"Never mind," she sighed.


Year: After Colony 233

March 14

12:00 pm

Location: Colony Cluster L3; Colony 21QPB47

Flashing lights; multicolored explosions; screams and cries of death; the smell of burnt flesh. All this surrounded him, and yet he didn't care. He could stand this. He could stand the destruction of other human lives, so long as they deserved it. And even if they didn't; they were getting in his way – blocking his path to those who did.

Sweat poured down his cheeks and forehead, getting in his eyes as he took out three more guards. This had to be lead number five hundred and three and yet they were no closer to finding "Heero" and Quatre.

Sighing as he watched the last of his enemies fall dead to the ground, he decided to talk to the others about what to call the kidnapper. He wasn't overly excited about referring to the psychotic clone as "Heero". Actually, it pissed him off having to share an identity with the man. Sure he'd never been very close to any of the other pilots, but he would never hurt one of them… ok, well, maybe he would hurt Duo, but Duo usually deserved it.

"Heero!"

"What do you want Maxwell," he responded, as the braided pilot bounded up beside him. It would never have been guessed, that this man was a father of teenagers, or well, a teenager and a twenty year old. He seemed way more like the teenage boy he'd been when they first fought against the Alliance and Oz.

Duo sighed, rubbing the back of his head as he examined the dead bodies in front of Heero and the smoking guns in his hand. "Dead end," Duo told him.

"Hn," Heero just stared straight ahead. Once again, they had hit a brick wall. What was with this guy? He wasn't just similar to him. He was him. It was beginning to get annoying and creepy.

"I'm sorry."

"For once, it's not your fault. Come on Maxwell; let's go find Trowa and Wufei. Then I say we pay a personal visit to The General."

"Personal?"

"No one clones me and lives," Heero sneered.

"It's suicide," Duo reminded him.

"That why you three sent your sons in?; Too chicken to take care of it yourself?"

"Your son is there too," Duo reminded him, glaring. He still clutched Heero's old gun in his hand. Heero never asked for it back, so he never gave it back. He'd gotten used to having it; unfortunately, now he knew it really had been Heero speaking to him; Or at least his imagination, taking Heero's form.

"You shot his girlfriend and kidnapped him. What was he supposed to do? By the way, does he know you shot her?" Heero asked, as they walked back to the outer edges of the estate they'd just finished demolishing. They could see their mobile suits standing off in the distance a bit.

"He does," Duo replied.

"And you're alive?"

"Barely," came the answer. Duo rubbed the back of his neck as if remembering an old pain. Actually, Haruko had tried to break his neck. Duo managed to get the hilt of his gun positioned correctly and jabbed the younger man in the gut to make him release his hold on him. After that, he'd made sure to lock the door when ever Haruko was around, and now, a year later, he still didn't trust that Haru wouldn't try and kill him as revenge.

"You're lucky," Heero told him simply. "Had it been me, you'd have been skinned to your bones."

"That what you plan to do to the General?" Duo asked him. Heero got a dangerous look in his eyes as a smirk took over his features.

"I plan to do worse, Maxwell. So much worse."


Year: After Colony 233

May 23

11:30 pm

Location: Colony Cluster L2; Colony 16NAK68

"You leave her food again?"

Kat was sitting at the table in the kitchen area of their hotel room. She looked up and accepted a coffee mug from Trevet as the young man sat down beside her. She was scanning a map of the colonies, trying to pin point some place they had yet to be. Somewhere where they would find The General.

"Yeah, but I don't think she's going to eat it," Kat answered back. Trevet just nodded and looked over her shoulder. "Damn it. The only way to find this man would be to think like him. And I can't."

"We don't expect you to," Haru answered coming in from outside. He shook off his umbrella and leaned it against the wall beside the door. "It's coming down hard out there. How is she?"

"No worse, no better," Trevet answered.

"And she's still not talking," Kat added. "It's all I can do to get her to even eat a bit."

"Keep trying."

"How are the suits looking?" Trevet asked when Kat just nodded and went back to looking over the maps. It had been two months since their friends were taken and absolutely nothing had occurred in those two months except that they had completely lost contact with Trevet's father, leaving them to their own devices.

"Poor," Haru replied. "Ayman's still their working. Hopefully we can get them up and running again. Without Tarak, things are progressing slowly."

"Don't let Ami hear you saying things like that," Kat muttered. "God damn it! I can't deal with this," she thrust the map away from her. "I'm going for a walk."

"Take a gun," Haru called to her. She waved him off, pulling the one at her side slightly out of its holster, before grabbing his discarded umbrella and slipping out the door.

"Think we should go over what Ami said again? See if there are any clues we're missing?" Trevet asked him, still staring at the map Kat had been looking over and comparing it to the notes the group had been jotting down.

"Suppose so," Haru agreed.

"Ok, well, she…."


Year: After Colony 233

March 14

9:20 am

Location: Colony Cluster L2; Colony 16NAK68

"Ami? Ami look at me. Ami, Serpents took who?" Haru asked her over and over again. Trevet and Kat were standing behind him, Trevet holding Aymen sound asleep in his arms, his body limp, but alive. Haru pushed Ami away from him slightly, willing her to look him in the eyes as she sobbed.

"They… they… and… he…"

"Shhh… come on, speak to me. We've been through worse." Ok so truth be told they hadn't, but just now that wasn't what the sobbing young woman needed. What she needed was not to have been the only one holding the answers so desperately needed. "Take a deep breath. You have to tell me what happened."

Ami tried again, opening and closing her mouth as tears flowed down her cheeks. Her entire body shook, and her eyes darted around as if she was searching for something that wasn't there.

"Ami, for their sake, what do you know? Ami, for Tarak," Haru told her gently. "And Nikki, and Bren, and Yul. You have to tell me."

Ami nodded. She drew deep breaths as Kat came and wrapped her arms gently around her friend. "All of them. The Serpents, no… the General. I- I saw him. After the explosion. I wasn't standing, but I wasn't buried. I heard voices. I stood up slowly and I saw him. He and his men; they were taking them. Bren barely looked at me. I heard what the men were saying as they chained them up. They said everyone else was dead and then he saw me. He saw me holding my gun and aiming it at his head and yet I couldn't shoot. Not when he held Tarak like that," Ami stated as she started sobbing again.

"Shhh… It's ok, Ami. It's all going to be ok. Go on." Kat whispered in her ear, stroking the blonde's head. She hugged her friend close.

Ami nodded again, forcing herself to talk through her tears. "He told them. He told them to shoot 'it' and they fired at me. I still don't know how the bullets didn't hit me, but I laid down and I played dead. I played dead so they wouldn't take me too. I had to hope if they were wrong about me, they were wrong about someone else too. But I shouldn't have. I should have gone with them."

"No you shouldn't have," Trevet told her. "You shouldn't. You did well."

"There's more. I couldn't hear much. But I heard whispering. I couldn't… I don't know exactly where. But they were going to a colony, with the last three codes Y02. But there could be hundreds. I'm sorry I didn't hear more."

"No, you did really well. Really well. You narrowed it down from thousands," Haru told her. Ami just nodded and slunk forward, fainting from exhaustion in Kat's arms. Kat just frowned up at Haru sadly as he took the blonde into his own arms. "Lean on me," he told Kat. "We've stayed here long enough."


Year: After Colony 233

May 23

11:45 pm

Location: Colony Cluster L2; Colony 16NAK68

"Y02 is not a lot to go on," Trevet reminded Haru.

"I know it isn't," Haru replied. "But it's better than nothing. I just can't see what's so important about it."

Behind them, the TV turned on, causing Trevet and Haruko to turn around, only to see Ami standing with the remote, watching the news.

"Ami?" Trevet asked her. She turned to look at him for a moment and then turned back to the TV which talked about the fact that the colonies had been receiving constant warnings from the General, but that so far there hadn't been any physical attacks.

"It's alright. No attacks," Haru told her.

"Yet," she replied. It was the first words she'd spoken in two months. Haru just shook his head, and turned back to the maps. "Are we mobile?"

"Not quite. Ayman's working," Trevet told her. He, like Haru, wasn't going to make a fuss over her speaking, fearing they might send her back into silence. It was something the four had agreed upon.

"I don't like it," Ami told them, sitting at the table beside Haru and gazing at the map. "I don't like waiting."

"Until he makes a move, there's nothing we can do," a new voice added to the mix. Ayman and Kat walked back into the room.

"Hey guys. Feeling better Kat?"

"A bit less frustrated, yeah." She turned and smiled at Ami. "Hey you."

"Hey."

"Anything yet?" Ayman asked the older men at the table. Both of them shook their heads. Ayman sighed. "I'm going to head to bed. I managed to find and fix some of the problems, but I'm going to need some parts to fix the rest."

"We'll go shopping in the morning," Trevet told him. The boy nodded and let himself into the room he, Trevet, and Haru shared in the two bedroom apartment they were renting.

"He did well," Kat told the others, taking a seat next to Ami. "I just wish we were doing as well."

"We all do," Haru confirmed.


Year: After Colony 233

May 27

7:42 pm

Location: Colony Cluster L3

"Heero! For god sakes, do you even know where we're going?"

"No," the man answered Duo, who threw his arms up into the air. The four had commandeered at shuttle and were now on their way to who knows where, their mobile suits in the hold.

"Duo, just relax and leave him alone."

"Sorry, not so keen on relaxing, Trowa. Not when my son is probably dead."

"It'd be your own fault," Wu fei reminded him. Duo just glared at him and folded his arms over his chest and settled back down into his seat beside Heero. Heero just rolled his eyes.

"You think they killed them all?" Duo suddenly asked.

"As much as I would rather they had, it's doubtful," Heero answered. Trowa and Wu fei nodded.

"If any of them survived the blast," Trowa began, but he shuddered before he could finish. "Well, we heard what they were doing to Heero."

"And that was the easy part. It's the part that comes before that gets you," Heero added to the conversation. Wu fei just sat quietly listening to the other men talk. He didn't like the idea of not knowing just as much as his friends didn't like it, but he couldn't do anything about. At least not until they found the General's hiding place, or until they found their prey. And damn it, that clone was going down.


Year: After Colony 233

June 10

1:00 pm

Location: Colony Cluster ?; Colony ????Y02

"God! Oh God! Please! Please just stop! Just stop!" Bren whimpered over and over again in her sleep. Nikki lay beside her on a slightly padded bed stained with smears of her own dry blood, her arms and legs chained down and unable to help her friend, save the quiet calling of her name.

"Bren. Wake up. It's over; they've stopped." Her voice finally cut through what ever nightmare her friend was having, and Bren's eyes shot open as she tried to jerk forward. Her arm restraints kept her solidly in place, although she heard something pop as she strained against them. "It's over," Nikki told her again, even though she knew it probably wasn't.

Both girls lay on identical cots on separate sides of a small four by four cell. They were only removed occasionally for two things; the first being collection. The "doctors", or whatever they called themselves took pleasure in removing all of their clothing and scrapping cells off their tender vulvas. They usually didn't wait long enough for their wounds to heal before getting another collection either. Bren whimpered slightly. She'd only been returned to the cell a few hours before, withering and passed out from pain. Nikki could only wince as half conscious screams of agony pierced her friends half sleep. The only other time the girls left the cell was to be beaten. Their jailers did it regularly too; almost as if it were a sport to see who could cause the most lacerations and spill the most blood the quickest. They hadn't seen either Yul or Tarak since their first week as captives three months prior and had absolutely no way of telling if they were even still alive. They guessed they were because there were some times days between collections and beatings during which the girls figured the General had to be amusing himself with his other toys.

"Breathe," Nikki told her friend, not daring to move for fear of disturbing her own partially healed wounds. It was almost feeding time.

"It's hard," Bren responded slowly. "My lungs don't want to listen. I can't do it anymore. I just want them to kill me."

"Hush; don't talk like that."

"How can you stand it? How can you let them violate you so much."

"I have to have faith that Haru and the others are still alive. That they're looking for us."

"Do you really think they're out there. You heard him. He said they wouldn't have left behind survivors. It's over. We lost. And now we're their personal play things." Bren growled, wincing every so often, tears rolling down her cheeks as pain seared through her weakened and fragile body."

"Maybe we'll escape. It's possible," Nikki told her, trying to be as optimistic as she could. But every time she spoke, she knew there was truth in Bren's words. She just didn't want to give up hope.

"That chance ran out long ago," Bren told her as the door creaked a bit. The guards were there to force feed them their food.

"Just one more month?" Nikki pleaded quietly while the keys turned in the door. "One more month?"

"Alright. One more month," Bren replied with a sigh. It was the same answer she'd given the last two times Nikki had asked the question. No matter what she said, she didn't want to give up the hope that the others might have been out there somewhere, looking for them, either.


Year: After Colony 233

June 12

1:25 pm

Location: Colony Cluster ?; Colony ????Y02

"When I get my hands on them, I'm going to," Yul growled as he thrashed against his restraints making the entire bed shake.

"You're not going to get your hands on them that way," Tarak responded coolly. He stared straight up at the ceiling while the older youth thrashed around a bit more. Tarak let him, even though the racket he was making only gave him a worse head ache than he already head. Where were the guards with food? He was starving. Finally Yul went quiet. "You done?" Tarak asked him. He got a mere grunt of frustration in return.

"You think it's as bad for them?" Yul suddenly asked him, his voice filled with concern.

"Probably worse if they're even still alive," Tarak responded. At least five times a week the two young men were taken out of their cells to serve collection. They'd be force fed several pills to stimulate them, and then the General would make them sit for hours until they were sweating in agony, begging for release. Only then would he use a clamp on their genitals and allow them to ejaculate. On their other outings out of the cell, they were beaten until they were near death or praying for it.

"You think the General might have killed them?"

"Probably not on purpose. Or they could have taken their own lives," Tarak responded.

"I don't think they'd give up that easily. We could find a way," Yul answered him.

"You know as well as I do that there is only one hope, and that's that somehow, one of the others is alive and the General made a grave mistake."

"True. But even if they are alive…"

"They've got absolutely nothing to tell them were we are." Tarak finished for him. "I know."

A key turned in the door behind them. Tarak and Yul both quieted down, not wanting to appear too eager to be fed their daily allowance of food. The guards only came once a day, giving the two men stale bread and water which was force fed to them at a rate that almost no human being could have stood, unless of course they were starving. Hunger was the only reason either man even allowed the food near them, knowing if they refused even a single bite, the guards would instantly take the scant nourishment away and they would not return until the next day. They came like clock work, and it was only because of their arrival that Tarak and Yul even knew how long they'd been prisoners. Nearing just about three months. And three months of little nourishment meant that both of them were extraordinarily weak.

The guards stepped around the two men and grinned down at them.

"What? No food trays?" Tarak asked smartly, only to be slapped in the face.

"After," one remarked coolly, undoing the chains that held the wheeled bed that Yul rest on to the floor.

"After what?" Yul asked, actually curious. His body was telling him it was time to eat. He knew it was.

"The General wants an extra collection today," the second guard told them. Tarak and Yul took in a bit of air, fear showing on their faces. They weren't exactly sure how much longer either of them would be able to stand this treatment.


Year: After Colony 233

June 30

5:00 am

Location: Colony Cluster ?; Colony ????Y02

He lay quivering on the floor of his cell. He'd been blind folded and gagged again. It happened every time he was moved. They tried to be quiet around him. Not to let him no know that he wasn't alone with Heero anymore. Something had happened after Heero beat him. Whoever had given the former gundam pilot the orders to kidnap his former ally hadn't wanted him to beat him. There were a lot of hushed whispers after that day, and he hadn't so much as heard Heero since. It was if his captive had just disappeared.

All he knew was that someone, he'd been unconscious at the time, had blind folded him and moved him some place on a carrier saying something to someone else that a man named Withers had failed. That he'd broken down and that his cells had deteriorated. Not only that but a group known to only to Quatre as "They" had almost found him because Withers messed up. Quatre didn't know who "They" were, but if his captives didn't like it, then it was probable that Quatre himself, would.

"God I'm cold," he mumbled to himself. His arms were tied behind his back as usual, and he was against the wall. He'd just been brought back from another visit to the "doctors". That's all he knew. They thought he still figured Heero was doing all of it. He knew better. The people around him weren't his previous captor. Sure he'd been beaten before, but not even Heero could have been convinced to do some of the things they'd done to him. He wouldn't believe it was even possible.

Either way though, he refused to give up hope. Even when he'd heard of another group called the "others". Apparently some of the "others" had been killed, while still more of them were being held somewhere else in the vicinity and being used for things he didn't understand. Nor did he think he wanted to. His main concern was staying alive and keeping the guards oblivious to the fact that he could hear them talking. The General obviously needed to get men who knew how to hold their tongues better than the ones currently in his service. Quatre wasn't sure what he was going to do with the information he learned, but he knew he had to get more. He had to find out who "they" and the "others" were. He just had to.


Year: After Colony 233

July 4

10:00 pm

Location: Colony Cluster L3

Ami growled as she pulled at Vulcan's control, causing the mobile suit to swirl around. It was the first action she'd seen since the General had kidnapped her friends and her fiancé. And it was their first lead to the whereabouts of the General's base.

"Come on Vulcan. Lets show these idiots what happens when they mess with our family," she laughed sending two more of their enemy bursting into flames. There would be no mercy in this battle. Their couldn't be. No one could be allowed to escape to report to the General that the remaining members of their team were still alive. He couldn't know until they were holding a gun to his head as his eyes rolled back.

Ami looked up to see how Kat was doing. She was flying in a fully repaired Osiris. Ayman had repaired his own suit, and then those of Nikki, Tarak, and Bren. No one even asked him why. They would find their friends. And their friends would want revenge. "Doing alright Kat?"

"Peachy. I have no idea how Bren managed to fly this thing," she called back, while taking out another enemy.

"Ladies, less chit-chat, more blasting," Trevet told them. For their first battle in months, they were doing exceptionally well. It wasn't surprising considering their motivation.

"You're not helping matters," Haru added. Only Ayman remained quiet, laughing a bit to himself. They may have been making jokes, but all five of them knew how dire the situation was, and how much worse it would get if they left anyone alive.

Three hours later, they were all exhausted. They'd been unable to kill the remaining four two pilots for the past half hour, but neither had the two been able to destroy them. They were stalemated.

"What do we do?" Ami cried over her speakers. No one had an answer for her.

"How does he fly for you?" The voice startled all five of them out of their stupor. The enemy had stopped moving. Despite the fact that they were all being addressed, they knew the speaker was talking to Kat. Static filled the communication monitors.

"W-what?" Kat stuttered, not believing her ears.

"I asked how he flies for you? Or are you too deaf to hear me clearly?" The voice dripped with malice.

"I think she's too dumb," a second voice cut through the intercom. The enemy had tapped into their systems, leaving the five pilots dumb founded. The static on their screens finally cleared, giving Kat, Ami, Haru, Trevet, and Ayman clear looks at their enemies; both who stared at them with hatred and disgust. Both had tattoos of serpents across their left cheeks.

"He's mine you know," the first one told Kat. She gulped, trying her absolute hardest not to cry.

"No," she whispered.

"And I suppose you threw mine out? Did you throw out all my things? Ami, are you sleeping with Haru now that we're gone?"

"I – what? How?"

"That's ok. Tarak's been a delight for me as well," the second added cruelly nearly causing Ami to nearly pass out. "He's so much more enjoyable than Haru."

"You're lying," Ayman yelled. "You're lying through your teeth." The boy was crying desperately at that point. Neither Haru or Trevet could speak. They were surprised, hurt, and scared as hell, as were Ami and Kat. Only Ayman seemed to understand what was happening. But even he was struggling with the truth. There was always a possibility.

"Are we?" Bren asked him, a sneer on her features.

"Or are we really going to kill you?" Nikki added.


Just a quick promise to Amy: I will never again go a year and a half before updating this. Or anywhere near a year and a half. It will be finished, that I absolutely promise you. Maybe only a few chapters left, but it will be finished. Love you little sis,

Fateless Wanderer