Author's Note: Surprised I updated early? Well, truth be told, it's a special occasion: today is the birthday of Kibin Okami so as a gift I present her with this chapter. Have a happy birthday, KO, and for the rest of you, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Go Find Your Master

No one was more surprised than Trowa to see the sudden appearance of the monstrous Sigmund as the behemoth broke through the floor and attacked Solo right out of the blue. But what really worried the unibanged youth was the emergence of another individual as he crawled out of the hole Sigmund had made only moments before.

"Astaroth," Trowa hissed, his eyes narrowing almost to mere slits.

"Well what do ya know!" Astaroth exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with sadistic excitement. "I was just thinking about you too!"

"The feeling's not mutual," Trowa retorted, grabbing a walking potted plant that he had brought along from the building's lobby. With a flick of his wrist, the jumble of thin plant roots straightened out and wrapped around one another to form a whip that sliced through the air and wrapped around one of Astaroth's wrists. With a sharp tug, Trowa sent the scaly one into a wall and whipped the plant whip back before it could be shredded by spikes.

He didn't have as much liberty with plantlife here in this desolate city so he couldn't afford to lose any.

Snapping at Dorothy, he said, "Get out of here! Now!"

Having remembered Astaroth from their last encounter, the blonde nodded fearfully and took off down a random hallway just as Astaroth broke through an adjacent wall and rushed at Trowa. Trowa twisted out of the way, dodging a spike encrusted fist by mere inches, and then twirled his body to land a kick on Astaroth's back, sending the other stumbling away.

"Picked up some new tricks?" the scaly one snarled as he spun around and charged at Trowa again.

Not deigning to answer, Trowa jumped and flipped over Astaroth, his whip twisting around the scaled boy and tripping him up, causing him to fall face first onto the floor. Not going to chance another attack, Trowa backed away, heading down a hallway opposite to the one Dorothy had taken.

Instead of running at him once he got back up to his feet, Astaroth, shot two spikes at him that Trowa bent over himself backwards, Matrix style, and whipped his whip to capture one of the airborne spikes. Mimicking their previous battle, Trowa sent the appropriated spike back at its creator who caught it in midair, smirking back at him.

"You really thought you could use the same trick on me?" Astaroth sneered.

With only a thought, Trowa grew the root whip out and let its end divide and swarm over Astaroth's arm, the individual roots wrapping around spikes and plucking them off as Trowa tugged it back towards him.

"No, just arming myself," Trowa answered once the whip was back at his side.

"Cocky little shit," Astaroth growled as he re-spiked his arm and lunged at him.

---

Two Romafellor security guards ran down the hallway, their semi-automatics held up and ready to be used on the first intruders they came across.

Their attempt to do their jobs was cut off short as the ceiling above them exploded and collapsed on them, a certain long haired blond grappling with a bulky monster of a boy coming through the debris and succeeding in causing the rubble to crush the two helpless guards.

Hooking a foot just under Sigmund's groin, Solo threw his leg up and forced Sigmund to go over him and slam his head right into the floor. Throwing the large hands off him, Solo scrambled to his feet and landed a kick right into an upside-down Sigmund's ribs, reveling in the feeling of bones giving way under his blow. Sigmund, however, shot both of his arms out and imbedding them into the walls on either side of them. Without much fanfare, Sigmund plucked his head out of the floor and then flipped his body right-side-up, his arms still in the walls, his feet hitting Solo in his gut and sending him flying back.

The blond's body rammed into two incoming guards and the three continued on the trajectory they were sent in. Solo ended up crashing through a wall while the two guards weren't as lucky. Due to Solo's arm being extended out, the two appendages ended up cutting the two guards in half, their bodies slowly sliding down the wall they hadn't broke through.

As the blond got back up to his feet, he heard the sound of shattering glass and felt bullets impact his back. Hearing the unmistakable sound of a helicopter, Solo glanced behind him to see the sight of several armed men shooting at him. Because they weren't causing him harm, literally, he ignored them and turned back just in time to see Sigmund crashing through the wall and getting several bullets lodged into his body for his troubles. There was no doubt in his mind that Sigmund would be affected by a measly bullet and so Solo leapt at the monster, landing his fist right into Sigmund's face and sent him back out through the large hole.

As Sigmund was getting back up onto his feet, Solo struck again, this time holding two pieces of debris in both hands and slamming both on either side of the giant's head. As the manmade rock shattered on contact, Solo wrapped an arm around the giant's bulging neck and leveled punch after punch into a rapidly swelling face. Blood flecked all over the blond and he pushed away right before a large hand could grab him.

Clenching his two hands together, Solo raised both of them up and jackhammered Sigmund on the top of his head and sent down through the floor to the next floor beneath them. Not giving Sigmund the chance to recover, Solo jumped down through the hole in the floor, his feet pressed against one another. Shooting down like a missing, Solo's feet impacted Sigmund's back and the force the blond was using sent both of the boys through this floor and into the one below that one.

With Sigmund landing on and breaking a large table, Solo leapt away and grabbed a revolving chair and proceeded to smash into the giant. He ignored the squeal of fright from one really ugly son of a bitch who escaped through a door and picked up another chair to smash into bits on Sigmund.

A large hand caught the chair and snatched it out of Solo's hands, discarding it by throwing it out a large ass window. Jumping away, Solo grabbed two large shards of glass and used them as makeshift weapons, stabbing them into Sigmund's sides and twisting them. Roaring in pain, Sigmund grabbed the blond and tore him away. Without a second thought, he threw Solo out of the broken window, the blond sailing through the air until he crashed into a building with an enormous crane across the ways.

Staring out from the Romafellor Building, Sigmund snorted and jumped straight up, crashing through and making another hole in the ceiling, resuming his search for his target.

Solo, meanwhile, had nearly blacked out after his unintentional flight. Rubbing the back of his neck, he cracked opened his eyes and groaned at what he saw. Fuck! Now what was he going to do? He had to get back over there but if he jumped at his current height, he would end up on a lower storey, maybe even in that large ass lobby.

Guess he needed to go higher, eh?

---

Tsubarov fled from scene as if his life depended on it.

Considering the circumstances, he may not have been far off from it.

Having two superpowered boys break through the ceiling and right into the very room you were assaulted in, and were still inhabiting, kinda made such a reaction more than okay.

While pissed that he had been taken down so easily earlier, seeing those two boys destroy the boardroom was more than enough to temper his anger and heighten his primal survival instincts. He had to get out of here because there undoubtedly were more in the building doing who knew what else and if he wanted to live to see tomorrow, his best bet would be outside than in here.

Reaching an elevator, he frantically pressed on the down button, pressing it down again and again until the familiar ding sounded, signaling that the lift had arrived. Before he could celebrate, though, he found the elevator already occupied.

Standing right in that metal box was a statue, one that looked exactly like the one on top of the fountain in the lobby…

The marble horse suddenly let loose a challenging neigh and that was enough to send the large man running for his life. The marble man that sat on the horse kicked his feet into the horse's sides and the sculpted animal went charging after Tsubarov like it was a hound out of hell.

Even though he may have had a good head start, the gap between him and this pale specter was closing rapidly. Perhaps it had been too rapid since Tsubarov could have sworn that something, most likely the horse's muzzle hit him in the back and threw him to his stomach.

Rolling onto his back, his beady eyes widened in fear as the horse reared up and brought its hooves down onto him. His screams and cries of pain filled the hallways, slowly dieing out until there was nothing more than a bloody pulp of a man where he had once laid.

Coming up from behind the statue, almost nonchalantly, a pale white boy looked down at the mess curiously but was not disturbed in the slightest by it.

"Was this your owner?" Pike asked, looking up at Marcus Aurelius questioningly.

A shake of a marble head was his answer and the boy sighed.

"That's the second one today. Not that I mind but would you please lead me to your owner? I want to finish this mission as soon as possible."

Nodding in apparent understanding though Pike doubted it would retain such information, the statue turned around in the hallway and trotted back to the elevator, Pike following slowly after it.

---

Dorothy was surprised to find that for an important place like this, she had barely run into anybody. They had probably all left when the gunfire started and much more to her shock, she found that the building itself was under attack from two helicopters.

Adding Sigmund and Astaroth into the equations, it didn't take long for the blonde to put two and two together to know that XAI was behind this.

But that didn't explain why Romafellor had Duo in the first place.

Hearing rapidly approaching footsteps and fearing that it maybe the security, she tried to hide herself beside a carved marble pillar that held a small marble head on top of it. The small decoration would have to do for now since there was nowhere else she could duck into to hide.

As it turned out, she didn't need to hide. Coming into view, she was shocked to see both Heero and Relena turn the corner and head straight in her direction though it didn't look like they had noticed her yet. What in the name of all that was holy were they doing here? She moved from her hiding spot and came out into plain view, the two teens catching sight of her and slowing down so that they didn't trample her.

"Dorothy?!" Relena exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" Heero demanded, the blonde girl noticing that the Japanese youth was holding the broken off head of a small statue in hand. Seeing the impressions of blood on it led the girl to believe that Heero had used it as some sort of makeshift weapon already.

"I'm looking for Duo," she told the other too, a breathless quality to her voice as she almost couldn't believe what she was saying.

"How do you know he's here?" Heero questioned.

"I came here with Solo and Trowa," she explained, taking a moment to look behind her friends then herself for any possible chance that they might be interrupted. Seeing nothing, she continued, "We've been looking for him for a while and we were led here. There's not much time, though. XAI's on the attack and they sent at least two of their Maxwell guys here."

The couple looked at her queerly for a second before recognition dawned in their eyes. "Shit!" Heero swore. "They'll tear this place apart. We need to get out of here!"

"Not without Duo," Dorothy put in. "Solo's been driving me crazy looking for him."

"Then lets go and get him and get out of here," Relena spoke up. "Solo was the blond, right? He'll live if this place goes down."

"This way," Heero gestured with the marble head in the direction behind Dorothy.

However, they were able to make any headway as the path behind the Dorothy was blocked off by several armed security guards, in the middle of which stood a small framed old man who looked more than a bit ruffled.

Dorothy immediately knew who this man was; she had seen his visage many a times before on the news, something that was a foreign concept to all their friends back home. It was Mr. Romafellor.

Approaching the three, Romafellor said, "That sounds like a grand idea, child, and thank you for that bit of information. I'm surprised that Xavien would go to these lengths just to get rid of me."

Moving in-between the girls, Heero raised his crude weapon up threateningly, at the same time getting several guns trained on him. "Don't you take another step closer," he threatened, ignoring the guns.

"Put that down," Romafellor reprimanded harshly. "You don't have a choice in this. You have served me quite well and I still have some uses for you. I will not let Xavien get away with this. Now be good little children and come with me."

"Over my dead body," Heero hissed.

"Pity," Romafellor said, not in the least bit sorry about what was to come. "But your girlfriend has been more than helpful so I believe you are…expendable." Eyeing one of his guards, he ordered, "Terminate him."

Before anything could be done, though, a high pitched neighing interrupted the confrontation, capturing everyone's attention towards something far behind the three teens.

It was Romafellor's replica of Marcus Aurelius.

"What the devil?!" Romafellor barked out, losing his sophisticated demeanor for a moment.

As if his words were the catalyst, the equestrian statue took off towards them at a gallop. Heero grabbed the two girls and threw all of them out of the way of the charging statue. Romafellor backed up and was moved out of the way by his men who had begun firing their automatic weapons at the abomination. Small flecks and pieces of marble chipped off the statue as it ran at them, the statue passing by the three teens and ramming into the guards.

As gunfire ricocheted all over the hallway and cries of pain combined with crunching bones were heard, the teens took advantage of the distraction and made a run from the horrifying scene back the way the statue had come.

Turning the corner, they ran into somebody else, a short, pale boy in a skintight black uniform that they all had seen before. Backing away from him, they eyed him warily, as if he was a ticking time bomb ready to blow at a moment's notice. The boy just stared back at them disinterested until his eyes fell on the rock in Heero's hand.

Then he got mad.

"You barbarians!" he hissed, his eyes narrowing and his fists clenching tightly. "How could you do something that horrendous to such a work of art?!"

None of them understood what the boy was talking about but Heero had had enough of it. Taking a step forward, he swung the broken marble head at the boy who just leant out of the way and grabbed the marble head with a hand, the appendage spasming against it.

Dancing back and away from Heero who tried to punch at him, the Japanese youth suddenly cried out in pain. Blood was leaking from his hand and as he took another look at it, he saw that his thumb was captured in the mouth that was on the marble head, never-before-seen marble teeth cutting deeply into it.

Shaking and waving his hand around, Heero tried to get rid of the head but it held on right until the point it had bitten through the bone. Nearly screaming in pain, Heero managed to get rid of the head, throwing it away and towards the pale boy who dodged it effortlessly. Gritting his teeth tightly, Heero examined his now thumbless hand and nearly wept from the pain throbbing from it.

"Heero, look out!" Relena shrieked at him and he managed to avoid the swipe of the boy's hand just in time but not soon enough as the boy's fingers had torn through his shirt and scratched up his front with claw marks.

Glaring at the boy, Heero noticed that the boy's fingernails weren't typical, or normal for that matter. They were clawlike but instead of being made of what fingernails were made of, they were pure marble.

"Art flows through my every vein," the boy intoned, slowly stalking towards Heero. "I have managed to change so much that I may as well be art itself."

"Relena, Dorothy, get out of here!" he yelled to the girls. "Find Duo and leave!"

He didn't hear a protest from Relena but that may have been due to the fact that Dorothy had grabbed her and dragged her away, leaving Heero alone in this fight.

It was one he wasn't sure he would come out from but he was damn sure he wouldn't go down alone.

---

Relena was in so much turmoil. On one hand, she wanted to go back and stick by Heero's side. On the other, she wanted to get out of this nightmare as quickly as possible and crawled into a dark hole and curl into a ball so that she could no longer be bothered by this world.

"Stay with me Relena!" she heard Dorothy yell back at as she led them further and further away from Heero. "We need to find Duo and you're the only one I can trust who might know where he is."

That brought her back somewhat. That's right, Heero also wanted them to find Duo. If that's what he wanted then she would do it. "It's this way," she said, taking the lead as she held onto Dorothy's hand, not wanting to let go of her best friend.

Taking a sharp right, they headed for the stairs and began climbing them to go up a couple floors. Neither of them noticed someone else had joined, at least not until they were out of the stairwell and they heard a voice ask:

"Why are we running?"

The girls stumbled and nearly tripped over themselves as they came to a stop and spun around, seeing much to their horror a small boy in a black uniform. The boy was smiling charmingly at them and removing some long blond hair out of his face. Had this been any other occasion, both of the girls would have fallen for him but they had seen one to many things to know that looks can be deceiving.

The small boy might mean no harm to them but neither of them were going to chance it. Slowly, they began taking steps back, one at a time. The boy remained where he was, just smiling at them no matter how far away they got from him. Turning a corner, the girl's turned around and ran.

Meanwhile, the boy waited for a minute before taking out his harmonica and playing a few quick and short notes on it. Barely a second had passed when something burst through the floor behind him, revealing itself to be the monstrous form of Sigmund.

Pointing in the direction the two girls had gone, Stone said, "They went thataway. Follow them and they might lead us to that Romafellor guy."

Grunting, Sigmund walked forward, taking his time as he followed after the girls' trail, sniffing the air like an animal.