Title: The Devil Has Blue Eyes

By: Aina Song

Fandom(s): Gundam Wing

Genre: Yaoi (with some Het thrown in)

Rating: PG-15

Warning(s): Contraband; Fusion; Language; Death; Murder.

Pairing(s): Heero/Quatre (constant mentionings of Het pairings)

Reviews: Yes, please.

Author's Note: (I'm afraid my usual Disclaimer will not be enough this time, so bear with me.) I, Aina Song, hereby acknowledge the illegality of the following fusion fiction, which is based very thickly upon Clara Wimberly's The Jeweled Heart of Rosemont Castle. I do not claim any rights or privileges her book may have earned her, nor do I claim credit for the book itself. This fanfiction follows her plot almost to the letter, with few changes tossed in here and there, but I must again press that it does so without the explicit permission of Ms. Wimberly, her editor(s), or her publisher(s). This fiction was not written for money; I do not profit from this in any way, shape, or form. Please excuse the illegality of it all, and I do hope my own readers will try to look past my unlawfulness and enjoy the fiction nonetheless. Thank you.

Teaser: He did not care that he was the lost heir to a winery fortune - especially since he couldn't remember that earliest piece of his childhood. He only wanted to reclaim the family that had been kept from him. But there was another who was determined to unmask him as an imposter. And, at the same time, a strange cold presence stirred again at his return, anxious to finish what it had started so long ago…

Chapter Thirty-One

He woke to the feel of cold, smooth stones beneath him. He was being dragged, and even though he had not opened his eyes he could tell that the room was dimly lit. A cloth gag was in his mouth.

He heard Zechs' voice, then; he was crying. "Do not die," he whispered. "Please. I will not chain you the way I did her - but I cannot let you go, either. You see that, do you not? I cannot let you go back to Heero. I will not."

Quatre feigned sleep. He had no idea where Zechs had taken him, but he knew they were still below the castle, somewhere in the winding maze of passageways.

"I will come back soon, cherub. I will bring you some wine and something to eat. You rest now, and think about what I have said. I want only to love you, Quatre Raberba." Then he left, bolting the door behind him.

When Quatre opened his eyes, he found himself in another room. He didn't know if it was night or day, could not even tell if the storm still raged in the skies above the castle. He breathed as evenly as he could through the gag, trying to stay calm so that he could think.

He remembered the day Mariemeia had become lost, and how her cries had echoed throughout the castle. He needed to make some noise, noise enough to carry beyond these dark tunnels.

The lamp Zechs had left sat on a small wooden footstool. Quatre was bound so tightly that he couldn't stand, so he scooted toward the stool and with his feet caught the wire handle of the lantern. He lifted it carefully and placed it on the floor. His heart raced out of control at the risk of dropping the lantern and being trapped in a burning room again. The thought of the night in the tower still haunted him.

Once the lantern was safely on the floor, he managed to pick up the small stool with his feet. He moved away from the danger of the lamp and lifted the stool into the air, banging it repeatedly on the floor, hard, until it finally broke apart with a loud clatter and could be of no more help. Then he filled his lungs with as much air as he could manage and shouted for help until his throat was hoarse. Afterward, he fell back to the floor, exhausted.

~o~

He couldn't guess how long it was before Zechs came back. The older blond looked at him for a moment, then took the broken pieces which were all that was left of the stool and moved them outside the door. A tiny spark of triumph lit within Quatre's chest; he knew that meant Zechs had heard his noises somewhere in the castle.

Zechs had brought food and wine, just as he'd promised. Quatre refused them both. He knew it was likely foolish and stupid to do so, but he did not put it pass the other man to drug them somehow.

"I can see you are not ready to declare your love just yet," Zechs sighed, and there was anger in his silvery eyes. "It would take so little to save yourself. But you cannot even do that, can you?"

He lurched to his feet. "How would you feel if your lover died?" He shouted. "Would that finally convince you?"

Quatre did not fall for such a weak threat. He had seen Heero's strength for himself, and he suspected that Heero's man Lowe and even Wufei were soldiers of a sort. The blond glared defiantly at Zechs, confident in Heero's safety.

His failure to rise to the bait infuriated Zechs, who struck him hard across the side of his face. Quatre fell back against the floor, pain and dizziness blurring his vision.

"The brash insolence of the young," the Frenchman sneered, spitting to the floor near Quatre's face. "Do not think I would not kill us both before ever letting another have you."

He left again, and bolted the door.

Quatre lost track of time after that. Minutes, hours… he could have been there for days, and wouldn't have been able to tell. He slept and woke, slowly succumbing to disorientation. He thought of Heero a thousand times, and in his mind told the darker man over and over how much he loved and believed in him. Quatre was going to die in that cold dungeon, and in some far, dark corner of his mind he knew that. But Heero was safe and protected by those loyal to him. The blond clung to that one last sane reassurance as the rest of his world began to dissolve around him.

Once, Quatre thought he could hear someone calling his name - but, fearing it was Zechs, bit his teeth into the gag and refrained from calling out.

But then he felt something that warmed his heart, if not his frozen body. His mother's presence, strong and vital, hovering in the sweet undeniable fragrance of orange blossoms. He decided then that he really was dying, and that the presence he sensed was Leia Khushrenada, welcoming her son into the hereafter.

~o~

"Quatre Raberba…" a voice somewhere in the distance called to him. "I love you. Come back to me; please, come back to me."

"H-Heero?"

"Yes, kawaii… yes, it's me. Can you hear me?"

He was dreaming again. He dreamed he was in Heero's arms. And even though he couldn't answer, Quatre moved against him, wanting to feel his strong warmth one more time. But it was a dream… a vivid, unreachable dream.

Quatre opened his eyes. He was no longer cold, but he still felt weakened with exhaustion, and his body was now shaking uncontrollably. Then he realized the room was brightly lit, the surface beneath him not hard and damp, but soft.

"Hello, gypsy."

He turned his head, his gaze finding and locking on the dark blue eyes of the man he thought he'd never see again. "Heero…? B-but… I'm only dreaming again, aren't I?"

The darker man bent slowly and kissed him. Heero's warmth spread quickly through him, and Quatre reached up to twine the fingers of his hand in the other's thick strands. Heero obeyed his silent request, driving his tongue forth and deepening the kiss before finally pulling away.

"Does that feel like a dream?" He asked, huskily.

Quatre's eyes stung wetly, and his fisted Heero's shirt, pulling himself closer. Heero caged the blond in his arms, cradling Quatre tightly against his chest, letting him grieve for what had been done to him.

"W-where is he?" Quatre finally asked when he was calm enough to talk.

"Zechs is dead, kawaii. We found him hanging in the carriage house."

"Then how… how did you find me?"

"You'd sworn I would never lose you, remember? So when you disappeared without a word, I knew something was wrong. Then, when Zechs tried to convince me you had run away, just like Leia, I began to suspect him. I never stopped looking for you, kawaii, and then you so very cleverly left me my first clue." He shifted on the bed, reaching into a pocket of his finely tailored trousers, and brought something out in his fist. He lifted it up and opened his palm; it was Quatre's signet ring.

"It had rolled into a far corner of the library. I'd only just found it, when I next heard a constant crashing noise and your voice shouting throughout the castle." He took Quatre's right hand, slipping the ring down to the knuckle of his index finger. "It was Mariemeia who reminded me of the secret passageways. She helped a great deal by showing us the entryway in the carriage house. I think it was then that Zechs knew it was hopeless."

Suddenly Quatre remembered - the room with the chains and shackles, the glittering silver talisman… He tensed in Heero's arms, the memory flashing clearly in his mind's eye, and he buried his face again into the darker man's chest as the pain stabbed once more through his chest.

He felt Heero kiss his hair, and the darker man whispered, "What is it?"

"L-Leia," he choked. "God, how can I tell Treize what became of her? It'll kill him to know…"

"But he does already, kawaii." Heero's hands drew back just enough to smooth up and down along Quatre's arms. "Once we began searching the passageways below the castle, Zechs gave up. That was when we found him. He had left a letter explaining everything. He rambled about things we couldn't understand, but he did tell us where Leia was. We found her, gypsy, and put her to rest at last. The worst is over now - for you, and for your father."

Quatre looked up, "Is he all right?"

Heero sighed but nodded. "He is. I think finally he is all right. He is able to grieve for Leia at last, knowing she did not leave him as he'd always thought. Finally knowing that, he can put it behind him."

"I'm sorry, Heero," the blond murmured, biting his lip. "I know you told me to wait for you. But I never thought that Zechs…"

"None of us did," he said. "We discovered that he had been in an institute in the Alps before coming here. It seems he killed a nurse and escaped from the country. The authorities had been looking for him for months."

"He threatened to kill you, too."

"Did he?" Heero's tone was not angry, and the glint in his dark blue eyes was haughtily amused.

Quatre gave a small, weakened smile. "I called his bluff. I knew it would've taken more than one man to take you down."

"You're wrong," the darker man whispered, carefully rolling them on the bed until he hovered over Quatre. "I can think of exactly one man against whom I never stood a chance of winning." And then he kissed the blond, fierce and wild, and Quatre never doubted again.

THE END