A/N: For Maevemauvaise. I hope you have a lovely, lovely birthday and I want to thank you so very much for all of the support and inspiration you give me.

I wanted to write you a collection of fairy tales, but then I remembered how many lovely and talented people there are in our fandom, so I recruited them to create lovely things for you as well. So this is just one of many.

A/N 2: I have… problems with Sleeping Beauty, but I wanted to see if I could make it into something I liked, and I hope it's something that you love.

A/N 3: So… a futuristic sci-fi retelling, with a verse similar to Firefly/Serenity/Star Wars. Obviously AU. Translations at the end.

A/N 4: A HUGE thanks to Ro for beta reading this for me.

Pairings: 3x5, background: 3x4, 1x3, 3x6, 1x6

Warnings: angst, language, dub-con, sexy times

Sleeping Beauty- Part 7

Trowa couldn't decide if he was walking through a nightmare or heaven.

The colony was fully functioning - lights blazing, air circulating in the mildest and freshest of breezes, gravity just a little stronger than Trowa was used to - but it was completely empty.

Their feet echoed as they walked through the docking complex and out into an atrium.

Trowa half-expected to see greenery - there were definitely surfaces that looked as though they had been intended for parks or at least trees - but there was no life on the colony.

"Has it been operational this entire time?" Duo asked.

Chang hesitated, and then shook his head. "No. Not the whole time."

Trowa wondered at that. Wondered just what - or who? - had turned the colony on.

He stumbled, still adjusting to the gravity, and Rashid shoved the barrel of his gun into Trowa's back sharply.

Quatre had evidently decided that the threat of killing Hilde was wearing thin on Duo, and had instructed Rashid to shoot Trowa if Duo tried to make a break for it.

Chang was leading them through the colony, Duo close behind him with Quatre holding a gun to his back, while Relena walked between Quatre and Trowa.

They walked for maybe two kilometers - Trowa estimated that the cylinder they had landed on was nearly eight kilometers in diameter and over thirty in length - when Chang came to a stop in front of a large building.

Trowa had thought they were in a residential section - most of the buildings they had passed looked like apartment blocks - but this building was definitely not residential.

There were no windows, and it stood nearly seven stories high. The walls were an unremarkable mauve color, and there was no signage of any kind near or on the building.

"Here," Chang breathed, his voice low, but even so Trowa could hear the ache, the raw emotion. He mounted the steps to the building's entrance slowly, and typed in a code on the keypad beside the two-story tall doors.

For a moment, the lights on the keypad blinked, and Trowa felt Rashid's gun dig further into his spine.

But then the doors hissed open and Chang led them into the building. It was dark inside, and they switched on flashlights.

They were in a large foyer of some kind. It was wide and open - the ceiling almost as tall as the building itself - and Trowa suddenly felt very, very small and incredibly insignificant.

Opposite the entrance to the building there were huge banners that stretched several stories and were at least two meters wide each, all decorated with rows and rows of intricate calligraphy.

Trowa could only recognize a few of the characters - space, journey, death - but he could certainly appreciate their beauty and sheer scale.

"What do they say?" Duo asked, and Trowa was a little relieved that he couldn't read them either.

"They tell the story of our colonization of the L5 Sector, of how we created the first successful colony that was able to sustain human life." Chang sounded reverent.

"What is this place?" Quatre asked, sharing none of the awe that Duo and Trowa felt.

"Our past and our future." Chang's response was cryptic.

He started walking again, and they all followed him, the sound of their footsteps echoing and ricocheting off the marble floor.

They walked the length of the foyer and then into a smaller, even darker room.

As soon as he stepped in, Trowa swept his flashlight in front of him and winced as he was blinded by the reflection of the light on-

"Gold," Quatre laughed. "How much- how much is there?"

"Enough even for you, I'm sure," Chang muttered.

Quatre laughed again, the sound remarkably loud and clear.

Before them, arranged in towering piles, was enough gold bullion that Trowa started to wonder about the structural integrity of the floor.

They wandered down rows and rows of the piles - the room seemed to go on for at least a hundred meters.

Finally, they came to a stop at the opposite end of the room.

"Well, I can only assume that you needed Duo and Relena along for their… company? I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to appreciate them. But now that you've brought me here, I have no more use for them." Quatre moved his gun up to the base of Duo's skull. "Goodbye, Maxwell. I would say that you'll be missed, but-"

"No!" Chang shouted. "Do not kill him."

Quatre looked nonplussed. "I'm afraid that you are not giving the orders here, Chang."

"If you kill him now, then this is it - this will be the only treasure you leave with. Everything else - all of our plans - everything is locked, and can only be accessed by me and him."

"Me?"

"Him?"

Duo and Quatre sounded equally perplexed.

Chang nodded. "His blood is-"

"Oh. Well if all you need is his blood," Quatre moved the gun back to Duo's head, "I'm about to spill plenty of that."

Quatre turned his head and looked at Trowa. "Any last words for your partner?"

Trowa licked his lips and drew in a deep breath.

He looked at Duo, at Relena hovering to one side, at Chang.

"Xiàlái!"

Duo and Chang went down instantly at his command, and Trowa launched forward to tackle Relena to the ground as well just as the sound of gunfire tore through the air.

He heard Rashid swear, heard Quatre cry out in pain, heard round after round of bullets rending through flesh, striking the bouillon.

"Stop!" he shouted. "Hold your fire!"

He waited for the gunfire to cease, and then he cautiously lifted his head and looked around.

Rashid was closest to him, lying on his stomach, his face in a pool of blood. Trowa felt absolutely no remorse at his death - only irritation that he hadn't been the one to kill the man who had been a plague on both Trowa and Duo.

Duo was already rolling to his side, getting up into a low crouch and looking over at Trowa in concern.

"Friends of yours?" he asked.

Trowa nodded. He hoped they were.

Duo snorted and shook his head. "You are full of surprises, Barton."

Underneath Trowa, Relena started to squirm and so he moved, standing up and reaching down to pull her to her feet.

Quatre was on the floor, hands clutching his side, trying to staunch the flow of blood from a bullet wound, and his wide eyes were frantically scanning the room.

Beyond him-

"Wufei!"

Trowa skidded across the floor to him, slipping in blood and falling to his knees beside the other man.

Chang was clutching his left shoulder, and blood stained that side of his white tunic.

His lips curled at Trowa's use of his name, and he shied away from his touch.

"Let me see it." Trowa shoved his hands away and cautiously inspected the wound. "Clean. Through and through, and I don't think- It didn't hit bone."

"I am aware," Chang growled, and Trowa had to roll his eyes.

"Relena! No! You can't!"

Trowa looked up to see Relena holding a gun as she stood over Quatre. There was a look of determination on her face that contrasted sharply with the way her hands shook.

Duo, hands outstretched in a supplicating manner, was at her side.

"If you kill him," Duo said, his voice soft, "Tro and I will never find Cathy and Hilde. Please. Please don't kill him, Relena."

"He-"

"I know, I know, Relena." Duo's face was twisted into a grimace. "I know."

Relena looked at Duo, into his eyes, and she wavered.

"Relena!"

The shout, the familiar voice, took everyone by surprise.

"Zechs?" Relena dropped the gun and ran forward, straight into the arms of the tall blond haired man who appeared out of the shadows.

Trowa looked away from them and at Heero Yuy.

Heero checked Rashid for a pulse, kicked his gun away just in case, and turned to regard Trowa with an unreadable expression.

Trowa dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out the tracking device he had discovered. He threw it at Heero's head, but the other man caught it easily.

"You were tracking me."

Heero nodded.

"Why?"

Heero had to have put it on him when the Scythe had been inspected at the checkpoint going into the Belt, when he and Heero had fucked. Trowa couldn't decide if he was more pissed at Heero for tracking him, or with himself for not noticing it sooner.

Heero's eyes narrowed. "The Scythe's manifest said you were transporting a crew of twelve Maganacs to a mining satellite owned by Quatre Winner." He looked down at the man in question, now pale and breathing through clenched teeth. "You walked away from him five years ago, and you told me that you would rather die than be under his control again. I… was concerned."

It was so classic, such a Heero thing to do, that Trowa felt his anger leave in a rush.

He was left feeling deflated, adrenaline flagging, and he merely shook his head. He didn't know what to say. He knew what Heero wanted him to say, but it wasn't- it wasn't possible.

Instead of facing the moment, Trowa turned back to Quatre and knelt down beside him.

"Looks like you got hit in the liver," he said to the man who had once been his lover. He ran his fingers through Quatre's platinum hair, feeling the sweat beading on his forehead and skull. "I don't think the Sandrock's infirmary has what I would need to keep you alive, and with the blood you've lost, I don't think you would make it to one of the L3 colonies." Trowa smoothed his hand over Quatre's clammy forehead. "You're going to die."

Quatre laughed, and then coughed as he choked on his own blood.

"And when I do, you will never be able to save your sister. She will die, and-"

Trowa used his other hand to claw at Quatre's abdomen, digging his fingers into the bullet hole.

Quatre cried out in shock and agony.

"You're going to die," Trowa repeated. "And I can make your last moments excruciatingly painful if you do not tell me where my sister is."

Quatre gritted his teeth together, screaming between them when Trowa shoved another finger into the bullet hole.

Damnit.

Trowa decided to change tactics.

"Quatre, please. I-"

"Move," Heero ordered, and, without waiting for Trowa to react, shoved him away and took his place by Quatre's side.

"I tracked Trowa to the L4 Sector. I tracked him to your estate, Quatre Winner. For the last twelve hours, IF soldiers have been raiding your headquarters. And do you know what they found? Do you know who they found? Hidden away from even your own servants? My men got through five layers of security and they found your little science experiment. Your lab with-"

"No!" Quatre clutched at Heero's arm. "No! You can't- you can't hurt them."

Heero sneered. "I can do whatever I want. You are going to die. Your money, your status - everything that you have built will die with you. Everything. Unless…"

Quatre closed his eyes, and he sank back onto the floor. For a moment, Trowa was afraid he was already dead.

"The safehouse on M457A. Trowa and Duo know which one."

Heero looked over at Trowa, who nodded.

Heero turned back to Quatre and squeezed his shoulder firmly.

"I'm glad you did one decent thing in your miserable life," he said, before pulling out his gun.

"Wait- my- will you-"

"I'll make sure they have a proper burial," Heero sneered, "but I'll be damned if I allow your clones to run rampant." And with that, he put the gun to Quatre's temple and pulled the trigger.

The silence afterwards was deafening, and Trowa couldn't help but feel mixed emotions as he stared at Quatre's corpse.

For all that he was - for all the evil he had wrought - Trowa had loved him.

"Clones?" Duo asked in a horrified whisper.

Heero stood up and nodded.

"An entire room of them." He looked over at Relena and Zechs, the two still locked in an embrace. "How did you-?" He looked between Duo and Trowa.

"I remembered her. Well, I remembered her face. Zechs liked to keep her photo on his desk. You didn't recognize her?" He raised his eyebrows at Trowa's confused look. "She's his sister."

Trowa shook his head. "I never paid much attention to what was on Zechs' desk."

Duo laughed, and looked like he wanted to make some comment on that, but he mercifully restrained himself.

"Can any of you explain what, exactly, is going on here?" Zechs asked when he and Relena finally parted.

"Well," Duo grinned broadly, "I rescued your sister so… if there's some kind of reward or-"

Zechs glared at him.

"Or just like, a nice thank you message will do," Duo quickly added.

Zechs looked over at Trowa and Chang and arched one of his eyebrows in question.

Trowa hesitated. He wasn't sure how much to tell them - wasn't sure how much Chang wanted them to know.

He looked at the other man.

Chang was grimacing, though whether it was from pain or the question, Trowa didn't know.

"Follow me," he said with a sigh.

They left Rashid and Quatre's bodies in the room, and followed Chang back into the foyer and down several flights of stairs before Chang stopped in front of an unmarked door and entered something into the keypad.

The door's lock disengaged, and Trowa reached forward to open the door before Chang could further injure himself. The other man shot him a look that was a mix of gratitude and irritation.

As Chang stepped over the threshold of the door, lights flickered on in the room beyond.

"Holy shit," Duo breathed, echoing Trowa's thoughts.

The room was easily as large as the chamber upstairs, but instead of rows of gold bullion, there were a dozen rows of stasis capsules, each of the rows holding at least thirty capsules.

"Someone needs to start explaining what I'm looking at right now," Heero said, his voice deadly. "I just had Winner's clones dealt with. If this is-"

"No," Chang said, his voice strong. He stepped in front of Heero, close enough that the other man backed away a step. Chang drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"We knew that the Winners were coming for us - we knew that the battles, the attacks- we knew that when they would not succeed in defeating us on the field of battle, they would try another tactic. Our spies learned about the plague, and we… took measures to ensure our survival."

"This colony?" Duo asked, making a broad gesture.

"Yes and no. This colony was already under construction. The decision was made to develop the cloaking device and ensure that, whatever happened, we would have this one safe haven."

"But it's uninhabited - there are no signs that anyone has ever lived here," Relena pointed out.

Chang nodded in agreement. "Yes. We - the Elders - felt that it would draw attention, to move populations to this colony. So instead, when the first outbreaks of the plague began, five hundred of our most valuable clan members were put into stasis. Our most brilliant politicians, our warriors, our scientists and artists - and fifty children with the most diverse and healthiest genetic markers. The Elders knew that the Winners would not stop until we were completely wiped out, and so they allowed that to happen so that one day we could rebuild."

"But why now?" Zechs asked. "It's been two hundred years. Why did you wait so long?"

"It wasn't up to me," Chang said. "The original plan was to place one of our most experienced leaders in stasis aboard the Nataku so that, when he was awakened, he would be able to judge the right time to revive the rest."

"You were one of the Chang leaders?" Duo didn't bother to keep his disbelief out of his voice. "A little young, aren't you?"

Chang sneered. "Of course I wasn't. Master Long was supposed to be in that capsule. The original plan was for Master Long to be put into stasis while his granddaughter and I would escape and disappear. We were tasked with carrying on our line, of passing down instructions for how to find the Nataku and how to wake up Master Long."

"Your wife," Trowa realized.

Chang nodded, and his face turned grim. "Both she and Master Long died. The Winners- the Maganacs came for us. And I…" Chang trailed off, and Trowa watched the man's throat work as he struggled to swallow. After a moment, he drew in a deep breath and turned to Duo. "And I need you because your blood is the only way to revive them."

"Wait, wait. How is- what- why me?" Duo stumbled over his questions.

Chang frowned, as though he didn't understand why Duo didn't already know.

"When you revived me on the Nataku, the ship sent a signal to this colony, a signal with your DNA imprint. The original plan was for my descendents to be the ones - for their DNA to be used - but we didn't know just how many generations, how many mutations there would be, so we didn't code it for any markers. When you typed in the revive code, when the machine took a sample of your blood, it-"

"I didn't type in the code," Duo said bluntly, cutting into Chang's explanation.

"What?"

"I wasn't the one who woke you up. I didn't type in the code - I didn't give any blood sample. Trowa was the one who typed it in."

Chang turned to Trowa, his face shifting from confusion to anger.

"You lied to me."

Judging from Chang's tone and his face, Trowa could guess that lying was almost as bad as committing genocide.

"You were going to kill him."

"Who- he was going to kill me?" Duo demanded. "What the fuck?"

Trowa ignored him and met Chang's angry glare. "You said you would kill all of us except the person who revived you. I didn't know- I didn't know why you planned to make that exception. I just wanted to protect him."

"You're such a fucking idiot, Tro," Duo muttered, and shook his head. "You should have been thinking about saving yourself, and-"

"You wouldn't have done the same, for me?"

"Well, I mean, of course, but you're you and I'm- I'm just saying I… fuck. I don't know what I'm saying. Thanks?"

Trowa had to smirk at Duo, and his partner shook his head, but his lips were curved upwards.

Chang, however, appeared to be unmoved by Trowa's selfless act.

"Give me your hand," he instructed, holding out his own.

Without hesitation, Trowa placed his hand in Chang's. The other man wrapped his fingers around Trowa's wrist and pulled him along as he walked towards a console at the front of one of the rows.

He started to type in a series of codes, fingers moving quickly and confidently.

Trowa was distracted, however, by the way Chang's fingers smoothed over the inside of his wrist, down to his palm. It felt like an electric current across his skin, and Trowa shivered.

Chang lifted Trowa's hand as a slim needle extended upwards from the keypad.

"Wait," Zechs spoke up. "Wait. You can't- you can't intend to just… You're going to revive them?"

Chang turned to him with a narrow-eyed glare and a scowl. "Of course. I have to."

"But if you- think for just a moment. This colony - the technology, the wealth - all of it could be-"

"Zechs, no," Trowa interrupted him. "No."

Zechs made a frustrated sound and looked at his sister, but she shook her head adamantly.

"You can't really be thinking of doing that," she said to him, voice horrified. "Zechs- what would our father-"

"Do not presume to tell me what our dead father would want, Relena. His idiotic dreams resulted in his death in the first place." He turned back to Chang and Trowa. "You can't expect me to just stand here while the greatest discovery of the century is passed off to a bunch of corpses."

Chang's jaw locked, and Trowa could feel his entire body tense as he prepared himself for a battle.

"Zechs, buddy, you continue down this line of thought and you're going to leave your sister without any family." Duo's words were familiar, his tone conciliatory, but the look in his eyes and the way he raised the gun he had taken from Quatre were deadly serious.

Heero, standing to one side, regarded Zechs with a scowl.

"If you do this," he said, his voice low and harsh, "you will become the worst sort of pirate there is. You will not only shame your father's legacy, but you will be forming yourself into the image of his murderers."

Zechs made a strangled, exasperated sound.

"You make take whatever gold you want," Chang said. "Consider it a reward and payment for your services. But my clan will rise again and you will not stop us." With that, he shoved Trowa's hand down onto the needle, harder than Trowa thought was really necessary.

He felt the sharp prick of it, but after a heartbeat, Chang pulled his hand away.

The needle retracted, and the console began to stream a series of data texts.

Chang smiled softly, his entire face transforming.

"It's running diagnostics now. If all goes well, the revival process will begin."

"How long will it take?"

"Sixteen to twenty-four hours. I want it to be gradual. The capsules are designed to repair cellular damage as it occurs, but… revive them too quickly and the results could be fatal."

Trowa nodded, keenly aware that Chang could have died - could have gone insane - at his own revival.

He turned to see Zechs leaving the chamber, Relena at his heels.

Heero looked between Trowa and Chang.

"I'll follow Zechs, make sure he finds his way back to his shuttle."

"It was just you and him?" Trowa asked. "There aren't IF soldiers swarming over the colony?"

Heero shook his head. "No. It was hard enough to get the expeditionary force for the raid on Quatre's mansion. This- I'm technically AWOL." Heero gave him a rueful smirk.

Trowa chuckled at that.

"I'll make sure Zechs keeps his mouth shut about this," Heero added, and nodded at the capsules. "About the entire colony."

Duo arched an eyebrow in challenge. "What makes you think you can?"

Heero offered him a superior little smirk. "Zechs is far more likely to listen to me than to you, considering the fact that I didn't rebuff his advances."

"Oh." Duo sounded just as surprised as Trowa felt by that revelation.

Heero glanced towards Trowa again, eyes searching for a reaction.

Trowa never would have pictured the two of them together. Then again, now that he thought about it, it made a certain amount of sense.

"Take care of yourself," he said.

"You as well," Heero responded, and then he turned on his heel and left.

Duo chuckled. "This day just keeps getting weirder and fucking weirder. Governor Meat Packer and Captain Tight Ass? Man. I'm gonna need to scrub my brain after that mental image."

Duo started to wander down the nearest row of capsules. "Any chance you put some of your engineers on ice? Like maybe the people who designed this colony?"

"Chien-Shiung Wu," Chang said. "She should be in the second row."

"Awesome." Duo headed in that direction, and it was only as he disappeared from view that Trowa realized Chang was still holding his hand.

He looked down, admiring the contrast of their skin together, the tapered lengths of Chang's strong fingers, the small scar on the back of his thumb.

Trowa found that he very much wanted to know the story of that scar - the story of every scar on Chang's perfect body, the story of his past, his dreams for the future.

Trowa wanted Chang more than he had ever wanted anyone or anything before, the need to have him so intense and visceral that it frightened him.

"Wufei."

He saw Chang swallow hard, saw his body sway slightly at the sound of Trowa saying his name. He turned to face Trowa, still holding onto his hand.

"I lied, when I said you spoke Mandarin like an illiterate pirate," Chang said, his dark gaze searing into Trowa. "You don't."

Trowa felt his lips twitch. "Really?"

Chang nodded. "You speak it like a pirate who can at least read his own name."

Trowa had to roll his eyes. He opened his mouth to respond to that, but Chang pressed the index finger of his free hand over Trowa's lips.

"I lied to you, and you lied to me. It will not happen again."

Chang's voice was serious, and Trowa nodded in agreement.

Chang moved his index finger over Trowa's lips, back and forth, his touch firm.

"This mouth is capable of many things," he mused.

"Such as butchering Mandarin," Trowa suggested, the feel of Chang's finger strange and yet very, very welcome.

"I hope more than that," the other man muttered. He pressed his finger between Trowa's lips, the tip brushing over Trowa's teeth and teasing at his tongue.

Trowa sucked on it, drawing Chang in, and for a moment it felt very much - too much - like what had happened in Scythe's cargo hold.

He stepped back, putting space between them, finally letting go of Chang's hand.

"You- Wufei, I did-"

Chang closed the space between them, grabbed the back of Trowa's neck, and pulled him down into a fierce kiss. Trowa was frozen for a moment, his brain needing several seconds to catch up, but then he wrapped his arms around Chang and pressed their bodies together even as he opened his mouth to the other man, surrendering to him completely.

Eventually, when Chang pulled away, Trowa was left breathless and scorched.

"Uh…"

Flushing and eyes going wide, Trowa turned to see Duo standing a few feet away from them. He gave Trowa a broad grin.

"I'm just going to go and catch a ride with Relena and the Really Fucked-Up Couple That I Never Wanted To Know About. I should go get the Scythe and get our girls, make sure they're okay… You, ah, you wanna come with, or do you want me to…"

"Can he come back?" Trowa asked Chang. "Can he bring my sister and his- Hilde?" Trowa amended, Duo's relationship with Hilde too complicated for any one term.

Duo, Trowa saw out of the corner of his eye, was actually biting his lip as he waited for Chang's response.

"You want to stay?" Chang asked him.

Trowa nodded, too eagerly, and Duo muttered something about pretty boys and doom under his breath.

"They can come back."

"Great! I'll, ah, well… I'll just be on my way and leave you to do your whole… making out in front of five hundred people is stasis thing…"

Duo made a speedy escape, but the moment between Trowa and Chang had been broken.

"What will you do now?" Trowa asked Chang as they looked over the capsules.

"Find a map."

Trowa arched an eyebrow at him.

"I need to find the nearest infirmary and take care of my shoulder," Chang said.

"And then?"

"There's no food in production yet, and I haven't showered in... two hundred years. A trip back to the Sandrock is in order."

"And then?"

Chang smirked, and he laced their hands together.

"And then I expect you to show me what else your mouth is capable of."

-o-

Translations:

Xiàlái: Get Down!