Bishi Pile Challenge:

Major challenge response: Organisation, Conspiracy, Fear

Minor challenge response: Memories, Argue, Information

Word count: 2,456

Series: Friends 2: Friends and Enemies

Author: Karina

Pairings: Zechs + Duo, Trowa x Quatre

Ratings: M 15+ [In Australia] Rated in the event of bad language and violence.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters.

Warnings: No apology given for Aussie spelling, but fair warning given.

Many thanks to Katie for her work betaing this fic and to Dragon Dagger for her words of wisdom.

Character Challenge: Duo, Quatre, Zechs

Chapter 15

"You know you can be scary a little shit, Kitty Kat?"

"Eh?" Quatre's blue eyes widened slightly.

Duo shook his head slowly and instead of answering Quatre he indulged in a long and slow stretch. He was tired. Damned tired and all he wanted to do was curl up in a warm bed in a place he could consider to be safe, and let himself die for a few hours. Every muscle in his body ached, every joint felt as though it would seize up at any movement. Getting horizontal and just letting all of the tension go was beginning to become an imperative.

"Look, Quatre, I really need some shut eye. I can't think straight and it's not good when that happens. I tend to get a bit… well, let's just say I don't listen or think well, okay? To fully appreciate what it is you are saying, and where you are coming from, I really need to be fully rested and a darned sight more alert than I am now."

The blonde sighed heavily and his fingers flexed around the carcass of the mobile phone. He was tired too, it had been a long day and it was proving to be an even longer night, but he could not allow himself any rest. Not yet. There was groundwork that needed to be laid before he could permit himself that luxury.

"We have about two hours to kill before we stop."

Duo seemed to deflate, his spine melting to send him collapsing over the small table, his face buried in his arms folded to cushion his head from the impact. What might have been meant to be a sigh came out as more of a low moaning groan. After a long moment of silence Quatre saw his hands clench and a moment more saw his friend pressing his palms flat to the table to allow his head to drop that little bit lower.

"Where are we going?"

That was easy enough to answer and there would not likely be a lot of questions as to why they were leaving the city. Duo knew the need to be assured of their surroundings.

"To a safe house."

"Where?"

"In the mountains."

"Oh, Jesus, Quatre!" The blonde flinched at the outburst, not that he could blame Duo. It was, really, rather ironic when he thought about it. "I just left the fucking mountains! It's cold, snow bound and blowing a blasted gale up there! Why the hell do I want to go back?"

There was violet in the blue eyes when Quatre looked down to find himself being glared at from Duo's prostrate position. Not a good sign, but his options had been limited and of his choices this safe house was the best of those limited options.

"I chose this particular safe house because it will allow us to monitor who comes and goes more easily than we can if we were in the city. We are not going right up into the mountains, just into the foothills. Rashid has a team preparing the place so there will be little for us to do by the time we get there."

There was the unmistakable sound of teeth grating and it made Quatre's teeth ache in sympathy. "So where in the foothills are we going?"

"There is a lodge we can use to monitor the situation until it's time to act. For the moment, and possibly for some time to come, Rashid's people will need to do the leg work for us to keep us in the game."

A thin, long finger tapped against the table's surface for a few moments as Duo considered the matter, eyes hidden now by the angle of his head and the fall of his bangs.

"Won't you be missed?"

"Not initially. Quatre Winner is officially on holiday. My Board of Directors has been urging me to take a break for some time now and I finally decided I would… at least that is what they will think. I have slipped under the radar so that I can take the break and not be bothered by reporters and freelance photographers; I sent a memorandum to the board stating such. It should be enough to give me a bit of time to make other arrangements for the company, depending on how matters develop. For the moment we have a week, perhaps as much as two, before I have to take further steps."

Duo groaned as he forced himself to sit erect once more. He had a foul backache and his head pounded in a fashion that suggested a heavy metal rock band had taken up residence. Two hours before he could get a decent chance to rest? He doubted he would last that long. His blue eyes were very blue now, a dark blue, much darker than normal and all Quatre could see in them was irritation and a bone aching weariness.

"Well, shit. Zechs told me to make myself scarce when we got back to civilisation. I was thinking about going to ground on L2, but I guess this will serve."

Quatre frowned, inclining his head slightly as he studied his friend. "Zechs told you to go underground? I… see… Ah… How much did he tell you? What else did he say?"

Duo snorted softly and inclined his body a little to allow him to rest a shoulder and his head against the wall. "Nothing, Quatre. I told you already. Nothing means nothing. He told me it would not be safe for me, purely and simply because I went up the mountain after him. That I would be marked and I was to disappear for a good long while. He said that was the safest thing I could do. Stay low, be patient and stay out of it. Let him deal with the shit going down."

"Good advice, I suppose, given your circumstances, but he will not be able to deal with this. Not alone. Not if half of what I suspect is reality. More coffee? Or tea?"

"God, no. I'll slosh when I move and I really want to sleep. I don't know about what is going down, or why you think he is incapable of dealing with the situation. Let me tell you Quatre, that is one scary assed son of a bitch when he wants to be."

The tone of Duo's voice caused Quatre to arch an eyebrow and lean back in his seat, considering Duo for a long moment. He had known Duo long enough to know he did not scare easily and he did not give respect easily either. And here he was demonstrating a great deal of respect for Marquise and, if not fear, a wariness of any action Marquise might make.

"Did he… threaten you?"

Blue eyes tinged toward violet and he snorted in sardonic amusement. "You should know no one threatens me and lives to enjoy it, Kitty Kat. You should know at least that about me by now. I'm a psycho bastard; that is what they tell me. Nah, he didn't threaten me. The bastard didn't need to. You could not look into those blue eyes and not know he is dangerous and that he was deadly serious. The man has issues and questions that he wants answers to and believe me, he will not take kindly to anyone who obstructs his pursuit of those answers."

"He must have given you some kind of clue as to his abilities?"

Duo grunted softly, shaking his head a little. "Hey, Quatre, with the exception of you I haven't knowingly met any psychics before, okay? Given that, how the fuck would I recognise one if I saw one? All I know is I don't want to mess with blondie unless he wants to be messed with… and believe me, he does not want anyone interfering."

"That is all well and good, Duo, but in the long term that is not going to help. This is about more than you, me and Zechs. Or Zechs on his own. I would estimate that as much as an eighth of the population of the ESUN would have some degree of developed psychic ability. Mainly minor abilities, nothing really useable, but it will become a growing trend over time. As psychics mature and breed the population will increase. I firmly believe that we are a step forward, a notable development on the evolutionary chain, but this is neither the time nor the place for us to hold that discussion at this time. With each successive generation there will be more and more people with more developed abilities. It is inevitable that they will find themselves being exploited if some sort of measures are not taken to protect them."

"Yeah, maybe, not that I say I am believing any of this, you understand, but… maybe. So why you? Why us? Why now? Why do 'we' have to do this?"

"Because I trust me, and I trust you, not to exploit ourselves or others like us."

Duo blinked, considering his friend for a long moment. "I know shit about this. There ain't no way I could exploit anyone."

"This clandestine organisation Zechs has worked for appears to have been in existence for a considerable period of time without causing damage, or appearing to, as the case currently stands. There is more investigation to do as yet before I could say for sure, but it appears that they made good use of their people and their skills with out coercion or exploitation of the individual."

"That depends on who you are talking to, I would think. Could be hard to judge."

"True, but as things stand, with what I currently know, I believe that we could do better. I don't mean infiltrate organisations and corporations and influence and change world politics. There will always be those sorts of organisations out there without us setting up another. My thoughts are more to set up some kind of protection and training foundation to train developing psychics. It will be a very long term affair, Duo."

"You are making me a bit uneasy here, Quatre. Where the hell would you even start to do something like that? You are talking about creating something that we know nothing about; and building something like that could take a lifetime. Potentially several life times. I mean, how the heck do you even prove such a thing as psychic abilities exist? Ah wait, what am I thinking, I'm talking to you and your 'space heart'. Okay, but how do you measure it? How do you explain it? You have never really been able to explain it to anyone, have you?"

Quatre's smile was brilliant, megawatts of radiance near blinding Duo. "You have understood! Yes, Duo, I do mean creating something that could well take several lifetimes to get right! But someone has to make the first move; take the first baby steps. It will be the kind of legacy that I would be proud to be associated with. Anyone with the right kind of training, backing and commitment can make a business work, but making this... This will be different. I want to make the future something we can be proud of, and I want to know that there are others like us out there who want the same thing. They are out there, now. I want to find them."

Duo shook his head slowly, small motions, not so much denial of Quatre's words as a motion to measure the immensity of the proposition.

"So you want to start… where?"

"With Zechs. With him and the others who have worked for that organisation that managed to attracted him and keep him interested. They would be one hell of a core group to centre the creation of something like this. I don't know yet what to call it, or even how to adequately describe it, but it would be wonderful, Duo. It could be made to be something magnificent. Wouldn't you like to become a part of something like that?"

"Shit, Quatre, I don't know what I want! Why do you think I haven't joined Preventer? Why do you think the watchdogs are on my back all the time? I'm a loose cannon. I'm not committed. I thumb my nose at everyone because I don't know what I want."

A determined glimmer lit the aqua blue eyes of the Winner and he grinned. "Oh, Duo, you are perfect for this. You really are. You call a spade a spade. You don't pull your shots. You are a psychic yourself, even if you don't think so. I 'know' you are. You have a sensible head on your shoulders and you are not afraid to thumb your nose at the system."

"Gee, what a glowing description of my character."

"It actually is, if you would examine what I actually said instead of only half listening."

"I'm too tired to think."

"I know and I'm sorry. I have no idea how hard it was for you up on that mountain and I know you generally don't sleep well. Up there it must have been harder. I can 'feel' how tired you are, physically and mentally. If I can convince you to join; convince you that you would belong in such an environment… You would not be alone, Duo. You are NOT alone. You just have to see that and believe it."

"Maybe, Quatre. Maybe. I'm just too tired right now. And as it happens I slept reasonably well up on that mountain, when I got the chance to. Zechs needed some attention initially, but when I could spare some shut eye… It was… better."

Quatre eyed him quizzically. "You don't sleep well at the best of times… But then you would have been exhausted, so I suppose that would explain it."

"Nah, that's the worst time for me getting decent shut eye. The nightmares are generally worse if I'm physically or mentally exhausted. One thing I can say to you is you wasted your money sending me to all those shrinks and psychiatrists. One decent session with Zechs had me sleeping like a baby… well, as close to a baby as you could ever get me to sleep. With a little more practise I might just get a handle on my dreams."

The blonde straightened in his seat, back rigidly straight and his eyes positively glowed with the intensity of his stare. His smile widened slowly until white teeth flashed and the corners of his eyes crinkled.

Duo blinked, looking around him as though seeking what had so amused Quatre. "What? What is it?"

"Oh Duo, you have no idea what you said, do you?"

End

Karina Robertson 2012