**I am super dooper sorry this has taken sooo long to get out. My luck just has really sucked here lately... I know I know I bet you all are thinking when I EVER have good luck. We got back from a wonderful vacation to my puppy being very sick... he ended up having to go BACK to the vet and was there for a week. He fought for a full week and in the end we had to end his pain and suffering and have him peacefully put to sleep. He had a very bad blockage since puppies love to chew and swallow any and everything and unfortunately he had never shown any signs until he got so sick. The vet said it had been there for a while which was heartbreaking. They did surgery to remove it and it had done too much damage and his body was just unable to bounce back and get back to working so a couple days after the surgery we had him put down. He was going on 11 months and was the best dog I had ever been fortunate to find. Even as more dogs come and go in my life, there will never be another one like Toby. He was a small pup with a heart bigger than his body since he loved EVERYONE, so I had a few weeks of just... happiness than sadness and my best friend kept me company! I love her soo much for being here for me! She took my mind off of everything and I am slowly getting better and know he is better off and able to run happily up there in the biggest doggie park ever with all the food and bones he could possibly have! Anyways, I was finally able to sit and concentrate on the story and so here comes the chapter and the updates will be closer together... I just won't promise since well...my luck sucks and looooves to kick me in the tush!**

Chapter Nine: Can Anybody Hear My Cry?

Hope was a quickly fading illusion for poor Duo. He had already lost count of how long he had been captive in his hell hole. He barely remembered anything as well so he felt he had been in for a very long time indeed. His heart ached within his chest with the doom that had washed over him by the third day of captivity. He felt that Heero would never be able to get to him in time... and that he would never get to see Heero's strong, beautiful face again. Those thoughts were constantly swirling around within Duo's mind, allowing him to slip deeper and deeper into a depressed state.

During his stay, someone was beginning to take pity on him. Duo had become the favorite test subject for Zechs, and he unleashed everything he had upon the boy. With Duo's resilience, Zechs was starting to become very irritated since his goal was taking control of Duo's body so he would no longer have any say over what he did. Day after day, and even sometimes well into the night, Duo's screams could be heard up and down the hallways and throughout the entire building. The other captives within the lab tried to ignore the sounds, cover their ears, anything possible to avoid hearing the tormented boy crying out. On some nights, when the sessions had been extremely long, Duo would be hoarse, hardly any sound able to come from between his lips from how irritated his throat had become.

"Can.. anyone... hear... help..please" was all Duo managed to mutter each day he could.

While Duo was held captive within the lab that felt more like a prison, the city was falling apart. The city had lost many non-humans, just seeming to slip away into the night to never be seen again. With more disappearing, Quatre was growing more worried for Duo as well as Heero. Heero had become more agitated with each new disappearance and had nearly killed a few people just for being at the wrong places at the wrong times. The group of friends new that without Duo, Heero was slowing loosing it and going down the dangerous path of destruction. Heero was also becoming very impatient with just leaving Duo there day after day while they tried to gather a force strong enough to burst within the compound. Heero was furious and felt that no one else cared about this as much as he... and he happened to vent that to the wrong person.

"I don't care, I want my Duo back, you all just don't understand what this feels like... " he had griped out furiously only to have a very hard slap to his cheek.

"I DO understand you great bit baboon! If you have forgotten so easily, my sister is trapped in that hell hole with your Duo and she is all I have left, so shut the hell up you inconsiderate bastard before I shut you up permanently!" Myst all but told him in a scarily calm voice.

Wufei had to stare in awe at the rather passionate woman. He had always thought woman were more inferior to men, but this Myst had held her own against Heero and Heero looked flabbergasted for once as he had turned to sulk away very much like a child. Wufei felt like he would love to spar with this woman and knew she would be quite the noble opponent. With a smirk upon his features, Wufei turned and followed after the retreating back of Heero, curious to see how he was after being put in his place by a female! Wufei watched Heero heavily sit upon his bed, a shirt of Duo's held tightly within his arms as the stoic boy bowed and pressed his face into the shirt, trying to picture better times.

Seeing Heero this vulnerable, tugged at Wufei's heart and he slowly entered the room to rest his hand lightly on Heero's shoulder before giving a reassuring squeeze. He knew Heero would understand his jester and he also knew Heero would take it to heart. The asian boy felt terrible that their leader was so... down and depressed and he could not blame him. He knew everyone had taken Duo's abduction hard, and everything just felt not right without the loud chatter box always hanging around. Finally, being unable to bear it, Wufei left the room and went to find Quatre and Trowa as he heaved a heavy sigh. Since this had happened, no one left the apartment to offer Heero support.

By this point, Heero had enough. He felt Duo's pain and he could stand it no longer. With the darkness of night falling upon the city, Heero slipped from his window and ran down the street before vanishing in the darkness. By the time the other's noticed, Heero was already reaching the compound and slunk along the bushes and kept low as he watched and waited. His eyes watched trucks come and go, guards patrolling every inch of the place like it were some sort of asylum. Heero understood this place would be a bit difficult to get into but his mind was already formulating a perfect plan to get the gates unlocked and the guards focused on something else.

After a couple hours another truck went bumping along towards the gates. Heero watched, eyes narrowing as he waved his arm and the overhead light burst into flames, the glass shattering to rain down upon the guards below who shouted to turn off the switch. Those were words to Heero's ears as he slunk along, his body low as he hopped upon the truck and darted inside as she truck was pulled into the compound. The guards were standing in front of the gate, since the system was now down. Using the darkness of night, Heero was able to roll for cover and get into the building since the door had been opened for the shipment. Seeing only a few guards within the unloading dock Heero moved with such grace before he ripped one of the guard's heads to the side, the resounding crack of neck bones filled the air as the body dropped to the ground alerting the other guard. The other guard did not even have time to lift his gun before his face was grabbed and crushed by a simple hand. The face was contorted and looked inhuman as the guard's arms would be ripped from his body and the body left to lay in a puddle of blood.

With the two guards taken care of, Heero continued, snatching their cards to get inside the building. Once inside his eyes looked around the pristine white hallways before he growled low within his throat. He scaled the walls and took out each camera he came across silently, his ears listening intently for any sounds coming his way. After moving around inside the compound for a good hour, he was finally able to locate the surveillance room and look at the currently cameras filming the place. He scanned each camera carefully until his ears picked a cry, a plead that nearly tore his heart to shreds. He heard his Duo crying out for him, for anyone to hear his plead.

Heero froze all the cameras and took off running down the hallways that were like a maze. His eyes were frantically looking all over the place, in each cell he could in pure terror at what would await him. He had looked everywhere he could up stairs to no avail and sighed, feeling as though he would never be able to rescue his beloved. Just as he almost turned to try looking elsewhere, he noticed an elevated that blended into the wall and slowly approached it to press the button and slide the card he held. He heard the machine cranking as the elevator was lifted and the doors opened. Heero stepped into the elevator and pushed the button to return back down into the underground of the laboratory.

With the door opening, Heero was faced with a chilled, damp hallways with the sounds of groans and cries filling the silence. The sounds made Heero's skin crawl all over and made him dry heave a time or two from the stench alone of blood and other body fluids. Heero took hesitant, silent steps as his ears were filled with soft sobs from the back furthest part of the underground complex. With his feet hurrying Heero nearly ripped the door from the hinges to let it fall to the ground with a creaking slam. Heero felt like his heart had just stopped working and broke into a million slivers in pure agony as he fell to his knees once rushing into the room.

His arms moved out, pulling the battered body of Duo to his chest as tears stung the corners of Heero's cobalt eyes. In his arms lay Duo, and he would have thought he were dead if not for the shallow breathing. Duo was very pale, sickly so with dark circles beneath his eyes. His long braided hair was mostly undone and matted badly with blood and semen caked throughout. It pained Heero as he felt how think and fragile his precious one had become... looking like a mere ghost of himself. Heero also noticed all the cuts and bruises upon his body, all the things they had done to him which caused Heero to seethe in anger. He stood, gently lifting Duo's light frame within his arms and turned. As he moved he heard Duo faintly whimper.

"Please... no more..." His words were eased with a tender, loving kiss.

"It's me Duo... I'm here... and we're going home" Heero spoke softly as he saw Duo relax.

"Get... Fern.. my friend... she's in cell B4" It was the last thing Heero heard.

After the few words, Duo had fallen into the blissful state of unconsciousness. Heero shifted him within his arms as she left, reading the cell names as he would look into a few and shudder at what he would see. Several of the prisoners within the cells were no longer coherent. They had glazed, silver eyes and foamed at the mouth as though having rabies. Some charged the door like a beast prepared to fight... no doubt all experiments of Zechs. Heero finally found the right door and peered inside prepared for anything and breathed a sigh of relief.

The young looking female, whom Heero assumed was Fern, looked up with worried eyes. She noticed Duo and looked to Heero before she stood very cautiously. For a few moments both stared off at one another before Heero turned to the side and held the door, showing her it was fine to come out and that he was not one of the bad guys. Fern seemed to wait, listening to what her gut was telling her and knew she could trust this man. She knew with how relaxed Duo looked that this had to be Heero standing before her. Being locked up, they had talked often as possible to keep their minds off everything that had been going on within the compound. Once she was out of her cell she offered a small smile on her very dirty face before following Heero who moved to the elevator. Just like before he waited until they could get within the moving device up to the ground floor level.

When the doors open , Heero growled and glared at the tall man standing in front of the elevator. The man was tall, with sharp almost roman like features upon his masculine face. Treize stood, watching the three he had almost bumped into and looked down to duo before his stern expression softened slightly. No one spoke, and Fern was so terrified she almost forgot to even breath as she was pressed back against the wall, eyes large. Treize had seen Zechs losing control and slowly becoming more mentally unstable. He had actually been heading down to try and break out some of the prisoners. He knew he had gone soft, but he had gotten to where he felt even HE could be in danger from Zechs.

"Come... I'll get you out of the facility... quickly before Zechs gets here... "

"How do I know I can trust you human?" Heero hissed through clenched teeth.

"I am not asking you to trust me... and I never said I was fully human either... Zechs is lost mentally.. he is unstable and if you rather take Duo home alive you need to leave and now!" He hissed walking away abruptly.

Heero watched him turn, making him an easy target and the one thing that saved him this day from Heero's revenging anger. Heero moved, following after Treize and Fern following after Heero and Duo. They moved through the maze like lab with ease, since Treize was leading them towards a safe way to get out. He finally stopped at a car garage and moved through the few cars until he reached a black van with heavily tinted windows. Treize turned and handed Heero the keys to the van and waited until Duo and Fern had been put within the van and secured with seatbelts. Heero turned to look back to Treize.

"You need to knock me out... that way I can slip by Zechs since there was a breech in security... if I can try to help the other's here I will do what I can... " Treize offered, eyes telling the truth.

Heero only nodded and he held back a lot of power and strength as he punched the taller man several times and even broke his nose before the body hit the ground out cold. With Treize bleeding upon the cement, Heero got into the van and pulled out, driving for the exit and out to the road. Just as the van had disappeared, Zech's furious screams could be heard all around. Guards were everywhere looking for the intruders and Zechs had been the one to find Treize upon the floor. Zechs growled and noticed a van was missing and stooped to pick up Treize and carry him to his office. With Treize out cold, Zechs went to check on the experiments and cursed and threw an even larger tantrum.

He had gone down the elevator to find not one, but two of his toys missing! He could possibly replace the female, but DUO had been taken. It had made him so mad that he turned on the gas in a few of the chambers and slowly smothered a few of the other experiments. Cried of pain and gasping could be heard as Zechs stormed back into the elevator and up to the top floor where his office was. He knew it had to be someone Duo knew that took him, and he also knew that this meant war. He was seething with such anger he found himself breaking several objects within his office, sending guards to look for any clues at all and threatening them if they did not return with anything.

"If it's war they want, then so be it... I will unleash a plague so vile upon them all" The words fell on deaf ears and nothing but silence.

The van drove down the road, making haste to the city as quick as possible. Heero was a nervous wreck as he moved the van onwards, reaching the city within a couple hours and slowing it down so he did not get pulled over. He took many turns and moved down many darkened streets. He finally made his way to his parking garage and once there removed the precious cargo gently within his arms. He turned, waiting for Fern to stagger from the van and follow after him. He moved, heading inside and to the elevators. He felt like he had spent a lot of time in elevators today, but it had all been important. Reaching the top story he all but burst the door open as he kicked it savagely with his foot. He would not wait for long as she door was pulled open with an angry looking Myst standing there.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU... oh my... HEY it's Heero and he has Duo... and.. FERN!"

They suddenly saw a side to Myst they never thought could be remotely possible as she leapt into the air and all but tackled Fern to the ground in hugs and kisses, tears streaming down her face at seeing her sister. Fern smiled and wrapped her arms around Myst as she held her close, making sure it was real and her sister was really here before her. She was so scared she would wake up and still be in that horrible hell hole all alone with just duo to speak to. Once their shock had worn off, they had something more important to worry about... Duo and he looked a mess.

Seeing how tore up Heero looked, Quatre took Duo with the help of Trowa and moved him into the bedroom before closing the door. Quatre needed to get Duo cleaned off and inspect him for any and all injuries possible. As he worked on removing the little clothing Duo had left, he felt tears pricking the corners of his eyes as he felt so saddened for his dear, much loved friend. He slowly set to work on cleaning up the body with a bowl of warm, soapy water. He scrubbed the very dirty places and rinsed before he washed him all over once more, making sure to get every last bit of dirt and grime from his body. Quatre even had Trowa help him so he could wash the hair several times to get all the mats out.

Finally, after several hours, Quatre was completely satisfied that Duo was clean and his hair re-braided properly. The sheets were changed and the pillows fluffed up before Duo was gently settled beneath the sheets and covered with a few blankets after being dressed in pajama pants. Quatre was a bit worried, since duo held a low fever, but he felt it was from not eating properly and not getting enough rest from being too strained and stressed. He sighed and he stepped back and left the room with Trowa following. When he was back out with everyone else, he filled them in that Duo would need to be in bed for a few days of rest to break his fever. He also suggested having some soup ready for when the other woke up to put something nutritious within his stomach. Everyone had agreed and set to work, keeping their minds off everything.

Meanwhile Myst was borrowing the bathroom as she cleaned up her dear sister, Fern. Fern had cried and cried everything to Myst and hardly let go of her in protests of not wanting to wake up back in that horrible place. It tore at Myst's heart and soul to see her sister so.. frail and scared to be left alone. Myst knew they would still be taking down Zechs.. and she planned to make him pay dearly before Heero got his hands upon him... she would DEMAND a few tortuous moments with that vile animal. She held her sister within her lap and comforting embraced and she would hum gently, the music lulling to everyone around and helping ease the tension filling the air as they hunkered down for the night.

~End Chapter Nine~

Author's Note: Well I FINALLY GOT IT FINISHED YAAAY! Sorry things have been crazy.. as usual... but I hope for things to go better and I already know what I want to have happen in the next chapter to keep a lookout and thank you for being patient with me ! I LOVE ALL OF YOU! -bows and gives everyone a cupcake-