Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams, implied sex, men in drag, etc...

Author's comment: Happy Fourth of July. ^^ Here's an update.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 44

Not everyone was there to see the others go. Duo and Heero were either discussing things together or hiding away in their secluded cubby holes. He wasn't sure if his words reached Duo but he could always hope for the first option. Things couldn't continue to go like this between the small team. If things didn't start to improve, his next option would be to talk to Heero about it. At least one of these two grown males needed to man up and admit that either things weren't working up or they needed to just suck it up and move on.

Relena had what little belongings she had packed up in the backpack Trowa was currently holding for her. It wasn't much. Probably a hair brush, a comb, some bits of makeup she bought from the local shop, and a change of clothes for when they got closer to HQ. She was dressed in one of the standard issued OZ uniforms looking no different than Trowa's own borrowed attire. He had nothing more than what was stuffed into his pockets.

The sound of footsteps pulled Wufei's attention away from his two companions as he looked down seeing a cup being pushed in front of him. Treize smirked down at him pushing a glass filled with clear liquid into Wufei's uninjured hand before he had the chance to protest making the Chinese male lift his brow suspiciously.

"Water," Treize said as he drank from his own glass, the scent wafting off the container a good indicator that his own beverage was anything but water. Sniffing the drink in his hand he, after not smelling anything suspicious like alcohol, took a few sips of the water. It did make his throat feel less dry so it wasn't hard for him to find himself draining down more of the refreshing water as he studied the man standing beside him.

Aside from his arrival a few moments ago, Treize hadn't contacted Wufei since the last time they had talked to each other. He hadn't heard a word about the revealing of his name, not that he felt disappointment in not hearing his name on Treize's lips. Hell, he could just keel over and die right now for all he cared. It sure would have made his job a lot easier for later on down the line.

"So are the three of you ready to go?" Wufei's head turned so quickly he probably got whiplash, his mouth gaped open as he stared at Treize. He was the one who uttered the words, not looking the least bit bothered that he said them. Three…it should have been just Trowa and Relena. Did he forget that Wufei wasn't going? Maybe Heero had agreed to go? But no, Heero wasn't at the meeting…right?

"We're ready," Trowa said before looking at his fellow preventer, his eyes taking in the surprise on Wufei's face with a frown. "Wufei?" Despite the frown, he didn't look the least bit worried about the situation, not that he had reason to be if he hadn't heard that Wufei wasn't going.

Wufei turned his ebony eyes to Trowa pushing his shock away as he shook his head forcing himself to relax. Treize must have just forgotten to tell them. Maybe he'd been busy this afternoon after his chat with Wufei. "I see Treize forgot to inform you that I won't-"

"He's ready." Wufei's head turned quickly again, this time followed with the look of anger growing in his eyes.

"Have you lost your mind?" Wufei yelled out glaring at Treize. "I told you before I have no intentions to returning without Duo. Or did you forget this is my decision to make?"

"It's still your decision," Treize said just as Wufei's vision wavered in front of him forcing him to squeezing his eyes shut against a wave of nausea feeling his glasses being eased off his face by the man in front of him. "However, I am unable to prevent things taking their course when certain conditions are met." Wufei swayed a bit stumbling forward and falling against Treize, the older man catching him and holding him steady by his shoulders.

"…B…Bastard…." The soft warmth of Treize lulled what little strength he had left out of him. The water…had Treize drugged the water? His blurry eyes glanced over at Trowa, noting the frown and the fact that neither he nor Relena moved to do anything for him. Had they known about this all along? Was this just part of the plan they conspired against him while he was gone?

Soft lips brushing against his ear sent a shiver down his body despite his mind being drug induced. It wasn't just the sound of Treize's voice or the rumbling of hot breath blowing past his ear that made his heart want to throb faster, but the words he said that made his knees feel weaker, not completely from the drugs. "It was a pleasure to finally meet you again, Wufei." Then nothing but darkness greeted him followed only by the sweet scent of roses.

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As Trowa watched Wufei's body slump forward into unwanted unconsciousness, he couldn't prevent himself from frowning still as he watched. Treize wouldn't kill him. He knew that because the man would have had plenty of opportunities to kill the man. Instead, Treize picked Wufei up bridal carrying him as he walked past Trowa taking Wufei into the ship. The care he showed why carrying what seemed like such a fragile body at the moment made Trowa lift a brow in reaction. He'd been suspicious of it before but now he was starting to see that his speculations were correct.

Treize must have felt something for the frowning, always angry looking Chinese man. Whether just companionship, love, friendship, or just a rival he respected, there was something there. He didn't want Wufei here for a reason. That reason had to be that something was about to happen that he wanted to keep Wufei safe from. So despite Treize using drugs as a means to force Wufei onto the shuttle, it was in this case a necessary evil to the man. If Wufei couldn't speak because he was knocked out, then he couldn't complain about having to leave the OZ ship.

Trowa glanced at Relena noticing the knowing look in her eyes that said she was thinking the same thing. What could possibly be about to happen? Well it wasn't like he didn't leave a few surveillance friends around to keep an eye on things. It would have helped him if he could have gotten Wufei to put one in Treize's room as well. At least with Duo and Heero still there, they could still gather information on the current and future events…that was if Duo was willing to cooperate with them.

Using his head, Trowa gestured for Relena to follow him as he boarded the shuttle moving to the front about to go into the cockpit before Treize's voice stopped him.

"Take care of him," Treize said. Trowa looked back meeting the indiscernible blue eyes, watching the man tuck away the stolen glasses before he faintly gave a nod moving into the flight deck and taking a seat in the pilot's seat. He slipped headphones on his head, looking at the steering wheel familiar with flying a shuttle as he'd done it before when he'd needed to during missions. Cutting on the outer camera, he waited until he saw Treize's form taking refuge in the safety of the bay doors before he started up the engine, the loud whining sound barely noticeable from where he was.

Relena joined him briefly afterwards taking a seat in the copilot chair as she buckled up.

"The shuttle doors are closed," she said glancing over at him before looking straight ahead out of the dark windows. "…Do you really think it is a good idea to leave now? I feel like something is about to happen, something bad."

"It's fine," Trowa said frowning having that same bad feeling. "Besides, you staying gives the enemy something to use. I'm sure once OZ and Romefeller are destroyed, they'll come after us." He frowned at that. So far that he knew of, they were the only ones that really knew about White Fang, who hadn't made an official debut. From the size of the ship, the organization had to have been around for some years now, probably before Milliardo's assumed death. And even that information was still coming up as a shock to him. He wondered how Relena must have felt about learning that her brother was not only alive but trying to destroy the Earth.

They had no information on this new enemy meaning no idea how many mobile suits they owned or even how many more experiments they had on board. From what Heero had said, the lab area seemed rather large with plenty of screams coming from the many doors they had showing they were still conducting experiments on humans. With innocent lives onboard, simply destroying the whole ship was out of the question.

As the hull doors opened and gravity returned to zero, Trowa pushed forward on the throttle sending out a few flames as the boosters kicked in sending the shuttle forward and out of the docking bay. He had a feeling it would be a couple of hours before Wufei woke up and even more before they even got close to HQ. Wufei would likely not be happy about being forced on this trip against his will. But Trowa had more than the goal of just returning Relena back to HQ safely. He wanted to see Quatre. It'd been a long time since he's seen his blonde friend or touched him, held him, kissed him. His lips twitched slightly in a smile, something he hid from Relena as he turned his head to the side slightly as if inspecting something floating in out of space.

The trip was going to be a quiet one. Hopefully they wouldn't draw attention to themselves seeing as there were space pirates that liked to prey on seemingly empty or unarmed vessels. Except this little vessel was anything but unarmed. It took a lot of coaxing from Wufei, but Trowa finally accepted the OZ leader's help in retrieving their forgotten gundams from Earth. Both his and Wufei's were onboard the shuttle in case they needed to fight off some mobile suits. Quatre had taken his back with him when he returned to HQ. As for Heero's and Duo's, they were still onboard the OZ ship right at this moment, awaiting the use of their masters that Trowa really hoped wouldn't become the case.

"You should rest," Trowa said looking over at Relena smiling when he caught her slowly starting to fall asleep. "It'll be a while before we get back." Probably a few days from the speed this shuttle was moving at. "There's an extra bed in the back. You could lay down a bit."

"I'm fine," she said smiling back at him in return before focusing her eyes out the window. "Besides…with so much going on, there's no way I can rest right now."

"We'll figure it out," Trowa said returning his eyes to the void ahead. "Once we get back to HQ and talk to Quatre, we'll figure something out." They hadn't gotten much information on Colonel Noin. Nothing had been said yet that seemed the least bit suspicious. Maybe Wufei and Heero had gotten it all wrong. Maybe it was really Milliardo all this time that was the reason for Relena being kidnapped. Well, with the four of them working together they should be able to figure something out, right? Just a little bit of collaborative thinking and they'd figure out what White Fang was planning.

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There were several factors as to why Duo was looking for Heero now, several things bouncing around in his head that had him thinking of the other man thanks to Wufei. He'd learned some stuff, learned about the Fly-Z injections Heero took, learned about his previous conditions from tapping into the hospital network that Heero had stayed in, learned that the Preventers currently considered him MIA. He hadn't reported back to the Preventers since his recovery.

The more Duo learned, the more he grew frustrated with himself for acting like such a hermit. Heero had done a lot for him, including sneaking aboard the unfamiliar White Fang base and looking for him despite the knowledge that they had some way of making the Fly-Z ineffective. He was injected with the stuff without the knowledge of what it could do for him. And he'd even taken a beating that almost killed him thanks to his trying to save him.

And yet all he'd gotten from Duo was the cold shoulder and not a word of gratitude. Duo mentally kicked himself even as he walked the halls, eyes watchful as he stared at a couple of OZ soldiers walking by avoiding his eerie eyes and staying as far from him as they could. He was safe on this part of the ship, so Treize said. His most loyal followers lived here and were dedicated to him and not to the Romefeller Foundation that he was a part of. It sounded more like a revolution that would soon start up once Treize made his move. The question was why hadn't he made it yet? And would it be a good move or one they would have to defend against in the future?

Speaking of the suave nobleman, the very person he'd been thinking about was walking in his direction, his eyes lighting up as if he'd found what he was looking for. Considering he was heading straight in Duo's direction, he obviously had. The braided male had a hard time controlling his body's response to the other's approach, much like he had a hard time anytime someone got too close to him. But Treize apparently knew not to get too close, stopping a mere seven feet away before he smiled at Duo in greeting.

"Ah, just the man I was looking for," Treize said.

And just the man he wasn't looking for. Duo hesitated before he backed up and moved to walk in the other direction.

"You must be looking for your friend Heero, correct?" It bothered him that Treize knew their names now. It must have slipped out when Wufei had been around him. The words still stopped him though as he looked back lifting a brow at Treize in response. If he thought using Heero's name was going to make them instant best buddies for life, he had that wrong. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to where your friend is."

Treize didn't wait to see what he'd say, turning and walking before Duo had the chance to try and figure out what he was up to. Sighing under his breath, Duo started to follow him keeping a distance between them as he did. The man was slow with his gait, giving words of encouragement to his men whenever they passed the eager to salute soldiers. They looked up to the man which was obvious from the excited looks on their faces. Each had a look to their face that showed they'd sacrifice everything they had to protect this man, even staring Duo down despite their fears from earlier.

"Here," Treize said gesturing to the door with the header that said the word lab. It made Duo tense up to see it, his eyes widening slightly feeling just a little intimidated by just standing there by it.

"What…" He swallowed again, cursing the croak in his voice from the lack of disuse these past three days. "Why is he in there?"

"Training." The words threw Duo off, making his brows lower in confusion as he stared up at Treize. Training? In a lab? What kind of training could that be? Or was Treize lying to him about the whole thing? Had they captured Heero and forced him to be used as an experiment? Where were the others? Were they being used as test subjects now too? He was about to confront the man about it when the door opened and Heero walked out, a towel being rubbed over his damn head before his eyes opened and he frowned, eyes landing on Treize standing in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" Heero asked, easily able to ignore the smirk on Treize's lips.

"Your friend was looking for you," Treize said gesture to the side at Duo and almost making Duo forget how to breath when the perfect blue eyes landed on him. Duo turned his eyes away quickly, frowning as he stared down at a spot on the ground to avoid the gaze. He should be used to this. So why was his body revolting against him? It wasn't like he wanted to run from Heero to begin with. Just that something…something back on that ship had felt weird when Heero had touched him, almost eerily so.

"I told you not to bring him here." The dark haired brunette returned his eyes to Treize looking just a bit frustrated before he moved walking past Treize.

"Afraid I didn't have much of a choice when he says he wants to see you." Heero tensed at the words and Duo swore Heero turned his head just a little to look at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, his mouth opening slightly before he firmly closed it again and turned starting to walk away. It was hard watching the other man leave like that. He could only imagine how Heero must have felt when Duo turned a cold shoulder to him. Damn, did he have to be such a heel?

Frowning, Duo took off after him brushing past Treize without even a thought to the fact that he'd touched him, his mind so focused on the back in front of him. He started to reach out, his aim on the hand swinging back on Heero's side.

"Hee-"

"Don't," Heero said pulling the hand away as if he knew Duo's intent. He didn't turn to look back at Duo but the word itself had been enough to freeze him in his place. "I'm…I'm not strong enough."

A confused look reached Duo's features as he frowned tilting his head to the side slightly. "Strong enough?" It was the first real words he'd said to his team since he'd reunited with them. And to him, his voice sounded like crap from how hoarse it was. Maybe he should have at least been drinking some water. His eyes closed with a shudder at the thought. He'd had plenty of water on that ship, enough to drown ten people. He swallowed slowing his breath down and opening his eyes again pushing the thought away. Even if he did keep thinking about that place, even if he kept having nightmares of the pains he felt, he had to remember that Heero risked his life and pulled him away from there. "Heero, we need to-"

The man had already walked away during his little episode. And he thought he was good at running and hiding. Where did he go so quickly? Duo frowned and looked at the Romefeller Rep over his shoulder, suspicion growing at the mysterious smile on Treize's lips before he turned walking off to search for Heero. He had a feeling the other wouldn't be found if he didn't want to be. And he had a feeling that the Fly-Z was to thank for that. Was Heero even really compatible with it? What about side effects? Hell, he'd seen what happened to people that ended up not being hundred percent in tune with the Fly-Z, which was the reason why he and Solo had been the only two to survive it. And it was probably the reason that he felt like he wouldn't survive without it.

He should be dead. He was, literally, a dead man walking. With all the things that had been done to him, he should have died a long time ago. Yet the Fly-Z was an amazing tool created from the magic of science. Time and again, it had brought him back. Time and again it would heal his wounds as if they'd never been. It was like his body was being taken back in time to before whatever injury had happened, except with everything that had happened recently, it was hard to forget what pain felt like. His relived nightmares definitely made sure he didn't forget. Maybe that's why Heero had said he wasn't strong enough. Maybe he couldn't deal with this mental strain Duo was putting on him. Ugh, and to think he was on the ship of a company that had been the first to experiment on him. Not cool. So not cool.

Well at this point, sleep was out of the question. And he'd long since discarded the food Wufei brought to him, ignoring the rumbling of his angry stomach as it felt like it twisted in on him. He was hungry but not necessarily in need of food. The Fly-Z made sure he could survive starvation as well…it would just remind him every so often that it would be a good idea to eat. Of course he'd continue to ignore it like he'd been doing these past three days. It was also getting harder to stay awake. The time Wufei caught him had been the first bit of time that he'd gotten even an ounce of sleep. So in a way, he was glad that Wufei had woken him up. He didn't want to dream nightmares of that place again. He'd done it enough the few times he did fall unconscious and after his first time escape when he'd been younger.

Duo's feet moved him until he found himself nearby his more familiar hiding place. The room was for authorized access only, but it was simple for him to use his mind to hack into the system and unlock the door sliding inside before he reinitiated the lock. The boiler room for the ship seemed rather large, though probably not as big as it had to be at HQ. While not the best place to hide out at, it helped him to feel safer, more hidden than any other place on the ship. No one came in here, not without him being able to notice. He wished he had his laptop with him. The Romefeller ship made it easy for him to tap into the cameras here. At least then he'd be able to monitor the moment someone tried to enter.

He spent the majority of his three days here sitting and pulling his knees up to his chest, thinking…or trying not to think. The small hum of electric currents or the random thump of the water heaters made it easy to just sit and listen. There were a few times he'd come close to falling asleep, but the loud thump would always wake him up. That was why he liked this place unlike at the library where he'd completely dozed up. He was thankful that Wufei had come to wake him up otherwise he didn't know what kind of nightmares might have developed.

Still, it was getting harder to stay awake. He sighed slumping down in his usual spot facing the door yet being hidden away. He needed to get over this somehow. He was hurting the people close to him with his sudden need to push them away. Wufei's little suck it up speech already did wonders for him. Even Heero looked like he was being bothered by his attitude. He wondered what Treize had Heero doing, had even thought about sneaking into the labs before his better judgment told him it wasn't a good idea. He wasn't mentally stable enough to do that. He knew he wasn't.

Clearing his throat, he leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes slipping shut for a moment to rest them at least for a little bit. His mind registered the small thump of the water heater before his head tilted forward, chin resting on his knees. In the next instance, before he knew what was happening, before he could even stop it, he'd fallen asleep.

TBC…