Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, foul language, brief mentions of implied rape (no descriptions), alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, Dumbledore and Snape bashing, implied bashing of select Weasleys (no specifics mentioned), OOC moments, and who knows what else.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

CHAPTER WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of torture and some bloodshed. It also has a scene involving a binding magical oath that may offend those with delicate sensibilities. If those kinds of things bother you, then it is best you stop reading because I will not be removing those scenes nor will I go out of my way to justify them to anyone who feels the need to question my plots. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Chapter 4: A Tentative Truce without Trust

Exhausted because of how much he'd been pushing himself the last two days, in pain due to the fact that he hadn't tended his wounds since that morning, and irritated over the most recent confrontation; Harry had stopped paying attention to his unwanted and unwelcomed guest the moment he'd let go of the teen and told him to leave. In that instant, he made a critical error as he turned his back on the teen and began walking away under the mistaken belief that the teen would simply walk away and leave him alone. Because he let his guard down, he was completely unprepared when the teen tackled him from behind and pain exploded across his back and side even as he hit the sand face first.

That didn't mean he didn't fight back; he did.

He lashed out with his hands and feet as they rolled back and forth across the sand while at the same time trying to get his hands on his sword or his wand. Unfortunately, the taller teen was far stronger (and better trained) than Harry and it was only a matter of seconds before he was parted from Gryffindor's sword (the blade had sliced through his belt when the teen grabbed the hilt and tossed it away). Still not wanting to admit defeat, Harry's fingers grappled desperately for his wand until he felt the familiar handle slid into his palm. A stunning spell was on the tip of his tongue when the wand was torn from his fingers before he once again found himself face down in the sand.

He started to roll back over so he could reclaim his wand only for the teen to roughly shove his face back into the sand as he pulled one of Harry's arms behind his back and straddled Harry's thighs. The hand left his head then and grabbed his free hand and despite his best effort to free himself, Harry soon felt his hands being securely tied behind his back with the blindfold he'd used to guide the teen through the wards hiding the cave. Growling, Harry opened his mouth to start yelling and cussing only to immediately close it again as a hand fisted in his hair and he felt the cold barrel of the teen's gun press against his temple. As his head was pulled up and back, Harry felt Heero press closer as he leaned down to hiss in Harry's ear.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice or recognize my own Gundam the moment I saw it, boy?"

Harry couldn't make any sense out of the teen's words; the vulnerable position he was currently in bought hundreds of horrible memories to the surface of his mind and they drowned out all conscious thought. He never even heard the pitiful whimpers and whines he was making in the back of his throat as old fears overwhelmed him. The fiery pain spreading across his back and side from the rather nasty scrapes he'd picked up the morning before didn't help as the teen was leaning rather heavily on them and they'd been hit several times during their scuffle. The sand that had worked its way under his shirt only made it worse.

He must have passed out at some point after that because the next time he became aware of his surroundings he found himself propped up against the cool and yet oddly warm metal side of the white, red, and blue robot he'd pulled from the water. Crouching less than a foot away once more aiming his pistol in Harry's general direction was Heero, his blue eyes once more cold and hard as he watched Harry's every move.

"Are you paying attention this time, boy?"

Harry scowled at the much hated form of address as he tried to brush off the sand clinging to his face by wiping his face against his shoulder only to feel a sharp sting as the teen slapped him. Hissing, Harry narrowed his eyes and glared at Heero as the teen lifted the gun a bit so that it was now leveled at Harry's face for the second time. Sliding his eyes from the teen's cold face to the equally cold barrel of the gun, Harry couldn't help but feel a sharp stab of self disgust at being caught so easily. He shoved the feeling aside and let his eyes search for his wand and soon found both it and the sword sitting well out of his reach.

"Eyes on me, boy," Heero growled and Harry snapped his eyes back to the teen's face and resentfully gave the teen his full attention. "Better, I suppose, but you'd best pay close attention because I am getting sick and tired of repeating myself. How did you get my Gundam?"

Harry frowned in confusion as he tried to place the unfamiliar word and he allowed his eyes to slip away from Heero as his thoughts turned inwards in his search for understanding. Another stinging slap had him refocusing on the teen once more to find him scowling at Harry. Not trusting himself to not provoke the teen with his mouth at the moment, Harry shook his head. A heartbeat later, he jumped and let out an involuntary cry as Heero shifted the gun a fraction and fired what looked like a beam of light from his gun that singed Harry's hair before it ricocheted off the robot behind him and struck the pile of salvage that Harry had collected a couple of days ago.

Heart pounding from the unexpected display, Harry felt icy numbness settle over him instead of the fear he suspected the teen was trying to generate.

"Answer the question, brat, or the next shot is going to destroy your left knee."

"I would, if I had any fucking clue what the hell you were talking about, you bloody bag of bloated boggart barf," Harry growled out as a flash of anger sharply cut through the numbness and overrode his common sense for an instant.

"Wrong answer," Heero barked as he sucker punched Harry in the stomach unexpectedly.

Harry vomited up bile and blood (his stomach empty of all else) as he slumped forward from the pain and the force of the blow. Seconds later he felt fingers coiling in his hair before his head was jerked up and slammed back into the metal monstrosity behind him. The continued physical violence sharply brought to mind his pre-Hogwarts days and the numerous times that Dudley and his friends played Harry Hunting and a brief flash of contempt filled his eyes before he locked his emotions behind a mask of indifference.

A second blow to his stomach ignited a spark of resentment and a thread of hate coiled in his belly when he next looked into those murderous eyes that were boring into him. In some ways, his current situation was far worse than when he'd found himself an unwanted participant at Voldemort's rebirth; if only because there was something humiliating in being physically beat by the teen he'd rescued from the sea. A teen that he'd foolishly turned his back on even though he'd already known that the teen had a tendency towards violence.

"Last chance, you either tell me the truth or you lose your left knee."

"I already told you! I have no idea what you're talking about!"

It was only Harry's seeker reflexes that saved his knee from complete destruction as Heero shot his weird laser like gun at his left knee; even then the beam of the weapon burned through the side of his knee and he screamed long and loud as it set his entire leg on fire with pain. Harry clamped his mouth shut to cut short his scream seconds later as the pain receded to a barely tolerable burn. That had hurt… it had hurt far worse than he would have expected and possibly worse than Voldemort's Cruciatus but Harry couldn't be certain and he really didn't want to repeat the experience just to find out.

He wasn't given any more time to recover as the teen addressed him once more, "How did my Gundam come to be in your possession?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to answer that if I don't know what the hell a Gundam is, you stupid sack of sphinx shit!?" Harry half yelled as the pain ate away at what little common sense he might have had left.

Heero's response was to grab hold of Harry's injured knee and dig his thumb into the bloody gash, drawing a second scream from Harry as the pain returned with a vengeance. In that moment, Harry felt the first tendrils of fear that had nothing to do with old memories and everything to do with the teen holding him at gunpoint. He still wasn't afraid of dying; he knew there would be no pain in death. No, he was afraid of what the cold, murderous teen staring at him with emotionless blue eyes that were as hard as diamonds would do to him before he was allowed to escape into the arms of death.

"I don't what a Gundam is," Harry repeated desperately once Heero had removed his hand from Harry's knee and the pain had dulled enough that he could speak without screaming. A heartbeat later, he felt his stomach lodge itself firmly in his throat as Heero dropped the gun and pressed it to his right kneecap in an unspoken promise. Sheer terror spurred Harry to plead and beg as tears began pouring from his eyes, "I swear on my life, I've never heard of a Gundam before! Please… I swear I have no idea what you are talking about! Please… I'll… I'll do anything you want… give you anything you want if I have it… just please… please don't shoot me again. Please… please…"

Something Harry had said must have finally convinced the other teen that Harry was telling the truth, as he abruptly stood up before he roughly yanked Harry up off the ground and spun him around so he was facing the gigantic machine. Harry was then lifted off the ground and shoved up against the robot with his feet dangling close to a foot off the ground as Heero pinned him in place with his hip and pressed an arm across the back of Harry's neck while his other hand dug the barrel of the gun into Harry's left hip. He then felt Heero's lips brush across his ear as Heero leaned close and hissed in his ear.

"Where did you find this mobile suit? How did you get it?"

"The robot…?" Harry asked uncertainly in a voice that shook more than a little as the physical proximity of the teen only increased his growing fear of the teen on top of stirring up dark and unpleasant memories.

"Answer the question!"

"I was scared when I found the bits of metal washing up on the beach. I'd seen the robots fall from the sky and feared someone would come looking for them and find me instead. So… so I gathered up all the broken parts and pulled the two robots from the water so I could hide them. I didn't know who they belonged to… and it never occurred to me that one of them might be yours… I just didn't want anyone to find me."

"Who helped you take them out of the ocean?"

"No one! I swear! I pulled them out by myself."

"You expect me to believe that?" Heero growled as he jabbed the tip of the gun deeper into Harry's hip to remind him it was there. "A Gundam weighs thousands of pounds; how in the hell could a little kid like you pull it up from the bottom of the ocean let alone get it onto shore?"

"I swear! It was just me… I… I used… I used my wand to bring them up. I used my… my magic."

"Magic? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"I'm telling the truth. I can prove it! If you give me my wand, I will show you."

"Say I believe you enough to allow you to prove what you say is true; how do I know you won't try and attack me the moment I let you have your so called wand?"

"I… I… I'll swear an oath on my magic to… to not attack you," Harry recklessly promised in his desperation to avoid being shot again. "I can't break a magical promise; my magic won't let me."

Harry's breathing became ragged with fear as the silence weighed down on him while he waited for the teen to either accept his offer or shoot him again. Just when Harry didn't think he could take the suspense any longer, Heero countered coldly, "No… a promise like that isn't good enough. You will swear an oath to do everything I tell you to do instead."

"You… you would have me make myself your… your slave?" Harry asked in a frightened little voice that cracked with fear as icy fingers grabbed hold of his heart and soul.

"No… it's more like I will be your commanding officer; you can word it however you like so long as it basically states that you will do as I tell you, when I tell you."

"Isn't there some other way…?"

"You either swear the oath so you can prove that you aren't lying about how you ended up with my Gundam or I will systematically destroy every bone in your body in order to see if you change your story at some point."

Harry closed his eyes and pressed his face up against the cold yet warm metal of the Gundam as his tears began falling once more. He knew the choices Heero had given him basically meant he'd either be bound as a slave to the other teen for the rest of his life (no matter what Heero called it) or he would be slowly and painfully tortured for days on end until death finally claimed him. It almost felt like a part of him died as he realized he wasn't strong enough or brave enough to risk facing endless torture; and worse, his magic still didn't recognize the teen as the threat he was.

The feel of the teen pressing sharply against his injuries and jabbing at his hip with his gun again had Harry brokenly choking out, "I… I'll swear the oath."

Ten minutes later, after working out an appropriate oath (that Heero had demanded to proof read to make certain Harry wasn't trying to trick him) Harry was holding his wand in his right hand while his left arm was firmly being held behind his back by Heero. He did his best to ignore the cold barrel of the gun that was pressing into the base of his neck and the burning ache in his wounded knee as he brought his wand up so that it was sitting directly in front of his heart, with the tip pointing straight up into the sky.

Harry briefly considered cursing the teen standing behind him but just as quickly discarded the idea because he couldn't be certain that he could hit Heero with a stunner before the teen shot him. Taking a deep breath, Harry choked back a sob and swallowed his pride as he tied his life to a cold hearted teen that had no qualms about torturing or killing others.

"I, Harry James Potter, swear on my magic to obey, without question, every reasonable order given to me by Odin Lowe Junior (alias Heero Yuy) providing that his orders will not force me to take my own life, take the life of an innocent, lead to the death of an ally or cause harm to myself, an innocent, or an ally for as long as I shall live or until Odin Lowe Junior releases me from my oath. So… so mote it be."

Harry felt his magic surge up in response to his oath and he gasped in shock as he felt the oath settle over his magical core as a portion of it wrapped around his soul to seal the oath. When it was over, he bonelessly sank to the ground as Heero released him, his entire being numb with shock over what he'd just done. Bowing his head, he swallowed back the tears of shame that began burning behind his eyes as he waited for his life of servitude to begin.

"You are to never again address me as Odin Lowe Junior or even speak that name aloud for any reason unless I give you permission," Heero ordered a minute later. "Now, show me how you moved my suit."

Harry nodded slowly in response to both orders before he did his best to ignore the searing pain of his various wounds as he climbed to his feet only to stagger momentarily when his left knee buckled beneath his weight. Swallowing both his sobs and another pained scream, he hobbled away from both Heero and the Gundam for several agonizing steps before he turned around to face the huge machine once more. Knowing he'd likely crush both of them if he used the summoning spell on the robot because of how close they were both standing to it; Harry instead used the levitation charm to lift the entire thing two feet off the ground.

If not for the seriousness of the situation Harry now found himself in he might have laughed as Heero let out a startled squawk and scrambled away from the floating metal monstrosity. Harry dropped the suit a moment later as the strain of magically lifting something so heavy on top of his exhausted state became too much. He allowed himself to sink to the ground once more in exhaustion two seconds later when the edges of his vision went black and he pressed his hands to his face to keep himself from passing out because he didn't trust Heero not to torture him despite the oath he'd given. Barely suppressed sobs racked his body as he also fought to ignore the fact that his entire body ached and burned with every beat of his heart.

"Harry, look at me," Heero ordered firmly and Harry flinched sharply over the proximity of the other teen's voice before he lifted his head as instructed. "I am going to ask you several questions and you are to answer them promptly and truthfully, do you understand? In fact, I order you to never lie to me."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. First question; did you, at any time, lie to me when you answered any of my earlier questions?"

"No, sir."

"Where do you live?"

"In the cave behind you."

"Is there anyone else living here with you?"

"No, sir."

"Does anyone else know you are living here?"

"No, sir."

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen almost seventeen."

"You told me your parents were dead; who took care of you after they died?"

"I was left with my mother's sister and her husband the night my parents were killed but I took care of myself as soon as I was old enough."

"Where are your guardians now?"

"I don't know what happened to the Dursleys after my godfather sent me away the first chance he got. I don't particularly care what happened to them in any case," Harry replied dully as he turned his face away from Heero and stared out at the ocean without seeing it.

"Is there anyone you know who would be looking for you?"

"I can't answer that because I don't know if anyone I knew has bothered looking for me. Not that they'd have any luck finding me anyway since Sirius cast me away like he did. I wouldn't want any of them to find me. I never wanted to be found period."

There were a few minutes of uncomfortable silence before Heero asked, "How do I get back inside of the cave? And how did you hide the entrance?"

"You just walk; the entrance is hidden with an illusion that only appears solid to those who are not keyed into the wards. So long as I am touching you or something you are wearing I can lead you through the barrier but you can't enter or exit on your own."

"What do you mean by wards?"

"It's a type of protective magic that hides or shields a specific object or location; such as my cave and a small portion of the beach in front of my cave."

"Tell me a little more of how the wards work."

"Each ward has a specific function; one hides the entire area from casual observers, another prevents those that specifically wish to harm me from entering the wards, there is one that turns away those who have no magic, one that prevents solid objects from passing through the wards unless I allow them, another hides the cave and this stretch of the beach from several forms of magical detection, and finally there is one that is supposed to make it impossible to locate the cave through muggle or magical means. The mouth of the cave also has a barrier ward on it that prevents anyone from seeing it or accidentally walking through it in case the outer wards are breached."

"How much of the beach is protected within those wards?"

"I enclosed approximately a ninety foot stretch of the beach, forty-five feet to either side of the cave; the entire section runs from the face of the cliff to five feet shy of the tide line."

"What would have happened if I'd stepped outside of the wards when you told me to leave earlier?"

"The moment you passed through the wards, you would have felt an immediate urge to leave the area. You also would have temporarily forgotten all about me. Once you were far enough away from the influence of the wards you might have immediately remembered me but you would have remembered nothing about my cave or the beach and you would not have been able to remember how to find the cave again outside of knowing the general location."

"I see. Earlier, you mentioned that you have to be touching me in order for me to pass through the wards. Is there a way for you to allow me to pass through the wards without you having to guide me each time?"

"Yes, sir."

Heero leaned back at that point and studied Harry intently for the next several minutes with cold, calculating, blue eyes before asking, "Are you in pain right now?"

"What do you care?" Harry belligerently demanded as he snapped his head back around to glare at the younger teen.

"Just answer the damn questions, brat."

"I'm fine, I don't need you playing doctor on my behalf; you've done more than enough as it is," Harry snapped back before gasping as his oath sent a sharp tendril of pain through his chest due to his refusal to obey the direct order. He fisted his right hand in his shirt over his heart as he folded himself in half and cried out sharply as the pain spiked a second time before he blurted out, "Fine! Fine! I'm in pain, alright!? Damn it; can't you just leave me alone now!?"

Heero remained silent for several minutes and if Harry had looked up he would have seen the blue eyed teen staring at him in pure shock. As it was, Harry never looked up and Heero broke the silence five minutes later as he spoke, "One last question and then I will tend to your wounds. What is running through your mind right now?"

"I'm wishing that I never would have left my cave the day the robots fell from the sky, that I had never stumbled across you on the beach, and that had you had killed me when you first woke up to spare me the humiliation of turning myself into a slave and having my own magic used against me. I'm also thinking that I hate you more than I hate anyone from my past and that if you ever do free me from my oath, then I will use the first chance I have to kill you for what you have forced me to force myself to become because I was too weak to face the pain that you promised."

"Not one for mincing words now; are you?"

"You ordered me to tell you the truth so you have no one to blame but yourself if you dislike what I tell you," Harry replied cuttingly as he lifted his gaze from the ground to meet Heero's eyes once more. Heero snorted as he climbed to his feet and leaned down to scoop Harry up into his arms (unintentionally pressing painfully against the scraps on Harry's back and side) and Harry reacted instinctively to both the increase in pain and the unwanted physical contact; struggling to break free even as he cried out, "Let me go! Put me down right now! Let go of me this instant, you two faced son of an insane jarvey!"

"Sit still and stop your whining before you hurt yourself further," Heero irritably ordered. "Your wounds need to be treated and you are obviously in no condition to do so yourself so you will allow me to treat all of your injuries; even the ones you tried to hide from me this morning." Harry immediately went limp in his arms and began sulking and fuming in turns as the teen carried him towards the entrance of his cave. "Can you do whatever it is you need to do to make it so I can move about freely now or would it be better to do so after I tend to your injuries?"

"I can do that now; keying a person into the wards in no where near as taxing as putting up the actual wards."

"Then please do so now."

Harry huffed and grumbled under his breath but unhesitatingly lifted his wand and chanted out a string of Latin that soon had Heero jerking in surprise and nearly dropping Harry as the world shifted around the other teen; indicating that he had been keyed into the wards. Harry felt a perverse sense of satisfaction over the fact that he'd managed to once again catch the taller teen off guard; much as he'd felt the night before when he'd flipped the teen up with a silent Levicorpus and a temporary silencing charm before he left him dangling upside down for several hours.

If only he'd been paying attention when they first stepped outside, Harry could have used that tactic again in order to save himself a lot of grief. Good mood gone, Harry sank in on himself and scowled at the blood he could see seeping from his ruined pants where the teen carrying him had shot him in the knee.

Oh fuck me, Harry screamed mentally as he suddenly jerked upright in Heero's arms and turned horrified eyes up to stare at the blue eyed brunette. I just swore an oath to obey the person who has more than once promised to not just kill me but to kill me in the slowest and most painful way possible. Someone, somewhere up in heaven must really hate me and enjoy seeing me suffer.

"What's wrong, kid?"

"You're still here! What the hell did you think was wrong, you sadistic son of a skrewt?" Harry growled as he dropped his eyes to the wand he still held in his hand.

"You aren't thinking about using that on me right now, are you?"

"I was."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Heero sighed as he stopped and glanced down at Harry. "I'm going to order you to never use your wand or your magic on me unless I specifically give you permission to or in the event of an emergency where magic might save my life or another's."

"I figured that was a given, won't stop me from wishing I could."

"Have you ever used magic on me before? And if you have what kind of magic was it and why?"

"Yes. I used magic to bring you back to my cave because you were too heavy for me to carry," Harry replied with a slight frown. "I was going to use magic to heal you and find out what was wrong with you but you woke up before I could, so I didn't. The only other times I used magic on you was when I flipped you upside down and made it so you couldn't talk last night and just now when I keyed you into the wards. Had I been paying attention before you attacked this afternoon, I could have done that again or simply knocked you unconscious but I wasn't thinking clearly and stopped paying attention to you because I had hoped you'd just leave."

By the time Harry finished, they were inside of the bedroom and Heero was setting Harry down on the spare bed that Harry had slept in the night before. Harry hissed sharply as the movement jarred his wounded knee but otherwise remained silent.

"Where do you keep your first aide kit?"

"I don't exactly have a first aide kit, not in the traditional sense, but I keep all of my healing potions and medical supplies in my trunk."

"I want you to key me into the trunk so I can get what I need to fix up your knee."

"Not possible; the trunk's safety features are far too complicated for me to change with my current abilities and if I attempted to tamper with them or make any changes to them it could theoretically trigger an explosion large enough to destroy this cave if not the entire island."

"Okay; I'm guessing that would be a bad idea. If I hold you, will you be able to open the trunk and get what you need?"

"I don't know; it was my godfather that keyed me into them and I was unconscious at the time and they didn't exactly come with a full set of instructions; just a warning to never tamper with the security charms and never use spells above a specific level inside of the trunk because it would destabilize the Expansion Charm."

"Only one way to find out I suppose," Heero mused as he picked Harry up once more (his arm once again pressing painfully against the wounds on Harry's back and side; drawing a whimpered growl from the wizard) and carried him to the end of the other bed where he knelt down in front of the trunk so Harry could open it.

Following the unspoken order; Harry gingerly reached out, lifted the lid of the trunk, and instructed Heero to step inside when the trunk appeared to be functioning as designed. While Heero was staring around at the larger than expected and extremely well organized room of supplies (which Harry had spent months organizing during his first year on the island), Harry directed him to the shelves right next to the stairs where he kept his medical supplies (to avoid the need to navigate the seemingly endless maze of shelves in the event he was injured).

He then promptly began gathering those items he suspected he would need to heal his wounds (based upon his limited practical knowledge). This included a Pain Relieving Potion, another jar of the healing cream for his back and side, several rolls of gauze, Skele-Gro (in case his knee had been damaged to the point where he'd need to vanish a few bones and regrow them), Bone-Knit (to repair the bone if the Skele-Gro wasn't needed), a jar of Bruise Balm, a Calming Draught, a strong disinfectant to clean his injuries, and a vial of Dreamless Sleep because he suspected he would need it to escape the nightmares he was sure would haunt him that night.

Once he had everything he thought he might need, he let Heero know he was finished so the teen could carry him out of the trunk. Back in the bedroom, Harry was once more settled on the bed. After that there was a brief scuffle when Heero tried to help Harry undress and Harry immediately panicked over the teen's attempts to remove his clothes. It took several minutes to clear that misunderstanding up and shortly afterwards Harry was sitting stiffly on the bed in nothing but his boxers as he watched Heero clean and disinfect the rather charred looking wound on the side of his knee.

"You're lucky you moved your leg when you did or the damage would have been even worse," Heero informed Harry as he worked.

"I doubt it would have made all that much difference in either the damage done or the pain it inflicted," Harry countered a touch snidely as he leaned closer to inspect the damaged portion of the bone that he could see glistening through the gaping wound. "Damn it, I'm going to have to regrow both my thigh bone and the stupid kneecap; the Bone-Knit won't be able to fix that much damage. Do you have any fucking idea how much it hurts to regrow bones?"

Without waiting for the other teen to form an answer or ask Harry what he was going to do, Harry tapped his wand on this knee and vanished both of the damaged bones without hesitation (the one healing spell he knew due to a mishap he'd had when first arrived nearly two years earlier). He then folded up a long section of gauze to form a thick pad, soaked it with the disinfectant solution, pressed it over the gaping wound in his knee and proceeded to loosely wrap his knee with another long strip of gauze while Heero stared at him as if he was crazy. Sure, Heero often treated his own injuries and had on more than one occasion set his own broken bones; but seeing someone casually remove a pair of bones without an ounce of hesitation was a bit much for the stoic soldier.

"Guess that means it was pointless for me to drag these other potions up; I can't take anything with the Skele-Gro since they don't mix well with the regrowth potion."

"Does that include the topical creams for your bruises and the half healed scrapes on your other leg, your side, and your back? How did you get those anyway? It looks like someone tried to skin you alive."

"No the topical stuff is fine; I just can't drink any other potions with the Skele-Gro. And I got hurt when I was knocked off the rocky promontory jutting out from the beach by a wave. At the time, I'd been too busy trying to make sense of the falling robots I'd seen crash into the ocean to pay attention and paid for it."

"Hnn… pass me the bottle of disinfectant, the stuff that you brought up to use on the scrapes, and roll over onto your stomach so I can clean the sand from your back and side."

Harry growled low in his throat but reluctantly complied with the order, his shoulders tensing long before he felt the teen start cleaning the wounds. Once Heero had finished cleaning those he could reach, Harry couldn't help but flinch when he felt the teen's fingers start spreading the healing cream over the raw sections of broken skin. He would have squirmed away from the teen's hands if not for the clipped order to hold still. When Heero finished with the cream, he asked Harry for the bruise balm and if the paste needed to be spread over the bruises in a thin layer or if they had to be massaged into the skin before he began applying the balm as instructed to the bruises on Harry's back where the skin wasn't broken (rubbing it in until it was absorbed by Harry's skin).

"I'm done with your back, I need you to sit up and face me now so I can take care of the rest of the scrapes and bruises on your stomach, arms, face, and leg."

"I can take care of those ones myself," Harry countered as he froze with his stomach half off the bed.

"Don't argue with me right now, brat; just sit up and let me to fix the damage I did."

Harry reluctantly complied but flinched each time Heero's hand brushed against him as the teen first cleaned the rest of his scrapes before he applied the healing cream to them. The moment he finished dealing with the open wounds, Heero spread the bruise balm over his numerous bruises; starting with the ones on his face. The taller teen then moved onto the ones on his arms before dealing with the ones on Harry's chest, stomach, and right leg and though he tried to ignore Heero's hands, Harry still let out more than one half choked keening sob over the unwanted (if innocent) and prolonged contact.

Thankfully, Heero didn't draw the process out any longer than necessary as Harry didn't think he could have coped with the contact for much longer. When that was over, Heero wrapped his torso and right leg with a roll of gauze; the taller teen wrapping the bandages far more snugly than Harry had been able to do on his own which helped support his bruised ribs.

Finally, Harry opened the single dose of Skele-Gro and swallowed the vile concoction in a single gulp before gagging repeatedly over the foul taste. He then spent a minute propping up his left leg up on a pillow to prevent his kneecap and femur from growing back deformed before he laid back and made himself as comfortable as he could given how much pain he was in at the moment. As the first splinters of the new bone began forming beneath his skin and muscles just minutes later, Harry swallowed a scream and bit down hard on his right fist as he closed his eyes and willed himself into unconsciousness.

All the while, troubled blue eyes watched his face intently.

Heero was more than a little disturbed by the day's turn of events. He was also more than a little disgusted with himself for threatening an eight year old… or rather a soon to be seventeen year old that looked like an eight year old with torture and damn near carrying out said torture. As he watched the teen trapped in a child's body writhing in agony as the potion did whatever magic it was it did to fix the bones he'd destroyed in the kid's thigh and knee, Heero wondered if he was a monster. He had been perfectly willing to torture a child (regardless of how old he was, the kid was still physically a child) simply because the kid had salvaged his Gundam in the hopes it would stop the world from finding him.

That wasn't even taking into account the shock of learning about the kid's magic. He was fully aware that there were people out there that had unique abilities that were commonly known as Talents (such as telekinesis, telepathy, empathy, and elemental manipulation) but the kid's abilities seemed to outclass even the strongest of Talents. In fact, Heero had fully believed that what Harry was calling magic was nothing more than one such Talent right up until the kid had refused to answer a question. He knew the kid hadn't faked the pain he'd felt and at the time, he thought he had felt something brush across his skin at the time; like the faintest of static shocks.

That wasn't even touching on the way the kid had vanished two of his bones with a flick of his wand.

After a couple of hours, when it looked as if Harry was finally sleeping lightly if not exactly peacefully, Heero allowed his guilt to chase him outside where he stood just outside the mouth of the cave and stared at the outline of his Gundam in the face of the rising moon. As he stared out over the almost peaceful tableau the full impact of just what he'd done hit him and Heero folded in half as he vomited. He then dropped to his knees as his entire body began shaking as his actions and words endlessly cycled through his mind.

I attacked the one who most likely saved my life or at least saved me from potentially being captured and when he didn't give the answers I wanted, I resorted to threatening him. When that still didn't get the answers I desperately wanted, I physically assaulted him before following through on my threats. The only reason he wasn't permanently maimed is because the kid had lightning fast reflexes and miracle cures to fix what I destroyed. I didn't hesitate to try to break his spirit and then forced him to use his magic to basically enslave him.

Heero had no idea just how long he'd been kneeling there in the sand when he finally came back to his senses but he knew there was no way he could go back to the person he was before he'd met Harry. He couldn't live with himself if he became the monster he saw in his memory. Climbing resolutely to his feet, Heero made his way over to his Gundam, scrambled up to the cockpit, and engaged the manual override in order to unseal the door.

Slipping inside of the technologically superior mobile suit, Heero began firing up the systems in order to assess the damage the suit had taken from the brief battle and subsequent crash landing in the ocean. He was more than a little frustrated to find that more than half of the systems weren't working properly; including the communications system which he'd been hoping to utilize in order to tell Dr. J where he could stick his all important missions (which would later turn out to be a blessing in disguise).

Irritated, Heero growled out a few curses before he shut the suit down, grabbed a few things he thought he might need, and locked it back up before heading inside to check on Harry. He found the tiny teen whimpering and crying in his sleep and discovered that the kid had broken through the skin on his right hand with his teeth in an effort to stop himself from screaming out over the pain or possibly in response to the nightmares that the kid was obviously experiencing.

Gently working the kid's injured hand free of his mouth, Heero replaced it with his penlight (one of the items he'd taken from his Gundam) that he had wrapped in a layer of gauze. He then spent several minutes disinfecting the new wound and applying more of the healing cream to the teeth marks before bandaging the hand. The rest of the night was spent alternately watching over Harry as the kid tossed and turned and whispering words of apology and reassurance that he wasn't quite certain were heard by their intended recipient.

Just before dawn, Heero ended up joining Harry in the bed as the kid finally fell into a deeper (if still not quite peaceful) sleep; stretching out on top of the covers so as to not alarm the other teen should he wake up first even as he pulled the boy close in order to better keep an eye on the kid. As he drifted off to sleep, the Gundam pilot designated as Zero-One swore he would never again intentionally harm the child-sized teen stretched out beside him. Heero even silently gave permission to the teen to use his magic to protect himself from him if he was unknowingly causing the kid pain.

While the Gundam pilot known as Zero-One was experiencing an acute attack of a recently re-awoken conscience; the other four pilots were steadily taking out the first of many strategic targets fed to them by their respective scientists and other contacts. The reactions to the brutal attacks, both on earth and in space, were mixed; with some of the people reviling the terrorist like attacks, some of them fully supporting the liberating destruction of their oppressors, another group looking to use the actions of the Gundams to hide their own movements, and the rest firmly trying to maintain neutrality in an effort to facilitate peace between the Colonies and Earth.

AN: There are just three things I will say about the oath that Harry swore to Heero in this chapter:

One; Harry is not a slave and he will not be treated as a slave by any of the pilots. Two; Heero is a soldier who was trained to complete his mission by any means possible and he made Harry swear the oath as a means to an end. And three; the oath is NOT permanent and Harry will be released from it in time.

The only other comment I will make about this chapter is that both Heero and Harry were under a lot of stress since the moment the suits fell out of the sky and they instinctively reacted to each other's words and actions without stopping to think of the consequences. And now they will have to live with those consequences.

03-12-16: This chapter has been replaced with an edited and revised edition that added eighty-five words to the story content, added a more noticeable warning at the start of the chapter, and a revised author's note at the end. ~ Jenn