Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ VII ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: priscel

Warnings: Duo torture, yaoi = MXM goodiness, Mpreg

Pairings: 1x2 eventually, minor 3x4

AN: Another long chapter … enjoy and thanks for reading.

Feedback - appreciated.

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I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to help them live a little.
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VII

Gone. He sneezed at his next inhale and sandy dust plumed up from where he lay on the earthen floor. Glazed violets opened slowly, the low light of the cavern not registering past the fact that his hand was empty. His hand lay half closed but high above his head, reaching for … what he couldn't recall.

I lost something? He couldn't figure out what. It was a lingering feeling of want, like the times he'd been so hungry he had considered joining the Nartob soldiers. Duo frowned, he could hear something else. It was faint but she was scared. She, he realized, was not alone, they both were afraid but it wasn't for them. They were afraid for their parent.

“I'm coming,” he whispered trying to get his arms to move even though he didn't know what he could do for them but he'd try to help. Even if he couldn't do anything besides be there for them it would be better than being alone with a hurt parent and not being able to do anything to help them.

They must've fell into this place too. He reasoned and shuddered. He needed to get there before the parent died. In a dark place like this the children would be sure to remember how still their parent was… covered in blood and whispers. He shook his head and his stomach protested at the motion. He felt their fear spike. He felt like he was with them in a bubble of sorts and he found strength from somewhere to push up on trembling arms and met glowing reptilian eyes at the level of his shoulder.

Newt regarded him for a few blinks of her large eyes, and then whipped her head around to stare at a distant wall. She was silently crouching in front of him and all Duo could think about was how hot it was. He forgot the children calling him. Duo tried to pull the robe off and over his head, he managed to get it up on his arms, over one elbow and fell over with it on his chin. He missed Newt's low trilling hiss and stayed there on the ground panting, the air was stifling and smothering inside the rode. He drifted off in a doze by the rhythmic sound of Newt's tail thumping on the ground not far from where he lay.

A low growl and a wounded sound from Newt brought him too again. He shucked the robe the rest of the way off, his undershirt shirt was soaked with sweat and sticking to him. He rose up on his elbows but his head was too heavy to lift so he rolled onto his stomach slowly and then tried to sit up on his elbows again. Successful, he waited for his head to stop spinning before he chanced opening an eye. Duo saw a large shape in the corner, not far from him, lying on its side, its large flank rapidly rising and falling but other than that it didn't move.

“Newt?” Duo winced when he tried to get his knees underneath him. His left side ached and thrummed with pain if he tried to put any pressure on it. He heard another whimper and made himself crawl, sliding leg over leg and kept his left side away from the floor by putting all of his weight on his right side. Another low growl drew his attention away from the crumpled form to its right. He squinted, trying to discern the dark crouching shape from the dark corner and its shadows. The growl grew into a half snarl and the glint of green slit eyes became noticeable to him. He smiled and inched toward the animal, “Kitty?”

Duo's sat up straighter just as a downward swooping swipe swooshed past his face. The desert cat stepped from the anonymity of the shadows and stalked toward Duo. Glossy violet eyes wavered, half looking into glowing green eyes and off to the side. He smiled at the feline goofily, one eye slipping closed. The cat silently crept closer, its glowing eyes flickering as it dipped throw shadows from glowing green to black rimmed, brown flecked gold with a trail of black dots beneath each eye. The cat had three dots just above the starting ridge of each brow. Duo looked curiously at the large black rimmed ears that had equally black and long ear hairs sticking out from the inside of each pale shell.

Ha-ha! Kitty's got whiskers coming out his ears! The large ears twitched as if they heard Duo's mental laughter and his smile grew at the thought. The desert cat sat back on its hunches, teeth bared and paw raised as Duo sat and swayed, too insensible to recognize the danger.

“Hi kitty!” The cat jerked at the greeting and Duo pounced much like the cat had intended to do, wrapping his arms about its furry neck.

The cat stiffened, a half growling snarl frozen on its sharp tooth filled, black rimmed maw as it curiously regarded the suicidal human cuddling against him. The cat closed its mouth with an audible clamp of teeth and affected a put upon look across its features as if it were asking someone `can I kill it now?' The cat growled low in its throat when Duo snuggled into its shoulder fur with his nose. The large desert cat growled, and then stopped when that growl became copious purrs reverberating in its chest and against Duo, surprising the fevered man and making him hold on tighter.

The cat, shocked and angry at himself, shoved Duo away with one large yellow paw.

Duo fell backwards onto the floor, his breath leaving him in a whoosh and his left side flaring hotly at the impact. Duo rolled his head over to look at the cat through a squinting, watery eye and saw the cat crouching, its black claws digging into the ground. It opened its mouth and roared in his face. Duo smiled, staring into the snapping maw with a grimace.

“We… Whew! Need to wash your mouth kitty, smell … like something died in there.” Duo saw the toothy mouth snap at him before his vision swam and he felt heated breaths against his face as everything went dark.

Duo roused to the sound of a strong heartbeat and the scuff of feet against the floor. They were moving, the up and down motion making the food Heero had made him eat feel like a heavy weight in his stomach. He'd forgotten something, and it was on the edge of his mind. He knew what it was but he couldn't recall it. He pressed his throbbing head against the soft but firm shoulder beneath it. His eyes opened to slits at the growl rumbling through the chest attached to the shoulder he lay on. He forced back the weariness that blurred his vision and saw soft, silky black that glinted faintly blue in the dim light surrounding them. He saw more black silk shift across the other shoulder and realized he was laying on someone's hair. The top of the man's tunic lay open at the first few buttons and he tilted his head very slowly upward to see the man glare down at him with black lined almond shaped eyes that trapped him with their intensity. They were a brown so deep that he could barely distinguish the black of his eye from the whole of it. He smiled up into the glaring face when he saw three familiar black spots on his brows and trailing around each eye.

The man gave him a confused look, much like the one he remembered from before and shook him in his arms as if he were slow minded. He snickered and smiled up at him, the world swimming again. “Kitty,” Duo kept his smile and the dark haired man scowled some more, wrinkling his nose and tossing him away.

For a heart stuttering moment he was sure he was going to hit a wall or the hard floor but instead the scowling man had tossed him to another person. The dark haired man walked ahead of them him with a snort and some coloring to his cheeks. Duo looked up to the new person and saw a friendly if not apologetic full-lip smile on his brown face. This man had finger length braids all around his head, two black finger length lines high on his cheeks and he wondered if he were a shape shifter too. Duo's vision was dimming again and he fought it feeling that strange bubble of fear now laced with sadness. There were kids some where down here in the dark and needing someone to tend to their parent. He wanted to tell this one that but then there was this sharper feeling, of being hungry? Yet it wasn't that exactly, it was more like he wanted or needed something. He wanted to be with Newt. He wondered what happen to his dragon. Duo's hand twitched to hold something in its emptiness and he pressed his fingers into his palm.

Heero? Heero came to his thoughts unbidden but he didn't want him. No it couldn't be him and he didn't want to know what happen to him. He didn't need too.

Duo's eyes were wont to close and he let them, his head rolling on the shoulder that carried him. His vision clouded over before his eyes fully closed. His sight was blurred around the edges when he found his eyes open again.

He was running and disoriented. Someone grabbed him by the hand, holding him and trying to urge him back with them. He pushed him away. Duo found his eyes were locked on the rising wall around their homes and the growing column of smoke at the center of the council hall. The wall rose even though it seemed that it was already too late.

He was running again. He was afraid, betrayed, desperate, and angry all at once. The tumult of emotions blinded him to every thing else around him, including the people fleeing in the streets. There were soldiers chasing after them, cutting some down and beating others into submission. He narrowly missed one making a grab for him, but his feet were much smaller than he remembered and he was swifter, deftly avoiding the soldiers down swinging arm. His heart sped up as the white stone that made up the protective wall around the main and council houses caused earthquakes as they broke through the earth's surface.

He remembered his uncle saying that only the strongest of the earth wielders could call the white stone from the ground and with it surfaced a new worry, his cousin. His cousin had once called the white stone up by accident and scared them all when she'd slept for many days afterwards. He knew there were others who could do that but the only person registering in his mind was his cousin, if the white was coming from the ground then something must have happen to her and his mother. She was with her in the main council building and he worried about the baby she carried.

Duo ran on with tears in his eyes and caught the ledge of one stone as it shook the earth and rose to join the rest to form the protective wall. He fell over it, bruising his arm and leg but forcing himself up to run into to the council hall, to his family. His small hands rubbed at his wet and itchy eyes, he had little doubt were red rimmed from crying so much. He felt the impact of his head hitting the floor when he fell through the linen covered doorway leading to the main chamber of the council hall. It jarred him enough that he saw double; he was his older self and then there was his younger self, lying across a prone body and he came back together when his head hit the floor with a second wet smack.

Everything throbbed there after as he felt a cold hand beneath his own and found his auntie, the one that would sing to him and was forever goofy. She lay there so very still that it seemed unreal to him. Her upper half slumped awkwardly, obscured in the shadows of the corner. He started to call to her when a groan from some place in the center of the room drew him round to see more bodies. Not just any bodies, his family - his friends' parents, most of all the strongest adults who lived there or visited from neighboring clans… were gone. He felt the void of life there starkly, with a wrongness that twisted the air.

On quivering limbs, he stood and went toward the flicker of presence. He wasn't sure what to call it but it called to him and he followed it mindlessly, slipping in the red pools on the floor. He inevitably fell and a hand shot up from his hazy view of the stillness around him, catching him by the scruff of his shirt. Duo hung limply in the person's hold as they rose up to their knees.

“Duo.” Duo felt his eyes go wide at the sound of that voice before heard himself speak.

“Da!” It was more of a cry, the shaking in his limbs giving way to the beginnings of shock. But there was shifting on the edge of his awareness and he heard his older voice overlap with his younger voice. His attention returned to this fevered dream, for that was what he thought it must be because he had no such memories. Duo's doubts disappeared when he watched the man with eyes like his but a brighter violet stare at him with a manic gleam to them.

Get away! He tried to warn his younger self but it went unheard. He could do nothing else to warn him that there was something was wrong with the older man.

“Da!” He felt exhilarated, scared and relieved all at once but as his father sat up with a shudder. He saw himself reach to hug his father but instead he was turned away and laid him across his lap, rubbing his back as he cried. Duo turned his head to his father and watched, not understanding why his father had a knife in his hand but he felt the warmth of the blade before it cut him low on his back. Duo screamed. The sound doubled somehow and the pain was so real that he felt the wound on his back throb in time with his racing heart.

There was a ghost feeling of hands shaking him but then he was back in the dream. Duo laid across his father's lap in shock and uncomprehending of the things tumbling from his father's mouth as pain seized him and his father stuck his fingers in the wound making it wider. He cringed at the feel of it and felt acid burn the back of his throat.

“Duo… I can hear it. You'll hear it when it's time. You'll understand later b-but you'll need this.”

More pain flared up at those words in his back and side, tearing - searing and everything faded away. Next he knew the feel of a heavy hand on his head, rubbing it to sooth him. The hand jerked mid-stroke, interrupted by a series of wrenching coughs that brought him to a hazy state of awareness. The pain was slowly disappearing and being replaced with warmth.

“Nana knows and she won't be stopped. I have just… enough.” He was being rocked but the warmth still worked to undo the damaged to his back. “Nana… won't be stopped but you… you'll… final… f-final s-say. We… love -ou.”

He felt the larger body of his father lean over him, pressing a kiss to the back of his head, but didn't try to sit back up. Labored breath puffed ardently in his hair before they stuttered to a stop. Warm trails seeped through his hair to his scalp, across his face and he let the weighty silence and the frantic thrum of is own heart blot out everything but the last of his father's words.

Duo awoke, wary of dreams within dreams which he'd been experiencing more of lately. A cold compress eased the heat in his head he hadn't noticed before and the lethargy of sleep clung to him so he let it. He realized he was thirsty, but he didn't want to wake up and be forced to ride and deal with Heero. He licked his lips when something soft and moist was pressed to them. He sucked at it, its wetness answering his thirst. Then he bit at it when his taste buds came alive and it tasted good. It was so good and he had to have more of it before it was taken away like all things good inevitably were. He bit at it, trying to take it all and it was jerked away with an in drawn breath.

“You can't eat me!” The voice chuckled and for some reason he couldn't bring himself to be frighten.

Not Heero. Duo thought, a little confused but not as pleased as he thought he would be at the prospect of being free of the curt man. Yet he was willing to take a chance with this unknown person, it was better than going back to Maheran. The one tending to him had a warm, familiar voice and laughed good-naturedly at the slight from a sick man. The moist fruit in chilled water was offered to him again and he ate of it until he could eat no more. The hand was cool as it touched both his cheeks and then under his chin.

“It's gone down.” The voice sounded relieved and he recognized the voice because he spoke the last with a great exhale. He was the voice of the wind - of the storm that fell upon them in the desert. This was a wielder caring for him and he felt himself sink into the bed, reassured that he was some place better than before. He couldn't explain it but he knew he would stay here. Duo heard the wielder make an odd sound.

He's pleased too? He wondered if he was reading too much into it without actually seeing his face. Somehow he had a feeling he was right. Unconsciously, he curled toward where he thought this wielder was.

“I claim him! He's so cute.” He heard a derisive snort follow the female's comment.

“He's already marked.” The voice of the wind sounded thoughtful as he replaced the compress and his fingers dallied in Duo's long bangs.

A growl was followed with an explosive hit against something in the room. Duo jerked at the sound, disturbing the placement of the compress but the wielder remained steady in his movements, shifting the cool compress back in place.

“They are disgraceful!” He heard the barely contained fury, “That one! It must be him! You should let me kill him and the boy can then find one of his own choosing.” He heard this voice and it sounded gruffer the more he talk, ever hopeful at the promise of pain and more than willing to carry it out. However, Duo's brow furrowed and he couldn't picture a person fierce enough just a cat.

“Kitteh…” He half mumbled unknowingly and incited laughter along with a low rumbling growl.

“I think he has a preference for the feline variety.” The woman said sagely and even though Duo was the root of their conversation, he was content to float on the tails of sleep and wakefulness.

“No, Wu Fei.” The voice of the wind said, amusement plain in his voice with a firm undertone that demanded obedience.

The compress was replaced, the hand lingering over it and he could feel the presence of the person leaning over him. It wasn't the wielder. He could feel eyes on him in an uncomfortable way. “Yes,” it was the woman and he could hear the smile in her voice, “stop being such a mean kitty.”

He heard the rustling of fabric, there was a name heavy on his tongue that left his mouth dry. He dozed in the silence or maybe they had still been talking when the dream, he couldn't remember, had snuck up on him. Duo started back to semi-wakefulness at the sound of the woman's voice but it was further away. “Quat?”

There was silence and Duo almost slipped off again.

The woman sighed heavily, “Quat you need not attend to him yourself. There are others, particularly a cat that has an interest in this stray.”

“Hm.” The gentle hand was back, fingers wiping away wetness from his eyes. His eyes opened at the touch and he saw a pale haired man and a tall, fair haired woman standing behind him before they closed again, too heavy to stay open. She was an innocuous presence now and exuded worry as a mother would. But she looked too young to be this one's, Quat's, mother.

“Quat.”

“I'm fine, Thecla.”

“Quatre, this isn't the time to push yourself. You have yet to rest and we have many more cousins in that place. If we can't reclaim our home-”

“Then we will save our people.” Quatre's hand was by his face, the touch was so light that he hadn't noticed it was there until he stopped moving it over his cheek. Quatre's voice was decisive, a calming balm with a willful force behind it. Duo felt that if he were to fight for this man, he could believe in his promises and find hope in his words. He hoped this one got his people back.

“Yes, Quat and for what it's worth I understand how you feel.”

“You don't.” There was a degree of cynicism that colored Quatre's voice and that almost hid the loneliness in it.

“I do. My sister,” her voice broke and when she spoke again the emotion that came so deeply at the mention of her sister was stemmed, “Believe me when I say I understand Quat. I can easily see myself standing there and know what she's experiencing. What he is. We rescued her to have her die with her child…” Thecla broke off again, her tone quiet, “She died free.”

Through his lashes he saw her hug him, “It is best that the One not be here. Nana's song will be heard but the girl is too well known to stay here.”

“They'll never stop looking.” Quatre agreed, nodding at his own weighty words as if trying to convince himself. “You want … We should force her out with Heero.” Quatre sounded strained, and he frowned staring down at the coverlet.

“If we must but it must be soon. We'll do all we can for her brother but like with other bearers... forced of this even though he was marked, the birth will kill him. Maybe if Nana was around to balance them, if the child-”

Her words were lost to him and he felt that bubble again even though he wanted to hear of Heero's involvement. They were crying. He'd forgotten about them. He sat up, alone in a room with a linen cloth covering the entrance. He wished he'd told Quatre about them but there was no time now. He stumbled toward the entryway his side gave a dull throb of protest as he made his way down a hall, then another not seeing so much as following the sound of the crying children. He fell through the entryway of a dim lit room and a hush followed. Duo looked around the room and found a person, lying deathly still on the bed near the back of the room and no one else. His confusion quickly disappeared when he heard them crying once more. He couldn't find them though, then he saw the space beneath the bed and understood why, they were hiding. Duo crawled toward the bed.

“Hey? You guys ok? You don't have to worry. Your papa will be-” He peeked beneath the bed and found nothing. He sat back on his legs and leaned against the bed, panting slightly and even more confused. He dozed there, resting his head on his arms on the bed and the person resting there barely moved.

“Millie, I brought you more of that fruit you like so much.” She pulled the hide covering aside to enter and saw a second figure next to her brother out the corner of her eye. “I thought they already sent someone this morning?” She asked casually, going to the small table to put down the bowl of fruit next to the water gourd. She frowned when there was no response, turned to the person at her brother's bedside. The longhaired person wore the pants of a soldier, a Nartob soldier. Her eyes quickly sought her brother's and he was still lying in the same position he had been in when she'd left. Her throat went dry but she forced it to work.

“Who are you?” The suspicion in her voice woke Duo and he pulled himself up on the bed, rubbing sleep from his eyes and strands of his hair out his face. He dropped his hand to the bed and the person sleeping on the bed stirred and cringed at seeing him. He blinked at the deeply shadowed, pale eyes that narrowed at him even though he could hear the man's heartbeat and two others racing. He knew his hair was an unkempt mess but he didn't think he looked bad enough to scare someone.

“Move! Get away from him!” Duo looked back to her owlishly, her long hair slipping forward over one shoulder as she repeated her words with a forceful gesture.

Duo shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his mind but his limbs were sluggish and he couldn't stand up.

“The children…” Duo started to explain then stopped, looking about the room and realizing he hadn't found the children. He saw only the frighten man who was struggling to keep his face blank and the girl with the pinched face.

“S-sorry.” He mumbled, attempting to stand and fell backward. Millardo tried to move to the other side of the bed but Duo's hand landed on his stomach the same time Relena grabbed Duo's other hand and tried to stop him from falling on her brother.

For a long moment they stayed like that, frozen in place until Millardo collapsed back onto the bed. Duo and Relena's eyes closed and light filled the room.

O----------------------OoO----------------------O

He was going to kill someone and soon. He sat crossed leg with his arms crossed over his chest and watched with, his sight, the movements of the people around him outside his room. He'd make no move, even though where they held him was a room they had hastily cleared of bedding with a simple piece of cloth covering the entryway. It was clear that they'd never taken prisoners before and with two guards outside his door he could have easily overpowered them and been on his way. Instead, he waited and watched Duo where he was resting and surprisingly enough, he came across a familiar presence that would make things all the more easier. It was a humbling experience for someone like himself to be subdued when he was usually the suppressor. But this person chose not to do so now, for whatever the reasons. Heero wasn't one to waste an opportunity on getting a bearing of his surroundings and his enemies.

Heero's brows furrowed, Duo's presence was nearly as intense as Relena's. He searched the underground tunnels and found many other presences but only theirs seemed to be the brightest.

Too many wielders in one place, he shook his head, this was reason enough for them to leave this place. Jirrad was an adept tracker and with this many wielders in one place he was surprised they hadn't been discovered sooner. Then again, he wasn't with sandstorms that left no survivors and a person capable of subduing him on their side, they were formidable.

Heero turned glowing eyes to the cloth that covered the entry to his cell and saw a bright presence like that of Relena and Duo's come in alone. He winced, his eyes stinging at being so close and switched back to his normal vision. A boy stood before him with pale blond hair and aquamarine eyes that carried a slight glow even in the dim light of his cell. Heero stared at him and the boy smirked at him knowingly.

“Getting acquainted with our home?”

Heero kept his face carefully blank, resting his hands in his lap. The blonde boy moved about the room, running his fingers along the wall. Heero stared at the wall in front of him.

“Heero, I'm sorry about your loss but it happens.” Heero glowered, he'd never given his name and he thought perhaps they had got it from Duo. “What we will do is release you and we'll allow you to take your figurehead back with you.”

“No,” the blonde boy turned to face him, staring at him in an unnerving way that made Heero want to look away. It was a strange thing considering he usually inspired that reaction in others. “I'll leave with both the One and Duo.”

“No, there is no negotiating the matter. Considering, he will not be missed by many. I'm sure you can say he died out here in the wilds like most do.” The blonde boy became silent when the two guards brought in a chair, and a tray of fruit and a glass of water which they set down by Heero. They said nothing out of turn and showed Heero no resentment when they turned to leave with the blonde's quiet thank you.

The blonde boy sat on the floor and leaned on the chair, laying his chin on his arm and gestured toward the food. Heero looked at it then back to the blonde, “I doubt poisoning you would do us any good.”

Heero snorted and ate hesitantly of the fruit and took note of the boy's odd eyes as said boy watched him eat under pale lashes.

“I'll not leave without both of them.” Heero drank the water and he realized the boy's pupils didn't change when his eyes closed or opened. They were like tiny islands in a blue-green sea.

“You'll take the girl alone.”

Heero arched a brow over the lip of the cup before setting it down next to the bowl. “No.”

“Then you are a fool to take him back and risk him harm.” The blonde didn't move from his position, his voice calm and diplomatic with an iron fortitude behind it.

Heero's face stayed mostly blank except for the furrow between his brows, “And you'll keep him here and risk all the people living here?”

The blonde boy smirked, and gestured up to the ceiling of the room. Heero didn't bother to look up. The boy smiled pointing toward his eyes then at the ceiling again. Heero's lip curled in a slight snarl but he let his vision slip into `the sight' and obliged the boy by looking up. He could see nothing not even the presences of the animals he knew lived beneath the sands. Then he understood what he hadn't seen in the storm. If Jirrad were to come then he'd see the animals that dwelt beneath the sand but not the extensive network of tunnels and corridors or the many people who lived here.

“They'll not know he's here unless you tell them and I know the girl wouldn't.” The blonde said simply with a meaningful look in his direction.

Heero smirked darkly, not liking his expression. “Are you saying you're willing to trust me with your secret?”

The blonde sat up and rested the side of his head against the inside of his raised fist, “No. I trust that you want Duo safe and if you tell, you'll be offering him up to…” he smirked sardonically, “anyone with aspirations for power and the prophecy.”

“I could easily give them you.” Heero countered sharply.

The air stirred and Heero felt a sudden pressure from all sides, the boy's eyes were pupiless.

Quatre grinned at Heero crookedly, a frenzied gleam to his eyes, “I'd like to see you try.”

Heero smirked, he never refused a challenge. The pressure was gone and Heero saw the boy stop short of saying something as a frown marred his fey features. He watched the boy's head jerk up before he stood abruptly, swaying on his feet and half running out of Heero's cell. Heero rose then slipped to one knee, a burst of something strange and draining - an after shock of sorts - hit him and took his breath away.

“The One?” Heero panted, remembering something similar happening when Relena would disappear for days to be found in some once barren place. More often than not, he was the one who found her unconscious at the heart of a newly restored vale. He ran out after the blonde, the guards too disoriented by the shockwave to stop him from leaving.

Heero expected to see an explosion of green, but what he found as he followed the fair haired boy in the long tunic was another sand paved corridor like all the rest except this wing of the underground tunnels was erringly quiet. His vision wavered just as he caught sight of the blonde's sweeping tunic turn another corner and Heero followed stubbornly shaking the weakness that left him wanting to sit like his supposed guards were probably doing right now. He straighten and steadied himself at the covered entryway to which could only assume was another room. He started to enter and was pushed back by a harried looking blonde woman with twisted braids pulled back into a pony tail over one shoulder. She glowered down at him even though she was half a head shorter than him.

“Thecla, it's alright.”

The fierce look on her sun kissed face faded into a discontent frown, “Quatre?”

There was no response from the room within. He could see it in her eyes that she wanted to do something more. For a moment he thought she would but instead she glared at him and stepped aside. Thecla kept her eyes on him, a smirk curling one side of her pale pink lips. She caught his shoulder when he took a step inside and squeezed down on the shoulder guard making it squeak beneath her hand. “You have leave.”

Heero said nothing in response to her soft spoken consent, he was no fool. It told him that the opposite was true and that he'll be watched more so since the boy, Quatre, seemed to have little care where he was concerned. It made him wonder about the boy's position here that he'd be so cocksure of his safety that he'd reveal himself to an enemy. But he had an excellent bargaining chip and by the looks of things, he was the only unwelcomed guest amongst these people.

He raised a brow at the fine-fingered hand on his shoulder guard, deceptive in its delicate look and strength. Thecla let him turn into the room, he was doubtful he could have done so otherwise. His eyes immediately found Duo slumped against the side of the bed with his head pressed to side of the person lying in the bed. The person shifted and curled as much as their large middle would allow them toward Duo and Heero knew him.

“Zechs?” It was the name Millardo had taken after he'd gone through the tour under the duress of Khushrenada and out of fear for his sister before he disappeared. It was the name Heero knew the pregnant man by best. He stared at Zechs' sleeping form, glowing as he slept and Heero frowned. He'd never been able to answer Relena's questions about her brother's whereabouts. He'd even asked Jirrad on her behalf, when he preferred to be as far away from the old man as possible and he'd told him that Millardo was on a special assignment. He knew enough not to trust such an easy answer. He had thought for a while that Millardo was still in the palace because Relena said he was close but when he looked with the sight, he saw no one similar in strength to Relena's presence. If Zechs was beyond the temple-palace and out in Maheran, he wouldn't be able to use the sight to find him anyway. No seeker could in Maheran.

Then another possibility occurred to him, Zechs being a spy.

A spy amongst his own people, Heero despised the old man even more. Now that he understood the true purpose of the tour. It not only trains and conditions them into loyal soldiers but makes them traitors to their own people. He had all the more reason now to take Duo back to Maheran. Maybe leave a note warning Quatre about the sleeping bomb in their undercity after they left. That would also spare Relena from finding out.

“What happened?” Heero turned at Quatre's voice and saw him helping Relena to sit at the small table near the bed.

She shook her head and Quatre stepped back, taking the water gourd in hand. Heero arched a brow, surprised that the boy had seen it at all. He hides it well. Heero sent a lingering glance at the bed and then turned fully to Relena and Quatre.

“Relena?” Heero called to then he waited when Quatre put the cup to her mouth. She moving sluggishly, her hand bracing Quatre's as she drank deeply at first then sips that were louder than the snores of the two sleeping men in the room.

Relena looked to him and smiled tiredly, “Found me did you?”

Heero nodded stiffly and watched her as she looked back to the bed with tears in her eyes. Heero knew they were not ones of remorse but happiness from the expression on here face. Heero felt his discontent grow and Quatre's brow furrowed as he replaced the cup by the water gourd.

Quatre left them in each other's company and headed over to the bed. Relena's quiet voice stopped Heero before he could intercept him.

“Did you know they had him locked away in the palace-temple?”

Heero looked at her with a frown while she smiled and watched her brother sleep quietly. He closed his eyes with a solemn expression and considered that possibility. It was possible because no seeker could see through the stone that made up the prison beneath the palace-temple's foyer.

“Leave him be. He's fine where he is.” She said abruptly and Heero saw that Quatre drew his hand back and picked up a blanket instead to put over Duo. Quatre gave Relena a muted look though it was clear he didn't take well to being ordered around in his own home.

“Did you? Did you know he was being suppressed all that time and the right to claim his bond mate taken from him?!” Her voice still quiet but the anger seethed at the end, edging her words with a cutting sharpness that made Heero want to keep silent.

Heero exhaled, swaying as fatigue caught up with him. He preferred not being the focus of her attention. He did understand that he wasn't the one she was angry with, but it hurt nonetheless. From what he'd seen of Millardo, the earth wielder was whole, healthy looking and … pregnant. The depth of Relena's emotional accusation said otherwise, hinted at him being injured or hurt in some way. He was aware of Zechs' refusing the help of healers before, even his own sister's help on more than one occasion. Yet, Heero found no bruises or wounds when he looked him over, nothing to warrant her emotional distress except that his face looked thinner.

Heero pursed his lips catching the shimmer of tears in her eyes and saw them as they spilled over one cheek. Heero gritted his teeth, feeling some of his resolve crumble at the sight of her tears. He had no words for her. How could he when they were rooted in suspicions that he had no real way of proving were true. She'd find no comfort in what he'd have to say and he could see she fully believed in what she'd been told. He decided, reluctantly, that he'd trust in her and if she'd been lied to, he'd met out their punishment when the time came.

* * * *

Relena smiled at him, closing her eyes at the conflict she saw that he seldom showed on his face and knew that he had no part in it. She stood and her legs wobbling beneath her and Heero steadied her with a hand on her arm.

She smiled gratefully and answered his unasked question. “He was healed and whatever else he's lacking … physically can be restored with some sleep and food.”

And his freedom… She missed some of the tension leaving Heero's face as tears welled up in her eyes. She wouldn't cry anymore, she was a warrior who only wanted her brother to smile again. Truly smile even if she couldn't be witness to it. She was very aware of what position she was putting the people here in if she stayed.

“He's balanced?” Quatre stared at her with wide eyes and a bright, if not weary, smile on his face.

Relena couldn't help the smile that answered his, curious but keeping to herself that she would have never been capable of doing it herself. Even if there were no options left and Millardo had told her she could heal him. All she would've accomplished was healing his wounds and easing his malnourishment but the child he carried and the powers it wielded would've been beyond her control.

He would've died still! She struggled to keep her smile at that sudden realization. Things about her people that was lost to many of them in Maheran because there were no wielders older than her there. We were all children when our parents and our families were killed. Millardo would've been the oldest, and with that thought she understood the reasons for his concealment.

He would've been the only one to know the full extent of the truth. If not for Heero, Fraix, and others - even Treize who oft spoke of larger themes that left her wheedling away the layers for his real answer - she would have eventually forgotten and accepted what the Eunuchs taught, the Monarch's truth.

She eyed the boy lying lankly against the side of the bed. She felt the sting of jealousy and peace of gratitude struggle with each other because she knew that an imbalance between the parent and child was important somehow. And the boy, not her, had fixed it. She knew that she had played a part in making it happen but in the face of this boy she hadn't been as crucial a participant. She had always been the important one before him.

Trite, Relena real trite. She berated herself. Her ice blue eyes shifted from the sleeping boy to the blonde man, “Quatre, he's one of us isn't he?”

Quatre had the same unsteady look about him like Heero did and shrugged one shoulder, aquamarine eyes unchanged in the dim light of the room as he looked toward them and not at them. “Yes,” he smirked at the dark haired man's scowling face and that made her wonder if she was wrong, “although I can't be sure. He could be one of us or a suppressor like Heero. He carries no mark that I've seen.”

“No clue what he wields then?”

Quatre arched a brow at her question. Relena blushed and gave him a hard look, “Things have changed there. Everywhere! So much that I only know when… our people die.” She muttered the last, gripping Heero's hand on her arm. “I can't sense them like you can. I know they're there and I'm not alone even with the ones under my protection as acolytes, I wouldn't be able to tell if they wielded. Fortunately, none of the others can either in Maheran.”

Heero frowned at her, she knew how he felt about being too trusting but it was her burden to bear. It felt good to tell someone the truth for what it really was.

Quatre nodded distractedly, “I see. Yes, forgive me, not all of us can see or sense the other. His ability could be the air we breathe but it's not. I'd know if we were the same but there's an affinity…” Quatre shook his head, “It could be anything or nothing at all. Could it be that Nana's song is the reason some of us are still free of Natrob?”

“No. I thought it hand something to do with the Prophecy?”

Quatre shook his head, “It is the same. Nana was a healer, an earth wielder like you Relena who was also a seeker, a person who could suppress others if they need help controlling it. It's not so uncommon a thing that a wielder can also suppress but some believed because of this, Nana was able to wield more than one element.”

Relena looked to Heero and Heero had no answer for her. Quatre held up a hand forestalling her question. “We never called ourselves such you know, wielders and seekers. As in nature, there exists a balance. Amongst our people, there are some who can suppress wielders and they seek out that person who matches them in strength just as wielders seek their other half. We are, as we have always been, people. People who suffer just like others do and who chose to be nomadic. It was the way and had always kept us from the dangers of the world. When needed, our clans often met in the different tribal halls to celebrate various occasions or handle disputes. We were a goodly people who sought no ill or harm to others. When Nartob started targeting our people, Maheran was the first to fall and then others. Many others.”

“Not all enmities, it seems, can be settled through words alone. We found out much later that one of the clans had been aiding Nartob for they would've never known of us or of what abilities we possessed. Nana, the greatest of us, saved and even swayed the way things were interpreted by the people but in the end the Monarch's version where he is our savior still stands. Nana vowed on the wind that they would never see us until the last of them lay rotting at our feet.”

“She cursed the people of this world.” Relena whispered to herself but Quatre heard it anyway.

“No she didn't.”

“Yes she did. Not all of those people are at fault!”

“Then tell that to your dead parents! Your brother imprisoned for simply being! Tell that to my mother and my sisters! Say that to the people in this city who can never go above ground in fear of being seeked!”

Relena felt Heero stiffen beside her when Quatre's sharp eyes cut heatedly to Heero.

“Say it, and see if any of them - these who've survived without a cage of lies to protect them - will side with you!” Quatre glowered, the air in the room stirring.

Relena's eyes slowly rounded with Quatre's every word.

Not just words, she admitted to herself, her mouth closing from the `o' to form and her lips curving downward in an attempt to match the wealth of pain, anger and sadness Quatre had opened her eyes too.

She waited, enrapt by Quatre's intensity and felt the inexplicable need to follow him if need be. Relena shook her head and watched Quatre exhale, closing his eyes - then opening them. The anger, pain... everything was gone from the aquamarine pools but the air still stirred about them.

“It is not for us to decide. Nana's chosen will make the decision.” Quatre said calmly, continuing but looking toward the bed where the sleeping men were with a smirk curving his lips. “If there are enough of us left with the strength of our elders than we could undo the damage that Nartob's slaughtering of our people has caused.”

“If that's possible. The prophecy says that the One wields the source and hones the four on harden earth. The One will step forth over kindled, scoured surfaces and breathe life into all that was once barren.”

Quatre looked to Relena, his smile bitter, “Yes, but you are not solely spoken of in the prophecy. I understand that it's hard for you to understand-”

“How dare you-”

“I meant no offense but the prophecy, as you know it, is only to further serve Nartob's purposes. You have to know that the right one would lie with us.”

Relena nodded, irritated enough to stand on her own with her arms crossed over her slim waist. No one spoke to her like that before, they were always reverent or reserved in some way.

“Again, the important thing is that she vowed it `on the wind.'”

Relena looked at him skeptically, “But you control the wind.”

Quatre shook his head, “I do not. I wouldn't alter it. I can't. We coexist with the elements we wield. I can ask it.”

“Then what is this true version?” Heero intervened, ending his silent observation of them both and stopping her from agitating Quatre further with doubtful questioning.

Quatre closed his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line that left them colorless as he concentrated. He held out one hand, palm up to the empty air to the left of him.

“Four hands to call,

One wields the stone,

One whispering pall to bearer hold and hone

the other must kindle which cannot burn

From four, two

Then two step One.”

The voice came from just over Quatre's hand. Relena could feel something more was there but Quatre closed his hand and the voice and its presence was gone. Quatre leaned heavily on the wall, “That is the prophecy.”

Relena frowned, looking to Heero who had a similar expression. They had been told of her importance all their lives and that she was the One the prophecy spoke of.

She shook her head, “But it says nothing of the place. The priest often said that there had to be a particular place for the prophecy to be done.”

Quatre nodded, “You know it already.”

Relena frowned but it was more of a pout before her eyes lit up. “The Mountains,” she whispered in awe.

Quatre smiled and Heero shook his head.

“They've been all over the mountains, there was nothing there.”

“Nothing for Nartob, but for our people there is.” Quatre interjected.

Relena nodded, “Millardo kept pushing us toward the mountains before Quatre found us. We should go there.”

Heero shook his head, “No. They already checked, tried and the result was the same. Nothing came of it.”

Relena smiled brightly at the two of them, “But we haven't”

Heero rolled his eyes and ignored her hopeful expression. Hope was the most infectious of all emotions.

She gave him her best pleading look, she hadn't done it in years and knew at best she looked silly but it was worth a shot. A muscle twitched along the side of Heero jaw and Relena could practically hear the groan of suffering that he'd never let anyone hear him do. She smiled brightly at him again, knowing he'd do it for her.

Heero snorted, “Relena.”

Gotcha! It was almost a laugh, she cheered inside her head. “This will be a chance to help everyone. It isn't right. I can't go back there and not have tried.”

Heero remained silent for a long while then nodded stiffly. Relena clapped her hands together, spinning around back to Quatre. So fast that she swayed on her feet and Heero had to catch her. She laughed a little, her voice lost none of its eagerness. “There needs to be four of us. Four wielders, I know Hilde will do it.”

“Relena, you realize that if-” Heero looked at her in disbelief, “since your brother's escape and you left with him, we can't just waltz back into Maheran thinking they'll let us leave again.”

“Heero, they wouldn't know I left with him.” Relena pouted.

“They'd be hard pressed to believe that considering you've asked about him constantly and they know he'd try to reach you in some way. I'll have Fraix go get his girl but for that to happen I need to be allowed access to the surface.”

“We'll see.” Quatre said airily.

“My men follow me and obey me.” Heero remarked tersely.

Quatre regarded him silently. “And you intended to have them come with us?”

Heero stared at him hard and Relena watched. Quatre looked away from him, a clearly dismissive gesture and Relena cut in, stopping Heero from moving. “Quatre you'll be coming with us?”

“Of course.”

“Are you sure that your people couldn't spare another wind wielder?” She had barely finished her question when she noticed Quatre shaking his head.

“No. I am the last.” None of them spoke of water. They all knew that Nartob's soldiers had recklessly killed all who opposed them, the majority being adults and teens, and with them most of the water wielders. No matter how the Monarch dressed the history, all the people had to do was look outside their windows or go passed the borders of their kingdom to see the result of their conquering Monarch. She and all her acolytes were very aware of it.

The gravity of Quatre's voice was also familiar. So much so that what she felt for him was not only sympathy but understanding. When Quatre next spoke, his bright tone made her think she'd imagined it.

“There's a real chance this may work. You, Relena, have the capacity of Nana.”

Relena blinked at him, her eyes wide for a moment when she caught on to what he was saying. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and looked away from him. “Quatre-”

“What's amazing is what you've done here!”

Relena's lower lip stuck out a bit and she stared at the bed, then at the back of Duo's head without meaning to. The blush returned to her cheeks and she stared dejectedly at an empty spot on the bed instead.

Quatre looked reflective when he spoke next, “Many have died giving birth or died before they could because of the opposing forces of their elements - their own versus their child's. We have had many die because the opposition was so great that it tore the bearer apart from the inside. Now that he's stable, the strain the accelerated pregnancy was putting on his body will lessen. It won't be long though, he has a few months more.”

Relena shook her head, “No, Thecla said he was maybe two months.”

“As a part of this imbalance, accelerated growth is no strange occurrence and doesn't cause defects in the child that we've seen. Sometimes, it's been possible for the bearer's bonded or chosen to slow the growth and the damage to both the bearer and child by suppressing the bearer's ability and the child's to a small degree.”

Relena visibly paled, watching her brother sleep peacefully for once. “But…” She looked to Quatre, eyes wide. “We've only been here two days!”

Quatre had a stricken look to him as if he hadn't meant to say something. He sighed, realizing there was a lot he could have saved for a later time. “You're lucky we found each other when we did. Whoever your brother's bound to is a strong suppressor, his equal, but without contact or proximity the suppression or seal, as it were, wears away. More so since the seal wasn't complete. He could still use his abilities?”

Relena nodded, though it didn't seem like a question to her. Her brother had told her Quatre was out in the sand watching them when she set out to meet him. But Millardo wouldn't tell her who the father was. It hadn't been that much of a shock to her to find out that he was pregnant. She had known that some of the men in their clans could be bearers.

But if it hadn't been for the boy, leaving Millardo here without the person whom marked him… Then she remembered how Treize was holding her brother possessively and her anger warred with her fear.

“I-I didn't know…” her bottom lip quivered, “it was involuntary.” She glanced up at Quatre and saw him nod with something akin to regret on his face.

“We will look after him and protect him and the children he carries.”

Heero arched a brow in understanding and Relena stared at the bed again.

“Children? He has two?” She asked, baffled.

Quatre frowned fleetingly then leaned back on the wall with a tired smile. “Yes.”

“Are you sure because-”

“There are two of them. I'm sure. You can ask Heero to check if you doubt in my words.” Quatre closed his eyes, dark circles that she hadn't seen before became more visible under his lashes.

“Thank you.” She wasn't sure how Millardo would feel about the children now that there was a guarantee that he would survive their birth. She had a feeling that there were no few people here that wouldn't love to have them, care for them if Millardo found he couldn't. Quatre's current state, though, made her wonder if he'd be able to go anywhere with them.

She blinked at the blank look he gave her, stunned and feeling that Quatre somehow knew what she was thinking. She watched him push away from the wall and manage not to stumble over to the entryway. A hand caught his arm through the linen covering. Thecla stepped into the room intent on Quatre and bore his weight easily.

Quatre smiled at her, resting his head against the top of hers.

“Quatre, I need to speak with my men.” Heero's tone had a measure of respect in it and it made Relena wondered what had changed.

“I think not.” Thecla said the last word sharply as if she wanted to slap Heero. “You won't be speaking with anyone.”

Relena was shocked to see the healer of the undercity, who had been nothing but kind to her and her brother, practically growl at Heero.

“He's obviously overtaxing himself. You should control and care for him better.” Heero remarked icily, his face blank and seemingly unaffected by Thecla's attitude toward him.

Relena looked at Heero with a raised brow and Thecla froze half way out the door. “I don't abuse him or my ability. I don't force others to submit to me just because I can or mark them so that they have no choice in who they have children with and are bound solely to me. That's something your clan does. Here, we suppress and seal a wielder's powers only to help the wielder until they can regain control of it if it becomes too much. What we do for each other is always done by mutual agreement. Always.”

Relena touched Heero's hand on her arm, shaking him out of his fixed stare at Thecla's departing back. She looked at his troubled face and saw the pain there. The choice made by his clan was never his fault and though she'd told him many times before it didn't seem to stick. Heero had never forced anything on her or marked her. She stared into his dark blue eyes until the pained looked in them eased and she knew he realized this too.

She kissed his check and smiled, “Heero, I need to rest, please help me back to my room?”

Heero nodded and guided her out the room and toward hers with her pointing the way.

“Can you tell me how you came to be here along the way and more about this boy?” Relena smirked when he stiffened but didn't stop moving. She wasn't so dense or self-absorbed that she couldn't see who had the whole of his attention in that room.

Tbc…