A.C. 198 (After Endless Waltz)

Day One:

"Wufei, get up sleepy head." Sally commanded poking him in the ribs.

Wufei mumbled a groan and then realized where he was. "Leave me woman!" he cried, trying to roll away from her and ended up falling off the bed and landing on the floor. This cause Sally to burst into a fit of laughter.

"We really have to make it a top priority to get another bed in here." She said hopping out of the bed they shared onto the floor where Wufei was now sitting.

Wufei grumbled again, he wasn't a morning person.

An hour and two cups of coffee later they were prepared to work on the day's functions.

"We have suspicious activity in the L-4 colony." Sally stated looking at a thin sheaf of papers.

"Anything that should cause alarm?" Wufei asked.

"I don't think so, but we should still check it out."

She strode over to a computer and typed in a few numbers. "Hummmm, this is odd."

Wufei didn't say anything, waiting for her to elaborate. It was a game that they played. Sally would try her hardest to get Wufei to speak, and he would try his hardest to say as few words as possible.

Sally started at him with interest, refusing to give in.

Finally curiosity got the best of him and he finally asked "What's odd?"

Sally grinned in satisfaction before replying. "There's an encoded message coming from the L-4 colony." "What's it say? Anything suspicious?"

Sally shook her head in disbelief. "Our computer systems can't crack it, it's a very high tech code."

"That *is* odd." Wufei commented. "This is something we should check out."

"Anything you say Wufei-chan." Sally commented with a smirk. She took the controls and piloted their ship toward the colony.

"Women." Wufei mumbled.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Hilde! Can you get me the wrench from the house?" Duo called from under a large something-or-other. Hilde could only guess at what it was supposed to be.

"Sure thing Duo!" She called back, happy that she could help. It took a while to find the specific wench that her best friend wanted, their house was such a mess. Upon crossing it she grabbed it, along with a lemonade she took the time to pour and ran outside to give them both to Duo. "Here it is!"

She received no reply.

"Duo?" She put down the objects and bent down to look under the something-or-other. He wasn't anywhere to be found.

Now Hilde was worried, it wasn't like him to just take off after asking her for something specific.

Her voice rang out into the early morning. "Duuuuuuooooooo!!!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Duo lay under the antique mobile doll. He knew that they were illegal, but he wasn't fixing it to actually *work* for say, he was fixing it so that it would look like it *did* work. It was something that a museum on Earth asked him to do.

"Hilde! Can you get me the wrench from the house?" He asked, not bothering to climb out from under the machine that Hilde took delight in calling a 'something-or-other'.

"Sure thing Duo." She called and ran into the house.

Duo sighed. He didn't expect her to find it right away, the house was such a mess. Between the two of them they could never keep it clean.

Minutes later Duo felt a presence approach. "That was fast." He commented. "Hand me the wench." He stuck his hand out for Hilde to give him, but instead of feeling the cool metal on his finger tips he felt a strong hand jerked him out from under that machine, causing him to slam his head into the metal of the machine on the way out. This was defiantly *not* Hilde.

"Yeouch!!!" Duo yelled clutching his head. "What the hell was that all about!?" He finally looked at the person who had pulled him so violently from his work. A small man, no older than 30 with dark blonde hair stood before him. a little ways behind him were two tall muscular men looking mean.

The man smirked. "Duo Maxwell?" He asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" Duo asked, still rubbing his head, very ticked off.

The man nodded, "Just as I thought. I'm never wrong."

Suddenly, the two men that were beside him hit Duo in the head with a large metal pipe, making his consciousness waver. They took him roughly and placed a gag in his mouth and bound his hands, throwing him into the back of a car. They very discreetly climbed in and drove away.

Duo held onto consciousness for as long as he could. The last thing he heard was Hilde yelling his name.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Trowa stood behind the flap of the circus tent dressed in performance clothes, looking out at the audience. He smiled slightly.

"Wow, my little brother's smiling. What's up Trowa?" Catherine asked coming up behind him.

"Quatre's here." Trowa commented not taking his eyes off the audience.

"Really?" Catherine said taking a look as well. "Where is he? I don't see him."

"I can't see him either, but I know he's here."

Catherine shot her brother a strange look. "You two must have a really strong bond to be able to sense each other's presence." She paused, looking slightly thoughtful. "You really care for him."

Trowa didn't say anything. I wasn't a question, it was a statement. Trowa didn't have the slightest clue about what to say to that anyway.

Catherine sighed in amusement. I'll tell the manager where you went after the show, don't worry about sticking around.

Trowa gave Catherine a rare smile. "Thanks Cathy."

"Don't mention it." Catherine said waving a hand and walking away.

Trowa continued to stare at the audience trying to locate his Quatre.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"I can't believe that you knew I was here." Quatre complained after the show as he followed Trowa to his trailer.

"I always know when you're around Little One."

Quatre smiled at the nick name Trowa only used when they were alone. "I've really missed you."
"And I you."

The small Arab sat on the bed as Trowa changed out of his clown outfit with an extremely mellenconly look on his face. It was a minute or so before Trowa noticed. "What wrong Quatre?"

Quatre looked up and sighed. "I don't know, it's just lately, I've been having really weird feelings."

"What kind of weird feelings?" Trowa asked stepping into a pair of pants.

"Just...like something's wrong, someone's going to be hurt." Tears sprang into his eyes. "And it hurts me too, because I'm so scared. I came here all of the sudden to make sure you were all right."

Trowa, still shirtless wrapped the boy in a hug. "Shhhh, it's going to be okay Little One." He said as he rocked Quatre back and forth. "I'm here and everything's going to be fine."

"I hope you're right." Quatre sniffled.

There was a knock on the door and Trowa got up to answer it, the caller was Catherine.

"Hey Trowa...I just wanted to tell you that I got you the next three days off. The manager said you needed to take a vacation..." Her eyes wandered to Quatre who was sitting on the bed, with very messy hair and clothes (From crying and Trowa hugging him, but Catherine didn't know that) and Trowa's shirtless form. "Good god! I sure hope that you two aren't doing anything you shouldn't be doing!"

"Cathy!" Trowa exclaimed, turning an interesting shade of red.

Quatre giggled in the background, surprise that anything could make Trowa blush.

Upon realizing that she had just received the wrong impression she laughed. "Have fun you two. Nice seeing you again Quatre." She said before leaving.

Trowa was still staring at the door, trying to get the color of his cheeks back to normal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Duo opened his eyes to find himself locked up in a cell. "Why is it that I'm always the one to be captured?" He grumbled, trying to move. The bound and gag had been removed, but he still hurt all over.

A TV screen flicked on overhead to reveal the same man that had captured Duo earlier that day. He still had that same sneering look. It was familiar somehow, but Duo could quite place it.

"What do you want with me?!" Duo demanded, not sure if the man could hear him or not.

The man laughed. "With you my dear Duo? Funny you should ask that question. All in all, it's funny that I needed you in my plan at all, but that's just the way the world works I suppose."

Duo glared at the screen, he wasn't going to give this man anything.

"I want you to perform a little job for me."

Duo couldn't help but laugh at that. "You think that I'm going to do anything for you? After you dragged me here? I think not."

"I want you to kidnap Treize Khushrenada's daughter, Mariemaia and bring her to me." The man continued as if Duo hadn't spoke a word.

"You're off you're rocker!" Duo yelled, horrified at the idea that someone would want to harm a little girl who had already been through so much. "She's just a kid, and even if she wasn't I'd never kidnap her, or anyone!" He turned around so he wouldn't have to face the man. "You can keep me here as long as you like, eventually someone will find me. I can hold out until then."

The man laughed, a very evil laugh. "I think that you overestimate Heero Yuy. He isn't going to find you here."

Duo's arms dropped, full of surprise that this guy knew anything about him and Heero, not that there was anything to tell.

"Hn. Surprised that I know about you and Heero hu? Well...I've had it in for Heero for a long long time."

"There isn't anything going on between Heero and I, so there isn't any manipulating power there." He paused. "Why do you have it in for Heero so bad?"

"I know more about you and Heero than even you do. You'd be very, very surprised...and as to why I have it in for Heero so bad...let's just say that he destroyed something very dear to me, so now I want revenge. Play this game by the rules and nothing will happen to him."

"And what does Mariemaia have to do with this?"

The man sneered again. That was driving Duo crazy. He knew that look from somewhere!

"It isn't part of the rules that you should know, but I suppose that giving you this information won't hurt anything. Mariemaia is my niece, the last of my family. She belongs with me, and you shall bring her here."

"You wanna bet!?" Duo yelled, facing him once again. Suddenly it all made scence. The look that Duo had been trying to place belonged to Kimo, the guy who tried to kill Trowa years before. The looks seemed so familiar because the two men were related. he wanted to hurt Heero because Heero had killed his brother.

"I'll bet you that you will play by the rules. This is my game. There are consequences for breaking the rules...and at this stage of the game, and the consequence for you...is the death of Heero Yuy."

Duo opened his eyes in shock, this man was insane. Duo knew there was nothing stopping him from killing Heero if he didn't do as he was told.

Duo hung his head is shame. He knew what he was going to do, even though it went against everything his instincts told him to. "Alright...I'll do it."

"I though you'd see things my way."