Warnings: Profanity, 1x2x1 & 3x4. Slight OOC, extreme AU, violence, and the normal ship talk. Yaoi! This one’s a little bit citrusy, too. YAY!

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters.

Sea of Silence

Chapter 6

The Darker

“Are you okay,” Catherine asked. Trowa was everywhere over the blonde boy, checking for a fever, a concussion, and practically anything else that could have made the scarlet Quatre fall flat out of his chair in the middle of dinner. He’d been blushing for a while, but falling out of your chair from embarrassment was unheard of. Quatre shook his head.

“Trowa, I need to talk to you privately,” he whispered, and Catherine immediately left the room.

“What’s going on,” Trowa asked, brushing a kiss on his warm forehead. “You alright?” Quatre nodded.

“Well, you remember my power?” Trowa nodded. “Well, Duo and Heero are either killing each other, or...” he trailed off, and even Trowa blushed a bit.

“I’m betting killing each other,” Trowa sighed, and helped the other boy to his feet. “Guess we should go pull them apart.” Thus, they began the 45-minute walk to Duo’s house, Quatre gradually relaxed.

“Well, whatever it was is over,” Quatre finally said. Trowa nodded, and Quatre yelled when the taller boy pulled him into an embrace, his face buried in Quatre’s blonde hair.

“You scared me,” his muffled voice said, and Quatre could feel the warmth of Trowa’s love surrounding him. “Please don’t scare me like that.” Quatre tilted his head up and gave him a gentle, reassuring kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and Trowa nodded. Quatre smiled. “Well, we better go pick up whatever’s left of those two.” They separated, but Quatre scooped up Trowa’s hand in his own.

Duo heard them coming as soon as they got in a half-mile radius, mostly because he’d put a bell downstairs that rang whenever someone passed the half-mile border around his house. It woke him up, and the first thing he realized was he was naked. The second was that he was sleeping right on top of a naked Heero. The third was that somehow they’d ended up in the hall. After that, he stopped counting.

It was night now, and whoever was coming would most likely be spending the night. Crap. Duo didn’t want to move; Heero just felt soo niice. He didn’t even realize he’d purred until Heero’s eyes fluttered open. Right, a bell doesn’t wake him up but purring does?

When Heero started to move, Duo whimpered in protest without even realizing it. “Come back here,” he muttered, and once more they were kissing, Duo heavily involved with sucking Heero’s lower lip to death. Then, he remembered someone was coming, and immediately broke it off, ran outside, and hopped into Mr. Steamy with a yelp. As soon as he was in, he was back out, running into the bathroom to dry off after rebandaging his leg in record time.

Heero knocked on the bathroom door.

“Go jump in the spring, and get dressed,” Duo yelled out. “Someone’s coming!” He could hear some angry grumbling, and then a splash. Duo finished drying and ran up to his room to change. Only then did he notice the hazard zone it had become.

The sheets were everywhere, clothes were thrown aside at random places, and Duo’s hair tie had been thrown out the window and into a nearby tree. When Heero appeared in the doorway, he was fully dressed and clean, just like Duo was, although his hair was everywhere. As Duo continued to clean, Heero followed him around, doing his best to rebraid it, which didn’t work very well.

“You clean, I’ll braid,” Duo finally yelled when the bell rang again. They were so close. Heero immediately went to tidying up the room, grabbing his pants off the rafters as Duo sat on his bed and braided frantically. A voice carried on the air.

“...doesn’t really take that much work. All you have to do is feed the lions, and let them know you’re not afraid,” Trowa’s voice said calmly. Heero, grabbing his final piece of clothing, ran into his room.

The bell rang again, this time as a doorbell, and Duo ran down to open the door.

“Hiya, Tro! Quat! Whatcha doin’ here,” Duo asked, trying to act innocent. Trowa frowned. Damn, that kid knew him too well. Heero came downstairs, and Duo realized the kid looked very, very disheveled. Quatre sighed.

“Don’t fight anymore,” the blonde said, shaking his head. Duo gave him a strange look. “And don’t you try to deny it, either! I half expected to see severed arms or something, from what I was sensing all the way down at Catherine’s.” Duo blushed.

“Quatre can sense people’s emotions,” Trowa explained calmly, and Heero looked at the couple. They were holding hands tightly. Oh, yes. Definitely couple.

“I assume you told him, then,” Heero asked, and Quatre nodded. “So, you know what my power is too, then.” The blonde shook his head, but Heero was staring at Duo, who was staring straight back.

“I sure want to know what your power is, Mr. Omega,” Duo grumbled, even though a smile tugged at his lips. They’d both seen lots of each other’s tattoos recently.

Soon, the four found themselves at Duo’s table, which was a simple wood affair with six chairs. Quatre cleared his throat.

“First of all, I’d like to say I had no idea both Duo and Wufei had tattoos as well,” Quatre said, and Heero noted he was in politician mode. “My power is on the table, Trowa’s is...well, triplication, I guess. Heero should speak for himself. What are yours and Wufei’s?”

“Phi,” Heero said calmly. “The letter of wind, and death.” He hesitated. “Painful death, to be precise.” Duo grinned.

“Well, aren’t you a smart little Heero,” he said, violet eyes glinting in a way that made Heero’s pulse quicken. The other two groaned, thinking another fight was coming. “My power’s simple. Basically, I can send out pain if I distort the wind flow a little. If I do it enough, I could kill someone by sweeping my hands.” He gave them a Shinigami grin. “It’s a good thing I can’t do that without lots of concentration, or Heero would be dead.

“Wufei’s pi. The sign of war. He’s impenetrable, as weird as that sounds. Must get Meiran pretty mad to not be able to sink her nails into him!” Duo took a moment to laugh at his own joke. “Alright, your turn!” All eyes turned to Heero, who was looking straight at Duo, violet eyes twinkling.

“I’m the end,” he stated. When they looked at him expectantly, he looked down at the table. “I...” Heero looked straight at Quatre. “I can stop time.” Duo’s jaw dropped.

“COOL,” he yelled, but then noticed Quatre was looking down as well. “What did I miss?”

“I can only do it at a price,” Heero said calmly. “And it lasts five minutes exactly.” Duo’s mind went back to the long, deep gashes on his back.

Their silence was broken by the loud clanging of a faraway bell. Duo immediately stood, Trowa not far behind. The braided boy ran up to his own room, and came back down carrying two swords. He threw one to Trowa and the other to Heero. After yet another trip upstairs, he came down with a pair of short, curved swords he gave to Quatre.

“Heero, you guard him with your life,” Trowa yelled, and the two ran out the door. Quatre and Heero looked at each other, and ran out to where the others had gone. Duo’s braid was flapping about as he ran down the path, ignoring the re-wrapped leg, Trowa keeping pace.

“Damn it, you stupid leg,” Duo began to yell, but was cut off when Heero picked him up. Again. He couldn’t help but blush, no matter how pissed he was. It was night, but he could easily pick out the slowly spreading stream of smoke from Hell. “Why didn’t we have any warning? We should have seen any ships, easily.” Trowa shrugged.

“Less talk, more run,” he said, and grabbed Quatre’s hand as he tore down the slope.

“What’s happening,” Heero asked, and Duo glared at the enemy- oh, shit. The enemy fleet. There were four ships. The computations ran through his head...and he turned very pale. There were at least a hundred and fifty sailors invading Hell.

“The navy’s caught onto us, apparently,” Duo said. “I just hope Wufei’s been able to hold them off the ships.”

As soon as they reached the town’s border, Duo jumped out of Heero’s arms. “Get to Trowa and Quatre; I have to get to my ship,” he yelled, but Heero grabbed his hand.

“You don’t even have a weapon,” he said, and Duo grinned as a knife appeared in his hand, and then returned to its hidden sheath.

“Don’t sweat it,” he said, and gave the blue-eyed boy a kiss on the cheek. “See you soon, Hee-babe!” With that, Duo ran off into the slowly burning town.

The first thing he noticed was the screaming. Women’s voices echoed across the island as flames licked the black sky. The second thing he noticed was the knife thrown at his throat, and Duo’s reflexes kicked in. He grabbed the metal by the edge, flipped his wrist, and let it fly, noting it’s bloody impact into a shocked-looking sailor’s forehead. The man dropped to the dirt, blood trickling down his face.

He barely broke his run as a uniformed sailor- he noted the outfit was white and blue, the telltale colors of Algon- launched at him, sword ready to impale Duo’s chest. A deft reversal and the man ended up running into the ground. Duo pulled one of his curved daggers from his boot, and quickly sliced the sailor’s throat. As an afterthought, he grabbed the sword, and continued.

The rest of the run was uneventful, save the occasional dodging of a burning person screaming for dear life, or the average gory slicing and decapitations he executed on almost a weekly basis.

“Wuffles,” Duo yelled out as soon as he reached the dock. His hair was already hardening with blood, and his black clothes were slowly staining to the brown-red of dried blood. “Wufei! You okay?” There was no response, so he made his way onto deck.

“Maxwell,” Wufei’s voice yelled out, and Duo’s violet eyes snapped to where the other boy sat onboard his ship. His white clothes were ripped apart, red from blood, and his sword lay neglected and crimson at his feet. He looked lost. “Duo, they took Meiran. I don’t know where. I told her to stay, but...” he looked down. “She’s always been as stubborn as a mountain.”

“We need to go get her back, then,” Duo said with a nod. “Come on, Wu! Just sitting there looking sad won’t help her.” Wufei grabbed his sword and stopped next to the braid-headed boy.

“Where are Trowa and the kids,” he asked, finally realizing they were missing. Duo shrugged.

“Hell if I know. Hopefully they’re just sitting around chopping people’s legs off or something,” Duo said cheerily, making Wufei smirk. “Is your ship good to go?” He shook his head. “Damn.”

“Duo, come now,” Heero said, and Duo jumped two feet into the air.

“Holy shit! Don’t do that to me,” he yelled, and then noticed Heero was slumping forward in pain. “Where are we coming?”

“Enemy has Trowa and Quatre. Have to get them out of the ship,” Heero said faintly. It was obvious he was trying not to faint. “I stopped time to get to you. Ran...all the way. We have to go.”

“Meiran’s probably there, too,” Duo suggested, and after making a quick stop in his cabin, the three found themselves in front of a rowboat which held a uniformed man with long platinum blonde hair wearing a mask, along with a few soldiers. The ship floated in the distance.

“Hiya,” Duo said with a grin. “We need to get over to your ship, or we’ll kill you.” The masked man’s lips twisted into a faint smile.

“You’ll be coming across with me, and staying there. Either that, or Mrs. Chang gets killed by my second-in-command, Noin,” he said smoothly. Wufei glared at him. “And she’ll only be the first to die, if you choose to resist.” The man’s half-smile turned into a smirk. “Besides, I wouldn’t mind dying. It’d just be inconvenient at the time.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” Wufei growled, and the three climbed into the boat.

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