12-Mar-2002
Author: Christine
E-mail: Devilkitty@speakeasy.net
Rating: NC17
Warnings: Rape, graphic abuse
Pairs: 3x1,6x5, NCS13x2
Summary: AU Timeline. OCCness PWP
Heero stared at Zechs, wondering what the hell was going through his mind. They had briefly gotten in touch with Quatre and got him up to date on what was going on with them. Heero had listened to the conversation with half a mind, not really surprised that Zechs was the one with the plan, because he seemed to have a take-charge type of personality. Heero was more comfortable with following someone else and he knew that he wasn't his best right now, so Zechs was in charge of this little mission, especially since he was the one with all the contacts, even if they might be out of date for a couple of years. Heero had no idea what was going on, besides that they were on their own hunting for the others. It had taken them a couple of days to get organized, without the resources that he was used to. He hadn't know how much he didn't know about trying to be 'normal', until this had happened. He had managed to tap a few accounts for the money that they needed. He had also tracked down a couple of names that Zechs had asked him to look up. The rest Zechs had taken care of, from arranging for them to stay in a hotel to mapping out the trip to the Sank Kingdom. Heero had used some of the names that Howard had given him to pick up supplies for the trip, but he was clueless about the little things that Zechs seemed to know and take for granted, like buying groceries or checking into a hotel or renting a car.
Zechs had instructed Quatre to stay with his family, thinking that it would be safer for him that way, just in case OZ decided to pick up the stray bioroids that they didn't get in their first sweep. That Quatre had agreed to that plan was surprising, since he had once confessed to Heero that his large family had almost driven him almost insane with all their energy and their lack of physical and mental privacy when he first discovered his powers. It had been hard to walk away from everyone that he had loved, his father especially, but he had to do it to be able to go back to them. With the training that he had gotten from someone that Jay had found for him, he managed to return to his family for short visits. Quatre didn't know how he would react to a longer visit, but realized that his family was better then the attitude that he got from most of the Sweepers because he was one of the 'freaks' and they still didn't know if one of them had sold them out to OZ.
Heero guessed that he was willing to put up with that now, because even that was better then ending up in an OZ lab. Also no one was going to get through that formidable group of women that were his sisters. They were the ones in control of the business and the family, not Quatre's father, no matter what the man thought. He remember meeting some of them, they wanted to know who was taking care of their baby brother and they had managed to scare even Jay, a feat which he had thought was impossible. The oldest one, Iria was really scary, nice and charming until you crossed her. Heero didn't know where Rashid and Abdul had disappeared also. They had been with Quatre until they decided to split up, just to be safe. Abdul and Rashid could take care of themselves. He just hoped that none of them were the leak that had gotten Trowa and the others imprisoned by OZ. He had trusted all of them with his life over the years and he didn't want to have been betrayed by any of them.
He had known that Quatre was restless about being the odd man out with no lover, but he also understood that he had very few choices for one also with the way that most people reacted once they had found out that he was different. Quatre wouldn't be so foolish as to have the others removed if he thought that they were in that way of his having a relationship with one of them. Besides, Quatre had been drawn to Duo more then anyone else. None of them may be the leak; this all just might be a huge coincidence that the others were gone when those bastards at OZ managed to find them again.
Zechs ignored Heero, concentrating more on driving then trying to explain anything to his companion. He was nervous about being behind the wheel of a car for the first time in months and he wanted to be paying more attention the road then to Heero. Heero would appreciate that thought more then any thing that he had to say, but he wasn't surprised to see Heero drifting off into sleep, lulled to sleep by the silence and the motion of the car. Heero had been running on the last week or so on pure adrenaline alone it seemed. He let Heero sleep and turned the radio on low after finding a news station so that he could find out what was happening in the world. He hadn't been allowed to do that before their 'hosts' had been so paranoid about what they had learned before they had decided what to do with them.
After a couple of hours of sleep Heero stirred and asked in a tired voice, "Where are we?"
Zechs glanced over quickly and said, "We are about to go over the border of the Sank Kingdom. I was going to stop to get something to eat and then cross later. I would have woken you soon, I just felt that you needed the sleep more then anything."
"We're crossing the border when there are more people about and we blend in with the crowd?" Heero asked.
Zechs nodded, "That was my plan, the IDs that we have are good, but I also prefer the camouflage of a lot of people if we are going to cross the border. Too big a crowd and they won't bother to check things as closely as they should."
They had gotten the IDs from a street smart operator whose name Howard had given them, telling them that he could be trusted to keep his mouth shut and he did good work. Howard had been very angry that at the way that the both of them had been treated and understood why they had decided to strike out on their own. He had promised to explain to Jay what had happened if the older man didn't contact them directly.
"Why here?" Heero asked curiously. There were a lot of places that they could go to for help if they didn't want to deal with the Sweepers. He thought that they could get help from Quatre's family. Even if Quatre was the leak that they were worried about, he still trusted Iria with his life. Iria would through the resources of the family behind them to get Trowa back, no matter what her brother had done. Iria had been one of the few people in their life that didn't give a damn what had been done to them by their parents. She had never thought that they were disgusting, she had accepted them as one of her family, because that was the kind of person that she was.
Zechs smiled sadly, "I know some people in their Self-Defense force, people that might be able to give us some of the information that we need. They were the names that I had you look up before we left the base, I wanted to make sure that they were still stationed around here."
"I'm sorry," Heero said quietly. He was sorry, because he knew that this trip had been difficult for Zechs. It would be hard for him to be going back to the places and people that he knew before Hilde had turned him into what he was. Heero knew that he wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for the fact that OZ was holding his other family captive.
Zechs shrugged, dismissing his concerns. "It will be hard for me, but harder on those that we are going to talk to. I've been 'dead' to them for a year and now they are going to see me. But it isn't the man that they knew, but a doppelganger that OZ created. I have the memories of their friend, but I am also a freak now."
"And if we run into your family?" Heero asked softly. He hoped that they didn't because Zechs looked like he was ready to lose it if something else happened to him. He hadn't realized how much of calming influence the prickly Wufei had been. He knew that he was ready to break anything at a moments notice if they didn't find Trowa.
"I don't think that will happen, they weren't too pleased with my choice of career or friends, so they wouldn't keep in touch with them after I was gone. Besides," Zechs smiled, " a year ago I had a normal haircut, all this" he tugged at his braid, "was the work of that bitch. No military would let anyone have their hair this long. No one that might catch a glimpse of me now will ever think that it was the old me." # I only kept it because Wufei enjoyed playing with it. I see it more as a sign of my captivity then anything else. I wasn't surprised to find out that Wufei and Duo had had long hair before they were captured. I guess that I was altered to make us a matching set. Unfortunately long hair fetish usually doesn't show up in OZ records, so that won't help us trace down who has them.#
"But you are going to get in touch with your friends and they might tell your family." Heero pointed out to him. #I'm sorry that it came down to this. It must hurt you so badly to visit the people and places that you have been before. If Quinze hadn't been such an ass or the others kidnapped, then we wouldn't have to go through this. So many things that went wrong so quickly.#
Zechs shook his head, "Not if I ask them not to, they won't. My family has always been a little odd about things, but even they are not going to accept what I have been turned into. My friends will keep their silence, because they won't want to hurt them like they will be hurt."
Nothing else was said as they stopped to eat a late leisurely lunch. Heero was surprised that Zechs's appetite was hearty; he had had visions of the other man picking at his food more then anything, because of being nervous about getting in touch with his old friends.
Zechs laughed at his look of surprise, "That was the first thing that I learned in both the Self Defense Force and in the lab, you eat when you can." #Duo taught me that because his metabolism was so screwed up from what they had done to him, he'd eat anything they gave him if he got hungry enough. I just knew that I had to eat to heal and to feel better no matter what disgusting slop they threw us.#
"That must have been hard for you, not being what your family wanted." Hero said. He knew it had been for him, since his parents tinkered with him to get the child that they wanted. If they had actually wanted a child, he had thought more then once that the only reason that his mother had had him was because she wanted to experiment on a human being and not raise a child. He never got the impression that his parents actually loved him, since they seemed to treat him more like a lab rat then anything. He dreamed of having a 'real' family more then once when he was younger, before he realized that it wasn't going to get any better. He wasn't surprised to hear that Trowa had had the same hopes once.
Zechs shrugged, "I thought that it was important that I serve and protect the country that I was born in. My parents thought that kind words would keep our borders secure. Just in case they didn't, I wanted to make sure those words were backed up with an armed force. They didn't like that I had joined up and didn't speak to me for months, but we had made up before I disappeared. I'm glad about that."
Heero smiled, he wondered what kind of people Zechs' parents were like. He had very few opinions about family like, since his own had been so strange, with the fact that his parents thought that he was a lab rat and not their flesh and blood. Jay had been the first human that wasn't a total stranger that had treated him with any sort of kindness.
"Would they understand about Wufei?" Heero asked curiously. He knew that it was a rude question, but he did want to know. Trowa's parents, he knew that they wouldn't like the fact that Trowa was sleeping with anyone, even if it was a fellow experiment. His own he couldn't even guess what their reaction would be to the fact that he had a lover, he thought that it would be probably disgust that he actually needed someone for the simple comfort of sleeping with a warm body that loved him near him.
"I think that they would prefer that I brought home a nice young lady, but they would like him other then that. A lady so that they could have grandchildren to play with, since I don't know if my sister is interested in having children or just a career and they would like grandchildren. She wanted to save the world the last time that I talked to her, not have children."
"What's it like being with family?" Heero asked, "Quatre just kept telling us that it was busy, but nothing more then that. I think that was because he didn't want us to know what we were missing. He's got a big huggie-touchie-feelie tribe of sisters that insist on spoiling him. They were upset when he moved out of the house, but a couple of them understood. They knew that the problem was that their father had done something to Quatre so that he couldn't live with them without getting some help. He had been 'normal' most of his life, since I was told that most of his modifications showed up when he was in his mid-teens, it was something to do with puberty. It was a couple of terrible months for him before he figured out what was happening, because he thought that he was going insane when he started picking up on others thoughts and feelings. All his sisters love him, but they are overwhelming when there are more then four of them in the room with you. They tried to do the same with us, no matter how badly we reacted to their attention the first time. Trowa had been very surprised that they told him that they were overjoyed to have another couple of younger brothers to spoil now. Some of them understood the problems that we both had when were overwhelmed by the attention. Quatre's sensitivity isn't something new, its just his father cranked it up by accident when he tinkered with other things. Most of the male children that his wives had before Quatre were all defective in some way and they usually miscarried them in the fourth month."
Zechs smiled, he heard the loneliness that was behind that very personal question. "Relena and I were raised very differently. You might say that we were both only children. She's like you, intense about everything that she does. She wants to follow our parents' dream and see if she can keep Sanq safe with words and not a standing army. She understood what I was doing better then they did. She was just upset that I thought that I needed to do it."
"And are you going to tell her that you are still alive?" Heero asked, "I know that right now you don't want to think about this, but she should know even if you never see her again. She must be so lonely for her big brother."
Zechs shrugged, "After I rescue Wufei and Duo, I will worry about telling my sister what has happened to me. The least I can do is tell her what happened and make sure that no one else suffers like we have. If we, Wufei and I, come forward, that might stop what OZ is doing, because they aren't just going after those that can't fight back, they are starting to think that everyone is a target for their experiments, not just the lower classes that they had been using before. It's no longer someone else's problem. My parents might die of embarrassment, but I don't want anyone else to be destroyed by those people. I know that Wufei's people will be angry, but other then that I don't know what they will do. Wufei once told me that he was no longer a member of his clan because he was no longer 'human'." #He told me about his marriage that night. I do want to meet the woman that holds such a special place in his heart. Wufei told me that they were more friends then anything, the way that they acted while they had been married. I understood though, your first love is always special to you. I was worried that he would not be able to love me because of what had happened to the two of us. I always knew that I preferred men to women sexually. Wufei had grown up with the expectation that physical love could only be between men and women, not between two men. He was so confused that he felt any sort of physical attraction to me, especially after having been beaten in the arena once or twice before we were together.#.
Heero smirked, "A lot of people will get upset now that what OZ is doing is no longer somebody else's problem. The public ignored it because it wasn't happening to them, but since you two seemed to be a someone they are going to figure out that no one is safe." He had been surprised that Zechs was willing to be in the spotlight about what had happened to him. He was also willing to go forward with his secret also. He would protect Trowa from that, but he as quite willing to blacken the reputation of his parents to show the world what they had done to him. If it stopped someone else from ruining their children's life he would do that. No one should treat a child like his parents had treated him
Zechs lifted and eyebrow and then shrugged. He knew that the secret of who he had been would be out as soon as he made contact with his old friends, so he didn't mind Heero finding out what he did. He knew that Heero could keep it secret about who he had been before OZ had changed him. If he went through with his plan, the whole world would know what had happened to him at the hands of OZ. "Are you through? It's about another two hours after we get into the country, then a couple of more to get to the capital. We can then check into a hotel and I will check in with my old friends to see if I can get any information on who would want to kidnap our family."
Heero nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a good plan. Are you still able to drive?"
Zechs nodded, "I can last until we get there, I might fall asleep as soon as we check in, but I can drive still." # I don't want to sleep yet. I don't want to dream of the horrors that I know that other two are going through I have done that too often lately, waking up in a cold sweat because I have no idea what those madmen are doing to Wufei and Duo. #
Zechs took a deep breath and stared up at the apartment building that he had lead Heero to the next day. "Walker and Otto were very good friends of mine. We went through basic together and then kept getting stationed in the same units for the time that I was in SDF... They should be able to get us some of the information that we need." #I really don't know if I can do this to them... if it wasn't for want is happening to Wufei and Duo, I would let them continue to believe that I am dead. It maybe a lie, but it is better then the truth.#
"Will they still want to talk to you?" Heero asked quietly. #From the way that I have been treated by the rest of the Sweepers at times, I can understand why Trowa never wants to talk to any human. If Zechs gets treated like that by people that he considers to be his friends, that is going to hurt him more then anything that OZ managed to do to him. I don't want that to be theincident that drives him over the edge.#
"I don't know." Zechs replied honestly. "We were close." #I can only hope that they are still willing to help me. I am not the same person that they had served with.#
Heero though for a moment, hearing all the things that Zechs wasn't saying and then asked him, "How close? Good friends or ex-lovers close?"
Zechs flushed and then smiled at the memories, "Both. Friends and lovers, more friends then anything else."
"Then they shouldn't turn us in." Heero told him bluntly. #They better still treat you like you deserved to be treated or else I will hurt them. This is hard enough for you to do without them treating you like shit because some OZian ass wanted a pet or a guard #
Zechs looked shocked that he even mentioned it. "I never thought that it would endanger you by bringing you here. If I did I wouldn't have even thought about seeing my old friends."
"Do you actually know what rewards OZ would give someone if they turned any of us in?" Heero asked him. "The money, the prestige... but if I had thought that it was a bad idea I would have told you. I know that I should trust more people then I do, but I am a rogue bio-experiment and considered a terrorist, both things that make me wary of the authorities. I never really learned to trust someone until I met Trowa. He's the same way and I am terrified that he will never stay in civilization again when he gets out of where he is being held. He can survive on his own in the wilds, since he's done that before. I'm afraid that after this, he's not going to even want me around anymore and go back out into the wilds forever." #I'll let him go because he will need to do that, not because he doesn't love me anymore, but because he does and needs to work out his anger without hurting me.#
Zechs took a deep breath, "Then lets get this over with. We've been out here for a while and people in this neighborhood are going to start wondering about two men hanging around in a parked car and then call the police. I'll ring the bell and you stay out here until I know that it's safe, and then I will call you. That way if this is a screw up on my part, you will still be free to get everyone out of there."
"I'll be across the road. If you think that it is going to go sour, just run and we'll meet outside the hotel to get the hell out of this place." Heero told him.
Zechs nodded and went into the lobby and studied the directory for the building for a minute to make sure that his friends still lived here, information that he just uncovered or not. He really had never trusted information that he had gotten that way, because it was too easy for it to be wrong.
They did still live here and he took a calming breath before he rang the bell. Did he want to go back to this life? He had thought that he would never see his old friends again when he woke up in that lab with claws under his fingertips and all the other changes that had been done to him. Duo and Wufei helped him through the hellish early days, telling him on how to get along with the staff and the weaknesses of the opponents that he faced in the ring. He was horrified at Duo's resignation to losing the fight to him and with what the victor claimed from the loser. The first time he had been half crazed with drugs and the smell of blood and he hadn't even been thinking that it had been his friend underneath him, but his control had gotten better over time. He was able to fake more and more of the abuse that he heaped on his smaller opponent. Meeting and falling in love with Wufei had been worth the price of his humanity. Now he was going to face the past that he had hoped to forget. He was going to have to face whom he had been before changed his life, Mirialdo Peacecraft.
He heard the answering chime and Otto calling out, "Who is it?"
Zechs answered calmly, "Mirialdo." #Please believe me... please be alone... #
"This better not be a fucking joke, asshole." Otto growled.
"Otto, as much as I wanted to avoid doing this to you, please let me in. It's a matter of grave importance."
"Mirialdo Peacecraft died in an auto accident over a year ago. This joke is in very poor taste and if you continue with this, I'm coming down there and beating the crap out of you." Otto threatened.
"Otto, it's a long story and one that I will not go into over this infernal machine. If you don't believe that I am who I say I am, I don't know about the very interesting mark that you have between your legs. That you squirm delightfully when it's licked."
"Anyone that I've had sex with knows that." Otto snarled. #Not that the list is long... #
"I gave you a hickey there our second encounter, it was right after we both made pilot status and we didn't even bother to make sure that everyone had left the locker room before we were all over each other. The flight instructor nearly caught us."
"Oh shit! It is you." Otto muttered as he buzzed Zechs in so that he could get past the security that the apartment had. He had told no one about that and he knew that Mirialdo hadn't either, since he wasn't one to kiss and tell.
He waited impatiently, shifting back and forth while he waited for the door to ring. When it did, he flung open the doorway and dragged Mirialdo into the apartment asking questions a mile a minute wanting to know what has happened to his former lover for the year that he had been gone.
Why the cover up? Was it work for intelligence? Why didn't you tell us at least? Why did you do that Relena? The girl cried buckets at the... Your parents, they looked so bad. I thought that you father was going to collapse at the gravesite." Otto babbled at him as he hugged Mirialdo and not allowing him to a minute to answer any of the questions that he was asking him. "Walker's out on assignment and he'd going to be pissed that he missed you."
Zechs smiled sadly as he let Otto hug him. "I missed you," he said softly. "I missed both of you."
Otto let go of him and stepped back looking at him, "Shit... what happened to your hair? It's almost as long as your sister's hair!"
"It's a long story... part of why I didn't want to bother you after I... left that place." Zechs started. "The car accident was real, I just don't know whose body was buried in my place. I suspect... but never mind that. I want to know that if you can't or won't help me, at least you'll let me leave without telling the authorities or my family that I was here."
"Mirialdo... what the fuck happened to you?" Otto asked, noticing for the first time how strained his old friend looked. Mirialdo had only been gone a year, but with the bags under his eyes and how tired he seemed, he looked older then he was. Different also in some way because he didn't feel the same when he had hugged him. He looked somehow better though, and it was a bunch of little clues that added up to tell Otto that he really didn't want to know what had happened to his lover over the past year. He didn't think that it had been an intel assignment, because he looked so bad.
"I was being held in a place that was an OZ run science facility, a place called Camp Lovecraft. It doesn't exist anymore, thankfully." Zechs told him.
"That was just an OZ science base that those terrorist bastards, the Sweepers blew up. It was just a place that they were doing medical research in." Otto said in a bewildered voice. That had been in the news weeks ago, the atrocities that the Sweepers had done when they had killed the scientists and then destroyed all the research, just because OZ had done it and they felt a need to eliminate anything that OZ had worked on, even if it would benefit all mankind. It had been in the headlines for most of the papers until something else had captured the interest of the Fourth Estate. "It had no military worth and those crazies just killed those people for no apparent reason."
Zechs laughed bitterly, "Medical research might have been what the place started out with, but I assure you that a lot more went on in that place then people wanted to know about. I was ecstatic when I watched the Sweepers burn it."
"OZ had you?" Otto asked him.
OZ was into some shady things if you believed part of the rumors that one heard about them, but he never believed anything that he was told. They were the enemy and throughout history you were always told the worst thing possible about the enemy because they were the Bad Guys. He didn't think that they would be stupid enough to do a snatch on Mirialdo though, not with the political power that his family had. It had been another nine day wonder when the son of the leading voices for World Peace went and joined the Self Defense Force rather then go to college, like many of his peers had done. The tabloids had made a big deal about everything that Mirialdo had done from basic training until he had been 'killed' in that accident. OZ must have been insane to think that they could get away with it. That they had for a year just showed him how lucky those stupid bastards had been. Now that he was free, Mirialdo would stick it to those crazies.
"I spent a year there... I was lucky. There were prisoners that were there for a lot longer." Zechs told him.
"Why would you be a prisoner in a medical research lab?" Otto asked curiously.
"That I don't know... " Zechs replied quietly, "If I did, then I would find out who was the person that had me captured and I could kill them."
"Kill them." Otto repeated, not understanding what had changed in his friend over the year that he was gone. The hair was a lot longer and he looked tired, but that was nothing next to the hardness in his eyes that had aged him beyond his years. Mirialdo had always been reluctant to take a life, what had been done to him that he was able to casually talk about killing someone?
"Otto, I shocked you?" Zechs asked, quirking his lips up in a faint, almost bitter smile. "But wouldn't you want to kill the person that did this to you? Kill the person that had ruined your life and killed who you had been?" he asked softly, flexing his claws so that Otto could see them and slowly drawing one across his palm. The blood dripped out slowly for a minute before the wound slowly started to heal.
Otto stared, horrified at what Zechs had done to himself. He had claws like an animal and he hadn't even flinched when he had cut himself. He opened his mouth to say something comforting and found that he couldn't, so he just shut his mouth quickly. This person wasn't the man that he had fallen in lust and later friendship with; this was a stranger with his face. He could understand why Mirialdo had changed his name and was reluctant to get in touch with anyone that had known him before this obscenity had happened to him. He was not the innocent teenager that had been eager to protect his homeland. Otto could believe that he didn't know this person, even if he wore the face of his old friend.
"I woke up like this, in so much pain I couldn't believe that I could endure it. Everything hurt. I found out later that was just my body's normal reaction to what they had done to me, because they had fiddled with so much that had made me human to make me into what they wanted, that my body protested it. The claws are the only visible change, besides the hair." Zechs laughed bitterly. "Lovecraft Base had done so many bioriods that they had it down pat the changes that they could do to someone, almost an assembly line of human beings being twisted into something else on their whim. I was lucky; at least I have been told that... I still look human. Some of the modifications that they had done to some of the unfortunates that they had captured looked more animal then human."
"There had always been rumors... " Otto started to say, blanching at the thought of his friend and lover being tortured by the enemy on the whim of some scientist. No one had ever found evidence to back up the rumors though. However, spreading rumors about your enemy were standard propaganda techniques that everyone used. Seeing that what OZ had been reputed to be doing for years in front of his face didn't make him feel any better. That it had been someone that he had had a relationship with and not a total stranger made things worse. He felt guilty that he was revolted by the changes that had been done to Mirialdo and ashamed that he made his skin crawl.
Zechs waved his claws in front of Otto's face watching him shy away when they got too close to him. "I don't blame you for that, I've shredded a lot if flesh with these things. I can kill someone in a matter of minutes, with nothing but these. I've done it a lot, for the pleasure of the sick bitches that ran the place."
"Oh Mirialdo," Otto whispered. #Who are you now? What did they do to you? It's not just the outside that has changed, some many other things are different You are right in saying that Mirialdo is no longer alive, but I don't think that I want to know who Zechs is.#.
Zechs shook his head, "Mirialdo Peacecraft is dead. He was killed in that hell on the whim of some bastard that wanted a trained killer to protect him from his imaginary enemies. I have a new name now, Zechs. I want to, actually need to find the person that had me modified because he or she has my lover and a boy that I should have protected better then I did while we were all in that place."
"Lover?" Otto asked, trying not to be jealous of this unknown person. He had accepted that Mirialdo was dead and had thought of moving on, but to find out that Mirialdo had moved on hurt a little. He was relieved though, because he didn't even want to think about making love with him again.
"Another victim of OZ, someone that never wanted to be a killer even, but now is a very efficient killing machine due to the changes that they made in him. He told me once that he was happiest in a library doing research." Zechs explained to Otto, seeing the hurt and relief in his eyes. The news that he had moved on seemed to have upset him more the anything else that he had told him so far. The relief that he saw in his former lover hurt him, relief that he didn't expect him to love him again. Zechs didn't blame him for that reaction, there were days when he thought that he didn't deserve that love that Wufei and Duo had for him. "He is someone that knows what I had to do to survive in there and still loves me. Otto, please don't be hurt... I would have never wanted that to happen to anyone that I knew before I was kidnapped. Mirialdo Peacecraft is dead and I also know that I'm never going to be able to be with anyone 'normal' again. They couldn't take the damage that I can do to someone by accident and it would end badly for all involved. Its not that I don't love you anymore... its just that I can't physically love you."
He knew that he was hurting Otto by telling him about his new lover, but the man wouldn't understand how intense everything had been in that place, even as he was relieved that he wasn't expecting their relationship to pick up where it had left off when he had disappeared. He didn't need to read his mind to know that Otto was revolted at what he was now. Wufei had been the one person that managed to keep him sane. He wasn't the eager young man that had fallen into friendship and then love with Otto, which seemed centuries ago. He was a hardened killer that had spent that last year being treated like an animal by sadistic people that thought that they were God. After his first fight in that place, Mirialdo had died in the ring, if not earlier in the lab that they had modified his DNA and his body for some bastard that had ordered him to be modified for his pleasure like he would order a meal in a restaurant.
"Duo... a boy that was in there with us," Zechs stopped and drew in a deep breath, "He's so frightened of people because of what happened in there to him." He laughed bitterly, "I caused some of it. On a research base, there isn't much to do but play with the experiments and watch them play with each other. Fights to the death, torture, sexual exploitation of the 'animals' kept them all occupied when they got bored."
"Fights?" Otto asked in a shocked voice. #That's what put that look in your eyes, not that they had changed you but that they also had controlled you and made you kill.#
"We were made to be either fighters or pleasure slaves for OZ officials. They don't want you to be squeamish about blood or killing, so they 'train' you by having fights with the others. Sometimes it was to the death and others it was until first blood and you managed to pin your opponent. Victor raped the loser. At least once a year there is someone that refuses to do that, I've been told. That person is usually staked out and used by all the personal until they die... which combined with the healing factor that we all have, takes a long time. No one argues about the rule after that." Zechs laughed bitterly, "Most of them have a hope of winning. Not Duo though... he's so tiny that too many of us could beat him fairly easily if he wasn't so desperate to win. Bets were on how long it took when he was in the ring more then anything. He never stopped trying to win even when he knew that it was hopeless. They liked his spirit, which is why he kept getting sent back in there."
"Oh God... " Otto muttered looking nauseous. He didn't need to hear this, hear what changed a polite young man into a merciless killer.
"I lost faith in God in there, not with all that they did to innocent people." Zechs told him. "Blood and sex were the entertainment for those people. Who needed pornography when you could order two of your experiments to fuck each other for your enjoyment? I spent almost as much time having sex in front of those animals as I did fighting and bleeding. Do you know how much it hurts to be ordered to do painful and disgusting things to the man that you love on the orders of some sick, twisted bitch? If we weren't what they wanted... drugs took care of a lot of things for them. Drugs to keep you hard for hours, so hard that it hurt and no matter what you or the person that you were with did or how many times that you came, you were still hard."
"Why didn't you get out of there?" Otto asked in shock. "You're a trained fighter, there must have been something that you could have done?"
"Past electronic locks that react to DNA? I wasn't 'human' anymore so the locks wouldn't open for me or anyone else that they had fiddled with. Short of a ton of C4, nothing would have gotten us out of there until they would have passed us on to our 'owner' and by then... rumor had it that you wouldn't want to leave then. I never saw it, but Duo did more then once. It terrified him more then anything else that they had done to him, that they would twist him so that he would willingly enjoy his captivity."
"That's why no one ever spilled what was happening before this. They were either dead or brainwashed into enjoying it." Otto exclaimed, horrified at all that he had been told.
"I have someone with me, could he come up here?" Zechs asked Otto. "He will be able to explain things better to you what we are looking for and how you can help us, he's had years of experience with this kind of operation."
"Another experiment?" Otto asked curiously. "Tell him to come up, if he wants to."
"Thank you," Zechs told him as he pulled out his phone and quick dialed Heero's phone. "It's safe to come up," he told him before he cut the connection.
Heero was impatiently waiting for Zechs to get back to him when he felt his cell phone vibrate. Wondering who the hell was calling him, he was surprised to hear his guardian's voice answer his snarled, "What do you want?"
"I just got some information off of an old friend." Jay told him, "I'm making this fast because I have no idea if this can or will be traced. Trowa and the other two are with an OZ general called Khushrenada."
"How much do you trust your informant?" Heero asked him quietly. #I will now believe in a higher being if this information is good and I am able to get my Trowa back.#
"She's royally pissed, one of the others is... was her grandson. She was looking forward for another generation of kids to spoil when they did the snatch and grab on him. OZ is threatening the rest of her people too, from what I can tell of the information that I got about the meeting that they had a little while ago. OZ or at least this ass is through being subtle about their power grab."
"How well do you know her?" Heero asked, not worrying about the politics of the situation. He hoped that OZ and this bastard tipped their hand so that the rest of the world knew that they were dangerous and that the Sweepers hadn't been crying wolf with their actions of the past few years. He didn't think that it would happen though, since too many of the unallied nations had been lulled by the sweet song of Total Pacifism that the Sank Kingdom had sung to them.
Jay laughed, "I don't kiss and tell. I just liked her too much to marry her. We were in University together a bunch of young turks that were going to change our corner of the world. It never happened, but... "
"How can I find out where he is?" Heero asked impatiently. He really didn't want to know about Jay and how he sowed his wild oats.
"Just trace the general's movements, it should be easy with the records that we have back at the home base. He's moving around a lot, no can figure out why, since he usually isn't this involved in the field bases, his usual stomping ground is the upper level of OZ/Romafeller politics and swimming with the sharks that are there. He's one of the big ones and it might be difficult to get to him."
"We are no longer using the Sweepers' resources, so that may be difficult. Its not like they broadcast the movements of their top people any more, because of the work that the Sweepers had done." Heero told him neutrally.
"Who the fuck pissed you off?" Jay asked in astonishment. Heero was loyal to the Sweepers, mostly because they fought against people that were like his parents. He would have sworn that it would be a cold day in the underworld before Heero broke with them.
"Quinze told me that I didn't have enough experience to do a search without someone 'older' because I didn't have clearance and now one wanted to help me. Zechs got us out of there after that comment, before either of us killed the man. He had been treated worse then usual by most of those that were on base at the time and so he told me that there were other people out there that could help us and that the Sweepers weren't the only people in the universe."
"Where are you now?" That explains it. He's desperate and Zechs won't put up with the shit that Heero unfortunately takes for granted. He was willing to walk away from it all if it got Trowa back.
"Talking to some old friends of Zechs," Heero told him cautiously. He knew that this was an open line and he didn't want either one of them captured if this was an open line. "He thinks that they might be able to help us."
"I'll let you do that then." Jay told him and hung up.
Heero snarled at the phone and was surprised that it chirped at him. "Jay?" he asked wondering if the old man remembered something else useful. He wasn't surprised really surprised to hear Zechs on the other end. He listened to the brief message and then moved over to the building to get let in and tell Zechs what he had learned in the past few minutes.
Heero ran up the stairs after he was let in. He didn't even bother with letting Zechs make introductions and just blurted out, "We've got a something."
Zechs smiled at the news and tried to rectify the situation, such things had been drilled into him too often for him not to. "Heero, this is Otto. Otto may I introduce to you, Heero Yuy, fellow changeling."
Heero and Otto both looked confused at the reference, causing Zechs to sigh. "I see that neither one of you had a classical education."
Heero shrugged, "My parents didn't think that it was important for their little experiment to learn all the niceties."
"Experiment?" Otto asked. Mirialdo had been full of such references. He thought that it might have something to do with elves, but didn't care enough to ask. All he knew was this kid with the intense stare wasn't human either, not with the way that he had booked it up the stairs and the way that he moved.
"My parents wanted to test out a few theories on in utero genetic modifications, so they had me." Heero explained bitterly. "I'm just glad that they didn't have any others."
Otto shook his head at that. Shit. there were all sorts of crazies in the world, not just the ones that worked for OZ. This kid's parents turned him into a freak!
"What did you just learn?" Zechs asked.
"I got a call from my guardian. It seems that Wufei's family is highly placed also, but I think that you knew that already." Heero started to explain to Zechs. He didn't know who Otto was or if this place was secure, so her wasn't naming any names if he could help it. "One of them was meeting with an OZ higher up named Khushrenada and saw that one of his new bioriods was a supposedly dead relative of hers. Does this sound familiar?"
"Poor Wufei," Zechs said sadly. He knew that his lover never wanted any of his family to find out what had happened to him. That one of them actually saw him in that bastard's custody must have crushed him.
"Who's Wufei?" Otto asked in confusion.
Zechs looked at him and dared Otto to complain about the information. "My lover... the one person that managed to keep me sane in that place."
Heero frowned at the tension that he saw between the two men, it was almost as bad as he thought it would be. "Are you willing to help us?" he asked bluntly. "I don't care about your past history with Zechs or the fact that you aren't too happy right now finding out what happened to him. I don't even care that we disgust you because someone thought that they could play God with us and fuck with our bodies. All I want to know if you are willing to help us get those people out of the hands of a sick bastard. If you're not we can walk out of here right now. If you want to help us, fine. Just don't treat Zechs like shit because of what happened to him."
Otto stared at Heero, "How did you know I was feeling like that?" he asked him, stunned. He thought that he had hid it so well. "I... I can't wrap my mind around what has happened to Mirialdo. This is all so sudden. I always thought that it was just rumors for the most part. To find that it wasn't lies and that they did that to someone that I loved... "
Heero glared at him, annoyed at the past tense that he used. Zechs was still the same person, just had a few add-ons, you don't stop loving someone because they changed a little. "I've had years of that look, ever since my parents died and I found out what they did to me wasn't 'normal'. I knew that families didn't act like ours and I sometimes dreamed of a 'real' family when I was younger. I actually didn't know how much people would be disgusted with me until I had to deal with it daily. I've had years of seeing that look in another's eyes, usually from someone whose life I had just saved during a mission because I was faster and stronger then a normal human. No one should have that look directed at them."
Otto wilted under the intensity of Heero's glare. He looked at his former lover, apologizing "I'm sorry... ."
Zechs smiled cynically, he understood the problems that Otto was having with all the information that he was trying to process in such a short time. "You are taking the news better then I thought. Would you believe I feel that way about myself sometimes? Wufei is the only one that made my new 'life' bearable and I want him back."
"Will you help us?" Heero repeated harshly. The name that Otto had just referred to Zechs as dawned on him. "Mirialdo? As in Mirialdo Peacecraft of the Sank Kingdom? Was OZ totally fucked to snatch you and Wufei for the same guy?" #No wonder he didn't want his family to know what had happened to him. The leading voices against OZ and its expansionist policies for the rest of the world and their only son got turned into a sideshow freak. Wufei seemed to be just as important from what Jay just told me Duo was the only one that no one would had missed, except he had been with the Sweepers, another group that opposed OZ. Either this guy was crazy or someone else had planned this so this Khushrenada person was holding the bag if someone figured it out. There's a whole other layer to this that I don't understand.#
Otto glanced between the two of them. He was beginning to need a chart to follow this conversation around the way that it had bounce between topics. If he understood things correctly Heero was the end result of his parents being nuts. Mirialdo's lover was another highly placed person in a family outside of OZ's influence and Heero was also a one of those Sweeper terrorists and he had no idea who he had rescued from that place, apparently from the way that he reacted when heard his real name. God was this confusing and if it ever got out, he was so screwed. This had turned into report to your superior officer type of situation. Since he wasn't ever going to do that, he knew that he'd never fly again of this little visit came out.
"Since you were honest with me, I'll be honest with you." Otto told them. "I don't have the contacts to get what you want. Mirialdo was the one with the pull, 'cause I'm just a lowly pilot. Walker wouldn't be able to help us either, even if you wanted to wait the couple of weeks that he's out on sea rotation."
"That's all I needed to know," Heero told him and turned to leave.
Zechs smiled at Otto and said gently, "I'm sorry that this visit hurt you. Just forget that you ever saw me and remember me as what I was, not what I am now."
"I know someone that has the contacts and the pull," Otto told him quickly, "your sister."
"We are not dragging her into this!" Zechs exclaimed.
"She visits me once in awhile, sort of been the big brother that she needed. Someone to talk to about things that your parents don't want her to know or think about." Otto explained to Zechs. Relena may take what happened to her big brother better then he had or he might have a hysterical woman on his hands that would never speak to him again after the shock wore off.
"What does she have that you don't?" Heero asked bluntly. He knew that things were going to be getting worse for Zechs if his sister was going to be involved in this.
"The Peacecraft name and a much higher security clearance and access the information that you are looking for." Otto told them. "She's working for one of the senators as an intern this summer, someone named Darlian. He's on a couple of military committees. She's his right hand and he doesn't move without her. If I didn't know that he was very happily married and scared shitless of pissing off your father or your old friends, I would swear that they are fooling around."
"How do you know that they aren't?" Heero asked, worried about the shocked look on Zechs' face. Heero had a sneaking suspicion that he didn't want to think about his baby sister having sex.
"I asked her." Otto told them. As the shocked look that he got from his former lover, Otto shrugged. "I just want to make sure that if she was, Relena was taking precautions and that he wasn't taking advantage of her."
"She shouldn't get involved." Zechs snarled, "I'd rather crawl back to that officious ass of an information officer then let her know what happened to me now. Later, after things had settled, I was going to get in touch with her, but I don't... "
"As much as groveling in front of Quinze sickens me, I would do it." Heero told him. "I don't really want to take the time to get back there or to see if I can contact someone else, whoever Jay was with if we have someone that can help us right now. Time isn't a luxury that we have. It's taken too long already. I don't want Trowa in the hands of those bastards any longer then he has to be."
Zechs closed his eyes, knowing that Heero was right and not wanting any of his new family to be a captive longer then they had to. "I'm sorry. I'm being selfish. Get in touch with her."
"She doesn't even have to know that you're here." Otto offered. "I can just ask her for the information and tell her that I can't tell her who needs it."
"She's going to want to know why she's risking her job and her future if she gets caught," Heero said. "I'll talk to her, I've got nothing to hide. We can leave you out of this Zechs."
"I'll call her and you've got a couple of hours to decide what to do." Otto told them. "She wouldn't be able to get over here until late tonight. You have hours to figure out what you want to tell her."
Heero fidgeted as he waited for Relena Peacecraft to show up. Otto had given up on small talk a long time ago and he hadn't wanted the TV or the radio on because he was afraid of getting caught here. He didn't trust Otto. Zechs had retreated to one of the bedrooms to get some rest, Heero had known that he had spent more of the night awake and staring at the ceiling because he had been doing the same thing, worried about what was happening to Trowa. He involuntarily jumped when he heard the buzzer ring, signaling that Relena had arrived.
"Come on up Relena," Otto told her over the intercom.
Heero waited impatiently now that the time had come. He still didn't know how to explain to Relena about what he wanted. That she was a woman didn't help, he had had very few relationships with women, outside of Sally. Most of them didn't want anything to do with a Bioroid. He usually didn't care, but know he would like some clues on how he was supposed to treat in the words of a phrase he had read in an old book, 'a gently bred young lady'. He wondered if he could do this when there was knock on the door and he shot out of his chair. Otto gave him a strange look as he went to open the door and Heero glared half heartedly at him, 'I'm nervous, shoot me,' it seemed to say.
Relena walked in and hugged Otto, asking him "What did you have to see me about."
Otto gestured at Heero, "He has a favor to ask of you. Once he explains it, you'll see why he didn't go through normal channels."
Relena looked at Heero, checking out the clothes that he was wearing and the fact that he seemed very uncomfortable talking to her. She decided that he might bolt before he got to ask her what he wanted and she decided the direct approach would be better. She slid her purse off her shoulder and sat down on the sofa, signaling the Heero should sit down too.
Heero studied Relena. She was pretty, but not beautiful like her brother. They both had the same air of breeding and command. While Zechs had been hardened by the time that he had spent in the labs, Relena still seemed like an innocent girl.
"Well?" she asked him.
"I need to be able to trace the movements of one of OZ's generals. A man named Khushrenada." Heero told her bluntly.
"And why do you need this information?" Relena asked him.
"He kidnapped some friends of mine." Heero told her bluntly.
Relena smiled in polite disbelief, "That is a matter for the authorities, not for a senatorial intern."
Heero shook his head, "The authorities won't help. I can get this information though other channels, but you are the quickest way to get what I want right now and I don't want to waste any more time."
"And why don't you think that the authorities will help you?" she asked him. "That is if this story is true. OZ generals do not go about kidnapping random groups of people on a whim. I really don't believe that you are telling me the truth. I'm just wondering what you did to Otto so that he actually bothered to call me so that you told me this wild story."
"There was some pretty convincing evidence when they talked to me." Otto told her weakly.
"Do you have a knife or nail file?" Heero asked her. She didn't believe him, which he had expected. He was just going to show her some evidence.
Relena shook her head, "Why would I carry something like that around?"
Heero pulled out the Gerber™ that he carried with him. He opened it up and pulled out the knife that was attached as part of the tool kit. He kept it razor sharp. "Feel that edge on it," he told her.
Relena drew her thumb over the edge, feeling how sharp it was and cutting herself in the process. "Its sharp," she told him.
Heero then took the blade and cut open his forearm with the blade, blood spurting out of the wound. Relena jumped a little and rushed into the kitchen to get a towel to stop the bleeding, telling Otto to call the authorities. She came back a few seconds later and was astonished to see that the bleeding had slowed down and almost stopped. She dabbed at the cut and was slightly disturbed to see it closing in front of her eyes. She looked at Heero, whispering, "What are you?"
"My parents... they experimented with me. About ten years ago, OZ started the same type of experiments, trying to build a better foot soldier." Heero told her quietly. "From what I found out from the few survivors of those experiments, they used volunteers in the earlier trails. Later on, during the last few years, they've been grabbing street people...drifters... prisoners... anyone that wouldn't be missed. They aren't trying to build a better soldier or even a better human anymore."
Relena stared at him and gingerly touched the arm that had been cut. Except for some drying blood, it looked normal, like it never had been cut. She cleaned off the blood and then started to shake. This was something that scared her, willingness that Heero had to hurt himself so that she would believe his story. Even if it had healed that fast, it must have hurt to cut himself like that.
"You're not human, are you?" she asked him faintly. "That's why you can't go to the authorities."
"If anyone bothered to check, they'd find out that my parents only child died shortly after birth. SIDS is the listed cause of death. They moved to a new area after that, a sprawling one hundred acre farm. I was home schooled and kept isolated from most people. They had applied for a permit to do so, for a cousin that they had adopted over seas, one that couldn't speak the language. So long as I didn't look abused, the authorities had no reason to suspect anything."
"What did they do to you?" Relena whispered.
Heero sat back and studied his fingers, "Increased healing, but you saw that. Strength and reflexes, a couple of other things that you can't see."
"I see. And your friends?"
Heero shifted to look at her. "Two of them... we... I rescued them from an OZ lab. They weren't building soldiers, what they had been doing was something obscene, instead. Upper echelon officers in OZ get modified bodyguards and sex slaves. Made to order practically. No one cares about it because it doesn't matter to them, they are only getting the scum off the street."
"And your friends were 'made' for this Khushrenada person?" Relena asked in disbelief.
"They were... a bodyguard and... and you know... " Heero blushed. Shit! Scared little Duo was supposed to be a sex kitten extraordinaire for this guy. The kid freaked if you stared at him too long and hated any sort of physical contact. "Plus my lover. His parents... they were like mine."
Relena rocked back on her heels. If what Heero was telling was true, then she should help him. "Why didn't you go to the authorities?" she repeated.
"And tell them that three dead men got kidnapped by a world power for immoral purposes?" Heero growled at her.
"Dead men... " Relena repeated slowly before she turned to stare at Otto. That was what had been bothering her, how did Heero know to go to Otto for help? She knew that the men weren't friends, because she had never heard him mention Heero before this. Otto was sweating and looking incredibly guilty about something. She had a horrible sinking feeling that she didn't want to ask this next question, but her mouth was opening even as her brain screamed at her that she really shouldn't know the information that she was going to get.
"So where is my brother Mirialdo?"
Treize smiled down at Duo, kneeling beside him while he petted his head. He was content with his life for now, even if his pet was beginning to look wan, which worried him a little. All the moving around that they had been doing recently must be tiring for his little houri. He couldn't understand why, all Duo had to do was take care of his rooms and wait for his master to be with him at night. Treize had to change his tactics with disciplining Duo because the base that they were at now was in the mountains and very new. There were no beautiful gardens to taunt him with, so his apartment had no windows and he left nothing to keep the boy entertained during the day. Treize briefly wondered what Duo did all day to keep himself occupied, but put that thought aside as unimportant. Duo was there for his enjoyment, not the other way around. At least he wasn't in an OZ lab anymore, so the boy should be grateful for that. He was looking forward to Duo's reaction to his announcement.
"Space here is limited and there has been rumors of the Sweepers and a few of the other rebel groups becoming a little more active, so Trowa and Wufei will be in my apartment all night long, for my protection." Treize purred at him.
Duo flushed and looked down at the floor. So his friends were going to hear him get fucked at night by the great man. Duo's resistance to getting used by Khushrenada over the last few weeks had been broken. Treize had managed to get him to respond, to enjoy his cock in him, even if it hurt while he was fucking him, because he wouldn't give in that much to the man. He wanted the pain because it was a sign that he hadn't been broken by this pervert into enjoying getting used by the man. At least his body liked getting fucked by him, because it writhed and begged for that touch most of the time, even as his mind screamed with disgust because he liked it, liked the feel of Khushrenada's mouth and his hands on him, doing those wonderfully disgusting things to him. He never had wanted to enjoy this man, but something had happened so that he was and he hated himself for that weakness and now his friends were going to find out what a whore he was.
Duo couldn't figure out when it happened, since it had been so gradual. Khushrenada had made sure that he wanted him, even while it hurt, by touching him in certain ways, doing things to him and making him respond to Khushrenada's demands. He had explored Duo's body often enough for his own pleasure to find out where to touch him, how to break down his barriers so that he wanted the older man. It had just been a matter of time before he responded to him and Khushrenada had known it, like he should have figured out long before it started happening to him. Duo hated the fact that his body had betrayed him again, like it had so many times in those fights when should have been quicker or stronger so that he wasn't the one that got raped. It didn't matter that his opponent had all the advantages; Duo still hated it then when he failed, like he hated himself now for his body enjoying the man that owned him and used him for his pleasure.
He still felt Khushrenada's belt or his hand every day it seemed, mostly because he did something that pissed him off by not being attentive enough or fawning over him, like a good pet should be. In bed the man was getting him off because he knew how to touch him, to tease him and make it feel wonderful. Duo still couldn't understand how someone he hated, someone that he never wanted to be near him again, could get such a response out of him. Was he broken, even though he swore that he wasn't? That was something that Hilde never managed, but this inbred bastard had done it to him. Or was he just waiting for a rescue that might never come, drifting until he could be free again? He didn't know where he was, so how could anyone find him? He knew that Wufei and Trowa probably still had hope, but he didn't. Isolation, tedium and abuse had worn him down. He was just waiting to get up enough courage to slit his wrists one morning and just end this all.
Treize frowned, since he had expected more of a reaction out of Duo. It hadn't been too long ago that his little pet was trying to get Trowa some freedom by playing up to him, even if it didn't work. What had changed since then? Duo was a lot more attentive to his needs and much more pleasing for him now, he felt the need to discipline him less and less. Duo had started to respond to his attentions in a most satisfactory manner, there was just a bit of polish that was needed for his repertoire in his bed. Now that his little pet was enjoying himself with him like he should, he wanted him more and more.
Treize chose to believe what he saw in bed, the writhing little houri that pleaded with him, begged for release and moaned delightfully as he spent himself. He ignored the hate and shame that was evident in Duo's eyes even while he was making love to his little pleasure pet. Treize didn't notice that he was listless and indifferent to everything around him most of the time, his eyes dull and his voice soft, like he was now.
Treize's mood suddenly went from malicious teasing to anger. How dare his little pet not react to his announcement! Treize backhanded Duo to the floor, standing up and loosening his belt to beat him with it. Duo didn't move, not even to curl up to protect his face or groin. He had done that once and the beating was worse because of that instinctive, hopeless move. He winced when the first stroke landed low across his stomach, right on his genitals. Duo involuntarily shrieked as the overwhelming pain hit him. Treize smiled evilly and concentrated his attention on Duo's groin and stomach, enjoying the screams that he heard when he did that. Duo usually was silent when he was disciplined, but suddenly Treize decided that he liked hearing his pet's voice when he beat him. He enjoyed making his little pet beg because it was just another sign that he controlled him. He controlled his pet's pleasure and his pet's pain. Now that he understood that he was going to be a very good little pet and stop fighting him so he wouldn't have to feel pain anymore.
Duo just tried to ride out the beating but started helplessly crying halfway through, brokenly begging for Khushrenada to stop and hating himself for every syllable that crossed his lips, as he tried to escape the pain by finally trying to crawl away on his stomach. If he was expecting mercy because of his pleas he didn't get it. Treize finished beating him into a bloody pulp, overjoyed that Duo provided him with his back as another target for his rage. It felt worse to him then the first morning, since he was enraged that Duo dared protest his power over him. When Duo finally stopped trying to crawl away was when Treize snapped out of the rage that he was in. Duo was barely aware of his surroundings by then and was just hoping that he passed out from the pain.
Treize looked down and was outraged that his pet had made him loose control of his temper. He had prided himself on his self-control and this little ragamuffin had made him lose that control constantly. He dropped the blood soaked piece of leather in his hand and stared down at Duo, angry with him still and wanting something more out of him. He vaguely knew that the impulse that he felt was wrong, but he dropped his pants and whipped out his hardened cock. Duo's failing voice hadn't sounded that much different from when he was having sex with him towards the end, making those soft noises that could be caused by anything but Treize knew it was from the ecstasy that he was feeling from his touch. Treize roughly spread Duo's legs, it didn't matter to him that his pet seemed to be on the edge of unconsciousness. He wanted him and he wanted him now! There was enough blood to be used as lubrication and Treize didn't even bother to with stretching Duo, he just thrust into him, wanting to feel his tight heat, not caring as he felt something delicate inside his pet tear and give way under his attack, Duo would heal up and he could break him this way again. In the few minutes that he was using Duo before he lost himself in his climax, Treize realized how Hilde could find a thrill in this kind of sex and he didn't know if he was ashamed or intrigued that he had understood her twisted desires...and he was starting to enjoy them.
After a few minutes of rest, he pulled out of Duo and wasn't surprised to hear a soft whimper from his almost comatose pet as he pulled out of his battered body. His body was just reacting to yet another pain that he inflicted on it, not even understanding what he had just done with him it seemed, all he understood was that it hurt.
"You know I only do this when you anger me." Treize chided him. "If you were a little more agreeable and pleasant about the way things are here, I wouldn't have to punish you. I can't understand what the problem is, wouldn't you like to see your friends and have someone with you during the day?"
Duo moaned, unable to understand anything that Khushrenada was telling him, he just knew that Khushrenada was angry again and to save himself from another beating, he just started apologizing, helplessly sobbing "Sorry, sorry, sorry," over and over again, not caring what he was apologizing for, just hoping that he wasn't hit or fucked again that night. He hurt and thought that the bastard had broken a few ribs during his tantrum and his genitals felt like they had been shredded from the belt blows that had landed on them. He knew that he was torn and bleeding from being fucked, he could feel the blood and semen trickling down his thighs. He hated himself because he begged and cried, since he had learned a long time ago that it never stopped things, just either made them mad or turned them on. With Khushrenada it had done both and he had paid for his weakness with more pain.
Treize frowned at the shattered boy at his feet, had he gone too far this time? Had he ruined all that careful work of making his pet want him in a moment of uncontrolled, but very enjoyable anger? He had managed to wear down Duo's initial stubbornness about his duties in bed by making the boy crave his caresses during sex. The flinches about being touched still happened, but he had been willing to overlook that minor flaw because the boy was coming along in other ways, moaning in his bed and begging for him like he should have been doing in the beginning. Now he might have wasted all that effort, but he thought that he discovered in himself a taste for inflicting pain on a bedmate that could take whatever he punishment he wanted to give him.
It would be entertaining to see him break and heal, again and again. He had thought because he wasn't interested the first time he had done this to Duo, that he didn't have those inclinations. Nevertheless, he had discovered with each beating that he had given his stubborn pet that he was enjoying chastising the boy and molding his responses to him with pain to make him understand that pleasure as well as pain was his to give the boy. Duo had shown him with his attitude that he preferred pain to pleasure with him and he was going to show his stubborn toy how painful it could get for him. He might have gone too far this time, but he also might have cured his pet of any of the bad habits that he had. Treize sighed as a thought tickled the back of his mind, his pet needed to eat because he had to heal himself. He got to his feet and went over to the phone to call down to the kitchen to have someone deliver the food to the room. He was wise enough to know that if the other two saw Duo like this, they would kill him.
He didn't know what was happening to him, but he was started to be obsessed with his new toy. He thought that his feelings of possession and pride about the boy would fade over time, but it was just getting stronger and it annoyed him. He either wanted the boy with him all the time or locked safely away in his rooms, waiting to serve and worship him. He was seriously thinking of having him with him during meetings and other occasions, just so that he could spend more time watching him and touching him. If he behaved himself after this evening he might let his pet out to roam at his side and let Duo finally be shown off as the obedient little pet that he was.
Relena knew that she had been right in her suspicions the way that they looked at her.
"You don't want to know that," Heero said finally. "Just accept that fact that he's gone. He wouldn't want you involved in this."
"I am involved," Relena told him passionately. "You involved me in this when you asked for my help."
"Damn it!" Otto cursed, "That was my doing."
"But they came here for information, if he didn't want to talk to me, why did he come here?" Relena asked in confusion.
Heero snarled softly and gently put a hand on her arm, "He is willing to talk to you in the future, in fact he had made plans for it. He can't now though. This isn't a good time."
"But why?" Relena sniffed. "I... I'm his sister. I love him."
"He doesn't like himself right now." Otto told her. "I haven't helped it either... the things that he told me... give him time Relena. Your brother isn't the same person anymore. It's not physical either. They changed him, but it was what he had to do after those modifications that changed him."
"But... "
"Relena... stop it!" Heero told her harshly. "I wasn't in there with him, but I know what I see when I look at him. Zechs has been pushed to the limit. He spent a year in place that I wouldn't wish on my own worst enemy. He was rescued from that to be treated with suspicion and kept a prisoner, even though we called him a 'guest' because we didn't know if we could trust him and his friends. The first night that he was free, due to a misunderstanding between my lover and Duo, he realized that he had traded one cage for another. It was comfortable and he was treated well, but he couldn't leave there. We didn't know what had been done to any of them. I'm also ashamed to say that my people didn't trust him, not because he had spent time in an OZ prison camp, but because he wasn't 'human' anymore. Its funny, the Sweepers preach about the danger in OZ's camps and how they torture people, but the victims are treated like they are scum by too many of the members of that group, because they are afraid of someone that is different."
"Sally was very nice," Zechs said, standing at in the small hallway that led to the bedrooms.
"Mirialdo!" Relena exclaimed, running into his arms. Zechs caught here easily, hugging her gently before letting her down,
"I didn't want you to know what had happened to me," Zechs told her gently.
"I love you, no matter what," Relena whispered before she started crying helplessly.
Zechs rocked her wordlessly as she cried in his arms. Otto glanced at Heero and made a jerking motion with his head. The two of them needed privacy and he was going to give it to them. He and Heero could go get a cup of coffee or something and just leave them alone.
Wufei walked into the apartment the one night, a few steps ahead of Khushrenada and Duo. He checked the place out for mythical assassins that these OZ fools seem to fear and nodded that it was safe to Trowa, who was guarding their back. He was glad that this was the last night that they were going to be here, they might be able get away from this fool that thought that he owned them, get back the limited privacy that they had at night before this place. He felt ashamed at that thought and guilty, because Duo couldn't get away that easily. Duo had become almost a zombie because of something Khushrenada did to him the first night that they were here on this base. Wufei had thought that it had just been another beating, but from the way that Duo was acting, he wasn't sure now. Duo had healed physically from the incident whatever it had been, but something inside his mind had broken. Duo hadn't said anything to anyone since that happened, Wufei swore. He just could make sure that his friend ate and tried to take care of him, since he wasn't inclined to do anything for himself now, unless he was told to. Duo's spirit had been destroyed and Wufei wondered if Khushrenada realized how badly he had hurt Duo with the last beating he had given him. His friend seemed to be too broken to care what happened to any of them anymore.
Khushrenada ignored their precautions and went to sit down, gesturing for Duo to kneel at his feet. Treize bit back sigh as he sank into the couch, the last staff meeting had been endless, even with minor amusement of Trowa scaring Muller and Alex by glaring at them whenever they tried to touch Duo, even if he hadn't reacted to their actions. Both of his other pets were being very protective of his pleasure toy, more then they usually were for some reason. He was glad that Wufei was taking his assignment to protect him seriously and that he would take his next order just as seriously as he took this one.
"Dragon, you and Trowa will amuse me by having sex in front of myself and Duo." Treize stated as if he was telling Wufei the time of day.
Wufei stared at Khushrenada in horror and disbelief. "You want us to what?" he asked in a strangled tone.
He wasn't even going to point out to the older man that they both had lovers and were not physically interested in one another. He knew from past experience that this man listened only to what he wanted to hear and that was not something that he was interested in hearing. In fact, Wufei expected that he thought their response would be a murmured, respectful, 'Yes Master,' and they would get on with providing the show that he wanted.
"I want you and Trowa to show Duo the finer points of lovemaking while he watches you. My little pet has been listless lately, something like that might perk him right up. Or at least show him something that might please me." Treize purred at him, while he was casually playing with Duo's hair. What was Wufei's problem? Duo had told him before that Wufei had performed in front of other people, what was his problem with such a simple request, since there were only the two of then instead of a crowd.
Trowa stared back silently, not wanting to argue with the crazed fool that had them as his prisoners. He looked down at Duo, still kneeling at Khushrenada's feet, looking back at the two of them apprehensively before dropping his eyes submissively when he noticed that they were looking at him. Trowa bit back the snarl that he wanted to make because Duo would think that it was his fault that he was angry. Did Khushrenada e know how hurt Duo was? The child seemed to just be running on automatic more then anything else now. Duo had reacted to his attention with submission, afraid that he would hurt him, so it was no wonder he wasn't perky for the idiot. Duo was either frightened of everyone most of the time and indifferent to what they wanted to do to him the rest of it, when he seemed to have enough energy to care.
Trowa knew what the problem was, Duo had divorced his mind from his body and his body was the only thing that was responding to Khushrenada. They heard him with Khushrenada at night, it was hard not to in this small apartment with their improved hearing. Both of them heard the soft sounds of pleasure that he made as Khushrenada used him. He and Wufei had been surprised and upset the first night that they had heard it, but not as disturbed as they had been the morning after when Duo had walked out of that bedroom. His eyes were dull and he had refused to look at them. Trowa had thought it was because he had been so ashamed that they had heard what had happened the night before.
He had gone to check to see if Duo was all right and was surprised and worried when he didn't flinch when Trowa touched him, but he just had looked at him with a faint expression of curiosity on his face as if he was trying to place where he should know him from or if he really knew Trowa or actually cared to know him, before dropping his eyes, being subservient to him for some reason. He hadn't gotten any better since that first morning. It shouldn't have been any shock that Duo's body had at last given into what Khushrenada was doing to it, not with his mind shut down the way that it had.
Trowa didn't blame Duo for enjoying the simple pleasure of sex; however he had just hoped that it hadn't been with their captor when he discovered that sex was something to be enjoyed. He had hoped that Quatre might be the one that healed his wounds in that area. That it had been with the man that had wavered between treating Duo like a prized possession or a punching bag and that was disgusting to him. Trowa didn't understand much of human behavior, but finding out one of the body's greatest pleasure from someone that you hated and feared, would break anyone, so he thought understood why Duo had become the way that he had. Trowa would have killed Khushrenada a long time ago if he only knew that he could get the three of them out of there after he had done that. Trowa didn't know if he was thankful or disappointed that he and Wufei hadn't been ordered to have them make love with Duo, knowing that his friends cared might bring the slight boy's spirit back to his body.
Wufei had had to do this too much in the past to be shocked at Khushrenada's order, but he glanced over at Trowa to see his reaction. He didn't know if he was relieved or dismayed that Trowa's expression hadn't changed one muscle.
Trowa stared stonily at Duo and Khushrenada. "That is not going to help him," he pointed out in an overly calm voice.
"But it will entertain me," Treize replied with an oily smirk, "and my needs are the only ones that matter now. Not yours. Not my Dragon's and not pleasure pet's. So entertain me or I will ask Noin to bring over her two attack dogs and see what they can do with Duo. I've been told that they were very impressed with his healing factor, maybe they can show me something that I haven't seen before with him."
Trowa looked at Khushrenada in disgust and then leaned over to kiss a very surprised Wufei on the lips.
Duo tackled the two of them, trying to knock them apart.
"You promised!" he cried. "You said they never had to... that's what I'm here for... that's all I'm good for."
Wufei caught Duo mid-tackle and was worried about how light he felt. "Shh... " he reassured him as he stumbled back for a couple steps before he managed to fall, cushioning Duo with his body.
Wufei slowly rubbed his back, hoping that this would be a comfort to him. Duo had gotten a lot better about being touched by either Trowa or him in their captivity with this fool. It might have had something to do with the fact that he knew that he didn't have to have worry about them hurting him or it could be something that had happened when he had gotten that last, vicious beating from Khushrenada. He knew that Duo hadn't managed to bounce back from that beating, not like the first morning when that bastard had beaten him. Neither one of them had to have to smelled the blood in the room or see the dirty dishes the next morning to know what had happened the night before, that Khushrenada had beaten Duo so badly that he had needed to eat to heal.
Khushrenada thought that he had been hiding from them the abuse that he had been giving Duo, but there was always the faint smell of blood and sex in whatever apartment Duo had been imprisoned in, so he and Trowa always knew what had been happening, they just couldn't stop it. They should have though. He had failed to protect Duo again and he was on the edge of collapse because of that.
Gods, what had happened to his friend that he was this bad? He knew that Duo hadn't been himself, but it was worse then he thought. When they had been in the labs together, Duo had had his quiet spells with the bouts of depression that they all suffered, but this was far worse then anything that he thought was happening with Duo. What had happened to him so that he thought that he was only good for sex, since he hated any thought of intimate contact?
"If you recall the conversation, I said no such thing. What the three of you don't realize is that I own you. Like any animal that I pick up, like my shoes or my furniture." Treize told him coolly.
"I've seen total strangers that care more about a stray dog then you do with Duo." Wufei hissed at him. Duo was shivering in his arms and he couldn't figure out if it was because he was cold or frightened.
"He is mine to caress or beat." Treize informed Wufei coolly, annoyed that his creations were arguing with him. They had no right to argue with their God. He had had them created and they would all obey him, especially his little houri. "You were all made for me, to do with what I please. If it pleases me to hit that little toy I can. It's not like he doesn't heal and is as good as new in a few minutes. You all can be treated the same way, be thankful that I have him for a whipping boy and you aren't in my bed at night too. If I wanted you all that way, I will have you."
He was trying to control the anger that someone else was touching his pet. Duo was his and no one else would touch him like that even if the little slut had thrown himself into that freak's arms willingly, something that he never did with him.
Wufei ignored Khushrenada's ravings and rocked Duo back and forth in his arms, hoping that he would calm down, "... didi... didi... 1" he murmured.
"What the hell are you telling him?" Treize snarled. Hadn't they learned their lesson in the beginning that they were never to speak that vulgar language around him! He raised his arm an took a step forward, wanting to rip Duo out of Wufei's arms and beat him senseless for thinking that he could allow someone else to touch him and soothe him like that. Duo was his toy and he was the only one that could touch him, no matter what he had said earlier about those two mutts of Noin's.
"He's trying to comfort him and calm him down." Trowa told him dryly, moving into stop him. He was confused about the sudden and irrational jealousy that Khushrenada was showing. What the hell was wrong with the man? In the beginning he would have been either amused or angered at Wufei's comforting Duo. He wouldn't be jealous. So what had changed since then?
Treize glared up at the wild freak that was standing between him and his pet. "Get out of my way!"
"Just let Wufei help him calm down." Trowa replied calmly, astonished at the fury that he was seeing in Khushrenada's eyes. This was not the jaded aristocrat that had he had to deal with in the beginning. He had only seen someone like this before, when he finally understood the obsession that his parents had had about making him better and faster, making him into what they wanted him to be grow in them as the made more and more modifications to his body. They usually had that same look in their eyes when they talked about the things that they wanted to do to him,
"Duo is my pet, not his and not yours!" Treize snarled at him, eyes wild. He tried to shove Trowa out of the way and was astonished when his blow was blocked. He had forgotten how strong and how fast the freak was!
"Calm down." Trowa told him calmly, ignoring the urge that he had to rip out Khushrenada's throat because he called Duo a pet. "I really don't want to have to do something that we will both regret. Just let Duo and Wufei have sometime together."
"If you don't get out of my way, all three of you will be punished!" Treize screamed at him.
"If you don't calm down and get out of this room, I will be forced to carry you out of here, for your own safety. If you do anything to hurt Duo again I will kill you." Trowa told him coolly.
"I own you! I own all of you! You are my property and can do whatever I want with any of you!"
"I think that you should get out of here until you are able to act reasonably." Trowa repeated calmly.
"He's asleep." Wufei told them softly. "Let him alone for tonight, just let him sleep." #Pressure points are such wonderful things. I pressed the right one on Duo and he passed out. Hopefully he'll calm down and we can work something out with Khushrenada. Duo isn't going to be able to survive unless the bastard leaves him alone for a couple of days.#
"So you two can fuck him!" Treize screamed irrationally, "He's mine and only mine. Keep your hands off of him!"
"He needs a night of rest, a night where you aren't hurting him." Wufei told him. "And unlike you, I don't have a taste for children. Just let him sleep. If you don't I will not be responsible for what happens."
"Are you threatening me?" Treize snarled.
"If you push Duo too far... if you hurt him again... " Wufei told Treize, "Neither one of us will protect you from him. He's reached his breaking point. The only question is whether he will hurt you or himself." #I hoping that it will be you, but I don't know if we could cover it up if that happens. I know that we can't escape, but I am afraid that whoever claims us next will be worse. That fear has been the only thing that is keeping you alive, but I no longer care about that. Not seeing Duo break down like this,#
"No matter what he does, we won't stop him. We no longer care about the consequences, what will happen to us. We should have stopped what you were doing to him a long time ago." Trowa explained to their captor. He just wanted him out of the room so that he could ask Wufei about what he had observed. He maybe wrong in his conclusions, since he hadn't had a lot of experience with humans, but there was something wrong with Khushrenada.
Treize looked at his attack dogs. He had expected the wild one to be difficult, but Wufei's defiance astonished him. He was going to pay for it. He had wondered what his Dragon would be like writhing underneath him and now he was going to find out. He had calmed down when he realized that neither one of them wanted to play with is pretty pet. He wasn't going to let Duo stay out of his arms for more then a night though. He wanted him no matter what! Duo was meant for him and him alone!
"Since you won't let me have Duo tonight, you can take his place in my bed," Treize told Wufei.
Wufei bit back the sigh of relief that he wanted to make. He could endure Khushrenada for a night or two if that meant that the man was not hurting Duo. He had been afraid that the idiot was going to demand that Trowa warm his bed, instead. He had been raped before and he could endure the pain that Khushrenada seemed to enjoy inflicting on his partner. Trowa would rip his throat out without a second thought. He had neither the inclination nor the ability to submit to another man. Wufei had seen the way that Trowa had treated Heero. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Trowa was the seme in their relationship and he was not going to play bottom for this fool.
Trowa stared at the two of them; astonished that Wufei wasn't protesting this outrageous demand. He kept his mouth shut when he saw the look in Wufei's eyes. He was willing endure that idiot if it saved Duo from suffering in his bed for the night, then he shouldn't protest it. He knew that he was lucky that Khushrenada hadn't chosen him to play with that night.
"Just keep him covered and warm. He should sleep though the rest of the night. He's pretty run down." Wufei told Trowa as he stood up and handed Duo to Trowa.
Treize just stared at his Dragon. He had expected a heated protest from him. Maybe he didn't have the passion that he was looking for. While he was a little too old for his tastes, the smoothness of his scales and lack of bodily hair would give him the illusion of youth that he liked. If he enjoyed him, he was going to have both his Dragon and his little houri play with him in bed.
Wufei crawled out of Khushrenada's be the next morning, tired and sticky. He wasn't surprised that the man had spent most of the night fucking him. He refused to think of it as anything else. Love, except for the love that he had Duo to spare him one night of torment never entered the equation, so it wasn't love making. Sex would imply that he has been a willing and active partner. Khushrenada just wanted someone to play with and he had willingly supplied his body for that activity. Khushrenada just wanted to watch his responses to how and where had touched him. He had explored his body for the pleasure of seeing him beg again and again for relief from the passion that he had kindled in him with those touches. Wufei could understand how Duo had succumbed to Khushrenada's touch and why he was so upset that he was enjoying the touch of his captor. Duo had never had a chance to resist him really, because after years of rape and abuse, he finally had a rapist that had finally bothered to make sure that Duo was enjoying someone using him. Khushrenada had the patience and experience to make sure that Duo gave into him in the end, no matter how unwilling he was at first. Wufei briefly thought of killing the drowsing General and wasn't surprised to see Khushrenada's eyes open as he idly debated the notion.
"Leaving so soon?" Treize purred. Watching Wufei writhe and beg had been wonderful. All the passion that was hidden under that cool surface had come out. He had been wrong to think that there had been no fire in him because he went willingly to his bed.
"You have a meeting in two hours and Trowa has breakfast waiting for us out in the other room." Wufei told him calmly. "I would think that you would want a hot breakfast and to clean up before starting that meeting."
Treize frowned, his Dragon-pet was back to being cool again and that annoyed him. "And for no other reason?" he asked him.
Wufei shrugged, "You used me and I enjoyed it. If you were expecting hysterics or declarations of undying love because of last night, you are mistaken. It was something that just happened."
"So cool. Will you be this indifferent if I have you in my bed again tonight?" Treize asked slyly.
"Probably not," Wufei admitted. Explaining what happened to Zechs when he was free was when he could afford to have hysterics, because right now he didn't have the luxury of falling to pieces. Now he had to keep the bastard interested enough in him so the he might forget about Duo for a little while. He doubted it though, since Khushrenada kept calling him Duo throughout the night.
"You and my houri will be so fun to play with for the next couple of days." Treize gloated. He was rewarded with anger that flared in his Dragon's eyes at that announcement. He had thought that he could take Duo's place in his bed did he? Not a chance, not while there was an ounce of life in that lithe little pet. He was just going to have the both of them for a while, until he tired of his Dragon and then broke in the wild one. Duo was never going to leave his bed.
"Just me... Duo... "
"... is my pleasure pet and he will not shrink his duties!" Treize snarled. "As amusing and as fuckable as you are, you're nothing next to my perfect pet. Don't ever think that you can separate the two of us. He is mine, all mine and there is nothing that you can do about that!"
Wufei stared at Khushrenada, disturbed by the note of hysteria that he was hearing in his voice. He had been like that last night, irrationally possessive about Duo, because he thought that he and Trowa wanted Duo for themselves. He hadn't calmed down until he had been with him for a couple of hours and thought that he had 'punished' him enough for his interest in Duo.
"Duo hasn't recovered from the beating that you gave him the first night we were here." Wufei said. "Physically he has recovered, but mentally he's still hurt. Unless you want to have him turn on you or find him dead one evening, just leave him alone for a little while."
"How did you know about that?" Treize asked curiously. He had been so careful about not letting the others know about those thrashings, so that he could keep Duo in line. After the last beating he didn't need to discipline his pet because he had learned to behave for him.
"Dirty dishes and the very familiar smell of Duo's blood in your quarters," Wufei said bitterly, "You've never stopped hitting Duo, but we never stopped you doing it either, so we're both to blame for what's happening to him."
"He had to learn to behave, both in bed and out of it, so I hit him to teach him that. I hit him now because I enjoy it." Treize replied smoothly.
Wufei involuntarily stepped towards Khushrenada, clenching his hands into fists.
"Hurt me and both Duo and Trowa suffer. I know the Trowa isn't going to want to play but he will to protect Duo, out of some outrageous thought that he is protecting him. Trowa's going to be fun to break in, so don't make me start that process tonight." Treize warned him.
Wufei swallowed his anger and relaxed. He would keep Trowa out of this bastard's bed as long as possible. One of them should get out of here untouched by him.
"Good Dragon," Treize praised him. Wufei had always struck him as a sensible man and he would stay in line to protect the other two.
Wufei turned and walked out of the room, not even bothering to get dressed. Trowa had known what was happening in here, so he had nothing to hide. Duo would find out soon enough, because Khushrenada would tell him just to hurt him. He walked out and wasn't surprised to see that Duo was awake and kneeling beside the table, waiting docilely for Khushrenada to come to breakfast. He glanced quickly at Trowa, who was standing at the door, asking silently how much Duo had heard. Trowa shifted and shook his head. Duo still hadn't figured out what he had been doing, Wufei was grateful that he had slept through most of it. He must have known that something had happened when he woke up out here and not in that bastard's bed.
"Good morning Duo," Wufei said gently as he moved to crouch beside him.
Duo looked up at him and his eyes widened in horror. Wufei knew that he was a mess, covered with sweat and semen. This was probably Duo's worst nightmare, that one of them had been with Khushrenada because he has failed to please the man and protect them from him.
"It wasn't unpleasant," Wufei told him before he could say anything. "Though I do think that the sheets are ruined, Khushrenada forgot about my talons until I shredded them. I think that the mattress survived the experience, but it was a near thing." He had to make light of this so that Duo wouldn't feel guilty and undo all the rest that he had gotten the night before.
"You shouldn't have. What about... " Duo whispered, falling silent when he heard the bedroom door opening again.
"My Dragon spoiled my surprise for you," Khushrenada sighed with false sadness, moving over to the table and sitting down.
Duo stood up and silently started to serve him breakfast. Khushrenada motioned for him to kneel down again and fed him by hand, like he was his favorite dog. Duo chewed and swallowed automatically, not caring about how or what he was being fed. Trowa ate after Treize was finished and Wufei swallowed a few pieces of toast then, his stomach was too upset to eat much more. He slept walked through most of the rest of the day, not really paying attention too much more then Duo. He was thankful that Duo was his usual indifferent self for that rest of the day. He didn't want to have to deal with an upset Duo until they were alone with that idiot.
Treize gloated for most of the day, thinking about all the wonderful things that could do with his little pet and his dragon. Wufei had been so much fun last night, but he was nothing next to his little houri. Une had chosen correctly for him, even if he would never tell the woman that.
Duo stared lifelessly at the floor while he waited for Treize to do him. He vaguely remembered something about Wufei was supposed to be with them for the night, so he wasn't surprised that Wufei joined him kneeling in the bedroom, just deeply ashamed. He hadn't been good enough again to protect him from this. Wufei had Zechs and he shouldn't be doing this with Khushrenada. He was surprised that feel Wufei put his arms around him and hug him gently. He leaned into the hug for a moment before jerking away. It felt too good to be real. Wufei should be angry with him for letting this happen to him again. He hadn't been a good enough whore to protect him from Khushrenada and Wufei had to be with him too. It was all his fault and he shouldn't be nice to him because he was just a cheap, useless thing that couldn't even keep him safe from their owner.
"You shouldn't... " he whispered brokenly.
"If it saves you... I owe you. I know that you threw our first fight. I was too green to win. You let mewin so that I wouldn't be given to Alex and Muller." Wufei told him gently. # I'm not angry with you... Zechs would never be angry because I let myself be used to save you some pain. It's just my body... for the longest time we both have been used, so it doesn't matter to either one of us. I'm more worried about what this is doing to you. It's supposed to be punishment for me, not you.#
"I wanted to die then," Duo whispered, "I wish that I had."
Treize broke in on their conversation nastily, angry that Duo and Wufei were so close. "You know that I don't like it when you touch my Duo, my precious little one."
Duo cringed at the sound of Khushrenada's voice and Wufei fought to keep his hands clenched at his side. Kushrenada wouldn't even allow Duo the simple comfort of being held of being held by someone that loved him.
"I know that the two of you will keep me very entertained for the next few days. You know that I have nothing on my schedule at all. I even made sure that any problems that arise in the meantime would be taken care of by my faithful Une," Treize told them with glee.
Wufei bit back a snarl and glanced over at Duo. He wasn't surprised to see that he was gazing dully at the floor again, not caring one bit about whatever Khushrenada had planned. Duo had retreated to someplace else in his mind, just so that he didn't have to endure the horror of seeing one of his friends being treated like a prized whore, like Khushrenada seemed to think that they all were for him.
End Part 4
I'm not too happy with this and I poked at it for a long time before posting it. Just warning you all that I have no idea what I am going to be working on next, depends on what I'm in the mood for and what I have time for.
1 little brother, Chinese from Dictionary of Spoken Chinese Yale Press 1966.
Christine
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