Alone

A/N: Wellllll... not that much more to go! Thanks
for all the nice nice reviews! Hope you
guys like this chapter!

Words in = ... = are words sent in code :)


Osborne came back to awareness slowly. For
several moments he was confused - he sat upright
but couldn't move, his jaw felt heavy and numb,
and he couldn't seem to focus his eyes. After the
initial confusion he realized he was strapped into
a chair in the big conference room, angry
voices all around him. He blinked rapidly until
his vision cleared, and saw the five teenagers
sitting around the table. Lady Une and Doctor Po
were there, and a furious-looking Major Hernbeck
was in one seat with two armed guards behind him.
Agent Burks sat quietly at the far end of the
table, staring intently at something. Osborne
swung his head around - it felt twice
as big as usual and as heavy as a bowling
ball - to see that his eyes were firmly fixed
on Agent Chang.

The Chinese boy had his cool, arrogant mask firmly
in place but his high cheekbones were flushed.
Osborne's ears were ringing too hard to understand
the words that were flying hot and hard around
the room. He didn't feel up to trying, either
- he let himself slide back into darkness.

Wufei would have loved to join him. This had to
be the most embarrassing meeting he'd ever been
in. Hernbeck was bringing up example after example
of Wufei's so-called insubordination and
carelessness. Then Une or one of his friends
would reply, their voices hot or cool as their
personalities dictated, taking up for him.
Hernbeck's furious voice would outline a mission
he had personally planned and list *exactly* what
Wufei had done ‘wrong,' only to be shot down by
the reasons why Wufei's actions were exactly right.

The Major was now down to disparaging remarks about
antisocial behavior and alienating other
Agents. Une calmly replied that she ‘wasn't
hosting a kegger.' Wufei wanted to crawl under
the table and pull the chair in after him - but
that remark made him snicker. It made Duo laugh
out loud, and Heero grinned at his lover. Then
he caught Wufei's gaze and closed one eye in a
slow wink. That surprised the Chinese boy so
much that he forgot to be embarrassed.

At least, he did until Hernbeck finally roared,
"And he's *gay*! On top of everything else, he's
a *fag*!"

Wufei turned white, the pencil he'd been tapping
idly against the table dropping from frozen
fingers.

~How...?~

He had sudden wild visions of surveillance equipment
and cameras set up in his bedroom last
night - ridiculous, but how else would Hernbeck
know...?

"Yeah, you little shit." Hernbeck was sneering
at his astonished face. "Thought you were
keeping it all a secret, didn't you? Why do you
think I had you take those extra psychological
reviews? I *knew* you were hiding something, I
just never thought it was something so
*disgusting!* I..."

"Enough!" Une said sharply, staring at Wufei and
wondering why on earth he suddenly looked so
relieved? Hernbeck subsided and she turned her
cold eyes on him. "As Commanding Officer of
this sector you should know the Preventers' stand
on sexual preferences. You should be able to
*quote* it." She raised an eyebrow and waited.
Hernbeck set his lips stubbornly and stared
back. Une looked amused and turned to Sally
instead.

"Doctor? Perhaps you'd care to... enlighten...
the Major? Oh!" She stopped as if remembering
something. "I meant *former* Major, of course!
Enlighten *Mister* Hernbeck."

~Not even ‘Agent.'~

That thought went through every other head there
- except Osborne's, of course - and most of the
faces grinned. It was as good as an official
announcement that the man was out of the
Preventers. The Maj... Hernbeck glared at the
smug faces with impotent fury. ‘How *dare*
they...?'

"Sally?" Une's gentle prompt wiped the smile
from the Doctor's face - she was abruptly all
business.

"Right. Preventers Official Guideline #17-A:
‘Sexual preference of Agents shall not be inquired
if unknown nor discussed if known, and shall
have no bearing upon mission planning, performance
ratings, rank promotions or any other aspect
of Preventer practices, save that spouses or
partners shall not be teamed without express
permission from their Commanding Officer." She
stopped and gave the former Major a sweet smile.

The man deflated like a leaking balloon.

"So," Une said briskly, "that brings us up to
four prosecutable offenses - attempted murder,
conspiracy to commit murder, forgery and
falsifying documents - and at least nine
violations of Preventer Guidelines. Each
one of those is subject to internal prosecution,
and carry sentences that mean a nice long time
in the Stockade. I think that - yes, Quatre?"

The blond slid a folder across the table to her.
Wufei realized which one it was and winced.

"I think you might find a few more violations in
there." Quatre told her calmly, ignoring the
surprised looks from his friends. He hadn't had
a chance to tell them about Wufei's finances.
Well, they'd learn soon enough.

Lady Une opened the folder, her eyes bright with
curiosity. She turned over a few papers,
looking puzzled, then realized what she was
looking at.

"Wufei!" She said, her tone reproachful. He
flushed slightly and turned his eyes away, glaring
at the wall. Sally and the other pilots had to
sit on their curiosity while she went through
each bit of paper, making notes on a pad. Finally
she sat back, studying the figures she'd
written down, and pushed the folder over to Sally.

Trowa was sitting next to the doctor, and gazed
over her shoulder as she went through the
contents. Soon enough they were wearing matching
scowls, glaring at Hernbeck.

"This is just *mean*," Sally finally said, handing
the folder to Duo, who looked like he was
going to explode if he didn't find out what was
going on. Trowa nodded, agreeing with Sally,
his visible eye dark with anger. Hernbeck had
tried to ruin Wufei's life, run down his body,
break his spirit - that he'd added ruining his
finances was just insult on injury. It almost
made him angrier than the rest of it.

Heero and Duo went through the folder together,
with mixed reactions. They were both furious
that this had happened - but managed to
communicate to each other that this meant ‘Fei
probably had very little money saved. Which
in turn meant he was going to need a place to
stay when they got back to Earth. Which meant
it was going to be that much easier to get him
into their apartment.

"Where he belongs." Duo muttered under his
breath.


*


They were out in the hall a few minutes later,
discussing events in low voices while Une quietly
lectured Wufei. The Head of Internal Affairs
had taken over inside the conference room, smiling
with a certain grim anticipation at the deflated
former Major. That had been the last thing
they'd seen as an aide closed the door.

It was a memory they'd treasure.

Sally and Quatre had gone back to searching
through Wufei's financial folder, adding up
the total of the compensation check that
everyone knew Une would be ordering . Trowa
was listening, occasionally reminding them
of various bonuses they had forgotten. Duo
and Heero were watching Wufei, amused that he
was able to hang on to his arrogant mask
although he was looking anywhere
except at Une.

They all looked up, curious, when Hernbeck's
little wide-eyed secretary came hurrying down the
hall to hand Une a folded paper. She didn't
wait for a response, just scurried away like she
expected them to pounce. Une rolled her eyes
and opened the note. Her amused expression quickly
faded to her normal cool business-like one.
She turned to her watching Agents.

"Apparently all the leaks aren't plugged yet
- the Mercenaries have found out something is
going on - they're packing up to move."

"Well," Duo smiled, "we can't have that, can
we?"

"Not at *all*," Quatre agreed.

Heero, Wufei and Trowa just grinned.

"Wufei..." Sally started, and he leveled a
glare at her. "...be careful?" she tried,
smiling, and he smirked at her in return.
Her smile became a grin. Wufei was tough,
he'd be all right. They needed his knowledge
of the area. It was the mercs she ought to
be concerned about.

~As if!~


*


Wufei was once again crouched on a tree branch,
sharp eyes watching a group of men gathered below
him. Circumstances were a little different this
time - he was well-fed, well-rested. His body
was relatively pain free. The men milling below
were the ones with the worry and stress.

Best of all, the four most important people in
his life - the only people he would trust *with*
his life - were hidden in strategic spots around
the clearing, ready to back him up.

He didn't think he'd ever quite appreciated
security so much.

Dark eyes went back to their study as Wufei
shook himself from any thoughts that weren't
mission related. He had a job to do and he
was going to do it. He knew these men - had
learned over the weeks of his last mission
which ones were dangerous and which could
be safely ignored. Or at least not worried
about - ignored wasn't the right word. Even
fools could be dangerous under the right
circumstances.

His fingers went to the small device on his
left wrist, touching it in a pre-determined
rhythm. An invention of Heero's, it looked
like an ordinary watch, but the small flat
button on the side actually transmitted the
gentle taps he was making to other devices
on his friends' wrists, causing them to vibrate.
They only worked for short distances, but were
invaluable in a situation like this. He
sent his partners the information they were
going to need, letting them know who were the
most dangerous targets.

Boss Man wasn't there, but they hadn't really
expected him. Any hint of trouble would send
the man scrambling for cover, leaving his
employees to face any danger or clean up any
messes. All they could really hope for was
that someone would be willing to make a deal
- and give them Boss Man's name.

If that didn't happen, they would have to rely
on publishing Wufei's sketch. Although he knew
he was a fair artist - his friends claimed he
was more than fair, but he knew that was only
praise - he had only seen the man in the
flickering light of gas lanterns and campfires.
Not to mention that he'd been above him, looking
down. The likelihood of someone recognizing the
sketch was slim.

‘Slim to *none*,' he thought, a smirk twisting
his lips. It just made it that much more
important that his operation succeed. They
couldn't allow the man to start this up somewhere
else. Even with someone less inept than Major
Hernbeck to combat them, they could cause untold
damage before they were stopped.

He finished transmitting the information the
other pilots would need and got ready for his
own part of the plan. These were the most
dangerous of the mercenaries, a fact Duo had
found amusing, if the words he was sending now
were any judge. He cited the men on the trail,
hunting for Wufei, as his example. Wufei
smirked again, remembering the loudmouthed
pair of searchers, and sent back a quick line
of code.

= Not all of them are fools. They send the
morons to do the least important work. =

= Patrolling isn't important? =

= It wasn't considered important in those areas.
Why do you think that's where I set up base? =

= Smart, Wu-man. =

Wufei rolled his eyes, sighing. Only Duo would
manage to send a nickname through code.

His eyes flew back to the camp below as men
began to get to their feet. Apparently the
impromptu evening meeting was over - time to
move. He gathered himself carefully, waiting
for the signal. Heero was technically the
leader of this mission, although the others
knew they would be on their own once the
action started. Wufei kept his eyes fixed
on his target, a tall, broad man he was
certain was second-in-command of the entire
group. He spared only enough attention to be
sure of where the other targets were going,
watching them in his peripheral vision. He
trusted the others' abilities, but it was
always best to know where your enemies were.

The device on his wrist vibrated, mayhem
broke out in the clearing, and he launched
himself at his target, landing feet-first
against the man's chest and knocking him
over backwards. A single blow to his neck
and the man was unconscious. Wufei never
really stopped moving, rolling over
to get back on his feet, holding a defensive
pose as onyx eyes searched for a secondary
target. He saw some lower-level mercs heading
for Quatre, apparently considering the small
blond an easy target, and flung himself after
them.

He knew Quatre probably wouldn't need the help,
but there were four of them and most of the
action elsewhere was already over. He saw
Preventer uniforms moving into the area even
now. He reached the men just as they reached
Quatre, and took one out with a quick kick to
the back of the head. Two of the others turned
sharply, while the fourth kept going for Quatre.
Wufei didn't worry about him. He saw one of his
opponents pull out a gun and moved quickly to
disarm him. The second man clawed for his own
weapon, and Wufei turned nimbly, placing the man's
partner between himself and the gun.

Too bad the other man was desperate.

He shot his partner without hesitation, and turned
the gun back to Wufei. The Chinese boy didn't
hesitate either - he jumped for the man, turning
in midair and slamming his foot against his
temple while the gun discharged harmlessly into
the empty space where he'd been standing. The
merc lost his hold on the gun as he was knocked
flat on his back. Wufei landed in a crouch, one
hand going for a split second to press against
his injured rib even as he had his own gun
covering the fallen merc. The rest of the
clearing was already under Preventer control
- it was only a moment before an Agent he
didn't know was cuffing the man. Quatre came
to stand beside him, his own opponent out cold.

"Are you all right?" he asked, pitching his
voice low.

"Yes."

"Wufei... I saw you holding your rib."

"Just jarred it a little. That's all."

"All right." Quatre said slowly, but Wufei
noticed that he kept his eyes on him, even
when Duo came over and flung an arm around
his shoulders.

"You still fly around like Superman, Wu."
he said, laughing.

"I thought Heero was Superman." Wufei replied
dryly, watching as Agents led the mercs from the
clearing.

"Yeah," Duo grinned, "I guess I should call
you Spiderman. You sure can climb trees now
- can you go up walls, too?" His tone was the
light teasing Wufei remembered from the war
- he was surprised to find that he had missed
hearing it. It gave him an odd sense of
happiness, although he replied with his usual
curt tones.

"Exercise your observation skills and find out."

Duo laughed and leaned closer, pitching his
voice low. "Aw, c'mon, ‘Fei... you ought to
tell me some of your secrets now... I mean,
after last night..."

Wufei turned dark red and glared at him.

Duo laughed again and ran for his life.

*

They chose to stay and help with cleanup
operations, moving through the cold night
of the jungle sweeping for mercs that might
have escaped the planned strikes. At the
same time that the pilots and their backup
had hit the clearing where the leaders met,
other teams had descended on supply
points and the dorms the mercs thought were
so well hidden; Wufei had found them all
during his mission, so they weren't coming
across many stragglers.

"Boooooring..." Duo whispered, standing beside
Wufei as they checked yet another empty hidey-hole.
Wufei only rolled his eyes. The other boy hadn't
left his side since they'd left the first
clearing. Wufei suspected he and Heero had
agreed on this before the mission even started.
As team leader, Heero was required to help bring
the prisoners back to base, and they were only
now receiving messages from him again, meaning
he was back to help with the search.

"I don't think we're gonna find anybody, Wu."
Duo complained, still pitching his voice low.
Just because there didn't seem to be anyone
hiding around them didn't mean there actually
wasn't. Better safe than sorry, and Duo knew
it.

He had no intention of endangering his own
life - or Wufei's.

‘Nope - got *way* too many plans to risk that...'
he thought, a wicked hentai grin spreading
across his face. Wufei turned to ask him a
question, saw that look, and started backing away.
He remembered that grin from last night.

"Duo..."

"Why, ‘Fei-fei... where ya goin'?" Duo asked,
slinking after him as his grin got broader.

"Now's not the time, Duo." Wufei didn't stop
his retreat.

"Not the time for what, ‘Fei?"

Wufei opened his mouth to answer and they both
froze, then dropped to the ground. They'd heard
something move in the jungle outside the tiny
clearing they were in - someone was coming, trying
and failing to muffle their footsteps. The
two Preventers ghosted their way along the ground
and into the undergrowth, waiting.

A moment later, two large men came stumbling
into the clearing, their clothing in disarray
and their eyes wild. Wufei felt Duo go still
beside him and shot him a curious look. Almost
immediately the device on his wrist started
receiving code.

= We are *definitely* taking these two out! =

= Why? =

= You don't recognize them? =

= They're just some patrol guards. =

= Who are they? =

The last question was from a new sender - they
easily recognized Heero's signal.

= Can you see their faces? = Duo asked him.

= No - my position is on the other side of the
clearing. =

= They're the ones from the path - when we were
first here. =

Wufei's ‘watch' received the code for ‘use all
necessary force', and his eyebrows shot up his
forehead. Apparently Heero knew exactly what
that meant, and it made him as angry as it was
making Duo. He shook his head slightly, confused,
but sure that if his friends... lovers...
*friends* were this upset, it would be for good
reason. He sent back an ‘affirmative' a split
second after Duo did.

= Get ready to move. = The order came from Heero
as the two men, groaning and complaining and
barely remembering to keep their voices low - or
what they seemed to consider low - sat down and
began unlacing their boots. Wufei shook his head
sadly - only idiots would be removing their
footwear when they might have to run at any second.
No matter what else they might have done,
stupidity would be a good enough reason to take
them out.

The device vibrated for the second time that
evening in a signal to attack, and Duo and Wufei
both launched themselves at the men in the
clearing. Heero came diving out of the undergrowth
at the same time. The mercs only stared
- wide-eyed and slack-jawed - and were on
their faces with hands cuffed behind their backs
in seconds.

"So," Wufei said, watching the mercs with one
eyebrow raised at the others, "why were you so
determined to take care of these two?"

Heero and Duo exchanged glances, and Heero
shrugged.

"Because," Duo muttered, glaring at the bound
men, "they were also the ones who went by the
tree when we were at the river."

Wufei gazed at him blankly.

"Do you remember what they were discussing?"
Heero asked calmly, never taking his own eyes off
the men.

"Huh? Oh!" Wufei abruptly turned red, then
faintly green as he as he looked at the two
cowering men. One was just terrified, but the
other, although he was obviously frightened,
was gazing at him in a way that made his skin
crawl.

"Recognize you..." he muttered, his eyes narrow.
"Little brat's been wreaking our equipment,
ruining our supplies..." His eyes flicked
over the Preventer's uniform and narrowed.
"Wished I'd really caught you now!" he spat.
"Dirty rotten *cop*! Always messin' up
business. Woulda done you so hard you wouldn't
uv walked straight for a month! Woulda
shoved it so far..."

"I would advise you to stop speaking."
Heero said coldly, his blue eyes shining
with controlled rage.

The man subsided, though he continued to
mutter under his breath. Duo turned away,
fishing out his communicator to call the
capture in. Heero walked over to stand
beside Wufei, who was glaring at the man
with raw anger in his dark eyes. He was
still a little green. Heero put
an arm around the small waist and those
bottomless black eyes turned up to him.
He didn't speak - he let his eyes do his
reassuring for him. Wufei huffed and
looked away from the men, watching Duo
as he chattered over the radio - but
Heero felt him lean into the touch.

Just a little.

He smiled.