Unity

Author's Note: Hey everbody sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but I had to wait until my angsty muse coperated with me. Demmonial (Dem for short) was being mean and wouldn't help so I had no muse for the next chapter and I'm still not sure about it. Well next chapter should be better... I hope.

Warnings: Adult Language.

Chapter Three
Pause Before the Battle


I stared at him from across the confrence room as Une drilled him for the upteenth time. Duo only gave the same answer again and again, Wufei left and all he had said was "I'm going Home bye" on the answering machien. Une was not pleased at all, Wufei had done the same thing as Heero, left her high and dry and without a trail. He'd e-mailed his resignation to her from a random computer here in the Sqanc Kingdom after that there was nothing.

His accounts were completely dry he'd taken all his money with him, and even his portion of the ajoint acount all of us had opened to put all our stolen Oz money. Heero's account had been similar which ment one thing. They were never coming back, ever. Which was unsettling because none of us knew why or where either of them had gone. This also ment we'd never hear from either of them and that pissed me off.

"Look Une babe I know no more than you now. So are you done drilling a hole into my head I'd like to keep some of my brains." Duo remarked in his usual banter.

"Fine, go. All of you, just go." She replied waving us off and flopped into her chair almost brokenly.

First she'd lost her top agent of three years, and now her best Lt. Commander was gone as well. I knew that the burden was great, I felt some of it myself, but this was getting dangerous for the Preventers. It would take a while to find someone who could even dream of fillings Wufei's shoes let alone actually being able to try. Wufei had become Une's second in command once he spent the first year on the field with Sally Po, when Une wasn't there Wufei was incharge and he did his job well.

'I couldn't even try to do what he does.' I muse to myself with a sly smirk on my lips.

Everybody had thought that I'd be her right hand man but I couldn't have handled everything that job actually entailed if I tried. Wufei however could do it in his sleep with one hand tied behind his back. In order to be Une's right hand you had to be able to command respect with your very presence for one, I tended to meld into my surroundings, second one had to play many diffrent parts, simple dignitary, secretary, peace maker, war commander, humanitarian, scholler, paper pusher and many others that would have had my mind twisting itself in ways it shouldn't be twisted.

After the war and I'd joined the Preventers, I swore I wouldn't be playing anymore parts. I needed to be me and not anybody else. Even without having to play parts I still had problems being me, namely the fact that I still didn't know who I was. Now with two of my friends missing I was having difficulty trying to find that out. That's why I was pissed we'd all promised to be here for eachother and now two of us had decided that it was to difficult.

I glared down at the papers infront of me for a long moment.

"Bastards." I muttered to the empty room.

--00--

It's been a year and a half since Wufei has left and one of Quatre's sisters took Wufei's place beside Une. Strangely enough she does his job better, and everybody likes her. Everybody but me that is she tends to make me feel non exsistant, or insignificant so I stay away from her as much as possible. I know she doesn't mean to do it, but I still don't like her. Duo loves her, at least it seems that way he spends time with her whenever he can.

He's doing alot better than I thought he would, Heero and Wufei being his best friends and all. Ofcoarse Duo has always been able to make transactions like that since I've known him. It's like Wufei and Heero never existed. Just like when the war finally ended and peace was declared, he just signed up to be a preventer and that had been that. He worried me from time to time, switching gears like that couldn't be good for anybody, and it was a wonder how he did it so artfully.

Quatre was upset that Wufei had left and he ended up not being able to run the company until recently. Even now he only worked on the rather tough transactions his sisters couldn't pull off, but that was becoming a thing of the past. It was better that way, Quatre was an excelent buisnessman but his sisters did it better and they didn't have to worry about missing people in their lives. Quatre did and had to deal with the empty feeling their absences left in his Space Heart.

"Hey Tro, mind if I come in?" Duo askes out of nowhere and makes me jump.

"Go ahead, but next time knock." I reply.

"Nah, that would ruin my fun in watching you jump." He says plopping down into the wheeled chair opposite form me.

He's wearing the Preventer Uniform with the pants instead of the shorts, his hair up in the usual braid, but he has a dark look to his eyes. A deadly look I haven't seen since the last war with that sly smile and I find myself unable to breath properly. Something is very wrong with him and he is in no mood to talk about it. How do I know? His eyes tell me so, and if I dare to do other wise I'm next on Shinigami's list.

I'd seen the look before, we'd been through a war together but I'd never been on the recieving side of it and I realized why the enimy feared him like they did. I also realized why Une put him on the interigation team and why he had easily obtained command over the field. If he told me to spill my thoughts to him right now I would find it hard not to do so in fear he'd do something to me. I knew he wouldn't hurt me unless I gave him good reason, but I couldn't shake the feeling. I think it has something to do with looking Death right in the eyes and feeling like at sometime before I'd told him to Fuck off, and now he was back back to get repayment.

I swallowed before calmly replying. "I'm glad I can amuse you so."

"Yeah I knew you'd say that. It's a privlage to do so don't you think?"

"Sure, just like it was a privlage to be given all this paper work from your last interagation." I countered sarcasticly.

He stuck his tongue out at me and the deadly look vanished and I smiled slightly at my accomplishment. It was a tough job to get that look off his face, and I'd done it fairly easily.

"So what brings you to this sector?" I asked conversationally.

"I was just wondering today out of the blue what Fei' had ment by goin' home. It just dawned on me he didn't have one so it got me to wonderin' is all."

My hand writing faultered and I looked up at him eyes wide. Duo was only smiling with a sad look in his eyes before he decided to continue.

"Then it occured to me that what he ment was he found one. Which means he's probably with Heero some place and that also means we probably know where that is."

I nodded only indicating I was following what he said not that I understood what he ment.

"Well think about it Tro'. Heero had screamed he wanted to peace, that he had no peace. Which leads me to believe he went to the one place he feels that he has it. Then Wufei leaves telling me he's going home and bye. He said bye llike he'd see me there, like I'd know where the Fuck he was going. That had me a thinking ya know?" He paused looking at me to see if I was still listening, I nodded again.

What he was saying was making a sort of sense to me and I was almost understanding where his train of thought was going.

"Right, well a home is a place of peace, a place of peace is a home. Kinda like a safe haven..." He trailed off his eyes widening a moment before, he frowned in consentration.

A long silence reined and in it I tried to figure out why he had been so surprised. I found nothing in his words to be all knowing or that there was any clues hidden in them. What the hell had surprised him and now had him in deep consentration? I stared at him as I watched him think, his thoughts to fast to read in his eyes before he slowly began to rise from his seat.

"No fuckin' way..." He breathed quietly.

"What?" I asked him a hiss of my breath eager to know what he had discovered.

"A safe haven Tro." Was all he said before walking out.

I knew that he wasn't going to be coming back and what he'd said last was suposed to be a clue for me to follow. That's what Heero had left for Wufei and Wufei had left for Duo. A domino effect between us started by Heero's break down almost three years ago. All I had to go on to figure it out was the conversation Duo had just walked out on and that just pissed me off. What pissed me off more was the fact that I hadn't stopped him from leaving before he told me what was going on.

I'd call Quatre tomarrow once I knew for sure that Duo was truely gone. Then I'd explain what had happened to Quatre and maybe we could figure out the riddle together. Hopefully I would and we could go find them. If Duo was right about Heero and Wufei leaving clues then they hadn't abandened us after all they were simply waiting for us where they were.

The place of peace, that home, a safe haven.


T.B.C.

After Note: There's going to be two or three more chapters and then the story will be done! SO lets hope I can get it done and everybody likes it. Next chapter is a really angsty one assuming Dem helps me.*Sweatdrop* On better news I'm going to be archieved on this website http://bishounenofanime.tripod.com . There's going to be other authors there and you can join the wbsite to if you e-mail her and fit what the webmistress is looking for. The link to e-mail her is there at the site. SO plaese go and check it out!