Pairing: (2x1x2 ) +/-(1≠2≠1)
Rating: NC-17
Notes: Endless Waltz never happened. Changing viewpoints between the main charaters.

Ten Years After
by Christine

Heero hadn't been surprised that he and Trowa were the only ones that had stayed with them. Quatre had his business empire to run and was a lot more help on the outside than as part of the organization. Wufei had decided that his justice was better served as a public defender more than with the Preventers and had left after a year. Duo...well he had just disappeared. There were rumors that he had gone back to the Sweepers, but no one had seen or heard from him in years. Not even Howard, when he had contacted the man after he realized that Duo had seemed to have dropped out of sight.

He and Trowa, well there wasn't anything else that they had been interested in than the Preventers. Trowa had decided to go into the intelligence section, while he had chosen violent crimes. Heero was happy with the occasional lunches that he and Trowa managed to have and the fact that his partner was neither in awe of him for being a Gundam Pilot nor did he hate his guts for it.

His partner, Matt Totman was in his late thirties and an ex-Alliance officer. He still looked like he was a recruitment poster for that organization, with his military haircut and ramrod straight posture. He took no shit about the fact that he had been partnered with 'one of the psychos' and had gotten in a lot of trouble defending Heero from the rest of the organization, before things had calmed down.

Matt looked up when Heero's computer chimed again. He knew that sound.

"If you don't answer it, she's going to show up and chew us out. You for not going and me for not kicking your ass up there to her," he told Heero with a grin.

Heero frowned and opened the bottom drawer of his desk, searching through it. "No chocolate. That means that I have to go," he joked.

Heero didn't know why he didn't want to go see her. Une was nice most of the time and he knew that he wasn't in trouble. He just didn't want to go for some reason. Like he didn't want to know what she was going to tell him.

Heero had spent most of the morning that he was supposed to be working staring at his computer screen and thinking about the war. Not really the war, but about Duo. He didn't know why and didn't like it. While Quatre might be the empathic and Wufei had something weird going on at times about if his clients were really guilty or not, he wasn't without certain sensitivities of his own. And they were telling him that something bad was going to happen, like the time that the Dieter case went sour on him and Matt. Or the time that the Kairns case blew up in their face. Or...damn he must be avoiding Une if he was thinking about every case that had gone bad on them.

"Hey Heero..." Matt started.

Matt didn't like the fact that Heero acted as if he was goofing off. That meant that something was wrong. Heero didn't have an idle bone in his body. He was always busy, even when it was slow. He found something to do even if it was helping the clerks with the filing.

"Yes Matt?" Heero replied, still staring at his drawer.

He was hoping the some candy would magically show up. He wanted some now if he was going to face Une. He usually didn't want sweets, having discovered them late in life and not developing a taste for them. But now he wanted...needed something.

"I can tell her you're at lunch or busy if you don't want to face her," he told Heero. "Or that you went home sick."

"I haven't taken a sick day for myself since I first got here," Heero told him with a smile.

"Now would be a good time to start," Matt replied. He didn't want to think of all the ER visits and hospital stays that Heero had had because of being injured on the job. "You've been spacey all morning."

Heero shrugged and got out of his seat, grabbing his jacket from its hook on the door. "I...just feeling odd. I guess."

Matt looked at Heero. His feeling 'odd' was what had saved their lives over the years, more times than he wanted to count, when their missions went south on them. Heero hadn't been the friendliest of partners in the beginning, but he was professional and good at what they did. Aside from a tendency to rush into danger, he was almost the perfect partner. He liked Matt's family and his kids called him Uncle Heero.

"Get up there, find out what our fearless leader wants and then go home. Find out what's bugging you and fix it."

Heero smiled at Matt. The man treated him like his fourth kid at times. "Yes Daddy,"

"I need you to babysit tomorrow night," Matt informed him sternly. "My wife only has one birthday a year and she wants to go out before her stomach is too big for her to do anything."

Heero grinned. Matt's wife, Karen, was pregnant with their fourth child, but she was bigger with this child then she had been with her other three. She had a couple more months to go, but had already slowed down drastically. Matt's other children, Lisa, Heather and little Matt, where old enough to help at fourteen, twelve and eight, but Karen was still tired all the time. Going out was a treat for her.

"I will and I'm bring pizza so Karen doesn't have to feed them. And I can pick up Lisa and Heather from school if she wants me to."

Matt shook his head. "Damn if you aren't going to make some woman a great husband when you settle down."

"I'd have to like women that way," Heero pointed out to him. "For now, it's great being Karen's second husband."

"With none of the benefits..." Matt started.

"Like two AM feedings and cranky kids," Heero laughed. He felt a lot better now, ready to face whatever crisis Une had.

Heero straightened his tie and jacket one last time, before striding into Lady Une's office. Ai-lin Wang, her Chinese secretary smiled and waved him through. She was about fifty, looked forty, always perfectly groomed and was reputed to be a very fierce dragon to deal with, but Heero never had had any trouble with her. He thought it might be the flowers that he bribed her with every Assistant's Day.

"You look fine Yui," she told him. "She isn't mad at you either."

Heero looked at her. Ai-lin had her favorites and he was one of them. He could think of about a handful of them and they were all lower level Preventers. She had no tolerance for politicians as Relena had found out to her dismay.

"Thank you," Heero said as he entered Une's lair.

That was the nickname that the rank and file had for her office. He thought that it was justified. Une was devoted to the organization and practically lived in her office. It was homier than her Spartan apartment, which he had seen once when Une sent him over there to pick up a change of clothing and she couldn't leave the office. Heero thought that she was just going to burn out before she was forty because this place was her life, but he didn't have the courage to tell her that. He wasn't much better and it struck him as being a pot and kettle thing, even if he couldn't remember the entire quote.

"Lady Une," Heero said as he moved into the room, "I apologize for the delay..."

Une shook her head and smiled. "I don't think that I am your favorite person at times. Even if you aren't seeing me because there was trouble I usually end up sending you into it, like now."

"As you should," Heero told her. "You are my commander."

She had made the same argument when he first joined the Preventers. She thought he would be angry because she had been the cause of his self-destruction. He wasn't and it took her a long time to believe it. He had been crazy enough to do it, certain that he wasn't going to survive.

"What do you know about L5 area of space?" Une asked him abruptly.

Heero had noticed that there was a civilian in the room too, but Une didn't bother to introduce her. Heero revised the ID that he had made from civilian to spook...intelligence. He didn't need to know more than that. He was just surprised that he was here and not Trowa or even Wufei. But Une knew that this wasn't something that she could talk to Wufei about. Heero was of the opinion that it wasn't something that Wufei could ever talk about, no matter who was asking him about it.

"Scattered with a number of small colonies, because unlike the rest of the LaGrange points, most of the investors or settlers were clan or extended family based. The other four were all either built by nations. In the case of L2, it was built by companies. Since most of those companies had failed due to recessions or bad management or hostile takeovers, most of colonies are barely hanging on. It's going to take a lot to get that point up and solvent again."

"What is your feeling about the L5 area?" Une asked him. "Be honest."

Heero looked at her and then the woman. He noted that she was pretty, obviously more mixed race than he was with café au lait skin, odd blue eyes and an Oriental cast to her features, dressed very simply, but expensively. She was waiting for his answer, staring at him intensely as if she was trying to read his mind. He resisted the urge to start reciting multiplication tables and thought about how he was going to word his answer.

After a minute, Heero replied slowly, carefully picking his words. He knew that his reply was important. "That place has always been different."

"Different how?" the woman snapped.

Heero looked at her and then back at Une. "Different as in strange. Not really strange, but mysterious. Odd. Not like the rest of Space. I never trusted my eyes or sensors there."

"That is an interesting answer, what did J send you out there for?"

Heero shrugged, not wanting to give the woman too much information. "Missions. Once..."

"Once what?" the woman demanded.

Heero resisted the urge to tell her that it was none of her business. He didn't like her. Actually it wasn't that, he didn't trust her. He instinctively felt that she would sell him out faster than a junkie for their next hit. And from the glare that she just gave him, she knew what he thought about her too. That was something that he had to remember.

"Once I was out there to pick up something for J and I just...I got back and I don't remember a damned thing about that mission. But J was happy, so I figured I didn't screw up and forgot about it."

"Did you ever do any missions there during the war or afterwards?" Une asked him.

Heero shook his head. "I didn't, I didn't travel there while I was a civie and you know that I've never been there for a mission for the Preventers. Matt has a couple of times. He had a couple of assignments there before we were partners."

"That's no good," the woman muttered.

Heero wasn't surprised to see Une glare at her. Une wasn't in the best of moods that he could tell. Having intelligence or the spooks second guess her wasn't something that she enjoyed. Une believed firmly in the chain of command. The intelligence section of the Preventers thought that they were outside of her control, for some reason. But it seemed that this woman was interested in him for some reason.

"What records we have on you are sketchy," Une said. "I know that can't be helped. I want you to undergo a series of tests tomorrow morning. If the results are what I am looking for, than I have a mission for you. You will be on loan to the Intelligence side of the house for the duration of the mission. It might end up being long term, as in a couple of months."

"That won't be fair to Matt," Heero protested involuntarily. "The baby..."

"Just you," Une said as the woman opened her mouth. "Matt will be on desk duty until you return. I know that Karen will appreciate that."

"You knew that his partner was unsuitable for this from the beginning," the woman accused Une. "I wanted the two of them!"

Une glared at her. "I told you, Solitaire, that this was something that I would handle. You and your happy group of spooks are keeping your hands off of my people and the Gundam pilots!"

Heero realized that Une was upset if she referred to Solitaire's group as 'spooks'. She hated that nickname for the intelligence branch of the Preventers.

Solitaire opened her mouth to protest, but Une spoke over her. "I know that you approached Winner on this. And had both the bad sense and lack of taste to question Chang also. Barton, well you have been aware of my hands off policy on him from the beginning. You violated it. If, and that is a big IF, Yui is an acceptable candidate for this, I will brief him and let him make the decision to take the mission. Other than that, you find one of your people to do this. Now get out of my office!"

"Lady Une, I have friends in...." Solitaire started

"And I am the head of your organization. You are part of the Preventers. You and your merry band of spooks will remember that fact or their funding will be pulled and you will be assigned to the worst place in the Earth Sphere that I can think of," Une told her coolly. "And as for that old threat...I am related to more of the government than you can imagine. Your 'friends in high places' are all known to me."

Solitaire glared at Une and then stormed out the door.

Heero stared after her and than shrugged. "You know that I will follow your orders," Heero told Une. "No matter what they are."

Une smiled at him. "I know that. But hopefully, it doesn't come to that."

She handed him a card. "Go to that address tomorrow in civilian clothing. You have to be there at 0900. The tests should take several hours, but don't cancel your plans for the evening. I will brief you about this in two days. Don't discuss this with Matt even, for his own protection."

"Of course," Heero replied. He was confused about the secrecy, but was she was in charge and he would follow her orders, even if they didn't make sense to him at the moment. There had been a lot off things in his life that had never made sense at the time.

"And know that there are no right or wrong answers in this," Une told him.

Une's words echoed in his head when he arrived at the address on the card. It was a small place in a neighborhood that was either going to seed or being gentrified. He couldn't tell which. But it was a nice, nondescript area that put him on guard instantly. He walked in the front door of the building and wasn't surprised to see that the receptionist was dressed as if she was supposed to be a slut, but the clothing seemed off to him. It looked too good. The receptionist looked him up and down and grinned at him.

"Last door on the left. The green one. Just go in and make yourself comfortable."

Heero nodded and followed her instructions. He wasn't surprised to see that the room was bare, except for a small table and a couple of straight back chairs. Not very comfortable chairs he found out when he took one. Heero was debating on timing how long it would take his butt to fall sleep when someone wandered in.

While the receptionist looked and acted what someone expected out of a place like this, the newcomer, Heero guessed, was supposed to be the typical 'mad' scientist. He wasn't impressed. He had grown up with the real thing. This one, the sheath of papers was overdoing it, given the fact that ninety five percent of their records were electronic now. Along with the messy hair and clothing, Heero wondered if these people had wandered out of central casting for a video. Or was this something that was being put on for his benefit?

"I'm Lloyd," he said. "I'm supposed to test you for a few things, nothing to worry about, it's mostly a series of questions and other things. All oral. Preventers sent your medical records over and I'll look at them later."

"I'm glad to know that." Heero muttered.

Lloyd looked at him and shrugged, taking the seat opposite him. "We're going to start with some background questions before getting to the hard ones. Just answer honestly. There are no right or wrong answers."

"I understand," Heero told him, wondering why people kept saying that to him.

By the end of the session, Heero was exhausted, mentally. There had been questions about his childhood, the classes that he taken in college. His thoughts about various esoteric and religious beliefs that existed in the ESUN and on pre-colony Earth. Also, questions about his beliefs and morals, along with a series of quizzes and for lack of a better term, guessing games and riddles. He had no idea what he was being tested for. They had fed him lunch, letting him pick out the restaurant. They didn't seem to mind that he wanted take out Mexican. Lunch had included a debate on pepper hotness and whether or not chili should have beans in it. It had been nice and friendly. But Heero never last the feeling that these people were testing him, even while they were having for lunch.

Heero went over to Heather and Lisa's school and watched them practice after it was all over. The coach had seen him at a number of games, so he didn't think that he was a random stalker and waved to him. The children were glad to see him and the ride from school over to Matt's house was lively, with a discussion about how practice had gone.

Karen greeted him with a hug. Heero was suddenly and oddly aware, again, about how short he was. Tinkered with in all manner of ways and no one thought that he might want to be taller than five six when he grew up? Or was it that they didn't think that he was going to do that, grow up? He didn't mind that Matt was taller than him. That Karen in heels was taller, but now that Heather and Lisa had hit puberty, he realized that they were going to be taller than he was. Not by much, but enough. He wasn't even going to think about Matt junior. He was almost as tall as he was and little Matt hadn't started growing yet.

"Matt should be home in about an hour and you guys can order supper after we leave," Karen said.

Lisa and Heather wandered off to do homework and Karen looked at Heero, "What's wrong that a nice young man like yourself doesn't have a date on a Friday night or at least a place to go? You have too much time on your hands if you think that babysitting my lot is a fun thing."

Heero smiled. It was an old argument between the two of them. Karen thought that he should have settled down with either Mr. or Mrs. Right by now or at least be out looking for him or her.

"There isn't any one at work that I feel comfortable with that way. Have you tried to date outside the Preventers? The civies think that its some sort of glamour job and most of the police resent that you made the cut and they didn't. I'll find someone eventually."

"Not if you aren't looking!" Karen exclaimed. She shook her head and went to get dressed.

Things were quiet for Heero until Matt got home. He grinned at Heero who was in the middle of helping Heather with her geometry homework.

"Rumor mill is that Une has you on punishment duty for not putting out."

Heero winced and looked at Matt. "I don't know what's going on, but you're not involved. Desk duty while I do whatever she has me doing. I don't know anything else and I was only supposed to tell you what's going on if she ships me out, for your own protection."

Matt shrugged. He was enough of an old hand to realize that politics and other things were involved in this mess. He was glad to be out of it. All he wanted at this time in his life was his family. He'd leave politics to the younger generation.

Heero reported to Une's office the next morning. It was a Saturday, but neither one of them cared about that. Or probably had plans, Heero guessed. He knew that he should be upset about that, but he had been honest with Karen. Because of a number of things in his life, dating was awkward. A lot of people weren't comfortable with the thought of the Preventers. There had also been a couple of disasters in college that had made him swear off the whole experience.

He brought coffee and pastries in for the two of them. If they were going to have to meet here on a Saturday, than they could at least have something to eat.

Une looked up when he entered. She smiled, but shook her head when she saw what was in Heero's hands. This was how rumors got started, even if it was only simple courtesy on Heero's part. This place never closed and a lot of people knew that she treated Heero different from a lot of the other agents.

"What do you know about the Gilman Experiments from the early 100s AC?" she asked him abruptly.

Heero handed Une her coffee, absentmindedly biting his lip as he thought. He placed the pastry box on her desk, staring off into space for a couple of minutes, before he said, "They were parapsychology experiments. Most of them were disproved or discredited, even though parapsychology is recognized as a science...barely."

"There has been a journal on the matter that has been published before the colonies were created," Une said. "It just is not something that many people can take seriously."

"Given the amount of crazies that it attracts," Heero replied, "I can believe that."

Une smiled. "Your test results..."

Heero sat down and looked at her expectantly. He forced himself to relax and take a sip of his coffee. As people had kept telling him, there had been no right answers. "Yes?"

"Are impressive, but what I expected after you told me about your experiences in L5," she told him.

"And what are they?" Heero asked her.

"You show signs of a pre-cognation talent, pre-cog is the popular term, and you had some interesting theories about the nature of the universe. Something that I didn't expect with J as your mentor, but..."

"You think that he might have done something?" Heero interrupted her explanation. "Don't...there are days when I feel this isn't anything that he didn't alter in me."

"Your 'bad feelings' hint at pre-cog abilities, Not much, but enough to keep you safe," Une continued.

"What does this have to do with what Solitaire wanted me for?" Heero asked.

"The reason that the Gilman experiments were discredited was because the government... the Alliance actually, wanted to control the research into parapsychology," Une said. "That they actually had been successful, meeting the goals of the experiments. The identification of people that have what is known as ESP or extrasensory perception. What you haven't heard about were the experiments that followed. Too many for something that the government thought was a failure. And all interested in training what are referred to as ESPers."

"I hadn't," Heero said. He didn't like the way that this was going. Secret experiments and odd government projects were something that he had grown up with. He should have expected something from the way that the strange office had been set up, it seemed to have been staged for his benefit more then anything.

"The colonies were a success in more ways than one. It allowed the Alliance and others to hide what they were doing. It was a nice laboratory for them as well as a dumping ground. Decades...generations were involved. And the public was none the wiser."

"Solitaire," Heero said softly.

"She is a result of such things," Une said with a grimace. "The Alliance, then OZ and eventually the ESUN, because it was easier than stopping it, continued to support the work. Preventers have their own private little cadre of tea leaf readers, mediums and crystal ball gazers. They are useful in odd ways, but not something that a lot of people approved of. Treize didn't for one. They are called the Spook squad because of their ESPer skills and they are a branch of our intelligence service."

"I thought that she was trying to read my mind," Heero said. "I..."

"A minor and erratic talent of hers, along with ability to land on her feet like a cat," remarked Une wryly.

"What does she want me for?" Heero asked bluntly. He had no interest in dancing around the topic. If Solitaire had been here, it would have been a different matter. He would have done what was needed to make this as unpleasant and drawn out as possible for the woman. She annoyed him for some reason. "What's the mission?"

"Your tests show that you're sensitive enough for this mission, without being powerful enough for the Spooks to recruit you after you're done, if it's successful. Also no one will think that you're working for the Preventers I hope, but I can't guarantee that. It might get messy."

"There is always a possibility that will happen, no matter who is involved," Heero told her. "Every mission that you send me on could end badly. All your agents know that."

Une nodded. "But...I am making a mess of this. I should outline this mission and see if you want to take it before I get any further."

Une turned her computer screen to face Heero, He stared at the man that was on it. Handsome, in a blonde, predatory way, he appeared to be in his mid twenties. His eyes were cold and calculating, the hair buzzed prison short. Considering that this looked like a mug shot, it must have been taken in prison.

"Ivan Braymer, twenty years ago," Une said. "Last known picture of the man. Taken in a high security prison in the Old Russian territories. A Russian mobster with ties to a number of groups in Northern Europe and Asia. Spent a year in prison for an aggravated assault charge -- that was supposed to be ten years minimum. He was part of a mass escape of prisoners. It was hushed up because the authorities had managed to recover most of the prisoners and no guard was hurt in the escape. Braymer was about the only one that wasn't recovered, one way or another. Most of the escapees have been accounted for over the years. It had been speculated that he fled to the colonies. L5 wasn't where we thought he was. We were thinking he was someplace in the L2 sector, given his criminal background."

"L2 isn't a den of thieves, no matter what most of the ESUN press thinks," Heero protested. That was one of the biggest complaints that Duo had had. Duo had spoken about the honest people that had made their homes there, because they either didn't want to leave or couldn't. Why was he thinking of Duo again?

Une smiled, "Given Braymer's interests, it was a logical thought. And was one of the places that he could have gone given that Lagrange point's state at the time. The colonies on L2 were wild and lawless then. Now isn't much better, but that is neither here nor there."

Une hit a button and a second picture appeared. It was Ivan again, but the man was older. His hair was longer and brushed back. The artist had sketched in a suit. The man looked like a respectable businessman, but he still had the aura of a predator. Heero thought that he wasn't much different from some of the politicians and leaders of industry that he had had to deal with since he had joined the Preventers.

"This is a composite for what we think that man might look like today. No one that we can talk to can give us an accurate description of him."

"What do you mean?" Heero asked her, confused.

Une frowned, her eyes worried. "I mean that we question people that have seen him and no one can give an eyewitness account of what he looks like! We get things like awesome or terrible. Nothing concrete, as in if he was tall or short. What color his eyes are. Any information that would help us identify him."

"And you think that he's doing something to the people that you are talking to? How many agents have you sent after this man?"

"About a half dozen. No one has been able to get near him. They haven't disappeared, but they all...they all have a lot of missing memories and time. Months, up to a year. They can't remember what they had been doing for that period of time. It isn't chemical or an injury, the time is just gone. Probably some sort of psychic talent, one which interests Solitaire and her group. The agents haven't been abused. Minor injuries have occurred with some of them, but nothing serious. Whatever they had been doing, all we know is that it's been on a colony of some sort."

"The next question is why are you doing this?" Heero asked her. "Aside from the escape charges, what has he done in the last few years that warrant your interest?"

"Ivan Braymer has turned from a thug into a data specialist, storing secrets and anything that he can turn a profit on, in that colony of his. We want him for that," Une told him

"I don't understand," Heero said.

"Braymer stores sensitive information and he also at times actively goes out of his way to search for certain things. Projects that are better left alone. Certain people think that he has managed to replicate the Alliance's success with ESPers, by gathering a cadre of them we think. They don't want that, for a number of reasons. I think that he might be using what they so carelessly discarded."

"What reasons?" Heero asked.

Une looked at him, weighing what she wanted to tell him. She hesitated and then said softly, "I think that the ESUN might not want the competition."

"I don't understand," Heero said.

Une leaned back, "The Colonies were where a lot of the Alliance's work with psychics had been done. Not all their projects ended neatly, I'm afraid to say. Some... I have gone through the records. I can't condone what they did. For the successes, like Solitaire, there were terrible failures, many of them. And there were those that were neither, but later something managed to change. Not for the original test subject, but in their children or grandchildren. In addition, about fifty percent of the human population is on the Colonies. That is a lot of test subjects."

"The projects...they were really that long term?" Heero asked her.

Une shook her head. "Not really, but records were kept and then later, well it didn't hurt to check to see what had happened. Not something that I like to know about, but..."

"So they played God. Braymer is too, isn't he?" Heero asked.

"I don't know. We...the Preventers don't know either and I need to. I want to know what we are up against. The government is fragile, for a number of reasons, and Braymer could be the one that sets off war again. Even after all this time, war is still a threat."

"You don't trust those like Solitaire, people who have been changed. People who are different. People like me," Heero told her coolly.

"No, I don't," Une told him. "Mainly because I know that her goals aren't my goals. Solitaire has her own agenda for her people. You, however, don't know the meaning of a private agenda."

Heero thought about what she said, sipping at his coffee, something she had said earlier was bothering him. "Why don't you want Solitaire near any of the Gundam pilots?"

Une looked at him, not expecting that question. "Winner is definitely someone that the Spook squad would be interested in. Definite empathic talents, I just wonder if that was something that was an accident or alterations that were done deliberately. Chang, he grew up in the area, and is still troubled about seeing his colony destroy itself. Solitaire shouldn't have approached him on this. It opened too many old wounds. And Barton...well he would loose himself in whatever game she had him play. Trowa's good at infiltration. He puts his entire self into it I discovered during the war. She would destroy him."

"If I don't accept this mission, than Solitaire would try it on her own and you'd never find out what happened?" Heero asked her.

It was either that or Trowa would get sent on this and he knew that was a bad idea. Trowa was one of the few friends that he had and he wasn't going to send him into the lion's den because he was scared to take this mission. Not really scared, actually. Uneasy. He had been since before Une had called him down to her office.

"I think so. Or she would force you or Trowa to go on it," Une told him reluctantly. "Solitaire is not always honorable or elegant when she wants something."

"I'll do it," Heero told her.

He didn't like the look on her face when she mentioned Solitaire and her plans. Heero was certain that Une knew how that woman plotted. He also felt better for some unknown reason, telling her that he would go. He didn't know what to make of that feeling.

"Then here is the cover story that we planned for you, because I was certain that you would take this assignment," Une started. "We don't have to change your first name. It's a popular in the colonies. Your cover is a down on your luck data specialist. You owe some people some money and are willing to take a long term, isolated contract to pay them off..."

Heero let her voice flow over him, wondering why being sent on this mission would make him feel good.

Long, fine fingers, shaking slightly, carefully turned over cards. Just probing to see if the future that he foresaw earlier was still true. Not that it mattered, the future would still come, whether he saw it or not. One hand reached up to touch the chain necklace...collar actually that was around his neck. A mark that he was under the protection of the madman that ran this place. Duo Maxwell smiled mirthlessly. He once was a feared freedom fighter that terrified OZ and the Alliance and now he was trapped in a backwater satellite.

Ivan Braymer had discovered this out of the way satellite about fifteen years ago. It had been empty and he just moved in. The colonists had all been killed by the Alliance. It hadn't been something that had been widely publicized. No government liked their war crimes bandied about.

It was small, and unable to support more than a thousand or so people with the resources that Ivan had. Mostly what it held was data. Ivan had turned this rock, in his own words, into an asylum in space. It was a neutral meeting place for the various bands of pirates and salvagers and those that did both. It had been his prison and his haven the last nine years, since the end of the war. Ivan had turned this place into some sort of spectacle, complete with a fortuneteller, himself. He knew that he was feared by the superstitious that were here as much as Ivan was. It was a good place to be, even if he didn't like it.

Ivan used him as a human lie detector and boogie man for everyone that he dealt with. Not without reason, but Duo still hated it. Hated the fact that this was one of the few places that he was needed and a place that he could survive. He smiled and stared at the cards. He really didn't need these most of the time, but they helped focused his gift...his curse. The quirk of fate that allowed him his ability to 'see' the future and to know what was in people's pasts, all because of a sick joke. It was something that he had had since the plague. Duo at times wondered if he wasn't dead because of some of the things that he had had visions of. The ZERO System had almost driven him insane because of his abilities.

It had helped in piloting his Gundam, but after the war it had gotten worse and he wasn't able to turn the ability off like he had been able to. It was on all the time and no one, not even Howard, needed a pilot that saw things that didn't exist, no matter how good he was. He grounded himself because he had had trouble walking from point A to point B without seeing shit that wasn't there.

Duo studied the cards carefully. This Tarot deck was much different then the ones that used in public, when he read for Ivan. His public tarot deck was an elaborate, Baroque piece of art. This one's simpler theme was flowers and herbs, which he enjoyed and cared for in the hydroponics gardens. He had a number of these decks that he had collected over the years here. The fancier ones he used in public, the ones he liked never left this room and few people saw them.

Duo smiled again. The cards were clear. For some unknown reason, Heero Yui was coming here. He wondered his old ally still looked the same. Duo knew that he hadn't changed much, the hair was still in the thigh length long braid, and his eyes were still purple and too large for his face. He knew that he hadn't grown much, he felt like a child still surrounded by adults when dealing with the techs and the mercs that were here. Not a good feeling for him.

Duo was certain that Heero had grown up tall. Not brawny, he was probably still built like an archer, broad shoulders and a tight waist and ass, all of it pure muscle. And he was certain that Heero's hair still had a mind of its own.

Duo bared his teeth in a parody of a smile. Heero was not going to find what he was looking for here. Even if Heero was a knight in shining armor, The Knight of Cups to be exact. Duo knew that he wasn't a maiden in distress to be rescued. More like the Fool, but he still didn't need to be rescued.

Heero could appreciate the showmanship that went on in Braymer's operation after he recruited him. Heero had been approached discreetly by a middleman that were looking for someone with his talent for computers and data security, as his cover story claimed he did, in a bar on one of the L2 satellites. Braymer seemed to do his recruiting from the colonies, with the exception of L4, according to the information in his briefing. He had been hanging around the place for about a week, waiting to be contacted. He hated the lack of backup that he had, but Une didn't know if Braymer had someone that could find it. He felt exposed, but he supposed that probably helped his cover. He was supposed to be a hacker on the run from some pretty nasty people.

A deal was brokered after they ran a check on his persona. Not a through one, he was surprised to find out. That meant that they either didn't care or had other ways of checking him out. Given the briefing that Une had given him on Ivan Braymer, he suspected that alternative avenues were being used. Probably using the same types of methods that he used to enforce the standard nondisclosure clause in his contract. Heero was certain that there were a number of people that had worked for the man that were missing memories of their time with him, not just Preventers agents.

He, and a dozen other recruits, all who seemed to be technical specialists of some sort or another, were flown out to another satellite, in a ship that had no windows so that he could see where they were going. For all he knew, they flew around aimlessly before actually heading to their destination, which was almost a twenty hour trip. Actually flying aimlessly and slowly was what the pilot was probably doing to disguise the location of the satellite, Heero guessed, because otherwise that would put them on the far reaches of the solar system and the colonies if it was a straight flight to the L5 area.

Heero was surprised to see that the shuttle was comfortable, he was fed and there were a lot of movies that he could watch to pass the time, if you didn't chose to sleep through it. Just like it was a commercial flight. Heero just hoped that the rest of his mission went as smoothly as this part of it had.

As Heero went through the airlocks, he sensed that the place was a lot bigger than the usual mining satellite that was out there, but really not big enough to be called a colony. But it was big. He could tell by the way that the gravity felt and the size of the airlocks, meant to hold a lot more than the dozen new employees that had been brought aboard.

As Heero and the rest were taken to where they were to go, he admired the luxury of the place. It was obvious that the population was much lower than the place could support. There were little things that showed him that. The abundance of plants in the public areas, the way the people dressed and the aura of the place. The people that he was seeing were living very well, something he didn't expect from the way that Une and Solitaire had been acting. They probably weren't the entire population though.

But the place was an asteroid that had been turned into a satellite, from the rough rock walls that he saw. But the public areas that they were being escorted through could have been transported to any of the cities on Earth and it wouldn't have looked out of place, except for the walls of rock that the satellite had and all the florescent lighting.

Heero wasn't surprised to see that they were being guided to a meeting with their new employer. It was the best time for Braymer, when they were all tired from the trip here. What surprised him was the way the place was furnished or not furnished, with groups of men standing around. They were all led into a gigantic room that was mostly empty, except for what Heero could only call a throne at the end of it. It seemed this Ivan Braymer thought that he was a king. He was lounging on the thing as if he was ruler of all that he surveyed. In a manner of speaking, he was.

The room was hung with what Heero figured out was tapestries. Gaudy, barbaric ones, filled with some sort of historical scenes. He really couldn't tell what they were at a quick glance. The floor was covered with what looked like hand woven rugs in front of the throne where two people knelt. One of them was female and Braymer was patting her like she was his favorite dog as she did something to him that you definitely didn't need an audience for. The other person shocked Heero. It was Duo Maxwell.

At a glance it didn't seem that Duo had changed. His hair was still in that ridiculous braid and he seemed as short as he used to be, from the estimate he made of his height, even if he was kneeling. However...while Braymer has the woman with him dressed in ribbons and chains, he looked like a monk in some dark flowing robe. The only thing that looked out of place was the dark glasses that he wore. Heero wondered if he had had some sort of accident and was now blind. But mainly, he wondered what the hell Duo was doing here.

Braymer looked a lot like the artist's projection that he had seen. The hair was longer and he was dressed in a rich, golden robe that was open, so the woman had access to his body. But the eyes were still hard and cold, like a shark's. Braymer was his target and he shouldn't let Duo distract him.

Duo straightened up when he heard the newcomers enter. Ivan was having his latest acquisition give him a blowjob to pass the time. He didn't care if he had an audience of about fifty guys watching him. Neither did the girl, since this was her try out of whatever whorehouse he had gotten her in. Ivan and his kinks were still better than working in the brothels on the lower parts of the colony. Ivan took his women from there and eventually threw them back. Only about a half dozen over the years had been lucky enough to make what Ivan called his terem and stay there for more than a month. Aside from putting up with Ivan's kinks, they had better duties, like tech support instead of having to make their quota of men in the brothels.

Most of the women that landed on the satellite were whores that were rotated through the place before getting dropped off back to whatever hell they had been dragged from. They and the rest of the people that lived in the lower levels were transported here like cargo, asleep and stacked like cargo containers. Those that survived the trip faced a brutal, short life, which wasn't any better than the one that they had left, no matter what they had been promised. They weren't going to get out of this place alive.

The techs, which were the programmers, the scientists and the few medical people in this place, were treated better. Most were on contracts for a year or so; some had been here almost as long as he was. They were treated with better quarters and food, plus a hefty bonus when they left, if they left. They just weren't allowed to remember where they had been.

Duo had eventually figured out that terem was just a different word for harem, Old Russian, because Ivan fancied himself a Tsar of old. Crazy, but then the Alliance had thought that they were some sort of Restoration or Regency government from the way they acted and dressed. Thankfully Ivan wasn't interested in guys that way. He would have slit his throat a long time ago if that had been the situation. He liked guys, but didn't want Ivan to be his bed partner.

Duo heard Ivan's low moan and straightened up. Aly or Eileen or whatever her was, had finished him off. It didn't mean that she was done. Ivan would have her suckling on him for this entire interview. He lightly touched the deck of cards that was in front of him and waited for Ivan's orders.

"Providyets...Seer, tell me what you see," Ivan ordered him.

It was an order that he was familiar with after all these years. Duo carefully shuffled his cards and then laid them out in a simple card pattern that he was very familiar with, the standard one that he used to read the newcomers to the satellite. He then slid his glasses off and looked at what he had dealt.

"I see nothing ill-omened, Tsar Ivan," Duo told him carefully.

Ivan leaned forward and Duo heard a soft choking sound. Ivan was a big guy and it sounded like Aly wasn't handling it too well. That wasn't going to endear her to Ivan.

"But what do you see, Seer?" Ivan repeated.

"A loyal group of men," Duo said.

Well, those were the mercs on the side of the room. Most everyone there was going to be loyal to the last man that paid them. And this wasn't a bad gig. Mostly police work to keep order rather than being in a shooting war. Most of the population here, tech or unskilled, feared them almost as much as Ivan.

"Loyal to me?" Ivan asked.

"Loyal to you," Duo repeated, "No...nothing that you need worry about."

The fact that he was seeing that Heero was here was something that Ivan should worry about, but until he knew or figured out what his former partner's plans were, he wasn't going to tell the man that he had another Gundam Pilot on his satellite, that would be disastrous for the both of them. Ivan was a wee bit paranoid and Duo didn't want to have to deal with that before he had to.

Duo lifted his gaze from his cards staring at the newcomers. They were the usual mixture of liars and cheats that were on the run. However, if they couldn't do the technical jobs that they were hired on for, than there were plenty of non-tech things that they could do, like station maintenance and the other scut jobs that were needed to run this place. They just would be treated like unskilled labor then and never leave this satellite alive.

Most of the men shied away and looked shocked when they saw his eyes. They were now a shade of purple that wasn't found in nature too often. That freaked a lot of people out. Some of the guards made the sign of the evil eye against him and muttered. He ignored them because it wasn't something that he was going to get them to stop doing. So long as he didn't look directly at them and stayed out of their way, the mercs didn't do more than shake their good luck charms at him to ward off his 'evil'. They left him alone and that was all that he asked.

Duo got up and gracefully and walked over to examine the newcomers, a dozen men and one woman. The woman was a scientist...biotechnician actually, that thought that this was a good place to run from an abusive husband. She probably wouldn't leave this place for years. The rest were various engineers with secrets to hide, but were good enough to do their job. And Heero. Mustn't forget him. Duo stared at Heero for a minute, just glad to see someone from his past, he knew that Heero hadn't expected to see him here. The man seemed even more confused now then after his fuck up with the Doves. Not that he showed it, but Duo read it off him loud and clear right now.

"See anything of interest, little Seer?" Ivan repeated.

Duo cocked his head to one side and hoped that Heero would forgive him for this. "The name that is on his papers is not his birth one."

Heero tried to not lash out at Duo when he said that. He shouldn't have expected loyalty for a boy...man that he hadn't seen in almost ten years. He didn't know if Duo was here because he wanted to be or if he was a prisoner. If he even remembered him from the briefing the Une had given him. He also didn't like the way that Duo's voice made him feel. This wasn't the Duo that he remembered. That Duo had been a tough street kid and sounded like it. This Duo...he sounded like a phone sex operator, husky and sensuous.

"What do you mean?" Ivan demanded. "His papers state that he is Heero Watanabe."

Heero noted that the man didn't seem to be too upset and the woman was still doing her imitation of a lamprey on his crotch. She probably was too afraid not too. Heero was a popular name in the colonies and Watanabe was a common Japanese surname. It was easy to fabricate his cover story, by stealing someone else's identity. He suddenly didn't want to know what had happened to the original Heero Watanabe so that he wouldn't blow his cover by accident.

"This man's birth name is Mitsugawa Oda," Duo said. "He was adopted. His adoptive parents changed his name. It was never told to him."

Heero looked at Duo, surprised. He was certain that he wasn't lying given his motto had been something about running and hiding, but never lying. And if he had wanted to he could have blown his cover, Duo remembered him. He didn't know if he could see him with those strange eyes, but Duo knew him. He was also surprised to see that Duo was shorter then he was. Heero wondered if Duo hated it as much as he did. Duo was shy a couple inches of his short height even.

"Thank you," Heero said. "I never knew I was adopted until recently and most of the records are lost."

He had no problem lying. Heero was sincere in his thanks though. He always wanted to know who he had been before J had turned him into Heero Yui, killer and science experiment extraordinaire.

Heero could feel Braymer's eyes on him and knew that the man was interested in him for some reason. He didn't like it. It wasn't good to draw attention to yourself while on a mission, you were supposed to blend into the background. Somehow he never managed to do that though. There was always something that made him stand out. Duo pulling this stunt with him was not good for him. He had hoped to be unnoticed for his entire time here.

"Seer, does this man interest you?" Braymer drawled. "It can be added to his duties."

Heero wasn't surprised to see a slow flush crawl up Duo's cheeks. It was kind of a low blow, to offer him to Duo like he was a whore for his pleasure. But he shouldn't have expected better from what he had seen here already. He was pretty sure that Braymer cared for what he thought was right, whether it was or not. Heero bit his lip. His cover story made him sound desperate enough to put up with something like that without complaining. He blushed though, because it had embarrassed him for some reason. Well maybe because being handed out to a supposed stranger like a bottle of cheap sake was wrong?

"I am, but I also enjoy a willing partner," Duo replied, his gaze never leaving Heero's.

Heero noticed that Duo didn't seem to be surprised about the offer. Embarrassed, but not surprised. He felt better that Duo wasn't immune to being embarrassed in public.

"Not like you have had many partners since I acquired you Seer," Braymer said.

Heero thought that the man's use of that word was interesting. That meant that Duo wasn't here voluntarily. He would be a good source of information, seeing how he seemed to be highly prized by Braymer, if the way he was dressed was an indication. And he might be willing to leave with him once his mission was over. It would be worth having sex with him if that's what it took. Only for the mission and not because he actually wanted to see what Duo looked like under that silly robe. If he kept repeating that he would believe it, maybe.

"What can I say?" Duo quipped, "I'm picky." Now that sounded like the old Duo. The phone sex voice was still being used, but the cadence of the words were different, more like Duo used to talk.

Braymer laughed. "You all will be taken to the tech quarters. You don't measure up...well there are plenty of low skilled jobs that I can give you. There is no authority out here but me. I am Tsar and Master. Remember that."

Braymer gestured and a couple of the watching guards broke out of the crowd and started to escort the techs to their quarters. He held up a finger and everyone stopped.

"Let my Seer escort his new interest to his quarters. I think that it would be better if they stayed together...so that my Seer can make him 'willing'."

The flush had started to recede from Duo's face, Heero noted, but it climbed right back up at that announcement.

"As you wish, my Tsar," Duo murmured tonelessly.

He walked back to the table that held his cards and gathered them up neatly and quickly into the pouch that he kept them in, putting his dark glasses back on. Duo then walked back to Heero and offered him his arm.

Heero took it, figuring out that he was supposed to escort Duo back to his...their quarters. He didn't know why that thought excited him. He had roomed with Duo before and it had been interesting. He hadn't been sexually interested in anything at the time, but had the odd thought about him, but he hadn't been able to act upon it during the war. Duo seemed to be more embarrassed than interested right now. They were going to have to work something out because of that madman playing matchmaker.

"You're going to be staying in the terem," Duo said, as they walked to his quarters.

"What does that mean?" Heero asked him in a low voice. "He isn't going to..."

"Tsar Ivan is very heterosexual," Duo told him with a faint grin. "Not at all interested in 'scrawny boys' as he told me in the beginning when he moved me in there. You guessed right, it's the women's quarters."

"I don't know if you count as a scrawny boy," Heero protested, seeing how Duo's grin seemed forced. How long had Duo been there if Braymer called Duo a boy? Duo was a man. Short, but a man. And he sounded like he remembered now, a street kid with a few rough edges that someone tried to smooth. "Tsar?"

"Tsar is a pre-colony term that he thinks covers his lifestyle here," Duo said cautiously. "It's Russian for ruler. A corruption of the Latin Caesar."

Heero didn't know what to say to that, Braymer wasn't the only gangster with delusions of power that he had to deal with. There had been dozens of them over his years in the Preventers, men and women, who had challenged the authority of the Preventers.

"I understand," he said.

Heero noticed that Duo didn't need guidance as much as an anchor. Someone to keep him from wandering off in odd directions because he really didn't walk straight. "Um...what happened to your eyes?"

Duo looked at Heero because of that question. He sounded uncertain, which was interesting. The Heero Yui of old was never uncertain. Not even when he was blowing himself up. That crap with Ivan giving Heero to him had been embarrassing for both of them.

"They work, I just see too much," he told him after a small hesitation. "Things that aren't there. At least not when..."

"I was just worried about the color that they were. And the dark glasses. But you seem to be seeing okay so, I was confused," Heero said.

Duo was surprised that Heero actually gave a damn, but he might be trying to make this social thing called small talk. Or he knew enough not ask him certain questions in the hallways. Things were always monitored in them. Ivan ruled the place with an iron hand.

On the other hand, Heero was a bit put off by the fact that Ivan had handed him over to him as a fuck toy even if he didn't show it, but he was willing for some reason. He just hadn't said anything, which was wise. Ivan had a way of dealing with people that didn't do what he wanted them to. While the Heero of old would have glared or said something about what had just happened, this one either didn't care or was deep undercover and willing to put up with the inconvenience. Duo made a mental note to find out from Heero what his cover story was supposed to be.

"Your luggage will be searched and then delivered to my apartments," Duo said. He added in a lower voice, "Do you have anything to worry about?"

Heero shook his head. "I knew that was going to happen."

Duo didn't think that he hadn't figured out that his belongings were going to be searched. Probably something that they taught in spy school, if not training from when he had been a Gundam Pilot. Heero was the latest in a long line of people that the Preventers sent here.

Duo had found them all during the 'interview' period and the agents were all given easy jobs, closely watched and mind zotted by one of the other ESPers before being sent back outside. It had become almost routine to find a spy whenever there were new techs coming onto the satellite.

Ivan didn't have any issues with killing people. Duo was certain that his hands were covered in blood. But the man also knew that killing the Preventers' spies would land his ass in a world of hurt. Or else Ivan was getting off on the games that he was playing with the Preventers. Duo didn't know what his motivation was and since it usually didn't involve him, didn't care what Ivan was doing with the Preventers.

"I want to show you my garden," Duo said abruptly. "Not really mine, but that's one of the places where I work when I'm not reading people for Tsar Ivan. He doesn't believe in his people being idle."

Heero let him lead the way there with only a few course corrections so he didn't walk into walls, until they arrived at an airlock. Duo walked in after punching a code into the keypad on the door. They walked in and Duo was barely into the room before he turned to Heero and demanded, "What are you really doing here?"

Heero was overwhelmed with the smell of earth and plants. He was surprised that so much space had been set aside for something like this. But if the station was large enough, then a garden could be built. From what Duo said, there might be more than one of these places. The benefits in oxygen production and fresh vegetables were worth the care that a garden demanded. Heero knew that only certain people would benefit from it and most of the poor sods that were trapped here were eating space rations and thankful that they had gotten them.

"The Preventers..." Heero started

"...send agents here regularly. It's like it's some sort of yearly budget item that they fund," Duo told him. "I find them all the time. Ivan either thinks that he didn't get one this time or that I lied about you or one of the others. Or the Preventers sent someone that was good enough to fool me."

"He trusts you?" Heero asked Duo. "Why?"

Duo bent over and smelled a flower. Heero knew that he was stalling, but kept his mouth shut. He had learned something about patience in his career.

"While I'm not here voluntarily, I also know that there are damned few places that I can go," Duo told him bitterly. "I can't pilot, hell I barely function around people! I'm very screwed up and Ivan is willing to take care of me in return for my talents."

"Which are?" Heero asked. "I didn't see you do anything but stare at a deck of cards for the man."

He wasn't going to mention what he had said about his birth name. The Duo of old wouldn't have lied to him about something like that, but he didn't know this Duo. He shouldn't trust him even though every bone in his body screamed that he should. That Duo hadn't lied about his birth name. The name that he had told him was true and if he went back to L1, he would be able to trace who he had been with that. Heero knew that even without a shred of evidence to back him up on why he should trust Duo.

Duo smiled thinly. "Tarot deck. I'm the man's seer."

"Which tells me nothing," Heero said. "Seer? He kept calling you that and I know what that word means, but what do you do for him?"

"I read the newcomers for him and he consults with me when he wants to make a deal of some sort. The cards are what I use to see for him. What cards are drawn and how they are laid out can give me a lot of information. Focus what else I know from just looking at people or seeing stuff that isn't there.

Most of the newcomers here fall into three categories, techs that are desperate enough to take a contract in a place like this. Mercenaries that have no place else to go and unskilled workers that hope that their time here doesn't end with them getting spaced. Not a lot of people here, Ivan keeps the population down. No kids. Most of the space is either data storage or hydroponics. We're semi self sufficient here."

"What happened?" Heero asked. "One minute you're there and the next, no one can find you, which made a lot of people nervous."

He suddenly remembered how hurt he had been that Duo didn't bother to say goodbye. He had said that to the girl, Hilde, but not to him or any of the other pilots. Duo had walked out of his life as suddenly as he had entered it. Heero had hoped that he would have had a chance to get to know him, but Duo hadn't wanted that.

Duo shrugged. "I had hooked up with the Sweepers. There was no way that I was going back to either colony or dirt side living. I figured not staying in one place would make sure that the authorities didn't get a hold me. I didn't trust them not to screw me over once the shooting had stopped."

"But that doesn't explain how you got here?" Heero asked him.

He wasn't surprised to hear that Duo didn't trust the government. He had hadn't had very good experience with the government from what he could tell. Not that Duo had been close to him, but little things that had been dropped in conversations, his attitude towards the fighting had told Heero a lot. He hadn't expected Duo to stick around after the war was over, but Duo had run before the celebrations were over.

Duo turned to him and spat, "ZERO System. That nut had me in it...I wasn't normal before that. That one session switched a few things in my mind to always on, from odd insights or best guesses with stuff. Not that it happened right away. But by the time that we were all on the Peacemillion, I was seeing things. Visions of the future, choices that I had to make. Not all the time, but flashes. I saw things...I don't want to talk about it."

"How did Ivan Braymer get a hold of you?" Heero repeated.

Duo shrugged. "I passed out after getting a cup of coffee from a vending machine on a colony and ended up here. My eyes were this color by then. I was hiding them with dark glasses from everyone, Howard didn't even know they had changed.

Ivan had been watching me for a while, with people that didn't need to leave this place to track someone. He didn't do anything to the coffee; I just saw something that freaked me out. I wasn't what you'd call a model prisoner with them, not in the beginning. But Ivan straightened me out."

"What did he do to you?" Heero asked. He knew the things that could make someone cooperate with you, even if they didn't want to, ranging from subtly influencing them to torture. He didn't think that Ivan wouldn't torture someone.

Duo smiled. "He didn't hurt me. I can tell you that. He's a ruthless bastard, but he also knows enough not to abuse someone that he needs. Ivan simply explained to me that it would be much better if I stayed and worked for him, then having to deal with the authorities. That sooner or later they were going to find out my talent. I call it a curse, but other than that, I couldn't agree with the man more. I don't want the authorities to find me. They would. It seems that the L2 colony that I was born on was a dumping ground for some of the Alliance's less successful psychic experiments. Very interesting reading. I studied a lot of the records during my time here. There isn't much else to do out here."

Heero winced at the tone of Duo's voice. Bitter didn't cover it. "I..."

"Don't say it," Duo told him. "I know that you work for them. I also know that you haven't a clue about what you have gotten yourself into."

"Don't..." Heero started.

"Your partner's wife is going to have twins. A boy and a girl. You went to college because you thought that it would help you straighten out the issues that you have because you survived the war, even after all the stupid shit that you did. And there are days when you think that J should have called himself F, because you think of him as Dr. Frankenstein, ever since you read the novel in college for English. And that was your birth name. I don't know what happened, how J grabbed you. I'm psychic, not omnipotent. I see flashes of things that I try to make sense of. It doesn't always happen."

Heero shook his head. That was proof that Duo was some sort of ESPer. There was no way that he could have known any of that. It wasn't like the last two were something that he had ever told someone. He never told anyone about that he felt like he was a monster most of the time.

Duo looked at him and shook his head. "You're tired and I want to get out of this get up. Believe me, I dress like this only when Ivan tells me to for his court. He does it more to impress people than he believes in it himself."

"Court," Heero repeated dumbly.

"Ivan is Tsar and ruler of all the space that he surveys," Duo said. "No one is going to forget that. The dress up part just enforces that. Same with the little show while you were with him. You can either live very well with him or he can use you like the poor bitch that was servicing him."

"And you?" Heero asked.

Duo grinned at him. "I want to live well. I've been that poor bitch and I am not going back to that!"

They walked in silence back to Duo's apartment. Heero knew that there were a lot of things that he wanted to ask Duo, but couldn't. There were a lot of things that he should tell him, but didn't have the courage to.

Duo knew that Heero was uneasy about being with him. He was hiding it, but something was bothering. Hell, they didn't have to have sex, but he was going to be his roommate. Ivan probably wanted him to keep an eye on Heero because he was younger then most of the refugees that they took in here. Most of the newcomers were at least ten years older then they were, except for some of the ESPers that were here and the women that were on the brothel area.

Duo thought about how he was going to handle Heero. It wasn't like he had a lot of experience with sex. He had fooled around a little over the years, but hadn't gotten far. He didn't like that most of the men that he had been interested in wanted him only because they thought that it would get them noticed by Ivan. That had put a damper on a lot of things. Then there were that ones that had thought he was too weird, with his eyes and the way that he acted and thought that they would be doing him a favor by fucking him. Not a good thing to think around an ESPer, even if that wasn't the talent that he had. He usually picked up from the way that they acted.

When they arrived at his apartment, Duo showed Heero the key code for the terem and then his own quarters. He knew that Heero had memorized both of them instantly. He was good with things like that.

He wondered what Heero made of the place; it was simple, just two rooms, a bedroom, and kitchen/living area combination. Stacks of vids, e-books and other odds and ends, cluttered but clean. Room for two people if they were comfortable with each other. The section that they were in held the half dozen women that Ivan had chosen for his own. Ivan lived some place else and just visited them here. This section was a lot quieter, in many ways, because of the low population. The quiet was one of the things that kept visions at bay. Too much going on and he got a continuous stream of data, like he was in the ZERO system again. He passed out then, overwhelmed by the visions that he had.

"Home," Duo announced. "The kitchen has tea and fresh vegetables, both luxury items. Living with me, the food's going to be better. The new techs don't get the good stuff until about they finish their first project."

"Why?" Heero asked.

"Just in case you're a screw up. He's had people lie about what they can do and ruin projects that he wanted done. The ESPers don't see everything. Depending on how bad it is, is how much an example he makes of you. So if you claimed to something on your resume that you can't do, now is the time to tell him. Because the last guy...well he got turned into the barrack's rat," Duo said. "He blew six months of work and was damned lucky not to get spaced."

"I can do everything that I stated," Heero said. "What's a barrack's rat?"

"A barrack's rat is the cleaner and fuck toy for about a third of the Mercs here. Ivan divided up his people so that they live in the same barracks that their shift is in. Not much privacy, so fucking is a spectator sport and some of those guys get real creative," Duo said. "Those that don't visit the brothels to get their jollies. Most of the mercs are hardcore kinks here."

He didn't like how white Heero got at that. He probably thought that he was going to be as bad as the Mercs were. He'd keep an eye on Heero because that was what Ivan wanted and he had learned to obey the man. He had told Heero the truth, Ivan hadn't hurt him, but he had shown him how unpleasant it could be for him. Duo had known for a while that he wasn't going to be able to do what he wanted after the war. This seemed as good a bunk as any.

"You're exhausted," Duo said. "We can figure out things later. I'm not going to throw you on the floor and fuck you."

"But?" Heero asked. There was something in his voice. Duo might want something to happen so when Braymer asked him about it, he wouldn't have to lie to the man Heero was certain that Braymer would ask Duo what had happened.

Duo smirked at him. "But I will take advantage of you. I always wanted you naked in my bed." He wasn't surprised to see Heero blushed at that. "I was fifteen the last time that I saw you, my hormones thought that you were mighty nice."

"We're not fifteen any more," Heero protested.

Duo grinned. Heero was nervous and it wasn't because he didn't like men. He would have said something by now if that were the case. Heero was interested even if he didn't want to admit it. There was something else that was going on and he wanted to know what it was.

"We're adults. I know what I want and you aren't really telling me that you're not interested. So get naked and get into my bed. I won't do anything more then tuck you in."

"Duo!" Heero exclaimed.

"Bed, now," Duo repeated. "You look like shit. It's late evening here. Your shift is probably going to be the first one. I'll feed you breakfast and send you on your way."

"Just like a good little woman," Heero snapped at him. "You seem to be Braymer's bitch, even if he isn't fucking you."

"What makes you think that you aren't going to be the bottom here?" Duo asked with a nasty grin. He wasn't going to role over for the man. He'd curb this issue in the root. Heero wasn't as in charge as he thought. The remark about Ivan, well the man had saved him from the funny farm or worse. How many crazies on the street that he had seen growing up were because of the shit that the Alliance had pulled with the colonists? He owed him for that at least. "You're the one with the most to lose here. All it takes is one word from me..."

"You wouldn't," Heero interrupted. "If you were going to blow my cover, you'd done it already."

Heero was coming as close to panicking as he had in years. He didn't know what game Duo was playing, threatening him like that. He knew that he owed Duo for protecting him from Braymer. Heero also wasn't that uninterested in what Duo was offering. Duo wasn't unattractive and he liked long hair. The couple of people that he attempted to hook up in college with all had long hair. But none of them had ended nicely and he was frightened that the same thing was going to happen here.

"Duo...damn it! What am I supposed to think? We haven't seen each other in years. Are you saving my ass because you want a piece of it?"

"I want to know what game you are playing," Duo said. "What are you doing here?"

Heero looked at him, feeling exhausted and out of sorts. He had heard the subtle emphasis on the word you. What was he doing here? Would Trowa or Solitaire been a better choice? Trowa maybe. Solitaire...he felt that she would have announced who she was and tried to have bargained with Braymer. Ally herself with him to ruin Une and the Preventers. See what she could do with the power that Ivan might give her. Or destroy him and take over this place, then what else she could control.

"Because there was no one else," Heero said. "Trowa...but it felt bad to me for him to come."

"How is Trowa?" Duo asked. "And the rest of them?"

Heero was surprised that he cared, but Duo had been isolated here for almost a decade. He must be desperate for some sort of news. "Trowa's in Intel for the Preventers. Quatre is at the helm of Winner Ltd. and Wufei's a public defender.

You...no one knew where you went, even Howard when I asked him. I had a hard time tracking him down to do so too. You were right to think that the Sweepers were your best bet in hiding."

Duo relaxed as he told him what the others were doing. "Well this is the far reaches of space, I think. As for the ass comment, I don't roll over for anyone."

Heero swallowed, Duo sounded dangerous and sexy. He wanted him all of a sudden. "Equal opportunity rolling over?" he suggested.

Duo laughed. "Bed. Now."

Heero shivered. He was willing to rollover for Duo right now. Have the other man pound him into the bed until he screamed. He just had to figure out where the bed was. "Duo..." he whispered.

Duo looked at him, "I'm scaring the crap out of you. What happened?"

Heero shook his head and stripped off the button down shirt that he was wearing and then frantically slid his pants and boxers off, after kicking off his shoes. "After the self destruct...Trowa just was trying to keep me alive. He...he wasn't a doctor and there wasn't anyone..."

"People turned you down because of that?" Duo exclaimed. "Because of a few scars?"

Heero turned around, it was more then a few scars. Most of the skin on his back was scar tissue and there were a lot of shrapnel scars in his buttocks and upper thighs. He turned around again and Duo saw the rest of the shrapnel scars on his body.

"Get into bed Heero, I'm not going to kick you out because of that. I'd have been surprised if you didn't have a few scars from that idiotic move," Duo told him gently. "And you're too tired to do much tonight. We'll talk in the morning."

He walked over and guided Heero into his bedroom, turning down the covers one handed. With the other he lightly caressed Heero's back until the shivering stopped, caressing him until he relaxed. When he did, Duo kissed him, slipping his tongue into his mouth when he didn't resist him.

Heero moaned and let Duo do what he wanted. He was half hard and pressing against Duo showed him he was in the same state. The kissing was good and he was disappointed when Duo stopped,

"Duo?" he asked,

"You need to sleep and I need to do a few things," Duo told him. "Bed and I promise that your scars aren't a problem."

"You don't lie," Heero murmured.

Duo thought that he was attractive. He didn't recoil in horror from his scars. The last two people, in college, had. He couldn't explain how he had gotten them, which led to his partner throwing his clothes at him and then kicking Heero out of his dorm room. The last person hadn't bought the explanation of a car accident and suddenly developed a headache when he saw them. And Karen wondered why he didn't date. She hadn't seen him with his shirt off. Come to think of it, neither had Matt really, He had become very self-conscious about his body because of those disastrous hookups. Matt...he should trust him because the man was his partner. But he hadn't seen him less dressed than a tank top, which covered the worst of the scarring and long shorts.

"I don't lie," Duo repeated.

"I'm not feeling sleepy," Heero said crossly.

"I need supplies and to arrange for a few things," Duo told him, tucking the covers up further. "You need to get some rest."

"You haven't either," Heero blurted out, guessing what kind of supplies Duo was going to look for. He wondered if there was anyplace like a corner drugstore where he could pick up lubricant, something more then simple oil. He wasn't sexually active if he didn't have anything on hand. "You're a virgin too!"

Duo wondered if the day could get any worse. Heero's announcement sank into his brain and echoed around there.

"No I haven't. No one around here that I trusted. And they all thought that because I was short and crazy that they were going to be in the driver's seat."

"But people at least wanted you," Heero told him.

"To get to Ivan," Duo replied bitterly. "They didn't care about me. I stopped trying after a while. I thought that I was going to die like this."

"It isn't much fun when someone develops a 'headache' after they get your shirt off. I saw the disgust in their eyes. I thought about getting work done, but I don't want to deal with any more surgeries. I had too many as a child."

"I'm not happy that you have them," Duo said. "Seeing you push the button..."

"I had to," Heero said.

"And you work for the woman that caused this!" Duo exclaimed. "Does she know?"

Heero shook his head. "She doesn't. I like her and I don't want Une to feel bad, She...she changed after the war was over. The Preventers is her life, like mine. She asked me to do this mission because she trusted me."

"How did Une get to be head of a paramilitary peacekeeping organization?" Duo asked. "I'd of thought that she would be the last person that they wanted holding the leash."

"How do you know that?" Heero asked. "That happened after you disappeared."

Duo laughed. "It's isolated out here and I'm crazy, but enough Preventers have shown up here that Ivan and I know who's in charge and other information. Not that your fellow agents willingly told us, but information that we got out of them with the various ESPers that we have out here. They didn't know that we were getting that info out of them and we didn't hurt them for it. Now get some sleep and I'll see what happens."

Duo walked out of his bedroom and sat on his couch. Heero was asleep or damned close to it. What the hell was he going to do? Besides the obvious, keeping Heero as a roommate. But what should he tell Ivan? Did the man care anymore about the agents that showed up here regularly, as if was a train stop? He had 'seen' that there was someone that Heero didn't trust and who had been the main reason that he had taken this mission. A woman that was untrustworthy. And for once it wasn't Une.

Duo grabbed a tarot deck from their place in his desk and did a complicated card spread, hoping to find clues about what he should tell Ivan. He found nothing new since the reading that told him that Heero was coming here. His spread showed chaos and treachery, from all the swords and the reversed cards. Love too if the amount of cups that he were mixed in the reading meant anything. He didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

Duo shrugged and slipped out of the kaftan that he was wearing. Underneath was the black jumpsuit that he usually wore. While most of the time he didn't mind looking like an extra from a bad costume epic, Heero would appreciate that he was showing off his body. But before he could fool around with Heero, he had to notify Logistics that Heero was here so that his food ration was increased, find out how much Ivan thought that he knew about Heero and then he would be able to fool around with Heero a bit. Just to reassure him. It wasn't right that Heero had such a poor self-image. Duo suddenly wanted to destroy all the people that had hurt Heero to cause that.

Duo showed up in Ivan's office about a couple hours later. Even evil tyrannies ran on paperwork, the electronic version now, and Duo had to spend a long time convincing people that he was really sharing a room with someone. He knew that he was crazy, but people didn't have to be so rude about it!

Ivan was alone, so after a deep bow Duo sat down. He waited for Ivan to give him his attention before he started talking. The silence and time were helpful in gathering his thoughts. He still didn't know what he should be telling the man.

"I thought that you would be enjoying your new friend?" Ivan leered at him.

Duo blushed. "He was tired and there was some stuff that I had to do."

"You didn't just open his legs like a woman and plow him?" Ivan demanded.

Duo hoped that he didn't explode from embarrassment. "Guys are different," he mumbled.

"Or else I would have done that to you ages ago, my little Seer," Ivan told him. "He doesn't have to show up to his first shift tomorrow. You get another day with him."

"Thank you," Duo said. Thinking about Ivan fucking him made he almost want to puke. Ivan just wasn't someone that he wanted like that. Not with what he knew about him.

"You have been making sure that everything is in order for your new playmate. That is your reward for thinking. What else have you been thinking about?"

Duo knew that this was his moment of being tested. Now was the time that he should tell Ivan about Heero, but he didn't want to get him into trouble. Heero was on a mission that was very important to him. Not if he failed or succeeded with it, but so it would make his Preventers safe. The organization that he had used to replace everything human in his life.

"Don't approach the new woman," Duo said. "She's good. Too good for here. She's hiding from an abusive husband. She won't be interested in you because she can't trust men. It would be bad if she thinks that you or anyone is pressuring her."

Ivan had some weird taste in woman and he just wanted to make sure that he didn't bother her. Plus sometimes the techs were bothered by the mercs. A word from Ivan would stop that from happening.

Ivan nodded. "I will see that she is not bothered. And that someone will talk to her about her troubles."

Ivan was good about stuff like that. If you were worth it, he took care of you. If not, you were dog meat. Duo didn't want either him or Heero to become the latter.

"I think that the Preventers are through with playing games with you," Duo said. It was a safe enough topic and would give Ivan something to think about. "There is something changing or trying to change in that organization."

"Why do you think that?" Ivan demanded.

Duo hesitated for a second. "Because of all the swords and the court cards in my last reading...there is an ambitious woman. One who isn't to be trusted. By us or the Preventers."

"Show me!" Ivan demanded.

Duo shuffled and spread the cards in a complicated pattern. He knew that Ivan had some clue about their meanings after all the times he had read for him and he hoped that his spread wouldn't betray him. He dealt out his cards and looked. Betrayals all around, fighting and some very unhappy powerful people, he wasn't surprised to see that the major arcana card of the Lovers and Strength were close to him. Duo blushed when he saw that.

"So your little friend is more than willing," Ivan laughed. "But what do the others mean?"

"A treacherous woman," Duo said, pointing to the cards that mattered. "As well as a powerful woman. They are at odds. Fighting. Sorrow. If someone from the Preventers approach you with a deal...don't trust it."

"So the Preventers are weakening..." Ivan speculated.

Duo shook his head. "Not weakening. But there is some trouble within. Lady Une..."

"You've met her. Is she our treacherous woman?" Ivan demanded.

"Not now," Duo stated confidently. "She's the La Papessa or the High Priestess. There is another though. A woman that is willing to deal with you to break Une. She is the one that shouldn't be trusted. The Queen of Swords, reversed. The Queen is trying to involve others in her fight with the Priestess and use you too. That is why there are all the major arcana cards in the spread."

"The enemy of my enemy..."

"...is still a Preventer. Still part of the Alliance, even though they call it something else now," Duo shot back. "She will toss you aside when she is through with you. Don't think that she won't. The woman that is not to be trusted is like me, a product of the Alliance's fucking around in the colonies and on Earth. But they took better care of her."

"That angers you, my Seer, doesn't it?" Ivan asked.

Duo snarled at him, "She was born on Earth, like you. She wasn't one of the discards or forgotten ones that you collect. She will think that she can fool you because none of your people are trained like hers. Have been pampered like hers. What you have are survivors, more powerful than the sheep for the ESUN."

He wasn't the only psychic that Ivan had, but he was one of his most powerful ones and the only one that could see the future consistently and accurately. Most of the others were only able to pick up impressions from items and not people. Plus there were the ones that he used to erase the memories of those that left here alive. Then there were the poor sods that the dead constantly talked to. And all of them were confined to one section of the satellite or else they would be more insane than they were now. That was the major problem that most ESPers had, insanity. It was from the constant data that they were being exposed to. If you couldn't learn to control that, like he had, barely, than you lost it. Also most of the ESPers went crazy, after being told for years that they were crazy, because of their talent.

"You speak in anger," Ivan stated after a minute, "but you speak wisely. I have not been contacted by anyone. It might be that their spy wasn't one of the ones that were recruited. Or they have decided to send in unskilled labor this time as their spy. That's where they usually end up."

"So?" Duo asked.

"I want you to examine them when they come in, in two day's time," Ivan told him.

Duo nodded. "As you wish, Tsar Ivan."

Ivan thought for a second. "It is unusual that you have been drawn to someone. I know that you have not had an easy time here. You had given up. For a time, I thought that you had some silly notion about your virginity. But this man attracts you. Is he a trap?"

Duo shrugged, knowing that he had to tread carefully. "He might be."

"And you are willing to deal with the consequences of that?" Ivan asked him gently.

"That he might sell us out to the ESUN? That he might kill us all? That..."

"He might break your heart, my little Seer. I am not the bastard that everyone thinks I am," Ivan said with a smile. "That you think that I am."

"And what happened to the woman that you were testing for the terem?" Duo asked him, wanting to change the topic.

"She was lacking in certain areas. After my Chosen are through with her, then she might be able to go back to the brothel level. But I also know that she is a rare treat for them and they are greedy," Ivan said with a smile.

Duo tried not to shudder. The Chosen were the couple dozen ESPers that lived on the satellite. Isolated, the product of the streets and insane asylums, that poor woman was going to be played with for days before they let her go, if then. Duo was thankful that he was sane still and not trapped with them. But if Ivan found out what game he was playing with Heero, then he might become a permanent resident of that place. He had spent a few weeks down there before he learned to cooperate with Ivan, he didn't want to go back there. And the man said he wasn't a bastard when he tossed a woman to those crazies, like he was tossing rabid dogs a bone.

Heero lay still for a couple of minutes before getting up to explore Duo's apartment. He was tired, but not sleepy. Maybe he could find something to read while he was waiting for Duo to come back. He slipped on his boxers and after a minute's thought, his pants. He wasn't comfortable wandering around only in his underwear. Duo might appreciate it, but he still thought that it was odd.

Heero checked out the bathroom and wasn't surprised to see that it was just a simple shower, sink and toilet arrangement. He poked around in there for a little while before going out into the main living space. It was half the size of his apartment on Earth, but big for someplace like here. A couch, chair and table were the only furniture. A vid unit was on the left wall of the room, taking up most of it. Another deck of Duo's weird cards were scattered across the table, Heero wondered how many of the blasted things he had. There were more than a few bookcases, filled with ebooks, videos and games. Heero spent more than a few minutes checking them out. They were a clue to what he had gotten himself into.

The rest of the apartment contained a counter with a couple stools and a tiny kitchen with a small stove, refrigerator, sink and dishwater. Heero checked out what was in the refrigerator, not surprised to see that it was filled with odds and ends of things. Wine, soymilk, a collection of leftovers of various ages from the dates on them, along with some prepackaged snacks, obviously from different Colonies from the various languages. Braymer must be trading all over the sector for his supplies.

Checking out his new 'home' only took a few minutes. Heero thought about the person that Duo Maxwell had become, based on what he had found in his apartment. Duo's taste in reading was for fantasy and mysteries on the fiction side. Nonfiction was an eclectic collection of engineering, colonial histories and parapsychology. He liked both first person shooter games and the more popular fantasy story games. For vids, he seemed to have a collection of almost everything, from various colonies, most of them not in English. All he could think was that he was a complicated, lonely man and he had no clue about how to handle him. Then Heero realized that he had never really known what Duo had been like before this. Shared missions, a short term at the same school and saving the planet didn't mean he knew who Duo was now or who had been.

Duo hadn't been too forth coming about exactly what his psychic talent was. Heero knew that it was something to do with seeing the past and the future, it seemed, but he didn't know exactly what it was. Une's brief explanation hadn't really covered what something like that was called.

He went over to look at Duo's library again, hoping to find a basic book on parapsychology that had some explanations about psychic power. He really didn't believe in it, even after hearing what Duo told him. His knowledge about when a case was going to go sour to giving him a lucky break was just that he was a good cop. Nothing to do with strange talents and everything to do with hard work.

Heero grabbed a book that seemed to be a basic explanation of parapsychology, which he thought that he might be able to follow. Not that he was stupid, but he preferred something less esoteric when he was studying, like math or physics. Nothing that was based on a fancy, like it was.

He wasn't passed the first chapter when he fell asleep on Duo's couch, the reader resting on his chest.

Duo walked back to his quarters and grinned when he found Heero asleep on his couch. He looked relaxed and probably tired enough that he had fallen asleep and slept through him coming home. Duo wasn't surprised to see that Heero hadn't touched his cards. He must have learnt something over the years, like touching other people's stuff was bad, as he had done with DeathScythe. Duo took a minute to study Heero.

He looked his age because of harsh planes of his face. He had finally grown into his bone structure. Not really taller, but he was more muscular than he had been before. His skin was the same shade of dark honey that he remembered, but not as flawless. He could see the small scars that marred it, white against his skin. The scars probably felt different too, rougher or smoother then the skin should be.

Duo ogled Heero shamelessly for a couple more minutes before he cleared his throat and put down the bag that he had been carrying on the floor. He wasn't surprised to see that Heero woke up slowly, apparently comfortable with him. He blinked his eyes a couple of times and Duo could almost see him thinking, wondering if this was a dream.

"Duo?" Heero asked huskily.

"I wanted you naked," Duo told him. He tried to sound stern, but all he could think of was how good Heero looked naked, when he had done the impromptu strip tease for him.

"I don't walk around places naked," Heero protested.

"This isn't a 'place' this is where we are living," Duo told him, stooping down to fish out a tube of lube from the bag at his feet and shoving it onto a pocket.

He walked over and gathered his cards together and put them back into the drawer that they belonged, before sitting down on the couch with Heero. The poor man was still blinking sleepily at him. Duo noticed the book on Heero's chest and shook his head when he read the title. At least he was willing to learn. He plucked the book off Heero's chest and put it on the table.

Duo leaned over to kiss Heero, not wanting to startle him. He wasn't surprised that Heero kissed him back. It was a bit awkward, both of them were trying to adjust to each other and the novelty of kissing. But Heero was making the most wonderful noises, because he added caresses to his kisses. Their tongues played with each other's as they got more familiar with each other.

Heero moaned and pulled Duo on top of him. He felt like he was in college again, having a make out session on the couch. Those usually had been good, it wasn't until people saw his body that things got bad. Duo had seen him already and was still interested.

He fumbled with trying to peel Duo out of the skinsuit that he was wearing He wasn't surprised that it was black. Duo liked the color still, it seemed. Duo stopped him though.

"Not yet..." he said with a low laugh.

Heero grabbed Duo's ass and ground his groin into his. They were both hard and he wanted to feel more of Duo. He knew that he had done something right when Duo moaned and writhed against him. He wrapped his legs around Duo to keep him in place and started to feel around for his braid.

Duo laughed again, "You can."

Heero flushed but didn't stop searching until he found the tip of Duo's braid and worked the tie off the end of it. He tossed the hair tie someplace and then used both hands to unravel the braid. He was surprised that Duo helped him. Heero moaned when Duo broke off their kiss and leaned back a little and shook his hair all around them. It was sexy and intimate and he pulled Duo down for another kiss, squirming from the stimulation. They were wearing clothes and it was rough, but he was feeling another man on top off him. Duo was kissing him and he didn't realize that he was going to climax until he did.

Heero moaned and convulsed. He hung onto Duo and kept kissing him, not noticing really that Duo seemed to be affected by this as he was. When he stopped orgasming, he noticed that both he and Duo were panting harshly.

"I'm..." Heero started.

"I wasn't much better," Duo told him. "I..."

Heero was very aware of the soggy mess that was in his pants and it was now feeling very uncomfortable. He wondered if it was like that for Duo. Probably worse because what he was wearing was skintight.

"I think that we should continue this in the bedroom," Duo said, gracefully rolling off of him.

Heero nodded and then involuntarily yawned. "Oh shit...I didn't mean to..."

"You're tired," Duo told him gently. "And I can take a nap too right now, so don't feel bad. We get naked and take a nap, then we see what happens after."

Heero got up and was surprised that Duo kissed him. And kept kissing him as they navigated their way to the bedroom, the nap forgotten it seemed to him. He let Duo guide him, because he trusted him. They tripped over their own feet once or twice, but Heero was happy because he managed to figure out the fastenings on the suit that Duo was wearing. He wasn't surprised to feel that Duo didn't have anything on underneath it.

Heero frantically caressed Duo's smooth skin for a minute before peeling the suit off of him, when they both hit the bed. Duo was whimpering and working at getting his pants off of him. They both got naked at the same time and kicked their clothing away before falling on the bed.

Duo had pulled back and straddled his hips. They were both hard again. Heero saw the hunger in Duo's eyes, the desire for him. He rocked against him and they both groaned. The stickiness of their earlier climax felt strange to Heero, but good. He ran his hands up and down Duo's sides, wondering what he was supposed to do. He wanted to touch, to feel, to know what someone else felt like.

Heero wasn't surprised to see that Duo was nearly hairless, just a trace of curls from his bellybutton to his groin. Heero had noticed that Duo didn't have a lot of arm or leg hair when they were in high school. He didn't expect him to have grown into a bear.

"I want to explore all of you," Duo whispered huskily. "Want to...

Heero groaned and grabbed Duo's hair to bring his head down for a kiss. Duo laughed and let him. Heero loosened his grip after a minute and Duo grinned into their kiss.

Duo wasn't surprised that Heero was fascinated with his hair. He had seen the way that he had looked at it before. He didn't mind that Heero was using it to control him. Heero wasn't the one that was in charge here, he was. He'd let Heero play and then he was going to take him, show him what a beautiful person he was.

Duo kissed his way down Heero's throat, nibbling on the tender skin. He was sure that Heero shaved less then he did. The man was practically hairless! All he had was a thin dusting of curls around his balls, nothing really on his arms and legs or chest.

Duo liked the way that Heero was moaning, needy and sexy, moaning because of what he was doing to him. The tricky part would be when he got to the area where the damage was. Duo leaned up to give Heero one more tonsil probing kiss before he started to work his way down his chest.

It had been ugly, Duo was willing to admit that. Having your Gundam blow up around you would leave a lot of scars. That the scare tissue stood out on his darker skin was an issue also. But he shouldn't be ashamed of them, they were badges of honor, where the colonies had told OZ to go fuck themselves. Duo wanted again to kill anyone that had made Heero feel unwanted because of them.

Duo traced the scar that bisected Heero's left nipple with his tongue, before starting to suckle on the nipple gently. From the moan that he got and the skin hardening in his mouth, the nerves were still working.

Duo was amused that Heero didn't seem to figure out where his hands were supposed to go. He was playing with his hair, but seemed not to know what else to touch. Duo lifted his head, "You can say stop."

Heero whimpered, which Duo interpreted as a 'go on'.

"No if something doesn't feel good or you need me to slow down," he continued. "And you can touch me anywhere."

Heero grabbed him again for a kiss. "Don't stop," he pleaded. "It's so good and no one...they..."

Duo shook his head and leaned down to kiss Heero's right nipple. He kissed that one, while he gently stroked the left one. Heero was reduced to whimpers again and he thought that he come from the sound alone.

Heero didn't know quite what was going on. Duo touching him felt a lot better then when he touched himself. He occasionally masturbated, but it wasn't something that he spent a lot of time on. He had thought that there was something wrong with him because he hadn't seemed interested in sex after college. But he felt that he was going to burst again because Duo was kissing him. He didn't know that it could feel so good to have someone lust for him.

He didn't know what to do or where to place his hands or even what he was supposed to do. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that Duo was a lot more experienced then he was. But it might be like the difference in their fighting styles Duo had been a lot bolder then he had been. He charged forward for the attack as soon as OZ had figured out that he was there. He was using the same tactics it seemed to him right now, not that he was thinking much. His brain had short circuited when Duo started to suck on his nipple. All he could do was moan and whine as Duo's tongue traced every scar on his chest. For one wild second, he wanted more so that Duo wouldn't stop.

"Don't stop..." Heero moaned. Duo was saying something but he didn't understand what it was.

Duo worked his way down Heero's torso, his tongue flicking over each scar. He worshiped Heero's skin while he fumbled with his foot for his suit. He was glad that he hadn't kicked it away from the bed. He eventually found what he was looking for. Duo stopped licking Heero like a deranged cat and grabbed the lube. He noticed that Heero was looking at him, eyes glazed over and feverish.

"We don't have to go..." Duo started.

Heero shook his head frantically. "Please..."

Duo knew that he probably wasn't helping Heero by keep telling him this. "Heero..."

"Please..." Heero repeated.

"I'm not saying 'no'," Duo told him, "but I am asking you if you need me to slow down."

Heero stared at Duo. Slow down? He thought that Duo was going too slow. He opened his legs when he saw that Duo had found the lube. He knew what happened next. He was a virgin, not sheltered! He wanted Duo inside of him. Wanted to feel him moving in him.

"Please...." He'd die if Duo stopped because he thought that he was going to fast. They both wanted this and that was that.

He stared at Duo's cock, jutting out from his body and dripping with desire. It was hard and red and he wanted it in him. "Please..."

He couldn't form the words to say more then that. And Duo understood because he knelt between his legs, squirted some lube on his fingers and started probing his body. He opened his legs as far as he could, moaning when Duo found what he was looking for and a finger slipped into him.

Heero gasped. It was slightly uncomfortable for a second and then it felt wonderful, when Duo started finger fucking him.

"Heero?" Duo asked, sounding concerned.

"Go on," Heero managed to choke out.

Duo was worried for a second. Heero hadn't been able to do more then moan and whine since they started. He still couldn't believe that he had his finger...fingers really, as he slipped another one in, up Heero's ass. That Heero was willing to play the girl in this relationship. Not that he had given him much choice. He felt his fingers brush against something rough inside Heero and he almost jumped off the bed with a loud scream. He must have his gold with that spot because he touched it again and Heero bowed up wonderfully, his mouth open in a silent scream. Duo felt proud that he had reduced him to something so uncontrolled with a few touches. He stopped playing with that spot and concentrated on making sure that Heero could take him, so he could make him react like that with his cock inside of him.

Heero couldn't believe that a touch could feel so good. He thought that he'd come when Duo put his fingers in him and then he started touching that spot. He intellectually knew that it was his prostate, and that it did a lot of important things in his body, but he didn't want Duo to stop making him feel like he was. He was surprised at the scream that was ripped from him and grateful that it didn't bother Duo. He arched up, trying to get something that was just out of his reach. He wanted more then Duo's fingers in him.

Heero moaned when an eternity later Duo withdrew his fingers and moved over him. A couple false thrusts, but then Duo found his opening and pressed inward. Duo was bigger then his fingers, but he felt a lot better. Heero whined when Duo was sheathed in him and then leaned over to kiss him, his hair covering them like a blanket. After a second Heero knew that something more was supposed to happen and wiggled his ass, signaling to Duo that he wanted him to pound his ass into the bed.

Pound was the only word that he could use, as Duo thrust in and out of his body wildly. If the bed had a headboard, his head would be smacked against it. Heero braced his body and just let go. He watched Duo through slitted eyes, whimpering as his strokes brought him closer and closer to his climax. He watched Duo orgasm before him, lost in it. He was proud that he had given Duo that pleasure. And then his own climax came and he bucked wildly, clutching at the sheets and wondering how something could feel so fantastic. He didn't even hear his own screams of completion.

When it was over, he barely aware of Duo leaving him. Heero curled up, glad that someone was with him and passed out, not caring that he was sticky.

Duo groaned and thrust in slowly. Heero was tight and he could tell that it was a bit uncomfortable for him. But Heero was so hot and it felt so right that he didn't want to stop. He eased his way in, kissing Heero frantically, both of them moaning wildly. He waited after he was all the way in, even though the instinct to keep moving was strong. Heero started rocking against him and whining, so Duo started thrusting again, not knowing if he was doing right or if Heero liked or being able to think of anything. He must be doing something right because Heero was moving against him, making incoherent noises and opening his legs wider, so that he could go deeper.

Duo threw back his head and screamed when he climaxed, filling Heero...marking him as his. He continued to move when he was done, watching Heero writhe underneath him until he found his own climax, his back arching off the bed wonderfully. He was too far gone to scream, Duo noticed as he bathed the both of them in his seed. When Heero's body finally relaxed him pulled out of him slowly, then rolled off of Heero. Duo wasn't surprised that Heero curled up around him, putting his head on his chest. Duo wasn't even sure that Heero was aware of anything except his climax. Frankly he didn't care, he was worn out himself and fell asleep as soon as he realized that Heero was.

Heero had been on his job for a couple of weeks when he was summoned to his supervisor's office. Heero and the man had a wary truce going. His supervisor, an older European named Pierre Champlaine, resented Heero for a number of reasons, because he was young, had a chance to get out of here when his contract was over and had Ivan's favor. Not that he really had Ivan's favor; he had Duo's favor. Heero hadn't realized when he had become Duo's roommate, that Duo was as powerful a person as he was. He didn't know if Duo knew it.

"You seem to know what you're doing," Champlaine told him grudgingly. "You're slightly ahead of schedule. It seems that your long lunches seem to help your production."

Heero felt himself blush. The lunches were long because they either went back to Duo's, where they screwed each other silly or found someplace else to do the same. It was like they were fifteen again. Heero thought that it was because neither one of them had a chance to do this before that they were acting this way.

"Take another long lunch," Champlaine leered at him. "Actually, take the rest of the afternoon off. The other programmers have to catch up with you."

Heero nodded and went out to sign off of his computer and meet Duo in one of the greenhouses. He felt the envious eyes of others that were still there. He knew that he was being spoiled, that Duo's interest in him had led to shorter hours of work and better food. And the mindblowing sex, mustn't forget that.

Heero made his way across the satellite, wondering when it was all going to blow up in his face. That Duo was going to tell him that he was disgusting or that Braymer was going to find out what they were doing besides the obvious. He knew that Duo would be happy that he was free for the rest of the afternoon.

When Heero let himself into the greenhouse, he wasn't surprised to see Duo kneeling and weeding a patch of something. All he knew that it was green and growing. Duo was the one that had studied about plants. He was more interested in machines, they were neater in a way than a growing thing could never be.

"I'm off for the rest of the afternoon," Heero announced. "Not that it's a surprise to you. Sometimes I think that..."

"I'm a fraud?" Duo teased him. "That I cheat and order Champlaine to leave you alone?"

Heero shook his head. "I would never think that you're a fraud," Heero protested in mock horror. "But I'm pretty sure that you're arranging for him to keep off my butt while you're riding it."

He had seen Duo having his 'visions' too many times to think that he was faking it. The pain that was on his face, as well fear that he sometimes saw in Duo's eyes when it was over. That was in addition to what he had seen him do with those weird cards, telling him about incidents that he had been involved in with the Preventers. Or the odd bits of information that Duo would drop in conversation, things that he should never have known about, from the outside world.

Heero had gotten used to Duo's odd eyes and frankly craved his touch. Duo was the dominant partner in every sexual experience they had had and he didn't mind. There was something exciting about trusting someone so much, seeing the pure lust in Duo's eyes as he caressed and possessed him.

"I want to take a little walk with you this afternoon," Duo said standing up and walking over to him.

"A walk?" Heero asked. Duo sounded a bit off. He was planning something.

"Someplace that you should see," Duo said huskily. "But first I want you on your knees. I want to take you here."

Heero moaned as he felt Duo touch him. In public, Duo behaved himself, not going beyond a chaste kiss. In private, he did the most astonishing things to him. Like the evening that he had spent licking him for hours, everywhere, his agile tongue and fingers teasing him to climax several times before burying his cock in his body, after fucking him with his tongue. He had been sore in the morning, but very satisfied.

"You're addicted aren't you?" Duo asked. "My touch, my kiss, me in you..."

"Ahhh..."Heero whimpered.

He noticed that Duo never used crude words about what they were doing. He didn't care after that because he was fumbling with Duo's suit, wanting to see him naked. Duo was kissing him and that was good. Almost as good as the gentle fingers that were probing his opening, one slick finger entering him, Heero arched his back in response. Duo always made sure that he was ready for him and most of the time he had no idea where the lube had come from.

"We don't have time for teasing," Duo whispered into their kiss.

"Do it," Heero told, feeling a second finger join in stretching him. Duo's other hand was stoking his back and he was aware that all their clothing was in a heap at their feet. He started rubbing against Duo, their cocks lining up just right. "I want you."

Duo was rubbing back and moaning, their pre-come and sweat making their bodies slick. The place was hot. Heero let Duo kiss him some more, finger fucking him, driving both of them insane he swore.

"On your knees," Duo ordered him as he pulled his fingers out of him.

Heero dropped slowly, tracing his tongue down Duo's chest, tasting his sweat. He mouthed one of Duo's nipples before continuing down to his cock, licking it clean of the semen that was drooling out of it. He loved Duo's choked gasp at that and crouched in front of him, not wanting to stop tasting Duo, worshiping him with his tongue, but not taking him in his mouth.

"Knees, back towards me," Duo ordered him after minute of moaning and petting his shoulders and back.

Heero turned around and fell forward, ass high in the air. He felt Duo staring at him, admiring his ass before he seized his hips and thrust into him. Heero groaned as Duo filled him, his groans turning into moans and whimpers as Duo pounded into him, stroking that special place inside him. He liked it when Duo was rough and there was something primitive about doing this in one of the few natural places on this satellite.

Heero was still hard, fighting not to come, when Duo cried out and came, filling him with his seed. Duo panted into his ear as he draped his body over his, spent.

"Finish yourself," Duo told him.

Heero whimpered and then rebalanced himself before reaching down and fisting his cock. He should be angry about what was happening, but it was exhilarating to him instead. It only took a few strokes for him to climax, spilling his seed all over some sort of plant. That had been thrilling. He liked Duo giving him orders, making him feel good, toying with him.

"We should do that here more often," Heero said.

Duo felt right draped on him, filling him with his slowly softening cock, kissing the back of his neck. One hand reached down and caressed his cock, making him moan. He didn't like it when Duo stopped and started to pull out of him.

Duo didn't want to move when he was done. Heero was tight around his cock, and got hotter and tighter when he orgasmed, moaning wantonly. He loved the way that Heero sounded and felt during sex. But he knew that this was getting uncomfortable for him, never mind Heero, who was supporting all his weight.

Duo pulled out slowly and then grabbed a wipe to clean himself and then Heero off. He had started to carry premoistened wipes and lube around with him all the time. When he got a chance, he and Heero took it, he didn't know when this was going to be over and so he wasn't going to let a moment be wasted while he had Heero here.

"We should get dressed," Duo drawled.

"That was incredible," Heero muttered. "Do we have to leave?"

Duo laughed and threw the package of wipes at him. "Later I'm going bend you over the kitchen counter and have you. Then after supper...I'm going to... with my hair..."

Heero shook his head. "That isn't helping."

Heero hastily cleaned himself, feeling Duo's semen seeping out of him. He drew Duo into a kiss, wanting to prolong the encounter, caressing him. He was disappointed that Duo hadn't loosened his hair, but if they were going someplace now, Heero was certain that he didn't want to take the time to put it back into a braid.

"We're going someplace that Ivan probably doesn't want you to see," Duo said. "But..."

Heero looked at him as his voice trailed off. Heero was getting used to the half sentences and odd announcements that he had a tendency to make. But Heero also appreciated the single-minded attention that he gave him when they enjoyed themselves. He didn't want to call it sex or fucking but he shied away from calling it making love. Enjoying was something that they both did and there were no emotional landmines in that word.

Heero shrugged and got dressed. Duo regretted that had happened, but he would get Heero naked again back at their apartment. Heero was getting to like his body and wasn't that self-conscious about the scars anymore.

He threw on his own clothing, trying to convince himself this trip wasn't the bad idea that it was. Heero was going to have to see everything that was here, so that he could make the right choice when the time came. Duo knew that it was going to happen soon, from the readings that he got when he did any spread of cards. Ivan knew that something was up too. Not exactly what or who, but he knew that something was going to happen.

Duo was starting to feel the attention that he and Heero were attracting from the other ESPers here. Ivan was suspicious, paranoid really, looking for the Preventers' agent and he was starting to have all his people looking for him or her, not just him.

Duo knew that it was dangerous game that he was playing, but this was the most alive that he had felt in years. He and Heero were pulling one over on the authorities, like they used to when they were Gundam Pilots, when they both thought that they could do anything that they wanted. Ivan knew that something was going to happen, but he didn't know where or when and it was annoying him. Duo knew that it was only a matter of time when this blew up on him and he wanted to make the most of it before the crash came. He knew that he was going to fall hard and fast when it happened, but he had no regrets.

Heero was silent as Duo guided him deeper into the satellite. He had only been to the upper two levels of it, avoiding the levels where the unskilled laborers worked and lived. There was also another section of the place that was isolated from the rest, with a population that was as isolated from the people that lived here, as this satellite was from Earth. From the exploring that he had done in the databases, it was small group of about thirty people.

"What are you doing?" Heero asked Duo as they approached the isolated section.

"You should know the whole story," Duo told him. "Ivan may be a bastard...."

"But?" Heero asked him.

Duo wasn't defending the man, fortunately. Heero didn't like the fact that he treated Duo as if he was a piece of property. He saw the collar that Duo wore and the amused way that Braymer treated him when they were in private. The man stopped by whenever he felt like it to demand that Duo read tarot cards for him. Duo to Braymer was an amusing pet, slightly higher in his mind than the women that he had shoved him in with. In public, Braymer treated Duo like one of the techs and mercenaries, Braymer was courteous to Duo because of the skills that he had, but Heero knew that he didn't respect Duo.

"What happened here..." Duo started. He took a deep breath. "You should talk to some of the people that know what happened."

Heero shook his head, knowing that it wasn't a good idea to talk about it in public. He knew where some of the listening devices were, because he had searched for the program that was controlling them. He didn't do anything but memorize their locations and erase any evidence that he had been there. Changing things meant that someone might find out look for other things that been changed and tighten security on the network.

Duo opened the airlock into a section that Heero had never seen before.

"What..." Heero started

"Most people think of it as Ivan's dumping grounds," Duo said.

Most of the ESPers that Ivan took had been rescued from the streets or ratholes that had called themselves mental hospitals. After being told that they were crazy for years, most of them believed it. They didn't want to be 'normal' or had forgotten how. Then there were the ones that this area was the safest place for them because they were overwhelmed with experiencing images from everything that they touched. They knew what to avoid if they stayed here.

"I spent a couple weeks here in the beginning," Duo said thoughtfully. "Before I knew what had happened, who had me. I knew it wasn't the government and that was about it."

It had been bad. It reminded him of the time that he had gotten captured and Heero had to rescue him. He wondered briefly if Heero was here to rescue him now. He didn't think so. And he didn't need to be rescued, damn it!

"It was after that time, I started cooperating with Ivan. Being here, getting flashes off these people 24/7, almost drove me insane. Or insaner," Duo added with a wry grin. "My own apartment was nice. Not a lot of people around were good. There had been an old lady...she was the one that gave me my first tarot deck. She used to be his Seer, but she was old and he wanted another one. I took to that faster and easier than I had to piloting. I got used to this place over time..."

Duo shrugged off his memories and went to find someone that was very important for Heero to talked to or at least listen to. Talking to Karl was difficult at best. He just had to figure out where he was from the vision that he had had of him.

"We better go this way," Duo said, skirting a couple people that were passed out on the floor.

Heero had been struck by the odd smell that permeated the place. It wasn't bad, but it was strange. Duo had called it the smell of insanity. He believed it. He hadn't seen a sane person in here since he walked through that airlock. He wanted to leave after an hour and couldn't figure out how Duo had survived two weeks here.

Heero looked at the old man that was sitting in front of him. The man was clean, but looked like he had been on the streets for years from the condition of his body. Most of the people that he had seen in this section of the satellite were like that. They were pitiful more then anything. It had taken almost an hour to find him. The place wasn't that big, but Duo was having a hard time here. Heero was certain it was because Duo was being overwhelmed by the people that were here, by their thoughts or something like that.

"This is Karl," Duo told him. "The dead talk to him. Doesn't matter where it happened, they keep finding him here. Ivan found him too and brought him here. With enough alcohol, he doesn't hear them anymore. But sometimes Ivan needs him to talk to certain people. "

Heero looked at him. He didn't want to think about that. Karl looked like he was a drunk, but someone was also caring for him. Caring for most of the people that were here, even though most of them looked like they were barely functioning.

"And what do they tell him?" Heero asked quietly. Duo had brought him here for a reason. It wasn't because he was enjoying this either.

"They tell me about how they died," Karl said. "They don't leave. Not the ones that feels guilty. Not the ones that were here."

"Here?" Heero repeated.

"The Alliance...they fight dirty," Karl muttered.

"They're gone," Heero protested.

"Not the dead," Karl shot back. "Nor the ones that got themselves killed for being asses."

"The ESUN isn't that much different from the old Alliance," Duo said. "The name is almost the same. The same people are in power also. Nothing really changed, did it?"

"But..." Heero started.

"This place made viruses," Karl announced. "All sorts of nasty shit. Plus it was one of the places that tinkered with people. Figures that..."

"What happened?" Heero asked. He knew that Duo knew the story from the look in his eyes and it wasn't pretty.

"Someone got a conscious or got stupid," Karl said. "Or both. But what happened was that the Alliance wanted to take out a couple of colonies that were causing trouble. Take them out and make it look like an accident. They were going to let loose a half dozen nasty viruses."

"Sort of what they wanted to do with Wufei's colony," Duo explained, "but Treize stopped it. This happened about twenty years before that, I think that this was where they got the idea."

"Was this one of them?" Heero asked.

Karl shook his head. "They...this was the place were the nasty things were made. Full viral facilities to cook up whatever you wanted to ail someone else, But it was supposed to be for research only. Not for the military."

"They didn't..." Heero started.

"They refused," Karl told him. "When that happened...the Alliance military invaded. There was fighting and containment was breached. The Alliance ended up opening the entire thing to space."

"What do you mean?" Heero asked in horror.

Karl looked at him and his voice changed. "They're overriding the 'locks," he cried out. "The bastards...they're going to kill us all!"

Heero realized that this wasn't Karl talking, but he didn't know what was happening besides strange.

"The children!" Karl continued in a different pitch. "The nursery...the 'lock's opening... NOOOOOO!!!"

Duo didn't say anything, but handed the older man the bottle of vodka that he had brought with him. He started drinking it greedily, wanting the numbness and oblivion that it could give him. Heero didn't blame the man; he was horrified listening to it. Karl probably had it echoing in his brain since it happened. Heero wondered what else Karl had been told by the ghosts that talked to him.

Heero stared at the two of them. "How many?" he asked flatly.

He knew that he just had heard a woman that had lost her child or children to what had happened.

Duo looked at him. "Three thousand. Full complement for this place, women and children, entire families lived here. All gone. Whatever happened...the military decided that hard vacuum was the answer. They could have gotten the kids out. They were nowhere near the fighting or the labs. But the Alliance slaughtered them and then covered it up. Records show that the poor souls that died here for them were listed as missing in action. The soldiers' families were never told what had happened to them."

"You don't know," Heero automatically protested,

"Records survived," Duo snarled at him. "Records that shouldn't have been found. The ESUN had the Preventers start sending people here once they figured that out. While the people died, the computers hummed along merrily for years. The place is run on atomics. No real maintenance needed. Ivan found this place and took it over. I don't know what happened and the dead are just as confused, but the Alliance lost this place. After they butchered everyone here...they forgot about it."

"Just like they forgot about us," Karl muttered. "Just a simple test. There are no right or wrong answers."

Heero didn't like the sound of that. Everyone had kept saying that to him when he was being tested. Karl looked to be in his midsixties, but alcohol aged you. Karl could be any age from his thirties to his seventies. But Heero knew that Karl had been tested, been modified in some way and then sent back out on the street, because he wasn't goo