RATE: NC-17 ish for adult content and some violence
PAIR: 1x2x1, 5x9 (mentioned)
CLICHES: Myths, Imprisonment, Courtship Rituals (kind of)
WARN: AU, lime, sap, light angst, Duo torture, squick, minor character death implied
DESC: Heero is a Nereid, a member of the Royal Guard, and in love with Duo Maxwell, can they overcome the all the odds to be together?
NOTES: shamelessly borrowed lyrics to "Slow Life" by Grizzly Bear, 'single quotes and italics' indicate Nereid sign language, "double quotes and italics" indicate Nereid speech, :colons: indicate thoughts, //double slashes// indicate memories.
DISCLAIMER: don't know 'em, not making any money off it.
Thanks to Selena Barton for beta reading.

The Lost City
by Stargazerlily

"Your Honor, in the case of Maxwell vs. Maxwell, we the jury find Anne Maxwell not guilty by reason of insanity."

The courtroom erupted in noise, a vast majority of them jeers directed at the defense table. There, a statuesque brunette woman was wracked with shuddering sobs. She knew she was free. Not scot free, but pretty damn close to it. Her lawyer had explained that a plea of insanity, if successful, would result in being institutionalized. Anne looked across the aisle at the greying man sitting at the plaintiff's table and sneered at him. Although he had clearly won this battle, she was bound and determined to win the war.

The presiding judge hammered his gavel several times to restore order.

"This court finds Anne Maxwell not guilty by reason of insanity. I hereby sentence the defendant to fifteen years at the Saint Gabriel Institute. No parole shall be granted until passing a full psychiatric examination. This case is closed."

She got as much as she'd hoped for in that verdict and the ensuing sentence. Anne knew she would never get a full acquittal after getting caught literally and figuratively red-handed.

An immaculately dressed lawyer appeared before Anne. He offered her his hand and lead her down the gauntlet of enraged human rights activists, angry onlookers, and the flashing bulbs of the media. She was escorted through an even larger throng outside, all eagerly awaiting the court's decision. Reporters flapped their microphones at her as television crews thrust their cameras under her nose with perverted eagerness to show the world their very own version of Beverly Allitt.

:Just a few years, old man. Another decade or two that that little incubus hell spawn shall pollute the earth with his every breath and my sweet sister shall rot in her grave. Just a few short years and I will have my revenge, old man.:

***Ten Years Ago***

The sun was shining like a diamond in the sky. Just the sparkles coming off the waves left me dazzled. Sally was always telling me, in her most severe Doctor Voice, I'd go blind if I looked at it too much, but how could you not look? We lived on a boat and were surrounded by water all the time! Besides, she wasn't even a real doctor yet. I think she liked to throw her weight around because she thought she could get away with it. She might have been low man on the totem pole, but I was just a little kid and she figured that meant she was The Boss of Me. She'd find out she had another thing coming when she went to bed tonight. I had a bucket of live crabs with her name all over it and they were going right into her bunk after supper tonight.

It was summer vacation and we just arrived at the spot where some big wig client wanted Howard to look for some Spanish Stallions or something. I loved being on vacation while Howard was working. All the machines on the Juggernaut were huge and I liked the smell of the oil, the roar of the engine, and most of all: the secret pictures from the secret world under the water.

Everyone was inside, futzing with their equipment and getting ready to start their big project tomorrow, so I was enjoying the smell of the ocean air and the feel of the cool breeze all by myself after lunch. But it got boring pretty quick. The breeze was cool, but the sun was glazing hot on my shoulders. Sally would probably get angry if I got another sunburn, so I decided to go for a swim.

I ran inside to my little cubby hole of a cabin and yanked on my trunks. On the way back to the deck, I stopped by the computer lab, but everyone looked real busy so I just went on by.

There was no one around when I got back to the deck, either, so I took advantage of it. Howard hated it when I walked along the polished wood banister. I could never understand it, the dang thing was wider than my foot and if I fell, well... why would anyone be on a ship if they couldn't swim?

I hopped up. The wood felt grainy under my feet from the salt left behind after the sea spray kicked up on the ride out to wherever we were had dried. The wood was also pretty dark, so it got real hot real quick. I was just turning around to walk back to the stern of the ship when...

"DUO MAXWELL, WHAT DO YO--"

Was all I heard of Sally's angry outburst. She surprised me and that made me fall headlong into the water. It was a hell of a lot colder than I was used to and kind of shocked me into being stock still. I looked up through the squibbly water and saw Sally hanging over the side of the ship, but she got smaller and smaller as I sank lower and lower.

Finally, I adjusted to the cold and was able to move around a bit. I had always been real good at holding my breath, so I decided to give Sally a little scare. Thought that was the least she deserved after scaring me right off the boat. I swam down and down and down.

I knew I had gone pretty deep when the light started to fade. Lack of light wasn't a problem, however; I could glow. It was really cool. No one else on the Juggernaut could glow and I learned real quick that land people would look at you funny if you mentioned it. But none of the Sweepers seemed to mind and it was dead useful when I had to go all the way to the head to pee in the middle of the night. It looked like midnight in the water, so I turned myself on and glowed a cool kind of purple color.

Like most trips I took under the water, there wasn't much to see so far away from the shore. It got kind of old kind of fast. Today wasn't much different. I was just about to turn back when I thought I saw another flash.

Now, I had grown up surrounded by all sorts of wild and weird ocean stuff. I knew about a lot other things, things that were definitely not human, things that could glow or squirt or bite. Every glowing fish I'd seen was usually yellow or green and usually pretty small. Naturally, I was curious as all get out when I saw another huge flash of blue streak by directly under me.

I swam as fast as I could, straight down, trying to reach it, glowing for all I was worth to light my way.

If I had been on land, it would have been a yelp, but since I was underwater, it just came out as so many bubbles when something closed around my arm. At first, I tried to fight it off, but that just got my other arm trapped in an equally tight grip. Then, I heard the most amazing sound I'd ever heard. It sounded like the really small church bells I'd heard when Howard and I happened to be at the house in the Azores. That wasn't all that often, which is probably why I liked the sound so much. Just hearing it made me calm down a little.

The bubbles I had blown had cleared up and in front of me, I could see another... well, what looked like a boy, dimly lit up in my purple light. I was stunned to encounter another person in the water. He certainly wasn't a member of Howard's Sweepers and I knew there weren't any other boats in the area. Suddenly, a million intricate dots and rings and lines lit up almost blazingly blue all over him.

I smiled. Right then, I knew that he was something special. Something like me. We checked each other out, surprised and pleased to discover something so similar but still kind of different from ourselves.

I could see his fin-like feet and webbed hands; they looked a lot like mine except maybe bigger. We had the same kind of patterns on our skin and they lit up, purple for me and blue for him. His face was more different. The nose wasn't very pronounced and he had some crazy ears that looked like they belongs in a science fiction movie. It looked like he didn't wear any clothing save for a few strings of beads around his neck. My eyes traveled down, almost afraid of looking past the navel but... there wasn't a navel to see and everything below was smooth and dark. I guess his eyes were on the same top-to-bottom path mine had been on because I felt him snap the waist band of my trunks. I slapped his hand away each time he tried to peek under the fabric. He turned a tight flip and I saw from tail bone to shoulder blade a pair of scalloped fins stuck out of his back like a set of sail fish's dorsal fins, but not so tall. Each spine glowed from tip to base.

Then, he slipped quickly down and out of my sight. I turned around, looking for him. He tagged me on the back. I turned again, trying to tag him back but he was too fast for me. We chased each other around... or I guess I mostly just chased him. It was fantastic. He lead me in loop de loops and deep enough to come to some crazy looking towers. On one pass, I reached out and touched one only to have it break off and fall away under my fingers. I swam away as fast as I could, but I heard the tinkling of church bells behind me. He had seen what I had done and was laughing. It was a rush to swim and play like the kid I was.

My time was running out, though. It seemed my new friend wasn't concerned about air, but I knew I was just about out of it. I wanted to communicate that to my new friend somehow, but even though I had stopped, he had kept racing ahead. Now, he was just a dim blob somewhere below me. Waving was the best I could do, so I furiously waved both hands in a typical 'goodbye' gesture and starting heading up. Seconds later, I felt him clip by my side and gesture for me to follow him. I just shook my head and pointed up, still kicking my big feet in that direction. He looked a little crestfallen, but fell in at my side.

Around us, the water grew slowly brighter and the ripples of water that always reminded me of the chocolate coating on a candy bar finally came into view. You could almost see each ray of sunlight as it fought to sink deeper into the water.

I stopped for a second, and this time I gestured for him to come with me. He was frozen next to me and staring at my head. I wondered if I had gotten a blood nose or something, that happened sometimes and was a real pain in the butt. Except he had reached out his hand and touched my hair.

Personally, I didn't care if my hair was long or short, but Howard refused to let anyone get haircuts while on the Juggernaut. Anyone who fancied shorter hair had to blow up the dinghy and row themselves at least fifty feet away from the ship (and Howard would check the distance with all his work instruments to make sure you got that far away). That was too much of a bother for me, so I just waited to get it cut each time we went back to the Azores. It had been a while since we'd be on land, so my hair was just a little past my shoulder.

My friend must have liked seeing it wafting in the water because he was grinning widely as he played with it a little. It did look kind of pretty with the weak sunlight hitting it and making it look kind of like liquid pennies.

But I really was out of time. My lungs started to burn when I had gone too long without air. I pointed to the surface and waved for him to come with me. He stopped smiling and looked blankly at the wavy underside of the water surface. I pointed again and he responded by shaking his head and pointing down.

I couldn't explain it, but I was sad. I didn't want to leave and it looked like he didn't want me to go. So, I did the next best thing. I reached round behind my neck and unclasped the simple golden cross I always wore (Howard had said it belong to my mother. I wore it to make him happy, but it didn't have any real special meaning to me apart from being... well, mine) and held it out to my blue friend. He eyed it for a split second before taking it and fumblingly getting it clasped around his own neck. The gold of it stood out like from the dull blues and greens and browns of his other necklaces. Then, he reciprocated and pulled off one of the strings from his neck. I was kind of relieved it wasn't one of the ones that was covered in beads, but instead had a small disc with a turtle on it. He slipped it around my neck.

I smiled at him and waved one last time. He mimicked my gesture and watched me ascend to the surface. I swam backwards most of the way, waving most vigorously right before I broke through the surface. Then, he vanished back into the depths and I swam back to the Juggernaut.

"Hey, Howard! Hoooooowaaaaard!"

I hollered for my grandpa even as I made for the cabin of the boat. Both he and Sally came tripping up the stairs and both their eyes were all red.

"Why are your eyes all red, Howard?"

"Why are my..." My grandpa's silvery grey pointed beard and a matching doughnut on top quivered with... something. Probably, it was anger.

"DUO! We're here not ten minutes and what's the very first thing you do? Fall into the water, that's what!"

"Sally made me fall!" I was indignant. I would not let Howard blame that on me!

"You were dancing all over the banister and you know you shouldn't young man,' Sally cried. "And then, you just sank and sank and sank and didn't come back up. I saw you!"

"Duh! Of course I went down, I wanted to!"

"Duo, it's dangerous," Howard said sternly.

"Nu-uh, I was fine. I met a friend down there, too!"

"Your head is so chock-full of cockamamie stories about pirates and dolphins and god knows what else. I didn't even know there were other ships in the area..."

"Pfft! It wasn't a dolphin, he was a kid. Like me! He even glows. But he's got fins on his back and weird ears. He can swim faster than I can and he showed me some cool towers."

"Duo, there are no towers for miles!"

"The rock towers under the boat. Can't you see 'em on your bath-o-meter?"

"It's a baTHYmetry map and I know they're there. How do YOU know about them? They're too far to reach even with scuba gear, which I know you sneak out sometimes, by the way."

"Aww, I was just skin diving today."

"FOR HALF AN HOUR?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"DUO, no one can hold their breath for half an hour."

"But I did. And my friend can do it even longer. Maybe forever. Look what he gave me."

I held out the little turtle coin he had given me. He was the first kid I'd ever met, actually met. And he was just like me, kind of. Or maybe I was like him, kind of. And had more jewelry than Barbie, probably. The coin was real cool and I was going to put it on a different string and make it into a bracelet (bracelets were way cooler than necklaces anyway). That way, I'd always be able to see it and think of my friend; I hoped I got to see him again.

"Oh, god."

"What is it, Howard?"

"Duo, that coin... where did you get it?"

"I just told you, I got it from the kid I met at the towers under the Juggernaut."

"Duo... have you ever heard of the Nereid?"

"Like that movie 'Revenge of the Nerds'?"

"No." Howard screwed up his face. I knew that face. It meant he thought I was being ridiculous. Except I wasn't the one asking about nerds.

"The Nereid. They are people that live under the sea," Howard started. I could tell I was in for a long speech and sat right down on the steps and toyed with my new coin. Once Howard got started, I knew it was best to just let him keep on going till he was done.

***The Present***

Quatre Winner had fallen in love with the ocean after his very first trip to the aquarium. Ever since, he had pursued anything and everything that brought him closer to the water. He eventually graduated from a top tier university and continued to graduate research at the Romefeller Academy of Oceanography where he began working on a doctorate. He was conducting his dissertation research under the tutelage of the Doktor S and his small team of scientists, who were renowned for their near anthropological approach to studying dolphins and whales. This opportunity had brought him closer to realizing his dream of making a device that would allow humans to communicate with dolphins. Now, he and the rest of the team had embarked on a fantastic excursion to put the team's research to the test.

It was an idyllic day. The sun glittered white hot over the crests of the waves, a light wind kept the air brisk despite being the height of summer, and the ocean stretched out endless and cobalt blue around them. Before long, the team would reach their destination: the mid-Atlantic ridge. That was as close to perfect as they could get for conducting their research. It was far removed enough to avoid almost any hassle from other vessels. Being practically dead center in the ocean would usually mean only slim chances of running into cetaceans like whales or dolphins. However, the continental spreading at the ridge had created several large underwater mountains and quite a few thermal vents. Shallower water and warmer temperatures even in the middle of the ocean meant an abundance of biological activity, or a veritable buffet for large sea mammals. The only drawback being that the abundance of smaller fishes brought about an equal abundance of predators; the most worrisome of those being sharks. Nonetheless, the area was reportedly high in dolphin activity, which is why the crew of the Sandrock had chosen that site to test their dolphin talk box.

Although they had arrived at the site too late to start any real work that day, the signs had been good. Their ship had encountered frolicking pods of dolphins almost the entire trip from the Azores to the ridge, and they had found a family of dolphins seemingly at rest a few knots from the ship. The venture promised to be a good one. With spirits high, they ran through an obligatory systems check and a few of the younger members went for a swim before it was time for supper and a chat before bed.

"Hey, budge up." Quatre heard a deep, melodic voice say. He obligingly slid over and Trowa stretched out beside him on the bow. "Do you know what star that is?"

High above, Venus was sitting in the silvery crescent of the waxing moon. Those two celestial bodies were only neighbors about once a year. This year's coupling was especially comical: the bent sliver of moon looked even more like a Cheshire cat's smile with Venus serving as a beauty mark a little above and to the right.

"You do know it's not really a star, right?" Quatre returned.

"Yeah, I know." He wrapped his arms around Quatre and they were quiet for a while. Waves lapped against the side of the ship and rocked it back and forth. Broken lines of moonlight glittered on the water's surface. After a while, Trowa broke the quiet.

"You know," he hedged. Quatre obliged him to continue with a hum. "I was just thinking about if something should ever happen to one of us --"

"No," Quatre bit out. He belatedly noticed how Trowa's free hand had wrapped around his left hand, his fingers -- specifically his left ring finger -- were being massaged by his brunette lover. "Trowa, we've been over this a million times."

"Not a million," he groused back.

"Whatever. I can not, so stop asking and pawn that ring. That's money better spent on... just about anything else. Take me to dinner, buy yourself a new car, donate it to friggen charity."

"Okay, okay. Can't blame me for trying. People change, you know?"

"I'm sure some of them do, but my father's not one of them. And he's got the whole Muslim community backing him up."

"Okay," Trowa hedged, "what if I like the idea that we'd have physical symbols of our commitment? Did you know, after our first time together, you forgot your toothbrush at my place? Every damn time I looked at that little stick of plastic, it made me smile. You make me smile. I liked having a reminder of what we share."

"We'll get tattoos," Quatre said, and Trowa could practically hear his lover rolling his eyes and laughed.

"Oh sure, because there's nothing wrong with that. How about something with a little more ritual?"

"Such as?" Asked Quatre.

"Hmm," Trowa took back Quatre's hand. He wove their fingers together and raised them to eye level. "Isn't henna used to decorate the bridal couple in the Arabic world?"

"Yes. It washes off, though."

"Sure, but... it's not damnable. I think it would be fun to get up in the morning once a week or however often it takes and decorate each other."

Quatre pulled their hands down and lifted his head off Trowa's shoulder, looking him square in the eye.

"Seriously, Trowa."

"Seriously, Quatre." He closed the gap and planted a sweet kiss on his lover's lips.

"Come on," Quatre pulled away to speak. "We should get to bed. We've got enough on our plates right now and I need my rest... and... thank you, Trowa."

"Thank you, yourself," Trowa returned with a peck.

They gained their feet and picked their way to the stern of the ship. The galley between the side of the ship and the railing was skinny enough that they had to turn their backs to the ship and face the sea, walking sideways to pass. If they hadn't, Quatre doubted he would have noticed. He stopped, planted his hands on the railing, and leaned over for a better view. Trowa bumped into him, but got shushed by Quatre, who pointed to the open water.

"Listen," said Quatre. "I hear splashing."

Trowa scrunched up his eyes and scrutinized the water. The sliver of moon was just bright enough to reveal something slapping the water surface several yards away. Then, they could hear a faint song, like the call of a whale.

"I'll get the translator, you keep an eye on it!" Quatre said and started shuffling as quickly and quietly as he could afford. Sound traveled easily through even the hulking bulk of their research vessel and he really did not want to waste this opportunity to try out their device without all the interference from the other machinery and well-meaning, but oft-meddling scientists.

In a matter of mere minutes, both Quatre and Trowa had donned their swim trunks and had their device ready on the deck. Amazingly, their subject had not left. In fact, though the splashing had subsided, the calls became much more audible. Quickly, they got themselves to the swim step at the boat's stern and were easing into the water. Quatre handed Trowa a snorkel and mask. Soon, they were gliding through the water to where they had last seen the splashes, each with one hand on either side of their machine.

"Here goes nothing," Trowa said as he flipped the switch. So far, their latest device had only been tested with dolphins. A small part of him knew how incredibly foolish it was to swim out into open water with a whale in the vicinity, but a larger part knew how rare the opportunity was. He kept his fingers crossed as the device hummed to life. He got a start when a hand suddenly clamped down on his arm.

"LOOK!" Quatre forcibly moved Trowa into what the blonde deemed a better position and planted his face under the water. Several yards below them, they could see a pair of dim illuminated spots. It looked as if they were circling each other. By the time their breath had run out, they had definitely noticed the lights had come closer. The whale song had also grown in volume and a second, slightly reedier pitched voice joined the first.

Although neither Quatre nor Trowa could guess what kind of bioluminescent fish of that apparent size might be doing in such shallow water, they guessed they were being hunted by the whales. Quatre gestured to his partner to dive. They filled their lungs with as much air as possible and sunk below the waves. As they dove deeper into the water, the flashing fish things flitted in and out of their range of view. Being such large creatures, they were naturally rather fast. It was too dark to make out anything beyond their light patterns. One had pale blue markings and the other's were sort of a periwinkle purple. As they zipped around, Quatre had activated their talk box's recording device, which had both audio and visual recording functions. He was hoping to get a read on the whales song, but despite hearing twin voices, the animals seemed to stay well away from him and Trowa. Disappointing though it was to not get any footage of the whales, it was probably safer considering they were just skin diving at night.

Just before their air ran out, they noticed the lighted fish had stopped moving. They were suspended unmoving in the water, as if frozen. Then, their luminescent markings slowly faded into the darkness and Quatre and Trowa lost all signs of the fish. The whale song had also ceased. There wasn't time to inspect further. Quatre snapped their machine off and went for the surface. Trowa followed closely behind.

"What... what were those fish?"

"I have no idea. You caught them on the box, right?"

"Yes, but I don't think there was any visual on the whales."

"What kind of whales do you think they were?"

"I thought you might be able to tell me, their song was kind of odd, wasn't it."

"Yeah," Trowa said as he grabbed the talk box and played back their recordings. "It sounds kind of hollow -- kind of thin."

"Well, we'll be able to study it more tomorrow. I'm getting cold, let's head in."

First thing the next morning, Quatre and Trowa had handed their findings over to the resident experts. Doctor J, who served as both the expedition leader and headed up the musculoskeletal research team, replayed the footage and scratched his head. He was the leading biologist on the expedition and had more than forty years of experience under his belt. Nonetheless, he was completely befuddled by the video he was watching. Likewise, Doktor S, who was a specialist on the electronics end of the talk box, could not make heads or tails of the whale songs Quatre and Trowa had clandestinely recorded the previous night.

"Well, boys, I've spent just about all morning watching that clip over and over and I can't come up with anything."

The floor was open for suggestions.

"Some kind of eel, like a rattail?" Trowa offered.

"Puh. Use your head, boy! Unless it's a mutant, double tailed eel; it's no rattail," said Doctor J.

"Definitely not. They aren't found in such shallow water. Probably explode from lack of pressure." Said Professor G, another marine biology specialist.

"Maybe a sea pen, then?" Quatre chimed in.

"Not a chance, with swimming like that. Not even a rip tide -- the closest of one of those, mind you, is hundreds of miles away -- could make a damn sea pen do all that dancing."

"Dancing..." Doctor J repeated. "Now that you mention it... it does look like dancing, doesn't it. What dances in the ocean?"

"Well, whatever those things are," said Doktor S, "Romefeller's not paying us to unravel all the mysteries of the ocean. They're paying us to communicate with dolphins. I say we get cracking on just that."

I was swimming as fast as I could. My air was just about up and I felt the familiar burn starting to curl around my lungs. The surface was a dim blue wash a few meters above me but I knew I had lost the race. His song was already too close and then, a pair of hard muscled arms snaked around my middle.

Heero, my Nereid friend, had come up incredibly fast as per usual, and from shoulder to waist, he was wrapped around me. I nestled inside that sort of 'human' cage. I smiled partly because I just enjoyed being with Heero. A bigger part, however, felt the electric thrill of being plastered to his incredible naked torso and feeling the near erotic pumping of his legs as he kicked hard to maintain sufficient speed. And then...

We burst through the surface of the water and cut a smooth arc in the air. Heero had spun so that we could see the crescent moon shining above us. It was magic. Sea jumping, like many things, was a lot more fun with Heero.

As we fell back towards the water, his arms tightened around me. I took it for the warning it was and inhaled deeply. We shot down into the water and went deep. The stamina he possessed was practically unbelievable, except that I was privy to these kinds of displays rather a lot. He turned us on a dime and we went careening back up. With more time to build up speed together, we got going much faster than the first time. Breaking the surface was much more explosive the second time around and we had a lot more air time. Heero filled that space with a kiss.

We fell back to the water again, fairly gracelessly, and he released me. I went lazily back to the surface and tread water. I noticed the pale violet circles glowing on my arms. Usually, it wasn't a problem to control my bioluminescence no matter what my emotional state. Being alone with Heero, however, made it too much of a bother. Then, I felt his smooth hands caressing my legs and his lips pressing against my bare stomach. Obviously, he was feeling as affected as I was: he was glowing blue just below the surface of the water before me. His gentle touches quickly turned more arduous. Finally, my partner surfaced, grinning exactly like the cat who got the cream.

'Nice night for a jump, huh?' I signed to him.

'Nice night for a lot of things, Duo.' He said and kissed me hard. I knew exactly what those kinds of kisses lead to. I did my best to match each press, bite, and squeeze. Perhaps we got a bit too carried away, and sex in open water was damn hard for a half Nereid like myself. Getting caught by someone on the ship was the only thing keeping my brain somewhat tethered to that reality. And I'd suffered that particular embarrassment one too many times to not be cautious.

Fortunately (in the long run, but unfortunately in the more immediate sense) Heero was more on the ball, thanks to his more keen senses. He pulled back and pressed a webbed finger to my parted lips. I licked it. He shook his head and used his free hand to sign 'listen' to me. I did and what I heard was nothing short of heart stopping.

A boat. There was another ship in the area. A big one, by the sound of the waves lapping against the sides of it. But more worrisome than that was the sound of a couple of humans. I turned around and cursed my stupidity. The vessel was huge and decked out for some serious research if the cranes, towers, and antennae were any indication. It wasn't quite as big as Howard's Juggernaut, but it was obvious they were equipped to stay at sea for a couple months. I strained my ears to try and catch what the people were saying. I could make out two male voices. One of them had said something about getting a translator. To their own ears, they were probably being rather stealthy, but I could hear one of them padding across the deck and the other hauling himself over the side of their boat. Good thing, too, because that gave us time to disappear.

I took hold of Heero's hand and used my other to sign 'Atlantis' to him. I filled my lungs with fresh air and we slipped silently below the water just before the humans jumped into the ocean themselves. We were well deep by the time they found our make-out place, but I suddenly realized how bright our glowing rings would look from their perspective. I forced myself to calm down, which was still rather hard with Heero right next to me but seeing his blue glow all but extinguished shamed me into turning 'off.'

My heart was pounding as he lead us to his home, Atlantis, thousands of feet under the sea.

When Heero and I swam up, the moon pool lit up cool blue. The air was tropical hot and smelled like a fresh sea breeze. We hauled ourselves out and dried off (well, Heero insisted on drying both of us off) and headed out. Most of the time, I didn't mind one bit darting through the beautiful twisty tunnels of Atlantis. I felt a lot like the rebellious teenager I rarely got to be. It was fun, sneaking around doing something you wanted to do but knew you'd catch hell for if anyone found out about it. But sometimes, like tonight, it was more of a bother. My own mental hamster was running ragged on his wheel thinking about what those divers were up to and there was some bee in Heero's bonnet as well. After shooting down a few passageways, we were finally safe in his personal chambers.

No sooner had the door to his inner chamber been sealed shut than I found my arms and mouth entirely occupied with my partner. We fumbled towards his futon-like mattress and collapsed into its soft folds. Kissing Heero would never get old to me and he was nothing if not an accommodating lover. Unlike the stolen moments we had at the surface, these kisses were much slower and that much hotter. I could tell I was in for a long night of heaven on earth and gave in to the indulgence.

Nereid have a very literal afterglow, and I was basking in Heero's. With feather light touches, I traced the circles and pressed my fingertips to the dots that decorated his pearly skin. It was rare to get so much alone time, what with me still living above the waves on the Sweeper's salvage ship with Howard, and Heero busy with his life as a member of the Nereid Royal Guard below. Only now, after the fact, did I let myself get a little distracted by what all the extra effort today may have cost Heero in the eyes of his duty.

Dereliction of duty wasn't such a big issue. Heero took his role as a guardian of the Nereid very seriously. What would cause him trouble was associating with me because of the structure of Nereid society. Atlantis is a very homogenous place and the social system is rather exclusive. It also doesn't help that, for whatever reason, a relatively low ratio of females to males has apparently plagued the Nereid for generations. That lead to the current social status quo whereby Nereid in the higher circles of the society are usually honor bound to produce as many off spring as possible. And the Royal Guard's circle is more than high enough to make this a common practice among its members.

A common practice, but not quite mandatory. Just because there had never been a guard who had not done his level best to fulfill that particular role didn't mean there would never be one. Still, I knew Heero and I knew he would place the greater good of his people above his personal desires. And I whole heartedly -- or at least whole brained-ly (how could my heart ever condone the love of my life taking another as a mate, however rational the action was?) -- supported his decision.

Still, it was my deepest, most secret wish that he would just kind of... elope with me to the human world. The logistics of a Nereid living exclusively among humans was rather laughable, but I had it all worked out. We'd stay with Howard and the Sweepers and eventually either take over the business or start our own. We'd be our own kind of secret weapon in deep sea exploration. Hell, that's exactly the bill I was fitting for Howard right now. I could never bring myself to tell that wild dream to Heero, however. As much as he loathed the general lack of tolerance the rest of his race showed to me, he held his home and his rituals in the highest regard. I knew he would sacrifice himself for me in a heartbeat, but I also knew he would never compromise his people just for my or his own sake.

It was an admirable, if irksome, quality.

Suddenly, there was a thunderous roaring in the room. It sounded like nothing so much as a disgruntled wookie exploding. Mere seconds after my silent reverie was broken, Heero was up in a flash and crouched protectively over me.

'"Wufei? What brings you here, brother?" Heero relaxed his stance, but still kept himself between me and his visibly agitated friend.

'"Spend anymore time away, and you'll have missed every session of these Gatherings. While your presence was not required for each one, it is most definitely a requisite for today's final one. Seeing as how you requested it."

"Yes, I am aware. I will be there."

"I know you will. I trust you will not lose your head."

Wufei was another member of the Royal Guard, happily married to a female named Noin. He was, perhaps, Heero's oldest friend. The graceful Nereid throne turned his liquid black eyes to me and smiled. "Duo," he croaked. 'Unless you fancy a tongue lashing by less open Nereid, be careful when you leave. The passages are bustling about from the Gatherings my brother has been ignoring.' He signed to me. The visual language was by far easier for me to understand than the whale song like speech they used amongst each other. "Be safe, friend."

I nodded dumbly. Wufei left, With a parting glare at Heero.

'You requested a Gathering? I thought you hated those. Why are you playing hooky?'

"Because," Heero rounded on me with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Someone distracted me."

He pinned me bodily to the mattress and stole a few more hot kisses before he relented and got out of bed.

'They're nothing for you to worry about.' He strode over to a low chest of drawers. Chains of baubles and other fancy decorations of the elite members of Nereid society tinkled as he opened one drawer. He pulled out several strands of golden finery and even more beaded strings and hastily slipped them round his neck. That was as dressed as the Nereid ever got. From the back of the top most drawer, he pulled out a pair of my extra swim trunks. Maybe it was terribly domestic, but it had thrilled me when he suggested he kept some of my clothes. In case of emergencies, you know. He sauntered back to me, swinging the trunks on his fingertip.

"Need more, Duo," he said, waving my trunks around importantly. 'Although honestly, I do not mind you staying bare. Shall I help you dress?'

'I think I'll manage. I snatched away my suit and quickly slid into it with a grimace. It was an old paisley number. 'How soon do you have to leave?'

'The sooner the better. I can't imagine Wufei would visit if he didn't want my immediate presence.'

'Should I wait until you're gone, try to avoid the crowds?' Heero sighed when I asked that. I knew he didn't like having to confront my semi-second class citizen status in Atlantis. I, however, was nothing if not practical on this particular situation and it was kind of irritating he wouldn't meet me on it.

'I don't want you to have to hide.'

'I'm not... hiding.'

'Yes, you are.'

'Alright. So what if I was? We both know it's not your custom to accept outsiders.'

'You're not an outsider! You are Nereid!'

'Only half,' I shrugged. 'It doesn't really bother me much anymore. I got what I wanted,' I smirked at him. 'Why do you let it bother you?'

'It bothers Wufei, too. It's not... just.'

'Well, you've tried to make them understand. You can lead an h-o-r-s-e to water, but you can't make him drink.'

'What's a "h-o-r-s-e"?'

I laughed and he frowned.

'Can you show me?'

'Sure, sure. Next time you're on the boat, I'll show you all about h-o-r-s-e.' I said the word as I signed it. Heero tried repeating it and, as usual, the vowel sounds were musical and the consonants were gurgled. He got full marks for trying in my book, anyway.

Heero pulled me into a fierce embrace and kissed me one more time. Then, it was time to go. He took the time to escort me back to the moon pool. En route, we passed a few very decorated Nereid hurrying about. Of course, it was my luck the king's sister, Princess Relena, would be among them. She was looking very regal with her glossy hair woven into two elaborate plaits that framed her wide-eyed face and layers upon layers of expensive looking necklaces that fell in delicate waves to where her navel would have been had she been a human.

"Captain Yuy," she purred with over coyness.

"Your Highness," Heero said with cool politeness. He and I both bowed deeply to her, although I bent much farther since I basically no standing in Nereid society.

"You shall have to hurry if you are to be on time for the Gathering. I hear you requested this last one."

I hated how she looked rather appreciatively up and down my partner's admittedly hot body. It was no secret that she wanted the Captain of the guard for her own mate. She generally regarded me as the man who tarnished her white knight's fine, shining armor. She and her little entourage did not bother to hide their distaste at seeing me, an outsider, in their city.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"The particular matter you wish to address," Relena shot a squinty eyed look in my direction, "is a concern for the Royal Family and all fellow Nereid. I trust the right course shall be chosen."

"I have every faith it shall be, Your Highness. Now, if you will excuse me. I must return Duo to the moon pool before I may go to the Great Hall."

"Captain Yuy," Relena said. The way she said his name would have gotten any straight man's blood hot. To my ears, however, her voice just grated. Thankfully, Heero, had kept an iron grip on my hand during the entire exchange.

When the princess had finally disappeared, we raced to the moon pool where we kissed goodbye one more time and went our separate ways.

"Ma'am," a cultured masculine voice addressed her from the door to her private study.

"Yes?" The director swiveled away from the picture window situated behind her desk. She leveled her blue-eyed gaze at her assistant, Treize Khushrenada.

"We have a tight beam transmission from one of the boxes on Doctor J's Sandrock expedition."

"Excellent. We shall convene in the laboratory?"

"Yes ma'am." He turned elegantly on his heel and exited. When the door clicked shut behind him and Director Une took up the telephone. On the other end of the line, a familiar voice picked up mid-ring.

"Ma'am?"

"Gather the rest of the team, Master O. Sandrock has encountered something."

"Understood."

The line went dead.

Une allowed herself a full minute of silent contemplation. It had been a long, hard haul. With the help of her colleague Treize, and a team of highly skilled scientists, Une was getting ever closer to realizing her dream.

For too long she had been working herself to the bone searching every nook and cranny of the ocean. Professionally, she professed a desire to help humans harness the as yet not fully tapped resources of the wild oceans. Personally, she had a somewhat different agenda. Nonetheless, hard work and determination had paid off. Her attitude had not only gotten her foot in Romefeller's door, which ranked among the most prestigious oceanographic institutes, but saw her rise quickly through the ranks until finally, she landed in the directorship.

Under her careful guidance, Romefeller spearheaded the movement to create advanced technology to allow for humans to both live and work comfortably beneath the waves. After setting the bar for underwater research, she dedicated herself to both unraveling the mysteries of the deep and of intelligence of larger sea creatures.

Although the most recent mission aboard the Sandrock had only been at sea for a few days, it was extremely encouraging that the newest acquisitions to her team, by the names of Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton, had already uncovered something. And while Une certainly enjoyed the fame and notoriety that came with her professional life, she was getting anxious to accomplish some of her more personal goals.

A cruel smile crossed her impeccably painted lips at the thought of scratching a long-neglected itch.

Despite still being early, the sun was beating down on my back and the top of my head. It was hot and a few beads of sweat rolled down my scalp. You know it's hot when your damn scalp is sweating, and I hated that slow creeping feeling. I spared the clouds hanging on the horizon a longing glance. Despite the heat, I was the resident mechanic for the Juggernaut and the engines needed a tune up. Howard had been complaining about it and I had put it off long enough. Working on the engine was a great time to think, though. Most of the rest of the crew seemed to assume I was far too absorbed in carburetors and coolant parts to talk. I wasn't about to set the record straight. Living on a ship, you get precious little time to yourself. And right then, I wanted to think.

My mind was puzzling over the two divers Heero and I had seen and by the mysterious 'gatherings' Heero was supposed to be attending. Both events raised a lot of questions. As far as I was concerned, the only notable thing this far out in the middle of the ocean was the Nereid city of Atlantis. Why anyone would come all the way out here to do anything was beyond me. Sure, the massif was pretty damned interesting from a scientific point of view. It had also been thoroughly studied ages ago. And Heero... there weren't really any secrets between us. He had been as eager to learn about the world above the ocean as I was keen to learn about his below it. Only one topic was potentially big enough to zip his lips: his fulfilling his obligations to the Nereid and taking a female mate to reproduce. Hearing Relena's thinly veiled talk and Heero's evasive answers about the Gatherings sat like a lump of lead in my stomach.

I wasn't such a wuss that when the thought of losing Heero like that crossed my mind, I'd shut down. Still, the idea was truly revolting to my thoroughly modern sensibilities. Thoroughly modern and human and ergo, flawed in the eyes of Nereid law. It was (going to be at any rate) so much spilt milk and not much I could do about it.

Feeling decidedly less giddy and hormonally charged than I had when I started working, I hauled myself out of the engine pit. Damn, I had spent longer down there than I had thought. It was easy to tell it wasn't midday yet. With any luck, I'd be able to slip up to my cabin and clean up before anyone saw me in the embarrassing shorts I was still wearing from last night. Suddenly, my stomach gurgled something fierce and I decided to pop into the galley for a quick bite to eat.

I sauntered through the doorway and stopped dead. Sitting there at the built in table was Howard and two young, handsome and unknown faces. There were business cards and papers strewn all over the table. Apparently, they had been in the middle of a rather interesting looking conversation and I had rudely interrupted it. Also, they were all kind of dressed up.

"Company!" I crowed, deciding with my typical alacrity to be shamelessly cheerful despite the layer of grease covering my skin and the flowery shorts.

"Duo, my boy! I wondered where you had gone off to," Howard said with a warm grin. His expression told me he wondered not a single whit about where I was. He knew. He always knew, it was uncanny how he could tell when I had been with Heero. I'd have to check myself out in the mirror sometime after having been to Atlantis to see if there was some kind of residual... something that always seemed to give me away.

"Please allow me to introduce ourselves." The two visitors shot out of their seats. "My name is Quatre Winner and this is my research partner, Trowa Barton."

The blonde, Quatre, stuck out his hand. As I shook hands, Howard gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head from his place standing behind the guests. It was barely a single sway from one side to the other, but I picked up on the silent message.

"Quatre, Trowa." I smiled and acknowledged them both with a nod. Howard was giving me mixed signals: he welcomed the two researchers on his ship and was engaged in some kind of discussion with them, but he wanted me to keep my webbed hands out of sight. "Looks like you're talking Howard's ear off over there."

"These lads were just asking me if I knew anyway to recover something they'd accidentally lost at sea."

"Oh, yes! Actually, you might think it's odd, but we found evidence that there is a lot of cetacean activity in this area. We have been developing a device that will translate a cetacean's clicks and whistles. Unfortunately, we lost one of our newest models overboard."

"Huh, how'd that happen?" I asked.

"One of the interns," Trowa said as if that explained it all. Which, come to think of it, it kind of did.

"And that's where the Sweepers come in," I guessed. Trowa nodded and Quatre smiled winningly but Howard just gave me another pointed look.

"I can't believe our luck!" Quatre said. He certainly seemed to have the gift of the gab. "We had no idea there were any other ships in the vicinity, and it turns out our accidental neighbors run a salvage ship!"

Howard then got up and pulled the coffee carafe from the coffee maker.

"Another cuppa?" He topped off everyone's mug. A mug appeared piping hot in front of me, too. "These fine gents have been researching dolphin communication."

"So... talking to dolphins, huh?" I charged ahead. "Well, the mountains along the ridge do get pretty high. That makes it easier for dolphins and the like to find food here. And they're much safer from the human element." I said.

"It started out as cetacean in general and we would like to develop devices to let us speak to the great whales, too. But for now, we have focused this latest version of our talk box on the dolphins. They make for a rather convenient subject to study, though."

"He likes swimming with dolphins is what he means," Trowa slipped in, grinning. Quatre blushed and looked scandalized. "But then again, so do I, they're playful. Free," he added wistfully.

"That they are," Howard agreed. "And how did you hear about the dolphins of the mid-Atlantic?"

"Quatre has a lot under his belt about the various water column ecosystems, and before he got turned on to the talk box, he was assisting on a project to remap the entire seabed."

"Yes, that's right. Being in the salvage business, you must know how fascinating the ocean floor is, yes?" Howard and I both nodded our heads. "I met Trowa at one of the university tours the seabed mapping team was conducting and I guess you could say we hit it off. And, yes, I was a little taken with the idea of getting paid to swim with dolphins."

"So who is funding your research now?" I asked.

"Romefeller, if you can believe that."

"Just take a gander at their ship over there if you don't! Floating advert for their field if I ever did see one," Howard said. I did look out the window. Maybe I was just really spent after having been up virtually all night, but it was right then that the pieces fell into place. Last night, I had seen (and had nearly been seen by) Quatre and Trowa. The word "translator" echoed in my memory. Whale song and Nereid song probably sounded a hell of a lot alike to human ears. Machines wouldn't be so easily deceived, however.

I had to work to keep my most natural bodily reactions at bay, namely glowing like a raver's sticks. I also had to work to maintain my previous level of concentration and interest in what our guests were telling us. Those two scientists seemed genuine enough. Hell, they reminded me a lot of myself, of Howard, of Heero even. But I also knew that they would have to report their findings to Romefeller and that could stir up trouble for Heero and the secret Nereid society.

Quatre and Trowa stayed a little while longer. The papers spread over the table had been design plans for their talk boxes. Listening to them talk about their device was a lot like listening to parents talk about their offspring. The team disclosed all the features of their latest device. Naturally, it had audio recording capabilities but also video (they explained that they liked to see to whom they were talking). The machine was able to analyze the sound bites and give a species identification with accuracy in the tenth percentile. That, more than anything else, worried me. Glowing bits in the ocean weren't that uncommon. Even as large as the Nereid were. Consistently getting an unregistered sound sample, however, was bound to raise some suspicions. Again, I was impressed with their genuine enthusiasm for their science and their desire to succeed. As much as I wanted to like those guys, I was mostly hoping that our paths wouldn't cross any more than was necessary. Their four week excursion to the mid-Atlantic couldn't come to an end fast enough for me. I would be on pins and needles until they were gone.

I knew I had to see Heero again, and soon. Preferably before he had to go hunting again. I'm not sure where the custom originated, but somewhere along the line, the task of providing safe food for the Royal family to eat had fallen under the jurisdiction of the Royal Guard. This wasn't limited to daily meals, but also included official ceremonies, big celebrations and, on occasion, festivals. Knowing that there was some special Gathering going on made me wonder if he wasn't expected to go out and hunt some large prey for their guests. Something like a giant squid. He had done it loads of times before and had the battle sucker scars to prove it. Every time he mentioned it, I was half fascinated at the prospect of seeing him best such a huge beast and half scared shitless he might end up as dinner himself. Now, I had to worry that he or the others might get accidentally recorded, aurally or visually, and tip off Romefeller that there was something really worth inspecting under the sea.

Romefeller might have been the biggest, most well known oceanographic foundation, but they were also regarded as the most ruthless and profit grabbing institution by just about every other institute. Keeping Romefeller out of your hair and you out of theirs was most desirable. If your path ever crossed theirs, the sheer size and financial power they possessed would put their competition six feet under. Translated into my unique situation: if Romefeller decided to take a closer look at the massif and found the Nereid, I could guarandamntee they'd be hauled off for experimentation 'in the name of science.'

All that stuff was really, really important. I knew it was, I could feel it making my skin crawl. I would do something about it. Soon, I would. Now, however, I just needed a good twelve hours of sleep. What had been a glorious day with Heero had suddenly ended on a sour note. Howard had pretty much sent me to my room right after supper. I trudged to my cramped little cabin room and slid into my bunk and was asleep before I ever got around to pulling up the sheets.

A heavy grey sky loomed above us the next day. It would have matched my mood, except that Quatre had located a pod of dolphins several miles away. He and his crew had set off to put one of their machines through its paces. Relief swept through me. There was suddenly plenty of time to tell Heero the Nereid needed to lay low for a while and to enlist his help in looking for Quatre's little science project.

I shuffled around my cabin, throwing on my favorite black swim trunks, a white muscle tee, and the only footwear that reliably fit my overlarge Nereid feet: a pair of black rubber sports sandals. The main deck was buzzing with activity. Howard was directing some of our mini ROV vessels as the Sweepers looked for the sunken talk box. I supposed this was the best possible outcome for this inconvenient situation. With any luck, we could retrieve their device before they called on help from Romefeller. And if I happened to accidentally drop their little device and bust it open, well... I'm sure Romefeller could pay to have it replaced. There was no doubt in my mind that their intern had been handling the talk box that had potentially recorded Heero's song and our glowing a couple nights ago.

All of the HD screens in the room were lit up with various images from the two mini ROVs Howard had deployed. The two main screens showed the live feed. Off to one side there was a brightly colored bathymetric chart showing how deep the ROVs were relative to the rest of the vicinity, and on the opposite side was a green on black sonar screen.

"We've covered most of the shallower areas around the massif," Howard said, not taking his eyes off the live feed. "But it sounds like our friends were positioned closer to the big trench. They said the machine was in a tough case so it might still be operational, but they can't get a read on it. I think it's probably broke."

Broken was good.

It was well after midday by the time the brushed aluminum looking talk box appeared on our screens. For some reason, I had been picturing a small device, maybe the size of a basketball. As it turns out, Winner's machine was rather larger and on par with a shopping trolley. It had caused not a little damage to the massif chimney formations on its way down, too. It had been the fresh gouges along one side of the massif that tipped us off about its general location.

Howard used the short wave to contact Quatre on the neighboring Sandrock. The two dolphin researchers had not yet returned from their trip, and so Howard left a message. Some hours later, they hopped over on a dinghy and visually confirmed both that we had found their machine and that it appeared to be non-operational. It was agreed that the Sweepers would retrieve the box first thing the next morning, assuming Romefeller green lighted the expenditure. But I knew I would be doing at least a little private reconnaissance as soon as I could get away. My getaway was waylaid, however, by Howard's inviting the young doctors to stay for supper.

"I think Duo would be particularly grateful to have some company his own age."

"Yeah, I think I've started to age prematurely hanging out with this geriatric salvage crew," I said in a stage whisper. Howard cuffed me on the back of the head, but Quatre had laughed.

"Just for that, boy, I think you outta make supps tonight. What'll it be?"

"Er... barbecue?" Trowa suggested.

Damn, I hated cooking. It was so much easier to just grab a fish and call it sushi.

"Wonderful! Trowa's a pro at the grill." Quatre beamed. I noticed that he did that a lot. He seemed like the kind of guy to take everything in the best light possible. I thought he complimented Trowa well, who seemed to prefer to chime in with his austere commentary.

So Trowa and I set up the port-a-grill and got busy grilling. He did seem to know his way around the grill. Much better than I did, so I wasn't complaining about having his help. Quatre helped out from the galley, cutting vegetables. If the guy's exceeding levels of politeness weren't enough indication of his refined nature, the elaborate shapes he cut the onions and carrots and whatnot into sure as hell were.

"Cripes. you'd think the guy was training for culinary school or something," I muttered to myself as I took a plate of green peppers finagled into frogs out to Trowa.

"He did, for a while at least," Trowa said.

"What for? He seems pretty good at the ocean stuff." Truth be told, he was damn good. For someone who was cutting out a neat niche for himself in communicative marine technology, he still knew his way around the bottom of the ocean pretty damn well, too. Who knows how much he'd gleaned from Trowa's own expertise or the other members of his team. I was kind of jealous.

"Let's just say that swimming in Speedos was not the career choice his family would have made for him."

"Oh." So much explained in so few words. I had a lot of peripheral knowledge about what kind of pressures family could put on someone. Times like these made me thankful for having a comparatively simple home life. At least as far as interpersonal relationships went. The only people who could really sway my decisions were Heero and Howard.

"These are all done," said Trowa as he handed me a tray piled high with food that looked as if a chef from a four star restaurant had grilled it, so perfect were the criss-crossed marks seared into the food.

"Hey, that's a nice bracelet, Duo. Where did you get it?" Trowa's was staring at the bead on a thong wrapped around my left wrist.

"This? Oh, thanks. A... friend of mine gave it to me years ago."

"Friend," Trowa repeated. He had spoken softly, but I could still hear the understanding in his voice. "Must be some friend to have given you an electrum coin."

I looked down at the silvery little disc. It had taken me weeks of pestering Howard to get him to drill a couple of holes in it so I could make it into a bracelet. When he finally did, he asked me where I had gotten it; I just told him I found it at the beach. At the time, I liked it mostly because Heero had given it to me but also because there was a big lumpy turtle on it. Years later, I looked up turtle coins and discovered they're kind of worth a mint and I'd drilled two holes in mine.

"It was probably just a found item, you know?" I hedged.

"Well, it's pretty cool."

"Thanks. Well, I'll bet Howard's wondering what's taking so long... shall we?" I jerked my head towards the Juggernaut's tiny "dining" area. Trowa smiled and nodded. With each of us bearing a plate of edible art, we headed back towards the others.

The talk box was damn heavy. Even with Heero's help, it was difficult to get it out of the water in the moon pool room.

'And what shall we do with this? You said you have to return it, yes?'

'Yeah. I just want to make sure it's well and truly broken. They said it has recording devices and all that.'

'It looks rather well... crunched up already, Duo.'

'Heero, say hello to my little friends.' I swung my shoulder pack round to the front and unzipped it. I pulled out a hammer. 'You wanna learn a saying from above?'

'Yes.'

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"Eef eet aynch..."

"-- broke, don't fix it."

"BRGHohk, dohnt feehx eet."

"Something like that," I grinned at him and swung my hammer, being very careful to leave the side that had been exposed on our video feeds earlier today unharmed.

I spent most of the night doing my level best to ensure the unit was completely useless and warning Heero about the dangers of hunting while Quatre and Trowa were around. Even after I explained their logical reasoning in choosing the mid-Atlantic as a test site, he was unconvinced at best and very concerned at worst. Not for himself or the other Nereid, but for me.

'They haven't asked you at all about your appearance?'

Appearance. I had long since jumped that hurdle with the Sweepers, but it wasn't real easy. Howard had scoured medical websites and documents looking for reasonable ways to explain my physical differences. The height and the feet were easily chalked up to my relatively unknown parentage -- they were both dead and no one would be the wiser. The webbing on my hands and feet was just a freak gift from mother nature and the corrective surgery had been too expensive to do more than a single hand. That was the cock-and-bull story Howard had spun and so far, every one had bought it, hook, line, and sinker. People want to believe whatever you tell them. The pearly skin had been more difficult, but Howard had found some kind of skin disease that could conceivably leave patches of pearly skin behind. Who would bother looking up the condition to find out if it would affect the whole body?

'Uh, no. No one's asked,' I told him. 'Should they? It's kind of rude to do that, you know.'

'Be that as it may, they are not the... average Joe?' I acknowledged his correct usage of the alien term. 'Perhaps they will draw their own conclusions.'

'Even so, with that box out of commission, there isn't any reason for them to suspect. As long as you mermaids can keep a lid on it. The light and song show.'

'I am not convinced. I just want you to know I would feel better if you were here.'

'Yeah, well, that would go over like a lead balloon with the rest of them. I've always lived topside, I'll be fine. It's Atlantis we need to worry about. Quatre and Trowa are alright guys, but they're getting funded by some bad news.'

'Meaning?'

'Romefeller. They're kind of famous for having their cake and eating it, too.'

'Cake... you mean birthday cake.'

'No. I mean they get what they want, regardless of the cost. Monetary or otherwise.'

'Ah, I see.'

'And finding a place like Atlantis, populated with intelligent beings, with this technology, this way of life, this culture... I am positive they would not hesitate to exploit it.'

'You won't stay here?'

'It's probably better for all of us if I stay on the ship... but since we might not be seeing each other for a while...' I dragged my pack over and fished around inside, then pulled out a little velvet pouch. 'Here, can you keep this for me for a while?'

'What is this?' Heero was smiling as he took the little bag. The light left his face when he pulled out the turtle coin and thong. "Duo... why are you..."

"Keep it safe," I said, trying not to raise any alarm. Really, I just thought it would be better if such a valuable trinket weren't around while that Romefeller ship was. 'One of the new people noticed it... and it is a rare find. Even for a salvage guy like me, probably would have turned it in for a profit, you know?'

Instead of answering, he solemnly tied the worn string about his own wrist.

'I'll keep it safe for you, Duo,' he said, and kissed me.

Treize Khushrenada's phone was ringing. He rolled over and flung his arm in a graceful arc, then lifted the receiver to his ear.

"Khushrenada speaking."

"I apologize for calling so late, Treize."

"Not at all, Une." His smooth voice belied none of his irritation or exhaustion at being woken up during the wee hours of the morning. Any phone call at such a rude hour was bound to be some kind of fantastic news.

"Earlier this evening, we received a transmission from that translation unit one of the interns on Doctor J's project dropped."

"Yes, and... ?"

"I have been pouring over the recordings and we are quite sure there is evidence to suggest a new breed of aquatic life form."

"And you woke me up at..." he screwed up his eyes to try to make out the glowing LED time display.

"Three hundred hours. Yes."

"Well?"

"The data suggests the animal was mammalian -- rather it was humanoid -- but apparently free diving to depths greater than even a scuba-equipped human could withstand."

"Now that, my dear lady, is worth being woken up at three in the morning for. I shall be in the lab immediately." Treize dropped the phone back into its cradle and rushed to get presentable for his visit to his laboratory.

Despite the more or less destroyed condition in which their lost talk box made it back to them, Quatre and Trowa seemed rather pleased to have gotten it back at all. Obviously, the thing was just so much scrap. They seemed to hold out hope that the data had survived intact, they had even quizzed us at dinner about what might be as big as a dolphin but glows. Howard gamely told them they might caught a sea pen on film. I told them it might be some kind of octopus.

Since recovering their box, we had developed a curious relationship with Quatre and his crew upon the Sandrock. Those first few days were full of anxiety for me. Perhaps their unit had survived the impact of banging into the massif, and the extreme pressure of the deep, and the severe beating I had given it. What if the unwittingly captured proof of the Nereid survived? I reminded myself to thank Heero for planting an extra seed of doubt in my mind: what if they really noticed me. He was totally correct when he said that an oceanographer would be more curious about my particular 'differences.' I was conscious of each and every look the crew of Sandrock gave me thereafter and mentally berated myself for not having thought of that issue earlier myself.

The next day broke with the sun sparkling like a flawless diamond on the horizon. A whole week had passed since we first met Quatre and Trowa. Despite their going out every day to test their machine, there was never another mention of seeing weird sea creatures and I was finally able to let myself relax. It was such a beautiful day, I took my breakfast to the deck to soak up some sun. With the easing of my stress levels, even the damn sunshine seemed brighter, happier. I made it half way through my apple before I saw Quatre breaking his fast on the deck of Sandrock. We waved to each other.

"Duo!" His voice carried effortlessly across the water. "Are you very busy today?"

"Not really, what's up?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to join us for some dolphin diving today..."

"Yeah, that sounds great. What time?"

"In about half an hour! We'll pick you up in the dinghy."

"Great!" I waved to him and he meandered back to the cabin. I quickly finished my apple and chucked the core out to sea. Then, I busied myself getting read for a swim with the humans.

I was ready to go in about ten minutes, so I invited myself over to the Sandrock. It was about as big as the Sweepers ship, but didn't have as much heavy machinery. Also, there seemed to be loads more people and they were all busy looking busy. At least it looked that way from what little I could glean looking through the open cabin door from the swim step.

"Quatre? Trowa?"

The brunette gracefully stepped down from an upper deck, dressed in a wet suit.

"Duo! Wow!" I saw his eyes get a little big. "You... you look... good." I watched him get an eyeful of my funny skin in the bright sunlight. Crap.

"Yeah, the skin, right?" I rolled my eyes, not just for show... it did get exasperating explaining why I was kind of 'pearly.' "When I was a kid, I got a pretty gnarly virus and this was its going away present. I swear I'm not contagious. Just look at Howard."

"Yeah, sure. Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. It looks pretty. Like a shell. So!" He quickly changed topics, probably afraid he'd offended me. "Did you want to borrow a suit? The water never really gets very warm out here."

"Nah, I've been diving longer than I've been walking. The cold doesn't bother me." I grinned.

"Suit yourself. Quatre should be out in a minute, he's just checking coordinates with the GPS." The blonde haired scientist appeared from the lower cabin brandishing the device even before Trowa finished speaking.

"All done!" He looked up at us. "Duo! You swam over?" His eyes also got kind of round, but he looked at Trowa and Trowa shook his head.

"Yeah, couldn't resist the opportunity to check out your digs. It's pretty nice. Kind of crowded, though."

"Yeah, well... most of them are here because Romefeller wanted them here. But it does help get things done lickety-split."

"Lickety-split," I agreed.

"Well, let's get going!"

The three of us piled into the "dinghy," but as far as I was concerned, the vessel we were going to use was anything but a dinghy. It didn't inflate, but had a sleek fiberglass body and an insanely powerful outboard motor that was not detachable. In my book, that boat was a more a rum-runner than a dinghy. When the engine roared to life, I couldn't help but grin. Going fast, in the water or over it, was exciting.

Traveling at high speed was the best. We sliced through the air and bounced over the waves and it was the most invigorating experience I had had (while still wearing clothes) in a whole week. As an additional bonus, the roar of the wind meant I could just indulge in the feel of speed without having to worry about making careful conversation with my two hosts. Even they seemed to be enjoying the ride, and they got to use the damn boat any time they wanted! After a few hours, Quatre laid off on the speed and carefully followed the GPS map to get us to their desired location. Trowa was sitting in the navigator's seat and busily punching keys.

"So," I turned around from my perch at the front of the boat. "Do you just go out at random and hope to bump into some dolphins?"

Trowa laughed.

"That would be nice, but Romefeller's not interested in wasting their money and we're not too keen on wasting our time." There was more than a hint of bitterness when he said Romefeller out of earshot of his crewmates. "Come here and take a look at this," Trowa said with a glance in my direction. I walked over and stood just behind him. His keyboard was apparently some kind of control system for a sonar type device. The screen in the dash was the typical green and black style I expected to see on a submarine.

"This is a special sonar we built that also mimics some specific dolphin calls," Trowa explained. "Of course, just making the right noises won't bring any dolphins, so we have to look for schools of fish or cephalopods. We haven't been out this way too much, but the mid-Atlantic ridge is pretty high here, so we're hoping there might be adequate food sources to attract dolphins."

"Well, more accurately, we'll tell the dolphins there are adequate sources of food here," Quatre clarified.

"Wow. So do you wait until you see some dolphins before getting in?"

"Not usually. It's better to have the talk box all set up and recording, that way we can focus on playing with the dolphins and encouraging their vocalizations. That, and if they get here and find the food isn't to their liking, having someone to play with sometimes encourages them to stick around longer than they otherwise would have."

"Ahh. So... is it time to get wet?"

"Sure, let's go!"

They set their dolphin caller to a preprogrammed set of whistles and clicks and each of them had picked up a handle on one of talk boxes. Not twenty minutes after arriving and we had jumped into the water. We were just going to snorkel around mostly, waiting for the stars of Quatre's research trip to make an appearance. To kill some time, we did a couple breath-holding contests which I was obliged to throw. It was odd fun. A week ago, I was dead suspicious of the dolphin guys but it was fairly easy to relax, to just hang out with them. Unlike the reputation of their famous backers, Quatre and Trowa genuinely seemed to be interested in the ocean and demystifying at least its cetacean population.

We swam for an hour, but nothing happened, so we tooled around in the boat just for the hell of it. After that little break, they went on to a second site they had previously scoped out. They were a little cold, though, and opted to lay in the sun for a bit. I couldn't complain. I learned a little more about the men behind the science.

"So, how did you two get into marine biology?" I drawled from my perch on the bow seat.

"It just felt right to me, I guess. From the very first time I set foot into the Kaza aquarium."

"Kaza... where's that?"

"It's short for Casablanca."

"Like in Portugal?"

"No, Morocco."

"So you're from Morocco?" I whistled. Morocco wasn't so far away from the Azores, where Howard and I had a 'permanent' residence -- although we more or less lived on the Juggernaut. I guess Morocco just fell into that category of places that, because they are so close and easy to get to, you never actually go there. Still, it sounded exotic to me.

"My family is Mediterranean, from Tunisia. They're all still there, I believe."

"Must be hard keeping in touch with them when you spend half your time on a boat and the other half in a lab, huh?" I said conversationally.

"Yeah," Quatre said weakly.

"O--oh. It's not work."

"Every single one of the Winners has been a doctor. I could argue with my father till I'm blue in the face that I will be a doctor, it will even be immortalized on my diploma, just not in medicine. My father doesn't consider people who 'commune with nature' for a living to be anything but wastes of time and space."

"And money," Trowa added darkly. "Which is why we were so keen to hop on board the Romefeller ship despite their reputation."

"Yeah, Howard and I know all about finding funding for educational things. So, what about you, Trowa? How did you get initiated?"

"That was all Quatre," he replied with a smirk. "We met as undergraduates and we clicked."

"Yes," Quatre agreed. "We were something akin to, er, juggernauts in the oceanography department back in the day. Together, we could pull off any assignment almost flawlessly. That's what landed us in grad school with Doktor S and his dolphin program."

"I've heard of Doktor S, he seems like a good guy."

"He really is. It's just too bad that he, too, had to turn to Romefeller to get funding. No one else seemed very interested in seriously pursuing this communication device," Quatre explained as he thumbed some of the knobs on his talk box. "I'm not sure what Romefeller could possibly want with this kind of machine, but they were eager enough to foot the bill," he finished with a shrug.

Trowa's sonar beeped and they jumped up. I took that as my cue to get ready for another dip. They actually raced to throw on their gear and grab the talk boxes. Both of them had jumped the side of the boat and were snorkeling due west before I made it to the water.

"Duo! Get over here, quick! There's a giant pod and they're really friendly!"

Not long after, I caught up to the two scientists. Their pod of dolphins was indeed very friendly and playful. I hadn't swum with dolphins in quite a while, which was probably good. Looking too natural with them would probably have raised more questions than I wanted to field. We were diving and spinning with them, the giant mammals took us for rides. One of them put their snout right under Trowa's foot and pushed him up like a rocket. That one had obviously been a trained dolphin at some aquatic park somewhere. Eventually, the dolphins seemed to tire a bit of limited kinds of play a human could provide. A few started drifting away, rolling over one another and singing. Others took to hunting in deeper waters. Seeing that the dolphins had more or less lost interest, Quatre and Trowa turned their attention to the talk box.

I was left drifting a bit, not sure if I was privy to seeing their machine up close and in fully operational order. I dove beneath the surface, careful to stay under for less than two full minutes. Below us, the dolphins had found some tasty snacks to chase. On my third trip down, they had changed their hunting patterns. Rather than lazily chasing around an errant fish, they were getting serious. The pod organized into what any marine biologist could recognize as the traditional circle used to herd their prey. I looked around for the school of fish, but couldn't see the tell tale signs of sliver flashes zipping through the water. I was about to go back up for more air when I spotted it: a pretty large octopus. Currently, it was far enough away that it wouldn't have been much of a problem. Getting clear soon, however was probably a good idea. The thing about swimming with an octopus was that it was pretty accustomed to taking on opponents larger than itself, either as prey or just for its own safety. The size of a full grown human wouldn't deter it much. The thing about a scared octopus was that it might not just squirt you with some melanin, but might decide to really attack. Having an octopus plastered to your face while its tentacles either sucked the mask right off your face or strangled you was nothing I was eager to experience. I was pretty sure the two biologists wouldn't survive it, either.

Breaking the surface again, I looked over to where the scientists should have been. Naturally, they had noted the dolphins increased activity and were already back in full study mode. Quatre had stayed close to the surface, breathing through his snorkel. Apparently, they were taking turns. Trowa was coming back up with the box trailing behind him. I saw Quatre inhale deeply and slip beneath the water. A few feet below the surface, the box traded hands. Trowa hovered at the surface catching his breath and Quatre dove. He was pretty amazing in the water, going deeper than I would have assumed such a slight figure would have dared. And that had been his mistake.

The pod of dolphins relentlessly chased round and round the octopus and Quatre pulled nearer, brandishing his device. There was a lot of vocal activity and he seemed keen on getting as much of it into his machine as possible. Something in the dolphins attack pattern must have given because suddenly, the octopus shot through their live net. You'd kind of expect the damn thing to head for deeper water or shelter but it didn't. Instead, it shot out a cloud of ink. Vision was severely impaired for what felt like an eternity. I saw the bubbles of air that had escaped Quatre's mouth; if I hadn't I'm sure it would have been too late.

Not caring if I had been under too long already, I dove. I was vaguely aware of Trowa ducking under the water also, but he wasn't nearly as fast as I was. I reached Quatre quickly and was horrified to see the octopus doing its level best to drag the blonde back to its den. The sliver of a silver lining was that its mouth seemed to be centered over Quatre's shoulder. Dealing with bodily injuries had to be better than having your face screwed up by that hard-as-nails beak.

Like an arrow, I careened into the cephalopod's wriggling body. It slipped past me, slick and floppy. I turned and reached around its bulbous head, getting my fingers under the webbing between its arms. Heaving for all I was worth, I felt a small jolt as the beak broke free. By that time, Trowa had managed to reach us. He looped an arm around Quatre's torso and beat a hasty retreat. Already, the octopus had turned on me. Its deceptively soft arms had wrapped haphazardly around me and were squeezing viciously. Even as I made for the surface, I started fighting back. With one hand, I tried peeling the slippery red limbs away as I used my other to shove the mantle away. Quatre had been bit and waiting for me to shake the damn pod was just asking for trouble. I managed a well placed punch to its eye. The creature released me immediately, but I felt the uncomfortable tug of a beak leaving the meat of my hand. Shit. I spared a glance at the rapidly retreating cephalopod to tell the medics what had gotten to us and zoomed to the surface.

On board the rum runner, Trowa already had Quatre laid out flat on the deck and was administering CPR.

"DRIVE!" Trowa shouted at me. I scrambled toward the captain's chair and gave the key in the ignition a violent twist and the engine roared to life.

"How do we get back," I hollered over the roar of the fast boat.

"Green button on the GPS."

I hit the button and immediately, the return route to Sandrock showed up on the screen. Having such a powerful boat suddenly made a lot more sense now than it had this morning. Quatre must have been under longer than I'd thought, and sucked in a lot of water. My hand was starting to throb from the bite but I was more concerned about Quatre -- it was much closer to his heart and therefore had a lot more potential to send venom shooting through his system. Octopus bites weren't very common and I couldn't think of any accessible treatment above water that could help that particular kind of bite. I thought of Heero and how he hunted the damn things. Not for the first time, I wished that part of my world wasn't so far away or so enshrouded in mystery.

Not long after we set out, Trowa loomed over me. He just gestured to Quatre lying flat on the deck and I took that for the silent command that it was. I settled down next to the unconscious, but thankfully breathing, young man. He looked pale, a little green even. Beneath us, the vibrations of the go-fast boat kicked up a couple notches and I knew Trowa was pushing the vehicle to go faster than was probably wise in the bumpy waters. From a corner pocket, I pulled out a life jacket and gently arranged Quatre so that he wouldn't get a concussion from all the bouncing.

Despite the wind whipping through my hair and covering my bare skin with goose bumps, it felt like we were only moving at a crawl. Finally, the Sandrock appeared ahead of us. Trowa was immediately on the radio explaining the situation to the crew. He snarled something into the receiver before finally setting the receiver back in its mount. Finally, we arrived alongside the ship. Their medic was waiting with a few extra hands to maneuver Quatre from the rum runner to the main ship using a pretty clever pulley set up. As soon as the blonde was on deck, he was carted inside to the medical cabin. Trowa all but scaled the side of the ship following after, leaving me alone with the small boat.

"Hello!"

"Hi, uh... I'm Duo. I was invited to join Qua-- er, Mr. Winner and Mr. Barton's dive, but Mr. Winner got too close to an octopus. Is he okay?"

"He's in the medical bay, our ship's doctor is looking after him. They sent me to square away the boat."

"Right. Uh, can I help?"

"Yes, thank you. My name is Trant, by the way. I'm the intern, but you've probably already heard of me," he flashed me a sheepish smile.

"It's always a pleasure to meet anyone who drums up some business for the Sweepers," I said and returned his smile.

Getting the small boat into its slip on the bow of the Sandrock was a lot easier than I had anticipated. The motorized lift was quick, fast, and enviably quiet. Having experienced the kind of wild speed the go-fast boat was capable of, it was sort of sad seeing it go. I wondered if maybe I could cajole Howard into getting one for his ship. With that task out of the way, Trant tried to offer me a drink, but I refused. Besides the growing darkness, the puncture in my hand was really starting to throb and I was wary to enter a veritable lion's den of Romefeller types. Just as he was seeing me to the stern of the boat, and its swim step, Trowa reappeared.

"Duo," he called to me. I stopped and waited for him to catch me up.

"Thank you. For helping Quatre today. I have no idea how you did it, but... thank you."

"He's going to be fine, right?"

"Yeah, just bed ridden for a while. He's showing signs of very mild decompression sickness, so you might want to get checked out, too. You can see our doctor if you want. You don't want to mess around with the bends. "

"Thanks, but I'm sure the Sweeper's doctor will be able to check me out fine."

"If you're sure... just a minute, I'll take you back your ship. We have an inflatable..."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate it."

Not twenty minutes later, I was saying another goodbye to the harried biologist from the deck of the Sandrock. In all honesty the two biologists seemed almost perfectly tame. However, the sooner that tiny little tangential link to Romefeller was severed, the better.

I slipped into the bathroom and gave myself a scrubbing. When I looked up in the mirror, I was surprised to see several lines of sucker marks chasing up and down my chest and arms. Damned octopus. Now that my mind wasn't preoccupied with the immediacy of the day's events, I could feel each and every circular sore pulse with my heartbeat. I could have played twenty questions with Dr. Sally Po, the ship's physician, but I was running out of steam for that. Besides, I knew someone with far more expertise in the nature of cephalopod injuries.

'What the hell happened to you?'

'It's nice to see you, too. I had an altercation with an angry octopus.'

'Just one? Looks like an army of them tried to draw and quarter you. Your arms are covered with bruises,' He tsked at me even as he grabbed my injured hand. I yelped as his warm fingers closed around mine.

"What?" He pierced me with his intense blue eyes.

"Bitten, too."

All pretense of being put out turned instantly into honest concern. He released my throbbing, injured hand and gestured for me to follow him. We shot through the halls of Atlantis, as ever glowing with their ambient blue light. It wasn't easy to keep up with his longer strides, but he lead us straight back to his own rooms. I found him in the bedroom, rummaging through the familiar chest of drawers.

'Sit,' he commanded. There wasn't much to sit on besides the bed, the low dresser, or the floor. I opted for the bed and Heero quickly strode over to where I was on the low platform.

'How did this happen?'

'Ugh, Quatre and Trowa -- those two dolphin guys -- took me diving with them. They're not bad guys. They found some dolphins and we went for a swim. Then, this octopus came out of nowhere and went for the blonde one.'

'And you had to step in and play the hero,' Heero sighed. 'What kind of octopus was it?'

'Just a regular one. Reddish arms and quartz greenish on the underside.'

'How long ago did it bite you?'

'A few hours. I feel fine, it's just a little sore. You're overreacting.'

'Overreacting...' He shut up real quick and set about dressing my many wounds, starting with the bite. First, he soaked my hand in almost too-hot water and then, he massaged my whole arm right up to the pectorals and around to the back. Just that alone had me so relaxed, I thought I might have turned into jelly. Next, he brandished a small jar of some kind of gelatinous mixture.

'This may hurt a little.' Heero was obviously anticipating my reaction because he held my whole forearm immobile, braced against his naked chest with one incredibly strong arm. Using a finger on his free hand, he scooped out a small amount of the gel. The second it touched my skin, my body reflexively pulled away from the sharp sting. And it did sting, like a bitch, despite the obvious care Heero was taking to be gentle about it.

"Just rub it in hard and fast, you're killing me here." I squawked at him, not having my hands free to sign. He spared a moment to look at me. The grimace on my face must have convinced him because he did exactly that. Finally, he slathered on a pasty white substance that made the whole area entirely numb. It reminded me of trips to the dentist that involved anesthesia. You could see it and the tissue below it could feel a touch, but the top layers were completely numb.

He quickly shut away the series of tubs and pots he had used for the bite. Picking them up gingerly, he replaced them in the dresser and extracted a new set of pots. These ones were bigger and looked more well used. And greasy.

'What's that?'

'For the sucker marks,' he informed me as he slid back onto the bed behind me.

'I thought you never let your prey land a hit,' I teased.

''I don't, now. But even the best have to start at the beginning. Wufei has drilled that into me enough times. He taught me how to dress the wounds, but I've since found some compounds that help the healing process and others that don't smell as pungent. This is one of my favorite mixes.'

'Why?'

'Because it feels cool,' and his fingers ghosted over my skin. Their slick coolness pulled a satisfied moan from me. It was a nice change from the usual Atlantis fare, where everything was usually warm to the touch thanks to the proximity of the thermal heat fields and vents.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Heero said. I was too busy reverting back into jelly to respond with actual words. I merely enjoyed the feeling of his soothing hands running all over my upper body. Not too far into my 'treatment' I realized he was lavishing attention on me just because he wanted to. I knew for a fact there was no damage to my person below my navel, but Heero's fingers danced around my belly button more than once. Ever since the first time he saw that dent in my abdomen, he had been obsessed with it. Initially, he teased me about having a hole in my stomach. Later on, he learned how sensitive I was in that area and often used that knowledge to drive me crazy. Currently, I was much too relaxed to do more than register the pleasant sensations of the feather light massage.

"Duo," he sang my name out loud and curled around me from behind. "Is Howard expecting you, or can you stay here tonight?"

"Here," I croaked. I let my head drop against his chest. I thought of his mattress and worried that the gel he had plastered my entire upper body with might cause some damage to the reeds. I put my uninjured hand out to push him back a bit. "Ugh, I should clean up first up. I'll get goo all over."

"I like your goo." I could feel his legs brush against me as he shifted behind me. "Turn around."

I did as he bade and all coherent thought flew out of my mind.

Sprawled flat on his back, legs akimbo to make room for me, was Heero.

'Come, touch,' he murmured to me even as he took hold of one of my wrists and encouraged me to trace patterns over his bare skin. His dull copper skin glowed with his excitement. It was smooth and hot beneath my finger tips. I eased my hands up to his chest and got rewarded with a low moan when I kneaded the sensitive skin where his arms joined his torso. Gently, I eased myself over him and started to nip at his full lips. He nipped me back encouragingly. My hands continued to rise and wove themselves into his hair, keeping him steady so I could plunder his mouth.

Heero's webbed hands splayed over my naked back before he moved them down to cup my ass. I obligingly rolled my hips against him wantonly before scooting down. He arched and shifted as I went, and the hard ridges of his abs offered delicious distraction. I stopped when I reached the seam where his legs met his pelvis and sighed.

"Has anyone ever told you you're too tall?" It was more of a rhetorical question, but still, I didn't think it was too much to ask to make out with my own damn boyfriend while we got busy.

"Maybe you're too short," he dropped a kiss on the crown of my head.

Suddenly, my whole perspective changed. Not because of what he said, but because of what he did: rolled us over so that I was pinned beneath him and staring into his blazing blue eyes.

"We could try it like this." He grinned wickedly at me and proceeded to turn the world on its head like only he could.

I was loathe to move despite how ungodly uncomfortable it is to wake up with stuff dried and flaking off your skin. For a split second, I almost wished we'd done things like we always had. Except that had been the first time I'd ever taken him. More than four years together and that was the first, amazing time. Flaky stomach be damned, I got it from him and I'd trade that bit of cleanliness just to love Heero from the inside one more time. In a heart beat

Pushing myself up on my elbows, I looked over at my partner. Unsurprisingly, he was already awake and watching me. His blue eyes still only half mast and a lazy smile on his face.

"Good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, damn good. You?"

"Hmmm," he concurred with a smile. Then, he reached out and pulled me over him again. "Sing for me."

"Uh, okay. Want to hear anything special?"

'Something quiet.'

I shifted into a more comfortable position for singing. Heero liked hearing me sing; I think it was because it was so different from his singing. Humans sang for recreation, but he used it for plain old communication. I suppose it would be like the difference between hearing Howard read a poem and an honest to Betsy poet reading it. I thought of songs I could remember most of the words to that had quiet melodies. Finally, I settled on a song and began singing.

"Take anything you want it's fine
Keep up the slow life for the night
Don't take it back, I'll just deny
This constant noise all the time.
Even though you're the only one I see
It's the last catastrophe
Place your bet on chance and apathy
Tell me when the world is free
Even though you're the only one I see
It's the last catastrophe
Place your bet on chance and apathy
Tell me when the world is free."

When I finished, he stayed still except for the hand tracing the pattern of the photophores on my back. Then,

"What does it mean?"

I scooted up and looked down at him. The smile had been replaced with a thoughtful expression. I could tell he was thinking of the words he'd heard and was trying to match them up to his English vocabulary.

'I guess it's a song about lovers. Or at least a couple people who could be lovers. They give it a shot, but maybe it doesn't work out, or something is holding them back.'

'Do they love each other?'

'It's just a song, Heero...'

But then I started to think about it. Fat lot of good it would do me. I was never very good at interpreting the pretty and vague meanings behind stupid song lyrics. But I suppose I was in a better position to know than Heero. 'Catastrophe' was part of the refrain, and the bet was placed on chance and apathy. That, at least, seemed to match our situation to a 'T.'

'Yeah, lovers, maybe. But they can't commit. Something is keeping them apart.' I said, suddenly hyper aware of what that might sound like to Heero. 'I bet one of them just has cold feet or something.' I silently wished he'd take the bait.

'Cold feet?'

Mission accomplished.

'Yeah. If you get cold feet, it means you're afraid of commitment. Like getting married.'

'Do your feet ever get cold?'

I laughed.

'There isn't a commitment out there that could scare me, Heero.'

'It's time to go,' he told me suddenly, even as he gracefully picked himself up off the reed mattress.

I followed lazily after him. Adjoining his room was a sort of bathroom. Nereid didn't sweat and so, had no need of showers or baths. Plus the fact that they were amphibious and spent a lot of time in the water. Bathing seemed kind of moot, but they did have cleansing rituals. Their ablutions were more on par with ancient Mediterranean customs of using oils and natural salts like sodium bicarbonate.

Heero filled the basin with sea water and splashed himself liberally with water. Sidling up next to him, I watched as he methodically rinsed off. And I noticed a patch of 'goo' that had somehow ended up plastered to his neck, of all places. I dipped my hands in the water and attacked the spot. He turned a warm smile on me when I finished, then helped me rub down. Once we were flake free, we headed back to his room. He settled near his low dresser. I sat down on the edge of the mattress and watched as he rummaged through the drawers for the appropriate style and quantity of baubles.

Fully 'dressed,' he turned back to me.

'Did you bring any of those things?'

'Things?'

'For your legs, the wrapper things.'

"Shit!"

He snickered at my pole axed expression and repeated, "Sheet."

The lights around his door glowed, announcing someone's arrival. He whipped something out of the drawer and used his foot to push it shut again. A wispy wad of something landed square in my face.

"Heeeeero! It's time to go. Is Duo still here?"

"Yes and yes. Duo," he called to me over his shoulder. "I believe Hilde wants some company."

"Hilde!"

I jumped up, holding my wad as strategically as possible. Hilde was one of the first Nereid -- maybe the very first, actually -- to accept me. She was cool. She didn't care that I was half, and she didn't need to have Heero at my side to show me some common courtesy. That might have had more to do with the fact that she thought I was attractive. Back when I was first getting to know the Nereid way of life, I had been courted by Hilde. Of course, I had no idea what significance her little trinkets and whatnot meant but she did. Heero eventually came to my rescue before I inadvertently agreed to marry her. She still dropped the odd comment about how she'd be available if (she usually preferred 'when') Heero and I ever called it quits.

"You'd better hurry up, Heero. I passed a couple of stragglers on the way down here," she said.

"Hurry up to what?" I asked.

"It's nothing, just another gathering." Heero's reply was just a touch too off-hand to make me believe it really was 'nothing,' but I let it slide. I could pump Hilde for details later. Speaking of Hilde,

"Why aren't you going? Your family is pretty prestigious, right?"

"Yup. But these gatherings are for... man-talk." Hilde quirked her eyebrow to emphasize the last words. "My father is attending, though. Maybe we can arrange a clandestine meeting for later. I could fill you in on the details and you could fill me with y--"

"HEERO, you really should get going." I could feel the blush stealing up my cheeks. Controlling my glow wasn't too difficult, but controlling a blush was damn near impossible. I was grateful that Atlantissians favored ambient lighting, maybe the two Nereid couldn't tell just what shade of red I was. Hilde was nothing if not unsubtle... and was well aware of her penchant both embarrassing the hell out of me and pushing Heero's buttons.

"Hn." Heero walked up and took me in his arms. Right there in front of Hilde, he crushed his lips to mine in a very possessive kiss, marking his territory and staking his claim.

"Will I see you later?" He asked.

"How long is this gathering?"

"Not long, a few hours maybe."

"Yeah, I'll probably be around. Unless Howard needs me."

He ran his fingertips down the side of my face and smiled at me. Then, he ushered Hilde and I out the door and gave Hilde a 'hands off' warning glare before loping gracefully down the hall. It was just me and Hilde for the next few hours, then.

"Hey, I know I cross the line sometimes but it really is fun to see him get so worked up."

"Well, do you think you could find some other way to push his buttons?"

"What else could possible work better than insinuating an illicit affair with his number one crush?"

I drew a blank at that, for several reasons; so I chose to hold my tongue.

"So, what do you want to do today?"

"First? Get dressed. I didn't even know you had clothes here."

"The veil?"

"Yeah. I forgot to bring any trunks with me, so Heero gave me this to wear," I took a pointed glance at the wad still clutched over my hips. Funny how you forget to do things when you're in a hurry. Forgetting pants, however, was a first for me. I looked up at Hilde and was surprised to see a serious expression on her face. She was chewing her bottom lip and her eyebrows were drawn low.

"What?"

"Er... nothing. It's probably best to wrap it around your hips." I shrugged and turned around. Aside from Heero, only his guests or those on urgent business seemed to come down these halls. Those were the perks of being captain of the Nereid guard I supposed. I carefully shook out the length of gauze and in the brief seconds I'd left my backside exposed, Hilde managed to goose me no less than three times. In the end, I fashioned a respectable sarong for myself and felt about a million times better. Nudity wasn't an issue for the Nereid. Like many other ocean going creatures, most genitalia were either internal or wholly retractable. That particular part of my anatomy, however, was distinctly human and distinctly external. Also, I didn't feel quite right walking around Atlantis in the altogether regardless of what the natives preferred.

"Done and done."

"Great. Since everyone's busy, how about we go corrupt some of the kids?"

"Lead the way!"

The 'kids' were really a group of younger Nereid. Hilde and I weren't really going to corrupt them, but we did clandestinely invite them to swim with us in the open ocean. They enjoyed it because just being with Duo the Outsider was something their parents' would frown upon (and what kid doesn't want to rebel?) and I enjoyed it because I got a chance to make my case for being accepted in their world. At least with the younger ones. I'm not sure if it would ever amount to anything, but knowing that there was a group of Nereid who weren't predisposed to dislike me from the get-go was pretty nice. And Hilde... well, maybe she really did want to corrupt them.

Hilde lead the way to her own home. Despite the massive size of their underwater home, communicating across it was startlingly simple. The entire massif was 'wired' with a complex network of bioluminescent lights. Beyond the normal lighting it provided, there were special message panels in every home. There were also bulletin board style ones in public areas. The panels were basically an array of the symbols used in Nereid writing and you simply 'typed' out your message and sent it on its way. I had asked Heero to explain it, but the technology was so vastly different from human stuff, I never really figured out how exactly it worked. But their system did work and well. Hilde typed out a quick message and sent it to some of our friends and not five minutes later, there was a little congregation in her reception room.

"Duo! Long time no see!"

"Hey, hyuumahn! What's with the garb?" Asked Broden, another Nereid close to my age. I was surprised to see him here and not at the Gatherings: he was one of the Royal Guards newest recruits and I knew the rest of the Guard would be there. Maybe he was too new to attend.

"Garb?"

"Yeah, why are you dressed like a girl?"

"I am?" I looked down at my sarong. I suppose it would look kind of girly to the uninitiated, but everyone above the water knew what a sarong was and it was more or less gender neutral. I could wear a plastic beer bucket on my head and say it was standard human formal wear and they would be none the wiser. And the Nereid had no standard by which to compare it since the closet thing to 'clothing' they had was more along the lines of beaded chest plate (Heero had shown me his family's heirloom plate once). Well, and that gauze thing, apparently.

"Yeah. I mean, you're not wearing it right but that's what Nereid females get married in. Where did you get it?"

"Doesn't matter where he got it, it's coming off because we're going swimming. Unless you boys are too chicken, that is." Hilde chimed. I'm not sure if she saved my bacon, but she did take the focus off me. She told the kids to leave a message for their guardians just in case the gatherings were shorter than usual and to meet up with us at the moon pool.

"Hilde," I asked after the last one had left. "Is this really a Nereid wedding dress?"

"Hate to say it, but yes. And it would be terribly bad form to go swimming in it."

"Yeah. Can I leave it here, I don't want to go all the way back to Heero's."

"Sure."

I hastily unwrapped the length of gauze and folded it carefully. I liked it a whole lot better when it was just a gauzy sarong.

"Duo?"

"Let's split, don't want to keep 'em waiting too long, eh."

I practically sailed out of the room, leaving Hilde no choice but to follow after me. I was feeling extremely off center. First, Heero had turned the tables in bed. Then, there was another gathering he wouldn't tell me about. Now, there was the female wedding wear. A little parade of what ifs marched through my head, but I was bound and determined to try and forget about them. And strenuous physical activity of the semi-dangerous kind would do just that.

The depth we were at made seeing impossible without the aide of our own glowing bodies. Even then, visibility was practically zero: if it wasn't two inches in front of our faces, we weren't going to see it. Maybe we were all adrenaline junkies, but it was kind of exciting being out in the 'wild' with danger lurking around every corner.

Or right in front of us.

'Wow, what is it?' Hilde signed to me.

'Just a shipwreck,' I signed back.

Shipwrecks serve as a home to all sorts of sea creatures. This one in particular was extra fun because it was precariously balanced on the lip of a great rift in the ocean floor. So much so, that the stern was ass-up and the bow pointed down deeper into the abyss. I grinned at the others and gave the rusted hull a solid thump. The groan of metal under stress thundered around us. I saw the others drift away.

'What's the matter? You scared of a little boat?'

'It's not the boat that scares me, it's what's inside it,' Hilde told me.

'Alright, everyone! Here's the game: we race around the ship from tail to tip. First one back is the winner!'

'Ch!'

'Come on!'

'That's way too easy, hyuumahn!' Taunted Broden.

Everyone whined in unison. I merely thumped the hull again and the resulting reverb was enough to get them to settle down. I knew I was at a distinct disadvantage. While I could swim the pants off any old human, I knew I was no match for a full blooded Nereid. My secret weapon for this race: I was already familiar with the wreck. I'd been there a few times before armed with one of Howard's special deep-water lights and knew there wasn't anything super dangerous inside. As far as stability was concerned, I was pretty convinced that it would stay put. If the level of erosion was any indication, it had been holding that pose for quite some time. Surely it could hold it for a few minutes more. Mostly, I was hoping my prior knowledge of the general length of the ship keep me ahead of the game. The others would have to go more slowly to check their location for the turn around the bow.

'You have to hit it when you're done. That way we'll know who the winner is,' I announced.

I lead our band of thrill seekers round to the stern of the ship. Once we were all lined up, I gave a silent countdown and we were off. Like swimming with Heero, I went all out. I pumped my legs as fast as they could go. At first, it wasn't enough to keep up, but where the others obviously underestimated the massive size of the ship and consequently slowed down, I zoomed by. I swam until I had a stitch in my side before I finally reached my hand out and lit it up. The anchor portal lit up under my fingertips and I knew I was almost to the turn.

To maintain my edge, I shut down my lights and swam to the bow, keeping just my hand against the side to guide me. Finally, my fingers ran out of boat, signaling the end of the bow. I whipped around to the other side and went for broke. I pushed myself to go faster than I knew I could maintain and let myself glow as brightly as I could. Behind me, I could hear some whoops from the others and knew they had also come round the bend. Hopefully, I'd been far enough ahead of them to win.

Finally, the edge of the stern slipped past my fingers. I twisted around and nearly collided with some of the others, but we just managed to dodge each other. Instead of hammering the ship with my hand as I had intended, however, I was forced closer to the ship side and ended up clobbering the hulking mass with the whole right side of my body. A deep clang echoed through the water. The impact had stopped me dead in my tracks, and rather painfully, but it was followed by an unexpected slow and painful scrape. My hit had actually caused the ship to lose its balance.

Wildly, I looked around me to take a head count, but only a handful of lights were glowing near me. Frantically, I started signing to them to call to the others. My own vocal chords were more human than Nereid, but that didn't stop me from doing my level best to warn the rest of the group about the impending fall of the ship. It would be bad if someone else got a nasty scrape from the ship, but the sucking current such a huge piece of galecki was sure to create was much more dangerous.

All around us, panicked Nereid song filled the air. There were too many voices for me to tell who was saying what, but more of their lights started floating up and away. The few of us at the stern also started backing away. The noise created by the teetering ship was incredible. It sounded worse than male whales fighting to mate as the bottom of the ship scraped across the lip of the trench. I took a quick head count and was relieved to come up with the correct number of heads. We all kept swimming back, but checked our pace. Even without having had the benefit of taking a look-see inside, they knew creatures of the deep would have made a habitat out of the sunken ship. When it finally went over the edge, none of us wanted to be around when all its inhabitants came rushing out.

With a final, long keening groan, scraping sound ended and a little flurry of small, yellow-green lights buzzed about where the ship used to be. There was, however, plenty of distance between us and the former residents of the ship to keep us safe from attack. My shoulder felt like so much raw hamburger and my heart was thundering in my chest from the adrenaline, but I crowed with excitement all the same.

Then, Hilde came up and whacked me on the back of the head.

"Duo Maxwell, that was the stupidest stunt I have ever seen you pull. What the hell were you thinking?'"

'Honestly, Hilde, I had no idea it was that close to falling. I've been down here a few times. Inside, even. Just think, any one of those times could have been the last one for me.'

"Yeah, well, do us a favor and get yourself sucked into the abyss next time."

She smacked me upside the head again for good measure and swam off. The rest of our gang swarmed around me, all talking excitedly. Obviously, they had a little more sense of adventure. Before too many congratulations could be shared, I felt the familiar burn of running out of oxygen. Damn, not being fully Nereid was a pain in the ass rather a lot. After explaining my problem, we all agreed to return to Atlantis.

Back at the moon pool, I was surprised to see Hilde wasn't there. I guessed she must still have been mad at me about the less-than-totally-safe location I had chosen. But I knew she would get over it pretty soon. It wasn't in her nature to hold a grudge. The rest of us pulled ourselves out of the water and gave each other a round of high fives (something I had introduced to them). We stood around for a while recounting our stories of where we were when the ship went down. Finally, just as the last of the adrenaline started to fade and the others were making noises about getting back, I saw Hilde's dark form shoot up through the pool. Her face was lined with worry.

"Duo, you have to go home. Howard's machine is beeping."

"Yeah?" I could count the number of times Howard had used the deep sonar to send me a message on one hand. I could count the number on two fingers. The last time he'd done it was when Sally Po, the medic on board the Juggernaut, had been stung by a giant ray. It meant that something was really wrong.

I bowed out of the cheery little group, now looking confused and a little worried, and jumped into the water again. Hilde took hold of my hands and rocketed me to the surface faster than I ever could have managed alone. All the while, Howard's Morse coded message pinged through the depths:

Emergency, come home now.

Sheer power let Hilde heave me up, kind of like a weight lifter heaves up the bar. I felt her hands ghost down my sides and soon, my feet were level with her waist. She took hold of my soles and tucked her elbows in, building up power for the final thrust. With a grunt, she pushed her arms into fully extended position to propel me all the way to the surface. Seconds later, I broke through and whipped my bangs out of my eyes. After a quick scan, I located the Juggernaut a couple dozen meters away and swam for broke.

"HOWARD!" I shouted as I hauled myself out of the water and on board. I ran full tilt to the navigation deck. Even as I climbed the ladders, I heard the engine roar to life. I redoubled my efforts and finally gained the top platform. Howard was in the captain's chair and had called up a chart on the GPS system. I trotted over.

"Duo, hurry! There's no time to explain, but we've got to get you out of here."

"Me? What for? What's wrong?" Howard whipped around and skewered me with the most serious expression I had ever seen on his face. Serious, or maybe even scared.

"Listen, boy!" I stopped and listened. Above the sound of the engine, I could hear the waves against the ship, their breaking in the open water. And another sound, further away and in the air. "Do you hear it?"

"An airplane? Maybe a helicopter? So what?"

"So what!" Howard let the Juggernaut idle and left the chair. He all but slid down the ladders to the main deck. I had no choice but to follow. "SO WHAT?!" Howard stalked over to the row of lockers and ripped open one of the compartments with a collapsible inside. He also pulled out an air pump and went about inflating the little dinghy. "Well, don't just STAND there, my boy! Get your ass in gear and help me get this heap of junk ready to float!"

Confused, I went about getting the extra bits and pieces for the little boat. A pair of oars, and an outboard motor.

"You're gonna need a bigger motor than that, boy." Howard said, glaring daggers at me. "And you'd best take a first aid kit for that giant FUCKING SCRAPE ON YOUR SHOULDER! SALLY! GET YOUR ASS ON DECK AND BRING A DAMN KIT!"

"Howard, calm down! It's just a little scrape! What the hell is wrong? Whe--"

"Duo! Oh!" Sally popped up on deck wielding what looked like a tackle box, except for the telltale serpent staff label on the top. "What happened to your shoulder?"

"I ran into a rusty wreck at the bottom of the sea."

"Again?" She chided me even as she set her kit down and opened it. "It's a good thing you're not entirely human. Lord knows how much worry you put Howard and I both through when you were younger and even MORE reckless. Thank god whatever Nereid genes you inherited included the fast-healing ones."

There was a lull in everything as she daubed some stinging liquid on the abrasion on my shoulder. I listened. I could hear the air hissing out of the collapsible, I could hear the aircraft steadily approaching, and now there seemed to be extra water craft also. And... there was Howard. Not his usual breathing pattern, not even when he was excited about a find or worried about something. There was a definite hitch in his breath. I looked back over my shoulder and was at a loss for words.

Howard was crying.

I gently pushed Sally off. We both knew the scrape would be all but gone in about a week anyway. Carefully, like you might approach a feral cat -- and that's exactly what Howard seemed to be right then -- I stepped over to him.

"Someone is coming," I said. It wasn't a question. I knew. I just didn't know why. "You know they're not coming for a social visit or to see the guys on the Sandrock. Howard, what is going on?"

"Duo. There is someone else who knows about the Nereid... and about you." He took my scarred hand in his. "Your parents..." he started.

I nodded my head. Howard had never told me all the details about what had really happened to my parents, Helen Maxwell and Odin Lowe. Maybe he didn't really know all that well himself. He did tell me that my mother had died when I was born. As for my Nereid father... well, no one, not even Heero, could or would tell me much about him. His name was taboo in the annals of Nereid society, but Howard had told me he died of a broken heart and left it at that.

"Did I ever tell you what happened to your hand, Duo?"

"Corrective surgery, but the insurance ended up denying the claims... right?"

As a kid, I had pestered him enough times about when my other hand and feet would get fixed, but he evaded every time. After a while, I stopped worrying about it. I was obviously stuck with the webbing. After meeting Heero, however, I didn't mind it nearly as much. I looked at the rough scars that lined the sides of my fingers like the seams of a glove.

Howard heaved a heavy sigh and started talking.

"The dinghy wouldn't have bought you more than a few minutes anyway. Maybe this way, that boyfriend of yours can help you out.

"Duo, you probably never knew I had two daughters. Your mother was my younger daughter. Helen. You know I told you she died when you were born and that's the honest to Betsy truth."

He fell quiet. My ears were full of the sounds of his breath, stuffed up from crying. The hum of large ships' motors buzzed in the background.

"And... your other daughter?"

"My older daughter... was Anne. Anne and Helen were thick as thieves. Worse than twins, I reckon. Naturally, when Helen first realized she was pregnant, she wanted Anne to be your guardian should anything happen to her. There was no way Helen could ever have guessed how quickly that would come to pass. The day you were born was probably the happiest in Helen's life. I was happy that she got to hold you before she passed on, and when she did move on, you were Anne's ward."

"What happened to Anne?"

I could not add up the numbers. I had no memory of anyone named Anne, aunt or otherwise. Howard must have done a number on the family albums and what not to have kept it a secret like that.

"Anne..." Howard looked me in the eyes then. Tears were still welled up there, but I could see him steeling himself. I knew whatever the news was, it couldn't possibly be good.

"Howard, what happened to Anne." The build up was making me somewhat nauseous.

"She was dead to me the moment she started hurting you.

Howard's silence was like thunder in my ears. I couldn't do anything more than wait for him to continue.

"At first, everyone kind of turned a blind eye. They couldn't read the signs at first, and then they didn't want to. But there are some things you simply cannot ignore. One of the neighbors heard you screaming. Not that crying kids was anything to raise a fuss over, but somehow, that neighbor also heard some of what Anne was saying and it wasn't pretty. Duo, she eventually placed all the blame for your mother's death right on your shoulders. She was taking out her anger, hurt, and frustration on you."

"You mean she... hit me?" Nothing, not even the most terrifying of nightmares I had after sneaking out of bed to watch scary movies late at night had hinted any anything remotely like abuse. Maybe the human mind was that good at hiding the ugly stuff.

"Oh, Duo --" Howard's voice broke. "She did that at least. But it was the cutting that finally put her over the edge. She'd taken shears to your hand one night while you were sleeping... sleeping from all the insulin she'd pumped you full of. You were lucky to even have survived and by rights, should have died. That Nereid blood of yours saved your life, Duo."

I held up my hand and looked more closely at it. I could not remember anything about any kind of attack, yet the proof of the trauma was staring me in the face. As hideous as that seemed, I couldn't fathom why Howard would feel compelled to tell me about all this right now.

"But... but you saved me, Howard."

"I thought so. She was arrested on charges of child abuse and neglect... They called me in from the sea to inquire about my ability and willingness to be your legal guardian, since I was your only other living relative. Of course, I accepted. Anne's lawyers got her off on an NGRI plead -- something about being crazy with grief -- and she was sentenced to ten years at St. Gabriel's rehabilitation hospital. She would have been up for parole about five years ago, but I never got wind of her release. She never contacted me after the trial ended."

"But..."

"About half an hour ago, I received a phone call from the Romefeller foundation."

"What's that go to do with --"

"Duo, it was Anne. She has been released from the hospital. It must have happened years ago, because she's had enough time to work her way into the Romefeller foundation and use their resources to hunt you down."

"Wh-- How the hell did she get out if she's still obviously crazy?!"

"I have no idea and it doesn't really matter. She's headed here now. Those air craft you hear are hers."

"What?! And the ships, too?"

"Any company is probably geared up for a fight."

"How far away are they?"

Howard looked at me, sorrow etched in every line of his weathered face. Too close to do much about. I looked down at the collapsible and back to him. Sally cleared her throat just then.

"Would it be any good to get away from the massif?" She asked.

The massif. Atlantis. Heero.

"Howard? Being anywhere but dead center above Atlantis is probably a good idea," I said. I could tell Howard was far less interested in the well being of the Nereid than he was in me. "Please? Heero is down there." Finally, Howard lurched up from his crouch. He scaled the ladders to the captain's chair and the engines rumbled to life.

"Sally, could you clean this stuff up? I need to do a few things, like now."

"Sure, kiddo."

I monkeyed up the ladders and was at Howard's side in a flash.

"I need to warn the Nereid, Howard. I cannot let them be sitting ducks for Anne and her lackeys."

"I know."

"Could you do me a favor and tell Sandrock that Romefeller's on the way? They might be able to run some covert interference since they are an official Romefeller project and all that."

"I will. Be careful and get your ass back here as soon as possible. I'm shoving off as soon as you hit the water, but you know this pile of scrap can't move that fast."

"Wouldn't it be safer for me to stay in Atlantis?"

"Use your head, boy! Down there, nobody'd be able to vouch for you. Get your ass back here as soon as you tell Heero what's going on. Up here, they'd have to fight me to take you away as a study specimen."

"Right. How far away are they?"

"Less than twenty minutes." Howard lifted his hand and pointed to the western horizon. "They're coming from west-southwest. Now hurry the hell up, kid!"

Damn damn damn! That one word chorused through my head as I slid back down to the main deck and jogged past Sally who was still struggling to get the dinghy fully deflated. She angrily called something out to me, but there was a much more pressing issue on my mind: Heero.

I launched myself over the side of the ship and dove. I thought I had pushed myself to the limit swimming around that wreck this morning, but that was nothing compared to how hard I pushed myself now. Everything was protesting at my breakneck pace, but I couldn't for the life of me slow down. In addition to glowing as wildly as possible, I started my Nereid song as loud and hard as I could manage. It sounded pithy and flat in the water, but it was the best I could do. As I got closer, I just keened for Heero. I was only two thirds of the way to his gateway when I saw him shooting towards me.

'Go back, go back! They're coming for Atlantis. They're coming!'

He didn't turn round, but closed the distance between us. Smoothly, he caught me in his arms and got us turned around losing hardly any momentum in the process. Then, he raced with me back to his home. I was all but thrown bodily up through the pool and gasping for breath. Swimming hard and pumping adrenaline had burned up my oxygen much faster that I expected. Heero flew out of the water next to me, pulled me to my feet and then into his arms. Then, we were racing through the winding halls of Atlantis.

'I need to gather the guard before we see the King.'

'There's no time! I could hear them coming. They're in the air, they're on the water. They already know you're here.'

'Then we shall have to hurry.'

Heero was running so fast, he almost seemed to be flying. The dim, narrow halls didn't deter him in the least. I, however, had to work to keep my eyes open. Despite being half cradled in his arms and half wrapped around him, I couldn't help but worry about accidentally clobbering a wall. Heero had just started to breathe heavily from exertion when we reached the familiar corridors of the guard. He set me down and pressed his hand to the 'bell' to the side of the door. Beneath his hand, a panel lit up and I knew the interior side of the door was also glowing. Wufei promptly answered the summons.

"Gather the rest of the guard and join us in the Royal chamber. There is a situation."

Wufei gave a curt nod. Even before he had turned back to access his communication panel, Heero had again scooped me up bodily and we were bounding down the corridors once more. Along the way, I noticed the public bulletin boards glowing. I had never before seen anything but cool blues, greens, and occasionally some purple. Now, they flashed deep red in warning.

"The color indicates the urgency of the situation," Heero told me, as if he had read my mind. "Red is the highest level of danger."

The highest level of danger. Those words chased through my mind and made my stomach flop sickly.

Finally, Heero slowed his pace. He set me down and jogged ahead, leaving me to follow behind. We darted down some of the most opulent halls I had ever seen in Atlantis. Instead of the usual shades of green peridotite, the entire area was covered with cream colored speleothems. Several of the sturdier ones had been inlaid with what looked like abalone shell. The bioluminescent lights glowed much brighter off the lighter colors. It was beautiful.

At the end of the grand passage was a pair of large and graceful double doors. Of all the entry ways I had seen in Atlantis, this was the only one that really looked like a door door. A fine mosaic of shells covered the front panels and a fine tracery of gun-metal grey filigree managed to glitter in the dim light. Heero stepped up and placed his hand against a door panel. It glowed the usual blue before fading quickly to white. Moments later, the doors were pulled open from the inside and I found myself nearly face to face with the Nereid king, Zechs.

Heero bowed deeply to his sovereign; I followed suit. While I had unfortunately made Princess Relena's acquaintance several times in the past, this was the first time I had ever seen their King. Zechs dipped his regal head of moon-white hair to each of us and then lead us into a large room packed with what I could only assume was more of the Nereid royal court.

Heero surreptitiously took my hand and walked about a pace before me. Part of me wished he wouldn't bother. It wasn't as if his gesture would garner any points in my favor and it wouldn't stop the whispers and mean looks. Another part of me, however, was pleased he didn't try to hide our relationship. I was almost angry with myself for the relief that small contact brought me while disaster seemed to be falling down around us.

Zechs seated himself upon a finely carved throne with his sister Relena at his side. He was flanked by what looked like his personal guard. I noticed that the guards serving the King directly were relatively heavily armed. They had segmented torso plates that covered them from shoulder to hip and gauntlets to cover their forearms and shins. The armor looked like it was made of the same gun-metal grey material as the filigreed doors. Strapped to each of their hips were some kind of sword and a short dagger. I turned to look at Heero, dying to ask about these almost burly looking Nereid. He spared me a look from the corner of his eyes and shook his head almost imperceptibly. I had to wait.

From behind us, there was the familiar glow of someone touching a door plate and soon after, Wufei and the rest of the Royal Guard filed into the room. Hearing the newcomers quietly catching their breath brought me back to the situation at hand: Romefeller.

"Captain of the Guard, Heero Yuy," said the King. Just the timbre of his voice made me stand up straighter. "You have asked us to gather. We are here. What will you have us know?" Zechs's voice was as regal as his bearing.

"My liege, it is Duo who has dire news for you. For us all." I could see the disgusted looks on several of the courtiers' faces. Especially Relena's. If Heero decided, in the end, to make good on the Nereid status quo for the Royal Guard and take a female as a mate; then I sincerely hoped at that moment he would choose anyone but Relena.

"Duo?" The king said my name like an invitation. Regardless of what anyone else thought, I was relieved that the most important person in the room at that moment was willing to listen. It was just an added bonus that he didn't seem at all perturbed that I wasn't entirely Nereid. Or maybe he just cared enough about his people to overlook that shortcoming of mine.

"Liege," I started and of course, using that word caused a dark rumble to go through the ranks. "There is precious little time and you are all in danger."

"Danger?"

"Yes. A human -- a malevolent one -- has learned of the Nereid and is, at this very moment, coming to -- I faltered. What exactly was my aunt coming to do? Keenly, I felt each and every pair of eyes watching me, waiting for an excuse to pounce on me and I was just about to give it to them. "-- coming to attack you all."

Predictably, the quiet in the room shattered with angry and panicked voices. Despite the din, it wasn't difficult to pick out the accusations that Howard and I had deliberately compromised the security of the society. I felt Heero squeeze my hand.

"SILENCE." Roared the king. Almost instantly, a tainted calm swept over the room.

"Heero? Is what your mate says true?" I felt my cheeks burn red. No Nereid, not even Heero himself I had to grudgingly remind myself, had ever referred to me as anything so intimate as a 'mate' before.

"My lord, I trust Duo has spoken nothing but the truth to me. However, I have not confirmed the presence or absence of any human threat to Atlantis."

"But there is no time! They will reach the ridge any second now, and dive down here as soon as they do!"

As if to punctuate my impromptu speech, a second, small group of guards dressed in flashing silver armor dashed into the room. Their hair was still wet and water beaded up on their pearl skin.

"My Liege, we have just returned from open water as our Commander directed." They gave a nod of respect to Heero. "He wished us to confirm any suspicious ships. We have found Duo's vessel has started moving away and several other, large ships are moving in from the south-west. They will be directly over Atlantis in a matter of minutes, lord."

"Indeed." The king rose swiftly from his chair and strode over to a message panel on one side of the room. He quickly started tapping out a new message. It flashed on the board above the panel. First, violet, then the warning red. As he typed, he barked out instructions.

"I have just sent a message instructing everyone to gather in the Great Hall. Heero, take the Royal Guard out and do your best to camouflage the moon pools. Pargan," Zechs tipped his head slightly to address an elderly Nereid standing just behind his throne, 'take my personal guard to round up any wayward Nereid in Atlantis. When you are satisfied that everyone is gathered, you are to assist Heero in concealing the entries into the city and stand guard there."

"Wait!"

"Yes, Relena?"

"What about Duo?"

"He will return to the surface," Heero said, obviously unhappy about Relena's outburst.

"Back to the surface?" She said incredulously. "It's his fault we're in this situation in the first place! It was only a matter of time before someone got suspicious of all his comings and goings. Or just suspicious of him."

"Sister, now is not the time --"

"Now IS the time! Wouldn't we all be safe if we just handed the humans their little halfling and be done with it?"

"Duo will return to the surface. He will hide. If the humans can break through our defenses, we will fight them. Once order has been restored, we shall have the opportunity to discuss Duo, if need be.

"Remember, Duo is not the first from above to have known of us," Zechs finished. He waved his hand and both sets of guards dispersed. By that time, Heero had a death grip on my hand and practically dragged me behind him as he sprinted from the room. We ran all the way to the moon pool we usually used. Already, a few Nereid from Zechs's personal guard were darting around the outside of the pool using whatever flotsam and jetsam to hide the hole.

"I'll take you as far as I can. I'm not sure how far away the Juggernaut is."

I nodded and we dove into the pool and out. Heero paused long enough to give a brief salute to the furiously working guards. I spared a glance overhead. The depth of the water was too great to allow any sunlight to penetrate. Being so dark, however, would also make any lights, natural or manmade, easy to spot. Thankfully, the expanse looked dark as the night sky. Soon, I was back in the cradle of Heero's arms yet again and he sped us off towards the Juggernaut.

Before long, the water above us started to lighten. Not far in the distance, the huge hulking shapes of giant Romefeller ships could be seen. The Juggernaut's getaway had apparently been hampered by my aunt; it sat still in the water nearly directly above us.

"Stay still... can you feel them?" Heero whispered in my ear. I shook my head. "You're not as sensitive to the vibrations as we are. I can feel divers above us coming down. Get to the ship and stay there." Then, with a final squeeze, he let me go and raced full throttle back to Atlantis, confident that the divers' weak human sense would never pick up the ripples I could feel distinctly against my skin. I watched him in the weak light, but without the benefit of his luminescence, I lost sight of his bronze figure all too quickly.

The water around me was wide and gradually getting lighter as I approached the surface. I decided to take it slower than Heero's break-neck speed. I wasn't sure who was where or what they might be doing. That simple choice was secretly a godsend. From the corner of my eye, I saw the bulky human shapes sinking into the water not far removed from where Heero had disappeared. They were going down at a steady and what should have been a deadly fast pace, unless they were wearing special JIM suits. As if to confirm my fears, the divers' underwater lights flashed on to allow them to see. Their suits were the tell tale moss green of the chromic anodizing coat. In those suits, the divers could ascend and descend as fast as they pleased without regard to the water pressure and go as deep as their suits allowed. The last time I was up to snuff on JIM suit technology, the suits could easily withstand the pressure of the sea to reach the Atlantis massif in a suit like that.

Without a second thought, I started my diversion. I turned around and swam straight down at full speed. When I got far enough under the divers, I let myself glow as brightly as I could and belted out the first Nereid song that came to mind.

Round and round, I circled the divers. I buzzed past them on all sides and screeched loudly. I pulled at bits of their suits and slapped their bubble helmets trying to distract them while at the same time trying to lead them up and away from the massif. Our little dance wasn't terribly intricate, but it was enough to get the divers chasing after me, half in wonder at my obvious lack of any sort of protective suit and the patterns etched into my skin in glowing lavender, and half in annoyance at being used as a sort of plaything. The two divers started swatting back at me. A couple of hits landed, but the combination of massive suit and water resistance meant they couldn't work up enough momentum to do any real damage. One of them finally wised up and started trying to keep his helmet mounted light fixed on me. I caught a glimpse of a blinking red light and figured that one was trying to record the "performance." And still, we danced around each other. I managed to lead them almost halfway back to the surface before reinforcements arrived.

"SHIT!" I cursed. A quick glance up only confirmed what my body was already telling me: more divers were rapidly sinking down towards me. I saw three of them coming, and they were armed with things that looked like harpoons. Two of them had them had their contraptions leveled at me. The five divers were gesturing to each other in their own modified sign language. The one kept filming and the two harpooners tread water to keep me in their cross-hairs. One of the original two produced a length of rope from somewhere and the last one, also with a harpoon, was taking aim.

A prick of pain blossomed in the side of my neck. My hand flew to the injury and I ripped the projectile out. It was some kind of syringe looking device and it was empty. Already, my eyes felt like they were getting heavy and it was difficult to keep my legs moving fast enough to keep me from sinking. My head lolled over onto my shoulder and I saw another JIM suit approach. I dropped my hand. Before the syringe even left my hand, things had started to grow unnaturally dim.

Cold metal hands were clutching all around me, pulling and tugging and pushing uncomfortably. My eyelids were so damn heavy. I had never been that tired before. The last thing I remembered was seeing a faint bluish glow far below me and the sound of heavenly chimes crying 'Duo!' over and over.

Wherever I was, it was dark except for the angry red glow of an LED clock and the blinking lights on the machines humming in the room. Counting minutes is insanely boring, irritating work but it was the best I could do since I didn't have stars in the sky to count. I counted off three hundred sixty-three minutes before I heard muffled voices and the sound of a key in a lock. About damn time. A brilliant wash of light stabbed my eyelids and made my head throb. The queasiness I had woken up with returned with a vengeance and I curled up into a ball.

Hours of waiting in the dark for anyone to acknowledge me had given me plenty of time to replay the series of events that had lead to my capture. I thought, and not without bitterness, of Quatre and Trowa and how their stupid device had ended up causing more trouble than I could have dreamed. I thought of that never ending dive to warn Heero, only to be caught so close to my goal. I supposed being alone in my cage meant no one else had been caught, but that didn't guarantee that no one else had gone undetected. I hoped that Heero at least had heeded my desperate warning and played it cool. Romefeller was bound to poke around the massif for weeks looking for more. I hoped they didn't find a single one of the Nereid and that they left Howard alone. I hoped that I could pass myself off as a genuine creature of the sea, not a mixed up hybrid, well enough to satisfy their curiosity. And especially, I hoped they would be satisfied with a test population of one: me.

It took more labor than I would have thought was necessary to roll my head to the side and crack my oddly heavy eyelids open. A small group of people in white lab coats were milling over by a console in the wall. I noticed there was a lot of machinery in the room, and it all looked like it belonged in some sort of medical drama.

"Ahh, looks like our guest is awake," said a man with bronze hair. As he came towards me, I noticed his unusually forked eyebrows. "Une, you have out done yourself. See here," he pointed at me through the glass that separated us. "You can just make out the markings, and they are exceedingly similar to the ones on the digital feed we recovered. Apparently, you have discovered a new species!"

"Dr. Khushrenada," a severe looking woman with round glasses spoke next. "I would like you to oversee the study of our specimen."

"You require the full battery, correct?" The bronze haired man turned to face his colleague. I noticed they all appeared to be much older than the man and woman who seemed to be in charge. "Shall we start with the physical endurance tests? We want him as close to optimal performance for those as possible before we go poking around. And let's try to figure out what our little Glaucus eats."

The scientists stared at me for a moment, but I was still too woozy from whatever they'd pumped me full of to do much more than blink at them. Shortly thereafter, they left me alone.

Being referred to as 'it' and the prospect of getting a battery of tests didn't sound very good. Still, if the bronze haired guy's enthusiasm was any indication, they had only gotten me. If they just left the massif alone, if they didn't find any of the others, then they would be content with just my half-Nereid self.

The sound of breaking chimes filled my head, and I vowed to put on the best damn show I could.

If someone had asked me yesterday if I thought it would be fun to fake skydive in a wind tunnel or something like that, I would have given them a 'hell yes.' Today, I had an entirely different perspective on manmade forces of nature.

Wherever I was, it was an astronomically huge research facility. The first test in my battery turned out to be testing me for speed in the water. It was hellacious. Unlike the natural currents in the ocean, or at least the ones I was familiar with, which weren't as strong and somewhat navigable, the horizontal water tunnel they'd dropped me into was about a million times stronger. Perhaps they had expected an aquatic being to show much more prowess in the pool, because the very first run was no match for me. I tried to match the force of the rushing water, but it took less than a minute to get overwhelmed and end up crushed against the giant grate at the back end of the tank. The jerks thought I was just being lazy, so I ended up stuck there for a good five minutes. It was exceedingly uncomfortable at best. It went down hill from there. My only reprieve for the day came in the form of the techs who were running the test to back off on the extreme water-current speeds.

I felt like I had spent damn near twelve hours in their tank. I probably had, considering the breaks taken by the staff. My stomach rumbled as I watched them chewing on sandwiches earlier in the day. They had thrown some chum into my tank. Beggars weren't choosers and I wolfed down as much as I could stomach, hoping I looked as wild as I felt.

Hours later, they seemed to be satisfied with their findings. I was too bone weary to move and had to be taken bodily to my holding cell. I must have passed out on the way back because I jerked around after hearing the metallic clang of my cell being shut. I closed my eyes again, and it was the most blissful moment of the day until two of the doctors' voiced intruded.

"Well, Master O, it looks like our little merman is quite the swimmer."

"Feh. He's a good swimmer compared to a human. It's obvious this creature needs all the brute strength it has to give it an edge over its prey and other predators."

I kept my eyes closed, but forced myself to concentrate, hoping to find out how my attempt at a charade was working.

"Did you notice when he was crushed up against the grille?"

"On that very first run? What idiot was manning the controls for that, by the way? That imbecile is damn lucky 'our little merman' is made of stronger stuff than us. A human should have been crushed to death in less than half the time our subject endured being pushed up to the grate like that."

"Indeed, yet not so much as a bruise. Did you notice there wasn't any collapsing of his rib cage either?"

"Feh. No collapsing. That's what's so damn hard to swallow. When are you going to scan him?"

"Not until after tomorrow. We'll let him recover a bit tonight and try the pressure tests tomorrow. Then, we can see about what's under the hood..." the doctor rapped his knuckles lightly across the bars of my cage. "Strange ocean creature, full of juxtapositions. You can't breathe underwater, but you can survive massive amounts of pressure... you can't out swim the prey you probably hunt, but you could probably beat it in a wrestling match... hmm..."

"Leave him alone, Dr. Khushrenada. There'll be plenty of time to be philosophical over the rest of the test results later."

After that, the light cut out and there was nothing until the next morning.

More of the same followed the next day, except they wanted to test my ability to withstand extreme pressure. Maybe it was foolish, but I was half hoping they would be taking me to open waters for the test. At least then, I might have been able to figure out where the hell I was. As it turned out, they had another blasted tank. I loathed the Sweeper side of me that looked in awe at the massive, metal contraption. That was before I was chucked into it.

The tank didn't hold water, which couldn't have been compressed anyway, or gas which, I supposed, couldn't be compressed enough. Instead, there was great pivot in the middle and balanced on it was a long arm. One end of the arm held a kind of cockpit and the other an adjustable weight. They strapped me into the cockpit and started spinning me like a test tube of suspension being separated. Naturally, I was able to withstand more pressure and for longer times that the average human. It still made me rather dizzy and it wasn't long before I was 'refunding' some of yesterday's raw chum.

Throwing up is one of the least enjoyable things I could think of. The bright side was that I didn't throw up for very long, my stomach was empty after the first hour or so of spinning. Dry heaves are worse. My guts did their level best to convince my gag reflex to hurl them out, but Mother Nature would have none of that. When they finally dragged my sorry ass from the little cockpit, I would have cried for joy if I hadn't been so dehydrated. My liquid queasy stomach and the fiery ache in my abused throat were pretty damned effective disorienting factors. The test seemed to be over, though and that meant it was probably something like evening time.

A couple of rough hands pulled me up like a sack of potatoes. My nose clobbered the guy's shoulder blade as he hefted me into a fireman's carry, but the pain didn't seem to register like I thought it should. I was carried back to my cell and Dr. Khushrenada had a little conference with the other scientist who must have been in charge of their torture machine.

Before totally succumbing to the siren call of sleep, I thanked my lucky stars that those 'tests' were done.

That was a foolish thought.

At first, I tried to keep track of how many times I went to the water tank and how many times I was spun. It made sense to me that they'd only do one set of tests a day. The parts of the facility that I was seeing didn't have windows. I was frequently too tired to check the LED clock in my 'room.' It got to the point that even when I could see it, I couldn't make sense of the numbers half the time. The other half, I just didn't care what it said. Then, they tried alternating the tests and I overheard the scientists discussing how to test my swimming speed at great depths. The exhaustion and near perpetual dizziness blurred any rhyme or reason I had made out of their testing schedule and eventually, screwed up my sense of time entirely.

Perhaps they had intentionally disoriented my sense of time or maybe it was just them cramming as much test time into their workday as possible. Whatever it was, I was glad to see the physical punishment eventually broken up by lab tests. The body scans and endless x-rays, the poking and prodding sessions would have been demeaning and embarrassing, but I was just too tired to care.

A break in the monotony came when they picked me up and threw me in a tank. After the shock of landing in a pool of cold sea water, I fully expected the current making machine to thunder to life. I was lucid enough to want to beat the damn scientists to the punch and burst forward, only to crash headfirst into the side of the tank. I heard some of the techs laughing and some comment about Pavlov. I lost it and started wailing against the sides of the tank. I knew it was a hundred percent futile, but I felt a great sense of release. I faded quickly into despair and abandoned my feeble attack and sank to the bottom of the water tank. The techs watched me for a bit but then, their attention was drawn to some sort of sky gurney -- the kind that might be used to transport a dolphin from the ocean to a lab. Except this one was more square. I saw a peach and red arm covered in suckers flip over the edge and knew: I was going to be tested on my supposed hunting prowess.

I wasn't much of a champion squid fighter even at my best. Tangling with a squid after everything I had been subjected to, however, would probably constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" in a court of law. But I wasn't in a court of law, I was in a research facility. Sucker marks seemed to cover me from head to toe and I could feel each and every little love bite the mollusk gave me. At length, it dawned on the coats in charge that I was in no shape to best a squid and they ended up having to rescue me or risk having me drowned. When the horrible experience was finally over, they slung me back into my cell, but not even the cold hard floor could help the hot burning of the squid bites. I absently wished for a pot of the salve Heero used on his own sucker wounds.

That was a mistake. Thinking of Heero opened a flood gate I hadn't known I had closed. It felt like my previous life was fading and all I had to remember it by was the beauty of his fading face and the sound of church chimes being rent apart.

Now I had a great emotional wound to match all my physical pain.

The next thing I remembered was getting thrown on a gurney and being wheeled into an operating lab. I felt like nothing so much as an overused piece of tinfoil being called into service one more time.

The operating theatre was just as white and as antiseptic and sterile as it could be. I even had the dubious honor of seeing my host of the forked eyebrows scrubbed up and ready to do whatever they were going to do to me. I felt a mask fitted over my face and knew nothing more.

Full of stuffing, my head was full of stuffing. Cottony gauze clouded everything. Up is down and I was floating on cotton candy clouds. My back was blistering, my limbs were snapped strands of spaghetti. Stifling steam surrounded me. Flip over and cheese oozed out. A fire in the sky burned my eyes red and broke the seal. The hole in the sky drowned everything out. Sapphires sitting on the ocean kept the water from being sucked into the burning white hot hole. Stay below the sapphires and be safe, or roll into the emptiness. I rolled and everything went blissfully away.

Insane pain wrenched me back into consciousness. Whatever I had been hopped up on before was obviously working its way out of my system. And it was leaving with a nuclear bang. I didn't need to open my eyes to tell that I was outside. The sensation of UV saturated sunlight searing my skin was enough to tell me. My mouth was parched and I could hear cruel water so close to me. I lolled my head to the other side. My sanctuary was not open water, there was a stark grey concrete holding wall that shut out the wild ocean. Its water was salty and would do nothing to quell my thirst. Still, the dark blue waters looked like nothing short of paradise to my burning body.

:Water. Get to the water, Maxwell. Water.:

I was on my back and swung my head around to take a look at myself. Almost immediately I wish I hadn't.

One of my arms and one of my legs had been skewered by several thin, metallic rods that were in turn held in place by metal braces circling my limbs. They looked like grotesque cages round my upper arm and a thigh. I had to turn my head to the side for a minute and be sick.

Eventually, I pulled myself together enough to continue my mission. Without the benefit of the disorienting drugs, the pain was nearly unbearable and entirely unbelievable. I could feel the muscle contract but the caged limbs didn't move like they ought, like the cages were the only thing keeping my forearm and the rest of my leg from not being left behind. I felt disconnected. I felt like I didn't have anything left in me, but I must have. Somehow, I convinced my mind to force my body forward. It was a painfully slow process of shifting inches at a time and aiming for the straightest line possible.

Full twilight had fallen before I sank my scraped and bloodied hands in the water. The gentle sting from salt was the kindest caress I had known in I didn't know how long. Warm sea water washed the salty tears off my face before I crashed.

Glorious light, moving, white, blurred, and slow. It danced with the black emptiness around it. White fire burned above, but didn't warm. Mercifully, didn't burn. Some sweet smell flared in my nostrils and a butter knife kissed my arm. Then, I was burning on the sun again. Lying on a baking stone, and cooked in tears, like a delicacy.

"Get up, you sack of shit."

Something hard and round connected none too gently with my ribs. I thought they might turn to dust under even that light abuse, but for some reason, they didn't. Through a crack in my eyes, I saw a black booted foot angle for another blow. I didn't have the energy to do a damn thing about it and soon, that boot had me flipped onto my back. Above me, the sun was blazing away again. A silhouette hovered above, black against the glare of the fire ball. The silhouette leaned in, close to my face.

"Is my incubus too weak to handle a couple of tests? I suppose being only half hell spawn would make you weaker. Don't worry, I'm almost done with you."

I moaned, hearing but not comprehending. Suddenly, my scalp was screaming with pain. I felt my head and shoulders leave the rough bed of gravel. Wet hot heat sliced through my neck, just behind the crook and then a stab of pain. There was a clatter and something burning hot seemed to melt my skin together before she slapped something over the wound. Then, she started speaking at me again.

"I thought I wanted you dead. I was only partly right. After twenty years of contemplation, I've come to understand I deserve more than just seeing you dead. She deserves more than just your life. She deserves all their lives. And I will get them for her. For us. Good bye, Duo Maxwell."

Unceremoniously, she dropped me back to my stone bed.

"-- useless to try and do anything with him in this condition, doctor."

The sound of voices pulled me out of my stupor -- or maybe it had been sleep. I couldn't tell. At the very least, I seemed to be inside. Rather than the hot, hard stones from the outside holding container, I could feel the unforgiving chill of a metal floor under me. More of the conversation filtered through my addled brain and there was an irritating familiarity to the man's voice I heard.

Until a silent screech shattered the relative calm of my own private hell.

"Director!"

The screeching stopped.

"Director, our subject is really in no condition to be subjected to these sound tests right now."

"Pity, I thought he was reacting beautifully to the stimulation. Look, it has made him glow."

"I really must insist we postpone these sonic tests for a later date."

"I'm afraid I must agree with Dr. Winner. We certainly have put poor Glaucus through the paces. Perhaps we might let him rest a few days before any cognitive tests. Surely any results garnered now would be of little value in his obviously exhausted state." I recognized the bronze haired doctor's voice immediately. Something was irritating in my brain about the other man's voice.

"Fine," said the woman. There was something about her... something dangerous? I peeled my lids back and tipped my head enough to pick her out. They called her Une, but as my brain filtered memories, I finally put the puzzle pieces together: Une was Anne, my revenge-crazed (or just plain crazy) aunt.

"Give it three days, then we shall resume testing. Doctor Khushrenada, I want you to monitor the creature at all times. And Winner, I recommend setting up an automatic recording device. If it makes any noise, we'll want it recorded."

She sailed out of the room. Except for the pounding in my head, there was silence. Khushrenada glided up to my cell.

"Look at you. How are we ever going to get you ready for more tests in just three days?"

"Dr. Khushrenada," the other man came up. Quatre Winner's platinum gold hair shone painfully bright under the laboratory lights. "Perhaps if we gave him some food and drink?"

"We have been."

"Maybe something a little more... human. He clearly hasn't thrived on an all fish diet and we already know he's more of a land creature than a water one."

"Perhaps you are right... why don't you rig up that recording device. I'll find something for him to eat. Don't worry, Glaucus," he said peering at me through the bars of my cage. "I'll bring a little of everything I can rustle up." Khushrenada's ginger head slipped from my fuzzy line of sight and I heard his steps fade away.

As soon as the door closed behind the older scientist, Quatre was squatting near my head.

"Duo... can you hear me?"

I blinked. He stared, apparently not familiar with the 'blink once for yes, twice for no' code. I tried to nod my head, but only managed to get my chin to droop a little. It was enough for Quatre to take it for the affirmative answer I meant it to be. He sucked in a sharp breath.

"I-I don't know what to say."

"Ha-- how loooong?" The consonants were mere breaths and the vowels unnaturally long in my misused throat.

"You've been here for a few weeks. We don't have much time; they might come back. Please, try to trust me. I've already told Howard where you are... They're coming --"

He broke off his little speech suddenly. Honestly, I had a hard time keeping up with it. The door snapped open. Quatre scuttled way and started digging through a box of machine parts. The ginger haired doctor came back carrying what looked like salad and water. He laid it within reach. It would have been so easy to reach out and grab a carrot stick, but the smell was making me nauseous. Instead, I inched over to the dish of water and gracelessly lapped it up. Despite the coolness of the liquid, it burned going down. I laid back and let my mind race with all the implications of both Winner's presence and his words.

His stint as a marine biologist might have been just an elaborate ruse to help Anne find me, but that didn't seem likely. Why would she bother keeping up pretenses of 'research' if she knew that he knew what I really was? Howard was on the way, but what could he possibly do about my situation. Romefeller had the resources and the legal team to fight any claim Howard might make on my dubious custody. Hell, I was already over the legal age for being an adult. What would it all mean for Heero... if it meant anything at all.

The last thing I really remembered about us, about really being with Heero, was the bone he threw me by letting me top. Maybe that was a last hurrah? Get it in before moving on to greener pastures -- or at least kowtowing to his social obligation to reproduce. And the female wedding garb, why the hell would he have that if he wasn't planning something -- like a fucking wedding -- with a female. Relena came to mind. Vindictive female, like Une. Anne. Whatever she wanted to call herself.

All these questions and theories and doubts chased around my brain until all I saw was endless black.

"He's sleeping again."

"Yes."

"He's part human."

"Sir?"

"The blood work came back. Une is convinced he's some kind of new race, but the tests show he is part human. You commented on his diet being more towards the human end of the spectrum this afternoon, I believe. Was I mistaken, Mr. Winner?"

"Er -- no. Blood tests do seem somewhat superfluous in determining his genetic makeup. Just looking at his opposable digits ought to be enough to draw conclusions about his primate genes."

"Touche. At first, I was just as excited as the Director about seeing him. Even if he is some kind of hybrid. I will admit, however, after seeing him through these weeks of tests, I find myself pitying him. He is a creature who is meant to be free. Holding him in captivity like this... seems almost cruel."

"You mean apart from the 'scientific' torture?" Quatre practically spit out.

Treize sighed wistfully as he gazed at his subject's form lying supine on the floor of his cell.

"Did you know..."

"Know what?"

"The bone samples. His skeletal structure is shot through with an incredibly strong and unidentifiable element. That is what allows him to survive the pressure of the deep sea."

"I didn't know."

"Anyway, the director wants to try cloning him."

"Cloning?"

"Perhaps 'farming' might be a better choice of words. Like beef cattle for steak, Director Une seems rather taken with the idea of breeding more of our little merman and slaughtering them for their skeletons. The new element in their bones could be used to make the strongest, most durable sea craft ever. As well as a slew of other, perhaps more lucrative, applications."

Quatre stared at Treize, obviously at a loss for what to say.

"Personally, I hope it doesn't come to that. He is -- or was -- far too magnificent for such a fate. I do hope that your recording device picks up some of his song. That would give someone an excellent excuse to fight against breeding him. People would rebel against farming a cognitive being."

"I'll do the best I can."

He wasn't entirely sure what Treize was trying to allude to, but Quatre was immensely relieved to discover Treize was not on exactly the same page as their director. It gave him hope for Duo.

Not long after Quatre finished setting up the sound monitor and recording device, Trowa arrived.

"Putting in the extra hours, Winner?"

"Anything to get ahead, Barton."

"Would that include standing me up on our anniversary?"

"What are you talking about?"

"We have a date, don't you remember. At the marina."

"We... do, don't we?" Quatre knew they had had no such plans. The only reason they would go to the marina was because the Juggernaut had arrived. Quatre just wished he had something more heartening to tell the man waiting there. "I'm almost finished up here, I just have to clean up."

"Don't be ridiculous, Quatre," Treize admonished. "You should have said something."

"I didn't want to give Une the wrong impression. Funding is hard enough to come by, no sense in biting the hand that feeds you."

"Even if that hand feeds you poison?"

Trowa shot a narrow-eyed look at the older doctor.

"Never mind. You go ahead on your romantic dinner with that dashing boyfriend of yours. I'll make sure all your things are in order and Une will be none the wiser."

"Sir?"

"Unless you prefer to stay?"

"Thank you. We'll... see you tomorrow, then."

Quatre finished coiling the length of electrical wire he had been coiling and returned it to its case. The rest, he left as it laid on the floor. With a smile and a nod, he left the room. Trowa followed after, skipping the smile but offering a nod of his own. The pair of them didn't exchange a single word until they were safely ensconced in their car and off Romefeller premises.

"Quatre, WHAT was that all about?" Trowa asked from the passenger seat.

"I don't really know. Treize knows things, though."

"Like what?" He watched as Quatre's normally smooth, genial face fell hard. A pucker between his brows told Trowa that his partner was thinking very hard.

"Treize knows Duo is more human; he knows that Une knows and that she doesn't want that bit of information to leak out. He said that there was something special about Duo's bones. They contained some kind of new hyper-strong metal or alloy and that it could be used to improve deep sea exploration. Perhaps more. That might be why she's so determined to keep him. He said she wants to try breeding or cloning him."

"Bastards!"

"Une, most likely. Treize -- I'm not so sure."

"Why not?"

"He... seemed opposed to using Duo like that. He said Duo was too 'magnificent'. Treize also thinks it would be a PR nightmare if the public got wind of Romefeller's 'harvesting' of.... of whatever it is Duo is."

"A PR nightmare? Surely they would try to pass it off like beef cattle farming or fish farming."

"Of course, but people generally don't oppose those because cows are considered... dumb."

"Had Duo said anything?"

"Nothing."

"He's trying to protect something. He must be. Why else would he just take all that abuse?"

"I know. You know what he is hiding?"

"I have a feeling we are going to find out when we get to the Juggernaut."

The rest of the drive they spent in quiet, questions chasing through their minds. Going to see Howard on the Juggernaut was something like a tantalizing carrot that pushed them forward. Just a few weeks ago, they had been a couple of unsuspecting researchers trying to communicate with dolphins. Running into Duo and Howard had been a complete accident on their part, but one with disastrous results. Trowa told his partner time and again to not feel guilty. Rather than chalk up the bizarre footage to yet another deep sea creature, Romefeller had decided to investigate. Quatre couldn't help but connect the obvious dots: he and Trowa were working for Romefeller and it was the accidental recordings on their dolphin talk box device taken on the very first day at their site had alerted the institution to Duo's whereabouts. The single minded purpose with which Une's "research" was executed raised all kinds of red flags to both of them.

Despite the length of the drive, Quatre felt they had arrived all too soon at Port de Plaisance. Quatre followed Trowa's directions, taking them to the guest parking area. The guard in the booth asked to see their guest pass, but Trowa offered a slip number and Howard's name instead. After a brief call, the guard let them pass and they pulled into the designated space.

"Posh place. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. God, I feel horrible. I don't think I could ever have cut it as a doctor," Quatre moaned as he stepped out of the car.

"You'll make a great doctor."

"Medical doctor, wiseacre."

"Good evening, boys." Howard's gruff voice greeted them coolly from a wrought iron gate that separated the dock from the semi-public parking lot. He was wearing sunglasses, perched halfway down his nose, despite the dwindling light of twilight.

"Howard," Trowa nodded.

"Hello! I'm so glad to see you. Where --"

"Follow me." Howard said and pushed his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose. He swiped a card and punched a series of numbers into the console beside the gate and then, it opened. Without another word, the three of them went down the sloping ramp and toward the Juggernaut looming at the end of the dock.

"Come on in," Howard said after he smoothly jumped the small gap between ship and dock. Quatre and Trowa followed and were lead up into what seemed to be the main living cabin of the ship. There was built in sofa seating on either side, arranged in a 'U' shape to make room for modest sized pedestal tables. A small kitchenette was nestled into the port side stern section and Howard was standing in it.

"Something to drink? I got soda -- that's Duo's -- beer and bottled water."

"Water will be fine," Trowa said. Howard pulled two bottles from the mini fridge and flipped them through the air to his guests.

"Something to eat? There's a really good Chinese joint in the marina."

Quatre looked at Trowa, puzzled why Howard was beating around the bush. They all knew why they were there.

"Um, whatever you recommend. Chinese would be nice."

"SALLY!" Howard bellowed.

"YEAH?"

"WOULD YOU BE A DEAR AND GO GET SOME CHINESE?"

"NOW? THERE'LL BE A LINE A MILE LONG!"

"THEN YOU'D BETTER GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR IF YOU WANT TO EAT TONIGHT!"

"FINE! WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

"Any requests?"

"Broccoli beef?"

"General Tso's chicken?"

"BROCCOLI BEEF AND TSAO'S CHICKEN. GET SOME PORK FRIED RICE AND EGG ROLLS, TOO."

"HOW MANY?"

"HALF A DOZEN!"

"FINE."

"THANKS!"

From the deck below, they heard the clatter of things being organized none too gently followed by Sally's thunderously angry steps. They didn't stop at the main deck, but continued to the kitchenette.

"THIS IS THE -- last time... Hello. Howard," she shot the dirtiest look Quatre and Trowa had ever seen on a woman's face to Howard, "didn't tell me we had more guests." She heaved a mighty sigh. "Just the two dishes, then?" Howard nodded and held out his wallet. Resigned and slightly embarrassed, she grabbed the leather wallet and left.

"I'm sorry you had to hear all that. She's had a busy day," Howard offered.

"Yes, we picked up on that," Quatre said.

"What did she mean 'more guests'?"

"Oh, you're not the only ones to visit us today. We are in port, after all." He evaded. During the short break, Howard listened hard. Satisfied with the quiet that surely signaled Sally's departure, he continued, "Mostly, I just want to keep Sally safe if things end up getting... serious, if you take my meaning. Now, tell me about Duo."

With as much detail as they were able to provide, Quatre and Trowa told Howard everything. It was difficult to give specifics about most of what had happened as their part in Duo's testing hadn't come up until just recently, weeks after he'd been taken to Romefeller's Caribbean research facility. Still, they had been privy to all the test results and could vouch with certainly for Duo's current status. Howard listened silently. Whatever emotions he might have been feeling were either hidden by his large sunglasses or he effectively stifled before they crossed his face.

"So, he's a guinea pig?" Howard said when they finished recounting the details.

"It appears that way. With any luck, we'll be able to get him speaking. That would prove he's a --"

"Human," Trowa finished forcefully. "He might not be genetically identical, but we could certainly vouch for his humanity. Hell, we swallowed his lines about viruses and everything readily enough."

"Well, good luck getting the kid to speak. If he's kept up the charade of merman this long, I don't think he's going to break anytime soon."

"Why not?"

"He's got his reasons," Howard suddenly dropped his bottle of water. "NO!" He shouted, but it was too late.

A door at the bow of the ship burst opened and an impossibly large figure leapt from it. It seemed to soar through the air and tackle Quatre, tumbling them both to the floor. In a flash, Trowa was down trying to save his partner from being crushed. Howard came around and was struggling to pull the man off his guest.

"Knock it off, kid! I asked them to come. They know where Duo is."

Immediately, the tall man practically jumped off when he heard Duo's name. He had sent Howard crashing to the ground.

"Oohno eetho o eei Duo aah tsuahau!" He shouted.

"Heero, shut up and listen," Howard said, rubbing his head as he clamored back to his feet.

"What... Who is that?" Quatre said from his knees. Trowa was at his side, his attention torn between glaring daggers at the new arrival and checking Quatre for bumps and bruises.

"Quatre, Trowa, this is Heero. He is Nereid."

"Ne--reid? As in... water fairy?" Trowa asked as he helped Quatre gain his feet.

"I'd hardly call him a fairy," Howard said, giving Heero a scathing look and a cuff to the head. Heero returned a laser-like glare. "Duo is half Nereid, on his father's side. That's why Romefeller is so interested in him, I'd wager. Heero here is his, er, boyfriend. Which is why he is going ballistic now."

"Duo helped you. You took Duo! Why? Where?"

"He can speak English?" Trowa asked, bewildered.

"Duo's been teaching him for a few years, fat lot of good it's done him. I don't think they spend a whole lot of time on language arts. But he wants to get Duo back every bit as much as me, one way or another."

"Heero," Quatre turned his expressive aquamarine eyes on the tall Nereid. "Duo is being kept at a Romefeller facility on the mainland here."

Heero stalked the length of the room. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs that lead out of the kitchenette and punched one fist viciously into his open palm. Then, he spun back around.

"We will go to him," snarled Heero.

"Hold your horses, Heero. We can't just waltz in there and take him back. I know Une and I know she won't let him go... easily."

"What do you mean you know Une?"

"Look, how I know Anne... Une... is not the issue here. I know her and I am willing to bet my life on her desire to keep Duo or use him for her own gains. And I don't want to see that happen. We need someone on the inside to feed us information."

"And you want us to do it," Trowa finished.

"Well, yes. I was under the impression you boys were willing to help. Otherwise, why bother contacting to let me know where they were keeping him?"

"No, we want to help. We might actually have another one of the doctors on our side. Or Duo's side at least." Quatre said. "If he really is as willing to help as he seems to be, his clearance codes at the research center would be a big help in getting Duo out of the facility."

"Excellent. You boys do what you can. If covert diplomacy fails, we'll have to do it our way," Howard said, gesturing to himself and Heero. "How soon can you find out if that friend of yours is good for it?"

"Not more than a few more days. Unless Duo starts talking."

"Call me when you know."

"Of course," Quatre said.

"Ah, here comes Sally with dinner. You'll stay won't you?" Howard looked at each of his three guests. Quatre and Trowa nodded somewhat uncomfortably. Mostly, they wanted to get out of the marina but Howard had been absolutely cordial. And Sally had gone specifically to get Chinese for them. Not to mention being able to attempt to smooth things over with the surly acting Nereid Heero.

"Um, sure!"

"Heero?"

Rather than answer Howard's question, Heero stalked out of the room. How he managed to move so gracefully when his feet were easily the size of large swim fins was beyond Quatre and Trowa. As they heard him slap across the deck, Howard heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. Shortly thereafter, there was a minimal plunking sound of something hitting the water. Heero was gone.

"Well, he wasn't going to be very good company anyway."

Then, Sally climbed on board and the entire atmosphere of the ship changed from strained pleasantries to genuine conversation, most of it centered on covert talk about Quatre and Trowa's stint doing research for the premier oceanographic institute, Romefeller.

"Ugh, I hate the beach," Wufei complained. He was sitting carefully on a rough rock that stuck out from the water. Every so often, he cast his eyes around looking for errant humans. There seemed to be a lot of those on the resort island. More than once he'd had to flop into the water to hide himself enough to not stick out like too much of a sore thumb. The twin dorsal fins running from shoulder to hip were aching with all the abuse they'd been taking getting flattened against his back.

"You didn't have to come. In fact, I believe I ordered you to stay behind and help the evacuation." Heero snapped back even as he joined Wufei on the unforgiving perch.

"Well, you're stuck with me. Home is leagues away and I won't go back without you. Relena would have a fit."

"Wufei... don't."

Gingerly, Wufei stretched his hands out behind him and leaned back, supporting his weight with his arms. He looked at the stars. It was one of the few times he'd ever actually seen them. They were beautiful; they reminded him of his wife Noin's glittering eyes.

Wufei respected Heero as a fellow Nereid, as his commander, and as his friend. Accepting Duo as part of the Heero package had been difficult at first. Tolerance wasn't a Nereid strong suit, but for Heero's sake, he had tried. And had been pleasantly surprised.

For Wufei, years of Heero stealing moments with Duo had translated in to years of stolen meetings with Duo. Somewhere along the line, he found that he had grown to genuinely like the halfing. Part of it had to do with the fact that just seeing Duo made Heero's eyes light up. Part of it was years of watching Duo bearing the burden of living with Nereid biases, and doing so with aplomb. Duo had ultimately earned Wufei's respect (and occasional consternation at some of the more hair-brained adventures on which Duo would take younger Nereid).

It had actually been Wufei himself that had restrained Heero from racing after Duo after he had been surrounded and attacked by those men in the strange suits. Seeing how much pain it caused Heero to lose his partner was one of the most difficult things Wufei had ever encountered. He had vowed to himself he would do anything within his power to help his captain save his mate.

"Those two divers we met all those weeks ago -- they inadvertently lead to Duo's capture," Heero murmured.

"Are you sure? I've heard that humans are like children. They take and take and take without a single thought for the consequences. Howard and Duo both agree, though they seem more inclined to civility."

"The divers'... leader has him. They've been running tests on him. He's just been taking it. It sounds... terrible," Heero whispered the last word.

That fateful night, at the time it had been so carefree and happy, seemed to be a lifetime ago in Heero's eyes. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine such a small thing like sea jumping could ever have blown up quite like this. It killed him to realize all his years of training and hard earned skills as a Royal Guard had been of absolutely no help in protecting the one thing that mattered the absolute most to him: Duo.

"Heero, surely Duo could reason with them. Maybe he has already. Duo passes for human easily enough. How else could he have stayed with Howard so long?"

"Howard's ship is special! You don't understand, Wufei. He's had Duo there all his life and the crew... they all think his differences are just some kind of accident. THEY think he is human because he TRIES to be human."

"But now...?"

"He isn't trying anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"He's... trying to be Nereid."

"Why?"

"THINK, Wufei!"

"You mean he is trying to pass himself off as Nereid... to prevent those divers from coming back and looking for us. To keep the humans away from Atlantis." Wufei finished quietly. It seemed exactly like something Duo would try.

"Yes. He traded his freedom, his life, so we could be free." A bitterly dark chuckle escaped Heero's lips. "And it's working.

"Wufei...?" He could hardly be heard over the gentle rolling of the surf.

"Yes?"

"He is everything I want. I can't lose him," Heero's voice was quiet and hoarse.

Wufei sat up and turned to look at Heero. His friend was sitting with his elbows digging into his knees and his head cradled between his hands. Seeing the captain of the guards so undone was unnerving to Wufei. He had seen Heero face even the most dangerous of enemies without batting an eye. Every step Heero took seemed calculated to befit himself or his people in some way. There was nothing accidental about Heero. However, this unguarded Nereid sitting, grieving before him was like a completely different person. He wrapped his large hands over Heero's slumped shoulders and spoke.

"I won't tell you not to worry. Those are a fool's words. I know I would be ripped apart if something were ever to happen to my Noin. We -- you, me, Howard -- will do everything in our power to get Duo back safe and sound. But you must be strong, Heero."

Heero raised his head. His deep blue eyes piercing into Wufei's. They seemed to challenge Wufei to be true to his word. After a minute, Heero nodded and leaned back on his arms, mimicking Wufei's earlier posture. The stars in the sky didn't glitter, not without Duo. Now, they just looked like so much dust wafting through the currents of air.

:I will help you, Duo. Come what may, I will see you again.:

"How is our little Glaucus doing this morning?" Treize called genially. The lump that was Duo rolled away, braces clanking on the metal floor and the stitches in his neck pulling against the edges of the cut. For a moment, Treize gave a wistful look to the bronze, round backside of their ward. With a shake of his head, he was back to business.

"Ah, Doctor Winner. Just the human I wanted to see." Treize glided up to Quatre. "Since we are almost finished with our preliminary tests on Glaucus, I thought we might celebrate. Are you and Dr. Barton free for cocktails this evening?"

"I had really rather hoped to stay here, Doctor. Er, Glaucus," Quatre tried very hard to keep from spitting the epithet, "still hasn't made any vocalizations and I believe he is capable of it."

"Oh, I insist you come. I shan't approve any overtime hours today. Please meet me here," Treize held out a slip of thick paper, "at seven o'clock. Dress is business casual."

As Treize left the room, Quatre let his gaze drift down to the paper. One side was just printed with the name, address, and map of a stylish and expensive private club on the island. Quatre flipped it over and saw a message written on the back:

Glaucus must go home if he is going to survive. Please arrive promptly at six.

Quatre and Trowa pulled up to the valet parking service at The Four Winds club. A flurry of activity at the valet desk saw them escorted from car to club entrance. There were doormen waiting with the door open and more greeted them warmly as they passed. Trowa itched to take his partner's hand, but wasn't sure how the gesture would be received at the high brow club. He knew Quatre had been raised around places like this and the throwback to that lifestyle at this point was sure to have his stomach turning. Instead, Trowa settled for brushing his finger tips across the back of Quatre's hand. The blonde looked over at him with a small smile; Trowa winked in encouragement.

Inside the breezeway, they repeated the song and dance as they had done at Port de Plaisance. No sooner had they dropped Treize Khushrenada's name than they were being whisked away to a private room on the veranda overlooking a garden that was lush even by the high standards of the tropics. With a trellis of cherry red roses in full bloom sat Treize himself. He rose to greet his guests and after pleasantries were exchanged, they all sat down at the glass table laid with delicate bone china, spotless flatware, and crystal glasses.

"A drink, gentlemen?" A uniformed attendee arrived. He poured amber liquid in wide bottomed glasses with a practiced hand before fading into the background. Treize lifted his glass and swirled the liquid, releasing the bouquet of the alcohol. He gestured for the other two to also pick up their glasses.

"I propose a toast. To research and to the Sea." The three men clinked glasses and sipped the expensive cognac.

The rest of the meal followed with polite conversation and a few general comments about their findings on 'Glaucus.' While most of what Treize was able to tell them about Duo, none of it came as a real surprise. His own neurological testing showed the subject had great potential given the size of his brain, but seemed to exist more as a creature of the wild. Master O, who headed the physical testing team, continually ran speed and endurance tests. Each time, his results were well within the expected ranges. Professor G had studied the glowing photophores that covered Duo's body. The samples they had removed from Duo's skin were dissected and documented and Professor G discovered that the glowing was a mostly voluntary bodily function. The exceptions being in extremely stressful, fight-or-flight situations. And Doctor J, who had been heading up the musculoskeletal system, had confirmed that the subject's bones were super hardened with a super metal they took to calling gundanium, for its gun-metal grey color.

"Do you suppose you could leave us to discuss some private matters?" Treize said to the attendee who quickly bowed and exited the room.

"This, gentlemen, is a copy of the report which is to be handed over to Une for the entire board of directors to review tomorrow." Treize produced a sleek, mahogany colored leather folder.

"In it are all the results from our weeks of testing. Our hypotheses about the import of having discovered this fantastic creature and potential uses for him. The only thing missing is any indication on his part and our part that he is more than just a dumb animal." Treize leveled a sharp look at Quatre and Trowa. Quatre grimaced and Trowa narrowed his eyes. They had not expected to be invited out to get chewed out for not being able to overcome Duo's obstinate nature.

"There is nothing in Mater O's report on Glaucus's respiratory system that would indicate he is incapable of speech. There is nothing in my neurological report to deny the presence of higher brain function such as free thought. There is only his lack of attempts at communicating and bonding with any of the doctors that suggest he truly is as wild as he seems. I can't help but feel there is something amiss in that assessment. Unless you can convince me otherwise, I will be forced to turn this report in to Une. She will have all the evidence she needs to convince the board to allow Romefeller to use Duo however they see fit. After reading Doctor J's findings on his skeletal system, however, I am sure the board of directors will be eager to green light a rigorous study into either breeding him or cloning him to produce more of that strange material that gives him super hard bones. Apparently, his mixed genealogy has left him sterile. Cloning is Romefeller's only option."

"Dr. Khushrenada, I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Understand what, Mr. Barton?"

"Why are we here? Wouldn't it be in your best interest to give Une what she wants?"

"It very well might be. However, I do not wish to see this magnificent creature reduced to the status of slave to be used to harvest cells to create a sordid little bone farm for Romefeller to auction off to the highest bidder. However Romefeller might spin the story for public consumption, I know he is part human. It would be cruel and unusual punishment for a man who committed no crime."

"Why can't you just highlight... Glaucus's humanity to the board?"

"Because, Dr. Winner, in this particular case, Romefeller would be far more inclined to trust Glaucus's recorded behavior, not your theories, than deny themselves the chance to make an untold fortune with that gundanium metal in his bones. It's just good business."

"I still don't understand what exactly you are trying to tell us."

"I am saying," Treize lowered his voice and leaned closer to his guests with the unmistakable air of conspiracy before continuing, "we need to get him out. Tonight."

"We need to leave," Trowa suddenly interjected.

"Trowa!" Quatre hissed.

"I have an idea, if Dr. Khushrenada would come with us. There is someone we need to talk to."

Treize took a moment to admire the serene quiet of the night. Puffs of blue grey clouds skittered across the cool night sky, by turns covering and revealing the silver disc of a moon. A few hundred feet away, the ocean lapped against a reinforced concrete retaining wall. Palm fronds sighed in the gentle sea breeze. He sucked in a deep, calming breath. Despite a feeling of trepidation curling in his stomach, he maintained his outward suave demeanor as he approached the Romefeller research center.

He touched his ID card to the security device and punched in his clearance code. The light blinked green and he swung the door open. A guard was nodding off at the security check point off to one side of the entrance. Treize had to clear his throat rather loudly to get the overweight man to wake. Once he passed the brief inspection, he strode purposefully to the main laboratory.

Inside the room, the only light came from the red glow of the LED clock built into the wall above the door. It was garishly bright against Duo's pale skin. Treize snapped the lights on and made show of setting the leather bound report on a work surface. As he perused the contents, he took a few notes on a separate sheet of paper and made off hand comments about the results.

Suddenly, the door was kicked open. Treize whipped around and saw two figures in black, sporting matching black ski masks, charge into the room. The lights blinked out again.

"Who the hell are you?" Treize shouted.

Both intruders fell into offensive stances, obviously intending to attack Treize, who assumed a defensive position. They stalked each other round in a circle for endless seconds before the two black-clothed figures sprang. The tall one went high and the short one went low.

For being on his own, Treize held up surprisingly well. He made sure both his assailants would be sporting bruises by the time the sun came up. Nonetheless, the pair of them were near perfect complements to one another and soon had Treize cornered.

The tall one then leapt in a startlingly graceful leap frog jump over his partner's shoulders. With Treize's attention following his ascent, the smaller one produced a cloth. Before the tall one even landed, the short one had clamped the pungent smelling fabric tightly over Treize's nose and mouth. He struggled violently for a moment, but the taller one was able to subdue him with a giant bear hug hold. After a few seconds, Treize passed out.

The shorter intruder searched the doctor's pockets and fished out the ID and key ring. He immediately found the key he was looking for and darted to the cell where Romefeller's Glaucus slept like the dead. As he busied himself opening the cage and pulling the sleeping creature out, the taller man took hold of Treize's ankles and dragged him none too gently to the cage. Soon, the metal gate was closed. The merman was on the outside and Treize was locked away inside.

Finally, someone at the security desk seemed to notice something was amiss. Red beacon lights started flashing in the hall. Heavy footsteps came jogging down the corridor, parsed with the guard's panting. The two intruders shared a nod before splitting up. The short one slammed the door shut and hurriedly jimmied a chair under the knob. The tall one carefully hoisted Duo into a fireman's carry and made for the back entrance that lead to the enclosed outdoor pool.

"Help, Mr. Wizard!" The shorter man shouted into a concealed wireless communicator even as he burst through the back door and kicked it shut.

"Stay clear of the wall until the boom, boys!" Howard replied.

Once in the dubious safety outside, they removed their masks.

Quatre and Trowa then hurried to the water's edge. There was a startlingly large boom and a plume of water erupted on the other side of the restraining wall. As soon as it settled, Quatre dove in. When he resurfaced, Trowa gently lower the unconscious Duo into the water and Quatre's waiting arms; he slipped in immediately after. They managed to swim the short span of open water between the sea wall and the retaining wall. It took longer than expected, trying to keep Duo's head out of the water but also trying to keep as low a profile as possible should the guards manage to break through both sets of doors.

At the outer retaining wall, they tread water for several minutes. They had to be patient as they waited for Heero and Wufei to clear enough rubble from the hole blown into the wall. Finally, Heero burst out of the water. The rings and stripes that covered his flesh were shimmering with their blue light. Quatre was relieved to see the straps of an air tank cutting two black stripes around his shoulders.

"I take Duo," Heero said. He carefully took the unconscious man into his arms like a zealot might handle the Holy Grail.

"He's asleep. He'll need air."

Even as Quatre explained, Heero pulled a SCUBA regulator from its clip on the tank rig. He gingerly fitted it into Duo's mouth. Quatre reached out and arranged Heero's large webbed hands, one to keep the regulator in place and the other to keep Duo's nose pinched closed. Heero nodded in thanks and disappeared beneath the water.

A moment later, Wufei popped to the surface. Like Heero, he carried air, except his was a modified rig with two tanks and two regulators: one for Quatre and one for Trowa. As they were reaching for the mouth pieces, the back door of the laboratory shattered open and blinding white light blazed from above as underwater lights set the pool aglow in an eerie sea foam green color.

The overweight guard had his gun drawn as he heaved himself out the door.

"STOP RIGHT THERE OR I'LL SHOOT!" He hollered even as Wufei slipped below the surface again.

Quatre and Trowa had just enough time to see their now former boss, Une, step through the broken door and into the light. Wufei chose that moment to give their legs a violent yank as he pulled them underwater and sped them through the hole blown into the retaining wall.

The guard fired a couple shots into the water after them, but no bodies or blood came wafting to the surface. They had gotten away.

"Lady Une, what should we do?"

"Get this mess cleaned up and those locks fixed," she commanded.

"Yes ma'am."

The guard trotted away. Une watched the water ripple; a cruel smile played over her lips.

"We'll find you soon enough, Maxwell. You and your little band of freaks. And then, you will really know the meaning of pain."

I had been trapped inside my head for too long. Fuzzy scenes blurred through my eyes, but I never seemed to stay awake long enough to convince my body to show some sign of my fleeting consciousness. It was the familiar antiseptic smell of the Juggernaut's sickbay that convinced me I was more or less safe. After that, I started putting blurs of hair color with names. Sally's swinging braids came in second only to Howard's fuzzy grey doughnut. I was surprised to see a towheaded blob with a copper topped one, Quatre and Trowa. They visited more than once. More surprising than that, however, was the absence of Heero.

Finally, I was able to really listen to whole snippets of their conversation and make some sense out of it.

Quatre and Trowa had sprung me from the laboratory with help from Dr. Treize Khushrenada. Apparently, he had staged the whole escapade that left him locked in my cage while the other two, with help from Howard and his covert C4 supply, had blown a new exit in the outside pool at Romefeller. Heero and Wufei had both been there, Heero had brought me back to the Juggernaut while Wufei had taken Quatre and Trowa to a beach which gave those two a convenient alibi. The most amazing thing seemed to be how quietly Romefeller was being in the wake of the break and enter and... my emancipation?

While he thought I was sleeping (and I'm sure more than half the time, I probably really was), Howard had taken to bouncing ideas off me. He knew for certain -- confirmed by Quatre, Trowa, and Khushrenada -- that Romefeller could have used me for some extremely profitable gains. Everyone seemed to be convinced that the foundation was not after something more than data. Une sure as hell held a grudge, which is what prompted the whole search and seizure in the first place. Perhaps her superiors had stepped in and told her to cool her heels. Was it possible she had changed her tune after meeting me? I was desperate to contradict Howard on that notion, but too weak to do so.

I was sure this was just the calm before the storm.

Sally came often and chattered away to Howard about my various injuries. The braces around my arm and leg had been removed and she was pleased with how my bones were regenerating themselves. For that part, at least, I was grateful for having such a Swiss cheese memory; I couldn't remember how much or for how long I had endured the excruciating pain of bones regrowing. The stitches on my neck had been removed and replaced with butterfly bandages. As the fatigue started to subside and my blood replenished itself, I regained control of my faculties.

Then, one day, Sally announced things were looking good. And at last, I was able to get my two cents in.

"Yeah, I'll.. be... fine," I choked out.

"Duo! You're awake!"

"In and out... yeah."

"You've been put through a lot, kiddo. Missed a lot of stuff, too."

"Heero?" I butted in before he could regale me with all the stuff I'd already pieced together.

The silence that followed was punctuated with a look shared between Howard and Sally. I didn't like it.

"I gather he's been busy."

That started a burning in my brain to know what he was busy doing. Obviously, I knew he couldn't afford the time to sit at my bedside and watch me saw logs for however long it had been. The look Howard and Sally had given each other, however, seemed much more ominous than just not being there the instant I really woke up. It was a look that said I had pulled the pin on a conversational grenade and thrown it to them. It said Heero hadn't been here much... if at all.

"So... I'm on the mend?" I changed subjects.

"You're awake, aren't you?" Sally smiled down at me as she pressed a cool glass of water into my hand. I gratefully took a sip and marveled at the feel of it tearing down my dry throat. "I can't think of much more they could have done to you in the name of science," she frowned, gently lying an warm hand on my previously caged arm.

"Where are we?"

"About a day away from the ridge," Howard said.

"Going back?" I asked in alarm. Crazy Une had to still be looking for me or more of the fantastic creatures she had "discovered."

"Home, to the Azores."

"Where were --"

"The Caribbean. Quatre and Trowa's research was based at that laboratory, and it's one of Romefeller's largest. Best equipped to handle large scale tests."

I nodded. I knew a lot about what kind of large scale tests they were able to run. I didn't think my muscles were about to forget it, either.

"Anyway, I figure it's best to get home. Might as well do a drive by. You can tell that Heero friend of yours what's up."

"Yeah. Say hullo," I agreed weakly, then yawned rather impressively. I got tired in less than five minutes.

"You should rest. I know it might be annoying, but your body is working hard to get things back in order," Sally said gently. She took my drink and set it on a nearby table, easily within my reach. "You'll be able to stay up longer if you take frequent naps, too." After making a few notes on my chart, she left the room.

Howard heaved himself to his feet.

"Try and take it easy kid. I almost had a heart attack when I saw them haul you out of the water and again when Heero brought you back like... that."

Howard's uncharacteristically quiet words made me rethink that stock phrases of placation might not be appreciated. Instead, I gave as solemn of a nod as I could muster before lying back on my pillow. My eyes closed and I tried to sleep.

The ship was rocking with the waves. Someone had opened the window over the bunk. A cool sea breeze combed through my bangs. I looked out at the sky. Thousands of pinprick stars dotted the sky, easy to see because the moon wasn't out. The fantastic stretch of the sky was almost as much of a siren call as the ocean. For a second, I half wished I could have been born a bird-man instead of a fish-man. How amazing would it be to fly through open space, surrounded by light and thin air? To be truly free.

Except that was a stupid thought. If there were real bird-men out there, they'd probably hate half breeds like me just the same.

I huffed and turned my back to the window.

"Duo..." said an achingly familiar velvet voice that set my heart to a trip hammer beat. I couldn't wrap my exhausted brain around how much just the sound of his voice felt like an embrace to me.

"What?" I whispered, half afraid I was asleep again.

The back of someone's hand caressed the side of my face. Even through my closed eyes, I could sense the ambient light Heero was giving off.

"Where were you?" I said. Part of me wanted to be angry and shout; part of me wanted to cry with relief. I kept my eyes squeezed shut as I tried to pull in the reigns on my turbulent emotions.

"Here. I was always here," he said. My eyes flashed open when his warm palm fitted itself over my erratic heart. The tips of his fingers rested lightly against my collar bone. Then he kneeled down and brought his face closer to mine.

"Hn. Nobody's seen you," I accused.

"How do you feel?"

"I'll live."

Heero pushed me gently to the side, then squeezed his big ass onto the small bed with me. He put an arm around me and pulled me close to him. With my ear to his chest, I could hear the thumping of his heart.

"The female who took you, Une? Anne?... she wanted to hurt you."

"Mission accomplished."

"If she found you again..." Heero cradled my head in the nook between his collarbone and chin. His words were little more than light sighs. I wanted to be angry with him. My addled brain had made a nice little mountain out of a mole hill of insecurity with Relena... with a lot of stupid things. If actions spoke louder than words, then Heero's actions were telling me everything I craved to know.

"Will you come, with me?"

"Heero... I --"

"Did you know Howard is going to the Azores again?"

"We kind of live there."

Heero rubbed his cheek over the top of my head.

"He wants to sell the ship; to disappear."

"Running and hiding from Une..."

"Not him..." Heero's lips ghosted closer to my ear. "You."

I wrenched myself back and stared at him in disbelief. There was no way Howard would give up the Juggernaut, not permanently. He had helped build the damn thing. This ship was more of a home to us than any brick and mortar building on dry land. And he wanted to give it up for me. That was crazy.

My crazy aunt wasn't after him, she was after me. And she'd gotten me. After everything that had happened at the Romefeller center, what more could she do? And she had had a golden opportunity to strike out against Howard when she first caught me; she hadn't. Howard would be fine. I thought I would be fine. Everything was okay, right? Howard could keep his ship, keep working salvage, and retire to a pirate's life at sea, just like he had planned.

For Howard's peace of mind, all I had to do was...

"I have to leave."

"Come with me."

"Are you nuts? We were too close to Atlantis when they caught me the first time. It would be a huge risk for me to go back. And..."

"And what?" I didn't have to tell him what I was thinking. Heero knew.

"And... " And I really wanted to go. "...and..." The Nereid didn't really accept me. Few enough of them were keen on me to begin with, but this was just icing on the cake: Duo will bring the end of your little secret society. Again.

I hadn't felt that awake, that aware in I didn't want to think how long. The gears in my head started turning and the hamster on the wheel that got them going wasn't about to stop. I wriggled around, trying to get loose of Heero's arms. He signed and let me go and rolled out of bed. I tried to follow, but apparently, my body wasn't as fired up to go as my head was. Heero wrapped an arm around my waist before I did a face plant.

"Atlantis is safe. We have all moved to a new home."

"You had to... leave?"

"There was nothing else we could have done."

I groaned. Surely forcing an entire people to be uprooted from their home had not won me any points in their favor.

"Duo, they are not angry. We explained --"

"Explained what?" I was suddenly hot for an argument.

"... about Une. That she has a vendetta against the Nereid, not just you. They don't blame you."

"You mean they don't blame me entirely. Even I know enough to know that my father was no paragon in the eyes of the Nereid, Heero."

"No, he was not. But... not every Nereid thinks falling in love with a human is a travesty. I certainly don't.

"Still, we accept the fact that that Une woman was going to find us one way or another. It has nothing to --"

"Don't you dare say 'It has nothing to do with me!' It has EVERYTHING to do with me. If... "

If I'd never been born, then my mother never would have died and my aunt wouldn't be crazy. Everything would be a hell of a lot easier. But I couldn't say that to Heero. Not when he was looking at me like he was crazy with worry himself.

He laid a finger over my lips, trying to keep me from speaking. His face had smoothed and the photophores started to glow just slightly blue. Gently, he moved the finger back and forth over my lips, tracing their shape. Then, his hand moved up to cup the side of my face. His other hand slid up from my waist to the center of my back, not pulling or pushing, but just making contact. I watched his eyes dart across my face: from my eyes to my lips, lips to temples, temples to chin. His expression stayed calm as he tried to memorize my face. After the longest time, he bent his head down to lay his forehead against mine. I thought I saw a flash of guilt in his eyes, but then, they were too close to see. When he spoke, his breath ghosted over lips as he asked again, reverently:

"Will you stay with me?"

"Yes."

I had barely uttered the word before Heero hefted me up tight against him and made for the door. Soon, we were rooting around my quarters 'packing.' If this could have been done in the open, I would have been a lot more choosey about what got shoved in the stupid duffle bag. As it was, time seemed to be of the essence. On the brief trip from the medical quarters to mine, the tell tale stain of dawn was encroaching on the eastern horizon. I wanted nothing more than to slip away before Howard had the chance to lay into me. I was a life long student in the school of begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission. Everything seemed to be easier that way.

So with as many pairs of trunks, a few T-shirts and the most basic toiletries packed, I was ready. At the door, I took one more glance around the old place and wished I had had the time to take a photo or something. As it was, there wasn't time to pick through the shoebox of photos I had collected or time to track down a zip lock baggie to keep it in so it could survive the descent to where the Nereid had moved. Heero ushered me out of the room. We were about to hit the deck when he stopped and darted back into the room. I watched him with curiosity as he took out a large oyster shell and laid it on my pillow.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That shell you put on my pillow."

"Nothing, really. Just something for Howard."

We slipped out to the main deck before the sun broke over the horizon. It was stupid and sentimental, but I made Heero sit down on the swim step and watch the damn sunrise with me. I wasn't sure how long it would be before I would get to see it again. Heero didn't say anything. He just held my scarred hand between his own. I waited until the whole ball of fire had cleared the waterline before tugging my hand out and nodding that I was ready.

With familiar ease, we sunk silently into the water. I held the duffle in one hand and let Heero take the other. Atlantis had moved. Given Heero's showing up when we were only a day's sail away from the original massif, I knew the Nereid had found a suitable place to live not too far from their first home. I prayed it was far enough to keep any unwanted visitors away. Heero tugged hard on my hand, bringing me into the circle of his arms. Apparently, it was too slow to swim at my pace. With my back pressed flush against his front and my duffle crushed to my chest, we were to travel at nearly normal Nereid speed. I felt my blood singing from the long-absent exhilaration.

Heero's heart was pumping fast behind me and I could feel the adrenaline still tingling in my veins. Despite all the shit coming down the pike, swimming in the open water with Heero had been fantastic. I didn't want to slow down, didn't ever want to stop, but I knew my half hour was almost up. Heero had slowed down considerably and was glowing for all he was worth.

"Duo... lights, please?"

I glanced over my shoulder but his attention was intensely focused in front of us. I let my bioluminescence glow bright. Unfamiliar rock formations surrounded us and I started keeping an eye out for potential moon pool entrances. After a minute, he veered to the left and took us through a natural tunnel. Except for our mingled natural light, it was entirely dark. It was a tight fit through the narrow volcanic rock; it seemed to go on forever. My lungs started burning from lack of oxygen. Finally, the walls fell away. Heero kicked faster and soon, we broke the surface. Heero easily held me a little out of the water as I sucked in deep breaths of cool, wet air.

"Here, hold on here," Heero instructed even as he laid my hands over the rough edge of the pool. I heard him haul himself out of the water. Then, he grasped my hands and heaved me straight up and out of the water.

"It's dark... and cold."

"It's better inside. They wanted to keep the entrance as natural as possible, just in case." In case someone came looking for them, I thought. "Come, follow me."

In atypical slowness, Heero guided me carefully down the dark tunnels of his new home. Our light gradually faded as the tunnels got larger in diameter until finally, we came to a stop at another pool. This one had a weak but familiar blue glow to it. Heero lead the way, stepping into the shallow pool and pulling me after. Soon, it was deep enough to dive. With a nod, Heero let me go and dove. I took another deep breath and followed him under the surface. Unlike the main entrance, this one had obviously had some work done. Someone had periodically placed light panels throughout the tunnel; they served to guide our way into the proper city. After a short swim, we came up in another pool.

This second cave was nothing like the first. The air wasn't the enveloping heat of the massif, but it was warmer. It was full of light that made the natural rock formations glow beautifully in shades of blue and green and taupe. Most notably, it seemed to open into a more or less public square. Little stalls were fashioned out of the nooks and crannies created by the flowstones and stalagmites. People were shopping for food or baubles, sharing news and gossip. Many of those who were closest or in direct sight of the pool paused to watch us get out.

Heero took my hand and lead the way to the pool's edge. There was a short, shallow rise of steps roughly hewn into the rock. It was more difficult than I would have imagined to lift my legs. All my concerns came flooding back as the last of the adrenaline faded from my system. Howard finding me gone on the Juggernaut, coming to live with Heero and the Nereid, recovering from whatever my crazy aunt had done to me. Everything was a jumble in my head. I leaned heavily against Heero's side, ready for a long nap. Heero must have recognized my bleary state because he pulled me around to face him and closed one arm snugly around me. I gratefully laid my head against his chest and let him support me.

"DUO! DUO!" A familiar female voice rang out. I felt a small whump, like two bodies smacking together. It was then I realized I had closed my eyes because I had to open them to see Heero fending off a brightly smiling Hilde.

"Heero, what did you do to him? And where have you been? It's been hell getting this place set up. Hi, Duo!"

"Shh, he'll tell you what he will after he's slept." Heero's chest rumbled pleasantly when he spoke. "Heero, Duo."

"Wufei."

I saw Wufei materialize out of the gathering crowd. The small cluster of Nereid was getting bigger. I felt my heart flutter. I had never been in what was becoming the center of such a large group before. Everyone seemed to be staring at me; I felt each pair of eyes as they gave me the once over. Heero's hand cupped around the side of my head. I wished it were enough to really hide me from their prying eyes.

"I am glad my friends are home." I wasn't too out of it to miss the plural. I knew Wufei didn't mind me, maybe even liked me, but that was definitely a first for me to hear him count me among his friends.

"Everyone's been worried, Heero," said Hilde. " We had to leave Atlantis and then you and Wufei left, but then Wufei came back with his story. And now you're finally here. And Duo..." She said my name almost reverently; it didn't match her at all, I thought.

I heard my name echo, except it wasn't an echo. None of the other voices had bounced off the wall, just my name. I gently coaxed the protective circle of Heero's arms down and focused my eyes on the crowd that had gathered. I would be the first to admit it was hard as hell to know what a person was thinking just by looking at their eyes, but some things were obvious. Like before, how I could practically feel most Nereid narrow their eyes as I passed. Now, there was had a wide-eyed look of wonder on their faces. And it was directed at me.

"Master Duo?" A young Nereid girl hopped nervously on her feet at the edge of the crowd. I noticed Wufei's mate, Noin, standing behind her and squeeze her shoulders in encouragement. The little girl took a trembling step forward, then another and another; she came to me.

"Ihaveapresentforyou!" She grabbed one of the several strings of pearls, polished glass, and other bits roped around her neck and held it out to me. They looked like something Heero might have in his chest of drawers, all those adornments Nereid favored over 'real' clothes.

"You can take it," Heero whispered just above my ear. I stretched out my hand and she dropped the strand around my wrist. I looked at her, baffled. Suddenly, she seemed like the epicenter of a great ripple. Everyone in the crowd seemed to mimic her action. Hands all around shot up brandishing long strings, short strings, glittering ones and mutely iridescent ones... they were all offering me... jewelry.

"What --"

"Wufei told them what you did."

"Abandoned Howard?" It was the wrong choice of words, judging by Heero's suddenly flat lip line. "Coming to Atlantis?" I tried again. Two minutes ago, I would have used 'intrude,' but the entirely atypical reaction I was currently on the receiving end of checked me.

"Your sacrifice."

"My wha--"

"Nereid! Please. Duo is exhausted and overwhelmed and needs to rest."

To my amazement, the throng of people seemed to listen to Heero. The took a collective step back, their finery still held aloft in some bizarre kind of offering. Wufei and Hilde moved ahead to clear a path. Finally, we were moving away from the pool. I heard Heero sigh.

"What is it?"

"They're following us."

I craned my head back over my shoulder. He was right. Most of the group was trailing a short distance behind us. Heero picked up the pace. He pushed between Hilde and Wufei, asking them to run a little interference. They nodded to him, and we sped through corridors unfamiliar to me. It seemed like we walked forever. There were so many twists and turns, and the new complex didn't have much in the way of decoration. It was something of a surprise to realized the walls didn't glitter the same shades of green as they had in the old Atlantis. Instead, much of the new Atlantis seemed to be the porous black of frozen magma. I just hoped I would be able to find my way around; I knew the others would have their hands full getting settled in their new home.

We finally slowed down before a rather narrow tunnel. Heero glanced over his shoulder and I copied him. The coast was clear. Wufei and Hilde had managed to subdue the group of... well wishers. Heero pulled me into the narrow confines of the passage. He glowed brighter in the closed in space and I thought it was to better light the way. Until I was eased gently against the rough wall and kissed thoroughly.

"Heero, wha--"

"Shhh, please." His lips rained down over my face, my neck, my shoulders.

"Ow," I said as my back scraped across the wall. Heero pulled me flat against him, holding me tight and almost cooing in my ear.

"I was so scared you were gone."

"You... were scared?"

Instead of answering, he did his level best to fuse our lips together with a kiss. It was gentle and desperate. Finally, he relented and said:

"Duo... come inside."

Suddenly, there was an opening in the wall, a door. Heero picked me up and bent down to clear the short entry. Nothing about the shape or feel of the room reminded me of Heero, but he laid me down on a familiar mattress of reeds. The smell alone had my mind whirling with memories. I settled in my usual spot. Heero soon stretched out beside me; his fingers traced over the patterns of my now glowing photophores.

"Everything is different," I said softly.

"Everything is right," he countered.

"Why has... why did all those people at the pool try to give me their necklaces?"

"They wanted to say thank you."

"My sacrifice, right?"

"Yes."

'They're happy...' I signed; my voice was getting a little tired.

They were happy. Happy that I had every inch of my anatomy put under the microscope? That I was practically starved? Was an impromptu gladiator in the name of science? Got the shit beat out of me... I would do it again in a heartbeat for any one of them and twice for Heero. Heero's euphoria seemed to evaporate. When I looked, there was a slight frown on his face.

"Not happy. Grateful. I... saw them take you. I almost broke Wufei's arms trying to shake him off to get to you, but it was too late." Heero still spoke, seeming to prefer using his hands to touch and caress and reaffirm I was really there.

'So what exactly happened? You were at the facility, weren't you?'

"They took you to some place called the 'karibean'. Those two divers --"

"Quatre and Trowa?"

"Yes. They contacted Howard and told him where you were. Wufei wouldn't stay here; he came with me to help get you back. Quatre and Trowa helped get you out. One of the men at the facility was sympathetic to you."

'The man with bronze hair...?'

"I don't know what he looks like, but his name is 'Khushrenada'. His standing at the facility got us access to you. He is still there, though. It was his idea to stage a break in. Quatre and Trowa would attack him and escape with you. Howard had to blow a hole in the stone wall surrounding the pool outside. That was where Wufei and I were waiting to get you away."

'And Khushrenada?'

"He's still there, I suppose. He said he could help better from the inside."

"Hm... none of that explains the necklaces..." I said and curled tighter against Heero's warm body. This new place wasn't nearly as warm as the original Atlantis had been. I guess we were lucky it wasn't stone cold being so far away from the mid-Atlantic ridge thermal field.

"Wufei and I explained how you swam out willingly to distract the divers. To keep them from getting to Atlantis."

"Just selfish, though." I yawned. "I wanted you to be safe. It wasn't even really a gamble. They were only ever after me."

"Not according to Howard. That woman holds a grudge against all Nereid because of your father."

"Hm... maybe."

I heard Heero sigh softly, then felt his lip press against my forehead.

"Sleep now. We can talk more when you wake."

"Hm."

And I fell asleep.

"Are you finally going to wake up now?"

I grudgingly cracked my eyes open. From the lines around his eyes, I could tell Heero was grinning like the cat who got the cream. With his forehead touching mine, though, I couldn't see the smile.

"Is it morning?" I murmured.

I could feel his elbows pressing lightly against my shoulders and his hands were clasped at the crown of my head. I brought my own hands up and lightly dragged my short nails up and down his sides.

"Yes?"

His knees barely pressed against my naked waist and his calves ran down the length of my thighs. I could feel his finned feet flexing slightly where they curled under my own calves.

But to make up for the difference in our heights, the space from clavicle to pelvis was tantalizingly empty.

"Bah. We're two thousand leagues under the sea. There is no morning here."

Heero chuckled. It was a deep, velvet sound. Despite the minimal distance between us, I could feel the sound reverberate in my own chest. I huffed and when I tried to roll over onto my stomach, Heero let me go. I felt him resettle at my side.

"You are right. Technically, there is no morning."

I felt the familiar sensation of his playing with my hair. I had obviously been asleep long enough for it all to be dry. He removed the thong at the end and methodically started to unweave the braid. It never ceased to amaze me how relaxing it felt to have someone else, ninety-nine times out of one hundred it was Heero, play with my hair. Usually, it was just me waging the typical daily war against the wily strands. But it never felt as soothing as it did when it wasn't me wrestling with it.

For the longest time, he seemed content to just finger comb all my ridiculously long hair. It was for him that I had grown it, after all, I think he kind of saw it as 'his' hair. Eventually, though, his fingers started to wander. He gently laid all my hair to the side. A fingertip brushed over my bare shoulder blade, a caressing touch rounded the shell of my ear, knuckles glided gently down the side of my neck, and then...

"Duo?"

"Hm?"

"How long have you had this?"

I felt Heero's fingers circle close to the incision wound. I also felt a little nub under the skin shift under his ministrations.

"Had what? What is it?" I tried to keep my voice steady.

"It looks like a glowing bump. Well, blinking maybe. I never noticed it before."

"I never got one. They gave me one..."

When I rolled back over and sat up, Heero followed me. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what the hell that little bump was. It was something from Romefeller, I was sure. But what? I tried desperately to recall how had I gotten the wound on my neck...

//...sack of shit...//

The words crashed into my mind, sharp and clear like a knife. Words from a dream or a memory? I tried to focus on the ephemeral tone and forced myself to concentrate on the hellish weeks I spent, apparently, in the Caribbean.

//...Incubus...//

The snarl wrapped around the word was definitely my aunt's voice. I remembered the hot bed of rocks, the blunt pain in my chest, and the words sprinkling over it all like salt in a wound. Ghost pains shot through my chest and I looked down. The tell tale stain of pale cadaver lavender and rancid butter yellow mottled my chest. I suddenly remembered the rounded black boot toe that matched the markings.

//...thought I wanted you dead. I was only partly right... I've come to understand I deserve... all their lives...//

"Shit!" I leapt off the mattress, one hand slamming back down on the mattress to keep me stable and the other flying to the nub blinking under my skin. "Heero, get your knife, you have to take me to the Juggernaut. NOW!"

Something in my reaction told him to quell his protective tendencies and do as I bid. He bound to the familiar low chest and rifled through his collected decorations to locate his knife. I had only seen it a few times before, but I knew the blade was forever sharp and could slice a single hair with just the right flick of his wrist. He quickly tied the stays round his waist and thigh as he crossed the room to me, already waiting at the door.

He threw the lock and pulled the door open. I sucked in a breath as the bottom of my stomach suddenly vanished.

Outside his door was a sea of sparkling baubles on strings. Precious Nereid necklaces and other offerings to me for my sacrifice. A sacrifice that was now entirely moot and void thanks to the homing device my damned aunt had implanted in my neck.

We raced through the narrow corridors. There might have been more truth than I realized when Heero said it was morning because the passageways were practically devoid of life. So much the better for me. Guilt was gnawing a hole in my stomach and head. After Wufei and Heero's delicately spun tail of why Atlantis had to be abandoned and my 'sacrifice', seeing another Nereid was the last thing I wanted. It felt like a cruel trick of fate to finally get a tiny bit of that long sought after acceptance only to see it get ripped away the very next freaking day.

I prayed to any and every god I could think of to get me to the Juggernaut fast enough.

Soon, we made it to the makeshift market place. Seeing the moon pool gave me an extra burst of speed and I pulled even with Heero. We leapt at the same time, diving headlong into the water. Almost as soon as we had broken the surface, Heero grabbed my hands in an irritatingly familiar gesture. Right now, we needed speed that I couldn't muster, even on my best day. In our haste to get out, he had to sacrifice some of his normal control. Despite the bright glowing of both our bodies, he still wasn't able to maneuver through the new underwater passages ways completely unhindered. I winced when I felt a jolt that told me he had clipped himself on a wall.

Finally, we were free of the narrow caves and out in open water. I wrested a hand free and pulled Heero's knife from the sheath on his thigh. He didn't miss a kicking beat until he smelled the blood from the long, shallow cut I sliced into my forearm.

"Duo! What the hell are you doing?"

"Aren't there sharks in these waters?"

"Yes. You want them chasing us, too?" He ground out.

"Yes," I said with grim determination.

I barely had to touch the blade to my skin to make myself bleed. Even though the cuts weren't very deep, they stung like a bitch in the salt water. I hoped that sharks liked Nereid blood and that Heero could out swim them if they really liked Nereid blood.

The waters around us suddenly went from black to dull, midnight blue, signaling our exit from the aphotic zone. The blue light continually increased as we ascended. Brown ribbons of my blood trailed behind us. I kept my eyes trained on the surface, hoping to catch some sign of the Juggernaut. The irony of willing the ship closer after sneaking away just last night was lost on me.

"Heero, over there!" I nodded my head towards a dark shadow floating some distance away from us. For the moment, I was more relieved than irritated that Howard had apparently delayed his escape to the Azores when he realized I was gone.

"Aah."

Minutes later, we were again hiding on the swim step. Heero followed my lead in being as stealthy as possible.

There was a chance the bump in my neck was nothing. It stood to reason that Howard might have gotten wind of any of Anne's tricks before us, either intentionally or by proximity to me. Everything on the ship, however, was quiet. That suited me just fine.

I quickly scaled the short wall and got down on the deck. I yanked the floor lockers open and pulled out a couple fishing harpoon guns and handed them to Heero.

'What are these for?'

'Do you know how they work?'

Heero nodded.

'I'm going to need your knife for a while, but you need to get back to the Nereid and prepare for an attack. Those things,' I gestured to the harpoons, 'will probably work a lot better than bare hands if a shark comes after you.'

"I don't understand," Heero admitted.

"I think this," I touched my neck, "is a homing device. When you noticed it this morning, it was glowing. That unlocked some memories from the Caribbean. I remembered Anne slicing open my neck and telling me she'd kill us all. What else could it be if not a way to track me and all the rest of the Nereid down?"

"Duo... I don't..."

"Just go! If it's a false alarm, so much the better. But better to be as prepared as possible in case it's not."

His face was a riot of emotions. There was anger and worry and fear and adrenaline and it was all getting mashed up inside him. For a moment, he stared hard at the pink pools of water I was leaking all over Howard's deck. Then, a blank look of determination masked his face. He nodded to me and leapt over the edge.

It would be easier to take care of the rest of this without my partner staring over my shoulder anyway.

"HOWARD! SALLY!" I bellowed. I ran through the ship calling out to them. Finally, I heard the rustle of people rolling out of bed and knew they were coming. I returned to the deck. Heero's knife glittered in the early morning sun. I walked back over to it and snatched it up.

From another floor locker, I pulled out a couple rags we usually used when cleaning fish. I used one hand to guide the tip of the blade to the small lump in my neck. The old incision had yet to fully heal. I knew this would hurt a whole lot worse than the scratches I'd given myself but it had to be done and now. Without a second thought, I started to carve at the skin around that little nub like I'd carved eyes out of a pumpkin for Halloween.

"Duo... WHAT THE HELL --"

"SHUT UP, HOWARD." I growled through gritted teeth. It wasn't the most pain I'd ever been in, but it was certainly the most pain I'd ever inflicted upon myself. It was a struggle to keep my breathing more or less even, but that went a long way towards keeping me calm.

"Po, go get the potato cannon," I told her.

Finally, I had excised the little device. I wadded one of the clean rags up to my throbbing neck and I hoped I hadn't severed anything super important. I set the device down and took a few more deep breaths. I stood up to show Howard.

"I think it's a homing device. It was blinking when I woke up. Heero noticed it."

"A... homing device?"

"A gift from Anne to herself. A way to find us again."

"Sonofabitch!" Howard cursed and wheeled around. I knew he was going to check the radar and sonar and every other device to see if there were any new ships in the area. Then, I heard Sally's lighter steps coming back.

"Sally, get it ready to fire, would ya." I went over to the pristine white board used for fish cleaning. It was as close to perfect as I was going to get without interference.

I knew I was starting to breathe too fast, but everything seemed to be happening so fast, I started to wonder if I was really thinking things clearly. Then I heard another loud curse from the bridge and knew it really was do or die time.

"Hey, you see any shark fins out there?"

"Sharks? I... yes, I do."

"Good," I muttered. Silently, I hoped that Heero hadn't encountered any on his return trip.

I tipped my head over onto my shoulder and stuffed the rolled up towel tightly against the hole in my neck. Soon, it would be cannon fodder. I shifted Heero's knife to my dominant hand, the one that still had the webbing. I carefully arranged my scarred and web-less hand on the cutting board. Finally, there was something I was grateful my Aunt had given me.

"What's going --"

"Don't watch." I threw her a glare over my shoulder for good measure. It worked; she turned her back to me and started getting the homemade Spud Buster ready to blow. Gripping the insanely sharp knife tightly, I raised it high over my head. I fancied I could hear it whistle through the air as it came down and landed with a soft whump. I ground my teeth against the hurt. Blood oozed thickly over the board and even then, I thought darkly that it didn't hurt as much as gouging Une's present out from my neck.

As carefully as I could manage, I changed out rags, trying to get one of them to soak up as much blood as possible. It wasn't difficult. I seemed to be bleeding a lot more than I had been expecting. Soon enough, the cloth was saturated with red and I carefully wrapped my 'prizes' in it. My stomach lurched horribly as I got to my feet.

"Sally, the canon."

"Duo, wh-- DUO, YOUR HAND!!"

"THE CANON!"

She hastily handed the cumbersome tool to me. I quickly stuffed the near-sopping fodder inside and went to the side of the boat. Setting the butt on the deck, I leaned the barrel against the side rail and took a look at the water. Sally had been right, the familiar wedge of a shark's dorsal fin sliced through the water. I took it as a cosmic sign of having done the 'right thing.' I jockeyed the canon into position and fired. My improvised canon ball stayed intact as it shot through the air. The sound of it plunking into the water was almost as satisfying as seeing the sharks tear after it.

With a little more luck, that damned device Anne had given me would have a new home. With a lot more luck, she'd follow that damn shark around for a good long time before she realized it wasn't Nereid in any way. I wasn't holding my breath for that, though.

"Duo?" Sally ventured. She sidled up to me, pulling my uninjured arm over her shoulders. "Come on, I'll get you patched up," Sally took a peek under at my neck. "I don't know how, but you managed to miss anything vital."

"Thanks," I said and leaned heavily against her. I felt bad for getting blood all over her, but she didn't do anything more than sigh at me.

Then suddenly, fierce pain lanced through my head and seemed to split it in two. I dropped like a sack of potatoes and curled up in the tightest ball possible, but it did nothing to relieve the agony I was feeling.

"Howard," I moaned. "Tell Howard... to shut off... the sonar!"

The terrible sound cut out as abruptly as it had started.

"Christ on a cracker, what the hell happened to him?"

Howard's leathery hands started to heave me upward. He slid one of my arms over his shoulders and I felt Sally copy his actions on my other side. My stomach sloshed with nauseating abandon as they helped me shuffle to the medical suite I had just left a day ago. Before we cleared the cabin doors, another sharp lance of pain shot through my head. I was lucky I didn't take Howard and Sally out with me. When the sound cut out, I was lying supine on a bunk in Sally's care.

"Howard's gone to check the radar. Maybe he can find the idiot with the whacked out sonar and get them to stop. Until then," Sally appeared over me with a big ass needle.

"No drugs. Just plug the holes. And ear plugs."

She huffed as she turned on her heel. A minute later, a pack of ear plugs landed neatly on my bed. I stuffed the yellow foam cylinders into my ears. Not a minute later, I heard another ultrasonic screech. The plugs didn't stop the sound one hundred percent, but enough to allow me to keep control of my faculties.

"If it gets bad... well, the captain goes down with the ship, right?"

"Duo, that is a terribly analogy and, forgive me but, you are probably the farthest thing from 'captain' on that 'ship'."

"I was."

"Was," she scoffed.

"Please, Sally."

She glared at me. I glared back. I understood where she was coming from. You'd have to be dumber than a box of rocks not to. But she wasn't there, geeze, just last night. She didn't see the looks on the Nereid faces when I popped out of the water. They weren't exactly in awe of me, but I took it as a sign of acceptance. Something I had always had little enough of among them previously.

And then this shit hit the fan.

How could I leave them in the proverbial lurch? It was my fault they had to move in the first place, and then I jeopardized their brand new home. The least I could do was go down with them if it came to that.

First things first, though.

"You think I could live with myself if I saw them getting carted away while I just sat on my ass sleeping the while away?"

"Fine," she spit out and turned back to her work station. "Just anesthesia then."

She prepared a new syringe. Pumped full of some kind of pain killer, I only felt an odd tugging sensation as she sewed my newest perforations closed. Getting all cleaned up took a surprisingly short amount of time given the damage I thought I had done to myself.

Almost as if getting fixed up were a cue, Howard came thundering into the room as Sally took away the last of her tools.

"Duo, it's --"

"Anne."

"Yes. She's not alone. Sally, how is he?"

"He hasn't lost too much blood; on par with a blood donation. Given he did it to himself, the risk of shock should also be somewhat smaller. Still, he should stay in bed and rest, but I know he won't." She glared daggers at me for good measure.

I rolled off the bed and looked at my bandaged arm. There was a lot of gauze, but absolutely no feeling. If I wasn't looking at my own arm, I wouldn't have known it was there. Also, I couldn't feel anything from my jaw down to my collar bone. For the moment, I was grateful for that small reprieve. I also hoped that the anesthetic would last until... whatever was going to happen was over.

"I think you should see the GPS images, Duo." Howard said solemnly. I slung my arm over his shoulders, feeling a little light headed from the blood loss. Sally magically produced a bottle of juice from somewhere and pressed it into my hand.

When Howard and I made it back to the bridge, several screens were showing us lots of bad news.

Several large ships were positioned in the area. There were more than a few divers in JIM suits in the water. I guessed they were under orders from Anne to get me or any other suspicious creature. There was also a small submersible in the water steadily working its way down.

"It looks like they're looking to pick up as many Nereid as possible. I think Anne is in the submersible, probably wants to reach the Nereid base and destroy it."

"Where exactly is it? Can she reach it?"

"This range here," Howard pointed out several peaks on the bathymetry chart on the wall, "seems to be most like the Lost City. It's not as close to the thermal field, but there's evidence of ancient volcanic activity. That would probably create caves habitable enough for the refugees.

"From what I can tell, she's got a top-end Alvin. If the Nereid are tucked away in those mounts, she'd be risking a lot to get there, but not impossible. I wouldn't put it past her to risk it, kid."

"Where is she now?"

"Circling down about two knots due South from here."

"What about the ships?"

Howard shook his head. Attempts to contact them must have failed.

Another ping shot through my head. It was obviously Romefeller manning the sonar. The tones had been calibrated to incapacitate those with ultrasonic hearing. Anne was banking on us putting up a front. Somehow lure us out from the deep, stun us with the sonar, and have the divers collect as many Nereid as possible. It seemed too simple.

The radio stuttered and snapped to life.

"Hello. This is Treize Khushrenada aboard the Hydra research vessel, number FL 1311 JF. May I speak with the captain of the ship?"

Howard fairly well ripped the receiver off the radio and snarled back.

"This is Captain Howard Maxwell of the Juggernaut, number FL 5866 'F' as in fuck 'Y' as in you."

The man on the other end of the line chuckled.

"It's a pleasure to hear from you, too, Captain Maxwell. I wanted to inform you that Dr. Une has requested me to report any undocumented vessels in our research area. Unfortunately, you fall into that category. As your ship may interfere with our mission, I have been instructed to contact the Coast Guard for removal of unapproved vehicles."

"What is your mission?"

"The current director's mission," Treize carefully emphasized the word 'current,' "is search and seizure I believe. We have more divers at the ready, but apparently, there's quite a bit of unexpected shark activity and it's keeping our divers out of the water."

"Damn straight!" I crowed. In hind sight, my little stunt had worked far better that I had imagined. I glanced at my swaddling bandage. The ends had more than justified the means in my eyes.

"Maybe you should jump in and give 'em something to chew on then." Howard growled.

"I'm afraid that as long as that little Alvin is zipping around, there is nothing I can do."

"The Alvin... what's she got in there?"

"I regret to inform you that I cannot say with certainty, but I am under the impression it is loaded -- to the proverbial gills -- with things that go 'boom' rather fantastically when introduced to water."

My eyes went immediately to the sonograph of Anne's submersible. It was already halfway to the mountain tops where the Nereid were currently hiding. I took a moment to study the positions of the ships and the location of the Alvin.

"I'm going down, Howard."

"I thought you might be. But can you trust that Khushrenada bloke?"

"I don't think there's much of a choice... and he did help me escape."

"And what about all those sharks?"

"I'll swim fast."

"Duo," Howard clapped his brown hand over my shoulder. "Here." He held out his other hand. Lying in his palm was a beautiful and distinctly Nereid-fashioned necklace and a plain golden cross.

"What... is this for?"

"Something your father gave to me, in return for my blessing."

"Like a... dowry?"

"Definitely for want of a better word, yes. I made the cross for our mother."

I stared at him, unsure what this gesture was supposed to mean. However, there wasn't time to discuss the trinket. I sprung the clasp and put it around my neck. The weight of the centerpiece stone was heavy against the hollow of my throat.

"Do us a favor and try not to get yourself caught... or killed. Be safe."

I nodded and left.

While we had been inside the sun had risen high in the impeccably blue sky. The waters all around glittered like diamonds. It was the kind of idyllic and beautiful day that usually made me grateful to be alive. That day, the shining, happy sun did nothing to lighten any of the troubles that burned like wildfire in my heart.

The glare of sunlight off Heero's knife caught my eye as I crossed the deck. I went and picked it up and hoped like hell I wouldn't ever be close enough to a shark to have to try and gouge its eye out. Time was running out. I got myself over the stern end and onto the swim step. I took one last look at the Jugg before I eased slowly into the water. Any big splashes were sure to attract some unwanted company lickety-split. I took a deep breath and went under.

Whatever Sally had used to patch me up must have made a pretty good seal because I could neither feel nor smell any blood from my two newest wounds. I hoped the scratches I had given myself earlier wouldn't reopen. I was worried enough the smell of the dried blood getting diluted might attract the sharks. Keeping an eye on my surroundings made it difficult to descend as fast as I had hoped, but I knew an encounter would only cost me more time.

Down and down I went, twisting and turning to check both my progress and the proximity of the predators. Apparently, the smell of blood was dissipating as there seemed to be fewer of them still circling, hunting. It buoyed my spirits and gave me confidence to push ahead faster into the darkening water.

My goal was the moon pool. I had to find Heero. He could gather the rest of the guard and hopefully, they could somehow bring down Anne's submersible. That was putting a lot of faith in that scientist Khushrenada, but like I told Howard: there wasn't much of a choice. If Une was out of the picture, surely they would abandon their mission. At least that was what I was hoping for.

The water was pitch black, but with the JIM suits and Anne in the water, I couldn't risk continuous use of my bioluminescence. I knew they were looking for me at least and had plenty of data on how to best find me. Instead, I flashed on and off and twisted and turned in an effort to camouflage myself. Finding the new moon pool was near impossible and I might have been skimming the range for hours if a hand hadn't shot out and grabbed me as I passed.

"Heero."

"Hn."

He took us only to the middle chamber. There was no light and no people. We could see by the glow of our skin.

"It is not safe," he stated.

"No. There are more divers in those special suits and scores more waiting on the ships. They weren't in the water when I left, but the sharks have already started to leave so it's only a matter of time before they do."

"A diver cannot reach this place. What else?"

"I don't know what the JIM suits can do, but Anne is in a machine. It's loaded with something that explodes."

"A bomb?"

"Something like that. All I really know is that whatever it is, it reacts violently when introduced to water."

"And we need to disable her machine."

"Yes."

Heero brought his hands up and laid them upon my shoulders. He inspected my face, looking at my eyes, my mouth, my nose, everything. A sense of deja vu flushed through me; Heero had done the same thing just before we left the Juggernaut, when I finally let myself agree to be with him. I felt his hands slide down my arms and closed my eyes. Soon, he reached the bandage there. He did not say anything. Instead, his hands traveled back up and cupped my face. The flat pad of his thumbs just brushed the tips of my lashes where they sat against my cheeks.

"Stay here. I will gather Wufei and the guard and any others able to help. Can you lead us to her?"

I nodded, but didn't open my eyes. His thumbs stopped moving. He used his hands to draw me closer to him and pressed his mouth gently to mine. When he pulled back, I found I couldn't bear not to see him. I saw uncertainty written across his face.

He lead me to the side of the cave. The rough walls made for suitable handholds so I wouldn't have to tread water the entire time he was gone. I took the best grip I could with just one hand available and jammed my toes into underwater pockets. Heero nodded, satisfied I wouldn't fall from the impromptu perch. He pressed one more kiss to my forehead and slipped under the water.

Being alone for even a brief time in the midst of all that confusion was a mixed blessing. Each of Heero's looks, thoughts, and caresses worked to blur the sharp edges of my petty insecurities. The circumstantial evidence I thought pointed out his intention to follow in the traditional Nereid bonds of marriage seemed laughable. As did the idea of him turning his back on his people just to make me happy. There would have to be, as ever, compromise. It would be a far cry from a fairy tale ending but it would be enough. Assuming we all survived whatever it was my deranged aunt had planned for us.

My crazy, nutter of an aunt -- who probably had the most gnarly case of split personality syndrome in the history of the disease. How else could you explain her ability to get a clean bill of health from a maximum security institution and work her way to the top of one of the world's premiere oceanographic institutions? Throw in a bit of pure psychosis for her single-minded desire to do that in the name of revenge and you get one Grade double A whack job.

I couldn't work up much sympathy for my estranged relation. Hell, I hadn't even known I'd had any other living relatives until Anne discovered us. And while there were any myriad of things she could have done to try to redeem herself, the fact that she had decided to attack myself and the Nereid instead put her beyond all redemption in my book. As far as I was concerned, I had no aunt. That still didn't lead me to any easy explanations for why the Nereid were in danger again. The bottom line was I had been the catalyst. And there was no easy option this time. Not with the manpower and firepower Anne had brought.

A faint glimmer of light told me that Heero was returning. He broke the surface first followed by several others. Among the gathered crowd, I recognized Wufei and Hilde, Noin, and Broden as well as many of the Kids. Each of them was glowing boldly, but their vibrant light was partially obstructed. Over their chests they wore fitted plates of fish-scale mail and their arms were sleeved with chain mail. When I looked more carefully, I noticed it was exactly like the armor I'd always seen standing like so much idle decoration in Heero's room. I scrutinized Heero's covered form carefully. It was odd to see so little of him, but what made the bottom drop out of my stomach was the giant knife strapped to his thigh. Belatedly, I returned Heero's smaller knife to him.

He didn't need to speak the question aloud. I took a deep breath and explained the situation clearly. Humans had arrived. The biggest threat was the sinking metal ship, it was packed with some explosive. Next were the divers outfitted with JIM suits and most likely wielding both weapons for defense and tranquilizers for offense. There were more scuba divers aboard several ships at the surface who had been held at bay by some sharks hunting in the area, ready to assist in capturing any found Nereid. Finally, there was the ultrasonic interference.

"Why are they here?" A seasoned member of the guard I didn't recognize asked. He didn't bother to hide his sneer.

"It doesn't matter why they are here but that they are here now." Heero said. As the captain, there wasn't much the guard could say to question his captain's words. His expression was more than communicative enough.

"We need to take down the small ship." Heero pulled out what looked like a giant spike with a handhold.

"Yes," I agreed. "If there are any friendly people in the party, they would be at freedom to help us if their leader is... incapacitated."

"How many suited divers are there in the water?"

"Four."

"We will separate into seven parts. Wufei, Nilus, Inachus, and Agenor will each lead a team of three and work to incapacitate the deep divers."

Wufei and the other three quickly singled out their teams and waited apart from the remaining Nereid. Heero continued giving orders.

"The remaining of you split into three parts according to your experience."

The water roiled as several bodies moved to accommodate the new groupings. Heero turned his attention to the youngest group first.

"Your duty is to return to Atlantis and do whatever you can to maintain the peace. Broden, you will serve as leader. Follow his orders as you would mine."

The small group fell in line with Broden at the lead. The whole team saluted Heero, their captain, and disappeared under the water. Heero turned to the next group.

"Your duty is to serve as interference. Be it from divers, vehicles, or creatures. Do your best to distract or eliminate threats to your fellow Nereid. Hilde and Noin will be your leaders, but given the breadth of the field we are going to be working in, you cannot always rely on them to save your skin. Be smart. Be safe."

A neat pack formed behind Hilde. They likewise saluted to Heero and slipped under the water. Their lights extinguished after they made it into the mouth of the cave leading in from outside. With so many of the guard gone, the cave grew noticeably darker.

My heart started to pound faster. It had started. There would be no turning back now.

Then, the four small teams assigned to the JIM suits lined up. Heero had me explain to the teams everything I could about the special suits the humans wore. Heero reminded them that their objective was incapacitation of the enemy at any cost. The four groups nodded solemnly and gave their final salute before following their leaders down through the water and out the cave. There was that much less light by which to see.

Finally, all that remained were the most seasoned members of the guard. I had seen several of the faces before and probably knew the names, but I could not put them together. The oldest members were naturally the ones who clung most desperately to the seclusion of their society.

"We, gentlemen, are going after the exploding ship. The best course of action is to destroy it. The vessel will be pressurized. If we can breach the hull, the ocean will crush it and all it contains for us."

"But wouldn't it just survive? I mean, he doesn't need a special suit to swim as deep as us." It was the same man who questioned me before about why the humans were coming. Again, Heero came to my rescue.

"Duo is half Nereid and has inherited the ability to withstand the pressure naturally as we do," Heero plowed on. "If he can make a hole in that thing, it would be crushed by the weight of the ocean. The danger here is not how to breach the hull," Heero raised his metal spike to emphasize how he intended to compromise the vessel. "It is whatever the ship contains that explodes upon contact with water.

"We will strike at a single point on the ship. Given the design of a ship such as this, a weak point would be difficult to find. Instead, we shall aim for a point that offers us the most protection." Heero looked at me expectantly.

"Coming from behind or above is probably the best. Those two locations are the least visible. The top, especially, isn't designed with as many protective features. Although... rather than trying to punch through it, if the ship lost power, it would be easier to open the hatch on top."

"How can we depower the vessel?" Someone asked.

"Take out anything that lights up is a good start. If the whole ship goes dark, it's lost power."

"What about the explosives?"

"Punching through is probably a surefire way to get injured or worse. Opening the hatch is much safer, but not guaranteed."

"We will attempt both methods," Heero said. His eyes looked flat and dark; I knew he was locking himself carefully away to do what needed to be done, regardless of the consequences.

"Half my team and I shall take it in turns to pummel the ship from one side. Any distance we can put between that vessel and our home will be to our advantage. The rest of the team will work on attacking likely power sources. If the ship goes dark or we are likely to penetrate it, call out and we will regroup before dealing the final blow.

"Is that perfectly understood?" Everyone replied in the affirmative. "Then, gentlemen, it is time. Go to the outer entrance, I will join you shortly. Be safe," he finished and saluted.

The last of the Guard descended into the water after giving a salute. It was almost dark, save my own dim lavender glow and Heero's partially hidden blue one.

"What will you do?"

"Me?" I was surprised he was asking. I had also been surprised he hadn't tried to play the captain card with me and tell me to go with Broden back to Atlantis.

"I want to fight, but in this state, I won't be much good."

It was true. I was more surprised than anyone I had lasted as long as I had. Of course, that still didn't free my mind or heart from the knowledge I was irrevocably tied to this catastrophe. It was only right that I see it played out to the end. I knew Nereid metals, the metal of their very bones and mine, were stronger than anything humans had. But when I compared the light armor that offered far less cover than was probably ideal going up against a freaking submersible... the odds didn't look super great.

"Here," Heero said. He held out another set of armor, pulled from out of nowhere. "Put this on. You can help Hilde and Noin. The more eyes, the better."

He helped me slide the mail over my head and down my arms, and then pull on the plated chest covering. Although it was probably terribly heavy on dry land, it felt no heavier than a wet shirt and had about as much drag. I was surprised to see him slip under the water and feel him wrap the tethers of a leg sheath round my waist and thigh. When he finished tying it off, he gave it a tug and seemed satisfied with the fit.

"What is this?" Heero asked, his voice thick, when he resurfaced.

I hadn't noticed the Nereid charm floating on the water until Heero was holding it tightly in his hand.

"Howard gave it to me. He said my father gave it to him. Guess he thought I should have it. Something to remember him by."

Heero closed the charm in a tight fist. I looked up and searched his face, but his eyes were closed tight. Time. There was no time. It seemed like there would never be time for things again. The rest of the guard was waiting for their captain. The divers were waiting for the Nereid. Une was waiting for me. And I... I as waiting for the end. I just wanted it all to be over, good, bad or otherwise.

"I'm sorry." I apologized, for everything and nothing. "Let's get this over with."

Heero nodded. I copied the salute I had seen the entire guard give him in the last few minutes. He rewarded me with a brief smile before saluting me back. We sank under the waterline and down to the cave. Like all the others before us, we doused our lights when we reached the tunnel that would take us out. At the mouth, Heero's group waited patiently. With the arrival of their captain, they broke into their assigned teams and headed off to destroy the submersible.

I was left to swim the waters looking for any dangers and neutralizing them before they could harm any of the Nereid.

Duo was panting as he jimmied his borrowed knife out of another shark. He had thought the number of beasts had been decreasing when he first went down to ask for Heero's help. That fact hadn't been lost on the scuba divers who took advantage of the calm waters to jump in and start executing their part of the raid. The splashing served as a beacon to the animals and they had began circling again quickly. Duo himself could smell the tang of blood both human and Nereid in the water; he was sure it only tugged at the sharks hunting instincts.

Just as he got his weapon released, there was another stab from the Romefeller sonar. Being in the water amplified the pain, but he had been expecting it. Above, below and all around him, the dimly glowing shapes of the Nereid curled up against the onslaught of noise. Although the sound did not affect the humans in the water whatsoever, it did seem to have a similar effect on the sharks and any other predator that had wandered into the fray. It was a small but extremely helpful blessing. As long as they were clear of the humans, they could ride out the thunderous sound.

Soon after the blaring sonar died out, there was a terrible call from one of the Nereid. Duo quickly looked round and located the source, not far from where he was on watch.

All but one of the JIM suits had been viciously dealt with; Duo knew if there were any survivors they would have a severe case of decompression sickness. The last of the suits, however, seemed to be a new or experimental model. It had been able to withstand all the punishment Wufei's entire team was able to unleash upon it. As Nereid clipped by the bulky suit, Duo could see reflections of their bioluminescence glint off the silvery outside of the suit. Silver didn't bode well. The other three suits had been a uniform moss brown color. The only thing Duo could imagine that could stand up to Nereid weaponry was Nereid weaponry itself. He felt a phantom pain shoot through his arm and leg where Romefeller had taken bone samples. Duo edged closer, trying to see what had happened.

"Wufei! WUFEI!"

Duo sang out as he sped towards the knot of grappling bodies. Unexpectedly, a cloud of blood stained the water. Both bodies were invisible in the murk until they slid down out of the bubble. One of them was trailed by a rusty plume. Almost immediately, sharks started circling around. Duo could tell who it was that was bleeding and sped up. Several of the other Nereid chased after their fallen comrade. Together, they were able to fend off oceanic predators and wrest the unconscious Wufei away from the vice grip of the diver in the JIM suit. A couple of others leapt upon the heap of metal and wailed against it. Under their combined efforts, the suit finally gave way with an unimpressive crunch and another billowing cloud of red.

"We've got him!" Shouted one of Wufei's teammates. Another one swam up and hastily started performing basic first aid on Wufei's injuries. Noin sailed out of the depths sporting a few marks of her own. She quickly took control of the situation and ordered the rest of the able bodied Nereid to assist Hilde in disarming and removing the scuba divers in shallower waters. The injured were to return to Atlantis and report to Broden and Zechs. So far, the four suits had been neutralized and the regular divers were being held at bay. There was no word yet on the progress of Heero and the submersible.

"Duo," Noin barked. "You look like shit. You would do better to return with us. Alright, everyone, dismissed!"

The group broke up into two factions. One half headed back towards the surface. The other half made a sort of clump, with Wufei in the center and most protected. More able bodied Nereid circled around, keeping an eye out for anything unfriendly. Duo trailed behind them at a distance.

He felt like shit. His arms were incredibly sore from all the strain. Unlike the true Nereid who could breathe underwater, he had had to risk ducking back into the cave to get more air. His head was splitting open with pain from the damn sonar device that still blared at measured intervals. All that on top of his already weary mind and body. Yet he knew that even if he were safe in Atlantis, he could not rest until he knew what had become of Heero and his team working on the submarine.

The little band of injured Nereid made good time descending to the moon pool. Their rear guard was keeping careful watch and all of them were quickly fading their lights to black to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Duo allowed the distance between himself and the group to grow. He let his lights extinguish completely. Before long, he watched the group get swallowed up in the black tunnel leading to the new Atlantis. It was dark and he was alone. He knew what he was going to do.

Finding the Alvin was much easier than he had anticipated, thanks to knowing the general location beforehand from Howard's GPS maps. The vehicle looked like it had been through the ringer, but it was not yet so much scrap metal sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Heero's team of elite fighters swarmed around the miniature submarine. They were taking passes at the hulking metal object, each one signified by the loud metallic screech of metal against metal. Duo swam closer, keeping an eye on his surroundings for any predators. He noticed the flashes of Nereid blue darting around like a woven force field. Occasionally, he could hear the growl or call of a charging Nereid.

Heero was side by side with the unfriendly Nereid from earlier. Their inside arms were extended together, matched for length. In their hands, they held the Nereid spikes. With a burst of speed, they charged towards the submarine. Their spikes jabbed the side of the vehicle. It groaned under the combined attack and was jostled to one side. Moments later, it jostled back as another pair of Nereid attacked from the opposite side.

The bombardment continued for several minutes. A pair of dents on either side of the vessel were encouraging signs to Heero and the rest of the Nereid. The metallic clangs came faster and louder; they were coupled with howling Nereid calls. Finally, there was a tangible silence. Duo watched as everyone rushed away from the submersible. A low, rumbling creek sighed from the metal sub's walls. Everyone waited anxiously in the wings for something to happen until the sound ceased entirely.

One Nereid lit up fiercely bright. Even from the distance, Duo could tell it was Heero. He held both his hands out. Each one was fisted around a silvery spike. He backed up quickly and in that instant, Duo could tell exactly what his partner was intending to do. From that distance, there was nothing he could do but watch as Heero launched himself forward like a human rocket.

A brilliant ball of fire erupted from the submarine. It flew out from the submersible like a bubble being blown through a bubble wand. Terror wrapped an ice cold hand round Duo's insides as more than one of the Nereid guard was swallowed whole by the deadly cloud. Bits of shrapnel blew out in all directions. Silvery globules of whatever had been used as the explosive followed, many of which were still flaming as they zipped towards the surface. Steam and gases roiled up madly in dangerously hot tendrils, further hindering movement.

The smoldering metal did, however, provide enough light to give Duo fair warning about encroaching obstacles. He carefully and quickly picked his way through the drifting wreckage of parts. Other Nereid were carefully darting around looking for their fallen comrades. Each one he questioned just turned a blank look to him and told him they didn't know what had just happened to Heero or anybody else.

Duo's heart hammered mercilessly, threatening to beat its way right out of his chest. He circled lower, closer to the top of the mountain range. Parts of the ancient rock formation had been blown off. A few nooks and crannies were glowing with the firelight of sodium caught in the pockmarked rock. Duo combed the range, trying to keep his rising panic down and focus on searching thoroughly. Lower and lower he went. The reverse rain of flaming silver was gradually replaced by sunken remnants of the Alvin.

Like a divine light sent from the heavens, Duo caught a faint blue glow. He raced down near the foot of the mountain. His Nereid genes made him hearty for surprising depths, but he started to feel the unrelenting press of untold tons of water closing around him. He cursed the familiar burn curling in his lungs warning him he was using too much oxygen. His goal was within his sights.

Pinned beneath the massive door that had once been a part of the Alvin was Heero. Duo risked singing out to him, but his partner was unconscious. Duo sang louder, calling to Hilde or Broden or anyone else who could hear. Their captain, his other half, was here and he was alive.

Hands fell over his shoulders. Duo could make out Hilde's face next to his. She squeezed his shoulder and in the same motion, propelled him upwards. Then, she heaved the door off Heero and pulled him into her arms. Without another word, the three of them set off for Atlantis.

It was all over.

Anne had been destroyed along with her ship. I found out later that not only had the whole mission been called off after the 'accident,' but the whole project had been permanently shelved by Treize Khushrenada who had stepped up as Une's replacement at Romefeller. That, more than anything else, lead me to believe we just might be safe.

Heero and the rest of the guard had been careful about exploding the submersible as far away from our home as possible. There had been minimal damage to the range and the maze of hollow caves inside remained habitable. It seemed everyone was adjusting to their new life: the Nereid in the new, cooler volcanic tunnels; Howard and Sally on the Juggernaut with their new mechanic; and me, waiting on pins and needles for Heero to wake up.

Heero.

He was alive. He would be okay. He was going to make it.

Those words ran like a litany through my head, but they didn't make the hours, the days go by any faster. Now I had an inkling of what he probably felt when our places were reversed. At least I knew the worst had passed. He still slept a lot more than Nereid typically did, but that seemed to help his system heal himself faster. Hopefully, he would be back to normal in a few more days.

I threaded our hands together.

He shifted and mumbled.

"Heero?" I whispered softly at his ear.

The hand in mine tightened. My heart beat like a moth's wings against a light bulb, high in anticipation.

"Heero?" I repeated, louder this time.

"Du~o," he said through a massive yawn.

"I'm here."

Heero rolled over, facing me. When his eyes cracked open just a sliver, it was like the most beautiful sunrise to me. His lids fluttered against his cheek; I knew he wouldn't be awake for very long but it would be enough.

"Duo." He said my name over and over. Suddenly, merely sitting next to him wasn't enough. I slid onto the mattress and pulled him to me even as he scooted closer. The arms around me lacked their usual strength, but their weight and warmth was familiar. It was as much a soothing balm on my cracked psyche as it was on his.

We laid together for so long, I was sure he had fallen asleep again. I just started to pull back to let him sleep more comfortably when his arms tightened gently.

"Duo," he said, his voice far more lucid than I would have expected. "That necklace."

I touched the charm Howard had given me.

"Do you know what it means?"

"Not... exactly." I hedged.

"When Odin gave it to your mother, it was a promise. It meant..." he paused, taking the chance to flick the bauble where it laid against my skin. "It means 'I want you. Forever.' I think you call it --"

"-- marriage?"

"Do you remember the Gatherings?"

"The Gatherings?" God, that seemed like a lifetime ago.

"I requested a Nereid High Council Gathering and presented my case: I wish to have you, as my mate, forever."

"What did they say?"

"The Gatherings haven't finished. The Council was deliberating when you were caught and we moved here. There was to be one more Gathering. We shall know their final decision then."

"Oh..."

"Did you know that shell I left in your room was my part of the offerings to your, well, to Howard. He is your guardian; it is custom."

"And he... gave his blessing." I smiled then, remembering Howard's words. "What do you mean 'part of the offerings'?"

"It's just an exchange of mementos really. One from each of us to both our guardians, one to each of us from both our guardians. Something to remember us by after we've left. Traditionally, something that will remind the one of the other is chosen."

"You think I'm like a pearl?"

"Well, your skin is rather like nacre. But the lavender color of the pearl reminded me of your eyes. I hope Howard thinks the same."

"What about... your guardians?"

"When you choose something, we will take it to the shrine."

"Oh. Wait, that means this one is probably for you." I reached behind my neck and fiddled with the clasp with one hand. Heero's wrapped his hand around my wrist.

"You keep it. For your collection."

"Ugh. You mean I'm going to have to start draping string after string of beads all over me wherever I go?"

"You can wear as many or as few as you like. I prefer fewer, myself."

We passed the time touching, kissing, connecting. It seemed impossible that such a simple thing could fill me with so much joy. After all that had happened, however, I knew there was nothing and nobody that could ever mean as much to me as Heero did. No matter what the High Council ultimately ruled, he was my mate, irrevocably.

"Duo, you're being ridiculous," Hilde said. The conviction in her voice had not waned, but I could tell her patience was starting to. "You have nothing to worry about, you know that, right?"

"I think my head does, but..." I raised my hand to check her progress on my hair, but she swatted it away.

"You're not convinced. It's your own mating ceremony today and you're not convinced!" From the way she emphasized 'mating ceremony' I could tell she thought I was overreacting. I guess I was.

"Would it help if I reminded you, again, that the whole Council voted unanimously in Heero's favor?"

"You know that's not what I'm worried about!" I fell back on that mostly out of habit to hide my nervousness about the real issue.

"Yeah," she agreed flatly. "But," her hands fell warmly on my shoulders. "It's really gonna be okay."

Okay. That was the best she could sum it up for me: okay. In just about any other situation, 'okay' would have been more than adequate. Right now, it just felt about as reassuring as a first time sky diver hearing that his parachute was 'fine.' Why couldn't it be 'fantastic' or 'perfect' or 'superb'? I'd even have settled for a 'good.'

I wanted to see Heero, wanted to be with him, feel the reassurance in his mere presence like I hadn't been able for a week. It was Nereid custom for the mating couple to spend an entire week apart and perform rituals and ablutions to cleanse and purify the mind, body, and soul for the union. At least, that's what they told me.

I had spent the week under Hilde's careful tutelage. She did go through the motions, but she also spent a lot of time basically explaining the time table of the events, what I was supposed to do or say and how to act. We both found it incredibly stressful. Although I wasn't going to be sorry to see it end, I was extremely grateful to Hilde. Not just for her crash course in Nereid marital customs, but for being a real friend even when I was more like a basket case.

I did take some solace from the fact that I knew Heero had spent the entire week with Wufei.

"Alright," said Hilde brightly. "Hair's all done. Wanna see?" I could hear the grin.

She lead me to her ablutions room and jockeyed me around so that I had my back to the larger mirror. She handed me a smaller mirror and stepped back with baited breath. I held up the mirror, tilting it this way and that trying to see what she'd spent the last better part of the morning doing to my head.

Hilde had carefully taken thin sections of hair and kept them neatly joined and separated at turns with simple, colorless beads. The beads themselves looked more like drops of water and I was happy she didn't use something as girly as pearls, though I was sure she was sorely tempted. It was a beautifully constructed net of hair. Beneath it, the rest of my hair hung loose and straight down my back. I ran my fingers through it and felt the locks that had been covered from root to tip in beads. I pulled a loose section over my shoulder. The strands threaded inside the beads looked like copper frozen in ice.

"Well? Is it okay?"

Honestly, my hair was probably the least of my concerns. Still, she was waiting expectantly and... Heero would probably like it. I swept the loose locks behind my shoulders and squared my posture.

"It's great," and when I smiled, I meant it. As inane as it was, I suddenly wanted to look my best. For Heero. "Time to get dressed?"

Hilde nodded and swept out of the room only to return a minute later armed with a mountain of necklaces and baubles with which to decorate myself.

"Just let me know when you're ready," she said and closed the door behind herself.

I did feel bad about her going around and collecting all those necklaces; I knew I wouldn't be wearing any of them. The very thought of my choice in attire made my heart flutter, but that was one Nereid quirk I had long ago learned to accept in them. Now, it would be my turn to prove I accepted it as part of me.

Sitting right next to me, for the first time in a week, was Heero. He looked like nothing so much as a statue of a Greek god. I fancied he was the Ares Borghese. His skin had a vibrant pearly sheen to it in addition to its wild blue glow. Rope after rope of smooth, white pearls ringed his neck and in the hollow of his throat was the golden cross I gave him the day we first met. His hair was the typical mess of earth colored spikes, but somehow, tiny beads that looked like drops of water had been fixed to his shiny locks. He was... beautiful.

I couldn't help but smirk when his eyes first fell on me. He was actually halfway through raising his hand to touch my hair before he checked himself. Still, he could not stop the pink blush that stained his cheeks as he saw the rest of my ensemble; it was much less elaborate than the hair. I wore the turtle coin in the dip in the middle of my clavicle and nothing more.

But there wasn't much time to fawn over each other. It was time to feast, and a sumptuous banquet was laid beautifully over the tables. The mating celebration had started and would be followed by our building our very own, very new bed and end with the an exchange of vows that would join Heero and I together (I hoped Heero was up for the official consummation, too, because I sure as hell craved some fierce orgasmic release after a week's worth of tension building up).

Around us, every one was talking, sharing stories and offering their advice to us. Nearest to us were the rest of the Royal Guard with their mates and the Royal Court in all its glory. Each of them offered their Captain heart-felt congratulations and me everything from a forced, polite nod to a brotherly embrace. Following the ranks of the elite came our closest friends and the higher echelons of Nereid society and on it went, right down the social scale and right up to the edge of the square.

Suddenly, a pregnant quiet fell over the room.

King Zechs himself rose and stepped up to us on the platform. He announced it was time for the building. When he had finished, everyone worked like mad to clear away the remnants of the feast, from the food to the floor cushions, everything was all whisked away. Wufei and Hilde approached our little stage and each of them carried a little bundle of reeds and other materials needed to start making ourselves a new mattress. Hilde had explained previously that it was another age old tradition for all Atlantissians to assist the mating couple in making their bridal mattress.

As we worked, each of the guests ascended the stage and offered us some reeds, strips of carefully dried and treated seaweeds, lengths of rope and the like. We had needed every last scrap to complete the project. When all was said and done, however, it did look rather handsome. I beamed at the neat looking mattress and then at Heero, who returned my smile. We rose, hand in hand, and the crowd cheered. Then, we seated ourselves on the newly constructed bed.

I watched in fascination as all the spectators arranged themselves in something of a line. It started right at the edge of our stage and disappeared vaguely away into the twisting halls of the new Atlantis.

Although I had been expecting it, the sudden jolt still took me by surprise. I clutched at Heero's hand and he put a steadying arm around me. Our audience had picked up our mattress bodily, the pair of us still perched right on top, and lifted it right up over their heads. We were passed over head, bed and all, down the line. I couldn't help but feel a thrill when the Nereid over whom we had already passed broke ranks and gathered at the edges of the market place. There, they waved and cheerfully called out to us.

We were handed in that fashion all the way through the transformed market place and continued right down the narrow halls until we ended up in a place that looked like any other residence, but I knew I had never been there before. As it was the last stop, the crowd has thinned out considerably and the last of the revelers to handle us had been the same as the first: our closest friends.

Gently, Wufei and Hilde, Broden and Noin, and a select few of the Kids and Royal Guard carried us over the glowing threshold and set us down. Although the rooms were new, I noticed Heero's armor and chest of drawers as well as some of my personal effects had been placed in the room. There was also a very old, bent Nereid standing at one end of the room; he was the elder to officiate our ceremony.

Heero and I rose, stepped off the mattress and into position. We spoke the traditional words that brought the official close to the public banquet part of our union. Everyone save Wufei and Hilde understood that was their cue to leave the room. They kept their backs to the door and their heads bowed in a gesture of respect. There was only Heero and I, Wufei and Hilde to witness, and the elder.

Hearing a door close had never brought me so much relief.

"Captain Heero Yuy, please step forward," said the elder. Heero stepped forward, his face glowing despite his respectfully somber countenance.

"Halfling Duo Maxwell, please step forward."

I came up, shoulder to shoulder, to Heero.

"Witnesses Wufei Chang and Hilde Schbeiker," he nodded to both of them in turn. "We have come together to witness the union of Heero and Duo. They have the blessing of their friends and the Council.

"Your hands," said the elder.

Heero and I stretched out our inside hands. His was large and perfect, mine was somewhat smaller and scarred but no less perfect. One of the elder's spidery hands closed around our raised ones. For a moment, I felt his soft, papery caress; then he released us.

"Master Wufei, the blade."

Wufei handed the elder a small knife. The blade was glittering gunmetal grey and the handle gleamed like mother of pearl.

"With the bones of our ancestors, blood is drawn..." I watched as he took the knife up and held it surprisingly steady in one hand while the other spread Heero's flat and wide. The blade barely touched Heero's rough palm, but the skin parted readily and blood quickly beaded up from the shallow cut. Next, he turned to me and repeated the process. When he finished, he laid the knife gingerly on the low table behind him.

The old man took our bleeding palms and gently touched them together. Neither of our hands laid on top of the other. He was careful to keep them perpendicular to the floor. It was meant to express the equality of the mating pair, that neither person was to overpower or be overpowered by the other. I felt a drop of blood trickle down and escape at the heel of my hand.

"Lady Hilde, the cloth."

Hilde handed the elder a cloth. It was whiter than fresh snow and embellished with a riot of beads on one side, but shimmery smooth like satin on the other.

"Two lives are bound by lifeblood shared," he said as he wrapped our hands gently, but snugly, in the beautiful cloth. "Two lives are made one by oaths given freely."

We turned to face one another. Again, I was struck by the raw power and beauty of the man who would no longer be just a partner, but my blood-bound mate. For a long moment, we merely gazed at each other and wallowed in the incredibly sappy moment. His fathomless blue eyes never left my own, but he took my other hand in his. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet and fierce and reverent and perfect.

"Duo," Heero said. "I offer to you nothing less than my everything and nothing more than myself. Today I make a solemn oath upon my lifeblood to cherish and love you beyond the end of days. I want you, forever."

His words were just a simple vow, but they filled my heart all the same.

"Heero," I said. "You have always been the best part of me. The strength, the patience, the tolerance, and so much more. Today, I take a vow of undying love. I want you, forever."

Everything else seemed to fade magically away. Just Heero and I were left. Our naked palms still bound together, our blood still mingling beneath the cloth. It was the end of the ceremony, but just the beginning of our life together.