"Incendiary"

Written By: The Plotting Housewife

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated Parties. This work is written for pleasure not profit.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: Yaoi, wrongful imprisonment, Newtypes, internment camps, eventual rape/noncon

Pairings: 3x4, 1x2, 5xS

Summary: A group of wealthy college kids are murdered. There are no witnesses, but there is a suspect. From within the simmering sludge of irrational fear and prejudice, conspiracy theories are born and innocent people pay the price.

"Incendiary"

"Hey, buddy! How's it hangin'?" Duo slapped Quatre on the back as he stepped through the front door, a little too hard. Quatre coughed, momentarily losing his wind.

"It's hangin' just fine, Duo. How are you? Did you have a good flight?"

"Eh, you know how commercial flights are. Kids screaming, people puking, snoring, eating peanuts too loudly. There's always a guy who doesn't bother to shower before he gets on the transport, y'know?" He shuddered. "Help me with this bag, will ya?" He slid the strap off his shoulder and into Quatre's hand who nearly dropped it.

"Good Lord, Duo! What the hell's in this thing?"

"Oh you know, the usual. Guns, bombs, a kilo, or two of cocaine, some dildos for later..."

"It's a wonder you haven't been brought up on federal charges."

Duo grinned and winked. "I'm a persuasive guy."

Quatre moved aside to let Trowa and Heero in with the rest of the bags. There were several of them. Just how long were they planning on staying anyway?

Duo had called from the airport, bitching and moaning about the prospect of having to ride in a cab. Laughing, Quatre had sent Trowa over to pick them up.

"I'm not sure I should leave you alone."

"Trowa, please. I think I'll survive the next half hour without you playing house bouncer."

Trowa shot his husband a look that indicated he was not amused. Quatre all but shoved him out the front door. "Go! Before Duo calls me again to whine in my ear."

"Lock the doors?"

Exasperated, Quatre rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Of course I will."

And he did, actually quite nervous. He didn't tell Trowa, but he was worried that Edna Seigried might end up spilling the beans, despite Trowa's threat. He supposed Trowa was worried about it, too, and probably refrained from saying anything for the same reasons Quatre was. It was an elephant in the room that neither of them wanted to address. And if she'd garnered information about that, then there was no limit to what she could find out about either one of them. That was, if she hadn't already.

Une had left last night for Parliament to try to find a way to stop Zander and Quatre waited anxiously by the phone all evening, finally nodding off with his head on the arm of the couch.

He'd taken the phone to bed with him in the hopes of hearing some developments from Une. Preferably good ones. But, she'd been unnervingly silent and when Quatre had tried to call her first thing in the morning, she never picked up, which was rare. The news from the media was not faring well either. Zander was holed up in an unknown location, but he was steadily seizing more control of Parliament and the military.

Wufei and Sally arrived that morning and told them that the Preventers had been virtually stripped of authority, mainly due to the fact that General Une was an outspoken opponent of Zander. Wufei was furious. He and Sally were at a proverbial crossroad, no longer having any ability to do their job and trying to keep their mouths shut about it in order to escape apprehension. Much of the regular police force was working in solidarity with the military who was taking their orders from Zander.

Word on the street was those camps were being initialized, though Wufei couldn't be sure where yet, and Newtypes were being yanked off the streets and out of their homes. They were processed at the local jails, but instead of remaining there, they were carted off somewhere, possibly to the locations where the camps were being set up. At least that's what Quatre hoped. His worst fear was that they were simply executing Newtypes, possibly even executing those who were only suspected of being one.

Trowa was pissed, to say the least. He'd been swearing off and on for most the day and was in the process of pulling his weapons out of the attic and prepping them for use, should it become a necessity. Quatre was currently carrying which he hadn't done in years. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to use it.

Wufei and Sally appeared in the foyer and Duo shot the Chinese man a wide grin. "Wu-man! How's it hangin'?"

Trowa and Quatre fixed up a feast of Shepard's pie and a salad to feed their friends and Quatre's hands shook slightly as he helped prepare the meal.

It was evening now and there was still no word from Une. Quatre cursed, frustrated as call after call went to her voicemail. He had a sinking feeling that something had happened to her. That maybe she'd been arrested. He swallowed down half a glass of Chardonnay in one gulp and felt Trowa's hand on his back.

"Hey. It's going to be okay."

Quatre shot him a nervous smile. "Somehow I doubt that. What are we going to do, Trowa?"

"That's what the guys are here to help us figure out."

"And Sally."

Trowa chuckled. "And Sally."

Duo was in the process of telling some story about a client of theirs who attempted to hold Heero hostage with a toy gun. The man wanted an extra shipment of weapons, one that he'd promised a local militia, but couldn't afford to actually buy. Heero sat with his face in his hands, whether it was from embarrassment of the incident, or because he'd likely heard the same story a thousand times already, Quatre couldn't tell. He figured it was probably both.

Duo took a sip of his beer and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "So, then I says, "When do you want the guns?" And the dude's like, "Tomorrow," and I'm like, "The fuck, man. You gotta give us a little notice." You know, trying to buy some time -"

"Uh-huh."

"And he's got this fake gun to Heero's head and Hee-chan's just looking at me like, "Are you finished?" So I says I'm not going to be able to make that possible and you'll just have to kill him, and then Heero just head-butts the dude. Like...just Wham!" He snapped his head back to punctuate and Quatre cringed, absently wondering if Duo just gave himself whiplash. "Blood's flyin' everywhere and the guy's eyes roll back into his head and he just falls, like in slow motion, right off the catwalk and into a dumpster. Fuckin' hilarious."

"That was a riveting story, Maxwell."

Duo held the beer bottle up to his mouth and winked at Wufei. "Why thanks, Chang."

"Duo's stories are always legendary," Quatre piped in as he made the rounds with the wine bottle.

Wufei snorted. "You need to get out more, Winner."

Heero eyed Trowa over the rim of his wine glass. "Debrief."

"Debrief," Duo mocked in Heero's monotone. He leaned over to his lover. "Remember that little talk we had about "people skills"?

Heero shot him a sideways glance, then amended, "Please."

Trowa's hand rested over his wine glass as his eyes met Quatre's across the table. "Well, there's the obvious potential threat that if anyone finds out about Quatre, they could come to arrest him. If that happens, we may have difficulty finding him if what Wufei says about the camps is true."

"You don't have a location?"

Wufei set his fork down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I'm working on finding that out. One possibility is the old retention center about thirty miles away. It's abandoned, but it's got a concrete structure and barbed fences. There's also an old warehouse that might be under preparations to receive these prisoners."

Quatre shivered when he heard the word "prisoners". He couldn't believe this was actually happening. Innocent people were being taken prisoner. People that had done absolutely nothing wrong. He tipped his head back and finished off his wine. How had things come to this?

"I can map out all the potential locations where they might be held. Of course, the security will be very tight."

"Speaking of security, any word on Zander's location?"

Trowa shook his head. "We can't pinpoint him yet, but yeah, he is likely heavily guarded, and also hiding because he's now made himself a huge target."

"And we can't reach Une," Quatre added.

Duo's eyes widened. "You can't?"

"She went to Parliament last night to see what they could do. No one's heard from her since," Sally said.

Heero turned to Quatre. "Does anyone outside this room with the exception of Une and your family know about you?"

He shifted uneasily. "Uh...yeah..."

Trowa spoke up, "A former client of mine is apparently an experienced hacker, or knows someone who is. She not only dug up mine and Quat's war record, but also his medical files. She knows -"

"And she threatened to expose me if Trowa didn't sleep with her," Quatre snorted, still seething over that.

Duo whistled. "Damn, Tro. You're quite the stud, ain't ya?"

Heero focused on Trowa. "Where is she now?"

"I don't know for sure. I closed her case and told her if she knew what was good for her, she'd keep her mouth shut."

Heero grunted and leaned back in his chair. "We can only hope she listens."

"We need to find out what's going on with Une," said Quatre.

"Yeah, that too." Duo stretched, the back of the chair creaked under his weight. He plopped his elbows down onto the table and picked up his fork. "You need us to give that lady a booster shot?"

"She seemed pretty scared when I threatened her. But, I'll tell you this right here, right now. If she does tell, I will kill her. I'm also going to kill Zander."

"Not without us, you're not."

Quatre closed his eyes, at odds with his pacifistic nature. This was just like the war, not wanting to kill, but knowing he needed to. It was all happening again, this time to prevent a holocaust. There were times for diplomacy and there were times for action. Now was the time for action. They were all going to have to do things they didn't really want to do. It was going to get really ugly really fast.

"You need to be careful about that. I don't want Une to get hurt."

Heero leveled a steady gaze on him. "We'll do what we can, but we can't promise anything. You know that."

Quatre sighed, "I know that. So, what's the plan? What are we doing? When are we going?"

"We?" Trowa snorted. "No, there's no "we", baby. You're going to L4."

Quatre slapped his hand on the table. "Damn it, Trowa! Stop treating me like a child."

The green eyes hardened. "I'm not treating you like a child. I'm treating you like you're a target. Which you are."

"That doesn't mean there's nothing I can do but go hide until it's over!"

"Actually, it does."

"Uh-oh. Lover's quarrel."

"Shut up, Duo!"

"Quat -"

"No! I was a soldier, too, damn it. I held my own just fine during the war."

"I know that, baby -"

"Then why won't you let me help?"

"Because - because if you get caught, I'd never forgive myself."

Quatre's eyes softened. God, but he knew about guilt. "Trowa..."

"Quat, I think Tro's right."

Quatre stared at Duo, incredulous. "I cannot believe you just said that to me."

All seriousness now, Duo leaned forward, eyes sober. "If this was a different situation, this wouldn't be an issue, but...You. Are. The. Target. I hate to say it, buddy, but I really think you need to sit this one out."

"Quatre."

He looked over at Heero. Well, damn. If The Perfect Soldier was going to agree with them...

"Do you trust us?"

Quatre blinked, surprised at the question. "Of course I do."

"Then you need to trust our judgment. Including your husband's."

Quatre's mouth snapped shut. He knew he'd lost. He was outnumbered. The case was closed. He glanced at Trowa, noted the slight nod, the pleading his eyes, and slouched back into his chair, defeated. "Fine. I'll go to L4."

"Good man." Duo patted his shoulder.

"When do I leave then?"

"I'll take you to the transport first thing in the morning." Quatre could see the immense relief in his husband's eyes, heard the soft, thank you, in his head, and felt terrible about putting him through all this.

They were interrupted by the phone ringing and Quatre jumped up to get it, hoping to God it was Une.

It wasn't. "Is this Quatre Raberba Winner?"

"Yes. Who's this?"

"This is General Une's assistant. I'm sorry she wasn't able to contact you directly, but she gave me a list of coordinates to give you."

Quatre snapped his fingers to get the others' attention and they scrambled up quickly as Quatre put the phone on speaker. Duo jotted down the numbers as Heero zeroed in on the location using his computer. "He's about ten miles outside of Kingston."

"Got it." Trowa left the room to grab the weapons and came back with a large duffel bag. He pulled the guns out and began loading them along with Wufei's help.

"Is she okay?" Quatre asked the assistant.

"Yes, she's fine. She said she'd get back to you as soon as she can."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. Thank you so much." He turned to Trowa who watched him sharply, slapping a magazine into his gun. "You're doing this now?"

"The sooner we do this, the better."

Quatre's heart pounded against his rib cage. This was it. But if they succeeded, this would hopefully all be over. He just hoped Une wasn't there, deeply concerned about her safety. "What should I do?"

"Stay here. Sally, stay with him. Here -" Heero handed her a small device with a red button on the side. "Don't call us because it might jeopardize our mission, but if anything happens, press the button. It'll send a signal to this transmitter that I'll keep in my pocket and it will alert me immediately."

She nodded. "How long do you expect to be?"

"Give us a few hours. If you don't hear from us, get a hold of Noin. She'll send reinforcements."

"Okay."

Trowa slung his gun over his shoulder and crossed the room, taking Quatre into his arms and kissing him hard. "You stay here with Sally. No matter what happens, I want you on a flight out of here as soon as possible. You promise me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I promise." Quatre embraced him, smoothing a hand down the back of Trowa's head. "Be careful, baby."

"Always am." He smiled and kissed the tip of the blond's nose. He turned to the others, all business, no trace of softness. "Alright, let's go."

"Roger that." Duo followed him out. "Come on, boys. The Councilman's not going to assassinate himself."

"Christ, Maxwell. Keep your damn voice down."

It took about forty minutes to find a location where they could hide their vehicle. They parked it under the heavily forested trees and set off on foot towards the complex. They crept along the outermost perimeter and split up, advancing from all four directions. Heero followed an animal path along a small creek, using only the faint glow of the moon to guide him. The area was quiet, suspiciously so. The perimeter should have been guarded, but it wasn't.

He knew something was off before he got anywhere near the complex which was essentially an old, abandoned factory. For one thing, the surrounding area should have been crawling with snipers. Keeping a close eye out, he crept up to the eastern wall and noted the complete lack of activity. He skimmed the edge of the building all the way around to the front, stopping short when a startled Duo aimed his rifle at him. He cursed and lowered his weapon.

"Sorry, babe."

They stood together on the gravel path that led up to the door. It was dark, quiet, completely absent of people. Heero glanced over at Duo, gun barrel resting on his shoulder. "What do you think?"

Duo looked around, clicking his tongue. "I don't like this."

The aimed their weapons towards the front entrance where the crunch of footsteps echoed distantly off the metal walls inside the building. Trowa emerged a moment later, cursing. He shoved at the door that hung haphazardly on one rusty hinge. It swung violently, then the hinge snapped and the door fell to the ground with a loud bang. "Place is fucking deserted." He kicked an empty can across the vacant lot, swearing between gritted teeth. "Fucking shit."

There was a snap of twigs and they aimed their guns in the direction of the sound, frozen, waiting, trigger fingers steady. Wufei appeared, using his rifle to push aside a tree branch. "There's no one here."

Trowa pulled the paper with the coordinates written on it out of his pocket and unfolded it, flicking on his small flashlight. "Did we get something wrong?"

"Whoa, hang on. Since when do we ever get anything as simple as a location wrong?"

"We don't." Heero turned on Wufei. "Who is this "assistant"?"

Wufei shot him an odd look. "His name is Darren Michaels. He's been on the job for about six months, or so. Decent enough guy, I guess. Why?"

"Does anyone remember this assistant saying their name when they called?"

There was a collective moment of silence.

Heero grunted. "That's what I thought. We've just been led on a wild goose chase."

Trowa sucked in a sharp breath. He whispered, his voice nearly inaudible. "No..."

The device in Heero's pocket buzzed to life and he looked at Trowa, into the suddenly terrified eyes. Heero knew damn well that Sally would never push that button unless the absolute worst was happening. Trowa did, too. He held up the transmitter. "We have problems."

Without a word, Trowa turned and sprinted back the way they came, towards the car.

"Son of a bitch!" Duo picked up a rock and threw it through a window, the shattering of glass deafening in the quiet night. "Whoever is fucking with us is going to die."

Trowa was revving up the car when the other three got there. Heero leaned down until his face with level with the driver's side window. Trowa was in no shape to drive. Heero could feel the fear, the simmering rage that was on the cusp of boiling over. He was gentle as he addressed him, not particularly wanting to get shot tonight.

"Trowa, let me drive."

The feral look Trowa shot him almost made him step back. His eyes were crazed, desperate. Heero tried again. He was slow, careful, gentle. Poking the bear would be an extremely bad idea.

"You are not in your right mind. Let me drive."

Trowa was beyond words, nearly hyperventilating, pupils huge in the dark of night. His senses were on high alert. His sight, hearing, and sense of smell sharpened like the finest razor. His need to get back to Quatre the only priority.

"Trowa, please."

"Listen to him, Tro. You get us all killed on the way there, you won't be much help to him."

That did it. He slid over to the passenger seat, voice shaking. "Let's go. Now."

Heero jumped in while Duo and Wufei piled into the back and Heero punched the car into gear, hoping against hope that they were not too late.

~ * ~

Chapter 10

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