Notes: ummm //thinking or telepathy\\ it will probably get confusing later on but that's the fun part ^_~,

This Fic was Beta-ed by Ilyena _sylph. Also Titled by my good friend P_M (THANKIES ) Although any and all spelling and grammar mistakes are still completely my own.

Chapter 6

//Why am I so surprised?\\

Duo was standing on a slice of beach over looking a gray ocean, again. //This is the same dream I've had every night I've been here and it just keeps getting better.\\ He thought sarcastically, frowning.

"Hello," he called out to hear his voice reverberate. It wasn't quite the same as a mountaintop echo but it was about the only thing interesting about the place. Duo sighed as he sat down on the sand. The beach seemed to be getting fractionally larger every time he had this dream over the last four nights but it was still just a strip of land isolated by water and darkness. He knew there was more to this dream than what he was seeing, something he was supposed to figure out, but it was as elusive as what lay just beyond the void surrounding him. He tried to search around but he couldn't get through the darkness. No matter how far into the darkness he stepped he still remained on the edge like he hadn't moved at all; so he sat. He ended up sitting in the same spot and waiting for the dream to end or move on to something different.

He was starting to wonder if this had something to do with the headaches. After the second day of testing and blinding pain, he started to make excuses to get away from the lab. He even went as far as walking away the second that Une turned her back, but he had never managed to get away before the pain started. Duo was getting tired of crawling to Quatre for help. With nothing else to occupy his time while he waited in his beach dream, he tried thinking of ways to put an end to the testing but then everything was suddenly moving. It was like an earthquake; Duo was sure the beach was going to rip itself apart.

He blinked.

The shaking didn't stop until he opened his eyes. He was back in his bed in the room he shared with Quatre, with Relena's hand over his mouth.

"Shut up," she said in a whisper. "You dont have much time and I have even less. You're in danger here, you and all your friends. You need to leave before you end up like the pilot."

Duo reached up slowly and pushed Relena's hand away, "What are you talking about?"

"Shut up. Just shut up. You think you know every thing, so full of yourselves, just like them. You're just like Him! But you're going to see if you don't leave while you can." She paused and turned to the door as if she heard something in the hall. When she turned back her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "Please, Duo," she sounded slightly choked. "You -know- there's something going on here. You're the only one who will believe me. I want you to go, so the same doesn't happen to you. You have to get out of here."

Relena stepped back from the bed and... disappeared. When he blinked again, he was back on the beach.

**********

By the time he woke up, the whole ordeal had slipped Duo's mind. He went through his morning routine completely unaware, until he saw Relena in the kitchen. She looked normal enough, pouring orange juice with her back to the door, but Duo decided to ask her anyway.

"Good morning," he said entering the kitchen.

"Good morning, Duo," she answered keeping her back to him.

"You will not believe this, but the weirdest thing happened to me last night..."

"Oh?" she said, in subdued tones.

"Yeah," he continued, "I had a dream that you came into my room last night and started talking crazy. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"It was a joke," she said flatly.

"What?" He had expected her to tell him he was crazy, not admit to the whole thing.

Relena sighed, set the juice pitcher down and turned to him with a brittle fake smile. She said, "You're a psychic, you should know this already. It was just a joke."

"It wasn't funny," Duo was angry. "Listen, Relena. I don't know what planet you grew up on, but when you sneak into someone's room in the middle of the night and threaten them--"

"I did not threaten you," she said quickly, and then she forced the smile back. "You're nice, Duo, but not too bright. It was a joke. No harm done, so let's just forget the whole thing." Then she picked up the tray of freshly poured juice and left the kitchen.

He waited a few second before following her to the dining room, but he couldn't continue the conversation because the others were already at the table. She avoided him again by leaving before breakfast was over and he had no time to look for her because Une ushered them to the SUV, like she did every morning. Time for school.

On the ride to school they all knew Duo was being unusually quiet, but no one commented and it gave him the opportunity to think about things. First, the pain, then the dream, and finally Relena; as they pulled up to the school, he had made up his mind. He would talk to Une.

"Is there something wrong, Duo?" She asked when she noticed he was hanging back.

"Well, I'm not really sure," he said wondering where to begin. He started with the most recent thing, "I think there's something wrong with Relena... She's... acting weird."

Une frowned with concern, "What is she doing?"

"Last night, she came into my room and she threatened me."

"She did what?" Une asked, but her whole demeanor had changed, back like it had been right before he had run out of the lab on the first day.

Duo hesitated before continuing, "She told me to leave the Institute but she wasn't acting at all like herself. Then when I asked her about it this morning... she acted as if it was all a big joke..." He trailed off. He shouldn't have brought it up, something was wrong. Now he was less worried about himself and what would happen to Relena.

"Hmm," she had a cruel edge to her smile. "I'll just have to take care of her," Une said deviously.

"Une?"

"Oh no," she said lightly, back to her normal self. "Don't worry about that. She must have stopped taking her medicine again. I'll talk to her about that, it's no problem, really. Now, you should hurry to your homeroom before you're late." Une drove off leaving a very confused Duo in her wake. He had more questions now then ever.

Duo went through the morning deep in thought. He was thinking about everything that had taken place since he left his home, mostly about himself. When he left, he was doing so to understand what he was, to understand his so-called "gift." But he was getting more confused and, even though he had not been gone a week, he was getting more and more troubled. Growing up in his hometown had taught him to know when he was in over his head and when the time came to cut and run; it was starting to get to that point. Something dangerous was going on, he knew that, and he couldn't avoid it.

He knew that Quatre was worried about him, but he wasn't ready to answer anyone else's questions before he could answer his own, so he skipped lunch. Instead of sitting with Quatre, Trowa and Wufei, he went for a walk around the school grounds. Duo skirted around the patrolling administrators on instinct, leaving him free to think as he intended; until he ran across Heero.

Heero had never eaten lunch in the cafeteria with the others. He wasn't welcomed, at least not by Wufei. That was fine with Heero; he preferred to stay away from them. So he sat in the nook behind the gym every day. He was left alone, even by the administrators, because he had scared away the smokers. They were more than happy to let him do the job they never could. Heero enjoyed the momentary solitude he got every day.

"Heero," Duo was surprised to see him.

"Go away," he said, not really expecting the other to listen.

"Why?"

"Why are you here?"

"Where else would I be?" Duo said absently. He turned away from Heero and sat against a wall.

"Wandering off to get attacked."

"That wasn't my fault! The guy was looking for me he was at the airport. Why are you so--"

"So you decided to make it easy for him?" Heero cut in suddenly.

"How the HELL was I supposed to know the creep would follow me home!" Duo exploded. He turned to look at Heero, ready for a fight, but seeing the impassive look on Heero’s face calmed him down. "He's not coming back though, I broke his nose and you scared him pretty bad."

"You have a habit of going places you have no business in."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Heero didn't speak.

Duo studied him for a moment, expecting an answer that wouldn't come. It reminded him of something, "What were you doing that day?"

Silence.

"Not when... I mean that first day in the lab. You haven't had testing since then, and what was that black thing?"

For a moment, it seemed as if Heero wouldn't answer. "Stay out of my business," he said instead.

"I heard screaming."

Heero actually looked startled for a second before his features smoothed over again, "No one screamed."

"But, I heard it..."

"No one else did."

Duo was about to argue when he realized it was true. None of the other four people in the room had reacted to it like he had and no one had talked about it since. //Did I just imagine it? No. I know I heard it.\\ Duo decided to change tactics.

"What do you think about Treize?"

Heero glared at Duo before choosing his words, "I think he's a smart man."

"What?"

"He's got the right idea about us being better than normal people. He has the money, power and influence to do what he wants. I support him because our interests are the same."

"You can't possibly believe all that crap he was saying."

He stood up and towered over Duo, "You don't know me."

"I know you don't mean that." Duo said with a slight smirk.

"Hn."

Duo watched Heero walk away and the smirk became larger. //He knows there's something else going on too.\\

**********

If Une found it odd that Duo didn't complain, like he did everyday, when she stuck the electrode on his forehead, she didn't say anything about it. Duo was cooperative right up until Une left him alone; then he ripped the electrode off his head and began to search around the small area behind the partition. He figured he had about five minutes to tear the area apart and put it all back together before Une came back to check on his progress, of which there would be none to report. In the mean time, he had no idea what he was searching for, but he was going to find it.

Four minutes and twenty seconds later he had searched everywhere and hadn't turned anything up. His search was a bust and he was out of time. He sat down in the chair with a resigned huff and picked up the electrode to replace it on his head, but that's when he saw it.

In the center of the electrode, caked in the cloudy, translucent electrode cream, was a fleck of green. Duo scraped it out quickly and replaced the electrode. Just before Une came back he realized that his fingers, where they had touched the green fleck, were stinging, while his forehead was unbothered.

They did the same song and dance that was becoming ritual. She asked about his progress and he reported none. He faked being disappointed and she comforted him. She added more 'electrode cream' and for him, the biting cold started again.

When she left, he pulled off the electrode again. There was another green fleck, larger this time, and resembling a small crystal. Duo removed it, pocketed it, replaced it with the smaller one, and left the lab to find some aspirin.

**********

The aspirin didn't help.

Duo fell into a fitful sleep, filled with unfinished beach scenery and a truck's bright headlights, strangely cloaked men and burning green crystals, bodiless screams and a dangerous snake like man, a cold expressionless face and even colder blue eyes.

Quatre came in a few hours later. He saw Duo's tormented sleep and did what he could to remove the negative energy again. Quatre did not wake Duo, knowing that he needed all the rest he could get, so he did his best to quite Duo's dreams and let him be.

Duo slept through the rest of the day and the whole night. And he, like everyone else, woke up to screaming.

"What's going on?" Duo asked, groggily.

"It's Wufei," Quatre sounded perplexed. "He's screaming about something downstairs."

They stared at each other across the room before both getting up and rushing out the door. They got to the kitchen just on the heels of Trowa. Heero and Wufei were already there.

"What is this all about?" Trowa asked before finally seeing the sixth person on the room. Relena was sprawled on the floor, eyes open, not moving.

"Is she dead?" Duo asked. Quatre was already on the floor next to Relena, checking her for any signs of life.

"No, she's alive, but barely. Someone call a doctor." Quatre was finding it hard to stand near Relena, let alone touch her. It was like she was burning but it wasn't a physical heat.

Trowa exited the kitchen calmly but quickly to get the phone. Wufei turned to Heero who was staring at Relena and Quatre dispassionately.

"What did you do to her?"

Heero turned to Wufei, "This time I find you screaming over a dead girl and it's still my fault?"

"I didn't do anything to her. She was scared to death of you, Yuy."

"Where is Une?" Duo asked, his interest was completely piqued at the argument they were having, but it wasn't the time or place for it.

Heero stepped away from the refrigerator to reveal the short note that was taped to it.

'Relena,
Went to the store to pick up a few things. Please get breakfast started with out me. Don't forget what we talked about.
- Une'

"What did they talk about?" Wufei asked.

"I think... Une said she was going to talk to Relena about her medicine."

"Relena takes medicine?" Wufei asked, putting his glaring contest with Heero on hold. "What type of medicine?"

"I don't know, she didn't say." Duo felt miserable.

"How do you know about it in the first place?" Trowa asked, reentering the kitchen.

Duo frowned but didn't answer.

"Duo?" Quatre said softly after a few minutes. He had already done what he could for Relena; the rest would be up to the hospital. Sirens could be heard getting closer.

"I think... this may be my fault." Duo said sitting down on the floor.

"What do you mean, Maxwell?" Wufei growled.

The ambulance arrived and the house was thrown in to organized chaos. Paramedics rushed Relena to the hospital just as Une arrived. The boys each had to explain their story to the Une and the police. Then Une left them to go to the hospital to check on Relena. When everything calmed down, a couple of hours later, all five boys found themselves sitting silent in the common room.

"Duo..." Quatre asked again, first to break the quiet. "What happened?"

Duo told them everything.

Contact the author at Apple_qb@hotmail.com

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