Lena: (sigh)

G-boys: (play video games)

Lena: (sigh)

G-boys: (play card games)

Lena: (sigh)

G-boys: (watch TV)

Lena: Ooo…

Trowa: Is it a picture of us? Lemme see, lemme see!

Duo: Me first!

Trowa: (kissing him) No, me.

Duo: (French kissing him) No, me.

Duo&Trowa: Mmmmmpphhhh…^_^

Quatre: (rolls eyes) How…public…

Heero: (from bedroom) Hey, Quatre. Check this out. I have anew…mission…

Quatre: (innocently walks into Hee-kun’s room. The door locks behind him)

Wufei: (yawn)

Lena: All right, on to the story! Yay!

He was still aware of everything happening around him, but for some reason, he couldn’t move. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t move. At least his eyes were open…

The woman was randomly calling for screaming and then more sacrifices. After one such, when he watched the black-haired boy who was forced to wield the knife, the woman came back over to him, holding one of the human hearts that had been collected in her hand. Her face was contorted with some emotion he didn’t recognize, and she squeezed the blood from the heart over his head and tried to basically cover him entirely with the red ichor. Even the reaction to attempt gagging, at least, didn’t get through to his brain. Quietly, the Hunter allowed himself to be further dirtied by thewoman’s insanity.

In a desperate search for something else to focus on, his attention wandered to the outer edges of the crowd, where the Caterwauls were standing, watching the woman and looking as though they felt sorry for him. Lot of good that does me.

But…hadn’t there been about ten Caterwauls standing just over there a moment ago? What about there, thirteen meters to the left? He was certain he’d seen- that one just fell over like something attacked it from behind. Immediately his mind raced for plausible theories as to what was lowering the number of Caterwauls. A natural enemy? No such thing. A loose group of humans? Again, it couldn’t possibly be. But what if…what if I was already bleeding when they dragged me away from that second unicorn I saw? Would…would they havebeen able to track me?

Heero. It could be Heero getting rid of those Caterwauls.Oh, I hope…

“Here, Barton, taste of flesh,” The woman prompted. He redirected his attention to her in time to see what she was shoving into his mouth. A hand. A little, infantile hand, still dripping umbilical fluid. Oh…dear…gods… His emotions didn’t affect his control in any way, and the maniac woman continued to shove the hand further back into his throat until she realized with a start that he wasn’t able tobreathe.

“Exert free will,” She muttered, and suddenly the will to remove the severed child’s hand from his throat combined with the ability to do so and it dropped out of his mouth to land before him. Steadfastly, he controlled the urge to retch. Somehow, it seemed to amuse her to no end, and after regaining his breath, he decided he’d make use of all thefree will he had left.

“You disgust me,” The first reaction was amusement. He raised his blood-soaked head, eyes afire. “You truly are pathetic.” For a moment, she looked as though he’d gotten to her. But then she laughed, her face twisted into a horrendous parody of happiness. It was sad, actually- she could easily have been beautiful.

“I disgust you?” The mocking tone made him forget any kind of sadness he might have felt for her. “I am pathetic, eh? Ha. You humans. At the very least, I do not require others to assist my birth, life, and death. I am to some degree free- your species, your kind…you are all so completely dependent on other things. And you all take it for granted. That is not something to be proud of.” She stepped closer to him, face spasming occasionally when she lost a bit of hercontrol.

“And you think poorly held grudges are things to take pride in?” Scowling, he spat at her. She ducked easily, but the irritation on her face was as thorough as it would have been if he hadn’t missed. They exchanged healthy glares for a time, and she stalked away.

“I will come back to you,” she called over her shoulder; he sighed, and closed his eyes against the slaughter before him. The sound of someone crying, odd even in this terrible place, caught his attention. He peered out of one eyelid at the black-haired boy who was covered in blood. He was performing the sacrifices, The hunter realized. Perhaps the other boy would be someone worthwhile to talk with.

“Who are you?” The boy continued to cry, obviously not realizing he had been addressed. “You! Speak! There are better things than feeling sorry for yourself.” That sparked the tiny, flickering flame of spirit left in the other boy; his head snapped around and he literally snarled at theHunter.

“Feeling sorry for myself? If I am, I certainly have good reason! Who are you to speak to me?” Trowa simply stared into the obsidian eyes of the other boy for the longest time, imparting his message by allowing the other time to realize who’s situation was currently more dire. And only after he paled and gaped ever so slightly did Trowa release him from the wordless exchange.

“I am someone who has been a pawn all his life. I will remain a pawn for the rest of it. There is no greater sorrow,” He swallowed the bile rising in his throat as he realized exactly how pathetic he was. “Than to be someone easily manipulated.” They were both silent, reflecting, for a while. Then the black-haired boy shrugged, putting on a rueful smile and forcing himself to see and accept the sliver of humor in the situation.

“So you’re allowed to wallow in self-pity and I’m not? Is that the way of things?” Trowa shook his head, forgetting how much he wanted, on some days, to change the past. If you even could, you’d still not be allowed to. No one can possibly understand how much a single action affects every other living creature. The black haired boy struggled with his chains and managed to move a little closer. But once he was in range, neither wanted to talk very much. The one fiddled with his chains, trying to scrape a speck of dried blood off of them, and the other watched in subtle joy as one by one, the Caterwauls fell prey to whatever it was knocking them down. He was fairly certain that the culprit was Heero, but that didn’t really give him any ideas as to what shape the informela was currently using.

“You didn’t answer my question,” the other boy pressed.

“Are you? Do you?” The hunter sighed.

“Well, no, and occasionally.” He hid his amusement as the other’s left eyebrow rose.

“My, aren’t we the vague one? Elaborate, it’s not as if either of us has anything better to do.” Trowa returned the skepticism in kind and decided to agree with the other boy’s advice. He really couldn’t do anything but talk, might as well talk himself hoarse. How logical.

“Occasionally, I pity myself. I try not to. People generally find it annoying when I do that.” The other boyblinked. “They do?”

“Of course they do. They don’t want to hear about my problems, even if they should at least pretend to care. People need a certain ignorance to feel happy. If you know that someone else is unhappy, or dwell on it, you automatically feel guilty. So I try not to make anybody else deal with what I am, and have been.” Obsidian eyes narrowed.

“Have been?” Trowa nodded. “As in, old professions or old names, supposed specie and so on?” Again, he nodded.

“Insane. Any and all of that is insane. You must lead astressful life.”

“Actually, the past year I had been fairly calm…and happy.”

That same eyebrow went up to meet the forehead again, the expression of surprise nearly comical- except for the blood crusting on his face, and…and…

“Happy?” The hunter closed his eyes and drew a great dealof breath.

“Yes. It was…” No words. Not a single word to describe what it was. Not a million words. Impossible. Stupid to think you can explain what you don’t understand. When he opened his eyes, he saw a very wistful expression in the black-haired boy’s eyes. As though…the other had experienced the same thing, and understood. “You know what I want to say, don’t you.” The other nodded, and bowed his head, eyes closed,breathing deep and even.

The woman’s voice interrupted their silent acceptance of each other, causing the one in chains to scramble back into place, and the one bound by ropes, blood and name to wince at the sound of her voice, ringing and harsh.

“I have two things that I can do with you.” She stepped quickly up the pile of corpses all around, coming level to him and removing something from a pocket in her vest. Pearly and dully glowing in the light of the sun and the ruby pillar- it was twisted, pointed, too familiar…a unicorn’s horn. Trowa wondered dazedly if she intended to glue it on to something- perhaps her own forehead. That would be perfectly in character. For her.

“What are they?” He asked, tired and unwilling to exhibit fear for all the remaining Caterwauls and the chained humans. There was a momentary pause when she looked ready to yell at him for not acting as she wished, but she obviously decided against that. She simply smiled nastily at him and twirled the horn in her fingers.

“The first is simply to burn you to complete the sacrifice. Rather inefficient, since I can’t be certain everything is burned through until the fires die, and that could be a nuisance to handle. The second is much more fun.” With a soft laugh for her obvious desire to be dramatic, he replied once more, as scathingly as he could.

“I’m sorry, little girl, I hope I’m not boring you to death.” And now, a twisted smile that far excelled the others in striking fear came upon her face. Is it too lateto change what I said?

“Oh no, the only people dying are you folk. But you are boring me so. Why don’t I delve through your memories and play with your mind for a little while? That would be plenty enough to keep me occupied.” Do I have a choice?

She grabbed his neck with her left hand again, and the loss of control was immediate- he’d already been bound by her powers. If he had been standing, his knees would have given way as the next sensation- of her tearing through the only pieces of him that were kept carefully- cascaded throughhim.

There was only madness where she touched, empty, lonely, guilty, frightening madness, left behind by her own mind and what lay within that puzzle box. And the madness grew, sinister, encompassing, completely and totally dominating his mind. He was being crushed and crushed, smaller and smaller…he couldn’t do anything to fight against it, and then there was nearly nothing left-

-(UP)-

__(AIR)__

She released his jugular, drawing back and smiling secretively to herself. The boy gasped for air, tears dripping from his eyes as the only signs that he knew he had been violated to the core of whatever being he had. The woman turned away and walked over to the knife bearer, scratching his head and laughing softly.

“He’s in love with Duo. How…ironic.” Another laugh, slightly louder, and she turned again to her quarry. The hunter was still wheezing, and more tears were still forming salty tracks; she cackled and leapt up close to him, taking his chin and turning his head this way and that. “Where’s that spot he kisses that makes you- oh, yes, here…” She leaned in and gently played at the skin slightly below his left ear, laughing as his breathing sharpened shortened, hitched on…something…and he whimpered softly. Now, everything about him seemed so very amusing to her.

“What…are y…you…d-doing…” He stifled another whimper and an almost sob, knowing that both would only excite her.

“Wh-wh-why…are you…” The woman backed away, regarding him with deadly seriousness, and he sighed in relief.

“I am going to attempt to utilize the power of this unicorn’s horn, Trowa Barton. And I am going to test it on you.” Patiently, she waited for him to regain his meager control, and ask the question she wanted to hear.

“W-what are y-you going to…test on me?” The hunter noticed the disappointment in her eyes and was glad that she didn’t count the panic as fear. If nothing else, he wanted to maintain a lack of obvious fear of her.

“It’s very simple, really. I’m going to use this horn to remove your soul and power the horn further. In order to do that, I’ll have to stab you in the chest with the horn, and not miss the heart. So if I mess up, you might still be alive a while longer…that is, until Wufei removes your heart for me. I do hope that it works, though. I’ve never used the power of a soul before.” Her smile suggested that there was nothing more she wanted than to use his soul as thoroughly as she’d used his mind. “My soul is already the property of someone else.”

He felt his body begin to shiver, despite his best attempts at controlling it, due to the cold of the blood all over him. She merely laughed at him once more, and leveled thehorn with his heart.

“No human has any say in what happens to their soul, fool. Your claim means nothing to me.”

But it means everything to me, Duo thought icily, preparing to attack from behind.