Duo was silent.

He was abnormally silent.

Three weeks had past since Wufei, Quatre and Heero had broken into an Oz lab in Switzerland, and rescued the braided one. Since then, he had adamantly refused to tell them what kind of torture he had undergone during his captivity. Quatre fervently wished that Trowa was with them, maybe then Duo would open up, but the silent one was far away on a mission, and they were forbidden to contact him, for fear of blowing his cover. So, all they could do was wait, and hope Duo would confide in them.

Not only was Shinigami silent, but his personality was undergoing a change. Normally, cheerful and trusting, he was becoming furtive and paranoid. He locked his and Trowa's room. Disappeared for hours and became defensive, if anyone inquired about his activities.

Duo knew full well, he was worrying his companions, but he couldn't help it. He was ashamed to tell them what was wrong, and so he resolved to fight his problem alone.

Duo thanked the Powers that be that OZ had kept them on the move, and that Trowa especially wasn't around. As much as he wished he could unburden himself to his koi, Trowa didn't need to know that... he bit back a sob, that his lover had become a...a...drug addict!

Not only that, but he had been `borrowing' items from Quatre's homes and selling them on the Black Market to get the money, he needed to support his habit. And it was only a matter of time before someone noticing the missing items put two and two together; and then, he'd be busted.

Duo burned with shame at the thought.

He had desperately sought an answer to his problem, and finally like an answer to a prayer, it had appeared. Quatre, in researching his family's holdings had found an obscure reference to a small hunting lodge belonging to his great-grandfather. He had had it investigated and when it was found to be still pretty solid, had it refurnish. Duo smiled, what made the cabin attractive to him was the fact it had a root cellar attached. He would have it all to himself for a week, and by then he'd either be clean or dead.

Arriving at the cabin, Duo hid Shinigami in the woods nearby. Silently, he placed a hand against the leg of his metal companion. "Well, ole buddy, this is it. Either I'm going to shake this monkey, or die trying. If I don't make it, you be good to ya next pilot, hear me!" He looked up at the silent Goliath, and sighed, for a moment, he leaned his head against the cool metal and gathered his courage.

Pushing away from his prop, Duo looked down at the bag at his feet, stooping he opened it and dug out a small box. Opening the box, he stared down at the six little yellow and white pills. Resisting the urge to keep the pills, he closed the box, and flung the box into the bushes.

Silently, he went to face the inevitable.

All afternoon, he prepared the root cellar, after inspecting it. It was dry and had a cement floor. It would be cool in the cellar, but, and he shuddered, that discomfort would be minor, compare to what was to come. He placed an air mattress on the floor and looked around. Besides the mattress, the only other items were several bottles of water and some candy bars, which he'd consume while he still had the mind to do so. And a bucket for wastes, although once he was in the grip of withdrawal, he'd forget to use it, and a lantern.

With a resolute sigh, he went to the doors and pulled them to. He gripped the twine that was tied around the outside latch and pulled, the `plop' sound it made as it settled into the lock, was as loud as the crack of doom.

As the sun set, Duo lit the lantern and hung it from a rafter. Stripping off his clothes, he cracked open a bottle of water and sat down on the mattress. As he raised the bottle to take a drink, he noticed the faint tremor of his nerves. So, it begins, he thought. All right, you bitch! He thought savagely, I'll come through this, and when I do. He got to his feet and screamed, "I will get through this! Une, you bitch! Oz can't beat the God of Death! The Great Destroyer will return!" Crystal tears ran down his cheeks, as he shook his fist at a distant enemy.

Then sobbing, the frightened and lonely boy sank back to the mattress, and clung to the barely touched water bottle-a drowning man clinging to his only lifeline, awaiting the dying of the light.

Late that night, if anyone had been around to hear them, there were frantic pounding and rattling of stout plank doors, heartbreaking pleas for both release and the return of his drug, followed by the foulest curses spacemen knew scaring the owls from their roost. The sounds continued until late into the following night, punctuated by periodic shrill screams, as night fell, the forest animals avoided the strange creature that howled and moaned from under the ground.

The woods shook as four mighty machines dropped to the ground. Their cockpits popped open simultaneously. Three young men, two brunettes, and a blonde exited using their zip lines. The fourth exited in his usual manner, he fell out.

Wufei frowned, as Heero stood up and brushed himself off. "One day Heero, you..." He was interrupted by a gasp from Quatre, who sank to his knees clutching at his chest. Trowa grabbed the young Arab by the shoulders.

"Quatre, what's wrong!"

"Pain...(gasp)...shame...(pant)...death!" Quatre looked up through his bangs, his aqua eyes wide with dread, "Someone nearby wants to die!" He relaxed suddenly, and whispered fearfully, "I can't feel them anymore."

Trowa released the blonde, who fell forward, catching himself on his hands. Trowa ran for the lodge. He barely heard the others running behind him. Bursting through the front door, Trowa cried, "Duo!"

Silence. The lodge reeked of it. Trowa stood frozen, behind him, Heero took charge.

"Quatre, how many rooms does this place have?"

"Six! But, Heero, Duo would have heard the Gundams!"

"Then, we search! Wufei, search around the Gundams! Maybe, he went for a walk. Quatre, you look around here in the lodge. Maybe, he had an accident and is lying unconscious! Trowa...Trowa!" Heero grabbed Heavyarm's pilot and shook him. "Snap out of it! " Trowa blinked at him. "We'll look outside around the house, now come on!" Trowa nodded. He shook off the feeling of dread that clawed at his heart, and followed Heero.

Quatre sprinted off down the hall towards the back of the lodge. The other three went outside, where they split up. Wufei hurried off to the Gundams. He started poking around in the bushes, and almost missed the small box caught in the branches of one of them. He stuffed the box in his pocket, and kept searching.

Quatre quickly checked each room, all were as empty as grudging forgiveness. Duo just wasn't in the lodge. The echo of the despair he had sensed was still very strong and throbbed louder with each beat of his heart, and he greatly feared it was Duo, he had sensed.

"Where are you, Duo?" he whispered, as he stared out at Heero quartering the backyard. He was standing in the kitchen, which showed no sign of ever being used, and frowned at a small building, something about the building teased his memory. As he struggled to bring the memory into focus, he watched Trowa and Wufei rejoin Heero.

"There's no sign of Duo down by Deathscythe. But, I did find this." Wufei held out the box. Trowa took it from him and opened it. The mass inside was barely recognizable, and Trowa dipped the tip of his little finger in it. Delicately extending his tongue, he tasted the substance, and promptly spit it out. Heero and Wufei stared at him, curiously.

"Belatrin!" Trowa hissed at the look on the other's face. Heero and Wufei were shocked! Belatrin was a powerful stimulant, and very dangerous. It stimulated the brain's pleasure center, as well as producing sleeplessness, hyperactivity and a false sense of security. Belatrin addicts tended to withdraw from those around them, becoming paranoid and secretive. Its nickname was the `Dirty Secrets Drug'. Heero couldn't believe they'd missed the signs, he opened his mouth...

"ROOT CELLAR!!!"

The three spun to see Quatre leaning precariously out of the kitchen window. The little blonde tumbled out onto the back porch. Leaping to his feet, he pointed and cried, "Around the building, there's a root cellar! Look for him there!"

Trowa dropped the box, and sprinted for the building, Heero and Wufei hard on his heels. Running around the small shed, they found two doors lying at an angle to the ground. Heavyarm's pilot grabbed the bar holding the doors closed and threw it back. He flung open the doors and...

The first thing that struck them was the smell. A rank sour smell wafted out of the cellar, and the three were hard put to not vomit. Gulping frantically, and fighting their gag reflexes, the three entered the cellar slowly. As their eyes adjusted to the gloom, they stared around the room.

"Oh, my god!" Trowa whimpered and ran to a dark pile in one corner. He knelt and lifted something up in his arms. Cobalt blue and ebony eyes widen in shock and horror at the sight of the body, that their emerald eyed friend brought into view.

Duo hung limply in his lover's arms, one arm dangled, as though it was trying separate itself from the body it was attached to. The pristine braid they all knew and loved was lank and encrusted with filth. The boy himself was covered in excrement and vomit.

Trowa looked down at his world in his arms, and fought the tears, that threatened to blind him. He headed out of that living hell, seeking pure air. Wordlessly, the pair gave ground before the sorrowing young man, as he bore his precious burden up to the light.

Quatre moaned, as Trowa carried the limp boy up on the porch, and laid him down. Wufei knelt by Duo, as Heero went to comfort his koi, who threw his arms around the Japanese's neck and buried his face into Heero's neck, and sobbed. Wing Zero rubbed Sandrock's back and shushed him, tenderly, his eyes never leaving the trio in front of him.

Emerald eyes full of uncharacteristic bafflement gazed into compassionate ebony eyes. Holding Trowa's eyes, Wufei said gently, "We need to clean him up, Trowa." The uni-banged boy nodded, and rose with Duo in his arms. Quatre darted past them to open the porch door, only to mewl in frustration as the door refused to open. Wufei put him aside and reared back and kicked the door open.

Quatre led the others to the bathroom. The room was tiled in white and green speckled marble, with a high window set in one wall. Next to the window was a double door cabinet made of dark, rich walnut. Directly across from that cabinet, was smaller walnut cabinet with a dark green sink nestled in its top with gold taps. A few steps from the sink set the toilet. A large green bathtub dominated the other end of the room; it was to this, that Trowa carried his comatose mate. Turning, he handed Duo to Heero, who cradled the boneless body to his chest, while Trowa turned back to the tub and twisted the taps, water gushed forth in streams. Adjusting the temperature, he then turned on the shower.

Satisfied, the stoic pilot stripped off his clothes, and entered the stream of water. He held out his arms, and Heero delicately handed his burden over to the arms waiting to receive it. As Quatre opened the huge cabinet in search of washcloth and towels, Heero stripped off his clothes and joined Trowa and Duo. In the sink's cabinet, Wu found several bars of soap and bottles of shampoo, reaching in, he snatched up the nearest and hurried tub side.

Dark thoughts of vengeance ran rampant through Trowa's soul, as he held onto Duo's rag doll body, while Heero washed the boy. He was going to find out who did this to his lover, and then he was going to destroy them, slowly and painfully.

"Trowa." Heero spoke, the first words, he had said, since they had come into the house. "Give Duo to me, and you wash his hair." Trembling, the brown haired boy did as his friend directed. Trowa's tears mingled with the shower stream, as he broke the band holding the braid together. Duo would have been heartbroken, if he could have seen what the braid he took such pride in, looked like. Trowa had to rake his fingers through the filthy strands to make them separate. Four times, he soaped and rinsed the mass, before he was reasonably sure he had gotten the strands clean.

"Done." he announced. Heero nodded, and holding Duo steady, he stepped out of the tub. Wufei leaned in behind Trowa and turned the now cold water off. Warm towels enveloped the cold body, the boys dried with sorrow and love, gentling their hands.

Now that Duo was reasonably clean, they could see the rest of the damage. Days of fasting had sharpened the angles of his face. Bags marred the skin under his eyes. Looking further down, they saw the evidence of how hard he had struggled against the cellar doors, his nails were broken, and picking up those poor abused hands, they could find several splinters embedded in the soft flesh. There were bruises all over him, and it was obvious that he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia from the coldness of the root cellar.

"Let's get Duo to bed, then I'm sending for a doctor." Quatre said, and rose. While Heero and Trowa had been bathing Shinigami, he and Wufei had gone to the nearest bedroom and got it ready. Putting out a hand, Wufei forestalled the others and took Duo up. "My turn." he said, profound pain betrayed in those simple words.

The sun was shining through the window warming the turned down sheets. Duo looked pale and shrunken as he lay surrounded by the coverings of the large bed. By silent consent, the other three left the lovers alone.

Trowa sat on a Louis the XIIIV chair, placed at beside and paid no more attention to it, then if it had been a wicker stool. Pressing the back of Duo's left hand to his lips, Trowa whispered, "I'm so sorry, love. I wasn't there, when you needed me. Can you ever forgive me?"

The silent one's head jerked back, as the hand in his twitched. "Duo?" he whispered, hopefully. He leaned over the other, as Duo's lips began to move. Trowa strained to hear; finally he was rewarded by the disjointed words that came from Duo's mouth.

"Can't...Une...drugged...Trowa...thief..." Trowa's lips formed a grim line, and his eyes glinted with rage. Now he knew whom to blame, and she was a dead man walking. He didn't see the two shadows detach themselves from the doorway.

Heero and Wufei looked at each other. "Your call, Wufei. Do we let Trowa go after her, or do we do it for him?" Heero growled. The Chinese pilot gazed back at his furious teammate calmly, "No, Heero, I will do it. You will stay here. Quatre would be no match for Trowa in the frame of mind; he's in. I will...I will gain allies elsewhere."

Cobalt eyes held warm chocolate eyes. "Do you mean, who I think you mean." A quirk of bronzed lips, and a glint of humor warmed those dark eyes. "He will want to know, if she overstepped her bounds. If she did this with his consent, then I will deal with them both. I promise you, Duo will see justice."

The Dragon placed his hand on his comrade's shoulder and squeezed. Heero covered it with his own, and squeezed back, a silent communication of trust and commitment.

"If you fail..."

Wufei nodded his understanding. Wufei turned and went down the hall, he passed Quatre, who was hurrying up the hall.

"Wufei! Wait! Where are you..." Quatre broke off his query, when Heero touched his shoulder.

"Let him go, love. Wufei is going after Lady Une. She's responsible for what's wrong with Duo."

Worry clouded clear aqua eyes. "Will he be all right?"

Heero enfolded the little blonde in his arms and turning the boy to him, he leaned in to give his lover a kiss. "Don't worry. Wufei can take care of himself."