Silhouetted by the Sea

Disclaimer: Nope...characters not mine. Just this story. I might change all the names and try to sell it someday though. If it's good enough.

Author's Notes: Nearing the end, but nowhere near. Does that make sense? Hehe... Ah well. I hope yall are enjoying.

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Silhouetted by the Sea
by Kristen Elizabeth

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"Miss Peacecraft...Miss Peacecraft, what's wrong?"

Relena lifted her head from her skirts and looked up at Quatre's blue-green eyes. They were full of concern. "Mr. Winner?"

"Are you all right? What happened to you? You're crying..."

She glanced around the room with great fear. "Is he gone?"

"Who?" Quatre frowned. "Treize?"

"Is he gone?" she repeated.

Quatre put his hand on her shoulder. "I saw him walk out just as I was coming in... Miss Peacecraft, did he say something that upset you?"

Relena closed her eyes. "I want Heero..."

"It's all right, Miss Peacecraft. Whatever Treize said, I assure you that he didn't truly mean it. This marriage is just as hard for him as it is for you. And while he has been known to lose his temper on occasion, I've never..."

"He hurt me!" Relena screamed. "He shoved his hand under my skirts and..." She stopped. "Oh god, please...I want Heero!"

Quatre stared at her as he took in the weight of her accusation. "He touched you, Miss Peacecraft?" She nodded and lowered her chin back to her knees. "In an unwelcome manner?"

"Very unwelcome," she whispered.

The blond man's jaw grew tighter. "I can't believe....this is too much even for him. A gentleman should never..." He shook his head, unable to continue. When her tears failed to stop, he produced a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. "Here...dry your eyes." She accepted it and delicately touched the linen to her cheeks. "Come, Miss Peacecraft. I'll take you to the Baroness' suite. She will look after you."

Relena let him gently guide her to her feet. "Where will you be going?" He didn't reply and she was too upset to ask again.

Quatre left her in Sally's capable, maternal hands and proceeded downstairs. The stable boy jumped up as soon as he stepped onto the porch.

"You be needin' yer hoss, Masser Quatre?"

"Yes, thank you, Julius." The boy ran as fast as he could to the stable and returned a short while later with Quatre's thoroughbred Arabian, neatly saddled. He helped his blond master up and when he was seated, Quatre addressed him again. "Which direction did Treize go, Julius?"

Julius scratched his sweaty head. "Masser Treize done gallop'd off t'wards de town, Masser Quatre. Seem'd in a pow'rful hurry, he did."

Quatre nodded, his eyes dark. "Thank you again." Gently nudging his horse, Quatre took off on the same path. He had a very good idea where Treize might be headed.

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"Oh, Marjorie Bass is a buxom lass who'll give you her favors for free...but watch out young fellow, she'll turn you right yellow with the..."

"Hey." Wufei hung his arms through the bars on the cell as if he could reach across the great distance and strangle his jailmate in mid-song. "If you sing that one more time, I'll..."

Duo sat up from his cot. "You'll do what?" he asked the pirate across the way.

"You shouldn't taunt Wufei," Hilde warned the braided man. "If he does find a way to escape, he's a force to be reckoned with." Her words were punctuated with a deep cough. Duo shot a glance at hn tin time to see her shoulders jerk with the force of her coughs.

"Oh god..." Duo pressed his face into the bars to see her better. "You're getting sick."

"I am not," she countered.

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not!" Hilde coughed again, longer and even deeper.

Duo tightened his grip on his cell door and hung his head. "Fuck me...this is all my fault! I should have gone with my instincts and never agreed to come back here with you. If I had, you'd be safe and warm somewhere."

Hilde blinked at the weight of emotion in his words. "Duo...I thought your plan was always to turn us in."

"Are you kidding? All I've wanted since that first night you came to me was to..."

His confession was cut short by the sound of a loud, angry voice coming from the front of the jail. They didn't have to wait long to find out what it was all about. Only a few seconds later, the door to the cell block was thrown open and Treize Kushrenada burst in, fire blazing in his eyes.

Duo gave him the biggest, fakest grin he could muster. "Master Treize! Welcome tr hur humble abode. We're very sorry that we're unable to greet you properly; please forgive our terrible manners."

Treize ignored him completely. His chest rose and fell with angry breath. "Which one of you is Heero?"

"There's a little bit of hero in every man, Master Treize." Duo genuflected with much mockery.

"Maxwell..." Treize didn't look at him, but held out a hand. "Shut your god damned mouth and tell me which of these bastards goes by the name 'Heero'."

Hilde's eyes darted to the cell across from hers where Heero was preparing to stand. She caught his eye and shook her head, pleading with him to remain silent. The plantation master had murder in mind and Heero was defenseless.

But the pirate leader had no inner coward. With his back straight and his eyes cool, he announced, "I am Heero."

Treize glowered behind thick ginger eyebrows before covering the distance between them. "I would have words with you, sir." He spit out the last word.

Heero indicated the bars he was stuck behind. "I suppose I don't have a choice about hearing them."

"You fucked her," Treize snarled, wasting no time in getting to his point. "My bride...you took her, didn't you?" Heero refused to reply, enraging the other man even further. "Didn't you?!" Still, Heero remained silent. Treize shook his head. "Of course...why should I expect a gentleman's answer from street scum like you?"

Between racking coughs, Hilde scowled at the stranger who controlled their fate. "Heero is not scum!"

Like Duo earlier, she went ignored. "Well, I hope you enjoyed it," Treize told the pirate leader. "Although, virgins are notoriously dead between the sheets." His lips curled up in a cruel smile. "I suppose I should thank you for taking her maidenhead." He leaned closer to Heero's cell. "She was anything but dead when I got between her legs."

That earned him his first reaction from Heero. The younger man lifted his stony eyes. Treize continued pushing. "You know, I've been in bed with whores who were less wanton than my bride was last night."

Heero lunged forward, grabbing the bars, the only barrier keeping him from killing Kushrenada. Pushed to the edge of his sanity, Treize's eyes glinted. "You want a proper fight then?" He produced a ring of keys from his banyan robe and unlocked Heero's cell door. "You shall have it."

With a burst of energy, Heero attacked the older man as soon as he could. Treize ducked the blow and dealt his own to Heero's lower back. The kidney shot caught Heero off guard and he dropped to his knees on the dirt floor. Treize took the opportunity presented to him and kicked Heero's stomach.

Hilde screamed as Heero's chin hit the dirt. "No!! Don't hurt him!!!"

Trowa, Wufei and Duo were all at their cell doors, unable to get out and help. It was obvious that Heero was no match for the older man in his condition. Weak from days without proper food or rest, he was an easy target for Treize's rage.

The plantation owner slammed the hard point of his shoe into Heero's ribs. Before the pirate had any chance to recover, he hauled him off the floor and slammed him against the bars on Hilde's cell door and delivered a powerful blow to his jaw. Second and third punches drove the back of Heero's head against the hard metal again and again. In her cell, Hilde could only watch and cry.

Blood trickled from Heero's mouth. When Treize drew back for a fourth punch, he managed to lift one arm and catch the man's fist before it reached his face. Mustering what was left of his breath, he spoke to the other man for the first time since introducing himself. "I make...her happy," Heero panted. "You...never will."

Treize punched him again with even more force. Heero slumped to the floor; his head lolled forward. He braced himself for Treize's next attack, but instead of a punch or a kick, he heard a clear voice from the front of the cell block.

"Treize," Quatre called to his life-long friend. "Let him go."

But the normally cool man Quatre called friend was not present. Jealousy and pride had pushed Treize well beyond anything Quatre had ever seen before. "Leave," Treize ordered him. "Unless you want to see me kill him."

"I know what you did to Miss Peacecraft, Treize." Quatre took a step towards the men. "What were you thinking, manhandling her like that?? She is a lady and her honor must be protected by you if no one else."

"She has no honor...no chastity," Treize spit back. He indicated Heero. "He took it. And for that..." Treize lifted him by his tattered, bloody shirt. "It is my right to kill him."

Before Treize could strike again, Quatre lunged forward. He made a grab for his friend's arm, but Treize saw him coming and pushed him out of the way. The force of his arm sent Quatre slamming back into the bars on Trowa's cell door.

It took a moment for Quatre to recover. He tasted blood his mouth where he had bitten down on his tongue in shock. Hurt and betrayal clouded his eyes. "Treize," he said, disbelievingly.

"I told you to leave. If you try to stop me again, I'll kill you, too."

The words sunk into Quatre and for the first time, he saw past his childhood friend's exterior shell of aloof indifference and rote chivalry. Rather than a man worthy of his respect, Quatre found himself looking at a slave-owner. A man who could kill another man with his bare hands. Hands that had just defiled a woman meant to be his bride.

It was all Quatre could bear.

The keys Treize had used to open Heero's cell lay on the dirt. Without even thinking about hesitating, Quatre grabbed them. The pirate leader needed help. Help that Quatre couldn't give him. Before Treize noticed, he fumbled with the lock on Trowa's cell door.

The green-eyed pirate had no hesitations. As soon as his cell was open, he launched himself at Treize, landing a hard, fast punch to the man's cheek. Treize stumbled back and released Heero. By this time, Quatre had freed up Wufei, who joined his friend in attacking the plantation owner.

Hilde watched the fight, but she was losing the battle with her coughs. Each one shook her entire body, getting worse every time. Her lungs felt heavy...it scared her.

The blond man appeared at her door and unlocked it before moving onto Duo's. As he waited for Quatre to unlock his cell, Duo watched Hilde stumble out of her own cell, coughing. "She's sick," he told his former companion.

Quatre nodded. "Go help her."

Treize was holding his own against Trowa and Wufei. But despite the fact that both pirates were weakened from the same conditions as Heero, it still came down to two men against one. Duo didn't see the progres of of the fight; his attention was solely on Hilde.

She was leaning up against the dirty wall for support through a particularly bad moment. Duo crossed the way and took her in his arms. "We have to get you out of here," he said.

Hilde let herself rest the side of her head on his shoulder for a minute, too tired to protest. She coughed and clapped a hand to her mouth. When she pulled it away, a fine sheen of blood covered her palm.

Duo looked down at her hand, fear hitting him like slap in the face. "Oh Jesus..." he breathed. How could she have gotten so sick, so quickly? It was his fault, he concluded. The brig and then the jail. He should have made her eat; he should have brought her more blankets.

He shouldn't have followed the rules.

Seeing her own blood scared Hilde more than the idea of being alone in the world. She barely reacted when Duo lifted her into his arms. "It's going to be all right," he told her, trying very hard to believe it himself. Hilde turned her face away from him, a new fear developing in her breast. The fear of spreading her sickness to the man she loved.

Heero painstakingly lifted his head of the dirt floor and blinked to focus his eyes. The cell doors had been thrown open, he thought to himself. Wufei and Trowa seemed to be gaining the upper hand against Treize. His next thought was of Relena. Treize had come here because of her...because he knew about them. If Treize had done this to him, what horrible things might he have done to Relena?

The blond man had said she had been manhandled. He had sickening visions of her degradation at the plantation owner's hands. Beatings, whippings, rape. In his heart, he knew that Treize had lied about his supposed night of passion with Relena. She would never have consented to his touch. The only security Heero had ever known came in the form of Relena's love for and loyalty to him.

His fingernails dug into the hard earth and with every bit of strength he could muster, he staggered back to his feet. "Kushrenada," he yelled, ignoring the blood in his mouth. "If you hurt her...if you even touched her, I will kill you!"

Kushrenada looked at him and laughed, despite Trowa and i adi advancing towards him. "You don't have the strength to kill me. Much less the means."

Heero's eyes narrowed. He was loathe to admit it, but the man was right. Without his full strength and without a weapon, he would never survive another round of fighting.

It was then that he felt something metallic pressed into his bruised hand. He glanced down; Quatre was discreetly slipping him the decorative sword he had been wearing under his frock coat. Heero's fingers curled around the handle. Once he had a good grasp on it, he shouted, "Wufei, Trowa...move!!"

Both men immediately jumped out of the way and Heero advanced forward. He caught Treize off guard; the man barely reacted to the blade sliding into his shoulder. He simply looked down, as though he couldn't believe he had been lanced, then looked back up at Heero.

The pirate leader pulled the sword back; a few drops of Treize's blood tangled off the sharp tip. Heero's chest rose and fell as he watched Treize put a hand over his wound. The older man only managed to stay on his feet for another minute before he dropped to his knees.

Quatre grabbed the sword. "It's not fatal, but you should go," he told Heero.

"Relena." Heero wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "I'm not leaving without Relena."

There were noises from outside; the guards, alerted to the situation, were approaching the jail. Quatre opened the door leading out of the cell block. "Go, now!! Take his horse and follow the main path until you reach the house." He looked at the others. "Everyone else, follow me to the docks."

It seemed the logical course of action. As soon as they emerged from the jail, with Duo still carrying Hilde, Quatre tossed the sword to Trowa. "The guards," he told the green-eyed pirate. Trowa nodded and turned his attention to the two men advancing towards them.

Treize's stallion was tethered to a tree at the edge of the clearing. Heero had no sooner reached the horse than two more of the creatures burst out of the woods from the general diron oon of the main road, carrying Relena and Sally on their backs. "Heero!!" Relena cried

Heero blinked. "Relena?" His surprise melted as he became fully aware that she was there, alive and seemingly unscathed.

Without waiting for the horse to completely stop, Relena jumped down from the saddle and ran to him. His arms opened, just as eager for her embrace. Ignoring the blood, sweat and dirt on him, Relena threw herself around the man she loved. "Heero!" she repeated into his neck. "You're all right....you're alive..."

She smelled like fresh honeysuckle. His hands twisted into the silky mass of her loose hair. "Relena..." He closed his eyes to make sure it wasn't a dream. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to rescue you."

Heero laughed, despite his aching jaw. "I love you," he told her. "I love you so much."

Relena wasn't given any time to process his monumental confession. Trowa had taken down the two guards, but there would be more coming at any minute. Quatre mounted his Arabian. "We need to get to the docks! You all have to get out of here!"

Duo was one step ahead of him, having already hoisted Hilde's frighteningly limp body onto Relena's abandoned horse. He climbed into the saddle just behind her and cradled the girl against him. "I agree. Moving now would be good, people."

Heero swung up onto Treize's horse and reached down for Relena's hand. She was light in his arms as she pulled her up and seated her just in front of him. Meanwhile, Sally looked down from her horse at Wufei.

"Miss me?" she asked him.

He crossed his arms. "This isn't how it was supposed to go. We were coming for you."

Sally sighed and held out her hand to him. "Are you coming or not?" After giving her what could almost be interpreted as a smile, Wufei took her offered hand and mounted the horse behind her.

"What about...Trowa?" Hilde lifted her head from Duo's shoulder. She was awake and aware, but could barely move.

Trowa shook his head. "I'll keep them off your trail. Don't worry about me."

"We're not leaving anyone behind," Heero told him, firmly. "You can ride with..."

"Me," Quatre finished. He smiled at the tall pirate who was still on the ground. "If that's all right you." Trowa climbed up into the Arabian's saddle and seated himself behind the blond man.

Heero pulled back on the stallion's reins; the beautiful horse lifted its front legs from the ground for a brief second. "Let's go!"********

The rythmic pounding of hoofs againsrd, rd, old sand filled Relena's ears, nearly succeeding in drowning out the sound of Heero's heartbeat. She clung to him tighter as they raced with the others towards the shore of Barbados. Having almost lost him once, she didn't intend to ever let him go again.

"Relena," he said. His voice was soothing even through the wind racing over them. "This is what you want, isn't it? I mean to say, a life with me..." He paused. "It won't be the life you're used to."

She tangled her fingers in the frayed cotton of the shirt they must have given him on the ship. "But a life without you wouldn't be worth living."

Duo's rode his horse up beside theirs. "What's your plan?" he asked Heero. Hilde was cradled in the protection of his arms, deathly pale.

"We take one of his ships to the closest island. Part ways there." Heero's eyes narrowed. "You know she wouldn't be sick if..."

"Yeah." The braided man pulled on his horse's reins, steering away from them. "I know."

The four horses and eight people emerged from the tropical forest at breakneck speed, heading straight for the docks. Heero took the lead and it became quite obvious to which ship he was heading. The *Lady Anne* lay a hundred feet offshore, waiting for her next sailing.

Quatre rode towards Heero. "She's loaded up with a shipment of rum bound for America on the morning tide. You could sell the supplies for money."

Heero nodded and kicked his horse's sides, urging the animal on. "Come on," he yelled to his companions.

There were surprisingly few dock workers present when they thundered down to the edge of the island and they all stayed away when they caught sight of Master Quatre. When Heero reached their destination, he pulled back on the leather reins and jumped off the stallion. Relena reached down to him and he grabbed her waist, helping her to the ground. The others dismounted quickly, Duo taking extra care with Hilde.

A large rowboat sat in the sand, as though it were waiting for them. Without hesitation, it was boarded and Heero, Trowa and Wufei pushed it out into waist deep water before jumping into it themselves. The minutes it took to row out to Treize's beloved ship more closely resembled hours.

Duo brushed his thumb over Hilde's cheek. Now instead of pale, she was flushed, a sure sign that fever had set in. "Hold on," he whispered to her. "We're almost there." Hilde nodded and closed her eyes, pressing deeper into the warmth of his body.

When they reached the side of the ship, Heero was the first to go up the rope ladder with Trowa right behind him. Once they were sure that no one was on board the ship, they gave the signal for the others to follow. "Hilde," Duo called her name until she opened her eyes. "I can't carry you up the ladder, love. Can you..."

She nodded again, gathered her strength and took hold of the rope. "Don't let me...fall."

"I promise," he said as she started up the side of the ship. He followed her a moment later, using only one hand to pull himself up. The other was above his head, grasping the small of her back. Sally followed him and then, Quatre.

Wufei was the last one to make it onto the deck. As soon as he was there, he joined Heero and Trowa in cranking the heavy anchor. The *Lady Anne* and her passengers were liberated.

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To Be Continued...oh, yeah....this is *totally* not the end;)