No no no no no…

You mutter something under your breath that no one else catches and glance around frantically. "All right, close all applications, log out, and make sure that there's absolutely nothing that shows that we've been here." As the other five do as they're told, you take a quick look at what the screen shows and curse loudly before closing it.

Duo somehow pops up right beside you, making you jump. "What is it?" he asks.

"The fact that they freakin' lied to me," you grumble. "They're planning to start another war, and they're willing to cooperate with OZ to do it."

Duo is silent for a moment, before he remarks, "Nice mess you've gotten yourself into."

"Tell me about it," you answer, before glancing around.  Everyone else is ready. "Okay then…" You look around the room quickly, taking notice of possible hiding places. "Well, choice one is to knock out Y and friends when they come in.  Choice two is to hide somewhere.  I think we should go with choice two, just in case, so that they'll never know we were here."

They nod, and everyone finds themselves a hiding place.  You scan the room to check that they're well-hidden before diving quickly behind a desk - just as Y walks in, along with five others.

You hold your breath as one of the men walks over to the computer. "There's nothing here, sir."

'How did they know that we were here?'

'No idea.  Shut up so I can listen.'

"They were here," Y says calmly. "They must've gotten wind that we were coming.  Whoever it was is most probably against us, as they aren't standing here waiting to talk."

'Yep, that's right, I'm against you now, Y.  Can't I just pull out my pistol and shoot him?'

'Nice idea, but no.'

'…Can I kill him now?'

'No.'

'…Now?'

'Shut up.'

Wondering when you'd developed voices in your head that have a tendency to argue, you tune back into the conversation, just in time to hear one of the men say, "What about the girl?" Y adds your name, and he answers, "Yes, that one.  Isn't it possible that she was looking through the files and found out what we're really up to?"

Y snorts. "It's her own fault, for not going through everything thoroughly when she had the chance.  But what I'm worried about is if our… enemies… find out about the deal that we struck with OZ.  That we're planning to help start a war together, to fight for control of the government… and that we'll start by assassinating Relena Peacecraft."

You stuff your hand over your mouth to stifle a gasp. 'Did he just say what he thought he said?'

'No duh.  You've always thought he was evil, but not this evil.'

"What was that?" someone asks.  You tense up slightly, hoping that they hadn't heard you.  No such luck.

"It came from over there," another man says, and you hear the sound of footsteps coming towards you.

You hear the safety being clicked off of a gun, and your eyes narrow. 'If that's the way they want to play, then who am I to deny them?' Reaching up your sleeve, you pull out two throwing knives. 'One for this guy and one for Y.  I'm not going down without a fight.'

The footsteps advance slowly, and you listen to see how close they are. 'Right… about… NOW!' You jump up, twirl around, and jerk your hand forward and let go of the knife in your left hand, all in one smooth motion.  It strikes the man right in the heart and he collapses, the gun clattering to the floor.  You've already forgotten about him, however, as your eyes are focused on Doctor Y.  Your right hand moves back and you throw the knife, only to have one of the men jump forward and have it embed itself in his shoulder.  You growl slightly and reach for another, but the sound of three guns cocking stops you in your tracks.

Doctor Y stares at you with a raised eyebrow. "So it was you, all along."

You roll your eyes at him. "No, actually, it was a Kuriboh.  Who did you think it was, bakayarou?"

Y doesn't deign to answer your smart remark. "Search the room for others," he orders the four men that are still alive. "Handcuff her and take her to my office.  And get rid of his body, will you?" He gestures to the corpse on the floor, and you try to hold back a snicker.  Any goodwill you've ever felt towards anyone at this base has now officially disappeared.

Two of the men advance towards you, guns pointed towards your head.  You go without any resistance; you're not dumb enough to go get yourself shot when there's still a tiny chance that you can escape.  The other five, who have apparently been listening into the conversation up until now, decide that it would be smarter if they turned themselves in - after all, this is your base, and they don't know the way out.  You catch Duo's eye for a moment before you're led out the door, and he gives you a small smile and a wink. 'We'll be okay.' You nod to show that you understand before you're roughly pushed outside.

Y walks into his office maybe ten minutes later, and you quirk an eyebrow at him as he enters.  Your hands are handcuffed, as well as your legs being tied, so there's no escape possible there. "Yo.  What's up, Y?"

Doctor Y glares at you, obviously not happy with your attitude. "What were you doing there and why didn't you report back straight after the mission?"

"I ran into an obstacle… or two… or five…" you answer casually.  Hey, it's true, isn't it?

"And what were you doing in there, with them?" Y demands. "Hacking into our own system, no less."

You shrug. "I was looking through our files in there, and as for what I was doing with them… talking."

He raises an eyebrow. "Talking."

"Yes, talking," you answer impishly. "We were having quite a nice chat about the weather on L3 at midnight during winter.  Quite interesting, actually.  Apparently, there was one time where the weather control system messed up and they ended up with a nice, hot and sunny Christmas…"

Y puts both hands on either armrest and leans in closer to you, but you don't even blink. "That's not what really happened and you know it.  I'd like to know why you snuck into your own base at two in the morning, bringing unfamiliar people with you, and hacked into the system."

You give him a hurt look. "Why would I do that?  I did no such thing.  What makes you think I was looking through the files?"

"You were in the control room at 0250 hours," Doctor Y says dryly. "Normally you wouldn't even be up this early, but there you were - hiding.  With the Gundam pilots."

Your brow furrows, and you debate whether to appear surprised - as you really feel - or to look fake-surprised, which isn't that difficult to do.  You decide on somewhere in the middle as you answer, "The Gundam pilots?  What Gundam pilots?"

"Those five boys," he answers patiently.  Interesting; you'd think he would've snapped and hit you by now…

"Oh, you mean the ones I saw when you were taking me out?" you ask. "I didn't know they were there, much less that they were the Gundam pilots."

"Don't play innocent with me," Y says flatly. "You've hacked OZ's files often enough to find out these things.  Those were Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Quatre Winner-" You raise an eyebrow, "-and Chang Wufei.  And Duo Maxwell, of course."

"…Really now?" You're fighting to keep your face from showing any emotion. "That's cool.  Maybe we should've talked about something other than the weather.  Like, say…" you pause, "Organizations that lie to their members and are more than they seem?"

Doctor Y's eyes narrow. "That's your own problem.  You've been trained to go through everything thoroughly, so it's your fault.  Now, are you going to tell me anything else of interest or not?"

You consider that for a moment. "Well, no, not unless you want to know how the weather on L3 differs from L6."

"Take her away," Y orders, and the men forcibly drag you out.  As soon as Y's back is turned, you stick your tongue out at him, just as the door closes.

---

"Thank you very much for kindly escorting me here," you tell the men who have you by your arms. "Why, this is my first time at my VERY OWN BASE, so I would never have been able to find the cells all by my lonesome.  I appreciate your guidance."

"Shut up, brat," one of them growls, and you stick your tongue out at him, seriously considering kicking him in the nuts.  Ahead of you, one of the guards stands in front of the door.  He nods to the men escorting you and opens it, and the three of you throw you onto the ground none-too-gently.

You turn so you're lying on your back and yell at the open door, "Thanks for your compassionate treatment of a lady!  I'll be sure to recommend you guys to the next prisoner that comes this way!" They don't bother to answer, and the door slams shut behind them.

Someone else snorts. "You're a lady?  I doubt that."

"Huh?" You sit up and turn around, blinking as your eyes adjust to the darkness and you find out you've been thrown in the same cell as the Gundam pilots.  Your eyes land on Wufei, and you say, "Well… true.  But if you start with the 'onna' stuff again I may have to hurt you.  But anyway…" your face turns serious. "Sorry for dragging you guys into this mess.  I had no idea this would happen… much less what was really going on."

"As is obvious by the fact that you're sitting in a jail cell with us, handcuffed," Duo points out.  You roll your eyes.

"Apology accepted," Quatre cuts in. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Hm… well, the real problem is getting out of the cell itself," you muse. "I could lead you around the base blindfolded, but we need to figure out how to leave here first.  I don't suppose anyone still has any weapons on them?  No?  This'll be difficult… Y knows all, or almost all, my tricks, so he'll be expecting them.  Anyone have any ideas?"

Everyone lapses into silence, and your mind quickly drifts away from the problem at hand and goes onto a tangent. 'Smart, very smart.  Here you are, stuck in your OWN BASE'S jail cell with five boys.  Albeit five boys that are the Gundam pilots… and five very hot boys…'

'Whoa.  Back up.  Where'd that come from?'

'No idea, but Duo is hot, isn't he?'

You take a quick glance at the braided boy across the room, who looks deep in thought. '…Fine.  I'll give you that much.  But that doesn't mean I want to date him!'

The voice in your head almost seems as if it's smirking. 'Sure.  Just keep telling yourself that.  Maybe you'll actually start believing it.'

You groan softly, annoyed at the irritating voices that pop up at the strangest moments.  Duo raises an eyebrow, and you shrug. "Just thinking."

"Well, have you come up with anything useful?" Heero asks.  You sigh and shake your head.  He opens his mouth to speak again when the door suddenly opens, and you look up to the doorway to see a figure, face shadowed because of the light to their back.  All six of you tense up, but the figure motions for you to calm down and steps inside, turning so that you can see their face.

You force your jaw to remain in place as you see the local cadet instructor, as well as the guard who's out cold behind her. "Kage?  What are you doing here?  How'd you get here?  What the heck is going on?"

"Lots of things that many of us were not informed of," she answers dryly. "I just found out what happened and took a look at the file in question." She beckons to the six of you. "C'mon, stand up.  We disabled the security cameras, so you should be able to get out of here without a problem."

You do as she says, but the puzzled look on your face remains. "What?  Why are you doing this?  What do you mean?  Mind telling me what's going on?"

Kagelaughs. "You're full of questions today, aren't you?" She escorts you and the Gundam pilots out the door, closing and locking it behind her. "Okay, here's the deal: apparently, that file was top-secret and wasn't leaked out to the general public of the base until today.  Most everyone took it casually, but there were certain of us who didn't like it… but we don't have a death wish, so this is all we can do for now.  Let you guys go, I mean.  We have to stay here, or else Y will get suspicious.  Look, all I can do is get you out of the cell, and after this, you're on your own.  You somehow managed to knock that guard out yourself, and I had nothing at all to do with it."

You nod, processing all the information. "Got it.  But if you really don't like it, why don't you leave with us?"

Kageshrugs and smiles. "Nah, I think I'll stay.  Like I said, we can't have Doctor Y suspecting anything.  I might contact you later… it's always nice to have an inside source of information.  But you'd better get going, before someone finds out and raises the alarm."

You take a deep breath. "Okay.  Thanks." You nudge Duo in the side. "You heard the woman.  Let's go."

You make it out without incident… or at least, without too much trouble.  Afterwards, you and the Gundam pilots sit down to have a nice, long talk at their safehouse… and plan your next move.  Preventers, anyone? - go to page seventy-four