The pilots all held onto a strangely morbid silence for the next hour after the radio broadcast, listening to Heero's unique CD. It was one from the twentieth century that was for the movie called "The Fifth Element." Duo had never known that a person could put Opera and Techno together before that, and he found he rather liked the combination.

Once a particularly interesting song ended, Duo decided it was time to break the solemn silence in the car. "Looks like we're back to being the most wanted men in the known universe, doesn't it?"

Zechs cast a glance into the rear view mirror, one of his pale eyebrows hiking. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? I've never been in this particular position before I might remind you."

Quatre actually had a genuine smile for that statement. "I hadn't either. It will be harder this time. Relena knows us all. The Doctors are all dead, thank Allah, and we do not have our mecha anymore. We are all going to have a very interesting path ahead of us now."

"So long as we receive Justice for the horror that Relena unleashed this day, we can do anything we need to!" Wufei nodded slightly to himself. He was grieving. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his best friend Sally was dead. He didn't know how, but he knew he would never see that particular blond woman again while he still breathed.

Trowa smiled slightly. "We will go through it all together. We really have little choice in the matter if you think about it. We compliment each other very well."

Heero snorted from his place in the back seat. "We are at war again, is that not enough to occupy you all?"

"Oh, stuff it Heero. We won before, and we can win again. Not all those soldiers will go under with the crazy bitch you know. If they do, well, then they will be privileged to meet Shinigami face to face." Duo followed his statement with a satisfied smirk at the very prospect.

"I know this area rather well. Before I joined up with MarieMaea, I combed the forests north of here. There is a viable place we could go to evaluate what we have to work with." Wufei slouched lower in his seat, still ashamed of attacking his comrades. Then again, Zechs tried to destroy the world. Maybe he wasn't so very horrible then.

"I think we should... Play with our appearances a little. We stand out too well currently. With Relena on our tail, we can't have something like appearance give us away..." Quatre cast an apologetic look around the car.

Heero smirked, just slightly. "Does that mean haircuts?"

Duo let out an enraged hiss at the very idea. "Never! I will however change how I style it... And I dare any of you to rag on me for it!" Then, turning away from the other occupants in the car, he swiftly unbraided his hair. Taking small handfuls of hair, he started to braid again with an odd sort of diligence, folding the hair into a style that could only be called feminine. The smaller braids on either side of his face had been braided together a few inches down and flipped back, making a hair band of sorts that held the rest of the long mane away from his face. "I've been messing with it... I wanted another way to do my hair for something like this. This way I look more like a girl than anything, unfortunately..." He trailed off, pulling the end of the smaller braid around to fiddle with it. He did look feminine, but not like a girl, more like someone delicate. He did not, however, look like the manic Duo Maxwell.

"I can do something similar. With my hair down I look like a completely different person." This was from Wufei's quarter, and he glanced over his shoulder to look at Duo. "I find no fault with the change. I can understand the inconvenience, so we might only need maintain your hair that way for a short part of the voyage."

Duo got a gleam in his eye with that statement and reached forwards, snatching Wufei's hair band from his head, freeing the waves of black silk to fall around his face and shoulders, not to mention earning Duo a glare.

They got to the safe house that Wufei knew of without much trouble, and found the place stocked with dry goods that looked like they'd been there well over a year. Setting down the duffel bags and backpacks, the group eyed each other.

"Alright, everyone empty your bags and pockets. I want to know what weapons and supplies we all have." Heero's tone said no arguments, and the glare that he delivered with his worlds left little hope of success in talking him out of any of that statement.

Duo waved everyone apart then sat down on the floor. "I suppose I'll go first..." He gave his comrades no time to reply before he pulled a set of small slender knives and picks from his smaller braids. Despite the fact that more than one of the others had watched him put together the new style, they still missed him adding those additions. He uncovered a gun, then undid a set of knives: Two each at his hips, wrists, ankles, and thighs. All of the edged weapons were black and covered in a metal detector proof finish. The pile of weapons, ammunition, and various other things only grew when Duo dived into his bag. "There. Who's next?"

After watching Duo stockpile all his things in an array of neat piles around him, everyone else got into action. By the time everyone had accomplished the same process, the floor was filled with electronics, weapons, clothes, snacks, and even... Dye?

Zechs picked up the dye that had, suprizingly, come out of Heero's bag. "What color is it?"

Heero looked over from where he was standing near Wufei's things, a faint smile making his lips twitch. "Raven black. There are other bottles in there as well. I'm going to use a couple of them myself. If you like, you can all pick something." He waved a hand, then finished his circuit of the room.

Wufei looked at Heero like he'd grown another head. "Of all people, why would *you* have things like that?"

"Duo rubbed off on me. I couldn't be less paranoid than him, now could I?" Heero sounded almost amused as he answered, looking over to Quatre as the small blonde started to giggle.

"My paranoia paid off this time if you hadn't noticed!" Duo crossed his arms, defensive. Then his pout decintegrated as he leaned down and started to put his picks and hair knives back into place. It was harder when the braids were smaller.

Zechs looked back at the dye in his hand then squatted down, fingering the array of bottles that lay before him. He finally decided that he was going to be streaking his hair. Not putting the black down, he picked up a nearly neon bottle of blue before standing. "If you all would excuse me, I have a few modifications to add to my appearance." Before he went in search of the bathroom, he pawed through his things, collecting a handful of jewelry that none of the other people in the room had seen him wear.

"You know, this is downright bizarre. How did we know that we had to get out of there like that? Any clues?" Duo sat back where he'd started the display and started putting all the things that were not for his teammates back away.

"I had my space heart to tell me something very wrong was happening." Quatre smiled a little, then moved over to Heero's bottles of dye, picking up a bottle of black then setting it back down, trying to decide what color would look even slightly natural on him beside blond.

Heero looked over at Duo; his intense look nearly a glare before it cleared away. "Duo had dreams."

"Wha??" Duo gave Heero an incredulous look. "When was this?"

"First war." Heero shrugged after the reply then started putting his clothes and personal items back in his bag.

Trowa looked over, nodding slightly. "I remember you talking in your sleep once about a third failure... Perhaps this was what you meant?"

"I've failed many times in my life T-man, I wouldn't call this one something that was really me." Duo shook his head, a faint, morbid smile curving his lips. "I wasn't the one shooting after all. If I were, none of the other agents would be out there to help us."

Quatre moved closer to Duo and patted his shoulder. "Should we go see if Zechs needs any help?"

Duo's eyes widened then. "He can't read kanji! Hey Heero, is that stuff permanent?"

Heero allowed a grin to cross his lips then. "Yes, it happens to be."

"Yuy, you have acquired a very twisted sort of humor in the years of peace." Wufei looked towards the Quatre and Duo as they darted off to aid Zechs, or stop him, whichever happened to be the case. "You could have told the poor man that."

"I know."

By the time everyone had finished tweaking their appearances, they had use half of Heero's bottles of color, and had added a fairly large amount of silver and gold metal to their attire.

Heero took a simple route, and rinsed a bleaching solution through his hair a couple times, giving him fire-like red orange streaks through his hair. Not the color anyone was expecting, but it fit, and the dark chocolate of his hair was still there, just not on top. He'd also allowed for an earring.

Zechs was extremely disappointed to find that if his hair looked bad, he would have to bleach it, but it looked rather good. He left no blond, rather taking a few locks of hair out of the way and dying the rest the blue black, leaving the blond streaks to be dyed the dark neon blue. The contrast brought out his eyes and looked nearly natural if you ignored that people did not have blue hair.

Duo had been highly resistant to the idea of dying his hair, but allowed his bangs to be bleached from black and turned a dark red purple. He did however, cheerfully allow his ears to be pierced multiple times, even if he was complaining the entire time.

Trowa had merely nodded to the entire concept and took a bottle, returning with his hair a deeper shade of red than before. It wasn't until he came back out that the others noticed he'd grown the back out, giving him more of a sexy air then one of hiding behind his hair. The style made his hair fall to cover one of his ears while being tucked behind the other, now that he had removed his hairtie.

Quatre had been extremely worried over the idea of coloring his hair. Duo was the one to finally convince him that it wasn't so evil, he'd done it after all. In the end, Quatre ended up with dark brown hair, and he kept fiddling with it like it was some completely foreign object.

Wufei was the one that shocked them all the most. He plucked a couple bottles out of the pile and came back out looking nothing like stoic Wufei. Sure, the outfit was the same, but it did not have that superior air that said 'you are unworthy.' He came out with his hair down, and that was all that looked different until he got closer. He had put in a pair of silver earrings and a cuff up higher on his ear, again, nothing so drastic. It was the fact that when he talked, he revealed a pierced tongue, complete with a silver ball. He spoke flawlessly with it though, making the others wonder just how long he'd had the thing. His hair was, upon closer inspection, no longer even slightly black. It started with a black-red at the front, then a deep purple, then blue-black, the colors alternating all the way through his hair.

Once everyone assembled back in the main room from their various self-changing exercises and sized up the differences, Duo decided it was time to make comments. "Damn. You all look extra sexy! How did you all hide it so long?" A playful grin accompanied his general comment, and he couldn't help but laugh when Heero quirked an eyebrow.

Zechs leaned closer to Duo, running a finger over his ear. "You're certainly one to talk, aren't you? You should have been wearing your hair down long before now."

Duo's sudden change to having a deep blush was enough for Quatre to finally relax over his no longer blonde hair. "So I really look alright?"

"Yes, you still look like an angel, Winner." Wufei shook his head, lips trying to twitch into a smile. Duo was staring at him while he talked.

"Fei Fei, what do you have in your mouth?" Duo inched closer, studying the other pilot carefully, taking in the hair change as he did.

"Merely a tongue ring Maxwell." Wufei watched as a Heero looked at him more fully, but was really caught off guard by Trowa when the pilot decided to speak up.

"Let me see." There was interest in his green eyes, causing Wufei to stick out his tongue, showing them the entire group the silver and jade bar. Though, the appendage was immediately withdrawn when Duo made as if to poke at it.

Zechs shook his head, watching them all for a moment before getting out his small radio. He was checking the news. "Would anyone else like to hear what is happening, or am I alone in wanting to keep up?"

It was a moment before anyone replied, but they all settled onto the furniture and floor, waiting. There was even more bad news when the machine was turned on. This time, they caught the beginning of the announcement. "There are many people out there that do not agree with what Queen Relena has done. Unfortunately for those people, Queen Relena has more say than they do. This station does not support the actions of the Queen, but we also will not speak against her. We will merely carry out the announcements we've been told to broadcast, no more, no less. Now, on to the actual announcement."

There was a moment of silence before a youthful girl's voice came onto the radio. When she spoke, her voice was entirely and carefully blank of emotion. "Queen Relena managed to track down the majority of the Agents who escaped their execution, and they have been dealt with. The people who were most supposed to be present for their own deaths, however, managed to escape entirely. Their homes have been searched, and no trace was revealed where the missing agents could have gone. The people missing are the five gundam pilots, Zechs Merquise, and Relena's former right hand woman, Dorothy Catalonia. Currently no information has been released on the pilot's identities, but the best hackers on Queen Relena's side are doing their best to break through the system to get pictures and information out to the public."

There was another moment of silence before the older announcer came back. "The missing people are clearly each famous in their own rights. I give my regards to the pilots who are being hunted now, you all did a good thing once, and maybe you can do it again. Lady Dorothy? I hope you are listening. Use your escape to your advantage, because I don't think you'll have many more chances. To all the other listeners, this was Rat Thorn, out on your nightly evil, may you all live until morning." Once he was finished talking, and old song came over the radio. It was Ska, a song from the band No Doubt.

Clicking off the radio, Zechs smiled slightly. "So, who can get our files out of the system? We only have a short time to do it in it seems."

Heero pulled out his laptop, turning it on and moving so he was sitting at the coffee table, his fingers almost immediately flying over the keys.

Duo watched his friend for a moment before moving and pulling out his own laptop. It was suprizing, but they all had one. Even Zechs had gotten one, though what he could do with it was unknown. Duo lay out on the floor on his stomach and opened his computer after glancing over Heero's screen.

"While you handle Relena's files, I'll deal with the government side of things, k?" The other four pilots watched as their two comrades leaped into saving their identities, Duo getting somewhat into what he was doing before he made another comment. "Oh yeah, I got rid of most of the info already, it's been something I've been messing with the last month or so. That's why our info and stuff isn't out yet, I've been deleting it all once they put it into the system. Even Zechs over there is under my blanket of protection from our lovely Queen Bitch. I didn't much care to see his cute ass get fried." He never once looked up, his fingers flying across the keys.

"Thank you, Duo." Zechs smiled slightly before going towards the kitchen. "I'm going to make dinner. Yes, I am making enough for everyone."

"You know, I do think that there is more to all this than what we know." Quatre sighed a little, chewing on his lip.

"I'm certain of it." Trowa decided to make his comment, then leaned up against Wufei, and closing his eyes. "Wake me when the food is finished."

Wufei looked down at Trowa, but didn't make a comment about his position. Instead he directed his attention to the thought that was suddenly filling the room. It was none of them, but they all had the same thought at the same time.

*There is one more test... Then you will understand what needs to happen.*