Emily lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Only a few days more, she thought, before I leave them behind for good. Now just to keep them from finding out.

Katrina Maxwell walked into the room, looking exhausted, and flopped down on her futon. "Uuuuuuuuh," She groaned, "Em, remind me not to get on Heero or Duo�s bad side again."

"I thought I was on Heero�s bad side." Emily replied.

"You are, but so am I. So, he made me fix Musouka for you, and repaint Deathscythe. Believe me, not the best of times." She answered. "So, why are you leaving?" Kat looked up to see the shocked expression on Emily�s face. Kat allowed herself a weary smile. "C�mon, Emy, did you really think you could hide it from me? I know you. I saw you packing your bags, and I saw you checking out Musouka. I know the only reason you haven�t left yet is because I wasn�t finished with her. Now that she�s done, you don�t have any excuse to stay, do you?"

Emily picked up her bag, and answered, "Yes, you are right. I don�t belong here, I can�t fly, and none of you will allow me to learn. There is no point in me staying. None whatsoever, and therefore I bid you farewell, Katrina. You�re a good friend, and maybe we�ll meet again, once this crazy war is over." She turned to leave, hiding the tears in her eyes. Katrina leaned against a wall, her arms folded across her chest, eyes shut. Emily had her hand around the doorknob when Katrina spoke again.

"You�re going back to him, aren�t you? You�re his little spy, aren�t you? He sent you because he knew that Duo and I would trust you!" She looked up from the floor, hatred and betrayal burning in her eyes. "Was it all a trick back then too? Just another way to earn our trust?"

Emily let go of the doorknob. "Who gave you the right to even accuse me of such things?!" She turned to face Katrina, and for several minutes, neither spoke, but the hate and betrayal continued to build until the tension was so strong it could have been cut with a knife.

"Tell me Emily, did you rejoice when you heard about the destruction of the Maxwell Church? Did you dance on the graves of the dead?" Katrina spat, ignoring the look in the eyes of the one person she thought she could trust. "Did you shout for joy when you thought we were dead?!!"

"How dare you say such a thing! I died when I heard what had happened!" Emily shouted. "I died again when I couldn�t find anything of you, or Duo but two makeshift graves!"

"No, how dare you?! You died, well, what about me! I came back to search for my brother, only to see my father! My father had once again tried to kill me and Duo, and at the time, I thought he had succeeded on killing Duo!" She paused. "It was my father that talked you into this, wasn�t it?!! He hired you to kill us, no, to kill Duo! That�s why you�ve pretended to be my best friend! So you could get close enough to kill him."

Emily had had enough. She could stand listening to Katrina accuse her of all kinds of betrayal, but of planning to murder Duo, whom she had considered a brother since the day they had met, that was too far. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she hauled off and hit Katrina in the jaw with an upper left cut. Katrina went flying across the room, and came crashing down head first onto her desk, knocking over various scattered objects.

Heero Yuy came charging in the room. "What the hell happened in here?" He looked over to the desk, where Katrina lay, bleeding from various places, most notably from the back of her head. Heero sighed. "Never mind, I don�t want to know. I will not be dragged into one of your bitch fights. Emily, are you listening to me?" When he noticed she was still staring at the hand she had hit Katrina with.

"Huh?"

Heero sighed again. "Never mind, just help me get her to sick bay. I want to get this looked at." Emily nodded silently, and helped the young man pick up their friend and carry her to the sick bay down the hall. Once they had left Katrina with the doctor, Heero asked, "Well, I guess this is good-bye, Emily. I just want to wish you good-luck no matter where you end up, but just remember. If you get in my way, I�ll kill you." Heero started to walk off.

"Hey Heero! Do you really think me so callous as to leave with apologizing to Kat for hitting her?" She called after him.

Heero turned around, and smiled. "I didn�t think you were like that, but if you were, I wasn�t going to get in your way."

The two walked back to the room Katrina and Emily shared to find Duo Maxwell, Kat�s little brother, curled up on the futon, asleep. Emily and Heero shared a quiet sigh, and tried to sneak out of the room quietly. They were about to close the door when a half-asleep Duo murmured, "Have either of you two seen Kat?"

Emily froze. How could she tell him that Kat was in sickbay because she had hit her? No way. Emily would not hurt him like that, she couldn�t. She kept her back to him, hoping that he wouldn�t see her searching for an excuse that he would buy. She looked at Heero for support, but he was busy trying to think of something as well.

Neither of them noticed that Duo had gotten up and walked over to Katrina�s desk, probably looking for something to comfort him. What he did find frightened him more than the nightmare. "Emily, there�s blood on Kat�s desk!" He said voice uncertain. "Why is there blood on Kat�s desk?"

Both Heero and Emily cursed under their breath. They had been so worried about Katrina�s condition that they hadn�t gotten around to cleaning her desk off. Emily looked up at the ceiling and noticed that Kat�s Nadesico poster was half falling off the ceiling�again. I swear, Emily thought, Kat�s gonna crack her head open trying to get that poster to stay put. Suddenly, Em knew exactly what to tell Duo. "Kat was trying to hang that damn poster again, and slipped on something on her desk and hit her head on the corner." Emily explained, actually turning around to face Duo. "That crazy klutz landed herself in the sick bay. Why don�t you go check on her."

Duo gave her a skeptical look, but left anyways. Once he was out of earshot, Emily and Heero let out a sigh of relief.

"Well," Heero began, leaning against the wall, "that went well." He got an ewok in the face for his lame attempt at humor. "Okay, all joking aside, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN HERE??!!"

"I thought you said that you didn�t want to get in the middle of one of Kat�s and mine bitchfests as you so delicately put it." Emily answered, not facing him. She was curled up in a little ball on her bed, facing the wall.

"I lied." Heero stated simply. He sat down on the futon, and looked up at the bed. "Besides, I want to know what Kat said to piss you off so royally that you would fly off the handle and hit her like that."

"She said that I was only here to kill Duo." Emily stated simply.

Heero was stunned silent. He had known Katrina had been upset when she found out that her best friend was leaving again, but he never expected that she had been hut enough to go on the defensive like that. God, Heero thought, Please not again. Heero had seen this behavior in Kat only once, just before he had found her lying in a pool of her own blood. He did not want to have to deal with that again.

"Hey Heero," Emily said, startling Heero out of his thoughts. "Ya still down there?"

"Yeah, sorry, I just suddenly got the strangest feeling that Kat�s about to give up." Heero replied. "You do realize that she didn�t mean one word that she might have said to you. It�s her way of protecting herself. She feels that if she can blame you for leaving, then she won�t feel so abandoned."

Emily hung her head down and looked at Heero, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I know, but it doesn�t change the fact that I must leave."

"Emily, I wish you wouldn�t. I don�t think you understand what I mean when I say that she�s giving up."

"You�re right, I don�t. Explain Heero. Tell me what you mean when you say that she�s giving up."

"She�s acted like this once before, when she was twelve. She had found one of her mother�s sisters just two years before, and then her aunt told her she was dying. Kat reacted just like she did with you, yelling and accusing the aunt of abandoning her, just like the rest of her family had." Heero sighed. "A few days after her aunt died, Katrina just�disappeared. Dr. J sent me to look for her, saying that she might need someone right then. I don�t think he realized how right he was."

"What are you trying to tell me, Heero?" Emily asked, not sure she really wanted the answer to that question.

"I found her not to far from the room with the mysterious Gundam. She had slit her wrists, Emily. She had tried to kill herself. Dr. J swears to this day that if I had found her even ten minutes later, it would have been too late to save her." Heero paused for along time, waiting until he could trust himself not to crack. He had always thought of Katrina as an older sister, and she had gladly taken the role, always claiming that it helped ease the pain of losing her own little brother.

"You don�t have to continue, Heero, if you don�t want to." Emily comforted.

Heero shook his head. "I�m alright. When she came around I asked he why she had done it, and she said she had given up. She had lost her mother, her father was trying to kill her, he had already managed to kill Duo, and she had lost the only living relative she had. She said she had also failed her mother. She had made two promises, and she hadn�t been able to fulfill either one. She told me she couldn�t find anything worth living for."

Emily just lay there, shocked at what her friend that she thought she had known had done to herself. Then it hit her. "Oh, Gods, Heero, you were only ten years old when all this happened! It must have really affected you."

Heero nodded. "Yeah it did. It�s not every day you find your best friend lying in a pool of her own blood. And that is exactly what will happen if you leave, Em. She�s gonna give up again, and this time, there may not be anyone to find her in time, or worse, the person that does find her is gonna be Duo."

Emily turned around, away from Heero. "I still don�t think you get it though, Heero, I can�t stay."

"Jesus, Emily, do I have to beat it into your head with a stick? Katrina is so close to giving up right now. The only thing that�s keeping her from losing it completely is you and Duo. With you gone, I don�t know how long Duo can hold her together before she just cracks. She does a pretty good job of fooling most people with her �I can take care of myself� routine, but she�s as fragile as glass. It only takes one thing to send her over the proverbial cliff, and I don�t want it to be you. She still feels she�s failed her mother."

Emily looked down at Heero in shock once again. Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, was babbling like Duo Maxwell. Emily had always thought that Heero and Trowa had a bet going to see who could say the fewest words possible. If that was true, Heero had most certainly lost that one. He must be really afraid for Kat. If he is, then it�s misplaced. Katrina was the strongest of all the pilots. She would never crack over something as simple as me leaving, would she? She thought. Emily mentally went over what he had said a few seconds ago, and caught the significance of the last sentence. "Heero, what do you mean she still feels that she failed her mother? She�s doing a bang up job of watching over Duo. That is what her mother made her promise to do, right?"

"That�s part of it, but Kat�s mom made her promise one more thing." Heero sighed. Kat is gonna kill me when she finds out that I told her. "Kat is supposed to find her twin sister, and keep the three of them together. I think Kat said that her mom told her that together, the three of them would be almost unstoppable. She said, �The Maxwell Trio will be together forever, always.� Kat promised because her mom was dying, and she thought that was what she had wanted to hear in her dying moments, but she had always felt that she would never be able to keep that promise to her."

"I never knew Kat had a twin sister." Emily put simply, yet somehow, she seemed to feel that she had always known. Something told her that deep down; she had always known Kat had a sister out there somewhere. That didn�t frighten her as much as the fact that she thought that she knew who Kat�s sister was.

Heero just nodded. "Yeah, haven�t you ever wonder where she went for days at time? She always checked to see if she could find any clue as to what her father�s name because she feels that her sister is using his name. Also, she wants to find out her father�s name so she will know who to blame for the Maxwell Church Massacre."

"I�ve been searching for the man who was responsible for that as well." She answered. "I just wanted revenge for what he did to Katrina and Duo. How does she know it was her father?"

"She claims that she saw him from a distance. Says she also saw you, but you were too close to where her father was to get to you. She wanted so much to tell you she was alive, and to not worry about her, but she just knew that it was her father that had caused this, and if he had seen her, he would tried to have killed her."

"That�s impossible Heero. It couldn�t have been her father. The only person around me at the time was my�father." Emily paused, long enough for Heero to believe that she might have gone to sleep. He was just about to leave when she spoke again. "Heero, did Kat�s mom give her any clues to identify her sister?"

Heero paused. Do I tell her the truth? How much do I tell her? Do I tell her about the dreams Kat has been having, that I�ve been having? Do I tell her Kat has found the holder of the last dagger? Will she believe me? Is she ready for such a shock? Emily gave an impatient cough, and Heero made up his mind. "Yes, her mother told her that four things would be able to identify her twin." Heero replied. "The first clue would be the lullaby that she used to sing to Katrina and Duo when they were babies. Her mother had been singing the song when Kat�s father took her twin away. It�s called Baby Mine. It�s an old song, over two hundred years old. Not many people still remember the song. I do know that she used to sing it to me on some nights when I just couldn�t fall asleep."

Emily chuckled softly. "Kat and I used to sing it to Duo when he had a really awful nightmare. When she asked me how I knew it, I wasn�t able to answer her. I�d always known the song, before I even knew what thought was."

"I�m sure Kat�s mom wasn�t the only one who used it as a lullaby for her children." Heero remarked, although he didn�t buy it himself. "The second clue was a dragon pendant with an amethyst stone. Katrina�s mom gave each of them a mystic guardian. Katrina�s is a unicorn, and her sister�s was a dragon. The dragon necklace was broken off when her father took her away, but Kat still has it. Her twin would have the silver chain with one missing link on it."

"Similar to this one, I suppose." Emily answered, as she pulled out a chain matching that description. Heero nodded, trying not to get his hopes up�again. In all honesty, Emily could match the first three qualifications, and she could still put it off as a coincidence, but if she did indeed have the fourth one, then she would really be the one Kat had been looking for, and she had been staring her in the face the whole time.

"The third clue was a bronze coin that her mother used to wear. On one side was a dragon, and on the other was a star pattern. The coin disappeared around the time that he sister did, so she assumed that her twin has it."

"There must be several of those coins around." Emily commented uncertainly. "Because you just described one of the few treasures I have from my own mother."

BINGO. Heero thought a little too over-confidently. Three down, one more to go. Maybe Kat�s dream is true. But, do I ask her about the dagger? DO I dare risk Kat�s temper? Or do I take the chance that on the off chance that Emily will decide to stay? I think I�ll risk it. "The last clue is the most important of all. The other three, they can all be passed off as coincidence. This one however, will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that" Heero took a deep breath, "that you are Kat�s twin. And that both and Katrina and Duo are as Barton as you. The last clue is that dagger of yours. That one I�ve only heard about. You always carry it, but you never use, and no one has ever seen it."

"What about my dagger? How can it prove what you�re saying?" Emily retorted. Heero knew nothing about the dagger. Nothing at all. How could it possibly be a clue to my past.

"I know I can describe it. Down to the very last detail." He said boldly.

Emily was confident that he would not be able to, said, "Alright try it, but I know you�ll fail."

"It has a gold plated hilt, with a sapphire gemstone at the top. The sheath is black leather, and decorated with gold leafed dragons and unicorns. On the blade itself, are two inscriptions. On one side it says Together forever, and the other side says Trio." Heero recited, then added. "It�s blue because you�re the Goddess of Despair, you know."

Emily was speechless. He had nailed it down to the very last detail on the sheath. Could it be, that it was true after all? Yes, I suppose it is. I�ve always known it to be true. Now, more than ever, I must leave, but how do I tell Heero why? "Heero, how could you possibly know all this?"

"Well," He smiled, "I�ve seen one of the others. Katrina�s is the same except that she has a ruby gemstone on her hilt. Red for the Goddess of Destruction."

"I know why you�re doing this, Heero, and I must admit it was good try, but I�m still leaving." Emily answered. "Now more than ever. I don�t think there is any way for me to explain it to you other than if I stay, both of them will die."

"And what if I told that if you leave, both will die?" Heero sighed. Katrina is gonna have my hide for this. I just know it. Why can�t I keep my mouth shut like I do when we�re on missions? What is it about these Maxwells? Why do I let them get under my skin? "Katrina had a dream that Duo was shot and killed. He died in her arms. She said that she just kept crying for you, asking why you had left them to die. Why you had abandoned them."

"I think Kat�s overreacting. Certainly she can protect Duo without my help."

"Emily have you been listening to me??!! Katrina needs someone to watch over her as much as she watches over her. Besides, I�ve had a dream of my own. One wear Kat takes a switchblade out of Duo�s pocket, and slits her own wrists. No matter what I do in this dream, I can�t save them. But I take my revenge for them. By killing you."

They sat in silence for a very long time, neither knowing what else to say. Emily was about to speak up, when Duo ran into the room, bent over and panting heavily. Both Heero and Emily looked up in shock.

"Duo, what is it?" Heero asked, concerned. Although it didn�t happen often, Duo did have asthma, and he could suffer an attack due to stress or overexertion. This looked like a combination of both. "Duo, calm down, you�re gonna give yourself an asthma attack."

Duo forced himself to do as Heero said, and gasped, "Katrina is gone." Then he collapsed into Heero�s waiting arms. Emily and Heero stared at each other for a few minutes, before Heero moved to carry Duo back to their room, and Emily went to search for Kat.