She looked down at the motionless figure....and smiled.

Finally, revenge was hers-

"STOP HER!!" came the angry cry from the other doctors.

Miwa flinched, she had forgotten about them......and the other soldiers.

Her hesitation cost her her getaway, as the five ninja-warriors surrounded her on the catwalk.

"KILL HER NOW!" G ordered.

Miwa tried to advance, but a minion grabbed her from behind and gripped her in a arm lock.
the others whipped out 4 sharp blades and aimed them at Miwa's chest.

She ceased struggling.

Just before the blades pierced her breast, a foot smashed the armed hands away.

Heero landed right in front of her, gritting his teeth at Miwa's captor.

But the minion was smart, Dr. J hadn't trained them for nothing, he quickly exposed a knife of his own, and gently placed it at Miwa's throat.

"You fool! Kill her now!" G ordered again.

"No, wait!" the others stopped him.

"She's our only hostage now," Dr. O explained, "if she dies then we don't stand a chance against all five of them..."

They looked towards the four pilots, who had never taken their eyes off of them.

G sneered, "grr.......fine! Call the helicopter!"

A minion in the darkness nodded and ran to carry out the orders.

The pilots could hear everything that was said.

Duo furrowed his eyebrows, "You've got some nerve after all I did for you on Libra!"

G crossed his arms, "It wouldn't be such a mess if you'd just comply as you did before."

Duo growled, "NEVER again!"

G smiled, "Hmph........I do believe we'll be seeing each other again....very soon. We always get what we want."

Duo grimaced and turned to look at how Heero and Miwa were doing.

Still no change.

Heero had given up advancing any closer to Miwa since the ninja-soldier still held the knife to her throat.

Duo nudged the statue-like figure next to him.

"Trowa!" he whispered, "Heero needs help--!"

"I know..." he answered calmly, "...just wait until they're out of sight."

"Hmm?... You mean you actually have a plan?"

Trowa frowned.

The blades of a helicopter signaled the doctors' escape route had arrived.

Two black-claded minions appeared on hovercraft vehicles. The scientists boarded.

"Get him, too," Dr. O requested pointing to the body of Dr. J.

The soldiers complied, gently lifting the broken body onto the transport.

"Hmmm..." Trowa observed thoughtfully.

"Don't worry..." said G as he boarded, "this isn't the last time you're going to see us. You will pilot those gundams!""

With that the transports sped off to the roof.

"DUCK NOW!"

"Wha? but Trowa--!"

The pilot didn't let Duo finish as he shoved him out of the way, clicked his WolfRam PP7 (like James Bond!), aimed, and fired a bullet straight through the minion's head.

Blood splattered all over Miwa's shoulder, and at first Duo thought the pilot had missed.

But soon they all realized how perfect Trowa's aim was.

The captor slumped off of Miwa as she stood perfectly still, and calm. Blood dripped from her shoulder so she pressed her fingers to it to see if it was from a wound on her. Of course it wasn't.

Heero didn't care anymore.

He ran, ignoring Miwa's earlier warning to stay back, he ran and embraced his child so hard she thought he might be trying to suffocate her. She struggled to break free, but Heero wouldn't let go.

Tears ran down his cheeks as he kissed her bloody forehead and hugged her as if he'd never let go.

A kiss.? Miwa had thought. Nobody has ever kissed me before.

She stopped struggling and stood there in a shocked trance. Her eyes became empty. No answers came to help her understand what it was that made an ice-cold killing machine, just like her, behave like an infant, crying and clutching the one thing it did not want taken away again. Her. Could she be like that, deep inside? Was he really her...?

The other pilots watched on with understanding and happiness for him.

Except Wufei that is...

"..." Wufei had given no comment, accompanied with a scowl on his face.

Quatre just rolled his eyes at Wufei and continued to watch the family scene.

Heero continued to sob, only stopping once to say, "...your mother's going to be so happy..."

"......mother?" Miwa stated distantly, as if the word were foreign.

Wufei was not paying attention to the family moment. But he did notice a small beeping sound.

Turning his head to look up at where the doctors had been, he noticed a tiny, flashing light on one of the wall-panels.

"Why would that be there? I thought they shut down all the power, unless......."

Wufei's eyes widened as he turned to everyone and yelled, "Get out of here NOW! There's a bomb!"

"WHA-?!" Duo screamed.

The beeping of the timer suddenly went hyper, and the flashing color turned to red.

Hearing the shrill, Heero jerked his head around, and knew exactly what was going on as soon as he saw the red light.

The other pilots were already scrambling to get behind a wall of crates for shelter.
Heero grabbed Miwa in his arms, and jumped off the catwalk just in time for the explosion to hit.

They were all engulfed in the fireball.

The explosion burst through the roof, causing it to collapse and fracture into sharp plates.

These landed in a heap on the pilots, along with the rest of the warehouse.

In forty seconds the warehouse was leveled flat.

Small fires burst out of electrical cords and some hot-as-hell metal plates.

Smoke was everywhere. There was no chance anyone could've survived the devastating blast.

Anyone...but the Gundam pilots.

Slowly, a heap started to move.

Trowa pushed his way out of the metal debris. Then Duo. Then Quatre and Wufei. Blood and dirt covered them all.

"Is...everyone all right?" Trowa coughed.

"Where's...Heero...and Miwa?" Quatre asked worriedly.

All of them looked around. But there was no sight of the Yuys.

"Probably dead...they had no shelter."

"Wufei!" Duo growled, "where's your sense of hope? If I know Heero, they'll be coming out any second."

They waited.

And waited.

"...."

"oh, shit..." Duo began to worry.

But suddenly they heard a grating of metal. A panel lifted into the air where it crashed behind the hand that pushed it.

"Heero!" said Quatre happily.

Miwa stood up beside him. Both were stained in blood and dust.

"Naaasty!....they look even worse than we do," said Duo.

"No duh, Maxwell,...they took the brunt of the blast," Wufei coughed.

Heero looked at his daughter, "are you ok?" he asked wiping some blood off her forehead.

"I'm fine," she stated coolly.

Sirens sounded in the distance and grew louder.

Trowa looked at Heero, "We can't tell the police yet, we're not through with the doctors."

"Understood," Heero and Miwa said at the same time.

Trowa raised an eyebrow.

"Man," commented Duo, "you guys really are alike!"

That comment had given Duo the 'privilege' of two death glares.

Duo cowered behind Trowa for protection from whatever improbable thing they would do to him.

"We should split up," stated Miwa, "they'll be looking for us."

"Agreed...we should all spread out and stay at hotels for the night," Trowa said, "...and take your families with you..."

Heero nodded and then turned to Miwa, "are you ready to meet your mother?"

"I'm not coming with you."

"huh?"

Miwa jumped out of the rubble, and kept a distance from the pilots.

"They'll be looking for me, which means they'll look for you first....it would be better if we all did what he said (pointing to Trowa), and split up."

"oh..." was all Heero managed to say.

"Don't worry..." Miwa stated, "all of you should meet me at 226 Lakewood Drive...at 10:00 PM tomarrow..."

"...Lakewood Drive?...but why-?" Duo asked but she had already hopped away.

Wufei snorted, "She is way too much like you, Yuy...too much for her own good."

Heero almost started to follow, but then stopped as he realized he could never catch up to her.

"Why do I feel this way?" he said to himself, "...its almost like I want to be there so she won't get hurt...but she's more than proven herself strong enough to handle anything... so..."

"Why didn't you go after her?" asked Duo, who had overheard his conversation with himself.

Heero merely frowned at the Deathscythe pilot. Then he turned to the group, "we'd better go now, the cops will turn the corner any second."

"Agreed," they all went their separate ways, disappearing right as the fire trucks pulled onto the scene.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in the cargo container on the other side of town....

"Unn..." groaned Hilde," I'm starving... just when are they going to feed us anyway?!"

Everyone else shared her pain. They hadn't gotten anything to eat since they got there.

"What I would do for even broccoli right now," Koko moaned, holding her empty stomach.

They all sighed.

Silence filled the cell, and then...

The five suddenly heard footsteps outside.

They sat up quickly, hoping it was food the outsider was bringing to them.

Hilde and Sally crawled quietly to the door, just in case there was a chance that the captor would be stupid enough to open the door.

The other girls stayed back to give them room.

To their excitement, the rusty door started to creak.

When it finally opened, Sally and Hilde quickly jumped the figure.

Unfortunately, the new person was too fast.

Hilde went down with a blow to her stomach, and Sally along side her due to a sweeping kick to her shins.

The dark-clad figure loomed over them, untouched.

"Who are you?!" Relena demanded, coming out of the prison.

The outsider swirved their head to the former Queen Peacecraft.

Relena could tell, by the person's figure, that she was female, and either a very short or a very young one.

The masked stranger held her gaze at Relena, as if it were trying to remember something.

Suddenly one of the real guards called out, "Who's there?!"

All the girls took on a defensive stance. The stranger then motioned for them to follow her.

They complied, keeping up as best they could with the dark ninja running through the maze of cargo hold boxes.

Clouds were covering the moon, making it even harder to see.

Suddenly they rounded a corner, only to find a dead end.

There was only about a foot between them and the edge of a 20 foot cliff.

The sound of boots hitting the gravel signaled how close the guards were to them.

"Go!" whispered the stranger to the girls.

They all looked at her like she was nuts.

But there was no time as the captors rounded the corner as well, yelling, "There they are! STOP!"

Koko was closest to the edge, so the accomplice pushed her down first.

Koko screamed, but soon the others followed, as they were all pushed off.

The mysterious girl was the last to jump.

But unlike the others, she started running down the side of the cliff, passing Koko before she reached the ground.

Koko fell relatively gently into the arms of the unnaturally quick stranger, who then threw her out of the way in time to catch the next person.

They all reached the ground safely, just in time to see the guards staring down at them with dropped jaws.

The figure pointed to a nearby hummer and they all piled in.

Sally hot-wired the engine, and the stranger got in the driver's seat.

"Ah-ah" Sally shook her finger, "I better drive, ... unless you can prove that you're old enough to-"

The figure brought a gun to Sally's head.

"-ok thats proof enough!"

The hummer screached out of the parking lot, just as the guards came down, shooting after them.

The stranger switched gears, speeding away into a forest.

Thorns and branches wipped the girls as the hum-v plowed through the underbrush.

They finally came to a paved road and swirved onto it.

Relena waited until she was sure they weren't being followed, and then she demanded, "Now who are you and what is going on?!"

The ninja ignored her and continued to drive.

Relena knew the person wouldn't be persuaded easily, or at least, not in the way Sally had tried.

Bravely, Relena crawled into the front passenger's seat, right next to the silent driver.

For what seemed like forever, she stared at the girl, with a slight frown on her deep-in-consciousness face.

The figure still didn't seem to notice.

"My name is Relena Yuy," Relena broke the silence.

The driver turned her head.

Finally there was a response!

Relena wouldn't give up, "...or otherwise known as Relena Peacecraft."

But the person had already begun to take of her hooded mask. She finally revealed her face.

Relena gasped.

Even though it had been twelve years, Relena could still recognize her features.

The cool blue eyes, The messy, brown hair,... even her frown resembled the exact same one she had a decade ago.

"...Mi...Miwa..." Relena whispered.

The child's eyes suddenly changed from their usual cold stare, to a compassionate glance very much like Heero's whenever he looked at Relena.

Relena knew it must've been her.

"Could it really be?" awed Hilde.

"Miss Relena...I thought your eldest child was kidnapped twelve years ago," commented Dorothy.

"So did I..." Relena cried.

Miwa slowed the car to a stop, "We're here."

All of them slowly exited the vehicle as Miwa jumped down and began opening a metal door to a large warehouse.

The rusty address plate read "226 Lakewood Dr."

"Come in" stated Miwa as she left the door open and went to open a large pull up door to park the hummer inside.

After the girls were all inside, they gazed at their dirty, but enormous surroundings.

The ceiling stood about thirty feet high. Rusty cranes and catwalks hung in the middle, between the cement floor and the metal roof.

Wooden crates and metal cages were stacked around the place.

Looking at one corner, Relena could see a circle of boxes, stacked high, with a gap in between, like a door.

Approaching it she spotted a matress, a fridge, sink, and microwave.

When she was inside, she could see cans of food, a laptop (hmm wonder where that came from), and other little tools and trinkets scattered about the place.

"Are you hungry?" Miwa asked, looking towards Relena's direction.

But Hilde was the first to say it, "YES! PLEASE!"

Her voice echoed throughout the warehouse, causing glares to be cast in her direction.

"...opps."

Miwa went to her 'room' and took out a pizza from the mini-fridge, and placed it in the microwave.

"Pizza? Oh thank you God!" Koko exclaimed.

All of them converged to the microwave, drooling at the sight of bubbling cheese and tomatoe sauce.

Relena stood half in the doorway, looking at the surroundings.

"So....have you been living here long, Miwa?"

Miwa shook her head, "This hideout was part of my escape plan...I've been storing essential items here for months."

"Escape plan...?" Relena straightened up.

Miwa didn't answer her.

Relena decided to drop it, "So much like your father..." she whispered.

Hilde, who had apparently been evesdropping, commented, "Well, that seems fair,...I mean your other kid, Nariko, looks and acts just like you, so why shouldn't Miwa take on her father's traits?"

"...Nariko?" Miwa asked.

Relena nodded, "Yes, she's your sister..."

Koko, who had the most puzzled look on her face, pulled Relena aside and whispered, "Who exactly is this Miwa anyway?"

Relena explained, "Miwa was my first child. She was born even before Trowa had adopted you and Dakota. And ... she was kidnapped ... at only 2 years old....that was a year before I had even met you."

Relena began to change the subject to avoid showing tears.

"...So what did those rebels who captured us want?" she asked Miwa.

The microwave timer dinged, and Miwa took out the pizza, "I'll tell you everything later... right now you should only be concerned about eating."

"Sounds good to me!" smiled Hilde, grabbing a slice.

It only took about two minutes for the entire pizza to be devoured.

Meanwhile, their host went out of the 'room' and brought back some blankets.

"Sleep wherever you want," stated Miwa, and then rethinking what she just said, "... just don't break anything."

The five girls stared as Miwa went out again... then they all looked at the sole matress on the floor.

Yelling and bickering broke out over who would get the best sleep.

Miwa growled, and preceded to a crate, opening it.

There were four deflated air-matresses inside. Miwa pulled them out and hooked them up to an air-compressor.

Bringing the matresses back to the bickering five, she dropped them loud enough for all the girls to turn their heads.

"...here!" Miwa pointed to the beds at her feet.

"Oh boy!" Hilde and Koko ran to get their own, but tripped over each others' feet.

The others went more gracefully to claim their matresses.

Relena decided to keep the old one.

As Miwa passed them, Sally stopped her to ask, "but where are you sleeping tonight?"

Miwa moved over to a wooden chair and sat in it.

Everyone sweatdroped knowing that's how Heero slept.

"That is verrrryyyy scary." Koko said.

"She couldn't have turned that much into her father .... could she?" Relena commented to herself.

Miwa closed her eyes, pretending she didn't hear them.

The rest of the girls decided to get some sleep.

A few minutes later Miwa opened her eyes, and saw just what she wanted to see.

They were all asleep.

Finally peace and quiet were hers.

She walked over to her laptop, picking it up and brining it back to her chair. The familiar bright screen popped up and Miwa started to hack away.

Screen after screen she passed through the database's security with ease. After all the locks were broken, Miwa found herself staring at a few marriage certificates and adoption documents.

Her original resque plan was to free only her mother.

But she had picked up some unexpected 'bonuses' as well. Her training taught her it was always a good idea to check an unknown associate's history out. Just to see if they were who they claimed to be.

The database said they all checked out fine, but along with the certificates came more extensive information.

Miwa skimmed through the excess information and stopped when it came to a birth certificate.

It was under Relena's file.

The name of the child was Miwa Yuy.

Even though Miwa knew who Relena was, it was still hard to believe that she had a mother.

Mothers and fathers were for normal children ... not assassin children like her.

What has Doctor J done to me? she asked looking at her hand.

Despite all the rough training, her hand was still that of a 14-year-old.
so young, and innocent-looking, yet that same hand had crushed the throats of hundreds of assignments and training servants.

Then ... what is normal? ... what is innocent? she thought.

It was out of her range of comprehension.

She decided just to get some shut-eye instead.

Shutting down the computer and placing it back, she glanced at the sleeping people around her.

Is this ... ? she thought, ... a family?

Curling up in the chair, Miwa went to sleep.

..Giving one last look at her 'family'.

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To be continued...