The transmission from Dr. J upset the platinum-haired girl. She fumed, she swore, she ranted, she paced-

Through the sides of Wing's cockpit.

"Hallucination," the young pilot growled. "That's very distracting."

Whereupon she rounded on him, her fists planted firmly on her hips. "I keep telling you, Gundam-Pilot-Zero-One, my name ins Lielri, and I'm as real as you are. I am your guardian-"

She was getting wound up into another rant. With a mental sigh, Heero reached for his remote detonation switch.

"-not my fault you can see me, you know-"

Heero pressed a button, and the cockpit door slid open.

"Hey." Lielri stopped mid-rant. "You're not actually going to do it!"

Of course he was. Heero stepped up to the edge of the platform, detonator in hand. What lay ahead? The end of the line. No more missions. No more enemies. No more relentless prattle from a hallucination who insisted on calling him by all the fond nicknames Odin had ever had for him. Just silence.

"Mission accepted."

He pressed the button.

"Junior!"

Lielri leapt after him, her wings unfurling just as the first wave of the blast struck. It flung them forward together, amid a swirl of white feathers. Lielri held on tightly, shielding the young pilot with her body as they tumbled through the air. The ground came too quickly and hit too hard. It rejected them, only to return to batter them again. When at last they lay still, Heero stared sightlessly at the sky, his awareness of Lielri's labored breathing slowly fading into blessed oblivion.

Lielri remained motionless after Heavyarms had lifted the unconscious pilot off of her. Raaqiel alighted beside her, and she groaned a long string of curses.

"You showoff," the other angel accused. He had left his post, the slacker.

Lielri managed to glare at him. "Just doing my job," she growled.

"Nah," Raaqiel replied. "That'd be just too much work for me."

Levering herself up onto her elbows, Lielri scowled. "You mean you'd let Duo go ahead and blow himself up?"

"Hell no. I'd just disconnect the primer charge."

Grumbling a stream of unintelligible oaths, Lielri punched Raaqiel in the shoulder with all of her remaining strength.