SilverPunk with an Attitude- I'm sorry for not updating. If you check out the note at the bottom you'll see why. WOW! It's my first threat! I feel loved so much now. Again, sorry.

Queen Zephora Yami- -bows dramatically- Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

Twiggirl06- Yes, I'm continuing after a very long break. I'm hopefully going to work on my stories, including this one, so I can get them out their. Sorry for the delay and all.

Koldy- My number one reviewer. Thank you very much and kudos to you.

Now on with the chapter:

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To Fall in Love

Chapter 3-

Information with a touch of mystery

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"Why didn't you tell Quatre the truth?"

Usagi groaned for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "Because he worries too much as it is. He's got that company to run practically by himself and he skips about between the colonies and Earth keeping the peace. The last thing I need is for him to blow a gasket and have a heart attack before he's 25!"

"That's still no excuse to not telling him, Usa. He's going to find out anyways." Ami reasoned with her friend. "I bet he's talking to Lady Une right now." Usagi visibly winced.

Currently, the girls were at the grocery store picking up the necessary ingredients Makoto needed for tonight's dinner. The past few hours had been well spent in the girl's opinions, traveling from store to store and modeling half the stock before deciding on anything. The cars were more then stuffed with bags of clothing.

Usagi inspected the lettuce in front of her before answering Ami. "I'll tell him later tonight when I have reinforcements. Besides, this gives him time to cool off. Remember last time?" The girls grimaced at that comment, the previous incident replaying in their minds. "How's this, Mako?"

"That's fine. Hotaru, can you grab the carrots? Yeah, Quatre was so mad when you didn't tell him about the mission. He was even scarier than Haruka when she's pmsing."

"What's that supposed to mean, Kino?"

Screams emitted from the mouths of the surprised females at the sudden appearance of their tallest comrade. Shoppers around them glared disapprovingly at the group before huffing off. The speed demon ran a hand through her short, already disarranged sandy locks before grinning at them. "So, is anyone going to greet me?"

Hugs accompanied her comment, especially when Haruka's partner, Michiru, appeared. With the exception of Hotaru, the girls had not seen the two older women in weeks because of assignments and odd jobs they did. Plus, Haruka and Michiru toured around the Earth and colonies as a musical duo sometimes.

"How did you find us, Haruka-chan?" Ami, always the sensible one, asked.

Michiru giggled as her partner smirked before stating the obvious, "Rashid." The big, teddy-bear like Maguanac was like a grandpa that always knew where his little ducklings were. Ami had once gone as far as to accuse the head bodyguard of planting trackers on the girls after he caught them sneaking out of the house for a mission for the sixth time. He had dragged them all the way back to the mansion at two in the morning from one of the warehouses on the other side of the city. Not only did they get a lecture from Rashid, but they also had to face Quatre when they got home. It was the first and hopefully last time they ever see Quatre lose his temper. The entire west wing had to be refurnished when he was finished.

Haruka picked up an apple and inspected it. "He brought the red convertible with him when he picked us up from the airport. Setsuna and Mamoru left with him, but we followed the trail of destruction in the mall strip, and low-and-behold, we find you four at the other end of it. So, watcha doin?" She bit into the apple.

"Gathering ingredients for Mako-chan. She's cooking dinner tonight." Hotaru supplied her foster parents. "Usa will need all the help she can get when she tells Quatre tonight."

"You haven't told him yet, Usa?" Michiru asked the blonde rabbit. Her answer was the guilty look that spread across Usagi's face. "Selene helps you when he finds out." Usagi stuck her tongue out at the aqua-haired woman.

"Cheer up, koneko-chan! How about we grab some ice cream before we head back?" Haruka slung her arms around Usagi's and Hotaru's shoulders. "I haven't seen any of you girls in ages."

"But you saw me last week, Ruka-papa!"

Haruka jutted her lower lip our and pouted at the youngest girl. "So? Can't I check up on my favorite daughter once in a while?"

"I'm your only daughter."

All the girls giggled at Haruka's puppy face. 'Well, sorry to spoil your fun, but I've got to get back to the mansion and start cooking." Makoto interjected. "You guys go ahead."

Ami shook her head. "I'll return with Mako and help her in the kitchen. Shopping has never been my forte and today has worn me out."

"'Shopping has never been her forte' says the girl with twenty bags in her car." Hotaru muttered as Ami turned a light shade of red.

"Then it's just me, Usagi, Hotaru, and Michiru?"

"Sorry, koi, but I'm with Ami-chan and Mako-chan on this. The plane ride and all the excitement have drained my energy. I think a nap will refresh me for tonight."

"Okay. It's down to just us three." Usagi said. "Why don't you call us when dinner is almost ready so we can make it in time?"

"Still trying to delay the inevitable, I see." Michiru commented. "It's not going to make it any easier when it happens."

"I know! I get the point already people!" Usagi growled mockingly. "We'll just see you later, okay?"

A chorus of agreements and farewells circled the group as they split up; one group to head back to the mansion and the other to hand around the shopping district for a while longer. Each group was unaware of the storm brewing on the other side of town.

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A scream that sounded remarkably like Quatre sliced through the peaceful atmosphere of Winner mansion. The echo through the empty hallways brought the sluggish house occupants to an alert, wakeful state. Within moments, three bodies skidded through the doors of the study, guns drawn, each frantically searching for an enemy. Instead, they found a calm Trowa sitting on an armchair sipping tea while his lover paced the room frantically, knocking into objects, and muttering curses under his breath. The vid phone on the desk reflected the image of a composed Lt. Une, sitting still except for the movement of her dark eyes following the agitated Arabians movements.

"Winner, Barton, what is the meaning of this?" Wufei barked as soon as he found no intruders. "We thought you were being attacked."

"I wish it was an attack. Then maybe I could kill someone or at least dismantle them." The normally placid Quatre snapped back.

Duo, Hiiro, and Wufei stepped away from the homicidal blonde. Trowa just pulled his lover onto his lap and began the task of calming him down. He looked over at Une. "Maybe you should explain."

"He asked about Usagi..."

Duo interrupted, "What about Usagi?"

Une glared at Duo, who fell silent. She sighed, and suddenly she looked tired. Not just physically exhausted, but emotionally drained. "A lot of events have conspired in the last few weeks, no months. I passed them off as irrelevant or not connected. A poor judgment on my part, as I have since learned. One week ago, I sent some of the girls on a raid..." Une fell silent as her eyes took a distant gleam.

Trowa prompted his superior with a quiet "And?"

"And it was a trap. There was an ambush which turned into a stalemate that lasted eighteen hours. We sent in the back up to pull them out, but Usagi slipped away to, and I quote, 'take care of some business.' A medical team picked her up about a mile and a half away from the base. I'm not going to sweeten it for you, she looked like shit."

Une shuffled through some documents on her desk. Selecting one, she began to read. "Name: Usagi Serenity Tsukino. Age: Twenty-one. Ethnicity: Japanese. Gender: female. Height: roughly 5'4". Weight: 122 lbs. Appearance: Hair color- Golden-silver, Eyes- silver-steel to midnight blue. Occupation: Preventors retriever, leader of the specials squad, part-time undercover agent. Personal Information: none given.

"Diagnosis: female is unconscious due to blood loss. She sustains minor injuries to the head, upper back, and lower ribs that could be from a small, blunt object such as a fist. There are lacerations on the stomach from a sharp, jagged object. Penetrations go from left to right, suggesting the patient fell on the object that cut her. There are also two gunshot wounds, not major, to the upper arm and lower left calf. Bullets should be removed immediately. The left ankle is also sprained, apparently when the patient was shot in the calf.

"All injuries sustained during a broached retrieval mission at the Delta Sin Base 100942. Checked-in: August 5. Released: August 9. Patient has been tended by Doctor Ami Mizuno and assistant Hotaru Tomoe, and has recovered eighty percent. As ordered by the high medical commander, Sally Po, Usagi Tsukino has been relieved of all duties for duration of three-weeks to two months for a complete recovery. The location of said recovery is the patient's choice. Report concluded on August 10."

Une stopped and put down the report before looking directly at the pilots. "As you can see the report was dated the day before yesterday. Hotaru healed Usagi to the best of her abilities before she collapsed, but there are some minor injuries and muscle abrasions Usagi has to heal on her own. I sent her to Quatre so you could keep an eye on her. You know how she is. I'll fax a copy of the report within the hour for you to review."

Duo frowned. "I have a question. What business did Usagi go back to take care of?"

"There were two things actually. One was a disk containing information on the new group of rebels and their leader. The other..."

Quatre glanced up from his cuddled position in Trowa's arms to glare at the electronical device. "What is the other thing?"

Une sighed again and began to massage her temples. Headaches seemed to be becoming a habit lately. "All data and information on the Gundams and their pilots as well as plans for their reconstruction. Another war is on the way."

The color drained from the pilots faces. A deafening silence befell the young adults as the news was absorbed and all the speechless men could do was stare at the image of the top executive of the most world-wide organization well known for their expertise in maintaining peace and tranquility. And in one sentence, she brought their peaceful and civilian lives to an end. None of the other four noticed when their friend and ally slipped away into the shadows with a confused look on his normally impassive face.

Just as Hiiro Yui had begun to adjust to the idea of a world without fighting, another conspiracy was brewing. Hiiro had a hunch, but he speculated that instead of Earth versus the Colonies, or even Relena and her pacifist ideals against fighting, this revolved around Usagi Tsukino and the people around her were in the middle of it. If the other pilots knew any information, they disregarded disclosing it to him and none of his searches provided anything other than a medical report and a history of work before the preventors, but nothing as to her current work. It looks like he would have to go to the source to find out.

With his mind made up, Hiiro trudged upstairs to his room, passing another woman on his way. He assumed she was one of the 'guests' Usagi mentioned earlier. Not caring to be social, Hiiro brushed past the raven-haired female much to her chagrin. He didn't even spare a glance at her, but rather continued on to the dark confines of his room to further investigate a possible 'enemy'.

--- I know! I didn't update this story for practically a year. I had most of the chapters written out on our main computer (It's not a laptop so you can't carry it anywhere and it's big, black, and stationary). The main bugger is that the whole computer went on complete meltdown and crashed. Now I can't access any files on the computer, so most of this story and two others (Broken Promises and Maniac Academy) went down the drain. I've been so busy lately that I had to practically redo the whole chapter.

Now I have to go chapter by chapter. I know I promised in the last chapter that there would be more, but right now I'm winging it. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I could use, I could gladly appreciate it. Just send them in when you review.

And if you read some of the others, you can suggest ideas for those as well. I hate writer's block, especially when you wrote it once perfectly and then it just goes bye-bye on a little pig with fairy wings.

Also, a question to the fans. I believe I was going to have Rini/Chibi-Usa in the story. Do you want her as a cute little 3-year old, or do you want me to make another little kid up? And who do you think the father should be?

If you have a favorite bad guy that can be 'sophisticated' and act like a duke in a royal court, I would love to have that as well.

Thanks a lot to the reviewers and I'll see everyone next chapter.

Angel Wings and Shattered Dreams, sprinklescake67