Author's Notes: Oh lord, here comes Nicole again! LOL, just kidding. Anyhow, I would like to give a shout-out to CrystillineYuy for reviewing. I'm glad to know to know you've got my back! I love you! :-D

As for the Isley Brothers (hey, "Between the Sheets" is the jam!), Teletubbies, and the reference to 70's music...eh, it's just more Immaterial Girl loco-ness.

Gundam Wing and its characters don't belong to me. I'm not that lucky.


III

Fifteen minutes after the mysterious call to Heero ended, the five members of the Wild Wing Agency and their wily secretary gathered in the conference room for an impromptu emergency meeting—called by none other than the secretary herself.

Nicole spared no ounce of amusement for this gathering; she had control and she meant to keep it. She was dead serious about trying to figure out what was going on, not because she was nosy (as Duo would surmise) but she had become suspicious of such things since her acquaintance with the boys had begun. And they just indulged her on it—well, honestly, Quatre did and insisted that the rest of them should do the same. Besides, what harm would it do?

"I really do not feel like listening to her blather," Wufei remarked as they waited for Nicole and Heero to appear. "It's enough she has the privilege of knowing what we do and the people we work for, but to have her ordering us around—?"

"Usually I would agree with you, Wufei, but I understand where she's coming from," Duo admitted. The sugared donut and coffee had gone a long way to erase the previous night's fatigue. "And you know Heero, he wouldn't say anything about it even if you threatened him with the Teletubbies movie."

Quatre winced, remembering his daughter's Teletubbies phase. He hadn't been able to stop singing the show's theme song at strange, idle moments for weeks. Nicole had eventually gotten sick of it, short of throwing her pen cup at him, and had made him listen to the Isley Brothers' Greatest Hits album to release him from the ill effects of Teletubbism. (She'd later joked that the twins had been conceived to "Between the Sheets," a fact that Quatre never confirmed or denied. Only Duo had found this funny.)

Quatre held up a hand. "Duo—let's not mention that show ever again. It still gives me nightmares."

"I think what Duo means to say," Trowa began after Quatre's moment of discomfort was fading, "is that it might be the harbinger to a problem, and we are better off prepared for it than oblivious."

"But couldn't we handle this without the woman and her obnoxious mouth?" Wufei inquired his comrades.

"I'd like to see you call me that to my face—Wufei."

Everyone shifted to find Nicole standing in the doorway, her five-foot-three-inch frame draped in a stance of talking-badness. She raised an eyebrow when Wufei didn't say anything. Eyes smoldering, she rounded the table as Heero walked in behind her with a digital recorder looking more troubled than usual. Duo snuck a surreptitious glance at Wufei, wondering how long he had to live before Nicole lost her temper.

The two shot daggers at each other with glares before Nicole spoke again. "You know, Wufei, I would roast your chicken-fried-rice-eating ass such a comment, but since we don't have the time, I'm gonna get right to the point." She turned to Heero. "Play that funky music, white boy."

When Heero just blinked at her, Duo leaned in and whispered, "I think she means play the conversation, Heero."

"I know that, Duo. I'm just trying to figure out why the hell she would say something so foolish."

"Shut up, Wufei," Quatre and Trowa said in unison when Nicole's face went stormy. Wufei grunted and said nothing. Heero pushed the play button on the digital recorder and played the short exchange for them. When it was over, Duo, Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre sported identical looks of confusion. Nicole and Heero were grim.

"Heero was unable to complete the trace since the call was so short," Nicole began, "but I was able to pick up and place some of the background sounds when Heero played it for me a couple of times.

"Now, before I reveal my theory on where the call was made, I think we need to speculate on who and why." Nicole held up a hand when Quatre began to speak. "The caller wanted Heero specifically and made references to 'truth,' 'vengeance,' and something 'suppressed.'"

"Can't forget the 'thing you—Heero—loves most,'" Duo supplied.

Worry came into Quatre's eyes. "Oh no…you don't think this person could be talking about Crys, do you?" It was no surprise that he thought of his wife first, for Heero probably would have found immense fault with him if he hadn't.

Tapping his chin, Duo considered this. "It's a possibility. Unless there's someone else that Heero loves more."

"We can't completely rule out the fact that it could be his wife this mysterious person is referring to," Trowa pointed out. "Though Heero might argue that he doesn't love Danie more than does his twin sister, this person may not be taking Crys into account."

"So we have two candidates," Nicole commented. "But why?"

The room went quiet, and everyone flicked glances in Heero's direction.

"Nicole, I think you'd better skip that portion," Duo suggested, feeling Heero's growing fury. "We can talk about that when we know more. So what about the location?"

"Spanish Gracia," Nicole responded.

Wufei's eyebrows arched at her confident answer. "And you're certain of this."

"Unlike you, I've lived here most of my life," Nicole explained. She slid a file in Heero and Duo's direction. "There's the approximate area of that particular pay phone and the businesses in it. Since I know Quatre's got a meeting in fifteen minutes and Trowa and Wufei have active jobs at the moment, I figured you two had time to spare."

"You assumed correctly," Heero told her, rising and taking the file. Duo, sensing his friend's intensity, pushed his chair back and rose as well. It seemed there was going to be nothing else to reveal from Heero Yuy now that he was on a mission of sorts.

"Hey! Heero?" Heero paused at the door but didn't turn around. If he had, he would have seen the uncharacteristic worry in Nicole's deep brown eyes. "Don't do nothing stupid."

"I can't make any promises," Heero admitted, making Nicole curse under her breath. With that, he and Duo strode out.


Duo ended up driving south because he won the coin toss on the elevator ride down. Heero had wanted to see the coin he had used, but Duo had been too fast for him for once and had pocketed the suspect coin. With a mission in mind, Duo and Heero climbed into Duo's modified Eclipse and zoomed out into the flowing traffic.

"I still think you had a two-sided coin," Heero muttered, arms crossed over his chest.

"I guess you'll never know for sure, will you?" There was a wicked gleam in Duo's eyes, and he knew that Heero wouldn't dare harm him as long as he was in the driver's seat. "Tell me where we're going exactly. Nicole said it was in the SG district, but you've got the file." Wordlessly, Heero leaned to enter the address into Duo's navigational system. When the female voice—a sister to the one in the elevator at work—read out the directions to Duo, he calmly obeyed them. If Heero had been more observant of his friend, he would have noticed that Duo was not his usual talkative self. However, he had more pressing matters on his mind.

They drove out of the city and into the more colorful, ethnic part of town. Where Downtown Gracia was refined and professional in its businesslike nature, Spanish Gracia was diverse and domestic. It was a place you could come to unwind, listen to good music, enjoy good food, and interact with people who weren't worried about double Windsors and the Wall Street Journal.

Duo and Heero parked in front of a panadería that boasted cinnamon rolls the size of a linebacker's meaty fist in bright, vibrant Spanish. The scent of baking bread wafted toward them, but they steeled themselves against temptation. Of course it was decidedly harder for Duo; for Heero the effort required would have been the same for flicking off a pesky fly. They took a glance around, searching for the pay phone that Nicole had said would be nearby.

"There it is," Duo said, nudging Heero as he pointed across the street. A dusty, dilapidated pay phone stood wearily in front of a peluquería, currently in use by a dark-haired young woman who was having a passionate conversation with a stubborn lover. Silently, Heero crossed the street and Duo followed. Duo could tell that Heero was anxious about learning who the mysterious caller was, and this poor girl whose life was probably as complicated as an episode of I Love Lucy was going to get caught in the crosshairs of Heero Yuy's wrath.

"Be nice, Heero," Duo hissed as the woman let out a stream of curses in Spanish. He gestured toward the hair salon. "Maybe we can go inside and see if anyone saw anything. It may not get us anywhere, but it's worth a shot."

Not able to refute that logic, Heero followed Duo into the hair salon. Heero and Duo had braced themselves for the sudden influx of women, for they would be legion in a hair salon, but they had not been ready for the giggling, speculative looks, and whispered comments. They were fascinating specimens of a male sort, a species that was rare in these parts where soap operas, magazines, nail polish, and talk about Victoria Secret reigned supreme. Heero was quite out of his milieu here, but Duo took the opportunity and played it to his advantage.

"Hola, bellas damas," Duo greeted them smoothly. "¿Es posible que puedan a ayudarnos? Tenemos un problema pequeño."

The suave salutation seemed to stop them short for a brief moment. The humming pause was broken by the one standing at the other end of the room behind a chair threw her head back and laughed loudly. As the other tittered with laughter, they surmised that she was owner of this establishment and held all of the power in the room. If they were to find out anything useful, it would be from her.

"Looks like we have a couple of live ones here, chicas," remarked the woman. She stared at Duo and Heero, hand fisted on her hip. "¿Cómo podemos ayudarle?" She pointed at Duo with a comb. "You need a haircut, cariño. Ven y siéntate en mi silla."

Duo strode farther into the depths of the Temple of Woman, fully intending on interrogating them until they gave him something of substance—disarming them with charm first, obviously. Heero watched but came closer, wondering how this was going to turn out. At that moment, the client that had been sitting in the chair rose to her feet and let Duo have it. Heero caught a glimpse of her profile as she gathered her purse and a tight ball formed in his stomach.

That face was eerily familiar.

Danie…

"My hair is just fine, I think," Duo told the woman. "But I still need your help."

"Hah! You need my help with hair like that." The hairdresser examined Duo's long brown mane, then smirked at the previous occupant of the chair. "You know, cara, it would do my heart good to see you with a muchacho like this one. You need some more amor in your life, no?"

The woman looked up at her hairdresser's frank statement about her lack of a sex life, eyes filled with puzzlement. When her green-eyed gaze rested upon Heero, and Duo standing beside him, something inside of him unclenched—for a moment. It wasn't Danie, but it was just as untimely. Moira-Selene Thomas was Danie's fraternal twin sister, older than her by a mere two minutes. From what she lacked in height (Danie was six feet even; Moira-Selene was a shorter five-eight), she made up in prudence and insight. She was just as clever as Heero himself but lacked the hard edge that war had left on him, instead exuding a placidity that balanced her twin's fiery spirit.

"Heero," said Moira-Selene with a small frown. "What brings you to this side of town?"

Before Heero could speak, Duo chimed in charmingly. Heero understood that he was trying to diffuse the situation, but it was still a bit exasperating to watch him flirt with his wife's twin. "We were in the neighborhood for business and were thinking about lunch. Know of any good places?"

Moira-Selene raised an eyebrow. She didn't have but an ounce of Danie's bluntness, so she answered in a polite tone, "Since I do not know you well, Mr. Maxwell, I am not quite sure what would satisfy your palette. I am inadequate to recommend any restaurants."

Behind her, the hairdresser chuckled. "Mo, cara, you've gotta stop talking like you're having a showdown with Casanova or something." She turned to Duo and Heero as she tugged on Moira-Selene's hair and had her squirming like an embarrassed teen. "I recommend mi primo's diner across the street. And take mi corazónwith you, por favor. She needs to put more meat on her bones and stop bothering me about mi colesterol."

"Pero, Olivia—" Moira-Selene began in consternation.

"Háblame no más," the woman named Olivia said. "Go eat, and have a good time. I can cut your hair later."

Moira-Selene spluttered about her hair as Olivia pushed her out of the building. Duo and Heero followed, and they noticed that the pay phone was conveniently unused at the moment. The pair exchanged a look behind Moira-Selene's back before she whirled around to face them.

"All right," Moira-Selene started, "something is going on here, isn't it?"

Duo grinned at her impishly. "Moira dear, there's always something going on. It's up to you to find out what it is." He crossed his arms over his chest, fully intending to turn the tables upon her. "And why were you here, might I ask? Since we're being so candid with one another."

As Moira-Selene crossed her arms over her own chest, Heero inched out of her line of sight. He was thankful for Duo's baiting of Moira-Selene but didn't ponder on it very long. He went to the pay phone and scrutinized it carefully for any clues of the unknown caller's identity. Unfortunately, he couldn't lift any fingerprints; there were probably hundreds of thousands there by now.

"I was here checking on Olivia," Moira-Selene explained coolly. "She is a patient and an old family friend. Her son and I had a relationship for a long while—"

"Oh!" Duo exclaimed. "So you do like men. There's hope for me yet."

Moira-Selene's emerald gaze went frigid. "And the last layer of Dante's hell is a water park."

As Moira-Selene and Duo parried, Heero found one lone hair that had fallen on the dusty ground. He carefully picked it up and encased it inside of a piece of paper. It was a dark hair strand that was a little on the fine side, and its density and length suggested a woman...or a man with long hair with blessed texture.

He felt Moira-Selene's eyes on his back and slowly turned, deftly stuffing the folded paper in his pocket before Moira-Selene could see it. He stared at her a moment, scrutinizing her raven mane. It was cropped to shoulder length and therefore too short to have yielded the hair that he had just found. So that counted her out of his list of suspects.

Duo glanced at his wristwatch. "Well, it's definitely time for lunch." He patted Moira-Selene on the shoulder. "Let's get you fed, huh?"

Moira-Selene looked at him incredulously. "Mr. Maxwell, I do not wish to accompany you to lunch. I have pressing matters to which I have to attend."

Heero looked unwilling as well; however, he had different reasons, and he had a feeling Duo would try to explain away his misgivings. He wanted to proceed with the investigation as quickly as possible, and even though she was considered family, Heero didn't feel the need to spend time with her. Duo, on the other hand, did. Heero figured he had a small crush on her due in part to the fact that she was so mean toward him.

"Nonsense," Duo said. "Come on. Heero wouldn't mind."

"I would mind, actually," Heero shot back. "We have work to do."

Moira-Selene tilted her head. "And what sort of business landed you in Spanish Gracia? I didn't think your expertise was needed in a place like this."

Duo flicked a glance in Heero's direction before he spoke. Heero could scalp me for this, he thought. He stared into Moira-Selene's inquisitive eyes and made a decision. Oh what the hell... "Well, actually, it's a bit of personal business." Duo mustered up some exasperation to make his next statement believable. "Someone has been calling and hanging up from this pay phone, and we'd decided we'd check it out. We just did a server restore on Cabrera so it wasn't much of a drive down here."

"Oh," Moira-Selene murmured, nodding. Heero gave Duo a look that bordered on approval. "So how did you end up at Liv's?"

He nodded toward the hair salon. "I thought maybe one of you ladies had seen someone. We got a call today about forty-five minutes ago."

"Did you see anyone on the phone around that time?" Heero inquired, breaking his silence. He figured that Moira-Selene wouldn't mind answering a question if he imposed it instead of Duo.

"Hmm..." Moira-Selene paused thoughtfully. "I had just gotten here around that time. There wasn't..." Then her eyes alighted with remembrance. "Wait a minute. I do remember someone on the phone right then. I wasn't paying very good attention to the person, but I assumed it was a male. The person was tall, with very dark hair, probably as dark as mine. I can't remember what he was wearing...except for a ring on his right hand. It was adorned with onyx and opal stones. I remembered it because I thought it was a little odd."

"Onyx and opal," Duo echoed. "Interesting..."

Filing all of this away for future use, Heero nodded. "Thank you for your help, Moira-Selene." He stepped away and intended for that to be the end of it when he heard Duo say, "So I suppose we owe you. Lunch is on me." When Moira-Selene began to protest, Duo persisted. "I insist. It's the least we can do. Besides, if I know Heero, he's gonna miss lunch, and he gets crabby when he misses a meal."

"Duo," Heero snapped.

"I do not believe-" Moira-Selene attempted, sensing Heero's annoyance and wanting to be far out of its path.

"Don't be scared. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"


Danie waited until she was on the private plane and the plane was in the air before she plugged the flash drive into her laptop.

Save for the pilot, Danie was all alone. She would not have any assistance on this venture except for the flash drive that Arashi had bestowed upon her. Grimly she clicked on the removable drive icon that appeared in her "Computer" folder.

On the flash drive were a series of five documents named only by numbers. Danie selected the first document and was greeted by the sight of a young dark-haired, blue-eyed man along with his dossier. His name was Dr. Cameron Prescott, and he was only slightly older than she was. He had lived in Manhattan during the year of the Incident and had remained there ever since. His father Steven Prescott had been a wealthy doctor who had met an untimely end just three months shy of Danie's seventeenth birthday. His only son had distanced himself from the wealth that had brought his father's downfall and currently was at the head of a team of doctors at an inner city clinic. Danie found that interesting—at least enough to want to talk to him.

Would the sins of the father spread to the son? Danie asked herself. I suppose we will see, shall we?

Danie mused, checking out the other documents and formulating a plan. She knew she couldn't take all of the players out at the same time—that would require more resources than she had—but the job had to be done expediently before they could catch on. For a moment, she considered asking for help. But who would she ask? Who could she ask?

Her cell phone buzzed right at that moment like a herald from Mercury. You have 1 new text message, her phone informed her along with the garish loop of an envelope opening and closing. She opened the message and could only shake her head in mild amusement.

Having lunch with Heero & his friend, it read. Ran into them at Liv's. Do you think he'd mind it terribly if I stuffed a tortilla down Duo Maxwell's throat?

Moira-Selene, Danie thought. Her sister hadn't liked Duo Maxwell from the moment they'd laid eyes on each other at Quatre and Crys's wedding, and she simultaneously could and couldn't understand why. Duo Maxwell—on the surface anyhow—was an upbeat, laid-back young man whose transient lifestyle was beyond homebody Moira-Selene's comprehension. Yet, Duo had a more serious side and his intelligence quotient was higher than his outward demeanor made it out to be. Moira-Selene hadn't taken the time to figure that out. It was Danie's opinion that she should.

Like you should take out the time to talk to Heero? her conscience bleated. It sounded eerily like her big sister Jessica, which didn't make it any better. She ignored the inner voice and replied back to her sister's text.

Be nice, Mo. She paused as the obvious question popped in her head. And how the hell did YOU find them at Liv's? Can't see Heero getting his hair done in Spanish Gracia. Liv'd put blonde streaks on him & and he'd kill her. Duo on the other hand...

Moira-Selene answered, They claimed to be in the area because of a strange phone call. Muyinteresante, indeed. And Duo would have gotten his hair done by Liv if I hadn't seen Heero.

She read the message as another was coming in. This one was from Heero. A little shocked, Danie blinked in surprise and read it.

Hello, Danie. Are you in New York yet?
it asked.

A little smile quirked the sides of Danie's mouth. Despite the wall that had formed between them, he had still taken out the time to be worried about her, to send a text message. With the tingle of warmness came a gush of guilt. She clamped down on it and replied, Hello, Heero. No, I'm still in the air. I hope things are well where you are. And if Mo starts speaking in short, tight sentences, duck for dear life.

How did you know I was with your sister? came the response.

She asked me if you would mind if she maimed Duo. I told her to be nice. I'll call you when I get out of the meeting, darling. Love you.

Love you, too, Heero texted back.Be careful.

Be careful. Danie put her phone away and rested her hands, fingers spread apart, on the little table in front of her. She fought the wave of nausea and unease. Firming herself, she tried to remember that this was not the time for weakness. She had been waiting ten years for redemption, and she was damned well going to get it.

Daniella Thomas was an angry assassin, and before the speedy private jet landed in New York State, she had her own Death List Five. Uma Thurman she was not, but it was a place at where she could start.