Sat finally back with another chapter. Things are a little less hectic and I'm getting back into the swing of things again, so let's see how long this will last. I'm very sorry for the long awaited update, if anyone is still reading. In the previous chapter, there was a code yellow alert and the gang's about to get some serious action. Let's see what happens in this one. I own nothing familiar.

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Chapter Seven: How to Take a Mobile Suit Down

Ally's hand blur over the keyboard, switching her attention to different monitors every other minute. The Airbender doesn't seem to take notice of the other women around her, waiting for orders. What Ally is attempting to do takes a good deal of concentration on her part. She's trying to retrieve the S.O.S message sent to trigger the alarm. It was fried before the characters made it. Finally, she stops and pulls a small document on the main screen that only has a few lines on it.

"Alert," she reads, "We're under attack by a small brigade sent by Markus. We're unsure of the numbers but there are at least two suits. Requesting help from Origin Unit. Our current location is the Western Fence. We have been infiltrated fr―. Time sent: two minutes ago."

She leans back in her chair and laces her fingers. There are so many things to do in so little time. Ally supposes it's time to show what she is worth, even if she thinks it's only a little.

"Suit up, ladies," she orders, spinning in her chair to face them, "I want ETD in three minutes."

The women nod and rush off, leaving the five males surrounding the door a little befuddled. Ally comes out of the doorway and studies each of them for a good second. After considering them, she nods to herself.

"Heero, Wufei, get your suits up and ready. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre, come with me. We'll meet you two in the lower hanger."

Ally quickly walks in the direction of the other ladies while Heero and Wufei go to the lower hanger. Hailey created it when the suits were moved in after the last upgrades of the Ares mobility unit was paid for and put in. Going into an unnoticed room, Ally beings to toss articles of clothing at each of the males, instructing them to put it on quickly and to grab a mask. She joins the other girls in the room next to where the guys are and begins to dress in an identical black body suit. She tugs her short hair up and twists it to shove her black skullcap on and grabs a staff of some kind. Hailey twists her usual braid into a bun and uses thick pins to hold it in place.

Hana pulls her own skullcap out and stuffs her hair into the material. Kit and Zumi just braid their hair. Each woman grabs a mask. Every mask follows an intricate pattern of lines. Kit and Hana's are blue and white, where Kit has dark blue on the forehead area and Hana has white. Ally has a yellow and burnt orange coloration and Zumi has black and red. Hailey has green and a murky brown. The girls file out, ignoring the men behind them and head straight for the hanger. Once they arrive, Ally assigns who goes with whom. Kit, Duo and Hana will ride with Heero and Zumi, Trowa, and Quatre with Wufei. Each pilot will provide cover fire to let the Benders out.

"The coordinates are already plugged into the guiding system," the Airbender explains, leaning on her staff, "We'll be able to keep up with you, if only a little late. We're going to give you extra support seeing as how the suits we were able to get a hold of are shit. The rest of you will go into the building and clean house. If you can get one alive, great; keep 'em and will do some interrogating later. The place is small, so the unit sent there to attack should also be small. This has to be done as quickly and cleaning as we can."

"Not to break your stride," Duo interrupts with a worried glance, "How in the hell are you two following and why do we have masks?"

"One: don't worry about that," she replies, "and two: do you wanna get caught? Move out!"

Each respective person mans their suits, feeling a little cramped. Heero and Wufei are told that they only need the masks if they think they'll have to exit the suits under particular circumstances. Hailey works the earth above the suits and creates a clean crevasse that opens the rock roof. The Airbender and Earthbender then take cover in the hallway outside of the hanger as the suits warm up. The two ex-pilots get the crappy suits up in record time. Ally spins her staff and flicks open secret compartments with air, splaying out the white wings of a glider. She nods to her friend and leaps in the air, bending her element through her glider. Hailey shuts the rock walls and begins to tunnel in the same direction.

After a few minutes, the two pilots recognized where they were going. There is a factory about thirty minutes to an hour by car outside of the main city that's been abandoned for many years. It was attacked during the war and was deemed unneeded in the war since funds were starting to dwindle. Kit and Hana expertly tie their masks on, adjusting them to a more comfortable fit. Duo's mask, like the other ex-pilots, is a plain black. Hana crawls over to Duo, who is behind the cockpit chair and helps him to tie it on. 01 glances over at Kit. He believes that even under that mask, Heero can see a blank face. He assumes that might be how she deals with these situations.

Wufei does his best to concentrate on his location, but the mere fact that these odd women will finally be put in action was distracting him almost like a child; a child waiting to see the circus for the first time. It's aggravating. Quatre and Trowa don't seem as anxious as he is. The Chinese man glances to the only female. Zumi rubs her thumb over her mask with a face full of mixed emotions. Wufei can only pick out a few, being horrible at reading women, but he can tell how focused she is. With only a few minutes left until they arrive, Zumi releases a short, but deep breath and swiftly ties on her red and black mask. Wufei looks to the monitor and see the old factory surrounded by four Leos. Zumi crouches by the main hatch and the other two men follow suit.

"One rule," she says, holding up a finger, "Do not talk. You will always follow me."

"How do we communicate, then?" the blonde man asks.

"By feeling," the Firebender answers, "Trust me, if you just follow us you'll be fine. Put us down, Wufei. Ally and Hailey will be here in a moment to provide more cover."

Landing near the building, he waits for Heero to come make a small corner against the other suits' fire. They jump out, giving him more breathing room. The group of six then runs into the blasted open way of the building. Kit takes the front lead while Hana is in the middle of the group and Zumi takes the rear. Kit takes care of freezing the firearms of Marcus' men while Hana takes them out. The main idea is to get to the control room, stop whatever might be happening, and kill Marcus' men. Zumi taps Quatre and Duo on the shoulders and breaks them off. Zumi's job, as usual, is to clear the other rooms out.

The Firebender easily clears out the room and knows just which people to go after. Duo and Quatre follow suit with firearms, shooting the pointed out soldiers, thanks to Zumi. No one here has any type of uniform to differentiate them. Kit, Hana and Trowa circumvent to the west side of the building. It was made a point to have detailed blueprints of every base created in the mainframe of the computer and hardcopies. The women know exactly where they're going. Easily slicing through the annoying soldiers, Trowa comes upon the control room where an Earthbender waits for him. There are several others at the computers trying to do something to the main system.

Trowa engages the man, doing his best to dodge the small pieces of earth thrown at him. When he finally gets close to the Earthbender, he winds his fist to punch him. Trowa makes a clean mark, but his knuckles become bloody. A stream of silvery water comes and slices the man from his face to his chest, revealing the thin armor of earth encrusted on the man. Trowa falls back to let the women handle the armored Bender, and proceeds to remove the five soldiers from the computers.

A fierily flash comes from the doorway and another woman with blonde hair is thrown into the room. Zumi comes in with Duo and Quatre trailing behind her. The fallen blonde stumbles to her feet and brings a stream of fire to her hands. Zumi quickly counters with fiery shaped daggers and stabs the energy easily through the slow woman. Near the same time, two thin icicles drive through the man's head, revealing dripping red tips behind him. Kit looks to Zumi, who nods and begins to search their bodies for anything important. She hands the blonde woman off to a guard after finding nothing on her. The other five each take a computer to see what damage has been done. A tremor rattles the building, making the monitor pictures wobble a little.

On the outside, one suit is already down. This battle shouldn't be taking so long, but the suits are standard and these men are high above that. Heero moves to take another down and all that's in his head besides strategies is how he misses Wing Zero in times like these. Suddenly, the suit he was going after drops to its waist in the earth. The small picture of Hailey shows on his visual screen coming out of the earth. A swoop of white and black blur across his screen and a huge razor gust comes down on the trapped mobile suit, creating divots and a long crevasse.

Something taps on Heero's suit's head. Looking over to the small tapping, Ally is there and points to herself and the Earthbender, then to the trapped suit. She then points to him and Wufei and the last two remaining. He raises an arm in signal and she leaps off in another blur of black and white. Heero moves to his last opponent, seeing Wufei paying little attention to the women that just arrived, and begins to hack away at very vulnerable spots. Luckily, the enemies have suits less prepared than theirs. He assumes that it's due to the fact that most funding is going to the Epion and trainees. After two or more hits, Wufei's remaining opponent slams into Heero's, easily finishing both of them off.

"These fools aren't worthy of the machines they were given," the Chinese pilot mutters to Heero in the communication line, "They were barely trained to handle their suits."

"Hn."

An earthy shake brings the men's attention to the two visible women taking down the last suit. Bits and pieces of metal are strung over the ground. The suit is trying to wrench their arms out of the ground. Spikes of rocks jut through the last armor and one last slice of torrent wind cuts down, cleaving the suit as a gutted fish, producing puffs of black clouds. Ally helps Hailey up from the rock she embedded herself in. They give each other nods and the Earthbender heads off into the soon to be cleans safe house. Ally taps on the cockpit door of Wufei's suit. How she got up there so quickly is unknown to him, but he obliges. Lading on the opened panel, he takes in her dirt and oil stained clothes, wondering how the stains are even visible since she's in all black.

"Stay out here and guard the perimeter," she instructs in a slightly breathless voice, "We may have to take care of back up, but I doubt it."

Without waiting for an answer, she jumps of the panel with her arms stretch as though she was diving. He automatically lurches in his chair to stop her, but is held down by the safety belts and the third streak of black and white. Shaking his raven head, he closes the hatch and takes guard with Heero. Hailey stays with them, listening to the earth as much as she can and nods at Ally as she lands and heads inside. The Airbender walks down the bloodied hallway with a regal air she never really holds. The power of a mask lets the wearer be anything they choose at any time. The Firebender passes her quickly with a small nod and she dips into another room, looking for something as Quatre follows her. Walking past the dead, dying and the saved, she enters the control station of the building.

"Airbender."

She turns to the man that called her. The broken man tries to stand without the aid of his friend and salutes, nearly falling over and blood spilling over his brown jacket. She puts a gentle hand on his shoulder and pushes him back onto his friend with a nod.

"We know that your unit is only on call for emergencies. Seeing how quickly you cleared this small situation makes me ashamed for calling your unit at all," he explains, holding his side, "I apologize fo―"

She stops him holding her hand up. Softly, she moves a raven strand from a bloody cut on his forehead. This simple action surprises him greatly and she nods again, affirming his decision to be the right one. The Origin Unit is the closet to this base and they had four suits on them. Considering they had barely any defenses for such a heavy attack, this was an emergency. Hana and Kit are busy tending the wounded with fresh water just brought in by Zumi and Quatre. Hana comes to the wounded commander and motions for him to take a seat. Ally wanders over to Kit. Tapping a console, Kit shakes her head. This isn't good. Either they fried the computer equipment, took something valuable out of the system or both. None of these options sound good, especially the last two.

Three guards hover over with firearms above the blonde Firebender. She was wounded in the gut, but Zumi made sure that this woman wouldn't die so easily. After all, interrogation has yet to be done. With some medical care and some rest, she'd make a recovery of some sort. The pale blonde woman is propped against a wall, glaring at everyone through her thin locks. Ally crouches in front of her and tries to recognize her face. Seeing that she has no idea who this Firebender is, Ally turns her attention elsewhere. Trowa is still typing hard on the keyboard, his hand flimsily wrapped in a cloth to catch the blood so the computer wouldn't be damaged. He'll have to get that healed eventually. Duo is on another computer, combining efforts with his fellow ex-pilots. Quatre is helping Kit and Hana where ever he can and eventually turns to help out the other pilots. Ally walks back over to the commander, who is looking much better thanks to Hana's care. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she points to the only live captive.

"We'll interrogate her thoroughly," he says in an angry voice, "and will decide what to do with her after that. I'll send you a full report once that is done. Thank you."

She nods and smiles under her mask, hoping he can feel that. She knows how hard it was to get that "thank you" out. He is a proud man and a good leader. Zumi walks by and gives a warm squeeze on Ally's shoulder. The Firebender walks over to Trowa to see if any progress has been made and he shakes his head. Zumi taps the side of her mask and turns to walk over to Duo.

Bright blue light fills the small room and sizzling fills the ears of every occupant. A slow, ripping shock pulls through Zumi's arm, her eyes wide as she tries to move her arm, pulling it down and towards a wall. Her pray lies within a legend of a farfetched stance. The energy pulls through her gut, lungs, and out the other arm into the wall, shattering the plaster. The proud woman drops to her knees and she hears a faint shriek that is her own.

Ally pulls her hand back and sends a blade of wind in the blonde woman's face, effectively knocking her out and leaving a wide cut on her face. She, along with the other women, drop to Zumi. She was just struck by lightning. It's incredibly rare that a Firebender learns to use lightning, let alone not be killed by it. Kit rips off Zumi's sleeve and both she and Hana concentrate water on fresh burning wound. The Airbender checks her pulse and notes that it's irregular somewhat. Once the two Waterbenders are done, Zumi begins to go into shock. Kit shoots her head up to the commander, imploring where the medical ward is. He motions to someone to escort them. Hana and Kit raise Zumi in their arms. Ally moves to follow, but Hana holds up a hand. She has to close up business here. Ally nods to her friend.

The remaining Bender checks each male at their respective computers, after shaking them out of shock and receiving a negative response from all of them. Duo shows that something is missing and eating the other files. He was able to stop the virus that was placed and recover what was lost from the body of the bug, but not what was already taken out and transferred someplace. They completely deleted it by feeding the virus through the deleted file box and pulling all the other data through that. By doing so, there is no way of retrieving anything from the deletion file box. She motions for the commander to look at the screen and see what was missing. After a minute of scanning, his chocolate eyes widen.

"Christ," he mutters, "They have the location lists…all of them."

That explains why the assault was so heavy. Markus wanted to get that information. The furious redhead storms over to the captured woman, air and papers flying around her. Grabbing her by her neck, she slams the wounded woman in the wall. Clawing and grasping at her hand, the woman just laughs and says that the information is already out; that they were too late. Ally's grip tightens for a moment, and then she drops her. Clenching and unclenching her fists, the Airbender moves her pointer finger in a circle, telling them to wrap up whatever they were doing. She stalks out of the room and heads towards the medical room after being pointed to it. The small room is full of injured soldiers, but most are looking at Zumi. The Origin Unit was supposed to be immortal, unable to get hurt by anything. These people can take down mobile suits in a single pairs! Yet, here is one of them lying on an infirmary table knocked cold with a horrid burn on her arm.

Kit comes over to Ally and whispers in her ear that they don't have enough equipment for Zumi; that too many soldiers were injured and it would be better to take her back to the base. She nods to her friend and asks if she might go into shock. When Kit doesn't give an answer, Ally leaves the room and heads back outside to the set line. Zumi has been through many things and has come out with her skin at her teeth, but lightning is not on the list. Hailey turns a questioning glance at her and as she passes the Earthbender, relays that Zumi was gravely injured. Bending up to Wufei's suit, she taps on his head again and he opens the hatch.

"You're heading back early," she says, "Zumi's been hurt and needs medical attention."

"You want to split the forces?"

"You've been shot with lightning before?" she snips at him with her hands on her hips, "I know that it's splitting forces, but I'm not letting her die here. Not for something so…stupid."

"Lightning?"

"No time to explain," she says, holing up a hand and looking outside the hatch, "Hailey and Hana are going back with you."

Said people with Zumi appear in their line of vision on a pillar of rock. Zumi hangs limply in their collective grips. Ally trades spots with the trio so they could get situated. Hana uncorks a canteen of water she brought from the medical ward and immediately begins to work on her arm, allowing Wufei to see the full view of the scorched and ripped flesh.

"Tell him what you may," Ally says, pulling some of the Chinese man's attention away from the fiery Hispanic woman, "We'll clean this as soon as we can."

With that, she sweeps herself in the air again and goes to Heero to let him know the current situation. Not waiting for someone to tell him, Wufei takes off towards the base again, following Hailey's directions. They always take different ways back, even with injuries. Though, they are taking a shorter way to get back. Every few moments Wufei glances at Zumi, who is still motionless. Shaking his head, he does his best to concentrate on getting back to the base. Hana mutters a curse and removes Zumi's mask. The Firebender is sent into a fit of spasms, obviously in shock. This means that her body temperature is dropping; making her more susceptible to cold temperature and her blood is slowing down. Hana gathers her in a hug as much as possible to give her companion body heat. Hailey also helps out, wrapping her arms around Hana. Wufei grips the control sticks tighter, in anger. From what, he's unsure. Is he angry at the person who hurt her? That she was stupid enough to get an injury on a very simple mission? That he can't do anything about it? He just can't answer himself. Hailey jumps onto the ground after Wufei lands a few feet away from where and opens the hatch. She quickly opens the earthen walls and Wufei gently lowers the suit in with practice ease. Hailey closes the ceiling and shoots a pillar up for Wufei and Hana to step on. The Chinese man insists on carrying the injured and still shaking Firebender down to the med ward.

Running past the Control Room to a more hidden corridor, Hana opens the door wide while tugging off her mask. She directs Wufei to a medical bed to lay Zumi down. Both Hailey and Hana wash their hands and tug up their sleeves. Hailey gathers clean water while Hana takes a needle and fills it with a clear liquid from a medicine bottle. Rubbing a spot clean with an alcohol wipe, Hana slips the needle into Zumi's vein and slowly pushes the plunger.

"Wufei," Hailey says, startling the man a little, "Go back to the hanger and let me know when Heero is outside so I can let him in."

She's giving him an excuse to not see the Firebender like this. He takes it with a silent nod and walks back to the hanger. Wufei has been feeling exclusion from this supposed war for the last three months or so. Before, it didn't seem like there was a war. For some strange reason, here he was stuck with his old Gundam pilots and with these five other women with odd abilities. Now that something as actually happened, it seems the idea of war is finally crashing down on him. The first thing that made him realize this was not going off and having a small mobile suit battle or seeing the benders take one down. It was Zumi being hit; a casualty. That's what wars are about; people getting hurt or killed.

The water in a drum near the door flops up twice, pauses and flops once more. That must be Kit above. Wufei jogs back to medical room and knocks on the door. Hailey comes to it and rushes past Wufei. He stares at the Earthbender, trying to keep his attention from the room on his right side. Unable to control himself, his onyx eyes are locked to the stilled frame. Hana frets over some other bottles and checks her pulse, feeling that it's back to normal. Her and Hailey changed Zumi into a clean sleeping gown they keep in some cabinets. Shifting her pale green eyes at the Chinese man, she smiles at him.

"She'll be fine," she says, motioning for him to come in, "This woman has the luck of the devil with her. She should wake up sometime tonight, perhaps earlier. Don't look so worried."

"I'm not worried," he says with a half-hearted voice.

"Sure. Would you look after her? I need to change out of these clothes and into some cleaner ones."

He mutely nods. Just as Hana reaches the doorway, Ally and everyone else comes in. The Airbender stops her friend from leaving with a hand and a grave look.

"How is she?" Kit asks, looking at Zumi.

"Fine," Hana responds, "Even if the shot was close, that other woman didn't have enough power to shock her dead. She should wake soon."

"How did she shoot lightning?" Trowa asks, sitting down on a chair.

"Some Firebenders, if strong enough and well focused, will have the ability to conduct lightning," Hailey explains, "Fire is the element of raw power, even compared to earth."

"There is another problem," Ally mutters, tugging off her mask and skull cap, "As we speak Markus probably has our entire location list. This means our place is somewhat compromised. Each of the locations is hidden enough in different ways that some might not even be found. However, I want this place clean-swept and packed to leave at a moment's notice. I'm going to send out a mass message letting the other bases know the situation and to tell them to do what is best."

"Wouldn't you tell them to leave or something?" Duo asks, Quatre nodding in agreement.

"I'm not their commanding officer," she answers and leaves.

Most people leave to do as they're told, but Wufei stays behind to watch over Zumi. Kit shakes her head, knowing he cares more than he knows. Whether any of them would like to admit, every person has bonded with one another somehow. Quickly moving towards her room, Heero walks beside her.

"There are some things you haven't told us," he comments, "The Origin Unit? Ally isn't the head of the chain of command?"

"We were the first ones to start this whole thing," she answers, walking into her room and tossing her mask on her bed, "Or, better yet, we are the predecessors who were trained to take these positions. This unit used to be much bigger than just us five. Before, this unit was led by the last Avatar. A bad battle happened and tore down the unit numbers. After that, we became an elite group that is only used in emergencies and in large projects or large missions. We're sort of the rogue unit; the out cost."

"Who do you report to then?"

"…To the last Avatar."

"You said that he was captured and killed."

"We talk to his spirit from the Spirit World," she says, turning to shoo him out of her room, "Go pack."

She gently shuts the door, leaving 01 very confused in the stone hallway. Trowa walks by and pauses to pat his friend's shoulder before going past him. Truthfully, all the pilots are little unnerved at what has happened. When the war ended and the Gundams were destroyed, none of them thought they'd be in a situation like this. Trowa continues to head towards his quite room to pack what little he brought. He knows it's useless to ask the women why they were chosen to be dragged back into a war. They were the most qualified under Une's command. Of course they would go. It's been bred in every one of them, even Quatre. He stops in front of an opened door, where he watches Hailey move around her room, packing things and taking pictures down.

"You can come in, you know," she says, separating a large painting of a forest from other smaller framed pieces.

He walks into the room and a thought enters 03's mind.

"What will happen to this place if we have to leave?"

"We'll take the basic hardcopies of our information, since the other safe houses have the info we already have here, hard drives of the Brain, our own stuff and that's about it."

"What if they find a way in here and trace us?"

"Please," she says, turning around to grin at him, "They'll have to go through a shit load of solid rock. When we leave, Zumi scorches the place, then either Hana or Kit washes it out and I slam it shut under a lot of hard rock. There'll be nothing to detect above and I've yet to find an Earthbender that can see earth the way I do."

"Ally won't have a physical regrouping of forces. I know that just from the way she thinks," he mutters, more to himself, "She'll probably send out a mass message again or something along those lines."

"Something like that," she answers, opening a desk draw and going through it, "The message she already sent out is not only about information, but a five day rule that if a unit doesn't return an answer within five days, we assume they're P.O.W.s or M.I.A.s. All of them are probably too busy running around like we are to reply. There is one slight problem, though."

"What is that?"

"The other safe houses that we have are kind of small and only made for five or six people at best," she answers, going through the next draw and pulling out a grey, old beaten notebook, "We made this place when we were all around eighteen or so as a type of long lasting base. The others are above ground or in the air, depending on where Ally decides to take us. I can't do much in the air and the underground work for another base like this one would take too long considering we may move again."

"That does pose a type of problem, but I don't recommend splitting up unless it's an absolute necessary."

She nods in agreement and takes a seat on her desk chair. A chuckle escapes her thick lips.

"This is the most I've ever heard you talk," she comments with a grin, "Maybe we should have dire situations more often."

He smiles at that and shakes his head. The two continue to talk for a little until Hailey decides she has all the important things stuffed in a duffle bag along with some random bits of clothing. Hailey knows that she'll be sleeping in her mission gear. She shakes her head with a small sigh. The girls hadn't been able to stay in one place for nearly their entire lives. This safe house has been their home for the last three years or so. It took nearly two years to establish this set up. Though each woman understands the importance of leaving, she knows that they will all miss this hole in the rock.

"Do you have anyone back home, Trowa?"

"My sister, Catherine."

"I suppose she wasn't happy to see you leave," she mummers, tossing her duffle bag next to the door.

"Why would you say that?"

"You guys have little to no family," she says with a shrug, "Quatre is the only one with a large family and I have a feeling Heero doesn't have one. Families are an important thing to have. How you'd you feel if she went off to do something dangerous?"

He looks down to his laced fingers. A new weight pulls the soft bed down. He looks next to himself and sees her sitting near him, looking around her blank walls.

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?" she asks, looking at him.

"I know that the women are family to you, yet they put themselves in danger all the time."

"I do what your sister does. Endure and hope. Ideally, we all know what risks we're taking and that it's our own separate choices. Good thing we aren't ideally correct. Who could be?"

"Heero tired," he quietly blurts. He startles himself. That was very uncharacteristic of him.

"Ally tired that too," Hailey answers with a sad grin, "Nearly killed her mental state. I guess Heero was suicidal, too."

She laughs quietly with a broader grin and says, "Actually, we all tried to live like that. It was Hana that snapped us out of living like that. She was the one that questioned whether we were to survive or live. In the end, we chose to live when we can and survive when we have to."

"I suppose no one can lose that mechanical part of themselves completely," he comments, looking at the blank walls.

"Nope. You can just coincide with it," she says and nudges him, "You need to get your stuff ready."

He nods and leaves the Earthbender to her room. Her smile drops as soon as his footsteps fade. It's disturbing how similar she and the women are to these men. Even after all the things they went through, the men still have more freedom than the women. After all, Benders don't exist anymore.

Quatre is a little unsure what to do now that he has his belongings packed. With the way Kit and the others were acting, it seemed like they should be leaving any moment now. To try and kills some tense time, he wanders around. He comes to the Control Room, seeing the door wide opened. He wouldn't break the women's rule about being in this room by himself, but he does come to the doorway to just look in. He sees the redhead sitting with one leg bent on the seat and her head in her hand while the other arm hangs limply. Her mask and skullcap is laid beside her on an empty space on the desk. Hesitating at the doorway, Quatre enters the room and clears his throat. She glances at him for a moment, and then goes back to her position.

"Are you alright?" he asks in a soft voice.

"Just tired," she says, tapping a letter on the keyboard. The computer is off.

"You seem to be a little stressed," he presses, "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Not really. I appreciate the concern, but there's nothing anyone can do for right now," she says and glances at him again, "I suppose you're on edge too."

"A little, yes," he says with a sheepish smile, "With the way things were going, I thought we'd leave immediately."

"That's something Markus would want us to do," she mummers, leaning back in her chair, "He knows that the fact that he has our list will make some of us jump out of the water, or in our case, earth. I'm worried about other units jumping the gun too soon. Markus is a crazy son of a bitch, but he's no idiot. He knows that this basic tactic will draw some of the flimsier forces out, so he may wait for a little before sending out forces."

"You seem to know this man pretty well," he comments, taking a chair.

"We've been trained to," she mutters with an uncaring shrug.

"It seems to be a little more than that."

She looks over to him and his aquamarine eyes lock on her own blue ones.

"There was a personal…interface between us," she nearly whispers, "It wasn't a good experience to say the least."

The two sit in silence. Quatre knows not to say that he's sorry. If these women are anything like he believes, hard and enduring, hearing someone say they're sorry for them will just make her angry and resentful to him. He would be the same way, if only polite about it. The concern would be appreciated at one point.

"There is a small bit of an optimistic side to this whole thing," she says, shaking him from his thoughts, "They may not be able to detect us. After all, we're in an area that looks completely useless and we should be far enough under the earth to avoid electronic detection. If they have someone that can listen to the earth as well as Hailey can, we're fucked."

"Perhaps they will not notice us," he says with a small smile.

"I hope so," she says, getting up and going though the files along with three small black cases that are hard drives to the computer.

Wufei wants to kick himself in the head right now. He has all his possessions packed and only a few changes of clothes. Everything he needed to get done is, well, done. So, why is he here in the infirmary, standing in the doorway and watching Zumi sleep? He has no logical answer as to why he is here. The woman is stable and should wake up soon, not to mention her other friends have all her things packed and ready next to her bed. What is the purpose of his presence here? He walks through the doorway and leans on the wall next to it, crossing his arms. His body seems to want to go next to her bed, but he knows that she's fine; that she'll wake up soon. Yet, seeing her exhausted face and still body, besides her breathing, makes him feel…incredibly worried.

He can't remember feeling like this for many people; not even the pilots since he knows that they take their risks. The only other person that comes to his mind is Meilan or Nataku, his late wife when he was forced to marry her at the age of thirteen for the clan. Even then, somehow, someway, this woman who will live seems to have a little more meaning than Meilan. …No. They both have the same amount of meaning but in different places; places Wufei doesn't seem to quite understand.

"Ow."

He snaps his head up and looks to the Firebender who is squirming a little in bed. He walks over to her and tries to calm her down.

"Wufei?" she asks, squinting her eyes, "What happened? Where are we?"

"You were shot with lightening," he explains in a quiet voice, "We're back at the base."

"Have I been out for long?"

"Not really, but there is a problem."

"Great. What is it?"

"Markus has the list of all the bases," he says, taking a seat in the chair next to the bed, "We have all our things packed, including your things and we're just waiting for the orders to leave."

"Shit," she says slowly, running her good hand through her tangled hair, "That's not good at all. Ally's probably having a bit of a fit in her mind."

Some silence passes between the two, Wufei staring at the edge of the bed while she stares at the wall in front of her.

"Wait a minute," Zumi says, sitting up some, "Why in the hell are you here? I figured one of the girls or Quatre would be here, but not you."

"I…was…uh, told to…"

"You my Chinese friend are a shit liar," she says, pointing a finger towards him, "Which by the way doesn't make any sense."

He glares at her and a slow grin starts to form on her face.

"You like me," she says in a singsong voice, "You want to hold me, you want to hug me, you want to love me."

"Stupid woman!" he nearly yells and leaves the room, Zumi's laughter following behind him.