Chapter Five
Identity Confirmed

Trowa slowly woke up feeling an ache in his back and neck. At first, he wasn't sure where he was, or why he was sitting in a chair as his senses started to come back to him. He knew after a moment that he must have dozed off at some point as his brain started to fill in missing pieces. Lifting his head, he came face to face with a pair of deep blue eyes. Surprised that she was even awake, he continued to stare at her. Her head was turned on the small flat pillow. There was a slightly confused look on her face before it quickly disappeared into a glare. Even with her glaring at him, she was attractive in his eyes.

"You're awake," Trowa said, mentally shaking himself. Slowly the glare turned into a smirk on her face.

"Where am I?" She asked him. Trowa was taken aback, her voice sounded so innocent.

"Preventer's," he replied. It was a simple answer but he didn't know how much he should disclose to her. "You were wounded so we brought you back here to receive medical care." Her eyes hardened as the smirk disappeared from her face.

"You should've left me. Bringing me here will only cause you more problems than it's worth, Trowa Barton," her voice changed to a darker tone as she abruptly turned her face away from him. Trowa's eyes grew wide. She knew who he was?

"How did you know-"

"I'm well aware of who you are," she said, cutting him off. Turning her head back to face him. "Does it matter how? Or why? I'm nothing more than a ghost. I don't exist in this world."

"I don't understand," Trowa frowned to himself, trying to understand what she was getting at.

"You wouldn't. You were never to know that I existed. No one was ever supposed to see me."

"That doesn't make any sense," Trowa said, taking on a defensive tone himself. "If that's the case then why were you at that base last night?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," she chuckled lightly. "Why was Preventer there?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Doing our jobs," he shot back. Crossing his arms back over his chest. He wondered what he was getting into with her.

"Then you and I are on the same page. I was also doing my job."

"What does your job entail then?" Trowa hardened his eyes at her.

"Oh, Trowa," she said with an airy laugh. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you and we wouldn't want that now would we?" She asked, making her voice sound more seductive.

"I'd like to see you try," Trowa said as he raised an eyebrow at her. It wasn't like she could do anything. The next thing he knew, a hand came flying at him. He didn't even have time to react as the hand stopped right in front of his face. Trowa didn't flinch though as he looked up from her hand to her face where a smirk had once again graced her lips.

"Do I need to show you more? Or are you satisfied?" She asked with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Trowa could only stare at her, as she pulled back her hand. She didn't hit him. She was capable of it, there was no doubt about it, but she didn't do it. Then he noticed as she was pulling away from him that her wrist was bleeding. Without thinking he grabbed her hand, bringing it closer to examine.

"You're bleeding."

"It's fine."

Trowa held onto her hand as their eyes locked. He noticed the questioning look on her face right before she schooled her features. But something had flashed in her eyes. Against his better judgment, he let go of her hand slowly.

"Let me help you."

He stood up, starting to undo the other strap holding her other arm down, then he moved to her legs, undoing both of the straps that held her legs down against the exam table. When he looked up he noticed she was half sitting up watching him carefully. The dressing gown she was wearing was starting to fall off her shoulder, revealing the bandages wrapped around her shoulder. He moved back to her side and offered her a hand to help bring her fully up into a sitting position. She looked at his offering hand for a moment, then slowly she brought her eyes back up to his. He saw the doubt and the questions flash through her eyes.

"Trust me, I'm not going to hurt you. Let me help you," he spoke softly to her. After a few moments, she slowly moved her hand and grasped his. Trowa helped pull her up, while she swung her legs over the sides. Wincing as she did so, likely from the sudden movement.

"Let me get something for your wrist," Trowa said as he walked away. He began rummaging through drawers in the medicine cabinet to find anything he could clean her wrist with. After a few minutes, he finally found some gauze, a bandage wrap, and some alcohol to clean the cut with. Coming back to the exam table he sat down next to her, laying the items out. Trowa lifted his hand, waiting for her to give him hers. She obliged, but he could feel her eyes on him. She watched him as he cleaned the blood away, looking at the damage she caused by ripping the restraint.

They were silent while he tended to her wound, but it was almost a comfortable silence. He felt at ease being around her which struck him as odd after their early encounter. She wasn't resisting his help, even though she wasn't speaking to him. She seemed calm for the most part. He noticed a few times she looked around the room, but her eyes would return to what he was doing. She wasn't sitting as rigid as she had been, and she seemed to have relaxed a little more.

Enjoying the silence, it finally dawned on him. He had yet to ask one of the most important questions he had for her. Once her wrist was cleaned and wrapped. Trowa turned to her fully.

"You know, there's one thing I haven't asked you yet," he said, her brow lifted as her eyes came up to meet him. "You know my name, but I don't know yours." She responded with a smirk before she leaned toward him.

Heero had spent most of the early morning hours in the interrogation rooms with either Maxwell or Chang. Chang was easier to work with and Heero pretty much sat back listening while Wufei asked the questions. Maxwell was a different story. While at times Duo could be very good at interrogations, today was not going to be one of those days. Heero had to step in several times to ask the right questions.

Heero had been going back and forth between the four men. They weren't giving up much information. All four claimed they knew nothing about what was going on, that they were just paid to stand watch over the building for the night. No matter how many times they asked or how they asked the questions, the answers were always the same.

Heero was starting to think it may have been a trap of some kind. Why place untrained men in a building rigged with explosives? It did however make sense as to why they were acting the way they were when they left. The men were running about frantically because they had no idea the place was going to be eliminated while they were just "being paid to watch over it." Not to mention the two who had taken a pretty good beating from someone. Heero had a pretty good idea of who that person may have been. Based on the description that both men had given them.

Ranking a hand through his unruly hair, Heero tried to figure out the missing pieces. The four men they had were useless and he wasn't even sure what to do with them. While they did cave and told them everything they knew, they, unfortunately, didn't know enough to help them.

Not even those who hired them. No names were given and they couldn't even describe what the guy or guys who hired them looked like. As of that moment they had nothing. They were still in the same boat they had been in before the mission had even happened. Heero didn't even know if Trowa had gotten any information. He had yet to speak with him and didn't even know if he was still in the building.

He knew he needed to go find Trowa, and that he needed to get the hell out of the small office the three of them had been in for the last hour or so. Duo had passed out on the small couch the second they had stepped into the office. Wufei has been working hard but it was evident he was slowly fading as well. His typing had become sluggish the last half hour and Heero noticed he was having a hard time looking at the screen of his laptop.

Heero knew he didn't look any better. He had no doubt that his eyes were red and the bags under his eyes were probably just as bad. He quickly finished typing up his report, sending it off to Une. Shutting his laptop he looked over to Wufei who was slowly starting to doze off in his chair. They had been up for over twenty-four hours and while this wasn't something they couldn't handle, it had been a long time since they needed to be up this long. Most of the time they were able to take shifts so they could get some rest if they were going to be on a long mission but this one they didn't get that luxury.

Standing up, Heero decided it was time to leave, at least to get some rest. While the full report for Une wasn't done, he at least sent her something. He would find Trowa later and he hoped that Trowa was able to get some information off of the computers that they could use. For now, he just wanted to go somewhere to sleep like Duo currently was.

Heero looked back over to Wufei who had woken up enough to acknowledge him.

"I think it's time we get some sleep. I sent a report to Une. There's not much we can do right now nor do we have enough information."

Wufei only nodded his head as he stood up. He looked around and found Maxwell still asleep on the couch. Tilting his head towards him, "are we going to leave him or wake him?"

"Just leave him. Go find somewhere to sleep and we'll meet up later sometime. I still need to speak with Trowa and see if he got any information," Heero said as he gathered his things.

"Let's hope Barton found something. We have nothing, which leaves us exactly where we were before this mission."

"Hm," Heero grunted in response.

Both had gone their separate ways once leaving the small office. Heero knew Wufei would crash in one of the overnight rooms, and he planned to do the same. There was no point in driving home just to return in a few hours. But he wanted to stop by his office first before heading to one of the rooms.

Once inside his office, he made his way over to his desk. Sitting down in the leather chair, he pulled out a cellphone that was in the top drawer of the desk. Checking his messages he saw that he only had one.

Heero read through it before setting the phone down on his desk, his eyes heavy with sleep. He figured he could respond later after he had gotten some rest. Laying his arms on the desk he placed his head down. Slowly letting the exhaustion take over him, he let his eyes close.

His last thoughts were on the message that was sent to him. She was always worried about him, always checking in just to make sure he came back to her safely.

Please let me know when you get back.

-R

Sally walked in to see the two sitting rather close to each other on the exam table. There were mere inches apart from each other and at that moment, she didn't know what to make of the situation. The two quickly looked up to see her standing in the doorway. Trowa was the first to move, almost jumping off the exam table to stand. The girl narrowed her eyes at Sally.

After what seemed like minutes Sally finally found her barriers and stepped inside the room. Letting the door shut behind her. She held a folder in her hand and she knew she looked like shit. She was dead tired and the last thing she wanted to do was get to the bottom of what she had stumbled upon.

"I don't know what's going on here, and at the moment… I'm not sure I want to know," Sally heaved a heavy sigh. Everything over the last few hours was still a bit of a shock to her. Now the girl was awake and Sally didn't know what to do with her. Was she an enemy? Was she just an innocent bystander to all this? The likelihood of that was almost nil. So was she an ally? But the question was, could they trust her? Trowa seemed to trust her, though he had only met her a few hours before all this.

"Sally Po?"

"Huh?" A voice broke through her thoughts. Shaking her head, Sally tried to clear the jumbled thoughts. "Excuse me?"

"Sally Po, correct?" The girl asked again. Sally's mouth fell open as she stared at the girl. There was an unreadable expression on her face, but Sally knew she heard correctly. Looking over at Trowa, she noticed that Trowa seemed a little taken aback, but not as shocked as she was. Trowa shrugged when he looked at her.

"I am correct, am I not? You are Major Sally Po. You joined the Preventers as soon as the organization was established," the girl said matter-of-factly, gaining Sally's attention once again.

"How do you know that?"

"I know a lot more than you think I do," the girl said evenly. Sally opened her mouth to respond, but the girl held up a hand to stop her. "I already know you have taken blood samples and most likely have run my DNA. You have likely done a full body scan on me as well. So let me ask you this, Sally Po. Did you find the answers you were looking for in those results you're currently holding?"

Sally's jaw fell open again, if it could've hit the floor it would have.

"H-how?" Sally stuttered.

"You don't think I would be prepared for something like this? In the event Preventer ever got a hold of me?" The girl's face became impassive. "While ideally, I shouldn't be here. You shouldn't know that I exist, the reality is I am here. I'm not foolish enough to try and leave. Not only would they find me but I would be putting the agency at risk. For now, I'm safer being here and you're safer by keeping me here."

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked. Sally could only stare at her, either from lack of sleep at this point or from pure shock.

"What I'm saying is, if you're as smart as I believe you to be, you won't let me leave here for a while, at the very least," the girl said as she turned to face him. Her face was still unreadable.

"I don't understand how it would make a difference whether we keep you here or not?" Sally finally spoke. The girl shook her head.

"Whether you think I'm an enemy or an ally it makes no difference to me, but you'll understand in due time. Right now I think you're more interested in what you have in that folder," she said as she pointed to the folder that had been forgotten by Sally.

Sally looked down and then back up at the girl.

She hasn't moved. Is she planning something? Or is she being truthful? Normally the guys would have been fighting tooth and nail to leave the medical ward, but this girl was more than willing to stay. Or did she mean Preventer as a whole?

More questions were already starting to form in her head. Sally couldn't even begin to understand the girl and now she was even more confused than when she had started. Hardening her features, Sally decided to lay down some ground rules.

"Let me make this clear. You try anything and-" the girl held up a hand again to stop Sally from continuing.

"I don't plan to do anything. As I've already stated that I'm safer here for the time being. I have no plans of ruining that."

Chances are neither Trowa nor myself could probably stop her from walking out of here. But if she's willing to stay it's better to get this over with.

Sally sighed as she shook her head. Walking over to another chair, Sally grabbed it and started dragging it over to where Trowa and the girl were. Sitting down she motioned to the chair Trowa had been occupying earlier. The girl slid to the end of the table, stiffening when Trowa's hand grabbed her arm. The girl turned her head to Trowa, a questioning look on her face. It was the first time Sally had seen any real emotion from her. Sally said nothing, but she was surprised to see the girl allow Trowa to help her down and even move the chair so she could sit.

Sally sat, staring at the girl in front of her. Trowa had draped a blanket around her shoulders before moving to stand behind her. The girl showed no emotion, sitting perfectly still as she waited. Sighing Sally figure it'd be easier to start with the basics. Looking down at the folder she opened it, pulling out a notepad. Sally was about to start when the girl spoke first.

"Read the results then ask questions," the girl said as she crossed her arms over her chest, wincing as she did so. It was brief, but Sally saw it flash across her face.

"Fine, we'll start with the results," Sally said as she grabbed a sheet out of the folder. Closing it, she laid the sheet on top. Taking a deep breath, Sally looked up to meet the girl's eyes. Midnight blue looked back at her. There was no denying it.

"Female: age roughly between twenty and twenty-five years old. Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Height: 162 cm, weight: 52 kilograms. BMI is within the normal range. A physical exam was performed. Blood samples were taken as well. The physical exam showed scarring on various parts of the female's body. A CT-Scan was done and showed previous injuries, including multiple broken bones; all of which have healed as well as traces of past fractures. Currently, no broken bones were present at the time of the scan," Sally paused to look up at the girl. Her face was expressionless. Sally chanced a glance at Trowa who had his head bowed, his long bangs covering his face. Sally took another deep breath before she continued.

"DNA analysts concluded the female's DNA was found to be highly manipulated. It is unknown why such manipulation was done and to what extent would mean further testing. Based on the findings, it is believed the DNA was from one original donor. Some results were inconclusive at this time," Sally paused when she noticed Trowa lifting his head. They locked eyes for a moment but Sally was the first to break away, turning her eyes to the girl in front of her. A slow smile was starting to spread across her face.

"DNA analyst found one positive match to a relative in the database."

The room fell into silence. Trowa knew there was more information Sally wasn't sharing, based on the size of the folder she was holding. She had only taken out one page. Sally was meticulous when it came to her craft. She never half-assed anything, but why was she keeping everything so secretive? Was it because of the girl?

"You're a clone," Trowa finally voiced aloud. Slowly she turned her head up to look at him.

"Does that bother you?" She asked as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Trowa continued to stare at her. He wasn't sure what to think. Trying to take in all the information and yet he knew there was more. But her question rang loudly in his head. "Does that bother you?" She was still looking at him when Sally's voice broke through his thoughts.

"While I do have questions for you, let's start with this one," Trowa broke eye contact to look at Sally. "What is your name?" Trowa caught the smirk on her face as she turned to look back at Sally.

A/N

And theeeeen there were five, lol. Should I just go ahead and drop chapter six? Hmm.. I'll think about it. I would also like to take this time to shout out my friend who told me to just upload on here first, then go to AO3 because the formatting will be easier this way. Thank you, my friend. It is saving me from yelling at my screen every time I try and post over there.

-MM