Chapter Six
First Meetings

Commander Une, head of Preventer was running on little sleep, and coffee was currently becoming her best friend. She had received the not-so-complete report from Yuy. There was still a lot of missing information. But it was something she had already known since everyone returned to HQ. Roaming the building, Une had found Sally working in one of the labs in the medical facility. Sally had not divulged too much information on what she was working on, but she did state that Trowa had found a female at the base and that he had brought her back with them. Sally must have known she couldn't hide this from her because Sally had told her to come back in a few hours and that she'd explain more once she ran some tests. Une was going to question her further but saw the pleading look in her friend's eyes.

It had been several hours later and after a very short nap, Une was making her way back down to the medical facility to speak with Sally. Heero had indicated that he had not spoken to Trowa yet in the report. Une had hoped that Trowa was still in the building and that she could speak with him as well as Sally.

Une had checked Sally's office once she made it to the lower levels of HQ. She frowned when she didn't find her there. Deciding to go down another level and check the labs again. She was hoping maybe Sally was still here working or if anything she was sleeping in her second office. Making her way down another level of the building, she started walking down the hallway when she noticed Sally stepping out of one of the rooms towards the end.

"Po," Une addressed her. Sally turned her head, her face losing color as they locked eyes.

"Commander Une, I apologize for not coming to see you sooner. I was...uh…" Sally trailed off. Une raised an eyebrow as she came to stand next to her.

"Is the girl that Barton brought in here?" Une asked, pointing to the door Sally had just come out of.

"Y-yes, she's in there with Trowa," Sally stumbled over her words.

"Barton is in there as well?" Une raised her eyebrow again. Sally was acting strangely not to mention the fact Trowa was with the girl he had found. "Well, at least I can kill two birds with one stone," Une said as she moved past Sally to enter the room.

"Une, I think we should talk before you go in there-" Sally's words fell on deaf ears as Une waved her off. Une stepped into the room turning to locate the two in question. She found two people sitting in chairs looking directly at her. One was Barton and the other was…

Une's eyes went wide as she stopped dead in her tracks. The girl that Trowa had brought in and that Sally had been tending to was almost the spitting image of Heero Yuy. Dark brown hair and dark blue eyes looked at her with intensity.

"This is why I wanted to speak with you before you came in," Sally whispered from behind her. Une turned to look at Sally, her expression was a mix of regret and worry.

"Commander Une?" a voice questioned. Une turned her head back and noticed the girl was now standing along with Trowa. "I figured it was only a matter of time before we met. Though it doesn't appear that you were fully informed of my presence before your visit."

Une could only gape at the girl. Hard blue eyes met her wide brown ones. She looked just like him. The way she carried herself, the way she was looking at her. It was all Heero. Sally cleared her throat, gaining Une's attention.

"Maybe you should sit down. We can go over everything," Sally said. Une nodded her head. Collecting herself, there was no time to be staring at the girl like she was a deer in headlights. She needed to get to the bottom of this. Sally had answers and so didn't the girl.

"Serena Lowell, Commander," Serena said, meeting Une's eyes as Une came to stand in front of the girl. Serena motioned to the chair Trowa had been occupying as he moved to stand behind her. After Une was seated in the chair, Serena sat back down herself.

"Under normal circumstances, it would be a pleasure to meet you. Though these are not normal circumstances," Une said before turning to Sally. "Are those the results of your findings, Po?"

Sally nodded her head, handing over the folder. Une kept her composer as she read quickly over the findings. There was a lot to take in, from the DNA reports to the scans. She looked briefly at Sally's notes which didn't hold much information. After minutes of silence, Une turned her attention back to Serena who was sitting still. Her expression betrayed nothing of what she was thinking. Une knew for the most part how to deal with Heero but this was another playing field. She knew nothing of Serena's personality or even any of her intentions.

"Do you have anything to add to what Agent Po has already written thus far?"

"I haven't decided yet," Serena said.

"This isn't a joking matter Ms. Lowell. Considering the circumstances I advise you that withholding any information may cause you more harm than good. If we have to, we will interrogate you."

"Isn't this already an interrogation? Not to mention you honestly think interrogating me is going to get you any more answers?" Serena asked with a raised eyebrow.

She's just like Yuy. Une thought to herself.

Sighing inwardly, Une decided she didn't have time to play games with the girl. She needed to speak with Trowa and even if Serena had information, it didn't look like she was going to be giving it up anytime soon.

"Agent Po, do we have a room in which our guest can stay while recovering?" Une asked, turning to face Sally.

"We can arrange something. Anything specific you'd like?"

"One where we know she won't be getting out any time soon," Une turned back to look at Serena as she spoke, "currently I don't trust you, though I'm sure you're well aware of that. While you haven't done anything as of yet, I will be keeping an eye on you. When you're ready to start explaining some things you may let someone know. Until then you will be heavily guarded and if you try anything, and I mean anything, I will be forced to take action," Une stood up once she was finished. Serena stood up, smirking at her.

"There's a flash drive from the base in the pocket of my jacket. The information is heavily encrypted. I suggest you get some of your agents on it. I don't know what information it holds but I suppose I probably won't be finding out considering I'm handing it over to you."

Une stared at her for a moment before nodding her head. She turned to address Trowa, "Agent Barton, I need to speak with you."

Heero slowly woke up feeling stiff. Sleeping on his desk wasn't the greatest idea he had in a while. Standing up and stretching his body, hoping the aches he was feeling would go away by doing so, he heard his phone go off. Grabbing his phone off his desk, he saw another text from Relena.

I hope everything is okay. Let me know when you're back. - R

He was about to respond to her when his office phone rang. Sighing, he put down his cellphone and picked up his office phone. "Agent Yuy," he said in a monotone voice.

"Yuy, it's Une. I have two flash drives with encrypted information on them that I need you to work on. The information may help us with this rebel group. I also spoke with Barton already…"

Heero knitted his brows as he listened. Une had spoken with Trowa already but where did the second flash drive come from? Trowa only had one on him when they went into the building. Heero was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the rest of what Une was saying.

"Yuy?"

"Yeah, it's not a problem," he said, going with the last thing he remembered her asking him.

"Good, I hope you understand and I expect you to start working on this right away. We need all the information we can get."

Une ended the call and Heero wasn't sure what to make of it. Grabbing his regular Preventer jacket, he left his office in search of Barton. His phone lay forgotten on his desk. He needed to get to the bottom of a few things before he worked on cracking the encryptions on the flash drives.

Heero headed for the Medical Facility. Something told him he'd find the answer to his questions down there. Instead of taking the elevators which were causing him problems someone usually stopped him before he could get to his destination. He took the stairs down to the lower levels of HQ. He passed by the first level door which would take him to the main part of the facility, instead, he continued down another level where the labs were. He figured his best chance at finding someone was going to be on this floor. Pushing open the door he spotted Sally leaving one of the rooms. She looked up and stopped dead in her tracks. A surprised and worried expression on her face.

The last person Sally wanted to see was Heero. She had already dealt with Une but Heero… he was a whole other problem. Once Trowa was done speaking to Une, he had told her that they would be keeping Serena's identity a secret, only on a need-to-know basis for the time being. Especially from Heero. They didn't know how he would react to seeing her. Not to mention at the moment, Sally was all alone. Trowa had left to go find a change of clothes for Serena since her clothes were ruined from the night before. Along with some food. He somehow convinced Une to let him stay and watch over Serena till they could set up a permanent guard to watch over her while she was staying at HQ.

They had moved Serena to a more comfortable room. While they had a few labs on this level of the building, they also had some recovery rooms for those with severe injuries. Plus the added bounce of an OR as well. The room had monitors in it so they could keep an eye on her but allowed her to have the necessities one would need. The door to the room also required a special key card, so not just anyone could enter or exit the room. Which meant it'd be harder for Serena to leave. Though Sally still doubted she couldn't find a way out if she truly wanted to.

Sally swallowed as Heero approached her. A determined look in his eyes. They look so much alike, it's still crazy. She thought to herself.

"Have you seen Barton?" Heero asked as he came to stand in front of her. Sally eyed him closely, Heero looked like hell and his already unruly hair was even worse than it normally was.

"You look like shit, have you slept at all?" Sally asked him. Heero regarded her with a blank stare.

"I'll ask you again, have you seen Barton?" Sally sighed, Heero may be tired but he wasn't being deterred from his plans to find Trowa.

"Yeah, he just left a little while ago. I can let him know you're looking for him."

"Is the girl in that room?" Heero asked, tilting his head to indicate the door.

Sally's eyes widened. She knew at that moment she couldn't hide Serena from Heero. She knew eventually the two would meet, but it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since Serena had been brought to HQ.

Heero watched as Sally went from shocked to nervous. She was hiding something and he wasn't in the mood to play games. Pushing past her, he walked to the door swiping his key card to allow him access to the room. He had purposely reprogrammed his card so he could enter any room without limitations. Sally tried to stop him as she pleaded with him that the girl needed to rest but Heero brushed her off as he entered the room.

His eyes scanned the room before landing on the bed. Dark brown hair fell down the girl's back. Her hands were on either side of her. He couldn't see her face but from where he stood she looked perfectly fine. She was sitting up with her legs over the edge of the bed. He was about to question Sally as he turned his head towards her when a voice reached his ears.

A/N

And then there were SIX!

I'm going to stop here for now. If you read this the first time around, then you know what was said at the end here. But for those of you who are reading this for the first time, you will have to wait. But fear not, because chapter seven will come very soon. and maybe now is a good time to let you all know this story has 71 total chapters. I'm not sorry. Enjoy, thank you for reading and the fun has only begun.

-MM