Chapter Seventeen
New Respect

Heero had lost her after they fell through the trick floor. As he reached the first checkpoint the light was already on. Serena had made it there before him. Hitting the button himself to signal that he had reached it as well, he stopped to listen to see if he could hear anything. Everything was quiet around him. He wondered if she got stuck in another hidden trap. Deciding that it was best to keep moving, he took off running again. As he continued on his way he fell victim to a few more traps.

He had to climb another wall, hit a dead end, and finally, he had to find the hidden passageway through a four-wall room. Part of him was starting to get annoyed with the fact that he had hit so many. But also the fact that Serena was right. It was child's play. It was too easy to figure out how to solve the problem before moving on. Once he made it past the last trap, he entered the last room where he found Serena sitting on a platform smirking at him.

"Took you long enough," she said as she jumped down to join him. He walked up to the last checkpoint, hitting the button.

"How did you get here so fast?" He watched as she pointed up to the ceiling. As he looked up, he noticed the vent door open. Snapping his head back down he saw as her smirk widened. "You went through the vents?"

"Yeah, it was easier. Though I do recommend redoing the course. I saw several times where I could access the vents with ease. Not to mention, the course itself isn't that hard," Serena laughed.

Thinking it over, she was right.

"You used the wall to scale up to one of the openings," he said. It made sense. He had to climb the same wall, there was a vent placed close enough to open and climb in. That was why he never heard her. She had taken the easiest route and crawling could be done quietly enough. He watched as she smiled at him before turning to the door. The light had turned green, signaling that they could open it.

Duo was laughing when Heero and Serena returned. After she had disappeared, they had watched as she opened the vent to the last room, swinging herself down and onto the ground. Serena smiled at the camera as she hit the button, then climbed back up on a ledge to wait for Heero.

"I can't believe she did that!" Duo was in tears as he kept laughing. "Man, she leaves your ass in a hole then takes off to beat you timewise! She's currently holding the fastest time!"

"Sorry, Heero," Sally said as she tried not to laugh. "She does hold the current fastest time."

"You held the last one?" Serena asked as she came to stand next to him. Heero turned to look at her but said nothing in response.

"Here," both Heero and Serena swung their heads to see him holding two towels along with two water bottles. Accepting them, Heero moved to talk quietly with Sally.

"That was impressive," Trowa said.

"Huh?"

"You're quick on your feet."

"Oh, it wasn't hard to figure out. I could have gone through the hassle of maneuvering my way through, but the vent was just the smarter choice," she said, taking a sip of water. He was about to say something when the door opened to the control room for the course.

"What did you want Sally?" Wufei asked before he stopped dead in his tracks. He locked eyes with Serena for a moment before turning to look at Sally. "You called me here for this?" Trowa and Serena exchange looks. "Do you think I take jokes lightly?" Wufei asked as he made his way over to Sally.

"It's not a joke."

"Then explain her," Wufei said, pointing at Serena. "And the rest of you," he continued, looking each of them in the eyes, "knew about this all along?"

No one said anything till Serena started laughing.

"What makes this so funny?" Wufei yelled at her while crossing his arms over his chest. It only made Serena laugh harder. He glared at her before she turned away trying to control herself.

"Are you okay?" Trowa asked her quietly.

"Yeah… it's just-" she started to laugh again. "How could he not know something was going on? I mean Duo even figured it out!" She said while holding her stomach.

Trowa turned to look at Wufei who was anything but pleased, but then he too started to laugh. It made perfect sense. Out of all of them, Serena was right. Wufei should've known something was up before Duo even caught on.

"Barton, I expected better of you. And some of us do our jobs. Not running around, ignoring our duties," Wufei said before turning back to Sally. "Start explaining."

Trowa tried to calm himself as he looked at Sally who was trying not to laugh. Though the whole situation was pretty funny.

Sally seemed to pull herself together enough before she dove in to give Wufei the shortened version, which in the end didn't seem to make him any happier.

Wufei had gone off on all of them, including Serena who only laughed at him some more. When Sally asked if he would spar against Serena, he simply threatened Sally before telling her to have Duo do it. That he wasn't stupid enough to go up against Serena, not to mention he didn't spar against women, to begin with.

Which was true. Wufei never fought against female agents. It wasn't to be sexist but it was simply that he knew he was stronger and that could potentially lead to one of them getting hurt.

"Are you scared?" Serena asked after his rant ended.

"No, I'm not. I'm just not blind enough to see through that smile of yours."

"Then why not spar against me?" Serena placed her hands on her hips. "I don't bite."

"I don't spar with females," Wufei stated again.

"Then don't view me as one," she shot back.

"You're female, how do you suppose I do such a thing?"

"That is true, but you and I are on equal playing fields," Serena smirked at him. There was a long pause before Wufei spoke.

"Fine. But if you get hurt in any way, do not complain," Wufei said before walking past her. "I'll be in the gym."

Trowa looked around the room, everyone looked as shocked as he was that Serena had convinced Wufei to spar with her.

"What?" Serena asked when she made eye contact with everyone.

"You just got Wu to agree to something he NEVER does!" Duo said, throwing up his hands. "How the hell did you do that!?"

"He couldn't give me a good enough reason not to..." Serena said slowly, turning to look back at him. Her confusion was evident on her face. Trowa smiled softly at her.

"What the hell do you mean by that!?" Duo looked dumbfounded at her when Trowa swung his eyes back to him.

"What she's saying is, no matter how many times Wufei tried to reason his way out of it, none of the answers were good enough. He has no real excuse to say no to her," Trowa said.

He thought about it and it was clear from the brief conversation Serena had with Wufei, that no answer he gave her was ever going to be good enough. Serena was right, they were equal as far as their skills went. Wufei couldn't use his normal excuses of possibly hurting one of the female agents.

"Ah, yeah I guess that makes sense. Ha! Don't hurt him too badly, Rena. Don't want to bruise his ego. Though maybe I should warn him about your left hook," Duo said as he walked by her. Giving her a wink as he did so.

"If you keep calling me that, I'm going to show you my left hook," Serena muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Duo stopped, turning to face her before opening the door.

"Nothing, tell him whatever you want," Serena smiled at him before following Sally and Heero who had walked up behind him. Duo said nothing as he opened the door for them.

"That wasn't very nice," Trowa whispered playfully to her as they walked down the hallway that would lead them to a set of stairs that would take them up to the gym. Serena shrugged her shoulders before turning to smile at him.

Once they were back in the gym, they made their way over to the sparring mat. Wufei was standing in the middle waiting. His arms were crossed over his chest with his eyes closed. He had removed his Preventer jacket and shoes but chose not to change his clothes. Serena kicked off her shoes as she placed her towel and water down on a bench. She caught Trowa's eye before moving to the mat. She came to stand a few feet from Wufei.

"Any rules?"

"Standard," Wufei said without meeting her eyes. She nodded her head.

"No holding back?"

Wufei allowed a small smirk, "if that's what you want."

"Then come at me."

Wufei lifted his head to see her standing with one hand on her hip. She wasn't even in the proper defensive position.

"Well?" She asked. He watched her for a moment before taking his position. She still hadn't moved and he was starting to wonder what her tactic was. It wasn't until he initiated the match that he saw. She had dodged his attack before spinning herself around. Sending her right arm at him. He was able to move fast to block her hand with his arm as he sent his other fist at her.

Serena easily blocked him before turning herself to swing her leg to try and knock him off balance. She used the moment to send her elbow at him. Blocking her attack, he tried to get some space between them.

But she was good.

She kept them close as they went shot for shot. It wasn't until he tried to knock her off her feet that she did a backhand sprain dodging him. When she righted herself she took her defensive position smirking at him. She was able to anticipate each of his moves before they came. But she didn't give him enough time to think on the matter as she came at him again.

"What is she not good at? Seriously! And look at how flexible she is! Damn, I could never bend that far back," Duo had been making such comments the whole time.

Though It was interesting to watch. They were both equal to each other, but Heero noticed something that Duo had yet to comment on.

Serena had left her right side wide open several times. And Wufei had left his left side open. But Serena hadn't made any move to try and hit him. There was no way she hadn't noticed. Unless they were waiting for the other to make the first move. It didn't take much longer before he got his answer. Serena had swung her leg out. Causing Wufei to fall on his back.

Wufei stared up at Serena as she stood above him. She said nothing, holding out her hand to him. Wufei only glared at her. He didn't want her help.

"I'm honored you allowed me to spar with you, Wufei," she said. He looked at her confused for a moment before accepting her hand. She pulled him up into a standing position.

"Really," Serena said as they locked eyes. "I meant what I said. You're as good as I thought you'd be."

"Can I ask one thing?" He waited till she nodded her head. "Why did you leave your right side open?"

"Why did you leave your left side open?" Serena smirked at him.

"Fair enough," Wufei stood, taking a step back, bowing to her. When he stood up he watched as she did the same before they walked off the mat.

"That's it!?" Duo asked as they came closer. "No round two, no nothing!?"

"Maxwell, one round is good enough. She beat me. That's the end of it," Wufei said as he grabbed his jacket, putting his shoes back on. "Now if you don't mind. I need to return to my work. I suggest you all do the same."

Duo gaped at him before looking at her. Serena only shrugged. Trowa had returned with her sweatshirt and another water bottle as he came to stand next to them.

"Until next time, Chang," Serena said to him.

"Next time I won't go so easy on you, Lowell," Wufei offered her a rare smile before accepting the water from Trowa and making his way out of the gym.

A/N

Happy Monday part two. So finally Wufei has entered the picture. Wufei plays a weird and interesting role in the story. You'll find out as you read. But I had to make sure everyone gets involved... in some way. Others will come in later, so stay tuned for that. I can tell you that there's a part three to my posting today and that's because today is a sad/celebrate kind of day. Three years ago we sadly said goodbye to an amazing woman and while I'm trying very hard to put on a brave face, it still hurts. I don't think you ever truly get over the loss of a loved one. I also kind of stopped writing and lost all interest in hobbies I enjoyed around this time, so I debated posting more than one chapter, and I feel like I should. I owe it to myself and this amazing woman who I had the honor of calling Mom, even though she was not my mother. One thing I know for sure is that she wanted all of her kids and grandbabies to be happy and to continue to be happy. I'm very fortunate that I had twelve wonderful and amazing years with her and I know how blessed I was.

Okay enough sad stuff, sorry I got into my feelings for a moment and that's okay. On to part three of posting for a Monday!
-MM

P.S. To anyone who has ever lost a loved one, just remember they're always there with you, and sometimes the best thing to do is just to talk to them. May seem silly, but I can tell you that it does help.