"01, 01, its 03 calling, over" "03, we are receiving. What's the news, over" "I have a female in sight, carrying a large bag and some sort of small device, over" "05 here, can you identify the device, over" "Receiving 05, it's a detonation switch, over" Heero paused, taking in the information. They were going to blow up the conference hall, the bastards, and ruin the peace process. "03, what is your position, over" ". West internal balcony, third entrance. I'm concealed by the pillars, over" "01 confirming 03's position. Confirm the assassin position, over" "05 confirming position, she's on the north side, above the stage, over" "05 confirm position, over" "South side, first entrance on ground floor. Hey, isn't Duo supposed to be guarding Kitty?" "You're supposed to say over, over" "Sorry, over" "That's better," Trowa joked, "01, conform position, over" "I'll be at the east side in two minutes. 05, find 02 and get him back to work, over" "Yeah, and find out what 04 is playing at. The guests aren't even on guard, over" Wu-fei groaned and turned his back on the balcony. "05 signing off whilst going into civilian territory, over and out" Wu-fei said to himself and flicked the switch under his shirt. He jogged down the corridor back towards the hall. As he turned the corner towards the stairs, a young figure stepped out behind him. He tossed his thick silvery fringe off his forehead and clutched his blade tightly. "Chang," he hissed, "you're mine." Silent footsteps echoed behind the light pads of Wu-fei's sandals on the wooden floor.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Duo hit his head hard against the wall whilst silently reciting the Lord's Prayer. He felt a sudden sharp tap on the shoulder and turned quickly. He reeled backwards, his vision double and shook himself back to his senses. "Just the guy I was looking for!" he slurred. Wu-fei grabbed the collar of his shirt and began dragging him back towards the door of the hall. "One, you left Kitty all alone when there are assassins around," he spat in Duo's ear, "and two, why hasn't Quatre started the evacuation yet?" Duo blinked dumbly at Wu-fei and smiled sheepishly. Wu-fei growled and knocked Duo's head against the wall, still clutching his shirt. "Answer me!" Wu-fei barked, startling some guests who were milling around in the cool corridor. Duo squealed. "Kay, Ok!" he protested, and then sighed, "Quatre's being a prick, and Kitty's getting curious! You know I can't keep secrets!" Wu-fei groaned. "Fine," he said in exasperation, "since you are so utterly incompetent, I will go and get Kitty out of the way. I want you to get Quatre to start the evacuation, and then to go help Heero. Make sure Quatre gets out of the building, and if you can, check on Miss Relena. Once you're ready to help, turn on your link up and say, "02 reporting" and explain why you are helping instead of me. Got that?" Duo frowned. "You save the D.I.D, Quatre evacuates, I help Heero?" Wu-fei groaned. "That'll do. Now, get to it. If you have any problems with Quatre, kick him." Duo sniggered and jogged into the ballroom. Wu-fei groaned. Now he'd have to face Kitty, and this time he couldn't back out.

"Do it!" "No!" "Do it!" "Duo, I said no!" "Quatre go boom if he no do it! Do iiiiiiiiiit!" "Will you bloody well shut up if I do it?" ". maybe." "Promise me you will shut your trap and I'll do it, Duo." ". kay." "Say you promise." "You promise." "Duo!" Quatre growled. Duo sniggered at himself. "I promise, OK?" he sighed. Quatre nodded. "Good," he said, straightening out his suit as they stood in the corner. His fan club had desisted when Duo had turned up, prancing about like a drunkard. Quatre sighed heavy, puffed out his chest, and marched into the hall to the stage, where he stood by the steps, choosing his words. Duo frowned. "He'd better do it," he hissed to himself. He stood up on tiptoes and craned his neck. Relena was just walking out of the hall towards the stairway. "Ok, so she lives," Duo mumbled, ticking off his jobs in his head. He walked out of the hall and flicked the switch. "02 reporting for duty" he said clearly. There was no reply. After a few muffled noises, a familiar voice said "02, you're supposed to say over, over" Duo laughed. "Hey 03, I was starting to worry! Where's 01, over" "He'll make contact in a minute. He's planning out are attack on the bomb carrier. Did 05 give you your instructions, over" "Yeah. oops, over" "Then why aren't they evacuating, over" "04's by the stage right now. He's got a little stage fright, that's all, over" "We don't need stage fright," a familiar cold voice said, "we need an evacuation, over" "Nice of your to join us, 01, over" Duo chirped.

"Where's 05, over"

"Oh fine, don't welcome your old buddy! He's taking care of Kits. I couldn't handle the job, over" "So basically he wanted to baby-sit his crush, over" Trowa joked. Heero snorted.

"Are all the jobs done, 02, over"

"Of course they are! What do you take me for, over" "An American jackass, over" "Hey! Now that was just cold, 03, over" "Can we stop kidding about?" Heero hissed, "02, make your way to internal balcony entrance on the east side. Use the entrance closest to the north side. You're gonna be our decoy, over" "Whaddya mean decoy?" Duo squealed. "I get it," Trowa mused, "02, you enter through the north east entrance, and go to the balcony, watch what's going on. Keep the suspect occupied while 01 and I move in, over" Duo cursed under his breath. "Fine, I'll do it, but if I get bombed, shot or otherwise murdered in your absence, I'm gonna haunt you both! 02 over and out."

Kitty stood up from her padded seat as she watched Quatre climb up on to the stage. He clinked a ring on his finger against a glass. The entire hall froze and turned in his direction. Quatre swallowed hard. He glanced over to where Kitty was standing, her pale face taught with worry. She could sense something was wrong. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he said clearly, "it is my most sorry duty to ask you all to kindly exit the building." "What on earth?" Kitty whispered to herself as wails of fright erupted from the floor. "What's going on, Minister Winner?" a chorus asked. Quatre lifted his head a little. "There is a bomb scare on the building. I would like you all to stay very calm and file out of the building in an orderly manner." The main door of the hall burst open and a heavy-set figure stomped in. He drew a handgun from his pocket. "You've ruined everything, Winner," he barked. The crowd screamed and plunged out through the doors. Quatre froze on the stage, his hand twitching as it edged towards his gun holster. The man laughed. "You wouldn't dare," he spat, and twitched his gun angle. A young man snatched up Kitty round the neck, holding a gun to her head and she writhed. Quatre's face blanched. "Kitty!" he cried. He quickly withdrew his gun and aimed it at the larger man. "You dare do anything to her, and I'll." he began. "You do anything to me, Winner, and the pretty girl gets it," the man sneered. Kitty yelped and the boy clutched her throat tighter. Quatre growled deep in his throat. There was a sudden flash of white near Kitty and the boy let her go, drawing a long blade and lashing out with it. Kitty toppled forward and scrambled to her feet. She discarded her shoes and dived under a table, cowering. "Help!" she screamed. Quatre looked up. The man had gone, but the younger figure was still there, knife twitching in his grasp as he and another figure circled. It was Wu-fei, now slightly bent with the pain of a deep gash to his side. Quatre dashed towards Kitty. The youth's spare hand flew up, loading his handgun and fixing it on Quatre. "Move again, Winner, and I'll kill you," the young man growled. He turned his gaze back to Wu-fei and grinned. "I may have missed once, Chang, but I've got you this time," he smirked coldly. Wu-fei muttered in Chinese under his breath, obsidian eyes linked with the boy's. "Oh trust me, my friend," Wu-fei hissed, "you haven't even come close to getting me yet." There was a loud crack of gunshot and the youth yelped. He collapsed to the floor writhing in agony. Quatre lowered his gun and leapt off the stage. "Let's get out of here!" he yelled, as he ran towards the table where Kitty was hiding. He looked up to see Kitty free from the confines of the furnishing, facing him with eyes wide in fear. "Kitty, thank Allah your alright," he sighed. He took a step forward. Kitty squealed and hopped backwards. Quatre frowned. "Kitty, what's wrong?" he asked gently. Kitty's eyes flashed varying tones of lively blue green. She backed away, shaking her head in shock, before bolting into the corridors. Quatre stood in shock. She had read him. She had seen him shoot a man. She knew he was a killer. He was barely aware of Wu-fei dash past him, splattering his powder blue suit with red blood. He didn't notice the yells and cries from above. He merely hung his head and ran from the building, his golden fringe hiding the tears of shame as he went.

"What the." the female figure cried as a strong arm looped about her neck and dragged her backwards. Another hand flew to her face, covering it with a cloth. A sickly smell filled her lungs as she writhed and choked, but soon her body fell limp. "Primitive," Trowa mused a she watched Heero drop the limp woman, "but effective." The screams erupted below following Quatre's announcement. "Finally," Duo hissed, turning his back on the balcony and rolling his eyes. Heero ripped open the bag. 09.56 "Shit," he hissed, looking over the bomb construction, "there's an anti defusing device." Trowa crouched down at his side. "We can sort that out, right?" he asked, and then looked at the timer. "We don't have time," Heero said quickly, standing up and walking back over to the woman, "the only casualties we can afford in this explosion are ourselves. We have to check the entire building and get the dignitaries out by any means necessary." A gunshot rang out below, followed by a yell of pain. Duo cringed. "Jeez," he hissed between his teeth before jogging over to Heero and Trowa. Heero drew a black object from out of the woman's hand. It was indeed a detonation device. "What's the point of having this if there's a timer?" Duo asked, peering into Heero's hands. Trowa shrugged. "Just in case we over came the anti-tampering systems, I guess," he said gently. Heero shook his head. "This detonation switch is for a B-grade spread explosive, manufactured in Spain on earth. That bomb there is a double A grade bomb, containing double the fire power of the destructive A grade explosive. It was manufactured in space. That B-grade explosive is a spread explosive. It can be attached to bags of nails and shards of abrasive material. The bomb this detonator is for could be spread all around the building." "Well," said Duo, after a long pause, "at least we can be sure that only one bomb is gonna explode." Trowa shook his head. "B grade bombs are very sensitive. The explosion of this bomb would set off a chain reaction in the B bombs. Speaking of bombs, we've got 8 minutes 50 seconds to check the building." Heero nodded. "I'll check the north side, Trowa, you take the east and Duo, the south. Someone contact Wu-fei, get him to check the west. If not Wu-fei, then get Quatre. Ok?" Duo and Trowa nodded and after a brief pause ran off in their designated directions. Heero pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around the woman's shoulders. He then lifted her over one shoulder, and with his free hand picked up the bag. He looked to his hand around the unconscious woman's legs and noted that that was where the detonator was. He nodded and turned to jog away. A heavy fist flew into his face, starling him so much that he dropped both the woman and the bag, but not the detonator. Heero growled as he eyed his attacker carefully. The heavy-set man looked distraught. "You've ruined everything," he spat, "those ambassadors were supposed to die tonight!" Heero frowned. "Why? Why cause the world any more pain than it has suffered already? That's where you're from isn't it? Earth? Think about all those ambassadors with families on your planet. Do you want to cause them pain? Again?" The man yelled and threw himself at Heero. The duelling pair rolled across the floor until they knocked against the banister. The man sat on Heero's legs, clutching his throat. He felt the tender young muscles move below his grasp. He cried out and knocked Heero's head hard against the floor. "You don't understand!" he cried as he repeatedly flung Heero's head against the floor, "we are doing this for the colonies and earth! The colonies need strong leadership! That is what we can offer! This united government was full of useless bureaucrats who could do nothing more than sip tea and spend out money. Our organisation decided the best way to save our worlds from a new war was to destroy those vain enough to come to lavish ball with no actual political meaning, and let those left behind be in charge of running out world." Heero's own grip aound the man's throat grew tighter. "Well that was a pretty crap plan, dontcha think?" he said lightly, "the people would have been outraged at the murder of such influential people and would have risen to war once again. And then your sorry organisation would have looked to the gundam pilots for help once more, wouldn't you?" The Man flung his fist into Heero's cheek bone and the pair rolled away once more, breaking apart and leaping to their feet. "The gundam pilots are no better than those who attended this evening," the man said viciously, "they believe they can lay down their swords and relax now they've finished one battle. Well too bad! The new war has started, Yuy, and it wouldn't have even set its foundations if you pilots had acted like true knights of peace and stayed alert. From what I've heard, you went back to school. Am I right?" Heero growled. "I have been on guard since I can ever remember," he hissed, "I was trained to do this. To fight! To be a terrorist! To do what you do! And guess what? I got sick and tired of hurting people and began to realize the truth. It is time we all laid down our weapons and let other people in. If that happened, there would be no need for the preventers, or for us, and this foolish little exercise of yours would never have happened." The man laughed. "Has little Miss Peacecraft gotten to you too, Yuy? I thought you were better than that. She got to the Winner family. I used to respect them! But little Quatre Ra-bastard Winner turned away from his senses and joined her little band of merry men and now I see she's infected all of the gundam pilots, too. Pity. I was hoping I wouldn't have to destroy ever one of you, but I guess that is just how it's gonna have to be." The man dived at Heero, snatching his wrist and trying to fling him over. Heero's fingers gave way at the pressure, but he held his ground and threw a balled fist into the square jaw, knocking the man to the floor. Heero stepped backwards, panting heavily. He was out of shape. He flexed his sore wrist. The man sat up and wiped the blood off his lip. He laughed and looked over to the bomb timer. 05:10 "I think it's time for you to go, Yuy," he said cruelly. Heero's eyes flicked to the timer and he growled. He dashed over to the woman, throwing her over his shoulder and bolting towards the north exit. After a few seconds something clicked in Heero's head. He wasn't carrying the duffel bag. His spare hand was empty. Heero quickly ran back down the corridor to the view of an empty balcony. "Shit," he hissed, and sprinted away again, the thoughts of the man planting that explosive and getting away with it flooding his vision with red.