Chapter 4

Northern Europe Rowley Airport – 2:30 PM

The Gundam pilots and Rayne Kiesling walked down the wide hallway leading to their gate: C3. Rayne had put her wig and mask in the dark green backpack she had slung over her shoulder, along with her gun and a few other hand-held weapons. She had snuck them in through the heavy-security of the airport without any trouble at all, and the pilots were still figuring out how she had done it.

Rayne rubbed her eyes for the seventh time that minute.

"Rayne, are you alright?" Quatre inquired. "Your eyes are red from all that rubbing you've been inflicting on them."

Rayne looked at him. "Yeah, I'm alright. It's just that these contacts are messed."

"Contacts....?" Duo said, scratching his head.

"Yes, contacts. You'd be surprised how different Treize's ice-blue and my star-blue eyes look. ARGH!!!!" She wiped at her eyes again, looking as if she were trying to rub her eyes out. "STUPID CONTACTS!!!!!!" she screeched, catching the attention of some passerby.

Finally, she did what it seemed she had been trying to do. She ripped her eyes out! Er...she took out her contacts (A/N: hehe).

Rayne blinked, and they saw her eyes were indeed a much different shade. They were a star-blue, the color of Zech's eyes, but had more silver tinted in. There was also a shadow of something in their starry depths that the pilots couldn't place, but they brushed the thought off and followed her to the counter where they would get the tickets.

Rayne stepped in front of the counter, depositing the ice blue contacts in a nearby trashcan.

"Hello – how may I help you?" the woman at the counter asked. She had a name-tag that read "Elizabeth".

"Tristan Sloan bought and saved six tickets for Rayne Kiesling, Chase Jones, John Mitchell, Trevor Mickens, Andrew Golden and Ivan Henry."

Elizabeth (the counter-lady) typed on the computer, and nodded slowly. "Yes. Six tickets saved by Tristan Sloan for those six people for the three o' clock shuttle on Monday, August third to Houston, Texas. Are you here to pick them up?"

"Yes I am," Rayne said.

"Could I have a driver's license or any other ID from all of you, please?" Elizabeth said.

"Oh, sure," Rayne said. She looked behind her and saw that only all of the pilots but Duo was there. "Where's Duo?" she hissed so Elizabeth couldn't hear.

"Maxwell's over there," Wufei said, pointing to a pay-phone across the hall.

"Ugh," Rayne groaned. She turned back to Elizabeth. "Excuse me, I'll be back in a moment. Chase," she looked at Heero, who just looked at her with a cocked eyebrow, "give the nice woman your driver's licenses," Rayne said, handing him a fake license where Elizabeth couldn't see. As she passed the other pilots, she gave them the fakes as well, then she ran down the hallway to where Duo was.

"Duo!" she said.

Duo turned around. "Yeah, Ray-chan?" he asked in an innocent voice, but his glittering-with-mischief eyes betrayed him.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh nothing, Ray-chan," he said, grinning.

"Right, whatever," Rayne sighed. "Just come on. And when you get up to the counter, give the woman this driver's license – alright? You are now known as John Mitchell, okay?"

"Uh...ok..." Duo said, confused. The two walked up to the counter and he gave Elizabeth his fake drivers license. She nodded.

"Alright. Here are your tickets. Have a nice flight." She smiled then went to the next in line.

"Wow, that went well," Rayne said, more to herself than the pilots. "Anyways, the flight leaves in about thirty minutes and I am starving. I hate those complimentary peanut bag...thingies...they give you on the flight. You guys want to eat?"

"I do!!!" Duo exclaimed.

"Ok, any other takers?" Rayne asked, trying not to let the blush stain her cheeks because Duo was coming. They shook their heads. "Alright. We'll be back later."

She and Duo went to a nearby restaurant then came back twenty-five minutes later, both talking and laughing.

The two sat down, and Rayne checked her watch. "The plane should be leaving in five minutes!" she exclaimed. "Why aren't they boarding yet?"

Then, the intercom person came on.

"Will any passengers going to Houston, Texas on the three o' clock flight please go to gate C3. I repeat, will any passengers going to Houston, Texas on the three o' clock flight please go to gate C3. That is all."

Rayne and the pilots stood up, and since they were closest to the gate, they got in the shuttle first.

They walked down the hallway branching out to the shuttle, and entered. "The back," Rayne said from behind all the pilots. "Go to the back."

Heero, who was in front, nodded and walked quickly down the aisle and to the very back seats, which also had the six chairs facing each other. They all sat in one of those seat-sections, and Rayne collected their fake IDs.

"Now," Heero said. "How do you know the scientists?"

Rayne looked at him. "Tristan introduced them to me. They're okay I guess, but Tristan is a much better tutor and instructor," Rayne said. She put her feet on the short table in front of her seat and put her hands behind her head. "I suggest you try and go something constructive with your time, because this flight is six hours long."

"Six?" Duo yelped.

"Yeah," Rayne said. "We have to go over the North Atlantic, and over about four-thousand miles."

Duo shut his eyes in frustration. "I didn't even bring my Game Boy Superior[1]!" he growled.

"I have one," Rayne said.

Duo looked at her with enormous puppy-dog eyes. "Can I play with it? Pa-weeeeeeez?"

Rayne reluctantly nodded, took out a blue, Game Boy Advanced 5 with one game. She pointed to the game, and said, "The only one I have SpecOps, a shooting and destroying game. Tristan gave it to me; he said it would improve my shooting skills."

Duo did all but tear Rayne's hands off in the process of taking the game, and started playing, making impressed noises as he did so.

Rayne and the other pilots looked at him strangely.

"Does he always do that?" she asked Trowa, who was on the other side of her.

Trowa just nodded.

"Hm...great," Rayne murmured. She took out a book titled "Gone With The Wind," and began reading it, sometimes stopping to glower at Wufei when he said something about her being a 'weak woman'.

After what seemed the millionth time that minute of Wufei calling her weak, she slammed the book down. Luckily, only Heero and Trowa were awake, and they were the ones who wouldn't say anything. Rayne took her half-full (A/NL: or half-empty, whichever you prefer) glass of ice water and threw it in the sleeping Wufei's form. She immediately put the glass down and pretended to be reading her book, and watched as Wufei jumped up and made a show of getting the water off him and calling her 'very' rude names.

When Wufei came back from the bathroom, Rayne smirked at him. "That'll teach you never to call me weak," she said defiantly.

[1]=This is in the future!! So it's not advanced anymore!! Duh!! ^___^ I'll stop trying now...

A/N: what happened to her car? And the Gundams?! And the pilots' luggage?! Uh...well...her car...it was left at the airport parking lot – it was a rental she totaled. Heh... And the Gundams and luggage? They were transported from their old safehouse to the one in Spring, Texas. How? I have NO idea...

And Spring is a suburb in Houston, but it's always called Spring, Houston or Spring, Texas – never Spring, Houston, Texas. So I'll call it Spring, Houston. Just REMEMBER: Houston is in Texas in the US!!!

And since Rayne lives in the safehouse, all her luggage is already in drawers and stuff...