Fathom stumbled dumbly into a nearby safe house. In her delirium from the pain, she had somehow found her way there. She smirked before hobbling over to the cabinet stocked with medical kits. She pulled out a syringe and a strong strand of cloth. She wrapped her incapacitated arm in a sling and numbed it with a quick injection. She lay back with an angered groan. What had she been thinking? She had Wufei in her grasp! Yet he had eluded her, and all because of his brat, Faith. Fathom shuddered, how could she love him that much? He wasn't even her flesh and blood, yet she protected him. A little girl of no more than twelve had made her hesitate, and in most cases, if those men had been better shots, she would have been a very dead assassin.

She stalked angrily over to the safe house sink, knocking over bottles of god knows what over so that she could wash her face. With her good hand, she brushed off mud that had caked on her face, and swore again and again beneath her breath. Then she felt him. She dropped low to avoid the lunge of his knife. She tripped away blindly; dodging what she sensed was his knife speeding at her. After a few practiced dodges, she finally anticipated his move, and tripped him. She heard the knife clatter away, and sprang. She landed on his chest, driving him into the ground. With a grunt, she knocked the wind out of him and poised herself to chop his neck and end his life. Suddenly, he started laughing. Her eyes widened in surprise as the points of a pair of knives rested against the sides of her neck.

"Don't move or I'll kill you," a voice said coldly.

"Odin…" she breathed.

She saw a flash of teeth, "The one and the same."

Her eyes darted in the darkness, searching for an escape, "What do you plan to accomplish from this Odin? Surely my life isn't the only thing you're after?"

He grinned again, and she felt the knife point prick a bit deeper, "Perhaps…and then again, perhaps not…"

She gritted her teeth, there had to be a way out of this. "What do you want?"

"I want you to stop stalking Wufei and his girl. Tell your employer to get another to do his dirty work."

She was about to shrug, but thought better of it as the knife points reminded her of their presence, "It matters little to me as to who they are, I'm just in it for the payment."

"They must be paying you a lot to murder an innocent for the sake of a cause."

She smirked, so he knew about it, he probably read the email no doubt. "If you know my employer, you know I can't do that, they'll kill me as easily as they would you."

"I do know they'd turn on you the moment you turned in their prize to them."

"You think I was stupid enough not to expect that, honestly Odin, you underestimate me."

She could almost see the glint in his eyes, "I never overestimate anything."

She could almost see the madness in them there was only one way out of this. She relaxed the chop position of her hand and stroked his cheek before kissing him, long and deep. Surprisingly, he kissed back with almost an animalistic need. The knifepoints relaxed as his arms fell; she heard a clatter of a knife hitting the floor. All the better. Her hand slowly crept towards the nerve column in the neck that would disable both his arms this time. She started to draw her arm back; she could smell her success, then his hand clamped down on her wrist.

She broke their kiss in shock and stared into cobalt eyes and alabaster grin. "Like I said, I never overestimate anything."

Quatre went over to his teakettle and added some more leaves to the mixture; soon they could have tea and discuss plans. Trowa was over with Wufei doing calisthenics, and Duo was playing hide and go seek with Faith. He sighed aloud; this was just like old times. The ring of the doorbell brought everyone out of his or her trances. Quatre walked slowly to the door before looking through the window and opening the door. In the doorway stood a pair of imposing figures; they walked in, one being led along by a chain of ropes. Heero couldn't wipe his smirk at their shocked expressions.

"Wufei, this is Fathom, your resident stalker. Fathom, this is Wufei, no doubt the two of you have met." He handed her leash to Quatre and walked in. The woman's angry eyes followed him, and a series of muffled shrieks escaped her gag. Wufei came over to stare into her eyes, and her defiance was instantly replaced by maybe a shred of fear. "You should have begged him for death, onna. That fate would have been mercy compared to what I have in mind." Her ripple of fear was all the sign he needed.