Chapter 5

-"Ok, what do we have?"

Uncomfortable looks, people shaking on their seats and a couple of "sour throats". Zechs sighed.

-"This is depressing. Are you guys sure none of them will do?"

-"We checked every single record of every single pilot from the last war and none of them will work."

-"Are you completely sure, Barton?"

Nod. Sigh.

-"How are we supposed to find a new pilot in one week?"

-"Well, perhaps we could look for one of the original pilots."

Wufei was standing at the door, a very green Duo behind him. The Deathscythe pilot plopped himself on the nearest chair while the others threw him concerned glances.

-"What are you talking about, Chang? You are the original pilots."

The Chinese man marched into the room, laptop in hand.

-"We found this in one of the vid-disks. It was encoded, that's why we are late."

In the screen appeared two familiar figures.

-"J and Dekim Barton."

Wufei nodded at Quatre.

* Barton was looking at J pensively.

-"So that's the Omega team."

-"Yes, those are the kids I've been training to be the Gundam pilots."

-"How good are they?"

J positively beamed.

-"120% over mission parameters. They've all gone on several individual missions and a couple of team ones. Not a single glitch, on any of them."

Barton nodded thoughtfully, and moved towards the room's window.

-"They're too good."

-"I beg your pardon?"

-"They are too good. What will happen if we give then the Gundams and they turn against us? We wouldn't stand a chance."

He turned to J, a calculating look in his eyes.

-"You said that the replacement pilots are already in training?"

-"Yes, but they are still very inexperienced and. . . "

-"How good is that boy? The blue eyed one?"

J moved towards the window.

-"04? He's good, but he is also the youngest."

-"Get rid of the other four. Put that boy under your serum treatment and train the new ones harder."

-"But. . . "

-"One prefect soldier should be enough. See to it."

Barton marched out the door before J could say a word. The old doctor stared after him and then turned back at the window with a sigh.

-"Forgive me." *

Quatre looked up at his ceiling. He couldn't sleep, even if he was exhausted. His mind kept going to Wufei's words: "the original pilots". He had Sandrock, but only because its legitimate owner was too good and had to be eliminated. It made him ill, just to think about it.

He was a pilot because he wasn't good enough, because he was easy to control, easy to defeat. His thoughts then went to Heero. The perfect soldier, spared of the others fate because of a madman's wish. He understood now, at least partially, why his friend had pushed himself so much, why he expected so much from the other pilots.

Well, he wasn't going to disappoint him now. They would find a pilot for Zero and they would defeat their enemies, once and for all.

His mind went back to the idea: "find the original pilots". Duo had told them that in the tapes, a blond boy had appeared around the time when Heero was thirteen, and he was usually referred to as 05. Could it be that, somehow, J had managed to keep the others alive too? Noin had suggested that they look for 05, but Wufei had immediately said no. That kid had been nuts then, god only knew how he was now.

That left three possible choices, depending on whether they were still alive or not.

The problem was that they didn't have names, nor pictures. Not one single lead. Nothing. There had to be a link, they were overlooking something. He quickly went over what they knew about those pilots and, then, about the Gundams.

Something clicked, and he suddenly knew what he had to do. He felt stupid, it was really simple. Only one thing was a constant to them all.

Sleep forgotten, he dressed and bolted out of the room.

He had to find Duo.

They had a call to make.

A soft snore echoed through the office. Wufei winced and turned to glare at the sleeping figure. It was his couch and he wanted to sleep, damnit!! And yet, he couldn't bring himself to wake her.

With a growl, he turned back to his screen. He had been going through J's files for hours, and yet, he couldn't find anything on the three they were looking for. And now, to top it all, he couldn't break this code.

Hurried sounds coming down the corridor, and a voice in particular, alerted him that someone that could probably crack the stupid code was on his way.

The door opened, and a very excited Quatre, followed by a very puzzled Duo, entered the room.

There was a loud thud from behind Wufei, accompanied by a string of very colorful curses.

They all turned, only to find Sally sprawled out, face down, on the floor, obviously having fallen from the couch. The men tried to keep themselves from laughing, but when several words like "injustice" and "baka ona" joined her rant they lost it.

A very red faced Sally turned to death-glare at them.

-"Ha, ha. Really funny, you guys. You can quit laughing now."

-"I'm sorry, Sally, but you have got to admit that you have been spending an awful lot of time with Wu-man. Hell, you're even ranting like him. If it keep like this, you should simply marry him!"

Sally and Wufei turned beet red. Quatre began inching towards the door. As Wufei went for his katana, and Duo prepared to bolt, Sally pulled herself to her feet and walked towards the braided young man, sporting a seductive smile and giving a sexy swing to her hips. She stopped so close to Duo that he could feel her breath tickling his ear as she leaned towards it to whisper:

-"Why, Duo. And here I was expecting that tonight we could try your new handcuffs, along with some strawberries and whip cream that I've got in my fridge."

A wink, and she was one, leaving behind a giggling Quatre, a nose-bleeding Wufei (nice mental image that he was stuck with for the day) and a beet red Duo.

-"She got you there, Duo-kun. She really did!!!"

Lucia smiled softly as she watched 02, 03 and 04. Even if their training had still complete control of their lives (hell, she still couldn't stop herself from thinking of them as numbers, instead of their names), she knew they were finally enjoying said lives.

Just looking at 03 ( she corrected herself) was proof of it. The girl was dancing and singing along to LeAnn Rhimes' "The right kind of wrong", ()while pretending that the rose she held in her hands was a microphone. The 20-year-old beauty had a great voice, too bad that she usually had to hide it. They simply couldn't afford calling attention towards themselves.

On the far corner, she could see 02 and 04 discussing their next mission. () Her boyfriend and the boy considered as her baby brother.

As if sensing her thoughts on him, Jack raised his eyes and winked at her.

-"So, can it be done?"

-"Was there ever any doubt?"

-"Bay bro, here, has it all down to a t, but we have to get the pilots as far away from it as possible."

-"That has already been taken care of."

-"If so, then we are just waiting for you to give us the go."

Joe handed her a laptop, and both girls peered at it curiously.

-"Wow.!!!!"

-"You said it, Gia. Well done, Jack."

The boy nodded mutely and exited, probably going for the needed supplies.

-"You do realize that after this stuns, we are going to have to add the Preventers to the list of people that are after our tails, don't you? The very long list, may I add."

-"Yes, Joe, but it's the only way, hon. They already want a pilot, and that's exactly what we are going to give them, although not in a way they'd expect. Its gonna be priceless!!"

None of them could help cracking a smile, picturing the shocked expressions their actions were going to cause.