The dark haired one glowered. "No, the question is why? And who?"

Jonya glanced back a Kite, who shrugged and made a helpless gesture. 'Tell them' she mouthed.

Jonya sighed, turning back to face the pilots. "I'm Jonya Windy, and I'm hijacking your plane."

"What?" gasped Quatre.

Kite gave a small laugh at his choice of wording. "Toldjya it was 'what'."

Quatre gave a small snort of agreement.

Quinn came over the intercom. "Are all passengers safely off the plane?" she asked, making her icy voice as formal as possible.

Tabby jogged importantly onto the scene. "Yeah," she answered into her comlink, "but Jonya and 05 are having a staring contest."

Jonya shot Tabby a threatening look almost too dangerous for her to fulfill when wounded.

The pigtailed pilot mumbled something about, "impertinent woman".

A muttered "Figures," blew Quinn's cover and then, "Well, close up the exit door you opened, and I'll be right down."

Seconds later, Quinn arrived, looking weary and nearly bored. "That friend of yours, 01," she asked Quatre sarcastically, "isn't much of a talker is he?"

Quatre grinned and shook his head, "No, he isn't, but that's what makes him Heero."

Quinn arched a dark eyebrow. "He told me to shut up and drive my plane the hell away from his."

Jonya smiled. "Good thing we didn't oblige. Now he'll be pissed and follow us."

05 stared at her like she'd just suggested they go dancing on the face of the sun. "Are you insane, woman? Yuy wouldn't pause on one of his missions unless the earth stopped turning first.unless his mission had something to do with this plane." Wufei's dark eyes filmed over with thought, and suddenly he tore to the window. "Wing Gundam," he breathed softly, "is trailing us."

A cheerful, "Hi ya'll!" broke the awed atmosphere as Duo and Trowa came trotting down the isle.well.Duo was trotting, anyways. Trowa looked at Wufei, who seemed to be having a staring contest with the woman in front of him. "So I take it these are our hijackers?" Kite looked at him puzzled. "How did you know?" Trowa shrugged. "You're not the only people who use technology." "Terrific. We're being spied on." Kite blew out a long breath, and pushed her bangs out of her face. Duo grinned and sidled up to Quinn. "You free on Saturday?" She glared at him. "Get lost." He cringed. "Oh my god; she's got the Death Glare thing happening, too. This is cruel." So Duo went over to Kite. "Hey, babe! What's shakin'? I'm gonna talk to you now 'cause SHE (directed at Quinn) might kill me." Jonya rolled her eyes and looked to Kite, Tabby, and Quinn. "So now what? What's the plan now that (she threw a dark look toward the Pilots) they're involved?" Quinn looked out the window at the Gundam, back to Jonya, and then to the pilots. "I've set this hunk of rock on cruise control but that won't work for long- the power's going out and there's about a half hour 'til this thing shuts down completely. The best thing to do would be.(she began furiously entering something into her laptop).crash land. In the country; Ireland would be best. Then move from there to Swansea--" "--Why are we here?" interjected Trowa. "These plans obviously weren't hatched for Gundam Pilots." "Look," hissed Quinn, "You might be a little confused; I understand THAT, but right now we've got work to do. So save your game of twenty questions for later." She looked to her partner. "We don't have time for this, J. I need you and Kite up front NOW. Tabitha.just explain to these Pilots why they are here. And TRY to keep from being so brainless that they can't understand you." she sneered. Tabby muttered an expletive, but turned to the pilots as she'd been told to do. "Well, for starters, this is an operation meant to aid us in.." *Upfront, in the cockpit* "Jon, hotwire the autopilot so it can actually TAKE us somewhere. Right now we've basically been flying in circles. Kite, I need you to get online and see what you can find on that Gundam. Pilot or no, I want to find out if that thing can be.borrowed by the Guild." Jonya snickered as she bent down below the controls. "You'd steal his Gundam? I'd love to see that." "Wouldn't we all." Kite muttered. "Quinn, don't you think this is a little.extreme? Not that I don't enjoy a good hijacking, but is this really necessary?" Quinn sighed. "I don't even care anymore, Kite. I'm sick of this, sick of the war. Sure, I'm a soldier and a thief. But where does that end.? Someday people like us won't be needed. And then." "Stop that." Scolded Kite. "You're becoming all depressing." Jonya nodded. "Yeah, but she's got a point." Silence reigned for awhile as each woman worked on her task. Kite grinned suddenly. "What do you think of them all? The Pilots, I mean." "It's like our own personal circus." Said Jon. "Especially with 02.er, Duo. That guy is a lunatic." A smile crept to Quinn's face. "And what's-his-face, 05. I think he'd just insult you all day if you stood there and let him." "--The hair.03's hair!" Kite taunted. "Is it just me, or does it look like you'd impale your hand if you touched his bangs?" "Braid-boy gets my vote for worst hair. Guys with long hair.It's just weird." said Jonya, who was through messing with the controls. Quinn threw a ball of paper at her friend. "01 is even stranger. Doesn't talk much, except to say 'Stay away'." "I've heard his trademark line is Omae o korosu." "Sounds like our little Psycho, here." Said Jon. Quinn rolled her eyes. "Shut up." There was a rustling sound, like that of a curtain being opened, and Tabby popped in. "Well, I told them everything. Not to say they're thrilled,' cause they AREN'T, but they're going to help, I think." Quinn shot her a 'What, do you not speak English?' look. "You think. Don't you know?" "That's it! I've wanted to fight you all day. Come on. Bring it." Tabby's voice was loud, tone threatening to most, but not to the 'Dark Queen'. She stood up. "Yeah, Tabitha? You want to fight? Take a swing at me. Go ahead." Voice cool, uncaring. Jonya stood between them. "Let's get this party started later, guys, the pilots are STILL out there! So shake hands and shut up or I'll punch you both." (They didn't shake hands, but both women were silent.) "That's better." Said Jon. "Now come on, you've still got to get Mr. Monotone off our backs somehow." The was little noise but the scrambling of feet and twisting of wires until a knock on the hollow, plastic wall, and all four girls turned around to face the intruder.

"Whoa." Duo said, intimidated, "sorry to bug, but mind if I camp out with you girls for a while? Wufei's starting to rant about weakness again."

Jonya shrugged, and scrambled back under the panel of brightly flashing lights. "Don't care. Just be quiet, I've got too much crap to deal with."

Little did Jonya know she was asking the impossible, but Duo took a seat anyway.

Kite smiled in her kind manner, and extended a hand. "Hi, Kite De-La-Luz (pronounced loous),"

He grinned in return, violet/blue eyes sparkling, and squeezed her delicate hand. "Duo Maxwell, God of Death, Best Gundam Pilot ever born."

Kite arched an eyebrow.

Jonya's bobbing orangey head hit a obstructing piece of steel, worsening her mood. "Oy, dumbass, Didn't I say something about being QUIET?"

"Sorry, J. Just making introductions," Kite apologized. "Normally she's not like this. Blood loss does real damage to her emotional state."

But Duo was shaking his head, "Tsk, tsk, no need to be a potty mouth, Miss.?" he paused with his patronizing, searching for her name.

Quinn rolled her dangerously annoyed eyes, "The girl with her bum waving about (this was accompanied by a hurt 'Hey!') Is Jonya Windy, and I'm Quinn Grant."

Duo visibly inched away from the icy girl. "N-nice to meet you...I think."

She flipped her ebony hair and turned away, bored and disgusted with their new companion.

Tabby knelt beside Duo, and winked. "She's always a little grumpy, but Kite and me stay pretty nice. I'm Tabby Myst."

Quinn gave a low growl, "If I'm 'a little grumpy', you're a brainless, soulless, idiot."

Tabby let indigence flicker in her eyes, mouthed 'see what I mean?', and went to stand by the door.

Duo turned his attention from the warring females back to Kite. "Your name," he said calmly, "is it Spanish?"

Kite nodded, impressed, it had been a long time since she'd met anyone besides Jonya (whose accent was TERRIBLE) who could speak more than two words of Spanish. "Very good, yes, it is. Means 'of the light'."

Jonya's head came up, one hand holding her bandaged stomach, but her face was warm, though she had grease smeared across her left cheek. "We all thought it was kinda appropriate once we got to know her. Can someone hand me a screw driver?"

Duo obliged her, pulling a tiny one from behind his ear, and continued talking with Kite. "Really? So I bet you and Quatre'll get along pretty well."

Kite cocked her head like some sort of confused house cat. "Why?"

The braided boy's smile swung into a grin. "You two just seem a lot alike, to me."

Jonya's strong hands jerked a wire into the tiny computer, and plugged the poor, overused palm pilot into the air plane's mainframe motherboard, radar, and command center. She frowned, and pulled a flashlight from her endless pockets, and watched the data roll across the palm pilot's screen. Her fingers darted, selecting their crash landing destination and flight routes, making sure they didn't fly straight into Mt. Everest, or the like.

Kite smiled, and turned to gaze out the window at the darkened sea of clouds they sailed over effortlessly. Below, blue waves phased in and out, reflecting the half moon and its twinkling star attendants.

Outside everything was peaceful, no noise, no arguments, just the soft whistling of a blue wind and the lapping of the silver sea. If we're really going to Swansea, that means we'll be paying a visit to Quinn's house by the ocean.and I'll feel salt water on my toes again, and smell the sharp, shining spray.Just like how it used to be in Spain.God, I wish I was home. She took a deep breath, only to have it catch in her throat and be wrenched back out along with the hacking cough and a dew droplets of spittle, mixed with dark blood. She put her hand to her mouth, wiping the few streaks of red from her rosy lips.

But Quinn's gleaming eyes missed nothing. 'Too much. All this.it's getting to be too much. With that disease on the inside and the war on the outside.Kite'll fade faster that we ever thought.this war HAS to end. We HAVE to get her to some help soon or.she closed her eyes, trapping tears in her throat, she'll die.'

There was a victorious shout from under the panel, jerking everyone away from their private thoughts and musings.

Jonya's eyes were filled with a feverish light when she came up. Partly due to the blood seeping through her shirt, but mostly because the plane was soaring straight towards a secluded bay in the east of Ireland. She wiped her hands on her jeans. "Mission accomplished, guys." Duo snorted. Jonya gave him a hard look. "What??" "Nothin'. Just thinkin about somebody I know who says that." "And who would that be?" asked Tabby. "Who do you think?" asked Duo, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the Gundam trailing them. Kite grinned. "Can't say I'm surprised." Duo peered warily through the curtain. "Y'know, I think Wufei's stopped with his rantings....finally, so why don't we all just hang out there?" Kite shrugged, looking to her friends. "Doesn't matter to me.Are we finished, guys?" Jonya paused, going over the plan in her mind. "Yeah, I'd say we're through.Don't think we forgot anything. Quinn?" Quinn snapped back to reality. "Eh?" "We through?" "Yeah." "So what are we waiting for then?" Duo persisted. "Let's go and.watch the in-flight movie. What say?" Tabby looked thoughtful. "I could use a break. Count me in." "Ditto," Kite echoed. "Jonya? Quinn? Come on, you know you want to." Jonya rolled her eyes. "Maybe in a couple of minutes." "I've got work to do," muttered Quinn, who was punching buttons on her laptop. Duo shook his head. "All work and no play makes Quinn a dull girl." Quinn didn't look up from the computer screen. "Yeah, but all play and no work makes Duo a bit thick-headed." She retorted. "This is NOT fair." Duo whined. "Even SHE'S got something against me, and I haven't done anything to her. Directly, that is." He, Kite, and Tabby left to join the others. Jonya was sitting in the pilot's chair, tossing around a rubber band ball that somebody had left behind. "Well this is turning out to be quite an adventure." Jonya mumbled. Quinn snickered. "Well thank you Tom Sawyer, for enlightening me." "You know what I'm saying. It's just that having (she jerked her thumb back to where the Pilots were hanging out) them here is a little off." "Mm'hm." Quinn replied. Jonya craned her head to see what her friend was doing, but couldn't see or make even a guess at it. Noting Jonya's curiosity, Quinn spoke. "I'm changing my cursor into a dragon." "You can do that? I always thought you were stuck with the arrow." "No, you have to download some kind of special program to change it.but it's fun." "Teach me." "No. Who'd teach a loser like you?" "Bite me." "I'd rather not." The banter, harmless enough, was a way for both women to relieve the stress of everyday life.or, what THEIR everyday life was often like. Quinn continued typing after this had gone on for a couple of minutes. She looked over at Jonya, fiddling with that stupid rubber band ball. It's strange, she keyed, To live the life I do. I have two good friends who I've known since I was about fifteen, and I have a well-paying job, even if it is a little.unscrupulous. I'm nineteen, supposedly attractive, single, and the most bitchy person on the face of the earth. To put it lightly. I imagine that when I die and get to the Gates of.somewhere, they won't even know where to put me. To have done the things I did, kill the people I've killed.all my life, that's been my existence. Law of the jungle: kill or be killed. And in some ways I don't regret who I was.it's who I have become that eats away at me. She looked up and saw Jonya wincing, gingerly touching her injured side. Quinn let out a deep breath. WAR. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? she wrote, and closed out the file. Looking at the clock on her screen, Quinn snapped her fingers to get Jon's attention. "We've got about fifteen more minutes.Tell everybody else." "Well, why can't you? Got something special in mind?" Quinn nodded. "You could say that." "Right-o, then. See you on the other side." Jonya saluted sarcastically, and Quinn picked the rubber band ball up from the desk and threw it at her friend, rolling her eyes. "Oy, people, Quinn says we're ready to crash in about 15, ok? So get ready, put your heads between your legs and try not to inhale too deeply." Jonya leaned on an aisle seat, trying to act like she wasn't covered in grease and not in a serious amount of pain. Kite knew better. "Jon," the girl called, "come sit?" Jonya shook her head with her smirk of a smile. "Nah, this old news is trash not worth sitting through." Duo looked offended. "This," he said proudly, "is a re-run of the time OZ caught me-look at my be-U-tiful face!" Jonya smiled teasingly, "getting a little vapid are we?" Duo stood up in his seat. "NEVER!" he cried, like she was trying to get the location of the alien from Area 51 out of him. Wufei rolled his obsidian eyes. "Americans." Jonya's head turned slowly to face the boy in his window seat. "What?" she hissed. Wufei raised his slick midnight eyebrows. "Don't tell me you're an American as well." Jonya was not normally so defensive of her home country, pointing out its flaws and problems along with every body else, but she was tired, angry and frustrated. She leaned forward, shoving her nose in his face. "Do you have a PROBLEM with that?" The Chinese warrior hadn't counted upon being parried so vehemently. "As long as you make sure you don't talk at the speed of light and twice as much as Maxwell." Jonya shook her heavy head, straightening again. "It's on my to-do list." Wufei let out a snit through his thin nose. "Stubborn onna, aren't you?" Jonya smiled cockily, "You bet." "Then keep quiet and be honorable about it." He opened his book and dismissed her with a look. Jonya arched an eyebrow, but backed down anyways. What a strange guy. He preaches honor, but now he's judging people and countries by what little he knows about them. But I can't tell if that's a mask or just who he really is. He seems so familiar though.and yet.there's so much hidden about him. Something about his eyes. They're like sinkholes.so lonely, almost too proud. I wonder. There was a lurch as the plane began its decent into the darkened Irish cove, Jonya gave a whoop of expectancy, and threw her bandaged body into the seat beside Quatre. Quinn's dark eyes flashed as she leaded into the controls, trying to bring them down safely.

'Damn,' her mind whispered to her, 'damn, we're going too fast!' She pulled up on the joystick, but to no avail, and she heard the engines sputtering, and then a boom and the crackling of a hungry fire that could only mean one thing. Things seemed to move in slow motion, sparks glittered across the control board, hissing across the seats, and electricity snapped through Quinn's nervous system, and pain grilled all her mind, so she just sat, letting death sway on the edge of her worn mind. They were going down in flames. The shock wave took seconds to reach the cockpit, but it seemed forever to Quinn as she heard her friend's painful screams, and the shrieking tear of metal as the wing ripped from the plane. 'God,' she prayed, 'god let them be ok.I don't care what happens to me.but god let them be ok!' And suddenly she was lurched back into her seat with a terrible crunch, and all went black.

Jonya was not one to fall into stiff shock, but when the wing screeched away from the side of the plane, it was all she could do to unfasten her seat belt. Wufei's chair had torn away along with the wing, but he'd managed to grab hold to one jagged edge. So now he flailed like some sort to living paper doll, the wing swinging his legs in sadistic furry, blood from his hands on the razor remainder of the side spitting into thin air. Jonya knelt, anchoring herself to the rest of the airplane and a random seat, and reached her hand out to him.

"WUFEI," she yelled, "WUFEI, GRAB MY HAND!"

He looked up at her, and for a moment she thought he wouldn't, his pride getting in the way of survival, but then instinct crushed arrogance, and he latched on to her wrist.

"DON'T LET GO!" she roared.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE I PLAN ON IT?" he demanded, still managing to be sarcastic and dour in the most serious of situations.

She let out a sharp breath through her nose and grabbed his other elbow, pulling up with all her strength. But the wind was too strong. Suddenly she felt pain shudder through her abdomen, the messy stitches Quinn had sewn were coming loose. She gasped as the last thread ripped from her skin, and a squirt of cherry red dribbled down her clothes. She held back a scream, squeezing her eyes closed, biting her lip till it too bled. Wufei was staring up at her, his onyx eyes filled with confusion and worry, but whether it was for himself or her, no one could ever say. Jonya felt warm hands on her straining back, and there was Trowa, helping her pull the Chinese Warrior back on board. All three collapsed on the floor, partly due to the mix of exertion, fear and adrenaline flowing through their bloodstreams.

Everyone's faces were ashen with worry and relief. Jonya pushed herself up into a seat, ignoring the sting of her re-opened wound. Kite stumbled over to see what could be done, and all the pilots (though they'd probably had worse) winced as they saw the gash in her side. "I'm fine, Kite... Sit down, for god's sake." Kite obeyed. Suddenly Tabby came out of the back. "What's going on--?" and the plane gave a terrible lurch as it slammed into the ground. Jonya felt a lump of unshed tears form in her throat. Oh no. Tabby. A few seconds later, Quinn opened her eyes, still dizzy from the force of impact. "Well I'm guessing these things have airbags after all," she muttered wryly. Now I just need to see how the others are doing. "Hey, Ice." A voice, raspy and weak, but still recognizable. Quinn turned to see Tabby, or her arm at least, trying to get herself out of the rubble which had been the cockpit