1.1 Chapter Thirty-seven: Early Mornings

(A/N: 'Allo, minna-san! I just wanted to say domo arigatou for the reviews we've been getting! * happy Chase-chan* They like our story, Anna-chan! Lol ^_^ )

Chase's brown eyes fluttered open as the early morning light flooded into the room. (A/N: I suppose this is backtracking slightly in time, but oh well.) She looked up to see Ryuujin resting beside her. Her mind raced to recall what had happened. She relaxed once more when the events came to mind.

She looked up at the sleeping swordsman and smiled. He looked so peaceful and so innocent in his sleep. A blush crept to her cheeks. Thankfully she didn't expect Heero to walk in and get the wrong impression.

She noticed for the first time that Ryuujin's arm was draped over her shoulders, holding her protectively. She looked past him at the time. It was too early to be up and going…

"Ryu?" she whispered.

The blue haired man stirred but did not wake.

"Ryuujin?" she called just a little louder.

His reflective blue eyes opened slightly. He looked puzzled for a moment, then realized he must have fallen asleep after Chase the night before, right after her dream.

The blond woman sat up and stretched. "I guess I fell asleep last night," she mumbled. "Gomen ne."

Ryu nodded and stood.

The small artist rolled her head back until her neck popped. She glanced toward the window then toward the door. "Something's not right."

The blue haired swordsman gave her an odd look.

"Intuition."

"Paranoid?" Ryu asked with a smirk.

"Damede. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get dressed." She watched him leave the room then grabbed her tank top and jeans from the chair.

She walked out of the room after dressing and to the door. "Tell Quatre and the rest of them that I went for a walk. I need some time alone."

Ryuujin nodded wordlessly and watched the young assassin leave the hotel room.

Chase walked down the streets of Tokyo. Something still felt wrong. Her brown eyes caught movement behind her and her senses jumped to life. It was early. No one would be on their way to work right now.

A young man walked some way behind her, hands stuffed deep in his pockets and eyes trained on the ground he was walking on. Blond. He looked familiar.

She changed her destination suddenly and headed down an other street. The man turned with her, still a ways back. She clenched her teeth in annoyance. It was far too early for this.

An other turn and she sped her pace up. The tips of her fingers felt for the gun latched onto the inside of her jacket. She shoved her hands into her pockets and pulled her old gloves out. Perhaps they could keep her from staining her hands once again…

Chase turned into an ally and stopped. She whirled around and watched, one gloved hand on her gun. Mentally she took an inventory of the weapons she had on her at the moment. Gun inside her jacket, two small knives hidden on the inside of either boot, and her Bottomless Pit of Arsenal hanging off her left shoulder. A smirk crossed her lips as she waited for the man to follow.

He did. He rounded the corner no more than a minute after she had. He seemed slightly surprised the see her waiting for him. "So you are not to be underestimated, I hear," he said. His accent was thick. German accent. So that's where she'd seen him.

"I'd say the people who got away would say that, but not many people get away."

"Cocky."

"Confident."

The German smirked and advanced, pulling out a gun in the process. Chase jumped into motion, rushing towards him and to the side when he fired. She jumped up and over, using his shoulders to balance her flip, and pushing him off his own balance as she did so. He stumbled forward.

The blond woman turned quickly and her well-placed kick was caught in his hands. "I have had training, Ms. Yuy," he said.

"I'm sure," she responded. "So I guess this means I'm going to have to work at this?"

"I'm afraid so." Perfect English, even if it was rather thick.

Chase pulled her booted foot out of his grasp and jumped back. She found herself up against a much bigger man. She looked up. "Shimatta…"

She ducked down quickly as the man lunged at her. He was slow, she noted, but rather large compared to her slight form. VERY large…

Ducking again, she dropped all the way down and brought her foot out to bring him down. She found herself unable to trip him and she stopped, looking up. "Not good…"

The man smiled evilly and reached down, grabbing the young assassin by the collar of her jacket, pulling her upwards violently. She gasped as her feet left the ground.

The man flung her back and she felt her body collide into the hard brick building. Her head swam as she tried to keep the darkness back for the moment. Focus.

The first man, looking small compared to the second, grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up.

"Big mistake, boyo," she muttered. She threw an elbow into his ribs, catching him completely off his guard and he dropped her, clutching his ribs. She took the opportunity to bring the butt of her gun into the man's head, knocking him out.

"Now time to deal with the slightly… larger one…"

The larger man walked towards her and she suddenly wished she had one of the pilots with her. Somehow it seemed that even if this was one on one, it wasn't a fair fight.

"Oh well," she muttered with a shrug, "I can take him." For some reason this statement sounded more like she was convincing herself of this. "Let's just do this the old fashion way," she muttered and leveled her gun. She pulled the trigger and blinked when he disappeared.

"Behind you," he whispered in German.

Chase had a only a moment for her mind to registered that he was faster than he looked. She felt herself rolling out into the street and skidding to a stop. She landed on her shoulder. "Itaii."

She had not time to stop as the man came toward her. She balanced up on her feet, still crouched, and flipped backwards as she stood. She landed on her feet, gun drawn. Good thing she'd gotten up early for this little walk.

She fired three times, the last bullet connecting. She looked at the man. No effect? Not good. "Normal people feel pain, buddy," she muttered. "I shoulda figured out a long time ago to stay away from big guys in trench coats…"

He advanced on her before she saw what was happening and she found herself against the building on the opposite side of the street she had been on. Darkness would have closed in around her if several rounds of gunfire hadn't made her jump. The man in front of her collapsed to the ground and she saw Heero Yuy standing behind him.

"I didn't know you were in Tokyo."

"Hn." Heero walked over and reached out his hand. Chase took it and pulled herself up. She then took hold of his sleeve, dragging him into an ally so that any early passerbyers wouldn't notice them.

She wiped a bit of blood from her face and glared.

"What?"

Chase took a deep breath and then growled. "Damn you, Yuy!" she yelled. "What the hell were you thinking going off like that on an untested system? Are you just that stupid?! Dammit! Do you know how worried I was? I came back to the flat and Quatre said you'd disappeared like that! Do you just not care about anyone but yourself?"

Heero listened as she ranted for a few more moments and then she stopped, turned her brown eyes to him and waited. He said nothing as he reached up and wiped more blood off her face. "You should have Anna look at that cut if you found her."

"I haven't found Anna and the blasted cut doesn't matter!" she screamed.

Heero sighed heavily. "I have a mission, Chase. I-"

"Damn the mission, Yuy!" she growled. "What would I have done if I'd lost you? Huh? Do you know the emotional strain you've put me through? Again!" She through up her hands in the air and turned away. "We're staying in a hotel down the street and a few blocks over. If you ever need back up, call us. Though you seem to be doing just fine by yourself," she hissed as she stormed down the street. What a day this was starting out as…

"Why won't he call?" Anna exclaimed, pacing the kitchen in their hotel room.

"Maybe he hasn't gotten back yet." Wufei said. "Calm down. The worst that could happen is that Heero will kill Trowa."

Anna threw a pillow at him. "Baka. There's something totally screwball with this whole thing. I don't like it."

"What do you mean?" Cavel asked, flopping down on the floor in the living room.

Anna leaned against the wall. "When I first found out that it was Trowa behind what was going on, all I could see was my personal fury. But now that I've stepped back from that, there's just something that doesn't seem right. Instinct."

"You mean maybe he's not really working for OWN?" the boy asked.

"Or he has ulterior motives for doing so." Anna agreed.

Mirek knocked on the door before opening it. "Any word from Ryuujin?"

"Not yet." Wufei answered.

Mirek nodded. "If we don't hear from him within the hour, I think we should start looking for Barton and this boy of his. We can't have them getting killed here. There won't be any records of them in this year, and it will get the media's attention."

"Meg knows about it, I'm sure." Anna said. "I made a few calls. She's the one who did Duo's autopsy."

"Cause of death?" Mirek asked.

"One bullet wound to the chest. Trowa's still a hell of a shot." Anna said.

"Mirek, what side were you on during the wars?" Wufei asked.

"I worked with a group on L2 against OZ. I did mostly computer work because I was seriously injured when Treize's takeover first began." He answered.

"Why are we waiting for Ryuujin for anyway?" Cavel asked.

"Because, babe, you were there when Duo was murdered, but you didn't hear what Heero's reaction was, ne?" Anna asked.

"I heard him yell, and after it was……over… he stalked off. But I didn't hear anything." Cavel replied.

"I need to know what his reaction was. Sometimes, during the Eve war, Heero would go on a rampage and would kill anyone who got in his way. If he's like that now, we have a definite problem." The young woman said.

Mirek leaned against the wall. "You're being awfully calm about all of this. Your husband was just murdered, and now you're protecting his murderer?"

Anna fixed him with a glare. "How could you say something like that? My husband wasn't just murdered. A perfect stranger that I was married to a decade ago died. I'm not concerned about Trowa Barton. I couldn't care less. I'm concerned for Jack Avis."

"I know you're worried about Jack Avis. I still think you're acting strange about Duo's death."

"I wouldn't argue with her. You won't win." Wufei said mildly.

"Damade, Fei-chan." She turned back to Mirek. "Why are you bringing this up now?"

Mirek switched from English to German. "Because I reserved the banquet hall for tomorrow and I don't plan on being stood up at the altar. It would emotionally scar me."

The abrupt language change startled Anna, and it took her a minute to translate. "Keep it up and I just might leave you there." She replied in German.

"English, please. Or Japanese." Wufei asked.

"Mirek doesn't speak Japanese." Anna sighed, running a hand through her hair.

The phone rang, and all four of them leaped for it on instinct. They crashed into the table it was on, sending them and the phone to the floor. Anna landed on top of it and extracted herself from the mass of bodies on the carpet.

"Ryuu?" she asked hopefully.

"Anna," his voice said.

"No, I'm Anna. You're Ryuu, right? It's been a while." She could almost see him rolling his eyes.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Don't ask me that. If I wanted you to know I'd tell you. I need you to tell me about Heero."

"What about Yuy?" his tone shifted into assassin mode.

"What was his reaction to Duo's death?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Maybe you should talk to Chase."

"I don't want to talk to Chase. Chase wasn't even there. What was his reaction, Ryuujin?"

"Pain, anger, what are you looking for?"

Anna bit her lip. "Revenge. Rage."

"He vowed to get Trowa, other than that there wasn't anything visible." Ryuujin said. "I can go find Chase."

"Thanks for telling me, Ryuu. Ja ne." Anna said, hanging up the phone.

Ryuujin glared at the dial tone. "Women." He muttered.

Anna turned to the three men. "We need to find Heero Yuy, and we need to do it now."

(A/N: If you look really hard, there are a couple of Weiss Kreuz references in this chapter. ^_~)