Chapter Forty-six: What do you do when good guys turn bad?

(A/N: This is a warning: I don't like Mirek. It shows. A/N2: The first note is from Chase. She wrote this chapter. And she bashed my Mirek. Ack.)







Tears stood in the ocean blue eyes of Anna. "Atashi."



"Nani, tenshi? Nani de suka, Anna-chan? We're together again."

"Atashi." Why was her mouth betraying her again? Why?

"We are together, aren't we?" Duo whispered. He stood and backed away slightly, violet eyes widening with an unspoken fear of loosing the woman he loved for good this time.

"I don't know where I am anymore, Duo-kun," Anna muttered brokenly.

"I spent ten years trying to find a way back to you," he said, barely audible. "Now you're saying you don't know where you are? Where we are?"

"I don't know!" Anna yelled without quite meaning to. She shook her head, dark curls flying in her face. "I don't know."

Duo forced a smile. "This has all been kinda dramatic," he said quietly. "I know that. I'll give ya time to rest and think about where you stand, tenshi."

Anna choked back the urge to call after him as he turned and walked out the door. She closed her eyes and sighed. What a mess.



"He's gone!" Meg called as she came scurrying out of the elevator.

"Who's gone?" Quatre asked from his place by the window.

"Ryuujin! He's gone!"

The door leading to the rooms opened and Duo stepped out, closing it quietly behind him. His violet eyes turned serious. "Where'd Heero go?"

"He and Chase went downstairs," Cavel offered.

Duo nodded his thanks. "I'll tell them about Ryuujin then. I needed to see him anyway."

Meg watched him disappear into to the elevator. She would have sweatdropped if she had been in a world that permitted it. "How can he be so damn calm about that? A man with wounds like Ryuujin had doesn't just get up and walk off! We had him VERY sedated!"

Quatre sighed. "Ryuujin isn't your average man. If he had a reason, he would get up and walk off. The question now is why he would do such a thing. If he were amongst enemies it would be more plausible, but why here and now?"

Mirek had been rudely awakened when Meg had come screaming around the corner. His eyes narrowed. "What is he capable of?"

Wufei looked at him oddly. "He's not a traitor, if that's what your thinking."

"You would have said that about Trowa too, ne?"

Wufei stood and glared down at the man. "If Anna didn't care about you so much, I'd knock your lights out here and now. You're talking about my teammates. I suggest you get to know them better before insulting them. From what I saw, it was very possible Barton was never the traitor we thought he was."

"Wufei-kun is right, Mirek-san," Quatre added quietly. "If for nothing else, Ryuujin-san cares for Chase too much to turn his back on us all. To turn his back on the Gundam pilots would be to kill Chase then and there. She's as loyal as we all are to one another." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Trowa-kun made the ultimate sacrifice for me, because he was my former team mate."

"You don't believe, after all he did, that he was not a traitor?" Mirek asked harshly.

Quatre looked up, eyes cold. "He would not have helped me if he had been truly against us. Trowa was a survivalist. He knew how strong Ryuujin is, and if he had truly been against us, he would never have helped me."

"And why did Ryuujin attack you? That just gives me more evidence to think he would be the next to turn against us all."

"You're hell bound on thinking someone else will turn against us, aren't you?" Wufei demanded. He started to speak again, but the doors to the elevator opened, revealing the two Yuys and Duo Maxwell.

"What's all this bickering?" Chase demanded. The Gundam pilots recognized the look in her eyes.

Quatre explained to her in his diplomatic way the conversation that had been taking place and her eyes narrowed, turning a cold and bitter glare toward Mirek. "You have no right," she hissed at him. "How dare you accuse two men that I care about of turning against us without any real proof the back that up?"

"Are you blind?!" Mirek demanded.

Chase slapped him so hard that the palm of her hand stung. "No. You are. As Quatre-kun said, Trowa would never have challenged Ryuujin if he had been against us." Her eyes turned to the ground, then she looked back up, tears formed. Angry tears. "He risked and lost his life to save a member of his team. He died bravely. Don't you dare go and insult him." She took a shaky breath. The lack of sleep, the anger of her friend's death, and everything else that had mounted onto her heart came crashing down around her. Mirek just happened to be there to take the brunt of the blow. "As for Ryu, he had a good reason for leaving. I may not know what it is, but until he attacks us, you have no right to tell me he will."

"I'm taking things I've seen in the past from you people and trying to help us all for the future."

Chase took a deep breath, turned, and walked over to the window, still fuming. She turned her back to it and slammed her fist into it. (A/N: Crawford moment!! Don't look at the window. Don't look at the window. Damn. Looked at the window. The only reason you will get this joke is if you read "If I am Gifted" Go read. Ima!!) "If you want to live through the next day, you'll stay away from me until my temper cools," she growled, then left by way of the stairs.

Heero turned his icy gaze at the man. "It's not good for your future to upset my wife," he said simply, then turned to follow her.



Ryuujin closed his eyes. He reopened them to find someone standing in front of him. He backed away, half surprised he hadn't sensed the man coming. Reflective blue eyes met reflective red. "Drizzik."

Drizzik smiled darkly. "Come with me Ryuujin. I have much use for you."

Ryuujin nodded and followed the mysterious man as they disappeared into nothingness.



"Elise!"

Chase spun to see Odin Lowe standing down the street. He gave her a small smile and walked towards her. "What's the matter, kiddo?"

"No one knows who's fighting who anymore," Chase whispered. "I feel so lost."

Odin smiled and glanced to the entrance of the hospital. "Ya know, I know of a young man over there that would be very happy to help you find your way."

Chase looked to see Heero standing there with a worried expression on his features. "Domo arigatou," she whispered to Odin. She ran to him and embraced him.

Heero winced slightly.

"Daijoubu?"

"Hai."

Chase's eyes widened as she remembered the injury he had received when she had been abducted by Victor for his games. "Gomen!"

"Feels like longer than a week ago, ne?"

"Whatever happened to that boy?" Chase asked quietly. "Avis. The one that shot you."

Heero paled visibly. "He died. It was an accident."

Chase turned her dark eyes upward. "Heero."

"I killed him."

The smaller assassin wrapped her arms around his neck. "He died protecting Trowa-kun, didn't he?"

Dark blue eyes widened in surprise. "Hai."

Chase smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips. "I love you."

He held her close. "And I love you, Chase-chan," he whispered quietly. He didn't want this to end.

"We really should have Meg or someone take a look at that wound. I doubt you've treated it well this past week, ne?"

"I'd rather stand here a moment more."

"Okay." She had not arguments with that. Not when she was standing with the man she loved. Somehow, in his arms, she knew things would turn out all right.

(A/N: I just wanted to note briefly that according to my VERY hard efforts (you should be on your knees bowing to the all mighty Chase-chan for her slaving over this!) I have figured out the exact time line for this story thus far. It started on a Thursday and has now been two weeks and two days! It is currently Saturday.)