Ok... here it is. Chapter 12. Good news... it's a little longer than usual. Bad news... well you'll figure it out by the end of the chapter.

Anyways... on why I keep my chapters so short. It's so I can update more frequently, in which way you'll get more updates. It's either a longer wait or shorter chapters, there's nothing I can do about that. Sorry.

Thanks for the reviews, and not many questions. Good... I hate to be confusing. Although I often am.

General questions... Why is it easier to hack into the system at the school? Because at the school, Heero can make a direct connection from his computer to the mainframe, instead of getting everything through an Internet link. Also, there is reduced distance from the two systems, causing less time to be spent downloading.

Four of the boys sat in front of the T.V., watching detachedly as Duo casually flipped through the channels. None of them were really paying attention to what they were watching... had it had been other wise Wufei would have snatched the remote away from the American a long time ago. No... his thoughts were wandering elsewhere.

"Stupid onna." He finally muttered, and Quatre sighed. The blond just didn't understand why Wufei had to be so arrogant sometimes... after all; they had only just met Rei Hino. There was no justifiable reason for Wufei to dislike her so much after such a short meeting.

"Wufei, I don't think you're giving her a chance." The Arabian said lightly, feeling slightly sorry for the poor girl. After all, Wufei wasn't exactly the easiest person to deal with at times.

"I'm giving her a perfectly good chance! It's not my fault that she continues to be selfish, ignorant, obnoxious, rude and annoying! You'd think that she would have better manners than that, being raised up in a private school like she was." He huffed, obviously annoyed at Quatre's remark.

"You're not being much better you know." Quatre replied.

"Watcha talking about?" Duo asked, finally abandoning his attempt at finding something remotely interesting to watch on the television. Throwing the remote to Trowa, the tall brunette caught it out of reflex.

"Just a girl we met today, who turned out to be our guide. Wufei seems to have gotten off to sort of a bad start with her." Quatre answered, voice tired, "I had to sit in between all of their arguments for the whole day."

Duo looked interested for a second. "Is she hot?"

"I guess," the blond shrugged off.

"She is the most despicable, ugliest creature ever to be born!" Wufei declared, eyes full of fire.

"Wufei! That's not nice!" Quatre said shocked at this outburst.

"It's true!" Wufei shot back.

"She was rather nice looking, just because you and her didn't get along doesn't mean you can tell lies about her! I've seen much more uglier girls than her!" Quatre flooded out.

"Quatre!" Duo said shocked. He didn't expect the Arabian to say something that... mean!

"Well, it's true!" He said, looking Duo in the eye and thinking of Dorothy's eyebrows. "And I'm not going to stop saying so until Wufei agrees!"

"Wu-man... you just have to give in!" Duo pleaded, "Can't you see that you're turning Quatre into... into... well, me!"

Wufei sighed and thought back to the fiery girl that he had just met, envisioning her in his mind. To tell the truth, she really didn't look bad in his eyes... even sort of... pretty. Giving his head a light shake, he tried to banish the thoughts of her raven hair and her deep purple, almost indigo eyes. He glared at himself. No way in all of the heavens and hells did he find her attractive! But looking at Duo's pleading eyes, and Quatre's uncharacteristic glare, he sighed and told them what they wanted to hear.

"Ok fine. There are a few girls that are uglier than her." He said, trying in vain to keep a blush from staining his cheeks. However, the light crimson tinge didn't slip the alert eye of the on looking American.

"Awww... you're blushing! Does Wufei have a crush?" Duo asked, in a sickly sweet voice, poking the annoyed Asian in the side.

"I do not!" He said angrily, brushing Duo off, and blushing deeper. Wufei's face now closely resembled the color of a tomato.

"It's nice that you finally found someone you like." Quatre said thoughtfully, mysteriously whipping out a cup of tea seemingly out of nowhere.

"Are you guys deaf? I just said that I didn't like her!" Wufei cried, blushing out of anger as well as embarrassment now. He couldn't believe the nerve of the two... how could they?

The two caught each other's eyes, and smiled. "Sure." They chimed at the same time while giving a knowing smile at the Asian on the couch.

Wufei groaned. They were never going to let him live this down.

Finally, Trowa gave up on channel surfing as well, and turned off the T.V. He looked at the clock, and then at the door. "Heero's late... perhaps we should go after him?"

Waving it off, Duo answered, "Heero's always late. He's just probably still trying to hack into the system at the school. He'll come back when he's done."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Trowa answered cryptically.

"What do you mean by that?" The Arabian asked, putting down his tea and looking interestedly at Trowa.

"I'm just saying that Heero's not in the sanest mind frame right now."

Thinking this over, Wufei nodded. "He seemed really upset last night. I don't think he'll have any qualms about shooting the robbers if he were to locate them, and that interferes with the mission orders."

"I'd be pissed too if someone killed my laptop." Duo agreed.

"Duo... you don't have a laptop." Quatre pointed out meekly.

"That's besides the point right now. What's important is that we get up to that school and either save Heero's ass, the robbers' asses, or drag Heero back to the apartment where we can keep an eye on him." Duo said fluidly, grabbing his jacket. As a second thought, he also grabbed a handgun. "Can't be too careful." He said smiling as the others similarly equipped themselves.

The four figures stepped into the night ready to face hell itself.

Or Heero. Whichever came first.
After a while Minako had gotten Rei to calm down, soothing the fire priestess with gentle words and understanding. Minako hadn't gotten a very clear idea on what was happening to her raven haired friend, only that it had to do with 'some new bitch that decided to ruin my day' as Rei eloquently put it. Ushering the still agitated girl out with the tea that had somehow been made one way or another, Minako joined the other two that were sitting at the familiar table, Ami typing away at her Mercury Computer.

"Hey Rei, feeling better?" Makoto asked, glancing up at the duo that had entered the room.

"A little, thanks. What's up?" Rei asked, immediately curious as to why Ami was working so vigorously at the computer.

"Ami's tracking device came through. She's just trying to decode it right now." Mako said calmly, although she felt queasy at the results. She had a feeling that there was going to be trouble soon, an inherent feeling, like the one some people had when it is about to rain. A deep tingling in her bones... but then again than might just be her arm that was still throbbing slightly.

Rei and Minako nodded knowingly as the quietly sat down, trying not to disturb the Mercurian. They both felt a need to resolve their recent conflict, one way or another.

"I got it." Ami said softly after a few more moments and a couple cups of tea. "I'm just letting the data process. We'll know the definite location in a few seconds."

The scouts all waited anxiously as they looked on at the screen, and soon a location popped up.

Juuban High.

"That's impossible." Minako breathed quietly, "What are they doing at our school? Did they find us already?"

There was a moment of silence as they mulled over Minako's questions. Then, Makoto shook her head. "No, I don't think so. If they had found us, then they would have come to the temple by now. They could easily find out where we live. I think that it's just a coincidence."

They all agreed on this with silent nods. Finally, Rei broke the silence. "Now that we know this... what do we do?"

"There's only one thing to do, I think." Minako said quietly, meeting the eyes of her fellow senshi and seeing comprehension. "We're going to pay Juuban a little visit."

Nodding, the scouts quickly transformed, grim looks on their faces. Mercury quickly gathered up her computer as they all disappeared into the night, leaving the temple empty and their cups of lukewarm tea forgotten.

They had more important things to deal with.
Heero clicked away at his laptop, still in the library. He waited as the computer downloaded, and then began to flip through the file that Une had given them at the beginning of the mission. He looked at the picture of the scouts, and the one in orange caught his eye.

A red bow sat lightly on her head, as she smiled happily, most likely posing for the picture. A red bow... the image of Minako flashed through his vision. But it couldn't be her... he had already ruled her out. Only a 13% chance... there was no way. And although he didn't like to admit it to himself, he didn't think he could shoot her if it really came down to it.

She brought back too many memories, and he wasn't completely sure that he didn't want those memories back. She was the past, something he wanted in his future. No... he couldn't shoot her.

But he didn't have anything to worry about, as far as he was concerned. After all, today he had seen her with his very own eyes, and the ribbon in her hair had been white. From what he could tell, all of Sailor Venus's pictures had red ribbons, as did the attacker that he met in the bank if his memory didn't fail him. And his memory never failed him.

So it wasn't Minako. It couldn't be, all of the evidence pointed elsewhere.

So why then did he feel like there was something he was missing? Why did he really thing it was her, deep inside, when there was really no reason for his suspicions? After all, they had just met, and only for a few moments. What was it about her that made him so... alert?

Her eyes. It was her eyes.

She was a warrior with those eyes... with a warrior's knowledge. A dangerous person, but a steadfast and loyal one. Someone that would never betray you, someone that would get the job done at whatever the cost.

Sighing, Heero put down the file as he looked at the computer finished downloading. Looking through the student profile, he found another negative result.

Needless to say, the search wasn't going well for the Wing Zero pilot. Even being the perfect soldier that he was, he felt the edges of exhaustion start to catch up to him as he stared, or rather, glared, at the screed in front of him. Folding his laptop down, he was about to pack it up when a sudden noise came from the doorway. Abandoning his laptop, he expertly (of course) flipped behind a table, gun at the ready.

The door slowly opened, and he could hear slight bickering coming from the figures that stood there. Four figures, silhouetted by the door as the fluorescent light shone behind them. Debating whether to shoot, Heero waited calmly as the figures came through the door. What ha hadn't expected was the voice that called out only a second after.

"Heero?" A familiar American voice whispered, slightly pronouncing his name wrong. Heero sighed, out of both relief and exasperation. How Duo managed to mess up such an easy name...

"I'm here, Duo." He answered, standing up from the shadows, "What are you four doing here?"

"We came looking for you." Trowa answered plainly.

"Any luck?" Quatre asked hopefully.

"No." Heero answered shortly.

A shadow raced across the window, and immediately Heero was alert once again. The other four were also down quickly, pulling out their weapons. More shadows raced across the window, and soon the five pilots heard a sound of breaking glass. Heero had meanwhile been quietly sneaking towards the table his laptop was on, but before he could reach it, the four girls were in. Retreating to the shadows, Heero quietly hid.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the tall one and the dark haired one cautiously start to comb through the many shelves of books. The blue haired one had taken a seat and was typing on some sort of computer. The blonde was nowhere in sight. Looking behind himself at his laptop, he quickly located her, as she reached one hand towards his computer.

She was in clear range, and there was no chance he could miss with his precision and training. He knew that it would alert the other scouts if he killed her, but then there would only be three left, and the other four pilots would undoubtedly help him take them out.

It was now or never.

He rose up his gun as the blonde, Venus, examined his laptop. He aimed carefully at her head. His finger moved back, pulling the trigger.

A white ribbon shone on her head, and Heero's eyes were wide with shock. It was too late, he realized as a deafening bang filled the silence, and as the blonde, Minako, was faced with doom.
Cliffhanger! Awww... you knew that I had to write one in eventually.

So here it is. Good news: Heero knows Minako is Venus. Bad news: Minako just might die very, very soon. So basically, it's fifty/fifty, right?

Yes, that was a pathetic plea for you guys not to flame me or to send me death threats. Only reviews with constructive criticism. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows on.

Mmmmm... s'mores...

Love,

Inverse-chan