A/N: How am I going to find a name for this chapter? Should I just call it in-between-thingy and leave it at that? No, I'll settle for:
A Place to Die in

An all-powerful crying fit and an intensive splashing of her face with cold water later, Relena emerged from the girls' washroom, anxiously making sure no one from her 'crowd' was around. Though she would have to face them sooner or later, she needed to adjust to being Relena Peacecraft, the strong friend and symbol, the person who believed in true peace and faced any obstacle with that belief, again. Right now she was the opposite: a girl crying her heart out for a soldier whose ambitions were the opposite of pacifism. In time, she knew, that powerful dream of world peace would regain its old importance in her heart, but for the moment it seemed a shadow hardly worth living for. Or sacrificing for.

Suddenly she felt a hand at her elbow and a low voice greeted her: 'Hey, Relena.'

Turning her head so fast it nearly dizzied her, Relena was disappointed in what had hardly been a hope – she had known the voice wasn't Heero's. Duo was at her side, his big eyes for once grave, not laughing. Right behind him was Quatre, his face drawn too, looking at her with a half-hopeful, half-stern glance.

Trying to smile normally, she asked: 'Hey, Duo, Quatre, what's up?', thinking that there was no way she would be able to fool them, especially if they knew the whole story. But as far as she knew, nobody else had witnessed the magic that night, and even if Heero could remember, it wasn't like him to tell the other Gundam pilots.

'What's up is not good,' Duo remarked darkly. 'Catherine's missing and Heero –'

Here he was gently interrupted by Quatre: 'Did you show the blueprints from the library to Catherine, Relena? It's urgent.'

Even in her miserable state, Relena was taken aback. 'Yes . . . I did; I took them to her place and we studied them. We didn't find anything though,' she added, seeing the worried faces in front of her.

That didn't seem to have any effect. Duo brought his fist to his fore-head, muttering 'stupid, stupid, stupid girl' under his breath, while Quatre grimly showed her a crumpled bit of paper. 'Is this part of one of the prints?' he demanded.

Alarmed by the urgency in his tone, Relena took the paper and studied it. 'Probably,' she concluded. 'That corridor set-up looks familiar. Why? Where did you find it?'

'At Catherine's,' Duo answered. 'Do you have the rest of the plans?'

'No,' replied Relena, mystified, 'I left them at her house.'

'Well, that was all I found of them there. She must have taken them with her.' Duo and Quatre exchanged exasperated looks.

'You don't mean . . .' Relena began, her heart beating. She had forgotten about her own misery for the moment.

'It's likely that she found something, went off exploring on her own, and – well, hasn't come back yet,' Quatre finished uncomfortably.

While Duo started ranting: 'We told her not to go messing in our stuff; we told her, and now –', Relena slowly came to grips with the new information. Catherine – her strong, optimistic friend – was missing; was maybe in danger. One of the lone voices of true friendship which existed in Relena's world was gone.

'We have to find her,' she said wildly, 'we have to look – anywhere – '

Duo laughed hollowly, while Quatre explained gently: 'We don't know where she is, Relena. And anyway, it's too dangerous for you to do anything like –' A torrent of fitful, dramatic words which were unfortunately not put together into a proper speech yet interrupted him. Getting the general message, he said firmly: 'However, Heero and Wufei have found a new lead, which all four of us will be investigating tonight. No,' he added in as loud a voice as he dared, to speak over Relena's passionate protests, 'we can't take you with us into this possibly – even probably – dangerous situation. You're not trained for this work. Remember what happened last time.'

The last remark quieted her. Her fear and tension, Heero's humiliation, Tekkan's sadistic malice – they were all very real still. Numbly, she nodded.

'Right,' Duo said briskly, 'we'd better move on, it doesn't look good if we keep hanging around you. Some people might get jealous.' With a meaningful smirk at Relena, he and Quatre went off along the corridor, both looking very normal and inconspicuous.

As she stood gazing after them, a very small voice behind her asked: 'Relena?'

Turning around, she saw that it was Santio. Her stomach clenched immediately in reaction to her new dread of him. Though he didn't look remotely dangerous now – more like a lost puppy in the rain, pleading for someone to let him in.

When she just looked at him wordlessly, he began in a rush: 'I would ask you to go somewhere more private to discuss this, but I know you wouldn't and I don't blame you . . .' A wry, apologetic smile twisted his lips. 'But I want you to know that I'm really sorry for what happened. I can't explain it – I – I just love you so much, Relena –' He broke off, hanging his head.

Relena felt a flutter of painful sadness in her heart. At the moment the world seemed too cruel to bear. Heero had been hurt since the day he was born and still didn't know where he belonged. Hilde and Relena had to live in fear that something was going to happen to the Gundam pilots. Catherine was somewhere they couldn't reach her, alone without help. A whole school of innocent pupils was in danger every second. Relena had just been wounded almost past enduring by the treacherous magic of her caring for Heero. And here was Santio, confessing his love to her, and obviously being torn almost to pieces by it. Why did all that sadness have to be lived with?

Then she felt the Peacecraft strength calm her. At least she could do her best to ease Santio's pain a bit.

'I don't blame you for what happened, Santio,' she said softly, watching him slowly raise his head. 'We shouldn't let that stand in the way of our friendship. You've been –' Her voice caught in a small sob as she remembered his devoted face – and Heero's cold one. '– so good to me. I hope you will forgive me if I can't care for you the same way you do for me.'

A bitter heaviness made his face fall, but the next moment the most tragic smile she had ever seen was on his face and he offered her his hand. 'Friends?'

'Friends,' Relena agreed, taking his hand and shaking it. A small smile twitched on her face as she thought of the ridiculousness of the old ritual in a situation like this. There was something heart-wrenching about it all.

'Well . . . I'll see you around,' Santio said softly. All she could do was nod.

But just as he had left, a sudden inspiration came to her. It must have been all the talk about love, a mischievous voice in her head noted. Suddenly, she had a weapon against Duo.

As she turned around to finally walk on, a triumphant and optimistic smile shone on her face.

A figure in the background watched her smugly, new thoughts already racing along familiar tracks of the mind.
Having left Damon to his moaning, Heero walked quickly through the school, ignoring the fact that he seemed to be almost a hero for a lot of the students of his age. Apparently the news of Relena's rescue and his resistance to the drug had found a wide circle of people.

Heero couldn't begin to imagine why he was so interesting to so many people at school when all he wanted was to be invisible and unnoticed by anyone. That had been his original aim, and somehow he had been completely knocked off course. When had it begun?

Trying to hide under the long pieces of brown hair that hung into his face, he mentally back-checked everything that had gone wrong in this mission. At the beginning, there was the mission itself. Incognito, no killing allowed – not his kind of task. Then Relena had come into it as a big mistake. One who recognized him for what he was. That had led to the trouble with Tekkan – and, unfortunately, the fight. Another big mistake. It basically made him school champion – and very famous. Tekkan hadn't been able to take that and had kidnapped Relena, which in turn led to everybody thinking Heero had been the rescuer instead of Quatre.

A suddenly distant look was about Heero's eyes as his brain sped through his train of thoughts. Why did people know about that 'rescue' at all? The only witnesses had been Tekkan, Relena, Quatre and himself. He was sure Quatre hadn't mentioned it to any outsider, and he certainly hadn't. Tekkan wouldn't have breathed a word, since it could wreck what was left of his fierce reputation. And Relena was also under the Gundam pilots' oath to secrecy. He couldn't imagine her breaking it . . . Although the experience had traumatised her somewhat – he could still see the wild fear in her face and hear her desperate sobs as Tekkan threatened her – Relena was capable of handling it. Relena was strong, Relena was –

' – Relena is a desired object, don't think you're the only one after her!'

The low voice cut cruelly into his memories. It came from just around a corner, where, as far as he knew, there was nothing but an out-of-order drinking fountain. And voices, now.

'Well, who would have thought it? Baby suck-up is jealous, are you after her precious suitors?'

Heero had paused, letting the current of moving students wash by him, his hand automatically straying to the pocket where he kept his gun. He knew which people were speaking, even though the girl sounded very different now than she had when talking to him.

'You're such a pathetic loser,' she hissed, sounding enraged. 'Drop out of military academy, come to some loser high school, get kicked out of the Army Gang, and you don't even manage to pull off your latest pathetic – ow!'

A sharp gasp of pain followed her words, a thump, and a squeal.

'Don't you dare, Tekkan – I'll scream, I swear I –'

All the news he had heard in the last minute came together in Heero's mind. There was only one way to get the information he desperately needed to finally end this insane mission and get out of here.

His fingers clenched around his gun, he swerved around the corner. The scene was as he had expected it: Tekkan, his back to him, had just raised his fist again; the girl with the hazel-coloured hair was protecting her face behind her folded arms.

'Turn around slowly.' He saw Tekkan's back and raised arm stiffen at his words, the threat not concealed by his monotone.

Eyes almost black with hatred, Tekkan glowered at Heero's secure grip of the gun pointing at him. But two soldiers understood what they wanted from each other – Tekkan left instantly and without a word; Heero carefully lowered his weapon.

'Heero!'

The girl's eyes were wide in admiration and helpless subordination. Heero wondered briefly how she could make her face lie for her so well.

'Oh, thank you – you're so brave – you don't know how scary Tekkan gets, it's –', she broke off, her voice catching artistically.

'Tekkan can't scare you in a public place,' Heero said impatiently. What the hell did she want to achieve with her dramatics anyway? She knew that he knew all she had to do was yell and be rescued the next second. At least in this place . . .

The real fear in Damon's eyes, his scream, the hatred Heero had felt – it all rushed back to him, and wouldn't leave till the soldier tensed his muscles to attention.

'He certainly couldn't scare you anywhere,' the girl put in, cleverly drawing the conversation away from her situation. Then, as this had no apparent effect on Heero, she held out her hand: 'By the way, I'm Marisa Acton. And like I said, I'm really thankful to you. Any favour I can grant you –' She looked up at him slyly.

Heero's mind was running along entirely different tracks. 'Suits me, you can answer some questions I have,' he answered without even glancing at the still out-stretched hand. 'What's the Army Gang?'

'Army gang?' Marisa asked, puzzlement dawning on comprehension in her eyes. Her hand slowly sank back down. 'Oh, you mean the one I mentioned to Tekkan? He's such a baby, isn't he –' She stopped short.

Heero had his gun in his hand again, and this time it was pointing straight at her. Her features froze in a dumb shock.

'Fortunately,' the Gundam pilot explained in his standard neutral voice, 'as long as you have a gun, you can threaten someone anywhere. ' A second's silence passed between them.

'Now, don't mess with my time anymore and tell me what the Army Gang is. I'll settle for just the facts.'

Marisa swallowed, but she relaxed somewhat when he put the gun away. 'It's a group Tekkan used to belong to; they do martial arts and stuff like that. But nobody knows who exactly is in it or how you join. You just hear about it from the guys at school.' Everything was said in a rush, for once without any dramatic accentuating.

An army gang – an army – a weapon. The school was in it deeper than he had thought. And apparently some students were directly involved, while the majority only heard the rumours.

He nodded curtly. Tekkan would be a more revealing informant, if he could only get his hands on him. What else could Marisa tell him?

'How do you know about the cave under the school and its secret entrance?'

Marisa shrugged. 'Tekkan.'

'No kidding. And how does he know about it?' Heero was growing impatient.

'Oh, probably from the Army Gang,' she replied casually. 'Though they can't meet there anymore – every time I'm down there it's deserted.'

Another connection. All this had to have something to do with the gundanium alloy, with his mission. Dead-pan face and voice, he threw the big bait:

'What about the other cave, are they using that one?'

Holding his breath, he scrutinized her reaction. An inward look of confusion, a wrinkled brow and a shrug. 'I don't know any other cave, that's the only one Tekkan's shown me.'

No matter how he fixed her with his death glare, she looked back innocently puzzled. A clever actress – or the truth? Well, he knew her to be the former.

Well, whether she knew about the cave or not, he wasn't going to get anything more out of her from that angle.

He was already turning away when a question suddenly came to his mind. 'Why do you hang around Tekkan? He's a criminal and a coward.'

'But he's a soldier,' beamed Marisa dreamily. 'I like soldiers.'

Heero nearly laughed with bitterness. She certainly had something to learn.

'Tekkan is the worst example for a soldier I've ever seen. No soldier worth his post would beat up a girl just because she insulted him.' He looked pointedly back at her.

Marisa's eyebrows rose. 'So you wouldn't?' she asked challengingly.

When he shook his head, she giggled. 'Wimp,' she exclaimed, brushing past him with exuberant triumph.

Her insult hadn't raised Heero's anger, only his general disgust with the world. What kind of a place was this to live in, where girls not over sixteen were already hardened to violence and admired it?

As he stood there looking at her receding bouncing curls, the answer came to him. This wasn't a place to live in. For him, it was a place to die in.
As the bell rang dismissing class, Duo and Quatre got up quickly – Duo waving cheerily at a couple of girls he had chatted with during the lesson, and watching them blush madly in return – and headed out the door.

'Remember, Wufei and Heero want us to help them tonight,' Quatre reminded the other would-be-reporter.

At this, Duo sighed. 'Man, they always act like they're the tough guys, and then they rope us into their stuff. For all they know, we could be busy tonight.'

Quatre smiled to himself at Duo's exaggeratedly grieved tone. 'Why, what most important business do you have to do?'

'Well. . .' Duo pretended to be thinking. 'I've seen any number of cute girls around here, surely one of them has the evening off. . .'

As Quatre was laughing and shaking his head at what he hoped was Duo's joke, a girl's voice sweetly interrupted their conversation.

'You mean, a girl like me?'

Both Gundam pilots spun around to face the eavesdropper. Quatre recognized the hazel curls and impish smile immediately, and felt his body tense in a defensive reaction. For one thing, she knew his true identity. And he wouldn't put it past her to use it as a weapon on him.

'Well, I hope you haven't got important business to do,' the girl said, facing him directly. Lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, she added: 'Dorothy's expecting you.'

'And what is your proof?' Quatre asked coolly. His heart had begun beating quickly at the mention of Dorothy's name. But he couldn't trust this person who had already been identified as a fraud working for Tekkan – or could he?

'I gave you the letter,' she insisted, drawing her eyebrows together perplexedly. 'You know she needs you.'

She needs you. Quatre stared off into the distance for a moment. He wanted desperately to see Dorothy, especially if she wanted his help. But he couldn't afford to have a trap set for him, like it had been for Heero. His duty as Gundam pilot in this mission was to stay alive and find the enemy. To save the school and its innocent pupils, not to mention a whole nation which could be brutally eliminated with the weapon this building was keeping in dark hiding.

The choice was his.

Silently begging Dorothy to forgive him if it was indeed true, he said levelly: 'I don't believe you.'

And, ignoring the anxious protests that came from the 'messenger', he turned wordlessly to Duo, who had been waiting in silence, and exited the school with him.
A/N: Humour? Zero. Action? Zero. H/R? Zero. Happy ending or at least cliffhanger? Nope. I'm afraid you're reading the wrong fic if you expect all chapters to contain all of the above. However, I solemnly swear to try to bring out a brand-new chapter bursting with action and romance as soon as I humanely can. While you're waiting for it, try to guess at certain mysteries and decide if Quatre chose right or not! (This might not be on your list of Top Ten Favourite Activities, but you could spare a minute on it and tell me in a review. If you want to.)

Love you and your reviews:

Inferna – absolutely right, it's going to take the entire story till Heero gets ANY clues on his feelings and how to show them!

Yuerohye – Do I look like I would just give up a story? No way. Unfortunatly, I might leave it alone for a few months . . . but not likely this time!

tiff – thanx, I'm so happy for me that I've got nice reviewers!

SabreHero - nice name You should know by now that I never update soon! Always do my best though.

Mollyperson – Yes, sir. Order taken to heart. Sorry you had to wait foreva for this chappie too.

yasuru01 - thank you for the 3 reviews!

Nichi-chan – sorry, you'll have to wait a while for Trowa to come into it . . . though he'll make it in the end, don't worry. Who do you think qualifies as a rival, Tekkan or Santio? Somehow not either of them. sighs I'll make Heero fess up in one way or another though!

angelofdarkness – yes, POOR Heero. I am SO sorry for him. snickers evilly I sort of forgot bout Catherine in this chapter, she'll be in the next one then! So long!

Nubia – an email is on its way! Thanks for the interest, it really motivates me!

wingsstars07 - nice idea. . . Heero has to ask a girl to the prom dance. hehe I'll see when I can fit it in, thanx!

ebacusta – well, that IS the question, right? Though I don't know if that many ppl are interested in Tekkan's fate. But I'll keep it a secret till the end, k?

Mint – yes, wouldn't things be much easier if guys (especially Gundam pilots) didn't have their stupid male ego thing to stop them from doing that kind of thing? On the other hand, what would happen to the story? Confrontation coming up. grins

Jaime – damn, the fic just lost all its potential! I'll still inform you though, no prob!

Nonsequitur - I can't promise romance for a while. Very sad, I know. . . but maybe this update wasn't TOO late?

CrimsonD - H/R confrontation coming up! Though I'm afraid it's going to be sad (and frustrating) more than anything . . .

Erinamation-limited2-nothing – that's great, hope you come back for more!

Pink Sakura – sometimes I'm tempted to agree with you . . . though it doesn't always work out for our #1!

That's all for now! whew

Shooting Jewel