Disclaimer: So that everyone knows Officer Tembo, Li, Shimi, Fox, and Sophia are all my characters. Niko Nightwind is a recurring character, so please R & R

Gundam Wing Episode 11 *New Finds* 11:39am

"How's the process going for you, Quatre?" Duo asks being his perky usual self.

Some of what has happened besides the sabotaged building leaked out and reporters started to swarm. Rashid thought it would be a considerable start on a vacation. They decided to camouflage Quatre's volunteered mission of decoding Fox's laptop with him going on a vacation. Quatre sighs with disappointment. "So far I was only able to get the communicator working. That's how I'm able to talk to you."

"That bad. well, you're smart. You'll figure it out." Heero and Trowa wave in the back. Quatre waves back with a warm smile. "Shimi went with Sally and Wufei. They think the whereabouts of Sophia and Fox are somehow connected."

"Are they going to interrogate her?"

"Most likely after Wufei read the note Fox left Shimi; he thinks they're the same person."

~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wufei's eyes grow wide a moment after reading the letter left by Fox. "She wouldn't. not by herself." He gets a worried expression as he reads it over. He walks over to Shimi who was standing in the doorway.

Shimi's voice comes out small seeing Wufei's anger rise. He puts his hands on her shoulders. "That's Fox Wufei. not-"

"Just tell me where he went."

"I don't know where he went, Wufei." She tried to move away, but he holds her in place.

"And you just let her go... all by herself! You're supposed to be with her, Shimi!" Wufei blows up in her face after a few seconds of silence. She tries to move away again frightened as he began to squeeze her shoulders.

"Wufei she feels bad about Fox leaving already." Trowa says coming to her defense. Wufei gives him a warning look telling him to stay out of it.

"Wufei, please you're out of control" Sally said horrified.

"Fox, Wufei. not Sophia, Fox-" Shimi said.

"Don't try and pull that crap on me! I know her handwriting and the way she writes!" he screams in her face ignoring Sally. Sally slaps him across the face.

"Look what you're doing!" he looks at Shimi as though waking up from a nightmare. He releases Shimi whose eyes fill with tears as she runs to Trowa.

"I'm, I'm sorry Sally." He face switches from anger to worry now even more then before.

"It's ok." Sally smiles warmly at him. She hugs him who surprisingly after a while he hugged her back.

"She can't take on a whole organization by herself," Wufei says in a small voice that nobody recognized.

"I know, but remember you have a partner to help you this time. You're not alone."

~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He took it that hard. She must mean a lot to him" Quatre says sympathetically.

"Yeah I've never seen him like that before."

". Is it wise to leave Shimi with only sally and Wufei?"

"Don't worry we have Niko and Daga with her just in case." Duo says reassuring the safety of Shimi. "The guys and I want to know how your vacation's going."

"Great, that is if you like the desert. Oh, Commander Sa Da Ool says to give you his blessings."

"He still remembers me, huh. Tell him I said hi." Suddenly, Quatre's attention drifts, which Duo notices almost instantly. "Something interesting you're not telling us about? ... Quatre" Duo, Heero, and Trowa exchange looks when Quatre doesn't answer. "Um, Quatre. hey Quatre. earth to Quatre."

"Quatre" Quatre turns back to his friends as though caught talking without permission in a classroom. "Are you ok? Duo's been calling you for a while now."

"Oh, sorry Trowa I guess I didn't hear you." His eyes turn back in the direction he was looking before.

"Something caught your interest over there, Quatre." Duo says curious. Anything can steal Quatre's attention has to be good. His attention doesn't waver easily. "Well. come on lets here it."

"If you listen carefully, you can hear her singing." A smile forms on Quatre's face as he continues looking to his left.

"It's a girl, huh. What's her name and have you tried talking to her?"

Quatre blushes a little. "Yes I have, but she's extremely shy. She just moved into the building across from me and every morning she sings. She's a dancing girl here, but she's not Arabic. I believe she's Egyption." He looks back at his friends and sighs but it was a confused sigh. The kind when you're trying to remember something important. "I just have this feeling that. I've met her before somewhere."

"I guess you better get back to work." Duo says with a smile. "Planning a date is going to be a bit hard in the desert besides you need time to get up the nerve to ask her out."

"I think Duo's right" Heero says teasing his face and voice unchanging.

"You shouldn't keep her waiting" Trowa says joining in.

"You too Trowa. ok, I'll. ask her out." He says in a sheepish voice blushing more.

"Oh and do remember to take some time to get some work done instead of spending all your time with her."

The transmission ends and he looks out his window to see that the girl had left. I guess. I'll catch her later, then. He closes the laptop and he leaves taking it with him. Outside, Quatre sits on a bench in the mist of a festival. I'm not sure if I'll be able to ask her to lunch, today. oh well. I'll just try my luck tomorrow. He watches a while before opening the laptop.

"Having a little trouble, Master Quatre?" Rashid sits down next to Quatre as he tries to open another file.

"This is harder then I thought it was going to be. It's one rode block after another. I've only gotten through two, so far; I've been doing this for two weeks."

"You'll figure it out."

".That's what everybody keeps telling me, but now I'm not so sure." Quatre sighs looking sad.

"You should take a rest Quatre. Enjoy the festival." Rashid sees that Quatre's gaze has shifted off in the distance. "Quatre" Quatre places the laptop beside him and stands up not hearing him. Curious Rashid looks in the direction he was looking, but couldn't see anything because of the dancing people. Quatre starts running surprising Rashid. "Where are you going, Master Quatre!"

Quatre turns waving, "I just remembered something. I'll be right back!" Quatre disappears in the crowd.

Hum, that's strange. I'll leave him to his business. If he ran off it's for good reason. Rashid picks up the laptop after sitting back down. If Tikki was truly Fox then they won't be your ordinary passwords.

"Hey Rashid. Where's Quatre going in such a rush?" Abdul asks walking up to Rashid curious. "Must be important if he ran off for it"

"We shouldn't worry. It's his vacation after all; we should let him enjoy it."

*****

Shimi and Sally walks into a room about the size of a small classroom. Instead of desks there were three long tables running horizontally to the giant computer in front. The six were sitting in wait for the two to come in. Heero, Wufei, and Trowa occupy the table closest to the computer; Daga, Duo, and Niko dwell in the table behind them. Shimi and Sally take there places at the head of the room beginning the meeting.

"Ok, this is what I've gathered from my mission. Even though it was a failure something good came out of it." Shimi looks at her new group of volunteers most which she just met no less then a month ago. She started to get second thoughts, but Wufei was practically staring down her thought. Sally and Shimi made a deal that she would tell them some of what she knows as long as she kept Wufei from killing her.

I hope I don't regret this. Shimi takes out a disk from her pocket and loads it into the computer. A long list appears on the computer screen. "These are all the bases that they have in Osprey and after going through them here are the ones we've already destroyed or rendered useless." She presses a button and about three fourths disappear.

Duo whistles impressed. "Man you two did all those by yourselves." Shimi smiles at him pleased by his being impressed.

"No, we did do some though, Duo. We had a team of twelve people that consisted of gifted assassins, mechanics, scientists, two splicers, and even thieves."

They look at Shimi a moment hearing the new word. "What are splicers?" Shimi looks at Wufei hesitant to answer his question.

"A splicer, Wufei, is half human half animal which has the ability to change into. the animal to which it was spliced. When they change they sometimes tend to be slightly larger then the original animal depending on the size of the person. Some even experience unusual coloring or inverted coloring. They are nocturnal and prefer to change under the veil of night." Her face gets serious. "A splicer is made by taking a half fertilized egg of half an egg and replace what's missing with the portion of an egg of an animal."

"Why would anyone want to do that?" Duo says thunderously aggravated, "I mean shouldn't they just enjoy the peace that we have attained for them. What is with people? They want revenge we give them revenge. They want peace we give them peace. Will someone make up their mind?"

"Well, the person who's spliced gets the instincts, power, stamina, speed, or sometimes the personality of that animal. Splicers are 9 times out of ten loyal to the one who raises them. Anyone who wanted a large powerful army that obeyed their command without question, to take over the world or worse the colonies, is my guess."

"Isn't that similar to how they enhance people at birth." Daga asks suddenly shifting in her chair.

"Yes, it's the same process I know, but you can be enhanced at any age. A splicer, on the other hand, is only made in the test tub and can change into one specific animal. It's difficult to tell because you won't know you're a splicer until you reach ages 8 or 9."

"Will we encounter one these splicers if we go on a few missions?" Heero asks bringing a new subject to everyone's attention. There's a long pause as Shimi's face turns somewhat glum yet serious.

Her voice comes out soft, but scratchy like she had something caught in it. "I pray that you will never have to face something like that. Heero." She looks down a moment before making eye contact with him again. "Fox. is the only one who has gone up against a splicer and lived to tell about it. Um. it's because of the splicers that we're down to just us. Your friend Mr. Winner was very fortunate to have ShadowBall there in time to save him, but even then Fox said that the splice was overwhelming and he nearly lost. They're getting more powerful."

Trowa considers what Shimi had just said. She seemed uneasy talking about the splicer issue like a parent trying to tell a kid that there dog was hit by a car and wasn't coming back. He leans forward in his chair resting his elbows on the table. He lets his hair cover most of his face so she wouldn't be able to read his eyes which she seemed to be very good at since they met. Quatre told me ShadowBall killed the assassin not Fox. unless Fox is a splicer and Shimi's trying to conceal her partner's secret.

"Well since this Osprey endangers the peace of earth and the colonies Wufei and I have to get involved, so we're glad to have some help even though eventually Noin and Wind will get involved." Sally takes out a few papers and put them on the table in front of her. "Shimi and I had a talk about what bases to hit and there are three types she agreed was ok to hit."

Sally motions toward Trowa who gets up and turns out the lights. Pictures of buildings show up on the computer screen. "We have to hit the old manufacturing plants that were used to make the mobil suits and Gundanium used to construct the gundams in the colony cluster L1, the old labs in colony clusters L2- L5, and then we'll regroup before we try the bases on earth." Trowa flips on the lights and continues to stay standing at the door.

"It's too risky to go by yourselves, so I believe we should split up into teams. I'll leave that up to you." Sally smiles closing the discussion. Everyone gets up soon considering what colony cluster they should be assigned to.

*****

Wufei watches his friends a moment before deciding to speak. "I believe you two haven't properly introduced yourselves to us." Everyone stops and looks at Wufei because of his sudden outburst.

The pilot studied them all briefly, as it confirming their identity by his own standards, and then gave a curt nod. "I guess you're right." Niko smiles his Australian accent strong. "Niko. Niko Nightwind, pilot of the Gundam Fallen Angel."

"Nightwind? That isn't a name. And Fallen Angel? Well you already look weak, especially with that braid to weigh you down in battle; I never thought I'd meet a man with hair longer than Maxwell's, so I suppose you have-" Wufei didn't even have time to blink before he was punched, decked, kneed in the balls, and pushed onto the floor.

Niko then called out in a singsong voice, "At least I still have a Gundam and don't think that it is my reincarnated spouse, you poor little sexist. Any other comments about my name? Anyone? No?" Duo looks at Niko pleased to find someone just like him. "Fox might have looked and acted like you, but he let people prove themselves before judging them."

Daga looks at Niko a moment not surprised by her old partner's actions and couldn't blame him; she clears her throat to cut the growing tension in the room. "I'm Datania Nokomis Layla Morgan Diana Garnet Kasai Raye Sabaku Suisei Safaia Kuri." She turns to the guys. "But most people just call me Spitfire or Daga and I pilot Kasai. Can you believe, when we first met Niko couldn't say "dagger" straight, so you can understand why it's my nickname, for obvious reasons."

"You named your Gundam after yourself? How weak," retorts Wufei. Daga was about to start up one of her rants of rage before she noticing Wufei's obsidian eyes were becoming black around the outside of them and decides to be sarcastic instead.

"Well, it seems as though you're the weak one here. As I remember you weren't tied down during your beating." Wufei looks like he was about to explode.

"Wufei, that's enough." Sally calls out before something started. "This isn't the time to be fighting." They look at each other a moment before Wufei seems to calm down agreeing what she said.

"Fine. pick your partners." Wufei says before walking out of the room.

"I guess it's safe to say Wufei and I are still partners for this mission. Niko, Daga we're going to have to talk about you two still having gundams still. I'll leave you guys to figure this out on your own." Sally hurries out of the room after her partner.

"SSOOOO, who wants to partner up with me?" Shimi says from the corner of the room.

"Sorry Shimi, but I don't think any of us will have enough food to satisfy that pit of yours and have food left for ourselves." Shimi looks completely distraught by Niko's commentary. "Hey, I was just joking Shimi you take things to literal. Maybe if you ask one of the guys they'll be nice besides I was hoping maybe Duo and I could be partners since we work so well together already."

"I don't eat that much." She looks down shyly a moment. "Fine! As always I'll take who's left." She looks up annoyed this time as she stuffs her hands in her pocket then pulls out a pack of sunflower seeds from her pocket. She opens them roughly and eats them slowly one by one.

"You can work with me, Shimi." Trowa says speaking for the first time all day.

"Really Trowa?" She smiles seeing that he meant it. "He picked me! AHH!" She jumps for joy screaming and runs over to Duo. Grabbing his hands she twirls around the room with him. Niko joins in, but Daga keeps her distance all the while finding it hilarious.

"Why did you pick her, anyway?" Heero asks as he watches the three do another round around the room. "I wouldn't have minded."

"I think I can get some more information out of her without her getting suspicious." Heero glances at Trowa a moment before turning back to the ruckus on the other side of the room.

"Is that the only reason?" Shimi without warning runs to Trowa and gives him a long hug pinning his arms to his sides.

"Thank you for picking me." She squeezes harder with unexpected strength that surprised Trowa when he started to loose feeling in his arms and lower body.

Daga notices Trowa's arms start to turn purple. "Shimi, I know you're a trained assassin, but spare your partner. His lower limes need air as well." Shimi looks at Daga startled by her comment loosening her grip on him. She lets go finally noticing Trowa's arms as they return to there normal color.

Shimi blushes as she apologizes. That explains Fox's behavior to why Fox said her hugs were deadly. Trowa rubs his arms as pins and needles shoot through his lower body. There's more to you, Shimi, then meets the eye.

*****

Quatre makes it to the meeting spot, an oasis about a ways from the village. It was the first place he had rested with Sandrock and was able to enjoy the scenery. He looks around only to see a camel with a passenger come in for a drink. I guess I made it here first.

The passenger gets off and heads in his direction. He stands up curious. "Isn't that a Maganac uniform?" Wait. that's Auda's I'm sure of it. Questioning he runs to him, but as he got closer he realizs it wasn't him.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't recognize me very easily." She says when they were face to face. "I guess you're a little surprised. I didn't want to wear those revealing clothes anymore. I feel almost naked in them."

"Where did you get that uniform from?"

"A guy named Auda lent me his spare after the girls told him my story about me getting my luggage stolen."

"That's terrible, who would do such a thing?"

"I don't know, but I just think its some kids playing a dirty joke on me." She looks up at him, but her gaze never reaches his face. She takes a hold of his hand and pulls him forward. "Come I made lunch."

"I'll race you." Quatre says running ahead of her.

"Hey! That's cheating. Quatre!" She runs after him.

*****

Rashid looks at the sky as the sun begins to set as he stands at the entrance to the village. The flowing red, orange, and yellow waves in the sun remind him of Hiyami's hair and her hot personality when she flirted. He wonders to himself still remembering the last day he talked to her. Where did you go off to? And why? He looks away from the colors when he hears footsteps behind him. "Quatre ran off again hasn't he?"

"Um hum. I wonder where Quatre goes off to. It's almost dark and he hasn't come home yet." They decide to sit and wait for him. The sun turns bright orange as it descends over the horizon.

"This isn't interfering with his mission." Abdul asks after a pause.

"No, actually he has broken 5 more passwords in the past few weeks, but his running of worries me. There were so many attempts on his life lately that I don't like the fact of him going off on his own."

"This vacation cover up isn't going to last long. It's been over a month."

"I know. we'll have to think of something else later. How have you been doing? This if the first time I have seen you all day."

"I've been getting nothing, but the special treatment since we got here. I can finally walk without my cane now." A camel appears in the distance coming at a high speed toward them. As it comes closer, it's clear it has two passengers. The camel stops in front of them and Quatre calmly climbs down. "Thanks for the ride back, Wulan."

"It was no trouble at all for me to bring you back." Her voice is kind, but emotionless as she talks and her eyes are calm. Her face, however, was covered by the hood that she wore. She turns to Rashid and Abdul. "My apologies for keeping Mr. Winner away so long" Quatre introduces them to each other.

"That's quit alright." Rashid looks at her closely with a hint of suspicion. So, she's the friend he's been secretly meeting.

"I do have to say I wasn't expecting a girl, Quatre." Abdul says teasing.

"Why does it surprise you? I'm a person just like you or is it because I look so young?" Wulan half laughs as she continues. "I promise you I'm sixteen years old going on seventeen in November." She turns back to Quatre. "I hope you will grace me with your presents tomorrow, Mr. Winner. I bid you goodnight."

"Bye Wulan," Quatre watches her leave "I just wish she wouldn't be so formal."

"So, you were spending all your time with that girl, huh. I didn't know you were dating already." Abdul says as they start walking from the village entrance.

"I wouldn't exactly call them dates. We just talk actually and have fun. It's what she would call hanging out." Quatre soon notices that Rashid looked a bit upset as he looked at him. "Sorry Rashid, I guess that I was being a little juvenile. I hope you weren't standing here long waiting for me." They stop letting Abdul into his short-term house as they say their goodnights. Quatre and Rashid continue walking.

"It's dangerous to be out without one of us to protect you. Especially now" Rashid says sternly, "No more running off, Quatre, We don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"I understand," Quatre takes his punishment, "Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"You can still see your friend, Quatre; just make sure it's a place were we can easily find you." They stop at the house Quatre was temporarily using to stay in until they decided to move on. He says good night before entering. By now the sun had completely set and the village was being consumed by the coming night. He walks to his room and doesn't waste any time on trying to figure out the last password to get full access to all of Fox's files.

After a while, he calls it a night and decides to go to bed early so he could catch Wulan in the morning. He chooses not to put away the laptop right away. Leaving it on he changes into his pajamas. His mind drifts as he brushes his teeth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is strange." Wulan said after Quatre handed back a few of her drawings. She'd done them during the mobile suit battle before the surrender, of the Mariemaia incident. "I have this feeling I've met you before." They lie on their backs in the shade of one of the few trees in the oasis.

Quatre looked up at her stunned a moment, but then considers it. "Come to think about it you remind me of a girl I. met during the war, but she died though. in an explosion."

There's a long pause. Wulan stared at him hard a moment as though trying to remember something very important. "You say it as though it's your fault, Mr. Winner."

Quatre's face fills with sadness. "It. it was my fault. The explosion resulted from something I did."

"Was it intentional?"

"No, I didn't. I didn't think. I didn't want that to happen." Quatre said in frustration. He turned on his stomach looking gloomy his face riddled with guilt.

"Then it was an accident." He glanced at her before looking down. "I understand the guilt, but you can't let it eat at you." She moved some of his bangs with the back of her hand and rests her hand on the side of his face. "Quatre, to error is human, so if you don't error well. I don't know what you are."

She smiled then removing her hand from the side of his face she messed up his hair. "Ok, I understand."

"You know I don't understand you, Mr. Winner. You'd think with puppy dog eyes like that you'd at least have a girlfriend by now." He looked up at her confused. "Come on, look at you your adorable. You're right up their with the care bears heck you can be a whole new breed." He blushed at her comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quatre finds himself blushing again as he looks in the mirror. Wait, what's a care bear? I'll ask her tomorrow. He walks back to his room after he finished brushing his teeth. He stops by the laptop to turn it off, but stops when he notices something in the corner of the screen her didn't notice before. He clicks on it and a folder shows up. Opening the folder he sees a lot of documents. I must have unlocked it and didn't know.

He opens a document marked Desert Storm. He's astounded at what he finds. These are plans for a gundam. He opens four more that were also plans for gundams. He pulls up a chair and sits down.