Disclaimer: I repeat: All unknown characters in this story are all mine except Niko, J.C., and Daga who belong to Niko. I don't own GW, but I wish I did. Enjoy.

Gundam Wing Episode 19 *A Mission Gone Wrong* 7:00a.m.

"Finding out Sophia and Fox are the same person was a surprise for me too." Quatre says pouring tea for the others. "Since the little devices she made disrupts common decision making about a person's identity and gender. She most likely planted one on everyone." Reaching up they all remove the tiny devices except Wufei who didn't have physical contact to Sophia like the others. Suddenly Quatre notices that they all look a bit uneasy. "Is something wrong? " he asks in concern.

"Do you have any aspirin, Quatre?" Trowa asks.

"Yeah, lately we've been having some major headaches." Duo says rubbing the back of his head.

"I know what you mean. I'll go get it." He gets up and exits the room. That's weird Trowa doesn't usually ask for anything. As Quatre enters the bathroom and opens the medicine cabinet, he gets a funny feeling. Something's. not right. He thinks to himself as he looks at the bottle of aspirin he just picked up.

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

"Even thought you're afraid of changing again, Quatre, you have animal instincts and you have to learn to trust them as well as your new abilities." Sophia sits on a stool with her natural calm face.

"I don't know if I can, Sophia." He looks up at her concerned. "I nearly killed Rashid and the others with my. with my bare hands." He looks at his own hand as thought stained with blood. "I'm afraid I'll change again and."

"That won't happen because you're a naturally kind person Quatre." Sophia places her hands in his then turns them over then back so his palms are facing up ward. "You can't blame yourself if you're being controlled Quatre, besides. Your hands look clean to me. I'm going in through the vents while you go through the front. I can't have them knowing I'm here, ok. It might activate the collars."

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

I have to learn to trust my animal instincts, but how do I know what to do?

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

"That's something. you'll have to figure out on your own, Quatre." She pauses and her face softens. "Even I. don't know what to do, all the time."

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

Quatre closes the medicine cabinet and the reflection in the mirror shows Heero behind him. He turns to face his leader startled. "Heero, I'm sorry did I keep you and the others too long?" Heero's eyes glow red.

"We need you back, Quatre." He says taking a silver collar from his pocket. Quatre drops the bottle of aspirin and struggles to stop Heero from putting the collar on him.

"Heero stop this!" he could feel himself losing the struggle. With all his might he knees Heero in the stomach. "Sorry" he dashes out the door and bumps into Duo.

"Whoa, where's the fire, Quatre?" He pushes Quatre back into Trowa and Wufei who grab hold of him. Quatre struggles, but they hold him in place. "We need your help to get Sophia."

"Hold him" Heero emerges from the bathroom with the collar in hand.

"Heero please" Quatre says still struggling. "Don't do this."

"This one is different then the one you had on before. You won't kill anyone. unless you have to." Heero unbuttons his shirt to expose his neck then snaps the collar around his neck and watches as Quatre tries to fight off the mind control in vain. Quatre finally stops struggling as his eyes glow red.

"So, what do you say Quatre? You're going to help us get Sophia or what?" Duo asks as Quatre's eyes return to normal.

"Not just Sophia, but the others as well, but first Sophia and Shimi." he says buttoning his shirt to conceal the collar around his neck.

Fox pokes her head from out of the vent. Seeing that the coast was clear she jumps down. I wonder where, Quatre is now. She enters the closest room and gets a bad feeling as the door closes behind her. Quatre closes the book he's reading and places it on the small table in front of him made with a glass center. She looks around at the other four pilots a bit surprised then returns to her calm stare. Oh. no.

"So. you told them."

"Sorry, Sophia I had to. you're. not mad at me are you?"

"What's done is done." She turns to Wufei.

A smile crosses her face briefly as she moves closer to him. Suddenly she gets a feeling of dread and stops. Something's. not right here. She looks at all five of them a moment then returns to Wufei. I feel like I'm surrounded. Of course they think you're going to run off again. She looks hard at Wufei. She looks into his black eyes moving a bit closer. Her blood suddenly runs cold.

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

"I'm fighting for what I believe in." He comes closer his eyes showing only the determination of catching her. "Are you?" The sword comes down on the side of her face so she kicks the sword out of his hand. It goes flying hitting the wall beside her barley missing a soldier's head.

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

That look. it's the same. Sophia backs up from Wufei fear plastered on her face. Before she could move back any further he seizes her wrist.

I almost forgot. You tell something's wrong by just looking into my eyes. He blocks a side kick and grabs her fist when she tries to punch him in the face. He trips her. She scoots away from him as she sits up. He looms over her waiting for her to stand up.

What's the matter with you! Quit acting like a scared rabbit and FIGHT. She stands up and facing him then they both go in a fighting stance after moving a few steps back. The others watch as the two go at it. No matter how many punches and kicks she did Wufei either dodged or blocked them.

He waits a moment for her to rest before he starts his attack. At first the punches and kicks received were easy to dodge but they steadily got faster and more powerful. A kick in the face knocks her to the ground. She stands up determined. She does a few side kicks before taking him by surprise with a spinning kick.

He slams into the wall then she punches him in the stomach. He stands up and does another set of punches and kicks. Finding a weak moment she manages to get him with a high kick and then turns around doing a side kick. Wufei falls to his knees obviously hurt. A feeling of relief comes over her as she turns to her next opponent, Heero who holds his ground.

"You're not done quite yet." He says in his normal inert voice and face.

"Huh" as she turns around she's punched, sidekick in the face. She continues standing until she's thrown into the table by a powerful jump kick. There's a long pause as she lies there among the shattered glass of the mirror, broken wood, and her own blood.

"Are you done yet?" Wufei says sternly. "Or do I have to waste any more time with a pupil I clearly wasted my time training."

"You're. you're not Wufei." she cries out then grits her teeth as she struggles to sit up. She looks at him in disbelief. He shows no signs of being wounded. He shouldn't be standing. that sidekick should have broken at least two of his ribs. She stands up ignoring her aching body and burning cuts from the glass. Heero punches her in the face. Ok, that's it. now I'm pissed! She punches him back then kicks him in the stomach before Trowa takes hold of her from behind. Heero clutches the collar of her shirt and brings back his fist ready to punch her. For some reason he stops and lets go of her shirt then with Duo walk to the door. Why are they stopping? She hears a familiar voice outside. "Shi-" Wufei covers her mouth before she could call out her partner's name. The door opens and Shimi enters the room confused especially seeing Sophia's predicament.

"What are you guys doing?" She asks moving closer, but her only response from the Wufei and Trowa are glowing red eye that make Sophia shiver. Duo and Heero jump Shimi from behind. She slams Duo into Heero sending them skidding halfway across the room. "Ok fellas let her go." They release Sophia then all at once go after Shimi. "Sorry guys." She punches Trowa in the stomach then kicks him into Wufei. She knocks them down like dominos then turns to Sophia. "Go on Sophia I'll take care of these guys and figure out what's wrong with them. Contact Niko and Daga, K, to figure out this problem."

"I know what's controlling them. They have on some kind of control device on their necks besides I can't just leave you, Shimi."

"Sure you can, I can handle these guys. I've done it before. Go on, we're going to need the back up and you know it." Shimi watches Sophia leave the room. Well, at least I get to beat up Wufei and not get in trouble. Revenge is sweet. The multiple growls behind her startle her. She looks behind her in time to see them finish their transformations. Ok, this I wasn't expecting.

******

"Can't find something, Sophia?" she turns startled and jumps back seeing the familiar blond behind her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you?" He moves closer to her, but she backs away from him. "You're badly hurt. Let me help you, Sophia." He takes her wrist when she moves away from him again. Before she could pull her hand back he carefully turns her arm and takes a better look at her injuries. Concern crosses his face. "I'm sorry Sophia. this is my fault for not helping you."

"It's not your fault. There's no way you'd have been a match for Wufei anyway, Quatre. No use for us both to get beat up besides you have to make them believe you still had that collar on." Is this really. Quatre? She looks at Quatre feeling confused and unsure, but keeps her normal calm exterior. No, keep your guard up.

"Let's get those wounds taken care of." he says opening the bathroom door and goes inside. He soon comes out with a first aid kit. He sits on the nearest bed in the room which could bunk many like you'd find in a summer camp. Not wanting to show hesitation she sits next to him. There's a long pause as he begins to bandage her arm after cleaning it. "Now take off your shirt." She gives him a strange look as he fumbles for some more bandages in the kit.

"Take off my shirt."

"Yes, so I can bandage your back." Sophia slams the lid shut on the first aid kit nearly crushing his fingers in the process. She leans forward on the lid getting really close to Quatre's face. He moves back uneasy. "Is something wrong Sophia?"

"What did you mean by that really, Quatre?" she says annoyed.

"I, I just want to bandage your back that's all." The bed post stops him as Sophia's deep blue fox eyes burn into his their faces almost touching. "You know I'm not like that, Sophia." She sits up crossing her arms.

"Sorry, I but I'm still shaken by the look Wufei gave me. what he said to me." She says then changes the subject. "I wasn't expecting their technology to have gotten so advanced." She stands up and walks to the nearest vent but doesn't go in. She stands there thinking Quatre walks up to her.

"You feel guilty don't you? I can tell." He puts a hand on her shoulder. She glances at Quatre then goes back to thinking.

"We need to get the collars off each of them one by one. I'm too weak to fight them all at once."

"I have to show you something." He takes out a silver collar from his pocket and shows it to her. She looks at him startled.

"Where did you get that?" she says stunned as he pulls her close into a hug.

He moves his mouth close to her ear and whispers, "Heero gave it to me right after he put one on me." Her eyes grow wide. She rips herself from Quatre and backs up into the bathroom door. "Don't make this harder for yourself, Sophia. Just hold still and it'll all be over in a few minutes." He says coming closer. She fumbles for the door knob. He backs up avoiding a high kick then goes into the bathroom locking the door behind her. She sinks to the floor feeling a bit dizzy. How could I have let him get so. close to me?

******

Shimi turns the corner and stops leaning on the wall to catch her breath. Ok, Tigris you went a bit over your head. I can handle a wolf. Wufei no problem, panther, Duo piece of cake. A lion, Trowa. I'd like to handle him any day. She snickers to herself. But a bear. the approaching thundering paws bring her back. She holds her breath as the pounding stops suddenly. Curious she looks around the corner. Not seeing anyone she notices the elevator not too far from where she was standing. Elevator awaits you girl. She goes to the elevator and presses the button. I just hope Sophia contacted the others yet. I hate to admit it, but I'm going to need help on this one especially with Sophia probably now at half strength. She specializes in speed, agility, and wits and me speed, stamina, and power. The doors open slowly, but she doesn't go in.

"AAHHH!!" she backs up into an end table as the bear come crashing down on his front paws. She veers sharply to the left letting the table take the full force of the bear claw as it rips the table to sheds in one swipe. Unfortunately, she reaches a dead end. "Well, I'm dead." Falling to her knees she cries, "If I knew I was going to die today. I would have at least asked Trowa out." She turns around to face the bear that wasn't alone. "Can't I a least have a fair fight?" The five pilots stand up as they change back to their original selves.

"What do you say Heero? Should we play fair?" Duo asks crossing his arms then looks at Heero for a response.

"Why not?" as though reading Heero's mind Trowa steps forward. The other three turn and walk away.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"We have business elsewhere, woman for us all to waste our time with you." Wufei exclaims coldly. Elsewhere... oh no Shimi runs forward, but Trowa seizes her arm. They both glare at each other.

"Answer me this Trowa. Where's Quatre?"

"Taking care of Sophia," He says calmly, "After that fight with Wufei she won't be strong enough to fight him off." The surprise on her face is replaced with furry as she bears her fangs and attacks.

******

Sophia looks down at the floor after digging in her pocket. This might be useful after all. She looks up at the shower door then at the window just big enough for her to squeeze through. There's a knock on the door.

"Sophia please opens the door or I'll be forced to break it down." A chill runs down her spine. He doesn't sound controlled at all. The jungle of the knob is heard. "Sophia I'm not going to ask you again. Please open the door for me." She gets up but her foot slips. She looks down at the blood on the floor. Maybe I should have let him bandage my back after all. Finally standing up she places the mini computer lock on the shower door. Out of nowhere Quatre's claw comes crashing through the door. "You're upsetting me, Sophia." He says red eyes blaring through the hole in the door he made. He then reaches for the door knob. Sophia manages to get in and close the shower door just as he makes it in.

"Try and crack the code, Quatre." his eyes return to normal seeing the mini lock. He looks at her a moment then sighs.

"I'll play your little game then, Sophia." She goes over to the window and starts to go through it. Just as she's halfway out, Quatre grabs her and pulls her back in. "I'm surprised how light you are, Sophia." He says keeping a good grip on the struggling girl.

"Put me down, Quatre!" A wave of dizziness nearly causes her to black out. After it however she finds herself on her back with Quatre sitting on top of her. He carefully takes the collar out of his pocket then places it around her neck.

"You're too weak to fight me, Sophia." He says sternly keeping the collar closed on her neck as she tries to take it off. "So why do you insist on trying!" He says through clinched teeth as he waits patiently for the collar to take control.

******

Niko climbs out of the shower and changes clothes. He turns off the lights and leaves the room then walks past through a training room, equipment room, kitchen, and the living room and continues to dry his hair as he exits his gundam. I definitely need to stock up on food before I decide to leave. He looks around when something caught his eye. Someone's here. He listens careful for a moment then slowly turns around. He jumps seeing Duo behind him and breaths a sigh of relief.

"Duo, you actually scared me."

"Sorry, Niko, I didn't mean to scare you." He puts a hand behind his head with embarrassment. Niko turns reopening the door to Fallen Angel. "Just kill you." Niko turns in surprise at the sound of his words and just misses his claws as they pierce the metal door by his head. Niko quickly slips into the door and manages to close the door behind him shaken, but alive. "It doesn't do you any good if you hide from me."

Niko gasps as his claw comes through the door. Why in the world's gotten in to, Duo? Why would he want to kill him, for? He moves away from the door and watches him come in from behind the counter. His eyes glow a blood red that sent a chill down his spine. He sinks down taking his eyes off Duo. Ok, there's no way that's Duo.

"HI YA, NIKO!" Niko jumps again. He turns his head to see Duo behind him. Niko jumps to the side as he slashes at him with his claws. The drawer over his head explodes sending forks, spoons, and knifes raining around him. Duo slashes again. Niko flinches as he slashes him across the chest. Duo stops in surprise. Niko takes the allowed time to feel the floor.

Dame it, Niko thought as she watched Duo's mouth go slack as he looks at her chest. She felt herself go red in the face. Well, I guess that means I'm out of the closet. Duo grabs her neck angrily and starts to squeeze the life from her. She grabs hold of a knife and gashes his neck. He snatches the knife from her hand unflinching. To her surprise there was no blood, but he continues to squeeze his neck. Why didn't it work? That's when she saw sparks fly from his neck. He's a robot? White spots start to form in her eyes from the lack of air. She tries to remove his claws from her neck, but he slowly starts to dig his nails into her neck. Suddenly the collar comes into view. What's that? As a last ditch effort she reaches for it. Completely focused on the art of choking her doesn't try and stop her. She manages to get a good grip on it and pulls the metal collar that refused to budge. Duo's eyes flicker back to normal then red again as she touched it. Well, what ever this thing is it's got to go. Come on Damn it MOVE!! As though reading her mind it budges and begins to slip off his neck.

"You never trusted me did you Niko. I thought you were my friend, Niko. You've saved my life countless times now. I've saved yours just as many." Duo speaks almost coldly. A stab of pain hits Niko as he continues. "How could you not have trusted me enough to have told me about this?" With the last of her strength she manages to rip the collar off. He immediately releases her. Niko gasps filling her lungs with air gulping greedily holding her bloody neck. There's a long moment of silence before Duo finally decides to break it.

"Who are you?" he says softly feeling betrayed. She continues to look at the ground gripping the collar in her hands. She hated herself for not telling him. The safe house Fox set up for her family was finally completed and they had moved in five weeks ago. She could have revealed herself anytime since then, but she kept on lying to Duo though she knew it was wrong. She almost wanted to run off and leave Duo there, so he could be rid of her and the horrible feeling that she's a traitor would disappear.

"My name is Kokuei Nikomi Shayindu. Niko has always been my nickname. It's in honor of my mother, Nikomi." She sighs and went on in a rush as if she couldn't hold it in anymore. "I'm so sorry Duo. I wanted to tell you, I did. It's just that every time I started to you looked at me and I could tell that if I ever told you, you wouldn't be my friend anymore, that you wouldn't be able to understand!" Her voice is choked with emotion and she lifts her head to meet his gaze her eyes are filled with tears. He's shocked. Niko never cries.

~~~~~Flash~~~~~ It was after they got back from Base Nursery Duo had been congratulating Niko on her fighting skills.

"Whoa, dude, that was great! You da man!" Niko was kind of pale and there was a sad look in her eyes.

"Niko, what's wrong," he'd asked. She'd looked him in the eyes as if searching for something and bit her lip.

"It's just that." then she had shook her head and looked at him again, all of the previous emotion wiped from her face. "Forget it, it's nothing. Let's go get some lunch."

~~~~~Flash~~~~~ "Come on in, Niko! The water's fine!" Duo had discovered the base's swimming pool that day. He had run back to his room, thrown on his swimming trunks and gotten into the water. Niko had come by and seen him playing in the water like a little kid.

"No thanks," she'd called. "I don't have a suit!"

"Then you can borrow my other one! Come on!"

She had looked at him piercingly as though she were trying to see inside him, and he later thought he had imagined her lower lip tremble a little and her eyes had looked like those of a frightened doe.

"No thanks again," she'd called. "I don't like to swim." And with that she had walked back inside.

~~~~~Flash~~~~~

Many other memories come up when she looked like she was going to say something and she gave him that searching look, then made an excuse or changed the subject. He looks back at Niko. Her eyes are still streaming. What have I done, he thought, suddenly horrified and disgusted with himself. How could I have believed she didn't trust me? That she let me down? She had every right not to tell me! I reacted just like she has afraid I would, just like she hoped I wouldn't! She knows me so well she knew that's what I'd think, and she didn't want me to hate her. She thinks I hate her! He looks over at her again and felt his own eyes begin to prickle with tears. How can I hate her for not wanting to be abandoned? How can I hate her for wanting to keep one of the few people she'd ever gotten close to?

Seeing Duo start to cry only made her feel guiltier. I should have never become a pilot. Then I wouldn't have partnered up with Duo and I never would have hurt him like this. She gets up and starts for her room. She just wanted to get out as fast as she could so she wouldn't hurt her friend anymore. Instead I'll find my father and hurt him. At least I can rid the world of a scumbag who's a little worse than me. He deserves pain, not Duo.

"Where are you going," he calls after her.

"Somewhere other than here," she responds, "Somewhere where I don't care if I hurt someone. Somewhere where I will be completely alone and no one will take pity on the fact that I'm sorry for the things I've done!"

"Why?"

"So I can take my punishment and find a way never to repeat this."

"But what if I don't want you to go? What if I want you to stay here and be my friend?" Niko stops and spins around. Duo stands about two yards behind her. He walks toward her slowly.

"You don't understand," she protests. "I hurt you too much too be forgiven! If I stay I'll hurt you even more, just by being here! You'll never be able to forget that I lied to you!" Her voice is swollen with emotion obscuring her speech. She hadn't talked like this since Daga had told her about her horrible past when they were seven and the Shayindus had taken her in. Duo stands inches away from her now, and he takes her by the shoulders and looks her straight in the eyes.

"I understand perfectly. And I see no fault in my partner," he verbalizes softly. "Come on; let's get your neck bandaged, k. We have some work to do before collars starts to become a trend."