Disclaimer: Ta…………………………………………dah! :3

An Ashika chapter, as they will all be from now on. O.o; Bye bye CMH … and good riddance. xD; Harhar. This is the one and last note to you guys in CMH. :3 Have fun with Ashika…! And and and … yeah. Go read. xD;

Chapter 15

"Ahh, the lovely Miss Minako and Usagi … I wonder if they've changed at all!" Duo paused to frown. "I hope they're not in love with Hiiro already – I don't think even Hiiro works that fast." He straightened, face determined, hitting the palm of his hand with his fist. "I must learn his secret … but just in case, I canceled all my dates for this week and-"

"Shut up!"

Duo jumped at Wufei's roar. So did half of the passengers on the commercial shuttle to L2.

"How long does it take for you to comprehend?! Yui is God's gift to women, not you, Yui!"

The braided American paused a moment to take Wufei's words in, blinking before shooting him a look of reproach and hurt. "Well … if you feel that way..."

"I do."

"I do, too," Trowa chimed in from the row behind them.

Duo looked as if he had just been told that all the women he had ever dated were, in fact, men. "B-but…"

"Any woman that sees Yui would never be able to get him out of her mind."

"B-but…" He looked close to tears. "Hilde never fell for Hiiro." Duo turned to Wufei, eyes watering with hope, begging for assurance.

The Asian Preventer shot him a smug look. "If she did, you'd be the last to know."

Duo's eyes widened to the size of cantaloupes, and he took a few gulps of air, relaxing his Vulcan Death Grip on the arms of the seat. A moment passed as he fought to control his panic over the possibility of the denouncement of everything he'd ever known to be true.

The calm snapped.

Duo stood up in a rush, opened the overhead compartment, jerked out several sheets of crumpled paper and a pen, before sitting back down and scribbling away. "I need to write to Hilde! I won't be able to sleep until I do!"

And he was silent.

Ah, blissful silence.

Quatre sighed and poked Wufei on the shoulder. "You shouldn't do that to him. His heart can't take it."

The dark-haired man turned to glance at him over his shoulder and smiled. "But don't you enjoy the silence?"

"Yes, but what you just did is …is… – it's cruel; I can't bear to watch."

Wufei shot a frantically writing Duo a doubtful look and dismissed the thought with a shake of his head. "Don't watch then. Just listen."

The blonde frowned. "There's nothing to listen to."

Wufei shot a starry-eyed expression upwards. "Exactly."

…………………

Minako sighed as she slid her hand through her honey-blonde hair. One look in the mirror told her she needed a dye job soon. Her roots were showing.

She used to like watching romantic comedies. She didn't used to read anything beyond the chicest magazines – which couldn't even really be called reading. Now she read big chapter books that weren't even 'trashy romance' ones. They were non-fiction and related to politics of this and several past centuries.

As for romantic and comedic movies, she hadn't seen one since she had been chosen to become half of Relena Darlian.

"Ahem."

Minako's fake-blonde hair whipped her in the face as she snapped around to seewho had come into her room. Damn those well-oiled doors. A great sigh of relief rushed out as she realized it was only the person who looked exactly like her – Usagi.

Usagi smiled and sat down on the bed next to her. "What are you reading?"

Minako flipped the book over and read out loud, "The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848, by ah...Eric Hobsbawm. 1 The title is pretty self-explanatory. And that's A.D., not A.C."

"I see." Usagi had a rather strange look on her face.

Minako frowned and sighed before folding down the corner of the page – another of Relena's little habits – and put the book away. "You've obviously come here for some reason.What's up?"

Usagi gulped and took a deep breath. "Well, I just wanted to talk."

Minako raised an eyebrow and slowly nodded. Usagi was acting very strange. "About...?" Her hands rolled over each other in the universal expression of 'please continue.'

Usagi's words exploded out of her in a rush, "I wanted to talk about Hiiro."

"What about him?" What the heck? Honestly, what was Usagi saying?

"I just feel like he had been putting so much pressure on us to be like Relena." Usagi's breath rate had jumped considerably.

"Well it is his job. And if we aren't perfect, someone will find out and there will be a major war, again!"

"I know, I know. But it just feels like we never actually get a break," she waved her hand, "from all of this."

"I guess not. Although, Relena never got any breaks." Minako's voice was uncertain. What exactly was Usagi trying to get at?

"Precisely. Look what she is now!"

"Yes, well...right." Her eyes shifted slowly from side to side and settled on her book. "I, ah, I need to finish the book. I need to know what happens next – it's killing me."

Now Usagi was looking at her strangely. Minako opened her book and began to read once more.

Usagi lifted herself from the bed and left with the words, "I'll be seeing you then." Her jaw was clenched and she was frowning as she left.

"Yeah..." But Minako was too engrossed in her book to notice anything Usagi said or did.

…………………

"So where is Usagi?" Hiiro's grating monotone passed over each of his co-workers before any of them realized that Hiiro had spoken. The uneasiness of the Pilots rolled off them in waves.

Always the diplomatic one, Quatre was the first to speak, "We aren't quite sure."

Hiiro frowned. "Why not?"

The conference room was cold, but not as cold as Hiiro's tone. Silence prevailed through the room as each Pilot realized answering couldbe dangerous to his health. Even Duo, with his brash attitude, was not willing to risk Hiiro's wrath.

"Well, where is she?"

Wufei took his life in his hands, "Last she was seen was with Minako approximately one hour ago."

"And did any of you interrogate Minako?" Hiiro's displeasure was now easily visible to all. His eye was twitching and his voice wasn't up to its usual smooth monotone.

Each of them mumbled a quick, "Yes."

"What were the results of the interrogation?"

When nobody answered, Duo knew it was up to him. He really wished it wasn't. "Minako was unusually distracted."

Hiiro frowned and he snapped, "By what?"

Duo muttered, "A book."

"A book?" Hiiro's tone was incredulous.

With his usual naïveté, Duo answered the question. "Yeah, a book." And then continued. "Can you believe it? She chose that boring and stupid book over me!"

Hiiro's mouth twitched before resuming its state of infuriation. "Then why didn't you take the book away from her?"

Duo commenced whining, "We did. And she was still distracted."

Trowa's gaze lifted from his hands, "She didn't know anything. She said Usagi came to talk to her and left. Usagi's last words were 'I'll be seeing you'."

"And none of you bothered to ask her what she and Usagi talked about?"Hiiro practically sneered as he wondered whether he really had to do everything himself.

Quatre softly replied, "She looked so tired. And she was distracted anyway."

Hiiro's normally blue eyes were nearly black with anger. Trowa's eyebrows rose as he considered the current state of Hiiro's eyes. Was it healthy for them to be that dark? Or was that just an abnormally large amount of blood converging in the iris? Either way, Hiiro showing emotion was a rather agreeable respite from his usual nondescript attitude. Of course, if Hiiro continued to stay that way, his eyes might explode and that would be well...bad.

After a moment of silence, Hiiro spoke. "Fine, let's go. I will question Minako."

Each of the former Gundam Pilots followed like sheep as Hiiro-Bo-Peep led them to Minako's room.

…………………

"Under the circumstances transport by water was therefore not only easier and cheaper, but often also (except for the uncertainties of the wind and weather) faster." The book was fascinating and Minako ran her hands through her hair for the thousandth time that day. Except this time the door to her room slammed openabruptly and she yanked on her hair, pulling out long strands of honey-blonde.

"Ouch!" She stared angrily at the wisps of hair before dropping it onto the bed and noticed Hiiro standing directly in front of her. His arms were crossed, his eyes narrowed, and a huge scowl completed the picture. The book quickly joined the locks of hair on her bed as she stared at him in awestruck fascination. How did he do that?

"Where is Usagi?"

Minako flinched; he was quite to the point wasn't he? "Er..."

"Answer me."

"I...don't know?"

He frowned. "You must know. Do not lie to me."

Duo coughed behind Hiiro, tapped him on the shoulder, and in a whisper that could have been heard on Earth, "I don't think she knows."

"Shut up, Duo." His eyes never left Minako's face. "Where is she?"

"I don't know! She came in, complained about how this job was never-ending and – oh! Can we watch the Never-Ending Story later? It's such a good movie. Old, but good." Her eyes gleamed with hope.

Which was swiftly crushed as Hiiro frowned. "No, we will not watch the Never-Ending Tale, or whatever it is you speak of. Continue with telling us what Usagi talked to you about."

"Uhm, she said she was annoyed with you. She wanted a break. And something about Relena."

Hiiro's jaw clenched and he swallowed convulsively. His voice was low and deadly, "And what did she say about Relena?"

Minako quickly realized her life was hanging in the balance. Her next words could very well condemn both her and Usagi. Uh, she said Relena was overworked? Something like that?"

Hiiro's fists spastically clenched and then completely relaxed. "Fine. She can have her temper tantrum. We have better things to do than cater to her petty hysterics. Minako, you will be taking her place in the conference today."

"But..." Hiiro glared. "Okay." It really wasn't. She had nearly broken down in front of the entire council last time. She had cried in front of Hiiro. The council was cold and mean, and they were probably plotting her – or at least Relena's, which would really still result in her own – death as she sat here. And where was Usagi? It wasn't like Usagi to just disappear without telling somebody where she'd gone.

Hiiro nodded and turned to the rest of the gathered people, readying himself to leave.

Minako watched in stunned surprise as Quatre shot Hiiro a disgusted look. "We will go after her. Obviously, Hiiro, you don't realize the danger of having a Relena replica walking around."

Quatre hesitated, then turned to Duo and grabbed his arm on the way out of the room. "Duo, let's go."

"But..."

"Duo, let's go!"

"But Hiiro just said-"

Quatre growled. "Forget about what Hiiro said."

"But I don't wanna go!"

Quatre's face was furious as he shouted, "I don't care!"

The entire room looked on in shock as Quatre dragged the speechless Duo out of the room in search of Usagi.

…………………

The missing girl sat on a log, grimacing when the moss dampened her pants.

As if it wasn't bad enough that Hiiro didn't seem to have any personality at all. No, he had to be in a strange sort of love-filled and love-less – basically a love-haterelationship with Relena. Of course, he was now projecting onto Minako – which was all kinds of bad. Minako was most definitely not in need of the destructive love that Hiiro had in store for her.

An hour more of tramping around the simulated forest brought her to the same mossy log. She kicked at the dead tree, which led to her clenching her jaw and grapping her foot in pain.

"Damn, stupid log." She hopped around for a bit before sitting downon said log. Usagi sighed and leaned back. She sat up abruptly when the crunch of dead leaves alerted her to approaching persons.

"I just don't think we should have disobeyed him like that! He's gonna kill us. He's going to pull out his gun and point it between my eyes, and pull the stupid trigger. Or before that he's going to-"

"Hush, I think I hear someone."

Usagi let a small shriek before standing and sprinting away.

"There she is!"

"Miss Usagi, please wait. Miss Usagi!"

She only ran faster. But true to form, Usagi tripped over her own feet. Duo and Quatre easily caught up to her after that. Duo pulled her to her feet, speaking all the while, "Usagi, you need to come with us. You need to come back."

She frowned, turning her back to him and picking dead leaves out of her hair. "I'm not going back. Hiiro's an asshole and Minako is taking his side. I need a break, Minako needs a break – we all need a break."

"Just because you are stressed does not mean you can take off. Why not talk to one of us?" Quatre's eyes were wide with concern.

"I talked to Minako. She said we couldn't take a break. She said something to the effect of 'we need constant vigilance'." Her voice grew mocking as she imitated her pseudo-twin, "Otherwise the world will be destroyed."

"I'm sorry to say this, but it is entirely true. If anyone were to find out about this deception..." Quatre had no need to elaborate further.

"I don't care! I just want to go home. I want to be free. No wonder Relena became a psycho-anorexic! Look at all the pressure you idiots put on us. Now think of how she must feel being the real deal. The real thing. Knowing that if she messed up the entire world's weight would be on her shoulders. Minako and I could just as easily walk away from this and let Relena deteriorate further with no guilt on our part. It's not our job."

Duo gazed at the two of them with wide and sad eyes. Face pale with the shock of such a cruel revelation, he rasped, "It wasn't like that."

Quatre nodded silently, considering each person's words carefully. His query was thoughtful, "Why do you say that she was psycho?"

Usagi frowned. "You'd have to be psycho to be anorexic."

Quatre's eyes dimmed and he looked down at the forest floor. "I'm sorry to say that I disagree, Miss Usagi. I believe being anorexic means that you feel as if you have lost all control of your life." His voice grew stronger as he looked up with the light of sincerity in his eyes. "I think that it means you can't turn to anyone because they would order you to do something different. And that the one person you would turn to, the one you love the most, seems to like you the least." He turned to Duo. "But in one respect, Miss Usagi is correct. Relena was a puppet. A little marionette whose –" His voice cracked. "Whose strings were cut."

Usagi opened her mouth to speak but held her tongue and looked away. Quatre stared at the dying leaves once more and Duo looked aside as if ready to cry.

…………………

Minako stepped into the chilly conference room, her pant-suit an inadequate barrier against the cold glares of the rest of the council. She sat in her allotted chair, at the head of the table. She was frantic and panicking; knowing that at any moment they could realize it wasn't really Relena sitting in the chair. She had hardly been in there four minutes before she had broken down yesterday – not nearly enough time for them to realize who she was. Or rather, who she wasn't.

The bitter voice of Lady Une marched through the room. "This meeting is called to order. And please, no hysterics or emotional outbursts today. We need to get through quite a bit today. Miss Relena, if you would please open the discussion." A murmur of assent went through the room.

Minako shuddered as she felt the entire council settle their accusing eyes upon her. She took a deep breath that didn't look like a deep breath and began. "Today we will discuss the recent illegal transport of biological weaponry to Earth. Has anyone been able to track the destination of any of this weaponry?"

The Secretary General of L2 Homeland Security replied in his deep monotone. "No, Lady Relena. They have all been detained at all types of airports, from commercial to private. We believe we have all of the weapons sent, but we have no way of being one hundred percent sure."

A small and mousy man, obviously from L2, interrupted the discourse. "Excuse me, but I believe we should discuss what is happening with the new president of ESUN. President Macherenkokoviek seems largely inadequate for his new position, and as such we are not very willing to negotiate with such ease as we did before." A large buzz swept through the room at the bluntness of his words.

Minako went pale as she gulped. Who was this man? Would it be entirely too rude if she just asked him who he was? She paused as she concentrated on her next words, for fear that she might ask him who he was. "Of course we can discuss this. Who would rather discuss this now rather than later?"

The man replied, "As Chairman of L2 Defense, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we believe that it is necessary to discuss the new presidency and its beliefs." He looked to his fellow compatriots, who nodded. "Before we continue with negotiations."

Minako calmly nodded, though her hands were clenched tightly in her lap. "Of course." Taking a deep breath, she continued. "The new president is, as noted, new to the job and inexperienced in this position. We, within ESUN, doubt that he was fully prepared to deal with such an immediate induction. Therefore, while he does appear to be ill-suited to his station, we assure you he is quite capable."

"But why should we continue these negotiations to find this one trouble-maker? Your confederacy has accused our colony as a whole of being responsible for the weapon exchange."

Lady Une looked to Minako's pale face and at long last took control of the conversation. "We have not accused the entirety of the L2 colony. We have merely stated that the smuggler seems to come from somewhere within the L2 colony. It has also come to our attention that there may be some amount of treachery within your councils. This person may be concealing the weapons smuggler." Lady Une's face remained impassive, though her voice grew stronger. "As such information came to our attention – we could not exclude prosecution of any person from any of your councils."

The outspoken chairman flinched and silence prevailed over the cool room.

Minako finally spoke up. "Do we have a general idea as to who would like these biological weapons at all?"

The Chairman gave her a nasty look, but provided her the information. "From the nature of the messages intercepted by the production companies of these weapons, it would seem that it is one person rather than an entire group of people orchestrating the transportation of these weapons. Unfortunately, in tracing these messages we have come to a dead end. It seems that the person is very good at covering his tracks."

"Why would you say the person is so clever atcovering his tracks?"

The Secretary General coughed. "According to our tracking devices, the person either lives in a black hole several light years away from this colony, or he is well able to cover his tracks. I personally am not able to see how your government decided that the weaponry was from L2."

Minako frowned. "The equipment and containers were made from exclusively L2 metals."

…………………

The end. And there 'tis, folks. :3