Disclaimer: Me no own.

A.N. - Umm, yeah. Here's another chapter. Finally. bashes laptop with sledgehammer Dammit! I want lightning to fry my laptop so the insurance company has to buy me a new one! I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I was having a number of problems, computer and massive writer's block among them. I will try and begin updating on a more regular basis again, and thanks to all of you for sticking with me.

Last Chapter:

"Just tired," Wufei gasped, more out of breath that he would have been after running for an hour.

"Was it your powers that tired you out?" was Trowa's question.

"I think so," Wufei managed to mutter before slipping out of consciousness.

Chapter 27:

He surfaced briefly to find himself being carried gently in muscular arms. He felt the jolt of footsteps, then they stopped and he was shifted to leave one of the hands of whoever was carrying him free. Wufei must have tensed instinctively, because he heard the other chuckle.

"Just relax, Wufei," came Trowa's gentle baritone.

"Where're we going?" he managed to mumble sleepily.

"I'm taking you home. Sally's still on vacation, and none of the other base doctors know about our powers. Heero thought you'd be fine after some rest anyways, and I volunteered to take you because I have no animals to practice my powers with."

"M'kay," muttered Wufei as Trowa gently seated him in the passenger seat of the car. The door slammed, then he heard the door on the other side open as Trowa got in. The hum of the motor and the consistent movement of the car lulled Wufei back to sleep, as Trowa drove back to the pilots' home, on the outskirts of town.

He only stirred briefly as the car stopped and he felt himself lifted gently and carried inside. The Chinese pilot was almost completely asleep again as he was tucked into bed.

"Thanks, Tro," he muttered before rolling over and again losing consciousness.

When he woke up a few hours later, it was to the soft sound of a flute. He went downstairs to what they had dubbed the 'music room', although it doubled as a library, to find Trowa curled up in a chair playing his flute. He stood in the doorway silently listening to the music until the song ended.

"That was beautiful," he said quietly, stepping into the room. Trowa quickly looked up, almost pulling his gun before he realized that it was Wufei.

"Thank you. I hope I didn't wake you though."

"No, I noticed the music after I woke up. What was that song called?"

"I don't know. I heard it once when I was staying with the mercenaries, and figured out how to play it on my own. It's probably not exactly the same as the original though, since I only heard it once. How are you feeling?"

"Much better. Thank you. Rest seems to have been all I needed," replied Wufei curtly, embarrassed to have passed out.

"You're welcome. There wasn't really anything I could do there that I couldn't do here anyways. So do you think it happened because you used your powers too much?"

"Probably. What did Heero say?"

"He said it's probably like exercising your muscles, your body can only take so much of it at first, but as you continue you can use them for longer."

"That sounds reasonable. What are you going to do about your powers? You need animals, don't you?"

"Yes, I was going to talk to all of you later tonight about that. I would like to have a few animals around the house for that. It seems cruel to keep them in the training room, it's too confined and it's underground." As he talked, Trowa disassembled his flute, put it away, and gestured Wufei into the kitchen. Wufei took a seat at the table and Trowa put on the kettle to boil. He took a seat as well before speaking again.

"Did you ever have a pet when you were growing up?"

"Yes, my family had a Siamese cat, and my mother had a pair of lovebirds. The cat enjoyed curling up next to me while I studied, and would often begin purring." Wufei got a soft look on his face as he said this. "Sometimes it seemed like Aoi was the only one who liked me for what I was, the rest of the clan felt I should have spent more of my time training rather than reading. She was named for her brilliant blue eyes. I must admit, I missed her when she passed away. I would not have any objections to you having a few animals in the house, depending on what they were."

"I was thinking about a few lions actually," Trowa replied, deadpan.

Wufei startled, beginning to object, but then he caught a glimpse of Trowa's slight smile and calmed down.

"Very funny, Trowa. I know you like lions, but I don't think they make good house pets. Perhaps you should elect for a smaller variety of cat, at least until your powers develop enough to ensure lions wouldn't go snack on anything they shouldn't."

"True," he agreed, getting up to turn off the now boiling kettle. He made two cups of green tea, handing one to Wufei. "What kind of pet would you suggest?"

"Hmm," he paused to take a sip of the tea. "This is good." Trowa nodded, acknowledging the compliment. "You may want to consider quite a variety, to see which kinds your powers work best with. Probably a dog and a cat, at the very least. Maybe something slightly more exotic as well, like a ferret. I wonder if your abilities would work on animals that aren't mammalian, like lizards, or fish. It would be something to look into."

"That's a good suggestion. I could put some koi into the pond you've made in the backyard, if you wouldn't mind."

"Not at all. That would help keep it clean, and it wouldn't look suspicious for you to be sitting and looking at the fish, if any of our neighbours was curious."

Just then, they heard a car pull up in front of the house, some doors open and close, and then the car drove off again. Then the front door opened, and the rest of the pilots walked in. They joined Wufei and Trowa at the table. Quatre opened his mouth to ask something, but Trowa shook his head and he closed it without asking his question.

"Glad to see you're better, Wufei," said Heero briskly. "Trowa, did you want to talk about your pets now?"

"Sure, Wufei and I have come up with some ideas already." Turning to the rest of them, he said, "as all of you know, my powers have to do with animals. That means I need some to practice with, and I'd rather keep them here than at Headquarters. I was hoping that you all wouldn't mind if I kept a few pets here."

"You don't want lions...do you?" Duo asked warily.

Trowa laughed. "Well, I would, but that wouldn't work out too well. Wufei has agreed to let me keep koi in the pond, and suggested a dog, a cat, possibly a lizard, and something exotic, like a ferret." Since they were all looking at Trowa, noone saw Heero suddenly pale at the mention of a dog. But Quatre felt the sudden waves of guilt and old pain washing over him suddenly, and turned sharply to look at him. Heero was white as a sheet, and had his eyes closed as if he was in pain.

"Heero, what's wrong?" he asked urgently. At the sudden question, everyone turned to look at Heero.

"Does it have something to do with that girl and her dog you mentioned when we fought during the Mariemeia coup?" asked Wufei, concerned.

Heero nodded tightly.

"Why do you have such bad memories about them?" Quatre asked. He still didn't understand that there were some things in his friend's pasts that they'd rather not talk about.

Heero was about to refuse to answer, but reconsidered. They'd probably find out eventually, and it would be better to get it out now, especially if Trowa wanted a dog.

"It happened on one of my training missions for J. He sent me to blow up an Alliance base on a colony. I was supposed to set up the explosives during the day and blow it at night, when all the personnel would be on base. Setting the charges wasn't a problem, and I went and lay down in a nearby park afterwards. A little girl was walking her dog and came across me. She asked if I was lost." He paused for a moment. "I told her I'd been lost all my life. She replied that she wasn't lost, she was taking her dog, Mary, for a walk. She handed me a flower before being dragged off by her dog. I never got her name.

"Later that night, I went back to the base and set off the charges. But one of the Leos didn't blow properly, and fell into one of the apartment buildings nearby. I went to look for survivors in the rubble, and found Mary, dead. I killed that little girl and her dog. When I returned to J, he told me that his weapon couldn't afford to have human emotions and retrained me in an effort to erase my humanity. But I never forgot about her."

By the end of Heero's narrative, the rest of the pilots were looking at him in shock. They hadn't known that he'd accidentally killed an innocent before the war even started. And for J to have tried to erase his humanity was even more horrific. Wufei, however, was distracted. Throughout the story, he'd seen a faint outline that got stronger the longer Heero spoke. Once he had finished, it had solidified into a little girl in a sundress and wide-brimmed hat. She had a puppy by her side.

"Heero...I think someone has a message for you...," Wufei said hesitantly.

Heero's head whipped up. "A message? From who? I don't see anyone here. Or could it be..."

"Yes, my powers are working again. It appears to be that little girl." Heero touched Wufei on the shoulder, only intending it to be a silent thanks for his ability, but suddenly found he could see her as well. And hear her as well, faint though her voice was. Tears sprang to his eyes as she began to speak.

"It wasn't your fault, Heero. I know you never intended for that Leo to fall the way it did. I've never blamed you for what happened. I'm glad I got the chance to meet you, although I wish it had been longer. I've been watching over you throughout the war. You did the right thing, however hard it may have been. General Noventa sends his regards as well. He doesn't blame you for what happened, you couldn't have known. He says he's proud of you and the others for turning the peace he dreamed of into a reality. It's time you forgive yourself for things that happened in the past. Oh, and my name is Hannah." She was fading as she said this.

"Thank you, Hannah," Heero whispered. "And I know you've forgiven me, but I'm sorry. So very sorry. But I think I can let go of my guilt now."

She smiled brilliantly. "Good. That's all I wanted for you. Goodbye, Heero."

"Goodbye, Hannah. I'll never forget you." She smiled gently one last time, and faded away. When she vanished, Wufei slumped back into his chair, exhausted.

The others immediately wanted to know what had just happened, but Heero told them he needed some time to think it through on his own first, and got up and went to his room. They tried to ask Wufei, but he said it wasn't his story to tell, and went up to his room to sleep some more.

When Heero got into his room, he immediately locked the door and flopped down on the bed. He finally allowed himself all the tears of guilt and sorrow that he'd never allowed himself to shed before, for Hannah and Mary, and General Noventa, and all the other innocents who had died because of his actions. When he was done, he sat up to think things through.

"She sounded so much wiser than she did when I met her. Death must give a person a new outlook on life. I can't believe she forgave me so easily though. I may not have meant for it to happen, but I should have prevented it somehow. It was my fault. The same with General Noventa. Treize might have tricked us, but I was still the one to shoot down his ship. I guess there's a difference between intellectually knowing that something was an accident, and your heart knowing that it wasn't your fault. Thank you, Hannah, for forgiving me."

He walked over to his desk, grabbed his sketchpad, and began to draw. He didn't do it very often, but drawing was soothing to Heero, and he resolved to do it more often now that he wasn't in the middle of a war.

That night, when he went to bed, there was a sketch of a little girl and her dog lying on top of his desk. The girl was sitting in the lap of a teenage boy, smiling, while the dog ran around them both. The boy had a flower crown in his unruly chocolate brown hair, and he was smiling while a single tear fell down his cheek.

A.N. - Not as long as I was planning, for my first chapter after so long, but that felt like a good place to end it. If anyone has a better suggestion for the name of Wufei's cat or know's the little girl's real name, I'd be happy to hear them. I don't speak Chinese, so I had to use Japanese for the cat's name.