It was a smaller group that was gathered to discuss their next course of action. Soren was glad that the president and his entourage had already left because she was explaining just how much of a threat the others were facing and she wasn't sure just how many people should know.

"So as you can guess it is crucial that we get Anna and Shelby back as soon as possible. It is only a matter of time before their captors discover that csorillidon can be harvested from them."

She watched as the other people in the room absorbed this information. The lure of instant mental powers would fetch a hell of a price on the black market.

Duo spoke up "How much of a sample do you have?" He had a peculiar intense look on his face that Soren found unsettling, but after what he'd been through she figured that could only be expected. Heero, Trowa and Wufei regarded him with matching looks of speculation.

"Duo you're not thinking of…" Wufei trailed off.

"That's exactly what he's thinking" Heero said disapprovingly. It took several moments for Soren and the rest to figure out what they meant. Then everyone in the room looked at the braided pilot.

"What? Why not use it on me? I'm already changing and we don't know how many augments we're facing. We need this edge, and I'll go crazy if I have to stay like this." He grated out.

Soren looked over at Duo and Quatre. No one could doubt they had their own reasons for wanting to retrieve the psionic women. Duo's temper was frayed to the edge and Quatre was barely holding on to a shred of sanity.

Sally spoke up. "No! I cannot allow this! We have no idea what this will do to you. This might kill you, or give you brain damage, or drive you insane. I will not condone something like this." Duo's eye's glittered at her.

"Well then it's a good thing I don't answer to you. Like I said before, we need this. I need this." He finished quietly. Sally looked at him sympathetically.

"Duo, I'm on your side here, but this is too dangerous." She responded defensively. Quatre, who had remained quiet throughout the whole discussion, spoke up.

"Anything is better than living like this. I volunteer also. Besides, Duo's right, they could have a dozen psionics, we need to be able to combat that." He slumped down like carrying a sane conversation for that long drained him.

Wufei's girlfriend Cole spoke up. "There's another matter to consider here. If we find them-" she cut off and corrected herself when she caught twin glares from Duo and Quatre. "When we find them and they make their debut to the public, I'm not so sure it would be a good idea to let it be publicly known that the neurotransmitter to make psionics can be harvested. At least not yet anyway. Normally I'm against withholding information but I'm concerned that would put everyone in just as much danger as they are in now."

Une looked deep in thought. She looked at Relena. "Together we have enough authority to classify this information." She looked at Duo and Quatre and made a decision. "Alright, officially, we are not doing this and Soren never got around to making this sample."

Decision made Soren addressed everyone. "Alright then, I'll need a few hours to get ready. Quatre, Duo you should really try and get some rest."


"Last chance to change your mind." Soren told the two men seated on her table. Her tiny lab was crowded with pilots, Sally, Une, Relena and Cole.

She walked over to Duo deciding it would be better if he went first. "Can you take your shirts off please?"

Both men did revealing two pale, but well-defined male torsos. Soren heard a wolf whistle (she was sure it was from Cole) behind her that did much to dispel the nervous tension in the room. Quatre's smile was weak and Duo's was brittle, but at least they smiled.

"Since we don't know what this will do I'm starting with a small sample on you." She told them while she stuck sensors to their bodies and heads to monitor their vitals. She caught the alarmed looks on their faces so she tried to soothe them. "I know you're feeling impatient right now, but we need to show a little caution here. Sally had a valid point, this may kill you and what good would you be dead?"

She picked up her hypo-spray and walked up to Duo. He let out a little shiver when she injected him.

"Oooh. Feels cold. No wait, it kinda tinglllllzzzz..." he trailed off. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell back. "Duo!" several throats yelled alarmed. Soren caught him and guided his fall so he didn't fall off the table. Heero picked him up and laid him on a cot that had been prepared. Soren quickly checked his vitals and was relived to find he was all right.

"It looks like he just passed out. Not surprising. Altering someone's body chemistry is not to be taken lightly." She looked at Quatre. "Are you ready?" Taking in his determined look she had him sit on the other cot in the room. Wisely, he laid down for his injection. Unlike Duo, he seemed to just fall asleep.

They all stood there watching them for several minutes. When it became apparent they wouldn't wake soon they started talking amongst themselves.

"Soren." Heero said quietly. He was watching his friends. "If this works I want you to give me some of that sample. Somehow the quiet request managed to be heard by everyone in the room. The request was met with various degrees of surprise and none of it positive. Relena looked fit to chew nails that he would make such a decision without her. Sally redoubled her objections to his idea and this time, Une supported her. He stopped all of their arguments with a glare.

"There has been something that has been bothering me. We know they have brain augments, so why haven't they used them until now? Why have we not encountered them before? My guess is there must be a flaw in the ones they have. Perhaps not all of the data from the original experiment was recovered."

"I've been doing research on the facility that was used and it was leveled during their escape and judging by the number of bodies that were found most of the doctors and scientists must have been killed. Whatever was left of Caruthers' team must have almost had to start from the beginning which would mean Shelby and Anna -and now Duo and Quatre- would be of great value to them and could be in even more danger." His chin was set at a stubborn angle that all of his friends could recognize. He'd have to be three years dead before they could talk him out of this.

"I have no desire to become psionic, but this is more important than what I want. I was going to go in as back up, but I'm not equipped for this type of battle." His tone sounded irritated that there was a battle he might not win.

"Advise me when they wake up." Taking Relena's hand he left the room to wait for the two unconscious men to wake up.


Soren checked the vitals on her patients again. They'd been out for over five hours and she was more than a little concerned the affect their injections had on them. She'd taken the liberty to test the concentration of the neurotransmitter in their bloodstream at two hours and four hours. They were around 500 ppm and rising.

When her hand accidentally brushed Quatre's he jerked bolt upright and yelled scaring a few years off her life.

"Quatre? Are you alright?" he didn't answer her. Instead he clutched his head in his hands. "Quatre?" She asked again. Worried, she called the others back through the satellite's intercom.

"Whoa, killer hangover." Duo groaned behind her. She spun around to see him trying to sit up while holding his head like as if it might fall off.

"Are you in pain?" Duh, she chided herself it's obvious their in pain. "Would you like something for it?" she asked hearing others filing into the room.

"Nah it's okay, just feels like too much too quick. Hey Q you alive over there?" He looked weakly over at his friend. Right now neither man looked ready to rescue anything.

"That noise is really irritating." The blond stated grumpily.

"Noise?" Sally asked.

"Minds." Quatre stated. "The continuous thoughts and feelings of everyone on the satellite produce something like white noise or static. Anna mentioned it once saying she had to get used to ignoring it. Ugh, she made it sound easy." He groaned.

As if mentioning his fiancée reminded him, the Arabian's head snapped up and he must have tried to reach out to her because a second later a relieved grin spread across his face. "I can feel her again. She's still unconscious, but she's there." His face had the giddy look of an addict who just had a fix after waiting too long.

As a doctor it was disconcerting to watch and she made a mental note to make sure to add her strong recommendation against any future psionics from developing "soul bonds" as she was calling them. They were just too risky. On a personal Soren was relieved to see they had regained their connections to their mates.

She held up a voltage meter. "Duo, I'd like to measure your electro-kinesis and see how much you've improved."

"Electro-kinesis? Did you make that up?"

"What? You have a better name for it?" she asked him tartly. It wasn't as if there was a great deal of information about the topic outside of the science fiction section of the library.

The braided man took the device and let his new ability flow through to it. He'd quadrupled his strength. She was surprised by the massive improvement it was more than exponential to the increase of the neurotransmitter. Strange, Soren thought there is just no way to accurately gauge how strong a person will be. Perhaps the strength of a persons mind was a greater factor than she anticipated.

After she'd determined that the two men were both physically fine Heero stepped forward. She didn't really want to inject him, but his look clearly said he was determined to do this. She was neither surprised nor pleased when Wufei and Trowa reluctantly stepped forward as well.

She gave her lover an irritated glare. In the hours that they had waited they had talked about this and she still didn't approve of the risk he was taking.

"I still don't think this is a good idea." She said.

"What's not?" Duo asked looking up. His new ability picked the thought right out of their heads. Before they were even able to answer he started adding his own objections. But Trowa cut him off.

"Believe me when I say we don't particularly want to do this, but what Anna says is true. The five of us work better as a unit and we'd have a much better chance of success."

Duo looked as if he would object more but remained quiet when he saw Quatre's nod of agreement. Soren's face twisted distastefully. "Alright, if you insist on this insanity, we might as well return to your rooms where you can rest comfortably."


Like colonies there was no night time on the satellite. Just a time when less necessary systems are shut down to conserve energy. A shadowy figure tiptoed through halls lit only with emergency lighting to Soren's lab. When the 'would be thief' heard something behind it, it sprinted around a corner to hide.

And ran smack into another shadowy figure.

"What are you doing here?" Relena whispered.

"Probably the same as you." Cole answered just as quietly. The two women made the rest of the way to the lab together. Soren was sitting there waiting looking amused.

"I had a feeling you two might show up." She held up two carefully measured doses of neurotransmitter. "Took the liberty of preparing injections for you using the last of my sample. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Cole crossed her arms under her breasts with a stubborn set to her jaw. "If Wufei thinks I'm going to sit by while he puts himself in danger he's sorely mistaken." She tried to sound stern, but her worry for the man was clearly leaking through.

The other women nodded in agreement. Soren followed them back to their respective rooms and injected them before going back to her own room and injecting herself.


Wufei woke with a massive headache. What on earth possessed him to do this again?

Oh right. Saving the world and all that. Deep in his gut he knew he'd done the right thing, but the incessant buzzing of other minds in his head made him question actions that he made with no basis in logic.

He sat up in bed trying to be careful not to wake Cole while he tried to focus his thoughts and overcome the discomfort. He searched his mind for any shred of information that either of the psi women might have mentioned in order to function normally.

Unfortunately, no information was forthcoming. If he focused his attention, he could distinguish different minds, but without the focus it felt like sensory overload. Despite his caution, his girlfriend stirred next to him. The first thing he picked up from her was that she also had a headache. Owww. Duo wasn't kidding. It feels like the hangover from hell. Wufei clearly picked the words from her mind and ice pooled in his gut.

She wouldn't… he thought. But he knew better. She would.

He waited until she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Tell me you didn't inject yourself." He said coldly. Even if he couldn't hear the answer from her mind the set of her jaw told him.

"I wasn't going to let you do this alone, and I knew you'd try and stop me if you knew." She stated. He wanted to refute that, but he knew she was right.

She reached out to caress his cheek. "Please understand love. I couldn't let you do this without me. This was going to be something that would have affected both of us anyway."

Wufei didn't want her to be right, and he most certainly didn't want her to have anything to do with becoming psionic, but what he'd done was going to forever affect his future. A future he now hoped she would be in. Why did she have to be so stubborn and pigheaded?

"Who you calling stubborn and pigheaded?" she asked in a grouchy tone.

He frowned at her. In that horrified moment he realized that everything that was a part of him would now be part of her. He would never have a thought she didn't know of, nor she him. Even without the soul bond he would never be free from her. Not that he wanted to be free, but having every part of your life exposed to another would take some time to get used to. Now wasn't the time to argue over it though.

"Come. We should go see if Soren is up."

Halfway to the lab the couple ran into Heero and Relena having a heated argument while he was dragging her. It was the exact the same spot that Cole ran into Relena the night before.

"… do something so foolish. You have more important responsibilities." Heero was growling.

"More important than us? You willingly did this without giving a moment's thought to how it would have affected us. Why is it wrong when I do it?"

"You know why!" Heero looked at the end of his tether when he saw Cole and Wufei approaching. He took one look and them and knew his wife wasn't the only woman being foolish.

"I may kill Trowa's woman yet." He muttered.

Wufei gave him a bitter grin. "If my guess is right, he may be trying not to kill her himself right now."

Sure enough, when they arrived at the lab Trowa looked and felt like he was trying his best not to strangle his impulsive lover in frustration.

They all filed in and the impressive six way argument started to gather up momentum when it was brought to a screeching halt by the appearance of Quatre screaming at everyone to shut up.

"What are you all fighting about?" he asked like they were all being deliberately obtuse.

They responded by looking at him like he was insane. Couldn't he tell with his new abilities why they were arguing?

He sighed and rolled his eyes at them. "Surely you can read each other now. All of your reasons and arguments are there in your very dense heads. Just open up your feelings to one another instead of wasting all this energy yelling." Then he walked out with a disdainful sniff while the rest of them gaped at each other.

It was worth a try. Looking at their prospective partners they opened up. Although some of the wording varied, essentially the same thing passed between all three couples.

I didn't want you in danger.

But you put yourself in danger.

That's different.

No it's not. Do you have any idea what it would do to me if you were hurt or worse killed?

I'm a soldier I'm supposed to be in danger.

You're also someone I love, and I couldn't let you do this alone.

The thoughts degraded from there to far more intimate ones and within minutes, the emotional tone in the room changed from anger and frustration to an almost sickening amount of love and affection.

Hey Quat?

Yeah Duo?

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

There was the equivalent of a mental nod. The way their going it will be hours before they can think of anything else other than their respective lovers. Maybe we could find Sally and get at least some planning done while they're "occupied"

A mental chuckle. Meetcha there.