HI EVERYONE! Told ya it wouldn't take long for this next update… well, considering my record for updates, this is definitely record breaking. I have decided to try and finish this story before updating other fics, so you'll have an ending in no time, really. The problem is that I only like to write whenever I'm truly inspired, and with homework and all, well, it's not easy to find one of those moments. But worry not! In a couple of weeks I will be having vacations in which I promise to give you more chapters.

Anyways, enough senseless blabbering! On with the story!

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Running A Test

Before heading down to the labs, the pilots split up in order to find Wufei. However, a fifteen-minute-long search proved entirely fruitless. They all met once more right in front of the labs, Wufei-less.

"I suppose we can tell him about it later, once we find him" said Quatre thoughtfully, eager to go and get the tests running.

Duo was staring at the door to their right. He didn't notice the rest of the pilots entering the labs trough another door until Heero popped his head out. "Oi Duo! What are you waiting for?"

Duo didn't move, but the sound of Heero's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Turning around he gave his lover a quick grin and "I'll catch up to you guys in a while, k?" before running off into the door he was staring at, not waiting for an answer.

For the second time that day, Duo entered the hall where he'd found Wufei earlier that morning. Nobody had bothered to check this place, and something told Duo he might find something interesting here. And true to his hunch, Wufei was standing before the same capsule he'd been standing at that morning.

Duo made his way over silently, unbeknownst to Wufei, who kept glaring at the frozen individual. Up closer Duo had to hold a gasp, as he discovered something he had never in his wildest dreams thought of ever seeing. Wufei's eyes were red, proof that he'd been crying just a while ago, and tiny drops of blood were dripping down to the floor from his tightly clenched fists.

"Wufei?" whispered Duo, afraid of Wufei's reaction. He knew the Chinese pilot hated moments of weakness, and being observed in one might produce a terrifying wave of fury the other pilots had yet to see.

As expected, Wufei seemed surprised, shocked, and angry at first, quickly snapping around to see who the offender had been. When he spotted Duo a few steps away, however, his face changed to now portray something kind of like relief. A bittersweet smile replaced his usually thin line of a mouth and he noticed his bloody hands when he lowered his gaze.

"Tell me Maxwell… is this justice?" he whispered.

Duo didn't know what to say or do next. He had never seen Wufei so vulnerable in his years of knowing him. It occurred to him that the least he could do was provide some support to his broken friend, so he approached Wufei and placed a hand on Wufei's shoulder.

"It's not Wufei… but we're working on righting these wrongs…"

Unexpectedly, Wufei leaned on Duo's shoulder and began to cry once more, this time more freely, letting the tears flow with ease instead of trying with all his might to retain them behind his eyelids like he'd done so before being found by the braided pilot. As he promised to himself, Duo did his best to offer his support; his arms left his sides after recovering from the surprise, and wrapped themselves around Wufei's back, hoping to transmit some feeling of comfort and reassurance.

"It's all right Wu-man" Duo whispered, "we'll find a way to help them… they'll be alright…"

"I'm sorry" said Wufei with a muffled voice coming from Duo's chest, "I shouldn't be acting like this"

"It's okay. You're always been the though one, remember? Welling up these emotions and tears is never good. I'm sure you'll feel better once you let everything go" Suddenly Duo remembered why he'd been looking for Wufei in the first place, and he was sure that would be enough to cheer Wufei up, even if it was just a bit. "Hey, listen to this" Duo carefully parted Wufei from him, holding him by the shoulders and making sure his tear streaked face was actually making eye contact with him, "Lady Une wants to see us at the labs right now, the scientists said they'd gotten the system up and running again!"

At first there was no reaction, and Duo felt a bit worried that maybe this information wouldn't be as welcome as he though first, but then Wufei's face lightened up and he wiped his face clean with the back of his hands. "Then what are we waiting for, let's go" he said.

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"Alright, basically, what we've got here is a very rough version of the last system, which we've asked you guys to beta test for us" said one of the scientists that had received them all at the labs, once the five pilots were gathered in a small, plain room along with Lady Une.

The had been told to wait there, just a little strip of a room, with only a couple of benches on either side, while Wufei and Duo got there. Once the missing pilots made their entrance, everyone noticed Wufei's state, but a glance from Duo told them not to make any questions. So they just squared with it and waited for further instruction.

From a door at the end, opposite from the one they'd entered just a few minutes before, a young man wearing a white lab coat, glasses and holding some papers told them what they'd just heard.

"The problem is, mainly, that it still runs very slow, so it takes a while to identify the virus. Since all of you guys are in perfect condition, we've decided to make the initial test with you to, in easy terms, "teach" it what a healthy person's like. …Any questions?"

"How long does it take to give out the results?" asked Heero.

"It really does depend. If a person is in perfect health condition, we have speculated it will take from three to four hours, because it only does a sort of comparison between the sample and the standards it's already got for a healthy person. When those standards fail, meaning that the person is sick, it runs a scan to identify the illness, comparing it to the known viruses and bacteria. The process then might longer, from some six or seven hours, approximately"

"So it's no real good if someone's got the Disease, since he or she will probably go beyond the possibility of cryogenic freezing by the time the results come out"

"Well, that's why we asked you to come and help us. The more scans it runs, and the more information it gathers, the faster its processing will become. Any other questions?"

"Just one more" said Heero again, "how could you tell Dr. Sixto died victim of the Disease, since by the time he died, or at least was found dead, the system had already suffered a breakdown. Wouldn't it have been impossible to detect the Disease by then?"

There was a very pregnant silence filling up the tiny room. Lady Une stared at Heero, mildly shocked, while the pilots did it with interest, looking back and forth from a very serious-looking Heero, to an uneasy white-coated man. In the end, the young man before them sighed, almost tiredly.

"No, we've never been sure" admitted the scientist, "that was just a speculation we made after all the previous Disease-induced deaths we've seen. But to tell you the truth, the cause of his death will be a gap in our investigation until the system functions properly once more. Then we'll be able to identify the true reason of it."

This time, he didn't ask for questions, clearly not wanting to be interrupted again. Heero wasn't going to this time though, what they all really wanted was to get this over with as soon as possible.

"Now, if you'd just follow me, please"

The man, named Dr. Sen by the way, led them along various corridors, until they reached a large one, with three doors on each side.

"Behind these doors, there are chambers where physical tests will be applied to you by our very qualified personnel. If you would just enter one per chamber to begin with this... And you Lady, please follow me"

The pilots each went through a different door and found themselves in a very small room with only a locker and a seat. A voice from an unseen speaker gave out some instructions after a while.

"Welcome. Please remove your clothes and place them inside the locker. Do not leave anything on, remove everything, as well as your underwear and shoes. If you are wearing caps, earrings, wristwatches, or any other jewelry and, or, accessory, please remove those as well and leave them inside the locker. If your hair is tied up, please let it loose"

The pilots obliged after being reassured that no one would be watching them strip down to their birthday suit.

"Now, please proceed to the next room." Once inside, they found a shower to their right. "Please go into the shower and meticulously clean yourselves using the products you'll find inside."

Being that the last request before finally entering a larger chamber with many items spread all around, the testing began and several scanners and cameras gathered plenty of information all the while. After being tested for resistance, strength, flexibility, and many other things, the pilots had to take a shower once more before handing out samples of practically everything imaginable. Probably the most uncomfortable part of the exam, that was, once they admitted that working out naked wasn't really that bad.

"Thanks for your cooperation" said Dr. Sen this time, once they were all out, properly dressed. "As I told you a while ago, I'll have your results in about four hours"

"And what about Disease samples?" asked Quatre this time.

"Disease samples?"

"Yes, you said you needed to teach the computer to recognize a healthy person, but I'm quite sure you also need to teach it how to recognize someone with the Disease, right?"

"Oh, right! Well, no need to worry about that. Samples of that have already been collected from those at the sickbay"

Duo felt an involuntary shudder from Wufei standing next to him. He had the funny feeling Wufei was determined to go back there once they were all out.

"So, thank you once more. You are the fittest people in the whole headquarters and our information will be of great value" Dr. Sen was saying as he led them back to the exit. "Now you guys go and do whatever you like, I'll have someone call you when you can come and get your results, all right?"

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When the pilots left the place, Duo was looking forward to have a nice little talk with Wufei. When he least expected it, though, the Chinese pilot had already disappeared to who knows where, and Duo assumed Wufei needed the solitude, to get his ideas rearranged. Once again the pilots parted their ways to try and make themselves busy for at least the next four hours.

"What's up with Wufei?" asked Heero once he and Duo were safely curled up in Duo's bed. Heero was leaning on the pillows and Duo rested on his chest. Music played in the background from Duo's Mac.

"Well…" Duo sighed, "I guess he's starting to feel lonely"

Duo raised himself from his warm spot at Heero's chest, braid flopping gently to rest atop a pillow, and stared deep into blue pools. Their faces were only inches apart, and Heero could feel Duo's warm breath caressing his lips.

"Lonely?" asked Heero, trying hard not to quiver beneath Duo's harsh stare. Something in it made him uneasy, and those amethyst eyes burned with some unexpected fire.

"If I died…" Heero was shocked to hear such words, "would you cry over my grave?"

"Wha-?"

"Would you?"

"You're not going to die, Duo"

That answer did not seem to satisfy Duo. He had begun to breath heavily, tightly clutching the blanket beneath them both. Heero wondered where all this had come from.

"I… you… it's just that…" Duo tried to no avail to find some words to excuse his sudden train of thought. That's what happens when you speak before processing your speech in your mind… Duo often did that, but he couldn't help it. Something about the present situation unbalanced him in his most inner self and voicing his qualms proved to be relieving.

"Forget it" finally said Duo, chewing on his lip and backing away from Heero, taking his original position, where he was able to listen to Heero's steady heartbeat once more.

"But-"

"Forget it!" he said louder than he intended. "Just… never mind me, I can't seem to be able to say something useful nowadays… I wonder why am I here in the first place…"

"Duo…"

"Let's just talk about something else… what do you think about Dr. Sixto?"

"Er… I… Duo, what's bothering you?"

Duo lifted himself again and sat on his calves. Heero rearranged his position to be level with Duo and to look straight into his eyes. "What happened to you this morning?" he asked, sensing that part of Duo's strange behaviour was due to that morning's events. He remembered the episode at the dinning hall, and had actually thought it was over, after assuring Duo he'd never even dream of abandoning him, but clearly, that was only a brief introduction.

"Why won't you just leave me alone!" burst out Duo, "I already told you there's nothing wrong and that I don't want to talk about it!"

"I can't just leave you like this!" yelled Heero back, "I care for you and I can't be at ease knowing there's something bothering you!"

"But – there – is – nothing – bothering – me!" Duo said loud and slow, pounding down on the bed with a fist at the last word.

They were both staring at each other breathing hard through gritted teeth. Suddenly, Heero's face fell and he left the bed. Duo changed his furious expression for surprise and regret. "No Heero, I didn't-" he stammered.

The stoic Japanese didn't answer. He just moved towards the door, wrenched it open and stopped before crossing the frame to say some last words to Duo.

"I've already told you I'll always care for you… and I have even proved it to you on countless times… but if you shut me out of your life well… I just want you to be happy…" and he left, silently closing the door behind him.

Duo had only been able to stand up and see him go, frozen by his words. He felt incredibly stupid and soon tears burned his eyes. He fell crying on his bed, angered with himself, punching the innocent pillows and ravaging his already rickety mattress.

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Hours gone by, the pilots had yet to receive a call from the labs. Lady Une was the one to get called though. She was still mining her paperwork, ready to give out a full report to the government about the good news regarding the newest system version, when she received a call coming from the labs.

"Lady Une?" came Dr. Sen's voice through the telephone. Was it just her imagination, or did he sound nervous? Maybe something had gone wrong once more and her legendary fury outburst made him tremble.

"Yes?" she answered bracing herself for the worst, almost getting the shredder ready for her new report.

"I… it's Dr. Sen… I was wondering if you could come down here for a minute"

"Is something wrong doctor?"

"Er…" there was a short pause where Lady Une could hear stuttering on the other side of the receiver. "Maybe it's best if you came here personally"

"Dr. Sen, I hope nothing's gone wrong again, because I'm really looking forward to getting rid of this quarantine…"

"Oh, well, then I guess… er… please come here"

"I'll be there in a minute" Lady Une sighed, rolling over in her head what she might yell at the scientists when she discovered the system had had a new breakdown. All along the way she sort of kept rehearsing it, breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. After all, maybe it wasn't bad news after all. Maybe it was too good to talk about it over the phone… but all the same, hadn't Dr. Sen sounded a bit nervous to her?

She reached the labs soon and was rather hesitant to open the door. But oh well, what could be the worst thing that could've happened? She should probably start thinking about a new secretary, with all the paperwork she felt coming by.

"What's this you wanted to talk to me about, Dr. Sen?" she said once she spotted Dr. Sen checking some data in a computer screen along with one of his colleagues.

"Lady! Please, come here" he motioned for her to sit next to them. "Take a look at this."

Lady Une was looking at a bunch of graphics that made no sense to her whatsoever. "What exactly am I looking at, Dr.?"

"These are the test results for the boys" he said. Now Lady Une was definitely sure he was nervous. His voice quivered with every word he uttered. "But I'm afraid we've had some problems…"

"What kind of problems?"

"Lady" Dr. Sen dragged his chair to face Lady Une and looked straight into her eyes. His tone had changed from uneasy to dead serious. "The computer mixed up their data…"

"So you want me to call them again?"

"No…" Dr. Sen bit his lower lip and swallowed hard. "Oh god, this is difficult," he whispered. "We have discovered… we have discovered the virus in one of the pilots, but since the data is all mixed up, we can't tell which one of the boys has the Disease…"

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A/N: Oooohhhhh! I'm sooo evil! And you know what's the best part? That I LOVE it! I'm really sorry for all of you guys who already want to know about who's sick and who's not, and blah, blah, blah… I'm giving out a special apology to Nikkler, who since the beginning has been waiting for the answer. I'm sorry darling, but I have to do this, only way to make sure you read the rest of the fic! Ho, ho!

Well, I hope this evil cliffhanger is of your liking guys, and I would really like to see some new reviews. Reviews inspire me and make me almost as happy as a coffee/sugar high! PLEASE! If I get enough reviews… say at least 10, I'll update even sooner that I did this time, k?

See ya next chapter!