Time

"So we have to find Heero…"

"That's right. If he confirms having a headache for no reason in particular, our search might as well have been narrowed down and all we have to do is make further testing on him, just to make sure, and then get him ready for cryogenic freezing."

"But what if he hasn't had one?"

"In that case… we could either go over the testing once again, or we could get all of you five guys ready for cryogenic freezing, which I don't really recommend."

The five young men before him nodded in consent. For the past months they had been the Preventers' main agents in the viral research outside the labs. If all of them were frozen like that, chance was that their work would be greatly delayed, not to mention all of the losses they might have amongst the general population if they weren't there to trace victims down and take them to the headquarters for proper treatment. All in all, their job was of great importance for the Preventers and they couldn't afford to have them all out until an effective cure was found.

"How much time do we have before… well, before the cryogenic freezing process becomes useless?" asked Trowa.

"Well, we had you guys do the tests at about eleven in the morning, if I'm not much mistaken, I've got the official times in my lab, I'll check them in a moment. During the whole process there was no evidence of a headache so I'm assuming it happened later, probably a few hours after you were done. I suppose none of you felt anything within the next few hours?"

All the pilots shook their heads.

"Well take three o'clock as a start, just to make sure. That gives us until around one in the morning before it becomes useless… and until three or four in the morning before the first convulsions begin."

General silence all around.

"So that gives us less than six hours to find the victim…" said Trowa.

"We need at least a couple of hours to redo the testing and another hour to get the freezing process ready… just three hours to find the one, after that, we'll be running short on time."

"Fuck!" Duo swore loudly.

From now on, this was going to be a race against time.

"I suggest we start looking for Heero" said Lady Une trying to keep the four guys away from their dark thoughts. "It's the least we can do, and having seven people looking for him instead of just two will make it easier."

They all nodded, still shocked by the news.

"Duo, Wufei, are you well enough to get up?"

"Sure."

"Yes."

"Then all of you follow me, I have a map of the headquarters at my office. We can decide what to do once we're there."

XXX XXX XXX

What appeared before Heero's eyes was definitely unexpected. As he saw and heard what was contained in it, rage, frustration, hatred and many other dark thoughts and emotions flashed through the Japanese young man. One last video, longer than the last two, began to play on Heero's screen.

"Twenty eight day of the tenth month, year AC 198. Things have changed…

"From the start, it had all been planed to be the development of a new drug. The ones in the market were supposed to be nothing against this one. Costs of fabrication were to be decreased and the effect to be improved. It should have been just every dealer's dream, of making more and more money out of a very addictive drug.

"The process began simple, quite similar to the pharmaceutical research the Preventers were already carrying out. That made it easy to find colleagues willing to cooperate, all oblivious of the real purpose. Doctor Sen proved to be most efficient, and I must admit that I wouldn't have gone this fast on the developing if it hadn't been for his help.

"When the investigation slowed down, Sen began to make connections and would've discovered something if I hadn't sabotaged the outcome of his research and hidden the real information in this video. However, this made him suspicious and after that he questioned me a lot. I had to take him out of the team… I had to leave the team. That's when all the discussion happened, resulting in a deep mistrust between Sen and I.

"Despite losing a very efficient partner, the investigation was nearing its final purpose and I couldn't afford to let them know what were we really developing. And even though I had to work alone from then on, the product somehow began a rapid increase in its maturation process and soon I had what I'd been looking for. Of course Sen returned at some point, but there was no real need for him anymore.

"The new drug was ready for the market, and buyers weren't scarce. All that was left to do was to stabilize the process so it could be sold. The new drug had an effect almost ten times stronger than the most common ones in the market. After some testing in a few guinea pigs, it was confirmed to work only on the brain, afterwards leaving little to no trace of its existence in the rest of the body. Not only did the costs and the addiction were modified to suit the providers, it was also made to be undetectable if any physical test were to be made, quite unlike the ones already known.

"But then, just as the process was about to stabilize, something went terribly wrong. I can't even start to explain what happened, but for a reason, the process reverted itself and the drug suffered many mutations. Perhaps its components weren't all that stable or compatible. The thing is, the drug began to break apart and everything changed. Even the guinea pigs used on the last tests seemed to have suffered mutations from the remains of the drug in their bodies.

"It was a terrible loss, but I still can't explain what happened. After over a month of further research, I still can't stop the mutations nor the reversing effect. If it doesn't stop soon, I don't know what will the new outcome be…"

Making a sick analogy, it was just like having a recorded class. While Sixto spoke about his findings, he showed various notes and graphs to prove his points. Heero watched all the formulas flash on his screen. It was all there, from the beginning of the investigation up to the part where the drug began to break down. Perhaps if Sixto hadn't been working all alone on it, he might have been able to do something about it, not that Heero favored whatever he had been doing, but he still couldn't leave the thought of doctor Sixto's mistake.

Just when Heero thought it was all done, another screen overlapped the last one. He was getting tired of these videos, but they were most enlightening, so he watched the last of these with rapt fascination.

XXX XXX XXX

"I suggest Quatre and Duo go over to the West wing in the HQ. Trowa and Wufei can take the North wing and I'll call Noin and Zechs to head to the East one. I'll send a message through the speakers around the headquarters and have everyone available look for Heero."

Lady Une handed each of the pilots an intercom to be able to communicate in case anyone found anything. She also gave them each a copy of the HQ map. Finally, she paced the ground in front of the four, looking sadly at their faces.

"Please, don't worry just yet. I have faith in our scientists and I'm sure they'll find a solution before it's too late. Dr. Sen has just returned to the labs and is working at top speed to arrange the information and see if he can beat time to it. With luck, we will not only find Heero, but we'll have the information in order by the time we do it, hopefully within the next three hours."

"Don't worry Lady Une," spoke up Quatre, "when we agreed to help you on this mission, we knew what we were facing, and we knew about the risk of getting infected. It came to us as a real surprise, but after careful consideration, I'm certain that we'll all agree that we don't blame it on anything nor anyone. Things happen the way they do and all we can do right now is accept the present events and work hard to change them for the future."

"Yes, I know that, but…"

"Let's not waste time now" interrupted Wufei. "If we're running against time, then we don't own it to be fooling around with useless philosophies. We better get a move on instead of sitting here and feeling sorry for what has happened and what will happen."

They all nodded firmly to Wufei's words and gave Lady Une one last reassuring glance before making their way out. After they all left, she felt her courage falter and had to take a seat behind her desk to avoid falling. Silent tears ran down her cheeks and for the first time in many years, she felt useless and frightened. Never had someone so close to her had the risk of dying, and maybe she wasn't that close to the five ex-pilots, but she still knew them from a long time.

Quickly drying her tears, she set out to do what she had to do. Through the various speakers located at the main rooms in the headquarters, her voice was heard by many of the workers still up and about.

"Attention Preventers. This is Lady Une. Special agent Heero Yuy is requested over at my office. I repeat, this is Lady Une and special agent Heero Yuy is requested over at my office. Please special agent Heero Yuy, come over to my office immediately. If someone has seen him, please let him know about this."

She repeated the message a couple of times more.

The pilots heard her voice as they parted their ways. If Heero showed up at her office then she would call them through the intercom she'd given to each of them. If he didn't, then it would all be up to them. With the map Lady Une had showed to them, they had confirmed the magnitude of the place. It sure was one hell of a big building and knowing Heero and his earlier discussion with Duo, he sure wouldn't want to be found anytime soon. That only meant harder work for all of them. But that also meant they could skip big places where a lot of people were sure to be, leaving less area to cover.

Just as a reminder, their timers had been set with a deadline of three hours, and currently, with their trip to Lady Une's office and all, they had two hours and forty something minutes to go. A race against time only made it harder, but they had to keep their wits about them if they didn't want to fail.

XXX XXX XXX

"Second month of the year AC 199, day 10. After some months of waiting for a resolution, the drug seemed to have disappeared. The components are still in the lab samples, but it became inert.

"Now, after all these months, I know what was the result. Both guinea pigs died in unexplainable conditions and several more people that had contact with the drug followed this pattern. Most of them didn't have direct contact with it, so the reason behind their deaths is still a mystery to me, but they all follow the same symptoms.

"After this, more cases of the same death were reported. Everyone is at a loss in trying to explain where it comes from. As I said before, the drug was designed to become invisible. No matter how closely one checked at first, it would take many complicated tests to actually identify it in the body. Apparently it kept that quality.

"During all this time it keeps spreading, something I can't justify, and something I can't stop. Now, the Preventers have gotten further involved in this. It was intended to be kept quiet at first, but now it's nearly impossible.

"My once drug has now been renamed. It came to be known as "Colonies Disease" and all I can think of is 'what have I done?'"

The journal Heero had been holding dropped loudly to the floor. "Fuck" he muttered in a low whisper. Everything began then and there, but when and where would it stop?

XXX XXX XXX

A/N: Ooohh Myyy Goood! Heh, heh, I believe I have gotten a bit too exited with even my own fic --U

I really want to thank all of you who have reviewed so far, mind if I ask you guys something? I'm really curious about something see, I want to know, regardless of the pilot who's infected, if you would like to read about someone dying. Please let me know when you review. I'm not saying I'll change the story according to your answers, but I'm still curious. Ok?

See ya in next update!