Alright, finally Chapter 10! I have to say that I was surprised by the generally overwhelming support that the girls got by everyone . . . that's not to say that the guys did have their supporters as well. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see . . . The next Occam's Razor Chapter will be up soon I promise!

As a slight side note, I have a message to pass along to everyone you from Purdy. Being the brave, noble, daring, courageous, and benevolent soul that she is Purdy is putting together a 2008 Church of Lemons. Her goal, (which naturally has my full support) is to try and revive the 1xR community a bit, although COL does accept pairings from outside GW. She's put together a great list of authors who have signed up for pledges and this year looks as though it will be very successful. If you're interested in participating get in touch with her to see if she can fit you in, the deadline is February 7, so do it soon!. Dust off the old keyboard and see what you come up with; if you don't want to write, be sure to check it out anyway, (seriously, she's been working her butt off and this year's going to be awesome). If COL isn't quite your thing, no big deal, but there are still other 1xR communities going strong out there that would love a few new members, (Blissful Ignorance is a fantastic one).

Regardless of what your favorite pairing or even just character is, we're all here for the same thing and that is that after all these years we still love to wonder and read about what happened to our favorite GW characters. Encourage those who are still writing, hell write something, anything, yourself, but let us not fade away!

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(steps off the soap box)

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Mutually Assured Destruction

Chapter Ten – Extraction

Tynan

- - - - -

"Everyone's clear on their assignments?"

"Does anyone want to trade with me?"

"Maxwell, I swear to God, how an idiot like you was chosen for the honor of piloting one of the Gundams –"

"You can't switch with anyone, Duo."

"But how come I have to be the one to –"

"Duo, just because this is never going to work is no need to panic."

"Barton, if you're so convinced that this mission will be a failure why did you bother to sign on?"

"Well in the first place you asked me to and I was bored, secondly just because this is never going to work doesn't mean that it won't be entertaining."

"This isn't a joke, Trowa, we're expecting nothing short of your best performance; that and that alone will allow us to accomplish our objectives."

"You're sure that they're all going to be in the same place?"

"I hacked Relena's schedule, she's –"

"You had to hack into her schedule? As head of her security aren't you supposed to know where she is at all times?"

". . . Yes, well not since she refuses to even be left alone in a room with me anymore. Anyway, all four of them have a spa day with Noin planned for Saturday before she and Zechs leave to go back to the Sanq Kingdom the next day. They're all meeting at the Peacecraft Manor at 10:00 in the morning."

"And has anyone made arrangements for our wild card to be dealt with?"

"Quatre's too busy buying and sending every flower in 20 mile radius to the girls to even begin to try and foil our plans."

"We're sure of this?"

"We took every precaution to ensure that he was not aware that we contacted you. I know he expects that we plan to strike back, but not like this."

"That makes two of us . . . you guys still don't think that what you're planning might be a little over the top."

"Trowa, man, you've got to see the stuff I'm still finding on my hard drive . . ."

"Our response is more than fair considering."

"Alright . . . I should warn you however, Cathy insisted on accompanying me to Brussels."

"What?!"

"I couldn't say no, besides she wanted to see everyone . . . I'm just going to have to make sure she's out of the way when we act."

"Actually, I think we have a way to kill two birds with one stone there . . ."

- - - - -

Noin looked at her sister-in-law curiously. Relena had been acting strangely the past several weeks that she and Milliardo had been in Brussels to visit. In the first place she was either acting paranoid as all hell or giggly and secretive. Secondly, Dorothy suddenly showed up for a short visit . . . but nearly two weeks later was still here. The two were sitting across the table from her, Sally and Hilde on either side of them, all of them chattering pleasantly over their meal. Noin couldn't pretend that it wasn't wonderful to see her friends . . . but something was off here.

In the three weeks she and Milliardo had been in Brussels, Noin had seen suspiciously little of Duo, though Hilde was frequently pleasant. Heero and Wufei also seemed to be keeping a distance, while Quatre had suddenly showed up on Earth and was constantly sending all four of the women, large extravagant flower arrangements on a daily basis. Maybe it was her imagination, Milliardo hadn't seemed to take notice and they were leaving in two days anyway, so as far as she was concerned –

Noin's thoughts were cut off by Paegan's entrance into the dinning room, "Excuse my interruption Miss Relena, but you have a call from Catherine Bloom."

Lucrezia Noin watched with a sense of fascination and curiosity as the other four women seated at the table all exchanged glances before her sister-in-law rose from her seat and followed her butler out of the dining room . . . only to return a few minutes later looking very pale.

The tension in the room was overwhelmingly obvious, and it was Dorothy who finally cracked under the pressure, "Well what did she say?!"

From her seat next to her still oblivious husband, Noin looked on as Relena raised her eyes to meet her friend's, a look of foreboding playing on her features.

"She and Trowa are coming to visit tomorrow."

- - - - -

Heero leaned against the black van behind him as he watched the plane taxi down the runway, coming to a stop only a few hundred feet from him. After a few short minutes the passengers began to disembark, and two of them made their way to where he was waiting . . . one slightly more enthusiastically than the other.

"Heero!" Without warning Cathy threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking the wind out of him, "It's so good to see you! I keep telling Trowa that we need to get up here more often but –"

"I think that Heero's starting to wish that we didn't Cathy." Trowa appeared at her side, carrying only a medium sized duffle bag.

She stepped back from Heero, giving her brother a look of exasperation. Heero, for his part just shrugged; they were on a tight schedule here, there was little time for idle chatter, "I'm sorry that we have to leave you here Cathy, I have orders to take Trowa back to HQ immediately so that we can meet with Une and –"

"Oh it's not a big deal Heero; you two were so nice to have Quatre to pick me up here."

Trowa nodded, "He should be here shortly, our shuttle arrived a little earlier than I thought it would."

Catherine sighed, "I guess I was just lucky that he happened to be in Brussels and had a free day to show me around the city. But I'll see Relena and everyone else tonight once they've finished up for the day . . . it's such a shame that she has to work even on a Saturday."

"Yeah . . ." Heero replied, keeping his voice as calm as possible, "We'd best be going." He watched as Trowa gave his sister a quick hug before joining him and the two walked back to the van, making sure to wait until Cathy was out of earshot before speaking.

"So she has no idea?"

Trowa shook his head, "I arranged for Quatre to pick her up here. Cathy thinks that I came to Brussels for a freelance assignment with Preventers and Quatre thinks that Cathy came to visit Relena, Hilde, Sally, and Dorothy. He doesn't know that I'm here as well."

"That will change as soon as she gets in the car with him."

"Well yes, but considering that I told Quatre that her flight was getting in half and hour later than it actually did, by the time he meets her and learns that I'm in Brussels as well and figures out what's going on we'll have too much of a head start on him to do anything."

Heero nodded, a small smile playing on his lips, as he and Trowa reached the van and he pulled open the side door revealing Duo and Wufei crouched inside, covered head to toe in black camouflage gear. Duo grinned, "Hey man! Long time no see."

Trowa looked them up and down, "You guys went all out with this huh?"

"Get in here and get changed Barton," Wufei barked at him, "we have to time all of this perfectly if we're going to get to the Manor before Zechs and Noin get back."

The Heavyarms pilot climbed inside the van, "And we're sure all four of them are going to be at the Manor?"

"They're all waiting there for Noin so they can go to the spa for the day . . . shame really."

- - - - -

Noin lifted her head as a strange and unsettling sound suddenly started coming from the front of the car her husband was driving. Zechs too had noted the sound and in his usual calm demeanor pulled the car off to the side of the road. As they both stepped out, smoke began emanating from under the hood; Noin heard her husband curse under his breath as he walked to the front of the car. After lifting the hood and a few minutes of poking around it became obvious that this particular vehicle wasn't going anywhere for a while.

"And my damn cell phone doesn't have service!"

Noin rolled her eyes and smiled, "Milliardo, we're only about two miles from the Manor, it's a nice day, we'll just walk back."

"You're going to be late for your spa day."

"Well these things happen." she reassured him, however in the back of her mind there was a little red warning light that began blinking.

- - - - -

Relena glanced up at the clock on the wall; it was 10:01. . . in all the years she had known Lucrezia Noin the woman had never been late for a single thing. In the living room to her left Sally, Dorothy and Hilde seemed to be equally concerned, but none dared to speak it. She told herself to calm down, that Lu was just running a little late, but suspicion still clouded her mind.

After Catherine's call yesterday it became obvious that the boys were planning something and had recruited Trowa to help them. However after much debate it was determined that they would not allow the ex-pilots to ruin their plans, especially considering it had taken Relena over five months to get an appointment at Brussels' most exclusive spa. Besides, Trowa had just arrived today, there was no way that they could already be ready to attack them.

10:03 . . . where the hell was Lucrezia?

- - - - -

Catherine settled into her seat next to Quatre, smiling at the blonde man, "I can't tell you how excited I am for today Quatre, it was so sweet of you to agree to take me around Brussels."

Quatre returned the smile as he steered them out of the airport and onto the highway, "Not at all, Catherine, I could certainly use the break myself. It's a shame that Trowa couldn't accompany you this time, but hopefully –"

"What do you mean?" she cut him off. "Trowa came in on the same flight as me."

Catherine watched as the man seated next to her visibly paled, when he finally spoke his voice shook, "Trowa's in Brussels?"

She nodded slowly, wondering why Quatre was apparently deeply disturbed by this information, "Yeah, Heero picked him up at the airport to take him to HQ; he's helping out with some sort of a mission, that why he came to –"

The rest of her sentence was cut off as Quatre suddenly shifted the car into high gear, and floored the gas, pushing her back into her seat as they veered off the highway and toward the residential district.

- - - - -

Noin lifted her head at a strange sound approaching them very quickly. No sooner had she registered what it was than her husband had seized her around the waist and pulled her off to the side of the generally unused road they were making their way down. She watched as a black van with Preventers tags and plates sped past them and turned onto the private road that led to the Peacecraft Manor. Milliardo was cursing under his breath next to her about how he thought that they gave driving instructions at the Academy, but Noin ignored him, instead trying to figure out if what she thought she had just seen was correct.

Was that Heero driving that van?

- - - - -

"So after they managed to get their cars into their offices the boys drugged all three of them and left them on top of a sky scraper, and then the girls, with Sally's help this time broke into their computers and covered them in porn?" Catherine could hardly believe the story she was hearing as she held on for dear life; Quatre was driving like a maniac. They were headed to Relena's home, where he apparently had to go to warn the girls about . . . well something that dealt with all this.

"Yes, and now that your brother's here, it means that they've recruited him to help them in whatever it is that they're planning." Quatre's knuckles were white from his vice like grip on the steering wheel. He glanced down at his watch, "Damn, they had a good half hour start on us, I'm not sure that we'll make it in time."

Not knowing what else to do Catherine nodded numbly, and gripped the arm rest next to her as Quatre took a hard left towards Relena's Manor.

- - - - -

"Heero, take it easy man, will ya?"

"We're running behind schedule. Wufei sabotaged Zechs' car, but we can't risk that he and Noin will still make it back to the house before we've carried out our mission."

"We also have to make sure we beat Quatre there. He's probably figured out what's going on by now and is headed the same place we are."

"Once we're inside the compound we're to move into position as quickly as possible, no one moves until I give the signal. I'll leave the van out front, you're to meet back out there with your target within five minutes. Are there any last minute questions?"

He was greeted with silence.

- - - - -

Noin stepped to the side of the road as yet another car flew by them and turned up the road to the Manor. Immediately, she recognized the driver, but this time her husband seemed to catch on too.

"Lu, was that Winner?"

- - - - -

Relena was now pacing and she was by no means the only one feeling anxious.

"Girls, it's 10:15," Hilde stood from her seat to address the group, "I think it's time to start considering that something is going on here."

"Agreed," Dorothy chimed in, "I'll start preparations for a search party, Sally you –"

"Dorothy, she's fifteen minutes late, I hardly think that – Eep!" Relena jumped nearly a foot in the air and whirled around to face her front door as it burst open and a frazzeled, frantic looking Quatre pushed through it dragging a bewildered Catherine Bloom behind him.

"Q-quatre," she stammered, "what are you –"

He closed the distance between them, seizing her by the shoulders his eyes wild; Sally, Hilde, and Dorothy stood from their seat to join them, "Relena, you four need to come with me, we have to get you out of here. Heero, Duo, and Wufei, they've got Trowa with them and –"

"Yes we already know that Quatre," Dorothy drawled, "but he's only arrive today, I hardly think –"

"No!" Quatre practically yelled at her, "Their van is parked out front, they're already here!"

And with those words all hell broke loose.

From seemingly nowhere, four black clad figures burst into the room, each making a beeline for a different woman. Acting on instinct, the girls formed a circle, their backs to the center as the four men slowly closed in on them.

Duo pulled off his ski mask, the other three following suit, "Now why don't you ladies just come with us, nice and quiet like, and this will be over before you know it."

Realization struck Relena like a ton of bricks, "You're kidnapping us?!"

Sally scoffed beside her, "And you think that we're just going to let you?"

"I don't see how you're going to stop us." Wufei sneered at her.

"Well we're certainly not going without a fight!" Dorothy boldly declared, lunging forward to snatch a heavy silver candle stick from the coffee table, raising it above her head, "Go for the weak ones girls!" And with that she launched herself forward, pushing Trowa out of the way and swinging at a startled and terrified Quatre, who barely managed to duck in time.

"Miss Dorothy, wait, I –"

Sally sprung at Heero, who easily side stepped her, but was suddenly brought to the floor by Catherine. He was on his feet again in a matter of seconds, but facing down two very angry women . . . one of which was now brandishing several long, and deadly looking daggers she had apparently pulled out of thin air.

Off in one of the corners of the living room, Duo chuckled to himself as he and Wufei closed in on Relena, "Come on Princess, there's no way you're getting out of here so just –"

All three stopped as a painful sounding crack resonated in the air and turned just in time to see Quatre fall to the floor, Dorothy barely taking a moment to admire her handiwork before starting in on Wufei, "Get your hands off of her, you chauvinistic pig!"

In the middle of the room, Hilde stood on the opposite side of the coffee table from Trowa, each countering any step that the other made in their direction. Hilde eyed the room wildly, looking for something, anything that she could use to defend herself, but in that second of distraction Trowa had lunged across the table, make a grab for her wrist. She barely managed to wrench it from his grasp and on instinct bolted from the living room and down one of the Manor's many hallways, Trowa hot on her tail.

Heero watch Catherine steady her hand and dove to the left, but he knew it was already too late. The air was cut by a high slashing noise and next he knew a dagger was pinning his jacket to the wall behind him. He desperately jerked the weapon out of the wall, but in that short time three more daggers had lodged themselves in the plaster and wood behind him, two through his pants and one in the other side of his jacket. Before he could even react, Sally was on top of him, using her body to pin him against the wall.

Heero twisted his head to survey the room, the mission had been compromised, it was time to cut their losses. "Fall back!" he barely managed to gasp as Sally pushed him even farther into the wall, "Grab who you can and make a break for the rendezvous point!"

Relena and Duo locked eyes for a moment before he shrugged at her, a silly grin on his face, "Sorry Princess." His hand lashed out, seizing her wrist and dragging her in front of him as he gracefully pulled a black, cloth bag from his back pack and threw it over her head. Relena was too stunned to do anything and suddenly felt Duo's shoulder in her stomach and next she knew the top half of her body was upside down, apparently having been thrown over Duo's shoulder.

Her arms her pinned at her sides by the bag but she kicked her legs furiously, "Duo Maxwell, put me down this instant!"

"Not gonna happen, Princess" he responded as he dashed for the front door.

Hilde continued down the hall at top speed, rounding a corner so fast that she slid on the floor and lost precious seconds righting herself. Trowa was only steps behind her and would catch her any second; she scanned the hallway frantically looking for an escape, her eyes finally coming to rest on a large door that looked like it led outside. Without a second thought she pulled it open stumbled inside, slamming it shut behind her and bracing herself as Trowa threw his weight against it from the other side. She held him off the first time, but with his second attempt the door fell open and the Heavyarms pilot towered in the doorway before her.

"There's no where to run, Hilde."

Hilde's eye's widened as she turned around to realize that this door did not in fact lead outside, but into what in the dark looked like some kind of a large closet.

Relena desperately racked her brain, trying to come with something to prevent Duo from taking her out of the house . . . and suddenly it came to her. Reaching her right hand behind her back to the left one, her fingers found her watch, the one Heero had instructed her to wear every day, and pressed the little button on the side.

All present stopped in their tracks as a loud buzzing sound suddenly filled the air, red lights began flashing, and large steel plates began closing over the doors and windows.

Trowa and Hilde simultaneously spun around just in time to see the door they had come through slam shut behind them. The room was thrown into darkness as beeping and whirring sounds filled it and several large overhead lights came on, blinding both of them for a moment.

Duo swore under his breath, dashing forward and sliding Relena under the closing metal door before following her himself.

Dorothy looked up at the sound of the commotion, which was all Wufei needed. Back flipping he put enough distance between them to make a break for the window, throwing himself through it just as the metal door slid shut behind him.

Duo snatched a still protesting Relena up from the ground, throwing her over his shoulder once again so that he could carry her to the van. He opened the back doors, tossing her inside and climbing through to get to the driver's seat. The braided man quickly surveyed the area and with a curse determined that no one else had made it out. "Looks like it's just you and me, princess."

"Duo, I swear to God, you let me go right now or I'll –"

Relena's threats were drowned out by the engine roaring to life. Duo shifted the van into gear and took off down the driveway towards the estate's gate.

- - - - -

Noin and Zechs were walking a little faster than would be considered normal as they approached the Peacecraft Manor's gates. Just as they were about to make their way inside the gates suddenly began to open and a large black van blew through them, barely clearly the wrought iron sides as it sped off down to the main road.

Both exchanged glances, not entirely sure what had happened. Again, however, it was Zechs that spoke.

"Was that Maxwell?"

- - - - -

Hilde pulled on the door again, but to no avail. Whatever had just happened, it apparently locked down this room . . . whatever this room was.

"We appear to be in the panic room." Trowa answered as if reading her thoughts.

"The panic room?" She turned to where Trowa was hunched over one of the many computer screens in the small space.

"Yes, Heero set it up when he became Relena's head of security. Apparently she activated her panic button, which locked down the Manor."

"And let me guess, we're stuck in here until someone lifts the lockdown."

"That would be correct."

". . . great."

- - - - -

Dorothy, Sally, and Catherine glared down at the two men tied up and gagged on the floor before them. Quatre was starting to wake up and sporting a large bump on the side of his head, Heero on the other hand was apparently trying to kill them with his eyes.

"So what do you want to do with them?"

"We need to find out where the other three of them have taken Relena and Hilde." Sally answered.

Dorothy nodded in agreement, "I think that it's safe to say that we're not going to get anything out of that one." she pointed at Heero, "I think the blonde's our best bet." Quatre's eyes widened at Dorothy's insinuation, but his protests were unintelligible with the gag in his mouth. His captor turned back to her friends. "You two deal with Agent Yuy here for now, just put him somewhere where he can't make any trouble."

Sally nodded and hoisted Heero to his feet, by the electric cords he was now tied up with; she glance back at Catherine, "We're going to need to come up with some other way to restrain him, this one's probably the craftiest of the group."

"Just make sure that he's not going any where in case we need him." Dorothy told them before turning back to where Quatre was squirming on the floor, "In the meantime Mr. Winner and I are going to have a little chat."

- - - - -

Wufei dropped down from the fence and took off without missing a beat. Getting off of the Peacecraft estate had really been too easy, he should tell Yuy about the lacks security once they got him back. For the meantime however, the rendezvous point was just ahead of him . . . though he couldn't say for sure if anyone else would be waiting there for him.

- - - - -

Relena felt the wind knocked out of her as Duo set her down on a hard floor. They were inside now wherever they were.

"Now if I take the bag off of you are you going to behave yourself?"

"Duo . . ."

"Alright, alright, geez it was just a question."

Her vision was suddenly restored to her as Duo pulled the black fabric from over her head. She surveyed the room and found herself in a large, dusty room. The furniture was covered in old sheets and the windows boarded up. She couldn't help but feel like she had seen this place before, and then suddenly it hit her.

"This is the old Bremmer Estate on the property next to mine!" Relena glared at Duo, her expression one of outrage and incredulousness, "You tied me up and put me in a bag to bring me three hundred yards?!?"