Lucille looked at a picture book when she started to smell popcorn. Fresh popcorn. Like, circus popcorn. She moved away from her bed to look out the room.

There was a tall man with funny hair over one eye with a fresh bag of popcorn that looked like it was from the circus. He went from standing, to standing on one arm. Ooh!

"Hello," he greeted her. "My name is Trowa. You met my friend, Duo, right?"

"The braided man." Yeah, she knew him.

"I am his friend." He bounced back up again and handed her the bag of popcorn. "I was wondering if we could talk for a bit?"

Lucille walked around with him and found out he was a clown in a circus, and a performer. He did all kinds of tricks. He was cool!

"So. The nursery is down that corner?" he asked. "Have you visited it?"

"Uh huh. The ladies are nice and the babies are cute," Lucille said. "One of them named them after the three musketeers. They were funny names."

"Any others?" he asked. "What about a Marilyn?" he asked. "Did you meet her there?"

"Art momma?" Lucille just shook her head and ran back to get her drawing. "She drew this for me." Circus Man was really interested in it.

"Can we go see her?" Circus Man asked. "I'd really appreciate it if we could."

"Babies could be sleeping." There was a reason she wasn't there."

He reached in his pocket. "How about free tickets to the circus? With a free popcorn? You can even come back and see me?" Circus Man looked desperate.

"It's a lot of babies sleeping." But? Maybe? "When's my brother and mom coming back?"

"I'm afraid your mother is delayed still," he answered her.

"Then Johnny? When is Johnny coming back?" She stopped. "Duo said someone would tell me what happened to him." No one had said anything.

Circus Man bent down toward her. "I believe it is best for your mother to talk to you about that."

"He's gone, isn't he?" Would someone just say it already? "They cut him before. His whole finger was gone. He screamed last time. This time, there was no scream. Just, Duo coming in. I never even saw anything." Please? "He's gone like daddy?"

The silly man didn't look nearly as silly. "You've probably known since the moment Duo saved you. When someone tells you yes or no, it won't make you feel better."

"Please?"

"Yes," he answered her truthfully.

Really? Really? "He didn't make it out."

"No, only you did," he said. "He was a very brave brother though, wasn't he?"

"Yes!" He really was gone. Just like daddy. She started to scream and cry as she stomped her foot. The mommas who couldn't tell her anything had come over. "He's dead, he's really dead!" She felt the silly circus man hug her.

"It was for her mother to say!" The Platnum woman came straight out toward the circus man, grabbed her, and smacked him. "You, you, you pilot! Have no right to even be here!"

Lucille didn't care who held her. Johnny was really gone.

Lucille felt herself getting taken into the nursery. She looked at the Platnum woman as she stroked her hair.

"There, there. Losing people hurts, I know." Her eyes were so filled with something. It felt like?

Lucille started to cry again. It felt like she felt just like her. She held her tighter. Even though she seemed so mean and powerful against the Circus Man, her eyes and touch were sad and gentle. It was really easy to cry on her.

The Platnum lady had sat down with her, rocking her. It reminded her of her mother. "You can take as much time as you need to cry. Lots. Little. I'll hold you for every moment."

Lucille hugged on tighter to her, thinking about her brother.

"I'm sorry, but she already knew deep inside, it was only hurting not to confirm it." The Circus Man was trying to come in. "Middie."

Lucille rubbed her eyes. She couldn't see much anymore. She didn't want to get up off the lady any time soon. She just thought about her brother while everyone talked around her.

"Keep your distance, pilot! Do not get any ideas."

"I need to talk to her."

"Not without a DNA test. If she isn't her, you'll arrest her."

"Middie. I am Trowa. I knew you from the circus. Do you remember anything about a circus? The paintings in here, you did those, didn't you? You used to do paintings at the circus. Are you holding Alec?"

"What is going on?"

"You are here too?"

They continued to talk as Lucille grasped the long almost white hair of Platnum. It was long and soft. She didn't think her hair was long, but it was to her. Her other hand rubbed it as she continued to cry.

"This is? How? Everyone has been right here, together?"

"No way, we're just lookalikes, Circus Boy."

"You are Lucretzia Noin."

"Get out of here!" One of the ladies scream. "Get your funny butt out of here."

"It's okay, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just want to talk to Marilyn."

Lucille started to get double anxious when she heard alarms go off! "What's happening?"

"It's okay, I have you," Platinum promised. "Marilyn, go with Trowa Barton, it's your best bet."

"What?"

"You are probably Middie Une, you have to go!"

"You have to trust me. There's no time. Please?" Circus man begged. "Please?"

Art momma left with Triton while everyone started to move.

"To the emergency vehicle, just the babies and needed carriers! Nobody take anything that's not important, grab two babies, and move, move, move!" Beach Ball momma yelled to everyone. "Heidi, you're in charge of Athos and Porthos, Mae take Aramis and Zara! I have Amira, Platinum bring the girl too. Hurry, hurry, move it! This is not a drill, go, go, go, go!"

Lucille felt them all moving quickly while trying to be careful with the babies. The commanding beach ball lady was last having to move slower.

"Don't look back, I can take care of myself, just move! We know our destination."

Trowa had his hand in Middie's as they ran. She held Alec in her arms. His Heavyarms only had enough room for them. He caught others scattering, but there was no time. He went straight with her to the zero room.

But it was no good. Someone was ready, and nailed his leg. He tried to keep going and hold out his gun, but he was grabbed and drug into the center with his leg.

"Why did you have to get in the way?" A different woman came up. Not a lookalike. She was one of the women he thought had murdered Dorothy Catalonia. "This almost went off without a hitch." While she spoke, a Noin lookalike shot him again.

Both legs and his arm were now hit.

"I would kill you," the Noin lookalike said, "but I don't get that pleasure. Someone else does."

What? Trowa saw her point the gun right at his head.

"If I could, I would kill him like his mother died."

Trowa watched as a lady with fine clothes, gloves, and a hat came over. Losing a lot of blood.

"Do you know how she died?" She asked him.

"… she never died."

"She died when Heero Yuy killed her."

"Heero. Would never."

"He killed my daughter," she said. "My sweet innocent daughter. If it hadn't been for him, I would have simply been a beloved mother, a normal woman who watched her family grow and die naturally over time," she said. "You see? When someone owns colonies, and they decide to sell their entire fortune for information, and said information is found? It gets used. When that happened, I saw the future. I joined a group that mattered, gave everything to it, and then I killed their weak leader by throwing her into the raw zero system. Over and over and over." She grinned wickedly. "Lady Zero made her experience her biggest trauma over and over and over. By the time she came out, the woman that got pushed in was-

Trowa just glared. "-Just die already if you are trying to play out your last moments like they mean something."

Oh, she was enraged now. She grabbed him by his shirt forcing his feet to move and him to bleed out more. "All of the women have finally been impregnated with most of them already having each pilots baby. I tested your little bastard too, to make sure I didn't have to waste any more money than I had to."

She let go of him again. "RTL's profit is gone. Everything I do for the pregnancies was from my own wealth now, so not even Crystalia knew it. Looked like number five with Lady Zero was the final punch for her head."

She took off her gloves and dropped them in his pooling blood on the floor. "The only thing working now is one account with an incredible amount of wealth in it. Only so much per month. Funding six women with their children and it is the timer."

Timer. The women. All children.

"Thank your mother for this one. When I checked out her last meeting records on her last day at RTL, I heard her beloved input to just let the ladies run with their children. I of course needed to add tweaks. Like make sure they got decent severance pay. They could raise their children with no problems at all. Until each one runs out of their severance pay. Do you want to know how each one will die? Do you think you'll ever find them for it to matter?"

Trowa nodded. Best chances.

"Hilde and her little musketeers will be killed by sepsis with stabbing pains of sliced metal. Mei-Lin and her child will be asleep at night comfortably in their home and then set on fire. I hate explosions so a fire will have to do. More? Say yes please."

Damn her! "Yes. Please."

"Noin and her little quadruplets will be taken into space, and then shoved out into it. Now Dorothy was a real tricky one to figure out. Quatre Winners mother died in birth. That's not an option, so I am changing it to how his father died. Suicide. Sacrifice. Whichever way you really see it. I am placing Dorothy and her children in a situation where either Zara or Amira have to commit suicide to save their mother, or she has to sacrifice one for the other. Afterward we will just kill the survivors. Last but not least. Relena Peacecraft."

Will never be caught.

"Heero Yuy's mother died by a huge theater sign that was put up wrong in their colony. Too rushed to make everything I suppose. Cruel fate once again. Had she just not gone to a show, he would have grown up a good boy that didn't kill innocent girls. I am afraid I could not use my original plan of broadcasting her stranded in a birthing saddle in the middle of the room with nothing below her so when she gave birth it would die as a measly red mess on the ground. Then she would have been pressure killed. With three new people in this plan, we are just going to use a high amount of water pressure and never stop until the unending brutality ends them. Now, that just leaves your precious Middie Une the Spy and her terrible son."

Oh, that gleam. He read her wrong. She wasn't ending herself. She was ending him.

"So, Mister trapeze performer. If you haven't guessed? Your revenge is up first, and we are using how you died, Triton Bloom." The Noin lookalike pried Alec from Middie and . . .

Threw him. Trowa saw his fragile body sail in the air, and Middie scream, while he was hit with another two bullets in the chest.

How many times can I shoot you in different locations before you bleed out? Stomach? Arm? Maybe I should just blast your legs so bad they won't be savable? I know it does nothing since I am killing you now anyhow, but just the-"

Trowa watched her fall to the ground.

"You . . . always . . . talked too much." Crystalia was there, wavily standing with a crying Alec as shots rang out, striking the other woman.

Heero! Trowa couldn't believe it. "How did you know?"

Heero had been prepared to treat wounds. "People under the zero system can't be who they were before," Heero said as he became. "They can make progress though. She made enough that when she got a text from Superior, she followed me instead."

Superior started to yell on the ground until Crystalia shot her in the legs and an arm. The yelling changed into screaming and crying. "Heero. What should I do?" Middie went to take Alec away from her and ran.

Of. Course. That trust she would be okay was blown.

"Relena and I guide her now," Heero said to Trowa. "I'm sorry to everyone. I can't risk my family." Heero gave the order. "Eliminate the target, Crystalia."

Crystalia ended all the screaming with a quick gunshot to the head. "Did I do it this time, Heero?"

Heero went over to check. "Yes. It is no trick by the zero system. Superior is dead."

"We did not win though."

"No, but I didn't lose Relena or the twins. You didn't lose Trowa or your grandson. It was enough of a win," Heero compromised with her. "No committing suicide. Understand?"

"Yes," she answered as Heero continued to treat his wounds.

Trowa stared at her. She looked different now. She trembled. She talked the same but there was something different.

"Is it okay to come out now?" Relena Dorlain's unmistakable voice came from the doorway to the zero room.

"Yes. I am tending to Trowa. Crystalia, shoot on sight if anyone threatens them," Heero instructed.

"Yes, sir." She watched her environment.

I'll be. Heero turned Crystalia from a worry, into another soldier watching over his family. "The women in the nursery. Heero, it's them."

"Yes, they were the real ones. We tried to make it in time," Heero explained. "This place will be crawling with authorities soon. I need to get what I can for info now."

He knew they were the real ones? "A phone, Heero!" Why didn't he call?

"Heero didn't want to trust that Superior texted the truth," Relena answered as she picked up one of her children.

"You guys already hated me because I used one chance tactics to save my family," Heero reminded him. "Telling everyone where they were at, and it being lie, would only hurt more. We should have had more time. You weren't supposed to be here."

"Duo thought he found Middie. I wanted to check." Oh no. "Duo isn't with Hilde."

"From what we gathered," Relena said, "he hasn't been with Hilde since they were imprisoned together."

"Someone switched her off. It's gonna hurt when he knows, but everyone is gonna hurt," Heero reasoned.

"I know." Relena closed her eyes. "Heero? What will happen now?"

"Trowa needs to get to the hospital," Heero said. "I will tell the other pilots."

"How are we going to get them back?" Trowa asked. "Superior was the owner of one of the colonies Heero had his tragedy on. If we track her real name, we should find them."

"It is a very good start," Relena agreed. "Thank you for helping me save my friends, Crystalia."

"No problem."

The sweat on her brow said otherwise. "Middie didn't know me. She renamed Alec, Triton."

"They are using Crystalia's past for hers?" Relena went over toward Crystalia closer. "The hurt just never ends."

"RTL worked best in small groups," Crystalia said again.

Crystalia was . . . badly damaged. Badly. Mistreated. Her mind wasn't her own. But? "There's . . . traces."

"I told you," Heero chided him. "I am glad you didn't take her though. I would have lost Relena and my family if I hadn't taken Crystalia. Twice she has saved them. When you want her back, it's not going to be as easy to make me say yes now, Trowa."

Yeah. Trowa understood. If I had taken her back. Then maybe . . . No. He couldn't think about that right now. Especially since he could see a real medical emergency team coming. Relena must have called for the help. "There's a little girl inside. She's waiting for her mother to arrive. Duo helped her yesterday, she's in the kids corner." There was no telling what anyone would do once they reached the reachout. They needed to be warned.

"Thank you," Relena thanked him. "We'll be sure to let them know."

"Wait!" Marilyn yelled as they almost took off. They stopped and she ran, opening the back doors to sit side by side with Triton. She buckled him in his carrier as Platinum took off.

"Didn't work out?" Heidi asked her.

"I didn't even reach outside and some woman tossed Triton as far as she could!" She yelled. "If it wasn't for another woman catching him, he'd be dead." She kissed her baby's head and couldn't stop crying now that it was over.

"It'll be safer when you can prove your identity," Heidi encouraged her.

Marilyn didn't answer back.

Damn. Damn. Damn! Heero couldn't curse his humanity, but if he could have just texted or called them instead. He wanted to check, he didn't want to make them feel worse. "If I had called, this wouldn't have happened."

"If Duo hadn't saved a little girl's life, this wouldn't have happened today," Trowa said as he was being lifted to a stretcher. "The alarms going off. What happened?"

"Proof of every other organization that had been working with RTL leaked through," Relena confirmed. "All of the secret areas will no longer be safe. All women are on the run. I'm sorry, Middie Une ran scared and no one could chase after her safely."

Correct. Heero had gone over several scenarios with her. She knew full well what she should and shouldn't do. Though she was often reckless, by giving her more personal words and concern, she usually followed his directive. Usually. "From what we can tell, the women were never made to be our enemy," Heero said. "They are going to stay away simply because they don't know who they are. To them, they are criminals, and they aren't going to risk their children to turn themselves in, just in the name of justice."

Trowa didn't answer. His blood loss was knocking him out. He hadn't been shot anywhere that would end his life right away, but it wasn't pleasant. He would be down for awhile.

Now? For the tough part. "Relena."

"I am here, Heero." She placed down a carrier and took her hand into his. "We can tell them together."

"Where?" This was going to hurt them all.

"At the defeated site of the previous Sank Kingdom," Relena declared. "They'll already mentally prepare themselves for any news if the meeting place is there."

"This is worse than ruined chips," Crystalia said.

"Yeah," Heero agreed. "It is."