Don't trust the bold. Everything else is trusting now.

Zhang Colony

"Wufei is just too wild, he isn't going to synch, he's leaving," Andrew warned Da Cao. He had the other controller move and tried to take over. "He is too distrusting."

"Bring in an interrupted phone call. Bring the standby in," Da Cao said. "Give the situation and the call."

Duo's Vehicle

Stupid Wufei. Like Heero would mess up? Duo even fought it at first while everyone was trying to get him to see. Fine, let him check it out. He had enough on his plate right now. His main concern was to figure out if this woman was Hilde or not. If she wasn't, then he'd get out there and find the real her. Getting that DNA evidence was the first step.

They had already gone through different scenarios too. Even if that woman wasn't Hilde, those kids might actually be his, and they were using different people to trick them. Except that they weren't even supposed to be there. So, he doubted it was a trick.

He watched his phone ring again. Wufei. Ugh! "This better be important."

"Nevermind, I won't check her out," he said. "There's no way the real one would shoot your brother."

Shoot his- "Gin?" Aw, no. "That pesky little annoying brother of mine got shot?!" He got his butt out of the family business, who the hell would shoot him?

"Yes, by her. I just called 911 for him and her. He managed to shoot her so he wouldn't die. She's not dead, but she is in the hospital too. So, you are right. No more testing is needed for her. Sorry."

"I was traveling around for months with someone that unstable?" Aw. "What's his condition?"

"I don't know exactly, I think he got shot in at least his arm. I explained what was going on to him, and he said to wish you luck and not go after him, he was probably just a decoy. That's all I know."

Yeah. "Thanks, Wufei. I'll call Gin later. Make sure the guy is surviving." He hung up. Dumb brother in hospital. Imposter in hospital that shot brother. What a night.

Heero called next of course. "Did Wufei tell you?"

"What part? Gin in hospital or imposter of Hilde going after him also in the hospital? I can't believe she really did that." He didn't want to think about it. "I gave her a free card to just get out, and she goes and shoots my brother."

"Yeah. We don't have results yet. The others are still unknown. Skin sampling could be taken, but saliva will be better. We are waiting for them to move on. It doesn't look like they will want to stay there long. Noin is highly uncomfortable in that condition on those seats."

"Yeah. A hotel." Duo closed his eyes. "That imposter went after Gin. That guy didn't even know nothing, was it just because he was my brother? Noin was uncomfortable, but why are you mentioning seats?"

"Hm, I said what? I am watching for Middie. I am not watching over anyone else if you leave, confirmed or otherwise," Heero warned him.

"I won't leave for Gin. Wufei said even he said not to come." Still? "Poor Gin. I hope he's okay. I was next to someone that could just shoot my brother like that. He had nothing to do with anything, what the hell?"

"RTL were professional, with a terrible system. This is almost over. I know that it's not easy, Duo. Hang in there. You'll have them soon. Yeah, they are on the move."

"Roger." Duo hung up and watched from his safety spot as they all came out. Everyone except. Heidi wasn't there?

They were on the move again, but Heidi wasn't with them. He did get a tag on that huge vehicle, but Heidi was still in the restaurant. He called it out. "Heidi is staying behind for some reason. Quatre, you move up. I tagged the big car with the rest in red. I'm staying behind." No one was looking after her.

Yeah. He texted everyone else that Heidi wasn't moving so he'd drop out. Now what did she plan on doing?

"Whoah!" What? Duo cranked up speed even faster. He moved backwards and looked around. "Where did she go?" How did a slow car with three kids outrun him? He moved back on the road and just headed straight, watching out for the sides.

But the sides had nothing, it was just empty fields. Where did she go?

Zhang Colony

Da Cao watched his team, making sure they all stayed in control. It was done. Just one move, one emotional symbol of going to the remains of the Sank Kingdom, gave them the leeway they needed. There were only so many places they could go.

For the women, they traced the only vehicle they could take and took them right after Heidi left. After she met Duo, they easily took her as well.

Each of them were consumed in their own grief or thoughts, they never would have thought about their ventilation systems of the hotels. There were just not that many places, and even if it was difficult? No one could really escape the Fallen Embers. They were a group started by one of the greatest people that had ever been. While she worshipped Treize Khushrenada, she had been a wonderful leader. However, her ideals were not . . . up to their standards.

Many of them broke away from the group in secret and started their own secret section of their group. They wished for more than 'just watch and observe this world to maintain the peace that her wonderful Mister Treize had always wanted'. Lady Une, a wonderful leader for them, but she lacked ambition for anything else. For them, Da Cao became their leader. He convinced Superior and Crystalia that his group was into the revenge concept as well. Part of his crew did want revenge, or at least, didn't like the pilots. It had worked, and it gave them exactly what they wanted.

Access.

"Results, Andrew?" Zhang Li asked.

"They are all in sync with each other. All the minds have been aligned. There has only been one hiccup. I don't think it will be detected." Andrew Shuttle said.

"Good." Da Cao said, looking toward Zhang Li. "Good job. We are almost through this whole movement." No real death to the mothers. No harm to the babies. Not even death to the pilots. If the pilots wanted to end themselves afterward, it wasn't by their hand. Just a quiet, slow death of the truth.

With a much brighter future for them.

"They will look into things. They will try to find the truth," Zhang Li told him. "This is risky, Da Cao. I don't trust the women to stay out of the way."

"The truth will stay tucked away. Nothing will stop it." He gestured toward Crystalia. "The only leak left is that woman and she doesn't talk. She's had all of her humanity removed, and why or how would they find her? I will put her away in a care facility, in appreciation for letting us join her group." Da Cao looked toward Andrew. "What was the bump in the sync?"

"Speed. The woman's mind wanted to leave too fast. She forced herself away from the joining," Andrew answered. "It could be good? They were starting to sync too well. They stopped using phones briefly and didn't realize it."

Da Cao went around to the master gundam control panel that connected to all of them. He clicked the audio.

"What do you mean you lost her?"

"Just what I said, I lost a slow car with kids. They couldn't have just outran me, I was right there."

"Did they veer off the path, Duo?"

"No way, there is nothing here. If they went through anything, it would have bent something so I could see it. Besides, with three babies, she wasn't going to choose to ride through a ditch."

"Do you see any authorities your way?"

"No, they scattered. Might have been RTL instead."

"How does an entire car just vanish, Duo?"

"I don't know, but I'm not kidding. She just vanished."

"Yeah, maybe. I guess, Rashid. Maybe. I'll ask Duo. Duo, was there a side street in the beginning that maybe was only camouflaged?"

"I checked it. I really did. Do you think she'll tell the rest?"

"These gundam pilots still act like worthless kids. How do you lose a slow car like that?"

"Yes, they are getting too in sync," Da Cao agreed. "They will probably blame Duo Maxwell for not seeing some road. It can resolve itself long enough to add this last one."

"Bastard."

Da Cao looked at the only pilot not inside. The only one that was still missing from it all. He had been shot five times, so it wasn't easy to get a hold of him from the private hospital. But? Nothing was really impossible for Fallen Embers.

"We have fixed the drugs that he needs here, from what the zero system will do. It should be relatively safe to put him in now," Da Cao said.

"Heero! Duo! Pilots, all pilots, you are in the raw zero system!" Trowa tried to yell as loud as he could. "Everyone is, please! You've got to get out!" He felt himself being placed into the second Heavyarms. "You will lose everything, you must wake up! We will lose everything! Everything!"

He was placed inside and the door closed but Trowa didn't give in. "Wake up, everyone, you need to wake up. You are trapped. I repeat, you are trapped. You have to get out. Please." He stared ahead on his screen, seeing Crystalia. She was quiet, just staring ahead. "I have no right. Please. We can't lose all of this. It's not right."

"Your mother can't even talk anymore," Da Cao told him. "I'm sorry. Just, rest. Relax. Let yourself fall into a nice world. When you wake up, you'll have no more role to play with anyone. Just yourself, being a clown. Being an ambitious kid. It'll all be reversed."

"It can't be reversed. You can't just try and reverse everything RTL did, by erasing us from each other's lives. It doesn't work that way." Trowa looked toward Crystalia again. Because she helped, Heero saved Relena once. Because she helped, Alec survived. Is she really completely gone? Wasn't there even a spark? "Mother. It's . . . Triton," he tried. She just stared ahead at the chair. "Don't erase everything. Our lives were lived, and we shouldn't lose it. There are no guarantees they will get the results they want. Please!"

He started to feel drowsy. His drugs were kicking in, or the zero system. One or the other. "Catherine. I need Catherine. I don't want to go back to not knowing Catherine. I don't want to lose my friends. My family. Everything. I'm Trowa Barton. I'm Trowa Bar-!"

"Hold your strongest memory in your head with her," Crystalia told him.

"Oh, she does speak." Da Cao went toward her. "How well are you?"

"Just hold the strongest memory in the head," she said again to Trowa.

"That won't work," Da Cao insisted. "We have studied this."

"I used it. I know. Hold the strongest memory in the head," Crystalia said again. "They cannot take it without destroying your mind."

Zhang Li went toward her. "You do speak well."

"She will be fine," Da Cao insisted. "She will still go into some care facility. They won't ever find her."

The strongest memory. The strongest memory. I can have Catherine, or I can have . . . he wanted Cathy. Being found in the rain. Being treated like her brother. Being treated like family in the circus. But? Crystalia. Heero always knew how to reach inside of her, and Trowa just made some progress. If I hold her image, I will find her. The way she curled her left fingers on the wheelchair, but left her right fingers over on the side. A half dead look of someone probably wishing she could die, yet still a spark there. A spark of something. Her hair was a mess, a great big reddish mess, that had many white strips in it, that it actually looked a little pink. Her outfit was serious, a blazer that didn't match her at all. Probably put on by Relena Dorlain, so others would take her more seriously.

When she was with Heero, she always stood up straight, like a soldier. She talked like a soldier. She acted like a soldier. She looked like her spine wanted to cave forward and to the side, but some kind of stick was still propping her up. That prop . . . he hoped it was hope. Crystalia Bloom. Crystalia Bloom. Crystalia Bloom. He remembered an image he saw, of him, very small in her arms. Being shown off as her little Triton. Triton Bloom. Crystalia Bloom. Crystalia Bloom. Crystalia Bloom.

"Retrace, pilots," Crystalia said. "Retrace, pilots. Retrace, pilots."

"Retrace. Retrace. Retrace, pilots. Retrace, Heero. Retrace, Duo. Retrace, Quatre. Retrace, Wufei. Follow the same steps we did." There must be a reason she was saying it. "Retrace. Retrace. We all must retrace." He had to trust Crystalia. Trowa had no choice, she was the last-ditch chance to anything. "Retrace. Retrace. Retrace."

"It's a nice thought, but it's not reality," Da Cao said toward Trowa's gundam. "This isn't just some amnesia from a brain injury of an accident. This is controlled. This is the zero system, and it will grant you no mercy. You can't reach the others, and you cannot remember."

"Retrace." Quatre's voice came from a Sandrock. "Retrace. Retrace. Retrace."

"Let's just let it fade off. At least it's calming them down," Zhang Li said.

Trowa and Quatre both kept saying it over and over.

"Retrace." Dorothy Catalonia started to mumble it now. "Retrace. Retrace. Retrace."

"They are spooky," Jade said. "I don't know how they are even talking right now. They shouldn't be thinking of anything."

"They are just synching again. Continue onward. Just ignore them," Da Cao insisted. "Hearing Trowa say it over and over must be causing this reaction. It'll pass."

"Retrace," Heero said once.

"Retrace," Wufei said.

"Retrace," Relena said.

Most of them were saying it, but after a few minutes, they ended one by one.

Mei-Lin placed her hand on Crystalia's shoulder. "Good job," she whispered. It was good to see she was still there, because they were all going to be dead in the water. None of them would know. None of them would understand. Fallen Embers wanted to erase it all.

The only reason she was still out there, was because she was Zhang, like Da Cao and Zhang Li. But. She wouldn't stay for long out there. It was just a respected request. She wanted to say some goodbyes. See and visit her colony that she thought she had lost. They respected and honored that wish.

Mei-Lin had limited knowledge about where everyone would end up. It was another reason her request to stay out longer was granted. There was an educated guess on how far to push the system.

There were no guarantees.

"Mei-Lin." Zhang Li came over toward her. "Did you say goodbye to everyone?" She nodded. "From our experiences, we believe we have an idea of where to focus on the brain. I feel very confident in it. but? The mind is an enigma though, so there is some slight risk."

Mei-Lin looked toward Shenlong. "Nataku? Watch over Wufei." She went towards the other Shenlong. It must be done.

Not too far. Not too far.

Please not too far. Retrace. I must trust in Crystalia. Retrace. Retrace. Retrace. Retrace.