The spaceport was a ghost town thanks to the SUN grounding orders, save for one lone shuttle, the geometric Preventers logo emblazoned on the side. Amid the bustling flight-prep team, a figure stood in the shadow of the fuselage, leaning against one of the hydraulic arms of the ship's loading ramp.

"You're coming back into space?"

"Yeah," Duo scratched the back of his neck nervously, cellular phone pressed against his ear. He looked up across the tarmac to see Wufei striding out from the hangar there, making his way towards their craft. "But I won't be home just yet, babe. Still got some things to take care of."

"How's your injury, Maxwell?" Wufei asked rather loudly as he passed the other pilot on his way up the shuttle's ramp.

"Your what?!" Hilde's incredulous voice came crackling out of the phone.

Duo pressed the device into his shoulder, turning to shoot Wufei a sullen pout.

"Thanks a lot, man," he huffed, before raising the phone back to his ear. "It's nothing! Just a little scratch, I promise!"

"And here I thought you were above such petty teasing," Sally said, hands on her hips where she stood at the top of the ramp.

Wufei smirked, passing her the tablet he'd been carrying as they walked together to the cockpit. "Agent Wind has set up a perimeter around the satellite," he briefed. "Quatre's still running diagnostics on the girl's space pod; we've got a direct channel set up if he needs to get in contact. Barton has moved the President to a secure location and is helping to coordinate agents on the ground around the Capitol."

Sally nodded, expression resolute. "Good work."

As they took their seats, they heard the hydraulic whine of the shuttle's ramp closing up. Duo shuffled in, a considerable lack of bounce in his step. Rather than crack some smart remark, he quietly drifted over to his own chair, clearly distracted.

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "Everything alright?"

Duo plopped heavily into his seat "Yeah."

The man looked far, far away.

Against his better judgement, Wufei was about to pry further, clearly a habit from working with Sally for so long, but the shuttle's comms suddenly squawked, cutting him off.

"Agents Water, Frost, Maxwell. You're clear for take-off."

"Roger that," Sally said.

Duo's nose wrinkled. "How come I don't get a fancy codename, huh?"

"Maybe if you weren't a part-timer," Wufei quipped, focused on calibrating the instrument panel in front of him.

"Yeah, well…" Duo strapped himself in as the shuttle's roar grew louder, the craft's rocket thrusters powering up for the electromagnetic catapult into space. "Doesn't seem to matter now, does it? This'll be my last mission anyways..."

Wufei gave the man a sidelong look, his brow furrowed, but the other pilot quickly shook off his dower demeanor. He shot Wufei with a twisted grin, his eyes bright with that infectious, eager excitement.

"So, we're back at it again, huh Wufei?! We'll save Heero, Relena, and the girl."

Wufei cracked a small smirk, relieved at the other pilot's turn toward his usual self.

"That's right."

"Clear for launch," Sally called over the engine roar. "In three, two, one—"

Relena would have liked Blair to agree to her plan before they landed in the satellite's hanger, but the moment had passed. As their shuttle came to a rest, the man simply took his mask back from her and re-affixed it over his eyes.

He stood from the pilot's seat, looming large in the tiny cockpit.

"Time to go, Foreign Minister."

She shot him a displeased look as she rose to her feet, unsure if she could trust his heat-of-the-moment bargain on helping to apprehend Ferox. Relena wondered if it had simply been a ploy to get the Tallgeese to pull back.

She fitted the datapad under her arm as Blair motioned for her to go first.

"After you, ma'am."

Flanked by the two other soldiers, Blair at her back, they moved to the shuttle's exit ramp. Below, standing on the floor of the hangar, was Ferox himself, surrounded by a group in similar dress. Behind them, the Nova Gundam loomed large as a silent sentry.

Seeing the suit set a shiver up Relena's spine. Black like a nightmare, with thin, silvery accents running down its limbs.

Saying she never cared for mobile suits was a vast understatement, but this one in particular made her feel especially uneasy.

"Welcome, Miss Darlian," Ferox said with a broad smile as she descended the stairs to stand before him. "I am so glad we could settle these diplomatic negotiations in person."

"I find it difficult to negotiate in good faith with someone currently holding hostages," she replied coolly. "Though your proposal certainly made for a compelling read during my journey."

"Did it now?" Ferox seemed pleased. "I would love to hear your thoughts—"

"Where's Heero?" she demanded, cutting him off.

"Secured," the man said, clasping his hands behind his back. "As you know, Yuy is quite the dangerous man. Now, please, Miss Darlian, you are my guest," he swept out his arm. "Walk with me."

Winding their way through the satellite's maze-like interior was slow going. Heero paused at every juncture, listening for movement in the hallways beyond his line of sight. It was a relief to be up and moving again, and he felt more in control now that he had a set of clear mission objectives: evade capture, commandeer Nova, and destroy the mobile suit.

Everything else could fall away, or at least be consigned to the back of his mind.

They paused at a crossroads of two deserted corridors, Aoi hovering by his side and apparently waiting on his signal to continue. Though she'd consistently pointed him in what he assumed was the right direction, she kept a slight pace behind him, letting him lead. Perhaps she was using him as a shield.

As he went to step out into the hallway, a small hand closed around a fistful of his shirt. Aoi pulled him back just in time as a lone figure turned into the corridor up ahead. Heero flattened himself against the wall, the girl mimicking him.

Good, he thought. At least she had some basic instincts. He could work with that.

Heero evened out his breath as the figure's footsteps grew louder. He calmed his heart, hoping they would simply pass them by as they blended into the shadows. His hand itched to move down to his belt, though it was futile as he had no weapon. He hated being unarmed. He felt utterly exposed without a firearm in his hand.

Just as the man walked past, Aoi darted out from her hiding spot, quick enough that Heero didn't have enough time to pull her back.

Damn it—

"Oh," the man said, startled, his attention fixed on Aoi as she sprung into his path, stopping him short. "Dearest child, what are you doing all the way down here?" His tone was kind, almost reverent. It turned Heero's stomach.

"Papa?" Aoi questioned.

"Are you looking for your father? He is on the viewing deck, child. I can take you to him, if you'd like."

Aoi shifted, fidgety, from foot to foot, inching closer to the opposite wall. The man turned to watch her, moving until his back was fully turned to where Heero stood.

She was using herself as a distraction…

Quickly and quietly, Heero sprung from his hiding place, taking the cult member by complete surprise. The man didn't even have time to yelp in alarm before Heero's arm was locked tight around his windpipe.

The man struggled, but Heero held firm, exerting just enough pressure that his enemy began to lose consciousness. Not enough to kill, though he knew how little he'd need to finish the job.

Not with the kid watching, he thought, keenly aware of Aoi standing there, silently observing the struggle with eerie interest.

The man jerked languidly, movements becoming slow and heavy as he suffocated. Finally, he went limp. With a grunt, Heero was able to keep a hold of the sudden dead weight that dropped into his hold, quickly dragging the unconscious body back around the corner. With more care than Heero thought the cultist deserved, he laid him out tucked up against the wall.

Aoi's wide eyes blinked, but made no move towards him.

"Improvisations like that are dangerous," he said in a firm, but hushed tone as he stood back up, turning towards her.

The girl cocked her head.

She must understand him, he thought, though she gave no indication that his words were sinking in.

Heero tamped down his exasperation.

"Can you hear anyone else coming?" he asked after a moment.

Aoi went still, listening, then shook her head in the negative.

He nodded. "Then let's go."

Relena half expected to be escorted to an office, or maybe even the satellite's control room, but Ferox led them instead to the viewing deck. The lighting was low, not the harsh overhead LED panels she was used to. Perhaps this had been the workers' lounge back when the satellite was still being used as a maintenance facility.

Trailing them, Blair as well as two more cult members kept their quiet distance.

While she knew they were armed, Relena didn't feel like a captive, not yet. Would that change if the Preventers sent a more formidable force to rescue her? She wasn't keen on becoming a pawn in a hostage negotiation for the umpteenth time. No, she'd resolve this herself.

"Would you like a drink?" Ferox strode further into the room, towards the lounge's massive viewing windows. "I can have one of my men bring you a beverage, if that would make you feel more comfortable."

"No, thank you," Relena declined, terse but polite.

Outside the satellite, the starfield of space lay quietly before them. So serene and so cold… untouchable.

Prussian blue eyes flashed through her mind.

"Well, if you're sure," the man sighed, like he would have enjoyed the excuse to have a drink himself. "I suppose you're the type to get right down to business."

Relena tilted her chin up. "I am."

"You've already read my proposal," Ferox went on, looking out towards the stars. "I must admit, I was hoping the document would be signed by the time we met face to face."

"That's not how negotiations usually work," Relena replied. "We should be aiming to meet in the middle."

Without looking back at her, Ferox chuckled. "That would be true, if I wasn't the one holding all the cards."

Was he?

Relena knew Blair was standing behind her; another young man in a mask. She wondered if he was a former follower of her brother, if the mask was a kind of homage. She wondered what he might think if he knew the man he called Zechs was still alive.

But back to Ferox's proposal…

"You want the Mars mining operation," Relena reiterated, summarizing his demands. "Monopolistic control over the resources there. Resources essential to the people of Earth and the Colonies. Do your Children of the Meteor know you plan to extort the ESUN government with these natural resources?"

Ferox shrugged. "We must provide for ourselves, after all. We will need a means of producing capitol. Our paradise will be funded by legitimate trade."

"Secured by illegitimate means," Relena replied pointedly. "With a Gundam to protect you, flown by a skilled pilot."

Ferox held up two fingers. "Two pilots, actually."

Relena covered her shock well enough, glaring daggers at Ferox's reflection in the viewing window's glass.

"Heero will never agree to be your pawn."

"On the end of your leash or mine, is there really any difference, dear?"

"My leash?" Relena repeated, incredulous.

Did it upset her because it was a baseless accusation? Or because part of her believed Ferox might be right? She believed a man like Heero dedicated himself to a cause, a person, because of love or obligation, and she'd already asked him once if he shared her feelings. Not that he'd given her an answer…

"The war veterans who believe in my cause, in the paradise we can create, are tired of the world you've made, Miss Darlian. Has it ever occurred to you that such feelings might extend to the Gundam pilots as well? Do you think they are truly content being glorified bodyguards?"

Relena's hands clenched around the datapad in her grip.

Ferox went on, "Yuy could find peace on Mars as one of my followers. He would be with his own kind, after all."

Relena didn't like the man's tone. "His own kind? Do you mean his sister?"

"Others like him," Ferox clarified. At Relena's troubled look, he chortled softly. "Their mother was married to an OZ soldier. Did you really think the little girl was the only one who underwent a bit of genetic tweaking, hm?"

Relena took a sharp breath.

"That…"

Her mind stuttered. Could it really be true? Had Heero been part of the same experimentations as Aoi?

"Because they tried it with me," Heero has said, when they'd briefly discussed Aoi's modifications, what felt like a lifetime ago.

She had wanted to deny it, chalk Heero's words up to frustration in the moment but… she'd watched him plummet from buildings, survive his mobile suit crumbling in mid-air, his own self-detonation…

Ferox raised an eyebrow at her silence. "Yuy and Clark don't belong in your Earth Sphere," he went on. "It is why I must create a place for them, and other discarded soldiers. A place for them to rest."

She didn't believe that for a second. The Earth would never be safe with such a threat looming over them.

"Yet you've used unnecessary force," she clarified. "Violence. If you only had come to the delegation with a proposal—"

"I would have been laughed out of the building," Ferox finished for her, staring out at the starfield before them. "People still respond to might, Miss Darlian. The Nova Gundam is as much an insurance policy as it is a recruitment tool. The Earth Sphere would never allow our independence. Not unless we have ourselves a deterrent."

"Is that why you had Aoi blow up the Assembly building? As a deterrent?" Relena didn't bother masking the contempt in her voice.

Ferox smiled. "The ESUN government now knows we aren't to be trifled with, do they not?"

"You're not worried about revenge?"

Ferox turned from the floor-length viewing window, framed by the starfield behind him.

"What can you people do without the Gundams? Even the Tallgeese is no match for Aoi and her Nova. Your decommissioning of mobile suits has made the Earth Sphere vulnerable, Foreign Minister." Relena stared at him, his words seeping dread through her chest. "This, in the end, is your own doing."

The door that led from the service hallway to the hangar was open when they arrived. Open and unguarded, much to Heero's relief. He hadn't hoped for a shootout. He'd been awfully cavalier with creating large explosions on spacecraft in his youth and he didn't like the idea of being exploded out into a cold, dark vacuum because of an impromptu firefight.

Double checking that the coast was clear, the two crept forward, Aoi's black mobile suit standing tall against the back wall. Rather than the flashy color schemes of his and the other pilot's Gundams, Nova's dark visage appeared to suck up all color and light from the room itself; looming and unsettling.

Heero noticed a transport shuttle parked nearby, one he hadn't remembered seeing upon their arrival. His eyes narrowed at it. That must have been how Relena had arrived at the station. He didn't enjoy what looked like the spray of fusion burn on the tail end of the craft. A beam cannon or a dober gun, by the scorch patterns…

While whoever had been shooting the shuttle had missed, they'd come very close. Perhaps on purpose.

Relena…

His hands curled into fists

She was here, on the satellite, he hadn't forgotten...

He looked up at the towering mobile suit before him.

But he had to destroy Nova first. This Gundam posed the most danger to the Earth and colonies. Once he'd destroyed it, assuming he was still alive, he would come back for Relena. As much as he viewed his job as her bodyguard with deadly seriousness, in many respects she could hold her own just fine. She'd done so with Mariemaia and she'd have to do so again. That is, until he could return to her and kill Ferox himself.

And if he was dead? No doubt the Preventers would execute a successful rescue. He trusted them, the other pilots, though it was still difficult to admit it.

Aoi tugged on his sleeve, pointing to the Gundam's right foot. If the suit was anything like Wing, there would be an access panel there hiding pilot's liftwire controls.

"Stay close," Heero muttered, skirting the edge of the hangar around crates of supplies, keeping as much cover as he could between them and the rest of the large room as they approached Nova's solleret.

Though the Gundanium was jet black, Heero knew by heart where the service hatch was located. With quick, practiced movements, he had the small access panel open, though it seemed to be missing the usual keypad that would open the cockpit hatch with the correct access code. Instead, a small domed screen with a faint red light greeted him.

Aoi slid around him, balancing on the toe of his boot to reach the retina scanner. As soon as the red light flicked green, the sound of the Gundam's hatch opening vibrated through the mobile suit, the liftwire descending down before them.

Heero gripped the braided metal wire with one hand, steadying it as he fitted his boot in the wire's bottom loop, and stared expectantly at the girl. Aoi pressed the access panel closed and hopped up to once again stand on his foot, gripping him around the middle as the liftwire began to retract upwards.

The feeling of her small frame clinging to him sent a ripple of relief through Heero's body. He was glad Aoi was there, tucked under his arm, rather than wherever Ferox intended to imprison her when he wasn't using her for his nefarious purposes. There was this growing, fierce need he felt to protect her. It was similar to the tug around his heart whenever he thought Relena might be in danger, but not at all the same.

He'd never had a sibling before. The closest he'd come to kinship was with the other Gundam pilots, and he expected them to take care of themselves for the most part. They were sort of like brothers to him, long-lost and each mystifying and infuriating in their own way, but a little sister…? How could he possibly be kin to this girl when he barely knew himself?

"So high…" Aoi whispered as they reached the top, the Gundam's lowered hatch door a platform onto which they stepped.

"You're afraid of heights?" he asked, tucking the wire away. "That's surprising."

Aoi stuck her tongue out at him, slipping into the darkness of Nova's cockpit.

Heero blinked bemusedly at her childishness, still trying to pinpoint where girl, machine, and weapon intersected. She'd been altered so drastically, conditioned to destroy, and yet that innocence of hers still shone through. It was impressive, in a way.

Steeling himself, Heero ducked in after her, the hatch rising back up to seal them off in a void of black.

Like before, he found it hard to navigate the space around him, waiting to step further into the strange space until his vision had adjusted. In front of where he stood, deeper within, he could hear a faint rustling sound. Aoi was no doubt plugging herself back into Nova's onboard systems.

The rustle preceded a sudden blaze of light; two points of violet glowed bright in the dark. Aoi's eyes, vivid and illuminating. The memory of her trying to kill him the last time they were in this cockpit rose like bile in the back of his throat. Heero tamped down the emotion, trying to forget that she'd been able to best him then.

With the Gundam coming online, so did ground-level running lights, easing the darkness so he could see the round cockpit just a bit more clearly.

"Where do you want to go?" Aoi asked. While her lips did not move, he could hear the soft echo of her voice in the round cockpit chamber.

"It would be easier if I could see," he muttered, still trying to discern all the minute details of how such a strange control system could work.

"We can do that."

Heero blinked. "Huh?"

Reaching up into the mass of wires like a spider into a web, Aoi pulled forth an object. In the light of her eyes Heero could see it was a visor: a thick, square panel that would wrap around the eyes, wires similar to those embedded in her neck stranding out from the frame and up into the nest above her.

She held it out to him.

"Others had to test our operating system," she explained when he didn't move towards her. "Others who could only connect from the outside."

He took the visor from her outstretched hands, turning it over. A part of him, the part that had always relished in the feeling of mobile suit controls under his fingertips, that felt strangely alive at the helm of a multi-ton machine, urged him on. What sort of weapon was Nova?

"Specs?" he asked as he fitted the visor over his eyes. The ends looped behind his ears; the sides pressed against his temples. When Aoi spoke, it sounded as if she were speaking directly into his head.

"We are equipped with a single buster rifle for long-range targets," she said as a bright yellow flash filled Heero's vision, "twin gauntlet blades for close combat, and dual beam chakram for melee encounters."

Beam chakram…

She hadn't deployed those back on earth, Heero thought. Circular throwing blades would certainly be useful for handling multiple targets at once.

The visor's light faded, and in place of the empty, round cockpit, Heero found himself sitting in Wing Zero's pilot seat, staring at a panoramic view of the satellite's hangar. As if the mobile suit were powering up, Wing's three-dimensional radar blinked on, startup beeps ringing in his ears.

The sound was so palpably familiar that shocked him, an uncomfortable lurch pulling at his stomach, his heartbeat pounding wildly.

The visor…

It must transmit via osteo-conduction, he realized. Relaying information with vibrations directly through the bones of the skull. Sound and images right to the brain.

Because as far as his brain could interpret, this was Wing Zero's cockpit. It felt so… real. Right down to the pedals he could depress with his boot and the joysticks under his palms. Hell, he could feel the straps of the seat's restraints digging into his shoulders.

"We are detecting an elevated heart rate. Are you well?" Aoi's voice in his head.

Damn it, he thought. Get a hold of yourself.

"I'm fine," he said, wrestling down the riot of emotions being back in Wing Zero conjured. "If there's two of us, which one of us is the pilot?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then—

"Our calculations have determined that operating at our fullest capacity may damage your organic systems. It would be best for you to assume temporary control as to set the parameters of acceptable bodily stress. We will act as auxiliary and navigation."

Meaning Aoi could withstand much harder forces on her body in the cockpit than he could. More evidence that she'd been physically enhanced far more than he'd ever been…

"Understood."

Far below, he could see the bulkheads sealing.

"We are isolating all hangar entrances and overriding locks on main bay doors," Aoi announced. "Alarms silenced."

Heero's grip on the controls tightened, dust kicking up as the air in the hangar vented out into space, the large doors splitting wider and wider to the black starfield beyond.

With a push of the throttle, Nova moved, vernier thrusters firing. The sensation of the mobile suit propelling forward, even at low speeds, sang through his veins with such sweetness, Heero almost hated how good it felt.

They wouldn't have much time. Even if the take-off alerts on the satellite were silenced, someone could look out a porthole and see the Gundam and raise the alarm. They had to dispose of Nova quickly. If the Preventers had been mobilized, which Heero was almost certain they had been, they would be able to rescue Relena in his absence. Without the Gundam in their way, the likelihood of casualties was greatly diminished.

Clearing the satellite's hangar entrance, Heero moved to push the throttle up to full power when a smooth, firm voice cut through the comms line.

"That's far enough."

He pulled back sharply as a familiar white mobile suit flew into view. Though it did not venture into the satellite's turret range, its mega cannon was pointed squarely in Nova's direction.

No mistaking that voice, or that mobile suit.

"Zechs," Heero said into the open comms, "long time no see."

After a tense moment, a short, rueful chuckle buzzed back through, the Tallgeese's canon dropping from its target lock.

"Heero Yuy. Why am I not surprised."

Hello everyone! So, I now have an updated target chapter count of 22 for this story; we're in the home stretch! Thanks for reading so far and for leaving your feedback, I really appreciate it!